Resolving genetic relationships in manna group of lichens from genus Aspicilia

As in many lichen-forming fungi, species of Aspicilia genus are widely distributed all over the world, but no reports exist about their phylogenetic relations based on molecular biological methods. In thecurrent study the phylogenetic relations of some Aspicilia species mainly manna group of lichens were investigated. The ITS rDNA sequence information of 12 samples from six species were generated. The samples examined were collected from different provinces of Anatolia and all the sequences were aligned with the other allied groups; Pertusaria sp., Thamnolia sp., Dibaeis sp., Diploschistes sp.,Ochrolechia sp. and Lecanora sp. sequence data obtained from GenBank. The phylogenetic tree obtained by minimum evolution analysis displayed two major branches. One of the branches with itssix members (Aspicilia contorta subsp. contorta, A. contorta subsp. hoffmanniana, Aspicilia hispida, Aspicilia fruticulosa, Aspicilia desertorum Aspicilia calcarea) composed solely of Aspicilia samplesfrom Anatolia. Three of the manna groups of lichens were placed in this branch of the tree. The other related taxa from Ostropomycetidae and Lecanoromycetidae took place in the other branch of the treewith Aspicilia samples from Anatolia. Results displayed that manna group of lichens, although do not represent taxonomical unit tend to form a group especially apperent by the Neigbour Joining analysiswith Anatolian samples. Also the sequence information from Anatolian samples displayed that Aspicilia genus is phylogenetically closer to the orders and families from Ostropomycetidae subclass rather than Lecanoromycetidae which support the placement of Hymeneliaceae within Ostropomycetidae

Subsidiary marketing strategy implementation (SMSI): The missing link of international marketing strategy research

[No abstract available

Alliance orientation: Conceptualization, measurement, and impact on market performance

Interfirm collaborations have inspired a rich literature in marketing and strategy during the past two decades. Building on this extant work, the authors developed a new construct, alliance orientation, and explored its influence on firms' alliance network performance and market performance. The authors drew on data collected from 182 U.S. firms with extensive experience in forming, developing, and managing strategic alliances in marketing, new product development, distribution, technology, and manufacturing projects. Using structural equations modeling, the authors demonstrate that alliance orientation significantly affects alliance network performance, which in turn enhances market performance. The findings also suggest that market turbulence exerts a significant moderating influence on the relationship between alliance orientation and alliance network performance, whereas the moderating role of technological turbulence on that relationship does not appear to be significant. The study provides evidence that firms' alliance orientations positively affect their performance in strengthening their alliance network relationships and in managing conflicts with their alliance partners. Copyright © 2006 by Academy of Marketing Science

Strategic alignment and new product development: Drivers and performance effects

Strategic alignment is widely accepted as a prerequisite for a firm's success, but insight into the role of alignment in, and its impact on, the new product development (NPD) process and its performance is less well developed. Most publications on this topic either focus on one form of alignment or on one or a limited set of NPD performance indicators. Furthermore, different and occasionally contradictory findings have been reported. NPD scholars have long argued for the importance of fit between context and NPD activities. However, this body of literature suffers from the same weakness: most publications have a limited scope and the findings are not always consistent with results reported previously. This study addresses these deficiencies by examining (1) the effects of various internal and external factors on different forms of alignment, and (2) the effects of these forms of alignment on a set of NPD performance indicators. Strategic planning and innovativeness appear to affect technological, market, and NPD-marketing alignment positively. Environmental munificence is negatively associated with NPD-marketing alignment, but has no effect on the two other forms of alignment. Technological change has a positive effect on technological alignment, a negative effect on NPD-marketing alignment, but no effect on market alignment. These findings suggest that internal capabilities are more likely to be associated with the development of strategic alignment than environmental factors are. Furthermore, technological and NPD-marketing alignment affect NPD performance positively, while market alignment does not have any significant performance effects. © 2012 Product Development & Management Association

An exploration of organizational factors in new product development success

Purpose - This study surveys a broad spectrum of new product development (NPD) projects from the biochemistry industry in the USA, Canada, Germany, the UK, and Belgium with the purpose of exploring the role of the organizational activity factors in the NPD success. Design/methodology/approach - Drawing on the resource-based view of the firm, the authors present a set of hypotheses concerning the relationship between the people resources, development resources, testing resources, and launch resources committed to NPD projects and their financial success. In addition, the effect of the firm's international market involvement on the NPD project success is considered. In this study, testing of the hypothesized relationship is accomplished through linear probability model, binary probit model, and binary logit model. Findings - Empirical results generally support the predictions from the theory. Specifically, the findings of this study show that: the involvement of a strong champion, use of a multi-disciplinary team, and focus of a dedicated team are key factors for NPD project success among the people resources; the detailed market research has a significant impact on the project success in the development phase of the NPD process; the allocation of resources to the testing of the product with the final customer, market testing, and production start-up positively influences the NPD project success; advertising quality plays a key role in the NPD project success during its launch; and the NPD project success is positively associated with the degree of a firm's diversification into international markets. Originality/value - This study provides several guidelines for product managers seeking to launch new products. It offers critical insights into the identification of firm resources that influence the NPD project success. This study also has important implications for firms that consider diversifying or have already diversified into international markets. Understanding the role of market diversification in the NPD project success advances the ability of managers to direct their efforts in international market involvement. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Aktivnost arginaze u ovarijskim strukturama krava švicarske smeđe pasmine i njezinih križanaca.

Arginase is the last enzyme of the urea cycle. It catalyses the hydrolysis of L-arginine to L-ornitine and urea. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of arginase activity in ovarian structures such as: Graaf follicles, GF (Medium and Large size, M- and L-size), Corpus Haemorrhagicum (CH), and various types of Corpus Luteum (CL) such as: cyclic CL (CCL), 2-4 month pregnancy CL (2-4 MCL) and 4-7 month pregnancy CL (4-7 MCL). Ovarian tissues of 62 cows (7-10 years old and Brown Swiss or its cross-breeds), collected from a local slaughterhouse, were used as material. The materials were divided into 6 experimental groups, as follows: MGF group (n = 7), LGF group (n = 21), CH group (n = 7), CCL group (n = 6), 2-4 MCL group (n = 9) and 4-7 MCL group (n = 12). Arginase activities were measured as 0.056 ± 0.017, 0.100 ± 0.016, 2.517 ± 0.521, 0.827 ± 0.190, 0.674 ± 0.106 and 0.833 ± 0.093 U/mg protein in all groups, respectively. Arginase activity in the CH group was significantly higher than that in the CCL, 2-4 MCL and 4-7 MCL groups (P<0.001). The lowest enzyme activity was in the MGF and LGF groups. Hence, it was concluded that the arginase enzyme might play a crucial role in cell division, proliferation and differentiation in the ovarian tissues (especially the CH) of mature cows.Arginaza je posljednji enzim u ciklusu ureje koji katalizira hidrolizu L-arginina u L-ornitin i ureju. Cilj istraživanja bio je utvrditi prisutnost aktivnosti arginaze u ovarijskim strukturama kao što su Graafovi folikuli, GF (srednje veliki - M i veliki - L), corpus haemorrhagicum (CH) i različiti tipovi corpus luteum (CL) kao što su ciklični (CCL), 2-4 mjeseca graviditetni (2-4 MCL) i 4-7 mjeseci graviditetni (4-7 MCL). Tkiva ovarija od 62 krave (švicarske smeđe pasmine i križanaca u dobi od 7 do 10 godina) prikupljena su u lokalnoj klaonici. Materijali su bili podijeljeni u 6 pokusnih skupina kako slijedi: MGF skupina (n = 7), LGF skupina (n = 21), CH skupina (n = 7), CCL skupina (n = 6), 2-4 MCL skupina (n = 9) i 4-7 MCL skupina (n = 12). Slijedom navedenih skupina, aktivnost arginaze bila je 0,056 ± 0,017, 0,100 ± 0,016, 2,517 ± 0,521, 0,827 ± 0,190, 0,674 ± 0,106 i 0,833 ± 0,093 U/mg. Aktivnost arginaze u CH skupini bila je signifikantno viša u odnosu na skupine CCL, 2-4 MCL i 4-7 MCL (P<0,001). Najniža aktivnost enzima bila je u skupinama MGF i LGF. Zaključeno je o mogućoj ključnoj ulozi aktivnosti enzima arginaze u diobi stanica, proliferaciji i diferencijaciji ovarijskih tkiva (osobito CH) kod odraslih krava

Cache Hierarchy-Aware Query Mapping on Emerging Multicore Architectures

One of the important characteristics of emerging multicores/manycores is the existence of 'shared on-chip caches,' through which different threads/processes can share data (help each other) or displace each other's data (hurt each other). Most of current commercial multicore systems on the market have on-chip cache hierarchies with multiple layers (typically, in the form of L1, L2 and L3, the last two being either fully or partially shared). In the context of database workloads, exploiting full potential of these caches can be critical. Motivated by this observation, our main contribution in this work is to present and experimentally evaluate a cache hierarchy-aware query mapping scheme targeting workloads that consist of batch queries to be executed on emerging multicores. Our proposed scheme distributes a given batch of queries across the cores of a target multicore architecture based on the affinity relations among the queries. The primary goal behind this scheme is to maximize the utilization of the underlying on-chip cache hierarchy while keeping the load nearly balanced across domain affinities. Each domain affinity in this context corresponds to a cache structure bounded by a particular level of the cache hierarchy. A graph partitioning-based method is employed to distribute queries across cores, and an integer linear programming (ILP) formulation is used to address locality and load balancing concerns. We evaluate our scheme using the TPC-H benchmarks on an Intel Xeon based multicore. Our solution achieves up to 25 percent improvement in individual query execution times and 15-19 percent improvement in throughput over the default Linux-based process scheduler. © 1968-2012 IEEE

Does shear wave ultrasound independently predict axillary lymph node metastasis in women with invasive breast cancer?

Shear wave elastography (SWE) shows promise as an adjunct to greyscale ultrasound examination in assessing breast masses. In breast cancer, higher lesion stiffness on SWE has been shown to be associated with features of poor prognosis. The purpose of this study was to assess whether lesion stiffness at SWE is an independent predictor of lymph node involvement. Patients with invasive breast cancer treated by primary surgery, who had undergone SWE examination were eligible. Data were retrospectively analysed from 396 consecutive patients. The mean stiffness values were obtained using the Aixplorer(®) ultrasound machine from SuperSonic Imagine Ltd. Measurements were taken from a region of interest positioned over the stiffest part of the abnormality. The average of the mean stiffness value obtained from each of two orthogonal image planes was used for analysis. Associations between lymph node involvement and mean lesion stiffness, invasive cancer size, histologic grade, tumour type, ER expression, HER-2 status and vascular invasion were assessed using univariate and multivariate logistic regression. At univariate analysis, invasive size, histologic grade, HER-2 status, vascular invasion, tumour type and mean stiffness were significantly associated with nodal involvement. Nodal involvement rates ranged from 7 % for tumours with mean stiffness <50 kPa to 41 % for tumours with a mean stiffness of >150 kPa. At multivariate analysis, invasive size, tumour type, vascular invasion, and mean stiffness maintained independent significance. Mean stiffness at SWE is an independent predictor of lymph node metastasis and thus can confer prognostic information additional to that provided by conventional preoperative tumour assessment and staging