The Three Strikes Policy in Korean Copyright Act 2009: Safe or Out?

Korea has grown to be one of the Internet powers in a short period. Because of insufficient copyright protection, Korea recently revised the Korean Copyright Act to reinforce protection of copyright and promote sound distribution of copyrighted works. The new law allows the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism to issue orders and the Korea Copyright Commission to issue recommendations. Orders and recommendations are distinguished by the subject of the issuance and the legal force. Orders and recommendations enable online service providers to delete or stop transmission of illegal reproductions, give warning notices to infringers, or suspend the account of repetitive infringers. The “three strikes” policy is controversial and has raised several constitutional concerns. First, the suspension of the repeat infringer’s account may be an unconstitutional violation of the infringer’s freedom of speech. Second, an executive agency’s decision to issue a correction order could be an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers. The final concern is that the policy violates the principles of due process. This Article examines the “three strikes” policy, the constitutional concerns regarding the policy, and possible policy revisions for more effective copyright protection

Unmasking the Phantoms of Generations: A Comparative Study of Financial Responsibility and Stress Across Generational Divides (FTA Best Paper Award)

This study investigated whether financial stress is associated with experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic across different generations. In addition, this research examined whether financial payment behaviors are associated with experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic, different generations, and having higher financial stress. Two cross-sectional samples were collected from the United States at two time points, before COVID-19 (n = 823) and during COVID-19 (n = 803). Ordinary least squared (OLS) regression and ordered logistic models were utilized to answer the research questions. The results revealed that COVID-19 increased financial stress, but the younger generations have demonstrated resilience in dealing with the pandemic, contrary to previous research. Furthermore, when analyzing specific financial payment behavior trends such as responsible behavior, continuous age values were found to be more significant than generational divisions. Consequently, the results indicated financial stress related to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it was not associated with generational categories. Both academic and practical implications of the findings are discussed

The diluted atropine for inhibition of myopia progression in Korean children

AIM: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of three different concentrations of diluted atropine for the control of myopia in Korean children, and to assess the risk factors associated with rapid myopia progression. METHODS: A total of 285 children, with refractive errors within the range of -6 diopters (D) between 5 and 14 years of age were included. After using 0.01%, or 0.025%, or 0.05% atropine, for about 1y, changes in refraction, axial lengths and frequency of adverse events were analyzed. Logistic regression analyses were performed to evaluate the risk factors associated with rapid myopia progression. RESULTS: The changes in the mean spherical equivalent values were -0.134 D/mo in the before atropine group, -0.070 D/mo in the 0.01% atropine group, -0.047 D/mo in the 0.025% atropine group, and -0.019 D/mo in the 0.05% atropine group, with significant differences between the groups (P<0.001). The axial elongation was 0.046 mm/mo, 0.037 mm/mo, 0.025 mm/mo, and 0.019 mm/mo respectively, with significant differences between the groups (P=0.003). The incidence of photophobia and near vision difficulty was not different among the three atropine groups (P=0.425 and P=0.356, respectively). Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that only highly myopic parents were a significant predictive factor of rapid myopia progression in Korean children (odds ratio, 8.155; 95% confidence interval, 3.626-18.342; P<0.001). CONCLUSION: Treatment with 0.01%, 0.025% and 0.05% atropine solution inhibits myopia progression in Korean children in a dose-dependent manner. Children with highly myopic parents preferentially shows a rapid myopia progression rate

Platelet-derived growth factor induces p21/WAF1 promoter in vascular smooth muscle cells via activation of an Sp1 site

AbstractMany studies suggested that cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor (CDKI) p21 acts as a universal inhibitor of cyclin/CDK catalytic activity. This protein has also been shown to be a component of active cyclin/CDK complexes. In addition, it has recently been suggested that p21 serves as an assembly factor in platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-stimulated vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC). However, little is known concerning the molecular mechanisms by which PDGF induces p21 gene expression in VSMC. In this report we demonstrate that PDGF induces the p21 expression at both the mRNA and protein levels. This increase in p21 gene expression was due to activation of the p21 promoter by PDGF. Through both deletion and mutation analysis of the p21 promoter, we defined a 10-bp sequence that is required for the activation of the p21 promoter by PDGF. In addition, gel shift and supershift assays demonstrated that this PDGF-responsive element binds specifically to the transcription factor Sp1. These results demonstrate that Sp1 mediates PDGF-induced p21 gene expression in VSMC. Moreover, immunoblot and immonoprecipitation analysis showed that the level of hyperphosphorylated retinoblastoma protein (Rb) is increased and the protein is physically associated with Sp1 in PDGF-treated cells, indicating that phosphorylated Rb may play a role in regulating Sp1 to activate p21 expression

Effects of the Rho-Kinase Inhibitor Y-27632 on Extraocular Muscle Surgery in Rabbits

Purpose. To evaluate the effect of the Rho-kinase inhibitor Y-27632 on postoperative inflammation and adhesion following extraocular muscle surgery in rabbits. Methods. The superior rectus muscle reinsertion was performed on both eyes of 8 New Zealand white rabbits. After reinsertion, the rabbits received subconjunctival injections of the Rho-kinase inhibitor and saline on each eye. To assess acute and late inflammatory changes, Ki-67, CD11β+, and F4/80 were evaluated and the sites of muscle reattachment were evaluated for a postoperative adhesion score and histopathologically for collagen formation. Results. F4/80 antibody expression was significantly different in the Rho-kinase inhibitor-injected group at both postoperative day 3 and week 4 (p=0.038, 0.031). However, Ki-67 and CD11β+ were not different the between two groups. The difference in the SRM/conjunctiva adhesion score between the two groups was also significant (p=0.034). Conclusion. Intraoperative subconjunctival injection of the Rho-kinase inhibitor may be effective for adjunctive management of inflammation and fibrosis in rabbit eyes following extraocular muscle surgery

New Mexico Speculative Fiction Authors

New Mexico is not only a place of many enchanting sunsets and landscapes, but also home to many authors of speculative fiction. Join us in this roundtable as we discuss and introduce a few works of fantasy and science fiction by New Mexico-linked writers that our roundtable members have found particularly interesting, enjoyable, or mythopoeic. Just a few New Mexico speculative fiction writers you may have heard of are Roger Zelazny, George R. R. Martin, Diana Gabaldon, Suzy McKee Charnas, James S. A. Corey, Stephen R. Donaldson, Rebecca Roanhorse, Daniel Abraham, Fred Saberhagen, Walter Jon Williams, Melinda Snodgrass, S. M. Sterling, Jane Lindskold, Sheri S. Tepper, and of course Rivera Sun (our Mythcon Guest of Honor). While we will not have time to discuss all those listed, we will lead what we expect to be a lively, interactive discussion with attendees about the mythopoeic riches New Mexico authors offer

Onion peel extracts ameliorate hyperglycemia and insulin resistance in high fat diet/streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Quercetin derivatives in onions have been regarded as the most important flavonoids to improve diabetic status in cells and animal models. The present study was aimed to examine the hypoglycemic and insulin-sensitizing capacity of onion peel extract (OPE) containing high quercetin in high fat diet/streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats and to elucidate the mechanism of its insulin-sensitizing effect.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed the AIN-93G diet modified to contain 41.2% fat and intraperitoneally injected with a single dose of streptozotocin (40 mg/kg body weight). One week after injection, the rats with fasting blood glucose levels above 126 mg/dL were randomly divided into 4 groups to treat with high fat diet containing 0 (diabetic control), 0.5, or 1% of OPE or 0.1% quercetin (quercetin equivalent to 1% of OPE) for 8 weeks. To investigate the mechanism for the effects of OPE, we examined biochemical parameters (insulin sensitivity and oxidative stresses) and protein and gene expressions (pro-inflammatory cytokines and receptors).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Compared to the diabetic control, hypoglycemic and insulin-sensitizing capability of 1% OPE were demonstrated by significant improvement of glucose tolerance as expressed in incremental area under the curve (<it>P </it>= 0.0148). The insulin-sensitizing effect of OPE was further supported by increased glycogen levels in liver and skeletal muscle (<it>P </it>< 0.0001 and <it>P </it>= 0.0089, respectively). Quantitative RT-PCR analysis showed increased expression of insulin receptor (<it>P </it>= 0.0408) and GLUT4 (<it>P </it>= 0.0346) in muscle tissues. The oxidative stress, as assessed by superoxide dismutase activity and malondialdehyde formation, plasma free fatty acids, and hepatic protein expressions of IL-6 were significantly reduced by 1% OPE administration (<it>P </it>= 0.0393, 0.0237, 0.0148 and 0.0025, respectively).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>OPE might improve glucose response and insulin resistance associated with type 2 diabetes by alleviating metabolic dysregulation of free fatty acids, suppressing oxidative stress, up-regulating glucose uptake at peripheral tissues, and/or down-regulating inflammatory gene expression in liver. Moreover, in most cases, OPE showed greater potency than pure quercetin equivalent. These findings provide a basis for the use of onion peel to improve insulin insensitivity in type 2 diabetes.</p

Meteorin regulates mesendoderm development by enhancing nodal expression

During gastrulation, distinct lineage specification into three germ layers, the mesoderm, endoderm and ectoderm, occurs through an elaborate harmony between signaling molecules along the embryonic proximo-distal and anterior-posterior axes, and Nodal signaling plays a key role in the early embryonic development governing embryonic axis formation, mesoderm and endoderm specification, and left-right asymmetry determination. However, the mechanism by which Nodal expression is regulated is largely unknown. Here, we show that Meteorin regulates Nodal expression and is required for mesendoderm development. It is highly expressed in the inner cell mass of blastocysts and further in the epiblast and extra-embryonic ectoderm during gastrulation. Genetic ablation of the Meteorin gene resulted in early embryonic lethality, presumably due to impaired lineage allocation and subsequent cell accumulation. Embryoid body culture using Meteorin-null embryonic stem (ES) cells showed reduced Nodal expression and concomitant impairment of mesendoderm specification. Meteorin-null embryos displayed reduced levels of Nodal transcripts before the gastrulation stage, and impaired expression of Goosecoid, a definitive endoderm marker, during gastrulation, while the proximo-distal and anterior-posterior axes and primitive streak formation were preserved. Our results show that Meteorin is a novel regulator of Nodal transcription and is required to maintain sufficient Nodal levels for endoderm formation, thereby providing new insights in the regulation of mesendoderm allocation.open1113sciescopu

Linguistic Correlates of Proficiency in Korean as a Second Language

This study investigates relationships between global oral proficiency ratings and measures of grammatical competence in the acquisition of Korean as a second language. Data were collected on the linguistic abilities of learners at 1+ to 4 on the ILR scale, focusing on perception in phonology, morphology, syntax, lexis, and collocation. The results show that (i) most of the tasks have high internal reliability, (ii) individual accuracy scores correlate strongly with levels on the ILR proficiency scale on most tasks, and (iii) heritage speakers outperform non-heritage speakers at the same high levels of oral proficiency on most tasks. The findings indicate that global proficiency scales like the OPI can be deconstructed using tasks that provide detailed measures of learners'control of linguistic features

Identification of protein functions using a machine-learning approach based on sequence-derived properties

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Predicting the function of an unknown protein is an essential goal in bioinformatics. Sequence similarity-based approaches are widely used for function prediction; however, they are often inadequate in the absence of similar sequences or when the sequence similarity among known protein sequences is statistically weak. This study aimed to develop an accurate prediction method for identifying protein function, irrespective of sequence and structural similarities.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A highly accurate prediction method capable of identifying protein function, based solely on protein sequence properties, is described. This method analyses and identifies specific features of the protein sequence that are highly correlated with certain protein functions and determines the combination of protein sequence features that best characterises protein function. Thirty-three features that represent subtle differences in local regions and full regions of the protein sequences were introduced. On the basis of 484 features extracted solely from the protein sequence, models were built to predict the functions of 11 different proteins from a broad range of cellular components, molecular functions, and biological processes. The accuracy of protein function prediction using random forests with feature selection ranged from 94.23% to 100%. The local sequence information was found to have a broad range of applicability in predicting protein function.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We present an accurate prediction method using a machine-learning approach based solely on protein sequence properties. The primary contribution of this paper is to propose new <it>PNPRD </it>features representing global and/or local differences in sequences, based on positively and/or negatively charged residues, to assist in predicting protein function. In addition, we identified a compact and useful feature subset for predicting the function of various proteins. Our results indicate that sequence-based classifiers can provide good results among a broad range of proteins, that the proposed features are useful in predicting several functions, and that the combination of our and traditional features may support the creation of a discriminative feature set for specific protein functions.</p