Towards a descriptive model of responsible leadership

The new developments of the globalization process bring with them new responsibilities for the multinational corporation and its leaders. The aim of the paper was to identify those new responsibilities and to look at the changing role of leadership due to those responsibilities. This paper thereby acknowledges the need for a more descriptive and prescriptive social scientific approach by aiming for an understanding of what will be called globally responsible leadership. The article starts with pointing to the changing role of leadership due to new ecological, societal and business obligations leaders in organizations are facing. The following literature review of leadership theories shows that there is no theory that can fully address the new developments. Thus, it is developed a new framework of globally responsible leadership that encompasses those new obligations and that exemplifies the personal preconditions of globally responsible leaders. It is therefore drawn upon theories of responsibility form the philosophy of law and further disciplines. The elements of the framework of globally responsible leadership are explained and suggestions are made of how to empirically capture globally responsible leadership behaviour. At the end, the article points to future research directions

Quantification of Feline Herpesvirus 1 DNA in Ocular Fluid Samples of Clinically Diseased Cats by Real-Time TaqMan PCR

A fluorogenic PCR was established for the quantification of feline herpesvirus 1 (FeHV-1) DNA in ocular fluid samples of clinically diseased cats. The new assay was specific for FeHV-1 and sensitive. The 100% detection rate ranged from 0.6 to 6 50% tissue culture infective doses per sample. When spiked samples with known quantities of virus were used, infectious virus titers and quantification of viral DNA by PCR correlated to each other in a linear fashion (R(2) = 0.9858) over a range of 4 orders of magnitude. Within this range, it was possible to calculate the FeHV-1 DNA content from a given infectious dose, and vice versa. The new diagnostic procedure was applied to ocular fluid samples from cats experimentally infected with FeHV-1 and specific FeHV-1-free cats. A good correlation between virus titer and quantitative PCR was observed, although only early in infection. In a second stage, the titer of infectious virus collapsed, while the PCR signal remained high. A constantly decreasing PCR signal accompanied by negative virus isolation was characteristic for a final stage of the infection. Finally, clinical samples from 20 cats that were suspected to suffer from FeHV-1 infection were analyzed. By comparing virus titers and quantitative PCR signals, it was possible to determine the current stage of the ongoing infection. Based on these findings, comparison of the results of consecutive samples allows the tracking of the course of the infection. Therefore, the new method combines the advantages of the two previously established conventional methods, qualitative PCR and virus isolation and titration

Chlamydiaceae family, Parachlamydia spp. and Waddlia spp. in porcine abortion

At present, despite extensive laboratory investigations, most cases of porcine abortions remain without an etiological diagnosis. Due to a lack of recent data on the abortigenic effect of Chlamydiales, 286 fetuses and their placentae of 113 abortion cases (1 to 5 fetuses per abortion case) were investigated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods for Chlamydiaceae and selected Chlamydia-like-organisms such as Parachlamydia acanthamoebae and Waddlia chondrophila. In 0.35% of the cases (1/286 fetuses) the Chlamydiaceae real-time PCR was positive. In this Chlamydiaceae-positive fetus, Chlamydia abortus was detected by a commercial microarray and 16S-ribsomal RNA PCR followed by sequencing. This fetus had a porcine circovirus type 2 co-infection. By the Parachlamydia real-time PCR, 3.5% (10/286 fetuses of nine abortion cases) were questionable positive (Ct values between 35.0 and 45.0). In two of these ten cases, a confirmation by Chlamydiales specific real-time PCR was possible. All samples were tested negative by the Waddlia realtime PCR. It seems unlikely that Chlamydiaceae, Parachlamydia and Waddlia play an important role as abortigenic agents in Swiss sows

The innate antiviral immune system of the cat: Molecular tools for the measurement of its state of activation

The innate immune system plays a central role in host defence against viruses. While many studies portray mechanisms in early antiviral immune responses of humans and mice, much remains to be discovered about these mechanisms in the cat. With the objective of shedding light on early host-virus interactions in felids, we have developed 12 real-time TaqMan(®) qPCR systems for feline genes relevant to innate responses to viral infection, including those encoding for various IFNα and IFNω subtypes, IFNβ, intracellular antiviral factor Mx, NK cell stimulator IL-15 and effectors perforin and granzyme B, as well as Toll-like receptors (TLRs) 3 and 8. Using these newly developed assays and others previously described, we measured the relative expression of selected markers at early time points after viral infection in vitro and in vivo. Feline embryonic fibroblasts (FEA) inoculated with feline leukemia virus (FeLV) indicated peak levels of IFNα, IFNβ and Mx expression already 6h after infection. In contrast, Crandell-Rees feline kidney (CrFK) cells inoculated with feline herpes virus (FHV) responded to infection with high levels of IFNα and IFNβ only after 24h, and no induction of Mx could be detected. In feline PBMCs challenged in vitro with feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), maximal expression levels of IFNα, β and ω subtype genes as well as IL-15 and TLRs 3, 7 and 8 were measured between 12 and 24h after infection, whereas expression levels of proinflammatory cytokine gene IL-6 were consistently downregulated until 48h post inoculation. A marginal upregulation of granzyme B was also observed within 3h after infection. In an in vivo experiment, cats challenged with FIV exhibited a 2.4-fold increase in IFNα expression in blood 1 week post infection. We furthermore demonstrate the possibility of stimulating feline immune cells in vitro with various immune response modifiers (IRMs) already known for their immunostimulatory properties in mice and humans, namely Poly IC, Resiquimod (R-848) and dSLIM™, a synthetic oligonucleotide containing several unmethylated CpG motifs. Stimulation of feline PBMCs with dSLIM™ and R-848 effectively enhanced expression of IFNα within 12h by factors of 6 and 12, respectively, and Poly IC induced an increase in Mx mRNA expression of 28-fold. Altogether, we describe new molecular tools and their successful use for the characterization of innate immune responses against viruses in the cat and provide evidence that feline cells can be stimulated by synthetic molecules to enhance their antiviral defence mechanisms

Histologic and Molecular Correlation in Shelter Cats with Acute Upper Respiratory Infection ▿

This is a descriptive study designed to correlate diagnostic real-time PCR results with histopathologic lesions in cats with clinical signs of upper respiratory infection (URI). The study occurred over a 9-month period in a single open-intake animal shelter. Cats that were selected for euthanasia by the shelter staff and additionally had URI were included in the study, for a total of 22 study cats. Combined conjunctival and oropharyngeal swab specimens were tested by quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) for feline herpesvirus type 1 (FHV-1), feline calicivirus (FCV), Mycoplasma felis, Chlamydophila felis, and Bordetella bronchiseptica. Necropsy was performed on all cats, and a complete set of respiratory tract tissues was examined by histopathology. Among 22 cats, 20 were qPCR positive for FHV-1, 7 for M. felis, 5 for FCV, 1 for C. felis, and 0 for B. bronchiseptica. Nine cats were positive for two or more pathogens. Histopathologic lesions were present in all cats, with consistent lesions in the nasal cavity, including acute necroulcerative rhinitis in 16 cats. Histologic or antigenic detection of FHV-1 was seen in 18 of 20 cats positive for FHV-1 by qPCR. No lesions that could be specifically attributed to FCV, M. felis, or C. felis were seen, although interpretation in this cohort could be confounded by coinfection with FHV-1. A significant agreement was found between the amount of FHV-1 DNA determined by qPCR and the presence of specific histopathologic lesions for FHV-1 but not for the other respiratory pathogens