• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.76-89
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• 2018

Background: Exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) has been considered one of the main causes of a range of endocrine diseases in modern society. An EDC priority list considering exposure, toxicity, and societal concern should be established for EDC management. Methods: The chemical ranking and scoring (CRS) system for EDCs was based on exposure, toxicity,and societal concern. The exposure score system was based on usage, circulation volume, bioaccumulation, and detection in consumer products. The toxicity score system was based on carcinogenicity and reproductive and developmental toxicity. The societal concern score system was based on domestic or international regulations and mass media reports. Results: A total of 165 EDCs were considered in the CRS system. The top-five priority EDCs were Bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), Benzene, Bisphenol A, Dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and Trichloroethylene. Phthalates, bisphenols and parabens were identified as priority chemical groups. Conclusion: We developed a CRS system for EDCs to identify priority EDCs for management. This will be a foundation to provide an EDC management plan based on scientific decision-making.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.8
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• pp.383-393
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• 2020

The purpose of this research is to identify factors affecting consumer's brand preference toward environment-friendly products like electric vehicles in Bangkok, Thailand. The researcher conducted the study based on a quantitative approach and adapted a nonprobability sampling as a convenience sampling method. The data were collected from 400 respondents living in Bangkok, who are 18 years old and above, with significant knowledge of electric vehicles. This study adapted the Structural Equation Model (SEM) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to examine the model accuracy, reliability and verification influence of various variables. The results revealed that social influence has significant effect on environment concern as well as a positive effect on attitude. The initial significance of environment concern leads to a positive effect on fuel efficiency, followed by brand preference. Lastly, attitude has a significant effect on brand preference as attitude of consumers toward environment-friendly products affects the encouragement of brand preference, which largely depends on individual opinion. From an environmental concern, the researchers identified fuel efficiency and attitude having a positive and significant effect on brand preference toward environment-friendly products for electric vehicles. The authors also found that environmental concern and social influences on green purchasing behavior were significantly interrelated.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.891-901
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• 2008

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop an environmental education program using newspaper articles in education (NIE) and to evaluate changes in concern and practice for environmental protection after NIE. Methods: The design was a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. The participants were university students in nursing, of which 31 were assigned to the experimental group and 43 to the control group. The education was carried out for 2 hr, once a week for 7 weeks. Data were analyzed with SPSS WIN 14 program, and included $x^2$ test, independent t-test, and repeated measure ANOVA. Results: NIE showed significant differences in the changes of attitude toward environment (F=4.461, p=.036). Conclusion: Findings suggest that this NIE in environmental education was effective in changing students' attitudes toward the environment. Therefore this NIE is recommended for inclusion in education for university students in nursing.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.51-68
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• 2023

Purpose: This study aims to explore the impact of green products' claim skepticism on green purchase intention and further investigates the moderating role of environmental concern in the relationship. This study, by drawing the persuasion knowledge model expected that ambiguity avoidance penalizes less familiar brands than familiar brands. Further, the present study building on Hofstede's cultural dimension, specifically, uncertainty avoidance, undertook a scenario to understand any difference that exist between uncertainty avoidance cultural groups. This study also investigates gender differences in green claim skepticism and proclivity to purchase green products. Research design, data, and methodology: For analyzing the relationship relevant hypotheses were designed, and R-programming software was used. To test the hypotheses two independent sample t-test and regression analysis were carried out. Results: The results suggest that consumers' skepticism toward green claims influenced the intention to purchase eco-friendly products. The study finding also confirms the effect is moderated by environmental concern. Also, the findings of two scenarios reveal that consumers in high uncertainty avoidance culture exhibited a greater level of skepticism for green print advertising and green packaging claims when the brand in the advertising and packaging was unfamiliar than when it was familiar. Conclusions: To alter the negative effect of skepticism the consumer should believe the environmental claims are valid so that they can contribute to solving sustainability issues.

• International Journal of Quality Innovation
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.23-33
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• 2004

In Japan, where ISO14001 certifications have passed the 10,000 mark, the need for environmental management has taken firm root among companies. However, in the small-and medium-enterprise sector, and among tiny businesses, there are firms not obtaining ISO certification due to their concern about human resources and increased work load. On the other hand, among businesses that have already succeeded in gaining ISO certification. one does not sense any growth with regard to the continual improvement. Voices from certain quarters indicate there is a lack of incentive to keep on improving. With this background, we herewith present a new system to evaluate the level of environmental management in a company by means of a 5-step system.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.21 no.2 s.53
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• pp.93-102
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• 2006

Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), an octane booster that is added to the reformulated gasoline, has been a widespread contaminant in aquatic ecosystem. MTBE is a recalcitrant pollutant having low biodegradability. Due to its higher water solubility and low octanol-water partition coefficient, it can be rapidly transported to the surrounding water environment. Also, MTBE is a known animal carcinogen, and is classified as a possible human carcinogen by U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. The adverse effect of MTBE to aquatic biota was widely reported. In Korea, the recent detection of MTBE in groundwater near gasoline filling stations has drawn concern to public health and ecosystem. To address this concern, the effect of MTBE to human health and ecosystem was discussed in this review. Also, ecotoxicity data of MTBE for fish, invertebrates, and algae were extensively compared to estimate the hazard concentration 5($HC_5$) of MTBE as a screening level.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.218-230
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• 2011

The aim of this current study is to survey and analyze the degree of concern and difficult of elementary school teachers in elementary school science classes, and providing the results to teachers as a basic reference to improve their scientific specialties. As a result, firstly, the degree of concern of elementary school teacher in science class is more than normal level. Secondly, the degree of concern in science class differs dependent on environmental factors. Next, the degree of difficulty about science class was under normal level. Among area surveyed, physical and psychological environment were lower compared with other areas, and the difficulty in evaluation of class result was comparably higher than others. At fourth, teacher's degree of difficulty in science class was dependent on environment factors, but not on gender. Finally, there was reverse correlation between degree of concern and the degree of difficulty of elementary school teachers in science class. Further, the degree of concern in student knowledge showed more significant reverse correlation with all of area tested.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.19 no.1 s.19
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• pp.100-122
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• 1986

Obtaining an available information on health concerns of parents of school-age children and furthermore developing the sound policy for the public on health education, this study was conducted during Nov.-Dec. 1985 in the four selected areas; Seoul, large, middle and small city, and farming and fishery villages for 3,337 parents of schoolchildren in Korea. In this study, parents complected a questionnaire containing 34 items related to health concerns(e.g. drinking alcohol, air pollution, cancer, etc. see Table 4 and Fig. 2). For each health items, respondents were asked to indicate a choice between three levels of concern; 'Very high concern,' 'Moderate concern,' 'Little concern', and 'No opinion'. An analysis of responses indicated that most of the top ten health concerns identified by parents as cancer, abortions among high school students, medical malpractice, water pollution, traffic accidents, air pollution, suicide of parents and homicide of offspring, heart disease, venereal diseases, and high blood pressure in that order. Those health problems about which respondents were least concerned were more closely related to the individual, such as drinking alcohol, smoking, tooth decay, gum disease, underweight, overweight. Of greater concern were more such as water pollution, abortions among high school students, air pollution, accidents, medical malpractice. For cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, various accidents, environmental pollution, parents showed high concern, however, for health issues which contributed as causative influences such as lung cancer from smoking and liver cirrhosis and traffic accidents from drinking alcohol showed less concern. Relationship between parent's residential areas, educational level and sex distribution and health concern showed little difference, however, for these issues parents identified as relatively high concern. Most parents stowed more concern in sex-related of family-related health issues such as abortions among high school students, suicide of parents and homicide of offspring.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.327-339
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• 2017

A consumer is an individual entity with various motivations. This study is intended to incorporate a hierarchical structure of motivation to understand self-determined motivation for purchasing secondhand merchandise at thrift stores. A conceptual model adopted from Cadwallader et al. (2010)'s comprehensive model of motivation used in a marketing context was developed to investigate motivational process in secondhand merchandise shopping. The conceptual model includes the three levels of motivational structure-the global, contextual (environmental concern and frugality), and situational motivation. A series of the causal relationships among the three levels of self-determined motivations and buying intention to shop at thrift stores were hypothesized. A total of 219 respondents from two different northeastern state universities in the U.S. completed a self-administered survey. The results indicated that secondhand merchandise shopping is well explained in the hierarchical structure of self-determined motivation where the global motivation had a positive impact on the contextual motivations regarding environmental concern and frugality. Of the two contextual motivations, only environmental concern had a positive impact on situational motivation for shopping at thrift stores. Finally, the situational motivation positively influenced the intention to shop at thrift stores. The results of this model suggest that the hierarchical structure of self-determined motivation would be a very useful framework to understand consumer behavior for apparel shopping. Also, further research can be done to identify other contextual motivational factors to understand consumer motivation for shopping at thrift stores.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.21-29
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• 2024

Purpose: Electronic vehicles (EV) consumption become more prevalent among Vietnamese consumers. This paper aims to empirically assess the determinants of EV purchase intention among Vietnamese consumers. The research findings are expected to promote the consumption of electric vehicles in Vietnam. Research design, data and methodology: The quantitative research approach employed the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). The sample size includes 301 respodents. Research design unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and UTAUT2. The data collection process employ the non-probability sampling. Questionaire survey consists of 24 questions given to respondents via Google Form link. Data is processed by SPSS version 20 software. Results: The results proposed 04 determinants of the intention to buy electric vehicles: Government Support, Environmental Concern, Price Value, and Performance. Conclusions: Theorectical implications and managerial implications are also discussed to promote the consumption of electronic vehicles in Vietnam. Besides, the findings show that Price value, Environmental Concern and Performance positively affect the purchase intention of EV among Vietnamese consumers. Remarkably, Government Support is proven to be an insignificant factor in EV purchase intention. The call for further research rely on the role of government support in order to promote EV consumption in Vietnam and other emerging markets worldwide.