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Women on corporate boards around the world: Triggers and barriers
One of the institutions in which the gender gap remains a contestable issue is the board of directors, where the proportion of female directors is still low. While some countries have achieved higher proportions of female directors on their corporate boards, others have not registered even a single one. Drawing on social role theory, that places emphasis on traditional gender activities, this study starts by arguing that board directorship is an agentic role and more suitable for men. The study shows that key social institutions have the potential to alleviate such stereotypical attitudes or to maintain the status quo. Employing a robust statistical technique in two-stage least squares (2SLS), this study finds that the representation of women in other key national institutions, such as in politics, positively affects the appointment of female directors on boards. On the other hand, religiosity has a negative causal effect on female board appointments
Social presence and dishonesty in retail
Self-service checkouts (SCOs) in retail can benefit consumers and retailers, providing control and autonomy to shoppers independent from staff, together with reduced queuing times. Recent research indicates that the absence of staff may provide the opportunity for consumers to behave dishonestly, consistent with a perceived lack of social presence. This study examined whether a social presence in the form of various instantiations of embodied, visual, humanlike SCO interface agents had an effect on opportunistic behaviour. Using a simulated SCO scenario, participants experienced various dilemmas in which they could financially benefit themselves undeservedly. We hypothesised that a humanlike social presence integrated within the checkout screen would receive more attention and result in fewer instances of dishonesty compared to a less humanlike agent. This was partially supported by the results. The findings contribute to the theoretical framework in social presence research. We concluded that companies adopting self-service technology may consider the implementation of social presence in technology applications to support ethical consumer behaviour, but that more research is required to explore the mixed findings in the current study.<br/
Both Strands of siRNA Have Potential to Guide Posttranscriptional Gene Silencing in Mammalian Cells
Despite the widespread application of RNA interference (RNAi) as a research tool for diverse purposes, the key step of strand selection of siRNAs during the formation of RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) remains poorly understood. Here, using siRNAs targeted to the complementary region of Survivin and the effector protease receptor 1 (EPR-1), we show that both strands of the siRNA duplex can find their target mRNA and are equally eligible for assembly into Argonaute 2 (Ago2) of RISC in HEK293 cells. Transfection of the synthetic siRNA duplexes with different thermodynamic profiles or short hairpin RNA (shRNA) vectors that generate double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs), permitting processing specifically from either the 5′ or 3′ end of the incipient siRNA, results in the degradation of the respective target mRNAs of either strand of the siRNA duplex with comparable efficiencies. Thus, while most RNAi reactions may follow the thermodynamic asymmetry rule in strand selection, our study suggests an exceptional mode for certain siRNAs in which both strands of the duplex are competent in sponsoring RNAi, and implies additional factors that might dictate the RNAi targets
Generation of cell type-specific monoclonal antibodies for the planarian and optimization of sample processing for immunolabeling
Immunohistochemical localization of truncated midkine in developing human bile ducts
Midkine (MK) is a heparin-binding growth
factor whose gene has been identified in embryonal
carcinoma cells in early stages of retinoic acid-induced
differentiation. In the present study, we investigated the
developmental localization of truncated MK protein in
human bile ducts. Thirty specimens of the livers from 25
fetuses (from 9 to 40 gestational weeks) and from five
neonates less than 4 weeks old were examined.
Immunohistochemical analysis was performed using a
mouse IgG2b monoclonal antibody against recombinanttruncated
MK. Truncated MK was expressed moderately
in the fetal liver from 9 to 15 gestational weeks. The
immunoreactivities were found in the primitive
hepatocytes, ductal plates, migrating biliary cells and
immature bile ducts. The reaction products were
localized in the cytoplasm heterogeneously. The
intensity of immunostaining was weak from 15
gestational weeks to 26 gestational weeks. After 27
gestational weeks, truncated MK was not detected in the
fetal livers. It was suggested that primitive hepatocytes,
ductal plates and immature bile ducts produced truncated
MK transiently during human bile ducts developmen
Aberrant expression of a fetal glycoprotein 68 in hepatocellular carcinoma: a comparative study on the expression of alpha-fetoprotein and carcinoembryonic antigen
A rat IgG2a monoclonal antibody against a
stage-specific fetal glycoprotein with a molecular mass
of 68 kDa (FGP68) was produced and applied to paraffin
sections. This monoclonal antibody was used to compare
the expression of FGP68 with that of both alphafetoprotein
(AFP) and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)
in 75 hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs). Seventy-five
primary HCCs from patients aged 36 to 77 years were
examined. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue
sections were used for immunohistochemical analyses.
Histologically, 6 cases of HCC were classified as type I
according to the Edmondson and Steiner criteria, 57
cases as type II, and 12 cases as type III. The cancer
tissues showed positive reactions with the antibody
against FGP68. Approximately one-third of the HCCs
(26/75) contained tumor cells that expressed FGP68 -
(21/57 for Edmondson and Steiner type II; 4/12 for type
III; and 1/6 for type I) - and positive immunoreactivity
was observed in the cytoplasm of the cancer cells.
Twenty-five of the 75 HCCs had tumor cells that
expressed AFP and there was a significant correlation
between FGP68 expression and AFP expression.
Twenty-three of the 75 HCCs had tumor cells that
expressed CEA and there was no significant correlation
between FGP68 expression and CEA expression. No
positive reactions for FGP68, AFP and CEA were
observed in samples of non-neoplastic liver tissues. Based on the possibility that stage-specific FGP68 plays
an important role in liver embryogenesis, FGP68-
expressing tumor cells might ontogenetically revert to
more primitive cells
Additional component required for activity and reconstitution of light-activated vertebrate photoreceptor GTPase.
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