Digital Bricolage: Creating a Digital Transformation from Nothing

Current research offers limited knowledge on digital transformation of micro-enterprises, and even less so, micro-enterprises suffering systemic resource constraints. Addressing this gap, we examine how micro-enterprises use digital technologies to change and improve their businesses in the context of multiple resource constraints. Based on a large-scale qualitative study of micro-enterprises in Ghana and data from government and technology firms, we examine the question: how do micro-enterprises undergo a process of digital transformation by engaging in bricolage with digital technology? The preliminary findings show that digital transformation of micro-enterprises in resource-constrained environments emerges across three paths: (1) resource mobilization through the constitution of digital resources over time, (2) resource combination through digital / non-digital configurations, and (3) resource deployment through a specific way of using these resources. Based on the findings, we develop an initial process model of digital bricolage that advances understanding of digital transformation of micro-enterprises

Measuring relative volatility in high‐frequency data under the directional change approach

We introduce a new approach in measuring relative volatility between two markets based on the directional change (DC) method. DC is a data-driven approach for sampling financial market data such that the data are recorded when the price changes have reached a significant amplitude rather than recording data under a predetermined timescale. Under the DC framework, we propose a new concept of DC micro-market relative volatility to evaluate relative volatility between two markets. Unlike the time-series method, micro-market relative volatility redefines the timescale based on the frequency of the observed DC data between the two markets. We show that it is useful for measuring the relative volatility in micro-market activities (high-frequency data)

Hydrogen is neuroprotective against surgically induced brain injury

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Neurosurgical operations cause unavoidable damage to healthy brain tissues. Direct surgical injury as well as surgically induced oxidative stress contributes to the subsequent formation of brain edema. Therefore, we tested the neuroprotective effects of hydrogen (H₂) in an established surgical brain injury (SBI) model in rats.</p> <p>Materials and methods</p> <p>Adult male Sprague - Dawley rats (weight 300-350g) were divided into three groups to serve as sham operated, SBI without treatment, and SBI treated with H₂(2.9%). Brain water content, myeloperoxidase (MPO) assay, lipid peroxidation (LPO), and neurological function were measured at 24 hrs after SBI.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>SBI resulted in localized brain edema (p = < 0.001). Hydrogen (2.9%) administered concurrently with surgery significantly decreased the formation of cerebral edema (p = 0.028) and improved neurobehavioral score (p = 0.022). However, hydrogen treatment failed to reduce oxidative stress (LPO assay) or inflammation (MPO assay) in brain tissues.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Hydrogen appears to be promising as an effective, yet inexpensive way to reduce cerebral edema caused by surgical procedures. Hydrogen has the potential to improve clinical outcome, decrease hospital stay, and reduce overall cost to patients and the health care system.</p

Size Matters: The Number of Prostitutes and the Global HIV/AIDS Pandemic

Background. HIV/AIDS prevalence rates across countries of the world vary more than 500-fold from.06 % in Hungary to 33.4% in Swaziland. One of the most cited research papers in the field, utilizing cross country regression analysis to analyze other correlates with this HIV prevalence data, is flawed in that it weights each country’s results by the country’s population. Methodology/Principal Findings. Based on cross-country linear and multiple regressions using newly gathered data from UNAIDS, the number of female commercial sex workers as a percentage of the female adult population is robustly positively correlated with countrywide HIV/AIDS prevalence levels. Confirming earlier studies, female illiteracy levels, gender illiteracy differences and income inequality within countries are also significantly positively correlated with HIV/AIDS levels. Muslims as a percentage of the population, itself highly correlated with country circumcision rates and previously found to be negatively correlated with HIV/AIDS prevalence, is insignificant when the percentage of commercial sex workers in a population is included in the analysis. Conclusions/Significance. This paper provides strong evidence that when conducted properly, cross country regression data does not support the theory that male circumcision is the key to slowing the AIDS epidemic. Rather, it is the number of infected prostitutes in a country that is highly significant and robust in explaining HIV prevalence levels across countries. An explanation is offered for why Africa has been hit the hardest by the AIDS pandemic and why there appears to be very little correlation between HIV/AIDS infection rates and country wealth

Discussion on a possible neutrino detector located in India

We have identified some important and worthwhile physics opportunitites with a possible neutrino detector located in India. Particular emphasis is placed on the geographical advantage with a stress on the complimentary aspects with respect to other neutrino detectors already in operation.Comment: 9 pages; arXiv copy of published proceedings contributio

A Retrospective Interventional Cohort Study to Assess the Safety and Efficacy of Sandostatin LAR for Treatment of Recurrent and/or Refractory Meningiomas.

Background: Meningiomas are the most common adult primary intracranial tumors in the United States. Despite high recurrence rate of atypical and malignant subtypes, there is no approved drug indicated specifically for meningioma. Since the majority of meningiomas exhibit high density of somatostatin receptors subtypes, somatostatin analogs have been under close investigation. The aim of this study was to evaluate efficacy and safety of Sandostatin LAR (octreotide) in patients with progressive, and/or recurrent meningioma, and identify subset of patients who were more likely to benefit from this treatment. Methods: A total of 43 patients ≥ 18 years old were included in the retrospective chart review. The patients underwent treatment with Sandostatin LAR (octreotide) from 01.01.2010 to 06.01.2017 at the University of California, Irvine after confirmation of the diagnosis. Six months progression free survival (PFS6) was defined as a primary endpoint, and the overall survival (OS), safety, and toxicity were identified as secondary endpoints. Results: The OS for 6 months, 1, and 3 years for all WHO grades was 94.8, 88.1, and 67.0%, respectively. The PFS6 for WHO I, II, III, and all was 89.4, 89, 33.3, and 80% respectively. For patients with no prior surgeries, chemotherapy or radiation, the PFS6 was 88.9, 84.8, and 94.8%, respectively. Interestingly, the PFS6 was 90.5% for skull-based and 80% for 3-6 cm tumors. Patients with tumors in parasagittal location had PFS6 of 83.3% compared to PFS6 of 50.0% for patients with convexity tumors. Evaluation of PFS6 based on the effect of estrogen and progesterone on meningioma identified that ER-PR+ tumors had PFS6 of 87.8% while patients with ER-PR- meningiomas had PFS6 of 62.5%. Median TTP for WHO grade I, II, and III was 3.1, 2.40, and 0.26 years, respectively. Subgroup analysis showed that median TTP was 3.1 years for &lt;3 cm tumors, 3.22 years for skull-based tumors, 2.37 years for patients with prior surgeries and 3.10 years for patients with no history of chemotherapy. History of radiation had no effect on median TTP. Sandostatin LAR (octreotide) was well-tolerated. Conclusions:This is one of the largest retrospective analysis of meningioma patients treated with Sandostatin LAR (octreotide) suggesting that this treatment has minimal to no adverse events and could prolong overall survival, and progression free survival especially for patients with ER-PR+ tumors who underwent surgeries for small skull-based tumors

An assessment of validity and responsiveness of generic measures of health-related quality of life in hearing impairment

This article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.Purpose: This review examines psychometric performance of three widely used generic preference-based measures, that is, EuroQol 5 dimensions (EQ-5D), Health Utility Index 3 (HUI3) and Short-form 6 dimensions (SF-6D) in patients with hearing impairments. Methods: A systematic search was undertaken to identify studies of patients with hearing impairments where health state utility values were measured and reported. Data were extracted and analysed to assess the reliability, validity (known group differences and convergent validity) and responsiveness of the measures across hearing impairments. Results: Fourteen studies (18 papers) were included in the review. HUI3 was the most commonly used utility measures in hearing impairment. In all six studies, the HUI3 detected difference between groups defined by the severity of impairment, and four out of five studies detected statistically significant changes as a result of intervention. The only study available suggested that EQ-5D only had weak ability to discriminate difference between severity groups, and in four out of five studies, EQ-5D failed to detected changes. Only one study involved the SF-6D; thus, the information is too limited to conclude on its performance. Also evidence for the reliability of these measures was not found. Conclusion: Overall, the validity and responsiveness of the HUI3 in hearing impairment was good. The responsiveness of EQ-5D was relatively poor and weak validity was suggested by limited evidence. The evidence on SF-6D was too limited to make any judgment. More head-to-head comparisons of these and other preference measures of health are required.Medical Research Counci

Search algorithms as a framework for the optimization of drug combinations

Combination therapies are often needed for effective clinical outcomes in the management of complex diseases, but presently they are generally based on empirical clinical experience. Here we suggest a novel application of search algorithms, originally developed for digital communication, modified to optimize combinations of therapeutic interventions. In biological experiments measuring the restoration of the decline with age in heart function and exercise capacity in Drosophila melanogaster, we found that search algorithms correctly identified optimal combinations of four drugs with only one third of the tests performed in a fully factorial search. In experiments identifying combinations of three doses of up to six drugs for selective killing of human cancer cells, search algorithms resulted in a highly significant enrichment of selective combinations compared with random searches. In simulations using a network model of cell death, we found that the search algorithms identified the optimal combinations of 6-9 interventions in 80-90% of tests, compared with 15-30% for an equivalent random search. These findings suggest that modified search algorithms from information theory have the potential to enhance the discovery of novel therapeutic drug combinations. This report also helps to frame a biomedical problem that will benefit from an interdisciplinary effort and suggests a general strategy for its solution.Comment: 36 pages, 10 figures, revised versio

Relationship of cognitive function in patients with schizophrenia in remission to disability: a cross-sectional study in an Indian sample

Background: Cognitive deficits in various domains have been consistently replicated in patients with schizophrenia. Most studies looking at the relationship between cognitive dysfunction and functional disability are from developed countries. Studies from developing countries are few. The purpose of the present study was to compare the neurocognitive function in patients with schizophrenia who were in remission with that of normal controls and to determine if there is a relationship between measures of cognition and functional disability. &lt;p/&gt;Methods: This study was conducted in the Psychiatric Unit of a General Hospital in Mumbai, India. Cognitive function in 25 patients with schizophrenia in remission was compared to 25 normal controls. Remission was confirmed using the brief psychiatric rating scale (BPRS) and scale for the assessment of negative symptoms (SANS). Subjects were administered a battery of cognitive tests covering aspects of memory, executive function and attention. The results obtained were compared between the groups. Correlation analysis was used to look for relationship between illness factors, cognitive function and disability measured using the Indian disability evaluation and assessment scale. &lt;p/&gt;Results: Patients with schizophrenia showed significant deficits on tests of attention, concentration, verbal and visual memory and tests of frontal lobe/executive function. They fared worse on almost all the tests administered compared to normal controls. No relationship was found between age, duration of illness, number of years of education and cognitive function. In addition, we did not find a statistically significant relationship between cognitive function and scores on the disability scale. &lt;p/&gt;Conclusion: The data suggests that persistent cognitive deficits are seen in patients with schizophrenia under remission. The cognitive deficits were not associated with symptomatology and functional disability. It is possible that various factors such as employment and family support reduce disability due to schizophrenia in developing countries like India. Further studies from developing countries are required to explore the relationship between cognitive deficits, functional outcome and the role of socio-cultural variables as protective factors

Evidence for a novel coding sequence overlapping the 5'-terminal ~90 codons of the Gill-associated and Yellow head okavirus envelope glycoprotein gene

The genus Okavirus (order Nidovirales) includes a number of viruses that infect crustaceans, causing major losses in the shrimp industry. These viruses have a linear positive-sense ssRNA genome of ~26-27 kb, encoding a large replicase polyprotein that is expressed from the genomic RNA, and several additional proteins that are expressed from a nested set of 3'-coterminal subgenomic RNAs. In this brief report, we describe the bioinformatic discovery of a new, apparently coding, ORF that overlaps the 5' end of the envelope glycoprotein encoding sequence, ORF3, in the +2 reading frame. The new ORF has a strong coding signature and, in fact, is more conserved at the amino acid level than the overlapping region of ORF3. We propose that translation of the new ORF initiates at a conserved AUG codon separated by just 2 nt from the ORF3 AUG initiation codon, resulting in a novel 86 amino acid protein