A New Model for Crowdsourcing Innovation

On paper, crowdsourced innovation makes a lot of sense: If two heads are better than one, why not 20,000? Surely, some of those outsiders will have fresh solutions to your problem. But in practice, such programs have often not worked out as well as hoped. More often than not, even the best crowdsourced ideas disappear in a Bermuda Triangle of logistical difficulties, internal politics, and professional insecurity. The International Committee of the Red Cross has developed a new collaborative approach to crowdsourcing ideas that limits the competition to teams. It designed its Enable Makeathon project not only to generate good ideas of products to help people with disabilities but also to make sure those ideas reach the market

Investigation of combined ultrasound and microwave pretreatments and enzyme addition on the main phenolics and some quality parameters of olive oil

Olive oil was obtained by applying laboratory scale microwave (MW) and ultrasound (US) technologies and enzymes (E) after olive crushing and malaxation. The effects of these technologies on some physical and chemical properties of olive oil have been examined with focus on phenolics in olive oil. The aim was to evaluate the combined effect of MW and US applications and E to olive paste by comparing with conventional production. The secoiridoids were present with lower values in US applied samples; as an example, the amount of 3-4-DHPEA-EDA in US treated sample was 59.36 mg kg–1 oil, whereas its amount was 92.36 mg kg–1 in the sample of conventional extraction. US resulted in the highest decrease (62%), and MW+US condition resulted in the lowest decrease (25.7%) in terms of total phenolics content. The US and MW pretreatments resulted in more advantageous properties in terms of free acidity, peroxides, and phenolics when applied together than their single applications

Spinal cord stimulation in failed back surgery

Objective: Spinal cord stimulation is used for treating failed back surgery syndrome, chronic arachnoiditis, peripheral neuropathies, postamputation phantom pain, complex regional pain syndrome and pain secondary to spinal cord injury. In this study we present 7 cases with intractable neuropathic radicular pain which developed following spine surgery. Material and Methods: Spinal cord stimulation was applied to 7 (3male/4 female) patients who had failed back surgery syndrome and pain resistant to medical and invasive methods, with the council decision, which included neurosurgery, neurology, and psychiatry. One week stimulation trial was applied to all cases. Results:The mean age of the patients was 54.85±7.64 years. The mean of pain intensity in Visual Analog Scale was 8.71±0.74 at preoperative status and post operative pain intensity was 2.27±0.67 at 6 months. Pain intensity significantly decreases after spinal cord stimulation (p=0.000). One of the three cases who had unsuccessful trial period received morphine pump implantation, and percutaneous lumbar sympathectomy was applied to another one. One case who received permanent implantation was replaced to another location due to skin erosion. There was no morbidity. Conclusion: Spinal cord stimulation is an effective tool in reducing pain, in patients who have unsuccessful lower back surgery with the correct indications

Individual differences as antecedents of leader behavior: Towards an understanding of multi-level outcomes

The leadership research on individual differences is going through a period of revival. However, due to the substantial number of variables in this area and the different knowledge bases they are associated with (e.g., psychology, endocrinology, genetics), the literature is also becoming highly fragmented as it grows. This fragmentation is preventing different literature streams from effectively communicating with each other and synthesizing the rapidly expanding body of knowledge. Consequently, the continued growth of the individual differences literature is at risk. Therefore, we believe that classifying the relevant literature streams and reviewing the key variables in those streams will be beneficial. We do so by organizing this review and research agenda of the leadership literature on individual differences around the recent model developed by Antonakis, Day, and Schyns (2012). In doing so, we hope to unify some of the future research efforts around a recent and recognized conceptual model, and in turn facilitate communication between these different streams of literature. Moreover, insights from this literature also allow us to propose additions and refinements to the model of Antonakis, Day, and Schyns (2012) that may help scholars by indicating other fruitful areas for future research on individual differences

Effect of varying magnetic fields on targeted gene delivery of nucleic acid-based molecules

This paper was presented at the 4th Micro and Nano Flows Conference (MNF2014), which was held at University College, London, UK. The conference was organised by Brunel University and supported by the Italian Union of Thermofluiddynamics, IPEM, the Process Intensification Network, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Heat Transfer Society, HEXAG - the Heat Exchange Action Group, and the Energy Institute, ASME Press, LCN London Centre for Nanotechnology, UCL University College London, UCL Engineering, the International NanoScience Community, www.nanopaprika.eu.The importance of high transfection efficiency has been emphasized in many studies investigating methods to improve gene delivery. Accordingly, non-viral transfection agents are widely used as transfection vectors to condense oligonucleotides, DNA, RNA, siRNA, deliver into the cell, and release the cargo. Polyethyleneimine (PEI) is one of the most popular non-viral transfection agents. However, the challenge between high transfection efficiency and toxicity of the polymers is not totally resolved. The delivery of necessary drugs and genes for patients and their transport under safe conditions require carefully designed and controlled delivery systems and constitute a critical stage of patients’ treatment. Compact systems are considered as the strongest candidate for the preparation and delivery of drugs and genes under leak free and safe conditions because of their low energy consumption, low waste disposal, parallel and fast processing capabilities, removal of human factor, high mixing capabilities, enhanced safety, and low amount of reagents. Motivated by this need in the literature, a platform for gene delivery via magnetic actuation of nanoparticles was developed in this study. The use of PEI-SPION (Super paramagnetic ironoxide nanoparticles) as transfection agents in in vitro studies was investigated with the effect of varying magnetic fields provided by a special magnetic system design, which was used as magnetic actuator offering different magnet's turn speeds and directions in the system. Results obtained from magnetic actuator systems were compared to the experiments without actuation and significant enhancement was observed in the transfection efficacies

A forward-backward splitting algorithm for the minimization of non-smooth convex functionals in Banach space

We consider the task of computing an approximate minimizer of the sum of a smooth and non-smooth convex functional, respectively, in Banach space. Motivated by the classical forward-backward splitting method for the subgradients in Hilbert space, we propose a generalization which involves the iterative solution of simpler subproblems. Descent and convergence properties of this new algorithm are studied. Furthermore, the results are applied to the minimization of Tikhonov-functionals associated with linear inverse problems and semi-norm penalization in Banach spaces. With the help of Bregman-Taylor-distance estimates, rates of convergence for the forward-backward splitting procedure are obtained. Examples which demonstrate the applicability are given, in particular, a generalization of the iterative soft-thresholding method by Daubechies, Defrise and De Mol to Banach spaces as well as total-variation based image restoration in higher dimensions are presented

One step emission tunable synthesis of PEG coated Ag 2 S NIR quantum dots and the development of receptor targeted drug delivery vehicles thereof

PEGylation of quantum dots (QDs) to decrease their toxicity, increase blood circulation time, reduce non-specific uptake and also to solubilize and stabilize hydrophobic QDs in aqueous medium is a widely used approach and many different methods were developed to achieve this. QDs that are luminescent in the near-infrared region (NIR) have recently emerged as the more appropriate materials for bio-imaging studies. In this work, we describe a single step emission tunable aqueous synthesis of PEGylated Ag2S NIRQDs. They are highly cytocompatible, not only due to the PEG coating but also due to the intrinsic biocompatibility of Ag2S, and prepared in a single step aqueous method using thiolated PEGs as the only coating material. Tuning the emission wavelength within the medical window (775–930 nm) with a quantum yield between 2 and 65% is achieved by changing the reaction variables such as PEG molecular weight, pH and precursor ratios. Ag2S–PEG NIRQDs prepared from 5 kDa MPEG-SH at acidic pH provided a dramatic enhancement in the luminescence intensity. These NIRQDs were also designed with surface functional groups to attach folic acid and loaded with doxorubicin (DOX) which dramatically enhanced the uptake and efficacy of DOX (50% cell death with 15 nM DOX) in FA-receptor overexpressed cancer cell lines (HeLa). They also showed a strong cytoplasmic NIR signal in the in vitro studies, demonstrating great theranostic potential

Homomorphic encryption and some black box attacks

This paper is a compressed summary of some principal definitions and concepts in the approach to the black box algebra being developed by the authors. We suggest that black box algebra could be useful in cryptanalysis of homomorphic encryption schemes, and that homomorphic encryption is an area of research where cryptography and black box algebra may benefit from exchange of ideas