Megacities in Asia such as Seoul, Tokyo, Singapore is modern and historical at the same time. Although technologically developed and highly urbanized, these megacities’ urban fabric and life-style heavily rely on human scale – the software of the urban – as its main shaping force. This interesting mixture and contrast is what gives this city its unique characteristics. It is very motivating to find out how the software – human, community & social aspects of everyday life, rather than hardware of the city – built environment itself, drive the evolution of Seoul to such high degree. Through continuous research and workshops, the software part of the city is investigated and the lowest level elements in urban fabrication - human are looked at in two distinguish methods; computational and analogue. Differences and similarities between them are questioned, by investigating the contrast between digital and physical, virtual and actual in the thinking process. The study looks at the formation of urbanism and architecture on the level of local communities, mapping the social data, and trying to approach this idea in multiple level and perspectives.

Various forms of consumer gatherings have been increasingly recognized to collectively organize new marketplaces where consumer value arises from shared experiences of social belonging and togetherness. One such rapidly globalizing retail phenomenon is Restaurant Day, where everyday citizens, in a form of tempered civil disobedience, suspend the rules and regulations of commercial retail to create a one-day restaurant carnival that takes the form of copious pop-up restaurants located throughout city-spaces. An ethnographic exploration of this retail spectacle allows us to reconsider many conventional notions of the retailing discourse and problematize the notion of consumer activism in such contexts.

Prior research has investigated the consumer effects of cash and card payments in service settings, but the growing trend of innovative payment with a mobile device hasn’t been considered in the literature so fare. This article represents one of the first studies that considers the adoption of mobile as a new payment method and investigate how the ‘checkout’ phase affect the shoppers’ overall price image of retail stores (OSPI). Results from our studies show that the ‘checkout’ phase is the ‘moment of truth’ for shoppers judging OSPI. We investigate the effects of cash, card, and mobile payments and show that the less transparent a payment method, the lower OSPI judgments of shoppers. In particular, favorable comparisons of basket prices to shoppers’ mental budgets trigger lower store price perceptions. Subsequently, these results have major implications for retailers aiming to lower their OSPI in customers’ minds.

Advertising signaling theory predicts that the amount that a company invests in advertising impacts on consumers’ perception about the quality of a product (Anand & Shachar, 2009). For this signaling to occur, some specific conditions are necessary, for example, the product must be a repetitive purchasing product and its quality must not be observable at the time of purchase, but only during the consumption of the product (Kirmani & Rao, 2000). Advertising signaling is based on the assumption of a rational consumer, who is expected to perform an objective and deliberate evaluation of the advertising actions, taking into account the amount invested by the company in the advertisement production and media and the level of investments applied by competitors in the same market to perceive the quality signals. However, this strictly rational perspective has been questioned since Simon (1947, 1955) demonstrated that humans’ rationality is limited by several factors, such as cognitive resources and selective memory, which may influence judgments and decision making. More recently, researchers have argued that affect is also a source of bounded rationality, playing an important role in the way people think and make decisions (e.g., Hanoch, 2002; Kaufman, 1999; Muramatsu & Hanoch, 2005). The objective of the present research is to examine advertising signaling theory through the consumer information processing perspective, exploring the influence of the following three variables on these processes: the individual’s mood, the level of information asymmetry about the product’s attributes and the individual’s gender. The study was applied to 390 undergraduate students in France. Three factors were manipulated in the study: the advertising investment, which was manipulated in three levels (below, the average and above the market average advertising investments for similar campaigns), the subject’s mood (two levels, positive and negative) and the level of information asymmetry about the product’s attributes (two levels, high information asymmetry and low information asymmetry). Thus, the research had a 3 x 2 x 2 experimental design. Respondents were asked to declare their gender, which was considered in a subsequent analysis. Students were approached in the university and invited to participate in the study. Twelve booklet models (each booklet contained the activities and scales related to one experimental group) were randomly distributed among the respondents who accepted to participate of the study. The results of an ANOVA analysis showed main effects of mood (F (1, 376) = 13.31, p < .001), level of information asymmetry (F (1, 376) = 135.00, p < .001) and advertising investment (F (2, 376) = 31.06, p< .001) on the respondents’ quality perception. These main effects were obtained in a context of two significant interactions, between the advertising investment and mood (F (2, 376) = 3.68, p < .050) and mood and information asymmetry about the product (F (1, 376) = 19.05, p < .001). Regarding the first significant interaction, the results showed that subjects who were informed that the advertising investment was below the market average showed similar means of product evaluation whether they were in a positive (M = 5.47) or negative (M = 5.46) mood (F (1, 364) = .000, p > .10). Those who were informed that the advertising investment was at the market average evaluated the product as significantly better when in a positive (M = 6.40) than a negative (M = 5.91) mood (F (1, 364) = 6.29, p < .05). In the same way, respondents who were informed that the advertising investment was above the market level evaluated the product as significantly better when they were in a positive (MPA = 6.94) than a negative (MNA = 6.19) mood (F (1, 364) = 14.32, p < .001). The interaction between the individual’s mood and the level of information asymmetry about the product demonstrated that subjects who were exposed to a slight level of information asymmetry, receiving some information about the product’s attributes, showed similar means of product evaluation whether they were in a positive (M = 6.71) or a negative (M = 6.74) mood (F (1, 364) = .04, p > .10). By contrast, those who were not given any information about the product characteristics, being exposed to a severe level of information asymmetry, evaluated the product as significantly better when in a positive (M = 5.83) than a negative (M = 4.96) mood (F (1, 364) = 27.63, p < .001). A second ANOVA model was conducted to examine the influence of the advertising investment and the individual’s gender on the perceived product quality. The results showed main effects of the advertising investment (F (2, 376) = 31.56, p < .001) and gender (F (1, 376) = 9.77, p < .005) on the subjects’ quality perception. These main effects were qualified by a significant interaction between the advertising investment and the subjects’ gender (F (2, 376) = 5.28, p < .010). Women evaluated the product quality as better (MW = 5.81) than men (MM = 4.71) in the context of advertising investments below the market average (F (1, 370) = 19.05, p < .001). This difference disappeared in the contexts of advertising investment at the market average (MW = 6.19, MM = 6.14, F (1, 370) = .04, p > .10) and above the market average (MW = 6.70, MM = 6.52, F (1, 370) = .55, p > .10), in which men and women showed similar means of perceived product quality. The results show that positive mood influences in the individuals’ perceived product quality specifically in situations of advertising investment at the market average and above the market average. When individuals were informed that a level of advertising below the market average was invested, they demonstrated similar means of product evaluation irrespective of their mood. By contrast, in situations in which they were informed that the company invested approximately the same as competitors in similar advertising campaigns, or even above this amount, respondents who were in a positive mood evaluated the product as significantly better than those who were in a negative mood. The fact that the advertising investment interacts with the individual’s mood suggests that both variables are likely processed by the same information processing route, namely, the peripheral route (Elaboration Likelihood Model, Petty, Cacioppo and Schumann, 1983). That is, although individuals are expected to compute the information related to the advertising investment through the central route, the signal emitted through the advertising investment is more likely processed by the peripheral route. Thus, this signal is also a heuristic element on which individuals based their product evaluations. Our findings also demonstrate gender differences in the processing of the information signaled through the advertising investment only in situations of advertising investment below the market average. In the contexts in which the advertising investment was manipulated below the market average, women evaluated the product as better than men. Nevertheless, in situations in which the advertising investments were manipulated at the market average and above the market average, men and women showed similar levels of perceived product quality. An explanation for this effect is that women are better able than men to process the information sent through the advertising investment and, thus, to perceive the advertising signal only at a specific level of advertising investment. Above a certain level of advertising investment, men are as motivated as women to process this information, causing the gender differences to disappear. This finding is consistent with the Selectivity Model (Meyers-Levy, 1989), which predicts that some situational elements may stimulate men and women to engage in an effortful and detailed processing of the information that can eliminate the differences between the genders. Thus, in situations in which the investment in advertising is sufficient to encourage both women and men to process it, the genders become equally sensitive to the advertising signaling.

This study examines how consumer trust across multiple customer interaction channels, company management policies, and customer previous experience affect service renewal, loyalty. Structural equation modeling of an online survey of 657 US insurance and mobile telecomm consumers confirmed the importance of the three antecedents and that the impact of the three interaction channels differed in the two service contexts.

K+ channels are involved in the regulation of a variety of physiological functions, including proliferation, apoptosis and differentiation, in mammalian cells. Our previous study demonstrated that the blockage of K+ channels inhibits mouse early embryonic development. This study was designed to identify the effect of K+ channels during bovine embryonic development. K+ channel blockers (tetraethylammonium (TEA), BaCl2, quinine, ruthenium red and fluoxetine) were added to the culture medium during in vitro fertilization (IVF) for 6 h to first identify the short-term effect of these chemicals. Among K+ channel blockers, fluoxetine, which is used as a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, significantly increased the blastocyst formation rate by approximately 6% when compared to control. During the in vitro maturation (IVM) of immature oocytes and the in vitro culture (IVC) of embryos, the oocytes and embryos were exposed to fluoxetine for either a short-term (6 h) or a long-term (24 h) to compare the embryonic development in response to exposure time. The 6 h exposure to fluoxetine during IVM did not affect the blastocyst formation rate, but the rate of blastocyst formation was reduced after the 24 h exposure. On the other hand, embryonic development increased approximately 10% in both groups of embryos exposed to fluoxetine for 6 and 24 h during IVC. Taken together, fluoxetine treatment during IVF and IVC, but not IVM, enhances bovine embryonic development. These results suggest that fluoxetine-modulated signals in oocytes and embryos could be an important factor towards enhancing bovine embryonic development.

This study used focus group transcripts and blog entries to explore the experiences of five Korean community college students in a course designed to promote second language (L2) writing development. To provide an in-depth look at this experience from the learner’s perspective, the author was “embedded” in this writing course, taking on the role of participant-researcher. Through multiple readings and coding of data from focus groups and students’ shared blogs, five relevant themes emerged from the students’ discourse: internalization; depersonalization; simplification; bonding; and approbation. From consideration of the students’ perspectives on their experiences in the writing class, suggestions for improving the experience of Korean and other L2 writing students are proposed, including use of relevant and accessible writing topics. The cohesiveness established through the discussion activities in the current study may have benefited participants’ motivational and strategic adaptation, suggesting that such sharing of experiences could be helpful for L2 writing students.

This article reviews the US Supreme Court cases regarding detention of alleged terror suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and examines the interplay between international human rights law and the American Constitution with respect to the executive policies of the Bush Administration to detain terror suspects. The article first references the international human rights legal framework regarding detainees, specifically the Geneva Conventions and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and then analyzes seminal cases brought before the Supreme Court by detainees, specifically how the Supreme Court interprets the US Constitution and international law in reaching its decisions regarding detainees at Guantanamo. While the Supreme Court provided detainees the right to challenge the legality of their detentions through habeas corpus petitions, limitations still exist as to the lack of extraterritorial application of rights protections as well as the domestic judicial failure to redress detainees’ subjection to torture and other abusive treatment.

We provide the first report on Stigmaeopsis miscanthi Saito, which was identified from Chinese silver grass Miscanthus sinensis on Ulleung Island in Korea. This species is one of the S. celarius complex, which involves several cryptic species. S. miscanthi has longer second dorsal propodosomal setae (P2), which is an important characteristic for species identification in the genus Stigmaeopsis. We determined nucleotide sequences of the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) and cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) of S. miscanthi. The COI sequence differed by 0.6% between Korean and Japanese strains. The comparison between S. miscanthi and S. celarius showed that ITS2 and COI differed by 7.2% and 7.9%, respectively. In addition, species-specific primer sets of both species were designed to show the species classification within the genus.

The phylogenetic analysis the queen polymorphic Vollenhovia emeryi ant reveals derivation of the Wolbachia- free short-winged from the Wolbachia-infected long-winged. However, intriguingly, some Japanese short-winged colonies harbor Wolbachia. Wolbachia specific bacteriophage (WO) is also detected in more than half of the infected colonies with no clear distribution pattern across the host insect lineage. We hypothesized that 1) the infected Japanese short-winged is in the intermediate stage to complete loss of Wolbachia and 2) the phage invaded the host after the host insect diverged. To test the hypotheses, we studied the strain diversity using the multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) of five ant colonies; three longwinged colonies from Korea and one long-winged colony and one short-winged colony from Japan. Both Korean and Japanese V. emeryi colonies show unexpectedly high level of Wolbachia strain diversity. However, the diversity is not significantly different between the long-winged and the short-winged against our first hypothesis. Phylogenies of Wolbachia show Korean strains and Japanese strains are largely monophyletic indicating prior infection before the host divergence. The strain diversity of the phage is also surprisingly high. Phylogenies of orf2 and orf7 genes are incongruent to that of Wolbachia and geographically distinct. This indicates that the phage is spatially static and the current infection pattern may be the consequence of local repeated gain and loss of the phage.

The ant species, Vollenhovia emeryi Wheeler (Hymenoptera: Myrmicinae) is endemic in East Asia and has invaded into North America. In this species, the queen caste shows polymorphism in its wing morphology; long-winged queen and short-winged queen, and two morphs are thought not to coexist in nature. This research is conducted to 1) deduce the phylogeographical structure of the two wing morphs in South Korea and to trace the distribution pattern from East Asia to North America, and 2) investigate the Wolbachia and WO phage infection frequency of the species. Either individuals or colonies of V. emeryi were collected from 80 locations, encompassing 68 locations in South Korea, 11 in Japan, and one in USA. Among the collected samples in South Korea, the long-winged morph is dominant and considered as the ancestral type, while the short-winged morph is very rare and derived character. The origin of the US population is neither Korea nor Japan at least in this study. However, we do not exclude the possibility that its origin is the other parts of Japan or the other countries. All of the long-winged morph are infected with Wolbachia, while the short-winged seems to be geographically partially infected. It suggests the possibility that the short wing trait is linked with the evolution of resistance to Wolbachia infection. Bacteriophage WO infection status has no correlation with host insect lineage.

Magnetohydrostatic equilibria, in which the Lorentz force, the plasma pressure force and the gravitational force balance out to zero, are widely adopted as the zeroth order states of many astrophysical plasma structures. A magnetic flux-current surface is a surface, in which both magnetic field lines and current lines lie. We for the first time derive the necessary and sufficient condition for existence of magnetic flux-current surfaces in magnetohydrostatic equilibria. It is also shown that the existence of flux-current surfaces is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for the ratio of gravity-aligned components of current density and magnetic field to be constant along each field line. However, its necessary and sufficient condition is found to be very restrictive. This finding gives a significant constraint in modeling solar coronal magnetic fields as force-free fields using photospheric magnetic field observations.

The current study aimed to explore how students’ L2 writing self-efficacy and interest contribute to strategy use and writing performance. An exploratory factor analysis with 212 Korean college students’ self-reported motivation scores revealed three underlying constructs of self-efficacy, communicative interest, and instrumental interest. Subsequent multiple regression analyses indicated significant positive relations between self-efficacy and the five types of strategy use. Communicative interest appeared to positively contribute to use of planning,monitoring, and compensatory strategies. Instrumental interest was a predictor of retrieval and compensatory strategies. L2 writing strategy use was a statistically significant but minor contributor to L2 writing performance. The current study also suggests that students’ instrumental interest and communicative interest should be balanced. Further research is needed to identify mitigating effects of L2writing strategy use for motivation and performance development.

The purposes of this study are to understand the influence of L1 on learning Korean negation and a developmental sequence of Korean negation forms through examining English and Japanese learners of Korean. In particular, we aim to investigate whether linguistic distance between L1 and L2 affects learning Korean negation. Forty English and twenty Japanese students who were learning Korean in colleges participated in the written production test. As a control group, forty Korean native speakers took the written test. We observed that the English and the Japanese groups produced less number of long form negation sentences than the Korean adult group did. The English group showed a developmental pattern to advance from short to long forms, while the Japanese group demonstrated the opposite tendency. These results suggested that an influence of L1 negation structure on L2 learning coexisted with that of a general developmental sequence. The pedagogical implications of the findings are two-fold:1) the findings would provide practical suggestions for instructing Korean negation forms in multilingual classrooms and 2) the findings would help researchers and language teachers understand the learning patterns of Korean by L2 learners.

Chrysanthemum is one of the most popular and economically important ornamental plants due to its huge diversity in growing habits, wide range of colors, and different patterns of flower. In the present study, we conducted the karyotype analysis in four naturally occurring genotypes of Chrysanthemum boreale. Karyotype studies based on the fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) using 5S and 45S rDNAs. Four chrysanthemum genoteyps showed an aneuploid chromosome number of 2n=18+2 (111016 and 111021) or a diploid of 2n=18 (121001 and 121002). All the genoteyps had the same karyotype formula of 14 metacentrics and 4 submetacentrics. In 111016, the chromosome length during somatic metaphase ranged from 3.11 ± 0.26 μm (shortest) to 3.94 ± 0.20 μm (longest), with a total length of 32.94 μm. The chromosome length at the mitotic metaphase ranged from 3.11 to 6.46 μm, with a total length of 32.94 μm in 111016 and 51.05, 32.81, and 46.00 μm in 111021, 121001, and 121002, respectively. The 5S rDNA and 45S rDNA signals recorded different in all four wildly grown genotypes of C. boreale. This information can be useful in cultivar improvement, as well as in elucidation of the evolution of the chrysanthemum.