• Title/Summary/Keyword: Superior factor

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Analysis of the Elderly Travel Characteristics and Travel Behavior with Daily Activity Schedules (the Case of Seoul, Korea) (활동 스케줄 분석을 통한 고령자의 통행특성과 통행행태에 관한 연구)

  • Seo, Sang-Eon;Jeong, Jin-Hyeok;Kim, Sun-Gwan
    • Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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    • v.24 no.5 s.91
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    • pp.89-108
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    • 2006
  • Korea has been entering the ageing society as the population of age over 65 shared over 7% since the year 2000. The ageing society needs to have transportation facility considering elderly people's travel behavior. This study aims to understand the elderly people's travel behavior using recent data in Korea. The activity schedule approach begins with travel outcomes are part of an activitv scheduling decision. For tho?e approach. used discrete choice models (especially. Nested Logit Model) to address the basic modeling problem capturing decision interaction among the many choice dimensions of the immense activity schedule choice set The day activity schedule is viewed as a sot of tours and at-home activity episodes tied togather with overarching day activity pattern using the Seoul Metropolitan Area Transportation Survey data, which was conducted in June, 2002. Decisions about a specific tour in the schedule are conditioned by the choice of day activity pattern. The day activity scheduling model estimated in this study consists of tours interrelated in a day activity pattern. The day activity pattern model represents the basic decision of activity participation and priorities and places each activity in a configuration of tours and at-home episodes. Each pattern alternative is defined by the primary activity of the day, whether the primary activity occurs at home or away, and the type of tour for the primary activity. In travel mode choice of the elderly and non-workers, especially, travel cost was found to be important in understanding interpersonal variations in mode choice behavior though, travel time was found to be less important factor in choosing travel mode. In addition, although, generally, the elderly was likely to choose transit mode, private mode was preferred for the elderly over 75 years old owing to weakened physical health for such things as going up and down of stairs. Therefore. as entering the ageing society, transit mode should be invested heavily in transportation facility Planning tor improving elderly transportation service. Although the model has not yet been validated in before-and-after prediction studies. this study gives strong evidence of its behavioral soundness, current practicality. and potential for improving reliability of transportation Projects superior to those of the best existing systems in Korea.

Locally Advanced, Unresectable Pancreatic Cancer Treated by Stereotactic Radiation Therapy (국소적으로 진행된, 절제 불가능한 췌장암에서 정위 방사선 치료)

  • Choi Chul-Won;Kim Mi-Sook;Cho Chul-Koo;Yoo Seong-Yul;Yang Kwang-Mo;Yoo Hyung-Jun;Lee Dong-Han;Ji Young-Hoon;Han Chul-Ju;Kim Jin;Kim Young-Han
    • Radiation Oncology Journal
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    • v.24 no.1
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    • pp.11-20
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    • 2006
  • Puroose: In order to find out whether stereotactic radiation therapy (RT) using CyberKnife (CK) could improve survival rate and lower acute toxicity compared to conventional RT. Materials and Methods: From April 2003 through April 2004, 19 patients with Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status ${\leq}3$ and locally advanced pancreas cancer without distant metastasis, evaluated by CT or PET/CT, were included. We administered stereotactic RT consisting of either 33 Gy, 36 Gy or 39 Gy in 3 fractions to 6, 4 and 9 patients, respectively, in an effort to increase the radiation dose step by step, and analyzed the survival rate and gastrointestinal toxicities by the acute radiation morbidity criteria of Radiation Therapeutic Oncology Group (RTOG). Prognostic factors of age, sex, ECOG performance score, chemotherapy, bypass surgery, radiation dose, CA 19-9, planning target volume (PTV), and adjacent organ and vessel invasion on CT scan were evaluated by Log Rank test. Results: The median survival time was 11 months with 1-year survival rate of 36.8%. During follow-up period (range $3{\sim}20$ months, median 10 months), no significant gastrointestinal acute toxicity (RTOG grade 3) was observed. In univariate analysis, age, sex, ECOG performance score, chemotherapy, bypass surgery, radiation dose, CA 19-9 level, and adjacent organ and vessel invasion did not show any significant changes of survival rate, however, patients with PTV (80 cc showed more favorable survival rate than those with PTV>80 cc (p-value<0.05). In multivariate analysis, age younger than 65 years and PTV>80 cc showed better survival rate. Conclusion: In terms of survival, the efficacy of stereotactic radiation therapy using CK was found to be superior or similar to other recent studies achieved with conventional RT with intensive chemotherapy, high dose conformal RT, intraoperative RT (IORT), or intensity modulated RT (IMRT). Furthermore, severe toxicity was not observed. Short treatment time in relation to the short life expectancy gave patients more convenience and, finally, quality of life would be increased. Consequently, this could be regarded as an effective novel treatment modality for locally advanced, unresectable pancreas cancer. PTV would be a helpful prognostic factor for CK.

The Efficiency of Radiation Therapy in the Treatment of Intracranial Oligodendrogliomas : Factors Influencing the Prognosis (뇌내 희돌기교종의 방사선치료 성적 및 예후인자)

  • Yoon Sei Chul;Kay Chul Seung;Chung Su Mi;Ryu Mi Ryung;Kim Yeon Shil;Hong Yong Kil;Kim Moon Chan;Kang Joon Ki
    • Radiation Oncology Journal
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    • v.20 no.3
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    • pp.193-198
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    • 2002
  • Purpose : Oligodendrogliomas (ODG) are a rare, slow growing, tumor in the brain, which can be cured by complete surgical resection, but as yet it is not known if postoperative adjuvant radiation therapy (RT) is essential, We analyzed the treatment results of patients with irradiated ODG to investigate the efficacy of RT in terms of survival rates and other influencing prognostic factors. Methods and Materials : Between March 1983 and December 1997, 42 patients with ODG were treated with RT at our hospital. The RT was peformed dally at a dose of $1.8\~2.0\;Gy$, at 5 fractions per week, to a total dose of between 39.6 Gy and 64.8 Gy (mean 53.3 Gy). The ages of the patients ranged between 5 and 62 years, with a median age of 39 years. The mean follow-up period was 63.4 months (8-152 months). The Kaplan-Meier method was used to assess the survival, and 5 year survival rates (5-YSR). Log rank tests and Cox regression analyses were used to define the significance of prognostic factors. Results : The majority of ODG in this study were located in the cerebral hemisphere $(83.3\%)$. ODG are slightly more common in men than women, and commonly occurs in middle age, between the 3rd and 4th decades. It has been recommended that RT is commenced within 4 weeks following surgery (5-YSR; $86\%\;vs.\;49\%;\;p<0.03$). Histologically well differentiated, as opposed to poorly differentiated, tumors were found to have a more favorable prognosis (p<0.02). The actuarial 5-YSR was $65.3\%$ (median survival 90 months). 5-YSR for the various extents of surgical excision, followed by external RT, was superior to that of biopsy only followed by external RT $(69.9\%\;vs.\;25.6\%,\;p<0.01)$. Tumor size and location, overall elapsed irradiation days, age, sex, whole brain irradiation as a course of treatment and chemotherapy, had no influence on the 5-YSR (p>0.05). Conclusion : A local involved field irradiation with conventional fractionation, commencing within 4 weeks following surgical excision of the tumor, was beneficial for the 5-YSR, but a total radiation dose exceeding 60 Gy did not improve the 5-YSR.

Bioinformatic Analysis of the Canine Genes Related to Phenotypes for the Working Dogs (특수 목적견으로서의 품성 및 능력 관련 유전자들에 관한 생물정보학적 분석)

  • Kwon, Yun-Jeong;Eo, Jungwoo;Choi, Bong-Hwan;Choi, Yuri;Gim, Jeong-An;Kim, Dahee;Kim, Tae-Hun;Seong, Hwan-Hoo;Kim, Heui-Soo
    • Journal of Life Science
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    • v.23 no.11
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    • pp.1325-1335
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    • 2013
  • Working dogs, such as rescue dogs, military watch dogs, guide dogs, and search dogs, are selected by in-training examination of desired traits, including concentration, possessiveness, and boldness. In recent years, genetic information has been considered to be an important factor for the outstanding abilities of working dogs. To characterize the molecular features of the canine genes related to phenotypes for working dogs, we investigated the 24 previously reported genes (AR, BDNF, DAT, DBH, DGCR2, DRD4, MAOA, MAOB, SLC6A4, TH, TPH2, IFT88, KCNA3, TBR2, TRKB, ACE, GNB1, MSTN, PLCL1, SLC25A22, WFIKKN2, APOE, GRIN2B, and PIK3CG) that were categorized to personality, olfactory sense, and athletic/learning ability. We analyzed the chromosomal location, gene-gene interactions, Gene Ontology, and expression patterns of these genes using bioinformatic tools. In addition, variable numbers of tandem repeat (VNTR) or microsatellite (MS) polymorphism in the AR, MAOA, MAOB, TH, DAT, DBH, and DRD4 genes were reviewed. Taken together, we suggest that the genetic background of the canine genes associated with various working dog behaviors and skill performance attributes could be used for proper selection of superior working dogs.

A Study on the Blood Health Status and Nutrient Intake in Elderly Women Dwelling in Longevity Region in Jeonla Province according to Bone Mineral Density (전라도 장수지역에 거주하는 여자노인의 골밀도에 따른 생화학적 지표 및 영양섭취상태에 관한 연구)

  • Oh, Se In;Kwak, Chung Shil;Lee, Mee Sook
    • The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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    • v.28 no.2
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    • pp.228-240
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    • 2015
  • This study was conducted to investigate the dietary and other factors affecting bone mineral density (BMD) in older Korean women. A total of 340 women aged 65 to 74 were recruited from the Kugoksoondam area (Kurye, Goksung, Soonchang and Damyang counties), known as the longevity-belt region in Jeonla province, Korea. They were categorized into two groups according to bone status by T-score : a nonosteoporotic group and an osteoporotic group. Demographic characteristics were collected, as well as information on physical measurements, blood tests for biochemical indicators, health status health-related life style, dietary behavior, favorite food groups, nutrient intake and mini nutrition assessment (MNA). The results are as follows: The mean age of 185 nonosteoporotic women was 69.6 years and that of 155 osteoporotic women was 70.9 years (p<0.001). The mean T-score of the nonosteoporotic group was $-1.5mg/cm^3$ and that of theosteoporotic group was $-3.2mg/cm^3$ (p<0.001). Height and body weight in the nonosteoporotic group were significantly higher than in the osteoporotic group (p<0.001, respectively). There was no significant difference in BMI, although the BMI in the nonosteoporotic group was slightly higher. Waist and hip circumferences in the nonosteoporotic group were significantly higher than in the osteoporotic group (p<0.01, respectively), and the mid upper arm and calf circumferences were also significantly higher than in the osteoporotic group (p<0.001, p<0.01, respectively). The 5 m walking ability was significantly superior compared to the osteoporotic group. Serum levels did not show any significant differences between the groups and were within normal range. The serum total protein, albumin and Insulin-like growth factor (IGFs) levels of the nonosteoporotic group were significantly higher than those of the osteoporotic group (p<0.05, p<0.05, p<0.001, respectively). IGF was 104.7 ng/mL for the nonosteoporotic group and 88.1 ng/mL for the osteoporotic group. Physical activity and appetite in the nonosteoporotic group were significantly higher (p<0.01, p<0.05, respectively). The favorite food groups of the nonosteoporotic group comprised more meats and fish than those of the osteoporotic group (p<0.05, respectively). Nutrient intake was not significantly different, with the exception of niacin intake (p<0.05), but the nutrient intake of the nonosteoporotic group was slightly higher than that of the osteoporotic group. The niacin intake of the nonosteoporotic group and the osteoporotic group were 11.4 mgNE and 10.0 mgNE, corresponding to 103.6% and 90.9% of the Korean EAR, respectively. The MNA score of the nonosteoporotic group was significantly more favorable than for the osteoporotic group. In conclusion, it is necessary to maintain adequate body weight and muscle mass. Habitual physical activity may have a beneficial effect on BMD for older women. Dietary factors, such as meat and fish, higher intake of niacin rich foods and nutrient status for older women also appear to have favorable effects on bone mineral density.

Changes of Leaf Characteristics, Pigment Content and Photosynthesis of Forsythia saxatilis under Two Different Light Intensities (광량 차이에 의한 산개나리의 엽 특성과 광색소 함량 및 광합성 변화)

  • Han, Sim-Hee;Kim, Du-Hyun;Kim, Gil Nam;Byun, Jae-Kyung
    • Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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    • v.100 no.4
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    • pp.609-615
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    • 2011
  • Forsythia saxatilis is a Korean endemic plant designated as rare and endangered by the Korea Forest Service (KFS). Growth and physiological characteristics of F. saxatilis were investigated under two different light intensities in order to figure out an appropriate growth environment for conservation and restoration of the species in its natural habitat. Shoot length, leaf size and weight, photosynthetic pigment content and photosynthetic parameters were measured for F. saxatilis grown at two experimental plots under relative light intensities (RLI) of 20% and 60% of the full sun, respectively. Fresh leaf weight of plants grown under high relative light intensities (RLI-60) exceeded that of plants grown at 20% RLI. The ratio of fresh leaf weight to leaf size at RLI-60 was 1.47 times superior comparing to that recorded at RLI-20. The content of photosynthetic pigments such as chlorophyll a, b and carotenoid were higher in plants grown at RLI-60, whereas the ratio of total chlorophyll to carotenoid content was higher in the leaves at RLI-20. Photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance and transpiration rate at RLI-60 were, respectively, 2.5, 2.65 and 1.79 times higher comparing to those recorded at RLI-20. Water use efficiency, however, was higher at RLI-20. The chlorophyll/nitrogen ratio was 1.83 times higher at RLI-20 than at RLI-60. In contrast, the ratio of net photosynthesis to chlorophyll content at RLI-60 was 2.58 times higher than that of RLI-20. In conclusion, light intensity might be the major factor affecting growth and physiological characteristics of F. saxatilis grown under canopy of tall tree species.

A Comparison between the Reference Evapotranspiration Products for Croplands in Korea: Case Study of 2016-2019 (우리나라 농지의 기준증발산 격자자료 비교평가: 2016-2019년의 사례연구)

  • Kim, Seoyeon;Jeong, Yemin;Cho, Subin;Youn, Youjeong;Kim, Nari;Lee, Yangwon
    • Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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    • v.36 no.6_1
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    • pp.1465-1483
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    • 2020
  • Evapotranspiration is a concept that includes the evaporation from soil and the transpiration from the plant leaf. It is an essential factor for monitoring water balance, drought, crop growth, and climate change. Actual evapotranspiration (AET) corresponds to the consumption of water from the land surface and the necessary amount of water for the land surface. Because the AET is derived from multiplying the crop coefficient by the reference evapotranspiration (ET0), an accurate calculation of the ET0 is required for the AET. To date, many efforts have been made for gridded ET0 to provide multiple products now. This study presents a comparison between the ET0 products such as FAO56-PM, LDAPS, PKNU-NMSC, and MODIS to find out which one is more suitable for the local-scale hydrological and agricultural applications in Korea, where the heterogeneity of the land surface is critical. In the experiment for the period between 2016 and 2019, the daily and 8-day products were compared with the in-situ observations by KMA. The analyses according to the station, year, month, and time-series showed that the PKNU-NMSC product with a successful optimization for Korea was superior to the others, yielding stable accuracy irrespective of space and time. Also, this paper showed the intrinsic characteristics of the FAO56-PM, LDAPS, and MODIS ET0 products that could be informative for other researchers.

Research on Factors Affecting Smartphone App Market Selection: App Market Platform Provider's Perspective (스마트폰 앱 마켓 선택에 영향을 미치는 요인에 관한 연구: 앱 마켓 플랫폼 사업자 관점으로)

  • Lee, Ho;Kim, Jae Sung;Kim, Kyung Kyu;Lee, Youngin
    • Journal of the Korea Knowledge Information Technology Society
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    • v.13 no.1
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    • pp.11-23
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    • 2018
  • This paper empirically investigates the factors that influence the consumer choice of an app market based on the rational choice theory. The app market is the only channel where a consumer can buy smartphone apps, which give various functional convenience and are considered to be a major contributor to the proliferation of smartphones. Analyses of 281 questionnaires show that usability and structural guarantees as benefit factors significantly influence the app market choice. From the cost perspectives, both monetary and non-monetary conversion costs are found to significantly influence the app market choice. On the other hand, customer trust, information quality, and market image were found to have no significant effect on app market selection. In particular, Korean app market platform providers (KT, LG U +) seem to be superior in terms of structural guarantees, such as customer center operation and damage compensation regulations, compared to overseas app market platform operators (Google). However, in the case of the Google App Market, it is pre-installed on all Android phones, so it is not inconvenient to install additional apps to use other app market. This is disadvantageous to domestic app market platform operators, and it is necessary to establish a policy solution point. In terms of operator costs, both monetary and non-monetary conversion costs have a significant impact on app market choice. In particular, non-monetary conversion costs have a negative impact on Korean app market platform operators. It can be explained that the service expectation level of the domestic app market is low and it is recognized that the time cost factor such as membership is large for new users to use. It seems to be necessary to improve the domestic app market business. Meanwhile, extant research on smartphone apps focuses on the purchase of apps themselves, but not on the selection of the app market itself. In order to fill in this gap, this study focuses on the determinants of app market selection, including the characteristics of an app market and the switching costs.

Correlation of p53 Protein Overexpression, Gene Mutation with Prognosis in Resected Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer(NSCLC) Patients (비소세포폐암에서 p53유전자의 구조적 이상 및 단백질 발현이 예후에 미치는 영향)

  • Lee, Y.H.;Shin, D.H.;Kim, J.H.;Lim, H.Y.;Chung, K.Y.;Yang, W.I.;Kim, S.K.;Chang, J.;Roh, J.K.;Kim, S.K.;Lee, W.Y.;Kim, B.S.;Kim, B.S.
    • Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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    • v.41 no.4
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    • pp.339-353
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    • 1994
  • Background : The p53 gene codes for a DNA-binding nuclear phosphoprotein that appears to inhibit the progression of cells from the G1 to the S phase of the cell cycle. Mutations of the p53 gene are common in a wide variety of human cancers, including lung cancer. In lung cancers, point mutations of the p53 gene have been found in all histological types including approximately 45% of resected NSCLC and even more frequently in SCLC specimens. Mutant forms of the p53 protein have transforming activity and interfere with the cell-cycle regulatory function of the wild-type protein. The majority of p53 gene mutations produce proteins with altered conformation and prolonged half life; these mutant proteins accumulate in the cell nucleus and can be detected by immunohistochemical staining. But protein overexpression has been reported in the absence of mutation. p53 protein overexpression or gene mutation is reported poor prognostic factor in breast cancer, but in lung cancer, its prognostic significance is controversial. Method : We investigated the p53 abnormalities by nucleotide sequencing, polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformation polymorphism(PCR-SSCP), and immunohistochemical staining. We correlated these results with each other and survival in 75 patients with NSCLC resected with curative intent. Overexpression of the p53 protein was studied immunohistochemically in archival paraffin- embedded tumor samples using the D07(Novocastra, U.K.) antibody. Overexpression of p53 protein was defined by the nuclear staining of greater than 25% immunopositive cells in tumors. Detection of p53 gene mutation was done by PCR-SSCP and nucleotide sequencing from the exon 5-9 of p53 gene. Result: 1) Of the 75 patients, 36%(27/75) showed p53 overexpression by immunohistochemical stain. There was no survival difference between positive and negative p53 immunostaining(overall median survival of 26 months, disease free median survival of 13 months in both groups). 2) By PCR-SSCP, 27.6%(16/58) of the patients showed mobility shift. There was no significant difference in survival according to mobility shift(overall median survival of 27 in patients without mobility shift vs 20 months in patients with mobility shift, disease free median survival of 8 months vs 10 months respectively). 3) Nucleotide sequence was analysed from 29 patients, and 34.5%(10/29) had mutant p53 sequence. Patients with the presence of gene mutations showed tendency to shortened survival compared with the patients with no mutation(overall median survival of 22 vs 27 months, disease free median survival of 10 vs 20 months), but there was no statistical significance. 4) The sensitivity and specificity of immunostain based on PCR-SSCP was 67.0%, 74.0%, and that of the PCR-SSCP based on the nucleotide sequencing was 91.8%, 96.2% respectively. The concordance rate between the immunostain and PCR-SSCP was 62.5%, and the rate between the PCR-SSCP and nucleotide sequencing was 95.3%. Conclusion : In terms of detection of p53 gene mutation, PCR-SSCP was superior to immunostaining. p53 gene abnormalities either overexpression or mutation were not a significant prognostic factor in NSCLC patients resected with curative intent. However, patients with the mutated p53 gene showed the trends of early relapse.

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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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