Catholic Social Services, Inc. v. C.A.A.: Best Interests and Statutory Construction of the Indian Child Welfare Act

The concept of "proteoglycans" as discrete molecules surfaced some 40 years ago, out of previously muddled notions of the extracellular matrix. Core proteins were gradually recognized as molecular entities, distinct with regard to location, substitution with glycosaminoglycan (GAG) chains and biological function. This development is surveyed, with brief outline of methodological approaches, biosynthesis, and functional aspects. Special emphasis is given to the impact of genomics on the field. Some outstanding unresolved issues are emphasized, including regulation of GAG biosynthesis and the specificity of GAG-protein interactions

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst: barriers to service innovation

Purpose Despite the growing scholarly interest in service innovation and its associated benefits for organizations, research into the barriers to developing new services remains scant. In addition, most of these studies have been mainly conducted at the firm level, failing to incorporate macro forces in the industry. To fill this gap, this study aims to investigate major industry trends as well as organizational attributes that affect organizations’ capability in designing innovative services. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach was used. In all, 21 semi-structured interviews with senior executives in different banks were conducted to collect data. Data were analyzed through thematic analysis. Findings The results of this study suggest that privatization, technological shortcomings, legislative inefficiencies and deposit orientation instead of market orientation were major industry trends that affect service innovation. Furthermore, ambiguity in knowledge management regimes, silo mentality and the absence of a collaborative organizational culture, growing need to focus on human capital and risk aversion were the main organizational attributes that should be addressed for effective service innovation. Practical implications Service innovation is a strategic asset for organizations. To effectively leverage the benefits, managers should have an end-to-end approach toward the subject. The findings of this study would inform managers of different obstacles in the development of new services from an organizational and industry-wide perspective. Based on the outputs of the interviews and a thorough review of the literature, managerial implications are presented. Originality/value This study is one of the few studies that explores service innovation challenges at both macro and micro levels of analysis, providing a more holistic view of the phenomenon in the context of service organizations

The Impact of Topographic Steepness on Tidal Dissipation at Bumpy Topography

Breaking internal waves are an important contributor to mixing in the stratified ocean interior. We use two-dimensional, nonhydrostatic numerical simulations to examine the breaking of internal waves generated by tidal flow over sinusoidal bottom topography. We explore the sensitivity of the internal wave breaking to the topographic steepness and Coriolis frequency, focusing on the vertical structure of kinetic energy dissipation and the ratio of local dissipation to the barotropic-to-baroclinic energy conversion. When the tidal frequency is twice the local Coriolis frequency, wave breaking above the topography is driven by wave–wave interactions which transfer wave energy from the tidal forcing frequency to the inertial frequency. The greater shear associated with the inertial frequency waves leads to enhanced dissipation in a thick layer above the topography. The topographic steepness strongly modulates this dependence of dissipation on Coriolis frequency; for some steep sinusoidal topographies, most wave energy propagates downward into the topographic troughs, eliminating the possibility for significant breaking above the topographic peaks. Current parameterizations of tidal dissipation in use in global ocean models need to be adapted to include the dependence of the local dissipation on both the Coriolis frequency and the topographic steepness

Compiler-Aided Methodology for Low Overhead On-line Testing

Reliability is emerging as an important design criterion in modern systems due to increasing transient fault rates. Hardware fault-tolerance techniques, commonly used to address this, introduce high design costs. As alternative, software Signature-Monitoring (SM) schemes based on compiler assertions are an efficient method for control-flow-error detection. Existing SM techniques do not consider application-specific-information causing unnecessary overheads. In this paper, compile-time Control-Flow-Graph (CFG) topology analysis is used to place best-suited assertions at optimal locations of the assembly code to reduce overheads. Our evaluation with representative workloads shows fault-coverage increase with overheads close to Assertion- based Control-Flow Correction (ACFC), the method with lowest overhead. Compared to ACFC, our technique improves (on average) fault coverage by 17%, performance overhead by 5% and power-consumption by 3% with equal code-size overhead

How leadership affects organisational citizenship behaviour – a study of independent hotels

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that managers in independent hotels can influence to improve organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) by examining the relationship between leadership style and OCB through newly developed balanced organisational culture and trust variables. Unlike most studies, which have been on chain hotels, this study investigates these relationships in independent hotels in Iran. Additionally, organisational size was also included in the study. Design/methodology/approach: Using information from Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism 160 independent hotels were identified and approached. A survey was assembled using well-known instruments. 392 usable questionnaires, out of 1150 distributed, were collected from employees and analysed using SEM. Findings: Contrary to previous studies, we found that in this context neither transformational nor transactional leadership affects trust directly but only through balanced organisational culture and only transactional leadership had a direct relationship with OCB. Also, organisational size had a moderating effect on the relationship between trust and OCB. Originality/value: We add to the theoretical literature dealing with the different behaviour of constructs developed in a Western context in other contexts and suggests that hotel managers in a collectivist culture, like Iran, who want to build OCB can do so by creating organisational culture conditions (Balanced Organisational Culture) that foster trust between managers and their subordinate

The dysbindin-containing complex (BLOC-1) in brain: developmental regulation, interaction with SNARE proteins and role in neurite outgrowth.

Previous studies have implicated DTNBP1 as a schizophrenia susceptibility gene and its encoded protein, dysbindin, as a potential regulator of synaptic vesicle physiology. In this study, we found that endogenous levels of the dysbindin protein in the mouse brain are developmentally regulated, with higher levels observed during embryonic and early postnatal ages than in young adulthood. We obtained biochemical evidence indicating that the bulk of dysbindin from brain exists as a stable component of biogenesis of lysosome-related organelles complex-1 (BLOC-1), a multi-subunit protein complex involved in intracellular membrane trafficking and organelle biogenesis. Selective biochemical interaction between brain BLOC-1 and a few members of the SNARE (soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptor) superfamily of proteins that control membrane fusion, including SNAP-25 and syntaxin 13, was demonstrated. Furthermore, primary hippocampal neurons deficient in BLOC-1 displayed neurite outgrowth defects. Taken together, these observations suggest a novel role for the dysbindin-containing complex, BLOC-1, in neurodevelopment, and provide a framework for considering potential effects of allelic variants in DTNBP1--or in other genes encoding BLOC-1 subunits--in the context of the developmental model of schizophrenia pathogenesis

How leadership affects organisational citizenship behaviour – a study of independent hotels

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that managers in independent hotels can influence to improve organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) by examining the relationship between leadership style and OCB through newly developed balanced organisational culture and trust variables. Unlike most studies, which have been on chain hotels, this study investigates these relationships in independent hotels in Iran. Additionally, organisational size was also included in the study. Design/methodology/approach: Using information from Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism 160 independent hotels were identified and approached. A survey was assembled using well-known instruments. 392 usable questionnaires, out of 1150 distributed, were collected from employees and analysed using SEM. Findings: Contrary to previous studies, we found that in this context neither transformational nor transactional leadership affects trust directly but only through balanced organisational culture and only transactional leadership had a direct relationship with OCB. Also, organisational size had a moderating effect on the relationship between trust and OCB. Originality/value: We add to the theoretical literature dealing with the different behaviour of constructs developed in a Western context in other contexts and suggests that hotel managers in a collectivist culture, like Iran, who want to build OCB can do so by creating organisational culture conditions (Balanced Organisational Culture) that foster trust between managers and their subordinates

New species of Colletotrichum from wild Poaceae and Cyperaceae plants in Iran

Twenty-two Colletotrichum strains were isolated from anthracnose symptoms or leaf spots on leaves of various wild Poaceae and Cyperaceae plants collected in three provinces of Iran and tentatively identified as belonging to the Graminicola species complex based on morphology. All strains were studied via a polyphasic approach combining colony characteristics, morphology and phylogeny inferred from multi-locus sequences, including the nuc rDNA ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 (ITS), partial sequences of the β-tubulin (tub2), actin (act), manganese superoxide dismutase 2 (sod2), DNA lyase 2 (apn2) genes, a 200-bp intron of the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (gapdh), and the intergenic spacer between the apn2 gene and the mat1 idiomorph (apn2/mat1). Six species were distinguished, including three new species, namely C. caspicum, C. persicum, and C. sacchari, and three previously described species, C. cereale, C. nicholsonii and C. sublineola. Comprehensive morphological descriptions and illustrations are provided for all species. Furthermore, this study provided new insights into the distribution and host range of known species

Organizational justice in the hotel industry: revisiting GLOBE from a national culture perspective

Purpose - Despite its significance, national culture is often underrepresented in the hospitality industry. Implementing tools such as the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE), while valuable to a considerable extent, might induce false assumptions about of the universality of managerial practices for hotels through purposefully ignoring the in-group variations within each cultural cluster. Because employees’ perceptions are deeply rooted in context-specific value systems, this study challenges the tendency to adopt a globalized approach to leadership and management through investigating potential variations in employees’ perceptions in two countries in the south Asian cluster of the GLOBE. Design/methodology/approach - Data were collected by using hard-copy and online by convenience-sampling technique from a sample of hotel employees and managers in Iran (392) and India (421). Structural equation modeling using AMOS 22 was adopted to test the hypotheses. Findings - Both similarities and differences were observed between the Iranian and Indian contexts. The similarities confirm that GLOBE is correct to place them in the same regional cluster but the differences which relate to perceptions of organizational justice are also revealing. While Procedural Justice affects organizational factors that influence employee motivation with the Iranian sample, Distributive Justice has no effect, whereas with the Indian sample these results were the other way around. Implications – For scholars and practitioners we show that organizational theories and concepts cannot necessarily be transferred from a Western context to other parts of the world without making adjustments for national culture and generalizations cannot even be made within regions of similar culture. For example, this study shows that in Iran organizational justice is perceived differently from how it is perceived in India. Originality - This study extends the literature about the effect of national culture on the hotel employees’ cognitions and behaviours through shedding light on the divergence between countries within the same regional cluster in the GLOBE classification

Brachial Flow-Mediated Dilation and Incident Atrial Fibrillation The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

Objective—It is unknown whether endothelial dysfunction precedes atrial fibrillation (AF) development. The objective of this study was to examine the association of brachial flow-mediated dilation (FMD) with incident AF. Approach and Results—A total of 2936 participants (mean age, 61±9.9 years; 50% women; 66% nonwhites) from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis with available ultrasound brachial FMD measurements who were free of baseline AF were included in this analysis. Baseline (2000–2002) FMD was computed from the percentage difference (%FMD) in brachial artery diameter and maximum diameter during measured vasodilator response. AF was ascertained from hospitalization data including Medicare claims during a median follow-up of 8.5 years. Probability-weighted Cox proportional-hazards regression was used to compute hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals for the association between FMD as a continuous variable (%FMD values per 1-SD increase) and incident AF. Incident AF was detected in 137 (4.7%) participants. Those with %FMD values below the sex-specific median value (median %FMD; men, 3.6%; women, 4.2%; incidence rate per 1000 person-years, 7.3; 95% confidence interval, 5.9–9.0) were more likely to develop AF than people whose %FMD values were above the median value (incidence rate per 1000 person-years, 4.5; 95% confidence interval, 3.4–5.8; log-rank P=0.0043). In a multivariable Cox regression analysis, each 1-SD increase in %FMD values (SD, 2.8%) was associated with less incident AF (hazard ratio, 0.84; 95% confidence interval, 0.70–0.99). These results were consistent across subgroups stratified by age, sex, and race/ethnicity. Conclusions—Smaller brachial FMD values are associated with higher rates of AF, sugge