The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor United Kingdom 2008 Executive Report

This report compares Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) measures of entrepreneurial attitudes, activity and aspiration in the UK with participating G7 countries and the large industrialized or industrializing countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China ('BRIC'). It also summarizes entrepreneurial attitudes, activity and aspiration within Government Official Regions of the UK and, for the first time, demonstrates the pattern of entrepreneurial activity at the sub-regional (NUTS2) level

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

Institutional influences on strategic entrepreneurial behaviours

The purpose of this paper is to examine the existence of cross-level moderating effects between national appropriability conditions, individual level predictors and entrepreneurial growth aspirations. We test a multi-level model that connects the determinants of strategic resource allocation decisions at the individual level with the strength of the intellectual property rights regime at the national level. The results suggest that the strengths of the intellectual property regime will moderate negatively the relationship between an individual's education and her growth aspirations and moderate positively the relationship between an individual's income and her growth aspirations. The findings support claims that strategic entrepreneurial behavior cannot be fully understood without giving attention to the context in which those behaviors are observed

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

The effects of drainage and restoration of pine mires on habitat structure, vegetation and ants

Habitat loss and degradation are the main threats to biodiversity worldwide. For example, nearly 80% of peatlands in southern Finland have been drained. There is thus a need to safeguard the remaining pristine mires and to restore degraded ones. Ants play a pivotal role in many ecosystems and like many keystone plant species, shape ecosystem conditions for other biota. The effects of mire restoration and subsequent vegetation succession on ants, however, are poorly understood. We inventoried tree stands, vegetation, water-table level, and ants (with pitfall traps) in nine mires in southern Finland to explore differences in habitats, vegetation and ant assemblages among pristine, drained (30-40 years ago) and recently restored (1-3 years ago) pine mires. We expected that restoring the water-table level by ditch filling and reconstructing sparse tree stands by cuttings will recover mire vegetation and ants. We found predictable responses in habitat structure, floristic composition and ant assemblage structure both to drainage and restoration. However, for mire-specialist ants the results were variable and longer-term monitoring is needed to confirm the success of restoration since these social insects establish perennial colonies with long colony cycles. We conclude that restoring the water-table level and tree stand structure seem to recover the characteristic vegetation and ant assemblages in the short term. This recovery was likely enhanced because drained mires still had both acrotelm and catotelm, and connectedness was still reasonable for mire organisms to recolonize the restored mires either from local refugia or from populations of nearby mires.Peer reviewe

News values and conceptual metaphors in sports news discourse

Abstract. This thesis examines the ways in which different news values and conceptual metaphors are used in sports news reporting. Media discourse makes conscious decisions regarding the presentation of information. Often headlines intend to draw readers in and the body text of an article intends to prove the newsworthiness of the report. A variety of linguistic tactics are applied from the headline to the text to convey the necessary message and to emphasize the news value of the article. Sports are a vital part of our culture and national identity and news media outlets shape our view of the world, which makes sports media a valid topic for research. The data in this thesis consist of 15 articles from the International Ice Hockey Federation site published during the 2021 men’s world championships. The thesis utilizes discourse analysis and the concepts of news values in the analysis of headlines and conceptual metaphor theory in the analysis of the articles. The findings suggest that impact, superlativeness, novelty, and prominence are the news values most frequently construed through linguistic devices in the news reports. Impact is central to sports culture due to its competitive nature. In line with previous research, “ice hockey is war” was found to be the most frequent conceptual metaphor in the data. Other prominent themes included “ice hockey is a physical experience” and “ice hockey is a journey”.Urheilu-uutisten diskurssia : uutisarvot ja konseptuaalinen metafora. Tiivistelmä. Tämä kandidaatintutkielma tarkastelee tapoja, joilla uutisarvojen ja konseptuaalisen metaforan laaja kirjo näkyy urheilu-uutisissa. Mediadiskurssiin kuuluu tietoiset valinnat siitä, miten informaatiota jaetaan lukijoille. Usein uutisotsikoiden tarkoituksena on houkutella lukijoita artikkelin pariin, ja artikkelin leipätekstin tarkoituksena on todistaa, miksi kyseisen artikkelin aihe on uutisoinnin arvoinen. Moninaiset kielelliset keinot otsikossa ja leipätekstissä varmistavat, että toivottu viesti saadaan perille ja artikkelin uutisarvo on alleviivattu. Urheilumedian tarkastelu on olennaista, koska urheilu on tärkeä osa kulttuuria sekä kansallista identiteettiä ja uutismedian eri kanavat vaikuttavat maailmankuvamme rakentumiseen. Tämän tutkielman aineisto koostuu 15 artikkelista, jotka on julkaistu Kansainvälisen Jääkiekkoliiton nettisivuilla vuoden 2021 miesten maailmanmestaruuskilpailujen aikaan. Tutkielman analyysissä käytetään diskurssianalyysia sekä uutisarvojen käsitettä otsikoiden kielellisessä tarkastelussa ja konseptuaalisen metaforan käsitettäartikkelitekstien analyysissä. Tutkielman tulokset osoittavat, että vaikutus, superlatiivisuus, harvinaisuus ja merkittävyys olivat aineistossa useimmin esiin nousevat uutisarvot. Vaikutus on urheilukulttuurille tärkeä uutisarvo sen kilpailullisen luonteen myötä. “Jääkiekko on sotaa” oli yleisin konseptuaalinen metafora konseptien samankaltaisuuden takia. Tämä löydös vahvistaa aiempaa tutkimusta. Muita yleisimpiä konseptuaalisia metaforia aineistossa olivat ”jääkiekko on fyysinen kokemus” ja ”jääkiekko on matka”

A Strategy For Identifying Putative Causes Of Gene Expression Variation In Human Cancer

There is often a need to predict the impact of alterations in one variable on another variable. This is especially the case in cancer research, where much effort has been made to carry out large-scale gene expression screening by microarray techniques. However, the causes of this variability from one cancer to another and from one gene to another often remain unknown. In this study we present a systematic procedure for finding genes whose expression is altered by an intrinsic or extrinsic explanatory phenomenon. The procedure has three stages: preprocessing, data integration and statistical analysis. We tested and verified the utility of this approach in a study, where expression and copy number of 13,824 genes were determined in 14 breast cancer samples. The expression of 270 genes could be explained by the variability of gene copy number. These genes may represent an important set of primary, genetically "damaged" genes that drive cancer progression

A terminal assessment of stages theory : introducing a dynamic states approach to entrepreneurship

Stages of Growth models were the most frequent theoretical approach to understanding entrepreneurial business growth from 1962 to 2006; they built on the growth imperative and developmental models of that time. An analysis of the universe of such models (N=104) published in the management literature shows no consensus on basic constructs of the approach, nor is there any empirical confirmations of stages theory. However, by changing two propositions of the stages models, a new dynamic states approach is derived. The dynamic states approach has far greater explanatory power than its precursor, and is compatible with leading edge research in entrepreneurship

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

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