Prompting Fab Yeast Surface Display Efficiency by ER Retention and Molecular Chaperon Co-expression.

For antibody discovery and engineering, yeast surface display (YSD) of antigen-binding fragments (Fabs) and coupled fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) provide intact paratopic conformations and quantitative analysis at the monoclonal level, and thus holding great promises for numerous applications. Using anti-TNFα mAbs Infliximab, Adalimumab, and its variants as model Fabs, this study systematically characterized complementary approaches for the optimization of Fab YSD. Results suggested that by using divergent promoter GAL1-GAL10 and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) signal peptides for co-expression of light chain and heavy chain-Aga2 fusion, assembled Fabs were functionally displayed on yeast cell surface with sigmoidal binding responses toward TNFα. Co-expression of a Hsp70 family molecular chaperone Kar2p and/or protein-disulfide isomerase (Pdi1p) significantly improved efficiency of functional display (defined as the ratio of cells displaying functional Fab over cells displaying assembled Fab). Moreover, fusing ER retention sequences (ERSs) with light chain also enhanced Fab display quality at the expense of display quantity, and the degree of improvements was correlated with the strength of ERSs and was more significant for Infliximab than Adalimumab. The feasibility of affinity maturation was further demonstrated by isolating a high affinity Fab clone from 1:103 or 1:105 spiked libraries

Validation of GPS-derived long-term trend in the atmospheric water vapor using homogenized radiosonde data

Atmospheric water vapor is important for the Earth’s energy balance due to its ability of absorbing and trapping long wave radiation emitted from the Earth’s surface. Therefore, measurements of the atmospheric water vapor content are of very interest for meteorology and climatology. Based on the path delay, which radio signals undergo when propagating through the neutral atmosphere, the Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements can be used to derive the atmospheric integrated water vapor (IWV). With a relatively high temporal resolution, continuously improved spatial density, and less expensive receivers, ground-based GPS measurement has been identified as a useful technique to monitor long-term variations in the IWV. This study will focus on investigating uncertainties of long-term IWV trend obtained from the NCAR global, 2-hourly ground-based GPS IWV dataset. The IWV trends were estimated for approximate 70 GPS sites covering the time period from 1997 to 2011. The GPS-IWV trends will be validated against that from the co-located and homogenized NCAR radiosonde data. The estimated GPS IWV trend consists of two types of uncertainties. The first type is larger in magnitude and is caused by short-term IWV variations (natural variability of the weather), which is not described by the model used for the trend estimation. This type will be investigated by using a statistical model and comparing the GPS IWV trends to the “true” IWV trends estimated from the radiosonde data during 1973-2011. The second type has smaller amplitude and is mainly caused by systematic errors in the GPS data, such as elevation-angle-dependent errors and changes of the GPS antenna and mask. A comparison with the homogenized radiosonde data will help us understand and quantify this type of uncertainty

Exploring the Effects of Mindfulness in Marketing: Mindfulness, Ethics, Emotional Labor and Service Quality

Mindfulness, i.e., nonjudgmental, present-centered awareness and attention, finds its roots in ancient spiritual traditions, and is most systematically articulated and emphasized in Buddhism. Although arguably relevant to a variety of practices, mindfulness research is sparse in marketing literature. In particular, there is a shortage of empirical research on the application of mindfulness in marketing (Ndubisi, 2014). This dissertation follows a three-paper model to begin to address this shortage in marketing literature. Paper one uses the Service-Dominant Logic of Marketing and Moral Development Model as theoretical lens to discuss how mindfulness could be a viable approach to fostering ethical marketing behaviors. Paper two (co-authored with Pierre Berthon, Leyland Pitt and Ian P. McCarthy) explores mindfulness in service encounters. Specifically, it looks at the effect of mindfulness on the emotional labor of service workers. We propose that mindfulness can change surface acting into deep acting, thereby significantly improving the service encounter for both the consumer and provider. We also explore other effects of mindfulness such as adaptability, flexibility and creativity, and their applications to the service encounter. This paper was published in Business Horizons (Vol. 59, No. 6) in 2016. Building on the second paper, paper three (sole-authored) empirically tests the effects of state mindfulness on the quality of the service encounter, i.e. quality of the interaction between a customer and a service employee. A mixed design experiment was conducted in a New England university in October to December 2018. In the experiment, both state mindfulness and structure of the task were manipulated between subjects while the nature of the encounter (emotionally charged or not) was manipulated within subjects. Results of this experiment suggest that high mindfulness manipulation groups provided significantly higher service quality than low mindfulness manipulation groups. This pattern holds across the four dimensions of service quality: responsiveness, assurance, reliability and empathy. The structure (highly or less structured) and nature (emotionally-charged or non-emotionally charge) of service encounters do not alter this pattern. In less structured encounters, the two mindfulness manipulation groups did not experience significantly different emotional labor, with quite similar emotive dissonance and effort, from each other. However, in highly structured encounters, high mindfulness manipulation groups were more aware of their emotive dissonance, but they did not spend more emotive effort than their counterparts. The mediation effect of emotional labor was not found in this experiment. Taken together, the three papers bring the notion of mindfulness to the marketing domain, more specifically the service domain, through discussions of the impact of mindfulness on marketing ethics, emotional labor and service quality. This dissertation expands and deepens the research of mindfulness in the marketing field and identifies opportunities for marketing researchers and practitioners to utilize the practice of mindfulness in their discipline

Localization, Globalization, and Traveling Chinese Culture

In their article Localization, Globalization, and Traveling Chinese Culture Chengjun Wang and Junhong Ma discuss three main channels of the traveling of Chinese culture to the outside world. Focusing on the situation of bilingualism (i.e., Chinese and English) and the need of spreading Chinese literature and culture especially in the English-speaking world, Wang and Ma argue for localization and globalization. Further, Wang and Ma argue that in order to narrow the gap of the cultural divide between China and the West. In addition to the need for bilingualism especially in the case of translation, they posit that especially the writing of the literary history of Chinese is needed in both English and Chinese (hence their argumentation with regard to bilingualism)

PI3K-Akt-mTOR axis sustains rotavirus infection via the 4E-BP1 mediated autophagy pathway and represents an antiviral target

Rotavirus infection is a major cause of severe dehydrating diarrhea in infants younger than 5 y old and in particular cases of immunocompromised patients irrespective to the age of the patients. Although vaccines have been developed, an

Ethical Marketing AI?A Structured Literature Review of the Ethical Challenges Posed by Artificial Intelligence in the Domains of Marketing and Consumer Behavior

With the increasing use of AI in marketing, ethical repercussions are beginning to emerge. From privacy issues, through discrimination of marginalized groups, to emergent systemic social distortions, AI is changing the marketing ethical landscape. In this paper we conduct a structured literature review of the emerging ethical issues posed by AI in the domains of marketing and consumer behavior. We identify three clusters of ethical issues (algorithm, society and existential) and map these to the marketing domains of systems, brands, and consumers. We conclude that the field of ethical marketing AI is still very much in its infancy, but such is the rate of development ethical marketing AI is likely to become important field for academics and practitioners alike