Effects of Online Fan Community Interactions on Well-Being and Sense of Virtual Community.

Activities in the digital economy driven by information technology have rapidly increased in scope and speed in the aftermath of COVID-19. Meanwhile, social isolation accelerated by quarantine measures has increased concerns about individuals' mental health. However, little is known about the specific consequences of online interactions, especially when applied in online fan community-based relationships. Therefore, we examined the impact of loneliness in the context of COVID-19 on online interaction with other fans and parasocial relationships with celebrities on the Weverse platform. We also examined how these interactions influence mental well-being and the sense of virtual community. With 202 valid data samples acquired from global BTS fandom, this study conducted a partial least squares-structural equation modeling analysis. The empirical results demonstrate a significant positive relationship between loneliness and the extent of online interaction, while no significant impact on parasocial relationships was observed. Both online interaction and parasocial relationships were found to enhance both well-being and SOVC. However, these results were observed to differ between Weverse paid subscribers and free users.

Strength of evidence of noninferiority trials with the two confidence interval method with random margin.

This article deals with the dependency(ies) of noninferiority test(s) when the two confidence interval method is employed. There are two different definitions of the two confidence interval method. One of the objectives of this article is to sort out some of the confusion in these two different definitions. In the first definition the two confidence interval method is considered as the fixed margin method that treats a noninferiority margin as a fixed constant after it is determined based on historical data. In this article the method is called the two confidence interval method with fixed margin. The issue of the dependency(ies) of noninferiority test(s) does not occur in this case. In the second definition the two confidence interval method incorporates the uncertainty associated with the estimation for the noninferiority margin. In this article the method is called the two confidence interval method with random margin. The dependency(ies) occurs, because the two confidence interval method(s) with random margin shares the same historical data. In this article we investigate how the dependency(ies) affects the unconditional and conditional across-trial type I error rates.

Inhibition of aroclor 1254-induced depletion of stored calcium prevents the cell death in catecholaminergic cells.

The relationship between depleting effects of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) on the intracellular calcium store and PCBs-induced cell death in dopaminergic cells has not been fully evaluated. Here, we evaluated the effects of inhibitors of the release of ER-stored calcium on the cytotoxicities induced by 10 microg/ml of Aroclor 1254 (A1254; polychlorinated biphenyl mixture) in a catecholaminergic cell-line, CATH.a cells. Exposure to A1254 produced an elevation in free calcium ([Ca2+]i) in the presence or absence of extracellular calcium and decreased in cell viability. From our results, we deduced that the A1254-induced elevation of [Ca2+]i resulted from the depletion of ER-stored calcium. The [Ca2+)]i elevation was dramatically inhibited by an inositol 1,4,5-triphosphate receptor (IP3R) antagonist, and slightly inhibited by a ryanodine receptor (RyR) blocker. IP3R blockers conferred significant protection against A1254-induced cell death, as did RyR blockers, but calcium chelators or NMDA blockers did not. However, none of these reagents inhibited the depletion of intracellular dopamine by A1254 indicating that the mechanism of PCB-induced dopamine depletion may be independent of calcium alterations. Taken together, these data suggest that agents inhibiting the receptor-mediated depletion of stored calcium can prevent the A1254-induced cell death, but not modulate the A1254-induced intracellular dopamine depletion in CATH.a cells.