Universal Rights and Wrongs

This paper argues for the important role of customers as a source of competitive advantage and firm growth, an issue which has been largely neglected in the resource-based view of the firm. It conceptualizes Penrose’s (1959) notion of an ‘inside track’ and illustrates how in-depth knowledge about established customers combines with joint problem-solving activities and the rapid assimilation of new and previously unexploited skills and resources. It is suggested that the inside track represents a distinct and perhaps underestimated way of generating rents and securing long-term growth. This also implies that the sources of sustainable competitive advantage in important respects can be sought in idiosyncratic interfirm relationships rather than within the firm itself

Synergistic Activation of Dopamine D1 and TrkB Receptors Mediate Gain Control of Synaptic Plasticity in the Basolateral Amygdala

Fear memory formation is thought to require dopamine, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and zinc release in the basolateral amygdala (BLA), as well as the induction of long term potentiation (LTP) in BLA principal neurons. However, no study to date has shown any relationship between these processes in the BLA. Here, we have used in vitro whole-cell patch clamp recording from BLA principal neurons to investigate how dopamine, BDNF, and zinc release may interact to modulate the LTP induction in the BLA. LTP was induced by either theta burst stimulation (TBS) protocol or spaced 5 times high frequency stimulation (5xHFS). Significantly, both TBS and 5xHFS induced LTP was fully blocked by the dopamine D1 receptor antagonist, SCH23390. LTP induction was also blocked by the BDNF scavenger, TrkB-FC, the zinc chelator, DETC, as well as by an inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), gallardin. Conversely, prior application of the dopamine reuptake inhibitor, GBR12783, or the D1 receptor agonist, SKF39393, induced robust and stable LTP in response to a sub-threshold HFS protocol (2xHFS), which does not normally induce LTP. Similarly, prior activation of TrkB receptors with either a TrkB receptor agonist, or BDNF, also reduced the threshold for LTP-induction, an effect that was blocked by the MEK inhibitor, but not by zinc chelation. Intriguingly, the TrkB receptor agonist-induced reduction of LTP threshold was fully blocked by prior application of SCH23390, and the reduction of LTP threshold induced by GBR12783 was blocked by prior application of TrkB-FC. Together, our results suggest a cellular mechanism whereby the threshold for LTP induction in BLA principal neurons is critically dependent on the level of dopamine in the extracellular milieu and the synergistic activation of postsynaptic D1 and TrkB receptors. Moreover, activation of TrkB receptors appears to be dependent on concurrent release of zinc and activation of MMPs

Breed and adaptive response modulate bovine peripheral blood cells’ transcriptome

Background: Adaptive response includes a variety of physiological modifications to face changes in external or internal conditions and adapt to a new situation. The acute phase proteins (APPs) are reactants synthesized against environmental stimuli like stress, infection, inflammation. Methods: To delineate the differences in molecular constituents of adaptive response to the environment we performed the whole-blood transcriptome analysis in Italian Holstein (IH) and Italian Simmental (IS) breeds. For this, 663 IH and IS cows from six commercial farms were clustered according to the blood level of APPs. Ten extreme individuals (five APP+ and APP- variants) from each farm were selected for the RNA-seq using the Illumina sequencing technology. Differentially expressed (DE) genes were analyzed using dynamic impact approach (DIA) and DAVID annotation clustering. Milk production data were statistically elaborated to assess the association of APP+ and APP- gene expression patterns with variations in milk parameters. Results: The overall de novo assembly of cDNA sequence data generated 13,665 genes expressed in bovine blood cells. Comparative genomic analysis revealed 1,152 DE genes in the comparison of all APP+ vs. all APP- variants; 531 and 217 DE genes specific for IH and IS comparison respectively. In all comparisons overexpressed genes were more represented than underexpressed ones. DAVID analysis revealed 369 DE genes across breeds, 173 and 73 DE genes in IH and IS comparison respectively. Among the most impacted pathways for both breeds were vitamin B6 metabolism, folate biosynthesis, nitrogen metabolism and linoleic acid metabolism. Conclusions: Both DIA and DAVID approaches produced a high number of significantly impacted genes and pathways with a narrow connection to adaptive response in cows with high level of blood APPs. A similar variation in gene expression and impacted pathways between APP+ and APP- variants was found between two studied breeds. Such similarity was also confirmed by annotation clustering of the DE genes. However, IH breed showed higher and more differentiated impacts compared to IS breed and such particular features in the IH adaptive response could be explained by its higher metabolic activity. Variations of milk production data were significantly associated with APP+ and APP- gene expression patterns

Are we ready to track climate-driven shifts in marine species across international boundaries? - A global survey of scientific bottom trawl data

Marine biota are redistributing at a rapid pace in response to climate change and shifting seascapes. While changes in fish populations and community structure threaten the sustainability of fisheries, our capacity to adapt by tracking and projecting marine species remains a challenge due to data discontinuities in biological observations, lack of data availability, and mismatch between data and real species distributions. To assess the extent of this challenge, we review the global status and accessibility of ongoing scientific bottom trawl surveys. In total, we gathered metadata for 283,925 samples from 95 surveys conducted regularly from 2001 to 2019. We identified that 59% of the metadata collected are not publicly available, highlighting that the availability of data is the most important challenge to assess species redistributions under global climate change. Given that the primary purpose of surveys is to provide independent data to inform stock assessment of commercially important populations, we further highlight that single surveys do not cover the full range of the main commercial demersal fish species. An average of 18 surveys is needed to cover at least 50% of species ranges, demonstrating the importance of combining multiple surveys to evaluate species range shifts. We assess the potential for combining surveys to track transboundary species redistributions and show that differences in sampling schemes and inconsistency in sampling can be overcome with spatio-temporal modeling to follow species density redistributions. In light of our global assessment, we establish a framework for improving the management and conservation of transboundary and migrating marine demersal species. We provide directions to improve data availability and encourage countries to share survey data, to assess species vulnerabilities, and to support management adaptation in a time of climate-driven ocean changes.En prensa6,86

Alignment of the ALICE Inner Tracking System with cosmic-ray tracks

37 pages, 15 figures, revised version, accepted by JINSTALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) experiment devoted to investigating the strongly interacting matter created in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC energies. The ALICE ITS, Inner Tracking System, consists of six cylindrical layers of silicon detectors with three different technologies; in the outward direction: two layers of pixel detectors, two layers each of drift, and strip detectors. The number of parameters to be determined in the spatial alignment of the 2198 sensor modules of the ITS is about 13,000. The target alignment precision is well below 10 micron in some cases (pixels). The sources of alignment information include survey measurements, and the reconstructed tracks from cosmic rays and from proton-proton collisions. The main track-based alignment method uses the Millepede global approach. An iterative local method was developed and used as well. We present the results obtained for the ITS alignment using about 10^5 charged tracks from cosmic rays that have been collected during summer 2008, with the ALICE solenoidal magnet switched off.Peer reviewe

Transverse momentum spectra of charged particles in proton-proton collisions at s=900\sqrt{s} = 900 GeV with ALICE at the LHC

The inclusive charged particle transverse momentum distribution is measured in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 900$ GeV at the LHC using the ALICE detector. The measurement is performed in the central pseudorapidity region $(|\eta|<0.8)$ over the transverse momentum range $0.15<p_{\rm T}<10$ GeV/$c$. The correlation between transverse momentum and particle multiplicity is also studied. Results are presented for inelastic (INEL) and non-single-diffractive (NSD) events. The average transverse momentum for $|\eta|<0.8$ is $\left<p_{\rm T}\right>_{\rm INEL}=0.483\pm0.001$ (stat.) $\pm0.007$ (syst.) GeV/$c$ and \left_{\rm NSD}=0.489\pm0.001 (stat.) $\pm0.007$ (syst.) GeV/$c$, respectively. The data exhibit a slightly larger $\left<p_{\rm T}\right>$ than measurements in wider pseudorapidity intervals. The results are compared to simulations with the Monte Carlo event generators PYTHIA and PHOJET.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/390

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead