• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.835-848
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to find efficient and customized tools for delivering the benefit of health functional foods (HFFs). Delivery tools which could influence the impact of advertising were images, explanations of ingredients, diagrams of health benefit, patents, and comments from authority. Six advertisements were developed using these tools: "A": relevant image + explanation of ingredients + scientific diagram of efficacy; "B": relevant image + explanation of ingredients; "C": relevant image; "D": irrelevant image; "E": irrelevant image + explanation of ingredient + patent; "F": irrelevant image + explanation of ingredient + comments from authority. To analyze the consumer perceptions on HFFs and advertisement effects, 300 respondents were requested to answer a questionnaire comprising of the following questions: 5 questions of attitudes (necessity of HFFs, trust in HFFs, gathering information, watching advertisements and trust in advertisement claims) and 6 questions on the 6 developed advertisements (attention, understanding, sufficiency of information, sympathy, trust, and purchase). Scoring was done as per the 5 Likert scale. There was a higher proportion of females and the elderly, as compared to males and youngsters. The overall consumer attitudes were positive. Explanation of ingredients, scientific diagram of health benefit, patents and expert comments were helpful factors in increasing the advertisement evaluation by consumer, but the images were not. Advertisement evaluation of consumer did not differ with gender and age. However, differences were observed between some of the consumer attitudes (necessity of HFFs, trust in HFFs, gathering information and trust in advertisements claim) and advertisement evaluations (attention, understanding, sympathy and purchase). Our results indicate that for consumers utilizing the HFFs, advertisements with concrete tools such as diagrams, patent, and expert comments are more helpful. However, for consumers who do not have interest in HFFs, the scientific information was irrelevant. We believe that to maximize the effect of health information in advertisements, consumers should be segmented, and customized tools for each segment needs to be developed.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.245-276
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• 2008

Brand equity is one of the most important concepts in business practice as well as in academic research. Successful brands can allow marketers to gain competitive advantage (Lassar et al.,1995), including the opportunity for successful extensions, resilience against competitors' promotional pressures, and the ability to create barriers to competitive entry (Farquhar, 1989). Branding plays a special role in service firms because strong brands increase trust in intangible products (Berry, 2000), enabling customers to better visualize and understand them. They reduce customers' perceived monetary, social, and safety risks in buying services, which are obstacles to evaluating a service correctly before purchase. Also, a high level of brand equity increases consumer satisfaction, repurchasing intent, and degree of loyalty. Brand equity can be considered as a mixture that includes both financial assets and relationships. Actually, brand equity can be viewed as the value added to the product (Keller, 1993), or the perceived value of the product in consumers' minds. Mahajan et al. (1990) claim that customer-based brand equity can be measured by the level of consumers' perceptions. Several researchers discuss brand equity based on two dimensions: consumer perception and consumer behavior. Aaker (1991) suggests measuring brand equity through price premium, loyalty, perceived quality, and brand associations. Viewing brand equity as the consumer's behavior toward a brand, Keller (1993) proposes similar dimensions: brand awareness and brand knowledge. Thus, past studies tend to identify brand equity as a multidimensional construct consisted of brand loyalty, brand awareness, brand knowledge, customer satisfaction, perceived equity, brand associations, and other proprietary assets (Aaker, 1991, 1996; Blackston, 1995; Cobb-Walgren et al., 1995; Na, 1995). Other studies tend to regard brand equity and other brand assets, such as brand knowledge, brand awareness, brand image, brand loyalty, perceived quality, and so on, as independent but related constructs (Keller, 1993; Kirmani and Zeithaml, 1993). Walters(1978) defined information search as, "A psychological or physical action a consumer takes in order to acquire information about a product or store." But, each consumer has different methods for informationsearch. There are two methods of information search, internal and external search. Internal search is, "Search of information already saved in the memory of the individual consumer"(Engel, Blackwell, 1982) which is, "memory of a previous purchase experience or information from a previous search."(Beales, Mazis, Salop, and Staelin, 1981). External search is "A completely voluntary decision made in order to obtain new information"(Engel & Blackwell, 1982) which is, "Actions of a consumer to acquire necessary information by such methods as intentionally exposing oneself to advertisements, taking to friends or family or visiting a store."(Beales, Mazis, Salop, and Staelin, 1981). There are many sources for consumers' information search including advertisement sources such as the internet, radio, television, newspapers and magazines, information supplied by businesses such as sales people, packaging and in-store information, consumer sources such as family, friends and colleagues, and mass media sources such as consumer protection agencies, government agencies and mass media sources. Understanding consumers' purchasing behavior is a key factor of a firm to attract and retain customers and improving the firm's prospects for survival and growth, and enhancing shareholder's value. Therefore, marketers should understand consumer as individual and market segment. One theory of consumer behavior supports the belief that individuals are rational. Individuals think and move through stages when making a purchase decision. This means that rational thinkers have led to the identification of a consumer buying decision process. This decision process with its different levels of involvement and influencing factors has been widely accepted and is fundamental to the understanding purchase intention represent to what consumers think they will buy. Brand equity is not only companies but also very important asset more than product itself. This paper studies brand equity model and influencing factors including information process such as information searching and information resources in the fashion market in Asia and Europe. Information searching and information resources are influencing brand knowledge that influences consumers purchase decision. Nine research hypotheses are drawn to test the relationships among antecedents of brand equity and purchase intention and relationships among brand knowledge, brand value, brand attitude, and brand loyalty. H1. Information searching influences brand knowledge positively. H2. Information sources influence brand knowledge positively. H3. Brand knowledge influences brand attitude. H4. Brand knowledge influences brand value. H5. Brand attitude influences brand loyalty. H6. Brand attitude influences brand value. H7. Brand loyalty influences purchase intention. H8. Brand value influence purchase intention. H9. There will be the same research model in Asia and Europe. We performed structural equation model analysis in order to test hypotheses suggested in this study. The model fitting index of the research model in Asia was $X^2$=195.19(p=0.0), NFI=0.90, NNFI=0.87, CFI=0.90, GFI=0.90, RMR=0.083, AGFI=0.85, which means the model fitting of the model is good enough. In Europe, it was $X^2$=133.25(p=0.0), NFI=0.81, NNFI=0.85, CFI=0.89, GFI=0.90, RMR=0.073, AGFI=0.85, which means the model fitting of the model is good enough. From the test results, hypotheses were accepted. All of these hypotheses except one are supported. In Europe, information search is not an antecedent of brand knowledge. This means that sales of global fashion brands like jeans in Europe are not expanding as rapidly as in Asian markets such as China, Japan, and South Korea. Young consumers in European countries are not more brand and fashion conscious than their counter partners in Asia. The results have theoretical, practical meaning and contributions. In the fashion jeans industry, relatively few studies examining the viability of cross-national brand equity has been studied. This study provides insight on building global brand equity and suggests information process elements like information search and information resources are working differently in Asia and Europe for fashion jean market.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.265-274
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• 1998

Purpose : This prospective study has been conducted to assess the value of three dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3DCRT) for lung cancer and to determine its potential advantage over current treatment approaches. Specific aims of this study were to 1) find the most ideal 3DCRT technique 2) establish the maximum tolerance dose that can be delivered with 3DCRT and 3) identify patients at risk for development of radiation pneumonitis. Materials and Methods : Beginning in Nov. 1994, 95 patients with inoperable non-small cell lung cancer (stage I; 4, stage II; 1, stage IIIa; 14, stage IIIb; 76) were entered onto this 3D conformal trial Areas of known disease and elective nodal areas were initially treated to 45 Gy and then using 3DCRT technique 65 to 70 Gy of total dose were delivered to the gross disease. Sixty nine patients received 65 Gy of total dose and 26 received 70 Gy Seventy eight patients (82.1$\%$) also received concurrent MVP chemotherapy. 3DCRT plans were compared with 2D plans to assess the adequacy of dose delivery to target volume, dose volume histograms for normal tissue, and normal tissue complication Probabilities (NTCP). Results : Most of plans (78/95) were composed of non-coplanar multiple (4-8) fields. Coplanar segmented conformal therapy was used in 17 pateints, choosing the proper gantry angle which minimize normal lung exposure in each segment. 3DCRT gave the full dose to nearly 100$\%$ of the gross disease target volume in all patients. The mean NTCP for ipsilateral lung with 3DCRT (range; 0.17-0.43) was 68$\%$ of the mean NTCP with 2D treatment planning (range; 0.27-0.66). DVH analysis for heart showed that irradiated volume of heart could be significantly reduced by non-coplanar 3D approach especially in the case of left lower lobe lesion. Of 95 patients evaluable for response, 75 (79$\%$), showed major response including 25 (26$\%$) with complete responses and 50 (53$\%$) with partial responses. One and two rear overall survivals of stage III patients were 62.6$\%$ and 35.2$\%$ respectively. Twenty percent (19/95) of patients had pneumonitis; Eight patients had grade 1 pneumonitis and 11 other patients had grade 2. Comparison of the average of NTCP for lung showed a significant difference between patients with and without radiation pneumonitis. Average NTCP for Patients without complication was 62$\%$ of those with complications. Conclusions : This study showed that non-coplanar multiple fields (4-8) may be one of the ideal plans for 3DCRT for lung cancer. It also suggested that 3DCRT may provide superior delivery of high dose radiation with reduced risk to normal tissue and that NTCP can be used as a guideline for the dose escalation.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.33-58
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• 1977

A bark comprises about 10 to 20 percents of a typical log by volume, and is generally considered as an unwanted residue rather than a potentially valuable resourses. As the world has been confronted with decreasing forest resources, natural resources pressure dictate that a bark should be a raw material instead of a waste. The utilization of the largely wasted bark of genus Pinus, Quercus, and Populus grown in Korea can be enhanced by learning its physical and mechanical properties. However, the study of tree bark grown in Korea have never been undertaken. In the present paper, an investigative study is carried out on the bark of three genus, eleven species representing not only the major bark trees but major species currently grown in Korea. For each species 20 trees were selected, at Suweon and Kwang-neung areas, on the same basis of the diameter class at the proper harvesting age. One $200cm^2$ segment of bark was obtained from each tree at brest height. Physical properties of bark studied are: bark density, moisture content of green bark (inner-, outer-, and total-bark), fiber saturation point, hysteresis loop, shrinkage, water absorption, specific heat, heat of wetting, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, heat of combustion, and differential thermal analysis. The mechanical properties are studied on bending and compression strength (radial, longitudinal, and tangential). The results may be summarized as follows: 1. The oven-dry specific gravities differ between wood and bark, further more even for a given bark sample, the difference is obersved between inner and outer bark. 2. The oven-dry specific gravity of bark is higher than that of wood. This fact is attributed to the anatomical structure whose characters are manifested by higher content of sieve fiber and sclereids. 3. Except Pinus koraiensis, the oven-dry specific gravity of inner bark is higher than that of outer bark, which results from higher shrinkage of inner bark. 4. The moisture content of bark increases with direct proportion to the composition ratio of sieve components and decreases with higher percent of sclerenchyma and periderm tissues. 5. The possibility of determining fiber saturation point is suggested by the measuring the heat of wetting. With the proposed method, the fiber saturation point of Pinus densiflora lies between 26 and 28%, that of Quercus accutissima ranges from 24 to 28%. These results need be further examined by other methods. 6. Contrary to the behavior of wood, the bark shrinkage is the highest in radial direction and the lowest in longitudinal direction. Quercus serrata and Q. variabilis do not fall in this category. 7. Bark shows the same specific heat as wood, but the heat of wetting of bark is higher than that of wood. In heat conductivity, bark is lower than wood. From the measures of oven-dry specific gravity (${\rho}d$) and moisture fraction specific gravity (${\rho}m$) is devised the following regression equation upon which heat conductivity can be calculated. The calculated heat conductivity of bark is between $0.8{\times}10^{-4}$ and $1.6{\times}10^{-4}cal/cm-sec-deg$. $$K=4.631+11.408{\rho}d+7.628{\rho}m$$ 8. The bark heat diffusivity varies from $8.03{\times}10^{-4}$ to $4.46{\times}10^{-4}cm^2/sec$. From differential thermal analysis, wood shows a higher thermogram than bark under ignition point, but the tendency is reversed above ignition point. 9. The modulus of rupture for static bending strength of bark is proportional to the density of bark which in turn gives the following regression equation. M=243.78X-12.02 The compressive strength of bark is the highest in radial direction, contrary to the behavior of wood, and the compressive strength of longitudinal direction follows the tangential one in decreasing order.