Where you sit matters: diplomatic networks and international conflict

"Where You Sit Matters: Diplomatic Networks and International Conflict" examines how a state's structural position within diplomatic networks influences its foreign policy behaviors, particularly in the domain of international security. Despite the established understanding in International Relations (IR) that relationships among countries matter, there is little empirical knowledge on what exactly the complicated web of those relationships looks like and how it impacts state behavior. Much IR literature tends to focus only on dyadic or multilateral relationships and treat networks as background, which has left a gap in our understanding of how the structures of international networks affect international outcomes. To address this gap, my dissertation uses network analysis and a variety of statistical methods to reveal key structures of diplomatic networks and examine their impacts on a state's foreign policy behavior. My argument extends in three directions. The first part uses a large-n, cross-sectional analysis to examine the impacts of a state's broker position within diplomatic networks on its decision to initiate and escalate militarized interstate disputes (MIDs). By using the rare events logit and Heckman selection models, I find that occupying a broker position in diplomatic networks increases a state's decision to initiate MIDs over the nearly 200-year period from 1817 to 2001; its marginal impact is nearly twice that of military capability. The second part employs a separable temporal exponential random graph model (STERGM) to examine how key structures of diplomatic networks influence a state's decision to terminate diplomatic ties. My findings show that the breakdown of diplomatic ties is not a rare event and network dynamics play a role in terminating ties: states take cues from other countries in the network to decide whether or not to terminate diplomatic ties. The last part uses a community detection method, specifically a link communities method, to reveal latent communities of the diplomatic network and identify key countries that belong to multiple communities. I find that the diplomatic network resembles a hierarchical structure in that diplomatic communities tend to overlap; only a small number of major powers simultaneously belong to multiple communities and few communities are independent from those major powers

KCHO-1, a Novel Antineuroinflammatory Agent, Inhibits Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Neuroinflammatory Responses through Nrf2-Mediated Heme Oxygenase-1 Expression in Mouse BV2 Microglia Cells

The brain is vulnerable to oxidative stress and inflammation that can occur as a result of aging or neurodegenerative diseases. Our work has sought to identify natural products that regulate heme oxygenase (HO)-1 and to determine their mechanism of action in neurodegenerative diseases. KCHO-1 is a novel herbal therapeutic containing 30% ethanol (EtOH) extracts from nine plants. In this study, we investigated the antineuroinflammatory effects of KCHO-1 in lipopolysaccharide- (LPS-) treated mouse BV2 microglia. KCHO-1 inhibited the protein expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), iNOS-derived nitric oxide (NO), cyclooxygenase- (COX-) 2, and COX-2-derived prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) in LPS-stimulated BV2 microglia. It also reduced tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and IL-6 production. This effect was correlated with the suppression of inhibitor of nuclear factor kappa B-α (IκB-α) phosphorylation and degradation and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) translocation and DNA binding. Additionally, KCHO-1 upregulated HO-1 expression by promoting nuclear translocation of nuclear factor E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) in mouse BV2 microglia. Tin protoporphyrin (SnPP), an HO activity inhibitor, was used to verify the inhibitory effects of KCHO-1 on proinflammatory mediators and proteins associated with HO-1 expression. Our data suggest that KCHO-1 has therapeutic potential in neurodegenerative diseases caused by neuroinflammation

A Knitted Sensing Glove for Human Hand Postures Pattern Recognition

In recent years, flexible sensors for data gloves have been developed that aim to achieve excellent wearability, but they are associated with difficulties due to the complicated manufacturing and embedding into the glove. This study proposes a knitted glove integrated with strain sensors for pattern recognition of hand postures. The proposed sensing glove is fabricated at all once by a knitting technique without sewing and bonding, which is composed of strain sensors knitted with conductive yarn and a glove body with non-conductive yarn. To verify the performance of the developed glove, electrical resistance variations were measured according to the flexed angle and speed. These data showed different values depending on the speed or angle of movements. We carried out experiments on hand postures pattern recognition for the practicability verification of the knitted sensing glove. For this purpose, 10 able-bodied subjects participated in the recognition experiments on 10 target hand postures. The average classification accuracy of 10 subjects reached 94.17% when their own data were used. The accuracy of up to 97.1% was achieved in the case of grasp posture among 10 target postures. When all mixed data from 10 subjects were utilized for pattern recognition, the average classification expressed by the confusion matrix arrived at 89.5%. Therefore, the comprehensive experimental results demonstrated the effectiveness of the knitted sensing gloves. In addition, it is expected to reduce the cost through a simple manufacturing process of the knitted sensing glove

Utility of Digital Technologies for the Sustainability of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in Korea

The importance of preserving intangible cultural heritage (ICH) for sustainable development has been widely acknowledged by the international society. Various forms of cooperation have taken place to prevent deterioration and destruction due to its inherent characteristic of ‘intangibleness’. Public engagement, however, has largely been excluded from the system in spite of its significance in safeguarding ICH by inducing people to be trained as successors. In this respect, this paper discusses and emphasises the necessity of public engagement in safeguarding ICH. To this end, it suggests the use of digital technologies to create museum content to encourage public involvement with and learning about ICH. Focusing on ICH in Korea, digital exhibitions on Jultagi and Daemokjang utilising virtual reality technology are proposed. The ultimate aim of this article is to contribute to the sustainability of world ICH for humanity through digital exhibitions

Fabric Vest Socket with Embroidered Electrodes for Control of Myoelectric Prosthesis

Myoelectric prostheses assist users to live their daily lives. However, the majority of users are primarily confined to forearm amputees because the surface electromyography (sEMG) that understands the motion intents should be acquired from a residual limb for control of the myoelectric prosthesis. This study proposes a novel fabric vest socket that includes embroidered electrodes suitable for a high-level upper amputee, especially for shoulder disarticulation. The fabric vest socket consists of rigid support and a fabric vest with embroidered electrodes. Several experiments were conducted to verify the practicality of the developed vest socket with embroidered electrodes. The sEMG signals were measured using commercial Ag/AgCl electrodes for a comparison to verify the performance of the embroidered electrodes in terms of signal amplitudes, the skin-electrode impedance, and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). These results showed that the embroidered electrodes were as effective as the commercial electrodes. Then, posture classification was carried out by able-bodied subjects for the usability of the developed vest socket. The average classification accuracy for each subject reached 97.92%, and for all the subjects it was 93.2%. In other words, the fabric vest socket with the embroidered electrodes could measure sEMG signals with high accuracy. Therefore, it is expected that it can be readily worn by high-level amputees to control their myoelectric prostheses, as well as it is cost effective for fabrication as compared with the traditional socket

Protective Effects of Withagenin A Diglucoside from Indian Ginseng (Withania somnifera) against Human Dermal Fibroblast Damaged by TNF-α Stimulation

Human skin is constructed with many proteins such as collagen and elastin. Collagen and elastin play a key role in providing strength and elasticity to the human skin and body. However, damage to collagen causes various symptoms such as wrinkles and freckles, which suggests that they are important to maintain skin condition. Extrinsic or intrinsic skin aging produces an excess of skin destructive factors such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, which is a major mediator of the aging process. In aged skin, TNF-α provokes the generation of intracellular ROS (reactive oxygen species). It triggers the excessive secretion of MMP-1, which is a collagen-degrading enzyme that causes the collapse of skin collagen. Therefore, we aimed to search for a natural-product-derived candidate that inhibits the skin damage caused by TNF-α in human dermal fibroblasts. In this study, the protective effect of withagenin A diglucoside (WAD) identified from Withania somnifera against TNF-α-stimulated human dermal fibroblasts is investigated. W. somnifera (Solanaceae), well-known as ‘ashwagandha’, is an Ayurvedic medicinal plant useful for promoting health and longevity. Our experimental results reveal that WAD from W. somnifera suppresses the generation of intercellular ROS. Suppressing intracellular ROS generation inhibits MMP-1 secretion and the collapse of type 1 collagen. The effect of WAD is shown to depend on the inhibition of MAPK phosphorylation, Akt phosphorylation, c-Jun phosphorylation, COX-2 expression, and NF-κB phosphorylation. Further, WAD-depressed expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and IL-8 triggers various inflammatory reactions in human skin. These findings suggest that WAD has protective effects against skin damage. Accordingly, our study provides experimental evidence that WAD can be a potential agent that can be applied in various industrial fields, such as cosmetics and pharmaceuticals related to skin aging

Generation of Stilbene Glycoside with Promising Cell Rejuvenation Activity through Biotransformation by the Entomopathogenic Fungus Beauveria bassiana

A stilbene glycoside (resvebassianol A) (1) with a unique sugar unit, 4-O-methyl-D-glucopyranose, was identified through biotransformation of resveratrol (RSV) by the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana to obtain a superior RSV metabolite with enhanced safety. Its structure, including its absolute configurations, was determined using spectroscopic data, HRESIMS, and chemical reactions. Microarray analysis showed that the expression levels of filaggrin, HAS2-AS1, and CERS3 were higher, while those of IL23A, IL1A, and CXCL8 were lower in the resvebassianol A-treated group than in the RSV-treated group, as confirmed by qRT-PCR. Compound 1 exhibited the same regenerative and anti-inflammatory effects as RSV with no cytotoxicity in skin keratinocytes and TNF-α/IFN-γ-stimulated HIEC-6 cells, suggesting that compound 1 is a safe and stable methylglycosylated RSV. Our findings suggest that our biotransformation method can be an efficient biosynthetic platform for producing a broad range of natural glycosides with enhanced safety