No abstract

The murine dishevelled 2 (Dvl2) gene is an ortholog of theDrosophila segment polarity gene Dishevelled, a member of the highly conserved Wingless/Wnt developmental pathway.Dvl2-deficient mice were produced to determine the role ofDvl2 in mammalian development. Mice containing null mutations inDvl2 present with 50% lethality in both inbred 129S6 and in a hybrid 129S6-NIH Black Swiss background because of severe cardiovascular outflow tract defects, including double outlet right ventricle, transposition of the great arteries and persistent truncus arteriosis. The majority of the surviving Dvl2-/- mice were female, suggesting that penetrance was influenced by sex. Expression of Pitx2 and plexin A2 was attenuated in Dvl2 null mutants, suggesting a defect in cardiac neural crest development during outflow tract formation. In addition, ∼90%of Dvl2-/- mice have vertebral and rib malformations that affect the proximal as well as the distal parts of the ribs. These skeletal abnormalities were more pronounced in mice deficient for both Dvl1and Dvl2. Somite differentiation markers used to analyzeDvl2-/- and Dvl1-/-;Dvl2-/-mutant embryos revealed mildly aberrant expression of Uncx4.1, delta 1 and myogenin, suggesting defects in somite segmentation. Finally, 2-3% ofDvl2-/- embryos displayed thoracic spina bifida, while virtually all Dvl1/2 double mutant embryos displayed craniorachishisis, a completely open neural tube from the midbrain to the tail. Thus, Dvl2 is essential for normal cardiac morphogenesis,somite segmentation and neural tube closure, and there is functional redundancy between Dvl1 and Dvl2 in some phenotypes.

No abstract

Purpose This paper aims to examine the relationship between the nationality and educational background diversity of directors serving on corporate boards and the firms’ corporate social performance (CSP). Design/methodology/approach This study measures nationality diversity by directors’ national citizenship and measures educational background diversity by countries from which they earned their undergraduate and post undergraduate degrees. It measures firms’ CSP using the MSCI ESG ratings. The study uses both univariate and multivariate analyses to empirically test the hypotheses. Findings Using a sample of US firms, the authors find that board nationality diversity and educational background diversity are positively associated with CSP. The findings suggest that improving director nationality diversity and educational background diversity could improve firms’ social performance. Originality/value This study shows that the increasing trend of foreign nationals in the US boards could shift the focus of US corporations to be more stakeholder-oriented.

The affect misattribution procedure (AMP) is one of the most promising implicit measures to date, showing high reliability and large effect sizes. The current research tested three potential sources of priming effects in the AMP: affective feelings, semantic concepts, and prepotent motor responses. Ruling out prepotent motor responses as a driving force, priming effects on evaluative and semantic target responses occurred regardless of whether the key assignment in the task was fixed or random. Moreover, priming effects emerged for affect-eliciting primes in the absence of semantic knowledge about the primes. Finally, priming effects were independent of the order in which primes and targets were presented, suggesting that AMP effects are driven by misattribution rather than biased perceptions of the targets. Taken together, these results support accounts that attribute priming effects in the AMP to a general misattribution mechanism that can operate on either affective feelings or semantic concepts.