Book Review: Management: Current Practices And New Directions

Book Review: Management: Current Practices And New Direction

Religion, Spirituality, Corruption and Development: Causal Links and Relationships

Public sector corruption plays an important role in a nation's development, and many low income countries (LICs) suffer chronic bureaucratic corruption. While there have been numerous studies addressing both the causes and consequences of corruption, the full range of causes remains unexplored, and consequences are becoming understood in new light with fresh data and expanded linkages. Specifically, the impact of religion and spirituality on public sector corruption had not previously been adequately researched and documented, and tracing the role of corruption on living standards through business starts data provides a novel perspective on this link. This dissertation is a macro-level, global study of public sector corruption, analyzing the impact of religion and spirituality on public sector corruption, and subsequently on living standards. Essentially this is a study of ethics in public service, reviewed through the lens of one ancient concept (religion) and an emerging new construct (spirituality). The primary conclusions and contributions of this dissertation are that: (1) religion has a direct - and moderate - causal impact on corruption, (2) spirituality has an inverse - but weak - causal impact on corruption and (3) public sector corruption has an inverse - and strong - causal impact on business starts, economic growth and living standards. All three of these primary findings have social, political, and economic policy implications

Star formation at the edge of the Local Group: a rising star formation history in the isolated galaxy WLM

We present the star formation history (SFH) of the isolated (D~970 kpc) Local Group dwarf galaxy WLM measured from color-magnitude diagrams constructed from deep Hubble Space Telescope imaging. Our observations include a central (0.5 $r_h$) and outer field (0.7 $r_h$) that reach below the oldest main sequence turnoff. WLM has no early dominant episode of star formation: 20% of its stellar mass formed by ~12.5 Gyr ago (z~5). It also has an SFR that rises to the present with 50% of the stellar mass within the most recent 5 Gyr (z<0.7). There is evidence of a strong age gradient: the mean age of the outer field is 5 Gyr older than the inner field despite being only 0.4 kpc apart. Some models suggest such steep gradients are associated with strong stellar feedback and dark matter core creation. The SFHs of real isolated dwarf galaxies and those from the the Feedback In Realistic Environment suite are in good agreement for $M_{\star}(z=0) \sim 10^7-10^9 M_{\odot}$, but in worse agreement at lower masses ($M_{\star}(z=0) \sim 10^5-10^7 M_{\odot}$). These differences may be explainable by systematics in the models (e.g., reionization model) and/or observations (HST field placement). We suggest that a coordinated effort to get deep CMDs between HST/JWST (crowded central fields) and WFIRST (wide-area halo coverage) is the optimal path for measuring global SFHs of isolated dwarf galaxies.Comment: 13 pages, 13 Figures, 4 Tables. Re-submitted to MNRAS after addressing the referee's comment

The Recently-Discovered Dwarf Nova System ASAS J002511+1217.2: A New WZ Sagittae Star

The cataclysmic variable ASAS J002511+1217.2 was discovered in outburst by the All-Sky Automated Survey in September 2004, and intensively monitored by AAVSO observers through the following two months. Both photometry and spectroscopy indicate that this is a very short-period system. Clearly defined superhumps with a period of 0.05687 +/- 0.00001 days (1-sigma) are present during the superoutburst, 5 to 18 days following the ASAS detection. We observe a change in superhump profile similar to the transition to ``late superhumps'' observed in other short-period systems; the superhump period appears to increase slightly for a time before returning to the original value, with the resulting superhump phase offset by approximately half a period. We detect variations with a period of 0.05666 +/- 0.00003 days (1-sigma) during the four-day quiescent phase between the end of the main outburst and the single echo outburst. Weak variations having the original superhump period reappear during the echo and its rapid decline. Time-resolved spectroscopy conducted nearly 30 days after detection and well into the decline yields an orbital period measurement of 82 +/- 5 minutes. Both narrow and broad components are present in the emission line spectra, indicating the presence of multiple emission regions. The weight of the observational evidence suggests that ASAS J002511+1217.2 is a WZ Sge-type dwarf nova, and we discuss how this system fits into the WZ classification scheme.Comment: 24 pages, 11 figures, accepted to PASP; minor revision to add two authors and adjust text to match that of the published version. No adjustments to results or conclusion

Effects of Interferon-α/β on HBV Replication Determined by Viral Load

Interferons α and β (IFN-α/β) are type I interferons produced by the host to control microbial infections. However, the use of IFN-α to treat hepatitis B virus (HBV) patients generated sustained response to only a minority of patients. By using HBV transgenic mice as a model and by using hydrodynamic injection to introduce HBV DNA into the mouse liver, we studied the effect of IFN-α/β on HBV in vivo. Interestingly, our results indicated that IFN-α/β could have opposite effects on HBV: they suppressed HBV replication when viral load was high and enhanced HBV replication when viral load was low. IFN-α/β apparently suppressed HBV replication via transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulations. In contrast, IFN-α/β enhanced viral replication by inducing the transcription factor HNF3γ and activating STAT3, which together stimulated HBV gene expression and replication. Further studies revealed an important role of IFN-α/β in stimulating viral growth and prolonging viremia when viral load is low. This use of an innate immune response to enhance its replication and persistence may represent a novel strategy that HBV uses to enhance its growth and spread in the early stage of viral infection when the viral level is low

Human Non-neutralizing HIV-1 Envelope Monoclonal Antibodies Limit the Number of Founder Viruses during SHIV Mucosal Infection in Rhesus Macaques

HIV-1 mucosal transmission begins with virus or virus-infected cells moving through mucus across mucosal epithelium to infect CD4+ T cells. Although broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) are the type of HIV-1 antibodies that are most likely protective, they are not induced with current vaccine candidates. In contrast, antibodies that do not neutralize primary HIV-1 strains in the TZM-bl infection assay are readily induced by current vaccine candidates and have also been implicated as secondary correlates of decreased HIV-1 risk in the RV144 vaccine efficacy trial. Here, we have studied the capacity of anti-Env monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against either the immunodominant region of gp41 (7B2 IgG1), the first constant region of gp120 (A32 IgG1), or the third variable loop (V3) of gp120 (CH22 IgG1) to modulate in vivo rectal mucosal transmission of a high-dose simian-human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV-BaL) in rhesus macaques. 7B2 IgG1 or A32 IgG1, each containing mutations to enhance Fc function, was administered passively to rhesus macaques but afforded no protection against productive clinical infection while the positive control antibody CH22 IgG1 prevented infection in 4 of 6 animals. Enumeration of transmitted/founder (T/F) viruses revealed that passive infusion of each of the three antibodies significantly reduced the number of T/F genomes. Thus, some antibodies that bind HIV-1 Env but fail to neutralize virus in traditional neutralization assays may limit the number of T/F viruses involved in transmission without leading to enhancement of viral infection. For one of these mAbs, gp41 mAb 7B2, we provide the first co-crystal structure in complex with a common cyclical loop motif demonstrated to be critical for infection by other retroviruses

The importance of ecological processes for terrestrial biodiversity conservation in Tasmania

The continental island of Tasmania supports an extraordinary biota featuring ancient communities, high levels of endemism and many species extinct on mainland Australia. However, more than 670 species are currently listed as threatened, mainly due to changes in their habitat since European settlement. Although Tasmania has a relatively high proportion of its land in reserves with some degree of representation for most vegetation types, habitat protection in some bioregions is very low. In this paper we approach biodiversity assessment in Tasmania by (i) addressing critical, natural ecological processes that underpin and sustain its biodiversity, (ii) assessing the current trends in, and threats to, these processes, and (iii) identifying gaps in knowledge that limit the effective management of these processes for conservation. It is hoped that this will contribute a sound basis for ongoing adaptive management for biodiversity conservation in Tasmania and assist in re-focusing the purpose of the reserve network from representation to persistence of the native biota

Human Telomerase RNA Degradation by 2\u27-5\u27-Linked Oligoadenylate Antisense Chimeras in a Cell-Free System, Cultured Tumor Cells, and Murine Xenograft Models

Ribonuclease L (RNase L) is a latent single-stranded RNA-directed endoribonuclease that is activated on binding to short 2\u27-5\u27-linked oligoadenylates (2-5A), a feature that has led to its use in antisense therapeutic strategies. By attaching a 2-5A moiety to the 5\u27 terminus of standard antisense oligonucleotides, it is possible to activate RNase L and guide it to specific RNAs for degradation. These 2-5A antisense chimeras have been used successfully to target a variety of cellular and viral RNAs. Telomerase is a nuclear ribonucleoprotein complex that elongates telomeric DNA and contributes to cellular immortalization. Telomerase is composed of a protein catalytic subunit and an RNA (hTR or TERC) component, both of which are critical for holoenzyme activity. We describe the characterization of 2-5A antisense chimeras targeting the hTR component of telomerase (2-5A antihTR). Newly designed 2-5A anti-hTR molecules were assayed for their abilities to selectively degrade hTR in a cell-free system. Of the five chimeras tested, one (RBI011) degraded hTR by 97%, and two others (RBI013 and RBI009) were also found to be highly active (73-76% degradation). The ability of transfected RBI011, and its homolog RBI254, to degrade hTR in cultured tumor cells was assessed by real-time RT-PCR. In these studies, RBI011 and RBI254 effectively degraded hTR in a variety of hTR-positive tumor cell lines. The hTR degradation studies were extended to growth assays to determine whether hTR ablation affected tumor cell viability or proliferation. RBI254 treatment resulted in reduced tumor cell viability over the course of 4-day growth assays, effects that were augmented by cotreatment with interferon-beta. To extend these results to an in vivo system, nude mice were implanted subcutaneously or orthotopically with hTR-positive prostate tumors and treated with RBI254. RBI254-treated mice exhibited enhanced tumor cell apoptosis and reduced tumor volume as compared with controls. These findings demonstrated the effectiveness of highly active forms of 2-5A antisense against hTR, and also highlight the usefulness of the cell-free system in predicting chimera efficacy before to inception of cell-based and in vivo studies