As the number of North Korean refugees increases in South Korean, their acculturation to life in their host country is coming to be an important social issue. This study explores some clothing-related barriers experienced by North Korean refugees and their moderating effects on acculturation to South Korea. Data were collected using a self-administered survey of 163 female and 37 male North Korean refugees in South Korea aged 20 to 69 years. Descriptive analyses, t-tests, ANOVA, Duncan tests, and moderated multiple regression were conducted using SPSS 20.0 and Process Macro v.3.3. The results show that the North Korean refugees who participated in the study had experienced clothing-related barriers regarding fashion terminology and shopping rituals in South Korea. In particular, those in their 60s perceived more clothing-related barriers than those in their 20s and 30s. Next, the clothing-related barriers experienced by North Korean refugees have a negative moderating influence on the relationship between self-esteem and acculturation in South Korea. This study provides a deeper understanding of the relationship between fashion and the acculturation of North Korean refugees to South Korea. The results of the study can be also helpful of government policy makers, practitioners, and academics to develop education programs for North Korean refugees.

This research explored antecedents of stickiness of m-commerce sites, based on the push–pull–mooring (PPM) framework, which was developed to explain what leads people to move from one original location to another. In the current study, the stickiness of m-commerce sites was used as the opposite concept to switching. Therefore, pull effects refer to the positive factors which make consumers stick to an m-commerce site, while push effects refer to the negative factors which make consumers not stick with an m-commerce site. After reviewing the literature, responsiveness, ubiquity, enjoyment, and effectiveness were selected as the pull effects, while privacy concern and efficiency were selected as the push effects. The amount of money spent in specific mobile sites was considered as a mooring effect. According to the results of the structural equation modeling analysis, efficiency actually had a negative impact on stickiness of m-commerce sites. Also, a test of the mooring effect suggested that the negative impact of efficiency on stickiness of m-commerce sites was greater for people who spent more money in their mobile shopping compared to those who spent less. For both the high and low spending groups, responsiveness was the important pull effect as it was the strongest predictor of enjoyment for the low spending group and the strongest predictor of effectiveness for the high spending group (note that enjoyment and effectiveness had the strongest positive impacts on stickiness of m-commerce sites for the low and high spending groups, respectively.). Therefore, the fast response and feedback on m-commerce sites should increase consumers’ stickiness to these sites regardless of the amount consumers spend on these sites. On the other hand, the duration and retention of the low spending group of consumers were influenced by enjoyment the most.

Sappanchalcone, a biologically active compound isolated from Caesalpinia sappan L., is reported to exert a variety of biological activities, such as neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory actions and inhibitory effect on antigen-induced beta hexosaminidase release. However, the vascular protective effects of this compound are not fully understood. The present study examined the effects of sappanchalcone in suppressing cell adhesion molecules expression in high glucose stimulated human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). Sappanchalcone significantly decreased 25 mM high glucose-induced vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) and intracellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) expression in a dose-dependent manner. Sappanchalcone also significantly inhibited the formation of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS). Furthermore, we found that the vascular protective effects of sappanchalcone were linked to the up-regulation of heme oxygenase-1 expression in HUVEC. The effects of sappanchalcone on the high glucose-induced expression of VCAM-1 and ICAM-1 were partially reversed by treatment of the cells with an inhibitor of HO-1, tin protoporphyrin IX (SnPP). Based on these results, these findings suggest that sappanchalcone-induced HO-1 expression plays a key role in the vascular protective effects of sappanchalcone in HUVEC.

Taraxaci Herba has long been used in herbal medicine for their choleretic, anti-heumatic and diuretic properties. In the present study, we investigated the effects of origin plants of Taraxaci Herba, Taraxacum coreanum Nakai, as an anti-inflammatory agent in lipopolysaccharide(LPS)-induced microglial activation in BV2 cells. NNMBS273, the EtOH extracts of roots T. coreanum was examined for anti-neuronal inflammatory activity as new drug development. The roots of T. coreanum, showed the potent anti-neuroinflammatory effects on LPS-induced inflammation in microglial BV2 cells. The anti-inflammatory effects of NNMBS273, the EtOH extracts of roots T. coreanum was demonstrated by the suppression of pro-inflammatory mediators, including pro-inflammatory enzymes (inducible nitric oxide synthase and cyclooxygenase-2) and cytokines (tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-1β). These results suggest that the roots T. coreanum may be a promising candidate for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases related to neuroinflammation.

Glutamate-induced oxidative injury contributes to neuronal degeneration in many central nervous system (CNS) diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy and ischemia. Inducible heme oxygenase (HO)-1 acts against oxidants that are thought to play a role in the pathogenesis of these diseases. The EtOH extracts of Viola mandshurica (NNMBS274), Viola patrinii (NNMBS275) and Viola papilionacea Pursh (NNMBS276), origin plants of Violae Herba, showed the potent neuroprotective effects on glutamate-induced neurotoxicity. Among them, NNMBS275, the extract of V. patrinii possessed the protective effects against glutamate toxicity by inducing the expression of heme oxygenase (HO)-1 in the mouse hippocampal HT22 cells. These results suggest that extracts of V. patrinii could be the effective candidates for the treatment of ROS-related neurological diseases. Furthermore, it is suggested that the protective effects of V. patrinii extract due to inducing the expression of HO-1 as an antioxidant/cytoprotective target

Based upon literature survey, this research aims to analyze western children's clothing and characteristics over centuries. It was not until the 18th century that children were given serious consideration and that fabrication of clothing began to be designed only for children. The very first clothes which revolutionized children's wear was 'a la matelot' in the 18th century which freed children from physical restriction, recognized gender difference, and sailor suit became popular among all sexes and adopted as school uniform. And then children's clothing was shortened in length and adopted tubular silhouette, which allowed greater comfort and movement. The 20th century saw children's wear reform to be carried out after the World War II due to invention of synthetic fiber, easy care dress material, mass production system and sophistication of marketing methods. Further evidence of improvement of children's social status can be found in contemporary designs: for example, 'casualized' wear, 'character design' which reflects children's psychology and 'family look' which is designed to be worn with mothers. This evolution of children's clothing within western dressing support the view that children's clothing is not a miniature of adult wear but it reflects idiosyncrasies of the era and exerts children's dignity.

The aim of this study was to isolate chicken feather-degrading bacteria with high keratinolytic activity and to investigate cultural conditions affecting keratinolytic enzyme production by a selected isolate. A chicken feather-degrading bacterial strain CH3 was isolated from poultry wastes. Isolate CH3 degraded whole chicken feather completely within 3 days. On the basis of phenotypical and 16S rDNA studies, isolate CH3 was identified as Bacillus thuringiensis CH3. This strain is the first B. thuringiensis described as a feather degrader. The bacterium grew with an optimum at pH 8.0 and 37℃, where maximum keratinolytic activity was also observed. The composition of optimal medium for keratinolytic enzyme production was feather 0.1%, sucrose 0.7%, casein 0.3%, K2HPO4 0.03%, KH2PO4 0.04%, MgCl2 0.01% and NaCl 0.05%, respectively. The keratinolytic enzyme had a pH and temperature optima 9.0 and 45℃, respectively. The keratinolytic activity was inhibited ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride, and metal ions like Hg2+, Cu2+ and Zn2+. The enzyme activated by Fe2+, dithiothreitol and 2-mercaptoethanol.