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Epidemiological Studies of Clonorchiasis. - I. Current Status and Natural Transition of the Endemicity of Clonorchis sinensis in Gimhae Gun and Delta, a High Endemic area in Korea (간흡충증(肝吸虫症)의 역학(疫學) - I. 고도유행지(高度流行地) 김해지방(金海地方)에 있어서의 간흡충감염(肝吸虫感染)의 현황(現況)과 자연추이(自然推移))

  • Kim, D.C.;Lee, O.Y.;Lee, J.S.;Ahn, J.S.;Chang, Y.M;Son, S.C.;Moon, I.S.
    • Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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    • v.8 no.1
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    • pp.44-65
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    • 1983
  • As a part of the epidemiological studies of clonorchiasis, this study was conducted to evaluate the current endemicity and the natural transition of the Clonorchis infection in Gimhae Gun and delta area a high endemic area in Korea in recent years, prior to the introduction of praziquantel which will eventually influence the status of the prevalence. The data obtained in this study in 1983 were evaluated for natural transition of the infection in comparison with those obtained 16 years ago in 1967 by the author(Kim, 1974). The areas of investigation, villages and schools surveyed, methods and techniques used in this study were the same as in 1967, except for the contents of the questionnaire for raw freshwater fish consumption by the local inhabitants. 1) The prevalence rate of clonorchiasis in the general population of the villages was 48.1% on the average out of a total of 484 persons examined. The average of those of the riverside-delta area was 65.2% and 43.0% in the inland area. Among the schoolchildren, the prevalence rate was 8.2% on the average out of a total of 1,423 examined. By area, the prevalence rate was 10.8% in the riverside delta area and 2.8% in the inland area. By sex, difference in the prevalence was seen only in the inhabitants of the inland area showing 52.4% in the male and 33.5% in the female. 2) In the natural transition of the infection, the prevalence rate among the inhabitants has decreased from 68.8% in 1967 to 48.1% in 1983, and in the schoolchildren from 56.4% in 1967 to 8.2% in 1983. The reduction rate was higher in the riverside-delta area than in the inland area. 3) In the prevalence rate by age, 11.9% was first seen in the 5-9 age group and the rate gradually increased up to 75.0% in the 50-59 age group. By sex, the rate was higher in the male than in the female in the 20-29 age group and over. 4) In the natural transition of the prevalence rate by age, the reduction rate of the infection during the past 16 years was greater in the younger age groups up to the 40-49 age group and reached the same level in the age group 50-59. Reduction was seen again in the age group over 60s. By sex, the reduction rate was greater in the female than in the male in the 20-29 age group and over. By area, the reduction rate was greater in the riverside delta area than in the inland area, particularly in the young age groups. 5) In the intensity of the infection among the cases, the mean egg out-put per mg feces per infected cases(EPmg) in the inhabitants was 6.3. EPmg of those of the river-side-delta area was 15.4 and that of the in-land was 2.8. On the other hand, in the schoolchildren, EPmg was 3.2, and no difference was seen between the two areas, the river-side-delta area and the inland area. 6) In the transition of the intensity of the infection by area, EPmg among the inhabitants inexplically increased from 7.8 in 1967 to 15.4 in 1983. This was probably caused by uneven specimen collection in the process of sampling the population. EPmg of the inhabitants in the inland area and those of the schoolchildren of both riverside delta and inland areas showed a similar decrease in the past 16 years. 7) The intensity of the infection by age showed a relatively low level in the 20-29 age group and below, and EPmg 5.1-9.5 was seen in the 30-39 age group and over. Sex, Epmg was 5.8 in the male and 4.7 the female. By in 8) In the transition of the intensity of the infection, EPmg decreased from 6.2 in 1967 to 5.4 in 1983. By age, in contrast to the figures of 1967 in which EPmg gradually increased with some fluctuation from 1.1 in the 0-4 age group to peak 10.5 in the 50-59 age group, in 1983 lower intensity of the infection was seen in the age group from 10-14 to 20-29 with the EPmg range of 0.6-2.7. 9) In the distribution of the clonorchiasis cases by the range of EPmg value, 43.2% of the cases were in 0.1 0.9 and 34.6% in 1.0-4.9. As a whole by cumulative percent, 44.6% of them were under 0.9 as light infection and 86.1% of them under 9.9 up to moderate infection. By sex, no difference was seen in Epmg. 10) In the transition of the distribution by the range of Epmg, the cases were distributed up to the range 80.0-99.9 in 1967 and to 60.0-79.9 in 1983. By cumulative percent, in the range of 0.1-0.9 and less, light infection, 34.3% of them were distributed in 1967 and 44.6% in 1983 with about 10% increase. In the range of 5.0-9.9 and less, up to moderate infection, 83.2% in 1967 and 86.1% in 1983 of the cases were seen, respectively. 11) The practice of raw freshwater fish consumption among the inhabitants seems to have decreased in recent years. Those who admitted to raw freshwater fish consumption in the last two years among the infected inhabitants were 59.3%, although 86.8% of them professed to have experience with raw freshwater fish consumption. 31.7% of those who have had experience of the raw freshwater fish consumption denied any further consumption in recent years. From an interview of 543 school-children, 24.1% of them admitted to an experience of raw freshwater fish consumption. However, those who have practised in the past two years comprized 17.9%. Those who denied raw freshwater fish consumption in recent years among those who had such experience were 26.0% out of 131 interviewed. The rate of raw freshwater fish consumption in both inhabitants and schoolchildren were higher in the male than in the female. On the contrary, the rate of those who did not practise in recent years among those who had experience of raw freshwater fish consumption was higher in the female than in the male. 12) The major reason for the reduction of raw freshwater fish consumption among the local inhabitants was the risk of the fluke infection. However, it has become apparent that such change of taste has resulted from water pollution impact which has affected throughout the areas of the freshwater systems in this locality since last several years. 13) In animal survey, Clonorchis infection was seen in 14.8% of 88 dogs examined and 3.7% of 27 house rats examined. It was noted that populations of dogs and cats have increased in the villages surveyed. Although the prevalence rate was lower in the present survey than those of 1967, the significance of the animals as the reservoir host has not changed. 14) Prevalence rate of Clonorchis infection by cercariae in the first intermediate host, Parafossarulus manchouricus, was 0.6% out of 517 snails examined. The infection rate was lower in comparison with 2.3% out of 2,124 examined in 1967. Moreover, sharp decreases in number and distribution of the intermediate host snails in many watershed areas of the huge freshwater systems in this locality seemed to reduce transmission of Clonorchis in connection with the intermediate host stage of its life cycle. 15) Clonorchis infection in the second intermediate fish hosts was relatively low. The mean number of Clonorchis metacercaria per fish in Pseudorasbora parva was 517 in 1983, whereas it was 1943 in 1968 through 1969. Environmental water pollution has also caused the decreased fish population density in these areas, and this has also apparently affected to the practice of raw freshwater fish consumption among the local inhabitants. 16) In conclusion, endemicity of Clonorchis infection in Gimhae Gum and delta area of the Nagdong River has sharply decreased during the past 16 years. The major cause of the regressive transition of the infection was the water pollution of the land water systems of this locality. The pollution has upset the ecosystems comprizing of the intermediate hosts of Clonorchis in many areas, and also affected to a significant extent to the discontinuance of the local inhabitants for raw freshwater fish consumption.

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A Study on the Relationship Between Online Community Characteristics and Loyalty : Focused on Mediating Roles of Self-Congruency, Consumer Experience, and Consumer to Consumer Interactivity (온라인 커뮤니티 특성과 충성도 간의 관계에 대한 연구: 자아일치성, 소비자 체험, 상호작용성의 매개적 역할을 중심으로)

  • Kim, Moon-Tae;Ock, Jung-Won
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.18 no.4
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    • pp.157-194
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    • 2008
  • The popularity of communities on the internet has captured the attention of marketing scholars and practitioners. By adapting to the culture of the internet, however, and providing consumer with the ability to interact with one another in addition to the company, businesses can build new and deeper relationships with customers. The economic potential of online communities has been discussed with much hope in the many popular papers. In contrast to this enthusiastic prognostications, empirical and practical evidence regarding the economic potential of the online community has shown a little different conclusion. To date, even communities with high levels of membership and vibrant social arenas have failed to build financial viability. In this perspective, this study investigates the role of various kinds of influencing factors to online community loyalty and basically suggests the framework that explains the process of building purchase loyalty. Even though the importance of building loyalty in an online environment has been emphasized from the marketing theorists and practitioners, there is no sufficient research conclusion about what is the process of building purchase loyalty and the most powerful factors that influence to it. In this study, the process of building purchase loyalty is divided into three levels; characteristics of community site such as content superiority, site vividness, navigation easiness, and customerization, the mediating variables such as self congruency, consumer experience, and consumer to consumer interactivity, and finally various factors about online community loyalty such as visit loyalty, affect, trust, and purchase loyalty are those things. And the findings of this research are as follows. First, consumer-to-consumer interactivity is an important factor to online community purchase loyalty and other loyalty factors. This means, in order to interact with other people more actively, many participants in online community have the willingness to buy some kinds of products such as music, content, avatar, and etc. From this perspective, marketers of online community have to create some online environments in order that consumers can easily interact with other consumers and make some site environments in order that consumer can feel experience in this site is interesting and self congruency is higher than at other community sites. It has been argued that giving consumers a good experience is vital in cyber space, and websites create an active (rather than passive) customer by their nature. Some researchers have tried to pin down the positive experience, with limited success and less empirical support. Web sites can provide a cognitively stimulating experience for the user. We define the online community experience as playfulness based on the past studies. Playfulness is created by the excitement generated through a website's content and measured using three descriptors Marketers can promote using and visiting online communities, which deliver a superior web experience, to influence their customers' attitudes and actions, encouraging high involvement with those communities. Specially, we suggest that transcendent customer experiences(TCEs) which have aspects of flow and/or peak experience, can generate lasting shifts in beliefs and attitudes including subjective self-transformation and facilitate strong consumer's ties to a online community. And we find that website success is closely related to positive website experiences: consumers will spend more time on the site, interacting with other users. As we can see figure 2, visit loyalty and consumer affect toward the online community site didn't directly influence to purchase loyalty. This implies that there may be a little different situations here in online community site compared to online shopping mall studies that shows close relations between revisit intention and purchase intention. There are so many alternative sites on web, consumers do not want to spend money to buy content and etc. In this sense, marketers of community websites must know consumers' affect toward online community site is not a last goal and important factor to influnece consumers' purchase. Third, building good content environment can be a really important marketing tool to create a competitive advantage in cyberspace. For example, Cyworld, Korea's number one community site shows distinctive superiority in the consumer evaluations of content characteristics such as content superiority, site vividness, and customerization. Particularly, comsumer evaluation about customerization was remarkably higher than the other sites. In this point, we can conclude that providing comsumers with good, unique and highly customized content will be urgent and important task directly and indirectly impacting to self congruency, consumer experience, c-to-c interactivity, and various loyalty factors of online community. By creating enjoyable, useful, and unique online community environments, online community portals such as Daum, Naver, and Cyworld are able to build customer loyalty to a degree that many of today's online marketer can only dream of these loyalty, in turn, generates strong economic returns. Another way to build good online community site is to provide consumers with an interactive, fun, experience-oriented or experiential Web site. Elements that can make a dot.com's Web site experiential include graphics, 3-D images, animation, video and audio capabilities. In addition, chat rooms and real-time customer service applications (which link site visitors directly to other visitors, or with company support personnel, respectively) are also being used to make web sites more interactive. Researchers note that online communities are increasingly incorporating such applications in their Web sites, in order to make consumers' online shopping experience more similar to that of an offline store. That is, if consumers are able to experience sensory stimulation (e.g. via 3-D images and audio sound), interact with other consumers (e.g., via chat rooms), and interact with sales or support people (e.g. via a real-time chat interface or e-mail), then they are likely to have a more positive dot.com experience, and develop a more positive image toward the online company itself). Analysts caution, however, that, while high quality graphics, animation and the like may create a fun experience for consumers, when heavily used, they can slow site navigation, resulting in frustrated consumers, who may never return to a site. Consequently, some analysts suggest that, at least with current technology, the rule-of-thumb is that less is more. That is, while graphics etc. can draw consumers to a site, they should be kept to a minimum, so as not to impact negatively on consumers' overall site experience.

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An experimental study on the impact of an agreement on the means to achieve nursing goals in the early postpartum period of primiparous mothers and enhance their self-confidence and satisfaction in maternal role performance (산욕초기 초산모의 간호목표달성방번 합의가 어머니 역할수행에 대한 자신감 및 만족도에 미치는 영향에 관한 실험적 연구)

  • 이영은
    • Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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    • v.22 no.1
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    • pp.81-115
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    • 1992
  • The problem addressed by this study was to determine the effect of nurse - patient agreement on the means to achieve nursing goals in the early postpartum period of primiparous mothers. It was hypothesized that the experimental treatment would result in hegher self-confidence and satisfaction in maternal role performance. This purpose was to contribute to the planning of nursing care to enhance self- confidence and satisfaction in maternal role performance and to the development of relevant nursing theory. Especially, the early postpartum period is crucial toward in recovery from childbirth and attainment of the maternal role. Maternal role attaintment is a complex social and cognitive process of stimulus -response accomplished by learning. Most women attain the maternal role sucessfully. But, some primiparous mothers experience difficultites in attainment of the maternal role due to lack of experience and knowledge. Self-confidence and satisfaction in maternal role performance are important factors in attainment and adjustment to the maternal role (Mercer, 1981a, 1981b ; Lederman, Weigarten, and Lederman, 1981 :Bobak and Jensen, 1985). Nursing is defined as behaviors of nurses add patients that attain nursing goals through action, reaction, interaction, and transaction. For attainment of nursing goals, active participating transactions must occur by agreement on the means to achieve those goals through nurse -patient mutual goal setting and establishment of their active relationships(King, 1981, Ha, 1977). Based on King's theory of goal attainment (1981), this stuy was planned as a non-equivalent control group, non -synchronized quasi -experimental design using agreement on the means to achieve nursing goals in early postpartum as the experimental treatment. The data were collected from July 20 to Sep. 1, 1991 by questionnaires with 60 primiparous mothers planing to breast feed after normal deliveries at W hospital in Pusan, Korea. The subjects were divided into a control group(conventional group) -those admitted from July 20 to Aug. 12, and an experimental group(agreement group) - those admitted from Aug. 13 to Sep. 1. The instument for agreement on the means to nursing goals in the early postpartum period included five steps - identification of disturbances of problems through action, reaction, and interaction with primiparous mothers : mutual early postpartal nursing goal setting : exploration of the means to achieve goals ; agreement on the means (self- care, ealry maternal -infant contact, performance of mothering behavior, and communicating about the infant's behavior and health condition) : implementation of the means. This instrument was developed on the basis of King's elements that lead to transactions in nurse-patient interactions. Lederman et al's (1981) scale for Confidence in ability to cope with tasks of motherhood and Lederman et al's(1981) scale for Mother's satisfaction with motherhood and infant care were used to measure self-confidence and satisfaction in maternal role performance ·with the subjects immediately after admission and on the day of discharge. Self-care performance in the experimental group was measured by self -evaluation tool developed by the investigator from the literature concerned. The tools to measure Pelf-confidence and satisfaction in maternal role performance, and the tool to measure self-evaluation of self-care performance were tested for internal reliability. Cronbach's Alphas were 0.94, 0.94, and 0.63. The data were analysed by using in S.P.S.S. computerized program and included percentage, x²-test, t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson Correlation Coefficient. The conclusions obtained from this study are summerized as follows : 1. The degree of self-confidence in maternal role performance of the total subjects group measured before the experimental treatment was above average with a mean score of 2.77(range 2.14-3.64). Out of 14 items, those with relatively high mean scores were ‘I would like to be a better mother than I am’(3.95), and ‘I have my doubts about whether I am a good mother’(2.87). Those with low mean scores were ‘I know that my baby wants most of the times’(2.28), ‘When the baby cries, I can tell what she /he wants’(2.37), and ‘I have confidence in my ability to care for the baby’(2;50). That is, the self - confidence of Primiparous mothers was considerably high in mothering, but rather low in activities concerning the infant care and understanding of the infant behavior. The degree of satisfaction in maternal role performance of the total subjects group measured before the experimental treatment was high with a mean score of 3.18(range 1.92-3.92). Out of 13 items, those with relatively high mean scores were ‘I am glad 1 had this baby now’(3.75), ‘I play with the baby between feedings when s/he is awake and quiet’(3.67), and ‘I enjoy being a mother’(3.27). Those with low mean scores were ‘I am upset about having too many responsibilities as a mother’(2.78), ‘It bothers me to get up for the baby at night’(2.82), and ‘I get annoyed if the baby frequently interrupts my activities’.(2.82), That is, the satisfaction of primiparous mothers was considerably high in mothering and infant care, but rather low in restraints in time or on the mother's self accomplishment and development. 2. Agreement on the means to achieve nursing goals in the early postpartum period included process of mutual goal setting, exploration of the means to achieve goals, and ahreement in concert means to achieve goals based on the mothers' condition, concerns, self-perception of the nurse - patient interactions. In the process of agreement, there was agreement that the means to achieve goals should be through trust and establishment of active relationships with the nurse through identification of problems according to planned nursing goals and active interaction, such as explanations, teaching, changing of opinions, acceptance or rejection of explanations, and proposing of questions. Therefore agreement on the means to achieve nursing goals in the early postpartum period appears to be an effective nursing intervention for primiparous mothers. 3. The degree of self- confidence in maternal role performance of the exprimental group was higher than that of the control group(t=3.95, p<0.01). Out of 14 items, those with higher score in the experimental group were ‘I would like to be a better mother than I am’(t=1.93, p<0.05), ‘I know that my baby wants most of the times’(t=2.75, p<0.01), ‘When the baby cries, 1 can tell what she/he wants’(t=2.10, p<0.05), ‘I have confidence in my ability to care for the baby’(t=3.72, p<0.01), ‘I trust my own judement in deciding how to care for the baby’(t=1.96, p<0.05), ‘I feel that I know my baby and what to do for him /her’(t=2.44, p<0.01), ‘I am concerned about being able to meet the baby's needs’(t=2.87, p<0.01), ‘I know what my baby likes and dislikes’(t=3.26, p<0.01), ‘I don't know to care for the baby as well as I should’(t=2.07, p<0.05), and ‘I am unsure about whether I give enough attention to the baby’(t=3.04, p<0.01), That is, the degree of self-confidence in mothering, activities concerning infant care, and understanding of infant behavior of the experimental group was higher than that of the control group. Therefore, the first hypothesis, that the degree of self-confidence in maternal role performance of the experimental group would be higher than that of the control group, was supported(t=3.95, p<0.01). 4. The degree of satisfaction in the maternal role performance of the exprimental group was higer than that or the control group(t=2.31, p<0.05). Out of 13 items, those with higher score in the experimental group were ‘I am glad I had this baby now’(t=2.29, p<0.05), ‘I enjoy taking care of the baby’(t=2.4g, p<0.01), ‘It is boring for me to care for the baby and do the same thing over and over’(t=2.87, P<0.01), ‘I am unhappy with the amount of time I have for activities other than childcare’(t=2.51, p<0.01), and ‘When bathing and diapering the baby, I would like to be doing something else’(t=2.43, p<0.01). That is, the degree of satisfaction in mothering, infant care, and restraints in time of on the mother's self accomplishment and development in the experimental group was higher than that of the control group. Therefore, the second hypothesis, that the degree of satisfaction in maternal role performance of the experimental group would be higher than that of the control group, was supported(t=2.31, p<0.05). 5. The third hypothesis, that the higher the degree of satisfaction in materenal role performance, the higher the degree of self-confidence in materenal role performance in the experimental group, was supported (r=0.57, p<0.01)

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Human Papillomavirus Genotypes among Females in Mexico: a Study from the Mexican Institute for Social Security

  • Salcedo, Mauricio;Pina-Sanchez, Patricia;Vallejo-Ruiz, Veronica;Monroy-Garcia, Alberto;Aguilar-Lemarroy, Adriana;Cortes-Gutierrez, Elva I.;Santos-Lopez, Gerardo;Montoya-Fuentes, Hector;Grijalva, Renan;Madrid-Marina, Vicente;Apresa-Garcia, Teresa;Hernandez, Dulce M.;Jave-Suarez, Luis F.;Romero, Pablo;Poot, Albros;Salgado, Eduardo;Ramos-Gonzalez, Patricia;Gonzalez-Hernandez, Rigoberto;Canton, Juan C.;Jimenez-Aranda, Lucio;Parra-Melquiadez, Miriam;Paniagua, Lucero;Mendoza, Monica;Arreola, Hugo;Villegas, Vanesa;Torres-Poveda, Kirvis;Bahena-Roman, Margarita;Gonzalez-Yebra, Beatriz;Taniguchi, Keiko;Rodea, Carlos;Mantilla-Morales, Alejandra;Mora-Garcia, Maria L.;Velazquez-Velazquez, Cindy K.;Cordova-Uscanga, Candelaria;Peralta, Raul;Lopez-Romero, Ricardo;Marrero, Daniel;Bandala, Cindy;Reyes-Leyva, Julio;Furuya, Maria E.;Almeida, Eduardo;Galvan, Maria E.;Grijalva, Israel
    • Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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    • v.15 no.23
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    • pp.10061-10066
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    • 2015
  • Background: The aetiological relationship between human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and cervical cancer (CC) is widely accepted. Our goal was to determine the prevalence of HPV types in Mexican women attending at the Mexican Institute for Social Security from different areas of Mexico. Materials and Methods: DNAs from 2,956 cervical samples were subjected to HPV genotyping: 1,020 samples with normal cytology, 931 with low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LGSIL), 481 with high grade HGSIL and 524 CC. Results: Overall HPV prevalence was 67.1%. A total of 40 HPV types were found; HPV16 was detected in 39.4% of the HPV-positive samples followed by HPV18 at 7.5%, HPV31 at 7.1%, HPV59 at 4.9%, and HPV58 at 3.2%. HPV16 presented the highest prevalence both in women with altered or normal cytology and HPV 18 presented a minor prevalence as reported worldwide. The prevalence ratio (PR) was calculated for the HPV types. The analysis of PR showed that HPV16 presents the highest association with CC, HPV 31, -33, -45, -52 and -58 also demonstrating a high association. Conclusions: The most prevalent HPV types in cervical cancer samples were -16, -18, -31, but it is important to note that we obtained a minor prevalence of HPV18 as reported worldwide, and that HPV58 and -52 also were genotypes with an important prevalence in CC samples. Determination of HPV genotypes is very important in order to evaluate the impact of vaccine introduction and future cervical cancer prevention strategies.

Analysis of Health Functional Foods Advertisements Effects according to the Delivery Tool for Efficacy Information and Consumers' Attitudes (기능성 정보 전달 방법 및 소비자 태도에 따른 건강기능식품 광고 효과 분석)

  • Lee, Yeonkyung;Kim, Ji Yeon;Kwon, Oran;Hwang, In-Kyeong
    • The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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    • v.29 no.6
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    • pp.835-848
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    • 2016
  • The purpose of this study was to find efficient and customized tools for delivering the benefit of health functional foods (HFFs). Delivery tools which could influence the impact of advertising were images, explanations of ingredients, diagrams of health benefit, patents, and comments from authority. Six advertisements were developed using these tools: "A": relevant image + explanation of ingredients + scientific diagram of efficacy; "B": relevant image + explanation of ingredients; "C": relevant image; "D": irrelevant image; "E": irrelevant image + explanation of ingredient + patent; "F": irrelevant image + explanation of ingredient + comments from authority. To analyze the consumer perceptions on HFFs and advertisement effects, 300 respondents were requested to answer a questionnaire comprising of the following questions: 5 questions of attitudes (necessity of HFFs, trust in HFFs, gathering information, watching advertisements and trust in advertisement claims) and 6 questions on the 6 developed advertisements (attention, understanding, sufficiency of information, sympathy, trust, and purchase). Scoring was done as per the 5 Likert scale. There was a higher proportion of females and the elderly, as compared to males and youngsters. The overall consumer attitudes were positive. Explanation of ingredients, scientific diagram of health benefit, patents and expert comments were helpful factors in increasing the advertisement evaluation by consumer, but the images were not. Advertisement evaluation of consumer did not differ with gender and age. However, differences were observed between some of the consumer attitudes (necessity of HFFs, trust in HFFs, gathering information and trust in advertisements claim) and advertisement evaluations (attention, understanding, sympathy and purchase). Our results indicate that for consumers utilizing the HFFs, advertisements with concrete tools such as diagrams, patent, and expert comments are more helpful. However, for consumers who do not have interest in HFFs, the scientific information was irrelevant. We believe that to maximize the effect of health information in advertisements, consumers should be segmented, and customized tools for each segment needs to be developed.

How Enduring Product Involvement and Perceived Risk Affect Consumers' Online Merchant Selection Process: The 'Required Trust Level' Perspective (지속적 관여도 및 인지된 위험이 소비자의 온라인 상인선택 프로세스에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구: 요구신뢰 수준 개념을 중심으로)

  • Hong, Il-Yoo B.;Lee, Jung-Min;Cho, Hwi-Hyung
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.22 no.1
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    • pp.29-52
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    • 2012
  • Consumers differ in the way they make a purchase. An audio mania would willingly make a bold, yet serious, decision to buy a top-of-the-line home theater system, while he is not interested in replacing his two-decade-old shabby car. On the contrary, an automobile enthusiast wouldn't mind spending forty thousand dollars to buy a new Jaguar convertible, yet cares little about his junky component system. It is product involvement that helps us explain such differences among individuals in the purchase style. Product involvement refers to the extent to which a product is perceived to be important to a consumer (Zaichkowsky, 2001). Product involvement is an important factor that strongly influences consumer's purchase decision-making process, and thus has been of prime interest to consumer behavior researchers. Furthermore, researchers found that involvement is closely related to perceived risk (Dholakia, 2001). While abundant research exists addressing how product involvement relates to overall perceived risk, little attention has been paid to the relationship between involvement and different types of perceived risk in an electronic commerce setting. Given that perceived risk can be a substantial barrier to the online purchase (Jarvenpaa, 2000), research addressing such an issue will offer useful implications on what specific types of perceived risk an online firm should focus on mitigating if it is to increase sales to a fullest potential. Meanwhile, past research has focused on such consumer responses as information search and dissemination as a consequence of involvement, neglecting other behavioral responses like online merchant selection. For one example, will a consumer seriously considering the purchase of a pricey Guzzi bag perceive a great degree of risk associated with online buying and therefore choose to buy it from a digital storefront rather than from an online marketplace to mitigate risk? Will a consumer require greater trust on the part of the online merchant when the perceived risk of online buying is rather high? We intend to find answers to these research questions through an empirical study. This paper explores the impact of enduring product involvement and perceived risks on required trust level, and further on online merchant choice. For the purpose of the research, five types or components of perceived risk are taken into consideration, including financial, performance, delivery, psychological, and social risks. A research model has been built around the constructs under consideration, and 12 hypotheses have been developed based on the research model to examine the relationships between enduring involvement and five components of perceived risk, between five components of perceived risk and required trust level, between enduring involvement and required trust level, and finally between required trust level and preference toward an e-tailer. To attain our research objectives, we conducted an empirical analysis consisting of two phases of data collection: a pilot test and main survey. The pilot test was conducted using 25 college students to ensure that the questionnaire items are clear and straightforward. Then the main survey was conducted using 295 college students at a major university for nine days between December 13, 2010 and December 21, 2010. The measures employed to test the model included eight constructs: (1) enduring involvement, (2) financial risk, (3) performance risk, (4) delivery risk, (5) psychological risk, (6) social risk, (7) required trust level, (8) preference toward an e-tailer. The statistical package, SPSS 17.0, was used to test the internal consistency among the items within the individual measures. Based on the Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ coefficients of the individual measure, the reliability of all the variables is supported. Meanwhile, the Amos 18.0 package was employed to perform a confirmatory factor analysis designed to assess the unidimensionality of the measures. The goodness of fit for the measurement model was satisfied. Unidimensionality was tested using convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity. The statistical evidences proved that the three types of validity were all satisfied. Now the structured equation modeling technique was used to analyze the individual paths along the relationships among the research constructs. The results indicated that enduring involvement has significant positive relationships with all the five components of perceived risk, while only performance risk is significantly related to trust level required by consumers for purchase. It can be inferred from the findings that product performance problems are mostly likely to occur when a merchant behaves in an opportunistic manner. Positive relationships were also found between involvement and required trust level and between required trust level and online merchant choice. Enduring involvement is concerned with the pleasure a consumer derives from a product class and/or with the desire for knowledge for the product class, and thus is likely to motivate the consumer to look for ways of mitigating perceived risk by requiring a higher level of trust on the part of the online merchant. Likewise, a consumer requiring a high level of trust on the merchant will choose a digital storefront rather than an e-marketplace, since a digital storefront is believed to be trustworthier than an e-marketplace, as it fulfills orders by itself rather than acting as an intermediary. The findings of the present research provide both academic and practical implications. The first academic implication is that enduring product involvement is a strong motivator of consumer responses, especially the selection of a merchant, in the context of electronic shopping. Secondly, academicians are advised to pay attention to the finding that an individual component or type of perceived risk can be used as an important research construct, since it would allow one to pinpoint the specific types of risk that are influenced by antecedents or that influence consequents. Meanwhile, our research provides implications useful for online merchants (both online storefronts and e-marketplaces). Merchants may develop strategies to attract consumers by managing perceived performance risk involved in purchase decisions, since it was found to have significant positive relationship with the level of trust required by a consumer on the part of the merchant. One way to manage performance risk would be to thoroughly examine the product before shipping to ensure that it has no deficiencies or flaws. Secondly, digital storefronts are advised to focus on symbolic goods (e.g., cars, cell phones, fashion outfits, and handbags) in which consumers are relatively more involved than others, whereas e- marketplaces should put their emphasis on non-symbolic goods (e.g., drinks, books, MP3 players, and bike accessories).

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Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy in Locally Advanced Carcinoma of The Uterine Cervix : A Phase I/II Prospective Study (국소적으로 진행된 자궁경부암의 방사선치료와 복합 항암화학요법의 동시치료 결과)

  • Kang One Chul;Choi Eun Kyung;Chung Weon Kuu;Kim Jong Hoon;Chang Hyesook;Kim Yong Man;Kim Young Tak;Nam Joo Hyun;Mok Jung-Eun;Lee Moo-Song
    • Radiation Oncology Journal
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    • v.16 no.3
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    • pp.311-323
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    • 1998
  • Purpose : Prospective, single arm, Phase I/II clinical trial was performed to assess the efficacy and toxicity of the concurrent chemotherapy and definitive radiotherapy (RT) in patients with previously untreated locally advanced carcinoma of the uterine cervix. Methods and Materials : From Mar 1992 to January 1997, a total of 73 patients with advanced cervical carcinoma were entered on the protocol but 5 patients were excluded in analysis because of patients' refusal of treatment. Their ages ranged from 31 to 77 years, median 58 years. The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage distribution was as follows: IIB 46, IIIA 2, IIIB 15 and IVA 5. RT consisted of external beam irradiation to 4,140-5,040 cGy/23-28 fractions plus high dose rate intracavitary treatments to deliver a dose of 30-35 Gy to point A in 6-7 fractions. During the intracavitary treatments parametrial boost was delivered for point B dose of 60 Gy in stage IIB and 65 Gy in stage IIIB. Two cycles of concurrent 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin (FP) chemotherapy (5-fluorouracil 1,000 mg/$m^2$/day continuous infusion for 4 days, day 1-4, 29-32 and cisplatin 20 mg/$m^2$/day intravenous bolus for 3 days day 1-3, 29-31) administered starting on day 1 of RT. Results : The median follow-up was 24 months (range 4-68+). Sixty-four patients were evaluable for survival rate in this protocol: The 5-year actuarial and disease-free survival rate were 52$\%$ and 64$\%$, respectively. The 5-rear actuarial survival for stage IIB and III+IVA patients were 58$\%$ and 36$\%$, respectively The 5-year disease-free survival rate for stage IIB and III+IVA patients were 71$\%$ and 40$\%$, respectively. Of the 68 patients evaluated for patterns of failure, overall recurrence rate was 27.9$\%$ (19/68) : local failure in 5.9$\%$ (4/68), distant metastasis in 10.3$\%$ (7/68) and both in 11.8$\%$ (8/68). Of the 64 patients evaluated for response at one month after the completion of treatment the complete response rate was 78$\%$ (50/64). Concurrent chemoradiation appear to be a well-tolerated regimen but there were two treatment-related deaths. Conclusion : Concurrent chemotherapy of FP with high-dose definitive RT in locally advanced carcinoma of the uterine cervix is feasible and effective with acceptable toxicities. This chemoradiation regimen may offer a modest survival benefit for advanced stage. Further follow-up of these patients will evaluate the impact of this regimen on the long-term local control and their survival.

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A Study on Industries's Leading at the Stock Market in Korea - Gradual Diffusion of Information and Cross-Asset Return Predictability- (산업의 주식시장 선행성에 관한 실증분석 - 자산간 수익률 예측 가능성 -)

  • Kim Jong-Kwon
    • Proceedings of the Safety Management and Science Conference
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    • 2004.11a
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    • pp.355-380
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    • 2004
  • I test the hypothesis that the gradual diffusion of information across asset markets leads to cross-asset return predictability in Korea. Using thirty-six industry portfolios and the broad market index as our test assets, I establish several key results. First, a number of industries such as semiconductor, electronics, metal, and petroleum lead the stock market by up to one month. In contrast, the market, which is widely followed, only leads a few industries. Importantly, an industry's ability to lead the market is correlated with its propensity to forecast various indicators of economic activity such as industrial production growth. Consistent with our hypothesis, these findings indicate that the market reacts with a delay to information in industry returns about its fundamentals because information diffuses only gradually across asset markets. Traditional theories of asset pricing assume that investors have unlimited information-processing capacity. However, this assumption does not hold for many traders, even the most sophisticated ones. Many economists recognize that investors are better characterized as being only boundedly rational(see Shiller(2000), Sims(2201)). Even from casual observation, few traders can pay attention to all sources of information much less understand their impact on the prices of assets that they trade. Indeed, a large literature in psychology documents the extent to which even attention is a precious cognitive resource(see, eg., Kahneman(1973), Nisbett and Ross(1980), Fiske and Taylor(1991)). A number of papers have explored the implications of limited information- processing capacity for asset prices. I will review this literature in Section II. For instance, Merton(1987) develops a static model of multiple stocks in which investors only have information about a limited number of stocks and only trade those that they have information about. Related models of limited market participation include brennan(1975) and Allen and Gale(1994). As a result, stocks that are less recognized by investors have a smaller investor base(neglected stocks) and trade at a greater discount because of limited risk sharing. More recently, Hong and Stein(1999) develop a dynamic model of a single asset in which information gradually diffuses across the investment public and investors are unable to perform the rational expectations trick of extracting information from prices. Hong and Stein(1999). My hypothesis is that the gradual diffusion of information across asset markets leads to cross-asset return predictability. This hypothesis relies on two key assumptions. The first is that valuable information that originates in one asset reaches investors in other markets only with a lag, i.e. news travels slowly across markets. The second assumption is that because of limited information-processing capacity, many (though not necessarily all) investors may not pay attention or be able to extract the information from the asset prices of markets that they do not participate in. These two assumptions taken together leads to cross-asset return predictability. My hypothesis would appear to be a very plausible one for a few reasons. To begin with, as pointed out by Merton(1987) and the subsequent literature on segmented markets and limited market participation, few investors trade all assets. Put another way, limited participation is a pervasive feature of financial markets. Indeed, even among equity money managers, there is specialization along industries such as sector or market timing funds. Some reasons for this limited market participation include tax, regulatory or liquidity constraints. More plausibly, investors have to specialize because they have their hands full trying to understand the markets that they do participate in

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A study on Operation Rules of Korean Air Defence Identification Zone (한국 방공식별구역 운영규칙에 관한 고찰)

  • Kwon, Jong-Pil;Lee, Yeong H.
    • The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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    • v.32 no.2
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    • pp.189-217
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    • 2017
  • Declaration of Air Defense and Identification Zones started with the United States in 1950, which was followed by declaration of KADIZ by the Republic of Korea in 1951. Initial ADIZ were solely linked with air defense missions, but their roles have changed as nations around the globe manifested a tendency to expand their influence over maritime resources and rights. In particular, China declared ADIZ over the East China Sea in October 2013 and forced all passing aircraft to submit flight plan to ATC or military authority, saying failure of submission will be followed by armed engagement. China announced it would declare another zone over the South China Sea despite the ongoing conflict in the area, clearly showing ADIZ's direct connection with territorial claim and EEZ and that it serves as a zone within which a nation can execute its rights. The expanded KADIZ, which was expanded in Dec 15, 2013 in response to Chinese actions, overlaps with the Chinese ADIZ over the East China Sea and the Japanese ADIZ. The overlapping zone is an airspace over waters where not only the Republic of Korea but also of China and Japan argue to be covering their continental shelf and EEZ. Military conventions were signed to prevent contingencies among the neighboring nations while conducting identifications in KADIZ, including the overlapping zone. If such military conventions and practice of air defense identification continue to be respected among states, it is under the process of turning into a regional customary law, although ADIZ is not yet recognized by international law or customary law. Moreover, identification within ADIZ is carried out by military authorities of states, and misguided customary procedures may cause serious negative consequences for national security since it may negatively impact neighboring countries in marking the maritime border, which calls for formulation of operation rules that account for other state activities and military talks among regional stake holders. Legal frameworks need to be in place to guarantee freedom of flights over international seas which UN Maritime Law protects, and laws regarding military aircraft operation need to be supplemented to not make it a requirement to submit flight plan if the aircraft does not invade sovereign airspace. Organizational instructions that require approval of Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff for entrance and exit of ADIZ for military aircraft need to be amended to change the authority to Minister of National Defense or be promoted to a law to be applicable for commercial aircraft. Moreover, in regards to operation and management of ADIZ, transfer of authority should be prohibited to account for its evolution into a regional customary law in South East Asia. In particular, since ADIZ is set over EEZ, military conventions that yield authority related to national security should never be condoned. Among Korea, China, Japan and Russia, there are military conventions that discuss operation and management of ADIZ in place or under negotiation, meaning that ADIZ is becoming a regional customary law in North East Asia region.

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Structure of Export Competition between Asian NIEs and Japan in the U.S. Import Market and Exchange Rate Effects (한국(韓國)의 아시아신흥공업국(新興工業國) 및 일본(日本)과의 대미수출경쟁(對美輸出競爭) : 환율효과(換率效果)를 중심(中心)으로)

  • Jwa, Sung-hee
    • KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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    • v.12 no.2
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    • pp.3-49
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    • 1990
  • This paper analyzes U.S. demand for imports from Asian NIEs and Japan, utilizing the Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) developed by Deaton and Muellbauer, with an emphasis on the effect of changes in the exchange rate. The empirical model assumes a two-stage budgeting process in which the first stage represents the allocation of total U.S. demand among three groups: the Asian NIEs and Japan, six Western developed countries, and the U.S. domestic non-tradables and import competing sector. The second stage represents the allocation of total U.S. imports from the Asian NIEs and Japan among them, by country. According to the AIDS model, the share equation for the Asia NIEs and Japan in U.S. nominal GNP is estimated as a single equation for the first stage. The share equations for those five countries in total U.S. imports are estimated as a system with the general demand restrictions of homogeneity, symmetry and adding-up, together with polynomially distributed lag restrictions. The negativity condition is also satisfied for all cases. The overall results of these complicated estimations, using quarterly data from the first quarter of 1972 to the fourth quarter of 1989, are quite promising in terms of the significance of individual estimators and other statistics. The conclusions drawn from the estimation results and the derived demand elasticities can be summarized as follows: First, the exports of each Asian NIE to the U.S. are competitive with (substitutes for) Japan's exports, while complementary to the exports of fellow NIEs, with the exception of the competitive relation between Hong Kong and Singapore. Second, the exports of each Asian NIE and of Japan to the U.S. are competitive with those of Western developed countries' to the U.S, while they are complementary to the U.S.' non-tradables and import-competing sector. Third, as far as both the first and second stages of budgeting are coneidered, the imports from each Asian NIE and Japan are luxuries in total U.S. consumption. However, when only the second budgeting stage is considered, the imports from Japan and Singapore are luxuries in U.S. imports from the NIEs and Japan, while those of Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong are necessities. Fourth, the above results may be evidenced more concretely in their implied exchange rate effects. It appears that, in general, a change in the yen-dollar exchange rate will have at least as great an impact, on an NIE's share and volume of exports to the U.S. though in the opposite direction, as a change in the exchange rate of the NIE's own currency $vis-{\grave{a}}-vis$ the dollar. Asian NIEs, therefore, should counteract yen-dollar movements in order to stabilize their exports to the U.S.. More specifically, Korea should depreciate the value of the won relative to the dollar by approximately the same proportion as the depreciation rate of the yen $vis-{\grave{a}}-vis$ the dollar, in order to maintain the volume of Korean exports to the U.S.. In the worst case scenario, Korea should devalue the won by three times the maguitude of the yen's depreciation rate, in order to keep market share in the aforementioned five countries' total exports to the U.S.. Finally, this study provides additional information which may support empirical findings on the competitive relations among the Asian NIEs and Japan. The correlation matrices among the strutures of those five countries' exports to the U.S.. during the 1970s and 1980s were estimated, with the export structure constructed as the shares of each of the 29 industrial sectors' exports as defined by the 3 digit KSIC in total exports to the U.S. from each individual country. In general, the correlation between each of the four Asian NIEs and Japan, and that between Hong Kong and Singapore, are all far below .5, while the ones among the Asian NIEs themselves (except for the one between Hong Kong and Singapore) all greatly exceed .5. If there exists a tendency on the part of the U.S. to import goods in each specific sector from different countries in a relatively constant proportion, the export structures of those countries will probably exhibit a high correlation. To take this hypothesis to the extreme, if the U.S. maintained an absolutely fixed ratio between its imports from any two countries for each of the 29 sectors, the correlation between the export structures of these two countries would be perfect. Therefore, since any two goods purchased in a fixed proportion could be classified as close complements, a high correlation between export structures will imply a complementary relationship between them. Conversely, low correlation would imply a competitive relationship. According to this interpretation, the pattern formed by the correlation coefficients among the five countries' export structures to the U.S. are consistent with the empirical findings of the regression analysis.

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