This paper reviews the state of the art in Productions and Operations Management (POM) academic research regarding outsourcing in supply chain contexts. We first acknowledge the “Theory of the Firm” ...(ToF), the venerable and vast body of thought regarding where the firm draws the boundary between what it performs in‐house and what it outsources. Despite the clear linkage between outsourcing and POM, the ToF literature is most closely associated with the fields of strategy and economics. This disconnect might in part be due to a difference in theoretical lenses and terminology, which we address for the POM audience by providing a ToF tutorial. Our review of publications by the POM community from 2000 to 2016 includes a framework that organizes the in‐scope papers and a structured summary of each work. We partition the research into empirical/conceptual and analytical sub‐literatures, each of which gets its own critical assessment and discussion of open opportunities. Along the way, we articulate the features of the POM lens that distinctively position POM researchers to contribute further to the ToF, a convergence which we hope to encourage through this study. A deeper conversation among strategy, economics, and POM would enrichen the rigor and the relevance of each field.
The aim of this paper is to describe the utility of various recruitment modalities utilized in the Working to Increase Stability through Exercise (WISE) study. WISE is a pragmatic randomized trial ...that is testing the impact of a 3-year, multicomponent (strength, balance, aerobic) physical activity program led by trained volunteers or delivered via DVD on the rate of serious fall-related injuries among adults 65 and older with a past history of fragility fractures (e.g., vertebral, fall-related). The modified goal was to recruit 1130 participants over 2 years in three regions of Pennsylvania.
The at-risk population was identified primarily using letters mailed to patients of three health systems and those over 65 in each region, as well as using provider alerts in the health record, proactive recruitment phone calls, radio advertisements, and presentations at community meetings.
Over 24 months of recruitment, 209,301 recruitment letters were mailed, resulting in 6818 telephone interviews. The two most productive recruitment methods were letters (72% of randomized participants) and the research registries at the University of Pittsburgh (11%). An average of 211 letters were required to be mailed for each participant enrolled. Of those interviewed, 2854 were ineligible, 2,825 declined to enroll and 1139 were enrolled and randomized. Most participants were female (84.4%), under age 75 (64.2%), and 50% took an osteoporosis medication. Not having a prior fragility fracture was the most common reason for not being eligible (87.5%). The most common reason provided for declining enrollment was not feeling healthy enough to participate (12.6%).
The WISE study achieved its overall recruitment goal. Bulk mailing was the most productive method for recruiting community-dwelling older adults at risk of serious fall-related injury into this long-term physical activity intervention trial, and electronic registries are important sources and should be considered.
Virtual screen hits were shown to be covalent inhibitors by biochemical and X-ray crystallographic studies.
Biochemical and X-ray crystallographic studies confirmed that hydroxyquinoline derivatives ...identified by virtual screening were actually covalent inhibitors of the MIF tautomerase. Adducts were formed by N-alkylation of the Pro-1 at the catalytic site with a loss of an amino group of the inhibitor.
Several amino-benzoic acid derivatives were found to be DHODH inhibitors through virtual screening, biochemical, and X-ray crystallographic studies.
Amino-benzoic acid derivatives
1–
4 were found to ...be inhibitors for DHODH by virtual screening, biochemical, and X-ray crystallographic studies. X-ray structures showed that
1 and
2 bind to DHODH as predicted by virtual screening, but
3 and
4 were found to be structurally different from the corresponding compounds initially identified by virtual screening.
Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) are regulatory proteins of the eukaryotic cell cycle. They act after association with different cyclins, the concentrations of which vary throughout the progression of ...the cell cycle. As central mediators of cell growth, CDKs are potential targets for inhibitory molecules that would allow disruption of the cell cycle in order to evoke an antiproliferative effect and may therefore be useful as cancer therapeutics. We synthesized several inhibitory 2,6,9-trisubstituted purine derivatives and solved the crystal structure of one of these compounds, H717, in complex with human CDK2 at 2.6 Å resolution. The orientation of the C 2-p-diaminocyclohexyl portion of the inhibitor is strikingly different from those of similar moieties in other related inhibitor complexes. The N 9-cyclopentyl ring fully occupies a space in the enzyme which is otherwise empty, while the C 6-N-aminobenzyl substituent points out of the ATP-binding site. The structure provides a basis for the further development of more potent inhibitory drugs.
A CODEC, fabricated in 3.3-V CMOS, provides the low-voltage transmitter and receiver interfaces between the modem digital signal processing engine and the high-voltage hybrid circuitry for either the ...central office or the remote terminal ends of the subscriber loop, configurable by metal mask option. Extensive use of digital interpolation filters in the transmitter, decimation filters in the receiver, and oversampled data converters minimize the complexity of analog filters. On-chip filtering and 14-bit data converters support echo-canceling modems without requiring external filters. With additional external filters, frequency-division duplexing is also supported. The die area is 67.5 mm/sup 2/. The power dissipation in the central office and remote terminal are 600 and 760 mW, respectively.
In lung cancer, enrichment of the lower airway microbiota with oral commensals commonly occurs, and
models support that some of these bacteria can trigger host transcriptomic signatures associated ...with carcinogenesis. Here, we show that this lower airway dysbiotic signature was more prevalent in the stage IIIB-IV tumor-node-metastasis lung cancer group and is associated with poor prognosis, as shown by decreased survival among subjects with early-stage disease (I-IIIA) and worse tumor progression as measured by RECIST scores among subjects with stage IIIB-IV disease. In addition, this lower airway microbiota signature was associated with upregulation of the IL17, PI3K, MAPK, and ERK pathways in airway transcriptome, and we identified
as the most abundant taxon driving this association. In a KP lung cancer model, lower airway dysbiosis with
led to decreased survival, increased tumor burden, IL17 inflammatory phenotype, and activation of checkpoint inhibitor markers. SIGNIFICANCE: Multiple lines of investigation have shown that the gut microbiota affects host immune response to immunotherapy in cancer. Here, we support that the local airway microbiota modulates the host immune tone in lung cancer, affecting tumor progression and prognosis.
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Commodity inventories are the key state variable determining the magnitude of commodity price responses to supply and demand shocks. Many firms in commodity supply chains use storage, but we know ...little about which firms and why. The economic theory of storage asserts that firms in a competitive market for inventories will store based on current and expected market prices and the per‐unit cost of storing. We empirically test at the firm‐level the importance of one major cost of storage: the opportunity cost of capital used to value foregone revenue from deferred commodity sales. To do so, we use panel data from thousands of Illinois farms who hold inventories of corn and soybeans. Although interest rates as a measure of capital costs are unlikely to vary widely across firms in this context, we exploit variation in the weighted average cost of capital due to cross‐firm differences in capital structure. Using two‐way fixed effects regressions, we find a statistically significant average effect of capital costs on inventory that masks notable heterogeneity across firms. Panel quantile regressions reveal two groups of firms: one whose inventory holdings are responsive to changes in the opportunity cost of storage and another whose are not. Our results suggest some farms behave like the profit‐maximizing ones from theory but substantial inframarginal commodity inventories are held by farms for other reasons.
Cross-sectional human data suggest that enrichment of oral anaerobic bacteria in the lung is associated with an increased T-helper cell type 17 (Th17) inflammatory phenotype.
In this study, we ...evaluated the microbial and host immune-response dynamics after aspiration with oral commensals using a preclinical mouse model.
Aspiration with a mixture of human oral commensals (MOC;
,
, and
) was modeled in mice followed by variable time of killing. The genetic backgrounds of mice included wild-type, MyD88-knockout, and STAT3C backgrounds.
16S-rRNA gene sequencing characterized changes in microbiota. Flow cytometry, cytokine measurement via Luminex and RNA host-transcriptome sequencing was used to characterize the host immune phenotype. Although MOC aspiration correlated with lower-airway dysbiosis that resolved within 5 days, it induced an extended inflammatory response associated with IL-17-producing T cells lasting at least 14 days. MyD88 expression was required for the IL-17 response to MOC aspiration, but not for T-cell activation or IFN-γ expression. MOC aspiration before a respiratory challenge with
led to a decrease in hosts' susceptibility to this pathogen.
Thus, in otherwise healthy mice, a single aspiration event with oral commensals is rapidly cleared from the lower airways but induces a prolonged Th17 response that secondarily decreases susceptibility to
. Translationally, these data implicate an immunoprotective role of episodic microaspiration of oral microbes in the regulation of the lung immune phenotype and mitigation of host susceptibility to infection with lower-airway pathogens.
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