Managing ecosystems for service innovation: A dynamic capability view

The success of service innovations is intertwined with firms’ capabilities to coordinate, orchestrate, and collaborate with a set of external actors. Adopting an ecosystem and dynamic capability perspective, this article examines ecosystem-related capabilities for developing service innovation in product-centric firms. The research uses a mixed-methods approach focusing on the energy utility sector: (1) a survey with 133 managers from 28 firms that allows a comparison of ecosystem-related capabilities between firms with high and low service-innovation intensity; and (2) a complementary interview study with 8 of these firms that have high service-innovation intensity, allowing a detailed understanding of the relevant ecosystem-related capabilities to be developed. From the data we derive a set of 12 ecosystem-related capabilities for service innovation related to the sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring of external resources. The results indicate that firms with high service-innovation intensity possess significantly stronger ecosystem-related capabilities than firms with lower service-innovation intensity. Those firms also seem to sense and seize external opportunities and resources to a greater extent in order to reconfigure their service-related ecosystems. The findings also show that successful service innovators consider not only value-adding partnerships, such as suppliers and customers, to be relevant for service innovation, but also relationships with non-direct value-adding ecosystem stakeholders (e.g., local governments, communities, legislators)

A New Sterol Diglycoside from Conyza floribunda

Chemical investigation of CH2Cl2 and MeOH extracts of Conyza floribunda have led to the isolation of (24S)-ethylcholesta-5, 22E, 25-trien-3-O-glucosyl (1”→ 4’)-rhamnoside (1), (24S)-ethylcholesta-5,25-dien-3-O-α-glucoside (2), cyasterone (3), stigmasta 5, 22-dien-3-acetate (4), stigmasta 5, 22-dien-3-ol (5), spinasta 7, 22-dien-3-ol (6), 3-oxofriedooleanane (7), 3-hydroxyfriedooleanane (8), 3-acetoxyfriedooleanane (9), betullinic acid (10), quercetin 3-O-α-glucoside (11), quercetin (12), myricetin (13) and kaempferol (14). Their structures were determined using spectroscopic and physical methods as well as comparison with data available in the literature.Keywords: Conyza floribunda, asteraceae, triterpenes, sterols, flavonol

Умный бассейн

Ключевые слова: бассейн, система управления, автоматизированная система. Объектом исследования является автоматизированная система управления переносным бассейном Цель работы – проектирование автоматизированной системы управления переносным бассейном, которая обладает функциями нагрева и фильтрации воды автоматически. Благодаря этому вода в бассейне сохраняет температуру, чистоту и прозрачность в течении длительного периода времени. В процессе исследования проводилось создание структурной схемы и проектирование щита управления данной системы. В результате исследования была спроектирована система управления переносным бассейном. Основные конструктивные, технологические и технико-эксплуатационные характTags: swimming pool, management system, automated system. The object of research is a portable automatic pool control system The purpose of the work - design portable automated pool management system which has the functions of heating and filtration of water automatically. With this keeps the pool water temperature, transparency and cleanness for a long period of time

Bottleneck size and selection level reproducibly impact evolution of antibiotic resistance

During antibiotic treatment, the evolution of bacterial pathogens is fundamentally affected by bottlenecks and varying selection levels imposed by the drugs. Bottlenecks—that is, reductions in bacterial population size—lead to an increased influence of random effects (genetic drift) during bacterial evolution, and varying antibiotic concentrations during treatment may favour distinct resistance variants. Both aspects influence the process of bacterial evolution during antibiotic therapy and thereby treatment outcome. Surprisingly, the joint influence of these interconnected factors on the evolution of antibiotic resistance remains largely unexplored. Here we combine evolution experiments with genomic and genetic analyses to demonstrate that bottleneck size and antibiotic-induced selection reproducibly impact the evolutionary path to resistance in pathogenic Pseudomonas aeruginosa, one of the most problematic opportunistic human pathogens. Resistance is favoured—expectedly—under high antibiotic selection and weak bottlenecks, but—unexpectedly—also under low antibiotic selection and severe bottlenecks. The latter is likely to result from a reduced probability of losing favourable variants through drift under weak selection. Moreover, the absence of high resistance under low selection and weak bottlenecks is caused by the spread of low-resistance variants with high competitive fitness under these conditions. We conclude that bottlenecks, in combination with drug-induced selection, are currently neglected key determinants of pathogen evolution and outcome of antibiotic treatment

Life cycle-based environmental impacts of energy system transformation strategies for Germany: Are climate and environmental protection conflicting goals?

In the development of climate-friendly energy system transformation strategies it is often ignored that environmental protection encompasses more than climate protection alone. There is therefore a risk of developing transformation strategies whose climate friendliness comes at the expense of higher other environmental impacts. Consequently, an assessment of environmental impacts of energy system transformation strategies is required if undesired environmental side effects of the energy system transformation are to be avoided and transformation strategies are to be developed that are both climate and environmentally friendly. In this paper, ten structurally different transformation strategies for the German energy system were re-modeled (in a harmonized manner). Five of these scenarios describe pathways for a reduction of direct, energy related CO$_2$ emissions by 80%, the other five by 95%. Life cycle-based environmental impacts of the scenarios were assessed by coupling the scenario results with data from a life cycle inventory database focusing on energy and transport technologies. The results show that the transformation to a climate-friendly energy system reduces environmental impacts in many impact categories. However, exceptions occur with respect to the consumption of mineral resources, land use and certain human health indicators, which could increase with decreasing CO$_2$ emissions. The comparison of environmental impacts of moderately ambitious strategies (80% CO$_2$ reduction) with very ambitious strategies (95% CO$_2$ reduction) shows that there is a risk of increasing environmental impacts with increasing climate protection, although very ambitious strategies do not necessarily come along with higher environmental impacts than moderately ambitious strategies. A reduction of environmental impacts could be achieved by a moderate and – as far as possible – direct electrification of heat and transport, a balanced technology mix for electricity generation, by reducing the number and size of passenger cars and by reducing the environmental impacts from the construction of these vehicles

A Question of Choice

Women's reproductive rights, reproductive health, and constitutional privacy rights in the United States are addressed in light of the contemporary onslaught of the Christian Right. The misuse of State power by fundamentalist social forces in America is critiqued. The article also briefly reviews the question of State control over women's bodies

Atropselective syntheses of (-) and (+) rugulotrosin A utilizing point-to-axial chirality transfer

Chiral, dimeric natural products containing complex structures and interesting biological properties have inspired chemists and biologists for decades. A seven-step total synthesis of the axially chiral, dimeric tetrahydroxanthone natural product rugulotrosin A is described. The synthesis employs a one-pot Suzuki coupling/dimerization to generate the requisite 2,2'-biaryl linkage. Highly selective point-to-axial chirality transfer was achieved using palladium catalysis with achiral phosphine ligands. Single X-ray crystal diffraction data were obtained to confirm both the atropisomeric configuration and absolute stereochemistry of rugulotrosin A. Computational studies are described to rationalize the atropselectivity observed in the key dimerization step. Comparison of the crude fungal extract with synthetic rugulotrosin A and its atropisomer verified that nature generates a single atropisomer of the natural product.P50 GM067041 - NIGMS NIH HHS; R01 GM099920 - NIGMS NIH HHS; GM-067041 - NIGMS NIH HHS; GM-099920 - NIGMS NIH HH

Замена электродвигателя ПЭН турбоприводом на Кемеровской ТЭЦ

В данной работе рассматривается возможность замены электродвигателя ПЭН турбоприводом на Кемеровской ТЭЦ, с установкой турбопривода на существующий фундамент. Целью работы является оценка возможности увеличения отпуска электроэнергии от станции в результате уменьшения затрат на собственные нужды и повышение маневренности ТЭЦ.In this paper we consider the possibility of replacing the turbine drive motor PEN to Kemerovo CHP , with the installation of turbine drive on the existing foundation. The aim is to assess the possibility of increasing the supply of electric power from the plant by reducing the costs of their own needs and improving maneuverability CHP

Gene regulatory network subcircuit controlling a dynamic spatial pattern of signaling in the sea urchin embryo

We dissect the transcriptional regulatory relationships coordinating the dynamic expression patterns of two signaling genes, wnt8 and delta, which are central to specification of the sea urchin embryo endomesoderm. cis-Regulatory analysis shows that transcription of the gene encoding the Notch ligand Delta is activated by the widely expressed Runx transcription factor, but spatially restricted by HesC-mediated repression through a site in the delta 5′UTR. Spatial transcription of the hesC gene, however, is controlled by Blimp1 repression. Blimp1 thus represses the repressor of delta, thereby permitting its transcription. The blimp1 gene is itself linked into a feedback circuit that includes the wnt8 signaling ligand gene, and we showed earlier that this circuit generates an expanding torus of blimp1 and wnt8 expression. The finding that delta expression is also controlled at the cis-regulatory level by the blimp1-wnt8 torus-generating subcircuit now explains the progression of Notch signaling from the mesoderm to the endoderm of the developing embryo. Thus the specific cis-regulatory linkages of the gene regulatory network encode the coordinated spatial expression of Wnt and Notch signaling as they sweep outward across the vegetal plate of the embryo