Alibaba's strategic drift

It is fundamental in both a theoretical and practical sense, to analyse the strategies of successful e-businesses who were formulated and operated alongside incumbent competitors. Thus, there have been an array of strategic arguments concerning the rapidly-burgeoning virtual powerhouse Alibaba, who amidst a sea of fortified competitors, found their ground to become one of the most prominent e-businesses of the decade. At the commencing stages, Alibaba lacked a specific strategic goal, aside from the ethnic-originated ecology scheme. Further mishaps arose even after the take-off stage, when Alibaba opted to adhere to the diversification strategy, an evidently unusual phase for a virtual firm. Hence, it is the subject of common debate as to whether Alibaba cited a definitive strategic goal which guided their progress, or whether they were merely the product of a breakneck growth in the Chinese economy. This research will show how a leading e-Commerce company Alibaba has built B2B/C2C business portal Taobao/TMall and has transformed its transaction system from zhifubao into yuerbao and how it propelled Alipay to become a leading financial institution in the thriving digital market. In addition, strategic diversification on Chinese digital business will be examined through Alibaba case

Cancer stem cell metabolism: target for cancer therapy

Increasing evidence suggests that cancer stem cell (CSC) theory represents an important mechanism underlying the observed failure of existing therapeutic modalities to fully eradicate cancers. In addition to their more established role in maintaining minimal residual disease after treatment and forming the new bulk of the tumor, CSCs might also critically contribute to tumor recurrence and metastasis. For this reason, specific elimination of CSCs may thus represent one of the most important treatment strategies. Emerging evidence has shown that CSCs have a different metabolic phenotype to that of differentiated bulk tumor cells, and these specific metabolic activities directly participate in the process of CSC transformation or support the biological processes that enable tumor progression. Exploring the role of CSC metabolism and the mechanism of the metabolic plasticity of CSCs has become a major focus in current cancer research. The targeting of CSC metabolism may provide new effective therapies to reduce the risk of recurrence and metastasis. In this review, we summarize the most significant discoveries regarding the metabolism of CSCs and highlight recent approaches in targeting CSC metabolism

Conventional Vickers and true instrumented indentation hardness determined by instrumented indentation tests

We evaluate Vickers hardness and true instrumented indentation test (IIT) hardness of 24 metals over a wide range of mechanical properties using just IIT parameters by taking into account the real contact morphology beneath the Vickers indenter. Correlating the conventional Vickers hardness, indentation contact morphology, and IIT parameters for the 24 metals reveals relationships between contact depths and apparent material properties. We report the conventional Vickers and true IIT hardnesses measured only from IIT contact depths; these agree well with directly measured hardnesses within ±6% for Vickers hardness and ±10% for true IIT hardness

Development of Nanocomposite Powders for the SLS Process to Enhance Mechanical Properties

In an effort to fabricate prototypes with improved mechanical properties in the dual laser sintering process, functionalized graphite nanoplatelets were added to the PA-12 powder to produce a nanocomposite powder. The PA-12 powder was chosen as the matrix polymer because it has features conducive to laser sintering such as relatively low melting temperature and high mechanical properties. The GNPs were oxidized through a nitric acid treatment to improve the interfacial bonding. The resulting nanocomposite powder was layered and sintered by laser without any sign of agglomeration. Although the result is preliminary, it nevertheless shows the suitability of the nanocomposite powder for the laser sintering process.Mechanical Engineerin