• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.129-168
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• 2016

The Asia-Pacific region is not typically seen as one geographic or socio-economic space. Yet, 58 regional economies occupying the space of 28 million square kilometers from Turkey in the West, Russian Federation in the North, French Polynesia in the East and New Zealand in the South belong to the Economic and Social Commission of Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). This commission provides a forum for member states that "promotes regional cooperation and collective action, assisting countries in building and sustaining shared economic growth and social equity". In 2013, ESCAP's members adopted the Bangkok Declaration to enhance efforts towards deeper regional economic integration. Yet this document neither proposes a concrete modality or modalities of achieving deeper integration, nor provides a sense of distance of individual countries to a "perceived" integrated Asia-Pacific.This paper aims to comprehensively quantify recent integration efforts of economies in the Asia-Pacific region. We provide an "index of integration effort" based on twelve metrics that measure the relative distance of a given economy to the region as an economic entity. Generally, we find that while the region has trended towards becoming integrated in general, both the level of integration and integration effort are inconsistent among Asia-Pacific economies. We discuss potential applications and extensions of the index in developing our perspective of the region's economic and social dynamics.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.12 no.8
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• pp.1324-1331
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• 1999

The aim of this paper is to propose the preservation of buffaloes not only as productive livestock, but also as a part of the biodiversity of wetlands and especially of the Greek wetlands. The water buffalo used to be an integral part of the biodiversity of many Greek wetland ecosystems, enriched their landscape, and provided invaluable services and products to the rural people and to the economy in general. Its total population before the 1950s was over 100,000 animals. Presently, it is found only in four wetland sites in Macedonia and Thrace and in the estuaries of Rivers Gallikos and Axios, with a total population of a few hundred animals. These wetlands are Ramsar Sites. Even this small population is threatened with immediate extinction because of the rapidly changing rural socio-economic conditions and the expansion of cultivated fields into wet meadows. Farmers and consumers are rapidly losing contact with this mammal and its products. This species possesses minimum requirements for treatment and is characterized by the ability of utilizing roughage of variable nutritional value. These factors are promising to render buffalo breeding a valuable branch of the Greek livestock sector, which can also contribute to the maintenance of the wetlands.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.113-119
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• 2018

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are place contributing to the intellectual advancement of the nation, quality human resource, and to a number of socio-economic improvements for society and organizations. Despite facilitators and staffs are the bare-bone of HEIs, there is a scarcity of research, both conceptual and empirical, focusing on their organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB). To attempt to fill this gap, this article develops a conceptual model of OCB under influencing of organizational justice and job satisfaction. The prospective respondents were chosen randomly from HEIs (public and private). Individuals have been employed at least one year and above will be the unit of analysis in which the experimental test of the proposed model will be conducted. The results suggest that organizational citizenship behavior is one of the most important factor influence the organizational performance. Furthermore, the performance of HEIs does not affect only the national human resources, but also impact on national economy. In this context, a conceptual framework is proposed to study the determinants of organizational citizenship behavior in the form of organizational justice and job satisfaction. Additionally, the ultimate benefits of OCB through perceived organizational justice with job satisfaction as mediator is enlightened. Finally, the authors discuss the managerial implications of their research.

• Journal of the Korean housing association
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.9-18
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• 2006

This study analyzes relevant data based on the mid-sized rental unit. It focuses on how we can set up appropriate mid-sized rental unit plan as its supply has been accelerated over time. The questionnaires used in this study cover a series of categories including site environment, unit plan, neighborhood, economy, and management. The 342 respondents are from the 3-year old apartments at Cheongju. The key findings are as follows. 1) As the average indices including number of family, life cycle, and income under the survey are different in terms of the rental unit sizes between 20 and 30 pyeongs. 2) In general, residents present comparatively high level of satisfaction in terms of residential environments. Their evaluation on the site environment unit plan, and neighborhood is around the average. In contrast, the economic and management efficiency categories are under the average. This study suggests residential guidelines should be derived from tenant differentiation policies dealing with diverse socio-demographic characteristics and satisfaction level. 3) In terms of improvement priority, residents present, higher preference on the management system and site environment. This study advises to establish an appropriate alternative to guarantee effective tenant participation. Considering the lower satisfaction level in the green space, common facilities, and resting space, this study also urges to secure quality control for desirable planning of the mid-sized rental apartments.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.287-296
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• 2010

The purpose of this research is to analyze priority of the elderly user interface (UI) evaluation criteria based on user's lifestyle. Since the elderly population will occupy over 20% of the all Korean population in the near future, we need to know older users' needs and information because elderly users will be main customers in the super-aged society. This paper investigated the definition of elderly users and characteristics demographically, socio-economically, and physically/cognitively. A total of 238 questionnaires from older users were analyzed based on a segmentation table for the elderly developed by the previous study. According to factor analysis and cluster analysis, 6 types of lifestyle and 4 groups of the elderly users were classified, respectively. The priority of UI evaluation criteria for large electronic home appliances and mobile products was analyzed by analyses of variance (ANOVAs). The results indicated that the priority of (physical, emotional, and cognitive) UI criteria was significantly different among elderly users' lifestyles for both home appliances and mobile products. Consequently, the results of this study may help the company develop some competitive silver products and give higher satisfaction to the elderly users by suggesting different priority of UI evaluation criteria according to the target elderly group. The results may also contribute to revitalize national economy by significantly increasing senior market shares.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.39-57
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• 2018

As competition grows in the telecommunication service industry, understanding the origins of brand image and consumer behavioral intentions challenges practitioners to design an effective marketing strategy and branding plan. In this paper, brand image and behavioral relationships are investigated in Bangladesh, an emerging market that has a particular socio-cultural and economic context of one of the most densely populated countries of South Asia. This study employs confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to analyze the database. Empirical testing and the proposed model suggest that brand image is the prime determinant of consumer satisfaction and loyalty. The results highlight the importance of perceived value, perceived trust and price structure to project brand image and satisfaction. Additionally, confirmation exhibits a stronger total effect of brand image on customer loyalty. Empirical findings extensively contribute to the theoretical and managerial understanding of subscribers' attitudes toward telecommunication service in an emerging market context.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.9
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• pp.209-217
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to investigate the development and determinants of China-ASEAN trade relations over the period of 2000-2018. Employing both the qualitative and quantitative approaches, the results show that the trade relations between China and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) have remarkably developed and rapidly grown over times, with a significantly important concentration on the segments of high technological and medium technological products. We also find that China's economic scale is crucially impacting on the China-ASEAN trade relations under both the aggregate and sub-sector level. It is interesting to notice that there is no evidence to support accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and officially forming of ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) to enhance trade relation between both sides. The findings also quantitatively indicate that there is much significant potential for the expansion of mutual trade between China and some members of ASEAN such as Brunei, Laos and Malaysia, while less potential is predicted for other members of ASEAN. It is strongly suggested that China and ASEAN should find a new proactive approach and make more efforts in improving the mutual political trusts to enhance trading activities in the coming years.

• Atmosphere
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.237-248
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• 2020

In order to effectively prepare for damage caused by weather events, it is important to proactively identify the possible impacts of weather phenomena on the domestic society and economy. Text mining and Network analysis are used in this paper to build a database of damage types and levels caused by heat wave. We collect news articles about heat wave from the SBS news website and determine the primary and secondary effects of that through network analysis. In addition to that, based on the frequency with which each impact keyword is mentioned, we estimate how much influence each factor has. As a result, the types of impacts caused by heat wave are efficiently derived. Among these types of impacts, we find that people in South Korea are mainly interested in algae and heat-related illness. Since this technique of analysis can be applied not only to news articles but also to social media contents, such as Twitter and Facebook, it is expected to be used as a useful tool for building weather impact databases.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.409-417
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• 2020

Investigation was carried out to assess the effect of cement dust deposition on the physico-chemical properties of soil near some cement plants in Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya. Soil samples were collected and analysed and compared with the control site. Comparison of various soil physico-chemical parameters revealed that cement dust emanating from cement plants has changed the soil quality in the surrounding areas of cement plants. The normal soil pH in the area is generally acidic. However, due to the continuous deposition of cement dust soil pH was found slightly alkaline near the cement plants. The higher values of soil parameters such as electrical conductivity and bulk density were also noticed near the cement plants. However, lower values of water holding capacity, soil moisture content, soil organic carbon and total nitrogen content were found compared to the control sites. The effect of cement dust deposition on soil is more in areas nearer to the cement plants. At present the changes may not be so serious but if this trend continues, soil properties of a vast area around the cement plants are likely to change leading to multiple effects on flora, fauna and socio-economy of the area.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.8
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• pp.197-204
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• 2020

Nowadays, many construction engineering and technology enterprises are evolving to find that prosperity is driven and inspired by an open economy with dynamic markets and fierce multifaceted competition. Besides brand and product uniqueness, the ability to quickly provide customers with quotes are matters of concern. Such a requirement for prompt cost estimation of construction investment projects with the use of a construction price index poses a significant challenge to contractors. This is because the nature of the construction industry is shaped by changes in domestic and foreign economic factors, socio-financial issues, and is under the influence of various micro and macro factors. This paper presents a fuzzy decision-making approach for calculating critical factors that affect the construction price index. A qualitative approach was implemented based on in-depth interviews of experts in the construction industry in Vietnam. A synthetic comparison matrix was calculated using Buckley approach. The CoA approach was applied to defuzzified the fuzzy weights of factors that affect the construction price index. The research results show that the top five critical factors affecting the construction price index in Vietnam are (1) consumer price index, (2) gross domestic product, (3) basic interest rate, (4) foreign exchange rate, and (5) total export and import.