• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.39-48
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• 2022

Purpose: COVID-19 has negatively influenced the financial performance of restaurant firms. Previous literature suggests that the franchising strategy effectively helps restaurant firms recover from difficult business conditions through various methods for expanding business size and enhancing business efficiency. According to risk-sharing theory, restaurant franchisors may minimize operational risks by sharing the risks with their franchisees. For instance, restaurant franchisors could generate more stable cash flow using franchise fees from their franchisees. However, research on the effect of franchise's risk reduction factor on business performance during pandemic is scarce. Thus, this study aims to examine the positive moderating effect of franchising between COVID-19 and restaurants' financial performance. Research design, data, and methodology: Panel data including financial information and franchising status of restaurant firms were collected for analysis. In order to control for unobserved firm-specific factors, generalized least squared estimation in fixed effects model was conducted. Huber-White robust standard errors were used to deal with heteroscedasticity issues. Results: It was found that COVID-19 pandemic has a negative effect on the restaurants' financial performance such as ROA (return on assets), ROE (return on equity), and PM (profit margins), which confirms the findings from existing literature. More importantly, results show that the degree of franchising has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between COVID-19 and financial performance of restaurant firms. This suggests that more active engagement in franchising may decrease negative impacts of COVID-19 on the restaurants' financial performance. Conclusions: The study supports existing literature related to risk-sharing theory, by confirming that pandemics, such as COVID-19, negatively affect financial performance of the restaurants. Furthermore, it was found that franchising strategy can help lessen negative impacts of pandemics on the firm performance. These findings can contribute to the franchise and restaurant management literature by suggesting the role of franchising in reducing business risks, thereby positively affecting financial performance. Moreover, this study offers business managers of franchisors and franchisees insights for utilizing franchising in restaurant risk management. Policymakers may also gain information on aiding restaurant firms during global crisis, such as COVID-19.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.22 no.10
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• pp.57-66
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• 2022

The aim of the article is to investigate socio-political processes in Ukraine on the basis of institutional and behavioral approaches, in particular their regulatory and informational support. Methodology. To determine the nature and content of sociopolitical processes, the following approaches have been used: 1. Institutional approach in order to analyze the development of Ukraine's political institutions. 2. The behavioral approach has been used for the analysis of socio-political processes in Ukraine in the context of political behavior of citizens, their political activity which forms the political culture of the country. Results. The general features of the socio-political situation in Ukraine are as follows: the formed model of government, which can be conditionally described as "presidential"; public demand for new leaders remains at a high level; the society has no common vision of further development; significant tendency of reduction of real incomes of a significant part of the society and strengthening of fiscal pressure on businessmen will get a public response after some time. Increasing levels of voice, accountability, efficiency of governance and the quality of the regulatory environment indicate a slow change in the political system, which will have a positive impact on public sentiment in the future. At the same time, there has been little change in the quality of Ukraine's institutions to ensure political stability, the rule of law and control of corruption. There are no cardinal changes in the development of the institution of property rights, protection of intellectual rights, changes in the sphere of ethics and control of corruption. Thus, Ukraine's political institutions have not been able to bring about any change in the social-political processes. Accordingly, an average level of trust and confidence of citizens in political institutions and negative public sentiment regarding their perception and future change can be traced in Ukraine.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 2023

Because of the development of computational resources, an entire structure in which many components are combined can be analyzed. To do so, the calculation time and number of data points are increased. In many practical industry structures, there are many parts with repeated patterns. To analyze the repetitive structures effectively, a homogenization method is usually employed. In a homogenization module, including commercial programs, it is generally assumed that a unit cell is repeated in all directions. However, the practical industry structures usually have complicated, repeated patterns or structures. Complicated patterns are difficult to address using the conventional homogenization method. Therefore, in this study, a multilevel homogenization method was devised to consider complex regularities. The proposed homogenization method divides the structure into several areas and performs multiple homogenizations, resulting in a more accurate analysis than that provided by the previous method.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.385-393
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• 2022

Previous studies postulated insignificant capillary rise (h_c) effect above the water table (H_w) for unsaturated soils. In addition, these studies utilised dry unit weight above H_w. This paper, therefore, addresses the effect of these postulations on strength where the influence of h_c using a modified upper bound approach, Discontinuity Layout Optimization (UNSAT-DLO) for a simulated soil was predicted. Two different parametric studies to model passive earth pressure and bearing capacity problems are carried out to provide an insight into the effect of capillary rise on strength. Significant increase in strength, owing to unsaturated conditions, was obtained where the maximum increase was when suction slightly less or greater than the air entry suction. On the other hand, the results showed a negative effect of h_c. For example, up to 8.24% decrease in passive thrust (P_p) was obtained at H_w=0 m when h_c rose 1 m from 0 m. To put this into perspective, this was equivalent to a decrease of about 2° in 𝜙 at H_w=0 m and h_c =0 m in order to obtain the same result at h_c =1 m. For the bearing capacity problem, the effect was seen to be higher, up to 18.4% decrease in N_𝛾 was obtained when h_c rose from 0 m to 2.5 m at H_w =0 m. In addition, the results revealed a negative influence of assigning dry unit weight above H_w or h_c.. However, considerable increase in strength was obtained when unsaturated unit weight above h_c was assigned.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1103-1108
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• 2023

In this paper, we propose a new algorithm for attenuating the background noises in acoustic signal. This algorithm improves the noise attenuation performance by using the FNN(: Full-connected Neural Network) deep learning algorithm instead of the existing adaptive filter after wavelet transform. After wavelet transforming the input signal for each short-time period, noise is removed from a single input audio signal containing noise by using a 1024-1024-512-neuron FNN deep learning model. This transforms the time-domain voice signal into the time-frequency domain so that the noise characteristics are well expressed, and effectively predicts voice in a noisy environment through supervised learning using the conversion parameter of the pure voice signal for the conversion parameter. In order to verify the performance of the noise reduction system proposed in this study, a simulation program using Tensorflow and Keras libraries was written and a simulation was performed. As a result of the experiment, the proposed deep learning algorithm improved Mean Square Error (MSE) by 30% compared to the case of using the existing adaptive filter and by 20% compared to the case of using the STFT(: Short-Time Fourier Transform) transform effect was obtained.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.73-91
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• 2024

This paper has focused on presenting vibration analysis of trapezoidal sandwich plates with a damaged core and FG wavy CNT-reinforced face sheets. A damage model is introduced to provide an analytical description of an irreversible rheological process that causes the decay of the mechanical properties, in terms of engineering constants. An isotropic damage is considered for the core of the sandwich structure. The classical theory concerning the mechanical efficiency of a matrix embedding finite length fibers has been modified by introducing the tube-to-tube random contact, which explicitly accounts for the progressive reduction of the tubes' effective aspect ratio as the filler content increases. The First-order shear deformation theory of plate is utilized to establish governing partial differential equations and boundary conditions for the trapezoidal plate. The governing equations together with related boundary conditions are discretized using a mapping-generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) method in spatial domain. Then natural frequencies of the trapezoidal sandwich plates are obtained using GDQ method. Validity of the current study is evaluated by comparing its numerical results with those available in the literature. After demonstrating the convergence and accuracy of the method, different parametric studies for laminated trapezoidal structure including carbon nanotubes waviness (0≤w≤1), CNT aspect ratio (0≤AR≤4000), face sheet to core thickness ratio (0.1 ≤ ${\frac{h_f}{h_c}}$ ≤ 0.5), trapezoidal side angles (30° ≤ α, β ≤ 90°) and damaged parameter (0 ≤ D < 1) are carried out. It is explicated that the damaged core and weight fraction, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) waviness and CNT aspect ratio can significantly affect the vibrational behavior of the sandwich structure. Results show that by increasing the values of waviness index (w), normalized natural frequency of the structure decreases, and the straight CNT (w=0) gives the highest frequency. For an overall comprehension on vibration of laminated trapezoidal plates, some selected vibration mode shapes were graphically represented in this study.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.525-537
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• 2024

Pilins are protein subunits of pili. The pilins of type IV pili (T4P) in pathogenic bacteria are well characterized, but anything is known about the T4P proteins in acidophilic chemolithoautotrophic microorganisms such as the genus Acidithiobacillus. The interest in T4P of A. thiooxidans is because of their possible role in cell recruitment and bacterial aggregation on the surface of minerals during biooxidation of sulfide minerals. In this study we present a successful ad hoc methodology for the heterologous expression and purification of extracellular proteins such as the minor pilin PilV of the T4P of A. thiooxidans, a pilin exposed to extreme conditions of acidity and high oxidation-reduction potentials, and that interact with metal sulfides in an environment rich in dissolved minerals. Once obtained, the model structure of A. thiooxidans PilV revealed the core basic architecture of T4P pilins. Because of the acidophilic condition, we carried out in silico characterization of the protonation status of acidic and basic residues of PilV in order to calculate the ionization state at specific pH values and evaluated their pH stability. Further biophysical characterization was done using UV-visible and fluorescence spectroscopy and the results showed that PilV remains soluble and stable even after exposure to significant changes of pH. PilV has a unique amino acid composition that exhibits acid stability, with significant biotechnology implications such as biooxidation of sulfide minerals. The biophysics profiles of PilV open new paradigms about resilient proteins and stimulate the study of other pilins from extremophiles.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.160-168
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• 2012

This study generated regression models to estimate the carbon storage and uptake from the urban deciduous landscape trees through a direct harvesting method, and established essential information to quantify carbon reduction from urban greenspace. Tree species for the study included Acer palmatum, Zelkova serrata, Prunus yedoensis, and Ginkgo biloba, which are usually planted as urban landscape trees. Tree individuals for each species were sampled reflecting various diameter sizes at a given interval. The study measured biomass for each part including the roots of sample trees to compute the total carbon storage per tree. Annual carbon uptake per tree was quantified by analyzing radial growth rates of stem samples at breast height. The study then derived a regression model easily applicable in estimating carbon storage and uptake per tree for the 4 species by using diameter at breast height(dbh) as an independent variable. All the regression models showed high fitness with $r^2$ values of 0.94~0.99. Carbon storage and uptake per tree and their differences between diameter classes increased as the diameter sizes got larger. The carbon storage and uptake tended to be greatest with Zelkova serrata in the same diameter sizes, followed by Prunus yedoensis and Ginkgo biloba in order. A Zelkova serrata tree with 15cm in dbh stored about 54kg of carbon and annually sequestered 7 kg, based on a regression model for the species. The study has broken new grounds to overcome limitations of the past studies which substituted, due to a difficulty in direct cutting and root digging of urban landscape trees, coefficients from the forest trees such as biomass expansion factors, ratios of below ground/above ground biomass, and diameter growth rates. Study results can be useful as a tool or skill to evaluate carbon reduction by landscape trees in urban greenspace projects of the government.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.181-186
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• 2003

The satellite navigation system is widely used for identifying a user's position regardless of weather or geographic conditions and also make effect on new technology of marine LBS(Location Based Service), which has the technology of geographic information such as the ENC. Generally, there are conceivable systems of marine LBS such as ECDIS, or ECS that use the ENC itself with powerful processor in installed type on ships bridge. Since the ENC is relatively heavy structure with dummy format for data transfer between different systems, we should reduce the ENC to small and compact size in order to use it in mobile platform. In this paper, we assumed that the mobile system like PDA, or Webpad can be used for small capability of mobile platform. However, the ENC should be updated periodically by update profile data produced by HO. If we would reduce the ENC without a consideration of update, we could not get newly updated data furthermore. As summary, we studied considerations for ENC reduction with update capability. It will make the ENC be useful in many mobile platforms for various applications.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.139-166
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• 2010

The supply chain management (SCM) systems have emerged as strong managerial tools for manufacturing firms in enhancing competitive strength. Despite of large investments in the SCM systems, many companies are not fully realizing the promised benefits from the systems. A review of literature on adoption, implementation and success factor of IOS (inter-organization systems), EDI (electronic data interchange) systems, shows that this issue has been examined from multiple theoretic perspectives. And many researchers have attempted to identify the factors which influence the success of system implementation. However, the existing studies have two drawbacks in revealing the determinants of systems implementation success. First, previous researches raise questions as to the appropriateness of research subjects selected. Most SCM systems are operating in the form of private industrial networks, where the participants of the systems consist of two distinct groups: focus companies and vendors. The focus companies are the primary actors in developing and operating the systems, while vendors are passive participants which are connected to the system in order to supply raw materials and parts to the focus companies. Under the circumstance, there are three ways in selecting the research subjects; focus companies only, vendors only, or two parties grouped together. It is hard to find researches that use the focus companies exclusively as the subjects probably due to the insufficient sample size for statistic analysis. Most researches have been conducted using the data collected from both groups. We argue that the SCM success factors cannot be correctly indentified in this case. The focus companies and the vendors are in different positions in many areas regarding the system implementation: firm size, managerial resources, bargaining power, organizational maturity, and etc. There are no obvious reasons to believe that the success factors of the two groups are identical. Grouping the two groups also raises questions on measuring the system success. The benefits from utilizing the systems may not be commonly distributed to the two groups. One group's benefits might be realized at the expenses of the other group considering the situation where vendors participating in SCM systems are under continuous pressures from the focus companies with respect to prices, quality, and delivery time. Therefore, by combining the system outcomes of both groups we cannot measure the system benefits obtained by each group correctly. Second, the measures of system success adopted in the previous researches have shortcoming in measuring the SCM success. User satisfaction, system utilization, and user attitudes toward the systems are most commonly used success measures in the existing studies. These measures have been developed as proxy variables in the studies of decision support systems (DSS) where the contribution of the systems to the organization performance is very difficult to measure. Unlike the DSS, the SCM systems have more specific goals, such as cost saving, inventory reduction, quality improvement, rapid time, and higher customer service. We maintain that more specific measures can be developed instead of proxy variables in order to measure the system benefits correctly. The purpose of this study is to find the determinants of SCM systems success in the perspective of vendor companies. In developing the research model, we have focused on selecting the success factors appropriate for the vendors through reviewing past researches and on developing more accurate success measures. The variables can be classified into following: technological, organizational, and environmental factors on the basis of TOE (Technology-Organization-Environment) framework. The model consists of three independent variables (competition intensity, top management support, and information system maturity), one mediating variable (collaboration), one moderating variable (government support), and a dependent variable (system success). The systems success measures have been developed to reflect the operational benefits of the SCM systems; improvement in planning and analysis capabilities, faster throughput, cost reduction, task integration, and improved product and customer service. The model has been validated using the survey data collected from 122 vendors participating in the SCM systems in Korea. To test for mediation, one should estimate the hierarchical regression analysis on the collaboration. And moderating effect analysis should estimate the moderated multiple regression, examines the effect of the government support. The result shows that information system maturity and top management support are the most important determinants of SCM system success. Supply chain technologies that standardize data formats and enhance information sharing may be adopted by supply chain leader organization because of the influence of focal company in the private industrial networks in order to streamline transactions and improve inter-organization communication. Specially, the need to develop and sustain an information system maturity will provide the focus and purpose to successfully overcome information system obstacles and resistance to innovation diffusion within the supply chain network organization. The support of top management will help focus efforts toward the realization of inter-organizational benefits and lend credibility to functional managers responsible for its implementation. The active involvement, vision, and direction of high level executives provide the impetus needed to sustain the implementation of SCM. The quality of collaboration relationships also is positively related to outcome variable. Collaboration variable is found to have a mediation effect between on influencing factors and implementation success. Higher levels of inter-organizational collaboration behaviors such as shared planning and flexibility in coordinating activities were found to be strongly linked to the vendors trust in the supply chain network. Government support moderates the effect of the IS maturity, competitive intensity, top management support on collaboration and implementation success of SCM. In general, the vendor companies face substantially greater risks in SCM implementation than the larger companies do because of severe constraints on financial and human resources and limited education on SCM systems. Besides resources, Vendors generally lack computer experience and do not have sufficient internal SCM expertise. For these reasons, government supports may establish requirements for firms doing business with the government or provide incentives to adopt, implementation SCM or practices. Government support provides significant improvements in implementation success of SCM when IS maturity, competitive intensity, top management support and collaboration are low. The environmental characteristic of competition intensity has no direct effect on vendor perspective of SCM system success. But, vendors facing above average competition intensity will have a greater need for changing technology. This suggests that companies trying to implement SCM systems should set up compatible supply chain networks and a high-quality collaboration relationship for implementation and performance.