A Design and Development of the Learning Contents Management based on the Personalized Online Learning

Teaching-learning methods are undergoing rapid transformation in terms of new information and communication technology and in accordance with onset of the 4th Industrial Revolution. The educational environment is being transformed into various forms, with examples being found not only in the existing traditional educational environment, but also in online education and blended learning. Existing online learning (LMS, LCMS) is offered in a limited contents transmission online educational environment, and has been limited but the level of support offered to a learner’s personalized learning. This study will overview existing flexible model of contents, suggest possible problems, and attempt to solve these problems. LCMS was designed and realized based on the open source Moodle platform, offering personalized contents to learners. LCMS is composed of the following 3 functions: contents registration of metadata inputted by administrator; search functionality for personalized learner contents; and personalized contents automatically being recommended to learners. As a result of the research, we made online learning environment that can provide customized learning recommendation and self - directed learning by increasing the continuity and efficiency of learning by automatically providing customized online contents to learners. Through this study, the learning of students promises to be effectively initiated by being based on available LCMS functions related to personalized educational contents in online education

TRAIL Enhances Apoptosis of Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells Sensitized by Hepatitis C Virus Infection: Therapeutic Implications

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection causes chronic liver diseases leading to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and liver failure. We have previously shown that HCV sensitizes hepatocytes to mitochondrial apoptosis via the TRAIL death receptors DR4 and DR5. Although TRAIL and its receptors are selective targets for cancer therapy, their potential against HCC with chronic HCV infection has not been explored yet. Here we show that HCV induces DR4/DR5-dependent activation of caspase-8 leading to elevation of apoptotic signaling in infected cells and also present TRAIL effect in HCV-induced apoptotic signaling. HCV induced proteolytic cleavage of caspase-9 by stimulating DR4 and DR5, resulting in subsequent cleavage of caspase-3. Further, HCV-induced proteolytic cleavage in caspase-8, caspase-9, and caspase-3 was enhanced in the presence of recombinant TRAIL. HCV-induced cleavage in caspase-9 and increase in caspase-3/7 activity was completely suppressed by silencing of either DR4 or DR5. Perturbing DR4/DR5-caspase-8 signaling complex by silencing DR4 and DR5 or by chemical inhibitor specific to caspase-8 led to decrease of HCV-induced cleavage of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP), a substrate for caspase-3 during apoptosis, indicating the functional role of caspase-8 in HCV-induced apoptotic signaling network. Furthermore, TRAIL enhanced PARP cleavage in apoptotic response induced by HCV infection, indicating the effect of TRAIL for the induction of selective apoptosis of HCC cells infected with HCV. Given the importance of apoptosis in HCC development, our data suggest that HCV-induced DR4 and DR5 may be considered as an attractive target for TRAIL therapy against HCC with chronic HCV infection

Ambipolar Field Effect in Topological Insulator Nanoplates of (BixSb1-x)2Te3

Topological insulators represent a new state of quantum matter attractive to both fundamental physics and technological applications such as spintronics and quantum information processing. In a topological insulator, the bulk energy gap is traversed by spin-momentum locked surface states forming an odd number of surface bands that possesses unique electronic properties. However, transport measurements have often been dominated by residual bulk carriers from crystal defects or environmental doping which mask the topological surface contribution. Here we demonstrate (BixSb1-x)2Te3 as a tunable topological insulator system to manipulate bulk conductivity by varying the Bi/Sb composition ratio. (BixSb1-x)2Te3 ternary compounds are confirmed as topological insulators for the entire composition range by angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements and ab initio calculations. Additionally, we observe a clear ambipolar gating effect similar to that observed in graphene using nanoplates of (BixSb1-x)2Te3 in field-effect-transistor (FET) devices. The manipulation of carrier type and concentration in topological insulator nanostructures demonstrated in this study paves the way for implementation of topological insulators in nanoelectronics and spintronics.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Association Between Parkinsonism and Participation in Agriculture in Korea

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Environmental factors might influence the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD) or multiple-system atrophy (MSA), and previous examinations of pesticide exposure, well-water drinking, and farming have produced inconclusive results. Because agriculture has been of considerable importance to Korean society, and hence the risk of exposure to pesticides was high in Korea, this study investigated whether such exposure is associated with elevated risks of developing PD and MSA. METHODS: Two hundred and thirty-five PD patients, 133 MSA patients, and 77 normal control subjects were examined. Data concerning environmental factors were collected by face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire. Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated by binary logistic regression. RESULTS: ORs for environmental risk factors for developing PD were 1.06 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.02-1.10] for age and 2.37 (95% CI = 1.32-4.27) for rural well-water drinking for >10 years. Smoking >10 pack-years (OR = 0.31; 95% CI = 0.11-0.64) was a preventable factor for developing PD in this study. However, no significant risk factors were identified for MSA. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that exposure to certain environmental risk factors plays a role in the development of PD. However, the development of MSA appears to be independent of environmental risk factors in Korean patients