• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.212-223
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to verify information spillover effects using returns of macroeconomic variables and hotel leisure stock index daily data from January 4, 2000 to December 30, 2015. The findings and implications of the research can be summarized as follows. First, based on time-varying AR(1)-GARCH(1,1) models no evidence of statistically significant conditional mean and volatility spillover effects from returns of macroeconomic variables on the hotel leisure stock index was observed. In addition, no evidence of price volatility spillover from macroeconomic variables on the hotel leisure market was observed. Second, it was discovered that there exists a significantly negative relationship between the return of ER and hotel leisure stock prices, but a positive relationship between the KOSPI and hotel leisure stock prices. Finally, the study also found that was a significantly positive relationship between the volatility of DUB and hotel leisure market, and an adversely negative relationship between the volatility of ER and hotel leisure market. The results of this study are expected to contribute by providing useful information for investment strategies, as well as for risk management for investors and managers.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.39-47
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• 2012

Organizations pursue a CRM strategy for the purpose of increasing business performance and value. However, firms face a multitude of organizational challenges associated with this endeavor. To reduce their risk of failure, it is suggested that firms undertake a deep analysis of organizational readiness prior to committing to a CRM initiative. Insurance sector is no exception to this fact. There is an increased need to concentrate on the various challenges thrown open by the public insurance firms in implementing CRM. Many insurance firms have invested into customer driven CRM but research indicates varying outcomes (Schmith 2004). While it is clear that there are significant issues involved in the CRM implementation and success and environment faced by the public sector. It is clear that business should have an easier time in applying CRM systems is the strategic value for public sector. With customers demanding more service and accessibility from administrators, public sector CRM software technologies have to offer best solutions for achieving process and cost objectives (Souder 2001). With results which go far beyond improved service delivery and include sustained cost reductions, increased customer knowledge and better employee morale, CRM software implementation and post product environments offer great upside value. Although there are material differences in public sector use of CRM strategy, they share at least one glaring similarity - they have much to gain from proven CRM software technology. As business methods cross over in the public sector, many government bodies are investigating how they can adopt and adapt various CRM models (Bleyer 2003). There is a need to understand the similarities and differences in public sector CRM to foster shared knowledge, business processes and planning functions to integrate disparate technologies and software platforms and then, of course, the organizational culture to support knowledge sharing (Peters 1997). For the public sector, there are clearly identified CRM processes which have resulted in increased profits and improved efficiency. These have focused on sales, marketing and customer service activities, which often operate along fundamentally different lines in various public sector insurance companies. Thus the present research paper makes an attempt to explore how public sector CRM methods can be adopted and subsequently adapted.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.295-303
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• 2015

In Korea, Total Maximum Daily Loads(TMDLs) has been enforced to restore and manage water quality in the watersheds. However, some assesment of implementation plan of TMDLs showed that the achievement of the target water quality is not related to the proper allocation loads because difference of flow duration interval. In the United States, the discharge loads are determined by water quality modeling considering standard flow conditions according to purpose. Therefore, this study tried to develop the allocation method considering economical efficiency using water quality model. For this purpose, several allocation methods being used in the management of TMDLs is investigated and develope an allocation criteria considering regional equality and uniformity. Since WARMF(Watershed Analysis Risk Management Framework) model can simulate the time varying behavior of a system and the various water quality variables, it was selected for a decision support system in this study. This model showed fairly good performance by adequately simulating observed discharge and water quality in Miho watershed. Furthermore, the scenario simulation results showed that the effect of annual average water quality improvement to remove 1kg BOD is more than 25 times, even if point pollutants treatment facility is six times more expensive to operate than non-point pollutants treatment facility.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.15-31
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• 2009

The next generation IT environment is expected to be an open computing environment based on Grid computing technologies, which allow users to access to any type of computing resources through networks. The open computing environment has benefits in aspects of resource utilization, collaboration, flexibility and cost reduction. Due to the variation in performance of open computing resources, however, resource allocation simply based on users' budget and time constraints often fails to meet the Service Level Agreement(SLA). This paper proposes the Mean-Absolute Deviation(MAD) portfolio optimization approach, in which service brokers consider the uncertainty of performance of resources, and compose resource portfolios that minimize the uncertainty. In order to investigate the effect of this approach, we simulate an open computing environment with varying uncertainty levels, users' constraints, and brokers' optimization strategies. The simulation result concludes threefolds. First, the MAD portfolio optimization improves the success ratio of delivering the required performance to users. Second, the success ratio depends on the accuracy in predicting the variability of performance. Thirdly, the measured variability can also help service brokers expand their service to cost-critical users by discounting the access cost of open computing resources.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.62-73
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• 2017

To identify a solution for the restricted availability of healthy lungs and the high risk of immune rejections following organ transplantation, tissue engineering techniques for culturing lungs have been studied by many research groups. The most promising method for culturing lungs is the utilization of a bio-scaffold that was prepared using harvested organs from human donors or other animals by removing their original cells. In this study, a pulsatile perfusion pump was used to alleviate the cell removal effect with the high fluid-dynamic power of the perfusion stream during the decellularization process, while other conventional studies focused on chemical methods to identify efficient detergents. The purpose of this study was to analyze the developed device by using energy equivalent pressure (EEP), which is an indicator of pulsatility, to understand the characteristics of pulsatile energy transmitted according to the load size by using the artificial model and compare it with the measured EEP. The pulsatility of the device can be estimated with the concept of fluid-dynamic energy during a particular constant time period or fluid-dynamic power represented as EEP and EEP increment. Because the measured EEP of perfusion flow during decellularization can be changed by the amount of fluid leakage and the degree of clogging in the capillary vessels, EEP should be measured to determine whether the decellularization is progressing without problems. The decrement of EEP caused by the high perfusion resistance was observed from some experimental results that were obtained with artificial models. EEP can be used to monitor the decellularization process after analyzing the varying EEP according to the amount of load. It was confirmed that the EEP was maintained at a high level in the experiment using the harvested lungs from 12-13-week-old rats. In addition, it was confirmed that the cell removal time was faster than when continuous perfusion was performed. In this study, pulsatile power delivered to the lungs was measured to monitor the process of cell removal, and it serve as the evidence for efficient decellularization.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.207-223
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• 2003

For last five years, we are developing the novel local drug delivery devices using biodegradable polymers, especially polylactide (PLA) and poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) due to its relatively good biocompatibility, easily controlled biodegradability, good processability and only FDA approved synthetic degradable polymers. The relationship between various kinds of drug [water soluble small molecule drugs: gentamicin sulfate (GS), fentanyl citrate (FC), BCNU, azidothymidine (AZT), pamidronate (ADP), $1,25(OH)_2$ vitamin $D_3$, water insoluble small molecule drugs: fentanyl, ipriflavone (IP) and nifedipine, and water soluble large peptide molecule drug: nerve growth factor (NGF), and Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV)], different types of geometrical devices [microspheres (MSs), microcapsule, nanoparticle, wafers, pellet, beads, multiple-layered beads, implants, fiber, scaffolds, and films], and pharmacological activity are proposed and discussed for the application of pharmaceutics and tissue engineering. Also, local drug delivery devices proposed in this work are introduced in view of preparation method, drug release behavior, biocompatibility, pharmacological effect, and animal studies. In conclusion, we can control the drug release profiles varying with the preparation, formulation and geometrical parameters. Moreover, any types of drug were successfully applicable to achieve linear sustained release from short period ($1{\sim}3$ days) to long period (over 2 months). It is very important to design a suitable formulation for the wanting period of bioactive molecules loaded in biodegradable polymers for the local delivery of drug. The drug release is affected by many factors such as hydrophilicity of drug, electric charge of drug, drug loading amount, polymer molecular weight, the monomer composition, the size of implants, the applied fabrication techniques, and so on. It is well known that the commercialization of new drug needs a lot of cost of money (average: over 10 million US dollar per one drug) and time (average: above 9 years) whereas the development of DDS and high effective generic drug might be need relatively low investment with a short time period. Also, one core technology of DDS can be applicable to many drugs for the market needs. From these reasons, the DDS research on potent generic drugs might be suitable for less risk and high return.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.67 no.4
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• pp.418-430
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• 2024

Objective : Isoflurane, a widely used common inhalational anesthetic agent, can induce brain toxicity. The challenge lies in protecting neurologically compromised patients from neurotoxic anesthetics. Choline alfoscerate (L-α-Glycerophosphorylcholine, α-GPC) is recognized for its neuroprotective properties against oxidative stress and inflammation, but its optimal therapeutic window and indications are still under investigation. This study explores the impact of α-GPC on human astrocytes, the most abundant cells in the brain that protect against oxidative stress, under isoflurane exposure. Methods : This study was designed to examine changes in factors related to isoflurane-induced toxicity following α-GPC administration. Primary human astrocytes were pretreated with varying doses of α-GPC (ranging from 0.1 to 10.0 µM) for 24 hours prior to 2.5% isoflurane exposure. In vitro analysis of cell morphology, water-soluble tetrazolium salt-1 assay, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, proteome profiler array, and transcriptome sequencing were conducted. Results : A significant morphological damage to human astrocytes was observed in the group that had been pretreated with 10.0 mM of α-GPC and exposed to 2.5% isoflurane. A decrease in cell viability was identified in the group pretreated with 10.0 µM of α-GPC and exposed to 2.5% isoflurane compared to the group exposed only to 2.5% isoflurane. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction revealed that mRNA expression of heme-oxygenase 1 and hypoxia-inducible factor-1α, which were reduced by isoflurane, was further suppressed by 10.0 µM α-GPC pretreatment. The proteome profiler array demonstrated that α-GPC pretreatment influenced a variety of factors associated with apoptosis induced by oxidative stress. Additionally, transcriptome sequencing identified pathways significantly related to changes in isoflurane-induced toxicity caused by α-GPC pretreatment. Conclusion : The findings suggest that α-GPC pretreatment could potentially enhance the vulnerability of primary human astrocytes to isoflurane-induced toxicity by diminishing the expression of antioxidant factors, potentially leading to amplified cell damage.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.65 no.4
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• pp.294-302
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• 2020

Studies on the occurrence of rice preharvest sprouting (PHS) have primarily focused on temperature and rainfall duration at the time of PHS induction, but average temperature during grain filling can have a great influence on PHS. This study analyzed the effect of average temperature during grain filling on PHS occurrence and subsequent changes in grain quality after PHS. For two consecutive years, average temperature differences during grain filling were produced by varying the transplanting date. Artificial rainfall was treated under identical accumulated temperatures of 1200℃ after heading. It was confirmed that the occurrence of PHS was higher under high average temperature conditions during grain filling. In addition, the degree of grain quality reduction caused by PHS occurred more severely under high temperature conditions during grain filling. In order to reduce the risk of PHS occurrence and subsequent quality damage, it is important to control the planting date to avoid high-temperature conditions during grain filling.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.339-350
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• 2024

In construction sites, the engine of heavy machinery is tested by practitioners who manually adjust engine settings and directly measure the output. This process has consistently raised concerns regarding time costs and the risk of incidents. To address these issues, simulations of heavy equipment are conducted using Speedgoat and the Simulink API. However, due to the varying compatibility of different versions of Speedgoat hardware and Simulink API, engineers need to have a comprehensive understanding of various Simulink APIs. It is practically challenging for engineers, who must have a deep understanding of heavy equipment structures, to also possess programming skills including API usage. Thus, this paper proposes a tool that allows inputting configuration values for heavy equipment simulation and visually outputs and logs the simulation results. The proposed tool provides functionalities to deliver configuration values, such as engine settings of heavy equipment, to the simulator model and to monitor and log the resulting simulation outputs. These functionalities have been validated through scenarios. By using the developed tool, engineers are expected to reduce the burden of learning Simulink API and focus more on understanding the structure of heavy equipment. Additionally, it is anticipated that this tool will provide a more efficient and safer working environment for heavy equipment testing on construction sites.