• Smart Media Journal
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.9-17
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• 2024

This study aims to develop an integrated agricultural distribution network management system to improve the quality, profit, and decision-making efficiency of agricultural products. We adopt two key techniques: crop maturity detection based on the YOLOX target detection algorithm and market price prediction based on the Prophet model. By training the target detection model, it was possible to accurately identify crops of various maturity stages, thereby optimizing the shipment timing. At the same time, by collecting historical market price data and predicting prices using the Prophet model, we provided reliable price trend information to shipping decision makers. According to the results of the study, it was found that the performance of the model considering the holiday factor was significantly superior to that of the model that did not, proving that the effect of the holiday on the price was strong. The system provides strong tools and decision support to farmers and agricultural distribution managers, helping them make smart decisions during various seasons and holidays. In addition, it is possible to optimize the distribution network of agricultural products and improve the quality and profit of agricultural products.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.13-15
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• 2014

Purpose - This paper discusses the effectiveness of EcoFarmer in Zimbabwe. The effectiveness of EcoFarmer still needs to be established because it is a new product that is hardly a month old. Research design, data, and methodology - The paper follows a qualitative research methodology and an exploratory approach to establish the effectiveness of EcoFarmer in the promotion of productivity in the agricultural sector in Zimbabwe. Using an Internet-based literature review, the paper explored the link that exists between Econet's EcoFarmer program and agricultural development in Zimbabwe. Results - The findings are that the innovation promotes agricultural productivity. This is in line with what was established by Safaricom Foundation in Kenya. Conclusions - The paper used literature sources because the phenomenon is exploratory. This limitation could have been avoided by using a field survey. The paper shows that the EcoFarmer is an innovative project that was developed by Econet as a replication of the Kenyan program.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.815-818
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• 2003

Maltosyl(G2)-erythritol, produced by the transglycosylation reaction of erythritol with maltotriose by Bacillus stearothermophilus maltogenic amylase, was not utilized either as a substrate for lactic acid production or for water-insoluble glucan synthesis. An inhibition assay of dextransucrase and mutansucrase showed that the dental caries suppression effect of G2-erythritol was greater than that of erythritol.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.762-771
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• 2010

Two experiments were conducted to determine i) the fermentation characteristics of catfish by-product (C) ensiled with rice bran (RB) or sugarcane molasses (M) in different ratios, and ii) the digestibility of the silages in growing pigs. In the ensiling experiment, there were three ratios of C, ensiled with RB or M, of 8:2, 7:3 and 6:4 (wet basis for C and air-dry basis for RB and M). The six treatments were CRB8:2, CRB7:3, CRB6:4, CM8:2, CM7:3 and CM6:4, with 3 replications per treatment and seven sampling times. The pH of CRB7:3 and CRB6:4 decreased (p<0.05) from the first week and stayed stable until 8 weeks of ensiling, but the pH did not decrease in CRB8:2. The pH of CM8:2, CM7:3 and CM6:4 decreased rapidly from the first week until week 8. Dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP) contents were slightly lower when catfish by-product was ensiled with RB than with M. Ammonia content in all treatments increased (p<0.05) during ensiling. Lactic acid content in silages with molasses increased from the first week, with the highest value at week 4. However, the lactic acid content in CRB8:2 did not increase with time and had the lowest value of all treatments. Acetic acid proportions of total volatile fatty acids were low at day 0, with the highest value at day 7, decreasing slowly until 8 weeks. The butyric acid proportion was highest at day 0 and decreased up to week 8. The proportion of propionic acid increased during ensiling. The digestibility experiment had a 4${\times}$4 Latin-square design and included 4 castrated crossbreed (Yorkshire${\times}$Landrace) male pigs fed four diets. The basal diet (BD) included rice bran, broken rice and maize meal, and the other three diets included fish meal (FMD) or catfish by-product ensiled with rice bran (CRBD) or sugarcane molasses (CMD). The silages chosen were those which gave the best results in the ensiling experiment for each additive. The coefficient of total tract apparent digestibility (CTTAD) of DM and organic matter (OM) was not significantly different among treatments. The CTTAD of CP was not different among the silage diets, but was lower in BD (p<0.01). The CTTAD of ether extract (EE) was higher in the catfish by-product silage diets than in FMD and BD. There was no significant difference in the digestibility of DM, OM, CP and EE between the fish meal and the by-product silages. In conclusion, catfish by-product can be successfully preserved by ensiling. Moreover, the total tract apparent digestibility of OM, CP and EE in ensiled catfish by-product was comparable with that of fish meal.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.8
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• pp.83-90
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• 2014

Purpose - Increasing sales of PB rice products can hinder the growth of domestic brands of rice, notwithstanding that the government is promoting domestic brands of rice. This analysis evaluated the influencing relationship among the variables of PB image, product credibility, and purchase intention of consumers who have never bought PB rice, to know the factors influencing consumers' decisions to purchase PB products. Research design, data, and methodology - PB products' brand image was analyzed as the factor that has a direct effect on purchase intention. The mediation effect of credibility on PB products is also analyzed, in terms of influencing the relationship between PB products' brand image and purchase intention. The analysis is performed on consumers that have not purchased a PB product and consumers who have purchased PB products from major distributors. Data is collected through questionnaires, from 389 of responders, and the AMOS 19.0 statistics package is used as a statistical tool. Results - It is proven that brand image has direct effects on the credibility of the product, and the credibility of product has a direct effect on purchase intention. However, it is revealed that brand image does not directly affect purchase intention, but that brand image indirectly affects it through the credibility of the product. Although the customers' recognition about PB image is low, the result shows that PB products' external attributes have effects on customers' purchase intention relating to the PB product. Therefore, it is important to establish the credibility of the PB product more than other products in terms of marketing. Conclusions - The following are the implications of the study. First, in a rice brand promotion, the credibility of the product should be ensured by a uniform brand image. To ensure the credibility of a product, the RPC brand and other brands should be unified, and the unified brand image should be applied to every product. Second, the package must possess a design as well as contents that could build consumers' perception of product credibility. Products' external attributes contribute to their credibility, which leads the consumers to purchase the products, including those consumers who have never bought PB rice products. Therefore, the products' credibility and sales can be reinforced by applying information about consumers' considerations when buying the PB rice product in different colors, font sizes, and packaging designs. This study is meaningful in two ways. First, it seeks to identify an NB revitalization strategy by exploring the purchasing behavior of customers who have no experience in buying PB rice products. Second, the results of previous studies about general brands are considered and applied in this study in order to investigate the influencing relationship among different factors of PB products. However, this study is a consumer awareness investigation; therefore, its results only have limited meaning to the relationship between brand image and purchase intention.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 2000.11b
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• pp.413-422
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• 2000

Samples of banana were dried in a two-stage heat pump dryer capable of producing stepwise control of the inlet drying air temperature while keeping absolute humidity constant. Two stepwise air temperature profiles were tested. The incremental temperature step change in temperature of the drying air about the mean air temperature of 30 $^{\circ}C$ was 5 $^{\circ}C$. The total drying time for each temperature-time profile was about 300 minutes. The drying kinetics and color change of the products dried under these stepwise variation of the inlet air temperature were measured and compared with constant air temperature drying. The stepwise air temperature variation was found to yield better quality product in terms of color of the dried product. Further, it was found that by employing a step-down temperature profile, it was possible to reduce the drying time to reach the desired moisture content.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.620-635
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• 2017

This study was intended to identify the main factors responsible for the decline in purchase of imported agricultural and fish products after Japan's nuclear power plant accident in 2011 and to compare the effects on imported agricultural produce and imported fish products. Logit model and multiple regression model analyses were performed using consumers' survey data. Psychological and qualitative factors reflecting consumers' food safety awareness and purchasing preferences, which were extracted by Factor analysis, were included as the models' explanatory variables, along with socio-demographic and economic factors. The Logit estimation showed aged, married, and low-income households had significantly higher probability of reducing their purchases of imported agricultural and fish products. However, the multiple regression results pointed out that the actual rate of decrease of imported agricultural and fish products purchases were more significantly affected by non-socio demographic factors such as past experience of purchasing imported agricultural and fish products, future intention to purchasing Japanese agricultural and fish products, and the ratio of imported to domestic agricultural and fish products before the nuclear accident, as well as consumers' feeling of food insecurity and their purchasing preferences. Moreover, the results showed that Korean consumers have reacted more sensitively to the decline in imported fish products than imported agricultural produce after the nuclear accident based on the marginal effects of various socio-demographic and economic factors.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.326-334
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• 2016

This study was carried out to develop jerky product utilizing spent hen meat. Manipulation of water activity (a_w) of semi-dried meat with the addition of humectants (glycerol and sorbitol at the concentration of 0, 10, and 15%) and roasting process were applied to enhance quality of jerky product. After spent hen meat was ground, formulated, reformed and then dried in convection oven at 85℃ for 2 h followed by 60℃ for 1 h, all jerky samples showed values of a_w ≤0.85 with total aerobic bacteria, yeast and mold and Staphylococcus aureus counts were reduced to undetectable levels. Moreover, the results showed that the 15% glycerol added jerky showed superior quality, indicated by the lowest a_w, low protein aggregation as evaluated by sorption isotherm and the lowest shear value as compared to sorbitol added and control samples (p<0.05). Regardless effect of humectant, roasting could improve the quality of the jerky via enhanced sensory attributes by increasing color, appearance, flavor and overall acceptability scores (p<0.05). Therefore, spent hen meat could be used as a potential raw material for jerky in which soft product texture obtained by the addition of glycerol and intense flavor resulted from roasting process after drying, leading to sensory acceptance.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.416-429
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• 2018

Typhoons and floods are natural disasters that occur frequently, and the damage resulting from these disasters must be in advance predicted to establish appropriate responses. Direct damages such as building collapse, human casualties, and loss of farms and fields have more attention from people than indirect damages such as increase of consumer prices. But indirect damages also need to be considered for living. The agricultural products are typical consumer items affected by typhoons and floods. Sudden, powerful typhoons are mostly accompanied by heavy rains and damage agricultural products; this increases the retail price of such products. This study analyzes the influence of natural disasters on the price of agricultural products by using a deep learning algorithm. We decided rice, onion, green onion, spinach, and zucchini as target agricultural products, and used data on variables that influence the price of agricultural products to create a model that predicts the price of agricultural products. The result shows that the model's accuracy was about 0.069 measured by RMSE, which means that it could explain the changes in agricultural product prices. The accurate prediction on the price of agricultural products can be utilized by the government to respond natural disasters by controling amount of supplying agricultural products.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.125-130
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• 2006

In order to utilize non-commercial melon as alcoholic beverage material, in this study the optimum fermentation method and manufacture conditions were investigated and thereafter the properties of final product were determined. As for melon wine made with only melon juice, sensorial properties, particularly flavor, were not acceptable as alcoholic beverage. To improve the lack of melon wine, we made mash with cooked rice and Nuruk, and then added melon juice during fermentation. Acceptable sensorial properties were obtained in melon wine when 30% extract juice of oriental melon was added after 4 day of fermentation. The alcoholic beverage added melon juice showed much higher yellowness value than that without melon juice indicating that a clear yellow color similar to melon was actually observed in final product. Adding melon juice led little changes in amount and composition of free sugars, organic acids and amino acids and could improve sensorial properties.