• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.12
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• pp.169-181
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• 2021

The study aims to investigate the direct effects of business management practices in terms of financial, marketing, human resources, and logistics operations practices on sales revenue and profitability growth of freight forwarding businesses. A quantitative research design and partial least square-structural equation modeling were used to examine the direct effects of the exogenous and endogenous variables. The study reveals that financial, marketing, and human resources practices have a positive and significant effect on sales revenue growth. Furthermore, marketing and logistics operations have a positive and significant effect on profitability growth in the context of freight forwarding in the Philippines, particularly in its country's capital. As the current study only examines the direct effects of business management practices, other researchers may also want to consider identifying other variables as mediation and moderation to test other indirect effects on the financial performance of the business. The findings of the study can significantly benefit the freight industry to consider addressing other challenges or make use of the paper to further develop their strategies and practices to improve their financial performance.

• Asia Pacific Journal of Business Review
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.43-66
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• 2019

Home-based business (HBB) is one of the fastest growing form of business start-ups where the business is conducted from home. In develop economies, the HBB industry is an engine for economic growth that has proven its viability through significant contribution to the national GDP. In view of its importance, the Saudi Ministry of Commerce and Industry encourage local women to start and develop their own HBB as it gives them the flexibility while still contributing to the national economy. Although various initiatives have been taken place, little information is available about Saudi HBB. This study therefore aims to determine the factors that contribute to the growth as well as the challenges of female HBB in Saudi Arabia. The study was based on qualitative approach which adopted an in-depth interview with eleven Saudi females who run HBB. The findings revealed that HBB contributing factors comprised of access to funding, sufficiency of savings and the influence of the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in starting the business. Meanwhile, the obstacles are government regulations and policies, culture, and home design. The study recommendations include improving banks and service institution policy and procedures to enable HBB to have access to funding and services and to develop legal policies to protect the right of the HBB operator and customers. Finally, the study also suggests future research on managerial factors that can contribute to HBB female success, the stress coping mechanism of HBB and the factors contributing to the difference between HBB in growth strategies.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.8
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• pp.175-183
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• 2020

This study explores the effect of trade of Information Communications Technology (ICT) products and government's role, measured by three factors: Control of corruption, Government effectiveness, and Administrative tax level, on raising the economy across the East Asia-Pacific region. Secondary data were collected from the World Bank database of 21 countries over 12 years from 2006 to 2017. Applying the Panel corrected standard error model and running a robustness check based on the Dynamic panel data method, this research found that the exported ICT products, control of corruption, and government effectiveness could increase the economic income of a country in the region. The paper also provided the evidence indicating that the imported ICT products and the Administrative tax level are two harmful factors for economic growth. The major finding confirmed the useful contribution on improving government quality and its economy. First, improving the economy of a country always poses various challenges to its government. During the past decades, although much of the literature confirmed that exporting ICT products could promote an economy, very few studies investigated the role of Administrative tax level and the Government effectiveness. Second, there are only a few studies exploring the capability of government and the economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.195-200
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• 2021

In recent years, Vietnam's economic growth rate has been attributed to the growth of many well-managed industries within Southeast Asia. Among them is the civil construction industry. Construction projects typically take a long time to complete and require a huge budget. Many socio-economic variables and factors affect total construction project costs due to market fluctuations. In recent years, crucial socioeconomic development indicators of construction reached a fairly high growth rate. Also, most infrastructure and construction projects have a high degree of complexity and uncertainty. This makes it challenging to predict the accurate project price. These challenges raise the need to recognize significant factors that influence the construction price index of civil buildings in Vietnam, both micro and macro. Therefore, this paper presents critical factors that affect the construction price index using the fuzzy extent analysis process in an uncertain environment. This proposed quantitative model is expected to reflect the uncertainty in the process of evaluating and ranking the influencing factors of the construction price index in Vietnam. The research results would also allow project stakeholders to be more informed of the factors affecting the construction price index in the context of Vietnam's civil construction industry. They also enable construction contractors to estimate project costs and bid rates better, enhancing their project and risk management performance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.221.2-221.2
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• 2015

Graphene is very interesting 2 dimensional material providing unique properties. Especially, graphene has been investigated as a stretchable and transparent conductor due to its high mobility, high optical transmittance, and outstanding mechanical properties. On the contrary, high sheet resistance of extremely thin monolayer graphene limits its application. Artificially stacked multilayer graphene is used to decrease its sheet resistance and has shown improved results. However, stacked multilayer graphene requires repetitive and unnecessary transfer processes. Recently, growth of multilayer graphene has been investigated using a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method but the layer controlled synthesis of multilayer graphene has shown challenges. In this paper, we demonstrate controlled growth of multilayer graphene using a two-step process with multi heating zone low pressure CVD. The produced graphene samples are characterized by optical microscope (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Raman spectroscopy is used to distinguish a number of layers in the multilayer graphene. Its optical and electrical properties are also analyzed by UV-Vis spectrophotometer and probe station, respectively. Atomic resolution images of graphene layers are observed by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM).

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.187-210
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• 2006

China continues to experience an expansion of its e-Commerce industry. This is true both for B2C and for B2B sectors. B2C websites are created by various players. B2C E-commerce is divided into three categories in China: online direct sale, online retail, and online booking services. Online retail remains the major form of B2C business, and online booking services and online direct sale also maintained rapid growth. The rapid growth of B2C E-commerce in China was due to three factors. Firstly, the number of Internet users is increasing, which expands E-commerce user base. Secondly, users' acceptance and recognition of E-commerce are gradually increasing. Lastly, improvement on payment, logistics and credit also provides a better and better industrial environment for B2C e-commerce. The B2C sector has seen a low transaction volume in spite of its large number of websites. The B2B sectors has seen a higher transaction volume and more stable growth than the B2C sector. There is a wide range of the total market size estimated by different sources. China's C2C market witnessed rapid growth in 2005, the market growth may slow down in 2006 and 2007, due to heavy market competition, challenges to the business model and slow corporate user growth. But there is the bottlenecks in E-commerce in China. The purpose of this paper is contribute to development E-commerce in China by finding the solutions of the bottlenecks in E-commerce in China.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.155-163
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• 2013

This study aims to look into what influences a self-growth program has on morality and achievement motivation of adolescents on probation. As a result of the study, it was discovered that after the self-growth program, there was a statistically significant difference in interest in others(altruism) and their social devotion while there was no significant difference in the interest in self and social issues. Also, there was a statistically significant difference in future-orientation, confidence, a sense of responsibility, having a mind to face challenges, and task orientation while there was not a significant difference in having an adventurous mind. The results above indicate that the self-growth program has a significant influence on the morality and achievement motivation in adolescents on probation. Therefore, to enhance the morality and achievement motivation of adolescents, more organized research on self-growth programs is needed and their utilization should be improved.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.477-486
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• 2017

This review provides an overview of dietary nucleotides as an alternative to in-feed antibiotics for weaning pigs. Dietary nucleotides are composed of DNA or RNA molecules and are normally contained in protein-rich feed ingredient, brewer's yeast, yeast extract, and milk. Weaning pigs are suffering from several stresses, such as environmental challenges (i.e. crowding, transportation, and feeding). Such stressors can damage the intestinal epithelium and cause an invasion by Escherichia coli, secondary inflammatory responses, and post weaning diarrhea. To overcome weaning disorder, people often use antibiotics which reduce symptoms and boost growth performance. However, since antibiotics were banned due to concerns of antibiotic resistant bacteria, researchers are studying alternative materials to antibiotics. Dietary nucleotides are one of the alternative materials for replacing antibiotics and can be used in abnormal conditions, such as weaning diarrhea, low digestibility, and disease condition. Nucleotides have substances that have important roles in cell division and cell growth, affecting growth performance, intestinal condition, and immunological effect at the weaning stage. However, nucleotides' composition is very different between sources and this aspect makes it difficult to utilize nucleotides at the weaning stage. Therefore, this review paper focuses on i) the characteristics and functions of dietary nucleotides and ii) the effect of dietary nucleotides on the growth performance and immune system of pigs.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.713-721
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• 2023

Soil acidification challenges global food security by adversely influences soil fertility and agricultural productivity. Carbonized agricultural residues present a sustainable and ecofriendly way to recycle agricultural waste and mitigate soil acidification. We evaluated the effects of organic amendments on lettuce growth and soil chemical properties in two soils with different pH levels. Carbonized rice husk was produced at 600℃ for 30 min and rice husk was treated at 1% (w·w^-1). Carbonized rice husk increased soil pH, electrical conductivity, total carbon content, and nitrogen content compared with untreated and rice husk treatments. Furthermore, this study found that lettuce growth positively correlated with soil pH, with increasing soil pH up to pH 6.34 resulting in improved lettuce growth parameters. Statistical correlation analysis also supported the relationship between soil pH and lettuce growth parameters. The study findings showed that the use of carbonized rice husk increased the constituent elements of lettuce, such as carbon, nitrogen, and phosphate content. The potassium content of lettuce followed a similar trend; however, was higher in acidic soil than that in non-acidic soil. Therefore, improving the pH of acidic soil is essential to enhance agricultural productivity. It is considered advantageous to use agricultural residues following pyrolysis to improve soil pH and agricultural productivity.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.305-316
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• 2013

Non-protein amino acid, ${\beta}$-amino-n-butyric acid (BABA), has been involved in diverse physiological processes including seedling growth, stress tolerance and disease resistance of many plant species. In the current study, treatment of kimchi cabbage seedlings with BABA significantly reduced primary root elongation and cotyledon development in a dose-dependent manner, which adverse effects were similar to the plant response to exogenous abscisic acid (ABA) application. BABA was synergistically contributing ABA-induced growth arrest during the early seedling development. Kimchi cabbage leaves were highly damaged and seedling growth was delayed by foliar spraying with high concentrations of BABA (10 to 20 mM). BABA played roles differentially in in vitro fungal conidial germination, mycelial growth and conidation of necrotroph Alternaria brassicicola causing black spot disease and hemibiotroph Colletotrichum higginsianum causing anthracnose. Pretreatment with BABA conferred induced resistance of the kimchi cabbage against challenges by the two different classes of fungal pathogens in a dose-dependent manner. These results suggest that BABA is involved in plant development, fungal development as well as induced fungal disease resistance of kimchi cabbage plant.