Globalization of Korean IT Companies: Opportunities and Strategies

The main focus of this paper is to analyze the current IT industry and to provide relevant strategies for Korean IT companies (such as Samsung SDS and LG CNS et al.,) which want to go global. This paper first addresses an overview of the IT Industry. This research examines the major players in the IT industry, the critical success factors (CSFs), as well as the opportunities that exist in the industry. This study also analyzes Indian IT sector, finding out some important factors that have had an impact on their success in going global; then, overview of the Korean IT sector and assessment of Korea IT companies - particularly Samsung SDS and LG CNS - are provided and discussed. Finally, the study suggests a couple of relevant strategies to Korea IT companies for exploiting the opportunities for globalizing their market. Some practical implications of the study findings as well as future directions for the companies are also discussed

Game and ludic on Martial Arts content in physical education classes

O trato pedagógico do conteúdo “lutas” ainda provoca dificuldades e tensões entre professores e alunos. Cabe questionar: quais as relações de sentido, mobilização e atividade dos alunos com os jogos de lutas? O objetivo do presente trabalho é discutir a influência de jogos nas relações de sentido e mobilização no conteúdo lutas na perspectiva dos estudantes. Trata-se de um estudo de caso com uma turma de 7º ano do Ensino Fundamental. Os procedimentos metodológicos foram: (a) observação de aulas do conteúdo “Judô”; (b) entrevistas semiestruturadas com estudantes, antes e após a sequência de aulas. Na observação das aulas, verificou-se que a professora utilizou jogos de lutas, que se mostraram adequadas para minimizar sentimentos de medo, ansiedade e estresse relacionados ao machucar-se na realização da luta. Ademais, a diversão e a ludicidade proporcionada pelos jogos promoveram uma dissociação da luta com a violência e a briga. A imersão e o arrebatamento dos alunos nos jogos de lutas possibilitaram a suspensão de impressões iniciais (luta machuca, é violenta, etc.) estereotipadas em relação às lutas, sobrepujando-os para o mundo de fantasias do jogo. Nesse sentido, os jogos de luta mostram-se essencial para o trabalho pedagógico do conteúdo lutas, sobretudo ao mobilizar a participação de alunos.The pedagogical treatment of the “martial arts” content causes difficulties and tensions between teachers and students. It is important to ask: what is the meaning given to the mobilization and the activities of students in martial art games? The aim of this paper is to discuss the influence that games have on mobilization and meanings of martial art content from the student’s perspective. This is a case study with a 7th grade middle school classroom. The methodological procedures were: (a) observation of “Judo” classes, and (b) semi-structured interviews with students before and after the sequence of classes. From classes observation, we realized that the teacher used martial art games which were appropriate to minimize the feeling of fear, anxiety, and stress related to getting hurt during the practice. In addition, the fun and playfulness provided by the games promoted a dissociation of martial arts from violence and fighting. The immersion and absorption of students in martial arts games have promoted the end of stereotyped initial impressions of martial arts (e.g. martial arts hurts, it is violent, etc.), taking them to a fantasy game world. In this way, games proved to be essential for the pedagogical approach to martial arts content, especially by promoting students’ participation.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

Preference, importance and participation of girls and boys in the Physical Education High School class

O objetivo do estudo é compreender, sob perspectiva discente, a interferência do marcador gênero nas relações dos/as estudantes de Ensino Médio com a Educação Física (EF). Trata-se de uma pesquisa descritiva com 94 alunos e 88 alunas de 8 escolas estaduais de São Paulo (Brasil), que levantou informações de gosto, importância e participação na disciplina EF, a partir de aplicação de questionário estruturado. Os resultados indicam que meninos atribuem maior importância, gostam e participam mais do que as meninas. Contudo, não é possível afirmar que meninas desgostam, não participam e não atribuem importância. Em cotejo com a literatura, a participação das alunas na EF, além do fator gosto, está concatenada a obrigação ou via “obediência-subversiva” no ambiente ambíguo escolar, de discursos explícitos de igualdade de condições e de práticas implícitas segregacionistas de gênero; por sua vez, a referida ambiência implícita favorece a “colonização” de meninos nas aulas de EF. Concluímos que são os docentes (homens e mulheres) que podem problematizar a desigualdade e ajudar a instituir uma EF com equidade de gênero.The aim of this study is to understand, from the student’s perspective, the interference of gender marker in High School students in relation to Physical Education (PE). This is a descriptive study with 94 boys and 88 girls from 8 public schools of São Paulo State (Brazil), which raised information on preference, importance and participation in PE classes, through the application of a structured questionnaire. The results indicate that boys give greater importance to like and participate more in the class than girls. However, it is not possible to say that girls dislike it, do not participate and do not give importance to it. Research in the literature shows that the participation of students in PE, beyond preference, is associated with the obligation or via “subversive obedience” in the ambiguous school environment, with explicit speeches of equal conditions and implicit gender segregationist practices. On the other hand, the implicit environment supports the “colonization” of boys in PE classes. We conclude that teachers (men and women) are the ones who can problematize inequality and assist students to establish gender equity PE.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

Homing and Long-Term Engraftment of Long- and Short-Term Renewal Hematopoietic Stem Cells

Long-term hematopoietic stem cells (LT-HSC) and short-term hematopoietic stem cells (ST-HSC) have been characterized as having markedly different in vivo repopulation, but similar in vitro growth in liquid culture. These differences could be due to differences in marrow homing. We evaluated this by comparing results when purified ST-HSC and LT-HSC were administered to irradiated mice by three different routes: intravenous, intraperitoneal, and directly into the femur. Purified stem cells derived from B6.SJL mice were competed with marrow cells from C57BL/6J mice into lethally irradiated C57BL/6J mice. Serial transplants into secondary recipients were also carried out. We found no advantage for ST-HSC engraftment when the cells were administered intraperitoneally or directly into femur. However, to our surprise, we found that the purified ST-HSC were not short-term in nature but rather gave long-term multilineage engraftment out to 387 days, albeit at a lower level than the LT-HSC. The ST-HSC also gave secondary engraftment. These observations challenge current models of the stem cell hierarchy and suggest that stem cells are in a continuum of change

Age- and sex-specific physical fitness reference and association with body mass index in Hong Kong Chinese schoolchildren

There is lacking a population-based study on the fitness level of Hong Kong schoolchildren, and it seems that increasing childhood obesity prevalence has shifted the classification of healthy fitness, with ‘underfit’ as normal. This cross-sectional territory study aimed to develop an age- and sex-specific physical fitness reference using a representative sample of children aged 6–17 and to determine the associations with body mass index in schoolchildren. The study analyzed Hong Kong School Physical Fitness Award Scheme data covering grade 1 to grade 12 students’ physical fitness and anthropometric measurements from 2017 to 2018. This reference was established without the impact due to COVID-19. Four aspects of physical fitness tests were measured using a standardized protocol, including (i) upper limb muscle strength, (ii) one-minute sit-up, (iii) sit-and-reach, and (iv) endurance run tests. The generalized additive model for location, scale, and shape was used to construct the reference charts. A Mann–Whitney U test was used to compare the mean differences in age, weight, and height, and a Pearson’s chi-square test was used to examine the distributions of sex groups. A Kruskal–Wallis test was used to compare the group differences in BMI status, followed by the Dunn test for pairwise comparisons. A 5% level of significance was regarded as statistically significant. Data of 119,693 students before the COVID-19 pandemic were included in the analysis. The association between physical fitness level and BMI status varied depending on the test used, and there were significant differences in fitness test scores among BMI groups. The mean test scores of the obese group were lower in most of the tests for both boys and girls, except for handgrip strength. The underweight group outperformed the obese group in push-ups, one-minute sit-ups, and endurance run tests, but not in handgrip strength. In conclusion, a sex- and age-specific physical fitness reference value for Hong Kong Chinese children aged 6 to 17 years old is established, and this study demonstrated a nonlinear relationship between BMI status and physical fitness. The reference will help to identify children with poor physical fitness to offer support and guidance on exercise training. It also serves as a baseline for assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Hong Kong students’ physical fitness

Recurrent Fusion Genes in Gastric Cancer: CLDN18-ARHGAP26 Induces Loss of Epithelial Integrity.

Genome rearrangements, a hallmark of cancer, can result in gene fusions with oncogenic properties. Using DNA paired-end-tag (DNA-PET) whole-genome sequencing, we analyzed 15 gastric cancers (GCs) from Southeast Asians. Rearrangements were enriched in open chromatin and shaped by chromatin structure. We identified seven rearrangement hot spots and 136 gene fusions. In three out of 100 GC cases, we found recurrent fusions between CLDN18, a tight junction gene, and ARHGAP26, a gene encoding a RHOA inhibitor. Epithelial cell lines expressing CLDN18-ARHGAP26 displayed a dramatic loss of epithelial phenotype and long protrusions indicative of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Fusion-positive cell lines showed impaired barrier properties, reduced cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix adhesion, retarded wound healing, and inhibition of RHOA. Gain of invasion was seen in cancer cell lines expressing the fusion. Thus, CLDN18-ARHGAP26 mediates epithelial disintegration, possibly leading to stomach H(+) leakage, and the fusion might contribute to invasiveness once a cell is transformed. Cell Rep 2015 Jul 14; 12(2):272-285

Characterization of the Proteostasis Roles of Glycerol Accumulation, Protein Degradation and Protein Synthesis during Osmotic Stress in C. elegans

Exposure of C. elegans to hypertonic stress-induced water loss causes rapid and widespread cellular protein damage. Survival in hypertonic environments depends critically on the ability of worm cells to detect and degrade misfolded and aggregated proteins. Acclimation of C. elegans to mild hypertonic stress suppresses protein damage and increases survival under more extreme hypertonic conditions. Suppression of protein damage in acclimated worms could be due to 1) accumulation of the chemical chaperone glycerol, 2) upregulation of protein degradation activity, and/or 3) increases in molecular chaperoning capacity of the cell. Glycerol and other chemical chaperones are widely thought to protect proteins from hypertonicity-induced damage. However, protein damage is unaffected by gene mutations that inhibit glycerol accumulation or that cause dramatic constitutive elevation of glycerol levels. Pharmacological or RNAi inhibition of proteasome and lyosome function and measurements of cellular protein degradation activity demonstrated that upregulation of protein degradation mechanisms plays no role in acclimation. Thus, changes in molecular chaperone capacity must be responsible for suppressing protein damage in acclimated worms. Transcriptional changes in chaperone expression have not been detected in C. elegans exposed to hypertonic stress. However, acclimation to mild hypertonicity inhibits protein synthesis 50–70%, which is expected to increase chaperone availability for coping with damage to existing proteins. Consistent with this idea, we found that RNAi silencing of essential translational components or acute exposure to cycloheximide results in a 50–80% suppression of hypertonicity-induced aggregation of polyglutamine-YFP (Q35::YFP). Dietary changes that increase protein production also increase Q35::YFP aggregation 70–180%. Our results demonstrate directly for the first time that inhibition of protein translation protects extant proteins from damage brought about by an environmental stressor, demonstrate important differences in aging- versus stress-induced protein damage, and challenge the widely held view that chemical chaperones are accumulated during hypertonic stress to protect protein structure/function

CRISIS AFAR: an international collaborative study of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health and service access in youth with autism and neurodevelopmental conditions

BackgroundHeterogeneous mental health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic are documented in the general population. Such heterogeneity has not been systematically assessed in youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and related neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). To identify distinct patterns of the pandemic impact and their predictors in ASD/NDD youth, we focused on pandemic-related changes in symptoms and access to services.MethodsUsing a naturalistic observational design, we assessed parent responses on the Coronavirus Health and Impact Survey Initiative (CRISIS) Adapted For Autism and Related neurodevelopmental conditions (AFAR). Cross-sectional AFAR data were aggregated across 14 European and North American sites yielding a clinically well-characterized sample of N = 1275 individuals with ASD/NDD (age = 11.0 ± 3.6 years; n females = 277). To identify subgroups with differential outcomes, we applied hierarchical clustering across eleven variables measuring changes in symptoms and access to services. Then, random forest classification assessed the importance of socio-demographics, pre-pandemic service rates, clinical severity of ASD-associated symptoms, and COVID-19 pandemic experiences/environments in predicting the outcome subgroups.ResultsClustering revealed four subgroups. One subgroup-broad symptom worsening only (20%)-included youth with worsening across a range of symptoms but with service disruptions similar to the average of the aggregate sample. The other three subgroups were, relatively, clinically stable but differed in service access: primarily modified services (23%), primarily lost services (6%), and average services/symptom changes (53%). Distinct combinations of a set of pre-pandemic services, pandemic environment (e.g., COVID-19 new cases, restrictions), experiences (e.g., COVID-19 Worries), and age predicted each outcome subgroup.LimitationsNotable limitations of the study are its cross-sectional nature and focus on the first six months of the pandemic.ConclusionsConcomitantly assessing variation in changes of symptoms and service access during the first phase of the pandemic revealed differential outcome profiles in ASD/NDD youth. Subgroups were characterized by distinct prediction patterns across a set of pre- and pandemic-related experiences/contexts. Results may inform recovery efforts and preparedness in future crises; they also underscore the critical value of international data-sharing and collaborations to address the needs of those most vulnerable in times of crisis