Inside-Out Interviews: Cross-Cultural Research in China

© 2020 The International Association for Chinese Management Research. There is a paucity of research exploring the use of local facilitators in cross-cultural research in Chinese cultural contexts and the impact this may have on data generation and knowledge creation. Addressing this gap, this paper critically reflects on cross-cultural interviews in Hong Kong. The reflection is centred on the experience of interviewing as an outsider to the culture of the participants and later working alongside an insider. While insider and outsider positionalities are formed from a multitude of intersectional characteristics, both gender and nationality emerged as primary influencers in this context. This paper contributes to the methodologically oriented literature by making salient the complexities of deciphering the multitude of influences originating from the researcher\u27s positionality in relation to research others. Specifically, this paper highlights how both insider and outsider positionalities generate different, but complementary data through the exploration of participant\u27s responses. \u27It\u27s a Chinese thing\u27 or comments equating to it\u27s a woman\u27s thing were used by participants to either limit responses or expand and offer additional information, and the juxtaposition of these responses with those given to an insider help to highlight what this might mean for knowledge creation

Loline Alkaloid Gene Clusters of the Fungal Endophyte Neotyphodium Uncinatum

Loline alkaloids (LA), which are 1-aminopyrrolizidines with an oxygen bridge, are produced by Epichloë (anamorph=Neotyphodium) species, endophytes of grasses. LA are insecticidal, thus helping protect host plants from insect herbivory. Suppression subtractive hybridization PCR was used to isolate transcripts up-regulated during loline alkaloid production in cultures of Neotyphodium uncinatum. Subtracted cDNAs were cloned, and a λ-phage cDNA library from an LA-expressing N. uncinatum culture was screened with subtracted cDNA. In BLAST searches, several cDNAs identified had sequence similarities to aspartate kinases, and another with O-acetylhomoserine-(thiol)lyase. Differential expression of these two genes in LA-producing cultures of N. uncinatum was confirmed, and in a survey of 23 isolates from 21 Neotyphodium and Epichloë species these two genes strictly correlated with LA production. Two nucleic acid molecules encoding two loline alkaloid gene clusters have been identified

Hypothermic Machine Perfusion Preservation of the DCD Kidney: Machine Effects

Purpose. Kidneys from DCD donors represent a significant pool, but preservation problems exist. The study objective was to test the importance of machine type for hypothermic preservation of DCD kidneys.Methods. Adult Beagle dog kidneys underwent 45 minutes of warm in situ ischemia followed by hypothermic perfusion for 24 hours (Belzer-MPS Solution) on either an ORS LifePort or a Waters RM3 using standard perfusion protocols. Kidneys were then autotransplanted, and renal function was assessed over 7 days following contralateral nephrectomy. Results. Renal vascular resistance was not different between the two pumps. After 24 hours, the oxygen partial pressure and oxygen delivery in the LifePort perfusate were significantly lower than those in the RM3 but not low enough to change lactate production. TheLifePort ran significantly colder than RM3 (2° versus 5°C). The arterial pressure waveform of the RM3 was qualitatively different from the waveform of the LifePort. Preservation injury after transplantation was not different between the devices. When the LifePort was changed to nonpulsatile flow, kidneys displayed significantly greater preservation injury compared to RM3. Conclusions. Both LifePort and RM3 can be used for hypothermic machine perfusion preservation of DCD kidneys with equal outcomes as long as the duty cycle remains pulsatile

Strategies to support engagement and continuity of activity during mealtimes for families living with dementia; a qualitative study

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Keller, H. H., Martin, L. S., Dupuis, S., Reimer, H., & Genoe, R. (2015). Strategies to support engagement and continuity of activity during mealtimes for families living with dementia; a qualitative study. BMC Geriatrics, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-015-0120-2Background Mealtimes are an essential part of living and quality of life for everyone, including persons living with dementia. A longitudinal qualitative study provided understanding of the meaning of mealtimes for persons with dementia and their family care partners. Strategies were specifically described by families to support meaningful mealtimes. The purpose of this manuscript is to describe the strategies devised and used by these families living with dementia. Methods A longitudinal qualitative study was undertaken to explore the meaning and experience of mealtimes for families living with dementia over a three-year period. 27 families [older person with dementia and at least one family care partner] were originally recruited from the community of South-Western Ontario. Individual and dyad interviews were conducted each year. Digitally recorded transcripts were analyzed using grounded theory methodology. Strategies were identified and categorized. Results Strategies to support quality mealtimes were devised by families as they adapted to their evolving lives. General strategies such as living in the moment, as well as strategies specific to maintaining social engagement and continuity of mealtime activities were reported. Conclusions In addition to nutritional benefit, family mealtimes provide important opportunities for persons with dementia and their family care partners to socially engage and continue meaningful roles. Strategies identified by participants provide a basis for further education and support to families living with dementia.Research funding support was provided by the Alzheimer Society of Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

Understanding Motivation and Schooling: Where We've Been, Where We Are, and Where We Need to Go

This paper presents an interpretive summary of the progress that has been made in the study of motivation, especially as this work relates to the area of education. Motivation research has “come of age” with theoretical frameworks rooted in an established body of findings, and with the development of core methodologies for pursuing further knowledge. It has begun to provide a firm base for guiding educational practice. Current work is clearly in accord with mainstream psychology in that cognitive models of motivation are the predominant guides for research. Future work is likely to focus increasingly on how the meaning construction process affects engagement in tasks. Researchers should consider a wider array of research procedures and give greater attention to understanding motivation as it occurs in natural settings, especially as educational interventions are attempted. A serious deficiency in the motivation literature is that relatively little attention has been given to differences related to sociocultural backgrounds.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44456/1/10648_2004_Article_414425.pd

454-Pyrosequencing: A Molecular Battiscope for Freshwater Viral Ecology

Viruses, the most abundant biological entities on the planet, are capable of infecting organisms from all three branches of life, although the majority infect bacteria where the greatest degree of cellular diversity lies. However, the characterization and assessment of viral diversity in natural environments is only beginning to become a possibility. Through the development of a novel technique for the harvest of viral DNA and the application of 454 pyrosequencing, a snapshot of the diversity of the DNA viruses harvested from a standing pond on a cattle farm has been obtained. A high abundance of viral genotypes (785) were present within the virome. The absolute numbers of lambdoid and Shiga toxin (Stx) encoding phages detected suggested that the depth of sequencing had enabled recovery of only ca. 8% of the total virus population, numbers that agreed within less than an order of magnitude with predictions made by rarefaction analysis. The most abundant viral genotypes in the pond were bacteriophages (93.7%). The predominant viral genotypes infecting higher life forms found in association with the farm were pathogens that cause disease in cattle and humans, e.g. members of the Herpesviridae. The techniques and analysis described here provide a fresh approach to the monitoring of viral populations in the aquatic environment, with the potential to become integral to the development of risk analysis tools for monitoring the dissemination of viral agents of animal, plant and human diseases

Phylogenetics links monster larva to deep-sea shrimp.

Mid-water plankton collections commonly include bizarre and mysterious developmental stages that differ conspicuously from their adult counterparts in morphology and habitat. Unaware of the existence of planktonic larval stages, early zoologists often misidentified these unique morphologies as independent adult lineages. Many such mistakes have since been corrected by collecting larvae, raising them in the lab, and identifying the adult forms. However, challenges arise when the larva is remarkably rare in nature and relatively inaccessible due to its changing habitats over the course of ontogeny. The mid-water marine species Cerataspis monstrosa (Gray 1828) is an armored crustacean larva whose adult identity has remained a mystery for over 180 years. Our phylogenetic analyses, based in part on recent collections from the Gulf of Mexico, provide definitive evidence that the rare, yet broadly distributed larva, C. monstrosa, is an early developmental stage of the globally distributed deepwater aristeid shrimp, Plesiopenaeus armatus. Divergence estimates and phylogenetic relationships across five genes confirm the larva and adult are the same species. Our work demonstrates the diagnostic power of molecular systematics in instances where larval rearing seldom succeeds and morphology and habitat are not indicative of identity. Larval-adult linkages not only aid in our understanding of biodiversity, they provide insights into the life history, distribution, and ecology of an organism

Do the nearby BHB stars belong to the Thick Disk or the Halo?

We study the Milky Way region Z<3.0 kpc, where the thick disk and inner halo overlap, by using the kinematics of local blue horizontal branch (BHB) stars (within 1 kpc) and new samples of BHB stars and A-type stars from the Century Survey. We derive Galactic U,V,W velocities for these BHB and A-type star samples using proper motions from the NOMAD catalog. The mean velocities and the velocity dispersions of the BHB samples (Z<3 kpc) are characteristic of the halo, while those of the Century Survey A-type stars are characteristic of the thick disk. There is no evidence from our samples that the BHB stars rotate with the thick disk in the region Z<3 kpc. Nearly a third of the nearby local RR Lyrae stars have disk kinematics and are more metal-rich than [Fe/H]~-1. Only a few percent of the Century Survey BHB stars have these properties. Only one nearby BHB star (HD 130201) is likely to be such a disk star but selection based on high proper motions will have tended to exclude such stars from the local sample. The scale height derived from a sample of local RR Lyrae stars agrees with that of the Century Survey BHB stars. The local samples of BHB stars and metal-weak red giants are too incomplete for a similar comparison.Comment: 14 pages, accepted to A