Following Through the Good and the Bad?

Followers are underrepresented in the organizational change literature despite their considerable influence on change success. Politics, culture, motivation, communication, and readiness have a large impact on change success, and these influences are examined in the change context. Each of these are influenced by leaders and followers. The role of authentic followers in enabling positive change through their organizational engagement is explored in depth. This chapter demonstrates that while the influential role of leaders in change is established, the authentic follower represents a large body of potential change agents with the capacity to positively influence the success of change. Many behaviors of the authentic follower make them an ideal candidate for this role, including moral potency, high levels of engagement in organizational structure, and flexibility. Further research highlighting the value of the authentic follower is warranted.

A Graphene-Based THz Wave Duplexer and Filter: Switching via Gate Biasing

This work introduces a Graphene-based multi-layer reconfigurable device as a wave duplexer in the THz frequency range. Adjusting transmitting and reflecting parts of incident waves alongside controlling absorption provides the interesting capability to select target waves in different frequencies. The proposed device includes periodic graphene patterns on both sides of silicon dioxide as substrate. Additionally, the patterns are biased differently compared to conventional patterns which makes it possible to achieve two distinct behaviors versus frequency. Exploiting equivalent circuit models (ECM) for graphene and dielectric, the whole device is modeled by passive RLC circuits. According to simulation results, the proposed device can transmit and reflect incident THz waves at desired frequencies in 0.1 THz to 30 THz which makes it an ideal candidate for manipulating THz waves in terms of transmission and reflection.

El Fenómeno del votante ucraniano moderno: esencia, peculiaridades y tendencias de su desarrollo

The article reveals the peculiarities of the modern Ukrainian voter as a special phenomenon in political science. The main objective of the research is to form a portrait of the modern voter based on data from some sociological surveys, as well as to address the emergence and formation of the image of a desirable candidate for the voter. Historical and statistical analysis methods as well as the comparison method were used. In the results they emphasize that in the personality of the voter we will understand a subject who makes a conscious choice of that political figure that he (the voter) considers capable of solving urgent problems of life, both State and of his person. In this regard, the focus is on revealing the moods in modern Ukrainian society, to describe the image of "an ideal candidate" in the eyes of a modern voter. Special attention was paid to personality as an integral element of the socio-political space and the worldview of the political and electoral sphere. It is concluded that the historical context is very important in the formation of the Ukrainian political environment, which makes us glimpse analytically the peculiarities of the meaning of the act of suffrage.

Technological Breakthrough for the Afforestation of Populus euphratica in the Mu Us Desert in China

The Mu Us Desert (MUD) is one of the four largest sandy lands in China. On 22 April 2020, the Shaanxi Forestry Bureau announced that the desertification land control rate in Yulin reached 93.24%, which means that the Mu Us Desert was about to “disappear” from the territory of Shaanxi. However, the problem of biological diversity, mostly for Pinus sylvestris and shrubs in the Mu Us Desert, remains serious. In order to consolidate the current forest conservation efforts, Populus euphratica has been considered an ideal candidate since the 1950s. However, the low survival rate and conservation rate of Populus euphratica in the MUD led us to perform further large-scale introduction for over 70 years. In this study, by using root control seedling technology, the survival and the conservation rate of Populus euphratica were increased to more than 90%. This study makes possible the introduction of Populus euphratica in the MUD, and the successful introduction of Populus euphratica will provide a new barrier for forest ecosystem stability in the desertification control project in the Yulin area.

The Oncolytic Caprine Herpesvirus 1 (CpHV-1) Induces Apoptosis and Synergizes with Cisplatin in Mesothelioma Cell Lines: A New Potential Virotherapy Approach

Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is an aggressive asbestos-related cancer, against which no curative modalities exist. Oncolytic virotherapy is a promising therapeutic approach, for which MM is an ideal candidate; indeed, the pleural location provides direct access for the intra-tumoral injection of oncolytic viruses (OVs). Some non-human OVs offer advantages over human OVs, including the non-pathogenicity in humans and the absence of pre-existing immunity. We previously showed that caprine herpesvirus 1 (CpHV-1), a non-pathogenic virus for humans, can kill different human cancer cell lines. Here, we assessed CpHV-1 effects on MM (NCI-H28, MSTO, NCI-H2052) and non-tumor mesothelial (MET-5A) cells. We found that CpHV-1 reduced cell viability and clonogenic potential in all MM cell lines without affecting non-tumor cells, in which, indeed, we did not detect intracellular viral DNA after treatment. In particular, CpHV-1 induced MM cell apoptosis and accumulation in G0/G1 or S cell cycle phases. Moreover, CpHV-1 strongly synergized with cisplatin, the drug currently used in MM chemotherapy, and this agent combination did not affect normal mesothelial cells. Although further studies are required to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the selective CpHV-1 action on MM cells, our data suggest that the CpHV-1-cisplatin combination could be a feasible strategy against MM.

Immunolabeling provides evidence for subregions in the songbird nucleus accumbens and suggests a context-dependent role in song in male European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris)

Birdsong is well known for its role in mate attraction during the breeding season. However, many birds, including European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), also sing outside the breeding season as part of large flocks. Song in a breeding context can be extrinsically rewarded by mate attraction; however, song in non-breeding flocks, referred to here as gregarious song, results in no obvious extrinsic reward and is proposed to be intrinsically rewarded. The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is a brain region well-known to mediate reward and motivation, which suggests it is an ideal candidate to regulate reward associated with gregarious song. The goal of this study was to provide new histochemical information on the songbird NAc and its subregions (rostral pole, core, and shell), and to begin to determine subregion-specific contributions to gregarious song in male starlings. We examined immunolabeling for tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), neurotensin, and enkephalin (ENK) in NAc. We then examined the extent to which gregarious and sexually-motivated song differentially correlated with immunolabeling for the immediate early genes FOS and ZENK in each subdivision of NAc. We found that TH and ENK labeling within subregions of the starling NAc was generally similar to patterns seen in the core and shell of NAc in mammals and birds. Additionally, we found that gregarious song, but not sexually-motivated song, positively correlated with FOS in all NAc subregions. Our observations provide further evidence for distinct subregions within the songbird NAc and suggest the NAc may play an important role in regulating gregarious song in songbirds.

Biology, ecology and management perspectives of overexploited deposit-feeders sea cucumbers, with focus on Holothuria tubulosa (Gmelin, 1788)

The increasing harvesting of low trophic level organisms is rising concern about the possible consequences on the ecosystem functioning. In particular, the continuous demand of sea cucumbers from the international market lead to the overexploitation of either traditionally harvested and new target species, including the Mediterranean ones. Sea cucumbers are mostly deposit feeders able to consume sedimentary organic matter and, thus, are ideal candidate for the remediation of eutrophicated sediments, like those beneath aquaculture plants. Breeding and restocking of overexploited sea cucumbers populations are well established practice for Indo-Pacific species like Holothuria scabra and Apostichopus japonicus. Some attempts have been also made for the Mediterranean species Holothuria tubulosa, but, so far, the adaptation of protocols used for other species presented several issues. We here summarize narratively the available information about sea cucumbers rearing protocols with the aim of identifying their major flaws and gaps of knowledge and fostering research about new triggers for spawning and feasible protocols to reduce the high mortality of post-settlers.

Self-presentation strategies and the visual framing of political leaders on Instagram: evidence from the eventful 2019 Istanbul mayoral elections

This study aims to explore how political leaders used Instagram to execute self-presentation strategies in mayoral elections, including the dominant use of personalized tactics. The article reports findings of a visual framing analysis of 2,776 images featuring 2019 Istanbul mayoral election candidates Ekrem İmamoğlu (the Republican People’s Party, CHP) and Binali Yıldırım (the Justice and Development Party, AKP). The case is unusual because the initial election, which had resulted in İmamoğlu’s victory, was cancelled and a re-run was subsequently held. After many events, İmamoğlu succeeded again, becoming the first opposition politician to take control of Istanbul from the ruling AKP. In this study, we adapt Grabe and Bucy’s (2009) quantitative visual framing analysis to examine Instagram posts, from candidacy announcements until the election re-run. The results show that both candidates used the Ideal Candidate frame, with occasional increases in the frequency of the application of the Populist Campaigner frame. Self-frames in different time periods during this election are discussed, as well the frames that voters engaged with most frequently.

Trop-2 Therapy in Metastatic Triple-Negative Breast Cancer in Italy: Clinical Opportunity and Regulatory Pitfalls

Trop-2 is an ideal candidate for targeted therapeutics because it is a transmembrane protein with an extracellular domain overexpressed in a wide variety of tumors, and is upregulated in normal cells. Consequently, several Trop-2-targeted drugs have recently been developed for clinical use, such as anti-Trop-2 antibodies. Sacituzumab govitecan, a Trop-2-directed antibody and topoisomerase inhibitor drug conjugate, was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the treatment of metastatic triple-negative breast cancer and metastatic urothelial cancer. In Italy, this treatment cannot be used in clinical practice because it has not yet been approved by the Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco (AIFA, Rome, Italy). In Italy, this is not a new problem, in fact, when a new compound is approved by the U.S. and Europe, there is often a delay in its approval for use. The adoption of universal guidelines and the standardization of Trop-2 evaluation is urgently needed.