• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.89-96
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• 2023

Uric acid produced by guanine deaminase (GDA) is involved in photoaging and hyperpigmentation. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated by uric acid plays a role in photoaging. However, the mechanism by which uric acid stimulates melanogenesis in GDA-overexpressing keratinocytes is unclear. Keratinocyte-derived paracrine factors have been identified as important mechanisms of ultraviolet-induced melanogenesis. Therefore, the role of paracrine melanogenic growth factors in GDA-induced hypermelanosis mediated by uric acid was examined. The relationships between ROS and these growth factors were examined. Primary cultured normal keratinocytes overexpressed with wild type or mutant GDA and those treated with xanthine or uric acid in the presence or absence of allopurinol, H₂O₂, or N-acetylcysteine (NAC) were used in this study. Intracellular and extracellular bFGF and SCF levels were increased in keratinocytes by wild type, but not by loss-of-function mutants of GDA overexpression. Culture supernatants from GDA-overexpressing keratinocytes stimulated melanogenesis, which was restored by anti-bFGF and anti-SCF antibodies. Allopurinol treatment reduced the expression levels of bFGF and SCF in both GDA-overexpressing and normal keratinocytes exposed to exogenous xanthine; the exogenous uric acid increased their expression levels. H₂O₂-stimulated tyrosinase expression and melanogenesis were restored by NAC pretreatment. However, H₂O₂ or NAC did not upregulate or downregulate bFGF or SCF, respectively. Overall, uric acid could be involved in melanogenesis induced by GDA overexpression in keratinocytes via bFGF and SCF upregulation not via ROS generation.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.356-370
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• 2023

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: School food service has played an important role in promoting the health and physical condition of students by providing students with a balanced and nutritious diet. Therefore, boosting the quality of school food service and improving the students' satisfaction is critical. For this purpose, this study examined the structural causal relationship among the quality of school food service factors, emotional responses, and satisfaction in China. SUBJECTS/METHODS: This study was conducted with 4th-6th-grade students from 6 junior high schools in Henan province of China, with 590 questionnaire responses (87.3%) collected and statistically analyzed. RESULTS: The school food service quality factors (including menu management, dietary education, facilities management, price and food distribution management, and personal hygiene during meals) must be enhanced to boost the students' satisfaction. In addition, the study used questionnaire survey data to validate the full mediation of students' emotional responses between school food service quality factors and student satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS: Students' emotions also play an important role in influencing the quality of school food service, all of which affect the emotional responses of students. Therefore, students' positive emotions are an important indicator for improving the quality of school food service. A national support policy is necessary for the ongoing maintenance and development of various programs that drive students' satisfaction and promote the adoption of education guidelines for school food service in China.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.188-213
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• 2020

Various information and communication technologies (ICT) and electronic government (e-Government) projects have been planted in hopes of economic and social growth in developing economies. These types of ventures usually involve working in societies with their own unique cultures in various aspects that often cause "custom ways" of planning, implementing, coordinating, and controlling in IT projects, thus playing a grand role in determining the success of IT projects. Due to a lack of understanding of local cultural factors and a deficiency of cultural risk evaluation models, however, many IT projects especially in the context of developing economies face failure. This study investigates the major cultural factors involved in IT projects and their effects on IT projects in developing economies. The framework is validated using the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) information and communication technology (ICT) and e-Government project cases of two countries in Central Asia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. This study will help project managers develop management practices and strategies associated with the cultural factors they face during the various stages of their IT projects in their specific contexts.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.21-36
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• 2004

The objectives of this study were to explore theoretically the factors that were associated with role conflict of rural extension educators, to investigate the consequences of this conflict, and to suggest possible solutions to the role conflict. This study was carried out through literature review. The findings from this study were as follows : 1) The causes of role conflict were divided into individual characteristics and social or organizational characteristics. Existing research papers examining the cause of rural extension educators' role conflict had focused mainly on individual characteristics. Therefore, social characteristics of the role conflict should be included in future research activities. 2) The consequences of role conflict were made up of individual dimensions and organizational dimensions. However, pervious researches on rural extension educators' role conflict had dealt with the individual dimensions only. Therefore, the consequences of organizational dimensions should be added to future researches. 3) Revision of roles and job specifications, developing professional competencies, and raising achievement motivation were some of the possible solutions to rural extension educators' role conflict. These solutions, if managed effectively, may improve the performance of extension organizations, as well as that of the individuals by solving the role conflict of rural extension educators.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.63 no.3
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• pp.166-175
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• 2013

The attire of businesspersons has a significant impact on their social status and career. In accordance with the norms of the work place, the types of office attire are diversified. This research was conducted to determine the relationship between the work role of men and their attire, and how satisfaction with their work attire influences their job satisfaction. This study classifies work attire into three categories: uniform, suit, and freestyle. Data from 268 respondents were analyzed, and four work attire satisfaction factors were extracted: symbolic, quality, role function, and aesthetic factors. The group members wearing uniforms displayed a high level of satisfaction with regard to symbolism, role function, and quality; those wearing suits displayed a high level of satisfaction with regard to aesthetics; and those wearing freestyle displayed a high level of satisfaction with regard to role function and aesthetics. Overall, satisfaction with work attire was the highest in the freestyle group. For people wearing uniforms and suits, symbolism, quality, and aesthetics had a significant influence on overall satisfaction, whereas for those wearing freestyle, symbolism had a negative influence and quality had a positive influence on overall satisfaction. To conclude, work attire satisfaction had a greater effect on the job satisfaction of the men in uniforms and suits than on those wearing freestyle.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.119-127
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• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify factors influencing parenting confidence in first-time mothers and to provide basic data for development of maternal role education programs. Method: The participants were 194 first-time mothers of babies aged 1-6 months who visited well-baby clinics in 4 hospitals. Instruments used in this study were self-reported questionnaires. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient and stepwise multiple regression. Results: The parenting confidence level was moderate with a mean score of 3.26(range 1-6). Infant temperament was significantly correlated with maternal role confidence. Maternal role confidence was significantly correlated with child-rearing environment. Infant temperament and parenting stress were significant predictors explaining 50% maternal role confidence. Conclusions: Nursing Interventions to promote parenting confidence among first-time mothers of infants in their first year are needed to improve maternal perception to infant temperament and reduce parenting stress.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.25
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• pp.223-242
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• 2008

Today, businesses are under rapidly changing environments that are characterized as stopless competition and uncertainty. Under this circumstance, workers are exposed to much stress that is induced by factors such as lots of job burden, responsibility, role conflicts, role ambiguity, interpersonal conflicts, pressure related to job performance and lots of job-related requests. Unlike workers of other industries, those of distribution business may be more exposed to stress because they serve in unique work conditions. Therefore, distribution workers have an accumulate fatigue of their own, suffering from health problems that are stress-induced. Distribution businesses should positively try to identify factors that fall their workers into stress, making those workers less stressful and preventing their negative job performance. Efforts to reduce workers' stress can not only improve their physical and mental health, but also raise business competitiveness. Thus the purpose of this study is to investigate how much distribution workers' job role, interpersonal relations and job environment are influential to their job stress and thereon determine relations between job stress and job performance.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.414-419
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to measure the effect of disgust with meat mediating the factors influencing meat consumption. Structural equation model was used to measure the causal relationships among constructs. The structural analysis Result of the data indicated excellent model fit. The effects of moral concerns for animals, meat texture and satiety from meat on disgust with meat were statistically significant. The effects of color in meat and negative body esteem on disgust with meat were not statistically significant. As expected, disgust with meat had a significant effect on meat consumption. Moreover, disgust with meat played a mediating role in the relationship between moral concerns for animals and meat consumption. Disgust with meat played a mediating role in the relationship between satiety from meat and meat consumption. Disgust with meat did not play a mediating role in the relationship between color in meat and meat consumption. Disgust with meat did not play a mediating role in the relationship between body esteem and meat consumption. In conclusion, based on structural analysis, a model was proposed of interrelations among constructs. It should be noted that the original model was modified and should, preferably, be validated in future research.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.53-63
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• 2008

This paper examined the relationship between job stressor and job satisfaction according to the general property of disabled workers. Role ambiguity, role conflict, and role overload were cast as the factors of job satisfaction to explore their relationship with the general property and type of disabled workers. The results revealed that role ambiguity had the strongest meaningful relationships with job satisfaction and role conflict, role overload had not shown the meaningful relationships with their Job satisfaction. The reason of this results seemed to be from the fact that the work type available or not available to disabled worker was determined beforehand according to their disability type. Finally, these findings provide a guidelines of efficiency human resource management and strategic development program for the disabled workers.

• Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.113-140
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• 2019

Experiencing work as a calling has been associated with various positive work-related attitudes and outcomes. Recent studies have examined personal and contextual factors related to job calling; however, gaps remain in the literature on how employees' perception of organizational environment may lead to the formation of employees' job calling. We focused on psychological climate of innovation as the predictor of employees' job calling and further investigated its effect on extra-role behaviors, including innovative work behavior (IWB) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). A total of 165 Malaysian employees from diverse industries and organizations participated in a self-reported online questionnaire. We found support for the mediation model in which the association between a psychological climate of innovation and increased extra-role behaviors through increased job calling. Altogether, these findings provided new insights into the important role of innovative climate on employees' job calling and the mediating role of job calling on extra-role behaviors within occupational settings. Theoretical and practical implications are further discussed.