An international rule would affect many foreign companies, particularly in Europe, but would not affect American ones unless the American board changed its rules.

He said court rulings on affirmative action are likely to affect selective private universities like Columbia as well as public ones.

Cutbacks amid the recession have affected large donors and small ones.

For example, a compact spacetime has closed timelike curves, which violate our usual ideas of causality (that is, future events could affect past ones).

Mr. Brown is usually around, happy to expound on how the personal computer is transforming this generation of children the way radio and television affected earlier ones.

What is more, the adware may run from an infested computer whose owner would not see any manifestations, yet will affect neighboring ones.

But the new guidelines do not pertain to existing contracts, and may not affect future ones either.

However, we expect the stress to be more widespread, affecting weakened corporates, particularly smaller ones, and consumer credit," said Barclays.

Many executives say the biggest problem is strict and capricious government regulation, which affects Japanese companies as well as foreign ones.

The trends have affected not only traditionally high-profile fields like high-energy physics, but new ones like English literature.