Value Discount of Business Groups Surrounding the Asia Financial Crisis: Evidence from Korean Chaebols

Asian Financial Crisis, Business Group, Chaebol, Diversification, Firm Value

Synergistic multi-doping effects on the Li7La3Zr2O12 solid electrolyte for fast lithium ion conduction.

Here, we investigate the doping effects on the lithium ion transport behavior in garnet Li7La3Zr2O12 (LLZO) from the combined experimental and theoretical approach. The concentration of Li ion vacancy generated by the inclusion of aliovalent dopants such as Al(3+) plays a key role in stabilizing the cubic LLZO. However, it is found that the site preference of Al in 24d position hinders the three dimensionally connected Li ion movement when heavily doped according to the structural refinement and the DFT calculations. In this report, we demonstrate that the multi-doping using additional Ta dopants into the Al-doped LLZO shifts the most energetically favorable sites of Al in the crystal structure from 24d to 96 h Li site, thereby providing more open space for Li ion transport. As a result of these synergistic effects, the multi-doped LLZO shows about three times higher ionic conductivity of 6.14 × 10(-4) S cm(-1) than that of the singly-doped LLZO with a much less efforts in stabilizing cubic phases in the synthetic condition

Blockade of Airway Inflammation by Kaempferol via Disturbing Tyk-STAT Signaling in Airway Epithelial Cells and in Asthmatic Mice

Asthma is characterized by bronchial inflammation causing increased airway hyperresponsiveness and eosinophilia. The interaction between airway epithelium and inflammatory mediators plays a key role in the asthmatic pathogenesis. The in vitro study elucidated inhibitory effects of kaempferol, a flavonoid found in apples and many berries, on inflammation in human airway epithelial BEAS-2B cells. Nontoxic kaempferol at ≤20 μM suppressed the LPS-induced IL-8 production through the TLR4 activation, inhibiting eotaxin-1 induction. The in vivo study explored the demoting effects of kaempferol on asthmatic inflammation in BALB/c mice sensitized with ovalbumin (OVA). Mouse macrophage inflammatory protein-2 production and CXCR2 expression were upregulated in OVA-challenged mice, which was attenuated by oral administration of ≥10 mg/kg kaempferol. Kaempferol allayed the airway tissue levels of eotaxin-1 and eotaxin receptor CCR3 enhanced by OVA challenge. This study further explored the blockade of Tyk-STAT signaling by kaempferol in both LPS-stimulated BEAS-2B cells and OVA-challenged mice. LPS activated Tyk2 responsible for eotaxin-1 induction, while kaempferol dose-dependently inhibited LPS- or IL-8-inflamed Tyk2 activation. Similar inhibition of Tyk2 activation by kaempferol was observed in OVA-induced mice. Additionally, LPS stimulated the activation of STAT1/3 signaling concomitant with downregulated expression of Tyk-inhibiting SOCS3. In contrast, kaempferol encumbered STAT1/3 signaling with restoration of SOCS3 expression. Consistently, oral administration of kaempferol blocked STAT3 transactivation elevated by OVA challenge. These results demonstrate that kaempferol alleviated airway inflammation through modulating Tyk2-STAT1/3 signaling responsive to IL-8 in endotoxin-exposed airway epithelium and in asthmatic mice. Therefore, kaempferol may be a therapeutic agent targeting asthmatic diseases

Simulation of the Indian Summer Monsoon Using Comprehensive Atmosphere-land Interactions, in the Absence of Two-way Air-sea Interactions

Community Land Model version 2 (CLM2) as a comprehensive land surface model and a simple land surface model (SLM) were coupled to an atmospheric climate model to investigate the role of land surface processes in the development and the persistence of the South Asian summer monsoon. Two-way air-sea interactions were not considered in order to identify the reproducibility of the monsoon evolution by the comprehensive land model, which includes more realistic vertical soil moisture structures, vegetation and 2-way atmosphere-land interactions at hourly intervals. In the monsoon development phase (May and June). comprehensive land-surface treatment improves the representation of atmospheric circulations and the resulting convergence/divergence through the improvements in differential heating patterns and surface energy fluxes. Coupling with CLM2 also improves the timing and spatial distribution of rainfall maxima, reducing the seasonal rainfall overestimation by approx.60 % (1.8 mm/d for SLM, 0.7 mm/dI for CLM2). As for the interannual variation of the simulated rainfall, correlation coefficients of the Indian seasonal rainfall with observation increased from 0.21 (SLM) to 0.45 (CLM2). However, in the mature monsoon phase (July to September), coupling with the CLM2 does not exhibit a clear improvement. In contrast to the development phase, latent heat flux is underestimated and sensible heat flux and surface temperature over India are markedly overestimated. In addition, the moisture fluxes do not correlate well with lower-level atmospheric convergence, yielding correlation coefficients and root mean square errors worse than those produced by coupling with the SLM. A more realistic representation of the surface temperature and energy fluxes is needed to achieve an improved simulation for the mature monsoon period

Enhanced magnetic and thermoelectric properties in epitaxial polycrystalline SrRuO3 thin film

Transition metal oxide thin films show versatile electrical, magnetic, and thermal properties which can be tailored by deliberately introducing macroscopic grain boundaries via polycrystalline solids. In this study, we focus on the modification of the magnetic and thermal transport properties by fabricating single- and polycrystalline epitaxial SrRuO3 thin films using pulsed laser epitaxy. Using epitaxial stabilization technique with atomically flat polycrystalline SrTiO3 substrate, epitaxial polycrystalline SrRuO3 thin film with crystalline quality of each grain comparable to that of single-crystalline counterpart is realized. In particular, alleviated compressive strain near the grain boundaries due to coalescence is evidenced structurally, which induced enhancement of ferromagnetic ordering of the polycrystalline epitaxial thin film. The structural variations associated with the grain boundaries further reduce the thermal conductivity without deteriorating the electronic transport, and lead to enhanced thermoelectric efficiency in the epitaxial polycrystalline thin films, compared with their single-crystalline counterpart.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figure