The importance of preserving intangible cultural heritage (ICH) for sustainable development has been widely acknowledged by the international society. Various forms of cooperation have taken place to prevent deterioration and destruction due to its inherent characteristic of ‘intangibleness’. Public engagement, however, has largely been excluded from the system in spite of its significance in safeguarding ICH by inducing people to be trained as successors. In this respect, this paper discusses and emphasises the necessity of public engagement in safeguarding ICH. To this end, it suggests the use of digital technologies to create museum content to encourage public involvement with and learning about ICH. Focusing on ICH in Korea, digital exhibitions on Jultagi and Daemokjang utilising virtual reality technology are proposed. The ultimate aim of this article is to contribute to the sustainability of world ICH for humanity through digital exhibitions.

This article presents the efficacy of heat-induced MPC-grafting against excessive fibrous capsule formation and related inflammation in tissues surrounding silicone breast implants inserted in a pig model.

The surface of human silicone breast implants is covalently grafted at a high density with a 2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC)-based polymer. Addition of crosslinkers is essential for enhancing the density and mechanical durability of the MPC graft. The MPC graft strongly inhibits not only adsorption but also the conformational deformation of fibrinogen, resulting in the exposure of a buried amino acid sequence, γ377−395, which is recognized by inflammatory cells. Furthermore, the numbers of adhered macrophages and the amounts of released cytokines (MIP-1α, MIP-1β, IL-8, TNFα, IL-1α, IL-1β, and IL-10) are dramatically decreased when the MPC network is introduced at a high density on the silicone surface (cross-linked PMPC-silicone). We insert the MPC-grafted human silicone breast implants into Yorkshire pigs to analyze the in vivo effect of the MPC graft on the capsular formation around the implants. After 6 month implantation, marked reductions of inflammatory cell recruitment, inflammatory-related proteins (TGF-β and myeloperoxidase), a myoblast marker (α-smooth muscle actin), vascularity-related factors (blood vessels and VEGF), and, most importantly, capsular thickness are observed on the crosslinked PMPC-silicone. We propose a mechanism of the MPC grafting effect on fibrous capsular formation around silicone implants on the basis of the in vitro and in vivo results.