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Although contentious interstate disputes are widely known to depress foreign direct investment (FDI), we identify and explain variation in investor responses even to territorial disputes, known to be slow to resolve and prone to militarization. Forward-looking and profit-seeking investors have incentives to increase FDI when the characteristics of a dispute point toward peace. These incentives drive them to increase investment even prior to an actual settlement. Given that legal focal points—when international law identifies one side in the dispute as having a clear legal advantage—promote peace, countries in disputes with legal focal points should receive more FDI. To support this argument, we use new data on international law and territorial disputes from 1980 to 2010 to explain variation in FDI across countries, as well as variation in the timing of within-country FDI accumulation. While a growing body of work demonstrates how international law influences state behavior, we show that it also profoundly influences the investment patterns of firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing arguments about the effect of terrain on intrastate and interstate violence are more varied than the data sources widely used to test such relationships. We introduce precise geo- referenced data on terrain ruggedness and land cover globally at the national, provincial, and 1 × 1 km grid-square levels. Accordingly, the data are readily applicable to a wide range of research designs, including cross-national, sub-national and single-country designs, as well as any study that uses geographic information system data. We demonstrate the utility of the data with replication of Miguel et al. (2004, Journal of Political Economy 112(4): 725-753) and produce new findings leveraging both the ruggedness and land cover data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – An effective management accounting information system (MAIS), as well as the accounting discourse related to it, can support, facilitate, enable, and constrain diverse business discourses. This paper aims to examine the discursive and organisational effects of an organisation accounting upon absent accounting artefacts, i.e. accounting without accounting. Situated within the discursive literature, this paper examines the construction of competing articulations of the organisation by focusing on what accounting does or does not do within an organisation. In particular, the paper acknowledges the fundamental importance of the accounting discourse in supporting, facilitating, enabling, and constraining competing organisational discourses, as it illustrates how the absence of accounting centralises power within the organisation. Design/methodology/approach – From a rhetorical, discursive perspective, the authors develop an in-depth qualitative case study in a manufacturing organisation where MAIS has been abandoned for approximately two years. Interpretive research approaches, from a post-structural perspective, provided the base for the structure of the research. The authors studied how other organisational discourses (such as entrepreneurship and growth), which are traditionally constructed with reference to accounting and other artefacts, continued to be produced and sustained. The non-use and non-availability of management accounting information created a vacuum that needed to be filled. The lack of discursive counterpoints and counter-evidence provided by MAIS created a vacuum of information, allowing powerful, proxy discourses to prevail in the organisation, increasing risks to business management. Findings – The absence of MAIS to support an accounting discourse requires that contingent discourses “fill in the discursive gap”. Despite appearances, they are no substitute for the accounting discourse. Thus, over time, the entrepreneurial, growth and partners' discourses lose credibility, without the corresponding use of management accounting information and its associated discourse. Originality/value – There are at least two main contributions from the case study and the findings presented in this paper: first, they provide a new perspective for studying MAIS, as a specific organisational discourse among other discourses that shape people relationship within the organisation as an examination of accounting without accounting. Second, this discussion reinforces the relevance of accounting discourse for other organisational discourses, supporting, facilitating, enabling, and constraining them, by demonstrating the effects of its absence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hyperacute rejection of porcine organs by old world primate recipients is mediated through preformed antibodies against galactosyl-α-1,3-galactose (Galα-1,3-Gal) epitopes expressed on the pig cell surface. Previously, we generated inbred miniature swine with a null allele of the α-1,3-galactosyltransferase locus (GGTA1) by nuclear transfer (NT) with gene-targeted fibroblasts. To expedite the generation of GGTA1 null pigs, we selected spontaneous null mutant cells from fibroblast cultures of heterozygous animals for use in another round of NT. An unexpectedly high rate of spontaneous loss of GGTA1 function was observed, with the vast majority of null cells resulting from loss of the WT allele. Healthy piglets, hemizygous and homozygous for the genetargeted allele, were produced by NT by using fibroblasts that had undergone deletional and crossover/gene conversion events, respectively. Aside from loss of Galα-1,3-Gal epitopes, there were no obvious phenotypic differences between these null piglets and WT piglets from the same inbred lines. In fact, congenital abnormalities observed in the heterozygous NT animals did not reappear in the serially produced null animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of galactose α-l,3-galactose residues on the surface of pig cells is a major obstacle to successful xenotransplantation. Here, we report the production of four live pigs in which one allele of the α-1,3-galactosyltransferase locus has been knocked out. These pigs were produced by nuclear transfer technology; clonal fetal fibroblast cell lines were used as nuclear donors for embryos reconstructed with enucleated pig oocytes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of galactose alpha-1,3-galactose residues on the surface of pig cells is a major obstacle to successful xenotransplantation. Here, we report the production of four live pigs in which one allele of the alpha-1,3-galactosyltransferase locus has been knocked out. These pigs were produced by nuclear transfer technology; clonal fetal fibroblast cell lines were used as nuclear donors for embryos reconstructed with enucleated pig oocytes.