Influential Article Review - The Impact of Assumed Costs and Perceived Sustainability to Investor and Stakeholder Management

This paper examines business management. We present insights from a highly influential paper. Here are the highlights from this paper: Companies regularly have to address opposing interests from their shareholding and non-shareholding stakeholder groups. Consequently, a wealth of previous research has focused on how CEOs decide which stakeholder management activities to pursue and prioritize. In contrast, however, surprisingly little research has considered how (potential) investors react to a company’s management of shareholding and non-shareholding stakeholders and what factors drive their reactions in such contexts. We seek to fill this gap in the literature by conducting an experimental scenario study (N = 997) in which investment behavior is analyzed in situations in which management has to make a trade-off between shareholders’ and non-shareholding stakeholders’ interests. Our results show that (potential) investors consider the assumed costs of fulfilling non-shareholding stakeholders’ interests and the perceived sustainability of doing so for corporate success when making investment decisions in such contexts. In cases of low costs or high sustainability, participants were more willing to invest in a company that favored non-shareholding over shareholding stakeholders (thereby deciding against their immediate financial interests), while the opposite was true in cases of high costs or low sustainability. With these results, our paper broadens stakeholder theory’s focus by taking individual investors’ reactions to corporate stakeholder management into account. Moreover, it both provides evidence for and extends the “Enlightened Stakeholder Theory”, which proposes that organizations should fulfill stakeholders’ interests if doing so contributes to long-term firm value enhancement but has so far not considered the role of the costs necessary for fulfilling stakeholders’ claims in such decisions. For our overseas readers, we then present the insights from this paper in Spanish, French, Portuguese, and German

Physiological Basis of No-go Decay with Sod1Δ Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Chromium VI (Cr (VI)), a common byproduct of industry, induces oxidative stress in cells, resulting in altered gene expression, increased apoptosis, and cell death. Previous work has shown showed that Cr (VI) exposure results in the formation of 8-oxoguanines (8- oxo(G) bases) in mRNA. These 8-oxo(G) bases lead to ribosome stalls during translation and the activation of no-go decay. Upon ribosome stalls, no-go decay is activated. During no-go decay, the Dom34p/Hbsp1p complex acts to remove stalled ribosomes and promote endonucleolytic cleavage of the damaged mRNA at the stall site. Although oxidative agents and other non-physiological substrates have been used to activate no-go decay, very little work exists to elucidate the true physiological role of this pathway. Sod1p (superoxide dismutase 1) scavenges free oxygen species by catalyzing the partitioning of superoxide (O2- ) into O2 and H2O2. Cells that lack functional Sod1p have been observed to have increased oxidative stress resulting in increased P-body assembly, while leading only to an attenuation of global translation. To determine whether no-go decay is being activated in strains lacking Sod1p, double mutant strains were created in which SOD1 was knocked out in conjunction with one of the effectors of no-go decay. Consistent with no-go decay being activated in response to oxidation, the hbs1Δsod1Δ strain resulted in a decrease in Pbody assembly, as compared to wild-type strain, even in the presence of Cr (VI). To assess how effective Sod1p is as a deterrent to 8-oxo(G) base formation in the presence of Cr (VI), the SOD1 gene was overexpressed in yeast cells. The presence of high levels of Sod1p was hypothesized to limit the number of 8-oxo(G) in response to the Cr (VI) and affect P-body assembly. However, overexpression of Sod1p does not seem to compensate for Cr (VI) mediated oxidation. Instead, we will look under milder oxidative conditions. Interestingly, Stm1p is thought to potentially to aid in the dissociation and recycling of the ribosomal subunits. In the stm1Δ and wild-type strain, P-body assembly was mildly decreased when treated with 17 Cr (VI), which is consistent with Stm1p functioning to recycle ribosomes downstream of no-go decay. Additionally, stm1Δ can suppress sod1Δ growth defects on Cr (VI) containing media.https://openriver.winona.edu/urc2019/1068/thumbnail.jp

Evaluation of the 183-D Water Filtration Facility for Bat Roosts and Development of a Mitigation Strategy, 100-D Area, Hanford Site

The 183-D Water Filtration Facility is located in the 100-D Area of the Hanford Site, north of Richland, Washington. It was used to provide filtered water for cooling the 105-D Reactor and supplying fire-protection and drinking water for all facilities in the 100-D Area. The facility has been inactive since the 1980s and is now scheduled for demolition. Therefore, an evaluation was conducted to determine if any part of the facility was being used as roosting habitat by bats

Identification and Protection of a Bat Colony in the 183-F Clearwell: Mitigation of Bat Habitat on the Hanford Site

An ecological investigation was conducted to evaluate mitigation options for demolition of a retired facility that contained a maternity roost of approximately 2,000 Myotis yumanensis bats. The recommendation from the study was to leave the non-contaminated structure intact and fence the area

Evaluation of the 183-D Water Filtration Facility for Bat Roosts and Development of a Mitigation Strategy, 100-D Area, Hanford Site

The 183-D Water Filtration Facility is located in the 100-D Area of the Hanford Site, north of Richland, Washington. It was used to provide filtered water for cooling the 105-D Reactor and supplying fire-protection and drinking water for all facilities in the 100-D Area. The facility has been inactive since the 1980s and is now scheduled for demolition. Therefore, an evaluation was conducted to determine if any part of the facility was being used as roosting habitat by bats

Reduction of Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTI) in a Critical Care Setting

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most common type of healthcare associated infections. Seventy five percent are related to indwelling urinary catheters. These infections come with increased morbidity and mortality risk. A team of intensive care providers at a large academic tertiary medical center initiated a quality improvement project to reduce the number of CAUTIs. Baseline data established the total number of catheter days and CAUTIs by month. A subsequent root cause analysis was completed and several counter measures were developed to include a KPI implementation to track that all intensive care providers are educated in CAUTI and creation of a special care quality team. As a result of the countermeasure implementations, the number of CAUTIs has decreased. Next steps includes development and rollout of best practice indwelling urinary catheter maintenance

Identification of Genes Encoding Enzymes Catalyzing the Early Steps of Carrot Polyacetylene Biosynthesis

Polyacetylenic lipids accumulate in various Apiaceae species after pathogen attack, suggesting that these compounds are naturally occurring pesticides and potentially valuable resources for crop improvement. These compounds also promote human health and slow tumor growth. Even though polyacetylenic lipids were discovered decades ago, the biosynthetic pathway underlying their production is largely unknown. To begin filling this gap and ultimately enable polyacetylene engineering, we studied polyacetylenes and their biosynthesis in the major Apiaceae crop carrot (Daucus carota subsp. sativus). Using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, we identified three known polyacetylenes and assigned provisional structures to two novel polyacetylenes. We also quantified these compounds in carrot leaf, petiole, root xylem, root phloem, and root periderm extracts. Falcarindiol and falcarinol predominated and accumulated primarily in the root periderm. Since the multiple double and triple carbon-carbon bonds that distinguish polyacetylenes from ubiquitous fatty acids are often introduced by Δ12 oleic acid desaturase (FAD2)-type enzymes, we mined the carrot genome for FAD2 genes. We identified a FAD2 family with an unprecedented 24 members and analyzed public, tissue-specific carrot RNA-Seq data to identify coexpressed members with root periderm-enhanced expression. Six candidate genes were heterologously expressed individually and in combination in yeast and Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), resulting in the identification of one canonical FAD2 that converts oleic to linoleic acid, three divergent FAD2-like acetylenases that convert linoleic into crepenynic acid, and two bifunctional FAD2s with Δ12 and Δ14 desaturase activity that convert crepenynic into the further desaturated dehydrocrepenynic acid, a polyacetylene pathway intermediate. These genes can now be used as a basis for discovering other steps of falcarin-type polyacetylene biosynthesis, to modulate polyacetylene levels in plants, and to test the in planta function of these molecules

Visual adaptation to goal-directed hand actions

Prolonged exposure to visual stimuli, or adaptation, often results in an adaptation “aftereffect” which can profoundly distort our perception of subsequent visual stimuli. This technique has been commonly used to investigate mechanisms underlying our perception of simple visual stimuli, and more recently, of static faces. We tested whether humans would adapt to movies of hands grasping and placing different weight objects. After adapting to hands grasping light or heavy objects, subsequently perceived objects appeared relatively heavier, or lighter, respectively. The aftereffects increased logarithmically with adaptation action repetition and decayed logarithmically with time. Adaptation aftereffects also indicated that perception of actions relies predominantly on view-dependent mechanisms. Adapting to one action significantly influenced the perception of the opposite action. These aftereffects can only be explained by adaptation of mechanisms that take into account the presence/absence of the object in the hand. We tested if evidence on action processing mechanisms obtained using visual adaptation techniques confirms underlying neural processing. We recorded monkey superior temporal sulcus (STS) single-cell responses to hand actions. Cells sensitive to grasping or placing typically responded well to the opposite action; cells also responded during different phases of the actions. Cell responses were sensitive to the view of the action and were dependent upon the presence of the object in the scene. We show here that action processing mechanisms established using visual adaptation parallel the neural mechanisms revealed during recording from monkey STS. Visual adaptation techniques can thus be usefully employed to investigate brain mechanisms underlying action perception.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Memory reconsolidation may be disrupted by a distractor stimulus presented during reactivation

Memories can be destabilized by the reexposure to the training context, and may reconsolidate into a modified engram. Reconsolidation relies on some particular molecular mechanisms involving LVGCCs and GluN2B-containing NMDARs. In this study we investigate the interference caused by the presence of a distractor - a brief, unanticipated stimulus that impair a fear memory expression - during the reactivation session, and tested the hypothesis that this disruptive effect relies on a reconsolidation process. Rats previously trained in the contextual fear conditioning (CFC) were reactivated in the presence or absence of a distractor stimulus. In the test, groups reactivated in the original context with distractor displayed a reduction of the freezing response lasting up to 20 days. To check for the involvement of destabilization / reconsolidation mechanisms, we studied the effect of systemic nimodipine (a L-VGCC blocker) or intra-CA1 ifenprodil (a selective GluN2B/NMDAR antagonist) infused right before the reactivation session. Both treatments were able to prevent the disruptive effect of distraction. Ifenprodil results also bolstered the case for hippocampus as the putative brain structure hosting this phenomenon. Our results provide some evidence in support of a behavioral, non-invasive procedure that was able to disrupt an aversive memory in a long-lasting way