Suchergebnisse

Since the Myanmar central government decentralized some of its power to state and regional governments, few studies investigated the performance of local governments, and no studies investigated the relationships between the types of governance modes and the performance of public service delivery. This study investigates the associations between three types of governance—i.e., hierarchy, market, and network—and the multiple performances of agricultural services in terms of the competing public values of efficiency, effectiveness and equity in southern Shan State. The findings indicate that the three types of governance simultaneously coexist in local agriculture departments and that their associations with the performances of public services differ. Network governance is negatively associated with efficiency, effectiveness, and equity during its initial stage, but these associations become positive when the degree of network governance increases in agriculture departments. In contrast, market governance is positively related to effectiveness and equity during its initial stage; however, increasing the degree of market governance further leads to a negative association with both public service values. This assessment of the performance of public programmes in terms of the trade-offs among public service values contributes to improving the local governance of public service delivery not only in Myanmar but also in other developing countries.

Since the Myanmar central government decentralized some of its power to state and regional governments, few studies investigated the performance of local governments, and no studies investigated the relationships between the types of governance modes and the performance of public service delivery. This study investigates the associations between three types of governance—i.e., hierarchy, market, and network—and the multiple performances of agricultural services in terms of the competing public values of efficiency, effectiveness and equity in southern Shan State. The findings indicate that the three types of governance simultaneously coexist in local agriculture departments and that their associations with the performances of public services differ. Network governance is negatively associated with efficiency, effectiveness, and equity during its initial stage, but these associations become positive when the degree of network governance increases in agriculture departments. In contrast, market governance is positively related to effectiveness and equity during its initial stage; however, increasing the degree of market governance further leads to a negative association with both public service values. This assessment of the performance of public programmes in terms of the trade-offs among public service values contributes to improving the local governance of public service delivery not only in Myanmar but also in other developing countries.

This article presents a comparative analysis of the ideological connotation and philosophy of dance art in China and Russia. The research is based on the comparison and analysis of the historical and modern contexts of the dance traditions of both countries, their connection with culture and ideology, as well as their influence on the formation of national identity. The results of the analysis will allow a deeper understanding of the role of dance art in society and its reflection of ideological attitudes and philosophical principles in China and Russia.

Die Finanzbeziehungen zwischen Bund, Ländern und Kommunen ist durch hohe Komplexität gekennzeichnet. Zur Regelung dieser Beziehungen wurden verschiedene Ansätze und Konzepte implementiert, die aber nicht immer miteinander kompatibel sind. Der Konzeptionsmix hat die bundesstaatliche Verantwortungsklarheit verwischt und das gesamte System verkompliziert. Dazu trägt auch ein Missverständnis bzw. Missbrauch des Verantwortungsbegriffs bei. Die Arbeit klärt den Begriff der Verantwortung und analysiert die Rationalität geltender Finanzregelungen. Der Schwerpunkt wird auf die landesverfassungsrechtlichen Konnexitätsregelungen gelegt, deren Interpretation und Anwendung detailliert untersucht werden. Insbesondere in den »Mehrebenen-Konnexitäts-Konstellationen« müssen die landesverfassungsrechtlichen Konnexitätsregelungen umfassend angewandt werden. / »The Fiscal Responsibility for Municipal Tasks« -- The intergovernmental fiscal relations in the Federal Republic of Germany are characterized by a high level of complexity. A misunderstanding or misuse of the concept of responsibility also contributes to this. The thesis clarifies the concept of responsibility and analyzes the rationality of current fiscal rules. The focus is on the connexity rules in the State Constitutions. The rules must be applied comprehensively, particularly in the »multilevel-connexity-constellations«.

Purpose
Competitor analysis is a key component in operations management. Most business decisions are rooted in the analysis of rival products inferred from market structure. Relative to more traditional competitor analysis methods, the purpose of this paper is to provide operations managers with an innovative tool to monitor a firm's market position and competitors in real time at higher resolution and lower cost than more traditional competitor analysis methods.


Design/methodology/approach
The authors combine the techniques of Web Crawler, Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning algorithms with data visualization to develop a big data competitor-analysis system that informs operations managers about competitors and meaningful relationships among them. The authors illustrate the approach using the fitness mobile app business.


Findings
The study shows that the system supports operational decision making both descriptively and prescriptively. In particular, the innovative probabilistic topic modeling algorithm combined with conventional multidimensional scaling, product feature comparison and market structure analyses reveal an app's position in relation to its peers. The authors also develop a user segment overlapping index based on user's social media data. The authors combine this new index with the product functionality similarity index to map indirect and direct competitors with and without user lock-in.


Originality/value
The approach improves on previous approaches by fully automating information extraction from multiple online sources. The authors believe this is the first system of its kind. With limited human intervention, the methodology can easily be adapted to different settings, giving quicker, more reliable real-time results. The approach is also cost effective for market analysis projects covering different data sources.

Lei Yin,* Zheng Fang,* Ning-jia Shen, Ying-he Qiu, Ai-jun Li, Yong-jie Zhang The Second Department of Biliary Surgery, Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China *These authors contributed equally to this work Abstract: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a highly fatal disease mandating development of novel, effective therapeutic strategy. Interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) is a pleiotropic cytokine with immunomodulatory, antiviral, and antitumor effects. Although IFN-γ is a promising antitumor agent, its application is limited by resistance in tumor cells. A20 is a zinc-finger protein that was initially identified as a gene product induced by tumor necrosis factor α in human umbilical vein endothelial cells. In this study, we found that silencing of A20 combined with IFN-γ significantly represses cell viability, and induces apoptosis and cell-cycle arrest in HCC cells. By investigating mechanisms implicated in A20 and IFN-γ-mediated signaling pathways, we revealed that the phosphoinositide 3-kinase/Akt signaling pathway and antiapoptotic B-cell lymphoma 2 proteins were repressed. Moreover, we also found that phosphorylation of STAT1 and STAT3 was significantly enhanced after the downregulation of A20 in combination with treatment of IFN-γ. Inhibitor of STAT1 but not STAT3 could block the antitumor effect of IFN-γ. Therefore, targeting A20 enhances the cytotoxicity of IFN-γ against HCC cells and may present a promising therapeutic strategy for HCC. Keywords: IFN-γ, A20, hepatocellular carcinoma, PI3K/Akt, STAT1, STAT3

Facai Yang,1,* Zhaohui Tang,2,* Anqi Duan,3 Bin Yi,3 Ningjia Shen,3 Zhiyuan Bo,3 Lei Yin,3 Bin Zhu,3 Yinghe Qiu,3 Jingdong Li1 1Department of General Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong 637000, People's Republic of China; 2Department of General Surgery, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200092, People's Republic of China; 3Department of Biliary II, Shanghai Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, Naval Military Medical University, Shanghai 200438, People's Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yinghe QiuDepartment of Biliary II, Shanghai Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, Naval Military Medical University, No. 225 Changhai Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai 200438, People's Republic of ChinaEmail qiuyinghe8@aliyun.comJingdong LiDepartment of General Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, No. 63, Wenhua Road, Shunqing District, Nanchong 637000, People's Republic of ChinaEmail lijingdong358@126.comBackground: Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is the most common cancer of the biliary tract, but molecularly targeted therapies are not available for GBC. Loss of microRNA (miR)-335 expression may be a useful predictor of clinical outcomes and the reversal of its loss of expression may be a useful treatment strategy for GBC. In this study, we investigated whether a long noncoding RNA, nuclear paraspeckle assembly transcript 1 (NEAT1) sponges miR-335 in GBC cells.Materials and Methods: Quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), Western blotting, and immunohistochemistry were used to determine the expression of miR-335; NEAT1; survivin; and Ki67 in GBC cell lines (GBC-SD and SGC-996) and tissue samples from patients (n = 25). Cell Counting Kit-8, colony-formation, and Transwell migration and invasion assays were performed to measure cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Bioinformatic analysis and dual-luciferase reporter assays were utilized to analyze correlativity.Results: miR-335 overexpression resulted in inhibition of GBC cell proliferation and invasion. In addition, knockdown of NEAT1 resulted in downregulation of survivin expression. As NEAT1 competitively "sponges" miR-335, NEAT1 knockdown resulted in inhibited GBC cell proliferation and invasion in vitro and GBC tumor growth in vivo. Furthermore, NEAT1 was found to be upregulated in GBC samples, and its expression was inversely correlated with miR-335 levels, but positively correlated with survivin levels.Conclusion: These findings indicate that NEAT1 promotes survivin expression by functioning as a competitive endogenous RNA for miR-335 in GBC cells; thus, we have identified a potential biomarker and target for GBC diagnosis and therapy.Keywords: long noncoding RNA, NEAT1, miR-335-5p, competitive endogenous RNA, survivin, gallbladder cancer