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Understanding the Mismatch between ERP and Organizational Information Needs and Its Responses: A Study based on Organizational Memory Theory (조직의 정보 니즈와 ERP 기능과의 불일치 및 그 대응책에 대한 이해: 조직 메모리 이론을 바탕으로)

  • Jeong, Seung-Ryul;Bae, Uk-Ho
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.22 no.2
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    • pp.21-38
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    • 2012
  • Until recently, successful implementation of ERP systems has been a popular topic among ERP researchers, who have attempted to identify its various contributing factors. None of these efforts, however, explicitly recognize the need to identify disparities that can exist between organizational information requirements and ERP systems. Since ERP systems are in fact "packages" -that is, software programs developed by independent software vendors for sale to organizations that use them-they are designed to meet the general needs of numerous organizations, rather than the unique needs of a particular organization, as is the case with custom-developed software. By adopting standard packages, organizations can substantially reduce many of the potential implementation risks commonly associated with custom-developed software. However, it is also true that the nature of the package itself could be a risk factor as the features and functions of the ERP systems may not completely comply with a particular organization's informational requirements. In this study, based on the organizational memory mismatch perspective that was derived from organizational memory theory and cognitive dissonance theory, we define the nature of disparities, which we call "mismatches," and propose that the mismatch between organizational information requirements and ERP systems is one of the primary determinants in the successful implementation of ERP systems. Furthermore, we suggest that customization efforts as a coping strategy for mismatches can play a significant role in increasing the possibilities of success. In order to examine the contention we propose in this study, we employed a survey-based field study of ERP project team members, resulting in a total of 77 responses. The results of this study show that, as anticipated from the organizational memory mismatch perspective, the mismatch between organizational information requirements and ERP systems makes a significantly negative impact on the implementation success of ERP systems. This finding confirms our hypothesis that the more mismatch there is, the more difficult successful ERP implementation is, and thus requires more attention to be drawn to mismatch as a major failure source in ERP implementation. This study also found that as a coping strategy on mismatch, the effects of customization are significant. In other words, utilizing the appropriate customization method could lead to the implementation success of ERP systems. This is somewhat interesting because it runs counter to the argument of some literature and ERP vendors that minimized customization (or even the lack thereof) is required for successful ERP implementation. In many ERP projects, there is a tendency among ERP developers to adopt default ERP functions without any customization, adhering to the slogan of "the introduction of best practices." However, this study asserts that we cannot expect successful implementation if we don't attempt to customize ERP systems when mismatches exist. For a more detailed analysis, we identified three types of mismatches-Non-ERP, Non-Procedure, and Hybrid. Among these, only Non-ERP mismatches (a situation in which ERP systems cannot support the existing information needs that are currently fulfilled) were found to have a direct influence on the implementation of ERP systems. Neither Non-Procedure nor Hybrid mismatches were found to have significant impact in the ERP context. These findings provide meaningful insights since they could serve as the basis for discussing how the ERP implementation process should be defined and what activities should be included in the implementation process. They show that ERP developers may not want to include organizational (or business processes) changes in the implementation process, suggesting that doing so could lead to failed implementation. And in fact, this suggestion eventually turned out to be true when we found that the application of process customization led to higher possibilities of failure. From these discussions, we are convinced that Non-ERP is the only type of mismatch we need to focus on during the implementation process, implying that organizational changes must be made before, rather than during, the implementation process. Finally, this study found that among the various customization approaches, bolt-on development methods in particular seemed to have significantly positive effects. Interestingly again, this finding is not in the same line of thought as that of the vendors in the ERP industry. The vendors' recommendations are to apply as many best practices as possible, thereby resulting in the minimization of customization and utilization of bolt-on development methods. They particularly advise against changing the source code and rather recommend employing, when necessary, the method of programming additional software code using the computer language of the vendor. As previously stated, however, our study found active customization, especially bolt-on development methods, to have positive effects on ERP, and found source code changes in particular to have the most significant effects. Moreover, our study found programming additional software to be ineffective, suggesting there is much difference between ERP developers and vendors in viewpoints and strategies toward ERP customization. In summary, mismatches are inherent in the ERP implementation context and play an important role in determining its success. Considering the significance of mismatches, this study proposes a new model for successful ERP implementation, developed from the organizational memory mismatch perspective, and provides many insights by empirically confirming the model's usefulness.

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Interrelationships and Differences of Brachial-Ankle Pulse Wave Velocity (baPWV), Body Composition and Cardiovascular Variables between Genders Who Have Been Exercised or Not in Elderly (운동참여 여부와 성별에 따른 노인의 맥박파전파속도, 신체구성과 심혈관계 변인의 상관성 및 재변인의 차이)

  • Lee, Jong-Woo;Kim, Dae-Sik;Cho, Eun-Kyung
    • Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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    • v.48 no.4
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    • pp.378-387
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    • 2016
  • This study sought to investigate interrelationships and differences of brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV), body composition and cardiovascular variables between genders who have been exercised or not in elderly. One hundred fifty participants were classified four groups. Especially out of variables, in male elderly group who had participated in exercise program the PWV range were significantly correlated with muscle mass (r=0.357, p=0.026), SBP (r=0.468, p=0.003), right baPWV (r=0.406, p=0.010), and left baPWV (r=0.333, p=0.038). In male elderly group who had not participated in exercise program, the PWV range were significantly correlated with heart rate (r=0.395, p=0.014), right baPWV (r=0.598, p=0.000), and left baPWV (r=0.602, p=0.000). In female elderly group who had participated in exercise program, the PWV range were significantly correlated with name of diagnosis (r=0.321, p=0.044), SBP (r=0.399, p=0.011), DBP (r=0.545, p=0.000), right baPWV (r=0.648, p=0.000), and left baPWV (r=0.676, p=0.000). In female elderly group who had not participated in exercise program, the PWV range were significantly correlated with age (r=0.471, p=0.003), right baPWV (r=0.836, p=0.000), and left baPWV (r=0.801, p=0.000). The PWV among four groups were not significant different after experiment. However, there were significant differences in the waist/hip ratio (F=9.197, p=0.000), muscle mass (F=74.295, p=0.000), and %fat (F=35.045, p=0.000) from body composition. And there were significant differences in the SBP (F=3.525, p=0.017) after experiment. In conclusion, these data show that regular exercise is associated with arterial compliance (PWV range, right or left PWV) and differed from genders. In other words, this paper may support the concept that regular exercise program may exert a protective effect on arterial compliance, body composition and cardiovascular systems.

The Effect of Color Filter on the Reading Ability in Teenager with Irlen-Syndrome (얼렌증후군에서 컬러필터가 읽기능력에 미치는 영향)

  • Lee, Dong-Joon;Leem, Hyun-Sung
    • Journal of Korean Ophthalmic Optics Society
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    • v.18 no.2
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    • pp.125-136
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    • 2013
  • Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of improving read speed with color filter or without color filter to improve reading disorder of teenager who were diagnosed as Meares-Irlen syndrome through survey inspection with Meares-Irlen syndrome visual stress (MISViS) score. Methods: MISViS subjects were selected from screening survey MISViS results given above 2.13 in the clinical criteria scores (MISViS score). Reading speed were measured quickly and efficiently the rate of reading via test in which randomly ordered common words are read aloud during a minute. Each of the subjects were worn a filter of the lowest concentration in each color filter group composed of 15 groups. Results: MISViS score of MISViS group and control group were 2.57 and 0.66, respectively. Results of reading speed with filter and without filter in MISViS group were $102.27{\pm}27.86$ wpm and $118.87{\pm}26.99$ wpm (p=0.001), respectively, as well as were $132.93{\pm}6.88$ wpm and $133.43{\pm}6.64$ wpm (p=0.131) in the normal group. Associated with error changes with filter and without filter between two groups, skipping in MISViS Group were from $0.25{\pm}0.62$ times to 0 times (p=0.191), Errors were from $1.83{\pm}1.69$ times to $0.17{\pm}0.38$ times (p = 0.004) and, repetitions were 0. skipping in control group were 0 times, errors were from $0.21{\pm}0.43$ times to $0.07{\pm}0.27$ times (p=0.336) and, repetitions were from $0.14{\pm}0.36$ times to 0 (p=0.165). The filter of blue series chosen in MISViS group had higher percentage (40%), whereas, subjects in normal group were more likely to prefer the filter of gray color (29%). Conclusions: This study showed that MISViS score have been used as a significant diagnosis for Irlen syndrome screening. This study found that wearing suitable color filter for MISViS patients were useful to improve learning with regard to reading. Unique color filter selection for MISViS subjects must be carefully considered since fit color filter are different personally.

Design of Comprehensive Security Vulnerability Analysis System through Efficient Inspection Method according to Necessity of Upgrading System Vulnerability (시스템 취약점 개선의 필요성에 따른 효율적인 점검 방법을 통한 종합 보안 취약성 분석 시스템 설계)

  • Min, So-Yeon;Jung, Chan-Suk;Lee, Kwang-Hyong;Cho, Eun-Sook;Yoon, Tae-Bok;You, Seung-Ho
    • Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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    • v.18 no.7
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    • pp.1-8
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    • 2017
  • As the IT environment becomes more sophisticated, various threats and their associated serious risks are increasing. Threats such as DDoS attacks, malware, worms, and APT attacks can be a very serious risk to enterprises and must be efficiently managed in a timely manner. Therefore, the government has designated the important system as the main information communication infrastructure in consideration of the impact on the national security and the economic society according to the 'Information and Communication Infrastructure Protection Act', which, in particular, protects the main information communication infrastructure from cyber infringement. In addition, it conducts management supervision such as analysis and evaluation of vulnerability, establishment of protection measures, implementation of protection measures, and distribution of technology guides. Even now, security consulting is proceeding on the basis of 'Guidance for Evaluation of Technical Vulnerability Analysis of Major IT Infrastructure Facilities'. There are neglected inspection items in the applied items, and the vulnerability of APT attack, malicious code, and risk are present issues that are neglected. In order to eliminate the actual security risk, the security manager has arranged the inspection and ordered the special company. In other words, it is difficult to check against current hacking or vulnerability through current system vulnerability checking method. In this paper, we propose an efficient method for extracting diagnostic data regarding the necessity of upgrading system vulnerability check, a check item that does not reflect recent trends, a technical check case for latest intrusion technique, a related study on security threats and requirements. Based on this, we investigate the security vulnerability management system and vulnerability list of domestic and foreign countries, propose effective security vulnerability management system, and propose further study to improve overseas vulnerability diagnosis items so that they can be related to domestic vulnerability items.

An Empirical Analysis of The Determinants and Long-term Projections for The Demand and Supply of Labor force (노동력수급의 요인분석과 전망)

  • 김중수
    • Korea journal of population studies
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    • v.9 no.1
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    • pp.41-53
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    • 1986
  • The purpose of this paper is two-fold. One is to investigate the determinants of the demand supply of labor, and another is to project long-term demand and supply of labor. The paper consists of three parts. In the first part, theoretical models and important hypotheses are discussed: for the case of a labor supply model, issues regarding discouraged worker model, permanent wage hypothesis, and relative wage hypothesis are examined and for the case of a demand model, issues regarding estimating an employment demand equation within the framework of an inverted short-run produc- tion function are inspected. Particularly, a theoretical justification for introducing a demographic cohort variable in a labor supply equation is also investigated. In the second part, empirical results of the estimated supply and demand equations are analyzed. Supply equations are specified differently between primary and secondary labor force. That is, for the case of primary labor force groups including males aged 25 and over, attempts are made to explain the variations in participation behavior within the framework of a neo-classical economics oriented permanent wage hypothesis. On the other hand, for the case of females and young male labor force, variations in participation rates are explained in terms of a relative wage hypothesis. In other words, the participation behavior of primary labor force is related to short-rum business fluctuations, while that of secondary labor force is associated with intermediate swings of business cycles and demographic changes in the age structure of population. Some major findings arc summarized as follows. (1) For the case of males aged 14~19 and 2O~24 groups and females aged 14∼19, the effect of schhool enrollment rate is dominant and thus it plays a key role in explaining the recent declining trend of participation rates of these groups. (2) Except for females aged 20∼24, a demographic cohort variable, which captures the impact of changes in the age structure on participation behavior, turns out to show positive and significant coefficients for secondary labor force groups. (3) A cyclical variable produce significant coefficients for prime-age males and females reflecting that as compared to other groups the labor supply behavior of these groups is more closely related to short-run cyclical variations (4) The wage variable, which represents a labor-leisure trade-off turns out to yield significant coefficients only for older age groups (6O and over) for both males and females. This result reveals that unlike the experiences of other higer-income nations, the participation decision of the labor force of our nation is not highly sensitive with respect to wage changes. (5)The estimated result of the employment demand equation displays that given that the level of GNP remains constant the ability of the economy to absord labor force has been declining;that is, the elasticity of GNP with respect to labor absorption decreasre over time. In the third part, the results of long-term projections (for the period of 1986 and 1995) for age-sex specific participation rates are discussed. The participation rate of total males is anticipated to increase slightly, which is contrary to the recent trend of declining participation rates of this group. For the groups aged 25 and below, the participation rates are forecast to decline although the magnitude of decrease is likely to shrink. On the other hand, the participation rate of prime- age males (25 to 59 years old) is predicted to increase slightly during 1985 and 1990. For the case of females, except for 20∼24 and 25∼34 age groups, the participation rates are projected to decrease: the participation rates of 25∼34 age group is likely to remain at its current level, while the participation rate of 20∼24 age group is expected to increase considerably in the future (specifi- cally, from 55% in 1985 to 61% in 1990 and to 69% in 1995). In conclusion, while the number of an excess supply of labor will increase in absolute magnitude, its size as a ratio of total labor force is not likely to increase. However, the age composition of labor force is predicted to change; that is, the proportion of prime-age male and female labor force is projected to increase.

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Factors Affecting the Survivals of Out-of-hospital Cardiac Arrests by 119 Fire Service (119구급대원의 심폐소생술 성적 분석 - 병원전 심정지를 중심으로 -)

  • Kang, Byung-Woo
    • The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
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    • v.9 no.2
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    • pp.111-128
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    • 2005
  • Background: Cardiac arrest is one of the most critical diseases which can likely lead to severe cerebral disability or brain death when the cases can not recover their circulation within 10 minutes. Saving out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases is a recent concern in Korea. Resuscitation has become an important multidisciplinary branch of medicine, demanding a spectrum of skills and attracting a plethora of specialities and organizations. The best survival can be achieved if all the following links have been optimized : rapid access, and early CPR, defibrillation and ACLS, Since the "Utstein Style" was advocated in 1991, many reports about out-of-hospital cardiac arrest have been published based on this guideline. These differences prevent valid inter-hospital and international comparisons. However, it is not known how effective resuscitation has become to the patients. In other words, there are no guidelines for reviewing, reporting, and conducting research on resuscitation in Korea. This dissertation aims to provide the basic data for a unified reporting guideline of resuscitation in Korea and evaluating the out-of-hospital factors associated with survival discharge of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Methods: As for this study, uses the collected data about Out-of-hospital cardiac arrests at 4 area, from January, 2005 to April. 2005. With a retrospective study, 174 cases were analyzed. The data was recorded based on the Out-of-Hospital Utstein Style. Results: Resuscitation was performed on 174 out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases at the 4 area 14 patients(8.1%) recovered their spontaneous circulation. Overall, the ROSC of the out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients was 8.1%, which was poorer than that of western countries. Gender distribution was 50 females(28.7%) and 124 males(71.3%), approximately twice as many males as females. ROSC of witnessed arrests was found out to be 97.7%. The ratio of the witnessed arrest groups showed higher results than that of unwitnessed arrest groups in the above-examined cases. Cardiac etiology consisted of cardiac(33.5%), non-cardiac(45.7%), trauma(20.1%), and unknown(6.0%). Cardiac was the best performance. Initial rhythm showed Ventricular Tachycardia/pulseless Ventricular Fibrillation in 8 patients(6.0%), asystole in 100(75.2%) and unknown in 25(18.8%). The results of the Ventricular Tachycardia/pulseless Ventricular Fibrillation showed higher results than the others cases, The proportion of the cardiogenic cause was 33.5%, which was only half of western countries. Ventricular Tachycardia/pulseless Ventricular Fibrillation is relatively rare. These differences were due to the prevalent pattern of Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest as well as prematurity of the EMSS. Bystander CPR was practiced on 13 patients(7.52%). ROSC was shown in 46.2% cases. CPR by EMT was carried out on 167 cases(96.5%). ACLS by EMf was rare. From collapse, 4 cases(2.6%) arrived to ED within 6 minutes. 13 (8.6%) within 10 minutes, and 49(32.5%) over 31 minutes. The sooner the patients arrived, the greater the ratio of ROSC and discharged alive became, and the same with collapse time to ROSC. As the results of the logistic regression analysis, ROSC was found out to be highly influenced by the time of ED arrival from collapse and Ventricular Tachycardia/pulseless Ventricular Fibrillation. Therefore, the ratio of ROSC depends on not any single factor but various intervention factors. Conclusion: This dissertation presents the following suggestions and directions of the study hereafter. First, the first step for a chain of survival should be taken to activate EMSS early with a phone as soon as cardiac arrests are witnessed. Second, it is keenly needed that emergency medical technicians should be increased through emergency education for living. Third, it is necessary to establish the emergency transportation system. Fourth, most of the Koreans have little understanding of EMT and the present operation systems have many problems, which should be fundamentally changed. Fifth, it is required to have an active medical control over Out-of-hospital CPR, And proper psychological supports should be given not only to patients themselves and their family but also individuals who are engaged in emergency situation. Finally, through studies hereafter on nationwide, comprehensive, and standard forms, it is needed to examine into the biological figures of human body, causes and trends of cardiac arrests, and then, to enhance the survival rate of Out-of-hospital cardiac arrests. Korean guidelines for Cardiopulmonary resuscitation need to be made.

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A Study on the Textuality of China's Wuyi-Gugok, the Origin of Gugok-Wonlim -Focus on the Tradition Process to Korea - (구곡원림의 원류, 중국 무이구곡(武夷九曲)의 텍스트성 -국내 전승(傳承) 과정을 중심으로 -)

  • Rho, Jae-Hyun
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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    • v.36 no.6
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    • pp.66-80
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    • 2009
  • This paper attempts to investigate how the cultural phenomena associated with 'Wuyi-Doga(武夷棹歌)' and 'Wuyi-Gugok (武夷九曲)' was introduced to Joseon. The icon and code of 'Gugok' cultural text which was observed in the process of transmitting the culture through repetition and imitation were examined. With regard to research methodology, an 'analysis and discussion framework' was designed based on the literature review, field survey and the seven textuality criteria proposed by Dressier. Then the textuality of 'Wuyi-Gugok' was analyzed in terms of the dependent relation of text, the relationship between the creator and user, repetition, imitation and the spread process. Since ZhouHee(朱熙)'s 'Wuyi-Doga' and 'Wuyi-Gugok' were introduced to Joseon through literature and paintings, they became a part of the cultural Phenomena with unprecedented popularity. As a result, a great number of imitations can be found. In addition, governors would even take care of political affairs in a scenic mountain valley as described in this literature. Regardless of the writer's intentiot 'Gugok' settled in Joseon as new culture in harmony with Taoism and Sung COnfucianism. In other words, Joseon's Gugok-Wonlim(九曲園林) accepted the nature-appreciation aesthetic consciousness in 'Wuyi-Doga' and 'Wuyi-Gugok' on the basis of Taoism and Sung Confucianism. In terms of the text-based dependent relation only, however, the geographical coherence was somewhat loosened while the Gugok Culture that was dependent on Taoism or elegance in life dominated the internal structure of the textuality. Meantime, the internal factors that dominated the textuality of 'Wdyi-Gugok' were interpreted as 1) 'Aesthetics of Bending, Water Whirls', 2) 'Territoriality Expression Carve letters,' 3) 'Cultural Landscape seeing through the Speculation of Meaning,' 4) 'The Pursuit of Oddness and Presentationism' and 5) 'Transcendental Landscape of Taoism and Topos.'

Investigation of Coat Color Candidate Genes in Korean Cattle(Hanwoo) (한우에서 모색관련 유전자 변이에 관한 연구)

  • Do, K.T.;Shin, H.Y.;Lee, J.H.;Kim, N.S.;Park, E.W.;Yoon, D.H.;Kim, K.S.
    • Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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    • v.49 no.6
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    • pp.711-718
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    • 2007
  • Most cattle breeds have a coat color pattern that is characteristic for the breed. Korean cattle(Hanwoo) has a coat color ranging from yellowish brown to dark brown including a red coat color. Variation in the Hanwoo coat color is likely to be the effects of modified genes segregating within the Hanwoo breed. MC1R encoded by the Extension(E) locus was almost fixed with recessive red e allele in the Hanwoo, but other gene(s) might be affecting the variation of the Hanwoo coat color into yellowish to red brown. We have analyzed a segregation of coat color in the F2 families generated from two Hanwoo bulls(yellowish brown) mated to six F1 dams(black) derived from Hanwoo and Holstein crosses. Segregation of coat color in the offspring found a ratio of 1(yellowish brown) : 1(black) and this ratio indicates that a single gene may play a major role for the Hanwoo coat color. We further investigated SNPs in MC1R, ASIP and TYRP1 loci to determine genetic cause of the Hanwoo coat color. Several polymorphisms within ASIP intron 2 and TYRP1 exons were found but not conserved within the Hanwoo population. However, the segregation of the MC1R e allele was completely associated with the Hanwoo coat color. Based on this information, it is clear that the MC1R e allele is mainly responsible for the yellowish red Hanwoo coat color. Further study is warrant to identify possible genetic interaction between MC1R e allele and other coat color related gene(s) for the variation of Hanwoo coat color from yellowish brown to dark brown. (Key words : Hanwoo, Coat color, SNP, MC1R, ASIP, TYRP1)

Design and Implementation of an Execution-Provenance Based Simulation Data Management Framework for Computational Science Engineering Simulation Platform (계산과학공학 플랫폼을 위한 실행-이력 기반의 시뮬레이션 데이터 관리 프레임워크 설계 및 구현)

  • Ma, Jin;Lee, Sik;Cho, Kum-won;Suh, Young-kyoon
    • Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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    • v.19 no.1
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    • pp.77-86
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    • 2018
  • For the past few years, KISTI has been servicing an online simulation execution platform, called EDISON, allowing users to conduct simulations on various scientific applications supplied by diverse computational science and engineering disciplines. Typically, these simulations accompany large-scale computation and accordingly produce a huge volume of output data. One critical issue arising when conducting those simulations on an online platform stems from the fact that a number of users simultaneously submit to the platform their simulation requests (or jobs) with the same (or almost unchanging) input parameters or files, resulting in charging a significant burden on the platform. In other words, the same computing jobs lead to duplicate consumption computing and storage resources at an undesirably fast pace. To overcome excessive resource usage by such identical simulation requests, in this paper we introduce a novel framework, called IceSheet, to efficiently manage simulation data based on execution metadata, that is, provenance. The IceSheet framework captures and stores each provenance associated with a conducted simulation. The collected provenance records are utilized for not only inspecting duplicate simulation requests but also performing search on existing simulation results via an open-source search engine, ElasticSearch. In particular, this paper elaborates on the core components in the IceSheet framework to support the search and reuse on the stored simulation results. We implemented as prototype the proposed framework using the engine in conjunction with the online simulation execution platform. Our evaluation of the framework was performed on the real simulation execution-provenance records collected on the platform. Once the prototyped IceSheet framework fully functions with the platform, users can quickly search for past parameter values entered into desired simulation software and receive existing results on the same input parameter values on the software if any. Therefore, we expect that the proposed framework contributes to eliminating duplicate resource consumption and significantly reducing execution time on the same requests as previously-executed simulations.

Correlations of Cerebellar Function with Psychotic Symptoms and Cognitive Function in Schizophrenic Patients (남자 정신분열병 환자의 소뇌기능과 정신증상 및 인지기능간의 연관성)

  • Kim, Seo Young;Jun, Yong Ho;Kwon, Young Joon;Jeong, Hee Yeon;Hwang, Bo Young;Shim, Se Hoon
    • Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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    • v.14 no.3
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    • pp.184-193
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    • 2007
  • Objectives:There is increasing evidence that the cerebellum plays an important role in cognition and psychiatric symptoms as well as motor coordination. The concept of cognitive dysmetria has been making cerebellar function in schizophrenia the focus of current studies. In other words, disruption in the corticocerebellum-thalamic -cortical circuit could lead to disordered cognition and clinical symptoms of schizophrenia. The purposes of this study were to determine cerebellar dysfunction in male schizophrenic patients semiquantitatively with ICARS and to investigate the clinical and cognitive correlates of ICARS in patients. Methods:We compared the scores of cerebellar neurologic sign using ICARS in 47 male patients with a DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of schizophrenia with 30 gender and age-matched healthy control subjects. The semiquantitative 100-point ICARS consists of 19 items divided into 4 unequally weighted subscores:posture and gait disturbances, kinetic functions, speech disorders and oculomotor disorders. All subjects were also assessed with cognitive function test. Cognitive functions were evaluated by Korean-Mini Mental Status Examination (K-MMSE), Verbal fluency test, and Clock drawing test. The patients were administered Korea version of Positive and Negative Symptom Scale(K-PANSS) to assess the symptom severity. Results:Schizophrenic patients had significantly higher scores on the ICARS than control subjects with posture and gait disturbances, kinetic functions, and oculomotor disorders. They also showed more significant impairments in cognitive function tests than control subjects. There was a significant correlation between ICARS and negative symptoms of patients. In cognitive function test, Clock drawing test was significantly associated with negative symptoms. In addition, Clock drawing test was negatively correlated with the total score of ICARS. Conclusion:In this study, we confirmed that schizophrenic patients have significant impairments in cognitive and cerebellar function, and that those were related with negative symptoms of schizophrenic patients. These results support a role of the cerebellum in schizophrenia. It is meaningful that we used a structured, and reliable procedure for rating neurological soft signs, ICARS. We hope that future prospective studies using a similar design help that rate of neurological sign should have been visible with the progression of illness.

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