A State’s Sovereign Rights and Obligations in the WTO to Harmonize Environmental Policies

Article published in the Michigan State International Law Review

An International Comparison Study Exploring the Influential Variables Affecting Students’ Reading Literacy and Life Satisfaction

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) aims to provide comparative data on 15-year-olds’ academic performance and well-being. The purpose of the current study is to explore and compare the variables that predict the reading literacy and life satisfaction of U.S. and South Korean students. The random forest algorithm, which is a machine learning approach, was applied to PISA 2018 data (4,677 U.S. students and 6,650 South Korean students) to explore and select the key variables among 305 variables that predict reading literacy and life satisfaction. In each random forest analysis, one for the U.S. and another for South Korea, 23 variables were derived as key variables in students’ reading literacy. In addition, 23 variables in the U.S. and 26 variables in South Korea were derived as important variables for students’ life satisfaction. The multilevel analysis revealed that various student-, teacher- or school-related key variables derived from the random forest were statistically related to either U.S. and/or South Korean students’ reading literacy and/or life satisfaction. The current study proposes to use a machine learning approach to examine international large-scale data for an international comparison. The implications of the current study and suggestions for future research are discussed

Exploring the effects of contextual factors on home lighting experience

Background Although lighting increasingly penetrates our everyday life due to technology advancement, little is known about how people interact with lighting and how contextual factors impact on the experience. Thus, this study attempted to reveal how two contextual factors (the level of concentration required for pleasant lighting use and social interaction) could influence the manipulation of lighting parameters, particularly focusing on the major factors of lighting such as illuminance, color temperature, and hue. Methods To understand of the interaction between contextual factors and lighting variables, an experiment was conducted. 10 singles and 10 couples had to manipulate lighting variables such as intensity and colorin five everyday situations for pleasant lighting experience. Results The result of the experiment showed that illuminance, color temperature and hue are influenced by the degree of concentration, but only partially influenced by social factors. The findings could provide a better understanding of manipulating lighting variables in terms of use context with design practitioners. Conclusions The overall findings of the study indicate that illuminance, color temperature, and hue are significantly dependent upon the level of concentration required in at-home lighting use, and also have only a partial dependence on social effect. This implies that although we assumed that people have their personal lighting preferences, their preferences can be largely dependent on the degree of concentration required for at-home pleasant lighting use. Hence, there are common patterns among people in manipulating lighting parameters, which are less dependent on personal differences. © Archives of Design Researc

Ability of S100 proteins and matrix metalloproteinase-9 to identify periodontitis in a ligature-induced periodontitis dog model

Aims The present study aimed to monitor the levels of selected salivary biomarkers during the development and treatment of periodontitis and to evaluate their ability to identify periodontitis in dogs. Materials and methods A total of 15 beagle dogs were divided into a control group (no ligature), group 1 (ligature on six teeth), and group 2 (ligature on 12 teeth). The experimental periods consisted of 8 weeks of periodontitis induction and 4 weeks of treatment. Clinical measurements and the sampling of saliva were performed every 4 weeks. The levels of S100A8, S100A9, S100A8/A9, and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results All experimental animals and two control animals developed periodontitis, which was successfully treated. All salivary biomarkers were significantly increased in periodontitis with high diagnostic power (c-index >= 0.944) and were able to identify animals with periodontitis on a single tooth. Whereas the levels of salivary S100A8/A9 recovered to levels in health, those of S100A8, S100A9, and MMP-9 in periodontitis stability remained significantly higher than in health. Conclusion Salivary S100A8, S100A9, S100A8/A9, and MMP-9 may be used for the screening of periodontitis in dogs, but with caution of other conditions that can affect their levels in saliva.N

Theta Oscillation Related to the Auditory Discrimination Process in Mismatch Negativity: Oddball versus Control Paradigm

Background and Purpose The aim of this study was to identify the mechanism underlying the auditory discriminatory process reflected in mismatch negativity (MMN), using time-frequency analysis of single-trial event-related potentials (ERPs).Methods Two auditory tones of different probabilities (oddball paradigm) and the same probability (control paradigm) were used. The average dynamic changes in amplitude were evaluated, and the in-phase consistency of the EEG spectrum at each frequency and time window across trials, event-related spectral perturbations (ERSPs), and inter-trial phase coherence (ITC) were computed.Results Subtraction of the ERPs of standard stimuli from the ERPs of deviant stimuli revealed a clear MMN component in the oddball paradigm. However, no discernible MMN component was observed in the control paradigm. Statistical tests showed that in the oddball paradigm, deviant tones produced significant increases of theta ERSPs and ITC at around 250 ms as compared with the standard tone, while no significant difference between the two stimuli was observed in the control paradigm.Conclusions Our results confirm that the auditory discriminatory process reflected in MMN is accompanied by phase resetting and power modulation at the theta frequency.OAIID:oai:osos.snu.ac.kr:snu2012-01/102/2014017262/2SEQ:2PERF_CD:SNU2012-01EVAL_ITEM_CD:102USER_ID:2014017262ADJUST_YN:YEMP_ID:A079623DEPT_CD:801CITE_RATE:1.892DEPT_NM:의학과SCOPUS_YN:YCONFIRM:

Dietary patterns and metabolic syndrome risk factors among adolescents

PurposeUnbalanced diets and decreased physical activity have contributed to increased prevalence of obesity and metabolic syndrome in adolescents. We have performed a systematic review and data analysis to examine the association between dietary pattern and metabolic syndrome risk factors in adolescents.MethodsWe searched the PubMed and BioMedLib databases for appropriate articles published during the past 10 years and selected 6 articles. The studies reviewed applied factor analysis or cluster analysis to extract dietary patterns. For data analysis, we examined the association between dietary patterns and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome risk factors using data of 3,168 adolescents (13 to 18 years) obtained from 4 consecutive Korean Nutrition Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (1998, 2001, 2005, and 2007 to 2009).ResultsOur systematic review confirmed that western dietary patterns are positively associated with metabolic syndrome risk factors such as obesity and elevated triglycerides, while traditional dietary patterns were negatively associated. Data analysis found that the number of adolescents aged 16 to 18 years who had "Rice & Kimchi" dietary pattern decreased, while the number having western dietary patterns increased during the 1998 to 2009 time frame. There were no changes in the dietary patterns in adolescents aged 13 to 15 years. The risk of elevated serum triglycerides and reduced serum high density lipoprotein cholesterol was high in the "Rice & Kimchi" dietary pattern compared to the other dietary pattern groups.ConclusionBecause adolescents' dietary patterns are changing continuously and have long-term effects, further studies on the dietary patterns of adolescents and their health effects into adulthood are necessary

EFFECTS OF SOCIAL PRESENCE ON SOCIAL MEDIA NATIVES: EXAMINATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIENCE WITH ON/OFFLINE EXPERIMENTS AND BRAIN MEASURES (FNIRS).

First of all, this study contributed to the scale development of Social Media Natives who are a generation that started to use social media from young ages. By combining several media usage scales, the Social Media Natives scale was developed in phase 1 through exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and elimination based on correlation analysis. This study also investigated when a persuasive information exposure on a social media page (vs. webpage), using different modalities and different types of the endorser, results how the Social Media Natives evaluate the content and the endorser. It also examines how engagement with the information and perceivers’ level of media usage affects how the message is received. In phase 2, an identical message was compared in different eight conditions that were manipulated with (a) modality of information (i.e., video vs. image) by (b) channel of information (i.e., social media vs. website) by (c) endorser (i.e., peer vs. medical doctor) while identifying how Social Media Natives moderate the feeling of social presence and also how mediated social presence affects the message, e.g., attitude on the content, and message sharing intention, health concern & para-social interaction. The path model results in phase 2 showed that combinatory of three IVs were positively associated with feelings of social presence while the Social Media Natives enhanced association. Based on phase 2 results, phase 3 conducted to check the neurological association between early social media usage and temporoparietal junction (TPJ) where social interaction and empathy are found. The findings of the on- and off-line experiments showed early age usage of social media results in fewer hemoglobin activities found in TPJ area where are known for users’ feelings of social presence and empathetic response. Therefore, the researcher suggests that early usage of social media may be harmful to the development of users’ empathetical processes