The issues of enterprise growth in transition and post-transition period: the case of Polish 'Elektrim'

Case study of Polish company Elektrim illustrates the changing basis of growth of enterprises between the transition and post-transition periods. Elektrim grew primarily through conglomeration in the transition period. After the exhaustion of this mode of growth Elektrim has started to focus on a few core areas (telecoms, cables, energy). The strategic shift to telecommunications has been based on partnerships with foreign firms and it is likely that this will be the pattern in other areas. In this respect, the case of Elektrim shows the importance of internationalisation for the growth of enterprises in CEE. Based on the case study the paper draws several analytical issues: First, Elektrim's shift from conglomeration to focusing suggests that the institutional context, which drives firm strategy in post-socialist economies like Poland, is, perhaps, also changing. Second, in order to grow Elektrim is forced to enter into equity relationships and partnerships like with French Vivendi. This suggests that the possibilities for firm growth in post-socialist economies, like Poland, through generic expansion are still fewer when compared to growth based on mergers & acquisitions or different forms of alliances. Third, Elektrim's relationship with government is complex and refutes the simplified dichotomy of markets vs. governments. This raises the issue of to what extent post-socialist governments operate as a 'compensatory mechanism' on which firms like Elektrim can rely to grow. Fourth, the opening of the CEECs has led to relocations of EU and other MNCs into this region with the result that they are also transferring the oligopolistic competition from EU into new markets. The case of Elektrim shows how CEE companies and goverment regulations become factors in the oligopolistic competition between big EU companies. CEE companies and governments may use this competition to their advantage but also their limited bargaining powers may lead to outcomes unfavourable to them

Unconstrained and Contactless Hand Geometry Biometrics

This paper presents a hand biometric system for contact-less, platform-free scenarios, proposing innovative methods in feature extraction, template creation and template matching. The evaluation of the proposed method considers both the use of three contact-less publicly available hand databases, and the comparison of the performance to two competitive pattern recognition techniques existing in literature: namely Support Vector Machines (SVM) and k-Nearest Neighbour (k-NN). Results highlight the fact that the proposed method outcomes existing approaches in literature in terms of computational cost, accuracy in human identification, number of extracted features and number of samples for template creation. The proposed method is a suitable solution for human identification in contact-less scenarios based on hand biometrics, providing a feasible solution to devices with limited hardware requirements like mobile devices

Antitumor effect of sFlt-1 gene therapy system mediated by Bifidobacterium Infantis on Lewis lung cancer in mice

Soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase receptor (sFlt-1) is a soluble form of extramembrane part of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-1 (VEGFR-1) that has antitumor effects. Bifidobacterium Infantis is a kind of non-pathogenic and anaerobic bacteria that may have specific targeting property of hypoxic environment inside of solid tumors. The aim of this study was to construct Bifidobacterium Infantis-mediated sFlt-1 gene transferring system and investigate its antitumor effect on Lewis lung cancer (LLC) in mice. Our results demonstrated that the Bifidobacterium Infantis-mediated sFlt-1 gene transferring system was constructed successfully and the system could express sFlt-1 at the levels of gene and protein. This system could not only significantly inhibit growth of human umbilical vein endothelial cells induced by VEGF in vitro, but also inhibit the tumor growth and prolong survival time of LLC C57BL/6 mice safely. These data suggest that Bifidobacterium Infantis-mediated sFlt-1 gene transferring system presents a promising therapeutic approach for the treatment of cancer

A922 Sequential measurement of 1 hour creatinine clearance (1-CRCL) in critically ill patients at risk of acute kidney injury (AKI)

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Productive Development Policies in Latin American Countries: The Case of Peru, 1990-2007

This paper assesses the institutional setting and productive impact of selected productive development policies (PDPs), institutions, and programs implemented in Peru during the period 1990-2007. The assessment is based on a simple, basic framework of a series of economic or market failures that may have constrained the transformation of the productive structure, the process of innovation, and the growth of total factor productivity. Evidence indicates that the PDPs and structural reforms implemented in Peru did not significantly alter the productive structure of the Peruvian economy. If the objectives of the PDPs are to transform the productive structure, increase total factor productivity, and enhance innovation, government interventions need to focus directly on the source of market failures and create quality productive changes within the private sector