The impact of open-border organization culture and employees' knowledge, attitudes, and rewards with regards to open innovation: an empirical study

Purpose: The objective of this paper is to fill a significant research gap in academic literature pertaining to Open Innovation. In order to do so, this paper empirically tests the impact of organizational culture, employees' knowledge, attitudes, and rewards as antecedents and mediators of Open Innovation adoption in organizations, facilitating a more thorough understanding by utilizing an empirical multi-level approach. Design/methodology/approach: This paper analyses the results of the "Identification of Industrial Needs for Open Innovation Education in Europe" survey through a quantitative analysis using logistic regression models. This survey includes 528 employees working in 28 different industrial sectors in 37 countries, most of which are in Europe. Findings: The results suggest a positive impact of organizational characteristics on the adoption of Open Innovation (i.e. including the adoption of outside-in and inside-out open innovation activities in participating organizations), showing that the openness of an organization's culture increases its likelihood of adopting an Open Innovation paradigm. More importantly, the results highlight the positive mediating effect of employees' knowledge and rewards on this relationship. Practical implications: The proposed multi-level approach offers new insight into organizational knowledge. It enables the improvement of Open Innovation and Knowledge Management practices in organizations by assisting practitioners and academics in recognizing the relationship between organizational culture; employees' knowledge, attitudes, and rewards; and the adoption of the Open Innovation paradigm. Social implications: This paper offers a possible explanation on why open-border cultures are more likely to have a successful open innovation adoption, by relating it to factors that advance in the presence of an open-border culture, such as active participation of OI relative departments in knowledge sourcing and knowledge exchange, and rewarding employees for open innovation activities. Originality/value: This paper presents a new framework which links organizational culture to Open Innovation, moving on from merely examining culture in terms of its positive or negative impact on Open Innovation adoption. It contributes to research on the Open Innovation paradigm and Knowledge Management by highlighting the significance of antecedents and mediators from a multi-level perspective using multiple units of analysis. Most previous studies focus on a single unit of analysis

2021 Thalassaemia International Federation Guidelines for the Management of Transfusion-dependent Thalassemia

Beta-thalassemia and particularly its transfusion-dependent form (TDT) is a demanding clinical condition, requiring life-long care and follow-up, ideally in specialized centers and by multidisciplinary teams of experts. Despite the significant progress in TDT diagnosis and treatment over the past decades that has dramatically improved patients' prognosis, its management remains challenging. On one hand, diagnostic and therapeutic advances are not equally applied to all patients across the world, particularly in several high-prevalence eastern regions. On the other, healthcare systems in low-prevalence western countries that have recently received large numbers of migrant thalassemia patients, were not ready to address patients' special needs. Thalassaemia International Federation (TIF), a global patient-driven umbrella federation with 232 member-associations in 62 countries, strives for equal access to quality care for all patients suffering from thalassemia or other hemoglobinopathies in every part of the world by promoting education, research, awareness, and advocacy. One of TIF's main actions is the development and dissemination of clinical practice guidelines for the management of these patients. In 2021, the fourth edition of TIF's guidelines for the management of TDT was published. The full text provides detailed information on the management of TDT patients and the clinical presentation, pathophysiology, diagnostic approach, and treatment of disease complications or other clinical entities that may occur in these patients, while also covering relevant psychosocial and organizational issues. The present document is a summary of the 2021 TIF guidelines for TDT that focuses mainly on clinical practice issues and recommendations

Global phylogeography and ancient evolution of the widespread human gut virus crAssphage

Microbiomes are vast communities of microorganisms and viruses that populate all natural ecosystems. Viruses have been considered to be the most variable component of microbiomes, as supported by virome surveys and examples of high genomic mosaicism. However, recent evidence suggests that the human gut virome is remarkably stable compared with that of other environments. Here, we investigate the origin, evolution and epidemiology of crAssphage, a widespread human gut virus. Through a global collaboration, we obtained DNA sequences of crAssphage from more than one-third of the world's countries and showed that the phylogeography of crAssphage is locally clustered within countries, cities and individuals. We also found fully colinear crAssphage-like genomes in both Old-World and New-World primates, suggesting that the association of crAssphage with primates may be millions of years old. Finally, by exploiting a large cohort of more than 1,000 individuals, we tested whether crAssphage is associated with bacterial taxonomic groups of the gut microbiome, diverse human health parameters and a wide range of dietary factors. We identified strong correlations with different clades of bacteria that are related to Bacteroidetes and weak associations with several diet categories, but no significant association with health or disease. We conclude that crAssphage is a benign cosmopolitan virus that may have coevolved with the human lineage and is an integral part of the normal human gut virome

Global phylogeography and ancient evolution of the widespread human gut virus crAssphage

Microbiomes are vast communities of microorganisms and viruses that populate all natural ecosystems. Viruses have been considered to be the most variable component of microbiomes, as supported by virome surveys and examples of high genomic mosaicism. However, recent evidence suggests that the human gut virome is remarkably stable compared with that of other environments. Here, we investigate the origin, evolution and epidemiology of crAssphage, a widespread human gut virus. Through a global collaboration, we obtained DNA sequences of crAssphage from more than one-third of the world’s countries and showed that the phylogeography of crAssphage is locally clustered within countries, cities and individuals. We also found fully colinear crAssphage-like genomes in both Old-World and New-World primates, suggesting that the association of crAssphage with primates may be millions of years old. Finally, by exploiting a large cohort of more than 1,000 individuals, we tested whether crAssphage is associated with bacterial taxonomic groups of the gut microbiome, diverse human health parameters and a wide range of dietary factors. We identified strong correlations with different clades of bacteria that are related to Bacteroidetes and weak associations with several diet categories, but no significant association with health or disease. We conclude that crAssphage is a benign cosmopolitan virus that may have coevolved with the human lineage and is an integral part of the normal human gut virome