• Title/Summary/Keyword: Image Feature

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The Role of Neutrophils and Epidermal Growth Factor Receptors in Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Mucus Hypersecretion (리포다당질 (lipopolysaccharide)에 의한 기관지 점액 생성 기전에서 호중구와 상피세포 성장인자 수용체 (epidermal growth factor receptor)의 역할)

  • Bak, Sang Myeon;Park, Soo Yeon;Hur, Gyu Young;Lee, Seung Heon;Kim, Je Hyeong;Lee, Sang Yeub;Shin, Chol;Shim, Jae Jeong;In, Kwang Ho;Kang, Kyung Ho;Yoo, Se Hwa
    • Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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    • v.54 no.1
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    • pp.80-90
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    • 2003
  • Background : Goblet cell hyperplasia is a critical pathological feature in hypersecretory diseases of the airways. A bacterial infection of the lung is also known to induce inflammatory responses, which can lead to the overproduction of mucus. Recently, mucin synthesis in the airways has been reported to be regulated by neutrophilic inflammation-induced epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression and activation. In addition, it was reported that migration of the activated neutrophils is dependent on the matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), especially MMP-9. In this study, bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced goblet cell hyperplasia and mucus hypersecretion by EGFR cascade, resulting from the MMPs-dependent neutrophilic inflammation were investigated in the rat airways. Methods : Pathogen-free Sprague-Dawley rats were studied in vivo. Various concentrations of LPS were instilled into the trachea in $300{\mu}{\ell}$ PBS (LPS group). Sterile PBS ($300{\mu}{\ell}$) was instilled into the trachea of the control animals (control group). The airways were examined on different days after instilling LPS. For an examination of the relationship between the LPS-induced goblet cell hyperplasia and MMPs, the animals were pretreated 3 days prior to the LPS instillation and daily thereafter with the matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor (MMPI; 20 mg/Kg/day of CMT-3; Collagenex Pharmaceuticals, USA). The neutrophilic infiltration was quantified as a number in five high power fields (HPF). The alcian blue/periodic acid-Schiff (AB/PAS) stain were performed for the mucus glycoconjugates and the immunohistochemical stains were performed for MUC5AC, EGFR and MMP-9. Their expressions were quantified by an image analysis program and were expressed by the percentage of the total bronchial epithelial area. Results : The instillation of LPS induced AB/PAS and MUC5AC staining in the airway epithelium in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Treatment with the MMPI prevented the LPS-induced goblet cell hyperplasia significantly. The instillation of LPS into the trachea induced also EGFR expression in the airway epithelium. The control airway epithelium contained few leukocytes, but the intratracheal instillation of LPS resulted in a neutrophilic recruitment. A pretreatment with MMPI prevented neutrophilic recruitment, EGFR expression, and goblet cell hyperplasia in the LPS-instilled airway epithelium. Conclusion : Matrix metalloproteinase is involved in LPS-induced mucus hypersecretion, resulting from a neutrophilic inflammation and EGFR cascade. These results suggest a potential therapeutic role of MMPI in the treatment of mucus hypersecretion that were associated with a bacterial infection of the airways.

The Development of Quality Assurance Program for CyberKnife (사이버나이프의 품질관리 절차서 개발)

  • Jang, Ji-Sun;Kang, Young-Nam;Shin, Dong-Oh;Kim, Moon-Chan;Yoon, Sei-Chul;Choi, Ihl-Bohng;Kim, Mi-Sook;Cho, Chul-Koo;Yoo, Seong-Yul;Kwon, Soo-Il;Lee, Dong-Han
    • Radiation Oncology Journal
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    • v.24 no.3
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    • pp.185-191
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    • 2006
  • [ $\underline{Purpose}$ ]: Standardization quality assurance (QA) program of CyberKnife for suitable circumstances in Korea has not been established. In this research, we investigated the development of QA program for CyberKnife and evaluation of the feasibility under applications. $\underline{Materials\;and\;Methods}$: Considering the feature of constitution for systems and the therapeutic methodology of CyberKnife, the list of quality control (QC) was established and divided dependent on the each period of operations. And then all these developed QC lists were categorized into three groups such as basic QC, delivery specific QC, and patient specific QC based on the each purpose of QA. In order to verify the validity of the established QA program, this QC lists was applied to two CyberKnife centers. The acceptable tolerance was based on the undertaking inspection list from the CyberKnife manufacturer and the QC results during last three years of two CyberKnife centers in Korea. The acquired measurement results were evaluated for the analysis of the current QA status and the verification of the propriety for the developed QA program. $\underline{Results}$: The current QA status of two CyberKnife centers was evaluated from the accuracy of all measurements in relation with application of the established QA program. Each measurement result was verified having a good agreement within the acceptable tolerance limit of the developed QA program. $\underline{Conclusion}$: It is considered that the developed QA program in this research could be established the standardization of QC methods for CyberKnife and confirmed the accuracy and stability for the image-guided stereotactic radiotherapy.

Design of Translator for generating Secure Java Bytecode from Thread code of Multithreaded Models (다중스레드 모델의 스레드 코드를 안전한 자바 바이트코드로 변환하기 위한 번역기 설계)

  • 김기태;유원희
    • Proceedings of the Korea Society for Industrial Systems Conference
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    • 2002.06a
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    • pp.148-155
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    • 2002
  • Multithreaded models improve the efficiency of parallel systems by combining inner parallelism, asynchronous data availability and the locality of von Neumann model. This model executes thread code which is generated by compiler and of which quality is given by the method of generation. But multithreaded models have the demerit that execution model is restricted to a specific platform. On the contrary, Java has the platform independency, so if we can translate from threads code to Java bytecode, we can use the advantages of multithreaded models in many platforms. Java executes Java bytecode which is intermediate language format for Java virtual machine. Java bytecode plays a role of an intermediate language in translator and Java virtual machine work as back-end in translator. But, Java bytecode which is translated from multithreaded models have the demerit that it is not secure. This paper, multhithread code whose feature of platform independent can execute in java virtual machine. We design and implement translator which translate from thread code of multithreaded code to Java bytecode and which check secure problems from Java bytecode.

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The Evolution of Cyber Singer Viewed from the Coevolution of Man and Machine (인간과 기계의 공진화적 관점에서 바라본 사이버가수의 진화과정)

  • Kim, Dae-Woo
    • Cartoon and Animation Studies
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    • s.39
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    • pp.261-295
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    • 2015
  • Cyber singer appeared in the late 1990s has disappeared briefly appeared. although a few attempts in the 2000s, it did not show significant successes. cyber singer was born thanks to the technical development of the IT industry and the emergence of an idol training system in the music industry. It was developed by Vocaloid 'Seeyou' starting from 'Adam'. cyber singer that differenatiated typical digital characters in a cartoon or game may be subject to idolize to the music as a medium. They also feature forming a plurality of fandom. therefore, such attempts and repeated failures, this could be considered a fashion, but it flew content creation and ongoing attempts to take advantage of the new media, such as Vocaloid can see that there are expectations for a true Cyber-born singer. Early-Cyber singer is made only resemble human appearance, but 'Sciart' and 'Seeyou' has been evolving to becoming more like the human capabilities. in this paper, stylized cyber singer had disappeared in the past in the process of developing the technology to evolve into own artificial life does not end in failure cases, gradually led to a change in public perceptions of the image look looking machine was an attempt in that sense. With the direction of the evolution of the mechanical function to obtain a human, fun and human exchanges and mutual feelings. And it is equipped with an artificial life form that evolved with it only in appearance and function. in order to support this logic, I refer to the study of the coevolution of man and machine at every Bruce Mazlish. And, I have analyzed the evolution of cyber singer Bruce research from the perspective of the development process since the late 1990s, the planning of the eight singers who have appeared and design of the cyber character and important voices to be evaluated as a singer (vocal). The machine has been evolving coevolution with humans. cyber singer ambivalent development targets are recognized, but strive to become the new artificial creatures of horror idea of human desire and death continues. therefore, the new Cyber-organisms are likely to be the same style as 'Seeyou'. because, cartoon forms and whirring voice may not be in the form of a signifier is the real human desires, but this is because the contemporary public's desire to be desired and the technical development of this type can be created at the point where the cross-signifier.

Label Embedding for Improving Classification Accuracy UsingAutoEncoderwithSkip-Connections (다중 레이블 분류의 정확도 향상을 위한 스킵 연결 오토인코더 기반 레이블 임베딩 방법론)

  • Kim, Museong;Kim, Namgyu
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.27 no.3
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    • pp.175-197
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    • 2021
  • Recently, with the development of deep learning technology, research on unstructured data analysis is being actively conducted, and it is showing remarkable results in various fields such as classification, summary, and generation. Among various text analysis fields, text classification is the most widely used technology in academia and industry. Text classification includes binary class classification with one label among two classes, multi-class classification with one label among several classes, and multi-label classification with multiple labels among several classes. In particular, multi-label classification requires a different training method from binary class classification and multi-class classification because of the characteristic of having multiple labels. In addition, since the number of labels to be predicted increases as the number of labels and classes increases, there is a limitation in that performance improvement is difficult due to an increase in prediction difficulty. To overcome these limitations, (i) compressing the initially given high-dimensional label space into a low-dimensional latent label space, (ii) after performing training to predict the compressed label, (iii) restoring the predicted label to the high-dimensional original label space, research on label embedding is being actively conducted. Typical label embedding techniques include Principal Label Space Transformation (PLST), Multi-Label Classification via Boolean Matrix Decomposition (MLC-BMaD), and Bayesian Multi-Label Compressed Sensing (BML-CS). However, since these techniques consider only the linear relationship between labels or compress the labels by random transformation, it is difficult to understand the non-linear relationship between labels, so there is a limitation in that it is not possible to create a latent label space sufficiently containing the information of the original label. Recently, there have been increasing attempts to improve performance by applying deep learning technology to label embedding. Label embedding using an autoencoder, a deep learning model that is effective for data compression and restoration, is representative. However, the traditional autoencoder-based label embedding has a limitation in that a large amount of information loss occurs when compressing a high-dimensional label space having a myriad of classes into a low-dimensional latent label space. This can be found in the gradient loss problem that occurs in the backpropagation process of learning. To solve this problem, skip connection was devised, and by adding the input of the layer to the output to prevent gradient loss during backpropagation, efficient learning is possible even when the layer is deep. Skip connection is mainly used for image feature extraction in convolutional neural networks, but studies using skip connection in autoencoder or label embedding process are still lacking. Therefore, in this study, we propose an autoencoder-based label embedding methodology in which skip connections are added to each of the encoder and decoder to form a low-dimensional latent label space that reflects the information of the high-dimensional label space well. In addition, the proposed methodology was applied to actual paper keywords to derive the high-dimensional keyword label space and the low-dimensional latent label space. Using this, we conducted an experiment to predict the compressed keyword vector existing in the latent label space from the paper abstract and to evaluate the multi-label classification by restoring the predicted keyword vector back to the original label space. As a result, the accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 score used as performance indicators showed far superior performance in multi-label classification based on the proposed methodology compared to traditional multi-label classification methods. This can be seen that the low-dimensional latent label space derived through the proposed methodology well reflected the information of the high-dimensional label space, which ultimately led to the improvement of the performance of the multi-label classification itself. In addition, the utility of the proposed methodology was identified by comparing the performance of the proposed methodology according to the domain characteristics and the number of dimensions of the latent label space.

A Study on the Popularization of Traditional Korean Art through the Case Study of Convergence of K-POP and Traditional Art - Focusing on the idolization of BTS - (K-POP과 전통예술의 융합 사례분석을 통한 한국전통예술의 대중화 방안 연구 - BTS의 IDOL을 중심으로 -)

  • Cho, Young-In
    • Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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    • v.13 no.2
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    • pp.27-36
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    • 2019
  • Today, the Korean wave headed by K-pop is newly named as 'New Korean Wave' in that it has been extended to United States, Europe and Russia. K-POP, the main player of the new Korean wave, has been successful in SNS marketing channels. Furthermore, the content of K-pop has attracted the attention of the global audience. The media and public attention on the Korean Wave is meaningful because it is not merely a cultural export. It also makes Korean people feel national pride, seeing the mental influence of its culture on other regions. Moreover, the development of the cultural industry in our society, which is different from industrial or material development, is a proof that Korean society is at the center of globalization. Until the 20th century, Korean culture had been rather receptive than dominant. In other words, it was focused more on acceptance of other cultures than active creation or outflow of its own. Now, however, K-POP is not anymore copying Western culture. It is creating its own unique characters, which makes K-pop very competitive. Korean culture has been formed for a long time in Korea's unique historical background. Korean popular culture also has to establish a solid foothold in world markets through its distinctive and traditional feature. The positive consumer response to Korean pop culture will create the added value of Korean contents and their derivatives, which will heighten Korea's national image also. In other words, if traditional art and K-POP are converged and equipped with our own unique and highly artistic culture, they will take the lead in the global cultural art market. In this study, we will recognize the possibility, growth and development of K-pop culture and analyze the cases of combining K-pop and Korean traditional art. First, we have to blend traditional art and other various genres to create diverse contents, and we have to actively utilize media channels. Second, we must improve people's awareness of the copyrights of traditional art. Also, we have to mitigate the copyrights of creative dance to expand the disclosure of contents which can be utilized. Third, we have to learn about traditional arts from younger age. Fourth, we will expand traditional arts to the whole of Korean cultural policies, which can enhance the nation's cultural value and create economic benefits. These four are expected to be effective ways to preserve the identity of traditional art and at the same time, globalize Korean culture.

Jungian Interpretation of Creation Myths Focused on Egg Symbolism (분석심리학적 관점으로 고찰한 창조신화 : '알(卵)'의 상징성 중심으로)

  • Jin-Sook Kim
    • Sim-seong Yeon-gu
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    • v.27 no.1_2
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    • pp.28-70
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    • 2012
  • In Jungian psychology, creation myths regard as the story of unconscious and preconscious processes(projection of archaic identity) which describe not necessary the origin of our cosmos, but the origin of man's conscious awareness of the world. Therefore projections have nothing to do with matter itself but experience of one's own unconscious. Jung emphasizes importance to understand projection in individual's conscious experience rather than in philosophical doctrine. The purpose of this thesis is to explore unconscious process of creation myths with egg symbolism in clinical cases to present universal feature of Cosmic/alchemical egg. Psychologically, creation myths retold when human mind needs new order. Depending on the attitude of ego, it can be sudden expansion of consciousness or contamination of ego by unconscious. In this study, 'chaos(messa confusa)' in creation myths as archaic identity, experience of uroboros or infant, and nigredo state in alchemy. 'Separation of primordial parents' as beginning of consciousness refers to separatio operation in alchemical process. 'Light' as attainment of consciousness. Discussion of psychological meaning of egg starts with amplification which include the concept of cosmic/alchemical/philosophical egg. Egg symbolism in this study refers to emergence of egg, tapas/brooding of egg, and separation of egg. Emergence of egg as a state of preconscious totality, psychic wholeness conceived as the thing which came before the rise of ego consciousness. Discussion of conceptssuch as Shiva bindu, hiranyagharba, germ of gold, Tathāgatagarbha follows. 'Tapas/brooding of egg' as concentration of all psychic energy into one point for self reflection. Discussion includes The I Ching Hexagram 61, image of brooding egg identified with inner truth, Wonhyo's concept of jikwansasang, and Gnostic idea of Ennoia, introverted act of thinking, as well as the concept of 'Night Sea Journey'. 'Separation or hatching of egg' regarded as the idea of sudden illumination, Phanes, the shining God, and "sun-point," in alchemy. Birth of fledgling as birth of new personality. As a conclusion, psychological meaning of cosmic egg/creation myths is the story of separating from 'Not-I'(unconscious, object, undifferentiated) to 'I'(ego, subject, differentiated) which shares the same meaning as individuation process.

A Comparative Study on Buddhist Painting, MokWooDo (牧牛圖: PA Comparative Study on Buddhist Painting, MokWooDo (牧牛圖: Painting of Bull Keeping) and Confucian/Taoist Painting, SipMaDo (十馬圖: Painting of Ten Horses) - Focused on SimBeop (心法: Mind Control Rule) of the Three Schools: Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism -nd Control Rule) of the Three Schools: Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism - (불가(佛家) 목우도(牧牛圖)와 유·도(儒·道) 십마도(十馬圖) 비교 연구 - 유불도(儒佛道) 삼가(三家)의 심법(心法)을 중심으로 -)

  • Park, So-Hyun;Lee, Jung-Han
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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    • v.40 no.4
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    • pp.67-80
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    • 2022
  • SipWooDo (十牛圖: Painting of Ten Bulls), a Buddhist painting, is a kind of Zen Sect Buddhism painting, which is shown as a mural in many of main halls of Korean Buddhist temples. MokWooDo has been painted since Song Dynasty of China. It paints a cow, a metaphor of mind and a shepherd boy who controls the cow. It comes also with many other types of works such as poetry called GyeSong, HwaWoonSi and etc. That is, it appeared as a pan-cultural phenomenon beyond ideology and nation not limited to Chinese Buddhist ideology of an era. This study, therefore, selects MokWooDo chants that represent Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism to compare the writing purposes, mind discipline methods and ultimate goals of such chant literatures in order to integrate and comprehend the ideologies of such three schools in the ideologically cultural aspect, which was not fully dealt with in the existing studies. In particular, the study results are: First, the SipWooDo of Buddhist School is classified generally into Bo Myoung's MokWooDo and Kwak Ahm's SimWooDo (尋牛圖: Painting of Searching out a Bull). Zen Sect Buddhism goes toward nirvana through enlightenment. Both MokWooDo and SimWooDo of Buddhist School are the discipline method of JeomSu (漸修: Discipline by Steps). They were made for SuSimJeungDo (修心證道: Enlightenment of Truth by Mind Discipline), which appears different in HwaJe (畫題: Titles on Painting) and GyeSong (偈頌: Poetry Type of Buddhist Chant) between Zen Sect Buddhism and Doctrine Study Based Buddhism, which are different from each other in viewpoints. Second, Bo Myoung's MokWooDo introduces the discipline processes from MiMok (未牧: Before Tamed) to JinGongMyoYu (眞空妙有: True Vacancy is not Separately Existing) of SsangMin (雙泯: the Level where Only Core Image Appears with Every Other Thing Faded out) that lie on the method called BangHalGiYong (棒喝機用: a Way of Using Rod to Scold). On the other side, however, it puts its ultimate goal onto the way to overcome even such core image of SsangMin. Third, Kwak Ahm's SimWooDo shows the discipline processes of JeomSu from SimWoo (尋牛: Searching out a Bull) to IpJeonSuSu (入鄽垂手: Entering into a Place to Exhibit Tools). That is, it puts its ultimate goal onto HwaGwangDongJin (和光同塵: Harmonized with Others not Showing your own Wisdom) where you are going together with ordinary people by going up to the level of 'SangGuBori (上求菩提: Discipline to Go Up to Gain Truth) and HaHwaJungSaeng (下化衆生: Discipline to Go Down to Be with Ordinary People)' through SaGyoIpSeon (捨敎入禪: Entering into Zen Sect Buddhism after Completing a Certain Volume of Doctrine Study), which are working for leading the ordinary people of all to finding out their Buddhist Nature. Fourth, Shimiz Shunryu (清水春流)'s painting YuGaSipMaDo (儒家十馬圖: Painting of Ten Horses of Confucian School) borrowed Bo Myoung's MokWooDo. That is, it borrowed the terms and pictures of Buddhist School. However, it features 'WonBulIpYu (援佛入儒: Enlightenment of Buddhist Nature by Confucianism)', which is based on the process of becoming a greatly wise person through Confucian study to go back to the original good nature. From here, it puts its goal onto becoming a greatly wise person, GunJa who is completely harmonized with truth, through the study of HamYang (涵養: Mind Discipline by Widening Learning and Intelligence) that controls outside mind to make the mind peaceful. Its ultimate goal is in accord with "SangCheonJiJae, MuSeongMuChee (上天之載, 無聲無臭: Heaven Exists in the Sky Upward; It is Difficult to Get the Truth of Nature, which has neither sound nor smell)' words from Zhōngyōng. Fifth, WonMyeongNhoYin (圓明老人)'s painting SangSeungSuJinSamYo (上乘修真三要: Painting of Three Essential Things to Discipline toward Truth) borrowed Bo Myoung's MokWooDo while it consists of totally 13 sheets of picture to preach the painter's will and preference. That is, it features 'WonBulIpDo (援佛入道: Following Buddha to Enter into Truth)' to preach the painter's doctrine of Taoism by borrowing the pictures and poetry type chants of Buddhist School. Taoism aims to become a miraculously powerful Taoist hermit who never dies by Taoist healthcare methods. Therefore, Taoists take the mind discipline called BanHwanSimSeong (返還心性: Returning Back to Original Mind Nature), which makes Taoists go ultimately toward JaGeumSeon (紫金仙) that is the original origin by changing into a saint body that is newly conceived with the vital force of TaeGeuk abandoning the existing mind and body fully. This is a unique feature of Taoism, which puts its ultimate goal onto the way of BeopShinCheongJeong (法身淸淨: Pure and Clean Nature of Buddha) that is in accord with JiDoHoiHong (至道恢弘: Getting to Wide and Big Truth).

The Effect of Attributes of Innovation and Perceived Risk on Product Attitudes and Intention to Adopt Smart Wear (스마트 의류의 혁신속성과 지각된 위험이 제품 태도 및 수용의도에 미치는 영향)

  • Ko, Eun-Ju;Sung, Hee-Won;Yoon, Hye-Rim
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.18 no.2
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    • pp.89-111
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    • 2008
  • Due to the development of digital technology, studies regarding smart wear integrating daily life have rapidly increased. However, consumer research about perception and attitude toward smart clothing hardly could find. The purpose of this study was to identify innovative characteristics and perceived risk of smart clothing and to analyze the influences of theses factors on product attitudes and intention to adopt. Specifically, five hypotheses were established. H1: Perceived attributes of smart clothing except for complexity would have positive relations to product attitude or purchase intention, while complexity would be opposite. H2: Product attitude would have positive relation to purchase intention. H3: Product attitude would have a mediating effect between perceived attributes and purchase intention. H4: Perceived risks of smart clothing would have negative relations to perceived attributes except for complexity, and positive relations to complexity. H5: Product attitude would have a mediating effect between perceived risks and purchase intention. A self-administered questionnaire was developed based on previous studies. After pretest, the data were collected during September, 2006, from university students in Korea who were relatively sensitive to innovative products. A total of 300 final useful questionnaire were analyzed by SPSS 13.0 program. About 60.3% were male with the mean age of 21.3 years old. About 59.3% reported that they were aware of smart clothing, but only 9 respondents purchased it. The mean of attitudes toward smart clothing and purchase intention was 2.96 (SD=.56) and 2.63 (SD=.65) respectively. Factor analysis using principal components with varimax rotation was conducted to identify perceived attribute and perceived risk dimensions. Perceived attributes of smart wear were categorized into relative advantage (including compatibility), observability (including triability), and complexity. Perceived risks were identified into physical/performance risk, social psychological risk, time loss risk, and economic risk. Regression analysis was conducted to test five hypotheses. Relative advantage and observability were significant predictors of product attitude (adj $R^2$=.223) and purchase intention (adj $R^2$=.221). Complexity showed negative influence on product attitude. Product attitude presented significant relation to purchase intention (adj $R^2$=.692) and partial mediating effect between perceived attributes and purchase intention (adj $R^2$=.698). Therefore hypothesis one to three were accepted. In order to test hypothesis four, four dimensions of perceived risk and demographic variables (age, gender, monthly household income, awareness of smart clothing, and purchase experience) were entered as independent variables in the regression models. Social psychological risk, economic risk, and gender (female) were significant to predict relative advantage (adj $R^2$=.276). When perceived observability was a dependent variable, social psychological risk, time loss risk, physical/performance risk, and age (younger) were significant in order (adj $R^2$=.144). However, physical/performance risk was positively related to observability. The more Koreans seemed to be observable of smart clothing, the more increased the probability of physical harm or performance problems received. Complexity was predicted by product awareness, social psychological risk, economic risk, and purchase experience in order (adj $R^2$=.114). Product awareness was negatively related to complexity, meaning high level of product awareness would reduce complexity of smart clothing. However, purchase experience presented positive relation with complexity. It appears that consumers can perceive high level of complexity when they are actually consuming smart clothing in real life. Risk variables were positively related with complexity. That is, in order to decrease complexity, it is also necessary to consider minimizing anxiety factors about social psychological wound or loss of money. Thus, hypothesis 4 was partially accepted. Finally, in testing hypothesis 5, social psychological risk and economic risk were significant predictors for product attitude (adj $R^2$=.122) and purchase intention (adj $R^2$=.099) respectively. When attitude variable was included with risk variables as independent variables in the regression model to predict purchase intention, only attitude variable was significant (adj $R^2$=.691). Thus attitude variable presented full mediating effect between perceived risks and purchase intention, and hypothesis 5 was accepted. Findings would provide guidelines for fashion and electronic businesses who aim to create and strengthen positive attitude toward smart clothing. Marketers need to consider not only functional feature of smart clothing, but also practical and aesthetic attributes, since appropriateness for social norm or self image would reduce uncertainty of psychological or social risk, which increase relative advantage of smart clothing. Actually social psychological risk was significantly associated to relative advantage. Economic risk is negatively associated with product attitudes as well as purchase intention, suggesting that smart-wear developers have to reflect on price ranges of potential adopters. It will be effective to utilize the findings associated with complexity when marketers in US plan communication strategy.

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Dual Path Model in Store Loyalty of Discount Store (대형마트 충성도의 이중경로모형)

  • Ji, Seong-Goo;Lee, Ihn-Goo
    • Journal of Distribution Research
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    • v.15 no.1
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    • pp.1-24
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    • 2010
  • I. Introduction The industry of domestic discount store was reorganized with 2 bigs and 1 middle, and then Home Plus took over Home Ever in 2008. In present, Oct, 2008, E-Mart has 118 outlets, Home Plus 112 outlets, and Lotte Mart 60 stores. With total number of 403 outlets, they are getting closer to a saturation point. We know that the industry of discount store has been getting through the mature stage in retail life cycle. There are many efforts to maintain existing customers rather than to get new customers. These competitions in this industry lead firms to acknowledge 'store loyalty' to be the first strategic tool for their sustainable competitiveness. In other words, the strategic goal of discount store is to boost up the repurchase rate of customers throughout increasing store loyalty. If owners of retail shops can figure out main factors for store loyalty, they can easily make more efficient and effective retail strategies which bring about more sales and profits. In this practical sense, there are many papers which are focusing on the antecedents of store loyalty. Many researchers have been inspecting causal relationships between antecedents and store loyalty; store characteristics, store image, atmosphere in store, sales promotion in store, service quality, customer characteristics, crowding, switching cost, trust, satisfaction, commitment, etc., In recent times, many academic researchers and practitioners have been interested in 'dual path model for service loyalty'. There are two paths in store loyalty. First path has an emphasis on symbolic and emotional dimension of service brand, and second path focuses on quality of product and service. We will call the former an extrinsic path and call the latter an intrinsic path. This means that consumers' cognitive path for store loyalty is not single but dual. Existing studies for dual path model are as follows; First, in extrinsic path, some papers in domestic settings show that there is 'store personality-identification-loyalty' path. Second, service quality has an effect on loyalty, which is a behavioral variable, in the mediation of customer satisfaction. But, it's very difficult to find out an empirical paper applied to domestic discount store based on this mediating model. The domestic research for store loyalty concentrates on not only intrinsic path but also extrinsic path. Relatively, an attention for intrinsic path is scarce. And then, we acknowledge that there should be a need for integrating extrinsic and intrinsic path. Also, in terms of retail industry, this study is meaningful because retailers want to achieve their competitiveness by using store loyalty. And so, the purpose of this paper is to integrate and complement two existing paths into one specific model, dual path model. This model includes both intrinsic and extrinsic path for store loyalty. With this research, we would expect to understand the full process of forming customers' store loyalty which had not been clearly explained. In other words, we propose the dual path model for discount store loyalty which has been originated from store personality and service quality. This model is composed of extrinsic path, discount store personality$\rightarrow$store identification$\rightarrow$store loyalty, and intrinsic path, service quality of discount store$\rightarrow$customer satisfaction$\rightarrow$store loyalty. II. Research Model Dual path model integrates intrinsic path and extrinsic path into one specific model. Intrinsic path put an emphasis on quality characteristics and extrinsic path focuses on brand characteristics. Intrinsic path is based on information processing perspective, and extrinsic path emphasizes symbolic and emotional dimension of brand. This model is composed of extrinsic path, discount store personality$\rightarrow$store identification$\rightarrow$store loyalty, and intrinsic path, service quality of discount store$\rightarrow$customer satisfaction$\rightarrow$store loyalty. Hypotheses are as follows; Hypothesis 1: Service quality perceived by customers in discount store has an positive effect on customer satisfaction Hypothesis 2: Store personality perceived by customers in discount store has an positive effect on store identification Hypothesis 3: Customer satisfaction in discount store has an positive effect on store loyalty. Hypothesis 4: Store identification has an positive effect on store loyalty. III. Results and Implications We examined consumers who patronize discount stores for samples of this study. With the structural equation model(SEM) analysis, we empirically tested the validity and fitness of the dual path model for store loyalty in discount stores. As results, the fitness indices of this model were well fitted to data obtained. In an intrinsic path, service quality(SQ) is positively related to customer satisfaction(CS), customer satisfaction(CS) has very significantly positive effect on store loyalty(SL). Also, in an extrinsic path, the store personality(SP) is positively related to store identification(SI), it shows significant effect on store loyalty. Table 1 shows the results as follows; There are some theoretical and practical implications. First, Many studies on discount store loyalty have been executed from various perspectives. But there has been no integrative view on this issue. And so, this research was theoretically designed to integrate various and controversial arguments into one systematic model. We empirically tested dual path model forming store loyalty, and brought up a systematic and integrative framework for future studies. We want to expect creative and aggressive research activities. Second, a few established papers are focused on the relationship between antecedents and store loyalty; store characteristics, atmosphere, sales promotion in store, service quality, trust, commitment, etc., There has been some limits in understanding thoroughly the formation process of store loyalty with a singular path, intrinsic or extrinsic. Beyond these limits in single path, we could propose the new path for store loyalty. This is meaningful. Third, discount store firms make and execute marketing strategies for increasing store loyalty. This research provides real practitioners with reference framework needed for actual strategy formation. Because this paper shows integrated and systematic path for store loyalty. A special feature of this study is to represent 6 sub dimensions of service quality in intrinsic path and 4 sub dimensions of store personality in extrinsic path. Marketers can make more analytic marketing planning with concrete sub dimensions of service quality and store personality. When marketers of discount stores make strategic planning like MPR, Ads, campaign, sales promotion, they can use many items which are more competitive than competitors.

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