The customer of massage chair is expanding day by day from middle age to all ages. In 2018, the market size was 700 billion KRW, an increase of 30 times over 10 years. However, most related SMEs suffer from excessive competition by the market monopoly of some major companies. In this situation, in order for a related company to survive, it is necessary to steadily research and develop new products. Founded in 2009, company L produces massage chairs for health and relaxation of customers. L’s products use a sound wave vibration module that is favorable for human body, unlike other products that use vibration motor type. However, frequent breakdowns of massage chair due to the vulnerability of plate (leaf) springs, which play an important role in sound wave vibration modules, made sap its competitiveness. In this paper, we propose a method to design desirable plate spring structure by sequentially experimenting with five different plate springs. The results of this study are expected to contribute to improve the quality of plate spring and the reliability of sound wave vibration module. In the future, it is necessary to find a way to use it in the development of foot massage or scalp management device as well as continuous research to find optimal plate spring structure through various analysis.

In a teaching environment where all instructors have to teach the same class materials within limited time, from which they have to create the same test items, it is very difficult to create some space that could foster learner autonomy (LA). The purpose of the study is to examine the effects of LA on college students’ academic achievements, task perceptions, and classroom engagement at a Korean university. The study was undertaken in four sections of the same beginner level college English course over the course of a semester. A total of 84 students enrolled in the college English class participated in the study, of which 41 students were assigned to the control group and 43 students to the experimental group. The students’ learning outcomes between the control and experimental groups, their responses to the LA task, and the instructor’s observations of the students’ learning process were analyzed. The study revealed that the students in the experimental group produced significantly higher scores in their exams than those in the control group. Also, compared to its counterpart, the experimental group appeared to engage in the learning process more actively. Educational implications for promoting LA in EFL college classes are discussed.

This paper first claims that the Avatamsaka (Sanskrit) Sutra, or the Flower Ornament Sutra (大方廣佛華嚴經) is the best writing among the innumerable Sutras and other books that describe Truth. The Chinese characters in the Avatamsaka Sutra shows infinity, innumerable Bodhisattvas and the infinite Dharma body (無限法身) of Vairocana (毘盧遮那佛). Yet this dimension of the ultimate reality is not simply that of the nihilistic (虛無主義的) nothingness or void. Emptiness is the perfect emptiness with wondrous movement, and it is the most profound source (根源) of all animate existences and inanimate things. I claim that literary reading and watching films have the innate purpose (目的) of having this meditative mind, of which the most profound spiritual vision is presented as Ocean Samadhi in the Avatamsaka Sutra. In the first place, the innate (內在的) guide us to clearly see the binary structure (二元對立構造) of ego (自我). The ego is unstable between good and evil, right and wrong, decency and destitute. In order to let the audience feel free from the ego, we should take a profoundly different way than thematic approach (主題的接近). This way of understanding literary works and films is not to find the author’s intention and the main message implied in the work. Literature, film, and other arts are special areas that lead audiences outside the local, petty ego that is, into the dimension of the true self or the Transmiddle zone (領域) with special power of sensibility (感覺). As a literary text or film constructs the plot, story, and mood, it deconstructs itself (in terms of postmodernism). Ethical deconstruction would lead the audience beyond the limits of time and space into the spiritual dimension. A serious (深奧) literary text or film Great works (傑作) of literature and film direct our attention to break the shell (外觀) of our ego and encounter (直面) the source of life outside the ordinary habit of the ego. The exterior of the ego is the dimension of the pure consciousness. The unveiling process is the way in which it unlocks our spiritual sight (靈的視視) and presents with us a story of the protagonist’s failure (失敗) to flourish (繁榮) in the society (社會). The primal reality of the ego is that it is split into two, and thus fundamentally unstable. The ocean Samadhi (海印三昧) as portrayed in the Avatamsaka Sutra presents us with the vision that the whole cosmos (宇宙) and uncountable atoms are one. In this spiritual light, all phenomena in the whole universe are dependent co-arising or interdependent arising (同時發生); it is possible because everything is empty and has no stable substance. The Avatamsaka Sutra presents that the Buddha-body comprises, and thus it is truly “Emptiness (眞空) as Fullness (充滿).” Phenomena as the variances of Emptiness go through the processes of birth and death, not the Emptiness itself. It is like “empty space.” In the Hua-yen marvelous cosmos of Emptiness as fullness, one and all are interconnected with one another, and it is beyond our intellectual understanding (知的理解). In this way, Chinese characters (漢字) in the Avatamsaka Sutra (華嚴經, 大方廣佛華嚴經) describe (描寫) the infinite Dharma body (無限法身) of Vairocana (毘盧遮那佛). The ultimate truth is nondual (不二), and thus nonphenomenal (非現象的). The truth (眞理) of every existence (存在) is actually the spiritual dimension of not one, not two (不一, 不二). “Not one, not two” is the characteristic nature of the dimension beyond time and space, for it indicates the most fundamental realm (根本領域) of transcendence, where all phenomena are both separate and one.

This study investigated EFL college students’ culture-related templates of written texts along the possibility of inter-cultural transfer. We designed a case study to explore how certain cultural assumptions contribute to EFL students’ rhetorical decisions while writing an argumentative writing. The participants were four EFL college students. Multiple data sources include background questionnaires, argumentative essays, and in-depth retrospective interviews. To analyze rhetorical choices in the participants’ writing, we identified choices of argumentation subtypes, and introduction and conclusion components. We also categorized the location of the writer’s main claim and thesis statement. The interview data were qualitatively analyzed to see what rhetorical resources participants draw from the cultural/educational contexts, and which factors had influenced the participants’ rhetorical strategy. Data analyses indicate that each participant manipulated different rhetorical structures to strengthen the rhetorical impact of their writing. Indeed, the complex constellation of individual participants’ cultural resources was at play in their L2 writing. This study contributes to our understanding of the rhetorical templates of L2 texts as constructs that are always in process, and therefore adaptable and negotiable.

This paper focuses on the construction of authentic rapper identities among Korean rappers throughout the history of rap in Korea. The first part of this study describes the historical development of linguistic practices and available linguistic resources that were commonly exercised and exploited by Korean rappers over time, while the latter part demonstrates how those practices and resources become components constituting and constructing various rapper identities through Eckert's (2008) framework of “indexical field.” The exploration of the Korean rappers' linguistic practices reported that Korean rappers have developed a number of creative and innovative practices throughout the history of Korean rap and hip-hop. The second part revealed that Korean rappers' innovations and creative practices have become more and more complicated over time for more sophisticated rapper identity construction and projection.

The study had subject to find out what factors Korean automobile consumer is considering in their decision to purchase cars in the situation of the growing competition in the domestic automobile market. In order to this end, the previous study was reviewed to select various factors considered in the process of buying cars. Based on this, Analytic Hierarchy Process was used to prioritize which factors were considered more important by consumers. In the result of study, we could find that performance had the highest priority, and the second ranking was the price. In contrast, image of brand and convenience of maintenance were shown to be relatively low in importance, ranking 3rd and 4th, respectively. Beside, we could recognized the ranking of other detailed factors. This study has an academic implication in that it is able to grasp the latest tendency of consumers’ purchase choice of car and to make conclusion by applying AHP analysis method to study of related subject. It also have practical significance that can be a basis for make sense what factors should be taken by the automobile industry to uprise the purchase of the consumers through the identification and preparation of the purchase selection criteria of domestic automobile buyers.

This study investigates passenger-authored online reviews of airline services using social network analysis to compare the differences in customer perceptions between full service carriers (FSCs) and low cost carriers (LCCs). While deriving words with high frequency and weight matrix based on the text analysis for FSCs and LCCs respectively, we analyze the semantic network (betweenness centrality, eigenvector centrality, degree centrality) to compare the degree of connection between words in online reviews of each airline types using the social network analysis. Then we compare the words with high frequency and the connection degree to gauge their influences in the network. Moreover, we group eight clusters for FSCs and LCCs using the convergence of iterated correlations (CONCOR) analysis. Using the resultant clusters, we match the clusters to dimensions of two types of service quality models (Grönroos, Brady & Cronin (B&C)) to compare the airline service quality and determine which model fits better. From the semantic network analysis, FSCs are mainly related to inflight service words and LCCs are primarily related to the ground service words. The CONCOR analysis reveals that FSCs are mainly related to the dimension of outcome quality in Grönroos model, but evenly distributed to the dimensions in B&C model. On the other hand, LCCs are primarily related to the dimensions of process quality in both Grönroos and B&C models. From the CONCOR analysis, we also observe that B&C model fits better than Grönroos model for the airline service because the former model can capture passenger perceptions more specifically than the latter model can.

Most demand forecasting studies for telecommunication services have focused on estimating market size at the introductory stage of new products or services, or on suggesting improvement methods of forecasting models. Although such studies forecast business growth and market sizes through demand forecasting for new technologies and overall demands in markets, they have not suggested more specific information like relative market share, customers’ preferences on technologies or service, and potential sales power. This study focuses on the telecommunication service industry and explores ways to calculate the relative market shares between competitors, considering competitive situations at the introductory stage of a new mobile telecommunication service provider. To reflect the competitive characteristics of the telecommunication markets, suggested is an extended conjoint analysis using service coverage and service switching rates as modification variables. This study is considered to be able to provide strategic implications to businesses offering existing service and ones planning to launch new services. The result of analysis shows that the new service provider has the greatest market share at the competitive situation where the new service covers the whole country, offers about 50% of existing service price, and allows all cellphones except a few while the existing service carrier maintains its price and service and has no response to the new service introduction. This means that the market share of the new service provider soars when it is highly competitive with fast network speed and low price.

Recently, automobile manufacturing companies, which are major customers of them, are requiring IATF 16949 (ISO/TS 16949) certification as a mandatory requirement to secure product quality. In particular, IATF 16949 : 2016, revised in October 2016, was reinforced product traceability requirements for production information management by lot in the production process. Therefore, small and medium-sized precision parts processing companies in the automobile industry are very difficult to survive due to quality and price competition for customers satisfaction. MES (Manufacturing Execution System) is required to solve this problem. However, small and medium sized precision parts processing enterprises are reluctant to introduce the MES which is not suitable for the manufacturing environment of them such as high cost and low utilization. Even if the system is introduced, it is difficult to operate and maintain the system because the lack of computer manpower. In this paper, we propose a method for building a lot tracking system for small and medium precision parts processing companies by reviewing relevant literature and analyzing cases. In addition, by managing the production history for each lot of the final product in the system, we will grasp the effect of reducing the quality failure cost obtained by minimizing the range of defect selection.

Domestic SMEs play a key role in production and employment, accounting for 98.9% of total enterprises, 74.4% of employment, 50.8% of production, and 49.0% of value added (as of 2016). However, they are faced with difficulties of survival because of continuous decrease in profitability, shortage of funds and manpower, insufficient accumulation of technology, minimum wage increase, and 52-hour workweek. In order for SMEs to continue to develop in such a difficult environment, we must constantly innovate our organization by making full use of our knowledge, information, experience and ability. To do this, CEO (management) leadership is very important to ensure that the best people are focused on the organizational innovation and management performance without moving the company. In this study, we wanted to establish empirically how the newly emerging compassionate rationalism leadership of SMEs business managers affected the innovation activities and management performance of companies. Research has shown that management’s compassionate rationalism leadership has a positive and significant causal relationship with the innovation activities and management performance of the enterprise. Therefore, SMEs managers need to learn the bottom eight strategic factors of compassionate rationalism leadership and use them strategically to make efforts to create positive emotions for the organization so that members can be immersed in innovative activities and management performance creation.

Fair Allocation of profits or costs arising from joint participation by multiple individuals or entities with different purposes is essential for their continuing involvement and for their dissatisfaction reduction. In this research, fair allocation of the profits of forming a grand coalition in Three-Echelon Supply Chain (TESC) game that is composed of manufacturer, distributor and retailer, is studied. In particular, the solutions of the proportional method of profit, the proportional method of marginal profit, and Shapley value based on cooperative game theory are proved to be in the desirable characteristics of the core. The proportional method of profit and the proportional method of marginal profit are often used because of their ease of application. These methods distribute total profit in proportion to profits or marginal profits of each game participant. In addition, Shapley value can be defined as the average marginal profit when one game player is added at a time. Even though the calculation of the average of all possible marginal profits is not simple, Shapley value are often used as a useful method. Experiments have shown that the solution of the incremental method, which calculates the marginal cost of adding game players in the order of manufacturers, distributors and retailers, does not exist in the core.

Most of the data envelopment analysis (DEA) models evaluate the relative efficiency of a decision making unit (DMU) based on the assumption that inputs in a specific period are consumed to produce the output in the same period of time. However, there may be some time lag between the consumption of input resources and the production of outputs. A few models to handle the concept of the time lag effect have been proposed. This paper suggests a new multi-period input DEA model considering the consistent time lag effects. Consistency of time lag effect means that the time delay for the same input factor or output factor are consistent throughout the periods. It is more realistic than the time lag effect for the same output or input factor can vary over the periods. The suggested model is an output-oriented model in order to adopt the consistent time lag effect. We analyze the results of the suggested model and the existing multi period input model with a sample data set from a long-term national research and development program in Korea. We show that the suggested model may have the better discrimination power than existing model while the ranking of DMUs is not different by two nonparametric tests.

It is one of the known methods to obtain the optimal solution using the Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm for the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP), which is a combination optimization problem. In this paper, we solve the TSP problem by proposing an improved new ant colony optimization algorithm that combines genetic algorithm mutations in existing ant colony optimization algorithms to solve TSP problems in many cities. The new ant colony optimization algorithm provides the opportunity to move easily fall on the issue of developing local optimum values of the existing ant colony optimization algorithm to global optimum value through a new path through mutation. The new path will update the pheromone through an ant colony optimization algorithm. The renewed new pheromone serves to derive the global optimal value from what could have fallen to the local optimal value. Experimental results show that the existing algorithms and the new algorithms are superior to those of existing algorithms in the search for optimum values of newly improved algorithms.

The population of domestic companion animals is estimated to be about 10 million now. In recent years, the domestic pet market has been launching a wide range of products and services for high quality, smart and well-being. As a result, the market size will increase from 900 billion won in 2012 to 2.3 trillion won in 2016, which has more than doubled in five years. The industry expects to reach 6 trillion won by 2020, expecting 3 trillion won this year. In particular, domestic dogs and cats market is estimated at 275.5 billion won, accounting for 19% of the domestic animal market and 1.425 billion won for the world market. However, despite the growing market for companion animals products, unfortunately the import dependence on related industrial goods is still high and the quality of service is very low. Unlike Europe and the United States, 90% of companion animals are housed in apartments, often causing problems in the health and safety of companions and companions. The purpose of this study is to develop a smart house for companion animals with environmental friendliness and AI function that can be won in competition with products of developed countries. The results of this study are expected to contribute to the creation of a new value - added base for the related industries through the strengthening of the competitiveness of the related SMEs and further the effect of employment increase and import substitution.

High variance observed in the measurement system can cause high process variation that can affect process capability badly. Therefore, measurement system analysis is closely related to process capability analysis. Generally, the evaluation for measurement system and process variance is performed separately in the industry. That is, the measurement system analysis is implemented before process monitoring, process capability and process performance analysis even though these analyses are closely related. This paper presents the effective concurrent evaluation procedure for measurement system analysis and process capability analysis using the table that contains Process Performance (Pp), Gage Repeatability & Reproducibility (%R&R) and Number of Distinct Categories (NDC). Furthermore, the long-term process capability index (Pp), which takes into account both gage variance and process variance, is used instead of the short-term process capability (Cp) considering only process variance. The long-term capability index can reflect well the relationship between the measurement system and process capability. The quality measurement and improvement guidelines by region scale are also described in detail. In conclusion, this research proposes the procedure that can execute the measurement system analysis and process capability analysis at the same time. The proposed procedure can contribute to reduction of the measurement staff’s effort and to improvement of accurate evaluation.