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This case is about Wingtech, a China-based mobile phone and intelligent devices manufacturer. Early in 2019, Wingtech CEO Xuezheng Zhang faced one of the biggest challenges of his career. Founded only 13 years earlier, Wingtech was one of the world’s top producers of high-tech consumer products. But Wingtech didn’t produce its products’ key component: microchips. Instead, the vast majority of chips were imported from American and European manufacturers. Facing growing hostility from an increasingly anti-China U.S., and the very real possibility of crippling disruptions to the microchip supply chain, Wingtech had just completed the purchase of highly regarded Netherlands-based chip manufacturer Nexperia for USD3.6 billion. Now Zhang faced a daunting set of highly consequential new questions. To what extent should he try to integrate the two geographically and culturally distinct companies? How could he convince Nexperia’s highly competent leader, who had been unenthusiastic about the deal, to stay? Zhang had seen great success as an entrepreneur. How should he lead as the CEO of a global high-tech firm?

Cognitive deficits after spontaneous intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) are common and result in functional impairment, but few studies have examined deficits across cognitive domains in the subacute phase. This study aims to describe the cognitive profile following acute ICH and explore how cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) may impact performance. We retrospectively reviewed 187 consecutive patients with ICH (mean age 58.9 years, 55.6% male) with available imaging and neuropsychological data (median 12 days after stroke). In our cohort, 84% (n = 158) were impaired in at least one cognitive domain and 65% (n = 122) in two or more domains. Deficits in non-verbal IQ (76.6%), information processing speed (62.4%) and executive functions (58.1%) were most common. Patients with lobar ICH (n = 92) had more deficits in naming and visual perception than those with non-lobar ICH, but not in adjusted analyses. Patients with probable CAA (n = 21) had more deficits in verbal IQ, visual perception and executive functions than those without probable CAA; in adjusted analyses, probable CAA predicted impairment in verbal IQ (OR 38.6, 95% CI 3.2 to 465.4, p = 0.004) and executive function (OR 3.4, 95% CI 1.0 to 11.7, p = 0.050). We conclude that cognitive deficits following ICH are common across domains, and that those with CAA appear to have a different cognitive profile. Replication of this work in larger cohorts will be important for confirming and further quantifying these observations.

This paper contends that Anne Bronte, while a pupil at Roe Head School in Mirfield, was influenced by the Calvinistic teachings of the nearby Dewsbury circle of clergymen,1 and became physically and spiritually ill because of her fears that she might be damned and never attain salvation; in addition, that she was greatly comforted by the advice of the Moravian priest James La Trobe and that she transferred much of their actual conversation into fictionalized scenes in Agnes Grey, her first novel. The opening paragraph of Agnes Grey reveals Anne’s hope that she can write freely under cover of anonymity and hence lay bare her strong feelings against the hypocrisy and insincerity of certain clergy who practise exclusionism.2

Eugenie de Guerin (1805–1848) began a secret correspondence with her younger brother, Maurice, in 1834 while he was living away in Paris. The intimate letter booklets she sent him were later set out in the form of a diary and published posthumously as Reliquiae in extract format in 1855 and in fuller format in 1862 as her Journal et Lettres. This accorded Eugenie the right to be considered the first French woman to have her letters published as a journal and thereby creator of a new genre in France. Mary Taylor responded to the many reviews on Eugenie’s Journal et Lettres by writing an article in 1866 in the Victoria Magazine called ‘A Philistine’s opinion of Eugenie de Guerin’. In this response, she gave her opinion on Eugenie herself, the ‘actual woman’, rather than discussing the merits of her journal. Her views reveal as much about herself as about the author of the book. They are also a useful pointer to her thoughts on her friend, Charlotte, and more widely on issues such as the need for the...

The authors explored cross-sectional associations between MRI parameters (lesion metrics, brain volumes, magnetization transfer ratio histograms, and metabolite concentrations) and cognition in 61 patients who experienced clinically-isolated syndromes (CIS) 7 years earlier. IQ decline and poorer overall cognition were associated with T2 white-matter lesions, and slow information-processing with both T2 lesions and gray-matter atrophy. In a previous study of the same cohort, gray-matter atrophy measured shortly after CIS failed to predict development of cognitive impairment years later. Our findings suggest that gray-matter pathology, reflected by atrophy measurements, becomes increasingly important in determining cognition as MS progresses.

This article reveals yet another aspect of the generally underrated Ann Bronte. In her two novels, Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall she draws on her background, upbringing, reading, and her work experience to attempt to change society's attitude towards women's education, marriage, and the upbringing of children.

Cognitive changes are documented in bipolar disorder (BP). Cortical volume loss, especially in prefrontal regions, has also been reported, but associations between cognition and cortical abnormalities have not been fully documented. This study explores associations between cognitive performance and cortical parameters (area, thickness and volume) of the fronto-temporal cortex in 36 BP patients (25 BPI and 11 BPII). T1-weighted volumetric MRI images were obtained using a 1.5 Tesla scanner. Cortical parameters were measured using surface-based morphometry and their associations with estimated premorbid, current IQ, visual memory, and executive function explored. Premorbid IQ was associated with frontal cortical area and volume, but no such associations were present for current cognitive performance. Cortical parameters were not different in BPI and BPII patients, but the association between current IQ and temporal cortical area was stronger in BPII patients. The pattern of cortico-cognitive associations in BPI and BPII patients merits further consideration. (JINS, 2012, 18, 370–374)

Background: In multiple sclerosis (MS), demyelination and neuroaxonal damage are seen in the hippocampus, and MRI has revealed hippocampal atrophy. Objectives: To investigate and compare hippocampal volume loss in patients with relapsing—remitting MS (RRMS) and primary progressive MS (PPMS) using manual volumetry, and explore its association with memory dysfunction. Methods: Hippocampi were manually delineated on volumetric MRI of 34 patients with RRMS, 23 patients with PPMS and 18 controls. Patients underwent neuropsychological tests of verbal and visuospatial recall memory. Linear regression was used to compare hippocampal volumes between subject groups, and to assess the association with memory function. Results: Hippocampal volumes were smaller in MS patients compared with controls, and were similar in patients with RRMS and PPMS. The mean decrease in hippocampal volume in MS patients was 317 mm3 (9.4%; 95% CI 86 to 549; p = 0.008) on the right and 284 mm3 (8.9%; 95% CI 61 to 508; p = 0.013) on the left. A borderline association of hippocampal volume with memory performance was observed only in patients with PPMS. Conclusion: Hippocampal atrophy occurs in patients with RRMS and PPMS. Factors additional to hippocampal atrophy may impact on memory performance.

Background: Cognitive impairment is common in multiple sclerosis (MS) and adds significantly to the burden of the disease. The ability to predict future cognitive impairment from imaging obtained at disease onset has not been investigated. Methods: 62 patients imaged within 3 months of a clinically isolated syndrome were assessed neuropsychologically 7 years later. Baseline and periodic MRI measures of lesions, atrophy and normal-appearing white and grey matter were regressed against neuropsychological scores to explore the best predictors of cognitive outcome. Results: 28 patients had developed clinically definite MS at follow-up and a further nine met revised McDonald criteria for MS. Deficits in speed of information processing and executive function were the most common abnormalities. Poor performance correlated with high anxiety ratings. Baseline T 1 lesion metrics predicted executive deficits, and new T 2 lesions at the 3-month follow-up predicted slowed information processing. An increase in myo-inositol concentration in normal-appearing white matter over the first 3 years was associated with poor executive function. Conclusions: MRI variables obtained at the onset of a clinically isolated syndrome can predict future development of cognitive abnormalities. Our findings may have implications in monitoring and treating patients.

This corporate strategy case shows how PepsiCo stopped worrying about competing with Coca-Cola, figured out what its real business was, and decided how to build its future. Redefining itself as a beverage and snack business, PepsiCo sheds its restaurant business and acquires Quaker and Tropicana. By rethinking the synergistic relationship between the complementary, combined strengths of the merged companies, it strategizes to develop innovative products that will compete in a changing demographic, cultural, and geographical world. Will this strategy work in an increasingly competitive environment?

Cognitive deficits in multiple sclerosis (MS) are common and correlate with contemporary MRI brain abnormalities, particularly atrophy, but the ability of imaging early in the disease to predict later cognitive impairment remains to be determined. Thirty relapsing—remitting MS patients recruited within three years of the onset of the disease, and in whom MRI had been performed at baseline and a year later, were assessed neuropsychologically five years later. Imaging parameters accounting for significant variance in cognitive performance were identified using multiple regressions, once confounding variables were controlled. Patients performed significantly worse than expected on tests of attention/speed of information processing and half of them had experienced some decline in IQ in relation to premorbid estimates. The rate of global brain atrophy in the first year of the study accounted for significant variance in the overall cognitive performance, and in memory and attention/speed of information processing. Poor performance on attention tests was associated with high T1-weighted lesion volume and reduced magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) in normal-appearing white matter (NAWM). These results suggest that neuroaxonal loss was identified early in the disease, and its rate of progression, predicted cognitive impairment later in the disease. Neuroaxonal loss is likely to affect commissural and association fibres that subserve the cognitive processes impaired in MS. Multiple Sclerosis 2008; 14: 197—204. http://msj.sagepub.com