Business Models in OER, a Contingency Approach

We will present an analysis of data from a literature review and semi-structured interviews with experts on OER, to identify different aspects of OER business models and to establish how the success of the OER initiatives is measured. The results collected thus far show that two different business models for OER initiatives exist, but no data on their success or failure is published. We propose a framework for measuring success of OER initiatives.

Work Meaningfulness as a Key Enhancer of Ethical Values in Business

Despite abundant research on work meaningfulness, the link between work meaningfulness and general ethical attitude at work has not been discussed so far. In this article, we propose a theoretical framework to explain how work meaningfulness contributes to enhanced ethical behavior. We argue that by providing a way for individuals to relate work to one's personal core values and identity, work meaningfulness leads to affective commitment - the involvement of one's cognitive, emotional, and physical resources. This, in turn, leads to engagement and so facilitates the integration of one's personal values in the daily work routines, and so reduces the risk of unethical behavior. On the contrary, anomie, that is, the absence of meaning and consequently of personal involvement, will lead to lower rational commitment rather than affective commitment, and consequently to disengagement and a-morality. We conclude with implications for the management of ethical attitudes.

Formulation and Implementation of Air Quality Control Pogrammes : Patterns of Interest Consideration

This article investigates some central aspects of the relationships between programme structure and implementation of sulphur dioxide air quality control policies. Previous implementation research, primarily adopting American approaches, has neglected the connections between the processes of programme formulation and implementation. 'Programme', as the key variable in implementation studies, has been defined too narrowly. On the basis of theoretical and conceptual reflections and provisional empirical results from studies in France, Italy, England, and the Federal Republic of Germany, the authors demonstrate that an integral process analysis using a more extended programme concept is necessary if patterns of interest recognition in policies are to be discovered. Otherwise, the still important question of critical social science cannot be answered, namely, what is the impact of special interests upon implementation processes.

Innovation and new business through mutually beneficial collaboration and proactive procurement

ABSTRACT This dissertation focuses on new technology commercialization, innovation and new business development. Industry-based novel technology may achieve commercialization through its transfer to a large research laboratory acting as a lead user and technical partner, and providing the new technology with complementary assets and meaningful initial use in social practice. The research lab benefits from the new technology and innovation through major performance improvements and cost savings. Such mutually beneficial collaboration between the lab and the firm does not require any additional administrative efforts or funds from the lab, yet requires openness to technologies and partner companies that may not be previously known to the lab- Labs achieve the benefits by applying a proactive procurement model that promotes active pre-tender search of new technologies and pre-tender testing and piloting of these technological options. The collaboration works best when based on the development needs of both parties. This means that first of all the lab has significant engineering activity with well-defined technological needs and second, that the firm has advanced prototype technology yet needs further testing, piloting and the initial market and references to achieve the market breakthrough. The empirical evidence of the dissertation is based on a longitudinal multiple-case study with the European Laboratory for Particle Physics. The key theoretical contribution of this study is that large research labs, including basic research, play an important role in product and business development toward the end, rather than front-end, of the innovation process. This also implies that product-orientation and business-orientation can contribute to basic re-search. The study provides practical managerial and policy guidelines on how to initiate and manage mutually beneficial lab-industry collaboration and proactive procurement.

Sistema d'anàlisi financer: tresoreria amb eines Business Intelligence

El projecte tracte d' implementar una solució de Business Intelligence sota la plataforma Microsoft.Aquest projecte va destinat al Departament de Comptabilitat de l' Ajuntament de Cambrils, i està relacionat amb la funció del control de les despeses i els ingressos

HLA Alleles Influence the Clinical Signature of Amoxicillin-Clavulanate Hepatotoxicity.

BACKGROUND AND AIM The genotype-phenotype interaction in drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is a subject of growing interest. Previous studies have linked amoxicillin-clavulanate (AC) hepatotoxicity susceptibility to specific HLA alleles. In this study we aimed to examine potential associations between HLA class I and II alleles and AC DILI with regards to phenotypic characteristics, severity and time to onset in Spanish AC hepatotoxicity cases. METHODS High resolution genotyping of HLA loci A, B, C, DRB1 and DQB1 was performed in 75 AC DILI cases and 885 controls. RESULTS The distributions of class I alleles A*3002 (P/Pc = 2.6E-6/5E-5, OR 6.7) and B*1801 (P/Pc = 0.008/0.22, OR 2.9) were more frequently found in hepatocellular injury cases compared to controls. In addition, the presence of the class II allele combination DRB1*1501-DQB1*0602 (P/Pc = 5.1E-4/0.014, OR 3.0) was significantly increased in cholestatic/mixed cases. The A*3002 and/or B*1801 carriers were found to be younger (54 vs 65 years, P = 0.019) and were more frequently hospitalized than the DRB1*1501-DQB1*0602 carriers. No additional alleles outside those associated with liver injury patterns were found to affect potential severity as measured by Hy's Law criteria. The phenotype frequencies of B*1801 (P/Pc = 0.015/0.42, OR 5.2) and DRB1*0301-DQB1*0201 (P/Pc = 0.0026/0.07, OR 15) were increased in AC DILI cases with delayed onset compared to those corresponding to patients without delayed onset, while the opposite applied to DRB1*1302-DQB1*0604 (P/Pc = 0.005/0.13, OR 0.07). CONCLUSIONS HLA class I and II alleles influence the AC DILI signature with regards to phenotypic expression, latency presentation and severity in Spanish patients.

Validated SNPs for eGFR and their associations with albuminuria.

Albuminuria and reduced glomerular filtration rate are manifestations of chronic kidney disease (CKD) that predict end-stage renal disease, acute kidney injury, cardiovascular disease and death. We hypothesized that SNPs identified in association with the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) would also be associated with albuminuria. Within the CKDGen Consortium cohort (n= 31 580, European ancestry), we tested 16 eGFR-associated SNPs for association with the urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR) and albuminuria [UACR >25 mg/g (women); 17 mg/g (men)]. In parallel, within the CARe Renal Consortium (n= 5569, African ancestry), we tested seven eGFR-associated SNPs for association with the UACR. We used a Bonferroni-corrected P-value of 0.003 (0.05/16) in CKDGen and 0.007 (0.05/7) in CARe. We also assessed whether the 16 eGFR SNPs were associated with the UACR in aggregate using a beta-weighted genotype score. In the CKDGen Consortium, the minor A allele of rs17319721 in the SHROOM3 gene, known to be associated with a lower eGFR, was associated with lower ln(UACR) levels (beta = -0.034, P-value = 0.0002). No additional eGFR-associated SNPs met the Bonferroni-corrected P-value threshold of 0.003 for either UACR or albuminuria. In the CARe Renal Consortium, there were no associations between SNPs and UACR with a P< 0.007. Although we found the genotype score to be associated with albuminuria (P= 0.0006), this result was driven almost entirely by the known SHROOM3 variant, rs17319721. Removal of rs17319721 resulted in a P-value 0.03, indicating a weak residual aggregate signal. No alleles, previously demonstrated to be associated with a lower eGFR, were associated with the UACR or albuminuria, suggesting that there may be distinct genetic components for these traits.