Evry (Norway)

PurposeWhile (customer) engagement has been proposed as a volitional concept, our structuration theory/S-D logic-informed analyses of actors’ (e.g. employees’) engagement in service innovation reveal engagement as a boundedly volitional theoretical entity, which arises from actors’ structural and agency-based characteristics and constraints. In line with this observation, the purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model of actor (i.e. customer, firm, employee) engagement with service innovation.Design/methodology/approachBased on the observed gap, the authors propose an integrative S-D logic/structuration theoretical model that outlines three particular service innovation actors’ (i.e. customers’, the firm’s and employees’) engagement, which comprises institution-driven (i.e. fixed) and agency-driven (i.e. variable) engagement facets. In addition, the authors integrate the key expected characteristics of positively (vs negatively) valenced service innovation engagement for each of these actor groups in the analyses.FindingsThe authors develop a 12-cell matrix (conceptual model) that outlines particular service innovation actors’ institution-driven and agency-driven engagement facets and outline their expected impact on actors’ ensuing positively and negatively valenced engagement.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors discuss key theoretical implications arising from the analyses.Originality/valueOutlining service innovation actors’ structure- and agency-driven engagement facets, the authors’ model can be used to explain or predict customers’, the firm’s or employees’ service innovation engagement-based activities.

The potential energy surface of protonated uracil has been explored by an automated transition state search procedure, resulting in the finding of 1398 stationary points and 751 reactive channels, which can be categorized into isomerizations between pairs of isomers, unimolecular fragmentations and bimolecular reactions. The use of statistical Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus (RRKM) theory and Kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations allowed us to determine the relative abundances of each fragmentation channel as a function of the ion's internal energy. The KMC/RRKM product abundances are compared with novel mass spectrometry (MS) experiments in the collision energy range 1-6 eV. To facilitate the comparison between theory and experiments, further dynamics simulations are carried out to determine the fraction of collision energy converted into the ion's internal energy. The KMC simulations show that the major fragmentation channels are isocyanic acid and ammonia losses, in good agreement with experiments. The third predominant channel is water loss according to both theory and experiments, although the abundance obtained in the KMC simulations is very low, suggesting that non-statistical dynamics might play an important role in this channel. Isocyanic acid (HNCOH(+)) is also an important product in the KMC simulations, although its abundance is only significant at internal energies not accessible in the MS experiments.

We report on an ab initio molecular dynamics study of an aqueous NaCl solution under the effect of static electric fields. We found that at low-to-moderate field intensity regimes chlorine ions have a greater mobility than sodium ions which, being a sort of "structure makers", are able to drag their own coordination shells. However, for field strengths exceeding 0.15 V Å(-1) the mobility of sodium ions overcomes that of chlorine ions as both types of ions do actually escape from their respective hydration cages. The presence of charged particles lowers the water dissociation threshold (i.e., the minimum field strength which induces a transfer of protons) from 0.35 V Å(-1) to 0.25 V Å(-1); moreover, a protonic current was also recorded at the estimated dissociation threshold of the solution. The behaviour of the current-voltage diagram of the protonic response to the external electric field is Ohmic as in pure water, with a resulting protonic conductivity of about 2.5 S cm(-1). This value is approximately one third of that estimated in pure water (7.8 S cm(-1)), which shows that the partial breaking of hydrogen bonds induced by the solvated ions hinders the migration of protonic defects. Finally, the conductivity of Na(+) and Cl(-) ions (0.2 S cm(-1)) is in fair agreement with the available experimental data for a solution molarity of 1.7 M.

ObjectivesTopical ocular administration is the most convenient route of administration of drugs for the treatment of eye diseases. However, the bioavailability of drugs following eye instillations of eye drops is very low. Over the past 20 years, extensive efforts have been put into research to improve drug bioavailability without compromising treatment compliance and patients' quality of life.Key findingsOne of the most efficient ways to improve drug bioavailability is to increase the precorneal residence time of the eye drop formulations. As a result, new eye drops, with bioadhesive properties, have been developed based on the cationic oil-in-water (o/w) nanoemulsion technology. These low viscosity eye drop nanoemulsions have improved precorneal residence time through the electrostatic interactions between the positively charged oil nanodroplets and the negatively charged ocular surface epithelium.SummaryThis review is the first to present the benefits of this new strategy used to improve ocular drug bioavailability. The roles of the cationic agent in the stabilization of a safe cationic o/w nanoemulsion have been discussed, as well as the unexpected benefits of the cationic o/w nanoemulsion for the protection and restoration of a healthy tear film and corneal epithelium.

This paper explores the notion of cross-source integration of cloud-based, context-aware information. The objective is to develop a new solution that incorporates remote, web based configuration of Android phones and advances the research area of context-aware information and web applications. It expands the notion of context-awareness harvesting from web applications, enabling automatic adaptation and behaviour altering of smartphones in accordance with implicit user needs. Results from the conducted experiment show the viability of tailoring contextual information through a web application to provide users with timely, relevant and adapted application behavior and content. Through the developed application suite, we present a remote configurable, adaptive application solution to demonstrate the validity of our proposal. The novelty in this work is the new proposed solution and design whereby context-aware information is harvested from several dimensions to allow web application executions to build rich foundations on which algorithms for context-aware computation can be based.

Abstract Purpose Severity of ocular surface damages in glaucoma patients was shown to be correlated to the number of instilled benzalkonium chloride (BAK) preserved (P) antiglaucoma eye drops. While preservative‐free (PF) eye drops reduce iatrogenic toxicity they do not restore the ocular surface. The effects of PF‐cationic emulsion of latanoprost (Catioprost®) and BAK‐free travoprost combined with P‐ or PF‐timolol formulations were compared to BAK‐preserved prostaglandin (PG)/timolol‐fixed combinations (FC) in an established rat model of ocular surface injury.Methods Seven PG/timolol combinations were assessed in a rat model of corneal scraping. The upper part of the corneal epithelium was scraped mechanically prior to a 5‐day treatment followed by clinical (in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM), fluorescein staining) and histological evaluations. Conjunctival function was assessed by goblet cell count and MUC5AC immunostaining.Results Catioprost®/timolol combinations did not induce toxicity as evidenced by IVCM scoring, both reducing inflammatory cell infiltration greater than BAK‐free travoprost/P‐timolol combination. In contrast, BAK‐preserved PG/timolol‐FC presented elevated IVCM scores. MUC5AC staining and goblet cell count demonstrated that BAK‐free Catioprost®/PF‐timolol is the best tolerated combination.Conclusion BAK‐free Catioprost®/P‐timolol is very well tolerated, in contrast to BAK‐preserved PG/timolol‐FC. The findings suggest that Catioprost® associated with PF‐ or P‐timolol have the potential to benefit glaucoma patients with ocular surface disease. Commercial interest

QoS management(Raouyane B. et al., 2009) mechanisms as defined by 3GPP can be viewed as a network-centric approach to QoS, providing a signalling chain able to automatically configure the network to provision determined QoS to services on demand and in real time, for instance on top of a DiffServ-enabled network. However, to envision a deployment of such technology in a carrier-grade context would mean significant further effort. In particular, premium paid-for services with SLA (Service Level Agreement) contracts such as targeted by IMS (Poikselka and Georg, 2009)networks would require additional mechanisms able to provide some degree of monitoring in order to asset the SLAs, while IMS by itself does not provide such mechanisms.

DNA damage triggers a complex signaling cascade involving a multitude of phosphorylation events. We found that the threonine 7 (Thr-7) residue of heat shock protein 90α (Hsp90α) was phosphorylated immediately after DNA damage. The phosphorylated Hsp90α then accumulated at sites of DNA double strand breaks and formed repair foci with slow kinetics, matching the repair kinetics of complex DNA damage. The phosphorylation of Hsp90α was dependent on phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-like kinases, including the DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) in particular. DNA-PK plays an essential role in the repair of DNA double strand breaks by nonhomologous end-joining and in the signaling of DNA damage. It is also present in the cytoplasm of the cell and has been suggested to play a role in cytoplasmic signaling pathways. Using stabilized double-stranded DNA molecules to activate DNA-PK, we showed that an active DNA-PK complex could be assembled in the cytoplasm, resulting in phosphorylation of the cytoplasmic pool of Hsp90α. In vivo, reverse phase protein array data for tumors revealed that basal levels of Thr-7-phosphorylated Hsp90α were correlated with phosphorylated histone H2AX levels. The Thr-7 phosphorylation of the ubiquitously produced and secreted Hsp90α may therefore serve as a surrogate biomarker of DNA damage. These findings shed light on the interplay between central DNA repair enzymes and an essential molecular chaperone.

Abstract Purpose Ocular Surface Disease (OSD), recognized in 50% of glaucoma patients, can decrease anti‐glaucoma therapy compliance. Benzalkonium chloride (BAK) has been shown to induce OSD. Catioprost® is an unpreserved latanoprost 0.005% cationic emulsion. The design of a study comparing the efficacy and safety of Catioprost® versus a BAK‐free prostaglandin agonist, Travatan Z® (travoprost 0.004%) in patients with glaucoma and OSD is described.Methods Patients with elevated IOP at baseline requiring treatment with ocular anti‐hypertensive therapy were enrolled in this multicenter, phase II, investigator‐masked, randomized study. Following a washout period, patients demonstrating OSD symptoms and signs (corneal fluorescein staining, CFS, score≥1 on the modified Oxford scale and a tear film break up time, TFBUT, ≤10) in at least one eye at the baseline visit were randomized to either Catioprost® or Travatan Z® QD with follow‐up study evaluations at month 1 and 3.Results 105 patients were randomized. Change in diurnal IOP, a change in the global symptoms (ocular discomfort, burning, dryness, grittiness, stinging) and objective signs (CFS, TFBUT, conjunctival hyperemia) of OSD at month 1 and 3 will be presented. Safety outcomes will also be reported.Conclusion Preservative free prostaglandin agonists reduce the risk of ocular toxicity associated with BAK. However, their effect on restoring ocular surface damage is unclear. In this study, the efficacy and safety of an unpreserved latanoprost 0.005% cationic emulsion relative to BAK‐free travoprost 0.004% solution on reducing IOP and improving the signs and symptoms of OSD will be revealed. Commercial interest