• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.59-120
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• 1977

An antibiotic 'P', which is one of the products of the Gist Brocades N. V. is being tested by its research department as fungicide on seed-potatoes. For this testing they designed experiments, with two control groups, one competitor's product, eight formulations of the antibiotic to be tested in different concentrations and one mercury treatment which can not be used in practice. The treated potatoes were planted in three different regions, where bifferent conditions prevail. After several months the harvested potatoes are divided in groups according to their diameter, potato illness is analysed and counted. These data were summarised in percentage and given to us for Analysis. We approached and analysed the data by following methods: a. Computation of the mean and standard deviation of the percenage of good results in each size group and treatment. b. Computation of the experimental errors by substraction of each treatment mean from observed data. c. Description of the frequency table, plotting of a histogram and a normal curve on same graph to check normality. d. Test of normality paper and chi-sqeare test to check the goodness of fit to a normal curve. e. Test for homogeneity of variance in each treatment with the Cochran's test and Hartley's test. f. Analysis of Variance for testing the means by one way classifications. g. Drawing of graphs with upper and lower confidence limits to show the effect of different treatments. h. T-test and F-test to two Control mean and variance for making one control of Dunnett's test. i. Dunnett's Test and calculations for numerical comarision of different treatments wth one control. In region R, where the potatoes were planted, it was this year very dry and rather bad conditions to grow potatoes prevailed during the experimental period. The results of this investigation show us that treatment No.2, 3 and 4 are significantly different from other treatments and control groups (none treated, just like natural state). Treatment no.2 is the useless mercury formulation. So only No. 3 and 4, which have high concentrations of antibiotic 'P', gave a good effect to the potatoes. As well as the competitors product, middle and low concentrated formulations are not significantly different from control gro-ups of every size. In region w, where the potatoes got the same treatments as in region R, prevailed better weather conditions and was enough water obtainable from the lake. The results in this region showed that treatment No. 2, 3, 4, and 5 are Significantly different from other treatments and the control groups. Again No.2 is the mercury treatmentin this investigation. Not only high concentrated formulation of antibiotic 'P', but also the competitor's poroduct gave good results. But, the effect of 'P', was better than the competitors porduct. In region G, where the potatoes got the same treatments as in the regions R and w. and the climate conditions were equal to region R, the results showed that most of the treatments are not significantly different from the control groups. Only treatment no. 3 was a little bit different from the others. but not Significantly different. It seems to us that the difference between the results in the three regions was caused by certain conditions like, the nature of the soil the degres of moisture and hours of sunshine, but we are not sure of that. As a conclusion, we can say that antibiotic 'P' has a good effect on potatoes, but in most investigations a rather high concentration of 'P' was required in formulations.

• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• v.147
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• pp.117-146
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• 2018

This paper discusses, whether religion is possible even in the age of artificial intelligence, and whether humans alone are the subject of religious faith or ultra intelligent machines with human minds can be also subjects of faith. In order for ultra intelligent machines to be subjects of faith in the same conditions as humans, they must be able to have unique characteristics such as emotion, will, and self-consciousness. With the advent of ultra intelligent machines with the same level of cognitive and emotional abilities as human beings, the religious actions of artificial intelligence will be inevitable. The ultra intelligent machines after 'singularity' will go beyond the subject of religious belief and reign as God who can rule humans, nature and the world. This is also the common view of Morabeck, Kurzweil and Harari. Leonhart also reminds us that technological advances should make us used to the fact that we are now 'gods'. But we fear we may face distopia despite the general affluence of the 'Star Trec' economy. For this reason, even if a man says he has learned the religious truth, one can't help but wonder if it is true. Kant and Bloch are thinkers who critically reflected on our religious ideals and highest concept in different world-view premises. Kant's concept of God as 'idea of pure reason' and 'postulate of practical reason', can seem like a 'god of gap' as Jesse Bering said earlier. Kant recognized the need for religious faith only on a strict basis of moral necessity. The subjects of religious faith should always strive to do the moral good, but such efforts themselves were not enough to reach perfection and so postulated immortality of the soul. But if an ultra intelligent machines that has emerged above a singularity is given a new status in an intellectual explosion, it can reach its morality by blocking evil tendencies and by the infinite evolution of super intelligence. So it will no longer need Kant's 'Postulate for continuous progress towards greater goodness', 'Postulate for divine grace' and 'Postulate for infinite expansion of the kingdom of God on earth.' Artificial intelligence robots would not necessarily consider religious performance in the Kant's meaning, and therefore religion will also have to be abolished. Ernst Bloch transforms Kant's postulate to be Persian dualism. Therefore, in Bloch, even though the ultra intelligent machines is a divine being, one must critically ask whether it is a wicked or a good God. Artificial intelligence experts warn that ultra intellectual machine as Pandora's gift will bring disaster to mankind. In the Kant's Matrix, a ultra intelligent machines, which is the completion of morality and God itself, may fall into a bad god in Bloch's Matrix. Therefore, despite the myth of singularity, we still believe that ultra intelligent machines, whether as God leads us to the completion of one of our only religious beliefs, or as bad god to the collapse of mankind through complete denial of existence.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.99-108
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of oral health education practice and schoolteacher's self-efficacy on oral health attitude. The data of 217 dental hygienists was subjected to path analysis using AMOS 16.0. Oral health knowledge, attitude, self-efficacy and oral health education practice of schoolteacher were measurement variables of three path models. The goodness of fitness of Knowledge-Attitude-Practice model and Knowledge-Attitude-Self efficacy -Practice model were acceptable. The regression weights of two models were statistically significant. Oral health education practice of schoolteacher gave impact on oral health attitude by mediation of self-efficacy of schoolteacher. Self-efficacy of schoolteacher was a important determinant of oral health education practice. Oral health attitude and practice were supposed to be mutual determinants of health behavior models.

• (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
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• no.68
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• pp.379-408
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• 2017

What I wish to show in this paper is the moral educational implication on "The Minor Annotations of Elementary Learning(小學枝言)" in a position to consider the alternatives about personality education problems by searching viewpoints on moral training theory on the book. "The Minor Annotations of Elementary Learning(小學枝言)" was written by Dasan Jeong-yakyong(茶山 丁若鏞, 1762-1836). In the oriental philosophy, a moral training theory is built on the base of human nature theory. Dasan's moral training theory was also built on his human nature theory. Undoubtedly we could consider that his difference from the moral training theory of Confucianism is reflected in his moral training theory putting stress on practice. Dasan criticized the moral training theory of Confucianism because of its static aspect contemplating mind internally. He stands on the position that the virtue can be come true by the concrete practice. The establishment ground of Dasan's moral training theory is on his theory of human nature's preference(性嗜好說). Dasan didn't consider benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom(仁義禮智) as human nature. He considered that the human nature prefers goodness. So there is no perfect human nature or principle originally to human beings but also directionality to be displayed. We can say that the virtue building by cultivation of directionality get connected to moral training theory. Dasan considered ?The Minor Annotations of Elementary Learning(小學枝言)? as a practice book for moral training which develops individuals' personality through practice in the reality. He thought that the book cause individuals to follow 'the elementary way(小道)' and to learn 'the elementary art(小藝)' more than academic pursuit. From this viewpoint he showed the practice(行事) of judgment(權衡) by keeping the attitude for the scripture interpretation to pursue the right principles(義理) based on Chinese exegetics(訓?) and the historical evidences(考證) through the whole book. And in the book he suggested the standard of the whole-person education to develop the human nature based on his theory of human nature's preference(性嗜好說), to cognize relationship as an ethical existence, and to pursue the harmony with graphonomy(字學) and Ethics(道學). So we can regard that he realized his practice centered moral education philosophy in the book.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.115-132
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• 2008

Metal industry is one of the most representative heavy industries and the median sales volume of steel and nonferrous metal companies is over one billion dollars in the case America [Forbes 2006]. As seen in the recent business market situation, an increasing number of industrial manufacturers and suppliers are moving from adversarial to cooperative exchange attitudes that support the long-term relationships with their customers. This article presents the results of an empirical study of the antecedent factors of business relationships in metal industry of the United States. Commitment has been reviewed as a significant and critical variable in research on inter-organizational relationships (Hong et al. 2007, Kim et al. 2007). The future stability of any buyer-seller relationship depends upon the commitment made by the interactants to their relationship. Commitment, according to Dwyer et al. [1987], refers to "an implicit or explicit pledge of relational continuity between exchange partners" and they consider commitment to be the most advanced phase of buyer-seller exchange relationship. Bonds are made because the members need their partners in order to do something and this integration on a task basis can be either symbiotic or cooperative (Svensson 2008). To the extent that members seek the same or mutually supporting ends, there will be strong bonds among them. In other words, the principle that affects the strength of bonds is 'economy of decision making' [Turner 1970]. These bonds provide an important idea to study the causes of business long-term relationships in a sense that organizations can be mutually bonded by a common interest in the economic matters. Recently, the framework of structural bonding has been used to study the buyer-seller relationships in industrial marketing [Han and Sung 2008, Williams et al. 1998, Wilson 1995] in that this structural bonding is a crucial part of the theoretical justification for distinguishing discrete transactions from ongoing long-term relationships. The major antecedent factors of buyer commitment such as technology, CLalt, transaction-specific assets, and importance were identified and explored from the perspective of structural bonding. Research hypotheses were developed and tested by using survey data from the middle managers in the metal industry. H1: Level of technology of the relationship partner is positively related to the level of structural bonding between the buyer and the seller. H2: Comparison level of alternatives is negatively related to the level of structural bonding between the buyer and the seller. H3: Amount of the transaction-specific assets is positively related to the level of structural bonding between the buyer and the seller. H4: Importance of the relationship partner is positively related to the level of structural bonding between the buyer and the seller. H5: Level of structural bonding is positively related to the level of commitment to the relationship. To examine the major antecedent factors of industrial buyer's structural bonding and long-term relationship, questionnaire was prepared, mailed out to the sample of 400 purchasing managers of the US metal industry (SIC codes 33 and 34). After a follow-up request, 139 informants returnedthe questionnaires, resulting in a response rate of 35 percent. 134 responses were used in the final analysis after dropping 5 incomplete questionnaires. All measures were analyzed for reliability and validity following the guidelines offered by Churchill [1979] and Anderson and Gerbing [1988]., the results of fitting the model to the data indicated that the hypothesized model provides a good fit to the data. Goodness-of-fit index (GFI = 0.94) and other indices ( chi-square = 78.02 with p-value = 0.13, Adjusted GFI = 0.90, Normed Fit Index = 0.92) indicated that a major proportion of variances and covariances in the data was accounted for by the model as a whole, and all the parameter estimates showed statistical significance as evidenced by large t-values. All the factor loadings were significantly different from zero. On these grounds we judged the hypothesized model to be a reasonable representation of the data. The results from the present study suggest several implications for buyer-seller relationships. Theoretically, we attempted to conceptualize the antecedent factors of buyer-seller long-term relationships from the perspective of structural bondingin metal industry. The four underlying determinants (i.e. technology, CLalt, transaction-specific assets, and importance) of structural bonding are very critical variables of buyer-seller long-term business relationships. Our model of structural bonding makes an attempt to systematically examine the relationship between the antecedent factors of structural bonding and long-term commitment. Managerially, this research provides industrial purchasing managers with a good framework to assess the interaction processes with their partners and, ability to position their business relationships from the perspective of structural bonding. In other words, based on those underlying variables, industrial purchasing managers can determine the strength of the company's relationships with the key suppliers and its state of preparation to be a successful partner with those suppliers. Both the supplying and customer companies can also benefit by using the concept of 'structural bonding' and evaluating their relationships with key business partners from the structural point of view. In general, the results indicate that structural bonding gives a critical impact on the level of relationship commitment. Managerial implications and limitations of the study are also discussed.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.29-52
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• 2012

Consumers differ in the way they make a purchase. An audio mania would willingly make a bold, yet serious, decision to buy a top-of-the-line home theater system, while he is not interested in replacing his two-decade-old shabby car. On the contrary, an automobile enthusiast wouldn't mind spending forty thousand dollars to buy a new Jaguar convertible, yet cares little about his junky component system. It is product involvement that helps us explain such differences among individuals in the purchase style. Product involvement refers to the extent to which a product is perceived to be important to a consumer (Zaichkowsky, 2001). Product involvement is an important factor that strongly influences consumer's purchase decision-making process, and thus has been of prime interest to consumer behavior researchers. Furthermore, researchers found that involvement is closely related to perceived risk (Dholakia, 2001). While abundant research exists addressing how product involvement relates to overall perceived risk, little attention has been paid to the relationship between involvement and different types of perceived risk in an electronic commerce setting. Given that perceived risk can be a substantial barrier to the online purchase (Jarvenpaa, 2000), research addressing such an issue will offer useful implications on what specific types of perceived risk an online firm should focus on mitigating if it is to increase sales to a fullest potential. Meanwhile, past research has focused on such consumer responses as information search and dissemination as a consequence of involvement, neglecting other behavioral responses like online merchant selection. For one example, will a consumer seriously considering the purchase of a pricey Guzzi bag perceive a great degree of risk associated with online buying and therefore choose to buy it from a digital storefront rather than from an online marketplace to mitigate risk? Will a consumer require greater trust on the part of the online merchant when the perceived risk of online buying is rather high? We intend to find answers to these research questions through an empirical study. This paper explores the impact of enduring product involvement and perceived risks on required trust level, and further on online merchant choice. For the purpose of the research, five types or components of perceived risk are taken into consideration, including financial, performance, delivery, psychological, and social risks. A research model has been built around the constructs under consideration, and 12 hypotheses have been developed based on the research model to examine the relationships between enduring involvement and five components of perceived risk, between five components of perceived risk and required trust level, between enduring involvement and required trust level, and finally between required trust level and preference toward an e-tailer. To attain our research objectives, we conducted an empirical analysis consisting of two phases of data collection: a pilot test and main survey. The pilot test was conducted using 25 college students to ensure that the questionnaire items are clear and straightforward. Then the main survey was conducted using 295 college students at a major university for nine days between December 13, 2010 and December 21, 2010. The measures employed to test the model included eight constructs: (1) enduring involvement, (2) financial risk, (3) performance risk, (4) delivery risk, (5) psychological risk, (6) social risk, (7) required trust level, (8) preference toward an e-tailer. The statistical package, SPSS 17.0, was used to test the internal consistency among the items within the individual measures. Based on the Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ coefficients of the individual measure, the reliability of all the variables is supported. Meanwhile, the Amos 18.0 package was employed to perform a confirmatory factor analysis designed to assess the unidimensionality of the measures. The goodness of fit for the measurement model was satisfied. Unidimensionality was tested using convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity. The statistical evidences proved that the three types of validity were all satisfied. Now the structured equation modeling technique was used to analyze the individual paths along the relationships among the research constructs. The results indicated that enduring involvement has significant positive relationships with all the five components of perceived risk, while only performance risk is significantly related to trust level required by consumers for purchase. It can be inferred from the findings that product performance problems are mostly likely to occur when a merchant behaves in an opportunistic manner. Positive relationships were also found between involvement and required trust level and between required trust level and online merchant choice. Enduring involvement is concerned with the pleasure a consumer derives from a product class and/or with the desire for knowledge for the product class, and thus is likely to motivate the consumer to look for ways of mitigating perceived risk by requiring a higher level of trust on the part of the online merchant. Likewise, a consumer requiring a high level of trust on the merchant will choose a digital storefront rather than an e-marketplace, since a digital storefront is believed to be trustworthier than an e-marketplace, as it fulfills orders by itself rather than acting as an intermediary. The findings of the present research provide both academic and practical implications. The first academic implication is that enduring product involvement is a strong motivator of consumer responses, especially the selection of a merchant, in the context of electronic shopping. Secondly, academicians are advised to pay attention to the finding that an individual component or type of perceived risk can be used as an important research construct, since it would allow one to pinpoint the specific types of risk that are influenced by antecedents or that influence consequents. Meanwhile, our research provides implications useful for online merchants (both online storefronts and e-marketplaces). Merchants may develop strategies to attract consumers by managing perceived performance risk involved in purchase decisions, since it was found to have significant positive relationship with the level of trust required by a consumer on the part of the merchant. One way to manage performance risk would be to thoroughly examine the product before shipping to ensure that it has no deficiencies or flaws. Secondly, digital storefronts are advised to focus on symbolic goods (e.g., cars, cell phones, fashion outfits, and handbags) in which consumers are relatively more involved than others, whereas e- marketplaces should put their emphasis on non-symbolic goods (e.g., drinks, books, MP3 players, and bike accessories).