The purpose of this study is to compare the effects of input- and output-based planning (reading a sample passage vs. writing a draft) on the oral performance of L2 learners with low-proficiency. In this study, 16 Korean female junior college students of low English proficiency were divided into two different planning groups. The reading group was required to read a sample passage of the given topic, designed to encourage “noticing” and “focus on form” using input enhancement, while the writing group was asked to write a draft of their speech, using only their own L2 knowledge. After such planning activities, both groups recorded their assigned speaking tasks using Kakao Talk. Eight planning activities and oral performances were completed over the period of the semester. In order to compare the effects of input- and output-based planning on the improvement of overall proficiency, pre- and post-tests, in which the students produced the same narratives, were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. Furthermore, this study explored any difference in speaking performance after each type of planning and what the learners were actually doing during planning time. The results showed that output-based planning had positive effects on speaking performance and its repeated practice led to the improvement of overall proficiency.

5-fluorouracil (5-FU) is a pyrimidine analog which can work as antineoplastic antimetabolite by blocking thymidylate synthetase conversion of deoxyuridylic acid to thymidylic acid in DNA synthesis. This study is aimed to know the anticancer effect of 5-FU on the expressions of important signaling proteins in KB cells through immunoprecipitation high performance liquid chromatography (IP-HPLC). KB cells were treated with 5 μM 5-FU and cultured for 12, 24, 48, 72, and 96 hours, and followed by IP-HPLC analysis using 32 antisera. 5-FU suppressed the proliferation of KB cells by decreases in the expressions of proliferation-related proteins, Ki-67, PCNA, CDK4, and MPM2 to 82.6%, 92.4%, 95.2%, and 95.9%, respectively, but increases of antiproliferation-related proteins, p16 and p21 to 106.7% and 125.5%, respectively, during 96 hours of experiment. This proliferation reduction was also negatively regulated by cMyc/MAX/MAD network signaling. The cellular protection and survival were consistently arrested by 5-FU treatment in KB cells. The expressions of NFkB, MDR, p-mTOR, and TNFα were decreased to 95.1%, 92.8%, 93.4%, and 90.3% in 48-72 hours, respectively, while cellular stress was increased by upregulation of p38 to 111.3% in 48 hours. And the expressions of pAKT1/2/3, hTERT, and AMPK were also decreased to 93.3%, 97.4%, and 89.3% in 24-48 hours, respectively, while the cellular transformation might be undergone by upregulation of TGF-β1 to 117% until 96 hours. Particularly, 5-FU treatment greatly induced the cellular apoptosis in KB cells by increased expressions of PARP, cPARP, caspase 9, c-caspase 9, caspase 8, and caspase 3 in the lack of p53/BAX and FASL/FAS signaling. The expressions of PARP and c-PARP were increased maximum to 119.2% in 24 hours, and followed by increases of caspase 9, c-caspase 9, caspase 8, and caspase 3 to 111.2%, 125.9%, 108.6%, and 116.3% in 72-96 hours. Therefore, it is presumed that 5-FU induced cellular apoptosis in KB cells may be derived from the overexpression of PARP due to the increased DNA defect caused by 5-FU, which can lead to ATP depletion and subsequent cellular apoptosis.

Immunoprecipitation-based high performance liquid chromatography (IP-HPLC) is a type of modified enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) that uses protein A/G (or antibody)-conjugated beads instead of the antibody-conjugated wells used in ELISA. In order to determine the fidelity of IP-HPLC, the author used 83 antisera to identify protein expression changes caused by cisplatin treatment in KB human oral cancer cells. KB cells were cultured for 12 or 24 hours with 10 ug/mL cisplatin. The results obtained by IP-HPLC were comparable with published cisplatin data, although ELISA was not conducted in the present study. Cisplatin dominantly reduced the levels of proteins associated with cell proliferation, transcription factors, growth factors, cytoskeletal proteins, and cellular differentiating factors, but on the other hand, apoptosis-related factors, oncogenes, and protective proteins were usually up-regulated, presumably to address cisplatin-induced DNA damage. In particular, cisplatin directly inactivated genomic DNA by down-regulating histone H1 and demethylase and by up-regulating deacetylase. Cisplatin also rapidly induced p53 overexpression and mitochondria-mediated endogenous apoptosis occurred after 12 hours of cisplatin treatment, although this was almost completely replaced by FASL/FAS-mediated exogenous apoptosis after 24 hours. This preliminary study was conducted to investigate the anticancer effect of cisplatin on the KB human oral cancer cells and to determine the fidelity of IP-HPLC data. It was concluded that IP-HPLC is useful for identifying profile changes of genome wide essential proteins and signaling changes of major molecular pathways.

The purpose of this study was to investigate inter- and intra- rater reliability in an interview and a computerized oral test. It was also examined whether rater characteristics influenced on their reliability and biases, and finally the scores of both tests were compared with those of the Versant test using an automated computer rating system. For the study, the data from 21 Korean university students and 18 Korean or native speakers of English raters with various characteristics were collected. Some of the main findings from the study were as follows. First, rater severity was significantly different in each test, but each rater consistently graded on both tests suggesting lower inter-rater reliability and higher intra-rater reliability. Secondly, rater severity was impacted by the rater characteristics such as mother tongue, gender, age, and major. Lastly, there existed a positive correlation among the scores of the three tests, indicating that the scores of human beings and computers are strongly related.

The molecular mechanisms of the carcinogenesis of oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCs) are highly variable and result in different features of tumor progression, i.e., local tissue destruction and metastasis to regional lymph nodes. A case of OSCC arising from proliferative verrucous leukoplakia (PVL) was analyzed for its protein expression profile by immunoprecipitation (IP) – high performance liquid chromatography (IP-HPLC) by using 72 antisera and comparing results with those of KB cells. OSCC arising from PVL showed stronger expressions of proteins associated with cell proliferation (MPM2, PCNA, eiF5A, DHS, DOHH), cell survival (pAKT, MDM2, survivin), matrix proteolysis (elaffin), tumor suppression (p16, p21, PTCH1), the WNT/β-catenin pathway (SHH, WNT1, APC, β-catenin, snail), proinflammation (TNFα), angiogenesis (HIF, CMG2, vWF), and cellular protection (HSP-70, FAK, caveolin) and of oncoproteins (STAT3, 14-3-3, K-RAS, PUMA, PIM1) and growth factors (EGFR, bFGF) than KB cells. On the other hand, KB cells showed stronger expressions of proteins associated with apoptosis (caspase-3, caspase-8, caspase-9, PARP, FAS, FASL, TGase-1, BCL2, BAD, BID, BAK, FLIP), matrix proteolysis (MMP-2, MMP-9), transcription signaling (NFkB, p38, E2F-1, HO-1), and tumor suppression (p53, RB1, PTEN) and of oncoproteins (DMBT1, CEA) and growth factor (TGF-β1, c-erbB2, VEGF) than OSCC arising from PVL. These data indicate the cells of OSCC arising from PVL are more resistant and more robust than KB cells. Furthermore, they suggest the oncogenic signalings of OSCC arising from PVL play important roles in the aggressive growth and rapid tumor metastasis to regional lymph nodes

The deficiency of competent native English speaker raters and the inherent problem with intra-rater and inter-rater reliability of the oral proficiency interview (OPI) has precluded the full-fledged implementation of English performance testing, inevitably ushering in the computer- based oral proficiency interview (COPI) as its viable alternative with the help of automatic speech recognition (ASR). The plausibility and feasibility of implementing ASR-based COPI has recently been investigated with favorable results, which warrants more sophisticated research focusing on development of desirable test methods that will meet the rigorous criteria required by high-stakes language tests. In this respect, employing varied statistical methods as correlational, regression analyses, and ANOVA, the present study attempts to explore strengths and limitations of test method facets and to identify valid test methods to maximize the validity and reliability of ASR-based COPⅠ. Within the theoretical framework of communicative language components to be measured, the statistical findings reveal that some test methods prove to be more effective than others in producing COPI test results with better discriminability and reliability. The survey of students and teachers also suggest their favorable attitudes toward utilizing the COPI for in-class evaluation. Both findings strongly corroborates potential of the COPI in question as a valid performance testing tool to measure overall communicative competence. The current research is expected not only to shed light on advancement of performance testing, but also to serve the purpose of enhancing communicative English teaching.