The Journey of Expatriates from pre Expatriation to post Expatriation

Business has become increasingly international in the last few decades. The development of research which targets the adjustment of expatriates in the foreign cultures is due to the international movement of human resources. The best way to prevent expatriate failure- provides effective preparation, support and training to the expats and their tailing families. In the literature various theories and models explaining cross-cultural adjustment have been adequately discussed. These theories and models provide a framework that leads to consistent and more powerful findings. This study proposes a theoretical framework based on the basis of comments of previous researchers.expatriate; adjustment; selection; acculturation; repatriation.

Philanthropy to Corporate Social Responsibility: An Indian Perspective

Purpose – Corporate social responsibility (CSR) involves corporations, states, international organizations and civil society organizations. It has emerged as a global trend. The various concerns regarding CSR includes: what CSR stands for, what the trend really is, where it comes from, where it is heading and who the leading actors are. And these issues are still far from clear. The purpose of this paper is to examine the trend of CSR in all its complexity and look forward in the potential impact and major concerns related to it. Design/methodology/approach – Combined analysis of central documents and publications on CSR with analysis of articles related to CSR. Findings – Apart from defining and explaining the various issues related to CSR, the paper throws further insights in the prevalent trends of CSR in various corporate in India. Originality/value – The conceptual explanations shows the likely development and potential impact of a corporate social development. Moreover, the discussions help us reflect on the formation of management trends.Social responsibility; Philanthropy; CSR reporting; CSR audit.

Managers’ Perspectives on the Effects of Online Grapevine Communication: A Qualitative Inquiry

The purpose of this study was to understand how modern-day managers perceived their subordinates were reacting to the phenomenon of online grapevine communication in the workplace. A qualitative inductive inquiry drawing upon techniques of grounded theory was conducted to collect and analyze feedback provided by 15 top-level corporate managers from 10 organizations in India. Managers cited several evidences of employees engaging in online grapevine communication and discussed reasons behind such behavior. Some of the key factors behind such behavior of employees were level of internet familiarity, anonymity of the rumor mongers, quicker and wider reach and opportunity for cyber loafing. A theory of antecedents of online grapevine communication and management reaction to this phenomenon gradually emerged from our data

Activation of serum/glucocorticoid-induced kinase 1 (SGK1) underlies increased glycogen levels, mTOR activation, and autophagy defects in Lafora disease

Lafora disease (LD), a fatal genetic form of myoclonic epilepsy, is characterized by abnormally high levels of cellular glycogen and its accumulation as Lafora bodies in affected tissues. Therefore the two defective proteins in LD—laforin phosphatase and malin ubiquitin ligase—are believed to be involved in glycogen metabolism. We earlier demonstrated that laforin and malin negatively regulate cellular glucose uptake by preventing plasma membrane targeting of glucose transporters. We show here that loss of laforin results in activation of serum/glucocorticoid-induced kinase 1 (SGK1) in cellular and animals models and that inhibition of SGK1 in laforin-deficient cells reduces the level of plasma membrane-bound glucose transporter, glucose uptake, and the consequent glycogen accumulation. We also provide evidence to suggest that mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) activates SGK1 kinase in laforin-deficient cells. The mTOR activation appears to be a glucose-dependent event, and overexpression of dominant-negative SGK1 suppresses mTOR activation, suggesting the existence of a feedforward loop between SGK1 and mTOR. Our findings indicate that inhibition of SGK1 activity could be an effective therapeutic approach to suppress glycogen accumulation, inhibit mTOR activity, and rescue autophagy defects in LD

The laforin-malin complex negatively regulates glycogen synthesis by modulating cellular glucose uptake via glucose transporters

Lafora disease (LD), an inherited and fatal neurodegenerative disorder, is characterized by increased cellular glycogen content and the formation of abnormally branched glycogen inclusions, called Lafora bodies, in the affected tissues, including neurons. Therefore, laforin phosphatase and malin ubiquitin E3 ligase, the two proteins that are defective in LD, are thought to regulate glycogen synthesis through an unknown mechanism, the defects in which are likely to underlie some of the symptoms of LD. We show here that laforin's subcellular localization is dependent on the cellular glycogen content and that the stability of laforin is determined by the cellular ATP level, the activity of 5′-AMP-activated protein kinase, and the affinity of malin toward laforin. By using cell and animal models, we further show that the laforin-malin complex regulates cellular glucose uptake by modulating the subcellular localization of glucose transporters; loss of malin or laforin resulted in an increased abundance of glucose transporters in the plasma membrane and therefore excessive glucose uptake. Loss of laforin or malin, however, did not affect glycogen catabolism. Thus, the excessive cellular glucose level appears to be the primary trigger for the abnormally higher levels of cellular glycogen seen in LD

Efficient Concurrent Execution of Smart Contracts in Blockchains using Object-based Transactional Memory

This paper proposes an efficient framework to execute Smart Contract Transactions (SCTs) concurrently based on object semantics, using optimistic Single-Version Object-based Software Transactional Memory Systems (SVOSTMs) and Multi-Version OSTMs (MVOSTMs). In our framework, a multi-threaded miner constructs a Block Graph (BG), capturing the object-conflicts relations between SCTs, and stores it in the block. Later, validators re-execute the same SCTs concurrently and deterministically relying on this BG. A malicious miner can modify the BG to harm the blockchain, e.g., to cause double-spending. To identify malicious miners, we propose Smart Multi-threaded Validator (SMV). Experimental analysis shows that the proposed multi-threaded miner and validator achieve significant performance gains over state-of-the-art SCT execution framework.Comment: 49 pages, 26 figures, 11 table

Survey on Reversible Data Hiding in Encrypted Images Using POB Histogram Method

This paper describes a survey on reversible data hiding in encrypted images. Data hiding is a process to embed useful data into cover media. Data invisibility is its major requirement. Data hiding can be done in audio, video, image, text, and picture. Here use an image for data hiding especially digital images and existing method (Histogram Block Shift Base Method) HBSBM or POB. Now a day's reversible data hiding in encrypted images is in use due to its excellent property which is original cover image can be recovered with no loss after extraction of the embedded data. Also, it protects the original data. According to the level and kind of application one or more data hiding methods is used. Data hiding can be done in audio, video, text, and image and other forms of information. Some data hiding techniques emphasize on digital image security, some on the robustness of digital image hiding process while other's main focus is on imperceptibility of a digital image. The capacity of digital information which has to hide is also the main concern in some of the applications. The objective of some of the papers mentioned below is to achieve two or more than two parameters i.e. Security, robustness, imperceptibility and capacity but some of the parameters are trade-off which means only one can be achieved on the cost of other. So the data hiding techniques aiming to achieve maximum requirements i.e. security, robustness, capacity, imperceptibility etc. and which can be utilized in the larger domain of applications is desired. Related work for techniques used for data hiding in a digital image is described in this paper

Antagonistic Effects of Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas fluorescens Against Seed- Borne Mycoflora of Pennisetum americanum

Antagonistic activity of two bacteria Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas fluorescens against Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus terreus and Fusarium oxysporum of Pennisetum americanum was studied. In vitro studied were carried out in both dual culture technique and blotter test method. In dual culture technique the Bacillus subtilis was most antagonistic ones to the seed-borne mycoflora in vitro, while the other isolate Pseudomonas fluroescens did not show any antagonistic activity on any seed-borne mycoflora. Bacillus subtilis antagonistic isolate as well as the commercial biocide was applied as seed treatment for controlling seed-borne mycoflora under Blotter test in vitro and Pot experiment in vivo conditions. It was observed that maximum seed germination and maximum shoot and root length recorded with Aspergillus flavus and Bacillus subtilis combination in Pot experiment. Experiment shows, that Bacillus subtilis antagonistic isolate was able to significant reduction in seed-borne mycoflora than Pseudomonas fluorescens in Pennisetum americanum