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This study examines how South Koreans seek and process information about PM2.5 air pollution, amidst concerns of desensitization to its health impacts due to prolonged exposure. A survey was conducted with a sample of 1,500 respondents. Our findings reveal that exposure to PM2.5-related information is positively correlated with risk perceptions and negative emotions. The effect of exposure to PM2.5 information on current knowledge regarding PM2.5 is mediated by perceived information gathering capacity. Interestingly, respondents perceive themselves to have sufficient knowledge about PM2.5, surpassing the threshold knowledge level. This observation contrasts with earlier studies on risk information, suggesting a unique dynamic in the context of PM2.5 pollution. Our findings support the mediation hypotheses, suggesting that exposure and risk perceptions are positively correlated with information seeking effort and systematic processing by eliciting negative emotions. The mediation analysis results also suggest that perceived severity has a more substantial influence on risk information behaviors than perceived susceptibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we analyzed social media conversations during the unfolding of the FTX crisis, the biggest cryptocurrency scandal in United States history. Drawing on the accessibility‐diagnosticity framework, we examined the negative spillover effect of the crisis using a natural language processing approach. We specifically assessed whether there was a negative spillover from FTX to other crypto entities with different levels of diagnostic attribute similarity. We collected a large corpus of Twitter conversations related to the FTX collapse in 2022 and used the association rule analysis to determine the association between FTX and other crypto entities. Our analysis revealed that the number of tweets mentioning FTX and other crypto entities changed in line with a series of real‐world events during the FTX crisis. The negative spillover of the FTX crisis occurred primarily during the first 10 days as the FTX scandal unfolded. The results indicated that the FTX crisis spilled over to highly accessible and diagnostic crypto entities, such as Binance, Bitcoin, and the cryptocurrency industry in general. On the other hand, less accessible and less diagnostic crypto entities/currencies like Ethereum and Coinbase did not experience negative spillover from the scandal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retinoblastoma (RB) is a pediatric ocular tumor mostly occurring due to the biallelic loss of RB1 gene in the developing retina. Early studies of genomic aberrations in RB have provided a valuable insight into how RB can progress following the tumor‐initiating RB1 mutations and have established a notion that inactivation of RB1 gene is critical to initiate RB but this causative genetic lesion alone is not sufficient for malignant progression. With the advent of high‐throughput sequencing technologies, we now have access to the comprehensive genomic and epigenetic landscape of RB and have come to appreciate that RB tumorigenesis requires both genetic and epigenetic alterations that might be directly or indirectly driven by RB1 loss. This integrative perspective on RB tumorigenesis has inspired research efforts to better understand the types and functions of epigenetic mechanisms contributing to RB development, leading to the identification of multiple epigenetic regulators misregulated in RB in recent years. A complete understanding of the intricate network of genetic and epigenetic factors in modulation of gene expression during RB tumorigenesis remains a major challenge but would be crucial to translate these findings into therapeutic interventions. In this review, we will provide an overview of chromatin regulators identified to be misregulated in human RB among the numerous epigenetic factors implicated in RB development. For a subset of these chromatin regulators, recent findings on their functions in RB development and potential therapeutic applications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identification of new genetic pathways or molecular targets that sensitize cancer cells to chemotherapeutic drugs may improve the efficacy of current chemotherapy. Here, we report that downmodulation of UHRF1 (ubiquitin‐like with PHD and RING finger domains 1) in retinoblastoma (RB) cells increases the sensitivity to histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors, augmenting apoptotic cell death. We found that UHRF1 depletion downregulates two redox‐responsive genes GSTA4 (glutathione S‐transferase α4) and TXN2 (thioredoxin‐2) in RB cells, and increases the basal level of intracellular oxidative stress. Antioxidant treatment significantly reduced both basal and HDAC inhibitor‐induced DNA damage and apoptosis in UHRF1‐depleted cells. Knockdown of GSTA4 or TXN2 sensitized RB cells to HDAC inhibitors, demonstrating that GSTA4 and TXN2 play key roles in redox homeostasis in RB cells and the susceptibility to HDAC inhibitor treatment upon UHRF1 depletion. In human primary RB, GSTA4 and TXN2 proteins were found to be mostly elevated along with high UHRF1 expression. In addition to augmentation of apoptosis in UHRF1‐depleted RB cells, we also show that UHRF1 downmodulation derepresses the expression of photoreceptor‐specific genes in RB cells in cooperation with a HDAC inhibitor MS‐275 and promotes neuron‐like differentiation. However, further investigation revealed that the enhanced growth‐inhibitory effects of MS‐275 in UHRF1‐depleted cells were still mainly due to robust apoptosis induction rather than differentiation‐mediated growth arrest. Consistent with our findings, UHRF1 depletion in RB cells increased the therapeutic efficacy of MS‐275 in murine orthotopic xenografts. These results provide a novel basis for potential benefits of UHRF1 targeting for RB treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Byline: Chunsik Lee, Jisu Huh Applying the elaboration likelihood model to the initial website trust formation context, this study investigated the cognitive process in which consumers evaluate an unfamiliar website and form website trust. Specifically, it examined consumers' cognitive process of various website design and content factors in the formation of website trust, and the influence of two specific consumer characteristics – situational involvement and e-commerce knowledge – on the cognitive processing. Results from an experiment revealed that the level of e-commerce knowledge was significantly related to the extent of cognitive processing during website trust formation. Also, consumers with a low level of situational involvement and e-commerce knowledge tended to place more focus on website design factors, which are peripheral cues, than did those with a high level of involvement and knowledge. In addition, this study found that consumers with higher levels of involvement were more likely to seek and actively process trust-inducing arguments.

Expanding electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) literature and cross-cultural literature, this study proposes a horizontal–vertical dimensions of individualism and collectivism (HVIC)-eWOM model in a cross-cultural context. We employed HVIC at the individual level to explain the variance of eWOM communications on social media. We collected data from American and Korean social media users to examine how the hypothesized model fits the samples from each country. The analysis of the HVIC-eWOM model within and between the two countries revealed that there are some similarities and differences in influential cultural dimensions on eWOM communications in the two countries. The results suggest that vertical aspects of individualism and collectivism are significant drivers of opinion-leadership and opinion-seeking tendencies for both countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]