• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.29-47
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• 2018

This paper examines the relationship between diversification and financial performance of community credit unions in Korea from 2011 to 2017. To do so, I employ fixed-effects panel analyses using credit union level panel data collected from the National Credit Union Federation of Korea. This study finds evidence that business diversification is likely to lower the ratio of troubled loans, which means improving asset quality of credit unions. However, the relationship between diversification and asset quality is not linear but nonlinear, which means over-diversification would have negative effects on asset quality. Next, diversification tends to increase profitability. Specifically, although diversification results in a rise in expenditures, an increase in profits made by diversification outweighs the rise in expenditures, which contributes to profitability. Put together, diversification would be a good business strategy to improve both profitability and asset quality. Given a result that fast loan growth deteriorates asset quality, credit unions' managers might adopt the diversification strategy to enhance asset quality, and not to pursue their own objectives motivated by moral hazards.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2019

Macrophage is an important innate immune cell that not only initiates inflammatory responses, but also functions in tissue repair and anti-inflammatory responses. Regulating macrophage activity is thus critical to maintain immune homeostasis. Tyro3, Axl, and Mer are integral membrane proteins that constitute TAM family of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs). Growing evidence indicates that TAM family receptors play an important role in anti-inflammatory responses through modulating the function of macrophages. First, macrophages can recognize apoptotic bodies through interaction between TAM family receptors expressed on macrophages and their ligands attached to apoptotic bodies. Without TAM signaling, macrophages cannot clear up apoptotic cells, leading to broad inflammation due to over-activation of immune cells. Second, TAM signaling can prevent chronic activation of macrophages by attenuating inflammatory pathways through particular pattern recognition receptors and cytokine receptors. Third, TAM signaling can induce autophagy which is an important mechanism to inhibit NLRP3 inflammasome activation in macrophages. Fourth, TAM signaling can inhibit polarization of M1 macrophages. In this review, we will focus on mechanisms involved in how TAM family of RTKs can modulate function of macrophage associated with anti-inflammatory responses described above. We will also discuss several human diseases related to TAM signaling and potential therapeutic strategies of targeting TAM signaling.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.64 no.5
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• pp.196-207
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• 2021

Over the last few decades, the rates of pediatric obesity have more than doubled regardless of sociodemographic categorization, and despite these rates plateauing in recent years there continues to be an increase in the severity of obesity in children and adolescents. This review will discuss the pediatric obesity mediated cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors such as attenuated levels of satiety and energy metabolism hormones, insulin resistance, vascular endothelial dysfunction, and arterial stiffness. Additionally, early intervention to combat pediatric obesity is critical as obesity has been suggested to track into adulthood, and these obese children and adolescents are at an increased risk of early mortality. Current suggested strategies to combat pediatric obesity are modifying diet, limiting sedentary behavior, and increasing physical activity. The effects of exercise intervention on metabolic hormones such as leptin and adiponectin, insulin sensitivity/resistance, and body fat in obese children and adolescents will be discussed along with the exercise modality, intensity, and duration. Specifically, this review will focus on the differential effects of aerobic exercise, resistance training, and combined exercise on the cardiovascular risks in pediatric obesity. This review outlines the evidence that exercise intervention is a beneficial therapeutic strategy to reduce the risk factors for CVD and the ideal exercise prescription to combat pediatric obesity should contain both muscle strengthening and aerobic components with an emphasis on fat mass reduction and long-term adherence.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.77-88
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• 2021

The stock markets in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries are the leading emerging markets globally. Therefore, it is pertinent to ascertain the critical drivers of stock market development in these economies. The currrent study empirically investigates to identify the linkages between stock market development, key macro-economic factors and institutional factors in the BRICS economies. The study covers the time period from 2000 to 2017. The dependent variable is the country's stock market development and the independent variables consist of six macroeconomic variables and five institutional variables. The study employs a panel cointegration test, Fully Modified OLS (FMOLS), a Pooled Mean Group (PMG) approach and a heterogeneous panel non-causality test.The findings of the study indicate co-integration among the selected variables across the BRICS stock markets. Long-run estimations reveal that five macroeconomic variables and four variables related to institutional quality are positive and statistically significant. Further, short-run causalities between stock market capitalization and selected variables are detected through the test of non-causality in a heterogeneous panel setting. The findings suggest that policymakers in the BRICS countries should enhance robust macroeconomic conditions to support their financial markets and should strengthen the institutional quality drivers to stimulate the pace of stock market development in their countries.

• BMB Reports
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• v.53 no.12
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• pp.646-651
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• 2020

Bone resorption is linked to bone formation via temporal and spatial coupling within the remodeling cycle. Several lines of evidence point to the critical role of coupling factors derived from pre-osteoclasts (POCs) during the regulation of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs). However, the role of glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) in BMMSCs is not completely understood. Herein, we demonstrate the role of POC-derived GDNF in regulating the migration and osteogenic differentiation of BMMSCs. RNA sequencing revealed GDNF upregulation in POCs compared with monocytes/macrophages. Specifically, BMMSC migration was inhibited by a neutralizing antibody against GDNF in pre-osteoclast-conditioned medium (POC-CM), whereas treatment with a recombinant GDNF enhanced migration and osteogenic differentiation. In addition, POC-CM derived from GDNF knock-downed bone marrow macrophages suppressed BMMSC migration and osteogenic differentiation. SPP86, a small molecule inhibitor, inhibits BMMSC migration and osteogenic differentiation by targeting the receptor tyrosine kinase RET, which is recruited by GDNF into the GFRα1 complex. Overall, this study highlights the role of POC-derived GDNF in BMMSC migration and osteogenic differentiation, suggesting that GDNF regulates bone metabolism.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.619-628
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• 2021

Enterprise system (ES) reflects a significant IT commitment to achieve corporate goals and satisfy its thrust toward a sustainable competitive advantage. This research investigates the required ES architecture, the value of a well-planned ES, and the human factor capabilities that drive the effective implementation of ES from a management perception. This paper examined the critical factors shaping the business systems' performance, architecture readiness, experts' readiness, and enterprise systems planning. Based on an extensive literature review, the attributes of factors mentioned earlier were identified, classified and then statistically examined using the author's' proposed conceptual structural model. This study employs a quantitative research methodology, with a random sampling technique. This paper has used the data collected from 510 respondents working in service, engineering and health sectors in OMAN. The study model analysis utilized both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, followed by a structural equation modeling using SPSS 25 and EQS6.3 statistical tools. The results unveil a piece of remarkable and robust evidence suggesting that ES planning is the most significant aspect of influencing performance, followed by IT personnel, staff and consumers expertise, and architecture readiness.

• Current Applied Physics
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.1294-1299
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• 2018

In this paper, we demonstrate the feasibility of constructing DNA nanostructures (i.e. DNA rings and double-crossover (DX) DNA lattices) with appropriate doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) concentration and reveal significant characteristics for specific applications, especially in the fields of biophysics, biochemistry and medicine. DOX-intercalated DNA rings and DX DNA lattices are fabricated on a given substrate using the substrateassisted growth method. For both DNA rings and DX DNA lattices, phase transitions from crystalline to amorphous, observed using atomic force microscopy (AFM) occurred above a certain concentration of DOX (at a critical concentration of DOX, $30{\mu}M$ of $[DOX]_C$) at a fixed DNA concentration. Additionally, the coverage percentage of DNA nanostructures on a given substrate is discussed in order to understand the crystal growth mechanism during the course of annealing. Lastly, we address the significance of optical absorption and photoluminescence characteristics for determining the appropriate DOX binding to DNA molecules and the energy transfer between DOX and DNA, respectively. Both measurements provide evidence of DOX doping and $[DOX]_C$ in DNA nanostructures.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information Security & Cryptology
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.45-54
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• 2011

Corporations use e-mail as their primary method for internal communication and business processes. By their nature, the e-mails are in general used for major business processes that contain large amounts of business information. When there is a critical event, such as Technology leakage, an e-mail message can become important evidence. However, as there is a high likelihood that a suspect will intentionally erase an e-mail message, the ability to recover deleted e-mail is very important. This pater analyzes the deleted e-mail item structure in files of various e-mail clients, and explains the possibility and methods of recovery.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.1101-1109
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• 2021

Nowadays, quality affects product or service performance and customer loyalty in the competitive business' environment. This is truly important when it comes to how the customer interprets the service's satisfaction and the judgment of the purchase process as a whole, in view of the fact that service quality is an abstract and elusive construction due to the three characteristics of services: intangibility, heterogeneity, and inseparability of output and consumption. The main purpose of this paper is to determine the hotel service quality using the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) and SERVQUAL method. In this study, a five-star hotel's real case is considered in evaluating the service quality criteria. The results revealed that Tangibles and Assurance are the most critical service quality criteria in the hotel industry. Accurate records, service consistency, Necessary arrangements for disabled people, Service flexibility to guests' demands, and Providing the services at the time it promises are the most influencing sub-criteria of service quality. These findings indicate that hotels should concentrate on sequentially and organized priority factors to enhance service quality. This method of service quality assessment may also aid in distinguishing between hotels. Finally, as a future direction, more additional parameters can be used as a potential guide in our proposed model for the dynamic decision-making approach.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.231-243
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• 2022

The objective of this study is to analyze the impact of conservative financial reporting on investment during uncertainty. It was assumed that during uncertainty conservative financial reporting can play an important role to improve investment decision-making. For our analysis, data sets from 2005-2020 of nonfinancial companies are used. To measure the impact of conservative financial reporting in the non-financial sector of Pakistan, Khan and Watts' (2009) model is applied. "Prospector" and "Defender" Business strategy is applied for measuring firm-level uncertainty. Investment is measured by adding the change in fixed assets (property, plant, and equipment). To check the robustness of conservative financial reporting, Givoly and Hayn's (2000) Negative Accruals measure is applied. To measure the robustness of uncertainty, environmental scanning and alertness technique is applied. According to environmental scanning and alertness technique, companies are divided into two groups named 'inert' and 'alert'. 'Inert' are those firms that are not scanning their environment, and 'alert' are those firms who continuously analyze their environment. The empirical estimations support our hypothesis. The empirical findings provide the proof that in the wake of uncertainty conservative financial reporting may facilitate to take optimal investment decisions in the developing economy of Pakistan. Our results provide critical and practical implications for investors, researchers, and standard setters.