• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.378-385
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• 2017

In this study, we evaluated the changes of fruit quality indices during fruit development and ripening in Korean new pear cultivar 'Changjo', developed from a cross between 'Tama' and '81-1-27' ('Danbae' ${\times}$ 'Okusankichi') in 1995 and named in 2009, to determine appropriate harvest time and to enhance the market quality and broaden the cultivation area. The fruits of 'Changjo' pears harvested from 132 days after full bloom (DAFB) to 160 DAFB. Fruit growth and quality indices were monitored at 1 week interval by measuring fruit weight, length, diameter, firmness, and taste related quality indices. The calculated fruit fresh weight increased continuously with fruit development and reached to an average of 594g on Sep. 20 (160 DAFB). The ratio of length to diameter declines as fruit maturation progress, resulting in 0.898 for ripe fruit stage as a round oblate shape. Flesh firmness of 'Changjo' pears showed over 30N until 153 DAFB and then decreased abruptly with fruit ripening, reaching a final level of about 26.44N on 160 DAFB. Starch content of fruit sap was also decreased abruptly after 146 DAFB which decreased almost half of the fruits harvested at 139 DAFB. In parallel with the decrease of flesh firmness, ethanol insoluble solids (EIS) content decreased sharply with fruit ripens, only 50% of EIS was detected on the fruits harvested on 160 DAFB when compared to that of the fruits harvested on 139 DAFB (Aug. 30). The maximum value of soluble solids contents was observed in the fruits harvested on 153 DAFB, resulting in $14.2^{\circ}Brix$. The changes of skin color difference $a^*$ which means loss of green color occurred only after 139 DAFB, coincide with the decrease of SPAD value of the fruit skin. The sugars of the 80% ethanol soluble fraction consisted mainly of fructose, sorbitol, glucose and sucrose, also increased during maturation and ripening. Fructose and sucrose contents were larger than those of glucose and sorbitol in flesh tissues. These results were explained that stored starch is converted to soluble sugars during fruit maturation, mainly in fructose and sucrose increasing the sweetness of this cultivar. Total polyphenols were increased up to middle of fruit maturation (146 DAFB) and then decreased continuously until the end of fruit maturation. Consequently, our results suggested that the commercial harvest time of 'Changjo' pears should not be passed 153 DAFB and late harvest of this cultivar would not good for quality maintenance during shelf-life. As a result of the post-harvest low-temperature acclimation experiment during the short-term transportation period, fruits harvested at 146 DAFB tended to maintain higher firmness after 14 days of simulated marketing at $25^{\circ}C$ compared to fruits harvested at 153 DAFB regardless of temperature set. And, the slower the rate of decrease to the final transport temperature of $5^{\circ}C$, the higher the incidence of internal browning and ethylene production. Therefore, in order to suppress the physiological disorder and to maintain the fruit quality when exporting to Southeast Asia in the 'Chanjo' pears, it is desirable to lower the temperature of the fruits within a short time after harvest and to set the harvest time before 146 days after full bloom.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.63-92
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• 2012

This study investigated consumer intention to use a location-based mobile shopping service (LBMSS) that integrates cognitive and affective responses. Information relevancy was integrated into pleasure-arousal-dominance (PAD) emotional state model in the present study as a conceptual framework. The results of an online survey of 335 mobile phone users in the U.S. indicated the positive effects of arousal and information relevancy on pleasure. In addition, there was a significant relationship between pleasure and intention to use a LBMSS. However, the relationship between dominance and pleasure was not statistically significant. The results of the present study provides insight to retailers and marketers as to what factors they need to consider to implement location-based mobile shopping services to improve their business performance. Extended Abstract : Location aware technology has expanded the marketer's reach by reducing space and time between a consumer's receipt of advertising and purchase, offering real-time information and coupons to consumers in purchasing situations (Dickenger and Kleijnen, 2008; Malhotra and Malhotra, 2009). LBMSS increases the relevancy of SMS marketing by linking advertisements to a user's location (Bamba and Barnes, 2007; Malhotra and Malhotra, 2009). This study investigated consumer intention to use a location-based mobile shopping service (LBMSS) that integrates cognitive and affective response. The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship among information relevancy and affective variables and their effects on intention to use LBMSS. Thus, information relevancy was integrated into pleasure-arousal-dominance (PAD) model and generated the following hypotheses. Hypothesis 1. There will be a positive influence of arousal concerning LBMSS on pleasure in regard to LBMSS. Hypothesis 2. There will be a positive influence of dominance in LBMSS on pleasure in regard to LBMSS. Hypothesis 3. There will be a positive influence of information relevancy on pleasure in regard to LBMSS. Hypothesis 4. There will be a positive influence of pleasure about LBMSS on intention to use LBMSS. E-mail invitations were sent out to a randomly selected sample of three thousand consumers who are older than 18 years old and mobile phone owners, acquired from an independent marketing research company. An online survey technique was employed utilizing Dillman's (2000) online survey method and follow-ups. A total of 335 valid responses were used for the data analysis in the present study. Before the respondents answer any of the questions, they were told to read a document describing LBMSS. The document included definitions and examples of LBMSS provided by various service providers. After that, they were exposed to a scenario describing the participant as taking a saturday shopping trip to a mall and then receiving a short message from the mall. The short message included new product information and coupons for same day use at participating stores. They then completed a questionnaire containing various questions. To assess arousal, dominance, and pleasure, we adapted and modified scales used in the previous studies in the context of location-based mobile shopping service, each of the five items from Mehrabian and Russell (1974). A total of 15 items were measured on a seven-point bipolar scale. To measure information relevancy, four items were borrowed from Mason et al. (1995). Intention to use LBMSS was captured using two items developed by Blackwell, and Miniard (1995) and one items developed by the authors. Data analyses were conducted using SPSS 19.0 and LISREL 8.72. A total of usable 335 data were obtained after deleting the incomplete responses, which results in a response rate of 11.20%. A little over half of the respondents were male (53.9%) and approximately 60% of respondents were married (57.4%). The mean age of the sample was 29.44 years with a range from 19 to 60 years. In terms of the ethnicity there were European Americans (54.5%), Hispanic American (5.3%), African-American (3.6%), and Asian American (2.9%), respectively. The respondents were highly educated; close to 62.5% of participants in the study reported holding a college degree or its equivalent and 14.5% of the participants had graduate degree. The sample represents all income categories: less than $24,999 (10.8%), $25,000-$49,999 (28.34%), $50,000-$74,999 (13.8%), and $75,000 or more (10.23%). The respondents of the study indicated that they were employed in many occupations. Responses came from all 42 states in the U.S. To identify the dimensions of research constructs, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) using a varimax rotation was conducted. As indicated in table 1, these dimensions: arousal, dominance, relevancy, pleasure, and intention to use, suggested by the EFA, explained 82.29% of the total variance with factor loadings ranged from .74 to .89. As a next step, CFA was conducted to validate the dimensions that were identified from the exploratory factor analysis and to further refine the scale. Table 1 exhibits the results of measurement model analysis and revealed a chi-square of 202.13 with degree-of-freedom of 89 (p =.002), GFI of .93, AGFI = .89, CFI of .99, NFI of .98, which indicates of the evidence of a good model fit to the data (Bagozzi and Yi, 1998; Hair et al., 1998). As table 1 shows, reliability was estimated with Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability (CR) for all multi-item scales. All the values met evidence of satisfactory reliability in multi-item measure for alpha (>.91) and CR (>.80). In addition, we tested the convergent validity of the measure using average variance extracted (AVE) by following recommendations from Fornell and Larcker (1981). The AVE values for the model constructs ranged from .74 through .85, which are higher than the threshold suggested by Fornell and Larcker (1981). To examine discriminant validity of the measure, we again followed the recommendations from Fornell and Larcker (1981). The shared variances between constructs were smaller than the AVE of the research constructs and confirm discriminant validity of the measure. The causal model testing was conducted using LISREL 8.72 with a maximum-likelihood estimation method. Table 2 shows the results of the hypotheses testing. The results for the conceptual model revealed good overall fit for the proposed model. Chi-square was 342.00 (df = 92, p =.000), NFI was .97, NNFI was .97, GFI was .89, AGFI was .83, and RMSEA was .08. All paths in the proposed model received significant statistical support except H2. The paths from arousal to pleasure (H1: ${\ss}$=.70; t = 11.44), from information relevancy to intention to use (H3 ${\ss}$ =.12; t = 2.36), from information relevancy to pleasure (H4 ${\ss}$ =.15; t = 2.86), and pleasure to intention to use (H5: ${\ss}$=.54; t = 9.05) were significant. However, the path from dominance to pleasure was not supported. This study investigated consumer intention to use a location-based mobile shopping service (LBMSS) that integrates cognitive and affective responses. Information relevancy was integrated into pleasure-arousal-dominance (PAD) emotional state model as a conceptual framework. The results of the present study support previous studies indicating that emotional responses as well as cognitive responses have a strong impact on accepting new technology. The findings of this study suggest potential marketing strategies to mobile service developers and retailers who are considering the implementation of LBMSS. It would be rewarding to develop location-based mobile services that integrate information relevancy and which cause positive emotional responses.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.535-547
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• 1995

Background: Intensive care units(ICUs) probably represent the single largest identifiable source of infection within the hospital. Although there are several studies on ICU infections in respect to their bacteriology or mortality rate for individual types of ICU, few studies have compared ICU infections between different types of ICU. The aim of this study was to identify clinical differences in bacteremia between medical ICU(MICU) and surgical ICU(SICU) patients. Methods: 256 patients with bacteremia were retrospectively evaluated. Medical records were reviewed to obtain the clinical and bacteriologic informations. Results: 1) The mean age of the patients with bacteremia of MICU($58.6{\pm}17.2\;yr$) was greater than that of all MICU patients($54.3{\pm}17.1\;yr$)(p<0.01), but there was no significant difference in SICU patients(patients with bacteremia of SICU: $56.3{\pm}18.6\;yr$, all SICU patients: $62.0{\pm}16.8$)(p>0.05). ICU stay was longer(MICU patients: $23.4{\pm}40.8$ day, SICU patients: $30.3{\pm}26.8$ day) than the mean stay of all patients($6.8{\pm}15.5$ day)(p<0.05, respectively). Bacteremia of both ICU patients developed past the average day of ICU stay(all MICU patients: 7.9 day, all SICU patients: 6.0 day, MICU bacteremia: 19th day, SICU bacteremia: 17th day of ICU stay)(p<0.05, respectively). 2) There were no significant differences in mean age, sex, and length of stay of both ICU patients with bacteremia. 3) Use of antibiotics or steroid, use of percutaneous devices and invasive procedures before development of bacteremia were more frequent in SICU patients than in MICU patients(prior antibiotics use: MICU 45%, SICU 63%, p<0.05; steroid use: MICU 14%, SICU 36%, p<0.01; use of percutaneous devices: MICU 19%, SICU 39%, p<0.01; invasive procedures: MICU 19%, SICU 61 %, p<0.01). 4) The prevalence of community acquired infections was significantly higher in MICU patients than in SICU patients(MICU 42%, SICU 9%)(p<0.01), whereas SICU patients showed higher prevalence of ICU-acquired infection than MICU patients(MICU 48%, SICU 78%)(p<0.01). 5) There were no differences in causative organisms, primary sites of infection and time interval to bacteremia between both ICUs. 6) There were no significant differences in outcome according to pathogenic organisms or primary sites of infection. 7) The mortality rate was higher in patients with bacteremia than without bacteremia(MICU mortality rate: patients with bacteremia 72.5%, patients without bacteremia 36.0%, p<0.01; SICU mortality rate: patients with bacteremia 40.3%, patients without bacteremia 8.5%, p<0.05), and the mortality rate of MICU bacteremia was significantly higher compared with that of SICU bacteremia(MICU 72.5%, SICU 40.3%)(p<0.01). Conclusion: ICU patients with bacteremia stayed longer before the development of bacteremia, and showed higher mortality than the overall ICU population. The incidence of bacteremia was higher in MICU patients than SICU patients. MICU patients with bacteremia showed higher prevalence of liver diseases and acute respiratory failure, community-acquired bacteremia and greater mortality rate than SICU patients with bacteremia. SICU patients with bacteremia, on the other hand, showed higher prevalence of trauma, prior use of immunosuppressive agents, invasive procedures, and ICU-acquired bacteremia, and lower mortality rate than MICU patients with bacteremia.