Live music and the dilemmas of the Korean consumer experience : consumption, markets, and identities

This thesis examines the cultural consumption of live music events in contemporary South Korea. It explains the structure and emergence of the contemporary popular music industry, and offers a historical background to the development of South Korea’s society and culture. Live concerts, now a crucial part of music industry in Korea, are the central object of analysis, through which the current conditions of cultural consumption in South Korea are assessed. The thesis argues that music consumption experience in South Korea provides an opportunity through which a set of dilemmas and tensions in contemporary Korean identity can be explored. It proposes a theoretical concept, ‘Confucian Postmodernism’, with which to understand the contradiction and coexistence of Western postmodern and traditional values within the practices of cultural consumption. While academic research on music, culture and consumption is growing, there remains little research on the impact of the consumption of cultural products on East Asian social culture. This thesis offers a review of traditional and contemporary scholarly approaches to the study of music experience and consumption, identifying a deficit of research attention in the area of cultural consumption in South Korea. Through twenty semi-structured in-depth interviews, this study looks at both the Korean music market and consumer experiences, focusing on a specific experience of cultural consumption through the theories of ‘postmodern cultural consumption’ and Bourdieu’s ‘cultural capital’. Two major contemporary characteristics of Korean social identity are identified: (i) the tension between the activity of individual selfpresentation and necessary social conformity, and (ii) the struggle to gain symbolic differentiation within the Korean popular music field, the constitution of which betrays both traditional Confucian and postmodern influences. Assessing the role of music in terms of consumer experience dissolves previous theoretical distinctions between musical form content and aesthetic experience, while affording the opportunity to consider the broader socio-cultural shifts in South Korea

PLATFORM PLANNING FRAMEWORK FOR OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE DEVELOPMENT WITH CASE STUDY OF PROJECT ARA

This article illustrates how to evaluate platform design for an open source hardware development project. First, we will look at the open source hardware development as a methodology that fulfills demands for mass customization. In the open source hardware development, project owner offers platform sources and individual developers separately develop various functional modules based on the given platform sources. Then customers will choose each module which best meets their needs. Second, the evaluation model for the open source hardware platform will be suggested. For open source hardware development, developers’ participation is one of key factors to successful project management. Developers will consider both estimated development costs and market size to make decision on participation. With all these concerns, we built a platform evaluation model for open source hardware projects in terms of how much it boosts developers' participation

Chrysanthemi Zawadskii var. Latilobum Attenuates Obesity-Induced Skeletal Muscle Atrophy via Regulation of PRMTs in Skeletal Muscle of Mice

As obesity promotes ectopic fat accumulation in skeletal muscle, resulting in impaired skeletal muscle and mitochondria function, it is associated with skeletal muscle loss and dysfunction. This study investigated whether Chrysanthemi zawadskii var. latilobum (CZH) protected mice against obesity-induced skeletal muscle atrophy and the underlying molecular mechanisms. High-fat diet (HFD)-induced obese mice were orally administered either distilled water, low-dose CZH (125 mg/kg), or high-dose CZH (250 mg/kg) for 8 w. CZH reduced obesity-induced increases in inflammatory cytokines levels and skeletal muscle atrophy, which is induced by expression of atrophic genes such as muscle RING-finger protein 1 and muscle atrophy F-box. CZH also improved muscle function according to treadmill running results and increased the muscle fiber size in skeletal muscle. Furthermore, CZH upregulated mRNA and protein levels of protein arginine methyltransferases (PRMT)1 and PRMT7, which subsequently attenuated mitochondrial dysfunction in the skeletal muscle of obese mice. We also observed that CZH significantly decreased PRMT6 mRNA and protein expression, which resulted in decreased muscle atrophy. These results suggest that CZH ameliorated obesity-induced skeletal muscle atrophy in mice via regulation of PRMTs in skeletal muscle

Antioxidative Lithium Reservoir Based on Interstitial Channels of Carbon Nanotube Bundles

Lithium (Li) metal has garnered considerable attention in next-generation battery anodes. However, its environmental vulnerability, along with the electrochemical instability and safety failures, poses a formidable challenge to commercial use. Here, we describe a new class of antioxidative Li reservoir based on interstitial channels of single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) bundles. The Li preferentially confined in the interstitial channels exhibits unusual thermodynamic stability and exceptional capacity even after exposure to harsh environmental conditions, thereby enabling us to propose a new lithiation/delithiation mechanism in carbon nanotubes. To explore practical application of this approach, the Li confined in the SWCNT bundles is electrochemically extracted and subsequently plated on a copper foil. The resulting Li-plated copper foil shows reliable charge/discharge behavior comparable to those of pristine Li foils. Benefiting from the confinement effect of the interstitial channels, the SWCNT bundles hold great promise as an environmentally tolerant, high-capacity Li reservoir

Synthesis of Stereoselective Multifused Cyclic Compounds via Palladium-Catalyzed C3-Allylative Dearomatization

In this study, Pd-catalyzed enantioselective C3-allylative dearomatization is performed, which proceeds via dearomative [3 + 2] cycloaddition involving quinolinium zwitterions and vinyl cyclopropanes. This protocol is significant for the synthesis of complex, multifused cyclic compounds characterized by meticulously controlled multistereogenic centers using π-allyl palladium species. The method developed herein presents an approach to overcoming the challenge of achieving stereoselective C3-functionalization. The SEGPHOS ligand plays an integral role in this process by improving both the conversion rates and stereoselectivity. Our investigation also underscores the versatility of this methodology by demonstrating its potential for the construction of stereocontrolled fused N-cyclic systems. The results of this study lay the foundation for the further exploration and refinement of asymmetric dearomatization aimed at the strategic construction of stereoselective N-heterocyclic compounds

Synthesis of Stereoselective Multifused Cyclic Compounds via Palladium-Catalyzed C3-Allylative Dearomatization

In this study, Pd-catalyzed enantioselective C3-allylative dearomatization is performed, which proceeds via dearomative [3 + 2] cycloaddition involving quinolinium zwitterions and vinyl cyclopropanes. This protocol is significant for the synthesis of complex, multifused cyclic compounds characterized by meticulously controlled multistereogenic centers using π-allyl palladium species. The method developed herein presents an approach to overcoming the challenge of achieving stereoselective C3-functionalization. The SEGPHOS ligand plays an integral role in this process by improving both the conversion rates and stereoselectivity. Our investigation also underscores the versatility of this methodology by demonstrating its potential for the construction of stereocontrolled fused N-cyclic systems. The results of this study lay the foundation for the further exploration and refinement of asymmetric dearomatization aimed at the strategic construction of stereoselective N-heterocyclic compounds

PLK1 phosphorylates RhoGDI1 and promotes cancer cell migration and invasion

Abstract Background Rho guanine nucleotide dissociation inhibitor 1 (RhoGDI1) plays an important role in diverse cellular processes by regulating Rho guanosine triphosphate (GTP)ases activity. RhoGDI1 phosphorylation regulates the spatiotemporal activation of Rho GTPases during cell migration. In this study, we identified polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) as a novel kinase of RhoGDI1 and investigated the molecular mechanism by which the interaction between RhoGDI1 and PLK1 regulates cancer cell migration. Methods Immunoprecipitation, GST pull-down assay, and proximity ligation assay (PLA) were performed to analyze the interaction between RhoGDI1 and PLK1. In vitro kinase assay and immunoprecipitation were performed with Phospho-(Ser/Thr) antibody. We evaluated RhoA activation using RhoGTPases activity assay. Cell migration and invasion were analyzed by transwell assays. Results GST pull-down assays and PLA showed that PLK1 directly interacted with RhoGDI1 in vitro and in vivo. Truncation mutagenesis revealed that aa 90-111 of RhoGDI1 are critical for interacting with PLK1. We also showed that PLK1 phosphorylated RhoGDI1 at Thr7 and Thr91, which induces cell motility. Overexpression of the GFP-tagged RhoGDI1 truncated mutant (aa 90-111) inhibited the interaction of PLK1 with RhoGDI1 and attenuated RhoA activation by PLK1. Furthermore, the overexpression of the RhoGDI1 truncated mutant reduced cancer cell migration and invasion in vitro and suppressed lung metastasis in vivo. Conclusions Collectively, we demonstrate that the phosphorylation of RhoGDI1 by PLK1 promotes cancer cell migration and invasion through RhoA activation. This study connects the interaction between PLK1 and RhoGDI1 to the promotion of cancer cell behavior associated with malignant progression, thereby providing opportunities for cancer therapeutic interventions