• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.262-268
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• 2010

Virtual communities (VCs) have developed rapidly, with more and more people participating in them to exchange information and opinions. A virtual community is a group of people who may or may not meet one another face to face, and who exchange words and ideas through the mediation of computer bulletin boards and networks. A business-to-consumer virtual community (B2CVC) is a commercial group that creates a trustworthy environment intended to motivate consumers to be more willing to buy from an online store. B2CVCs create a social atmosphere through information contribution such as recommendations, reviews, and ratings of buyers and sellers. Although the importance of B2CVCs has been recognized, few studies have been conducted to examine members' word-of-mouth behavior within these communities. This study proposes a model of involvement, statistics, trust, "stickiness," and word-of-mouth in a B2CVC and explores the relationships among these elements based on empirical data. The objectives are threefold: (i) to empirically test a B2CVC model that integrates measures of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors; (ii) to better understand the nature of these relationships, specifically through word-of-mouth as a measure of revenue generation; and (iii) to better understand the role of stickiness of B2CVC in CRM marketing. The model incorporates three key elements concerning community members: (i) their beliefs, measured in terms of their involvement assessment; (ii) their attitudes, measured in terms of their satisfaction and trust; and, (iii) their behavior, measured in terms of site stickiness and their word-of-mouth. Involvement is considered the motivation for consumers to participate in a virtual community. For B2CVC members, information searching and posting have been proposed as the main purpose for their involvement. Satisfaction has been reviewed as an important indicator of a member's overall community evaluation, and conceptualized by different levels of member interactions with their VC. The formation and expansion of a VC depends on the willingness of members to share information and services. Researchers have found that trust is a core component facilitating the anonymous interaction in VCs and e-commerce, and therefore trust-building in VCs has been a common research topic. It is clear that the success of a B2CVC depends on the stickiness of its members to enhance purchasing potential. Opinions communicated and information exchanged between members may represent a type of written word-of-mouth. Therefore, word-of-mouth is one of the primary factors driving the diffusion of B2CVCs across the Internet. Figure 1 presents the research model and hypotheses. The model was tested through the implementation of an online survey of CTrip Travel VC members. A total of 243 collected questionnaires was reduced to 204 usable questionnaires through an empirical process of data cleaning. The study's hypotheses examined the extent to which involvement, satisfaction, and trust influence B2CVC stickiness and members' word-of-mouth. Structural Equation Modeling tested the hypotheses in the analysis, and the structural model fit indices were within accepted thresholds: ${\chi}^2^$/df was 2.76, NFI was .904, IFI was .931, CFI was .930, and RMSEA was .017. Results indicated that involvement has a significant influence on satisfaction (p<0.001, ${\beta}$=0.809). The proportion of variance in satisfaction explained by members' involvement was over half (adjusted $R^2$=0.654), reflecting a strong association. The effect of involvement on trust was also statistically significant (p<0.001, ${\beta}$=0.751), with 57 percent of the variance in trust explained by involvement (adjusted $R^2$=0.563). When the construct "stickiness" was treated as a dependent variable, the proportion of variance explained by the variables of trust and satisfaction was relatively low (adjusted $R^2$=0.331). Satisfaction did have a significant influence on stickiness, with ${\beta}$=0.514. However, unexpectedly, the influence of trust was not even significant (p=0.231, t=1.197), rejecting that proposed hypothesis. The importance of stickiness in the model was more significant because of its effect on e-WOM with ${\beta}$=0.920 (p<0.001). Here, the measures of Stickiness explain over eighty of the variance in e-WOM (Adjusted $R^2$=0.846). Overall, the results of the study supported the hypothesized relationships between members' involvement in a B2CVC and their satisfaction with and trust of it. However, trust, as a traditional measure in behavioral models, has no significant influence on stickiness in the B2CVC environment. This study contributes to the growing body of literature on B2CVCs, specifically addressing gaps in the academic research by integrating measures of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors in one model. The results provide additional insights to behavioral factors in a B2CVC environment, helping to sort out relationships between traditional measures and relatively new measures. For practitioners, the identification of factors, such as member involvement, that strongly influence B2CVC member satisfaction can help focus technological resources in key areas. Global e-marketers can develop marketing strategies directly targeting B2CVC members. In the global tourism business, they can target Chinese members of a B2CVC by providing special discounts for active community members or developing early adopter programs to encourage stickiness in the community. Future studies are called for, and more sophisticated modeling, to expand the measurement of B2CVC member behavior and to conduct experiments across industries, communities, and cultures.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.250-262
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• 2008

In order to assess the feasibility of the dipole-dipole electric method to the investigation of metallic ore deposit, both field data simulation and inversion are carried out for several simplified ore deposit models. Our interest is in a vein-type model, because most of the ore deposits (more than 70%) exist in a vein type in Korea. Based on the fact that the width of the vein-type ore deposits ranges from tens of centimeters to 2m, we change the width and the material property of the vein, and we use 40m-electrode spacing for our test. For the vein-type model with too small width, the low resistivity zone is not detected, even though the resistivity of the vein amounts to 1/300 of that of the surrounding rock. Considering a wide electrode interval and cell size used in the inversion, it is natural that the size of the low resistivity zone is overestimated. We also perform field data simulation and inversion for a vein-type model with surrounding hydrothermal alteration zones, which is a typical structure in an epithermal ore deposits. In the model, the material properties are assumed on the basis of resistivity values directly observed in a mine originated from an epithermal ore deposits. From this simulation, we can also note that the high resistivity value of the vein does not affect the results when the width of the vein is narrow. This indicates that our main target should be surrounding hydrothermal alteration zones rather than veins in field survey. From these results, we can summarize that when the vein is placed at the deep part and the difference of resistivity values between the vein and the surrounding rock is not large enough, we cannot detect low resistivity zone and interpret the subsurface structures incorrectly using the electric method performed at the surface. Although this work is a little simple, it can be used as references for field survey design and field data Interpretation. If we perform field data simulation and inversion for a number of models and provide some references, they will be helpful in real field survey and interpretation.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.101-107
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• 2016

Due to the recent advancement in digital imaging technology, development of intervention equipment has become generalize. Video arbitration procedure is a process to insert a tiny catheter and a guide wire in the body, so in order to enhance the effectiveness and safety of this treatment, the high-quality of x-ray of image should be used. However, the increasing of radiation has become the problem. Therefore, the studies to improve the performance of x-ray detectors are being actively processed. Moreover, this intervention is based on the reference of the angiographic imaging and 3D medical image processing. In this paper, we propose a guidance system to support this intervention. Through this intervention, it can solve the problem of the existing 2D medical images based vessel that has a formation of cerebrovascular disease, and guide the real-time tracking and optimal route to the target lesion by intervention catheter and guide wire tool. As a result, the system was completely composed for medical image acquisition unit and image processing unit as well as a display device. The experimental environment, guide services which are provided by the proposed system Brain Phantom (complete intracranial model with aneurysms, ref H+N-S-A-010) was taken with x-ray and testing. To generate a reference image based on the Laplacian algorithm for the image processing which derived from the cerebral blood vessel model was applied to DICOM by Volume ray casting technique. $A^*$ algorithm was used to provide the catheter with a guide wire tracking path. Finally, the result does show the location of the catheter and guide wire providing in the proposed system especially, it is expected to provide a useful guide for future intervention service.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.1-25
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• 2011

Internet-based commerce has undergone an explosive growth over the past decade as consumers today find it more economical as well as more convenient to shop online. Nevertheless, the shift in the common mode of shopping from offline to online commerce has caused consumers to have worries over such issues as private information leakage, online fraud, discrepancy in product quality and grade, unsuccessful delivery, and so forth, Numerous studies have been undertaken to examine the role of perceived risk as a chief barrier to online purchases and to understand the theoretical relationships among perceived risk, trust and purchase intentions, However, most studies focus on empirically investigating the effects of trust on perceived risk, with little attention devoted to the effects of perceived risk on trust, While the influence trust has on perceived risk is worth studying, the influence in the opposite direction is equally important, enabling insights into the potential of perceived risk as a prohibitor of trust, According to Pavlou (2003), the primary source of the perceived risk is either the technological uncertainty of the Internet environment or the behavioral uncertainty of the transaction partner. Due to such types of uncertainty, an increase in the worries over the perceived risk may negatively affect trust, For example, if a consumer who sends sensitive transaction data over Internet is concerned that his or her private information may leak out because of the lack of security, trust may decrease (Olivero and Lunt, 2004), By the same token, if the consumer feels that the online merchant has the potential to profit by behaving in an opportunistic manner taking advantage of the remote, impersonal nature of online commerce, then it is unlikely that the merchant will be trusted, That is, the more the probable danger is likely to occur, the less trust and the greater need to control the transaction (Olivero and Lunt, 2004), In summary, a review of the related studies indicates that while some researchers looked at the influence of overall perceived risk on trust level, not much attention has been given to the effects of different types of perceived risk, In this context the present research aims at addressing the need to study how trust is affected by different types of perceived risk, We classified perceived risk into six different types based on the literature, and empirically analyzed the impact of each type of perceived risk upon consumer trust in an online merchant and further its impact upon purchase intentions. To meet our research objectives, we developed a conceptual model depicting the nomological structure of the relationships among our research variables, and also formulated a total of seven hypotheses. The model and hypotheses were tested using an empirical analysis based on a questionnaire survey of 206 college students. The reliability was evaluated via Cronbach's alphas, the minimum of which was found to be 0.73, and therefore the questionnaire items are all deemed reliable. In addition, the results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) designed to check the validity of the measurement model indicate that the convergent, discriminate, and nomological validities of the model are all acceptable. The structural equation modeling analysis to test the hypotheses yielded the following results. Of the first six hypotheses (H1-1 through H1-6) designed to examine the relationships between each risk type and trust, three hypotheses including H1-1 (performance risk ${\rightarrow}$ trust), H1-2 (psychological risk ${\rightarrow}$ trust) and H1-5 (online payment risk ${\rightarrow}$ trust) were supported with path coefficients of -0.30, -0.27 and -0.16 respectively. Finally, H2 (trust ${\rightarrow}$ purchase intentions) was supported with relatively high path coefficients of 0.73. Results of the empirical study offer the following findings and implications. First. it was found that it was performance risk, psychological risk and online payment risk that have a statistically significant influence upon consumer trust in an online merchant. It implies that a consumer may find an online merchant untrustworthy if either the product quality or the product grade does not match his or her expectations. For that reason, online merchants including digital storefronts and e-marketplaces are suggested to pursue a strategy focusing on identifying the target customers and offering products that they feel best meet performance and psychological needs of those customers. Thus, they should do their best to make it widely known that their products are of as good quality and grade as those purchased from offline department stores. In addition, it may be inferred that today's online consumers remain concerned about the security of the online commerce environment due to the repeated occurrences of hacking or private information leakage. Online merchants should take steps to remove potential vulnerabilities and provide online notices to emphasize that their website is secure. Second, consumer's overall trust was found to have a statistically significant influence on purchase intentions. This finding, which is consistent with the results of numerous prior studies, suggests that increased sales will become a reality only with enhanced consumer trust.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.363-373
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• 2020

During last decades numerous studies generating orthoimage have been carried out. Traditional methods require exterior orientation parameters of aerial images and precise 3D object modeling data and DTM (Digital Terrain Model) to detect and recover occlusion areas. Furthermore, it is challenging task to automate the complicated process. In this paper, we proposed a new concept of true orthoimage generation using DL (Deep Learning). DL is rapidly used in wide range of fields. In particular, GAN (Generative Adversarial Network) is one of the DL models for various tasks in imaging processing and computer vision. The generator tries to produce results similar to the real images, while discriminator judges fake and real images until the results are satisfied. Such mutually adversarial mechanism improves quality of the results. Experiments were performed using GAN-based Pix2Pix model by utilizing IR (Infrared) orthoimages, intensity from LiDAR data provided by the German Society for Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Geoinformation (DGPF) through the ISPRS (International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing). Two approaches were implemented: (1) One-step training with intensity data and high resolution orthoimages, (2) Recursive training with intensity data and color-coded low resolution intensity images for progressive enhancement of the results. Two methods provided similar quality based on FID (Fréchet Inception Distance) measures. However, if quality of the input data is close to the target image, better results could be obtained by increasing epoch. This paper is an early experimental study for feasibility of DL-based true orthoimage generation and further improvement would be necessary.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.609-615
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• 2013

Glyceollin I has gained attention as a useful therapy for various dermatological diseases. However, the binding property of glyceollin I to the mammalian adenylyl cyclase (hereafter mAC), a critical target enzyme for the down-regulation of skin melanogenesis, has not been fully explored. To clarify the action mechanism between glyceollin I and mAC, we first investigated the molecular docking property of glyceollin I to mAC and compared with that of SQ22,536, a well-known mAC inhibitor, to mAC. Glyceollin I showed superiority by forming three hydrogen bonds with Asp 1018, Trp 1020, and Asn 1025, which exist in the catalytic site of mAC. However, SQ22,536 formed only two hydrogen bonds with Asp 1018 and Asn 1025. Secondly, we confirmed that glyceollin I effectively inhibits the formation of forskolin-induced cAMP and the phosphorylation of PKA from a cell-based assay. Long term treatment with glyceollin I had little effect on the cell viability. The findings of the present study also suggest that glyceollin I may be extended to be used as an effective inhibitor of hyperpigmentation.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.32 no.10
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• pp.916-927
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• 2010

In general water treatment process, the disinfection process by chlorine is used to prevent water borne disease and microbial regrowth in water distribution system. Because chlorines were reacted with organic matter, carcinogens such as disinfection by-products (DBPs) were produced in drinking water. Therefore, a suitable injection of chlorine is need to decrease DBPs. Rechlorination in water pipelines or reservoirs are recently increased to secure the residual chlorine in the end of water pipelines. EPANET 2.0 developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is used to compute the optimal chlorine injection in water treatment plant and to predict the dosage of rechlorination into water distribution system. The bulk decay constant ($k_{bulk}$) was drawn by bottle test and the wall decay constant ($k_{wall}$) was derived from using systermatic analysis method for water quality modeling in target region. In order to predict water quality based on hydraulic analysis model, residual chlorine concentration was forecasted in water distribution system. The formation of DBPs such as trihalomethanes (THMs) was verified with chlorine dosage in lab-scale test. The bulk decay constant ($k_{bulk}$) was rapidly decreased with increasing temperature in the early time. In the case of 25 degrees celsius, the bulk decay constant ($k_{bulk}$) decreased over half after 25 hours later. In this study, there were able to calculate about optimal rechlorine dosage and select on profitable sites in the network map.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.79-96
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• 2021

Green infrastructure planning represents landscape planning measures to reduce particulate matter. This study aimed to derive factors that may be used in planning green infrastructure for particulate matter reduction using text mining techniques. A range of analyses were carried out by focusing on keywords such as 'particulate matter reduction plan' and 'green infrastructure planning elements'. The analyses included Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) analysis, centrality analysis, related word analysis, and topic modeling analysis. These analyses were carried out via text mining by collecting information on previous related research, policy reports, and laws. Initially, TF-IDF analysis results were used to classify major keywords relating to particulate matter and green infrastructure into three groups: (1) environmental issues (e.g., particulate matter, environment, carbon, and atmosphere), target spaces (e.g., urban, park, and local green space), and application methods (e.g., analysis, planning, evaluation, development, ecological aspect, policy management, technology, and resilience). Second, the centrality analysis results were found to be similar to those of TF-IDF; it was confirmed that the central connectors to the major keywords were 'Green New Deal' and 'Vacant land'. The results from the analysis of related words verified that planning green infrastructure for particulate matter reduction required planning forests and ventilation corridors. Additionally, moisture must be considered for microclimate control. It was also confirmed that utilizing vacant space, establishing mixed forests, introducing particulate matter reduction technology, and understanding the system may be important for the effective planning of green infrastructure. Topic analysis was used to classify the planning elements of green infrastructure based on ecological, technological, and social functions. The planning elements of ecological function were classified into morphological (e.g., urban forest, green space, wall greening) and functional aspects (e.g., climate control, carbon storage and absorption, provision of habitats, and biodiversity for wildlife). The planning elements of technical function were classified into various themes, including the disaster prevention functions of green infrastructure, buffer effects, stormwater management, water purification, and energy reduction. The planning elements of the social function were classified into themes such as community function, improving the health of users, and scenery improvement. These results suggest that green infrastructure planning for particulate matter reduction requires approaches related to key concepts, such as resilience and sustainability. In particular, there is a need to apply green infrastructure planning elements in order to reduce exposure to particulate matter.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.101-114
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• 2023

In the wartime, aircraft carrying out a mission to strike the enemy deep in the depth are exposed to the risk of being shoot down. As a key combat force in mordern warfare, it takes a lot of time, effot and national budget to train military flight personnel who operate high-tech weapon systems. Therefore, this study studied the path problem of predicting the route of emergency escape from enemy territory to the target point to avoid obstacles, and through this, the possibility of safe recovery of emergency escape military flight personnel was increased. based problem, transforming the problem into a TSP, VRP, and Dijkstra algorithm, and approaching it with an optimization technique. However, if this problem is approached in a network problem, it is difficult to reflect the dynamic factors and uncertainties of the battlefield environment that military flight personnel in distress will face. So, MDP suitable for modeling dynamic environments was applied and studied. In addition, GIS was used to obtain topographic information data, and in the process of designing the reward structure of MDP, topographic information was reflected in more detail so that the model could be more realistic than previous studies. In this study, value iteration algorithms and deterministic methods were used to derive a path that allows the military flight personnel in distress to move to the shortest distance while making the most of the topographical advantages. In addition, it was intended to add the reality of the model by adding actual topographic information and obstacles that the military flight personnel in distress can meet in the process of escape and escape. Through this, it was possible to predict through which route the military flight personnel would escape and escape in the actual situation. The model presented in this study can be applied to various operational situations through redesign of the reward structure. In actual situations, decision support based on scientific techniques that reflect various factors in predicting the escape route of the military flight personnel in distress and conducting combat search and rescue operations will be possible.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.159-189
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• 2012

What attracts consumers to bloggers' reviews? Consumers would be attracted both by the Bloggers' expertise (i.e., knowledge and experience) and by his/her unbiased manner of delivering information. Expertise and trustworthiness are both virtues of information sources, particularly when there is uncertainty in decision-making. Noting this point, we postulate that consumers' motives determine the relative weights they place on expertise and trustworthiness. In addition, our hypotheses assume that tie strength moderates consumers' expectation on bloggers' expertise and trustworthiness: with expectation on expertise enhanced for power-blog user-group (weak-ties), and an expectation on trustworthiness elevated for personal-blog user-group (strong-ties). Finally, we theorize that the effect of credibility on willingness to accept a review is moderated by tie strength; the predictive power of credibility is more prominent for the personal-blog user-groups than for the power-blog user groups. To support these assumptions, we conducted a field survey with blog users, collecting retrospective self-report data. The "gourmet shop" was chosen as a target product category, and obtained data analyzed by structural equations modeling. Findings from these data provide empirical support for our theoretical predictions. First, we found that the purposive motive aimed at satisfying instrumental information needs increases reliance on bloggers' expertise, but interpersonal connectivity value for alleviating loneliness elevates reliance on bloggers' trustworthiness. Second, expertise-based credibility is more prominent for power-blog user-groups than for personal-blog user-groups. While strong ties attract consumers with trustworthiness based on close emotional bonds, weak ties gain consumers' attention with new, non-redundant information (Levin & Cross, 2004). Thus, when the existing knowledge system, used in strong ties, does not work as smoothly for addressing an impending problem, the weak-tie source can be utilized as a handy reference. Thus, we can anticipate that power bloggers secure credibility by virtue of their expertise while personal bloggers trade off on their trustworthiness. Our analysis demonstrates that power bloggers appeal more strongly to consumers than do personal bloggers in the area of expertise-based credibility. Finally, the effect of review credibility on willingness to accept a review is higher for the personal-blog user-group than for the power-blog user-group. Actually, the inference that review credibility is a potent predictor of assessing willingness to accept a review is grounded on the analogy that attitude is an effective indicator of purchase intention. However, if memory about established attitudes is blocked, the predictive power of attitude on purchase intention is considerably diminished. Likewise, the effect of credibility on willingness to accept a review can be affected by certain moderators. Inspired by this analogy, we introduced tie strength as a possible moderator and demonstrated that tie strength moderated the effect of credibility on willingness to accept a review. Previously, Levin and Cross (2004) showed that credibility mediates strong-ties through receipt of knowledge, but this credibility mediation is not observed for weak-ties, where a direct path to it is activated. Thus, the predictive power of credibility on behavioral intention - that is, willingness to accept a review - is expected to be higher for strong-ties.