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result(s) for
"Canals, Jordi"
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Building respected companies : rethinking business leadership and the purpose of the firm
\"The current financial crisis has deep macroeconomic roots, but the dominant view of the firm has made the crisis deeper and more devastating. Over the past few decades, maximizing shareholder value has become the main objective of the firm. Chief executives have been keen on this objective because their economic incentives have been clearly associated with stock market performance. Unfortunately, this has driven many CEOs to make terrible decisions based on short-termism and greed. In this way, the firm has become the object of anger, criticism and cynicism. In Building Respected Companies, Jordi Canals argues that we must address this problem by developing companies that serve society, not just their shareholders. This requires a new perspective of what a firm is, what the purpose of the firm in society should be and what the role of the board of directors and senior executives should be\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
The future of leadership development : corporate needs and the role of business schools
\"The current financial crisis highlights the need to rethink business leadership and the role of business schools in helping firms develop the leaders of the future. This book brings together the perspectives of deans of top international business schools, and the views of CEOs and senior business leaders\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Human embryonic mesenchymal lung-conditioned medium promotes differentiation to myofibroblast and loss of stemness phenotype in lung adenocarcinoma cell lines
Background
When genes responsible for normal embryonic development are abnormally expressed in adults, it can lead to tumor development. This can suggest that the same mechanism that controls embryonic differentiation can also control tumor differentiation. We hypothesize that the malignant phenotype of lung cancer cells could acquire benign characteristics when in contact with an embryonic lung microenvironment. We cultured two lung cancer cell lines in embryonic lung mesenchyme-conditioned medium and evaluated morphological, functional and molecular changes.
Methods
The human embryonic mesenchymal lung-conditioned medium (hEML-CM) was obtained by culturing lung cells from embryos in the pseudoglandular stage of development. The NSCLC cell lines A549 and H1299 we cultured in the hEML-CM and in a tumor-conditioned medium. Morphological changes were analyzed with optical and transmission electron microscopy. To evaluate the functional effect of conditioned medium in tumor cells, we analyzed cell proliferation, migration, colony formation capacity in 2D and 3D and in vivo tumor growth capacity. The expression of the pluripotency genes OSKM, the adenocarcinoma marker NKX2-1, the lung surfactant proteins SFTP, the myofibroblast marker MYH and DNMT3A/3B was analyzed with qRT-PCR and the presence of the myofibroblast markers vimentin and α-SMA with immunofluorescence. Transcriptomic analysis was performed using Affymetrix arrays.
Results
The A549 and H1299 cells cultured in hEML-CM lost their epithelial morphology, acquired mesodermal characteristics, and decreased proliferation, migration, and colony formation capacity in 2D and 3D, as well as reduced its capacity to growth in vivo. The expression of OSKM, NKX2-1 and SFTP decreased, while that of DNMT3A/3B, vimentin, α-SMA and MYH increased. Distant matrix analysis based on transcriptomic profile showed that conditioned cells were closer to myoblast and human lung fibroblast than to normal epithelial immortalized lung cells. A total of 1631 for A549 and 866 for H1299 differentially expressed genes between control and conditioned cells were identified.
Conclusions
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report that stimuli from the embryonic lung can modulate the malignant phenotype of lung cancer cells, control their growth capacity and activate their differentiation into myofibroblasts. These findings could lead to new strategies for lung cancer management.
Journal Article
qRobot: A Quantum Computing Approach in Mobile Robot Order Picking and Batching Problem Solver Optimization
This article aims to bring quantum computing to robotics. A quantum algorithm is developed to minimize the distance traveled in warehouses and distribution centers where order picking is applied. For this, a proof of concept is proposed through a Raspberry Pi 4, generating a quantum combinatorial optimization algorithm that saves the distance travelled and the batch of orders to be made. In case of computational need, the robot will be able to parallelize part of the operations in hybrid computing (quantum + classical), accessing CPUs and QPUs distributed in a public or private cloud. We developed a stable environment (ARM64) inside the robot (Raspberry) to run gradient operations and other quantum algorithms on IBMQ, Amazon Braket (D-Wave), and Pennylane locally or remotely. The proof of concept, when run in the above stated quantum environments, showed the execution time of our algorithm with different public access simulators on the market, computational results of our picking and batching algorithm, and analyze the quantum real-time execution. Our findings are that the behavior of the Amazon Braket D-Wave is better than Gate-based Quantum Computing over 20 qubits, and that AWS-Braket has better time performance than Qiskit or Pennylane.
Journal Article
A Pilot Study of the KIBO Robot in Children with Severe ASD
This pilot study explores the feasibility of using the KIBO Robot as an engaging platform to positively impact social and emotional development in children with ASD. KIBO is a programmable toy robot originally designed to teach coding and sequencing to neuro-typical children between 4 and 7 years of age. To assess its use in children with severe ASD, twelve participants were introduced to KIBO and engaged in a variety of activities with the robot over four consecutive days. Their interactions were observed on site by raters and simultaneously videotaped for later analysis. We performed a detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis in two subjects who completed six or more of the eight planned KIBO play sessions. We observed that most of the participants showed sustained interest in the KIBO robot and increased the frequency of their interactions with adults across play sessions. Although the participants demonstrated only a limited understanding of programming principles during the study, they managed to manipulate the KIBO appropriately, engaged socially with the adults in the room and interacted positively with the robot during individual play. The findings suggest that the KIBO robot warrants further study as an engaging educational platform for children with ASD.
Journal Article
Global leadership development, strategic alignment and CEOs commitment
Purpose
– Global corporate strategy has moved faster than global leadership development in many companies. This outcome has created some leadership problems: global companies may not have enough leaders in their growth markets or leaders with the required global competencies in their headquarters. The purpose of this paper is to offer some concepts that may help companies tackle those problems.
Design/methodology/approach
– This paper has a conceptual basis. It draws on previous theoretical knowledge on global leadership development and the experience of some leadership programs in global companies.
Findings
– The first is that global leadership competencies should be based on the functions that global leaders need to perform and their specific context, not on some theoretical notions isolated from the business context. The second is the need for alignment of global leadership development with the firm's purpose and strategy. The third is that CEOs’ commitment is a key factor in making global leadership initiatives successful.
Research limitations/implications
– This is a conceptual paper based on business experience. It needs to be complemented with additional empirical work.
Practical implications
– Global leadership development should be based on real global business functions. Global leadership development should be aligned with the firm's purpose and strategy and its success depends on CEOs’ commitment.
Originality/value
– The study of global capabilities needs to observe what happens in companies that have global leadership programs. Global leadership development takes place in specific organizations. This paper gets theory closer to the practice of global leadership development.
Journal Article
How Could Companion Robots Be Useful in Rural Schools?
Robots in schools are generally seen as useful for teaching students about engineering and robotics, and as teaching assistants for scientific or foreign language subjects. Robots may be particularly useful in rural schools, due to the challenges rural areas face with low student numbers, low funding, a lack of specialist teachers, and isolation. To date, no studies have specifically investigated how companion robots might be useful in rural schools. This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate student and teacher views about how two companion robots could be useful in rural educational settings. 207 students and 22 teachers participated in 30-min sessions with two popular companion robots, Paro and iRobiQ. Questionnaires were given to all participants and observer ratings were made of student interactions with the robots. Overall, the robots were well-received. The majority of participants said they would like to have the robots at their schools. Girls gave significantly more positive responses about the robots than boys, although boys were more engaged with iRobiQ than girls. Children aged 5–12 and their teachers responded the most positively. Participants wanted the robots to be more interactive, and perceived that the most useful functions were helping children with autism, comforting children in sick bay, and repeating exercises for children who need help. This study suggests that in addition to having an assistant teacher role, companion robots may have a useful comforting role. The results inform designers about which applications to develop for robots in rural schools and which age groups to develop them for.
Journal Article