Social Networks, Learning, and Flexibility: Sourcing Scientific Knowledge in New Biotechnology Firms

We examine how two highly successful new biotechnology firms (NBFs) source their most critical input -- scientific knowledge. We find that scientists at the two NBFs enter into large numbers of collaborative research efforts with scientists at other organizations, especially universities. Formal market contracts are rarely used to govern these exchanges of scientific knowledge. Our findings suggest that the use of boundary-spanning social networks by the two NBFs increases both their learning and their flexibility in ways that would not be possible within a self-contained hierarchical organization.

The power of the Third Side : an interview with Pablo Lumerman

CITATION: Botha, L. (2015). The power of the Third Side : an interview with Pablo Lumerman. Reflections from Practice Series No. 7 (B. Ganson, ed.). The Hague: ACCESS Facility.Pablo Lumerman is a dialogue and development facilitator and a community-company-government conflict mediator. Pablo holds a degree with honors in Political Science from the University of Buenos Aires. He also holds a Master’s in Local Development from the National University of General San Martín and the Autonomous University of Madrid

Culture of conflict resolution : an interview with Ashok Panikkar

CITATION: Botha, L. with Lumerman, P. (2015). Culture of conflict resolution : an interview with Ashol Panikkar. Reflections from Practice Series No. 2 (B. Ganson, ed.). The Hague: ACCESS Facility.Ashok Panikkar is a is Meta-Culture's principle consultant and a passionate conflict resolution professional. He has worked as a conflict management consultant, mediator, facilitator and trainer all over the United States, India and in Europe. Prior to starting Meta-Culture, now India's first full service conflict and dialogue facilitation center, he directed an organizational conflict resolution program in Cambridge, Massachusetts, successfully mediating hundreds of disputes in the corporate and civil society sectors. He did his undergraduate studies in Visual Communication and has a Master's degree in Critical and Creative Thinking from the University of Massachusetts, Boston

Getting beyond "ground zero" : an interview with Pascal Da Rocha

CITATION: Botha, L. with Lumerman, P. (2015). Getting beyond “ground zero”: an interview with Pascal Da Rocha. Reflections from Practice Series No. 15 (B. Ganson, ed.). The Hague: ACCESS Facility.Pascal Da Rocha has over 18 years of experience in crisis negotiations in volatile environments. He provides political advisory and political mediation activities for organizations such as UN, NATO, and EU. His thematic expertise is in extractive industries, gender, national dialogue and reconciliation and security arrangements. Pascal also provides advisory services for Fortune 500 companies in change management strategies and intercultural communication. Pascal holds lecturing appointments at Columbia University in New York and IESEG School of Management in Paris/Lille, France. He has published on diversity management, political mediation and collective leadership in organizations

The value of inter-cultural intelligence : an interview with Mirna Angela Cuentas

CITATION: Botha, L. with Lumerman, P. (2015). The value of inter-cultural intelligence : an interview with Mirna Angela Cuentas. Reflections from Practice Series No.9 (B. Ganson, ed.). The Hague: ACCESS Facility.Mirna Angela Cuentas is an expert facilitator of State-Business-Community dialogues. She has recently been involved with the Conflict Transformation Collaborative (CTC). She has worked for many years with indigenous communities on agricultural issues, including land rights

Cancerization of cutaneous flap reconstruction for oral squamous cell carcinoma: report of three cases studied with the mtDNA D-loop sequence analysis

International audienceAims: tissue defects, resulting from surgical resection of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), are routinely reconstructed with skin graft. OSCC arising from the grafted skin have been described, however, it is still unclear whether primary and second tumours have a common clonal origin. By screening mitochondrial DNA D-loop region (mtDNA), we evaluated the clonal relationship between the primary OSCC and the second neoplastic features appearing in the skin graft in three patients. Methods and Results: in all the three cases, the neoplastic lesions arising in the skin graft showed a clonal relationship with the previous OSCC and, on the basis of the results obtained with the mtDNA analysis, could be considered a recurrence of the primary OSCC rather than a second primary OSCC. Conclusions: Starting from a field of genetically altered cells of the oral mucosa, the spreading of the clonal cell population to the cutaneous flap might be stimulated by cytokines produced by the grafted skin. More studies are needed to evaluate the molecular relationship between primary and second OSCC to identify patients at higher risk of developing a second tumour of the skin graft

Recent advances in optical diagnosis of oral cancers: review and future perspectives

Optical diagnosis techniques offer several advantages over traditional approaches, including objectivity, speed and cost, and these label-free, non-invasive methods have the potential to change the future work-flow of cancer management. The oral cavity is particularly accessible and thus such methods may serve as alternate/adjunct tools to traditional methods. Recently, in vivo human clinical studies have been initiated with a view to clinical translation of such technologies. A comprehensive review of optical methods in oral cancer diagnosis is presented. Following an introduction to the epidemiology and aetiological factors associated with oral cancers currently employed diagnostic methods and their limitations are presented. A thorough review of fluorescence, infrared absorption and Raman spectroscopic methods in oral cancer diagnosis is presented. The applicability of minimally invasive methods based on serum/saliva is also discussed. The review concludes with a discussion on future demands and scope of developments from a clinical point of view

A single-embryo, single-cell time-resolved model for mouse gastrulation

Mouse embryonic development is a canonical model system for studying mammalian cell fate acquisition. Recently, single-cell atlases comprehensively charted embryonic transcriptional landscapes, yet inference of the coordinated dynamics of cells over such atlases remains challenging. Here, we introduce a temporal model for mouse gastrulation, consisting of data from 153 individually sampled embryos spanning 36 h of molecular diversification. Using algorithms and precise timing, we infer differentiation flows and lineage specification dynamics over the embryonic transcriptional manifold. Rapid transcriptional bifurcations characterize the commitment of early specialized node and blood cells. However, for most lineages, we observe combinatorial multi-furcation dynamics rather than hierarchical transcriptional transitions. In the mesoderm, dozens of transcription factors combinatorially regulate multifurcations, as we exemplify using time-matched chimeric embryos of Foxc1/Foxc2 mutants. Our study rejects the notion of differentiation being governed by a series of binary choices, providing an alternative quantitative model for cell fate acquisition

Smoking and drinking in relation to oral potentially malignant disorders in Puerto Rico: a case-control study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Oral cancer incidence is high on the Island of Puerto Rico (PR), particularly among males. As part of a larger study conducted in PR, we evaluated smoking and drinking as risk factors for oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Persons diagnosed with either an OPMD (n = 86) [oral epithelial dysplasia (OED), oral hyperkeratosis/epithelial hyperplasia without OED] or a benign oral tissue condition (n = 155) were identified through PR pathology laboratories. Subjects were interviewed using a standardized, structured questionnaire that obtained information, including detailed histories of smoking and drinking. Odds ratios (ORs) for smoking and drinking in relation to having an OPMD, relative to persons with a benign oral tissue condition, were obtained using logistic regression and adjusted for age, gender, education, fruit/vegetable intake and smoking or drinking.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>For persons with an OPMD and relative to individuals with a benign oral tissue condition, the adjusted OR for current smoking was 4.32 (95% CI: 1.99-9.38), while for former smokers, the OR_adjwas 1.47 (95% CI: 0.67-3.21), each OR_adjrelative to never smokers. With regard to drinking, no adjusted ORs approached statistical significance, and few point estimates exceeded 1.0, whether consumption was defined in terms of ever, current, level (drinks/week), or beverage type.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In this study, conducted in Puerto Rico, current smoking was a substantial risk factor for OPMDs while former smokers had a considerably reduced risk compared to current smokers. There was little evidence suggesting that alcohol consumption was positively associated with OPMD risk.</p