The Impact of COVID 19 and Geopolitical Tensions on Small to Midsized Enterprises

EXTENDED ABSTRACT Small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) have a potentially important role to play in the global economy (SBA, 2019). International business, however, has long been considered the domain of large multinational corporations; however, a growing number of SMEs engage in some form of international business. Many SMEs may not be fully exploiting their potential to grow in international markets despite reductions in transportation and information costs that have occurred due to technology improvements and globalization that have greatly reduced the cost of international market entry (Delehanty, 2015 and Wood et al., 2015). These costs are particularly important for SMEs who lack scale economies that allow large firms to negotiate cost reductions on large shipments. SMEs also typically have a small staff (if any) that can be dedicated to developing international markets and exploring different methods of shipping (Drzeniek-Hanouz and Doherty, 2013). While many SMEs have exploited the reduced search costs associated with locating customers over the Internet, and the general growing prevalence of e-commerce activities to generate international sales, many SMEs appear to be falling short of their potential (Shooshtari et al., 2017 and Wright et al., 2017). With respect to challenges, SMEs often consider competing domestically tough enough and firms may not have the additional resources, capacity, and wherewithal to take on international markets. They considered international trade more complicated because of higher documentation requirements such as shipper\u27s letter of intent, commercial invoices, etc., and other complexities such as compliance with NAFTA/USMC rules and language barriers in dealing with foreign entities. Other internal barriers include resource constraints on managers\u27 time and a lack of managerial expertise that is needed to develop foreign markets. Many SMEs cannot afford to conduct their own market research and instead they must rely on personal contacts or experience, often operating opportunistically rather than pursuing a comprehensive international strategy (Rundh, 2015, Francioni et al., 2015). Flexibility in both production and marketing may be needed when proceeding into international markets and many SME managers lack the experience needed (Love and Roper, 2015). COVID 19 and the Geopolitical Tensions The small to midsized enterprises generally face greater challenges in entering global markets compared to larger more resourceful firms. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted global operations with significant health and business consequences. Many firms continue to face supply chain disruptions, but SMEs are more vulnerable than many larger firms. In a recent report by Mckinsey & Company, Dua et al., (2020) find that many small businesses entered the COVID-19 crisis with low financial resilience. Among respondents to their survey, close to a third were operating at a loss or just breaking even before the crisis. Humphries et al., (2020), OECD, (2020), and ITA, (2020) indicate that many small businesses were operating on very small cash reserves that would quickly be depleted. SMEs faced both demand and supply shocks due to the pandemic. Furthermore, what were once thought of as global supply chains turned out to effectively be Chinese supply chains for many SMEs. Thus, some SMEs were overly exposed to China and were hurt by the shutdown there. Adapting to new business conditions is likely to require a significant investment in technology and the creation of digital platforms for all firms. Baumgartner et al., (2020) maintain that in recent months, structural supply-chain fragility has become a chief business concern as the ongoing repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic continue around the world. Because of COVID, companies are looking to add flexibility and resilience to their supply chains and not have them centered on China. Making these changes is not an easy process. They offer three major recommendations to firms to deal with this crisis, including rethinking the traditional business models, securing value-chain competitiveness, and digitization of their supply-chain network. According to the Dua et al., (2020) study, even if SMEs can use technology and new business models as a means of survival in the post-COVID-19 world, many lack the capital, people, and access to technology that their larger counterparts have. SMEs also disproportionately operate in industries hardest hit by the pandemic and the shutdowns (Prasad, 2020, OECD, 2020). Eggers, (2020) argues that if SMEs can react appropriately the pandemic may allow innovative small businesses to take advantage of changing opportunities. Many will still need assistance. In short, the pandemic is likely to be an existential crisis for numerous SMEs and many are likely to require financial and technical assistance from both government and private-sector sources to survive (ITA, 2020, Prasad 2020, OECD, 2020). Given the inherent disadvantage of SMEs in operating in international markets, the current geopolitical tensions have only exacerbated their ability and willingness to conduct business internationally. In the current climate, many SMEs may simply conclude that the added risk and uncertainty of doing business internationally is just not worth it. It may not be a significant loss for SMEs to pull back from doing business internationally especially if their global operations were only tangential to their domestic operations. The combined impact of COVID 19 and geopolitical tensions could be mutually reinforcing in dissuading SMEs from doing business internationally or to pull back their current international operations. As stated before, the fact that global supply chains turned out to effectively be Chinese supply chains for many SMEs have made the current political tensions with China even more challenging for these smaller firms. Thus, some SMEs were overly exposed to China and were hurt by the shutdown there. The indications are that we may be in the early stages of geopolitical tensions with China so the problem is not likely to go away for many years to come. According to Shih (2022), the COVID 19 pandemic and the geopolitical tensions plus the war in Ukraine have put the fragility of the global supply chain top of mind. The global shortage of advanced semiconductor chips and the dependence of U.S., European and Japanese economies on foreign supply chains have raised protectionism and the push toward domestic resilience and the rapid growth of industrial policy initiatives. With regard to logistics, larger firms fared better than smaller firms that suffered disproportionately and were slower to see the wave of problems coming their way. Adapting to new business conditions is likely to require a significant investment in technology and the creation of digital platforms for all firms. This isn\u27t particularly surprising as Sharma et al. (2020) indicate that most small businesses don\u27t engage in international risk assessment. In terms of government assistance to these smaller firms, state and federal programs should broaden their marketing to SMEs to better show them the assistance they can provide. They should also facilitate more venues to share success stories and challenges in their region among firms in similar lines of business. The growth of the Internet and social media may provide new means to virtually deliver low-cost programs aimed at providing market and legal knowledge, assisting in trade leads, etc. via these media rather than by holding trade promotion events aimed at SMEs that may require travel time and costs. Some SMEs that can succeed in global markets won’t try unless they are encouraged and trained to break through psychological barriers to that cause them to exaggerate the risks and undervalue the opportunities. The role of small and medium enterprises in international business has been growing and becoming more important (Torres-Ortega et al., 2015). Programs that encourage mentoring of SMEs interested in international business by those already successfully engaged in international activities may provide benefits that generic programs offered by federal, state or local agencies do not. States in particular may wish to make available local mentors to SMEs to help overcome perceived barriers due to lack of knowledge, exaggerated belief in the risk of doing business internationally, or perceived poor ROI from such activities. The combined effects of COVID 19 pandemic and rising geopolitical tensions are discouraging to SMEs operating in international markets but they can be overcome or in the least mitigated. Some of the obstacles facing SMEs are structural and may be difficult to overcome. Others are psychological and can be addressed with appropriate and targeted assistance measures, both public and private, which combined with SME agility and entrepreneurial ability could pave the way for greater international success

An Analysis of the Environments of FU Orionis Objects with Herschel

We present Herschel-HIFI, SPIRE, and PACS 50-670 {\mu}m imaging and spectroscopy of six FU Orionis-type objects and candidates (FU Orionis, V1735 Cyg, V1515 Cyg, V1057 Cyg, V1331 Cyg, and HBC 722), ranging in outburst date from 1936-2010, from the "FOOSH" (FU Orionis Objects Surveyed with Herschel) program, as well as ancillary results from Spitzer-IRS and the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory. In their system properties (Lbol, Tbol, line emission), we find that FUors are in a variety of evolutionary states. Additionally, some FUors have features of both Class I and II sources: warm continuum consistent with Class II sources, but rotational line emission typical of Class I, far higher than Class II sources of similar mass/luminosity. Combining several classification techniques, we find an evolutionary sequence consistent with previous mid-IR indicators. We detect [O I] in every source at luminosities consistent with Class 0/I protostars, much greater than in Class II disks. We detect transitions of 13CO (J_up of 5 to 8) around two sources (V1735 Cyg and HBC 722) but attribute them to nearby protostars. Of the remaining sources, three (FU Ori, V1515 Cyg, and V1331 Cyg) exhibit only low-lying CO, but one (V1057 Cyg) shows CO up to J = 23 - 22 and evidence for H2O and OH emission, at strengths typical of protostars rather than T Tauri stars. Rotational temperatures for "cool" CO components range from 20-81 K, for ~ 10^50 total CO molecules. We detect [C I] and [N II] primarily as diffuse emission.Comment: 31 pages, 15 figures; accepted to Ap

Increase in b-wave amplitude after light stimulation of the blind spot is positively correlated with the axial length of myopic individuals

Altered retinal dopamine and ON-pathway activity may underlie myopia development. It has been shown that the stimulation of the blind spot with short-wavelength light increases the electroretinogram (ERG) b-wave amplitude of myopic eyes and may engage the retinal dopaminergic system. This study evaluated the impact of various durations of blind spot stimulation on the electrophysiological response of the myopic retina and their relationship to axial length. Six myopic individuals underwent three short-wavelength blue light blind spot stimulation protocols (10 s, 1 min, 10 min) using a virtual reality headset. As a control condition, no stimulation was shown for 1 min. The b-wave amplitude of the photopic full-field ERG was measured at baseline and 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 min after each condition. A significant increase in b-wave amplitude was observed for all stimulation protocols compared to the control. The peak b-wave amplitude was observed 20 min after the 1-min stimulation protocol and 60 min after the 10-min stimulation protocol. A significant positive correlation was found between axial length of the eye and percent change in b-wave amplitude for the 10-min stimulation protocol. A rapid and a delayed b-wave time course responses were observed following 1 min and 10 min of blind spot stimulation, respectively. Overall, these results indicate that light stimulation of the blind spot for various durations elevates ON-bipolar cell activity in the retina and as such is assumed to reduce the myopic response. These findings could have implications for future myopia treatment.This work was supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Industrie-in-Klinik-Plattform Program BMBF, Germany (FKZ: 13GW0256). This project was also supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) PTDC/FIS-OPT/0677/2014, the Strategic Funding UID/FIS/04650/2013 at Center of Physics, UMinho, and predoctoral grant SFRH/BD/136684/2018 to AAS

'Yes We Vote': Civic mobilisation and impulsive engagement on Instagram.

Social media have become increasingly central to civic mobilisation and protest movements around the world. Emotions, symbols, self-presentation and visual communication are emerging as key components of networked individualism and connective action by affective publics challenging established political norms. These emerging repertoires have the potential to reignite civic engagement, although their coherence and sustainability have been questioned. We explore these phenomena through an examination of Instagram use during the 2014 Romanian presidential election. Voting irregularities during the 1st round, particularly affecting the diaspora, gave rise to an impulsive civic movement utilising social media to express solidarity and drive turnout in the 2nd round. Using an original coding framework, we look at how narratives of identity, community and engagement were visually constructed by users on Instagram; the activities, settings, spaces, objects and emotions that comprised this multi-authored story. Our analysis reveals the creation of a loose “me too” collective: an emotionally charged hybrid of self-presentation and participation in a shared moment of historic significance, which otherwise lacked particular norms, political agendas or hierarchies. The civic movement on Instagram materialised primarily through photos documenting the act of voting; an imagined community that combined co-presence in physical space with virtual solidarity through photos of ballots, flags and landmarks. The platform appears to favour impulsive, symbolic and affective expression rather than rational or critical dialogue. As in other cases of post-systemic grassroots engagement, individuals came together for a short period of time and expressed the need for change, although this remained largely an abstract signifier

Variability in the organic carbon stocks, sources, and accumulation rates of Indonesian mangrove ecosystems

Mangrove ecosystems are an important natural carbon sink that accumulate and store large amounts of organic carbon (Corg), in particular in the sediment. However, the magnitude of carbon stocks and the rate of carbon accumulation (CAR) vary geographically due to a large variation of local factors. In order to better understand the blue carbon sink of mangrove ecosystems, we measured organic carbon stocks, sources and accumulation rates in three Indonesian mangrove ecosystems with different environmental settings and conditions; (i) a degraded estuarine mangrove forest in the Segara Anakan Lagoon (SAL), Central Java, (ii) an undegraded estuarine mangrove forest in Berau region, East Kalimantan, and (iii) a pristine marine mangrove forest on Kongsi Island, Thousand Islands, Jakarta. In general, Corg stocks were higher in estuarine than in marine mangroves, although a large variation was observed among the estuarine mangroves. The mean total Corg stock in Berau (615 ± 181 Mg C ha−1) is twice as high as that in SAL (298 ± 181 Mg C ha−1). However, the Segara Anakan Lagoon displayed large within-system variation with a much higher Corg stock in the eastern (483 ± 124 Mg C ha−1) than in the central lagoon (167 ± 36 Mg C ha−1). The predominant accumulation of autochthonous mangrove organic matter likely contributed to the higher Corg stocks in Berau and the eastern SAL. Interestingly, the CAR distribution pattern in SAL is opposite to that of its Corg stocks. The central SAL that receives high sediment inputs from the hinterland has a much higher CAR than the eastern SAL (658 ± 311 g C m−2 yr−1 and 194 ± 46 g C m−2 yr−1, respectively), while Berau has one of the highest CAR (1722 ± 183 g C m−2 yr−1) ever measured. It appears that these large differences are driven by the environmental setting and conditions, mainly sediment dynamics and hydrodynamics, landform, and vegetation conditions. It is inferred that quantifying carbon accumulation in sediments is a useful tool in estimating the present-day carbon storage of mangrove ecosystems. This is a precondition for taking measures under REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries) schemes

Beacon v2 and Beacon networks: A "lingua franca" for federated data discovery in biomedical genomics, and beyond

Beacon is a basic data discovery protocol issued by the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH). The main goal addressed by version 1 of the Beacon protocol was to test the feasibility of broadly sharing human genomic data, through providing simple "yes" or "no" responses to queries about the presence of a given variant in datasets hosted by Beacon providers. The popularity of this concept has fostered the design of a version 2, that better serves real-world requirements and addresses the needs of clinical genomics research and healthcare, as assessed by several contributing projects and organizations. Particularly, rare disease genetics and cancer research will benefit from new case level and genomic variant level requests and the enabling of richer phenotype and clinical queries as well as support for fuzzy searches. Beacon is designed as a "lingua franca" to bridge data collections hosted in software solutions with different and rich interfaces. Beacon version 2 works alongside popular standards like Phenopackets, OMOP, or FHIR, allowing implementing consortia to return matches in beacon responses and provide a handover to their preferred data exchange format. The protocol is being explored by other research domains and is being tested in several international projects

Mitochondrial DNA Mutations Induce Mitochondrial Dysfunction, Apoptosis and Sarcopenia in Skeletal Muscle of Mitochondrial DNA Mutator Mice

Background: Aging results in a progressive loss of skeletal muscle, a condition known as sarcopenia. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations accumulate with aging in skeletal muscle and correlate with muscle loss, although no causal relationship has been established. Methodology/Principal Findings: We investigated the relationship between mtDNA mutations and sarcopenia at the gene expression and biochemical levels using a mouse model that expresses a proofreading-deficient version (D257A) of the mitochondrial DNA Polymerase c, resulting in increased spontaneous mtDNA mutation rates. Gene expression profiling of D257A mice followed by Parametric Analysis of Gene Set Enrichment (PAGE) indicates that the D257A mutation is associated with a profound downregulation of gene sets associated with mitochondrial function. At the biochemical level, sarcopenia in D257A mice is associated with a marked reduction (35–50%) in the content of electron transport chain (ETC) complexes I, III and IV, all of which are partly encoded by mtDNA. D257A mice display impaired mitochondrial bioenergetics associated with compromised state-3 respiration, lower ATP content and a resulting decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential (Dym). Surprisingly, mitochondrial dysfunction was not accompanied by an increase in mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) production or oxidative damage. Conclusions/Significance: These findings demonstrate that mutations in mtDNA can be causal in sarcopenia by affecting the assembly of functional ETC complexes, the lack of which provokes a decrease in oxidative phosphorylation, without an increase in oxidative stress, and ultimately, skeletal muscle apoptosis and sarcopenia

Fine-mapping identifies multiple prostate cancer risk loci at 5p15, one of which associates with TERT expression

Associations between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at 5p15 and multiple cancer types have been reported. We have previously shown evidence for a strong association between prostate cancer (PrCa) risk and rs2242652 at 5p15, intronic in the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene that encodes TERT. To comprehensively evaluate the association between genetic variation across this region and PrCa, we performed a fine-mapping analysis by genotyping 134 SNPs using a custom Illumina iSelect array or Sequenom MassArray iPlex, followed by imputation of 1094 SNPs in 22 301 PrCa cases and 22 320 controls in The PRACTICAL consortium. Multiple stepwise logistic regression analysis identified four signals in the promoter or intronic regions of TERT that independently associated with PrCa risk. Gene expression analysis of normal prostate tissue showed evidence that SNPs within one of these regions also associated with TERT expression, providing a potential mechanism for predisposition to disease