R&D and knowledge dynamics in university-industry relationships in biotech and pharmaceuticals: An agent-based model

In the last two decades, University-Industry Relationships have played an outstanding role in shaping innovation activities in Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals. Despite the growing importance and the considerable scope of these relationships, there still is an intensive and open debate on their short and long term effects on the research system in life sciences. So far, the extensive literature on this topic has not been able to provide a widely accepted answer. This work introduces a new way to analyse University-Industry Relationships (UIRs) which makes use of an agent-based simulation model. With the help of simulation experiments and the comparison of different scenario results, new insights on the effects of these relationships on the innovativeness of the research system can be gained. In particular, focusing on knowledge interactions among heterogeneous actors, we show that: (i) universities tend to shift from a basic to an applied research orientation as a consequence of relationships with industry, (ii) universities' innovative capabilities benefit from industry financial resources but not so much from cognitive resources of the companies, (iii) biotech companies' innovative capabilities largely benefit from the knowledge interaction with universities and (iv) adequate policies in terms of public basic research funding can contrast the negative effects of UIRs on university research orientation. --University-Industry Relationships,Knowledge Dynamics,University Patenting,Technology Transfer,Agent-Based Modelling

Identification of Markers to Predict Benefit from Trastuzumab Treatment

Despite the clinical benefit of trastuzumab, some patients do not respond to this therapy. Aims of this study are to identify new predictive biomarkers to distinguish responsive from de novo resistant tumours and to have new insights into the biological characterisation of trastuzumab activity. Whole-transcriptome analysis of primary HER2-positive breast carcinomas (BCs) treated with adjuvant trastuzumab identified a tumour subgroup, characterised by high ERBB2/low ESR1 expression, with good clinical outcome, and allowed the development of a trastuzumab risk model (TRAR) able to identify patients with high- and low-risk of relapse. Application of TRAR model to available datasets and to a new series of HER2-positive BC patients treated with neoadjuvant trastuzumab designated TRAR as predictive of response rather than associated to low aggressiveness. Our analyses showed that tumours exquisitely sensitive to treatment are addicted to HER2, enriched in immune pathways and have a peculiar circulating NK profile, characterised by high expression of the NKG2D receptor. Enrichment of immune system- and tyrosine kinase receptor signaling-related pathways was found associated also with response to trastuzumab monotherapy in clinical samples, suggesting the possibility to treat HER2-addicted tumours with trastuzumab monotherapy. Accordingly TRAR-low, high-NKG2D- and -MHC-II-expressing tumours were associated with response to one cycle of trastuzumab alone. In addition, increase of MHC-II gene expression upon a single cycle of trastuzumab characterised patients who benefit from the following combination with chemotherapy. Characterisation of biological features of TRAR-low tumours showed high infiltration of macrophages and CD8+ T cells, together with the expression of chemokines involved in their recruitment and of immune checkpoint ligands. In vitro analysis demonstrated a direct regulation of CCL2 and PD-L1 by HER2 signals. Overall, we described a tool able to identify BCs responsive to trastuzumab and understood that in these tumours HER2 is crucial for tumour growth, for infiltration of pro-trastuzumab immune cells and their suppression

In memoriam Merid Wolde Aregay (1934/35–2008)

 Obituary

Violence and the acknowledgement of tense past in the Horn: a note on the Ethio-Eritrean War (1998-2000)

In this paper, the author attempts to describe how, during the two years of bloody conflict which confronted the newly-born State of Eritrea with its old «mother-country», Ethiopia, the two former allies and «brotherly» countries used war as an open way of acknowledging tense past between them and in the country at large. Between May 1998 and December 2000, when the peace accord was signed in Algiers, the two countries launched an extremely violent propaganda war which accompanied and sustained the fighting in the field. This «war of words» was aimed not only at defending the rights of each country over the disputed border areas, but at projecting as well the newly-found national identity and consolidating its internal perception. A public use of the past came to be enacted in an attempt to realign the historical identities of the countries and to adapt them to the new geo-political settings which came about with the demise of the previous Ethiopian regime in 1991.Neste artigo, o autor tenta descrever a maneira coma, durante os dais anos de conflito sangrento onde o recém-nascido Estado da Eritreia enfrentou a sua antiga «pátria», Etiópia, os dois anteriores aliados e «países irmãos» utilizaram a guerra coma uma forma aberta de assumir as tensões que no passado existiram entre eles e no país em geral. Entre Maio de 1998 e Dezembro de 2000, quando um acordo de paz foi assinado em Alger, os dois países desencadearam uma guerra de propaganda extremamente violenta que acompanhou os combates no terreno e os sustentou. Esta «guerra de palavras» teve como objectivo não apenas a defesa dos direitos de cada um dos países sobre as áreas fronteiriças disputadas, mas ao mesmo tempo a projecção da percepção interna destas identidades. Uma utilização publica do passado foi encenada numa tentativa para re-alinhar as identidades históricas dos dois países, adaptando-as ao novo contexto geo-político que se gerou depois da queda do anterior regime etíope, em 1991.Dans cet article, l'auteur essaie de décrire la façon du conflit sanglant ou le nouveau-né Etat de l'Erythrée a fait face à son ancienne «patrie», l'Ethiopie, les deux anciens allies e «pays frères» ont utilisé la guerre comme une forme ouverte d'assumer les tensions qui dans le passé ont existé entre eux, et dans le pays en général. Entre mai 1998 et décembre 2000, quand un accord de paix a été signé à Alger, les deux pays ont lancé une guerre de propagande extrêmement violente qui a accompagné et soutenu les combats sur le terrain. Cette «guerre de paroles» eut comme objectif non seulement la défense des droits de chacun des deux pays sur les régions frontalières disputées, mais en même temps la projection des identités nationales, nouvellement rencontrées peu avant, ainsi que la consolidation interne de la perception de ces mêmes identités. Une utilisation publique du passé a été mis en scène dans une tentative d'en arriver à un réalignement des identités historiques des deux pays, en les adaptant au nouveau contexte geo-politique survenu après la chute de l'antérieur régime éthiopien, en 1991

Postpartum Depression Screening in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: Maternal and Provider Perspectives

Objective: Although mothers of preterm infants are at increased risk for postpartum depression (PPD), PPD screening conducted by neonatal providers in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is currently not a standard of care. The purpose of this study was to explore maternal and provider perceptions of neonatal providers conducting PPD screening in the NICU. Design: This study was conducted with a qualitative approach. Setting: A 24-bed Level III NICU in Houston, TX acted as the study site. Participants: Participants were purposively sampled (N=31) and included mothers of NICU infants (n=15) and NICU providers (n=16). Methods: Semi-structured individual and paired interviews were conducted with mothers of NICU infants and NICU providers to determine appropriateness of PPD screening in the NICU, screening preferences, facilitators and barriers. Content analysis was used to analyze verbatim transcripts of interviews. Transcripts were coded for content and subsequently organized into emergent themes. Results: Analysis of maternal and provider interviews revealed qualitative evidence supporting Health Belief Model constructs to include perceived susceptibility and severity of PPD in the NICU; as well as perceived benefits, barriers and cues to action for PPD screening in this setting. Conclusion: NICU providers and mothers support maternal PPD screening in the NICU as a standard of care led by nurses at the bedside. Special attention to stigma-related barriers and structural barriers should be considered with program development. Keywords: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, NICU, postpartum depression, postpartum depression screening, providers, materna

Do the Pikler and RIE methods promote infant-parent attachment?

This thesis explores Pikler and Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE) methods of parenting enhancement and intervention in an attempt to discover whether they promote attachment in the first three years of a child\u27s life. I report on the Pikler and RIE literature, as well as past and current attachment theory and research. I begin with the work of Bowlby, Ainsworth, and Main and progress to the study of neurobiological, genealogy, adult attachment styles, coping and resiliency, and internal mental states. In the 1946, post-WWII, Emmi Pikler created an orphanage in Budapest, Hungary, The Pikler Institute, beginning a unique approach to childcare that sensitively responded to the needs of children in a relationally responsive and developmentally attuned manner. Pikler\u27s close colleague, Magda Gerber, further developed the work, by bringing the methodology to families in the U.S. as a unique understanding of the relational needs and developmental competencies of infants. In order to understand the ways in which the Pikler and RIE methods promote attachment, my research sought to discover the links between attachment theory and the RIE and Pikler approaches. I endeavored to accomplish this by asking facilitators to describe specific behaviors of parent-infant dyads that exemplified the Pikler and RIE methods. I then analyzed the results in relation to various concepts of attachment theory. The results indicate that these methods promote attachment. I hope that by bringing this awareness to light that social workers and others working with infants and families with mental health issues based in attachment will find an accessible and practical tool through the methodologies of RIE and Pikler

Trade Openness and Vulnerability in Central and Eastern Europe

international trade, vulnerability, volatility, Central and Eastern European countries

Ethics and economics in the world of globalized finance

The paper analyzes the reasons that led, in the years following the nineteenth century, to a vision of economic phenomena distant from ethics. After a brief introduction on the meaning of the concept of economics in the ancient world, the article describes which factors contributed most to developing an image of human behaviour motivated only by perfect rationality, self-interest, wealth maximization, showing the reasons that have separated economics and finance from ethics. The paper then deals with the theme of how to bring finance closer to the real economy starting from the need to search for solutions capable of producing radical changes in the business models of companies and in the financing investments aimed at maximizing social inclusion and collective well-being. The final part describes the initiatives promoted by the EU for the development of the Capital Market Union and the instrument recently introduced by the EU to develop finance long-term investments, the ELTIFs. In the conclusion, we present a proposal for the creation of a new innovative asset class, the Infrastructure Mortgage Backed Security, for the promotion of investments in infrastructures responding to the needs of investors and requiring business models based on shared ethic values and on the responsibility of all the agents working inside and outside the companies

Regularity of the steering control for systems with persistent memory

The following fact is known for large classes of distributed control systems: when the target is regular, there exists a regular steering control. This fact is important to prove convergence estimates of numerical algorithms for the approximate computation of the steering control. In this paper we extend this property to a class of systems with persistent memory (of Maxwell/Boltzmann type) and we show that it is possible to construct such smooth control via the solution of an optimization problem