Trust Violations and Positive Emotions: Moderating Role of Initial Trust: A Case of Kindergartens in China

This paper examines the moderating role of initial trust of parents between positive emotions of parents and apology with an internal or external attribution after a competence or integrity-based trust violation by the Kindergarten for the purpose of trust repair. We asked about 855 parents to respond to a scenario in which they read about violation of competence with apology internal or about violation of integrity with apology external. After reading a scenario based hypothetical situation they respond to a questionnaire. Each participant was presented with one of the scenarios.The results revealed a significant interaction whereby positive emotions were produced more successfully when kindergarten apologized with an internal attribution in matters of violation concerned matters of competence but apologized with an external attribution when the trust violation concerned matters of integrity. Initial trust positively moderates the relationship between apology with internal and external attributions in matters concerning competence and integrity and positive emotions. Keywords: Trust Violation, Competence, Integrity, Apology, Attribution, Kindergarten, Emotions, Initial Trust, Public Organization

Trust Repair by Public Kindergartens: Mediating Role of Positive Emotions: A case of kindergartens in Anhui Province, China

The trust of the public for public organizations is greatly damaged because of the repeated occurrence of violations of trust events, which has an outcome in the form of serious trust deficit. This paper examines the post-trust of parents in kindergarten that extends apology with an internal or external attribution after a competence or integrity-based trust violation. We asked about 855 parents to respond to a scenario in which they read about violation of competence with apology internal or about violation of integrity with apology external. After reading a scenario based hypothetical situation they respond to a questionnaire. Each participant was presented with one of the scenarios. The results revealed a significant interaction whereby parent’s leads to post trust more successfully when kindergarten apologized with an internal attribution in matters of violation concerned matters of competence but apologized with an external attribution when the trust violation concerned matters of integrity. Positive emotions mediate the relationship between apology with internal attribution in matters of competence violation or apology with external attribution in matters of integrity violation and post trust. Keywords: Trust Repair, Trust Violation, Competence, Integrity, Apology, Attribution, Kindergarten, Emotions

iMEGES: integrated mental-disorder GEnome score by deep neural network for prioritizing the susceptibility genes for mental disorders in personal genomes

Background: A range of rare and common genetic variants have been discovered to be potentially associated with mental diseases, but many more have not been uncovered. Powerful integrative methods are needed to systematically prioritize both variants and genes that confer susceptibility to mental diseases in personal genomes of individual patients and to facilitate the development of personalized treatment or therapeutic approaches. Methods: Leveraging deep neural network on the TensorFlow framework, we developed a computational tool, integrated Mental-disorder GEnome Score (iMEGES), for analyzing whole genome/exome sequencing data on personal genomes. iMEGES takes as input genetic mutations and phenotypic information from a patient with mental disorders, and outputs the rank of whole genome susceptibility variants and the prioritized disease-specific genes for mental disorders by integrating contributions from coding and non-coding variants, structural variants (SVs), known brain expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs), and epigenetic information from PsychENCODE. Results: iMEGES was evaluated on multiple datasets of mental disorders, and it achieved improved performance than competing approaches when large training dataset is available. Conclusion: iMEGES can be used in population studies to help the prioritization of novel genes or variants that might be associated with the susceptibility to mental disorders, and also on individual patients to help the identification of genes or variants related to mental diseases

Cognitive Determinants of Chinese Entrepreneurs’ Intention to Adopt Marketing Approach in SMEs: A Case from Anhui, China

This paper examines the cognitive determinants of entrepreneurs regarding intentions to adopt/or not marketing approach in SMEs (small and medium enterprises) in Anhui, China. Ajzens (1991) model of predicting human and organization behavior i.e. TPB (Theory of planned behavior) was used to determine the cognitive behavior through attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control in addition with salient beliefs. Data was collected randomly across different industrial sectors with different levels of sales and number of employees. Results of 172 SMEs in Anhui, China show that attitude or behavioral beliefs , perception of entrepreneurs regarding advantages or disadvantages of the factors influencing entrepreneurs intentions to adopt marketing approach in their firms and subjective norms or normative beliefs, the social referents influencing entrepreneurs intention to adopt marketing approach i.e. corporate culture, seem to influence and considered to be the main determinants  of Chinese SMEs entrepreneurs intention to adopt marketing approach. This research limitation includes the analyses and findings of this research study on limited sample of SMEs located in Anhui, China. Keywords: SMEs (small and medium enterprises); Cognitive determinants; TPB (Theory of planned behavior; Marketing; Anhui, China

Role of Absorptive Capacity Dominant Logic on the Performance of the Public Organization

In this study the performance of the public organizations is focused. The study is based on the intangible resources those have been used in the private sector organizations such as absorptive capacity and dominant logic. The performance of the organization is based on the information, knowledge, and prior experience. Through absorptive capacity and dominant logic, the organizations are able to enhance their performance. The study is conducted in the Hefei, Anhui, China which is one of the fastest growing city in the China. In the data collection process, the target group was the managerial level individual of the organizations. The data was collected through structured questionnaire adapted from the past literature. The questionnaire was translated into the Chinese language with the help of Chinese native and then translated into the English language to check the actual meaning of the questionnaire. Furthermore, to perform the data analysis process SPSS has been used. From the results its shows that absorptive capacity and dominant logic has significance impact on the organizations in the public sector and facilitates the organizations to get the superior performance. Moreover, the results also show that public organizations should adapt the techniques of the private organizations in order to improve their efficiency. Keywords: Absorptive capacity, dominant logic, performance, public organization

Multi-ancestry fine mapping implicates OAS1 splicing in risk of severe COVID-19

The OAS1/2/3 cluster has been identified as a risk locus for severe COVID-19 among individuals of European ancestry, with a protective haplotype of approximately 75 kilobases (kb) derived from Neanderthals in the chromosomal region 12q24.13. This haplotype contains a splice variant of OAS1, which occurs in people of African ancestry independently of gene flow from Neanderthals. Using trans-ancestry fine-mapping approaches in 20,779 hospitalized cases, we demonstrate that this splice variant is likely to be the SNP responsible for the association at this locus, thus strongly implicating OAS1 as an effector gene influencing COVID-19 severity. Multi-ancestry fine-mapping of the OAS1/2/3 region shows that a splice site variant in OAS1 is likely responsible for the association of this locus with the risk of severe COVID-19.Peer reviewe

In vivo carbon tetrachloride-induced hepatoprotective and in vitro cytotoxic activities of Garcinia hombroniana (seashore mangosteen)

Background: Garcinia hombroniana, known as "manggis hutan" (jungle mangosteen) in Malaysia, is distributed in tropical Asia, Borneo, Thailand, Andaman, Nicobar Islands, Vietnam and India. In Malaysia, its ripened crimson sour fruit rind is used as a seasoning agent in curries and culinary dishes. Its roots and leaves decoction is used against skin infections and after child birth. This study aimed to evaluate in vivo hepatoprotective and in vitro cytotoxic activities of 20% methanolic ethyl acetate (MEA) G. hombroniana bark extract. Materials and methods: In hepatoprotective activity, liver damage was induced by treating rats with 1.0 mL carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)/kg and MEA extract was administered at a dose of 50, 250 and 500 mg/kg 24 h before intoxication with CCl4. Cytotoxicity study was performed on MCF-7 (human breast cancer), DBTRG (human glioblastoma), PC-3 (human prostate cancer) and U2OS (human osteosarcoma) cell lines. 1H, 13C-NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance), and IR (infrared) spectral analyses were also conducted for MEA extract. Results: In hepatoprotective activity evaluation, MEA extract at a higher dose level of 500 mg/kg showed significant (p<0.05) potency. In cytotoxicity study, MEA extract was more toxic towards MCF-7 and DBTRG cell lines causing 78.7% and 64.3% cell death, respectively. MEA extract in 1H, 13C-NMR, and IR spectra exhibited bands, signals and J (coupling constant) values representing aromatic/phenolic constituents. Conclusions: From the results, it could be concluded that MEA extract has potency to inhibit hepatotoxicity and MCF-7 and DBTRG cancer cell lines which might be due to the phenolic compounds depicted from NMR and IR spectra

Cystatin C is associated with adverse COVID-19 outcomes in diverse populations

COVID-19 has highly variable clinical courses. The search for prognostic host factors for COVID-19 outcome is a priority. We performed logistic regression for ICU admission against a polygenic score (PGS) for Cystatin C (CyC) production in patients with COVID-19. We analyzed the predictive value of longitudinal plasma CyC levels in an independent cohort of patients hospitalized with COVID-19. In four cohorts spanning European and African ancestry populations, we identified a significant association between CyC-production PGS and odds of critical illness (n cases=2,319), with the strongest association captured in the UKB cohort (OR 2.13, 95% CI 1.58-2.87, p=7.12e-7). Plasma proteomics from an independent cohort of hospitalized COVID-19 patients ( n cases = 131) demonstrated that CyC production was associated with COVID-specific mortality (p=0.0007). Our findings suggest that CyC may be useful for stratification of patients and it has functional role in the host response to COVID-19.Peer reviewe

BIGKnock: fine-mapping gene-based associations via knockoff analysis of biobank-scale data

We propose BIGKnock (BIobank-scale Gene-based association test via Knockoffs), a computationally efficient gene-based testing approach for biobank-scale data, that leverages long-range chromatin interaction data, and performs conditional genome-wide testing via knockoffs. BIGKnock can prioritize causal genes over proxy associations at a locus. We apply BIGKnock to the UK Biobank data with 405,296 participants for multiple binary and quantitative traits, and show that relative to conventional gene-based tests, BIGKnock produces smaller sets of significant genes that contain the causal gene(s) with high probability. We further illustrate its ability to pinpoint potential causal genes at $$\sim 80\%$$ ∼ 80 % of the associated loci

Tasco®: A Product of Ascophyllum nodosum Enhances Immune Response of Caenorhabditis elegans Against Pseudomonas aeruginosa Infection

The effects of Tasco®, a product made from the brown seaweed (Ascophyllum nodosum) were tested for the ability to protect Caenorhabditis elegans against Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection. A water extract of Tasco® (TWE) reduced P. aeruginosa inflicted mortality in the nematode. The TWE, at a concentration of 300 µg/mL, offered the maximum protection and induced the expression of innate immune response genes viz.; zk6.7 (Lypases), lys-1 (Lysozyme), spp-1 (Saponin like protein), f28d1.3 (Thaumatin like protein), t20g5.7 (Matridin SK domain protein), abf-1 (Antibacterial protein) and f38a1.5 (Lectin family protein). Further, TWE treatment also affected a number of virulence components of the P. aeuroginosa and reduced its secreted virulence factors such as lipase, proteases and toxic metabolites; hydrogen cyanide and pyocyanin. Decreased virulence factors were associated with a significant reduction in expression of regulatory genes involved in quorum sensing, lasI, lasR, rhlI and rhlR. In conclusion, the TWE-treatment protected the C. elegans against P. aeruginosa infection by a combination of effects on the innate immunity of the worms and direct effects on the bacterial quorum sensing and virulence factors