How the Future Shaped the Past: The Case of the Cashless Society

This paper invites readers to look into how beliefs about future events help to better understand organizational change. Our argument is that the adoption of information technology and the adoption of new organizational forms around it have been driven by shifts in collective ideas of legitimate organizational development. As an example we focus on the establishment during the 1960s of a vision within US retail financial services, namely of the “cashless/checkless society”. The article tells of the power of this “imaginaire” to bring consensus in driving actual technological developments.imaginaires, expectations, isomorphism, cashless society, payment systems, USA

Delocalization and wave-packet dynamics in one-dimensional diluted Anderson models

We study the nature of one-electron eigen-states in a one-dimensional diluted Anderson model where every Anderson impurity is diluted by a periodic function $f(l)$ . Using renormalization group and transfer matrix techniques, we provide accurate estimates of the extended states which appear in this model, whose number depends on the symmetry of the diluting function $f(l)$. The density of states (DOS) for this model is also numerically obtained and its main features are related to the symmetries of the diluting function $f(l)$. Further, we show that the emergence of extended states promotes a sub-diffusive spread of an initially localized wave-packet.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, to appear in EPJ

Extended States in a One-dimensional Generalized Dimer Model

The transmission coefficient for a one dimensional system is given in terms of Chebyshev polynomials using the tight-binding model. This result is applied to a system composed of two impurities located between $N$ sites of a host lattice. It is found that the system has extended states for several values of the energy. Analytical expressions are given for the impurity site energy in terms of the electron's energy. The number of resonant states grows like the number of host sites between the impurities. This property makes the system interesting since it is a simple task to design a configuration with resonant energy very close to the Fermi level $E_F$.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Clinical performance of bleeding risk scores for predicting major and clinically relevant non-major bleeding events in patients receiving warfarin

Background: Oral anticoagulant therapy is associated with an increased risk of hemorrhage, which can be assessed by bleeding risk scores. We evaluated the performance of five validated scores for predicting major and clinically relevant non-major bleeding events in patients receiving warfarin. Methods and results: We conducted an ambispective, single-center cohort study of 321 consecutive patients enrolled in an academic anticoagulation clinic. The following scores were calculated: modified Outpatient Bleeding Risk Index, Contemporary Bleeding Risk Model, HEMORR2HAGES (Hepatic or Renal Disease, Ethanol Abuse, Malignancy, Older Age, Reduced Platelet Count or Function, Re-Bleeding, Hypertension, Anemia, Genetic Factors, Excessive Fall Risk and Stroke), ATRIA (Anticoagulation and Risk Factors in Atrial Fibrillation), and HAS-BLED (Hypertension, Abnormal Renal/Liver Function, Stroke, Bleeding History or Predisposition, Labile International Normalized Ratio, Elderly, Drugs/Alcohol). Main outcomes were major bleeding and a composite of major plus clinically relevant non-major bleeding. Incidence rates for all group were 3.8 (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.0-6.4) and 11.9 (95% CI 8.6-16.4) events per 100 patient-years for major bleeding and major plus clinically relevant non-major bleeding, respectively. Agreement among the five scores was low to moderate (Kendall\u27s tau-b coefficients 0.22-0.54). For major bleeding, the c-statistics ranged from 0.606 to 0.735, whereas for major plus clinically relevant non-major bleeding, they ranged from 0.549 to 0.613. For all scores, the 95% CI for the c-statistics crossed 0.5 or was very close. Among high-risk patients, the hazard ratios for major bleeding ranged from 0.90 to 39.01, whereas for major plus clinically relevant non-major bleeding, they ranged from 1.52 to 8.71. For intermediate-risk patients, no score, except the Contemporary Bleeding Risk Model, produced statistically significant hazard ratios. Conclusion: The scores demonstrated poor agreement and low to moderate discriminatory ability. General clinical implementation of these scores cannot be recommended yet. © 2013 International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis

Implementation of the Integrated Approach in Different Types of Exposure Scenarios

The ICRP recognises three types of exposure situations (planned, existing and emergency). In all three situations, the release of radionuclides into the natural environment leads to exposures of non-human biota, as well as the potential for exposures of the public. This paper describes how the key principles of the ICRP system of radiological protection apply to non-human biota and members of the public in each of these exposure situations. Current work in this area within ICRP Task Group (TG) 105 is highlighted. For example, how simplified numeric criteria may be used in planned exposure situations that are protective of both the public and non-human biota. In emergency exposure situations, the initial response will always be focused on human protection however, understanding the potential impacts of radionuclide releases on non-human biota will likely become important in terms of communication as governments and the public seek to understand the exposures that are occurring. For existing exposure situations, we need to better understand the potential impacts of radionuclides on animals and plants especially when deciding on protective actions. Understanding the comparative impacts from radiological, non-radiological and physical aspects is often important in managing remediating legacy sites. The TG is making use of case studies of how exposure situations have been managed in the past to provide additional guidance and advice for the protection of non-human biota

Mitotic slippage in non-cancer cells induced by a microtubule disruptor, disorazole C1

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Disorazoles are polyene macrodiolides isolated from a myxobacterium fermentation broth. Disorazole C₁was newly synthesized and found to depolymerize microtubules and cause mitotic arrest. Here we examined the cellular responses to disorazole C₁in both non-cancer and cancer cells and compared our results to vinblastine and taxol.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In non-cancer cells, disorazole C₁induced a prolonged mitotic arrest, followed by mitotic slippage, as confirmed by live cell imaging and cell cycle analysis. This mitotic slippage was associated with cyclin B degradation, but did not require p53. Four assays for apoptosis, including western blotting for poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase cleavage, microscopic analyses for cytochrome C release and annexin V staining, and gel electrophoresis examination for DNA laddering, were conducted and demonstrated little induction of apoptosis in non-cancer cells treated with disorazole C₁. On the contrary, we observed an activated apoptotic pathway in cancer cells, suggesting that normal and malignant cells respond differently to disorazole C₁.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our studies demonstrate that non-cancer cells undergo mitotic slippage in a cyclin B-dependent and p53-independent manner after prolonged mitotic arrest caused by disorazole C₁. In contrast, cancer cells induce the apoptotic pathway after disorazole C₁treatment, indicating a possibly significant therapeutic window for this compound.</p

Identificación de las principales fuentes de agua que aportan a la generación de escorrentía en zonas de páramo húmedo: mediante el uso de Deuterium y Oxygen-18

La conservación de las cuencas, manteniendo un caudal que permita el natural funcionamiento de los ecosistemas existentes (caudal ecológico), control de la calidad del agua, control de procesos erosivos, determinación de las fuentes que aportan a la generación de escorrentía dentro de la cuenca, son la base para un manejo sustentable de los recursos naturales (Buytaert et al., 2006a; Mena y Hofstede, 2006). Sin embargo, y a pesar de la gran variedad de servicios ambientales que los ecosistemas de páramo proveen a la sociedad, existen pocos estudios sobre los procesos hidrológicos que gobiernan los mismos (Días-Granados et al., 2005), y aunque en los últimos años, se han realizado esfuerzos significativos para mejorar el conocimiento sobre los mismos, aún hace falta mucha investigación (Crespo et al.,2011a;Buytaert et al., 2006a), razón por la cual existe discrepancia sobre el comportamiento hidrológico del páramo a escala de cuenca (Buytaert et al., 2004), lo que genera un contraste con la importancia socioeconómica que tiene el páramo como fuente primaria de agua. Es por ello y para ello, que se requiere mejorar el conocimiento de los procesos hidrológicos en las zonas de páramo Andino, como son por ejemplo la determinación de la cantidad de agua que aporta cada una de las fuentes que generan la escorrentía en una cuenca. Esto debido principalmente, a que todos los servicios ambientales que proveen estos ecosistemas dependen en gran medida del movimiento del agua dentro de la cuenca, y como esta interactúa con el ambiente circundante (Crespo et al., 2011b)

Systematic review and evidence gap mapping of biomarkers associated with neurological manifestations in patients with COVID-19

Objective: This study aimed to synthesize the existing evidence on biomarkers related to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients who presented neurological events. Methods: A systematic review of observational studies (any design) following PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines and the Cochrane Collaboration recommendations was performed (PROSPERO: CRD42021266995). Searches were conducted in PubMed and Scopus (updated April 2023). The methodological quality of nonrandomized studies was assessed using the Newcastle‒Ottawa Scale (NOS). An evidence gap map was built considering the reported biomarkers and NOS results. Results: Nine specific markers of glial activation and neuronal injury were mapped from 35 studies published between 2020 and 2023. A total of 2,237 adult patients were evaluated in the included studies, especially during the acute phase of COVID-19. Neurofilament light chain (NfL) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) biomarkers were the most frequently assessed (n = 27 studies, 77%, and n = 14 studies, 40%, respectively). Although these biomarkers were found to be correlated with disease severity and worse outcomes in the acute phase in several studies (p < 0.05), they were not necessarily associated with neurological events. Overall, 12 studies (34%) were judged as having low methodological quality, 9 (26%) had moderate quality, and 9 (26%) had high quality. Conclusions: Different neurological biomarkers in neurosymptomatic COVID-19 patients were identified in observational studies. Although the evidence is still scarce and conflicting for some biomarkers, well-designed longitudinal studies should further explore the pathophysiological role of NfL, GFAP, and tau protein and their potential use for COVID-19 diagnosis and management.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Dynamical Behaviour of Test Particles in a Quasi-Spherical Spacetime and the Physical Meaning of Superenergy

We calculate the instantaneous proper radial acceleration of test particles (as measured by a locally defined Lorentzian observer) in a Weyl spacetime, close to the horizon. As expected from the Israel theorem, there appear some bifurcations with respect to the spherically symmetric case (Schwarzschild), which are explained in terms of the behaviour of the superenergy, bringing out the physical relevance of this quantity in the study of general relativistic systems.Comment: 14 pages, Latex. 4 figures. New references added. Typos corrected. To appear in Int. J. Theor. Phy