Cross-Cultural Differences in Luxury Consumption: an Empirical Comparison between Japanese and Swiss Consumers

On the background of the global rise of luxury consumption, the importance of knowing cross-cultural luxury consumption preferences grows accordingly. We investigate cross-cultural specifics of luxury consumption for two cultures, Switzerland and Japan, which clearly differ along Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions (Hofstede 2013). Using these dimensions as a conceptual background, we conduct qualitative interviews with luxury consumers from both cultures and derive propositions concerning the meaning of these dimensions for luxury consumption.

The historical poetry of the ancient Hebrews

transl. and critically examined by Michael Heilprin

A Lentiviral Vector Expressing Japanese Encephalitis Virus-like Particles Elicits Broad Neutralizing Antibody Response in Pigs.

BACKGROUND Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is the major cause of viral encephalitis in Southeast Asia. Vaccination of domestic pigs has been suggested as a "one health" strategy to reduce viral disease transmission to humans. The efficiency of two lentiviral TRIP/JEV vectors expressing the JEV envelope prM and E glycoproteins at eliciting protective humoral response was assessed in a mouse model and piglets. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS A gene encoding the envelope proteins prM and E from a genotype 3 JEV strain was inserted into a lentiviral TRIP vector. Two lentiviral vectors TRIP/JEV were generated, each expressing the prM signal peptide followed by the prM protein and the E glycoprotein, the latter being expressed either in its native form or lacking its two C-terminal transmembrane domains. In vitro transduction of cells with the TRIP/JEV vector expressing the native prM and E resulted in the efficient secretion of virus-like particles of Japanese encephalitis virus. Immunization of BALB/c mice with TRIP/JEV vectors resulted in the production of IgGs against Japanese encephalitis virus, and the injection of a second dose one month after the prime injection greatly boosted antibody titers. The TRIP/JEV vectors elicited neutralizing antibodies against JEV strains belonging to genotypes 1, 3, and 5. Immunization of piglets with two doses of the lentiviral vector expressing JEV virus-like particles led to high titers of anti-JEV antibodies, that had efficient neutralizing activity regardless of the JEV genotype tested. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE Immunization of pigs with the lentiviral vector expressing JEV virus-like particles is particularly efficient to prime antigen-specific humoral immunity and trigger neutralizing antibody responses against JEV genotypes 1, 3, and 5. The titers of neutralizing antibodies elicited by the TRIP/JEV vector are sufficient to confer protection in domestic pigs against different genotypes of JEV and this could be of a great utility in endemic regions where more than one genotype is circulating.

Effects of divergent selection for growth on egg quality traits in Japanese quail

The experiment was designed to investigate the impact of selection for increased body mass on external and internal egg quality traits of Japanese quail. Three hundred and sixty Japanese quail, divergently selected over three generations for different body mass at 4 weeks of age, were used. Quail were homogeneously divided into three groups each consisting of 120 birds: high body mass (HBM), low body mass (LBM) and Control. ANOVA was used to detect the effect of selection on egg quality. In addition, correlation between external and internal egg quality traits was measured. Our results revealed thatHBMquail laid heavier eggs (P = 0.03 compared with LBM but not significantly different with Control quail) with a higher external (shell thickness, shell weight, eggshell ratio and eggshell density, P = 0.0001) and internal egg quality score (albumen weight, P = 0.003; albumen ratio, P = 0.01; albumen height, yolk height, yolk index and Haugh unit, P = 0.0001) when compared with both the Control and LBM. The egg surface area and yolk diameter were significantly higher in HBM when compared with the LBM but not with the Control line. Egg weight was positively correlated with albumen weight (r = 0.54, P = 0.0001), albumen ratio (r = 0.14, P = 0.05), yolk height (r = 0.27, P = 0.0001), yolk weight (r = 0.23, P = 0.002), yolk diameter (r = 0.14, P = 0.05) and yolk index (r = 0.21, P = 0.005) but was negatively correlated with yolk ratio (r = –0.16, P = 0.03). Our results indicate that selection for higher body mass might result in heavier eggs and superior egg quality.

Poetry Chapbook: Red Light Laughter

"Red Light Laughter" is a poetry chapbook containing 20 poems written and edited extensively by Marcus Lloyd Rummell. The poetry included ranges from as recent as April 2010 to as late as January 2009. The book also contains notes, for reference when necessary, and was professionally designed by Lindsey Voskowsky, who is currently employed at the Yale Center of Design.

Strategy and Circumstance: the Response of American Firms to Japanese Competition in Semiconductors, 1980-1995

The transistor was an American invention, and American firms led the world in semiconductor production and innovation for the first three decades of that industry's existence. In the 1980s, however, Japanese producers began to challenge American dominance. Shrill cries arose from the literature of public policy, warning that the American semiconductor industry would soon share the fate of the lamented American consumer electronics business. Few dissented from the implications: the only hope for salvation would be to adopt Japanese-style public policies and imitate the kinds of capabilities Japanese firms possessed. But the predicted extinction never occurred. Instead, American firms surged back during the 1990s, and it now seems the Japanese who are embattled. This striking American turnaround has gone largely unremarked upon in the public policy literature. And even scholarship in strategic management, which thrives on stories of success instead of stories of failure, has been comparatively silent. Drawing on a more thorough economic history of the worldwide semiconductor industry (Langlois and Steinmueller 1999), this essay attempts to collect some of the lessons for strategy research of the American resurgence. We argue that, although some of the American response did consist in changing or augmenting capabilities, most of the renewed American success is in fact the result not of imitating superior Japanese capabilities but rather of taking good advantage of a set of capabilities developed in the heyday of American dominance. Serendipity played at least as important a role as did strategy.

Popular poetry of the Russian Jews

by Leo Wiener

The poetical works of Oliver Goldsmith : with an account of the life and writings of the author : to which is added a prefatory essay, containing a critical dissertation on his poetry

by J. Aikin, M.D, Oliver Goldsmith

Reliques of ancient English poetry : consisting of old heroic ballads, songs, and other pieces of our earlier poets, (chiefly of the lyric kind) : together with some few of later date

[edited by Thomas Percy]

Lecturas “dirigidas" de la poesía estadounidense : The new american poetry (1960) y Legitimate dangers (2006)

Este artículo estudia dos antologías de poesía estadounidense publicadas en su país de origen en 1960 y en 2006, respectivamente: The New American Poetry, compilada por Donald Allen, y Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century, por Michael Dumanis y Cate Marvin. A cincuenta años de la aparición de la primera, la crítica reconoce la función rupturista, renovadora y, a la vez, seminal de la selección de Allen, quien presentaba su texto como una colección de poetas y poemas opuestos al “verso académico". Del mismo modo, Dumanis y Marvin presentan una antología que busca difundir autores jóvenes cuya poesía propone el riesgo como valor fundamental. Nuestro enfoque compara y contrasta ambas antologías, para señalar los aspectos comunes, las declaraciones de principios y las poéticas subyacentes a ambas, y los procesos de canonización que llevan a cabo.

Poetry for export : Contemporary Argentine Poetry (1969), de William Shand, una antología poética argentina en inglés

La traducción se planta como el medio para que un público ajeno a la lengua de origen de un texto pueda acceder a él. En el caso de la poesía, debido a su difícil traducción y a su escasa publicación, la problemática de la traducción se torna doble. A partir de entonces, la presentación de una antología poética argentina en inglés como carta de presentación de la literatura nacional en el mundo resulta una obra interesante en cuanto a sus contenidos y repercusiones en el canon internacional

Charles Segal. Aglaia. The Poetry of Alcman, Sappho, Pindar, Bacchylides and Corinna, Maryland, Rowman y Littlefield Publishers, Ine., 1998, 339 pp.

Fil: Errecalde, Alejandro Martín. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación; Argentina.