The Rise and Demise of Industrial Agriculture in North Korea

Many scholars suggest that North Korea’s agriculture collapsed in the mid-1990s because of one of the three causes: overall economic decline, deficiencies of the socialist collective system, or environmental disaster. In contrast to these conventional explanations that view North Korea as an idiosyncratic failure, this paper argues that North Korea’s agricultural crisis is attributable to the unsustainable nature of modern industrial agriculture, rooted in the worldwide modernization project of the past two centuries. From the outset, North Korea’s agricultural production had been predicated upon a high consumption of energy, petroleum-based chemicals, mechanization, and irrigation. North Korea’s uniqueness lies not in the industrial agricultural methods used but in the extremity of their extensiveness achieved. While the North achieved a substantial agricultural success for the first three decades thanks to these practices, it paid its early success with the collapse of the 1990s because these methods left an unsustainable level of physical and environmental externalities and because their insatiable need for inputs could no longer be met

THE STANDARD MOTION MODEL OF A BASKETBALL SET SHOT FOR TEACHING

The purpose of this study was to create a standard motion model of a basketball set shot. Twenty-one male collegiate basketball players participated in three-dimensional data collection session (Vicon MX+, 250Hz), and the method proposed by Ae, et al. (2007) was used to create a standard motion model. The set shot motion in the standard motion model started with the shoulder flexion and hip extension in the downward phase, followed by the sequential motions of the knee, ankle, shoulder, elbow and wrist joints in the upward phase. Immediately before the ball release, the elbow and wrist joints were abruptly extended. The motion variation in the wrist, elbow and shoulder joints just before the ball release were small, implying there must be some commonality in these joint motions

GROUND REACTION FORCES DURING THE GOLF SWING USING DIFFERENT GOLF CLUBS IN FEMALE GOLFERS

The purpose of this study was to investigate effects of different golf clubs on the ground reaction forces during the golf swing for females. Ten right-handed female varsity golfers voluntarily participated in this study. Using three different clubs, they hit the ball by their own swing in four conditions (full driver shot, controlled driver shot, 6-iron shot, and approach-wedge shot). Their motion was three-dimensionally captured which was performed with one foot on each force plate. There were no significant differences in the peak resultant forces between the golf clubs, but the peak resultant horizontal force differed between the golf clubs. The female golfers’ resultant reaction force patterns were classified into three patterns, indicating that the golfers generated the reaction forces in their own ways, which would reflect the characteristics of their golf swing

Increased entropy of signal transduction in the cancer metastasis phenotype

Studies into the statistical properties of biological networks have led to important biological insights, such as the presence of hubs and hierarchical modularity. There is also a growing interest in studying the statistical properties of networks in the context of cancer genomics. However, relatively little is known as to what network features differ between the cancer and normal cell physiologies, or between different cancer cell phenotypes. Based on the observation that frequent genomic alterations underlie a more aggressive cancer phenotype, we asked if such an effect could be detectable as an increase in the randomness of local gene expression patterns. Using a breast cancer gene expression data set and a model network of protein interactions we derive constrained weighted networks defined by a stochastic information flux matrix reflecting expression correlations between interacting proteins. Based on this stochastic matrix we propose and compute an entropy measure that quantifies the degree of randomness in the local pattern of information flux around single genes. By comparing the local entropies in the non-metastatic versus metastatic breast cancer networks, we here show that breast cancers that metastasize are characterised by a small yet significant increase in the degree of randomness of local expression patterns. We validate this result in three additional breast cancer expression data sets and demonstrate that local entropy better characterises the metastatic phenotype than other non-entropy based measures. We show that increases in entropy can be used to identify genes and signalling pathways implicated in breast cancer metastasis. Further exploration of such integrated cancer expression and protein interaction networks will therefore be a fruitful endeavour.Comment: 5 figures, 2 Supplementary Figures and Table

Data for Korean college students' anxious and avoidant attachment, self-compassion, anxiety and depression

The data presented in this article are from 473 Korean college students׳ responses to an online survey consisting of measures of anxious and avoidant attachment (the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised Scale: ECR-R), self-compassion (Neff׳s Self-Compassion Scale: SCS), depression (the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale: CES-D) and anxiety (the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-the Trait Anxiety Scale: STAT-T). Each variable was measured by a Korean version of the instrument. Participants were recruited from three universities in South Korea: 288 were men and 185 were women; 199 were undergraduate and 273 were graduate students. The online program used to collect the data prompted for but did not require responses to items; 26 surveys were not completed, and data from these surveys were not included in the dataset. Major findings based on the data presented here are reported in the article “Insecure attachment and emotional distress: Fear of self-compassion and self-compassion as mediators” (Joeng et al., 2017) [1]. The data, an SPSS file, are included as supplementary material.111Yscopu

Culture supernatant of adipose stem cells can ameliorate allergic airway inflammation via recruitment of CD4+CD25+Foxp3 T cells

SDS-PAGE of supernatant after ASC cultivation. Comparison of protein composition of con sup (concentrated medium for ASCs cultivation) and ASC sup (concentrated culture supernatant after ASC cultivation for 3 days) using SDS-PAGE. Thirty micrograms of each sample was loaded into an SDS-PAGE gel. After electrophoresis, the gel was stained by Coomassie Blue (M molecular marker, arrow indicated extra proteins compared to control). (PPT 370 kb

Investigation of Non-Stable Processes in Close Binary Ry Scuti

We present results of reanalysis of old electrophotometric data of early type close binary system RY Scuti obtained at the Abastumani Astrophysical Observatory, Georgia, during 1972-1990 years and at the Maidanak Observatory, Uzbekistan, during 1979-1991 years. It is revealed non-stable processes in RY Sct from period to period, from month to month and from year to year. This variation consists from the hundredths up to the tenths of a magnitude. Furthermore, periodical changes in the system's light are displayed near the first maximum on timescales of a few years. That is of great interest with regard to some similar variations seen in luminous blue variable (LBV) stars. This also could be closely related to the question of why RY Sct ejected its nebula.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, 2 table

Local structure modulation of the low La-doped layered strontium manganite Sr 4 Mn 3 O 10 studied by transmission electron microscopy and electron energy-loss spectroscopy

Abstract Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) have been used to characterize the structure and microstructure of the low La-doped layered manganite La x Sr 4-x Mn 3 O 10 (x £ 0.15). The structure of the perfect phase has been identified as an n = 3 layered structure of the hexagonal series by electron diffraction (ED), high-resolution electron microscopy (HRTEM) together with numerical image simulations. The presence of local superstructure modulation associated with La ordering in the compounds was revealed by electron diffraction and high-resolution electron microscopy. Electron diffraction data indicate that this superstructure modulation is two-dimensional, and the modulation plane lies in the ac plane. The two primary modulation vectors are q 1 ¼ ð1=4Þa à and q 2 ¼ ð1=2Þc à : In addition, another type of modulated structure associated with periodic lattice distortion was occasionally visible in the La 0.15 Sr 3.85 Mn 3 O 10 phase. Energy-loss spectroscopy data indicate that the periodic lattice distortion is led by ordered oxygen deficiency

Transdermal delivery of propranolol hydrochloride through chitosan nanoparticles dispersed in mucoadhesive gel

This study aimed at improving the systemic bioavailability of propranolol-HCl by the design of transdermal drug delivery system based on chitosan nanoparticles dispersed into gels. Chitosan nanoparticles were prepared by ionic gelation technique using tripolyphosphate (TPP) as a cross-linking agent. Characterization of the nanoparticles was focused on particle size, zeta potential, surface texture and morphology, and drug encapsulation efficiency. The prepared freeze dried chitosan nanoparticles were dispersed into gels made of poloxamer and carbopol and the rheological behaviour and the adhesiveness of the gels were investigated. The results showed that smallest propranolol loaded chitosan nanoparticles were achieved with 0.2% chitosan and 0.05% TPP. Nanoparticles were stable in suspension with a zeta potential (ZP) above ±30 mV to prevent aggregation of the colloid. Zeta potential was found to increase with increasing chitosan concentration due to its cationic nature. At least 70% of entrapment efficiency and drug loading were achieved for all prepared nanoparticles. When chitosan nanoparticles dispersed into gel consisting of poloxamer and carbopol, the resultant formulation exhibited thixotropic behaviour with a prolonged drug release properties as shown by the permeation studies through pig ear skin. Our study demonstrated that the designed nanoparticles-gel transdermal delivery system has a potential to improve the systemic bioavailability and the therapeutic efficacy of propranolol-HCl

RNA-Guided Genome Editing in Drosophila with the Purified Cas9 Protein

We report a method for generating Drosophila germline mutants effectively via injection of the complex of the purified Cas9 protein, tracrRNA, and gene-specific crRNAs, which may reduce delayed mutations because of the transient activity of the Cas9 protein, combined with the simple mutation detection in GO founders by the T7E1 assay.