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Recently, businesses have increasingly adopted open innovation, yet many still opt for internal innovation due to trust, security, and cost concerns. Notwithstanding, there has been little research into these strategic choices' immediate and long-term effects. This study addresses this gap by analysing data from the European Innovation Scoreboard between 2011 and 2019. We investigate whether a firm's decision to pursue internal or open innovation significantly impacts its technological and non-technological innovation outcomes over varying timeframes. Additionally, we examine the contingent influence of a research system on firms' decisions regarding innovation collaboration. Our findings reveal that internal and open innovation strategies have distinct effects on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across different periods, particularly with a two-year time lag. Further, a robust research system can impede cooperative efforts to achieve technological and non-technological innovation objectives. The study concludes with practical policy recommendations, empowering businesses with clear guidance for navigating innovation strategies in current business environments.

Climate change threatens the role of European forests as a long-term carbon sink. Assisted migration aims to increase the resilience of forest tree populations to climate change, using species-specific climatic limits and local adaptations through transferring seed provenances. We modelled assisted migration scenarios for seven main European tree species and analysed the effects of species and seed provenance selection, accounting for environmental and genetic variations, on the annual above-ground carbon sink of regrowing juvenile forests. To increase forest resilience, coniferous trees need to be replaced by deciduous species over large parts of their distribution. If local seed provenances are used, this would result in a decrease of the current carbon sink (40 TgC yr−1) by 34–41% by 2061–2080. However, if seed provenances adapted to future climates are used, current sinks could be maintained or even increased to 48–60 TgC yr−1.

Interdisciplinary definitions of corruption perceive corrupt actions as contrary to legal and ethical standards affecting the public interest, perpetrated by a person in public office. The main goal of the study is to identify the factors of corrupt acts in the public sector stemming from the economic, political, cultural and social environments in the Slovak Republic. Through the Delphi method we verify the relevance of economic, political and cultural-social factors of corrupt acts in the public sector defined in the theoretical framework of this issue. The Delphi method was used under the following conditions: the anonymity of experts, feedback control and statistical determination of a consensus of experts. Expert evaluation of the factors underlying corrupt behaviour in the public sector enabled us not only to detect the overall relevance of the factors, but also to identify areas where corruption in the public sector is most widespread, according to experts. We can state that the most problematic areas include the judiciary and the police.

Interest in public sector performance has grown considerably. Because it is connected to public budgets and their rational use, the measurement of public sector performance is an important consideration. Our paper taps into an interest in the North African and Middle East, where recent protests against totalitarian political regimes, a continuous economic decline and a high unemployment rate - especially among the youth - suggest the failure of their public sector. This paper creates a new ranking of MENA countries according to their opportunity and Musgravian indicators. The results point to the existence of four main categories of countries classified by the availability of their natural resources. The paper shows also the recommendation to increasing the public sector efficiency.

Survival of elderly patients with de novo acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is poor. A single published study on patients with AML aged 80 years and above (DeLima et al., Br. J. Haematol. 1996; 93: 89) concluded that chemotherapy was not indicated since median overall survival (OS) of 29 treated patients was 1 month, 9 patients reached complete remission (CR) of 3 months median duration, and only two survived over 1 year: for 15.5 and >18 months. The aim of our study was to identify the characteristics of elderly AML patients who may reach CR by standard chemotherapy. We analyzed 9 consecutive patients with de novo AML aged 80–90 (median 83) years treated by us in 1992–2007. All bone marrow films were hypercelullar with 48–92 (median 80) % leukemic cells, classified as FAB types: 2 M2, 6 M4, and 1 M5. Six patients, all with hypertension and five with ischaemic heart disease (IHD), received chemotherapy, while 3 patients (82–87 years old) opted for supportive or palliative therapy and survived 1–4 months. Cytosine arabinoside (Ara-C) 100 mg/sqm/12 h in 3-h infusion for 7 days and 3 doses of daunorubicin (DNR) 45 mg/sqm/d i.v. (D+A, 1 case) or mitozantrone (MTZ) 10 mg/sqm/d i.v. (M+A, 3 cases) was given to 4 patients. The remaining two patients received D+A with thioguanine (TG) 100 mg/sqm/12 h p.o. for 7 days (TAD). Their WHO performance status (PS) was 4x PS3, 1x PS2, 1x PS1, and median WBC 58 (17.9–97.8) × 10^9/L. Three patients with AML M4 and normal karyotype reached CR. Maintenance therapy consisted of 4-day courses administered in intervals of 5–12 (median 8) weeks according to the patient's clinical status and tolerance until relapse. Courses containing Ara-C 60 mg/sqm/12h s.c. with TG 70 mg/sqm/12h p.o. were repeated 3x. The fourth course was 1+4 containing a single dose DNR or MTZ as described and Ara-C. The outcomes: An 85 year-old female with IHD and LVEF 25 % reached CR with TAD. She was on maintenance in CR for 17 months when severe heart arrhythmia developed. She refused a pacemaker implantation and died 3 days later. Her OS was 18.6 months. An 80 year-old male reached CR with M+A and was on maintenance therapy when relapsed after 19.7 months. He refused further chemotherapy and his OS was 28 months. An 80 year-old female (PS1, Flt3-ITD neg.) reached CR after D+A 3+7 and got one cycle D+A 2+5 without further maintenance. Her CR lasted 10.1 months. She was further treated with 2 cycles of low-dose Ara-C and her OS was 16.5 months. Three other patients, two with normal karyotype, did not reach CR after chemotherapy. A 90 year-old male with AML M4 died of mycotic pneumonia on the 24thday of TAD induction. An 83 year-old male with AML M5, PS2, experienced nonQ myocardial infarction after M+A induction and did not reach CR. He was further treated with hydroxyurea with OS of 2.7 months. An 80 year-old female with AML M2, complex karyotype, renal insufficiency and sepsis died after 7thhemodialysis in septic shock on 10thday of M+A induction. All three patients who reached CR did not exhibit dysplasia in erythroblastic or megakaryocytic lineage showing that only granulocyte-macrophage lineage was involved in the leukemic clone (single–lineage AMLs). In contrast, all 3 patients who did not reach CR exhibited megakaryocytic dysplasia in a half or more of megakaryocytes and two had erythroblastic dysplasia in more than 26% erythroblasts. They represent a different biological category of AMLs with multi-lineage involvement. In summary, we defined a biological category of single-lineage AML patients over 80 years of age who may benefit from standard dose chemotherapy in spite of their poor performance status.