• Title/Summary/Keyword: consumer health

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International Rule for Environment and International Trade (국제환경규범(國際環境規範)과 무역연계(貿易連繫))

  • Shin, Han-Dong
    • THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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    • v.12
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    • pp.587-613
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    • 1999
  • Environmental problems such as global climate change, depletion, ocean and air pollution, and resource degradation-compounded by an expanding world population-respect no border and threaten the health, prosperity and jobs of all mankind. Our efforts to promote democracy, free trade, and stability in the world will fall short unless people have a livable environment. We have an enormous stake in the management of the world's resources. By increasing demand for timber, natural gas, coal and consumer's goods have destroyed the grounds for living. Greenhouse gas emissions anywhere in the world have threatened coastal communities, and then changed the Earth's climate system. The burning of coal, oil, and other fossil fuels is increasing substantially the concentration of heat-trapping gasses such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide in our air. The earth's temperature and sea levels are rising as a result. Since 1972 there has been a marked growth in the number and scope of environmental treaties. In particular, after the 1992 Rio Conference, international legal instruments became more concentrated on addressing environment within the context of sustainable development and incorporated a number of new concepts and innovative approaches. A preliminary analysis of recent conventions and in particular those associated with the Rio Conference indicates various ideas, concepts and principles which have come to the fore including sustainable development, equity, common concern of humankind, common but differentiated responsibilities and global partnership. However, international trade also has an environmental impact which must be minimized or countered. Positive measures are to be preferred to achieve environmental goals, but where trade provisions are necessary, they should be appropriately used within environmental conventions to facilitate the reduction and limitation of the negative impacts of trade and to enhance the complementarity of the multilateral trade regime with the imperatives of environmental protection, in the interests of environmental protection and sustainable development generally. The international community has to recognize and endorse this need to achieve complementarity between trade and environment issues.

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Introduction to the Technology, Applications, Products, Markets, R&D, and Perspectives of Nanofoods in the Food Industry

  • Kim, Dong-Myong;Lee, Gee-Dong
    • Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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    • v.11 no.4
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    • pp.348-357
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    • 2006
  • Nano is a unit that designates a billionth; accordingly nanotechnology could be described as the study and applications of the unique characteristics and phenomena of nanometer size materials. Applications of nanotechnology fall into two categories (one is top-down and the other is bottom-up). Currently, most products are the results of the top-down approach. Nanofoods have distinct functional characteristics stemming from the size, mass, chemical combinations, electrolytic features, magnetic properties of food sources at the nano level and which can be applied for safe absorption and delivery into the body. The greatest advantage of nanofood is that it permits the efficient use of small quantities of nutritional elements by increasing digestive absorption ability and by delivering natural elements without any change in their original characteristics. On the other hand, there are still unsolved problems, such as questions about safety and introduction of harmful material. The demand for new commercial food products is increasing, and commercial food producers are gradually combining nanotechnology and traditional food preparation methods. Nanofoods will improve our eating habits remarkably in the future. Tomorrow we will design nanofoods by shaping molecules and atoms. It will have a big impact on the food and food-processing industries. The future belongs to new products and new processes with the goals of customizing and personalizing consumer products. Nanotechnology is expected to be applied to not only foods themselves, but also to food packaging, production, safety, processing and storage. Also, it is believed that nanotechnology will be applied tracking finished products back to production facilities and even to specific processing equipment in those facilities. The aim of this study is the introduction of technology, applications, products, markets, R&D, and perspectives of nanofoods in the food industry.

pH equation model of RFID-pH sensor using fermented foods (RFID-pH 센서를 이용한 발효식품의 pH 모델식)

  • Lee, Chang Won;Kim, Joo Woong;Son, Dong Sul;Eom, Ki-Hwan
    • Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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    • 2013.05a
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    • pp.849-852
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    • 2013
  • These fermented food has been increased interest to people's health in recent years. Factors which have taste, storability and trophism of fermented food is affected food of material, temperature, humidity and pH. But fermented food has yet not been established of model equation for the change in pH. If they that seller and consumer can know the status and quality, customer could increase credibility and consumption-oriented about fermented foods. In this paper, we obtain model equation through measured PH of fermented foods. So, model equation is offered platform about maturity of fermented foods. In order to confirm the usefulness of the proposed model equation, we tested the change in PH about a kimchi and a rice wine which is fermented food of Korea representative.

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A Study on the Employment Effects of the Digital Bio-healthcare Industry (디지털바이오헬스케어산업의 고용유발효과에 관한 연구)

  • Jang, Pilho;Kim, Yongwan;Jun, Sungkyu;Lee, Changwoon;Jung, Myungjin
    • Journal of Information Technology Services
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    • v.19 no.2
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    • pp.23-35
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    • 2020
  • The development of digital technology is changing the paradigm of the healthcare industry to preventive and consumer-oriented. The combination of the ICT industry and the bio-healthcare industry is emerging as a core industry in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The Korean government has also selected the bio-healthcare industry as one of the three key future development industries. In May, the government announced its bio-health industry innovation strategy and set a goal of 300,000 employees. Therefore, analyzing the effects of employment on the related industries of the digital bio-healthcare industry is very important for the establishment of future industrial and technology development policies. The research method restructures the integrated classification of 32 industries into 34, including the digital bio-healthcare industry, using the classification criteria of the government and professional institutions, and then reorganizes the digital bio-healthcare industry into eight industries classified as one industry group. The analysis data was taken from the Bank of Korea's 2019 data. Various trigger coefficients and ripple effects coefficients were rewritten using the analysis method of the Input-output Statistics. The analysis of the results compares the employment-induced effects of the digital bio-healthcare industry and the ripple effects of related industries in production, investment and value-added. In addition, in terms of investment effect, the effects of in-house and related industries were compared. It is hoped that the results of this study will be used to establish employment and industrial policies.

An Analysis of Preferences for Korean-Style Fried Chicken and Purchase behaviors: A Comparison between Chinese and Korean Students at a University in Daejeon, Korea (한국식 후라이드 치킨 선호도와 구매행동에 관한 연구 - 대전지역 중국인 유학생과 한국인 대학생의 비교분석 -)

  • Choi, Jinkyung
    • The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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    • v.25 no.1
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    • pp.65-74
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    • 2014
  • The globalization of Korean food has long been an important agenda for both the Korean government and food-related firms, and there have been many trials and errors because of cultural differences in food consumption habits. This study explores Chinese consumers' purchase behaviors toward chicken menus, and for a better understanding of these behaviors, the study considers differences in consumer behavior in between Chinese and Korean consumers around Daejeon, South Korea. The sample included a total of 232 respondents who provided information on their purchase behaviors toward chicken menus. A total of 13 purchasing attributes were compared through a t-test, and according to the results, there were significant differences in 6 attributes: "like the taste" (p<0.001), "as a side dish for drinks" (p<0.001), "to feel good" (p<0.01), "like all chicken dishes" (p<0.05), "for health" (p<0.05), and "low prices" (p<0.05). The results for chicken consumption indicate significant differences in frequency (p<0.05), goals (p<0.01), and expected fair prices (p<0.05). These results suggest that, to make Korean chicken dishes a global Korean menu, future research should focus on consumers' motives for purchasing chicken menus, satisfaction, and characteristics. The generalizability of the results may be limited because the survey was conducted by considering only those students in the Daejeon area. Future research should include a wider range of consumers in both Korea and China for better strategic plans for food-related firms.

유통산업의 경쟁촉진을 위한 규제개혁 방안

  • 김성철
    • Journal of Distribution Research
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    • v.2 no.2
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    • pp.153-172
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    • 1997
  • The distribution sector is affected by a wide range of regulations. Many of these are related to health and safety, others are related to urban planning and environmental issues, whereas some mainly have an economic basis. But, regulations many be unduly restrictive, in which case they can drive up costs and ultimately prices, or they may, in some cases, reduce consumer choice. Unduly restrictive regulations could also increase costs indirectly, by reducing competition and thus lead to lower productivity growth. In the past few years, distribution sector has gone through drastic changes due to deregulation and market opening. Implementation of regulatory reforms served as an opportunity to change laws and systems which had been an obstacle to development of distribution sector. Market opening of distribution sector became a turning point to promote competition among domestic and foreign firms. However, for small and medium scale of the typical retail enterprises which were in no position to compete in terms of prices, additional facilities, and services, faced a threat of diminished trading area, and even of their existence. Because, large firms may have greater market power than small firms, as they can more easily extract favorable terms when procuring goods, and may also be able to deter entry by advertising outlays or access to the best sites. In addition, larger chain stores armied with sufficient capital dominated trading area and reduced customer's welfare by abusing their monopoly power when competing with other shops, and are often cited as an example of adverse effects of local monopoly. In order to minimize such adverse effects and to foster competition, regulatory reforms in distribution sector should set its goal to promote sound and stable distribution activities through market principle and restoring competition principle, and ultimately to boost customers welfare. Therefore, deregulation in distribution sector should be implemented in a way to promote customers welfare, eliminate entry barriers, and expand competition principle such as productivity and efficiency competition. However, it should be also recognized that deregulation of system alone is not enough to develop the distribution sector. To compete in a increasingly concentrated industry, small enterprises increasingly engage in co-operative arrangements, such as buying groups, strategic alliances or franchise agreements.

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Rainfall Harvesting as an Alternative Water Supply in Water Stressed Communities in Aguata-Awka Area of Southeastern Nigeria

  • Okpoko, Ephraim;Egboka, Boniface;Anike, Luke;Okoro, Elizabeth
    • Environmental Engineering Research
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    • v.18 no.2
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    • pp.95-101
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    • 2013
  • Alternative sources of water are sought in some water stressed communities in the study area. The study focuses on the Aguata-Awka area of southeastern Nigeria. Aquifers occur at great depths, and surface waters may be far from homesteads. The scarcity of water has necessitated the people to adopt various local technologies for harvesting rainfall. The local technology includes collecting rainwater from roofs and channeling the water into large underground tanks, shallow wells and surface reservoirs. Large concrete tanks of $6m{\times}6m{\times}4m$ dimensions are often built underground and can store $144m^3$ of water. Surface reservoirs built on 4 m concrete pillar supports having dimensions of $10m{\times}10m{\times}4m$ and have a storage capacity of $400m^3$. Water samples were collected at 3 different locations of Agulu, Ekwulobia, and Awka and were analyzed for their physical, chemical, and bacteriological parameters. Results indicate a range of values for pH, 5.9 to 7.1; turbidity, 0.9 to 2.7; total dissolved solids, 80 to 170 mg/L; total hardness, 4.5 to 6.4 mg/L; magnesium, 1.2 to 1.4 mg/L; bicarbonate, 19.4 to 83.6 mg/L; and sulfate, 3.6 to 6.4 mg/L. Bacteriological analysis results were negative for fecal and total coliform counts. All parameters, with the exception of pH where aluminum and galvanized iron roofs are used for collection, fall within the recommended guidelines for drinking water quality of the World Health Organization, and the Standard Organization of Nigeria, new Nigerian standards for drinking water quality. Magnesium is above the maximum permitted level for consumer acceptability of the Nigerian standards for drinking water quality. The water can be classified as fresh moderately hard and soft. The water can be described as a calcium and bicarbonate type.

Nanoparticle Formation from a Commercial Air Freshener at Real-exposure Concentrations of Ozone

  • Vu, Thai Phuong;Kim, Sun-Hwa;Lee, Seung-Bok;Shim, Shang-Gyoo;Bae, Gwi-Nam;Sohn, Jong-Ryeul
    • Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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    • v.5 no.1
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    • pp.21-28
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    • 2011
  • Occupational nanomaterial exposure is an important issue in the manufacture of such products. People are also exposed to various nanoparticles in their living environments. In this study, we investigated nanoparticle formation during the reaction of ozone and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from a commercial air freshener, one of many widely used consumer products, in a $1-m^3$ reaction chamber. The air freshener contained various VOCs, particularly terpenes. A petri dish containing 0.5 mL of the air freshener specimen was placed in the bottom of the chamber, and ozone was continuously injected into the center of the chamber at a flow rate of 4 L/min with an ozone concentration of either 50, 100 or 200 ppb. Each test was conducted over a period of about 4 h. The higher ozone concentrations produced larger secondary nanoparticles at a faster rate. The amount of ozone reacted was highly correlated with the amount of aerosol formation. Ratios of reacted ozone concentration and of formed particle mass concentration for the three injected ozone concentrations of 50, 100 and 200 ppb were similar to one other; 4.6 : 1.9 : 1.0 and 4.7 : 2.2 : 1.0 for ozone and aerosol mass, respectively.

Perceptions of residents in the Chungcheong area on commercialization of traditional Korean foods as convenience foods (충청지역 주민을 대상으로 한 전통음식 편의화에 대한 인식조사)

  • Lim, Young-Suk;Han, Gwi-Jung
    • Korean journal of food and cookery science
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    • v.23 no.2 s.98
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    • pp.205-220
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    • 2007
  • This study was conducted to examine the perceptions of residents in the Chungcheong area on the commercialization of traditional Korean foods as convenience foods. Data was gathered using a questionnaire designed to evaluate the concerns, satisfaction, and Knowledge of traditional Korean food as well as the perceptions on commercialization of Korean traditional foods as convenience foods. In order to measure traditional food recognition and interests related to health, a 5-point Likert scale was employed and 374 subjects were surveyed. The results are summarized as follows : Most of the respondents expressed concerns for traditional Korean foods. In the over 50 age group, degree of interest (p<0.01), knowledge (p<0.01), and satisfaction (p<0.01) with regards to traditional foods was higher than in other age groups. The professional group had higher degrees of interest, knowledge, and satisfaction about traditional foods than the general group. Based on monthly income, for respondents earning over 3,010,000 won/month, the knowledge rating for traditional foods was higher than in the under 3,000,000 won/month group. The professional group had a more positive view of the commercialization of traditional food as convenience food than the general group. Respondents deemed quality improvements and an increase in consumption as reasons for the commercialization of traditional foods. Those with a greater recognition of traditional foods also had a higher degree of interest for the foods. Efforts for the commercialization of traditional Korean foods will help with consumer menu choices menu development and systems management of Korean traditional foods.

A Study on Recognition and Preference of Functional Textile Material of Outdoor Clothing by Age (아웃도어 웨어 기능성 소재에 대한 연령별 인지 및 선호도)

  • Seo, Min Nyoung;Kim, A Hyun;Koo, Young Seok
    • Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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    • v.18 no.2
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    • pp.184-193
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    • 2016
  • This study investigates the recognition and preference of functional textile material about outdoor clothing widely used in the current fashion market. The study targeted 216 males and females in their 20s to 50s who wear outdoor clothing as casual wear. To analyze data, frequency analysis, cross tabulation analysis and ANOVA were conducted with the SPSS 21.0 statistical package. The results are as follows. First, recognition of functional textile material of outdoor clothing showed that 20s was the lowest preference and all age groups preferred lightweight textile material. In information recognition of functional outdoor clothing, 40s showed the highest recognition, while 20s showed the lowest recognition. Second, 40s and 50s preferred functional material to 20s and 30s. In particular, 40s and 50s preferred clothing items with water vapor permeability & water repellent material to 20s and 30s. All age groups preferred insulation material jumpers, water vapor permeability & water repellent material jumpers and stretch pants. Third, reasons for purchasing functional material clothing was: design for the age group 20s and 30s versus health and function for the age group 40s and 50s. It is necessary to develop functional clothing products based on exact consumer information and preferences.