• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.245-261
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• 2020

The aim of this study is to investigate the correlation between the support activities provided by the franchiser and how they affect the intention of the contract renewal and business performances made by franchisees, developing dynamic trust between these transactional partners. Various supportive activities between franchiser and franchisees were divided into financial and non-financial activities and dynamic trust into Transitional-based trust, Calculative-based trust, Relational-based trust, and Balanced-based trust. These trust types, which are variable and adjustable based on the opportunistic behaviors of business parties, were applied to define the impact of the support activities on the contract renewal intention and the performances. This study was developed around domestic franchisees. An investigator visited business owners and manager level-employees, explained the purpose of the survey prior to the response, and the answers were directly written by hands. A total of 348 copies were used for the analysis. As the results of the analysis, first, financial support activities were found to have a positive(+) effect on transitional-based trust, calculative-based trust, and balanced-based trust. On the other hand, non-financial support activities were found to have a positive(+) effect on calculative-based trust, relational-based trust, and balanced-based trust, and there was no significant relationship on transitional-based trust. Second, the dynamic trust had a statistically significant positive(+) effect on inducing the contract renewal. Lastly, in the relationship between the dynamic trust and its impact on business performances, only transitional-based trust, and relational-based trust were found to have a positive(+) effect on the financial performances. In addition, relational-based trust showed a meaningful positive(+) relationship on the non-financial performances, and non-financial performace showed a meaningful positive(+) relationship on the re-contract intention. From the results, it can be concluded that the financial and non-financial activities for a win-win partnership between franchiser and franchisees are essential in not only forming dynamic trust but also boosting business performances as well as maintaining the business relationship. Thus, it suggests that building a win-win partnership can be promoted more efficiently by specifying activities best suitable for a particular relationship. In addition, a specific set of activities could be presented for establishing the level of trust that is formed in situations that vary depending on transaction risks and interdependency arising from having the transactional relationship based on the contract as the franchise industry features. Eventually, it is expected that this study can provide a way to promote the qualitative improvement of the franchise industry by identifying factors essential to establishing a sustainable win-win system and relationships that can improve the business performance of franchisees.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.135-149
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• 2020

As youth employment has become a social issue every year, the government is pushing for policies to support youth start-ups to create jobs voluntarily as a way to enhance the youth employment rate. In the case of young people in Gangwon Province, the number of people moving to other regions is increasing. This research is intended to empirically analyze the actual achievements of youth start-ups through the 'Youth Start-up Project' in Gangwon-do. It was divided into four categories: participation in government support, education completion, intellectual property right retention, and certification retention, which are characteristics of start-up companies, and hypotheses that they will have a positive impact on start-up performance (sales amount, duration of existence, or whether they are retained or not). Age and geographical factors (Yeongdong and Yeongseo) were injected as control variables to see how they affect them. Furthermore, empirical analysis was conducted by setting up a hypothesis that the characteristics of start-up companies and subsequent support between start-up performance would have a positive intermediary effect. The research results showed that the remaining characteristics, except for education completion, had a positive impact on sales, and that the more participation in government projects, the longer the duration of the company's existence. In addition, the level of participation in government support projects was significant in the direction of the government. The analysis results of the parameter, follow-up support, had a positive impact on the start-up performance, and the subsequent support mediating effect showed the mediating effect of the start-up performance, except for geographical factors. The results of this study suggest the need for customized support suitable for the characteristics of youth start-ups in order to enhance the performance of young start-ups. Support agencies need to refer to corporate characteristics for smooth management and selection. In the Gangwon-do area, the government should seek to provide timely and organic support for start-up companies in order to produce successful start-up cases.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.231-244
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• 2020

With the rapid progress of the 4th industrial revolution, technical human capitals are considered to be the core competing factors of the enterprise. Technical manpower training of the 4th industrial revolution through technical education has become an essential task of venture start-ups. The opening of technical training courses and the education support system of companies are increasing, but the shortage of technical manpower is getting worse. This study was conducted to analyze the factors affecting participation intention of the 4th industrial revolution technology education. The research model was established based on the model of goal-directed behavior. For the analysis, 250 valid questionnaire data were used to test with a structural equation model. The results of the study are as follows. First, attitude had a positive effect on the intention to participate in education. Second, subjective norms had a positive effect on the intention to participate in education. Third, the perceived behavioral control has not been tested for a significant influence on educational participation intention. Fourth, positive and negative anticipated emotions had a significant effect on educational intention. The impact of significant variables were found in the order of positive anticipated emotions, attitudes, negative anticipated emotions, subjective norms. On the other hand, as a result of testing the mediating effect of desires, it was found that desires plays a mediating role between attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, positive anticipated emotions, negative anticipated emotions, and participation intention. In particular, the causal relationship between perceived behavioral control and intention to participate in education was not significant, but perceived behavioral control had a significant effect(full mediation) on participation intention through desires. Based on the results of this study, the following implication were suggested. First, the model of goal-directed behavior(MGB) was applied to the technical education field. Second, the direct relationship between antecedent variables and behavioral intentions was simultaneously tested. Third, unlike the existing education-related research, the factors affecting participation in education were analyzed. Fourth, the importance of desires for education were suggested.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.69-81
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• 2020

This study is to identify the effect of seniors in their 40s and 50s on their entrepreneurial intentions through attitude on entrepreneurship, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control by utilizing the integrated model of the theory of planned behavior and self-determination theory. Also, in this process, we tried to analyze moderating effect of entrepreneurship education for seniors. An online survey was conducted for seniors in their 40s and 50s living in Seoul and Gyeonggi province, out of the total 284 questionnaire responses, 243 valid questionnaires were used in the study. Research analysis utilized SPSS 24, AMOS 23 structural equation model and Professor Hayes' Process 3.4 to analyze moderating effect. The results of the study were summarized as follows. First, autonomous motivation had a positive influence on attitude toward entrepreneurship, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. But controlled motivation didn't have the significant influence on attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. Second, attitude toward entrepreneurship, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control had positive influence on entrepreneurship intention. Third, as a result of analyzing moderating effect of entrepreneurship education for seniors, the significant moderating effect was verified between attitude and entrepreneurship intention. Also the significant moderating effect was verified between subjective norms and entrepreneurship intention. On the other hand, no significant moderating effect was proved between perceived behavioral control and entrepreneurship intention. The implication of this study is that for retired seniors planning to enter into entrepreneurship, the result can contribute to the development of a entrepreneurship support program that can increase new startup creation, survival and sucess by diagnosing autonomous and controlled motivation for entrepreneurship. In addition, by providing entrepreneurship education as well as re-employment training in the senior outplacement program, the study can contribute to widening the opportunities for seniors to second career after retirement.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.109-120
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• 2020

This study examines how the government's fairness in entrepreneurship support affects satisfaction and management performance, and examines whether these influences are different for each growth stage of start-up companies. For this study, data were collected for start-up companies that received government support for start-up within the past 5 years. Total 611 copies of the data were used in this study. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS. The fairness used in this study was divided into three types, procedural fairness, interactive fairness, and distributed fairness. The effect of the three fairness on the satisfaction of start-up support project was analyzed. In addition, the effect of business support satisfaction on business performance was analyzed, where the business performance was evaluated by the questioner's satisfaction with their business. The start-up phase was divided into the start phase, early growth phase, stagnant phase, and high-level growth phase, and the moderating effect between the fairness and satisfaction of the government-supported projects by start-up phase was analyzed. As a result, it was found that every concept of fairness had a positive (+) effect on the satisfaction of the entrepreneurship support project, and the satisfaction of the entrepreneurship support project had a positive (+) effect on the management performance. The concept of procedural fairness in the start phase, procedural fairness in the early growth phase, interactive fairness, and the concept of all fairness in the stagnant phase influenced the satisfaction of the start-up support project. In this study, the fairness and effect of government-supported projects affecting the management performance of start-ups were identified by growth phase of start-ups. The results of these studies will help build a systematic system for entrepreneurship support and for start-ups, it will also greatly contribute to finding differentiated growth plans by growth stages of start-up companies.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.480-489
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• 2020

Objective: Sow milk (SM) may not be able to meet the piglet's nutritional needs in late lactation. Hence, this study was conducted to investigate the effects of early commercial milk (CM) supplement on the mucosal morphology, bacterial community and bacterial metabolites in jejunum of piglets. Methods: Ten litters of newborn piglets ([Yorkshire×Landrace]×Duroc) were randomly divided into 2 groups of 5 litters. The piglets in the control group were suckled by the sow (SM), while the piglets in the treatment group (CM supplement) were supplemented with a CM supplement along with suckling from d 4 to d 28 of age. Results: No significant differences were observed about jejunal mucosal morphology on d 28 and d 35 between two groups. On d 28, the activity of lactase in the jejunum was significantly decreased in the CM group, while the activity of sucrase and the ratio of maltase to lactase were significantly increased (p<0.05). On d 35, the activity of maltase in the jejunum was significantly increased in the CM group (p<0.05), and maltase to lactase ratio tended to increase in the CM group (p = 0.065). In addition, piglets in the CM group had a higher abundance of Clostridium XI, Tuicibater, and Moraxella in the jejunum on d 28, while the abundance of Lactobacillus was significantly increased on d 35 (p<0.05). Conclusion: The early CM supplement improved the maturation of the jejunum to some extent by enhancing the maltase and sucrase activities. Moreover, the early CM supplement could help maintain the homeostasis of internal environment in jejunum by increasing the microbial-derived metabolites.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.219-229
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• 2020

Objective: Considering the physiological and clinical importance of leptin receptor (LEPR) in regulating obesity and the fact that porcine LEPR expression is not known to be controlled by lncRNAs and miRNAs, we aim to characterize this gene as a potential target of SSC-miR-323 and the lncRNA TCONS_00010987. Methods: Bioinformatics analyses revealed that lncRNA TCONS_00010987 and LEPR have SSC-miR-323-binding sites and that LEPR might be a target of lncRNA TCONS_00010987 based on cis prediction. Wild-type and mutant TCONS_00010987-target sequence fragments and wild-type and mutant LEPR 3'-UTR fragments were generated and cloned into pmiRRB-REPORT^TM-Control vectors to construct respective recombinant plasmids. HEK293T cells were co-transfected with the SSC-miR-323 mimics or a negative control with constructs harboring the corresponding binding sites and relative luciferase activities were determined. Tissue expression patterns of lncRNA TCONS_00010987, SSC-miR-323, and LEPR in Anqing six-end-white (AQ, the obese breed) and Large White (LW, the lean breed) pigs were detected by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction; backfat expression of LEPR protein was detected by western blotting. Results: Target gene fragments were successfully cloned, and the four recombinant vectors were constructed. Compared to the negative control, SSC-miR-323 mimics significantly inhibited luciferase activity from the wild-type TCONS_00010987-target sequence and wild-type LEPR-3'-UTR (p<0.01 for both) but not from the mutant TCONS_00010987-target sequence and mutant LEPR-3'-UTR (p>0.05 for both). Backfat expression levels of TCONS_00010987 and LEPR in AQ pigs were significantly higher than those in LW pigs (p<0.01), whereas levels of SSC-miR-323 in AQ pigs were significantly lower than those in LW pigs (p<0.05). LEPR protein levels in the backfat tissues of AQ pigs were markedly higher than those in LW pigs (p<0.01). Conclusion: LEPR is a potential target of SSC-miR-323, and TCONS_00010987 might act as a sponge for SSC-miR-323 to regulate LEPR expression.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.996-1004
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• 2020

Various genetically engineered microorganisms have been developed for the removal of heavy metal contaminants. Metal biosorption by whole-cell biosorbents can be enhanced by overproduction of metal-binding proteins/peptides in the cytoplasm or on the cell surface. However, few studies have compared the biosorption capacity of whole cells expressing intracellular or surface-displayed metal-adsorbing proteins. In this study, several constructs were prepared for expressing intracellular and surface-displayed Ochrobactrum tritici 5bvl1 ChrB in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) cells. E. coli cells expressing surface-displayed ChrB removed more Cr(VI) from aqueous solutions than cells with cytoplasmic ChrB under the same conditions. However, intracellular ChrB was less susceptible to variation in extracellular conditions (pH and ionic strength), and more effectively removed Cr(VI) from industrial wastewater than the surface-displayed ChrB at low pH (<3). An adsorption-desorption experiment demonstrated that compared with intracellular accumulation, cell-surface adsorption is reversible, which allows easy desorption of the adsorbed metal ions and regeneration of the bioadsorbent. In addition, an intrinsic ChrB protein fluorescence assay suggested that pH and salinity may influence the Cr(VI) adsorption capacity of ChrB-expressing E. coli cells by modulating the ChrB protein conformation. Although the characteristics of ChrB may not be universal for all metal-binding proteins, our study provides new insights into different engineering strategies for whole-cell biosorbents for removing heavy metals from industrial effluents.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.63 no.4
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• pp.141-145
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• 2020

Background: For children and adolescents with cancer, going back to school is a key milestone in returning to "normal life." Purpose: To identify the support vital for a successful transition, we evaluated the parents' needs and the challenges they face when their children return to school. Methods: This multi-institutional study was conducted by the Korean Society of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology. The written survey comprised 24 questions and was completed by 210 parents without an interviewer. Results: Most parents (165 of 206) reported that their children experienced difficulties with physical status (n=60), peer relationships (n=30), academic performance (n=27), emotional/behavioral issues (n=11), and relationships with teachers (n=4) on reentering school. Parents wanted to be kept informed about and remain involved in their children's school lives and reported good parent-teacher communication (88 of 209, 42.1%). Parents reported that 83.1% and 44.9% of teachers and peers, respectively, displayed an adequate understanding of their children's condition. Most parents (197 of 208) answered that a special program is necessary to facilitate return to school after cancer therapy that offers emotional support (n=85), facilitates social adaptation (n=61), and provides tutoring to accelerate catch up (n=56), and continued health care by hospital outreach and school personnel (n=50). Conclusion: In addition to scholastic aptitude-oriented programs, emotional and psychosocial support is necessary for a successful return to school. Pediatric oncologists should actively improve oncology practices to better integrate individualized school plans and educate peers and teachers to improve health literacy to aid them in understanding the needs of children with cancer.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.344-357
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• 2020

Strain improvement and bioprocess development were undertaken to enhance hyaluronic acid(HA) production by Streptococcus zooepidemicus cells. Using a high-yielding mutant strain, statistical medium optimization was carried out in shake flask cultures, resulting in 52% increase in HA production (5.38 g/l) at the optimal medium composition relative to the parallel control cultures. For sufficient supply of dissolved oxygen (DO), which turned out to be crucial for enhanced production of HA, agitation system and speed were intensively investigated in 5 L bioreactor cultures. Increase in oxygen mass transfer coefficient (k_La) through increment of agitation speed (rpm) and 35% expansion of diameter of the newly-designed impellers showed significantly positive effects on HA production. By installing an expanded Rushton-turbine impeller for efficient break-down of sparged air, and an extended marine impeller above the Rushton-turbine impeller for efficient mixing of the air-born viscous fermentation broth, maximum amount of HA (9.79 g/l) was obtained at 450 rpm, 1.8 times higher level than that of the corresponding flask culture. Subsequently, the possibility of bioprocess scale-up to a 50 L bioreactor was investigated. Despite almost identical maximum HA production (9.11 vs 9.25 g/l), the average HA volumetric productivity (r_p) of the 50 L culture turned out only 74% compared to the corresponding 5 L culture during the exponential phase, possibly caused by shear damages imposed on the producing cells at the high stirring in the 50 L culture. The scale-up process could be successfully achieved if a scale-up criterion of constant oxygen mass transfer coefficient (k_La) is applied to the 50 L pilot-scale bioreactor system.