A Principal-Agent Explanation for Technology Transfer

Technology licensing and transfer is subject to problems of asymmetric information including moral hazard. This study explores the effects of informal governance, knowledge tacitness, and organizational receptivity on the preference of variable royalty scheme in the context of technology licensing. Drawing on the classic principalagent model, we assume that the variable royalty scheme is a process-based contract where the licensee is the principal and the licensor is the agent. The results show that informal governance facilitating goal alignment is positively associated with the variable royalty scheme (i.e. the process-based contract). Organizational receptivity promotes the legitimacy to imposing routines, evaluating the technology, and forming expectation, and is positively associated with the variable royalty scheme. Knowledge tacitness is negatively associated with the variable royalty payment, which implies less transfer programmability moves payment from variable royalties to a fixed fee. Our arguments are significantly different from classic principal-agent relationship that does not involve the dimension of licensee transfer and monitoring capacit

Association of Alzhemier\u27s Disease With Hepatitis C Among Patients With Bipolar Disorder

Associations of hepatitis C virus infection with Alzheimer’s disease have not been studied among higher risk, bipolar disorder patients. This population-based case-control study investigated the risks of hepatitis C virus infection among Alzheimer’s disease patients with bipolar disorder in the years preceding their Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis. We used 2000–2013 data from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database in Taiwan. Among patients with bipolar disorder, 73 were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (cases), who were compared with 365 individuals with bipolar disorder but without Alzheimer’s disease (randomly selected controls matched on sex, age, and index year with cases). Prior claims (before the diagnosis year/index year for controls) were screened for a diagnosis of hepatitis C virus infection. Conditional logistic regression models were used for analysis. We found that 23 (31.51%) and 60 (16.44%) patients with bipolar disease were identified with a hepatitis C diagnosis among those with and without Alzheimer’s disease, respectively. Compared to controls, patients with Alzheimer’s disease showed 2.31-fold (95% confidence interval = 1.28–4.16) increased risk of hepatitis C infections adjusted for demographics and socio-economic status. Findings suggest an association of Alzheimer’s disease with a preceding diagnosis of hepatitis C infection among patients with bipolar disorder. Findings may suggest a need for increased awareness of and appropriate surveillance for Alzheimer’s disease in patients with bipolar disorder diagnosed with hepatitis C infection

5-ALA mediated photodynamic therapy induces autophagic cell death via AMP-activated protein kinase

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been developed as an anticancer treatment, which is based on the tumor-specific accumulation of a photosensitizer that induces cell death after irradiation of light with a specific wavelength. Depending on the subcellular localization of the photosensitizer, PDT could trigger various signal transduction cascades and induce cell death such as apoptosis, autophagy, and necrosis. In this study, we report that both AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling cascades are activated following 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA)-mediated PDT in both PC12 and CL1-0 cells. Although the activities of caspase-9 and -3 are elevated, the caspase inhibitor zVAD-fmk did not protect cells against ALA-PDT-induced cell death. Instead, autophagic cell death was found in PC12 and CL1-0 cells treated with ALA-PDT. Most importantly, we report here for the first time that it is the activation of AMPK, but not MAPKs that plays a crucial role in mediating autophagic cell death induced by ALA-PDT. This novel observation indicates that the AMPK pathway play an important role in ALA-PDT-induced autophagy

Feasibility and effectiveness of heat pipe cooling in end milling operations : thermal, structural static, and dynamic analyses : a new approach

In this paper, the feasibility and effectiveness of heat pipe cooling in end milling operations are investigated. A new embedded heat pipe technology was utilized to remove the heat generated at the tool-interface in end milling processes. Numerical studies involved four cases, including dry milling, fluid cooling, heat pipe cooling, and heat pipe cooling with cutting fluid supplied. The thermal, structural static, and dynamic characteristics of the endmill were investigated using a numerical calculation with fast finite element plus solvers based on explicit finite element analysis software. The results demonstrate that the heat pipe end-mill is most feasible and effective in the actual end milling processe

Polarization-independent phase modulation of a homeotropic liquid crystal gel

A homeotropic liquid crystal (LC) gel with submicron domain size is fabricated and its phase-only modulation property evaluated. The LC gel is highly transparent in the voltage-off state and exhibits pure phase modulation before light scattering occurs. Compared to a nanosized polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (nano-PDLC), our gel possesses a larger phase change but at a lower operating voltage because of a higher LC concentration. Similar to a nano-PDLC, our gel also exhibit submillisecond response time, hysteresis-free, and polarization-independent phase change

Antinociceptive actions of honokiol and magnolol on glutamatergic and inflammatory pain

The antinociceptive effects of honokiol and magnolol, two major bioactive constituents of the bark of Magnolia officinalis, were investigated on animal paw licking responses and thermal hyperalgesia induced by glutamate receptor agonists including glutamate, N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA), and metabotropic glutamate 5 receptor (mGluR5) activator (RS)-2-chloro-5-hydroxyphenylglycine (CHPG), as well as inflammatory mediators such as substance P and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) in mice. The actions of honokiol and magnolol on glutamate-induced c-Fos expression in the spinal cord dorsal horn were also examined. Our data showed that honokiol and magnolol blocked glutamate-, substance P- and PGE2-induced inflammatory pain with similar potency and efficacy. Consistently, honokiol and magnolol significantly decreased glutamate-induced c-Fos protein expression in superficial (I-II) laminae of the L4-L5 lumbar dorsal horn. However, honokiol was more selective than magnolol for inhibition of NMDA-induced licking behavioral and thermal hyperalgesia. In contrast, magnolol was more potent to block CHPG-mediated thermal hyperalgesia. These results demonstrate that honokiol and magnolol effectively decreased the inflammatory pain. Furthermore, their different potency on inhibition of nociception provoked by NMDA receptor and mGluR5 activation should be considered