• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.27-39
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• 2009

Compulsive consumption is regarded as a global phenomenon that can adversely affect consumer well-being. Although the topic has been studied in different cultural settings, we have seen relatively little theory development and explanations of compulsive behavior Nearly all previous empirical studies attempt to explain this behavior by correlating measures of compulsive behavior with independent variables taken within the same time frame. However, recent developments in social sciences suggest that such a phenomenon may best understood in the context of the person's earlier-in-life experiences. Using the life course paradigm as an overarching framework, the present research extends previous work on this topic. Following hypotheses were drawn from literature review: H1: The earlier in childhood and adolescence a person experiences family dislocation, the greater his or her likelihood of exhibiting compulsive behaviors in adulthood. H2: The earlier in life the young person experienced family dislocation, the greater the number of family disruption events the young person experienced prior entering adulthood years. H3: Family dislocation leads to (a) increased frequency of socio.oriented family communications and (b) decreased frequency of concept-oriented family communication. H4: Young adults who were raised in families characterized by a strong socio-oriented communication structure are more likely to exhibit compulsive consumption tendencies than those who were raised in families characterized by a weak socio-oriented family communication structure. H5: Young adults who were raised in families characterized by a strong concept-oriented communication structure are less likely to exhibit compulsive consumption tendencies than those who were raised in families characterized by a week concept-oriented family communication structure. H6: The relationship between family disruption events experienced during adolescence and perceived stressfulness of these events is moderated by (a) global family support, (b) emotional family support, and (c) material family support. Those reporting higher levels of family support as teenagers are less likely to report experiencing stress due to family disruption events. H7: Perceived stressfulness of family disruption events experienced during adolescent years are associated with compulsive consumption tendencies in early adulthood. H8: The greater the number of family disruption events young adults experienced during their adolescent years the more frequent was their communication about consumption with their peers. H9: The more frequent was the young persons' communication with their peers about consumption during their adolescent years, the more likely they are to report compulsive buying tendencies as young adults. We use a sample of 120 Thai undergraduate students attending classes taught in English as part of a four-year international program. Product-moment correlations, hierarchical regression analysis and partial correlation were used to analyze data. Results of testing hypotheses showed that hypothesis 2, 4, 7 and 9 were supported and hypothesis 1, 3, 5, 6 and 8 were not supported. Our study did not find a significant relationship between the age when a person experienced family dislocation and their compulsive behavior tendencies expressed as young adults. We did not find a significant relationship between family dislocation and family communication structures. But we found a significant positive relationship between socio-oriented communication structure and compulsive buying and a significant relationship between our peer communication and compulsive buying measures. Also we found perceived stressfulness due to the disruptive events to have a significant positive relationship between the perceived stressfulness and compulsive buying. Implications from these findings, limitations of this research and future research suggestions were discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Sciences Society Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.2-4
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• 1998

Proliferation of Nocardia amarae cells in activated sludge has often been associated with the generation of nuisance foams. Despite intense research activities in recent years to examine the causes and control of Nocardia foaming in activated sludge, the foaming continued to persist throughout the activated sludge treatment plants in United States. In addition to causing various operational problems to treatment processes, the presence of Nocardia may have secondary effects on the fate of heavy metals that are not well known. For example, for treatment plants facing more stringent metal removal requirements, potential metal removal by Nocardia cells in foaming activated sludge would be a welcome secondary effect. In contrast, with new viosolid disposal regulations in place (Code o( Federal Regulation No. 503), higher concentration of metals in biosolids from foaming activated sludge could create management problems. The goal of this research was to investigate the metal sorption property of Nocardia amarae cells grown in batch reactors and in chemostat reactors. Specific surface area and metal sorption characteristics of N. amarae cells harvested at various growth stages were compared. Three metals examined in this study were copper, cadmium and nickel. Nocardia amarae strain (SRWTP isolate) used in this study was obtained from the University of California at Berkeley. The pure culture was grown in 4L batch reactor containing mineral salt medium with sodium acetate as the sole carbon source. In order to quantify the sorption of heavy metal ions to N amarae cell surfaces, cells from the batch reactor were harvested, washed, and suspended in 30mL centrifuge tubes. Metal sorption studies were conducted at pH 7.0 and ionlc strength of 10-2M. The sorption Isotherm showed that the cells harvested from the stationary and endogenous growth phase exhibited significantly higher metal sorption capacity than the cells from the exponential phase. The sequence of preferential uptake of metals by N. amarae cells was Cu>Cd>Ni. The specific surFace area of Nocardia cells was determined by a dye adsorption method. N.amarae cells growing at ewponential phase had significantly less specific surface area than that of stationary phase, indicating that the lower metal sorption capacity of Nocardia cells growing at exponential phase may be due to the lower specific surface area. The growth conditions of Nocardia cells in continuous culture affect their cell surface properties, thereby governing the adsorption capacity of heavy metal. The comparison of dye sorption isotherms for Nocardia cells growing at various growth rates revealed that the cell surface area increased with increasing sludge age, indicating that the cell surface area is highly dependent on the steady-state growth rate. The highest specific surface area of 199m21g was obtained from N.amarae cell harvested at 0.33 day-1 of growth rate. This result suggests that growth condition not only alters the structure of Nocardia cell wall but also affects the surface area, thus yielding more binding sites of metal removal. After reaching the steady-state condition at dilution rate, metal adsorption isotherms were used to determine the equilibrium distributions of metals between aqueous and Nocardia cell surfaces. The metal sorption capacity of Nocardia biomass harvested from 0.33 day-1 of growth rate was significantly higher than that of cells harvested from 0.5- and 1-day-1 operation, indicatng that N.amarae cells with a lower growth rate have higher sorpion capacity. This result was in close agreement with the trend observed from the batch study. To evaluate the effect of Nocardia cells on the metal binding capacity of activated sludge, specific surface area and metal sorption capacity of the mixture of Nocardia pure cultures and activated sludge biomass were determined by a series of batch experiments. The higher levels of Nocardia cells in the Nocardia-activated sludge samples resulted in the higher specific surface area, explaining the higher metal sorption sites by the mixed luquor samples containing greater amounts on Nocardia cells. The effect of Nocardia cells on the metal sorption capacity of activated sludge was evaluated by spiking an activated sludge sample with various amounts of pre culture Nocardia cells. The results of the Langmuir isotherm model fitted to the metal sorption by various mixtures of Nocardia and activated sludge indicated that the mixture containing higher Nocardia levels had higher metal adsorption capacity than the mixture containing lower Nocardia levels. At Nocardia levels above 100mg/g VSS, the metal sorption capacity of activate sludge increased proportionally with the amount of Noeardia cells present in the mixed liquor, indicating that the presence of Nocardia may increase the viosorption capacity of activated sludge.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.51 no.12
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• pp.1315-1319
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• 2008

Purpose : We aimed to examine the effect of rooming-in care on newborn infants emotional stability by comparing them with those cared for in a nursery. Methods : Forty-eight full-term newborn infants born at Cheil General Hospital between July 1 and October 31, 2007, were enrolled. Twenty-four newborn infants were roomed-in in their mothers rooms (rooming-in group), and 24 newborns were cared for in the hospital nursery (the nursery group) for the first 3 days of their lives. Those with perinatal problems that required medical treatment were excluded. By using Brazeltons neonatal behavior assessment scale, we measured irritability and self-quieting as well as the duration of crying after heel-stick puncture for the newborn metabolic screening test. Results : The rooming-in group had a higher irritability score than the nursery group ($6.8{\pm}1.7$ vs. $4.2{\pm}2.1$, P<0.001), thereby suggesting stable behavior against external irritation; the former also had a higher self-quieting activity score ($5.9{\pm}0.3$ vs. $4.5{\pm}1.8$, P=0.001), thereby suggesting that stability was reached quickly from the irritated state. Time taken to stop crying after the heel-stick puncture was significantly shorter in the rooming-in group than in the nursery group ($17{\pm}15.1$ seconds vs. $115.3{\pm}98.5$ seconds, P<0.001). Conclusion : These results show that newborn infants in the rooming-in group exhibit more stable behavior against external irritation and can be stabilized from an irritated state more quickly than infants cared for in the nursery, even after a few days of rooming-in care.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.77-98
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• 1998

In general, spatial imbalance in regional growth is a major cause of social and political conflicts within a state. In Korea, this inequality has functioned as a threat to the state's integration. With the economic development policies by regional industrialization over the past three decades, most of the industrial activities have been concentrated in Seoul and Pusan metropolitan areas, which are surrounded by Kyonggi, Kyongnam provinces respectively. Compared to these areas, Chonnam and Chonbuk provinces have lagged behind in economic development. Therefore, in order to increase the regional economic development of the southwestern region in Korea, the central government has been enforcing several policies aimed at regional industrialization since the 1980s. The purpose of this study focuses on the regional economic impacts of a newly established industrial estate-Yulchon industrial complex- which would act as a regional growth center in the Kwangyang bay area. The Kwangyang bay area consists of several industrial estates such as Kwangyang Iron and Steel Co. and its related industrial complex, Chuam rural industrial estate, Yeochon industrial complex, and so on. In addition, the Kwangyang container port was constructed in 1997. The Kwangyang bay area has been changing to a new industrial district in the southwestern part of Korea as a result of industrialization policies which were activated by central government. The Yulchon industrial complex, which is expected to be completed in 2001, would draw many manufacturing plants. For example, Hyundai Motors Co. has a plan to locate a new automobile assembly plant within the estate. As the plan has high probability to be realized, it will be interesting to study the effects a new automobile assembly plant and its related production linkages have on the region. This study is to estimate the expected structural characteristics of automobile production activities in Yulchon. The following details will be discussed: the regional economic impacts of a new automobile industry in Yulchon industrial complex, the production linkage formation via hierarchical subcontracting systems, the alternative strategies to promote the growth of regional economies, and the scheme to improve the auto-parts and components industry in Kwangju and Chonnam provinces by establishing auto-mobile production function. Automoblie industry generally gives great influences on not only regional economies but the related industries, for example, the firms producing automotive components. If a new plant producing automobiles and its related firms producing components are to be established in Yulchon, they will affect on the regional development directions and change the regional characteristics of industrial structure. In order to increase the spread effects of the new industry in Yulchon industrial complex, almost all of the automobile production processes must be organized concurrently within a limited range of distance. There is an imperative that the co-operation system should be structured between the assembly firm and many firms producing its components. In addition to those, it would be required such as the effective division of labors between the firms, much more capabilities in the technical innovations, and the reconstruction of interrelationship between the labor unions and the firms' managers.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.788-818
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• 2009

Renewable energy refers to solar energy, biomass energy, hydrogen energy, wind power, fuel cell, coal liquefaction and vaporization, marine energy, waste energy, and liquidity fuel made out of byproduct of geothermal heat, hydrogen and coal; it excludes energy based on coal, oil, nuclear energy and natural gas. Developed countries have recognized the importance of these energies and thus have set the mid to long term plans to develop and commercialize the technology and supported them with drastic political and financial measures. Considering the growing recognition to the field, it is necessary to analysis up-to-now achievement of the government's related projects, in the standards of type of renewable energy, management of sectional goals, and its commercialization. Korean government is chiefly following suit the USA and British policies of developing and distributing renewable energy. However, unlike Japan which is in the lead role in solar rays industry, it still lacks in state-directed support, participation of enterprises and social recognition. The research regarding renewable energy has mainly examinedthe state of supply of each technology and suitability of specific region for applying the technology. The evaluation shows that the research has been focused on supply and demand of renewable as well as general energy and solution for the enhancement of supply capacity in certain area. However, in-depth study for commercialization and the increase of capacity in industry followed by development of the technology is still inadequate. 'Cost-benefit model for each energy source' is used in analysis of technology development of renewable energy and quantitative and macro economical effects of its commercialization in order to foresee following expand in related industries and increase in added value. First, Investment on the renewable energy technology development is in direct proportion both to the product and growth, but product shows slightly higher index under the same amount of R&D investment than growth. It indicates that advance in technology greatly influences the final product, the energy growth. Moreover, while R&D investment on renewable energy product as well as the government funds included in the investment have proportionate influence on the renewable energy growth, private investment in the total amount invested has reciprocal influence. This statistic shows that research and development is mainly driven by government funds rather than private investment. Finally, while R&D investment on renewable energy growth affects proportionately, government funds and private investment shows no direct relations, which indicates that the effects of research and development on renewable energy do not affect government funds or private investment. All of the results signify that although it is important to have government policy in technology development and commercialization, private investment and active participation of enterprises are the key to the success in the industry.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.10-30
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• 2001

Oriental medicine needs to be armed with theories on health-improvement concept under it and basic data matching its views, in order to participate in the health-improvement service in industrial work places. The Orient medicine health-improvement program defines factors that determine individuals' lifestyle, and provides information and technologies for workers to practice in life. To that end, this research compares and analyzes health-improvement concept and health care, defines relations between individuals' health state and their lifestyle as the basic data needed to perform health-improvement business for workers. 1. The subjects employed for this research is categorized into; by gender, males 52.1% and females 47.9% with no big difference between them; and by age, 20s, 6.1%, 30s. 33.9%, 40s, 34.1%, and 50s, 24.8% with 30-50 accounting for most of it. By marriage status, unmarried represents 7.1%, and married 79.1% with most of them married; by revenue, under one million won represents 3.0%, 1-2 million won 26.4%, 2-2.49 million won 11.2%, above 2.5 million won 11.2%, and 1-2.5 million won a majority. By living location, owned houses represents 65.4%, rented houses 14.7%, monthly-rented 9.5%; and by education, elementary and middle school represent 16.9%, high school and its dropouts 22.6%, and junior college and higher 51.6%, with high school and higher occupying most of the group. 2. By job, office workers and managerial workers represent 12.3%, part-timers 21.0%, manual workers 11.4%, jobless 0.6%, professionals 35.6%, service 0.6%, housewives 8.4%, and equipment/machinery operation/assemblers 10.1%. Of this, jobless and part-timers, totaling three, are dropped from this research. By years worked, 0-3.9 years represents 9.7%, 4-7.9 years 6.7%, 8-14.9 years 18.4%, above 15 years 28.7%, and no respondents 36.5%. 3. The degree of the subjects practicing life-improvement lifestyle, on a scale of 1 to 4, is an average of 2.69, personal relations 3.04, self-realization 2.92, stress management 2.76, nutritional state 2.73, responsibility for health 2.47, and athletic activities 2.18, with personal relations earning the highest points and athletic activities the lowest. As for factors influencing health-improvement lifestyle, there is no significant difference between gender, age, and marriage status. Meanwhile, there is significant difference between revenue, dwelling pattern, education level, etc. That is, higher income-bracket, owned houses, rented houses, monthly-rented houses, and higher-educated, in this order, show higher average in health-enhancement lifestyle. By job, housewives, manual workers, office workers, professionals, equipment/ machinery operation/ assemblers, and part-timers, in this order show higher points, while there is no difference with significance by years worked. 4. Factors that affect health-improvement lifestyle are shown below. Self-realization is influenced by age, marriage status, type of dwellings, and level of education; responsibility for health by type of dwellings; athletic activities by gender and age; nutrition by age, marriage status and type of dwellings; personal relations by marriage status; and stress management by type of dwellings. 5. Areas with high points by job show this: in self-realization, office workers, manual workers, housewives, professionals, equipment/ machinery operation/ assemblers, in this order, show difference with significance; in the area of responsibility for health, manual workers, housewives, equipment/ machinery operation/ assemblers, professionals, office workers and part-timers, in this order, do. In athletic activities, manual workers, housewives, office workers, professionals, equipment/ machinery operation/ assemblers, and part-timers, in this order, show difference with significance; in nutrition, housewives, office workers, manual workers, professionals, equipment/ machinery operation/ assemblers, and part-timers, in this order do; and in stress, housewives, office workers, manual workers, professionals, equipment/ machinery operation/ assemblers, part-timers, in this order do. By years worked, more years showed higher points in the area of responsibility for health and nutrition; in the area of athletic activities, above 15 years, 4-8 years, below 4 years and 8-14 years, in this order, show higher points; and no difference shows in realization, personal relation, and stress area. 6. To look at correlation between overall and divisional health-improvement practice degree, this researcher has analyzed it using Person's correlation coefficient. Self-realization, responsibility for health, athletic activities, nutrition, support for personal relations, and stress management show significant correlation with the sub-divisions, while all health-improvement lifestyle shows significant correlation with the six sub-divisions.

• Proceedings of the Mineralogical Society of Korea Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.38-39
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• 2001

The seasonal changes in pH, Fe, Al and SO$_4$$\^$2-/ contents of acid drainage released from coal mine dumps play a major role in precipitation of metal hydroxides in the Taebaek coal field area, southeastern Korea. Precipitates in the creeks underwent a cycle of the color change showing white, reddish brown and brownish yellow, which depends on geochemical factors of the creek waters. White precipitates consist of Al-sulfate (basaluminite and hydrobasaluminite) and reddish brown ones are composed of ferrihydrite and brownish yellow ones are of schwertmannite. Goethite coprecipitates with ferrihydrite and schwertmannite. Ferrihydrite formed at higher values than pH 5.3 and schwertmannite precipitated below pH 4.3, and goethite formed at the intermediate pH range between the two minerals. With the pH being increased from acid to intermediate regions, Fe is present both as schwertmannite and goethite. From the present observation, the most favorable pH that basauluminte can precipitate is in the range of pH 4.45-5.95. SEM examination of precipitates at stream bottom shows that they basically consist of agglomerates of spheroid and rod-shape bacteria. Bacteria species are remarkably different among bottom precipitates and, to a less extent, there are slightly different chemical compositions even within the same bacteria. The speciation and calculation of the mineral saturation index were made using MINTEQA2. In waters associated with yellowish brown precipitates mainly composed of schwertmannite, So$_4$ species is mostly free So$_4$$\^$2-/ ion with less AlSo$_4$$\^$+/, CaSo$\sub$(aq)/, and MgSo$\sub$4(aq)/. Ferrous iron is present mostly as free Fe$\^$2+/, and FeSo$\sub$4(aq)/ and ferric iron exists predominantly as Fe(OH)$_2$$\^$+/, with less FeSo$\sub$4(aq)/, Fe(OH)$_2$$\^$-/, FeSo$_4$$\^$-/ and Fe$\^$3+/, respectively Al exists as free Al$\^$3+/, AlOH$_2$$\^$-/, (AlSo$_4$)$\^$+/, and Al(So$_4$)$\^$2-/. Fe is generally saturated with respect to hematite, magnetite, and goethite, with nearly saturation with lepidocrocite. Aluminum and sulfate are supersaturated with respect to predominant alunite and less jubanite, and they approach a saturation state with respect to diaspore, gibbsite, boehmite and gypsum. In the case of waters associated with whitish precipitates mainly composed of basaluminite, Al is present as predominant Al$\^$3+/ and Al(SO$_4$)$\^$+/, with less Al(OH)$\^$2+/, Al(OH)$_2$$\^$+/ and Al(SO$_4$)$\^$2-/. According to calculation for the mineral saturation, aluminum and sulfate are greatly supersaturated with respect to basaluminite and alunite. Diaspore is flirty well supersaturated while jubanite, gibbsite, and boehmite are already supersaturated, and gypsum approaches its saturation state. The observation that the only mineral phase we can easily detect in the whitish precipitate is basaluminite suggests that growth rate of alunite is much slower than that of basaluminite. Neutralization of acid mine drainage due to the dilution caused by the dilution effect due to mixing of unpolluted waters prevails over the buffering effect by the dissolution of carbonate or aluminosilicates. The main factors to affect color change are variations in aqueous geochemistry, which are controlled by dilution effect due to rainfall, water mixng from adjacent creeks, and the extent to which water-rock interaction takes place with seasons. pH, Fe, Al and SO$_4$ contents of the creek water are the most important factors leading to color changes in the precipitates. A geochemical cycle showing color variations in the precipitates provides the potential control on acid mine drainage and can be applied as a reclamation tool in a temperate region with four seasons.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.27-54
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• 2011

This research attempted to present the efficiency of culture marketing to the organizations producing culture-art products and to the companies utilizing art and suggest the practical viewpoints to the culture and art policy agencies. The methodology used was to take an in-depth look at the consumer value cognition and benefits of culture-art products in contemporary consumption culture from a social context by conducting a total of 12 Focus Group Interviews, consisting of 58 males and females in their 10s~50s who can represent culture-art product consumers. The culture-art products refer to the artist's spiritual, actual act of creating or to the end products with economic exchange value. They are also sense goods and merit goods that affect the mental state of consumers. By looking at culture-art products as consumer merit goods, this research examined consumer value cognition of culture-art products based on the characteristics culture-art products. As a result, this research determined that consumers view culture-art products largely as 'aesthetic and sensuous merit goods', 'actual and individual merit goods', and 'social public property'. As 'aesthetic and sensuous merit goods', culture-art products are considered as the products of an artist's creative activities; as 'social public property', culture-art products have a public value in terms of ownership; and as 'actual and individual merit goods', culture-art products act on the spirit and reality of a consumer in terms of consumption. As a result of analyzing the benefits of culture-art products based on the above-mentioned consumer value cognition, it was observed that the benefits of culture-art-product consumption are chiefly divided into 'aesthetic character-oriented', 'social relationships-oriented', and 'individual benefits-oriented' depending on how consumers see culture-art products. A 3-conceptional structures model was constructed according to the relationship between consumer value cognition of culture-art products and the benefits. This research revealed that consumers who pursue the aesthetic value or sense of beauty as the central reason experience culture-art products themselves, enjoy intellectual quests, and pursue their satisfaction by expressing affection for and interests in culture-art products. On the other hand, consumers who pursue social value as the central reason as a means of communication by perceiving culture-art products as a public property of society, pursue sympathy with people close to them through the symbolic power of culture-art product consumption or the joy of self-display. Consumers who perceive art products as spiritual and actual merit goods and pursue consumer value as a central reason want to express their own personality, develop themselves, and differentiate themselves or identify themselves with others in the context of social relations for the ultimate goal of living a happy and satisfied life while pursuing to satisfy imminent and actual necessities as emotional stability and rest. The fact that culture-art product benefits could vary according to how a consumer perceives them implies that consumer value cognition of culture-art products and their benefits significant affect consumers' decision in choosing and consuming various culture-art products. It turned out that such benefits from the consumption of culture-art products reflect the complex contemporary consumption culture of rational consumption, symbolic consumption, experiential consumption, and social reflective consumption. This research identified conceptional structures of consumer value cognition on culture-art products and benefits that can be used for studying and understanding culture-art products consumers who pursue a variety of consumption values. They can also be used by private companies in utilizing art, as well as by national agencies in enhancing the population's quality of life. However, since this research could only conceptually grasp consumer perception of culture-art products and reveal the dimension of classification due to its own limitations arising from characteristic investigation, quantitative data on the benefits of culture-art product consumers should be measured in future studies through a quantitative investigation, while using the value cognition of culture-art products and the individual characteristics of consumers as variables based on this research.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.167-190
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• 2010

The research conducted here focuses on the effect of factors that affect the behavior of UCC (User Created Content) website users, other than user's rational recognition of how useful a UCC website can be. Most discussions in the existing literature on information systems have focused on users' evaluation how a UCC website can help to attain the users' own goals. However, there are other factors and this research pays attention to an individual's 'personality,' which is stable and biological in nature. Specifically, I have noted here that 'extroversion' and 'neuroticism,' the two common personality factors presented in Eysenck's most representative 'EPQ Model' and 'Big Five Model,' are the two personality factors that affect a site's 'usefulness,' by this I mean how useful does the user consider the website and its content. How useful a site is considered by the user is the other factor that has been regarded as the antecedent factor that influences the adoption of information systems in the existing MIS (Management Information System) research. Secondly, as using or creating a UCC website does not guarantee the user's or the creator's extrinsic motivation, unlike when using the information system within an organization, there is a greater likelihood that the increase in user's activities in relation to a UCC website is motivated by emotional factors rather than rational factors. Thus, I have decided to include the relationship between an individual's personality and what they find pleasurable in the research model. Thirdly, when based on the S-O-R Paradigm of Mehrabian and Russell, the two cognitive factors and emotional factors are finally affected by stimulus, and thus these factors ultimately have an effect on an individual's respondent behavior. Therefore, this research has presented an assumption that the recognition of how useful the site and content is and what emotional pleasure it provides will finally affect the behavior of the UCC website users. Finally, the relationship between the recognition of how useful a site is and how pleasurable it is to useand UCC usage may differ depending on certain situational conditions. In other words, the relationship between the three factors may vary according to how much users are involved in the creation of the website content. Creation thus emerges as the keyword of UCC. I analyzed the above relationships through the moderating variable of the user's involvement in the creation of the site. The research result shows the following: When it comes to the relationship between an individual's personality and what they find pleasurable it is extroverted users who have a greater likelihood to feel pleasure when using a UCC website, as was expected in this research. This in turn leads to a more active usage of the UCC web site because a person who is an extrovert likes to spend time on activities with other people, is sensitive to new experiences and stimuli and thus actively responds to these. An extroverted person accepts new UCC activities as part of his/her social life, rather than getting away from this new UCC environment. This is represented by the term 'Foxonomy' where the users meet a variety of users from all over the world and contact new types of content created by these users. However, neuroticism creates the opposite situation to that created by extroversion. The representative symptoms of neuroticism are instability, stress, and tension. These dispositions are more closely related to stress caused by a new environment rather than this creatingcuriosity or pleasure. Thus, neurotic persons have an uneasy feeling and will eventually avoid the situation where their own or others' daily lives are frequently exposed to the open web environment, this eventually makes them have a negative attitude towards the web environment. When it comes to an individual's personality and how useful site is, the two personality factors of extroversion and neuroticism both have a positive relationship with the recognition of how useful the site and its content is. The positive, curious, and social dispositions of extroverted persons tend to make them consider the future usefulness and possibilities of a new type of information system, or website, based on their positive attitude, which has a significant influence on the recognition of how useful these UCC sites are. Neuroticism also favorably affects how useful a UCC website can be through a different mechanism from that of extroversion. As the neurotic persons tend to feel uneasy and have much doubt about a new type of information system, they actively explore its usefulness in order to relieve their uncomfortable feelings. In other words, neurotic persons seek out how useful a site can be in order to secure their own stable feelings. Meanwhile, extroverted persons explore how useful a site can be because of their positive attitude and curiosity. As a lot of MIS research has revealed that the recognition of how useful a site can be and how pleasurable it can be to use have been proven to have a significant effect on UCC activity. However, the relationship between these factors reveals different aspects based on the user's involvement in creation. This factor of creationgauges the interest of users in the creation of UCC contents. Involvement is a variable that shows the level of an individual's mental effort in creating UCC contents. When a user is highly involved in the creation process and makes an enormous effort to create UCC content (classed a part of a high-involvement group), their own pleasure and recognition of how useful the site is have a significantly higher effect on the future usage of the UCC contents, more significantly than the users who sit back and just retrieve the UCC content created by others. The cognitive and emotional response of those in the low-involvement group is unlikely to last long,even if they recognize the contents of a UCC website is pleasurable and useful to them. However, the high-involvement group tends to participate in the creation and the usage of UCC more favorably, connecting the experience with their own goals. In this respect, this research presents an answer to the question; why so many people are participating in the usage of UCC, the representative form of the Web 2.0 that has drastically involved more and more people in the creation of UCC, even if they cannot gain any monetary or social compensation. Neither information system nor a website can succeed unless it secures a certain level of user base. Moreover, it cannot be further developed when the reasons, or problems, for people's participation are not suitably explored, even if it has a certain user base. Thus, what is significant in this research is that it has studied users' respondent behavior based on an individual's innate personality, emotion, and cognitive interaction, unlike the existing research that has focused on 'compensation' to explain users' participation with the UCC website. There are also limitations in this research. Firstly, I divided an individual's personality into extroversion and neuroticism; however, there are many other personal factors such as neuro-psychiatricism, which also needs to be analyzed for its influence on UCC activities. Secondly, as a UCC website comes in many types such as multimedia, Wikis, and podcasting, these types need to be included as a sub-category of the UCC websites and their relationship with personality, emotion, cognition, and behavior also needs to be analyzed.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.532-537
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• 2009

Previous studies reported that the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor is related to alcohol dependence in terms of developing withdrawal or tolerance, however, it is controversial whether NMDA receptor antagonists are effective in preventing relapse in alcohol-dependent patients or not. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of memantine, an NMDA receptor antagonist, on alcohol intake in C57BL/6 mice, which prefer drinking hereditarily. Using limited access procedures in C57BL/6 mice in the state of alcohol dependence, vehicle, naltrexone 1.0 mg/kg or, memantine 5, 25, or 50 mg/kg i.p. was administered respectively for twelve days. Medication effects on 2-hours alcohol, 22-hour water, and 24-hour food intake and body weight were studied. Using repeated measure ANOVA, the naltrexone 1 mg/kg, memantine 5, 25, or 50 mg/kg, and vehicle groups showed significant medication by day interaction (naltrexone, df=4, F=11.827, p<0.01, memantine 5 mg/kg, df=4, F=7.999, p<0.01; memantine 25 mg/kg, df=4, F=6.199, p<0.05; memantine 50 mg/kg, df=4, F=10.522, p<0.01) in 2-hour alcohol intake. In 3 memantine groups, there was no significant medication by day interaction with the vehicle group in 22-hour water intake, 24-hour food intake, or body weight. The naltrexone and vehicle groups showed significant medication by day interaction in body weight, but not in 22-hour water or 24-hour food intake. From these results, it is suggested that memantine treatment can affect alcohol intake in mice. Therefore, it is possible that a pure NMDA receptor antagonist is effective in preventing relapse in alcohol-dependent patients.