Servitization of products as an approach for design-driven innovation

In this paper we present how the meaning of a product can radically be innovated through add-on services and related service support products to the existing product instead of significantly redesigning it. We explore and investigate this assertion with an action-oriented case study using a research through design approach. Our research was done within the Dutch fashion industry together with a fashion label specialized in handmade knitwear. As a result two services, ‘Meet Your Knitter’ and ‘Our Garment’, were designed and added to an exclusive garment line. Early probing indicated an innovation in the meaning of the garments through servitization. In general, we conclude that servitization of products can be a promising approach for design-driven innovation. This is especially interesting for firms that would like to probe and experiment with service design for meaning innovations. However, more research is required to fully understand and utilize the suggested approach

People with dementia playing casual games on a tablet

Objective: Preserving clients’ quality of life (QoL) has become increasingly important in dementia care. Engagement in pleasant and meaningful activities may influence this QoL. We studied people with dementia’s experiences and views of independent tablet games in a practice-based study, conducted at two day-care centres and five small-scale living facilities for people with dementia in the city of Rotterdam. Method: The participants were 54 clients (24 men, 30 women; mean age 83 years) who participated in a total of 177 game-playing sessions. Ten existing iPad games and three new game prototypes were evaluated. Written informed consent was obtained from the clients or the clients’ representatives prior to the study. Data collection included epidemiological and game playing characteristics. Observers took note of the specific game(s) offered, the clients’ mood and engagement, and the duration of game playing. Immediately after each participant finished playing,a short 4-question interview was conducted to discover their opinion on the game. The participants’ answers were recorded verbatim. Qualitative content analysis was used to explore their experiences and views of the games. Results: This study revealed positive experiences related to people’s need for achievement, self-esteem, sense of connection and belonging, identity, having something to do, and admiration for the game. Negative experiences included failure (low self-esteem), annoyance and a sense of insecurity. Conclusions: This study shows there is potential for people with dementia to play casual games on a tablet as a pleasant and meaningful activity. It is important, however that there is a match between the game, the touchscreen skills of the person with dementia, and their ambitions or interests. It is challenging to find the right game for the right person. An interactive tool to support the choice of the game that is most suitable and a database of dementia-friendly tablet games may support the use of these games by people with dementia, in health care organisations as well as at home

Experimentally induced antipredator responses are mediated by social and environmental factors

Nest predation is a common cause of reproductive failure for many bird species, and various antipredator defense behaviors have evolved to reduce the risk of nest predation. However, trade-offs between current reproductive duties and future reproduction often limit the parent’s ability to respond to nest predation risk. Individual responses to experimentally increased nest predation risk can give insights into these trade-offs. Here, we investigate whether social and ecological factors affect individual responses to predation risk by experimentally manipulating the risk of nest predation using taxidermic mounts in the cooperative breeding Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis). Our results show that dominant females, but not males, alarm called more often when they confront a nest predator model alone than when they do so with a partner, and that individuals that confront a predator together attacked more than those that did so alone. Dominant males increased their antipredator defense by spending more time nest guarding after a presentation with a nest predator, compared with a nonpredator control, but no such effect was found for females, who did not increase the time spent incubating. In contrast to incubation by females, nest guarding responses by dominant males depended on the presence of other group members and food availability. These results suggest that while female investment in incubation is always high and not dependent on social and ecological conditions, males have a lower initial investment, which allows them to respond to sudden changes in nest predation risk

The secular trends in male:female ratio at birth in postwar industrialized countries.

Finnish investigators [Vartiainen et al. Environmental Chemicals and Changes in Sex Ratio: Analysis Over 250 Years in Finland. Environ Health Perspect 107:813-815 (1999)] presented the sex ratio of all newborn babies from 1751 to 1997 in order to evaluate whether Finnish long-term data are compatible with the hypothesis that the decrease in the ratio of male to female births after World War I and World War II in industrial countries is caused by environmental factors. They found an increase in the proportion of males from 1751 to 1920, which was interrupted by peaks in male births during World War I and World War II and followed by a decrease thereafter, similar to the trends in many other countries. The turning point of male proportion, however, preceded the period of industrialization and introduction of pesticides and hormonal drugs. Thus, a causal association between these environmental exposures and this decrease is unlikely. In addition, none of the various family parameters (e.g., paternal age, maternal age, age difference in parents, birth order) could explain the historical time trends. Vartiainen et al. concluded that at present it is unknown how these historical trends could be mediated. The postwar secular decline of the male:female ratio at birth is not an isolated phenomenon and parallels the decline of perinatal morbidity and mortality, congenital anomalies, and various constitutional diseases. This parallelism indicates a common etiology and may be caused by reduction of conceptopathology, as a correlate to increasing socioeconomic development. An inverted dose response or the dose-response fallacy due to vanishing male conceptuses explains the low sex ratios before World War I and World War II in newborns from black parents and from the lowest socioeconomic classes

Ortho- and ectopic zebrafish xeno-engraftment of ocular melanoma to recapitulate primary tumor and experimental metastasis development

Animal science

Subordinate females in the cooperatively breeding Seychelles warbler obtain direct benefits by joining unrelated groups

1. In many cooperatively breeding animals, a combination of ecological constraints and benefits of philopatry favours offspring taking a subordinate position on the natal territory instead of dispersing to breed independently. However, in many species individuals disperse to a subordinate position in a non-natal group ("subordinate between-group" dispersal), despite losing the kin-selected and nepotistic benefits of remaining in the natal group. It is unclear which social, genetic and ecological factors drive between-group dispersal. 2. We aim to elucidate the adaptive significance of subordinate between-group dispersal by examining which factors promote such dispersal, whether subordinates gain improved ecological and social conditions by joining a non-natal group, and whether between-group dispersal results in increased lifetime reproductive success and survival. 3. Using a long-term dataset on the cooperatively-breeding Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis), we investigated how a suite of proximate factors (food availability, group composition, age and sex of focal individuals, population density) promote subordinate between-group dispersal by comparing such dispersers with subordinates that dispersed to a dominant position or became floaters. We then analysed whether subordinates that moved to a dominant or non-natal subordinate position, or became floaters, gained improved conditions relative to the natal territory, and compared fitness components between the three dispersal strategies. 4. We show that individuals that joined another group as non-natal subordinates were mainly female and that, similar to floating, between-group dispersal was associated with social and demographic factors that constrained dispersal to an independent breeding position. Between-group dispersal was not driven by improved ecological or social conditions in the new territory and did not result in higher survival. Instead, between-group dispersing females often became co-breeders, obtaining maternity in the new territory, and were likely to inherit the territory in the future, leading to higher lifetime reproductive success compared to females that floated. Males never reproduced as subordinates, which may be one explanation why subordinate between-group dispersal by males is rare. 5. Our results suggest that subordinate between-group dispersal is used by females to obtain reproductive benefits when options to disperse to an independent breeding position are limited. This provides important insight into the additional strategies that individuals can use to obtain reproductive benefits

Extra-pair mating opportunities mediate parenting and mating effort trade-offs in a songbird

In socially monogamous species with bi-parental care, males may face a trade-off between providing parental care and pursuing extra-pair matings. The "parenting-mating trade-off" hypothesis predicts that high-quality males-who have greater potential to gain extra-pair matings, for example, larger males usually win the competition for extra-pair mating-should reduce parental care and spend more time looking for extra-pair matings. However, the trade-off between parenting and mating efforts may be complicated by variation in the availability of extra-pair mating opportunities. By using field data of hair-crested drongos (Dicrurus hottentottus), a species exhibiting bi-parental incubation behavior, collected in central China from 2010 to 2017, we tested whether the potential negative relationship between male quality and paternal care was dependent on the number of nearby fertile females. We found that male drongos mainly seek extra-pair matings during the incubation period and high-quality individuals (males with longer tarsi) are more likely to sire extra-pair offspring. In agreement with the "parenting-mating trade-off" hypothesis, high-quality males incubated less by recessing longer between incubation bouts. However, this was only the case when sufficient fertile females nearby for extra-pair mating opportunities. Females compensated for reduced male care, but this was independent of male quality. This suggests that the reduction in care by high-quality males might be a direct response to extra-pair mating opportunities rather than facilitated by differential allocation of females. Our results indicate that individual quality and available mating opportunities may shape the optimal trade-off between parental care and seeking additional matings for males. Lay Summary: How do individual quality and the number of potential extra-pair mates influence the optimal trade-off between parental care and engaging extra-pair courtship in animals? In hair-crested drongos, high-quality males, who are more successful in obtaining extra-pair fertilizations, reduced their share in incubation, but only when they had sufficient extra-pair mating opportunities. Females partially compensate for the reduced incubation of their partners, but the compensation was not affected by male quality

Care trajectories of chronically ill older adult patients discharged from hospital:a quantitative cross-sectional study using health insurance claims data

Background For older adults, a good transition from hospital to the primary or long-term care setting can decrease readmissions. This paper presents the 6-month post-discharge healthcare utilization of older adults and describes the numbers of readmissions and deaths for the most frequently occurring aftercare arrangements as a starting point in optimizing the post-discharge healthcare organization. Methods This cross-sectional study included older adults insured with the largest Dutch insurance company. We described the utilization of healthcare within 180 days after discharge from their first hospital admission of 2015 and the most frequently occurring combinations of aftercare in the form of geriatric rehabilitation, community nursing, long-term care, and short stay during the first 90 days after discharge. We calculated the proportion of older adults that was readmitted or had died in the 90-180 days after discharge for the six most frequent combinations. We performed all analyses in the total group of older adults and in a sub-group of older adults who had been hospitalized due to a hip fracture. Results A total of 31.7% of all older adults and 11.4% of the older adults with a hip fracture did not receive aftercare. Almost half of all older adults received care of a community nurse, whereas less than 5% received long-term home care. Up to 18% received care in a nursing home during the 6 months after discharge. Readmissions were lowest for older adults with a short stay and highest in the group geriatric rehabilitation + community nursing. Mortality was lowest in the total group of older aldults and subgroup with hip fracture without aftercare. Conclusions The organization of post-discharge healthcare for older adults may not be organized sufficiently to guarantee appropriate care to restore functional activity. Although receiving aftercare is not a clear predictor of readmissions in our study, the results do seem to indicate that older adults receiving community nursing in the first 90 days less often die compared to older adults with other types of aftercare or no aftercare. Future research is necessary to examine predictors of readmissions and mortality in both older adult patients discharged from hospital.</p

Novel treatments of uveal melanoma identified with a synthetic lethal CRISPR/Cas9 screen

Animal science