Prosocial rule breaking on health information security at healthcare organisations in South Korea

Regulations, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), establish standards to protect patients' medical records from security breaches. Insiders' prosocial misbehaviour within healthcare organisations can cause significant damage to relevant stakeholders. Such behaviour without malicious intention needs to be better understood and carefully managed from the perspective of prosocial behaviour. For this study, a research model was developed that includes the factors influencing student nurses' intention to disclose patient health information. The model was empirically tested with nursing students in South Korea with a scenario-based experiment. We find that both altruistic (impact on others) and egoistic (impact on the self) motivations are significantly important in raising situational empathy. On the other hand, an egoistic motivation (impact on the self) significantly affects people's perception of their responsibility, which mediates the relationship between situational empathy and prosocial intention to disclose. The implications of our findings are discussed.     

Deep freezing to maintain the freshness of pork loin during long-term storage

Food Science and Biotechnology - As storage temperature impacts frozen meat quality, we evaluated the ideal freezing and storage temperatures for pork loin, and effects of long-term storage...     

Borage Oil Enhances Lamellar Body Content and Alters Fatty Acid Composition of Epidermal Ceramides in Essential Fatty Acid-Deficient Guinea Pigs

Borage oil [BO: 40.9% linoleic acid (LNA) and 24.0% γ-linolenic acid (GLA)] reverses disrupted epidermal lipid barrier in essential fatty acid deficiency (EFAD). We determined the effects of BO on lamellar body (LB) content and LNA and GLA incorporation into epidermal ceramide 1 (CER1) and epidermal ceramide 2 (CER2), major barrier lipids. EFAD was induced in guinea pigs by a diet of 6% hydrogenated coconut oil (HCO) for 10 weeks (group HCO) or 8 weeks followed by 6% BO for 2 weeks (group HCO + BO). LB content and LNA and GLA incorporation into CER1 were higher in group HCO + BO than in group HCO. Small but significant levels of LNA, GLA, and their C20-metabolized fatty acids [dihomo-γ-linolenic acid (DGLA) and arachidonic acid (ARA)] were incorporated into CER2, where ARA was detected at a level lower than LNA, but DGLA incorporation exceeded that for GLA in group HCO + BO. Dietary BO enhanced LB content and differential incorporation of GLA into CER1 and DGLA into CER2.     

Evaluation of Two Sets of Sorghum Bagasse Samples as the Feedstock for Fermentable Sugar Recovery via the Calcium Capturing by Carbonation (CaCCO) Process

Abstract: Sorghum bagasse samples from two sets (n6 and bmr6; n18 and bmr18) of wild-type and corresponding “brown midrib” (bmr) mutant strains of sweet sorghum were evaluated as the feedstock for fermentable sugar recovery via the calcium capturing by carbonation (CaCCO) process, which involves Ca(OH)₂ pretreatment of bagasse with subsequent neutralization with CO₂ for enzymatic saccharification. Saccharification tests under various pretreatment conditions of the CaCCO process at different Ca(OH)₂ concentrations, temperatures or residence periods indicated that bmr strains are more sensitive to the pretreatment than their counterparts are. It is expected that variant bmr6 is more suitable for glucose recovery than its wild-type counterpart because of the higher glucan content and better glucose recovery with less severe pretreatment. Meanwhile, bmr18showed higher scores of glucose recovery than its counterpart did, only at low pretreatment severity, and did not yield higher sugar recovery under the more severe conditions. The trend was similar to that of xylose recovery data from the two bmr strains. The advantages of bmr strains were also proven by means of simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of CaCCO-pretreated bagasse samples by pentose-fermenting yeast strain Candida shehatae Cs 4R. The amounts needed for production of 1 L of ethanol from n6, bmr6, n18, and bmr18samples were estimated as 4.11, 3.46, 4.03, and 3.95 kg, respectively. The bmr strains seem to have excellent compatibility with the CaCCO process for ethanol production, and it is expected that integrated research from the feedstock to bioprocess may result in breakthroughs for commercialization.     

Rheological and thermal properties of epoxy nanocomposites reinforced with alkylated multi‐walled carbon nanotubes

The effects of functionalized multi‐walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on thermal and chemorheological behaviors of an epoxy‐based nanocomposite system were investigated. Chemical functionalization of MWCNTs by acid modification (A‐MWCNTs) and chemical amidation (D‐MWCNTs) was confirmed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. It was found that the D‐MWCNTs had a significant effect on the chemorheological behaviors of the epoxy‐based nanocomposite. Compared to the epoxy/A‐MWCNT nanocomposite, the epoxy/D‐MWCNTs nanocomposite showed a significant increase in gel time, as obtained from isothermal rheology measurements. Also, the storage modulus of the diglycidylether of bisphenol F (DGEBF)/D‐MWCNTs nanocomposite was higher than that of the DGEBF/D‐MWCNTs nanocomposite and gradually increased with an increase of frequency. This could be interpreted by the relatively strongly interconnected structure of the D‐MWCNTs in the DGEBF epoxy resin, which arises from the functionalized alkyl groups of the D‐MWCNTs in dispersion phases with the DGEBF epoxy resin. Copyright © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry     

Computation of optimal tool length for 5-axis ball-ended milling of molding die

The research presents an efficient computation of optimal tool-length for 5-axis mold and die machining. The proposed procedure analyzes input NC data generated by a commercial CAM system and computes the minimum feasible tool-length via slight modification of tool orientation at the selected NC blocks where tool-length reduction is required. The test result shows that the research is especially useful in five-axis machining steep wall features of deep cavities in an injection molding die. The developed system is used at a domestic molding die manufacturing company.     

Experimental investigation on the piezo-composite actuator with piezoelectric single-crystal layer

Studies on muscle mimicking actuators have increased in the last two decades due to the possibility of various applications for compact lightweight actuators including small unmanned aircrafts, missile, and biomimetic robots. Piezoelectric materials have been used in a variety of applications ranging from shape control of structure and active vibration control of structure to noise suppression due to compact size and good frequency response. Conventional polycrystal piezoelectric ceramic materials, however, have limited actuating strains and displacement, hindering their use in actuators for small aerospace vehicles. In this study, the design and fabrication method of an actuator with a piezoelectric single-crystal layer were investigated to increase the actuation strain and displacement. From a comparison of the performance of the LIPCA-C2 and LIPCA-S prototypes, it was found that the new LIPCA-S2, which has much higher coefficient of the unimorph actuator, can generate an actuating displacement more than twice that of LIPCA-C2.