Comparative Susceptibility of Different Cell Cultures and Chicken Embryo Organ Cultures to Infectious Bursal Disease Virus of Poultry

Infectious bursal disease (IBD) is an acute highly contagious viral infection of young chickens often resulting in immunosuppression. Inactivated vaccines play significant role in protection against IBD. Mammalian cell lines could be used for producing such vaccines. In present study twenty-five, local strains of IBD virus were inoculated into chicken embryo bursa cell culture, liver cell culture, kidney cell culture, fibroblast cell culture and Vero cell lines for cytopathic effect. Moreover comparative susceptibility of chicken embryo bursa organ, embryo liver organ and embryo kidney organ cultures, to infectious bursal disease virus were studied. Chicken embryo bursa cell line was found to be most susceptible (90%) followed by Vero cell lines (70%), fibroblast cell lines (65%), kidney cell lines (50%) and liver cell lines (45%). While chicken embryo bursa organ culture gave maximum cytopathic effect (80%) followed by chicken embryo liver (60%) and kidney organ (45%). From these studies it is concluded that after bursa cell lines, Vero cell lines gave maximum cytopathic effect yielding high number of virus particles and are easy to maintain. Thus Vero cell lines can be used to produce infectious bursal disease vaccines using local isolates

Does corporate green investment enhance profitability? An institutional perspective

Using the institutional theoretical perspective, this study seeks to unearth the antecedents of the mixed results in the extant literature regarding the association between corporate green investment (CGI) and profitability. The study utilized a novel dataset comprising environmental research data from Chinese A-share listed companies for the period 2010–2019. The findings indicate that CGI enhances profitability and that the positive association is reinforced by the promulgation of Environmental Protection Law 2015. Regional development also augments CGI’s positive effect on firms’ profitability. Nevertheless, no significant association is observed between firm profitability and CGI among firms operating within environmentally sensitive sectors. Our findings imply that apart from regulatory forces, normative and cognitive pressures are also key instruments that may be employed by governments to motivate firms to embrace greener and more sustainable practices

Ego defense mechanisms in Pakistani medical students: a cross sectional analysis

Background: Ego defense mechanisms (or factors), defined by Freud as unconscious resources used by the ego to reduce conflict between the id and superego, are a reflection of how an individual deals with conflict and stress. This study assesses the prevalence of various ego defense mechanisms employed by medical students of Karachi, which is a group with higher stress levels than the general population. Methods: A questionnaire based cross-sectional study was conducted on 682 students from five major medical colleges of Karachi over 4 weeks in November 2006. Ego defense mechanisms were assessed using the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ-40) individually and as grouped under Mature, Immature, and Neurotic factors. Results: Lower mean scores of Immature defense mechanisms (4.78) were identified than those for Neurotic (5.62) and Mature (5.60) mechanisms among medical students of Karachi. Immature mechanisms were more commonly employed by males whereas females employed more Neurotic mechanisms than males. Neurotic and Immature defenses were significantly more prevalent in first and second year students. Mature mechanisms were significantly higher in students enrolled in Government colleges than Private institutions (p \u3c 0.05). Conclusions: Immature defense mechanisms were less commonly employed than Neurotic and Mature mechanisms among medical students of Karachi. The greater employment of Neurotic defenses may reflect greater stress levels than the general population. Employment of these mechanisms was associated with female gender, enrollment in a private medical college, and students enrolled in the first 2 years of medical school

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

International Consensus Statement on Rhinology and Allergy: Rhinosinusitis

Background: The 5 years since the publication of the first International Consensus Statement on Allergy and Rhinology: Rhinosinusitis (ICAR‐RS) has witnessed foundational progress in our understanding and treatment of rhinologic disease. These advances are reflected within the more than 40 new topics covered within the ICAR‐RS‐2021 as well as updates to the original 140 topics. This executive summary consolidates the evidence‐based findings of the document. Methods: ICAR‐RS presents over 180 topics in the forms of evidence‐based reviews with recommendations (EBRRs), evidence‐based reviews, and literature reviews. The highest grade structured recommendations of the EBRR sections are summarized in this executive summary. Results: ICAR‐RS‐2021 covers 22 topics regarding the medical management of RS, which are grade A/B and are presented in the executive summary. Additionally, 4 topics regarding the surgical management of RS are grade A/B and are presented in the executive summary. Finally, a comprehensive evidence‐based management algorithm is provided. Conclusion: This ICAR‐RS‐2021 executive summary provides a compilation of the evidence‐based recommendations for medical and surgical treatment of the most common forms of RS

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

Board gender diversity and corporate green innovation: An industry-level institutional perspective

This study contributes to the inconclusive literature on the relationship between board gender diversity (BGD) and green innovation (GI). It empirically examines the moderating role of normative, mimetic and coercive pressures in the relationship between BGD and GI, derived from an industry-specific isomorphic exhibition of institutional theory. Appertaining to A-share listed firms of China, the findings highlight the moderating effect of masculinity, environmental sensitivity, environmental regulation level and export orientation of an industry on the said relationship. Moreover, the coercive isomorphism exhibits pronounced impact with the intensity of export orientation. However, firms associated with high-tech industries have not been confirmed for significant effect on the relationship. Thus, the findings imply that the dynamics of the corporate governance and institutional isomorphism in case of BGD and GI relationships, in the organisational field of industry, are likely both pertinent and prevalent. Moreover, the increase in the number of females on the corporate boards could enhance the green performance of a firm, subject to the fulfilment of industry specific boundary conditions, predefined by the unique set of industry specific institutional pressures. These pressures amid affiliation with a specific industry should be evaluated and controlled for, on the bases of coercive, normative, and mimetic isomorphism it hatches, to device an optimum composition of the corporate board

Impact of chief financial officer’s experience on the assurance of corporate social responsibility reports in China

Purpose: Given the emerging importance of the chief financial officer’s (CFO) role, this study aims to probe into the prevalence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) assurance practices in China and to examine whether or not CFO foreign, professional or academic experience affects the likelihood of CSR assurance decision. Design/methodology/approach: All A-share listed Chinese companies during the year 2008–2017 with 5,144 firm-year observations have been investigated for this study. Findings: This study finds a positive effect of CFO foreign and professional experience on CSR assurance. No significant association has been found between the CFO’s academic experience and CSR assurance. Additional analysis for Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) sampled firms shows that the academic and professional experience of CFOs has a significant positive association with CSR assurance. However, the main findings are replicated in the case of firms under mandatory CSR reporting. Research limitations/implications: The limitations of this study are its generalizability, unidimensional measure of CSR assurance which is unable to capture its quality and explore the other traits of CFOs. Practical implications: It provides assurance practitioners with valuable longitudinal data on China’s CSR reporting and assurance services. Also, firms should recognize the importance of having competent CFOs to improve the credibility of their CSR reporting. The cross-sectional variation analysis (GRI and mandatory CSR) will help firms to assess the value of each CFO attribute for their nonfinancial reporting and auditing choices while considering internal and external stakeholder demands. Originality/value: This study not only updates the existing understanding of CSR assurance methods in China but also explains the significance of CFO-specific experience in enhancing the credibility of nonfinancial reporting.</p

Carbon disclosure project: Chinese chief executive officer background and corporate voluntary climate change reporting

Despite recent voluntary climate change reporting (VCCR) initiatives, such as the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), Chinese companies continue to lag behind their global counterparts. This research contributes to the existing literature examining the effects of CEO background (specifically academic, foreign and political background) on corporate decisions to engage in VCCR. The data sample consists of Chinese listed companies that participated in CDP surveys during 2010–2017 (1041 final firm-year observations). The study’s descriptive findings reveal that most Chinese companies are reluctant to report their climate change information to the CDP as only 12% of Chinese companies participated in the CDP annual survey during the study period. However, using a logistic regression model, we find that CEOs with academic experience, foreign exposure and political connections positively affect firms’ decisions to engage in VCCR. The results remain robust when we use the propensity score matching technique to account for sample selection problems. Overall, the results are interpreted within the theoretical insights of the upper echelons perspective

Organizational stakeholders and environmental sustainability investment:does China’s regional heterogeneity matter?

PurposeGiven the regional diversity in China, this study aims to provide an empirical evaluation of how organizational stakeholders (i.e. customers, employees, suppliers and shareholders) affect corporate environmental sustainability investment (ESI).Design/methodology/approachTo empirically investigate the influence of organizational stakeholders on ESI, this study used regional-level data consists of Chinese A-share stocks for the years 2009–2019.FindingsThis study’s findings show that pressure from customers, employees and suppliers has a significant effect on corporate ESI, with customers being the most important stakeholder group. Shareholders, by contrast, have no significant influence on ESI. The influence of these pressures is more pronounced in developed regions (the east) than in less developed (the west) localities of China.Research limitations/implicationsThis study complements the stakeholder–institutional perspective by implying to consider the differentiated logics of the contesting stakeholders in the nonmarket operations.Practical implicationsPractically, this study poses that managers must realize the heterogeneity of pressures from stakeholders and the differentiated impact of these pressures keeping in view the institutional differences in different regions.Originality/valueOur study reports initial empirical evidence that shows how regional differences influence the role of stakeholders in determining corporate environmental strategy