• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.25-43
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• 2020

Although ready meals have recently increased their market share in the Korean food industry, a literature review found that the use of ready meals triggers feelings of guilt in homemakers. Such guilt arises as a result of several factors apparently related to consumers' health. Consequently, levels of guilt might be expected to vary depending on consumers' perceived health locus. The present study aims to examine (a) how health locus affects guilty feelings about ready-meal consumption, (b) how the effect varies in relation to the consumption of different types of ready meal, and (c) the relationship between consumers' guilty feelings and willingness to buy ready meals. Three dimensions of health locus of control (HLC) -internal HLC (IHLC), powerful-others HLC (PHLC), and chance HLC (CHLC)- were presumed to influence consumers' feelings of guilt in association with ready meals. Data were collected via an online survey, and participants were randomly assigned to either of two groups: one group was instructed to heat meals in a microwave (ready-to-heat [RTH] group, n=104) and the other cooked using a pan with additional ingredients (ready-to-cook [RTC] group, n=101). The study found that guilty feelings about consuming RTH meals increased in line with increased external HLCs, namely, PHLC and CHLC. For the RTC group, guilt increased in line with increased PHLC. IHLC had no significant effect on guilty feelings in either group. Willingness to buy ready meals decreased for both groups as consumers' feelings of guilt increased. Even RTC meals, which require more time and energy in food preparation, did not reduce guilty feelings among consumers with higher PHLC. RTC meals are preferable for consumers with higher CHLC, since their sense of greater involvement in the cooking process alleviates their feelings of guilt. Cooking with already prepared and uncooked ingredients brought fun and joy, both for the participants and their significant others. This interpretation may be developed into a strategic plan by ready-meal producers to strengthen their marketing strategy.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.257-268
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• 2023

Sea ice plays an important role in Earth's climate by regulating the amount of solar energy absorbed and controlling the exchange of heat and material across the air-sea interface. Its growth, drift, and melting are monitored on a regular basis by satellite observations. However, low-resolution products with passive microwave radiometer have reduced accuracy during summer to autumn when the ice surface changes rapidly. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) observations are emerging as a powerful complementary, but previous researches have mainly focused on winter ice. In this study, sea ice drift tracking was evaluated and analyzed using SAR images and tracker with global positioning system (GPS) during late summer-early autumn period when ice surface condition changes a lot. The results showed that observational uncertainty increases compared to winter period, however, the correlation coefficient with GPS measurements was excellent at 0.98, and the performance of the ice tracking algorithm was proportional to the sea ice concentration with a correlation coefficient of 0.59 for ice concentrations above 50%.