• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.247-269
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• 2007

In recent years, one of the major reasons for the fierce competition amongst firms is that they strive to increase their own market shares and customer acquisition rate in the same market with similar and apparently undifferentiated products in terms of quality and perceived benefit. Because of this change in recent marketing environment, the differentiated after-sales service and diversified promotion strategies have become more important to gain competitive advantage. Price promotion is the favorite strategy that most retailers use to achieve short-term sales increase, induce consumer's brand switch, in troduce new product into market, and so forth. However, if marketers apply or copy an identical price promotion strategy without considering the characteristic differences in product and consumer preference, it will cause serious problems because discounted price itself could make people skeptical about product quality, and the changes of perceived value might appear differently depending on other factors such as consumer involvement or brand attitude. Previous studies showed that price promotion would certainly increase sales, and the discounted price compared to regular price would enhance the consumer's perceived values. On the other hand, discounted price itself could make people depreciate or skeptical about product quality, and reduce the consumers' positivity bias because consumers might be unsure whether the current price promotion is the retailer's best price offer. Moreover, we cannot say that discounted price absolutely enhances the consumer's perceived values regardless of product category and purchase situations. That is, the factors that affect consumers' value perceptions and buying behavior are so diverse in reality that the results of studies on the same dependent variable come out differently depending on what variable was used or how experiment conditions were designed. Majority of previous researches on the effect of price-comparison advertising have used consumers' buying behavior as dependent variable. In order to figure out consumers' buying behavior theoretically, analysis of value perceptions which influence buying intentions is needed. In addition, they did not combined the independent variables such as brand loyalty and price discount rate together. For this reason, this paper tried to examine the moderating effect of brand loyalty on relationship between the different levels of discounting rate and buyers' value perception. And we provided with theoretical and managerial implications that marketers need to consider such variables as product attributes, brand loyalty, and consumer involvement at the same time, and then establish a differentiated pricing strategy case by case in order to enhance consumer's perceived values properl. Three research concepts were used in our study and each concept based on past researches was defined. The perceived acquisition value in this study was defined as the perceived net gains associated with the products or services acquired. That is, the perceived acquisition value of the product will be positively influenced by the benefits buyers believe they are getting by acquiring and using the product, and negatively influenced by the money given up to acquire the product. And the perceived transaction value was defined as the perception of psychological satisfaction or pleasure obtained from taking advantage of the financial terms of the price deal. Lastly, the brand loyalty was defined as favorable attitude towards a purchased product. Thus, a consumer loyal to a brand has an emotional attachment to the brand or firm. Repeat purchasers continue to buy the same brand even though they do not have an emotional attachment to it. We assumed that if the degree of brand loyalty is high, the perceived acquisition value and the perceived transaction value will increase when higher discount rate is provided. But we found that there are no significant differences in values between two different discount rates as a result of empirical analysis. It means that price reduction did not affect consumer's brand choice significantly because the perceived sacrifice decreased only a little, and customers are satisfied with product's benefits when brand loyalty is high. From the result, we confirmed that consumers with high degree of brand loyalty to a specific product are less sensitive to price change. Thus, using price promotion strategy to merely expect sale increase is not recommendable. Instead of discounting price, marketers need to strengthen consumers' brand loyalty and maintain the skimming strategy. On the contrary, when the degree of brand loyalty is low, the perceived acquisition value and the perceived transaction value decreased significantly when higher discount rate is provided. Generally brands that are considered inferior might be able to draw attention away from the quality of the product by making consumers focus more on the sacrifice component of price. But considering the fact that consumers with low degree of brand loyalty are known to be unsatisfied with product's benefits and have relatively negative brand attitude, bigger price reduction offered in experiment condition of this paper made consumers depreciate product's quality and benefit more and more, and consumer's psychological perceived sacrifice increased while perceived values decreased accordingly. We infer that, in the case of inferior brand, a drastic price-cut or frequent price promotion may increase consumers' uncertainty about overall components of product. Therefore, it appears that reinforcing the augmented product such as after-sale service, delivery and giving credit which is one of the levels consisting of product would be more effective in reality. This will be better rather than competing with product that holds high brand loyalty by reducing sale price. Although this study tried to examine the moderating effect of brand loyalty on relationship between the different levels of discounting rate and buyers' value perception, there are several limitations. This study was conducted in controlled conditions where the high involvement product and two different levels of discount rate were applied. Given the presence of low involvement product, when both pieces of information are available, it is likely that the results we have reported here may have been different. Thus, this research results explain only the specific situation. Second, the sample selected in this study was university students in their twenties, so we cannot say that the results are firmly effective to all generations. Future research that manipulates the level of discount along with the consumer involvement might lead to a more robust understanding of the effects various discount rate. And, we used a cellular phone as a product stimulus, so it would be very interesting to analyze the result when the product stimulus is an intangible product such as service. It could be also valuable to analyze whether the change of perceived value affects consumers' final buying behavior positively or negatively.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.39-44
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to cover dental hygienists who work for metropolitan dental hospitals or clinics in Seoul city, Incheon city and Gyeonggi province from January to April 2009 and profile their awareness of Long-term Senior Care Insurance System (hereinafter called 'LSCI (System)', so that it may provide material reference data to contribute to expanding and establishing oral health medical services in the framework of LSCI System. As a result, this study could come to the following conclusions: 1. It was found that the highest priority of dental hygienists' visiting oral hygienic services under LSCI System was focused on 'caring and preventive treatment', and their secondary priority was focused upon 'oral health education.' 2. In response to a question item about whether dental hygienists need dentist's prescription in written before performing their visiting oral hygienic services, it was found that 38.2% dental hygienists answered 'Yes (necessary)' and 61.8% answered 'No (unnecessary).' 3. In response to a question item about whether dental hygienists may open up long-term senior care center, it was found that absolute majority of dental hygienists (93.4%) answered 'No' and only 6.6% dental hygienists answered 'Yes.' The standardized professional education are thought to be needed to be developed aiming at the success in oral-hygiene service within a LSCI, by strengthening professionalism in dental hygienists.

• Atmosphere
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.429-438
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• 2011

The climatology of surface UV radiation for Seoul, presented in Cho et al. (1998; 2001), has been updated using measurement of surface erythemal ultraviolet (EUV) and total ultraviolet (TUV) irradiance (wavelength 286.5~363.0 nm) by a Brewer Spectrophotometer (MK-IV) for the period 2004~2010. The analysis was also carried out together with the broadband total (global) solar irradiance (TR ; 305~2800 nm) and cloud amount to compare with the UV variations, measured by Seoul meteorological station of Korean Meteorological Agency located near the present study site. Under all-sky conditions, the day-to-day variability of EUV exhibits annual mean of 98% in increase and 31% in decrease. It has been also shown that the EUV variability is 17 times as high as the total ozone in positive change, whereas this is 6 times higher in negative change. Thus, the day to day variability is dominantly caused rather by the daily synoptic situations than by the ozone variability. Annual mean value of daily EUV and TUV shows $1.62kJm^{-2}$ and $0.63MJm^{-2}$ respectively, whereas mean value of TR is $12.4MJm^{-2}$ ($143.1Wm^{-2}$). The yearly maximum in noon-time UV Index (UVI) varies between 9 and 11 depending on time of year. The highest UVI shows 11 on 20 July, 2008 during the period 2004~2010, but for the period 1994~2000, the index of 12 was recorded on 13 July, 1994 (Cho et al., 2001). A 40% of daily maximum UVI belongs to "low (UVI < 2)", whereas the UVI less than 5% of the maximum show "very high (8 < UVI < 10)". On average, the maximum UVI exceeded 8 on 9 days per year. The values of Tropospheric Emission Monitoring Internet Service (TEMIS) EUV and UVI under cloud-free conditions are 1.8 times and 1.5 times, respectively, higher than the all-sky measurements by the Brewer. The trend analysis in fractional deviation of monthly UV from the reference value shows a decrease of -0.83% and -0.90% $decade^{-1}$ in the EUV and TUV, respectively, whereas the TR trend is near zero (+0.11% $decade^{-1}$). The trend is statistically significant except for TR trend (p = 0.279). It is possible that the recent UV decrease is mainly associated with increase in total ozone, but the trend in TR can be attributed to the other parameters such as clouds except the ozone. Certainly, the cloud effects suggest that the reason for the differences between UV and TR trends can be explained. In order to estimate cloud effects, the EUV, TUV and TR irradiances have been also evaluated for clear skies (cloud cover < 25%) and cloudy skies (cloud cover ${\geq}$ 75%). Annual mean values show that EUV, TUV and TR are $2.15kJm^{-2}$, $0.83MJm^{-2}$, and $17.9MJm^{-2}$ for clear skies, and $1.24kJm^{-2}$, $0.46MJm^{-2}$, and $7.2MJm^{-2}$ for cloudy skies, respectively. As results, the transmission of radiation through clouds under cloudy-sky conditions is observed to be 58%, 55% and 40% for EUV, TUV and TR, respectively. Consequently, it is clear that the cloud effects on EUV and TUV are 18% and 15%, respectively lower than the effects on TR under cloudy-sky conditions. Clouds under all-sky conditions (average of cloud cover is 5 tenths) reduced the EUV and TUV to about 25% of the clear-sky (cloud cover < 25%) values, whereas for TR, this was 31%. As a result, it is noted that the UV radiation is attenuated less than TR by clouds under all weather conditions.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.65-76
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• 1982

This survey was conducted to investigate the status of repair and maintenance of 4 wheel tractor for a basic reference to the improvement of quality and proper utilization of tractors. Thirty two counties from eight provinces, except Jeju, were covered in this study in order to investigate annual break-down and repair of tractor in 1980. The analyzed results are summarized as follows; 1. The average number of break-down of large size tractors(47ps) was 5.0 times in a year and it was about twice of that of small size tractors(19-23ps). The break-down frequency per 100 hours of use was 1.11 times in the large size and 0.65 times in the small size tractors. 2. 75.6 percent of total break-down was occured in main body of tractor and 24.4 percent in attachments. In particular, the break-down of plow and rotavator was more than 80 percent of total break-down of the small size tractor attachments. 3. The large size tractors which were occured more than one times of break-down a year was 75 percent and its rate of the small size tractor was 62 percent. But 9 percent of tractor surveyed had more than ten times of break-down in a year 4. The frequency of break-down had a peak in May, and it was directly proportional to the hours of use. 5. The causes of break-down were poor maintenance and operation by 29.8 precent, old parts by 30.2 percent, poor quality of parts by 20.6 percent, poor field condition by 16.3 percent and others by 3.1 percent. 6. Annual number of repair was 5.5 times and among them 55.6 percent was done by shop and 44.4 percent by operator. 7. Total required repair time was 30.6 hours a year in the large size tractor and 19.9 hours in the small size tractor. Average repair time was 3.62 hours a time. 8. Annual repair cost was 278 thousand won in the large size tractor and 70 thousand won in the small size tractor. The repair cost per hour of use was 621 won in the large size and 198 won in the small size tractor. 9. The repair cost rate of tractor(Y) was regulated with tractor age (X) as follow; Y=0.752X In case of the service life of tractor was 10 years, the total repair cost rate was 64 percent.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.248-256
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• 2008

To investigate the epidemiological characteristics of 68 Listeria monocytogenes isolates, including 11 reference strains and 57 isolates from imported US beef, domestic meats(beef, pork, chicken meat), raw milk, and milk plants. L. monocytogenes was to evaluate the production of virulence proteins, such as hemolysin(LLO) and lecithinase(LCP), the adsorption of Congo red(CRA), and to detect virulence genes using the polymerase chain reaction(PCR). In the study of virulence protein production, 68(100%), 62(91.2%), and 54(79.4%) of the 68 L. monocytogenes strains were positive for LLO production, the LCP test, and the CRA test, respectively, while strains of other species, such as L. innocua, L. gray, L. murrayi, and L. welshimeri, were not. There were no significant differences between L. monocytogenes serotypes and the ability to produce LLO or LCP. L. monocytogenesstrains had very high hemolytic titers(2 to 16 fold), while the other Listeria species, other than L. ivanovii and L. seeligeri, did not. The hemolysin activities of L. monocytogenes, L. ivanovii, and L. seeligeri usually exceeded 1.0 HU/mg, while those of other Listeria spp. were less than 0.04 HU/mg. In the PCR assay, all of the L. monocytogenes strains contained the hlyA, plcA, plcB, inlA, and inlB virulence genes and produced a product of the expected size. In the PCR of the actA gene, the expected 385-bp product was seen in 39(57.4%) L. monocytogenesstrains, while an unexpected 268-bp product was seen in 29(42.6%) strains. Most L. monocytogenes strains isolated from Hanwoo beef produced the 385-bp actA gene product, while strains of imported US beef usually produced the 268-bp actA gene product. By contrast, no virulence gene products were amplified in the other Listeria spp.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.5-30
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• 2005

Globalization has conflicting effects on pharmaceutical policies. A change into a 'populist competitive nation' due to globalization strengthens policies to reduce drug manufacturing costs while the WTO's TRIPS Agreement that is affected by multinational pharmaceutical companies increases drug manufacturing costs by bolstering the patent rights on new drugs. Currently, the independency of populist nations' policies to reduce drug manufacturing cost is being compromised because multinational organizations(such as the European Union) which represents the interests of the multinational pharmaceutical companies put restrictions on the pharmaceutical policies of populist nations for purposes of promoting the industrial goals of the multinational companies. Korea is no exception. Up until the late 1990s, the main feature of the pharmaceutical policies in Korea was keeping the drug price at the cost level based on a growth-driven ideology, and this was Korea's unique policy tools as a developing nation. However, the increase in the power of multinational pharmaceutical companies currently infringes on the independency of Korea's pharmaceutical policies. Expensive imported drugs were originally covered by the national health insurance plan, but starting from 1999 such drugs began to be covered by the plan. After separation of medical and pharmaceutical services, the use of expensive drugs was increased, and the Korean government planned to introduce the reference price policy in order to contain the cost of the national health insurance plan. However, due to pressures from the U.S. government as well as multinational pharmaceutical companies, implementation of the policy has been postponed. In addition, due to a pressure from the U.S. government, a working group was created which would affect the health care policy of the Korean government. Discussions so far on globalization was about whether the change into populist competitive nations due to globalization resulted in the reduction of welfare spending. However, this study shows not only the reduction of health care cost through policies to reduce drug manufacturing costs but increase in welfare spending by raising the strengths of multinational pharmaceutical companies that are for-profit providers of welfare service. While focusing on the contradictory effects of globalization on pharmaceutical policies of a nation, this study looked at how these conflicting effects end up promoting the interests of multinational pharmaceutical companies by examining the Korean case.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.33-46
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to know whether or not any wrongful description or simple errors were in photosynthesis unit of Biology II textbook under 7th national curriculum and if so, to know whether or not high school teachers recognized and corrected properly the mistakes. The mistakes in photosynthesis unit of text books were determined by the comparison with several reference books and through examination by three plant physiologists in 8 different Biology II textbooks. After the mistakes were analysed, the survey using contents of textbook containing the mistakes was conducted on high school teachers teaching Biology II. As a result, 48 mistakes were determined in 13 subjects. As many as four mistakes were found even in one subject in a certain textbook and a same mistake was found repeatedly in several textbooks. The survey result showed that the teachers who pointed exactly the mistakes out corrected properly, however, the percentage of these ones out of 35 teachers replied to survey was less than 50%. The ratios of correction out of total number of responses were high in question #6 (43%), #4-3 (40%), and #1-2 (32%) which were containing a simple mistake in graph, a wrong word and a wrong picture, respectively. But, no one pointed out and made correction in question #5-1 and #5-2 which were containing Z scheme of light reaction without the legend of vertical axis that should be explained as electron energy or standard reduction potential. The result indicates the possibility that the mistakes in photosynthesis unit of Biology II textbook can be corrected and teached properly by teachers may be low. In order to reduce the possibility that students may have misconceptions about photosynthesis, the list of print's errors should be provided to the teachers and/or the training program and/or workshop for in-service high school biology teachers was recommended.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.166-178
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• 2015

We investigated marine environmental characteristics of Goheung coastal areas in August where is known to be the first outbreak site of Cochlodinium polykrikoides (hereafter C. polykrikoides) blooms, based on the oceanographic data observed from 1993 to 2013 around the Korean southern coastal waters including Eastern China Sea by National Fisheries Research and Development Institute (NFRDI). The data of NOAA/NGSST satellite images as well as numerical simulation results by Seo et al. [2013] were also used for analysis. Water temperatures at the surface and bottom layers in Goheung coast, i.e. Narodo, were $25.0^{\circ}C$ and $23.7^{\circ}C$ so that they were higher than $23.8^{\circ}C$ and $19.4^{\circ}C$ in Geoje coast where is a reference site, respectively. In addition, salinities at the surface and bottom layers in Goheung coast were 31.78 psu and 31.98 psu so that they were a little higher than 31.54 psu at the surface but a little lower than 32.79 psu at the bottom in Geoje coast, respectively. That is, the differences in water temperature or salinity between the surface and bottom layers in Goheung coast in August were not large compared to Geoje coast. This suggests that stratification in Goheung coast in August is fairly weak or may not be established. In addition, the concentrations of DIN and DIP at the surface layer were 0.068 mg/L ($4.86{\mu}M$) and 0.015 mg/L ($5.14{\mu}M$) in Goheung coast while 0.072 mg/L ($5.14{\mu}M$) and 0.01 mg/L ($0.32{\mu}M$) in Geoje coast, so they did not indicate a meaningful difference. On the other hand, when C. polykrikoides blooms, water temperature and salinity in August at the station 317-22 ($31.5^{\circ}N$, $124^{\circ}E$) of the East China Sea, where is near the mouth of Yangtze River, were $27.8^{\circ}C$ and 31.61 psu, respectively. Thus, water temperature was much higher whereas salinity was almost similar compared to Goheung coast. Furthermore, concentrations of $NO_3-N$ and $PO_4-P$ in the East China Sea in August were remarkably high compared to Goheung coast. When C. polykrikoides blooms, according to not only the image data of satellites NOAA/NGSST but also numerical experiment results by Seo et al.[2013], the freshwater out of Yangtze River was judged to clearly affect the Korean southern coastal waters. Therefore, the supply of nutrients in terms of Yangtze River may greatly contribute to the outbreak of C. polykrikoides blooms in Goheung coast in summer.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.275-281
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• 2008

Background: This research aims to provide basic data for dental hygienists to implement the infection control after understanding the level of their implementation of infection control in case they have been trained of infection control or not. Method: The respondents in this research are the dental hygienists who worked in the Incheon or Gyeonggi areas between June 16 and July 5, 2008 and who attended complementary training conducted by the Seoul Branch of Korean Dental Hygienists Association in April 2008. A total of 191 questionnaires were distributed to them, and the frequency of the collected data was analyzed using SPSS WIN 12.0. Moreover, cross-tabulation analysis (${\chi}^2$) whose significance level was 0.05, was applied to the data in order to verify the statistical significance of the survey method. Result: There was significant difference in their practice to wear gloves and/or a mask, use a disposable apron and the time to change the apron depending upon the respondents' workplace. There was significant difference in the time to change their apron depending upon the respondents' time of service. 91.6% had been trained in the infection control: of them, 70.7% trained at their school. It was found that 68.6% of the respondents who had been trained in the infection control would wash their hands before treating a patient. 50.3% of the respondents who had been trained in the prevention of contamination would wear their gloves as needed for a basic treatment. Conclusion: Considering the above results of this research, it is concluded that it is necessary to provide practicing dental hygienists with many opportunities for systematic and practical training so that they may faithfully follow the guidelines for the prevention of contamination and to encourage hospitals to have a greater store of relevant facilities, equipment and supplies.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.134-147
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to analyze the functional unit system of NCS landscape field for correction and supplementation of NCS landscape field and the contents of the four-year college landscape course subject. First, 24 unconsolidated four-year universities were selected, and FGI was conducted and verified for 816 courses in 24 universities. The results of the study are summarized as follows, with three sections three, nine divisions and 65 sub-category. First, landscape design subjects accounted for 40.0% of the subjects organized by four-year universities. In addition, the ratio of 12.9% for ecological landscape, 11.3% for landscape construction, 10.2% for others, 10.0% for landscape information, 6.6% for landscape culture and 3.7% for landscape management was surveyed. Balanced and efficient modification and reinforcement of NCS is required in the future. Second, 10(18.9%) units with matching NCS performance criteria and educational objectives were found to be capable of different units(18.9%), 15(28.3%), and 37subjects with inconsistent NCS unit capability (56.9%). Third, looking at the criteria for the reference of each unit of capability presented by the NCS, it is deemed that one unit of capability should be organized separately to improve the practical ability, since it includes the contents of basic knowledge learning. Fourth, the objectives pursued on the basis of the contents of the NCS capability unit and four-year college curriculum were developed by focusing on the development of unit capabilities in the field of landscape construction and landscape management compared to the field of landscape design. It has been shown that a balance is needed for future development. This study is intended to put forward further research that re-examine specific curriculum assessment criteria that have not been classified in the course of classifications based on the curriculum handbook, which excludes interferences from each school.