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Purpose This research paper aims to investigate the impact of pharmaceutical marketing on the prescription behavior of physicians. It further examines whether the use of various promotional techniques including advertisements, sales promotions, personal selling and direct marketing by pharmaceutical companies influences the prescription behavior of doctors. Based on the increasing ethical concerns regarding the promotion of specific drugs for personal gains, the research also investigated the moderating role of ethical ideology in the above relationship. Design/methodology/approach To accomplish the research goals, quantitative research methods were used. Using the online questionnaire, data were collected from 93 doctors working in government and private hospitals in Pakistan, and structural equation modeling technique was used to analyze the impact of pharmaceutical marketing techniques on the prescription decisions of physicians. Findings The findings suggested that marketing strategies of pharmaceutical companies positively influences the prescription behavior of doctors. Further, physicians having weak ethical standards are likely to be strongly influenced by the marketing and promotional practices of companies. Practical implications The research is pivotal in understanding the perspective of doctors and the ethical considerations that need to be addressed while devising the marketing campaigns by pharmaceutical companies. Further, these findings provide important implications regarding the essential linkage between ethical values and the development of right marketing tools. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is one of the first few to empirically develop and test the role of moral values followed by physicians when they take prescription decisions. Based on the findings, future researchers are encouraged to further investigate the need of setting boundaries for pharmaceutical companies and restricting their usage regarding the promotional tactics.

Purpose This article examines the impact of expatriates' interaction adjustment and conducive work environment (i.e. trust, shared vision and intercultural communication) on the development of a common social identity between expatriates and host country nationals (HCNs) using the social identity theory (SIT). It also investigates whether increased trust, shared vision and intercultural communication mediate the relationship between expatriates' interaction adjustment and development of a common social identity.Design/methodology/approach Dyadic data were collected from 93 Chinese expatriates and 239 Pakistani HCNs using a three-wave time-lag design. A multilevel model was estimated using Bayesian estimation technique in the Mplus software.Findings Empirical evidence suggests an inverse relationship between expatriates' interaction adjustment and the development of a common social identity between expatriates and HCNs. Further, trust and intercultural communication led to a positive impact on the group memberships between expatriates and HCNs. However, no support was found regarding the mediating role of trust, shared vision and intercultural communication in this empirical research.Originality/value The existing literature focuses mainly on change experiences of expatriates during international assignments. However, the current study goes beyond this and investigates the individualized change experiences of HCNs. Further, empirical evidence in this research found a negative relationship between expatriates' interaction adjustment and the development of a common social identity between expatriates and HCNs, which needs to be examined further.

Methicillin-resistant

PurposeThis research focuses on the distinct group of high-status employees commonly referred to as workplace vigilantes, and conceptually investigates how unethical requests by these individuals impact the behavior and attitude of other employees over time using the social identity theory.Design/methodology/approachFor developing a conceptual model, literature from the domains of social identity, organizational behavior and general management was searched through Google Scholar. To search the literature, some key terms such as “unethical activities”, “Islamic work ethics” and “social identity” were searched and analyzed.FindingsUsing the social identity theory, a conceptual process model is developed which suggests that when high-status employees propose unethical requests to employees, individuals with high morality are likely to refuse those unethical requests to protect their self-categorizations. However, taking the unfair advantage of their illegitimate powers, high-status employees are likely to eventually make wrong judgments and give unnecessary punishments to moral employees. It is further argued that consistent victimization is likely to negatively impact the social identity of such employees and leads to irritability in moral employees, particularly when such individuals are unable to get the requisite social support from their leaders.Originality/valueWhile a considerable body of literature has focused on the antecedents and consequences of intense unethical business practices and the crucial role of leaders in such activities, limited attention has been given to the role of other employees and how they engage in mild unethical misconduct regularly, which is the key focus of this research. The novel conceptual framework needs to be tested in diverse contexts for further development and validation.

Globalization has led to an increasing emphasis on the critical role of the workforce in the success of organizations. This has resulted in the shift of focus on human resource development (HRD) as the center of attention in the current paradigm. Hence, this article suggests a need to use a comprehensive philosophical paradigm to develop practical theories in HRD and compares the usefulness of positivism, interpretivism and pragmatism philosophies in the theory-building process. Based on fragmented literature in philosophy and HRD disciplines, this theoretical manuscript has assembled and thoroughly reviewed the existing literature to propose new ways of theory building in HRD. The findings guide that despite the usefulness of positivism and interpretivism philosophical paradigms in knowledge generation, these philosophies lead to practically weak theories. Hence, theory building in HRD should be driven by a problem-solving approach rather than only relying on plausibility criteria. It further guides how multi-method and mixed-method research designs might help provide answers to complex and newly emerged challenges in HRD. Overall, this research adds value to a body of knowledge by proposing a unique five-stage framework to develop new theories in HRD using the pragmatism approach. The use of the proposed framework might be beneficial in developing practically and theoretically useful theories in the future.

Gabapentinoids are substrate of L-type amino acid transporter 1 (LAT1) for distribution across the blood-brain barrier. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of LAT1 rs4240803 genetic polymorphism on the clinical efficacy and tolerability of gabapentinoids in Pakistani patients with neuropathic pain. Three-hundred and ninety-two patients were recruited, genotyped for SNP rs4240803, and followed up for eight weeks to evaluate the clinical response to gabapentinoids in terms of pain relief, inadequate response, and the emergence of adverse events. LAT1 rs4240803 GG, GA, and AA genotype frequency were 33.42%, 47.96% and 18.62%, respectively. Out of 392 patients, 323 responded to the treatment and 17.6% discontinued either due to insufficient response or intolerable adverse events (AEs). GA genotype was more frequent in non-responder group (P ˂ 0.001). Maximum pain responders (≥50%) in combination with the lowest incidence of AEs were observed in the GG group, whereas partial responders belonged to GA genotype and with the highest frequency of somnolence (83.6%) and dizziness (69.9%). Overall, 72.5% patients with GA genotype experienced AEs (P ˂ 0.001). In conclusion, clinical outcomes of gabapentinoids are influenced by LAT1 rs4240803 polymorphism and population pharmacogenetics should be considered to evaluate the maximum potential of gabapentinoids in the management of neuropathic pain.

Stationary phase Staphylococcus aureus, especially methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), has been widely associated with many persistent infections as well as biofilm-associated infections, which are challenging due to their increasing antibiotic resistance. α-Melanocyte stimulating hormone (α-MSH) is an antimicrobial peptide (AMP) with well-established potent activity against S. aureus, but little is known about its antimicrobial efficacy against the stationary phase of the bacteria. We investigated the in vitro activities of two palmitoylated analogues, Pal-α-MSH(6-13) and Pal-α-MSH(11-13), of the C-terminal fragments of α-MSH against biofilm-producing strains of methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA) and MRSA. While both the peptides demonstrated anti-staphylococcal efficacy, Pal-α-MSH(11-13) emerged as the most effective AMP as palmitoylation led to a remarkable enhancement in its activity against stationary phase bacteria. Similar to α-MSH, both the designed analogues were membrane-active and exhibited improved bacterial membrane depolarization and permeabilization, as further confirmed via electron microscopy studies. Of the two peptides, Pal-α-MSH(11-13) was able to retain its activity in the presence of standard microbiological media, which otherwise is a major limiting factor toward the therapeutic use of α-MSH-based peptides. More importantly, Pal-α-MSH(11-13) was also highly effective in inhibiting the formation of biofilms. Furthermore, it did not lead to resistance development in MRSA cells even upon 18 serial passages at sub-MIC concentrations. These observations support the potential use of Pal-α-MSH(11-13) in the treatment of planktonic as well as sessile S. aureus infections.

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in the pathogenesis of various renal diseases, including Chronic Kidney Diseases (CKD). CKD refers to the gradual loss of kidney function with the declining Glomerular Functional Rate (GFR). Objective: This study focused on the regulatory mechanism of miRNA to control gene expression in CKD. Methods: In this context, two lists of Differentially Expressed Genes (DEGs) were obtained; one from the three selected experiments by setting a cutoff p-value of Results: This study confirmed the active participation of various miRNAs i.e. hsa -miR-15a-5p, hsa-miR-195-5p, hsa-miR-365-3p, hsa-miR-30a-5p, hsa-miR-124-3p, hsa-miR-200b-3p, and hsamiR- 429 in the dysregulation of genes involved in kidney development and function. Integrated analyses depicted that miRNAs modulated renal development, homeostasis, various metabolic processes, immune responses, and ion transport activities. Furthermore, homology studies of miRNA-mRNA hybrid highlighted the effect of partial complementary binding pattern on the regulation of genes by miRNA. Conclusion: The study highlighted the great values of miRNAs as biomarkers in kidney diseases. In addition, the need for further investigations on miRNA-based studies is also commended in the development of diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic tools for renal diseases.

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), an essential component of innate immunity, are very important resources for human therapeutics to counter the current threat of drug resistance. We have previously established that one such AMP, α-melanocyte stimulating hormone (α-MSH), an endogenous neuropeptide, and its derivatives have potent antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, including methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). However, the immense potential of α-MSH for therapeutic development against staphylococcal infections is marred by its reduced efficacy in the presence of standard microbiological culture medium. To overcome this issue, in this study, we designed a series of five novel analogues of the C-terminal fragment of α-MSH, i.e., α-MSH(6-13), by replacing uncharged and less hydrophobic residues with tryptophan and arginine to increase the hydrophobicity and cationic charge of the peptide, respectively. While all of the peptides showed a preferential interaction with negatively charged phospholipid vesicles, the most hydrophobic and cationic peptide, i.e., Ana-5, exhibited the highest activity against S. aureus cells while maintaining cell selectivity. Moreover, Ana-5 could retain its activity even in complex media like the Mueller Hinton broth and displayed rapid bactericidal activity in the presence of serum. Ana-5 also caused rapid bacterial membrane depolarization, permeabilization, and cell lysis and was able to bind to polyanionic plasmid DNA suggesting a possible dual mode of action of the peptide. Importantly, Ana-5 was able to eradicate intracellular S. aureus in fibroblast cells similar to conventional antibiotics. Collectively, in the present study, we obtained a potent α-MSH-based analogue with excellent staphylocidal potency in microbial growth medium and ex vivo efficacy, which may translate into therapeutic application.

Research on leader–member exchange (LMX) has gained momentum with a large number of studies investigating its impact on multiple levels. This article systematically reviews the literature between 2010 and 2016 on the link between LMX and its impacts on employee perceptual, attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Our review identifies performance, job satisfaction, organization citizenship behavior, turnover intention, creativity, organizational commitment and affective commitment as the most significant outcomes of LMX. This article also identifies potential areas for future LMX research and identifies different ways for enhancing its theoretical and empirical contributions in future.

Banana (Musa acuminata) is an important economical food crop, cultivated worldwide depending on suitable climatic conditions. Its production is hindered because of several biotic and abiotic stresses. Drought stress is one of the main factors, which affect banana yield. To survive under water deficit conditions, plants respond by change in expression of many genes. Calmodulin-binding transcription activator (CAMTA) is a small transcription factor (TF) family with broad range of functions involved in different environmental stress responses including drought. Despite the importance of this family, no comprehensive data is available about this TF family in banana. In this study, five Musa acuminata CAMTA (MuCAMTA) TFs were identified in banana genome. One-month old banana plants cv. Basrai, were subjected to drought stress for twelve days by complete withholding of water. Plants kept for control were watered regularly. Photosynthetic pigments and total RNA was extracted from leaves of drought stressed and control plants. The expression pattern of MuCAMTA genes was identified by qRT-PCR. Drought resulted decrease in chlorophyll pigments. All MuCAMTA genes except MuCAMTA2 showed upregulation under drought stress. MuCAMTA1 showed highest expression (40 fold) under drought stress. MuCAMTA1 could be an ideal candidate to enhance drought stress tolerance in banana plants.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the process of Chinese expatriates’ adjustment in Pakistan through integrating the U-curve model and social identity theory. It has also highlighted the importance of engaging in strong social ties and their contribution in expatriates’ adjustment. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through semi-structured interviews from 30 Chinese expatriates working as directors, deputy directors, senior managers, managers and assistant managers in Chinese organizations in Pakistan. After verbatim transcription of all the interviews, data were analyzed using the NVivo software. Findings The findings of this paper indicate that expatriates’ identities somewhat changed in terms of their behaviors and work habits, while fewer changes were observed in their belief and value system. These changes were related to expatriates’ perceptions of host country groups, attraction to these groups and similarity in beliefs, which resulted in the development of interdependent beliefs and depersonalization. However, a few Chinese expatriates predominantly interacted among themselves at work, and their reduced socialization with Pakistanis lessened their chances of change. Research limitations/implications The results of the study suggest that expatriates’ adjustment is a multi-stage process and social identity change is one of the powerful mechanisms through which they adjust in the host country’s environment; hence host organizations should facilitate expatriates in strengthening their bond with local people. Originality/value This paper has proposed a model that explains the mechanism of Chinese expatriates’ adjustment in Pakistan through improved interactions between expatriates’ and host country nationals, resulting in minor social identity changes, leading to further positive relationship building, and then major social identity changes.

This research investigates the impacts of proactiveness, openness to experience, and extraversion on innovative performance among engineers. The work also examines the mediating role of knowledge s...

Victimization has been one of the key research areas in the field of organizational behavior; however, current literature on organizational behavior has not sufficiently discussed the underlying pr...

Escalating multidrug resistance and highly evolved virulence mechanisms have aggravated the clinical menace of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections. Towards development of economically viable staphylocidal agents here we report eight structurally novel tryptophan-arginine template based peptidomimetics. Out of the designed molecules, three lipopeptidomimetics (S-6, S-7 and S-8) containing 12-amino dodecanoic acid exhibited cell selectivity and good to potent activity against clinically relevant pathogens MRSA, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (MIC: 1.4–22.7 μg/mL). Mechanistically, the active peptidomimetics dissipated membrane potential and caused massive permeabilization on MRSA concomitant with loss of viability. Against stationary phase MRSA under nutrient-depleted conditions, active peptidomimetics S-7 and S-8 achieved > 6 log reduction in viability upon 24 h incubation while both S-7 (at 226 μg/mL) and S-8 (at 28 μg/mL) also destroyed 48 h mature MRSA biofilm causing significant decrease in viability (p

Oil-contaminated sites potentially harbor biosurfactant-producing microorganisms. The present study relates to isolation of biosurfactant-producing bacteria from Fimkassar oil field, Chakwal, Pakistan, and their molecular screening for two important genes viz. srfA and rhlB, responsible for production of surfactin and rhamnolipid biosurfactants, respectively. In total, 38 out of 79 different bacterial isolates showing growth on crude-oil-containing media were screened for biosurfactant production. Evidently, 34.2% ( $$n=13$$ ) of the isolates were found to inherit srfA gene, while 15.8% ( $$n=6$$ ) of the isolates contained rhlB gene. Subsequently, 16S ribosomal RNA sequence homology studies confirmed the gene-positive isolates to be the species of genera Bacillus, Brevundimonas, Alcaligenes, Pseudomonas, Serratia, Proteus and Stenotrophomonas. The unusual presence of genes in these microorganisms indicates the possibility of horizontal gene transfer and retention or presence of gene orthologs. Although all the gene-positive isolates showed biosurfactant production under submerged fermentative conditions, maximum production in terms of biosurfactant activities (i.e., $$E_{24} = 59.5\pm 4.0\%$$ ; $$\hbox {SFT} = 27.2\pm 1.1\, \hbox {mN/m}$$ ; $$\hbox {ODA} = 3.5\,\pm \,0.2\, \hbox {cm}$$ ) was revealed by Bacillus subtilis strain SWW1. Surfactin nature of biosurfactant produced was confirmed by thin-layer chromatography and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.

Objectives There are many different ways to measure body composition and bioelectric impedance is one of the most popular methods to measure body ratios. The navy-seal formula is another simple way of measuring body fat ratio which takes into account simple variables such as gender, weight, height, waist, hip and neck circumference. The objective of our study was to compare the results of body fat composition by these two methods. Materials and methods Height and weight were measured in 85 study participants using a wall-mounted stadiometer and digital scale. Body composition measurements were recorded using a simple measuring tape. Participants were then asked to stand on the electrical impedance machine to determine the body fat and muscle mass. Data were analyzed on IBM's statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) version 23 (IBM, Armonk, NY). Results The Navy-seal formula had slightly higher values for both muscle mass and body fat ratio in both genders and across all body mass index (BMI) categories. Body fat ratio and muscle mass of both genders were similar in underweight, normal, over weight and obese participants. In males, the results on two instruments showed more similarity with the increase in BMI, whereas, in females, the results of the two methods were more similar in the normal weight category. Conclusion Navy-seal formula and bioelectrical impedance are both simple and reliable instruments to measure body composition in adults. The navy-seal formula can be used to screen individuals with high-fat body fat ratio whereas bioelectric impedance can be used to measure the body composition for personal monitoring.

The antecedents of expatriates’ adjustment have received considerable attention in the international business research in the recent years. However, there has been a limited understanding regarding the outcomes of expatriates’ adjustment on host country nationals (HCNs). Thus, examining the existing literature and analyzing it using social identity theory, we hypothesized an inverse curvilinear relationship between expatriates’ interaction adjustment and development of trust, shared vision and intercultural communication in HCNs. We tested our hypotheses by conducting a multilevel regression analysis on dyadic data collected from Chinese expatriates and Pakistani HCNs. The findings confirm an inverse U-shape relationship between expatriates’ interaction adjustment and trust, and between expatriates’ interaction adjustment and intercultural communication. In contrast to the focus of existing literature on static changes, our findings highlight a dynamic nature of social change experiences by suggesting that too much adjustment of expatriates negatively impacts work relationships between expatriates and HCNs in the long-run. Based on the empirical findings, we offer insights to HR professionals and suggest managing expatriates’ adjustment to an optimal level in a host unit where expatriates and HCNs can develop an adequate level of trust and intercultural communication with each other.

This paper has quantitatively examined the role of workplace spirituality in stimulating job satisfaction of nurses working in Pakistan. Based on the recent literature on employees’ deviance and their involvement in unethical activities, this paper has focused on understanding this aspect through five dimensions of workplace spirituality including team’s bonding, alignment between value, sense of delight, opportunities for inner life and sense of contribution towards society. Data was collected from nurses working in different hospitals of Pakistan through questionnaires. Based on regression analysis, results highlighted the strong role of workplace spirituality in enhancing job satisfaction of nurses. Implications and future directions of article have been addressed in paper.

The steady rise in antimicrobial resistance poses a severe threat to global public health by hindering treatment of an escalating spectrum of infections. We have previously established the potent activity of α-MSH, a 13 residue antimicrobial peptide, against the opportunistic pathogen Staphylococcus aureus. Here, we sought to determine whether an increase in cationic charge in α-MSH could contribute towards improving its staphylocidal potential by increasing its interaction with anionic bacterial membranes. For this we designed novel α-MSH analogues by replacing polar uncharged residues with lysine and alanine. Similar to α-MSH, the designed peptides preserved turn/random coil conformation in artificial bacterial mimic 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine:1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho-rac-(1-glycerol) (7:3, w/w) vesicles and showed preferential insertion in the hydrophobic core of anionic membranes. Increased cationic charge resulted in considerable augmentation of antibacterial potency against MSSA and MRSA. With ~18-fold better binding than α-MSH to bacterial mimic vesicles, the most charged peptide KKK-MSH showed enhanced membrane permeabilization and depolarization activity against intact S. aureus. Scanning electron microscopy confirmed a membrane disruptive mode of action for KKK-MSH. Overall, increasing the cationic charge improved the staphylocidal activity of α-MSH without compromising its cell selectivity. The present study would help in designing more effective α-MSH-based peptides to combat clinically relevant staphylococcal infections.