Reversed ethnographic approach to U.S. fans' reception of Korean popular culture

This dissertation unravels dynamic interactions between Korean popular culture and its fans in the United States, how cultural hybridity of the Korean Wave un/consciously facilitates soft power, and what sociocultural implications it might yield in global/international contexts. Employing various theoretical frameworks of globalization, critical/cultural media studies, hybridity, soft power, and fan studies, I conduct a qualitative methodological approach of what I call “reversed media ethnography”—examining the contraflow of Korean media culture—on U.S. fans. I employ various qualitative and interpretive techniques including grounded theory to analyze the rich corpus of data—participant observation and qualitative interviews—I collected over a period of two years to examine the nature of transcultural media and fans of the Korean Wave in the United States. Overall, the findings of this dissertation suggest that the complex layers of hybridity embedded in Korean popular culture creates complicated webs of transculturality, such as alternative forms of gender representation, cute culture, and honorific culture. When popular culture is circulated transnationally, the local context of its origin is often erased and instead it is projected through the lens of the receiving local context. Understanding transcultural media texts—K-pop’s appropriation of Hip Hop—as well as the perception of ethnicity surrounding the practice is bound to have differences and difficulties based on varying degrees of social and historical contexts. Cultural appropriation can enhance diversity and multiculturalism, however, one should be sensitive to a culture that has a history of being colonized or oppressed. I suggest a mutual understanding of each other’s culture and history in order to appreciate and respect the Otherness of each culture as well as subcultures. Global social media, as a main conduit to interact with foreign cultures, facilitates the spread and popularity of Korean popular culture, yet simultaneously creates cross-cultural misunderstanding and disjunctures. The Korean Wave exemplifies strategically well-balanced cultural hybridity that arouses a certain feeling of affinity—what I call emotional proximity. Korean popular culture evokes continuous negotiations of identities and generates nonthreatening wholesome content that comfortably appeals to American fans with varying degrees of ethnic, racial, social, and cultural backgrounds. The notion of woori-ness (we-ness in English)—collective unity and solidarity—embedded in Korean popular culture and its fandom culture works as one of the multifaceted soft power in the eyes of U.S. fans that leads to an alternative post-Western soft power. This study contends that it is not the so-called hybridized Korean popular culture per se that makes it transcultural—and global to some extent—but the often under-recognized vital agents in the global sphere: the regions of fans.Journalis

Delayed rupture of a pseudoaneurysm in the brachial artery of a burn reconstruction patient

A brachial artery pseudoaneurysm is a rare but serious condition that can be limb threatening. A number of reports have found that it may be the result of damage to the blood vessels around the brachial artery, either directly or indirectly, due to trauma or systemic diseases. We present our experience of delayed pseudoaneurysm rupture of the brachial artery in a rehabilitation patient with burns of the upper extremity who underwent fasciotomy and musculocutaneous flap coverage. We also provide a review of the brachial artery pseudoaneurysm

Prediction of Specific Anxiety Symptoms and Virtual Reality Sickness Using In Situ Autonomic Physiological Signals During Virtual Reality Treatment in Patients With Social Anxiety Disorder: Mixed Methods Study

Background: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is the fear of social situations where a person anticipates being evaluated negatively. Changes in autonomic response patterns are related to the expression of anxiety symptoms. Virtual reality (VR) sickness can inhibit VR experiences. Objective: This study aimed to predict the severity of specific anxiety symptoms and VR sickness in patients with SAD, using machine learning based on in situ autonomic physiological signals (heart rate and galvanic skin response) during VR treatment sessions. Methods: This study included 32 participants with SAD taking part in 6 VR sessions. During each VR session, the heart rate and galvanic skin response of all participants were measured in real time. We assessed specific anxiety symptoms using the Internalized Shame Scale (ISS) and the Post-Event Rumination Scale (PERS), and VR sickness using the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) during 4 VR sessions (#1, #2, #4, and #6). Logistic regression, random forest, and naive Bayes classification classified and predicted the severity groups in the ISS, PERS, and SSQ subdomains based on in situ autonomic physiological signal data. Results: The severity of SAD was predicted with 3 machine learning models. According to the F1 score, the highest prediction performance among each domain for severity was determined. The F1 score of the ISS mistake anxiety subdomain was 0.8421 using the logistic regression model, that of the PERS positive subdomain was 0.7619 using the naive Bayes classifier, and that of total VR sickness was 0.7059 using the random forest model. Conclusions: This study could predict specific anxiety symptoms and VR sickness during VR intervention by autonomic physiological signals alone in real time. Machine learning models can predict the severe and nonsevere psychological states of individuals based on in situ physiological signal data during VR interventions for real-time interactive services. These models can support the diagnosis of specific anxiety symptoms and VR sickness with minimal participant bias

GSK3B induces autophagy by phosphorylating ULK1

Unc-51-like autophagy activating kinase 1 (ULK1), a mammalian homolog of the yeast kinase Atg1, has an essential role in autophagy induction. In nutrient and growth factor signaling, ULK1 activity is regulated by various posttranslational modifications, including phosphorylation, acetylation, and ubiquitination. We previously identified glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta (GSK3B) as an upstream regulator of insulin withdrawal-induced autophagy in adult hippocampal neural stem cells. Here, we report that following insulin withdrawal, GSK3B directly interacted with and activated ULK1 via phosphorylation of S405 and S415 within the GABARAP-interacting region. Phosphorylation of these residues facilitated the interaction of ULK1 with MAP1LC3B and GABARAPL1, while phosphorylation-defective mutants of ULK1 failed to do so and could not induce autophagy flux. Furthermore, high phosphorylation levels of ULK1 at S405 and S415 were observed in human pancreatic cancer cell lines, all of which are known to exhibit high levels of autophagy. Our results reveal the importance of GSK3B-mediated phosphorylation for ULK1 regulation and autophagy induction and potentially for tumorigenesis. © 2021, The Author(s).1

Putting out fire with gasoline in Tahrir Square: Revisiting the Gamson hypothesis.

This study situates the Gamson hypothesis in the non-Western country of Egypt with an attempt to explore the relationship between the Gamson typology and political behavior in a country that has traditionally been under an authoritarian regime. Furthermore, this study suggests that additional factors might play important roles in the traditional relationship; it examines a possible link among media use, political corruption, and political rights to the Gamson typology based on a representative national survey conducted in Egypt. Several results differed from studies conducted in the Western world. Dissidents were more likely to engage in conventional political activities, which goes against the Gamson hypothesis. High efficacy regardless of trust level predicted conventional activities. This study aims not only to enrich the model but also to enhance our understanding of the diverse nature of the relationships among the Gamson typology and perceptions of political system, media use, and political activities in a non-Western authoritarian state

Development of Clinical Weekly-Dose Teriparatide Acetate Encapsulated Dissolving Microneedle Patch for Efficient Treatment of Osteoporosis

Teriparatide acetate (TA), which directly promotes bone formation, is subcutaneously injected to treat osteoporosis. In this study, TA with a once-weekly administration regimen was loaded on dissolving microneedles (DMNs) to effectively deliver it to the systemic circulation via the transdermal route. TA activity reduction during the drying process of various TA polymer solutions formulated with hyaluronic acid and trehalose was monitored and homogeneities were assessed. TA-DMN patches fabricated using centrifugal lithography in a two-layered structure with dried pure hyaluronic acid on the base layer and dried TA polymer solution on the top layer were evaluated for their physical properties. Rhodamine-B-loaded TA-DMNs were found to form perforations when inserted into porcine skin using a shooting device. In addition, 87.6% of TA was delivered to the porcine skin after a 5-min TA-DMN patch application. The relative bioavailability of TA via subcutaneous injection was 66.9% in rats treated with TA-DMN patches. The maximal TA concentration in rat plasma was proportional to the number of patches used. Therefore, the TA-DMN patch fabricated in this study may aid in the effective delivery of TA in a patient-friendly manner and enhance medical efficacy in osteoporosis treatment

Analyzing the Effect of Social Distancing Policies on Traffic at Sinchon Station, South Korea, during the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020 and 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic is recognized as one of the most serious global health problems, and many countries implemented lockdown measures to mitigate the effects of the crisis caused by this respiratory infectious disease. In this study, we investigated the relationship between social distancing policies and changes in traffic volume in Sinchon Station, South Korea. We used an official COVID-19 report provided by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KCDA) and Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) to review social distancing policies, and the changes in traffic patterns before and during the COVID-19 pandemic between January 2020 and November 2021 were analyzed. Our study reveals that the changes in the overall traffic patterns from acceleration phases to deceleration phases of COVID-19 were related to the alert levels of social distancing policies implemented to tackle the situation resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Herein, we found that a significant decline in traffic volume took place from August to September 2020 (13.5–19.7%, weekday; 19.4–31.7%, weekend), from December 2020 to January 2021 (20.0%−26.6%, weekday; 26.8–34.0%, weekend), and from July to September 2021 (3.2–13.1%, weekday; 38.3–44.7%, weekend) when compared to the corresponding periods in 2019 (paired t-test; p < 0.001). The results of this study provide strong support for the effectiveness of Seoul’s preemptive measures, namely, the central government’s intensive social distancing campaign, in managing and reducing the impact of the pandemic situation based on the precise analysis of 10 types of facilities

Bilateral Adrenocortical Masses Producing Aldosterone and Cortisol Independently

A 31-year-old woman was referred to our hospital with symptoms of hypertension and bilateral adrenocortical masses with no feature of Cushing syndrome. The serum aldosterone/renin ratio was elevated and the saline loading test showed no suppression of the plasma aldosterone level, consistent with a diagnosis of primary hyperaldosteronism. Overnight and low-dose dexamethasone suppression tests showed no suppression of serum cortisol, indicating a secondary diagnosis of subclinical Cushing syndrome. Adrenal vein sampling during the low-dose dexamethasone suppression test demonstrated excess secretion of cortisol from the left adrenal mass. A partial right adrenalectomy was performed, resulting in normalization of blood pressure, hypokalemia, and high aldosterone level, implying that the right adrenal mass was the main cause of the hyperaldosteronism. A total adrenalectomy for the left adrenal mass was later performed, resulting in a normalization of cortisol level. The final diagnosis was bilateral adrenocortical adenomas, which were secreting aldosterone and cortisol independently. This case is the first report of a concurrent cortisol-producing left adrenal adenoma and an aldosterone-producing right adrenal adenoma in Korea, as demonstrated by adrenal vein sampling and sequential removal of adrenal masses

Enhanced Micro-Channeling System via Dissolving Microneedle to Improve Transdermal Serum Delivery for Various Clinical Skincare Treatments

Topical liquid formulations, dissolving microneedles (DMNs), and microscale needles composed of biodegradable materials have been widely used for the transdermal delivery of active compounds for skincare. However, transdermal active compound delivery by topical liquid formulation application is inhibited by skin barriers, and the skincare efficacy of DMNs is restricted by the low encapsulation capacity and incomplete insertion. In this study, topical serum application via a dissolvable micro-channeling system (DMCS) was used to enhance serum delivery through micro-channels embedded with DMNs. Transdermal serum delivery was evaluated after the topical-serum-only application and combinatorial serum application by assessing the intensity of allophycocyanin (APC) loaded with the serum in the porcine skin. APC intensity was significantly higher in the skin layer at a depth of 120–270 μm upon combinatorial serum application as compared to topical-serum-only application. In addition, the combinatorial serum application showed significantly improved efficacy in the clinical assessment of skin hydration, depigmentation, improvement of wrinkles, elasticity, dermal density, skin pores, and skin soothing without any safety issues compared to the serum-only application. The results indicate that combinatorial serum application with DMCS is a promising candidate for improving skincare treatments with optimal transdermal delivery of active compounds