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An Analysis of the Relationship of Grit, Interest, Task-Commitment, Self-Regulation Ability, and Science Achievement of High School Students (고등학생의 투지, 흥미, 과제집착력, 자기조절능력 및 과학학업성취의 관계 분석)

  • Mun, Kongju;Ham, Eun Hye
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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    • v.36 no.3
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    • pp.445-455
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    • 2016
  • The purpose of this study is to identify the structural relationship among students' grit, interest, self-regulation ability, task-commitment and achievement within science learning. Our concern is understanding how grit is related to the other non-cognitive variables, i.e., interest, self-regulation ability, and task-commitment, which are widely known as significant predictors of science achievement. Based on literature review, we evaluated two hypothetical models in the frame of structural equation modeling as follows: first, grit was assumed to mediate relations of interest and self-regulation ability, and interest and task-commitment. Second, grit was assumed to have a direct effect on self-regulation ability and task-commitment independent of interest. In both models, grit was assumed to be indirectly associated with science achievement. A total number of 180 high school students (77 boys, 103 girls) participated in surveys on grit, interest, self-regulation ability, and task-commitment and reported their science test scores on mid-term/final exams. Results revealed that students' grit and interest were indirectly associated with their science achievement with the mediation of their self-regulation and task-commitment. We also found that task-commitment was highly correlated with interest and self-regulation. Furthermore, we found different patterns of correlations within the five variables between female and male students. From these results, we suggested that researchers need to investigate whether students' grit and task-commitment can explain their interest decreasing as they move to higher grade levels, how teachers can help students to maintain their interest in learning science from early childhood, and relationships of these non-cognitive variables and science achievement.

EFFECT OF NERVE GROWTH FACTOR GENE INJECTION ON THE NERVE REGENERATION IN RAT LINGUAL NERVE CRUSH-INJURY MODEL (백서 설신경 압박손상모델에서 신경성장인자 유전자 주입이 신경재생에 미치는 영향)

  • Gao, En-Feng;Chung, Hun-Jong;Ahn, Kang-Min;Kim, Soung-Min;Kim, Yun-Hee;Jahng, Jeong-Won;Lee, Jong-Ho
    • Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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    • v.28 no.5
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    • pp.375-395
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    • 2006
  • Purpose: Lingual nerve (LN) damage may be caused by either tumor resection or injury such as wisdom tooth extraction, Although autologous nerve graft is sometimes used to repair the damaged nerve, it has the disadvantage of necessity of another operation for nerve harvesting. Moreover, the results of nerve grafting is not satisfactory. The nerve growth factor (NGF) is well-known to play a critical role in peripheral nerve regeneration and its local delivery to the injured nerve has been continuously tried to enhance nerve regeneration. However, its application has limitations like repeated administration due to short half life of 30 minutes and an in vivo delivery model must allow for direct and local delivery. The aim of this study was to construct a well-functioning $rhNGF-{\beta}$ adenovirus for the ultimate development of improved method to promote peripheral nerve regeneration with enhanced and extended secretion of hNGF from the injured nerve by injecting $rhNGF-{\beta}$ gene directly into crush-injured LN in rat model. Materials and Methods: $hNGF-{\beta}$ gene was prepared from fetal brain cDNA library and cloned into E1/E3 deleted adenoviral vector which contains green fluorescence protein (GFP) gene as a reporter. After large scale production and purification of $rhNGF-{\beta}$ adenovirus, transfection efficiency and its expression at various cells (primary cultured Schwann cells, HEK293 cells, Schwann cell lines, NIH3T3 and CRH cells) were evaluated by fluorescent microscopy, RT-PCR, ELISA, immunocytochemistry. Furthermore, the function of rhNGF-beta, which was secreted from various cells infected with $rhNGF-{\beta}$ adenovirus, was evaluated using neuritogenesis of PC-12 cells. For in vivo evaluation of efficacy of $rhNGF-{\beta}$ adenovirus, the LNs of 8-week old rats were exposed and crush-injured with a small hemostat for 10 seconds. After the injury, $rhNGF-{\beta}$ adenovirus($2{\mu}l,\;1.5{\times}10^{11}pfu$) or saline was administered into the crushed site in the experimental (n=24) and the control group (n=24), respectively. Sham operation of another group of rats (n=9) was performed without administration of either saline or adenovirus. The taste recovery and the change of fungiform papilla were studied at 1, 2, 3 and 4 weeks. Each of the 6 animals was tested with different solutions (0.1M NaCl, 0.1M sucrose, 0.01M QHCl, or 0.01M HCl) by two-bottle test paradigm and the number of papilla was counted using SEM picture of tongue dorsum. LN was explored at the same interval as taste study and evaluated electro-physiologically (peak voltage and nerve conduction velocity) and histomorphometrically (axon count, myelin thickness). Results: The recombinant adenovirus vector carrying $rhNGF-{\beta}$ was constructed and confirmed by restriction endonuclease analysis and DNA sequence analysis. GFP expression was observed in 90% of $rhNGF-{\beta}$ adenovirus infected cells compared with uninfected cells. Total mRNA isolated from $rhNGF-{\beta}$ adenovirus infected cells showed strong RT-PCR band, however uninfected or LacZ recombinant adenovirus infected cells did not. NGF quantification by ELISA showed a maximal release of $18865.4{\pm}310.9pg/ml$ NGF at the 4th day and stably continued till 14 days by $rhNGF-{\beta}$ adenovirus infected Schwann cells. PC-12 cells exposed to media with $rhNGF-{\beta}$ adenovirus infected Schwann cell revealed at the same level of neurite-extension as the commercial NGF did. $rhNGF-{\beta}$ adenovirus injected experimental groups in comparison to the control group exhibited different taste preference ratio. Salty, sweet and sour taste preference ratio were significantly different after 2 weeks from the beginning of the experiment, which were similar to the sham group, but not to the control group.

The Recognition of Students on Appropriateness of Clothing & Textiles as Educational Contents in Practical Arts or Technical Education.Home Economics in the 7th Curriculum of Korea (실과 및 기술.가정 교과 의생활 교육내용의 적정성에 대한 학생의 인식)

  • Ju In-Suk;Han Young-Sook;Lee Hye-Ja
    • Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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    • v.18 no.3 s.41
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    • pp.81-95
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    • 2006
  • The purpose of this study was to evaluate appropriateness of clothing & textiles as educational contents in practical arts or technology home economics in the 7th curriculum. The factors of appropriateness were the amounts of learning, the degrees of understanding, interest and requirement on the educational content recognized by elementary, middle and high school students. The data collected from evaluation sheets were analyzed by frequency analysis, t-test, crossing analysis using SPSSWIN 12.0 program. Results were as follows; First. more than 50% of elementary, middle and high school students were recognized the amounts of tearing of clothing & textiles proper. But boy students of middle school recognized 'making clothes' in practice course too heavy. Second. It were from easy to difficult that the degrees of understanding on the educational contents of clothing & textiles recognized by elementary school students. Elementary school students understood both 'making cushion' and 'sewing machine theory and practice' difficult. Middle school students understood 'basic sewing for repairing clothes' and 'making clothes' difficult whereas high school students thought 'making pillow' and 'making bag' difficult. All students understood practice courses hard. Third, the degrees of interest showed from 'interest' level to 'not interest' level in case of elementary school students whereas 'interest' level in middle school students and 'common' in high school students. Fourth, the requirements of elementary, middle and high school students were in 'necessary' level to 'common' level. Editional contents such as 'learning sewing machine', 'making cushions'. 'making clothes', and 'making pillow-cover and bag' were low in the degrees of requirement. The correlationship between the amount of learning and the each level of understand, interest and requirement of students was indirect. On the other hand, Among the level of understand, interest and requirement were direct in case of high school students.

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A Study on Nurse' Image in a Medical Center (일 대학병원 간호사 이미지에 관한 연구)

  • Han, Sang-Sook;Sohn, In-Soon;Lee, Myung-Hai;Choi, Kyoung-Soon
    • Journal of East-West Nursing Research
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    • v.8 no.1
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    • pp.113-125
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    • 2003
  • This study is a descriptive investigation into the image of nurses, and attempted to help to advance the profession of nursing and to provide basic data for developing strategies to improve the image of nurses. The Subject of this study was a group of 380 persons from a K Medical Centre in Seoul, including the hospital patients and their guardians, as well as the doctors, assistants and hospital administrative staff. The data have been collected from the 10th to the 30th of May, 2003. We have developed a research tool of 40 questions divided into three categories using a tool developed by Kim, H.J and KIm, H.O.(2001) verifying its construct validity. The reliability of the tool was Cronbache's ${\alpha}=.97$, and by categories, Cronbach's ${\alpha}=.86$ for service image, Cronbach's ${\alpha}=.96$ for professional image and Cronbache's ${\alpha}=.90$ for social image. The collected data have been analysed according to the purpose of this study using SPSS WIN 11.0 for real number, percentage, factors analysis, multiple regression analysis, ANOVA and $x^2$-test, and the results are as follows: 1) There was a significant difference in the image of nurses by job series of the subjects; from patients and guardians for 4.01 to doctors 3.62, assistants 3.54 and staff members 3.41 (F=36.14, p=.000). As well, there was a significant difference in service, professional and social image categories according to the position of the subjects ($F=20.36{\sim}42.35$, p=.000). 2) The main factors that affect on formation the nurse's imaging came by direct experiences with nurses at hospitals for 81.3%, by looking at the every life of the nurses that the subjects personally know for 15.5%, by mass media for 1.6% and by the accounts from the others for 1.6%. 3) 78.4% of the subjects considered that the image of nurses on mass media is described better than for real, 8.2% believed that the image is described worse than for real, and only 13.2% of the subjects perceived that the image of nurses on mass media corresponds the image of nurses in actual life. 4) 74.5% of the subjects said that they got a better image of nurses after their hospitalization while 2% got a worse one and 23.5% said to have had no changes, and the period of hospitalization had no relevance to the image of nurses (X2=5.04, P=.489). However, while 16.8% of the subjects who spent less than one week in hospital said that they got a better image of nurses, 27.5% of those who spent longer than four weeks got a better image of nurses. 5) There was a significant difference in the total image points of nurses by the patients and their guardians according to the period of hospitalization; 4.14 for 1 to 2 weeks, 4.07 for 2 to 4 weeks, 4.02 for 4 weeks and longer and 3.80 for less than a week (F=3.40, P=.019). Upon the results stated above, I should like to propose as below: 1) An investigative enquiry is needed to improve the image of nurses as though being a nurse is very hard and difficult. 2) A continuous monitoring in mass media is needed to create a positive image of nurses.

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A Study on the Attitude of the Consumers and the ″Referees″ toward the Community Health Nursing Service of a General Hospital in Rural ]Korea (일종합병원의 지역 사회보건 간호사업에 대한 지역 사회 간호써비스 수혜자 및 의뢰자의 태도 조사 연구)

  • 이정렬
    • Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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    • v.8 no.1
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    • pp.131-138
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    • 1978
  • The change of society has brought about various health problems which have become to demand comprehensive health services not only for individuals but also for families and communities as the unit. To meet the societal needs W Hospital in a rural Korea established a Department of Community Health Nursing Services and provided nursing services to patients under a early discharge program. This study is to evaluate the community health nursing services carried out the department in general, and has following specific objectives : 1. To learn attitude of the consumers and the "referees" toward early discharge program. 2. To find out attitude toward home care and cure services. 3. To find out the consumers and the "Referees" attitude toward the 15 selected home cue and cure activities by public health nurse. 4. To investigate possibility of charging fee for the 15 selected home care and cure activities by public health nurse. Three different study population were chosen: namely the consumer, the "referee" I and II. Excluding families moved out and not able to be contacted, the total families (77) referred to the department during the study period of September 1974 - December 1975 are defined as the consumer. Thirty seven nurses among 81 nurses who have been working in W Hospital since the inception of the Community Health Nursing Service Program were randomly selected. Thirty two nurses were defined as the "referee"I, because 5 questionnaires were not able to be collected. Twenty four doctors out of 37 who have been working since the Community Health Nursing Service Program started, and who were able to contact were called as the "referee" II. Data collection method employed for the consumers was direct interviewing with preposed interview schedules, and for the "referees"questionnaire method was utilized. x$^2$test and 100-percentage were employed in analyzing the data. The study findings are follows: 1. Attitude toward early discharge: Above 85% of the consumers and the "referees" approved the early discharge: Above 85% of the consumers and the "referees" approved the early discharge program. 2. Attitude toward the home care and cure services: Above 75% of the consumers and the "referees" showed positive attitude toward the home care and cure services by public health nurses. 3. Attitude toward 15 selected home care and curative activities by public health nurses: On the average more than 50% of the consumers and the "referees" expressed an affirmative attitude to perform 15 selected home care and cure services by public health nurses. 4. Attitude toward charging fee for 15 selected home care and curative activities by public health nurses: Above 85% of the consumers thought that they would pay for the services. Only 12.8% of the consumers and 5% of the "referees" what to have the services for nothing. Based upon the findings of this study; That is, the home care and cure services to be given by public health nurse were positively responded by the consumers and the pro-fissionable, one can conclude that the services provided by the Department of Community Health Nursing Service of W Hospital have been well accepted, and that early discharge program of hospital is believed to be a means to lessen the expenses of patients from hospitalization and to promote recovery from illness. It is recommended that hospital centered cure services should be reconsidered and scrutinized to meet community health needs. NOTE : "referees" are nurses and doctors who refer the early discharged Patient to the Department of Community Health Nursing Service.

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An Exploratory Study about the Importance of Selected Nursing Activities during the Puerperal Period, as Viewed by Women in the Puerperal Period and by Nurses Caring for Them (산모와 간호원이 본 선택된 산욕기 간호활동의 중요도에 관한 탐색적 연구)

  • 박주봉
    • Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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    • v.8 no.1
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    • pp.152-162
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    • 1978
  • The desire to maintain health is increasing, consequently the role of nursing which has as one chief aim the solving of man′s basic problems is more and more important. Today, in spite of a growing concern about the nursing activities which nurses provide for individual human having specific needs, clinically in fact, it is questionable that individual′s expectation of nursing activities agrees with nurse′s performance of nursing activities. In this study the importance and agreement of the importance of the nursing activities during the hospitalized puerperal period as viewed by women in the puerperal period and by nurses caring for them, were assessed. The present study was undertaken in an attempt to furnish the basic data for expediting the progress of research activities in this area and further to be helpful in planning maternity nursing practice. The study population defined and selected was nurses (13) caring for women in the puerperal period and doing duty on obstetric & gynecologic ward at Y. hospital, and the women in puerperal period (39) as sum of 3 women selected by each nurse during the period of May 13th-June 4th 1976. The study data was collected by the direct interview method based on the questionnaire which the investigator made out. The study result was analyzed by percentage, t - test. The findings can be summarized as follows: 1. General characteristics of nurses doing duty on puerperal ward: a. Nurses′average age was 24.8 years old. b. 84.6% had educational background of 4 years of college. c. 69.2% had a religion. d. 53.8% were married. e. 53.8% had clinical experience of 1 year -3 years. f, 61.5% did duty on puerperal ward during 1 year -3 years. g. 46.2% desired to do duty on obstetric ? gynecologic ward. 2. General characteristics of the women who were studied during their puerperal period: a. Women′s average age was 26.4 years old. b. 79.5% had educational background above high school. c. 56.4% had a religion. d. 84.6% had living standard above medium. e. 89.7% had no occupation. f, 53,8% had previous hospitalization experience. g. 56.4% had previous delivery experience. 3. Examining the importance of 39 nursing activities during puerperal period selected by investigator, studied group of women considered that the most important nursing activity was "Record precisely about condition, medical treatment and nursing activity results etc". Nurses considered that the most important nursing activity was "Notice whether having pain and care for that". Both groups considered that the least important nursing activity was "Talk with her about topics such as news, hobbies, other interests". 4. Examining the importance of nursing activities in 4 specific categories, studied group of women considered that the most important nursing activity in physical nursing category was "Be sure of safety measure to prevent accidents, injuries", and nurses considered that the most important nursing activity was "Make her sleep and rest sufficiently". Studied group of women considered that the most important nursing activity in psychological category was "Explain about medical treatment and nursing activity ahead of time so she knows what to expect" , and nurses considered that the most important nursing activity was "Explain about puerperal period so she understands". Studied group of women considered that the most important nursing activity in relation to medical care was "Record precisely about condition, medical treatment and nursing activity results etc.", and nurses considered that the most important nursing activity was "Observing, cleaning and protecting the perineum" Studied group of women considered that the most important nursing activity in nursing category in preparation for discharge was "Instruct about personnel hygiene during puerperal period", and nurses considered that the most important nursing activity was "Instruct self-care to protect the perineum". 5. The analysis of this study showed a significant amount of disagreement computed by subtracting the nurse′s score from the patient′s score. Studied group of women put greater importance on physical nursing category, psychological nursing category, nursing in relation to medical care, than the nurses. These results were statistically significant at 0.01 level.

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Analysis of Causes for Primary Treatment Failure of Pulmonary Tuberculosis (폐결핵환자에서 초치료실패에 대한 요인 분석)

  • Park, Seung-Kyu;Choi, In-Hwan;Kim, Cheon-Tae;Song, Sun-Dae
    • Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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    • v.44 no.6
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    • pp.1234-1244
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    • 1997
  • Background : Nowadays drug resistant tuberculosis is making problems in the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis and its number is increasing. Several reasons for this are considered including irregular medication, poor drug compliance and wrong regimens. But there are treatment failure cases in spite of regular medication with short-term standard regimens. We reviewed clinical data of 50 patients to find out possible causes of this. Method : Subject of this study was 50 patients who failed in the primary treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis in spite of regular medication with short-term standard regimens. All of them were under treatment with secondary regimens in National Masan Tuberculosis Hospital on Oct 1996. The patient's records were analyzed retrospectively and direct interviews with patients were done. Results : There were relatively more patients in the age of 20th. Male overwhelmed in number. There were smoking in 22 patients and drinking in 24 patients during medication. 17(34%) patients had family history of tuberculosis. Public health center was the most common site for the initial diagnosis among medical institutes. 42 patients had subjective symptoms for pulmonary tuberculosis. 38 patients got sufficient explanation from medical institute about tuberculosis and medication courses. 24 patients had bilateral lesions on chest X-ray film and 43 patients had cavitary lesions. 29 patients had past history for pulmonary tuberculosis with regular medication. The results of drug sensitivity test showed resistance in 41 patients of whom we could get the results. Conclusion : Main cause of treatment failure of pulmonary tuberculosis in spite of regular medication with short-term standard regimens was drug resistance. Several factors were considered to be related to high prevalence of drug resistance, including age of 20th, male, family history for tuberculosis, bilateral lesions or remaining cavitary lesion on chest X-ray film.

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Adhesion Characteristics and the High Pressure Resistance of Biofilm Bacteria in Seawater Reverse Osmosis Desalination Process (역삼투 해수담수화 공정 내 바이오필름 형성 미생물의 부착 및 고압내성 특성)

  • Jung, Ji-Yeon;Lee, Jin-Wook;Kim, Sung-Youn;Kim, In-S.
    • Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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    • v.31 no.1
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    • pp.51-57
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    • 2009
  • Biofouling in seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination process causes many problems such as flux decline, biodegradation of membrane, increased cleaning time, and increased energy consumption and operational cost. Therefore biofouling is considered as the most critical problem in system operation. To control biofouling in early stage, detection of the most problematic bacteria causing biofouling is required. In this study, six model bacteria were chosen; Bacillus sp., Flavobacterium sp., Mycobacterium sp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Pseudomonas fluorescens, and Rhodobacter sp. based on report in the literature and phylogenetic analysis of seawater intake and fouled RO membrane. The adhesion to RO membrane, the high pressure resistance, and the hydrophobicity of the six model bacteria were examined to find out their fouling potential. Rhodobacter sp. and Mycobacterium sp. were found to attach very well to RO membrane surface compared to others used in this study. The test of hydrophobicity revealed that the bacteria which have high hydrophobicity or similar contact angle with RO membrane ($63^{\circ}$ of contact angle) easily attached to RO membrane surface. P. aeruginosa which is highly hydrophilic ($23.07^{\circ}$ of contact angle) showed the least adhesion characteristic among six model bacteria. After applying a pressure of 800 psi to the sample, Rhodobacter sp. was found to show the highest reduction rate; with 59-73% of the cells removed from the membrane under pressure. P. fluorescens on the other hand analyzed as the most pressure resistant bacteria among six model bacteria. The difference between reduction rates using direct counting and plate counting indicates that the viability of each model bacteria was affected significantly from the high pressure. Most cells subjected to high pressure were unable to form colonies even thought they maintained their structural integrity.

Least-Square Fitting of Intrinsic and Scattering Q Parameters (최소자승법(最小自乘法)에 의(衣)한 고유(固有) Q와 산란(散亂) Q의 측정(測定))

  • Kang, Ik Bum;McMechan, George A.;Min, Kyung Duck
    • Economic and Environmental Geology
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    • v.27 no.6
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    • pp.557-561
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    • 1994
  • Q estimates are made by direct measurements of energy loss per cycle from primary P and S waves, as a function of frequency. Assuming that intrinsic Q is frequency independent and scattering Q is frequency dependent over the frequencies of interest, the relative contributions of each, to a total observed Q, may be estimated. Test examples are produced by computing viscoelastic synthetic seismograms using a pseudo spectral solution with inclusion of relaxation mechanisms (for intrinsic Q) and a fractal distribution of scatterers (for scattering Q). The composite theory implies that when the total Q for S-waves is smaller than that for P-waves (the usual situation), intrinsic Q is dominating; when it is larger, scattering Q is dominating. In the inverse problem, performed by a global least squares search, intrinsic $Q_p$ and $Q_s$ estimates are reliable and unique when their absolute values are sufficiently low that their effects are measurable in the data. Large $Q_p$ and $Q_s$ have no measurable effect and hence are not resolvable. Standard deviation of velocity $({\sigma})$ and scatterer size (A) are less unique as they exhibit a tradeoff as predicted by Blair's equation. For the P-waves, intrinsic and scattering contributions are of approximately the same importance, for S-waves, the intrinsic contributions dominate.

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Attention to the Internet: The Impact of Active Information Search on Investment Decisions (인터넷 주의효과: 능동적 정보 검색이 투자 결정에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구)

  • Chang, Young Bong;Kwon, YoungOk;Cho, Wooje
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.21 no.3
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    • pp.117-129
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    • 2015
  • As the Internet becomes ubiquitous, a large volume of information is posted on the Internet with exponential growth every day. Accordingly, it is not unusual that investors in stock markets gather and compile firm-specific or market-wide information through online searches. Importantly, it becomes easier for investors to acquire value-relevant information for their investment decision with the help of powerful search tools on the Internet. Our study examines whether or not the Internet helps investors assess a firm's value better by using firm-level data over long periods spanning from January 2004 to December 2013. To this end, we construct weekly-based search volume for information technology (IT) services firms on the Internet. We limit our focus to IT firms since they are often equipped with intangible assets and relatively less recognized to the public which makes them hard-to measure. To obtain the information on those firms, investors are more likely to consult the Internet and use the information to appreciate the firms more accurately and eventually improve their investment decisions. Prior studies have shown that changes in search volumes can reflect the various aspects of the complex human behaviors and forecast near-term values of economic indicators, including automobile sales, unemployment claims, and etc. Moreover, search volume of firm names or stock ticker symbols has been used as a direct proxy of individual investors' attention in financial markets since, different from indirect measures such as turnover and extreme returns, they can reveal and quantify the interest of investors in an objective way. Following this line of research, this study aims to gauge whether the information retrieved from the Internet is value relevant in assessing a firm. We also use search volume for analysis but, distinguished from prior studies, explore its impact on return comovements with market returns. Given that a firm's returns tend to comove with market returns excessively when investors are less informed about the firm, we empirically test the value of information by examining the association between Internet searches and the extent to which a firm's returns comove. Our results show that Internet searches are negatively associated with return comovements as expected. When sample is split by the size of firms, the impact of Internet searches on return comovements is shown to be greater for large firms than small ones. Interestingly, we find a greater impact of Internet searches on return comovements for years from 2009 to 2013 than earlier years possibly due to more aggressive and informative exploit of Internet searches in obtaining financial information. We also complement our analyses by examining the association between return volatility and Internet search volumes. If Internet searches capture investors' attention associated with a change in firm-specific fundamentals such as new product releases, stock splits and so on, a firm's return volatility is likely to increase while search results can provide value-relevant information to investors. Our results suggest that in general, an increase in the volume of Internet searches is not positively associated with return volatility. However, we find a positive association between Internet searches and return volatility when the sample is limited to larger firms. A stronger result from larger firms implies that investors still pay less attention to the information obtained from Internet searches for small firms while the information is value relevant in assessing stock values. However, we do find any systematic differences in the magnitude of Internet searches impact on return volatility by time periods. Taken together, our results shed new light on the value of information searched from the Internet in assessing stock values. Given the informational role of the Internet in stock markets, we believe the results would guide investors to exploit Internet search tools to be better informed, as a result improving their investment decisions.