Adenome pleomorphe des glandes salivaires accessoires

Objective : Pleomorphic adenoma (PA) is the most common benign neoplasm of the minor salivary glands. Clinical behavior,diagnosis, treatment modalities and evolution of nine cases of pleomorphic adenoma were discussed.Materials and methods : This is a descriptive and retrospective study about 9 cases of pleomorphic adenoma conductedover a period of 20 years (1990 à 2009) at the ENT department of Sousse (Tunisia).Results : There were 5 men and 4 women having a mean age of 40 years. The main site of this adenoma was the hard palate. The others 3 tumors were seen in the nasal cavity, in the parapharyngeal space and in cervical soft tissues. Clinical examination showed a swelling at the level of the interested region. Computed tomography (CT) was made in 5 cases,associated to the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 2 cases. The treatment was based in surgical excision of the tumors. Histologically, the tumor showed features of a benign PA in 8 cases and of malignant PA in 1 case. Two patients had a documented local recurrence. The evolution was good for the first patient after secondary excision of the tumor.The patient presenting a carcinoma ex pleomorphic adenoma developed quickly pulmonary and cerebral metastases.Conclusion : Pleomorphic adenoma of minor salivary gland is generally known to be a slow-growing tumour. They must be evoked before all painless swelling in the upper aerodigestive tract developed under a healthy mucosa. The surgical management is basically total resection of the tumor with a safety margin of 5 mm. Longer follow-up was needed due to the possibility of recurrences and malignancy transformation.Keywords : Pleomorphic adenoma, Minor salivary gland, Imaging

Inhibitors of retrograde trafficking active against ricin and Shiga toxins also protect cells from several viruses, Chlamydiales and Leishmania

Medical countermeasures to treat biothreat agent infections require broad-spectrum therapeutics that do not induce agent resistance. A cell-based high-throughput screen (HTS) against ricin toxin combined with hit optimization allowed selection of a family of compounds that meet these requirements. The hit compound Retro-2 and its derivatives have been demonstrated to be safe in vivo in mice even at high doses. Moreover, Retro-2 is an inhibitor of retrograde transport that affects syntaxin-5- dependent toxins and pathogens. As a consequence, it has a broad-spectrum activity that has been demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo against ricin, Shiga toxin-producing O104:H4 enterohemorrhagic E. coli and Leishmania sp. and in vitro against Ebola, Marburg and poxviruses and Chlamydiales. An effect is anticipated on other toxins or pathogens that use retrograde trafficking and syntaxin-5. Since Retro-2 targets cell components of the host and not directly the pathogen, no selection of resistant pathogens is expected. These lead compounds need now to be developed as drugs for human use

On the Impact of Blockchain Technology on Business Models and Supply Chain Management

Digitalization is changing the way companies create value. It is an umbrella term for diverse applications of digital technologies to processes inside companies and along the value chain. This research aims at understanding how literature has addressed the impact of blockchain technology on business models (BM) and supply chains. The study is based on a simple framework assuming that blockchain technology can affect BM directly, but also indirectly via supply chain management (SCM). Thus, three types of relationships are studied: i) the impact of blockchain on BMs, ii) the impact of blockchain on SCM, and iii) the impact of blockchain on BMs via SCM. To this aim, a systematic literature review is conducted using the Web of Science and Scopus databases. The selected 78 relevant articles are analyzed both by descriptive and content analysis. Results show that blockchain technology can affect BMs either generically or in specific industries, while it affects SCM on the dimensions of 1) efficiency and process improvement, 2) transparency and traceability, 3) sustainable SCM, and 4) supply chain collaboration. The indirectly impact of blockchain on BMs via SCM act on the dimensions of 1) supply chain transparency, 2) supply chain restructuring and 3) supply chain collaboration. This paper concludes with a research agenda discussing the open research questions before blockchain can achieve wide adoption in practice

Scalability and robustness of business models for sustainability: A simulation experiment

Entrepreneurial ventures increasingly aim at developing viable business models for solving societal or ecological challenges. Such business models for sustainability (BMfS) build on reinforcing mechanisms of value creation and capture that allow achieving financial and sustainability objectives simultaneously. To date, we do not know much about the successful design of such business models. This research aims to reduce this gap by experimentally exploring their scalability and robustness in different environmental conditions. Rooted in the literature on business models and innovation adoption, we develop a simulation model that integrates various dimensions of BMfS. We apply the simulation to Coursera, an entrepreneurial venture with the social mission of making high-quality education globally accessible. The simulation allows us to test hypotheses about the venture's financial and sustainability performance over time. We find that the business model is highly scalable but shows limited robustness to strong competitive pressure. We derive implications for the effective design of business models and discuss how the findings contribute to sustainability literature

Business models for electric vehicles: Literature review and key insights

In many countries, the market for electric vehicles is not scaling up as expected despite huge public subsidies and technological progresses. One potential explanation is the absence of profitable business models that support commercialization and drive wide diffusion of electric vehicles. Business models that served conventional cars may not be appropriate for electric vehicles because of technological limitations such as shorter driving range and long charging cycles as well as higher acquisition cost. Recent years, however, have witnessed a growing body of scientific literature on electric vehicle business models. Nevertheless, the insights from this literature are fragmented and rarely address the business model with all its constituting elements. In this article, we review relevant literature on electric vehicle business models and distill key insights along each business model element. This way, our study provides a comprehensive and condensed overview of state-of-the-art research, while identifying potential directions for future research for scholars

A Literature-Based Exploration of Servitization in Engineer-to-Order Companies

Servitization allows manufacturing companies to enrich their value proposition with services. It enables them to differentiate their offers from competitors, while capitalizing more on digital technologies. Servitization practices such as maintenance services, training and advisory, or rental and leasing solutions are widespread among many sectors. In this paper, we focus on the ETO context. We explore the literature to capture how and why servitization has been adopted by ETO companies. Based on our findings, we build a theoretical framework that we partly validate through an analysis of secondary sources. We conclude the paper with possible future research directions