• Title/Summary/Keyword: scale flexibility

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The Effects of Environmental Dynamism on Supply Chain Commitment in the High-tech Industry: The Roles of Flexibility and Dependence (첨단산업의 환경동태성이 공급체인의 결속에 미치는 영향: 유연성과 의존성의 역할)

  • Kim, Sang-Deok;Ji, Seong-Goo
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.17 no.2
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    • pp.31-54
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    • 2007
  • The exchange between buyers and sellers in the industrial market is changing from short-term to long-term relationships. Long-term relationships are governed mainly by formal contracts or informal agreements, but many scholars are now asserting that controlling relationship by using formal contracts under environmental dynamism is inappropriate. In this case, partners will depend on each other's flexibility or interdependence. The former, flexibility, provides a general frame of reference, order, and standards against which to guide and assess appropriate behavior in dynamic and ambiguous situations, thus motivating the value-oriented performance goals shared between partners. It is based on social sacrifices, which can potentially minimize any opportunistic behaviors. The later, interdependence, means that each firm possesses a high level of dependence in an dynamic channel relationship. When interdependence is high in magnitude and symmetric, each firm enjoys a high level of power and the bonds between the firms should be reasonably strong. Strong shared power is likely to promote commitment because of the common interests, attention, and support found in such channel relationships. This study deals with environmental dynamism in high-tech industry. Firms in the high-tech industry regard it as a key success factor to successfully cope with environmental changes. However, due to the lack of studies dealing with environmental dynamism and supply chain commitment in the high-tech industry, it is very difficult to find effective strategies to cope with them. This paper presents the results of an empirical study on the relationship between environmental dynamism and supply chain commitment in the high-tech industry. We examined the effects of consumer, competitor, and technological dynamism on supply chain commitment. Additionally, we examined the moderating effects of flexibility and dependence of supply chains. This study was confined to the type of high-tech industry which has the characteristics of rapid technology change and short product lifecycle. Flexibility among the firms of this industry, having the characteristic of hard and fast growth, is more important here than among any other industry. Thus, a variety of environmental dynamism can affect a supply chain relationship. The industries targeted industries were electronic parts, metal product, computer, electric machine, automobile, and medical precision manufacturing industries. Data was collected as follows. During the survey, the researchers managed to obtain the list of parts suppliers of 2 companies, N and L, with an international competitiveness in the mobile phone manufacturing industry; and of the suppliers in a business relationship with S company, a semiconductor manufacturing company. They were asked to respond to the survey via telephone and e-mail. During the two month period of February-April 2006, we were able to collect data from 44 companies. The respondents were restricted to direct dealing authorities and subcontractor company (the supplier) staff with at least three months of dealing experience with a manufacture (an industrial material buyer). The measurement validation procedures included scale reliability; discriminant and convergent validity were used to validate measures. Also, the reliability measurements traditionally employed, such as the Cronbach's alpha, were used. All the reliabilities were greater than.70. A series of exploratory factor analyses was conducted. We conducted confirmatory factor analyses to assess the validity of our measurements. A series of chi-square difference tests were conducted so that the discriminant validity could be ensured. For each pair, we estimated two models-an unconstrained model and a constrained model-and compared the two model fits. All these tests supported discriminant validity. Also, all items loaded significantly on their respective constructs, providing support for convergent validity. We then examined composite reliability and average variance extracted (AVE). The composite reliability of each construct was greater than.70. The AVE of each construct was greater than.50. According to the multiple regression analysis, customer dynamism had a negative effect and competitor dynamism had a positive effect on a supplier's commitment. In addition, flexibility and dependence had significant moderating effects on customer and competitor dynamism. On the other hand, all hypotheses about technological dynamism had no significant effects on commitment. In other words, technological dynamism had no direct effect on supplier's commitment and was not moderated by the flexibility and dependence of the supply chain. This study makes its contribution in the point of view that this is a rare study on environmental dynamism and supply chain commitment in the field of high-tech industry. Especially, this study verified the effects of three sectors of environmental dynamism on supplier's commitment. Also, it empirically tested how the effects were moderated by flexibility and dependence. The results showed that flexibility and interdependence had a role to strengthen supplier's commitment under environmental dynamism in high-tech industry. Thus relationship managers in high-tech industry should make supply chain relationship flexible and interdependent. The limitations of the study are as follows; First, about the research setting, the study was conducted with high-tech industry, in which the direction of the change in the power balance of supply chain dyads is usually determined by manufacturers. So we have a difficulty with generalization. We need to control the power structure between partners in a future study. Secondly, about flexibility, we treated it throughout the paper as positive, but it can also be negative, i.e. violating an agreement or moving, but in the wrong direction, etc. Therefore we need to investigate the multi-dimensionality of flexibility in future research.

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The Effect of Home Exercise Program on an Chronic Low Back Pain (가정 운동 프로그램이 만성요통환자에 미치는 영향)

  • Jung, Young-Dae;Lee, Hyun-Ok;Song, Min-Young
    • Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
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    • v.16 no.3
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    • pp.19-27
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    • 2009
  • Background: To study the effect of the home exercise program on pain, flexibility, endurance of extensor in chronic back pain patients, and suggest optimal method for home exercise program. Methods: I divided into two groups who has chronic back pain; one is control group who was given a treatment at the hospital only and the other is experimental group who did another exercise after treatment at the hospital, and there were 10 people in each group. The manual therapy were given to all the patients in each group after applying a stupe and an electric treatment, but the experimental group conducted another exercise program at homes. All the exercise programs were applied to patients 12 times for 4 weeks totally. Result: SPSS for win version 12 was used for statistic analysis and independent t-test was used to find changes between two groups. VAS scale was used to show changes in pain between each group. The grade of pain was decreased between pre&post test to -5.60 in control group and -4.80 in experimental group but there wasn't significant difference between each group. Finger tip-to-floor test was used for the flexibility changes and it was increased between pre&post test in both groups but the change of flexibility between each groups didn't show statistical difference. Biering-Sorensen test was used to measure the endurance of extensor and it was increased between pre&post test in both groups but there wasn't significant difference between each group. Conclusion: As you read the results above, for a chronic low back pain patient, application of the manual therapy showed that it has effect on decrease of low back pain, increase of flexibility and endurance of extensor. However, the effect of home exercise treatment was not sure about improvements for chronic low back pain patient. So I think there should need further study about the effect of home exercise treatment except the treatments at hospital and the thorough education for the exercise of lumbar should be done before the study for the accurate experiment.

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The Effect of Exercise Program on Chronic Low Back Pain in Female Teachers of Elementary School (만성요통 여교사에 대한 운동프로그램의 효과 - 근력, 근지구력, 유연성, 통증, 기능장애, 우울 및 생활만족도를 중심으로 -)

  • Choi, Soon-Young
    • Women's Health Nursing
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    • v.7 no.2
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    • pp.169-187
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    • 2001
  • This study was performed to probe the effect of exercise program on muscle strength, endurance, flexibility, pain, disability level and life satisfaction in female teachers of elementary school who complain of low back pain. For this study, 44 female teachers aged 30-50 years with mechanical low back pain of 6 months' duration, who had the structural normalities in the lumbar spine, were recruited from April 1 to July 10 1999. Twenty three out of them were assigned to the experimental group and twenty one to the control group. The exercise program consisted of education on right postures, the etiology and diagnosis of low back pain, and exercise intervention such as muscle relaxation, elongation and strengthening. With 8 weeks program, the subjects received two sessions of education and six sessions of group exercise in the 1st week, while three sessions of group exercise and four sessions of individual exercise weekly and two sessions of education during the later 7 weeks. The muscle strength and endurance were measured by Cybex 770, the flexibility by flexibility measurement machine, the intensity of pain by Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), the level of disability by Oswestry low back pain disability scale, depression by Beck depression inventory (BDI), and life satisfaction by Life satisfaction index-Z. Study measurements were taken before and after 8 weeks exercise program. Data were analyzed using paired t-test, t-test, and ANCOVA. The results were as follows ; 1. The flexors and extensors peak torque and flexors peak torque per body weight of experimental group were significantly increased at test velocities $30^{\circ}$/sec, $60^{\circ}$/sec compared with those of control group. There was no significant difference in extensors peak torque per flexors peak torque at $30^{\circ}/sec$, $60^{\circ}/sec$ between experimental and control group. 2. The flexors and extensors total work and flexors total work per body weight of experimental group were significantly increased at $120^{\circ}/sec$, compared with those of control group. 3.The flexibility of lumbar spine in experimental group was significantly increased compared with that of control group. The pains in anterior, posterior, left lateral and right lateral bending and in rotation of experimental group were significantly increased compared with those of control group. 4. The Oswestry disability scores of experimental and control group were significantly decreased, and there was no difference in the Oswestry disability score change between experimental and control group. 5. The scores of BDI of experimental group were significantly decreased compared with those of control group. Life satisfaction index-Z scores of experimental group were not changed, but those of control group were significantly decreased. There was no difference in the score change of Life satisfaction index-Z between experimental and control group. 6. ANCOVA analysis for the data variables of inhomogeneous baseline represented that there was no significant difference in extensors peak torque and extensors total work at $120^{\circ}/sec$ and extensor total work per body weight at $120^{\circ}/sec$ change between experimental group and control group. These findings indicate that the exercise program could be effective in increasing the muscle strength, endurance, flexibility and decreasing pain, improving depression in female teachers of elementary school with chronic low back pain. It is suggested that the exercise program could be an essential factor for the effective nursing intervention to the patients suffered from chronic low back pain.

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Smart City Energy Inclusion, Towards Becoming a Better Place to Live

  • Cha, Sang-Ryong
    • World Technopolis Review
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    • v.8 no.1
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    • pp.59-70
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    • 2019
  • Where is a better place to live? In the coming era, this should be more than simply a livable place. It should be an adaptable place that has a flexible system adaptable to any new situation in terms of diversity. Customization and real-time operation are needed in order to realize this technologically. We expect a smart city to have a flexible system that applies technologies of self-monitoring and self-response, thereby being a promising city model towards being a better place to live. Energy demand and supply is a crucial issue concerning our expectations for the flexible system of a smart city because it is indispensable to comfortable living, especially city living. Although it may seem that energy diversification, such as the energy mix of a country, is a matter of overriding concern, the central point is the scale of place to build grids for realizing sustainable urban energy systems. A traditional hard energy path supported by huge centralized energy systems based on fossil and nuclear fuels on a national scale has already faced difficult problems, particularly in terms of energy flexibility/resilience. On the other hand, an alternative soft energy path consisting of small diversified energy systems based on renewable energy sources on a local scale has limitations regarding stability, variability, and supply potential despite the relatively light economic/technological burden that must be assumed to realize it. As another alternative, we can adopt a holonic path incorporating an alternative soft energy path with a traditional hard energy path complimentarily based on load management. This has a high affinity with the flexible system of a smart city. At a system level, the purpose of all of the paths mentioned above is not energy itself but the service it provides. If the expected energy service is fixed, the conclusive factor in choosing a more appropriate system is accessibility to the energy service. Accessibility refers to reliability and affordability; the former encompasses the level of energy self-sufficiency, and the latter encompasses the extent of energy saving. From this point of view, it seems that the small diversified energy systems of a soft energy path have a clear advantage over the huge centralized energy systems of a hard energy path. However, some insuperable limitations still remain, so it is reasonable to consider both energy systems continuing to coexist in a multiplexing energy system employing a holonic path to create and maintain reliable and affordable access to energy services that cover households'/enterprises' basic energy needs. If this is embodied in a smart city concept, this is nothing else but smart energy inclusion. In Japan, following the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, a trend towards small diversified energy systems of a soft energy path intensified in order to realize a nuclear-free society. As a result, the Government of Japan proclaimed in its Fifth Strategic Energy Plan that renewable energy must be the main source of power in Japan by 2050. Accordingly, Sony vowed that all the energy it uses would come from renewable sources by 2040. In this situation, it is expected that smart energy inclusion will be achieved by the Japanese version of a smart grid based on the concept of a minimum cost scheme and demand response.

Development of Public Health Center Image Scale (보건소 이미지 척도 개발)

  • Lee, In Young;Kim, Eun Mi;Bae, Sang Soo
    • Health Policy and Management
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    • v.23 no.4
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    • pp.415-426
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    • 2013
  • Background: This study was aim to identify the specific words and to develop the scale for the public health center (PHC) image. Methods: We collected 824 words from the previous studies and by open questions and reduced them by 77 words, then which were rated properly by 355 citizens of Seoul. We examined explanatory factor analysis for 69 words, and examined content validity test and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for the image structures (4 factors and 16 words). And then we developed the image questionnaire using them through council. We conducted a survey and retested the PHC image scales as the measuring tool targeting 2,000 persons, and compared the inexperience and experience persons for PHC usage. Results: The image structures were consisted of 4 factors and 16 words such as 'trustworthiness' (warm, exemplary, faithful, service-mindedness, beneficial to health), 'fairness' (honesty, clear, consistent, ruled), 'development possibility' (changing, goal-directed, developmental, propulsive), and 'flexibility' (not authoritative, not perfunctory, not rigid) in total. Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ values of all factors were above 0.7. As a result of CFA, model fit indexes yielded satisfactory results (root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA] 0.049, goodness of fit index [GFI] 0.937, and adjusted goodness of fit index [AGFI] 0.912). According to the result of retest for measuring tool by using other samples, Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ values were above 0.8, and model fit indexes yielded satisfactory results (RMSEA 0.059, GFI 0.952, AGFI 0.933). RMSEAs of the inexperiences and the experiences were each 0.59, 0.68. Conclusion: A reliable, valid, and generalizable scale was created for PHC image.

Dual Attention Based Image Pyramid Network for Object Detection

  • Dong, Xiang;Li, Feng;Bai, Huihui;Zhao, Yao
    • KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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    • v.15 no.12
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    • pp.4439-4455
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    • 2021
  • Compared with two-stage object detection algorithms, one-stage algorithms provide a better trade-off between real-time performance and accuracy. However, these methods treat the intermediate features equally, which lacks the flexibility to emphasize meaningful information for classification and location. Besides, they ignore the interaction of contextual information from different scales, which is important for medium and small objects detection. To tackle these problems, we propose an image pyramid network based on dual attention mechanism (DAIPNet), which builds an image pyramid to enrich the spatial information while emphasizing multi-scale informative features based on dual attention mechanisms for one-stage object detection. Our framework utilizes a pre-trained backbone as standard detection network, where the designed image pyramid network (IPN) is used as auxiliary network to provide complementary information. Here, the dual attention mechanism is composed of the adaptive feature fusion module (AFFM) and the progressive attention fusion module (PAFM). AFFM is designed to automatically pay attention to the feature maps with different importance from the backbone and auxiliary network, while PAFM is utilized to adaptively learn the channel attentive information in the context transfer process. Furthermore, in the IPN, we build an image pyramid to extract scale-wise features from downsampled images of different scales, where the features are further fused at different states to enrich scale-wise information and learn more comprehensive feature representations. Experimental results are shown on MS COCO dataset. Our proposed detector with a 300 × 300 input achieves superior performance of 32.6% mAP on the MS COCO test-dev compared with state-of-the-art methods.

Design of a Dingle-chip Multiprocessor with On-chip Learning for Large Scale Neural Network Simulation (대규모 신경망 시뮬레이션을 위한 칩상 학습가능한 단일칩 다중 프로세서의 구현)

  • 김종문;송윤선;김명원
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics B
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    • v.33B no.2
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    • pp.149-158
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    • 1996
  • In this paper we describe designing and implementing a digital neural chip and a parallel neural machine for simulating large scale neural netsorks. The chip is a single-chip multiprocessor which has four digiral neural processors (DNP-II) of the same architecture. Each DNP-II has program memory and data memory, and the chip operates in MIMD (multi-instruction, multi-data) parallel processor. The DNP-II has the instruction set tailored to neural computation. Which can be sed to effectively simulate various neural network models including on-chip learning. The DNP-II facilitates four-way data-driven communication supporting the extensibility of parallel systems. The parallel neural machine consists of a host computer, processor boards, a buffer board and an interface board. Each processor board consists of 8*8 array of DNP-II(equivalently 2*2 neural chips). Each processor board acn be built including linear array, 2-D mesh and 2-D torus. This flexibility supports efficiency of mapping from neural network models into parallel strucgure. The neural system accomplishes the performance of maximum 40 GCPS(giga connection per second) with 16 processor boards.

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Interior Partitioned Layout and Daylighting Energy Performance in Office Buildings

  • Kim, Gon
    • Architectural research
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    • v.1 no.1
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    • pp.31-40
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    • 1999
  • In this age of "Information", many people consider it a deterrent to information flow to provide a hierarchy with private rooms in a modern office layout. There are others, however, who insist that visual and acoustical privacy are more important than any other design factor in achieving higher productivity. The debate may never end, but the partitioned open plan, which is a new form of the vast open plan, has merits of each concept - open and closed layout. Consequently, office design has dramatically shifted to partitioned open planning, with shorter, temporary walls or partitions, originally intended for increasing privacy and diminishing hierarchy, yet still keeping flexibility in spatial organization. The introduction of low-level partitioned spaces in an office layout, however, produces a complicated lighting design problem. Obviously, accurately predicted daylighting performance data are needed not only for daylighting design but for artificial lighting system design. Scale models of 12 sets of unit partitioned spaces are constructed and extensive scale model measurements of both daylight and reflected sunlight have been performed within an artificial sky simulator. The prototype-building interior is modeled with different partition configurations, each of which is modeled using the different envelope geometry and exterior configurations, and then the variations in interior light levels are estimated. The result indicates that partitioned spaces employed in an open plan of modern offices still offer a large potential for daylighting and energy saving as well. Much of the savings may derive from the cumulative effect of reflected sunlight. Optimal design for building envelope geometry and exterior configuration promises additional savings.

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Everyday Physical Reasoning by Qualitative Reasoning (정성적 추론을 이용한 일상의 자연 현상에 대한 추론)

  • Kim, Hyeon-Kyeong
    • Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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    • v.16 no.3
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    • pp.213-224
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    • 2005
  • To develop a cognitive system with the flexibility and breadth of human reasoning, it's very important to construct a large scale knowledge base which includes commonsense knowledge as well as expert knowledge. This paper introduces a cognitive system which provides a commonsense reasoning for everyday physical phenomena using qualitative reasoning. It is difficult to apply previous qualitative reasoning to commonsense reasoning since it provides reasoning based on abstract concepts which are apart from everyday real world concepts. Our research provides commonsense reasoning based on sketches and real world concepts by integrating qualitative reasoning and general large scale Cyc knowledge base. Our system has been implemented and tested on various examples.

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The Concept of Extended Industrial Cluster and Its Policy Directions (광역클러스터 개념의 도입과 정책과제)

  • 주성재
    • Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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    • v.6 no.2
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    • pp.327-338
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    • 2003
  • The concept of industrial cluster began with the agglomeration economies occurring in a small scale place, which are mainly drawn from intense networking between companies, universities, research centers and other institutional bodies. Recently, however, as cooperation between autonomous administrative units and between industrial clusters has been more active than ever, there has emerged the concept of extended industrial cluster (EIC) and, subsequently, policy measures for nurturing it. This study focuses on the concept of EIC, mainly in the perspective of the need to adopt it into the industrial cluster literature. The study identifies the raison d'etre of EIC in the respects of the flexibility of geographic range, complementarity and cooperation between functions and regions, scale economies and productivity, and the development stage of industrial clusters. It also suggests how to establish the concept of EIC in the Korean context and how to apply EIC policy in the Korean industrial policy.

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