Networks of People in Specialty Production: Family Firms in the Iron and Steel Wire Industries in Spain (1870-2000)

Capital intensive industries in specialized niches of production have constituted solid ground for family firms in Spain, as evidenced by the experience of the iron and steel wire industries between 1870 and 2000. The embeddedness of these firms in their local and regional environments have allowed the creation of networks that, together with favourable institutional conditions, significantly explain the dominance of family entrepreneurship in iron and steel wire manufacturing in Spain, until the end of the 20th century. Dominance of family firms at the regional level has not been an obstacle for innovation in wire manufacturing in Spain, which has taken place even when institutional conditions blocked innovation and traditional networking. Therefore, economic theories about the difficulties dynastic family firms may have to perform appropriately in science-based industries must be questioned.family firms, spanish economic history, steel wire industries

Gender and family firms: an interdisciplinary approach

This study contributes to developing our understanding of gender and family business, a topic so crucial to recent policies about competitive growth. It does so by providing an interdisciplinary synthesis of some major theoretical debates. It also contributes to this understanding by illuminating the role of women and their participation in the practices of the family and the business. Finally, it explores gender relations and the notion that leadership in family business may take complex forms crafted within constantly changing relationships. Leadership is introduced as a concept that captures the reality of women and men in family firms in a better way than other concepts used by historians or economists like ownership and management.genere, gender, empresa familiar, family firms, leadership, lideratge

The creation and transfer of entrepreneurship in emerging economies of the world. An approach through large family-owned corporations of China, Mexico and Brazil

This article analyses the process of creation and transfer of entrepreneurial competitive advantages in large family firms of three dynamic emerging economies of the 21st century: Brazil, Mexico and China. It does so by studing path dependencies and the creation of dynamic capabilities in three case studies: Pao de Açúcar (Brazil), Grupo Carso (Mexico) and Hutchison Whampoa (China). The interdisciplinary perspective of the article enables a long-term analysis of entrepreneurship, and facilitates the study of one important topic of debate in family business studies: the generational transfer of the so-called entrepreneurial spirit. The results of the article show on the one hand that existing historically determined institutions ruling local and global markets, and also inherited practices and values, have highly conditioned the strategies used to create and transfer entrepreneurship between generations in some of the largest family firms in Brazil, China and Mexico

Standing the test of time: External factors influencing family firm longevity in Germany and Spain during the twentieth century

While most research on family business longevity focuses on how internal corporate governance issue impact resilience, the aim of this article is to foreground the relevance of external environmental factors, and to do so in an internationally comparative perspective. By historically comparing the largest family businesses in Germany and Spain in the twentieth century, we find that they differ significantly in age and ask how external factors help us better understand these variances. After analysing the institutional framework of the two countries during the second part of the 20th century, we explore the strategic responses developed in reaction to that framework by four of the largest family businesses in the two countries. With this, we strive to capture the interdependent nature of internal decision-making processes and external environmental changes, ultimately arguing for a more holistic understanding of family business resilience over time

Transformation optics for plasmonics: from metasurfaces to excitonic strong coupling Optique transformationnelle pour la plasmonique : des métasurfaces à l’excitonique en fort couplage

We review the latest theoretical advances in the application of the framework of Transformation Optics for the analytical description of deeply sub-wavelength electromagnetic phenomena. First, we present a general description of the technique, together with its usual exploitation for metamaterial conception and optimization in different areas of wave physics. Next, we discuss in detail the design of plasmonic metasurfaces, including the description of singular geometries which allow for broadband absorption in ultrathin platforms. Finally, we discuss the quasi-analytical treatment of plasmon–exciton strong coupling in nanocavities at the single emitter levelA.I.F.-D. acknowledges funding from the Spanish MICINN under Contract RTI2018-099737-B-I00 and the “María de Maeztu” programme for Units of Excellence in R&D (MDM-2014-0377). He was also supported by a 2019 Leonardo Grant for Researchers and Cultural Creators, BBVA Foundation

Aplicación de tecnologías de la web semántica para la catalogación de contenidos musicales

El siguiente artículo describe el proceso de aplicación de tecnologías de la Web semántica para el enriquecimiento de una biblioteca de contenidos musicales, en el contexto del proyecto Semusici. El propósito del proyecto Semusici es investigar como las tecnologías de la Web semántica pueden ser aplicadas a bibliotecas digitales y como esto puede mejorar la búsqueda y la accesibilidad. Este proyecto parte de los resultados del proyecto de eContent Harmos, que definía una taxonomía musical para la catalogación de clases magistrales, y propone una metodología para la conversión de esta taxonomía en una ontología y la migración de los contenidos de Harmos

Environmental enrichment results in both brain connectivity efficiency and selective improvement in different behavioral tasks

Exposure to environmental enrichment (EE) has been a useful model for studying the effects of experience on brain plasticity, but to date, few is known about the impact of this condition on the brain functional networks that probably underlies the multiple behavioral improvements. Hence, we assessed the effect of an EE protocol in adult Wistar rats on the performance in several behavioral tasks testing different domains (Open field (OP): locomotor activity; Elevated-zero maze (EZM): anxiety-related behaviors; 5-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT): attentional processes; 4-arm radial water maze (4-RAWM): spatial memory) in order to check its effectiveness in a wide range of functions. After this, we analyzed the functional brain connectivity underlying each experimental condition through cytochrome C oxidase (COx) histochemistry. Our EE protocol reduced both locomotor activity in the OP and anxiety-related behaviors in the EZM. On the other hand, enriched rats showed more accuracy in the 4-RAWM, whereas 5-CSRTT performance was not significantly ameliorated by EE condition. In relation to COx functional connectivity, we found that EE reduced the number of strong positive correlations both in basal and training conditions, suggesting a modulating effect on specific brain connections. Our results suggest that EE seems to have a selective effect on specific brain regions, such as prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, leading to a more efficient brain connectivity.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. PPIT.UMA.B1.2017/3

Antitumor and antiangiogenic potential of solomonamide synthesis intermediates

Es comunicación (formato panel) a congreso internacionalIn this work we developed a new synthetic strategy towards the solomonamides. a novel class of cyclopeptides of marine origin. The described synthetic approach utilized an olefin metathesis reaction to form the [15]-membered ring contained in these natural products. During the synthetic process, a diverse set of analogues was generated and we evaluated their potential antitumor activity in vitro. For this purpose we performed in vitro proliferation assays, determining the IC50 values of the compounds in a panel of tumor cell lines. In addition, we evaluated the possible antiangiogenic effects of these solomonamide analogues by using in vitro endothelial cell differentiation assays. Our results showed that the potential antitumor and antiangiogenic activity of the studied analogues depended on their chemical structure, suggesting that the presence of specific functional groups could be responsible of their biological activity. Further studies are needed to understand the basis of the observed activities in endothelial and tumor cells.Our experimental work is supported by grants BIO2014-56092-R (MINECO and FEDER) and P12-CTS-1507 (Andalusian Government and FEDER) and funds from group BIO-267 (Andalusian Government). The "CIBER de Enfermedades Raras" is an initiative from the ISCIII (Spain). This communicaction has the support of a travel grant "Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The implementation of expectancy-based strategic processes is delayed in normal aging

The present research examined if the time needed to implement expectancy-based strategic processes is different in younger and healthy older adults. In four experiments participants from both age groups performed different strategic priming tasks. These included a greater proportion of incongruent (or unrelated; 80%) than of congruent (or related; 20%) trials. With this procedure performance is worse for congruent (less frequent) than for incongruent (more frequent) trials, thus demonstrating that the relative frequency information can be used to predict the upcoming target. To explore the time course of these expectancy-based effects, the prime-target SOA was manipulated across experiments through a range of intervals: 400, 1000 and 2000 ms. Participants also performed a change localization and an antisaccade task to assess their working memory and attention control capacities. The results showed that increases in age were associated with (a) a slower processing-speed, (b) a decline in WM capacity, and (c) a decreased capacity for attentional control. The latter was evidenced by a disproportionate deterioration of performance in the antisaccade trials compared to the prosaccade ones in the older group. Results from the priming tasks showed a delay in the implementation of expectancies in older adults. Whereas younger participants showed strategic effects already at 1000 ms, older participants consistently failed to show expectancy-based priming during the same interval. Importantly, these effects appeared later at 2000 ms, being similar in magnitude to those by the younger participants and unaffected by task practice. The present findings demonstrate that the ability to implement expectancy-based strategies is slowed down in normal aging

How patients view their contribution as partners in the enhancement of patient safety in clinical care

Despite the call from the World Health Organization for more active involvement from patients in the prevention of health care-related risks, there is still insufficient evidence about how patients can be more proactive in the safety of their own care. This study helps understand the perspective of patients as partners regarding their roles, as well as their relatively untapped potential in detecting and limiting adverse events (AEs) for patient safety. 17 patients-as-partners were interviewed on five themes: 1) Behavior of patients/relatives for avoiding AEs; 2) Competencies sought in patients/relatives to play an active role in patient safety; 3) Factors limiting or facilitating the role of patients in the safety of their own care; 4) The Partnership in Care approach as a way of limiting the occurrence of AEs. Patients-as-partners revealed several key behaviours that helped patients avoid AEs: proactivity; communication; trust; vigilance; reporting and flagging; being accompanied by relatives, being accompanied by health professionals. Furthermore, several competencies helped as well: being curious, observant, responsible, able to trust, respectful, and diplomatic. Finally, factors facilitating and limiting patient engagement in safety included personal characteristics, information, interpersonal relations, and organisational aspects. Through the Partnership in Care approach, patients-as-partners develop behaviours and competencies which are yet to be directly applied to improve patient safety. However, obstacles remain: the engagement and official training of patients-as-partners and their appropriate roles in safety, including the identification of AEs; and finally, the redefinition of AEs so as to include the patients’ point of view and experiences