Strategic growth trough corporate venture capital activities: investment focus and strategies - empirical evidence

Well-established corporations relied more and more on open innovation approach such as the corporate venture capital in order to identify new business opportunities outside their boundaries. The pursuit of new business opportunities is an important source of value creation and competitive advantages in terms of technology and market. The main objectives of using such approach are strategic and aim at complementing in-house research and development, developing synergy with existing business units, enabling new value creation from collaborations with emerging venture-backed companies and facilitating corporate changes, future growth and expansion on emerging markets. We identified four main CVC investment focus and strategies: focus on (1) exploring new technologies vs. (2) exploiting existing technologies or on (3) exploring new markets vs. (4) developing existing markets. We additionally analyze the factors that may influence the choice of the above-mentioned CVC investment focus and strategies

Challenges and New Approaches to Proving the Existence of Muscle Synergies of Neural Origin

Muscle coordination studies repeatedly show low-dimensionality of muscle activations for a wide variety of motor tasks. The basis vectors of this low-dimensional subspace, termed muscle synergies, are hypothesized to reflect neurally-established functional muscle groupings that simplify body control. However, the muscle synergy hypothesis has been notoriously difficult to prove or falsify. We use cadaveric experiments and computational models to perform a crucial thought experiment and develop an alternative explanation of how muscle synergies could be observed without the nervous system having controlled muscles in groups. We first show that the biomechanics of the limb constrains musculotendon length changes to a low-dimensional subspace across all possible movement directions. We then show that a modest assumption—that each muscle is independently instructed to resist length change—leads to the result that electromyographic (EMG) synergies will arise without the need to conclude that they are a product of neural coupling among muscles. Finally, we show that there are dimensionality-reducing constraints in the isometric production of force in a variety of directions, but that these constraints are more easily controlled for, suggesting new experimental directions. These counter-examples to current thinking clearly show how experimenters could adequately control for the constraints described here when designing experiments to test for muscle synergies—but, to the best of our knowledge, this has not yet been done

Towards unified understanding of conductance of stretched monatomic contacts

When monatomic contacts are stretched, their conductance behaves in qualitatively different ways depending on their constituent atomic elements. Under a single assumption of resonance formation, we show that various conductance behavior can be understood in a unified way in terms of the response of the resonance to stretching. This analysis clarifies the crucial roles played by the number of valence electrons, charge neutrality, and orbital shapes.Comment: 2 figure

Polypharmacy in psychiatric practice in the Canary Islands

BACKGROUND: Polypharmacy with psychoactive drugs is an increasingly common and debatable contemporary practice in clinical psychiatry based more upon experience than evidence. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and conditioners of polypharmacy in psychiatric patients. METHOD: A cross-sectional survey was carried out using the Canary Islands Health Service Clinical Records Database. A representative sample (n = 2,647) of patients with mental disorders receiving psychotropic medication was studied. RESULTS: The mean number of psychoactive drugs prescribed was 1.63 ± 0.93 (range 1–7). The rate of polypharmacy was 41.9%, with 27.8% of patients receiving two drugs, 9.1% receiving three, 3.2% receiving four, and 1.8% of the patients receiving five or more psychotropic drugs. Multiple regression analysis shows that variables sex and diagnosis have a predictive value with regard to the number of psychotropic drug used, being men and schizophrenic patients the most predisposed. Benzodiazepines were the more prevalent drugs in monotherapy, while anticonvulsants and antipsychotics were the more used in combination with other treatment. A questionable very high degree of same-class polypharmacy was evidenced, while multi-class, adjunctive and augmentation polypharmacy seem to be more appropriate. CONCLUSIONS: Almost half of the psychiatric patients are treated with several psychotropics. Polypharmacy is common and seems to be problematic, especially when same class of drugs are prescribed together. Some diagnoses, such as schizophrenia, are associated with an increase risk of Polypharmacy but there is a lack of evidence based indicators that allows for quality evaluation on this practice

Editorial

Na sociedade contemporânea em que as tecnologias digitais de informação e comunicação e o respetivo acesso à internet se expandem a todos os sectores e atividades, o problema central vai progressivamente deixando de ser o acesso aos equipamentos. É certo que há ainda pessoas sem acesso a equipamentos e, como tal, digitalmente excluídos. Mas as estatísticas relativas ao acesso às tecnologias e à internet mostram que a cada momento esse acesso é mais liberalizado e tendencialmente universal

Thermal body patterns for healthy Brazilian adults (male and female)

The aim of this study was to establish the skin temperature (Tsk) thermal profile for the Brazilian population and to compare the differences between female and male Brazilian adults. A total of 117 female and 103 male were examined with a thermographic camera. The Tsk of 24 body regions of interest (ROI) were recorded and analyzed. Male Tsk results were compared to female and 10 ROI were evaluated with respect to the opposite side of the body (right vs. left) to identify the existence of significant contralateral Tsk differences (?Tsk). When compared right to left, the largest contralateral ?Tsk was 0.3 °C. The female vs. male analysis yielded significant differences (p menor que0.05) in 13 of the 24 ROI. Thigh regions, both ventral and dorsal, had the highest ?Tsk by sex (? 1.0 °C). Tsk percentile below P5 or P10 and over P9o or P95 may be used to characterize hypothermia and hyperthermia states, respectively. Thermal patterns and Tsk tables 2 were established for Brazilian adult men and women for each ROI. There is a low Tsk variation between sides of the body and gender differences were only significant for some ROIs

A Filipeia de Nossa Senhora das Neves na união das coroas ibéricas: séculos XVI e XVII

This work aims to map the documents from the period of the Iberian Union, which comprises from 1580 to 1640, specifically in the Spanish domain, in the city of João Pessoa, in the State of Paraíba (Brazil). The study is part of a larger project promoted by the Brazilian embassy in Spain, entitled “The history of Brazil in Documents conserved in Spain, identification and dissemination”, linked to the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain), the University of Brasilia and the University Federal of Paraíba. The methodological framework was based on exploratory research, and the Historical and Geographical Institute of Paraiba (IHGP) and the Ecclesiastical Archive of the Archdiocese of Paraíba, both in the city of João Pessoa, were used as a research field. In this way, it is intended to search for traces, to verify links and connections, in permanent documents, of the presence of the Spanish domain, which are striking in the city of João Pessoa, founded in Colonial Brazil in the 16th century.Este trabajo tiene como objetivo mapear los documentos del período de la Unión Ibérica, que comprende desde 1580 hasta 1640, específicamente en el dominio español, de la ciudad de João Pessoa, en el Estado de Paraíba(Brasil). El estudio es parte de un proyecto más amplio impulsado por la Embajada de Brasil en España, titulado “La historia de Brasil en documentos conservados en España, identificación y difusión”, vinculado a la Universidad Complutense de Madrid (España), la Universidad de Brasilia y la Universidad Federal de Paraíba. El marco metodológico se basó en una investigación exploratoria, y se utilizó como campo de investigación el Instituto Histórico y Geográfico Paraibano (IHGP) y el Archivo Eclesiástico de la Archidiócesis de Paraíba, ambos en la ciudad de João Pessoa. De esta manera, se pretende buscar rastros, verificar vínculos y conexiones, en documentos permanentes, de la presencia del dominio español, que son llamativos en la ciudad de João Pessoa, fundada en el Brasil colonial del siglo XVI.Este trabalho tem como objetivo mapear os documentos oriundos do período da União Ibérica, que compreende de 1580 a 1640, especificamente no domínio espanhol, da cidade de João Pessoa, no Estado da Paraíba. O estudo faz parte de um projeto maior promovido pela Embaixada do Brasil na Espanha, intitulado  “La historia de Brasil en los Documentos conservados en España, identificación y difusión”, vinculado à Universidade Complutense de Madrid (Espanha), Universidade de Brasília e Universidade Federal da Paraíba. O arcabouço metodológico pautou-se em uma pesquisa exploratória, e como campo de pesquisa utilizaram-se o Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Paraibano (IHGP) e o Arquivo Eclesiástico da Arquidiocese da Paraíba, ambos na cidade de João Pessoa. Desta forma, pretende-se buscar vestígios, averiguar laços e conexões, em documentos permanentes, da presença do domínio espanhol, marcantes na cidade de João Pessoa, fundada no Brasil Colonial no século XVI

Can body mass index influence the skin temperature of adolescents? A preliminary study with the use of infrared thermography

– Infrared thermography (IRT) has been used to assess skin temperature (Tsk), especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, as an important tool in medical screening not only of the general population, but also of young athletes. However, the subcutaneous adipose tissue can act as an insulator when the Tsk is assessed by IRT, modifying the normal Tsk data and leading to their misinterpretation. Considering that the body mass index (BMI) is an important predictor of obesity, the objective of this study was to verify if the Tsk measured by IRT is affected by the BMI in adolescents. A preliminary study was carried out being four participants intentionally selected, all 16 years old, each one classified in a different BMI range according to the criteria of the World Health Organization for the adolescent population: underweight, healthy weight, overweight and obesity. Four thermograms of each participant were recorded and the ThermoHuman® software was used to evaluate 82 regions of interest (ROI), which were integrated into 6 body regions. Using healthy weight subjects as a reference, it was found a progressive reduction in Tsk in all ROI compared to overweight and obese participants, with emphasis on the anterior region of the trunk (3.04% and 6.69% less respectively), and an increase in the Tsk of all body regions for the underweight subject. There are indications that BMI can influence the Tsk value in adolescents and should be taken into account when analyzing thermograms for a correct evaluation of thermal normality

Localization of nonlinear excitations in curved waveguides

Motivated by the example of a curved waveguide embedded in a photonic crystal, we examine the effects of geometry in a ``quantum channel'' of parabolic form. We study the linear case and derive exact as well as approximate expressions for the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the linear problem. We then proceed to the nonlinear setting and its stationary states in a number of limiting cases that allow for analytical treatment. The results of our analysis are used as initial conditions in direct numerical simulations of the nonlinear problem and localized excitations are found to persist, as well as to have interesting relaxational dynamics. Analogies of the present problem in contexts related to atomic physics and particularly to Bose-Einstein condensation are discussed.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

PT-Symmetric Dimer in a Generalized Model of Coupled Nonlinear Oscillators

Abstract In the present work, we explore the case of a general PT -symmetric dimer in the context of two both linearly and nonlinearly coupled cubic oscillators. To obtain an analytical handle on the system, we first explore the rotating wave approximation converting it into a discrete nonlinear Schrödinger type dimer. In the latter context, the stationary solutions and their stability are identified numerically but also wherever possible analytically. Solutions stemming from both symmetric and anti-symmetric special limits are identified. A number of special cases are explored regarding the ratio of coefficients of nonlinearity between oscillators over the intrinsic one of each oscillator. Finally, the considerations are extended to the original oscillator model, where periodic orbits and their stability are obtained. When the solutions are found to be unstable their dynamics is monitored by means of direct numerical simulations