Response Strategies in an International Strategic Alliance Experimental Context: cross-country differences

International strategic alliances have grown increasingly popular in recent decades, yet their failure rate is extremely high. Poor management of adverse situations contributes significantly to such high failure rates. Moreover, the international environments in which international strategic alliances operate exacerbate the adverse situations and make their management more critical. However, extant research does not specify how people from different national cultures respond to these adverse situations. In order to better understand cross-national differences, this study investigates future managers’ preferences for specific response strategies in an international strategic alliance experimental context. Using a scenario-based experiment with 1,379 business students in five countries—Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom—the authors assess whether preferences for seven response strategies—exit, opportunism, aggressive voice, creative voice, considerate voice, patience, and neglect—vary across countries. The results indicate that national culture, both directly and interactively through relationship-level exchange variables that characterize the adversity of the situation, influences response strategy preference. This study advances literature on response strategies by explaining that when faced with the same adverse situation, future managers from different countries likely prefer different response strategies, depending on which response strategies they believe are most adequate in their cultural environment

Communicating the ethos of codes of ethics within the organization : a comparison of the largest private sector organizations in Sweden and Turkey

Purpose &ndash; The purpose of the paper is to examine the ways that the largest private sector organizations in Sweden and Turkey communicate the intent of their codes of ethics to their employees.Design/methodology/approach &ndash; Primary data were obtained via a self-administered mail questionnaire distributed to a census of the top 500 private sector organizations based on revenue in each country.Findings &ndash; The research identified some interesting findings that showed that the small group of companies in Turkey that have a code may appear to be more &ldquo;advanced&rdquo; in ethics artifacts usage than Sweden. Such a conclusion is counter-intuitive as one would have expected a developed nation like Sweden to be more advanced in these measures than a developing nation such as Turkey. Culture may play a large role in the implementation of ethics artifacts in corporations and could be a major reason for this difference.Research limitations/implications &ndash; As this is such a new area of investigation in Turkey, the responses amount to only 32 companies that have a code. The small sample is indicative of the formative evolution toward having codes of ethics within companies operating within Turkey.Practical implications &ndash; This study enables those organizations that comprise corporate Turkey to view the current state of codes of ethics in Turkish companies and to compare these with the responses of a developed country of the European Union. Originality and value &ndash; A review of the literature indicates that this is the first time that such an international study specifically focused upon codes of ethics and the artifacts to inculcate the ethos of the code into every day corporate affairs has included Turkey as one of the participating countries.<br /

Responding to Adverse Situations within Exchange Relationships:: The Cross-Cultural Validity of a Circumplex Model

When faced with adverse situations in exchange relationships, the people involved are required to respond. Response strategies are reactions to such adverse situations and represent cognitive schemata organized in an integrated structure forming a mental map. Extant response strategy research implicitly assumes that the content and internal structure of response strategies is universal, but with few exceptions, it fails to assess cross-cultural validity, a necessary step to investigate potential cultural variations in response strategy preferences. This study has investigated the cross-cultural validity of a circumplex model in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey, and Japan. The seven response strategies examined attained measurement equivalence, and six were organized in an equivalent circumplex structure in all four countries. The findings also revealed cross-cultural differences in people’s preference to use response strategies. This study therefore contributes to cross-cultural psychology literature by demonstrating that response strategy content and structure are nearly universal, whereas preferences for using response strategies vary across cultures

Top Taiwanese and Turkish companies and their engagement with corporate ethics

The objective of this paper is to describe and compare the current, emerging Taiwanese and Turkish interest in corporate ethical engagement. This paper is based upon a survey amongst the top companies operating in Taiwan and Turkey. There are major differences between the top Taiwanese and Turkish companies, where the Turkish companies appear to be more ethically engaged than the Taiwanese companies which came as a surprise to the researchers as Taiwan is a more substantially developed economy than Turkey and one may have assumed therefore more engaged with ethical practices.<br /

Realization and analitical and numerical analysis of a groove type resonator at millimeter waves

Bir yarı-simetrik oyuklu dalga kılavuzu rezonat&ouml;r&uuml; 20 &ndash; 40 GHz frekans bandında kullanılmak &uuml;zere tasarlanmış ve duraleminyum kullanılarak ger&ccedil;eklenmiştir. Rezonat&ouml;r, biri d&uuml;z diğeri ise dairesel oyuk i&ccedil;eren iki plakadan oluşmuştur. Uygun hareketli bir destek sistemine monte edilen rezonat&ouml;r&uuml;n, gerekli &ouml;l&ccedil;&uuml;m d&uuml;zeni de hazırlanarak, frekans spektrumu g&ouml;zlenmiş, rezonans frekansları ve kalite fakt&ouml;r&uuml; &ouml;l&ccedil;&uuml;lm&uuml;şt&uuml;r. Oyuklu rezonat&ouml;r, hem analitik ve hem de sayısal y&ouml;ntemler kullanılarak analiz edilmiştir. Kullanılan sayısal y&ouml;ntem zamanda sonlu farklar (FDTD) y&ouml;ntemidir. &Ouml;l&ccedil;&uuml;m sonucu elde edilen rezonans frekansları, analitik ve sayısal y&ouml;ntemlerden elde edilenlerle karşılaştırılmıştır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Oyuklu dalga kılavuzu, oyuklu rezonat&ouml;r, FDTD, mikrodalga, transfer rezonans metodu.As an alternative to the classical waveguides, such as the H-waveguide and the rectangular waveguide, the Groove waveguide has been used at millimeter wavelengths for the last couple of decades. It has many advantages such as low-loss and higher power handling capacity. Here, in this study, a semi-symmetrical groove guide resonator based on groove waveguide structure is designed and fabricated. Instead of using the classical symmetrical shaped groove guide, a novel semi-symmetrical groove guide structure is presented for the first time. This semi-symmetrical structure was chosen because it is easier to fabricate and excite. The groove resonator which has one grooved plate and one plane plate, first analyzed analytically. Since exact solutions usually exist for idealized geometries, the closed resonator structure is taken into account first. The Green's function method is applied for different oriented line sources. Then the transverse resonance method is used for the open groove resonator. The numerical simulations are performed via the powerful time domain simulator FDTD (Finite Difference Time Domain). Both cartesian and cylindrical coordinate systems are used for FDTD calculations. Here, the purpose to use cylindrical coordinate is to calibrate cartesian coordinates for discretization. Then, a measurement setup which includes a movable support platform was established from 20 GHz to 40 GHz. The resonance frequencies and loaded quality factor are measured. Analitical and numerical results are compared with measurements and a good agreement was observed.Keywords: Groove waveguide, groove resonator, FDTD, microwave, transverse resonance method.

Role of leukocyte cell-derived chemotaxin 2 as a biomarker in hepatocellular carcinoma

We sought to identify a secreted biomarker for β-catenin activation commonly seen in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). By examination of our previously published genearray of hepatocyte-specific β-catenin knockout (KO) livers, we identified secreted factors whose expression may be β-catenin-dependent. We verified expression and secretion of the leading factor in HCC cells transfected with mutated (Hep3BS33Y)-β- catenin. Serum levels of biomarker were next investigated in a mouse model of HCC with β-catenin gene (Ctnnb1) mutations and eventually in HCC patients. Leukocyte cell-derived chemotaxin-2 (LECT2) expression was decreased in KO livers. Hep3BS33Y expressed and secreted more LECT2 in media as compared to Hep3BWT. Mice developing HCC with Ctnnb1 mutations showed significantly higher serum LECT2 levels. However patients with CTNNB1 mutations showed LECT2 levels of 54.28±22.32 ng/mL (Mean ± SD; n = 8) that were insignificantly different from patients with non-neoplastic chronic liver disease (32.8±21.1 ng/mL; n = 15) or healthy volunteers (33.2±7.2 ng/mL; n = 11). Intriguingly, patients without β-catenin mutations showed significantly higher serum LECT2 levels (54.26 ± 22.25 ng/mL; n = 46). While β-catenin activation was evident in a subset of non-mutant β-catenin HCC group with high LECT2 expression, serum LECT2 was unequivocally similar between β-catenin-active and -normal group. Further analysis showed that LECT2 levels greater than 50 ng/ml diagnosed HCC in patients irrespective of β-catenin mutations with specificity of 96.1% and positive predictive value of 97.0%. Thus, LECT2 is regulated by β-catenin in HCC in both mice and men, but serum LECT2 reflects β-catenin activity only in mice. Serum LECT2 could be a potential biomarker of HCC in patients. © 2014 Okabe et al

β-Catenin Loss in Hepatocytes Promotes Hepatocellular Cancer after Diethylnitrosamine and Phenobarbital Administration to Mice

Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common cancer worldwide. β-Catenin, the central orchestrator of the canonical Wnt pathway and a known oncogene is paramount in HCC pathogenesis. Administration of phenobarbital (PB) containing water (0.05% w/v) as tumor promoter following initial injected intraperitoneal (IP) diethylnitrosamine (DEN) injection (5 µg/gm body weight) as a tumor inducer is commonly used model to study HCC in mice. Herein, nine fifteen-day male β-catenin knockout mice (KO) and fifteen wild-type littermate controls (WT) underwent DEN/PB treatment and were examined for hepatic tumorigenesis at eight months. Paradoxically, a significantly higher tumor burden was observed in KO (p<0.05). Tumors in KO were β-catenin and glutamine synthetase negative and HGF/Met, EGFR & IGFR signaling was unremarkable. A significant increase in PDGFRα and its ligand PDGF-CC leading to increased phosphotyrosine-720-PDGFRα was observed in tumor-bearing KO mice (p<0.05). Simultaneously, these livers displayed increased cell death, stellate cell activation, hepatic fibrosis and cell proliferation. Further, PDGF-CC significantly induced hepatoma cell proliferation especially following β-catenin suppression. Our studies also demonstrate that the utilized DEN/PB protocol in the WT C57BL/6 mice did not select for β-catenin gene mutations during hepatocarcinogenesis. Thus, DEN/PB enhanced HCC in mice lacking β-catenin in the liver may be due to their ineptness at regulating cell survival, leading to enhanced fibrosis and regeneration through PDGFRα activation. β-Catenin downregulation also made hepatoma cells more sensitive to receptor tyrosine kinases and thus may be exploited for therapeutics

Post-intervention Status in Patients With Refractory Myasthenia Gravis Treated With Eculizumab During REGAIN and Its Open-Label Extension

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether eculizumab helps patients with anti-acetylcholine receptor-positive (AChR+) refractory generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG) achieve the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America (MGFA) post-intervention status of minimal manifestations (MM), we assessed patients' status throughout REGAIN (Safety and Efficacy of Eculizumab in AChR+ Refractory Generalized Myasthenia Gravis) and its open-label extension. METHODS: Patients who completed the REGAIN randomized controlled trial and continued into the open-label extension were included in this tertiary endpoint analysis. Patients were assessed for the MGFA post-intervention status of improved, unchanged, worse, MM, and pharmacologic remission at defined time points during REGAIN and through week 130 of the open-label study. RESULTS: A total of 117 patients completed REGAIN and continued into the open-label study (eculizumab/eculizumab: 56; placebo/eculizumab: 61). At week 26 of REGAIN, more eculizumab-treated patients than placebo-treated patients achieved a status of improved (60.7% vs 41.7%) or MM (25.0% vs 13.3%; common OR: 2.3; 95% CI: 1.1-4.5). After 130 weeks of eculizumab treatment, 88.0% of patients achieved improved status and 57.3% of patients achieved MM status. The safety profile of eculizumab was consistent with its known profile and no new safety signals were detected. CONCLUSION: Eculizumab led to rapid and sustained achievement of MM in patients with AChR+ refractory gMG. These findings support the use of eculizumab in this previously difficult-to-treat patient population. CLINICALTRIALSGOV IDENTIFIER: REGAIN, NCT01997229; REGAIN open-label extension, NCT02301624. CLASSIFICATION OF EVIDENCE: This study provides Class II evidence that, after 26 weeks of eculizumab treatment, 25.0% of adults with AChR+ refractory gMG achieved MM, compared with 13.3% who received placebo

Minimal Symptom Expression' in Patients With Acetylcholine Receptor Antibody-Positive Refractory Generalized Myasthenia Gravis Treated With Eculizumab

The efficacy and tolerability of eculizumab were assessed in REGAIN, a 26-week, phase 3, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in anti-acetylcholine receptor antibody-positive (AChR+) refractory generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG), and its open-label extension