Global Determinants of Entry Mode Choice

Since several decades, a lot of academic attention has been given to entry mode decisions of firms, and which factors, in which contexts, are important determinants to take into consideration. Especially interesting for researchers is what influences the choice for a certain entry mode. A general limitation of this research stream seems to be that theempirical testing is limited to firms of a particular part of the world. This paper has developed six propositions. These propositions all concern a certain variable whichinfluences the entry mode choice. The variables have been justified in the transaction cost theory, the resource based. Following the theories, the relationship between assetspecificity, R&D intensity, firm size and International experience is said to be positive with the entry mode choice, and cultural distance and country risk are negatively related. Most propositions have been confirmed. view and institutional theory. These variables are asset specificity, R&D intensity, firm size, cultural distance, country risk and Internationalexperience

Investigation of diarrhoea in critically ill patients receiving enteral nutrition

The incidence and causes of diarrhoea among critically ill patients receiving enteral tube feeding were investigated. Sixty acutely ill surgical or medical intensive care patients who had had a minimum of 48 hrs bowel rest were entered into the study. They were randomly assigned to receive one of two lactose free liquid formula diets - "Ensure", a commercially available feed containing 825 kCal/L and 34 g/L of protein with an osmolality of 441mOsm/1 or "Casilan Oil", a home-made feed containing 840 kCal /L and 45g/L of protein with an osmolality of 383 mOsm/1. The feeds were administered by constant nasogastric infusion. Patients received 1000ml at a rate of 40ml per hour for the first day and up to 2000ml at 80 ml per hour for the remainder of the study period. Investigations included documentation of medical history, medications administered and clinical details for each patient. Serum albumin was measured and the nutritional status of each patient was assessed using anthropometric measurements. Feeds were tested for bacterial contamination on the three days following the start of feeding and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth was assessed by the 1 g-¹⁴C Xylose breath test of Toskes and King. Twelve of the sixty patients had to be withdrawn from the trial within 24 hours of the start of enteral feeding for medical reasons. The remaining forty eight patients completed at least three days on enteral feeding and thereby became eligible for analysis. In 10/48 patients (21%) diarrhoea was present before enteral feeding began. Four of these 1 O patients continued to pass loose stools when enteral feeding was started while the remaining 6 settled. Diarrhoea developed in a further 10 patients (21%) after enteral feeding began. The overall incidence of diarrhoea in the group of critically ill patients studied was therefore 42% (20/48). However, of the fourteen patients who experienced diarrhoea during enteral feeding four had diarrhoea before feeding began. Therefore, the true incidence of diarrhoea related to enteral feeding was only 10/38 (26%). Furthermore, in 7 of these 10 patients, another possible cause of diarrhoea was present. There was no significant association between diarrhoea and nutritional status, hypoalbuminaemia, sepsis, length of bowel rest, sucralfate and antibiotic therapy other than amikacin. Twenty one patients received Ensure and 27 received Casilan Oil. Despite the differences in the composition of the feeds, the incidence of diarrhoea was similar on the Ensure and the Casilan Oil. No particular factor pertaining to the composition of the feeds was associated with diarrhoea. Significant contamination of feeds was universal but there was no constant relationship between bacterial counts, or types, and the occurrence of diarrhoea. Certain other factors were found to be significantly associated with diarrhoea. Abdominal injury was positively associated with the occurrence of diarrhoea (p<0.05). Diarrhoea could have been attributed to the underlying disease state in 7 of the patients. All three patients who were receiving lactulose as treatment for liver failure developed diarrhoea. While no association was noted between diarrhoea and antibiotic therapy in general, treatment with the antibiotic, amikacin, correlated significantly, albeit marginally, with the occurrence of diarrhoea (p<0.05). Twenty six patients were tested for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. Only one patient, with an elevated excretion of ¹⁴CO₂, indicative of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, developed diarrhoea. There was, however, a positive association between diarrhoea and decreased excretion of ¹⁴CO₂. It would appear that the bacterial flora was suppressed in patients with diarrhoea. Amikacin therapy was also associated with decreased excretion of ¹⁴CO₂. This may suggest that amikacin could have altered the bowel flora with resultant development of diarrhoea. While abdominal injury and disease were associated with the development of diarrhoea and amikacin was a possible factor associated with diarrhoea, the results of the present study indicate that enteral tube feeding with either the commercial feed, Ensure or the home-made feed, Casilan Oil was not a cause of diarrhoea in the majority of critically ill patients assessed. Furthermore, in most patients who commenced the trial with diarrhoea, improvement was noted on enteral feeding

A Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect Survey for High Redshift Clusters

Interferometric observations of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect (SZE) toward clusters of galaxies provide sensitive cosmological probes. We present results from 1 cm observations (at BIMA and OVRO) of a large, intermediate redshift cluster sample. In addition, we describe a proposed, higher sensitivity array which will enable us to survey large portions of the sky. Simulated observations indicate that we will be able to survey one square degree of sky per month to sufficient depth that we will detect all galaxy clusters more massive than 2x10^{14} h^{-1}_{50}M_\odot, regardless of their redshift. We describe the cluster yield and resulting cosmological constraints from such a survey.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, latex, contribution to VLT Opening Symposiu

Imaging the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect

We report on results of interferometric imaging of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect (SZE) with the OVRO and BIMA mm-arrays. Using low-noise cm-wave receivers on the arrays, we have obtained high quality images for 27 distant galaxy clusters. We review the use of the SZE as a cosmological tool. Gas mass fractions derived from the SZE data are given for 18 of the clusters, as well as the implied constraint on the matter density of the universe, $\Omega_M$. We find $\Omega_M h_{100} \le 0.22 ^{+0.05}_{-0.03}$. A best guess for the matter density obtained by assuming a reasonable value for the Hubble constant and also by attempting to account for the baryons contained in the galaxies as well as those lost during the cluster formation process gives $\Omega_M \sim 0.25$. We also give preliminary results for the Hubble constant. Lastly, the power for investigating the high redshift universe with a non-targeted high sensitivity SZE survey is discussed and an interferometric survey is proposed.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, latex, contribution to Nobel Symposium "Particle Physics and the Universe" to appear in Physica Scripta and World Scientific, eds L. Bergstrom, P. Carlson and C. Fransso

Nutrient accounting in global food systems

Working across agriculture–nutrition domains, nutrition balance sheets provide farm-to-fork estimates of the availability of dietary nutrients for human consumption

Investigating the DNA-Binding Site for VirB, a Key Transcriptional Regulator of Shigella Virulence Genes, Using an In Vivo Binding Tool

The transcriptional anti-silencing and DNA-binding protein, VirB, is essential for the virulence of Shigella species and, yet, sequences required for VirB-DNA binding are poorly understood. While a 7-8 bp VirB-binding site has been proposed, it was derived from studies at a single VirB-dependent promoter, icsB. Our previous in vivo studies at a different VirB-dependent promoter, icsP, found that the proposed VirB-binding site was insufficient for regulation. Instead, the required site was found to be organized as a near-perfect inverted repeat separated by a single nucleotide spacer. Thus, the proposed 7-8 bp VirB-binding site needed to be re-evaluated. Here, we engineer and validate a molecular tool to capture protein-DNA binding interactions in vivo. Our data show that a sequence organized as a near-perfect inverted repeat is required for VirB-DNA binding interactions in vivo at both the icsB and icsP promoters. Furthermore, the previously proposed VirB-binding site and multiple sites found as a result of its description (i.e., sites located at the virB, virF, spa15, and virA promoters) are not sufficient for VirB to bind in vivo using this tool. The implications of these findings are discussed