Boon or curse? A contingent view on the relationship between strategic planning and organizational ambidexterity

Numerous scholars have attempted to explain which factors allow for organizational ambidexterity. Strategic planning, as a possible antecedent, has not been considered so far. This is surprising because strategic planning is among the most widely used strategic decision-making tools in management practice and one of the most extensively studied concepts in management research. In addition, prior research has demonstrated the potential of strategic planning to impact innovation-related outcomes—both positively and negatively. Here, we investigate the association between strategic planning and organizational ambidexterity using a survey of 217 senior executives. We highlight the importance of considering how executives use strategic planning. Our results support the hypothesis that strategic planning's positive or negative association with organizational ambidexterity is contingent on other organizational factors. Our findings reveal that strategic planning is only positively associated with organizational ambidexterity when leaders' innovation orientation is extraordinarily high. We further contextualize this interaction effect by considering the environmental uncertainty perceived by the top management. This work contributes to the literature by examining the antecedents of organizational ambidexterity

Simultaneous inference for multiple marginal generalized estimating equation models

Motivated by small-sample studies in ophthalmology and dermatology, we study the problem of simultaneous inference for multiple endpoints in the presence of repeated observations. We propose a framework in which a generalized estimating equation model is fit for each endpoint marginally, taking into account dependencies within the same subject. The asymptotic joint normality of the stacked vector of marginal estimating equations is used to derive Wald-type simultaneous confidence intervals and hypothesis tests for multiple linear contrasts of regression coefficients of the multiple marginal models. The small sample performance of this approach is improved by a bias adjustment to the estimate of the joint covariance matrix of the regression coefficients from multiple models. As a further small sample improvement a multivariate t-distribution with appropriate degrees of freedom is specified as reference distribution. In addition, a generalized score test based on the stacked estimating equations is derived. Simulation results show strong control of the family-wise type I error rate for these methods even with small sample sizes and increased power compared to a Bonferroni-Holm multiplicity adjustment. Thus, the proposed methods are suitable to efficiently use the information from repeated observations of multiple endpoints in small-sample studies

Strengthening quality care in professional alternative child and youth care in group homes through continuing professional development

Between February 2021 and December 2022, a large-scale project developed the ‘curriculum for the dual practice-oriented continuing professional development for professionals in professional alternative child and youth care in group homes’ in Austria (FICE Austria, 2023). The project was initiated by FICE Austria. Sixteen experts from 20 organisations across Austria took part in developing the curriculum. It aims to further the development of the quality of care in professional alternative child and youth care settings in Austria. Existing and recognised training courses can only qualify professionals for alternative child and youth care settings to an extremely limited extent. This article presents the need for development and presents the cornerstones of the curriculum

Using In-Network Adaptation to Tackle Inefficiencies Caused by DASH in Information-Centric Networks

The consumption of audio-visual content is the most dom-inant traffic source in today’s Internet. Novel architectural approaches, such as Information-Centric Networking (ICN), are developed to support efficient multimedia dissemination. As ICN and MPEG-DASH have several concepts in com-mon, recent proposals consider a fusion of both technologies. However, MPEG-DASH relies on pure client-driven adapta-tion. This often rather selfish adaptation strategy inhibits benefits gained from ICN’s inherent caching and multi-path transmission capabilities. In order to overcome this chal-lenge, the contribution of this work is the integration of in-network adaptation (INA) in ICN. We illustrate that INA can be realized despite ICN’s content-based security model. Our proposal rests on scalable content, which enables INA without management and transmission overhead

The lincRNA MIRAT binds to IQGAP1 and modulates the MAPK pathway in NRAS mutant melanoma.

Despite major advances in targeted melanoma therapies, drug resistance limits their efficacy. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are transcriptome elements that do not encode proteins but are important regulatory molecules. LncRNAs have been implicated in cancer development and response to different therapeutics and are thus potential treatment targets; however, the majority of their functions and molecular interactions remain unexplored. In this study, we identify a novel cytoplasmic intergenic lincRNA (MIRAT), which is upregulated following prolonged MAPK inhibition in NRAS mutant melanoma and modulates MAPK signaling by binding to the MEK scaffold protein IQGAP1. Collectively, our results present MIRAT's direct modulatory effect on the MAPK pathway and highlight the relevance of cytoplasmic lncRNAs as potential targets in drug resistant cancer

MiR-200c-3p modulates cisplatin resistance in biliary tract cancer by ZEB1-independent mechanisms

Biliary tract cancer is a major global health issue in cancer-related mortality. Therapeutic options are limited, and cisplatin-based treatment schedules represent the mainstay of first-line therapeutic strategies. Although the gain of survival by the addition of cisplatin to gemcitabine is moderate, acquired cisplatin resistance frequently leads to treatment failures with mechanisms that are still poorly understood. Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a dynamic process that changes the shape, function, and gene expression pattern of biliary tract cancer cells. In this study, we explored the influence of the EMT-regulating miR-200c-3p on cisplatin sensitivity in biliary tract cancer cells. Using gain of function experiments, we demonstrated that miR-200c-3p regulates epithelial cell markers through the downregulation of the transcription factor ZEB1. MiR-200c-3p upregulation led to a decreased sensitivity against cisplatin, as observed in transient overexpression models as well as in cell lines stably overexpressing miR-200c-3p. The underlying mechanism seems to be independent of miR-200c-3p’s influence on ZEB1 expression, as ZEB1 knockdown resulted in the opposite effect on cisplatin resistance, which was abolished when ZEB1 knockdown and miR-200c-3p overexpression occurred in parallel. Using a gene panel of 40 genes that were previously associated with cisplatin resistance, two (Dual Specificity Phosphatase 16 (DUSP16) and Stratifin (SFN)) were identified as significantly (>2 fold, p-value < 0.05) up-regulated in miR-200c-3p overexpressing cells. In conclusion, miR-200c-3p might be an important contributor to cisplatin resistance in biliary tract cancer, independently of its interaction with ZEB1

The Hatfield-System versus the Weekly Undulating Periodised Resistance Training in trained males: Effects of a third mesocyle

We recently demonstrated that recreationally strength trained men, randomly assigned to either a Hatfield-System (HAT) group or a weekly undulating periodisation (WUP) group showed significant increases in strength and power during only 2 mesocycles (6 weeks) without differences between groups. The questions arise, whether an additional mesocycle would further enhance strength and power equally or differently between groups. The same 26 strength trained men, assigned to the HAT (n = 13; age = 26.8 ± 7.2 years) or to WUP (n = 13; age = 29.2 ± 9.0 years) performed an additional mesocycle (3 weeks). Anthropometric measures and strength testing were performed again after finishing the third mesocycle and were then compared with the results recorded after the second mesocycle. Both the HAT and WUP groups made significant (p ≤ 0.05) increases in strength and power – to approximately the same extent, again, without significant differences between groups. Thus, HAT and WUP are similarly effective over a nine-week training period, and the decision to use HAT or WUP depends on the preferences of the individual athlete