Systematic Differences in Firm’s Information Technology Signaling: Implications for Research Design

Because research programs investigating IT-related phenomena are hindered by limitations in the availability of archival data, researchers have used a variety of data collection strategies including the gathering of firms’ IT signaling via press releases to the media. Little is known, however, about firms’ IT signaling propensities. Here, contents of firms’ press releases and annual reports are coded to test a model explaining a firm’s propensity to signal stakeholders about its IT-related activities. Results demonstrate that firms transmitting greater numbers of IT signals tend to be low performers in their industries, tend to reside in industries characterized by a transform industry IT strategic role and tend to be larger. Implications of these findings for research design are provided

Diabetic ketoacidosis induced by nivolumab in invasive mucinous adenocarcinoma of the lung : a case report and review of the literature

Nivolumab is the first programmed cell death receptor 1 (PD-1) inhibitor approved in China. Compared with chemotherapy, nivolumab has shown advantages of good efficacy and safety in the treatment of a variety of tumors. However, due to its short time of use in China and lack of safety experience, clinical understanding of its adverse reactions has not been sufficiently elucidated. In recent years, cases of diabetic ketoacidosis caused by nivolumab have been reported in the emergency department, which has aroused our concern. Here we present a serious case of diabetic ketoacidosis in a 69-year-old woman with invasive mucinous adenocarcinoma of the lung, which occurred following therapy with the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab and dendritic cell/cytokine-induced killer cell (DC/CIK) immunotherapy. She presented with diabetic ketoacidosis 5 days after the second cycle of nivolumab administration. The patient presented with dry mouth symptoms, a maximum blood glucose of 511.2 mg/dL, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) level of 7.4%, urine ketone body value of 3+, and extracellular fluid residual alkali level of −3.8 mmol/L. Normal saline and insulin was initiated. The patient had no history of obesity or family history of diabetes. She received a single dose of 3.75 mg of dexamethasone treatment during this period of time which resulted in cough improvement, but did not explain the onset of the diabetes. She was treated with insulin, sitagliptin phosphate tablets and acarbose tablets. Diabetic ketoacidosis was considered an immune-related toxicity caused by nivolumab, and consequently, treatment with nivolumab was suspended. Patient was maintained under insulin treatment with a blood glucose levels normalization. The incubation period of nivolumab-induced diabetic ketoacidosis is dispersive and the clinical risk is high. Patients need life-long insulin therapy. Blood glucose and HbA1c should be monitored routinely before and during nivolumab immunotherapy to avoid the occurrence of diabetic ketoacidosis. After the occurrence of diabetic ketoacidosis, insulin should be used to actively control blood glucose and do a good job in medication education to ensure long-term compliance of patients. Nivolumab should only be initiated if the patient has a clinical benefit under stable glucose control

Effect of Spin-Flip Scattering on Electrical Transport in Magnetic Tunnel Junctions

By means of the nonequilibrium Green function technique, the effect of spin-flip scatterings on the spin-dependent electrical transport in ferromagnet-insulator-ferromagnet (FM-I-FM) tunnel junctions is investigated. It is shown that Julliere's formula for the tunnel conductance must be modified when including the contribution from the spin-flip scatterings. It is found that the spin-flip scatterings could lead to an angular shift of the tunnel conductance, giving rise to the junction resistance not being the largest when the orientations of magnetizations in the two FM electrodes are antiparallel, which may offer an alternative explanation for such a phenomenon observed previously in experiments in some FM-I-FM junctions. The spin-flip assisted tunneling is also observed.Comment: Revtex, 4 figure

Sorption Properties of Greenwaste Biochar for Two Triazine Pesticides

This work by ISTC’s Wei Zheng and Kishore Rajagopalan and collaborators from Delaware State University provides innovative solutions for producing energy and food in a sustainable environment. Renewable energy can be produced by converting greenwaste such as using highway grass clippings for gasoline or biodiesel through a process called pyrolysis (heating to 450°C with limited oxygen) and then implementing some refining techniques. However, the pyrolysis process produces a byproduct called biochar, which is a carbon-rich substance similar to activated carbon. The biochar byproduct could be landfilled, but the researchers have a better idea.The other aspect of this research is determining how to produce food without contaminating the environment. The researchers considered two common pesticides. Atrazine and simazine are used as broad-spectrum pesticides/herbicides for agricultural, recreational, and residential uses, but the most common use is for field crop applications. These pesticides can inadvertently contaminate water ways and water bodies from rain events and soil erosion. To prevent this contamination, the researchers proposed mixing biochar into the soil to prevent pesticide/herbicide loss from the field. Full results published in Zheng, Wei, et al (2010). "Sorption properties of greenwaste biochar for two triazine pesticides." Journal of Hazardous Materials 181(1-3), 121-126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2010.04.103Ope

Epigenetic functions enriched in transcription factors binding to mouse recombination hotspots

The regulatory mechanism of recombination is a fundamental problem in genomics, with wide applications in genome-wide association studies, birth-defect diseases, molecular evolution, cancer research, etc. In mammalian genomes, recombination events cluster into short genomic regions called "recombination hotspots". Recently, a 13-mer motif enriched in hotspots is identified as a candidate cis-regulatory element of human recombination hotspots; moreover, a zinc finger protein, PRDM9, binds to this motif and is associated with variation of recombination phenotype in human and mouse genomes, thus is a trans-acting regulator of recombination hotspots. However, this pair of cis and trans-regulators covers only a fraction of hotspots, thus other regulators of recombination hotspots remain to be discovered. In this paper, we propose an approach to predicting additional trans-regulators from DNA-binding proteins by comparing their enrichment of binding sites in hotspots. Applying this approach on newly mapped mouse hotspots genome-wide, we confirmed that PRDM9 is a major trans-regulator of hotspots. In addition, a list of top candidate trans-regulators of mouse hotspots is reported. Using GO analysis we observed that the top genes are enriched with function of histone modification, highlighting the epigenetic regulatory mechanisms of recombination hotspots

The crosstalk between EGF, IGF, and Insulin cell signaling pathways - computational and experimental analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cellular response to external stimuli requires propagation of corresponding signals through molecular signaling pathways. However, signaling pathways are not isolated information highways, but rather interact in a number of ways forming sophisticated signaling networks. Since defects in signaling pathways are associated with many serious diseases, understanding of the crosstalk between them is fundamental for designing molecularly targeted therapy. Unfortunately, we still lack technology that would allow high throughput detailed measurement of activity of individual signaling molecules and their interactions. This necessitates developing methods to prioritize selection of the molecules such that measuring their activity would be most informative for understanding the crosstalk. Furthermore, absence of the reaction coefficients necessary for detailed modeling of signal propagation raises the question whether simple parameter-free models could provide useful information about such pathways.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We study the combined signaling network of three major pro-survival signaling pathways: <b>E</b>pidermal <b>G</b>rowth <b>F</b>actor <b>R</b>eceptor (EGFR), <b>I</b>nsulin-like <b>G</b>rowth <b>F</b>actor-1 <b>R</b>eceptor (IGF-1R), and <b>I</b>nsulin <b>R</b>eceptor (IR). Our study involves static analysis and dynamic modeling of this network, as well as an experimental verification of the model by measuring the response of selected signaling molecules to differential stimulation of EGF, IGF and insulin receptors. We introduced two novel measures of the importance of a node in the context of such crosstalk. Based on these measures several molecules, namely Erk1/2, Akt1, Jnk, p70S6K, were selected for monitoring in the network simulation and for experimental studies. Our simulation method relies on the Boolean network model combined with stochastic propagation of the signal. Most (although not all) trends suggested by the simulations have been confirmed by experiments.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The simple model implemented in this paper provides a valuable first step in modeling signaling networks. However, to obtain a fully predictive model, a more detailed knowledge regarding parameters of individual interactions might be necessary.</p

Production and concentration of monoacylglycerols rich in omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids by enzymatic glycerolysis and molecular distillation

Production of monoacylglycerols (MAGs) rich in x-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) was conducted through short path distillation (SPD) of an acylglycerol mixture (containing 67% MAGs) produced by enzymatic glycerolysis of sardine oil with glycerol. A stepwise SPD process in a UIC KDL 5 system (vacuum 10 3 mbar, feeding flow 1.0 mL/min) was proceeded: the first distillation performed at evaporator temperature (TE) of 110 C to remove glycerol completely and most of FFAs; and the second distillation at optimized TE 155 C; resulting in a stream distillate with 91% purity and 94% overall recovery of MAGs. This work also demonstrated that SPD is able to concentrate n-3 PUFAs in MAG form by distilling at proper TE e.g. 125 C, where n-3 PUFAs are concentrated in the residues. Moreover, this work mapped out a complete processing diagram for scalable production of n-3 PUFAs enriched MAGs as potential food emulsifier and ingredient.Spanish Government through MINECO and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) for financial support to the project CTQ2012-39131-C02-01