• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.405-428
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• 1990

Language has a social function to communicate information. Linguists have gradually paid their attention to the function of language since the nineteen sixties, especially to the relationship of form, meaning and the function. The relationship could be more clearly grasped through disciyrse-based analysis than through sentence-based analysis. Many researches were centered on the discourse functional notion of topic. In the early 1970's the subject was defined as the grammatiocalized topic the topic as a discrete single constituent of the clause. In the late 1970's several lingusts including Givon suggerted that the topic was not an atomic, disctete entity, and that the clause could have more than one topic. The purpose of the present study is, following Givon, to study grammatical coding devices of topic and to measure the relative topic continuity/discontinuity of participant argu, ents in Korean narratives. By so doing, I would like to shed some light on effective ways of communicating information. The grammatical coding devices analyzed are the following eight structures: zero-anaphora, personal pronous, demonstrative pronouns, names, noun phrases following demonstratives, noun phrases following possessives, definite noun phrases and indefinite referentials. The narrative studied for the count was taken from the KoreanCIA chief's Testiomny:Revolution and Idol by Hyung Wook Kim. It was chosen because it was assumed that Kim's purpose in the novel was to tell a true story, which would not distort the natural use of language for literary effect. The measures taken in the analysis wre those of 'lookback', 'persistence', ambiguity'. The first of these, 'lookback', is a measure of the size of gap between the previous occurrence of a referent and its current occurence in the clause. The meausure of persistence, which is a measure of the speaker's topocal intent, reflects the topic's importance in the discourse. The third measure is a measure of ambiguity. This is necessary for assessing the disruptive effects that other topics within five previous clauses may have on topic identification. The more other topics are present within five previous clauses, the more difficult is the task of correct identification of a topic. The results of the present study show that the humanness of entities is the most powerful factior in topic continutiy in narrative discourse. The semantic roles of human arguments in narrative discourse tend to be agents or experiences. Since agents and experiences have high topicality in discourse, human entities clearly become clausal or discoursal topics. The results also show that the grammatical devices signal varying degrees of topic continuity discontinuity in continuous discourse. The more continuous a topic argument is, the less it is coded. For example, personal pronouns have the most continutiy and indefinite referentials have the least continutiy. The study strongly shows that topic continuity discontinutiy is controlled not only by grammatical devices available in the language but by socio-cultural factors and writer's intentions.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.1-6
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• 2011

A transparent oxide thin film transistors (Transparent Oxide-TFT) have been fabricated by RF magnetron sputtering at room temperature using amorphous indium zinc oxide (a-IZO) as both of active channel and source/drain, gate electrodes and co-sputtered $HfO_2-Al_2O_3$ (HfAIO) as gate dielectric. In spite of its high dielectric constant > 20), $HfO_2$ has some drawbacks including high leakage current and rough surface morphologies originated from small energy band gap (5.31eV) and microcrystalline structure. In this work, the incorporation of $Al_2O_3$ into $HfO_2$ was obtained by co-sputtering of $HfO_2$ and $Al_2O_3$ without any intentional substrate heating and its structural and electrical properties were investigated by x-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and spectroscopic ellipsometer (SE) analyses. The XRD studies confirmed that the microcrystalline structures of $HfO_2$ were transformed to amorphous structures of HfAIO. By AFM analysis, HfAIO films (0.490nm) were considerably smoother than $HfO_2$ films (2.979nm) due to their amorphous structure. The energy band gap ($E_g$) deduced by spectroscopic ellipsometer was increased from 5.17eV ($HfO_2$) to 5.42eV (HfAIO). The electrical performances of TFTs which are made of well-controlled active/electrode IZO materials and co-sputtered HfAIO dielectric material, exhibited a field effect mobility of more than $10cm^2/V{\cdot}s$, a threshold voltage of ~2 V, an $I_{on/off}$ ratio of > $10^5$, and a max on-current of > 2 mA.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.189-219
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• 2020

This study is an analysis of Handol Heung-Gun Lee's Tarae, which is a coinage combining the Korean words for "playing an instrument" and "song", in terms of narrative and aesthetics. The components for analysis are the phenomena and nature of binary oppositions between nature and human beings, between alienation and interest, between division and unification, and between diaspora and people of the national community. Tarae in the period from the late 1970s to the early 1990s described the experience of pain and loss from non-resistance and disobedience in protest against social problems that emerged during the era of miliary dictatorship, such as industrialization, urbanization, reckless development, Westernization, university-oriented education, the gap between rich and poor, human alienation, and the conflicts arising from the division of the nation. After Handol overcame the lack of creative motivation with self-reflection and effort, Tarae took the form of a diaspora epic meta-narratives integrating the "sound of nature and his true nature" and "the awareness of diaspora and the spirit of the Korean people". The epics of the homeland, the national soil and the people, which began with "Teo", became more intense in terms of a sense of diaspora as they shifted their focus from an origin to a path with "Hanmoejulghi" as the turning point. Handol seeks inspiration in the source of narrative rather than in music. His Tarae focuses on "adding rhythm for lyrics". For this reason, the semiotic features of Tarae have a limitation in that its extrinsic phonology is simple even if its intrinsic meaning (i.e., emotion of sadness) is profound and subtle. In order to elicit sympathy from the audience and impress them, it is necessary to strike a balance between the implicit (semantic) part and the explicit (phonological) part. To share the emotion of sadness with more people, it is necessary to strengthen phonological elements. Sympathy for sadness and deep impression on the audience are more often induced by the mood of similar sentiments than by the stories of the same experience. The aesthetics of sadness in Tarae began with the narratives of past experience which were expressed in the contexts of loss, loneliness, and poverty that Handol had experienced since childhood. However, the aesthetics of sadness, deepened over the period of a long hiatus in Handol's career as a composer, formed the narratives of ultimate salvation, embodying even the diaspora experience of others (e.g., displaced people, overseas adoptees, ethnic Koreans in Russia, victims of Japanese military sexual slavery, etc.). This gave Tarae the potential to go beyond the limits of the ethnic group of Korea. Tarae, as a "dispersed sound", can benefit from the appeal of deep sadness at the point of contact with other forms of world music. It may form a global diaspora discourse because Tarae is oriented towards interculturalism rather than anti-multiculturalism. The future challenge and goal of Handol's Tarae would be to continue to find areas of sympathy and broaden the horizon of awareness as diaspora music.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.64 no.3
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• pp.471-480
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• 2022

This experiment was conducted to determine the maximum dietary energy levels on growth performance and carcass characteristics of White Pekin duck. the Six dietary treatments were formulated based on their apparent metabolizable energy (AME) concentrations from 2,700 to 3,200 kcal/kg with a 100 kcal/kg gap to evaluate the accurate dietary AME requirement to address current knowledge and further issues for fulfilling the genetic potential of meat-type white Pekin ducklings. A total of 432 one-day-old male White Pekin ducklings were randomly allocated into one of six dietary treatments with six replicates (12 birds per pen). The diets were formulated as corn-soybean meal-based diets to meet or exceed the Nutrient Requirement of Poultry specification for meat-type ducks. Growth performance indices (i.e. average daily gain [ADG], average daily feed intake, feed conversion ratio) were measured weekly. Medium body weight (BW) ducklings from each pen were sacrificed to analyze the carcass traits and abdominal fat content on day 21. Obtained data were analyzed to estimate significant effect using the one-way ANOVA of IBM SPSS Statistics (Version, 25). If the p-value of the results were significant, differences in means among treatments were separated by Tukey's post hoc test. Significant differences were then analyzed with a linear and quadratic broken model to estimate the accurate concentration of AME. Ducklings fed higher dietary AME diets increased (p < 0.05) BW, ADG. Ducklings fed higher AME than 2,900 kcal/kg diets increased abdominal fat accumulation and leg meat portion. The estimated requirement by linear plateau method showed from 3,000.00 kcal/kg to 3,173.03 kcal/kg whereas the requirement by quadratic plateau method indicated from 3,100.00 kcal/kg to 3,306.26 kcal/kg. Collectively, estimated dietary requirements exhibit diverse results based on the measured traits and analysis methods. All the estimated requirements in this experiment present higher than previous research, the maximum requirement for the next diet formulation should be selected by the purpose of the diet.

• Korean Journal of Digital Imaging in Medicine
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.13-19
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• 2014

Purpose: FLAIR image is beneficial for the diagnosis of various bran diseases including ischemic CVS, brain tumors and infections. However the border between the legion of brain metastasis and surrounding edema may not be clear. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the practical benefits of delayed imaging by comparing the image from a patient with brain metastasis before a contrast enhancement and the image 10 minutes after a contrast enhancement. Materials and methods: Of the 92 people who underwent MRI brain metastases in suspected patients 13 people in three patients there is no video to target the 37 people confirmed cases, and motion artifacts brain metastases in our hospital June-December 2013, 18 people measurement position except for the three incorrect patient (male: 11 people, female: 7 people, average age: 60 years) in the target, test equipment, 3.0T MR System (ACHIEVA Release, Philips, I was 8ChannelSENSE Head Coil use Best, and the Netherlands). TR 11000 ms, TE 125 ms, TI2800 ms, Slice Thickness 5 mm, gap 5 mm, is a Slice number 21, the parameters of the 3D FFE, T2 FLAIR variable that was used to test, TR 8.1 ms, TE 3.7 ms, Slice number 240 I set to. The experiment was conducted by acquiring the FLAIR prior to contrast enhancement (heretofore referred to as Pre FLAIR), and acquiring the 3D FFE CE five minutes after the contrast enhancement, and recomposing the images in an axial plane of S/T 3mm, G 0mm (heretofore referred to as MPR TRA CE). Using the FLAIR 10 minutes after the contrast enhancement (heretofore referred to as Post FLAIR) and Pi-View, a retrospective study was conducted. Using MRIcro on the image of a patient confirmed for his diagnosis, the images before and after the contrast media, as well as the CNR and SNR of the MPR TRA CE images of the lesion and the site absent of lesion were compared and analyzed using a one-way analysis of variance. Results: CNR for Pre FLAIR and Post FLAIR were 34.35 and 60.13, respectively, with MPR TRA CE at 23.77 showing no significant difference (p<0.050). Post-experiment analysis shows a difference between Pre FLAIR and Post FLAIR in terms of CNR (p<0.050), but no difference in CNR between Post FLAIR and MPR TRA CE (p>0.050), indicating that the contrast media had an effect only on Pre FLAIR and Post FLAIR. The SNR for the normal site Pre FLAIR was 106.43, and for the lesion site 140.79. Post FLAIR for the normal site was 107.79, and for the lesion site 167.91. MPR TRA CE for the normal site was 140.23 and for the lesion site 183.19, showing significant difference (p<0.050), and post-experiment analysis shows that there was a difference in SNR only on the lesion sites for Pre FLAIR and Post FLAIR (p<0.050). There was no difference in SNR between the normal site and lesion site for Post FLAIR and MPR TRA CE, indicating no effect from the contrast media (p>0.050). Conclusions: This experiment shows that Post FLAIR has a higher contrast than Pre FLAIR, and a higher SNR for lesions, It was not not statistically significant and MPR TRA CE but CNR came out high. Inspection of post-contrast which is used in a high magnetic field is frequently used images of 3D T1 but, since the signal of the contrast medium and the blood flow is included, this method can be diagnostic accuracy is reduced, it is believed that when used in combination with Post FLAIR, and that can provide video information added to the diagnosis of brain metastases.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.385-392
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• 2011

The otter (Lutra lutra) in Korea is classified as a first grade endangered species and is managed under state control. We performed a phylogenetic analysis of the otter that inhabits the Changnyeong, Jinju, and Geoje areas in Gyeongsangnamdo, Korea using mtDNA and microsatellite (MS) markers. As a result of the analysis using the 676-bp D-loop sequence of mtDNA, six haplotypes were estimated from five single nucleotide polymorphisms. The genetic distance between the Jinju and Geoje areas was greater than distances within the areas, and the distance between Jinju and Geoje was especially clear. From the phylogenetic tree estimated using the Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis by the MrBays program, two subgroups, one containing samples from Jinju and the other containing samples from the Changnyeong and Geoje areas were clearly identified. The result of a parsimonious median-joining network analysis also showed two clear subgroups, supporting the result of the phylogenetic analysis. On the other hand, in the consensus tree estimated using the genetic distances estimated from the genotypes of 13 MS markers, there were clear two subgroups, one containing samples from the Jinju, Geoje and Changnyeong areas and the other containing samples from only the Jinju area. The samples were not identically classified into each subgroup defined by mtDNA and MS markers. It could be inferred that the differential classification of samples by the two different marker systems was because of the different characteristics of the marker systems used, that is, the mtDNA was for detecting maternal lineage and the MS markers were for estimating autosomal genetic distances. Nonetheless, the results from the two marker systems showed that there has been a progressive genetic fixation according to the habitats of the otters. Further analyses using not only newly developed MS markers that will possess more analytical power but also the whole mtDNA are needed. Expansion of the phylogenetic analysis using otter samples collected from the major habitats in Korea should be helpful in scientifically and efficiently maintaining and preserving them.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.79-96
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• 2012

As the pace of competition dramatically accelerates and the complexity of change grows, a variety of research have been conducted to improve firms' short-term performance and to enhance firms' long-term survival. In particular, researchers and practitioners have paid their attention to identify promising technologies that lead competitive advantage to a firm. Discovery of promising technology depends on how a firm evaluates the value of technologies, thus many evaluating methods have been proposed. Experts' opinion based approaches have been widely accepted to predict the value of technologies. Whereas this approach provides in-depth analysis and ensures validity of analysis results, it is usually cost-and time-ineffective and is limited to qualitative evaluation. Considerable studies attempt to forecast the value of technology by using patent information to overcome the limitation of experts' opinion based approach. Patent based technology evaluation has served as a valuable assessment approach of the technological forecasting because it contains a full and practical description of technology with uniform structure. Furthermore, it provides information that is not divulged in any other sources. Although patent information based approach has contributed to our understanding of prediction of promising technologies, it has some limitations because prediction has been made based on the past patent information, and the interpretations of patent analyses are not consistent. In order to fill this gap, this study proposes a technology forecasting methodology by integrating patent information approach and artificial intelligence method. The methodology consists of three modules : evaluation of technologies promising, implementation of technologies value prediction model, and recommendation of promising technologies. In the first module, technologies promising is evaluated from three different and complementary dimensions; impact, fusion, and diffusion perspectives. The impact of technologies refers to their influence on future technologies development and improvement, and is also clearly associated with their monetary value. The fusion of technologies denotes the extent to which a technology fuses different technologies, and represents the breadth of search underlying the technology. The fusion of technologies can be calculated based on technology or patent, thus this study measures two types of fusion index; fusion index per technology and fusion index per patent. Finally, the diffusion of technologies denotes their degree of applicability across scientific and technological fields. In the same vein, diffusion index per technology and diffusion index per patent are considered respectively. In the second module, technologies value prediction model is implemented using artificial intelligence method. This studies use the values of five indexes (i.e., impact index, fusion index per technology, fusion index per patent, diffusion index per technology and diffusion index per patent) at different time (e.g., t-n, t-n-1, t-n-2, ${\cdots}$) as input variables. The out variables are values of five indexes at time t, which is used for learning. The learning method adopted in this study is backpropagation algorithm. In the third module, this study recommends final promising technologies based on analytic hierarchy process. AHP provides relative importance of each index, leading to final promising index for technology. Applicability of the proposed methodology is tested by using U.S. patents in international patent class G06F (i.e., electronic digital data processing) from 2000 to 2008. The results show that mean absolute error value for prediction produced by the proposed methodology is lower than the value produced by multiple regression analysis in cases of fusion indexes. However, mean absolute error value of the proposed methodology is slightly higher than the value of multiple regression analysis. These unexpected results may be explained, in part, by small number of patents. Since this study only uses patent data in class G06F, number of sample patent data is relatively small, leading to incomplete learning to satisfy complex artificial intelligence structure. In addition, fusion index per technology and impact index are found to be important criteria to predict promising technology. This study attempts to extend the existing knowledge by proposing a new methodology for prediction technology value by integrating patent information analysis and artificial intelligence network. It helps managers who want to technology develop planning and policy maker who want to implement technology policy by providing quantitative prediction methodology. In addition, this study could help other researchers by proving a deeper understanding of the complex technological forecasting field.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.147-165
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• 2009

Virtual community(VC) will increasingly be organized as commercial enterprises, with the objective of earning an attractive financial return by providing members with valuable resources and environment. For example, Cyworld.com in Korea uses several community services to enable customers of Cyworld to take control of their own value as potential purchasers of products and services. Although initial adoption is important for online network service success, it does not necessarily result in the desired managerial performance unless the initial usage is continuously related to the continuous usage and purchase. Particularly, the customer who receives relevant online services and is well equipped with online network services, will trust the online service provider and perceive less risk and experience more activities such as continuous usage and purchase. Thus, how to promote continued online service usage or, alternatively, how to prevent discontinuance is a critical issue for VC service providers to consider. By aggregating a wide range of information and online environments for customers and providing trust to its members, the service providers of virtual communities help to reduce the perceived risk of continuous usage and purchase. Drill down, online service managers realize that achieving strong and sustained customers who continuously use online service and purchase on it is crucial. Therefore, the research into this online service continuance will identify the relationship between the initial usage and the continuous usage and purchase. The research of continuous usage or post adoption has recently emerged as an important issue in the IS literature. Individuals' information systems(IS) continuous usage decisions are congruent with consumers' repeat purchase decisions. The TAM(Technology Acceptance Model) paradigm has been strongly confirmed across a wide range from product purchase on EC to online service usage contexts. The analysis of IS usage based on TAM has proven to be successful across almost online service contexts. However, most of previous studies have focused on only an area (i.e., VC or EC). Just little research has tried to analyze the relationship between VC and EC. The effect of some factors on user intention, captured through several theories such as TAM, has been demonstrated. Yet, few studies have explored the salient relationships of VC users' EC acceptance. To fill this gap between VC and EC research, this paper attempts to develop a research model that extends the TAM perspective in view of the additional contributions of trust in the service provider and trust in members on some factors that affect EC and VC adoption. In this extension, we applied the TAM-to-TAM(T2T) model, and analyzed the transfer effect of trust between these two TAMs. The research model was empirically tested on the context of a social network service. The model was to extend TAM with the trust concept for the virtual community environment from the perspective of tasks. By building an extended model of TAM and examining the relationships between trust and the existing variables of TAM, it is aimed to explain a user's continuous intention to use VC and purchase on EC. The unit of analysis in this paper is an individual user of a virtual community. The population of interest is the individual with the experiences in virtual community. The data for this paper was made available via a Web survey of VC users. In total, 281 cases were gathered for about one week, but there were some missing values in the sample and there were some inappropriate cases. Thus, only 248 cases were finally analyzed. We chose the structural equation analysis to test the hypotheses and it is better suited for explaining complex relationships than the other methods. In this test, AMOS was used to test the Structural Equation Model (SEM). Noticeable results have been found in the T2T model regarding the factors affecting the intention to use of virtual community and loyalty. Our result showed that trust transfer plays a key role in forming the two adoption beliefs. Overall, this study preliminarily confirms the salience of trust transfer in online service.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.49-58
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• 2010

Corporate social responsibility has become a very important issue for researchers (Greenfield, 2004; Maignan & Ralston, 2002; McWilliams et al., 2006; Pearce & Doh 2005), and many consider it necessary for businesses to define their role in society and apply social and ethical standards to their businesses (Lichtenstein et al., 2004). As a result, a significant number of retailers have adopted CSR as a strategic tool to promote their businesses. To this end, this study sought to discover U.S. consumers' attitudes and behavior in ethical purchasing and consumption based on their subjective perception and evaluation of a retailer. The objectives of this study include: 1) determine the participants awareness of retailers corporate social responsibility; 2) assess how participants evaluate retailers corporate social responsibility; 3) examine whether participants evaluation process of retailers CSR influence their attitude toward the retailer; and 4) assess if participants attitude toward the retailers CSR influence their purchase behavior. This study does not focus on actual retailers' CSR performance because a consumer's decision making process is based on an individual assessment not an actual fact. This study examines US college students' awareness and evaluations of retailers' corporate social responsibility (CSR). Fifty six college students at a major Southeastern university participated in the study. The age of the participants ranged from 18 to 26 years old. Content analysis was conducted with open coding and focused coding. Over 100 single-spaced pages of written responses were collected and analyzed. Two steps of coding (i.e., open coding and focused coding) were conducted (Esterberg, 2002). Coding results and analytic memos were used to understand participants' awareness of CSR and their ethical purchasing behavior supported through the selection and inclusion of direct quotes that were extracted from the written responses. Names used here are pseudonyms to protect confidentiality of participants. Participants were asked to write about retailers, their aware-ness of CSR issues, and to evaluate a retailer's CSR performance. A majority (n = 28) of respondents indicated their awareness of CSR but have not felt the need to act on this issue. Few (n=8) indicated that they are aware of this issue but not greatly concerned. Findings suggest that when college students evaluate retailers' CSR performance, they use three dimensions of CSR: employee support, community support, and environmental support. Employee treatment and support were found as an important criterion in evaluation of retailers' CSR. Respondents indicated that their good experience with a retailer as an employee made them have a positive perception and attitude toward the retailer. Regarding employee support four themes emerged: employee rewards and incentives based on performance, working environment, employee education and training program, and employee and family discounts. Well organized rewards and incentives were mentioned as an important attribute. The factors related to the working environment included: how well retailers follow the rules related to working hours, lunch time and breaks was also one of the most mentioned attributes. Regarding community support, three themes emerged: contributing a percentage of sales to the local community, financial contribution to charity organizations, and events for community support. Regarding environments, two themes emerged: recycling and selling organic or green products. It was mentioned in the responses that retailers are trying to do what they can to be environmentally friendly. One respondent mentioned that the company is creating stores that have an environmentally friendly design. Information about what the company does to help the environment can easily be found on the company’s website as well. Respondents have also noticed that the stores are starting to offer products that are organic and environmentally friendly. A retailer was also mentioned by a respondent in this category in reference to how the company uses eco-friendly cups and how they are helping to rebuild homes in New Orleans. The respondents noticed that a retailer offers reusable bags for their consumers to purchase. One respondent stated that a retailer uses its products to help the environment, through offering organic cotton. After thorough analysis of responses, we found that a participant's evaluation of a retailers' CSR influenced their attitudes towards retailers. However, there was a significant gap between attitudes and purchasing behavior. Although the participants had positive attitudes toward retailers CSR, the lack of funds and time influenced their purchase behavior. Overall, half (n=28) of the respondents mentioned that CSR performance affects their purchasing decisions making when shopping. Findings from this study provide support for retailers to consider their corporate social responsibility when developing their image with the consumer. This study implied that consumers evaluate retailers based on employee, community and environmental support. The evaluation, attitude and purchase behavior of consumers seem to be intertwined. That is, evaluation is based on the knowledge the consumer has of the retailers CSR. That knowledge may influence their attitude toward the retailer and thus influence their purchase behavior. Participants also indicated that having CSR makes them think highly of the retailer, but it does not influence their purchase behavior. Price and convenience seem to surpass the importance of CSR among the participants. Implications, recommendations for future research, and limitations of the study are also discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.1-18
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• 1996

This study examines the spatial characteristics of postal office patronage in rural areas. in the light of future possible relocation and closures of the postal facilities. Most of private services have flown out small rural central places due to the decrease of supporting population, and there consequently remain only a few public services including government-run post offices at the Myon seats, the lowest level among rural central places in Korea. The small local population and its further decline undermine the rationale for maintaining such public services in depleted rural areas. For the worse of it, the government recently plans to transform the postal system to a quasi-private, corporational structure. One can fear that the profit-seeking nature of the new postal corporation will inevitably force to close many of such small rural facilities. The study first analysed nation-wide censuses of postal offices for the years of 1986 and 1992. The postal services examined are per capita number of postal stamps and revenue stamps sold, and letters, parcels, telegrams and monetary transactions handled at the post offices. It is found that, while the usage of postal services has increased substantially throughout the nation during the period of 1986-1992, the increment has largely been occurred by urban post offices rather than by those in Gun seats (i.e., rural counties); and that the gap of the service levels between urban and rural post offices is ever widening. The study further examined the service differentials among the post offices within rural counties to find that those post offices adjacent to the county (Gun) seats and larger urban centers rendered less amount of services than remote rural post offices, indicating that rural residents tend to partonize larger centers more and more than local Myon seats. At the second stage of the study, questionnaire surveys were conducted in Muju, Kimpo, and Hongsung-Gun's. These three counties are meant to represent respectively the remote, suburban, and intermediary counties in Korea. The analyses of survey data reveal that the postal hinterlands of the county seats extend to much of nearby Myons, the subdivisions of a Gun. It is also found that the extent of postal hinterlands of the three counties and the magnitude of patronage and quite different from each other depending upon the topography, population density, and the propinquity of the counties to metropolitan centers. The findings suggest to reappraise the current flat allocation scheme of public facilites to each of rural subdivisions throughout the nation. A detailed analysis on the travel behavior of the survey respondents yields that age is the most salient variable to distinguish activity spaces of rural residents. The activity spaces of older respondents tend to be more limited within their Myon, whereas those of younger respondents extend across the Myon boundary, toward the central towns and even distant larger cities. The very existence of several activity spaces in rural areas calls for an attention in the future locational decisions of public facilities. The locational criteria, employed by the Ministry of Communication of Korean government to establish a post office, are the size of hinterland population and the distance from adjacent postal facilities. The present study findings suggest two additional criteria: the order in rural central place hierarchy and the propinquity to the upper-level centers of the central hierarchy. These old and new criteria are complementary each other in that the former criteria are employed to determine new office locations, whereas the latter are appropriate to determine facility relocation and closures.