Sustainability was first presented in 1972. It was how biological systems remain diverse and productive indefinitely. Long-lived and healthy wetlands and forests are examples of sustainable biological systems. Now, people do not only focus on economy but also focus on social, environment and culture. In this paper we try to find out how to build sustainability index based on customers’ perception of companies’ sustainable performance in fashion industry. The index was explored based on American Customer Satisfaction Index. Through testing the sustainability performance of fashion industry using sustainability index this study tries to find out how customers were affected by fashion companies sustainability performance and how to improve customer repurchase intention through sustainability performance.

Sustainability is about how biological systems remain diverse and productive indefinitely. Long-lived and healthy wetlands and forests are examples of sustainable biological systems. People do not only focus on economy but also focus on social and environment. The Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) was created in 1999 which was based on economy, social and environment to evaluate and rank companies according to their corporate sustainability performance. In this paper we try to find out how to build sustainability index based consumers’ perception instead of company’s internal data and find what influence customers’ satisfaction upon sustainable fashion products in traditional fashion markets. The data was collected in Dongdaemun Market which is the biggest Korean traditional fashion market.

The Chinese ecosystem (especially in traditional markets) has been completely subverted by on-line stores such as Taobao and JingDong after 2010. This research is to understand how to improve traditional markets since 92.5% practitioners in the retail industry conduct business in traditional markets. By the mean time Korean traditional markets attract more customers. In this research the multi-group analysis is used to analyze the difference between Chines customers and Korean customers upon customer equity in traditional markets. The research objectives are: First, to understand the relationships among service quality, customer equity drivers and customer satisfaction in Chinese and Korean traditional markets; Second, find out how to improve the three drivers of customer equity through these variables mentioned above in traditional markets. In this study the relationships among service quality, the drivers of customer equity, customer satisfaction and customer lifetime value were studied based on the analysis of the data which were collected in Chinese and Korean traditional markets.

Supply and demand patterns have dynamically changed in recent years due to the increased global competition. Firms have selected quality and price as competition components and have accomplished corporate innovation in order to achieve competitive advantage. Innovation has been recognized as the way to enhance corporate competitiveness and to continuously grow in churning global competition (Homburg, Schwemmle, & Kuehnl, 2015; Moon, Miller, & Kim, 2013). Although innovation becomes a common means to improve a firm’s performance, it has the limitation of achieving a firm’s strategic goal as a long-term strategy. Thus, firms need to have more fine-grained strategies to survive in dynamically changing business environment, such as design innovation (Moon et al., 2015). For example, Apple has produced its products (e.g., iPhone, iPod and iPad) focusing on innovative product design to influence consumer purchase intention. Design can lead to a distinct competitive advantage (Bolch, 1995). Furthermore, product design can be used by firms to create amd enhance brand recognition, as well as to increase firms’ value (Mozota, 2002). Brand experience positively influences customer satisfaction and brand loyalty (Brakus, Schmitt, & Zarantonello, 2009). Thus, we assume that design experience and product innovation have a positive effect on consumers’ purchase behavior and customer value. However, while the importance of design innovation is recognized, it is not easy to apply the design innovation to marketing due to the lack of relevant research in the field. In fact, relevant research on the influence of innovative new product design and design experience on customer value is scarce. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate how brand experiences and innovative product design affect customer value. Successful innovation is accomplished by identifying customer needs first and developing innovative products to satisfy their needs (Hauser et al., 2006). Design is seen as the core of innovation and the moment when a new object is conceived of, devised, and shaped in a prototype form (Landwehr, Wentzel, & Herrmann, 2013). Verganti (2008) studies the concept of "user-centered design," which describes how companies can use design to improve their relationships with users and develop a better understanding of user needs. In this research, design innovation has three dimensions: aesthetic attributes, feature attributes, and emotional attributes. First, aesthetic attributes focus on the product design itself. The aesthetic appearance of a product has a large bearing on its potential market share (Liu, 2003). Second, feature attributes focus on the product features and functional aspects that are required to satisfy customer needs. Feature attributes enable performance that can give results in the operating process (Crawford & Di Benedetto, 2007). Third, emotional attributes focus on consumers’ feeling when they purchase a new product to satisfy their needs. Emotional attributes are generated by consumers’ experience when they purchase a new product in the store. The more the product design satisfies customer's emotional needs, the more customers’ attention is attracted to the purchase of a product (Mokarian, 2007). A product satisfying the aesthetic, feature, and emotional attributes through design innovation provides a new experience to customers (Desmet & Hekkert, 2007). A consumer’s purchase decision making is affected by both direct and indirect experience of using the product and the function of product (Brakus, Schmitt, & Zarantonello, 2009). Therefore, a designer comes to design the product, taking an interest in the experience that the product gives besides its shape and function. Product experiences occur when a customer interacts with the product ̶ for example, when customers search for, examine, and evaluate products (Hoch, 2002). The product experience can be direct, i.e. when there is physical contact with the product (Hoch & Ha 1986) or indirect, i.e. when a product is presented virtually or in an advertisement (Hoch & Ha 1986; Kempf and Smith 1998). Brand experience can be split into four dimensions (sensory, affective, intellectual, and behavioral), which are differentially evoked by various brands (Brakus, Schmitt, & Zarantonello, 2009). According to previous studies, these four experience dimensions (sensory, affective, intellectual, and behavioral experience dimensions) have an effect on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Customer value can be defined as the trade-off between the benefits and sacrifices as a customer purchases a product or service from a supplier (Ulaga & Chacour, 2001). Ulaga and Chacour presented three dimensions of customer value: product-related components, service-related components, and promotion-related components. The researchers argued that customer value could be an important strategic marketing tool to clarify a firm's proposition to customers. Product-related components are intrinsic product characteristics. Product quality is a key factor of relationship value (Ulaga, 2003). Customer value consists of product value and service value. Customer value can be enhanced by quality, diversity, payment, and service quality and decreased by price, convenience, and risk (Jarvenpaa & Todd, 2003). Service-related components include all aspects of service associated with the product. Various service components play an important role in differentiating a supplier's offering (Narus & Anderson, 1996). Promotion-related components include all items used to promote the product to the customer. For all purchasing processes, it is necessary to assess the perceived customer value, such as service quality and promotional quality (Qualls & Rosa, 1995). In the present study, we conducted a research survey with 300 subjects and analyzed the data. In order to test the reliability of questionnaire, Cronbach's alpha was used. In order to test the validity, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted. Measurement was made for 3 variables, i.e. design innovation, design experience, and customer value. Three variables (aesthetical attributes, feature attributes, and emotional attributes) were used for design innovation. Three types of attributes were introduced for a mobile phone design innovation. Four dimensions (sensory, affective, intellectual, behavioral) were measured using a technical design experience and a humanistic design experience. Three variables (product-related customer value, service-related customer value, and promotion-related customer value) were employed for customer value. The results of the analyses demonstrate that design innovation has a positive effect on design experience, while design experience has a positive effect on customer value. Aesthetic attributes of design innovation have a positive effect on technical design experience and humanistic design experience. Feature attributes have a positive effect on the technical design experience and the humanistic design experience. Emotional attributes have an effect on the technical design experience and the humanistic design experience. The technical design experience has a positive effect on product-related customer value, service-related customer value, and promotion-related customer value. The humanistic design experience has a positive effect on product-related customer value, service-related customer value and promotion-related customer value. This study will make it possible to empirically examine how customer's experience in design innovation affects customer value. Our results will provide a theoretical foundation for examining a relationship between variables regarding how design innovation influences customer value through design experience. It is intended to give a direction as to the design innovation of firms by clarifying and presenting antecedent factors having an effect that design innovation produces on customer value. The results of the present study will inspire designers to design in consideration of design experience. Finally, our study will provide marketers with guidelines as to how design experience can influence customer satisfaction and loyalty.

In 2015, the movie “Northern Limit Line” which based on the naval battle of South and North Korea occurred in 2002 was premiered (Los Angeles Times, 2016). This movie made a significant contribution to improve the image of the R.O.K Navy. Brand Placement (BPL) was used to promote the R.O.K Navy in this movie (Karrh, 1994; Van Reijmersdal, Neijens & Smit, 2007). The R.O.K. Navy is trying to build powerful naval forces with the slogan called “The Ocean Navy”. It is essential to acquire the elite military forces who can help the Korean Navy to accomplish its strategic goal and heighten the competitiveness. The acquired elite military forces are expected to demonstrate their own ability while they serve the R.O.K. Navy. They will have positive influences to the local communities as the supporters of the R.O.K. Navy after they are discharged. This research analyzed BPL effect in terms the recruitment of workforce. This research identified the relationship among BPL, organization image, organization reputation, employment brand equity and intention to pursue job opportunity in R.O.K Navy. In previous researches, the effect of image can be applied to corporate brands, product, individual brands, geographical areas, events and people (Balmer, 1997). The image of organization can remind people of the particular organization (Cable & Yu, 2006). The reputation is a dynamic interaction construct with the image, and defined as a subjective judgment based on the reliability and integrity about the organization in long term (Clardy, 2012). Employment brand equity is defined as outcome of applicant’s decision choices attributable to job seeker’s beliefs about the organization as employer(Han & Collins, 2002). Marketing literatures on employment brand equity can be useful in helping to understand how job seeker develops beliefs about organization as employer. Although many researches studied BPL, organization image and reputation, employment brand equity, etc., little researches have been conducted to integrate the variables mentioned above in public sector such as the military forces. Samples of this research consist of people who watched the movie called “Northern Limit Line”. SPSS and AMOS package programs are employed to analyze the data. Marketing strategy for a public sector such as Korean Navy based upon the results of the findings from this study is expected to position Korean Navy as more efficient and effective organization to recruit better quality human resources.

World Advertising Research Center forecasts that internet advertising will overtake on TV advertising in 2016. The internet will become the largest advertising platform. The form of advertising is continually changing as time changes and technological progress, but the essence of advertising which widely inform information needs have never changed. With declining of advertising credibility, more and more young people prefer to get product information from friends or virtual friends online. Providing a good opportunity for enterprises to employ e-WOM when they making the marketing strategy. Prior to the initiation of new marketing activities, the majority of companies make great efforts to figure out a means of collecting all-round information on overseas target markets and global consumers for the purpose of strengthening competitiveness and then further increasing market share and enterprise benefits. The concept of customer equity has been introduced as a tool to continuously secure customers and create profits in the future. Globalization trends have attached great importance to altering the structure of the fashion industry. In particular, with expectation of conducting innovative marketing, companies engaged in SPA brands are gradually developed into global companies. Furthermore, corporate profitability is very sensitive to consumers’ attitudinal changes due to the short trend cycle of SPA brands. Most of our behaviors are predicated on the attitudes and behaviors of the others. The influence of loyal customers may turn potential customers into loyal customer owing to high customer equity. That is to say, companies may obtain more profits through higher customer equity. The study aims to explore the relationships among social influence, social learning, e-WOM and customer equity. The results of the study can be summarized as follows. First, the study elaborates on the relationships among social influence, social learning, e-WOM and customer equity. Second, by comparing the economic and cultural differences between South Korea and China, the study found the social influence has a positive influence on customer equity in different ways between the two countries.

촉진수송은 기존의 고분자 막에서는 힘든, 투과도와 선택도를 동시에 향상시킬 수 있는 기술 중 한 가지이다. 촉진 수송 분리막을 이용한 올레핀/파라핀 분리는 기존의 증류공정을 대체할 수 있는 기술로써 많은 관심을 받아왔다. 본 연구에서 는 테트라플루오로붕산은/질산알루미늄의 혼합염이 포함된 고분자 블렌드 기반의 촉진수송 올레핀 분리막을 제조하였다. 자유 라디칼중합법을 이용하여 폴리다이메틸실록세인-g-폴리옥시에틸렌 메타크릴레이트 가지형 공중합체를 합성하였다. 또한, 폴리 다이메틸실록세인-g-폴리옥시에틸렌 메타크릴레이트 매질에 폴리에틸렌옥사이드를 다양한 비율로 혼합하였다. 폴리에틸렌옥사 이드를 폴리다이메틸실록세인-g-폴리옥시에틸렌 메타크릴레이트 가지형 공중합체 질량 대비 70%를 혼합하였을 때, 혼합기체 선택도 및 투과도는 5.6 및 10.05 GPU에 도달하였다. 이와 같은 복합막의 올레핀 분리 성능이 향상된 이유는, 분리막에 첨가 된 은이온이 올레핀 기체분자의 선택적인 촉진 수송을 하였고, 또한 고투과성의 고분자 블렌드가 사용되었기 때문이다. 또한 은이온의 은나노입자로의 환원을 억제시키는 질산알루미늄의 첨가로 인해 복합막의 장시간 안정도를 향상시킬 수 있었다.

Amphiphilic comb copolymers composed of poly(ethylene glycol) behenyl ether methacrylate (PEGBEM) and poly(oxyethylene methacrylate) (POEM) were synthesized via facile free radical polymerization. The structure of PEGBEM-g-POEM comb copolymer was confirmed by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) spectroscopy, gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR). Due to great solubility in ethanol, the PEGBEM-g-POEM comb copolymer could be directly coated onto the polysulfone supporting layer to prepare composite membranes. The maximum CO2/N2 selectivity of the PEGBEM-g-POEM membrane reached 84.7 together with a high CO2 permeance of 21.9 GPU (1 GPU = 10-6cm³(STP) / (s×cm²×cmHg).

용액-확산 메커니즘에 의해 결정되는 기존의 고분자에서와는 달리, 촉진수송은 투과도와 선택도를 동시에 향상시킬 수 있는 기술이다. 본 연구에서는 은 나노입자, 폴리비닐피롤리돈, 7,7,8,8-테트라시야노퀴노디메탄으로 구성된 촉진수송 올레핀 분리막에 있어서, 메조기공 티타늄산화물(m-TiO2)에 대한 영향을 연구하였다. 특히 메조기공 티타늄산화물은 폴리비닐클로라이 드-g-폴리옥시에틸렌 메타크릴레이트 가지형 공중합체를 템플레이트로 하여 쉽고 대량 생산이 가능한 방법으로 제조하였다. 엑 스레이 회절분석에 따르면, 제조된 메조기공 티타늄산화물은 아나타제와 루타일 상의 혼합으로 구성되어 있으며, 결정의 크기가 약 16 nm 정도 되었다. 메조기공 티타늄산화물을 첨가하였을 때, 분리막의 확산도가 증가하여 혼합기체 투과도가 1.6에서 16 GPU로 증가하였고 선택도는 45에서 37로 약간 감소하였다. 메조기공 티타늄산화물이 첨가되지 않은 분리막은 장시간 성능이 유지되었으나, 메조기공 티타늄산화물이 첨가된 분리막의 경우 시간이 지남에 따라 투과도와 선택도가 감소하였다. 이는 티타늄 산화물과 은 사이의 화학적 상호작용으로 은 나노입자의 올레핀 운반체로써의 활성을 감소시키기 때문으로 사료된다.

The online game market has grown rapidly in worldwide. The world game market earned 111.7 billion US dollars and online game occupies 18.9% (21.1 billion US dollars) in the world game market in 2012. Online game companies have launched a variety of free online games to online game players such as League of Legends (LOL), World of Tank, and Hearthstone. These online games provide online game with free install with online game players. Online game companies, however, sell some of online game items to the game users. For example, LOL sells Skin that is the cloth which only provides fancy effect to online game hero through the online game shop. In case of ‘Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft’, game user can purchase game card deck by cash. This study was initiated to answer the following research question called “How these online game companies get profit?” because their online games are free to play. The research upon the question mentioned above leads to the second research question called “how online game users purchase the cash game items?”. To understand purchasing behavior and attitude of online game players about cash game item, this study conducts focus group interview of LOL game player to understand purchase behavior of game players for online games items. The results of focus group interview help us to understand the relationship between attitude toward online game items and consumption values. The purposes of this study are 1) to understand online game players’ purchasing behavior for LOL luxury Skin, 2) to find out relationships among online game experience, design innovative Skin, consumption values, and repurchase intention, and 3) to draw academic and practical implications based upon the result of analysis in this study.

The global diffusions of free trade agreements have encouraged an increasing number of companies to participate in foreign markets. However, export firms fall behind big data-based customers in international export markets. The gap between the needs of export markets and the capabilities of export companies is broadening. Marketing capabilities are export firms’ ability to understand what target customers want and develop tactical marketing actions and allocate available resources, and achieve export performance (Day 1994; Vorhies and Morgan, 2003). Export firms have to enhance marketing capabilities to narrow the gap (Day, 2011). This study investigates marketing capabilities, export marketing strategies, and their relationships with export performance of the export companies in an industrial complex in South Korea. This study tries to find how marketing variables impact the performance of export firms through the relationships among them. Marketing literature examined that the suitability between marketing capabilities and export marketing strategy is important because of its impact on export performance. Export marketing literature reviewed that export firms’ characteristics such as international experience, firm size, firm age, and export intensity, firm level of market orientation are considered positively related to export performance. Especially for inexperienced and small and medium-sized firms, which have limited marketing resources to achieve successful export performance, the right choice of export marketing, export marketing strategy, and export performance is indispensable. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating effects of export firms’ characteristics on the interactive linkages within marketing capability, export marketing strategy, and export performance. Our first focus in this study is the relationships between marketing capabilities and export strategies and both export marketing strategy and export performance. We discuss their relationships with each other and with export firms’ performance. We develop testable hypotheses as shown in Fig.1. The final samples we used are 104 manufactured export firms in S. Korea. Next, as a result of testing, based on the relationships of having positive effects, we identify the moderating effects of export firms’ characteristics. Our research model proposes that marketing capabilities affect export marketing strategies and ‘specialized marketing capabilities’. These affect the overall export performance. We therefore hypothesize that H1: Marketing organizational capability is positively related to (a) export marketing strategy and (b) specialized export marketing capability. H2: Marketing human resource capability is positively related to (a) export marketing strategy and (b) specialized export marketing capability. H3: Marketing financial capability is positively related to (a) export marketing strategy and (b) specialized export marketing capability. H4: Marketing infrastructure is positively related to (a) export marketing strategy and (b) specialized export marketing capability. H5: Export marketing strategy is positively related to (a) specialized export marketing capability and (b) export performance. H6: Specialized export marketing capability is positively related to export performance. The results of our PLS-SEM analyses are as follows. Our results support H1b, linking marketing organizational capability and specialized export marketing capability. Marketing infrastructure was found to be positively related to both export marketing strategy and specialized export marketing capability, supporting H4a and H4b, respectively. We also observed that export marketing strategy a positive link with specialized export marketing capability and export performance, supporting H5a and H5b, respectively. However, no support is found for H2, H3, and H6. Moderating Effects of Export firms’ Characteristic Factors We tested how export firms’ characteristics moderate the relationships described in our research model (Hypotheses1-6) We used the moderate factors such as export product (final product vs. parts), customer (domestic vs. overseas, company (manufacturer vs. vendor), employment size (less than 100 person, 100 to300, more than 300), sales(less than $46 million, $46 million to $182 million, more than $182 million), export intensity (less than 50% vs. more than 50%) The moderating effects of export firms’ characteristics on the relationships within our research model are discussed (see Figure 1). Four of 30 moderating hypotheses for export firms’ characteristics were supported. The more number of employees and Greater sales volume strengthened the relationships between marketing infrastructures and export marketing strategies. Higher foreign customer strengthened the relationships between marketing infrastructure and specialized export marketing capability. Greater final products strengthened the relationships between export marketing strategies and export performance. However, the relationships between marketing organizational capability and specialized export marketing capability and between export marketing strategy and specialized export marketing capability were not significantly changed with export firms’ characteristic factors. There are no moderating effects on the types of firm and the types of export intensity. The results of this research suggest that the export companies should consider the choice of export marketing strategies the most important factor to achieve high export performance. This study indicates that policy makers for export companies in S. Korea should develop export assistant programs based on export firms’ characteristic factors such as the number of employee, sales volume, the type of customer, and the type of export product. Following limitations of this research should be noted. First, in addition to the manufacturing industry, more researches should be done in other industries. The findings of this study will ensure more validation. Second, to assess the export performance of export firms, this study uses the subjective opinion of respondent about the degree of export performance because of the difficulties of obtaining financial data. The objective financial data should be used to ensure more objectiveness for this research. Third, this study relies on survey data related to the export companies within an industrial complex area in S. Korea. It should be extended to other regions.

The online game market has rapidly increased worldwide, especially in China. In 2012, the world game market equaled 111.7 billion. Many game companies compete by launching new online games in various genres. In 2010, Activision Blizzard reported that the World of Warcraft (WOW) is the world’s most popular online game. Chinese gamers constitute more than half of WOW’s 10 million users. Korea is the second largest gaming market. Thus many foreign game companies target Korea and China, in competition with domestic game companies. The purposes are 1) to understand the role of country of origin and /or brand image in game consumer behavior, 2) to find out the difference of game evaluation between game users in China and Korea, and 3) to draw strategic implication game marketers. Consumers expect products from advanced countries to provide superior performance, so they often look to country of origin in evaluating products. Recently, consumers have looked to brand image as another key element in product evaluation. In this research, we study whether gamers evaluate games on the basis of country of origin and/or brand image. In this paper, we add to the gaming research and suggest that the online game market has three dimensions. First, online games are products. Second, online games are service. Last, online games are entertainment. Data collection resulted in 355 usable responses from online game (LOL) users in Korea(166) and China(189). We conduct factor analysis and reliability analysis to check reliability and validity. Country of Origin is the key element for product evaluation of utilitarian goods but it doesn’t have significant effect on product evaluation of hedonic products which mainly provide sensual pleasure, fantasy, and fun to customers such as luxury goods or online game (Dhar & Wertenbroch, 2000).

Brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens is giving enormous damage to rice production. In this work, virulence of four Beauveria bassiana isolates against brown planthoppers was investigated by applying fungal granules on the water of pots, and we further examined the growth of hypha on the rice plants from the water surcae to explain the insecticidal mode of action. We used Beauveria bassiana (Bb) ERL 836, 1170, 1575 and 1578 isolates, which produced ~2×108 conidia/g of millet grain in a solid culture. Rice seeding was grown in breeding boxes at 28±2℃ for 5 days. Mycotized millet grains were treated on the water in a box at 1 g/box and the rice seeding was infested with 18~25 brown planthopper adults per box. A chemical pesticide and water treatment served as controls. Among the treatments, Bb ERL 836-treated plants had the lowest damage, rather than the other fungal treatments in laboratory assays. Hyphal growth on the stem of rice plants was observed in Petridish conditions under a fluorescent microscopy. This work suggests a possible control of brown planthoppers using entomopathogenic fungi.

In our present study, total methanol extracts prepared from B. platyphylla var. japonica showed a significant increase in cell proliferation upon the induction of oxidative stress by hydrogen peroxide or y-ray irradiation. Total methanol extracts were fractionated into five separate preparations i.e. n-hexane, dichloromethane, ethylacetate, n-butanol and water fractions. Among these, the ethylacetate and butanol fractions of B. platyphylla var. japonica showed the highest protective effects against oxidative stress induced by hydrogen peroxide. These fractions also showed strong protective effects against y-ray irradiation. When we evaluated the cytotoxicity of these fractions, the butanol fraction showed no effects in a colony formation assay. In addition, the butanol fraction showed a cell proliferation activation effect evidenced by significant increase in the colony formation of y-ray irradiated cells. Both a radical scavenging activity and clonogenic activity assay suggested that the mechanism behind this protective effect against reactive oxygen species may be due to the radical scavenging and cell proliferation activity of B. platyphylla var. japonica extracts.

This study was to taken to demonstrate the effects of exogenous nitric oxide(NO) on hu rnan pu lp cell s ‘ In volvement of cyclic 3’, 5' -monophosphate(cGMP) in p버 paJ protection induced by herne oxygenase-l (J-lO-l) against NO-induced cytotoxicity , By use of Western blotting and cell viabi lity assay, we have examined the cytotoxicity and J-lO-l induction in pulp cells that were treated with NO donor ‘ S-nitroso-N-acetyl-D, L-penici 1 lamine(SNAP) , We have assessed wheathel' HQ--l contributes the cytoprotective effect against the cytotoxicity caused by NO, and inves tigated the l'elationship between HO-l and cGMP in the s ignaling pathway, SNAP decreased cell via bility but in creased HO-l expl'ession in a concentl'ation- and time一dependent manner in hurnan pu lp cells NO-induced cyto toxicity was inhibited in the presence of the hemin(inducer of HO-l) , whel'eas was en hanced in the pl'esence zinc protoporphyrin IX(ZnPP IX, HO-l inhibitor), thus Lhe NO-induced cytoLoxicity was cOl'related with HO- l expression. R‘ etreatment with a rnemhrane-permeable cGMP analog, 8-bromo-cGMP, restored cell death and enhanced the HO-l protein expression induced by SNAP, ln contrast‘ inhibition of guanylate cyclase by lI-l -[1,2,4] ox adiazole[ 4,3 口]quinoxalin-l-one(ODQ) pretreated pulp cells to 1 mM SNAP resulting in marked cytotoxicity , These findings , demonstrating a link between J-lO-l, regulated thl'ough the cGMP system and NO-induced cytotox.icity in huma띠 p버 p ceJls , suggesti ng a protective 1'ole of HO-l in pulp infl ammatory disease

본 연구는 콘크리트 교량의 지진취약도 곡선을 개발함에 있어 성능 스펙트럼 기법(Capacity Spectrum Method)에 대한 고찰을 통해 가장 적절한 해석방법을 제시하는데 그 목적이 있다. 원래 성능 스펙트럼 기법은 빌딩 구조물을 위한 간략화된 정적 비선형 해석의 일환으로 개발되었는 바, 본 연구에서는 이 기법을 교량의 지진취약도 곡선을 개발하는데 응용하였다. 서로 다른 네가지의 방법으로 성능 스펙트럼 기법을 통해 구해진 취약도 곡선들을 비선형 시간이력해석 방법에 의해 구해진 취약도 곡선과 비교하였다. 취약도 곡선은 두 개의 변수를 가진 lognormal 분포를 따르는 것으로 가정하였으며 PGA(Peak Ground Acceleration)의 함수로 나타내어졌다. FEMA(Federal Emergency Management Agency) SAC(SEAOC-ATC-CUREe) steel 프로젝트에 의해 개발된 로스앤젤레스 지역 60개의 지진이 교량해석을 위해 사용되었다. 성능 스펙트럼 기법과 시간이력해석에 따라 만들어진 교량의 지진취약도 곡선들을 비교 검토한 바, 이 중 하나의 방법이 부합되는 결과를 보여주었다. 요구 스펙트럼 작성시 본 논문에서 제시된 지침을 따르면 비선형 시간이력 해석시와 유사한 결과를 얻을 수 있을 것으로 사료된다. 다만 지진과 교량이 지닌 특수성으로 인해 본 연구의 결과가 항상 적용되는지는 더 심도있는 연구를 통해 검증되어야 할 것이다.

흡연 유무의 남성을 대상으로 뇌 회백질의 손상 유무를 파악 할 수 있는 확산텐서영상을 검사하여 영상을 획득 한 후 Tract-Based Spatial Statics(TBSS)방법으로 뇌 회백질 부위의 기저핵 신경섬유로의 비등방도 FA(fractional anisotropy)값을 측정 분석한 결과 모든 영역에서 흡연자가 비흡연자보다 비등방성 측정값이 낮게 관찰되었으며 FA값은 통계적으로 유의하였다. 본 연구의 측정한 FA결과 값으로 추측하자면 즉, 흡연이 뇌 회백질 기저핵의 모든 해부학적 미세 구조성 변화에 크게 영향을 미치며 신경 섬유로를 손상시키고 이와 관련된 기능적 이상에 영향을 준다고 할 수 있다.

Hepatocytes and hepatic progenitors derived from human ES cells may be a useful source for clinical application. Therefore, identification and purification of these cell types would be following important issues. There are very few candidate surface markers that can be used to identify and purify hepatic progenitor cells. In addition, indocyanine-green can be uptaken by mature hepatocytes, but cannot be applied for fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) due to its long emission wavelength. In the present study, we tested EpCAM as a potential marker for magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS) of hepatic progenitors and also modified indocyanine-green into fluorescent indomonocarbocyanine for FACS-mediated sorting of mature hepatocytes after differentiation of human ES cells. Hepatic progenitor cells were sorted by MACS after incubation with anti-human EpCAM antibodies. After the final differentiation, the differentiated cells and mouse primary hepatocytes (control group) were incubated with indomonocarbocyanine and were sorted by FACS. MACS and immunocytochemistry data showed that approximately 45% of differentiated cells were EpCAM-positive cells. EpCAM-positive cells expressed α-fetoprotein, FOXa2, HnF4a, and CK18. Differentiation efficiency into albumin-positive cells was significantly higher in EpCAM-positive cells, compared to EpCAM-negative cells. Importantly, indomonocarbocyanine successfully stained cells that expressed ALB. Furthermore, FACS analysis data showed that the purity of hepatocytes that expressed albumin was significantly increased after purification of indomonocarbocyanine-positive cells. Our data demonstrated that human ES cell-derived hepatic progenitors can be efficiently isolated by MACS using EpCAM antibody. In addition, we also showed that indomonocarbocyanine can be successfully used to identify and purify mature hepatocytes using FACS.

Highly homogeneous and functional stem cell-derived hepatocyte-like cells (HLCs) are considered a promising option in the treatment of liver disease and the development of effective in vitro toxicity screening tool. However, the purity of cells and expression and/or activity of drug metabolizing enzymes in stem cell-derived HLCs are usually too low to be useful for clinical or in vitro applications. Here, we describe a highly optimized differentiation protocol, which produces more than 90% albumin-positive HLCs with no purification process. In addition, we show that hepatic enzyme gene expressions and activities were significantly improved by generating three-dimensional (3D) spheroidal aggregate of HLCs. The 3D differentiation method increased expressions of nuclear receptors that regulate the proper expression of key hepatic enzymes. Furthermore, a significantly increased hepatic functions such as albumin and urea secretion were observed in 3D hepatic spheroids and HLCs in the spheroid exhibited morphological and ultrastructural features of normal hepatocytes. Importantly, we show that repeated exposures to xenobiotics facilitated the functional maturation of HLC, as confirmed by increased expression of genes for drug metabolizing enzymes and transcription factors. In conclusion, the 3D culture system with repeated exposures to xenobiotics may be a new strategy for enhancing hepatic maturation of stem cell-derived HLCs as a cell source for in vitro high-throughput hepatotoxicity models.