• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.82 no.1
• /
• pp.42-52
• /
• 2019

Background: Transforming growth factor ${\beta}$ (TGF-${\beta}$), retinoic acid (RA), p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), and MEK signaling play critical roles in cell differentiation, proliferation, and apoptosis. We investigated the effect of RA and the role of these signaling molecules on the phosphorylation of Smad2/3 (p-Smad2/3) induced by TGF-${\beta}1$. Methods: A549 epithelial cells and CCD-11Lu fibroblasts were incubated and stimulated with or without all-trans RA (ATRA) and TGF-${\beta}1$ and with MAPK or MEK inhibitors. The levels of p-Smad2/3 were analyzed by western blotting. For animal models, we studied three experimental mouse groups: control, bleomycin, and bleomycin+ATRA group. Changes in histopathology, lung injury score, and levels of TGF-${\beta}1$ and Smad3 were evaluated at 1 and 3 weeks. Results: When A549 cells were pre-stimulated with TGF-${\beta}1$ prior to RA treatment, RA completely inhibited the p-Smad2/3. However, when A549 cells were pre-treated with RA prior to TGF-${\beta}1$ stimulation, RA did not completely suppress the p-Smad2/3. When A549 cells were pre-treated with MAPK inhibitor, TGF-${\beta}1$ failed to phosphorylate Smad2/3. In fibroblasts, p38 MAPK inhibitor suppressed TGF-${\beta}1$-induced p-Smad2. In a bleomycin-induced lung injury mouse model, RA decreased the expression of TGF-${\beta}1$ and Smad3 at 1 and 3 weeks. Conclusion: RA had inhibitory effects on the phosphorylation of Smad induced by TGF-${\beta}1$ in vitro, and RA also decreased the expression of TGF-${\beta}1$ at 1 and 3 weeks in vivo. Furthermore, pre-treatment with a MAPK inhibitor showed a preventative effect on TGF-${\beta}1$/Smad phosphorylation in epithelial cells. As a result, a combination of RA and MAPK inhibitors may suppress the TGF-${\beta}1$-induced lung injury and fibrosis.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.19 no.12
• /
• pp.552-560
• /
• 2018

Since 1960's, the large conglomerates of South Korea have grown due to the corporate-centered, fast-paced growth drive, while the small and medium-sized businesses supported the country's economy as the subordinate structure of these conglomerates. Due to the globalization of the business environments, the focus of competition shifted from competitions between individual companies to one between networks of companies. Therefore, more emphasis is now put on the capabilities of the cooperation networks between companies rather than the capabilities of individual companies. Therefore, in this study, the author examined the influence of the win-win growth strategy elements through cooperation with small and medium-sized businesses upon corporate performance. This study was conducted with the workers of small and medium-sized businesses that have previous cooperation experiences with South Korean conglomerates over the period from March 2 to May 17, 2018. For this, a total of 515 questionnaires were retrieves to obtain the data for analysis. The analysis was conducted using SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 18.0. The analytical processes that were taken included exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, confidence analysis, correlation analysis, and structural equation analysis model. The results of the analysis showed that, first of all, the win-win growth strategy factors that affected the strategic performance, which is a part of cooperate performance were, respectively, harmonization with the goals, production technical support, and quality system. Second, the win-win growth strategy factors that affected the financial performance, which is a part of corporate performance, turned out to be harmonization with the goals, quality system, and incentive. With the results of this study, it was shown that the elements such as harmonization with the goals, production technical support, quality systems, and incentives were key infrastructural factors that affected the corporate performance directly. On the other hand, its implication is that informative or knowledge-related factors, such as joint knowledge creation, do not have their own added values, while they are not too much likely to affect corporate performances for the moment.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.54 no.4
• /
• pp.410-419
• /
• 2018

It is urgently required to construct safety data on agricultural by-products imported for use as medium materials for domestic mushroom production. However, research on microorganisms is insufficient. This study was conducted to investigate the presence of bacteria that have the possibility of harmful effects on human, plants and mushroom in wheat straw, peatmoss, cottonseed hull, cottonseed meal, and beet pulp imported from Australia, Canada, China, Egypt, Germany. Bacteria were found in the range of $1.35{\times}10^2$ to $8.34{\times}10^6CFU/g$. As a result of 16S rDNA sequence analysis, total of 19 genera and 45 species of bacteria were identified. Bacillus genus was dominant, followed by Paenibacillus genus. At the species level, diverse species was in the order of Firmicute, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria. Regarding the agricultural by-products, straw and peat moss had more diverse bacteria than other agricultural by-products. Among the indentified bacteria, 6 species of 5 genera (Enterobacter asburiae, Enterobacter ludwigii, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Pseudomonas monteilii, Bacillus anthracis, and Cellulosimicrobium funkei) were present as potent harmful bacteria to human. Surprisingly, both the human and plant pathogenic Klebsiella pneumoniae subsp. pneumonia was present. Bacillus altitudinis was present as a plant pathogen. Lysinibacillus sphaericus, an insect pathogen, and Ochrobactrum pseudogrignonense, a mushroom pathogen, were also present. The results of this study confirmed that several kinds of pathogenic bacteria were present in the agricultural by-products for the mushroom cultivation medium imported into Korea. Our work suggests that hygiene inspection and management is urgently needed for imported agricultural by-products to be safely used for mushroom production.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.235-247
• /
• 2019

In order to achieve the results that are appropriate for the purpose of the enterprise, it is important to comprehensively understand the behaviors within the roles of the members of the organization and actions outside the roles. However, there have been relatively few studies on corporate social responsibility (CSR) among the existing studies that have been conducted to date. In particular, organizational citizenship behavior, a voluntary commitment by organizational members, is perceived as a very effective way of enhancing corporate performance, but studies on organizational citizenship behavior based on corporate social responsibility have rarely been conducted. In recent years, domestic companies have recognized social responsibility as an activity rather than an additional activity. Therefore, it is very meaningful to look at the organizational performance by examining the factors that make up this social responsibility from the perspective of the company. It is considered a task. In order to demonstrate this, this study collected 303 data from a business incubator center operated by universities and public institutions nationwide and used a total of 303 samples. As a result of the verification, the wages received by the members of the organization did not affect the organizational commitment, and the working hours and the working environment affected the organizational commitment. In addition, corporate social responsibility has an effect on organizational trust in the marketing side. Organizational commitment and organizational trust were studied to positively affect organizational citizenship behavior. In addition, this study divides the degree of perception of social responsibility of the organizational members into the high recognition group and the low recognition group and analyzed whether there is a difference in the level of organizational citizenship behavior according to the employment type (regular and irregular workers) The results of this study are as follows.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.54 no.4
• /
• pp.369-378
• /
• 2018

This study was conducted to evaluate effects of dietary microbial probiotics on the growth and disease resistance of olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) in a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS), and the effects of the probiotic bioaugmentation on the microbial community structure and water quality. For the analysis, 80 juvenile fish (average weight, $25.7{\pm}7.6g$; average length, $15.2{\pm}1.7cm$) were fed a basal diet containing a commercial microbial product CES-AQ1 (CES; $1{\times}10^9\;CFU/kg$ diet) in an RAS for 8 weeks. Weight gain, the specific growth rate, feed efficiency, and protein efficiency ratio of the fish fed the CES diet in the RAS were 1.5~2.5 times higher than those of fish fed the basal diet alone, or the basal diet containing oxytetracycline (OTC), yeast plus bacterium, or Bacillus subtilis in a still water system. There was no significant difference in the pathogen challenge test between fish fed the OTC diet and fish fed the CES diet in the RAS, suggesting the CES-AQ1 probiotic used in the RAS as a potential replacement for antibiotics. The RAS biofilter maintained the highest microbial diversity and appeared to harbor microbial communities with ammonium oxidation, denitrification, and fish pathogen suppression functions. Ammonia, which is hazardous to fish, was significantly decreased to < 0.5 mg/L in 19 days, indicating the effectiveness of probiotic supplementation to maintain good water quality in RAS. These results suggest that the intestinal microbial communities of fish are stabilized by a probiotic-containing diet (CES) and that bioaugmentation with probiotics may be an eco-friendly and economical supplement for aquaculture of olive flounder, promoting both good water quality and fish health in an RAS.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.47-59
• /
• 2019

Various studies have been carried out on the subject of entrepreneurship, which is required to create new businesses and organizations during the early process of startups based on innovative technologies and ideas. At the same time, the concept of organizational entrepreneurial orientation, which explains how to manage enterprises in the process of pioneering new products and markets, is drawing more and more attention for the purpose of continuously creating and maintaining a competitive edge of startups. This study focused on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and startup performance and the role of technological orientation and social capital. An empirical research was conducted on 144 different startup companies residing in startup supporting institutions. To evaluate the suitability of the research model, a PLS-based structural equation model was used. The research results are as follows: First, the entrepreneurial orientation of startups was found to have a positive effect on startup performance. Second, it was shown that entrepreneurial orientation had a positive effect on all three dimensions of social capital and technological orientation. Third, it has been shown that technological orientation and the cognitive dimension of social capital mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and startup performance. Through this, it was confirmed that entrepreneurial orientation directly affects startup performance, and it even influences the growth of startups by increasing technological superiority and social capital which is inherent in the network. Also, the research identified the need for additional research on the relationship between the strengthening of technological orientation and strategical orientation in startups. This study is expected to expand the discussion about social capital in the field of startup related research by affirming the role and importance of the cognitive system embedded in the network as well as the connectivity of networks, which has been already emphasized in previous startup related studies. Finally, the results of this study were reflected to present new practical implications.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.61-72
• /
• 2019

Since the financial crisis in 1997, large scale unemployment and poverty have become serious, but there has been a surge in public and social job creation projects. However, with the limitations of low-wage and short-term jobs, the need for long-term, high quality jobs gradually began to garner attention. In recent years, social enterprises have grown both quantitatively and qualitatively and interest in social enterprises has increased; more specifically, scholars are interested in the determinants of success and failure of social enterprises in the academic field. In this study, we examined the effects of social enterprise characteristics on financial and social performance. In particular, we empirically analyzed social enterprises registered in the Korea Social Enterprise Agency. The financial performance of the social enterprise was measured using the net income ratio, operating income ratio, and the return on asset. The social performance of the social enterprise was measured by the total number of workers and the employment rate of vulnerable social groups. The characteristics of the social enterprise included CEO characteristics (gender, age, experience in operating the social enterprise), firm size, and the elapsed time of authentication. The results of the empirical analysis are as follows. First, as a result of analysis for the effect on financial performance, we found that the financial performance has a statistically significant, positive relationship with firm size, organizational form, government subsidies, and capital adequacy ratio. And we found that the social performance has a statistically significant, negative relationship with CEO age and credit debt dependence. Second, as a result of analysis for the effect on social performance, we found that the total number of workers had a significant, positive relationship with CEO gender and CEO age, as well as firm size, government subsidies; whereas the total number of workers had a significant, negative relationship with certification type and industry dummy. Comparatively, the employment rate of the vulnerable social groups had a significant, positive relationship with CEO gender and certification type, but there was no statistically significant relationship with the government subsidies or firm size.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.54 no.4
• /
• pp.362-368
• /
• 2018

Grasshoppers play vital role in the digestion of photosynthetically fixed carbons. With the aid of intestinal microflora, the grasshopper can degrade leaves constituents such as cellulose and hemicellulose. The purpose of this study was to examine cellulolytic yeast isolates from the gut of grasshoppers collected in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. Among the yeast isolates, ON2, ON17 (two strains), and ON6 (one strain) showed positive cellulolytic activity in the CMC-plate assay. The sequence analyses of D1/D2 domains of the large subunit rDNA gene and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions revealed that the strains ON2 and ON17 were most closely related to Papiliotrema aspenensis CBS $13867^T$ (100%, sequence similarity in D1/D2 domains; 99.4% sequence similarity in ITS) and strain ON6 related to Saitozyma flava (100% in D1/D2 domains; 99.0% in ITS). All these three yeast strains are capable of degrading cellulose; therefore, the members of endosymbiotic yeasts may produce their own enzymes for carbohydrate degradation and convert mobilized sugar monomers to volatile fatty acids. Thus, the endosymbiotic yeast strains ON2, ON17 (represents the genus Papilioterma) and ON6 (Saitozyma) belonging to the family Tremellomycetes, are unreported strains in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.54 no.4
• /
• pp.330-342
• /
• 2018

The Streptavidin and Biotin system has been studied most extensively as the high affinity non-covalent binding of Biotin to STR ($K_D=10^{-14}M$) and four Biotin binding sites in tetrameric Streptavidin makes this system useful for the production of multivalent antibody. For the application of this system, we cloned Streptavidin amplified from Streptomyces avidinii chromosome by PCR and fused to gene of hAY4 single-chain Fv antibody specific to death receptor 4 (DR4) which is a receptor for tumor necrosis factor ${\alpha}$ related apoptosis induced ligand. The hAY4 single-chain Fv antibody fused to Streptavidin expressed in Escherichia coli showed 43 kDa monomer in heated SDS-PAGE. However, this fusion protein shown in both non-heated SDS-PAGE and Size-exclusion chromatography exhibited 172 kDa as a tetramer suggesting that natural tetramerization of Streptavidin by non-covalent association induced hAY4 single-chain Fv tetramerization. This fusion protein retained a Biotin binding activity similar to natural Streptavidin as shown in Ouchterlony assay and ELISA. Death receptor 4 antigen binding activity of purified hAY4 single-chain Fv fused to Streptavidin was also confirmed by ELISA and Westernblot. In addition, surface plasmon resonance analysis showed 60-fold higher antigen binding affinity of the hAY4-STR than monomeric hAY4 ScFv due to tetramerization. In summary, hAY4 single-chain Fv fused to Streptavidin fusion protein was successfully expressed and purified as a soluble tetramer in E. coli and showed both Biotin and DR4 antigen binding activity suggesting possible production of bifunctional and tetrameric ScFv antibody.

• Food Engineering Progress
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.351-359
• /
• 2017

This study investigates the quality characteristics of dough and bread added with 6% chestnut shell powder and extruded chestnut shell powder at various conditions. As extrusion process variables, melt temperature ($110^{\circ}C$, $130^{\circ}C$, $150^{\circ}C$) and moisture (25% and 30%) were controlled. Total dietary fiber content was slightly increased in extruded chestnut shell powder group. In the farinogram, absorption was significantly increased in the group of 25% moisture content and 30% moisture content (p<0.05). After 2 hours and 3 hours, the leavening heights of dough for control showed a similar tendency to that of dough with extruded chestnut shell at a melt temperature $150^{\circ}C$ and with moisture content of 25% and 30%. Specific volume was the highest at a control of $3.74{\pm}0.08cc/g$ and extruded chestnut shell powder group was slightly higher than the chestnut shell powder group. Firmness after 1 day on control of $107.42{\pm}14.52g$ was similar to that of the bread with extruded chestnut shell at a temperature of $150^{\circ}C$ and moisture content of 25% for $113.33{\pm}6.17g$. In conclusion, the extrusion-cooking of chestnut shell powder improved the quality characteristics of dough and bread. The optimum combinations of conditions in tested range were melt temperature at $150^{\circ}C$ and moisture content at 25%, and melt temperature at $130^{\circ}C$ and moisture content at 30%.