Under the radar: Industry entry by user entrepreneurs

We inductively develop a model of the commercialization process for new products or services user entrepreneurs undertake when entering an industry while drawing on proprietary technology developed in another industry. Extending the growing field of user entrepreneurship, we identify a two-phase approach to industry entry by user entrepreneurs who start "under the radar" of incumbent firms, gain experience, attract a first potential customer base, and then, in a second phase, engage in commercialization. During this process, a community of fellow users is of major importance for the entrepreneur, serving as a knowledge pool for skills development and experimentation with different commercialization paths. We study a nascent group of firms founded by users of video games who became entrepreneurs on entering the animation industry by producing Machinima, a new film genre characterized by shooting film in video games. We explain how user entrepreneurs gain access to complementary assets (video games) for their new use (shooting film), how they deal with intellectual property issues when using other firms' assets, and how user entrepreneurs combine domain knowledge about film production with their experience in video games and the art of Machinima. Our propositions hold implications for management and policy

Afgoldning af enkeltkirtler som strategi til håndtering af mild yverbetændelse

Behandling af yverbetændelse er ansvarlig for størstedelen af antibiotikaforbruget i økologisk mælkeproduktion. Ofte fravælges antibiotikabehandling af mild yverbetændelse. Ubehandlede køer udgør imidlertid en fortsat smitterisiko for de øvrige køer i besætningen. Afgoldning af en enkeltkirtel er ophørt malkning af én kirtel i laktationen, mens koens øvrige kirtler fortsat malkes. Hvis en mild yverbetændelse kan lokaliseres til en enkelt kirtel hos koen, kan afgoldning af denne kirtel medvirke til at mindske smitten til andre køer. Virkningen af afgoldning af enkeltkirtler på mælkeproduktionen og koens kliniske udvikling blev undersøgt ved et eksperimentielt studie i fem økologiske malkekvægsbesætninger med malkerobotter. Halvfjerds køer med forhøjet celletal blev tilfældigt fordelt på to forsøgsbehandlinger; kirtel-afgoldning eller fortsat malkning. Køerne blev løbende undersøgt klinisk og ydelsesdata blev udtrukket fra malkerobotterne. I de første par uger efter kirtel-afgoldning sås kirtelhævelse og mælkeløb. Derefter aftog hævelsen og blev løbende erstattet af kirtelsvind i månederne efter kirtelafgoldningen. En del af køerne udviklede alvorlige kliniske tegn som forhøjet temperature (13 pct.) og tegn på smerte (29 pct.). Der var et gennemsnitligt tab på ca. 4 kg mælk/dag ved kirtel-afgoldning. En lavere kirtel-ydelse forud for afgoldning var forbundet med et mindre produktionstab, men jo tidligere i laktationen kirtlen blev afgoldet, desto bedre kompenserede de øvrige kirtler for ydelsestabet

A hidden Markov model approach for determining expression from genomic tiling micro arrays

BACKGROUND: Genomic tiling micro arrays have great potential for identifying previously undiscovered coding as well as non-coding transcription. To-date, however, analyses of these data have been performed in an ad hoc fashion. RESULTS: We present a probabilistic procedure, ExpressHMM, that adaptively models tiling data prior to predicting expression on genomic sequence. A hidden Markov model (HMM) is used to model the distributions of tiling array probe scores in expressed and non-expressed regions. The HMM is trained on sets of probes mapped to regions of annotated expression and non-expression. Subsequently, prediction of transcribed fragments is made on tiled genomic sequence. The prediction is accompanied by an expression probability curve for visual inspection of the supporting evidence. We test ExpressHMM on data from the Cheng et al. (2005) tiling array experiments on ten Human chromosomes [1]. Results can be downloaded and viewed from our web site [2]. CONCLUSION: The value of adaptive modelling of fluorescence scores prior to categorisation into expressed and non-expressed probes is demonstrated. Our results indicate that our adaptive approach is superior to the previous analysis in terms of nucleotide sensitivity and transfrag specificity

On-Line Learning with Restricted Training Sets: An Exactly Solvable Case

We solve the dynamics of on-line Hebbian learning in large perceptrons exactly, for the regime where the size of the training set scales linearly with the number of inputs. We consider both noiseless and noisy teachers. Our calculation cannot be extended to non-Hebbian rules, but the solution provides a convenient and welcome benchmark with which to test more general and advanced theories for solving the dynamics of learning with restricted training sets.Comment: 19 pages, eps figures included, uses epsfig macr

Surveillance of Ruminant Diseases in the Nordic Countries

<p/> <p>All the Nordic countries have a basis for their surveillance and disease control in ruminants in national legislation and regulations listing notifiable diseases of concern to the countries. The Nordic countries are a disease-free zone comparing to other parts of the world and the aim of the surveillance is to keep that status and be able to document it. Following is a short summary from each country.</p

Medical ovariectomy in menopausal breast cancer patients with high testosterone levels : a further step toward tailored therapy

Five years of adjuvant therapy with anti-estrogens reduce the incidence of disease progression by about 50% in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer patients, but late relapse can still occur after anti-estrogens have been discontinued. In these patients, excessive androgen production may account for renewed excessive estrogen formation and increased risks of late relapse. In the 50% of patients who do not benefit with anti-estrogens, the effect of therapy is limited by de novo or acquired resistance to treatment. Androgen receptor and epidermal growth factor receptor overexpression are recognized mechanisms of endocrine resistance suggesting the involvement of androgens as activators of the androgen receptor pathway and as stimulators of epidermal growth factor synthesis and function. Data from a series of prospective studies on operable breast cancer patients, showing high serum testosterone levels are associated to increased risk of recurrence, provide further support to a role for androgens in breast cancer progression. According to the above reported evidence, we proposed to counteract excessive androgen production in the adjuvant setting of estrogen receptor-positive patients and suggested selecting postmenopausal patients with elevated levels of serum testosterone, marker of ovarian hyperandrogenemia, for adjuvant treatment with a gonadotropins-releasing hormone analogue (medical oophorectomy) in addition to standard therapy with anti-estrogens. The proposed approach provides an attempt of personalized medicine that needs to be further investigated in clinical trials

The Monitoring Efficacy of Neurogenic Bowel Dysfunction Treatment on Response (MENTOR) in a Non-Hospital Setting

BACKGROUND: Most patients with a spinal cord injury (SCI) suffer from neurogenic bowel dysfunction (NBD). In spite of well-established treatment algorithms, NBD is often insufficiently managed. The Monitoring Efficacy of Neurogenic bowel dysfunction Treatment On Response (MENTOR) has been validated in a hospital setting as a tool to support clinical decision making in individual patients. The objective of the present study was to describe clinical decisions recommended by the MENTOR (either "monitor", "discuss" or "act") and the use of the tool to monitor NBD in a non-hospital setting. METHODS: A questionnaire describing background data, the MENTOR, ability to work and participation in various social activities was sent by mail to all members of The Danish Paraplegic Association. RESULTS: Among 1316 members, 716 (54%) responded, 429 men (61%) and 278 women (39%), aged 18 to 92 (median 61) years. Based on MENTOR, the recommended clinical decision is to monitor treatment of NBD in 281 (44%), discuss change in treatment in 175 (27%) and act/change treatment in 181 (28%). A recommendation to discuss or change treatment was associated with increasing age of the respondent (p = 0.016) and with impaired ability to work or participate in social activities (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: A surprisingly high proportion of persons with SCI have an unmet need for improved bowel care. The MENTOR holds promise as a tool for evaluation of treatment of NBD in a non-hospital setting

Metabolic syndrome and postmenopausal breast cancer in the ORDET cohort : a nested case-control study

Background and aims: The increase in breast cancer incidence over recent decades has been accompanied by an increase in the frequency of metabolic syndrome. Several studies suggest that breast cancer risk is associated with the components of metabolic syndrome (high serum glucose and triglycerides, low HDL-cholesterol, high blood pressure, and abdominal obesity), but no prospective study has investigated risk in relation to the presence of explicitly defined metabolic syndrome. We investigated associations between metabolic syndrome, its components, and breast cancer risk in a nested case-control study on postmenopausal women of the ORDET cohort. Methods and results: After a median follow-up of 13.5 years, 163 women developed breast cancer; metabolic syndrome was present in 29.8%. Four matched controls per case were selected by incidence density sampling, and rate ratios were estimated by conditional logistic regression. Metabolic syndrome (i.e. presence of three or more metabolic syndrome components) was significantly associated with breast cancer risk (rate ratio 1.58 [95% confidence interval 1.07-2.33]), with a significant risk increase for increasing number of components (P for trend 0.004). Among individual metabolic syndrome components, only low serum HDL-cholesterol and high triglycerides were significantly associated with increased risk. Conclusions: This prospective study indicates that metabolic syndrome is an important risk factor for breast cancer in postmenopausal women. Although serum HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides had the strongest association with breast cancer, all components may contribute to increased risk by multiple interacting mechanisms. Prevention or reversal of metabolic syndrome by life-style changes may be effective in preventing breast cancer in postmenopausal women