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The testis must create and maintain an immune privileged environment to protect maturing germ cells from autoimmune destruction. The establishment of this protective environment is due, at least in part, to Sertoli cells. Sertoli cells line the seminiferous tubules and form the blood-testis barrier (BTB), a barrier between advanced germ cells and the immune system. The BTB compartmentalizes the germ cells and facilitates the appropriate microenvironment necessary for spermatogenesis. Further, Sertoli cells modulate innate and adaptive immune processes through production of immunoregulatory compounds. Sertoli cells, when transplanted ectopically (outside the testis), can also protect transplanted tissue from the recipient’s immune system and reduce immune complications in autoimmune diseases primarily by immune regulation. These properties make Sertoli cells an attractive candidate for inflammatory disease treatments and cell-based therapies. Conversely, the same properties that protect the germ cells also allow the testis to act as a reservoir site for infections. Interestingly, Sertoli cells also have the ability to mount an antimicrobial response, if necessary, as in the case of infections. This review aims to explore how Sertoli cells act as a double-edged sword to both protect germ cells from an autoimmune response and activate innate and adaptive immune responses to fight off infections.

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a plasma cell malignancy with diverse clinical phenotypes and molecular heterogeneity not completely understood. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and miRNAs (DEMs) in MM may influence disease pathogenesis, clinical presentation / drug sensitivities. But these signatures overlap meagrely plausibly due to complexity of myeloma genome, diversity in primary cells studied, molecular technologies/ analytical tools utilized. This warrants further investigations since DEGs/DEMs can impact clinical outcomes and guide personalized therapy. We have conducted genome-wide meta-analysis of DEGs/DEMs in MM versus Normal Plasma Cells (NPCs) and derived unified putative signatures for MM. 100 DEMs and 1,362 DEGs were found deranged between MM and NPCs. Signatures of 37 DEMs (‘Union 37’) and 154 DEGs (‘Union 154’) were deduced that shared 17 DEMs and 22 DEGs with published prognostic signatures, respectively. Two miRs (miR-16–2-3p, 30d-2-3p) correlated with survival outcomes. PPI analysis identified 5 topmost functionally connected hub genes ( UBC, ITGA4, HSP90AB1, VCAM1, VCP ). Transcription factor regulatory networks were determined for five seed DEGs with ≥ 4 biomarker applications ( CDKN1A, CDKN2A, MMP9, IGF1, MKI67 ) and three topmost up/ down regulated DEMs (miR-23b, 195, let7b/ miR-20a, 155, 92a). Further studies are warranted to establish and translate prognostic potential of these signatures for MM.

With economies and business becoming knowledge intensive, the role of education industry has immensely risen in significance. This has given rise to a highly competitive landscape in higher education, with faculty retention as a major challenge for the institutions leading to negative consequences in terms of education quality, stakeholder satisfaction and rankings. This paper discusses the factors influencing faculty retention in HEIs in India within the framework of Social Exchange Theory. The sub dimensions of HR climate were explored using Principal Components Analysis. The relative importance of sub dimensions in forming the overall climate was estimated and the effect of HR climate on faculty retention was studied with Organizational Commitment and Organizational Trust as mediators employing a hierarchical components model in the PLS-SEM analysis. The results indicate that HR climate has a significant positive effect on faculty retention through organizational commitment and organizational trust as partial complementary mediators. Findings have significant theoretical as well as practical implications in extending the present knowledge regarding the subdimensions and effect of HR climate on faculty retention and the suggested measures to be taken in implementing effective HR Management systems in the Higher Education Institutions.

The excellence of educational institutions can be developed and improved by the teachers’ consistent and effective communication in classrooms. This study embarks to investigate the effect of teachers’ communication style (CS) on their communication effectiveness (CE), based on self-assessment, during classroom teaching. The results indicate that CS has significant influence on CE, with “Expressiveness” and “Preciseness” emerging as best styles of communication, whereas “Verbal Aggressiveness” has negative impact on faculties’ CE. It also investigates the differences in CE of the faculty based on their gender and subject specialization. Findings indicate gender differences on the basis of two CE variables—“Listening” and “Ability to get the Message Across.” But there is no difference in instructors’ CE when compared on basis of subject specialization. The findings of the study have implications for the faculty members to enhance their CE, by understanding their CS, which will further have an impact on students’ satisfaction and learning.

Personality traits of teachers are critical to their teaching reflections as well as students learning and satisfaction. However, there is no guiding framework about which personality factors and style of communication are important for teachers’ communication effectiveness during their classroom teaching. The current research studies the impact of personality traits on Communication Effectiveness (CE) of teachers during their classroom teaching and the mediating role of their Communication Style (CS). A sample of 250 teachers from Indian higher education institutions participated in the exploratory study. The study applies PLS-SEM, a theoretical model was proposed and the results point to a total mediating impact of CS on the relationship between personality and CE. The direct effect of the personality traits on communication effectiveness, although positive becomes insignificant, indicating that to a major extent the influence of personality traits on communication effectiveness is explained by the communication style of the teachers. “Conscientiousness” and “Extraversion” personality traits are the most significant personality traits which bring about communication effectiveness in teachers through their “expressive” and “precise” communication styles. Validation of the proposed model will facilitate the teachers to assess their personality traits and identify the most suitable teaching styles which will make their classroom teaching effective thus, enhancing students’ class participation and academic performance.

Human resource climate plays an important role in associating people with their organizations. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence about how faculty perceives components of the HR system, particularly in higher educational institutions. The aim of this paper is to explore the factors of HR climate and study their association with faculty retention in different Indian universities. The data for this study was collected through structured questionnaire administered to 306 faculty members of universities and their responses were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS. The results revealed that mentoring, professional development and compensation were perceived as major components of the HR climate. Of these three, mentoring and professional development played a significant role in predicting faculty retention. The post-hoc results showed that the factors varied in their significance according to the university type. These findings suggest that Indian universities lack a formal HR system and the need to integrate HR departments in the university environment is strongly recommended.

Human resource professionals design and implement various strategies to retain the workforce within an organization. One of the strategies called “employer branding,” has recently gripped their focus. Its role has been highlighted in this study in order to determine the retention of nurses in the organization and to investigate the mediation of organizational culture and career development using social identity theory as a theoretical foundation. For this purpose, a sample of 628 nurse respondents bearing different designations from different departments of private hospitals in northern India was included to test the hypothesis using a structured questionnaire. The impact was examined using structural equations through Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling. The findings showed a positive effect of employer branding on retention and the existence of a complementary mediation relationship when organizational culture and career development were included as mediators. This study is beneficial for human resource professionals and the healthcare sector as it promotes the idea of staff retention which is a significant challenge today.

The study helps in construct development for identifying motivators for adopting ecopreneurial behavior in StartUps. The study aims to address the limitations of previous studies that we are unable to suggest any such scale. The extensive literature review helped in forming initial statements. These statements underwent a few rounds of expert consultation and helped in identifying 20 statements. The exploratory factor analysis on a sample of 140 StartUps, suggested three major motivations that lead to ecopreneurial behavior. Later, confirmatory factor analysis using 160 respondents helped in offering a reliable and valid scale to evaluate these motivations in another sample of Startups to adopt ecopreneurial behavior. The study initiates to fill the gap of empirical contribution in the field of ecopreneurship and would help in the expansion of this field globally by identifying factors that are responsible for adopting ecoprenuerial behavior and foresee its linkages further.

PurposeThis article offers a bibliometric analysis and explores the relationships among the documents on ecopreneurship by using relational techniques. The results highlight the publication trends; most cited documents, top contributing authors, countries and institutions with highest productivity and most contributing journals to the research field.Design/methodology/approachInitially, 216 documents were retrieved from the Thompson Reuters Web of Science Core Collection database with three document types: articles, review and book review. All the documents were considered for the analysis. Then VOSviewer and bibliometric analysis using R with an inbuilt utility Biblioshiny were used together for co-word analysis, co-citation network analysis, generating collaboration networks and also generating a unique three-field plot to analyze the evolution of a research field.FindingsThe results highlight the publication trends: most cited documents, top contributing authors, countries and institutions with highest productivity and most contributing journals to the research field. The network analysis of co-authorship, co-citation, keyword co-occurrence and bibliographic coupling reveals most prominent relationships between authors, documents, co-cited references, sources and countries for the available documents on the research field.Research limitations/implicationsThe study helps not only in expansion of knowledgebase on the research topic but also in understanding the evolution of the ecopreneurship to provide research support further in this area.Originality/valueEcopreneurship is an emerging field of research connecting ecology and entrepreneurship together, making it a potential research area. The contributions made to this research field from 1989 to 2019 serve as a core for conducting this analysis. The study is an effort to help in coordinating research network across countries, authors and affiliating universities.

(This study examines the directionality of the associations among cognitive assets (IQ, academic achievement), motivational beliefs (academic self-concept, task values), and educational and occupational aspirations over time from late adolescence (Grade 10) into early adulthood (5 years post high school). Participants were from a nationally representative sample of U.S. boys N = 2,213). The results suggest that (a) self-concept and intrinsic value have reciprocal effects with academic achievement and predict educational attainment, (b) self-concept is consistently found to predict occupational aspirations, (c) the associations between achievement and aspirations are partially mediated by motivational beliefs, and (d) academic self-concept in high school had stronger long-term indirect effects on future occupational aspirations and educational attainment than task values and IQ.