Research Highlight

The purpose of my paper is to use persimmons as a functional food for immune stimulation. Fermentation was performed to improve macrophage-immunostimulatory activity, and polysaccharide with potent activity was separated.

Furthermore, the mechanism and characteristics of the active compound were identified. The present study reveals that traditional fermentation is a useful method for increasing the macrophage-immunostimulatory activity of the persimmon fruit, and the increased activity may be associated with the structural modification of

persimmon polysaccharides.

This study may be used to identify a functional ingredient as an Immunostimulatory agent, and our results may be applied to develop a new immunostimulatory product using FDK-H.

Thank you to everyone who helped me write a paper and the learning healthcare system that gave me this opportunity.

The recent global suicide rate between 2010 and 2016 has decreased in most countries. However, studies evaluating the “trend” of socioeconomic inequality in suicide are limited. Thus, this study aimed to examine changes in suicide inequalities over the past 20 years based on gender and age groups in South Korea. Using two types of relative measures (absolute and relative inequality), we found that the overall trend in suicide rate decreased in Korea after 2010, and educational inequalities in suicide also showed favorable changes toward the less educated.

However, a notable exception showed that suicide inequalities in the youngest females (aged 30–44 years) were persistently increasing, and additionally, the magnitudes of suicide inequality were largest in the youngest in both genders. We conclude that narrowing of suicide equalities in the overall trend has not been applied in the youngest group, in particular women. Findings showed the need to intensify efforts in social and health policies to take persistent inequalities in the youngest group.