Managing risks in public-private partnership formation projects

While sourcing by means of Public-Private Partnerships has been lauded over recent years, increasingly risks appear to jeopardise public organisations' unique societal tasks. Integrated Risk Management has not yet been applied to public organisations getting involved in PPP in the sense of understanding risk management capabilities. This article explores risk awareness and risk management practices underpinning maintenance partnership formation by means of a dual case study of two PPP projects and a short industry survey. The results suggest that organisations face several “intolerable risks” linked to project governance and project management responsibilities: insufficient representation of qualified employees, absence of a shared performance system, assignment of responsibilities and decision-making authority, impractical or inappropriate partnership agreement, and timing of the partnership initiative. Cross-case analysis revealed the role of different levels of risk awareness and senior management involvement. Drawing on these findings, a framework for risk management for PPP formation projects is developed.     

Accepting Networks of Evolutionary Processors with Subregular Filters

We propose a new variant of Accepting Networks of Evolutionary Processors, in which the operations are applied at arbitrary positions to the processed words (rather than at the ends of words only) and where the filters are languages from several special classes of regular sets. More precisely, we show that the use of filters from the class of non-counting, ordered, power-separating, suffix-closed regular, union-free, definite and combinational languages is as powerful as the use of arbitrary regular languages and yields networks that can accept all the recursively enumerable languages. On the other hand, by using filters that are only finite languages, monoids, nilpotent languages, commutative regular languages, or circular regular languages, one cannot generate all recursively enumerable languages. These results seem interesting as they provide both upper and lower bounds on the classes of languages that one can use as filters in an accepting network of evolutionary processors in order to obtain a complete computational model.     

Tubular dentin sealer penetration after different final irrigation protocols: A confocal laser scanning microscopy study

The aim of this study was to evaluate tubular dentin sealer penetration, comparing different final irrigation protocols using a conventional needle (CONV), EndoActivator system (EAS), EndoVac system (EVS), and ultrasound (PUI). Initially, fifty‐two first maxillary molars with a single canal in the palatal root, without abrupt curvatures, resorptive processes, or previous endodontic treatment were selected for this study. Then, the crowns were sectioned to obtain palatal roots 15 mm in length. The root canals were prepared with the ProTaper Universal System and irrigated with 5% NaOCl. Afterwards, the specimens were divided into four groups (n. 13), according to the final irrigation protocol: CONV, EAS, EVS, and PUI. After filling, slices at 3 mm and 5 mm from the apex were obtained for analysis by confocal laser scanning microscopy. Two‐way comparisons between the groups and the levels were performed with Games Howell's test (p < .05). Tubular dentin sealer penetration was higher at 5 mm compared with 3 mm from the apex (p < .05). The EAS group showed a higher percentage of tubular dentin sealer penetration, compared with the CONV group, at both levels. At 3 mm, there was no statistically significant difference among EAS, EVS, and PUI; however, these groups showed better performance, compared with the CONV group. At 5 mm, there was no statistically significant difference between the EAS and EVS groups, but both showed higher sealer penetration than the PUI group (p < .05). The EAS and EVS groups achieved better degrees of tubular dentin sealer penetration, compared with the other groups.     

Preliminary Studies on Furfural Production from Lignocellulosics

This study focused on the production of furfural from agricultural and industrial biomass residues by a hydrodistillation process. Corncobs, sugarcane bagasse, and eucalypt wood were treated with sulfuric, hydrochloric, and phosphoric acids as catalysts, with different acid concentrations (1.5 to 5.2 mol.L ^?1). In addition, the eucalypt liquor from the auto-hydrolysis, kraft-dissolving pulp production process was also investigated as a source of furfural, using sulfuric and hydrochloric acids as a catalyst (0.9 and 3.9 mol.L ^?1) . Furfural yields of 30.2, 25.8, and 13.9% were achieved for corncob, sugarcane bagasse, and eucalypt wood, respectively, on the basis of biomass dry weight. The efficiency of conversion from pentose to furfural using eucalypt liquor from the auto-hydrolysis kraft process was 71.5% using HCl 3.9 mol.L ^?1 . Due to the presence of a high amount of pentose, corncob produced the highest amount of furfural, followed by sugarcane bagasse and then eucalypt wood.     

Improved Second Generation Iron Pincer Complexes for Effective Ester Hydrogenation

Hydrogenation of esters to alcohols with a well‐defined iron ^iPr2PNP pincer complex has been recently reported by us and other groups. We now introduce a novel and sterically less hindered ^Et2PNP congener that provides superior catalytic activity in the hydrogenation of various carboxylic acid esters and lactones compared to the known complex. Successful hydrogenation proceeds under relatively mild conditions (60 °C) with lower catalyst loadings.

     

On the importance of specific interface area in clay nanocomposites of PMMA filled with synthetic nano-mica

In clay nanocomposites, the specific interface area is the key factor determining potential improvements of properties. Nevertheless, in most systematic studies of nanocomposites little emphasis is put on assuring and characterizing dispersion quality. To probe the influence of dispersion quality, we compare nanocomposites filled with two layered silicates which were made by melt compounding and solution blending, respectively. Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is chosen here as a thermoplastic model matrix which was compounded with a synthetic nano-mica (O-hect) and commercial Bentone with typical diameters of 5–7 μm and <300 nm, respectively.     

Dihydrotanshinone,a Natural Diterpenoid,Preserves Blood-Retinal Barrier Integrity via P2X7 Receptor

Activation of P2X7 signaling, due to high glucose levels, leads to blood retinal barrier (BRB) breakdown, which is a hallmark of diabetic retinopathy (DR). Furthermore, several studies report that high glucose (HG) conditions and the related activation of the P2X7 receptor (P2X7R) lead to the over-expression of pro-inflammatory markers. In order to identify novel P2X7R antagonists, we carried out virtual screening on a focused compound dataset, including indole derivatives and natural compounds such as caffeic acid phenethyl ester derivatives, flavonoids, and diterpenoids. Molecular Mechanics/Generalized Born Surface Area (MM/GBSA) rescoring and structural fingerprint clustering of docking poses from virtual screening highlighted that the diterpenoid dihydrotanshinone (DHTS) clustered with the well-known P2X7R antagonist JNJ47965567. A human-based in vitro BRB model made of retinal pericytes, astrocytes, and endothelial cells was used to assess the potential protective effect of DHTS against HG and 2′(3′)-O-(4-Benzoylbenzoyl)adenosine-5′-triphosphate (BzATP), a P2X7R agonist, insult. We found that HG/BzATP exposure generated BRB breakdown by enhancing barrier permeability (trans-endothelial electrical resistance (TEER)) and reducing the levels of ZO-1 and VE-cadherin junction proteins as well as of the Cx-43 mRNA expression levels. Furthermore, HG levels and P2X7R agonist treatment led to increased expression of pro-inflammatory mediators (TLR-4, IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, and IL-8) and other molecular markers (P2X7R, VEGF-A, and ICAM-1), along with enhanced production of reactive oxygen species. Treatment with DHTS preserved the BRB integrity from HG/BzATP damage. The protective effects of DHTS were also compared to the validated P2X7R antagonist, JNJ47965567. In conclusion, we provided new findings pointing out the therapeutic potential of DHTS, which is an inhibitor of P2X7R, in terms of preventing and/or counteracting the BRB dysfunctions elicited by HG conditions.