The concept of national identity

Diese Diplomarbeit erforscht das Konstrukt der Nationalen Identität. Nationale Identität wird in ein nomologisches Netzwerk mit ähnlichen Konzepten wie Patriotismus, Nationalismus und Konsumenten-Ethnozentrismus eingebettet. Darüber hinaus wird der Einfluss dieser vier Konstrukte auf das Konsumentenverhalten untersucht. Zuerst erfolgt ein Literaturüberblick, welcher Nationale Identität, Patriotismus, Nationalismus und Konsumenten-Ethnozentrismus vorstellt und klar von einander abgrenzt. Da viele unterschiedliche Forschungsansätze in Bezug auf die Konzeptualisierung und Operationalisierung von Nationaler Identität existieren, wird im Rahmen dieser Arbeit eine neue Definition entwickelt. Die Beziehung der vier Konstrukte zueinander sowie deren Einfluss auf die Bewertung bzw. den Kauf von heimischen und ausländischen Produkten werden mit einem Sample von 217 dänischen Studenten getestet. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass ein Gefühl der Nationalen Identität dem Entstehen von Patriotismus und Nationalismus vorausgeht. Jedoch ist das Konstrukt kein direkter Vorläufer von Konsumenten-Ethnozentrismus. Darüber hinaus hat eine hohe Nationale Identität einen positiven Einfluss auf die Bewertung heimischen Produkte sowie auf die Bereitschaft der Verbraucher diese auch zu kaufen. Zum Abschluss werden die Auswirkungen dieser Resultate auf internationale Marketingstrategien, Empfehlungen für Marketingmanager sowie Vorschläge für weiterführende Forschung diskutiert.This diploma thesis investigates the concept of national identity in detail. National identity is put into a nomological network with related constructs such as patriotism, nationalism and consumer ethnocentrism, and the impact of the four concepts on consumer behaviour is examined. First, an in-depth literature review is given which introduces national identity, patriotism, nationalism and consumer ethnocentrism and clearly distinguishes them from each other. As research on national identity is characterized by a huge inconsistency regarding its conceptualisation and operationalisation, a new definition of the construct is developed seeing national identity as the extent to which individuals identify with and have a positive feeling of affiliation to their own nation that is subjectively important to their self-concept. Next, in order to test the relationship between the four constructs and their impact on the evaluation and choice of domestic versus foreign products, a questionnaire is created and administered to a convenience sample of 217 Danish students. The results of this empirical study demonstrate that national identity is an antecedent of patriotism and nationalism but shows no direct relationship with consumer ethnocentrism. Furthermore, a high level of national identity positively influences the evaluation of and willingness to buy domestic products. Finally, managerial implications of these findings are considered and suggestions for future research are given

Das Wiener Self-Assessment Psychologie

Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit war es, das Studienberatungsangebot des Wiener Self-Assessment Psychologie der Test- und Beratungsstelle des Arbeitsbereichs Psychologische Diagnostik zu evaluieren. Angelehnt an das erstellte Anforderungsprofil für Psychologiestudierende an der Universität Wien besteht die Testbatterie des Self-Assessments aus dem Lerntest LAMBDA, dem Kodiertest aus der Testbatterie Arbeitshaltungen, dem Wissenstest LEWITE, dem Interessentest AIST-R, einem Test zum logischen Denken und einem Fragebogen zum Arbeitsverhalten. Um die prognostische Validität des Self-Assessments zu prüfen, wurden in einem ersten Schritt Korrelationen zwischen den Testleistungen der TeilnehmerInnen im Self-Assessment und den Prüfungsnoten des ersten Studienabschnittes berechnet. Hier zeigten sich kaum signifikante Zusammenhänge. Demnach ist eine inhaltlich fundierte Aussage über die Studienleistung aufgrund der Leistungen im Self-Assessment nur eingeschränkt möglich, was vorrangig auf die schlechte Datenlage zum Untersuchungszeitpunkt zurückzuführen ist. In einem nächsten Schritt wurde eine hierarchische Clusteranalyse berechnet, mit dem Ziel, verschiedene Typen von erfolgreichen und weniger erfolgreichen Psychologiestudierenden zu identifizieren, die sich anhand ihrer Leistungen im Self-Assessment unterscheiden. Tatsächlich ließen sich vier verschiedenen Typen identifizieren, von denen einer als für das Psychologiestudium wenig geeignet bezeichnet werden kann. Ein weiterer Typ scheint aufgrund seiner Fähigkeiten im Self-Assessment als gut geeignet für das Studium, die beiden anderen Typen scheinen grundsätzlich gut geeignet, weisen aber auch einige Schwächen in Bezug auf das Studium auf. In weiterer Folge wurde mittels Chi-Quadrat Tests geprüft, ob sich die vier gefundenen Typen hinsichtlich ihrer Studienleistung unterscheiden. Hier konnten jedoch keine signifikanten Unterschiede zwischen den Typen festgestellt werden. Abschließend wurde die Akzeptanz des Self-Assessments seitens der TestteilnehmerInnen untersucht. Hier wurden Daten aus der Nachbefragung zum Self-Assessment analysiert, die mittels eines Online - Fragebogens innerhalb eines Jahres nach der Teilnahme am Self-Assessment erhoben wurden. Es zeigte sich eine hohe Akzeptanz des Self-Assessment Psychologie seitens der TeilnehmerInnen sowie eine hohe Zufriedenheit mit dem inhaltlichen Aufbau und dem Beratungsablauf

Langerhans cells in hypospadias : an analysis of Langerin (CD207) and HLA-DR on epidermal sheets and full thickness skin sections

Background: Hypospadias are among the most common genital malformations. Langerhans Cells (LCs) play a pivotal role in HIV and HPV infection. The migration of LC precursors to skin coincides with the embryonic period of hypospadias development and genetic alterations leading to the formation of hypospadias impact the development of ectodermally derived tissues. We hypothesized that this might be associated with a difference in frequency or morphology of epidermal and dermal LCs in hypospadias patients. Methods: A total of 43 patients from two centers were prospectively included into this study after parental consent and ethics approval. Epidermal and dermal sheets were prepared from skin samples of 26 patients with hypospadias, 13 patients without penile malformations and 4 patients with penile malformations other than hypospadias. Immunofluorescence staining of sheets was performed with anti-HLA-DR-FITC and anti-CD207/Langerin-A594 antibodies. Skin sections from 11 patients without penile malformation and 11 patients with hypospadias were stained for Langerin. Frequencies as well as morphology and distribution of epidermal and dermal LCs on sheets and sections were microscopically evaluated. Cell counts were compared by unpaired t-tests. Results: There was no difference in frequency of epidermal LCs, Neither on sheets (87361 vs. 940 +/- 84LCs/mm(2), p=0.522) nor on sections (32 +/- 3 vs. 30 +/- 2LCs/mm(2), p=0.697). Likewise, the frequency of dermal LCs (5,9 +/- 0,9 vs. 7.5 +/- 1.3LCs/mm(2), p=0.329) was comparable between patients with hypospadias and without penile malformation. No differences became apparent in subgroup analyses, comparing distal to proximal hypospadias (p=0.949), younger and older boys (p=0.818) or considering topical dihydrotestosterone treatment prior to surgery (p=0.08). The morphology of the LCs was not different comparing hypospadias patients with boys without penile malformations. Conclusions: p id=Par Cs are present in similar frequencies and with a comparable morphology and distribution in patients with hypospadias as compared to children without penile malformations. This suggests that patients with hypospadias are not different from patients with normal penile development considering this particular compartment of their skin immunity

Multi-omic analysis of the tumor microenvironment shows clinical correlations in Ph1 study of atezolizumab +/- SoC in MM

Multiple myeloma (MM) remains incurable, and treatment of relapsed/refractory (R/R) disease is challenging. There is an unmet need for more targeted therapies in this setting; deep cellular and molecular phenotyping of the tumor and microenvironment in MM could help guide such therapies. This phase 1b study (NCT02431208) evaluated the safety and efficacy of the anti-programmed death-ligand 1 monoclonal antibody atezolizumab (Atezo) alone or in combination with the standard of care (SoC) treatments lenalidomide (Len) or pomalidomide (Pom) and/or daratumumab (Dara) in patients with R/R MM. Study endpoints included incidence of adverse events (AEs) and overall response rate (ORR). A novel unsupervised integrative multi-omic analysis was performed using RNA sequencing, mass cytometry immunophenotyping, and proteomic profiling of baseline and on-treatment bone marrow samples from patients receiving Atezo monotherapy or Atezo+Dara. A similarity network fusion (SNF) algorithm was applied to preprocessed data. Eighty-five patients were enrolled. Treatment-emergent deaths occurred in 2 patients; both deaths were considered unrelated to study treatment. ORRs ranged from 11.1% (Atezo+Len cohorts, n=18) to 83.3% (Atezo+Dara+Pom cohort, n=6). High-dimensional multi-omic profiling of the tumor microenvironment and integrative SNF analysis revealed novel correlations between cellular and molecular features of the tumor and immune microenvironment, patient selection criteria, and clinical outcome. Atezo monotherapy and SoC combinations were safe in this patient population and demonstrated some evidence of clinical efficacy. Integrative analysis of high dimensional genomics and immune data identified novel clinical correlations that may inform patient selection criteria and outcome assessment in future immunotherapy studies for myeloma

Characterization of DLK1(PREF1)+/CD34+ cells in vascular stroma of human white adipose tissue

AbstractSorting of native (unpermeabilized) SVF-cells from human subcutaneous (s)WAT for cell surface staining (cs) of DLK1 and CD34 identified three main populations: ~10% stained cs-DLK1+/cs-CD34−, ~20% cs-DLK1+/cs-CD34+dim and ~45% cs-DLK1−/cs-CD34+. FACS analysis after permeabilization showed that all these cells stained positive for intracellular DLK1, while CD34 was undetectable in cs-DLK1+/cs-CD34− cells. Permeabilized cs-DLK1−/cs-CD34+ cells were positive for the pericyte marker α-SMA and the mesenchymal markers CD90 and CD105, albeit CD105 staining was dim (cs-DLK1−/cs-CD34+/CD90+/CD105+dim/α-SMA+/CD45−/CD31−). Only these cells showed proliferative and adipogenic capacity. Cs-DLK1+/cs-CD34− and cs-DLK1+/cs-CD34+dim cells were also α-SMA+ but expressed CD31, had a mixed hematopoietic and mesenchymal phenotype, and could neither proliferate nor differentiate into adipocytes. Histological analysis of sWAT detected DLK1+/CD34+ and DLK1+/CD90+ cells mainly in the outer ring of vessel-associated stroma and at capillaries. DLK1+/α-SMA+ cells were localized in the CD34− perivascular ring and in adventitial vascular stroma. All these DLK1+ cells possess a spindle-shaped morphology with extremely long processes. DLK1+/CD34+ cells were also detected in vessel endothelium. Additionally, we show that sWAT contains significantly more DLK1+ cells than visceral (v)WAT. We conclude that sWAT has more DKL1+ cells than vWAT and contains different DLK1/CD34 populations, and only cs-DLK1−/cs-CD34+/CD90+/CD105+dim/α-SMA+/CD45−/CD31− cells in the adventitial vascular stroma exhibit proliferative and adipogenic capacity

Habituation and sensitization of protective reflexes: dissociation between cardiac defense and eye-blink startle

We examined the habituation and recovery of two protective reflexes, cardiac defense and eye-blink startle, simultaneously elicited by a white noise of 500 ms as a function of the time interval between stimulus presentations. Participants were 90 volunteers (54 women) randomly distributed into 6 inter-trial interval (ITI) conditions. They all received three presentations of the stimulus with a time interval of 30 min between the first and third noise. The timing of the second noise was manipulated in six steps, using a between-group design, in order to increase the ITI between Trials I and 2 and symmetrically decrease the ITI between Trials 2 and 3. Cardiac defense showed fast habituation at the shortest ITI (2.5 min), but reduced habituation and increased recovery at the longest ITI (27.5 min). In contrast, eye-blink startle showed sensitization irrespective of the ITI. This pattern of findings highlights dissociations between protective reflexes when simultaneously examined. The results are discussed in the context of the cascade model of defense reactions. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved