• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.23 no.5
• /
• pp.710-720
• /
• 2013

Radiotherapy is commonly used in treating many kinds of cancers which cannot be cured by other therapeutic strategies. However, radiotherapy also induces the damages on the normal tissues. Radiation-induced fibrosis is frequently observed in the patients undergoing radiotherapy, and becomes a major obstacle in the treatment of intrahepatic cancer. Hedgehog (Hh) that is an essential in the liver formation during embryogenesis is not detected in the healthy liver, but activated and modulates the repair process in damaged livers in adult. The expression of Hh increases with the degree of liver damage, regulating the proliferation of hepatic progenitors and hepatic stellate cells (HSC). In addition, Hh induces epithelial-to-mesencymal transition (EMT) and activation of myofibroblasts. In the irradiated livers, up-regulated expression of Hh signaling was associated with proliferation of progenitors, EMT induction, and increased fibrosis. Female-specific expression of Hh leaded to the expansion of progenitors and the accumulation of collagen in the irradiated livers of female mice, indicating that gender disparity in Hh expression may be related with radiation-susceptibility in female. Hence, Hh signaling becomes a novel object of studies for fibrogenesis induced by radiation. However, the absence of the established experimental animal models showing the similar physiopathology with human liver diseases and fibrosis-favorable microenvironment hamper the studies for the radiation-induced fibrosis, providing a few descriptive results. Therefore, further research on the association of Hh with radiation-induced fibrosis can identify the cell and tissue-specific effects of Hh and provides the basic knowledge for underlying mechanisms, contributing to developing therapies for preventing the radiation-induced fibrosis.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.43 no.4
• /
• pp.87-97
• /
• 2015

There's a trend towards vitalization of nightscape planning businesses nationally and locally as well for city image making and activation of regional economy, but there is still no systematic nightscape planning going on for lack of relevant researches and objective evaluations. This study aims to suggest the guideline for nightscape planning by conducting an eye tracking experiment and survey for recognizing the characteristics of a nightscape. Furthermore, the authors intended to verify the eye-tracking method as a tool for landscape evaluation. The research site was restricted in the campus of Virginia Tech, VA, and those were selected by experts' survey among various types of nightscape images. The variables for analyzing the characteristics of nightscape images selected were 'preference', 'safety(fear)' and 'clearness'. 'Fixation duration', 'saccade duration', 'scan path length', and 'pupil size' were selected as the eye movement measurements. The results of this study are as follows: The first outcome found was that there were significant differences among the characteristics(preference, safety and clearness) of a nightscape by MANOVA, and these variables were correlated positively by Pearson's correlation. Secondly, there were differences on fixation duration, saccade duration and scan path depending on the nightscape setting statistically. Also, the eye tracking measurement in an open setting was recorded lower than enclosed settings. In the result of a heat map, we found the meaning of the fixated areas on both viewing without intention and viewing intentionally. It turned out that the fixated areas were consistent with the areas the subjects felt preferred and clarity in all of the nightscape images, which means people usually focus on what they prefer and see clearly in a certain nightscape. Based on this result and previous studies, the authors could make a conclusion that eye tracking method can apply to evaluate nightscape settings in terms of analyzing the whole characteristics and finding specific points for the detailed analysis as well. Therefore, these results can contribute by suggesting nightscape planning, implication of the landscape evaluation, and implication of the eye tracking study.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.35 no.6
• /
• pp.407-419
• /
• 2002

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the arterial wall characterized by progressive accumulation of lipids, cells, and extracellular matrix. Matrix metalloproteinases(MMPs) and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases(TIMPS) contribute to vascular matrix remodeling in atherosclerosis, and some cytokines may play role in the synthesis or activation of MMPs or TIMPs. Material and Method： We produced experimental atherosclerotic plaques in 9 rabbits by atherogenic hypercholesterol diet for 12 weeks, and 10 other rabbits were used as control group with standard laboratory chow, At that time, 19 rabbits were sacrificed and aorta, coronary arteries and blood specimens were prepared. The expressions of MMP-9, TIMP-2 and interleukin(IL)-18, and the bioactivity of IL-6 were investigated with H&E stain, immunohistochemical stain, immunoblotting(Western blot analysis), and bioassay. Result： Serum cholesterol in the experimental group increased up to 1258$\pm$262 mg/dL(control group： 41$\pm$7 mg/dL). All experimental group showed well-developed atherosclerotic plaques in aorta and coronary artery. The expression of MMP-9 in aorta and coronary artery of the experimental group showed significant increase than that of the control group by immunohistochemistry. Among the experimental group, complicated lesions with intimal rupture or complete luminal occlusion, demonstrated stronger expression of MMP-9. Interestingly, there was no difference in expression of TIMP-2 between the experimental and the control group. These findings were confirmed by Western blot analysis. The bioassay revealed significant up-regulation of serum bioactivity of IL-6 in the experimental group(4819.60$\pm$2021.25 IU/$m\ell$) compared to that of IL-6 in the control group(27.20 $\pm$ 12.19 IU/$m\ell$). IL-18 was expressed in all atherosclerotic plaques, whereas little or no expression was detected in the control group. Conclusion： The increased MMP-9 expression along with the unchanged TIMP-2 expression seem to be contributory factors in extracellular matrix degradation in atherosclerosis. Focal overexpression of MMP-9 may promote plaque destabilization and cause complications of atherosclerotic plaques such as thrombosis with/without acute coronary syndrome. Elevation of IL-6 and IL-18 may be more than just markers of atherosclerosis but actual participants in lesion development. Identification of critical regulatory pathway is important to improve the understanding of the cellular and molecular basis of atherosclerosis and may open the way for novel therapeutic strategies.

• 한국사회정책
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.33-66
• /
• 2017

Based on the premise that the systematic career process of workers in the general labor market was one of core elements of successful achievements and their establishment both at the individual and organizational level, this study set out to conduct empirical analysis of factors influencing the subjective career success of disabled workers in competitive employment at the multi-dimensional levels of individuals and organizations(corporations) and thus provide practical implications for the career management directionality of their successful vocational life with data based on practical and statistical accuracy. For those purposes, the investigator administered a structured questionnaire to 126 disabled workers at 48 companies in Seoul, Gyeonggi, Chungcheong, and Gangwon and collected data about the individual and organizational characteristics. Then the influential factors were analyzed with the multilevel analysis technique by taking into consideration the organizational effects. The analysis results show that organizational characteristics explained 32.1% of total variance of subjective career success, which confirms practical implications for the importance of organizational variables and the legitimacy of applying the multilevel model. The significant influential factors include the degree of disability, desire for growth, self-initiating career attitude and value-oriented career attitude at the individual level and the provision of disability-related convenience, career support, personnel support, and interpersonal support at the organizational level. The latter turned out to have significant moderating effects on the influences of subjective career success on the characteristic variables at the individual level. Those findings call for plans to increase subjective career success through the activation of individual factors based on organizational effects. The study thus proposed and discussed integrated individual-corporate practice strategies including setting up a convenience support system by reflecting the disability characteristics, applying a worker support program, establishing a frontier career development support system, and providing assistance for a human network.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.167-186
• /
• 2021

The purpose of this study was to present a new direction for sports talent cultivation, determine the sports talent cultivation status in various types of sports and relevant areas, and present specific plans for activating practical sports talent cultivation in the elderly population in an effort to cope with the rapid changes of times. For this purpose, literature review was performed to analyze the elderly sports and sports talent cultivation status, analyze the problems with elderly sports and sports talent cultivation and development tasks, and present the following comprehensive plan for cultivating elderly sports talent cultivation in pursuit of elderly sports promotion: First, it is necessary to become more competitive in education by developing various programs for convergent and combined elderly sports talent cultivation as well as by changing into a convergent and combined way of thinking in the organizational culture environment of sports. Second, it is necessary to build more career education infrastructures for elderly sports talent cultivation in the elderly sports and relevant departments. Career education may become an issue in every area, which means building comprehensive DBs for undergraduates and graduates. Third, it is necessary to give greater support to research and development in the entire area of elderly sports. This means implementing relevant projects efficiently through governance with the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism in charge of elderly sports policies, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and professionals in the private sectors. Fourth, it is necessary to make comprehensive, systematic, and mid- and long-term strategies for cultivating sports talent at the governmental level. This means sports talent cultivation and search, career and employment, reeducation (competence reinforcement training), and job and employment stability in the areas of education, health, and welfare as well as sports. Fifth, it is necessary to operate a tentatively-called elderly health agency under the influence of the Office of the Prime Minister. This requires expansion and qualitative improvement of education on the basis of greater efficiency in preventing any overlapped task from wasting the budget through inter-department cooperation and positive partnership.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.197-214
• /
• 2024

This study aimed to investigate students' perceptions at science and technology specialized universities towards entrepreneurship support policies and to derive policy improvement measures by applying a bottom-up approach to reflect the requirements of the policy beneficiaries, i.e., the students. Specifically, the research explored effective execution strategies for student entrepreneurship support policies through a survey and analysis of KAIST students. The findings revealed that KAIST students recognize the urgent need for improvement in sharing policy objectives with the student entrepreneurship field, reflecting the opinions of the campus entrepreneurship scene in policy formulation, and constructing an entrepreneurship-friendly academic system for nurturing student entrepreneurs. Additionally, there was a highlighted need for enhancement in the capacity of implementing agencies, as well as in marketing and market development capabilities, and organizational management and practical skills as entrepreneurs within the educational curriculum. Consequently, this study proposes the following improvement measures: First, it calls for enhanced transparency and accessibility of entrepreneurship support policies, ensuring students clearly understand policy objectives and can easily access information. Second, it advocates for student-centered policy development, where students' opinions are actively incorporated to devise customized policies that consider their needs and the actual entrepreneurship environment. Third, there is a demand for improving entrepreneurship-friendly academic systems, encouraging more active participation in entrepreneurship activities by adopting or refining academic policies that recognize entrepreneurship activities as credits or expand entrepreneurship-related courses. Based on these results, it is expected that this research will provide valuable foundational data to actively support student entrepreneurship in science and technology specialized universities, foster an entrepreneurial spirit, and contribute to the creation of an innovation-driven entrepreneurship ecosystem that contributes to technological innovation and social value creation.