Guidelines Aimed at Reducing the Risks of User Acceptance Delay in the Context of an IT Service Project Management Plan

Delays in the user acceptance of information technology (IT) service projects in Korea have occurred frequently due to various risk factors. User acceptance delays may hinder the achievement of the client’s project objectives and cause schedule delays or cost overruns. Furthermore, the client may impose a delay charge and claim for additional damages, causing serious disputes between buyer and supplier. The main causes of user acceptance delays are unclear user requirements, changes in user requirements, poor-quality development outputs, excessive functional and non-functional errors, lack of user involvement, unclear user roles and responsibilities, and unclear criteria of user acceptance test.We help foster the timely completion of user acceptance by proposing a method of identifying the risk factors in user acceptance delay and creating a project management plan to weed out the identified risks. We propose a guideline for an IT service management plan that weeds out or lowers the risk factors well in advance. To validate the guideline’s utility, we apply it to IT service projects. The results show that the guideline is effective in identifying and removing risk factors affecting delays in the user acceptance of IT service projects

Multiple Functions of Nm23-H1 Are Regulated by Oxido-Reduction System

Nucleoside diphosphate kinase (NDPK, Nm23), a housekeeping enzyme, is known to be a multifunctional protein, acting as a metastasis suppressor, transactivation activity on c-myc, and regulating endocytosis. The cellular mechanisms regulating Nm23 functions are poorly understood. In this study, we identified the modifications and interacting proteins of Nm23-H1 in response to oxidative stress. We found that Cys109 in Nm23-H1 is oxidized to various oxidation states including intra- and inter-disulfide crosslinks, glutathionylation, and sulfonic acid formation in response to H2O2 treatment both in vivo and in vitro. The cross-linking sites and modifications of oxidized Nm23-H1 were identified by peptide sequencing using UPLC-ESI-q-TOF tandem MS. Glutathionylation and oxidation of Cys109 inhibited the NDPK enzymatic activity of Nm23-H1. We also found that thioredoxin reductase 1 (TrxR1) is an interacting protein of Nm23-H1, and it binds specifically to oxidized Nm23-H1. Oxidized Nm23 is a substrate of NADPH-TrxR1-thioredoxin shuttle system, and the disulfide crosslinking is reversibly reduced and the enzymatic activity is recovered by this system. Oxidation of Cys109 in Nm23-H1 inhibited its metastatic suppressor activity as well as the enzymatic activities. The mutant, Nm23-H1 C109A, retained both the enzymatic and metastasis suppressor activities under oxidative stress. This suggests that key enzymatic and metastasis suppressor functions of Nm23-H1 are regulated by oxido-reduction of its Cys109

Stability of wheat germ oil obtained by supercritical carbon dioxide associated with lipase ethanolysis

Wheat germ oil was extracted using an environmental friendly solvent, supercritical carbon dioxide (SCCO2) at a semi-batch flow extraction process. The supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) extraction was carried out to extract oil at temperature of 40°C and pressure of 25 MPa. Ethanolysis was performed with 1,3-regiospecific lipase at different temperatures (40 to 70°C) to produce diglycerides and monoglycerides containing fatty acid ethyl esters. For determination of stability, wheat germ oil obtained by ethanolysis reactants was characterized by measuring the acid value, peroxide value, free fatty acid contents, thiocyanate method, DPPH radical scavenging effect and rancimat test. The optimized condition of 40°C shows the highest oil stability among the various conditions.Keywords: Supercritical carbon dioxide, wheat germ oil, ethanolysis, immobilized lipases, oil stabilityAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(22), pp. 3570-357

Prediction of Cancer Incidence and Mortality in Korea, 2024

PURPOSE: This study aimed to report the projected cancer incidence and mortality for the year 2024 to estimate Korea\u27s current cancer burden. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cancer incidence data from 1999 to 2021 were obtained from the Korea National Cancer Incidence Database, and cancer mortality data from 1993 to 2022 were acquired from Statistics Korea. Cancer incidence and mortality were projected by fitting a linear regression model to observed age-specific cancer rates against their respective years and multiplying the projected age-specific rates by the anticipated age-specific population for 2024. A joinpoint regression model was used to determine the year in which the linear trend changed significantly; we only used the data of the latest trend for prediction. RESULTS: In total, 292,221 new cancer cases and 83,770 cancer deaths are expected to occur in Korea in 2024. The most common cancer site is expected to be the thyroid, followed by the colon and rectum, lung, breast, and stomach. These five cancers are expected to represent 55.7% of the overall burden of cancer in Korea. The most common type of cancer leading to death is expected to be lung cancer, followed by liver, colorectal, pancreatic, and stomach cancers. CONCLUSION: The age-standardized incidence rates for female breast and prostate cancers are estimated to continue to increase. These up-to-date estimates of the cancer burden in Korea could be an important resource for planning and evaluating cancer-control programs

Occupational Safety and Health Officials’ Perception of Safety and Health Education for Business Owners

This study was intended to provide basic data for discussion on the introduction of safety and health education system for business owners to prevent industrial accidents. To this end, a questionnaire survey was conducted on 548 occupational safety and health officials, of which 86.7% expected that the introduction of safety and health education for business owners would be very helpful in preventing accidents in the workplace. On the other hand, it was pointed out that the effectiveness of safety and health education for business owners needs to be raised as it deals with the areas considered to be important in the job and basic competencies of business owners. The study subjects also most highly agreed with the need for annual regular training for business owners at all workplaces

Cancer Statistics in Korea: Incidence, Mortality, Survival, and Prevalence in 2021

PURPOSE: The current study provides national cancer statistics and their secular trends in Korea, including incidence, mortality, survival, and prevalence in 2021. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Incidence, survival, and prevalence rates of cancer were calculated using the Korea National Cancer Incidence Database, from 1999 to 2021, with survival follow-up until December 31, 2022. Deaths from cancer were assessed using causes-of-death data obtained from Statistics Korea. RESULTS: The number of new cancer diagnoses in 2021 increased by 27,002 cases (10.8%) compared to 2020. In 2021, newly diagnosed cancer cases and deaths from cancer were reported as 277,523 (age-standardized rate [ASR], 289.3 per 100,000) and 82,688 (ASR, 67.6 per 100,000), respectively. The overall cancer incidence rates increased by 3.3% annually from 1999 to 2012, and decreased by 5.3% from 2012 to 2015, thereafter, followed by non-significant changes. Cancer mortality rates have been decreasing since 2002, with more rapid decline in recent years (annual decrease of 2.8% from 2002 to 2013; 3.2% from 2013 to 2021). The 5-year relative survival between 2017 and 2021 was 72.1%, which contributed to prevalent cases reaching over 2.4 million in 2021. CONCLUSION: In 2021, the number of newly diagnosed cancer patients increased as healthcare utilization recovered from the coronavirus disease 2019-related declines of 2020. Revised cancer registration guidelines expanded the registration scope, particularly for stomach and colorectal cancer. Survival rates have improved over the years, leading to a growing population of cancer survivors, necessitating a comprehensive cancer control strategy. The long-term impact of the pandemic on cancer statistics requires future investigation

β-Lapachone Significantly Increases the Effect of Ionizing Radiation to Cause Mitochondrial Apoptosis via JNK Activation in Cancer Cells

β-lapachone (β-lap), has been known to cause NQO1-dependnet death in cancer cells and sensitize cancer cells to ionizing radiation (IR). We investigated the mechanisms underlying the radiosensitization caused by β-lap. cells induced ROS generation, triggered ER stress and stimulated activation of ERK and JNK. Inhibition of ROS generation by NAC effectively attenuated the activation of ERK and JNK, induction of ER stress, and subsequent apoptosis. Importantly, inhibition of ERK abolished ROS generation and ER stress, whereas inhibition of JNK did not, indicating that positive feedback regulation between ERK activation and ROS generation triggers ER stress in response to combined treatment. Furthermore, prevention of ER stress completely blocked combination treatment-induced JNK activation and subsequent apoptotic cell death. In addition, combined treatment efficiently induced the mitochondrial translocation of cleaved Bax, disrupted mitochondrial membrane potential, and the nuclear translocation of AIF, all of which were efficiently blocked by a JNK inhibitor. Caspases 3, 8 and 9 were activated by combined treatment but inhibition of these caspases did not abolish apoptosis indicating caspase activation played a minor role in the induction of apoptosis. cells are treated with combination of IR and β-lap, positive feedback regulation between ERK and ROS leads to ER stress causing JNK activation and mitochondrial translocation of cleaved Bax. The resultant decrease in mitochondrial membrane leads to translocation of AIF and apoptosis

Optical switching of the Dirac point in graphene multilayer field-effect transistors functionalized with spiropyran

A facile method for achieving optical switching of the Dirac point and conductance in reduced graphene oxide multilayer FETs that are non-covalently functionalized with a photoresponsive spiropyran derivative is presented. The photoresponsive transition from spiropyran to merocyanine induces the reversible optical switching in graphene based FETs.close6