• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.67-76
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• 2018

Purpose - With the worldwide aging problem and the development of globalization, customers prefer to seek affordable medical services with the higher quality overseas. This new trend has urged some destination countries to improve their services for the more competitive advantages over other countries. Literature research indicate that medical quality and cost may be the key factors influencing global patients' decisions. In the international environment, however, medical tourism destinations are selected due to cultural similarity between the hosting country and the customers' own country. The more similarity perceived between the two countries leads foreign patients to choose the considering country as the destination for medical tourism. However, little research has been conducted on this topic. Thus, we empirically investigate how cultural similarity influences Chinese medical customers' choice of the destinations. We also consider the factors related to medical competency and travel attribute which might affect customers' decisions along with some moderating roles of disease types. Research design, data, and methodology - We proposed a research model in order to confirm the relations among different variables of cultural similarity, medical competency, travel attractiveness, disease types, and destination choice. The questionnaire survey is processed in the more economically developed regions of China such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Jiangsu. Conditional logit regression is applied to analyze the data of 881. Results - Results indicate that cultural similarity is the important predictor of Chinese customers' decision to select a medical country. However, the effects of cultural similarity vary according to the disease types. We also find that medical competency and travel attractiveness influence their decisions with the moderating role of disease types. Conclusions - Cultural similarity is the important factor that influences Chinese potential medical tourists' decisions to select a destination. Marketing managers should consider the effects of cultural similarity when developing strategies for attracting Chinese medical tourists. Since medical competency and travel attractiveness are still the critical key elements for them to evaluate the destination countries, it is necessary to continuously improve medical service quality and facilities. The results also recommend that medical managers should sharpen their marketing strategies by segmenting Chinese potential customers in terms of disease types.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.21-30
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• 2017

Purpose - This research approaches to the new niche market of medical tourism to investigate how factors of cultural similarity influence the international distribution management. This study also estimates the interaction effects of distribution channel on the relationships of facility attributes and customers' destination choice behavior. Research design, data, and methodology - We collected the sample of 881 potential customers from the more economically developed regions in China. Regression analysis is used to confirm the relationships in the research model. Results - The result shows that cultural similarity plays an important moderating role in the relationships of facility attributes and destination choice intention. For instance, power distance and masculinity interact with the distribution facility characteristics of medical quality and reputation to influence customers' selection of the destination country. Individualism, powder distance, and masculinity play moderating roles when social environment affects destination choice intention. Especially, all the elements of cultural similarity moderate the relationships between travel cost and destination choice intention. This research also proves that depending on distribution channel, determinants of distribution facility are the critical predictors of intention to select the medical service outside of China. Conclusions - The study enables managers to develop the more effective strategies reflecting the interaction effects of cultural similarity and distribution channel on customers' decision-making process.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.111-123
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• 2013

Semantic similarity/relatedness measure between two concepts plays an important role in research on system integration and database integration. Moreover, current research on keyword recommendation or tag clustering strongly depends on this kind of semantic measure. For this reason, many researchers in various fields including computer science and computational linguistics have tried to improve methods to calculating semantic similarity/relatedness measure. This study of similarity between concepts is meant to discover how a computational process can model the action of a human to determine the relationship between two concepts. Most research on calculating semantic similarity usually uses ready-made reference knowledge such as semantic network and dictionary to measure concept similarity. The topological method is used to calculated relatedness or similarity between concepts based on various forms of a semantic network including a hierarchical taxonomy. This approach assumes that the semantic network reflects the human knowledge well. The nodes in a network represent concepts, and way to measure the conceptual similarity between two nodes are also regarded as ways to determine the conceptual similarity of two words(i.e,. two nodes in a network). Topological method can be categorized as node-based or edge-based, which are also called the information content approach and the conceptual distance approach, respectively. The node-based approach is used to calculate similarity between concepts based on how much information the two concepts share in terms of a semantic network or taxonomy while edge-based approach estimates the distance between the nodes that correspond to the concepts being compared. Both of two approaches have assumed that the semantic network is static. That means topological approach has not considered the change of semantic relation between concepts in semantic network. However, as information communication technologies make advantage in sharing knowledge among people, semantic relation between concepts in semantic network may change. To explain the change in semantic relation, we adopt the cognitive semantics. The basic assumption of cognitive semantics is that humans judge the semantic relation based on their cognition and understanding of concepts. This cognition and understanding is called 'World Knowledge.' World knowledge can be categorized as personal knowledge and cultural knowledge. Personal knowledge means the knowledge from personal experience. Everyone can have different Personal Knowledge of same concept. Cultural Knowledge is the knowledge shared by people who are living in the same culture or using the same language. People in the same culture have common understanding of specific concepts. Cultural knowledge can be the starting point of discussion about the change of semantic relation. If the culture shared by people changes for some reasons, the human's cultural knowledge may also change. Today's society and culture are changing at a past face, and the change of cultural knowledge is not negligible issues in the research on semantic relationship between concepts. In this paper, we propose the future directions of research on semantic similarity. In other words, we discuss that how the research on semantic similarity can reflect the change of semantic relation caused by the change of cultural knowledge. We suggest three direction of future research on semantic similarity. First, the research should include the versioning and update methodology for semantic network. Second, semantic network which is dynamically generated can be used for the calculation of semantic similarity between concepts. If the researcher can develop the methodology to extract the semantic network from given knowledge base in real time, this approach can solve many problems related to the change of semantic relation. Third, the statistical approach based on corpus analysis can be an alternative for the method using semantic network. We believe that these proposed research direction can be the milestone of the research on semantic relation.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.35-46
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• 2015

Prior research suggested that people generally show stronger intentions to help in-group members because people experience higher levels of empathy for those who are similar to themselves. The present research demonstrated that one's levels of cosmopolitanism would moderate the mediating role of empathy on the relationship between cultural similarities and helping intentions. In particular, it was examined how the mediator (empathy) affected the relation between cultural similarity and helping intention for participants with low to high levels of cosmopolitanism. Results indicated that participants with lower levels of cosmopolitanism showed stronger empathy as targets are more culturally similar to participants' own culture. Participants with higher levels of cosmopolitanism, however, reported the same levels of empathy regardless of targets' cultural similarity. The implications and limitations of the results were discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.32 no.10
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• pp.1629-1639
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to research the similarity and difference of color application in the culture of Korea and Japan. The subject of this research is the costume color of Changgeuk and Kabuki. This survey analyzes Munsell's 3 attributes(Hue, Value, Chroma), tone, and 3D color analysis by extracted color data. And representative color according to Obangsaek is proposed. The results of this study are as follows: 1. High chroma red in Kabuki costume is more used as symbolic color(passion and luxurious) in order to show character's personality than that in Changguek costume. 2. Low chroma YR color(no-dyeing color) in Changgeuk costume much more used because of Korean white robe preference and eco-friendly thinking. But high chroma yellow is restrictive color for symbolic color of emperor in Korea and Japan. 3. Blue is most frequently used in both costumes because blue is encouraging color by the theory of exponents of the five elements doctrine. 4. White in Korean Changguek costume is more used for white robe preference thinking, but black in Kabuki costume is much more used for symbol of power in Japan. The similarity of Korean and Japanese cultural color is to use much Obangsaek, less Ogansaek by the theory of exponents of the five elements doctrine, but the difference of Korean and Japanese cultural color is to use color differently according to preference thinking system.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.67-70
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• 2002

The RAPD data were used to assess genetic similarity among f grape cultivars. Of the 100 random primers tested on genomic DNA, 10 primers could be selected for Benetic analysis, and the selected primers generated a total of 115 distinct amplification fragments. A similarity matrix was constructed on the basis of the presence or absence of bands. The 7 grape cultivars analyzed with UPGMA were clustered into two groups of A and B. The similarity coefficient value of cultivars was high. The mean similarity index for all pairwise comparisons was 0.851, and ranged from 0.714 ('Rosaki' and 'Black Olympia') to 0.988 ('Kyoho' and 'Daebong'). After due consideration of differences in cultural and morphological characteristics of these two theoretically identical cultivars, it could be deduced that 'Daebong' is a bud sport of 'Kyoho' cultivar.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.109-125
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• 2000

As the result of the study of this thesis, the costume of Palhae and Shilla shows the many similarity. 1. The two centuries introduced the system of four-colored official uniform. This official uniforms are BokDoo(복두), DanLyung(團領) and Dae(帶). BanLyung of Palhae are GyulGoPo(결과포), leather belt and that of Shilla are GyulGoPo, YuLanPo(유란포), KwaDae(과대) Similarly BokDoo shows the long Gak(脚) in back. 2. Yu(유) and Ko(袴), the native costumes have worn even after the period of the three countries. 3. The two countries wore DanLyung. A man In Palhae wore GyulGoPo(결과포), leather belt and a man in Shilla wore GyulGoPo, YuLanPo(유란포), KwaDae(과대). 4. A woman in Palhae wore SangEui(上衣), Sang(裳), JikLyung(直領) one by one. And over Sang wrapped PoBaekDae(布帛帶) and covered the shoulder by UnGyun(雲肩). A woman in Shilla wore SangEui, Sang, PoBaekDea one by one and covered the shoulder by Pyo(표). 5. The two countries put on Rib(笠) and similary shoes. Rib insists of Moche(帽體), ChaYang(次養) and can classify the estate by decoration. A man wore Wha(靴), Li(履) and a woman wore KoDooLi(高頭履). This similarity is the result by the cultural interchange between Palhae and Shilla. There are the five reasons. Interchange by the envoy's visit. Interchange through Shillado(新羅道), Interchange in T'ang Dynasty, Interchange in Japan, Interchange of Buddhist culture. By the cultural interchange between Palhae(渤海) and Shilla(新羅), the shape of costume is similary. The meaning of this similarity of costume equals to the similarity of culture. We will approval Palhae is the co-subject of Korean history with Shilla and will name as "The period of NamBukKuk(南北國時代)" from the late 7th century to the early 10th century in the academy of the history of Korean Costume.

• Language and Information
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.131-157
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• 2010

This article reports an attempt to perform a similarity analysis on a collection of 25 culinary manuscripts in Chosun periods using a set of quantitative text analysis methods. Historical culinary texts are valuable resources for linguistic, historic, and cultural studies. We consider the similarity of two texts as the distributional similarities of the functional components of the texts. In the case of culinary texts, text elements such as food names, cooking methods, and ingredients are regarded as functional components. We derive the similarity information from the distributional characteristics of the two key functional components, cooking methods and ingredients. The results are also quantified and visualized to achieve a better understanding of the properties of the individual texts and the collection of the texts as a whole.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.55-63
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• 2004

The dress culture of Korea and Turkey should be necessary to study in view of a similar culture of Korea and Turkey due to similarity of oriental culture. Thus, as two nation's dress is investigated, cultural characteristics and dress form of two nations are analyzed with cultural background in detail. Also, comprehension is determinated for the dress color and texture as well as dress culture. In this paper, It is investigated theoretically for the function, type, and class of dress. Also, The form of Korean Po are compared to background of Turkish dress and Sulltans' dress form. To unify a cultural propagation and dress form, technical, inductive contents analytical method as well as literature review are used in positivism. Subject is limited to the Korean Po and Sultans' dress of Turkey. As a results, as the nation's dress reflect to culture and society of the nation, Korean dress have some similarity and differences comparing Turkish dress as followings. In dress form of two nation, rectangular Gil's shape was very similar. Mu's shape was similar too. However, Sultans' dress had outside shape of caftan type and Po had full or partial wrinkles by transforming Mu. Also, Sultans' dress did not have Sup. Korean Po have side slits or back side slits and Jun-Sam but Sultans' dress had only some side slits.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.71-78
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to analyze the space composition and utilization characteristics of cultural facilities in city which was surrounded by rural area. For this study, it was surveyed 18 cultural facilities including PyungTaek-city in our country. The below was analyzed : The first, the present conditions of space program and functions of central cultural facilities in small city. The second, a frequency and peculiarity in utilization of it. And the third is about system of management. A data of design which can be directly applied by above process is like the below. The function of cultural facilities in city can be fixed from space composition with regional specifics and similarity. The space composition of cultural facilities is diversified by art performance and assembly space, by exhibitional space and reading space, and by the fact whether there is public or not. We know hall of cultural facilities has multi-purpose. Management system needs some changes throughout participation of citizen or experts for more active usage.