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Consumer Awareness and Evaluation of Retailers' Social Responsibility: An Exploratory Approach into Ethical Purchase Behavior from a U.S Perspective (소비자인지도화령수상사회책임(消费者认知度和零售商社会责任): 종미국시각출발적도덕구매행위적탐색성연구(从美国视角出发的道德购买行为的探索性研究))

  • Lee, Min-Young;Jackson, Vanessa P.
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.20 no.1
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    • pp.49-58
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    • 2010
  • Corporate social responsibility has become a very important issue for researchers (Greenfield, 2004; Maignan & Ralston, 2002; McWilliams et al., 2006; Pearce & Doh 2005), and many consider it necessary for businesses to define their role in society and apply social and ethical standards to their businesses (Lichtenstein et al., 2004). As a result, a significant number of retailers have adopted CSR as a strategic tool to promote their businesses. To this end, this study sought to discover U.S. consumers' attitudes and behavior in ethical purchasing and consumption based on their subjective perception and evaluation of a retailer. The objectives of this study include: 1) determine the participants awareness of retailers corporate social responsibility; 2) assess how participants evaluate retailers corporate social responsibility; 3) examine whether participants evaluation process of retailers CSR influence their attitude toward the retailer; and 4) assess if participants attitude toward the retailers CSR influence their purchase behavior. This study does not focus on actual retailers' CSR performance because a consumer's decision making process is based on an individual assessment not an actual fact. This study examines US college students' awareness and evaluations of retailers' corporate social responsibility (CSR). Fifty six college students at a major Southeastern university participated in the study. The age of the participants ranged from 18 to 26 years old. Content analysis was conducted with open coding and focused coding. Over 100 single-spaced pages of written responses were collected and analyzed. Two steps of coding (i.e., open coding and focused coding) were conducted (Esterberg, 2002). Coding results and analytic memos were used to understand participants' awareness of CSR and their ethical purchasing behavior supported through the selection and inclusion of direct quotes that were extracted from the written responses. Names used here are pseudonyms to protect confidentiality of participants. Participants were asked to write about retailers, their aware-ness of CSR issues, and to evaluate a retailer's CSR performance. A majority (n = 28) of respondents indicated their awareness of CSR but have not felt the need to act on this issue. Few (n=8) indicated that they are aware of this issue but not greatly concerned. Findings suggest that when college students evaluate retailers' CSR performance, they use three dimensions of CSR: employee support, community support, and environmental support. Employee treatment and support were found as an important criterion in evaluation of retailers' CSR. Respondents indicated that their good experience with a retailer as an employee made them have a positive perception and attitude toward the retailer. Regarding employee support four themes emerged: employee rewards and incentives based on performance, working environment, employee education and training program, and employee and family discounts. Well organized rewards and incentives were mentioned as an important attribute. The factors related to the working environment included: how well retailers follow the rules related to working hours, lunch time and breaks was also one of the most mentioned attributes. Regarding community support, three themes emerged: contributing a percentage of sales to the local community, financial contribution to charity organizations, and events for community support. Regarding environments, two themes emerged: recycling and selling organic or green products. It was mentioned in the responses that retailers are trying to do what they can to be environmentally friendly. One respondent mentioned that the company is creating stores that have an environmentally friendly design. Information about what the company does to help the environment can easily be found on the company’s website as well. Respondents have also noticed that the stores are starting to offer products that are organic and environmentally friendly. A retailer was also mentioned by a respondent in this category in reference to how the company uses eco-friendly cups and how they are helping to rebuild homes in New Orleans. The respondents noticed that a retailer offers reusable bags for their consumers to purchase. One respondent stated that a retailer uses its products to help the environment, through offering organic cotton. After thorough analysis of responses, we found that a participant's evaluation of a retailers' CSR influenced their attitudes towards retailers. However, there was a significant gap between attitudes and purchasing behavior. Although the participants had positive attitudes toward retailers CSR, the lack of funds and time influenced their purchase behavior. Overall, half (n=28) of the respondents mentioned that CSR performance affects their purchasing decisions making when shopping. Findings from this study provide support for retailers to consider their corporate social responsibility when developing their image with the consumer. This study implied that consumers evaluate retailers based on employee, community and environmental support. The evaluation, attitude and purchase behavior of consumers seem to be intertwined. That is, evaluation is based on the knowledge the consumer has of the retailers CSR. That knowledge may influence their attitude toward the retailer and thus influence their purchase behavior. Participants also indicated that having CSR makes them think highly of the retailer, but it does not influence their purchase behavior. Price and convenience seem to surpass the importance of CSR among the participants. Implications, recommendations for future research, and limitations of the study are also discussed.

Surrogate Internet Shopping Malls: The Effects of Consumers' Perceived Risk and Product Evaluations on Country-of-Buying-Origin Image (망상대구점(网上代购店): 소비자감지풍험화산품평개대원산국형상적영향(消费者感知风险和产品评价对原产国形象的影响))

  • Lee, Hyun-Joung;Shin, So-Hyoun;Kim, Sang-Uk
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.20 no.2
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    • pp.208-218
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    • 2010
  • Internet has grown fast and become one of the most important retail channels now. Various types of Internet retailers, hereafter etailers, have been introduced so far and as one type of Internet shopping mall, 'surrogate Internet shopping mall' has been prosperous and attracting consumers in the domestic market. Surrogate Internet shopping mall is a unique type of etailer that globally purchases well-known brand goods that are not imported in the market, completes delivery in the favor of individual buyers, and collects fees for these specific services. The consumers, who are usually interested in purchasing high-end and unique but not eligible brands, have difficulties to purchase these items overseas directly from the retailers or brands in other countries due to worries of payment failure and no address available for their usually domestic only delivery. In Korea, both numbers of surrogate Internet shopping malls and the magnitude of sales have been growing rapidly up to more than 430 active malls and 500 billion Korean won in 2008 since the population of consumers who want this agent shopping service is also expending. This etail business concept is originated from 'surrogate-mediated purchase' and this type of shopping agent has existed in many different forms and also in wide ranges of context level for quite a long time. As marketers face their individual buyers' representatives instead of a direct contact with them in many occasions, the impact of surrogate shoppers on consumer's decision making has been enormously important and many scholars have explored various range of agent's impact on consumer's purchase decisions in marketing and psychology field. However, not much rigorous research in the Internet commerce has been conveyed yet. Moreover, since as one of the shopping agent surrogate Internet shopping malls specifically connect overseas brands or retailers to domestic consumers, one specific character of the mall's, image of surrogate buying country, where surrogate purchases are conducted in, may play an important role to form consumers' attitude and purchase intention toward products. Furthermore it also possibly affects various dimensions of perceived risk in consumer's information processing. However, though tremendous researches have been carried exploring the effects of diverse dimensions of country of origin, related studies in Internet context has been rarely executed. There have been some studies that prove the positive impact of country of origin on consumer's evaluations as one of information clues in product manufacture descriptions, yet studies detecting the relationship between country image of surrogate buying origin and product evaluations rarely undertaken regarding this specific mall type. Thus, the authors have found it well-worth investigating in this specific retail channel and explored systematic relationships among focal constructs and elaborated their different paths. The authors have proven that country image of surrogate buying origin in the mall, where surrogate malls purchase products in and brings them from for buyers, not only has a positive effect on consumers' product evaluations including attitude and purchase intention but also has a negative effect on all three dimensions of perceived risk: product-related risk, shipping-related risk, and post-purchase risk. Specifically among all the perceived risk, product-related risk which is arisen from high uncertainty of product performance is most affected (${\beta}$= -.30) by negative country image of surrogate buying origin, and also shipping-related risk (${\beta}$= -.18) and post-purchase risk (${\beta}$= -.15) get influenced in order. Its direct effects on product attitude (${\beta}$= .10) and purchase intention (${\beta}$= .14) are also secured. Each of perceived risk dimension is proven to have a negative effect on purchase intention through product attitude as a mediator (${\beta}$= -.57: product-related risk ${\rightarrow}$ product attitude; ${\beta}$= -.24: shipping-related risk ${\rightarrow}$ product attitude; ${\beta}$= -.44: post-purchase risk ${\rightarrow}$ product attitude) as well. From the additional analysis, the paths of consumers' information processing are shown to be different based on their levels of product knowledge. While novice consumers with low level of knowledge consider only perceived risk important, expert consumers with high level of knowledge take both the country image, where surrogate services are conducted in, and perceived risk seriously to build their attitudes and formulate decisions toward products more delicately and systematically, which is in line with previous studies. This study suggests several pieces of academic and practical advice. Precisely, country image of surrogate buying origin does affect on consumer's risk perceptions and behavioral consequences. Therefore a careful selection of surrogate buying origin is recommended. Furthermore, reducing consumers' risk level is required to blossom this new type of retail business whether its consumer are novices or experts. Additionally, since consumer take different paths of elaborating information based on their knowledge levels, sophisticated marketing approaches to each group of consumers are required. For novice buyers strong devices for risk mitigation are needed to induce them to form better attitudes and for experts selections of better and advanced countries as surrogate buying origins are advised while endorsement strategy for the site might work as a reliable information clue to all consumers to mitigate the barriers to purchase goods online. The authors have also explained that the study suffers from some limitations, including generalizability. In future studies, tests of and comparisons among different types of etailers with relevant constructs are recommended to broaden the findings.

Study on the Tractive Characteristics of the Seed Furrow Opener for No-till Planter (무경운(無耕耘) 파종기용(播種機用) 구체기(溝切器)의 견인특성(牽引特性)에 관(關)한 연구(硏究))

  • La, Woo-Jung
    • Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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    • v.5 no.2
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    • pp.149-157
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    • 1978
  • This study was carried out to obtain basic data for the type selection of furrow openers for the no-tillage soybean planter trailed by the two-wheel tractor from the standpoint of minimum draft and good performance of furrowing. For this study, two models of furrow opener, hoe and disc type, were tested on the artificial soil stuffed in the moving soil bin. The results obtained were as follows. In the case of disc furrow opener, the drafts were measured according to various diameters of discs under the condition of disc angle $8^{\circ}$ and $16^{\circ}$, working depth 3cm and 6cm, working speed 2.75cm/sec. Minimum draft appeared when the diameter of disc was about 28cm and the drafts increased as the diameter of discs became larger or smaller than this diameter. Specific draft showed almost same tendencies as above but showed the minimum when the diameter was about 30cm. For the purpose of controlling the seeding depth, the relationships between draft and working depths, 3cm and 6cm, were tested. The variations of draft concerning the various working depths showed linear changes and were affected in higher degree by depths than other factors. There were general tendencies at both working depths, 3cm and 6cm, that total draft showed the minimum with the disc diameter of about 28cm and specific draft showed it with the disc diameter of about 30cm regardless of disc angle and working speed. For the purpose of controlling the working width and speed, the relationships among drafts, disc angle and working speed were investigated and there were general tendencies that the draft increased as the angle and speed were increased and the draft was affected more by speed than by angle. To compare the hoe-type with disc-type opener, the specific drafts of hoe openers were compared with those of disc opener of $16^{\circ}$ angle and 30cm diameter. The specific draft of disc-type opener with the diameter of 30cm was $0.35{\sim}0.5kg/cm^2$, while $0.71{\sim}1.02kg/cm^2$ in the case of hoe type with the lift angle of $20^{\circ}$ which is 2 times as much as that of disc type in average value. And the furrows opened by disc openers were cleaner than those opened by hoe openers.

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An Evaluation of Various Synthetic Generations and Polycross Progenies in Winter Active Tall Fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb) - I. Summer Forage Phase (동기생육형(冬期生育型) 톨페스큐의 합성품종세대(合成品種世代)와 다계교배(多系交配) 후대검정(後代檢定)에 관(關)한 연구(硏究))

  • Kim, Dal Ung
    • Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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    • v.2 no.2
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    • pp.341-356
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    • 1975
  • This study was carried out to evaluate three winter active synthetic varieties in a succeeding generations of improvement and polycross progenies of seven genotypes selected at the cool and wet climate of the Western Oregon, in their performance of the polycross progeny test comparing with a control variety, high yielding 'Fawn', at Daejon, Korea. Various plant and leaf characteristics, especially related to photosynthesis, and forage production during the first summer after the establishment were examined. The important conclusions of this study are summarized as follows: 1. The differences of leaf fresh weight among groups and control exhibit genetic differences. The a verage of leaf fresh weight of polycross progeny group was the heaviest and those of winter active synthetic varieties in the succeeding generations of improvement was heavier than variety 'fawn'. Within polycross progeny group the genotypes exhibit genetic differences for leaf dry weight. 2. The leaf area exhibited genetic differences among groups and control. The average of winter active synthetic varieties in a succeeding generation was larger than variety 'Fawn'. Those oi the polycross progeny group was the largest among groups and control. 3. Differences of specific leaf weight(S. L. W.) among and within varieties, genotypes and control were not significant. Further investigation in this respect is necessary through the study of the diurnal change in S. L. W. 4. Differences of leaf width among groups and control exhibited genetic differences. The average leaf width of winter active varieties was larger than those of 'Fawn' variety. And those of polycross progenies of genotypes was the largest. 5. Plant height of 'fawn' variety in the first measurement was higher than those of winter active tall fescue varieties and genotypes. The deviation in plant height among polyeross progenies of seven genotypes gave a great deviation. The regrowth ability of plant height was not different suggesting that this characteristics was about the same among and within groups and control. 6. Plant width, spreading ability, improved through the succeeding generations of the improvement of the winter active synthetic varieties for the first measurement. Differences of plant width at the second measurement among genotypes within polycross progeny group were big enough to show the genetic difference. 7. Tiller number of the winter active synthetic varieties and the average of genotypes in polycross progeny was more than those of the control 'Fawn' in the first measurement. On the second measurement, the differences of tiller number appeared among three synthetic varieties indicating improvement, and there were genetic differences among seven genotypes in polycross progeny test. 8. Forage yield on the first cutting showed a considerble improvement of forage yield in the more advanced generation of synthetic varieties and genetic differences among seven genotypes in the polycross progeny test. The average of polycross progeny group was higher than those of the control or three winter active varieties. It was suggested that we could make a further improvement for the forage yield. 9. The regrowth ability of these winter active varieties and genotypes was about the same capacity at least on the measurement of the regrowth in forage yield and plant height during summer. 10. On the whole, the averages of the polycross progeny group was in the highest value and those of synthetic varieties were higher than the control variety, 'Fawn', for the most characteristics except S. L. W. and the plant height on the first measurement even though the differences were not always significant. And there were genetic differences among seven gentypes in their performance of the polycross progeny. 11. Although it was not always sgnificant, the most advanced winter active variety, '1002', had in the highest value for all plant characteristics and forage yield measurements than the other two varieties, '1001'. 12. The results of the association study among various characteristics were quite agreeable and would be useful in the selection of desirable genotypes for the development of a better variety.

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Customer Behavior Prediction of Binary Classification Model Using Unstructured Information and Convolution Neural Network: The Case of Online Storefront (비정형 정보와 CNN 기법을 활용한 이진 분류 모델의 고객 행태 예측: 전자상거래 사례를 중심으로)

  • Kim, Seungsoo;Kim, Jongwoo
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.24 no.2
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    • pp.221-241
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    • 2018
  • Deep learning is getting attention recently. The deep learning technique which had been applied in competitions of the International Conference on Image Recognition Technology(ILSVR) and AlphaGo is Convolution Neural Network(CNN). CNN is characterized in that the input image is divided into small sections to recognize the partial features and combine them to recognize as a whole. Deep learning technologies are expected to bring a lot of changes in our lives, but until now, its applications have been limited to image recognition and natural language processing. The use of deep learning techniques for business problems is still an early research stage. If their performance is proved, they can be applied to traditional business problems such as future marketing response prediction, fraud transaction detection, bankruptcy prediction, and so on. So, it is a very meaningful experiment to diagnose the possibility of solving business problems using deep learning technologies based on the case of online shopping companies which have big data, are relatively easy to identify customer behavior and has high utilization values. Especially, in online shopping companies, the competition environment is rapidly changing and becoming more intense. Therefore, analysis of customer behavior for maximizing profit is becoming more and more important for online shopping companies. In this study, we propose 'CNN model of Heterogeneous Information Integration' using CNN as a way to improve the predictive power of customer behavior in online shopping enterprises. In order to propose a model that optimizes the performance, which is a model that learns from the convolution neural network of the multi-layer perceptron structure by combining structured and unstructured information, this model uses 'heterogeneous information integration', 'unstructured information vector conversion', 'multi-layer perceptron design', and evaluate the performance of each architecture, and confirm the proposed model based on the results. In addition, the target variables for predicting customer behavior are defined as six binary classification problems: re-purchaser, churn, frequent shopper, frequent refund shopper, high amount shopper, high discount shopper. In order to verify the usefulness of the proposed model, we conducted experiments using actual data of domestic specific online shopping company. This experiment uses actual transactions, customers, and VOC data of specific online shopping company in Korea. Data extraction criteria are defined for 47,947 customers who registered at least one VOC in January 2011 (1 month). The customer profiles of these customers, as well as a total of 19 months of trading data from September 2010 to March 2012, and VOCs posted for a month are used. The experiment of this study is divided into two stages. In the first step, we evaluate three architectures that affect the performance of the proposed model and select optimal parameters. We evaluate the performance with the proposed model. Experimental results show that the proposed model, which combines both structured and unstructured information, is superior compared to NBC(Naïve Bayes classification), SVM(Support vector machine), and ANN(Artificial neural network). Therefore, it is significant that the use of unstructured information contributes to predict customer behavior, and that CNN can be applied to solve business problems as well as image recognition and natural language processing problems. It can be confirmed through experiments that CNN is more effective in understanding and interpreting the meaning of context in text VOC data. And it is significant that the empirical research based on the actual data of the e-commerce company can extract very meaningful information from the VOC data written in the text format directly by the customer in the prediction of the customer behavior. Finally, through various experiments, it is possible to say that the proposed model provides useful information for the future research related to the parameter selection and its performance.

The Knowledge, Attitude, and Utilization Experience of Community Health Practitioners on Complementary Therapies (보완요법에 대한 보건진료원의 지식, 태도와 활용 경험)

  • Hwang, Sung-Ho;Park, Jae-Yong;Han, Chang-Hyun
    • Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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    • v.27 no.2
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    • pp.87-105
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    • 2002
  • In order to find out the knowledge, attitude, and experience of community health practitioners(CHP) on complementary therapy, 393 community health practitioners who provide primary health care service in Busan, Kyeongnam, and Daegu, Gyeongbuk regions were interviewed or surveyed by mail from February 1st to March 31st, 2002. In terms of interest of CHPs toward 11 different hinds of complementary therapy, the rate of interest for soojichim was the highest with 75.3%. Aroma therapy had the interest of 71.0% of the CHPs, oriental medicine had 67.4%, and massage had 67.4%. The interest for shiatsu was 64.6%, while homeopath had the lowest rate of interest of 18.1%. In terms of reliance on the treatment results, oriental medicine scored the highest with 92.6%, and soojichim, massage, and shiatsu followed with 85.5%, 83.7%, and 81.7% respectively. Homeopath had the lowest reliance of 18.1%. The 65.1% of the CHPs had the experience of recommending oriental medicine to patients. 50.4% indicated that they had recommended soojichim, and 44.8% had recommended massage before. Shiatsu and aromatherapy followed with 34.4% and Homeopath had the lowest rate of 2.80%. When CHPs were asked if they had received any training in complementary therapy, 33.1% indicated that they had studied soojichim and 13.2%stated that they had learned oriental medicine. Aromatherapy, massage, and shiatsu followed with 11.2%, 8.4%, and 5.6% respectively On the other hand, none of the CHPs had received training in homeopath. In terms of using complementary therapy during the past 5 years, 23.9% had been treated with oriental medicine, and 18.896 had received soojichim. 5.9% had received aromatherapy, 5.3% had used massage, and 5.1% had experience with shiatsu. None of the practitioners had used homeopath during the past 5 years. Significantly many number of practitioners indicated that they had excellent treatment results with all hinds of complementary therapy, and there were rare cares of side effects. When they were asked if they wanted complementary therapy to become part of the curriculum during re-training or training for public service personnels, 78100 wanted soojichim, 69.2% wanted oriental medicine, and 67.9% wanted aroma therapy. 63.9% wanted shiatsu to be included, and 63.1% wanted massage. When CHPs were asked if they wanted to use complementary therapy during primary health care, 63.6% wanted to use soojichim, 52.9% wanted massage, and 51.9% wanted to use aroma therapy. Oriental medicine also showed a high rate of 50.1%. On the other hand, only a small percentage wanted to use chiropractic or homeopath with 17.0% and 12,2% respectively. Among the CHPs, there were some who had administered complementary therapy during the past 5 years. 84% had administered soojichim, 4.6% had administered oriental medicine, and 2.5% had administered massage 2.5% of the CHPs answered that they had administered aromatherapy. However, none of them had administered apitherapy or homeopath. Most of patients showed positive responses, and the rate of side effect was very low. As shown in the above results, although CHPs have a high rate of interest, reliance, and experience in recommending complementary therapy, only a low percentage of them had received any training in complementary therapy. In addition, since there were little side effects when they received or administered complementary therapy, they hoped complementary therapy, which can be beneficial to health, to be introduced to the curriculum. Therefore, in order to provide community members with complementary therapy and the correct information regarding the selection of complementary therapy that could be beneficial to health, a policy of continuous interest and support is needed so that CHPs can he provided with a systemic and rational curriculum of complementary therapy.

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A Folksonomy Ranking Framework: A Semantic Graph-based Approach (폭소노미 사이트를 위한 랭킹 프레임워크 설계: 시맨틱 그래프기반 접근)

  • Park, Hyun-Jung;Rho, Sang-Kyu
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.21 no.2
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    • pp.89-116
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    • 2011
  • In collaborative tagging systems such as Delicious.com and Flickr.com, users assign keywords or tags to their uploaded resources, such as bookmarks and pictures, for their future use or sharing purposes. The collection of resources and tags generated by a user is called a personomy, and the collection of all personomies constitutes the folksonomy. The most significant need of the folksonomy users Is to efficiently find useful resources or experts on specific topics. An excellent ranking algorithm would assign higher ranking to more useful resources or experts. What resources are considered useful In a folksonomic system? Does a standard superior to frequency or freshness exist? The resource recommended by more users with mere expertise should be worthy of attention. This ranking paradigm can be implemented through a graph-based ranking algorithm. Two well-known representatives of such a paradigm are Page Rank by Google and HITS(Hypertext Induced Topic Selection) by Kleinberg. Both Page Rank and HITS assign a higher evaluation score to pages linked to more higher-scored pages. HITS differs from PageRank in that it utilizes two kinds of scores: authority and hub scores. The ranking objects of these pages are limited to Web pages, whereas the ranking objects of a folksonomic system are somewhat heterogeneous(i.e., users, resources, and tags). Therefore, uniform application of the voting notion of PageRank and HITS based on the links to a folksonomy would be unreasonable, In a folksonomic system, each link corresponding to a property can have an opposite direction, depending on whether the property is an active or a passive voice. The current research stems from the Idea that a graph-based ranking algorithm could be applied to the folksonomic system using the concept of mutual Interactions between entitles, rather than the voting notion of PageRank or HITS. The concept of mutual interactions, proposed for ranking the Semantic Web resources, enables the calculation of importance scores of various resources unaffected by link directions. The weights of a property representing the mutual interaction between classes are assigned depending on the relative significance of the property to the resource importance of each class. This class-oriented approach is based on the fact that, in the Semantic Web, there are many heterogeneous classes; thus, applying a different appraisal standard for each class is more reasonable. This is similar to the evaluation method of humans, where different items are assigned specific weights, which are then summed up to determine the weighted average. We can check for missing properties more easily with this approach than with other predicate-oriented approaches. A user of a tagging system usually assigns more than one tags to the same resource, and there can be more than one tags with the same subjectivity and objectivity. In the case that many users assign similar tags to the same resource, grading the users differently depending on the assignment order becomes necessary. This idea comes from the studies in psychology wherein expertise involves the ability to select the most relevant information for achieving a goal. An expert should be someone who not only has a large collection of documents annotated with a particular tag, but also tends to add documents of high quality to his/her collections. Such documents are identified by the number, as well as the expertise, of users who have the same documents in their collections. In other words, there is a relationship of mutual reinforcement between the expertise of a user and the quality of a document. In addition, there is a need to rank entities related more closely to a certain entity. Considering the property of social media that ensures the popularity of a topic is temporary, recent data should have more weight than old data. We propose a comprehensive folksonomy ranking framework in which all these considerations are dealt with and that can be easily customized to each folksonomy site for ranking purposes. To examine the validity of our ranking algorithm and show the mechanism of adjusting property, time, and expertise weights, we first use a dataset designed for analyzing the effect of each ranking factor independently. We then show the ranking results of a real folksonomy site, with the ranking factors combined. Because the ground truth of a given dataset is not known when it comes to ranking, we inject simulated data whose ranking results can be predicted into the real dataset and compare the ranking results of our algorithm with that of a previous HITS-based algorithm. Our semantic ranking algorithm based on the concept of mutual interaction seems to be preferable to the HITS-based algorithm as a flexible folksonomy ranking framework. Some concrete points of difference are as follows. First, with the time concept applied to the property weights, our algorithm shows superior performance in lowering the scores of older data and raising the scores of newer data. Second, applying the time concept to the expertise weights, as well as to the property weights, our algorithm controls the conflicting influence of expertise weights and enhances overall consistency of time-valued ranking. The expertise weights of the previous study can act as an obstacle to the time-valued ranking because the number of followers increases as time goes on. Third, many new properties and classes can be included in our framework. The previous HITS-based algorithm, based on the voting notion, loses ground in the situation where the domain consists of more than two classes, or where other important properties, such as "sent through twitter" or "registered as a friend," are added to the domain. Forth, there is a big difference in the calculation time and memory use between the two kinds of algorithms. While the matrix multiplication of two matrices, has to be executed twice for the previous HITS-based algorithm, this is unnecessary with our algorithm. In our ranking framework, various folksonomy ranking policies can be expressed with the ranking factors combined and our approach can work, even if the folksonomy site is not implemented with Semantic Web languages. Above all, the time weight proposed in this paper will be applicable to various domains, including social media, where time value is considered important.

Development of Dual Reporter System of Mutant Dopamine 2 Receptor ($D_2R$) and Sodium Iodide Symporter (NIS) Transgenes (변이 도파민 2 수용체와 나트륨 옥소 공동 수송체 이입유전자의 이중 리포터시스템 개발)

  • Hwang, Do-Won;Lee, Dong-Soo;Kang, Joo-Hyun;Chang, Young-Soo;Kim, Yun-Hui;Jeong, Jae-Min;Chung, June-Key;Lee, Myung-Chul
    • The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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    • v.38 no.4
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    • pp.294-299
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    • 2004
  • Purpose: Both human NIS and mutant $D_2R$ transgenes are proposed as reporting system in transplanted cell tracking. Using hepatoma cell lines, we constructed a dual reporter system containing human sodium-iodide symporter (hNIS) and dopamine 2 receptor ($D_2R$) and compared its characteristics. Materials and Methods: The recombinant plasmid ($pIRES-hNIS/D_2R$) was constructed with IRES (internal ribosome entry site) under control of the CMV promoter $pIRES-hNIS/D_2R$ was transfected to human hepatoma SK-Hep1 cell line with lipofectamine. HEP-ND ($SK-Hep1-hNIS/D_2R$) cells stably expressing hNIS and $D_2R$ was established by selection with G418 for two weeks. RT-PCR was performed to investigate the expression of both hNIS and $D_2R$ genes. The expressions of hNIS and $D_2R$ were measured by $^{125}I$ uptake assays and receptor binding assays. Specific binding of $D_2R$ to $[^3H]spiperone$ was verified by Scatchard plot with (+) butaclamol as a specific inhibitor. $K_d\;and\;B_{max}$ values were estimated. The correlation between hNIS and $D_2R$ expression was compared by using each clone. Results: Similar quantities of hNIS and $D_2R$ genes were expressed on HEP-ND as RT-PCR assays. HEP-ND cells showed 30 to 40 fold higher radioiodine uptakes than those of parental SK-Hep1 cells. $^{125}I$ uptake in HEP-ND cells was completely inhibited by $KClO_4$, a NIS inhibitor Specific binding to HEP-ND cells was saturable and the $K_d\;and\;B_{max}$ values for HEP-ND cells were 2.92 nM, 745.25 fmol/mg protein and 2.91nM, 1323 fmole/mg protein in two clones, respectively. The radioiodine uptake by hNIS activity and $D_2R$ binding was highly correlated. Conclusion: We developed a dual positron and gamma imaging reporter system of hNIS and $D_2R$ in a stably transfected cell line. We expect that $D_2R$ and hNIS genes can complement mutually as a nuclear reporting system or that $D_2R$ can be used as reporter gene when hNIS gene were used as a treatment gene.

Effects of Applying Livestock Manure on Productivity and Organic Stock Carrying Capacity of Summer Forage Crops (가축분뇨시용이 하계사료작물의 생산성 및 유기가축 사육능력에 미치는 영향)

  • Jo, Ik-Hwan;HwangBo, Soon;Lee, Ju-Sam
    • Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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    • v.16 no.4
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    • pp.421-434
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    • 2008
  • This study was carried out to estimate the selection of appropriate forage crops, proper application levels of livestock manure, and carrying capacity per unit area for organic livestock, as influenced by livestock manure application levels compared with chemical fertilizer to corn and sorghum $\times$ sorghum hybrid, in order to produce organic forages by utilizing livestock manure. For both corns and sorghum $\times$ sorghum hybrids, no fertilizer plots had significantly (p<0.05) lower annual dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP) and total digestible nutrients (TDN) yields than those of other plots, whereas the N+P+K plots ranked the highest yields, followed by 150% cattle manure plots and 100% cattle manure plots. Dry matter, CP and TDN yields of cattle manure plots were significantly (p<0.05) higher than those of no fertilizer and P+K plots. In applying cattle manure, the yields of cattle slurry plots tended to be a little higher than those of composted cattle manure plots. Assuming that corns and sorghum $\times$ sorghum hybrids produced from this trial were fed at 70% level to 450kg of Hanwoo heifer with 400g of average daily gain, livestock carrying capacity (head/year/ha) ranked the highest in N+P+K plots of the case of corns (mean 6.7 heads), followed by 150% cattle slurry plots (mean 5.6 heads), 150% composted cattle manure plots (mean 4.8 heads), 100% cattle slurry plots (mean 4.4 heads), 100% composted cattle manure plots (mean 4.3 heads), P+K plots (mean 4.1 heads), and no fertilizer plots (mean 3.1 heads). Meanwhile, in case of sorghum $\times$ sorghum hybrids, N+P+K plots (mean 5.7 heads) ranked the highest carrying capacity, followed by $100{\sim}150%$ cattle slurry plots (mean $4.8{\sim}5.2$ heads), 150% composted cattle manure plots (mean 4.7 heads), 100 % composted cattle manure plots (mean 4.3 heads), P+K plots (mean 3.8 heads), and no fertilizer plots (mean 3.4 heads). The results indicated that replacing chemical fertilizer by livestock manure application to cultivation soil for forage crops could enhance not only DM and TDN yields, but also organic stock carrying capacity. In conclusion, it was conceived that organic forage production by reutilizing livestock manure might contribute to reduced environmental pollution and the production of environment friendly agricultural products through resources recycling.

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Agronomic Characteristics and Productivity of Winter Forage Crop in Sihwa Reclaimed Field (시화 간척지에서 월동 사료작물의 초종 및 품종에 따른 생육특성 및 생산성)

  • Kim, Jong Geun;Wei, Sheng Nan;Li, Yan Fen;Kim, Hak Jin;Kim, Meing Joong;Cheong, Eun Chan
    • Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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    • v.40 no.1
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    • pp.19-28
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    • 2020
  • This study was conducted to compare the agronomic characteristics and productivity according to the species and varieties of winter forage crops in reclaimed land. Winter forage crops used in this study were developed in National Institute of Crop Science, RDA. Oats ('Samhan', 'Jopung', 'Taehan', 'Dakyung' and 'Hi-early'), forage barley ('Yeongyang', 'Yuyeon', 'Yujin', 'Dacheng' and 'Yeonho'), rye ('Gogu', 'Jogreen' and 'Daegokgreen') and triticale ('Shinyoung', 'Saeyoung', 'Choyoung', 'Sinseong', 'Minpung' and 'Gwangyoung') were planted in the reclaimed land of Sihwa district in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi-do in the autumn of 2018 and cultivated using each standard cultivation method, and harvested in May 2019(oat and rye: 8 May, barley and triticale: 20 May.) The emergency rate was the lowest in rye (84.4%), and forage barley, oat and triticale were in similar levels (92.8 to 98.8%). Triticale was the lowest (416 tiller/㎡) and oat was the highest (603 tiller/㎡) in tiller number. Rye was the earliest in the heading date (April 21), triticale was April 26, and oat and forage barley were in early May (May 2 and May 5). The plant height was the highest in rye (95.6 cm), and triticale and forage barley was similar (76.3 and 68.3cm) and oat was the lowest (54.2 cm). Dry matter(DM) content of rye was the highest in the average of 46.04% and the others were similar at 35.09~37.54%. Productivity was different among species and varieties, with the highest dry matter yield of forage barley (4,344 kg/ha), oat was similar to barley, and rye and triticale were lowest. 'Dakyoung' and 'Hi-early' were higher in DM yield (4,283 and 5,490 kg/ha), and forage barley were higher in 'Yeonho', 'Yujin' and 'Dacheng' varieties (4,888, 5,433 and 5,582 kg/ha). Crude protein content of oat (6.58%) tended to be the highest, and TDN(total digectible nutrient) content (63.61%) was higher than other varieties. In the RFV(relative feed value), oats averaged 119, while the other three species averaged 92~105. The weight of 1,000 grain was the highest in triticale (43.03 g) and the lowest in rye (31.61 g). In the evaluation of germination rate according to the salt concentration (salinity), the germination rate was maintained at about 80% from 0.2 to 0.4% salinity. The correlation coefficient between germination and salt concentration was high in oat and barley (-0.91 and -0.92) and lowest in rye (-0.66). In conclusion, forage barley and oats showed good productivity in reclaimed land. Adaptability is also different among varieties of forage crops. When growing forage crops in reclaimed land, the selection of highly adaptable species and varieties was recommended.