We investigated the epidemiological characteristics of the antimicrobial resistant Enterococcus isolates from the four major rivers of Korea in 2012. A total 316 surface water samples were collected from three distinct sites (nearby livestock farms, tributaries, and major rivers) at two different seasons (dry season: n = 76, wet season: n = 240). A total 654 bacterial cells were isolated from samples and their genus distribution were determined. We found that Gram-negative bacteria including various genera were prevalent (n = 522, 79.8%), and Enterococcus was the most common genus of Gram-positive bacteria (n = 119, 18.2%). The isolation rate of Gram-negative bacteria was higher in wet season, whereas that of Enterococcus isolates was higher in dry season. The prevalence of Enterococcus isolates was also higher nearby livestock farms than on tributaries and main rivers. Since Enterococcus isolate is a key indicator for animal fecal contamination, the following experiments focused on this microorganism. As compared to a previous report in 2006, the resistance rates in E. faecium to erythromycin (40.0% to 69.9%) and chloramphenicol (0% to 16.4%) were increased, whereas those to penicillin (56.0% to 4.1%) and teicoplanin (36.0% to 0%) were decreased. We also found that antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) E. faecium isolates from rivers and livestock samples shared similar pulsed-filed gel electrophoresis (PFGE) profiles, validating the transmission of AMR Enterococcus isolates from livestock to river. Taken together, this study provides us with detailed information about bacterial contamination status in four major rivers, and highlights the changes in AMR pattern of Enterococcus isolates, which are expected to have originated from livestock.

Customer management based on Customer lifetime value has emerged as the most effective way of doing business due to the ability to foster profitable CRM (Verhoef & Lemon, 2013; Villanueva & Hanssens, 2007). Although there has been much conceptual evidence of the positive link between customer equity and firm’s performance(Blattberg, Malthouse, and Neslin 2009), comparison of relationships between two competing firms based on customer equity and firm profitability is limited. Therefore, this research examines the role of customer equity on the firm profitability by comparing the company type such as leader and follower in customer equity setting. The result shows that the effect of newly acquired Customer equity of the second tier company is stronger than that of the top tier company while the effect of retained customer equity of the top company is stronger than that of the second tier company. Overall, the results provide strategic implications for firms to use a different customer equity strategy in a competitive market structure.

Turmeric is known for its ability to enhance immunity via anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant effects. Salmonella enterica species contain a large number of pathogenic serotypes that are adapted to a broad range of vertebrate hosts. Our previous study revealed that bioprocessed polysaccharides from the liquid culture Lentinus edodes fungal mycelia containing turmeric (BPP-turmeric) is able to alter chicken macrophage responses and increases chick survival against Salmonella enterica infection. In this study, we examined the immunomodulatory effects of BPP-turmeric on the porcine macrophage 3D4/31 cell line infected with Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Choleraesuis (S. Choleraesuis) or S. Enteritidis. Our experimental analyses demonstrated that BPP-turmeric (i) does not alter phagocytic and killing activity of 3D4/31 against either Salmonella serotypes, but that it (ii) represses mRNA transcription of interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, and tumor necrosis factor α in response to Salmonella infection. Collectively, these results imply that BPP-turmeric has an immunomodulatory effect that represses pro-inflammatory cytokine expression in porcine macrophages, suggesting that it may protect swine from salmonellosis via controlling Salmonella-induced hyperinflammation.

Firms acquire customers using myriad forms of marketing media (Neslin & Shankar 2009), and different media strategies yield different results to the firms. Therefore, allocating media strategy given a firm’s spending raises important questions for managers. This is especially the case since the media landscape has changed dramatically, with new media channels incorporating online, mobile, and social media now being considered the mainstream. It is crucial to understand how each form of media influences consumers and how it operates alongside traditional media. Based on Stephen and Galak (2012), marketers distinguish earned media from paid media. Earned media is defined as media activity that a company does not directly generate, such as press mentions on the internet and online community posts in consumer-generated social media. On the other hand, paid media refers to the media activity which a company generates (for example, television, radio, print, and direct mail). It is common for firms to consider using earned media and paid media at the same time when developing marketing communication strategies. Despite the coexistence of paid and earned media channels, previous empirical findings focus either on paid media or earned media and suggest that these individually will increase a firm’s marketing outcomes. However, there is a lack of research that examines the question of whether the use of paid media and earned media at the same time is synergistic. The effects of a cross media synergy only focuses on the resource allocation within paid media (for example, TV–Radio (Edell & Keller 1989), TV–Magazine (Confer & McGlathery 1991), TV–Print (Dijkstra, Buijtels, & Van Raaij 2005), and TV, Radio, Print and Outdoor (Briggs, Krishnan, & Sheeran 2003)). Thus, by considering paid media and earned media concurrently, this study investigates whether the synergies between paid and earned media have a stronger effect on a firm’s long term profitability than the isolated effects of TV or word of mouth (WOM) alone. In addition, the research on earned media has focused on short-term outcomes such as customer actions (for example, website sign-ups) and sales growth, sales rank, cross-product sales, and ratings (Trusov, Bucklin, & Pauwels 2009; Li & Hitt 2008; Moe & Trusov 2011). Moreover, in the limited research on the relationship between earned media and long-term outcomes, the outcomes are restricted to those related to soft metrics of communication effectiveness (for example, attitude and brand awareness). Therefore, we use customer equity, which is regarded as a forward looking firm outcome variable, thereby enabling marketers to monitor and measure the long-term financial impact of marketing spending (Kumar & Shah 2015). Moreover, cross-media synergy can be accurately measured by customer equity, which incorporates both customer acquisition and retention. Based on Villanueva, Yoo, and Hassens (2008), customers acquired through paid media focus more on trials, whereas customers acquired through earned media provide the firm with more repeats. In other words, paid media plays a key role in the acquisition of customers, while, on the other hand, earned media increase the retention of customers. Thus, it is appropriate to measure the cross-media synergy with the customer equity (long term profitability) that can capture the customer acquisition and retention simultaneously. Regarding the long term impact of the firm’s media strategy, previous research has used the economic impact of traditional marketing channel (for example, television, radio, magazine or newspaper, advertisement, e-mail links, and direct mail) versus that of WOM (for example, links from Web sites, magazine, or newspaper articles, referrals from friends or colleagues, referrals from professional organizations or associations, and referrals from search engines) on customer equity. Traditional marketing had a stronger effect than WOM in the short term, while WOM is a quiet, gradual-impact, long lasting driver (Villanueva, Yoo, & Hassens 2008). This result can be attributed to the different characteristics of each media channel. Although earned media, including WOM, is not entirely controlled by the firm, earned media may be more likely to last longer for various reasons. One of the reasons for this phenomenon is that earned media has greater credibility than conventional marketing activities that are implemented by the firms, and is therefore more persuasive than conventional advertising (Brown & Reingen 1987, Villanueva, Yoo, & Hassens 2008). In other words, considering the impact of each type of media in itself, earned media is more effective in increasing long-term profitability. However, the interaction effect of earned and paid media has not been empirically tested yet. Thus, it is conceivable that a cross-media synergy (incorporating the implementation of earned media and paid media at the same time) will last longer than the implementation of each isolated media. As Armelini and Villanueva (2010) pointed out, earned media and paid media have complementary effects. For example, offline advertising increases website visitation by influencing consumer awareness, while online advertising directly leads to website traffic (Ilfeld & Winer 2002). The consumer buying process involves distinct stages such as awareness, consideration, and purchase (Lavidge & Stener 2000) and each media influences customer buying behavior in a different way. Hence, it enhances the effectiveness in terms of long-term profitability to utilize the cross-media effect properly. For example, in the car industry, 64 % new car buyers become aware of the features and benefits of a car by obtaining information online, even though they purchase their cars from an offline dealership (J.D. Power and Associates 2004). This finding implies that a firm’s implementation of both paid and earned media properly will maximize the customers’ arousal of the target brands. Furthermore, converging paid media and earned media is expected to proliferate the growth of a firm’s profitability, such as sales, revenue, and customer’s equity, at an exponential rate. For example, the effects of TV advertising execution can be enhanced by press mentions that a company does not directly generate; this is because press mentions support the credence of TV advertising. Inversely, since paid media activities reach the audience relatively more than WOM (due to the high audience penetration share), the online share of press mention can proliferate rapidly with the execution of paid media activities. Therefore, the interaction between earned media and paid media has a greater effect on customer equity than isolated media implementation. The impact of a media synergy has more positive effect and last longer than isolated media implementation (and our model is displayed in Fig. 1). We collect data on marketing efforts, word-of-mouth circumstance, and performance of a telecommunication company. Based on customer equity models and quarterly marketing and performance data, we first estimate the lifetime value of the newly acquired and existing customers. Thereafter, we determine the customer equity of the company over each period. We develop and employ a time-series model for examining the relationship between cross media efforts (paid media vs. earned media) and the estimated firm’s customer equity. Finally, we examine the synergistic effect of cross media on the firm’s long-term profitability.

Although there has been much conceptual evidence of the positive link between customer equity and firm’s performance, comparison of relationships between two firms based on customer equity and firm profitability is limited. However, there is an increasing demand for research that investigates the relationship between firms in the competitive market structure. Therefore, the goal of this research is to examine the role of customer equity on firm profitability by comparing two firms, in a customer equity setting. The result shows that the effect of newly acquired CE of the second top company is stronger than that of the top company while the effect of retained CE of the top company is stronger than that of the second top company. Overall, the results offer strategic implications for firms to implement a different customer equity strategy in this competitive market structure.

Newly recorded cyproideid species of the genus Terepeltopes was collected from Korean waters. The monotyptic genus Terepeltopes erected with T. dolichorhunia Hirayama, 1983 was only known to be found at West Kyushu, Japan. In this study, the family Cyproideidae Barnard, 1974 is first recorded from Korea by the discovery of T. dolichorhunia, and we provide description and illustrations of this species.

Despite the worldwide distributions of genus Lepidepecreum and the previous reports from China and Japan, this genus has not yet been recorded in Korean waters. In this study, Korean materials of lysianassid amphipods are assigned readily to the genus Lepidepecreum and identified as L. vitjazi Gurjanova, 1962 based on the following features: well-developed dorsal keels of the pleonite 3 and urosimite 1; unconcaved palmer margin of ganthopod 1; hooked locking spines of propodus on pereopods 3 and 4; and the shape of coxa 4. We also provide the description and illustrations of this species.

This study was performed to evaluate antimicrobial resistance of food-borne pathogens isolated from retail meat in Korea. A total of 157 samples of beef, pork, and chicken were collected and analyzed for E. coli, Salmonella, Campylobacter. Resistances to tetracycline were declined in accord with reduced usage of tetracycline in live stock production. E. coli stains from chicken meat had higher multi-drug resistance ratio than strains from other meat. One extended spectrum beta lactamase (ESBL) producing E. coli and two ESBL producing Salmonella were identified in this study. ESBL producing Salmonella strains were confirmed to carry CTX-M-1 type genes.

Although several causal studies investigate the relationships between customer equity (CE) and firm performance, there has been some debate about whether their positive relationship is valid over long time horizons and across firm/industry environments. In this paper, we investigate the dynamic effect of CE on firm performance. Using individual-level purchase data for an online retailer, we find a weak relationship between CE and firm profitability, which is not consistent with previous assumptions and beliefs. Additional analysis to resolve this gap shows that in the early stage when a firm’s growth rate is relatively high the firm is required to manage many newly enrolled customers. This means that newly acquired customer equity (NCE) has a larger effect than retained customer equity (RCE) on firm profitability in the early stage. In contrast, in the mature stage when a firm’s growth rate is stable and low the firm should retain its customers. This means that RCE has a larger effect than NCE on firm profitability in the mature stage. Thus, marketing managers need to leverage the drivers of acquisition and retention to continue to grow overall CE and firm performance.

This study was performed to evaluate antimicrobial resistance of food-borne pathogens isolated from retail meat in Korea. A total of 157 samples of beef, pork, and chicken were collected and analyzed for E. coli, Salmonella, Campylobacter. Resistances to tetracycline were declined in accord with reduced usage of tetracycline in live stock production. E. coli stains from chicken meat had higher multi-drug resistance ratio than strains from other meat. One extended spectrum beta lactamase (ESBL) producing E. coli and two ESBL producing Salmonella were identified in this study. ESBL producing Salmonella strains were confirmed to carry CTX-M-1 type genes.

Lhx8 (LIM homeobox 8) gene encodes a LIM homeodomain transcriptional regulator that is preferentially expressed in germ cells and critical for mammalian folliculogenesis. However, Lhx8 DNA binding sequences are not characterized yet. We aimed to identify and characterize a cis-acting sequence of germ-cell specific transcriptional factor, Lhx8. To identify Lhx8 DNA binding element, Cyclic Amplification of Sequence Target (CAST) Analysis was performed. Electrophoretic Mobility Shift Assay (EMSA) was processed for the binding specificity of Lhx8. Luciferase assay was for the transcriptional activity of Lhx8 through identified DNA binding site. We identified a putative cis-acting sequence, TGATTG as Lhx8 DNA binding element (LBE). In addition, Lhx8 binds to the LBE with high affinity and augments transcriptional activity of luciferase reporter driven by artificial promoter containing the Lhx8 binding element. These findings indicate that Lhx8 directly regulates the transcription of genes containing Lhx8 binding element in oocytes during early folliculogenesis.