Establishing Data Collection Procedures Equivalence in International Business Research

Following a number of earlier studies on data equivalence in cross-cultural international business research, this article uses a content analysis of articles published in four leading international business journals from 2000 to 2009, to uncover the equivalence in current state of data collection procedures used by researchers in mail surveys. The results show that, despite repeated calls and the existence of a well established theoretical framework for mail survey data collection by Don Dillman (1978, 1999), international business scholars have not been inspired to adopt and report the data collection procedures adequately in their work. We hope this work will draw due attention to the aspect in international business research.International business research · Mail survey · Data collection procedure · Equivalence and Content analysis

Legalized Racial Profiling and Arizona SB1070: A Framing Effects Study

Immigration has become one of the most important topics on the agenda of federal and state governments. President Obama just passed his pro-immigration executive order allowing five million undocumented immigrants to gain legal work visas. Conversely, there are laws such as Arizona Law SB1070, passed by Governor Jan Brewer in 2010, opposing Obama\u27s pro-immigration stance. In the case of Arizona Law SB1070, it is important to have a basic understanding of the stereotypical perceptions people have of immigrants if laws like these are going to be enforced. In this study, we experimentally manipulated a real-life scenario of an immigrant being pulled over by an Arizona police officer who detains the immigrant for failing to produce his documents. By manipulating three frames, country of origin, immigration status, and occupation, we look to see if there is an effect on the acceptance of Arizona SB1070 based on the combination of frames given. The results showed that only one frame was significant, the immigration status frame (p\u3c0.001)

Characterization of a c-Jun N-Terminal Kinase Pathway in the Parasitic Nematode, Brugia malayi

Lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis) is a major neglected disease caused by filarial nematodes including; Wuchereria bancrofti, Brugia malayi {B. malayi) and Brugia timori. Over 120 million individuals are infected and more than 1.3 billion people are at risk of infection in 81 endemic countries. Current treatments are limited, toxic and fail to kill adult parasites. There is a need for new target and treatments. One potential novel drug target for this disease is stress-activated protein kinases. It has been previously demonstrated in our laboratory that a B. malayi stress-activated protein kinase, Bm- MPK1, an ortholog of the human p38/Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) PMK-1, plays a role in protecting B. malayi from oxidative stress. I have characterized a second, evolutionary conserved stress activated kinase pathway, the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) pathway. B. malayi expresses a single JNK kinase (Bm-JNKl) isoform which is highly homologous to both human and Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) JNK kinases. In C. elegans, it has been demonstrated through genetic means that JNK plays a role in several responses such as heavy metal stress, heat shock, and coordination of movement. Using heavy metal stress as a model system, I have demonstrated that treatment of B. malayi parasites with human JNK inhibitors, under heavy metal stress conditions, results in decreased motility and viability of adult and larval forms of the parasite. Furthermore, I have expressed recombinant Bm-JNKl and characterized its enzymatic activity with the ultimate goal of screening JNK inhibitors for activity against this enzyme. These results define a JNK pathway in B. malayi with functions similar to those found in C. elegans

Effect of inversion asymmetry on the intrinsic anomalous Hall effect in ferromagnetic (Ga,Mn)As

The relativistic nature of the electron motion underlies the intrinsic part of the anomalous Hall effect, believed to dominate in ferromagnetic (Ga,Mn)As. In this paper, we concentrate on the crystal band structure as an important facet to the description of this phenomenon. Using different k.p and tight-binding computational schemes, we capture the strong effect of the bulk inversion asymmetry on the Berry curvature and the anomalous Hall conductivity. At the same time, we find it not to affect other important characteristics of (Ga,Mn)As, namely the Curie temperature and uniaxial anisotropy fields. Our results extend the established theories of the anomalous Hall effect in ferromagnetic semiconductors and shed new light on its puzzling nature

Establishing Data Collection Procedures Equivalence

Following a number of earlier studies on data equivalence in cross-cultural international business research, this article uses a content analysis of articles published in four leading international business journals from 2000 to 2009, to uncover the equivalence in current state of data collection procedures used by researchers in mail surveys. The results show that, despite repeated calls and the existence of a well established theoretical framework for mail survey data collection by Don Dillman (1978, 1999), international business scholars have not been inspired to adopt and report the data collection procedures adequately in their work. We hope this work will draw due attention to the aspect in international business research.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/133028/1/wp1013.pd

Four-pion production in tau decays and e+e- annihilation: an update

An improved description of four-pion production in electron-positron annihilation and in tau lepton decays is presented. The model amplitude is fitted to recent data from BaBar which cover a wide energy range and which were obtained exploiting the radiative return. Predicting tau decay distributions from e+e- data and comparing these predictions with ALEPH and CLEO results, the validity of isospin symmetry is confirmed within the present experimental errors. A good description of two- and three-pion sub-distributions is obtained. Special emphasis is put on the predictions for omega pi (-> pi+pi-pi0) in e+e- annihilation and in tau decay. The model amplitude is implemented in the Monte Carlo generator PHOKHARA.Comment: a few typos correcte

Dietary Prebiotics and Bioactive Milk Fractions Improve NREM Sleep, Enhance REM Sleep Rebound and Attenuate the Stress-Induced Decrease in Diurnal Temperature and Gut Microbial Alpha Diversity.

Severe, repeated or chronic stress produces negative health outcomes including disruptions of the sleep/wake cycle and gut microbial dysbiosis. Diets rich in prebiotics and glycoproteins impact the gut microbiota and may increase gut microbial species that reduce the impact of stress. This experiment tested the hypothesis that consumption of dietary prebiotics, lactoferrin (Lf) and milk fat globule membrane (MFGM) will reduce the negative physiological impacts of stress. Male F344 rats, postnatal day (PND) 24, received a diet with prebiotics, Lf and MFGM (test) or a calorically matched control diet. Fecal samples were collected on PND 35/70/91 for 16S rRNA sequencing to examine microbial composition and, in a subset of rats; Lactobacillus rhamnosus was measured using selective culture. On PND 59, biotelemetry devices were implanted to record sleep/wake electroencephalographic (EEG). Rats were exposed to an acute stressor (100, 1.5 mA, tail shocks) on PND 87 and recordings continued until PND 94. Test diet, compared to control diet, increased fecal Lactobacillus rhamnosus colony forming units (CFU), facilitated non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep consolidation (PND 71/72) and enhanced rapid eye movement (REM) sleep rebound after stressor exposure (PND 87). Rats fed control diet had stress-induced reductions in alpha diversity and diurnal amplitude of temperature, which were attenuated by the test diet (PND 91). Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed a significant linear relationship between early-life Deferribacteres (PND 35) and longer NREM sleep episodes (PND 71/72). A diet containing prebiotics, Lf and MFGM enhanced sleep quality, which was related to changes in gut bacteria and modulated the impact of stress on sleep, diurnal rhythms and the gut microbiota

Inverse opal hydrogel scaffolds as lymphoid microenvironments for the study of immune cell migration and immunotherapy

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 95-108).Immunotherapies harness the inherent potential of the body to destroy foreign or infected cells, by stimulating new or enhancing existing immune responses. One way to boost insufficient native immunity might be to engineer lymphoid tissue at disease sites (e.g., tumors). Such neotissues could be formed by attracting or transferring immune cells into a defined microenvironment supportive of their activation. In addition to having therapeutic potential, such artificial lymphoid scaffolds could be used as in vitro models to investigate how immune cells respond to changing properties of their environment (e.g., architecture or biochemistry). We developed and tested macroporous poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogel scaffolds as a platform for lymphoid tissue models and immunotherapy. By applying the method of colloidal crystal templating to materials and length scales appropriate for soft tissues, PEG hydrogels with arrays of ordered, interconnected pores were prepared. These combined the attractive properties of hydrogels, including biochemical versatility and tissue-mimetic mechanical properties, with the benefits of a macroporous structure, including improved nutrient transport and a defined space for cell interactions.(cont.) Moreover, the ordered pore arrangement provided high interconnectivity at unprecedented (low) porosities. We primarily tested the migratory responses of T cells to these novel hydrogel scaffolds, due to the importance of rapid T cell motility in promoting efficient immune responses. Varying the choice of adhesion ligand coating the scaffolds prompted significant T cell trafficking only for the case of intercellular-adhesion-molecule I (ICAM-1), and ultimately, a composite scaffold structure was required to attain in vivo-like cell migration. In this modified structure, the porous PEG hydrogel provided mechanical stability and the ability to deliver proteins of interest, while an infused collagen matrix supported intra-scaffold migration of loaded T cells and dendritic cells. We tested the effect of scaffold architecture in the composites, and found that increasing the PEG pore size enhanced T cell motility. We also demonstrated the delivery of the chemokine CCL21 - a cytokine likely to be useful for immunotherapy - to cells within composite scaffolds. This hybrid scaffold approach combines the strengths of the synthetic and biopolymer hydrogels used in a complementary fashion, and may be generally useful for tissue engineering.by Agnieszka Stachowiak.Ph.D

Data Collection Procedures Equivalence in International Business Research

Following the work undertaken by Hult el al., (2008) on data equivalence in cross-cultural international business research, this study examines mail survey administration procedures equivalence within 94 studies published in the Journal of International Business Studies from 2000-2008.The results show that, despite the existence of a well established theoretical frameworks for mail survey data collection by Don Dillman (1978, 1999), international business researchers have not been inspired to adopt and report the data collection procedures adequately in their work. We hope this work will bring to an end continuance of this neglect.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/133057/1/wp977.pd