Berberine has been used clinically for more than a decade to treat various diseases, has been shown to be effective in osteoblast differentiation, and is a potential treatment option for osteoporosis. However, compared with existing osteoporosis drugs, berberine is somewhat less effective. This study aimed to identify a new compound with efficacy superior to that of berberine. The osteogenic activities of various berberine derivatives were evaluated via cell differentiation in C2C12 preosteoblast cell lines. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) staining assay and structure– activity relationship demonstrated that compound 2b had a potent osteogenic effect. Furthermore, compound 2b dose dependently increased ALP activity and showed no toxicity at the effective concentration, indicating its efficacy. Additionally, compound 2b upregulated BMP2-induced transcriptional activity in a promoter activity assay using ALP, BSP, and OC promoters.

Osteoarthritis occurs when the cartilage that gradually deteriorates as common aging-associated disease in humans and animals. There is no cure, but the treatments are available to manage to relieve pain through medication such as steroids. Growing interest has been focused on the role of cell-based therapies using mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). In addition, mesenchymal stem cells can be isolated from almost adult tissues and known for their potential of becoming cartilage. Clinical and experimental studies indicate that the development of treatment using stem cells is double-edged sword involving a possibility such as tumorigenesis. This study focused on the electrical features during articular cartilage development and hypothesized that external electric fields promote pre-chondrogenic condensation without concern relating to genetic modification or exogenous factors. Here, it has been reported that exogenous direct electric fields drive pre-chondrogenic condensation which is the stage where cartilage formation begins by condensation of stem cells and cartilage cells in the microenvironment of the joint. Time-dependent observations also support the contribution of electrical stimulation (ES) to induce gradual aggregation of MSCs into highly compact structures within 3 days. Collectively, our findings provide the potential of electrical stimulation-driven chondrogenesis of mesenchymal stem cells in the absence of exogenous factors for repair of cartilage defects.

Canine parvovirus type-2 (CPV-2) has been reported worldwide as the main agent associated with acute hemorrhagic enteritis, resulting in high morbidity, especially in young dogs. CPV-2 has three genetic variants, 2a, 2b, and 2c. Here, we report three cases of canine parvovirus enteritis associated with CPV-2a (2 samples) and -2c (1 sample) infections that occurred in three young dogs suffering from enteritis. Isolates from dog diarrheic fecal samples were sequenced by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and identified as two types of CPV-2a and one type of CPV-2c. This work constitutes the first isolation and genetic characterization of CPV-2c in the Republic of Korea.

The advance of information technology with governmental support allows researchers to utilize big data to conduct rigorous rehabilitation-related studies in both the United States and Korea. While big data research has been actively conducted in the United States, few Korean rehabilitation scientists currently conduct big data research. In this paper, we discuss the existing rehabilitation-related big data in Korea and introduce the current big data research trends in the United States. In addition, we provide potential research areas by discussing the previous big data studies in the United States, including 1) functional outcomes, 2) geographical variation, 3) linkage of a population-based cohort to hospital data, 4) cross-national comparison, and 5) scale development. We also discuss various statistical methods required in big data research and compare how these methods differ compared to the traditional research methods in rehabilitation research. Lastly, we discuss the importance of workforce development in rehabilitation-related big data research. We hope this paper will provide occupational therapy scientists and clinicians with practical and useful information about big data research and accelerate big data rehabilitation research communities in Korea.

Alopecia has emerged as one of the biggest interests in modern society. Many studies have focused on the treatment of alopecia, such as transplantation of hair follicles or inhibition of the androgen pathway. Hair growth is achieved through proper proliferation of the components such as keratinocytes and dermal papilla cells (DPCs), movement, and interaction between the two cells. The present study examined the effect of the hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway, which is an important and fundamental signal in the cell, on the morphology and the viability of human keratinocytes and DPCs. Upregulation of Hh signaling caused a morphological change and an increase in epithelium-mesenchymal transition-related gene expression but reduced the viability of keratinocytes, while the alteration of Hh signaling did not cause any change in DPCs. The results show the possibility that the regulation of Hh signaling can be applied for the treatment of alopecia.

본 연구는 학교 장면에서 학생지도 시 교사의 상업용 온라인 게임 활용 의사에 영향을 미치는 요인이 무엇인지, 그리고 각 요인들이 어떠한 영향을 미치는지를 알아보기 위해 수행되었다. 이를 위해 면대면 설문조사를 실시하였고, 전국 초, 중, 고등학교 교사와 상담교사, 전문 상담사, 총 236명의 자료가 분석되었다. 교사의 인구통계학적 특성과 교사의 상업용 온라인 게임 활용 의사의 관련성을 분석해본 결과, 남성보다 여성교사가, 교사의 연령이 높고 근무 기간이 길수록 상업용 온라인 게임 활용 의사가 낮은 것으로 확인되었다. 교사의 상업용 온라인 게임 활용 의사에 영향을 미치는 요인을 중다회귀분석방법을 통해 분석한 결과, 교사의 개방성과 디지털 게임에 대한 태도 중 디지털 게임의 유익성에 대한 인식, 디지털 미디어 활용능력이 학생지도 시 교사의 상업용 온라인 게임 활용 의사에 정의 영향을 미치는 것으로 확인되었다. 본 연구는 교과학습 및 학생 생활 지도에 있어 교육적 잠재력을 가지고 있는 상업용 온라인 게임에 대한 교사의 활용 의사를 촉진하는 주요 요인들을 밝혔다는데 그 의의가 있다.

A warehouse is more than just a place to store goods but also creates a time utility gap between production and consumption that is important in the development of trade and commerce. Malaysia has a high aspiration to be the most popular gateway in Asia. However, Malaysia Productivity Corporation has claimed that particularly in efficiency and productivity aspects, the warehouse industry is less incline to innovate and make improvement to increase. There are ten failure factors that had been identified during literature survey affecting to the warehouse operations efficiency. Therefore, this study intends to analyse and select the main failure factors that mostly affecting the warehouse operations efficiency. A Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) technique has been used in this study to calculate the weight value of each variable through a pair-wise comparison method. The finding highlighted the four main failure factors which are ‘equipment’, ‘environment concern’, ‘special handling consideration’ and ‘human factor’ that influence directly to the warehouse operations efficiency. This paper has contributed to a new knowledge of complex warehouse operation area with recommendations action that shall be taken to manage the possible risk in future, which will also contribute to achieve the government goals.

At present, ECDIS has been widely used in ship positioning, collision avoidance and navigation, and has developed into an important part of integrated navigation and automation system. However, most ECDIS software focuses too much on system function and technical level when realizing powerful navigation AIDS, neglecting the problems that the crew are most concerned about, such as realizing the human-computer interface operation quickly and simply as well as obtaining the information of human-computer interaction effectively and accurately. In order to improve the design of Electronic Chart Display and Information system（ECDIS）human-computer interface and its usability effectively, a new method for evaluating ECDIS human-computer interface is proposed. Starting from the concept and connotation of usability, five-factor personality model is used to measure the users’ personality type in reference to the essence of usability (user’s emotional experience) and calculate the basic emotional variant of users. Then, according to the users’ emotional stimulation after finishing the given ECDIS task and combining with the system Usability scale (SUS), a tool dedicated to usability testing and five dimensions of usability evaluation proposed by Jakob Nielsen, father of usability, the emotion relationship model of usability and users is established by using partial least square method ( PLS ), and the validity of the model is verified with an aim to locate the key indicators that affect the usability of the ECDIS human-computer interface, It will be more helpful to improve the usability of ECDIS human-computer interface.

The act of refusal takes place in everyday lives, but it has been discussed to be a difficult speech act for nonnative speakers. This study seeks to investigate Korean EFL learners’ refusals in extended discourse along with their pragmatic perceptions. Sixteen college students were engaged in oral role-plays with two native English speakers and instructed to refuse the interlocutor’s request. The refusal performances were analyzed using conversation analysis framework with respect to the interlocutors’ different powers and the learners’ proficiency levels. Learners also participated in retrospective verbal reports. Findings depict different verbal and nonverbal features illustrating learners’ sensitivity towards higher status and their different linguistic abilities. Furthermore, their verbal reports revealed that despite their pragmatic awareness, learners were not fully equipped with appropriate L2 pragmatic knowledge.

Selectins are cell membrane glycoproteins that recognize specific glycoconjugates expressed on the surface of cells. Then, selectins adjust cell-cell interactions that are important in inflammation, hemostasis and cancer metastasis. Selectins mediate leukocyte calls to move into the site of inflammation through interactions with activated endothelial cells or endogenous selectin ligands expressed in high endothelial venules. Types of selectins are divided into L-selectin, E-selectin and P-selectin, which are called to CD62L, CD62E, and CD62P, respectively. Each selectin is composed of four regions; the C-type lectin region of N-terminal, the epidermal growth factor (EGF) region, the intracellular C-terminal region, and the hydrophobic transmembrane region. They have similar structures but differ in their binding specificities and tissue distributions. The selectin family commonly recognizes the sialyl Lewis X (sLeX) on carbohydrate structures. Although biological ligands bound to each selectin are different from each other, they commonly bind to P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1 (PSGL-1) ligand. The PSGL-1 ligand is a glycoprotein promoting cell adhesion in inflammatory responses. If the absence of selectins and their ligands in humans and animals are, should lead to persistent infections and diseases. Selectin family must be considered as a key subject for drug discovery since they have various functions depending on the ligand which they bind to.

Maritime transportation plays a significant role in global economies. Seaports as primal nodes in maritime supply chain are also indispensable in ensuring efficient and effective global trading. On the other hand, seaport inefficiencies have profound influences on the overall performance which can cause congestion, operational disruption, high cost expenses, unnecessary wastes and environmental pollution, which eventually resulting significant financial losses. As a result, business and environmental sustainability will not be achieved. In order to overcome these hindrances, a novel performance model of Lean, Agile, Resilience and Green (LARG) is proposed as management tools for enhancing the business and environmental sustainability in seaport supply chain operations. The compatibility of LARG paradigms in seaport supply chain need to be identified and analysed to achieve the research aim. This paper employed a compatibility analysis for the new LARG paradigm for enhancing seaport supply chain practices. In this analysis, all potential paradigms are thoroughly reviewed and further validated by the domain experts consisting of academic and industry experts. The result of this paper shows that 17 selected LARG paradigms are compatible with 23 seaport supply chain practices respectively. For future research, the identified paradigms can be further investigated for many purposes such as measuring their influence on seaport supply chain practices and even assessing their applicability. It is worth mentioning that this research outcomes can assist Malaysian seaport practitioners to develop an enhanced management paradigm to boost their performance based on LARG model. Moreover, this model also can be applied globally as it is able to be adapted, revised and adjusted to suit the seaport preferences. As a result, this model able to enhance business capabilities, operational efficiencies and competitive advantages of seaport supply chain operations globally.

The manner in which education will be delivered in the 21st-century has often been debated. Various literature has agreed that an interactive teaching and learning method is required in parallel with the emergence and development of cyber technology. The conventional method of teaching should be reconstituted to emphasize aspects associated with innovation and creativity in attracting the attention of students in learning. Despite the current Malaysian education emphasize the learning features that include 1) Creative thinking, 2) Critical thinking, 3) Collaboration, 4) Character and 5) Communication. However, 21st-century approach requires exposure, skills, and creativity to be implemented by the Malaysian educators. Therefore, the aim of this study is to propose a new maritime interactive teaching model towards a Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) and industrial revolution 4.0. Three (3) secondary schools around Terengganu in Malaysia were chosen to participate in a pilot case study. The results of the study found that more than 90% of students now understand more about the maritime industry based on their acquired knowledge and education in this area. While, more than 70% of students described that this method of teaching is appealing. Maritime education innovative learning through an interactive learning model was successfully achieved based on the findings of this study, called the ‘Mariner’s Fantasy’. Additionally, through the inspirations of IR 4.0 and the Malaysia Education Development Plan, 2013-2025, the study has demonstrated the usefulness of the Maritime Education Innovative Learning (MEIL) program through an interactive learning method, in enhancing the delivery of maritime education by adopting an effective teaching-based approach.

This study was undertaken to assess the occupational safety and health of fishermen community in Seberang Takir, Terengganu. The aims of this study was to evaluate current state of the occupational safety and health for fishermen at Seberang Takir, Terengganu and to create the prevention measures for occupational safety and health. The scope area of the research is Seberang Takir village, Kuala Terengganu, which is separated by a river and estuary. This research covers all fishermen and community at the Seberang Takir, Kuala Terengganu. The target population includes two groups of workers within fishermen and seller. Tools for this study is using HIRARC (Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment and Risk Control) form, along with hazard identification, a quantitative risk assessment as methodology has been done to prioritize the risk control management. The study reveals that during working (routine activity) was exposed to some hazards during handling of transfer the fish container to the collection point. Out of 7 identified hazard, 2% posed low level, 4% posed medium level and 1% posed high level. Secondly, an activity of fishermen during fishing was selected for this study to evaluate the occupational safety and health risk on board. Out of 6 identified hazard, 1% posed low level, 2% posed medium level, and 3% posed high level. This includes ergonomic, biological, physical, psycho-social, and natural. Overall the highest level of risk is ergonomic hazards. The result of risk matrix ranking based on the HIRARC survey of Occupational Safety and Health for fishermen Seberang Takir was conducted to determine the hazards and to improve the safety and health at the workplace. There are have several prevention measures are applied such as engineering control, administrative control and usage of personal protective equipment to reduce or prevent the hazards. The results of the current study can be utilized in the design of effective prevention measure in accordance with Malaysian Occupational Safety and Health Act.

Piracy and maritime terrorisms are the eldest form of maritime criminal activities occurred across the globe and becoming enormous threats to navigational security. Since the past decades, major actors in maritime policy such as ocean governance and international security have discussed to include countermeasures in combating maritime terrorisms. However, maritime security remained as a critical agenda that have no definite solution. Recently, these ongoing terrorisms have threatened the sovereignty of many countries including Malaysia. Concerning about the issue, this paper aims to analyses the piracy and maritime terrorisms in Sulu Sea by identifying and assessing the effects of piracy and maritime terrorisms on the Malaysian navigational security in Sulu Sea. Therefore, an Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Evidential Reasoning (ER) approaches are used in this analysis. An AHP is use for prioritizing the effects of maritime terrorisms. Then, the ER approach was proposed to assess each maritime terrorism effect in a fuzzy context. In this paper, Sulu Sea has been highlights as the case study. This article presents an exhaustive review on the piracy and maritime terrorisms in Sulu Sea. The results of the numerical assessment have indicated that the crew casualty and injury are the most alarming risks in that area due to the piracy and maritime terrorisms, followed by the vessel security, port security, navigational delay, vessel route diversion, financial loss and cargo loss and damages. It is suggested that the involvement of government and maritime stakeholders in Malaysia are necessary for ensuring safe and secure navigation. This paper is expected to assist and guide enforcement agencies and other related entities to enhance the navigational security by conducting the proactive assessment in combating and reducing maritime terrorisms especially in Malaysian waters.

The purpose of this research is to examine the mediating effect of enterprise competitiveness on the relationship between operational service quality management and customer perception level of freight forwarders’ services in East Coast region of Peninsular Malaysia. Data were collected from 106 customers of freight forwarders through accessible random sampling method. Usable data were analyzed through Partial Least-squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) approach using Smart PLS-SEM software version 3.2.8. The validity of the survey questionnaire was confirmed using content validity, structural validity and expert validity. The results revealed that operational service quality management influences customer perception toward service providers’ services. Meanwhile, enterprise competitive mediates the relationship between operational service quality management and customer perception on service providers’ services. The enterprise competitiveness was found to be a driver for better customer perception on freight forwarder service providers. Besides, it has a strong mediating effect which ultimately effect on both customer perception level of satisfaction and could enhance customer perception on operational service quality management through words of mouth. These findings would therefore offer the freight forwarders’ management teams a new perspective in developing a better operational service quality management strategies and practices with emphasis on enterprise competitiveness. It also demonstrates the significance of enterprise competitiveness in donimating towards consumer perception in service preference and future repurchase intension.

The seaport system is one of the complex systems which involves many stakeholders; i.e. seaport cluster; seaport authority, seaport operator, government, shipping agent, forwarding agent etc. Due to this concern, the aims of this research is revealed the relationship between the three elements of seaport quality towards the seaport competitiveness. Subsequently, the scope of this research identified three elements of seaport quality (seaport effectiveness; seaport reliability; seaport governance) and seaport competitiveness as the influential elements from the Malaysian Seaport perspective. Then, the methodology of this research used quantitative method analysis and questionnaire as the instrument for the Malaysian seaport cluster stakeholders. Multiple regressions and the reliability test were employed for the data analysis. The 143 out of 180 respondents had approved after data screening. Consequently, the finding was the 8 influential elements of seaport quality onto seaport competitiveness; (i) highly stability on strong cooperation about ship and cargoes, (ii) systematic arrangement of facilities and equipment, (iii) demonstrates good understanding of client requirement, (iv) reliability on the ability of equipment and facilities, (v) easy understanding towards the implementation of the guidelines of process involves, (vi) highly attending by customer on the cooperation through community, (vii) highly understanding and knowledge to the security compliance and (viii) minimizing the ship turnaround time, and those were statistically significant under the Malaysian seaport quality perspectives. As conclusion, the element of seaport quality would contribute as the benchmark to improvise the Malaysian seaport competitiveness. The contribution from this research is foreseen under the developing the guidelines through the seaport quality while enhancing the seaport operation efficiency and the strategies development in determining the continuous sustainability of seaport industry.

In this paper, a water-based green polymer mud is synthesized by simple compounding method. Effects of different kinds of tackifiers, their molecular weight on the viscosity of polymer mud and the effects of different fluid loss additives on mud fluid loss are studied. The results show that when polystyrene and anionic polyacrylamide with molecular weight of 8 ~ 10 million are used as the main thickening ingredient, polymer mud with high viscosity and high stability can be obtained. When the prepared polymer mud is formulated as NPAM: PEO: Hydroxypropyl cellulose(HPC) :Water = 42:10:10:100000 (unit: kg), the viscosity can reach 20.6 s, the filtration loss in 7.5 min is 24 mL, and the sand content is only 0.1%. Compared with traditional bentonite mud, the green environment-friendly polymer mud has the advantages of small amount of waste, low environmental pollution, and low pulping cost, and can meet the construction needs for most topography and geomorphology drilling engineering

Since the political and legal systems are different between mainland China and Taiwan, conflict of laws issues arose in both public and private air transport laws after the launch of direct routes. Three models can be used as solutions to these issues: uniform substantive law, conflict of laws, and agreements by private institutions. The uniform substantive law model is ideal but not feasible; the conflict of laws model is possible but not realistic. The agreements by private institutions model respects private autonomy, which seems to be a supplementary yet feasible option with fragmented and conservative characteristics. Based on the characteristics of each model, the ideal way to solve this issue is to prioritise the model of agreements by carriers at this early stage and, finally, to consider uniform conflict of laws rules or substantive law when the opportunity is mature or the ultimate reunification is realised.

SNS 사용자가 급속히 증가함에 따라 기업 전체 마케팅 활동에서 SNS 마케팅이 차지하는 비중이 높아지고 있으며 SNS 광고도 새로운 마케팅 도구로 급성장하게 되었다. SNS 광고에 관한 선행 연구가 많이 진행해왔지만 SNS의 다양한 광고 형태 중 새롭게 각광받고 있는 인피드 광고에 대해 연구가 아직 부족한 현황이다. 따라서 본 논문은 중국 SNS 사용자들을 대상으로 인피드 광고의 가장 뚜렷한 3가지 특성(네이티브 콘텐츠 간의 형식의 일치성, 상호작용성과 개인맞춤성)이 인피드 광고 태도에 미치는 영향을 검증하였으며, SNS사용자들이 지각하는 프라이버시 우려 정도가 SNS 인피드 광고 태도에 미치는 조절적 영향을 검증하였다. 실증적 분석을 위해 SNS를 사용한 적이 있고 인피드 광고를 본 적이 있는 295명 중국 소비자에 대한 설문조사를 분석하였다. 연구 결과에 따르면 인피드 광고의 3가지 특성이 광고 태도에 긍정적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 프라이버시 공개에 대한 우려는 일치성 및 상호작용성이 광고태도에 미치는 영향에 있어서 유의한 영향을 미치지 않았지만 개인맞춤성이 광고 태도에 미치는 영향에 있어서 부정적인 조절 효과를 보였다. 즉, 소비자가 개인 정보 유출에 대해 걱정할 때 개인맞춤성이 광고 태도에 미치는 긍정적인 효과를 약화시킬 수 있다. 이러한 실증적 연구는 인피드 광고 태도에 영향을 미치는 중요한 정보와 위험요소를 새로 발견하였으니 SNS 매체연구, SNS 광고연구, 그리고 국제마케팅연구의 학문적 발전에 기여할 수 있는 것으로 기대된다. 또한 중국 소비자들을 타깃으로 하는 중국기업과 중국에 진출하는 외국 기업들에게 효과적인 SNS 마케팅 전략과 SNS 광고전략을 수립하는 데에 실무적인 시사점을 제공할 수 있을 것으로 기대된다.

Background: The wall squat exercise has been recommended for strengthening of the lower extremity muscles with maintaining lumbar lordosis. Although squat has been studied to be related to lower extremity extensor strength, the relationship between wall squat and lower extremity extensor strength unclear. Because squat and wall squat are biomechanically different, study on the relationship is needed. Objects: The purpose of this study was to determine the lower extremity extensor strength associated with wall squat performance. Methods: 74 healthy volunteers were recruited to participate in this study. The volunteers were measured hip and knee extensors strength and then performed wall squat exercise for maximum count. Results: We found significant relationships between wall squat performance and hip extensor strength normalized by body weight, knee extensor strength normalized by body weight and the composite value. In a regression analysis, hip extensor strength normalized by body weight explained 29% of the variation in wall squat performance in males and 35% in females. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that hip extensor strength normalized by body weight is critical to wall squat performance in both sexes.