The objective of the present study was to analyze genetic distances, variation and characteristics of individuals in rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykis using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) method as molecular genetic technique, to detect AFLP band patterns as genetic markers, and to compare the efficiency of agarosegel electrophoresis (AGE) and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), respectively. Using 9 primer combinations, a total of 141 AFLP bands were produced, 108 bands (82.4%) of which were polymorphic in AGE. In PAGE, a total of 288 bands were detected, and 220 bands (76.4%) were polymorphic. The AFLP fingerprints of AGE were different from those of PAGE. Separation of the fragments with low molecular weight and genetic polymorphisms revealed a distinct pattern in the two gel systems. In the present study, the average bandsharing values of the individuals between two populations apart from the geographic sites in Kangwon-do ranged from 0.084 to 0.738 of AGE and PAGE. The bandsharing values between individuals No.9 and No. 10 showed the highest level within population, whereas the bandsharing values between individuals No.5 and No.7 showed the lowest level. As calculated by bandsharing analysis, an average of genetic difference (mean
The purpose of this study is twofold : (i) to investigate how much effort the married couples are making for the good health of both the pregnant woman and her unborn child from the time of their marriage to and during the period of conception : and (ii) to comprehensive investigate socio-cultural back-grounds which affect prenatal effort. Result of this study provide a basis for the prenatal care program which will be appropriate to our culture. This study has been done by the ethnographic research method. The subjects of this study are 53 people in all consisting of 33 pregnant women and 20 husbands. In order to investigate socio-cultural factors which influence Taegyo, producers of Taegyo music were interviewed. In addition the researcher surveyed the markets of Taegyo music, participated in special courses of prenatal education, analyzed the content of the books and periodicals dealing with Taegyo, and collected the concept of Taegyo distributed by the mass media. The full-fledged study continued for eight months from February to August.1996. The data were analyzed as soon as they were collected. Spradly's(1979, 1980) developmental, sequential method of domain analysis. taxonomic analysis, componential analysis, and theme analysis in this order was adopted as the procedure of analyzing the data. To obtain the exactness of study, Sandelowski's (1986) four criteria, that is, Credibility, Fittingness, Auditability, and Confirmability were applied to all stages of data collection, data analysis, the interpretation of the result, and the description of the result. The following are the result : 1. The couples' Taegyo at the stage of preconception was related to their physical, psychological, spiritual conditions under which a healthy baby will be born. Specific methods they prefer are : "the choice of one's spouse." "physical check-up," "physical good health, " "praying, " and so on. 2. When the marriod couple have sex in order to conceive, their Taegyo was related to the imposition of their physical, psychological, and environmental conditions. Specific methods they prefer are : "having sex at specific time, " "having sex in nice place." "to purify their minds while having sex," and so on. 3. The married couples' Taegyo while they are in pregnancy was related to the imposition of their physical. psychological, emotionmental. environmental, social and spiritual conditions. Specific methods they prefer are : "listening to music. " "reading," "looking at beautiful things only," "to avoid looking at or listening to bad things." "to eat food in good shape, " "to avoid drugs," "eating Korean herbal medicine." "sexual abstinence," "to avoid dangerous places," "to keep emotional tranquility," "moderate exercises and rest." "leading a pure life." "praying." "being aware of their words and behavior." "for the couple to keep a good relationship." "interaction with their unborn child," "to support Taegyo for pregnant women," and so on. 4. The married couple put Taegyo into practice on the basis of the following principles : the principle of respecting an unborn child, the principle of forming a good disposition. the principle of top-down parental love, the principle of synergy between a pregnant woman and her unborn child, the principle of expecting a good child, the principle of forming a good habit, and the principle of acquiring a parental role. 5. The practice of Taegyo is influenced by such factors as the married couple, the supporting system, and the mass media. As the husband -and-wife factor, their information of Taegyo, the degree of importance is assigned to their characters, their time to spare, their healthiness, the age of pregnant woman, their conception plan, their religion, their belief of the Taegyo effects, and the birth of a baby in this order. The factor of the supporting system consists of her husband's support, her family support, and her neighbor's support. The mass media factors include the broadcasting media, books specialized in Taegyo, periodicals for pregnant women, booklets for advertizing powdered milk, Taegyo music of record manufacturing companies, and the teaching materials for gifted children. Among these the mass media is especially taking advantage of Taegyo as its main source of economic profits are leading the public behavior pattern to a prodigal one. Taegyo is a self-control behavior which requires practice for the following : the physical and psychological good health of the pregnant woman and her unborn child, the development of the unborn child's good character, the development of the unborn child's intelligence and talents, the expectation of the unborn child's good features. shape a good habit, the expectation of the unborn child's bright future, and the learning of a parental role, the expectation of male birth. Above all it is a type of our good cultural tradition which pursues a value higher than the one that the prenatal care does. The principles of pregnancy care inherent in the habit of Taegyo will provide us a guideline for the development of the prenatal care.
The anthropomorphism of brands, defined as seeing human beings in brands (Puzakova, Kwak, and Rosereto, 2008) is the focus of this study. Specifically, the research objective is to understand the ways in which brands are rendered humanlike. By analyzing consumer readings of stories found on food product packages we intend to show how marketers and consumers humanize a spectrum of brands and create meanings. Our research question considers the possibility that a single brand may host multiple or single meanings, associations, and personalities for different consumers. We start by highlighting the theoretical and practical significance of our research, explain why we turn our attention to packages as vehicles of brand meaning transfer, then describe our qualitative methodology, discuss findings, and conclude with a discussion of managerial implications and directions for future studies. The study was designed to directly expose consumers to potential vehicles of brand meaning transfer and then engage these consumers in free verbal reflections on their perceived meanings. Specifically, we asked participants to read non-nutritional stories on selected branded food packages, in order to elicit data about received meanings. Packaging has yet to receive due attention in consumer research (Hine, 1995). Until now, attention has focused solely on its utilitarian function and has generated a body of research that has explored the impact of nutritional information and claims on consumer perceptions of products (e.g., Loureiro, McCluskey and Mittelhammer, 2002; Mazis and Raymond, 1997; Nayga, Lipinski and Savur, 1998; Wansik, 2003). An exception is a recent study that turns its attention to non-nutritional packaging narratives and treats them as cultural productions and vehicles for mythologizing the brand (Kniazeva and Belk, 2007). The next step in this stream of research is to explore how such mythologizing activity affects brand personality perception and how these perceptions relate to consumers. These are the questions that our study aimed to address. We used in-depth interviews to help overcome the limitations of quantitative studies. Our convenience sample was formed with the objective of providing demographic and psychographic diversity in order to elicit variations in consumer reflections to food packaging stories. Our informants represent middle-class residents of the US and do not exhibit extreme alternative lifestyles described by Thompson as "cultural creatives" (2004). Nine people were individually interviewed on their food consumption preferences and behavior. Participants were asked to have a look at the twelve displayed food product packages and read all the textual information on the package, after which we continued with questions that focused on the consumer interpretations of the reading material (Scott and Batra, 2003). On average, each participant reflected on 4-5 packages. Our in-depth interviews lasted one to one and a half hours each. The interviews were tape recorded and transcribed, providing 140 pages of text. The products came from local grocery stores on the West Coast of the US and represented a basic range of food product categories, including snacks, canned foods, cereals, baby foods, and tea. The data were analyzed using procedures for developing grounded theory delineated by Strauss and Corbin (1998). As a result, our study does not support the notion of one brand/one personality as assumed by prior work. Thus, we reveal multiple brand personalities peacefully cohabiting in the same brand as seen by different consumers, despite marketer attempts to create more singular brand personalities. We extend Fournier's (1998) proposition, that one's life projects shape the intensity and nature of brand relationships. We find that these life projects also affect perceived brand personifications and meanings. While Fournier provides a conceptual framework that links together consumers’ life themes (Mick and Buhl, 1992) and relational roles assigned to anthropomorphized brands, we find that consumer life projects mold both the ways in which brands are rendered humanlike and the ways in which brands connect to consumers' existential concerns. We find two modes through which brands are anthropomorphized by our participants. First, brand personalities are created by seeing them through perceived demographic, psychographic, and social characteristics that are to some degree shared by consumers. Second, brands in our study further relate to consumers' existential concerns by either being blended with consumer personalities in order to connect to them (the brand as a friend, a family member, a next door neighbor) or by distancing themselves from the brand personalities and estranging them (the brand as a used car salesman, a "bunch of executives.") By focusing on food product packages, we illuminate a very specific, widely-used, but little-researched vehicle of marketing communication: brand storytelling. Recent work that has approached packages as mythmakers, finds it increasingly challenging for marketers to produce textual stories that link the personalities of products to the personalities of those consuming them, and suggests that "a multiplicity of building material for creating desired consumer myths is what a postmodern consumer arguably needs" (Kniazeva and Belk, 2007). Used as vehicles for storytelling, food packages can exploit both rational and emotional approaches, offering consumers either a "lecture" or "drama" (Randazzo, 2006), myths (Kniazeva and Belk, 2007; Holt, 2004; Thompson, 2004), or meanings (McCracken, 2005) as necessary building blocks for anthropomorphizing their brands. The craft of giving birth to brand personalities is in the hands of writers/marketers and in the minds of readers/consumers who individually and sometimes idiosyncratically put a meaningful human face on a brand.