• Title/Summary/Keyword: The $\alpha$-Effect

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Anti-inflammatory effect of Sinhyowoldo-san Extract with regard to Pro-inflammatory Mediators in PMA plus A23187-induced Human Mast Cells (인간 비만세포에서 PMA와 A23187에 의해 유도된 전염증 매개체에 대한 신효월도산 추출물의 항염증 효과)

  • Wi, Gyeong;Yang, Da-Wun;Kang, Ok-Hwa;Kim, Sung-Bae;Mun, Su-Hyun;Seo, Yun-Soo;Kang, Da-Hye;Lim, Jae-Soo;Kim, Ma-Ryong;Kwak, Nam-Won;Kong, Ryong;Kwon, Dong-Yeul
    • The Korea Journal of Herbology
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    • v.29 no.6
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    • pp.117-123
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    • 2014
  • Objectives : Sinhyowoldo-san (SHWDS) is said to be a traditional medicine used for shigellosis, abdominal pain, diarrhea. But mechanism of SHWDS mediated-modulation of immune function is not sufficiently understood. To ascertain the molecular mechanisms of SHWDS 70% EtOH extract on pharmacological and biochemical actions in inflammation, we researched the effect of pro-inflammatory mediators in phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA)+ A23187-activated human mast cell line (HMC-1). Methods : In the present research, cell viability was measured by MTS assay. pro-inflammatory cytokine production was measured by performing enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and western blot analysis to analyze the activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells ($NF-{\kappa}B$). The investigation focused on whether SHWDS inhibited the expressions of interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL-8), MAPKs and $NF-{\kappa}B$ in PMA+A23187-activated HMC-1 cells. Results : SHWDS has no cytotoxicity at measured concentration (50, 100, and $250{\mu}g/ml$). SHWDS ($250{\mu}g/ml$) inhibits pro-inflammatory cytokine expression in PMA+ A23187-activated HMC-1 cells. Moreover, SHWDS inhibited cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 expression. In activated HMC-1 cells, SHWDS suppressed phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK 1/2) and c-jun N-terminal Kinase (JNK 1/2). Then, SHWDS suppressed activation of nuclear factor $NF-{\kappa}B$ in nuclear, degradation of IkB ${\alpha}$ in cytoplasm. Conclusions : We propose that SHWDS has an anti-inflammatory therapeutic potential, which may result from inhibition of ERK 1/2, JNK 1/2 phosphorylation and $NF-{\kappa}B$ activation, thereby decreasing the expression of pro-inflammatory genes.

Effects of CDP-Choline, Aminoguanidine and Difluoromethylornithine on the ECS-induced Impairment of Active Conditioned Response Retention (백서의 조건회피반응-유지에 대한 경련성 전기충격의 저해작용에 미치는 CDP-Choline, Aminoguanidine, 및 Difluoromethylornithine의 영향에 관한 연구 : 뇌내 Acetylcholine과 Polyamine 함량-변동에 연관하여)

  • Kim, Hyung-Gun;Kim, Chang-Hyun;Choi, Sang-Hyun;Ihm, Suk-Young;Lee, Min-Soo;Chun, Boe-Gwun
    • The Korean Journal of Pharmacology
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    • v.28 no.2
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    • pp.115-128
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    • 1992
  • The training of male wistar rats for active conditioned response (ACR) was performed by one daily training session of 30 consecutive trials for 10 successive days using a two-way shuttle box, and the rats that showed 10 or more ACRs on the last day were treated for further 10 days with electroconvulsive shock (ECS : 50 mA, 0.5 msec; 100 Hz; 1.5 sec) and the following compounds. On the 20th day, all the rats were tested for the ACR rention. The ECS regimens were one ECS per day for 10 days with one day interval $(5{\times}ECS)$, one ECS at 3 hrs (ECS-3h), and one ECS at 24 hrs (ECS-24h), respectively, before the ACR retention test. And CDP-choline (cc: 250 mg/kg), spermine (SM: 10 mg/kg), ${\alpha}-difluoromethylornithine$ (DO: 250 mg/kg), or aminoguanidine (AG: 100 mg/kg) was administered by one daily i.p. injection for 10 days. The ACR number $(13.7{\pm}1.0)$ obtained on the last training day was increased by 37.23% on the 20th day in the control rats. And the ACR increase was significantly suppressed by 5-ECS, ECS-3h, CC, or SM but was little affected by ECS-24h, DO, or AG. However, the 5-ECS induced impairment of ACR retention was significantly suppressed by AG, SM, and CC in the order of potency but was little affected by DFMO. And the ECS-3h induced impairment was moderately worsened by SM or AG. The acetylcholine (ACh) of the rat hypothalamus (HT), hippocampus (HC), and entorhinal cortex (EC) was markedly increased by CC and moderately increased by SM, but little affected by ECS-3h, ECS-24h, DO, or AG. But $5{\times}ECS$ slightly increased the ACh content. The brain putrescine (Pt) content was significantly increased by AG and little affected by CC, SM, or DO. But the $5{\times}ECS$ markedy decreased the brain Pt content, and the decrease was significantly suppressed by CC, SM, or AG. CC induced the marked increases of the spermidine (Sd) and spermine (Sm) contents of all the areas. SM increased the Sd contents of all the areas and the EC-Sm content. DO decreased the brain Sd and Sm contents. And AG increased the HT-Sd content and the Sm contents of all the brain areas. The $5{\times}ECS$ induced decrease of the HC-Sm content was suppressed by CC, SM and AG. These results suggest that the improving effect of aminoguanidine on the $5{\times}ECS$ induced impairment of ACR retention may be ascribed in part to its activity as a diamine oxidase inhibitor.

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The Effect of Corporate Association on the Perceived Risk of the Product (소비자의 제품 지각 위험에 대한 기업연상과 효과: 지식과 관여의 조절적 역활을 중심으로)

  • Cho, Hyun-Chul;Kang, Suk-Hou;Kim, Jin-Yong
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.18 no.4
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    • pp.1-32
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    • 2008
  • Brown and Dacin (1997) have investigated the relationship between corporate associations and product evaluations. Their study focused on the effects of associations with a company's corporate ability (CA) and its corporate social responsibility (CSR) on consumers' product evaluations. Their study has found that both of CA and CSR influenced product evaluation but CA association has a stronger effect than CSR associations. Brown and Dacin (1997) have, however, claimed that there are few researches on how corporate association impacts product responses. Accordingly, some of researchers have found the variables to moderate or to mediate the relationship between the corporate association and the product responses. In particular, there has been existed a few of studies that tested the influence of the reputation on the product-relevant perceived risk, but the effects of two types of the corporate association on the product-relevant perceived risk were not identified so far. The primary goal of this article is to identify and empirically examine some variables to moderate the effects of CA association and CSR association on the perceived risk of the product. In this articles, we take the concept of the corporate associations that Brown and Dacin (1997) had proposed. CA association is those association related to the company's expertise in producing and delivering its outputs and CSR association reflected the organization's status and activities with respect to its perceived societal obligations. Also, this study defines the risk, which is the uncertainty or loss of the product and corporate that consumers have taken in a particular purchase decision or after having purchased. The risk is classified into product-relevant performance risk and financial risk. Performance risk is the possibility or the consequence of a product not functioning at some expected level and financial risk is the monetary loss one perceives to be incurring if a product does not function at some expected level. In relation to consumer's knowledge, expert consumers have much of the experiences or knowledge of the product in consumer position and novice consumers does not. The model tested in this article are shown in Figure 1. The model indicates that both of CA association and CSR association influence on performance risk and financial risk. In addition, the effects of CA and CSR are moderated by product category knowledge (product knowledge) and product category involvement (product involvement). In this study, the relationships between the corporate association and product-relevant perceived risk are hypothesized as the following form. For example, Hypothesis 1a($H_{1a}$) is represented that CA association has a positive influence on the performance risk of consumer. Also, the hypotheses that identified some variables to moderate the effects of two types of corporate association on the perceived risk of the product are laid down. One of the hypotheses of the interaction effect is Hypothesis 3a($H_{3a}$), it is described that consumer's knowledges of the product moderates the negative relationship between CA association and product-relevant performance risk. A field experiment was conducted in order to examine our model. The company tested was not real but imagined to meet the internal validity. Water purifiers were used for our study. Four scenarios have been developed and described as the imaginary company: Type A with both of superior CA and CSR, Type B with superior CSR and inferior CA, Type C with superior CA and inferior CSR, and Type D with both inferior of CA and CSR. The respondents of this study were classified into four groups. One type of four scenarios (Type A, B, C, or D) in its questionnaire was given to the respondent who filled out questions. Data were collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire to the respondents, chosen in convenience. A total of 300 respondents filled out the questionnaire but 207 were used for further analysis. Table 1 indicates that the scales in this study are reliable because the range of coefficients of Cronbach's $\alpha$ are from 0.85 to 0.92. The composite reliability is in the range of 0,85 to 0,92 and average variance extracted is in 0.72-0.98 range that is higher than the base level of 0.6. As shown in Table 2, the values for CFI, NNFI, root-mean-square error approximation (RMSEA), and standardized root-mean-square residual (SRMR) are acceptably close to the standards suggested by Hu and Bentler (1999):.95 for CFI and NNFI,.06 for RMSEA, and.08 for SRMR. We also tested discriminant validity provided by Fornell and Larcker (1981). As shown in Table 2, we found strong evidence for discriminant validity between each possible pair of latent constructs in all samples. Given that these batteries of overall goodness-of-fit indices were accurate and that the model was developed on theoretical bases, and given the high level of consistency across samples, this enables us to proceed the previously defined scales. We used the moderated hierarchical regression analysis to test the influence of the corporate association(CA and CSR associations) on product-relevant perceived risk(performance and financial risks) and to identify the variables moderating the relationship between the corporate association and product-relevant performance risk. In this study, dependent variables are performance and financial risk. CA and CSR associations are described the independent variables. The moderating variables are product category knowledge and product category involvement. The results are, as expected, found that CA association has statistically a significant influence on the perceived risk of the product, but CSR association does not. Product category knowledge and involvement moderate the relationship between the CA association and the perceived risk of the product. However, the effect of CSR association on the perceived risk of the product is not moderated by the consumers' knowledge and involvement. For this result, it is necessary for a corporate to inform its customers CA association more than CSR association so that they could be felt to be the reduction of the perceived risk. The important theoretical contribution of this research is the meanings that two types of corporate association that Brown and Dacin(1997), and Brown(1998) have proposed replicated the difference of the effects on product evaluation. According to Hunter(2001), it was an important affair to accomplish the validity of a particular study and we had to take about ten studies to deduce a strict study. Next, there is the contribution of the this study to find that the effects of corporate association on the perceived risk of the product are varied by the moderator variables. In particular, the moderating effect of knowledge on the relationship between corporate association and product-relevant perceived risk has not been tested in Korea. In the managerial implications of this research, we suggest the necessity to stress the ability that corporate manufactures the product well(CA association) than the accomplishment of corporate's social obligation(CSR association). This study suffers from various limitations that imply future research directions. The moderating effects of product category knowledge and involvement on the relationship between corporate association and perceived risk need to be replicated. Next, future research could explore whether the mediated effects of the perceived risk has the relationship between corporate association and consumer's product purchase. In addition, to ensure the external validity of the study will be needed to use realistic company, not artificial.

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STUDIES ON THE UTILIZATION OF ANTARCTIC KRILL 2. Processing of Paste Food, Protein Concentrate, Seasoned Dried Product, Powdered Seasoning, Meat Ball, and Snack (남대양산 크릴의 이용에 관한 연구)

  • PARK Yeung-Ho;LEE Eung-Ho;LEE Kang-Ho;PYEUN Jae-Hyeung;KIM Se-Kweun;KIM Dong-Soo
    • Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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    • v.13 no.2
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    • pp.65-80
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    • 1980
  • Processing conditions of the krill products such as paste food, krill protein concentrate, seasoned dried krill, powdered seasoning, meat ball, and snack have been examined and the quality was evaluated chemically and organoleptically. In the processing of paste food, krill juice was yielded $71\%$ and krill scrap $29\%$. The yields of paste and broth from the krill juice showed $53\%$ and $43\%$, respectively. In amino acid composition of the krill paste, proline, glutamic acid, aspartic acid, lysine, and leucine were abundant, while histidine, methionine, tyrosine, serine and threonine were poor. The optimum condition for solvent extraction in the processing of krill protein concentrate was the 5 times repetitive extraction using isopropyl alcohol at $80^{\circ}C$ for 5 mins. The yield of krill protein concentrate when used fresh frozen materials was $10.2\%$ in isopropyl alcohol solvent and $8.8\% in ethyl alcohol, and when used preboiled frozen materials, the yield was $13.0\%$ in isopropyl alcohol and $11.8\%$ in ethyl alcohol. Amino acid composition of krill protein concentrate showed a resemblance to that of fresh frozen krill meat. In quality comparison of the seasoned dried krill, hot air dried krill was excellent as raw materials and sun dried krill was slightly inferior to hot air dried krill, but preboiled frozen krill showed the poorest quality. The result of quality evaluation for seasoning made by combination of dried powdered krill, parched powdered sesame, salt, powdered beef extract, monosodium glutamate, powdered red pepper and ground pepper showed that the hot air dried krill was good in color and sundried krill was favorable in flavor. When krill meat ball was prepared using wheat flour, monosodium glutamate and salt as side materials, the quality of the products added up to $52\%$ of krill meat was good and the difference in quality upon the results of the organoleptic test for raw materials was not recognizable between fresh frozen and preboiled frozen krill. In the experiment for determining the proper amount of materials such as dried Powdered krill, $\alpha-starch$, sweet potato starch, sugar, salt, monosodium glutamate, glycine, potassium tartarate, ammonium bicarbonate, and sodium bicarbonate in processing krill snack, sample B(containing $7.7\%$ of dried powdered krill) and sampleC (containing $10.8\%$ of dried powdered krill) showed the most palatable taste from the view point of organoleptic test. Sweet potato starch in testing side materials was good in the comparison of suitability for processing krill snack. Corn starch and kudzu starch were slightly inferior to sweet potato starch, while wheat flour was not proper for processing the snack. In the experiment on frying method, oil frying showed better effect than salt frying and the suitable range of frying temperature was $210-215^{\circ}C$.

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Effect of High Purity β-1.3/1.6-Glucan on Macrophages, Natural Killer Cells, and T Cell-Mediated Factors (고순도 β-1.3/1.6-Glucan이 대식세포 및 자연살해세포와 T 세포면역계에 미치는 영향)

  • Kwon, Hanol;Lee, Minhee;Park, Soo-Jeung;Lee, Dasom;Kim, Hyesook;Lee, Jeongmin
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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    • v.45 no.11
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    • pp.1564-1570
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    • 2016
  • The present study investigated the immunomodulatory effects of high-purity ${\beta}$-1.3/1.6-glucan on macrophages, natural killer (NK) cells, and T cell-mediated factors. Effect of high-purity ${\beta}$-1.3/1.6-glucan on cytotoxicity in macrophages was investigated. Using macrophages, cytotoxicity of high-purity ${\beta}$-1.3/1.6-glucan was evaluated by MTT assay. We treated high-purity ${\beta}$-1.3/1.6-glucan at concentrations of 10, 50, 100, 150, 200, and $250{\mu}g/mL$ in macrophages. High-purity ${\beta}$-1.3/1.6-glucan did not affect macrophage viability. Phagocytic activity was assessed using zymosan. Activity of high-purity ${\beta}$-1.3/1.6-glucan on macrophages significantly increased as compared with zymosan. We treated high-purity ${\beta}$-1.3/1.6-glucan to murine NK cells co-incubated with YAC-1 cells. High-purity ${\beta}$-1.3/1.6-glucan resulted in significantly increased activity of NK cells as compared with the control. In addition, treatment of macrophages with high-purity ${\beta}$-1.3/1.6-glucan resulted in significantly increased activity of T cell-mediated cytokine (IL-2, IL-12, $IFN-{\gamma}$, and $TNF-{\alpha}$) levels and CD4+/CD8+ T cells as compared with the control. In conclusion, high-purity ${\beta}$-1.3/1.6-glucan could enhance the immune response through activation of macrophages, NK cells, and T cell-mediated factors.

Effect of rbST Administrations at Artificial Insemination on Conception and Parturition Rates in Hanwoo (한우 인공수정시 rbST 투여가 수태 및 분만율에 미치는 영향)

  • Han M. H.;Choi S. H.;Choi Y. H.;Kim H. J.;Cho S. R.;Choi C.Y.;Ryu I. S.;Son D. S.;Yeon S. H.;Woo J. S.;Kweon U. G.;Yoon K. Y.;Chang B. S.
    • Journal of Embryo Transfer
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    • v.20 no.2
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    • pp.177-184
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    • 2005
  • This study was conducted to investigate the effects of recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST) injection on conception and parturition rates in normal or repeat breeding Hanwoo. We treated 462 cows containing 79 repeat-breeding cows of multiparous and allocating 5 treatment groups. Treatment 1 (T1) was injection of 2ml saline (for pseudo treatment), T2 was one injection of rbST 250mg into the tailhead region at the estrus, T3 was twice injection of rbST 250mg both at the time of insemination and again 10 to 14 day later, T4 was once injection of rbST 500mg at insemination and T5 was twice injection of 500mg rbST both at the time of insemination and again 10 to 14day later respectively. In rbST treated groups, timed artificial inseminations (TAI) were performed fellowing estrus synchronization. 100 us GnRH was injected into the scapula region on Day 0, 25mg $PGF_2{\alpha}$ was injected on Day 7 for degeneration of corpus luteum (CL) and 100ug GnRH was injected for inducing the synchronization. The results are as fellows; When normal Hanwoo were inseminated once with rbST administration, the pregnancy rate of T2 $(67.5\pm18.48\%)$ were higher than control $(52.4\pm9.72\%)$, while the pregnancy rate of T4 $(63.3\pm5.77\%)$ were significantly higher (p.<0.05) than control $(39.3\pm12.89\%)$ in repeat breeder Hanwoo. The parturition rates of normal Hanwoo were no differences among the treatments but were significant different in repeat breeder Hanwoo (p<0.05). When the estrous was induced by Ovsynch and inseminated once with rbST administration, the pregnancy rates of T2 was $12.5\%$ higher than control in normal Hanwoo, T4 $(80.0\%)$ was highest among the treatments (p<0.05) in repeat breeder Hanwoo. When normal Hanwoo were inseminated once with rbST administration, the pregnant period was $282.7\~284.8$ days and the body weight was $25.1\~25.9kg$, there were no difference among the treatments. The ratio of sex was almost same without T4 (male vs. female=18:9). In repeat breeder Hanwoo, pregnant period was 280.4~289.3 day and body weight was $23.0\~26.6kg$, it had no difference among the treatments. The sex ratio were similar to normal Hanwoo except T4 (M : F=2 : 8). In conclusion, the pregnancy and parturition rate by once insemination could be improved by the administration of rbST 250mg in normal Hanwoo or 500mg in repeat breeder Hawoo.

Effect of the Flavonoid Luteolin for Dextran Sodium Sulfate-induced Colitis in NF-${\kappa}B^{EGFP}$ Transgenic Mice (Dextran Sodium Sulfate 유발 장염 모델에서 루테올린의 치료효과)

  • Jang, Byung-Ik
    • Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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    • v.23 no.1
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    • pp.26-35
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    • 2006
  • Background: Luteolin, a flavone found in various Chinese herbal medicines is known to possess anti-inflammatory properties through its ability to inhibit various proinflammatory signaling pathways including NF-${\kappa}B$ and p38 MAPK. In this study, we investigated the potential therapeutic effect of luteolin on dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis. Materials and Methods: We used a transgenic mouse model expressing the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) under the transcriptional control of NF-${\kappa}B$ $cis$-elements. C57BL/6 NF-${\kappa}B^{EGFP}$ mice received 2.5% DSS in their drinking water for six days in combination with daily luteolin administration (1mg/kg body weight, 0.1ml vol, intragastric) or vehicle. NF-${\kappa}B$ activity was assessed macroscopically with a Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) camera and microscopically by confocal analysis. Results: A significant increase in the Disease Activity Index (DAI), histological score (p<0.05), IL-12 p40 secretion in colonic stripe culture (p<0.05) and EGFP expression was observed in luteolin and/or DSS-treated mice compared to water-treated mice. Interestingly, a trend toward a worse colitis (DAI, IL-12p40) was observed in luteolin-treated mice compared to non-treated DSS-exposed mice. In addition, EGFP expression (NF-${\kappa}B$ activity) strongly increased in the luteolin-treated mice compared to control mice. Confocal microscopy showed that EGFP positive cells were primarily lamina propria immune cells. Conclusions: These results suggest that luteolin is not a therapeutic alternative for intestinal inflammatory disorders derived for primary defects in barrier function. Thus, therapeutic intervention targeting these signaling pathways should be viewed with caution.

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Effect of Boswellia serrata Extracts on Degenerative Osteoarthritis in vitro and in vivo Models (보스웰리아 추출물의 골관절염 억제 효과 연구)

  • Nam, Da-Eun;Kim, Ok Kyung;Shim, Tae Jin;Kim, Ji Hoon;Lee, Jeongmin
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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    • v.43 no.5
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    • pp.631-640
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    • 2014
  • The inhibitory effects of Boswellia serrata (BW) extracts on degenerative osteoarthritis were investigated in primary-cultured rat cartilage cells and a monosodium-iodoacetate (MIA)-induced osteoarthritis rat model. To identify the protective effects of BW extract against $H_2O_2$ ($800{\mu}M$, 2 hr) in vitro, cell survival was measured by MTT assay. Cell survival after $H_2O_2$ treatment was elevated by BW extract at a concentration of $20{\mu}g/mL$. In addition, BW extract treatment significantly reduced and normalized the productions of pro-inflammatory factors, nuclear transcription factor ${\kappa}B$, cyclooxygenase-2, tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$, and interleukin-6 at a concentration of $20{\mu}g/mL$. Treatment of chondrocytes with BW extract significantly reduced 5-lipoxygenase activity and production of prostaglandin E2, especially at a concentration of $10{\sim}20{\mu}g/mL$. For the in vivo animal study, osteoarthritis was induced by intra-articular injection of MIA into knee joints of rats. Consumption of a diet containing BW extract (100 and 200 mg/kg) for 35 days significantly inhibited the development and severity of osteoarthritis in rats. To determine the genetic expression of arthritic factors in articular cartilage, real-time PCR was applied to measure matrix metalloproteinases (MMP-3, MMP-9, and MMP-13), collagen type I, collagen type II, and aggrecan, and BW extract had protective effects at a concentration of 200 mg/kg. In conclusion, BW extract was able to inhibit articular cartilage degeneration by preventing extracellular matrix degradation and chondrocyte injury. One can consider that BW extract may be a potential therapeutic treatment for degenerative osteoarthritis.

The Effects of Environmental Dynamism on Supply Chain Commitment in the High-tech Industry: The Roles of Flexibility and Dependence (첨단산업의 환경동태성이 공급체인의 결속에 미치는 영향: 유연성과 의존성의 역할)

  • Kim, Sang-Deok;Ji, Seong-Goo
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.17 no.2
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    • pp.31-54
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    • 2007
  • The exchange between buyers and sellers in the industrial market is changing from short-term to long-term relationships. Long-term relationships are governed mainly by formal contracts or informal agreements, but many scholars are now asserting that controlling relationship by using formal contracts under environmental dynamism is inappropriate. In this case, partners will depend on each other's flexibility or interdependence. The former, flexibility, provides a general frame of reference, order, and standards against which to guide and assess appropriate behavior in dynamic and ambiguous situations, thus motivating the value-oriented performance goals shared between partners. It is based on social sacrifices, which can potentially minimize any opportunistic behaviors. The later, interdependence, means that each firm possesses a high level of dependence in an dynamic channel relationship. When interdependence is high in magnitude and symmetric, each firm enjoys a high level of power and the bonds between the firms should be reasonably strong. Strong shared power is likely to promote commitment because of the common interests, attention, and support found in such channel relationships. This study deals with environmental dynamism in high-tech industry. Firms in the high-tech industry regard it as a key success factor to successfully cope with environmental changes. However, due to the lack of studies dealing with environmental dynamism and supply chain commitment in the high-tech industry, it is very difficult to find effective strategies to cope with them. This paper presents the results of an empirical study on the relationship between environmental dynamism and supply chain commitment in the high-tech industry. We examined the effects of consumer, competitor, and technological dynamism on supply chain commitment. Additionally, we examined the moderating effects of flexibility and dependence of supply chains. This study was confined to the type of high-tech industry which has the characteristics of rapid technology change and short product lifecycle. Flexibility among the firms of this industry, having the characteristic of hard and fast growth, is more important here than among any other industry. Thus, a variety of environmental dynamism can affect a supply chain relationship. The industries targeted industries were electronic parts, metal product, computer, electric machine, automobile, and medical precision manufacturing industries. Data was collected as follows. During the survey, the researchers managed to obtain the list of parts suppliers of 2 companies, N and L, with an international competitiveness in the mobile phone manufacturing industry; and of the suppliers in a business relationship with S company, a semiconductor manufacturing company. They were asked to respond to the survey via telephone and e-mail. During the two month period of February-April 2006, we were able to collect data from 44 companies. The respondents were restricted to direct dealing authorities and subcontractor company (the supplier) staff with at least three months of dealing experience with a manufacture (an industrial material buyer). The measurement validation procedures included scale reliability; discriminant and convergent validity were used to validate measures. Also, the reliability measurements traditionally employed, such as the Cronbach's alpha, were used. All the reliabilities were greater than.70. A series of exploratory factor analyses was conducted. We conducted confirmatory factor analyses to assess the validity of our measurements. A series of chi-square difference tests were conducted so that the discriminant validity could be ensured. For each pair, we estimated two models-an unconstrained model and a constrained model-and compared the two model fits. All these tests supported discriminant validity. Also, all items loaded significantly on their respective constructs, providing support for convergent validity. We then examined composite reliability and average variance extracted (AVE). The composite reliability of each construct was greater than.70. The AVE of each construct was greater than.50. According to the multiple regression analysis, customer dynamism had a negative effect and competitor dynamism had a positive effect on a supplier's commitment. In addition, flexibility and dependence had significant moderating effects on customer and competitor dynamism. On the other hand, all hypotheses about technological dynamism had no significant effects on commitment. In other words, technological dynamism had no direct effect on supplier's commitment and was not moderated by the flexibility and dependence of the supply chain. This study makes its contribution in the point of view that this is a rare study on environmental dynamism and supply chain commitment in the field of high-tech industry. Especially, this study verified the effects of three sectors of environmental dynamism on supplier's commitment. Also, it empirically tested how the effects were moderated by flexibility and dependence. The results showed that flexibility and interdependence had a role to strengthen supplier's commitment under environmental dynamism in high-tech industry. Thus relationship managers in high-tech industry should make supply chain relationship flexible and interdependent. The limitations of the study are as follows; First, about the research setting, the study was conducted with high-tech industry, in which the direction of the change in the power balance of supply chain dyads is usually determined by manufacturers. So we have a difficulty with generalization. We need to control the power structure between partners in a future study. Secondly, about flexibility, we treated it throughout the paper as positive, but it can also be negative, i.e. violating an agreement or moving, but in the wrong direction, etc. Therefore we need to investigate the multi-dimensionality of flexibility in future research.

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The Effect of Retailer-Self Image Congruence on Retailer Equity and Repatronage Intention (자아이미지 일치성이 소매점자산과 고객의 재이용의도에 미치는 영향)

  • Han, Sang-Lin;Hong, Sung-Tai;Lee, Seong-Ho
    • Journal of Distribution Research
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    • v.17 no.2
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    • pp.29-62
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    • 2012
  • As distribution environment is changing rapidly and competition is more intensive in the channel of distribution, the importance of retailer image and retailer equity is increasing as a different competitive advantages. Also, consumers are not functionally oriented and that their behavior is significantly affected by the symbols such as retailer image which identify retailer in the market place. That is, consumers do not choose products or retailers for their material utilities but consume the symbolic meaning of those products or retailers as expressed in their self images. The concept of self-image congruence has been utilized by marketers and researchers as an aid in better understanding how consumers identify themselves with the brands they buy and the retailer they patronize. Although self-image congruity theory has been tested across many product categories, the theory has not been tested extensively in the retailing. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate the impact of self image congruence between retailer image and self image of consumer on retailer equity such as retailer awareness, retailer association, perceived retailer quality, and retailer loyalty. The purpose of this study is to find out whether retailer-self image congruence can be a new antecedent of retailer equity. In addition, this study tries to examine how four-dimensional retailer equity constructs (retailer awareness, retailer association, perceived retailer quality, and retailer loyalty) affect customers' repatronage intention. For this study, data were gathered by survey and analyzed by structural equation modeling. The sample size in the present study was 254. The reliability of the all seven dimensions was estimated with Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability values and average variance extracted values. We determined whether the measurement model supports the convergent validity and discriminant validity by Exploratory factor analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis. For each pair of constructs, the square root of the average variance extracted values exceeded their correlations, thus supporting the discriminant validity of the constructs. Hypotheses were tested using the AMOS 18.0. As expected, the image congruence hypotheses were supported. The greater the degree of congruence between retailer image and self-image, the more favorable were consumers' retailer evaluations. The all two retailer-self image congruence (actual self-image congruence and ideal self-image congruence) affected customer based retailer equity. This result means that retailer-self image congruence is important cue for customers to estimate retailer equity. In other words, consumers are often more likely to prefer products and retail stores that have images similar to their own self-image. Especially, it appeared that effect for the ideal self-image congruence was consistently larger than the actual self-image congruence on the retailer equity. The results mean that consumers prefer or search for stores that have images compatible with consumer's perception of ideal-self. In addition, this study revealed that customers' estimations toward customer based retailer equity affected the repatronage intention. The results showed that all four dimensions (retailer awareness, retailer association, perceived retailer quality, and retailer loyalty) had positive effect on the repatronage intention. That is, management and investment to improve image congruence between retailer and consumers' self make customers' positive evaluation of retailer equity, and then the positive customer based retailer equity can enhance the repatonage intention. And to conclude, retailer's image management is an important part of successful retailer performance management, and the retailer-self image congruence is an important antecedent of retailer equity. Therefore, it is more important to develop and improve retailer's image similar to consumers' image. Given the pressure to provide increased image congruence, it is not surprising that retailers have made significant investments in enhancing the fit between retailer image and self image of consumer. The enhancing such self-image congruence may allow marketers to target customers who may be influenced by image appeals in advertising.

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