The definitive comprehensive and foundational text for critically analyzing and applying actionable DEI techniques and strategies, written by one of LinkedIn's most popular experts on DEI. The ...importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace cannot be understated. But when half-baked and under-developed strategies are implemented, they often do more harm than good, leading the very constituents they aim to support to dismiss DEI entirely. DEI Deconstructed analyzes how current methods and best practices leave marginalized people feeling frustrated and unconvinced of their leaders' sincerity, and offers a roadmap that bridges the neatness of theory with the messiness of practice. Through embracing a pragmatic DEI approach drawing from cutting-edge research on organizational change, evidence-based practices, and incisive insights from a DEI strategist with experience working from the top- down and bottom-up alike, stakeholders at every level of an organization can become effective DEI changemakers. Nothing less than this is required to scale DEI from interpersonal teeth-pulling to true systemic change. By utilizing an outcome-oriented understanding of DEI, along with a comprehensive foundation of actionable techniques, this no-nonsense guide will lay out the path for anyone with any background to becoming a more effective DEI practitioner, ally, and leader.
Zika virus (ZIKV) directly infects neural progenitors and impairs their proliferation. How ZIKV interacts with the host molecular machinery to impact neurogenesis in vivo is not well understood. ...Here, by systematically introducing individual proteins encoded by ZIKV into the embryonic mouse cortex, we show that expression of ZIKV-NS2A, but not Dengue virus (DENV)-NS2A, leads to reduced proliferation and premature differentiation of radial glial cells and aberrant positioning of newborn neurons. Mechanistically, in vitro mapping of protein-interactomes and biochemical analysis suggest interactions between ZIKA-NS2A and multiple adherens junction complex (AJ) components. Functionally, ZIKV-NS2A, but not DENV-NS2A, destabilizes the AJ complex, resulting in impaired AJ formation and aberrant radial glial fiber scaffolding in the embryonic mouse cortex. Similarly, ZIKA-NS2A, but not DENV-NS2A, reduces radial glial cell proliferation and causes AJ deficits in human forebrain organoids. Together, our results reveal pathogenic mechanisms underlying ZIKV infection in the developing mammalian brain.
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•ZIKV-NS2A, but not DENV-NS2A, depletes RGCs in the embryonic mouse cortex•ZIKV-NS2A expression causes mis-positioning of newborn neurons in the mouse cortex•ZIKA-NS2A interacts with and depletes adherens junction (AJ) complex proteins•ZIKV-NS2A impairs RGC proliferation and AJ formation in human forebrain organoids
Zika virus infects neural stem cells and causes microcephaly. In this study, Yoon et al. showed that NS2A protein encoded by Zika virus, but not by Dengue virus, impairs proliferation of radial glial cells in both embryonic mouse cortex and human forebrain organoids. Mechanistically, ZIKV-NS2A disrupts adherens junction formation.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
PurposeThis study aims to investigate the cross-sectional differences on the association between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and future bankruptcy along the dimensions of political ...connection and corporate governance strength. This study intends to provide evidence on the tangible benefits for firms to invest in social capital of CSR activities and offer insights on what firms may benefit more from CSR expenditure.Design/methodology/approachRunning a logistic regression on the determinants of bankruptcy model after controlling for financial stress factors based on prior literature, this study examines the moderating effect of political connection and corporate governance on the association between corporate social responsibility and future bankruptcy.FindingsCurrent study documents that the negative association between corporate social responsibility and future bankruptcy is only significant for politically connected firms, but insignificant for non-politically connected firms. Specifically, the authors find that one standard deviation increase of CSR expenditure significantly reduces the propensity of future bankruptcy by 53.20% for politically-connected firms. Conversely, the negative relation between CSR only exits for firms with weak corporate governance but do not exit for firms with strong corporate governance.Research limitations/implicationsCurrent study provides evidence on the tangible benefits for firms to invest in social capital of CSR activities and offers additional insights on what firms may benefit more from CSR expenditure.Originality/valueCurrent study extends the research to examine the cross-sectional variations in the negative association between CSR performance and the propensity of bankruptcy. The positive moderating effect of political connection on CSR and bankruptcy suggests that political connection and CSR are complements in reducing the propensity of future bankruptcy. A more pronounced negative association between CSR and bankruptcy for firms with weaker governance suggests that firms with weak corporate governance benefits more in engaging CSR activities than firms with strong corporate governance.
Pressure overload causes an accumulation of homocysteine in the heart, which is accompanied by copper depletion through the formation of copper-homocysteine complexes and the excretion of the ...complexes. Copper supplementation recovers cytochrome c oxidase (CCO) activity and promotes myocardial angiogenesis, along with the regression of cardiac hypertrophy and the recovery of cardiac contractile function. Increased copper availability is responsible for the recovery of CCO activity. Copper promoted expression of angiogenesis factors including vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in endothelial cells is responsible for angiogenesis. VEGF receptor-2 (VEGFR-2) is critical for hypertrophic growth of cardiomyocytes and VEGFR-1 is essential for the regression of cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. Copper, through promoting VEGF production and suppressing VEGFR-2, switches the VEGF signaling pathway from VEGFR-2-dependent to VEGFR-1-dependent, leading to the regression of cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. Copper is also required for hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) transcriptional activity, acting on the interaction between HIF-1 and the hypoxia responsible element and the formation of HIF-1 transcriptional complex by inhibiting the factor inhibiting HIF-1. Therefore, therapeutic targets for copper supplementation-induced regression of cardiac hypertrophy include: (1) the recovery of copper availability for CCO and other critical cellular events; (2) the activation of HIF-1 transcriptional complex leading to the promotion of angiogenesis in the endothelial cells by VEGF and other factors; (3) the activation of VEGFR-1-dependent regression signaling pathway in the cardiomyocytes; and (4) the inhibition of VEGFR-2 through post-translational regulation in the hypertrophic cardiomyocytes. Future studies should focus on target-specific delivery of copper for the development of clinical application.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Purpose
This study aims to examine the moderating effect of audit firm tenure on the association between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firm value. Prior studies provide mixed results on ...this association, which may be due to differing theoretical expectations related to CSR and firm value. It is also possible that external stakeholders are unable to differentiate between positive and negative CSR investments, as CSR reports are generally not assured by independent third parties. Thus, the authors propose that audit firm tenure may be used by external stakeholders to evaluate CSR performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use an ordinary least squares regression to examine the moderating effect of audit firm tenure on the relation between CSR and firm value after controlling for other determinants of firm value and various internal and external governance mechanisms documented in the literature. The sample consists of 15,707 firm-year observations from US firms during the sample period of 2000 to 2012. The authors measure CSR quality using rating scores from MSCI ESG STATS (formerly the KLD database), audit firm tenure as the number of years the incumbent auditor has served the client and firm value using Tobin’s Q.
Findings
The results indicate that CSR is positively associated with firm value when audit firm tenure is long but not when tenure is short. The results are robust to alternative measures of firm value, CSR performance scores, and individual CSR dimensions. The evidence supports the argument against mandatory audit firm rotation in the USA.
Research limitations/implications
Future studies could examine a similar issue in alternative settings and/or look at cross-sectional variations among firms on the association between CSR and firm value by other auditor traits such as auditor industry specialization and big-name reputation. Additionally, as auditor alone is unable to ensure the quality of management disclosures and their accountability, future studies could examine the moderating effect of internal and other external governance mechanisms on the association between CSR and firm value, exploring when the signaling effect of auditor tenure on CSR reporting quality and its effect on firm value is most salient.
Practical implications
The findings are important to regulators and investors. The authors provide evidence that longer audit tenure serves as a signaling device for external investors with regard to the quality of a firm’s CSR performance. Hence, the study facilitates regulators’ cost-benefit analysis related to mandating audit firm rotation. The evidence suggests that mandating a term limit on auditor tenure may have the unintended consequence of eliminating a signaling effect of auditor tenure on the quality of CSR disclosures under information asymmetry. This supports the Public Company Oversight Board’s decision to forgo the requirement of mandatory audit firm rotation in the USA.
Originality/value
Prior literature presents mixed findings on the association between CSR performance and firm value based on a variety of underlying theories (economic, stakeholder and contingency theory). Literature on mandatory auditor rotation has concentrated on the auditor tenure effect on perceived and actual audit quality as reflected in earnings quality. Relying on agency theory, this study posits that auditor tenure serves as a signal for the quality of CSR activities in the absence of CSR assurance reporting as CSR quality can be difficult to evaluate. The authors provide evidence that audit tenure moderates the association between CSR activities and firm value and longer audit tenure makes it more likely that the CSR activities are associated with increased firm value.
Abstract Background Copy number variation (CNV) is a key genetic characteristic for cancer diagnostics and can be used as a biomarker for the selection of therapeutic treatments. Using data sets ...established in our previous study, we benchmark the performance of cancer CNV calling by six most recent and commonly used software tools on their detection accuracy, sensitivity, and reproducibility. In comparison to other orthogonal methods, such as microarray and Bionano, we also explore the consistency of CNV calling across different technologies on a challenging genome. Results While consistent results are observed for copy gain, loss, and loss of heterozygosity (LOH) calls across sequencing centers, CNV callers, and different technologies, variation of CNV calls are mostly affected by the determination of genome ploidy. Using consensus results from six CNV callers and confirmation from three orthogonal methods, we establish a high confident CNV call set for the reference cancer cell line (HCC1395). Conclusions NGS technologies and current bioinformatics tools can offer reliable results for detection of copy gain, loss, and LOH. However, when working with a hyper-diploid genome, some software tools can call excessive copy gain or loss due to inaccurate assessment of genome ploidy. With performance matrices on various experimental conditions, this study raises awareness within the cancer research community for the selection of sequencing platforms, sample preparation, sequencing coverage, and the choice of CNV detection tools.
The recent developments in material sciences and rational structural designs have advanced the field of compliant and deformable electronics systems. However, many of these systems are limited in ...either overall stretchability or areal coverage of functional components. Here, we design a construct inspired by Kirigami for highly deformable micro-supercapacitor patches with high areal coverages of electrode and electrolyte materials. These patches can be fabricated in simple and efficient steps by laser-assisted graphitic conversion and cutting. Because the Kirigami cuts significantly increase structural compliance, segments in the patches can buckle, rotate, bend and twist to accommodate large overall deformations with only a small strain (<3%) in active electrode areas. Electrochemical testing results have proved that electrical and electrochemical performances are preserved under large deformation, with less than 2% change in capacitance when the patch is elongated to 382.5% of its initial length. The high design flexibility can enable various types of electrical connections among an array of supercapacitors residing in one patch, by using different Kirigami designs.
Literature suggests that firms engaging in irresponsible corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities are more likely to increase auditor's engagement risk. Using audit firm tenure as a ...continuous measure for retention decisions made by either auditors or client firms, we find a significant and negative association between CSR risk and auditor tenure. Moreover, when the continuous variable audit tenure is replaced with a dichotomous variable auditor change, the likelihood of auditor change intensifies with increases in CSR risk. These results suggest that both clients and auditors are more likely to sever relationships when client firms exhibit high CSR risk than low CSR risk. This study has implications for future research on audit firm tenure and audit outcomes.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Effect of 1-butyl-3-methyl-imidazolium bromide (BmimBr) on the aggregation behavior of PEO-PPO-PEO Pluronic P104 aqueous solution was studied by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, freeze ...fracture transmission electron microscopy (FF-TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and NMR spectroscopy. When the BmimBr concentration was below 1.232 mol/L, the critical micelle temperature (CMT) of Pluronic P104 remained constant, while the size of micelles increased with increasing the BmimBr concentration; above this concentration, the CMT of Pluronic P104 decreased abruptly, and bigger clusters of BmimBr were formed. The selective nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE) spectrum indicates that the PO block of the P104 interacts with the butyl group of the Bmim+ cation by hydrophobic interaction. It suggests that when the concentration of BmimBr is below 1.232 mol/L, there are P104 micelles in the aqueous solution with BmimBr embedding to the micellar core, while above this concentration, P104 micelles and BmimBr clusters coexist in the system.
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IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
In the age of purity politics and public shaming, people are fearful of betraying their values and selling out. Authors Lily Zheng and Inge Hansen make the bold claim that everyone sells out-and that ...the challenge lies in doing it ethically.
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