• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
• /
• v.56 no.11
• /
• pp.815-822
• /
• 2023

Organic pollution is one of the most common forms of water contamination. Under the Water Quality Conservation Act, indicators for measuring organic substances include BOD, COD, and TOC. Analysis of BOD and COD is labor-intensive, and in the case of organic substances where biological decomposition is not feasible or toxic substances are present, the accuracy is often low. Therefore, the Ministry of Environment is shifting towards TOC-centric management. With advancements in sensor technology today, various parameters can be monitored using sensors. In this study, digital monitoring of river TOC using a spectrophotometer called Spectro::lyser V3 was conducted. Initially, experiments were carried out at the Andong River Experiment Center to assess the applicability of the measurement equipment. Subsequently, data collected at the confluence of the Nakdong River was analyzed for the spatial distribution of TOC using the Kriging technique. This research proposes the utilization of sensors for river TOC monitoring and spatial distribution analysis. Real-time monitoring of changes in river TOC concentration can serve as fundamental data for pollution monitoring and response. Sensor-based river monitoring offers advantages in terms of temporal resolution and real-time data acquisition. When various spatial information interpretation methods are applied, it is expected to contribute to diverse studies such as aquatic ecological health, river water source selection, and stratification analysis in the future.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
• /
• v.51 no.4
• /
• pp.531-550
• /
• 2023

Purpose: The unique nature of life-and-death healthcare services sets them apart from other service industries. While many studies exist on the relationship between healthcare services and customer satisfaction, most of them focus on mildly ill patients, ignoring the differences between critically ill and non-seriously ill patients. This study discusses the actual quality of healthcare services for patients who are facing life-threatening illnesses and are on life support, as well as their right to protection and dignity. Methods: The survey conducted to 149 patients with the four major illnesses: cancer, heart disease, brain disease and rare and incurable disease, those who have experiences with senior general hospitals. Results: The basic statistics of this study are adequate to represent the four major critical illnesses, and the reliability and validity of this study's hypotheses, which were measured by multiple items, were analyzed, and the internal consistency was judged to be high. In addition, it was found that the convergent validity was good and the discriminant validity was also secured. When examining the goodness of fit of the hypotheses, the SRMR, which is the standardized root mean square of residuals that measures the difference between the covariance matrix of the data variables and the theoretical covariance matrix structure of the model, met the optimal criteria. Conclusion: The academic implications of this study are differentiated from other studies by moving away from evaluating the quality of healthcare services for mildly ill patients and focusing on the rights and dignity of patients with life-threatening illnesses in four senior general hospitals. In terms of academic implications, this study enriches the depth of related studies by demonstrating the right to protection and dignity as a factor of patient-centeredness based on physical environment quality, interaction quality, and outcome quality, which are presented as sub-factors of healthcare quality. We found that the three quality factors classified by Brady and Cronin (2001) are optimized for healthcare quality assessment and management, and that the results of patients' interaction quality assessment can be used to provide a comprehensive quality rating for hospitals. Health and human rights are inextricably linked, so assessing the degree to which rights and dignity are protected can be a superior and more comprehensive measurement tool than traditional health level measures for healthcare organizations. Practical implications: Improving the quality of the physical environment and the quality of outcomes is an important challenge for hospital managers who attract patients with life and death conditions, but given the scale and economics of time, money, and human inputs, improving the quality of interactions and defining them as performance indicators in hospital quality management is an efficient way to create maximum value in the short term.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.57-72
• /
• 2018

Time series analysis of tower flux measurement can be used to build quantitative evidence for the achievement of climate-smart agriculture (CSA). In this study, we have assessed the first objective of CSA (regarding ecosystem productivity and efficiency) for rice paddy-dominated heterogeneous farmland. A set of quantitative indicators were evaluated by analysing the time series data of carbon, water and energy fluxes over the Haenam farmland site in Korea (HFK) during the rice growing seasons from 2003 to 2015. Four different varieties of rice were cultivated during the study period in chronological order of Dongjin No. 1 (2003-2008), Nampyung (2009), Onnuri (2010-2011), and Saenuri (2012-2015). Overall at HFK, gross primary productivity (GPP) ranged from 800 to $944g\;C\;m^{-2}$, water use efficiency (WUE) ranged from 1.91 to $2.80g\;C\;kg\;H_2O^{-1}$, carbon uptake efficiency (CUE) ranged from 1.06 to 1.34, and light use efficiency (LUE) ranged from 0.99 to $1.55g\;C\;MJ^{-1}$. Among the four rice varieties, Dongjin No. 1-dominated HFK showed the highest productivity with higher WUE and LUE, but comparable CUE. Considering the heterogeneous vegetation cover at HFK, a rule of thumb comparison suggested that the productivity of Dongjin No1-dominated HFK was comparable to those of monoculture rice paddies in Asia, whereas HFK was more efficient in water use and less efficient in carbon uptake. Saenuri-dominated HFK also produced high productivity but with the growing season length longer than Dongjin No.1. Although the latter showed better traits for CSA, farmers cultivate Saenuri because of higher pest resistance (associated with adaptability and resilience). This emphasizes the need for the evaluation of other two objectives of CSA (i.e. system resilience and greenhouse gas mitigation) for complete assessment at HFK, which is currently in progress.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
• /
• v.52 no.1
• /
• pp.8-14
• /
• 2009

This study was conducted to assess the effects of diet food containing Jerusalem artichoke's inulin, lotus leaf, and herb on weight and body fat. Participants in this study were selected based on the following criteria: BMI over $25kg/m^2$, body fat percentage higher than 25%, abdominal obesity level of 0.85 measured by body composition measurement unit (ZEUS 9.9 PLUS, Korea) total 24 female and male university students over 20 of age were assigned to two different groups: control group and diet group and the study was carried out for 30 days. When we measured what the tester's body weight and height, we used an automatic measure machin which is called IMI-1000 from Immanuel company and when we measured what the hip and wist circumference, we used a tape measure. When we measured body mss index (BMI), body Int, body mass, lean mass, waist/hip ratio (WHB), obesity index, we used a ZEUS9.9 PLUS-Korea which is based on bioelectrical impedance analysis, The food intake was checked by means of diet record method to be input into CAN program in order to analyze nutrient intake. Our findings indicated that the diet group, as compared to the control group, lost weight of approximately 2.5 kg and showed statistically significant difference. In addition the level of body Int, muscle, abdominal obesity, obesity, waist and bottom measurement all showed significant decrease after study period. However, there was no big difference in body fat percentage because both body fat level and muscle level dropped together, Putting all these together, diet food in this study containing Jerusalem artichoke's inulin, lotus leaf powder, and herbs powder including nettle, eucalyptus was found to be effective in significant reduction of weight and body fat and obesity-related body indicators. Also, it is considered that this diet food has potential to prevent and improve effectively obesity from abnormal fat accumulation.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.73-91
• /
• 2013

Advertising market has been facing new challenges due to dramatic change in advertising channels and the advent of innovative media such as mobile devices. Recent research related to mobile devices is mainly focused on the fact that mobile devices could identify users'physical location in real-time, and this sheds light on how location-based technology is utilized to achieve competitive advantage in advertising market. With the introduction of smartphone, the functionality of smartphone has become much more diverse and context awareness is one of the areas that require further study. This work analyses the influence of context awareness value resulted from the transformation of advertising channel in mobile communication market, and our research result reflects recent trend in advertising market environment which is not considered in previous studies. Many constructs has intensively been studied in the context of advertising channel in traditional marketing environment, and entertainment, irritation and information are considered to be the most widely accepted variables that has positive relationship with advertising value. Also, in smartphone advertisement, four main dimensions of context awareness value are recognized: identification, activity, timing and location. In this study, we assume that these four constructs has positive relationship with context awareness value. Finally, we propose that advertising value and context awareness value positively influence smartphone advertising attitude. Partial Least Squares (PLS) structural model is used in our theoretical research model to test proposed hypotheses. A well designed survey is conducted for college students in Korea, and reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity of constructs and measurement indicators are carefully evaluated and the results show that reliability and validity are confirmed according to predefined statistical criteria. Goodness-of-fit of our research model is also supported. In summary, the results collectively suggest good measurement properties for the proposed research model. The research outcomes are as follows. First, information has positive impact on advertising value while entertainment and irritation have no significant impact. Information, entertainment and irritation together account for 38.8% of advertising value. Second, along with the change in advertising market due to the advent of smartphone, activity, timing and location have positive impact on context awareness value while identification has no significant impact. In addition, identification, activity, location and time together account for 46.3% of context awareness value. Third, advertising value and context awareness value both positively influence smartphone advertising attitude, and these two constructs explain 31.7% of the variability of smartphone advertising attitude. The theoretical implication of our research is as follows. First, the influence of entertainment and irritation is reduced which are known to be crucial factors according to previous studies related to advertising value, while the influence of information is increased. It indicates that smartphone users are not likely interested in entertaining effect of smartphone advertisement, and are insensitive to the inconvenience due to smartphone advertisement. Second, in today' ubiquitous computing environment, it is effective to provide differentiated advertising service by utilizing smartphone users'context awareness values such as identification, activity, timing and location in order to achieve competitive business advantage in advertising market. For practical implications, enterprises should provide valuable and useful information that might attract smartphone users by adopting differentiation strategy as smartphone users are sensitive to the information provided via smartphone. Also enterprises not only provide useful information but also recognize and utilize smarphone users' unique characteristics and behaviors by increasing context awareness values. In summary, our result implies that smartphone advertisement should be optimized by considering the needed information of smartphone users in order to maximize advertisement effect.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.269-277
• /
• 2010

Previous studies have shown that the most important factor affecting customer loyalty in the service industry is service quality. However, on the subject of whether service quality has a direct or indirect effect on customer loyalty, scholars' views apparently vary. Some studies suggest that service quality has a direct and fundamental influence on customer loyalty (Bai and Liu, 2002). However, others have shown that service quality not only directly affects customer loyalty, it also has an indirect impact on customer loyalty by influencing customer satisfaction and perceived value (Cronin, Brady, and Hult, 2000). Currently, there are few domestic articles that specifically address the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty in the mobile communication industry. Moreover, research has studied customer loyalty as a whole variable, rather than breaking it down further into multiple dimensions. Based on this analysis, this paper summarizes previous study results, establishes an effect mechanism model among service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty in the mobile communication industry, and presents a statistical test on model assumptions by using customer investigation data from Heilongjiang Mobile Company. It provides theoretical guidance for mobile service management based on the discussion of the hypothesis test results. For data collection, the sample comprised mobile users in Harbin city, and the survey was taken by random sampling. Out of a total of 300 questionnaires, 276 (92.9%) were recovered. After excluding invalid questionnaires, 249 remained, for an effective rate of 82.6 percent for the study. Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ coefficient was adapted to assess the scale reliability, and validity testing was conducted on the questionnaire from three aspects: content validity, construct validity. and convergent validity. The study tested for goodness of fit mainly from the absolute and relative fit indexes. From the hypothesis testing results, overall, four assumptions have not been supported. The ultimate affective relationship of service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty is demonstrated in Figure 2. On the whole, the service quality of the communication industry not only has a direct positive significant effect on customer loyalty, it also has an indirect positive significant effect on customer loyalty through service quality; the affective mechanism and extent of customer loyalty are different, and are influenced by each dimension of service quality. This study used the questionnaires of existing literature from home and abroad and tested them in empirical research, with all questions adapted to seven-point Likert scales. With the SERVQUAL scale of Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1988), or PZB, as a reference point, service quality was divided into five dimensions-tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy-and the questions were simplified down to nineteen. The measurement of customer satisfaction was based mainly on Fornell (1992) and Wang and Han (2003), ending up with four questions. Based on the study’s three indicators of price tolerance, first choice, and complaint reaction were used to measure attitudinal loyalty, while repurchase intention, recommendation, and reputation measured behavioral loyalty. The collection and collation of literature data produced a model of the relationship among service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty in mobile communications, and China Mobile in the city of Harbin in Heilongjiang province was used for conducting an empirical test of the model and obtaining some useful conclusions. First, service quality in mobile communication is formed by the five factors mentioned earlier: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. On the basis of PZB SERVQUAL, the study designed a measurement scale of service quality for the mobile communications industry, and obtained these five factors through exploratory factor analysis. The factors fit basically with the five elements, indicating the concept of five elements of service quality for the mobile communications industry. Second, service quality in mobile communications has both direct and indirect positive effects on attitudinal loyalty, with the indirect effect being produced through the intermediary variable, customer satisfaction. There are also both direct and indirect positive effects on behavioral loyalty, with the indirect effect produced through two intermediary variables: customer satisfaction and attitudinal loyalty. This shows that better service quality and higher customer satisfaction will activate the attitudinal to service providers more active and show loyalty to service providers much easier. In addition, the effect mechanism of all dimensions of service quality on all dimensions of customer loyalty is different. Third, customer satisfaction plays a significant intermediary role among service quality and attitudinal and behavioral loyalty, indicating that improving service quality can boost customer satisfaction and make it easier for satisfied customers to become loyal customers. Moreover, attitudinal loyalty plays a significant intermediary role between service quality and behavioral loyalty, indicating that only attitudinally and behaviorally loyal customers are truly loyal customers. The research conclusions have some indications for Chinese telecom operators and others to upgrade their service quality. Two limitations to the study are also mentioned. First, all data were collected in the Heilongjiang area, so there might be a common method bias that skews the results. Second, the discussion addresses the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty, setting customer satisfaction as mediator, but does not consider other factors, like customer value and consumer features, This research will be continued in the future.

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.56-62
• /
• 2009

Purpose : The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical usefulness of measurement of ${\beta}_2$ microglobulin (${\beta}_2$ MG), N-acetyl-$\beta$-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) of spot urine samples as indices of renal tubular damage and microalbumin of spot urine samples as a parameter of glomerular damage in children with vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) or renal defects. Methods : We studied 91 children with previous UTI. The children were classified as 62 children without VUR and renal defects (group I), 10 children with VUR, without renal defects (group II), and 19 children with VUR and renal defects (group III). Patients having VUR were separated according to the degree of VUR (mild VUR: VUR grade I-III, severe VUR: VUR grade IV-V). Urinary excretion of ${\beta}_$ microglobulin (${\beta}_2$ MG), microalbumin, N-acetyl-$\beta$-D-glucosaminidase (NAG), creatinine were measured in samples of morning urine specimens. Children with VUR or renal defects detected by voiding cystourethrography (VCUG) and DMSA renal scan were investigated. Results : Microalbumin/Cr ratio of spot urine was significantly increased in group III compared group I ($42.3{\pm}27.2\;mg/gCr$ vs $25.2{\pm}10.9\;mg/gCr$, P<0.05). NAG/Cr ratio of spot urine was significantly increased in group II compared group I ($3.70{\pm}23.4\;mg/gCr$ vs $18.7{\pm}12.7\;mg/gCr$, P<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference of ${\beta}_2$ MG/Cr ratio among three groups. Conclusion : Urinary microalbumin excretion of morning urine sample may be a simple and reliable clinical indicators for early identification of renal damage in children with VUR and renal defects. Urinary microalbumin excretion may be useful marker to predict the the severity of VUR.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.136-144
• /
• 2017

Objectives : Cognitive complaints are reported frequently after breast cancer treatments. The causes of cognitive decline are multifactorial, a result of the effect of cancer itself, chemotherapy, and psychological factors such as depression and anxiety. However, cognitive decline does not always correlate with neuropsychological test performance. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of subjective cognitive decline with objective measurement and to explore associated factors of cognitive function in breast cancer survivors. Methods : We included 29 breast cancer survivors who complain cognitive decline at least 6 months after treatment and 20 age-matched healthy controls. Neuropsychological tests were performed in all participants. Multivariable regression analysis evaluated associations between neuropsychological test scores and psychological distress including depression and anxiety, also considering age, education, and comorbidity. Results : There were no statistically significant differences in neuropsychological test performances. However, the breast cancer survivors showed a significantly higher depression(p=0.002) and anxiety(p<0.001) than the healthy controls did. Among the cancer survivors, poorer executive function was strongly associated with higher depression(${\beta}=-0.336$, p=0.001) and anxiety(${\beta}=-0.273$, p=0.009), after controlling for age, education, and comorbidity. In addition, poorer attention was also significantly related with depression(${\beta}=-0.375$, p=0.023) and anxiety (${\beta}=-0.404$, p=0.013). Conclusions : The results of this study showed the discrepancies between subjective complaints and objective measures of cognitive function in breast cancer survivors. It suggests that subjective cognitive decline could be indicators of psychological distress such as depression and anxiety.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.421-429
• /
• 2007

Some researchers suggested that tactile sensor system would be useful in evaluating masticatory muscles of TMD patients, but there were few studies on the effects of chewing with time. The aim of this study was to investigate the change of elasticity and stiffness for masseter and temporal muscles of normal subjects before, during and after gum chewing and to obtain the baseline data for further researches on the elasticity and stiffness for masticatory muscles of TMD patients. Stiffness and elasticity of their anterior temporalis and inferior masseter muscle were measured bilaterally by a tactile sensor system. Each subject was instructed to sit on a chair for evaluation of masticatory muscles. Before operating the sensor, the thickest skin area over anterior temporalis and inferior masseter muscles were selected as the points to be pressed by a tactile sensor, and marked with a pen. While the teeth of subjects were lightly contacted, the probe of the tactile sensor was placed perpendicularly over the marked point over the skin, followed by computer-controlled movement including gently pressing straight down on the muscle for a second and retracting. All subjects were instructed to chew gum (Excellent Breath, Taiyo Co., Japan) bilaterally with a velocity of 2 times per second for 40 minutes after the first measurement had been performed for the baseline data of all subjects. The measurements had been repeated during chewing with 10 minutes of interval and continued for 40 minutes with same interval after chewing. Resultantly, the decrease of elasticity and the increase of stiffness in masticatory muscles can be seen significantly within 10 minutes after chewing and those were maintained during chewing without significant change with chewing time. The elasticity of muscles was recovered within 10 minutes after stopping chewing, but the stiffness was recovered more lately than elasticity by about 10 minutes. Based on these results, it can be concluded that elasticity and stiffness of muscles would be good indicators to evaluate the masticatory muscles objectively, when more supported by further researches.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.33 no.5_3
• /
• pp.855-866
• /
• 2017

Several research cases using remote sensing methods to analyze changes of storage and dynamics of groundwater aquifer were reviewed in this paper. The status of groundwater storage, in an area with regional scale, could be qualitatively inferred from geological feature, surface water altimetry and topography, distribution of vegetation, and difference between precipitation and evapotranspiration. These qualitative indicators could be measured by geological lineament analysis, airborne magnetic survey, DEM analysis, LAI and NDVI calculation, and surface energy balance modeling. It is certain that GRACE and InSAR have received remarkable attentions as direct utilization from satellite data for quantification of groundwater storage and dynamics. GRACE, composed of twin satellites having acceleration sensors, could detect global or regional microgravity changes and transform them into mass changes of water on surface and inside of the Earth. Numerous studies in terms of groundwater storage using GRACE sensor data were performed with several merits such that (1) there is no requirement of sensor data, (2) auxiliary data for quantification of groundwater can be entirely obtained from another satellite sensors, and (3) algorithms for processing measured data have continuously progressed from designated data management center. The limitations of GRACE for groundwater storage measurement could be defined as follows: (1) In an area with small scale, mass change quantification of groundwater might be inaccurate due to detection limit of the acceleration sensor, and (2) the results would be overestimated in case of combination between sensor and field survey data. InSAR can quantify the dynamic characteristics of aquifer by measuring vertical micro displacement, using linear proportional relation between groundwater head and vertical surface movement. However, InSAR data might now constrain their application to arid or semi-arid area whose land cover appear to be simple, and are hard to apply to the area with the anticipation of loss of coherence with surface. Development of GRACE and InSAR sensor data preprocessing algorithms optimized to topography, geology, and natural conditions of Korea should be prioritized to regionally quantify the mass change and dynamics of the groundwater resources of Korea.