• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.231-238
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• 2010

The anthropomorphism of brands, defined as seeing human beings in brands (Puzakova, Kwak, and Rosereto, 2008) is the focus of this study. Specifically, the research objective is to understand the ways in which brands are rendered humanlike. By analyzing consumer readings of stories found on food product packages we intend to show how marketers and consumers humanize a spectrum of brands and create meanings. Our research question considers the possibility that a single brand may host multiple or single meanings, associations, and personalities for different consumers. We start by highlighting the theoretical and practical significance of our research, explain why we turn our attention to packages as vehicles of brand meaning transfer, then describe our qualitative methodology, discuss findings, and conclude with a discussion of managerial implications and directions for future studies. The study was designed to directly expose consumers to potential vehicles of brand meaning transfer and then engage these consumers in free verbal reflections on their perceived meanings. Specifically, we asked participants to read non-nutritional stories on selected branded food packages, in order to elicit data about received meanings. Packaging has yet to receive due attention in consumer research (Hine, 1995). Until now, attention has focused solely on its utilitarian function and has generated a body of research that has explored the impact of nutritional information and claims on consumer perceptions of products (e.g., Loureiro, McCluskey and Mittelhammer, 2002; Mazis and Raymond, 1997; Nayga, Lipinski and Savur, 1998; Wansik, 2003). An exception is a recent study that turns its attention to non-nutritional packaging narratives and treats them as cultural productions and vehicles for mythologizing the brand (Kniazeva and Belk, 2007). The next step in this stream of research is to explore how such mythologizing activity affects brand personality perception and how these perceptions relate to consumers. These are the questions that our study aimed to address. We used in-depth interviews to help overcome the limitations of quantitative studies. Our convenience sample was formed with the objective of providing demographic and psychographic diversity in order to elicit variations in consumer reflections to food packaging stories. Our informants represent middle-class residents of the US and do not exhibit extreme alternative lifestyles described by Thompson as "cultural creatives" (2004). Nine people were individually interviewed on their food consumption preferences and behavior. Participants were asked to have a look at the twelve displayed food product packages and read all the textual information on the package, after which we continued with questions that focused on the consumer interpretations of the reading material (Scott and Batra, 2003). On average, each participant reflected on 4-5 packages. Our in-depth interviews lasted one to one and a half hours each. The interviews were tape recorded and transcribed, providing 140 pages of text. The products came from local grocery stores on the West Coast of the US and represented a basic range of food product categories, including snacks, canned foods, cereals, baby foods, and tea. The data were analyzed using procedures for developing grounded theory delineated by Strauss and Corbin (1998). As a result, our study does not support the notion of one brand/one personality as assumed by prior work. Thus, we reveal multiple brand personalities peacefully cohabiting in the same brand as seen by different consumers, despite marketer attempts to create more singular brand personalities. We extend Fournier's (1998) proposition, that one's life projects shape the intensity and nature of brand relationships. We find that these life projects also affect perceived brand personifications and meanings. While Fournier provides a conceptual framework that links together consumers’ life themes (Mick and Buhl, 1992) and relational roles assigned to anthropomorphized brands, we find that consumer life projects mold both the ways in which brands are rendered humanlike and the ways in which brands connect to consumers' existential concerns. We find two modes through which brands are anthropomorphized by our participants. First, brand personalities are created by seeing them through perceived demographic, psychographic, and social characteristics that are to some degree shared by consumers. Second, brands in our study further relate to consumers' existential concerns by either being blended with consumer personalities in order to connect to them (the brand as a friend, a family member, a next door neighbor) or by distancing themselves from the brand personalities and estranging them (the brand as a used car salesman, a "bunch of executives.") By focusing on food product packages, we illuminate a very specific, widely-used, but little-researched vehicle of marketing communication: brand storytelling. Recent work that has approached packages as mythmakers, finds it increasingly challenging for marketers to produce textual stories that link the personalities of products to the personalities of those consuming them, and suggests that "a multiplicity of building material for creating desired consumer myths is what a postmodern consumer arguably needs" (Kniazeva and Belk, 2007). Used as vehicles for storytelling, food packages can exploit both rational and emotional approaches, offering consumers either a "lecture" or "drama" (Randazzo, 2006), myths (Kniazeva and Belk, 2007; Holt, 2004; Thompson, 2004), or meanings (McCracken, 2005) as necessary building blocks for anthropomorphizing their brands. The craft of giving birth to brand personalities is in the hands of writers/marketers and in the minds of readers/consumers who individually and sometimes idiosyncratically put a meaningful human face on a brand.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.95-104
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• 2015

Purpose - This is a comparative study of the market development and characteristics of Ulsan in South Korea, Fukuoka in Japan, and Yanji in China, which are major East Sea Rim cities with adjacent areas of similar natural characteristics of the sea and the country. Particularly, it considers these aspects while focusing on the evolution of networks that appear in the distribution system and at the same time examining the institutions of market activation and regulations that are handled by the central and the local government and the changing logistics due to the development of transportation and the concern of food safety, using a meso-analysis approach. Research design, data, and methodology - The study used a historical and comparative approach with a focus on case studies. It made use of various materials such as local newspaper articles, reports, literature, interviews with experts, discussions with local merchants, discussions with customers, and so forth. Results - In the case of Fukuoka, from the 1960s, due to the entry of supermarkets, supermarkets expanded and they have now come to a dominant market position in the current market. They offer a convenient and comfortable environment while providing a large mall offering a variety of educational and cultural activities for customers to meet the customers' needs, such as the preferences of Korean tourists, who appear to prefer Japanese foods. The Fukuoka City Central Wholesale Market has been exporting fruits and vegetables as well as seafood products to Korea, China, and so forth. In the case of Ulsan, as in the early 2000s, due to the expansion of supermarkets, the traditional markets have been shrinking and further, the modernization of traditional markets was conducted under the auspices of the Small Business Administration. In addition to the large discount malls, the expansion of SSM is expected to further drive the small trader bay. Shopping malls, department stores, and traditional markets contend with each other in Yanji, China, but a large number of citizens appear to prefer traditional markets and imported milk in the supermarket after the melamine scandal in China. Recently, the WanYuan (萬源) wholesale market has been partially completed and made an attempt to become a logistics hub in Northeast Asia. Conclusions - For the development of Korea's retail industry, it is important to offer the government with proposals regarding desired regulation. On the other hand, in order to enable the business of traditional markets, it requires an association for cultural tourism. At present, it would be better to provide a venture fund for the youth rather than infrastructure support. This study emphasizes the importance of institutions and policy to develop networks in the East Sea Rim. Future studies should conduct a survey on customers, managers, and merchants more carefully and systematically to understand the market situation while considering the size of the city and its evolution of markets, as well as policies and institutions.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.213-220
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• 2010

This study was executed to investigate the effects of drinking deep sea water treated by reverse osmosis process (RO-DSW) on growth performance, nutrient utilizability, relative weight of lymphoid organs and the concentration of serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) in broiler chickens. A total of 200 one day old broiler chickens (Ross 308) were equally and randomly distributed into 10 ground floor pens (20 chicks per pen, 5 pens per treatment) bedded with rice-husks. The broilers were offered either fresh tap water (Control) or RO-DSW for 28 days (from d 6 to d 33) as the drinking water. The same basal phase 1 diet for first 2 weeks and phase 2 diet for last 2 weeks were offered ad libitum to the birds. The RO-DSW was prepared by diluting 1:20 ratio with deionized water before offering to chickens. The diet for control birds was supplemented with 0.21 % of food-grade salt to satisfy salt need of the birds. Broiler feeding study resulted that there were no differences in amount of water consumption, mortality and FCR between RO-DSW and control chickens. However, feed intake and body weight gain were increased (p<0.05) by RO-DSW drinking. There was no (p>0.05) difference in nutrients utilizability between RO-DSW and fresh water drinking. There were no (p>0.05) differences in the immune response between the control and treatment group. The serum IgG levels were 3.01 vs 2.87 mg/ml and the relative weights of spleen, thymus and bursa of Fabricius were 0.23, 0.18 and 0.20 vs. 0.20, 0.17 and 0.14 for RO-DSW vs. control birds, respectively. The immune responses were tended to be improved by RO-DSW drinking. This study showed an improvement in weight gain and feed intake that could be induced by RO-DSW drinking, although it is difficult to explain the reasons of the improvement at this moment. This study implied that RO-DSW could be successfully used as drinking water to broiler chickens.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.255-266
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• 2022

This study was conducted to examine the effects of grass vegetation (W: manual weeding, NW: herbicide sprays) and pyrethroid spray (P: pyrethroid spray, NP: no pyrethroid spray) on the population dynamics of Panonychus citri and natural enemies in citrus orchards. Two essential hypothesis were made to test the population dynamics: 1) weed planting promotes natural enemies by offering habitat and alternative food sources, resulting in the reduction of P. citri populations, and 2) pyrethroid spray removes natural enemies by its non-selective toxicity, resulting in the increasement of P. citri populations. The observed natural enemy populations (mainly Phytoseiids and Agistemus sp.) were not different largely from the expected values in the hypothesis, which assumes more abundant natural enemies in weeds and no pyrethroid plots. Although some discrepancy was occurred in NW+NP and W+NP plots in 2011, the observed values were almost same with expected values in 2012. In overall, pesticide effect was strongly significant and pyrthroids removed largely natural enemies. Although habitat (weeds) effect showed a conflict result, natural enemy population increased in plots allowing weed growth, when considering the increased autumn population relatively compared to that of spring-summer population. The decreased abnormal P. citri populations in pyrethroid plots could be explained under the assumption of a strong repellent behavior of P. citri to the pyrethroids.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF PACKAGING SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.63-72
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• 2024

Poly (butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) is one of the representative biodegradable polymers with high ductility and processability to replace petroleum-based polymers. Many investigations have been conducted to broaden the applications of PBAT in a variety of industries, including the food packaging, agricultural mulching film, and logistics and distribution fields. Foaming process is widely known technique to generate the cell structure within the polymer matrix, offering the insulation and light weight properties. However, there was no commercially feasible foam product based on biodegradable polymers, especially PBAT, and maintaining a proper melt viscosity of the polymer would be a key parameter for the foaming process. In this study, chemical foaming agent and cross-linking agent were introduced to PBAT, and a compression molding process was applied to prepare a foam sheet. The correlation between cell morphological structures and mechanical and physical properties was evaluated. It was found that PBAT with foam structures effectively reduced the density and thermal conductivity, allowing them to be suitable for applications such as insulation and lightweight packaging or cushion materials.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.35 no.10
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• pp.1491-1497
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship among inpatients' perceptions of foodservice quality, satisfaction and revisit intention. Questionnaires were hand-delivered to 350 inpatients and a total of 230 questionnaires were usable (response rate 65.7%), Statistical data analysis was completed using the SPSS Win 11.0 for descriptive analysis, independent t-test, $x^2$ test and k-means cluster analysis. The results of this study can be summarized as follows: The average score of overall importance of meal service in medical service was 4.25 out of 5.0, yet the score of overall quality of meal service and value had lower than importance score. A helpfulness to medical treatment (3.48), bringing customer happiness (3.18), overall satisfaction for foodservice (3.66), satisfaction based on expectation before discharge (3.53) and offering foodservice apt to hospital reputation (3.40) were measured as expressions of satisfaction. As a result of clustering analysis, two clusters were classified and named as affirmative opinion group and negative one. Expectation for four factors of foodservice quality between two groups had no significance. But affirmative opinion group had significantly higher score than negative one in perception and satisfaction. Affirmative customers' intention to revisit in the near future was evaluated as high in both considering general medical service (4.04) and reflecting meal service level (3.84).

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.43 no.10
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• pp.1594-1606
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to examine safety accidents related to school foodservice, working and operating environments of school foodservice, status and awareness of safety education, educational needs, and information on qualitative improvement of school foodservice. The subjects in this study were 234 cooks in charge of cooking at elementary and secondary schools in Chungbuk. A survey was conducted from July 30 to August 8, 2012, and among 202 questionnaires gathered, 194 completed questionnaires were analyzed. Statistical analyses were performed on data utilizing the SPSS version 19.0. The main results of this study were as follows: 44.3% of workers experienced safety accidents. The most frequent safety accident was 'once' (60.5%), and most safety accidents took place between June and August (31.4%). The time at which most safety accidents happened was between 8 and 11 am. Most safety accidents happened during cooking (52.3%) and while using a soup pot or frying pot (52.4%). The most common accidents were 'burns', 'wrist and arm pain', and 'slips and falls'. Respondents who experienced safety accidents replied that 57.6% of employees dealt with injuries at their own expense, and only 35.3% utilized industrial accident insurance. In terms of the operating environment, the score for 'offering information and application' was highest (3.76 points), whereas that for 'security of budget' was lowest (1.77 points). As for accident education, employees received safety education approximately 3.45 times and 5.10 hours per year. Improving the working environment of school foodservice cooks requires administrative and financial support. Furthermore, educational materials and guidelines based on the working environment and safety accident status of school foodservice cooks are required in order to minimize potential risk factors and control safety accidents in school foodservice.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.767-774
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• 2011

Defatted green tea seed was extracted with 100% ethanol for 4 hr and then fractionated with petroleum ether, ethyl acetate and butanol. The ethanol and butanol extracts showed greater increases in antiproliferation potential against liver cancer cells than petroleum ether, ethyl acetate, $H_2O$, and hot water extracts did. Thus, this study was carried out to investigate the anti-proliferative actions of defatted green tea seed ethanol extract (DGTSE) in HepG2 cancer cells. The DGTSE contained catechins including EGC ($1039.1{\pm}15.2\;g/g$), tannic acid ($683.5{\pm}17.61\;{\mu}g/g$), EC ($62.4{\pm}5.00\;{\mu}g/g$), ECG ($24.4{\pm}7.81\;{\mu}g/g$), EGCG ($20.9{\pm}0.96\;{\mu}g/g$) and gallic acid ($2.4{\pm}0.68\;{\mu}g/g$), but caffeic acid was not detected when analyzed by HPLC. The anti-proliferation effect of DGTSE toward HepG2 cells was 83.13% when treated at $10\;{\mu}g$/mL, of DGTSE, offering an $IC_{50}$ of $6.58\;{\mu}g$/mL. DGTSE decreased CYP1A1 and CYP1A2 protein expressions in a dose-dependent manner. Quinone reductase and antioxidant response element (ARE)-luciferase activities were increased about 2.6 and 1.94-fold at a concentration of $20\;{\mu}g$/mL compared to a control group, respectively. Enhancement of phase II enzyme activity by DGTSE was shown to be mediated via interaction with ARE sequences in genes encoding the phase enzymes. DGTSE significantly (p<0.05) suppressed prostaglandin $E_2$ level, tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$ (TNF-${\alpha}$) protein expressions, and NF${\kappa}$B translocation, but did not affected nitric oxide production. From the above results, it is concluded that DGTSE may ameliorate tumor and inflammatory reactions through the elevation of phase II enzyme activities and suppression of NF${\kappa}$B translocation and TNF-${\alpha}$ protein expressions, which support the cancer cell anti-proliferative effects of DGTSE in HepG2 cells.

• Agribusiness and Information Management
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.17-26
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• 2016

India is largest producer of banana in the world producing 29.72 million tonnes from an area of 0.803 million ha with a productivity of 35.7 MT ha-1 and accounted for 15.48 and 27.01 per cent of the world's area and production respectively (www.nhb.gov.in). In India, Tamil Nadu leads other states both in terms of area and production followed by Maharashtra, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. In Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh, Kurnool district had special reputation in the cultivation of banana in an area of 5765 hectares with an annual production of 2.01 lakh tonnes in the year 2012-13 and hence, it was purposively chosen for the study. On $23^{rd}$ November 2003, the Government of Andhra Pradesh has commenced a comprehensive project called 'Andhra Pradesh Micro Irrigation Project (APMIP)', first of its kind in the world so as to promote water use efficiency. APMIP is offering 100 per cent of subsidy in case of SC, ST and 90 per cent in case of other categories of farmers up to 5.0 acres of land. In case of acreage between 5-10 acres, 70 per cent subsidy and acreage above 10, 50 per cent of subsidy is given to the farmer beneficiaries. The sampling frame consists of Kurnool district, two mandals, four villages and 180 sample farmers comprising of 60 farmers each from Marginal (<1ha), Small (1-2ha) and Other (>2ha) categories. A well structured pre-tested schedule was employed to collect the requisite information pertaining to the performance of drip irrigation among the sample farmers and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model was employed to analyze the performance of drip irrigation in banana farms. The performance of drip irrigation was assessed based on the parameters like: Land Development Works (LDW), Fertigation costs (FC), Volume of water supplied (VWS), Annual maintenance costs of drip irrigation (AMC), Economic Status of the farmer (ES), Crop Productivity (CP) etc. The first four parameters are considered as inputs and last two as outputs for DEA modelling purposes. The findings revealed that, the number of farms operating at CRS are more in number in other farms (46.66%) followed by marginal (45%) and small farms (28.33%). Similarly, regarding the number of farmers operating at VRS, the other farms are again more in number with 61.66 per cent followed by marginal (53.33%) and small farms (35%). With reference to scale efficiency, marginal farms dominate the scenario with 57 per cent followed by others (55%) and small farms (50%). At pooled level, 26.11 per cent of the farms are being operated at CRS with an average technical efficiency score of 0.6138 i.e., 47 out of 180 farms. Nearly 40 per cent of the farmers at pooled level are being operated at VRS with an average technical efficiency score of 0.7241. As regards to scale efficiency, nearly 52 per cent of the farmers (94 out of 180 farmers) at pooled level, either performed at the optimum scale or were close to the optimum scale (farms having scale efficiency values equal to or more than 0.90). Majority of the farms (39.44%) are operating at IRS and only 29 per cent of the farmers are operating at DRS. This signifies that, more resources should be provided to these farms operating at IRS and the same should be decreased towards the farms operating at DRS. Nearly 32 per cent of the farms are operating at CRS indicating efficient utilization of resources. Log linear regression model was used to analyze the major determinants of input use efficiency in banana farms. The input variables considered under DEA model were again considered as influential factors for the CRS obtained for the three categories of farmers. Volume of water supplied ($X_1$) and fertigation cost ($X_2$) are the major determinants of banana farms across all the farmer categories and even at pooled level. In view of their positive influence on the CRS, it is essential to strengthen modern irrigation infrastructure like drip irrigation and offer more fertilizer subsidies to the farmer to enhance the crop production on cost-effective basis in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh, India. This study further suggests that, the present era of Information Technology will help the irrigation management in the context of generating new techniques, extension, adoption and information. It will also guide the farmers in irrigation scheduling and quantifying the irrigation water requirements in accordance with the water availability in a particular season. So, it is high time for the Government of India to pay adequate attention towards the applications of 'Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and its applications in irrigation water management' for facilitating the deployment of Decision Supports Systems (DSSs) at various levels of planning and management of water resources in the country.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.1711-1717
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• 2010

In this study, fibrinolytic activities of fermented yellow agabean (FYA) and black agabean (FBA), and the antioxidation efficiencies of 70% ethanol extract of fermented yellow agabean (FYAE) and black agabean (FBAE) were investigated by selecting Bacillus sp. sm26 strain. Fibrinolytic activities of FYA and FBA were $6.38{\pm}0.5$ and $6.83{\pm}0.5\;U/ml$, which were 1.3 and 1.4 times higher than that of FSB, respectively. With regard to total phenolic contents, FYAE and FBAE were $3.40{\pm}0.44\;mg/g$ and $2.45{\pm}0.20\;mg/g$ respectively, suggesting that their contents were about twice as high as that of fermented soybean extract (FSBE) used as a control. In comparison with FSBE, total protein and sugar contents of FYAE were $0.56{\pm}0.11$ and $2.41{\pm}0.48\;mg/g$, respectively, and those of FBAE were $0.39{\pm}0.12$ and $2.72{\pm}0.63\;mg/g$, respectively. This result suggests that FYAE was 4.7 and 1.7 times higher than FSBE, respectively. The DPPH radical scavenging activity of FBAE was 79% at 1 mg/ml, which was highest among the fermented bean extracts, and was twice as high as FSBE in regards to activity. In addition, FBAE exhibited the highest reducing power at 1 mg/ml, which was higher than FSBE by two-fold. With regard to lipid peroxidation, FBAE and FYAE were 93% and 80% at 1 mg/ml, which were 3 and 2.5 times higher than FSBE, respectively. Of note, the hydrogen peroxide scavenging activities of FBAE and FYAE were 82% and 54% at 1 mg/ml, offering activity that was 4 and 2.5 times higher than FSBE, respectively. Based on these results, the fibrinolytic activity and antioxidation efficiency of the fermented agabeans were significantly higher than other soybeans. Therefore, these studies may suggest that the functional agabeans can be a potential candidate for a natural functional food.