Kultura organizacyjna przedsiębiorstw ekonomii komunii jako determinanta jej wymiaru społecznego

Economy of communion proposed in 1991 by Chiara Lubich (1920‒2008), founder and contemporary president of the Focolare Movement, is the subject of numerous scientific studies and analysis of its practical implementation by the scientists of different disciplines in a global dimension. Enterprises realizing this idea in a number close to 800, operate in many countries on all continents. The research is both a doctrine of the economy of communion and its economic importance, as well as its impact on organizational culture changes in the enterprises and relations in a social, anthropological, cultural, and spiritual dimension.The idea of economy of communion and its implementation in practice is presented in the article. The thesis on the social dimension of the economy of communion and its relation to the social economy was formulated. The rules implemented in the economy of communion enterprises as elements of a new organizational culture were presented and constitute an argument for proving of the stated thesis.Ekonomia komunii zaproponowana w 1991 roku przez Chiarę Lubich (1920‒2008), założycielkę i ówczesną prezydent Ruchu Focolari, jest przedmiotem licznych opracowań naukowych oraz analiz praktycznej jej realizacji przez naukowców różnych dyscyplin w wymiarze ogólnoświatowym. Przedsiębiorstwa realizujące tę ideę w liczbie blisko 800, funkcjonują w wielu krajach na wszystkich kontynentach. Przedmiotem badań jest zarówno doktryna ekonomii komunii i jej znaczenie ekonomiczne, jak też jej wpływ na zmiany kultury organizacyjnej w przedsiębiorstwach oraz relacje w wymiarze społecznym, antropologicznym, kulturowym, a także duchowym.W artykule zaprezentowano ideę ekonomii komunii i jej realizację w praktyce. Postawiono tezę o społecznym wymiarze ekonomii komunii i jej związku z ekonomią społeczną. Przedstawione zasady realizowane w przedsiębiorstwach ekonomii komunii jako elementy nowej kultury organizacyjnej stanowią argument za udowodnieniem postawionej tezy

Stem‐cell–based therapies to enhance peripheral nerve regeneration

Peripheral nerve injury remains a major cause of morbidity in trauma patients. Despite advances in microsurgical techniques and improved understanding of nerve regeneration, obtaining satisfactory outcomes after peripheral nerve injury remains a difficult clinical problem. There is a growing body of evidence in preclinical animal studies demonstrating the supportive role of stem cells in peripheral nerve regeneration after injury. The characteristics of both mesoderm‐derived and ectoderm‐derived stem cell types and their role in peripheral nerve regeneration are discussed, specifically focusing on the presentation of both foundational laboratory studies and translational applications. The current state of clinical translation is presented, with an emphasis on both ethical considerations of using stems cells in humans and current governmental regulatory policies. Current advancements in cell‐based therapies represent a promising future with regard to supporting nerve regeneration and achieving significant functional recovery after debilitating nerve injuries.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154610/1/mus26760.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154610/2/mus26760_am.pd

Modulation of reactivity in the cavity of liposomes promotes the formation of peptide bonds

In living cells reactions take place in membrane bound compartments, often in response to changes in the environment. Learning how the reactions are influenced by this compartmentalization will help us gain an optimal understanding of living organisms at the molecular level and, at the same time, will offer vital clues on the behavior of simple compartmentalized systems, such as prebiotic precursors of cells and cell-inspired artificial systems. In this work we show that a reactive building block (an activated amino acid derivative) trapped in the cavity of a liposome is protected against hydrolysis and reacts nearly quantitatively with another building block, which is membrane-permeable and free in solution, to form the dipeptide. By contrast, when found outside the liposome, the hydrolysis of the activated amino acid is the prevalent reaction, showing that the cavity of the liposomes promotes the formation of peptide bonds. We attribute this result to the large lipid concentration in small compartments from the point of view of a membrane-impermeable molecule. Based on this result we show how the outcome of the reaction can be predicted as a function of the size of the compartment. The implications of these results on the behavior of biomolecules in cell compartments, abiogenesis and the design of artificial cell-inspired systems are considere

Ship in a bottle: confinement-promoted self-assembly

Understanding self-assembly in confined spaces is essential to fully understand molecular processes in confined cell compartments and will offer clues on the behaviour of simple confined systems, such as protocells and lipid-vesicle based devices. Using a model system composed of lipid vesicles, a membrane impermeable receptor and a membrane-permeable ligand, we have studied in detail how compartmentalization modulates the interaction between the confined receptor and its ligand. We demonstrate that confinement of one of the building blocks stabilizes complex self-assembled structures to the extent that dilution leads, counterintuitively, to the formation of long range assemblies. The behaviour of the system can be explained by considering a confinement factor that is analogous, although not identical, to the effective molarity for intramolecular binding events. The confinement effect renders complex self-assembled species robust and persistent under conditions where they do not form in bulk solution. Moreover, we show that the formation of stable complex assemblies in systems compartmentalized by semi-permeable membranes does not require the prior confinement of all components, but only that of key membrane impermeable building blocks. To use a macroscopic analogy, lipid vesicles are like ship-in-a bottle constructs that are capable of directing the assembly of the confined ship following the confinement of a few key wooden planks. Therefore, we believe that the confinement effect described here would have played an important role in shaping the increase of chemical complexity within protocells during the first stages of abiogenesis. Additionally, we argue that this effect can be exploited to design increasingly efficient functional devices based on comparatively simple vesicles for applications in biosensing, nanoreactors and drug delivery vehicles

Cisza w teorii i praktyce: obraz interdyscyplinarny

Praca recenzowana / peer-reviewed pape

Multivalence cooperativity leading to “all-or-nothing” assembly: the case of nucleation-growth in supramolecular polymers

All-or-nothing molecular assembly events, essential for the efficient regulation of living systems at the molecular level, are emerging properties of complex chemical systems that are largely attributed to the cooperativity of weak interactions. The link between the self-assembly and the interactions responsible for the assembly is however often poorly defined. In this work we demonstrate how the chelate effect (multivalence cooperativity) can play a central role in the regulation of the all-or-nothing assembly of structures (supramolecular polymers here), even if the building blocks are not multivalent. We have studied the formation of double-stranded supramolecular polymers formed from Co-metalloporphyrin and bi-pyridine building blocks. Their cooperative nucleation–elongation assembly can be summarized as a thermodynamic cycle, where the monomer weakly oligomerizes linearly or weakly dimerizes laterally. But thanks to the chelate effect, the lateral dimer readily oligomerizes linearly and the oligomer readily dimerizes laterally, leading to long double stranded polymers. A model based on this simple thermodynamic cycle can be applied to the assembly of polymers with any number of strands, and allows for the determination of the length of the polymer and the all-or-nothing switching concentration from the pairwise binding constants. The model, which is consistent with the behaviour of supramolecular polymers such as microtubules and gelators, clearly shows that all-or-nothing assembly is triggered by a change in the mode of assembly, from non-multivalent to multivalent, when a critical concentration is reached. We believe this model is applicable to many molecular assembly processes, ranging from the formation of cell–cell focal adhesion points to crystallization

Decoupling the shape parameter to assess gold nanorod uptake by mammalian cells

The impact of nanoparticles (NPs) upon biological systems can be fundamentally associated with their physicochemical parameters. A further often-stated tenet is the importance of NP shape on rates of endocytosis. However, given the convoluted parameters concerning the NP–cell interaction, it is experimentally challenging to attribute any findings to shape alone. Herein we demonstrate that shape, below a certain limit, which is specific to nanomedicine, is not important for the endocytosis of spherocylinders by either epithelial or macrophage cells in vitro. Through a systematic approach, we reshaped a single batch of gold nanorods into different aspect ratios resulting in near-spheres and studied their cytotoxicity, (pro-)inflammatory status, and endocytosis/exocytosis. It was found that on a length scale of ∼10–90 nm and at aspect ratios less than 5, NP shape has little impact upon their entry into either macrophages or epithelial cells. Conversely, nanorods with an aspect ratio above 5 were preferentially endocytosed by epithelial cells, whereas there was a lack of shape dependent uptake following exposure to macrophages in vitro. These findings have implications both in the understanding of nanoparticle reshaping mechanisms, as well as in the future rational design of nanomaterials for biomedical applications

Spirituality of unity in management - Economy of Communion

The spirituality of unity in management processes is presented in the paper. The idea of the Economy of Communion (EoC) project and its realization in more than 800 businesses worldwide as an example of the striving for the eradication of poverty and new style of management is analysed. As an implementation of spirituality in management process, a new paradigm of unity in management sciences is proposed. On the basis of analysis of literature and discussions with experts and entrepreneurs of EoC businesses, six content dimensions of the paradigm of unity are formulated and the empirical research on the evaluation of these dimensions by testing the entrepreneurs of 110 businesses from 22 countries as well the management experts is considered. This research allowed verifying the hypothesis that the paradigm of unity shapes a new organizational culture by the creation of a suitable organizational climate in the EoC businesses

Development and Utility of a Spectral-based Approach to Peripheral Nerve Myelin Analysis

The overall aim of this thesis is to fill a specific methodological gap for the study of neurobiology. Our goal is to develop and apply a spectroscopic technique that can be used to study the living myelin of the peripheral nervous system. Just as modern scientists can appreciate the composition of a distant galaxy by the emission properties of the light that we receive from it, we likewise aim to glean information about living myelin biochemistry using quantifiable light principles. We suggest that the photophysical properties of myelin-incorporated solvatochromic dyes can be exploited to probe the biochemical composition of living myelin. To this end we analyze several potential dye candidates for maximum efficacy and consistency (Chapter 3). After demonstrating the superiority of Nile Red in these regards, we use this dye to probe the biochemical environment of early remyelination, both in-vitro and in-vivo, using high-resolution spectral confocal microscopy (Chapter 6). This combined work required the adaptation of a focal demyelination injury model to be amenable to cell graft therapy (Chapter 4), and also the development of a novel method of intravital imaging of the peripheral nervous system (Chapter 5). Our results demonstrate a consistent bi-phasic evolution of myelin spectra during early regeneration, both in-vitro and in-vivo. In total, this thesis presents a novel technique for probing the chemistry of PNS myelin with light, and is applicable to scenarios unworkable by existing methods of lipid chemical analysis, namely in the study of living nervous system

Ekonomia komunii w relacji do ekonomii społecznej – analogie, różnice, szansa na współdziałanie

Dwie idee działań ekonomicznych: ekonomia komunii i ekonomia społeczna, starające się wypełnić lukę pomiędzy biznesem (ekonomia rynku) a państwem (dystrybucja dóbr), dążące do ograniczenia ubóstwa i wykluczenia społecznego, mają wiele cech wspólnych, a w niektórych aspektach istotnie się różnią. Artykuł umożliwia zrozumienie idei ekonomii komunii w odniesieniu do ekonomii społecznej i jej realizacji oraz wobec zadań biznesowych i społecznych, jakich podejmują się przedsiębiorcy ekonomii komunii. W artykule wykazano dużą zbieżność obydwu idei ekonomicznych oraz szanse na wzajemne uzupełnianie się i współdziałanie dla konkretnych celów społecznych.Two ideas of economic activities, the economy of communion and the social economy, seeking to bridge the gap between business (market economy) and the State (distribution of goods), aiming to reduce poverty and social exclusion, have much in common, but in some aspects remain considerably different. This paper allows to understand the idea of the economy of communion in reference to the social economy, its implementation and in reference to social and business tasks which are undertaken by the entrepreneurs of economy of communion. A high similarity of both ideas and opportunities for economic complementarity and cooperation for specific social purposes are demonstrated in the paper