Application of unmanned helicopter on pest management in rice cultivation (무인 항공기 이용 벼 병해충 방제기술 연구)
-
- Journal of Practical Agriculture & Fisheries Research
- /
- v.10 no.1
- /
- pp.43-58
- /
- 2008
This research was conducted to determine the alternative tool of chemical spray for rice cultivation using the unmanned helicopter(Yamaha, R-Max Type 2G-remote controlled system) at farmer's field in Korea. The unmanned helicopter tested was introduced form Japan. In Korea the application of chemicals by machine sprayer for pest management in rice cultivation has been ordinarily used at the farmer's level. However, it involved a relatively high cost and laborious for the small scale of cultivation per farm household. Farm population has been highly decreased to 7.5% in 2002 and the population is expected to rapidly reduce by 3.5% in 2012. In Japan, pest control depending on unmanned helicopter has been increased by leaps and bounds. This was due in part to the materialization of the low-cost production technology under agricultural policy and demand environmentally friendly farm products. The practicability of the unmanned helicopter in terms of super efficiency and effectiveness has been proven, and the farmers have understood that the unmanned helicopter is indispensable in the future farming system that they visualized. Also, the unmanned helicopter has been applied to rice, wheat, soybean, vegetables, fruit trees, pine trees for spraying chemicals and/or fertilizers in Japan Effect of disease control by unmanned helicopter was partially approved against rice blast and sheath blight. However, the result was not satisfactory due to the weather conditions and cultural practices. The spray density was also determined in this experiment at 0, 15, 30, and 60cm height from the paddy soil surface and there was 968 spots at 0cm, 1,560 spots at 15cm, 1,923 spots at 30cm, and 2,999 spots at 60cm height. However, no significant difference was found among the treatments. At the same time, there was no phytotoxicity observed under the chemical stray using this unmanned helicopter, nor the rice plant itself was damaged by the wind during the operation.
A household survey was conducted to compare the patterns of morbidity and medical care utilization between medical aid beneficiaries and medical insurance beneficiaries. The study population included 285 medical aid beneficiaries that were completely surveyed and 386 medical insurance benficiaries selected by simple random sampling from a Dong(Township) in Taegu. Well-trained surveyers mainly interviewed housewives with a structured questionnaire. The morbidity rates of acute illness during the 15-day period, were 63 per 1,000 medical aid beneficiaries and 62 per 1,000 medical insurance beneficiaries. The rates for chronic illness were 123 per 1,000 medical aid beneficiaries and 73 per 1,000 medical insurance beneficiaries. The most common type of acute illness in medical aid and medical insurance beneficiaries was respiratory disease. In medical aid beneficiaries, musculoskeletal disease was most common, but in medical insurance beneficiaries, gastrointestinal disease was most common. The mean duration of acute illness of medical aid beneficiaries was 3.8 days and that of medical insurance beneficiaries was 6.8 days. During the one year period, mean duration of medical aid beneficiaries chronic illnesses was 11.5 months which was almost twice as long compared to medical insurance beneficiaries. Pharmacy was most preferrable facility among the acute illness patient in medical aid beneficiaries, but acute cases of medical insurance beneficiaries visited the clinic most commonly. Chronic cases of both groups visited the clinic most frequently. There were some findings suggesting that much unmet need existed among the medical aid beneficiaries. In acute cases, the average number of days of medical aid users utilized medical facilities was less than medical insurance users. On the other hand, the length of medical care utilization of chronic cases was reversed. Geographical accessibility was the most important factors in utilization of medical facilities. Almost half of the study population answered the questions about source of funds on medical security correctly. Most respondents considered that the objective of medical security was afford ability. The chief complaint on hospital utilization was the complicated administrative procedures. These findings suggest that there were some problems in the medical aid system, especially in the referral system.
This study investigates the relationship between South Korean youths' Confucian values and sense of citizen ethics while presenting outlook on the sense of citizen ethics based on the theory of human nature. The purpose of this study, by doing so, is to present educational measures. For this purpose, empirical research method was applied in this study. In the empirical study, youths were surveyed and the answers were statistically analyzed and discussed with a view to achieve the study purpose. In the empirical research part of the study, Korean youths' awareness on Confucian values was examined along with its relationship with the sense of citizen ethics. The effect of Confucian values on sense of citizen ethics and their relationship were analyzed to evaluate the receptivity of youths on Confucian ideas and usefulness of sense of citizen ethics. This study investigated a total of final 311 sets of data from male and female students at middle and high schools located in Seoul, Gyeonggi, South Korea. First, to identify the youths' Confucian values and level of sense of citizen ethics, descriptive statistical analysis was conducted. As a result, the survey subjects were found to have, concerning the Confucian values, world view M=3.54, human relations view M=3.66, morality cultivation M=3.76, and social order M=3.45, higher than 3.0 to represent positive levels. The morality cultivation, in particular, was recorded the highest among all whereas the social order was relatively lower, which represents the degree of relying on Confucian values to establish social order. Second, the sub-variables of Confucian values were verified according to the personal characteristics of the surveyed youths and differences in their entire perception was investigated. As a result, according to gender, morality cultivation was found higher in female students (M=3.85) than in male students (M=3.64). According to the subjective economic level of their household, world view was found higher in upper class (M=3.98) than middle-low class (M=3.25) and low class (M=3.22) while human relations view was found higher in middle-upper class (M=3.79) than low class (M=3.46). As for the family type, morality cultivation was found higher in extended family (M=3.83) than nuclear family (M=3.62); and social order was higher in extended family (M=3.54) than nuclear family (M=3.36). Third, to verify the study theme of identifying the effects of youths' Confucian values on sense of citizen morality, hierarchical regression analysis was employed in this study, which used the multi-level model of multiple regression analysis. As a result, the Confucian values was found to have significant positive (+) correlations with the entire sense of citizen ethics in order of human relations view(
The study examines how the environmental factors of store influence service brand personality and repurchase intention in the service environment. The service industry has been experiencing the intensified competition with the industry's continuous growth and the influence from rapid technological advancement. Under the circumstances, it has become ever more important for the brand competitiveness to be distinctively recognized against competition. A brand needs to be distinguished and differentiated from competing companies because they are all engaged in the similar environment of the service industry. The differentiation of brand achievement has become increasingly important to highlight certain brand functions to include emotional, self-expressive, and symbolic functions since the importance of such functions has been further emphasized in promoting consumption activities. That is the recent role of brand personality that has been emphasized in the service industry. In other words, customers now freely and actively express their personalities or egos in consumption activities, taking an important role in construction of a brand asset. Hence, the study suggests that it is necessary to disperse the recognition and acknowledgement that the maintenance of the existing customers contributes more to boost repurchase intention when it is compared to the efforts to create new customers, particularly in the service industry. Meanwhile, the store itself can offer a unique environment that may influence the consumer's purchase decision. Consumers interact with store environments in the process of,virtually, all household purchase they make (Sarel 1981). Thus, store environments may encourage customers to purchase. The roles that store environments play are to provide informational cues to customers about the store and goods and communicate messages to stimulate consumers' emotions. The store environments differentiate the store from competing stores and build a unique service brand personality. However, the existing studies related to brand in the service industry mostly concentrated on the relationship between the quality of service and customer satisfaction, and they are mostly generalized while the connective studies focused on brand personality. Such approaches show limitations and are insufficient to investigate on the relationship between store environment and brand personality in the service industry. Accordingly, the study intends to identify the level of contribution to the establishment of brand personality made by the store's physical environments that influence on the specific brand characteristics depending on the type of service. The study also intends to identify what kind of relationships with brand personality exists with brand personality while being influenced by store environments. In addition, the study intends to make meaningful suggestions to better direct marketing efforts by identifying whether a brand personality makes a positive influence to induce an intention for repurchase. For this study, the service industry is classified into four categories based on to the characteristics of service: experimental-emotional service, emotional -credible service, credible-functional service, and functional-experimental service. The type of business with the most frequent customer contact is determined for each service type and the enterprise with the highest brand value in each service sector based on the report made by the Korea Management Association. They are designated as the representative of each category. The selected representatives are a fast-food store (experimental-emotional service), a cinema house (emotional-credible service), a bank (credible-functional service), and discount store (functional-experimental service). The survey was conducted for the four selected brands to represent each service category among consumers who are experienced users of the designated stores in Seoul Metropolitan City and Gyeonggi province via written questionnaires in order to verify the suggested assumptions in the study. In particular, the survey adopted 15 scales, which represent each characteristic factor, among the 42 unique characteristics developed by Jennifer Aaker(1997) to assess the brand personality of each service brand. SPSS for Windows Release 12.0 and LISREL were used in the analysis of data verification. The methodology of the structural equation model was used for the study and the pivotal findings are as follows. 1) The environmental factors ware classified as design factors, ambient factors, and social factors. Therefore, the validity of measurement scale of Baker et al. (1994) was proved. 2) The service brand personalities were subdivided as sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness, which makes the use of the brand personality scales by Jennifer Aaker(1997) appropriate in the service industry as well. 3) One-way ANOVA analysis on the scales of store environment and service brand personality showed that there exist statistically significant differences in each service category. For example, the social factors were highest in discount stores, while the ambient factors and design factors were highest in fast-food stores. The discount stores were highest in the sincerity and excitement, while the highest point for banks was in the competence and ruggedness, and the highest point for fast-food stores was in the sophistication, The consumers will make a different respond to the physical environment of stores and service brand personality that are inherent to the corresponding service interface. Hence, the customers will make a different decision-making when dealing with different service categories. In this aspect, the relationships of variables in the proposed hypothesis appear to work in a different way depending on the exposed service category. 4) The store environment factors influenced on service brand personalities differently by category of service. The factors of store's physical environment are transferred to a brand and were verified to strengthen service brand personalities. In particular, the level of influence on the service brand personality by physical environment differs depending on service category or dimension, which indicates that there is a need to apply a different style of management to a different service category or dimension. It signifies that there needs to be a brand strategy established in order to positively influence the relationship with consumers by utilizing an appropriate brand personality factor depending on different characteristics by service category or dimension. 5) The service brand personalities influenced on the repurchase intention. Especially, the largest influence was made in the sophistication dimension of service brand personality scale; the unique and characteristically appropriate arrangement of physical environment will make customers stay in the service environment for a long time and will lead to give a positive influence on the repurchase intention. 6) The store environment factors influenced on the repurchase intention. Particularly, the largest influence was made on the social factors of store environment. The most intriguing finding is that the service factor among all other environment factors gives the biggest influence to the repurchase intention in most of all service types except fast-food stores. Such result indicates that the customers pay attention to how much the employees try to provide a quality service when they make an evaluation on the service brand. At the same time, it also indicates that the personal factor is directly transmitted to the construction of brand personality. The employees' attitude and behavior are the determinants to establish a service brand personality in the process of enhancing service interface. Hence, there should be a reinforced search for a method to efficiently manage the service staff who has a direct contact with customers in order to make an affirmative improvement of the customers' brand evaluation at the service interface. The findings suggest several managerial implications. 1) Results from the empirical study indicated that store environment factors have a strong positive impact on a service brand personality. To increase customers' repurchase intention of a service brand, the management is required to effectively manage store environment factors and create a friendly brand personality based on the corresponding service environment. 2) Mangers and researchers must understand and recognize that the store environment elements are important marketing tools, and that brand personality influences on consumers' repurchase intention. Based on such result of the study, a service brand could be utilized as an efficient measure to achieve a differentiation by enforcing the elements that are most influential among all other store environments for each service category. Therefore, brand personality established involving various store environments will further reinforce the relationship with customers through the elevated brand identification of which utilization to induce repurchase decision can be used as an entry barrier. 3) The study identified the store environment as a component of service brand personality for the store's effective communication with consumers. For this, all communication channels should be maintained with consistency and an integrated marketing communication should be executed to efficiently approach to a larger number of customers. Mangers and researchers must find strategies for aligning decisions about store environment elements with the retailers' marketing and store personality objectives. All ambient, design, and social factors need to be orchestrated so that consumers can take an appropriate store personality. In this study, the induced results from the previous studies were extended to the service industry so as to identify the customers' decision making process that leads to repurchase intention and a result similar to those of the previous studies. The findings suggested several theoretical and managerial implications. However, the situation that only one service brand served as the subject of analysis for each service category, and the situation that correlations among store environment elements were not identified, as well as the problem of representation in selection of samples should be considered and supplemented in the future when further studies are conducted. In addition, various antecedents and consequences of brand personality must be looked at in the aspect of the service environment for further research.