• Title/Summary/Keyword: Larger the better Characteristic

Search Result 72, Processing Time 0.039 seconds

Study on Local Bus Service after Bus Route Reform in Busan (버스노선개편 이후 부산 시내버스 운행실태에 관한 고찰)

  • Song, Ki-Wook;Jung, Hun-Young;Lee, Joon-Seung
    • Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
    • /
    • v.26 no.3
    • /
    • pp.41-51
    • /
    • 2008
  • As the local bus service diagram after the bus route reform is studied by variable analysis based on traffic card data and income adjustment data, the characteristic of the local bus system is revealed in Busan Metropolitan city. The relationship between traveling length and traveling time is influenced by traveling velocity. In order to keep a headway within 10 minutes, bus service number per minute should be over 0.1013 vehicles. The traveling time of afternoon is generally longer than that of forenoon. Compared with the bus used by a lot people, the deviation of that used by a few people is larger in the all cases of length, headway, time and velocity. According to the analysis of the relationship among card trip number, average income and transfer rate, the relationship between card trip number and average income is expressed as linear function in the general bus and as exponential function in the high-grade & rapid bus. The 1% increase of transfer rate is equal to 6.3 trip/vehicle/day decrease and 4.9 trip/vehicle/day decrease in two bus types respectively. The four effective variables are defined by the discriminant analysis between the profitable routes and the unprofitable; According to discriminant size, bus service number per km, bus via suburb, subway meeting number, bus via university. In order to increase the income when the minibus will be included among public transit transfer system in 2008, it should be necessary to settle the bus network and revitalize the public transit better. In order to decrease the cost, it should be necessary to reorganize the hierarchy between the local bus and the minibus better.

THE LUMINOSITY-LINEWIDTH RELATION AS A PROBE OF THE EVOLUTION OF FIELD GALAXIES

  • GUHATHAKURTA PURAGRA;ING KRISTINE;RIX HANS-WALTER;COLLESS MATTHEW;WILLIAMS TED
    • Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
    • /
    • v.29 no.spc1
    • /
    • pp.63-64
    • /
    • 1996
  • The nature of distant faint blue field galaxies remains a mystery, despite the fact that much attention has been devoted to this subject in the last decade. Galaxy counts, particularly those in the optical and near ultraviolet bandpasses, have been demonstrated to be well in excess of those expected in the 'no-evolution' scenario. This has usually been taken to imply that galaxies were brighter in the past, presumably due to a higher rate of star formation. More recently, redshift surveys of galaxies as faint as B$\~$24 have shown that the mean redshift of faint blue galaxies is lower than that predicted by standard evolutionary models (de-signed to fit the galaxy counts). The galaxy number count data and redshift data suggest that evolutionary effects are most prominent at the faint end of the galaxy luminosity function. While these data constrain the form of evolution of the overall luminosity function, they do not constrain evolution in individual galaxies. We are carrying out a series of observations as part of a long-term program aimed at a better understanding of the nature and amount of luminosity evolution in individual galaxies. Our study uses the luminosity-linewidth relation (Tully-Fisher relation) for disk galaxies as a tool to study luminosity evolution. Several studies of a related nature are being carried out by other groups. A specific experiment to test a 'no-evolution' hypothesis is presented here. We have used the AUTOFIB multifibre spectro-graph on the 4-metre Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) and the Rutgers Fabry-Perot imager on the Cerro Tolalo lnteramerican Observatory (CTIO) 4-metre tele-scope to measure the internal kinematics of a representative sample of faint blue field galaxies in the red-shift range z = 0.15-0.4. The emission line profiles of [OII] and [OIII] in a typical sample galaxy are significantly broader than the instrumental resolution (100-120 km $s^{-l}$), and it is possible to make a reliable de-termination of the linewidth. Detailed and realistic simulations based on the properties of nearby, low-luminosity spirals are used to convert the measured linewidth into an estimate of the characteristic rotation speed, making statistical corrections for the effects of inclination, non-uniform distribution of ionized gas, rotation curve shape, finite fibre aperture, etc.. The (corrected) mean characteristic rotation speed for our distant galaxy sample is compared to the mean rotation speed of local galaxies of comparable blue luminosity and colour. The typical galaxy in our distant sample has a B-band luminosity of about 0.25 L$\ast$ and a colour that corresponds to the Sb-Sd/Im range of Hub-ble types. Details of the AUTOFIB fibre spectroscopic study are described by Rix et al. (1996). Follow-up deep near infrared imaging with the 10-metre Keck tele-scope+ NIRC combination and high angular resolution imaging with the Hubble Space Telescope's WFPC2 are being used to determine the structural and orientation parameters of galaxies on an individual basis. This information is being combined with the spatially resolved CTIO Fabry-Perot data to study the internal kinematics of distant galaxies (Ing et al. 1996). The two main questions addressed by these (preliminary studies) are: 1. Do galaxies of a given luminosity and colour have the same characteristic rotation speed in the distant and local Universe? The distant galaxies in our AUTOFIB sample have a mean characteristic rotation speed of $\~$70 km $s^{-l}$ after correction for measurement bias (Fig. 1); this is inconsistent with the characteristic rotation speed of local galaxies of comparable photometric proper-ties (105 km $s^{-l}$) at the > $99\%$ significance level (Fig. 2). A straightforward explanation for this discrepancy is that faint blue galaxies were about 1-1.5 mag brighter (in the B band) at z $\~$ 0.25 than their present-day counterparts. 2. What is the nature of the internal kinematics of faint field galaxies? The linewidths of these faint galaxies appear to be dominated by the global disk rotation. The larger galaxies in our sample are about 2"-.5" in diameter so one can get direct insight into the nature of their internal velocity field from the $\~$ I" seeing CTIO Fabry-Perot data. A montage of Fabry-Perot data is shown in Fig. 3. The linewidths are too large (by. $5\sigma$) to be caused by turbulence in giant HII regions.

  • PDF

Assessing Biosecurity Practices on Commercial Pig Farms across Korea and Risk Factors for Porcine Circovirus Type 2 Infection (국내 양돈장의 차단방역 수준 평가 및 돼지써코바이러스 2형 감염의 위험요인에 관한 연구)

  • Choi, Sung-Hyun;Pak, Son-Il
    • Journal of Veterinary Clinics
    • /
    • v.32 no.4
    • /
    • pp.324-329
    • /
    • 2015
  • The primary aim of this study was to investigate biosecurity practices in pig farms and to determine the major risk factors associated with PCV2 infection for a sampled swine population in Korea. To this end, we analyzed data from a cross-sectional study of 296 farrow-to-finish farms, which was conducted between March and September 2014 to explore the prevalence of swine disease at farm level. Face-to-face interviews by on-site visit of trained veterinarians were conducted with the farm owners or managers using a standardized questionnaires with information about basic demographical data and management practices. Farms were classified as negative or positive through the use of infection profiles that combined data on serological testing including PCR antigen test result, antibody titer and sero-conversion pattern at each age category taking into account vaccination status. Data were analyzed using multivariate ordinal logistic regression. Results from this study indicated that biosecurity level of the farms was considered not good given low compliance of the biosecurity programs and facilities in the farm: off-site removal of dead stocks (7%), off-site location of storage facility for incoming feeds (12.6%), off-site pick-up location for finishers (19.3%), restrictions on feed supplier vehicles for farm entrance (19.6%), restriction of finisher trucks entering the farm (22.4%), and restriction on manure disposal trucks entering the farm (26.4%). In the final model (n = 255), allowance of finisher truck driver to the pig unit had increased risk of infection (OR = 2.4, 95% CI 1.22-4.67) whereas farms with a sign forbidding the entrance had decreased risk of infection (OR = 0.19, 95% CI 0.10-0.58). Further comprehensive research with larger sample size is required to better understand the multifactorial characteristic that some predisposing risk factors that were not available in this study. To the best knowledge of the authors, this was the first study to use empirical data to report risk factors associated with PCV2 infection in the Korean pig farms. Results from the current study could be used to decide optimal biosecurity measures to reduce the impact of PCV2 infection to farmers and policy makers.

The Treatment of Domestic Wastewater by Coagulation-Crossflow Microfiltration (응집-정밀여과에 의한 도시하수의 처리)

  • Sim, Joo-Hyun;Kim, Dae-Hwan;Seo, Hyung-Joon;Chung, Sang-Won
    • Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
    • /
    • v.27 no.6
    • /
    • pp.581-589
    • /
    • 2005
  • Recently, membrane processes have been replacing the conventional processes for waste water treatment to produce better quality of effluent and to meet more stringent regulations because of water shortage. However, using membrane processes for water treatment has confronted with fouling and difficulty in treating dissolved organic pollutants. In this study, membrane process equipped with crossflow microfiltration is combined with coagulation process using alum and PAC to improve permeability and treatment efficiency. The effects of coagulant dosage and optimum membrane operating conditions were investigated from measurement of permeate flow, cumulative volume, total resistance, particle size, dissolved organic pollutant, dissolved aluminium and quality of effluent. Characteristic of PAC coagulation was compared with that of alum coagulation. PAC coagulation reduced membrane fouling because of forming larger particle size and increased permeate velocity and cumulative volume. Less dissolved organic pollutants and dissolved aluminum made decreasing-rate of permeate velocity being lowered. At using $0.2\;{\mu}m$ membrane, cake filtration observed. At using $0.45\;{\mu}m$ membrane, there was floc breakage due to shear stress occurred born circulating operation. It made floc size smaller than membrane pore size, which subsequently to decrease permeate velocity and to increase total resistance. The optimum coagulation dosage was $300{\pm}50\;mg/L$ for both alum and PAC. PAC coagulation was more efficiently used with $0.2\;{\mu}m$ membrane, and the highest permeate flux was in using $0.45\;{\mu}m$membrane. The greatest efficiency of treatment was as follows; turbidity 99.8%, SS 99.9%, $BOD_5$ 94.4%, $COD_{Cr}$ 95.4%, T-N 54.3%, T-P 99.8%.

Immunological Characteristics of Hyperprogressive Disease in Patients with Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Treated with Anti-PD-1/PD-L1 Abs

  • Kyung Hwan Kim;Joon Young Hur;Jiae Koh;Jinhyun Cho;Bo Mi Ku;June Young Koh;Jong-Mu Sun;Se-Hoon Lee;Jin Seok Ahn;Keunchil Park;Myung-Ju Ahn;Eui-Cheol Shin
    • IMMUNE NETWORK
    • /
    • v.20 no.6
    • /
    • pp.48.1-48.11
    • /
    • 2020
  • Hyperprogressive disease (HPD) is a distinct pattern of progression characterized by acceleration of tumor growth after treatment with anti-PD-1/PD-L1 Abs. However, the immunological characteristics have not been fully elucidated in patients with HPD. We prospectively recruited patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer treated with anti-PD-1/PD-L1 Abs between April 2015 and April 2018, and collected peripheral blood before treatment and 7-days post-treatment. HPD was defined as ≥2-fold increase in both tumor growth kinetics and tumor growth rate between pre-treatment and post-treatment. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were analyzed by multi-color flow cytometry to phenotype the immune cells. Of 115 patients, 19 (16.5%) developed HPD, 52 experienced durable clinical benefit (DCB; partial response or stable disease ≥6 months), and 44 experienced non-hyperprogressive progression (NHPD). Patients with HPD had significantly lower progression-free survival (p<0.001) and overall survival (p<0.001). When peripheral blood immune cells were examined, the pre-treatment frequency of CD39+ cells among CD8+ T cells was significantly higher in patients with HPD compared to those with NHPD, although it showed borderline significance to predict HPD. Other parameters regarding regulatory T cells or myeloid derived suppressor cells did not significantly differ among patient groups. Our findings suggest high pre-treatment frequency of CD39+CD8+ T cells might be a characteristic of HPD. Further investigations in a larger cohort are needed to confirm our results and better delineate the immune landscape of HPD.

Roles of Sonography and Hysteroscopy in the Detection of Premalignant and Malignant Polyps in Women Presenting with Postmenopausal Bleeding and Thickened Endometrium

  • Cavkaytar, Sabri;Kokanali, Mahmut Kuntay;Ceran, Ufuk;Topcu, Hasan Onur;Sirvan, Levent;Doganay, Melike
    • Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
    • /
    • v.15 no.13
    • /
    • pp.5355-5358
    • /
    • 2014
  • Background: To assess the role of sonographic endometrial thickness and hysteroscopic polyp size in predicting premalignant and malignant polyps in postmenopausal women. Materials and Methods: A total of 328 postmenopausal women with abnormal uterine bleeding and thickened endometrium underwent operative hysteroscopy due to detection of endometrial polyps were included in this retrospective study. Preoperative endometrial thickness measured by transvaginal ultrasonography and polyp size on hysteroscopy were noted. Hysteroscopic resection with histology was performed for endometrial polyps. Endometrial thickness and polyp size were evaluated on the basis of final diagnosis established by histologic examination. Receiver operator characteristic curves were calculated to assess the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and diagnostic accuracy of endometrial thickness and polyp size for detecting pemalignant and malignant polyps. Results: Premalignant and malignant polyps were identified in 26 (7.9%) of cases. Sonographic measurement showed a greater endometrial thickness in cases of premalignant and malignant polyps when compared to benign polyps. On surgical hysteroscopy, premalignant and malignant polyps were also larger. Endometrial thickness demonstrated a sensitivity of 53.8%, specificity of 85.8%, PPV of 24.6% and NPV of 95.6% at a cut-off limit of 11.5 mm with diagnostic accuracy of 83.2%. Polyp size has a diagnostic accuracy of 94.8% with a sensitivity of 92.3%, specificity of 95.0%, PPV of 61.5% and NPV of 99.3% at a cut-off point of 19.5mm. Conclusions: Endometrial thickness measured by transvaginal ultrasonography is not sufficient in predicting premalignant and malignant endometrial polyps in postmenopausal women with abnormal uterine bleeding and thickened endometrium. Polyp size on hysteroscopy is a more accurate parameter, because of better sensitivity and specificity. However, while polyp size ${\geq}19.5mm$ seems to have a great accuracy for predicting premalignancy and malignancy, histologic evaluation is still necessary to exclude premalignant and malignant polyps.

The Optimum Operating Conditions of Indented-Cylinder Length Grader to Remove Broken Rice based on Varietal Characteristics (벼 품종별 입형분리기 최적 가동조건)

  • Lee, Choon-Ki;Song, Jin;Yun, Jong-Tag;Seo, Jong-Ho;Lee, Jae-Eun;Kim, Jung-Tae;Jeong, Gun-Ho;Kim, Chung-Kon
    • KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
    • /
    • v.54 no.4
    • /
    • pp.366-374
    • /
    • 2009
  • To determine the optimum operating conditions of the indented cylinder length grader based on varietal characteristics, broken rice removal capabilities were measured on the milled rice of 41 varieties at different conditions consisted of 3 types of indented cylinders with different indent-opening diameters and 3 different collecting-angles of broken rice. The broken rice removal capabilities were swayed by the indent's opening diameter and depth as well as the angle of the collecting trough of broken rice on the point of instrument, and by the kernel length and width as well as 1000 grain weight of milled rice on the point of rice variety. When the angle of broken rice collecting-trough reached to near the horizontal center line of the indented cylinder on the direction of upward turning side, which was referred $0^{\circ}$ in this paper, the amount of rice collected in trough increased, whereas the loss of head rice also increased. Considering the removal rate of broken rice as well as loss of head rice, it was thought that the suitable angle of trough for broken rice collecting was located $5^{\circ}$ to $15^{\circ}$ depending on varietal characteristic and indent opening diameter. It was thought that 4.2 mm or more of indent opening diameter was recommendable for the rice varieties having heavier 1000 grain weight than 22.3g, as well as larger sizes than 2.9 and 5.2 mm in width and length of rice kernel, respectively; 3.8 mm for the small-sized thin kernels, and a proper diameter between 3.8 and 4.2 mm for short to middle kernels. The varieties with relatively shorter length compared to width of kernel were more difficult to separate the broken rice than the opposite ones. For effective separation of that, it seems that some specific indent shapes such as wider opening and shallow depth etc. are required. When the broken rice content were excessively high, wider diameters of indent openings than specified sizes were thought to be the better.

Progress of Composite Fabrication Technologies with the Use of Machinery

  • Choi, Byung-Keun;Kim, Yun-Hae;Ha, Jin-Cheol;Lee, Jin-Woo;Park, Jun-Mu;Park, Soo-Jeong;Moon, Kyung-Man;Chung, Won-Jee;Kim, Man-Soo
    • International Journal of Ocean System Engineering
    • /
    • v.2 no.3
    • /
    • pp.185-194
    • /
    • 2012
  • A Macroscopic combination of two or more distinct materials is commonly referred to as a "Composite Material", having been designed mechanically and chemically superior in function and characteristic than its individual constituent materials. Composite materials are used not only for aerospace and military, but also heavily used in boat/ship building and general composite industries which we are seeing increasingly more. Regardless of the various applications for composite materials, the industry is still limited and requires better fabrication technology and methodology in order to expand and grow. An example of this is that the majority of fabrication facilities nearby still use an antiquated wet lay-up process where fabrication still requires manual hand labor in a 3D environment impeding productivity of composite product design advancement. As an expert in the advanced composites field, I have developed fabrication skills with the use of machinery based on my past composite experience. In autumn 2011, the Korea government confirmed to fund my project. It is the development of a composite sanding machine. I began development of this semi-robotic prototype beginning in 2009. It has possibilities of replacing or augmenting the exhaustive and difficult jobs performed by human hands, such as sanding, grinding, blasting, and polishing in most often, very awkward conditions, and is also will boost productivity, improve surface quality, cut abrasive costs, eliminate vibration injuries, and protect workers from exposure to dust and airborne contamination. Ease of control and operation of the equipment in or outside of the sanding room is a key benefit to end-users. It will prove to be much more economical than normal robotics and minimize errors that commonly occur in factories. The key components and their technologies are a 360 degree rotational shoulder and a wrist that is controlled under PLC controller and joystick manual mode. Development on both of the key modules is complete and are now operational. The Korean government fund boosted my development and I expect to complete full scale development no later than 3rd quarter 2012. Even with the advantages of composite materials, there is still the need to repair or to maintain composite products with a higher level of technology. I have learned many composite repair skills on composite airframe since many composite fabrication skills including repair, requires training for non aerospace applications. The wind energy market is now requiring much larger blades in order to generate more electrical energy for wind farms. One single blade is commonly 50 meters or longer now. When a wind blade becomes damaged from external forces, on-site repair is required on the columns even under strong wind and freezing temperature conditions. In order to correctly obtain polymerization, the repair must be performed on the damaged area within a very limited time. The use of pre-impregnated glass fabric and heating silicone pad and a hot bonder acting precise heating control are surely required.

Diagnostic Availability of Estrogen Receptor Alpha mRNA on Cervical Cancer Tissue (자궁경부암 조직에서 에스트로겐 수용체 알파 mRNA의 진단적 유용성)

  • Kim, Geehyuk;Yu, Kwangmin;Kim, Jungho;Kim, Seoyong;Park, Sunyoung;Ahn, Sungwoo;Lee, Ji-Young;Kim, Sunghyun;Park, Ho-Hyun;Lee, Dongsup
    • Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
    • /
    • v.50 no.4
    • /
    • pp.449-456
    • /
    • 2018
  • Cervical cancer is the fourth most frequently diagnosed cancer in women worldwide. In lower Human Development Index countries, it has the second highest incidence and mortality among cancer in women. Therefore, better diagnosis and treatment systems are needed. Among them, estrogen receptor alpha ($ER-{\alpha}$) mRNA expression has been analyzed with RT-qPCR since several studies reported that $ER-{\alpha}$ is necessary in the maturation of the uterus and is related to cervical cancer. In this study, $ER-{\alpha}$ quantitative analysis was performed on various lesions and normal tissue samples. Based on the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, its sensitivity and specificity were 85% and 75%, respectively, showing higher or similar results to those of conventional HPV tests. In addition, its expression level was analyzed with clinical information. With regression analysis, the R square value between the $ER-{\alpha}$ mRNA expression level and menopause status was 0.5041, indicating a strong correlation. This study was performed as part of a pilot study and suggests that $ER-{\alpha}$ is related to carcinogenesis. Future studies will examine other hormones and menopausal factors with a larger sample size.

The Influence of Store Environment on Service Brand Personality and Repurchase Intention (점포의 물리적 환경이 서비스 브랜드 개성과 재구매의도에 미치는 영향)

  • Kim, Hyoung-Gil;Kim, Jung-Hee;Kim, Youn-Jeong
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
    • /
    • v.17 no.4
    • /
    • pp.141-173
    • /
    • 2007
  • The study examines how the environmental factors of store influence service brand personality and repurchase intention in the service environment. The service industry has been experiencing the intensified competition with the industry's continuous growth and the influence from rapid technological advancement. Under the circumstances, it has become ever more important for the brand competitiveness to be distinctively recognized against competition. A brand needs to be distinguished and differentiated from competing companies because they are all engaged in the similar environment of the service industry. The differentiation of brand achievement has become increasingly important to highlight certain brand functions to include emotional, self-expressive, and symbolic functions since the importance of such functions has been further emphasized in promoting consumption activities. That is the recent role of brand personality that has been emphasized in the service industry. In other words, customers now freely and actively express their personalities or egos in consumption activities, taking an important role in construction of a brand asset. Hence, the study suggests that it is necessary to disperse the recognition and acknowledgement that the maintenance of the existing customers contributes more to boost repurchase intention when it is compared to the efforts to create new customers, particularly in the service industry. Meanwhile, the store itself can offer a unique environment that may influence the consumer's purchase decision. Consumers interact with store environments in the process of,virtually, all household purchase they make (Sarel 1981). Thus, store environments may encourage customers to purchase. The roles that store environments play are to provide informational cues to customers about the store and goods and communicate messages to stimulate consumers' emotions. The store environments differentiate the store from competing stores and build a unique service brand personality. However, the existing studies related to brand in the service industry mostly concentrated on the relationship between the quality of service and customer satisfaction, and they are mostly generalized while the connective studies focused on brand personality. Such approaches show limitations and are insufficient to investigate on the relationship between store environment and brand personality in the service industry. Accordingly, the study intends to identify the level of contribution to the establishment of brand personality made by the store's physical environments that influence on the specific brand characteristics depending on the type of service. The study also intends to identify what kind of relationships with brand personality exists with brand personality while being influenced by store environments. In addition, the study intends to make meaningful suggestions to better direct marketing efforts by identifying whether a brand personality makes a positive influence to induce an intention for repurchase. For this study, the service industry is classified into four categories based on to the characteristics of service: experimental-emotional service, emotional -credible service, credible-functional service, and functional-experimental service. The type of business with the most frequent customer contact is determined for each service type and the enterprise with the highest brand value in each service sector based on the report made by the Korea Management Association. They are designated as the representative of each category. The selected representatives are a fast-food store (experimental-emotional service), a cinema house (emotional-credible service), a bank (credible-functional service), and discount store (functional-experimental service). The survey was conducted for the four selected brands to represent each service category among consumers who are experienced users of the designated stores in Seoul Metropolitan City and Gyeonggi province via written questionnaires in order to verify the suggested assumptions in the study. In particular, the survey adopted 15 scales, which represent each characteristic factor, among the 42 unique characteristics developed by Jennifer Aaker(1997) to assess the brand personality of each service brand. SPSS for Windows Release 12.0 and LISREL were used in the analysis of data verification. The methodology of the structural equation model was used for the study and the pivotal findings are as follows. 1) The environmental factors ware classified as design factors, ambient factors, and social factors. Therefore, the validity of measurement scale of Baker et al. (1994) was proved. 2) The service brand personalities were subdivided as sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness, which makes the use of the brand personality scales by Jennifer Aaker(1997) appropriate in the service industry as well. 3) One-way ANOVA analysis on the scales of store environment and service brand personality showed that there exist statistically significant differences in each service category. For example, the social factors were highest in discount stores, while the ambient factors and design factors were highest in fast-food stores. The discount stores were highest in the sincerity and excitement, while the highest point for banks was in the competence and ruggedness, and the highest point for fast-food stores was in the sophistication, The consumers will make a different respond to the physical environment of stores and service brand personality that are inherent to the corresponding service interface. Hence, the customers will make a different decision-making when dealing with different service categories. In this aspect, the relationships of variables in the proposed hypothesis appear to work in a different way depending on the exposed service category. 4) The store environment factors influenced on service brand personalities differently by category of service. The factors of store's physical environment are transferred to a brand and were verified to strengthen service brand personalities. In particular, the level of influence on the service brand personality by physical environment differs depending on service category or dimension, which indicates that there is a need to apply a different style of management to a different service category or dimension. It signifies that there needs to be a brand strategy established in order to positively influence the relationship with consumers by utilizing an appropriate brand personality factor depending on different characteristics by service category or dimension. 5) The service brand personalities influenced on the repurchase intention. Especially, the largest influence was made in the sophistication dimension of service brand personality scale; the unique and characteristically appropriate arrangement of physical environment will make customers stay in the service environment for a long time and will lead to give a positive influence on the repurchase intention. 6) The store environment factors influenced on the repurchase intention. Particularly, the largest influence was made on the social factors of store environment. The most intriguing finding is that the service factor among all other environment factors gives the biggest influence to the repurchase intention in most of all service types except fast-food stores. Such result indicates that the customers pay attention to how much the employees try to provide a quality service when they make an evaluation on the service brand. At the same time, it also indicates that the personal factor is directly transmitted to the construction of brand personality. The employees' attitude and behavior are the determinants to establish a service brand personality in the process of enhancing service interface. Hence, there should be a reinforced search for a method to efficiently manage the service staff who has a direct contact with customers in order to make an affirmative improvement of the customers' brand evaluation at the service interface. The findings suggest several managerial implications. 1) Results from the empirical study indicated that store environment factors have a strong positive impact on a service brand personality. To increase customers' repurchase intention of a service brand, the management is required to effectively manage store environment factors and create a friendly brand personality based on the corresponding service environment. 2) Mangers and researchers must understand and recognize that the store environment elements are important marketing tools, and that brand personality influences on consumers' repurchase intention. Based on such result of the study, a service brand could be utilized as an efficient measure to achieve a differentiation by enforcing the elements that are most influential among all other store environments for each service category. Therefore, brand personality established involving various store environments will further reinforce the relationship with customers through the elevated brand identification of which utilization to induce repurchase decision can be used as an entry barrier. 3) The study identified the store environment as a component of service brand personality for the store's effective communication with consumers. For this, all communication channels should be maintained with consistency and an integrated marketing communication should be executed to efficiently approach to a larger number of customers. Mangers and researchers must find strategies for aligning decisions about store environment elements with the retailers' marketing and store personality objectives. All ambient, design, and social factors need to be orchestrated so that consumers can take an appropriate store personality. In this study, the induced results from the previous studies were extended to the service industry so as to identify the customers' decision making process that leads to repurchase intention and a result similar to those of the previous studies. The findings suggested several theoretical and managerial implications. However, the situation that only one service brand served as the subject of analysis for each service category, and the situation that correlations among store environment elements were not identified, as well as the problem of representation in selection of samples should be considered and supplemented in the future when further studies are conducted. In addition, various antecedents and consequences of brand personality must be looked at in the aspect of the service environment for further research.

  • PDF