Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Knowledge translation mechanisms in open innovation: the role of design in R&D projects

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the role of design as a knowledge translation mechanism in R&D-oriented open innovation. In particular, the paper intends to look at how design can be used as a means of knowledge transfer among various stakeholders who speak different languages and have divergent needs and interests in a process where knowledge openly flew across the boundaries of a high number of organizations. Design/methodology/approach The paper combines the insights from theory with the empirical evidences gathered by adopting an extreme case study approach: the detailed analysis of a case study related to an R&D project funded by the European Commission and aimed to investigate and produce innovative serious games in the area of healthcare. The project gathered a large number of stakeholders and deliberately adopted design to support an open innovation approach. Findings The paper provides insights into the use of design outputs such as artifacts, sketches, visual representations or prototypes to translate ideas, theoretical and technical requirements, documents and outputs into formats that can be more easily understood and appreciated by various stakeholders. This supports and favors coordination in open innovation projects where many different stakeholders are engaged in. Research limitations/implications Although the adoption of an extreme case study approach offers important implications to understand the role of design in R&D-oriented open innovation, the use of a single case study represents the basis both to explore hypothesis and to provide first evidences that need to be further tested with other qualitative and quantitative analysis. Practical implications The paper offers practical implications about how design can help individuals and organizations involved in R&D activities to better communicate and share knowledge among various stakeholders by aligning their different needs, interests and languages along the various phases of their project development. Originality/value The originality of the paper lays at the intersection of three different fields: open innovation, knowledge management and design for innovation, thus integrating mature, but so far isolated, research streams. It provides insights for theory building by explaining the use of design as knowledge translational mechanism as well as it informs the practice by highlighting the power of design as a mean to support knowledge flows into open innovation-based R&D projects.
Accurate segmentation of ultrasound images using the motion cue

Accurate segmentation of ultrasound images is desired to measure tissue shapes and sizes. But in some cases, it is difficult to segment ultrasound images purely based on static intensity values. In this paper, we propose a novel segmentation framework by using the motion cue. We integrate a new speckle tracking algorithm into a level set framework to iteratively refine the segmentation and motion estimation at the boundary regions of two different tissues. The balance between local motion contrast of different tissue regions and the smoothness constraint will drive the active contour to the boundaries of different tissues. Experiments on both simulated data and phantom data show that our method has achieved better results than previous methods.
Air Afrique: the demise of a continental icon

Although the rationale for multi-flag airlines' formation is rooted in contemporary strategic thinking, our understanding of their emergence and subsequent mass disappearances in the twentieth century remains an elusive issue. This article seeks to fill this void by examining the emergence, ascendency and demise of Air Afrique, an airline once seen as a symbol of regional integration in Africa. This examination takes a historical perspective and covers the period from 1961 to 2002. On the basis of this historical analysis, five distinct stages have been identified reflecting the firm's glorious days, precipitous decline and subsequent collapse. These are: the golden age; Africanisation; escalating indecision, escalating commitment and dissolution phases. Each phase provides insights into the deterministic and voluntaristic perspectives of organisational failure. The implications of the findings of this research for theory and practice are discussed.
Educational Opportunities and Occupational Aspirations: A Two-Dimensional Approach.

This article proposes that the study of early career formation has failed to notice that inequalities in educational opportunities may generate alternative patterns of occupational aspirations. In particular, standard scales of aspirations cannot identify the economically ambitious who aim at occupations that generate high income but require low education. This type of ambition is likely when schooling cannot function as an effective means of mobility. To examine this proposition, the authors constructed a scale that captures this dimension and used it, together with the standard scale, to study the occupational aspirations of high school students in Israel. The results show that the aspiration levels for the two dimensions are affected by individual (gender) and institutional (tracking) factors.
Genetic selection of mouse lines sensitive (cold) and resistant (hot) to acute ethanol hypothermia.

Using the technique of within-family selective breeding, we have generated mouse lines that differ genetically in sensitivity to the acute hypothermia induced by injection of 3 g/kg ethanol (EtOH). After 5 generations of selection, the difference in maximal hypothermic response between COLD and HOT lines was 1.6 degrees C in the first replicate and 1.2 degrees C in the second replicate. Estimates of realized heritability were h2 = . 17 in each replicate. No differences in EtOH metabolism have developed, so the differences between HOT and COLD mice are presumably in neurosensitivity. These lines of animals should be useful for studying the biological mechanisms underlying neurosensitivity to EtOH. In conjunction with other selectively bred lines, they should improve our understanding of the genetic relationships among EtOH neurosensitivity, tolerance and physical dependence.
Exact Synthesis of Full- and Half-Symmetric Rat-Race Ring Hybrids With or Without Impedance Transforming Characteristics

Novel full- and half-symmetric rat-race ring hybrid structures are proposed, in which the impedance transforming property can be implemented. Impedance transformation implies that the impedances of the input and output ports can be different. The conventional even- and odd-mode partition and analysis method cannot be applied to the proposed half-symmetric circuits; therefore, an analysis method is developed. The rat-race ring is exactly synthesized on the basis of a newly deduced high-pass prototype that is based on Richards theorem, which allows the user-defined specifications to be satisfied. Three hybrids are synthesized as examples - a sixth-order full-symmetric hybrid with a bandwidth of 116% and a return loss of 20 dB, a fifth-order half-symmetric hybrid with a 100% bandwidth and 25-dB return loss, and a fifth-order impedance-transforming half-symmetric hybrid with an output port impedance of 70 Ω, a 100% bandwidth, and 20-dB return loss. The first and second hybrids are implemented to verify the method. A comparison of the measured and simulation results indicates good agreement.
Prediction techniques compensating delay times caused by digital control of a three-phase buck-type PWM rectifier system

The digital control of a three-phase, three switch buck-type rectifier system is analyzed hi this paper. Three main sources of delay times in the control loop can be identified for the implementation on a digital signal processor, namely: the delay time due to the sampling of the control quantities; the one due to the calculation time of the DSP; and the one due to the sample-and-hold function of the PWM modulator. Their influence on the stability of the inner current control loop is discussed and two prediction methods for compensation, namely a linear prediction and the Smith prediction, are comparatively evaluated. The control performance and the effect of the delay times and the prediction methods are finally shown by simulation results and through and measurements on a 5 kW prototype.
Origin of Transient and Sustained Responses in Ganglion Cells of the Retina

Phasic and tonic light responses provide a fundamental division of visual information that is thought to originate in the inner retina. However, evidence presented here indicates that this duality originates in the outer retina. In response to a steady light stimulus, the temporal responses of On-bipolar cells fell into two groups. In one group, the light response peaked and then rapidly declined (τ ∼ 400 msec) close to the resting membrane potential. At light offset, these cells exhibited a transient afterhyperpolarization. In the second group of On-bipolar cells, the light response declined 10-fold more slowly and reached a steady depolarization that was ∼40% of the peak response. These neurons had a slowly decaying afterhyperpolarization at light offset. A metabotropic glutamate antagonist, (RS)-α-cyclopropyl-4-phosphonophenylyglycine (CPPG), blocked light responses in both types of On-bipolar cell. CPPG only slightly depolarized transient On-bipolar cells, whereas sustained On-bipolar cells were significantly depolarized. Inorganic calcium channel blockers disclosed that these distinct On-bipolar responses were inherent to the bipolar cell and not attributable to synaptic feedback. CPPG had distinct effects on sustained and transient ganglion cells, similar to its action on bipolar cells. The antagonist depolarized and blocked the light responses of sustained ganglion cells. In transient ganglion cells, CPPG suppressed the On light response but did not depolarize the cell or block the Off light response. These results suggest that transient and sustained light responses in ganglion cells result from selective bipolar cell input and that these two fundamental visual channels originate at the dendritic terminals of bipolar cells.
FDA drug approval summary: erlotinib (Tarceva) tablets.

On November 18, 2004, erlotinib (Tarceva); OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Melville, NY, http://www.osip. com, and Genentech, Inc., South San Francisco, CA, http://www.gene. com) received regular approval as monotherapy for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) after failure of at least one prior chemotherapy regimen. Survival of erlotinib-treated patients was superior to that of placebo-treated patients. The median survival duration of erlotinib-treated patients was 6.67 months, compared with 4.70 months for placebo-treated patients. Exploratory univariate analyses showed a larger survival prolongation in two subsets of patients: those who never smoked and those with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-positive tumors. Patients who never smoked and were EGFR-positive had a large erlotinib survival benefit. Erlotinib was also superior to placebo for progression-free survival and a response rate of 8.9% versus 0.9%. Skin rash and diarrhea were the most common erlotinib adverse events. Severe rash occurred in 8%, and severe diarrhea occurred in 6% of erlotinib-treated patients. In the first-line treatment of NSCLC, two large, controlled, randomized trials showed no benefit from adding erlotinib to doublet, platinum-based chemotherapy. Therefore, erlotinib is not indicated for use in this setting.
Case-Based Plan Recognition with Incomplete Plan Libraries

Abstraction and Indexing Although the intermediate states are very helpful when recognizing plans with incomplete plan libraries, the state-space for a given planning domain may be quite large (Kerkez and Cox, 2001). A large number of possible situations negativelyaffect the retrieval efficiency of the recognizer. We developedan indexing and retrieval scheme based on the concept of state abstraction that allows the recognizer to reduce its search space by focusing only on relevant subsets of the state-space where potential similar past situations may be found. Theabstraction scheme, as well as the whole recognition process, requires that the states in the planner’s environment are represented as collection of ground literals, a trademark of state-space planners (Carbonell et. al. , 1992). Another requirement is that the objects, which are the arguments of literals, have an associated abstraction hierarchy that allows efficient root type determinations.Figure 2 shows an example of astate from the blocksworld domain and its abstract representation. The abstracted states are non-negative integer vectors, whose dimension values indicate the count of occurrences of literals of a particular root type.
Effect of Mechanically Deboned Chicken Meat Hydrolysates on the Physicochemical Properties of Imitation Fish Paste

This study investigated on the effects of adding mechanically deboned chicken meat (MDCM) hydrolysates on the quality properties of imitation fish paste (IFP) during storage. IFP was prepared from Alaska Pollack, spent laying hens surimi and protein hydrolysates which were enzymatically extracted from MDCM. The study was designed as a 3×4 factorial design with three MDCM hydrolysate content groups (0%, 0.4%, and 0.8%) and four storage times (0, 2, 4, and 6 weeks). Addition of MDCM hydrolysates increased crude fat content but lowered water content (p<0.05). The breaking force of IFP, an indicator of gel formation, increased in treated groups compared to control (p<0.05). Angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) activity was inhibited and free radical scavenging activity increased with increasing MDCM hydrolysate content (p<0.05). In conclusion, the addition of MDCM to IFP improves gel characteristics. Additionally, protein hydrolysates from MDCM serve as a potential source of ACE inhibiting peptides.
Structural Insights into Bacillus thuringiensis Cry, Cyt and Parasporin Toxins

Since the first X-ray structure of Cry3Aa was revealed in 1991, numerous structures of B. thuringiensis toxins have been determined and published. In recent years, functional studies on the mode of action and resistance mechanism have been proposed, which notably promoted the developments of biological insecticides and insect-resistant transgenic crops. With the exploration of known pore-forming toxins (PFTs) structures, similarities between PFTs and B. thuringiensis toxins have provided great insights into receptor binding interactions and conformational changes from water-soluble to membrane pore-forming state of B. thuringiensis toxins. This review mainly focuses on the latest discoveries of the toxin working mechanism, with the emphasis on structural related progress. Based on the structural features, B. thuringiensis Cry, Cyt and parasporin toxins could be divided into three categories: three-domain type α-PFTs, Cyt toxin type β-PFTs and aerolysin type β-PFTs. Structures from each group are elucidated and discussed in relation to the latest data, respectively.
Phytoextraction of Cd-Contaminated Soils: Current Status and Future Challenges

Cadmium (Cd) is one of the most toxic and widely distributed pollutants in the environment. Cadmium contamination of soils has posed a serious threat to safe food production in many parts of the world. The authors present a comprehensive review of present status of phytoextraction technology for cleaning up Cd-contaminated soils, based primarily on the data resulting from both laboratory and field-scale studies that have been conducted to assess or improve the Cd phytoextraction potential of various plant species in the past decade. The encouraging results of field-scale studies have provided a fundamental basis to usher phytoextraction technology into practical use to remediate slightly to moderately Cd-contaminated soils in Europe and Asia, although this technology is not yet ready for widespread application. Chelators and microorganisms tested so far seem not to contribute to the applicability of Cd phytoextraction. The major challenges for the large-scale application of Cd phytoextraction are (a) how to further improve the efficiency of Cd phytoextraction, (b) how to cut the overall costs of Cd phytoextraction, and (c) how to get greater stakeholders’ acceptance of Cd phytoextraction as a reliable option.
Identification and Characterization of Differentially Methylated CpG Islands in Pancreatic Carcinoma 1

To identify CpG islands differentially methylated in pancreatic adenocarcinoma, we used methylated CpG island amplification (MCA) coupled with representational difference analysis. Of 42 CpG islands identified by MCA/representational difference analysis, 7 CpG islands [methylated in carcinoma of the pancreas (MICP)] were differentially methylated in a panel of eight pancreatic cancer cell lines compared with normal pancreas. In a larger panel of 75 pancreatic adenocarcinomas, these 7 MICPs (ppENK, Cyclin G, ZBP, MICP25, 27, 36, and 38) were methylated in 93, 3, 9, 15, 48, 19, and 41% of cancers, respectively, by methylation-specific PCR but not in any of 15 normal pancreata. In pancreatic cancer cell lines, methylation of ppENK, a gene with known growth suppressive properties, was associated with transcriptional silencing that was reversible with 5-aza-2 -deoxycytidine treatment. Relationships between the methylation patterns of pancreatic adenocarcinomas and their clinicopathological features were also determined. Larger pancreatic cancers and those from older patients (P 0.017) harbored more methylated loci than smaller tumors and those from younger patients (P 0.017). ppENK, MICP25, and 27 were variably methylated in normal gastric, duodenal, and colonic mucosae. These data indicate that aberrant methylation of ppENK and its transcriptional repression is a common event in pancreatic carcinogenesis.
A controlled trial of a school-based intervention to improve asthma management

The present study investigated schools as an appropriate context for an intervention designed to produce clinical and psychological benefits for children with asthma. A total of 193 out of 219 (88.1%) children with asthma (aged 7–9 yrs) from 23 out of 24 (95.8%) schools completed the study. Intervention schools received a staff asthma-training session, advice on asthma policy, an emergency β2-agonist inhaler with spacer and whole-class asthma workshops. Nonintervention schools received no asthma-related input. Intervention children required less general practitioner-prescribed preventer medication despite no differences in symptom control compared with the nonintervention asthmatic group. Increased peer knowledge of asthma may have mediated improved active quality of life in the intervention group, together with increased self-esteem in young females. Those females not receiving the intervention, but identified as being asthmatic within the classroom, and thus possibly stigmatised, reported decreased self-esteem. Lower self-esteem in young males was associated with pet ownership. No change was found in staff knowledge, the establishment of asthma policies or school absences which were low even before intervention. In conclusion, a whole-school intervention can improve the health of children with asthma when followed with support for all children but effects are likely to be modified by sex and the home environment.
In Vitro Activities of Daptomycin, Vancomycin, Linezolid, and Quinupristin-Dalfopristin against Staphylococci and Enterococci, Including Vancomycin- Intermediate and -Resistant Strains

ABSTRACT The in vitro activity of daptomycin was compared with those of vancomycin, linezolid, and quinupristin-dalfopristin against a variety (n = 203) of gram-positive bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and S. epidermidis (MRSA and MRSE, respectively), vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), and vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus(VISA). Overall, daptomycin was more active against all organisms tested, except Enterococcus faecium and VISA, against which its activity was similar to that of quinupristin-dalfopristin. In time-kill studies with MRSA, MRSE, VRE, and VISA, daptomycin demonstrated greater bactericidal activity than all other drugs tested, killing ≥3 log CFU/ml by 8 h. Daptomycin may be a potential alternative drug therapy for multidrug-resistant gram-positive organisms and warrants further investigation.
Predicting Coding Effort in Projects Containing XML

This paper studies the problem of predicting the coding effort for a subsequent year of development by analysing metrics extracted from project repositories, with an emphasis on projects containing XML code. The study considers thirteen open source projects and applies machine learning algorithms to generate models to predict one-year coding effort, measured in terms of lines of code added, modified and deleted. Both organisational and code metrics associated to revisions are taken into account. The results show that coding effort is highly determined by the expertise of developers while source code metrics have little effect on improving the accuracy of estimations of coding effort. The study also shows that models trained on one project are unreliable at estimating effort in other projects.
Activisme des investisseurs institutionnels : cadre général et facteurs d'influence

Dans la litterature, la plupart des recherches traitent les investisseurs institutionnels comme etant un groupe homogene ayant des actions et des objectifs convergents. En realite, ces acteurs sont loin de constituer un groupe homogene compte tenu de leurs caracteristiques differentes et de leurs comportements varies a l’egard de la gouvernance et plus generalement de la gestion des firmes. Notre interet dans ce travail se focalise sur les differences des comportements des institutionnels qui varient de la passivite a l’activisme. Nous identifions egalement trois principaux facteurs (horizons d’investissement, niveaux de participation, et nature de la relation) qui influencent le choix entre ces deux comportements. Ces elements constituent a notre sens une source majeure d’heterogeneite des investisseurs institutionnels. Nos resultats temoignent de la forte montee en puissance des investisseurs institutionnels sur le marche francais. Ils confirment l’heterogeneite de ces acteurs sur la base de la typologie proposee pour constituer ainsi une nouvelle orientation de recherche encore inexploitee lors de l’examen des reactions et decisions de cette importante classe d’investisseurs.
Targeted large‐scale analysis of protein acetylation

Protein modifications are biologically important events that may be studied by mass spectrometry‐based high‐throughput proteome analyses. In recent years, several new technologies have emerged that have widened and deepened the targeted analysis of one important, albeit functionally ill‐defined modification, namely protein acetylation. This modification can take place both co‐ and post‐translationally by the transfer of acetyl groups under the catalysis of acetyltransferases. The acetyl group can modify either the α‐amino group at the N‐terminus, so‐called N‐terminal acetylation, or the ε‐amino group on the side chain of lysine residues. Here, we review several emerging targeted technologies to chart both N‐terminal acetylation as well as acetylation at the lysine side chain, on a proteome‐wide scale, highlighting in particular studies that have expanded the biological knowledge on the appearance and function of these common but functionally still less investigated co‐ and post‐translational modifications.