• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.357-364
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• 2014

This study aimed to determine effects of the use of water-retention additive, hydrophilic polymer, for extensive green roofs on growth of Juniperus chinensis var. sargentii and Euonymus fortunei 'Emerald and Gold' for woody plants, and Carex kobomugi and Carex pumila for herbaceous plants. Five different contents of hydrophilic polymer including 0% (Control), 1.0%, 2.5%, 5.0%, and 10% (polymer: medium (w/w), dry weight basis) were added to each of the container filed with a 100 kg of growth medium. Ten of plants were transplanted in each of square container ($1m(L){\times}1m(W){\times}0.3m$ (H)) built on the roof platforms in randomized complete block design in the $20^{th}$ of May, 2013. In results, excessively high volumetric soil water content, about 97-98%, was found in the substrate under elevated hydrophilic polymer concentration of at least 2.5%, during the entire growing period. The moisture content of the substrate containing 1.0% of hydrophilic polymer was higher about 20% in the range between 70% and 80%, compared tho that of Control substrate in the range between 50% and 60%, for 27 days after transplanting prior to abundant rainfall, indicating that the application of hydrophilic polymer to the extensive green roof substrate is effective to eliminate drought condition by retaining water in the substrate. Euonymus fortunei 'Emerald and Gold' and Carex kobomugi resulting in higher plant growth with 2.5% than those of the other treatment plants. Juniperus chinensis var. sargentii was observed the highest growth under 1.0% hydrophilic polymer treatement, and Carex pumila was founded the best growth with Control respectively. Plants that grown in both the 1.0% and 2.5% hydrophilic polymer survived all, while the plants that grown in the 5.0% and 10% hydrophilic polymer died after 3 months. These results suggest that advantage of the addition of hydrophilic polymer may be greater in drought-tolerant plants, but the mixture proportion of hydrophilic polymer should be determined according to the different features of the plant species being grown.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.94-108
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to provide data for the restoration of 'Yongyun(龍淵)' and 'Hwahongmun(華虹門)' through an investigation of the vicinity of their original landscapes at the time of construction of Hwaseong in Suwon and through tracing the transformative process of the environments of this vicinity. The results are as follows; As identified by 'Yongyunjung(龍淵亭)' and 'Yongdugak(龍頭閣)', other names of Yongyun, 'Banghwasuryujung(訪花隨柳亭)', which was built on 'Yongduam', is a facility whose place identity is highlighted with a sense of unity with Yongyun. The south lakefront of Yongyun, bordering Banghwasuryujung, has boundaries that make the best use of the natural geographical features of Yongduam while the current circumference of Yongyun is comparatively shorter than its original state. The size of 'Joongdo(中島)', however, seems to be an example of apparent over-design complement and reorganize 'Joongdo', which had been restored larger than its original state at the time of restoration in the 1970s. The depth of 'Yongyun' was created to be lower than the actual depth, without consideration for its initial depth, as soil was accumulated through continuous flooding after it was created. It is assumed that the original drains which were installed about 10m inside the lake were created facing the stream. As regards the planting environment, a circular planting of willows was made in the outskirts of 'Yongyun', except the 'Yongduam' which is a pure forest, and a mix of 'Pinus densiflora', shrubbery and deciduous broad leaf trees was planted in 'Joongdo'. Of the plants growing in the area of this study, plant species introduced to Korea after Hwaseong was constructed are found, most of which provide interest and attraction. The old pine trees growing in a group once grew in the castle areas of the vicinity even in the 1920s, the period of Japanese occupation, but they disappeared from the area in the aftermath of subsequent urban development and the Korean War. Although restored to the site, the number and space taken up by these trees are insignificant compared to those of the original environment. On the basis of these results, the following is considered necessary for the true restoration of the vicinity of 'Yongyun' and 'Hwahongmun': First, the grounds of 'Yongyun' should be dredged deeply enough to expose the bedrock and should be recreated in the rough outline of a half moon by extension to the southwest toward 'Yongduam' and 'Hwahongmun', and the size of 'Joongdo' should be significantly reduced. Secondly, considering that most plant species, except the pine trees and wild trees in 'Yongduam', are non-native plants introduced in order to provide such attractions such as the appreciation of scenic areas, they should be replaced with native species, mainly with the pine trees which were utilized during the construction of Hwaseong. The weeping willows planted in the 'middle-island' should be relocated to the outskirts of 'Yongyun', and replaced with pine trees as the major trees and maple trees or deciduous broadleaf trees to fill in the gaps. Thirdly, exotic species such as the 'Pinus rigida' planted in a group around 'Banghwasuryujung' and 'Bugammun' and 'Pinus strobus' planted in the vicinity of Hwahongmun' should be removed.

• The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
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• no.17
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• pp.247-292
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• 2008

Investigations have been started to set the modern history and national spirit to rights after Commissions were established. Those Commissions are established and operated with time limit to finish its own missions. They creates three kinds of records as acquired materials which acquired or are donated for investigation; investigation records as investigation reports; and administrative records that created while supporting organization's operation. The Commissions use more past records to do special tasks asnation's slate clean and uncovering the truth than other agencies. In other words, the commissions take the most advantages of well-managed records, however, their record management environment and operation systems are relatively loose than other permanent machineries. It has three reasons that; first, there is no record management regulations and criteria for machineries that have time limit. This affected each commissions 'systems and 6 Truth Commissions' record management systems are built separately and on the different level; Second, members lack responsibility from frequent sending, reinstatement, change, and restructuring and that makes troubles to produce and manage records; Third, central archives pay less attention to machineries that operated limited period as the truth commissions. The Commissions rather need more systematic control because its records have historical value. To solve these problems, record management regulations have to be prepared first with features of organizations running limited time and commissions' records as acquired materials or investigation records. Furthermore, building up standard record management system for the Commissions, standardizing transfer data, imposing professional record personnel, and setting limits frequent personnel changes would finish practical problems. Besides, those records created to reveal the truth should use for education and research because Truth Commissions are established to set unfortunate history right and not to repeat it again. The records would serve as steppingstone for establishment of the Truth Record Center that does education, information work, publication, and research with the records. The record center would help using the records efficiently and improving knowledge for its people. And, the center should devote people to recognize importance of the records.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.69-98
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• 2009

We investigated what factors motivate gamers to participate in a guild and why they continue to be engaged as members of the guild. We find that, based on the result of focus group interviews with MMORPG gamers, social support and self-esteem factors play important roles. Considering both prior research and the focus group interviews we have conducted, we define social support and character control as independent variables. Character identity, guild identity, and self-esteem are proposed as mediating variables while guild flow and game loyalty as dependent variables. Accordingly, we develop the research model and hypotheses, and verify them empirically. Based on our experiences of playing the WoW game, we proposed a research model and conducted focus-group interviews (FGIs). FGIs involve formulating a hypothesis and then collecting some relevant data. FGIs were conducted face-to-face with students of C University in Korea. We formulated structured interview schedules, and the questions were based on our research variables and personal experiences. The questions for the interviews encompassed the following areas: (a) the demographic characteristics of the focus group; (b) the number of years for which respondents had played online games; (c) the motive for starting a game; (d) the number of game-characters assumed by each gamer; (e) the type of game played; and (f) other issues such as the reasons for involvement in the play, the willingness to reuse the game in case new versions were released, etc. On average, it took two hours to interview each of three groups. A primary set of FGIs was conducted with three groups on the premise that there would be some differences caused by character race (Horde vs. Alliance) or by playable server (Normal vs. Combat). With respect to the manner of playing, we found that guild members shared information, felt a sense of belonging, and played computer games for quite a long time through the guild; however, they did not undergo these experiences when playing alone. Gamers who belonged to a specific guild helped other players without expecting compensation for that, freely shared information about the game, gave away items for free, and more generous with other members who made mistakes. The guild members were aware of the existence other members and experienced a sense of belonging through interactions with, and evaluations from, other players. It was clear that social support was shown within the guild and that it played an important role as a major research variable. Based on the results of the first FGIs, a second set of in-depth FGIs was carried out with a focus on the psychology of the individual within the guild and the social community of the guild. The second set of FGIs also focused on the guild's offline meetings. Gamers, over all, recognize the necessity of joining a community, not only off-line but also online world of the guild. They admit that the guild is important for them to easily and conveniently enjoy playing online computer games. The active behavior and positive attitudes of existing guild members can motivate new members of the guild to adapt themselves to the guild environment. They then adopt the same behaviors and attitudes of established guild members. In this manner, the new members of the guild strengthen the bonds with other gamers while feeling a sense of belonging, and developing social identity, thereby. It was discovered that the interaction among guild members and the social support encouraged new gamers to quickly develop a sense of social identity and increase their self-esteem. The guild seemed to play the role of socializing gamers. Sometimes, even in the real world, the guild members helped one another; therefore, the features of the guild also spilled over to the offline environment. We intend to use self-esteem, which was found through the second set of FGIs, as an important research variable. To collect data, an online survey was designed with a questionnaire to be completed by WoW gamers, who belong to a guild. The survey was registered on the best three domestic game-sites: 'WoW playforum,' 'WoW gamemeca,' and 'Wow invent.' The selected items to be measured in the questionnaire were decided based on prior research and data from FGIs. To verify the content of the questionnaire, we carried out a pilot test with the same participants to point out ambiguous questions as a way to ensure maximum accuracy of the survey result. A total of 244 responses were analyzed from the 250 completed questionnaires. The SEM analysis was used to test goodness-of-fit of the model. As a result, we found important results as follows: First, according to the statistics, social support had statistically significant impacts on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Second, character control had significant effects on character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity shows its clear impact on self-esteem and game loyalty. Fourth, guild identity affected self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Fifth, self-esteem had a positive influence on the guild flow. These days, the number of virtual community is rising along with its significance largely because of the nature of the online games. Accordingly, this study is designed to clarify the psychological relationship between gamers within the guild that has been generally established by gamers to play online games together. This study focuses on the relationships in which social support influences guild flow or game loyalty through character control, character identity, guild identity, and self-esteem, which are present within a guild in the MMORPG game environment. The study results are as follows. First, the effects of social support on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem are proven to be statistically significant. It was found that character control improves character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Among the seven variables, social support, which is derived from FGIs, plays an important role in this study. With the active support of other guild members, gamers can improve their ability to develop good characters and to control them. Second, character identity has a positive effect on self-esteem and game loyalty, while guild identity has a significant effect on self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Self-esteem affects guild flow. It was found that the higher the character and guild identities become, the greater the self-esteem is established. Contrary to the findings of prior research, our study results indicate that the relationship between character identity and guild flow is not significant. Rather, it was found that character identity directly affects game players' loyalty. Even though the character identity had no direct effect on increasing guild flow, it has indirectly affected guild flow through self-esteem. The significant relationship between self-esteem and guild flow indicates that gamers achieve flow, i.e., a feeling of pleasure and excitement through social support. Several important implications of this study should be noted. First, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to conduct this study. Through FGIs, it was observed that both social support and self-esteem are important variables. Second, because guilds had been rarely studied, this research is expected to play an important role in the online community. Third, according to the result, six hypotheses (H1, H5, H6, H7, H8, and H11) setup based on FGIs, were statistically significant; thus, we can suggest the corresponding relationships among the variables as a guideline for follow-up research. Our research is significant as it has following implications: first, the social support of the guild members is important when establishing character control, character identity, guildidentity and self-esteem. It is also a major variable that affects guild flow and game loyalty. Second, character control when improved by social support shows notable influence on the development of character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity and guild identity are major factors to help establish gamers' own self-esteem. Fourth, character identity affects guild flow through self-esteem and game loyalty. The gamers usually express themselves through characters; the higher character identity is, the more loyalty a gamer has. Fifth, guild identity, established within the guild, has clear effects on self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Sixth, qualitative and quantitative methods are employed to conduct this study. Based on the results of focus group interviews and SEM analysis, we find that the social support by guild members and psychological factors are significant in strengthening the flow of guild and loyalty to the game. As such, game developers should provide some extra functions for guild community, through which gamers can play online games in collaboration with one another. Also, we suggest that positive self-esteem which is built up through social support can help gamers achieve higher level of flow and satisfaction, which will consequently contribute to minimizing the possibility for the players to develop negative attitude toward the guild they belong to.