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The effect of halogen substitution in fluorescent BODIPY species was evaluated in the context of staining lipids in situ within brain tissue sections. Herein we demonstrate that the halogenated species maintain their known in vitro affinity when applied to detect lipids in situ in brain tissue sections. Interestingly, the chlorine substituted compound revealed the highest specificify for white matter lipids. Furthermore, the halogen substituted compounds rapidly detected lipid enriched cells, in situ, associated with a case of brain pathology and neuroinflammation.

There is increased recognition of the effects of diffuse traumatic brain injury (dTBI), which can initiate yet unknown biochemical cascades, resulting in delayed secondary brain degeneration and long-term neurological sequela. There is limited availability of therapies that minimize the effect of secondary brain damage on the quality of life of people who have suffered TBI, many of which were otherwise healthy adults. Understanding the cascade of biochemical events initiated in specific brain regions in the acute phase of dTBI and how this spreads into adjacent brain structures may provide the necessary insight into drive development of improved therapies. In this study, we have used direct biochemical imaging techniques (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic imaging) and elemental mapping (X-ray fluorescence microscopy) to characterize biochemical and elemental alterations that occur in corpus callosum white matter in the acute phase of dTBI. The results provide direct visualization of differential biochemical and ionic changes that occur in the highly vulnerable medial corpus callosum white matter relative to the less vulnerable lateral regions of the corpus callosum. Specifically, the results suggest that altered ionic gradients manifest within mechanically damaged medial corpus callosum, potentially spreading to and inducing lipid alterations to white matter structures in lateral brain regions.

Background:A strong evidence base for cognitive behavioural therapy has led to CBT models becoming available within mainstream mental health services. As the concept of stepped care develops, new less intensive mental health interventions such as guided self-help are emerging, delivered by staff not trained to the level of accredited Cognitive Behavioural Therapists.Aim:The aim of this study was to determine how mental health staff evaluated the usefulness of a short training programme in CBT concepts, models and techniques for routine clinical practice.Method:A cohort of mental health staff (n= 102) completed pre- and posttraining self-report questionnaires measuring trainee perceptions of the impact of a short training programme on knowledge and skills. Mentors and managers were also asked to comment on perceived impact of the training.Results:Trainees and mentors reported perceived gains in knowledge and skills posttraining and at 1-year follow-up. Managers and trainees reported perceived improvements in skills and practice.Conclusion: A short Cognitive Behavioural skills programme can enable mental health staff to integrate basic CB knowledge and skills into routine clinical practice.

In this paper we explore the phenomenon of Chinese counterfeits smuggled into Mexico, the world's fourth largest counterfeit market, particularly highlighting the role played by Chinese transnational crime in the production and financing of these illegal exports and the role of the Korean diaspora in the distribution of Chinese counterfeits within Mexico. Based on this case study and the extant literature, we suggest propositions concerning diaspora criminal enterprises and diaspora participants in informal markets that amend current theory concerning two streams of literature — diaspora homeland investment and trade facilitation by diasporas.

The essay explores the reception of early scientific photography through an examination of the work of John William Draper (1811–82). Throughout the 1840s, Draper – a chemist and trained medical doctor – used the daguerreotype as a tool to investigate various philosophical and scientific questions pertaining to the nature of light. While Draper sought both US and European audiences for his work, his focus on the process of the daguerreotype, rather than the results of that process, in addition to the unsettled terrain of the sciences and of the photograph itself during this period, caused many of his accomplishments to remain unknown by his contemporaries.

Globalization forces many managers to increasingly interact with new cultures, even if these managers remain in their home countries. This may be particularly true of managers in emerging markets, many of whom experience an encroaching US culture due to media, migration, and trade, as well as the importation of US-style business education. This study explores the possibility of applying acculturation insights developed in the immigrant and sojourner contexts to the context of local managers in emerging markets. By exploring the acculturation of Mexican managers in Mexico, we help to redress what has been identified as a key omission in prior acculturation research — the acculturation of a majority population. Our results suggest that Mexican managers who are bicultural or culturally independent (cosmopolitan) are more likely to be in upper management positions in Mexico. Our study supplements earlier work supporting the efficacy of biculturalism in minority populations. It also supports a growing body of research that conceptualizes individuals who rate themselves low on similarity to two cultures as being cosmopolitans and not marginalized individuals who experience difficulty in life.

This paper examines how country of origin, in particular country of manufacture (COM), impacts the assessment of blame by observers to a product-harm crisis when information is unclear as to a firm's culpability for the crisis. In a pilot study and experiment involving three product categories, we find evidence that a negative country of manufacture increases blame attributions to the company when consumers are not familiar with the brand involved. However, when consumers are familiar with the brand, country of manufacture information does not impact blame attributions. In addition, we find evidence that brand affects how consumers process information pertaining to firm culpability. An unknown brand causes observers to assess information associated with company blame as more important when compared to a well-known brand.

Cleaning up political corruption is urgently imperative…. Yet cultural change takes time, and there is an abundance of cynicism to overcome.

This paper presents results from a study in Mexico which suggest that observers ' perceptions of the severity of a product-harm crisis affect their assessment of blame to the firm when culpability is ambiguous. As perceptions of crisis severity increase, more blame is assessed to the firm. This finding is consistent regardless of whether the nationality of the victims is the same or different from that of the observers. Perceptions of severity are in turn affected by the observer's tolerance for ambiguity-the lower the tolerance for ambiguity, the higher the perception of crisis severity. The theoretical and practical implications of this research are discussed.

Most existing research examines export promotion organization (EPO) performance by assessing how firms benefit from their awareness, perceptions and use of EPO services. Remarkably, few studies examine how EPOs decide which services they will offer. This paper is presented as a call for further research to better understand how and why EPOs determine, deliver and amend their service offerings. This paper first reviews the EPO literature linking EPO service offering to firm awareness, perceptions and use of EPO services, all of which ultimately impact firm performance. Next, it is proposed that both macro‐ and micro‐level approaches derived from the organizational studies literature can be used to explore more fruitfully the effect of EPO genesis and change on EPO services. Each approach is followed by a brief illustrative example. In conclusion suggestions for further research, proposed methodologies, and a discussion of the policy implications of this line of inquiry are presented.

This article explores differences in blame attributions between men and women in a consumer context. The first experiment finds that women blame a company more than men for a product harm crisis. A second experiment replicates these results in a different product harm crisis and suggests the process underlying these differences. The results of tests of mediation suggest that women blame a company more than men for a product harm crisis because they feel more personally vulnerable to a similar crisis occurring to them. The tests of mediation also show that empathic concern is not the reason driving the differences between men and women in consumer attributions of blame despite observed differences on this personality trait. The theoretical and practical implications of this research are discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Recently "born global" firms have received considerable attention in the entrepreneurship and international business literature. Managers leading these new ventures typically face substantial resource constraints when seeking information critical to internationalization. This paper examines how the owner/operators of new ventures in the Turkish clothing export industry utilize their informal and formal social networks to acquire the information they need to export successfully. Field research and a survey of 250 Turkish clothing firm owners was conducted in Istanbul, Turkey to explore this issue. Findings indicate that informal social ties – particularly friends and family connections – are key sources of information for new-venture firm owners in this industry. Two formal organizations provide export information to entrepreneurs in the Turkish clothing industry, but only one was found to be easily accessible to new-venture firm owners: the Istanbul Textile and Clothing Exporters' Union (ITKIB). OLS regression results reveal that new venture firm owners' perceptions of ITKIB's importance can be explained by their perceived importance of various kinds of export-oriented information offered by this organization. In particular, perceived importance of export-law, market-research, and export-process information drive their perceptions of the importance of their ITKIB membership.

The smuggling of licit products across national borders has been the subject of academic research for 30 years but little attention has been given to the role that multinational corporations play in smuggling. When addressed at all, global firms have been generally represented as unwitting actors in smuggling activities. Because of the illegal nature of smuggling, empirical research into firm participation has been daunting if not impossible to undertake. However, recent revelations arising from scandals involving the Black Market Peso Exchange—as well as scandals and lawsuits surrounding the international cigarette industry—shed new light on global firms. This paper examines evidence suggesting that the role of global firms in international smuggling may not be as benign as previously portrayed.

In 1995, the World Trade Organization bound member countries to new standards of foreign trademark protection. Developed countries were given a year to bring their national trademark regimes into compliance. Other countries were allowed from 5 to 11 years. In the past 7 years, governments have taken many steps to reach compliance. Nonetheless, many countries fall short of the envisaged global norm. To better understand the challenges of the past several years, the authors focus on the state of national trademark regimes on the eve of the establishment of the World Trade Organization. The authors particularly address how contagion influence, resource constraints, and xenophobia affected treaty participation, domestic trademark law, application processing, and the relative treatment of foreign and domestic applications. The authors analyze data for 62 countries, which suggest that distinct patterns of foreign trademark protection existed for developed countries, newly industrialized countries, less developed countries, and transitional economies. The authors explain the managerial implications of these findings and argue that there is evidence that countries are moving toward global norms in trademark protection. However, an international treaty is the beginning, not the end, of this process.

Emerging markets – high growth, high potential economies – across the globe from China, India, and Vietnam to Turkey, Brazil and Argentina offer handsome rewards for firms engaging in international marketing. With these great rewards come great risks which are not understood by marketers well. Intemational/Multinational/Cross-Cultural marketing was only widely recognized as a legitimate topic for academic inquiry during the 1980’s. It is time to give the same litmus test to the study of emerging markets. Which generalizations in (international) marketing in mature markets apply to emerging markets? What are the stark differences? Does the study of emerging markets deserve to have a (trade) journal of its own?

This study relates innovative consumer behavior to informal economic activity within the urban lower middle class of one of the world's major emerging markets, with focus on product innovations in the areas of retail and consumer goods and services. of prime interest are the innovation adoption habits of street vendors, a group hypothesized to possess greater innovative tendency than those of similar social background employed as formal sector wage earners. Results indicate that street vendors report higher income and lower levels of education than their formal sector neighbors and these two groups show distinct product acquisition/patronage patterns, as well. However, the street vendors do not always demonstrate more innovative behavior, as adoption appears product specific.

This paper examines four diaspora communities resident in the United States that were targeted by their homelands as foreign investors during the 1990s. The homelands comprise Armenia, Cuba, Iran, and Palestine. We pose the question: What are the determinants of interest in homeland investment, and can they be generalized across the four communities? The paper explores concepts of ethnic advantage, altruism, homeland orientation, and perceptions of business impediments, as well as investigating the role of demographic factors regarding investment interest.© 1999 JIBS. Journal of International Business Studies (1999) 30, 623–634

Economists and policymakers have lauded the adoption of liberal trade policies in many of the emerging markets. From the outside it may appear that governments in these countries have cemented a new set of rules governing economic behavior within their borders. Yet the authors have found that these countries are likely to see the emergence or resurgence of smuggling and contraband distribution in response to trade liberalization. In order to survive under trade liberalization, smugglers will rely on cost savings associated with the circumventing of legal import channels. In addition they may employ violence to bolster a diminished competitive advantage and may seek new illegal sources, both local and international, for the consumer products they distribute. In a market environment in which organized crime competes alongside more legitimate channels of distribution, U.S. multinationals will face new challenges relating to strategic planning, maintaining alliance relationships and corporate control of global brands and pricing.

Market liberalization has emerged as a major phenomenon affecting global business today. Coincident with the spread of market liberalization, business alliances have become the dominant form for promoting international business. Current research and discussion of international business alliances—or strategic alliances—have centered on the Triad markets (the United States, Japan and Western Europe), yet international strategic alliances can play a special role in market liberalization in less developed countries (LDCs). The purpose of this paper is to examine international strategic alliances from the perspective of Mexican managers contending with the current market liberalization in their country. It focuses on motivations for alliance formation and alliance partner selection and the role of stakeholders in alliance formation. The study is designed to project patterns of alliance formation in the many other liberalizing economies throughout the developing world.

In a global economic environment, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face increased competition from world-scale manufacturers at home and abroad. The continued existence of SMEs may sometimes seem at risk. This study investigates SMEs in peripheral Jutland, a rural region of Denmark, where SMEs dominate manufacturing employment and take an active role in exporting. The study particularly examines the importance of (1) market responsiveness, (2) investments in information and technology, and (3) export cooperation among SMEs.

Global integration is the state in which one national market (including a firm's home market) is significantly affected by other national markets. Because of global integration, international marketers cannot continue to successfully employ multiple single-market strategies but instead must adopt global strategies that address multiple, if not all, national markets at the same time. Examples of such global strategies include global rollouts of new products, centralized production of standardized products, and global-theme advertising. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, several forces, some interrelated, resulted in greater global integration. These forces have been categorized in different ways but generally fall into five categories: technological, buyer behavior, competitive, cost, and regulatory. Each industry is affected differently by the forces of global integration, but virtually all industries are affected in some way by these forces. Keywords: global integration; global strategy; global marketing; global rollout; global-theme advertising; standardization; market liberalization