• KIPS Transactions on Computer and Communication Systems
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.17-28
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• 2019

In the financial investment management strategy, the distributed investment selecting and combining various financial assets is called portfolio management theory. In recent years, the blockchain based financial assets, such as cryptocurrencies, have been traded on several well-known exchanges, and an efficient portfolio management approach is required in order for investors to steadily raise their return on investment in cryptocurrencies. On the other hand, deep learning has shown remarkable results in various fields, and research on application of deep reinforcement learning algorithm to portfolio management has begun. In this paper, we propose an efficient financial portfolio investment management method based on Asynchronous Advantage Actor-Critic (A3C), which is a representative asynchronous reinforcement learning algorithm. In addition, since the conventional cross-entropy function can not be applied to portfolio management, we propose a proper method where the existing cross-entropy is modified to fit the portfolio investment method. Finally, we compare the proposed A3C model with the existing reinforcement learning based cryptography portfolio investment algorithm, and prove that the performance of the proposed A3C model is better than the existing one.

• Journal of the Korean Orthopaedic Association
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.466-477
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• 2018

Orthopaedics is an area where 3-dimensional (3D) printing technology is most likely to be utilized because it has been used to treat a range of diseases of the whole body. For arthritis, spinal diseases, trauma, deformities, and tumors, 3D printing can be used in the form of anatomical models, surgical guides, metal implants, bio-ceramic body reconstruction, and orthosis. In particular, in orthopaedic oncology, patients have a wide variety of tumor locations, but limited options for the limb salvage surgery have resulted in many complications. Currently, 3D printing personalized implants can be fabricated easily in a short time, and it is anticipated that all bone tumors in various surgical sites will be reconstructed properly. An improvement of 3D printing technology in the healthcare field requires close cooperation with many professionals in the design, printing, and validation processes. The government, which has determined that it can promote the development of 3D printing-related industries in other fields by leading the use of 3D printing in the medical field, is also actively supporting with an emphasis on promotion rather than regulation. In this review, the experience of using 3D printing technology for bone tumor surgery was shared, expecting orthopaedic surgeons to lead 3D printing in the medical field.

• Journal of the HCI Society of Korea
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.71-81
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• 2019

As AI technology develops, its application has been extended to diverse fields. In particular, AI-enabled Chatbot services have garnered growing attention and such services are more important as a tool of communication in mobile shopping. However, research on chatbots is in its early stage and the understanding of chatbots in the context of mobile commerce is very limited. The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate consumer responses to a shopping chatbot with a focus on the effects of chatbot agent types and message types. Specifically, a $2{\times}2$ between-subjects experimental design, with the agent type (secretary/friend) and the message type (factual/evaluative) as the independent variables, was employed. The results show that although main effects of chatbot agent and message types are not found, interaction effects between chatbot agents and message types on consumer responses are significant. Specifically, when the agent type was a secretary, consumer responses to product recommendation with a factual message were more positive. On the other hand, in the case of the friend agent, the evaluative message led to more positive responses. The findings suggest that communication elements are important in the understanding of consumer responses to chatbots in mobile shopping and effective strategies for utilizing chatbots for mobile commerce should be considered.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.421-428
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• 2019

This study includes services that require six professional guides - health care, exhibition performance, restaurant, shopping, business and daily life - as well as a trip-based tour, along with solving existing problems that may occur on domestic and overseas trips, and proposes services that connect users with proven professional guides. As a result of previous research, the most needed services among overseas travel were air tickets, accommodation, transportation, and guides, but as Korea enters an aging society, professional guide services are expected to increase daily demand. Based on this, the service technology, user scenarios and brand development were presented. This Service Proposal provides users with a personalized guide to knowledge or experience that they have not previously known, providing them with a wealth of experience. In addition, guides can help develop new fields of expertise and help improve professional guides' capabilities. Finally, the platform service is meaningful in that it enables the creation of jobs by enabling everyone to engage in economic activities, as it allows users to provide services through their own capabilities while at the same time being convenient for them.

• Clean Technology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.179-188
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• 2019

Upon the combustion of coal particles in a coal-fired power plant, fly ash (80%) and bottom ash (20%) are unavoidably produced. Most of the ashes are, however, just dumped onto a landfill site. When the landfill site that takes the fly ash and bottom ash is saturated, further operation of the coal-fired power plant might be discontinued unless a new alternative landfill site is prepared. In this study, wet flotation separation system (floating process) was employed in order to recover unburned carbon (UC), ceramic microsphere (CM) and cleaned ash (CA), all of which serving as useful components within fly ash. The average recovered fractions of UC, CM, and CA from fly ash were 92.10, 75.75, and 69.71, respectively, while the recovered fractions of UC were higher than those of CM and CA by 16% and 22%, respectively. The combustible component (CC) within the recovered UC possessed a weight percentage as high as 52.54wt%, whereas the burning heat of UC was estimated to be $4,232kcal\;kg^{-1}$. As more carbon-containing UC is recovered from fly ash, UC is expected to be used successfully as an industrial fuel. Owing to the effects of pH, more efficient chemical separations of CM and CA, rather than UC, were obtained. The average $SiO_2$ contents within the separated CM and CA had a value of 53.55wt% and 78.66wt%, respectively, which is indicative of their plausible future application as industrial materials in many fields.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.143-150
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• 2019

Although inconspicuous marsh birds are an indicator of marsh health, there is little understanding of their status and population trends due to their behavioral characteristics and lack of reliable survey methods in Korea. We applied the Standardized North American Marsh Bird Monitoring Protocols(SNAMBMP) already validated in North America for effective survey of the marsh birds. We selected 29 sites with emergent marshes, rice fields and riparian forests in Seocheon-gun, Buyeo-gun and Gunsan-si. We conducted the survey with a combination of passive 5 minute point-count and vocal survey method (30 seconds call-broadcasting+30 seconds silence) that was targeted eight species 2~7 times/site from March to July 2017. Four species, Brown-cheeked Rail(Rallus indicus), Ruddy-breasted Crake (Porzana fusca), Watercock (Gallicrex cinerea) and Greater Painted-snipe (Rostatula benghalensis), were detected at one site respectively (naïve occupancy rate=0.035). Vocal survey method with conspecific call-broadcasting provided better on Brown-cheeked Rail and Watercock than the others. We suggest a combination of passive point-count and vocal survey method like SNAMBMP to monitor inconspicuous marsh birds at nationwide scale and collection of sound files through recording of the entire process during the survey.

• Convergence Security Journal
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.41-47
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• 2017

The Marine Environment Observation Information System supplies oceanographic information elements such as water temperature, chlorophyll, float, etc. based on satellite images to consumers. The data produced by the Korean marine environmental observatories are located in the coastal areas of Korea. But if the range is too far from a particular area of interest, due to distance or spatial constraints, the accuracy and up-to-dateness of the data can not be relied upon. Therefore, it is necessary to perform fusion and complex operation to solve the difference between the field observation and the marine satellite image. In this study, we develop a system that can process marine environmental information in the user's area of interest in the form of layered character (numeric) information considering the readability and light weight rather than the satellite image. In order to intuitively understand satellite image information, we characterize (quantify) the marine environmental information of the area of interest and we process the satellite image band values into layered characters to minimize the absolute amount of transmitted / received data. Also we study modular location-based interest information service method to be able to flexibly extend and connect interested items that diversify various observation fields as well as application technology to serve this.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.47-53
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• 2018

Various types of robotic arms are being used for industrial purposes, particularly with the small production of multi-products, and the importance of the gripper, which can be used in industrial fields, is increasing. This study evaluated a variable stiffness mechanism gripper that can change the stiffness using the nonlinearity of a flexible material. A prototype of the gripper was fabricated and examined to confirm the change in stiffness. The previous gripper was unable to grip objects in some situations with three variable stiffness mechanism. In addition, these mechanisms were not balanced and rarely rotated when the object was gripped. Therefore, a new type of gripper was needed to solve this problem. Inspired by the movements of the human palm and Venus Flytrap, a new type of a variable stiffness soft robot hand was designed. The possibility of grasping could be increased by interlocking the palm folding mechanism by pulling the tendon attached to the variable stiffness mechanism. The soft robotic hand was used to grasp objects of various shapes and weights more stably than the previous variable stiffness mechanism gripper. This new variable stiffness soft robot hand can be used selectively depending on the application and environment to be used.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.62 no.1
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• pp.11-17
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• 2019

Strawberries are one of the main commodities in Korea and have been exported over 40 million dollar. Because the strawberry cultivation using hydroponics has increased, treatment of pesticide by drenching draw interest recently. However, detailed researches for drenching treatment of pesticide are limited, which results in difficulties in proper pesticide applications in agricultural fields. To activate use of drenching and improve safety in agricultural products, In this study, time-dependent residual characteristic of pesticides were compared with between different applications of pesticides in strawberries. The characteristics of azoxystrobin, prochloraz and thiamethoxam were investigated with drenching treatment at different applications: the time of treatment, concentration etc. at hydroponic cultivation for 40 days. Azoxystrobin and prochloraz were not detected at 14 day after application. Thiamethoxam was detected from 0.02 to 0.85 mg/kg. Crop uptake of pesticides was strongly affected with octanol-water partition coefficient and solubility in water. Residual amount in crops are highly dependent on the concentration of active ingredient of pesticides.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.305-312
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• 2019

The discovery of nitric oxide (NO) as a major signaling molecule in a number of pathophysiological processes - vasodilation, immune response, platelet aggregation, wound repair, and cancer biology - has led to the development of various exogeneous NO delivery systems. However, the development of ideal delivery system for human body application is still left as a challenge due to its high reactivity and short half-life in physiological condition. In this article, an overview of several nano-structures as potential NO delivery system will be presented, along with their recent research results and biomedical applications. Nano-size delivery system has immense advantages compared to others due to its high surface-to-volume ratio and capability for surface modification; thus, it has been proven to be effective in delivering nitric oxide with enhanced performance. Through this novel nano-structure delivery system, we are expecting to achieve sustained release of nitric oxide within adequate range of concentration, which ensures desired drug effects at the target site. Among different nano-structures, in particular, nanoparticle, microemulsion and nanofilm will be reviewed and compared to each other in respect of nitric oxide release profile. The proposed nano-structures for exogeneous NO delivery have a biological significance in that it can be further utilized in diverse biomedical fields as a highly promising therapeutic method.