Tips for Building Successful Partnerships between Libraries and Corporate donors

Over the last two years, the NC State University Libraries have successfully built new partnerships with many new corporations and corporate foundations, ranging from $5,000 to$500,000, by drawing on our contributions to student success, affordability, and workforce development. This presentation will provide an overview, including tips and sample language, of key gifts that have provided transformative resources for programming, services, learning spaces, and technology

Resource Dependency Theory and the Inclusion of Foreign Nationals on the Board of Directors of Publicly Traded Chilean Companies: A Multi-case Study

European and US companies, who desire to expand from a domestic-oriented focus to a more international mind-set, must undergo significant organizational transformation. Whether the transformation results in the company becoming internationally oriented, a complete transnational organization or anywhere in-between, one of the key components in the transformation process is developing a strategy that is outwardly focused from its natural domestic markets. To develop and execute said strategy, the utilization of human capital resources might be required that the company itself may not possess. Literature review has supported the concept that when European or US companies incorporate foreign nationals on the Board of Directors (BOD), the development and execution of international expansion strategies will increase the probability of reaching their respective strategic objectives. However, literature research is silent as to whether the inclusion of foreign nationals on the BOD of South American companies would result in the comparable results as experienced by European and US companies. This research study will begin to explore if a broader set of theoretical concepts could be applied to publicly traded Chilean companies and through future studies to publicly traded South American domiciled companies. Through an engaged scholarship approach, Resource Dependency Theory will be utilized as the lens through which to present the theoretical and practical applications for the BOD of publicly traded Chilean-domiciled companies to consider when developing international expansion strategies outside of Chile

Kundenpriorisierung : Wegweiser für ein wertorientiertes Kundenbeziehungsmanagement

Viele Unternehmen bewegen sich heute in stagnierenden oder gar schrumpfenden Märkten mit hoher Wettbewerbsintensität und ständig steigenden Kundenanforderungen. Die Folge sind steigende Kosten der Kundenbindung und sinkende Margen. Unternehmen können es sich vor diesem Hintergrund nicht mehr leisten, jeden Kunden gleichsam königlich zu behandeln und eine Marktbearbeitung nach dem „Gießkannenprinzip“ zu betreiben. Vielmehr müssen Unternehmen zwischen ihren Kunden unterschiedlicher Wichtigkeit differenzieren und eine Strategie der Kundenpriorisierung verfolgen. Zwar sind sich die meisten Unternehmen der Notwendigkeit zur Kundenpriorisierung bewusst, jedoch schaffen sie es häufig nicht, diese in der Marktbearbeitung umzusetzen. Als zentralen Grund identifiziert die hier vorgestellte Studie das Fehlen von unternehmensinternen Voraussetzungen

The role of TbZC3H11 in the trypanosomal heat shock response

Zusammenfassung Der parasitäre Protist Trypanosoma brucei übt praktisch keine Kontrolle über die Transkription aus. Dennoch muss dieser Organismus seine Genexpression an verschiedene Umgebungen anpassen, zum Beispiel den Blutstrom in Säugetieren oder den Mitteldarm des Insektenvektors (prozyklische Form). Die Regulation der Genexpression ist daher auf posttranskriptionale Mechanismen angewiesen. RNA-Bindeproteine sind wichtige posttranskriptionale Regulatoren, da sie die Stabilität, Lokalisierung und Translation ihrer Ziel-mRNAs beeinflussen können. CCCH Zinkfingerproteine, insbesondere die Tis11 Familie, sind an der Destabilisierung und Regulation von mRNAs mit AU-reichen Elementen in der 3’UTR (3’ untranslatierte Region) beteiligt. ZC3H11 ist ein trypanosomales Protein mit einer Tis11-ähnlichen Zinkfingerdomäne. Die Expression des ZC3H11 Proteins ist nach Hitzeschock oder Inhibition des Proteasoms erhöht und ZC3H11 ist phosphoryliert. ZC3H11-Reduktion mittels RNA-Interferenz (RNAi) ist in der Blutstromform, nicht aber in der prozyklischen Form, lethal. Die Reduktion in prozyklischen Parasiten schwächt jedoch die Fitness bei einem Hitzeschock. Mehrere mRNAs, die für Hitzeschockproteine und Chaperone kodieren, kopräzipitieren mit ZC3H11 und das Protein stabilisiert künstlich gebundene mRNAs. Außerdem verringert ZC3H11-RNAi die HSP70-mRNA Menge und Stabilität. Dieser Effekt wird von der 3’UTR vermittelt, genauer gesagt von einer Region mit AUU-Wiederholungen. Dieses AUU-Motif war auch in den 3’ UTRs der gebundenen Transkripte überrepräsentiert. Mittels Koimmunopräzipitation wurde ein MKT1-Homolog als Proteinbindepartner identifiziert. Da Mkt1p in Hefe mit dem PABP Bindeprotein, PBP1, interagiert, könnte die Stabilisation der ZC3H11- gebundenen Transkripte über diese Interaktion vermittelt werden. Meine Ergebnisse legen nahe, dass ZC3H11 ein wichtiger posttranskriptionaler Regulator der trypanosomalen Hitzeschockantwort ist

The maximal energy of classes of integral circulant graphs

The energy of a graph is the sum of the moduli of the eigenvalues of its adjacency matrix. We study the energy of integral circulant graphs, also called gcd graphs, which can be characterized by their vertex count $n$ and a set $\cal D$ of divisors of $n$ in such a way that they have vertex set $\mathbb{Z}_n$ and edge set ${{a,b}: a,b\in\mathbb{Z}_n, \gcd(a-b,n)\in {\cal D}}$. For a fixed prime power $n=p^s$ and a fixed divisor set size $|{\cal D}| =r$, we analyze the maximal energy among all matching integral circulant graphs. Let $p^{a_1} < p^{a_2} < ... < p^{a_r}$ be the elements of ${\cal D}$. It turns out that the differences $d_i=a_{i+1}-a_{i}$ between the exponents of an energy maximal divisor set must satisfy certain balance conditions: (i) either all $d_i$ equal $q:=\frac{s-1}{r-1}$, or at most the two differences $[q]$ and $[q+1]$ may occur; %(for a certain $d$ depending on $r$ and $s$) (ii) there are rules governing the sequence $d_1,...,d_{r-1}$ of consecutive differences. For particular choices of $s$ and $r$ these conditions already guarantee maximal energy and its value can be computed explicitly.Comment: Discrete Applied Mathematics (2012

Evaluation of measurement accuracies of the Higgs boson branching fractions in the International Linear Collider

Precise measurement of Higgs boson couplings is an important task for International Linear Collider (ILC) experiments and will facilitate the understanding of the particle mass generation mechanism. In this study, the measurement accuracies of the Higgs boson branching fractions to the $b$ and $c$ quarks and gluons, $\Delta Br(H\to b\bar{b},\sim c\bar{c},\sim gg)/Br$, were evaluated with the full International Large Detector model (\texttt{ILD\_00}) for the Higgs mass of 120 GeV at the center-of-mass (CM) energies of 250 and 350 GeV using neutrino, hadronic and leptonic channels and assuming an integrated luminosity of $250 {\rm fb^{-1}}$, and an electron (positron) beam polarization of -80% (+30%). We obtained the following measurement accuracies of the Higgs cross section times branching fraction ($\Delta (\sigma \cdot Br)/\sigma \cdot Br$) for decay of the Higgs into $b\bar{b}$, $c\bar{c}$, and $gg$; as 1.0%, 6.9%, and 8.5% at a CM energy of 250 GeV and 1.0%, 6.2%, and 7.3% at 350 GeV, respectively. After the measurement accuracy of the cross section ($\Delta\sigma/\sigma$) was corrected using the results of studies at 250 GeV and their extrapolation to 350 GeV, the derived measurement accuracies of the branching fractions ($\Delta Br/Br$) to $b\bar{b}$, $c\bar{c}$, and gg were 2.7%, 7.3%, and 8.9% at a CM energy of 250 GeV and 3.6%, 7.2%, and 8.1% at 350 GeV, respectively.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure

Transmission risk of SARS-CoV-2 to healthcare workers -observational results of a primary care hospital contact tracing.

BACKGROUND The coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 epidemic is evolving rapidly. Healthcare workers are at increased risk for infection, and specific requirements for their protection are advisable to ensure the functioning of the basic healthcare system, including the availability of general practitioners (GPs). Understanding the transmission risk is particularly important for guiding evidence-based protective measures in the primary healthcare setting. METHODS Healthcare worker contacts of an initially undiagnosed COVID-19 case, who were without personal protective equipment, in particular not wearing facemasks, were screened with nasopharyngeal swabs and polymerase chain reaction tests for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), irrespective of respiratory symptoms or fever seven days after initial contact. The details of exposure to the index case were obtained during routine contact investigation after unintentional pathogen exposure. RESULTS Twenty-one healthcare workers reported contacts with the index case. Three healthcare workers reported respiratory symptoms (cough) or low-grade fever within 4 days. None of them tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 at the time of symptom onset. All 21 healthcare workers tested SARS-CoV-2 negative 7 days after initial index case contact, including the three healthcare workers with previous symptoms. Ten of the 21 healthcare workers reported a cumulative exposure time of &gt;15 minutes. Longer cumulative contact times were associated with more individual contacts, reduced contact time per contact and activities with physical patient contact. The closest relative of the index patient tested SARS-CoV-2 positive 2 days after the index case presented at the hospital emergency department. CONCLUSION We found a low risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in a primary care setting. These findings are compatible with previous reports of the highest transmission probability in household settings with prolonged close contacts. The current protective measures for healthcare workers, including strict adherence to basic standard hygiene and facemasks, offer considerable protection during short periods of contact with symptomatic COVID-19 cases by diminishing the risk of direct and indirect transmission