A Comparative Analysis of Three Major Transfer Airports in Northeast Asia Focusing on Incheon International Airport Using a Conjoint Analysis

Due mainly to the privatization and commercialization of airline companies and deregulation of the aviation rules, the demand for air transport has continuously been increasing. Airport authorities state that transfer passengers, who contribute to the large portion of the airports’ profits, are gaining much more importance, particularly in the Northeast Asia region where the air transport industry is very vital. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the competitiveness of IIA (Incheon International Airport) with other major airports located in Northeast Asia in passenger transfers made between Southeast Asia and China to North America using Conjoint Analysis. Results have indicated that airport brand is the most important attribute for the competitiveness of airport, followed by cost, connectivity and duty free shops. In further analysis focusing on brand value of the three airports measured by the use of transfer passengers, it was revealed that IIA needs more effort in developing their brand identity to become the leading transfer hub airport. Based on the results, recommendations for increasing the brand value have also been suggested

Organic field-effect transistors by a wet-transferring method

Organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) were prepared from an epitaxially grown film fabricated by a wet-transferring process. 2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18-octaethyl-21H,23H-porphyrin platinum(II) was grown by thermal evaporation on the (001) surface of potassium bromide (KBr) single crystals. When the film was grown at room temperature, the planar molecules were aligned orthogonally on the crystal surfaces along the [110] direction with edge-on orientation to the surface normal direction. The epitaxy film was transferred to on SiO2/Si surface immediately after removing the KBr on the water surface to product the OFETs. The calculated µFET of the OFET for the wet-transferred vertically aligned film were 1.3×10–4 and 2.2×10–4 cm2 V–1 s–1 at the linear and saturation regions, respectively, at Vg = –50 V at an ION/IOFF (on/off ratios of source–drain current) of 104~105

Prolonged Activation of ERK Contributes to the Photorejuvenation Effect in Photodynamic Therapy in Human Dermal Fibroblasts

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is known to be effective in the photorejuvenation of photoaged skin. However, the molecular mechanisms of rejuvenation by PDT remain elusive. In this study, we aimed to understand the molecular events occurring during the photorejuvenation after PDT in dermal fibroblasts in vitro. First, we found that PDT conditions resulted in an increased fibroblast proliferation and motility in vitro. Under this condition, cells had increased intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Importantly, PDT induced a prolonged activation of extracellular signal–regulated kinase (ERK) with a corresponding increase in matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-3 and collagen type Iα messenger RNA and protein. Moreover, inhibition of PDT-induced ERK activation significantly suppressed fibroblast proliferation and expression of MMP-3 and collagen type Iα following PDT. In addition, NAC (an antioxidant) inhibited PDT-induced fibroblast proliferation and ERK activation indicating that prolonged ERK activation and intracellular ROS contribute to the proliferation of fibroblasts and the dermal remodeling process for skin rejuvenation. We also identified increased collagen volume and decreased elastotic materials that are used as markers of photoaging in human skin samples using histochemical studies. Results from this study suggest that intracellular ROS stimulated by PDT in dermal fibroblasts lead to prolonged activation of ERK and, eventually, fibroblast proliferation and activation. Our data thus reveal a molecular mechanism underlying the skin rejuvenation effect of PDT

Changes in the gut microbiome influence the hypoglycemic effect of metformin through the altered metabolism of branched-chain and nonessential amino acids

AIMS: Although metformin has been reported to affect the gut microbiome, the mechanism has not been fully determined. We explained the potential underlying mechanisms of metformin through a multiomics approach. METHODS: An open-label and single-arm clinical trial involving 20 healthy Korean was conducted. Serum glucose and insulin concentrations were measured, and stool samples were collected to analyze the microbiome. Untargeted metabolomic profiling of plasma, urine, and stool samples was performed by GC-TOF-MS. Network analysis was applied to infer the mechanism of the hypoglycemic effect of metformin. RESULTS: The relative abundances of Escherichia, Romboutsia, Intestinibacter, and Clostridium were changed by metformin treatment. Additionally, the relative abundances of metabolites, including carbohydrates, amino acids, and fatty acids, were changed. These changes were correlated with energy metabolism, gluconeogenesis, and branched-chain amino acid metabolism, which are major metabolic pathways related to the hypoglycemic effect. CONCLUSIONS: We observed that specific changes in metabolites may affect hypoglycemic effects through both pathways related to AMPK activation and microbial changes. Energy metabolism was mainly related to hypoglycemic effects. In particular, branched-chain amino acid metabolism and gluconeogenesis were related to microbial metabolites. Our results will help uncover the potential underlying mechanisms of metformin through AMPK and the microbiome

Nucleon form factors and the pion-nucleon sigma term

This talk summarizes the progress made since Lattice 2021 in understanding and controlling the contributions of towers of multihadron excited states with mass gaps starting lower than of radial excitations, and in increasing our confidence in the extraction of ground state nucleon matrix elements. The most clear evidence for multihadron excited state contributions (ESC) is in axial/pseudoscalar form factors that are required to satisfy the PCAC relation between them. The talk examines the broader question--which and how many of the theoretically allowed positive parity states N(p)π(−p), N(0)π(0)π(0), N(p)π(0), N(0)π(p), … make significant contributions to a given matrix element? New data for the axial, electric and magnetic form factors are presented. They continue to show trends observed in Ref.[1]. The N2 LO χ PT analysis of the ESC to the pion-nucleon sigma term, σπN, has been extended to include the Δ as an explicit degree of freedom [2]. The conclusion reached in Ref.[3] that Nπ and Nππ states each contribute about 10 MeV to σπN, and the consistency between the lattice result with Nπ state included and the phenomenological estimate is not changed with this improvement

Rubidium-Carbonate-Doped 4,7-Diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline Electron Transporting Layer for High-Efficiency p-i-n Organic Light Emitting Diodes

We investigated the electrical properties and charge transport mechanisms of a rubidium-carbonate (Rb2CO3)-doped 4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline (Bphen) electron transporting layer (ETL). The electron-only devices and photoemission spectroscopy analysis revealed that the formation of doping-induced gap states dominantly contributes to the improvement of carrier transport characteristics of the doped system. High-efficiency green phosphorescent p-doping/intrinsic/n-doping (p-i-n) organic light emitting diodes were demonstrated using the Rb2CO3-doped Bphen ETL and rhenium oxide (ReO3)-doped N,N-diphenyl-N,N-bis(1,1-biphenyl)-4,4-diamine hole transporting layer, exhibiting an external quantum efficiency of 19.2%, power efficiency of 76 lm/W, and low operation voltage of 3.6 V at 1000 cd/m2.The authors thank the MKE of Korea and Samsung SDI for their financial support of this work