Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapy has emerged as a potential therapeutic option for several diseases due to their unique properties of releasing important bioactive factors. Despite the advances in ...stem cell therapy, it is still difficult to accurately determine the mechanisms of cell activities after in vivo transplantation. The application of noninvasive cell tracking approaches is important to determine tissue distribution and the lifetime of stem cells following their injection, which consequently provides knowledge about the mechanisms of stem cell tissue repair. Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION) can provide a very useful tool for labeling and tracking stem cells by magnetic resonance imaging without causing toxic cellular effects and do not elicit any other side effects. Here we describe how to use SPIONs to label mesenchymal stem cells and evaluate efficacy and potential cytotoxicity in vitro.
Growth theory predicts that natural disasters should, on impact, lower GDP per capita. However, the empirical literature does not offer conclusive evidence. Most existing studies use disaster data ...drawn from damage records of insurance companies. We argue that this may lead to estimation bias as damage data and the selection into the database may correlate with GDP. We build a comprehensive database of disaster events and their intensities from primary geophysical and meteorological information. In contrast to insurance data, our GeoMet data reveal a substantial negative and robust average impact effect of disasters on growth. The worst 5% disaster years come with a growth damage of at least 0.46 percentage points. That average effect is driven mainly by very large earthquakes and some meteorological disasters. Poor countries are more strongly affected by geophysical disasters; rich more by meteorological events. International openness and democratic institutions reduce the adverse effect of disasters.
•We provide a new global database of the physical intensity of natural disasters.•Data based on damage reports lead to biased estimates of the disaster-growth nexus.•The new data strongly indicate negative growth effects of natural disasters.•Institutional quality and international openness mitigate the negative effects.
Organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs) have come a long way ever since their first introduction in 1987 at Eastman Kodak. Today, OLEDs are especially valued in the display and lighting industry for ...their promising features. As one of the research fields that equally inspires and drives development in academia and industry, OLED device technology has continuously evolved over more than 30 years. OLED devices have come forward based on three generations of emitter materials relying on fluorescence (first generation), phosphorescence (second generation), and thermally activated delayed fluorescence (third generation). Furthermore, research in academia and industry toward the fourth generation of OLEDs is in progress. Excerpts from the history of green, orange‐red, and blue OLED emitter development on the side of academia and milestones achieved by key players in the industry are included in this report.
The history of emitter development and industry's interest in organic light‐emitting diode (OLED) technology are reviewed. OLED device technology has equally inspired and driven innovation in academia and industry. Three generations of emitters based on different emission mechanisms have been designed. Recently, research in both academia and industry points toward a fourth generation of light‐emitting materials for OLEDs.
Intercultural training is common practice in many organizations. By cross-cultural management scholars, intercultural training is often critiqued as overly simplistic. The argument is that ...intercultural trainers lack sophisticated cross-cultural management knowledge. Based on 6 years of ethnographic and auto-ethnographic research, I argue that such a categorical rejection of intercultural training practice as inferior functions as a closure mechanism towards higher scholarly relevance: The problem is not that intercultural training practice is overly simplistic but rather that cross-cultural management scholars fail to consider the actual processes of how intercultural training emerges in a certain (simplistic) and not in another (sophisticated) shape. What is required, is thus an investigation of the actual contexts, actors and chains of events, and of the power-relations underlying them, that bring a certain reality into being. To achieve this goal, I propose a practice approach to genealogy (based on Foucault) which I apply to rich auto-ethnographic and ethnographic material. In doing so, I work with ethnographic material in novel ways and move beyond a previously held, more structuralist, archival and textual approach to genealogy. Exemplifying the benefits of genealogy, I show how intercultural training is implicated by other, more intertwined and local, power-effects than those considered by academia, such as intersections of gender (women trainers), job precariousness, dominant male professionalism, organizational pressures and personal agendas. In walking the reader through the construction of a sample genealogy, I provide academics with a concrete approach of how to challenge taken-for-granted scholarly assumptions and make more impactful contributions to practice.
Adipose tissue is commonly categorized into three types with distinct functions, phenotypes, and anatomical localizations. White adipose tissue (WAT) is the major energy store; the largest depots of ...WAT are found in subcutaneous or intravisceral sites. Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is responsible for energy dissipation during cold-exposure (i.e., non-shivering thermogenesis) and is primarily located in the interscapular region. Beige or brite (brown-in-white) adipose tissue can be found interspersed in WAT and can attain a brown-like phenotype. These three types of tissues also have endocrine functions and play major roles in whole body metabolism especially in obesity and its co-morbidities, such as cardiovascular disease. Over the last years, perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT) has emerged as an adipose organ with endocrine and paracrine functions. Pro and anti-inflammatory agents released by PVAT affect vascular health, and are implicated in the inflammatory aspects of atherosclerosis. PVAT shares several of the defining characteristics of brown adipose tissue, including its cellular morphology and expression of thermogenic genes characteristic for brown adipocytes. However, PVATs from different vessels are phenotypically different, and significant developmental differences exist between PVAT and other adipose tissues. Whether PVAT represents classical BAT, beige adipose tissue, or WAT with changing characteristics, is unclear. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on how PVAT relates to other types of adipose tissue, both in terms of functionality, developmental origins, and its role in obesity-related cardiovascular disease and inflammation.
Demyelination in the central nervous system (CNS) is a hallmark of many neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS) and others. Here, we studied astrocytes during de‐ and remyelination ...in the cuprizone mouse model. To this end, we exploited the ribosomal tagging (RiboTag) technology that is based on Cre‐mediated cell type‐selective HA‐tagging of ribosomes. Analyses were performed in the corpus callosum of GFAP‐Cre+/−Rpl22HA/wt mice 5 weeks after cuprizone feeding, at the peak of demyelination, and 0.5 and 2 weeks after cuprizone withdrawal, when remyelination and tissue repair is initiated. After 5 weeks of cuprizone feeding, reactive astrocytes showed inflammatory signatures with enhanced expression of genes that modulate leukocyte migration (Tlr2, Cd86, Parp14) and they produced the chemokine CXCL10, as verified by histology. Furthermore, demyelination‐induced reactive astrocytes expressed numerous ligands including Cx3cl1, Csf1, Il34, and Gas6 that act on homeostatic as well as activated microglia and thus potentially mediate activation and recruitment of microglia and enhancement of their phagocytotic activity. During early remyelination, HA‐tagged cells displayed reduced inflammatory response signatures, as indicated by shutdown of CXCL10 production, and enhanced expression of osteopontin (SPP1) as well as of factors that are relevant for tissue remodeling (Timp1), regeneration and axonal repair. During late remyelination, the signatures shifted towards resolving inflammation by active suppression of lymphocyte activation and differentiation and support of glia cell differentiation. In conclusion, we detected highly dynamic astroglial transcriptomic signatures in the cuprizone model, which reflects excessive communication among glia cells and highlights different astrocyte functions during neurodegeneration and regeneration.
Main Points
Corpus callosum‐derived astrocytes mediate inflammation during demyelination.
Astrocytes promote phagocytosis signals towards microglia.
During remyelination, astrocytes dampen the inflammation and produce regeneration‐supporting factors.
In the aftermath of World War I, the beaten paths of tourism guided an increasing number of international tourists to the hinterlands of the Arab Eastern Mediterranean, where they would admire ...pyramids and Roman ruins. Yet they were not the only visitors: Arab nationalists gathered in summer resorts, and Yishuvi skiing clubs practised on Lebanese mountain slopes. By catering to these travellers, local tour guides and advocates of tourism development pursued their agendas. The book unearths unexpected connections between tourism and the emergence of nation-states in Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. Arab middle-class actors striving for independence, Zionist settlers and mandate officials presented their visions of the post-Ottoman spatial order to an international audience of tourists. At the same time, mobilities and infrastructures of tourism shaped the material conditions of this order. Tourism thus helps us to understand the transformations of Arab societies in their global context, and its history is a colourful story of the emergence of the modern Middle East.
We propose novel estimates of the economic consequences of undoing European goods and services markets integration. Using a quantitative multi-country, multi-sector trade model, we disentangle two ...important layers of complexity: First, European integration is governed by various, partly overlapping arrangements — the Customs Union, the Single Market, the Common Currency, the Schengen Area, free trade agreements — and fiscal transfers, all of which affect production, trade, and income differently. Second, decades of integration have led to dense cross-border input–output (IO) networks, which endogenously adjust to trade cost shocks. Based on our preferred gravity estimates, we find disintegration to trigger statistically significant welfare losses of up to 23%. In a conservative specification, effects are about half the size. Robustly, the Single Market dominates quantitatively, but the losses from dissolving the Schengen Area are substantial, too. Compared to a model variant without IO linkages, our complex model predicts significantly larger aggregate losses.
This timely textbook is contemporary and comprehensive in its coverage of Cross-Cultural Management, and unique in its approach which fosters a multi-paradigmatic mindset among readers; embraces ...problem-based and experiential learning; and acknowledges the many diverse identities of cross-cultural managers. Part I provides an overview on how Cross-Cultural Management emerged and why it is unique, and Part II integrates the functionalist, interpretive and critical perspectives underpinning it. Part III transfers this learning to areas of application, including international business, organizations, technology and social media, and Part IV focuses on key skillsets such as developing your managerial competencies and designing your own research. Each chapter is brought to life via an opening case study, and readers are invited to complete a variety of activities throughout chapters. Afterwards, the opening case is revisited, and a closing activity introduces the next area of learning. This textbook is essential reading for higher education students, educators and researchers alike, and will also be of interest to business and management practitioners. It can be used as a central text for university and college courses on and related to Cross-Cultural Management, International Business and general intercultural competencies. Jasmin Mahadevan is a Professor of International and Cross-Cultural Management at Pforzheim University, Germany.
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