The Antecedent Factors Influencing Long-term Relationship Orientation in Overseas B2B Markets

Hao Zhang(Hao Zhang),Yeung-Kurn Park(Yeung-Kurn Park),Xueting Zhang(Xueting Zhang) 한국무역연구원 2022 무역연구 Vol.18 No.6

Purpose – Based on the past overseas business experiences of China Business to Business (B2B) enterprises, this study focuses on the influence of relationship marketing factors on the long-term relationship orientation of trading partners. First, this study discusses whether the relationship marketing factors in B2B environment-information sharing, customer orientation and interdependence will lead to the relationship satisfaction of enterprise customers. Then, it discusses whether relationship satisfaction leads to long-term relationship orientation of corporate customers. Finally, the mediating role of relationship satisfaction between relationship marketing factors and long-term relationship orientation is analyzed. Design/Methodology/Approach – The data were collected through questionnaires, and the persons in charge of sales and purchases of 350 B2B enterprises in China were investigated. Finally, 296 valid questionnaires were used for research and analysis. Findings – The analysis results of this study are summarized as follows: First, this study reveals the positive influence of relationship marketing factors such as information sharing, customer orientation and interdependence on relationship satisfaction. Second, relationship satisfaction is confirmed to have a positive impact on long-term relationship orientation. Third, the analysis of the mediating effect of relationship satisfaction shows that “relationship marketing factors lead to long-term relationship orientation through relationship satisfaction. Research Implications – This study confirms that information sharing, customer orientation, and interdependence are key factors that shape relationship satisfaction. Managers of B2B companies should have a clear understanding of relationship marketing. All policies and behaviors of an enterprise must be guided by the interests and needs of enterprise customers and ran through the entire process of production and marketing. Enterprises should strengthen two-way communication with corporate customers to understand each other’s needs and gradually form interdependent relationships with corporate customers. They should provide customers with comprehensive and thoughtful services, so that they can have a sense of identity and belonging to the enterprise, and then achieve relationship satisfaction and be willing to maintain a long-term relationship.

TGF-β promotes pericyte-myofibroblast transition in subretinal fibrosis through the Smad2/3 and Akt/mTOR pathways

Zhao Zhenzhen,Zhang Yumeng,Zhang Chaoyang,Zhang Jingting,Luo Xueting,Qiu Qinghua,Luo Dawei,Zhang Jingfa 생화학분자생물학회 2022 Experimental and molecular medicine Vol.54 No.-

Subretinal fibrosis remains a major obstacle to the management of neovascular age-related macular degeneration. Choroidal pericytes were found to be a significant source of subretinal fibrosis, but the underlying mechanisms of pericyte-myofibroblast transition (PMT) remain largely unknown. The goal of this study was to explore the role and potential mechanisms by which PMT contributes to subretinal fibrosis. Choroidal neovascularization (CNV) was induced by laser photocoagulation in transgenic mice with the collagen1α1-green fluorescent protein (Col1α1-GFP) reporter, and recombinant adeno-associated virus 2 (rAAV2)-mediated TGF-β2 (rAAV2-TGF-β2) was administered intravitreally to further induce PMT. Primary mouse choroidal GFP-positive pericytes were treated with TGF-β2 in combination with siRNAs targeting Smad2/3, the Akt inhibitor MK2206 or the mTOR inhibitor rapamycin to examine cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation into myofibroblasts. The involvement of the Akt/mTOR pathway in PMT in subretinal fibrosis was further investigated in vivo. Intraocular TGF-β2 overexpression induced GFP-positive pericyte infiltration and PMT in subretinal fibrosis, which was mimicked in vitro. Knockdown of Smad2/3 or inhibition of Akt/mTOR decreased cell proliferation, PMT and migration in primary mouse pericytes. Combined inhibition of Smad2/3 and mTOR showed synergistic effects on attenuating α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) expression and cell proliferation. In mice with laser-induced CNV, the administration of the Akt/mTOR inhibitors suppressed pericyte proliferation and alleviated the severity of subretinal fibrosis. Our results showed that PMT plays a pivotal role in subretinal fibrosis, which was induced by TGF-β2 through the Smad2/3 and Akt/mTOR pathways. Thus, inhibiting PMT may be a novel strategy for the treatment of subretinal fibrosis.

Three-Dimensional Analysis of Chloroplast Structures Associated with Virus Infection

Jin, Xuejiao,Jiang, Zhihao,Zhang, Kun,Wang, Pengfei,Cao, Xiuling,Yue, Ning,Wang, Xueting,Zhang, Xuan,Li, Yunqin,Li, Dawei,Kang, Byung-Ho,Zhang, Yongliang American Society of Plant Biologists 2018 Plant Physiology Vol.176 No.1

<P>Three-dimensional visualization identifies structural remodeling in chloroplasts during barley stripe mosaic virus infection.</P><P>Chloroplasts are multifunctional organelles whose morphology is affected by environmental stresses. Although the three-dimensional (3D) architecture of thylakoid membranes has been reported previously, a 3D visualization of chloroplast under stress has not been explored. In this work, we used a positive-strand RNA ((+)RNA) virus, barley stripe mosaic virus (BSMV) to observe chloroplast structural changes during infection by electron tomography. The analyses revealed remodeling of the chloroplast membranes, characterized by the clustering of outer membrane-invaginated spherules in inner membrane-derived packets. Diverse morphologies of cytoplasmic invaginations (CIs) were evident with spherules at the periphery and different sized openings connecting the CIs to the cytoplasm. Immunoelectron microscopy of these viral components verified that the aberrant membrane structures were sites for BSMV replication. The BSMV αa replication protein localized at the surface of the chloroplasts and played a prominent role in eliciting chloroplast membrane rearrangements. In sum, our results have revealed the 3D structure of the chloroplasts induced by BSMV infection. These findings contribute to our understanding of chloroplast morphological changes under stress conditions and during assembly of plant (+)RNA virus replication complexes.</P>

Prevalence and Molecular Characterization of Echinococcus granulosus sensu stricto in Northern Xinjiang, China

Baoping Guo,Zhuangzhi Zhang,Xueting Zheng,Yongzhong Guo,Li Zhao,Ren Cai,Bingjie Wang,Mei Yang,Xi Shou,Wenbao Zhang,Bin Jia 대한기생충학ㆍ열대의학회 2019 The Korean Journal of Parasitology Vol.57 No.2

Echinococcus granulosus is an important zoonotic parasite globally causing cystic echinococcosis (CE) in hu- mans and animals. In this study, prevalence of CE and variation of cox1 gene sequence were analyzed with isolates E. granulosus collected from different areas in northern Xinjiang, China. The survey showed that 3.5% of sheep and 4.1% of cattle were infected with CE. Fragment of cox1 was amplified from all the positive sheep and cattle samples by PCR. In addition, 26 positive samples across the 4 areas were included. The isolates were all E. granulosus sensu stricto (s.s.) containing 15 haplotypes (Hap1-15), and clustered into 2 genotypes, G1 (90.1%, 91/101) and G3 (9.9%, 10/101). Hap1 was the most common haplotype (48.5%, 49/101). Hap9 were found in humans samples, indicating that sheep and cattle reservoir human CE. It is indicate that E. granulosus may impact on control of CE in livestock and humans in the region.

Damage detection of bridge structures under moving loads based on CEEMD and PSD sensitivity analysis

Youliang Fang,Jie Xing,Xueting Liu,Danyang Liu,Ying Zhang 대한기계학회 2023 JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Vol.37 No.7

This study proposes a new damage identification method based on a combination of complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition (CEEMD) and power spectrum density (PSD) sensitivity analysis to analyze the acceleration signals of bridge structures under moving loads and achieve damage detection of bridge structures. This paper has achieved the ability to accurately identify the location of cracks and the extent of the damage along a girder with only one acceleration sensor arrangement. The measured data is processed by the CEEMD method. The damage location is revealed by directly examining the first-order intrinsic mode function corresponding to the highest-order pseudo-frequency component, which presents an abrupt change at the damage location. Secondly, after determining the damage location of the bridge, only the power spectrum sensitivity analysis of the crack parameters at the damage location is required to obtain the damage level, avoiding the need to blindly solve the power spectrum for all elements. Finally, the identification method is validated by considering environmental noise, damage locations, and crack depths. The numerical simulation results and experiments for various working conditions show that the method adopted in this paper has good identification capability in identifying cracks in bridge structures.

Predictive and Prognostic Roles of Pathological Indicators for Patients with Breast Cancer on Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy

Xinyan Li,Mozhi Wang,Mengshen Wang,Xueting Yu,Jingyi Guo,Tie Sun,Litong Yao,Qiang Zhang,Yingying Xu 한국유방암학회 2019 Journal of breast cancer Vol.22 No.4

Currently, neoadjuvant chemotherapy is a standard therapeutic strategy for breast cancer, as it can provide timely and individualized chemo-sensitivity information and is beneficial for custom-designing subsequent treatment strategies. To accurately select candidates for neoadjuvant chemotherapy, the association between various immunohistochemical biomarkers of primary disease and tumor response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy has been investigated, and results have shown that certain pathological indicators evaluated after neoadjuvant chemotherapy are associated with long-term prognosis. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recommended that complete pathological response can be used as a surrogate endpoint for neoadjuvant chemotherapy, which is related to better prognosis. Considering that residual tumor persists in the majority of patients after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, the value of various pathological indicators of residual disease in predicting the long-term outcomes is being extensively investigated. This review summarizes and compares various predictive and prognostic indicators for patients who have received neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and analyzes their efficacy in different breast cancer subtypes.