Map and explain a position in the PC supply chain

Background Supply chains in low margin, high innovation speed industries with strong customers generate a highly competitive environment. The conditions for such environment are continuously changing and put high demands on its actors. FlatFrog is a case company, which was founded in 2007 and develops a unique touch technology targeting a wide range of screens sizes and applications. External capital from Intel capital, among others, has enabled FlatFrog to aim for integrating their touch solution in the PC market. In order to be able to enter this low margin, highly competitive market, FlatFrog wants to analyze the alternative business models available, e.g. uses a licensing model or taking full product ownership and the risk of initial investments in terms of material and production facilities. The PC value chain and supply chain are tense and there is no space for decreasing economic margins in exchange for additional features. The result is highly competitive environment, which is extremely hard for new actors to enter. Hence, FlatFrog has an interest in investigating their initial position in the supply chain and which possible solutions there are in order to gain good profitability. IV Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to map and explain FlatFrog´s position in the PC touch supply chain and how it implies corresponding ways of making business and enter the market. By research create an understanding of the market, its actors and characteristics. Method In this thesis, a combination of the system approach and the actors approach was used as scientific approach. The data was collected by interviews, observations, focus groups, a literature review and continuous market research. The analysis was approached by an inductive approach where real life observations, by participating in meetings and studies of the latest trends in the consumer electric market, has been adopted after suitable models and accepted research to create a trustworthy analysis. Conclusion The choice of business model and supply chain set up not only should consider the characteristics of the specific company. It should also be based on the conditions of the market and the improvement of competition. The choice of model should always be challenged since these conditions continuously are changing. From a theoretical standpoint, a license model would be the optimal choice due to less risk and a fast market entrance. After increased insights and experience of the market and its supply chain it may not be realizable because of the characteristics of the market. Operational reality will always beat best theoretical strategy and a product owner model could even be a requirement to enter the market. Even if it not may result in short term profitability, future benefits generated by greater control could be enjoyed. Hence, it is difficult to determine the most optimal business model and supply chain set up for a specific company. It is in large extent dependent of the current status and agility of the market which will change over time

Turning chemoattractant receptors on and off with conventional ligands and allosteric modulators: recent advances in formyl peptide receptor signaling and regulation

Recruitment and activation of neutrophils at sites of infection/inflammation relies largely on the surface expression of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) that recognize chemoattractants. One of these receptors, FPR1, for which formylated peptides generated by bacteria and mitochondria are high affinity agonists, was among the first human neutrophil GPCR to being cloned. This receptor shares large sequence homologies with FPR2, another member of the FPR-family expressed in human neutrophils and having a distinct ligand binding profile. The two FPRs transduce very similar neutrophil responses but possess somewhat different regulatory profiles. The FPRs have served as excellent model receptors in studies attempting to understand not only GPCR related regulation in general, but also receptor signaling in relation to innate immune reactivity and inflammation. Recent research has identified not only a large number of conventional ligands (agonist/antagonists) that regulate FPR activities by binding to surface exposed parts of the receptors, but also a number of membrane penetrating molecules that allosterically modulate receptor function after passing the membrane and interacting with the receptor on the cytosolic side. After activation, FPR signaling is rapidly terminated and the receptors become desensitized, a dormant state that can be achieved by multiple mechanisms. A coupling of the activated receptors to the actin cytoskeleton in a process that physically separates the receptors from the signaling G-protein is one such mechanism. Traditionally, the desensitized state has been viewed as a point of no return, but recent findings challenge this view and demonstrate that desensitized FPRs may in fact be reactivated to resume active signaling. The FPRs have also the capacity to communicate with other receptors in a hierarchical manner and this receptor cross-talk can both dampen and amplify neutrophil responses. In this review, we summarize some recent advances of our understanding how the FPRs can be turned on and off and discuss some future challenges, including mechanisms of allosteric modulation, receptor cross-talk, and FPR reactivation

Turning chemoattractant receptors on and off with conventional ligands and allosteric modulators: recent advances in formyl peptide receptor signaling and regulation: DOI: 10.14800/ics.73

Recruitment and activation of neutrophils at sites of infection/inflammation relies largely on the surface expression of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) that recognize chemoattractants. One of these receptors, FPR1, for which formylated peptides generated by bacteria and mitochondria are high affinity agonists, was among the first human neutrophil GPCR to being cloned. This receptor shares large sequence homologies with FPR2, another member of the FPR-family expressed in human neutrophils and having a distinct ligand binding profile. The two FPRs transduce very similar neutrophil responses but possess somewhat different regulatory profiles. The FPRs have served as excellent model receptors in studies attempting to understand not only GPCR related regulation in general, but also receptor signaling in relation to innate immune reactivity and inflammation. Recent research has identified not only a large number of conventional ligands (agonist/antagonists) that regulate FPR activities by binding to surface exposed parts of the receptors, but also a number of membrane penetrating molecules that allosterically modulate receptor function after passing the membrane and interacting with the receptor on the cytosolic side. After activation, FPR signaling is rapidly terminated and the receptors become desensitized, a dormant state that can be achieved by multiple mechanisms. A coupling of the activated receptors to the actin cytoskeleton in a process that physically separates the receptors from the signaling G-protein is one such mechanism. Traditionally, the desensitized state has been viewed as a point of no return, but recent findings challenge this view and demonstrate that desensitized FPRs may in fact be reactivated to resume active signaling. The FPRs have also the capacity to communicate with other receptors in a hierarchical manner and this receptor cross-talk can both dampen and amplify neutrophil responses. In this review, we summarize some recent advances of our understanding how the FPRs can be turned on and off and discuss some future challenges, including mechanisms of allosteric modulation, receptor cross-talk, and FPR reactivation

Underestimation of boreal soil carbon stocks by mathematical soil carbon models linked to soil nutrient status

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Porphyromonas gingivalis Produce Neutrophil Specific Chemoattractants Including Short Chain Fatty Acids

Neutrophil migration from blood to tissue-residing microbes is governed by a series of chemoattractant gradients of both endogenous and microbial origin. Periodontal disease is characterized by neutrophil accumulation in the gingival pocket, recruited by the subgingival biofilm consisting mainly of gram-negative, anaerobic and proteolytic species such as Porphyromonas gingivalis. The fact that neutrophils are the dominating cell type in the gingival pocket suggests that neutrophil-specific chemoattractants are released by subgingival bacteria, but characterization of chemoattractants released by subgingival biofilm species remains incomplete. In the present study we characterized small (< 3 kDa) soluble chemoattractants released by growing P. gingivalis, and show that these are selective for neutrophils. Most neutrophil chemoattractant receptors are expressed also by mononuclear phagocytes, the free fatty acid receptor 2 (FFAR2) being an exception. In agreement with the selective neutrophil recruitment, the chemotactic activity found in P. gingivalis supernatants was mediated in part by a mixture of short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) that are recognized by FFAR2, and other leukocytes (including monocytes) did not respond to SCFA stimulation. Although SCFAs, produced by bacterial fermentation of dietary fiber in the gut, has previously been shown to utilize FFAR2, our data demonstrate that the pronounced proteolytic metabolism employed by P. gingivalis (and likely also other subgingival biofilm bacteria associated with periodontal diseases) may result in the generation of SCFAs that attract neutrophils to the gingival pocket. This finding highlights the interaction between SCFAs and FFAR2 in the context of P. gingivalis colonization during periodontal disease, but may also have implications for other inflammatory pathologies involving proteolytic bacteria

Age distributions of Greenlandic dwarf shrubs support concept of negligible actuarial senescence

Many plants and sessile animals may not show actuarial senescence, the increase in mortality with age predicted to be ubiquitous by classic evolutionary theories of aging. Age-structured demographic information is, however, limited for most organisms. We assessed the age distributions of nine dwarf shrub species from 863 taproot samples collected in coastal east Greenland. Penalized composite link models (pclm) were used to fill gaps in the observed age ranges, caused by low species-specific sample sizes in relation to life span. Resulting distributions indicate that mortality patterns are independent of age. Actuarial senescence is thus negligible in these dwarf shrub populations. We suggest that smoothing techniques such as pclm enable consideration of noisy age data for determining age distributions. These distributions may, in turn, reveal age effects on demographic rates. Moreover, age determination from the root collars of small plants constitutes a powerful technique to further investigate age dependency of the demography of many plant species, including eudicot herbs. Using these methods for long-lived plants where long-term monitoring is unrealistic, we show that age is unlikely to be an important variable for making population projections and determining extinction risks