• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.93-100
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• 2015

Purpose - The objective of this research is to investigate whether national culture influences consumers' service evaluations. The services industry is receiving increasing attention from academia and practitioners as its position grows in global markets. Standardization or localization is a traditional managerial decision in global business. As the boundaries of services expand across national borders, firms are required to decide whether to standardize services or adjust to local needs. Though it is imperative to reflect global perspectives in marketing theories, these perspectives are mostly based on Western conceptualization of the world. Through a comparison of consumer groups from two culturally remote countries, service quality evaluation mechanisms are examined based on similar stimuli. The study tries to expand service marketing perspectives across national borders. Research design, data, and methodology - Eastern and Western countries are known to be culturally distinct. One Eastern and one Western country were chosen: an Anglo-Saxon country (the U.S., England, and Australia) and South Korea. In Hofstede's cultural dimensions, the differences between the two are pronounced. The Anglo-Saxon based countries share many similarities. Samples of the same sites are targeted. Questionnaires using a service quality scale (SERVQUAL) and a customer satisfaction scale were distributed. Utilizing Hofstede's typology of culture, the service evaluation mechanisms of the respondents from the two groups are evaluated. Three hypotheses are proposed from the review of the literature. These are service evaluation habits, importance of service quality dimensions for the individualistic/collectivistic countries, and strong/weak uncertainty avoidance cultures. Consumers from the individualistic countries are considered to care about themselves and demand a higher level of responsiveness and assurance. On the other hand, consumers from high uncertainty avoidance cultures are assumed to rely more on tangible questions of service quality, as these are the only predictable service quality indicators. A t-test and regression analysis are applied to validate the constructs. Results - The respondents from the Anglo-Saxon countries are more generous on service evaluations than Koreans. Researchers have indicated that Americans tend to give higher service evolution scores than European, Mexican, and Korean counterparts. The tendency is the same here. The sample from Anglo-Saxon countries demonstrated higher service evaluation scores on every dimension of SERVQUAL. For the second hypothesis, the respondents from the collectivistic culture rely less on core service dimensions (assurance and responsiveness) due to their tendency to place more value on group harmony than individual interest. However, the third hypothesis was not validated. Conclusions - The study attempted to expand the scope of service marketing to reflect cross-national perspectives. Service quality is known to have a strong influence on customer satisfaction and loyalty behavior. However, this research demonstrated that individuals from different cultural territories respond heterogeneously to the same stimuli. Scholars argue that national cultures are main factors in such deviated behavior. Scholars and global managers should be aware of differences in consumer value judgment mechanisms such as satisfaction, expectations, and perceptions.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.75-87
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• 2009

This paper tries to explore the local uniqueness and evolutionary characteristics of the spatial structure of the rural dwelling houses of China's Korean Ethnic. For this purpose, the paper selected 51 typical samples in each district, analyzing their ancestral home, building age, size, construction method, family composition etc. Moreover, the paper classified the pattern of the samples and analyzed the characteristic and evolutionary process of each pattern. Conclusions based on the analysis of the ancestral homes are as follows: 1.The house pattern of these China's Korean ethnics who are originally from the Hamkyung province is mainly jeongji- access type (A-type). A-type is mainly distributed along the Tumen River and Yalu River, in the Sino-Russian borders and the inland areas of Heilongjiang province. With the migration of the China's Korean ethnics, in Sino-Russian borders and the inland areas of Heilongjiang province, A-type with the 'badang' space, vestibule-access type (C-type) and living-centered type (D-type) appeared. 2. House patterns of Korean ethnics who are originally from the Pyongan province include three types: A-type, kitchen type (B-type) and C-type. A-type is mainly distributed along the Yalu River while B-type and C-type are mainly in the inland areas of these three Northeast provinces. With the decrease of population, the merger of rooms happened in A-type; while in the B-type and C-type, bathroom and storage came to exist in the north of the room. 3. The house pattern of Korean ethnics who are originally from the Gyeongsang province is mainly B-type, which is distributed in the inland areas of Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces. Besides, C-type and D-type also exist. They are in Jilin and Liaoning provinces. In the process of evolution, storage was set in the north part of the room or the window was cancelled in order to defend the coldness in Heilongjiang area, while in Jilin and Liaoning provinces, living room came into existence, which is gradually developing to D-type.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.77-96
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• 2017

Purpose - This study aims to develop correspondence strategies to the environment change in domestic retail store types. Recently, new types of retails have emerged in retail industries. Therefore, trade area platform has developed focusing on the speed of data, no longer trade area from district border. Besides, 'trade area smart' brings about change in retail types with the development of giga internet. Thus, context shopping is changing the way of consumers' purchase pattern through data capture, technology capability, and algorithm development. For these reasons, the sales estimation model has been shown to be flawed using the notion of former scale and time, and it is necessary to construct a new model. Research design, data, and methodology - This study focuses on measuring retail change in large multi-shopping mall for the outlook for retail industry and competition for trade area with the theoretical background understanding of retail store types and overall domestic retail conditions. The competition among retail store types are strong, whereas the borders among them are fading. There is a greater need to analyze on a new model because sales expectation can be hard to get with business area competition. For comprehensive research, therefore, the research method based on the statistical analysis was excluded, and field survey and literature investigation method were used to identify problems and propose an alternative. In research material, research fidelity has improved with complementing research data related with retail specialists' as well as department stores. Results - This study analyzed trade area survival and its pattern through sales estimation and empirical studies on trade areas. The sales estimation, based on Huff model system, counts the number of households shopping absorption expectation from trade areas. Based on the results, this paper estimated sales scale, and then deducted modified probability model. Conclusions - In times of retail store chain destruction and off-line store reorganization, modified Huff model has problems in estimating sales. Transformation probability model, supplemented by the existing problems, was analyzed to be more effective in competitiveness business condition. This study offers a viable alternative to figure out related trade areas' sale estimation by reconstructing new-modified probability model. As a result, the future task is to enlarge the borders from IT infrastructure with data and evidence based business into DT infrastructure.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.109-126
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• 2019

The Panmunjom Declaration adopted by the leaders of South and North Korea on April 27, 2018, has created an environment conducive for peace and cooperation in the Korean Peninsula. In the June of last year, South Korea has joined the Organization for Cooperation between Railways (OSJD). The membership of OSJD has established a solid foundation for restoring a multimodal logistics system that connects the Korean peninsula to Eurasia countries, including China and Russia. In this paper, a questionnaire survey targeting working-level experts was conducted to find the barriers in constructing multimodal logistics that efficiently connect the port-continental railways of the Korean peninsula and the Eurasian nations. Survey items were divided into five categories-border crossing procedures, technology, facilities, operation, and government support. As a result, among the most important problems of international multimodal logistics in Eurasia that need to be solved on priority include improving transshipment facilities, eliminating inspection carried out at every country for transit, simplifying documents for customs clearance, and minimizing the changes in freight rates. In conclusion, for vitalizing the connection between the Korean peninsula and the continental railways, it is necessary to develop a transshipment system to facilitate the changes in tracks at the borders by making a joint effort with the international community. Second, railway and operational systems in South Korea, North Korea, China, and Russia should be standardized. Third, international cooperation among South Korea, North Korea, China, and Russia is essential for simplifying customs clearance at borders, priority departure of domestic cargo, sharing information about the changes in freight rates, and so on. Finally, the government should come up with measures to secure the quantity of cargo required to form block trains, while developing new business models.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.90.1-90.1
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• 2010

The design and fabrication of a metallic bipolar plate-gasket assembly for polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEMFCs) is defined. This bipolar plate-gasket assembly was prepared by inserting a previously prepared bipolar plate in the specially designed gasket mold. For this aim, a proprietary fluoro-silicone based rubber was injected directly into the bipolar plate borders. Gaskets obtained like this showed the chemically / physically stable and the good sealibilty in typically operating PEM fuel cell conditions. And also, this bipolar plate-gasket assembly shows lots of advantages with respect to traditional PEMFCs stack assembling systems: useful application to automative stacking due to easy handling, reduced fabrication time, possibility of quality control and failed elements substitution. This bipolar plate-gasket assembly was evaluated in the short fuel cell stack and met the leakage requirement for normal operation both in short-term and in long-term operation. Especially, it was confirmed that this gasket could be applied successfully even in the high pressure FEM fuel cell systems(over 2.0 bar in absolute pressure).

• ETRI Journal
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.21-32
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• 2008

Cognitive radio (CR) has been proposed as an effective technology for flexible use of the radio spectrum. The interference between primary users and CR users, however, becomes a critical problem when they are using adjacent frequency channels with different transmission power levels. In this paper, a robust CR orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) architecture, which can effectively suppress interference to nearby primary users and overcome adjacent channel interference (ACI) to the CR user, is proposed. This new approach is characterized by adaptive data repetition for subcarriers under heavy ACI, and adaptive time spreading for subcarriers near the borders of the CR user's spectrum. The data repetition scheme provides extra power gain against the ACI coming from primary users. Time spreading guarantees an acceptable interference level to nearby primary users. By computer simulation, we demonstrate that, under a CR environment, the proposed CR OFDM architecture outperforms conventional OFDM systems in terms of throughput and BER performance.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.5-10
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• 2018

Purpose - The recent establishment of many varieties of English language in the globe has created many models of English such as world Englishes (WEs), English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), English as a family of languages, and English as an Intercultural Language (EIcL). Among the models, the present study highlights 'English as an intercultural language (EIcL)' in relation to distribution science business English teaching to elucidate what EIcL is and why it is critical and how it can be realized in the business English classrooms. Research design, data, and methodology - This study look into the EIcL paradigm that empowers all active users to view English as universal and at the same time enables them to develop critical skills to bridge intercultural gaps or to cross borders. Results - Rather than just focusing on an acquisition of standardized English(es), EIcL serves as a major contextual factor facilitating success in getting competence among the different English languages. Conclusions - EIcL is a promising and ultimately rewarding approach to the contemporary business English teaching arena. EIcL should be achieved through policies, textbooks or living abroad, and, above all, learners/teachers' active awareness and understanding' of the EIcL mainstreams.

• Archives of Craniofacial Surgery
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.123-126
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• 2020

Skin cancer, which often occurs as a result of skin exposure to ultraviolet light radiation, usually presents with characteristic abnormal features, such as ulcerative lesions, irregular morphology, bleeding, and excessive growth. Therefore, skin cancer rarely resembles a benign tumor on visual inspection. Nonetheless, squamous cell carcinoma and basal cell carcinoma with nodular or polypoid features can have a similar appearance to that of benign tumors, meaning that they are sometimes misdiagnosed as benign. As benign and malignant tumors have some overlapping features, clinicians sometimes use additional imaging techniques such as ultrasonography to improve the accuracy of the diagnosis because even a malignant tumor that externally resembles a benign tumor generally has internal morphological features characteristic of malignancy, such as invasion and irregular borders. However, these imaging tools also have limitations, and punch or excisional biopsy can be needed if malignancy cannot be completely ruled out. Herein, we report a case of skin malignancy initially misdiagnosed as a benign epidermal cyst based on external visual inspection and ultrasonography.

• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.218-224
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• 1996

We describe two cases of metastatic Wilms' tumor in the lung with emphasis on the cytologic features of specimens obtained by needle aspiration. One of them was extrarenal Wilms' tumor. The findings were correlated with the histopathologic features of the primary lesion. Cellular components in the fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) slides included blastemal, epithelial, stromal and inflammatory cells with immature tubular differentiation and rosette formation. Recognition of these cellular components in FNAC smears help in establishing FNAC diagnosis of Wilms' tumor. The blastemal cells were represented by small to medium sized cells with scanty cytoplasm having ill-defined borders and round to slightly oval nuclei with evenly dispersed chromatin and small marginated nucleoli. They were seen in our two cases. The differential diagnosis includes neuroblastoma, malignant lymphoma, malignant rhabdoid tumor, clear cell sarcoma, Ewing's sarcoma and embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma. In conclusion, making a definite cytologic diagnosis of metastatic Wilms' tumor may be possible by light and electron microscopy and immunohistochemical staining. The above findings may contribute to the diagnosis of FNAC of metastatic Wilms' tumor.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.486-489
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• 2009

Odontogenic Myxoma of the jaws is a rare benign tumor derived from embryonic mesenchymal elements of dental anlage. It appears to originate from the dental papilla, follicle or periodontal ligament. Odontogenic Myxoma of the maxilla is less frequent but behaves more aggressively than that of the mandible, because it spreads through the maxillary sinus. Radiographically, the tumors present as unilocular or multilocular radiolucent lesions with well-defined borders with fine, bony trabeculae. On gross examination, the tumor appears as a smooth, glistening, gelatinous, lobulated mass. On microscopic examination, these neoplasms exhibit loose arrangement of stellate-shaped cells. The intercellular substance is a mucinous and homogeneous matrix. We report a case of odontogenic myxoma of the maxilla observed in our clinic with good prognosis after partial maxillectomy.