Corporate venture capitalists and independent venture capitalists: what do they know, who do they know, and should entrepreneurs care?

While a strong stream of research has examined the value-added by venture capitalists and some recent research has also explored the value added by corporate venture capitalists, the value-added provided by these two types of investors for their portfolio companies has not been compared systematically. This study proposes to make such an evaluation by comparing the social capital based and knowledge-based forms of value added provided by independent and corporate venture capitalists to their portfolio firms. Employing primary data collected from U.S. technology-based new firms that had recently received both corporate venture capital and independent venture capital funding, the present study demonstrates that the value-adding contributions of corporate venture capital and independent venture capital investors are different but complementary.Arthur M. Blank Center kr Entrepreneurship Babson College, Babson Park, Manachueetts 02457-0310 Kauffinan Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership Kansas City. Missouri 64112-2776 Co-spcesoerd by Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship @ Strathclyde University of Strathclyde. Glasgow. Scotland Scottish Enterprise, Glasgow; Scotland The Entrepreneurial Exchange, Hamilton, Scotland Linc Scotland, Glasgow, Scotland Glasgow City Council. Glasgow Scotlan

Attenuated Semliki Forest virus for cancer treatment in dogs : safety assessment in two laboratory Beagles

Background: Dogs suffer from spontaneous tumors which may be amenable to therapies developed for human cancer patients, and dogs may serve as large-animal cancer models. A non-pathogenic Semliki Forest virus vector VA7-EGFP previously showed promise in targeting human tumor xenografts in mice, but the oncolytic capacity of the virus in canine cancer cells and the safety of the virus in higher mammals such as dogs, are not known. We therefore assessed the oncolytic potency of VA7-EGFP against canine cancer cells by infectivity and viability assays in two dog solid tumor cell lines. Furthermore we performed a 3-week safety study in two adult Beagles which received a single intravenous injection of similar to 2 x 10(5) plaque forming units of parental A7(74) strain. Results: VA7-EGFP was able to replicate in and kill both canine cancer cell lines tested. No adverse events were observed in either of the two virus-injected adult Beagles and no infective virus could be recovered from any of the biological samples collected over the course of the study. Neutralizing antibodies to Semliki Forest virus became detectable in the dogs at 5 days post infection and remained elevated until study termination. Conclusions: Based on these results, testing of the oncolytic potential of attenuated Semliki Forest virus in canine cancer patients appears feasible.Peer reviewe

Approximation of the critical buckling factor for composite panels

This article is concerned with the approximation of the critical buckling factor for thin composite plates. A new method to improve the approximation of this critical factor is applied based on its behavior with respect to lamination parameters and loading conditions. This method allows accurate approximation of the critical buckling factor for non-orthotropic laminates under complex combined loadings (including shear loading). The influence of the stacking sequence and loading conditions is extensively studied as well as properties of the critical buckling factor behavior (e.g concavity over tensor D or out-of-plane lamination parameters). Moreover, the critical buckling factor is numerically shown to be piecewise linear for orthotropic laminates under combined loading whenever shear remains low and it is also shown to be piecewise continuous in the general case. Based on the numerically observed behavior, a new scheme for the approximation is applied that separates each buckling mode and builds linear, polynomial or rational regressions for each mode. Results of this approach and applications to structural optimization are presented

Effects of muscular dystrophy, exercise and blocking activin receptor IIB ligands on the unfolded protein response and oxidative stress

Protein homeostasis in cells, proteostasis, is maintained through several integrated processes and pathways and its dysregulation may mediate pathology in many diseases including Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Oxidative stress, heat shock proteins, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and its response, i.e. unfolded protein response (UPR), play key roles in proteostasis but their involvement in the pathology of DMD are largely unknown. Moreover, exercise and activin receptor IIB blocking are two strategies that may be beneficial to DMD muscle, but studies to examine their effects on these proteostasis pathways are lacking. Therefore, these pathways were examined in the muscle of mdx mice, a model of DMD, under basal conditions and in response to seven weeks of voluntary exercise and/or activin receptor IIB ligand blocking using soluble activin receptor-Fc (sAcvR2B-Fc) administration. In conjunction with reduced muscle strength, mdx muscle displayed greater levels of UPR/ER-pathway indicators including greater protein levels of IREloc, PERK and Atf6b mRNA. Downstream to IREloc and PERK, spliced Xbpl mRNA and phosphorylation of elF2oc, were also increased. Most of the cytoplasmic and ER chaperones and mitochondrial UPR markers were unchanged in mdx muscle. Oxidized glutathione was greater in mdx and was associated with increases in lysine acetylated proteome and phosphorylated sirtuin 1. Exercise increased oxidative stress when performed independently or combined with sAcvR2B-Fc administration. Although neither exercise nor sAcvR2B-Fc administration imparted a clear effect on ER stress/UPR pathways or heat shock proteins, sAcvR2B-Fc administration increased protein expression levels of GRP78/BiP, a triggering factor for ER stress/UPR activation and TxNIP, a redox-regulator of ER stress-induced inflammation. In conclusion, the ER stress and UPR are increased in mdx muscle. However, these processes are not distinctly improved by voluntary exercise or blocking activin receptor IIB ligands and thus do not appear to be optimal therapeutic choices for improving proteostasis in DMD. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

High modal number and triple trisomies are highly correlated favorable factors in childhood B-cell precursor high hyperdiploid acute lymphoblastic leukemia treated according to the NOPHO ALL 1992/2000 protocols.

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked Files. This article is open access.Between 1992 and 2008, 713 high hyperdiploid acute lymphoblastic leukemias in children aged 1-15 years were diagnosed and treated according to the Nordic Society for Pediatric Hematology and Oncology acute lymphoblastic leukemia 1992/2000 protocols. Twenty (2.8%) harbored t(1;19), t(9;22), der(11q23), or t(12;21). The median age of patients with "classic" high hyperdiploidy was lower than that of patients with translocation-positive high hyperdiploidy (P53/55 (P=0.020/0.024). In multivariate analyses, modal number and triple trisomies were significantly associated with superior event-free survival in separate analyses with age and white blood cell counts. When including both modal numbers and triple trisomies, only low white blood cell counts were significantly associated with superior event-free survival (P=0.009). We conclude that high modal chromosome numbers and triple trisomies are highly correlated prognostic factors and that these two parameters identify the same subgroup of patients characterized by a particularly favorable outcome.Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation Swedish Cancer Society Swedish Research Counci

Impact of childhood experiences on the development of entrepreneurial intentions

Fostering entrepreneurship and an entrepreneurial culture has become a key policy priority for governments. To encourage entrepreneurship and an entrepreneurial culture, however, there is a need to understand the factors that influence and shape individuals' intentions to start a business. This study extends models of entrepreneurial intentions by investigating the influence of various childhood-experience factors on the perceived feasibility and desirability of starting a business. A structured questionnaire was completed by over 1,000 university students and analysed using regression analysis. Results indicated that perceptions of entrepreneurship were influenced not only by parental ownership of a business, but also by a difficult childhood and frequent relocation

Entrepreneurs’ age, institutions, and social value creation goals: a multi-country study

This study explores the relationship between an entrepreneur's age and his/her social value creation goals. Building on the lifespan developmental psychology literature and institutional theory, we hypothesize a U-shaped relationship between entrepreneurs’ age and their choice to create social value through their ventures, such that younger and older entrepreneurs create more social value with their businesses while middle age entrepreneurs are relatively more economically and less socially oriented with their ventures. We further hypothesize that the quality of a country’s formal institutions in terms of economic, social, and political freedom steepen the U-shaped relationship between entrepreneurs’ age and their choice to pursue social value creation as supportive institutional environments allow entrepreneurs to follow their age-based preferences. We confirm our predictions using multilevel mixed-effects linear regressions on a sample of over 15,000 entrepreneurs (aged between 18 and 64 years) in 45 countries from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data. The findings are robust to several alternative specifications. Based on our findings, we discuss implications for theory and practice, and we propose future research directions

Varieties of export-oriented entrepreneurship in Asia

This paper explores differences in the proportion of export-oriented early-stage entrepreneurial activity in 12 Asian countries. Drawing on varieties of capitalism theory, we find that Asian countries with high quality institutions are more likely to have higher proportions of young export-oriented firms. However, analysis on a 51 country data set indicates that Asian countries have significantly fewer young export-oriented firms than do non-Asian countries. Furthermore, the multi-country study reveals that countries with higher proportions of export-oriented entrepreneurial activity tend to have flexible industrial relations, high quality vocational training, and confrontational labor-employer relations, however the proportion of export-oriented new ventures is not related to the quality of corporate governance and inter-firm relations

Lastenkirjallisuus arvojen välittäjänä:luokanopettajien näkemykset ja toiveet lastenkirjallisuuden arvoista sekä lukukirjavalintojen perustelut

Tiivistelmä. Arvot ovat osa yhteiskuntaa ja sen instituutioita, kuten koululaitoksia. Opettaja on arvokasvattaja, jolla on valta ja mahdollisuus vaikuttaa lapsen moraaliin ja sen kehitykseen. Luokanopettaja tekee arvovalintoja muun muassa valikoimalla oppilaille luettavaksi lastenkirjoja, jotka puolestaan pitävät väistämättä sisällään arvoja. Tämän pro gradu -tutkielman tarkoituksena on selvittää, millä perusteella opettajat valitsevat koko luokalla yhteisesti luetutettavia lastenkirjoja, mitä arvoja nuo luetutetut lastenkirjan opettajien mukaan sisältävät, ja millaisia arvoja opettajat toivoisivat lastenkirjojen välittävän. Tutkielman teoreettinen viitekehys pitää sisällään arvoon liittyvien käsitteiden määrittelyä sekä lapsen kognitiivisen ja moraalisen kehityksen tarkastelua klassikkoteorioiden valossa. Lisäksi teoriassa perehdytään lastenkirjallisuuden ominaispiirteisiin ja arvoihin sekä arvokasvatukseen peruskoulun kontekstissa. Tutkielma edustaa laadullista tutkimusta ja fenomenografista tutkimusotetta. Tutkimusaineisto on kerätty verkkokyselylomakkeella, johon vastasi 25 luokanopettajaa ympäri maan. Aineisto analysoitiin teoriaohjaavan sisällönanalyysin keinoin, ja sitä peilataan tuloksissa sekä Ahlmanin ja Niiniluodon arvoluokitteluun että Perusopetuksen opetussuunnitelman perusteiden (2014) arvojen pohjalta luotuun arvoluokitteluun. Tutkimustulokset osoittavat, että suurin osa opettajista valitsee luokalla yhteisesti luetutettavan lastenkirjan omien tai oppilaiden mieltymysten perusteella. Monen opettajan kohdalla kirjavalinnan taustalla on useampi eri syy. Opettajat löysivät lastenkirjoista 32 erilaista arvoa. Opettajien luetuttamissa lastenkirjoissa eniten heidän mukaansa esiintyviä arvoja ovat suvaitsevaisuus, ystävyys, itsekunnioitus, rohkeus ja periksiantamattomuus. Ennen kaikkea lastenkirjoissa painottuvat opettajien mukaan eettiset ja sosiaaliset arvot. Opettajat toivovat lastenkirjojen välittävän pääosin samoja arvoja kuin mitä ne opettajien mukaan sisältävätkin. Edellä mainittujen arvojen lisäksi opettajat haluaisivat lastenkirjojen edistävän kunnioitusta luontoa kohtaan. Lastenkirjoilta toivotaan syvyyttä, ei pelkästään didaktisuutta ja viihteellisyyttä. Lastenkirjojen toivotaan välittävän demokraattisia ja tiettyyn ideologiaan sitoutumattomia arvoja