• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.39-50
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• 2022

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to examine how Korea's macroeconomic factors, such as GDP, CPI, Export, Import, Unemployment rate and USD/KRW exchange rate, are affected by the oil price shocks. Design/methodology/approach - This study used monthly and quarterly time-series data of each variable for the period 1983 to 2022, consisting of two sub-periods, to employ Granger causality test and GARCH method in order to identify the role of the oil price movement in macroeconomic factors in Korea. Findings - Korea's currency rate to the US dollar is negatively correlated with the price change of crude oil while the GDP change is positively correlated with the price change of crude oil with strong relationship between Export and Import in particular. The exchange rate and GDP growth are believed to be not correlated with the oil price change for the pre-GFC period. According to the Granger causality test, the price change in crude oil has a causal impact on CPI, Export and Import while other factors are relatively slightly affected. Transmission effect from the oil price to Export is found and there also exists volatility spillover from oil price to economic variables under examination. Comparing two sub-periods, CPI and Export volatility responds negatively to shocks in the oil price for the pre-GFC period while volatility of CPI and Unemployment reacts positively to the oil price shocks for the post-GFC period. Research implications or Originality - The findings of this study could be helpful for both domestic and international investors to build their portfolio for the risk management since rising WTI price can be interpreted as a result of global economic growth and ensuing increase in the worldwide demand of the crude oil. Consequently, the national output is expected to increase and the currency is also expected to be strong in the long run.

• Asia-pacific Journal of Multimedia Services Convergent with Art, Humanities, and Sociology
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• v.7 no.11
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• pp.71-79
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• 2017

In this paper, we implemented the exchange rate forecasting neural network using heterogeneous computing. Exchange rate forecasting requires a large amount of data. We used a neural network that could leverage this data accordingly. Neural networks are largely divided into two processes: learning and verification. Learning took advantage of the CPU. For verification, RTL written in Verilog HDL was run on FPGA. The structure of the neural network has four input neurons, four hidden neurons, and one output neuron. The input neurons used the US $ 1, Japanese 100 Yen, EU 1 Euro, and UK £ 1. The input neurons predicted a Canadian dollar value of $ 1. The order of predicting the exchange rate is input, normalization, fixed-point conversion, neural network forward, floating-point conversion, denormalization, and outputting. As a result of forecasting the exchange rate in November 2016, there was an error amount between 0.9 won and 9.13 won. If we increase the number of neurons by adding data other than the exchange rate, it is expected that more precise exchange rate prediction will be possible.

• Clinical Endoscopy
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.105-111
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• 2024

Background/Aims: The pancreatic pseudocyst (PP) is a type of fluid collection that typically develops as a delayed complication of acute pancreatitis. Drainage is indicated for symptomatic patients and/or associated complications, such as infection and bleeding. Drainage modalities include percutaneous, endoscopic, laparoscopic, and open drainage. This study aimed to assess trends in the utilization of different drainage modalities for treating PP from 2016 to 2020. The trends in mortality, mean length of hospital stay, and mean hospitalization costs were also assessed. Methods: The National Inpatient Sample database was used to obtain data. The variables were generated using International Classification of Diseases-10 diagnostic and procedural codes. Results: Endoscopic drainage was the most commonly used drainage modality in 2018-2020, with an increasing trend over time (385 procedures in 2018 to 515 in 2020; p=0.003). This is associated with a decrease in the use of other drainage modalities. A decrease in the hospitalization cost for PP requiring drainage was also noted (29,318 United States dollar [USD] in 2016 to 18,087 USD in 2020, p<0.001). Conclusions: Endoscopic drainage is becoming the most commonly used modality for the treatment of PP in hospitals located in the US. This new trend is associated with decreasing hospitalization costs.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.153-195
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• 2010

The recent global financial crisis has been the outcome of, among other things, the mismatch between institutions and the reality of the market in the current global financial system. The International financial institutions (IFIs) that were designed more than 60 years ago can no longer effectively meet the challenges posed by the current global economy. While the global financial market has become integrated like a single market, there is no international lender of last resort or global regulatory body. There also has been a rapid shift in the weight of economic power. The share of the Group of 7 (G7) countries in global gross domestic product (GDP) fell and the share of emerging market economies increased rapidly. Therefore, the tasks facing us today are: (i) to reform the IFIs -mandate, resources, management, and governance structure; (ii) to reform the system such as the international monetary system (IMS), and regulatory framework of the global financial system; and (iii) to reform global economic governance. The main focus of this paper will be the IMS reform and the role of the Group of Twenty (G20) summit meetings. The current IMS problems can be summarized as follows. First, the demand for foreign reserve accumulation has been increasing despite the movement from fixed exchange rate regimes to floating rate regimes some 40 years ago. Second, this increasing demand for foreign reserves has been concentrated in US dollar assets, especially public securities. Third, as the IMS relies too heavily on the supply of currency issued by a center country (the US), it gives an exorbitant privilege to this country, which can issue Treasury bills at the lowest possible interest rate in the international capital market. Fourth, as a related problem, the global financial system depends too heavily on the center country's ability to maintain the stability of the value of its currency and strength of its own financial system. Fifth, international capital flows have been distorted in the current IMS, from EMEs and developing countries where the productivity of capital investment is higher, to advanced economies, especially the US, where the return to capital investment is lower. Given these problems, there have been various proposals to reform the current IMS. They can be grouped into two: demand-side and supply-side reform. The key in the former is how to reduce the widespread strong demand for foreign reserve holdings among EMEs. There have been several proposals to reduce the self-insurance motivation. They include third-party insurance and the expansion of the opportunity to borrow from a global and regional reserve pool, or access to global lender of last resort (or something similar). However, the first option would be too costly. That leads us to the second option - building a stronger globalfinancial safety net. Discussions on supply-side reform of the IMS focus on how to diversify the supply of international reserve currency. The proposals include moving to a multiple currency system; increased allocation and wider use of special drawing rights (SDR); and creating a new global reserve currency. A key question is whether diversification should be encouraged among suitable existing currencies, or if it should be sought more with global reserve assets, acting as a complement or even substitute to existing ones. Each proposal has its pros and cons; they also face trade-offs between desirability and political feasibility. The transition would require close collaboration among the major players. This should include efforts at the least to strengthen policy coordination and collaboration among the major economies, and to reform the IMF to make it a more effective institution for bilateral and multilateral surveillance and as an international lender of last resort. The success on both fronts depends heavily on global economic governance reform and the role of the G20. The challenge is how to make the G20 effective. Without institutional innovations within the G20, there is a high risk that its summits will follow the path of previous summit meetings, such as G7/G8.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.195-220
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• 2018

In this study, we conducted an empirical analysis of the factors that affect the change of Bitcoin Closing Price. Previous studies have focused on the security of the block chain system, the economic ripple effects caused by the cryptocurrency, legal implications and the acceptance to consumer about cryptocurrency. In various area, cryptocurrency was studied and many researcher and people including government, regardless of country, try to utilize cryptocurrency and applicate to its technology. Despite of rapid and dramatic change of cryptocurrencies' price and growth of its effects, empirical study of the factors affecting the price change of cryptocurrency was lack. There were only a few limited studies, business reports and short working paper. Therefore, it is necessary to determine what factors effect on the change of closing Bitcoin price. For analysis, hypotheses were constructed from three dimensions of consumer, industry, and macroeconomics for analysis, and time series data were collected for variables of each dimension. Consumer variables consist of search traffic of Bitcoin, search traffic of bitcoin ban, search traffic of ransomware and search traffic of war. Industry variables were composed GPU vendors' stock price and memory vendors' stock price. Macro-economy variables were contemplated such as U.S. dollar index futures, FOMC policy interest rates, WTI crude oil price. Using above variables, we did times series regression analysis to find relationship between those variables and change of Bitcoin Closing Price. Before the regression analysis to confirm the relationship between change of Bitcoin Closing Price and the other variables, we performed the Unit-root test to verifying the stationary of time series data to avoid spurious regression. Then, using a stationary data, we did the regression analysis. As a result of the analysis, we found that the change of Bitcoin Closing Price has negative effects with search traffic of 'Bitcoin Ban' and US dollar index futures, while change of GPU vendors' stock price and change of WTI crude oil price showed positive effects. In case of 'Bitcoin Ban', it is directly determining the maintenance or abolition of Bitcoin trade, that's why consumer reacted sensitively and effected on change of Bitcoin Closing Price. GPU is raw material of Bitcoin mining. Generally, increasing of companies' stock price means the growth of the sales of those companies' products and services. GPU's demands increases are indirectly reflected to the GPU vendors' stock price. Making an interpretation, a rise in prices of GPU has put a crimp on the mining of Bitcoin. Consequently, GPU vendors' stock price effects on change of Bitcoin Closing Price. And we confirmed U.S. dollar index futures moved in the opposite direction with change of Bitcoin Closing Price. It moved like Gold. Gold was considered as a safe asset to consumers and it means consumer think that Bitcoin is a safe asset. On the other hand, WTI oil price went Bitcoin Closing Price's way. It implies that Bitcoin are regarded to investment asset like raw materials market's product. The variables that were not significant in the analysis were search traffic of bitcoin, search traffic of ransomware, search traffic of war, memory vendor's stock price, FOMC policy interest rates. In search traffic of bitcoin, we judged that interest in Bitcoin did not lead to purchase of Bitcoin. It means search traffic of Bitcoin didn't reflect all of Bitcoin's demand. So, it implies there are some factors that regulate and mediate the Bitcoin purchase. In search traffic of ransomware, it is hard to say concern of ransomware determined the whole Bitcoin demand. Because only a few people damaged by ransomware and the percentage of hackers requiring Bitcoins was low. Also, its information security problem is events not continuous issues. Search traffic of war was not significant. Like stock market, generally it has negative in relation to war, but exceptional case like Gulf war, it moves stakeholders' profits and environment. We think that this is the same case. In memory vendor stock price, this is because memory vendors' flagship products were not VRAM which is essential for Bitcoin supply. In FOMC policy interest rates, when the interest rate is low, the surplus capital is invested in securities such as stocks. But Bitcoin' price fluctuation was large so it is not recognized as an attractive commodity to the consumers. In addition, unlike the stock market, Bitcoin doesn't have any safety policy such as Circuit breakers and Sidecar. Through this study, we verified what factors effect on change of Bitcoin Closing Price, and interpreted why such change happened. In addition, establishing the characteristics of Bitcoin as a safe asset and investment asset, we provide a guide how consumer, financial institution and government organization approach to the cryptocurrency. Moreover, corroborating the factors affecting change of Bitcoin Closing Price, researcher will get some clue and qualification which factors have to be considered in hereafter cryptocurrency study.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.3-26
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• 1992

The pupose of this paper is to construct a price determination model of the Korean economy and to find out the propogation mechanism of monetary and fiscal policies. The model is a small-size macroeconometric model consisted of ten core equations : consumption, investment, exports, imports, consumer price index, wage rate, corporate bond rate, potential GNP, capital stock, and GNP identity. The model is a Keynesian model : consumer price index is determined by markup over costs, and wage rate is expressed by Phillipse curve ralation. Two features of the model, however, distinguish this model from other macroeconometric models of the Korean economy. First of all, the estimation of potential GNP and the capital stock is endogenized as suggested by Haque, Lahiri, and Montiel (1990). This allows us to calculate the level of excess demand, which is defined as the difference between the actual GNP and the potential GNP. Second, interest rate, inflation and wages are all estimated as endogenous variables. Moreover, all quantity variables include price variables as important determinants. For instance, interest rate is an important determinant of consumption and investment. Exports and imports are determined by the real effective exchange rate. These two features make the interactions between excess demand and prices the driving forces of this model. In the model, any shock which affects quantity variable(s) affects excess demand, which in turn affects prices. This strong interaction between prices and quantities makes the model look like a classical model over the long run. That is, increases in money supply, government expenditures, and exchange rate (the price of the U.S. dollar in terms of Korean won) all have expansionery effects on the real GNP in the short run, but prices, wage, and interest rate all increase as a result. Over the long run, higher prices have dampenning effects on output. Therefore the level of real GNP turns out to be not much different from the baseline level ; on the other hand, the rates of inflation, wage and interest rate remain at higher levels.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.47-59
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• 2017

The objective of this study is to determine the short run and long run dynamics between maritime import volume (IMV), industrial production (IP), and real effective exchange rate (REER) of the Korean Won over the REER of certain major currencies (US Dollar, Chinese Yuan, and Japanese Yen) in Korea's Jeonnam province. The Johansen and Juselius cointegration results reveal that at least one cointegration vector or long-run relationship exists. Hence, this study estimated the long run equilibrium equation, which indicates that both IP and REER are inelastic, although the former is bigger than the latter. Moreover, the dynamic causality analysis reveals short and long-run unidirectional causality from IP and REER to IMV in all three models. Further, in all the models, the results indicate short run unidirectional causality from REER to IP. In addition, the impulse response (IR) results show that the impulse of IP and REER decayed after four months. Additionally, the IR analysis results indicate that the REER of the Korean Won over the REER of Japanese Yen is the biggest with respect to the impact of relative REER on IP, which is the proxy variable of regional real income. Thus, empirical results indicated that real income and REER play an important role in determining the Jeonnam's maritime import demand behavior in the short run and long run. More importantly, substantial actions reducing unexpected fluctuation of the REER and real income based on micro and macro economic policies will increase the imported volume in the ports of the Jeonnam province.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.701-708
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• 2014

This study is aimed to obtain the influence of port hinterlands on container cargo volumes of Incheon port using System Dynamics(SD). Also, macro economic index such as exchange rates(US dollar), balance of current account, capital balance, Japan trade, China trade, export unit value index, import unit value index, total turnover of Incheon port were used as the factors that influence container cargo volumes of Incheon port. Moreover micro index regarding port hinterlands' operating companies such as total sales, rental fee, number of employees were introduced in the simulation model. In order to measure accuracy of the simulation, this study implemented MAPE analysis. And after the implementation, the simulation was decided as a much more accurate model because MAPE value was calculated to be within 10%. This study respectively examined factors using the sensitivity analysis. As a result, in terms of the effects on cargo volume in Incheon Port, the factor named 'cargo volumes of port hinterlands' operating companies' is most significant. And increasing the rental fee of hinterland was resulted in decreasing the cargo volumes of Incheon port.

• Atmosphere
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.239-246
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• 2010

In this study, the climatological characteristics of the landfall typhoons on North Korea are surveyed to estimate the frequency, the intensity, the track, and their damage. The data for the period of 1951-2008 are used from both RSMC (Regional Specialized Meteorological Center) Tokyo Typhoon Center and NCEP/NCAR (National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research), EM-DAT (Emergency Events Database). There are the ten highest frequencies from 1961 to 1965 and is one frequency for the period of both 1966-1979 and 1976-1980 respectively. Even if a clear trend on the frequency of typhoon is not defined, it is noticeable the intensity has been weak since the frequency of TS (Tropical Storm) decreased. In order to figure out both the characteristic of intensity and the relation between the typhoon track and the expansion of North Pacific High (NPH), Typhoon's tracks are classified into three types as follows: (I) landing on the west coast of North Korea through the mainland of China, (II) landing on the west coast of North Korea, (III) landing on a central/eastern part of the Korean peninsula through South Korea. More often than not, the characteristic of Type (I) is the case of a landfall after it becomes extratropical cyclone. Type(II) and Type(III) show a landfall as TS grade, by comparision. On the relation between the typhoon's track and the expansion of NPH analyzed, Type (I) shows the westward expansion while both Type (II) and Type (III) show the northward expansion and development of NPH. This means the intensity of a typhoon landfall on North Korea is variable depending on the development of NPH. Finally, only two cases are found among total five cases in EM-DAT, reportedly that North Korea was damaged. And therefore, the damage by the wind of Prapiroon (the $12^{th}$ typhoon, 2000) and heavy rainfall with Rusa (the $15^{th}$ typhoon, 2002) landing on North Korea was analyzed. Moreover, it is estimated both Prapiroon and Rusa have done badly damaged to North Korea as the economical losses of as much as six billion and five hundred-thousand US dollar, respectively.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.207-223
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• 2003

For last five years, we are developing the novel local drug delivery devices using biodegradable polymers, especially polylactide (PLA) and poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) due to its relatively good biocompatibility, easily controlled biodegradability, good processability and only FDA approved synthetic degradable polymers. The relationship between various kinds of drug [water soluble small molecule drugs: gentamicin sulfate (GS), fentanyl citrate (FC), BCNU, azidothymidine (AZT), pamidronate (ADP), $1,25(OH)_2$ vitamin $D_3$, water insoluble small molecule drugs: fentanyl, ipriflavone (IP) and nifedipine, and water soluble large peptide molecule drug: nerve growth factor (NGF), and Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV)], different types of geometrical devices [microspheres (MSs), microcapsule, nanoparticle, wafers, pellet, beads, multiple-layered beads, implants, fiber, scaffolds, and films], and pharmacological activity are proposed and discussed for the application of pharmaceutics and tissue engineering. Also, local drug delivery devices proposed in this work are introduced in view of preparation method, drug release behavior, biocompatibility, pharmacological effect, and animal studies. In conclusion, we can control the drug release profiles varying with the preparation, formulation and geometrical parameters. Moreover, any types of drug were successfully applicable to achieve linear sustained release from short period ($1{\sim}3$ days) to long period (over 2 months). It is very important to design a suitable formulation for the wanting period of bioactive molecules loaded in biodegradable polymers for the local delivery of drug. The drug release is affected by many factors such as hydrophilicity of drug, electric charge of drug, drug loading amount, polymer molecular weight, the monomer composition, the size of implants, the applied fabrication techniques, and so on. It is well known that the commercialization of new drug needs a lot of cost of money (average: over 10 million US dollar per one drug) and time (average: above 9 years) whereas the development of DDS and high effective generic drug might be need relatively low investment with a short time period. Also, one core technology of DDS can be applicable to many drugs for the market needs. From these reasons, the DDS research on potent generic drugs might be suitable for less risk and high return.