Europe and the Arab World: towards a principled partnership

"The recent wave of mass protests sweeping the Arab world has caught the EU by surprise. In a bid to adapt its policies to a rapidly changing situation and regain some credibility, the European Commission has launched a proposal for a “partnership for democracy and shared prosperity”. This partnership, however, represents little more than a re-branding of existing EU policies. In order to open a new chapter in its relations with the Arab world, the EU will need to learn from its past mistakes and adopt a more humble approach that is based on the emerging political realities of the region." [author's abstract

Hackathon as a platform for inbound open innovation − case study of a public hackathon

The objective of this thesis is to study the use of inbound open innovation in a context of a hackathon and provide development ideas on how to organize a successful hackathon. The research questions that guide the study are: Q1: Are public hackathons commonly utilized as a platform for inbound open innovation? Q2: Have organizations succeeded in exploiting the inbound ideas in their innovation process? Q3: What are the critical success factors of a hackathon considered from a perspective of an organization pursuing for inbound open innovation? Open innovation as a term refers to an emerging innovation paradigm that strives to provide an answer to challenges organizations encounter in a modern world: globalization, rapid technology development and mobility of highly skilled workforce just to mention a few. The core idea of open innovation is to break the organization’s boundaries in innovation processes. Open innovation consists of totally separate processes: inbound, outbound and coupled process. In this thesis the focus is on inbound open innovation, which is the most common of all the open innovation processes. Inbound innovation is a process where an organization seek ideas from external sources to be nurtured further into innovations. The process of inbound open innovation is studied in a context of a public hackathon, which is a hackathon event where more than one organizations are as partner organizers. The research strategy chosen to guide the qualitative research of this thesis is case study. The case studied is the “Junction 2017 hackathon” event. The research data is based on theme interviews with Junction 2017 partner organizations and the analysis of the research data is done using content analysis, both as theory-based and data-driven. According to the findings of this thesis, public hackathons are commonly utilized for inbound open innovation. Organizations have also succeeded in using the inbound ideas born in the hackathon in their innovation process by refining them further. Still, inbound open innovation is only pursued by larger organizations, while the small organizations have other motivations in joining the hacka-thon. Refining the ideas needs a well-established innovation process and linking the hackathon seamlessly into that process. From the findings of this thesis it was possible to conduct the critical success factors of a hackathon considered from the perspective of open innovation. The four success factors were: 1) defining the motivation and targets, 2) preparing for the event 3) active, multidisciplinary presence and 4) focus on after-care. In the background of these are more profound reasons why these are seen as critical factors considering the pursuit for open innovation in hackathons. These success factors can be used in every organization that is pursuing for inbound open innovation and plans to utilize a hackathon as a platform for idea creation.Tässä opinnäytetyössä tarkastellaan avoimeen innovaatioon liittyvää ulkopuolista ideoiden hyödyntämistä julkisen hackathonin kontekstissa. Opinnäytetyön tarkoituksena on tarjota kehitysehdotuksia siitä, miten järjestää onnistunut hackathon avoimen innovoinnin näkökulmasta. Opinnäytetyötä ohjaavat seuraavat tutkimuskysymykset: K1: Käytetäänkö julkisia hackathoneja yleisesti alustana avoimeen innovointiin liittyvään ideoiden luomiseen? K2: Ovatko organisaatiot onnistuneet jatkojalostamaan syntyneitä ideoita omassa innovaatioprosessissaan? K3: Mitkä ovat hackathonin kriittiset menestystekijät sellaisen organisaation näkökulmasta, joka pyrkii hydöyntämään tapahtumaa avoimeen innovointiin? Avoimen innovoinnin ytimessä on ajatus organisaatioiden rajojen rikkomisessa innovointiprosesseihin liittyen. Samalla avoin innovointi pyrkii tarjoamaan ratkaisun niihin haasteisiin, joita moderni maailma organisaatioille innovoinnin näkökulmasta asettaa. Näitä haasteita ovat mm. globalisaatio, teknologian nopea kehittyminen ja työvoiman aktiivinen liikkuvuus. Avoin innovointi koostuu kolmesta erillisestä proesessista: sisäänpäin suuntauneesta, ulospäin suuntautuneesta ja yhdistetystä prosessista. Tässä opinnäytetyössä keskitytään ensisijaisesti sisäänpäin suuntautuneeseen prosessiin, joka on avoimen innovoinnin prosesseista yleisin. Sisäänpäin kääntyneessä avoimessa innovoinnissa organisaatiot hakevat ideoita ulkopuolelta jatkojalostaakseen niitä edelleen innovaatioiksi. Sisäänpäin suuntautunutta avoimen innovoinnin prosessia tutkitaan julkisen hackathonin kontekstissa. Tutkimusstategiana käytetään tapaustutkimusta tutkittavan tapauksen ollessa ”Junction 2017 hackathon”. Tutkimusaineisto perustuu teemahaastatteluihin, jotka toteutettiin Junction 2017 kumppaniorganisaatioiden kanssa. Tutkimusaineisto on analysoitu sekä teoria- että aineistolähtöisen sisällönanalyysin mukaisesti. Opinnäytetyön havaintojen perusteella julkisia hackathoneja käytetään yleisesti sisäänpäin suuntautuneen avoimen innovoinnin alustana. Organisaatiot ovat myös pystyneet hyödyntämään hackathonissa syntyneitä ideoita omassa innovaatioprosessissaan. Sisäänpäin suuntautunut avoin innovointi kuitenkin ollut vain suurien yritysten kiinnostuksen kohteena, ja pienemmillä organisaatioilla on ollut omat motivaationsa hackathoniin lähdön taustalla. Syntyneiden ideoiden hyödyntäminen on myös vaatinut ulkopuoliseen ideointiin integroitua innovaatioprosessia ja hackathonin liittämistä saumattomasti osaksi tätä kokonaisuutta. Tutkimusaineiston analyysin kautta oli löytyi neljä kriittistä menestystekijää, jotka nousivat esiin avoimen innovaation näkökulmasta: 1) motivaation ja tavoitteiden määrittäminen, 2) toimeksiannon valmistelu, 3) aktiivinen ja monialainen läsnäolo tapahtumassa sekä 4) keskittyminen tapahtuman jälkihoitoon. Näiden kriittisten menestystekijöiden taustalla on useita tekijöitä, jotka vaikuttavat niiden tärkeyteen. Kriittiset menestystekijät on esitetty kehityskohteina, joihin jokainen organisaatio voi kiinnittää toiminnassaan huomiota ollessaan kiinnostunut hyödyntämään hackathonia avoimeen innovointiin

The molecular evolution of spermatogenesis across mammals

The testis produces gametes through spermatogenesis and evolves rapidly at both the morphological and molecular level in mammals1-6, probably owing to the evolutionary pressure on males to be reproductively successful7. However, the molecular evolution of individual spermatogenic cell types across mammals remains largely uncharacterized. Here we report evolutionary analyses of single-nucleus transcriptome data for testes from 11 species that cover the three main mammalian lineages (eutherians, marsupials and monotremes) and birds (the evolutionary outgroup), and include seven primates. We find that the rapid evolution of the testis was driven by accelerated fixation rates of gene expression changes, amino acid substitutions and new genes in late spermatogenic stages, probably facilitated by reduced pleiotropic constraints, haploid selection and transcriptionally permissive chromatin. We identify temporal expression changes of individual genes across species and conserved expression programs controlling ancestral spermatogenic processes. Genes predominantly expressed in spermatogonia (germ cells fuelling spermatogenesis) and Sertoli (somatic support) cells accumulated on X chromosomes during evolution, presumably owing to male-beneficial selective forces. Further work identified transcriptomal differences between X- and Y-bearing spermatids and uncovered that meiotic sex-chromosome inactivation (MSCI) also occurs in monotremes and hence is common to mammalian sex-chromosome systems. Thus, the mechanism of meiotic silencing of unsynapsed chromatin, which underlies MSCI, is an ancestral mammalian feature. Our study illuminates the molecular evolution of spermatogenesis and associated selective forces, and provides a resource for investigating the biology of the testis across mammals

Presence of intestinal Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) DNA is not associated with altered MMP expression in ulcerative colitis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Mycobacterium avium </it>subspecies <it>paratuberculosis </it>(MAP) is suspected to be a causative agent in human Crohn's disease (CD). Recent evidence suggests that pathogenic mycobacteria and MAP can induce the expression of Matrix Metalloproteinases (MMP), which are the main proteases in the pathogenesis of mucosal ulcerations in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Within this study we assessed the prevalence of intestinal MAP specific DNA in patients with Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis (UC), and healthy controls. We further analysed regulation patterns of MMPs in mucosal tissues of UC patients with and without intestinal MAP DNA detection.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Colonic biopsy samples were obtained from 63 Norwegian and German IBD patients and 21 healthy controls. RNA was quantified by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to study MMP gene expression in both pathological and healthy mucosal specimens. The presence of MAP DNA in colonic mucosa was examined using MAP specific PCR.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>MAP DNA was detected in 20% of UC patients and 33% of healthy controls but only in 7% of patients with CD. UC patients treated with corticosteroids exhibited a significantly increased frequency of intestinal MAP DNA compared to those not receiving corticosteroids. Expression of MMP-1, -2, -7, -9, -13, -19, -28 and TNF-α did not differ between UC patients with presence of intestinal MAP DNA compared to those without. MMP-2, MMP-9 and MMP-13 were significantly decreased in UC patients receiving corticosteroids.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The presence of intestinal MAP specific DNA is not associated with altered MMP expression in UC <it>in vivo</it>. Corticosteroids are associated with increased detection of intestinal MAP DNA and decreased expression of certain MMPs. Frequent detection of MAP DNA in healthy controls might be attributable to the wide environmental distribution of MAP and its presence in the food-chain.</p

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe

Severe early onset preeclampsia: short and long term clinical, psychosocial and biochemical aspects

Preeclampsia is a pregnancy specific disorder commonly defined as de novo hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks gestational age. It occurs in approximately 3-5% of pregnancies and it is still a major cause of both foetal and maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide1. As extensive research has not yet elucidated the aetiology of preeclampsia, there are no rational preventive or therapeutic interventions available. The only rational treatment is delivery, which benefits the mother but is not in the interest of the foetus, if remote from term. Early onset preeclampsia (<32 weeks’ gestational age) occurs in less than 1% of pregnancies. It is, however often associated with maternal morbidity as the risk of progression to severe maternal disease is inversely related with gestational age at onset2. Resulting prematurity is therefore the main cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity in patients with severe preeclampsia3. Although the discussion is ongoing, perinatal survival is suggested to be increased in patients with preterm preeclampsia by expectant, non-interventional management. This temporising treatment option to lengthen pregnancy includes the use of antihypertensive medication to control hypertension, magnesium sulphate to prevent eclampsia and corticosteroids to enhance foetal lung maturity4. With optimal maternal haemodynamic status and reassuring foetal condition this results on average in an extension of 2 weeks. Prolongation of these pregnancies is a great challenge for clinicians to balance between potential maternal risks on one the eve hand and possible foetal benefits on the other. Clinical controversies regarding prolongation of preterm preeclamptic pregnancies still exist – also taking into account that preeclampsia is the leading cause of maternal mortality in the Netherlands5 - a debate which is even more pronounced in very preterm pregnancies with questionable foetal viability6-9. Do maternal risks of prolongation of these very early pregnancies outweigh the chances of neonatal survival? Counselling of women with very early onset preeclampsia not only comprises of knowledge of the outcome of those particular pregnancies, but also knowledge of outcomes of future pregnancies of these women is of major clinical importance. This thesis opens with a review of the literature on identifiable risk factors of preeclampsia