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In plants, heat stress induces changes in alternative splicing, including intron retention; these events can rapidly alter proteins or downregulate protein activity, producing nonfunctional isoforms or inducing nonsense-mediated decay of messenger RNA (mRNA). Nuclear cyclophilins (CYPs) are accessory proteins in the spliceosome complexes of multicellular eukaryotes. However, whether plant CYPs are involved in pre-mRNA splicing remain unknown. Here, we found that Arabidopsis thaliana CYP18-1 is necessary for the efficient removal of introns that are retained in response to heat stress during germination. CYP18-1 interacts with Step II splicing factors (PRP18a, PRP22, and SWELLMAP1) and associates with the U2 and U5 small nuclear RNAs in response to heat stress. CYP18-1 binds to phospho-PRP18a, and increasing concentrations of CYP18-1 are associated with increasing dephosphorylation of PRP18a. Furthermore, interaction and protoplast transfection assays revealed that CYP18-1 and the PP2A-type phosphatase PP2A B′η co-regulate PRP18a dephosphorylation. RNA-seq and RT-qPCR analysis confirmed that CYP18-1 is essential for splicing introns that are retained under heat stress. Overall, we reveal the mechanism of action by which CYP18-1 activates the dephosphorylation of PRP18 and show that CYP18-1 is crucial for the efficient splicing of retained introns and rapid responses to heat stress in plants.

This study investigates the effects of inlet guide vane (IGV) and blade pitch angles on the steady and unsteady performance of a submersible axial-flow pump. To analyze the interaction between the IGVs and the rotor blades, both steady and unsteady three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations were used with shear stress transport turbulence closure. Hexahedral meshes were used in the computational domain. The numerical results for performance curves showed good agreement with experimental data. The results showed that the steady and unsteady performance characteristics were dependent on both the IGV and blade pitch angles. Adjusting these angles affected the total pressure rise and thus caused variation in the efficiency in overload conditions. But adjusting these angles affected the unsteady pressure fluctuations in partial-load conditions. Detailed flow analyses were performed to find the root-cause of these phenomena.

The aviation industry is expanding non-face-to-face services using self-service technology. In addition, major airports around the world are rushing to introduce ‘smart airport’ in order to maximize customer satisfaction as well as responding appropriately to air demand. Therefore, it is significant to focus on this innovation in aviation industry. The purpose of this study is to analyze changes in airport service environment and process, to derive improvements on pain point found through in-depth interviews and persona production of employees and customers, and to establish an improved airport service process and service environment by reflecting the needs of customers. There are academic and practical implications in that it presented a convergent idea to provide balanced service to non-face-to-face service preferred.

Carotenoids are phytochemicals that are precursors of vitamin A and effective antioxidants, required for human health. The mechanisms and underlying genetic network responsible for regulating carotenoid production in plants, however, is poorly understood, despite the carotenoid biosynthesis pathway being known. We found that a single amino acid insertion in lycopene β-cyclase2 (LCYB2) caused catalytic failure, possibly due to a flux down of lycopene to the carotenoids which may be the molecular basis for the color of red carrot roots.

Precise flowering timing is critical for the plant life cycle. Here, we examined the molecular mechanisms and regulatory network associated with flowering in Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa L.) by comparative transcriptome profiling of two Chinese cabbage inbred lines, “4004” (early bolting) and “50” (late bolting). RNA-Seq and quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qPCR) analyses showed that two positive nitric oxide (NO) signaling regulator genes, nitrite reductase (BrNIR) and nitrate reductase (BrNIA), were up-regulated in line “50” with or without vernalization. In agreement with the transcription analysis, the shoots in line “50” had substantially higher nitrogen levels than those in “4004”. Upon vernalization, the flowering repressor gene Circadian 1 (BrCIR1) was significantly up-regulated in line “50”, whereas the flowering enhancer genes named SUPPRESSOR OF OVEREXPRESSION OF CONSTANCE 1 homologs (BrSOC1s) were substantially up-regulated in line “4004”. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated mutagenesis in Chinese cabbage demonstrated that the BrSOC1-1/1-2/1-3 genes were involved in late flowering, and their expression was mutually exclusive with that of the nitrogen signaling genes. Thus, we identified two flowering mechanisms in Chinese cabbage: a reciprocal negative feedback loop between nitrogen signaling genes (BrNIA1 and BrNIR1) and BrSOC1s to control flowering time and positive feedback control of the expression of BrSOC1s.

The Industry 4.0 era requires new quality management systems due to the ever increasing complexity of the global business environment and the advent of advanced digital technologies. This study presents new ideas for predictive quality management based on an extensive review of the literature on quality management and five real-world cases of predictive quality management based on new technologies. The results of the study indicate that advanced technology enabled predictive maintenance can be applied in various industries by leveraging big data analytics, smart sensors, artificial intelligence (AI), and platform construction. Such predictive quality management systems can become living ecosystems that can perform cause-effect analysis, big data monitoring and analytics, and effective decision-making in real time. This study proposes several practical implications for actual design and implementation of effective predictive quality management systems in the Industry 4.0 era. However, the living predictive quality management ecosystem should be the product of the organizational culture that nurtures collaborative efforts of all stakeholders, sharing of information, and co-creation of shared goals.

Gibberellic acid (GA) is one of the factors that promotes flowering in radish (Raphanus Sativus L.), although the mechanism mediating GA activation of flowering has not been determined. To identify this mechanism in radish, we compared the effects of GA treatment on late-flowering (NH-JS1) and early-flowering (NH-JS2) radish lines. GA treatment promoted flowering in both lines, but not without vernalization. NH-JS2 plants displayed greater bolting and flowering pathway responses to GA treatment than NH-JS1. This variation was not due to differences in GA sensitivity in the two lines. We performed RNA-seq analysis to investigate GA-mediated changes in gene expression profiles in the two radish lines. We identified 313 upregulated, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and 207 downregulated DEGs in NH-JS2 relative to NH-JS1 in response to GA. Of these, 21 and 8 genes were identified as flowering time and GA-responsive genes, respectively. The results of RNA-seq and quantitative PCR (qPCR) analyses indicated that RsFT and RsSOC1-1 expression levels increased after GA treatment in NH-JS2 plants but not in NH-JS1. These results identified the molecular mechanism underlying differences in the flowering-time genes of NH-JS1 and NH-JS2 after GA treatment under insufficient vernalization conditions.

In an era of mature markets and intensive competitive pressure, more and more companies realise that their most precious asset is their existing customer base. This realisation has resulted in a rise in emphasis on customer relationship management, in order to retain customers. This is a major area on which banks need to concentrate. Banks tend to be reactive to customer attrition, and many times it is too late to retain a customer. Customer attrition needs to be minimised, and loyal customers need to be rewarded. The objective of this study to identify the factors affecting customer attrition of trust accounts for a leading American financial services company. The company realised that its trust accounts were getting closed after a period of seven to twelve years. Initially, the company tried to identify the root cause using a small set of data, but they were unable to do so. This triggered the use of analytics to build a model to predict customer churn, and come up with strategies to retain customers. This was achieved by applying data mining techniques to the transactions history of the accounts that closed down as against those that remained active.

Flowering time (Ft) is the most important characteristic of Chinese cabbage with high leaf yields and late-flowering are favorable traits, while little knowledge on genes involved in Ft and the flowering mechanism in this crop. In this study, we conducted genome-wide RNA-seq analysis using an inbred Chinese cabbage ‘4004’ line in response to vernalization and compared the Ft gene expression with radish crop. A number of Ft genes which play roles in flowering pathways were performed quantitative RT-PCR analysis to verify the regulatory flowering gene network in Chinese cabbage. We found that a total of 223 Ft genes in Chinese cabbage, and 50 of these genes responded to vernalization. The majority of flowering enhancers were upregulated, whereas most flowering repressors were downregulated in response to vernalization as confirmed by RT-qPCR. Among the major Ft genes, the expression of BrCOL1-2, BrFT1/2, BrSOC1/2/3, BrFLC1/2/3/5, and BrMAF was strongly affected by vernalization. In reference to comparative RNA-seq profiling of Ft genes, Chinese cabbage and radish revealed substantially different vernalization response in particular GA flowering pathway. Thus, this study provides new insight into functional divergence in flowering pathways and the regulatory mechanisms in Brassicaceae crops. Further analysis of the major integrator genes between early and late-flowering inbred lines facilitates understanding flowering trait variation and molecular basis of flowering in Chinese cabbage.

This paper presents a study of the effects of blade pitch angle and inlet guide vane (IGV) angle on the performance of a submersible axial-flow pump. To analyze the interaction effects between the IGVs and the rotor blades, both steady and unsteady three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations with shear stress transport turbulence model were solved. Hexahedral meshes were used in the computational domain and a grid-dependency test was performed to obtain an optimal number of grid nodes. The performance curves obtained by numerical simulation showed good agreement with experimental data. The results show that the fluctuation of hydraulic efficiency and head coefficient increased significantly under overload conditions as the IGV setting angle increased. Additionally, both the steady and unsteady performance characteristics were shown to be quite dependent on the combination of IGV angle and blade pitch angle, because the relative velocity at leading edge played an important role in the performance under overload conditions.

To investigate the genetic basis of phenotypic differences, sequence variations were analyzed in 8 inbred watermelon lines by re-sequencing. The number of sequence variations differed depending on the chromosome. Only 12.9% of SNPs were found within genes, whereas the rest were detected in promoter or intergenic regions. SNP density analysis showed that there was a highly variable region at the end of chromosome 6, which is similar to previously published findings. However, this region with high SNP density did not show much variation between the lines. In contrast, highly conserved regions with a size of 6.5-10 Mb were found in chromosomes 10 and 11. Pathway analysis suggested that the DIMBOA (a natural antibiotic)-glucoside degradation pathway was significantly different between the lines, indicating that the eight lines may have different levels of pathogen resistance. Among the carbohydrate-related genes, the alpha-galactosidase gene was the most variable among the lines. Information from this study will be helpful in understanding the watermelon breeding process at the molecular level.

This paper intends to empirically explore distinctive innovation patterns of manufacturing and service firms in Korea. Our focus is specially given to discovering similarities and differences between manufacturing and service firms with radical and incremental innovation, in terms of importance placed upon innovation purposes, importance and performance gap, and innovation value profiles. The data used in this study were collected from manufacturing and service firms in Korea through a comprehensive survey on various innovation strategies and activities for the period 2009–2011. We conducted statistical analyses to test the proposed hypotheses related to innovation patterns, including the importance–performance gap analysis and ANOVA. The analysis results reveal the distinctive innovation patterns between manufacturing and service firms and also between radical and incremental innovation by these firms in terms of the importance of innovation purposes, importance and performance gap, and innovation value ...

This study aims to evaluate effects of blade pitch and inlet guide vane (IGV) angle on the performance characteristics of a submersible axial-flow pump. According to the results of the previous study, the efficiency at the design and over-load conditions were significantly affected by the angle of IGV due to change in the incidence angle. To investigate the interactional effects of IGV and blade angle are analyzed using three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations with shear stress transport turbulence model. The hexahedral grids are used in the computational domain and a grid-dependency test is performed to obtain an optimal number of the grids. In this study, combinations of three different blade angles and two different IGV angles are tested. Adjusting angle of IGV increases the total pressure of the pump with a blade pitch increase, which can increase the efficiency of the pump in operating range.

Chipotle" has been growing faster by creating a new category named 'fast casual'. It is remarkable because the US restaurant industry has been struggling since 2000. Frances Frei at Harvard University explained that the key success to Chipotle is mass customization. Mass customization is the production of customized goods or services at near mass production price. In this study, we draw out the critical sucess factors of mass customization from literature review, and analyze the case of Chipotle. We find that Chipotle has all the critical success factors in terms of customer, product, competition, technology and management. This study is new in that mass customization is applied not to manufacturing but to service industry. The purpose of this study is to promote academic understanding regarding mass customization in service management and to offer practical support for the development of domestic restaurant industry.

Digitalization is also a new normal in the credit card industry in Korea. Recently CLO(Card Linked Received (October 08, 2015), Review Result(October 26, 2015) Accepted(November 06, 2015), Published(December 31, 2015) (First Author) 330-704 Division of Tourism, Baekseok Univ, 76 Munam-ro, Dongnam-gu Cheonan-si Chungcheongnam-do, Korea email: jyyeon@bu.ac.kr (Corresponding Author) 402-751 College of Business Administration, Inha Univ, 100 Inha-ro, Incheon, Korea email: keziah@inha.ac.kr 100-715 College of Business Administration, Dongguk Univ, 30 Pildong-ro 1-gil, Jung-gu Seoul, Korea email: scyoo@dongguk.edu * 이 논문은 인하대학교의 지원에 의해 작성되었습니다. CLO(Card Linked Offer) as a New Competitive Weapon in the Credit Card Company Copyright c 2015 HSST 468 Offer) services are starting to emerge in the Korean credit card industry and appear to be gaining customer favor. Through CLO, customers are able to enjoy the better shopping deals as well as the credit card companies such as Shinhan Card and Samsung Card may renovate and strengthen their value proposition. Because CLO platform will be an innovative cardholder loyalty solution. With this secure, flexible, easy-to-use and fully integrated system, CLO services that leverage payment data analytics to provide the cardholder with customized shopping deals and create an opportunity for the merchant to launch a loyalty campaign may be implemented in just in time. In terms of competition, launching CLO services will entail a number of challengers. In this paper we will figure out the critical success factors of CLO services. And then the strategic insight will be suggested.

In this paper, we identify the industrial characteristics of portal sites by using stochastic frontier analysis and to bit regression. As a result of the analyses, the study proposed that market share and an appropriate level of fixed assets, not human resources, have a positive impact on the efficiency of portal sites. It also revealed that portal sites are no longer an innovative industry, but are showing characteristics more similiar to a traditional industry. Portal sites provide a variety of resources (public, media, and entertainment) and service (search engine, e-mail, forum) to a large number of subscribers and generate main profit from corporate advertisements. At the beginning, portal sites provided access to the Web, but it has developed and more services are supplied today(4).As ICT(Information and communication technologies) have also advanced rapidly, portal sites undergo the new changes as they become categorized into SNS, mobile apps, and others. Then they have become more organized and bigger as well as manufacturing. In this regard, and in an environment evolving from PCs to mobiles, this study aims to analyze the business characteristics of portal sites based on an analysis of efficiency (3). In order to achieve our goal, stochastic frontier analysis and to bit regression were used. The paper structure of the paper is consisted as follows. First, we examine the research background and purpose. Second, describe the methodology that our paper used. Third, we provide results of the analysis. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results and review the limitations of the study.

The radish (Raphanus sativus L.) is an important Brassicaceae root vegetable crop worldwide. Several studies have been conducted concerning radish breeding. There are major challenges to prevent premature bolting in spring plantings. Here, we performed the characterization of two inbred radish lines which vary in bolting time. “Late bolting radish” (NH-JS1) and “early bolting radish” (NH-JS2) were generated by a conventional breeding approach. The two inbred lines showed different bolting phenotypes depending on vernalization time at 4°C. NH-JS1, the late bolting radish, was less sensitive to cold treatment and the less sensitivity was inversely proportional to the duration of the vernalization. We also measured gene expression levels of the major bolting time related genes in the NH-JS1 and NH-JS2 lines. RsFLC1 plays a central role in the timing of flowering initiation. It is a strong repressor and it’s transcript is highly expressed in NH-JS1 compared to NH-JS2 under no treatment and vernalization conditions. RsFRI, a positive regulator of RsFLC, is also highly expressed in NH-JS1 compared to NH-JS2 regardless of vernalization. In contrast, RsSOC1, suppressed by FLC as a floral integrator gene, showed the most difference, a 5-fold increase, between NH-JS1 and NH-JS2 under vernalization conditions. From these results, we conclude that NH-JS1 showed a late flowering phenotype after cold treatment due to the expression differences of flowering time regulator genes rather than difference sensitivity to cold. These results may be useful to understand the control mechanisms of flowering time and may help identify molecular markers for selecting late bolting trait in radish.

This study focuses on visualizing service by service design tools and PCN diagram in process innovation. Firstly, theoretical backgrounds of the phenomena will be reviewed for a better understanding how innovation is perceived in the fields of Operations Management and Service Management. Such discussion clarifies fundamental concepts of innovation, emphasizes essentials of service innovation, and gives base for future SOM research. Then, drawing from the literatures of service operations management (SOM) and innovation, a service innovation case of IKEA, Gwangmyeong in Korea, is analyzed in order to determine how both service design tools and PCN diagram can be used. The overall methodology is employed with a grounded analysis approach and an interpretative alternative. The study finds both approaches as a decision support tool and diagnostic model for assessing inputs, evaluating outputs, allocating resources, and improving success rate of service innovations in SOM.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the actual strategies used in Inventory Management in the field of Distribution phenomenon. In the first part of the research, theoretical backgrounds will be reviewed in order to provide better understanding the importance of Inventory Management in Distribution Management. The qualitative data were gathered by face to face interviews and a phone interview from four selected intermediaries. The study finds intermediaries practicing JIT in the sales and distribution and maximizing the sales activities and minimizing the inventory cost by giving up on an opportunity cost.

The Korean wine market is growing year by year recently especially in Off-trade market. It shows not just a part of the very few consumer-driven trend. The purchases of wine is always not so easy because the risk factors and failure points occur when buying wines. Most of wine consumers feel difficulties when buying wines at phase of previous step, buying step and after buying step. Wine consumers can be divided into the wine experts, wine lovers, novices, outsiders. To guide an wine buying with less failures to each representative of wine consumer characteristics and needs, user persona and scenario for the reduced failure were derived.

Our first research question was to confirm whether there is a positive relationship between environmental and ethical management practices and corporate performance. We tested whether the two constructs fit for the sample companies of Korea and assessed their reliability and validity. Furthermore, we formulated the companies’ action variables using the degree of implementation of customization and process innovation strategy and checked if those two variables had discriminative effects on the relationship. For that purpose, we divided the sample into two groups—high and low—based on the two variables and compared the regression results. The results of this study suggest that both environmental and ethical management practices have a positive effect on corporate performance. Further analyses revealed that the results representing fitness between the two practices and corporate performance favored the group that showed a lower degree of customization strategy. Thus, we inferred that companies that adopt a customization rather than a standardization approach experience a more positive relationship between environmental and ethical practices and corporate performance. Finally, the results comparing the relationship between the two practices and corporate performance revealed a better fit for the group that did more to implement process innovation than for the group with lower implementation, indicating that companies implementing process innovation can anticipate a more positive relationship between environmental and ethical practices and corporate performance.

Submitted:October 28, 2014 1 Revision:December 2, 2014 Accepted:December 7, 2014 * 본 논문은 인하대학교의 지원에 의해 연구되었습니다. ** 인하대학교 경영대학 산학협력교수 *** 인하대학교 경영대학 경영학과 교수 This case study focuses on the preparing a guide for the plan to the companies that want to build a business document system for the centralized services under the cloud computing. Total 3 Operating companies with regard to cloud computing issues are introduced for this purpose. Analyzing the usage and development direction of the selected companies were performed to set up plans. Through this in-depth needs of the user's point of view for the management of business documents, The necessary improvements in the process of collaboration and document sharing were derived. Business documents centralized service plans were proposed based on cloud computing models. Practical experiences of the companies were helpful to present the details of the operational strategy and operational plans. Especially with minimal staff input and verification process, Sample method for the automatic generating of the new document file name is introduced. A test bed before operating the enterprise-wide system were presented with information that is to be considered when building systems. Keyword:Cloud Computing, VDI, End User Computing, Business Documents, Test-Bed 韓國IT서비스學會誌 第13卷 第4號 2014年 12月, pp.309-324 310 Yong Yoon.Younsung Kim

In this paper, we have determined the strategic service design tools and methods by examining the associations among different size of health and medical service industry and investigate if service design tools and methods are positively related to service innovation. The categorized service design tools and methods in the service design will be used to examine the associations among two different types of health and medical service providers which are classified according to the operational regulations and sizes in Korea: clinics and general hospitals as a case study. Findings support that health and medical service industry may improve their performance winning the challenges associated with using the most appropriate strategic service design tools and methods in the service design.

Operational scars, especially those located on the exposed parts of the body, can be distressing. Despite high demand for an early intervention to minimize surgical scars, there is yet no universal consensus on optimal treatment. A split-scar, double-blind randomized controlled trial was held to assess the safety and efficacy of early postoperative botulinum toxin type A (BTA) injection in surgical scars. A single session of treatment was performed where BTA was allocated to one half of the scar and 0.9% saline to the control half. Scars were assessed using the modified Stony Brook Scar Evaluation Scale (SBSES) with standardized photographs. Fifteen patients completed the study, and their data were analyzed. At 6 months' follow-up, a significant improvement in SBSES score was noted for the BTA-treated halves of the scars (p