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Clinical Efficacy of Erdosteine in Patients with Acute or Chronic Bronchitis -A Randomized, Double Blind, Comparative Study vs. Ambroxol- (급.만성 기관지염 환자에서 엘도스$^{(R)}$(Erdosteine)의 임상효과 -염산 암브록솔과의 무작위 이중맹검 비교시험-)

  • Kim, Seok-Chan;Lee, Sang-Hoak;Song, So-Hyang;Kim, Young-Kyoon;Moon, Hwa-Sik;Song, Jeong-Sup;Park, Sung-Hak
    • Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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    • v.44 no.6
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    • pp.1296-1307
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    • 1997
  • Background : Erdosteine is a thiol derivative developed for the treatement of chronic obstructive bronchitis, including acute infective exacerbation of chronic bronchitis. Erdosteine has mucomodulating and antioxidant properties and especially exhibits excellent gastrointestinal tolerability. Methods : The study was conducted as a prospective evaluation, with 2 comparative groups orally treated with erdosteine 300mg (bid.) or ambroxol 30mg (b.i.d.) for 7 days and the design of trial was double-blind. The treatments have been assigned randomly to patients (n=80) with acute or chronic bronchitis. The primary end-point used to determine efficacy in this study was subjective symptoms including expectorating frequence, expectoration volume, expectorating difficulty, expectoration viscosity, cough intensity and dyspnea. The secondary end-points of efficacy was the result of arterial blood gas analysis and pulmonary function test. Safety was evaluated with adverse drug reactions and laboratory tests monitoring. 61 patients was included in the efficacy analysis, due to the fact that 19 patients drop-out for different reasons. The obtained values have been analyzed with paired Hest., ANOVA test., multivariate $t^2$-test, repeated measures analysis of covariance, two sample t-test, loglinear-logit model analysis, Fisher's exact test. Results : 1) There was no significant difference on demographic data and vital signs between erdosteine and ambroxol treated groups. 2) The comparison between erdosteine and ambroxol treated groups showed no significant difference in improvement of each symptom in spite of the more favorable efficacy obtained with erdosteine. No difference on the contrary was observed for arterial blood gas analysis and pulmonary function test. 3) As safety is concerned, no clinical significant changes in laboratory test and symptom were induced in erdosteine and ambroxol treated group and two patients in ambroxol treated group drop-out for adverse reactions in symptom. 4) In the evaluation of final clinical efficacy, erdosteine improved more effectively patient's overall symptoms {very good effect (11/31), good effect (12/31), moderate effect (6/31), no effect (2/31), aggravation (0/31)} than ambroxol {very good effect (6/30), good effect (14/30), moderate effect (5/30), no effect (4/30), aggravation (2/30)}. And the probability of symptomatic improvement by erdosteine compared to ambroxol was 2.5 times. (p<0.05). Conclusion : This study showed that erdosteine was clinically effective and safe drug for treatment of acute and chronic bronchitis.

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A comparative study on the correlation between Korean foods and the fractures of PFG and all ceramic crowns for posterior applications (구치용 도재소부금관과 전부도재관에 파절을 일으키는 한국음식에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Jeong-Ho;Lee, Jai-Bong
    • The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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    • v.47 no.2
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    • pp.156-163
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    • 2009
  • Statement of problem: Recently, there have been increased esthetic needs for posterior dental restorations. The failure of posterior dental ceramic restoration are possible not only by the characters of the component materials but also by the type of food. Purpose: The research aim was to compare the in vitro fracture resistance of simulated first molar crowns fabricated using 4 dental ceramic systems, full-porcelain-occlusal-surfaced PFG, half-porcelain-occlusal-surfaced PFG, Empress 2, Ice Zirkon and selected Korean foods. Material and methods: Eighty axisymmetric crowns of each system were fabricated to fit a preparation with 1.5- to 2.0-mm occlusal reduction. The center of the occlusal surface on each of 15 specimens per ceramic system was axially loaded to fracture in a Instron 4465, and the maximum load(N) was recorded. Afterwards, selected Korean foods specimens(boiled crab, boiled chicken with bone, boiled beef rib, dried squid, dried anchovy, round candy, walnut shell) were prepared. 15 specimens per each food were placed under the Instron and the maximum fracture loads for them were recorded. The 95% confidence intervals of the characteristic failure load were compared between dental ceramic systems and Korean foods. Afterwards, on the basis of previous results, 14Hz cyclic load was applied on the 4 systems of dental ceramic restorations in MTS. The reults were analyzed by analysis of variance and Post Hoc tests. Results: 95% confidence intervals for mean of fracture load 1. full porcelain occlusal surfaced PFG Crown: 2599.3 to 2809.1 N 2. half porcelain occlusal surfaced PFG Crown: 3689.4 to 3819.8 N 3. Ice Zirkon Crown: 1501.2 to 1867.9 N 4. Empress 2 Crown: 803.2 to 1188.5 N 5. boiled crab: 294.1 to 367.9 N 6. boiled chicken with bone: 357.1 to 408.6 N 7. boiled beef rib: 4077.7 to 4356.0 N 8. dried squid: 147.5 to 190.5 N 9. dried anchovy: 35.6 to 46.5 N 10. round candy: 1900.5 to 2615.8 N 11. walnut shell: 85.7 to 373.1 N under cyclic load(14Hz) in MTS, fracture load and masticatory cycles are: 1. full porcelain occlusal surfaced PFG Crown fractured at 95% confidence intervals of 4796.8-9321.2 cycles under 2224.8 N(round candy)load, no fracture under smaller loads. 2. half porcelain occlusal surfaced PFG Crown fractured at 95% confidence intervals of 881705.1-1143565.7 cycles under 2224.8 N(round candy). no fracture under smaller loads. 3. Ice Zirkon Crown fractured at 95% confidence intervlas of 979993.0-1145773.4 cycles under 382.9 N(boiled chicken with bone). no fracture under smaller loads. 4. Empress 2 Crown fractured at 95% confidence intervals of 564.1-954.7 cycles under 382.9 N(boiled chicken with bone). no fracture under smaller loads. Conclusion: There was a significant difference in fracture resistance between experimental groups. Under single load, Korean foods than can cause fracture to the dental ceramic restorations are boiled beef rib and round candy. Even if there is no fracture under single load, cyclic dynamic load can fracture dental posterior ceramic crowns. Experimental data with 14 Hz dynamic cyclic load are obtained as follows. 1. PFG crown(full porcelain occlusion) was failed after mean 0.03 years under fracture load for round candy(2224.8 N). 2. PFG crown(half porcelain occlusion) was failed after mean 4.1 years under fracture load for round candy(2224.8 N). 3. Ice Zirkon crown was failed after mean 4.3 years under fracture load for boiled chicken with bone(382.9 N). 4. Empress 2 crown was failed after mean 0.003 years under fracture load for boiled chicken with bone(382.9 N).

DC Resistivity method to image the underground structure beneath river or lake bottom (하저 지반특성 규명을 위한 전기비저항 탐사)

  • Kim Jung-Ho;Yi Myeong-Jong;Song Yoonho;Cho Seong-Jun;Lee Seong-Kon;Son Jeongsul
    • 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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    • 2002.09a
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    • pp.139-162
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    • 2002
  • Since weak zones or geological lineaments are likely to be eroded, weak zones may develop beneath rivers, and a careful evaluation of ground condition is important to construct structures passing through a river. Dc resistivity surveys, however, have seldomly applied to the investigation of water-covered area, possibly because of difficulties in data aquisition and interpretation. The data aquisition having high quality may be the most important factor, and is more difficult than that in land survey, due to the water layer overlying the underground structure to be imaged. Through the numerical modeling and the analysis of case histories, we studied the method of resistivity survey at the water-covered area, starting from the characteristics of measured data, via data acquisition method, to the interpretation method. We unfolded our discussion according to the installed locations of electrodes, ie., floating them on the water surface, and installing at the water bottom, since the methods of data acquisition and interpretation vary depending on the electrode location. Through this study, we could confirm that the dc resistivity method can provide the fairly reasonable subsurface images. It was also shown that installing electrodes at the water bottom can give the subsurface image with much higher resolution than floating them on the water surface. Since the data acquired at the water-covered area have much lower sensitivity to the underground structure than those at the land, and can be contaminated by the higher noise, such as streaming potential, it would be very important to select the acquisition method and electrode array being able to provide the higher signal-to-noise ratio data as well as the high resolving power. The method installing electrodes at the water bottom is suitable to the detailed survey because of much higher resolving power, whereas the method floating them, especially streamer dc resistivity survey, is to the reconnaissance survey owing of very high speed of field work.

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Bone mineral density and nutritional state according to milk consumption in Korean postmenopausal women who drink coffee: Using the 2008~2009 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (한국 폐경 후 여성 커피소비자에서 우유섭취여부에 따른 골밀도와 영양상태 비교 : 2008~2009년 국민건강영양조사 자료 이용)

  • Ryu, Sun-Hyoung;Suh, Yoon Suk
    • Journal of Nutrition and Health
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    • v.49 no.5
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    • pp.347-357
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    • 2016
  • Purpose: This study investigated bone mineral density and nutritional state according to consumption of milk in Korean postmenopausal women who drink coffee. Methods: Using the 2008~2009 Korean National Health & Nutrition Examination Survey data, a total of 1,373 postmenopausal females aged 50 yrs and over were analyzed after excluding those with diseases related to bone health. According to coffee and/or milk consumption, subjects were divided into four groups: coffee only, both coffee & milk, milk only, and none of the above. All data were processed after application of weighted values and adjustment of age, body mass index, physical activity, drinking, and smoking using a general linear model. For analysis of nutrient intake and bone density, data were additionally adjusted by total energy and calcium intake. Results: The coffee & milk group had more subjects younger than 65 yrs and higher education, urban residents, and higher income than any other group. The coffee only group showed somewhat similar characteristics as the none of the above group, which showed the highest percentage of subjects older than 65 and in a lower education and socio-economic state. Body weight, height, body mass index, and lean mass were the highest in coffee & milk group and lowest in the none of the above group. On the other hand, the milk only group showed the lowest values for body mass index and waist circumference, whereas percent body fat did not show any difference among the groups. The coffee and milk group showed the highest bone mineral density in the total femur and lumbar spine as well as the highest nutritional state and most food group intakes, followed by the milk only group, coffee only group, and none of the above group. In the assessment of osteoporosis based on T-score of bone mineral density, although not significant, the coffee and milk group and milk only group, which showed a better nutritional state, included more subjects with a normal bone density, whereas the none of the above group included more subjects with osteoporosis than any other group. Conclusion: Bone mineral density in postmenopausal women might not be affected by coffee drinking if their diets are accompanied by balanced food and nutrient intake including milk.

Antimicrobial, Antioxidant and Cellular Protective Effects against Oxidative Stress of Anemarrhena asphodeloides Bunge Extract and Fraction (지모 뿌리 추출물과 분획물의 항균활성과 항산화 활성 및 세포보호 연구)

  • Lee, Yun Ju;Song, Ba Reum;Lee, Sang Lae;Shin, Hyuk Soo;Park, Soo Nam
    • Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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    • v.46 no.4
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    • pp.360-371
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    • 2018
  • Extracts and fractions of Anemarrhena asphodeloides Bunge were prepared and their physiological activities and components were analyzed. Antimicrobial activities of the ethyl acetate and aglycone fractions were $78{\mu}g/ml$ and $31{\mu}g/ml$, respectively, for Staphylococcus aureus and $156{\mu}g/ml$ and $125{\mu}g/ml$, respectively, for Pseudomonas aeruginosa. 1,1-Diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl free radical scavenging activities ($FSC_{50}$) of 50% ethanol extract, ethyl acetate fraction, and aglycone fraction of A. asphodeloides extracts were $146.2{\mu}g/ml$, $23.19{\mu}g/ml$, and $71.06{\mu}g/ml$, respectively. The total antioxidant capacity ($OSC_{50}$) in an $Fe^{3+}$-EDTA/hydrogen peroxide ($H_2O_2$) system were $17.5{\mu}g/ml$, $1.5{\mu}g/ml$, and $1.4{\mu}g/ml$, respectively. The cytoprotective effect (${\tau}_{50}$) in $^1O_2$-induced erythrocyte hemolysis was 181 min with $4{\mu}g/ml$ of the aglycone fraction. The ${\tau}_{50}$ of the aglycone fraction was approximately 4-times higher than that of (+)-${\alpha}$-tocopherol (${\tau}_{50}$, 41 min). Analysis of $H_2O_2$-induced damage of HaCaT cells revealed that the maximum cell viabilities for the 50% ethanol extract, ethyl acetate fraction, and aglycone fraction were 86.23%, 86.59%, and 89.70%, respectively. The aglycone fraction increased cell viability up to 11.53% at $1{\mu}g/ml$ compared to the positive control treated with $H_2O_2$. Analysis of ultraviolet B radiation-induced HaCaT cell damage revealed up to 41.77% decreased intracellular reactive oxygen species in the $2{\mu}g/ml$ aglycone fraction compared with the positive control treated with ultraviolet B radiation. The findings suggest that the extracts and fractions of A. asphodeloides Bunge have potential applications in the field of cosmetics as natural preservatives and antioxidants.

How to improve the accuracy of recommendation systems: Combining ratings and review texts sentiment scores (평점과 리뷰 텍스트 감성분석을 결합한 추천시스템 향상 방안 연구)

  • Hyun, Jiyeon;Ryu, Sangyi;Lee, Sang-Yong Tom
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.25 no.1
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    • pp.219-239
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    • 2019
  • As the importance of providing customized services to individuals becomes important, researches on personalized recommendation systems are constantly being carried out. Collaborative filtering is one of the most popular systems in academia and industry. However, there exists limitation in a sense that recommendations were mostly based on quantitative information such as users' ratings, which made the accuracy be lowered. To solve these problems, many studies have been actively attempted to improve the performance of the recommendation system by using other information besides the quantitative information. Good examples are the usages of the sentiment analysis on customer review text data. Nevertheless, the existing research has not directly combined the results of the sentiment analysis and quantitative rating scores in the recommendation system. Therefore, this study aims to reflect the sentiments shown in the reviews into the rating scores. In other words, we propose a new algorithm that can directly convert the user 's own review into the empirically quantitative information and reflect it directly to the recommendation system. To do this, we needed to quantify users' reviews, which were originally qualitative information. In this study, sentiment score was calculated through sentiment analysis technique of text mining. The data was targeted for movie review. Based on the data, a domain specific sentiment dictionary is constructed for the movie reviews. Regression analysis was used as a method to construct sentiment dictionary. Each positive / negative dictionary was constructed using Lasso regression, Ridge regression, and ElasticNet methods. Based on this constructed sentiment dictionary, the accuracy was verified through confusion matrix. The accuracy of the Lasso based dictionary was 70%, the accuracy of the Ridge based dictionary was 79%, and that of the ElasticNet (${\alpha}=0.3$) was 83%. Therefore, in this study, the sentiment score of the review is calculated based on the dictionary of the ElasticNet method. It was combined with a rating to create a new rating. In this paper, we show that the collaborative filtering that reflects sentiment scores of user review is superior to the traditional method that only considers the existing rating. In order to show that the proposed algorithm is based on memory-based user collaboration filtering, item-based collaborative filtering and model based matrix factorization SVD, and SVD ++. Based on the above algorithm, the mean absolute error (MAE) and the root mean square error (RMSE) are calculated to evaluate the recommendation system with a score that combines sentiment scores with a system that only considers scores. When the evaluation index was MAE, it was improved by 0.059 for UBCF, 0.0862 for IBCF, 0.1012 for SVD and 0.188 for SVD ++. When the evaluation index is RMSE, UBCF is 0.0431, IBCF is 0.0882, SVD is 0.1103, and SVD ++ is 0.1756. As a result, it can be seen that the prediction performance of the evaluation point reflecting the sentiment score proposed in this paper is superior to that of the conventional evaluation method. In other words, in this paper, it is confirmed that the collaborative filtering that reflects the sentiment score of the user review shows superior accuracy as compared with the conventional type of collaborative filtering that only considers the quantitative score. We then attempted paired t-test validation to ensure that the proposed model was a better approach and concluded that the proposed model is better. In this study, to overcome limitations of previous researches that judge user's sentiment only by quantitative rating score, the review was numerically calculated and a user's opinion was more refined and considered into the recommendation system to improve the accuracy. The findings of this study have managerial implications to recommendation system developers who need to consider both quantitative information and qualitative information it is expect. The way of constructing the combined system in this paper might be directly used by the developers.

The relationship of nutrition of rice and positive evaluation of the rice-based meal on the physical and emotional self-diagnosis and learning efficiency of the middle and highschool students in the jeonju area (전주 지역 청소년 대상 쌀의 영양과 쌀을 기반으로 한 식사에 대한 긍정적 평가에 따른 신체·정서적 자각증상 및 학습 효능감과의 관련성)

  • Lee, Hyeon Kyeong;Lee, Young Seung;Jung, Soo Jin;Kang, Min Sook;Hwang, Yu Jin;Yoo, Sun Mi;Cha, Yeon Soo;Cho, Soo Muk
    • Journal of Nutrition and Health
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    • v.52 no.1
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    • pp.90-103
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    • 2019
  • Purpose: This study examined the relationship of the nutrition of rice and the positive evaluation of the rice-based meal with the food consumption habits, physical and emotional health status, and learning efficacy of 601 middle and high school students in Jeonju area. Methods: The participants were divided into two groups using cluster analysis in that the participants belonging to the upper groups had a center score of 46.86 (n = 348), while the people belonging to the lower group had a center score of 36.89 (n = 253). Statistical differences were tested for all the relationships between the physical and emotional health symptoms and learning efficacy between the groups at the ${\alpha}=0.05$ level. Results: Significant differences in the physical self-evaluated symptoms were observed in all five items in each cluster (p < 0.05). In the case of the emotional health status, nine out of 10 items showed significant differences between the groups. Similarly, significant differences in all five items in learning efficacy questionnaire were noted (p < 0.05). Positive attitudes of the parents toward having breakfast also showed significant differences among the groups. Conclusion: The nutrition of rice and a positive evaluation of the rice-based meals significantly affect the physical and emotional health status and learning efficacy of juveniles. These findings can be used as baseline information for promoting nutrition education, particularly rice-based breakfast.

Developing a Scale for Measuring the Corporate Social Responsibility Activities of Korea Corporation: Focusing on the Consumers' Awareness (한국형 기업의 사회적 책임활동 측정을 위한 척도 개발 연구: 소비자 인식을 중심으로)

  • Park, Jongchul;Kim, Kyungjin;Lee, Hanjoon
    • Asia Marketing Journal
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    • v.12 no.2
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    • pp.27-52
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    • 2010
  • It is not new that today's business organizations are expected to exhibit ethical and moral management and to carry out social responsibility as a good corporate citizen. Since South Korea emerged as a newly industrialized country during the 1980s, Korean corporations have become active in carrying out their social responsibility as a good corporate citizen to society. In spite of the short history of corporate social responsibility, Korean companies have actively participated in corporate philanthropy. Corporations' significant donations to various social causes, no-lay-off policies, corporate volunteerism and green marketing are evidences of their commitment to corporate citizenship. Corporate social responsibility is now an essential management practice whereby corporation can strengthen its sustainable value creation processes by enhancing the trust assets underlying the relationships between the business and the stakeholders. Much of the conceptual work in the area of corporate social responsibility(CSR) has originated from researches conducted in the management field. Carroll(1979) proposed that corporations have four types of social responsibilities: economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibility. Most past research has investigated CSR and its impact on consumers' attitudes toward the corporations and corporate performances. Although there exists a large body of literature on how consumers perceive and respond to CSR, the majority of past studies were conducted in the United States. The stability and applicability of past findings need to be tested across different national/cultural settings, especially since corporate social responsibility is a reflection of implicit conformation with the expectations and criticism that society may have toward a corporation(Matten and Moon, 2004). In this study, we explored whether people in Korea perceive CSR of Korean corporations in the same four dimensions as done in the United States and what were the measurement items tapping each of these four dimensions. In order to investigate the dimensions of CSR and the measurement items for CSR perceived by Korean people, nine focus group interviews were conducted with several stakeholder groups(two with undergraduate students, two with graduate students, three with general consumers, and two with NGO groups). Scripts from the interviews revealed that the Korean stakeholders perceived four types of CSR which are the same as those proposed by Carroll(1979). However we found CSR issues unique to Korean corporations. For example for the economic responsibility, Korean people mentioned that the corporation needed to contribute to the economic development of the country by generating corporate profits. For the legal responsibility, Koreans included the "corporation need to follow the consumer protection law." For the ethical responsibility, they considered that the corporation needed to not promote false advertisement. In addition, Koreans thought that an ethical company should do transparent management. For the philanthropic responsibility, people in Korea thought that a corporation needed to return parts of its profits to the society for the betterment of society. The 28 items were developed based on the results of the nine focus group interviews, while considering the scale developed by Maignan and Ferrell(2001). Following the procedure proposed by Churchill(1979), we started by developing an item poll consisting of 28 items and purified the initial pool of items through exploratory, confirmatory factor analyses. 176 samples were sued for this analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed on the 28 items in order to verify the underlying four factor structure. Study 1 provided new measurement items for tapping the Korean CSR dimensions, which can be useful for the future studies exploring the effects of CSR on Korean consumers' attitudes toward the corporations and corporate performances. And we found the CSR scale(17 items) has good reliability, discriminant validity and nomological validity. Economic Responsibility: "XYZ company continuously improves the quality of our products", "XYZ company has a procedure in place to respond to customer complaint", "XYZ company contributes to the economic development of our country by generating profits", "XYZ company is eager to hire people". Legal Responsibility: "XYZ company's products meet legal standards", "XYZ company seeks to comply with all laws regulating hiring and employee benefits", "XYZ company honors contractual obligations to its suppliers", "XYZ company's managers try to comply with the law related to the business operation". Ethical Responsibility: "XYZ company has a comprehensive code of conduct", "XYZ company does not promote a false or misleading advertisement", "XYZ company seems to conduct a transparent business", "XYZ company does a fair business with its suppliers or sub-contractors". Philanthropic Responsibility: "XYZ company encourages partnerships with local businesses and schools", "XYZ company supports sports and cultural activities", "XYZ company gives adequate contributions to charities considering its business size", "XYZ company encourages employees to support our community". Study 2 was condusted for comprehensive validity. 655 samples were used for this anlysis. Collected samples were tested by factor analysis and Crnbach's Alpha coefficiednts and were found to be satisfactory in terms of validity and reliability. Furthermore, fitness of the measurement model was tested by using conformatory factor analysis. χ2=880.73(df=160), GFI=0.891, AGFI=0.854, NFI=0.908, NNFI=0.913, RMR=0.059, RMESA=0.070. We hope that CSR scale could greatly facilitate research on Corporate social resposibility, it is by no means the final answer.

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Self-purification Mechanisms in Natural Environments of Korea: I. A Preliminary Study on the Behavior of Organic/Inorganic Elements in Tidal Flats and Rice Fields (자연 정화작용 연구: I. 갯벌과 농지 상층수중 유 ${\cdot}$ 무기 원소의 거동에 관한 예비 연구)

  • Choi, Kang-Won;Cho, Yeong-Gil;Choi, Man-Sik;Lee, Bok-Ja;Hyun, Jung-Ho;Kang, Jeong-Won;Jung, Hoi-Soo
    • The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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    • v.5 no.3
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    • pp.195-207
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    • 2000
  • Organic and inorganic characteristics including bacterial cell number, enzyme activity, nutrients, and heavy metals have been monitored in twelve acrylic experimental tanks for two weeks to estimate and compare self-purification capacities in two Korean wet-land environments, tidal flat and rice field, which are possibly different with the environments in other countries because of their own climatic conditions. FW tanks, filled with rice field soils and fresh water, consist of FW1&2 (with paddy), FW3&4 (without paddy), and FW5&6 (newly reclaimed, without paddy). SW tanks, filled with tidal flat sediments and salt water, are SW1&2 (with anoxic silty mud), SW3&4 (anoxic mud), and SW5&6 (suboxic mud). Contaminated solution, which is formulated with the salts of Cu, Cd, As, Cr, Pb, Hg, and glucose+glutamic acid, was spiked into the supernatent waters in the tanks. Nitrate concentrations in supernatent waters as well as bacterial cell numbers and enzyme activities of soils in the FW tanks (except FW5&6) are clearly higher than those in the SW tanks. Phosphate concentrations in the SW1 tank increase highly with time compared to those in the other SW tanks. Removal rates of Cu, Cd, and As in supematent waters of the FW5&6 tanks are most slow in the FW tanks, while the rates in SW1&2 are most fast in the SW tanks. The rate for Pb in the SW1&2 tanks is most fast in the SW tanks, and the rate for Hg in the FW5&6 tanks is most slow in the FW tanks. Cr concentrations decrease generally with time in the FW tanks. In the SW tanks, however, the Cr concentrations decrease rapidly at first, then increase, and then remain nearly constant. These results imply that labile organic materials are depleted in the FW5&6 tanks compared to the FW1&2 and FW3&4 tanks. Removal of Cu, Cd, As from the supernatent waters as well as slow removal rates of the elements (including Hg) are likely due to the combining of the elements with organic ligands on the suspended particles and subsequent removal to the bottom sediments. Fast removal rates of the metal ions (Cu, Cd, As) and rapid increase of phosphate concentrations in the SW1&2 tanks are possibly due to the relatively porous anoxic sediments in the SW1&2 tanks compared to those in the SW3&4 tanks, efficient supply of phosphate and hydrogen sulfide ions in pore wates to the upper water body, complexing of the metal ions with the sulfide ions, and subsequent removal to the bottom sediments. Organic materials on the particles and sulfide ions from the pore waters are the major factors constraining the behaviors of organic/inorganic elements in the supernatent waters of the experimental tanks. This study needs more consideration on more diverse organic and inorganic elements and experimental conditions such as tidal action, temperature variation, activities of benthic animals, etc.

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The Effect of Corporate Association on the Perceived Risk of the Product (소비자의 제품 지각 위험에 대한 기업연상과 효과: 지식과 관여의 조절적 역활을 중심으로)

  • Cho, Hyun-Chul;Kang, Suk-Hou;Kim, Jin-Yong
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.18 no.4
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    • pp.1-32
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    • 2008
  • Brown and Dacin (1997) have investigated the relationship between corporate associations and product evaluations. Their study focused on the effects of associations with a company's corporate ability (CA) and its corporate social responsibility (CSR) on consumers' product evaluations. Their study has found that both of CA and CSR influenced product evaluation but CA association has a stronger effect than CSR associations. Brown and Dacin (1997) have, however, claimed that there are few researches on how corporate association impacts product responses. Accordingly, some of researchers have found the variables to moderate or to mediate the relationship between the corporate association and the product responses. In particular, there has been existed a few of studies that tested the influence of the reputation on the product-relevant perceived risk, but the effects of two types of the corporate association on the product-relevant perceived risk were not identified so far. The primary goal of this article is to identify and empirically examine some variables to moderate the effects of CA association and CSR association on the perceived risk of the product. In this articles, we take the concept of the corporate associations that Brown and Dacin (1997) had proposed. CA association is those association related to the company's expertise in producing and delivering its outputs and CSR association reflected the organization's status and activities with respect to its perceived societal obligations. Also, this study defines the risk, which is the uncertainty or loss of the product and corporate that consumers have taken in a particular purchase decision or after having purchased. The risk is classified into product-relevant performance risk and financial risk. Performance risk is the possibility or the consequence of a product not functioning at some expected level and financial risk is the monetary loss one perceives to be incurring if a product does not function at some expected level. In relation to consumer's knowledge, expert consumers have much of the experiences or knowledge of the product in consumer position and novice consumers does not. The model tested in this article are shown in Figure 1. The model indicates that both of CA association and CSR association influence on performance risk and financial risk. In addition, the effects of CA and CSR are moderated by product category knowledge (product knowledge) and product category involvement (product involvement). In this study, the relationships between the corporate association and product-relevant perceived risk are hypothesized as the following form. For example, Hypothesis 1a($H_{1a}$) is represented that CA association has a positive influence on the performance risk of consumer. Also, the hypotheses that identified some variables to moderate the effects of two types of corporate association on the perceived risk of the product are laid down. One of the hypotheses of the interaction effect is Hypothesis 3a($H_{3a}$), it is described that consumer's knowledges of the product moderates the negative relationship between CA association and product-relevant performance risk. A field experiment was conducted in order to examine our model. The company tested was not real but imagined to meet the internal validity. Water purifiers were used for our study. Four scenarios have been developed and described as the imaginary company: Type A with both of superior CA and CSR, Type B with superior CSR and inferior CA, Type C with superior CA and inferior CSR, and Type D with both inferior of CA and CSR. The respondents of this study were classified into four groups. One type of four scenarios (Type A, B, C, or D) in its questionnaire was given to the respondent who filled out questions. Data were collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire to the respondents, chosen in convenience. A total of 300 respondents filled out the questionnaire but 207 were used for further analysis. Table 1 indicates that the scales in this study are reliable because the range of coefficients of Cronbach's $\alpha$ are from 0.85 to 0.92. The composite reliability is in the range of 0,85 to 0,92 and average variance extracted is in 0.72-0.98 range that is higher than the base level of 0.6. As shown in Table 2, the values for CFI, NNFI, root-mean-square error approximation (RMSEA), and standardized root-mean-square residual (SRMR) are acceptably close to the standards suggested by Hu and Bentler (1999):.95 for CFI and NNFI,.06 for RMSEA, and.08 for SRMR. We also tested discriminant validity provided by Fornell and Larcker (1981). As shown in Table 2, we found strong evidence for discriminant validity between each possible pair of latent constructs in all samples. Given that these batteries of overall goodness-of-fit indices were accurate and that the model was developed on theoretical bases, and given the high level of consistency across samples, this enables us to proceed the previously defined scales. We used the moderated hierarchical regression analysis to test the influence of the corporate association(CA and CSR associations) on product-relevant perceived risk(performance and financial risks) and to identify the variables moderating the relationship between the corporate association and product-relevant performance risk. In this study, dependent variables are performance and financial risk. CA and CSR associations are described the independent variables. The moderating variables are product category knowledge and product category involvement. The results are, as expected, found that CA association has statistically a significant influence on the perceived risk of the product, but CSR association does not. Product category knowledge and involvement moderate the relationship between the CA association and the perceived risk of the product. However, the effect of CSR association on the perceived risk of the product is not moderated by the consumers' knowledge and involvement. For this result, it is necessary for a corporate to inform its customers CA association more than CSR association so that they could be felt to be the reduction of the perceived risk. The important theoretical contribution of this research is the meanings that two types of corporate association that Brown and Dacin(1997), and Brown(1998) have proposed replicated the difference of the effects on product evaluation. According to Hunter(2001), it was an important affair to accomplish the validity of a particular study and we had to take about ten studies to deduce a strict study. Next, there is the contribution of the this study to find that the effects of corporate association on the perceived risk of the product are varied by the moderator variables. In particular, the moderating effect of knowledge on the relationship between corporate association and product-relevant perceived risk has not been tested in Korea. In the managerial implications of this research, we suggest the necessity to stress the ability that corporate manufactures the product well(CA association) than the accomplishment of corporate's social obligation(CSR association). This study suffers from various limitations that imply future research directions. The moderating effects of product category knowledge and involvement on the relationship between corporate association and perceived risk need to be replicated. Next, future research could explore whether the mediated effects of the perceived risk has the relationship between corporate association and consumer's product purchase. In addition, to ensure the external validity of the study will be needed to use realistic company, not artificial.

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