The multiple sources of autonomy as a start-up motive

Autonomy is a primary motive for a large majority of small business starters. However, as an explanation of why people want their own (autonomous) business it is largely circular. In this paper, we focus on an explanation of the autonomy motive itself. We provide a theoretical and empirical exposition of autonomy as a startup motive. Specifically, it is questioned why small business starters want autonomy. A distinction is made between proximal and distal reasons for wanting autonomy. Our framework is confirmed studying a sample of 167 nascent entrepreneurs motivated by autonomy. The findings suggest that beneath the surface of small business starters striving for autonomy, they differ in their relative emphasis on the underlying sources of the autonomy motive.

Exploring the use of influenza virus sequence diversity for the identification and characterization of transmission events

Abstract In this thesis we evaluate the use of influenza sequence diversity to support outbreak control measures. Specifically, we investigated the possibility of identifying clustered influenza virus cases as well as chains of influenza virus transmission, and thereby gain information on transmission events to inform public health decisions

Improved detection of artifactual viral minority variants in high-throughput sequencing data

textabstractHigh-throughput sequencing (HTS) of viral samples provides important information on the presence of viral minority variants. However, detection and accurate quantification is limited by the capacity to distinguish biological from artificial variation. In this study, errors related to the Illumina HiSeq2000 library generation and HTS process were investigated by determining minority variant frequencies in an influenza A/WSN/1933(H1N1) virus reverse-genetics plasmid pool. Errors related to amplification and sequencing were determined using the same plasmid pool, by generation of infectious virus using reverse genetics followed by in duplo reverse-transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) amplification and HTS in the same sequence run. Results showed that after "best practice" quality control (QC), within the plasmid pool, one minority variant with a frequency >0.5% was identified, while 84 and 139 were identified in the RT-PCR amplified samples, indicating RT-PCR amplification artificially increased variation. Detailed analysis showed that artifactual minority variants could be identified by two major technical characteristics: their predominant presence in a single read orientation and uneven distribution of mismatches over the length of the reads. We demonstrate that by addition of two QC steps 95% of the artifactual minority variants could be identified. When our analysis approach was applied to three clinical samples 68% of the initially identified minority variants were identified as artifacts. Our study clearly demonstrated that, without additional QC steps, overestimation of viral minority variants is very likely to occur, mainly as a consequence of the required RT-PCR amplification step. The improved ability to detect and correct for artifactual minority variants, increases data resolution and could aid both past and future studies incorporating HTS. The source code has been made available through Sourceforge (https://sourceforge.net/projects/mva-ngs)

Oseltamivir-resistant influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus in Dutch travellers returning from Spain, August 2012

Two Dutch travellers were infected with oseltamivirresistant influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses with an H275Y neuraminidase substitution in early August 2012. Both cases were probably infected during separate holidays at the Catalonian coast (Spain). No epidemiological connection between the two cases was found, and neither of them was treated with oseltamivir before specimen collection. Genetic analysis of the neuraminidase gene revealed the presence of previously described permissive mutations that may increase the likelihood of such strains emerging and spreading widely

Fetal growth influences lymphocyte subset counts at birth: The generation R study

Background: Preterm born and low-birth-weight infants are at risk for severe infections in infancy. It has been suggested that these infants have an immature immune system. Objective:To assess the associations of gestational age, birth weight and fetal growth with absolute lymphocyte subset counts at birth. Methods: This study was conducted in 571 infants participating in the Generation R Study, a population-based prospective cohort study from fetal life onwards. Gestational age and birth weight were obtained from midwives and hospital registries. Fetal growth was defined as increase in weight between late pregnancy and birth. Lymphocytes and T lymphocyte subset counts in cord blood were determined by 6-color flow cytometry. Multivariate linear regression models with adjustment for gender, maternal education, smoking, alcohol use, fever and mode of delivery were applied. Results: Per week increase of gestational age, T, B and NK lymphocyte counts increased with 3, 5 and 6%, respectively (p < 0.05). Helper, cytotoxic and naive T lymphocyte counts increased with 3, 4 and 5%, respectively (p < 0.05), but memory T lymphocyte counts did not. Increased birth weight and fetal growth were significantly associated with higher B lymphocyte counts, independent of gestational age, but not with the other lymphocyte subset counts. Conclusions: Lymphocyte subset counts increase with prolonged gestation, suggesting an ongoing development of the immune system. Birth weight and fetal growth seem to influence only B lymphocyte counts. Copyrigh