Journal articles on the topic 'Foreign market screening'

The authors address the issue of portfolio management in the context of an international marketing problem. Screening, identification, and selection characterize the three stages in the evaluation of potential foreign markets. The proposed methodology is used for identifying potential foreign markets. This article contributes to the existing literature in four ways: (a) it integrates the past research on international market evaluation into a comprehensive framework, (b) it fills a gap in this area, by offering a flexible, cost efficient methodology that is easy to comprehend and adopt, (c) it simultaneously considers the objectives of the firm, its resource constraints, and expansion strategies while identifying potential foreign markets, and (d) it introduces a multicriteria methodology for solving problems of multiobjective decision models, to the international marketing managers.

Abstract Some farmers mechanically screen farmer stock (FS) peanuts after combining to remove undesired materials for value and quality improvement. Screening is accomplished with low capacity, portable screens at the field after combining or with high capacity cleaners or screens at buying points. An alternative method for FS peanut screening has been developed cooperatively by Amadas Industries and USDA-ARS, National Peanut Research Laboratory utilizing an experimental combine screening attachment. The attachment is a hydraulically driven, rotating cylindrical screen (trommel) with an axis inclined less than 10° from horizontal during operation. Peanuts are screened with the trommel prior to entering the combine basket, and smaller, unwanted materials are returned to the soil. Thirty-eight lots of FS peanuts averaging 3.27 t/lot were combined throughout all U.S. peanut-producing regions to examine performance. Foreign materials for the screened lots averaged 2.15% less than the unscreened lots (P = 0.05). Hulls were 0.62% less in the screened lots (P = 0.05). None of the other grade factors or market values per hectare were significantly different for runner peanuts. Foreign materials for screened virginia peanuts were 2.44% less than in unscreened (P = 0.01). Loose shelled kernels were 0.44% higher (P = 0.05), hulls 0.67% lower (P = 0.10), and damage 0.56% higher in screened peanuts than in unscreened. None of the other grade factors or market values per hectare were significantly different for Virginia peanuts. Although most grade factors and values per hectare were not significantly different for screened and unscreened peanuts tested, foreign materials were reduced significantly providing needed quality improvement. Possible cleaning costs also could be reduced with the attachment.

ABSTRACT Sixty-seven tulip samples intercepted from the Netherlands by the Brazilian Agriculture Ministry, between 2004 and 2006, and two samples from São Paulo local market, Brazil, were assayed by serological and biological techniques, as well as by electron microscopy observations, for virus screening. In bulbs from the Netherlands potexviruses were detected in five samples and tobamoviruses in other three. Symptoms induced in some differential hosts were similar to those caused by Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), while serological results indicated an infection byTulip virus X. In two tulip samples from local flower shops, a Potyviridae was identified based on the presence of flexuous particles and cytoplasmic cylindrical inclusions. Mechanical transmission tests to potyvirus hosts in the Amaranthaceae, Chenopodiaceae and Solanaceae species were negative, making possible to exclude a possible infection by Turnip mosaic viru, a common virus species in tulips. Although TVX could be detected in intercepted tulip bulbs from the Netherlands, the virus is only reported in Scotland, Japan and USA.

Firms exporting via foreign channel intermediaries, such as import agents or distributors, trade off a lack of control of the foreign channel for a low-risk market entry. Agency theory and transaction cost analysis suggest that a lack of control manifests itself in the foreign channel intermediary (FCI) having opportunities to behave in its own interests, rather than those of the exporter. Even so, management strategies that result in an alignment of the exporter's and FCI's goals are more likely to result in a perception of satisfaction in the relationship than if only one party's goals were met. Such management strategies should commence with an extensive precontractual screening step to find an intermediary whose goals are complementary to those of the exporter. After forming a trading relationship, an exporter can better coordinate the relationship by noncoercive monitoring of the exporter, and reduce the potential for opportunistic behavior and achieve a relationship that performs to the satisfaction to both parties. Greater monitoring is also likely to maintain a state of goal congruence between the parties. Conditions of environmental uncertainty may, however, create difficulties in precontractual screening by the exporter. A conceptual framework explaining the interaction between these variables has been presented, along with nine testable propositions and directions for future research.

Production subsidies tend to be provided as government development support instruments. This paper examines their potential impacts on lower-tier producers. Those impacts are partly elucidated by a mixed-methods study of small-scale fish producers of Seychelles targeting foreign fish markets. Scale disadvantages tend to prevent such producers from overcoming the entry barriers of foreign markets without government assistance, including subsidisation. In the study, a screening survey helped assign a group of 34 randomly-selected fish producers to a Managed Value Chain (MVC) – buyers and producers engaging in supply-demand matching coordination, and another 32 randomly-selected fish harvesters to an Open-market Value Chain (OVC) – comprising buyers and harvesters without intentional supply-demand matching coordination. Using 5 months of production-related data, the study first compared the means of the production capacity, level and efficiency of the producers. Four highest-producing MVC producers subsequently gave an interview on their operations. Results inter alia indicate that a gradually increasing range of fisheries subsidies have been helping MVC producers to raise their production capacity, standard and level. However, the subsidies have also been indicatively decreasing the productivity of commercial stocks. The study inter alia suggests that unless marine biological resources are carefully managed, export-oriented production subsidies threaten their environmental sustainability.

The European Union (EU) has introduced measures to better screen investments from third countries, in particular by enterprises and state actors of the People’s Republic of China. These measures highlight the profound change in bilateral relations which have turned from “strategic partnership” into “systemic rivalry”. Reacting to new Chinese policies of foreign trade and investment, the EU followed a revision of investment screening policies in the US. The EU has overcome deep splits among member states and established a new legal framework at the supranational level that leaves the ultimate screening and decision-making power to the national level. This paper identifies the changes in Chinese investment and investment policies and highlights key contents of the US legislation on investment control before discussing the new EU framework. It interprets the new measures as further examples of an increased reliance on state policies instead of market forces - by all partners involved.

The article deals with adoption of a new framework regulation of direct foreign investment (DFI) of the European Union in condition of shaping a polycentric system of international relations and re-balancing of global players’ forces, which is accompanied by weakening the positions of the EU on global market and strengthening China as a new superpower. In this situation the EU tries to reinforce economic security and raise competitiveness of economy by protecting the sphere of critical infrastructure and high technologies against external control. The authors provide a brief analysis of geopolitical, economic and political factors, which determined specific features of new EU investment legislation. The scale and structure of Chinese DFI in EU economy were estimated and specificity of the process of mutual outsourcing of EU and China political values was identified. According to the analysis, China that increases its presence in the EU, apart from big finance possibilities uses differentiation of priorities in foreign and home policy of member-states and internal European contradictions and fragmentation of EU legislation. By using the text of the framework Regulation 2019/452 key elements and procedures were described and contradictions in the mechanism of investment selection being designed were found. It is proved that these contradictions, including numerous different agreements and institutional units involved in the process, keeping national priorities in making final decisions in the absence of necessary for DFI screening function system elements and others hinder the creation of the efficiently functioning supranational system of European DFI control. A conclusion was drawn that introduction of the Regulation can have a negative effect on the inflow of Russian investment to Europe. At the same time Russia cannot affect designing of this screening mechanism, as its role is limited by the frameworks of European policy of partial communication isolation. In the long-term the toughness of using investment regulation in the EU will depend on the outline of the US – EU – Russia confrontation.

Globalization brings advantages to worldwide awareness and cross-border technology dissemination in two respects to enable nations to readily access foreign expertise and enhance international competition from the increase of emerging market companies, as well as innovation and the introduction of foreign innovations (Aslam et al., 2018). Human Resources (HR) nowadays generally faces various difficulties in the world internet era and spends a lot of time connecting, screening, and verifying the resume of applicants, conducting credentials verifications, and checking backgrounds to reduce the likelihood of poor recruitment. For example, recruiters connect the profile of candidates from different channels such as direct application, recruitment agency, and social media; and hiring resume verifications is therefore a bottleneck. Hong Kong's telecommunications industry is totally privately-owned and faces no restriction on foreign investment, and it is also open for competition. Use of blockchain in the twenty-first for the period from 2004 to 2014, an instance of international expertise and technology will increase innovation ability and labour productivity development. Experts say that obtaining verification of credentials using blockchain can reduce costs and delays, increase confidence and increase hiring automation (Han, 2017). Background checks on shortlisted candidates / applicants’ lies are used to find increasing numbers of companies on their profiles to get job opportunities (Wood et al., 2007 cited in Brody, Richard G, 2010).

The primary objective of this study was to investigate the migration intentions of foreign students and to have a better understanding of their life experiences in eastern China with a focus to Anhui province. A questionnaire survey sent to foreign students studying in Anhui province and depth interviews were used to investigate these migration intentions. Screening method was employed to all 527 participants and only464respondents were considered for further analysis. The results show that few students arrive in Anhui with the intention of immigrating permanently. Various factors including business opportunities, security and personal factors among many others influence them in decision- making process. The results reveal that there is no significant intentions to stay permanently however, there exist instances with a slight increase in the length of stay from 0% (initial) to 1.9% (after two years) and a steady variation of 30% of all respondents who wish to stay for short -period ranging between 2-3 years was noted. On the other hand, family and societal factors as well as length of stay was seen to be the high contributing factors leading to 58% of all respondents’ decision to go back to their home countries immediately after completion of studies. Furthermore, results show that there is a gap in Chinese education system on human racial equality leading to lower satisfaction of African students living in China which may threaten China’s sustainable economic growth image in African market. This study is helpful for policy makers and education system upgrade plans. However, following the area limitation used herein, there remains need for further studies on the subject using large scale to avoid generalizations made in this study.

The increasing political and economic influence of China on the international economic relations, whilst remaining the relative closeness of its economy and reluctance to provide reciprocal access to the national market, is becoming an important topic for discussion among Western and Russian researchers. The purpose of the study is to analyze the modern scientific view on growing influence of the PRC worldwide as a new political player, as well as to identify contradictions arising in the world economy. The methodological basis consists of general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, generalization and comparison methods, historical and logical approaches to the examined phenomena, which allow to identify contradictions and problems that Russia could face due to China's global economic expansion. The authors substantiate the need for Russian to use the experience of other country in protecting its national interests throw creating mechanisms for foreign investments screening, as those investment can have negative impact on the recipient economy and its integration partners. The article provides recommendations for Russia on how to develop the mutually beneficial and effective investment cooperation with China.

Maize (Zea mays L.) is an important staple food crop and a source of income to farmers, as well as foreign exchange earner in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Its production is hampered by fungal diseases, which also cause contamination with mycotoxins, especially aflatoxin and its associated health hazards. This study sought to isolate and identify aflatoxigenic fungi, as well as detect the presence of Aflatoxin B1 (AfB1) in maize samples obtained from farmers in the Tolon-Kumbungu district in the northern region of Ghana. Twenty farming communities were randomly selected for the study in consultation with the district office of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA). Samples were collected from 200 randomly selected maize farmers by the composite sampling technique, for isolation of aflatoxigenic fungi by the agar plate method and the detection of aflatoxin. Aflatoxin was detected in maize samples with the Black light, rapid screening and immunoassay methods. Aspergillus flavus had the highest percentage of occurrence (63.7%); followed by A. niger (16.5%), Rhizopus stolonifer (9.3%), Penicillium spp. (6.9%) and Fusarium oxysporum (3.7%). Farm samples had more aflatoxin than those from stores and markets. Samples of maize from farms in Gbirimani community had the highest aflatoxin contamination of +60 ppb. Concentrations of Afb1 at or above +20 ppb were recorded in all the communities, except in Tinguli. Apart from Voggu, all market samples were free from aflatoxin contamination. Key words: Aflatoxigenic fungi, postharvest, Zea mays

Herbal formulations are very useful for human health because of their natural and simple processing. A quality herbal formulation must pass the test for their characteristic properties. Inspite of the large number of Ayurvedic formulations are available in the market, standards of their quality are yet to be laid. Amlaka churnam or amalaki rasayanam is a swarasa bhavita, important herbal formulation used for treatment related to immunity systems of human body. In addition to this it is also used for nurturing of skin, heart, eye and stomach. The main ingredient of amalaka churnam is amla (Embalica officinalis) family Euphorbiaceae. Though amalaka churnam is described in many classical Ayurvedic granthas, but there are minor differences in their formulations. Also marketed formulations of amalaki rasayanam by manufacturers do not have description about its standardization. Therefore, it is necessary to develop standard parameters for establishment of quality of the formulation. In this work, a standardization of herbal formulations of amalaka churnam is reported in terms of organoleptic evaluation of ingredients with rasayana formulation, loss of drying analysis, foreign matter, phytochemical screening, pH estimation, evaluation of ash value, extractive value and rheological evaluation. Keywords: Bhvit, amalaka Churnam, Organoleptic, rheological etc.

With the rapidly unfolding China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI ) and the ongoing reform of the State-owned enterprises (SOEs), the number of overseas acquisitions by the Chinese SOEs in various industrial and services sectors is gradually on the rise. These transactions have raised a number of questions in terms of the assessment of the economic concentrations’ potential impact on competition and challenged the traditional assessment tools employed by the merger control regimes. The paper examines the evolving experience of Chinese SOEs’ acquisitions in the European Union (EU), which are subject to ex ante assessment under both EU and national merger control regimes. The analysis of the merger assessment practice of the EU Commission culminating in the recent conditional approval of the ChemChina/Syngenta merger indicates that the traditional assessment tools, when applied to the acquisitions by Chinese SOEs, may no longer be adequate to grasp the essence of their corporate governance and decision-making. The review of the merger control practice of the national competition authorities (NCAs) also demonstrates the absence of a coherent assessment approach to the cases involving Chinese SOEs, which may lead to the inconsistent enforcement and strengthening of the foreign investment screening on grounds other than market competition.

Purpose – Today marketers operate in globalised markets, planning new ways to engage with domestic and foreign customers alike. While there is a greater need to understand these two customer groups, few studies examine the impact of customer engagement tactics on the two customer groups, focusing on their perceptual differences. Even less attention is given to customer engagement tactics in a cross-cultural framework. In this research, the authors investigate customers in China and UK, aiming to compare their perceptual differences on the impact of multiple customer engagement tactics. Design/methodology/approach – Using a quantitative approach with 286 usable responses from China and the UK obtained through a combination of person-administered survey and computer-based survey screening process, the authors test a series of hypotheses to distinguish across-cultural differences. Findings – Findings show that the collectivists (Chinese customers) perceive customer engagement tactics differently than the individualists (UK customers). The Chinese customers are more sensitive to price and reputation, whereas the UK customers respond more strongly to service, communication and customisation. Chinese customers’ concerns with extensive price and reputation comparisons may be explained by their awareness towards face (status), increased self-expression and equality. Practical implications – The findings challenge the conventional practice of using similar customer engagement tactics for a specific market place with little concern for multiple cultural backgrounds. The paper proposes strategies for marketers facing challenges in this globalised context. Originality/value – Several contributions have been made to the literatures. First, the study showed the effects of culture on the customers’ perceptual differences. Second, the study provided more information to clarify customers’ different reactions towards customer engagement tactics, highlighted by concerns towards face and status. Third, the study provided empirical evidence to support the use of multiple customer engagement tactics to the across cultural studies.

The article presents a review of scientific domestic and foreign literature and regulatory legal documentation, which allowed to identify problems in the organization of and payment for dental care and to determine possible directions of scientific research on the stated topic. Dependence of availability of specialized dental care on the income level, limited availability and late medical assistance in the rural regions, measures to increase availability through use of the programs of preferential prosthetics are shown. The problems of low coverage of dental services by mandatory medical insurance programs are considered. The levels of provision of population of RF with medical care, methods and difficulties of payments to specialists, of use of conventional units of labor inputs, of correction factors for children and adults, the issues of standardization of primary dental care, ambiguous attitude to the classifier of basic medical dental procedures and technologies that changed the established principle of remuneration in dental practice, are described. The method of payment for primary dental care provided on an outpatient basis for a completed case of treatment in terms of cost of clinic-statistical groups, as well as the per capita principle of payment for outpatient dental care and the difficulties with its implementation within compulsory health insurance in most regions are considered. An important role of automation of the working place for filling the medical documents, of improvement of organizational and medical technologies with use of new materials and equipment, is indicated. Analysis of the scope of medical care demanded by the population within the programs of the state guarantees is given. An emphasis is placed on the priority of the development of the modern dentistry as governmental-private partnership in terms of high adaptation to the market conditions. A complex character of issues of prophylaxis, screening, improvement of organization of and payment for dental care is emphasized, salvation of which will permit to considerably improve the quality of medical care and to guarantee its availability.

AbstractWeaponization of state-backed, foreign investments by China is an emerging national security threat in the United States and the European Union. The U.S. and E.U. have espoused similar policy goals—to address the threat without closing their markets to foreign direct investment—while fostering increased cooperation between allied partners in screening transactions.On the surface, the recent, China-specific measures taken by the U.S. and the investment screening framework adopted by the E.U. appear reflective of an alignment of those policy goals. Indeed, many commentators have suggested that is exactly what is happening. However, closer examination reveals a stark divergence. The U.S. has a robust screening mechanism that has evolved into a weapon of economic warfare. The E.U. meanwhile, remains a patchwork of conflicting—or nonexistent—national regulations overlaid by a comparatively toothless investment screening framework.There is a tendency to attribute this divergence to structural differences between the United States and European Union. This in-depth comparison of U.S. and E.U. investment screening mechanisms exposes a split that goes beyond application and into actual policy. This revelation should temper expectations that the E.U. is equipping itself to block transactions that are of concern to the U.S.

The socio-economic and political transformations in the country cannot be perceived without the implementation of information technology. Nowadays, Internet resources are actively used in all spheres of life, so personnel management departments, following the example of foreign recruitment companies, adapt the system of selection of personnel to the modern technological realities. Human capital is still one of the most important factors in the country's development. It was approved that the proper selection of a qualified specialist is the key to the success of any company, organization, enterprise because the staff influences their efficiency and competitiveness in the occupied market segment. On this basis, it should be noted that the output of the Human Resource department is crucial. Staffing is not possible without the use of information technology and the Internet. Analyzing the existing changes in the field of hiring employees, we verified that new technologies are implemented solidly. Head-hunters and recruiters use dedicated social networking sites and job search sites to recruit highly qualified personnel. Recent advances in marketing, such as targeted advertising, are also actively and purposefully used to attract the attention of potential employees. Moreover, specialized software is being developed to simplify the selection and screening system for those candidates who do not meet the requirements of the enterprise. It should be noted that the development of information technology has fundamentally affected the change in the relationships and interactions of people in society, involving all spheres of life. Looking at people around the world who spend a lot of time in the virtual space and want to find a particular job, it should be confirmed that there is no longer a need to print it in the newspaper, broadcast it on the radio or to show on television. The results of our research show that the advertisement for the job position can be entirely spread on the Internet in the nearest future. Information technology has made adjustments to the specifics of hiring qualified personnel in the world, and in particular in Ukraine. The widespread availability of information resources in the world has fundamentally changed the policies of Human Resource Management departments and the tactics of their specialists. It has been done a lot in the development of the Human Resource department in Ukraine, but several unresolved issues should be overcome. It`s the quandary of the future. Key words: information technology, human capital, human resources management, social networks.

On 13 August 2018, the president of the United States signed a bill to strengthen the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), an interagency executive body responsible for screening foreign investments made in the United States for national security risks. The move is primarily aimed at preventing Chinese firms from exploiting the US open capital markets to acquire technology. While much commentary exists spelling out the changes made to CFIUS by way of the legislation, their focus is largely on the legal and business ramifications of the policy at the firm level. This analysis assesses what CFIUS strengthening portends for the tech ambitions, examines the Chinese state’s response to the move, and observes its relevance to US–China economic decoupling.

AbstractWe analyze the impact of institutional and cultural differences on success in global venture capital (VC) investing. In both developed and emerging economies, superior legal rights (and enforcement) and better developed stock markets significantly enhance VC performance. Remarkably, cultural distance between countries of the portfolio company and its lead investorpositivelyaffects VC success. Further analysis reveals that cultural differences create incentives for rigorous ex ante screening, improving VC performance. Finally, local VC participation enhances success and mitigates foreign VCs’ “liability of foreignness,” albeit only in developed economies. Our findings follow from analyzing VC investments in nearly 10,000 companies across 30 countries.

Lung cancer is one of the major causes of death from malignancies. That is why the article devoted to the issue early diagnosis of lung cancer. The objective of the work is to consider the features and prospects of using the most modern methods of diagnosis of lung cancer. The introduction of the latest technologies is essential for quality screening of lung cancer patients. Gradually, there is a growing interest in developing strategies around the world to better assess the risk of human lung cancer, increase screening sensitivity, and reduce costs. The methods of early detection of lung cancer are described in the article: determination of the concentration of volatile organic compounds (LuCID method), endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS method), FISH-marker method, basic principles of the Nano-Nose device. Despite some advances in our country in the diagnosis of lung cancer using common advanced methods of computed tomography and biopsy, the introduction of foreign experience in lung cancer screening is necessary, because the current state-of-the-art methods of diagnosis allow to detect cancer.

Potato virus Y (PVY) are among the most harmful viral pathogens that reduce the yield and quality of potatoes. The number of modern varieties resistant to a wide range of PVY strains is very limited, therefore, the selection of potatoes in this direction does not become irrelevant. Molecular markers of the Ry genes are universal tools for identifying new sources of resistance among existing biodiversity of potato genotypes. Since potato varieties and hybrids containing Rysto tend to exhibit cytoplasmic male sterility associated with mitochondrial DNA, the definition of cytoplasmic types is important. In the article, molecular markers of the Ry genes YES3-3A, YES3-3B, RYSC3, Ry186 were used for screening foreign and Russian varieties and hybrids potatoes from the collections of Lorch Potato Research Institute and N.I.Vavilov Institute of Plant Genetic Resources. Molecular screening and analysis of рedigree revealed that russian varieties and hybrids of potatoes characterized by extreme resistance to PVY were obtained on the basis of foreign varieties Alwara, Arosa, Bison, Bobr, Roko, as well as backcrosses of the Hungarian selection donors of the Rysto gene linked to cytoplasmic male sterility, and forms 128/6 a donor of the Ryadg gene, derived from S. stoloniferum. The marker RYSC3 coupled to Ryadg was found in interspecies hybrids of N.I.Vavilov Institute of Plant Genetic Resources 8-1-2004, 8-3-2004, 8-5-2004, 135-5-2005, 135-3-2005, having the same origin with the participation of S. okadae species K-20921 Hawkes et Hjerting and S. chacoense K-19759 Bitt. The marker Ry186 of the gene Rychc is rare. It is present in 5% of the potato genotypes. Molecular screening revealed samples of potatoes with markers of the Ry genes. They are of particular interest for further breeding. Data on the presence of Ry markers of genes in potato varieties and hybrids, serve as valuable information in the selection of initial forms for hybridization.

Для преодоления зависимости товаропроизводителей от импорта зарубежного семенного материала, удовлетворения возросших требований к потребительским и столовым качествам клубней сортов картофеля и структуре целевого использования урожая определены приоритетные направления совершенствования селекции и семеноводства картофеля на ближайшую и длительную перспективу. Представлены результаты целенаправленной селекции сортов картофеля нового поколения различных сроков созревания с конкретными параметрами хозяйственно полезных признаков, определяющих их целевое использование в соответствии с запросами отечественного рынка картофеля. Предложена система мер по развитию селекции и семеноводства картофеля, способствующая повышению эффективности создания и использования потенциала отечественных сортов, наращиванию объемов производства качественного семенного материала высоких посевных стандартов. Среди них: скрининг и постоянное обновление генофонда, формирование, пополнение и поддержание признаковых генетических коллекций, разработка системы генетических и молекулярных маркеров ценных хозяйственных признаков, развитие селекционных программ по созданию сортов с пигментированной окраской мякоти клубней, повышенным содержанием антиоксидантов и высокой питательной ценностью, разработка эффективных приемов и методов взращивания высококачественного семенного картофеля на основе созданиях исходного материала, свободного от вирусных, вироидных и бактериальных фитопатогенов, освоение адаптивных ресурсо- и энергоэкономичных технологий и схем семеноводства картофеля, средств защиты, машин и механизмов, обеспечивающих качество сортовых семян, формирование региональной сети учреждений РАН и агропредприятий по оригинальному семеноводству картофеля, выделение специальных семеноводческих территорий с наиболее чистыми фитосанитарными условиями и т.п. Это позволит ускорить переход сельхозпредприятий и крестьянских (фермерских) хозяйств на использование для посадки только сертифицированных семян не ниже 1-2 репродукций. To overcome the dependence of producers on imports of foreign seed material, to meet the increased requirements for the consumer and table qualities of potato tubers and the structure of the intended use of the crop, priority areas for improving the selection and seed production of potato in the near and long term have been identified. The results of purposeful selection of new generation potato varieties of different maturation periods with specific parameters of economically useful features that determine their intended use in accordance with the requirements of the domestic potato market are presented. The proposed system of measures on development of selection and seed potatoes, facilitate the creation and use of potential native varieties, increase production of quality seed material of high seed standards. Among them: screening and constant updating of the gene pool, formation, replenishment and maintenance genetic collections of traits, development of a system of genetic and molecular markers of valuable economic traits, development of selection programs for breeding cultivars with pigmented colour of tuber pulp, high content of antioxidants and high nutritional value, development of effective methods and methods for growing high-quality seed potatoes based on the creation of source material free from viral, viroid and bacterial phytopathogens, development of adaptive resource-and energy-efficient technologies and schemes for potato seed production, protective equipment, machines and mechanisms that ensure the quality of varietal seeds, formation of a regional network of RAS institutions and agricultural enterprises for original potato seed production, allocation of special seed-growing territories with the cleanest phytosanitary conditions. This will speed up the transition of agricultural enterprises and peasant (farm) farms to use only certified seeds for planting at least 1-2 reproductions.

This work provides an analysis of marketing solutions and developments algorithm for Latvian enterprises entering into foreign markets based on an example of 185 studies made under the supervision of the author. The proposed algorithm is a part of the pedagogical activities in higher education institution of Latvia (RISEBA) over the last 10 years and it suggests the training of new marketing solutions development techniques in conditions of the turbulent business environment. The application of the proposed algorithm assumes the use of modern marketing technologies, including matrix methods, cluster, and screening analysis. The algorithm proposed is being analyzed on the example of Latvian enterprises. This work describes the use of the author’s proposed matrix of “consumer’s demand for creativity (novelty),” that is relevant in the development of creative marketing management solutions of such business spheres, where the novelty of products (services) is an important competitive advantage. The high versatility, simplicity and availability is proven for mastering and using the proposed algorithm.

Transfer of foreign genes into plant cells can be accomplished by several methods: agrobacterium-mediated, microinjection, biolistic particle bombardment and electroporation. The last one is frequently used for transfection of plant protoplasts for transient gene expression. Electroporation is a simple procedure and allows transfecting a large number of cells at one time. Square wave-modulated porators are the most efficient for introducing expression cassettes into plant protoplasts. Based on a protocol developed by Wu & Feng (Plant Cell Reports, 1999, 18, 381-386), we optimized conditions for transfection of intact Nicotiana tabacum BY-2 cells using square wave-modulated electroporator. To simplify screening for transfected gene expression we used constructs with a GFP marker gene.

Genetic transformation is a powerful tool for plant breeding and genetical, physiological or biochemical research, consequently it is an extremely dynamic field. Transgenic plants are commonly used to complete or substitute mutants in basic research, helping the studies of complex biological situations such as pathogenesis process, genome organization, light reception and signal transduction. In this review, recent approaches for foreign gene introduction (e.g. Agrobiolistics, whole tissue electroporation, in planta Agrobacterium transformation), screening (reporter gene possibilities and performance) and transformant selection (ipt selective marker) are discussed. Transgene expression and mechanisms underlying (trans)gene inactivation are presented. Practical applications of genetically modified plants, field tests and commercial transgenic crops worldwide and in Brazil are listed, as well as the main traits and species modified. Potential uses of transgenic plants for animal compound production, biological remediation and synthetic polymer assembly are also shown.

As wear is inevitable with artificial joint replacement, it has to be minimized to avoid possible aseptic loosening following osteolysis due to particle-initiated foreign body reaction. Co-Cr-Mo-C alloys have a long history with only minimum wear when articulating with themselves. This investigation shows that the choice of the alloy has an effect on the wear rate of this articulation couple. Tribological studies in a screening device, a pendulum apparatus and a hip joint simulator showed a marked influence of the environment as well as the diameter of the implants with metal-on-metal articulation. A wear-resistant combination with low friction characteristics has been developed by using a wrought Co-Cr-Mo-C alloy and reducing the implant diameter to 28 mm. Clinical wear rates are comparable with laboratory data and demonstrate the potential of the metal-on-metal articulation to solve the problem of wear-induced osteolysis of hip joint endoprostheses.

Background: Recently, the number of refugees in Germany has skyrocketed, leading to a marked increase in refugee children admitted to hospitals. This study describes the special characteristics encountered in pediatric surgical inpatient refugees compared to locally residing patients. Methods: Hospital records of minor refugees admitted to our department from 2005 up to and including 2015 were retrospectively reviewed. Demographic data, diagnoses, comorbidities, body mass indexes, hemoglobin values, and lengths of stay were extracted and statistically compared to local patients. Results: A total of 63 refugee children were analyzed and compared to 24,983 locally residing children. There was no difference in median body mass index (16.2 vs. 16.3, respectively, p = 0.26). However, refugee children had significantly lower hemoglobin values (11.95 vs. 12.79 g/dL, p < 0.0001) and were more likely to be colonized with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus. aureus (8% vs. 0.04%, p < 0.01). Refugees were much more likely to present with burn injuries (16% versus 3% of admissions, p < 0.001), esophageal foreign bodies (4% vs. 0.5%, p < 0.001), as well as trauma, except for closed head injury. Conclusion: The cohort of refugee children in this study was found to be at a particular risk for suffering from burn injuries, trauma, foreign body aspirations, and anemia. Appropriate preventive measures and screening programs should be implemented accordingly.

Abstract The unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a model organism that provides an opportunity to understand the evolution and functional biology of the lineage that includes the land plants, as well as aspects of the fundamental core biology conserved throughout the eukaryotic phylogeny. Although many tools are available to facilitate genetic, molecular biological, biochemical, and cell biological studies in Chlamydomonas, expression of unselected transgenes of interest (GOIs) has been challenging. In most methods used previously, the GOI and a selectable marker are expressed from two separate mRNAs, so that their concomitant expression is not guaranteed. In this study, we developed constructs that allow expression of an upstream GOI and downstream selectable marker from a single bicistronic mRNA. Although this approach in other systems has typically required a translation-enhancing element such as an internal ribosome entry site for the downstream marker, we found that a short stretch of unstructured junction sequence was sufficient to obtain adequate expression of the downstream gene, presumably through post-termination reinitiation. With this system, we obtained robust expression of both endogenous and heterologous GOIs, including fluorescent proteins and tagged fusion proteins, in the vast majority of transformants, thus eliminating the need for tedious secondary screening for GOI-expressing transformants. This improved efficiency should greatly facilitate a variety of genetic and cell-biological studies in Chlamydomonas and also enable new applications such as expression-based screens and large-scale production of foreign proteins.

The inception stories of early film societies in India from the 1940s to the 1960s reveal how these groups initiated an access to international, art and alternative cinemas through a network of circulation and exhibition created separately from mainstream cinema markets thereby forming a parallel network of societies, foreign consulates, embassies, government institutions and the National Film Archive of India (NFAI). This paper navigates the early history and memories of film societies in an attempt to map the cinephiliac energy of the film society movement through their erstwhile network of film travel. Using experiences, criticism and narratives of nostalgia published in film society journals, this paper reimagines the routes traversed by art cinemas and their cinephiles, enumerating specific activities around the film object. Observing urban film societies where film society cultures were initially conceptualized, thrived and whose histories are relatively renowned but also traces some significant small town societies which made the most of these circuits of film travel reaching out to non-metropolitan centers effectively transforming backyards into screening spaces and widening the scope of community participation around art cinemas.

Background:The functions of the complement system are to protect the host against infection, clearance of immune complexes, and regulate adaptive immunity after activation by C-reactive protein (CRP) or foreign cells.1C3 and C4 may increase up to 50 percent of baseline values as part of the acute-phase response, which is an expected host response for infection and injury.2Objectives:We aimed to examine the correlation between elevated C3/C4 levels and the underlying causes (infectious vs. non-infectious) of fever (subjective and/or objective) in adults admitted to Community Regional Medical Center (CRMC).Methods:This is a retrospective study of C3/C4 level that was ordered in adult patients who were admitted to CRMC in April 1st, 2018 to September 30th, 2018 with fever. This was also analyzed in comparison to elevated lactic acid, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and CRP level.Results:Complement levels were ordered in 210 patients admitted to CRMC medicine or intensive care units. Among these patients, 28.09% (59/210) were diagnosed with various infectious diseases confirmed by gold standard methods (cultures, serology tests, computerized tomography, or magnetic resonance imaging), regardless of fever status during admission.About 26.6% (56/210) had subjective or objective (temperature greater than100.4 F or above), and52of them had complement levels (C3/C4) ordered with resulted in either normal or elevated. Within these52patients, lactic acid, ESR, and CRP were ordered in33,28,25of them respectively.Table 1.Elevated C3/C4 level vs. normal C3/C4 level in detecting infection in fever patients when tested against gold standards.Patients with infectious disease diagnosisPatients without infectious disease diagnosisElevated C3 or C4 or both (screen test +)137Positive predictive value (PPV)=13/20=65%Both normal C3 and C4 (screen test -)824Negative predictive value (NPV)=15/32=48.9%Sensitivity=13/21=61.9%Specificity=24/31=77.4%Table 2.Sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, likelihood ratio positive (LR+), and likelihood ratio negative (LR-) among C3/C4, lactic acid, ESR, CRPI/CRPH in detecting infection in patient with feverC3/C4 (N=52)Lactic Acid(N=33)ESR(N=28)CRPI/CRPH(N=25)Sensitivity61.9%50%90%100%Specificity77.4%91.3%11.1%11.8%PPV65%71.4%36%34.8%NPV48.9%80.8%66.6%100%LR+2.75.71.01.1LR -0.490.550.90Conclusion:Complement levels can be used as a rapid screening test to guide infection consideration as it correctly identified 61.9 % of febrile patients with infection, and 77.4% who didn’t have an infection. A positive screening test in itself still requires further investigation in the causes of fever to confirm the diagnosis since the PPV is 65%. With the NPV of 48.9%, a negative screening test is still not reassuring that the febrile patient doesn’t have an infection. Our study demonstrated the potential utilization of the elevated complement level as an inflammatory marker for infectious etiology of fever, as it has better LR+ when compares to ESR and CRP with similar turnaround time.This study helps educate providers to acknowledge the fact that complement level does not have to be limited to be used on autoimmune related disorders only. Further large pool studies will be necessary to further investigate the role of complement levels as part of the screening test in a patient with fever.References:[1]Walport. MJ. Complement. Second of two parts. N Engl J Med.2001 Apr 12; 344(15):1140-4. DOI: 10.1056/NEJM200104123441506[2]Wen L, Atkinson JP, Giclas PC. Clinical and laboratory evaluation of complement deficiency. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2004;113(4):585. DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2004.02.003Characters from table content:731Disclosure of Interests:None declared

The article analyses the foreign direct investment cooperation between the European Union and the People’s Republic of China under the Belt and Road Initiative. The initiative is proposed by China and is aimed at developing cross-regional transport and logistics infrastructure connecting China with South-East, South and Central Asia, the Middle East, East Africa and Europe. The author examines the history of the initiative and its assessments by international organizations (e.g. the World Bank and the ESCAP UN) and investigates the structure and statistics of the EU-China investment relations, basing on the examples of the most important China’s investment partners (including France, Italy, Germany and the Vishegrad Group countries). The discrepancy between the conditions for the EU and the Chinese investors is highlighted. The author defines and characterizes the major models of the Belt and Road projects’ development, which are used by China in cooperation with the EU Member States. The EU investors in China face restrictions imposed by the national regulation of foreign investments. In particular, the external investors do not have access to the sectors crucially important for national interest and security (e.g. high-tech sectors and mass media). At the same time, Chinese investors’ access to the EU financial markets is not limited, allowing them to become important shareholders in the EU companies and to transfer technologies. It raises concerns within national governments and the European Union itself. The national governments are establishing and adopting screening mechanisms for foreign direct investments and additional regulations to control important sectors and enterprises. At the same time, the EU Member States are developing a common view on the prospects and mechanisms of cooperation with China under the Belt and Road initiative. The EU countries have not yet reached a consensus upon the Belt and Road initiative and the prospects of the EU participation in it, so the author focuses on the strategies of the examined countries. Germany is calling for a common position for all the EU member states and advocates for using the EU-based mechanisms and platforms for cooperation with China. Such demands are also connected with the promotion of a common EU investment screening mechanism in order to protect the Member States’ interests and security. Italy is deepening its cooperation with China through bilateral mechanisms, mainly based on a memorandum of understanding with China on the Belt and Road initiative. France, on the one hand, shares the common interest with Germany regarding the need for the common EU policy towards the Chinese initiative, but on the other hand, the country is deploying new projects with China. The Visegrad Group states are forging their ties with China through bilateral and multilateral cooperation mechanisms and they are interested in the growth of Chinese investment inflows. This undermines the unanimity of policy towards China and the Belt and Road.

Pyrenophora tritici-repentis is a causative agent of tan spot in wheat. In recent years, there has been an increasing spread and harmfulness of wheat tan spot. The aim of the research was to study the racial composition of the P. tritici-repentis population in the Republic of Kazakhstan. A collection of 30 common wheat accessions, including promising lines and cultivars from Kazakhstan and CIMMYT–ICARDA, was assessed for resistance to P. triticirepentis in a greenhouse and characterized using the Xfcp623 molecular marker, diagnostic for the Tsn1 gene. Monosporic isolates of P. tritici-repentis isolated from the southeastern region were assigned to certain races based on the manifestation of symptoms of necrosis/chlorosis on standard differentials (Glenlea, 6B662, 6B365). Five races of P. tritici-repentis have been identified, including races 1, 2, 3, 7 and 8. It has been shown that races 1 and 8 of P. tritici-repentis are dominant. As a result of the analysis of the frequency of occurrence of the P. tritici-repentis races, it was found that race 1 (50 %) producing Ptr ToxA and Ptr ToxB and race 8 (35 %) producing Ptr ToxA, Ptr ToxB and Ptr ToxC turned out to be dominant. From a practical point of view, of greatest interest are 16 wheat samples, which demonstrated resistance to race 1 and confirmed insensitivity to Ptr ToxA in a molecular screening. These include eight Kazakhstani (4_PSI, 10204_2_KSI, 10204_3_KSI, 10205_2_KSI, 10205_3_KSI, 605_SP2, 632_SP2, Dana) and seven foreign lines (KR11-20, KR11-03, KR11-9014, 11KR-13, KR12-9025, KR12-07, GN-68/2003). The results of this study are of interest in wheat breeding programs for tan spot resistance.

Abstract Human CMV continues to be a major risk factor in patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell (HSCT) and solid organ transplant (SOT), despite advancement of antiviral therapy. CMV tegument protein pp65 and CMV immediate early gene product IE1 are both considered immunodominant targets of cell-mediated immunity (CMI) and potentially capable of controlling CMV infection. Similar to healthy adults, CMV tegument protein pp65 and IE1 are frequently recognized by human CD4 and CD8 T cells in HCT and SOT recipients. To better assess their role in host defense, we have constructed a novel attenuated poxvirus (MVA) transfer vector named pZWIIA and generated a recombinant MVA (rMVA) expressing both full-length pp65 and exon4 of IE1 (pp65-IE1-MVA) at high levels, followed by the genetic removal of the bacterial marker gene used to distinguish recombinant forms during the screening process. Immunogenicity evaluation indicates that pp65-IE1-MVA not only can induce robust primary CMI to both antigens in HLA A2.1, B7 and A11 transgenic mice, but also can stimulate vigorous expansion of memory T lymphocyte responses to pp65 and IE1 in PBMC of CMV-positive donors. The recent discovery that additional early antigens of CMV are also well-recognized by healthy adults prompted us to include the IE2 antigen in the vaccine. Evaluation of in vivo immunogenicity of the vaccine expressing IE2 in both transgenic mice and in vitro antigenicity in human peripheral blood lymphocytes of HSCT and SOT recipients will be presented. A novel overlapping peptide library spanning full-length IE2 has been constructed in our laboratory, and used in conjunction with the vaccine expressing IE2, along with IE1 and pp65. Since MVA has a foreign gene capacity of over 30 kilobases (Kb), we have developed a strategy to maximize coverage of haplotypes through insertion of 6 additional antigens into novel insertion sites of the virus, for a total of just 12.0 Kb of the CMV genome. The selected antigens cover 83% of the population, while representing over 22% of the combined CD4 and CD8 T cell repertoire in seropositives. Our studies of the recognition of these antigens expressed in MVA and monitored with our own synthesized over-lapping peptide libraries in both HSCT and SOT recipients will be presented. These properties make the MVA-based vaccine ideal for the dual role of priming and boosting CMV-specific T cell immunity as a means to control CMV disease in recipients of HCT or SOT. pZWIIA alone or in combination with other MVA transfer vectors can be used to generate MVA based multiple-antigen vaccine which have application in vaccine development for a wide spectrum of infectious diseases and cancer.

Score productive longevity of dairy cattle is an important scientific and practical importance. It is known that among genetic factors, significant effects of linear affiliation of their parents. It is demonstrated that effective breeding subject to strict compliance with the screening system, selection and evaluation of animal breeding values reported by domestic and foreign authors. The purpose of the work was to study the influence of linear membership on productive longevity and lifetime milk productivity of Holstein cattle of European breeding. Studies carried out on cows Holstein breed using data management system dairy cattle breeding "Orsek". Found that targeted breeding work and selection in a herd of imported European cattle breeding Holstein using information systems selection bulls MAR company CRI meets the latest requirements of the ICAR and Subcommittee on the unified international assessment of manufacturers (Interbull) contributed to a change in the number of separate lines among the cows first generation. This has led to an increase in the percentage of manufacturers lines daughters Valiant 1650414.73, Starbuc 352790.79, as well as Cheef 1427381.62. on the basis of the desired economic-useful signs. It is established that the value of productive longevity of cows depending on linear conditioning averaged 3.1 ... 3.9 lactations. By this measure, the daughter of Starbuck's lines were superior animals Holstein breed other lines by the number of lactations: Chevalier – 0.1 or 2.6% (td = 0.25; P ≤ 0.95); Bell – 0.5 or 14.7% (td = 0.95; P ≤ 0.95); Valiant – at 0.8 or 25.8% (td = 1.52; P ≤ 0.95); Eleveyshn – 0.8 or 25.8% (td = 1.91; P ≤ 0.95); Cheef – 0.5 or 14.7% (td = 1.27; P ≤ 0.95). It has been proven that milk productivity and milk quality of the imported Holstein cows and their offspring of domestic generation attributable to linear. The highest lifetime yield of Holstein breed cows had Starbuck lines, which outnumbered their import contemporaries other lines: Chevalier – 2818.7 kg or 8.2% (td = 0.46; P ≤ 0.95); Bell – 3404.5 kg or 10.1% (td = 0.61; P ≤ 0.95); Valiant – 5553.8 kg or 17.5% (td = 1.26; P ≤ 0.95); Eleveyshn – 7368.9 kg or 24.6% (td = 1.78; P ≤ 0.95); Cheef – 5500.5 kg or 17.3% (td = 1.38; P ≤ 0.95). The father's genotype had a significant impact on the quality of the milk. It should be noted that cows Starbuck's line differed relatively high fat content in the milk. By this measure the superiority of animals this line over imported cows other lines: Chevalier – 0.5% (td = 2.38; P ≥ 0.95); Bell – 0.2% (td = 1.38; P ≤ 0.95); Valiant – 0.6% (td = 2.78; P ≥ 0.95); Eleveyshn – 0.4% (td = 3.23; P ≥ 0.99); Cheef - 0.2% (td = 1.44; P ≤ 0.95). However, large protein content in milk cows belonging to different lines of Bella, who on this indicator had superiority over animals other lines: Chevalier – 0.2% (td = 1.03; P ≤ 0.95); Starbuck – 0.1% (td = 0.59; P ≤ 0.95); Valiant – 0.5% (td = 2.31; P ≥ 0.95); Eleveyshn – 0.2% (td = 1.85; P ≤ 0.95); Cheef – 0.1% (td = 1.15; P ≤ 0.95). It should be noted that only the cows first generation Valiant lines and Eleveyshn marked positive relationship between life and the content of cows in milk fat and protein (r = +0.17 ... +0.40), which may indicate the possibility of holding breeding work to improve these symptoms. So in the breeding work it is advisable to use manufacturers of prominent lines that combine high breeding value on productivity of daughters with improving effect on the duration of their use. The results of the research show that the effective use of well-known manufacturers and imported Holstein breed brood in breeding work with dairy cattle of Ukraine. However, shortening the productive use of animals in conditions of industrial technology should serve as a stimulus to study and find ways to solve this problem.

The engineering industry, including the automotive industry, belongs to the strategic branches of the country’s economy and to a large extent determines the level of development. The Chinese automobile industry dates back to 1953, and the first automobile factory, the First Automobile Works (FAW), was started in Beijing. Over the next few years, several more car factories were established in Nanjing, Khanhai, Jinan and Beijing. The requirements of funds, technologies and automotive modernization stimulated the attraction of external investment. A number of restrictive measures have been adopted to curb external competition, reduce car imports and attract innovative technologies, including high tariff and non-tariff barriers, screening, and restrictions on foreign capital, Limiting market share to foreign companies. When signing the joint-venture agreement, the Chinese side insisted on technology transfer and subordination to the Chinese leadership. Volkswagen first built a car factory in China. Today almost every progressive car company is represented in the Chinese car market, such as Mercedes-Bens, Ford, General Motors, Suzuki, Daihatsu, Honda, Subaru, Citreon, Toyota. Most of them have partnerships with one of China’s top three car manufacturers. American, European, and Japanese automakers see China as a promising market as demand for vehicles in the US and Europe shrinks. To the Chinese automobile market, the cars are made according to the requirements of the local consumer – conservative, with high-quality design, low and middle price segment. Since 2009, foreign automobile companies have accounted for 85% of the Chinese car market. About 60% of the cars sold in China are locally produced. However, China’s automobile industry is highly fragmented and mostly consists of small companies that produce a small range of components. Such production is labour-intensive with relatively low use of advanced technologies compared to car manufacturers in developed countries, often lacking economies of scale. Research expenditure accounts for a large part of the expenditure structure. Most companies produce low-tech parts with significant import presence.

The multixenobiotic/multidrug resistance (MXR/MDR) system controls transport of foreign molecules across the plasma membrane as a preventive measure before toxicity becomes apparent. The system consists of an efflux pump, ABCB1, and/or a member of the ABCC family. Ionic liquids are broadly used solvents with several unique properties such as wide liquid range, negligible vapor pressure, good thermal and chemical stability and extraordinary dissolution properties for organic and inorganic compounds. Ionic liquids containing imidazolium ring are frequently used as solvents in drug synthesis. Constitutive and induced amounts of ABCB1 and ABCC1 proteins were estimated here by Western blotting and quantified by flow cytometry in HeLa cells exposed to three homologous 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium and one benzyl ring substituted salts. Aliphatic substituents in position 1 of the salts caused a weak toxicity but 1-benzyl ring was strongly toxic. An 8-day long treatment with 10(-4) M 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride resulted in an about 1.5-fold increase of ABCB1 level and over 2-fold increase of ABCC1 level. The amounts of both investigated ABC-proteins were linearly dependent on the length of the imidazolium ring side chain. Such distinctive changes of the amount of MXR/MDR proteins measured in cultured cells may be a useful marker when screening for potential toxicity of various chemicals.

BackgroundCell therapy of diabetes aims at restoring the physiological control of blood glucose by transplantation of functional pancreatic islet cells. A potentially unlimited source of cells for such transplantations would be islet cells derived from an in vitro differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hESC/hiPSC). The islet-like clusters (ILC) produced by the known differentiation protocols contain various cell populations. Among these, the β-cells that express both insulin and the transcription factor Nkx6.1 seem to be the most efficient to restore normoglycemia in diabetes animal models. Our aim was to find markers allowing selection of these efficient cells.MethodsFunctional Cell-Capture Screening (FCCS) was used to identify markers that preferentially capture the cells expressing both insulin and Nkx6.1, from hESC-derived ILC cells. In order to test whether selection for such markers could improve cell therapy in diabetic mouse models, we used ILC produced from a clinical-grade line of hESC by a refined differentiation protocol adapted to up-scalable bioreactors. Re-aggregated MACS sorted cells were encapsulated in microspheres made of alginate modified to reduce foreign body reaction. Implantation was done intraperitoneally in STZ-treated C57BL/6 immuno-competent mice.ResultsCD49A (integrin alpha1) was identified by FCCS as a marker for cells that express insulin (or C-peptide) as well as Nkx6.1 in ILC derived by hESC differentiation. The ILC fraction enriched in CD49A+ cells rapidly reduced glycemia when implanted in diabetic mice, whereas mice receiving the CD49A depleted population remained highly diabetic. CD49A-enriched ILC cells also produced higher levels of human C-peptide in the blood of transplanted mice. However, the difference between CD49A-enriched and total ILC cells remained small. Another marker, CD26 (DPP4), was identified by FCCS as binding insulin-expressing cells which are Nkx6.1 negative. Depletion of CD26+ cells followed by enrichment for CD49A+ cells increased insulin+/Nkx6.1+ cells fraction to ~70%. The CD26-/CD49A+ enriched ILC exhibited improved function over non-sorted ILC or CD49A+ cells in diabetic mice and maintain prolonged blood C-peptide levels.ConclusionsRefining the composition of ILC differentiated from hPSC by negative selection to remove cells expressing CD26 and positive selection for CD49A expressing cells could enable more effective cell therapy of diabetes.

AbstractEpithelial ovarian cancer has become the most frequent cause of deaths among gynecologic malignancies. Our study elucidates the diagnostic performance of Risk of Ovarian Malignancy Algorithm (ROMA), Human epididymis secretory protein 4 (HE4) and cancer antigen (CA125). To compare the diagnostic accuracy of ROMA, HE-4 and CA125 in the early diagnosis and screening of Epithelial Ovarian Cancer. Literature search in electronic databases such as Medicine: MEDLINE (through PUBMED interface), EMBASE, Google Scholar, Science Direct and Cochrane library from January 2011 to August 2020. Studies that evaluated the diagnostic measures of ROMA, HE4 and CA125 by using Chemilumincence immunoassay or electrochemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA or ECLIA) as index tests. Using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS-2). We included 32 studies in our meta-analysis. We calculated AUC by SROC, pooled estimated like sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratio, diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), Tau square, Cochran Q through random effect analysis and meta-regression. Data was retrieved from 32 studies. The number of studies included for HE4, CA125 and ROMA tests was 25, 26 and 22 respectively. The patients with EOC were taken as cases, and women with benign ovarian mass were taken as control, which was 2233/5682, 2315/5875 and 2281/5068 respectively for the markers or algorithm. The pooled estimates of the markers or algorithm were sensitivity: ROMA (postmenopausal) (0.88, 95% CI 0.86–0.89) > ROMA (premenopausal) 0.80, 95% CI 0.78–0.83 > CA-125(0.84, 95% CI 0.82–0.85) > HE4 (0.73, 95% CI 0.71–0.75) specificity: HE4 (0.90, 95% CI 0.89–0.91) > ROMA (postmenopausal) (0.83, 95% CI 0.81–0.84) > ROMA (premenopausal) (0.80, 95% CI 0.79–0.82) > CA125 (0.73, 95%CI 0.72–0.74), Diagnostic odd’s ratio ROMA (postmenopausal) 44.04, 95% CI 31.27–62.03, ROMA (premenopausal)-18.93, 95% CI 13.04–27.48, CA-125-13.44, 95% CI 9.97–18.13, HE4-41.03, 95% CI 27.96–60.21 AUC(SE): ROMA (postmenopausal) 0.94(0.01), ROMA (premenopausal)-0.88(0.01), HE4 0.91(0.01), CA125-0.86(0.02) through bivariate random effects model considering the heterogeneity. Our study found ROMA as the best marker to differentiate EOC from benign ovarian masses with greater diagnostic accuracy as compared to HE4 and CA125 in postmenopausal women. In premenopausal women, HE4 is a promising predictor of Epithelial ovarian cancer; however, its utilisation requires further exploration. Our study elucidates the diagnostic performance of ROMA, HE4 and CA125 in EOC. ROMA is a promising diagnostic marker of Epithelial ovarian cancers in postmenopausal women, while HE4 is the best diagnostic predictor of EOC in the premenopausal group. Our study had only EOC patients as cases and those with benign ovarian masses as controls. Further, we considered the studies estimated using the markers by the same index test: CLIA or ECLIA. The good number of studies with strict inclusion criteria reduced bias because of the pooling of studies with different analytical methods, especially for HE4. We did not consider the studies published in foreign languages. Since a few studies were available for HE4 and CA125 in the premenopausal and postmenopausal group separately, data were inadequate for sub-group analysis. Further, we did not assess these markers' diagnostic efficiency stratified by the stage and type of tumour due to insufficient studies.

Background: Calcinosis cutis is an uncommon dermatopathy characterized by the deposition of minerals in the skin, usually involving collagen and elastic fibers in the dermis. Usually, it results from dystrophic calcification and can be generalized or focal. The dermatopathy may be primary or secondary to certain disorders, especially chronic proliferative otitis, foreign body reactions, hyperadrenocorticism (HAC) and less frequently percutaneous penetration of calcium-rich products. The aim of this report is to describe a presentation of calcinosis cutis affecting the skin of the back, internal face of hind limbs and anal region of a 9-year-old bitch.Case: A 9-year-old, non-defined breed, bitch, ovariohysterectomized, weighing 9.45 kg, was attended at the Dermatological Service of companion animals at the Veterinary Hospital of the Federal University of Jataí (UFJ). The animal came in with the complaint of extensive dorsal alopecia, covered by firm lesions, with a 3-month evolution, additionally to polyuria and polydipsia. After physical examination, alopecic areas of great extension were confirmed on the dorsum, on the internal surface of the hind limbs and in the anal region. Also, an exudative and painful lesion located on the back was detected, plus loss of elasticity of the ventral abdomen skin and visible abdominal vessels. The screening tests showed a marked increase in the alanine aminotransferase enzyme (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and total cholesterol. The specific urinary density was decreased. On the ultrasound examination, hepatomegaly and an increase in the caudal pole of the left adrenal were detected. Based on these findings, calcinosis cutis secondary to spontaneous hyperadrenocorticism (HAC) was suspected. For confirmation, skin biopsy and low dose dexamethasone suppression test (LDDS) were performed. LDDS test showed no reduction of serum cortisol after 8 h of dexamethasone dose administration and histopathological evaluation revealed multiple foci of calcinosis characterized by the deposition of basophilic material on the pre-existing collagen fibers, plus areas with pyogranulomatous inflammatory reaction and peripheral fibrosis with transepidermal elimination of minerals. Thus, trilostane and intense hydration of skin plaques were applied as treatment.Discussion: The dermatological alterations were compatible with those described in the consulted literature, with remarkable yellow-brown, firm, sandy-looking plaques, located on the back, internal face of hind limbs and anal region, possibly related to HAC later confirmed by LDDS test and biopsy. The management of the underlying disease and possible secondary bacterial infections are the basis of treatment. Therefore, the patient was treated with trilostane, antibiotic therapy and intensive hydration of the mineralized plaques resulting in a satisfactory involution of the clinical signs. Even though there are reports of calcinosis cutis on the dorsum, in the consulted literature there was no evidence of dorsum large extension lesion due to HAC as in this case report, but secondary to exogenous corticosteroid treatment, systemic blastomycosis and leptospirosis. In this case report, the affected thorax portion was the dorsum, differently from a study that pointed the ventral thorax as the affected portion. Similarly, anus and ventral part of the tail were hardly affected together with secondary inflammation and ulceration. Thus, the existent literature shows areas of calcinosis cutis in dogs in different parts of the body, but neither extensive as in the back of this reported female dog, nor widely affected as in the anal area, additionally to the internal face of hind limbs as already reported in the literature.

IntroductionIn this article, I set out to accomplish two tasks. The first is to map coffee and cafés in Mainland China in different historical periods. The second is to focus on coffee and cafés in the socio-cultural milieu of contemporary China in order to understand the symbolic value of the emerging coffee/café-scape. Cafés, rather than coffee, are at the centre of this current trend in contemporary Chinese cities. With instant coffee dominating as a drink, the Chinese have developed a cultural and social demand for cafés, but have not yet developed coffee palates. Historical Coffee Map In 1901, coffee was served in a restaurant in the city of Tianjin. This restaurant, named Kiessling, was run by a German chef, a former solider who came to China with the eight-nation alliance. At that time, coffee was reserved mostly for foreign politicians and military officials as well as wealthy businessmen—very few ordinary Chinese drank it. (For more history of Kiessling, including pictures and videos, see Kiessling). Another group of coffee consumers were from the cultural elites—the young revolutionary intellectuals and writers with overseas experience. It was almost a fashion among the literary elite to spend time in cafés. However, this was negatively judged as “Western” and “bourgeois.” For example, in 1932, Lu Xun, one of the most important twentieth century Chinese writers, commented on the café fashion during 1920s (133-36), and listed the reasons why he would not visit one. He did not drink coffee because it was “foreigners’ food”, and he was too busy writing for the kind of leisure enjoyed in cafés. Moreover, he did not, he wrote, have the nerve to go to a café, and particularly not the Revolutionary Café that was popular among cultural celebrities at that time. He claimed that the “paradise” of the café was for genius, and for handsome revolutionary writers (who he described as having red lips and white teeth, whereas his teeth were yellow). His final complaint was that even if he went to the Revolutionary Café, he would hesitate going in (Lu Xun 133-36). From Lu Xun’s list, we can recognise his nationalism and resistance to what were identified as Western foods and lifestyles. It is easy to also feel his dissatisfaction with those dilettante revolutionary intellectuals who spent time in cafés, talking and enjoying Western food, rather than working. In contrast to Lu Xun’s resistance to coffee and café culture, another well-known writer, Zhang Ailing, frequented cafés when she lived in Shanghai from the 1920s to 1950s. She wrote about the smell of cakes and bread sold in Kiessling’s branch store located right next to her parents’ house (Yuyue). Born into a wealthy family, exposed to Western culture and food at a very young age, Zhang Ailing liked to spend her social and writing time in cafés, ordering her favourite cakes, hot chocolate, and coffee. When she left Shanghai and immigrated to the USA, coffee was an important part of her writing life: the smell and taste reminding her of old friends and Shanghai (Chunzi). However, during Zhang’s time, it was still a privileged and elite practice to patronise a café when these were located in foreign settlements with foreign chefs, and served mainly foreigners, wealthy businessmen, and cultural celebrities. After 1949, when the Chinese Communist Party established the People’s Republic of China, until the late 1970s, there were no coffee shops in Mainland China. It was only when Deng Xiaoping suggested neo-liberalism as a so-called “reform-and-open-up” economic policy that foreign commerce and products were again seen in China. In 1988, ten years after the implementation of Deng Xiaoping’s policy, the Nestlé coffee company made the first inroads into the mainland market, featuring homegrown coffee beans in Yunnan province (China Beverage News; Dong; ITC). Nestlé’s bottled instant coffee found its way into the Chinese market, avoiding a direct challenge to the tea culture. Nestlé packaged its coffee to resemble health food products and marketed it as a holiday gift suitable for friends and relatives. As a symbol of modernity and “the West”, coffee-as-gift meshed with the traditional Chinese cultural custom that values gift giving. It also satisfied a collective desire for foreign products (and contact with foreign cultures) during the economic reform era. Even today, with its competitively low price, instant coffee dominates coffee consumption at home, in the workplace, and on Chinese airlines. While Nestlé aimed their product at native Chinese consumers, the multinational companies who later entered China’s coffee market, such as Sara Lee, mainly targeted international hotels such as IHG, Marriott, and Hyatt. The multinationals also favoured coffee shops like Kommune in Shanghai that offered more sophisticated kinds of coffee to foreign consumers and China’s upper class (Byers). If Nestlé introduced coffee to ordinary Chinese families, it was Starbucks who introduced the coffee-based “third space” to urban life in contemporary China on a signficant scale. Differing from the cafés before 1949, Starbucks stores are accessible to ordinary Chinese citizens. The first in Mainland China opened in Beijing’s China World Trade Center in January 1999, targeting mainly white-collar workers and foreigners. Starbucks coffee shops provide a space for informal business meetings, chatting with friends, and relaxing and, with its 500th store opened in 2011, dominate the field in China. Starbucks are located mainly in the central business districts and airports, and the company plans to have 1,500 sites by 2015 (Starbucks). Despite this massive presence, Starbucks constitutes only part of the café-scape in contemporary Chinese cities. There are two other kinds of cafés. One type is usually located in universities or residential areas and is frequented mainly by students or locals working in cultural professions. A representative of this kind is Sculpting in Time Café. In November 1997, two years before the opening of the first Starbucks in Beijing, two newlywed college graduates opened the first small Sculpting in Time Café near Beijing University’s East Gate. This has been expanded into a chain, and boasts 18 branches on the Mainland. (For more about its history, see Sculpting in Time Café). Interestingly, both Starbucks and Sculpting in Time Café acquired their names from literature, Starbucks from Moby Dick, and Sculpting in Time from the Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky’s film diary of the same name. For Chinese students of literature and the arts, drinking coffee is less about acquiring more energy to accomplish their work, and more about entering a sensual world, where the aroma of coffee mixes with the sounds from the coffee machine and music, as well as the lighting of the space. More importantly, cafés with this ambience become, in themselves, cultural sites associated with literature, films, and music. Owners of this kind of café are often lovers of foreign literatures, films, and cultures, and their cafés host various cultural events, including forums, book clubs, movie screenings, and music clubs. Generally speaking, coffee served in this kind of café is simpler than in the kind discussed below. This third type of café includes those located in tourist and entertainment sites such as art districts, bar areas, and historical sites, and which are frequented by foreign and native tourists, artists and other cultural workers. If Starbucks cultivates a fast-paced business/professional atmosphere, and Sculpting in Time Cafés an artsy and literary atmosphere, this third kind of café is more like an upscale “bar” with trained baristas serving complicated coffees and emphasising their flavour. These coffee shops are more expensive than the other kinds, with an average price three times that of Starbucks. Currently, cafés of this type are found only in “first-tier” cities and usually located in art districts and tourist areas—such as Beijing’s 798 Art District and Nanluo Guxiang, Shanghai’s Tai Kang Road (a.k.a. “the art street”), and Hangzhou’s Westlake area. While Nestlé and Starbucks use coffee beans grown in Yunnan provinces, these “art cafés” are more inclined to use imported coffee beans from suppliers like Sara Lee. Coffee and Cafés in Contemporary China After just ten years, there are hundreds of cafés in Chinese cities. Why has there been such a demand for coffee or, more accurately, cafés, in such a short period of time? The first reason is the lack of “third space” environments in Mainland China. Before cafés appeared in the late 1990s, stores like KFC (which opened its first store in 1987) and McDonald’s (with its first store opened in 1990) filled this role for urban residents, providing locations where customers could experience Western food, meet friends, work, or read. In fact, KFC and McDonald’s were once very popular with college students looking for a place to study. Both stores had relatively clean food environments and good lighting. They also had air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter, which are not provided in most Chinese university dormitories. However, since neither chain was set up to be a café and customers occupying seats for long periods while ordering minimal amounts of food or drink affected profits, staff members began to indirectly ask customers to leave after dining. At the same time, as more people were able to afford to eat at KFC and McDonald’s, their fast foods were also becoming more and more popular, especially among young people. As a consequence, both types of chain restaurant were becoming noisy and crowded and, thus, no longer ideal for reading, studying, or meeting with friends. Although tea has been a traditional drink in Chinese culture, traditional teahouses were expensive places more suitable for business meetings or for the cultural or intellectual elite. Since almost every family owns a tea set and can readily purchase tea, friends and family would usually make and consume tea at home. In recent years, however, new kinds of teahouses have emerged, similar in style to cafés, targeting the younger generation with more affordable prices and a wider range of choices, so the lack of a “third space” does not fully explain the café boom. Another factor affecting the popularity of cafés has been the development and uptake of Internet technology, including the increasing use of laptops and wireless Internet in recent years. The Internet has been available in China since the late 1990s, while computers and then laptops entered ordinary Chinese homes in the early twenty-first century. The IT industry has created not only a new field of research and production, but has also fostered new professions and demands. Particularly, in recent years in Mainland China, a new socially acceptable profession—freelancing in such areas as graphic design, photography, writing, film, music, and the fashion industry—has emerged. Most freelancers’ work is computer- and Internet-based. Cafés provide suitable working space, with wireless service, and the bonus of coffee that is, first of all, somatically stimulating. In addition, the emergence of the creative and cultural industries (which are supported by the Chinese government) has created work for these freelancers and, arguably, an increasing demand for café-based third spaces where such people can meet, talk and work. Furthermore, the flourishing of cafés in first-tier cities is part of the “aesthetic economy” (Lloyd 24) that caters to the making and selling of lifestyle experience. Alongside foreign restaurants, bars, galleries, and design firms, cafés contribute to city branding, and link a city to the global urban network. Cafés, like restaurants, galleries and bars, provide a space for the flow of global commodities, as well as for the human flow of tourists, travelling artists, freelancers, and cultural specialists. Finally, cafés provide a type of service that contributes to friendly owner/waiter-customer relations. During the planned-economy era, most stores and hotels in China were State-owned, staff salaries were not related to individual performance, and indifferent (and even unfriendly) service was common. During the economic reform era, privately owned stores and shops began to replace State-owned ones. At the same time, a large number of people from the countryside flowed into the cities seeking opportunities. Most had little if any professional training and so could only find work in factories or in the service industry. However, most café employees are urban, with better educational backgrounds, and many were already familiar with coffee culture. In addition, café owners, particularly those of places like Sculpting in Time Cafe, often invest in creating a positive, community atmosphere, learning about their customers and sharing personal experiences with their regular clients. This leads to my next point—the generation of the 1980s’ need for a social community. Cafés’ Symbolic Value—Community A demand for a sense of community among the generation of the 1980s is a unique socio-cultural phenomenon in China, which paradoxically co-exists with their desire for individualism. Mao Zedong started the “One Child Policy” in 1979 to slow the rapid population growth in China, and the generations born under this policy are often called “the lonely generations,” with both parents working full-time. At the same time, they are “the generation of me,” labelled as spoiled, self-centred, and obsessed with consumption (de Kloet; Liu; Rofel; Wang). The individuals of this generation, now aged in their 20s and 30s, constitute the primary consumers of coffee in China. Whereas individualism is an important value to them, a sense of community is also desirable in order to compensate for their lack of siblings. Furthermore, the 1980s’ generation has also benefitted from the university expansion policy implemented in 1999. Since then, China has witnessed a surge of university students and graduates who not only received scientific and other course-based knowledge, but also had a better chance to be exposed to foreign cultures through their books, music, and movies. With this interesting tension between individualism and collectivism, the atmosphere provided by cafés has fostered a series of curious temporary communities built on cultural and culinary taste. Interestingly, it has become an aspiration of many young college students and graduates to open a community-space style café in a city. One of the best examples is the new Henduoren’s (Many People’s) Café. This was a project initiated by Wen Erniu, a recent college graduate who wanted to open a café in Beijing but did not have sufficient funds to do so. She posted a message on the Internet, asking people to invest a minimum of US$316 to open a café with her. With 78 investors, the café opened in September 2011 in Beijing (see pictures of Henduoren’s Café). In an interview with the China Daily, Wen Erniu stated that, “To open a cafe was a dream of mine, but I could not afford it […] We thought opening a cafe might be many people’s dream […] and we could get together via the Internet to make it come true” (quoted in Liu 2011). Conclusion: Café Culture and (Instant) Coffee in China There is a Chinese saying that, if you hate someone—just persuade him or her to open a coffee shop. Since cafés provide spaces where one can spend a relatively long time for little financial outlay, owners have to increase prices to cover their expenses. This can result in fewer customers. In retaliation, cafés—particularly those with cultural and literary ambience—host cultural events to attract people, and/or they offer food and wine along with coffee. The high prices, however, remain. In fact, the average price of coffee in China is often higher than in Europe and North America. For example, a medium Starbucks’ caffè latte in China averaged around US$4.40 in 2010, according to the price list of a Starbucks outlet in Shanghai—and the prices has recently increased again (Xinhua 2012). This partially explains why instant coffee is still so popular in China. A bag of instant Nestlé coffee cost only some US$0.25 in a Beijing supermarket in 2010, and requires only hot water, which is accessible free almost everywhere in China, in any restaurant, office building, or household. As an habitual, addictive treat, however, coffee has not yet become a customary, let alone necessary, drink for most Chinese. Moreover, while many, especially those of the older generations, could discern the quality and varieties of tea, very few can judge the quality of the coffee served in cafés. As a result, few Mainland Chinese coffee consumers have a purely somatic demand for coffee—craving its smell or taste—and the highly sweetened and creamed instant coffee offered by companies like Nestlé or Maxwell has largely shaped the current Chinese palate for coffee. Ben Highmore has proposed that “food spaces (shops, restaurants and so on) can be seen, for some social agents, as a potential space where new ‘not-me’ worlds are encountered” (396) He continues to expand that “how these potential spaces are negotiated—the various affective registers of experience (joy, aggression, fear)—reflect the multicultural shapes of a culture (its racism, its openness, its acceptance of difference)” (396). Cafés in contemporary China provide spaces where one encounters and constructs new “not-me” worlds, and more importantly, new “with-me” worlds. While café-going communicates an appreciation and desire for new lifestyles and new selves, it can be hoped that in the near future, coffee will also be appreciated for its smell, taste, and other benefits. Of course, it is also necessary that future Chinese coffee consumers also recognise the rich and complex cultural, political, and social issues behind the coffee economy in the era of globalisation. References Byers, Paul [former Managing Director, Sara Lee’s Asia Pacific]. Pers. comm. Apr. 2012. China Beverage News. “Nestlé Acquires 70% Stake in Chinese Mineral Water Producer.” (2010). 31 Mar. 2012 ‹http://chinabevnews.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/nestle-acquires-70-stake-in-chinese-mineral-water-producer›. Chunzi. 张爱玲地图[The Map of Eileen Chang]. 汉语大词典出版 [Hanyu Dacidian Chubanshe], 2003. de Kloet, Jeroen. China with a Cut: Globalization, Urban Youth and Popular Music. Amsterdam: Amsterdam UP, 2010. Dong, Jonathan. “A Caffeinated Timeline: Developing Yunnan’s Coffee Cultivation.” China Brief (2011): 24-26. Highmore, Ben. “Alimentary Agents: Food, Cultural Theory and Multiculturalism.” Journal of Intercultural Studies, 29.4 (2008): 381-98. ITC (International Trade Center). The Coffee Sector in China: An Overview of Production, Trade And Consumption, 2010. Liu, Kang. Globalization and Cultural Trends in China. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2004. Liu, Zhihu. “From Virtual to Reality.” China Daily (Dec. 2011) 31 Mar. 2012 ‹http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2011-12/26/content_14326490.htm›. Lloyd, Richard. Neobohemia: Art and Commerce in the Postindustrial City. London: Routledge, 2006. Lu, Xun. “Geming Kafei Guan [Revolutionary Café]”. San Xian Ji. Taibei Shi: Feng Yun Shi Dai Chu Ban Gong Si: Fa Xing Suo Xue Wen Hua Gong Si, Mingguo 78 (1989): 133-36. Rofel, Lisa. Desiring China: Experiments in Neoliberalism, Sexuality, and Public Culture. Durham and London: Duke UP, 2007: 1-30. “Starbucks Celebrates Its 500th Store Opening in Mainland China.” Starbucks Newsroom (Oct. 2011) 31 Mar. 2012. ‹http://news.starbucks.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=580›. Wang, Jing. High Culture Fever: Politics, Aesthetics, and Ideology in Deng’s China. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: U of California P, 1996. Xinhua. “Starbucks Raises Coffee Prices in China Stores.” Xinhua News (Jan. 2012). 31 Mar. 2012 ‹http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-01/31/c_131384671.htm›. Yuyue. Ed. “On the History of the Western-Style Restaurants: Aileen Chang A Frequent Customer of Kiessling.” China.com.cn (2010). 31 Mar. 2012 ‹http://www.china.com.cn/culture/txt/2010-01/30/content_19334964.htm›.

IntroductionBritish initiatives to manage both the number of arrivals of asylum seekers and the experiences of those who arrive have burgeoned in recent years. The budget dedicated to asylum seeker management increased from £357 million in 1998-1999 to £1.71 billion in 2004-2005, making the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) the second largest concern of the Home Office behind the Prison Service in 2005 (Back et al). The IND was replaced in April 2007 by the Border and Immigration Agency (BIA), whose expenditure exceeded £2 billion in 2007-2008 (BIA). Perhaps as a consequence the number of asylum seekers applying to the UK has fallen dramatically, illustrating the continuing influence of exclusionary state policies despite the globalisation and transnationalisation of migrant flows (UNHCR; Koser).One of the difficulties with the study of asylum seekers is the persistent risk that, by employing the term ‘asylum seeker’, research conducted into their experiences will contribute towards the exclusion of a marginalised and abject group of people, precisely by employing a term that emphasises the suspended recognition of a community (Nyers). The ‘asylum seeker’ is a figure defined in law in order to facilitate government-level avoidance of humanitarian obligations by emphasising the non-refugeeness of asylum claimants (Tyler). This group is identified as supplicant to the state, positioning the state itself as a legitimate arbiter. It is in this sense that asylum seekers suffer a degree of cruel optimism (Berlant) – wishing to be recognised as a refugee while nevertheless subject to state-defined discourses, whatever the outcome. The term ‘forced migrant’ is little better, conveying a de-humanising and disabling lack of agency (Turton), while the terms ‘undocumented migrant’, ‘irregular migrant’ and ‘illegal migrant’ all imply a failure to conform to respectable, desirable and legitimate forms of migration.Another consequence of these co-opted and politically subjugating forms of language is their production of simple imagined geographies of migration that position the foreigner as strange, unfamiliar and incapable of communication across this divide. Such imaginings precipitate their own responses, most clearly expressed in the blunt, intrusive uses of space and time in migration governance (Lahav and Guiraudon; Cohen; Guild; Gronendijk). Various institutions exist in Britain that function to actually produce the imagined differences between migrants and citizens, from the two huge, airport-like ‘Asylum Screening Units’ in Liverpool and London where asylum seekers can lodge their claims, to the 12 ‘Removal Centres’ within which soon-to-be deported asylum seekers are incarcerated and the 17 ‘Hearing Centres’ at which British judges preside over the precise legal status of asylum applicants.Less attention, however, has been given to the tension between mobility and stillness in asylum contexts. Asylum seeker management is characterised by a complex combination of enforced stillness and enforced mobility of asylum seeking bodies, and resistance can also be understood in these terms. This research draws upon 37 interviews with asylum seekers, asylum activists, and government employees in the UK conducted between 2005 and 2007 (see Gill) and distils three characteristics of stillness. First, an association between stillness and safety is clearly evident, exacerbated by the fear that the state may force asylum seekers to move at any time. Second, stillness of asylum seekers in a physical, literal sense is intimately related to their psychological condition, underscoring the affectual properties of stillness. Third, the desire to be still, and to be safe, precipitates various political strategies that seek to secure stillness, meaning that stillness functions as more than an aspiration, becoming also a key political metric in the struggle between the included and excluded. In these multiple and contradictory ways stillness is a key factor that structures asylum seekers’ experiences of migration. Governing through Mobility The British state utilises both stillness and mobility in the governance of asylum seeking bodies. On the one hand, asylum seekers’ personal freedoms are routinely curtailed both through their incarceration and through the requirements imposed upon them by the state in terms of ‘signing in’ at local police stations, even when they are not incarcerated, throughout the time that they are awaiting a decision on their claim for asylum (Cwerner). This requirement, which consists of attending a police station to confirm the continuing compliance of the asylum seeker, can vary in frequency, from once every month to once every few days.On the other hand, the British state employs a range of strategies of mobility that serve to deprive asylum seeking communities of geographical stillness and, consequently, also often undermines their psychological stability. First, the seizure of asylum seekers and transportation to a Removal Centre can be sudden and traumatic, and incarceration in this manner is becoming increasingly common (Bacon; Home Office). In extreme cases, very little or no warning is given to asylum seekers who are taken into detention, and so-called ‘dawn raids’ have been organised in order to exploit an element of surprise in the introduction of asylum seekers to detention (Burnett). A second source of forced mobility associated with Removal Centres is the transfer of detainees from one Removal Centre to another for a variety of reasons, from the practical constraints imposed by the capacities of various centres, to differences in the conditions of centres themselves, which are used to form a reward and sanction mechanism among the detainee population (Hayter; Granville-Chapman). Intra-detention estate transfers have increased in scope and significance in recent years: in 2004/5, the most recent financial year for which figures are available, the British government spent over £6.5 million simply moving detainees from one secure facility to another within the UK (Hansard, 2005; 2006).Outside incarceration, a third source of spatial disruption of asylum seekers in the UK concerns their relationship with accommodation providers. Housing is provided to asylum seekers as they await a decision on their claim, but this housing is provided on a ‘no-choice’ basis, meaning that asylum seekers who are not prepared to travel to the accommodation that is allocated to them will forfeit their right to accommodation (Schuster). In other words, accommodation is contingent upon asylum seekers’ willingness to be mobile, producing a direct trade-off between the attractions of accommodation and stillness. The rationale for this “dispersal policy”, is to draw asylum seekers away from London, where the majority of asylum seekers chose to reside before 2000. The maintenance of a diverse portfolio of housing across the UK is resource intensive, with the re-negotiation of housing contracts worth over a £1 billion a constant concern (Noble et al). As these contracts are renegotiated, asylum seekers are expected to move in response to the varying affordability of housing around the country. In parallel to the system of deportee movements within the detention estate therefore, a comparable system of movement of asylum seekers around the UK in response to urban and regional housing market conditions also operates. Stillness as SanctuaryIn all three cases, the psychological stress that movement of asylum seekers can cause is significant. Within detention, according to a series of government reports into the conditions of removal centres, one of the recurring difficulties facing incarcerated asylum seekers is incomprehension of their legal status (e.g. HMIP 2002; 2008). This, coupled with very short warning of impending movements, results in widespread anxiety among detained asylum seekers that they may be deported or transferred imminently. Outside detention, the fear of snatch squads of police officers, or alternatively the fear of hate crimes against asylum seekers (Tyler), render movement in the public realm a dangerous practice in the eyes of many marginalised migrants. The degree of uncertainty and the mental and emotional demands of relocation introduced through forced mobility can have a damaging psychological effect upon an already vulnerable population. Expressing his frustration at this particular implication of the movement of detainees, one activist who had provided sanctuary to over 20 asylum seekers in his community outlined some of the consequences of onward movement.The number of times I’ve had to write panic letters saying you know you cannot move this person to the other end of the country because it destabilises them in terms of their mental health and it is abusive. […] Their solicitors are here, they’re in process, in legal process, they’ve got a community, they’ve got friends, they may even have a partner or a child here and they would still move them.The association between governance, mobility and trepidation highlights one characteristic of stillness in the asylum seeking field: in contra-distinction to the risk associated with movement, to be still is very often to be safe. Given the necessity to flee violence in origin countries and the tendency for destination country governments to require constant re-positioning, often backed-up with the threat of force, stillness comes to be viewed as offering a sort of sanctuary. Indeed, the Independent Asylum Commission charity that has conducted a series of reviews of asylum seekers’ treatment in the UK (Hobson et al.), has recently suggested dispensing with the term ‘asylum’ in favour of ‘sanctuary’ precisely because of the positive associations with security and stability that the latter provides. To be in one place for a sustained period allows networks of human trust and reciprocity to develop which can form the basis of supportive community relationships. Another activist who had accompanied many asylum seekers through the legal process spoke passionately about the functions that communities can serve in asylum seekers’ lives.So you actually become substitute family […] I think it’s what helps people in the midst of trauma when the future is uncertain […] to find a community which values them, which accepts them, which listens to them, where they can begin to find a place and touch a creative life again which they may not have had for years: it’s enormously important.There is a danger in romanticising the benefits of community (Joseph). Indeed, much of the racism and xenophobia directed towards asylum seekers has been the result of local community hostilities towards different national and ethnic groups (Boswell). For many asylum seekers, however, the reciprocal relations found in communities are crucially important to their well-being. What is more, the inclusion of asylum seekers into communities is one of the most effective anti-state and anti-deportation strategies available to activists and asylum seekers alike (Tyler), because it arrests the process of anonymising and cordoning asylum seekers as an homogenous group, providing instead a chance for individuals to cast off this label in favour of more ‘humane’ characteristics: families, learning, friendship, love.Strategies for StillnessFor this reason, the pursuit of stillness among asylum seekers is both a human and political response to their situations – stillness becomes a metric in the struggle between abject migrants and the state. Crucial to this political function is the complex relationship between stillness and social visibility: if an asylum seeker can command their own stillness then they can also have greater influence over their public profile, either in order to develop it or to become less conspicuous.Tyler argues that asylum seekers are what she calls a ‘hypervisible’ social group, referring to the high profile association between a fictional, dehumanised asylum seeking figure and a range of defamatory characteristics circulated by the popular printed press. Stillness can be used to strategically reduce this imposed form of hypervisibility, and to raise awareness of real asylum seeker stories and situations. This is achieved by building community coalitions, which require physically and socially settled asylum seeking families and communities. Asylum advocacy groups and local community support networks work together in the UK in order to generate a genuine public profile of asylum seekers by utilising local and national newspapers, staging public demonstrations, delivering speeches, attending rallies and garnering support among local organisations through art exhibitions, performances and debates. Some activist networks specialise explicitly in supporting asylum seekers in these endeavours, and sympathetic networks of journalists, lawyers, doctors and radio producers combine their expertise with varying degrees of success.These sorts of strategies can produce strong loyalties between local communities and the asylum seekers in their midst, precisely because, through their co-presence, asylum seekers cease to be merely asylum seekers, but become active and valued members of communities. One activist who had helped to organise the protection of an asylum seeker in a church described some of the preparations that had been made for the arrival of immigration task forces in her middle class parish.There were all sorts of things we practiced: if they did break through the door what would we do? We set up a telephone tree so that each person would phone two or three people. We had I don’t know how many cars outside. We arranged a safe house, where we would hide her. We practiced getting her out of the room into a car […] We were expecting them to come at any time. We always had people at the back […] guarding, looking at strangers who might be around and [name] was never, ever allowed to be on her own without a whole group of people completely surrounding her so she could feel safe and we would feel safe. Securing stillness here becomes more than simply an operation to secure geographic fixity: it is a symbolic struggle between state and community, crystallising in specific tactics of spatial and temporal arrangement. It reflects the fear of further forced movement, the abiding association between stillness and safety, and the complex relationship between community visibility and an ability to remain still.There are, nevertheless, drawbacks to these tactics that suggest a very different relationship between stillness and visibility. Juries can be alienated by loud tactics of activism, meaning that asylum seekers can damage their chances of a sympathetic legal hearing if they have had too high a profile. Furthermore, many asylum seekers do not have the benefits of such a dedicated community. An alternative way in which stillness becomes political is through its ability to render invisible the abject body. Invisibility is taken to mean the decision to ‘go underground’, miss the appointments at local police stations and attempt to anticipate the movements of immigration removal enforcement teams. Perversely, although this is a strategy for stillness at the national or regional scale, mobile strategies are often employed at finer scales in order to achieve this objective. Asylum seekers sometimes endure extremely precarious and difficult conditions of housing and subsistence moving from house to house regularly or sleeping and living in cars in order to avoid detection by authorities.This strategy is difficult because it involves a high degree of uncertainty, stress and reliance upon the goodwill of others. One police officer outlined the situation facing many ‘invisible’ asylum seekers as one of poverty and desperation:Immigration haven’t got a clue where they are, they just can’t find them because they’re sofa surfing, that’s living in peoples coffee shops … I see them in the coffee shop and they come up and they’re bloody starving! Despite the difficulties associated with this form of invisibility, it is estimated that this strategy is becoming increasingly common in the UK. In 2006 the Red Cross estimated that there were some 36 000 refused and destitute asylum seekers in England, up from 25 000 the previous year, and reported that their organisation was having to provide induction tours of soup kitchens and night shelters in order to alleviate the conditions of many claimants in these situations (Taylor and Muir). Conclusion The case of asylum seekers in the UK illustrates the multiple, contradictory and splintered character of stillness. While some forms of governance impose stillness upon asylum seeking bodies, in the form of incarceration and ‘signing in’ requirements, other forms of governance impose mobility either within detention or outside it. Consequently stillness figures in the responses of asylum seeking communities in various ways. Given the unwelcome within-country movement of asylum seekers, and adding to this the initial fact of their forced migration from their home countries, the condition of stillness becomes desirable, promising to bring with it stability and safety. These promises contrast the psychological disruption that further mobility, and even the threat of further mobility, can bring about. This illustrates the affectual qualities both of movement and of stillness in the asylum-seeking context. Literal stillness is associated with social and emotional stability that complicates the distinction between real and emotional spaces. While this is certainly not the case uniformly – incarceration and inhibited personal liberties have opposite consequences – the promises of stillness in terms of stability and sanctuary are clearly significant because this desirability leads asylum advocates and asylum seekers to execute a range of political strategies that seek to ensure stillness, either through enhanced or reduced forms of social visibility.The association of mobility with freedom that typifies much of the literature surrounding mobility needs closer inspection. At least in some situations, asylum seekers pursue geographical stillness for the political and psychological benefits it can offer, while mobility is both employed as a subjugating strategy by states and is itself actively resisted by those who constitute its targets.ReferencesBack, Les, Bernadette Farrell and Erin Vandermaas. A Humane Service for Global Citizens. London: South London Citizens, 2005.Bacon, Christine. 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