Purpose
Developing agility and innovativeness as dynamic capabilities are important for firms to sustain their competitive advantage in today’s global economy. The purpose of this paper is to develop ...and empirically test a framework to investigate how the supply chain agility and innovativeness are achieved through IT integration and trust in members of supply chain and how these, in turn, can enhance firms’ competitive advantage.
Design/methodology/approach
This research employs a survey method and data are collected from senior managers working in the supply chain or IT area. The model and hypotheses are tested utilizing data from 204 usable Taiwan manufacturing firms via structural equations modeling methodology.
Findings
The study demonstrates that both IT integration and trust in supply chain members significantly enhance supply chain agility and innovativeness, which in turn positively affect firm’s competitive advantage. The results indicate that IT integration and trust are antecedents and major joint partnership resources for improving supply chain agility and innovativeness.
Research limitations/implications
Data are collected from manufacturing industry in Taiwan and single respondent from each firm, the generalizability of current findings to other industries or countries should require additional investigation.
Practical implications
The study suggests that a firm should focus on IT integration and trust in supply chain members to achieve supply chain agility and innovativeness. To take advantage of supply chain agility and innovativeness, through maximizing firm’s competitive advantage, firms should continually adapt to the fast changing business environment and search for creative ways to satisfy new market needs.
Originality/value
Given the attention paid to supply chain agility and innovativeness in terms of importance to responding to business uncertainty and competitiveness, and more recently, as important capabilities in managing supply chain management, this paper investigates how IT integration and trust can contribute to supply chain agility and innovativeness. Provide evidence regarding the impact of IT integration and trust on agility of supply chains, innovativeness and competitive advantage.
: Defected mitochondrial respiratory chain (RC), in addition to causing a severe ATP deficiency, often augments reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation in mitochondria (mROS) which enhances ...pathological conditions and diseases. Previously, we demonstrated a potent endogenously RC defect‐augmented mROS associated dose‐dependently with a commonly seen large‐scale deletion of 4977 base pairs of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), i.e. the common deletion (CD). As current treatments for CD‐associated diseases are rather supplementary and ineffective, we investigated whether melatonin, a potential mitochondrial protector, provides beneficial protection for CD‐augmented mitochondrial oxidative stress and apoptosis particularly upon the induction of a secondary oxidative stress. Detailed mechanistic investigations were performed by using laser scanning dual fluorescence imaging microscopy to provide precise spatial and temporal resolution of mitochondrial events at single cell level. We demonstrate, for the first time, that melatonin significantly prevents CD‐augmented mROS formation under basal conditions as well as at early time‐points upon secondary oxidative stress induced by H2O2 exposure. Thus, melatonin prevents mROS‐mediated depolarization of mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm) and subsequent opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (MPTP) and cytochrome c release. Moreover, melatonin prevents depletion of cardiolipin which appears to be crucial for postponing later MPTP opening, disruption of the mitochondrial membrane and apoptosis. Finally, the protection provided by melatonin is superior to those caused by the suppression of mitochondrial Ca2+ regulators including the mitochondrial Na+‐Ca2+ exchanger, the MPTP, and the mitochondrial Ca2+ uniporter and by antioxidants including vitamin E and mitochondria‐targeted coenzyme Q, MitoQ. As RC defect‐augmented endogenous mitochondrial oxidative stress is centrally involved in a variety of pathological conditions and diseases, melatonin thus may serve as a therapeutic drug to benefit many clinical conditions that involve malfunction of the mitochondria.
Activation of metastatic reprogramming is critical for tumour metastasis. However, more detailed knowledge of the underlying mechanism is needed to enable targeted intervention. Here, we show that ...paraspeckle component 1 (PSPC1), identified in an aberrant 13q12.11 locus, is upregulated and associated with poor survival in patients with cancer. PSPC1 promotes tumorigenesis, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), stemness and metastasis in multiple cell types and in spontaneous mouse cancer models. PSPC1 is the master activator for transcription factors of EMT and stemness and accompanies c-Myc activation to facilitate tumour growth. PSPC1 increases transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) secretion through an interaction with phosphorylated and nuclear Smad2/3 to potentiate TGF-β1 autocrine signalling. Moreover, PSPC1 acts as a contextual determinant of the TGF-β1 pro-metastatic switch to alter Smad2/3 binding preference from tumour-suppressor to pro-metastatic genes. Having validated the PSPC1-Smads-TGF-β1 axis in various cancers, we conclude that PSPC1 is a master activator of pro-metastatic switches and a potential target for anti-metastasis drugs.
L'objectiu principal d'aquesta comunicació és donar a conèixer els lIibres antics de contingut medico-farmacèutic de l'Antiga Farmàcia de l'Hospital de Santa Caterina de Girona.
Background and Aims
Anti‐seizure medications (ASMs) have been used historically as treatment options in alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS). In the past 10 years, there have been no large‐scale ...meta‐analyses comparing ASMs with placebo or the current AWS treatment standard, benzodiazepines. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of ASMs in AWS.
Methods
Systematic review and meta‐analysis of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) via searching Medline, Embase and PsychINFO from database inception to March 2020 involving adults age >18 years with AWS. We included 24 RCTs reporting on a total of 2223 participants. Efficacy outcomes included the number of participants experiencing AWS related seizures or delirium, Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment for Alcohol–Revised (CIWA‐Ar) score reduction and rescue medication requirements. Tolerability outcomes included adverse event rate and dropout because of adverse events, alongside severe and life‐threatening adverse event rates. Quality was assessed using Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE).
Results
There was no evidence of significant improvements in any efficacy outcomes when comparing ASMs with placebo or benzodiazepines. When compared with benzodiazepines, ASMs demonstrated significantly increased odds of requiring rescue medications (OR = 3.50, 95% CI = 1.32, 9.28; P = 0.012). When comparing ASMs with placebo, there were significantly more dropouts because of adverse events (OR = 1.86, 95% CI = 1.05, 3.28; P = 0.034). Most results were of very low quality with the majority of included studies conducted before 2000.
Conclusions
This systematic review and meta‐analysis found no evidence to support general first line clinical use of anti‐seizure medications in alcohol withdrawal syndrome treatment.
A long‐lived mesoscale convective system (MCS) with extreme rainfall over the western coastal region of Guangdong on 10 May 2013 during the Southern China Monsoon Rainfall Experiment (SCMREX) is ...studied. The environmental conditions are characterized by little convective inhibition, low‐lifting condensation level, moderate convective available potential energy and precipitable water, and lack of low‐level jets from the tropical ocean. Repeated convective back building and subsequent northeastward “echo training” of convective cells are found during the MCS's development stages. However, the initiation/maintenance factors and organization of convection differ significantly during the earlier and later stages. From midnight to early morning, convection is continuously initiated as southeasterly flows near the surface impinge on the east side of mesoscale mountains near the coastal lines and then moves northeastward, leading to formation of two quasi‐stationary rainbands. From early morning to early afternoon, new convection is repeatedly triggered along a mesoscale boundary between precipitation‐induced cold outflows and warm air from South China Sea and Gulf of Tokin, resulting in the formation of “band training” of several parallel rainbands that move eastward in a later time, i.e., two scales of “training” of convective elements are found. As the MCS dissipates, a stronger squall line moves into the region from the west and passes over within about 3.5 h, contributing about 10%–15% to the total rainfall amount. It is concluded that terrain, near‐surface winds, warm advection from the upstream ocean in the boundary layer, and precipitation‐generated cold outflows play important roles in initiating and maintaining the extreme rain‐producing MCS.
Key Points
An MCS produced 451 mm rain in 16 h over coast South China on 10 May 2013Orographic lifting, warm advection, and cold outflows control MCS developmentTwo scales of convective training were found in the MCS' mature stage
Mitochondrial oxidative stress has been reported as the result of respiratory complex anomalies, genetic defects, or insufficient oxygen or glucose supply. Although Ca2+ has no direct effect on ...respiratory chain function or oxidation/reduction process, mitochondrial Ca2+ overload can lead to reactive oxygen species (ROS) increase. Even though Ca2+ is well known for its role as crucial second messenger in modulating many cellular physiological functions, Ca2+ overload is detrimental to mitochondrial function and may present as an important cause of mitochondrial ROS generation. Possible mechanisms include Ca2+ stimulated increase of metabolic rate, Ca2+ stimulated nitric oxide production, Ca2+ induced cytochrome c dissociation, Ca2+ induced cardiolipin peroxidation, Ca2+ induced mitochondrial permeability transition pore opening with release of cytochrome c and GSH‐antioxidative enzymes, and Ca2+‐calmodulin dependent protein kinases activation. Different mechanisms may exist under different mitochondrial preparations (isolated mitochondria vs. mitochondria in intact cells), tissue sources, animal species, or inhibitors used. Furthermore, mitochondrial ROS rise can modulate Ca2+ dynamics and augment Ca2+ surge. The reciprocal interactions between Ca2+ induced ROS increase and ROS modulated Ca2+ upsurge may cause a feedforward, self‐amplified loop createing cellular damage far beyond direct Ca2+ induced damage.
PDF
