Applying critical discourse analysis to explore the Italian Universities. Orientation towards the entrepreneurial model

This paper is aimed to discuss the actual commitment of Italian universities towards their third mission of economic and social development, providing an innovative perspective of analysis. We apply Critical Discourse Analysis to assess how Italian universities engagement with the stakeholder community is interpreted, implemented, communicated and disseminated within and outside the academic organizations. One of the most significant points in the evolution of organizational studies is the growing interest in language, whose construction is a key, alternative to traditional, to understand the organizational and inter-organizational phenomena. Critical Discourse Analysis is based on the assumption that language is not neutral with respect to organizational and inter-organizational dynamics, but it contributes to their production. In management studies, discourse analysis is a new heuristic strategy for those who are interested in the processes of social construction of organizational phenomena that have as their central element the text. Critical Discourse Analysis tries to unite, and determines the relationship between, three levels of analysis: (a) the actual text; (b) the discursive practices; and (c) the larger social context that bears upon the text and the discursive practices. We made our survey focusing on the texts published by each one of the 84 Italian universities on their websites. The first level of analysis was a lexical-statistical study of the texts with the main aim of observing the adopted terminology (vocabulary). At a second level, and on the basis of the previously performed analysis, we employed multidimensional statistic techniques, in order to study the discursive practices. Discourse study starts from concordances analysis, that deals with the identification of some local contexts containing word-types of specific interest. The final result is the reconstruction of the major sense behavior models. At a macro level, an exploratory study of the social context has been realized in order to link the texts and the discursive practices to the background conditions. Such analysis partially contributed to fill a gap in the literature, that is the study of the entrepreneurial university model from the discursive profile in the specific Italian context

FOXP3 Inhibitory Peptide P60 Increases Efficacy of Cytokine-induced Killer Cells against Renal and Pancreatic Cancer Cells

Background/Aim: Cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells are ex vivo expanded major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-unrestricted cytotoxic cells with promising effects against a variety of cancer types. Regulatory T-cells (T-reg) have been shown to reduce the effectiveness of CIK cells against tumor cells. Peptide P60 has been shown to inhibit the immunosuppressive functions of T-regs. This study aimed at examining the effect of p60 on CIK cells efficacy against renal and pancreatic cancer cells. Materials and Methods: The effect of P60 on CIK cytotoxicity was examined using flow cytometry, WST-8-based cell viability assay and interferon γ (IFNγ) ELISA. Results: P60 treatment resulted in a significant decrease in the viability of renal and pancreatic cancer cell lines co-cultured with CIK cells. No increase in IFNγ secretion from CIK cells was detected following treatment with P60. P60 caused no changes in the distribution of major effector cell populations in CIK cell cultures. Conclusion: P60 may potentiate CIK cell cytotoxicity against tumor cells

Investigation of recast and crack formation in laser trepanning drilling of CMSX-4 angled holes

This paper presents an experimental investigation on the influences of laser trepanning drilling process parameters on the recast layer thickness and surface crack formation in CMSX-4 nickel-based superalloy angled holes. The effects of peak power, pulse frequency and the trepanning speed as input parameters were investigated in details by varying the laser drilling conditions using Taguchi orthogonal array-based design of experiment approach. Analysis of variance identifies the significant parameters affecting the output responses. It is found that the output responses are affected mainly by the peak power and trepanning speed. The experimental results reveal that the recast layer thickness increases with the increase of peak power and trepanning speed whereas the crack number density decreases with the increase of peak power only. Pulse frequency has no significant effect on both output responses within the range of values investigated. The knowledge gained in this parametric study could be used to improve the metallurgical characteristics of laser-drilled nickel-based acute angled holes

The Epigenetic Evolution of Glioma Is Determined by the IDH1 Mutation Status and Treatment Regimen

Tumor adaptation or selection is thought to underlie therapy resistance in glioma. To investigate longitudinal epigenetic evolution of gliomas in response to therapeutic pressure, we performed an epigenomic analysis of 132 matched initial and recurrent tumors from patients with IDH-wildtype (IDHwt) and IDH-mutant (IDHmut) glioma. IDHwt gliomas showed a stable epigenome over time with relatively low levels of global methylation. The epigenome of IDHmut gliomas showed initial high levels of genome-wide DNA methylation that was progressively reduced to levels similar to those of IDHwt tumors. Integration of epigenomics, gene expression, and functional genomics identified HOXD13 as a master regulator of IDHmut astrocytoma evolution. Furthermore, relapse of IDHmut tumors was accompanied by histologic progression that was associated with survival, as validated in an independent cohort. Finally, the initial cell composition of the tumor microenvironment varied between IDHwt and IDHmut tumors and changed differentially following treatment, suggesting increased neoangiogenesis and T-cell infiltration upon treatment of IDHmut gliomas. This study provides one of the largest cohorts of paired longitudinal glioma samples with epigenomic, transcriptomic, and genomic profiling and suggests that treatment of IDHmut glioma is associated with epigenomic evolution toward an IDHwt-like phenotype.</p

Reasons for facebook usage: data from 46 countries

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio