• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.3694-3722
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• 2022

In today's globalized world, there is no transparency in exchanging data and information between producers and consumers. However, these tasks experience many challenges, such as administrative barriers, confidential data leakage, and extensive time delays. To overcome these challenges, we propose a decentralized, secured, and verified smart chain framework using Ethereum Smart Contract which employs Inter Planetary File Systems (IPFS) and MongoDB as storage systems to automate the process and exchange information into blocks using the Tendermint algorithm. The proposed work promotes complete traceability of the product, ensures data integrity and transparency in addition to providing security to their personal information using the Lelantos mode of shipping. The Tendermint algorithm helps to speed up the process of validating and authenticating the transaction quickly. More so in this time of pandemic, it is easier to meet the needs of customers through the Ethermint Smart Chain, which increases customer satisfaction, thus boosting their confidence. Moreover, Smart contracts help to exploit more international transaction services and provide an instant block time finality of around 5 sec using Ethermint. The paper concludes with a description of product storage and distribution adopting the Ethermint technique. The proposed system was executed based on the Ethereum-Tendermint Smart chain. Experiments were conducted on variable block sizes and the number of transactions. The experimental results indicate that the proposed system seems to perform better than existing blockchain-based systems. Two configuration files were used, the first one was to describe the storage part, including its topology. The second one was a modified file to include the test rounds that Caliper should execute, including the running time and the workload content. Our findings indicate this is a promising technology for food supply chain storage and distribution.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.68-79
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• 2009

The interplay between hedonic and utilitarian attributes has assumed special significance in recent years; it has been proposed that consumption offerings should be viewed as experiences that stimulate both cognitions and feelings rather than as mere products or services. This research builds on previous work on hedonic versus utilitarian benefits, regulatory focus theory, customer satisfaction to address two question: (1) Is the shopping goal at the point of purchase different from the shopping value? and (2) Is the customer loyalty after the use different from the shopping value and shopping goal? We surveyed 345 peoples those who have bought the electronic-goods within 6 months. This research dealt with the shopping value which is consisted of 2 types, hedonic and utilitarian. Those who pursue the hedonic shopping value may prefer the pleasure of purchasing experience to the product itself. They tend to prefer atmosphere, arousal of the shopping experience. Consistent with previous research, we use the term "hedonic" to refer to their aesthetic, experiential and enjoyment-related value. On the contrary, Those who pursue the utilitarian shopping value may prefer the reasonable buying. It may be more functional. Consistent with previous research, we use the term "utilitarian" to refer to the functional, instrumental, and practical value of consumption offerings. Holbrook(1999) notes that consumer value is an experience that results from the consumption of such benefits. In the context of cell phones for example, the phone's battery life and sound volume are utilitarian benefits, whereas aesthetic appeal from its shape and color are hedonic benefits. Likewise, in the case of a car, fuel economics and safety are utilitarian benefits whereas the sunroof and the luxurious interior are hedonic benefits. The shopping goals are consisted of the promotion focus goal and the prevention focus goal, based on the self-regulatory focus theory. The promotion focus is characterized into focusing ideal self because they are oriented to wishes and vision. The promotion focused individuals are tend to be more risk taking. They are more sensitive to hope and achievement. On the contrary, the prevention focused individuals are characterized into focusing the responsibilities because they are oriented to safety. The prevention focused individuals are tend to be more risk avoiding. We wanted to test the relation among the shopping value, shopping goal and customer loyalty. Customers show the positive or negative feelings comparing with the expectation level which customers have at the point of the purchase. If the result were bigger than the expectation, customers may feel positive feeling such as delight or satisfaction and they would want to share their feelings with other people. And they want to buy those products again in the future time. There is converging evidence that the types of goals consumers expect to be fulfilled by the utilitarian dimension of a product are different from those they seek from the hedonic dimension (Chernev 2004). Specifically, whereas consumers expect the fulfillment of product prevention goals on the utilitarian dimension, they expect the fulfillment of promotion goals on the hedonic dimension (Chernev 2004; Chitturi, Raghunathan, and Majahan 2007; Higgins 1997, 2001) According to the regulatory focus theory, prevention goals are those that ought to be met. Fulfillment of prevention goals in the context of product consumption eliminates or significantly reduces the probability of a painful experience, thus making consumers experience emotions that result from fulfillment of prevention goals such as confidence and securities. On the contrary, fulfillment of promotion goals are those that a person aspires to meet, such as "looking cool" or "being sophisticated." Fulfillment of promotion goals in the context of product consumption significantly increases the probability of a pleasurable experience, thus enabling consumers to experience emotions that result from the fulfillment of promotion goals. The proposed conceptual framework captures that the relationships among hedonic versus utilitarian shopping values and promotion versus prevention shopping goals respectively. An analysis of the consequence of the fulfillment and frustration of utilitarian and hedonic value is theoretically worthwhile. It is also substantively relevant because it helps predict post-consumption behavior such as the promotion versus prevention shopping goals orientation. Because our primary goal is to understand how the post consumption feelings influence the variable customer loyalty: word of mouth (Jacoby and Chestnut 1978). This research result is that the utilitarian shopping value gives the positive influence to both of the promotion and prevention goal. However the influence to the prevention goal is stronger. On the contrary, hedonic shopping value gives influence to the promotion focus goal only. Additionally, both of the promotion and prevention goal show the positive relation with customer loyalty. However, the positive relation with promotion goal and customer loyalty is much stronger. The promotion focus goal gives the influence to the customer loyalty. On the contrary, the prevention focus goal relates at the low level of relation with customer loyalty than that of the promotion goal. It could be explained that it is apt to get framed the compliment of people into 'gain-non gain' situation. As the result, for those who have the promotion focus are motivated to deliver their own feeling to other people eagerly. Conversely the prevention focused individual are more sensitive to the 'loss-non loss' situation. The research result is consistent with pre-existent researches. There is a conceptual parallel between necessities-needs-utilitarian benefits and luxuries-wants-hedonic benefits (Chernev 2004; Chitturi, Raghunathan and Majaha 2007; Higginns 1997; Kivetz and Simonson 2002b). In addition, Maslow's hierarchy of needs and the precedence principle contends luxuries-wants-hedonic benefits higher than necessities-needs-utilitarian benefits. Chitturi, Raghunathan and Majaha (2007) show that consumers are focused more on the utilitarian benefits than on the hedonic benefits of a product until their minimum expectation of fulfilling prevention goals are met. Furthermore, a utilitarian benefit is a promise of a certain level of functionality by the manufacturer or the retailer. When the promise is not fulfilled, customers blame the retailer and/or the manufacturer. When negative feelings are attributable to an entity, customers feel angry. However in the case of hedonic benefit, the customer, not the manufacturer, determines at the time of purchase whether the product is stylish and attractive. Under such circumstances, customers are more likely to blame themselves than the manufacturer if their friends do not find the product stylish and attractive. Therefore, not meeting minimum utilitarian expectations of functionality generates a much more intense negative feelings, such as anger than a less intense feeling such as disappointment or dissatisfactions. The additional multi group analysis of this research shows the same result. Those who are unsatisfactory customers who have the prevention focused goal shows higher relation with WOM, comparing with satisfactory customers. The research findings in this article could have significant implication for the personal selling fields to increase the effectiveness and the efficiency of the sales such that they can develop the sales presentation strategy for the customers. For those who are the hedonic customers may be apt to show more interest to the promotion goal. Therefore it may work to strengthen the design, style or new technology of the products to the hedonic customers. On the contrary for the utilitarian customers, it may work to strengthen the price competitiveness. On the basis of the result from our studies, we demonstrated a correspondence among hedonic versus utilitarian and promotion versus prevention goal, WOM. Similarly, we also found evidence of the moderator effects of satisfaction after use, between the prevention goal and WOM. Even though the prevention goal has the low level of relation to WOM, those who are not satisfied show higher relation to WOM. The relation between the prevention goal and WOM is significantly different according to the satisfaction versus unsatisfaction. In addition, improving the promotion emotions of cheerfulness and excitement and the prevention emotion of confidence and security will further improve customer loyalty. A related potential further research could be to examine whether hedonic versus utilitarian, promotion versus prevention goals improve customer loyalty for services as well. Under the budget and time constraints, designers and managers are often compelling to choose among various attributes. If there is no budget or time constraints, perhaps the best solution is to maximize both hedonic and utilitarian dimension of benefits. However, they have to make trad-off process between various attributes. For the designers and managers have to keep in mind that without hedonic benefit satisfaction of the product it may hard to lead the customers to the customer loyalty.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.43-50
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• 2012

This study sets out to examine how a brand image that matches the advertising model has a positive impact on brand attitude and price fairness perceptions. We reviewed the constructs on the basis of previous studies and each of the concepts has been redefined. One such concept, "image congruence," refers to the harmony, fitness, and matching quality of images. For example, how well celebrity advertising model is matches the brand image shows image congruence. Results are summarized as follows: First, the congruence of brand image and sports advertising model has no significant impact on brand attitude certainty and persistence. Second, the individual's brand attitude certainty and brand attitude persistence has a positive impact on the perceptions of price fairness. Third, the congruence of brand image and sports advertising model has a positive impact on the perceptions of price fairness. The first and the third results suggest that the positive impact on the price fairness perceptions is temporary but it has insignificant effects on the formation of brand attitude causing ongoing purchases. In other words, in order to influence consumers' long-term confidence on the brand, improving the quality of products or services has to precede promotional strategies such as advertising. When an advertising model is inappropriate for the brand image, consumers perceive product price changes as a negative issue in the short term. However, in the long term, attitude formation such as consumers' repurchase intentions and word of mouth will be not affected. The second result suggests that an already existing positive brand attitude can contribute more positively to change the perceptions of price fairness. In particular, attitude persistence has greater influence than attitude certainty on the price fairness. It suggests that persistence issues such as the trading period and the frequency of transactions must be managed and controlled because they are more important than the certainty issues such as strength of belief or trust. For example, when a commercial model for expensive sporting goods matches up with the brand image, consumer feels less pressure on the price changes. However, it does not determine the consumer's repeated purchases or sustainable transactions and it also has no absolute impact on the brand trust. In other words, consumer brand attitude should be recognized and approached as a routine strategy in view of the result that it is of great value as a causal variable in the process of consumer decision-making.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.1-15
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• 2021

If it is difficult for us to make decisions, we ask for advice from friends or people around us. When we decide to buy products online, we read anonymous reviews and buy them. With the advent of the Data-driven era, IT technology's development is spilling out many data from individuals to objects. Companies or individuals have accumulated, processed, and analyzed such a large amount of data that they can now make decisions or execute directly using data that used to depend on experts. Nowadays, the recommender system plays a vital role in determining the user's preferences to purchase goods and uses a recommender system to induce clicks on web services (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Youtube). For example, Youtube's recommender system, which is used by 1 billion people worldwide every month, includes videos that users like, "like" and videos they watched. Recommended system research is deeply linked to practical business. Therefore, many researchers are interested in building better solutions. Recommender systems use the information obtained from their users to generate recommendations because the development of the provided recommender systems requires information on items that are likely to be preferred by the user. We began to trust patterns and rules derived from data rather than empirical intuition through the recommender systems. The capacity and development of data have led machine learning to develop deep learning. However, such recommender systems are not all solutions. Proceeding with the recommender systems, there should be no scarcity in all data and a sufficient amount. Also, it requires detailed information about the individual. The recommender systems work correctly when these conditions operate. The recommender systems become a complex problem for both consumers and sellers when the interaction log is insufficient. Because the seller's perspective needs to make recommendations at a personal level to the consumer and receive appropriate recommendations with reliable data from the consumer's perspective. In this paper, to improve the accuracy problem for "appropriate recommendation" to consumers, the recommender systems are proposed in combination with context-based deep learning. This research is to combine user-based data to create hybrid Recommender Systems. The hybrid approach developed is not a collaborative type of Recommender Systems, but a collaborative extension that integrates user data with deep learning. Customer review data were used for the data set. Consumers buy products in online shopping malls and then evaluate product reviews. Rating reviews are based on reviews from buyers who have already purchased, giving users confidence before purchasing the product. However, the recommendation system mainly uses scores or ratings rather than reviews to suggest items purchased by many users. In fact, consumer reviews include product opinions and user sentiment that will be spent on evaluation. By incorporating these parts into the study, this paper aims to improve the recommendation system. This study is an algorithm used when individuals have difficulty in selecting an item. Consumer reviews and record patterns made it possible to rely on recommendations appropriately. The algorithm implements a recommendation system through collaborative filtering. This study's predictive accuracy is measured by Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) and Mean Absolute Error (MAE). Netflix is strategically using the referral system in its programs through competitions that reduce RMSE every year, making fair use of predictive accuracy. Research on hybrid recommender systems combining the NLP approach for personalization recommender systems, deep learning base, etc. has been increasing. Among NLP studies, sentiment analysis began to take shape in the mid-2000s as user review data increased. Sentiment analysis is a text classification task based on machine learning. The machine learning-based sentiment analysis has a disadvantage in that it is difficult to identify the review's information expression because it is challenging to consider the text's characteristics. In this study, we propose a deep learning recommender system that utilizes BERT's sentiment analysis by minimizing the disadvantages of machine learning. This study offers a deep learning recommender system that uses BERT's sentiment analysis by reducing the disadvantages of machine learning. The comparison model was performed through a recommender system based on Naive-CF(collaborative filtering), SVD(singular value decomposition)-CF, MF(matrix factorization)-CF, BPR-MF(Bayesian personalized ranking matrix factorization)-CF, LSTM, CNN-LSTM, GRU(Gated Recurrent Units). As a result of the experiment, the recommender system based on BERT was the best.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.1-27
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• 2017

It is known that the economic sentiment index and macroeconomic indicators are closely related because economic agent's judgment and forecast of the business conditions affect economic fluctuations. For this reason, consumer sentiment or confidence provides steady fodder for business and is treated as an important piece of economic information. In Korea, private consumption accounts and consumer sentiment index highly relevant for both, which is a very important economic indicator for evaluating and forecasting the domestic economic situation. However, despite offering relevant insights into private consumption and GDP, the traditional approach to measuring the consumer confidence based on the survey has several limits. One possible weakness is that it takes considerable time to research, collect, and aggregate the data. If certain urgent issues arise, timely information will not be announced until the end of each month. In addition, the survey only contains information derived from questionnaire items, which means it can be difficult to catch up to the direct effects of newly arising issues. The survey also faces potential declines in response rates and erroneous responses. Therefore, it is necessary to find a way to complement it. For this purpose, we construct and assess an index designed to measure consumer economic sentiment index using sentiment analysis. Unlike the survey-based measures, our index relies on textual analysis to extract sentiment from economic and financial news articles. In particular, text data such as news articles and SNS are timely and cover a wide range of issues; because such sources can quickly capture the economic impact of specific economic issues, they have great potential as economic indicators. There exist two main approaches to the automatic extraction of sentiment from a text, we apply the lexicon-based approach, using sentiment lexicon dictionaries of words annotated with the semantic orientations. In creating the sentiment lexicon dictionaries, we enter the semantic orientation of individual words manually, though we do not attempt a full linguistic analysis (one that involves analysis of word senses or argument structure); this is the limitation of our research and further work in that direction remains possible. In this study, we generate a time series index of economic sentiment in the news. The construction of the index consists of three broad steps: (1) Collecting a large corpus of economic news articles on the web, (2) Applying lexicon-based methods for sentiment analysis of each article to score the article in terms of sentiment orientation (positive, negative and neutral), and (3) Constructing an economic sentiment index of consumers by aggregating monthly time series for each sentiment word. In line with existing scholarly assessments of the relationship between the consumer confidence index and macroeconomic indicators, any new index should be assessed for its usefulness. We examine the new index's usefulness by comparing other economic indicators to the CSI. To check the usefulness of the newly index based on sentiment analysis, trend and cross - correlation analysis are carried out to analyze the relations and lagged structure. Finally, we analyze the forecasting power using the one step ahead of out of sample prediction. As a result, the news sentiment index correlates strongly with related contemporaneous key indicators in almost all experiments. We also find that news sentiment shocks predict future economic activity in most cases. In almost all experiments, the news sentiment index strongly correlates with related contemporaneous key indicators. Furthermore, in most cases, news sentiment shocks predict future economic activity; in head-to-head comparisons, the news sentiment measures outperform survey-based sentiment index as CSI. Policy makers want to understand consumer or public opinions about existing or proposed policies. Such opinions enable relevant government decision-makers to respond quickly to monitor various web media, SNS, or news articles. Textual data, such as news articles and social networks (Twitter, Facebook and blogs) are generated at high-speeds and cover a wide range of issues; because such sources can quickly capture the economic impact of specific economic issues, they have great potential as economic indicators. Although research using unstructured data in economic analysis is in its early stages, but the utilization of data is expected to greatly increase once its usefulness is confirmed.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.232-239
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• 2017

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Increased consumption of instant noodles has recently been reported to be positively associated with obesity and cardiometabolic syndrome in South Korea, which has the highest per capita instant noodle consumption worldwide. This study aimed to investigate the association between instant noodle consumption and cardiometabolic risk factors among college students in Seoul. SUBJECTS/METHODS: The study subjects consisted of 3,397 college students (1,782 male; 1,615 female) aged 18-29 years who participated in a health checkup. Information on instant noodle consumption was obtained from the participants' answers to a question about their average frequency of instant noodle intake over the 1 year period prior to the survey. RESULTS: Statistical analysis using a general linear model that adjusted for age, body mass index, gender, family income, health-related behaviors, and other dietary factors important for cardiometabolic risk, showed a positive association between the frequency of instant noodle consumption and plasma triglyceride levels, diastolic blood pressure, and fasting blood glucose levels in all subjects. Compared to the group with the lowest frequency of instant noodle intake (${\leq}1/month$), the odds ratio for hypertriglyceridemia in the group with an intake of ${\geq}3/week$ was 2.639 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.393-5.000] for all subjects, while it was 2.149 (95% CI, 1.045-4.419) and 5.992 (95% CI, 1.859-21.824) for male and female students, respectively. In female students, diastolic blood pressure was also higher among more frequent consumers of instant noodles. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that frequent consumption of instant noodles may be associated with increased cardiometabolic risk factors among apparently healthy college students aged 18-29 years.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.69-77
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• 2015

Purpose - Economic status at an early stage of life after one's retirement is often determined by the long-term sacrifice of one's earlier consumption tendencies. In general, the first and foremost way to secure income after retirement is through annuity savings. People sign up for personal annuity savings in order to guarantee a stable economic life upon retirement, and such actions may be heavily influenced by self-efficacy. Confidence in current economic activity is a source of rational decision-making. Inability to achieve self-control can lead to reckless spending and the eventual hindering of proper investment for the future. This paper examines how self-efficacy and self-control affect the intention and action of enrolling in an annuity savings plan in relation to one's level of financial literacy. Research design, data, and methodology - To analyze the proposed model, this study investigates financial consumers over the age of 20. The data were collected from 511 respondents and analyzed with SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 21.0. First, for the one-dimensional test and to measure the convergent validity of each structure, we use the scale purification process. The results of the test and the confirmatory factor analysis ensure the focus of the validity of the single dimension for each structure. In addition, the validity of the measurement was guaranteed from the results of correlation analysis. Results - First, self-efficacy and self-control have positive effects on the purchasing intention of the personal annuity savings plan. Second, purchasing intention positively affects purchasing behavior. Lastly, self-control has a positive effect on purchasing intention among the low financial literacy group, whereas self-efficacy does not have this effect in the high financial literacy one. Conclusions - The time of product benefit is different with age. The younger group would be granted the savings after several decades once they enroll, whereas the older group would wait for a relatively shorter period of time. Therefore, further research should be conducted in order to verify such a difference. However, this study has value through its confirmation that the roles of self-efficacy and self-control play a part in leading to the enrollment in annuity savings plans and by verifying different effects based on levels of financial literacy. Such results suggest a number of implications in a real life setting. First, banks need to put greater emphasis on the stability of annuity savings in general. Second, customers with relatively low levels of financial literacy are able to control their finances through annuity savings, but find self-efficacy difficult due to a lack of financial understanding. Therefore, such customers should be approached from an invest-effectiveness comparison method. Third, customers with high financial literacy tend to put more value in rational economic decision-making and behavior than in self-efficacy. Therefore, such customers should be approached by promoting the reliability of annuity savings and the excellence of the specific bank's annuity savings plan in comparison to those of other financial institutions.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.113-130
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• 2011

Due to the development of information and communication technology, the global influence on politics, economics, society, and culture has grown. A major example of this impact on the economic sector is the growth of e-commerce, which increases both the speed and efficiency of businesses. In light of these new developments, businesses need to shift away from the misconception that information overwhelms to embrace the enhanced competitiveness that e-commerce provides. However, concern about fraudulent transactions through e-commerce is pertinent because of the loss in both critical revenue and consumer confidence in open markets. Current solutions for fraudulent transactions include real-time monitoring and processing, payment pending, and confirmation through SMS, E-mail, and other wired means. Our research focuses on the management of Fraud Detection Systems (FDS) to safeguard online electronic payment systems. With effective implementation of our research we hope to foster an honorable online trading culture and protect consumers. Future comparative research in domestic and abroad markets would provide further insight into preventing fraudulent transactions.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.103-117
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• 2021

Nuts are cholesterol free with high poly-unsaturated fatty acids(PUFA) and have lower intakes of sodium than non-consumers, and thus they can decrease blood pressure. Hypertension is a common primary diagnosis in Korea. Because of extending exposure to 24-hour raised blood pressure and heart rate hypertension is likely to be caused by prolonged short sleep durations. This study examined the relationship between nut consumption and hypertension according to sleep duration among Korean adult. Based on data from the 2010-2016 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey(KNHANES), the final analytic sample(n=25,359) was used for current analysis. The dietary intake was assessed through a 24-hour recall method. Associations of nut consumption with sleep duration and hypertension were determined using multiple logistic regression with odds ratio(95% CI). All the analyses were carried out in SAS version 9.4, and the significance level was set at p<0.05. With increasing nut intake, the prevalence of hypertension significantly decreased(p for trend=0.02). After controlling for sleep duration, the nut consumption showed significant association with the prevalence of hypertension when sleep duration was 6 to 6.9 h per day(p for trend=0.03) or 7 to 7.9 h per day(p for trend=0.03). In conclusion, dietary total nut intake was found to be significantly associated with the prevalence of hypertension.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.267-273
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• 2022

In this study, a quality evaluation was conducted to change the sell-by date of fish cakes to the use-by date. For product quality evaluation, storage conditions were set at 5, 10, and 15 ℃, and five tests of pH, acid value, volatile basic nitrogen, bacterial count, and coliform group were performed. As a result of the experiment, the quality safety limit period of fish cakes stored at 5 ℃ was 43 days, that of fish cakes stored at 10 ℃ were 30 days, and that of fish cakes stored at 15 ℃ was 7 days. Among the five test items used for quality evaluation, the quality-limit indicators were acid value, number of bacteria, and coliform groups. The index that determined the quality safety-limit period under the three storage conditions was the bacterial count. The sell-by date of the fish cake used in this experiment was 10 days. However, through quality evaluation, the use-by date at 10 ℃ was 28.5 days, which was calculated by multiplying the 30 days; the quality limit period, by a safety factor of 0.95. However, this study conducted a quality study on one item of fish cakes from a single company, and it was difficult to use the quality safety-limit period and use-by date set in this study universally. To change the sell-by date to the use-by date, extensive quality research on various products will be required. If this system is well established, it can help reduce food waste through proper consumption of food, and consumers will be able to consume food with confidence.