Integrating intellectual property and sustainable business models: The SBM-IP canvas

Companies attempt to address global sustainability challenges through innovating products, services, and business models. This paper focuses on sustainable business model (SBM) innovations as a way to systemically transform businesses towards sustainability. It has been widely recognized that strategic approaches to using intellectual property (IP) need to be aligned with business model innovation for commercial success. Here we suggest that IP, aligned with SBMs, can also be used to create not only commercial, but also societal and environmental impact. Knowledge about how to best align IP with SBMs to drive sustainability transitions remains limited. We address this gap by developing an SBM-IP canvas that integrates IP considerations into each of the SBM canvas building blocks. We do this by employing relevant theoretical concepts from three literature streams, namely the business model (including SBM), IP, and innovation literature. We use case examples to illustrate different IP considerations that are relevant for the SBM-IP building blocks. These examples show that different IP types (e.g., patents, trademarks) and ways of using them (e.g., more or less restrictive licensing) are applied by companies in relation to the different building blocks. While covering new theoretical ground, the proposed SBM-IP canvas can help decision makers understand how they can use different IP types strategically to propose, create, deliver, and capture sustainable value for society, environment, and the business.</jats:p

Effect of antiorthostatic BedRest (BR) on GastroIntestinal Motility (GIM) of normal subjects

The combined effects of postural changes, fluid shifts and diuresis associated with the absence of the gravity vector may decrease gastrointestinal motility (GIM) during space flight. GIM can be estimated from the mouth to cecum transit time (MCTT) of orally administered lactulose (LAC); this test is used to assess changes in GIM in normal subjects and in patients with GI pathology and related disease conditions. Since bedrest (BR) mimics some of the physiological changes that occur during space flight, the effect of ten days of BR on GIM was evaluated from the MCTT of LAC. Methods: Subjects were 12 nonsmoking males between the ages of 35 and 50. After an 8-10 hour fast, subjects ingested Cephulac (registered) (20 g solution) with a low-fiber breakfast on four different days (45, 30, 25, and 20) before BR and on three separate days (4, 7, and 10) during BR. Breath-H2 concentrations were measured before and at 10 minute intervals for 4 hours after breakfast using a Quintron breathalyzer and MCTT was determined from these data. Results: MCTT ranged between 10 and 122 minutes during ambulation and 80 to 120 minutes during BR with means of 79 minutes and 122 minutes respectively. Conclusion: Mean MCTT during BR was 54 percent longer than during ambulation, suggesting that absorption and availability of orally administered medications and nutrients may be delayed or impaired as a result of decreased GIM during bedrest

Умный бассейн

Ключевые слова: бассейн, система управления, автоматизированная система. Объектом исследования является автоматизированная система управления переносным бассейном Цель работы – проектирование автоматизированной системы управления переносным бассейном, которая обладает функциями нагрева и фильтрации воды автоматически. Благодаря этому вода в бассейне сохраняет температуру, чистоту и прозрачность в течении длительного периода времени. В процессе исследования проводилось создание структурной схемы и проектирование щита управления данной системы. В результате исследования была спроектирована система управления переносным бассейном. Основные конструктивные, технологические и технико-эксплуатационные характTags: swimming pool, management system, automated system. The object of research is a portable automatic pool control system The purpose of the work - design portable automated pool management system which has the functions of heating and filtration of water automatically. With this keeps the pool water temperature, transparency and cleanness for a long period of time

Bottleneck size and selection level reproducibly impact evolution of antibiotic resistance

During antibiotic treatment, the evolution of bacterial pathogens is fundamentally affected by bottlenecks and varying selection levels imposed by the drugs. Bottlenecks—that is, reductions in bacterial population size—lead to an increased influence of random effects (genetic drift) during bacterial evolution, and varying antibiotic concentrations during treatment may favour distinct resistance variants. Both aspects influence the process of bacterial evolution during antibiotic therapy and thereby treatment outcome. Surprisingly, the joint influence of these interconnected factors on the evolution of antibiotic resistance remains largely unexplored. Here we combine evolution experiments with genomic and genetic analyses to demonstrate that bottleneck size and antibiotic-induced selection reproducibly impact the evolutionary path to resistance in pathogenic Pseudomonas aeruginosa, one of the most problematic opportunistic human pathogens. Resistance is favoured—expectedly—under high antibiotic selection and weak bottlenecks, but—unexpectedly—also under low antibiotic selection and severe bottlenecks. The latter is likely to result from a reduced probability of losing favourable variants through drift under weak selection. Moreover, the absence of high resistance under low selection and weak bottlenecks is caused by the spread of low-resistance variants with high competitive fitness under these conditions. We conclude that bottlenecks, in combination with drug-induced selection, are currently neglected key determinants of pathogen evolution and outcome of antibiotic treatment

Building professional discourse in emerging markets: Language, context and the challenge of sensemaking

Using ethnographic evidence from the former Soviet republics, this article examines a relatively new and mainly unobserved in the International Business (IB) literature phenomenon of communication disengagement that manifests itself in many emerging markets. We link it to the deficiencies of the local professional business discourse rooted in language limitations reflecting lack of experience with the market economy. This hampers cognitive coherence between foreign and local business entities, adding to the liability of foreignness as certain instances of professional experience fail to find adequate linguistic expression, and complicates cross-cultural adjustments causing multi-national companies (MNCs) financial losses. We contribute to the IB literature by examining cross-border semantic sensemaking through a retrospectively constructed observational study. We argue that a relative inadequacy of the national professional idiom is likely to remain a feature of business environment in post-communist economies for some time and therefore should be factored into business strategies of MNCs. Consequently, we recommend including discursive hazards in the risk evaluation of international projects

8H-Chromeno[2′,3′:4,5]imidazo[2,1-a]isoquinoline

The title compound, C18H12N2O, comprises two aromatic fragments, viz., imidazo[2,1-a]isoquinoline and benzene, linked by oxygen and methyl­ene bridges. Despite the absence of a common conjugative system within the mol­ecule, it adopts an essentially planar conformation with an r.m.s. deviation of 0. 036 Å. In the crystal, due to this structure, mol­ecules form stacks along the b axis by π⋯π stacking inter­actions, with shortest C⋯C distances in the range 3.340 (4)–3.510 (4) Å. The mol­ecules are bound by inter­molecular C—H⋯O inter­actions within the stacks and C—H⋯π inter­actions between the stacks

Justice at Sea: Fishers’ politics and marine conservation in coastal Odisha, India

This is a paper about the politics of fishing rights in and around the Gahirmatha marine sanctuary in coastal Odisha, in eastern India. Claims to the resources of this sanctuary are politicised through the creation of a particularly damaging narrative by influential Odiya environmental actors about Bengalis, as illegal immigrants who have hurt the ecosystem through their fishing practices. Anchored within a theoretical framework of justice as recognition, the paper considers the making of a regional Odiya environmentalism that is, potentially, deeply exclusionary. It details how an argument about ‘illegal Bengalis’ depriving ‘indigenous Odiyas’ of their legitimate ‘traditional fishing rights’ derives from particular notions of indigeneity and territory. But the paper also shows that such environmentalism is tenuous, and fits uneasily with the everyday social landscape of fishing in coastal Odisha. It concludes that a wider class conflict between small fishers and the state over a sanctuary sets the context in which questions about legitimate resource rights are raised, sometimes with important effects, like when out at sea

Preparation of amino-substituted indenes and 1,4-dihydronaphthalenes using a one-pot multireaction approach: total synthesis of oxybenzo[c]phenanthridine alkaloids

Allylic trichloroacetimidates bearing a 2-vinyl or 2-allylaryl group have been designed as substrates for a one-pot, two-step multi-bond-forming process leading to the general preparation of aminoindenes and amino-substituted 1,4-dihydronaphthalenes. The synthetic utility of the privileged structures formed from this one-pot process was demonstrated with the total synthesis of four oxybenzo[c]phenanthridine alkaloids, oxychelerythrine, oxysanguinarine, oxynitidine, and oxyavicine. An intramolecular biaryl Heck coupling reaction, catalyzed using the Hermann–Beller palladacycle was used to effect the key step during the synthesis of the natural products

When is a bed not a bed? Exploring the interplay of the material and virtual in negotiating home-work boundaries

© 2017, © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Working from home is often associated with possibilities of anytime-anyplace working and with a fusion of work and home. In this empirical paper, we explore how the sociomaterial contexts of home-working define and tether what is possible for home-workers in their negotiations with others. Drawing on qualitative data sets, Wengerian concepts are used by exploring the role of boundary objects and brokering in negotiating temporal and spatial boundaries around and across work and home. The home-workers’ bodies are shown to be the key boundary objects, through which technology objects and furniture objects are sometimes fused. Yet, such fusion is shown to be only temporary, always precariously situated and also mediated by identity-regulating norms and values of home-workers. The contribution of the paper is to highlight the limits of what is technologically possible by emphasising the role of the body and material objects in the home-working context

A Versatile cascade of intramolecular vilsmeier-haack and azomethine ylide 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition toward tricyclic cores of alkaloids

Abstract: In the pursuit of synthetic efficiency, we developed an innovative one-pot transformation of linear substrates into bi- and tricyclic adducts using a cascade of amide activation, nucleophilic cyclization, azomethine ylide generation, and subsequent inter- or intramolecular 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition. Despite the high density and variety of functional groups on the substrates, the sequence occurred with perfect chemoselectivity with good to excellent yields