Descriptive statistics and T-test results.

Social Media is an important means of communication with audiences around the world. The purpose of this study was to explore whether GM—a famous US auto company adapts its US Cultural values to suit the prevalent cultural values of its Chinese stakeholders on Chinese social media. Content analysis was used to evaluate the cultural content of GM Company’s posts on Weibo and Twitter. Although influenced by the special features of the car industry, there is still enough evidence that the communication style of the US auto Company makes cultural adaption on Chinese social media, reflecting more Chinese prevalent cultural values.</div

Descriptive statistics and T-test for cultural categories.

Descriptive statistics and T-test for cultural categories.</p

Conceptual framework.

Social Media is an important means of communication with audiences around the world. The purpose of this study was to explore whether GM—a famous US auto company adapts its US Cultural values to suit the prevalent cultural values of its Chinese stakeholders on Chinese social media. Content analysis was used to evaluate the cultural content of GM Company’s posts on Weibo and Twitter. Although influenced by the special features of the car industry, there is still enough evidence that the communication style of the US auto Company makes cultural adaption on Chinese social media, reflecting more Chinese prevalent cultural values.</div

Cultural dimensions and sub-categories.

Social Media is an important means of communication with audiences around the world. The purpose of this study was to explore whether GM—a famous US auto company adapts its US Cultural values to suit the prevalent cultural values of its Chinese stakeholders on Chinese social media. Content analysis was used to evaluate the cultural content of GM Company’s posts on Weibo and Twitter. Although influenced by the special features of the car industry, there is still enough evidence that the communication style of the US auto Company makes cultural adaption on Chinese social media, reflecting more Chinese prevalent cultural values.</div

H⁺-ATPase and Na⁺/H⁺ antiport activities at plasma membrane vesicles.

<p>Plasma membranes were isolated from mutant cells (AXT3K) and related transgenic strains (SpSOS1, SpAHA1 and SpSOS1+SpAHA1) using the aqueous two-phase system. Fluorescent quenching of quinacrine was used to monitor the acidification of plasma membrane vesicles from these yeast cells. Formation of a pH gradient, indicating that H⁺ was pumped into the vesicles, was initiated with ATP. Once fluorescence was stabilized, 50 mM Na₂SO₄ was added to the cuvette, and fluorescence recovery, indicating Na⁺/H⁺ exchange, was monitored. The reaction was terminated by adding 25 mM (NH₄)₂SO₄, which dissipated the pH gradient. The change in fluorescence is expressed as arbitrary units (A). H⁺-ATPase activity was analyzed by measuring ΔpH across the membrane; it is expressed as the change in fluorescence quenching per minute per milligrams of membrane protein (ΔF/min/mg protein) (B). Na⁺/H⁺ exchange activity is given as the proportion of dissipation of the preformed pH gradient per minute per milligram of membrane protein (ΔF%/ min/mg protein) (C). Values are expressed as the means±SE of three replicates.</p

Na⁺ content in yeast cells.

<p>The Na⁺ content in unstressed yeast cells and yeast cells treated with 30 mM NaCl was measured. Values are expressed as the means±SE (n = 3). AXT3K: the non-transformed yeast strain; SpAHA1: the AXT3K strain transformed with plasmid p414-SpAHA1; SpSOS1: the AXT3K strain transformed with plasmid p416-SpSOS1; SpSOS1+SpAHA1: the mutant strain AXT3K co-transformed with plasmids p416-SpSOS1 and p414-AHA1.</p

SpSOS1 and SpAHA1 proteins are localized at the plasma membrane.

<p>SpSOS1-GFP, SpAHA1-GFP and AtSOS1-GFP fusion proteins were produced as described in the Methods and Materials section. Tobacco leaves were transformed with the vector pCAMBIA1300 containing GFP alone (GFP), pCAMBIA1300-SpSOS1-GFP (SpSOS1-GFP), pCAMBIA1300-SpAHA1-GFP (SpAHA1-GFP) or pCAMBIA1300-AtSOS1-GFP (AtSOS1-GFP). GFP signals from epidermal cells (left panel; scale bars = 50 μm) and mesophyll protoplasts (right panel; scale bars = 10 μm) of tobacco leaves transiently expressing either GFP alone, SpSOS1-GFP, SpAHA1-GFP or AtSOS1-GFP were recorded using confocal microscopy.</p

Effect of salt stress on the growth of yeast cells.

<p>The wild-type strain (W303), mutant cells (AXT3K) and recombinant strains (SpSOS1, SpAHA1 and SpSOS1+SpAHA1) were grown to saturation, and then 10-μL serial decimal dilutions were spotted onto AP plates supplemented with 0, 50, 75, or 150 mM NaCl. SpSOS1: the AXT3K strain transformed with plasmid p416-SpSOS1; SpAHA1: the AXT3K strain transformed with plasmid p414-SpAHA1; SpSOS1+SpAHA1: mutant strain AXT3K co-transformed with plasmids p416-SpSOS1 and p414-AHA1; AXT3K: untransformed mutant strain AXT3K; W303: wild-type yeast strain W303.</p

Changes in <i>SpSOS1</i> and <i>SpAHA1</i> mRNAs in <i>S</i>. <i>portulacastrum</i> exposed to salinity.

<p>Seedlings were treated with 400, 600 or 800 mM NaCl. The expression of <i>SpSOS1</i> (A, B) and <i>SpAHA1</i> (C, D) was analyzed in roots (A, C) and leaves (B, D) at different time intervals (0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 24 and 48 h) under salt treatment using real-time PCR. The expression value at the initial time (0 h) was set to 1, and the expression levels at the other time points under salinity treatment were calculated as the fold of the value at 0 h. Values are expressed as the means±SE (n = 3).</p

Structural analysis of SpSOS1 and SpAHA1 proteins.

<p>(A) Phylogenetic tree of plasma membrane Na⁺/H⁺ antiporters from plants. SpSOS1 (JX674067), AtSOS1 (NM_126259), OsSOS1 (AY785147), PtSOS1 (XM_002315801), TaSOS1 (FN356232) and ThSOS1 (EF207775) indicate Na⁺/H⁺ antiporters from <i>Sesuvium portulacastrum</i>, <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i>, <i>Oryza sativa</i>, <i>Populus trichocarpa</i>, <i>Triticum aestivum</i> and <i>Thellungiella halophila</i>, respectively. (B) Phylogenetic tree of plasma membrane H⁺-ATPases from plants. SpAHA1 (JX628604) indicates <i>Sesuvium portulacastrum</i> H⁺-ATPase. AtAHA1 (NM_127453), AtAHA2 (NM_001203941), AtAHA3 (NM_001203630), AtAHA4 (NM_114664), AtAHA5 (NM_128013), AtAHA6 (NM_126721), AtAHA7 (NM_115897), AtAHA8 (NM_114131), AtAHA9 (NM_001198521), AtAHA10 (NM_101587), and AtAHA11 (NM_125662) indicate <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i> H⁺-ATPases. The phylogenetic trees were constructed using the MEGA5.0 software based on multiple alignments of full-length protein sequences. Evolutionary distances were computed using the neighbor joining method. Bootstrap values are indicated at the nodes of the tree and are expressed as percentages.</p