Intangible assets management and digital transformation: evidence from intellectual property rights-intensive industries

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the impact of digital technologies for intangible assets management. The authors analyse how technological innovations and regulations of intellectual property affect business models of companies or intellectual property rights (IPR) intensive industries to determine the impact of digital transformation on intangible assets management, highlighting emerging issues and future effects of the digital technology revolution. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use a case study method to answer our research questions. The authors use Soundreef SpA as our case study, a collecting company that develops technology for monitoring, collecting and maximising the earnings of songwriters and music publishers. The authors also elaborate and adopt the framework of the enhanced intellectual capital as the theoretical lens for presenting and analysing our case study, determining how the digital transformation caused business model innovation and more transparent and timely performance measurement in copyright-based companies. Findings: The analysis of Soundreef SpA’s business model allows us to demonstrate how using new technologies drives the performance measurement of copyright holders and improve the collecting societies’ performance, introducing a new key performance indicator. This turning point is made possible by digital transformation and regulatory change. In the IPR industry, copyright holders’ performance has never been calculated, so the distribution of copyright revenues was based on the criteria approved by governance bodies/management. Originality/value: In the study, the authors demonstrate that digital transformation is able to enhance the intellectual capital of IPR-intensive companies introducing new ways to manage intangible assets and to measure performance

Self-organization, pattern formation, cavity solitons, and rogue waves in singly resonant optical parametric oscillators

The spatiotemporal dynamics of singly resonant optical parametric oscillators with external seeding displays hexagonal, roll, and honeycomb patterns, optical turbulence, rogue waves, and cavity solitons. We derive appropriate mean-field equations with a sinc2 nonlinearity and demonstrate that off-resonance seeding is necessary and responsible for the formation of complex spatial structures via self-organization. We compare this model with those derived close to the threshold of signal generation and find that back-conversion of signal and idler photons is responsible for multiple regions of spatiotemporal self-organization when increasing the power of the pump field

Survival of a wild ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) with abdominal trauma in an anthropogenically disturbed habitat

Soft tissue injuries are rarely reported in wild primates as these heal fast, are not obvious, and are rapidly scavenged or decompose after death. An adult female ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) was found to have a chronic gastrointestinal fistula in Beza Mahafaly Special Reserve, Madagascar. She was observed monthly for 13 months until her remains, which showed evidence of dog predation, were found. Until then, she was in good body condition, had gained weight from the previous year and was observed to exhibit normal behaviour and produce an infant. This report documents a wild strepsirrhine primate able to survive significant soft tissue injury in an anthropogenically disturbed habitat.  RÉSUMÉ Il est rare que des blessures dans les tissus mous soient signalés chez les primates vivant à l’état sauvage car ces blessures guérissent rapidement, sont moins visibles ou que les animaux eux-mêmes se décomposent ou sont rapidement mangés par d’autres animaux après leur mort. Une femelle adulte de lémur catta (Lemur catta) a été trouvée avec une fistule gastro-intestinale chronique. Elle avait été observée vivante tous les mois pendant 13 mois avant que nous ne trouvions son cadavre, qui montrait des signes de prédation par des chiens. Jusque-là, elle était en bonne condition physique, avait pris du poids par rapport à l’année précédente, montrait un comportement normal et avait donné naissance à un petit. Ce rapport documente une lésion grave des tissus mous sur un Prosimien qui a été capable de survivre dans un habitat perturbé par l’homme

Ketogal Safety Profile in Human Primary Colonic Epithelial Cells and in Mice

In our previous studies, a ketorolac–galactose conjugate (ketogal) showed prolonged anti-inflammatory and analgesic activity, causing less gastric ulcerogenic effect and renal toxicity than its parent drug ketorolac. In order to demonstrate the safer profile of ketogal compared to ketorolac, histopathological changes in the small intestine and liver using three staining techniques before and after repeated oral administration in mice with ketorolac or an equimolecular dose of its galactosylated prodrug ketogal were assessed. Cytotoxicity and oxidative stress parameters were evaluated and compared in ketorolac-and ketogal-treated Human Primary Colonic Epithelial cells at different concentrations and incubation times. Evidence of mitochondrial oxidative stress was found after ketorolac treatment; this was attributable to altered mitochondrial membrane depolarization and oxidative stress parameters. No mitochondrial damage was observed after ketogal treatment. In ketorolac-treated mice, severe subepithelial vacuolation and erosion with inflammatory infiltrates and edematous area in the intestinal tissues were noted, as well as alterations in sinusoidal spaces and hepatocytes with foamy cytoplasm. In contrast, treatment with ketogal provided a significant improvement in the morphology of both organs. The prodrug clearly demonstrated a safer profile than its parent drug both in vitro and ex vivo, confirming that ketogal is a strategic alternative to ketorolac

Aplicación de soda en equipos de desarrollo de software científico-técnico

El presente trabajo aplica una modificación a la metodología Strategic Options Development and Analysis (SODA) en el campo de la mejora continua de procesos de software. La hipótesis de este trabajo es que los mapas conceptuales, como representación gráfica de los modelos cognitivos de los decisores, son una herramienta que puede ser utilizada en situaciones donde el problema tenga impacto potencial y no haya situaciones de conflicto preexistentes entre los decisores. Se presenta una experiencia en la que líderes técnicos y de gestión de equipos de software debían identificar y priorizar áreas de mejora siguiendo los lineamientos de SODA y Haciendo el Viaje. La elaboración de mapas cognitivos individuales fue remplazada por una dinámica para consensuar objetivos comunes y elicitar una visión compartida.Fil: Salamon, Alicia G. Instituto Universitario Aeronáutico. Facultad de Ingeniería; Argentina.Fil: Cuozzo, José D. Instituto Universitario Aeronáutico. Facultad de Ingeniería; Argentina.Fil: Patricio Maller, María A. Instituto Universitario Aeronáutico. Facultad de Ingeniería; Argentina.Fil: Boggio, Natalia C. Instituto Universitario Aeronáutico. Facultad de Ingeniería; Argentina.Fil: Mira, Sofía B. Instituto Universitario Aeronáutico. Facultad de Ingeniería; Argentina.Fil: Pérez, Francisco J. Coenda. Instituto Universitario Aeronáutico. Facultad de Ingeniería; Argentina.Otras Ingenierías y Tecnología

Tomato: a crop species amenable to improvement by cellular and molecular methods

Tomato is a crop plant with a relatively small DNA content per haploid genome and a well developed genetics. Plant regeneration from explants and protoplasts is feasable which led to the development of efficient transformation procedures. In view of the current data, the isolation of useful mutants at the cellular level probably will be of limited value in the genetic improvement of tomato. Protoplast fusion may lead to novel combinations of organelle and nuclear DNA (cybrids), whereas this technique also provides a means of introducing genetic information from alien species into tomato. Important developments have come from molecular approaches. Following the construction of an RFLP map, these RFLP markers can be used in tomato to tag quantitative traits bred in from related species. Both RFLP's and transposons are in the process of being used to clone desired genes for which no gene products are known. Cloned genes can be introduced and potentially improve specific properties of tomato especially those controlled by single genes. Recent results suggest that, in principle, phenotypic mutants can be created for cloned and characterized genes and will prove their value in further improving the cultivated tomato.

LDHB contributes to the regulation of lactate levels and basal insulin secretion in human pancreatic β cells

Using 13C6 glucose labeling coupled to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and 2D 1H-13C heteronuclear single quantum coherence NMR spectroscopy, we have obtained a comparative high-resolution map of glucose fate underpinning β cell function. In both mouse and human islets, the contribution of glucose to the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle is similar. Pyruvate fueling of the TCA cycle is primarily mediated by the activity of pyruvate dehydrogenase, with lower flux through pyruvate carboxylase. While the conversion of pyruvate to lactate by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) can be detected in islets of both species, lactate accumulation is 6-fold higher in human islets. Human islets express LDH, with low-moderate LDHA expression and β cell-specific LDHB expression. LDHB inhibition amplifies LDHA-dependent lactate generation in mouse and human β cells and increases basal insulin release. Lastly, cis-instrument Mendelian randomization shows that low LDHB expression levels correlate with elevated fasting insulin in humans. Thus, LDHB limits lactate generation in β cells to maintain appropriate insulin release.</p

DNA Nicks Promote Efficient and Safe Targeted Gene Correction

Targeted gene correction employs a site-specific DNA lesion to promote homologous recombination that eliminates mutation in a disease gene of interest. The double-strand break typically used to initiate correction can also result in genomic instability if deleterious repair occurs rather than gene correction, possibly compromising the safety of targeted gene correction. Here we show that single-strand breaks (nicks) and double-strand breaks both promote efficient gene correction. However, breaks promote high levels of inadvertent but heritable genomic alterations both locally and elsewhere in the genome, while nicks are accompanied by essentially no collateral local mutagenesis, and thus provide a safer approach to gene correction. Defining efficacy as the ratio of gene correction to local deletion, nicks initiate gene correction with 70-fold greater efficacy than do double-strand breaks (29.0±6.0% and 0.42±0.03%, respectively). Thus nicks initiate efficient gene correction, with limited local mutagenesis. These results have clear therapeutic implications, and should inform future design of meganucleases for targeted gene correction