• Korean Security Journal
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• no.2
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• pp.259-289
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• 1999

The Security Industry has dynamic working conditions. So this study intends to find the advisable direction for the reduction of accidents. To achieve the aim, the investigation of documents and the examinations of actual proofs have been done to figure the theoretical background and to see the basic knowledge of security industry. The questionnaire was composed of two question sheets to search real data and actual proofs, with making targets of pure security organization and personnel. The one consists of 9 questions to find the scale and extent of security organizations and the population and character of security personnel, and the other 25 questions in 3 major areas to analyze the causes, the frequency rates, the factors, and the condition of accidents. The period of survey was July 15th to October 15th in 1997 by mail/telephone/interview. The questionnaires were efficiently returned from 102 different organizations including the public security groups of Seoul Metropolitan Police Bureau and so on, with the information of 8,222 persons having worked for Korean Security Industry in 1996. So being based on the reality, some meaningful facts were found, and were compared with the national statistics of the Government. This study is made up of 5 chapters : in the 1st chapter the motivation, the object, the method, the direction and the limitation of the approach were presented ,in the 2nd chapter the theoretical background were inferred ; in the 3rd chapter the collected data of accidents in Korean Security Industry were analyzed and explained on the base of the questionnaires , in the 4th chapter the advisable facts connected with preventing accidents were mentioned ; in the last the conclusion were stated. With the replies of 102 different organizations including the information of 8,222 persons in 1996, the main facts found or analyzed through this study are as follows. Firstly, accident is an unpredictable and occasional event. It occurs to man and/or thing, but the frequency rate of accidents in Korean Government and other Institutes has been calculated and evaluated only in the point of the accident related with man. Secondly, the factors of accidents are firstly relevant to the way preventing accidents in Security Industry in Korea. However the frequency rate is academically calculated and evaluated by at once man(population) and hour(time). But the Government has done the rate only by man(population). This can be improper and inaccurate rates. Thirdly, the confused concept of security is used in Korean Government, academic society, corporation and so on. Therefore the detailed formation of the concept is needed for the development of Security Industry in Korea. Fourthly, security organizations can be classified into 'public security(public law enforcement)' and 'private security' according to its identification, and furthermore 'private security' can be divided into 'facilities-guard service', 'body-guard service', and 'patrol service' according to its major role. Fifthly, in the viewpoint of the number of both organization and population,'facilities-guard service' is centered in Korean 'private security'. According to the analyzed results of the questionnaires in this study, the frequency rate of accidents of Korean Security Industry is 0.43(%) totally in 1996 : 'facilities-guard service' 0.54(%), 'body-guard service' 0.12(%), and 'patrol service' 0.21(%) in 'private security', and 'public security' 0.20(%). With regard to the accident frequency rate of organization and population, 'facilities-guard service' is the highest. The accident frequency rate of population in 'facilities-guard service' organization ranges dispersively from 0.20(%) to 11.11(%). Sixthly, the accidented rate of workers having serviced for under one year is 57.6(%). This can mean that the main factor of accidents in Korean Security Industry is the lack of role-understanding and training/education. And another factor can be found on the time of accident occurrence. Many accidents have been occurred on the relaxed points like as just after lunch and morning rush-hour. Lastly, the major advisable facts related to preventing accidents are as follows : The workers who are over fifty years old in 'facilities-guard service' organization need to be educated for preventing accidents ; It is desirable that the training and education to prevent accidents should be practiced in the time of pre-service ; As the style of accidents and the age of the accidented are not same according to major service area('public security' and 'private security' : 'facilities-guard service', 'body-guard service', and 'patrol service'), the plans to prevent accidents must be different and various. However fracture and bruise are general accidents in Korean Security Industry ; Workers must care about traffic accident and violent fall ; It seems that the grouped working with other two persons will reduce accident occurrence possibility rather than individually single working.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.344-356
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• 2005

There are normal inhabitants doing medically useful functions in the body. There are many kinds of bacteria performing specific functions in the oral cavity. Two strains of lactic acid bacteria were isolated from inhabitants of caries-free children's oral cavity, which inhibited the formation of artificial plaque by Streptococcus mutans and the production of volatile sulfur compounds by anaerobic bacteria. The isolates were identified by the test using API 50 CHL medium kit and 16S rDNA partial sequencing. 1. Two isolates were Gram-positive bacilli and produced hydrogen peroxide. 2. When Streptococcus mutans was cultured in the media, the mean weight of formed artificial plaque on the orthodontic wires was $124.4{\pm}30.4\;mg$, whereas being reduced to $5.2{\pm}2.0mg$ and $10.6{\pm}6.6mg$ in the media cultured with Streptococcus mutans and each isolate, respectively (p<0.05) 3. The number of viable cells of Streptococcus mutans was $3.4{\times}10^9$ per ml in the cultured solution, whereas those of Streptococcus mutans in the combined culture with each of isolates were $4.6{\times}10^8\;and\;2.4{\times}10^8$ per ml. 4. The optical density was 1.286 in the supernatant of Fusobacterium nucleatum after vortexing for 30minutes, whereas in the supernatant of combined Fusobacterium nucleatum and each isolate, they were reduced to 0.628 and 0.497, which the percentages of coaggregation between them were 29.4% and 57.8%, respectively 5. The optical density of Fusobacterium nucleatum precipitate was 1.794 in the culture media containing cysteine and $FeSO_4$, being reduced to 1.144 and 0.915 in the coaggregated precipitates of Fusobacterium nucleatum and each isolate. The optical density of Porphyromonas gingivalis precipitate was 1.932 in the culture media, being reduced to 1.170 and 1.266 in the coaggregated precipitates of Porphyromonas gingivalis and each isolate. 6. When two isolates were tested with API 50 CHL medium kit, those were identified Lactobaciallius salivarius and Lactobaciallius delbrueckii subsp. lactis. 7. The similarity values of 16S rDNA sequence between each of isolates and Lactobaciallius salivarius subsp. salicinius were 99.60% and 99.73%, respectively, meaning that isolates were Lactobaciallius salivarius subsp. salicinius. These results indicated that two strains isolated from caries-free children's saliva, which inhibited the formation of artificial plaque and the production of volatile sulfur compounds, were identified as Lactobaciallius salivarius subsp. salicinius.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.64 no.3
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• pp.194-199
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• 2008

Background: Early identification of pathogens can improve the prognosis of patients with ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP). In the present study, we evaluated the feasibility of performing multiplex PCR for endotracheal aspirates to detect three important pathogens (P. aeruginosa, K. pneumoniae and MRSA) in patients with VAP. Methods: The endotracheal aspirates of 24 patients were collected within 24 hours of the diagnosis of VAP for performing multiplex PCR. Forward and reverse primers were designed to target the specific site of each pathogen (the oprL gene for P. aeruginosa, 16S rRNA for K. pneumoniae and the mec gene for MRSA). We analyzed the clinical data of the VAP patients, including the culture reports for the endotracheal aspirates. Results: Twenty-four patients (M:F=18:6, mean age=$70{\pm}11$) with VAP were enrolled. Pathogens were isolated from 11 patients (P. aeruginosa in 2, K. pneumoniae in 1, MRSA in 2, other enteric Gram negative bacilli in 3, S. pneumoniae in 2 and mixed infection in 1). Multiplex PCR detected three cases of P.aeruginosa (2 cases coincided with the culture reports) and four cases of K. pneumoniae (1 matched with the culture report). PCR detected two MRSA cases, which did not coincide with the culture reports. Conclusion: Multiplex PCR of the endotracheal aspirate showed some ability to detect Gram negative bacilli, although caution is required when interpreting the results.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.163-178
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• 2014

Following research proposes "Virtualization of Smart Cards (ViSCa)" which is a security system that aims to provide a multi-device platform for the deployment of services that require a strong security protocol, both for the access & authentication and execution of its applications and focuses on analyzing Virtualization of Smart Cards (ViSCa) platform-based mobile payment service by comparing with other similar cases. At the present day, the appearance of new ICT, the diffusion of new user devices (such as smartphones, tablet PC, and so on) and the growth of internet penetration rate are creating many world-shaking services yet in the most of these applications' private information has to be shared, which means that security breaches and illegal access to that information are real threats that have to be solved. Also mobile payment service is, one of the innovative services, has same issues which are real threats for users because mobile payment service sometimes requires user identification, an authentication procedure and confidential data sharing. Thus, an extra layer of security is needed in their communication and execution protocols. The Virtualization of Smart Cards (ViSCa), concept is a holistic approach and centralized management for a security system that pursues to provide a ubiquitous multi-device platform for the arrangement of mobile payment services that demand a powerful security protocol, both for the access & authentication and execution of its applications. In this sense, Virtualization of Smart Cards (ViSCa) offers full interoperability and full access from any user device without any loss of security. The concept prevents possible attacks by third parties, guaranteeing the confidentiality of personal data, bank accounts or private financial information. The Virtualization of Smart Cards (ViSCa) concept is split in two different phases: the execution of the user authentication protocol on the user device and the cloud architecture that executes the secure application. Thus, the secure service access is guaranteed at anytime, anywhere and through any device supporting previously required security mechanisms. The security level is improved by using virtualization technology in the cloud. This virtualization technology is used terminal virtualization to virtualize smart card hardware and thrive to manage virtualized smart cards as a whole, through mobile cloud technology in Virtualization of Smart Cards (ViSCa) platform-based mobile payment service. This entire process is referred to as Smart Card as a Service (SCaaS). Virtualization of Smart Cards (ViSCa) platform-based mobile payment service virtualizes smart card, which is used as payment mean, and loads it in to the mobile cloud. Authentication takes place through application and helps log on to mobile cloud and chooses one of virtualized smart card as a payment method. To decide the scope of the research, which is comparing Virtualization of Smart Cards (ViSCa) platform-based mobile payment service with other similar cases, we categorized the prior researches' mobile payment service groups into distinct feature and service type. Both groups store credit card's data in the mobile device and settle the payment process at the offline market. By the location where the electronic financial transaction information (data) is stored, the groups can be categorized into two main service types. First is "App Method" which loads the data in the server connected to the application. Second "Mobile Card Method" stores its data in the Integrated Circuit (IC) chip, which holds financial transaction data, which is inbuilt in the mobile device secure element (SE). Through prior researches on accept factors of mobile payment service and its market environment, we came up with six key factors of comparative analysis which are economic, generality, security, convenience(ease of use), applicability and efficiency. Within the chosen group, we compared and analyzed the selected cases and Virtualization of Smart Cards (ViSCa) platform-based mobile payment service.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.240-247
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• 2017

The increased investigation of the cerebral arteries with magnetic resonance angiography has resulted in an increase in the identification of unruptured intracranial aneurysms (UIAs). Knowledge of the distribution and factors associated with UIAs might be helpful for understanding the pathological mechanism of unruptured aneurysms. This study examined patients who visited a health care center and had a health examination from January 2007 to December 2016. Subjects who underwent magnetic resonance angiography with a health examination at the Health Screening were enrolled in this study. The incidence and risk factors of UIAs (age, sex, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, smoking, alcohol, and coronary artery disease) were investigated by comparing the size (more than 3 mm vs. less than 3 mm) and multiple aneurysm (single vs. multiple aneurysms). The frequency of aneurysm according to the site was also analyzed. Among the 187166 subjects, who received a health examination, 18954 underwent magnetic resonance angiography. Of them, 367 (1.93%) had UIAs. A comparison of the size of more than 3 mm and less than 3 mm showed that the mean age of the more than 3 mm group of patients was significantly higher than the other size groups (more than 3 mm $57.16{\pm}8.47$ vs. less than 3 mm $55.12{\pm}8.19$; p=0.07). High-density lipoprotein was significantly higher in the more than 3 mm group than in the less than 3 mm($55.95{\pm}16.03$ vs. less than 3 mm $50.85{\pm}13.65$; p=0.007). Hypertension was significantly higher in the multiple aneurysm group (single 153 in 399 (38.3%) VS multiple 19 in 35 (54.3%); p=0.065). An aneurysm of less than 3 mm in size was frequent in the distal internal carotid artery (34.3%) and MCA-bifurcation (16.4%) (p=0.003). Aneurysms of more than 3 mm were frequent in the distal internal carotid artery (43.4%) and MCA-bifurcation (13.4%), and anterior communicating artery (13.4%) (p=0.003). The difference in size and single or multiple aneurysm revealed other risk factors. These risk factors suggest that degenerative and hemodynamic disorders may lead to the presence of aneurysms.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.562-569
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• 2019

Raman spectroscopy has been receiving increased attention as a standoff explosive detection technique. In addition, there is a growing need for a fast search method that can identify raman spectrum for measured chemical substances compared to known raman spectra in large database. By far the most simple and widely used method is to calculate and compare the Euclidean distance between the given spectrum and the spectra in a database. But it is non-trivial problem because of the inherent high dimensionality of the data. One of the most serious problems is the high computational complexity of searching for the closet spectra. To overcome this problem, we presented the MPS Sort with Sorted Variance+PDS method for the fast algorithm to search for the closet spectra in the last paper. the proposed algorithm uses two significant features of a vector, mean values and variance, to reject many unlikely spectra and save a great deal of computation time. In this paper, we present two new methods for the fast algorithm to search for the closet spectra. the PCA+PDS algorithm reduces the amount of computation by reducing the dimension of the data through PCA transformation with the same result as the distance calculation using the whole data. the Hierarchical Cluster Tree algorithm makes a binary hierarchical tree using PCA transformed spectra data. then it start searching from the clusters closest to the input spectrum and do not calculate many spectra that can not be candidates, which save a great deal of computation time. As the Experiment results, PCA+PDS shows about 60.06% performance improvement for the MPS Sort with Sorted Variance+PDS. also, Hierarchical Tree shows about 17.74% performance improvement for the PCA+PDS. The results obtained confirm the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.1-17
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• 2019

Because stock price forecasting is an important issue both academically and practically, research in stock price prediction has been actively conducted. The stock price forecasting research is classified into using structured data and using unstructured data. With structured data such as historical stock price and financial statements, past studies usually used technical analysis approach and fundamental analysis. In the big data era, the amount of information has rapidly increased, and the artificial intelligence methodology that can find meaning by quantifying string information, which is an unstructured data that takes up a large amount of information, has developed rapidly. With these developments, many attempts with unstructured data are being made to predict stock prices through online news by applying text mining to stock price forecasts. The stock price prediction methodology adopted in many papers is to forecast stock prices with the news of the target companies to be forecasted. However, according to previous research, not only news of a target company affects its stock price, but news of companies that are related to the company can also affect the stock price. However, finding a highly relevant company is not easy because of the market-wide impact and random signs. Thus, existing studies have found highly relevant companies based primarily on pre-determined international industry classification standards. However, according to recent research, global industry classification standard has different homogeneity within the sectors, and it leads to a limitation that forecasting stock prices by taking them all together without considering only relevant companies can adversely affect predictive performance. To overcome the limitation, we first used random matrix theory with text mining for stock prediction. Wherever the dimension of data is large, the classical limit theorems are no longer suitable, because the statistical efficiency will be reduced. Therefore, a simple correlation analysis in the financial market does not mean the true correlation. To solve the issue, we adopt random matrix theory, which is mainly used in econophysics, to remove market-wide effects and random signals and find a true correlation between companies. With the true correlation, we perform cluster analysis to find relevant companies. Also, based on the clustering analysis, we used multiple kernel learning algorithm, which is an ensemble of support vector machine to incorporate the effects of the target firm and its relevant firms simultaneously. Each kernel was assigned to predict stock prices with features of financial news of the target firm and its relevant firms. The results of this study are as follows. The results of this paper are as follows. (1) Following the existing research flow, we confirmed that it is an effective way to forecast stock prices using news from relevant companies. (2) When looking for a relevant company, looking for it in the wrong way can lower AI prediction performance. (3) The proposed approach with random matrix theory shows better performance than previous studies if cluster analysis is performed based on the true correlation by removing market-wide effects and random signals. The contribution of this study is as follows. First, this study shows that random matrix theory, which is used mainly in economic physics, can be combined with artificial intelligence to produce good methodologies. This suggests that it is important not only to develop AI algorithms but also to adopt physics theory. This extends the existing research that presented the methodology by integrating artificial intelligence with complex system theory through transfer entropy. Second, this study stressed that finding the right companies in the stock market is an important issue. This suggests that it is not only important to study artificial intelligence algorithms, but how to theoretically adjust the input values. Third, we confirmed that firms classified as Global Industrial Classification Standard (GICS) might have low relevance and suggested it is necessary to theoretically define the relevance rather than simply finding it in the GICS.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.41-54
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• 2007

Background : The causes of chest pain vary but the leading cause of chest pain is ischemic heart disease. Mortality from ischemic chest pain has increased more than two fold over the last ten years. The purpose of this study was to determine the data necessary for rapid treatment of patients with signs and symptoms of ischemic chest pain in the emergency department (ED). Materials and Methods : We interviewed 170 patients who had ischemic chest pain in the emergency department of Yeungnam University Hospital over 6 months with a protocol developed for the evaluation. The protocol used included gender, age, arriving time, prior hospital visits, methods of transportation to the hospital, past medical history, final diagnosis, and outcome information from follow up. Results : Among 170 patients, there were 118 men (69.4%) and the mean age was 63 years. The patients diagnosed with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) were 106 (62.4%) and with angina pectoris (AP) were 64 (37.6%). The patients who had visited another hospital were 68.8%, twice the number that came directly to this hospital (p<0.05). The ratio of patients who visited another hospital were higher for the AMI (75.5%) than the AP (59.4%) patients (p<0.05). The median time spent deciding whether to go to hospital was 521 minutes and for transportation was 40 minutes. With regard to patients that visited another hospital first, the median time spent at the other hospital was 40 minutes. The total median time spent before arriving at our hospital was 600 minutes (p>0.05). The patients who had a total time delay of over 6 hours was similar 54.8% in the AMI group and 57.9% in the AP group (p>0.05). As a result, only 12.2% of the patients with an AMI received thrombolytics, and 48.8% of them had a simultaneous percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). In the emergency department 8.5% of the patients with an AMI died. Conclusion : Timing is an extremely important factor for the treatment of ischemic heart disease. Most patients arrive at the hospital after a long time lapse from the onset of chest pain. In addition, most patients present to a different hospital before they arrive at the final hospital for treatment. Therefore, important time is lost and opportunities for treatment with thrombolytics and/or PCI are diminished leading to poor outcomes for many patients in the ED. The emergency room treatment must improve for the identification and treatment of ischemic heart disease so that patients can present earlier and treatment can be started as soon as they present to an emergency room.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.302-314
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• 2023

This study aims to explore the direction for Korea's effective response to Target 3 (30by30), which can be said to be the core of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (K-M GBF) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), to find the direction of systematic OECM (Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures) discovery at the national level through a survey of global conceptual review and expert perception of OECM. This study examined ① the use of Korean terms related to OECM, ② derivation of determining criteria reflecting global standards, ③ deriving types of potential OECM candidates in Korea, and ④ considerations for OECM identification and reporting to explore the direction for identifying systematic, national-level OECM that complies with global standards and reflects the Korean context. First, there was consensus for using Korean terminology that reflects the concept of OECM rather than simple translations, and it was determined that "nature coexistence area" was the most preferred term (12 people) and had the same context as CBD 2050 Vision of "a world of living in harmony with nature." This study suggests utilizing four criteria (1. No protected areas, 2. Geographic boundaries, 3. Governance/management, and 4. Biodiversity value) that reflect OECM's core characteristics in the first-stage selection process, carrying out the consensus-building process (stage 2) with the relevant agencies, and adding two criteria (3-1 Effectiveness and sustainability of governance and management and 4-1 Long-term conservation) and performing the in-depth diagnosis in stage 3 (full assessment for reporting). The 28 types examined in this study were generally compatible with OECMs (4.45-6.21/7 points, mean 5.24). In particular, the "Conservation Properties (6.21 points)" and "Conservation Agreements (6.07 points)", which are controlled by National Nature Trust, are shown to be the most in line with the OECM concept. They were followed by "Buffer zone of World Natural Heritage (5.77 points)", "Temple Forest (5.73 points)", "Green-belt (Restricted development zones, 5.63 points)", "DMZ (5.60 points)", and "Buffer zone of biosphere reserve (5.50 point)" to have high potential. In the case of "Uninhabited Islands under Absolute Conservation", the response that they conformed to the protected areas (5.83/7 points) was higher than the OECM compatibility (5.52/7 points), it is determined that in the future, it would be preferable to promote the listing of absolute unprotected islands in the Korea Database on Protected Areas (KDPA) along with their surrounding waters (1 km). Based on the results of a global OECM standard review and expert perception survey, 10 items were suggested as considerations when identifying OECM in the Korean context. In the future, continuous research is needed to identify the potential OECMs through site-level assessment regarding these considerations and establish an effective in-situ conservation system at the national level by linking existing protected area systems and identified OECMs.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.51-89
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• 2007

INTRODUCTION Due to the high broadband internet penetration rate and its group-oriented culture, various types of online communities operate in Korea. This study use 'Uses and Gratification Approach, and argue that members' usage-needs satisfaction with brand community is an important factor for promoting community commitment. Based on previous studies identifying the effect of brand image on consumers' responses to various marketing stimuli, this study hypothesizes that brand image can be a moderate variable affecting the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction with brand community and members' commitment to brand community. This study analyzes the influence of usage-needs satisfaction on brand community commitment and how apparel brand image affects the relationships between usage-needs satisfactions and community commitments. The hypotheses of this study are proposed as follows. H1-3: The usage-needs satisfaction of apparel brand community (interest, transaction, relationship needs) influences emotional (H1), continuous (H2), and normative (H3) commitments to apparel brand communities. H4-6: Apparel brand image has a moderating effect on the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction and emotional (H4), continuous (H5), and normative (H6) commitments to apparel brand communities. METHODS Brand communities founded by non-company affiliates were excluded and emphasis was placed instead on communities created by apparel brand companies. Among casual apparel brands registered in 6 Korean portal sites in August 2003, a total of 9 casual apparel brand online communities were chosen, depending on the level of community activity and apparel brand image. Data from 317 community members were analyzed by exploratory factor analysis, moderated regression analysis, ANOVA, and scheffe test. Among 317 respondents answered an online html-type questionnaire, 80.5% were between 16 to 25 years old. There were a total of 150 respondents from apparel brand communities(n=3) recording higher-than-average brand image scores (Mean > 3.75) and a total of 162 respondents from apparel brand communities(n=6) recording lower-than-average brand image scores(Mean < 3.75). In this study, brand community commitment was measured by a 5-point Likert scale: emotional, continuous and normative commitment. The degree of usage-needs satisfaction (interest, transaction, relationship needs) was measured on a 5-point Likert scale. The level of brand image was measured by a 5-point Likert scale: strength, favorability, and uniqueness of brand associations. RESULTS In the results of exploratory factor analysis, the three usage-needs satisfactions with brand community were classified as interest, transaction, and relationship needs. Brand community commitment was also divided into the multi-dimensional factors: emotional, continuous, and normative commitments. The regression analysis (using a stepwise method) was used to test the influence of 3 independent variables (interest-needs satisfaction, transaction-needs, and relationship-needs satisfactions) on the 3 dependent variables (emotional, continuous and normative commitments). The three types of usage-needs satisfactions are positively associated with the three types of commitments to apparel brand communities. Therefore, hypothesis 1, 2, and 3 were significantly supported. Moderating effects of apparel brand image on the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction and brand community commitments were tested by moderated regression analysis. The statistics result showed that the influence of transaction-needs on emotional commitment was significantly moderated by apparel brand image. In addition, apparel brand image had moderating effects on the relationship between relationship-needs satisfaction and emotional, continuous and normative commitments to apparel brand communities. However, there were not significant moderate effects of apparel brand image on the relationships between interest-needs satisfaction and 3 types of commitments (emotional, continuous and normative commitments) to apparel brand communities. In addition, the influences of transaction-needs satisfaction on 2 types of commitments (continuous and normative commitments) were not significantly moderated by apparel brand image. Therefore, hypothesis 4, 5 and 6 were partially supported. To explain the moderating effects of apparel brand image, four cross-tabulated groups were made by averages of usage-needs satisfaction (interest-needs satisfaction avg. M=3.09, transaction-needs satisfaction avg. M=3.46, relationship-needs satisfaction M=1.62) and the average apparel brand image (M=3.75). The average scores of commitments in each classified group are presented in Tables and Figures. There were significant differences among four groups. As can be seen from the results of scheffe test on the tables, emotional commitment in community group with high brand image was higher than one in community group with low brand image when transaction-needs satisfaction was high. However, when transaction-needs satisfaction was low, there was not any difference between the community group with high brand image and community group with low brand image regarding emotional commitment to apparel brand communities. It means that emotional commitment didn't increase significantly without high satisfaction of transaction-needs, despite the high apparel brand image. In addition, when apparel brand image was low, increase in transaction-needs did not lead to the increase in emotional commitment. Therefore, the significant relationship between transaction-needs satisfaction and emotional commitment was found in only brand communities with high apparel brand image, and the moderating effect of apparel brand image on this relationship between two variables was found in the communities with high satisfaction of transaction-needs only. Statistics results showed that the level of emotional commitment is related to the satisfaction level of transaction-needs, while overall response is related to the level of apparel brand image. We also found that the role of apparel brand image as a moderating factor was limited by the level of transaction-needs satisfaction. In addition, relationship-needs satisfaction brought significant increase in emotional commitment in both community groups (high and low levels of brand image), and the effect of apparel brand image on emotional commitment was significant in both community groups (high and low levels of relationship-needs satisfaction). Especially, the effect of brand image was greater when the level of relationship-needs satisfaction was high. in contrast, increase in emotional commitment responding to increase in relationship-needs satisfaction was greater when apparel brand image is high. The significant influences of relationship-needs satisfaction on community commitments (continuous and normative commitments) were found regardless of apparel brand image(in both community groups with low and high brand image). However, the effects of apparel brand image on continuous and normative commitments were found in only community group with high satisfaction level of relationship-needs. In the case of communities with low satisfaction levels of relationship needs, apparel brand image marginally increases continuous and normative commitments. Therefore, we could not find the moderating effect of apparel brand image on the relationship between relationship-needs satisfaction and continuous and normative commitments in community groups with low satisfaction levels of relationship needs, CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS From the results of this study, we draw several conclusions; First, the increases in usage-needs satisfactions through apparel brand communities result in the increases in commitments to apparel brand communities, wheres the degrees of such relationship depends on the level of apparel brand image. That is, apparel brand image is a moderating factor strengthening the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction and commitment to apparel brand communities. In addition, the effect of apparel brand image differs, depending on the level and types of community usage-needs satisfactions. Therefore, marketers of apparel brand companies must determine the appropriate usage-needs, depending on the type of commitment they wish to increase and the level of their apparel brand image, to promote member's commitments to apparel brand communities. Especially, relationship-needs satisfaction was very important factor for increasing emotional, continuous and normative commitments to communities. However the level of relationship-needs satisfaction was lower than interest-needs and transaction-needs. satisfaction. According to previous study on apparel brand communities, relationship-need satisfaction was strongly related to member's intention of participation in their communities. Therefore, marketers need to develope various strategies in order to increase the relationship- needs as well as interest and transaction needs. In addition, despite continuous commitment was higher than emotional and normative commitments, all types of commitments to apparel brand communities had scores lower than 3.0 that was mid point in 5-point scale. A Korean study reported that the level of members' commitment to apparel brand community influenced customers' identification with a brand and brand purchasing behavior. Therefore, marketers should try to increase members' usage-needs satisfaction and apparel brand image as the necessary conditions for bringing about community commitments. Second, marketers should understand that they should keep in mind that increasing the level of community usage needs (transaction and relationship) is most effective in raising commitment when the level of apparel brand image is high, and that increasing usage needs (transaction needs) satisfaction in communities with low brand image might not be as effective as anticipated. Therefore, apparel companies with desirable brand image such as luxury designer goods firms need to create formal online brand communities (as opposed to informal communities with rudimentary online contents) to satisfy transaction and relationship needs systematically. It will create brand equity through consumers' increased emotional, continuous and normative commitments. Even though apparel brand is very famous, emotional commitment to apparel brand communities cannot be easily increased without transaction-needs satisfaction. Therefore famous fashion brand companies should focus on developing various marketing strategies to increase transaction-needs satisfaction.