• Title/Summary/Keyword: Human Development

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Effects of Ibandronate on the Expression of Matrix Metalloproteinases in Human U2OS Osteosarcoma Cells (사람 U2OS 골육종 세포에서 Matrix Metalloproteinase의 발현에 Ibandronate가 미치는 영향)

  • Jung, Sung-Taek;Seo, Hyoung-Yeon;Xin, Zeng-Feng;Kim, Yang-Kyung;Kim, Hyung-Won
    • The Journal of the Korean bone and joint tumor society
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    • v.15 no.2
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    • pp.111-121
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    • 2009
  • Background: Osteosarcoma is one of the most common primary malignant tumors of bone occurring mainly in children and adolescents. Although surgery combined with chemotherapy has markedly improved patient survival during the last years, the use of anticancer drugs is still associated with serious problem, such as the frequent acquisition of drug-resistant phenotypes and occurrence of "secondary malignancies". Several solid tumors display enhanced expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), and recently clinical trials have been initiated on MMP-inhibitors. On the other hand, bisphosphonates (BPs) are inhibitors of bone resorption, and widely used to treat osteoclast-mediated bone diseases. Also they appear to possess direct antitumor activity. Methods: One osteosarcoma cell line (U2OS) was treated with ibandronate (0, 0.1, 1, $10{\mu}M$) for 48 hours. Cell viabilities were determined using MTT assay, the mRNA levels of MMP-2 and MT1-MMP were detected by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction, the amount of MMP-2 and MT1-MMP protein were measured by Westernblot, the activities of MMP-2 were observed by Gelatin zymography, and Matrigel invasion assays were used to investigate the invasive potential of osteosarcoma cell lines before and after ibandronate treatment. Results: The invasiveness of U2OS cell line was reduced dose-dependently following 48 hour treatment of up to $10{\mu}M$ of the ibandronate at which concentration no cytotoxicity occurred. Furthermore, the gelatinolytic activities and protein and mRNA levels of MMP-2 and MT1-MMP were also suppressed by increasing ibandronate concentrations. Conclusion: Given that MMP-2 is instrumental in tumor cell invasion, it is very likely that the reduction in osteosarcoma cell invasion by ibandronate is a consequence, at least in part, of suppressed expression of both MMP-2 and MT1-MMP. Isolation of a molecule (s) responsible for the bisphosphonate inhibition of tumor cell invasion would pave the way for the development of a new generation of metastasis inhibitors.

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Development of Calcification-Resistant Bovine Pericardium with $PEO-SO_3$ (I) - An implantation study of bovine pericardium at aorta and pulmonary artery in canine model - ($PEO-SO_3$를 이용한 항석회화 조직첨포의 개발 (I) - 잡견을 이용한 대동맥과 폐동맥 이식 실험연구 -)

  • Kim, Hyoung-Mook;Baek, Man-Jong;Sun, Kyung;Kim, Kwang-Taik;Lee, In-Sung;Kim, Hark-Jei;Lee, Won-Kyu;Park, Ki-Dong
    • Journal of Chest Surgery
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    • v.31 no.10
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    • pp.919-923
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    • 1998
  • Background: Calcific degeneration is unavoidable in either homo- or heterografts implanted in the human body. We have developed a calcification-resistant cardiovascular tissue patch using a novel technique of anticalcification. Materials and methods: Fresh bovine pericardium was harvested at the slaughter house and transfered to the laboratory in Hank's solution. After trimming and fixing the pericardium, it was embedded in 4$^{\circ}C$ 0.65% glutaraldehyde for a week and then washed by phosphate-buffered saline(PBS) of pH 7.4. This prepared pericardium was then stored in 2.5% sulphonated polyethyleneoxide(PEO-SO3) solution for 2 days at room temperature and reversed by 4$^{\circ}C$ NaBH4 solution for 16 hours. To evaluate the calcification-resistance of surface modified bovine pericardium with PEO-SO3, either glutaraldehyde- treated(GA group, n=4) or PEO-SO3-treated pericardial patch(PEO-SO3 group, n=4) was implanted into adult mongrel dog to reconstruct the main pulmonary artery and the descending aorta using a partial clamp technique. After 1 month follow-up, the implanted patches were retrieved to evaluate the pathologic findings and the content of calcium and phosphorous. Results: The PEO-SO3 group showed substantially less retraction and significantly less calcium deposition than the GA group in both aortic(7.10$\pm$1.05 vs. 13.81$\pm$2.33 mg/g of dried tissue) and pulmonary positions(1.55$\pm$0.29 vs. 6.72$\pm$0.70 mg/g)(p<0.01). Phosphorous contents were also less in the PEO-SO3 group than the GA group significantly, 8.11$\pm$1.07 mg/g vs. 19.33$\pm$4.31 mg/g in the aortic and 2.58$\pm$0.40 vs. 12.60$\pm$3.40 mg/g in thepulmonary position(p<0.01). Conclusions: These findings suggest that PEO-SO3 modified bovine pericardium is highly calcification-resistant but further study is needed to evaluate the long-term biological safety and compatibility of the prosthesis.

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A Studies on the Chemical Composition and in vitro Biological Activities of a Hot Water Extracts of Gastrodia elata (천마추출물의 성분분석 및 in vitro 생물활성에 관한 연구)

  • Kang, Tae-Su;Kong, Young-Jun;Kwon, Hye-Jeong;Choi, Byoung-Kon;Hong, Jung-Gi;Park, Yong-Kil
    • The Korean Journal of Mycology
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    • v.30 no.2
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    • pp.136-141
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    • 2002
  • A hot water extract was prepared from the artificially grown Gastrodia elata to investigate its chemical composition and various in vitro biological activities as an effort to develop G. elata as health/functional food materials. The contents of crude protein, ash, fat, fiber, moisture and total sugar were 5.4, 2.6, 3.6, 3.3, 8.1 and 77% (w/w), respectively. The extract of G. elata had greater amount of potassium (1,150 mg/100 g) than phosphorus (300 mg/100 g). Dose-dependence against human carcinoma (Hep3B, MCF-7, A549 and AGS) were observed from 0.2 mg/ml to 1.0 mg/ml. Especially, the treatment of 1.0 mg/ml extracts showed the highest cytotoxicity with 83% against gastric carcinoma (AGS). The extracts showed weak antimicrobial activities against Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, but practically no antimicrobial activity against the other microorganisms tested. The effect of ${\alpha}$-glucosidase inhibition was 64% at the concentration of 1.0 mg/ml. The inhibitory effect of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) of the extract in the range of $0.2{\sim}1.0mg/ml$ showed $63{\sim}89%$, and the highest ACE inhibition was 89% at the concentration of 1.0 mg/ml of extracts. The highest activity of glutathion S-transferase (GST) was 221 % at the concentration of 1.0 mg/ml of the G. elata extracts. These results suggest that G. elata may be used as health/functional food materials.

A PLS Path Modeling Approach on the Cause-and-Effect Relationships among BSC Critical Success Factors for IT Organizations (PLS 경로모형을 이용한 IT 조직의 BSC 성공요인간의 인과관계 분석)

  • Lee, Jung-Hoon;Shin, Taek-Soo;Lim, Jong-Ho
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.17 no.4
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    • pp.207-228
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    • 2007
  • Measuring Information Technology(IT) organizations' activities have been limited to mainly measure financial indicators for a long time. However, according to the multifarious functions of Information System, a number of researches have been done for the new trends on measurement methodologies that come with financial measurement as well as new measurement methods. Especially, the researches on IT Balanced Scorecard(BSC), concept from BSC measuring IT activities have been done as well in recent years. BSC provides more advantages than only integration of non-financial measures in a performance measurement system. The core of BSC rests on the cause-and-effect relationships between measures to allow prediction of value chain performance measures to allow prediction of value chain performance measures, communication, and realization of the corporate strategy and incentive controlled actions. More recently, BSC proponents have focused on the need to tie measures together into a causal chain of performance, and to test the validity of these hypothesized effects to guide the development of strategy. Kaplan and Norton[2001] argue that one of the primary benefits of the balanced scorecard is its use in gauging the success of strategy. Norreklit[2000] insist that the cause-and-effect chain is central to the balanced scorecard. The cause-and-effect chain is also central to the IT BSC. However, prior researches on relationship between information system and enterprise strategies as well as connection between various IT performance measurement indicators are not so much studied. Ittner et al.[2003] report that 77% of all surveyed companies with an implemented BSC place no or only little interest on soundly modeled cause-and-effect relationships despite of the importance of cause-and-effect chains as an integral part of BSC. This shortcoming can be explained with one theoretical and one practical reason[Blumenberg and Hinz, 2006]. From a theoretical point of view, causalities within the BSC method and their application are only vaguely described by Kaplan and Norton. From a practical consideration, modeling corporate causalities is a complex task due to tedious data acquisition and following reliability maintenance. However, cause-and effect relationships are an essential part of BSCs because they differentiate performance measurement systems like BSCs from simple key performance indicator(KPI) lists. KPI lists present an ad-hoc collection of measures to managers but do not allow for a comprehensive view on corporate performance. Instead, performance measurement system like BSCs tries to model the relationships of the underlying value chain in cause-and-effect relationships. Therefore, to overcome the deficiencies of causal modeling in IT BSC, sound and robust causal modeling approaches are required in theory as well as in practice for offering a solution. The propose of this study is to suggest critical success factors(CSFs) and KPIs for measuring performance for IT organizations and empirically validate the casual relationships between those CSFs. For this purpose, we define four perspectives of BSC for IT organizations according to Van Grembergen's study[2000] as follows. The Future Orientation perspective represents the human and technology resources needed by IT to deliver its services. The Operational Excellence perspective represents the IT processes employed to develop and deliver the applications. The User Orientation perspective represents the user evaluation of IT. The Business Contribution perspective captures the business value of the IT investments. Each of these perspectives has to be translated into corresponding metrics and measures that assess the current situations. This study suggests 12 CSFs for IT BSC based on the previous IT BSC's studies and COBIT 4.1. These CSFs consist of 51 KPIs. We defines the cause-and-effect relationships among BSC CSFs for IT Organizations as follows. The Future Orientation perspective will have positive effects on the Operational Excellence perspective. Then the Operational Excellence perspective will have positive effects on the User Orientation perspective. Finally, the User Orientation perspective will have positive effects on the Business Contribution perspective. This research tests the validity of these hypothesized casual effects and the sub-hypothesized causal relationships. For the purpose, we used the Partial Least Squares approach to Structural Equation Modeling(or PLS Path Modeling) for analyzing multiple IT BSC CSFs. The PLS path modeling has special abilities that make it more appropriate than other techniques, such as multiple regression and LISREL, when analyzing small sample sizes. Recently the use of PLS path modeling has been gaining interests and use among IS researchers in recent years because of its ability to model latent constructs under conditions of nonormality and with small to medium sample sizes(Chin et al., 2003). The empirical results of our study using PLS path modeling show that the casual effects in IT BSC significantly exist partially in our hypotheses.

Review of Policy Direction and Coupled Model Development between Groundwater Recharge Quantity and Climate Change (기후변화 연동 지하수 함양량 산정 모델 개발 및 정책방향 고찰)

  • Lee, Moung-Jin;Lee, Joung-Ho;Jeon, Seong-Woo;Houng, Hyun-Jung
    • Journal of Environmental Policy
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    • v.9 no.2
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    • pp.157-184
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    • 2010
  • Global climate change is destroying the water circulation balance by changing rates of precipitation, recharge and discharge, and evapotranspiration. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2007) makes "changes in rainfall pattern due to climate system changes and consequent shortage of available water resource" a high priority as the weakest part among the effects of human environment caused by future climate changes. Groundwater, which occupies a considerable portion of the world's water resources, is related to climate change via surface water such as rivers, lakes, and marshes, and "direct" interactions, being indirectly affected through recharge. Therefore, in order to quantify the effects of climate change on groundwater resources, it is necessary to not only predict the main variables of climate change but to also accurately predict the underground rainfall recharge quantity. In this paper, the authors selected a relevant climate change scenario, In this context, the authors selected A1B from the Special Report on Emission Scenario (SRES) which is distributed at Korea Meteorological Administration. By using data on temperature, rainfall, soil, and land use, the groundwater recharge rate for the research area was estimated by period and embodied as geographic information system (GIS). In order to calculate the groundwater recharge quantity, Visual HELP3 was used as main model for groundwater recharge, and the physical properties of weather, temperature, and soil layers were used as main input data. General changes to water circulation due to climate change have already been predicted. In order to systematically solve problems associated with how the groundwater resource circulation system should be reflected in future policies pertaining to groundwater resources, it may be urgent to recalculate the groundwater recharge quantity and consequent quantity for using via prediction of climate change in Korea in the future and then reflection of the results. The space-time calculation of changes to the groundwater recharge quantity in the study area may serve as a foundation to present additional measures for the improved management of domestic groundwater resources.

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Estimation of Economic Losses on the Agricultural Sector in Gangwon Province, Korea, Based on the Baekdusan Volcanic Ash Damage Scenario (백두산 화산재 피해 시나리오에 따른 강원도 지역 농작물의 경제적 피해 추정)

  • Lee, Yun-Jung;Kim, Su-Do;Chun, Joonseok;Woo, Gyun
    • Journal of the Korean earth science society
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    • v.34 no.6
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    • pp.515-523
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    • 2013
  • The eastern coast of South Korea is expected to be damaged by volcanic ash when Mt. Baekdusan volcano erupts. Even if the amount of volcanic ash is small, it can be fatal on the agricultural sector withering many plants and causing soil acidification. Thus, in this paper, we aim to estimate agricultural losses caused by the volcanic ash and to visualize them with Google map. To estimate the volcanic ash losses, a damage assessment model is needed. As the volcanic ash hazard depends on the kind of a crops and the ash thickness, the fragility function of damage assessment model should represent the relation between ash thickness and damage rate of crops. Thus, we model the fragility function using the damage rate for each crop of RiskScape. The volcanic ash losses can be calculated with the agricultural output and the price of each crop using the fragility function. This paper also represents the estimated result of the losses in Gangwon province, which is most likely to get damaged by volcanic ashes in Korea. According to the result with gross agricultural output of Gangwon province in 2010, the amount of volcanic ash losses runs nearly 635,124 million wons in Korean currency if volcanic ash is accumulated over four millimeters. This amount represents about 50% of the gross agricultural output of Gangwon province. We consider the damage only for the crops in this paper. However, a volcanic ash fall has the potential to damage the assets for a farm, including the soil fertility and installations. Thus, to estimate the total amount of volcanic ash damage for the whole agricultural sectors, these collateral damages should also be considered.

A Study on the Influence of Conflict on the Performance and Validity of Organization (갈등이 조직성과 및 조직 유효성에 미치는 영향에 대한 연구)

  • 기호익
    • The Journal of Information Technology
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    • v.1 no.2
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    • pp.81-102
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    • 1998
  • It is common description that modern society is In the era of limitless competition. In order to challenge the change of economy and its management at home and abroad, organization should be changed anew, and in this case, there accompanies conflict or trouble whether the subject of change wants it or not. Therefore, according to change, we should concern with settlement of small troubles as well as big ones, and by managing the conflict or trouble productively and originally, it should be utilized as new fatality and chance to develop something in organization. In the system organized by people, there exist various conflicts in accordance with the target and want of the system, therefore giving no freedom to each Individual member of the system, and this is an unavoidable tate in consideration of the modem society where the survival of mankind and human systems should be guaranteed. Therefore, it determines the coordinates of success of any of organizations to manage conflict or trouble well, and so, when decreasing or increasing conflicts so that the organization exerts its full influence, it is note worthy that conflict itself should be rationally and efficiently managed. In a view point of the theory of organization and its behavior, relating job satisfaction with the performance and validity of organization, the influence of individual conflict is so great on the rate of job transfer within an organization or nonattendance, even on the productivity of the organization. So, the manager to cope with conflict within an organization should devise following three plans to manage conflict for job satisfaction and conflict settlement. In conclusion, it is suggested that in order to manage conflict within an organization well, some plans to control conflict should be well utilized while giving more efforts to improving management of individual conflict, job satisfaction, validity of organization, productivity, etc and all the members of organization should remember that the Issue of conflict within an organization be recognized ad an opportunity of new development and a way to settle a trouble within an organization, and a direction of conflict management should be suggested so that new innovation ca be created.

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Perceptions of school meal services of middle school students and dieticians/dietetic teachers in Gwangju area according to the conversion of free meal services (무상급식 전환에 따른 광주지역 중학생과 영양(교)사의 학교급식에 대한 인식)

  • Kim, Sook-Wha;Heo, Young-Ran;Ro, Hee-Kyong
    • Journal of Nutrition and Health
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    • v.48 no.1
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    • pp.113-121
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    • 2015
  • Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate satisfaction with and perception of the school meal service according to middle school students and dieticians/dietetic teachers in Gwangju area who experienced change to the free meal service and the main contents were as follows. Methods: The research subjects were 197 students (99 boys and 98 girls) and 42 dieticians/dietetic teachers were recruited. Results: Compared to the free meal service before, satisfaction of students was high (53.8%), and 69.9% of students said there was no change in the school meals, however a significant difference was observed between gender. Overall 80.2% of middle school students said that there was no change in menu, 70.6% were no change in the frequency of food with high preference, and 64.0% were no change in leftover of meals. 85.7% of dieticians/dietetic teachers said that there was no change in the student's satisfaction according to the conversion of free meal services; 59.5% of dieticians/dietetic teachers said that there was no change in the frequency of foods with high preference, the variety of vegetables was increased in the qualitative change item of food materials, and 95% of them were not aware of change in the amount of students' leftover foods. Dieticians/dietetic teachers had limitations in selecting menus with purchase and costs of food materials (26.2%) by conversion of the free meal service and their priority considered was the food cost (45.2%) when they selected menus. Change in feeding affairs was office work management (26.2%) and recipe research and development (19.0%). Conclusion: With the results of this study, the satisfaction with the school meal service was not changed in the awareness of students and dieticians/dietetic teachers. Therefore further study is needed to determine the middle school's satisfaction with school meals based on a variety of factors including the environmental food meal services.

A Review of the Neurocognitive Mechanisms for Mathematical Thinking Ability (수학적 사고력에 관한 인지신경학적 연구 개관)

  • Kim, Yon Mi
    • Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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    • v.27 no.2
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    • pp.159-219
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    • 2016
  • Mathematical ability is important for academic achievement and technological renovations in the STEM disciplines. This study concentrated on the relationship between neural basis of mathematical cognition and its mechanisms. These cognitive functions include domain specific abilities such as numerical skills and visuospatial abilities, as well as domain general abilities which include language, long term memory, and working memory capacity. Individuals can perform higher cognitive functions such as abstract thinking and reasoning based on these basic cognitive functions. The next topic covered in this study is about individual differences in mathematical abilities. Neural efficiency theory was incorporated in this study to view mathematical talent. According to the theory, a person with mathematical talent uses his or her brain more efficiently than the effortful endeavour of the average human being. Mathematically gifted students show different brain activities when compared to average students. Interhemispheric and intrahemispheric connectivities are enhanced in those students, particularly in the right brain along fronto-parietal longitudinal fasciculus. The third topic deals with growth and development in mathematical capacity. As individuals mature, practice mathematical skills, and gain knowledge, such changes are reflected in cortical activation, which include changes in the activation level, redistribution, and reorganization in the supporting cortex. Among these, reorganization can be related to neural plasticity. Neural plasticity was observed in professional mathematicians and children with mathematical learning disabilities. Last topic is about mathematical creativity viewed from Neural Darwinism. When the brain is faced with a novel problem, it needs to collect all of the necessary concepts(knowledge) from long term memory, make multitudes of connections, and test which ones have the highest probability in helping solve the unusual problem. Having followed the above brain modifying steps, once the brain finally finds the correct response to the novel problem, the final response comes as a form of inspiration. For a novice, the first step of acquisition of knowledge structure is the most important. However, as expertise increases, the latter two stages of making connections and selection become more important.

Practical Strategies for Urban Regeneration through an Application of Landscape Urbanism (랜드스케이프 어바니즘 관점에서 본 도시재생 전략 연구)

  • Cho, Se-Hwan
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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    • v.38 no.2
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    • pp.109-118
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    • 2010
  • This study aims to propose practical strategies for the new urban ideal of regeneration. A book review highlights the emergence of new trends of urbanization in knowledge-information industrial society beyond the new town Ideal of the industrial society. The meaning of ‘landscape’ in landscape urbanism represents not the visual and decorative pictures, but the dynamic process in the context of changes and evolutions. Also, knowledge-information industrial society and landscape have a meaning in the same context of flow and process with changes of velocity. Finally, these key words convey a meaning with the new urban trends of urbanization in knowledge-information industrial society in the context of value-oriented characteristics of dynamics and process. Urban regeneration is emerging as the new urban ideal in the knowledge-information industrial society, beyond the new town ideal of industrial society. It is in the same context as landscape urbanism with respect to green infrastructure buildings and designs for the transformation of urban surfaces covered with concrete and asphalt into the ecological surface, and of the ecological surfaces into the cultural surface that could be communicated with human beings. This research revealed the six strategies for urban regeneration as follows. The First, the strategies for the transformation of urban surfaces into ecological surfaces, the second, the strategies for the transformation of ecological surfaces into cultural surfaces, the third, the introduction of mixed and convergence land use, the forth, the transformation of former sites(e.g. military and factory) into urban parks, the fifth, the introduction of waterfront park zones that have the function of ecological and park-oriented mixed land use and, the sixth, the building and design of green infrastructure in the residential and commercial complex in CBD. These strategies call for the reforms of development laws and regulations to restrict building coverage ratio, building heights, and the introduction of park-oriented mixed zoning regulations. Another method for implementating the above listed strategies was the introduction of a strategic planning system instead of the traditional master plan system. This system uses a value planning approach and brand making by imagery. It is able to construct the meaning of an image and its creativeness directly.