• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.373-392
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• 2022

The present study aimed to emprically verify the materialistic pursuits process of undergraduates by applying the escape theory of materialism(Donnelly et al., 2016). Among the six steps of Donnelly's model, the first step is percieving that the fall short of high standards of life, as measured by external contingencies of self-worth. The second step is blaming the self for falling short of standards, as measured by self-discrepancy. The third step of high aversive self-awareness is measured by low stability of self-esteem. A total of 465(203 male and 262 female) college students participated in the online survey and the model was tested using structural equation model. We found that the relationship of external contingencies of self-worth and materialism was mediated by self-discrepancy and there was a sequential mediation effect of self-discrepancy and the stability of self-esteem. The direct effect of external contingencies of self-worth on materialism was also significant. This study is meaningful in that it used the escape theory to emprically verify the materialistic pursuit process of Korean undergraduates living in a meritocratic society.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.15-24
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• 2023

To examine the antitumor effect of proso millet grains, whether proso millet grains exert apoptotic activity against human cancer cells was investigated. When the cytotoxicity of 80% ethanol (EtOH) extract of proso millet grains was tested against various cancer cells using MTT assay, more potent cytotoxicity was observed against human breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells than against other cancer cells. When the EtOH extract was evaporated to dryness, dissolved in water, and then further fractionated by sequential extraction using four organic solvents (n-hexane, methylene chloride, ethyl acetate, and n-butanol), the BuOH fraction exhibited the highest cytotoxicity against MDA-MB-231 cells. Along with the cytotoxicity, TUNEL-positive apoptotic nucleosomal DNA fragmentation and several apoptotic responses including BAK/BAX activation, mitochondria membrane potential (Δψm) loss, mitochondrial cytochrome c release into the cytosol, activation of caspase-8/-9/-3, and degradation of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) were detected. However, human normal mammary epithelial MCF-10A cells exhibited a significantly lesser extent of sensitivity compared to malignant MDA-MB-231 cells. Irrespective of Fas-associated death domain (FADD)-deficiency or caspase-8-deficiency, human T acute lymphoblastic leukemia Jurkat cells displayed similar sensitivities to the cytotoxicity of BuOH fraction, excluding an involvement of extrinsic apoptotic mechanism in the apoptosis induction. These results demonstrate that the cytotoxicity of BuOH fraction from proso millet grains against human breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells is attributable to intrinsic apoptotic cell death resulting from BAK/BAX activation, and subsequent mediation of mitochondrial damage-dependent activation of caspase cascade.