• Analyses & Alternatives
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.7-43
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• 2023

This study examines and identified a series of strategies of Russia's political elites to maintain and strengthen their dominance by reviewing the case of revisions in the election laws of Russia in 2014. At that time, a mixed-member electoral system was newly introduced, and on the surface, it seemed that the new system was a step toward meeting the demands of the people for "enhanced democracy". However, in 2016 and 2021, the ruling party of Russia won the general elections by making the most of the factors that could distort the election results inherent in the mixed-member electoral system. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze whether the revision of election laws was a mere vehicle used by the ruling party, United Russia, to maintain its political power, or whether it was a leap forward to achieve democracy. The study result indicate that the revision of election laws in 2014 was part of the policy responses to the internal conflicts in the circle of Russia's political elites, which had been rising since 2008, as well as to the public resistance. In other words, it was confirmed that the revision of election laws was one of the measures taken to "minimize competition" and "reproduce political power on a stable basis".

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.195-203
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• 2022

Zea mays, known as maize or corn, is a major staple crop and an important source of energy for humans and animals, thus ensuring global food security. Approximately 9.4% of the loss of total annual corn production is caused by pathogens including fungi, bacteria, and viruses, resulting in economic losses. Although the use of fungicides is one of the most common strategies to control corn diseases, the frequent use of fungicides causes various health problems in humans and animals. In order to overcome this problem, an eco-friendly control strategy has recently emerged as an alternative way. One such eco-friendly control strategy is the use of beneficial microorganisms in the control of plant pathogens. The beneficial microorganisms can control the plant pathogens in various ways, such as spatial competition with plant pathogens, inhibition of fungal or bacterial growth via the production of secondary metabolites or antibiotics, and direct attack to plant pathogens via enzyme activity. Here, we reviewed microorganisms as biocontrol agents against corn diseases.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.139-145
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• 2009

This study proposes a model of collection process for real-time forensic data, in which the manager was to respond to infringement incidents in terms of system operation and inspection and to collect, analyze and restore forensic data immediately after an incident took place. The suggested model was modeled in seven processes according to functional elements. Unlike the old and managerial forensic processes, the model allowed the manager to react to infringement incidents in the aspects of system operation and inspection and to follow the processes of collecting, analyzing, and restoring forensic data in case of an incident. There also was a feedback process designed towards the step of gathering forensic data through the stages of systematizing reaction strategies in order that he or she be able to bring about comprehensive and structural responses to an incident like the former processes in which it is difficult to bring about instant responses.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.283-299
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• 2023

Structural stability of floating platforms has long since been a crucial issue in the field of marine engineering. Excessive motions would not only deteriorate the operating conditions but also seriously impact the safety, service life, and production efficiency. In recent decades, several control devices have been proposed to reduce unwanted motions, and an attractive one is the tuned heave plate (THP). However, the THP system may reduce or even lose its effectiveness when it is mistuned due to the shift of dominant wave frequency. In the present study, a novel adaptive tuned heave plate (ATHP) is proposed based on inerter by adjusting its inertance, which allows to overcome the limitation of the conventional THP and realize adaptations to the dominant wave frequencies in real time. Specifically, the analytical model of a representative semisubmersible platform (SSP) equipped with an ATHP is created, and the equations of motion are formulated accordingly. Two optimization strategies (i.e., J₁ and J₂ optimizations) are developed to determine the optimum design parameters of ATHP. The control effectiveness of the optimized ATHP is then examined in the frequency domain by comparing to those without control and controlled by the conventional THP. Moreover, parametric analyses are systematically performed to evaluate the influences of the pre-specified frequency ratio, damping ratio, heave plate sizes, peak periods and wave heights on the performance of ATHP. Furthermore, a Simulink model is also developed to examine the control performance of ATHP in the time domain. It is demonstrated that the proposed ATHP could adaptively adjust the optimum inertance-to-mass ratio by tracking the dominant wave frequencies in real time, and the proposed system shows better control performance than the conventional THP.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.3-18
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• 2014

With natural resources-terrestrial or coastal-fastly diminishing, governments are now resorting to biodiversity conservation, fast-tracking the introduction of new legislations, as well as the amendment of existing ones, and laying out programs that interpret existing practices and research agendas. This paper examines how biodiversity conservation-in addition to eco-tourism-has become an important symbol of the modernizing state of Sabah, Malaysia. It further examines the effects of biodiversity conservation on state and community management of natural resources, with particular reference to the management of natural resources by the indigenous peoples of Sabah. Citing case studies and focusing on a forest community at Kiau Nuluh, in the district of Kota Belud, Sabah, this paper evaluates strategies used by indigenous groups to maintain access and control over the management of natural resources-and by implication to livelihoods-via ecotourism, making creative alliances with non-government organisations as well as forging cooperation with government agencies which act as custodians of these resources. For a majority of indigenous groups however, the practice of biodiversity conservation has meant reduced and controlled access to natural resources, considering the fundamental issue of the lack of security of tenure to the land claimed under customary rights. New initiatives at recognizing Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas (ICCAs) by international conservation groups provide a means for tenure recognition, for a price, of course. The recognition of ICCAs also faces obstacles arising from developmentalist ideology which upholds that forests are valuable only when converted to other land use, and not left to stand for their intrinsic value.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.3383-3397
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• 2023

Scene graphs serve as semantic abstractions of images and play a crucial role in enhancing visual comprehension and reasoning. However, the performance of Scene Graph Generation is often compromised when working with biased data in real-world situations. While many existing systems focus on a single stage of learning for both feature extraction and classification, some employ Class-Balancing strategies, such as Re-weighting, Data Resampling, and Transfer Learning from head to tail. In this paper, we propose a novel approach that decouples the feature extraction and classification phases of the scene graph generation process. For feature extraction, we leverage a transformer-based architecture and design an adaptive calibration function specifically for predicate classification. This function enables us to dynamically adjust the classification scores for each predicate category. Additionally, we introduce a Distribution Alignment technique that effectively balances the class distribution after the feature extraction phase reaches a stable state, thereby facilitating the retraining of the classification head. Importantly, our Distribution Alignment strategy is model-independent and does not require additional supervision, making it applicable to a wide range of SGG models. Using the scene graph diagnostic toolkit on Visual Genome and several popular models, we achieved significant improvements over the previous state-of-the-art methods with our model. Compared to the TDE model, our model improved mR@100 by 70.5% for PredCls, by 84.0% for SGCls, and by 97.6% for SGDet tasks.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.131-141
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• 2024

The aging population and worsening lifestyle habits have increased the risk of chronic diseases. This has heightened the importance of preventive healthcare, particularly through personalized health management services based on individual health data. Despite this, the domestic digital healthcare industry remains underdeveloped. Given the need for acceptance from both consumers and providers, this study uses the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to identify success factors for health management service platforms. AHP evaluates the relative importance of various factors to aid decision-making. Results show that providers prioritize data analysis and platform design, laws and regulations, and data standardization, while consumers prioritize system stability, laws and regulations, and system security. These findings highlight the need for strategies to bridge the expectation gap to effectively promote health management service platforms.

• Maritime Security
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.61-96
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• 2023

Amidst the ongoing instability and military tensions between North and South Korea, it is essential for us to comprehend and assess North Korea's military capabilities, while preparing for potential contingencies through military reinforcement. However, to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the military balance on the Korean Peninsula, it is imperative to move beyond simplistic quantitative comparisons of combat capabilities and embrace a broader perspective, which includes qualitative comparisons of military strength, operational capabilities, and a nation's ability to wage war. To address this need, this study employs the method of "Net Assessment" to evaluate the relative combat power of South and North Korean conventional naval forces, with a particular focus on surface combatants. This evaluation involves both quantitative and qualitative comparisons of military assets (personnel and equipment) and intangible factors (naval strategies, geography, etc.). By conducting a holistic assessment, the research aims to identify and analyze strategic asymmetries that may exist between the two navies.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.175-189
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• 2023

Purpose - The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between CEO name uncommonness and R&D intensity while focusing on CEO ownership and CEO tenure as moderators of the relationship. Design/methodology/approach - This study collected data from various American databases such as national data on given names from Social Security Administration, COMPUSTAT, and Execucomp. The sample of this study includes 2,494 (firm-year) observations from U.S. firms between 2005-2011. This study conducts Feasible Generalized Least Square (FGLS) regression analysis to test the hypotheses. Findings - First, we found CEO name uncommonness was positively related to R&D intensity. In other words, CEOs with unusual names prefer being distinctive by increasing R&D investments. Second, we examine the moderating roles of CEO characteristics (i.e., CEO ownership and tenure). The results show that CEO tenure strengthens the positive relationship between CEO name uncommonness and R&D intensity. Research implications or Originality - First, this study extends the CEO characteristics and R&D literature by investigating how CEO name uncommonness affects R&D intensity. In addition, our study also supports the intitutionalization of CEO power arguments by showing that CEOs with unusual names are more likely to pursue distinctive strategies when they have longer tenure. For practical implications, our results allow the investors to better predict corporate future R&D expenses. It suggests that ceteris paribus, CEOs with unusual names, vis-a-vis CEOs with common names, are more likely to increase R&D expenses.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.66 no.2
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• pp.279-294
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• 2024

Agriculture has played a significant role in the national economy, contributing to food security, driving economic growth, and safeguarding the dietary habits of the population. Korean agriculture has been compelled to focus on intensive farming due to its limited cultivation area, excessive input costs, and the limitations of agricultural mechanization. In the Republic of Korea (R.O.K), the concept of environmentally friendly animal agriculture began to be introduced in the early 2000s. This concept ultimately aims to cultivate sustainable animal agriculture (SAA) through environmentally friendly production practices, ensuring the healthy rearing of animals to supply safe animal products. Despite the government's efforts, there are still significant challenges in implementing environmentally friendly agriculture and SAA in the R.O.K. Therefore, the objective of this review is to establish the direction that the animal agriculture sector should take in the era of climate crisis, and to develop effective strategies for SAA tailored to the current situation in the R.O.K by examining the trends in SAA in the U.S. The animal agriculture sector in the U.S. has been working towards creating a SAA system where humans, animals, and the environment can coexist through government initiatives, industry research, technological support, and individual efforts. Efforts have been made to reduce emissions like carbon, and improve factors affecting the environment such as the carbon footprint, odor, and greenhouse gases associated with animal agriculture processes for animals such as cattle and pigs. The transition of the U.S. towards SAA appears to be driven by both external goals related to addressing climate change and the primary objectives of responding to the demand for safe animal products, expanding consumption, and securing competitiveness in overseas export markets. The demand for animal welfare, organic animal products, and processed goods has been increasing in the U.S. consumer market. A major factor in the transformation of the U.S. animal agriculture sector in terms of livestock specifications is attributed to environmentally friendly practices such as high-quality feed, heat stress reduction, improvements in reproductive ability and growth period reduction, and efforts in animal genetic enhancement.