• Title/Summary/Keyword: Hypothesis-understanding

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The Role of Stem Cells and Gap Junctional Intercellular Communication in Carcinogenesis

  • Trosko, James E.
    • BMB Reports
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    • v.36 no.1
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    • pp.43-48
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    • 2003
  • Understanding the process of carcinogenesis will involve both the accumulation of many scientific facts derived from molecular, biochemical, cellular, physiological, whole animal experiments and epidemiological studies, as well as from conceptual understanding as to how to order and integrate those facts. From decades of cancer research, a number of the "hallmarks of cancer" have been identified, as well as their attendant concepts, including oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes, cell cycle biochemistry, hypotheses of metastasis, angiogenesis, etc. While all these "hallmarks" are well known, two important concepts, with their associated scientific observations, have been generally ignored by many in the cancer research field. The objective of the short review is to highlight the concept of the role of human adult pluri-potent stem cells as "target cells" for the carcinogenic process and the concept of the role of gap junctional intercellular communication in the multi-stage, multi-mechanism process of carcinogenesis. With these two concepts, an attempt has been made to integrate the other well-known concepts, such as the multi-stage, multi-mechanisn or the "initiation/promotion/progression" hypothesis; the stem cell theory of carcinogenesis; the oncogene/tumor suppression theory and the mutation/epigenetic theories of carcinogenesis. This new "integrative" theory tries to explain the well-known "hallmarks" of cancers, including the observation that cancer cells lack either heterologous or homologous gap junctional intercellular communication whereas normal human adult stem cells do not have expressed or functional gap junctional intercellular communication. On the other hand, their normal differentiated, non-stem cell derivatives do express connexins and express gap junctional intercellular communication during their differentiation. Examination of the roles of chemical tumor promoters, oncogenes, connexin knock-out mice and roles of genetically-engineered tumor and normal cells with connexin and anti-sense connexin genes, respectively, seems to provide evidence which is consistent with the roles of both stem cells and gap junctional communication playing a major role in carcinogenesis. The integrative hypothesis provides new strategies for chemoprevention and chemotherapy which focuses on modulating connexin gene expression or gap junctional intercellular communication in the premalignant and malignant cells, respectively.

The Influences of Cognitive Conflict and Situational Interest by a Discrepant Event on the Conceptual Change Process in Learning the Concept of Combustion (연소 개념 학습에서 변칙 사례에 의한 인지 갈등 및 상황 흥미가 개념 변화 과정에 미치는 영향)

  • Choi, Sook-Yeong;Kang, Suk-Jin;Noh, Tae-Hee
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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    • v.28 no.8
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    • pp.779-785
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    • 2008
  • In this study, we investigated the role of a discrepant event from both cognitive and motivational perspectives in learning the concept of combustion. A preconception test, a test of response to a discrepant event, and a situational interest questionnaire were administered to 433 eighth graders. After learning the concept of combustion, the tests of attention, effort, and conceptual understanding were administered as post-tests. The reponses of 208 students who had been found to possess the target misconception were analyzed. The percentages of rejection and exclusion responses were relatively high compared to the previous studies about density concept, whereas a proportion of belief change was low. The results of the path analysis indicated that situational interest after presenting an alternative hypothesis had a direct effect and an indirect effect via attention and effort on conceptual understanding. Situational interest induced by a discrepant event directly influenced cognitive conflict after presenting an alternative hypothesis.

Debt Maturity and the Effects of Growth Opportunities and Liquidity Risk on Leverage: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

  • VIJAYAKUMARAN, Sunitha;VIJAYAKUMARAN, Ratnam
    • The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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    • v.6 no.3
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    • pp.27-40
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    • 2019
  • The study examines the effects of growth opportunities, debt maturity and liquidity risk on leverage, making use of a large panel of Chinese listed firms. Research on capital structure has broadened its scope from a single capital structure decision (the debt/equity choice) to various attributes of the debt in firms' capital structure. We use the system Generalized Method of Moments estimator to control for unobserved heterogeneity and the potential endogeneity of regressors. We find a negative relationship between growth opportunities and leverage. Further, we find that while the proportion of short-term debt attenuates the negative effect of growth opportunities on leverage, it negatively affects leverage as predicted by the liquidity risk hypothesis. When we distinguish between state owned firms and private controlled firms, we find evidence that these effects are only relevant to private controlled firms. However, our analysis indicates that the economic implication of liquidity risk effect is much lower for Chinese firms than that observed in the literature for US firms. Our study suggests that these differences can be explained by differences in the institutional environment in which firms operate. This finding related to Diamond's (1991) liquidity risk hypothesis extends our understanding of the relationship between liquidity risk and the debt maturity choice.

Review on Mechanism and Efficacy of Acupuncture Stimulation - Relationship between Acupuncture Stimulation and Autonomic Nervous System (침자극의 기전 및 효과에 대한 고찰 - 자율신경계와의 관계를 중심으로)

  • Jeon, Sun-Woo;Nam, Hae-Jeong;Kim, Jin-Myoung;Lee, Woo-Geon;Kim, Yoon-Bum
    • Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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    • v.24 no.5
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    • pp.748-752
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    • 2010
  • There are many hypothesis about mechanism of acupuncture, and the relationship between acupuncture stimulation and autonomic nervous system(ANS) is one of the powerful hypothesis. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between acupuncture stimulation and ANS. We searched the literature and reports related with acupuncture stimulation(meridian system, meridian points) and autonomic nervous system. And we concluded acupuncture stimulation can control autonomic nervous system. We reviewed studies that contributed to an understanding of the autonomic mechanisms of acupuncture with the hope that this review will be of benefit to the acupuncture treatment.

An Adaptive Structural Model When There is a Major Level Change (수준에서의 변화에 적응하는 구조모형)

  • 전덕빈
    • Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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    • v.12 no.1
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    • pp.19-26
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    • 1987
  • In analyzing time series, estimating the level or the current mean of the process plays an important role in understanding its structure and in being able to make forecasts. The studies the class of time series models where the level of the process is assumed to follow a random walk and the deviation from the level follow an ARMA process. The estimation and forecasting problem in a Bayesian framework and uses the Kalman filter to obtain forecasts based on estimates of level. In the analysis of time series, we usually make the assumption that the time series is generated by one model. However, in many situations the time series undergoes a structural change at one point in time. For example there may be a change in the distribution of random variables or in parameter values. Another example occurs when the level of the process changes abruptly at one period. In order to study such problems, the assumption that level follows a random walk process is relaxed to include a major level change at a particular point in time. The major level change is detected by examining the likelihood raio under a null hypothesis of no change and an alternative hypothesis of a major level change. The author proposes a method for estimation the size of the level change by adding one state variable to the state space model of the original Kalman filter. Detailed theoretical and numerical results are obtained for th first order autoregressive process wirth level changes.

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High operating temperature stable OLEDs with reduced reflectivity cathodes

  • Popovic, Zoran D.;Aziz, Hany;Vamvounis, George;Hu, Nan-Xing;Paine, Tony
    • 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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    • 2003.07a
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    • pp.21-24
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    • 2003
  • The understanding of the mechanism of device degradation has been accomplished recently, for devices using $AlQ_3$ electron transport and emitter molecule. In this presentation the experimental evidence for the degradation mechanism of $AlQ_3$ based devices will be reviewed, showing that the hypothesis of an unstable $AlQ_3^+$ cation explains a large amount of experimental data. This hypothesis, however, explains not only the room temperature device degradation in time but also sheds light on temperature stability of OLEDs. Dependence of half-life of a series of devices with an emitter layer composed of a mixture of $AlQ_3$ and different hole transport molecules (mixed emitter layer) will be discussed when they are operated at elevated temperatures. These results can also be explained in the framework of an unstable $AlQ_3^+$ species. An OLED structure containing a doped mixed emitter layer will be described, which shows extraordinary stability, half-life of 1200 hours at operating temperature of 70 C and initial luminance of 1650 $cd/m^2$. We will also discuss a novel Black $Cathode^{TM}$ OLED with reduced optical reflectivity, which is also stable at elevated temperatures. The new cathode utilizes a conductive light-absorbing layer made of a mixture of metals and organic materials.

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Imported Intermediate Goods and Economic Growth

  • Kim, Kyung-Min
    • Journal of Korea Trade
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    • v.25 no.8
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    • pp.25-44
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    • 2021
  • Purpose - This research aims to provide empirical evidence that highlights the importance of imported intermediate goods in long-term economic growth. To this end, this paper develops an index that measures the productivity gains associated with a country's intermediate goods imports using highly disaggregated trade data. Design/methodology - The basic hypothesis is that countries sourcing higher-productivity (or higher-quality) inputs from developed economies derive a larger benefit from foreign R&D. To explore this hypothesis, standard cross-country growth regressions are performed using the highly disaggregated data from the United Nations (UN) Commodity Trade Statistics Database (COMTRADE). To address the endogeneity issue, I apply an instrumental variable (IV) approach. Findings - The results of this study demonstrate that the index predicts subsequent economic growth in middle- and low-income countries. This finding is consistent with previous studies that have argued that developing countries can achieve substantial productivity gains by importing intermediate inputs from developed countries. By contrast, there is no evidence of a significant association between the index and economic growth in high-income countries. Originality/value - This paper contributes to our understanding of the causal relationship between international trade and economic growth. From an economic policy perspective, the results suggest that developing countries with limited technology endowment can boost growth from input-tariff liberalization.

An Exploratory Observation of Analyzing Event-Related Potential Data on the Basis of Random-Resampling Method (무선재추출법에 기초한 사건관련전위 자료분석에 대한 탐색적 고찰)

  • Hyun, Joo-Seok
    • Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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    • v.20 no.2
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    • pp.149-160
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    • 2017
  • In hypothesis testing, the interpretation of a statistic obtained from the data analysis relies on a probabilistic distribution of the statistic constructed according to several statistical theories. For instance, the statistical significance of a mean difference between experimental conditions is determined according to a probabilistic distribution of the mean differences (e.g., Student's t) constructed under several theoretical assumptions for population characteristics. The present study explored the logic and advantages of random-resampling approach for analyzing event-related potentials (ERPs) where a hypothesis is tested according to the distribution of empirical statistics that is constructed based on randomly resampled dataset of real measures rather than a theoretical distribution of the statistics. To motivate ERP researchers' understanding of the random-resampling approach, the present study further introduced a specific example of data analyses where a random-permutation procedure was applied according to the random-resampling principle, as well as discussing several cautions ahead of its practical application to ERP data analyses.

Change of Plantar Pressure Distribution according to Stance Patterns during Tennis Forehand (테니스 포핸드의 스탠스 유형에 따른 족저압력분포의 변화)

  • Lee, Tae-Keun;Kim, Seung-Jae;Choi, Ji-Young
    • Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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    • v.15 no.2
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    • pp.185-196
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    • 2005
  • Recently among several tennis techniques forehand stroke has been greatly changed in the aspect of spin, grip and stance. The most fundamental factor among the three factors is the stance which consists of open, square and closed stance and it is very important to know the patterns of plantar pressure distribution for the better understanding of forehand stroke. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the change of plantar pressure distribution according to close, square and open stance patterns during forehand stroke in tennis. Three high school tennis players were recruited for the study and required to perform forehand stroke five consecutive trials in the condition of open, square and close stance. The forehand strokes were filmed with two digital video cameras and measured with pedar system for plantar pressure. The plantar regions under the foot were divided into 3 regions, which were forefoot, midfoot, and rear foot.. In conclusion, the first hypothesis, "The plantar pressure of close stance during forehand stroke would be distributed more largely to the left foot.", was rejected and the result showed that The plantar pressure of close stance during forehand stroke was distributed transferring from right foot to left foot similar to square stance. The second hypothesis, "The plantar pressure of square stance during forehand stroke would be distributed transferring from right foot to left foot." was accepted. The third hypothesis, "The plantar pressure of open stance during forehand stroke would be distributed more largely to the right foot.", was accepted.

Development and Application of an Overcoming Compassion Fatigue Program for Emergency Nurses (응급실 간호사를 위한 공감피로 극복프로그램 개발 및 효과검증)

  • Kim, Yeong Ah;Park, Jeong Sook
    • Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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    • v.46 no.2
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    • pp.260-270
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    • 2016
  • Purpose: This study was conducted to develop a program to help emergency nurses overcome compassion fatigue, and to analyze the effects of the program. Methods: A nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design was used. There were 14 participants in the experimental group and 18 subjects in the control group. The program was comprised of five, weekly 80-minute sessions including understanding and assessment of compassion fatigue, enhancing positive affect, balancing work-life, planning self care, training in relaxation techniques and cognitive restructuring, and getting social support. Research variables were ego-resiliency, compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue of the ProQOL 5, and salivary cortisol. Data were analyzed using Chi-square test, independent t-test, and paired t-test. Results: The first hypothesis, "There will be a difference in scores for ego resiliency between the experimental group and the control group". was not supported. The second hypothesis, "There will be a difference in scores for compassion satisfaction between the experimental group and the control group" was supported (t=2.15, p=.046). The third hypothesis, "There will be a difference in scores for compassion fatigue between the experimental group and the control group" was not supported. Conclusion: The first program for emergency nurses to overcome compassion fatigue in Korea was effective in increasing emergency nurses' compassion satisfaction and decreasing salivary cortisol level in the experimental group. Therefore, this program for overcoming compassion fatigue is useful to increase emergency nurses' compassion satisfaction. However replication studies of short-term intensive program reflecting emergency nurses' opinion are needed.