Assessing motor-related phenotypes of Caenorhabditis elegans with the wide field-of-view nematode tracking platform

Caenorhabditis elegans is a valuable model organism in biomedical research that has led to major discoveries in the fields of neurodegeneration, cancer and aging. Because movement phenotypes are commonly used and represent strong indicators of C. elegans fitness, there is an increasing need to replace manual assessments of worm motility with automated measurements to increase throughput and minimize observer biases. Here, we provide a protocol for the implementation of the improved wide field-of-view nematode tracking platform (WF-NTP), which enables the simultaneous analysis of hundreds of worms with respect to multiple behavioral parameters. The protocol takes only a few hours to complete, excluding the time spent culturing C. elegans, and includes (i) experimental design and preparation of samples, (ii) data recording, (iii) software management with appropriate parameter choices and (iv) post-experimental data analysis. We compare the WF-NTP with other existing worm trackers, including those having high spatial resolution. The main benefits of WF-NTP relate to the high number of worms that can be assessed at the same time on a whole-plate basis and the number of phenotypes that can be screened for simultaneously

Sourcing Strategies of European and Japanese Multinationals: A Comparison

Based on a typology of sourcing strategies, this study identifies various sourcing patterns adopted by European and Japanese multinational manufacturing firms in serving the U.S. market, The study has found that the product's market performance is not at all related to its life–Cycle stage in world trade or to production location, but is positively related to the internal components sourcing and negatively related to the product adaptation. The findings strongly support Levitt's call for a global product.© 1989 JIBS. Journal of International Business Studies (1989) 20, 113–130