Adversarial Service Networks: A Study of Service Firms’ Response to Manufacturer-led Servitization in Aviation

This study examines the adversarial dynamics that emerge when service firms assess that manufacturers’ servitization initiatives pose an existential risk to their survival as independent organizations. Adopting an industrial networks perspective, this investigation explores how service firms respond to manufacturers’ servitization initiatives that threaten to disintermediate them. The study explores how Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul firms (MROs) in the aviation industry respond to servitization initiated by Original Equipment Manufacturing firms (OEMs). Empirically, interviews with 49 experienced managers were conducted in the service network to understand their strategic pathways. Their responses reveal that MROs can resist servitization by strengthening their relationships with airlines or developing service-led advanced services. Alternatively, MROs can support OEMs’ servitization by becoming subcontractors or licensed resource integrators. This study shows that servitization depends on the orchestration of service network actors with differing interests, making it contingent and multilateral

Vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal, dark septate endophytes and root anatomy in Fragaria ananassa var. Camino Real (Rosaceae) in the province of Tucumán, Argentina

En la provincia de Tucumán el cultivo de frutilla ocupa una superficie de 350 hectáreas. El mismo es invernal, con cosechas periódicas de fines de mayo a noviembre inclusive. Para evitar esta discontinuidad de producción, se incorporan al espectro de variedades precoces (Fortuna y Festival), variedades tardías, entre ellas Camino Real. Los objetivos de este trabajo fueron estudiar las micorrizas vesículo-arbusculares, los endófitos septados oscuros y caracterizar la anatomía radical en Fragaria ananassa var. Camino Real en cultivo comercial en la provincia de Tucumán. El muestreo fue realizado en el INTA-EEA Famaillá, Tucumán, Argentina. Se recolectaron los sistemas radicales correspondientes a un total de 20 individuos; los que fueron tratados con técnicas convencionales. Los sistemas radicales de la variedad Camino Real presentan las células del parénquima cortical colonizadas por micorrizas vesículo-arbusculares con dos tipos morfológicos simultáneos: Arum y Paris, siendo la morfología Arum la de mayor frecuencia. Además, el tejido cortical presenta endófitos septados oscuros. La anatomía radical de la estructura primaria presenta una histología típica con estelas de tipo diarca a tetrarca. Mientras que la estructura secundaria de la raíz muestra diferentes estadios de crecimiento, con restos de epidermis y parénquima cortical adheridos a la polidermis en formación. Se describen por primera vez, para Argentina, las micorrizas vesículoarbusculares, los endófitos septados oscuros y la anatomía radical en Fragaria ananassa var. Camino Real.In the province of Tucumán strawberry cultivation occupies an area of 350 hectares. It is a winter crop, with periodic harvests since late May to November inclusive. To avoid this discontinuity of production, a late variety (Camino Real) was added to the spectrum of early varieties (Fortuna and Festival). This paper aims to evaluate the vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhiza, dark septate endophytes and characterize the radical anatomy in Fragaria ananassa variety Camino Real in the province of Tucumán. The sampling was carried out at INTA-EEA Famaillá, Tucumán, Argentina. The radicals systems corresponding to 20 individuals were collected and treated with conventional techniques. The root systems of the variety Camino Real, show cortical parenchyma cells colonized by vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae which have two simultaneous morphological types: Arum and Paris. The Arum morphology is the most frequent. In addition, the cortical tissue has dark septate endophytes. The radical anatomy of the primary structure presents a typical histology with diarca to tetrarch stela, while the secondary root structure show different stages of growth with traces of epidermis and cortical parenchyma attached to the polidermis in development. The vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae, dark septate endophytes and radical anatomy of Fragaria ananassa var. ‘Camino Real’ were described for the first time for ArgentinaFil: Lizarraga, Sofía Valentina. Fundación Miguel Lillo; ArgentinaFil: Ruiz, A. I.. Fundación Miguel Lillo; ArgentinaFil: Salazar, Sergio Miguel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto Superior de Investigaciones Biológicas. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Instituto Superior de Investigaciones Biológicas; Argentina. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria; ArgentinaFil: Diaz Ricci, Juan Carlos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto Superior de Investigaciones Biológicas. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Instituto Superior de Investigaciones Biológicas; ArgentinaFil: Albornoz, Patricia Liliana. Fundación Miguel Lillo; Argentin

Pivot Bio Proven Inoculant as a Source of Nitrogen in Corn

Nitrogen (N) fertilizer represents a significant annual cost for farmers. Additionally, N losses pose environmental concerns and represent loss of resources. Proven, an N fixing bacterial inoculant for corn developed by Pivot Bio (Berkeley, CA) is expected to fix between 20 and 30 lb N/a over a growing season. The use of bacterial inoculants to fix N for corn reduces the risk of N loss through leaching and volatilization by reducing the amount of inorganic fertilizers required to maximize yield. To evaluate the efficacy of Proven, a field trial was established in Manhattan, KS, on a Kennebec silt loam that had been under continuous no-till corn production for 5 years. The experiment was arranged in a split-plot design with four replications. The main treatment was N fertilizer rate at 0, 50, 100, and 150 lb N/a applied as urea directly before planting. The subplot factor was with and without Proven. Soil samples were taken before planting (0–36 in.), at V6 (0–12 in.), R1 (0–12 in.), and harvest (0–36 in.) for inorganic N. Plant measurements included vigor at V4 and V8-V10; NDVI at V5-V8; SPAD readings at R1-R3; and green leaf counts during grain fill. Whole plant biomass and N content were determined at R6. At harvest, grain moisture, test weight, and yield were measured. Nitrogen rate significantly affected grain yield and plant N uptake. The effect of Proven was not significant nor was the interaction between N rate and Proven

Ithaca365: Dataset and Driving Perception under Repeated and Challenging Weather Conditions

Advances in perception for self-driving cars have accelerated in recent years due to the availability of large-scale datasets, typically collected at specific locations and under nice weather conditions. Yet, to achieve the high safety requirement, these perceptual systems must operate robustly under a wide variety of weather conditions including snow and rain. In this paper, we present a new dataset to enable robust autonomous driving via a novel data collection process - data is repeatedly recorded along a 15 km route under diverse scene (urban, highway, rural, campus), weather (snow, rain, sun), time (day/night), and traffic conditions (pedestrians, cyclists and cars). The dataset includes images and point clouds from cameras and LiDAR sensors, along with high-precision GPS/INS to establish correspondence across routes. The dataset includes road and object annotations using amodal masks to capture partial occlusions and 3D bounding boxes. We demonstrate the uniqueness of this dataset by analyzing the performance of baselines in amodal segmentation of road and objects, depth estimation, and 3D object detection. The repeated routes opens new research directions in object discovery, continual learning, and anomaly detection. Link to Ithaca365: https://ithaca365.mae.cornell.edu/Comment: Accepted by CVPR 202

Perspective of US farmers on collaborative on-farm agronomic research

On-farm research has emerged in recent years as a unique approach to involve farmers and other agricultural stakeholders as active participants in knowledge development and as an effective method of technology and innovation transfer across farms. This study assessed the perspective and knowledge of US farmers regarding on-farm research via the implementation of a 24-question survey distributed across most of the US Midwest and South-Central regions.We found that farmers generally are willing to engage with universities to conduct on-farm research and were 40% more likely to adopt practices supported by on-farm research findings than research not conducted on-farm. Notably, a shift toward conservation practices was made, with cover crops and no-till at the forefront. Insights of this nature have implications for fostering collaborations, addressing constraints, and maximizing the impact of on-farm research, offering guidance for sustainable agriculture progress in the United States and beyond. Results from this research survey could be used to initiate much-needed policies to promote on-farm research. Further, information on the benefits and drawbacks of on-farm research could be used in the development of studies that benefit both farmers and researchers

Sialic Acid Glycobiology Unveils Trypanosoma cruzi Trypomastigote Membrane Physiology.

Trypanosoma cruzi, the flagellate protozoan agent of Chagas disease or American trypanosomiasis, is unable to synthesize sialic acids de novo. Mucins and trans-sialidase (TS) are substrate and enzyme, respectively, of the glycobiological system that scavenges sialic acid from the host in a crucial interplay for T. cruzi life cycle. The acquisition of the sialyl residue allows the parasite to avoid lysis by serum factors and to interact with the host cell. A major drawback to studying the sialylation kinetics and turnover of the trypomastigote glycoconjugates is the difficulty to identify and follow the recently acquired sialyl residues. To tackle this issue, we followed an unnatural sugar approach as bioorthogonal chemical reporters, where the use of azidosialyl residues allowed identifying the acquired sugar. Advanced microscopy techniques, together with biochemical methods, were used to study the trypomastigote membrane from its glycobiological perspective. Main sialyl acceptors were identified as mucins by biochemical procedures and protein markers. Together with determining their shedding and turnover rates, we also report that several membrane proteins, including TS and its substrates, both glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored proteins, are separately distributed on parasite surface and contained in different and highly stable membrane microdomains. Notably, labeling for α(1,3)Galactosyl residues only partially colocalize with sialylated mucins, indicating that two species of glycosylated mucins do exist, which are segregated at the parasite surface. Moreover, sialylated mucins were included in lipid-raft-domains, whereas TS molecules are not. The location of the surface-anchored TS resulted too far off as to be capable to sialylate mucins, a role played by the shed TS instead. Phosphatidylinositol-phospholipase-C activity is actually not present in trypomastigotes. Therefore, shedding of TS occurs via microvesicles instead of as a fully soluble form

A randomized phase II clinical trial of dendritic cell vaccination following complete resection of colon cancer liver metastasis

Surgically resectable synchronic and metachronic liver metastases of colon cancer have high risk of relapse in spite of standard-of-care neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapy regimens. Dendritic cell vaccines loaded with autologous tumor lysates were tested for their potential to avoid or delay disease relapses (NCT01348256). Patients with surgically amenable liver metastasis of colon adenocarcinoma (n = 19) were included and underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy, surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy. Fifteen patients with disease-free resection margins were randomized 1:1 to receive two courses of four daily doses of dendritic cell intradermal vaccinations versus observation. The trial had been originally designed to include 56 patients but was curtailed due to budgetary restrictions. Follow-up of the patients indicates a clear tendency to fewer and later relapses in the vaccine arm (median disease free survival –DFS-) 25.26 months, 95% CI 8. 74-n.r) versus observation arm (median DFS 9.53 months, 95% CI 5.32–18.88)

Serum Carotenoids and Pediatric Metabolic Index Predict Insulin Sensitivity in Mexican American Children

High concentrations of carotenoids are protective against cardiometabolic risk traits (CMTs) in adults and children. We recently showed in non-diabetic Mexican American (MA) children that serum α-carotene and β-carotene are inversely correlated with obesity measures and triglycerides and positively with HDL cholesterol and that they were under strong genetic influences. Additionally, we previously described a Pediatric Metabolic Index (PMI) that helps in the identification of children who are at risk for cardiometabolic diseases. Here, we quantified serum lycopene and β-cryptoxanthin concentrations in approximately 580 children from MA families using an ultraperformance liquid chromatography-photodiode array and determined their heritabilities and correlations with CMTs. Using response surface methodology (RSM), we determined two-way interactions of carotenoids and PMI on Matsuda insulin sensitivity index (ISI). The concentrations of lycopene and β-cryptoxanthin were highly heritable [h2 = 0.98, P = 7 × 10–18 and h2 = 0.58, P = 1 × 10–7]. We found significant (P ≤ 0.05) negative phenotypic correlations between β-cryptoxanthin and five CMTs: body mass index (− 0.22), waist circumference (− 0.25), triglycerides (− 0.18), fat mass (− 0.23), fasting glucose (− 0.09), and positive correlations with HDL cholesterol (0.29). In contrast, lycopene only showed a significant negative correlation with fasting glucose (− 0.08) and a positive correlation with HDL cholesterol (0.18). Importantly, we found that common genetic influences significantly contributed to the observed phenotypic correlations. RSM showed that increased serum concentrations of α- and β-carotenoids rather than that of β-cryptoxanthin or lycopene had maximal effects on ISI. In summary, our findings suggest that the serum carotenoids are under strong additive genetic influences and may have differential effects on susceptibility to CMTs in children

Healthy lifestyle and incidence of metabolic syndrome in the SUN cohort

We assessed the relationship between a healthy lifestyle and the subsequent risk of developing metabolic syndrome. The "Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra" (SUN) Project is a prospective cohort study, focused on nutrition, lifestyle, and chronic diseases. Participants (n = 10,807, mean age 37 years, 67% women) initially free of metabolic syndrome were followed prospectively for a minimum of 6 years. To evaluate healthy lifestyle, nine habits were used to derive a Healthy Lifestyle Score (HLS): Never smoking, moderate to high physical activity (>20 MET-h/week), Mediterranean diet (>= 4/8 adherence points), moderate alcohol consumption (women, 0.1-5.0 g/day; men, 0.1-10.0 g/day), low television exposure (1 h/day, and working at least 40 h/week. Metabolic syndrome was defined according to the harmonizing definition. The association between the baseline HLS and metabolic syndrome at follow-up was assessed with multivariable-adjusted logistic regressions. During follow-up, we observed 458 (4.24%) new cases of metabolic syndrome. Participants in the highest category of HLS adherence (7-9 points) enjoyed a significantly reduced risk of developing metabolic syndrome compared to those in the lowest category (0-3 points) (adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 0.66, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.47-0.93). Higher adherence to the Healthy Lifestyle Score was associated with a lower risk of developing metabolic syndrome. The HLS may be a simple metabolic health promotion tool