Fuel on the Invention Funnel: Technology Licensing-in, Antecedents and Invention

In this paper, we examine the impact of technology licensing-in on firm invention performance. Studying a sample of 266 licensees and matched non-licensees using a two-part model specification, we find that licensees are more likely to introduce inventions than their non-licensee counterparts. This holds both if we consider invention in general, and invention in the licensed technological class only. We also show that familiarity with the licensed technology and technological specialization drives licensees to pursue a narrow invention strategy primarily focusing on the technological class specified in the license agreement.Licensing-in, Invention, Dynamic Capabilities, Learning Opportunities, Technological familiarity, Technological specialization

Az ipari parkok a területi versenyképességben: telephelyek vagy fejlesztési csomópontok?

The MATLAB/C program take version 3.1 is a program for simulation of X-ray projections from 3D volume data. It is based on an older C version by Muller-Merbach as well as an extended C version by Turbell. The program can simulate 2D X-ray projections from 3D objects. These data can then be input to 3D reconstruction algorithms. Here however, we only demonstrate a couple of 2D reconstruction algorithms, written in MATLAB. Simple MATLAB examples show how to generate the take projections followed by subsequent reconstruction. Compared to the old take version, the C code have been carefully revised. A preliminary, rather untested feature of using a polychromatic X-ray source with different energy levels was already included in the old take version. The current polychromatic feature X-ray is however carefully tested. For example, it has been compared with the results from the program described by Malusek et al. We also demonstrate experiments with a polychromatic X-ray source and a Plexiglass object giving the beam-hardening artefact. Detector sensitivity for different energy levels is not included in take. However, in section~\refsec:realexperiment, we describe a technique to include the detector sensitivity into the energy spectrum. Finally, an experiment with comparison of real and simulated data were performed. The result wasn't completely successful, but we still demonstrate it. Contemporary analytical reconstruction methods for helical cone-beam CT have to be designed to handle the Long Object Problem. Normally, a moderate amount of over-scanning is sufficient for reconstruction of a certain Region-of-interest (ROI). Unfortunately, for iterative methods, it seems that the useful ROI will diminish for every iteration step. The remedies proposed here are twofold. Firstly, we use careful extrapolation and masking of projection data. Secondly, we generate and utilize projection data from incompletely reconstructed volume parts, which is rather counter-intuitive and contradictory to our initial assumptions. The results seem very encouraging. Even voxels close to the boundary in the original ROI are as well enhanced by the iterative loop as the middle part

Coagulation in children with liver disease

About 100 new children in Sweden require care at a tertiary pediatric ward each year for severe liver disease. These children are at risk for both severe gastrointestinal bleeding, which may be life threatening, and intra- or extrahepatic thrombosis. Both pro- and anticoagulant factors are synthesized in the liver and their levels decrease as liver failure progresses. Coagulation factors are thus used as prognostic tests. The balance between pro- and anticoagulant mechanisms, although maintained in liver disease, seems to be instable and can easily tip towards either bleeding or thrombosis. The coagulation system in children undergoes age-specific changes and the etiology and/or pathogenesis of pediatric liver diseases is different than in adults. The aims of this thesis were to improve the treatment and the analysis of coagulation defects in pediatric liver disease and also to improve the prognostic evaluation in liver disease. In Study 1 children with liver disease were treated with recombinant FVIIa due to life threatening bleeding or as prophylaxis prior to invasive procedures. In the first group, the bleeding decreased in 50% of the evaluated occasions and a combination of rFVIIa and octreotide in gastrointestinal hemorrhage was advantageous. In the second group, rFVIIa was useful as prophylactic treatment before various diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. In Study 2 the thrombin generation test was evaluated in children with liver disease, with and without increased bleeding risk. The results were compared to age-matched healthy controls. This assay did not provide additional information compared to routine coagulation tests. In Study 3 the correlation between bile acids and coagulation factors was investigated. In children with markedly elevated levels of bile acids, i.e. above 200 μmol/L, the levels of coagulation factors increased with rising levels of bile acids, despite a worse clinical outcome. In an in vitro study, no interference between bile acids and coagulation factor concentrations was detected. In Study 4 the Owren method for analyzing INR in patients with liver disease was assessed. Plasma samples from adult patients with liver disease were analyzed at eight laboratories. The coefficient of variance between the laboratories was 5.3%, which is low. Additionally, the ISIVKA and ISIliver were determined and the difference between them was below 10%. These results show that the previously reported high interlaboratory variability regarding INR in patients with liver disease does not constitute a problem when Owren-based reagents are used. Conclusion: rFVIIa is beneficial for selected patients with severe bleeding and as prophylactic treatment. However, with current knowledge regarding coagulation in liver disease, new treatment strategies aiming to maintain the hemostatic balance in critical situations need to be studied. The thrombin generation test did not provide more information than routine tests. A modified method might be more successful. Coagulation factors may be questionable as prognostic markers in patients with highly elevated bile acids. The mechanisms behind the effect of high bile acids on the coagulation system are very important targets of further studies. Finally, Owren-based reagents for measurement of INR in patients with liver disease provide a solution to the problem with high interlaboratory variability seen internationally. This thesis adds important information regarding several aspects of the coagulation in children with liver disease and highlights directions for future research

Fuel on the Invention Funnel: Technology Licensing-in, Antecedents and Invention

Technology management has so far largely overlooked that licensing-in may represent learning opportunities for the recipient firm. Attention has primarily been directed towards a more tactic explanation for the decision of firms to in-license external technologies. However, increasing empirical evidence witnesses an inducing effect of licensing-in on the inventive behavior of the single firm which, in turn, feeds its development and growth. The aim of this paper is to explore whether licensing-in in fact acts as a catalyst for inventive activities pursued by licensee firms. We employ a two-part model to investigate the inventiveness of 133 licensees compared to an equally sized matched sample of non-licensees. The study reveals that licensees exhibit elevated invention performances compared to non-licensee counterparts. This holds both when considering invention in general and invention in licensed technological class.. In addition, the paper reveals that familiarity with the licensed technology and technological specialization instigates the licensee to pursue a narrow invention strategy as defined by the technological classes of the licensed patent.Technology management has so far largely overlooked that licensing-in may represent learning opportunities for the recipient firm. Attention has primarily been directed towards a more tactic explanation for the decision of firms to in-license external technologies. However, increasing empirical evidence witnesses an inducing effect of licensing-in on the inventive behavior of the single firm which, in turn, feeds its development and growth. The aim of this paper is to explore whether licensing-in in fact acts as a catalyst for inventive activities pursued by licensee firms. We employ a two-part model to investigate the inventiveness of 133 licensees compared to an equally sized matched sample of non-licensees. The study reveals that licensees exhibit elevated invention performances compared to non-licensee counterparts. This holds both when considering invention in general and invention in licensed technological class.. In addition, the paper reveals that familiarity with the licensed technology and technological specialization instigates the licensee to pursue a narrow invention strategy as defined by the technological classes of the licensed patent.Non-Refereed Working Papers / of national relevance onl

Orientālistika. Starp Austrumiem un Rietumiem: kultūru un reliģiju dialogs pirms totalitārā režīma, totalitārā režīma laikā un pēc totalitārā režīma

Based on papers read at the 1st International Scholarly Conference of the Latvian Society for the Study of Religion, University of Latvia, Riga, October 6-8, 2012.Support for Conference Proceedings by ERAF Project Support for the international cooperation projects and other international cooperation activities in research and technology at the University of Latvia No. 2010/0202/2DP/2.1.1.2.0/10/APIA/VIAA/01

GMSF: Global Matching Scene Flow

We tackle the task of scene flow estimation from point clouds. Given a source and a target point cloud, the objective is to estimate a translation from each point in the source point cloud to the target, resulting in a 3D motion vector field. Previous dominant scene flow estimation methods require complicated coarse-to-fine or recurrent architectures as a multi-stage refinement. In contrast, we propose a significantly simpler single-scale one-shot global matching to address the problem. Our key finding is that reliable feature similarity between point pairs is essential and sufficient to estimate accurate scene flow. To this end, we propose to decompose the feature extraction step via a hybrid local-global-cross transformer architecture which is crucial to accurate and robust feature representations. Extensive experiments show that GMSF sets a new state-of-the-art on multiple scene flow estimation benchmarks. On FlyingThings3D, with the presence of occlusion points, GMSF reduces the outlier percentage from the previous best performance of 27.4% to 11.7%. On KITTI Scene Flow, without any fine-tuning, our proposed method shows state-of-the-art performance

Differences in Metabolite Composition of Aloe barbadensis Mill. Extracts Lead to Differential Effects on Human Blood T Cell Activity In Vitro

Aloe barbadensis Mill. (Aloe) is used for diverse therapeutic properties including immunomodulation. However, owing to the compositionally complex nature of Aloe, bioactive component(s) responsible for its beneficial properties, though thought to be attributed to polysaccharides (acemannan), remain unknown. We therefore aimed to determine the metabolite composition of various commercial Aloe extracts and assess their effects on human blood T cell activity in vitro. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from healthy donors were stimulated polyclonally in presence or absence of various Aloe extracts. T cell phenotype and proliferation were investigated by flow cytometry. Aloe extracts were analyzed using targeted 1H-NMR spectroscopy for standard phytochemical quality characterization and untargeted gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) for metabolite profiling. Aloe extracts differing in their standard phytochemical composition had varying effects on T cell activation, proliferation, apoptosis, and cell-death in vitro, although this was not related to the acemannan content. Furthermore, each Aloe extract had its own distinct metabolite profile, where extracts rich in diverse sugar and sugar-derivatives were associated with reduced T cell activity. Our results demonstrate that all commercial Aloe extracts are unique with distinct metabolite profiles, which lead to differential effects on T cell activity in vitro, independent of the acemannan content

The concept of rebalanced hemostasis in patients with liver disease:Communication from the ISTH SSC working group on hemostatic management of patients with liver disease

Patients with liver diseases acquire complex alterations in their hemostatic system that may lead to abnormalities in routine diagnostic test of hemostasis. Thrombocytopenia, prolongations in the prothrombin time and activated partial thromboplastin time, and decreased plasma fibrinogen are common in patients with advanced liver disease. Historically, liver diseases therefore have been classified as an acquired bleeding disorder. Laboratory and clinical observations have demonstrated that although routine diagnostic tests of hemostasis suggest a hypocoagulable state, patients with liver disease also tend to develop thrombotic events. Overall, patients have commensurate changes in both pro- and antihemostatic pathways. This new hemostatic balance, however, appears much more fragile than the hemostatic balance in individuals with normal liver function, and patients with liver disease can readily experience both hemostasis-related bleeding and thrombotic events. These insights into the hemostatic balance in patients with liver disease have led to revised recommendations for clinical management of hemostasis. In 2020, an SSC working group within the ISTH has been founded with the aim to disseminate new concepts on prevention and treatment of bleeding and thrombosis in patients with liver disease. The current document will outline the hemostatic changes in patients with liver disease, the limitations of routine diagnostic tests of hemostasis, and the concept of rebalanced hemostasis

JAK/STAT Signalling in Huntington's Disease Immune Cells.

Huntington's disease (HD) is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder caused by a CAG repeat expansion in the huntingtin (HTT) gene. Both central and peripheral innate immune activation have been described as features of the disease. Isolated human HD monocytes have been shown to produce more cytokines upon LPS stimulation compared to control monocytes. Understanding alterations in the signalling cascades responsible and activated by this increase in pro-inflammatory cytokine production is crucial in understanding the molecular basis of this phenomenon. Here we investigated the signalling cascade most commonly activated by pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6 - the JAK/STAT signalling cascade. Using flow cytometry, we show that one out of three key transcription factors activated by JAK/STAT signalling is altered in primary human HD innate immune cells, suggesting that this pathway may only play a minor, additive role in the immune cell dysfunction in HD