The buffering effect of social capital for daily mental stress in an unequal society: a lesson from Seoul.

This study attempted to illustrate whether mental health deterioration could be alleviated by high social capital in an environment with high economic inequality. Daily mental stress was employed as a mental health factor when analyzing the association with economic inequality in the Seoul Survey data. Regarding social capital, community trust and altruism were included as cognitive dimensions, and participation and cooperation were included as structural dimensions in each model. The first finding showed a significantly positive relationship between economic inequality and daily stress, meaning that, like other mental health problems, daily mental stress is also high in regions with high economic inequality. Second, the slope of the daily stress increased in respondents with high social trust and participation was alleviated in an economically unequal environment. This indicates that social trust and participation have a buffering effect by moderating the slope of daily stress in societies with high inequality. Third, the buffering effect differs depending on the social capital factor. The buffering effect of trust and participation showed in an unequal environment, while the buffering effect of cooperation showed regardless of the unequal environment. In summary, social capital factors showed the effect of relieving daily mental stress in the relationship with economic inequality. Also, the buffering effect of social capital on mental health may show different aspects for each element.

Device Identification Interoperability in Heterogeneous IoT Platforms.

With the continuous improvement of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, various IoT platforms are under development. However, each IoT platform is developed based on its own device identification system. That is, it is challenging to identify each sensor device between heterogeneous IoT platforms owing to the resource request format (e.g., device identifier) varying between platforms. Moreover, despite the considerable research focusing on resource interoperability between heterogeneous IoT platforms, little attention is given to sensor device identification systems in diverse IoT platforms. In order to overcome this problem, the current work proposes an IoT device name system (DNS) architecture based on the comparative analysis of heterogeneous IoT platforms (i.e., oneM2M, GS1 'Oliot', IBM 'Watson IoT', OCF 'IoTivity', FIWARE). The proposed IoT DNS analyzes and translates the identification system of the device and resource request format. In this process, resource requests between heterogeneous IoT platforms can be reconfigured appropriately for the resources and services requested by the user, and as a result, users can use heterogeneous IoT services. Furthermore, in order to illustrate the aim of the proposed architecture, the proposed IoT DNS is implemented and tested on a microcomputer. The experimental results show that a oneM2M-based device successfully performs a resource request to a Watson IoT and FIWARE sensor devices.

Exploring Social Capital Level in Regions with Large and Increasing Wealth Inequality: Lesson from Seoul, South Korea.

While wealth inequality is increasing worldwide, social interaction quality among communities is simultaneously decreasing. Although inequality is primarily correlated with the income gap, inequality is also significantly associated with the housing price gap, especially in South Korea. This study explores the correlation between housing price inequality and social interaction levels in Seoul. For this analysis, the housing price Gini coefficient was utilized through the housing transaction price, and social interaction was measured using the Korea Housing Survey. The results of this study indicate that the social interaction level was low in regions with large housing price inequality. Moreover, the social interaction level was low in regions where housing price inequality increased for 10 years. Furthermore, the negative correlation between housing price inequality and social interaction was significant only in the lower-asset class. The fact that inequality negatively influences social interactions only in the low-asset class is another aspect of inequality.

Precarious Suicide Behavior According to Housing Price Gap: A Case Study on South Korea.

In 2018, the suicide rate in South Korea was the highest among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, and socioeconomic inequality has intensified. This study analyzes the impact relationship between suicidal impulses and economic inequality in South Korea. This study measures suicidal impulses thoughts National Health Survey Data and economic inequality based on the housing prices gap in the country. The primary analysis results were as follows: First, suicidal impulses were positively associated with the high index of housing price inequality; this correlation has become tight in recent years. Second, it was confirmed that the higher the income level, the higher the correlation between suicidal impulses with the index of housing price inequality. Third, the correlation between housing price inequality with suicidal impulse increased consistently in highly urbanized areas, but the statistical significance was low in non-urban areas.

The pattern of differentially expressed genes in biliary atresia.

Biliary atresia is a progressive obliterative cholangiopathy, but the etiology of this disorder remains uncertain. Identifying genes specifically expressed in biliary atresia and analyzing the pattern of expression may lead to a better understanding of the pathogenesis. Liver tissues were taken from a recipient with biliary atresia and a normal donor during liver transplantation. Total RNA was extracted from each sample and reversely transcribed to cDNA. Then radiolabeled cDNA probe pools were made by random primed DNA labeling method and used for screening of differentially expressed genes by hybridizing with expressed sequence tags (EST) dot blot panel. Northern blot hybridization was done to confirm that these genes are also differentially expressed in other liver tissues. Among 1730 EST clones, 26 cDNA clones were significantly overexpressed in biliary cirrhosis, while 2 clones were significantly decreased in biliary atresia. By Northern blot hybridization, the results of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP)-1 and IGFBP-2 were well correlated with differential EST screening (DES). This study identified the pattern of differentially expressed genes in the biliary cirrhosis due to biliary atresia using DES technique.