How Design Plays Strategic Roles in Internet Service Innovation: Lessons from Korean Companies

In order to survive in the highly competitive internet business, companies have to provide differentiated services that can satisfy the rapidly changing users’ tastes and needs. Designers have been increasingly committed to achieving user satisfaction by generating and visualizing innovative solutions in new internet service development. The roles of internet service design have expanded from a narrow focus on aesthetics into a more strategic aspect. This paper investigates the methods of managing design in order to enhance companies’ competitiveness in internet business. The main research processes are to: (1) explore the current state of internet service design in Korea through in-depth interviews with professional designers and survey questionnaires to 30 digital design agencies and 60 clients; (2) compare how design is managed between in-house design groups and digital design agencies though the case studies of five Korean companies; and (3) develop a taxonomy characterizing four roles of designers in conjunction with the levels of their strategic contributions to internet service innovation: visualist, solution provider, concept generator, and service initiator. In addition, we demonstrate the growing contributions of the strategic use of design for innovating internet services, building robust brand equity, and increasing business performance. Keywords: Design Management; Internet Business; Internet Service Design; Digital Design; Digital Design Agency; In-House Design Group, Case Study</p

Estrogen Protects the Female Heart from Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury through Manganese Superoxide Dismutase Phosphorylation by Mitochondrial p38β at Threonine 79 and Serine 106.

A collective body of evidence indicates that estrogen protects the heart from myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury, but the underlying mechanism remains incompletely understood. We have previously delineated a novel mechanism of how 17β-estradiol (E2) protects cultured neonatal rat cardiomyocytes from hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) by identifying a functionally active mitochondrial pool of p38β and E2-driven upregulation of manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) activity via p38β, leading to the suppression of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and apoptosis. Here we investigate these cytoprotective actions of E2 in vivo. Left coronary artery ligation and reperfusion was used to produce I/R injury in ovariectomized (OVX) female mice and in estrogen receptor (ER) null female mice. E2 treatment in OVX mice reduced the left ventricular infarct size accompanied by increased activity of mitochondrial p38β and MnSOD. I/R-induced infarct size in ERα knockout (ERKO), ERβ knockout (BERKO) and ERα and β double knockout (DERKO) female mice was larger than that in wild type (WT) mice, with little difference among ERKO, BERKO, and DERKO. Loss of both ERα and ERβ led to reduced activity of mitochondrial p38β and MnSOD at baseline and after I/R. The physical interaction between mitochondrial p38β and MnSOD in the heart was detected by co-immunoprecipitation (co-IP). Threonine 79 (T79) and serine 106 (S106) of MnSOD were identified to be phosphorylated by p38β in kinase assays. Overexpression of WT MnSOD in cardiomyocytes reduced ROS generation during H/R, while point mutation of T79 and S106 of MnSOD to alanine abolished its antioxidative function. We conclude that the protective effects of E2 and ER against cardiac I/R injury involve the regulation of MnSOD via posttranslational modification of the dismutase by p38β

Thermoelectric Conductivities at Finite Magnetic Field and the Nernst Effect

We study the thermoelectric conductivities of a strongly correlated system in the presence of a magnetic field by the gauge/gravity duality. We consider a class of Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton theories with axion fields imposing momentum relaxation. General analytic formulas for the direct current(DC) conductivities and the Nernst signal are derived in terms of the black hole horizon data. For an explicit model study, we analyse in detail the dyonic black hole modified by momentum relaxation. In this model, for small momentum relaxation, the Nernst signal shows a bell-shaped dependence on the magnetic field, which is a feature of the normal phase of cuprates. We compute all alternating current(AC) electric, thermoelectric, and thermal conductivities by numerical analysis and confirm that their zero frequency limits precisely reproduce our analytic DC formulas, which is a non-trivial consistency check of our methods. We discuss the momentum relaxation effects on the conductivities including cyclotron resonance poles.Comment: v3: Minor chages, discussions clarified, version accepted in JHE

Gauge Invariance and Holographic Renormalization

We study the gauge invariance of physical observables in holographic theories under the local diffeomorphism. We find that gauge invariance is intimately related to the holographic renormalisation: the local counter terms defined in the boundary cancel most of gauge dependences of the on-shell action as well as the divergences. There is a mismatch in the degrees of freedom between the bulk theory and the boundary one. We resolve this problem by noticing that there is a residual gauge symmetry(RGS). By extending the RGS such that it satisfies infalling boundary condition at the horizon, we can understand the problem in the context of general holographic embedding of a global symmetry at the boundary into the local gauge symmetry in the bulk.Comment: 14 pages, v2: minor changes, typos corrected, references adde

Character of Matter in Holography: Spin-Orbit Interaction

Gauge/Gravity duality as a theory of matter needs a systematic way to characterise a system. We suggest a `dimensional lifting' of the least irrelevant interaction to the bulk theory. As an example, we consider the spin-orbit interaction, which causes magneto-electric interaction term. We show that its lifting is an axionic coupling. We present an exact and analytic solution describing diamagnetic response. Experimental data on annealed graphite shows a remarkable similarity to our theoretical result. We also find an analytic formulas of DC transport coefficients, according to which, the anomalous Hall coefficient interpolates between the coherent metallic regime with $\rho_{xx}^{2}$ and incoherent metallic regime with $\rho_{xx}$ as we increase the disorder parameter $\beta$. The strength of the spin-orbit interaction also interpolates between the two scaling regimes.Comment: 15pages, 3 figure

Coherent/incoherent metal transition in a holographic model

We study AC electric($\sigma$), thermoelectric($\alpha$), and thermal($\bar{\kappa}$) conductivities in a holographic model, which is based on 3+1 dimensional Einstein-Maxwell-scalar action. There is momentum relaxation due to massless scalar fields linear to spatial coordinate. The model has three field theory parameters: temperature($T$), chemical potential($\mu$), and effective impurity($\beta$). At low frequencies, if $\beta < \mu$, all three AC conductivities($\sigma, \alpha, \bar{\kappa}$) exhibit a Drude peak modified by pair creation contribution(coherent metal). The parameters of this modified Drude peak are obtained analytically. In particular, if $\beta \ll \mu$ the relaxation time of electric conductivity approaches to $2\sqrt{3} \mu/\beta^2$ and the modified Drude peak becomes a standard Drude peak. If $\beta > \mu$ the shape of peak deviates from the Drude form(incoherent metal). At intermediate frequencies($T<\omega<\mu$), we have analysed numerical data of three conductivities($\sigma, \alpha, \bar{\kappa}$) for a wide variety of parameters, searching for scaling laws, which are expected from either experimental results on cuprates superconductors or some holographic models. In the model we study, we find no clear signs of scaling behaviour.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures, v2,v3: minor changes, typos corrected, reference adde