Determinants of Labor Productivity in Emerging Markets: Evidence from Pre- and Post-Financial Crisis Mexico

Although the global financial crisis of 2008 had tremendous effects on global businesses, its impact on firm performance in emerging markets is unknown. To develop this knowledge, this study explores the factors that influenced labor productivity in emerging markets before and after the crisis. Using a sample of 2,061 Mexican firms that were collected by the World Bank in 2006 and 2010, this study investigates the relationships of bribery, informality, and corporate governance to labor productivity. The results show that, before the crisis, informality and foreign ownership were positively associated with labor productivity. On the other hand, after the crisis, bribery and informality are negatively related to labor productivity, while foreign ownership and external auditing make positive impacts on labor productivity. The findings imply that businesses need to improve the quality of their corporate governance and decrease bribery. Governments of emerging markets need to reduce the levels of informality

Labor Productivity In Emerging Markets: Evidence From Brazil, China, India, And Russia (BRIC)

Despite the great amount of attention to emerging markets, much still remains unknown about firm performance in emerging economies. To fill this gap, this study aims to investigate factors that influence labor productivity of firms in Brazil, China, India, and Russia (BRIC countries). This study focuses on features of business environments of emerging markets such as informality, corruption, foreign ownership, and external audit. Using a cross-national sample of 8,885 firms from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys dataset, we find that informality is negatively associated with labor productivity, while corruption and external audit are positively related to labor productivity. Implications will be discussed

Artemisia princeps Inhibits Biofilm Formation and Virulence-Factor Expression of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

In this study, we used ethanol extract of A. princeps and investigated its antibacterial effects against MRSA. Ethanol extract of A. princeps significantly inhibited MRSA growth and organic acid production during glucose metabolism at concentrations greater than 1 mg/mL (P < 0.05). MRSA biofilm formation was observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and safranin staining. A. princeps extract was found to inhibit MRSA biofilm formation at concentrations higher than 2 mg/mL significantly (P < 0.05). Bactericidal effects of the A. princeps were observed using confocal laser microscopy, which showed that A. princeps was bactericidal in a dose-dependent manner. Using real-time PCR, expression of mecA, an antibiotic-resistance gene of MRSA, was observed, along with that of sea, agrA, and sarA. A. princeps significantly inhibited mecA, sea, agrA, and sarA, mRNA expression at the concentrations greater than 1 mg/mL (P < 0.05). The phytochemical analysis of A. princeps showed a relatively high content of organic acids and glycosides. The results of this study suggest that the ethanol extract of A. princeps may inhibit proliferation, acid production, biofilm formation, and virulence gene expressions of MRSA, which may be related to organic acids and glycosides, the major components in the extract

The Effects of Phonetic Duration on Loanword Adaptation: Mandarin Falling Diphthong in Chinese Korean

This study examines how Mandarin falling sonority diphthongs are adapted to a Chinese Korean dialect. It investigates how the subtle phonetic conditions of the source language affect adaptation, and if and how those phonetic effects differ in established loanwords compared to the on-line adaptation of novel loan forms. We found that in this bilingual population, while the Mandarin diphthongs are usually adapted as monophthongs, obeying the native phonological restriction against falling diphthongs, the retention of the input diphthongs in violation of the native constraint is also quite common. Additionally, we found that the choice of the monophthong vs. diphthong realization is strongly affected by the input phonetic duration and in particular, the durational difference among the different tones is robustly reflected in the adaptation patterns.The authors would like to thank three anonymous reviewers for their suggestions that improved the paper. We would also like to thank Professor Sun Ying at Liaoning University, Professor Yunyan Luo at Beijing Foreign Studies University, and Yuanyang Song for their invaluable help during the data collection process, Sung-Geol Kim for help with stimulus preparation, Hyoung-Seok Kwon for help with data analysis, Professor Oh Sung-Ae at the Ocean University of China and the audience members at LabPhon15 and the Workshop on the Phonetics and Phonology in Loanword Adaptation for comments on earlier versions of the paper. The work was supported by the Insight Grant from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada

Mechanisms of Cross-protection by Influenza Virus M2-based Vaccines

Current influenza virus vaccines are based on strain-specific surface glycoprotein hemagglutinin (HA) antigens and effective only when the predicted vaccine strains and circulating viruses are well-matched. The current strategy of influenza vaccination does not prevent the pandemic outbreaks and protection efficacy is reduced or ineffective if mutant strains emerge. It is of high priority to develop effective vaccines and vaccination strategies conferring a broad range of cross protection. The extracellular domain of M2 (M2e) is highly conserved among human influenza A viruses and has been utilized to develop new vaccines inducing cross protection against different subtypes of influenza A virus. However, immune mechanisms of cross protection by M2e-based vaccines still remain to be fully elucidated. Here, we review immune correlates and mechanisms conferring cross protection by M2e-based vaccines. Molecular and cellular immune components that are known to be involved in M2 immune-mediated protection include antibodies, B cells, T cells, alveolar macrophages, Fc receptors, complements, and natural killer cells. Better understanding of protective mechanisms by immune responses induced by M2e vaccination will help facilitate development of broadly cross protective vaccines against influenza A virus

Ethanol Extract of Ulmus pumila

In this study, root bark of Ulmus pumila (U. pumila) was extracted with ethanol, and then the antimicrobial effects were tested on clinically isolated 12 MRSA strains and 1 standard MRSA strain. U. pumila showed antibacterial activities against all MRSA strains. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of U. pumila root bark against all MRSA strains revealed a range from 125 to 250 μg/mL. These results may provide the scientific basis on which U. pumila root bark has traditionally been used against infectious diseases in Korea. In real-time PCR analysis, the sub-MIC (64–125 μg/mL) concentrations of U. pumila root bark extract showed the inhibition of the genetic expressions of virulence factors such as mecA, sea, agrA, and sarA in standard MRSA. Phytochemical analyses of U. pumila root bark showed relatively strong presence of phenolics, steroids, and terpenoids. These results suggest that the ethanol extract of U. pumila root bark may have antibacterial activity against MRSA, which may be related to the phytochemicals such as phenolics, steroids, and terpenoids. Further studies are needed to determine the active constituents of U. pumila root bark responsible for such biomolecular activities

Experimental Study on the Acellular Demal Matrix Graft for the Root Coverage in Dog

Mucogingival surgery is a plastic surgical procedure designed to correct defects in the morphology, position, and dimensions of the gingiva surrounding the teeth. Many surgical techniques have been reported in mucogingival surgery. Since these procedures also include the soft tissue esthetic approach, the term periodontal plastic surgery has been proposed to be more appropriate.1 Root coverage is a procedure that falls with this definition, and it has attracted more interest than others

Dysfunction in Configural Face Processing in Patients With Schizophrenia

Background: Face recognition has important implications for patients with schizophrenia, who exhibit poor interpersonal and social skills. Previous reports have suggested that patients with schizophrenia have deficits in their ability to recognize faces, and because face recognition relies heavily on information about the configuration of faces, we hypothesized that patients with schizophrenia would have specific problems in processing configural information. Methods: We measured the performance of 20 patients with schizophrenia and 20 normal subjects in a face-discrimination task, using upright and inverted pairs of face photographs that differed in featural or configural information. Results: The patients with schizophrenia showed disproportionately poorer performance in discriminating configural compared with featural face sets. Conclusion: The result suggests that the face-recognition deficit in schizophrenic patients is due to specific impairments in configural processing of faces