The effects of a firm’s internationalization, age, and environmental turbulence on the capabilities that comprise strategic agility

This study investigates a largely unexplored area by examining how internationalization, firm age, and environmental turbulence influence the key components of strategic agility, namely strategic sensitivity, leadership unity, and resource fluidity. Although these factors have been identified as potential catalysts for strategic agility, their specific impacts on strategic agility’s core capabilities have yet to be thoroughly explored. Our research aims to bridge this gap, providing a nuanced understanding of how each of these variables shapes the strategic agility of a firm. The study uses the empirical research of 220 Spanish firms in the service sector and then adopts partial least squares structural equation modeling to analyze the data. Our findings indicate that internationalization has a dual effect on strategic agility: internationalization enhances strategic sensitivity, reflecting improved environmental awareness, but it diminishes leadership unity, illustrating the complexities of global leadership alignment. Additionally, an increase in firm age is associated with a decrease in all the aspects of strategic agility. By contrast, environmental turbulence positively impacts each dimension of strategic agility, suggesting that turbulent conditions can indeed promote the adaptability and responsiveness of a firm

Fomentando el trabajo autónomo mediante técnicas de gamificación

A pesar de llevar ya unos años inmersos en el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior, aún existe un número apreciable de alumnos que no sigue las asignaturas de manera continuada, sino que se limita a estudiar cuando hay pruebas de evaluación. Con objeto de fomentar el trabajo continuo y cambiar las rutinas de estudio, se gamificaron dos asignaturas de la materia de bases de datos bajo estrategias distintas: una, basada en clasificación y otra, en medallas. Estas experiencias se describen y analizan en detalle atendiendo a la valoración de los docentes y a la opinión de los alumnos recogida mediante una encuesta anónima. Las experiencias tuvieron lugar en el curso académico 2017-18 con una participación total de 78 alumnos. Como resultado, se señalan consideraciones que puedan orientar a otros docentes en la propuesta de iniciativas de gamificación.Despite the existence of the European Higher Education Area for quite some years already, a considerable number of students still do not follow subjects continuously during the course. Instead, they limit their work to the study of any graded items. We promoted continuous work with the aim of changing study rutines and of improving the learning outcome. This promotion was based on the gamification of two subjects of database curricula following two different gamification strategies: the first one was defined around a ranking, while the second one consisted in badges earning. These experiences are described and analyzed in this work, taking into account the assessment of the teachers and the students? opinion gathered through a survey. Analyzed data correspond to the 2017-18 edition of each course with a participation of 78 students. As a result, we point out some considerations that may be of interest for teachers when formulating gamification initiatives.Este trabajo ha sido desarrollado en el marco del Proyecto de Innovación Docente de la Universidad de Cantabria

Biostimulants as an Alternative to Improve the Wine Quality from Vitis vinifera (cv. Tempranillo) in La Rioja

The application of biostimulants appears to be an environmentally friendly, innovative, and sustainable agronomical tool to mitigate the negative effects induced by adverse climatology in traditional grape-growing regions such as La Rioja (Spain). However, their mechanism of action in grapevines is still unclear. We evaluated how commercial substances (two from Ascophyllum nodosum extraction and one amino acids-based biostimulant) and the non-proteinogenic amino acid β-aminobutyric acid (BABA) affect the quality and quantity of musts and grapes in Vitis vinifera L. cv. Tempranillo from a semi-arid region of La Rioja during two seasons. We hypothesized an enhancement in organic metabolites in berries and leaves in response to these treatments, changing the organoleptic characteristics of the final products. The treatments altered the primary metabolites such as carbohydrates, organic acids (AcOrg), and free amino acids, first in the leaves as the effect of the foliar application and second in grapes and musts. As the main result, the biostimulant efficiency depended on the climatology and vineyard location to improve the final yield. Whereas biostimulant application enhanced the yield in 2018 (less dry year), it did not help production in 2019 (dry year). BABA was the most efficient biostimulant, enhancing plant production. Regarding yield quality, the biostimulant application improved the musts mainly by enhancing the fumaric acid content and by reducing carbohydrates, except in BABA-treated plants, where they were accumulated. These results corroborate biostimulants as an exciting approach in wine production, especially for improving wine quality.This work was funded by the ERDF project “Plants as a tool for sustainable global development” (no. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000827) within the program Research, Development and Education (OP RDE), and by the Basque Government, Research Groups of the Basque University System (project no. IT925-16)

Células presentadoras de antígeno: células dendríticas y su papel en la lengua azul

Las células presentadoras de antígeno (CPA) desempeñan un papel fundamental en el desarrollo de la respuesta inmunitaria mediante el procesamiento y la presentación de antígenos, así como a través de distintos estímulos que favorecen la proliferación y diferenciación linfocitaria. Entre las CPA, las células dendríticas (CDs) son consideradas como las más eficientes en las funciones de presentación. En este trabajo se abordan aspectos generales relacionados con la localización, estructura y función de estas células, así como con su importante papel en la instauración de la repuesta inmunitaria. Junto a las células endoteliales y a los macrófagos, las CDs son consideradas células blanco del virus de la lengua azul (vLA), desempeñando un importante papel en la diseminación orgánica de éste. Además, las CDs parecen jugar un importante papel como productoras o inductoras de sustancias vasoactivas responsables de los cambios vasculares que caracterizan a la enfermedad, quedando aún por determinar la influencia de estos mediadores químicos en la instauración de la respuesta inmunológica frente al virus, aspecto fundamental para el desarrollo y mejora de vacunas

Disentangling the neurobiological bases of temporal impulsivity in Huntington's disease

BackgroundDespite its impact on daily life, impulsivity in Huntington's disease (HD) is understudied as a neuropsychiatric symptom. Our aim is to characterize temporal impulsivity in HD and to disentangle the white matter correlate associated with impulsivity.MethodsForty-seven HD individuals and 36 healthy controls were scanned and evaluated for temporal impulsivity using a delay-discounting (DD) task and complementary Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire. Diffusion tensor imaging was employed to characterize the structural connectivity of three limbic tracts: the uncinate fasciculus (UF), the accumbofrontal tract (NAcc-OFC), and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex connectig the caudate nucleus (DLPFC-cn). Multiple linear regression analyses were applied to analyze the relationship between impulsive behavior and white matter microstructural integrity.ResultsOur results revealed altered structural connectivity in the DLPC-cn, the NAcc-OFC and the UF in HD individuals. At the same time, the variability in structural connectivity of these tracts was associated with the individual differences in temporal impulsivity. Specifically, increased structural connectivity in the right NAcc-OFC and reduced connectivity in the left UF were associated with higher temporal impulsivity scores.ConclusionsThe present findings highlight the importance of investigating the spectrum of temporal impulsivity in HD. As, while less prevalent than other psychiatric features, this symptom is still reported to significantly impact the quality of life of patients and caregivers. This study provides evidence that individual differences observed in temporal impulsivity may be explained by variability in limbic frontostriatal tracts, while shedding light on the role of sensitivity to reward in modulating impulsive behavior through the selection of immediate rewards. This study investigates individual differences in temporal impulsivity by using a delay discounting task and, its relationship with white matter connectivity. Our findings reveal significant alterations in the microstructure of key tracts of interest, including the right DLPF-Ccn, bilateral uncinate fasciculus and the left accumbo-frontal tract, in individuals with HD. Furthermore, we observed that variability in the structural connectivity in specific tracts is associated with individual differences in temporal impulsivity. imag

On the Automated Transformation of Domain Models into Tabular Datasets

We are surrounded by ubiquitous and interconnected soft- ware systems which gather valuable data. The analysis of these data, although highly relevant for decision making, cannot be performed di- rectly by business users, as its execution requires very speci c technical knowledge in areas such as statistics and data mining. One of the com- plexity problems faced when constructing an analysis of this kind resides in the fact that most data mining tools and techniques work exclusively over tabular-formatted data, preventing business users from analysing excerpts of a data bundle which have not been previously traduced into this format by an expert. In response, this work presents a set of transfor- mation patterns for automatically generating tabular data from domain models. The described patterns have been integrated into a language, which allows business users to specify the elements of a domain model that should be considered for data analysis.This work has been partially funded by the Government of Cantabria (Spain) under the doctoral studentship program from the University of Cantabria, and by the Spanish Government under grant TIN2014- 56158-C4-2-P (M2C2)