CD26/DPPIV is a dipeptidyl peptidase that cleaves and destroys a variety of substrates such as the chemokine SDF-1α, a chemokine expressed along bone marrow endothelium, which is essential for the recruitment of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) via binding with its receptor CXCR4 to the bone marrow. Thus, CD26 is thought to interfere with the second step, chemokine/chemokine receptor interactions, of the cellular migration paradigm. To further study the role of CD26 in the migration of HSCs, we screened several human leukemic cell lines to find a model cell line that expresses active CD26 and discovered that the pro-monocytic cell line, U937 was optimal for this purpose. U937 cells were used to optimize a variety of assays including an CD26 activity assay and transwell migration assay with and without the use of a CD26 inhibitor, Diprotin A. Then, we isolated short-term and long-term HSCs from the bone marrow of C57BL/6N mice using a combination of surface markers and a fluorescence-activated cell sorter. The expression levels of Step 2’s homing molecules were measured by FACS in both fractions of HSCs. Interestingly, we detected differences in the expression of CD26 between these two populations that may help explain the inability of long-term HSCs to migrate to the bone marrow. Thus, through the use of a CD26 inhibitor the long-term HSCS migration to the bone marrow could be enhanced, leading to a prolonged and efficient stem cell engraftment activity. Such studies are could help develop protocols to improve stem cell engraftment for patients suffering from hematological diseases such as leukemia.

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There is a significant gap in employment rates between people born in and outside of Sweden. Previous literature and theory present evidence of discrimination being a part of the gap. This paper studies the differences in employment between foreign-born and natives in Sweden. The terror attack in Stockholm in 2017 is used as an exogenous variation in attitudes towards foreign-born individuals to measure the discrimination. By collecting individual and aggregated data from Swedish statistics, the study examines how the negative attitudes following the terror attack affect ethnical differences in employment. Data is also collected from retriever to analyze the media coverage around the time of the incident to pinpoint a source of the attack and compare with the development of the employment after the attack. Using the difference-in-differences approch, result was found suggesting that the expected negative attitudes did not affect foreign-born individuals' employment probabilities. However, there were some negative effects shortly after the attack, but they were very small. Results are in line with the large spike in media coverage around the time of the incident which quickly decreases in the months after. A possible explanation of the results is that most of the employers don't let prejudice decide when making hiring decisions. Because the negative effects are very small nd only in the short run, this paper concludes that the expected attitude shift following the terror attack did not affect immigrants' employment probabilities.

This article proposes that the Korean Protestant Church, which has lost its dynamism and is declining, needs a theological reformation. Greatly influenced by Puritan theology, Korean Protestantism has deteriorated into a largely individualistic and consumerist faith. Its credibility has collapsed as it pursued power and turned away from the other. This article identifies Evagrius’ negative theology as a promising theological corrective for the Korean Protestant church. Evagrius’ mystical theology remains largely unknown but his ethical and devotional moral vision provides a viable model for the Korean Protestant Church, which stands at a crossroad today.

This article proposes that the Korean Protestant Church, which has lost its dynamism and is declining, needs a theological reformation. Greatly influenced by Puritan theology, Korean Protestantism has deteriorated into a largely individualistic and consumerist faith. Its credibility has collapsed as it pursued power and turned away from the other. This article identifies Evagrius’ negative theology as a promising theological corrective for the Korean Protestant church. Evagrius’ mystical theology remains largely unknown but his ethical and devotional moral vision provides a viable model for the Korean Protestant Church, which stands at a crossroad today. / 성장의 활력을 잃고 쇠퇴하는 한국개신교회에 필요한 것은 신학의 전환이다. 한국개신교회는 신학적으로는 청교도신학의 영향을 크게 받았지만 그 기저에는 개인주의적이고 소비주의적인 성향이 강했다. 욕망을 추구해서 힘을 지향하고, 타자를 배척한 결과 신뢰도는 크게 추락했다. 한국개신교의 갱생의 방안 중 에바그리오스의 부정신학적인 요소를 도입해서 욕망과 분노를 억제하고 평정을 추구하며 관계를 회복하고 이성중심에서 실천중심 교회로 전환하는 것과 이를 위한 설교가 필요하다. 에바그리오스의 신비신학은 한국개신교회에 생소하지만 전환기에 적합한 도덕적 신앙적 대안이다.

International migration has had a steady growth over the last decades and the integration of immigrants into the labour market is a challenge for many countries. Previous literature has found that immigrants, especially non-European immigrants, are disadvantaged in the labour market, and that the size of this disadvantage differs between male and female immigrants. One potential explanation for non-European immigrants’ labour market disadvantage is discrimination, which can be expressed through negative attitudes towards immigrants. Using individual data from the European Social Survey, this paper investigates whether there is a relation between negative attitudes towards immigrants and the employment gap between non-European immigrants and natives in Sweden, and whether this relation differs by gender. The results, however not statistically significant, indicate that there is a negative relation between negative attitudes towards immigrants and the immigrant-native employment gap. Moreover, the female immigrant-native employment gap is found to be more negatively affected by negative attitudes towards immigrants.

For as long robotics has been a research topic, their impact on the traditional manufacturing industry have been discussed. Several theories have been presented through the years in how robotics will change the business climate. The Chinese labor market is facing big transitions and the question of what the effects on employment rate and economy will be remains uncertain.  In this thesis, the focus in this thesis is to present the positive and negative effects of robotics in manufacturing industry and how it will affect the labor market. This is conducted by analyzing empirical findings from interviews and second-hand interviews. The collected findings will be compared with previous research regarding digitalization and robotics in China.  The outcome of this thesis will show the positive and negative effects of robotics and manufacturing industry and its impact on the Chinese labor market. The thesis will show the correlation between robotics, education, quality, labor and the Chinese economy.

Symptoms of a Cosmic Fluke is a book of poems.

In the fast pace of the development of the Internet and the increased use of it more and more people use interactive platforms to connect with each other. The increased opportunity and ability to share content with people around the globe has led to the emergence of eWOM. eWOM means that consumers generate content that is consumption-related and mainly directed towards other consumers. Today, social media sites are the biggest source to eWOM. Consumers are actively searching for eWOM in order to gain information and reduce uncertainty, as a part of their purchasing process. In general, consumers tend to trust consumer generated content more than marketer generated content. Therefore, eWOM becomes a crucial component to business performance.  Negative eWOM has been shown to affect the purchase intentions, loyalty and trust in a negative way, which eventually affects the turnover for a company. Negative eWOM has further been seen to have a larger impact on consumers, compared to positive eWOM. These consequences emphasize the importance of marketers being aware of negative eWOM and have strategies to manage it. The subject of eWOM has been acknowledged by practitioners and researchers. However, despite the increased interest in eWOM and its effects on business performance, there are still research gaps on how to proactively and reactively avoid and manage negative eWOM.  The purpose of this study was to examine and understand what strategies companies use in order to avoid and manage negative eWOM on company owned and external interactive platforms. To fill the identified research gaps, this study took an inductive approach and the authors conducted a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews. The sample was purposively selected to include respondents within different companies that had knowledge about the companies’ strategies and approach towards managing negative eWOM. The sample consisted of companies of different sizes, which provided different perspectives and rich information of how companies can approach negative eWOM. A thematic analysis was conducted in order to analyze the empirical data and present relevant findings from the data collection.  As a result of the thematic analysis, two global themes were identified: proactive strategies and reactive strategies. Within the global theme proactive strategies, five sub- themes were found: observation, detect critical potential scenarios and questions, communicate expectations, encourage feedback and facilitate contact. Within the global theme reactive strategies, six sub-themes were found: acknowledge or leave, do not delete, accommodative, defensive, answer in public, drive to private, and humorous and cleverly. These themes laid the foundation for a final conceptual model. The findings of this study suggest that marketers in retail use different proactive strategies to avoid negative eWOM from occurring in the first place. Moreover, the findings of this study show that marketers in retail, depending on the content of the negative eWOM and the platform it is taking place on, also use different reactive strategies to manage negative eWOM. The results also show that what strategy to use is to a large extent dependent on the individual’s subjective ability to interpret the negative eWOM.

Background: Multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (MDRGN) are found with rising prevalence in non-hemodialysis risk populations as well as hemodialysis (HD) cohorts in Asia, Europe and North America. At the same time, colonization and consecutive infections with such pathogens may increase mortality and morbidity of affected individuals. We aimed to monitor intestinal MDRGN colonization in a yet not investigated German HD population. Methods: We performed cross-sectional point-prevalence testing with 12 months follow-up and selected testing of relatives in an out-patient HD cohort of n = 77 patients by using microbiological cultures from fresh stool samples, combined with Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization—Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) and antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Results: We detected MDRGN in 8 out of 77 patients (10.4%) and 1 out of 22 relatives (4.5%), indicating only colonization and no infections. At follow-up, 2 patients showed phenotypic persistence of MDRGN colonization, and in 6 other patients de-novo MDRGN colonization could be demonstrated. Pathogens included Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae (with extended-spectrum beta-lactamase [ESBL]-production as well as fluoroquinolone resistance), Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and Enterobacter cloacae. Conclusions: In a single-center study, MDRGN colonization rates were below those found in non-HD high-risk populations and HD units in the US, respectively. Reasons for this could be high hygiene standards and a strict antibiotic stewardship policy with evidence of low consumption of fluoroquinolones and carbapenems in our HD unit and the affiliated hospital.