Lead with heart: transform your business through personal connection

The former president of Budget Avis, US details how leaders can transform organizations into sanctuaries where people feel a deep connection to one another, a profound sense of being part of an important mission, extraordinarily engaged in their work, and, as a direct result, produce unprecedented profits

Path dependency, behavioral lock-in and the international market for beer

Although beer is an ancient beverage, brewing as an industry was not historically one of the driving forces of globalization. Certainly there are instances during the past century of specific brands being made available in other countries, but for the most part beer brands have not crossed national boarders. In many countries, beer, more than many products, has become intertwined with notions of national identity and pride. As a result, efforts to internationalize in this market have to overcome deep cultural associations regarding the product, the producer and the consumer. A recent Wall Street Journal article discussed how unhappy many Germans were that Anheuser-Busch had acquired the exclusive rights to sell beer at the 2006 World Cup. To diffuse the situation, Anheuser-Busch agreed to allow Bitburger - A German brewery - to sell beer at some of the matches. Upon learning of this, one German fan commented, That’s great. Now I’ll surely stick to the country and have a Bitburger. This anecdote raises important questions about consumer preferences and company expansion strategy: while Germans do not have any difficulty buying many American brands, from McDonald’s to Coco-Cola, attitudes about beer seem quite different. In 2006, Anheuser-Busch was one of the largest breweries in the world and Germany was the third largest beer market, so why was this brewery having such problems in a large, potentially profitable market?

Variation in β-glucuronidase activity of clones of transformed sugar beet roots

GUS activities were evaluated in eight replicates of each of eight sugar beet hairy root clones, which had been derived from a single seed. Statistical analysis by the Tukey test demonstrated that 19/28 and 16/28 inter-clone comparisons were significantly different when normalised for protein concentration and DNA content respectively. Possible causes of this variation and its implications for the genetic manipulation of plant growth and development are discussed

Bone phenotypes of P2 receptor knockout mice.

The action of extracellular nucleotides is mediated by ionotropic P2X receptors and G-protein coupled P2Y receptors. The human genome contains 7 P2X and 8 P2Y receptor genes. Knockout mice strains are available for most of them. As their phenotypic analysis is progressing, bone abnormalities have been observed in an impressive number of these mice: distinct abnormalities in P2X7-/- mice, depending on the gene targeting construct and the genetic background, decreased bone mass in P2Y1-/- mice, increased bone mass in P2Y2-/- mice, decreased bone resorption in P2Y6-/- mice, decreased bone formation and bone resorption in P2Y13-/- mice. These findings demonstrate the unexpected importance of extracellular nucleotide signalling in the regulation of bone metabolism via multiple P2 receptors and distinct mechanisms involving both osteoblasts and osteoclasts.Journal ArticleResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tSCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Feasibility and acceptability of targeted salivary cytomegalovirus screening through universal newborn hearing screening

Aim This study aimed to determine the feasibility and parental acceptability of screening for congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) through saliva polymerase chain reaction in infants who did not pass their newborn hearing screening. Additionally, the utility (i.e. time to diagnosis and treatment) of this enhanced clinical pathway was evaluated. Methods The study was conducted through the Victorian Infant Hearing Screening Programme (VIHSP) across four maternity hospitals in Melbourne, Australia, during June 2019–March 2020. Parents were approached by VIHSP staff about obtaining a test for cytomegalovirus (CMV) at the time of their baby's second positive (‘refer’) result on the VIHSP screen. Participating parents collected a saliva swab for CMV polymerase chain reaction from their infants. Feasibility was determined by the proportion of ‘referred’ infants whose parents completed the salivary CMV screening test ≤21 days of life. Acceptability was measured through parent survey. Results Of 126 eligible families, 96 (76.0%) had salivary screening swabs taken ≤21 days of life. Most families (>92.0%) indicated that screening was acceptable, straightforward and thought testing their baby for cCMV was a good idea. One infant screened positive on day 30, was diagnosed with cCMV via confirmatory testing by day 31 and commenced valganciclovir on day 32. Conclusions Obtaining a saliva sample to screen for cCMV in infants who do not pass their newborn hearing screen is feasible and appears acceptable to parents. This targeted cCMV screening method could be an option where mothers are rapidly discharged from hospital, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

Extremely low gestational age and very low birthweight for gestational age are risk factors for autism spectrum disorder in a large cohort study of 10-year-old children born at 23-27 weeks’ gestation

No prospective cohort study of high-risk children has used rigorous exposure assessment and optimal diagnostic procedures to examine the perinatal antecedents of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), separately among those with and without cognitive impairment