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The present study aimed to investigate the regulation of placentas and uterus remodeling and involvement of E2 in gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). To achieve this, we established in vitro and in vivo models for GDM placentas by culturing BeWo cells under hyperglycemic concentration, and treating pregnant rats with streptozotocin (STZ). We evaluated the expression of angiogenesis-related proteins. The expression of the anti-angiogenic factor, excess placental soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 (sFLT1) was increased in our in vitro GDM model compared to the control. Moreover, the expressions of placental sFLT1 and the von willebrand factor (VWF) were also significantly elevated in the placenta of STZ-treated rats. These data indicate the disruption of angiogenesis in the GDM placentas. The expression levels of connexin 43 (Cx43), a component of the gap junction and collagen type I alpha 2 chain (Col1a2), a component of the extracellular matrix, were decreased in the GDM uterus. These results suggest that uterus decidualization and placental angiogenesis are inhibited in GDM rats. Our results also showed upregulation of the expression of genes regulating E2 synthesis as well as estrogen receptors (ER) in vivo models. Accordingly, the concentration of E2 measured in the culture medium under hyperglycemic conditions, as well as in the serum and placenta of the STZ-treated rats, was significantly elevated compared to the control groups. These results suggest that the dysregulated remodeling of the placenta and uterus may result in the elevation of E2 and its signaling pathway in the GDM animal model to maintain pregnancy.

Saussurea namhaedoana, a new endemic species narrowly restricted to Namhaedo Island of Korea, is reported in this study. It can be distinguished from other congeneric species of Saussurea in Korea by having persistent radical leaves until flowering, hastate or sagittate leaves with mucronate toothed to undulate-lobulate margins, grayish cobwebby hairs on abaxial leaf surfaces when young, and tubular involucre with grayish cobwebby hairs. Morphologically, S. namhaedoana is closely related to other species in Korea, such as S. gracilis Maxim., S. insularis Kitam., S. seoulensis Nakai and S. albifolia M. J. Nam and H. T. Im, sharing grayish or white hairs on the abaxial leaf surfaces. It, however, can be distinguished from its close relatives by having a distinct leaf shape, i.e., sagittate or hastate leaves. The phylogenetic relationship relative to congeners in East Asia is yet to be determined.

Although the monophyly of Phedimus has been strongly demonstrated, the species relationships among approximately 20 species of Phedimus have been difficult to determine because of the uniformity of their floral characteristics and extreme variation of their vegetative characters, often accompanied by high polyploid and aneuploid series and diverse habitats. In this study, we assembled 15 complete chloroplast genomes of Phedimus species from East Asia and generated a plastome-based backbone phylogeny of the subgenus Aizoon. As a proxy for nuclear phylogeny, we reconstructed the nuclear ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer (nrDNA ITS) phylogeny independently. The 15 plastomes of subg. Aizoon were highly conserved in structure and organization; hence, the complete plastome phylogeny fully resolved the species relationships with strong support. We found that P. aizoon and P. kamtschaticus were polyphyletic and morphologically distinct or ambiguous species, and they most likely evolved from the two species complex. The crown age of subg. Aizoon was estimated to be 27 Ma, suggesting its origin to be in the late Oligocene; however, the major lineages were diversified during the Miocene. The two Korean endemics, P. takesimensis and P. zokuriensis, were inferred to have originated recently during the Pleistocene, whereas the other endemic, P. latiovalifolium, originated in the late Miocene. Several mutation hotspots and seven positively selected chloroplast genes were identified in the subg. Aizoon.

Saussurea taquetii reported from Jejudo Island is either treated as a synonym of S. japonica or is recognized as a distinct taxon. Saussurea japonica and S. pulchella belong to the sect. Theodorea by having peculiar outer phyllaries with pale purplish scarious apical appendages; they are closely related to each other morphologically and are known to occur widely throughout the Korean Peninsula. To assess the taxonomic status of S. taquetii, we investigated representative populations of S. taquetii from jejudo Island, Korea, and S. japonica from Kyushu in Japan. We conducted a comparative study morphologically using specimens of three species from KH, CNU, and TI. Saussurea taquetii is very similar morphologically and ecologically to S. japonica in Kyushu. Unlike previous floristic treatments, we concluded that the two taxa, S. pulchella and S. taquetii, occur on the Korean Peninsula and on jejudo Island, respectively.

Background: Based on the controversy over whether the extensor tendon is the only lesion of lateral epicondylitis of the elbow and numerous reports of concomitant lateral collateral ligament involvement, potential damage to the lateral collateral ligament complex should be considered for the treatment. Methods: About 25 elbows in 23 patients (débridement group) and 22 elbows in 20 patients (reconstruction group) who were diagnosed with lateral epicondylitis and had an average of 22 months of symptoms revealing anatomical lesion on MRI were included. The capitellum-sublime tubercle-radial head (CSR) angle was measured on both sides preoperatively, and the visual analog scale (VAS) and Mayo elbow performance score (MEPS) were measured over 12 months, postoperatively. Results: The initial preoperative mean VAS was statistically significant with 4.6 in the débridement group and 6.5 in the reconstruction group (P

Reichardia Roth is a small Mediterranean genus comprising ten homogeneous species with basic chromosome numbers of 7, 8, and 9. To assess the plastid genome evolution and differentiation of Reichardia species, we assembled the complete plastome sequences of seven Reichardia and two Launaea species and conducted various phylogenomic analyses comparatively with nuclear ribosomal DNA ITS sequences. Reichardia and Launaea plastomes were highly conserved in gene content and order, containing 130 genes. Plastid phylogenomic reconstruction strongly suggested that Reichardia was a sister to Launaea, and its common ancestor initially diverged into two major lineages: the first containing species with n = 8 chromosomes exclusively, and the other with n = 9, 8, and 7 chromosomes. Although the ancestral Reichardia karyotype was suggested to most likely be n = 9 from ancestral chromosome number reconstruction, the pattern of descending dysploidy indicated by the phylogenetic trees based on nuclear ribosomal DNA ITS was less evident in the trees based on the plastome. Possible reasons for these findings are discussed.

Background: Saussurea is one of the most species-rich genera in the Cardueae, Asteraceae. There are approximately 40 Saussurea species distributed in Korea, with nearly 40% of them endemics. Infrageneric relationships remain uncertain due to insufficient resolutions and low statistical support. In this study, we sequenced the plastid genomes of five Korean endemic Saussurea (S. albifolia, S. calcicola, S. diamantica, S. grandicapitula, and S. seoulensis), and comparative analyses including two other endemics (S. chabyoungsanica and S. polylepis) were conducted. Results: The plastomes of Korean endemics were highly conserved in gene content, order, and numbers. Exceptionally, S. diamantica had mitochondrial DNA sequences including two tRNAs in SSC region. There were no significant differences of the type and numbers of SSRs among the seven Korean endemics except in S. seoulensis. Nine mutation hotspots with high nucleotide diversity value (Pi > 0.0033) were identified, and phylogenetic analysis suggested that those Korean endemic species most likely evolved several times from diverse lineages within the genus. Moreover, molecular dating estimated that the Korean endemic species diverged since the late Miocene.Conclusions: This study provides insight into understanding the plastome evolution and evolutionary relationships of highly complex species of Saussurea in Korean peninsula.

Symplocarpus koreanus (Araceae; Orontioideae) from Korea is described as new. Symplocarpus koreanus has long been considered to be conspecific with S. renifolius in Japan, but phylogenetic, morphological, and cytological data indicate its taxonomic distinction. Compared to S. renifolius, S. koreanus has a much smaller spathe and more spherical spadix with fewer, smaller flowers. Previous phylogenetic studies also suggested that S. koreanus is more closely related to nonthermogenic S. nipponicus than to S. renifolius in Japan. Like its nonthermogenic sister species, S. nipponicus, in Korea and Japan, S. koreanus is diploid (2n = 2x = 30), while S. renifolius in Japan is tetraploid (2n = 4x = 60). A detailed species description, geographical distribution, major morphological differences between the species and a dichotomous key to the species in eastern Asia are provided.

This study examines the factors that influence successful knowledge transfer (KT) in restaurant franchises. First, this study aims to identify the relationships among franchisors' capabilities of KT, franchisees' willingness to acquire knowledge, and franchisees' performance. Second, it is to identify the mediation effects of franchisees' willingness to engage on KT. Third, it is to examine a moderating effect of restaurant type on the relationship between franchisors' capabilities of KT and franchisees' willingness to acquire KT. Data was collected from 119 franchisees. The results suggest that when franchisors have greater capability and willingness to transfer knowledge and comply with policies for KT, franchisees' willingness to acquire KT increases. Further, franchisees' willingness to acquire knowledge have a positive effect on their performance of KT. Franchisees' willingness to acquire knowledge also mediates the relationship between franchisors' capabilities and franchisees' performance of KT. Finally, restaurant type moderates the relationship between franchisors' capabilities of KT and franchisees’ willingness to acquire knowledge.

Background Saussurea is one of the most species-rich genera in the Cardueae, Asteraceae. There are approximately 40 Saussurea species distributed in Korea, with nearly 40% of them endemics. Infrageneric relationships remain uncertain due to insufficient resolutions and low statistical support. In this study, we sequenced the plastid genomes of five Korean endemic Saussurea (S. albifolia, S. calcicola, S. diamantica, S. grandicapitula, and S. seoulensis), and comparative analyses including two other endemics (S. chabyoungsanica and S. polylepis) were conducted. Results The plastomes of Korean endemics were highly conserved in gene content, order, and numbers. Exceptionally, S. diamantica had mitochondrial DNA sequences including two tRNAs in SSC region. There were no significant differences of the type and numbers of SSRs among the seven Korean endemics except in S. seoulensis. Nine mutation hotspots with high nucleotide diversity value (Pi > 0.0033) were identified, and phylogenetic analysis suggested that those Korean endemic species most likely evolved several times from diverse lineages within the genus. Moreover, molecular dating estimated that the Korean endemic species diverged since the late Miocene. Conclusions This study provides insight into understanding the plastome evolution and evolutionary relationships of highly complex species of Saussurea in Korean peninsula.

As the business environment is rapidly changing with globalization and complexity of information flows, the uncertainty is also very increased for project environment. Although many studies have been conducted to find out the critical factors for project success, there still exist different views to define project success. Furthermore, implementing success formula for one project does not necessarily guarantee a success for another project since there are other elements that impede the success of project. In this regards, it is imperative to examine what are the barriers to project success. This study aims to examine the barriers that impede the success of project. Past literature was thoroughly reviewed to collect and develop a preliminary list of elements that affected project performance negatively. Experts were interviewed to refine the list and the final list of the measurement items were developed. A survey questionnaire was developed with the final list of measurement items, and a survey was conducted on the practitioners with project experience. After the survey, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the final list to extract the component dimensions which in turn formed the group of project barriers. The exploratory factor analysis provided ten factors, which are difficulty of process management, failure of project feasibility analysis, cost overruns and lack of cost benefits, unclarity project plan, strategic consistency error, stakeholder conflict, inaccuracy of requirement definition, disturbance of communication, technical environment change, negative attitude of top management.

Of the nearly 40 endemics present on Ulleung Island, Campanula takesimana Nakai represents an anagenetically derived lineage of a continental progenitor, C. punctata Lam. Other than its low morphological divergence, little is known about the genetic diversity and population structure of the species pair or the geographical origin of C. takesimana. We sampled a total of 240 accessions in 22 populations, including one Dokdo Island population, of the two species, sequenced four noncoding chloroplast regions (rps16-trnK, trnQ-rps16, psbD-trnT, and psbM-trnD; 4482 bp), and assessed the genetic consequences of anagenetic speciation. Based on chloroplast DNA, we found substantially lower genetic diversity statistics for C. takesimana compared to its progenitor, significant population genetic structuring in insular derivative species, and significant molecular divergence between C. punctata and C. takesimana. Mutually exclusive haplotypes were found in the two species, and the haplotype network suggested that Ulleung Island haplotypes were derived from the Dokdo Island haplotype, which was originally derived from a C. punctata population in Bonghwa-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province. This study pinpoints a very narrow geographical source area and suggests the potentially important role of Dokdo Island as an initial stepping stone for Ulleung Island endemics.

Scrophularia takesimensis is a critically endangered endemic species of Ulleung Island, Korea. A previous molecular phylogenetic study based on nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA) internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences with very limited sampling suggested that it is most closely related to the clade comprising S. alata and S. grayanoides. To determine the origin of S. takesimensis, we sampled a total of 171 accessions including S. takesimensis (9 populations and 63 individuals) and two closely related species, S. alata (11 populations and 68 individuals) and S. grayanoides (5 populations and 40 individuals) from eastern Asia and sequenced ITS and two chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) non-coding regions. Previously sequenced representative species of Scrophularia (109 taxa for ITS and 80 taxa for cpDNA) were combined with our data set and analyzed. While the global scale ITS phylogenetic tree suggests monophyly for each of the three eastern Asian species, S. takesimensis appears to be more closely related (albeit weakly) to a clade containing eastern North American/Caribbean species than to either S. alata or S. grayanoides. By contrast, the global scale cpDNA phylogenetic tree demonstrates that the eastern North America/Caribbean clade is sister to a clade comprising the three eastern Asian species. In addition, the monophyletic S. takesimensis is deeply embedded within paraphyletic S. alata, sharing its most recent common ancestor with populations from Japan/Sakhalin. Two divergent, geographically structured cp haplotype groups within S. takesimensis suggest at least two independent introductions from different source areas. A new and accurate chromosome number of S. takesimensis (2n = 94) is reported and some conservation strategies are discussed.

The subtribe Saussureinae is a highly speciose group with more than 600 species distributed in the Northern Hemisphere and is particularly species-rich at the high mountains of central and eastern Asia. Saussurea and Jurinea are the two main genera described within the subtribe. However, up to 15 satellite genera are recognized in some recent taxonomic treatments with an analytical viewpoint. For the first time, we carried out a complete sampling to clarify generic boundaries based on a well-resolved phylogeny of Saussureinae. We employed a Hyb-Seq technique that targets 1061 nuclear conserved ortholog loci designed for Compositae. After a filtering of potential paralogs, 588 loci were retained to infer phylogenetic trees under concatenation and coalescence approaches. High branch support resolution was recovered at the generic level, but a non-monophyletic pattern was detected for most of the genera as they are currently circumscribed. Accordingly, we propose a new generic delimitation based on the three main clades recovered in the backbone tree, which are also in agreement with morphological evidence: Dolomiaea, Saussurea, and Jurinea. Following this classification into three genera, 18 new combinations are proposed. This new genus delineation will be used as a basis for future evolutionary studies in the Saussureinae., Financial support from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Project CGL2015-66703-P MINECO/FEDER, UE and Ph.D. grant to Sonia Herrando-Moraira) and the Catalan government (“Ajuts a grups consolidats” 2017-SGR1116) is also greatly acknowledged. This study has been performed under the Ph.D. program “Plant Biology and Biotechnology” of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), INTRODUCTION MATERIALS AND METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSION TAXONOMIC IMPLICATIONS NOTE ADDED IN PROOF AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study aims to define short-term exchange and long-term relationship factor in B2B interaction service quality and test the relationship between the short-term exchange, long-term relationship and transaction performance. Furthermore, based on the result, suggestion to steel industry on action plan regarding B2B interaction service quality will be made. Through these analysis, long-term relationship factors among B2B interaction service quality factors proved to be of great use. Moreover, Long-term supplier-buyer relationship in steel industry practically affected transaction performance. This study is the first to test the effect of supplier-buyer B2B interaction service quality on transaction performance in steel industry. Also, as the first study to use long-term relationship as indirect path in accordance with steel industry, the implication of this study can be considered significant both academically and practically.

The steroid hormones act by binding to their receptors and subsequently interacting with coactivators. Several classes of coactivators have been identified and shown to be essential in estradiol (E2) responsiveness. The major coregulators are the p160 steroid receptor coactivator (SRC) family. Although the function of SRCs in other organs has been well studied, it has not been thoroughly studied in the placenta. In addition, the correlation between preeclampsia (PE) and SRCs has not been examined previously. Therefore, we compared the expression patterns of SRCs in normal and PE placentas. In human PE placental tissues, SRC-1 mRNA, and protein levels were downregulated in the PE group. In addition, to assess the expression of SRCs in a PE environment, we used Reduced Uterine Perfusion Pressure (RUPP) model and placental cells were cultured in hypoxia condition. SRC-1 proteins were reduced in the placenta of PE-like rat RUPP model. Furthermore, SRCs proteins were significantly downregulated in hypoxia-grown placental cells. To examine the interaction between estrogen receptors (ERs) and SRC-1 protein, we performed co-immunoprecipitation. The interaction of SRC-1 with ERα was significantly stronger than that with ERβ. In PE placenta, the interaction of both ERα and ERβ with SRC-1 was stronger than that in normal placenta. In summary, our results demonstrate that expression levels of SRC-1, not SRC-2 and SRC-3, were decreased in hypoxia-induced PE placenta, which may further reduce the signaling of sex steroid hormones such as E2. The dysregulated signaling of E2 by SRC-1 expression could be associated with the PE placental symptoms of patients.

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate lipid metabolism in the placenta of Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) individuals and to evaluate its effect on the fetus. Methods: We examined the expression of lipogenesis- and lipolysis-related proteins in the in vitro and in vivo GDM placenta models. Results: The levels of sterol regulatory element binding protein-1c (SREBP-1c) were increased, and fat accumulated more during early hyperglycemia, indicating that lipogenesis was stimulated. When hyperglycemia was further extended, lipolysis was activated due to the phosphorylation of hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) and expression of adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL). In the animal model of GDM and in the placenta of GDM patients during the extended stage of GDM, the expression of SREBP-1c decreased and the deposition of fat increased. Similar to the results obtained in the in vitro study, lipolysis was enhanced in the animal and human placenta of extended GDM. Conclusion: These results suggest that fat synthesis may be stimulated by lipogenesis in the placenta when the blood glucose level is high. Subsequently, the accumulated fat can be degraded by lipolysis and more fat and its metabolites can be delivered to the fetus when the GDM condition is extended at the late stage of gestation. Imbalanced fat metabolism in the placenta and fetus of GDM patients can cause metabolic complications in the fetus, including fetal macrosomia, obesity, and type 2 diabetes mellitus.