A Taxonomy of Platform Envelopment: Revealing Patterns and Particularities

Platform envelopment describes a competitive move whereby a digital platform enters an adjacent market. On one hand, it might enable to dethrone an established platform. On the other hand, it might give rise to the creation of platform conglomerates, which increases the concentration of private power. Therefore, platform envelopment has recently attracted significant attention from regulators and scholars. However, the traditional view of platform envelopment does not consider recent platform envelopment practices observed in research and practice. In this study, we aim to determine and structure the complexity of platform envelopment. We investigated 20 cases and developed a taxonomy of platform envelopment. We further encoded these cases into the comprehensive taxonomy and derived platform envelopment patterns and particularities. Our work contributes to research by establishing a foundation for the conceptual understanding of platform envelopment. Regulators can use this taxonomy to classify platform envelopment cases and determine potentially anti-competitive conduct

Geoarchaeological Methods for Landscape Reconstruction at the Excavation Site of Naga, Central Sudan

The archaeological excavation site of Naga, remains of a Meroitic city, is located in the semiarid region along the fringe of the north-eastern Sahel and the south-eastern Sahara desert, in central Sudan, 150 km north of Khartoum and 40 km south of the Nile. During its heyday the city was a highly developed central place, with a large population and a booming economy. Naga has been the object of archaeological research for several decades – and of geoscientific investigation since 2008. The first step for the investigation was to select adequate methods that combine the advantages of various subdisciplines and approaches. The study presented employs techniques from terrain modelling, geophysics and environmental analytics to evaluate field data with the aim of a comprehensive landscape reconstruction

Exploring Capabilities for the Smart Service Transformation in Manufacturing: Insights from Theory and Practice

Digital Servitization is one of the significant trends affecting the manufacturing industry. Companies try to tackle challenges regarding their differentiation and profitability using digital services. One specific type of digital services are smart services, which are digital services built on data from smart products. Introducing these kinds of offerings into the portfolio of manufacturing companies is not trivial. Moreover, they require conscious action to align all relevant capabilities to realize the respective business goals. However, what capabilities are generally relevant for smart services remains opaque. We conducted a systematic literature review to identify them and extended the results through an interview study. Our analysis results in 78 capabilities clustered among 12 principles and six dimensions. These results provide significant support for the smart service transformation of manufacturing companies and for structuring the research field of smart services

Bewertung der Zirkularität und Minimierung von CO₂-Emissionen im Gesamtsystem Industriebau – Case Study einer Gebäudebewertung mit madaster

Das Verarbeitende Gewerbe ist für einen Großteil der Umweltbelastungen verantwortlich. Eine Integration der Kreislaufwirtschaft in die Planung und den Betrieb von Industriebauten kann dazu beitragen, den Ressourcenverbrauch und die Umweltwirkungen zu verringern. Diese Entwicklung betrifft verschiedene Wirksysteme wie den Standort, die Gebäudestruktur, die Haustechnik, die Produktionsprozesse und die Logistik. In diesem Kontext untersuchte eine Studie an der Münster School of Architecture (MSA) wichtige Aspekte der Zirkularität im klimaschonenden Industriebau. Der Vorentwurf eines Fabrikbaus (RMA), Bewertungsmodelle der Zirkularität und CO₂-Effizienz (madaster) sowie Faktoren aus Produktion und Logistik (IFA, Institut für Fabrikanlagen, Leibniz Universität Hannover) bilden hierbei die Grundlage für eine Zirkularitätsbewertung. In dieser Publikation werden die fünf genannten Wirksysteme für eine ganzheitliche Zirkularitätsbewertung im Industriebau zunächst grob skizziert. Zudem wird der Aspekt der Gebäudestruktur in verschiedenen Konstruktionsvarianten detaillierter betrachtet. Damit wird die Grundlage für das übergeordnete Ziel geschaffen, das Gesamtsystem Industriebau im Kontext der Zirkularität zu bewerten und dabei die Abhängigkeiten zwischen den einzelnen Disziplinen und Wirksystemen zu berücksichtigen

Real-world disease-modifying therapy usage in persons with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis: Cross-sectional data from the Swiss Multiple Sclerosis Registry.

INTRODUCTION Several disease-modifying therapies (DMTs), covering a broad spectrum of mechanisms of action, have been approved by regulatory agencies for the treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). However, only little is known about the current real-world treatment situation in Switzerland. Based on data from a diverse population of 668 persons with RRMS from the Swiss Multiple Sclerosis Registry (SMSR), the present study aims to fill this gap with a descriptive, cross-sectional approach. METHODS Data originated from the SMSR baseline questionnaire and follow-up surveys. Data on current health status and life situation in the last 6 months were extracted from the survey distributed throughout 2020 and 2021, while data on disease-modifying therapy (DMT) histories were included from preceding surveys. Initially, data was stratified into three DMT groups according to the current DMT status (NO (No DMT), CONTINUED (DMT started more than 6 months ago), and NEW (DMT started less than 6 months ago)). In a subsequent analysis, the sample was stratified into groups corresponding to the five most frequently prescribed DMTs. Self-reported outcomes including therapy discontinuation or interruption, relapses and side-effects in the last 6 months were analyzed per group. Life and health situation parameters were also determined and analyzed. RESULTS The study population consisted of 445 (66.6%) individuals belonging to the CONTINUED, 84 (12.6%) to the NEW, and 139 (20.8%) to the NO group. Within the NO group, 24 (17.3%) reported relapses. Furthermore, self-reported relapses (28 (33.3%)), side-effects (39 (46.4%)), and treatment discontinuations or interruptions (30 (35.7%)) occurred more frequently in the NEW compared to the CONTINUED group (37 (8.3%), 125 (28.1%), 8 (1.8%), respectively). The three groups also differed with respect to age, time since diagnosis, number of symptoms, DMT history, and health-related quality of life. The five most frequently prescribed DMTs included fingolimod (33.4%), dimethyl fumarate (25.0%), ocrelizumab (23.6%), natalizumab (10.6%) and teriflunomide (7.5%). The frequency of self-reported relapses ranged from 9.7% to 13.6%. Notable differences were found in the number of self-reported side-effects, ranging from 9.1% with natalizumab to 56.7% with dimethyl fumarate. DISCUSSION This cross-sectional analysis suggested that the majority of individuals with RRMS in Switzerland continuously receive tolerable DMT. However, groups not receiving DMT or struggling with side-effects or continued disease worsening while on DMT still persist. It is conceivable that the number of self-reported symptoms indicates the need for more detailed clarification of the DMT characteristics and expectations of treatment outcomes. Injectable DMTs no longer play a major role in the treatment of RRMS in Switzerland and a trend toward an early use of potent drugs is emerging

Entangled Stories: The Red Jews in Premodern Yiddish and German Apocalyptic Lore

“Far, far away from our areas, somewhere beyond the Mountains of Darkness, on the other side of the Sambatyon River…there lives a nation known as the Red Jews.” The Red Jews are best known from classic Yiddish writing, most notably from Mendele's Kitser masoes Binyomin hashlishi (The Brief Travels of Benjamin the Third). This novel, first published in 1878, represents the initial appearance of the Red Jews in modern Yiddish literature. This comical travelogue describes the adventures of Benjamin, who sets off in search of the legendary Red Jews. But who are these Red Jews or, in Yiddish, di royte yidelekh? The term denotes the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, the ten tribes that in biblical times had composed the Northern Kingdom of Israel until they were exiled by the Assyrians in the eighth century BCE. Over time, the myth of their return emerged, and they were said to live in an uncharted location beyond the mysterious Sambatyon River, where they would remain until the Messiah's arrival at the end of time, when they would rejoin the rest of the Jewish people. This article is part of a broader study of the Red Jews in Jewish popular culture from the Middle Ages through modernity. It is partially based on a chapter from my book, Umstrittene Erlöser: Politik, Ideologie und jüdisch-christlicher Messianismus in Deutschland, 1500–1600 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011). Several postdoctoral fellowships have generously supported my research on the Red Jews: a Dr. Meyer-Struckmann-Fellowship of the German Academic Foundation, a Harry Starr Fellowship in Judaica/Alan M. Stroock Fellowship for Advanced Research in Judaica at Harvard University, a research fellowship from the Heinrich Hertz-Foundation, and a YIVO Dina Abramowicz Emerging Scholar Fellowship. I thank the organizers of and participants in the colloquia and conferences where I have presented this material in various forms as well as the editors and anonymous reviewers of AJS Review for their valuable comments and suggestions. I am especially grateful to Jeremy Dauber and Elisheva Carlebach of the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies at Columbia University, where I was a Visiting Scholar in the fall of 2009, for their generous encouragement to write this article. Sue Oren considerably improved my English. The style employed for Romanization of Yiddish follows YIVO's transliteration standards. Unless otherwise noted, translations from the Yiddish, Hebrew, German, and Latin are my own. Quotations from the Bible follow the JPS translation, and those from the Babylonian Talmud are according to the Hebrew-English edition of the Soncino Talmud by Isidore Epstein