PRIORITY MANAGEMENT – A DIRECTION TOWARDS COMPETITIVENESS

In a time when the most of us have to cope with globalization, the key for surpassing the negative effects produced by it, resides in choosing the right strategy. This necessary involves a performance management. Through this paper we propose priority management as an efficient way of thinking about gaining the vital competitive advantage.priority management, the Pareto law, 1-3-6 method, competitiveness, efficiency

COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE

There are many challenges to face in this century. It’s an era of information. Those who have the best information are going to win the race for supremacy on the market. More and more managers are aware of the fact that they have to do something to remain on the market and to be successful. They have to adapt and to try to gain an advantage over the competitors. Nowadays, the only thing that makes the difference is the company’s competitiveness. The times when the one who had the capacity to produce more was the leader are long gone; now all the actors on every market are focused on quality and this leads to severe competition. What is left then? How can a company gain competitive advantage? The only thing that can make a difference is not the quality of the product but the quality of the information they posses about the market, the client, the product, the technological process, management etc. It’s about the information management. It’s about competitive intelligence.competitive intelligence, information, intelligence, strategy

AGEs and Glucose Levels Modulate Type I and III Procollagen mRNA Synthesis in Dermal Fibroblasts Cells Culture

In the dermis, fibroblasts play an important role in the turnover of the dermal extracellular matrix. Collagen I and III, the most important dermal proteins of the extracellular matrix, are progressively altered during ageing and diabetes. For mimicking diabetic conditions, the cultured human dermal fibroblasts were incubated with increasing amounts of AGE-modified BSA and D-glucose for 24 hours. The expression of procollagen α2(I) and procollagen α1(III) mRNA was analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR. Our data revealed that the treatment of fibroblasts with AGE-modified BSA upregulated the expression of procollagen α2(I) and procollagen α1(III) mRNA in a dose-dependent manner. High glucose levels mildly induced a profibrogenic pattern, increasing the procollagen α2(I) mRNA expression whereas there was a downregulation tendency of procollagen α1(III) mRNA

NAVIGATING ETHICAL AND MORAL CHALLENGES LEADERS FACE IN STAKEHOLDER CAPITALISM

One can assume that the ethical business leader of the 21st century will need to become a leader of community in which they operate, answering to all stakeholders, guiding all stakeholders, mediating all stakeholders’ concerns. A virtuous position at first glance and one leader wants to aspire to in theory but frequently fail at in practice. The current paper strives to underline the need of ethical conduct at both leader and stakeholders’ level and proposes the introduction of a code of ethical principles to be followed and introduced by the leader and all stakeholders in an organization. Such a code should promote a set of well-established principles to be agreed and followed by the parties involved. A five criteria set is proposed for the development of further codes of conduct, that will lead to more appropriate judgements and findings

Why leadership fails? Few causes for why good leaders do bad things:

The six factors considered for achieving success in leadership are clarity, role modeling, achievability, commitment, transparency and openness. The article analyzes the factors that generate a failure of leadership, even for the so-called widely renewed good leaders, precisely the behavior causes and developments that lead to failure and not their acquiring process. The chosen target population is represented by the leaders ruling large organizations, which need an integrated vision to produce effective leadership. The perspective will have a theoretical basis but also an empirical one. The quantitative part relies on a survey conducted among leaders for three different industries (pharmaceutical, IT and telecom). They were asked questions regarding the causes, which produce leadership failure and finally produce misconduct and breaches of the compliance rules and regulations. In addition, the survey asked the participants to develop their proposals for preventing leadership failure. It was established the importance of the tone from the top, leading by example, a clear mechanism for checking the health of the organization from a leadership perspective. The article will also show that the way to prevent leadership failure and avoid behaviors that lead to misconduct is a permanent journey

Hydroalcoholic extract of Tagetes minuta L. inhibits inflammatory bowel disease through the activity of pheophytins on the NF-κB signalling pathway

Ethno-pharmacological relevance: Species of the genus Tagetes are well known for their anti-inflammatory properties. Tagetes minuta “Huacatay” is an endemic species of South America that has been used in traditional medicine since ancient times as a remedy for stomach and intestinal discomfort. Aim of the study: The aim of this study is to investigate the anti-inflammatory activity of the aqueous and hydroalcoholic extracts of the Huacatay, identifying the compounds responsible for this activity. Materials and methods: Anti-inflammatory activity of the compounds, fractions and extracts was evaluated in Hs 746T (stomach), HIEC-6 (intestine) and THP-1 (monocytes peripheral blood) cells by measuring their inhibitory capacity against the NF-κB production. Results: Aqueous and hydroalcoholic extracts of Tagetes minuta displayed anti-inflammatory activity in vitro, the hydroalcoholic extract being the most active (IC50 between 59.72 and 66.42 μg/mL) in all cell lines. Bio-guided hydroalcoholic extract fractionation led to the isolation and characterisation of two pheophytins, pheophytin a (1) and 132-hydroxy pheophytin a (2). Both compounds inhibited the production of NF-κB with IC50 values in the low micromolar range, with an IC50 between 12.32 and 16.01 μM for compound 1 and 7.91–9.87 μM for compound 2. Conclusions: The two pheophytins isolated in this study inhibit the production of NF-κB, thus showing that the traditional anti-inflammatory use of Tagetes minuta can be proved through pharmacological assays. This contributes to understanding the anti-inflammatory activity of the Huacatay extracts and their use in the treatment of stomach and intestinal discomfortThis work was supported by the National Herbarium of Bolivia and the Fundación de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (FUAM

How opportune is multigene testing in metastatic colorectal cancer? A review

Personalized treatment in oncology is the most innovative method of care. The best method to establish personalized treatment is by genetic characterization of the malignant cell. Theoretically, the more detailed the characterization, the more effective the choice of treatment becomes. Currently, there are fast and relatively low-cost options that allow such genetic characterization. However, test results sometimes do not detect targetable alterations and, even if they do detect, the use of the treatment-alteration combination does not always generate a satisfactory oncological response. The present paper aims to answer two questions. First, how targetable can the most common gene alterations in colorectal cancer be. Second, whether it makes sense to use broad molecular testing as a standard in all metastatic patients

Congenital Anomalies of Urinary Tract and Anomalies of Fetal Genitalia

Congenital anomalies of the kidney, urinary tract and genitalia anomalies are among the most frequent types of congenital malformations. Many can be diagnosed by means of ultrasound examination during pregnancy. Some will be discovered after birth. Kidney and urinary malformations represent 20% of all birth defects, appearing in 3–7 cases at 1000 live births. Environmental factors (maternal diabetes or intrauterine exposure to angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors) and genetic factors (inherited types of diseases) seem to be among causes that lead to the disturbance of normal nephrogenesis and generate anomalies of the reno-urinary tract. It is very important to diagnose and differentiate between the abnormalities incompatible with life and those that are asymptomatic in the newborn. The former requires interruption of pregnancy, whereas the latter could lead to saving the renal function if diagnosed antenatally. In many cases, the congenital anomalies of the urinary and genital tract may remain asymptomatic for a long time, even up until adulthood, and can be at times the only manifestation of a complex systemic disease. Some can manifest in more than one member in the family. This is the reason why the accurate genetic characterization is needed; it can help give not only the patient but also her family the appropriate genetic counseling, and also, in some cases, the management may prevent severe complications