Recent Entrants Research Articles

‘Everything is dimming out, little by little:’ examining self-censorship among Venezuelan journalists

ABSTRACT Using the conceptual frameworks of professional reflexivity and collective professional autonomy, our in-depth interviews with 25 journalists from Venezuela show that years of anti-press violence have ensured an atmosphere where journalists self-censor as the norm and where, through different forms, self-censorship has become a part of news routines. Journalists, especially those with over ten years of experience, clearly distinguished between self-censorship and other forms of suppression, but self-censorship has become so prevalent and infused in daily news routines, and so deeply internalised and reinforced that younger journalists and recent entrants into the profession consider self-censorship an integral part of their professional identity.

Exploring the digital competence of pre-service teachers on entry onto an initial teacher education programme in Ireland

This study aimed to explore the digital competence of recent entrants into a pre-service teacher education programme in an Irish University. The participants were drawn from a cohort of 208 undergraduate teacher education students. The study employed an online survey that captured both self-reported levels of digital competence and knowledge of key areas of cyber ethics and digital technology. The respondents were active users of technology and very frequent users of social media but reported levels of skills in the use of other digital technologies were lower. In addition, their knowledge of cyber-ethics and associated practices varied. The study also found that they were positively disposed to technology in teaching. The paper argues that, while there are limitations to surveys that aim to capture one’s level of digital competence, they can help guide teacher educators in responding to pre-service teachers. However, digital competence is an evolving concept and care must be taken to ensure that frameworks and tools used to assess it do not stifle teachers’ autonomy in relation to their utilisation of technology.

Graphene quantum dots redefine nanobiomedicine.

Carbon-based nanomaterials have established a prime position as drug delivery carriers. It is very interesting to see that a carbon nanostructure could be used as a drug too, instead of its regular application as a drug delivery carrier. In this aspect, graphene quantum dots (GQDs) are now in the spotlight. GQDs are one of the recent entrants to the list of carbon-based nanomaterials. They are now reported useful in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. Furthermore, antibacterial and anti-diabetic potentials of GQDs are now known. In addition, they are now widely evaluated for drug delivery application. They have good potential for drug delivery across the blood-brain barrier. Tumor-targeted drug delivery is also possible with GQDs. Their biosensing and bioimaging applications are also under extensive study. In this review, the therapeutic, drug delivery, biosensing and bioimaging applications of GQDs are described. It would be very interesting to speculate the future of GQDs and how this carbon nanomaterial influences the future of nanobiomedicine. It is presumed that drug-GQD duo would be the next generation strategy for many unresolved therapeutic hurdles.

Generation and decomposition of scalar and vector modes carrying orbital angular momentum: a review

Orbital angular momentum (OAM), one of the most recently discovered degrees of freedom of light beam field has fundamentally revolutionized optical physics and its technological capabilities. Optical beams with OAM have enabled a large variety of applications, including super-resolution imaging, optical trapping, classical and quantum optical communication, and quantum computing, to mention a few. To enable these and several other emerging applications, optical beams with OAM have been generated using a variety of methods and technologies, such as a simple astigmatic lens pair, one-/two-dimensional holographic optical elements, three-dimensional spiral phase plates, optical fibers, and recent entrants such as metasurfaces. All these techniques achieve spatial light modulation and can be implemented with either passive elements or active devices, such as liquid crystal on silicon and digital micromirror devices. Many of these devices and technologies are not only used for the generation of amplitude phase-polarization structured light beams but are also capable of analyzing them. We have attempted to encompass a wide variety of such technologies as well as a few emerging methodologies, broadly categorized into generation and detection protocols. We address the needs of scientists and engineers who desire to generate/detect OAM modes and are looking for the technique (active or passive) best suited for their application.

U.S. Student Knowledge Gaps in the Interpersonal Skills Competency

A national survey was conducted to determine the current state of senior executive perceptions of recent entrant managers within corporate headquarters, hospital systems, and freestanding hospitals. The survey was constructed based on leadership interpersonal competencies and competency-based career development programs. The goal of the study was to determine the perceptions that senior executives have about the interpersonal skills of recent entrants. A total of 676 respondents returned the survey, representing 31 percent of the mailing sample. In a follow-up study to 368 matriculating graduate students to determine their knowledge gaps in the transformation, execution, and people domains of the NCHL competency model, it was determined that the “people competency” received minimal attention in comparison to competencies in the transformation and execution domains. Graduate students did not recognize that their interpersonal skills needed enhancement. The conclusion is that impressing upon students that interpersonal skills are important to their long-term career success requires reinforcement at the graduate school level.

Toward a Synergistic Model for Improving the Use of Research in Court-Driven Educational Reform: Examining Gary B. v. Snyder and Literacy Improvement in Detroit

Gary B. v. Snyder, a federal class action lawsuit originally filed in September 2016, is one of the most recent and high-profile entrants into the line of cases involving large-scale education reform. In this case, seven students from traditional public schools and charter schools in Detroit sued various Michigan state officials, arguing that the U.S. Constitution includes a fundamental right of access to literacy and that the state had denied them this right. Although the federal trial court in Detroit that initially heard the case found that students were not denied their right of access to literacy by the state, the plaintiffs appealed the case, and it is now being considered in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Given the difficulties that have historically emerged with court-driven education reform, we examine the opportunities and challenges inherent in Gary B. to provide insight into the prospects of Gary B. and similar cases to effectively promote educational improvement. Grounded in this examination, we also present an argument for the utility of a new model for education litigation. We specifically argue that courts acting as agenda setters and working in concert with stakeholders to tailor reform to ground-level conditions is a model that is highly compatible with contemporary education research on effective models of systemic improvement. A court-mandated agenda for educational improvement must be structured in a way that engages stakeholder groups in implementation efforts precisely because improvement naturally involves dynamic, contextual conditions that cannot be completely accounted for in advance.

Applying Prospect Theory to Participation in a CAPI/Web Panel Survey.

Prospect theory states that the influential power of avoiding negative outcomes is stronger than that of achieving positive outcomes. In a survey context, this theory has been tested with respect to not only participation in a CATI survey, but also giving consent to data linkage in CATI surveys. No study, however, has tested the theory with respect to participation in a CAPI or web survey. This study does so in a mixed-mode panel context; it also tests the moderating effects of time-in-panel, response history, and mode protocol. Results show that the framing of the survey participation request influences participation propensity in a way consistent with prospect theory, but only for relatively recent panel entrants. The opposite effect is found for long-term panel participants. No difference is found between mode protocols.

Household Extension and Earnings Among Foreign-Born Asian and Non-Hispanic White Households

Previous research to understand socioeconomic well-being of immigrants finds the type of living arrangement is significantly correlated with household-level earnings. Present study employing 2009-2011 American Community Survey data explores the above relationship for the six major foreign-born Asian groups and native-born non-Hispanic Whites. The results indicate relative to Whites, household extension is more beneficial for Asian households. Furthermore, householders’ labor market advantages as measured by their human capital and English language proficiency are positively associated with nuclear living arrangement. However, diminishing gains in household earnings for the not so recent foreign-born immigrants living in vertically extended households displays a cultural inclination for collective living. Also, there are significant intergroup differences. While Japanese households appear to “rely” the least on household extension to enhance household earnings, the advantage of residing in extended households for the Filipinos and Koreans and especially so for the recent entrants is substantial.

Novel non-fiber optical metamaterial waveguide for monitoring canal and pipeline structures

The electromagnetic metamaterials are the recent entrants, into the classification of smart materials for structural health monitoring (SHM). Their applications in SHM have raised the curiosity due to their rapid executable speeds in wide-frequency domains. The speed of obtaining health output signals for engineering structures is about 1/100th of the time taken by existing smart material-based frequency domain techniques such as piezoelectric material-based techniques. Recently, we developed an ultra-sensitive near-field sensing technique using metamaterial localized surface plasmon (LSP) ‘sensor’ which produced diagnosable ‘confined surface electromagnetic waves’ for SHM. This paper presents the same near-field sensing technique in the frequency domain but using metamaterial ‘waveguides’ based on propagating surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs)/surface waves. For the experiments, a novel robust metamaterial waveguide coupling zone was designed and applied for monitoring longitudinal and lateral displacements in civil engineering prototype structures such as channels and pipelines. In the context of SHM, coupling zone and metamaterial waveguide resemble fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor and optical fiber waveguide, respectively. Thus, if properly realized, these metamaterials can co-exist with the existing FBG/optical fiber techniques for applications in civil engineering.

The HERV-K accessory protein Np9 controls viability and migration of teratocarcinoma cells.

Human endogenous retroviruses are remnants of ancient germline infections that make up approximately 8% of the modern human genome. The HERV-K (HML-2) family is one of the most recent entrants into the human germline, these viruses appear to be transcriptionally active, and HERV-K viral like particles (VLPs) are found in cell lines from a number of human malignancies. HERV-K VLPs were first found to be produced in teratocarcinoma cell lines, and since then teratocarcinoma has been thought of as the classical model for HERV-Ks, with the NCCIT teratocarcinoma cell line particularly known to produce VLPs. Treatment for teratocarcinoma has progressed since its discovery, with improved prognosis for patients. Since the introduction of platinum based therapy, first year survival has greatly improved even with disseminated disease; however, it is estimated that 20% to 30% of patients present with metastatic germ cell tumor relapse following initial treatments. Also, the toxicity associated with the use of chemotherapeutic agents used to treat germ cell tumors is still a major concern. In this study, we show that the depletion of the HERV-K accessory protein Np9 increases the sensitivity of NCCIT teratocarcinoma cells to bleomycin and cisplatin. While decreasing the expression of Np9 had only a modest effect on the baseline viability of the cells, the reduced expression of Np9 increased the sensitivity of the teratocarcinoma cells to environmental (serum starvation) and chemical (chemotherapeutic) stresses. Np9 is also essential to the migration of NCCIT teratocarcinoma cells: in a wound closure assay, reduced expression of Np9 resulted in cells migrating into the wound at a slower rate, whereas reintroduction of Np9 resulted in NCCIT cells migrating back into the wound in a manner similar to the control. These findings support the implication that the HERV-K accessory protein Np9 has oncogenic potential.

An exploratory examination of the relationship between time-in-market and market share for foreign firms in a consumer ethnocentric emerging market

The current study examines the relationship between time-in-market and market share for foreign firms versus domestic firms in the consumer ethnocentric emerging market of Kuwait. Data were collected from 99 competitors in five retail service categories. The results demonstrate that domestic Kuwaiti firms tend to have a significantly higher market share than foreign firms. The market share advantage of domestic firms over foreign firms is especially robust for those companies with greater time-in-market. In fact, recent foreign entrants actually tend to outperform more established foreign competitors. Thus, there is no pioneering advantage for foreign firms in the Kuwait market.

Game changers

How are the different generations changing the industry in APAC where market research is maturing after a period of fast growth? We asked members of the Programme Committee for ESOMAR's upcoming Asia Pacific Conference which takes place in Bangkok about the most recent entrants to the research profession.

Correlation function diagnostics for type-I fracton phases

Fracton phases are recent entrants to the roster of topological phases in three dimensions. They are characterized by subextensively divergent topological degeneracy and excitations that are constrained to move along lower dimensional subspaces, including the eponymous fractons that are immobile in isolation. We develop correlation function diagnostics to characterize Type I fracton phases which build on their exhibiting {\it partial deconfinement}. These are inspired by similar diagnostics from standard gauge theories and utilize a generalized gauging procedure that links fracton phases to classical Ising models with subsystem symmetries. En route, we explicitly construct the spacetime partition function for the plaquette Ising model which, under such gauging, maps into the X-cube fracton topological phase. We numerically verify our results for this model via Monte Carlo calculations.

Tapping into Opportunity beyond South Africa for Small Business Expansion

Masana Twala and Emily Brown, the co-founders of ME Data Services (MEDS), believed they had identified an excellent opportunity in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) domain. They were excited to set their idea in motion and, as many technology services entrepreneurs do, they feared that if they did not act promptly they could lose this chance. However, as recent entrants to the fiercely competitive BPO) industry in South Africa, pausing to map out the future of their new company was a necessity rather than a luxury. The pair had several issues to consider before making their next move. They needed to take into account the various internal and external constraints in order to map out a strategy for their new business in the fast paced BPO domain. How should their 5-10 year plan look like?

Too big to succeed or too big to fail?

It is often argued that smaller/younger firms are more innovative than older/larger firms—the latter may be “too big to succeed.” We show in the context of a simple industry model with consumer search frictions why evidence suggesting that smaller or younger firms are more successful at innovation may be subject to sample selection bias. Specifically, smaller more recent entrants may appear to innovate more successfully simply because unsuccessful larger incumbent firms’ size advantage enables them to survive when unsuccessful smaller ones cannot—they may be “too big to fail.”

The Inefficient Advantage of Experience in the Market for Football Managers

We study hiring in a labor market where worker ability can only be observed on-the-job, but quickly becomes public information after labor market entry. We show that firms in these markets have a socially inefficient incentive to hire low talented, experienced workers instead of more promising labor market entrants, either when an extremely poor hire may bankrupt the firm, or when workers cannot commit to long-term contracts. In a dataset covering 38 years of hiring in the English labor market for football managers, we find that in around one quarter of all cases, where a firm hires an experienced worker, this experienced worker has an estimated ability below the average ability of recent labor market entrants. We argue this hiring behavior is inefficient, because it has persistently depressed the average ability of the active manager labor force over our sample period.

Susceptibility of Human Endogenous Retrovirus Type K to Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors.

Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) make up 8% of the human genome. The HERV type K (HERV-K) HML-2 (HK2) family contains proviruses that are the most recent entrants into the human germ line and are transcriptionally active. In HIV-1 infection and cancer, HK2 genes produce retroviral particles that appear to be infectious, yet the replication capacity of these viruses and potential pathogenicity has been difficult to ascertain. In this report, we screened the efficacy of commercially available reverse transcriptase inhibitors (RTIs) at inhibiting the enzymatic activity of HK2 RT and HK2 genomic replication. Interestingly, only one provirus, K103, was found to encode a functional RT among those examined. Several nucleoside analogue RTIs (NRTIs) blocked K103 RT activity and consistently inhibited the replication of HK2 genomes. The NRTIs zidovudine (AZT), stavudine (d4T), didanosine (ddI), and lamivudine (3TC), and the nucleotide RTI inhibitor tenofovir (TDF), show efficacy in blocking K103 RT. HIV-1-specific nonnucleoside RTIs (NNRTIs), protease inhibitors (PIs), and integrase inhibitors (IIs) did not affect HK2, except for the NNRTI etravirine (ETV). The inhibition of HK2 infectivity by NRTIs appears to take place at either the reverse transcription step of the viral genome prior to HK2 viral particle formation and/or in the infected cells. Inhibition of HK2 by these drugs will be useful in suppressing HK2 infectivity if these viruses prove to be pathogenic in cancer, neurological disorders, or other diseases associated with HK2. The present studies also elucidate a key aspect of the life cycle of HK2, specifically addressing how they do, and/or did, replicate.IMPORTANCE Endogenous retroviruses are relics of ancestral virus infections in the human genome. The most recent of these infections was caused by HK2. While HK2 often remains silent in the genome, this group of viruses is activated in HIV-1-infected and cancer cells. Recent evidence suggests that these viruses are infectious, and the potential exists for HK2 to contribute to disease. We show that HK2, and specifically the enzyme that mediates virus replication, can be inhibited by a panel of drugs that are commercially available. We show that several drugs block HK2 with different efficacies. The inhibition of HK2 replication by antiretroviral drugs appears to occur in the virus itself as well as after infection of cells. Therefore, these drugs might prove to be an effective treatment by suppressing HK2 infectivity in diseases where these viruses have been implicated, such as cancer and neurological syndromes.

Will It Be Wine or Cocktails? The Quest to Build a Mass Market for California Wine after Prohibition

This article examines why wine marketers struggled to build a mass market for American wine from the 1930s to the 1950s. Wine promoters worked to both surmount and accommodate existing preferences for spirits by casting wine both as a base for cocktails and as the budget-friendly alternative to them. Previously marked as either too highbrow or too lowbrow, wine gradually lost its foreignness as merchandisers learned to sell the glamour of wine without the demands of connoisseurship. Instead of setting their sights on urban sophisticates, wine promoters aimed for young married couples and budget-conscious new homeowners—the most recent entrants into the middle class. These populist marketing approaches, I contend, sowed the seeds of the table “wine revolution” not in bohemian enclaves and gourmet dining societies but in middle-class suburbia, where wine found its way to the American dinner table via the cocktail glass, the casserole dish, and the backyard barbecue.

Scottish farmers' intentions to afforest land in the context of farm diversification

Increasing woodland area in the United Kingdom is strongly supported in policies, but there is evidence of low rates of new planting, infrequent uptake of farm forestry, and negative attitudes to woodland among farmers. Additionally, there is a wider context of increasing farm diversification, and a need for greater understanding of farmers' attitudes and behaviour related to afforestation. This paper uses a representative survey of Scottish farmers (survey year: 2013, respondents used in analysis: 1735) to compare farmers who intended to expand forestry in future and farmers with alternative combinations of intended and past behaviour in relation to forestry. Overall, we find that certain characteristics: already operating forestry, reporting types of non-farming activities, involvement in environmental schemes, having a high education level, having a relatively high number of employees, and being relatively recent entrants to holdings, were more frequently found among farmers intending to increase forestry in future than farmers described as ‘non-increasers’ who did not intend to increase forestry and also had not expanded it in the past. Farmers with these characteristics could be a useful focus in attempts to expand woodland at larger scales, and encouraging small-scale tree planting could be an effective policy approach.

Cloud robotics: a review of technologies, developments and applications

PurposeThis paper aims to provide an insight into the current state of cloud robotics developments, technology and applications.Design/methodology/approachFollowing a short introduction, this paper first considers the potential benefits of cloud robotics. It discusses cloud service providers and then considers a range of recent applications and developments involving humanoid, mobile and industrial robots. This is followed by details of some recent market entrants and their developments. Finally, brief concluding comments are drawn.FindingsCloud robotics is a rapidly developing technology made possible by the current ubiquitous internet connectivity and the growing number of powerful cloud computing services available. Benefits include access to big data sets, open-source algorithms, code and programmes, massively powerful parallel or grid computing and the sharing of information between robots. The technology has been applied successfully to humanoid, industrial, mobile and other classes of robots, often through direct collaborations between robot manufacturers and major IT companies. Several new companies have been established in very recent years to exploit the capabilities of cloud robotic technologies.Originality/valueCloud robotics is a highly topical and rapidly developing field, and this paper provides a detailed insight into recent developments and applications.