Impact of M&A on the R&D process. An empirical analysis of the role of technological and market relatedness, The

While the impact of M&A on R&D and innovation examined at the aggregate level left inconclusive evidence, we find that at the level of the R&D process both the technological and the market relatedness between the target and the acquirer are helpful dimensions to identify effects. Using information on 31 in-depth cases of individual M&A deals we show that technological relatedness between M&A partners directly affects the inputs and organizational structure of the R&D process. M&A partners that operate in the same technological fields tend to reduce their R&D effort and rationalize the R&D process after the M&A compared to firms active in complementary technological fields that merge. These firms will furthermore face less technological competition in the technology market, but risk creating a more bureaucratic R&D process with a less motivated workforce. Market relatedness between partners, while having comparable aggregate effects on the R&D process, operates on different dimensions of the R&D process. Former rivals that engage in a M&A are significantly less likely to expand into new R&D fields or leverage their technological competences across the products and markets of the new entity. Non-rival firms that join forces, in contrast, significantly increase R&D output and productivity through these activities.M&A; R&D; scale and scope; market relatedness; technological relatedness;

Cervical mucus symptom and daily fecundability: First results from a new data base

A prospective study allowed, with the collaboration of Italian centres providing services on natural family planning, to collect data on 2755 menstrual cycles of 193 women. With the information available on daily characteristics of the cervical mucus and intercourse episodes, was constructed a data base. Taking the day of the peak mucus as a conventional marker of ovulation, the base allowed to identify length (12 days) and location of a window of potential fertility, with the highest level of conception probabilities confined to the central 5-6 days. Univariate analysis provided evidence of the impact on fecundability of woman?s age and basic infertile pattern of a cycle. Several approaches of analysis allowed to underline the relationship between daily mucus characteristics and fecundability levels

Microvesicles: Novel Biomarkers for Neurological Disorders

Microvesicles (MVs) are released by most cell types in physiological conditions, but their number is often increased upon cellular activation or neoplastic transformation. This suggests that their detection may be helpful in pathological conditions to have information on activated cell types and, possibly, on the nature of the activation. This could be of paramount importance in districts and tissues that are not accessible to direct examination, such as the central nervous system. Increased release of MVs has been described to be associated to the acute or active phase of several neurological disorders. While the subcellular origin of MVs (exosome or ectosomes) is basically never addressed in these studies because of technical limitations, the cell of origin is always identified. Endothelium- or platelet-derived MVs, detected in plasma or serum, are linked to neurological pathologies with a vascular or ischemic pathogenic component, and may represent a very useful marker to support therapeutic choices in stroke. In neuroinflammatory disorders, such as multiple sclerosis, MVs of oligodendroglial, or microglial origin have been described in the cerebrospinal fluid and may carry, in perspective, additional information on the biological alterations in their cell of origin. Little specific evidence is available in neurodegenerative disorders and, specifically, MVs of neural origin have never been investigated in these pathologies. Few data have been reported for neuroinfection and brain trauma. In brain tumors, despite the limited number of studies performed, results are very promising and potentially close to clinical translation. We here review all currently available data on the detection of MVs in neurological diseases, limiting our search to exclusively human studies. Current literature and our own data indicate that MVs detection may represent a very promising strategy to gain pathogenic information, identify therapeutic targets, and select specific biomarkers for neurological disorders

O esporte e a expansão do capital: as críticas, contradições e implicações para a educação física

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Ciências da Educação, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação, Florianópolis, 2014O esporte é uma manifestação cultural fortemente presente na vida dosindivíduos e importante para a economia capitalista. Ele mobiliza e é mobilizado por uma cadeia produtiva que contribuiu para a lógica expansiva do capital. No fenômeno esportivo estão presentes os elementos constitutivos desse modo de produção, assim como suas contradições e os germes de sua superação. Torna-se necessário, portanto, compreender o esporte em suas múltiplas determinações para que vislumbremos as possibilidades e os limites de sua contribuição à efetiva transformação social. O objetivo geral deste trabalho é analisar as tendências de desenvolvimento do esporte, suas principais características, críticas e contradições referentes ao fenômeno esportivo como uma das possibilidades de expansão do capital e suas implicações para a Educação Física. Adotamos como procedimento de pesquisa os estudos bibliográficos e documentais. Destacamos que o esporte se originou na Inglaterra do século XVIII, em meio ao processo de consolidação da sociedade capitalista, instituiu-se, desenvolveu-se e se expandiu para os demais países do mundo, juntamente com o progresso do capital; também enfrentou resistências de movimentos contrários à lógica burguesa de organização das práticas corporais, porém se constituiu como a expressão hegemônica da cultura corporal. Nesse processo de expansão capitalista, o esporte se estabeleceu como mercadoria e constituiu-se como uma cadeia produtiva que envolve, na atualidade, os mais diversos e específicos segmentos produtivos. Identificamos os megaeventos esportivos como importante manifestação social para a acumulação de capital. Essa identificação deu-se, principalmente, na apreensão de alguns conceitos, em Harvey, tais como: renda monopolista e capital simbólico coletivo. Percebemos atualmente o controle de fortíssimas empresas, como a FIFA, em megaeventos esportivos e o potencial diferenciador de localidades como condição capaz de atrair investimentos capitalistas. A escolha do Rio de Janeiro como sede das Olimpíadas de 2016 incide sobre seu potencial de capital simbólico coletivo. Outro aspecto que percebemos é a eficácia do esporte no processo de acumulação de capital, exaltando a paz entre as nações e a harmonia entre as classes, assim como se identifica, no ensino do esporte, nas aulas de Educação Física, a necessidade de aprimoramento da essência do fenômeno esportivo. Atualmente tende a se consolidar uma interligação nos seguintes âmbitos: entre esporte e estratégias de expansão capitalista; entre esporte (principalmente o transmitido pela mídia) e a influência no ensino esportivo na escola; entre valores capitalistas e ensino de esportes na escola. Esse movimento ocorre por duas perspectivas: pela esportivização das práticas corporais e pela ausência de conteúdos nas aulas de Educação Física, ou seja, pela negação da cultura corporal.Abstracts: Sports are born and constructed within capitalism. Sports contain the constituent elements of capitalism, as well as its contradictions and the germs of its overcoming. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the sport in its multiple determinations for us to be able to glimpse the possibilities and limits of its contribution to effective social transformation. The aim of this study was to analyze sports development trends, their main features, reviews, and contradictions regarding the phenomenon of sports as a strategy of capital We adopted bibliographic and documentary studies as a research procedure. We emphasize that the modern day conception of sports originated in eighteenth century England, amidst the consolidation of a capitalist society. Sports have established, developed and expanded to the rest of the world along with the progress of capitalistic ideals. It faced resistance from groups against the perceived upper class`s logic of organization regarding bodily practices; however, it formed a hegemonic expression of the Body Culture. Sports have been established as a commodity in the process of capitalist expansion. In this condition, it has been established as a supply chain that involves the most diverse and specific productive sectors in current times. We identify the largest sporting events as important for the accumulation of capital. That identification was based mainly on the apprehension of concepts by Harvey, such as: income monopoly and collective symbolic capital. We recognized the power of very strong companies like FIFA in mega sports events. We also identified the differentiating potential of localities as a condition able to attract capitalist investment. The choice of Rio de Janeiro to host the Olympics in 2016 focuses on its potential for collective symbolic capital. We realized how effective sports are in the capital accumulation process, extolling peace among nations and harmony between the social classes. We identified the need to apply the essence of sports in the teaching of physical education. Currently we see a connection in regards to sports and capitalist expansion strategies. This connection is exhibited in the correlation of media transmitted sports, capitalistic values, and the influence on sports education in schools. This movement occurs in two perspectives: the sportivization of bodily practices, and the denial of body culture exhibited in the lack of content within physical education classes

Bem de família: as razões jurídicas das divergências sobre a penhorabilidade de imóvel residencial do fiador no contrato de locação: análise do RE nº 407.688

Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso, apresentado para obtenção do grau de Bacharel no curso de Direito da Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinense, UNESC.Trata-se de trabalho monográfico que objetiva entender quais as razões jurídicas e também as divergências constantes nos votos proferidos pelos Ministros do STF no julgamento do Recurso Extraordinário nº 407688, que entendeu estar em consonância com Constituição da República Federativa do Brasil de 1988 a penhora de imóvel residencial do fiador quando o mesmo figura como garantidor em contrato de locação. Embora o tema esteja pacificado jurisprudencialmente, ele ainda é objeto de muitas dúvidas acadêmicas e doutrinárias, evidenciando assim a importância em aprofundar o estudo sobre a questão. A metodologia empregada no trabalho utilizou o método indutivo, por meio de pesquisa documental e bibliográfica, além de pesquisas em “sites” oficiais e artigos científicos. Também foi analisado inicialmente o RE nº 407688 para posteriormente aprofundar-se cada uma das divergências encontradas nos votos proferidos. Ao final, concluiu-se que a locação é um meio de acesso de grande parte da população ao direito à moradia. Portanto, até que as políticas públicas habitacionais permitam o acesso à propriedade imobiliária em números mais elevados, a possibilidade de penhora do bem de família do fiador se faz necessária para facilitar a formalização dos contratos locatícios, trazendo garantias ao locador

Time-evolving measures and macroscopic modeling of pedestrian flow

This paper deals with the early results of a new model of pedestrian flow, conceived within a measure-theoretical framework. The modeling approach consists in a discrete-time Eulerian macroscopic representation of the system via a family of measures which, pushed forward by some motion mappings, provide an estimate of the space occupancy by pedestrians at successive time steps. From the modeling point of view, this setting is particularly suitable to treat nonlocal interactions among pedestrians, obstacles, and wall boundary conditions. In addition, analysis and numerical approximation of the resulting mathematical structures, which is the main target of this work, follow more easily and straightforwardly than in case of standard hyperbolic conservation laws, also used in the specialized literature by some Authors to address analogous problems.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figures -- Accepted for publication in Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal., 201

A new targeted CFTR mutation panel based on next-generation sequencing technology

Searching for mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator gene (CFTR) is a key step in the diagnosis of and neonatal and carrier screening for cystic fibrosis (CF), and it has implications for prognosis and personalized therapy. The large number of mutations and genetic and phenotypic variability make this search a complex task. Herein, we developed, validated, and tested a laboratory assay for an extended search for mutations in CFTR using a next-generation sequencing based method, with a panel of 188 CFTR mutations customized for the Italian population. Overall, 1426 dried blood spots from neonatal screening, 402 genomic DNA samples from various origins, and 1138 genomic DNA samples from patients with CF were analyzed. The assay showed excellent analytical and diagnostic operative characteristics. We identified and experimentally validated 159 (of 188) CFTR mutations. The assay achieved detection rates of 95.0% and 95.6% in two large-scale case series of CF patients from central and northern Italy, respectively. These detection rates are among the highest reported so far with a genetic test for CF based on a mutation panel. This assay appears to be well suited for diagnostics, neonatal and carrier screening, and assisted reproduction, and it represents a considerable advantage in CF genetic counseling