Changing The Ethical Standards Of Organizations

The scandals of Enron and WorldCom appear to be contagious and are the impetus for the media’s current focus on ethical issues.  Business has been and continues to confront ethical dilemmas that impact decision-making and financial reporting.  Codes of conduct and a focus on ethical standards continually surface as proposals to change the ethical values of organizations.  Many argue that it is the “tone at the top” that is the driving force behind any serious changes to the ethical culture in organizations.  This study presents the results of a survey of practicing CPAs.  A factor analysis identifies the actions and procedures that are linked with a management culture that emphasizes the importance of integrity and ethical values.  The results provide guidance on the key factors involved in invoking ethical change in organizations.  These results should prove to be of assistance to both educators and employers in the development of feasible programs that maximize the ethical potential of organization members

Within-session decrement of the emission of licking bursts following reward devaluation in rats licking for sucrose

We previously observed that dopamine D2-like receptor blockade in rats licking for sucrose produced a within-session decrement of the emission of licking bursts similar to the effect of either reward devaluation, or neuroleptics, on operant responding for different rewards, which, accordingly, we interpreted as an extinction-like effect. This implies that exposing animals to reward devaluation would result in a drop of burst number taking place only after the contact with the devalued reward. To test this prediction, we compared the difference in the within-session time course of burst number in response to high (10%) versus low (2%) concentration sucrose solutions, either in a condition of reward devaluation (exposure to 2% after daily 10%), or in a condition which does not involve changes in the reward value (two groups of subjects each repeatedly exposed to only one of the two concentrations). Reward devaluation resulted in a within-session decrement of the burst number, with the response rate dropping only after the contact with the devalued reward, as predicted. This response pattern was reliably observed only in subjects at their first devaluation experience. In contrast, exposure of separate groups of animals to the two different concentrations yielded lower levels of burst number in the low concentration group apparent since the beginning of the session, as previously observed with dopamine D1-like receptor blockade. These results show that the analysis of burst number, but not of burst size, reveals a specific activation pattern in response to reward devaluation, which differs from the pattern observed comparing the response to two different sucrose concentrations in separate groups of subjects, i.e. in a condition not involving reward devaluation. Finally, the characterisation of the experimental measures of the analysis of licking microstructure in behaviourally (and psychologically) meaningful functional terms, might be relevant for the investigation of the mechanisms underlying behavioural activation and the related evaluation processes

Does A Tone At The Top That Fosters Ethical Decisions Impact Financial Reporting Decisions: An Experimental Analysis

The accounting profession believes the reliability of financial reporting is affected by an organizations internal control, the foundation of which relates to the tone at the top of an organization. Despite attempts by organizations to create ethical environments, financial accountants are sometimes confronted with ethical dilemmas that may affect financial reporting decisions.An experiment that consisted of six different financial reporting scenarios was used to examine the influence of the tone at the top on financial reporting decisions. Subjects were assigned to three different organizational categories in terms of tone at the top a tone that fosters ethical behavior, a tone that does not foster ethical behavior, and a neutral tone. The results support the position that tone at the top does relate to financial reporting decisions

Differences in APOBEC3G Expression in CD4+ T Helper Lymphocyte Subtypes Modulate HIV-1 Infectivity

The cytidine deaminases APOBEC3G and APOBEC3F exert anti–HIV-1 activity that is countered by the HIV-1 vif protein. Based on potential transcription factor binding sites in their putative promoters, we hypothesized that expression of APOBEC3G and APOBEC3F would vary with T helper lymphocyte differentiation. Naive CD4+ T lymphocytes were differentiated to T helper type 1 (Th1) and 2 (Th2) effector cells by expression of transcription factors Tbet and GATA3, respectively, as well as by cytokine polarization. APOBEC3G and APOBEC3F RNA levels, and APOBEC3G protein levels, were higher in Th1 than in Th2 cells. T cell receptor stimulation further increased APOBEC3G and APOBEC3F expression in Tbet- and control-transduced, but not in GATA3-transduced, cells. Neutralizing anti–interferon-γ antibodies reduced both basal and T cell receptor-stimulated APOBEC3G and APOBEC3F expression in Tbet- and control-transduced cells. HIV-1 produced from Th1 cells had more virion APOBEC3G, and decreased infectivity, compared to virions produced from Th2 cells. These differences between Th1- and Th2-produced virions were greater for viruses lacking functional vif, but also seen with vif-positive viruses. Over-expression of APOBEC3G in Th2 cells decreased the infectivity of virions produced from Th2 cells, and reduction of APOBEC3G in Th1 cells increased infectivity of virions produced from Th1 cells, consistent with a causal role for APOBEC3G in the infectivity difference. These results indicate that APOBEC3G and APOBEC3F levels vary physiologically during CD4+ T lymphocyte differentiation, that interferon-γ contributes to this modulation, and that this physiological regulation can cause changes in infectivity of progeny virions, even in the presence of HIV-1 vif

Susceptibility testing by polymerase chain reaction DNA quantitation: A method to measure drug resistance of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 isolates

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) DNA quantitation (PDQ) susceptibility testing rapidly and directly measures nucleoside sensitivity of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) isolates. PCR is used to quantitate the amount of HIV-1 DNA synthesized after in vitro infection of peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The relative amounts of HIV-1 DNA in cell lysates from cultures maintained at different drug concentrations reflect drug inhibition of virus replication. The rusults of PDQ susceptibility testing of 2- or 3-day cultures are supported by assays measuring HIV-1 p24 antigen production in supernatants of 7- or 10-day cultures. DNA sequence analyses to identify mutations in the reverse transcriptase gene that cause resistance to 3′-azido-3′-deoxythymidine also support the PDQ results. With the PDQ method, both infectivity titration and susceptibility testing can be performed on supernatants from primary cultures of peripheral blood mononuclear cells. PDQ susceptibility testing should facilitate epidemiologic studies of the clinical significance of drug-resistant HIV-1 isolates

Eastern Frequency Response Study

This study was specifically designed to investigate the frequency response of the Eastern Interconnection that results from large loss-of-generation events of the type targeted by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. Standard BAL-003 Frequency Response and Frequency Bias Setting (NERC 2012a), under possible future system conditions with high levels of wind generation

Estradiol via estrogen receptor beta influences ROS levels through the transcriptional regulation of SIRT3 in human seminoma TCam-2 cells

Human testis, gonocytes, and adult germ cells mainly express estrogen receptor beta, and estrogen receptor beta loss is associated with advanced tumor stage; however, the molecular mechanisms of estrogen receptor beta–protective effects are still to be defined. Herein, we provide evidence that in human seminoma TCam-2 cells, E2 through estrogen receptor beta upregulates the mitochondrial deacetylase sirtuin-3 at protein and messenger RNA levels. Specifically, E2 increases sirtuin-3 expression through a transcriptional mechanism due to the occupancy of sirtuin-3 promoter by estrogen receptor beta, together with the transcription factor Sp1 as evidenced by Chip reChIp assay. This complex binds to a GC cluster located between −128 bp/+1 bp and is fundamental for E2 effects, as demonstrated by Sp1 small interfering RNA studies. Beside, after 24 h, E2 stimulus significantly increased activities of superoxide dismutase and catalase to scavenge reactive oxygen species produced by 30 min of E2 stimulus. In summar..

Targeting of multiple myeloma-related angiogenesis by miR-199a-5p mimics: in vitro and in vivo anti-tumor activity

Multiple myeloma (MM) cells induce relevant angiogenic effects within the human bone marrow milieu (huBMM) by the aberrant expression of angiogenic factors. Hypoxia triggers angiogenic events within the huBMM and the transcription factor hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) is over-expressed by MM cells. Since synthetic miR-199a-5p mimics negatively regulates HIF-1α, we here investigated a miRNA-based therapeutic strategy against hypoxic MM cells. We indeed found that enforced expression of miR-199a-5p led to down-modulated expression of HIF-1α as well as of other pro-angiogenic factors such as VEGF-A, IL-8, and FGFb in hypoxic MM cells in vitro. Moreover, miR-199a-5p negatively affected MM cells migration, while it increased the adhesion of MM cells to bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) in hypoxic conditions. Furthermore, transfection of MM cells with miR-199a-5p significantly impaired also endothelial cells migration and down-regulated the expression of endothelial adhesion molecules such as VCAM-1 and ICAM-1. Finally, we identified a hypoxia\AKT/miR-199a-5p loop as a potential molecular mechanism responsible of miR-199a-5p down-regulation in hypoxic MM cells. Taken together our results indicate that miR-199a-5p has an important role for the pathogenesis of MM and support the hypothesis that targeting angiogenesis via a miRNA/HIF-1α pathway may represent a novel potential therapeutical approach for this still lethal diseas

Day and night: diurnal phase influences the response to chronic mild stress

Chronic mild stress (CMS) protocols are widely used to create animal models of depression. Despite this, the inconsistencies in the reported effects may be indicative of crucial differences in methodology. Here, we considered the time of the diurnal cycle in which stressors are applied as a possible relevant temporal variable underlying the association between stress and behavior. Most laboratories test behavior during the light phase of the diurnal cycle, which corresponds to the animal's resting period. Here, rats stressed either in their resting (light phase) or active (dark phase) periods were behaviorally characterized in the light phase. When exposure to CMS occurred during the light phase of the day cycle, rats displayed signs of depressive and anxiety-related behaviors. This phenotype was not observed when CMS was applied during the dark (active) period. Interestingly, although no differences in spatial and reference memory were detected (Morris water maze) in animals in either stress period, those stressed in the light phase showed marked impairments in the probe test. These animals also showed significant dendritic atrophy in the hippocampal dentate granule neurons, with a decrease in the number of spines. Taken together, the observations reported demonstrate that the time in which stress is applied has differential effects on behavioral and neurostructural phenotypes.Shilan Aslani and Mazen R. Harb were supported by EU Marie Curie Initial Training Fellowships from the NINA Project. Part of this work was supported by the Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS) and by FEDER funds through Operational program for competitivity factors-COMPETE and by national funds through FCT-Foundation for Science and Technology to project "PTDC/SAU-NSC/111814/2009.