Creating Knowledge within a C-Business Context: A Customer Knowledge Management View

Part 7: Knowledge Management and Business ProcessesInternational audienceRecent advances of virtual networking technologies are gradually forcing companies to focus their knowledge management efforts to external knowledge resources, in order to complement their existing knowledge bases, find expertise, but also harness collective intelligence that is dynamically produced in the virtual environment. Access, exchange and co-creation of customer knowledge is of central importance for companies in this context, as customers who take advantage of Web 2.0 connectivity and social networking tools are gaining importance as competitive and cooperative knowledge actors in companies’ C-Business value networks. In this paper the authors attempt to cover important issues concerning customer knowledge flows between companies and customers through virtual interaction and the important factors that determine value-adding relationships of cooperation with customers for effective knowledge co-creation. They emphasize the need for the formation of a strategic co-opetition perspective for managing these relationships. In this direction, the authors present a theoretical framework that describes Customer Knowledge Management within a C-Business context

Contribution of Immune Activation to the Pathogenesis and Transmission of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection

The life cycle of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is intricately related to the activation state of the host cells supporting viral replication. Although cellular activation is essential to mount an effective host immune response to invading pathogens, paradoxically the marked systemic immune activation that accompanies HIV-1 infection in vivo may play an important role in sustaining phenomenal rates of HIV-1 replication in infected persons. Moreover, by inducing CD4(+) cell loss by apoptosis, immune activation may further be central to the increased rate of CD4(+) cell turnover and eventual development of CD4(+) lymphocytopenia. In addition to HIV-1-induced immune activation, exogenous immune stimuli such as opportunistic infections may further impact the rate of HIV-1 replication systemically or at localized anatomical sites. Such stimuli may also lead to genotypic and phenotypic changes in the virus pool. Together, these various immunological effects on the biology of HIV-1 may potentially enhance disease progression in HIV-infected persons and may ultimately outweigh the beneficial aspects of antiviral immune responses. This may be particularly important for those living in developing countries, where there is little or no access to antiretroviral drugs and where frequent exposure to pathogenic organisms sustains a chronically heightened state of immune activation. Moreover, immune activation associated with sexually transmitted diseases, chorioamnionitis, and mastitis may have important local effects on HIV-1 replication that may increase the risk of sexual or mother-to-child transmission of HIV-1. The aim of this paper is to provide a broad review of the interrelationship between immune activation and the immunopathogenesis, transmission, progression, and treatment of HIV-1 infection in vivo