Absence of MHC class II on cDCs results in microbial-dependent intestinal inflammation.

Conventional dendritic cells (cDCs) play an essential role in host immunity by initiating adaptive T cell responses and by serving as innate immune sensors. Although both innate and adaptive functions of cDCs are well documented, their relative importance in maintaining immune homeostasis is poorly understood. To examine the significance of cDC-initiated adaptive immunity in maintaining homeostasis, independent of their innate activities, we generated a cDC-specific Cre mouse and crossed it to a floxed MHC class II (MHCII) mouse. Absence of MHCII on cDCs resulted in chronic intestinal inflammation that was alleviated by antibiotic treatment and entirely averted under germ-free conditions. Uncoupling innate and adaptive functions of cDCs revealed that innate immune functions of cDCs are insufficient to maintain homeostasis and antigen presentation by cDCs is essential for a mutualistic relationship between the host and intestinal bacteria

"The Battles of Genji and Heike The Rowing Lesson" Mar 1976

Journal Article"This article is (c) Emerald Group Publishing and permission has been granted for this version to appear here. Emerald does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Emerald Group Publishing Limited."Purpose: This paper chronicles the evolution of the academic debate regarding diversity in management accounting research and discusses its impact on the current state of management accounting research

Sharing knowledge

Knowledge management systems (KMS) have taken on a prominent role in both information systems research and practice. Such systems promise the potential for contributing to an organization's strategic advantage by unlocking knowledge heretofore housed only in the minds of certain organizational members. This potential has led to a rapid increase in the volume and types of systems for sharing knowledge. Recently, many issues and strategies relevant to KMS have been identified.\ud \ud Sharing knowledge throughout an organization has intuitive appeal. If organizational members share valuable information freely with other members, the organization's responsiveness and effectiveness can be greatly augmented by preventing those members from having to repeatedly solve the same problems. In an environment of organizational sharing, a KMS can readily save time and money for both providers and users of knowledge. For example, more than a decade ago Microsoft created its "Knowledge Base" (KB), which was the first place employees checked when a software problem surfaced. Microsoft's decision to move the KB to a customer-focused extranet is ample testimony to its usefulness; now customers query the system without having to contact a fee-based support center, saving customers the fees and/or call, and saving Microsoft from having to build, staff, and manage a response center.\ud \ud Because a KMS requires individuals to share their knowledge, success is not guaranteed; several factors can interact to hinder knowledge sharing. One significant problem is that individuals often gain considerable power when they hold unique knowledge, especially when it is perceived to be of high value. They are sometimes hesitant to give up their competitive advantage by sharing it. Therefore, KMS adoption and use might require substantial encouragement by management (prompting), intense loyalty to the firm (group identification), or perhaps even simply personal values that support sharing (social value orientation)

Genetic diversity of the HLA system in human populations from the Sierra (Andean), Oriente (Amazonian) and Costa (Coastal) regions of Ecuador

We studied HLA class I (HLA-A, -B) and class II (HLA-DRB1, -DQB1) alleles by PCR-SSP based typing in a total of 1101 Ecuadorian individuals from three regions of the country, the Coastal region, the Andean region, and the Amazonian region, to obtain information regarding allelic and haplotypic frequencies and their linkage disequilibrium. We find that the most frequent HLA haplotypes with significant linkage disequilibrium in those populations are HLA-A*24∼B*35∼DRB1*04∼DQB1*03:02, A*02∼B*35∼DRB1*04∼DQB1*03:02, A*24∼B*35∼DRB1*14∼DQB1*03:01, A*02∼B*35∼DRB1*14∼DQB1*03:01 and A*02∼B*40:02∼DRB1*04∼DQB1*03:02. The only non-Native American haplotype with frequency >1% shared by all groups was A*29∼B*44∼DRB1*07∼DQB1*02. Admixture estimates obtained by a maximum likelihood method using HLA-B as genetic estimator revealed that the main genetic components for this sample of mixed-ancestry Ecuadorians are Native American (ranging from 52.86% to 63.83%) and European (from 28.95% to 46.54%), while an African genetic component was only apparent in the Coastal region (18.19%). Our findings provide a starting point for the study of population immunogenetics of Ecuadorian populations