• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.53-74
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• 2018

Since South Korea has an economic structure that has a characteristic which market-dependent on overseas, the tourism industry is considered as a very important industry for the national economy, such as improving the country's balance of payments or providing income and employment increases. Accordingly, the necessity of more accurate forecasting on the demand in the tourism industry has been raised to promote its industry. In the related research, economic variables such as exchange rate and income have been used as variables influencing tourism demand. As information technology has been widely used, some researchers have also analyzed the effect of media on tourism demand. It has shown that the media has a considerable influence on traveler's decision making, such as choosing an outbound destination. Furthermore, with the recent availability of online information searches to obtain the latest information and two-way communication in social media, it is possible to obtain up-to-date information on travel more quickly than before. The information in online media such as blogs can naturally create the Word-of-Mouth effect by sharing useful information, which is called eWOM. Like all other service industries, the tourism industry is characterized by difficulty in evaluating its values before it is experienced directly. And furthermore, most of the travelers tend to search for more information in advance from various sources to reduce the perceived risk to the destination, so they can also be influenced by online media such as online news. In this study, we suggested that the number of online media posting, which causes the effects of Word-of-Mouth, may have an effect on the number of outbound travelers. We divided online media into public media and private media according to their characteristics and selected online news as public media and blog as private media, one of the most popular social media in tourist information. Based on the previous studies about the eWOM effects on online news and blog, we analyzed a relationship between the volume of eWOM and the outbound tourism demand through the panel model. To this end, we collected data on the number of national outbound travelers from 2007 to 2015 provided by the Korea Tourism Organization. According to statistics, the highest number of outbound tourism demand in Korea are China, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong and the Philippines, which are selected as a dependent variable in this study. In order to measure the volume of eWOM, we collected online news and blog postings for the same period as the number of outbound travelers in Naver, which is the largest portal site in South Korea. In this study, a panel model was established to analyze the effect of online media on the demand of Korean outbound travelers and to identify that there was a significant difference in the influence of online media by each time and countries. The results of this study can be summarized as follows. First, the impact of the online news and blog eWOM on the number of outbound travelers was significant. We found that the number of online news and blog posting have an influence on the number of outbound travelers, especially the experimental result suggests that both the month that includes the departure date and the three months before the departure were found to have an effect. It is shown that online news and blog are online media that have a significant influence on outbound tourism demand. Next, we found that the increased volume of eWOM in online news has a negative effect on departure, while the increase in a blog has a positive effect. The result with the country-specific models would be the same. This paper shows that online media can be used as a new variable in tourism demand by examining the influence of the eWOM effect of the online media. Also, we found that both social media and news media have an important role in predicting and managing the Korean tourism demand and that the influence of those two media appears different depending on the country.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.98-108
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• 2013

The number of Hi-Pass lanes became 793 lanes at 316 expressway tollgates in 2011 due to the increase in the Hi-Pass use. In spite of the increase in the number of Hi-Pass lanes, there have been increased potential risks in tollgates where vehicles using a Hi-Pass lane must weave with other vehicles using a TCS lane. Therefore, there is a need for study on the safety in tollgates. To this end, this study aims at developing a methodology to evaluate the performance measures of diverse location countermeasures of Hi-Pass lanes in an efficient and systematic way. This study measured the mobility, safety and the convenience of installation and operation of Hi-Pass lanes using a microscopic traffic simulation tool, the surrogate safety assessment model and survey. In addition, this study aggregated the above three performance indexes using weight factors estimated using the AHP technique. For the test site, Dongsuwon interchange was selected. After building the microscopic traffic simulation model for the test site, the location countermeasures of Hi-Pass lanes applicable to the test site were compared with each other in terms of the mobility, safety and installing and operating convenience. As a result, there has been no apparent difference in mobility index based on delays. However, the countermeasures where Hi-Pass lanes are located in inside lanes generally showed better safety performance based on the number of conflicts. In addition, countermeasures with neighboring Hi-Pass lanes were favorable in terms of the safety and the convenience of installation and operation. The methodology proposed in this study was found to be useful to support decision makings by providing critical and quantitative information regarding the mobility, safety and the convenience of installation and operation.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.255-279
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• 2014

It is not too much to say that smartphones have become an essential part of our lives due to their versatility. Nevertheless, they still have less overall capabilities than their desktop counterparts. Specifically, they have small screens and low resolutions, which make their applications difficult to have a usable interface. To account for these limitations, the interface of smartphone applications should be designed carefully and properly. Good interface design to any application is critical. However, a comprehensive information systems (IS) literature review found that there has been little research on the user interface design of smartphone applications. More specifically, there has been little empirical evidence and understanding about how metaphors, an imaginative way of describing objects and concepts, in the user interface of smartphone applications affect users' intention to use the applications. Thereby, the research goals of this study are to examine 1) the effects of the metaphors in the user interface of smartphone applications on the interaction between users and applications and 2) the effects of mediating variables including the interaction between users and applications, users' beliefs and attitudes, on users' intention to use the applications. A survey was conducted to collect data. University students and practitioners participated in the survey. A 24-item questionnaire was developed on a 5-point Likert-type scale. The measurement items were mostly adapted from the previous studies in the IS literature and modified to fit the context of this study. First, a principal component factor analysis was performed to explore the inter-relationships among a set of variables. The analysis showed that most of the items loaded quite strongly on the six components. The analysis also revealed the six components with eigenvalues exceeding 1, explaining a total of 70.7 per cent of the variance. The reliabilities of the items were also checked. Most Cronbach alpha values were above 0.8, so the scales were considered reliable. In sum, the results of the analysis support the decision to retain the six factors for further investigation. Next, the structural model was analyzed with AMOS structural equation modeling. The values of GFI, AGFI, NFI, TLI, CFI, and RMSEA were checked. The values showed that the research model considerably have a good fit in general. Next, the convergent and discriminant validities of all constructs were examined. The values for the standardized regression weights and critical ration (CR) indicated sufficient convergent validity for all constructs. In addition, the square root of the average variance extracted (AVE) of each construct was compared with its correlations with all other constructs. The results supported discriminant validity for all constructs. In sum, the results of analysis demonstrated adequate convergent and discriminant validities for all constructs. Finally, path coefficients between the variables were examined. Methphor was found to have an impact on interaction (${\beta}$ = .457, p = .000). There were also significant effects of the interaction on perceived usefulness (${\beta}$ = .273, p = .000) and ease of use (${\beta}$ = .405, p = .000). User attitude was significantly influenced by these two beliefs, perceived usefulness (${\beta}$ = .386, p = .000) and ease of use (${\beta}$ = .347, p = .000) respectively. Further, the results of analysis found that users' intention to use smartphone applications was significantly influenced by user attitude (${\beta}$ = .567, p = .000). Based upon the analyses, all hypotheses were supported. This study found that the metaphors used in the interface of smartphone applications affect not only the interaction between users and applications, but also users' intention to use the applications through the mediating variables, perceived usefulness and ease of use. These findings imply that if the metaphors used in the user interface of application are easy enough to understand for smartphone users, then the application can be perceived useful and easy to use, which in turn make users to have an intention to use the application. In conclusion, this study contributed not only to validate and extend Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) partially, but also to develop the construct of metaphor in smartphone settings. However, since a single empirical study cannot be enough to validate the findings, some limitations should be considered.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.59-92
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• 2012

With accumulated research evidence, there is little doubt that leadership behavior is related to a wide variety of positive individual and organizational outcomes. Indeed, leadership behavior has been empirically linked to increased employee satisfaction, organizational commitment, extra effort, turnover intention, organizational citizenship behavior, and overall employee performance. Although leadership behavior has been linked to a number of positive organizational outcomes, research regarding the antecedents of such behavior is limited. Especially there is little research dealing with the antecedents of inter-organizational leadership behavior. This study interests in inter-organizational ethical leadership among marketing channel members. In both the mass media and the academic association, there has been a surge in interest in the ethical and unethical behavior of leaders. Although the corporate scandals in recent years may explain much of the mass media and popular focus, academics' interest has been limited by evidence that ethical leadership behavior is associated with both positive and negative inter-organizational processes and performances. This study tried to contribute to this body of knowledge by examining antecedents of ethical leadership. Ethical leadership is defined "the demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers through two-way communication, reinforcement, and decision-making." Ethical leaders not only inform individuals of the behefits of ethical behavior and the cost of inappropriate behavior, such leaders also set clear standards and use rewards and fair and balanced punishment to hold followers accountable for their ethical conduct. Despite the assume importance and prominence of ethical leadership among organizations, there are still many questions relating to its antecedents and consequences. One is whether the likelihood of an leading organization being perceived as an ethical leader among other following organizations in marketing channels can be predicted using its characteristics and inter-organizational relationship maintenance skills. Identifying trait and skill antecedents will aid in the development of strategies for selecting and developing ethical leaders and determining the best means to reinforce ethical behaviors. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of three categorized variables on ethical leadership of channel leader. To be concrete, this study develops a model of the antecedents of three conceptually distinct forms of channel leader characteristics, such as organizational traits, inter-organizational relationship maintenance strategies, and supplier management strategies, and tests the hypothesized differential effects on ethical leadership of marketing channel leaders. The reason why this study deals with discount store channel is that there is very strong inter-dependence between a discount store and its suppliers. Their strong inter-dependence makes their relationship as the relationship between a leader and suppliers and creates an atmosphere that leadership occur without difficulty. The research model is as follows. For the purpose of empirical testing, 295 respondents of suppliers of discount store channel in Korea were surveyed. The procedures included scale reliability, and discriminant and convergent validity were used to validate measures. Also, the reliability measurements traditionally employed, such as the Cronbach's alpha, were used. All the reliabilities were greater than .70. This study conducted confirmatory factor analyses to assess the validity of our measurements. All items loaded significantly on their respective constructs(with the lowest t-value being 15.2), providing support for convergent validity. We then examined composite reliability and average variance extracted(AVE). The composite reliability of each construct was greater than .70. The AVE of each construct was greater than .50. This study tested research model using Partial Least Square(PLS). The estimation of the structural equation model revealed an acceptable fit of the model to the data($r^2$=.851). Thus, This study concluded that the model fit was considered acceptable. The results of PLS are as follows. The results indicated that conscientiousness, openness, conflict management, social networks, training, fair reward had positive effects on ethical leadership of channel leaders. On the other hand, emotional insecure had negative effect and agreeableness, assurance, and inter-organizational communication had no significant effect on supply chain leadership.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.441-448
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• 2015

Lack of agricultural information for food supply and demand in Democratic People's republic Korea(DPRK) make people sometimes confused for right and timely decision for policy support. We carried out a study to estimate paddy rice yield in DPRK using MODIS NDVI reflecting rice growth and climate data. Mean of MODIS $NDVI_{max}$ in paddy rice over the country acquired and processed from 2002 to 2014 and accumulated rainfall collected from 27 weather stations in September from 2002 to 2014 were used to estimated paddy rice yield in DPRK. Coefficient of determination of the multiple regression model was 0.44 and Root Mean Square Error(RMSE) was 0.27 ton/ha. Two-way analysis of variance resulted in 3.0983 of F ratio and 0.1008 of p value. Estimated milled rice yield showed the lowest value as 2.71 ton/ha in 2007, which was consistent with RDA rice yield statistics and the highest value as 3.54 ton/ha in 2006, which was not consistent with the statistics. Scatter plot of estimated rice yield and the rice yield statistics implied that estimated rice yield was higher when the rice yield statistics was less than 3.3 ton/ha and lower when the rice yield statistics was greater than 3.3 ton/ha. Limitation of rice yield model was due to lower quality of climate and statistics data, possible cloud contamination of time-series NDVI data, and crop mask for rice paddy, and coarse spatial resolution of MODIS satellite data. Selection of representative areas for paddy rice consisting of homogeneous pixels and utilization of satellite-based weather information can improve the input parameters for rice yield model in DPRK in the future.

• Land and Housing Review
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.369-378
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• 2012

In France, there are many forms of organizations based on the intercommunal solidarity for city development and management. The purpose of the collaboration among Communes is to achieve high quality and well-equipped service-delivery system through co-operation of public services needed grand finances : water supply and sewage system and waste disposal system etc. The cooperation among French Communes and its effects, even though these were owing to the existing French local administration system, continued throughout regional co-management and social co-development process. This study suggested some characteristics and implications of the collaborative-style French new-town development and management organizations focused on the EPA, SAN and CA. First, the role of developmental corporation like EPA and its collaborative structure of decision-making are meaningful, because in these ways many related Communes could share a goal of new town development. Second, the way of new town corporation (SAN) is important in the sense of enabling the Communes to collaborate with each others while maintaining autonomy, so those are not simply state-directed objects, which was very difficult in the former French local administration system. Finally, transforming to CA (Communautes d'agglomeration:city community), EPA as an intercommunal corporation is possible to extend its purpose to the domain of regional planning including new town and periphery areas and change its position to a subject which can practice Commune's sustainable development according to stages of city's development and maturity. The most important implication of this study on urban development in Korea is that administrative consultative council or association among local governments and related authorities need to be established and effectively operate because multi-stakeholders could share a goal of urban development and management through that.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.137-157
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• 2019

Companies are trying to use enterprise SNS for collaboration and speedy decision-making. This study verified the mediating effect of communication between enterprise SNS and job performance, and proved the moderating effect of nationality between enterprise SNS and communication. This study collected survey data of 81 Korean and 81 Chinese from employees who have used enterprise SNS in Korea and China. As results of data analysis, first, enterprise SNS improved job performance through speedy information sharing and error reduction. Second, communication mediated the effect of enterprise SNS on job performance. Third, enterprise SNS increased the level of organizational communication through decreasing the burden of offline face-to-face communication. Compared with Chinese corporate organizations, Korean corporate organizations have high power distances, centralized control, and high superior authority. Therefore, in the off-line communication situation, the subordinate feels the social pressure to follow the command of the superior. Thus communication is one-way and closed. In this Korean organizational situation, corporate SNS can be used as a means to bypass rigid offline communication. In the online communication environment of non face-to-face corporate SNS, anxiety and stress of face-to-face communication can be reduced, so communication between the upper and lower sides can flow more smoothly. The contribution of this paper is that it proved that enterprise SNS promotes communication and improve job performance by reducing the anxiety or stress of offline communication, while according to prior research successful adoption of many types of information systems requires the fit between an organization and its organizational culture.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.263-270
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• 2008

Purpose: This study aimed to quantitatively measure the movement of tumors in real-time and evaluate the treatment accuracy, during the treatment of a liver tumor patient, who underwent radiosurgery with a Synchrony Respiratory motion tracking system of a robot CyberKnife. Materials and Methods: The study subjects included 24 liver tumor patients who underwent CyberKnife treatment, which included 64 times of treatment with the Synchrony Respiratory motion tracking system ($Synchrony^{TM}$). The treatment involved inserting 4 to 6 acupuncture needles into the vicinity of the liver tumor in all the patients using ultrasonography as a guide. A treatment plan was set up using the CT images for treatment planning uses. The position of the acupuncture needle was identified for every treatment time by Digitally Reconstructed Radiography (DRR) prepared at the time of treatment planning and X-ray images photographed in real-time. Subsequent results were stored through a Motion Tracking System (MTS) using the Mtsmain.log treatment file. In this way, movement of the tumor was measured. Besides, the accuracy of radiosurgery using CyberKnife was evaluated by the correlation errors between the real-time positions of the acupuncture needles and the predicted coordinates. Results: The maximum and the average translational movement of the liver tumor were measured 23.5 mm and $13.9{\pm}5.5\;mm$, respectively from the superior to the inferior direction, 3.9 mm and $1.9{\pm}0.9mm$, respectively from left to right, and 8.3 mm and $4.9{\pm}1.9\;mm$, respectively from the anterior to the posterior direction. The maximum and the average rotational movement of the liver tumor were measured to be $3.3^{\circ}$ and $2.6{\pm}1.3^{\circ}$, respectively for X (Left-Right) axis rotation, $4.8^{\circ}$ and $2.3{\pm}1.0^{\circ}$, respectively for Y (Crania-Caudal) axis rotation, $3.9^{\circ}$ and $2.8{\pm}1.1^{\circ}$, respectively for Z (Anterior-Posterior) axis rotation. In addition, the average correlation error, which represents the treatment's accuracy was $1.1{\pm}0.7\;mm$. Conclusion: In this study real-time movement of a liver tumor during the radiosurgery could be verified quantitatively and the accuracy of the radiosurgery with the Synchrony Respiratory motion tracking system of robot could be evaluated. On this basis, the decision of treatment volume in radiosurgery or conventional radiotherapy and useful information on the movement of liver tumor are supposed to be provided.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.575-587
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• 2002

Objective : To investigate the understanding of breast-feeding in pregnant woman and the proper way of encouraging breast-feeding. Methods : Each questionnaire included items about demographic characteristics and the understanding of breast-feeding. The questionnaires were filled up by pregnant women visiting obstetric clinics in Seoul and its vicinities, Busan, Choongjoo and Chungjoo from July 2001 to August 2001. One thousand, two hundred ninety questionnaires were analysed by Chi square tests and multiple logistic regressions. Results : The majority of pregnant women(87.4%) planned breast-feeding. Forty three percent of them had plans to breast-feed for 4-6 months. There were no differences in the level of education, the family size and the source of information about breast-feeding in planning to breast-feed (P>0.05). The main reasons for not choosing to breast-feed were returns to work(41.3%), previous failures of breast-feeding(17.4%), concerns about insufficient amount of breast milk(10.9%), breast and nipple problems(10.3%) and maternal illness(9.4%). The average score on the test of the understanding about breast-feeding was 59.7/100. The average scores on the understanding about the methods and advantages of breast-feeding were 45.3/100 and 86.1/100, respectively. The maternal status of employment, previous history of breast-feeding, the time of decision to breastfeed, person advocating breast-feeding and the understanding on the advantages of breast-feeding were significant determinant factors in planning to breast-feed(P<0.05). Conclusion : Pediatricians should take steps to make an effort to increase the breast-feeding rate and to encourage breast-feeding by timely education. Beyond the medical field, political and social supports for breast-feeding are urgently needed.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.195-207
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• 2006

Stem cells are the primordial, initial cells which usually divide asymmetrically giving rise to on the one hand self-renewals and on the other hand progenitor cells with potential for differentiation. Zygote (fertilized egg), with totipotency, deserves the top-ranking stem cell - he totipotent stem cell (TSC). Both the ICM (inner cell mass) taken from the 6 days-old human blastocyst and ESC (embryonic stem cell) derived from the in vitro cultured ICM have slightly less potency for differentiation than the zygote, and are termed pluripotent stem cells. Stem cells in the tissues and organs of fetus, infant, and adult have highly reduced potency and committed to produce only progenitor cells for particular tissues. These tissue-specific stem cells are called multipotent stem cells. These tissue-specific/committed multipotent stem cells, when placed in altered environment other than their original niche, can yield cells characteristic of the altered environment. These findings are certainly of potential interest from the clinical, therapeutic perspective. The controversial terminology 'somatic stem cell plasticity' coined by the stem cell community seems to have been proved true. Followings are some of the recent knowledges related to the stem cell. Just as the tissues of our body have their own multipotent stem cells, cancerous tumor has undifferentiated cells known as cancer stem cell (CSC). Each time CSC cleaves, it makes two daughter cells with different fate. One is endowed with immortality, the remarkable ability to divide indefinitely, while the other progeny cell divides occasionally but lives forever. In the cancer tumor, CSC is minority being as few as 3-5% of the tumor mass but it is the culprit behind the tumor-malignancy, metastasis, and recurrence of cancer. CSC is like a master print. As long as the original exists, copies can be made and the disease can persist. If the CSC is destroyed, cancer tumor can't grow. In the decades-long cancer therapy, efforts were focused on the reducing of the bulk of cancerous growth. How cancer therapy is changing to destroy the origin of tumor, the CSC. The next generation of treatments should be to recognize and target the root cause of cancerous growth, the CSC, rather than the reducing of the bulk of tumor, Now the strategy is to find a way to identify and isolate the stem cells. The surfaces of normal as well as the cancer stem cells are studded with proteins. In leukaemia stem cell, for example, protein CD 34 is identified. In the new treatment of cancer disease it is needed to look for protein unique to the CSC. Blocking the stem cell's source of nutrients might be another effective strategy. The mystery of sternness of stem cells has begun to be deciphered. ESC can replicate indefinitely and yet retains the potential to turn into any kind of differentiated cells. Polycomb group protein such as Suz 12 repress most of the regulatory genes which, activated, are turned to be developmental genes. These protein molecules keep the ESC in an undifferentiated state. Many of the regulator genes silenced by polycomb proteins are also occupied by such ESC transcription factors as Oct 4, Sox 2, and Nanog. Both polycomb and transcription factor proteins seem to cooperate to keep the ESC in an undifferentiated state, pluripotent, and self-renewable. A normal prion protein (PrP) is found throughout the body from blood to the brain. Prion diseases such as mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) are caused when a normal prion protein misfolds to give rise to PrP$^{SC}$ and assault brain tissue. Why has human body kept such a deadly and enigmatic protein? Although our body has preserved the prion protein, prion diseases are of rare occurrence. Deadly prion diseases have been intensively studied, but normal prion problems are not. Very few facts on the benefit of prion proteins have been known so far. It was found that PrP was hugely expressed on the stem cell surface of bone marrow and on the cells of neural progenitor, PrP seems to have some function in cell maturation and facilitate the division of stem cells and their self-renewal. PrP also might help guide the decision of neural progenitor cell to become a neuron.