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\"Strategic Thinking for Turbulent Times is a conceptual and operational guide to the process of business strategy formulation within a turbulence driven economic and business environment. This book features pioneering work on the process of strategic thinking after the dramatic shift in the fundamental premises of strategic management. It is essential reading for those seeking hands on frameworks compatible with today's ever changing competitive forces.\"-- Provided by publisher.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors targeting PD-1 or CTLA-4 individually have shown substantial clinical benefits in the treatment of malignancies. We aimed to assess the safety and antitumour activity of cadonilimab monotherapy, a bispecific PD-1/CTLA-4 antibody, in patients with advanced solid tumours. This multicentre, open-label, phase 1b/2 trial was conducted across 30 hospitals in China. Patients aged 18 years or older with histologically or cytologically confirmed, unresectable advanced solid tumours, unsuccessful completion of at least one previous systemic therapy, and an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0 or 1 were eligible for inclusion. Patients who had previously received anti-PD-1, anti-PD-L1, or anti-CTLA-4 treatment were not eligible for inclusion. In the dose escalation phase of phase 1b, patients received intravenous cadonilimab at 6 mg/kg and 10 mg/kg every 2 weeks. In the dose expansion phase of phase 1b, cadonilimab at 6 mg/kg and a fixed dose of 450 mg were given intravenously every 2 weeks. In phase 2, cadonilimab at 6 mg/kg was administered intravenously every 2 weeks in three cohorts: patients with cervical cancer, oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma, and hepatocellular carcinoma. The primary endpoints were the safety of cadonilimab in phase 1b and objective response rate in phase 2, based on the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST), version 1.1. The safety analysis was done in all patients who received at least one dose of cadonilimab. Antitumour activity was assessed in the full analysis set for the cervical cancer cohort, and in all patients with measurable disease at baseline and who received at least one dose of cadonilimab in the oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma and hepatocellular carcinoma cohorts. The study is registered on ClinicalTrial.gov, NCT03852251, and closed to new participants; follow-up has been completed. Between Jan 18, 2019, and Jan 8, 2021, 240 patients (83 [43 male and 40 female] in phase 1b and 157 in phase 2) were enrolled. Phase 2 enrolled 111 female patients with cervical cancer, 22 patients with oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (15 male and seven female), and 24 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (17 male and seven female). During dose escalation, no dose-limiting toxicities occurred. Grade 3–4 treatment-related adverse events occurred in 67 (28%) of 240 patients; the most frequent grade 3 or worse treatment-related adverse events were anaemia (seven [3%]), increased lipase (four [2%]), decreased bodyweight (three [1%]), decreased appetite (four [2%]), decreased neutrophil count (three [1%]), and infusion-related reaction (two [1%]). 17 (7%) patients discontinued treatment due to treatment-related adverse events. 54 (23%) of 240 patients reported serious treatment-related adverse events, including five patients who died (one due to myocardial infarction; cause unknown for four). In phase 2, in the cervical cancer cohort, with a median follow-up of 14·6 months (IQR 13·1–17·5), the objective response rate was 32·3% (32 of 99; 95% CI 23·3–42·5). In the oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma cohort, with a median follow-up of 17·9 months (IQR 4·0–15·1), the objective response rate was 18·2% (four of 22; 95% CI 5·2–40·3). In the hepatocellular carcinoma cohort, with a median follow-up of 19·6 months (IQR 8·7–19·8), the objective response rate was 16·7% (four of 24; 95% CI 4·7–37·4). Cadonilimab showed an encouraging tumour response rate, with a manageable safety profile, suggesting the potential of cadonilimab for the treatment of advanced solid tumours. Akeso Biopharma. For the Chinese translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.

\"Contains Books #5 and #6 The Sword and The Chosen, in the best selling General series. The Empire of Man has fallen and a new Dark Age is upon the stars. With planets cut off and reduced to subsistence and ignorance, humanity has nearly forgotten its past greatness. But one battle computer has survived the Collapse. He is Center. And Center is determined to find and aid leaders who can return a star-faring republic to the galaxy. The first of these leaders is Raj Whitehall, a man born to be a general, and molded to retake civilization itself from the jaws of barbarism. The Sword For five years Raj Whitehall has led his men across the face of the planet Bellevue. With saber and bayonet he has conquered one barbarian nation after another. Now his greatest enemy is his own overlord, Barholm Clerett, who's so paranoid of Raj's victories that he is reduced to only one thought: Raj Whitehall must die. The Chosen Planted by interstellar probes on hundreds of human-occupied worlds, the downloaded personalities of Raj Whitehall and the ancient battle computer known as Center work together for planetary unity. On Visager, a nation-state of vicious militarists is about to start the final war that will bring their fatal racist infection to the stars. Now two young men once at odds in war must unite and, with the aid of the disembodied voices of their mentors from the stars, stand against exporting eternal tyranny to the galaxy itself. About the Raj Whitehall series: \"[T]old with knowledge of military tactics and hardware, and vividly described action. devotees of military SF should enjoy themselves.\"--Publishers Weekly \"[A] thoroughly engrossing military sf series. superb battle scenes, ingenious weaponry and tactics, homages to Kipling, and many other goodies. High fun.\"--Booklist About David Drake: \"[P]rose as cold and hard s the metal alloy of a tank... rivals Crane and Remarque...\" -Chicago Sun-Times \"Drake couldn't write a bad action scene at gunpoint.\" -Booklist The General Series The Forge S. M. Stirling David Drake The Hammer S. M. Stirling David Drake The Anvil S. M. Stirling David Drake The Steel S. M. Stirling David Drake The Sword S. M. Stirling David Drake The Chosen S. M. Stirling David Drake The Reformer S. M. Stirling David Drake The Tyrant Eric Flint David Drake The Heretic Tony Daniel David Drake The Savior Tony Daniel David Drake Omnibus Editions Warlord David Drake S. M. Stirling Contains The Forge and The Hammer Conqueror David Drake S. M. Stirling Contains The Anvil and The Steel Hope Reborn David Drake S. M. Stirling Contains The Forge and The Hammer Hope Rearmed David Drake S. M. Stirling Contains The Anvil and The Steel\"-- Provided by publisher.

Elephas maximus maximus Linnaeus, the Sri Lankan subspecies is the largest and the darkest among Asian elephants. Patches of depigmented areas with no skin color on the ears, face, trunk, and belly morphologically differentiate it from the others. The elephant population in Sri Lanka is now limited to smaller areas and protected under Sri Lankan law. Despite its ecological and evolutionary importance, the relationship between Sri Lankan elephants and their phylogenetic position among Asian elephants remains controversial. While identifying genetic diversity is the key to any conservation and management strategies, limited data is currently available. To address such issues, we analyzed 24 elephants with known parental lineages with high throughput ddRAD-seq. The mitogenome suggested the coalescence time of the Sri Lankan elephant at ~0.2 million years, and sister to Myanmar elephants supporting the hypothesis of the movement of elephants in Eurasia. The ddRAD-seq approach identified 50,490 genome-wide SNPs among Sri Lankan elephants. The genetic diversity within Sri Lankan elephants assessed with identified SNPs suggests a geographical differentiation resulting in three main clusters; north-eastern, mid-latitude, and southern regions. Interestingly, though it was believed that elephants from the Sinharaja rainforest are of an isolated population, the ddRAD-based genetic analysis clustered it with the north-eastern elephants. The effect of habitat fragmentation on genetic diversity could be further assessed with more samples with specific SNPs identified in the current study.

Purpose The aim of this study was to compare two surgical treatment methods for chronic anal fissures (CAF), mucosal advancement flap anoplasty (MAFA) and cutaneous advancement flap anoplasty (CAFA). Methods A randomized, blinded clinical trial was conducted on patients with CAF refractory to medical treatment referred to a tertiary-level hospital between January 2021 and December 2022. The patients were assigned to two groups by block randomization and were compared in terms of outcome, pain reduction, and complications. Results There were 30 patients (male to female ratio 2:3, median age 42 years [range 25–59 years]). Both techniques reduced anal pain significantly ( p  = 0.001); however, there were no significant differences between MAFA and CAFA groups in recurrence, duration of healing, postoperative pain, and postoperative bleeding. No patient suffered from fecal incontinence (Wexner score = 0) or flap necrosis postoperatively. Only two patients in the MAFA group (1 and 3 months after surgery) and one patient in the CAFA group (2 months after surgery) had recurrence (total recurrence rate = 10%, healing rate = 90%). All of the patients were satisfied with their surgical results. Conclusion Mucosal and cutaneous anal advancement flap techniques are effective and comparable surgical procedures for the treatment of chronic anal fissures with minimal complications, fast healing process, and minimal postoperative pain and complications. Clinical trial ID IRCT20120129008861N4 ( www.irct.ir ).

In the past few years, UAV application in agriculture has increased significantly due to higher efficiency and safety, simple operation, reduced labor requirements, and saving chemicals as compared to conventional sprayers. The UAVs are widely used in agriculture, providing flexibility and more profit to farmers. In recent years, research has been conducted on various operational parameters of UAV, and there has been no experiment or study on the effect of operational parameters and drift characteristics of UAV and control of thrips in pigeon pea crop. Therefore, this study evaluated the effect of the operational parameters of a UAV-based spraying system on the performance of agrochemical application in pigeon pea crop to control thrips. A field study was conducted to determine the performance parameters in terms of droplet deposition density, droplet size, coverage, spray deposition, and relative span at different flight heights (1.5, 2, and 2.5 m above the crop canopy) and flight speeds (2, 2.5, and 3 m/s). Water-sensitive papers (WSPs) were placed at three canopy zones (bottom, middle, and top zones) of the pigeon pea plant. The maximum droplet density, droplet size, coverage, spray deposition, and relative span factor at the top, middle, and bottom canopy zones were 54.00, 50.17, and 46.33 droplets/cm²; 244.80, 239.88, and 235.37 µm; 10.53%, 10.09%, and 9.78%; 0.764, 0.714, and 0.672 µl/cm²; and 0.98, 0.96, and 0.93, respectively, at a flight height of 1.5 m and a flying speed of 2 m/s. Spray deposition was negligible in off-target zones. The field capacity, field efficiency, and application rate of the UAV were found to be 2.62 ha/h, 60.64%, and 77.86 L/ha, respectively. The maximum control efficacy of thrips on the top, middle, and bottom pigeon pea canopy was 92.45%, 90.12%, and 88.11% after 10 days of spraying experiment. This study provides recommendations for optimal operating parameters (height: 1.5 m and speed: 2 m/s) for efficient agrochemical application, benefiting manufacturers, farmers, and UAV operators for more effective and efficient spraying on pigeon pea crops.

\"Although presented as being derived from the past, principles in contract law have been subject to constant reformulation, thereby facilitating legal change while simultaneously seeming to preclude it. Principle and policy have been mutually interdependent, propositions not usually being called principles unless they have been perceived to lead to just results in particular cases, and as likely to produce results in future cases that accord with common sense, commercial convenience and sound public policy. The influence of policy has been frequent in contract law, but Stephen Waddams argues that an unmediated appeal to non-legal sources of policy has been constrained by the need to formulate generalised propositions recognised as legal principles. This interrelation of principle and policy has played an important role in enabling an uncodified system to hold a middle course between a rigid formalism on the one hand and an unconstrained instrumentalism on the other\"-- Provided by publisher.

Accurate state of charge (SOC) estimation of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries is crucial in prolonging cell lifespan and ensuring its safe operation for electric vehicle applications. In this article, we propose the deep learning-based transformer model trained with self-supervised learning (SSL) for end-to-end SOC estimation without the requirements of feature engineering or adaptive filtering. We demonstrate that with the SSL framework, the proposed deep learning transformer model achieves the lowest root-mean-square-error (RMSE) of 0.90% and a mean-absolute-error (MAE) of 0.44% at constant ambient temperature, and RMSE of 1.19% and a MAE of 0.7% at varying ambient temperature. With SSL, the proposed model can be trained with as few as 5 epochs using only 20% of the total training data and still achieves less than 1.9% RMSE on the test data. Finally, we also demonstrate that the learning weights during the SSL training can be transferred to a new Li-ion cell with different chemistry and still achieve on-par performance compared to the models trained from scratch on the new cell.