• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.19-45
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• 2008

This study is to empirically examine the primary dimensions of visual merchandising (VMD) of internet shopping mall, namely store design, merchandise, and merchandising cues, to be a attractive virtual store to the shoppers. The authors reviewed the literature related to the major components of VMD from the perspective of the AIDA model, which has been mainly applied to the offline store settings. The major purposes of the study are as follows; first, tries to derive the variables related with the components of visual merchandising through reviewing the existing literatures, establish the hypotheses, and test it empirically. Second, examines the relationships between the components of VMD and the attitude toward the VMD, however, putting more emphasis on finding out the component structure of the VMD. VMD needs to be examined with the perspective that an online shopping mall is a virtual self-service or clerkless store, which could reduce the number of employees, help the shoppers search, evaluate and purchase for themselves, and to be explored in terms of the in-store persuasion processes of customers. This study reviewed the literatures related to store design, merchandise, and merchandising cues which might be relevant to the store, product, and promotion respectively. VMD is a total communication tool, and AIDA model could explain the in-store consumer behavior of online shopping. Store design has to do with triggering a consumer attention to the online mall, merchandise with a product related interest, and merchandising cues with promotions such as recommendation and links that induce the desire to pruchase. These three steps might be seen as the processes for purchase actions. The theoretical rationale for the relationship between VMD and AIDA could be found in Tyagi(2005) that the three steps of consumer-oriented merchandising are a store, a product assortment, and placement, in Omar(1999) that three types of interior display are a architectural design display, commodity display, and point-of-sales(POS) display, and in Davies and Ward(2005) that the retail store interior image is related to an atmosphere, merchandise, and in-store promotion. Lee et al(2000) suggested as the web merchandising components a merchandising cues, a shopping metaphor which is an assistant tool for search, a store design, a layout(web design), and a product assortment. The store design which includes differentiation, simplicity and navigation is supposed to be related to the attention to the virtual store. Second, the merchandise dimensions comprising product assortments, visual information and product reputation have to do with the interest in the product offerings. Finally, the merchandising cues that refer to merchandiser(MD)'s recommendation of products and providing the hyperlinks to relevant goods for the shopper is concerned with attempt to induce the desire to purchase. The questionnaire survey was carried out to collect the data about the consumers who would shop at internet shopping malls frequently. To select the subject malls, the mall ranking data announced by a mall rating agency was used to differentiate the most popular and least popular five mall each. The subjects was instructed to answer the questions after navigating the designated mall for five minutes. The 300 questionnaire was distributed to the consumers, 166 samples were used in the final analysis. The empirical testing focused on identifying and confirming the dimensionality of VMD and its subdimensions using a structural equation modeling method. The confirmatory factor analysis for the endogeneous and exogeneous variables was carried out in four parts. The second-order factor analysis was done for a store design, a merchandise, and a merchandising cues, and first-order confirmatory factor analysis for the attitude toward the VMD. The model test results shows that the chi-square value of structural equation is 144.39(d.f 49), significant at 0.01 level which means the proposed model was rejected. But, judging from the ratio of chi-square value vs. degree of freedom, the ratio was 2.94 which smaller than an acceptable level of 3.0, RMR is 0.087 which is higher than a generally acceptable level of 0.08. GFI and AGFI is turned out to be 0.90 and 0.84 respectively. Both NFI and NNFI is 0.94, and CFI 0.95. The major test results are as follows; first, the second-order factor analysis and structural equational modeling reveals that the differentiation, simplicity and ease of identifying current status of the transaction are confirmed to be subdimensions of store design and to be a significant predictors of the dependent variable. This result implies that when designing an online shopping mall, it is necessary to differentiate visually from other malls to improve the effectiveness of the communications of store design. That is, the differentiated store design raise the contrast stimulus to sensory organs to promote the memory of the store and to have a favorable attitude toward the VMD of a store. The results that navigation which means the easiness of identifying current status of shopping affects the attitude to VMD could be interpreted that the navigating processes via the hyperlinks which is characteristics of an internet shopping is a complex and cognitive process and shoppers are likely to lack the sense of overall structure of the store. Consequently, shoppers are likely to be alost amid shopping not knowing where to go. The orientation tool enhance the accessibility of information to raise the perceptive power about the store environment.(Titus & Everett 1995) Second, the primary dimension of merchandise and its subdimensions was confirmed to be unidimensional respectively, have a construct validity, and nomological validity which the VMD dimensions supposed to have a positive correlation with the dependent variable. The subdimensions of product assortment, brand fame and information provision proved to have a positive effect on the attitude toward the VMD. It could be interpreted that the more plentiful the product and brand assortment of the mall is, the more likely the shoppers to favor it. Brand fame and information provision as well affect the VMD attitude, which means that the more famous the brand, the more likely the shoppers would trust and feel familiar with the mall, and the plentifully and visually presented information could have the shopper have a favorable attitude toward the store VMD. Third, it turned out to be that merchandising cue of product recommendation and hyperlinks affect the VMD attitude. This could be interpreted that recommended products could reduce the uncertainty related with the purchase decision, and the hyperlinks to relevant products would help the shopper save the cognitive effort exerted into the information search and gathering, which could lead to a favorable attitude to the VMD. This study tried to sheds some new light on the VMD of online store by reviewing the variables mentioned to be relevant with offline VMD in the existing literatures, and tried to link the VMD components from the perspective of AIDA model. The effect size of the VMD dimensions on the attitude was in the order of the merchandise, the store design and the merchandising cues.It is said that an internet has an unlimited place for display, however, the virtual store is not unlimited since the consumer has a limited amount of cognitive ability to process the external information and internal memory. Particularly, the shoppers are likely to face some difficulties in decision making on account of too many alternative and information overloads. Therefore, the internet shopping mall manager should take into consideration the cost of information search on the part of the consumer, to establish the optimal product placements and search routes. An efficient store composition would be possible by reducing the psychological burdens and cognitive efforts exerted to information search and alternatives evaluation. The store image is in most part determined by the product category and its brand it deals in. The results of this study support this proposition that the merchandise is most important to the VMD attitude than other components, the manager is required to take a strategic approach to VMD. The internet users are getting more accustomed and more knowledgeable about the internet media and more likely to accept the internet as a shopping channel as the period of time during which they use the internet to shop become longer. The web merchandiser should be aware that the product introduction using a moving pictures and a bulletin board become more important in order to present the interactive product information visually and communicate with customers more actively, therefore leading to making the quantity and quality of product information more rich.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.39-51
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• 2011

The aims of this study were to investigate whether the facial skeletal patterns previously reported to be related to temporomandibular disorder (TMD) in other studies could be consistently observed in the TMD patients diagnosed according to Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorder (RDC/TMD) Axis I and evaluate its usability in the orthodontic clinics to examine the patients with TMD related symptoms. The clinical records and radiographs of female patients who visited the TMD and Orofacial Pain Clinic of Seoul National University Dental Hospital and were diagnosed as TMD were consecutively filed for this study. Patients were clinically examined and diagnosed according to the revised diagnostic algorithms of RDC/TMD Axis I and the lateral cephalogram, panoramic orthopantomogram, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) orthopantomogram, and transcranial radiograph of each patient were taken and digitalized. The data of patients who were under 18 years of age or had any systemic disease, trauma history involving the TMJ, or skeletal deformity at the time of the first examination were excluded. The remaining data of 96 female patients were finally analyzed. The obtained results were as follows: 1. There are no significant differences of cephalometric measurements between RDC I (muscle disorders) diagnostic groups. 2. Only the articular angle of the RDC group IIc (disk displacement without reduction without limited opening) patients was larger than patients of the no diagnosis of RDC II group (disk displacement). 3. Larger articular angle and smaller facial height ratio were observed in RDC IIIc group (osteoarthrosis) compared to IIIa group (arthralgia). Larger articular angle, larger Bjork sum, smaller posterior facial height, and smaller facial height ratio were observed in RDC group IIIc compared to no diagnosis of RDC III group (arthralgia, arthritis, and arthrosis). 4. According to the results of cephalometric analysis in simplified RDC groups, smaller overjet was observed in muscle disorders (MD) group. Facial height ratio and IMPA were smaller and articular angle was larger in disk displacements (DD) group than in no diagnosis of DD group. In arthrosis (AR) group, posterior facial height, and facial height ratio were smaller, and articular angle, gonial angle, facial convexity, FMA, Bjork sum, and ANB were larger than in no diagnosis of AR group. In joint pain (JP) group, only posterior facial height was smaller than no diagnosis of JP group. In conclusion, Facial morphologic patterns showing posterior-rotated mandible and lower posterior facial height is related to RDC group II and III diagnosis of the TMJ in female TMD patients. RDC/TMD Axis I diagnosis can provide a good clinical diagnostic tool for the standardized examination of the TMJ in orthodontic clinics.

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.120-126
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• 2000

Purpose : This retrospective study has been undertaken to find out the clinical outcome of children with HS nephntis and its relationship with initial clinical presentation and/or renal pathologic finding. Patients and methods : Study population consisted of 59 children with HS nephritis who have been admitted to the Pediatric department of Kyungpook University Hospital from 1987 to 1999, and biopsy was done with indications of heavy proteinuria (> 1 g/m2/day) lasting over 1 month, nephrotic syndrome, and persistent hematuria and/or proteinuria over 1 year. Patients were divided clinically into 3 groups ; isolated hematuria, hematuria with proteinuria and heavy proteinuria (including nephrotic syndrome). Biopsy findings ore graded from I-V according to International Study of Kidney Disease in Children (ISKDC). Results : Mean age of presentation was $8.1{\pm}3.0$ years and slight male preponderance m noted (33 boys md 26 girls). Histopathologic grading showed Grade I ; 2, Grade II ; 44, and Grade III ; 13 cases. Clinical outcome at the follow-up period of 1-2 year (49 cases) and 3-4 years (30 cases) shooed normal urinalysis in 75 (30.6$\%$) and 18 cases (60.0$\%$), persistent isolated hematuria in 20 (40.8$\%$) and 2 cases (6.7$\%$), hematuria with proteinuria in 11 (22.5$\%$) and 8 cases (26.6$\%$), and persistent heavy proteinuria in 3 (6.1$\%$) and 2 cases (6.7$\%$) respectively. Clinical outcome according to histopathologic grading showed the frequency of normalization of urinalysis being lower in Grade III compared to grade I or II. Clinical outcome according to initial clinical presentation showed no relationship to the normalization or urinalysis at follow-up periods. However, 15-20$\%$ of children with initial heavy proteinuria showed persistent heavy proteinuria (3 out of 20 cases at 1-2 years, and 2 out of 10 case at 3-4 years of follow-up periods). Conclusion : The majority of children with HS nephritis (histopathologic grade I, II, III) improved within 3-4 years and persistent heavy proteinuria was seen only in a kw of children with initial clinical presentation of heavy proteinuria.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.31-71
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• 1968

To clarify the breeding behavior of the hybrids between tropical and temperate area rice varieties, investigations were made on heading days and grain sterility. In this study, crosses were made in half way diallel involving 7 varieties: 2 photoperied sensitive Indicas, 2 less sensitive intermediate Indicas, 1 Ponlai Japonica and 2 high temperature sensitive Japonicas. The parents and $F_1$s were grown under 10 hours and 14 hours daylength controlled conditions at both IRRI(International Rice Research Institute, N$14^{\circ}$17') and Suwon(N$37^{\circ}$16'). F2s with their parents were grown at IRRI in the short day season, and at Suwon under natural conditions. Fa lines with their parents were grown at Suwon under natural conditions. Observations were made for heading days and sterility. The results are summarized as follow; 1. Heading days : 1. For the $F_1$s, earliness showed dominance or overdominance to lateness under the 10 hours condition, and dominance or partial dominance under the 14 hours conditions, at both IRRI and Suwon. 2. For the $F_2$s grown at IRRI during the shortday season earliness appeared to be dominant over lateness and segregation was not distinct and continuous. In the early season culture of $F_2$s at Suwon earliness showed partial dominance or was intermediate. In the proper season culture of $F_2$s lateness showed partial dominance or was intermediate. 3. In the combinations between late parental varieties which do not head at Suwon, transgressive segregants bearing effective panicles were obtained. 4. The crosses of parental varieties having long basic vegetative growth duration showed bigger variance in heading days, and significant correlation was found between of parental varieties and the mean coefficient of variance for parental arrays. 5. The means of heading days of F2 populations were significantly correlated with those of $F_1$ or mid-parents. The means of F 8 lines were also highly correlated with the means of $F_2$s, but, the means of $F_3$ lines grown at Suwon and of their parental $F_2$ individual, grown at IRRI were not correlated. 6. A faint heritability was calculated from the regression of $F_3$ lines grown at Suwon on the $F_2$ individuals grown at IRRI for most combinations, especially in the combinations involving shortday sensitive varieties. This implies low efficiency for the selection of heading days of $F_2$ individuals at IRRI to be grown in lines at Suwon. 7. No significant reciprocal effects were measured for $F_1$ and $F_2$ mean heading days. 8. Partitioning the observed photoperiod sensitivity. into two components, parental array mean md the deviation from this array mean, the parental photoperiod sensitivity contributing to the hybrids was measured in terms of general and specific combining ability for photoperiod sensitivity. 9. The photoperiod sensitivity of $F_1$s was higher than that of the parents, and it decreased as the generation progressed in most combinations of tested varieties. 10. The response of heading days to difference of temperature was weaker for $F_1$ hybrids than for the parents. The differences of temperature responses between the longday and shortday treatments were specific for the variety. 2. Sterility : 1. The $F_1$ sterility was specific for the combinations and not correlated to the parental sterility. The sterility of $F_1$s grown under the 10 hours condition was higher than of those grown under 14 hours. These results were the same at both locations, IRRI and Suwon. 2. The high sterile combinations in $F_1$ showed high sterility in $F_2$. The combinations between a high photoperiod sensitive variety and a high temperature sensitive variety showed high sterility and wider variance. 3. The mean sterility of $F_2$s was lower than of $F_1$s and the mean of $F_3$ lines was lower than of $F_2$s. Sterility decreased as the generation progressed, and the differences of $F_3$ sterility of different combinations were not significant. 4. A faint correlation between grain sterility and pollen sterility was observed in $F_2$ populations. 5. No significant reciprocal effects were measured in $F_1$ and $F_2$ sterility. 6. Following Griffing's method, specific combining ability effects were higher than general combining ability effects, especially in the combinations between highly photoperiod sensitive varieties and highly temperature sensitive varieties. 7. No distinct correlations were found between $F_2$ individual sterility grown at IRRI and $F_3$ line sterility grown at Suwon. 8. No distinct correlations were observed between heading days and sterility of $F_2$ individuals.