Are Corporate Universities (CU) possible in emerging countries? A survey conducted in Argentina showed impacting results

At the time of our investigation, the CU was not a widespread concept in Argentina, being viewed as a “foreign - far long project” (coming from developed countries and standing for the long term). It is suggested that the rate of CU evolution, in emerging countries like Argentina, is more related to mentality issues than to CU strategic or operative limitations. Although the executives who replied to a survey were not the only power factor in their organization, their comments allow us to think that, in those countries, the CU may have a better future perspective. The research used a quali-quantitative methodology, which was based on a survey to top executives of different kinds of companies located in Argentina. The research design was not experimental and transversal, as it was limited to a specific moment in time

Double active region index-guided semiconductor laser

A buried crescent InGaAsP/InP laser with a double active layer was fabricated. The laser showed very high characteristic temperature T0 and highly nonlinear light versus current characteristics. A theoretical model using a rate equation approach showed good agreement with the experimental results

Flight investigation of insect contamination and its alleviation

An investigation of leading edge contamination by insects was conducted with a JetStar airplane instrumented to detect transition on the outboard leading edge flap and equipped with a system to spray the leading edge in flight. The results of airline type flights with the JetStar indicated that insects can contaminate the leading edge during takeoff and climbout. The results also showed that the insects collected on the leading edges at 180 knots did not erode at cruise conditions for a laminar flow control airplane and caused premature transition of the laminar boundary layer. None of the superslick and hydrophobic surfaces tested showed any significant advantages in alleviating the insect contamination problem. While there may be other solutions to the insect contamination problem, the results of these tests with a spray system showed that a continouous water spray while encountering the insects is effective in preventing insect contamination of the leading edges

Restraint, disinhibition and food-related processing bias

This study examined associations between restraint, disinhibition and food-related processing bias (FPB, assessed by the emotional Stroop task) in males and females in the UK, Greece and Iran. Results showed high restraint was associated with higher FPB. However, high restrained current dieters showed lower FPB that high restrained non-dieters. There was no significant difference in FPB for those showing high versus low disinhibition. Results are discussed in relation to theories of incentive salience and current concerns

Dissolution enhancement of gliclazide using pH change approach in presence of twelve stabilizers with various physico-chemical properties

Purpose. The micronization using milling process to enhance dissolution rate is extremely inefficient due to a high energy input, and disruptions in the crystal lattice which can cause physical or chemical instability. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to use in situ micronization process through pH change method to produce micron-size gliclazide particles for fast dissolution hence better bioavailability. Methods. Gliclazide was recrystallized in presence of 12 different stabilizers and the effects of each stabilizer on micromeritic behaviors, morphology of microcrystals, dissolution rate and solid state of recrystallized drug particles were investigated. Results. The results showed that recrystallized samples showed faster dissolution rate than untreated gliclazide particles and the fastest dissolution rate was observed for the samples recrystallized in presence of PEG 1500. Some of the recrystallized drug samples in presence of stabilizers dissolved 100% within the first 5 min showing at least 10 times greater dissolution rate than the dissolution rate of untreated gliclazide powders. Micromeritic studies showed that in situ micronization technique via pH change method is able to produce smaller particle size with a high surface area. The results also showed that the type of stabilizer had significant impact on morphology of recrystallized drug particles. The untreated gliclazide is rod or rectangular shape, whereas the crystals produced in presence of stabilizers, depending on the type of stabilizer, were very fine particles with irregular, cubic, rectangular, granular and spherical/modular shape. The results showed that crystallization of gliclazide in presence of stabilizers reduced the crystallinity of the samples as confirmed by XRPD and DSC results. Conclusion. In situ micronization of gliclazide through pH change method can successfully be used to produce micron-sized drug particles to enhance dissolution rate

Superpolynomial lower bounds for general homogeneous depth 4 arithmetic circuits

In this paper, we prove superpolynomial lower bounds for the class of homogeneous depth 4 arithmetic circuits. We give an explicit polynomial in VNP of degree $n$ in $n^2$ variables such that any homogeneous depth 4 arithmetic circuit computing it must have size $n^{\Omega(\log \log n)}$. Our results extend the works of Nisan-Wigderson [NW95] (which showed superpolynomial lower bounds for homogeneous depth 3 circuits), Gupta-Kamath-Kayal-Saptharishi and Kayal-Saha-Saptharishi [GKKS13, KSS13] (which showed superpolynomial lower bounds for homogeneous depth 4 circuits with bounded bottom fan-in), Kumar-Saraf [KS13a] (which showed superpolynomial lower bounds for homogeneous depth 4 circuits with bounded top fan-in) and Raz-Yehudayoff and Fournier-Limaye-Malod-Srinivasan [RY08, FLMS13] (which showed superpolynomial lower bounds for multilinear depth 4 circuits). Several of these results in fact showed exponential lower bounds. The main ingredient in our proof is a new complexity measure of {\it bounded support} shifted partial derivatives. This measure allows us to prove exponential lower bounds for homogeneous depth 4 circuits where all the monomials computed at the bottom layer have {\it bounded support} (but possibly unbounded degree/fan-in), strengthening the results of Gupta et al and Kayal et al [GKKS13, KSS13]. This new lower bound combined with a careful "random restriction" procedure (that transforms general depth 4 homogeneous circuits to depth 4 circuits with bounded support) gives us our final result

Niraparib in ovarian cancer. results to date and clinical potential

Ovarian cancer is the first cause of death from gynaecological malignancy. Germline mutation in BRCA1 and 2, two genes involved in the mechanisms of reparation of DNA damage, are showed to be related with the incidence of breast and ovarian cancer, both sporadic and familiar. PARP is a family of enzymes involved in the base excision repair (BER) system. The introduction of inhibitors of PARP in patients with BRCA-mutated ovarian cancer is correlated with the concept of synthetic lethality. Among the PARP inhibitors introduced in clinical practice, niraparib showed interesting results in a phase III trial in the setting of maintenance treatment in ovarian cancer, after platinum-based chemotherapy. Interestingly, was niraparib showed to be efficacious not only in BRCA-mutated patients, but also in patients with other alterations of the homologous recombination (HR) system and in patients with unknown alterations. These results position niraparib as the first PARP-inhibitor with clinically and statistically significant results also in patients with no alterations in BRCA 1/2 and other genes involved in the DNA repair system. Even if the results are potentially practice-changing, the action of niraparib must be further studied and deepened