• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.90-117
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• 2019

How is science advice integrated in environmental policymaking? This is an increasingly pertinent question that is being raised since the nuclear catastrophe of Fukushima, Japan, in 2011. Global re-evaluation of energy policies and climate mitigation measures include discussions on how to better integrate science advice in policymaking, and at the same time keeping science independent from political influence. This paper addressed the policy discourse of setting up a national CO2 reduction target in Japanese policymaking between 2009 and 2012. The target proposed by the former DPJ government was turned down, and Japan lacked a clear strategy for long-term climate mitigation. The analysis provides explanations from a quantitative actor-network perspective. Centrality measures from social network analysis for policy actors in an environmental policy network of Japan were calculated to identify those actors that control the discourse. Data used for analysis comes from the Global Environmental Policy Actor Network 2 (GEPON 2) survey conducted in Japan (2012-13). Science advice in Japan was kept independent from political influence and was mostly excluded from policymaking. One of the two largest discourse coalitions in the environmental policy network promoted a higher CO2 reduction target for international negotiations but favored lowering the target after a new international agreement would have been set. This may explain why Japan struggled to commit to long-term mitigation strategies. Applying social network analysis to quantitatively calculate discourse coalitions was a feasible methodology for investigating "discursive power." But limited in discussing the "practice" (e.g. meetings, telephone, or email conversations) among the actors in discourse coalitions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 1995.10a
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• pp.107-113
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• 1995

Basement membrane laminin is a multidomain glycoprotein that interacts with itself, heparin and cells. The distal long arm plays major cell and heparin interactive roles. The long arm consists of three subunits (A, B1, B2) joined in a coiled-coil rod attached to a terminal A chain globule (G). The globule is in turn subdivided into five subdomains (Gl-5). In order to analyze the functions of this region, recombinant G domains (rG, rAiG, rG5, rGΔ2980-3028) were expressed in Sf9 insect cells using a baculovirus expression vector. A hybrid molecule (B-rAiG), consisting of recombinant A chain(rAiG) and the authentic B chains (E8-B)was assembled in vitro. The intercalation of rAiG into E8-B chains suppressed a heparin binding activity identified in subdomain Gl-2. By the peptide napping and ligand blotting, the relative affinity of each subeomain to heparin was assigned as Gl> G2= G4> G5> G3, such that G1 bound strongly and G3 not at all. The active heparin binding site of G domain in intact laminin appears to be located in G4 and proximal G5. Cell binding was examined using fibrosarcoma Cells. Cells adhered to E8, B-rAiG, rAiG and rG, did not bind on denatured substrates, poorly bound to the mixture of E8-B and rG. Anti-${\alpha}$6 and anti-${\beta}$1 integrin subunit separately blocked cell adhesion on E8 and B-rAiG, but not on rAiG. Heparin inhibited cell adhesion on rAiG, partially on B-rAiG, and not on E8. In conclusion, 1) There are active and cryptic cell and heparin binding activities in G domain. 2) Triple-helix assembly inactivates cell and heparin binding activities and restores u6131 dependent cell binding activities.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.1-35
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• 2017

This study conducted comparative study on autonomous car's industry policy and corporate strategy of US, China, Germany, Japan and Korea. By analyzing core technologies and industry paradigm shifts of autonomous car industry, I was able to figure out autonomous car has high potential to be dominant transportation in the future and it is important to construct core competency in technology area. The meaningful findings by analyzing various primary and secondary data are as followings: First, in case of US, Google was leading autonomous car industry by developing its own OS and Platform. US government has been actively supporting and interacting with private firms and Universities for stimulating industry/technology convergence and establishing standard. Second, in case of Germany, autonomous car development was leading by several auto makers such as Mercedes, BMW in Hardware and manufacturing area, and German government was focusing on deregulations for private company. Third, in case of Japan which quite similar with German situation, they were both independently developing technology and expanding alliances with MNCs. And Japanese government was supporting triple helix system construction between local companies and universities. Fourth, in case of China, autonomous car industry was leading by IT companies, and various cooperations between IT companies and automakers were established. Chinese government was regulating foreign companies and supporting domestic companies both in market and technologies Last, in Korean case, the active and extensive alliances were lacking in Korean companies while strategic and strong government supports were missing in public sector. For competing with other countries and players, more active collaboration between different countries and strong policy supports are needed in Korean auto industry.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.69-79
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• 2015

Among public organizations, does variation in organizational structure explain variation in public managers' leadership styles (e.g., transformational and transactional leadership)? The study of leadership in public organizations is increasingly an area of scholarly interest partly sparked by movements to reform public organizations, particularly in the context of emergency management. There is, for example, a need for effective leadership that can help organizations respond to disasters (Kapucu et al. 2010; Van Wart and Kapucu 2011; Stern 2013). There are numerous documented cases where the lack of leadership skills has been linked to major social and economic losses as a result of poor disaster response (e.g., Hurricane Katrina in the U.S.). Yet, leadership is a complex concept and numerous theoretical frameworks have been developed to help explain it (Van Wart 2005). Practically speaking, the existence of different theories of leadership suggests that public managers can decide to exercise various styles of leadership. The style of leadership that a public manager exhibits matters because some styles are perceived to be more effective than others (Trottier et al. 2008). While the effects of leadership have been extensively studied, antecedents or predictors of leadership style have received little scholarly attention (Wright and Pandey 2009; Nielsen and Cleal 2011). The purpose of this research note then is to explore the potential causal relationship between the structure of an organization and the ability of a public manager to exercise transformational leadership in the context of emergency management in two Asian countries: South Korea and Japan. This research note consists of three main sections. The following section explores the relationship between leadership and organizational structure. The second section examines how certain concepts of leadership and organizational structure were applied in two case studies of disaster response. The final section presents some directions for future research.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.112-129
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• 2018

Produced by Chinese local television stations, Maritime Silk Road is a documentary which adopts ancient Maritime Silk Road as a historical nostalgia to interpret "the Belt and Road Initiative", a contemporary Chinese economic, political, and cultural strategy put forward by Chinese government mainly aiming at the countries of Southeast Asia. The main body of this article has three parts and the first part analyses how the documentary adopts computer-generated imagery (CGI) to create a historical nostalgia about ancient Maritime Silk Road in the period of Imperial China. At the same time, this part also presents a sense of diasporic nostalgia of the overseas Chinese. This historical and diasporic nostalgia is related to Chinese President Xi Jinping's political discourse: "Chinese dream" that propagandises to build a strong China put forward by Xi in 2013. The second part analyses how this historical and diasporic nostalgia legitimates Xi's "Chinese dream" and how it responds to recent territorial dispute when China continuously claims its territorial sovereignty in the South China Sea. In this light, the documentary repeatedly mentions two political rhetoric: "coexistence" (gongcun) and "mutual benefit"(huli gongying) as a practical strategy to deal with the dispute between China and some countries of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). In the third section, the concept of "community of common destiny" (mingyun gongtongti) is adopted by the documentary to depict a convenient and effective organization of China and ASEAN, which is framed as an ultimate goal that Chinese government is depicted as the potential leader of this nostalgic community. At the same time, by providing different and even opposite viewpoints, this article discusses three controversial political rhetoric to present how historical and diasporic nostalgia is politicalized and served for Chinese diplomacy and national interest. Overall, this article argues that the documentary creates a glorious ancient Maritime Silk Road, as a sense of nostalgia, to expand China's economic and political influence, to respond to the controversial issues, and to reassert China's leadership as the centre of Asia.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.130-151
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• 2018

China's cultural diplomacy is mostly understood as an endeavour to build and project soft power, which draws on three sources of 'culture, political values and foreign policy' according to Nye. This paper focuses on the debates about the vehicle and agents of China's cultural diplomacy. It starts with a theoretical discussion of the competing views in the Chinese context, and develops an argument that the vehicle of China's cultural diplomacy tries to project soft power on two wheels of culture and political values, to serve the purpose of reshaping China's image away from being the 'cultural other' and 'ideological other' respectively. However, the state-led approach to driving this vehicle is generating some side effects with its sponsorship, censorship and presence in the driver's seat. Then the paper analyses the inherent tensions existing in practice both between the two sources of building soft power and between the two means of doing so, attraction and persuasion, with empirical evidence through a comparative case study of the Confucius Institutes in the US and South Korea. The finding shows that China's attempt at reshaping its image as an Eastern cultural contestant is often disrupted by its authoritarian political values, and the state-led persuasion is often reducing China's cultural attraction. Following this, the paper finishes with some recommendations regarding evolving the cultural diplomacy approach from a vertical one that is government-centred to a horizontal one that is network-based with multiple agents, and localising its practice by engaging the target audiences as stakeholders.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.50-67
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• 2018

Heritage has entered the center stage of public diplomacy in East Asia. Competition to claim and interpret memories of World War II in East Asia has driven campaigns to list heritage items with UNESCO. State and non-state actors aim to use heritage listings to present a particular view of the war and related history to domestic and international audiences. This paper highlights the role of heritage soft power in East Asia's "memory contests" by examining the promotion of dissonant modern heritage in UNESCO's heritage programs. It conceptualizes heritage designation as a soft power resource in East Asia and presents a conceptual framework for understanding the hegemonic competition over the "memory regime" that emerged from the structural change in East Asia's regional order. It then uses this framework to analyze the processes by which state and non-state actors promote and/or object to UNESCO recognition of their sites and documents as heritage of outstanding universal value or world significance. The elements of this process are illustrated with case studies of two very different pieces of heritage, Japan's "Sites of the Meiji Industrial Revolution" and China's "Documents of Nanjing Massacre," which were enshrined as significant world heritage in 2015. While state and non-state actors in East Asia are increasingly recognizing the utility of heritage as a soft power resource for advancing specific historical narratives to an international audience, a backlash movement from civil society groups and governments in other countries prevents a purely unilateral interpretation. As a result, the utility of heritage soft power in this context must be significantly qualified.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.433-445
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• 2012

During the course of evolution, animals encountered the harmful effects of fungi, which are strong pathogens. Therefore, they have developed powerful mechanisms to protect themselves against these fungal invaders. ${\beta}$-Glucans are glucose polymers of a linear ${\beta}$(1,3)-glucan backbone with ${\beta}$(1,6)-linked side chains. The immunostimulatory and antitumor activities of ${\beta}$-glucans have been reported; however, their mechanisms have only begun to be elucidated. Fungal and particulate ${\beta}$-glucans, despite their large size, can be taken up by the M cells of Peyer's patches, and interact with macrophages or dendritic cells (DCs) and activate systemic immune responses to overcome the fungal infection. The sampled ${\beta}$-glucans function as pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) and are recognized by pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) on innate immune cells. Dectin-1 receptor systems have been incorporated as the PRRs of ${\beta}$-glucans in the innate immune cells of higher animal systems, which function on the front line against fungal infection, and have been exploited in cancer treatments to enhance systemic immune function. Dectin-1 on macrophages and DCs performs dual functions: internalization of ${\beta}$-glucan-containing particles and transmittance of its signals into the nucleus. This review will depict in detail how the physicochemical nature of ${\beta}$-glucan contributes to its immunostimulating effect in hosts and the potential uses of ${\beta}$-glucan by elucidating the dectin-1 signal transduction pathway. The elucidation of ${\beta}$-glucan and its signaling pathway will undoubtedly open a new research area on its potential therapeutic applications, including as immunostimulants for antifungal and anti-cancer regimens.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.601-622
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• 2010

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the value chain reorganization of cultural contents industry cluster in Daegu city and its impact on the regional economy. To achieve this goal, this research examined the change of value added structure, institutional milieu and networks among regional innovators and their effect on value chain reorganization of cluster. The result shows that the scope of the value chain generating value added have been extended and the networks among regional innovators have been increased. Such value chain reorganization has a positive effect on the regional economy. In the context of public policy, however, the focus of industrial policies needs to generate cultural and institutional specificities in a given region and to strength Triple helix innovation system.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.40-62
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• 2021

Are intentions important in deciding the outcome of an action such as sharing misinformation among social media users during the pandemic? What is their role and how far they are important for the very act of fake sharing news? The social media users' actions on the social platform are determined by what they plan to do themselves; however, their motivation has an immense role to play in the dissemination of fake news on social media. The study proposes a conceptual model for understanding how select factors affect fake news sharing motivation and intentions of social media users. The study scrutinizes the relationship between content and context, fear of missing out (FoMO), news verification and news sharing gratification on the motivation and intention of social media users of networked Asian society. Empirical Data were drawn from social media users (N = 243) from India, using an online questionnaire based on prior studies and structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was used to analyze the data collected. Results indicate that news content, news verification, and news sharing gratification have a direct and positive relationship with sharing motivation. On the other hand, news context and content, FoMO and news sharing gratification have a positive significant relationship with sharing intention. Likewise, it was discovered that news verification will decrease sharing intention of the social media users. However, news context, that is the pandemic in the case of the present study and FoMO were not identified as determinant variables for sharing motivation among social media users. The research limitations and further scope were discussed.