• Title/Summary/Keyword: Service Product

Search Result 2,416, Processing Time 0.032 seconds

Association Between Social Support, and Depressive Symptoms Among Firefighters: The Mediating Role of Negative Coping

  • Liang Wang;Fengqiong Chen;Yulu Zhang;Mengliang Ye
    • Safety and Health at Work
    • /
    • v.14 no.4
    • /
    • pp.431-437
    • /
    • 2023
  • Background: Depressive symptoms (DS) can erode physical and mental health; social support (SS) is considered a buffer for DS and a promoter for improving coping and recovery abilities. However, there is almost no research on the mediating role of negative coping (NC) in SS and DS, especially among firefighters. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among firefighters in Chongqing, China, and the valid data of 407 firefighters were collected through questionnaires distributed on the WeChat platform in 2020. Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) 26.0 is used for descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. Structural equation modeling was adopted to analyze the association among SS, NC, and DS. The mediation effect is also evaluated. Results: Firefighters' detection rate of DS is 23.3%, and when they receive more SS were less likely to develop DS. NC was positively correlated with DS (β = 0.54, p < 0.001) after controlling for SS. Besides, the results of structural equation modeling showed that NC partially mediates the relationship between SS and DS (standard error = 0.039, indirect effects = 0.109, 95% confidence interval: 0.047-0.200 p < 0.001). Conclusion: NC has a partial indirect effect between SS and DS among firefighters. SS could not only affect DS directly but also indirect work on it by affecting NC. This discovery will be a novel and meaningful part of the research on the firefighter population.

Design optimization of structural component (hitch bracket of tractor): A reverse engineering approach

  • Dilip K. Sahu;Priyam P. Tripathy;Trupti R. Mahapatra;Punyapriya Mishra;Debadutta Mishra
    • Structural Engineering and Mechanics
    • /
    • v.89 no.5
    • /
    • pp.467-477
    • /
    • 2024
  • Manufacturing industries, now-a-days, focus mostly on redesigning of the products for reducing cost and lead-time via detailed analysis of its composition and constructional design regarded as the Reverse Engineering (RE) process that involves the acquisition of relevant data of the original product, analysis for its functional use and finally, reproduction of the design for improving the functionality. In the present work, a new model based on optimization at different steps of RE, is proposed to redesign a structural component, which is subjected to severe tensile stress while in service. The component under study is an accessory namely, hitch bracket, attached to the rear axle of a tractor to connect it to the plough. The methodology includes building of a 3D Computer Aided Design (CAD) model from the scanned data of the existing component with the help of 3D scanner. Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) analysis is carried out on the CAD model with existing load conditions by Finite Element Analysis (FEA). Topological optimization is carried out giving rise to a modified/optimized design of the component. It is observed that the performance of the modified component improves significantly with simultaneous weight reduction without affecting its functional use and the manufacturing process setup.

Cultural Influence on Product/Service Acceptance: Explorative Research Utilizing Hofstede's Dimensions (제품/서비스 수용에 대한 문화적 영향: Hofstede 지수를 활용한 탐색적 연구)

  • Sungjip Nam;Jibok Chung
    • The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
    • /
    • v.10 no.4
    • /
    • pp.295-303
    • /
    • 2024
  • Understanding cultural diversity is tremendously important to academia and businesses. The Central Asia is strategically important to Korea specially for businesses. Of the about two million foreign residents living in Korea, Central Asians take fifth place and the region is a home of 300,000 Korean decedents called "Koryoin." With its increasingly recognized the potential and relevance, the former Soviet region has gained importance for businesses and academia in South Korea. This study uses the Hofstede's classifications to exploratorily analyze the relationship between Central Asian people's experience of Korean products and services and their loyalty to Korean products and services.

The Sociocultural Meaning of Zero-Calorie Beverage Consumption: A Qualitative Study on Health Perceptions and Beverage Choices Among Young Adults in South Korea

  • Jin Soo YOUK;Jin Hee KIM
    • The Korean Journal of Food & Health Convergence
    • /
    • v.10 no.4
    • /
    • pp.21-27
    • /
    • 2024
  • The purpose of this study is to identify the sociocultural aspects of zero-calorie beverage consumption among young Koreans. Through an interview methodology, this study explores the perceptions of zero-calorie beverages, consumption behavior, and the important role of zero-calorie beverages in identity formation. The study uniquely integrates theories from health psychology, sociology, and cultural studies to analyze the complex interplay between individual health beliefs, social norms, and evolving cultural trends. The results show that the choice of zero-calorie beverages is heavily influenced by health consciousness, pervasive appearance culture, social media dynamics, and shifting workplace paradigms. Participants had a nuanced view of these drinks as both a "healthy alternative" and an "artificial product," reflecting the deep ambivalence that characterizes modern consumer society. Importantly, we found that the consumption of zero-calorie beverages serves as a means of sophisticated self-expression and impression management, acting as a form of cultural capital. This study makes a significant contribution to our understanding of health behavior in specific sociocultural contexts and provides important insights for health policy makers, marketing strategists. The study emphasizes that a multidisciplinary approach is essential in studying contemporary food and beverage consumption patterns, which have far-reaching implications for public health efforts and social epidemiology at home and abroad.

Back to Faraway Upriver Territories: Forest Products, Decentralization, and Aoheng Dayak's Return Migrations, Indonesian Borneo, 1960-2020

  • Bernard Sellato
    • SUVANNABHUMI
    • /
    • v.16 no.2
    • /
    • pp.215-261
    • /
    • 2024
  • In the 1960s, the Aoheng, a small tribal group with immense territories on the upper Mahakam River, began out-migrating to downstream settlements in search of better living conditions. A trickle of young men, then their families, and more sizable groups, they settled in various towns along the river. In Samarinda, the provincial capital, they came to form a community of several hundred. When the powerful forest product boom (c. 1990) for the P. R. China market opened up the hinterland to extractive ventures, many Aoheng returned home to protect their rich natural resources from forceful outsiders. After 1998, decentralization policies established scores of new provinces, regencies, and districts across the country. Soon, West-Kutai was created as the interior "Dayak" regency, upstream and autonomous from the Moslem-Malay coastal regions. Coal mining and oilpalm plantations massively intensified, while Sendawar, its capital, offered hundreds of civil-service jobs and business opportunities. In 2012, West-Kutai was split to create yet another regency, Upper-Mahakam, prompting robust Aoheng reflux/return moves toward its upstream capital, Ujoh-Bilang. Already open to wild-frontier-style inroads by outsiders, it will soon be flooded by industrial ventures. The Aoheng, bound to become a minority in their own district, are struggling to defer their inevitable final dissolution.

Respiratory and Other Hazard Characteristics of Substances in Cleaning Products Used in Healthcare Centres in England and Wales

  • Sewon Lee;Andrew Povey;Martin Seed;Martie Van Tongeren
    • Safety and Health at Work
    • /
    • v.15 no.3
    • /
    • pp.368-372
    • /
    • 2024
  • Occupational use of cleaning products can cause asthma in healthcare workers but the cleaning agents responsible are not yet known. This study aimed to identify respiratory and other hazards in cleaning products on the National Health Service (NHS) supply chain online catalogue and used in the NHS. Information on cleaning products, their composition, and H-statements that identified hazard characteristics of chemical substances in them was obtained from chemical safety data sheets (SDSs). Furthermore, a quantitative structure-activity relationship model and a published asthmagen list were used to identify potential additional respiratory hazards. 473 cleaning products and 229 substances were identified. SDSs reported only 4 respiratory sensitizers but an additional 51 were suggested by the other 2 methods. In contrast, 25 respiratory irritants were identified using SDSs and only one from the asthmagen list. This comprehensive overview of cleaning agents' hazards has potential use in future risk assessment and epidemiological studies.

Investigation on high gradient magnetic separation for CRUD material in nuclear reactor

  • Shigehiro Nishijima;Naoki Nomura;Fumihito Mishima;Tomokazu Sekine
    • Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
    • /
    • v.26 no.3
    • /
    • pp.5-8
    • /
    • 2024
  • In this study, we investigated high-gradient magnetic separation as a method for separating crud in high-temperature, high-pressure water inside a nuclear reactor. Corrosion products in the coolant circulate through the system and attach to the reactor core, where they are activated by neutron irradiation. The activated corrosion products then desorb from the core and circulate through the cooling system again. The corrosion product in the reactor water or piping system is called crud. Crud is the main source of radiation exposure for radiation workers. Removal and recovery of crud is important in decommissioning plants that have been in operation for service life, and new technologies are also desired. A method for separating activated ions adsorbed on ion exchange resins in nuclear reactors using magnetic separation is developed. In this method, the ion exchange resin is washed with acid, the activated ions are adsorbed from the washing water using adsorbents, and then separated magnetically. Rudimentary experiments were conducted to investigate the possibility of this method.

Risk Assessment about Heavy Metals Contamination in Agricultural Products at Abandoned Mine Area (폐광산 인근 지역에서 생산되는 농산물의 중금속 오염도 평가)

  • An, Jae-Min;Chang, Soon-Young;Hwang, Hyang-Ran;Park, Dae-Han;Lee, Bom-Nae;Kim, Saet-Byeol;Lee, Gwang-Hee
    • Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
    • /
    • v.39 no.1
    • /
    • pp.10-19
    • /
    • 2020
  • BACKGROUND: This study was to carry out risk assessment of contamination of cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), and inorganic arsenic (I-As) in agricultural products of 25 crops from the abandoned mine areas. The 36 typical investigation sites located in Gyeongbuk provincial area were selected by considering the heavy metal levels, that had been known that the amount of the heavy metals exceeded the contamination level based on the previous survey. METHODS AND RESULTS: Cadmium, lead, and total arsenic (T-As) concentrations were determined using microwave device and ICP-MS. Inorganic arsenic was determined by HPLC-ICP-MS. The limits of quantification for heavy metals were 0.59 ㎍/kg for Cd, 0.42 ㎍/kg for Pb, 0.55 ㎍/kg for T-As, and sum of As (III) (1.74 ㎍/kg) and As (V) (2.25 ㎍/kg) for I-As, respectively. The contents of Cd, Pb, and I-As (only rice) were N.D.-0.958 mg/kg, N.D.-0.227 mg/kg, and 0.082 mg/kg, respectively, in the agricultural products. For risk assessment, dietary exposures of heavy metals through usual intake were 5.20×10-4-7.15×100 ㎍/day for Cd, 7.00×10-5-7.75×10-1 ㎍/day for Pb, and 1.17×101 ㎍/day for I-As, taking 0.01-14.37%, 0.01-2.05%, and 15.16% as risk indices, respectively. CONCLUSION: It requires to consider the critical levels of heavy metals in agricultural products due to unexpectedly high levels in a few places, while concentrations of heavy metals in the samples were relatively low in most areas.

The Effect of Price Promotional Information about Brand on Consumer's Quality Perception: Conditioning on Pretrial Brand (품패개격촉소신식대소비자질량인지적영향(品牌价格促销信息对消费者质量认知的影响))

  • Lee, Min-Hoon;Lim, Hang-Seop
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
    • /
    • v.19 no.3
    • /
    • pp.17-27
    • /
    • 2009
  • Price promotion typically reduces the price for a given quantity or increases the quantity available at the same price, thereby enhancing value and creating an economic incentive to purchase. It often is used to encourage product or service trial among nonusers of products or services. Thus, it is important to understand the effects of price promotions on quality perception made by consumer who do not have prior experience with the promoted brand. However, if consumers associate a price promotion itself with inferior brand quality, the promotion may not achieve the sales increase the economic incentives otherwise might have produced. More specifically, low qualitative perception through price promotion will undercut the economic and psychological incentives and reduce the likelihood of purchase. Thus, it is important for marketers to understand how price promotional informations about a brand have impact on consumer's unfavorable quality perception of the brand. Previous literatures on the effects of price promotions on quality perception reveal inconsistent explanations. Some focused on the unfavorable effect of price promotion on consumer's perception. But others showed that price promotions didn't raise unfavorable perception on the brand. Prior researches found these inconsistent results related to the timing of the price promotion's exposure and quality evaluation relative to trial. And, whether the consumer has been experienced with the product promotions in the past or not may moderate the effects. A few studies considered differences among product categories as fundamental factors. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of price promotional informations on consumer's unfavorable quality perception under the different conditions. The author controlled the timing of the promotional exposure and varied past promotional patterns and information presenting patterns. Unlike previous researches, the author examined the effects of price promotions setting limit to pretrial situation by controlling potentially moderating effects of prior personal experience with the brand. This manipulations enable to resolve possible controversies in relation to this issue. And this manipulation is meaningful for the work sector. Price promotion is not only used to target existing consumers but also to encourage product or service trial among nonusers of products or services. Thus, it is important for marketers to understand how price promotional informations about a brand have impact on consumer's unfavorable quality perception of the brand. If consumers associate a price promotion itself with inferior quality about unused brand, the promotion may not achieve the sales increase the economic incentives otherwise might have produced. In addition, if the price promotion ends, the consumer that have purchased that certain brand will likely to display sharply decreased repurchasing behavior. Through a literature review, hypothesis 1 was set as follows to investigate the adjustive effect of past price promotion on quality perception made by consumers; The influence that price promotion of unused brand have on quality perception made by consumers will be adjusted by past price promotion activity of the brand. In other words, a price promotion of an unused brand that have not done a price promotion in the past will have a unfavorable effect on quality perception made by consumer. Hypothesis 2-1 was set as follows : When an unused brand undertakes price promotion for the first time, the information presenting pattern of price promotion will have an effect on the consumer's attribution for the cause of the price promotion. Hypothesis 2-2 was set as follows : The more consumer dispositionally attribute the cause of price promotion, the more unfavorable the quality perception made by consumer will be. Through test 1, the subjects were given a brief explanation of the product and the brand before they were provided with a $2{\times}2$ factorial design that has 4 patterns of price promotion (presence or absence of past price promotion * presence or absence of current price promotion) and the explanation describing the price promotion pattern of each cell. Then the perceived quality of imaginary brand WAVEX was evaluated in the scale of 7. The reason tennis racket was chosen is because the selected product group must have had almost no past price promotions to eliminate the influence of average frequency of promotion on the value of price promotional information as Raghubir and Corfman (1999) pointed out. Test 2 was also carried out on students of the same management faculty of test 1 with tennis racket as the product group. As with test 1, subjects with average familiarity for the product group and low familiarity for the brand was selected. Each subjects were assigned to one of the two cells representing two different information presenting patterns of price promotion of WAVEX (case where the reason behind price promotion was provided/case where the reason behind price promotion was not provided). Subjects looked at each promotional information before evaluating the perceived quality of the brand WAVEX in the scale of 7. The effect of price promotion for unfamiliar pretrial brand on consumer's perceived quality was proved to be moderated with the presence or absence of past price promotion. The consistency with past promotional behavior is important variable that makes unfavorable effect on brand evaluations get worse. If the price promotion for the brand has never been carried out before, price promotion activity may have more unfavorable effects on consumer's quality perception. Second, when the price promotion of unfamiliar pretrial brand was executed for the first time, presenting method of informations has impact on consumer's attribution for the cause of firm's promotion. And the unfavorable effect of quality perception is higher when the consumer does dispositional attribution comparing with situational attribution. Unlike the previous studies where the main focus was the absence or presence of favorable or unfavorable motivation from situational/dispositional attribution, the focus of this study was exaus ing the fact that a situational attribution can be inferred even if the consumer employs a dispositional attribution on the price promotional behavior, if the company provides a persuasive reason. Such approach, in academic perspectih sis a large significance in that it explained the anchoring and adjng ch approcedures by applying it to a non-mathematical problem unlike the previous studies where it wis ionaly explained by applying it to a mathematical problem. In other wordn, there is a highrspedency tmatispositionally attribute other's behaviors according to the fuedach aal attribution errors and when this is applied to the situation of price promotions, we can infer that consumers are likely tmatispositionally attribute the company's price promotion behaviors. Ha ever, even ueder these circumstances, the company can adjng the consumer's anchoring tmareduce the po wibiliute thdispositional attribution. Furthermore, unlike majority of previous researches on short/long-term effects of price promotion that only considered the effect of price promotions on consumer's purchasing behaviors, this research measured the effect on perceived quality, one of man elements that affects the purchasing behavior of consumers. These results carry useful implications for the work sector. A guideline of effectively providing promotional informations for a new brand can be suggested through the outcomes of this research. If the brand is to avoid false implications such as inferior quality while implementing a price promotion strategy, it must provide a clear and acceptable reasons behind the promotion. Especially it is more important for the company with no past price promotion to provide a clear reason. An inconsistent behavior can be the cause of consumer's distrust and anxiety. This is also one of the most important factor of risk of endless price wars. Price promotions without prior notice can buy doubt from consumers not market share.

  • PDF

Patent Production and Technological Performance of Korean Firms: The Role of Corporate Innovation Strategies (특허생산과 기술성과: 기업 혁신전략의 역할)

  • Lee, Jukwan;Jung, Jin Hwa
    • Journal of Technology Innovation
    • /
    • v.22 no.1
    • /
    • pp.149-175
    • /
    • 2014
  • This study analyzed the effect of corporate innovation strategies on patent production and ultimately on technological change and new product development of firms in South Korea. The intent was to derive efficient strategies for enhancing technological performance of the firms. For the empirical analysis, three sources of data were combined: four waves of the Human Capital Corporate Panel Survey (HCCP) data collected by the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training (KRIVET), corporate financial data obtained from the Korea Information Service (KIS), and corporate patent data provided by the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO). The patent production function was estimated by zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) regression. The technological performance function was estimated by two-stage regression, taking into account the endogeneity of patent production. An ordered logit model was applied for the second stage regression. Empirical results confirmed the critical role of corporate innovation strategies in patent production and in facilitating technological change and new product development of the firms. In patent production, the firms' R&D investment and human resources were key determinants. Higher R&D intensity led to more patents, yet with decreasing marginal productivity. A larger stock of registered patents also led to a larger flow of new patent production. Firms were more prolific in patent production when they had high-quality personnel, intensely investing in human resource development, and adopting market-leading or fast-follower strategy as compared to stability strategy. In technological performance, the firms' human resources played a key role in accelerating technological change and new product development. R&D intensity expedited new product development of the firm. Firms adopting market-leading or fast-follower strategy were at an advantage than those with stability strategy in technological performance. Firms prolific in patent production were also advanced in terms of technological change and new product development. However, the nexus between patent production and technological performance measures was substantially reduced when controlling for the endogeneity of patent production. These results suggest that firms need to strengthen the linkage between patent production and technological performance, and take strategies that address each firm's capacities and needs.