The influence of gender and social attention to gender equality on applicant acceptance into venture development programs: competing perspectives

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to add to the small but growing body of research examining the influence of founder gender on new venture access to venture development programs. Design/methodology/approach – Hypotheses were tested utilizing a sample of 482 nascent technology ventures which applied for admittance into a venture development organization headquartered in the southern region of the United States from March 2004 through February 2016. Findings – Findings suggest that female-founded applicant ventures experience a higher likelihood of acceptance into venture development programs than male-founded applicant ventures. Results further suggest that social attention to gender equality reduces this effect for female-founded applicant ventures. Findings extend the understanding of the gendered nature of high-technology venturing and venture development organizations. Research limitations/implications – The findings of this study may not generalize to new ventures operating in other contexts (e.g., non-U.S., low-tech, and other venture development programs). Additionally, this study's design and data limitations do not allow for the establishment of causality or address founder motivations to apply for acceptance into venture development programs. Originality/value – This study adds to empirical findings regarding the influence of founder gender on new venture acceptance into venture development programs by developing and testing competing hypotheses. This study also extends extant research by examining the moderating effect of social attention to gender equality on the hypothesized relationships between founder gender and acceptance into venture development programs

2′-Azido RNA, a Versatile Tool for Chemical Biology: Synthesis, X-ray Structure, siRNA Applications, Click Labeling

Chemical modification can significantly enrich the structural and functional repertoire of ribonucleic acids and endow them with new outstanding properties. Here, we report the syntheses of novel 2'-azido cytidine and 2'-azido guanosine building blocks and demonstrate their efficient site-specific incorporation into RNA by mastering the synthetic challenge of using phosphoramidite chemistry in the presence of azido groups. Our study includes the detailed characterization of 2'-azido nucleoside containing RNA using UV-melting profile analysis and CD and NMR spectroscopy. Importantly, the X-ray crystallographic analysis of 2'-azido uridine and 2'-azido adenosine modified RNAs reveals crucial structural details of this modification within an A-form double helical environment. The 2'-azido group supports the C3'-endo ribose conformation and shows distinct water-bridged hydrogen bonding patterns in the minor groove. Additionally, siRNA induced silencing of the brain acid soluble protein (BASP1) encoding gene in chicken fibroblasts demonstrated that 2'-azido modifications are well tolerated in the guide strand, even directly at the cleavage site. Furthermore, the 2'-azido modifications are compatible with 2'-fluoro and/or 2'-O-methyl modifications to achieve siRNAs of rich modification patterns and tunable properties, such as increased nuclease resistance or additional chemical reactivity. The latter was demonstrated by the utilization of the 2'-azido groups for bioorthogonal Click reactions that allows efficient fluorescent labeling of the RNA. In summary, the present comprehensive investigation on site-specifically modified 2'-azido RNA including all four nucleosides provides a basic rationale behind the physico- and biochemical properties of this flexible and thus far neglected type of RNA modification.Fonds zur F\uf6rderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung P 21641 I 317 P 23652Version of recor

Evidence-Based Management of Hand Eczema

Hand eczema is a common skin disease with a wide variation in morphology and a complex etiology based on endogenous and exogenous factors.The diagnosis of hand eczema is based on patient history, exposure assessment, physical examination, and the results of patch testing. Management of hand eczema starts with education of the patient on the etiology of the disease, and the needed changes in behavior regarding skin care and preventive measures, and avoidance of relevant exposure factors. In many cases, medical treatment is needed for successful management of the disease; use of medication can only be successful with proper education and avoidance of relevant exposure

Predicting pediatric diagnostic imaging patient no-show and extended wait-times using LLMs, regression, and tree based models

IntroductionPatients missing their appointments (no-shows) are a persistent issue that results in idle resources while delaying critical patient prognosis. Likewise, long waiting times increase frustration for patients, leaving a negative impression on the appointment. In this paper, we explore 3 modalities of diagnostic and interventional radiology appointments for pediatric patients at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Toronto, ON, Canada. Our goal was to survey machine learning methods that best predict the risk of patient no-shows and long wait-times exceeding 1 hour for scheduling teams to propose targeted downstream accommodations.MethodsWe experimented with 6 predictive model types separately trained on both tasks which included extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine, Logistic Regression, Artificial Neural Network, and a pre-trained large language model (LLM). Utilizing 20 features containing a mixture of patient demographics and appointment related data, we experimented with different data balancing methods including instance hardness threshold (IHT) and class weighting to reduce bias in prediction. We then conducted a comparative study of the improvements made by utilizing continuous contextual data in our LLM which boasted a 51% improvement in F1 score for the wait-time model.ResultsOur XGBoost model had the best combination of AUC and F1 scores (0.96 and 0.62, respectively) for predicting no-show while RF had the best AUC and F1 scores (0.83 and 0.61, respectively) for wait-time prediction. The LLMs also performed well for 90% probability thresholds (high risk patients) while being robustly calibrated on unseen test data.DiscussionOur results surveyed multiple algorithms and data balancing methods to propose the greatest performing models on our tasks, implemented a unique methodology to use LLMs on heterogeneous data within this domain, and demonstrated the greater importance of contextual appointment data over patient demographic features for a more equitable prediction algorithm. Going forward, the predictive output (calibrated probabilities of events) can be used as stochastic input for risk-based optimized scheduling to provide accommodation for patients less likely to receive quality access to healthcare

German evidence-based guidelines for the treatment of Psoriasis vulgaris (short version)

Psoriasis vulgaris is a common and chronic inflammatory skin disease which has the potential to significantly reduce the quality of life in severely affected patients. The incidence of psoriasis in Western industrialized countries ranges from 1.5 to 2%. Despite the large variety of treatment options available, patient surveys have revealed insufficient satisfaction with the efficacy of available treatments and a high rate of medication non-compliance. To optimize the treatment of psoriasis in Germany, the Deutsche Dermatologische Gesellschaft and the Berufsverband Deutscher Dermatologen (BVDD) have initiated a project to develop evidence-based guidelines for the management of psoriasis. The guidelines focus on induction therapy in cases of mild, moderate, and severe plaque-type psoriasis in adults. The short version of the guidelines reported here consist of a series of therapeutic recommendations that are based on a systematic literature search and subsequent discussion with experts in the field; they have been approved by a team of dermatology experts. In addition to the therapeutic recommendations provided in this short version, the full version of the guidelines includes information on contraindications, adverse events, drug interactions, practicality, and costs as well as detailed information on how best to apply the treatments described (for full version, please see Nast et al., JDDG, Suppl 2:S1–S126, 2006; or http://www.psoriasis-leitlinie.de)