Nonthermal atmospheric plasma has been studied for its many biomedical effects, such as tooth bleaching, wound healing, and coagulation. In this study, the effects of dentinal tubules occlusion were investigated using fluoride-carboxymethyl cellulose (F-CMC) gel, nano-sized hydroxyapatite (n-HA), and nonthermal atmospheric plasma. Human dentin specimens were divided to 5 groups (group C, HA, HAF, HAP, and HAFP). Group HA was treated with n-HA, group HAF was treated with n-HA after a F-CMC gel application, group HAP was treated with n-HA after a plasma treatment and group HAFP was treated with n-HA after a plasma and F-CMC gel treatment. The occlusion of dentinal tubules was investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS), which shows Ca/P ratio. In the EDS results, a higher Ca/P ratio was shown in the groups including n-HA than in the control group. The specimens of group HAP and HAFP had a higher Ca/P ratio in retentivity. In the SEM results, there was not a significant difference in the amount of times applied. Therefore, this study suggests F-CMC gel and n-HA treatment using nonthermal atmospheric plasma will be a new treatment method for decreasing hypersensitivity.

The online game market has rapidly increased worldwide, especially in China. In 2012, the world game market equaled 111.7 billion. Many game companies compete by launching new online games in various genres. In 2010, Activision Blizzard reported that the World of Warcraft (WOW) is the world’s most popular online game. Chinese gamers constitute more than half of WOW’s 10 million users. Korea is the second largest gaming market. Thus many foreign game companies target Korea and China, in competition with domestic game companies. The purposes are 1) to understand the role of country of origin and /or brand image in game consumer behavior, 2) to find out the difference of game evaluation between game users in China and Korea, and 3) to draw strategic implication game marketers. Consumers expect products from advanced countries to provide superior performance, so they often look to country of origin in evaluating products. Recently, consumers have looked to brand image as another key element in product evaluation. In this research, we study whether gamers evaluate games on the basis of country of origin and/or brand image. In this paper, we add to the gaming research and suggest that the online game market has three dimensions. First, online games are products. Second, online games are service. Last, online games are entertainment. Data collection resulted in 355 usable responses from online game (LOL) users in Korea(166) and China(189). We conduct factor analysis and reliability analysis to check reliability and validity. Country of Origin is the key element for product evaluation of utilitarian goods but it doesn’t have significant effect on product evaluation of hedonic products which mainly provide sensual pleasure, fantasy, and fun to customers such as luxury goods or online game (Dhar & Wertenbroch, 2000).

Recently, the influence and importance of the IT industry has been increasing. Retailing has been focusing on the functional retail sale of product. However, the needs of companies are focusing on the retail sectors due to the development of digital technology, diverse types of trends, recent trends in consumption patterns, the globalization of the retail market and liberalization of the market. This study examined the effects of IT shopping service quality on consumer's customer loyalty and satisfaction.The purpose of this study is to examine fashion brand's ideal IT shopping service quality on consumer perception and to identify service quality attributes on IT shopping service environment. Therefore, this study will be unable to identify how to improve the quality of IT shopping service and future effects. The research methods are as follow. In the 1st stage, previous advanced studies on fashion brands are explored. Based on this, archival data related to fashion brand are implemented. In the second stage, the first of in-depth interviews method (FGI) and survey are conducted by targeting experts of the fashion industry and customers as a form of survey research. The survey results from 300 college students suggest three dimensions of IT service quality: interaction quality, environmental quality, and outcome quality do have significant impacts on off line customer’s perceived value and loyalty. Both utilitarian and hedonic values are positively related to customer loyalty, and satisfaction. This study concludes with discussions of managerial implications and directions for future research. There is limited research on the domestic fashion retailer IT based shopping service quality measurement. (IT-based services that are not widely spread in Korea). This research will guide the importance of IT shopping service activities and highly recognized variables to consumers, circumstance variables, individual variables Lastly, the study is expected to provide useful information on brand strategy information and management for corporate’s expecting performance.

With increasing competition in the global marketplace and the shift marketing activities from product-centered to consumer-centered, companies make efforts to collect information on overseas markets and global consumers prior to the initiation of new marketing activities. The concept of customer equity has been introduced as a tool to continously secure customers and create profits in the future. These trends also play an important role in the fashion industry since many fashion brands are growing into global companies, but need to adapt their innovative marketing strategies to different market environments, such as cultural settings. For this reason, more understanding of the individual consumers and the responses to marketing strategies is required. Furthermore, the trend cycle of SPA brands tends to be very short, so corporate profitability is highly sensitive to consumers’ attitudinal changes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of cultural value in the global customer equity model focusing on SPA brands. For that, fashion SPA brands which are active globally will be selected and surveys will be distributed in several countries in order to compare and analyze the impact of cultural value on customer equity. The expected results of this study will contribute to the global market segmentation in terms of improved marketing efforts. Marketers will be able to understand which one of the three customer equity drivers – relationship, value, brand – is most important to the cultural setting. Furthermore, the findings will indicate which cultural value is most dominant in the respective country to direct marketing approaches towards these values. Through this improved knowledge over customers, companies can lower their marketing investments, analyze the individual profitability of customers to their company and communicate in more efficient ways to the customers. By gaining more knowledge about the consumer behavior in the respective country, SPA brands will be able to better understand product preferences and purchase patterns and therefore plan product style and life cycles in more efficient ways, which is crucial in such a fast continously changing marketplace. In this way, this study extends the research scope towards a cultural perspective on customer equity.