Divided we stand: How contestation can facilitate institutionalization

Existing literature on institutionalization highlights that regulatory institutions emerge from resolving disputes, paying little attention to the key behavioral aspect of disputes: contestation. In this paper, I aim to advance the literature by developing a model of contestation‐based institutionalization; contestation facilitates the adoption of new regulative institutions, laws. Drawing on socio‐legal and network perspectives on the way people argue in a dispute, I focus on a behavioral code of contestation—the shared understanding and expectation about how to argue rather than what to argue. Contestation makes it easier for lawmakers to adopt a new regulatory institution when the lawmakers argue in conformity with the code. Network and event history analyses of animal lawsuits and laws in the United States from 1865 to 2010 confirm this model. This paper highlights the value of looking into the behavioral dimension of disputes and advances our understanding of institutionalization without emphasizing dispute resolution

A mismatch between institutional conditions and trust

In this study, we aim to unpack why information conveyed by high-status women are less trusted in the collaborative project setting. We theorize about the mechanism of gender-status mismatch - a cultural-cognitive mismatch between beliefs about gender and status hierarchies when a woman is associated with the high status. We set three hypotheses to test the negative effects of the mismatch on trust in women: (1) a woman who has a higher rank is considered a mismatch, (2) a woman who works for a high-status organization is considered a mismatch, and (3) a woman who has a higher network status is considered a mismatch

Gendered adoption of bird photography

Prior studies on innovation adoption have underscored that the refusal to adopt popular innovations becomes less accepted as such innovations spread. In this paper, I reexamine this prevailing account using the lens of gender. Focusing on the adoption of bird photography, a technologically advanced method to help save wild birds that became widespread in early 20th-century America, I examine how gendered expectations in society shaped the adoption of an innovation. Using a unique database coded from archival documents of the first American bird protection movement, which was prominent between 1899 and 1920, I find that the non-adoption of a technological innovation is rather accepted when the meaning of the innovation is gendered and its (non)adoption is accountably masculine (or feminine). Stemming from that historical case, the results of this study have contemporary relevance to understanding the role of gendered expectations in shaping innovation adoption, particularly in science and technology

Downfall of Jell-O salad: Boundary spanning and a shift in taste

Combining recent work on market categories with a historical perspective, this study examines how broader cultural frames can shape boundary spanning rules—taste for variety and atypicality, and a shift in the rules. Focusing on Jell-O salad, an American dish that is known to mix all sorts of food in aspic and had been popular until the 1970s, this article traces how this salad dish that used to be accepted as a delicious mixture of distinct food (variety) has become seen as a disgusting blend traversing established categories of food (atypicality). Using 247 Jell-O package inserts, recipe books, pamphlets, and magazine advertisements between 1905 and 2005, the present study employs a mixed method approach: a historical process analysis and an event count analysis of the prevalence of Jell-O salad. Results show that the salad is no longer interpreted as a dish serving a variety of favorite food items because the main ingredient, powdered gelatin or Jell-O, has become available to all and dissociated with middle-class cultural frames. The results challenge an implicit assumption of the boundary spanning rules; once a mixture is considered an assortment, it tends to be favorably seen as a creative mix not an atypical hybrid. By evidencing how changes in the relationships between food and cultural frames affect the taste for variety, this study advances current understandings of category spanning and crossing social dichotomies of food

Protect to damage? Institutional work, unintended consequences and institutional dynamics

How does institutional work to uphold an institution unintentionally challenge that institution? To answer this question, I trace institutional work of proponents of change and the norm majority – members of the public who show rectitude vis-à-vis perceived provocation against an established institution, in the context of America’s first bird protection movement. A historical process analysis reveals that institutional work unintentionally compromises institutions because the work can be seen as public conformity to the established institution. A model developed from the findings provides a more refined understanding of unintended consequences in institutional studies

Bioreducible Polymer-delivered siRNA Targeting MMP-9: Suppression of Granulation Tissue Formation after Bare Metallic Stent Placement in a Rat Urethral Model

To evaluate the effectiveness of small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) in suppressing granulation tissue formation caused by bare metallic stent placement in a rat urethral model. All experiments were approved by the committee of animal research. In 20 Sprague-Dawley male rats (weight range, 300-350 g), a self-expanding metallic bare stent was inserted in the urethra with fluoroscopic guidance. One group of 10 rats (group A) was treated with MMP-9 siRNA/bioreducible branched polyethylenimine-disulfide cross-linked-indocyanine green (bioreducible BPEI-SS-ICG), while the other group of 10 rats (group B) received control siRNA/bioreducible BPEI-SS-ICG treatment. All rats were sacrificed at 4 weeks. The therapeutic effectiveness of the MMP-9 siRNA/bioreducible BPEI-SS-ICG complex was assessed by comparing the two results of retrograde urethrography, histologic examination, and quantification of MMP-9 by using zymography and Western blot analysis between the two groups. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to evaluate differences. Stent placement was successful in all rats without a single case of migration at follow-up. Retrograde urethrography performed 4 weeks after stent placement demonstrated significantly larger luminal diameters of the urethra within the stents in group A compared with those in group B (P = .011). Histologic analysis revealed that the mean percentage of granulation tissue area (P < .001), mean number of epithelial layers (P < .001), and mean thickness of submucosal fibrosis (P < .001) were significantly decreased in group A compared with group B. Meanwhile, the mean density of inflammatory cell infiltration did not significantly differ between the two groups (P = .184). Quantitative analysis disclosed MMP-9 levels to be lower in group A relative to group B, indicating positive inhibition of MMP-9 by MMP-9 siRNA/bioreducible BPEI-SS-ICG. MMP-9 siRNA/bioreducible BPEI-SS-ICG is effective for inhibiting granulation tissue formation after bare metallic stent placement in a rat urethral model.X1143Ysciescopu

Outer Membrane Vesicles Derived from Escherichia coli Induce Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome

Sepsis, characterized by a systemic inflammatory state that is usually related to Gram-negative bacterial infection, is a leading cause of death worldwide. Although the annual incidence of sepsis is still rising, the exact cause of Gram-negative bacteria-associated sepsis is not clear. Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs), constitutively secreted from Gram-negative bacteria, are nano-sized spherical bilayered proteolipids. Using a mouse model, we showed that intraperitoneal injection of OMVs derived from intestinal Escherichia coli induced lethality. Furthermore, OMVs induced host responses which resemble a clinically relevant condition like sepsis that was characterized by piloerection, eye exudates, hypothermia, tachypnea, leukopenia, disseminated intravascular coagulation, dysfunction of the lungs, hypotension, and systemic induction of tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-6. Our study revealed a previously unidentified causative microbial signal in the pathogenesis of sepsis, suggesting OMVs as a new therapeutic target to prevent and/or treat severe sepsis caused by Gram-negative bacterial infection

The clinical features of the piriformis syndrome: a systematic review

Piriformis syndrome, sciatica caused by compression of the sciatic nerve by the piriformis muscle, has been described for over 70 years; yet, it remains controversial. The literature consists mainly of case series and narrative reviews. The objectives of the study were: first, to make the best use of existing evidence to estimate the frequencies of clinical features in patients reported to have PS; second, to identify future research questions. A systematic review was conducted of any study type that reported extractable data relevant to diagnosis. The search included all studies up to 1 March 2008 in four databases: AMED, CINAHL, Embase and Medline. Screening, data extraction and analysis were all performed independently by two reviewers. A total of 55 studies were included: 51 individual and 3 aggregated data studies, and 1 combined study. The most common features found were: buttock pain, external tenderness over the greater sciatic notch, aggravation of the pain through sitting and augmentation of the pain with manoeuvres that increase piriformis muscle tension. Future research could start with comparing the frequencies of these features in sciatica patients with and without disc herniation or spinal stenosis