Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Management of New Product Introductions in the Pharmaceutical Industry

How well are pharmaceutical firms able to manage new product introductions given a complex innovation environment and long time horizons? This paper demonstrates the importance that downstream complementary assets play in the innovation process, providing for the first time theory and evidence on the timing of firms’ new product introductions. We employ novel pharmaceutical-firm data, including a combination of actual new product introductions, their associated product sales data, and information about firms’ research pipelines and patents to analyze the timing of pharmaceutical firms’ new product introductions. By demonstrating that this timing is substantially explained by the loss of FDA-sanctioned market exclusivity on a current product, we provide primary evidence that firms are effectively managing their long and complex innovation processes. We also examine the determinants of firms’ demonstrated ability to hit these targets, and find evidence that minimizing the “adjustment costs” associated with mismatched specialized complementary assets plays a primary role in explaining the behavior of firms. JEL classifications: L11, O30, O32
The Colony-Stimulating Factor-1 (CSF-1) Receptor Sustains ERK1/2 Activation and Proliferation in Breast Cancer Cell Lines

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in western countries. Colony-Stimulating Factor-1 (CSF-1) and its receptor (CSF-1R) regulate macrophage and osteoclast production, trophoblast implantation and mammary gland development. The expression of CSF-1R and/or CSF-1 strongly correlates with poor prognosis in several human epithelial tumors, including breast carcinomas. We demonstrate that CSF-1 and CSF-1R are expressed, although at different levels, in 16/17 breast cancer cell lines tested with no differences among molecular subtypes. The role of CSF-1/CSF-1R in the proliferation of breast cancer cells was then studied in MDAMB468 and SKBR3 cells belonging to different subtypes. CSF-1 administration induced ERK1/2 phosphorylation and enhanced cell proliferation in both cell lines. Furthermore, the inhibition of CSF-1/CSF-1R signaling, by CSF-1R siRNA or imatinib treatment, impaired CSF-1 induced ERK1/2 activation and cell proliferation. We also demonstrate that c-Jun, cyclin D1 and c-Myc, known for their involvement in cell proliferation, are downstream CSF-1R in breast cancer cells. The presence of a proliferative CSF-1/CSF-1R autocrine loop involving ERK1/2 was also found. The wide expression of the CSF-1/CSF-1R pair across breast cancer cell subtypes supports CSF-1/CSF-1R targeting in breast cancer therapy.
Profit-oriented disassembly-line balancing

As product and material recovery has gained importance, disassembly volumes have increased, justifying construction of disassembly lines similar to assembly lines. Recent research on disassembly lines has focused on complete disassembly. Unlike assembly, the current industry practice involves partial disassembly with profit-maximization or cost-minimization objectives. Another difference between assembly and disassembly is that disassembly involves additional precedence relations among tasks due to processing alternatives or physical restrictions. In this study, we define and solve the profit-oriented partial disassembly-line balancing problem. We first characterize different types of precedence relations in disassembly and propose a new representation scheme that encompasses all these types. We then develop the first mixed integer programming formulation for the partial disassembly-line balancing problem, which simultaneously determines (1) the parts whose demand is to be fulfilled to generate revenue, (2) the tasks that will release the selected parts under task and station costs, (3) the number of stations that will be opened, (4) the cycle time, and (5) the balance of the disassembly line, i.e. the feasible assignment of selected tasks to stations such that various types of precedence relations are satisfied. We propose a lower- and upper-bounding scheme based on linear programming relaxation of the formulation. Computational results show that our approach provides near optimal solutions for small problems and is capable of solving larger problems with up to 320 disassembly tasks in reasonable time.
Optimal Patent Renewals

When firms have different R&D productivities, it may be welfare increasing to differentiate patent lives across inventions. The reason is that the uniform patent life provides excessive incentives to do R&D to the low productivity firms and insufficient incentives to high productivity firms. Such a differentiated scheme is implementable through renewal fees, which endogenously determine an optimal pattern of patent life-spans and show how it depends on key features of the economic environment, such as the degree of heterogeneity in R&D productivity across firms, the ability of patentees to appropriate the potentital rents generated by R&D and the learning process about the value of innovation. The potential welfare gains associated with optimal renewal schemes are illustrated through simulation analysis.
Automatic Arabic text summarization using clustering and keyphrase extraction

As the number of electronic documents increases rapidly, the need for faster techniques to assess the relevance of these documents emerges. A summary is a concise representation of underlying text. A full understanding of the document is essential to form an ideal summary. However, achieving full understanding is either difficult or impossible for computers. Therefore, selecting important sentences from the original text and presenting these sentences as a summary present the most common techniques in automated text summarization. This paper propose a hybrid clustering method(partitioning and hierarchical) to group many Arabic documents into several clusters . Then keyphrase extraction module is applied to extract important Keyphrases from each cluster, which helps identify the most important sentences and find similar sentences based on several similarity algorithms. It applied to extract one sentence from a group of similar sentences while ignoring the other similar sentences (i.e., sentences that have a greater similarity than the predefined threshold). This model is designed for both single-and multi-document Arabic text summarization. The Recall-Oriented Understudy for Gisting Evaluation (ROGUE) matrix used for the evaluation. For the summarization dataset, Essex Arabic Summaries Corpus was used. It has many topic based articles with multiple human summaries. This model achieved an accuracy of 80 % for single-document and 62% for multi-document summarization.
A notion of rectifiability modeled on Carnot groups

We introduce a notion of rectifiability modeled on Carnot groups. Precisely, for E a subset of a Carnot group M and N a subgroup of M, we say E is N-rectifiable if it is the Lipschitz image of a positive measure subset of N. First, we discuss the implications of N-rectifiability, where N is a Carnot group (not merely a subgroup of a Carnot group), which include N-approximability and the existence of approximate tangent cones isometric to N almost everywhere in E. Second, we prove that, under a stronger condition concerning the existence of approximate tangent cones isomorphic to N almost everywhere in a set E, that E is N-rectifiable. Third, we investigate the rectifiability properties of level sets of C 1 N functions, f : N → R, where N is a Carnot group. We show that for almost every t ∈ R and almost every noncharacteristic x ∈ f -1 (t), there exist a subgroup T x of H and r > 0 so that f -1 (t) n B H (x, r) is T x -approximable at x and an approximate tangent cone isomorphic to T x at x.
Why Do Automated Builds Break? An Empirical Study

To detect integration errors as quickly as possible, organizations use automated build systems. Such systems ensure that (1) the developers are able to integrate their parts into an executable whole, (2) the testers are able to test the built system, (3) and the release engineers are able to leverage the generated build to produce the upcoming release. The flipside of automated builds is that any incorrect change can break the build, and hence testing and releasing, and (even worse) block other developers from continuing their work, delaying the project even further. To measure the impact of such build breakage, this empirical study analyzes 3,214 builds produced in a large software company over a period of 6 months. We found a high ratio of build breakage (17.9%), and also quantified the cost of such build breakage as more than 336.18 man-hours. Interviews with 28 software engineers from the company helped to understand the circumstances under which builds are broken and the effects of build breakages on the collaboration and coordination of teams. We quantitatively investigated the main factors impacting build breakage and found that build failures correlate with the number of simultaneous contributors on branches, the type of work items performed on a branch, and the roles played by the stakeholders of the builds (for example developers vs. Integrators).
Does modality matter? A comparison of aspiring leaders’ learning online and face-to-face

ABSTRACT Expectations for online distance delivery of higher education courses and programmes are increasing globally, begging the question, ‘Does modality matter? ’ Pedagogic research comparing online and face-to-face learningdemands more examination, particularly synchronous delivery. The purpose of this empirical study is to determine whether the quality of learning differs between Master’s groups of aspiring leaders (inservice teachers) based on instruction received synchronously online and in-person. Best practices in curriculum and leadership within a constructivist context were scrutinised, with cognitive performances relative to delivery mode compared. Guiding this study were the community of inquiry (CoI) framework and two questions: ‘Did student learning vary between groups completing the same course? ’ and ‘Did students’ cognitive learning capacity for making meaning change from one constructivist environment to the next? ’ For both groups, eight data sources (i.e. documents) were collected and analysed. Upon examination, perspectives on technology, mathematics and reading were justice-oriented. For both cohorts, a strong cognitive orientation favouring equity and socially just schooling was revealed. Without noticeable variance between groups, the real-time, computer-based classroom proved equally effective to the physical classroom. This noteworthy result is addressed. As postsecondary institutions utilise distance formats, the latest knowledge resulting from a strategic side-by-side comparison can prove beneficial.
Under-Approximation Refinement for Classical Planning

A general and important problem of search-based planning techniques is the state explosion problem, which is usually tackled with approaches to reduce the branching factor of the planning task. Such approaches often implicitly exploit the observation that the number of available operators is higher than the number of operators that are actually needed to find a plan. In this paper, we propose a simple, but general under-approximation refinement framework for satisficing planning that explicitly exploits this observation. Our approach iteratively searches for plans with operator subsets, which are refined if necessary by adding operators that appear to be needed. Our evaluation shows that even a straight-forward instantiation of this framework yields a competitive planner that often finds plans with small operator sets.
On the forwarding area of contention-based geographic forwarding for ad hoc and sensor networks

Contention-based Geographic Forwarding (CGF) is a state-free communication paradigm for information delivery in multihop ad hoc and sensor networks. Ap rioriselection of the forwarding area impacts its overall network performance and the design of the CGF protocol as well. In this work, we study the fundamental problem of defining the forwarding area ap riorifor CGF and determine its impact on the performance. We model CGF without void (i.e., absence of a next-hop node in the forwarding area) handling as a 3-step forwarding strategy. Based on this model and given a random distribution of network nodes, we develop a general mathematical analysis technique to evaluate the performance of CGF with different forwarding areas, in terms of the performance metric average single-hop packet progress. Further, we introduce two state-free void handling schemes, i.e., active exploration and passive participation, for CGF and study their performance in depth. Our theoretical analysis and numerically evaluated results, validated by extensive simulations, provide a guideline regarding the selection of specific forwarding areas for the design of a practical CGF protocol. It also serves as a general performance evaluation framework for the existing CGF protocols.
Arbuscular Mycorrhiza Stimulates Biological Nitrogen Fixation in Two Medicago spp. through Improved Phosphorus Acquisition

Legumes establish root symbioses with rhizobia that provide plants with nitrogen (N) through biological N fixation (BNF), as well as with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi that mediate improved plant phosphorus (P) uptake. Such complex relationships complicate our understanding of nutrient acquisition by legumes and how they reward their symbiotic partners with carbon along gradients of environmental conditions. In order to disentangle the interplay between BNF and AM symbioses in two Medicago species (Medicago truncatula and M. sativa) along a P-fertilization gradient, we conducted a pot experiment where the rhizobia-treated plants were either inoculated or not inoculated with AM fungus Rhizophagus irregularis ‘PH5’ and grown in two nutrient-poor substrates subjected to one of three different P-supply levels. Throughout the experiment, all plants were fertilized with 15N-enriched liquid N-fertilizer to allow for assessment of BNF efficiency in terms of the fraction of N in the plants derived from the BNF (%NBNF). We hypothesized (1) higher %NBNF coinciding with higher P supply, and (2) higher %NBNF in mycorrhizal as compared to non-mycorrhizal plants under P deficiency due to mycorrhiza-mediated improvement in P nutrition. We found a strongly positive correlation between total plant P content and %NBNF, clearly documenting the importance of plant P nutrition for BNF efficiency. The AM symbiosis generally improved P uptake by plants and considerably stimulated the efficiency of BNF under low P availability (below 10 mg kg-1 water extractable P). Under high P availability (above 10 mg kg-1 water extractable P), the AM symbiosis brought no further benefits to the plants with respect to P nutrition even as the effects of P availability on N acquisition via BNF were further modulated by the environmental context (plant and substrate combinations). As a response to elevated P availability in the substrate, the extent of root length colonization by AM fungi was reduced, the turning points occurring at about 8 and 10 mg kg-1 water extractable P for M. sativa and M. truncatula, respectively. Our results indicated competition for limited C resource between the two kinds of microsymbionts and thus degradation of AM symbiotic functioning under ample P supply.
College student activism: An exploration of learning outcomes

Researchers, politicians, and the public have criticized colleges and univer sities for not effectively preparing college students to be active participants in their communities and within a democratic society. Institutional initiatives on civi c engagement have focused on community service and service-learning initiative s to m et this demand. The existing literature, therefore, focuses on these civic eng agement involvements and the outcomes associated with involvement. Little research is conducted on another form of civic engagement, activism. This study address the gap in the literature related to activism. Specifically, the purpose of this study w as to identify the learning outcomes associated with student participation in activism. Data from the Higher Education Research Institute’s surveys, the 1999 Stude nt Information Form (SIF) and the 2003 College Student Survey (CSS), were used in this study. The theoretical framework for this study was Astin’s Theory of St udent Involvement and the conceptual framework for this study was influenced by Pas carella’s General Model for Assessing Change and Astin’s Input-Environment-Output Model . The statistical analyses conducted in order to answer the research questions w ere multiple regression and logistic regression. The results of this study provide some noteworthy findings that improve our understanding of activism and its effect on the learning outcomes of undergraduate students. First, students involved in activism or not involved in activism were no different when comparing demographic descriptive data (gender, modal age, colleg e grades, etc.). Students differed in their academic course selection and out-of-c lass involvements. Secondly, characteristics positively predicting involvement in act ivism
MODULATION OF COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE AND MOOD BY AROMAS OF PEPPERMINT AND YLANG-YLANG

This study provides further evidence for the impact of the aromas of plant essential oils on aspects of cognition and mood in healthy participants. One hundred and forty-four volunteers were randomly assigned to conditions of ylang-ylang aroma, peppermint aroma, or no aroma control. Cognitive performance was assessed using the Cognitive Drug Research computerized assessment battery, with mood scales completed before and after cognitive testing. The analysis of the data revealed significant differences between conditions on a number of the factors underpinning the tests that constitute the battery. Peppermint was found to enhance memory whereas ylang-ylang impaired it, and lengthened processing speed. In terms of subjective mood peppermint increased alertness and ylang-ylang decreased it, but significantly increased calmness. These results provide support for the contention that the aromas of essential oils can produce significant and idiosyncratic effects on both subjective and objective assessments of aspects of human behavior. They are discussed with reference to possible pharmacological and psychological modes of influence.
Binocular Glaucomatous Visual Field Loss and Its Impact on Visual Exploration - A Supermarket Study

Advanced glaucomatous visual field loss may critically interfere with quality of life. The purpose of this study was to (i) assess the impact of binocular glaucomatous visual field loss on a supermarket search task as an example of everyday living activities, (ii) to identify factors influencing the performance, and (iii) to investigate the related compensatory mechanisms. Ten patients with binocular glaucoma (GP), and ten healthy-sighted control subjects (GC) were asked to collect twenty different products chosen randomly in two supermarket racks as quickly as possible. The task performance was rated as “passed” or “failed” with regard to the time per correctly collected item. Based on the performance of control subjects, the threshold value for failing the task was defined as μ+3σ (in seconds per correctly collected item). Eye movements were recorded by means of a mobile eye tracker. Eight out of ten patients with glaucoma and all control subjects passed the task. Patients who failed the task needed significantly longer time (111.47 s ±12.12 s) to complete the task than patients who passed (64.45 s ±13.36 s, t-test, p<0.001). Furthermore, patients who passed the task showed a significantly higher number of glances towards the visual field defect (VFD) area than patients who failed (t-test, p<0.05). According to these results, glaucoma patients with defects in the binocular visual field display on average longer search times in a naturalistic supermarket task. However, a considerable number of patients, who compensate by frequent glancing towards the VFD, showed successful task performance. Therefore, systematic exploration of the VFD area seems to be a “time-effective” compensatory mechanism during the present supermarket task.
Funding and expenditure of a sample of community-based organizations in Kenya, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe

Over the last decade, international donors, technical specialists, and governments have come to recognize the potential of community-based organizations (CBOs) in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Recent empirical studies suggest that community engagement, including the involvement of CBOs, adds value to the national response to HIV/AIDS. With the emerging evidence of the effectiveness of engaging communities in the fight against AIDS, it is crucial to understand the economic dimension of community engagement. This article provides an analysis of funding and expenditure data collected from CBOs in three African countries: Kenya, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. It presents descriptive information regarding CBO funding and expenditure and examines the factors associated with the total amount of funds received and with the proportions of the funds allocated to programmatic activities and program management and administration. An average CBO in the sample received US$29,800 annually or about US$2480 per month. The highest percentage of CBO funding (37%) came from multilateral organizations. CBOs in the sample spent most of their funds (71%) on programmatic activities including provision of treatment, support, care, impact mitigation, and treatment services.
Whole Genomes of Chandipura Virus Isolates and Comparative Analysis with Other Rhabdoviruses

The Chandipura virus (CHPV) belonging to the Vesiculovirus genus and Rhabdoviridae family, has recently been associated with a number of encephalitis epidemics, with high mortality in children, in different parts of India. No full length genome sequences of CHPV isolates were available in GenBank and little is known about the molecular markers for pathogenesis. In the present study, we provide the complete genomic sequences of four isolates from epidemics during 2003–2007. These sequences along with the deduced sequence of the prototype isolate of 1965 were analysed using phylogeny, motif search, homology modeling and epitope prediction methods. Comparison with other rhaboviruses was also done for functional extrapolations. All CHPV isolates clustered with the Isfahan virus and maintained several functional motifs of other rhabdoviruses. A notable difference with the prototype vesiculovirus, Vesicular Stomatitis Virus was in the L-domain flanking sequences of the M protein that are known to be crucial for interaction with host proteins. With respect to the prototype isolate, significant additional mutations were acquired in the 2003–2007 isolates. Several mutations in G mapped onto probable antigenic sites. A mutation in N mapped onto regions crucial for N-N interaction and a putative T-cell epitope. A mutation in the Casein kinase II phosphorylation site in P may attribute to increased rates of phosphorylation. Gene junction comparison revealed changes in the M-G junction of all the epidemic isolates that may have implications on read-through and gene transcription levels. The study can form the basis for further experimental verification and provide additional insights into the virulence determinants of the CHPV.