We propose an original theoretical framework that models early investment decisions of digital platform startups and use it to study how merger and acquisition policy affects consumer welfare by ...shaping such decisions. We formalize the investment options faced by digital platforms into a dual margin: investment in ‘customer engagement technology’, directed towards expanding the user base and in ‘intermediation technology’, directed towards lowering operational costs. Synergies through technological transfer and increased investment incentives in customer engagement explain consumer welfare improvements in the case of M&As occurring between platforms with disjoint user bases. On the other hand, lower competition erodes consumer welfare in the case of allowing M&As between platforms with overlapping user bases. We conclude that M&A policy guidance should depend on the relationship between the incumbent’s and startup’s target users and on the ability of the startup to catch up with the incumbent.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
The current pandemic caused by the new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become a public health emergency. To date, March 1, 2021, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ...has caused about 114 million accumulated cases and 2.53 million deaths worldwide. Previous pieces of evidence suggest that SARS-CoV-2 may affect the central nervous system (CNS) and cause neurological symptoms in COVID-19 patients. It is also known that angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2), the primary receptor for SARS-CoV-2 infection, is expressed in different brain areas and cell types. Thus, it is hypothesized that infection by this virus could generate or exacerbate neuropathological alterations. However, the molecular mechanisms that link COVID-19 disease and nerve damage are unclear. In this review, we describe the routes of SARS-CoV-2 invasion into the central nervous system. We also analyze the neuropathologic mechanisms underlying this viral infection, and their potential relationship with the neurological manifestations described in patients with COVID-19, and the appearance or exacerbation of some neurodegenerative diseases.
There is substantial evidence of the high prevalence of obesity (OB) and overweight (OW) and their association with increased medical and psychiatric burden among adults with bipolar disorder (BD). ...However, little is known regarding its prevalence among young people with BD, other than the risk from psychotropic medication, which has been the focus of research in this population. We present a systematic review and meta‐analysis of the literature on prevalence and correlates of OB and OW children and adolescents with BD using a different perspective than impact of medication. Four studies met inclusion criteria. The prevalence of OB in children and adolescents with BD was 15% (95% CI 11–20%). We observed a higher prevalence of OB in comparison to the general population. Different studies found significant associations between OB, OW, and BD in young populations including non‐Caucasian race, physical abuse, suicide attempts, self‐injurious behaviours, psychotropic medication, and psychiatric hospitalizations.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
En las movilizaciones que acontecieron en diversas partes del mundo los monumentos públicos han sido puestos en cuestión, y la ciudadanía ha venido a redescubrir su significado político, el que la ...mayoría de las veces ha quedado adormecido por el paso del tiempo. Sin embargo, y considerando que el olvido es parte del programa monumental que le permite permanecer incólume en el espacio público, también puede obedecer a decisiones políticas que inciden en su invisibilidad. El presente artículo reflexiona sobre la situación de un monumento ubicado en la ciudad de Santiago de Chile, el Monumento al general Schneider (1974) obra de Carlos Ortúzar, donde su belleza y armonía simbólico-formal permanecen intactas, siendo reconocido por el mundo del arte, pero su significado profundo ha terminado por esconderse debido a los equilibrios políticos devenidos una vez llega la democracia.
The ingestion of gluten-containing foods can cause wheat-related disorders in up to 15% of wheat consuming populations. Besides the role of gluten, α-amylase/trypsin inhibitors (ATI) have recently ...been identified as inducers of an innate immune response via toll-like receptor 4 in celiac disease and non-celiac wheat sensitivity. ATI are involved in plant self-defense against insects and possibly in grain development. Notably, they are largely resistant to gastrointestinal proteases and heat, and their inflammatory activity affects not only the intestine, but also peripheral organs. The aim of this study was to understand the changes of ATI throughout the sourdough and yeast-fermented bread-making processes. ATI tetramers were isolated, fluorescein-labelled, and added to a mini-dough bread-making system. When the pH decreased below 4.0 in sourdough fermentation, the ATI tetramers were degraded due to the activation of aspartic proteases, whilst in yeast fermentation, ATI tetramers remained intact. The amylase inhibitory activity after sourdough fermentation decreased significantly, while the concentration of free thiol groups increased. The glutathione reductase activity of Fructilactobacillus sanfranciscensis did not contribute to the reduction of ATI tetramers. Compared to the unfermented wheat, sourdough fermentation was able to decrease the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) in quantitative ATI extracts added to the human monocytic cell line THP-1. The current data suggest that sourdough fermentation can degrade ATI structure and bioactivity, and point to strategies to improve product development for wheat sensitivity patients.
Electrohydrodynamic migration, which is based on hydrodynamic actuation with an opposing electrophoretic force, enables the separation of DNA molecules of 3–100 kbp in glass capillary within 1 h. ...Here, we wish to enhance these performances using microchip technologies. This study starts with the fabrication of microchips with uniform surfaces, as motivated by our observation that band splitting occurs in microchannels made out of heterogeneous materials such as glass and silicon. The resulting glass-adhesive-glass microchips feature the highest reported bonding strength of 11 MPa for such materials (115 kgf/cm2), a high lateral resolution of critical dimension 5 μm, and minimal auto-fluorescence. These devices enable us to report the separation of 13 DNA bands in the size range of 1–150 kbp in one experiment of 5 min, i.e. 13 times faster than with capillary. In turn, we observe that bands split during electrohydrodynamic migration in heterogeneous glass-silicon but not in homogeneous glass-adhesive-glass microchips. We suggest that this effect arises from differential Electro-Osmotic Flow (EOF) in between the upper and lower walls of heterogeneous channels, and provide evidence that this phenomenon of differential EOF causes band broadening in electrophoresis during microchip electrophoresis. We finally prove that our electrohydrodynamic separation compares very favorably to microchip technologies in terms of resolution length and features the broadest analytical range reported so far.
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•Single run separation of DNA from 1 to 150 kbp in 4 min.•Report of a fabrication technology for perfectly homogeneous glass-glass microchips.•Demonstration that separation performances are improved with glass-glass vs. Silicon-glass microchips.•Evidence that differential electro-osmotic flow in silicon-glass chips enhances band broadening.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Cadmium is a highly toxic heavy metal for biological systems.
CH34 is a model strain to study heavy metal resistance and bioremediation as it is able to deal with high heavy metal concentrations. ...Biofilm formation by bacteria is mediated by the second messenger
-(3'-5')-cyclic dimeric guanosine monophosphate (c-di-GMP). The aim of this study was to characterize the response of
CH34 planktonic and biofilm cells to cadmium including their c-di-GMP regulatory pathway. Inhibition of the initiation of biofilm formation and EPS production by
CH34 correlates with increased concentration of cadmium. Planktonic and biofilm cells showed similar tolerance to cadmium. During exposure to cadmium an acute decrease of c-di-GMP levels in planktonic and biofilm cells was observed. Transcription analysis by RT-qPCR showed that cadmium exposure to planktonic and biofilm cells induced the expression of the
gene and the mercuric reductase encoding
gene, which belong to the Tn
/Tn
operon. After exposure to cadmium, the
gene involved in cadmium resistance was equally upregulated in both lifestyles. Bioinformatic analysis and complementation assays indicated that the protein encoded by the
gene is a functional phosphodiesterase (PDE) involved in the c-di-GMP metabolism. We propose to rename the
gene as
gene for metal regulated PDE. An increase of the second messenger c-di-GMP content by the heterologous expression of the constitutively active diguanylate cyclase PleD correlated with an increase in biofilm formation and cadmium susceptibility. These results indicate that the response to cadmium in
CH34 inhibits the initiation of biofilm lifestyle and involves a decrease in c-di-GMP levels and a novel metal regulated PDE.
To compare quality of life (QoL), anxiety and depressive symptoms, alcohol consumption and other correlates between patients with psoriasis and controls; and to identify features of psoriasis ...associated with lower levels of QoL.
Case-control study including 70 subjects with moderate-severe psoriasis and 140 controls without psoriasis. All participants answered the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), with physical and mental component scores of quality of life, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Among subjects with psoriasis, the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) and the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) were used, respectively, to measure the severity of psoriasis and the impact of psoriasis on the specific quality of life.
Compared to controls, patients with psoriasis showed higher HADS depression score and alcohol consumption, and lower QoL. Among subjects with psoriasis, multivariate analysis showed: 1) poorer physical QoL was associated with older age, articular lesions and anxious symptoms, whereas poorer mental QoL was associated with younger age, female sex, genital lesions and depressive symptoms; 2) the higher the severity of psoriasis, the lower the level of QoL and the higher the levels of anxious or depressive symptoms; and 3) female sex and articular or genital location of lesions are linked with higher HADS scores.
Higher scores in anxiety and depression and lower QoL is common in psoriasis, especially among women and those with genital or articular lesions. Dermatologists should give special attention to this subgroup of persons with psoriasis in order to prevent future psychopathology.
•The presence of psoriasis impacts on emotional wellbeing and quality of life.•Quality of life decreases with severity of psoriasis.•Anxious and depressive symptoms increase with severity of psoriasis.•Joint or genital psoriasis lesions are linked with anxiety and depression scores.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in customer experience (CX) and its relation to the human-computer interaction (HCI) field. The CX is different depending on the domain in which ...it is studied, and therefore its dimensions may vary.
This research presents an extensive review of 122 studies related to CX definitions and dimensions that have been proposed in different domains, including an analysis from an HCI perspective. The guidelines proposed by Kitchenham & Charters (2007) were used, complementing the review with a snowballing approach.
We identified 71 CX definitions (where 14 definitions highlight HCI aspects), 81-dimensional proposals (where 24 proposals contain HCI aspects), and 39 application domains (where 18 domains cover topics related to HCI). However, we did not find CX definitions or dimensions directly focused on HCI. Based on the results, a novel CX definition and dimensions-focused on the HCI area-are proposed and activities that the authors should perform when proposing new CX dimensions in domains related to HCI are suggested,
., domains that involve the interaction of a user (or customer) with a software product.
Implications for future practice focus on facilitating the understanding of the CX concept and its relationship with HCI; recognizing the key CX dimensions for different domains and how they relate to HCI dimensions; and helping in the creation of new CX dimensions by suggesting activities that can be performed. The results show that there are opportunities for HCI/CX researchers and practitioners to propose new dimensions of CX for a domain related to HCI, develop instruments that allow the evaluation of CX from an HCI point of view, and perform reviews on a particular domain relevant to HCI but less studied.
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