The Influence of Korean Instagram Users’ Cultural Disposition, Social Capital, and Instagram Usage Propensity on their Evaluation Attributes for Fashion Influencers

This study investigates on how Millennials evaluate fashion influencers on Instagram whom have been slowly leading the micro-cultural trends. The users tend to selectively compare, choose, and evaluate these influencers in terms of their own tastes and propensities, and also their cultural and social characteristics. Literary reviews have been used to evaluate categories of individuals’ cultural disposition by vertical-collectivism, vertical-individualism, horizontal collectivism, and horizontal individualism. Furthermore, there are two types of social capital in social networks, which is that people value the “bridging” nature of what links them with influencers, and people use a “bonding” nature to seek emotional stability while being involved in their ideal social gatherings. This study conducted a questionnaire survey of 467, 20 to 30-year-old male and female Instagram users. The questionnaire contains 2 sub-dimensions of Culture Disposition: Vertical Collectivism and Vertical Individualism; 2 sub-dimensions of Social Capital: Connective Social Capital and Bonding Social Capital; 2 sub-dimensions of Instagram usage propensity: Relationship Seeking Propensity and Information Seeking Propensity; 3 sub-dimensions of Fashion Influencer Evaluation Attributes: Professionalism, Attractiveness and Intimacy. It is meaningful to provide basic data for understanding the characteristics of Instagram users who utilize fashion influencers, for the purpose of market actualization. As a result, Vertical Collectivism and Vertical Individualism were found to be related to Relationship Seeking Propensity; Only Vertical Individualism was found to be related to Information Seeking Propensity. Furthermore, Relationship Seeking Propensity was found to be related to Intimacy, and Information Seeking Propensity was related to Professionalism, Intimacy and Attractiveness

Hyalinizing Spindle Cell Tumor with Giant Rosettes with Pulmonary Metastasis After a Long Hiatus: A Case Report

"Hyalinizing spindle cell tumor with giant rosettes" (HSCTGR) is a recently described tumor, which is regarded as an unusual variant of low-grade fibromyxoid sarcoma. Proof of a metastatic potential was lacking. The patient in the report was a 35-yr-old woman who showed multiple bilateral pulmonary nodules with massive pleural effusion in the right side. She had a history of a mass excision in the right thigh 11 yrs ago at another hospital, which was reported as a "leiomyoma". Two years before this presentation, the patient received a routine chest radiograph which demonstrated bilateral multiple pulmonary nodules. A lobectomy of the left upper lung was performed. The histological findings revealed a well-circumscribed nodule that was characterized by a spindle-shaped fibrous to hyalinized stroma with criss-crossing short fascicles and giant collagen rosettes surrounded by a rim of spindle-shaped cells. Electron microscopy confirmed the fibroblastic nature of the tumor. This case, in addition to at least two other cases reported in the literature, demonstrates that the HSCTGR is a malignant neoplasm with the capacity to metastasize after a long hiatus

De Novo Design and Synthesis of Ultra-Short Peptidomimetic Antibiotics Having Dual Antimicrobial and Anti-Inflammatory Activities

Ravichandran N. Murugan, Mija Ahn, Eunha Hwang, Ji-Hyung Seo, Chaejoon Cheong, Jeong Kyu Bang, Division of Magnetic Resonance, Korea Basic Science Institute, Ochang, Chung-Buk, Republic of KoreaBinu Jacob, Song Yub Shin, Department of Bio-Materials, Graduate School and Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, School of Medicine, Chosun University, Gwangju, Republic of KoreaHoik Sohn, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States of AmericaHyo-Nam Park, Jae-Kyung Hyun, Division of Electron Microscopic Research, Korea Basic Science Institute, Daejeon, Republic of KoreaEunjung Lee, Ki-Woong Jeong, Yangmee Kim, Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Institute of SMART Biotechnology, Konkuk University, Seoul, Republic of KoreaKy-Youb Nam, Bioinformatics and Molecular Design Research Center, Yonsei University Research Complex, Seoul, Republic of KoreaBackground: Much attention has been focused on the design and synthesis of potent, cationic antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) that possess both antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activities. However, their development into therapeutic agents has been limited mainly due to their large size (12 to 50 residues in length) and poor protease stability.-- Methodology/Principal Findings: In an attempt to overcome the issues described above, a set of ultra-short, His-derived antimicrobial peptides (HDAMPs) has been developed for the first time. Through systematic tuning of pendant hydrophobic alkyl tails at the N(π)- and N(τ)-positions on His, and the positive charge of Arg, much higher prokaryotic selectivity was achieved, compared to human AMP LL-37. Additionally, the most potent HDAMPs showed promising dual antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activities, as well as anti–methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) activity and proteolytic resistance. Our results from transmission electron microscopy, membrane depolarization, confocal laser-scanning microscopy, and calcein-dye leakage experiments propose that HDAMP-1 kills microbial cells via dissipation of the membrane potential by forming pore/ion channels on bacterial cell membranes. -- Conclusion/Significance: The combination of the ultra-short size, high-prokaryotic selectivity, potent anti-MRSA activity, anti-inflammatory activity, and proteolytic resistance of the designed HDAMP-1, -3, -5, and -6 makes these molecules promising candidates for future antimicrobial therapeutics.This work was supported in part by the Korea Basic Science Institute's research program grants T33418 (J.K.B) and T33518 (J-k.H.), and the Korea Research Foundation, funded by the Korean Government (KRF-2011-0009039 to S.Y.S.). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.ChemistryBiochemistryEmail: [email protected] (JKB)Email: [email protected] (SYS

Unfolded protein response in cancer: the Physician's perspective

The unfolded protein response (UPR) is a cascade of intracellular stress signaling events in response to an accumulation of unfolded or misfolded proteins in the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Cancer cells are often exposed to hypoxia, nutrient starvation, oxidative stress and other metabolic dysregulation that cause ER stress and activation of the UPR. Depending on the duration and degree of ER stress, the UPR can provide either survival signals by activating adaptive and antiapoptotic pathways, or death signals by inducing cell death programs. Sustained induction or repression of UPR pharmacologically may thus have beneficial and therapeutic effects against cancer. In this review, we discuss the basic mechanisms of UPR and highlight the importance of UPR in cancer biology. We also update the UPR-targeted cancer therapeutics currently in clinical trials

Schizophrenia-associated somatic copy-number variants from 12,834 cases reveal recurrent NRXN1 and ABCB11 disruptions

While germline copy-number variants (CNVs) contribute to schizophrenia (SCZ) risk, the contribution of somatic CNVs (sCNVs)—present in some but not all cells—remains unknown. We identified sCNVs using blood-derived genotype arrays from 12,834 SCZ cases and 11,648 controls, filtering sCNVs at loci recurrently mutated in clonal blood disorders. Likely early-developmental sCNVs were more common in cases (0.91%) than controls (0.51%, p = 2.68e−4), with recurrent somatic deletions of exons 1–5 of the NRXN1 gene in five SCZ cases. Hi-C maps revealed ectopic, allele-specific loops forming between a potential cryptic promoter and non-coding cis-regulatory elements upon 5′ deletions in NRXN1. We also observed recurrent intragenic deletions of ABCB11, encoding a transporter implicated in anti-psychotic response, in five treatment-resistant SCZ cases and showed that ABCB11 is specifically enriched in neurons forming mesocortical and mesolimbic dopaminergic projections. Our results indicate potential roles of sCNVs in SCZ risk

Retrospective evaluation of whole exome and genome mutation calls in 746 cancer samples

Funder: NCI U24CA211006Abstract: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) curated consensus somatic mutation calls using whole exome sequencing (WES) and whole genome sequencing (WGS), respectively. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, which aggregated whole genome sequencing data from 2,658 cancers across 38 tumour types, we compare WES and WGS side-by-side from 746 TCGA samples, finding that ~80% of mutations overlap in covered exonic regions. We estimate that low variant allele fraction (VAF < 15%) and clonal heterogeneity contribute up to 68% of private WGS mutations and 71% of private WES mutations. We observe that ~30% of private WGS mutations trace to mutations identified by a single variant caller in WES consensus efforts. WGS captures both ~50% more variation in exonic regions and un-observed mutations in loci with variable GC-content. Together, our analysis highlights technological divergences between two reproducible somatic variant detection efforts

Exclusive Sharing of Genetic Materials in U.S. Agricultural Research: Antecedents and Consequences

As recognition of the scientific and industrial values of genetic materials has increased, so have restrictions on access to those materials for research. Nonetheless, our understanding of access to genetic materials in science is still limited. As a way of assessing access to genetic materials in agricultural research, this study sought to uncover the critical moments when genetic materials begin to be withheld by selective entities. Exclusive sharing was defined as the condition in which genetic materials were shared only by selective entities but not transferred to a third-party. The decision on whether to have a third-party sharing restriction was modeled with socio-ecological antecedents and used to predict the likelihood of producing research outcomes (i.e., publications and intellectual property outcomes). Results show that exclusive sharing is associated with broader socio-ecological contexts which cannot be reduced to pure science production systems. Scientists’ exclusive sharing was found to be influenced by national borders and the ecological conditions of the genetic materials shared. Furthermore, exclusive sharing comes down to individual and interpersonal decision, so that bilateral interactions among material providers and receivers were found to play an important role in setting a third-party sharing restriction. Predicted sharing restrictions, in turn, influenced intellectual property outcomes and publications to a different degree. Results suggest that setting a third-party sharing restriction can be beneficial for intellectual property outcomes but does not provide much benefit for publishing articles. This can indicate that there exist two divergent production systems connecting material-sharing with research outcomes