Responsible management of innovation in business

This chapter explores the concept and practice of responsible management of innovation. Responsible innovation is a key response to the grand challenges faced by society, helping to develop innovations with society in mind, and limit any unintended consequences. Responsible managers with influence over innovations need knowledge and understanding of how responsible innovation applies to their roles and how as individuals they can manage innovation responsibly. While the application of responsible innovation to these contexts faces a number of practical and conceptual challenges, this chapter will focus on the contribution and potential of responsible management of innovation processes to provide economic and societal benefits. This chapter explores these issues through the perspective of individual managers, at the level of the organisation and finally at the level of the innovation system

Influence of Surface Finish and Porosity on the Fatigue behaviour of A356 Aluminium Casting Alloy

In casting parts, due to the manufacturing process, the presence of defects such as porosity, inclusions and oxide films is unavoidable. All these irregularities have a negative effect on the component performance. Several works have demonstrated that, among them, porosity is especially detrimental to the fatigue properties. As most fatigue failures nucleate at the surface of a material, casting defects at or near the surface and surface roughness become an extremely important factor in determining the fatigue strength of cast components.Very little research has been conducted into the influence of both surface quality and porosity on the fatigue behaviour of aluminium castings parts. In the present work, the effects of two different surface qualities (machined and as-cast) on fatigue behaviour of an A356 casting alloy were studied. The S-N curves obtained showed that the cast surface had higher fatigue strength than the machined one. The failure in cast specimens initiated predominantly from valleys of the rough surface near pores or inclusions. On the other hand, in machined surfaces, the cracks initiated directly from surface pores. Thus, the improvement in fatigue life was attributed to a longer crack “initiation” period

Tailoring the Photophysical Signatures of BODIPY Dyes: Toward Fluorescence Standards across the Visible Spectral Region

The modern synthetic routes in organic chemistry, as well as the recent advances in high-resolution spectroscopic and microscopic techniques, have awakened a renewable interest in the development of organic fluorophores. In this regard, boron-dipyrrin (BODIPY) dyes are ranked at the top position as luminophores to be applied in photonics or biophotonics. This chromophore outstands not only by its excellent and tunable photophysical signatures, but also by the chemical versatility of its core, which is readily available to a myriad of functionalization routes. In this chapter, we show that, after a rational design, bright and photostable BODIPYs can be achieved along the whole visible spectral region, being suitable as molecular probes or active media of lasers. Alternatively, the selective functionalization of the dipyrrin core, mainly at meso position, can induce new photophysical phenomena (such as charge transfer) paving the way to the development of fluorescent sensors, where the fluorescent response is sensitive to a specific environmental property

In-silico gene essentiality analysis of polyamine biosynthesis reveals APRT as a potential target in cancer

Constraint-based modeling for genome-scale metabolic networks has emerged in the last years as a promising approach to elucidate drug targets in cancer. Beyond the canonical biosynthetic routes to produce biomass, it is of key importance to focus on metabolic routes that sustain the proliferative capacity through the regulation of other biological means in order to improve in-silico gene essentiality analyses. Polyamines are polycations with central roles in cancer cell proliferation, through the regulation of transcription and translation among other things, but are typically neglected in in silico cancer metabolic models. In this study, we analysed essential genes for the biosynthesis of polyamines. Our analysis corroborates the importance of previously known regulators of the pathway, such as Adenosylmethionine Decarboxylase 1 (AMD1) and uncovers novel enzymes predicted to be relevant for polyamine homeostasis. We focused on Adenine phosphoribosyltransferase (APRT) and demonstrated the detrimental consequence of APRT gene silencing on diferent leukaemia cell lines. Our results highlight the importance of revisiting the metabolic models used for in-silico gene essentiality analyses in order to maximize the potential for drug target identifcation in cance

Global Survey on RRI and competitive advantage dataset (RRING WP5)

Dataset on Responsible Research and Innovation and competitive advantage in different world regions, for different stakeholders. The anonymised dataset is available in .csv (Excel) and .sav (SPSS). The survey guide is also included

Revisión de la evidencia científica sobre las alternativas a la metadona en el tratamiento psicofarmacológico de la dependencia a opiáceos

The implementation of the methadone maintenance treatment programs marked a true milestone in the treatment of those opioid-dependent patients who had met with failure in the different treatment alternatives which had existed up until that time. The purpose of this paper is that of reviewing the scientific evidence regarding the advantages and drawbacks involved in the different drug-related alternatives for use in lieu of methadone for opioid-dependent individuals. To pinpoint the clinical tests conducted, searches were run on Medline (1966-1999), the IDIS (Iowa Drug Information System (1985-1999) and the Cochrane Library 1999 clinical testing database (3rd quarter). Screening and summarization of the literature. Based on the review made, the conclusion was reached that methadone is the chosen drug in substitution treatment for opiate-dependent patients. LAAM came forth as an alternative to methadone for stable patients not requiring close monitoring, although marketing approval was suspended at the recommendation of the Scientific Committee of the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medical Products as of March 2001. Buprenorphene may be one alternative to methadone, however the optimum dosage pattern is as yet unknown. Heroine is the alternative studied to the least degree, although the highly limited number of existing studies indicate that this could be a useful alternative for heroine addicts for whom other maintenance treatments have failed.Fundamento: El establecimiento de los programas de mantenimiento con metadona supuso un auténtico hito en el tratamiento de aquellos pacientes dependientes a opiáceos que habían fracasado con las diferentes alternativas terapéuticas existentes en su momento. En este trabajo se hace una revisión de la evidencia científica sobre las ventajas e inconvenientes de las diferentes alternativas farmacológicas de sustitución a la metadona en personas dependientes de opiáceos. Para identificar los ensayos clínicos realizados se llevaron a cabo búsquedas en Medline (1966-1999), el sistema IDIS (Iowa Drug Information System)(1985-1999) y la base de datos de ensayos clínicos de la Cochrane Library 1999 (3er trimestre). Selección y síntesis de la literatura. De la revisión realizada se concluye que metadona es el fármaco de elección en el tratamiento sustitutivo de pacientes dependientes a opiáceos. LAAM aparece como una alternativa a la metadona en pacientes estables que no requieran un seguimiento estrecho, si bien desde marzo de 2001 ha sido suspendida la autorización de comercialización por recomendación del Comité Científico de la Agencia Europea de Evaluación de Medicamentos. Buprenorfina puede ser una alternativa a la metadona, pero todavía no se conoce su régimen óptimo de dosificación. La heroína es la alternativa menos estudiada; si bien, los escasos estudios existentes indican que podría ser una alternativa útil en heroinómanos en los que otros tratamientos de mantenimiento hayan fracasado

Ionothermal Synthesis of Cadmium Coordination Polymers: Ionic Liquid Effects on the Synthesis, Structural, and Thermal Characterization

Ionothermal synthesis is a little used method for the preparation of coordination polymers. By this method, two cadmium compounds were synthesized, 1, with formula Cd3(ox)F2(Ina)2 (Ina = isonicotinate) and 2, Cd(NO3)2(4,4′-Bpy) (4,4′-Bpy = 4,4′-Bipyridine). The modification of the reaction conditions has allowed to obtain 2 as a pure phase. The structure of both compounds was determined by a single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Compound 1 is isostructural to the previously reported Cd2Zn(ox)(OH)2(Ina)2. It crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P21/n and present a three-dimensional (3D) network, built-up from [Cd3(ox)F2]n2n+ layers, linked by isonicotinate ligands. Crystals of 2 are formed by twins of two components which are rotated ca. 180° to each other. This compound crystallizes in the triclinic P-1 space group and its structure can be describe as a two-dimensional (2D) 4 connected ‘sql’ net. The layers are composed by [Cd(NO3)2]n chains linked through 4,4′-Bpy ligands, and are pillared along the [011] direction. The thermal decomposition of 2 was studied by thermogravimetric and thermodiffractiometric techniques. The compound decomposes gradually starting from 160 °C, and due to heating, the structure suffers slight reversible changes in the bond distances and angles

An in-silico approach to predict and exploit synthetic lethality in cancer metabolism

Exploiting synthetic lethality is a promising approach for cancer therapy. Here, the authors present an approach to identifying such interactions by finding genetic minimal cut sets (gMCSs) that block cancer proliferation, and apply it to study the lethality of RRM1 inhibition in multiple myeloma

Influence of Surface Finish and Porosity on the Fatigue behaviour of A356 Aluminium Casting Alloy

In casting parts, due to the manufacturing process, the presence of defects such as porosity, inclusions and oxide films is unavoidable. All these irregularities have a negative effect on the component performance. Several works have demonstrated that, among them, porosity is especially detrimental to the fatigue properties. As most fatigue failures nucleate at the surface of a material, casting defects at or near the surface and surface roughness become an extremely important factor in determining the fatigue strength of cast components. Very little research has been conducted into the influence of both surface quality and porosity on the fatigue behaviour of aluminium castings parts. In the present work, the effects of two different surface qualities (machined and as-cast) on fatigue behaviour of an A356 casting alloy were studied. The S-N curves obtained showed that the cast surface had higher fatigue strength than the machined one. The failure in cast specimens initiated predominantly from valleys of the rough surface near pores or inclusions. On the other hand, in machined surfaces, the cracks initiated directly from surface pores. Thus, the improvement in fatigue life was attributed to a longer crack “initiation” period

COBRA methods and metabolic drug targets in cancer

The identification of therapeutic strategies exploiting the metabolic alterations of malignant cells is a relevant area in cancer research. Here, we discuss a novel computational method, based on the COBRA (COnstraint-Based Reconstruction and Analysis) framework for metabolic networks, to perform this task. Current and future steps are presented