The Effects of Top Management Team External Ties and Board Composition on the Strategic Choice of Late Movers

Within the context of the monitoring and control function of the board, we extend previous work on the agency view of governance. We examine how the top managers\u27 external ties and board composition directly and interactively influence the strategic choices of firms. Our results indicate that top managers with intra-industry knowledge and experience tend to adopt a resource-imitation strategy whereas those with knowledge and experience from other industries tend to adopt a resource-substitution strategy. The separation of CEO and board chairperson duties also affects strategy selection. In terms of interaction effects, we find that boards with a high ratio of outsiders reduce the tendencies of managers to opt for the safe strategy solutions with which they are familiar

Clinical analysis of pediatric patients who visited Masan Samsung Emergency Center

Purpose : Through a clinical and retrospective analysis of pediatric patients who visited the Regional Emergency Medical Center of Masan Samsung Hospital from January 2007 to December 2008, we characterized pediatric and adolescent emergency patients to improve emergency care in future. Methods : We reviewed the medical records of 14,065 pediatric patients below 19 years of age. Results : The male to female ratio was 1.5:1, and the most common age group was less than 3 years (49.6%). The peak month was May (10.0%), the peak day of the week was Sunday (24.7%), and the peak time of day was 20:00&amp&#59;#8211&#59;20:59 (8.5%). There was no difference in the number of visits per day based on weather (sunny, rain [below 10 mm per day], snow, and fog) or daily temperature difference&#59; however, visits increased on sandy, dusty days and decreased on rainy days with more than 10 mm of rain per day. Based on the international classification of disease (ICD)-10 system, the most common disease code was code R (symptoms, sign, and abnormal clinical laboratory finding) (31.5%), and the most common symptom was fever (13.1%). Final outcomes were discharged (73.8%), admitted (25.7%), transferred (0.4%), and expired (0.1%). In adolescent patients aged 15&amp&#59;#8211&#59;19 years, the most common disease code was Injury &amp&#59; Poisoning (code S&amp&#59;T, 36.9%)&#59; the most common symptom was abdominal pain (9.6%). Conclusion : Pediatric patients visiting the emergency center were most likely to be male and under 3 years of age and to visit between 20:00 and 21:00 on Sundays and in May, and the most common symptom was fever. Differences between adolescents and pediatric patients showed that adolescents had a higher visiting rate with abdominal pain and a larger temperature difference

Dirac Bilayer Metasurfaces as an Inverse Gires-Tournois Etalon

Efficient transmissive pure-phase resonances are highly desirable for optical modulation and wavefront engineering. Here, we propose a novel principle to realize a pure-phase resonance in an extremely broad transmission band, as opposed to previous approaches restricted to operating in reflection mode or over a narrow spectral band. We show that a glide-symmetric bilayer metasurface mathematically mimicking a two-dimensional Dirac semimetal induces unidirectional guided-mode excitation and perfect leakage-radiation blazing at the transmission channel. These effects create a peculiar resonant-scattering configuration, similar to the classical reflective Gires-Tournois etalon, but in transmission, providing full 2pi phase modulation with constant transmittance near 100%. Most importantly, this effect persists over an extremely wide band, associated with topological effects. Hence, our proposed approach produces a spectrally and parametrically robust pure-phase resonance effect in transmission, which is highly beneficial for practical applications.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Production of Transgenic Cloned Miniature Pigs with Membrane-bound Human Fas Ligand (FasL) by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer

Cell-mediated xenograft rejection, including NK cells and CD8+ CTL, is a major obstacle in successful pig-to-human xenotransplantation. Human CD8+ CTL and NK cells display high cytotoxicity for pig cells, mediated at least in part by the Fas/FasL pathway. To prevent cell-mediated xenocytotoxicity, a membrane-bound form of human FasL (mFasL) was generated as an inhibitor for CTL and NK cell cytotoxicity that could not be cleaved by metalloproteinase to produce putative soluble FasL. We produced two healthy transgenic pigs harboring the mFasL gene via somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). In a cytotoxicity assay using transgenic clonal cell lines and transgenic pig ear cells, the rate of CD8+ CTL-mediated cytotoxicity was significantly reduced in transgenic pig's ear cells compared with that in normal minipig fetal fibroblasts. Our data indicate that grafts of transgenic pigs expressing membrane-bound human FasL control the cellular immune response to xenografts, creating a window of opportunity to facilitate xenograft survival

Trajectories and Keyframes for Kinesthetic Teaching: A Human-Robot Interaction Perspective

Presented at the 7th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, March 5-8, 2012, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.Kinesthetic teaching is an approach to providing demonstrations to a robot in Learning from Demonstration whereby a human physically guides a robot to perform a skill. In the common usage of kinesthetic teaching, the robot's trajectory during a demonstration is recorded from start to end. In this paper we consider an alternative, keyframe demonstrations, in which the human provides a sparse set of consecutive keyframes that can be connected to perform the skill. We present a user-study (n = 34) comparing the two approaches and highlighting their complementary nature. The study also tests and shows the potential benefits of iterative and adaptive versions of keyframe demonstrations. Finally, we introduce a hybrid method that combines trajectories and keyframes in a single demonstratio

Protein Inhibitor of Activated STAT3 (PIAS3) Is Down-Regulated in Eutopic Endometrium of Women with Endometriosis

Endometriosis is a major cause of chronic pelvic pain and infertility. Activation of STAT3 appears central to the inflammatory phenotype of eutopic endometrium in women with endometriosis. However, the molecular mechanism by which this occurs remains unknown. Our objective is to determine how STAT3 activity is regulated in endometriosis. Protein inhibitor of activated STAT3 (PIAS3) is a negative regulator of STAT3 activity. We examined the levels of PIAS3 in endometrium from women with and without endometriosis using Western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry. Levels of PIAS3 are significantly lower, in contrast with phosphorylation of STAT3, in women with endometriosis compared to women without endometriosis. Furthermore, induction of endometriosis in the baboon showed a significant reduction of PIAS3 expression during the progression of the disease. Interferon-γ (INFγ) reduces PIAS3 protein levels and increases phospho-STAT3 levels through CXCL10 in endometrial cells, Ishikawa, and 12Z cells. These results suggest that attenuation of PIAS3 causes aberrant activation of STAT3 in endometriosis, leading to inflammatory changes that may impair fertility or cause pain

FLUIDIZATION TECHNOLOGY FOR STABLE STARTUP OF COMMERCIAL FCC UNIT

Conditions for maintaining good fluidization in the start-up of FCC have been determined. Catalyst defluidization and consequent catalyst losses from reactor cyclone are mainly affected by catalyst properties and stripper operating condition based on previous commercial startup experiences. Effect of fine catalyst contents on bed fluidity was determined. Bed fluidity in stripper was analyzed with slip velocity. Finally new startup guide was proposed and it was successfully applied to commercial FCC process of SK energy, Korea

The uncalibrated pulse contour cardiac output during off-pump coronary bypass surgery: performance in patients with a low cardiac output status and a reduced left ventricular function

BACKGROUND: We compared the continuous cardiac index measured by the FloTrac/Vigileo™ system (FCI) to that measured by a pulmonary artery catheter (CCI) with emphasis on the accuracy of the FCI in patients with a decreased left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and a low cardiac output status during off-pump coronary bypass surgery (OPCAB). We also assessed the influence of several factors affecting the pulse contour, such as the mean arterial pressure (MAP), the systemic vascular resistance index (SVRI) and the use of norepinephrine. METHODS: Fifty patients who were undergoing OPCAB (30 patients with a LVEF ≥ 40%, 20 patients with a LVEF < 40%) were enrolled. The FCI and CCI were measured and we performed a Bland-Altman analysis. Subgroup analyses were done according to the LVEF (< 40%), the CCI (≤ 2.4 L/min/m), the MAP (60-80 mmHg), the SVRI (1,600-2,600 dyne/s/cm(5)/m(2)) and the use of norepinephrine. RESULTS: The FCI was reliable at all the time points of measurement with an overall bias and limit of agreement of -0.07 and 0.67 L/min/m(2), respectively, resulting in a percentage error of 26.9%. The percentage errors in the patients with a decreased LVEF and in a low cardiac output status were 28.2% and 22.3%, respectively. However, the percentage error in the 91 data pairs outside the normal range of the SVRI was 40.2%. CONCLUSIONS: The cardiac output measured by the FloTrac/Vigileo™ system was reliable even in patients with a decreased LVEF and in a low cardiac output status during OPCAB. Acceptable agreement was also noted during the period of heart displacement and grafting of the obtuse marginalis branch.ope

bZIPDB : A database of regulatory information for human bZIP transcription factors

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Basic region-leucine zipper (bZIP) proteins are a class of transcription factors (TFs) that play diverse roles in eukaryotes. Malfunctions in these proteins lead to cancer and various other diseases. For detailed characterization of these TFs, further public resources are required.</p> <p>Description</p> <p>We constructed a database, designated bZIPDB, containing information on 49 human bZIP TFs, by means of automated literature collection and manual curation. bZIPDB aims to provide public data required for deciphering the gene regulatory network of the human bZIP family, e.g., evaluation or reference information for the identification of regulatory modules. The resources provided by bZIPDB include (1) protein interaction data including direct binding, phosphorylation and functional associations between bZIP TFs and other cellular proteins, along with other types of interactions, (2) bZIP TF-target gene relationships, (3) the cellular network of bZIP TFs in particular cell lines, and (4) gene information and ontology. In the current version of the database, 721 protein interactions and 560 TF-target gene relationships are recorded. bZIPDB is annually updated for the newly discovered information.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>bZIPDB is a repository of detailed regulatory information for human bZIP TFs that is collected and processed from the literature, designed to facilitate analysis of this protein family. bZIPDB is available for public use at <url>http://biosoft.kaist.ac.kr/bzipdb</url>.</p

Mitochondrial tumor suppressor 1 is a target of AT-rich interactive domain 1A and progesterone receptor in the murine uterus

Objective Progesterone receptor (PGR) and AT-rich interactive domain 1A (ARID1A) have important roles in the establishment and maintenance of pregnancy in the uterus. In present studies, we examined the expression of mitochondrial tumor suppressor 1 (MTUS1) in the murine uterus during early pregnancy as well as in response to ovarian steroid hormone treatment. Methods We performed quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry analysis to investigate the regulation of MTUS1 by ARID1A and determined expression patterns of MTUS1 in the uterus during early pregnancy. Results The expression of MTUS1 was detected on day 0.5 of gestation (GD 0.5) and then gradually increased until GD 3.5 in the luminal and glandular epithelium. However, the expression of MTUS1 was significantly reduced in the uterine epithelial cells of Pgrcre/+Arid1af/f and Pgr knockout (PRKO) mice at GD 3.5. Furthermore, MTUS1 expression was remarkably induced after P4 treatment in the luminal and glandular epithelium of the wild-type mice. However, the induction of MTUS1 expression was not detected in uteri of Pgrcre/+Arid1af/f or PRKO mice treated with P4. Conclusion These results suggest that MTUS1 is a novel target gene by ARID1A and PGR in the uterine epithelial cells