Effective boundary spanners in IJVs experiencing performance downturn

International joint ventures (IJVs) are defined by Chenet al. (2009, p. 1133) as “legally independent entities formed by two or more parent firms from different countries that share equity investments and consequent returns.” The basis of most IJV structures involves a multinational enterprise (MNE) and a local partner pooling their respective competitive advantages. Although IJVs are widespread, their success rate has been estimated to be no more than about 50 percent (Bamford et al., 2004) and there is evidence of particular difficulties for IJVs involving Chinese partners (Child & Yan, 2003). In short, because IJVs are prone to interpartner conflict (Hambrick et al., 2001), they are fundamentally unstable, with only a minority surviving beyond a few years (Kogut, 1989; Park & Ungson, 1997)

Incumbency as the Major Advantage: The Electoral Advantage for Parties of Incumbent Mayors

This paper provides empirical evidence on the party incumbency advantage in mayoral elections in Germany. Using a regression discontinuity design on a data set of about 25,000 elections, I estimate a causal incumbency effect of 38-40 percentage points in the probability of winning the next mayor election. The electoral advantage is larger for fulltime mayors, increasing in municipality size, independent of the specific partisanship of the mayor and constant between 1945 and 2010. Moreover, it increases with local spending hikes and it is independent of municipal debt. I also illustrate the causal dynamic effects of the incumbent status on distant future elections and therefore evaluate the global properties of the LATE estimate. Finally, I show that the total effect is due to an effect on the probability that the party participates in the next election (about 40% of the total effect) and an effect on the vote share (about 60%)

Finding Your Right (or Left) Partner to Merge

We study political determinants of municipality amalgamations during a boundary reform in the German state of Brandenburg, which reduced the number of municipalities from 1,489 to 421. The analysis is conducted using data on the political decision makers as well as fiscal and socio-economic variables for the municipalities. We ask whether party representation in the town council influences the merger decision. To identify the effect, we follow a dual approach and make use of different stages in the reform process. First, municipalities were initially free to choose partners. In a later phase of the reform the state legislature forced municipalities to amalgamate. We can, thus, compare voluntary to forced units. Second, we simulate potential mergers from the map of municipalities and compare voluntary mergers to those simulated units. Both approaches show that political representation matters significantly during the voluntary stage of the merger reform

A US perspective on closing the carbon cycle to defossilize difficult-to-electrify segments of our economy

Electrification to reduce or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions is essential to mitigate climate change. However, a substantial portion of our manufacturing and transportation infrastructure will be difficult to electrify and/or will continue to use carbon as a key component, including areas in aviation, heavy-duty and marine transportation, and the chemical industry. In this Roadmap, we explore how multidisciplinary approaches will enable us to close the carbon cycle and create a circular economy by defossilizing these difficult-to-electrify areas and those that will continue to need carbon. We discuss two approaches for this: developing carbon alternatives and improving our ability to reuse carbon, enabled by separations. Furthermore, we posit that co-design and use-driven fundamental science are essential to reach aggressive greenhouse gas reduction targets

Nanocellulose/bioactive glass cryogels as scaffolds for bone regeneration

A major challenge exists in the preparation of scaffolds for bone regeneration, namely, achieving simultaneously bioactivity, biocompatibility, mechanical performance and simple manufacturing. Here, cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) are introduced for the preparation of scaffolds taking advantage of their biocompatibility and ability to form strong 3D porous networks from aqueous suspensions. CNF are made bioactive for bone formation through a simple and scalable strategy that achieves highly interconnected 3D networks. The resultant materials optimally combine morphological and mechanical features and facilitate hydroxyapatite formation while releasing essential ions for in vivo bone repair. The porosity and roughness of the scaffolds favor several cell functions while the ions act in the expression of genes associated with cell differentiation. Ion release is found critical to enhance the production of the bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2) from cells within the fractured area, thus accelerating the in vivo bone repair. Systemic biocompatibility indicates no negative effects on vital organs such as the liver and kidneys. The results pave the way towards a facile preparation of advanced, high performance CNF-based scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

Associations between DNA methylation and BMI vary by metabolic health status: a potential link to disparate cardiovascular outcomes

Background: Body mass index (BMI), a well-known risk factor for poor cardiovascular outcomes, is associated with differential DNA methylation (DNAm). Similarly, metabolic health has also been associated with changes in DNAm. It is unclear how overall metabolic health outside of BMI may modify the relationship between BMI and methylation profiles, and what consequences this may have on downstream cardiovascular disease. The purpose of this study was to identify cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) sites at which the association between BMI and DNAm could be modified by overall metabolic health. Results: The discovery study population was derived from three Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) ancillary studies (n = 3977) and two Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) ancillary studies (n = 3520). Findings were validated in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) cohort (n = 1200). Generalized linear models regressed methylation β values on the interaction between BMI and metabolic health Z score (BMI × MHZ) adjusted for BMI, MHZ, cell composition, chip number and location, study characteristics, top three ancestry principal components, smoking, age, ethnicity (WHI), and sex (ARIC). Among the 429,566 sites examined, differential associations between BMI × MHZ and DNAm were identified at 22 CpG sites (FDR q < 0.05), with one site replicated in MESA (cg18989722, in the TRAPPC9 gene). Three of the 22 sites were associated with incident coronary heart disease (CHD) in WHI. For each 0.01 unit increase in DNAm β value, the risk of incident CHD increased by 9% in one site and decreased by 6–10% in two sites over 25 years. Conclusions: Differential associations between DNAm and BMI by MHZ were identified at 22 sites, one of which was validated (cg18989722) and three of which were predictive of incident CHD. These sites are located in several genes related to NF-kappa-B signaling, suggesting a potential role for inflammation between DNA methylation and BMI-associated metabolic health

Epigenome-wide meta-analysis of BMI in nine cohorts: Examining the utility of epigenetically predicted BMI

This study sought to examine the association between DNA methylation and body mass index (BMI) and the potential of BMI-associated cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) sites to provide information about metabolic health. We pooled summary statistics from six trans-ethnic epigenome-wide association studies (EWASs) of BMI representing nine cohorts (n = 17,034), replicated these findings in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI, n = 4,822), and developed an epigenetic prediction score of BMI. In the pooled EWASs, 1,265 CpG sites were associated with BMI (p < 1E−7) and 1,238 replicated in the WHI (FDR < 0.05). We performed several stratified analyses to examine whether these associations differed between individuals of European and African descent, as defined by self-reported race/ethnicity. We found that five CpG sites had a significant interaction with BMI by race/ethnicity. To examine the utility of the significant CpG sites in predicting BMI, we used elastic net regression to predict log-normalized BMI in the WHI (80% training/20% testing). This model found that 397 sites could explain 32% of the variance in BMI in the WHI test set. Individuals whose methylome-predicted BMI overestimated their BMI (high epigenetic BMI) had significantly higher glucose and triglycerides and lower HDL cholesterol and LDL cholesterol compared to accurately predicted BMI. Individuals whose methylome-predicted BMI underestimated their BMI (low epigenetic BMI) had significantly higher HDL cholesterol and lower glucose and triglycerides. This study confirmed 553 and identified 685 CpG sites associated with BMI. Participants with high epigenetic BMI had poorer metabolic health, suggesting that the overestimation may be driven in part by cardiometabolic derangements characteristic of metabolic syndrome

Leukocyte traits and exposure to ambient particulate matter air pollution in the women’s health initiative and atherosclerosis risk in communities study

BACKGROUND: Inflammatory effects of ambient particulate matter (PM) air pollution exposures may underlie PM-related increases in cardiovascular disease risk and mortality, although evidence of PM-associated leukocytosis is inconsistent and largely based on small, cross-sectional, and/or unrepresentative study populations. OBJECTIVES: Our objective was to estimate PM–leukocyte associations among U.S. women and men in the Women’s Health Initiative and Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study (n = 165,675). METHODS: We based the PM–leukocyte estimations on up to four study visits per participant, at which peripheral blood leukocytes and geocoded address-specific concentrations of PM ≤ 10, ≤2:5, and 2:5–10 lm in diameter (PM10, PM2:5, and PM2:5–10, respectively) were available. We multiply imputed missing data using chained equations and estimated PM–leukocyte count associations over daily to yearly PM exposure averaging periods using center-specific, linear, mixed, longitudinal models weighted for attrition and adjusted for sociodemographic, behavioral, meteorological, and geographic covariates. In a subset of participants with available data (n = 8,457), we also estimated PM–leukocyte proportion associations in compositional data analyses. RESULTS: We found a 12 cells=lL (95% confidence interval: −9, 33) higher leukocyte count, a 1.2% (0.6%, 1.8%) higher granulocyte proportion, and a −1:1% (−1:9%, −0:3%) lower CD8+ T-cell proportion per 10-lg=m3 increase in 1-month mean PM2:5. However, shorter-duration PM10 exposures were inversely and only modestly associated with leukocyte count. DISCUSSION: The PM2:5 –leukocyte estimates, albeit imprecise, suggest that among racially, ethnically, and environmentally diverse U.S. populations, sustained, ambient exposure to fine PM may induce subclinical, but epidemiologically important, inflammatory effects. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP5360

Epigenetically mediated electrocardiographic manifestations of sub-chronic exposures to ambient particulate matter air pollution in the Women's Health Initiative and Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study

Background: Short-duration exposure to ambient particulate matter (PM) air pollution is associated with cardiac autonomic dysfunction and prolonged ventricular repolarization. However, associations with sub-chronic exposures to coarser particulates are relatively poorly characterized as are molecular mechanisms underlying their potential relationships with cardiovascular disease. Materials and methods: We estimated associations between monthly mean concentrations of PM &lt; 10 μm and 2.5–10 μm in diameter (PM10; PM2.5-10) with time-domain measures of heart rate variability (HRV) and QT interval duration (QT) among U.S. women and men in the Women's Health Initiative and Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (nHRV = 82,107; nQT = 76,711). Then we examined mediation of the PM-HRV and PM-QT associations by DNA methylation (DNAm) at three Cytosine-phosphate-Guanine (CpG) sites (cg19004594, cg24102420, cg12124767) with known sensitivity to monthly mean PM concentrations in a subset of the participants (nHRV = 7,169; nQT = 6,895). After multiply imputing missing PM, electrocardiographic and covariable data, we estimated associations using attrition-weighted, linear, mixed, longitudinal models adjusting for sociodemographic, behavioral, meteorological, and clinical characteristics. We assessed mediation by estimating the proportions of PM-HRV and PM-QT associations mediated by DNAm. Results: We found little evidence of PM-HRV association, PM-QT association, or mediation by DNAm. Conclusions: The findings suggest that among racially/ethnically and environmentally diverse U.S. populations, sub-chronic exposures to coarser particulates may not exert appreciable, epigenetically mediated effects on cardiac autonomic function or ventricular repolarization. Further investigation in better-powered studies is warranted, with additional focus on shorter duration exposures to finer particulates and non-electrocardiographic outcomes among relatively susceptible populations