• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.195-205
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• 2022

This study aims to investigate the relationship between Corporate Venture Capital(CVC) investments and firm innovation, exploring the moderating effect of corporate ESG risk on this relationship. First, adopting the organizational learning theory, I theorize a process in which a firm's relationship with a venture through CVC investments acts as an external innovation source for learning and ultimately short-term innovation. Also, based on the discussion of the stakeholder theory, I argue that when a firm is evaluated as having high ESG risk externally, this may have a negative moderating effect that weakens the relationship between CVC investments and innovative performance. In order to verify these hypotheses, panel data analysis was performed using CVC investments data, patent application data, and ESG risk scores of US high-tech firms from 1993 to 2018. As a result of the analysis, as expected, it was found that the more the firm invests in ventures through CVC, the more the firm's innovative performance increases. In addition, the social aspect of ESG risk of a firm, related to the local community and employees, were found to weaken the association between CVC investments and innovative performance. This study expands the understanding of existing research on CVC investments as a vehicle for learning and innovation. Focusing on the importance of relationship with ventures rather than the size of CVC investments, I empirically examined that the formation of CVC relationships with ventures is directly related to the short-term innovation of investing firms. Additionally, this study contributes to the CVC literature by including stakeholders in the current discussion in addition to investing firms and portfolio ventures. Finally, this study investigated how ESG issues, which are attracting attention as playing an important role in firm activities, are related to CVC investments.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.279-285
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• 2024

The zonula occludens (ZO) protein serves as a scaffolding protein, providing structural support at the junctions between cells and the cytoplasmic surface. It acts as a bridge between integral membrane proteins and the cytoskeleton. Besides its structural role, it also participates in regulating cell growth and proliferation. Recent studies have highlighted the involvement of ZO protein in various diseases, including cancer. Specifically, research has indicated that ZO protein influences the cancer microenvironment surrounding cancer cells, thereby facilitating their growth and development. ZO proteins exert diverse functions in the cancer microenvironment, impacting processes such as angiogenesis, inflammatory responses, the epithelial-mesenchymal transition, and interactions with mesenchymal stem cells. The specific mechanisms vary depending on the type of cancer and environmental conditions. Recent research unveiled several signaling pathways involving ZO protein, which could potentially impede cancer progression in the tumor microenvironment. Consequently, these insights open avenues for novel treatment strategies. While the numerous physiological, structural, and morphological roles of ZO protein have been observed at the cellular and in vivo levels, understanding the signaling mechanisms it operates in vivo and how these mechanisms influence the cancer microenvironment remains a challenge. In this review, we delineate the characteristics and regulatory mechanisms of ZO protein in the context of the cancer microenvironment. Additionally, we propose leveraging the properties of ZO protein to devise defense mechanisms within the cancer cell environment and provide an overview of its in vivo role.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.1-12
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• 2023

After 60 years since the enactment of the cultural property protection act, Korea's national system of protecting what has been valued has been transformed into a 'National Heritage System'. To meet the new system, the classification of national heritage has been re-classified into three categories as cultural heritage, natural heritage, and intangible heritage. In accordance with the sub-classification, acts for cultural heritage act and intangible heritage has been amended and act for natural heritage has been enacted. Act for natural heritage defines natural heritage as natural objects or cultural heritage formed through the interaction between human beings and natural environment. The sub-classification are categorized as follows; animal, plant, geological and natural reserves, natural landscapes, historical-cultural landscapes, and mixed landscapes. It also allows creating traditional landscapes so that traditional way of landscaping can be encouraged and integrated with modern life within historic environment. In line with the new concept of traditional landscaping, existing practices will be also needed to be changed. Traditional landscaping will play a significant role in setting out the new administrative paradigm which focuses on more value preservation. This paper recommends that effective collaboration between government, experts of traditional landscaping, and owners should be established to integrate the new policy in practice.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.153-161
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• 2024

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that is mainly produced in the skin by UV rays. Along with melatonin, it is a representative chronobiotic substance, and the skin plays an important role in distinguishing between day and night. However, vitamin D cannot be used directly in cosmetics because it is a vitamin that acts as a coenzyme and plays a hormonal role in regulating the expression of various types of genes. Therefore, it was to investigate the skin efficacy of provitamin D (7-dehydrocholesterol), a vitamin D precursor that can be used in cosmetics. Our findings reveal that pro vitamin D can effectively inhibit the expression of tyrosinase, the melanin-producing enzyme, thereby attenuating melanin synthesis. This skin tone regulatory effect has been corroborated in vitro using artificial skin models. Additionally, pro vitamin D demonstrated anti-inflammatory properties by suppressing the expression of TNFa and, upon conversion to vitamin D through UV exposure, it was observed to induce the production of the antimicrobial peptide CAMP (LL-37). The inhibitory effect of pro vitamin D on melanin production appears to be a result of it reducing the UV absorption capacity of melanin, thereby inducing the conversion of pro D to vitamin D. Utilizing pro vitamin D in cosmetic formulations could not only modulate skin tone and enhance skin immunity but also expect to contribute to other cutaneous benefits as anti-aging and barrier function improvement with everyday UV exposure. This multifaceted efficacy positions pro vitamin D as a promising ingredient in advancing the formulation of skin care products.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.33.1-33.19
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• 2021

IL-1β plays critical roles in the priming and effector phases of immune responses such as the differentiation, commitment, and memory formation of T cells. In this context, several reports have suggested that the IL-1β signal is crucial for CTL-mediated immune responses to viral infections and tumors. However, little is known regarding whether IL-1β acts directly on CD8⁺ T cells and what the molecular mechanisms underlying expression of IL-1 receptors (IL-1Rs) on CD8⁺ T cells and features of IL-1R⁺ CD8⁺ T cells are. Here, we provide evidence that the expression of IL-1R type I (IL-1RI), the functional receptor of IL-1β, is preferentially induced by IL-21 on TCR-stimulated CD8⁺ T cells. Further, IL-1β enhances the effector function of CD8⁺ T cells expressing IL-21-induced IL-1RI by increasing cytokine production and release of cytotoxic granules containing granzyme B. The IL-21-IL-1RI-IL-1β axis is involved in an augmented effector function through regulation of transcription factors BATF, Blimp-1, and IRF4. Moreover, this axis confers a unique effector function to CD8⁺ T cells compared to conventional type 1 cytotoxic T cells differentiated with IL-12. Chemical inhibitor and immunoprecipitation assay demonstrated that IL-21 induces a unique pattern of STAT activation with the formation of both STAT1:STAT3 and STAT3:STAT5 heterodimers, which are critical for the induction of IL-1RI on TCR-stimulated CD8⁺ T cells. Taken together, we propose that induction of a novel subset of IL-1RI-expressing CD8⁺ T cells by IL-21 may be beneficial to the protective immune response against viral infections and is therefore important to consider for vaccine design.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.31.1-31.10
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• 2023

Background: With modernization, air pollution has become increasingly serious, and its effects on health have been revealed. As a result, public interest in environmental pollution has become critical for regulating air pollution. In our study, we aim to evaluate the impact of air pollution levels on public attention to environmental issues and examine whether awareness of the residential environment's impact on health acts as a mediator in this relationship. Methods: We conducted an analysis on 400 individuals surveyed in the preliminary feasibility study on adverse health effects in the Pohang Industrial Complex, to examine the relationship between particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) and attention to environmental issues. Logistic regression analysis was performed, and mediation analysis was used to determine whether awareness of the residential environment's impact on health mediated the relationship. Results: The logistic regression analysis results showed that PM2.5 levels were associated with attention to environmental issues (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 2.1; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.3-3.5; p = 0.003) and awareness of health impacts (AOR: 3.4; 95% CI: 1.6-7.1; p = 0.001). The PM2.5 levels showed 9.9% (95% CI: 5.4-14.0) increase in the prevalence of high attention to environmental issues, of which, only 1.0% (95% CI: 0.2-2.3) were mediated by health impact awareness. In the overall analysis, 10% of the total effect of PM2.5 on attention to environmental issues was mediated by health impact awareness. Conclusions: According to this study's results, there was a correlation between air pollution levels and attention to environmental issues. Awareness of the health impacts of air pollution partially mediated the effect of air pollution levels on attention to environmental issues. In future studies, it is recommended to identify other mediators to further understand this structure.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.93-105
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• 2024

Car-sharing is a representative model of the sharing economy, and it is a service that rents or uses a car for the necessary time without owning a car. This industry is growing due to various factors such as technological advances, increasing awareness of environmental protection, and increasing demand for solving traffic congestion problems in cities. Accordingly, there is a need for a strategic approach for companies providing car-sharing services to respond quickly to market changes in order to expand market share and differentiate services. Accordingly, this study conducted a case study on open innovation activities between Gongcar and existing rental car companies, focusing on the research question "What effects do open innovation activities between car-sharing companies and existing rental car companies cause?" As a result of the study, it was confirmed that Gongcar have (1) the ability to actively respond to market fluctuations by establishing a flexible vehicle supply chain based on demand, (2) have significantly reduced growth capital expenditure (Growth Capex), and both cafe and rental car companies have (3) performed successful open innovation by improving key KPI indicators and recording financial performance. This study reveals how open innovation acts as a key business growth engine in the car-sharing industry, and its significance is found in that it empirically confirmed the successful implementation conditions of open innovation based on resource dependence theory.

• Journal of Dental Rehabilitation and Applied Science
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.214-221
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• 2023

In order to fabricate stable dentures in patients with severe resorption of residual ridges, various factors must be considered. One of them is the neutral zone, which is defined as the potential region in which the pressure of the tongue outward in the oral cavity and the pressure of the cheeks and lips directed inward from the outside of the oral cavity equalize during functioning. In patients with severe ridge resorption, if the teeth are usually arranged above the residual ridge, the teeth are located on the lingual side rather than the original position. Therefore, the functional space of the tongue is invaded, the tongue is positioned backward, and the sealing of the lingual border is broken, which acts as a factor reducing the maintenance of denture. In addition, it is also important for the stability of dentures to assume an interalveolar crest line connecting the maxillary and mandibular ridge crests, and to arrange the maxillary and mandibular artificial teeth to match the masticatory force to the interalveolar crest line. Therefore, good clinical results were obtained by fabricating dentures for the patient with poor alveolar residual ridge using neutral zone impression and ridge relationship analysis.

• Journal of Advanced Technology Convergence
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.21-31
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• 2024

The study confirmed the relationship between attractiveness and suitability in the relationship between the formativeness of creating the artistic form of a virtual influencer who acts as an advertising model, advertising attention, and advertising attitude. To confirm this, the subjects of the study were the MZ generation and X generation, which have a high rate of SNS use. The analysis method used SPSS statistics 27.0 and SPSS process macro version. The research results are as follows. First, it was confirmed that attractiveness and suitability fully mediate the relationship between formativeness and advertising attention. In the path of formativeness and advertising attention, the total effect was found to be higher than the direct effect, and it was confirmed that there was a double parallel mediation effect through attractiveness and suitability in the relationship between the formativeness of virtual influencers and advertising attention. Second, it was confirmed that formativeness affects the mediating variable, attractiveness, but attractiveness does not affect attitude toward advertising. Since formativeness affects suitability and suitability in turn influences attitude toward advertising, it was confirmed that there is a full mediating effect between these variables. According to these results, the parallel mediating effect of attractiveness and formativeness was not confirmed in the relationship between formativeness and attitude towards advertising. The above study is significant in that it presents academic implications and practical implications by examining the dual and parallel mediating effects of attractiveness and suitability in the relationship between formativeness, advertising attention, and advertising attitude variables, which are considered in the production of virtual influencers.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.24 no.7
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• pp.157-169
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• 2024

The article presents an analysis of innovative teaching technologies as a way to increase students' competitiveness. The author found that innovative technologies in education are information and communication technologies relying on computer-based learning. The structure, content of educational software, organization of Web-space are important when using innovative teaching technologies in English classes. We conducted the study in several stages: comparative analysis, synthesis, classification and systematization of the results of psychological and pedagogical, educational and methodological research; study of legislative acts, periodicals in order to identify the state of the research issue, and determining the directions of its solution, as well as subject, goal and objectives of the study. We used modelling to create situations of foreign language professional communication of future IT specialists. Empirical methods involved questionnaires used for identifying the motives of professional development and determining the features of the educational activities of future IT specialists in the process of training. The methods of mathematical statistics allowed to scientifically describe and systematize the obtained data, to identify the quantitative relationship between the studied phenomena, to analyse and summarize the results. We conducted a socio-psychological study during 2016 - 2019. It involved 255 first- and fourth-year students of National Technical University of Ukraine "Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Poly-technic Institute." Innovative information and communication technologies that improve the educational and cognitive activity of students, as well as increase the level of their knowledge have become important in teaching a foreign language in higher educational institutions. These technologies include MOODLE - Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment, business game, integrated pedagogical technology, case study technology. Thus, the information-rich learning process in combination with the use of innovative technologies, well-organized e-learning, interactive training courses, multimedia tools improves the program of teaching and learning foreign languages in general, and English in particular, improves the level of knowledge of future IT specialists and motivation to study and learn foreign languages, allows students to use a variety of authentic materials. We state that all these factors influence the process of individualization of learning and contribute to the successful mastery of a foreign language.