Digitalising Korea - transformations and tensions : the case of audiovisual service trade and intellectual property rights

Since the 1990s, South Korea has enthusiastically developed and applied digital technologies to every sector of economic and social life, and constructed the most intensively connected society in the world. This thesis explores the impact of Digital Korea on the country s cultural industries, focussing particularly on the main audio-visual industries of broadcasting and film. While the push to digitalise Korea has been enthusiastically pursued by successive national governments with the aim of ensuring that Korea maintains its status as a key world economy as the leading edge of capitalism shifts from an industrial to an information base, to fully understand the forms it has taken and its impacts national initiatives have to be placed in the wider context of shifts in the global trading system. With the rise of neo-liberalism across the globe and the perceived ineffectiveness of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in extending multi-lateral trade, both emerging and developed economies have increasingly embraced Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). In line with this trend, South Korea has signed FTAs with the USA, the European Union (EU) and The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). This thesis explores the interplay between national initiatives and global trade through a detailed case study of the US-led FTA with South Korea (KORUS-FTA) focusing particularly on its implications for the Audiovisual Sector and the accompanying, and pivotal, debates around Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs). The KORUS FTA simultaneously opened the Korean market to American audiovisual content and strengthened existing national IPR laws to match the provisions prevailing within the US. Both these moves were opposed within Korea on the grounds that they operated unequally, to the advantage of the US and the detriment of national production that had, in recent years, enjoyed considerable success in export markets, creating what came to be known as the Korean Wave . In addition utilising the extensive corpus of available public documentation the analysis presented here draws on two original research exercises: in depth interviews with experts in international trade and intellectual property rights, conducted in South Korea, the UK and Switzerland (in Geneva, at the WTO Forum 2008), and a web-based survey of a cross section of professionals working in the Korean broadcasting industry. The results obtained show that while Korean economists followed the government in arguing that signing the FTA with the US was essential if Korea was to remain a major player in the global economy, a majority of those working in the audiovisual sector believed that the terms of the agreement, particularly the imposition of US-style IPR laws, disproportionately favoured US interests and would weaken the strong position the sector had achieved in recent years and impede its future growth

"Direct" grafting of linear macromolecular "wedges" to the edge of pristine graphite to prepare edge-functionalized graphene-based polymer composites

The edges of pristine graphite were covalently grafted with para-poly(ether-ketone) (pPEK) in a mildly acidic polyphosphoric acid (PPA)/phosphorus pentoxide (P(2)O(5)) medium. The resulting pPEK grafted graphite (pPEK-g-graphite) showed that the pristine graphite had been exfoliated into a few layers of graphene platelets (graphene-like sheets), which were uniformly dispersed into a pPEK matrix. As a result, the tensile properties of pPEK-g-graphite films were greatly improved compared to those of controlled pPEK films. The origins of these enhanced mechanical properties were deduced from scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of fracture surfaces. Upon tracing wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) patterns of the film under strain, the graphene-like sheets were further exfoliated by an applied shear force, suggesting that a toughening mechanism for the pPEK-g-graphite film occurred. This approach envisions that the "direct'' edge grafting of pristine graphite without pre-treatments such as corrosive oxidation and/or destructive sonication is a simple and efficient method to prepare graphene-based polymer composites with enhanced mechanical properties.close161

Dendritic Cell Migration Is Tuned by Mechanical Stiffness of the Confining Space

The coordination of cell migration of immune cells is a critical aspect of the immune response to pathogens. Dendritic cells (DCs), the sentinels of the immune system, are exposed to complex tissue microenvironments with a wide range of stiffnesses. Recent studies have revealed the importance of mechanical cues in immune cell trafficking in confined 3D environments. However, the mechanism by which stiffness modulates the intrinsic motility of immature DCs remains poorly understood. Here, immature DCs were found to navigate confined spaces in a rapid and persistent manner, surveying a wide range when covered with compliant gels mimicking soft tissues. However, the speed and persistence time of random motility were both decreased by confinement in gels with higher stiffness, mimicking skin or diseased, fibrotic tissue. The impact of stiffness of surrounding tissue is crucial because most in vitro studies to date have been based on cellular locomotion when confined by microfabricated polydimethylsiloxane structures. Our study provides evidence for a role for environmental mechanical stiffness in the surveillance strategy of immature DCs in tissues

Adenoviral Pneumonia During Etanercept Treatment in a Patient with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Inhibitors of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) have been approved for treating rheumatoid arthritis. As one of the biological response modifiers, etanercept has also been used in the treatment of psoriatic arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease. While etanercept is effective, certain infectious complications, such as tuberculosis, fungus, and cytomegalovirus, have been reported. We report the first Korean case of adenoviral pneumonia in a 55-year-old female who developed disseminated adenoviral infection following etanercept treatment, which resolved after anti-TNF-α discontinuation

Inflammatory Signals Induce AT2 Cell-Derived Damage-Associated Transient Progenitors that Mediate Alveolar Regeneration.

Tissue regeneration is a multi-step process mediated by diverse cellular hierarchies and states that are also implicated in tissue dysfunction and pathogenesis. Here we leveraged single-cell RNA sequencing in combination with in vivo lineage tracing and organoid models to finely map the trajectories of alveolar-lineage cells during injury repair and lung regeneration. We identified a distinct AT2-lineage population, damage-associated transient progenitors (DATPs), that arises during alveolar regeneration. We found that interstitial macrophage-derived IL-1β primes a subset of AT2 cells expressing Il1r1 for conversion into DATPs via a HIF1α-mediated glycolysis pathway, which is required for mature AT1 cell differentiation. Importantly, chronic inflammation mediated by IL-1β prevents AT1 differentiation, leading to aberrant accumulation of DATPs and impaired alveolar regeneration. Together, this stepwise mapping to cell fate transitions shows how an inflammatory niche controls alveolar regeneration by controlling stem cell fate and behavior.We would like to thank Emma Rawlins (University of Cambridge, UK) for valuable scientific discussions and sharing the mouse lines; We would like to thank Randall Johnson (University of Cambridge, UK) for sharing Hif1aflox/flox mouse line; Nisha Narayan and Brian Huntly for sharing materials and discussion on glycolysis experiments; Irina Pshenichnaya (Histology), Maike Paramor (NGS library), Peter Humphreys (Imaging), Andy Riddell (Flow cytometry), Simon McCallum (Flow cytometry, Cambridge NIHR BRC Cell Phenotyping Hub), Katarzyna Kania (single cell sequencing at Cancer Research UK), and Cambridge Stem Cell Institute core facilities for technical assistance; Papworth Hospital Research Tissue Bank for providing tissue samples from IPF and lung adenocarcinoma (T02233); Kelly Evans for sharing histology samples of human lung tissue samples; Seungmin Han and Woochang Hwang for discussion on the scRNA-seq analysis; Life Science Editors for editorial assistance; All Lee Lab members for helpful discussion. This work was supported by Wellcome and the Royal Society (107633/Z/15/Z) and European Research Council Starting Grant (679411). J.C. was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (2017R1A6A3A03005399)

YAF2 promotes TP53-mediated genotoxic stress response via stabilization of PDCD5

AbstractProgrammed cell death 5 (PDCD5) plays a crucial role in TP53-mediated apoptosis, but the regulatory mechanism of PDCD5 itself during apoptosis remains obscure. We identified YY1-associated factor 2 (YAF2) as a novel PDCD5-interacting protein in a yeast two-hybrid screen for PDCD5-interacting proteins. We found that YY1-associated factor 2 (YAF2) binds to and increases PDCD5 stability by inhibiting the ubiquitin-dependent proteosomal degradation pathway. However, knocking-down of YAF2 diminishes the levels of PDCD5 protein but not the levels of PDCD5 mRNA. Upon genotoxic stress response, YAF2 promotes TP53 activation via association with PDCD5. Strikingly, YAF2 failed to promote TP53 activation in the deletion of PDCD5, whereas restoration of wild-type PDCD5WT efficiently reversed the ineffectiveness of YAF2 on TP53 activation. Conversely, PDCD5 efficiently overcame the knockdown effect of YAF2 on ET-induced TP53 activation. Finally, impaired apoptosis upon PDCD5 ablation was substantially rescued by restoration of PDCD5WT but not YAF2-interacting defective PDCD5E4D nor TP53-interacting defective PDCD5E16D mutant. Our findings uncovered an apoptotic signaling cascade linking YAF2, PDCD5, and TP53 during genotoxic stress responses

Histone acylation marks respond to metabolic perturbations and enable cellular adaptation

Acetylation is the most studied histone acyl modification and has been recognized as a fundamental player in metabolic gene regulation, whereas other short-chain acyl modifications have only been recently identified, and little is known about their dynamics or molecular functions at the intersection of metabolism and epigenetic gene regulation. In this study, we aimed to understand the link between nonacetyl histone acyl modification, metabolic transcriptional regulation, and cellular adaptation. Using antibodies specific for butyrylated, propionylated, and crotonylated H3K23, we analyzed dynamic changes of H3K23 acylation upon various metabolic challenges. Here, we show that H3K23 modifications were highly responsive and reversibly regulated by nutrient availability. These modifications were commonly downregulated by the depletion of glucose and recovered based on glucose or fatty acid availability. Depletion of metabolic enzymes, namely, ATP citrate lyase, carnitine acetyltransferase, and acetyl-CoA synthetase, which are involved in Ac-CoA synthesis, resulted in global loss of H3K23 butyrylation, crotonylation, propionylation, and acetylation, with a profound impact on gene expression and cellular metabolic states. Our data indicate that Ac-CoA/CoA and central metabolic inputs are important for the maintenance of histone acylation. Additionally, genome-wide analysis revealed that acyl modifications are associated with gene activation. Our study shows that histone acylation acts as an immediate and reversible metabolic sensor enabling cellular adaptation to metabolic stress by reprogramming gene expression. © 2020, The Author(s).1

Evaluation of the Cross-Protective Efficacy of a Chimeric Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus Constructed Based on Two Field Strains

One of the major hurdles to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) vaccinology is the limited or no cross-protection conferred by current vaccines. To overcome this challenge, a PRRS chimeric virus (CV) was constructed using an FL12-based cDNA infectious clone in which open reading frames (ORFs) 3–4 and ORFs 5–6 were replaced with the two Korean field isolates K08-1054 and K07-2273,respectively. This virus was evaluated as a vaccine candidate to provide simultaneous protection against two genetically distinct PRRS virus (PRRSV) strains. Thirty PRRS-negative three-week-old pigs were divided into five groups and vaccinated with CV, K08-1054, K07-2273, VR-2332, or a mock inoculum. At 25 days post-vaccination (dpv), the pigs in each group were divided further into two groups and challenged with either K08-1054 or K07-2273. All of the pigs were observed until 42 dpv and were euthanized for pathological evaluation. Overall, the CV-vaccinated group exhibited higher levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), and interleukin-12 (IL-12) expression and of serum virus-neutralizing antibodies compared with the other groups after vaccination and also demonstrated better protection levels against both viruses compared with the challenge control group. Based on these results, it was concluded that CV might be an effective vaccine model that can confer a broader range of cross-protection to various PRRSV strains