The growth of cheap, industrial, mass-production—so-called “fast fashion”—has led to dramatic increases in levels of consumption. Inexpensive products tend to foster unsustainable consumption behaviors, which negatively impact the environment and increase pressure to obtain goods at lower and lower prices; this, in turn, has the competitive effect of decreasing wages. This study focused on the concept of socially responsible consciousness in relation to fashion products. Environmental and labor issue concerns were employed as major variables. Empirical data were collected from males and females, between the ages of 10 and 50. Demographic differences were found in SR consciousness. For example, participants in their 10s, 40s, and 50s had higher levels of SR consciousness than those in their 20s and 30s. In addition, consumers’ levels of environmental and labor issue concerns had varying effects on the criteria they used to select clothing. Product category type was also an influential factor. Moreover, the analysis showed that SR consciousness was less important in the apparel industry than in the food sector. The study also found an attitude-behavior link in relation to the concept of SR consciousness. The link was stronger for environmental concerns than for labor issue concerns. This study aimed to develop a better understanding of current customers’ characteristics and levels of SR consciousness.

Generally, fate of spematogonial stem cells (SSCs) can be determined specifically by microenvironments enclosed with various extracellular matrix (ECM) components and integrins recognizing directly ECM proteins play an pivotal role in transporting ECM-derived signals into cytoplasm, resulting in inducing a variety of biological functions such as cell attachment, self-renewal and differentiation. However, to date, studies on type of integrins expressed on the undifferentiated SSCs remain unclear. Therefore, we tried to investigate systematically what kind of integrin subunits are expressed transcriptionally or translationally in the SSCs derived from testis of hybrid B6CBAF1 mouse. For these, isolation of SSCs from testis were conducted by magnetic activated cell sorting (MACS) using Thy1 antibody. Subsequently, transcriptional and translational level of integrin α and β subunits in the isolated SSCs were measured by real-time PCR and fluorescene immunoassay, respectively. As the results, transcriptional levels of genes encoding total 25 integrin subunits were quantified, and integrin α4, α6, α7, α9, αV, αL and αE and integrin β1, β5 showed higher expression levels than other subunits. By contrast, integrin α3, α5, α 10 and α11 and integrin β2, β3, β4, β7 were weakly transcribed. When translational levels of the integrin α subunits showing high transcription level (α4, α6, α7, α9, αV αL, and αE) were measured, integrin α6, α7, α9, αV and αL were higher than integrin α4 and αE. In case of integrin β subunit, β1 evaluated more expression than β5. From these results, we speculate that the undifferentiated SSCs derived from hybrid B6CBAF1 mouse may express integrin α4β1, α6β1, α7β1, α9β1, αVβ1 and/or αVβ5 on plasma membrane. Moreover, this information will greatly contribute to constructing non-cellular niche supporting self-renewal of SSCs in the future.

With the rapid growth of fresh-cut produce market, the South Korean fresh-cut industry is facing the challenge of ensuring food safety. As the estimation of the microbial numbers in fresh-cut produce processing lines (tools, and equipment) using the conventional microbiological techniques takes days, so there is a need for faster and easier monitoring methods. This study was conducted to investigate the use of ATP bioluminescence assay to measure the degree of microbial contamination from three actual fresh-cut processing lines. The samples collected from frech-cut vegetables, and fresh-cut fruits processing plants were tested for the estimation of the bacterial number, using the ATP bioluminescence and microbiological methods. The result of former was transferred to log RLU/100 cm2, and that of the latter was transferred to log CFU/100 cm2. A positive linear correlation between the ATP bioluminescence assay value and aerobic-plate count was found for fresh-cut processing lines, with a correlation coefficient of 0.8772 (n=50). The results of this study indicate that ATP bioluminescence assay can be used to monitor microbial contamination in fresh-cut produce processing plants, and can help improve the hygiene therein.

The ripening behavior of three apple cultivars, ‘Tsugaru’, ‘Hongro’ and ‘Fuji’ was distinctive and the involvement of POLYGALACTURONASE(PG) in the fruit softening process was confirmed to be ethylene dependent. Fruit softening is genetically coordinated by the action of several cell wall enzymes, including PG which depolymerizes cell wall pectin. Also, loss of firmness is associated with increasing of the ripening hormone, ethylene. In this work, climacteric ripening of three apple cultivars, Tsugaru, Hongro and Fuji, producing different ethylene levels and ripening responses, was examined. Correspondingly in Fuji, a linear and basal ethylene level was observed over the entire period of measurements, and Tsugaru and Hongro displayed a typical climacteric rise in ethylene production. Transcript accumulation of genes involved in ethylene biosynthesis (MdACS3 and MdACO1) and MdPG1 was studied in Tsugaru, Hongro and Fuji cultivars. Expression of MdACO1 transcripts was shown in all three ripened apple fruits. However, the MdACS3 and MdPG1 were transcribed differently in these cultivars. Comparing the MdPG1 of ‘Tsugaru’, ‘Hongro’ and ‘Fuji’, structural difference was discovered by genomic Southern analysis. Overall results pointed out that MdACS3 and MdPG1 play an important role in regulation of fruit ripening in apple cultivar.