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Development of dry milling suitable rice cultivar to invigorate rice processing products

  • Jeung, Ji-Ung
    • Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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    • 2017.06a
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    • pp.10-10
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    • 2017
  • Rice consumption has been continuously decreasing as the eating habits of Koreans have become westernized and diversified. The per capita annual rice consumption in Korea has dropped sharply from 136.4 kg in 1970 to 61.9 kg in 2016. The Korean government, therefore, has been trying to promote rice consumption by invigorating the processed food industry using rice flour. To facilitate the market for processed rice foods, it is essential to develop proper milling technology in terms of flour particle size and damaged starch content to produce high quality rice flour at competitive cost. Dry milling and wet milling are the two major processes used to produce rice flour. Although the dry milling process is relatively simple with a lower production cost, damaged starch content increases because of the high grain hardness of rice. In wet milling, the quality of rice flour is improved by reducing flour particle size as well as damaged starch content through soaking procedures. However, the production costs are high because of the additional expenses associated with the disposal of waste water, sterilization and drying of the wet flour. Recently developed technologies such as jet milling and cryogenic milling also require expensive investment and production. Therefore, developing new rice cultivars with dry milling adaptability as well as good processing properties is an important goal of rice breeding in Korea. 'Suweon 542' is a floury endosperm mutant line derived from sodium azide treatment on a high-yield, early maturing, and non-glutinous japonica rice cultivar, 'Namil'. Compared with the wild type, after dry milling process, the grain hardness of 'Suweon 542' was significantly lower because of its round and loosely packed starch granules. Also, the flour of 'Suweon 542' had significantly smaller particles and less damaged starch than 'Namil' and other rice cultivars and its particle size distribution was similar to a commercial wheat cultivar. Recently, through collaborations with nine universities and food companies, a total of 21 kinds of processed prototypes, using the dry milling flour of 'Suweon 542', were evaluated. In the production of major rice processing products, there was no significant quality difference between the flours prepared by wet milling and dry milling. Although the amount of water added to the dough was slightly increased, it was confirmed that the recipe applying the wet flour could be used without significant change. To efficiently transfer the floury endosperm characteristics of 'Suweon 542' to other commercial rice cultivars, it is essential to develop DNA marker tightly linked to the target gene. Association analysis using 70 genome-wide SSR markers and 94 F2 plants derived from 'Suweon 542'/'Milyang 23' showed that markers on chromosome 5 explained a large portion of the variation in floury grains percentage (FGP). Further analysis with an increased number of SSR markers revealed that the floury endosperm of 'Suweon 542' was directed by a major recessive locus, flo7(t), located in the 19.33-19.86 Mbp region of chromosome 5, with RM18639 explaining 92.2% of FGP variation in the F2 population. Through further physical mapping, a co-segregate and co-dominant DNA marker with the locus, flo7(t) was successfully developed, by which, thereby, breeding efficiency of rice cultivars having proper dry milling adaptability with high yield potential or useful functional materials would be improved. 'Suweon 542' maintained the early maturity of the wild type, Namil, which can be used in rice-wheat double cropping systems in Korea not only for improved arable land but also for sharing flour production facilities. In addition to the high susceptibility against major rice diseases, nevertheless, another possible drawback of 'Suweon 542' is the high rate of viviparous under prolonged rainfall during the harvesting season. To overcome susceptibility and vivipary of 'Suweon 542', the progeny lines, derived from the crosses 'Suweon 542' and 'Jopyeong', an early maturing rice cultivar with multiple resistance against rice blast, bacterial blight, and rice strip virus, and 'Heugjinju', a anthocyanin pigment containing black rice cultivar, were intensively evaluated. As the outputs, three dry milling suitable rice elite lines, 'Jeonju614', 'Jeonju615', and 'Jeonju616' were developed.

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Are Bound Residues a Solution for Soil Decontamination\ulcorner

  • Bollag, Jean-Marc
    • Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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    • 2003.10a
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    • pp.111-124
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    • 2003
  • Processes that cause immobilization of contaminants in soil are of great environmental importance because they may lead to a considerable reduction in the bioavailability of contaminants and they may restrict their leaching into groundwater. Previous investigations demonstrated that pollutants can be bound to soil constituents by either chemical or physical interactions. From an environmental point of view, chemical interactions are preferred, because they frequently lead to the formation of strong covalent bonds that are difficult to disrupt by microbial activity or chemical treatments. Humic substances resulting from lignin decomposition appear to be the major binding ligands involved in the incorporation of contaminants into the soil matrix through stable chemical linkages. Chemical bonds may be formed through oxidative coupling reactions catalyzed either biologically by polyphenol oxidases and peroxidases, or abiotically by certain clays and metal oxides. These naturally occurring processes are believed to result in the detoxification of contaminants. While indigenous enzymes are usually not likely to provide satisfactory decontamination of polluted sites, amending soil with enzymes derived from specific microbial cultures or plant materials may enhance incorporation processes. The catalytic effect of enzymes was evaluated by determining the extent of contaminants binding to humic material, and - whenever possible - by structural analyses of the resulting complexes. Previous research on xenobiotic immobilization was mostly based on the application of $^{14}$ C-labeled contaminants and radiocounting. Several recent studies demonstrated, however, that the evaluation of binding can be better achieved by applying $^{13}$ C-, $^{15}$ N- or $^{19}$ F-labeled xenobiotics in combination with $^{13}$ C-, $^{15}$ N- or $^{19}$ F-NMR spectroscopy. The rationale behind the NMR approach was that any binding-related modification in the initial arrangement of the labeled atoms automatically induced changes in the position of the corresponding signals in the NMR spectra. The delocalization of the signals exhibited a high degree of specificity, indicating whether or not covalent binding had occurred and, if so, what type of covalent bond had been formed. The results obtained confirmed the view that binding of contaminants to soil organic matter has important environmental consequences. In particular, now it is more evident than ever that as a result of binding, (a) the amount of contaminants available to interact with the biota is reduced; (b) the complexed products are less toxic than their parent compounds; and (c) groundwater pollution is reduced because of restricted contaminant mobility.

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Evaluation of Physical Properties of Nanoemulsion Ampoule as Customized Cosmetic Bases and Evaluation of Satisfaction According to Skin Type (맞춤형화장품 베이스로서 나노에멀젼 앰플의 물성 평가 및 피부타입에 따른 만족도 평가)

  • Se-Yeon, Kim;Hyung Guen, An;Ja Young, Kim;Kyung-Sup, Yoon
    • Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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    • v.48 no.4
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    • pp.343-355
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    • 2022
  • Customized cosmetics are continuously mentioned as cosmetics in response to changes in the social environment and trends that emphasize individuality. Therefore, in this study, four types of nanoemulsion ampoules corresponding to skin types were prepared by different ratios of nanoemulsion formulation and ampoule formulation, and the applicability as a customized cosmetic base was checked. Particle size, polydispersity index, zeta potential, and viscosity according to time for 90 d were measured for four nanoemulsion ampoules with different volatile residues, and turbiscan was measured as a method for evaluating the stability of a colloidal dispersion system. Finally, human usability satisfaction was evaluated. As a result, it was confirmed that four kinds of nanoemulsion ampoules had a higher amount of volatile residue in the dry skin test product than in the oily skin test product. The pH was in the range of 6.41 to 6.88, and the particle size was in the range of 170 to 174 nm, and the change after 90 d was within 1.2% of the maximum, and there was no specificity in particle size stability. It was confirmed that the polydispersity index was almost constant, and showed a particle size distribution close to monodispersity by showing a change within a value smaller than 0.21 in all test products. The zeta potential was initially -63 mV or more for all four types of test products, and although it showed a slight decrease with time, there was little change to the extent of a maximum decrease of 2.5%. Viscosity was initially in the range of 4,100 to 5,100 cps and showed a decreasing trend with time, showing a maximum decrease of 37.7%. In the turbiscan measurement, the turbiscan stability index, a measure of stability, was all below 1.0, indicating dispersion stability. In the usability satisfaction evaluation (6 points) of 4 nanoemulsion ampoules corresponding to skin type, oily skin product (5.42 ± 0.67 points) > neutral oily skin product (5.36 ± 0.67 points) > neutral dry skin product (5.15 ± 0.69 point) > dry skin product (4.75 ± 0.75 points) in the order of evaluation. Four types of nanoemulsion ampoules are physically stable and have confirmed their applicability as a customized cosmetic base according to skin type, and are expected to expand in various ways.

Development of Composite Flours and Their Products Utilizing Domestic Raw Materials - I. Physical and Chemical Properties and Nutritional Test of Composite Flour Materials - (국산원료(國産原料)를 활용(活用)한 복합분(複合粉) 및 제품개발(製品開發)에 관한 연구(硏究) - 제 1 보 원료분(原料粉)의 이화학적성상(理化學的性狀) 및 영양시험(營養試驗) -)

  • Kim, Hyong-Soo;Lee, Kwan-Young;Kim, Sung-Kih;Lee, Su-Rae
    • Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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    • v.5 no.1
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    • pp.6-15
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    • 1973
  • In an attempt to develop composite flours based on raw materials available in Korea, six domestic resources were investigated with respect to their physical and chemical properties, nutritive value and economy. The results are summarized as follows: 1) Flours from naked barley, sweet potato, potato, corn, defatted rice bran and defatted soybean were compared in respect of their proximate composition, thiamine content and protein score. 2) In color comparison, naked barley and defatted soy flours were comparable to wheat flour whereas corn and sweet potato flours were a little inferior. In raising power, naked barley and defatted soy flours were similar to wheat flour and others were inferior. 3) In maximum viscosity of flours by amylograph, naked barley, corn and potato flours were higher than wheat flour and others were lower. In viscosity in cooling, corn flour was similar to wheat flour and naked barley and potato flours were lower. Addition of $10{\sim}20%$ defatted soy flour into other flours generally caused the lowering of viscosity. Addition of emulsifiers such as glyceryl monostearate, calcium stearyl lactylate, Methocel and Emulthin into the flours manifested different effects on the amylogram. 4) In nutritional test by rat, diets consisting of naked barley, sweet potato, potato or corn flours, each containing defatted soy flour (at 10% level with exception of 20% for sweet potato flour) and naked barley flour fortified with lysine were similar to wheat flour in digestibility, but were superior in NPU and biological value. 5) In price estimation, sweet potato and corn flours were competitive with wheat flour, but naked barley flour was a little expensive. On the other hand, barley and sweet potato are promising in terms of domestic production.

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Pre-Evaluation for Prediction Accuracy by Using the Customer's Ratings in Collaborative Filtering (협업필터링에서 고객의 평가치를 이용한 선호도 예측의 사전평가에 관한 연구)

  • Lee, Seok-Jun;Kim, Sun-Ok
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.17 no.4
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    • pp.187-206
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    • 2007
  • The development of computer and information technology has been combined with the information superhighway internet infrastructure, so information widely spreads not only in special fields but also in the daily lives of people. Information ubiquity influences the traditional way of transaction, and leads a new E-commerce which distinguishes from the existing E-commerce. Not only goods as physical but also service as non-physical come into E-commerce. As the scale of E-Commerce is being enlarged as well. It keeps people from finding information they want. Recommender systems are now becoming the main tools for E-Commerce to mitigate the information overload. Recommender systems can be defined as systems for suggesting some Items(goods or service) considering customers' interests or tastes. They are being used by E-commerce web sites to suggest products to their customers who want to find something for them and to provide them with information to help them decide which to purchase. There are several approaches of recommending goods to customer in recommender system but in this study, the main subject is focused on collaborative filtering technique. This study presents a possibility of pre-evaluation for the prediction performance of customer's preference in collaborative filtering before the process of customer's preference prediction. Pre-evaluation for the prediction performance of each customer having low performance is classified by using the statistical features of ratings rated by each customer is conducted before the prediction process. In this study, MovieLens 100K dataset is used to analyze the accuracy of classification. The classification criteria are set by using the training sets divided 80% from the 100K dataset. In the process of classification, the customers are divided into two groups, classified group and non classified group. To compare the prediction performance of classified group and non classified group, the prediction process runs the 20% test set through the Neighborhood Based Collaborative Filtering Algorithm and Correspondence Mean Algorithm. The prediction errors from those prediction algorithm are allocated to each customer and compared with each user's error. Research hypothesis : Two research hypotheses are formulated in this study to test the accuracy of the classification criterion as follows. Hypothesis 1: The estimation accuracy of groups classified according to the standard deviation of each user's ratings has significant difference. To test the Hypothesis 1, the standard deviation is calculated for each user in training set which is divided 80% from MovieLens 100K dataset. Four groups are classified according to the quartile of the each user's standard deviations. It is compared to test the estimation errors of each group which results from test set are significantly different. Hypothesis 2: The estimation accuracy of groups that are classified according to the distribution of each user's ratings have significant differences. To test the Hypothesis 2, the distributions of each user's ratings are compared with the distribution of ratings of all customers in training set which is divided 80% from MovieLens 100K dataset. It assumes that the customers whose ratings' distribution are different from that of all customers would have low performance, so six types of different distributions are set to be compared. The test groups are classified into fit group or non-fit group according to the each type of different distribution assumed. The degrees in accordance with each type of distribution and each customer's distributions are tested by the test of ${\chi}^2$ goodness-of-fit and classified two groups for testing the difference of the mean of errors. Also, the degree of goodness-of-fit with the distribution of each user's ratings and the average distribution of the ratings in the training set are closely related to the prediction errors from those prediction algorithms. Through this study, the customers who have lower performance of prediction than the rest in the system are classified by those two criteria, which are set by statistical features of customers ratings in the training set, before the prediction process.

A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF ORTHODONTIC PLIERS ACCORDING TO TYPES OF STERILIZATION (멸균 방법에 따른 교정용 플라이어의 물성 변화에 대한 비교 연구)

  • Cho, Il-Je;Son, Woo-Sung
    • The korean journal of orthodontics
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    • v.28 no.2 s.67
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    • pp.329-341
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    • 1998
  • Sterilization has received much attention in orthodontic practices over the past several years. The present study was undertaken to investigate the effects of sterilization on the physical properties of orthodontic pliers-AEZ, Unitek, and Dentronix ligature cutters. This study was designed to examine the tips of ligature cutters before and after 200 and 400 sterilization cycles using the Bowmar RHT-1000, the Dentronix DDS-5000, and the Eschmann SES-2000. The tip surface and the fracture surface were observed with a scanning electron microscope. The microstructure was observed with an optical microscope. The hardness test was carried out with the mic개-Vickers hardness tester and the Rockwell C Scale hardness tester. The chemical composition was analyzed by energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer. The results of this study were as follows : 1. The number and the size of corrosion products on the tip surface and the proportion of cleavage planes in fractured specimen increased, but the hardness of the tip decreased in proportion to sterilization cycles. From these observations, it was considered that mechanical properities decreased in proportion to sterilization cycles. 2. The number and the size of chromium carbides increased in proportion to sterilization cycles. Coarse microstructure decreased mechanical properities. 3. The AEZ and Unitek ligature cutters were Fe-Cr stainless steels, but the Dentronix ligature cutter was Co-Cr alloy. There were many differences among manufactures, but the chemical composition was .not changed after sterilization cycles. 4. The tip edge of ligature cutter used in a clinic revealed microcracks with the SEM observation. Clinical experience confirmed that ligature cutters were gradually degraded by sterilization.

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Selection and Application of Evaluation Factors for Urban Regeneration Project (도시재생사업의 평가요인 선정 및 적용)

  • Jang, Cheol-Kyu
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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    • v.47 no.6
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    • pp.53-66
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    • 2019
  • The purpose of this study was to suggest indicator-based selection and improvement plans for evaluating urban regeneration projects. First, we selected the indicators by conducting expert surveys and analysis of the responses received. Additionally, using the selected indicators, we analyzed the residents' opinions in Wongogae Village, where urban regeneration projects were in progress. Based on these, we suggested a plan to improve Wongogae Village. According to the study, we classified the urban regeneration evaluation indicators into 'Physical environment', 'Social environment' and 'Economic environment' according to their characteristics. We selected urban regeneration evaluation factors through the first expert survey and MCB analysis. As a result, we selected six factors for the 'Physical environment' category: 'Traffic and pedestrian environment', 'Residential (housing) environment', 'Safety and security environment', 'Greenspace', 'Landscape improvement' and 'Public space', In the 'Social environment' category, four factors were chosen: 'Resident participation', 'Community activation', 'Role of the local government and support centers' and 'Resident education' while for the 'Economic environment' category three factors were selected: 'Local economic revitalization', 'Creating an economy-based environment', 'Job creation'. Next, we conducted a second expert survey and carried out an AHP analysis using the selected evaluation factors to derive the overall weight for each. Among the evaluation factors for urban regeneration, the 'Residential (housing) environment' has the highest weighted value of 0.108, followed by 'Local economic revitalization' and 'Resident participation'. Lastly, the analysis of the residents' opinions of Wongogae Village using the urban regeneration evaluation factors, Parking environment', 'Maintenance of old houses and living environment', 'Environment for founding town and social enterprises', 'Improve commercial and business environment', 'Maintain and activate existing business' and 'Vitalizing small regional economies such as domestic handicrafts and side-job' had high overall importance, but low satisfaction, which means that it is necessary to improve the focus. Therefore, in order to improve the urban regeneration project in villages, it is necessary to improve the parking environment by expanding public parking lots, eliminate close houses, and idle lands, or open a school playground in the village for the residents. In addition, it is essential to encourage economic activities, such as fostering village enterprises and social enterprises in connection with cooperatives and allow for the selling of the products through resident activities, such as neighboring markets.

Effect of Freezing and Thawing Condition on the Physical Characteristics of Blanched Bean Sprouts as Home Meal Replacement (냉.해동 조건에 따른 간편편이식 콩나물의 물리적 품질 변화)

  • Jang, Min-Young;Jung, You-Kyoung;Min, Sang-Gi;Cho, Eun-Kyung;Lee, Mi-Yeon
    • Culinary science and hospitality research
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    • v.20 no.6
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    • pp.235-244
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    • 2014
  • The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of freezing and thawing rate on the physical properties of soybean sprouts to improve the quality of processed soybean sprouts during distribution and storage. Cooked soybean sprouts were frozen by air-blast freezing (ABF) system at $-45^{\circ}C$ or natural air convection freezing (NCF) system at $-24^{\circ}C$, then thawed using microwave oven by varying output power (0, 400, 800 and 1,000 W) until $75^{\circ}C$. The quality of soybean sprouts was measured by the water content, hardness and springiness. In addition, the internal microstructure of soybean sprouts was observed by optical microscope. For results, water content of soybean sprouts thawed by 1,000 W in a microwave showed the lowest value after natural air convection freezing. Springiness of soybean sprouts thawed by all amounts of output power was decreased in comparison with control. Hardness was increased only in soybean sprouts thawed by 1,000 W after air-blast freezing. However the gaps between springiness and hardness were relatively small with control at 1,000 W thawing, after air-blast freezing. Internal microstructure of the soybean sprouts was more damaged as freezing and thawing time were increased. In conclusion, high freezing and thawing rate might improves the quality of soy bean sprout, and IQF freezing and 1,000 W of microwave thawing appears to be the optimum condition for frozen HMR production. From the results freezing and thawing process parameters might can be use as quality control parameters as various type of sprout products processing.

Design Evaluation Model Based on Consumer Values: Three-step Approach from Product Attributes, Perceived Attributes, to Consumer Values (소비자 가치기반 디자인 평가 모형: 제품 속성, 인지 속성, 소비자 가치의 3단계 접근)

  • Kim, Keon-Woo;Park, Do-Hyung
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.23 no.4
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    • pp.57-76
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    • 2017
  • Recently, consumer needs are diversifying as information technologies are evolving rapidly. A lot of IT devices such as smart phones and tablet PCs are launching following the trend of information technology. While IT devices focused on the technical advance and improvement a few years ago, the situation is changed now. There is no difference in functional aspects, so companies are trying to differentiate IT devices in terms of appearance design. Consumers also consider design as being a more important factor in the decision-making of smart phones. Smart phones have become a fashion items, revealing consumers' own characteristics and personality. As the design and appearance of the smartphone become important things, it is necessary to examine consumer values from the design and appearance of IT devices. Furthermore, it is crucial to clarify the mechanisms of consumers' design evaluation and develop the design evaluation model based on the mechanism. Since the influence of design gets continuously strong, various and many studies related to design were carried out. These studies can classify three main streams. The first stream focuses on the role of design from the perspective of marketing and communication. The second one is the studies to find out an effective and appealing design from the perspective of industrial design. The last one is to examine the consumer values created by a product design, which means consumers' perception or feeling when they look and feel it. These numerous studies somewhat have dealt with consumer values, but they do not include product attributes, or do not cover the whole process and mechanism from product attributes to consumer values. In this study, we try to develop the holistic design evaluation model based on consumer values based on three-step approach from product attributes, perceived attributes, to consumer values. Product attributes means the real and physical characteristics each smart phone has. They consist of bezel, length, width, thickness, weight and curvature. Perceived attributes are derived from consumers' perception on product attributes. We consider perceived size of device, perceived size of display, perceived thickness, perceived weight, perceived bezel (top - bottom / left - right side), perceived curvature of edge, perceived curvature of back side, gap of each part, perceived gloss and perceived screen ratio. They are factorized into six clusters named as 'Size,' 'Slimness,' 'No-Frame,' 'Roundness,' 'Screen Ratio,' and 'Looseness.' We conducted qualitative research to find out consumer values, which are categorized into two: look and feel values. We identified the values named as 'Silhouette,' 'Neatness,' 'Attractiveness,' 'Polishing,' 'Innovativeness,' 'Professionalism,' 'Intellectualness,' 'Individuality,' and 'Distinctiveness' in terms of look values. Also, we identifies 'Stability,' 'Comfortableness,' 'Grip,' 'Solidity,' 'Non-fragility,' and 'Smoothness' in terms of feel values. They are factorized into five key values: 'Sleek Value,' 'Professional Value,' 'Unique Value,' 'Comfortable Value,' and 'Solid Value.' Finally, we developed the holistic design evaluation model by analyzing each relationship from product attributes, perceived attributes, to consumer values. This study has several theoretical and practical contributions. First, we found consumer values in terms of design evaluation and implicit chain relationship from the objective and physical characteristics to the subjective and mental evaluation. That is, the model explains the mechanism of design evaluation in consumer minds. Second, we suggest a general design evaluation process from product attributes, perceived attributes to consumer values. It is an adaptable methodology not only smart phone but also other IT products. Practically, this model can support the decision-making when companies initiative new product development. It can help product designers focus on their capacities with limited resources. Moreover, if its model combined with machine learning collecting consumers' purchasing data, most preferred values, sales data, etc., it will be able to evolve intelligent design decision support system.

Factors Influencing the Preference for German farm Tourism: A Path Model Approach

  • Sidali, Katia Laura;Spiller, A.
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.18 no.4
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    • pp.33-59
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    • 2008
  • This paper aims to analyse the preference for German farm tourism among the German population. For this reason, we conducted an empirical study in Germany during summer 2007 and we applieda structural equation model based on partial leasts quares(PLS) to analyse the data. In the following chapters we will introduce the literature review and our conceptual frame work. We will then outline the procedures we adopted and the results of the empirical analysis. In the final part so me conclusions will be presented and a discussion will follow in order to draw the future directions of our research. According to our hypotheses, the possibility that agri-tourism enters in the evoked set of an individual is higher: H1: The higher the information degree about it. H2: The lower the influence of the social stimuli. H3: The higher the physical exposure to it (experience). H4: The higher the wellness image of agri-tourism. H5: The higher the traditional image of agri-tourism. H6: The higher the exciting image of agri-tourism. H7: The higher the perceived value for money. Our further hypotheses affirm that the possibility that agri-tourism enters in the evoked set of an individual is higher: H8: The lower the perceived risk. H9: The higher the motive to enjoy a holiday in the nature. H10: The higher the motive to enjoy a sport holiday. H11: The lower the motive to have an organized holiday. H12: The lower the motive to have a holiday abroad. H13: The lower the motive of action and night life. H14: The higher the motive to spend a holiday with the family. H15: The lower the motive to spend a city holiday. Finally, our model has some socio-demographics data. As we mentioned before, German agri-tourism has traditionally been the travel destination of large-size families, with low-to-middle income. For that reason, our final hypothesises are the following: the possibility that agri-tourism enters in the evoked-set of an individual is higher: H16: The higher the number of family members. H17: The lower the family income. Since in this study we use a path model with a PLS approach, we are able to state some interrelations among the exogenous latent variables: H18: The motive of sport holiday has a positive influence towards nature motives. H19: The physical exposition to agri-tourism has a positive influence toward information. H20: The motive of family holiday has a negative influence toward the motive of action and night life. H21: Social stimuli have a positive influence towards individuals risk perceptions. H22: Social stimuli have negative influence towards experience. Data for this study were gathered via administrated questionnaires during the summer 2007 within the frame of an academic "marketing research" course. The corresponding t-values are assessed using the bootstrapping method with 500 re-samples. In our model 61% of the degree of appreciation of German agri-tourism (evoked set) is explained by five independent variables: value for money ($0.335^{{\ast}{\ast}{\ast}}$) (H7) experience ($0.267^{{\ast}{\ast}}$) (H3), exciting image ($0.204^{\ast}$) (H6) organisation ($-0.162^{\ast}$) (H11) and holiday abroad ($-0.156^{\ast}$) (H12). The variance explained ($R^2$) for the other endogenous variables are the following: nature 24.3%, information 14.1%, action holiday 13.8%, risk perception 5.8% and experience 2.4%. An overview can be inferred from table 5. The results also allow us to test each of the proposed hypotheses. With exception of organization and abroad, none of the others travel style factors (H9 to H15) seem to have any significant impact towards evoked set which leads to the rejection of the respective hypotheses. As expected, social stimuli have a significant influence on individuals' risk perception (H21 accepted), however neither the former nor the latter have a valuable impact on evoked set (rejection of H2 and H8). Besides, since the influence of social stimuli towards experience is not significant, also H22 has to be rejected. Experience influences information (H19 accepted) but the latter does not affect significantly the evoked set (H1 rejected). Both H4 as well as H5, referring respectively to the perceived images of German agri-tourism as a wellness destination and the traditional image of the German farm tourism have to be rejected. Finally, none of the demographic data included in the model explains significantly the variance of the factor evoked set. Therefore neither H16 nor H17 has been accepted. As far as the interrelation between sport and nature (H18) and family and action (H20) are concerned, the stated relationship among these variables has been statistically confirmed. Our path model based on partial least squares shows the factors influencing the preference for farm tourism in Germany. Among others value for money and experience are the most significant ones. Practical implications are discussed.

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