Herbicides have consistently contributed to yield increases in crop production for many decades however, those same herbicides are facing the loss of effectiveness because of the rapid spread of weed resistance. Since the first instance of herbicide resistance to triazine herbicides over 50 years ago, resistant biotypes have been observed to the major herbicides numbering more than 150 different weed species due to excessive use of single mode of action (MoA)treatments combined with limited crop rotation practices. In the US, the most well-known broad-spectrum herbicide used in major crops, glyphosate is facing huge challenges due to the appearance of many resistant weed species. The consequences of the loss of effectiveness of the current herbicide choices, coinciding with an increasing world population with improved living standards, is beginning to present a severe constraint on food security globally. Unfortunately, the agriculture industry has been unable to find any new mechanism in the last 30 years. The absence of choices of novel active ingredients along with the increased costs of developing new entities is forcing the industry to rely on older modes of action which, with limited application, means lower annual yields of the major crops as the number of resistant weed species increases. The Chemical Genomics group in FMC Agricultural Solutions Discovery has been building ‘Chemistry to Gene’ (C2G) capability to identify new MoAsby applying chemical genomics tools. We have recently discovered that compounds described in WO2017075559A1, are potent selective herbicides with novel action that control many grasses. As a result of knowledge of the mechanism of this area of chemistry, we have extended the work to include a ‘Gene to Chemistry’ (G2C) approach to provide new structural starting points for more synthesis projects.

It has been reported that gastrocnemius tightness and posterior talar glide are crucial factors influencing ankle dorsiflexion. However, the relationship of ankle dorsiflexion and these factors is not identified in previous studies. The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship of ankle dorsiflexion passive range of motion and gastrocnemius tightness and posterior talar glide. Twenty-five male subjects participated in this study. Bilateral weight-bearing ankle dorsiflexion passive range of motion and amount posterior talar glide of participants were measured using an inclinometer. Change in myotendinous junction of medial gastrocnemius was measured using ultrasonography to identify gastrocnemius tightness. Pearson product moment correlations were performed to examine correlations between ankle dorsiflexion passive range of motion and gastrocnemius tightness and posterior talar glide. Present findings revealed significant correlation between ankle dorsiflexion passive range of motion and gastrocnemius tightness (p=0.017, r=0.336). Also, ankle dorsiflexion passive range of motion was correlated with posterior talar glide (p=0.001, r=0.470). The present findings provide experimental evidence for factors influencing weight-bearing ankle dorsiflexion.

In the SW industry, the diversification of global markets and technology trends are changing due to the emergence of new services, and IT companies are in need of strategic change different from the previous one. In this study, SWOT analysis was performed by extracting the internal environmental factors and external environmental factors through the previous studies to improve the project performance competence of small IT companies, and the SWOT Matrix was reconstructed through the pairwise comparison. Based on this, the purpose of this research was to propose the project performance competency improvement plans for small IT companies based on importance and priority, and the following four strategies were derived from the result of SWOT-AHP analysis. SO strategy was drawn in direction to invest R & D in new SW industry to enhance technology competitiveness of SMEs in order to develop SMEs, and in order to secure competitiveness of SW industry, WO strategy is drawn the cultivation of professional technical manpower through SW policy. ST Strategy presented technical management through SW system improvement policy to improve SW environment, and WT Strategy presented awareness training on the construction and necessity of project management system construction. Using the strategies presented in this study, it is expected that the managers of small IT firms will be presented as references to measure the performance competence factors of current organizations and company organizations.

As research evidence for the facilitative effects of reading strategies on reading comprehension has been accumulating, research and pedagogical interests in prereading strategies such as prediction and schema activation are increasing. Yet, little research evidence of how actual performance on such tasks may be related to reading comprehension is sparse. This study explores whether prediction abilities and content schema are related to Korean middle school EFL learners’ reading comprehension abilities in English, and whether such potential relations may differ for factual and inferential comprehension. The study participants were one hundred thirty-seven Korean seventh grade students, and their performance on schema activation, prediction, and reading comprehension abilities was investigated, while controlling for their overall language proficiency and literacy skills. The findings indicated that although both prediction abilities and content schema facilitated reading comprehension, prediction abilities were a relatively stronger predictor of both factual and inferential comprehension. The results further suggest the need to provide effective trainings on pre-reading strategies.

This study was carried out to investigate the protective effect of prednisolone in rabbit primary cultured articular chondrocytes treated with sodium nitroprusside (SNP), a nitric oxide donor. After a cell phenotype was determined, the MTT assay and Western blot analysis of type II collagen, cylooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and phosphorylated extracellular regulated kinase (pERK) were performed in the control, SNP (298 μg/ml) alone or SNP plus prednisolone (0.05-50 μg/ml)-treated rabbit articular chondrocytes. Immunofluorescence staining of type II collagen was also performed. Cell morphology indicated that SNP treatment induced cytotoxicity, and that the SNP-induced cytotoxicity was inhibited by prednisolone treatment. MTT assay showed that the SNP treatment resulted in a significant decrease in the level of cell viability compared with that of control (p<0.01), and that the prednisolone treatment resulted in a decrease in the SNP-induced cytotoxicity. SNP treatment resulted in a decrease in the level of type II collagen, compared with the control chondrocytes. The prednisolone treatment recovered the down-regulated expression of type II collagen induced by SNP, showing a significant level in 5 μg/ml of the prednisolone treatment group compared to the SNP treatment group (p<0.05). A significant increase in COX-2 was significantly induced by the SNP treatment compared to control chondrocytes (p<0.01). The COX-2 expression was decreased by the prednisolone treatment, showing a significant level in 50 μg/ml of the prednisolone treatment group compared to the SNP treatment group (p<0.05). These phenomena was confirmed by immunofluorescence staining. Furthermore, the SNP treatment significantly induced a decrease of pERK expression compared to the control chondrocytes (p<0.01). The prednisolone treatment recovered its expression, showing a significant level in 0.5 μg/ml of the prednisolone treatment group compared to the SNP treatment group (p<0.05). Taken the above results together, prednisolone is considered to inhibit SNP-induced cell death and dedifferentiation, and modulated expression of COX-2 and pERK in rabbit articular chondrocytes.

Effect of the nonuniform grid on the two-dimensional transport equation was investigated in terms of theoretical analysis and finite difference method (FDM). The nonuniform grid having a typical structure of the numerical weather forecast model was incorporated in the vertical direction, while the uniform grid was used in the zonal direction. The staggered and non-staggered grid were placed in the vertical and zonal direction, respectively. Time stepping was performed with the third-order Runge Kutta scheme. An error analysis of the spatial discretization on the nonuniform grid was carried out, which indicated that the combined effect of the nonuniform grid and advection velocity produced either numerical diffusion or numerical adverse-diffusion. An analytic function is used for the quantitative evaluation of the errors associated with the discretized transport equation. Numerical experiments with the non-uniformity of vertical grid were found to support the analysis.

Digital channels have been rising to the major shopping paths from the past few years, yet it is interesting to notice that more and more digital retailers advance into offline channel nowadays due to the benefits. For example, the digital retailing giant Amazon opened its first bricks-and-mortar bookstore in 2015. Dell, which distributes its products only in the catalog and digital channels, entered the leading retail stores such as Best Buy and Walmart. The digital retailers’ strategy trend that moves into the real world reveals the unique and powerful capabilities of the offline distribution channel and the importance of launching products in the offline channel. Previous studies in marketing have investigated various complement and substitute impacts of offline channel introduction (i.e., Avery et al. 2012, Wang and Goldfarb 2017). However, most of the literature focus on the pc-based online channel and catalog, there is little research about the impact of offline channel introduction on smartphone-based mobile channel. Although mobile channel is similar to online channel in many ways (i.e., internet access and convenient shopping), it can be distinguished from online channel in terms of search and access, leading to a different interplay with offline channel. This research, therefore, aims to investigate how product launching in offline channel affects purchases in mobile channel versus online channel, and deepen the understanding by exploring the moderating effect of offline store intensity. Besides, we also explore the interaction between two digital channels: online channel and mobile channel. As most of the multi-channel retailers offer products in both online and mobile channels, it is incremental to know the interplay between these two digital channels. Using data from a representative multichannel retailer selling beauty products, we find the following three empirical results. First, product introduction in offline channel has a positive effect on online and mobile sales, and the effect is greater for mobile. Second, as offline store increases, the positive impact of offline product launch weakens on online channel, and even turns to negative once the number of offline stores reaches a threshold. However, the influence on mobile channel stays the same. The results reflect that the complementary interplay between offline and mobile channel is relatively stronger than between online channel. Finally, within the digital channels, online purchases only increase with the growth of sales performance within online channel, whereas mobile purchases are positively affected by both within mobile channel sales and across online channel sales. Our findings contribute critical academic and managerial implications for multichannel retailing.

Marketing academics and practitioners have discerned the evolution in the prominence of digital, social media and mobile marketing based on technological innovations. Digital marketing has evolved over time from a specific marketing of products and services using digital channels to activities, institutions and processes facilitated by digital technologies. From an inclusive perspective, digital marketing refers to an adaptive, technology-enabled process by which firms collaborate with customers and partners to jointly create, communicate, deliver and sustain value for all stakeholders. Digital technologies allow the new adaptive process, institution and processes in marketing communication. The adaptive process creates value in new ways in new digital environments. Institutions build foundational capabilities to create such value jointly for their customers and for themselves. Processes create value through new customer experiences and through interactions among customers. The purpose of the assessment is to establish the current status of research evaluating digital marketing communication and to show how digital technology has shaped marketing communication evaluations. This study provides a broad disciplinary review of key cited works in digital marketing communication research and examines the effectiveness of various evaluation approaches, including new directions designed to capture meaningful insights and marketing communication value in digital marketing communication.

Customer engagement has become a prominent issue in hospitality and tourism industry. However, customer engagement, is not easily defined or uniformly measured because a number of diverse factors must be considered. While meeting planners are important customers to CVBs, their engagement with CVBs has rarely been studied. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop and test a model of meeting planners’ engagement in CVBs empirically. Survey data were collected from a variety of meeting planners, which resulted in 305 usable responses for data analysis. Two step analyses (measurement model and structural model) were implemented. In addition, the moderating effect of reputation and familiarity were examined among the paths of the constructs. The results showed that the hypotheses were supported while familiarity has less salient impact than reputation on customer engagement in the event industry.

Virtual reality refers to an immersive computer-generated, interactive, 3D environment that offers media richness and interactivity. VR provides high media richness verified by the sensory depth and breadth of an interface. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships among mindsets, VR experience, perceived interactivity, attitude and purchase. This study clarifies the concept of VR experience and enlightened the relationship between VR experience, perceived interactivity, attitude and purchase intention. The study clarifies technology-driven experience, especially VR experience that can be differentiated from direct and indirect experience. The study can be a starting point to identifying how new technology boosts experiences by reflecting types of VR experience including spatial experience, presence experience, sensory experience and behavioral experience .

Cannibalism is a widely observed phenomenon in the animal kingdom. However, it is rarely found among birds outside nests in the wild because it occurs irregularly and it is almost impossible to monitor animal behavior constantly. On 17 January 2017, this behavior was directly observed from a group of vultures feeding on a conspecific in a paddy field near Lake Geumho in Haenam-gun (34°35ʹ58.25ʺ N, 126°26ʹ57.64ʺ E). It was observed and recorded with the binoculars and a camera with a telephoto lens in a car approximately 20 m (or 60 m) away from the site. The observer approached the feeding site after the last vulture had finished feeding and flown away and found remains of a vulture, including body feathers, skull, sterna keel, and both legs. It was the first report of cannibalism in Cinereous vulture Aegypius monachus in its overwintering grounds. The remaining skeleton was very fleshy, and the surrounding grass was wet with the blood of vulture. No other traces of a mammal or bird that could have been the vultures’ prey were found. This report provides a detailed account of the events related to this rare observation and the causes that might have led to it.

Kang, Minjung. 2018. “Functions of I mean in American Talk Shows”. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 26(2). 63~84. This paper aims to find out roles of the discourse marker I mean in American talk shows. Ten interviews from six talk shows were analyzed for the investigation and the results indicate that there are some unique functions of I mean which do not seem to be mentioned in early studies: counter-accounting and footing shift functions. This study suggests that the counter-accounting function of I mean can appear in utterance-initial position when the interviewee does not agree with what the interviewer has mentioned. Also, the interviewee can use I mean as a footing shift marker to switch stances from an informative one to an entertaining one (or vice versa). Since these two functions seem to be connected to the institutional settings and goals of talk shows, it is crucial to study functions of I mean in accordance with types of institutional talk.

K-means algorithm is one of the most popular and widely used clustering method because it is easy to implement and very efficient. However, this method has the limitation to be used with fixed number of clusters because of only considering the intra-cluster distance to evaluate the data clustering solutions. Silhouette is useful and stable valid index to decide the data clustering solution with number of clusters to consider the intra and inter cluster distance for unsupervised data. However, this valid index has high computational burden because of considering quality measure for each data object. The objective of this paper is to propose the fast and simple speed-up method to overcome this limitation to use silhouette for the effective large-scale data clustering. In the first step, the proposed method calculates and saves the distance for each data once. In the second step, this distance matrix is used to calculate the relative distance rate (Vｊ) of each data j and this rate is used to choose the suitable number of clusters without much computation time. In the third step, the proposed efficient heuristic algorithm (Group search optimization, GSO, in this paper) can search the global optimum with saving computational capacity with good initial solutions using Vｊ probabilistically for the data clustering. The performance of our proposed method is validated to save significantly computation time against the original silhouette only using Ruspini, Iris, Wine and Breast cancer in UCI machine learning repository datasets by experiment and analysis. Especially, the performance of our proposed method is much better than previous method for the larger size of data.

This study was an attempt to explore how EFL college-level learners perceive flipped learning or flipped classroom approach which would be practiced with Content-Based Instruction (CBI) courses. As an effort to find a way for the CBI learners to be served more effectively in terms of earning content-knowledge and improving L2-using skills, the new approach of flipped learning has been tapped into first of all by looking into their expectations and concerns that they might have if the new approach would be employed in their CBI classroom. The analysis of the data provided by the 159 participants revealed that they did not show clear preference or strong negative attitude toward the new approach. While the young college-level learners appeared technology-savvy, they did not seem confident enough in the new approach mainly due to the on-line component of the flipped classroom approach, which would require more responsibility of their learning. The study also made suggestions on what should be considered if the new approach can be successfully implemented and help the learners earn better learning experience.

As a fuel for ship propulsion, liquefied natural gas (LNG) is currently considered a proven and reasonable solution for meeting the IMO emission regulations, with gas engines for the LNG-fueled ship covering a broad range of power outputs. For an LNG-fueled ship, the LNG bunkering process is different from the HFO bunkering process, in the sense that the cryogenic liquid transfer generates a considerable amount of boil-off gas (BOG). This study investigated the effect of the temperature difference on boil-off gas (BOG) production during ship-to-ship (STS) LNG bunkering to the receiving tank of the LNG-fueled ship. A concept design was resumed for the cargo/fuel tanks in the LNG bunkering vessel and the receiving vessel, as well as for LNG handling systems. Subsequently, the storage tank capacities of the LNG were 4,500 m3 for the bunkering vessel and 700 m3 for the receiving vessel. Process dynamic simulations by Aspen HYSYS were performed under several bunkering scenarios, which demonstrated that the boil-off gas and resulting pressure buildup in the receiving vessel were mainly determined by the temperature difference between bunkering and the receiving tank, pressure of the receiving tank, and amount of remaining LNG.

고추는 한국에서 매우 중요한 양념 중 하나이다. 하지만 수입 고춧가루와 다진 양념(다대기)에 부과되는 관세율(45%/270%)의 차이로 인해, 다진 양념이 수입된 후, 건 조 및 분쇄 과정을 거쳐 고춧가루로 제작되고 있는 실정 이다. 본 연구에서는 종 특이 PCR 기술과 whole-genome amplification 방법을 접목하여 고춧가루(N=45) 및 다진 양 념(N=5) 제품의 사용원료(고추, 마늘, 양파, 파, 생강)를 분 석하였다. 모니터링 결과, 39개 고춧가루 제품은 표시사항 을 준수하였으며, 6개 고춧가루 및 5개 다진 양념 제품은 제조 기준을 충족시키지 못했다. 따라서 분석 제품의 22% 가 표시사항을 준수하지 못한 것으로 밝혀졌으며, 본 연구에 사용한 분석 방법은 고춧가루 제품에 사용된 원료 분석에 적합한 방법임을 입증하였다.