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Using celebrities to promote products is a popular advertising technique around the world. However, little is known about how the implementation of celebrity endorsement varies according to dominant cultural values. This study content-analyzed television commercials featuring celebrities from two diametrically different countries--the United States and Korea--in terms of two fundamental cultural dimensions: (1) low versus high context, and (2) individualism versus collectivism. Findings of this study suggest that the strategic use and creative executions of celebrity endorsement mirror the respective prevalent cultural orientations in the two countries, although some similarities do exist. Extensive discussion and suggestions for future research are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This study evaluated the association between the guanine-thymine (GT) repeat polymorphism in intron II of the Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) gene and lung disease caused by nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). Polymerase chain reaction and gene scans were used to determine the numbers of GT repeats for 193 patients with the nodular bronchiectatic form of NTM lung disease, including 110 patients with Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare (MAC) infection, 82 patients with Mycobacterium abscessus infection, and 1 patient with co-infection of both organisms. These values were compared with the results for 191 controls. Genotypes with shorter GT repeats were more common among patients with NTM lung disease (50.8 vs 37.7%, p = 0.01). In the subgroup analysis, genotypes that included S alleles were more common in the patients with MAC lung disease (53.6%, p = 0.01, OR, 1.91; 95% CI, 1.16, 3.16) than in healthy controls, whereas this difference was not statistically significant in patients with M. abscessus lung disease (47.6%, p = 0.13). In conclusion, these results suggest that the GT repeat microsatellite polymorphisms in intron II of the human TLR2 gene contribute to the development of NTM lung disease, especially MAC lung disease, in a Korean population. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Coagulation factor XII (FXII) is involved in the initiation of blood coagulation, fibrinolysis, complement systems, and bradykinin generation. Hereditary deficiency of FXII is caused by mutations in the F12 gene. In this report, we describe a Korean family with severe FXII deficiency from F12 mutations. The proband was a 46-year-old woman and was shown to have a markedly prolonged activated partial thromboplastin time at 126.7 s (reference range, 29-42 s) on routine health checkup. She had no history of bleeding tendency. Complete correction of prolonged activated partial thromboplastin time on mixing test prompted us to perform factor assays, which revealed a markedly decreased FXII activity (<0.5%; below the detection limit). Direct sequencing analyses for F12 showed that the proband was compound heterozygous for two deleterious mutations, c.249delG (p.Q83HfsX12) and c.405C>A (p.C135X). Family study showed that her sister with prolonged activated partial thromboplastin time at 83.8 s and FXII activity less than 0.5% was also compound heterozygous for the mutations. Q83HfsX12 was a novel frameshift mutation in exon 4 of F12, and C135X is a nonsense mutation previously reported in a Korean patient who was homozygous for the mutation. Thus, the C135X mutation is a recurrent mutation in Korean individuals with FXII deficiency, potentially with a founder effect.

From March to April 2006, an outbreak of mumps occurred in Gyeonggi, Korea. The aim of this study was to describe and discriminate between primary and secondary vaccine failure in a highly vaccinated population for mumps using IgG avidity testing. Fifteen clinical mumps cases occurred among 41 students. Among these 15 patients, 11 vaccinated patients were considered secondary vaccine failures with high IgG titers and a high avidity index (AI, > or =32%); an unvaccinated patient was considered to have primary infection with high IgG titers and low AI, and three vaccinated patients were considered as other infections with low IgG titers and low AI. Among 26 unaffected students, 5 vaccinated patients were retrospectively diagnosed as sub-clinical infection with high IgG titers and high AI; the remaining students had low IgG titers and low AI except for one previously infected student. The results of this study show that secondary vaccine failure played an important role in this mumps outbreak. Therefore, booster immunization for mumps should be considered in immunized adolescents to prevent further outbreaks.