Contact-controlled amoeboid motility induces dynamic cell trapping in 3D-microstructured surfaces.

On flat substrates, several cell types exhibit amoeboid migration, which is characterized by restless stochastic successions of pseudopod protrusions. The orientation and frequency of new membrane protrusions characterize efficient search modes, which can respond to external chemical stimuli as observed during chemotaxis in amoebae. To quantify the influence of mechanical stimuli induced by surface topography on the migration modes of the amoeboid model organism Dictyostelium discoideum, we apply high resolution motion analysis in microfabricated pillar arrays of defined density and geometry. Cell motion is analyzed by a two-state motility-model, distinguishing directed cellular runs from phases of isotropic migration that are characterized by randomly oriented cellular protrusions. Cells lacking myosin II or cells deprived of microtubules show significantly different behavior concerning migration velocities and migrational angle distribution, without pronounced attraction to pillars. We conclude that microtubules enhance cellular ability to react with external 3D structures. Our experiments on wild-type cells show that the switching from randomly formed pseudopods to a stabilized leading pseudopod is triggered by contact with surface structures. These alternating processes guide cells according to the available surface in their 3D environment, which we observed dynamically and in steady-state situations. As a consequence, cells perform "home-runs" in low-density pillar arrays, crawling from pillar to pillar, with a characteristic dwell time of 75 s. At the boundary between a flat surface and a 3D structured substrate, cells preferentially localize in contact with micropillars, due to the additionally available surface in the microstructured arrays. Such responses of cell motility to microstructures might open new possibilities for cell sorting in surface structured arrays

Finding the Origin of the Pioneer Anomaly

Analysis of radio-metric tracking data from the Pioneer 10/11 spacecraft at distances between 20 - 70 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun has consistently indicated the presence of an anomalous, small, constant Doppler frequency drift. The drift can be interpreted as being due to a constant acceleration of a_P= (8.74 \pm 1.33) x 10^{-8} cm/s^2 directed towards the Sun. Although it is suspected that there is a systematic origin to the effect, none has been found. As a result, the nature of this anomaly has become of growing interest. Here we present a concept for a deep-space experiment that will reveal the origin of the discovered anomaly and also will characterize its properties to an accuracy of at least two orders of magnitude below the anomaly's size. The proposed mission will not only provide a significant accuracy improvement in the search for small anomalous accelerations, it will also determine if the anomaly is due to some internal systematic or has an external origin. A number of critical requirements and design considerations for the mission are outlined and addressed. If only already existing technologies were used, the mission could be flown as early as 2010.Comment: 21 SS pages, 4+1 figures. final changes for publicatio

Difference in SWOT Analysis Factors : A Systematic Review

Introduction: SWOT analysis can be used to assess the position of an organization that has considered internal and external conditions. The objective of this systematic review is to find out the differences in SWOT analysis carried out by health service facilities outside Indonesia and the other country. Method: A systematic review used the PRISMA method. The search keywords used were strategic management, hospitals, health facilities, health services, and SWOT analysis obtained from Google Scholar, Science Direct, ProQuest, and PubMed. The articles analyzed were fully accessible and published in 2010-2020. Result: The main difference of analysis was that in Indonesia illustrates that the SWOT analysis was aimed at hospital organizations and few were oriented towards special services which has similar indicators on internal and external factors. Meanwhile, outside Indonesia, SWOT analysis was directed at specific health services so that it has different internal and external factors of indicator. Discussion: The difference analysis illustrates that the needs of an organization are different in strategic management development

Bridging University-Firm relationships and Open Innovation literature: a critical synthesis

Open Innovation is understood as a flow of incoming and outgoing knowledge and technology which allows, at the level of a firm, the acceleration of the innovation process, as well as a faster establishment and access to new markets, for external use of that same innovation. This type of innovation includes technological innovation, which comes from internal and external sources, as well as different modalities of accessing the market and, therefore, commercializing the innovation. Resorting to a bibliometric analysis, using Open Innovation as the search keyword, we found that the majority of the existing studies on OI is of conceptual character. On the one hand, from the scarce existing empirical studies, the issue of the relation University – Enterprise (U-E), one of the components of the open innovation model, is analyzed in a relatively superficial way neglecting, or not referring in the most appropriated way, the mechanisms by which companies could obtain (via innovation) competitive advantage through the exploration of a more open model of innovation based on the relationships with universities. On the other hand, the existing studies on U-E relations do not highlight, at least in an explicit way, the question of the open innovation model. Such studies are still highly directed to a unidirectional profit optic, that is, are too centred on the advantages which the enterprises will be able to obtain from the relation with the universities, failing taking into account the value that potentially goes to universities from such links.Open Innovation; U-E relations; Emergency; Sustainability; Benefits

Technical development and natural rights

Scientific and technical achievements can cause deep changes in spheres of morals and law. I am going to discuss some philosophical conclusions which follow from two significant ideas of contemporary civilization. First of them is a thesis about indistinguishability of natural from artificial, and the second one is an opportunity of creation of artificial human. The first thesis is a consequence of the principle of relativity of physical reality to conditions and a way of observation, on which both interpretations of quantum theory and Einstein’s theories of relativity are based. I show that the given principle deprives us of objective criteria to distinguish natural from artificial, freedom from necessity, freedom from violence. Today power of technique is directed not only on the external world, but also on a person. Due to information technology, and biotechnology an opportunity of creation of artificial and controlled individual increases. So human loses many features of a person and transforms to a part of a collective super individual subject. In modern time a search of the transcendental basis of law and power leads to impersonal human and recognition of super individuality. Traditional belief about natural rights will disappear. There is necessity of revision of such concept as right of freedom. Liberal belief about freedom as a condition of human existence is changing. Prospects of technical development make justified R. Dworkin's reflections about superiority of right of equality in comparison with right of freedom

Consumers' Preferences for GM Food and Voluntary Information Acquisition: A Simultaneous Choice Analysis

Previous research studies directed at the influence of information on consumers' preferences and choices of food in the context of genetically modified (GM) food assume that information is exogenous, in that this is provided to consumers from external sources. Information made available to consumers is also typically treated as being received and processed. Other literature and observation suggests that these two features tend not to apply in practice. Using data from a choice experiment on consumers' choices for genetically modified food in which respondents were able to voluntarily access information, this study allows information to be endogenous; consumers' product choices and information access decisions are examined within a simultaneous choice framework. We find that these two types of decisions are related, but not entirely as might be expected from the existing agricultural economics literature since those with more negative attitudes toward GM food were most likely to access information made available. Our results are consistent with research findings in the social psychology literature. There is heterogeneity across consumers in the relationship between information access and consumer choices which may reflect differentiation in attitudes to GM food.Genetically modified food, information search, multinomial logit models, simultaneous modeling., Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Q13, Q18, C8,