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Even though global markets are transferring from offline to online, offline sales are rapidly increasing in two top global furniture firms in Korea and Japan each—IKEA and Nitori. This study aims to answer the following research question: ‘What are the differences and similarities between IKEA and Nitori in the open innovation dynamics of furniture design and function?’ Diverse naturalistic qualitative research methods such as participatory observation, or focus group interviews were used. IKEA is mainly pursuing engineering open innovation strategies, including advanced furniture design with engineering knowledge, fusion with new IT and other technologies for new and innovative furniture function and design, and pursuit of creative design idea frontiers. Nitori is mainly pursuing a strategy towards customer open innovation, which is focused on domestic and regional requirements.

Quantitative proteomic platforms based on precursor intensity in mass spectrometry (MS1-level) uniquely support in vivo metabolic labeling with superior quantification accuracy but suffer from limi...

The deuterium, a frequently used stable isotope in isotopic labeling for quantitative proteomics, could deteriorate the accuracy and precision of proteome quantification owing to the retention time shift of deuterated peptides from the hydrogenated counterpart. We introduce a novel three-plexed peptide "diethylation" using only

Fibronectin, a matrix glycoprotein aberrantly expressed in various tumor cells, is a known candidate biomarker for the early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In this study, we investigated whether serum fibronectin levels could predict tumor recurrence in patients with early-stage HCC after curative treatment. A total of 83 patients who showed complete response after initial curative treatment were included. The levels of serum fibronectin at baseline and 4–6 weeks after initial treatment were analyzed with regard to their associations with recurrence. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to construct a prognostic nomogram. Baseline fibronectin levels were not significantly correlated with tumor size, number, stage, and serum α-fetoprotein levels. However, decrease in serum fibronectin levels after treatment was significantly associated with reduced HCC recurrence in multivariate logistic regression (odds ratio, 0.009; p

Objective SC-E3 is a polyherbal formula that contains five medicinal herbs used frequently in traditional herbal medicine. In our previous study, we demonstrated the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of SC-E3. The present study examined the effects of SC-E3 in a mouse model of type-II collagen-induced arthritis (CIA). Methods In vivo, male DBA/1J mice were immunized by intradermal injection of bovine type-II collagen and complete or incomplete Freund’s adjuvant, to induce arthritis. SC-E3 was orally administered daily for 23 days. In vitro, bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMMs) were treated with macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF) and receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand (RANKL) in the absence or presence of SC-E3. Results Administrations of SC-E3 were found to have anti-arthritic effects in the joints of CIA mice, as evidenced by reduced paw swelling, bone erosion and deformation, inflammatory cell infiltration, and inflammation in synovial membrane. SC-E3 also reduced serum levels of tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1β, aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase. Furthermore, tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase-positive osteoclast numbers in the joints were significantly lower in SC-E3-treated CIA mice than in CIA mice. In addition, the differentiations of BMMs to multinucleated osteoclasts induced by M-CSF and RANKL stimulation were dose-dependently reduced by SC-E3. Conclusion These results suggest that SC-E3 possesses substantial anti-arthritic activity because it inhibits pro-inflammatory cytokines and osteoclastogenesis, and that SC-E3 has potential therapeutic use for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

Quantitative proteomic platforms based on precursor intensity in mass spectrometry (MS1-level) uniquely support

The curative effects of nanoparticle albumin-bound (nab)-paclitaxel in the first-line treatment of metastatic breast cancer (MBC) are still controversial, with even more after the removal of marketing approval of indication of bevacizumab. Five electronic databases and the related resources were searched for eligible randomized clinical trials (RCTs) without year and language restrictions to perform a meta-analysis. The studies were comparing the efficacy and safety between nab-paclitaxel chemotherapy versus solvent-based (sb)-taxanes chemotherapy such as sb-paclitaxel and docetaxel. The primary end points were overall response rate (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR). Secondary end points were progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), adverse events (AEs), and dose discontinuation rate (DDR). Five RCTs (1,554 patients) were finally identified from 1,902 studies. When compared to sb-paclitaxel, nab-paclitaxel showed significant beneficial effects in terms of ORR (OR 2.39, 95% CI 1.69–3.37, p

Selaginella Herba is the dried, aerial part of Selaginella tamariscina (P.Beauv.) Spring and has been used to treat amenorrhea, abdominal pain, headaches, and hematuria in Korea. However, scientific evidence regarding the anti-inflammatory activity and action mechanism of Selaginella tamariscina is lacking. Thus, the present study was performed to investigate the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities of Selaginella tamariscina ethanol extract (STE) against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammatory responses and identify the molecular mechanism responsible. STE was prepared by heating in 70% ethanol and its quality was confirmed by HPLC. STE dose-dependently inhibited the productions of inflammatory mediators (NO and PGE2) and proinflammatory cytokines (IL-1β and IL-6) in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. STE markedly suppressed the phosphorylations of MAPKs, IκB-α, and NF-κB and the nuclear translocation of NF-κB induced by LPS stimulation. In addition, STE exhibited good free radical scavenging activity and prevented ROS generation by LPS. STE also upregulated the expression of Nrf2 and HO-1 and promoted the nuclear translocation of Nrf2. Taken together, STE was found to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects on RAW 264.7 macrophages and the mechanism appeared to involve the MAPK, NF-κB, and Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathways. These results suggest that STE might be useful for preventing or treating inflammatory diseases and provide scientific evidence that supports the developments of herbal prescriptions or novel natural products.

본 연구는 학제적 연구 방법을 통해 개인의 삶, 특별히 어린 시절에 겪어야 하는 삶의 어려움(difficulte)에 집중하는 돌토의 정신분석학적 관점과 기독교 신앙교육의 만남과 대화를 시도함으로써 모든 그리스도인들, 특별히 우리의 미래 세대로 하여금 예수 그리스도가 초청하시는 진정한 신앙의 삶, 즉 진정한 욕망과 만나는 모험의 삶에 응답하도록 돕는 데 그 목적이 있다. 돌토는 예수님의 행적에 대한 정신분석학적 해석에 기초하여 개인이 자신의 내면에 있는 진정한 무의식적 욕망을 깨닫고, 그것을 실현시켜 나가는 삶이 곧 ‘욕망의 삶’이라고 강조한 바 있다. 본 연구는 이와 같은 돌토의 ‘욕망의 삶’ 관점을 기독교 신앙교육에 적용하여 모든 그리스도인으로 하여금 진정한 욕망의 도상에서 끊임없이 모험의 삶을 살아가도록 돕는 것이 기독교 신앙교육의 방향이 되어야 함을 제안한다. 즉, 본 연구에서 제안하는 기독교 신앙교육은 그리스도인으로 하여금 더 이상 자존심이나 자기애적 이익을 날마다 충족시키려는 삶에 매몰되지 않고, 예수 그리스도를 통해 사랑 안에서 하나님을 만나고자 희망하는 욕망의 길에 접어들 수 있게 돕는 방향으로 나아가야 함을 제안한다. 필자는 이를 위해 ‘통합성과 전체성을 이룬 존재의 집 형성’으로서의 기독교 신앙교육, ‘기쁨과 사랑의 소통’으로서의 기독교 신앙교육, 욕망의 진실을 추구하는 삶으로서의 기독교 신앙교육의 방향을 제시하였다. 연구자가 제시한 기독교 신앙교육의 방향이 실천되기 위해서는, 부모와 예비부모, 그리고 예비교사들과 교사들을 교육할 수 있는 돌토의 정신분석학적 통찰에 기초한 기독교 신앙교육 교재가 전문적으로 개발되어야 하며, 더 나아가 ‘욕망의 삶’을 지향하는 정신분석학적 기독교 신앙교육의 연령별 교육 과정의 이론과 실제를 위한 체계적이고 지속적인 후속 연구가 요구된다.

Motivation Linkage disequilibrium (LD) block construction is required for research in population genetics and genetic epidemiology, including specification of sets of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for analysis of multi-SNP based association and identification of haplotype blocks in high density sequencing data. Existing methods based on a narrow sense definition do not allow intermediate regions of low LD between strongly associated SNP pairs and tend to split high density SNP data into small blocks having high between-block correlation. Results We present Big-LD, a block partition method based on interval graph modeling of LD bins which are clusters of strong pairwise LD SNPs, not necessarily physically consecutive. Big-LD uses an agglomerative approach that starts by identifying small communities of SNPs, i.e. the SNPs in each LD bin region, and proceeds by merging these communities. We determine the number of blocks using a method to find maximum-weight independent set. Big-LD produces larger LD blocks compared to existing methods such as MATILDE, Haploview, MIG ++, or S-MIG ++ and the LD blocks better agree with recombination hotspot locations determined by sperm-typing experiments. The observed average runtime of Big-LD for 13 288 240 non-monomorphic SNPs from 1000 Genomes Project autosome data (286 East Asians) is about 5.83 h, which is a significant improvement over the existing methods. Availability and implementation Source code and documentation are available for download at http://github.com/sunnyeesl/BigLD. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

본 연구에서는 고등학생을 대상으로 부모의 학대와 우울, 사회적 위축, 비행피해경험, 그리고 사이버비행간 관계를 알아보고 이해하고자 했다. 연구결과를 통해 위기청소년들의 사이버 비행 문제를 예방하고 동시에 개선할 수 있는 방안을 모색하여 프로그램 개발에 기여하고자 한다. 연구대상자는 한국청소년정책연구원에서 실시하여 수집한 한국 아동⋅청소년패널조사(KCYPS)의 5차년도 데이터를 사용했다. 총 2,091명의 전국 남녀 고등학교 1학년 학생들을 구조방정식모형을 통해 관계성을분석했다. 연구결과에서는 첫째, 비행피해경험, 사회적 위축이 청소년의 사이버가해 비행에 정적으로 유의미한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 비행피해경험이 더 많고 사회적 위축이 더 될수록 사이버가해 비행을 할 가능성이 높은 것을 의미한다. 둘째, 부모학대는 청소년의 우울과 사회적 위축에 정적으로 유의미한 영향을 미치는 요인으로 나타났다. 부모학대가 사이버비행에 주는 간접영향은 없는 것으로 나타났다. 이 결과를 토대로 청소년들이 행하는 사이버가해 비행에 대한 예방이나 개입을 위한 다각적인 방안을 제시하고 연구의 제한점을 논의하였다.

연구배경: 현대사회의 시니어 세대는 경제적 발전과 함께한 세대로서 과거에 비해 경제력과 시간을 가지고 다양한 삶을 추구하고 있다. 그러나 시니어 세대의 대부분은 발에 불편함을 느끼거나 발 질환을 겪고 있다. 발 질환의 주요 원인 중 하나는 발에 맞지 않는 신발이라 할 수 있으며, 신발은 시니어 세대의 활동에 있어 보행과 안전에 직결되는 중요한 요소로서 근육이 줄어들고 힘이 없어지는 시니어 세대는 발에 잘 맞는 신발의 착화가 매우 중요하다. 연구방법: 본 연구는 한국인 인체치수조사 사업보고서에서 제공하는 50세 이상 비만 남성 시니어의 3차원 발 형상 데이터를 사용하였다. 비만 남성 시니어 발 특성에 따른 표준 라스트를 개발하고자 항목별 기술통계를 실시하여 비만 남성 시니어 발 특성을 분석하였다. 이후 분석된 발 특성에 따라 발길이를 독립변수로 항목별 회귀식을 통해 표준 라스트 설계값을 도출하였으며, 도출된 설계값을 적용하여 비만 남성 시니어의 발 특성에 따른 표준 라스트를 개발하였다. 연구결과: 비만 남성 시니어의 발길이에 대한 항목별 관령성을 검증한 결과 외측볼너비, 새끼발가락측각도를 제외한 모든 항목에서 유의한 차이를 나타냈다. 비만 남성 시니어의 발 특성에 따른 표준 라스트 개발을 위하여 발길이를 독립변수로 항목별 회귀식을 구하였으며, 회귀식에 의해 산출된 설계값을 적용하여 비만 남성 시니어 표준치수 265mm의 표준 라스트를 개발하였다. 결론: 나이가 들수록 근육의 감소와 함께 발의 크기도 변화되고 있어 이들의 체형과 발에 맞는 다양한 신발이 필요하다. 이에 시니어의 안전한 생활과 편안한 착화감을 위해 발의 특성에 따른 표준 라스트를 활용한 세분화된 신발제작이 요구되어진다. 본 연구에서는 비만 남성 시니어의 발 특성에 따른 표준 라스트를 개발하였으며, 개발된 라스트는 비만 남성 시니어의 발에 적합한 신발의 제작 및 편안한 착화감의 향상과 함께 활발해지고 있는 실버산업의 기초자료가 될 수 있을 것으로 기대한다.

Antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) is one of the most important strategies for managing infectious disease treatment and preventing antimicrobial resistance. The successful implementation of ASP in the community health system (CHS) has been challenging. We evaluated perceptions of current ASP, potential setbacks of ASP implementation, and future demands on ASP services among physicians and pharmacists in the CHS. The qualitative research was conducted through in-depth individual interviews and focus group discussions with 11 physicians and 11 pharmacists. In addition, a quantitative gap analysis was conducted to assess the different awareness and demands on services of ASP and preferred antimicrobial-related problems (ARP). In overall, perceptions of ASP varied by profession. The identified setbacks were unorganized institutional leadership, the undefined roles of healthcare professionals, a lack of reimbursement, the hierarchical structure of the health system, and the labor-intensive working environment of pharmacy services. Although demands for ASP improvement were similar among professionals, they had different preferences in prioritizing each service item of ASP/ARP development and the profession responsible for each service. Continuous administrative and financial investments, understanding ASP contents, ASP-specific information technology, and interdisciplinary collaboration with good communication among healthcare professions are needed to continue the progression of ASP.

Ethnopharmacological relevance Evodiae Fructus (EF) is the dried, unripe fruit of Evodia rutaecarpa Benth., and one of the main components of traditional herbal prescriptions issued for the treatment of sterility caused by irregular menstruation in Korea. However, scientific evidence regarding the efficacy and action mechanism of EF is lacking. Aim of the study In this study, the authors established an in vitro screening tool to identify promising new drug candidates in herbal medicines for the prevention and treatment of premature ovarian failure. The protective effects of EF extracts against 4-vinylcyclohexene diepoxide (VCD)-induced ovotoxicity were investigated and the molecular mechanism responsible was sought. Material and Methods EF extract was prepared by boiling EF in water and its quality was confirmed by high performance liquid chromatography. CHO-K1 (Chinese hamster ovary cells) and COV434 (human ovarian granulosa cells) cells were plated, pretreated with EF extract for 2 h and then treated with 1.5 mM or 0.5 mM VCD for 24 h, respectively. Cell viabilities were measured using an MTT assay, and protein levels were determined by western blotting. Results VCD significantly suppressed the viability of both CHO-K1 and COV434 cells in a dose-dependent manner and induced the apoptosis of CHO-K1 cells at 1.5 mM. EF extract dose-dependently blocked the ovotoxicity induced by treatment with VCD. Furthermore, EF extract significantly activated Akt and downstream effectors such as mTOR and GSK-3β in CHO-K1 cells. The ability of EF extract to prevent cytotoxicity by VCD was antagonized by pretreatment of LY294002, a PI3K/Akt inhibitor. Conclusion EF has the ability to protect ovary cells against VCD-induced ovotoxicity, probably via Akt activation. These results suggest that the beneficial effects of EF might be useful for preventing premature ovarian failure or unexplained infertility caused by environmental factors.

Selaginella Herba is the dried, aerial part of Selaginella tamariscina (P.Beauv.) Spring and has been used to treat amenorrhea, abdominal pain, headaches, and hematuria in Korea. However, scientific evidence regarding the anti-inflammatory activity and action mechanism of Selaginella tamariscina is lacking. Thus, the present study was performed to investigate the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities of Selaginella tamariscina ethanol extract (STE) against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammatory responses and identify the molecular mechanism responsible. STE was prepared by heating in 70% ethanol and its quality was confirmed by HPLC. STE dose-dependently inhibited the productions of inflammatory mediators (NO and PGE2) and proinflammatory cytokines (IL-1β and IL-6) in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. STE markedly suppressed the phosphorylations of MAPKs, IκB-α, and NF-κB and the nuclear translocation of NF-κB induced by LPS stimulation. In addition, STE exhibited good free radical scavenging activity and prevented ROS generation by LPS. STE also upregulated the expression of Nrf2 and HO-1 and promoted the nuclear translocation of Nrf2. Taken together, STE was found to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects on RAW 264.7 macrophages and the mechanism appeared to involve the MAPK, NF-κB, and Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathways. These results suggest that STE might be useful for preventing or treating inflammatory diseases and provide scientific evidence that supports the developments of herbal prescriptions or novel natural products.