Reuse of ideas and concepts for creative stimuli in engineering design

Creative idea generation is essential to novel concept development and ultimately innovation. The following paper describes an extensive industry-based study investigating the use of creative stimuli during a brainstorming session at the conceptual stages of design.A new approach to retrieving creative stimuli referred to as ‘Sweeper’ is proposed, which sources stimuli internal to a company’s information repository. This creative stimuli tool is then compared to other creative stimuli tools using objective, industrially grounded performance criteria. This study provides an arguably much needed real, industrially-based experiment regarding brainstorming. The results and observations suggest that having a guided approach to sourcing creative stimuli is very beneficial. The use of the TRIZ contradiction matrix and inventive principles is also shown to be a good example of a guided approach in terms of increasing creative performance. However, the Sweeper tool using internally sourced stimuli provides a method that is useful and more a practical alternative, as it is based firmly in the domain of activity

A literature review of the use of gamification in accounting education

[EN] Gamification is a tool that is increasingly used in the field of teaching at all levels of education, from primary to university. Despite the fact that Business Management and Accounting have not remained on the sidelines in studies on the use of game-based learning, the scarcity of such work in this field provides us with only a limited vision of the research that is being carried out in the area. In order to fill this research gap, this paper analyses the academic literature in detail on the use of gamification in accounting education. To this end, an in-depth review of scientific documents retrieved from academic databases has been carried out with the aim of: a) identifying the methodologies used in the research, b) examining the types of games used by researchers, c) establishing the different educational stages where this research is being carried out, d) analysing the samples used, and e) analysing the results obtained in the studies. The results obtained from this review have made it possible to recognise some of the most recurrent work and other research areas in which further exploration can be undertaken within the field of gamification and accounting.Queiro-Ameijieras, CM.; Martí-Parreño, J.; Seguí-Mas, E.; Summerfield, L. (2019). A literature review of the use of gamification in accounting education. IATED. 7662-7667. https://doi.org/10.21125/iceri.2019.1822S7662766

Features of business capital of credit cooperatives through the Delphi analysis

Las cooperativas de crédito, organizaciones singulares en nuestro sistema financiero, poseen intangibles de características particulares. Así, los valores de la cooperativa y de sus miembros, la estructuración del capital, las actitudes del personal o su proximidad a los clientes de su ámbito operativo les confieren unas características específicas que merecen ser estudiadas para gestionar sus ventajas competitivas y ofrecer información relevante para la toma de decisiones. Mediante el análisis Delphi, este trabajo trata de identificar las singularidades del business capital de estas entidades. Las singularidades del sector cooperativo de crédito muestran que dentro de los intangibles relacionales éstas entidades tienen debilidades significativas en aquellos más ligados al negocio bancario. El business capital representa el conjunto de intangibles críticos en el negocio financiero y -por ello- las cooperativas de crédito necesitan desarrollar políticas que permitan corregir sus debilidades y competir en la exigente industria bancaria actual.Business Capital has constantly been used to explain the beneficial impact that some banking companies have on the economic development. Credit cooperatives, which are singular in our financial system, posses certain assets with their own features. Thus, corporate reputation, social relationships and interaction with public administration and media shape credit unions in such a way that it is worth to be studied. By means of Delphi analysis this work identifies the singularities of business capital in credit cooperatives. Among these specialties are remarkable the proximity and members’ participation (strength) and their reputation (weakness). Intangible business assets stand for a high value in credit cooperatives, especially with regard to the proximity. In order to foster business capital in credit cooperatives it is key to enhance their financial services and alliance policy.Escuela de Estudios CooperativosFac. de Ciencias Económicas y EmpresarialesTRUEpu

Eco-innovation : tools to facilitate early-stage workshops

This thesis presents research carried out into the use of creative tools at the early stages of eco-innovation. Eco-innovation is a practical approach aiming to develop new products and processes which significantly decrease our impact on the environment. Designers are trained to develop profitable products that increase production and consumption. Eco-innovation is a new discipline in which designers can radically reduce the environmental burdens of production and consumption through the innovation of new types of products and services. The main aim of this research was to develop an approach that would promote significant environmental improvements whilst remaining a practical, design-focused discipline. Problems and under-investigated aspects of eco-innovation were identified: • Creative approaches at early stages of eco-innovation were under-investigated and few tools had been developed for use at the early stages. • Empirical design research techniques had rarely been used to assess new eco-innovation tools or to inform their subsequent development. The focus of the research work was the development and testing of tools to facilitate workshops at the early stages of eco-innovation. Not only was the goal to facilitate the generation of radical ideas but also to ensure that these were developed into appropriate solutions having the potential to be taken up in industry. The development of the tools was based on literature research, worked examples and interviews. The tools were tested in controlled workshop experiments and the results were analysed using various empirical techniques. First, an idea-recording technique to improve the efficiency of generating and harvesting ideas in a team design process was developed. This novel tool was called the Product Ideas Tree (PIT) diagram. The tool was tested for its ability to facilitate design workshops. Secondly, a structured approach to innovation - the theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ) - was investigated. Worked examples using some of the tools from TRIZ were presented and a limited number of tools were selected and simplified for testing in team design workshops. The PIT diagram and TRIZ tools experiments established which attributes of the tools and approaches were most beneficial. The development and testing of these specific tools provided the following general contributions to eco-innovation: • A model for eco-innovation that describes the factors influencing the discipline and the attributes of good practice. • A recommended process to transform radical ideas into appropriate solutions to improve their potential to be taken up in industry. • General insights into the use of tools in early-stage workshops such as: tool selection, integration into existing processes, system-level problem solving and providing thematic information. • Suggested improvements for testing tools in controlled workshop experiments.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceEPSRCGBUnited Kingdo

Downregulation of Vascular Hemeoxygenase-1 Leads to Vasculopathy in Systemic Sclerosis

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a terminal disease characterized by vasculopathy, tissue fibrosis, and autoimmunity. Although the exact etiology of SSc remains unknown, endothelial dysfunction, oxidative stress, and calcium handling dysregulation have been associated with a large number of SSc-related complications such as neointima formation, vasculogenesis, pulmonary arterial hypertension, impaired angiogenesis, and cardiac arrhythmias. Hemeoxygenase-1 (HO-1) is an antioxidant enzyme involved in multiple biological actions in the cardiovascular system including vascular tone, angiogenesis, cellular proliferation, apoptosis, and oxidative stress. The aim of this work was to investigate the physiological role of HO-1 and its relevance in the cardiovascular complications occurring in SSc. We found that, in early phases of SSc, the expression of HO-1 in dermal fibroblast is lower compared to those isolated from healthy control individuals. This is particularly relevant as reduction of the HO-1/CO signaling pathway is associated with endothelial dysfunction and vasculopathy. We show evidence of the role of HO-1/carbon monoxide (CO) signaling pathway in calcium handling. Using an in vitro model of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) we investigated the role of HO-1 in Ca2+ mobilization from intracellular stores. Our results indicate that HO-1 regulates calcium release from intracellular stores of human pulmonary arterial endothelial cells. We interrogated the activity of HO-1 in angiogenesis using an organotypic co-culture of fibroblast-endothelial cell. Inhibition of HO-1 significantly reduced the ability of endothelial cells to form tubules. We further investigated if this could be associated with cell motility or migration of endothelial cells into the extracellular matrix synthesized by fibroblasts. By mean of holographic imaging, we studied the morphological and functional features of endothelial cells in the presence of an HO-1 activator and selective inhibitors. Our results demonstrate that inhibition of HO-1 significantly reduces cell proliferation and cell motility (migration) of cultured endothelial cells, whilst activation of HO-1 does not modify either morphology, proliferation or motility. In addition, we investigated the actions of CO on the Kv7.1 (KCQN1) channel current, an important component of the cardiac action potential repolarization. Using electrophysiology (whole-cell patch-clamp in a recombinant system overexpressing the KCQN1 channel), we assessed the regulation of KCQN1 by CO. CORM-2, a CO donor, significantly reduced the Kv7.1 current, suggesting that HO-1/CO signaling may play a role in the modulation of the cardiac action potential via regulation of this ion channel. In summary, our results indicate a clear link between: 1) downregulation of HO-1/CO signaling; and 2) pathophysiological processes occurring in early phases of SSc, such as calcium homeostasis dysregulation, impaired angiogenesis and cardiac arrhythmias. A better understanding of the canonical actions (mainly due to the biological actions of CO), and non-canonical actions of HO-1, as well as the interaction of HO-1/CO signaling with other gasotransmitters in SSc will contribute to the development of novel therapeutic approaches

Intracellular Infection of Diverse Diatoms by an Evolutionary Distinct Relative of the Fungi

This is the final version. Available on open access from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordData and Code Availability: All data and code are available with DOI’s given in the methods section. Specifically, physical and chemical parameters of the water column obtained using CTD ocean water sampling are available at http://biomarks.eu/ctd007 (and replicated here at figshare DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.9821936). The phylogenetic tree file, masked and unmasked SSU rDNA alignments are available at Zenodo repository: DOI 10.5281/zenodo.2788876. All sequence data used were derived from the NCBI ‘GenBank’ database and accession numbers are provided in Figure. 1B. The R code used to test statistical association in the FISH data are available at Zenodo repository: DOI 10.5281/zenodo.2788876.The Fungi are a diverse kingdom, dominating terrestrial environments and driving important ecologies. Although fungi, and the related Opisthosporidia, interact with photosynthetic organisms on land and in freshwater as parasites, symbionts, and/or saprotrophic degraders, such interactions in the marine environment are poorly understood. One newly identified uncultured marine lineage has been named novel chytrid-like-clade-1 (NCLC1) or basal-clone-group-I. We use ribosomal RNA (rRNA) encoding gene phylogenies to demonstrate that NCLC1 is a distinct branch within the Opisthosporidia (Holomycota). Opisthosporidia are a diverse and largely uncultured group that form a sister branch to the Fungi or, alternatively, the deepest branch within the Fungi, depending on how the boundary to this kingdom is inferred. Using culture-free lineage-specific rRNA-targeted fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) microscopy, we demonstrate that NCLC1 cells form intracellular infection of key diatom species, establishing that intracellular colonization of a eukaryotic host is a consistent lifestyle across the Opisthosporidia. NCLC1 infection-associated loss and/or envelopment of the diatom nuclei infers a necrotrophic-pathogenic interaction. Diatoms are one of the most diverse and ecologically important phytoplankton groups, acting as dominant primary producers and driving carbon fixation and storage in many aquatic environments. Our results provide insight into the diversity of microbial eukaryotes that interact with diatoms. We suggest that such interactions can play a key role in diatom associated ecosystem functions, such as the marine carbon pump through necrotrophic-parasitism, facilitating the export of diatoms to the sediment.Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR)Genome CanadaDonald Hill Family FellowshipRoyal SocietyBiodivERsAGordon and Betty Moore Foundatio