• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.55-76
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• 2012

Most people prefer to choose zero-cost products they may get without paying any money. The 'zero-cost effect' can be explained with a 'zero-cost model' where consumers attach special values to zero-cost products in a different way from general economic models (Shampanier, Mazar and Ariely 2007). If 2 different products at the regular prices of ￦200 and ￦400 simultaneously offer ￦200 discounts, the prices will be changed to ￦0 and ￦200, respectively. In spite of the same price gap of the two products after the ￦200 discounts, people are much more likely to select the free alternative than the same product at the price of ￦200. Although prior studies have focused on the 'zero-cost effect' in isolation of other factors, this study investigates the moderating effects of a self-regulatory resource and a construal level on the selection of free products. Self-regulatory resources induce people to control or regulate their behavior. However, since self-regulatory resources are limited, they are to be easily depleted when exerted (Muraven, Tice, and Baumeister 1998). Without the resources, consumers tend to become less sensitive to price changes and to spend money more extravagantly (Vohs and Faber 2007). Under this condition, they are also likely to invest less effort on their information processing and to make more intuitive decisions (Pocheptsova, Amir, Dhar, and Baumeister 2009). Therefore, context effects such as price changes and zero cost effects are less likely in the circumstances of resource depletion. In addition, construal levels have profound effects on the ways of information processing (Trope and Liberman 2003, 2010). In a high construal level, people tend to attune their minds to core features and desirability aspects, whereas, in a low construal level, they are more likely to process information based on secondary features and feasibility aspects (Khan, Zhu, and Kalra 2010). A perceived value of a product is more related to desirability whereas a zero cost or a price level is more associated with feasibility. Thus, context effects or reliance on feasibility (for instance, the zero cost effect) will be diminished in a high level construal while those effects may remain in a low level construal. When people make decisions, these 2 factors can influence the magnitude of the 'zero-cost effect'. This study ran two experiments to investigate the effects of self-regulatory resources and construal levels on the selection of a free product. Kisses and Ferrero-Rocher, which were adopted in the prior study (Shampanier et al. 2007) were also used as alternatives in Experiments 1 and 2. We designed Experiment 1 in order to test whether self-regulatory resource depletion will moderate the zero-cost effect. The level of self-regulatory resources was manipulated with two different tasks, a Sudoku task in the depletion condition and a task of drawing diagrams in the non-depletion condition. Upon completion of the manipulation task, subjects were randomly assigned to one of a decision set with a zero-cost option (i.e., Kisses ￦0, and Ferrero-Rocher ￦200) or a set without a zero-cost option (i.e., Kisses ￦200, and Ferrero-Rocher ￦400). A pair of alternatives in the two decision sets have the same price gap of ￦200 between a low-priced Kisses and a high-priced Ferrero-Rocher. Subjects in the no-depletion condition selected Kisses more often (71.88%) over Ferrero-Rocher when Kisses was free than when it was priced at ￦200 (34.88%). However, the zero-cost effect disappeared when people do not have self-regulatory resources. Experiment 2 was conducted to investigate whether constual levels influence the magnitude of the 'zero-cost effect'. To manipulate construal levels, 4 different 'why (in the high construal level condition)' or 'how (in the low construal level condition)' questions about health management were asked. They were presented with 4 boxes connected with downward arrows. In a box at the top, there was one question, 'Why do I maintain good physical health?' or 'How do I maintain good physical health?' Subjects inserted a response to the question of why or how they would maintain good physical health. Similar tasks were repeated for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th responses. After the manipulation task, subjects were randomly assigned either to a decision set with a zero-cost option, or to a set without it, as in Experiment 1. When a low construal level is primed with 'how', subjects chose free Kisses (60.66%) more often over Ferrero-Rocher than they chose ￦200 Kisses (42.19%) over ￦400 FerreroRocher. On contrast, the zero-cost effect could not be observed any longer when a high construal level is primed with 'why'.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.810-817
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• 2013

This study investigated the properties of rice snack puffed in a microwave oven after drying its dough according to Baekjinju soaking time and additional soybean milk. The optimum conditions for the non-fried rice snack using Baekjinju wetted flour were determined through the design of an experiment using response surface methodology. The independent variables were the Baekjinju soaking time and the additional soybean milk, and the dependent variables were the weight, volume, density, expansibility, Hunter's color value, hardness, and sensory properties. The quadratic model was chosen for the weight, density, expansibility, b value, and hardness. The two-factor interaction model was chosen for the volume, flavor, appearance, and overall preference. The linear model was chosen for the L value, taste, and texture. The weight was increased to longer than 11.26 days with the increase in the rice soaking. The volume, expansibility, L value, and b value increased with the increase in the rice soaking time and in the additional soybean milk ratio. However, the density was decreased was in reverse. The hardness increased most, with the rice soaking time rising from 5.28 to 8.53 days and the soybean milk additional ratio increasing from 5.34 to 20.26%. The sensory properties improved as rice soaking time decreased, and the soybean milk additional ratio was revered. As for the desirability, the optimal formulation of the dough of non-fried rice snack was achieved by mixing 200 g of Baekjinju flour with a 0.69 days rice soaking time and a 26.67% soybean milk of rice ratio according to weight.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.641-648
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• 2006

In an attempt to get basic data for the utilization of saltwort powder (Salicornia herbaceae L.) as a ingredient in the Sulgidduk. D-optimal design of mixture design showed 14 experimental points including 4 replicates for three independent variables. The three independent variables selected for the experiment were water ($13{\sim}18%$), saltwort powder ($2{\sim}6%$), and sugar ($8{\sim}13%$). The optimum responses variables such as color value. texture, and sensory characteristics were evaluated. The compositional and functional properties of test were measured, and these values were applied to the mathematical models. According to the result of measuring probability of the color value, texture and sensory characteristics were respectively and significance was acknowledged (p<0.05). According to the result of F-test, color values (L, a, b), textural properties (gumminess, chewiness) and sensory characteristics (taste, softness) decided linear model, textural property (hardness) and sensory characteristics (color, smell, moistness, overall acceptance) decided quadratic model. A canonical form and trace plot showed that the influence of each ingredient on the mixture final product. An optimum formulation by numerical and graphical methods were similar. Water, saltwort powder, and sugar were 15.2%, 3.0%, and 9.8% respectively by numerical method, and 15.2%, 3.1%, and 9.7% respectively by graphical method.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.3-21
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• 1992

By localizing the production of core parts and intermediate goods previously imported from Japan, Korean firms have been striving to increase their market share and profit in the final goods market in which Japanese firms are dominating. Korean producers' efforts, however, have often been thwarted by Japanese suppliers' "strategic" behavior. This competitive strategy involves Japanese exporters supplying parts and intermediate goods at very high prices until Korean firms must locally develop them, and then setting the prices far below the previous level so that the profitability of localization is dramatically reduced, or even means a loss for the Korean manufacturer. This paper intends to explain the strategic behavior of Japanese firms through the concepts of strategic interactions and joint economies. Strategic interactions can be aggressive or accommodating depending on whether competitors are dealing with strategic substitutes or complements. Joint economies exist in multi-stage competition when competition in the previous state favorably influences "profits" of the ensuing stage. Competiton between Korean and Japanese firms (a two-stage game involving production and technology rivalries) can be characterized by joint economies and strategic substitutes: joint economies since technological improvement results in more profits in the production stage; and strategic substitutes since an increase in marginal profits of one firm brings about a decrease in marginal profits of the other in a duopolitic production stage. This implies that the flood of "low price" Japense substitutes is an almost "natural" phenomenon in the context of the duopolistic market described in this paper. In the technology competition stage, on the other hand, technology development and technology transfer can be either strategic complements or substitutes. This implies that, in typical comparative static analyses, the effect of changes in exogenous variables cannot be expected a priori. Thus it becomes very difficult to determine the desirability of applying various policy measures such as countervailing duties, R&D subsidies, and creating demand for localized products. For these reasons, it is indeed likely that the measures suggested as means of circumventing the strategic behavior of Japanese firms (and enhancing technological development of Korean firms) may not work.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.380-385
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• 1990

This study was conducted to determine the relative saltiness of $MgCl_2,\;K_{2}SO_4$ and KCl and evaluate the sensory characteristics of solutions and Kakdugi (Korean seasoned pickles of cubed radish roots) prepared with reduced amount of sodium chloride by replacement with varying levels of KCI. The relative saltiness of $MgCl_2$ and $K_{2}SO_4$, were $0.11{\sim}0.12(0.115)$ and $0.08{\sim}0.09(0.085)$ respectively, at the reference level of 0.5% NaCl. The relative saltiness of KCI varied from 0.52 to 0.76 as the reference level increased from 0.5 to 2.0% NaCl. The result of sensory evaluation on the mixed solutions of NaCl and KCI indicated that bitterness, metallic flavor and astringency increased with the increased levels of KCI. The addition of KCI slightly increased the firmness of kakdugi but there was no significant difference in firmness by the amount of substitution. Bitterness and off-flavor was enhanced with the increased levels of replacement especially when the level was higher than 50%. Saltiness, sourness and overall desirability decreased as the extent of the replacement increased. There were no significant difference in pH, acidity and firmness measured with Universal Testing Machine. The result of this study indicate that the replacement of NaCl with KCI at not more than 50% does not affect greatly the characteristics of kakdugi.

• Communications for Statistical Applications and Methods
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.377-389
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• 2011

A higher quality level is generally perceived by customers as improved performance by assigning a correspondingly higher satisfaction score. The third generation index $C_{pmk}$ is more powerful than two useful indices $C_p$ and $C_{pk}$ that have been widely used in six sigma industries to assess process performance. In actual manufacturing industries, process capability analysis often entails characterizing or assessing processes or products based on more than one engineering specification or quality characteristic. Since these characteristics are related, it is a risky undertaking to represent the variation of even a univariate characteristic by a single index. Therefore, the desirability of using vector-valued process capability index(PCI) arises quite naturally. In this paper, we consider more powerful vector-valued process capability index $C_{pmk}$ = ($C_{pmkx}$, $C_{pmky}$)$^t$ that consider the univariate process capability index $C_{pmk}$. First, we examine the process capability index $C_{pmk}$ and plug-in estimator $\hat{C}_{pmk}$. In addition, we derive its asymptotic distribution and variance-covariance matrix $V_{pmk}$ for the vector valued process capability index $C_{pmk}$. Under the assumption of bivariate normal distribution, we study asymptotic confidence regions of our vector-valued process capability index $C_{pmk}$ = ($C_{pmkx}$, $C_{pmky}$)$^t$.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.235-243
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• 2009

This study was performed to find the optimum ratio of ingredients in the Chinese radish jam. The experiment was designed according to the RSM (response surface methodology), which included 18 experimental points with 4 replicates for three independent variables (sugar $45{\sim}70%$, pectin $0.5{\sim}2.0.%$, citric acid $0.2{\sim}0.5%$). The compositional and functional properties of the prepared products were measured, and these values were applied to the mathematical models. By use of F-test, sweetness, color values (L, a, b), and firmness were expressed by a linear model, while the sensory characteristics (color, smell, taste, texture and overall acceptance) were by a quadratic model. In the numeric optimization, the optimal ingredient amounts were 53.7% sugar, 1.0% pectin, and 0.3% citric acid. And in the graphical optimization, 53.9% sugar, 1.0% pectin, and 0.3% citric acid; these data were equivalent to 0.6985 desirability, indicating that the values were almost equivalent to the numerical optimization points. The above results demonstrate the feasibility of Chinese radish jam, and therefore, the commercialization of a Chinese radish jam marketed as a functional food is deemed possible.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.345-359
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• 2010

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to correlation between the index of dental caries in primary teeth and the habits of diet and snack which are expected to influence on the index. The subjects of this study were 165 parents of the children who visited a pediatric dental hospital located in Gyeong-gi do from Jun. 15th to Sep. 26th, 2009, and the self-report questionnaire survey was performed. Methods : A questionnaire used in a previous study was revised and completed for this study and it consisted of 15 items on general characteristic, nine items on dietary habit, and five items on snack intake habit. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS program and findings are as follows Results : 1. The index of dental caries in primary teeth by ages was that children of four years old has 4~5 with 27.5%, children of five years old has 2~3 and 4~5 with 33.3% and children of six years old has 1 and 8~9 with 25.6%, showing a statistically significant(${\chi}^2$=37.72, p<.01). 2. The frequency of brushing teeth was found to have statistically significant negative correlation with the number of primary teeth with dental caries (${\chi}^2$=61.20, p<.001). 3. The frequency of taking snack was found to have statistically significant positive correlation with the number of primary teeth with dental caries (${\chi}^2$=51.42, p<.001). 4. The desirability of dietary habit was found to have statistically significant negative correlation with the number of primary teeth with dental caries (${\chi}^2$=36.51, p<.001). 5. The frequency of taking biscuit was found to have statistically significant positive correlation with the number of primary teeth with dental caries (${\chi}^2$=67.74, p<.001). 6. The frequency of taking bread was found to have statistically significant positive correlation with the number of primary teeth with dental caries (${\chi}^2$=29.63, p<.01). 7. The frequency of taking caramel and candy was found to have statistically significant positive correlation with the number of primary teeth with dental caries (${\chi}^2$=38.85, p<.001). 8. The frequency of taking soft drinks was found to have statistically significant positive correlation with the number of primary teeth with dental caries (${\chi}^2$=52.92, p<.001). 9. The frequency of taking ice-creams was found to have statistically significant positive correlation with the number of primary teeth with dental caries (${\chi}^2$=75.07, p<.001). Conclusions : Those findings show that the children with undesirable dietary habit and higher frequency of taking snack have higher index of dental caries in primary teeth, therefore, it is considered that the regular brushing teeth and establishment of desirable dietary habit are very important for keeping health oral cavity. It is recommended that the continuous concern and repeated learning are needed in house and group of rearing infants so that the children take foods of fruits which have function of self-purification than the food of carbohydrates which has high adhesion and level of sweetness.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 1991

This study was conducted to examine the effect of the addition of calcium acetate and/or potassium sorbate on the characteristics of kakdugi(Korean seasoned pickles of cubed radish roots) fermented at $20^{\circ}C$ for 4 days or more. The sensory characteristics, pH, titratable acidity, non-volatile organic acids and texture by Instron were measured. The results of sensory evaluation on kakdugi stored at $20^{\circ}C$ for 4 days indicated that firmness, toughness, crispness, sour taste and overall desirability were increased by the addition of calcium acetate. Potassium sorbate was evaluated to decrease the sourness. Titratable acidity, pH and the amount of non-volatile organic acids were higher in samples containing calcium acetate than in other ones. Compression test with Instron gave the similiar result to sensory evaluation in the measurement of firmness. Calcium acetate and potassium sorbate showed synergistic effect greatly on the textural characteristics on kakdugis.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.41 no.12
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• pp.1677-1685
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• 2012

The autolysate and hydrolysate of a common squid liver, Todarodes pacificus, were prepared. Autolysis (liver ratio, pH, temperature) and Protamex-treated hydrolysis (pH, temperature, ratio of protease to liver) conditions were optimized by response surface methodology using central composite design for under 1 hr of hydrolysis time. The desirability profile indicated that maximum DH could be achieved at a squid liver of 93.5%, pH 6.4, and $47^{\circ}C$ in autolysis, while that of Protamex-treated hydrolysis did at a Protamex-to-squid liver level of 0.33%, pH 6.0, and $55^{\circ}C$. Three amino acids, proline, cysteine, and methionine, were not detected in the total amino acid composition of the Protamex-treated hydrolysate, while they were detected in the free amino acid composition. Cadmium was $8.32{\pm}0.03$ mg/100 g-powder for raw, $3.56{\pm}0.02$ mg/100 g-powder for the autolysate, and $13.26{\pm}0.04$ mg/100 g powder for the Protamex-treated hydrolysate. The major molecular weight ranged from 1.0 to 1.5 kDa for the autolysate and from 210 to 470 Da for the Protamex-treated hydrolysate. Food functionalities of the autolysate, such as surface hydrolphobicity, emulsion activity index, emulsion stability, water, and fat adsorption, were similar to the Protamex-treated hydrolysate. Both the autolysate and Protamex-hydrolysate showed high inhibitory activities on the angiotensin-I converting enzyme. Cell toxicity against the HepG2 cell line was not detected in the autolysate or the Protamex-treated hydrolysate by 200 ${\mu}g/mL$.