Does a CDO enhance Company Inventiveness? An Empirical Study on new Managerial Positions and Innovation

Digital technology has advanced rapidly in the last few years. Consequently, companies need to transform their business and operations models to keep up with these advances, placing digital transformation (DT) as a top priority. Beyond the possible effects of using more digital technologies, is more innovation. One way in which companies can stimulate DT is by creating a new top-management position, the Chief Digital Officer (CDO). Although evidence has been found about the relationship between digital technologies and innovation, the role of the CDO as an enabler has been less studied. We use difference-in-difference estimators to measure this effect, using a unique dataset with 39 companies that appointed a CDO and 39 comparable companies that did not as a control group. We find a significant increase in patent filings as early as the first year CDO’s appointment. We find evidence that a managerial role can have an effect on innovation

Synthesis and characterization of polymeric nanoparticles and their application in anticancer therapy

Motivation: Traditional and current chemotherapy used to treat cancer disease has always been characterized by the high prevalence of side effects. In order to avoid them, nanotechnology has raised as an acceptable solution to this problem by selectively targeting anticancer drugs to the tumoral cells. Within this project to antitumoral agents, tannic acid and amitriptyline, have been encapsulated in polymeric nanoparticles to allow their targeted delivery. Amitriptyline is a tricyclic antidepressant whose antitumoral activity against lung cancer was recently described [1], and this agent could be a good approach for treating other tumoral diseases.Methods: Tannic acid nanoparticles (TA) were synthetized according to a method previously described by our group [2], and PLGA-amitriptyline nanoparticles (PLGAMI) by emulsion solvent evaporation method. The so-obtained nanoparticles were characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and FTIR spectroscopy.Results: Both nanoparticles, TA and PLGAMI, are small and spherical. TA nanoparticles showed a mean diameter of 60 nm (SEM), a hydrodynamic diameter of 500 nm and a zeta potential of -22 mV (DLS). PLGAMI nanoparticles showed a mean diameter of 25 nm, a hydrodynamic diameter of 110 nm and a zeta potential of -8 mV. The presence of the antitumoral agents in nanoparticles was confirmed by FTIR spectroscopy, and the entrapment efficiency determined by colorimetric methods, using an UV-Vis spectroscope.Conclusions: We have synthetized two polymeric nanoparticles bearing antitumoral agents as cargo. Our data confirm that these nanoparticles are suitable for continuing with the in-vitro assays, where we will compare the pro-apoptotic effect of both nanoparticles in cell cultures (H460 tumor cell line)

Importance of the temperature in the interaction plant-geminivirus

Introduction. Geminivirusare plant viruses that have circular single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) genome encapsidated in twinned quasi-icosahedral (geminate) virionsand are a serious threat to diverse economically important crops such as tomato, pepper and cassava. TYLCV (Tomato yellow leaf curl virus) belongs to the genus begomovirus which is by far, the largest of the seven genera in the family Geminiviridae and it is a pathogen that induces a devastating disease in tomato in the Mediterranean region. Cultured tomatoes are often exposed to a combination of extreme heat and infection with TYLCV and this combination leads to intense disease symptoms and yield losses.The impact of temperature over the interaction tomato- TYLCVhas been characterized (Ghandi et al., 2016) but these results seem to be contradictory to our findings. Objective. The main objective of this work is to improve our understanding of the impact that high temperature has in the interaction plant-geminivirus.Material and methods. Nicotianabenthamiana plants were infected with TYLCV and growth in a chamber at 21 ºC or at 35 ºC. The amount of virus, symptoms, plant height and number of leaves were monitored at 14, 21 and 28 dpi (days post-infection). Three biological replicates were performed, each containing 15 infected plants and 10 non-infected plants (mock). Results. No differences were observed between non-infected and infected plants at both temperatures, in plant height or in the number of leaves, but the amount of virus and the severity of symptoms were significantly reduced in plants at high temperature. Conclusions. We conclude that TYLCV yield decreases in N. benthamiana due to high temperature and ongoing experiments in tomato TYLCV-infected plants will let us determine the importance of this finding in an agronomical important crop and to compare our results with the published data.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

A femtosecond velocity map imaging study on B-band predissociation in CH 3I. II. the 2 0 1 and 3 0 1 vibronic levels

Femtosecond time-resolved velocity map imaging experiments are reported on several vibronic levels of the second absorption band (B-band) of CH 3I, including vibrational excitation in the 2 and 3 modes of the bound 3R 1(E) Rydberg state. Specific predissociation lifetimes have been determined for the 201 and 301 vibronic levels from measurements of time-resolved I*( 2P 12) and CH 3 fragment images, parent decay, and photoelectron images obtained through both resonant and non-resonant multiphoton ionization. The results are compared with our previously reported predissociation lifetime measurements for the band origin 000 [Gitzinger, J. Chem. Phys. 132, 234313 (2010)10.1063/1.3455207]. The result, previously reported in the literature, where vibrational excitation to the C-I stretching mode ( 3) of the CH 3I 3R 1(E) Rydberg state yields a predissociation lifetime about four times slower than that corresponding to the vibrationless state, whereas predissociation is twice faster if the vibrational excitation is to the umbrella mode ( 2), is confirmed in the present experiments. In addition to the specific vibrational state lifetimes, which were found to be 0.85 0.04 ps and 4.34 0.13 ps for the 201 and 301 vibronic levels, respectively, the time evolution of the fragment anisotropy and the vibrational activity of the CH 3 fragment are presented. Additional striking results found in the present work are the evidence of ground state I( 2P 32) fragment production when excitation is produced specifically to the 301 vibronic level, which is attributed to predissociation via the A-band 1Q 1 potential energy surface, and the indication of a fast adiabatic photodissociation process through the repulsive A-band 3A 1(4E) state, after direct absorption to this state, competing with absorption to the 301 vibronic level of the 3R 1(E) Rydberg state of the B-band.Peer Reviewe

Morphological Study of Granular-Granular Impact Craters through Time-of-Flight Cameras: from Concept to Automation in Python

Laboratory made granular-granular impact craters have been used as model analogues of planetary impact craters. These kind of craters have been observed and studied using profilometry techniques that allow to retrieve important morphologic features from the impacted surface. In this work, we propose to use a Time-of-Flight camera (Microsoft Kinect One) for the acquisition of depth data. We show comparisons between the typically used technique and the analysis derived from the Time-of-Flight data. We also release craterslab, a Python library developed to automate most of the tasks from the process of studying impact craters produced by granular projectiles hitting on the surface of granular targets. The library is able to acquire, identify, and measure morphological features of impacted surfaces through the reconstruction of 3D topographic maps. Our results show that using a Time-of-Flight camera and automating the data processing with a software library for the systematic study of impact craters can produce very accurate results while reducing the time spent on different stages of the process

Microscopic theory of network glasses

A molecular theory of the glass transition of network forming liquids is developed using a combination of self-consistent phonon and liquid state approaches. Both the dynamical transition and the entropy crisis characteristic of random first order transitions are mapped out as a function of the degree of bonding and the density. Using a scaling relation for a soft-core model to crudely translate the densities into temperatures, the theory predicts that the ratio of the dynamical transition temperature to the laboratory transition temperature rises as the degree of bonding increases, while the Kauzmann temperature falls relative to the laboratory transition. These results indicate why highly coordinated liquids should be "strong" while van der Waals liquids without coordination are "fragile".Comment: slightly revised version that has been accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

Design of a large scale flow-meter test and calibration facility

The design and set up of a large-scale flowmeter calibration and test facility is presented. The facility was designed to handle flowmeters with diameters between 6” and 14”, flow rates up to 0.3 m3/s and to give results less than 1% accurate. The calibration methodology consisted firstly in calibrating the pattern flowmeters, using volume and time primary measurements, and secondly, comparing the pattern to the flowmeters needing calibration. The design and calculation of the primary calibration device is addressed, including numerical simulations of the outflow manifold and the comparison to experimental data. The calibration facility proved to be accurate and reliable in producing renewed calibration data for various tested flowmeter

Effectiveness of a temperature control system in home induction hobs to reduce acrylamide formation during pan frying

Three trials were conducted to determine the influence of the use of temperature control systems on physico-chemical characteristics and acrylamide formation in the domestic preparation of potatoes. French fries were pre-treated by soaking in water or acidified water, and then they were cooked using a range of home-cooking procedures. Soaking raw potatoes in acidified water (pH=3.17) before frying at a controlled temperature (180 °C) was the most efficient pretreatment for reducing acrylamide formation (76%). For the same temperature, roasted frozen par-fried potatoes contained less fat and acrylamide than similar pan-fried potatoes. Potatoes butter fried at 140 °C had an acrylamide concentration similar to that of potatoes fried in oil at 180 °C, but this value was reduced by 71% when the frying was carried out using a temperature control system. Controlling the frying temperature reduced acrylamide formation at all the temperatures studied