The Origin Of Differences In Immigrants’ Strategic Choices: Job Seekers & Entrepreneurial Firms

This dissertation examines the origin of differences in job search strategies among high skilled immigrant workers and business strategies among ethnic entrepreneurial firms. I explore this general question in two separate studies. One focuses on how variation in immigrant scientist and engineering graduates' embeddedness within different academic programs, which differ in terms of demographic composition (e.g., national origin), affect their identification with contemporaries as well as predecessors and therefore, their job search strategies vis-à-vis natives. A second considers how variation in founders' embeddedness in their respective ethnic communities within a national origin group is related to differences in shared notions of resource acquisition, which shape early strategic choices as well as subsequent evolution of professional service ventures. This research aims to contribute to work on organizational theory, economic sociology of job search and ethnic entrepreneurship. First, it serves to add to current understandings of social embeddedness and self-categorization processes within the understudied contexts of higher education organizations and ethnic entrepreneurial firms. It assesses the applicability of prior theories in lesser-known populations and extends current theories by developing a richer understanding of how compositional categories (e.g., national origin, ethnicity) can serve as salient bases of social identification to particular groups within the relevant context. A related contribution is to inform scientific and technical work literature. At a time when the attraction and retention of immigrant scientists and engineers are increasingly seen as an engine of economic growth and a driver of firm competitive advantage, the project may enhance greater understanding of diversity in high-skilled U.S. workers' job strategies and career patterns. Second, this research offers new empirical insights that link individual choices, social relationships and social systems together by studying the labor market entry of new science and technology graduates and early strategic choices of ethnic ventures. Thus it reconnects organizational theory to the study of work, entrepreneurship and individual decision making. Finally, by tracing and analyzing the evolution of ethnic ventures, the study identifies more fully how social ties that are forged, renewed and extended through actors within the ethnic community may affect early strategic choices of new ventures. It also highlights the conditions under which initial strategies of young firms may not impede subsequent diversification initiatives, but rather make it possible to switch to a new regime of practices. Taken as a whole, my research contributes to work on organizational theory, career studies and entrepreneurship

Fosfomycin susceptibility among multidrug-resistant, extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing, carbapenem-resistant uropathogens

Introduction: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the most common infectious diseases. With the emergence of multidrug resistance (MDR), therapeutic options for treatment of UTIs are becoming limited. Fosfomycin has emerged as a novel oral therapeutic option with bactericidal activity against the MDR uropathogens. We evaluated the susceptibility pattern of uropathogens to this antibiotic. Methods: A prospective study was conducted for 6 months in a tertiary care hospital in Eastern India to evaluate whether the common uropathogens were susceptible to fosfomycin. Identification of organisms causing significant bacteriuria was done by conventional biochemical and VITEK 2 Compact System™. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed against these pathogens by Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. Minimum inhibitory concentrations were measured for certain drugs by E-strips and VITEK 2 Compact System. Results: A total of 2229 urine samples were referred for culture during the study period, which yielded 356 significant bacterial isolates. Among these isolates, 64.78% were extended-spectrum beta-lactamases producers, 15.97% were carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, and 42.7% isolates were found to be MDR Enterobacteriaceae (MDRE). However, 95.18% of the total isolates and 95.93% of MDRE were found to be susceptible to fosfomycin. Conclusion: The common uropathogens, including MDR isolates, show high in vitro susceptibility to fosfomycin, which therefore has the potential to emerge as a promising alternative oral agent for outpatient therapy of UTIs

Mobile Application Based Modified Screening and Assessment Tools for Children with Autism

The researchers have focused on mobile application of screening tool to profile a child according to the degree of autism as per Indian Scale for Assessment of Autism (ISAA) with some modification. The work also emphasizes on practical implementation of various educational assessment tools viz. Indian Portage guide, BASIC-MR (Behavioural Assessment Scales for Indian Children with Mental Retardation) Part A, (FACP) Functional Assessment Checklist for Programming to assess children with autism in form of mobile application. The aim of this study is to enhance easiness, to improve accuracy, to monitor the child's progress and to make the whole process a time efficient one

Security sector governance in South Asia

The project helped build research capacity in the region and is the first step in engaging civil society debate around complex issues in security sector reforms in South Asia. Security Sector Governance (SSG) is characterised by excessive state control, lack of transparency, excessive powers given to state agencies, and the absence of civil society participation. Few resources have been devoted to ending conflict and reducing the need for security forces. Project activities involved establishing a regional network, and produced a synthesis report of security sector governance in South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Afghanistan