Discovery of Q203, a potent clinical candidate for the treatment of tuberculosis

New therapeutic strategies are needed to combat the tuberculosis pandemic and the spread of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) forms of the disease, which remain a serious public health challenge worldwide1, 2. The most urgent clinical need is to discover potent agents capable of reducing the duration of MDR and XDR tuberculosis therapy with a success rate comparable to that of current therapies for drug-susceptible tuberculosis. The last decade has seen the discovery of new agent classes for the management of tuberculosis3, 4, 5, several of which are currently in clinical trials6, 7, 8. However, given the high attrition rate of drug candidates during clinical development and the emergence of drug resistance, the discovery of additional clinical candidates is clearly needed. Here, we report on a promising class of imidazopyridine amide (IPA) compounds that block Mycobacterium tuberculosis growth by targeting the respiratory cytochrome bc1 complex. The optimized IPA compound Q203 inhibited the growth of MDR and XDR M. tuberculosis clinical isolates in culture broth medium in the low nanomolar range and was efficacious in a mouse model of tuberculosis at a dose less than 1 mg per kg body weight, which highlights the potency of this compound. In addition, Q203 displays pharmacokinetic and safety profiles compatible with once-daily dosing. Together, our data indicate that Q203 is a promising new clinical candidate for the treatment of tuberculosis

Load Profile Segmentation for Effective Residential Demand Response Program: Method and Evidence from Korean Pilot Study

Due to the heterogeneity of demand response behaviors among customers, selecting a suitable segment is one of the key factors for the efficient and stable operation of the demand response (DR) program. Most utilities recognize the importance of targeted enrollment. Customer targeting in DR programs is normally implemented based on customer segmentation. Residential customers are characterized by low electricity consumption and large variability across times of consumption. These factors are considered to be the primary challenges in household load profile segmentation. Existing customer segmentation methods have limitations in reflecting daily consumption of electricity, peak demand timings, and load patterns. In this study, we propose a new clustering method to segment customers more effectively in residential demand response programs and thereby, identify suitable customer targets in DR. The approach can be described as a two-stage k-means procedure including consumption features and load patterns. We provide evidence of the outstanding performance of the proposed method compared to existing k-means, Self-Organizing Map (SOM) and Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) models. Segmentation results are also analyzed to identify appropriate groups participating in DR, and the DR effect of targeted groups was estimated in comparison with customers without load profile segmentation. We applied the proposed method to residential customers who participated in a peak-time rebate pilot DR program in Korea. The result proves that the proposed method shows outstanding performance: demand reduction increased by 33.44% compared with the opt-in case and the utility saving cost in DR operation was 437,256 KRW. Furthermore, our study shows that organizations applying DR programs, such as retail utilities or independent system operators, can more economically manage incentive-based DR programs by selecting targeted customers

Deep Learning-Based Corporate Performance Prediction Model Considering Technical Capability

Many studies have predicted the future performance of companies for the purpose of making investment decisions. Most of these are based on the qualitative judgments of experts in related industries, who consider various financial and firm performance information. With recent developments in data processing technology, studies have started to use machine learning techniques to predict corporate performance. For example, deep neural network-based prediction models are again attracting attention, and are now widely used in constructing prediction and classification models. In this study, we propose a deep neural network-based corporate performance prediction model that uses a company’s financial and patent indicators as predictors. The proposed model includes an unsupervised learning phase and a fine-tuning phase. The learning phase uses a restricted Boltzmann machine. The fine-tuning phase uses a backpropagation algorithm and a relatively up-to-date training data set that reflects the latest trends in the relationship between predictors and corporate performance

Patent Keyword Extraction for Sustainable Technology Management

Recently, sustainable growth and development has become an important issue for governments and corporations. However, maintaining sustainable development is very difficult. These difficulties can be attributed to sociocultural and political backgrounds that change over time [1]. Because of these changes, the technologies for sustainability also change, so governments and companies attempt to predict and manage technology using patent analyses, but it is very difficult to predict the rapidly changing technology markets. The best way to achieve insight into technology management in this rapidly changing market is to build a technology management direction and strategy that is flexible and adaptable to the volatile market environment through continuous monitoring and analysis. Quantitative patent analysis using text mining is an effective method for sustainable technology management. There have been many studies that have used text mining and word-based patent analyses to extract keywords and remove noise words. Because the extracted keywords are considered to have a significant effect on the further analysis, researchers need to carefully check out whether they are valid or not. However, most prior studies assume that the extracted keywords are appropriate, without evaluating their validity. Therefore, the criteria used to extract keywords needs to change. Until now, these criteria have focused on how well a patent can be classified according to its technical characteristics in the collected patent data set, typically using term frequency–inverse document frequency weights that are calculated by comparing the words in patents. However, this is not suitable when analyzing a single patent. Therefore, we need keyword selection criteria and an extraction method capable of representing the technical characteristics of a single patent without comparing them with other patents. In this study, we proposed a methodology to extract valid keywords from single patent documents using relevant papers and their authors’ keywords. We evaluated the validity of the proposed method and its practical performance using a statistical verification experiment. First, by comparing the document similarity between papers and patents containing the same search terms in their titles, we verified the validity of the proposed method of extracting patent keywords using authors’ keywords and the paper. We also confirmed that the proposed method improves the precision by about 17.4% over the existing method. It is expected that the outcome of this study will contribute to increasing the reliability and the validity of the research on patent analyses based on text mining and improving the quality of such studies

A Predictive Model of Technology Transfer Using Patent Analysis

The rapid pace of technological advances creates many difficulties for R&D practitioners in analyzing emerging technologies. Patent information analysis is an effective tool in this situation. Conventional patent information analysis has focused on the extraction of vacant, promising, or core technologies and the monitoring of technological trends. From a technology management perspective, the ultimate purpose of R&D is technology commercialization. The core of technology commercialization is the technology transfer phase. Although a great number of patents are filed, publicized, and registered every year, many commercially relevant patents are filtered through registration processes that examine novelty, creativity, and industrial applicability. Despite the efforts of these selection processes, the number of patents being transferred is low when compared with total annual patent registrations. To deal with this problem, this study proposes a predictive model for technology transfer using patent analysis. In the predictive model, patent analysis is conducted to reveal the quantitative relations between technology transfer and a range of variables included in the patent data

Effect of liquid environment on laser-induced backside wet etching of fused silica

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Technology Clusters Exploration for Patent Portfolio through Patent Abstract Analysis

This study explores technology clusters through patent analysis. The aim of exploring technology clusters is to grasp competitors’ levels of sustainable research and development (R&D) and establish a sustainable strategy for entering an industry. To achieve this, we first grouped the patent documents with similar technologies by applying affinity propagation (AP) clustering, which is effective while grouping large amounts of data. Next, in order to define the technology clusters, we adopted the term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) weight, which lists the terms in order of importance. We collected the patent data of Korean electric car companies from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to verify our proposed methodology. As a result, our proposed methodology presents more detailed information on the Korean electric car industry than previous studies

Sustainable Technology Analysis of Artificial Intelligence Using Bayesian and Social Network Models

Recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) have led to a significant increase in the use of AI technologies. Many experts are researching and developing AI technologies in their respective fields, often submitting papers and patent applications as a result. In particular, owing to the characteristics of the patent system that is used to protect the exclusive rights to registered technology, patent documents contain detailed information on the developed technology. Therefore, in this study, we propose a statistical method for analyzing patent data on AI technology to improve our understanding of sustainable technology in the field of AI. We collect patent documents that are related to AI technology, and then analyze the patent data to identify sustainable AI technology. In our analysis, we develop a statistical method that combines social network analysis and Bayesian modeling. Based on the results of the proposed method, we provide a technological structure that can be applied to understand the sustainability of AI technology. To show how the proposed method can be applied to a practical problem, we apply the technological structure to a case study in order to analyze sustainable AI technology

Hybrid Corporate Performance Prediction Model Considering Technical Capability

Many studies have tried to predict corporate performance and stock prices to enhance investment profitability using qualitative approaches such as the Delphi method. However, developments in data processing technology and machine-learning algorithms have resulted in efforts to develop quantitative prediction models in various managerial subject areas. We propose a quantitative corporate performance prediction model that applies the support vector regression (SVR) algorithm to solve the problem of the overfitting of training data and can be applied to regression problems. The proposed model optimizes the SVR training parameters based on the training data, using the genetic algorithm to achieve sustainable predictability in changeable markets and managerial environments. Technology-intensive companies represent an increasing share of the total economy. The performance and stock prices of these companies are affected by their financial standing and their technological capabilities. Therefore, we apply both financial indicators and technical indicators to establish the proposed prediction model. Here, we use time series data, including financial, patent, and corporate performance information of 44 electronic and IT companies. Then, we predict the performance of these companies as an empirical verification of the prediction performance of the proposed model

A Novel Forecasting Methodology for Sustainable Management of Defense Technology

A dynamic methodology for sustainable management of defense technology is proposed to overcome the limitations of the static methodology, which involves comparative analysis based on the criterion of the highest technology level and has limitations for time series analysis, because the country with the highest level undergoes technical changes over time. To address these limitations, this study applies a technology growth model for a dynamic analysis of the Delphi result. An effective method using patents is also proposed to verify and adjust the analysis results. First, technology levels of the present and future are examined by the Delphi technique, and the growth curve is extracted based on the technology growth model. Second, the technology growth curve based on patents is extracted using the annual number of unexamined and registered patents related to the technology. Lastly, the statistical significance of the two growth curves is examined using regression analysis. Then the growth curves are adjusted by the rate of increase in patents. This methodology could provide dynamic technology level data to facilitate sustainable management of defense technology. The results could be useful to research institutions, as they establish strategies for securing technologies in defense or private domains