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The surge in the cross-border acquisition of Korean businesses, following the 1997 Asian crisis, raises questions about the motivations of foreign investors, the calculations of selling firms, and outcomes. However, existing studies are limited in number and depth of analysis. Established FDI theory and the fire-sale/neoclassical debate do not consider how post-acquisition developments in strategy, resources, and capabilities within the target businesses and other relevant factors contributed to organisational improvements and enhanced financial performance. Recognising the methodological limitations of previous studies, this thesis employs a multiple case-study approach based on qualitative interviews and quantitative accounting data to deal with unanswered questions and to substantiate what is so often assumed. Contrary to perceptions in Korea, foreign acquirers were not motivated by financial opportunism and 'fire-sales'. Instead, with strategic motivations, they sought businesses with resources and capabilities that could make their objectives achievable, and they invested in and developed new resources and capabilities. For chaebols, government pressure to reform and lack of liquidity were motivators, but we cannot overlook their agency and success in achieving their own strategic intentions, necessitating asset sales. Nor should we overlook the contribution of managers to post-acquisition improvements. These successes, measured by financial performance, depended on the effective managerial, organisational, and operational transformation of the acquired finn, and external factors, such as host market competitive pressures and expansion opportunities. Transformation rested on the quality of 'transition management', whose nature and outcomes were affected by the interaction of si-x factors, including: (a) the quality of the acquirer'S resources and capabilities in relation to the target business; (b) the acquirer's motivations and strategy; (c) the quality and potential of the target firm's resources and capabilities; (d) external factors, such as host market competitive pressures, expansion opportunities, and macroeconomic conditions; ( e) the acquirer's international acquisition expertise and integration strategy; and (f) the level of the local employees' agency. Financial outcomes varied, due to explicable internal and external factors, but case evidence indicates that the acquisition brought substantial financial benefits to many target firms. This thesis, therefore, questions the unsubstantiated, widely-held view that the impact of the mergers and acquisitions wave in Korea after 1997 has been consistently negative for the target firms.

Proteins play vital roles in biological systems; hence, the characterization of protein function is crucial for better understanding of complex cellular systems. The study of biological function of proteins at the proteome level is called functional proteomics. One way to probe functionality of proteins is to measure stability via the measurement of protein unfolding as a result of chemical or thermal denaturation. My research is focused on developing and applying novel thermal proteome profiling (TPP) technologies to measure protein thermal stability by heating proteins using a temperature gradient. Traditionally, TPP is conducted using a bottom-up approach in which proteins are enzymatically digested into peptides for mass spectrometry (MS) analysis. Here, a top-down TPP approach was applied to analyze the stability of intact proteoforms and observe the effect of protein modifications that might be obscured due to protein digestion. We applied this top-down TPP method to human plasma to observe the stability of functional proteoforms of low-abundance, clinically relevant proteins. However, it is challenging to elucidate such proteins in human plasma because high-abundant proteins often mask the detection of low-abundant proteins. We systematically evaluated and optimized a depletion protocol to efficiently remove high-abundant proteins in human plasma samples prior to proteomics analysis. Overall, my research illustrates the feasibility of studying functional proteomes in human plasma through a novel platform that integrates the depletion of high-abundant proteins and top-down TPP applications.

Exercise (i.e. contraction) robustly stimulates skeletal muscle glucose uptake, making it a cornerstone non-pharmaceutical intervention for treating clinical hyperglycemia and insulin-resistance. Remarkably, however, the molecular steps that regulate contraction-stimulated glucose uptake by skeletal muscle remain incompletely defined. The mammalian ortholog of Sir2, sirtuin 1 (SIRT1), is a protein deacetylase that is thought to link perturbations in energy flux associated with exercise, particularly at the level of NAD+ and NAD+/NADH, to subsequent cellular adaptations. Nevertheless, its role in contraction-stimulated glucose uptake has not been defined. The objective of this study was to determine the contribution of SIRT1 to contraction-stimulated glucose uptake in mouse skeletal muscle. Using radioactive 2-deoxyglucose uptake (2DOGU) approach, we measured ex vivo glucose uptake in unstimulated and electrically-stimulated (100 Hz contraction [2s train, 0.2ms pulse, 35V] every 15s for 10 min) extensor digitorum longus (EDL) and soleus from ~15 week old male and female mice with muscle-specific knockout of SIRT1 (mKO) and their wildtype (WT) littermates. As expected, force output decreased over the contraction protocol, although there were no differences in the rate of fatigue between genotypes. In EDL and soleus from WT mice, 2DOGU was ~2.5-fold higher in contracted vs. rested muscle, regardless of sex, and this effect was not impaired in mKO mice. Interestingly, the absolute rate of contraction-stimulated 2DOGU was ~1.3-fold higher in both the soleus and EDL of female compared to male mice, regardless of genotype. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that SIRT1 is not required for contraction-stimulated glucose uptake in mouse skeletal muscle.

Today's healthcare is faced with enormous challenges with the changes in healthcare policies that require delivering higher quality at a lower cost and at the same time with internal challenges of low tolerance for mistakes, complex nature of the industry, and multidisciplinary teams working together. As a consequence, the need to develop physician leaders to lead through these changes has become critical for the success of the organization. As part of leadership development efforts, an academic medical institution in the U.S. has identified coaching skills to be an important leadership skill to lead through the change. In order to create a coaching culture where leaders use coaching approach to develop staff through the change management, Leader as Coach training was given to group of high level physician and administrative leaders followed by matching the trained leaders as coaches with junior staff who are in the leadership pipeline. Case study was conducted to investigate the processes and challenges of developing physician leaders as coaches and the benefits of leaders engaging in coaching in the organization. Data collection was done through semi-structured interview of twelve physician leaders and documents of program evaluation as well as coachees' evaluation of the coaching engagements. Data analysis consisted of category (or theme) construction, sorting the data according to the categories constructed, and finally by making inferences about the relationships among the categories, developing a model that presents the visual representation of how the concepts or categories are related to one another. As a result, six themes were identified: understanding coaching and its philosophy, coaching as a leadership skill, coming together, coaching process and competencies, coaching challenges, and coaching outcomes. The study provided insights into the learning processes and challenges for physician leaders to be developed as coaches and indicated that increasing the internal coaching capabilities in health care organizations by developing physician leaders as coaches can have great impact in paving the way into many changes and challenges that are facing health care today. Coaching has been shown to be an effective way to operationalize approaches to leadership needed in time of uncertainly and complexity, and to enable continuous learning for the staff by constructing context-specific, tacit knowledge, leveraging the social capital and upholding the organizational values.

Unnatural amino acid (Uaa) technology has broken new ground in the protein research and introduced a plethora of chemical groups that can be incorporated to the existing proteins for new functionality. Here, we incorporated 4,5-dimethoxy-2-nitrobenzyl-Cysteine (Cmn) into the pore region of inwardly rectifying potassium channel Kir2.1 to make a Photo-activatable Inwardly Rectifying Potassium channel, or PIRK. Bulky side chains of Cmn block the channel pore physically, which leaves the channel non-functional. After brief UV irradiation however, 4,5-dimethoxy-2-nitrobenzyl groups are released from Cmn to reactivate the channel. When PIRK was introduced in rat hippocampal primary neurons, the neuronal activity was completely suppressed with a brief UV pulse. We also expressed functional PIRK in the mice embryonic neocortex to present the successful in vivo application of the method. This strategy is directly transferable to other ion channels and receptors, and its application has great potential in unraveling mechanisms of native and diseased brain circuitry. On the other hand, we improved Uaa uptake rate and intracellular concentration in mammalian cells using noncanonical side chains where the Uaa is masked by selected ester groups. This result can boost Uaa incorporation efficiency in mammalian cells, thus reducing the amount of Uaas required

Scope and Method of Study: Despite the importance of China as a key export market for U.S businesses, the U.S. apparel industry has held a significant trade deficit with China for a long time. To reduce the trade deficit with China, U.S. apparel firms need to establish pertinent market strategies based on an understanding of Chinese consumers. To this end, this study aimed to examine the Chinese consumer emotion elicitation process toward a U.S. apparel brand. As a systematic approach, this study proposed a conceptual model employing the cognitive appraisal theory. This study posited that consumer global orientation (CGO) influences Chinese consumers' appraisals (relevance and congruence) of a U.S. apparel brand (Levi's), and through the appraisals, Chinese consumers elicit positive emotions toward the brand, resulting in purchase intentions of the brand. Data were collected using mall intercept surveys at shopping malls in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.

Some soils in areas of intensive livestock farming have shown significant phosphorus (P) leaching. The objectives of this research were: i) to examine the relationships between soil properties and P sorption capacity, ii) to investigate leaching of P as affected by fertilizer sources, iii) to examine the effects of manure-derived dissolved organic carbon (DOC) on P sorption, and iv) to evaluate deep leaching of P. The P sorption maximum (Smax) of seventy two soil samples from various horizons of Coastal Plain soils of North Carolina (NC) was determined according to the Langmuir equation. Soil samples were analyzed for pH, clay content, organic matter (OM) content, oxalate extractable Al (Alox), Fe (Feox), and P (Pox), Mehlich-3 extractable Al (AlM3), Fe (FeM3), and P (PM3). The Smax was positively correlated with extractable Al (r = 0.76 for Alox and r = 0.86 for AlM3) and OM content (r = 0.61). The positive linear relationship between OM and Smax showed a change point where there was a two-fold decrease in the regression slope for OM > 42 ± 4 g kg-1. Results indicated that Al and Fe in organic-rich soils were likely to be less accessible for P sorption compared to those in mineral soils. Leaching of P as affected by fertilizer sources was investigated with repacked soil columns (10-cm long). The fertilizer sources were dairy lagoon liquid (DL), poultry compost (PC), poultry litter (PL), swine lagoon sludge (SS), swine lagoon liquid (SL), triplesuperphosphate (TSP), and dissolved KH2PO4 (KP). When these fertilizer sources were applied on a total P basis (75 and 150 kg ha-1) as a pulse, inorganic P sources (TSP and KP) showed about two-fold greater P loss than organic P sources (PC, PL, SL and SS). The loss of source-derived P was well correlated with water extractable P in source materials (r2 = 0.87). Enhanced P transport was observed in the soil columns treated with liquid wastes as compared to the KP. Concurrent sorption of P and DOC was investigated with batch sorption experiments using the aqueous extracts of PL and SS in Autryville sandy loam. The presence of manure-derived DOC did not inhibit P sorption, while the sorption of DOC decreased in the presence of manure-derived P. Results suggested that the formation of new surface sites through metal bridges between manure-derived OM and mineral oxides outweighed the competitive efficacy of DOC against P on the soil sorption sites. Deep leaching of P was evaluated with intact soil columns (90-cm long) collected from the Coastal Plain regions of NC. The selected sites were dominated by Autryville loamy sand, Cape Fear loam, and Goldsboro fine sandy loam, and Wasda muck. A limited pore volume of leached water (2.1 ± 0.1) resulted in low concentration of dissolved reactive P in most column leachates (< 0.02 mg L-1) except Wasda muck (0.034 mg L-1). The increased P concentration in Wasda muck was attributable to the higher Mehlich-3 P concentration in deep subsoils (22 to 69 mg kg-1 at 75-90 cm depth) than the other soils (0 to 7 mg kg-1 at 75-90 cm depth).