• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.73-81
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• 2014

The in vitro production of porcine embryos was essential to increase of blastocyst development rate and select of high quality blastocyst in early stage. There were a lot of reports about in vitro porcine embryo development, but there was no report about the selection of high quality embryos. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the effect of vitamin $K_1$ (vit $K_1$) on the development and survival rate of porcine in vitro fertilized embryos. When vit $K_1$ was treated for 24 hr at day 1 in vitro culture, blastocyst development rate in the control group ($35.5{\pm}3.2%$) was significantly lower compared to $1.0{\mu}M$, $3.0{\mu}M$, or $6.0{\mu}M$ groups ($14.5{\pm}4.3$, 0.0, or 0.0%; p<0.05). The survival rates of blastocysts at day 8 in $1.0{\mu}M$, $3.0{\mu}M$ or $6.0{\mu}M$ of vit $K_1$ treated groups ($22.2{\pm}2.9$, 0.0 or 0.0%) were significantly lower than that of the control group ($31.8{\pm}2.6%$; p<0.05). We were added at $1.0{\mu}M$, $3.0{\mu}M$ or $6.0{\mu}M$ vit $K_1$ for different durations of time at day 1 in vitro culture. The development rate and survival rate in the group of $1.0{\mu}M$ vit $K_1$ for 6 hr was $26.5{\pm}2.9%$ and $47.2{\pm}2.8%$, respectively, which were differed significantly in the group of 12 hr (p<0.05). In the group of $3.0{\mu}M$ vit $K_1$, the blastocyst development in control group was $36.4{\pm}3.1%$ but, the survival rate $41.7{\pm}3.2%$ in the group of 3.0 hr was significantly higher than that of the control group (p<0.05). In the group of $6.0{\mu}M$ vit $K_1$, the control group's the blastocyst development was $32.0{\pm}2.8%$ and the 0.5 hr supplement group's survival rates was $42.9{\pm}1.8%$ higher than other groups. We added vit $K_1$ at day 1, day 2, day 4 and day 6 of in vitro culture, on the based the results of supplemented concentration and duration. In the group of $1.0{\mu}M$ 6.0 hr addition, the blastocyst development rate of day 4 and the survival rate of day 2 were the highest in each group. In the groups of $3.0{\mu}M$ 3.0 hr addition or $6.0{\mu}M$ 0.5 hr addition, the blastocyst development ($59.5{\pm}4.1%$ and $50.0{\pm}3.6%$) and survival rates ($72.7{\pm}5.4%$ and $79.2{\pm}4.0%$) on day 4 were significantly higher than that of control and other experiment groups (p<0.05). Meanwhile, the number of cells in blastocysts that produced by vit $K_1$ supplementation was $53.4{\pm}5.8$, $49.4{\pm}3.8$ and $51.5{\pm}4.5$ respectively, which were significantly higher than that of $40.2{\pm}2.3$ in the control group (p<0.05). There was no difference of the number of apoptotic cells between control and experiment groups. In addition, gene expression of survival blastocyst, the Bax mRNA expression was similar between the control and the experiment groups. However, Bcl-xL mRNA expression's in the group of $6.0{\mu}M$ 0.5 hr on day 4 was highest among control and experiment groups (p<0.05). In this study suggested that the control of concentration, duration and time was effective on the survival and cell number of porcine blastocyst derived from in vitro. We are not know what the exact reasons of the effect of vit $K_1$ on embryo development and need to fur ther study. However, vit $K_1$ might be using the selection of high quality porcine blastocyst.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.1-34
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• 2010

Introduction As consumers' purchase behavior change into a rational and practical direction, the discount store industry came to have keen competition along with rapid external growth. Therefore as a solution, distribution businesses are concentrating on developing PB(Private Brand) which can realize differentiation and profitability at the same time. And as improvement in customer loyalty beyond customer satisfaction is effective in surviving in an environment with keen competition, PB is being used as a strategic tool to improve customer loyalty. To improve loyalty among PB users, it is necessary to develop PB by examining properties of a customer group, first of all, quality level perceived by consumers should be met to obtain customer satisfaction and customer trust and consequently induce customer loyalty. To provide results of systematic analysis on relations between antecedents influenced perceived quality and variables affecting customer loyalty, this study proposed a research model based on causal relations verified in prior researches and set 16 hypotheses about relations among 9 theoretical variables. Data was collected from 400 adult customers residing in Seoul and the Metropolitan area and using large scale discount stores, among them, 375 copies were analyzed using SPSS 15.0 and Amos 7.0. The findings of the present study followed as; We ascertained that the higher company reputation, brand reputation, product experience and brand familiarity, the higher perceived quality. The study also examined the higher perceived quality, the higher customer satisfaction, customer trust and customer loyalty. The findings showed that the higher customer satisfaction and customer trust, the higher customer loyalty. As for moderating effects between PB and NB in terms of influences of perceived quality factors on perceived quality, we can ascertain that PB was higher than NB in the influences of company reputation on perceived quality while NB was higher than PB in the influences of brand reputation and brand familiarity on perceived quality. These results of empirical analysis will be useful for those concerned to do marketing activities based on a clearer understanding of antecedents and consecutive factors influenced perceived quality. At last, discussions about academical and managerial implications in these results, we suggested the limitations of this study and the future research directions. Research Model and Hypotheses Test After analyzing if antecedent variables having influence on perceived quality shows any difference between PB and NB in terms of their influences on them, the relation between variables that have influence on customer loyalty was determined as Figure 1. We established 16 hypotheses to test and hypotheses are as follows; H1-1: Perceived price has a positive effect on perceived quality. H1-2: It is expected that PB and NB would have different influence in terms of perceived price on perceived quality. H2-1: Company reputation has a positive effect on perceived quality. H2-2: It is expected that PB and NB would have different influence in terms of company reputation on perceived quality. H3-1: Brand reputation has a positive effect on perceived quality. H3-2: It is expected that PB and NB would have different influence in terms of brand reputation on perceived quality. H4-1: Product experience has a positive effect on perceived quality. H4-2: It is expected that PB and NB would have different influence in terms of product experience on perceived quality. H5-1: Brand familiarity has a positive effect on perceived quality. H5-2: It is expected that PB and NB would have different influence in terms of brand familiarity on perceived quality. H6: Perceived quality has a positive effect on customer satisfaction. H7: Perceived quality has a positive effect on customer trust. H8: Perceived quality has a positive effect on customer loyalty. H9: Customer satisfaction has a positive effect on customer trust. H10: Customer satisfaction has a positive effect on customer loyalty. H11: Customer trust has a positive effect on customer loyalty. Results from analyzing main effects of research model is shown as