321 research outputs found
Enhancing the Financial Returns of R&D Investments through Operations Management
Although much research has been carried out to examine various contextual issues and moderating factors for successful R&D investments, very little research has been conducted to explore the role of a firm’s operational and process characteristics. In this study, we explore how firms could possibly enhance the financial returns of R&D investments through quality management, using Six Sigma implementation as an example, and efficiency improvement, using the stochastic frontier estimation of relative efficiency as a proxy. Based on data from 468 manufacturing firms in the U.S. over the period 2007-2014, we construct a dynamic panel data model to capture the effects of R&D investments on firms’ financial returns in terms of Tobin’s q. Using the system generalized method of moments estimator, our results indicate that the financial returns of R&D investments are significantly enhanced when firms adopt Six Sigma and improve efficiency in operations. Our additional analyses further suggest that such an enhancement effect through quality and efficiency improvements is more pronounced under high operational complexity as approximated by labor intensity and geographical diversity. Instead of considering innovation activities and process management as contradictory functions, we show that quality and efficiency improvements indeed support firms’ R&D investments, leading to higher financial returns
Introduction to semantic e-Science in biomedicine
The Semantic Web technologies provide enhanced capabilities that allow data and the meaning of the data to be shared and reused across application, enterprise, and community boundaries, better enabling integrative research and more effective knowledge discovery. This special issue is intended to give an introduction of the state-of-the-art of Semantic Web technologies and describe how such technologies would be used to build the e-Science infrastructure for biomedical communities. Six papers have been selected and included, featuring different approaches and experiences in a variety of biomedical domains
Synaptic Vesicle Docking: Sphingosine Regulates Syntaxin1 Interaction with Munc18
Consensus exists that lipids must play key functions in synaptic activity but precise mechanistic information is limited. Acid sphingomyelinase knockout mice (ASMko) are a suitable model to address the role of sphingolipids in synaptic regulation as they recapitulate a mental retardation syndrome, Niemann Pick disease type A (NPA), and their neurons have altered levels of sphingomyelin (SM) and its derivatives. Electrophysiological recordings showed that ASMko hippocampi have increased paired-pulse facilitation and post-tetanic potentiation. Consistently, electron microscopy revealed reduced number of docked vesicles. Biochemical analysis of ASMko synaptic membranes unveiled higher amounts of SM and sphingosine (Se) and enhanced interaction of the docking molecules Munc18 and syntaxin1. In vitro reconstitution assays demonstrated that Se changes syntaxin1 conformation enhancing its interaction with Munc18. Moreover, Se reduces vesicle docking in primary neurons and increases paired-pulse facilitation when added to wt hippocampal slices. These data provide with a novel mechanism for synaptic vesicle control by sphingolipids and could explain cognitive deficits of NPA patients
A Comprehensive Map of Mobile Element Insertion Polymorphisms in Humans
As a consequence of the accumulation of insertion events over evolutionary time, mobile elements now comprise nearly half of the human genome. The Alu, L1, and SVA mobile element families are still duplicating, generating variation between individual genomes. Mobile element insertions (MEI) have been identified as causes for genetic diseases, including hemophilia, neurofibromatosis, and various cancers. Here we present a comprehensive map of 7,380 MEI polymorphisms from the 1000 Genomes Project whole-genome sequencing data of 185 samples in three major populations detected with two detection methods. This catalog enables us to systematically study mutation rates, population segregation, genomic distribution, and functional properties of MEI polymorphisms and to compare MEI to SNP variation from the same individuals. Population allele frequencies of MEI and SNPs are described, broadly, by the same neutral ancestral processes despite vastly different mutation mechanisms and rates, except in coding regions where MEI are virtually absent, presumably due to strong negative selection. A direct comparison of MEI and SNP diversity levels suggests a differential mobile element insertion rate among populations
Measuring the Evolutionary Rewiring of Biological Networks
We have accumulated a large amount of biological network data and expect even more to come. Soon, we anticipate being able to compare many different biological networks as we commonly do for molecular sequences. It has long been believed that many of these networks change, or “rewire”, at different rates. It is therefore important to develop a framework to quantify the differences between networks in a unified fashion. We developed such a formalism based on analogy to simple models of sequence evolution, and used it to conduct a systematic study of network rewiring on all the currently available biological networks. We found that, similar to sequences, biological networks show a decreased rate of change at large time divergences, because of saturation in potential substitutions. However, different types of biological networks consistently rewire at different rates. Using comparative genomics and proteomics data, we found a consistent ordering of the rewiring rates: transcription regulatory, phosphorylation regulatory, genetic interaction, miRNA regulatory, protein interaction, and metabolic pathway network, from fast to slow. This ordering was found in all comparisons we did of matched networks between organisms. To gain further intuition on network rewiring, we compared our observed rewirings with those obtained from simulation. We also investigated how readily our formalism could be mapped to other network contexts; in particular, we showed how it could be applied to analyze changes in a range of “commonplace” networks such as family trees, co-authorships and linux-kernel function dependencies
What Stimulates Researchers to Make Their Research Usable? Towards an Openness Approach
Ambiguity surrounding the effect of external engagement on academic research has raised questions about what motivates researchers to collaborate with third parties. We argue that what matters for society is research that can be absorbed by users. We define openness as a willingness by researchers to make research more usable by external partners by responding to external influences in their own research practices. We ask what kinds of characteristics define those researchers who are more open to creating usable knowledge. Our empirical study analyses a sample of 1583 researchers working at the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). Results demonstrate that it is personal factors (academic identity and past experience) that determine which researchers have open behaviours. The paper concludes that policies to encourage external engagement should focus on experiences which legitimate and validate knowledge produced through user encounters, both at the academic formation career stage as well as through providing ongoing opportunities to engage with third parties.The data used for this study comes from the IMPACTO project funded by the Spanish Council for Scientific Research - CSIC (Ref. 200410E639). The work also benefited from a mobility grant awarded by Eu-Spri Forum to Julia Olmos Penuela & Paul Benneworth for her visiting research to the Center of Higher Education Policy Studies. Finally, Julia Olmos Penuela also benefited from a post-doctoral grant funded by the Generalitat Valenciana (APOSTD-2014-A-006).Olmos-Peñuela, J.; Benneworth, P.; Castro-Martínez, E. (2015). What Stimulates Researchers to Make Their Research Usable? Towards an Openness Approach. 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Blood coagulation and beyond:Position paper from the Fourth Maastricht Consensus Conference on Thrombosis
The 4th Maastricht Consensus Conference on Thrombosis (MCCT), included the following themes: Theme 1: The coagulome as a critical driver of cardiovascular disease Blood coagulation proteins also play divergent roles in biology and pathophysiology, related to specific organs, including brain, heart, bone marrow and kidney. Four investigators shared their views on these organ-specific topics. Theme 2: Novel mechanisms of thrombosis Mechanisms linking factor XII to fibrin, including their structural and physical properties, contribute to thrombosis, which is also affected by variation in microbiome status. Virus infections associated-coagulopathies perturb the hemostatic balance resulting in thrombosis and/or bleeding. Theme 3: How to limit bleeding risks: insights from translational studies This theme included state of the art methodology for exploring the contribution of genetic determinants of a bleeding diathesis; determination of polymorphisms in genes that control the rate of metabolism by the liver of P2Y12 inhibitors, to improve safety of antithrombotic therapy. Novel reversal agents for direct oral anticoagulants are discussed. Theme 4: Hemostasis in extracorporeal systems: how to utilize ex vivo models? Perfusion flow chamber and nanotechnology developments are developed for studying bleeding and thrombosis tendencies. Vascularised organoids are utilized for disease modeling and drug development studies. Strategies for tackling extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) associated coagulopathy are discussed. Theme 5: Clinical dilemmas in thrombosis and antithrombotic management Plenary presentations addressed controversial areas, ie thrombophilia testing, thrombosis risk assessment in hemophilia, novel antiplatelet strategies and clinically tested factor XI(a) inhibitors,both possibly with reduced bleeding risk. Finally, Covid-19 associated coagulopathy is revisited.</p
The global burden of cancer attributable to risk factors, 2010-19: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019
Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990-2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019
Five insights from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019
The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 provides a rules-based synthesis of the available evidence on levels and trends in health outcomes, a diverse set of risk factors, and health system responses. GBD 2019 covered 204 countries and territories, as well as first administrative level disaggregations for 22 countries, from 1990 to 2019. Because GBD is highly standardised and comprehensive, spanning both fatal and non-fatal outcomes, and uses a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive list of hierarchical disease and injury causes, the study provides a powerful basis for detailed and broad insights on global health trends and emerging challenges. GBD 2019 incorporates data from 281 586 sources and provides more than 3.5 billion estimates of health outcome and health system measures of interest for global, national, and subnational policy dialogue. All GBD estimates are publicly available and adhere to the Guidelines on Accurate and Transparent Health Estimate Reporting. From this vast amount of information, five key insights that are important for health, social, and economic development strategies have been distilled. These insights are subject to the many limitations outlined in each of the component GBD capstone papers.Peer reviewe
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