Salespeople’s Renqing Orientation, Self-esteem, and Selling Behaviors: An Empirical Study in Taiwan

The purpose of this study was to investigate how salespeople’s renqing orientation and self-esteem jointly affect their selling behavior. Data were obtained from a survey of salespeople from 17 pharmaceutical and consumer-goods companies in Taiwan (n = 216). Salespeople’s renqing orientation (i.e., their propensity to adhere to the accepted norm of reciprocity) compensates the negative effect of self-esteem on their selling behaviors, such as adaptive selling and hard work. Our study results underscore the critical role of the character trait of renqing orientation in a culture emphasizing a norm of reciprocity. Therefore, it would be useful to consider a strategy of recruiting salespeople with either a high self-esteem or a combination of high renqing orientation and low self-esteem. The existing literature of industrial/organizational psychology and marketing primarily relies on constructs that are derived from Western cultural contexts. However, the present paper extended these literatures by investigating the possible joint effects of self-esteem with a trait originated from the Chinese culture on salespeople’s selling behaviors

Chemically-Induced RAT Mesenchymal Stem Cells Adopt Molecular Properties of Neuronal-Like Cells but Do Not Have Basic Neuronal Functional Properties

Induction of adult rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) by means of chemical compounds (β-mercaptoethanol, dimethyl sulfoxide and butylated hydroxyanizole) has been proposed to lead to neuronal transdifferentiation, and this protocol has been broadly used by several laboratories worldwide. Only a few hours of MSC chemical induction using this protocol is sufficient for the acquisition of neuronal-like morphology and neuronal protein expression. However, given that cell death is abundant, we hypothesize that, rather than true neuronal differentiation, this particular protocol leads to cellular toxic effects. We confirm that the induced cells with neuronal-like morphology positively stained for NF-200, S100, β-tubulin III, NSE and MAP-2 proteins. However, the morphological and molecular changes after chemical induction are also associated with an increase in the apoptosis of over 50% of the plated cells after 24 h. Moreover, increased intracellular cysteine after treatment indicates an impairment of redox circuitry during chemical induction, and in vitro electrophysiological recordings (patch-clamp) of the chemically induced MSC did not indicate neuronal properties as these cells do not exhibit Na+ or K+ currents and do not fire action potentials. Our findings suggest that a disruption of redox circuitry plays an important role in this specific chemical induction protocol, which might result in cytoskeletal alterations and loss of functional ion-gated channels followed by cell death. Despite the neuronal-like morphology and neural protein expression, induced rat bone marrow MSC do not have basic functional neuronal properties, although it is still plausible that other methods of induction and/or sources of MSC can achieve a successful neuronal differentiation in vitro

Does clinical examination aid in the diagnosis of urinary tract infections in women? A systematic review and meta-analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Clinicians should be aware of the diagnostic values of various symptoms, signs and antecedents. This information is particularly important in primary care settings, where sophisticated diagnostic approaches are not always feasible. The aim of the study is to determine the probability that various symptoms, signs, antecedents and tests predict urinary tract infection (UTI) in women.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We conducted a systematic search of the MEDLINE and EMBASE databases to identify articles published in all languages through until December 2008. We particularly focused on studies that examined the diagnostic accuracy of at least one symptom, sign or patient antecedent related to the urinary tract. We included studies where urine culture, a gold standard, was preformed by primary care providers on female subjects aged at least 14 years. A meta-analysis of the likelihood ratio was performed to assess variables related to the urinary tract symptoms.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of the 1, 212 articles identified, 11 met the selection criteria. Dysuria, urgency, nocturia, sexual activity and urgency with dysuria were weak predictors of urinary tract infection, whereas increases in vaginal discharge and suprapubic pain were weak predictors of the absence of infection. Nitrites or leukocytes in the dipstick test are the only findings that clearly favored a diagnosis of UTI.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Clinical findings do not aid in the diagnosis of UTI among women who present with urinary symptoms. Vaginal discharge is a weak indicator of the absence of infection. The urine dipstick test was the most reliable tool for detecting UTI.</p

TSP-1 Secreted by Bone Marrow Stromal Cells Contributes to Retinal Ganglion Cell Neurite Outgrowth and Survival

BACKGROUND: Bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) are pluripotent and thereby a potential candidate for cell replacement therapy for central nervous system degenerative disorders and traumatic injury. However, the mechanism of their differentiation and effect on neural tissues has not been fully elucidated. This study evaluates the effect of BMSCs on neural cell growth and survival in a retinal ganglion cell (RGCs) model by assessing the effect of changes in the expression of a BMSC-secreted protein, thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1), as a putative mechanistic agent acting on RGCs. METHODS AND FINDINGS: The effect of co-culturing BMSCs and RGCs in vitro was evaluated by measuring the following parameters: neurite outgrowth, RGC survival, BMSC neural-like differentiation, and the effect of TSP-1 on both cell lines under basal secretion conditions and when TSP-1 expression was inhibited. Our data show that BMSCs improved RGC survival and neurite outgrowth. Synaptophysin, MAP-2, and TGF-beta expression are up-regulated in RGCs co-cultured with BMSCs. Interestingly, the BMSCs progressively displayed neural-like morphology over the seven-day study period. Restriction display polymerase chain reaction (RD-PCR) was performed to screen for differentially expressed genes in BMSCs cultured alone or co-cultured with RGCs. TSP-1, a multifactorial extracellular matrix protein, is critically important in the formation of neural connections during development, so its function in our co-culture model was investigated by small interfering RNA (siRNA) transfection. When TSP-1 expression was decreased with siRNA silencing, BMSCs had no impact on RGC survival, but reduced neurite outgrowth and decreased expression of synaptophysin, MAP-2 and TGF-beta in RGCs. Furthermore, the number of BMSCs with neural-like characteristics was significantly decreased by more than two-fold using siRNA silencing. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that the TSP-1 signaling pathway might have an important role in neural-like differentiation in BMSCs and neurite outgrowth in RGCs. This study provides new insights into the potential reparative mechanisms of neural cell repair

An overview of tissue engineering approaches for management of spinal cord injuries

Severe spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to devastating neurological deficits and disabilities, which necessitates spending a great deal of health budget for psychological and healthcare problems of these patients and their relatives. This justifies the cost of research into the new modalities for treatment of spinal cord injuries, even in developing countries. Apart from surgical management and nerve grafting, several other approaches have been adopted for management of this condition including pharmacologic and gene therapy, cell therapy, and use of different cell-free or cell-seeded bioscaffolds. In current paper, the recent developments for therapeutic delivery of stem and non-stem cells to the site of injury, and application of cell-free and cell-seeded natural and synthetic scaffolds have been reviewed

Efficient attentional selection predicts distractor devaluation: event-related potential evidence for a direct link between attention and emotion.

Links between attention and emotion were investigated by obtaining electrophysiological measures of attentional selectivity together with behavioral measures of affective evaluation. Participants were asked to rate faces that had just been presented as targets or distractors in a visual search task. Distractors were rated as less trustworthy than targets. To study the association between the efficiency of selective attention during visual search and subsequent emotional responses, the N2pc component was quantified as a function of evaluative judgments. Evaluation of distractor faces (but not target faces) covaried with selective attention. On trials where distractors were later judged negatively, the N2pc emerged earlier, demonstrating that attention was strongly biased toward target events, and distractors were effectively inhibited. When previous distractors were judged positively, the N2pc was delayed, indicating unfocused attention to the target and less distractor suppression. Variations in attentional selectivity across trials can predict subsequent emotional responses, strongly suggesting that attention is closely associated with subsequent affective evaluation

Evidence for goal-independent attentional capture from validity effects with unexpected novel color cues-A response to Burnham (2007)

Horstmann G, Becker SI. Evidence for goal-independent attentional capture from validity effects with unexpected novel color cues-A response to Burnham (2007). Psychonomic Bulletin &amp; Review. 2011;18(3):512-517.Can a stimulus capture attention independent of the observer's goals and intentions? In a recent review, (Burnham, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 14, 392-422, 2007) argued that there is no convincing evidence that attention capture is ever completely independent of the goals and intentions of the observer. By contrast, surprise capture studies have shown that a color singleton can capture attention on its unannounced first occurrence, if it is new and unexpected, and hence is not part of the intentional set. However, the evidence from surprise capture studies has been criticized on methodological grounds. Here, we tested surprise capture in a new paradigm that avoids previous methodological complications. The results refute the prior criticisms and reinstate surprise capture as prime evidence for goal-independent capture