To elucidate further the antitumor effects of a natural L-arginine analogue, L-canavanine, the mechanism underlying apoptogenic activity of L-canavanine and its modulation by protein tyrosine kinase
Green or an environmental consciousness has been a major issue for businesses and government offices, as well as consumers, worldwide. In response to this movement, the Korean government announced, in the early 2000s, the era of "Green Growth" as a way to encourage green-related business activities. The Korean fashion industry, in various levels of involvement, presents diverse eco-friendly products as a part of the green movement. These apparel products include organic products and recycled clothing. For these companies to be successful, they need information about who are the consumers who consider green issues (e.g., environmental sustainability) as part of their personal values when making a decision for product purchase, use, and disposal. These consumers can be considered as eco-sumers. Previous studies have examined consumers' purchase intention for or with eco-friendly products. In addition, studies have examined influential factors used to identify the eco-sumers or green consumers. However, limited attention was paid to eco-sumers' disposal or recycling behavior of clothes in comparison with their green product purchases. Clothing disposal behaviors are ways that consumer can get rid of unused clothing and in clue temporarily lending the item or permanently eliminating the item by "handing down" (e.g., giving it to a younger sibling), donating, exchanging, selling, or simply throwing it away. Accordingly, examining purchasing behaviors of eco-friendly fashion items in conjunction with clothing disposal behaviors should improve understanding of a consumer's clothing consumption behavior from the environmental perspective. The purpose of this exploratory study is to provide descriptive information about Korean eco-sumers who have ecologically-favorable lifestyles and behaviors when buying and disposing of clothes. The objectives of this study are to (a) categorize Koreans on the basis of clothing disposal behaviors; (b) investigate the differences in demographics, lifestyles, and clothing consumption values among segments; and (c) compare the purchase intention of eco-friendly fashion items and influential factors among segments. A self-administered questionnaire was developed based on previous studies. The questionnaire included 10 items of clothing disposal behavior, 22 items of LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) characteristics, and 19 items of consumption values, measured by five-point Likert-type scales. In addition, the purchase intention of two eco-friendly fashion items and 11 attributes of each item were measured by seven-point Likert type scales. Two polyester fleece pullovers, made from fabric created from recycled bottles with the PET identification code, were selected from one Korean brand and one US imported brand among outdoor sportswear brands. A brief description of each product with a color picture was provided in the survey. Demographic variables (i.e., gender, age, marital status, education level, income, occupation) were also included. The data were collected through a professional web survey agency during May 2009. A total of 600 final usable questionnaires were analyzed. The age of respondents ranged from 20 to 49 years old with a mean age of 34 years. Fifty percent of the respondents were males and about 58% were married, and 62% reported having earned university degrees. Principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation was used to identify the underlying dimensions of the clothing disposal behavior scale, and three factors were generated (i.e., reselling behavior, donating behavior, non-recycling behavior). To categorize the respondents on the basis of clothing disposal behaviors, k-mean cluster analysis was used, and three segments were obtained. These consumer segments were labeled as 'Resale Group', 'Donation Group', and 'Non-Recycling Group.' The classification results indicated approximately 98 percent of the original cases were correctly classified. With respect to demographic characteristics among the three segments, significant differences were found in gender, marital status, occupation, and age. LOHAS characteristics were reduced into the following five factors: self-satisfaction, family orientation, health concern, environmental concern, and voluntary service. Significant differences were found in the LOHAS factors among the three clusters. Resale Group and Donation Group showed a similar predisposition to LOHAS issues while the Non-Recycling Group presented the lowest mean scores on the LOHAS factors compared to the other segments. The Resale and Donation Groups described themselves as enjoying or being satisfied with their lives and spending spare-time with family. In addition, these two groups cared about health and organic foods, and tried to conserve energy and resources. Principal components factor analysis generated clothing consumption values into the following three factors: personal values, social value, and practical value. The ANOVA test with the factors showed differences primarily between the Resale Group and the other two groups. The Resale Group was more concerned about personal value and social value than the other segments. In contrast, the Non-Recycling Group presented the higher level of social value than did Donation Group. In a comparison of the intention to purchase eco-friendly products, the Resale Group showed the highest mean score on intent to purchase Product A. On the other hand, the Donation Group presented the highest intention to purchase for Product B among segments. In addition, the mean scores indicated that the Korean product (Product B) was more preferable for purchase than the U.S. product (Product A). Stepwise regression analysis was used to identify the influence of product attributes on the purchase intention of eco product. With respect to Product A, design, price and contribution to environmental preservation were significant to predict purchase intention for the Resale Group, while price and compatibility with my image factors were significant for the Donation Group. For the Non-Recycling Group, design, price compatibility with the factors of my image, participation to eco campaign, and contribution to environmental preservation were significant. Price appropriateness was significant for each of the three clusters. With respect to Product B, design, price and compatibility with my image factors were important, but different attributes were associated significantly with purchase intention for each of the three groups. The influence of LOHAS characteristics and clothing consumption values on intention to purchase Products A and B were also examined. The LOHAS factor of health concern and the personal value factor were significant in the relationships with the purchase intention; however, the explanatory powers were low in the three segments. Findings showed that each group as classified by clothing disposal behaviors showed differences in the attributes of a product, personal values, and the LOHAS characteristics that influenced their purchase intention of eco-friendly products. Findings would enable organizations to understand eco-friendly behavior and to design appropriate strategic decisions to appeal eco-sumers.
This study was carried out to develop new techniques useful for cryopreservation, thawing and artificial insemination, and ultrastructural changes of cryopreserved spermatozoa in rainbow trout(Oncorhynchus mykiss) . Two extenders, such as Tyrode solution and Whittingham's
Food service is the major part of franchise business in Korea, accounting for 69.9% of the brands in the market. As the food service industry becomes mature, many franchisees have struggled to survive in the market. In general, consumers have higher levels of expectation toward service quality of franchised outlets compared that of (non-franchised) independent ones. They also tend to believe that franchisees deliver standardized service at the uniform food price, regardless of their locations. Such beliefs seem to be important reasons that consumers prefer franchised outlets to independent ones. Nevertheless, few studies examined the impact of qualify features of franchisees on customer satisfaction so far. To this end, this study examined the characteristics of various quality features of franchisees in the food service industry, regarding their relationship with customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The quality perception of heavy-users was also compared with that of light-users in order to find insights for developing differentiated marketing strategy for the two segments. Customer satisfaction has been understood as a one-dimensional construct while there are recent studies that insist two-dimensional nature of the construct. In this regard, Kano et al. (1984) suggested to categorize quality features of a product or service into five types, based on their relation to customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction: Must-be quality, Attractive quality, One-dimensional quality, Indifferent quality, and Reverse quality. According to the Kano model, customers are more dissatisfied when Must-be quality(M) are not fulfilled, but their satisfaction does not arise above neutral no matter how fully the quality fulfilled. In comparison, customers are more satisfied with a full provision of Attactive quality(A) but manage to accept its dysfunction. One-dimensional quality(O) results in satisfaction when fulfilled and dissatisfaction when not fulfilled. For Indifferent quality(I), its presence or absence influences neither customer satisfaction nor dissatisfaction. Lastly, Reverse quality(R) refers to the features whose high degree of achievement results in customer dissatisfaction rather than satisfaction. Meanwhile, the basic guidelines of the Kano model have a limitation in that the quality type of each feature is simply determined by calculating the mode statistics. In order to overcome such limitation, the relative importance of each feature on customer satisfaction (Better value; b) and dissatisfaction (Worse value; w) were calculated following the formulas below (Timko, 1993). The Better value indicates how much customer satisfaction is increased by providing the quality feature in question. In contrast, the Worse value indicates how much customer dissatisfaction is decreased by providing the quality feature. Better = (A + O)/(A+O+M+I) Worse = (O+M)/(A+O+M+I)(-1) An on-line survey was performed in order to understand the nature of quality features of franchisees in the food service industry by applying the Kano Model. A total of twenty quality features (refer to the Table 2) were identified as the result of literature review in franchise business and a pre-test with fifty college students in Seoul. The potential respondents of our main survey was limited to the customers who have visited more than two restaurants/stores of the same franchise brand. Survey invitation e-mails were sent out to the panels of a market research company and a total of 257 responses were used for analysis. Following the guidelines of Kano model, each of the twenty quality features was classified into one of the five types based on customers' responses to a set of questions: "(1) how do you feel if the following quality feature is fulfilled in the franchise restaurant that you visit," and "(2) how do you feel if the following quality feature is not fulfilled in the franchise restaurant that you visit." The analyses revealed that customers' dissatisfaction with franchisees is commonly associated with the poor level of cleanliness of the store (w=-0.872), kindness of the staffs(w=-0.890), conveniences such as parking lot and restroom(w=-0.669), and expertise of the staffs(w=-0.492). Such quality features were categorized as Must-be quality in this study. While standardization or uniformity across franchisees has been emphasized in franchise business, this study found that consumers are interested only in uniformity of price across franchisees(w=-0.608), but not interested in standardizations of menu items, interior designs, customer service procedures, and food tastes. Customers appeared to be more satisfied when the franchise brand has promotional events such as giveaways(b=0.767), good accessibility(b=0.699), customer loyalty programs(b=0.659), award winning history(b=0.641), and outlets in the overseas market(b=0.506). The results are summarized in a matrix form in Table 1. Better(b) and Worse(w) index indicate relative importance of each quality feature on customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction, respectively. Meanwhile, there were differences in perceiving the quality features between light users and heavy users of any specific franchise brand in the food service industry. Expertise of the staffs was labeled as Must-be quality for heavy users but Indifferent quality for light users. Light users seemed indifferent to overseas expansion of the brand and offering new menu items on a regular basis, while heavy users appeared to perceive them as Attractive quality. Such difference may come from their different levels of involvement when they eat out. The results are shown in Table 2. The findings of this study help practitioners understand the quality features they need to focus on to strengthen the competitive power in the food service market. Above all, removing the factors that cause customer dissatisfaction seems to be the most critical for franchisees. To retain loyal customers of the franchise brand, it is also recommended for franchisor to invest resources in the development of new menu items as well as training programs for the staffs. Lastly, if resources allow, promotional events, loyalty programs, overseas expansion, award-winning history can be considered as tools for attracting more customers to the business.
Two experiments were conducted to determine whether water extracts from Artemisia capillaries (A. capillaries) and Camellia sinensis (C. sinensis) could be used as alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters in broiler feed. The experiment 1 was verified their chemical composition, extracts yields, total phenolic compounds concentration, antioxidant activity, antimicrobial activity, and chicken splenocytes proliferation through in vitro test. The extract yields of A. capillaries and C. sinensis were 26.5 and 16.8%, respectively. Total phenolic compounds concentrations of them expressed as gallic acid equivalent were 15.28 and 26.74 mg/mL, respectively. Electron donating abilities of them expressed as
This study was conducted to investigate the probiotics(acid and bile resistance, fermentation properties, viability, cholesterol assimilation, antimicrobial activity, antimutagenicity, and immunoactivation) of the strains of bifidobacteria isolated from healthy Koreans and to investigate the effects of oral administration of Bifidobacterium longum A-2 on the fecal microflora,
Clubroot disease of crucifers has occurred since 1957. It has spread to the whole China, especially in the southwest and nourtheast where it causes 30-80% loss in some fields. The disease has being expanded in the recent years as seeds are imported and the floating seedling system practices. For its effective control, the Ministry of Agriculture of China set up a program in 2010 and a research team led by Dr. Yueqiu HE, Yunnan Agricultural University. The team includes 20 main reseachers of 11 universities and 5 institutions. After 5 years, the team has made a lot of progresses in disease occurrence regulation, resources collection, resistance identification and breeding, biological agent exploration, formulation, chemicals evaluation, and control strategy. About 1200 collections of local and commercial crucifers were identified in the field and by artificiall inoculation in the laboratories, 10 resistant cultivars were breeded including 7 Chinese cabbages and 3 cabbages. More than 800 antagostic strains were isolated including bacteria, stretomyces and fungi. Around 100 chemicals were evaluated in the field and greenhouse based on its control effect, among them, 6 showed high control effect, especially fluazinam and cyazofamid could control about 80% the disease. However, fluzinam has negative effect on soil microbes. Clubroot disease could not be controlled by bioagents and chemicals once when the pathogen Plasmodiophora brassicae infected its hosts and set up the parasitic relationship. We found the earlier the pathogent infected its host, the severer the disease was. Therefore, early control was the most effective. For Chinese cabbage, all controlling measures should be taken in the early 30 days because the new infection could not cause severe symptom after 30 days of seeding. For example, a biocontrol agent, Bacillus subtilis Strain XF-1 could control the disease 70%-85% averagely when it mixed with seedling substrate and was drenching 3 times after transplanting, i.e. immediately, 7 days, 14 days. XF-1 has been deeply researched in control mechanisms, its genome, and development and application of biocontrol formulate. It could produce antagonistic protein, enzyme, antibiotics and IAA, which promoted rhizogenesis and growth. Its The genome was sequenced by Illumina/Solexa Genome Analyzer to assembled into 20 scaffolds then the gaps between scaffolds were filled by long fragment PCR amplification to obtain complet genmone with 4,061,186 bp in size. The whole genome was found to have 43.8% GC, 108 tandem repeats with an average of 2.65 copies and 84 transposons. The CDSs were predicted as 3,853 in which 112 CDSs were predicted to secondary metabolite biosynthesis, transport and catabolism. Among those, five NRPS/PKS giant gene clusters being responsible for the biosynthesis of polyketide (pksABCDEFHJLMNRS in size 72.9 kb), surfactin(srfABCD, 26.148 kb, bacilysin(bacABCDE 5.903 kb), bacillibactin(dhbABCEF, 11.774 kb) and fengycin(ppsABCDE, 37.799 kb) have high homolgous to fuction confirmed biosynthesis gene in other strain. Moreover, there are many of key regulatory genes for secondary metabolites from XF-1, such as comABPQKX Z, degQ, sfp, yczE, degU, ycxABCD and ywfG. were also predicted. Therefore, XF-1 has potential of biosynthesis for secondary metabolites surfactin, fengycin, bacillibactin, bacilysin and Bacillaene. Thirty two compounds were detected from cell extracts of XF-1 by MALDI-TOF-MS, including one Macrolactin (m/z 441.06), two fusaricidin (m/z 850.493 and 968.515), one circulocin (m/z 852.509), nine surfactin (m/z 1044.656~1102.652), five iturin (m/z 1096.631~1150.57) and forty fengycin (m/z 1449.79~1543.805). The top three compositions types (contening 56.67% of total extract) are surfactin, iturin and fengycin, in which the most abundant is the surfactin type composition 30.37% of total extract and in second place is the fengycin with 23.28% content with rich diversity of chemical structure, and the smallest one is the iturin with 3.02% content. Moreover, the same main compositions were detected in Bacillus sp.355 which is also a good effects biocontol bacterial for controlling the clubroot of crucifer. Wherefore those compounds surfactin, iturin and fengycin maybe the main active compositions of XF-1 against P. brassicae. Twenty one fengycin type compounds were evaluate by LC-ESI-MS/MS with antifungal activities, including fengycin A
The strength characteristics of the three orthogonal splitting planes, known as rift, grain and hardway planes in granite quarries, were examined. R, G and H specimens were obtained from the block samples of Jurassic granites in Geochang and Hapcheon areas. The directions of the long axes of these three specimens are perpendicular to each of the three planes. First, The chart, showing the scaling characteristics of three graphs related to the uniaxial compressive strengths of R, G and H specimens, were made. The graphs for the three specimens, along with the increase of strength, are arranged in the order of H < G < R. The angles of inclination of the graphs for the three specimens, suggesting the degree of uniformity of the texture within the specimen, were compared. The above angles for H specimens(θH, 24.0°~37.3°) are the lowest among the three specimens. Second, the scaling characteristics related to the three graphs of RG, GH and RH specimens, representing a combination of the mean compressive strengths of the two specimens, were derived. These three graphs, taking the various N-shaped forms, are arranged in the order of GH < RH < RG. Third, the correlation chart between the strength difference(Δσt) and the angle of inclination(θ) was made. The above two parameters show the correlation of the exponential function with an exponent(λ) of -0.003. In both granites, the angle of inclination(θRH) of the RH-graph is the lowest. Fourth, the six types of charts, showing the correlations among the three kinds of compressive strengths for the three specimens and the five parameters for the two sets of microcracks aligned parallel to the compressive load applied to each specimen, were made. From these charts for Geochang and Hapcheon granites, the mean value(0.877) of the correlation coefficients(R2) for total density(Lt), along with the frequency(N, 0.872) and density(ρ, 0.874), is the highest. In addition, the mean values(0.829) of correlation coefficients associated with the mean compressive strengths are more higher than the minimum(0.768) and maximum(0.804) compression strengths of three specimens. Fifth, the distributional characteristics of the Brazilian tensile strengths measured in directions parallel to the above two sets of microcracks in the three specimens from Geochang granite were derived. From the related chart, the three graphs for these tensile strengths corresponding to the R, G and H specimens show an order of H(R1+G1) < G(R2+H1) < R(R1+G1). The order of arrangement of the three graphs for the tensile strengths and that for the compressive strengths are mutually consistent. Therefore, the compressive strengths of the three specimens are proportional to the three types of tensile strengths. Sixth, the values of correlation coefficients, among the three tensile strengths corresponding to each cumulative number(N=1~10) from the above three graphs and the five parameters corresponding to each graph, were derived. The mean values of correlation coefficients for each parameter from the 10 correlation charts increase in the order of density(0.763) < total length(0.817) < frequency(0.839) < mean length(Lm, 0.901) ≤ median length(Lmed, 0.903). Seventh, the correlation charts among the compressive strengths and tensile strengths for the three specimens were made. The above correlation charts were divided into nine types based on the three kinds of compressive strengths and the five groups(A~E) of tensile strengths. From the related charts, as the tensile strength increases with the mean and maximum compressive strengths excluding the minimum compressive strength, the value of correlation coefficient increases rapidly.
The export of domestic public services to overseas markets contains many potential obstacles, stemming from different export procedures, the target services, and socio-economic environments. In order to alleviate these problems, the business incubation platform as an open business ecosystem can be a powerful instrument to support the decisions taken by participants and stakeholders. In this paper, we propose an ontology model and its implementation processes for the business incubation platform with an open and pervasive architecture to support public service exports. For the conceptual model of platform ontology, export case studies are used for requirements analysis. The conceptual model shows the basic structure, with vocabulary and its meaning, the relationship between ontologies, and key attributes. For the implementation and test of the ontology model, the logical structure is edited using Prot
Franchise businesses in South Korea have contributed to economic growth and job creation, and its growth potential remains very high. However, despite such virtues, domestic franchise businesses face many problems such as the instability of franchisor's business structure and weak financial conditions. To solve these problems, the government enacted legislation and strengthened franchise related laws. However, the strengthening of laws regulating franchisors had many side effects that interrupted the development of the franchise business. For example, legal regulations regarding franchisors have had the effect of suppressing the franchisor's leadership activities (e.g. activities such as the ability to advocate the franchisor's policies and strategies to the franchisees, in order to facilitate change and innovation). One of the main goals of the franchise business is to build cooperation between the franchisor and the franchisee for their combined success. However, franchisees can refuse to follow the franchisor's strategies because of the current state of franchise-related law and government policy. The purpose of this study to explore the effects of franchisor's leadership style on franchisee's commitment in a franchise system. We classified leadership styles according to the path-goal theory (House & Mitchell, 1974), and it was hypothesized and tested that the four leadership styles proposed by the path-goal theory (i.e. directive, supportive, participative and achievement-oriented leadership) have different effects on franchisee's commitment. Another purpose of this study to explore the how the level of franchisee's self-efficacy influences both the franchisor's leadership style and franchisee's commitment in a franchise system. Results of the present study are expected to provide important theoretical and practical implications as to the role of franchisor's leadership style, as restricted by government regulations and the franchisee's self-efficacy, which could be needed to improve the quality of the long-term relationship between the franchisor and franchisee. Quoted by Northouse(2007), one problem regarding the investigation of leadership is that there are almost as many different definitions of leadership as there are people who have tried to define it. But despite the multitude of ways in which leadership has been conceptualized, the following components can be identified as central to the phenomenon: (a) leadership is a process, (b) leadership involves influence, (c) leadership occurs in a group context, and (d) leadership involves goal attainment. Based on these components, in this study leadership is defined as a process whereby franchisor's influences a group of franchisee' to achieve a common goal. Focusing on this definition, the path-goal theory is about how leaders motivate subordinates to accomplish designated goals. Drawing heavily from research on what motivates employees, path-goal theory first appeared in the leadership literature in the early 1970s in the works of Evans (1970), House (1971), House and Dessler (1974), and House and Mitchell (1974). The stated goal of this leadership theory is to enhance employee performance and employee satisfaction by focusing on employee motivation. In brief, path-goal theory is designed to explain how leaders can help subordinates along the path to their goals by selecting specific behaviors that are best suited to subordinates' needs and to the situation in which subordinates are working (Northouse, 2007). House & Mitchell(1974) predicted that although many different leadership behaviors could have been selected to be a part of path-goal theory, this approach has so far examined directive, supportive, participative, and achievement-oriented leadership behaviors. And they suggested that leaders may exhibit any or all of these four styles with various subordinates and in different situations. However, due to restrictive government regulations, franchisors are not in a position to change their leadership style to suit their circumstances. In addition, quoted by Northouse(2007), ssubordinate characteristics determine how a leader's behavior is interpreted by subordinates in a given work context. Many researchers have focused on subordinates' needs for affiliation, preferences for structure, desires for control, and self-perceived level of task ability. In this study, we have focused on the self-perceived level of task ability, namely, the franchisee's self-efficacy. According to Bandura (1977), self-efficacy is chiefly defined as the personal attitude of one's ability to accomplish concrete tasks. Therefore, it is not an indicator of one's actual abilities, but an opinion of the extent of how one can use that ability. Thus, the judgment of maintain franchisee's commitment depends on the situation (e.g., government regulation and policy and leadership style of franchisor) and how it affects one's ability to mobilize resources to deal with the task, so even if people possess the same ability, there may be differences in self-efficacy. Figure 1 illustrates the model investigated in this study. In this model, it was hypothesized that leadership styles would affect the franchisee's commitment, and self-efficacy would moderate the relationship between leadership style and franchisee's commitment. Theoretically, quoted by Northouse(2007), the path-goal approach suggests that leaders need to choose a leadership style that best fits the needs of subordinates and the work they are doing. According to House & Mitchell (1974), the theory predicts that a directive style of leadership is best in situations in which subordinates are dogmatic and authoritarian, the task demands are ambiguous, and the organizational rule and procedures are unclear. In these situations, franchisor's directive leadership complements the work by providing guidance and psychological structure for franchisees. For work that is structured, unsatisfying, or frustrating, path-goal theory suggests that leaders should use a supportive style. Franchisor's Supportive leadership offers a sense of human touch for franchisees engaged in mundane, mechanized activity. Franchisor's participative leadership is considered best when a task is ambiguous because participation gives greater clarity to how certain paths lead to certain goals; it helps subordinates learn what actions leads to what outcome. Furthermore, House & Mitchell(1974) predicts that achievement-oriented leadership is most effective in settings in which subordinates are required to perform ambiguous tasks. Marsh and O'Neill (1984) tested the idea that organizational members' anger and decline in performance is caused by deficiencies in their level of effort and found that self-efficacy promotes accomplishment, decreases stress and negative consequences like depression and emotional instability. Based on the extant empirical findings and theoretical reasoning, we posit positive and strong relationships between the franchisor's leadership styles and the franchisee's commitment. Furthermore, the level of franchisee's self-efficacy was thought to maintain their commitment. The questionnaires sent to participants consisted of the following measures; leadership style was assessed using a 20 item 7-point likert scale developed by Indvik (1985), self-efficacy was assessed using a 24 item 6-point likert scale developed by Bandura (1977), and commitment was assessed using a 6 item 5-point likert scale developed by Morgan & Hunt (1994). Questionnaires were distributed to Korean optical franchisees in Seoul. It took about 20 days to complete the data collection. A total number of 140 questionnaires were returned and complete data were available from 137 respondents. Results of multiple regression analyses testing the relationships between the each of the four styles of leadership shown by the franchisor as independent variables and franchisee's commitment as the dependent variable showed that the relationship between supportive leadership style and commitment (