Abstract
Focusing on export performance and having as a starting point the resource- based view (RBV) and contingency theories, this paper intends to study the effect of both internal and external factors to a firm in the export venture performance. As methodology, a qualitative study was developed – case study – using semi- structured interviews to two managers and one director of marketing and communication of one of the largest cork stoppers manufacturing firm in Portugal. The major findings of this paper are that both internal and external factors have impact in both export marketing strategy adaptation and export venture performance. The more developed the internal resources are, the better is the export venture performance and export marketing adaptation. A better knowledge of external factors has the previously mentioned impact. Also, export marketing strategy adaptation has a positive influence on export venture performance. This research provides a better comprehension of the phenomenon of export performance in a strict research setting (a firm form a small open economy and, only one product). To have a better export performance, managers should invest in their internal resources (such as market and international business knowledge). This paper contributes to extant knowledge of the export performance, in the way that it sheds a light on export performance in small open economies, namely the factors which contributes to a better performance of a firm (within the research setting defined).

Abstract
The interest in the use of Raman spectroscopy in cancer diagnosis is due to its capability to unveil the evolution of the biochemical composition of tissue and cells throughout disease progression. Differences between Raman spectra of normal and malignant tissues and cells, both in vivo and in vitro, are being used as a method for the early detection of cancer. In this survey paper we review recently published works related to the analysis of data resulting from Raman spectroscopy. We structure our analysis according with the three steps of the process: data preprocessing, data reduction and data classification. © 2014 L & H Scientific Publishing, LLC.

Abstract

Abstract

Abstract
The cis-regulatory effects responsible for cancer development have not been as extensively studied as the perturbations of the protein coding genome in tumorigenesis. To better characterize colorectal cancer (CRC) development we conducted an RNA-sequencing experiment of 103 matched tumour and normal colon mucosa samples from Danish CRC patients, 90 of which were germline-genotyped. By investigating allele-specific expression (ASE) we show that the germline genotypes remain important determinants of allelic gene expression in tumours. Using the changes in ASE in matched pairs of samples we discover 71 genes with excess of somatic cis-regulatory effects in CRC, suggesting a cancer driver role. We correlate genotypes and gene expression to identify expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) and find 1,693 and 948 eQTLs in normal samples and tumours, respectively. We estimate that 36% of the tumour eQTLs are exclusive to CRC and show that this specificity is partially driven by increased expression of specific transcription factors and changes in methylation patterns. We show that tumour-specific eQTLs are more enriched for low CRC genome-wide association study (GWAS) P values than shared eQTLs, which suggests that some of the GWAS variants are tumour specific regulatory variants. Importantly, tumour-specific eQTL genes also accumulate more somatic mutations when compared to the shared eQTL genes, raising the possibility that they constitute germline-derived cancer regulatory drivers. Collectively the integration of genome and the transcriptome reveals a substantial number of putative somatic and germline cis-regulatory cancer changes that may have a role in tumorigenesis.

Abstract
Chimeric RNAs originating from two or more different genes are known to exist not only in cancer, but also in normal tissues, where they can play a role in human evolution. However, the exact mechanism of their formation is unknown. Here, we use RNA sequencing data from 462 healthy individuals representing 5 human populations to systematically identify and in depth characterize 81 RNA tandem chimeric transcripts, 13 of which are novel. We observe that 6 out of these 81 chimeras have been regarded as cancer-specific. Moreover, we show that a prevalence of long introns at the fusion breakpoint is associated with the chimeric transcripts formation. We also find that tandem RNA chimeras have lower abundances as compared to their partner genes. Finally, by combining our results with genomic data from the same individuals we uncover intronic genetic variants associated with the chimeric RNA formation. Taken together our findings provide an important insight into the chimeric transcripts formation and open new avenues of research into the role of intronic genetic variants in post-transcriptional processing events. © 2014 Greger et al.