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We investigated the effects of authentic leadership on follower performance in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities by drawing upon social identity theory. With data from 340 participants who took part in CSR activities in a large Korean firm, we tested the hypotheses that team identification would mediate the positive relationship between authentic leadership and follower performance, and that psychological safety would positively moderate this relationship. We used the PROCESS macro (Model 7) for SPSS for data analysis. Our hypotheses were supported by the results, which theoretically contribute to authentic leadership literature and, from a practical standpoint, provide an effective way to enhance follower performance in CSR activities.

In this study, we describe an atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) device made of four-bore tubing operable in inhospitable humid environments and introduce two potential applications of liquid material processing: decomposition of aqueous phosphorus compounds and solution-plasma polymerization. A four-bore tube was used as the plasma transfer conduit and two diagonal bores contained metal wires. In the proposed APPJ device, the metal wires serving as electrodes are completely enclosed inside the holes of the multi-bore glass tube. This feature allows the APPJ device to operate both safely and reliably in humid environments or even underwater. Thus, we demonstrate that the proposed electrode-embedded APPJ device can effectively decompose aqueous phosphorus compounds into their phosphate form by directly processing the solution sample. As another application of the proposed APPJ device, we also present the successful synthesis of polypyrrole nanoparticles by solution plasma polymerization in liquid pyrrole.

This paper systematically investigates the characteristics of polyaniline (PANI) nanoparticles (NPs) synthesized by an electrochemical solution plasma process (SPP) method in terms of various case ...

The concept of Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) has been an important construct of entrepreneurship and business strategy since it was first introduced in 1983 by Danny Miller. Still, it does not f...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate upper-limb cooling following (treadmill) exercise performed in the heat (33oC, 70% relative humidity) at each of three speeds: light (6 km.h-1), intermediate (8 km.h-1) and moderate intensity (10 km.h-1). In all trials, exercise ceased when rectal temperature reached 39.0oC. Participants adopted a sitting position for a 20-min recovery, and liquid-cooling sleeves with cold water (6.3oC) were immediately positioned. The chosen work rates resulted in a two-fold difference in exercise duration across those trials, which terminated without significant between-trial differences within either auditory canal or rectal temperatures. Auditory canal temperature elevation rates became progressively faster as the work rate increased: 0.03oC.min-1 (light), 0.05oC.min-1 (intermediate) and 0.07oC.min-1 (moderate) (p0.05). That outcome was reflected in auditory canal cooling rates (0.03oC.min-1 [light], 0.04oC.min-1 [intermediate] and 0.05oC.min-1 [moderate]). Nevertheless, rectal temperatures continued to rise throughout recovery. It is concluded that heat extraction from moderately hyperthermic individuals, using upper-limb cooling sleeves, appears to be equally rapid, regardless of heating speed, providing the same level of hyperthermia was attained prior to initiating treatment.

A low-cost biocellulose (BC) membrane is incorporated and coated with the perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) ionomer through a new facile preparation route to develop an efficient membrane for vanadium ...

Low-temperature solution growth of TiO2 films provides unique surface functionalities for base materials that may not survive high processing temperatures. It involves multiple stages of crystal growth at various length scales. Having a fundamental understanding of the mechanisms involved in those stages is essential to obtain desirable functional performances. In this study, we prepared diverse anatase microstructures via a hydrothermal method, all of which start from homogeneous nucleation of the nanoparticles when precursor solution reaches above a critical saturation point. Depending on pH, concentration, temperature and ionic species of precursor solution, however, these primary nanoparticles evolve into different shapes of secondary nanostructures via aggregation of nanoparticles. Thin films of anatase TiO2 consisting of those secondary nanostructures, which have a [001]-texture with (004) surfaces exposed, exhibited the strongest photocatalytic as well as antibacterial properties.

New nanostructured conducting porous polythiophene (PTh) films are directly deposited on substrates at room temperature (RT) by novel atmospheric pressure plasma jets (APPJs) polymerization technique. The proposed plasma polymerization synthesis technique can grow the PTh films with a very fast deposition rate of about 7.0 μm·min−1 by improving the sufficient nucleation and fragment of the thiophene monomer. This study also compares pure and iodine (I2)-doped PTh films to demonstrate the effects of I2 doping. To check the feasibility as a sensing material, NO2-sensing properties of the I2-doped PTh films-based gas sensors are also investigated. As a result, the proposed APPJs device can produce the high density, porous and ultra-fast polymer films, and polymers-based gas sensors have high sensitivity to NO2 at RT. Our approach enabled a series of processes from synthesis of sensing materials to fabrication of gas sensors to be carried out simultaneously.

This study investigated the separate and combined effects of skin cooling and cold fluid ingestion on the alleviation of heat strain when wearing protective firefighting clothing at an air temperature of 30°C with 50%RH. A vest with the dual functions of cooling and providing sports drink supply (1.2% body mass) was developed. Eight males participated in the following four conditions: control [CON], drinking only [DO], cooling only [CO], and both cooling and drinking [CD]. The results showed that rectal (Tre), mean skin temperature (Tsk) and heart rate (HR) during recovery were lower for CD than for CON (p

Ti-doped O3-type Na[Tix(Ni0.6Co0.2Mn0.2)1-x]O2 is studied as a high-performance cathode material for practical sodium-ion batteries. The effect of partial Ti doping on the structural and electrochemical properties of O3-type Na[Ni0.6Co0.2Mn0.2]O2 materials is investigated by varying the Ti content (x) in Na[Ni0.6Co0.2Mn0.2]O2 from 0 to 0.01 to 0.03. Scanning electron microscopy images show that upon doping, the primary particles aggregate and form densely packed secondary particles, yielding enhanced mechanical strength and high tap density of ∼2.3 g cm−3. The compact morphology of the particles effectively minimizes the void volume for possible electrolyte penetration that usually leads to unwanted side reactions. In addition, partial doping of Ti in the transition-metal layer greatly improve the structural stability. By taking both morphological and structural advantages, the O3-type Na[Ti0.03(Ni0.6Co0.2Mn0.2)0.97]O2 cathode demonstrate the great enhancements of battery performances in terms of capacity, cycle retention, rate capability, and thermal properties. Pouch-type full cells assembled by combining the present cathodes with hard carbon anodes show good practical applicability, with an outstanding cycle retention of 77% over 400 cycles. The results of this study may open up a new avenue for designing and developing suitable transition metal oxide cathodes for high-performance sodium-ion batteries.

Public research including universities and research institutes is an important source of innovation. This paper describes how a performance feedback model explains the conditions under which firms ...

Purpose Abnormalities in hepatic oxygen delivery and oxygen consumption may serve as a significant indicator of hepatic cellular dysfunction and may predict treatment response. However, conventional and oxygen-enhanced hepatic BOLD MRI can only provide semiquantitative assessment of hepatic oxygenation. Methods A hepatic quantitative BOLD (qBOLD) model was proposed for noninvasive mapping of hepatic venous blood oxygen saturation (Yv ) and deoxygenated blood volume (DBV) in human subjects. The validity and the estimation bias of the proposed model were evaluated by Monte Carlo simulations. Eight healthy subjects were scanned after written consent with institutional review board approval. Results Monte Carlo simulations demonstrated that the proposed single-compartment hepatic qBOLD model leads to significant deviation of the predicted T2 * decay profile from the simulated signal due to high hepatic blood volume fraction. Small relative estimation bias for hepatic Yv and significant overestimation for hepatic DBV were observed, which can be corrected by applying the calibration curves established from simulations. After correction, the mean hepatic Yv in human subjects was 56.8 ± 6.8%, and the mean hepatic DBV was 0.190 ± 0.035, consistent with measurements from other invasive approaches. Except in regions with significant vascular contamination, the maps for hepatic Yv and DBV were relatively homogenous. Conclusions With estimation bias correction, the hepatic qBOLD approach enables noninvasive mapping of hepatic blood volume and oxygenation in human subjects. The established protocol may be used to quantitatively assess hepatic tissue hypoxia in multiple liver diseases.

This paper systematically investigates the effects of the post-heating treatment on the structural characteristics of the polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) thin film that is deposited as the h...

This study presents the simple and catalyst-free methods for synthesizing carbon nanomaterials from 1-hexanol alcohol by using stable solution plasma process by varying the argon (Ar), oxyg...

This paper investigated the chemical bonding features and conductivity characteristics of atmospheric pressure plasma (APP) conducting polymerized polypyrrole (pPPy) by iodine (I2) doping method in...

Background Interleukin-32 (IL-32) has been associated with various diseases. Previous studies have shown that IL-32 inhibited the development of several tumors. However, the role of IL-32γ, an isotype of IL-32, in skin carcinogenesis remains unknown. Methods We compared 7,12-Dimethylbenz[a]anthracene/12-O-Tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (DMBA/TPA)-induced skin carcinogenesis in wild type (WT) and IL-32γ-overexpressing mice to evaluate the role of IL-32γ. We also analyzed cancer stemness and NF-κB signaling in skin cancer cell lines with or without IL-32γ expression by western blotting, quantitative real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry analysis. Results Carcinogen-induced tumor incidence in IL-32γ mice was significantly reduced in comparison to that in WT mice. Infiltration of inflammatory cells and the expression levels of pro-inflammatory mediators were decreased in the skin tumor tissues of IL-32γ mice compared with WT mice. Using a genome-wide association study analysis, we found that IL-32 was associated with integrin αV (ITGAV) and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1), which are critical factor for skin carcinogenesis. Reduced expression of ITGAV and TIMP-1 were identified in DMBA/TPA-induced skin tissues of IL-32γ mice compared to that in WT mice. NF-κB activity was also reduced in DMBA/TPA-induced skin tissues of IL-32γ mice. IL-32γ decreased cancer cell sphere formation and expression of stem cell markers, and increased chemotherapy-induced cancer cell death. IL-32γ also downregulated expression of ITGAV and TIMP-1, accompanied with the inhibition of NF-κB activity. In addition, IL-32γ expression with NF-κB inhibitor treatment further reduced skin inflammation, epidermal hyperplasia, and cancer cell sphere formation and downregulated expression levels of ITGAV and TIMP-1. Conclusions These findings indicated that IL-32γ suppressed skin carcinogenesis through the inhibition of both stemness and the inflammatory tumor microenvironment by the downregulation of TIMP-1 and ITGAV via inactivation of NF-κB signaling. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13046-018-0943-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

In-situ iodine (I2)-doped atmospheric pressure (AP) plasma polymerization is proposed, based on a newly designed AP plasma reactor with a single wire electrode that enables low-voltage-driven plasma polymerization. The proposed AP plasma reactor can proceed plasma polymerization at low voltage levels, thereby enabling an effective in-situ I2 doping process by maintaining a stable glow discharge state even if the applied voltage increases due to the use of a discharge gas containing a large amount of monomer vapors and doping materials. The results of field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) show that the polyaniline (PANI) films are successfully deposited on the silicon (Si) substrates, and that the crosslinking pattern of the synthesized nanoparticles is predominantly vertically aligned. In addition, the in-situ I2-doped PANI film fabricated by the proposed AP plasma reactor exhibits excellent electrical resistance without electrical aging behavior. The developed AP plasma reactor proposed in this study is more advantageous for the polymerization and in-situ I2 doping of conductive polymer films than the existing AP plasma reactor with a dielectric barrier.

This paper investigates the properties of thiophene and aniline copolymer (TAC) films deposited by using atmospheric pressure plasma jets copolymerization technique relative to various blending ratios of aniline and thiophene monomer for synthesizing the donor&ndash, acceptor conjugated copolymers. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and atomic force microscopy are utilized to measure the surface morphology, roughness and film thickness of TAC films. Structural and chemical properties of TAC films are investigated by Fourier transforms-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. FE-SEM images show that the film thickness and nanoparticles size of the TAC films increase with an addition thiophene monomer in the aniline monomer. FE-SEM, FT-IR results show that TAC films are successfully synthesized on glass substrates in all cases. The iodine doped TAC film on the Si substrate with interdigitated electrodes shows the lowest electrical resistance at blending condition of thiophene of 25%.