Strategic Foresight in multinational enterprises – a case study on the Deutsche Telekom Laboratories

Strategic Foresight activities enable companies to use weak signals to identify opportunities and threats. Research on Strategic Foresight proposes different methods, discusses their implementation and gives recommendations on how to link Strategic Foresight with other functions in an organization. Based on a literature review, we define a generic framework for the management of Strategic Foresight activities on the strategic, tactical and operational level and identify and discuss actors, methods and systems of Strategic Foresight. Building on an in-depth case study of the Deutsche Telekom Laboratories we shed light on the implementation of Strategic Foresight activities. In the discussion we focus on the interaction of methods from Consumer Foresight and Technology Intelligence. Taking an example project, we explore how Strategic Foresight is used on the operational level of innovation management. We conclude that Strategic Foresight can successfully contribute to coping with uncertainty and complexity and can feed the front-end of innovation from the market (customer needs) and technology (realization opportunities) perspective.strategic foresight; consumer foresight; technology foresight; technology intelligence; market foresight; trend analysis; future studies; future analysis; telecommunication industry

Strategic Foresight in multinational enterprises – a case study on the Deutsche Telekom Laboratories

Strategic Foresight activities enable companies to use weak signals to identify opportunities and threats. Research on Strategic Foresight proposes different methods, discusses their implementation and gives recommendations on how to link Strategic Foresight with other functions in an organization. Based on a literature review, we define a generic framework for the management of Strategic Foresight activities on the strategic, tactical and operational level and identify and discuss actors, methods and systems of Strategic Foresight. Building on an in-depth case study of the Deutsche Telekom Laboratories we shed light on the implementation of Strategic Foresight activities. In the discussion we focus on the interaction of methods from Consumer Foresight and Technology Intelligence. Taking an example project, we explore how Strategic Foresight is used on the operational level of innovation management. We conclude that Strategic Foresight can successfully contribute to coping with uncertainty and complexity and can feed the front-end of innovation from the market (customer needs) and technology (realization opportunities) perspective

SARS-CoV-2-Antikörperprävalenz bei medizinischem Fachpersonal -- Eine prospektive, serologische Kohortenstudie mit vier Testzeitpunkten in Thüringen 2020 bis 2021 (COVID-PraxImmun)

Im Verlauf der COVID-19-Pandemie zeigte sich schnell, dass für medizinisches Fachpersonal im Vergleich zur Allgemeinbevölkerung ein erhöhtes Risiko für SARS-CoV-2-Infektionen besteht. Um den SARS-CoV-2-Immunstatus bei medizinischem Personal in Thüringer Vertragsarztpraxen systematisch und flächendeckend zu untersuchen, führte die Kassenärztliche Vereinigung Thüringen eine Kohortenstudie durch, an der 3.658 ärztlich, psychologisch und zahnärztlich tätige Personen bzw. nicht ärztlich Tätige mit Patientenkontakt teilnahmen. Die SARS-CoV-2-Antikörperprävalenzen und deren Verlauf zwischen August 2020 und September 2021 werden im Epidemiologischen Bulletin 45/2022 dargestellt

A multi-center study of their physicochemical characteristics, cell culture and in vivo experiments

PVP-capped silver nanoparticles with a diameter of the metallic core of 70 nm, a hydrodynamic diameter of 120 nm and a zeta potential of −20 mV were prepared and investigated with regard to their biological activity. This review summarizes the physicochemical properties (dissolution, protein adsorption, dispersability) of these nanoparticles and the cellular consequences of the exposure of a broad range of biological test systems to this defined type of silver nanoparticles. Silver nanoparticles dissolve in water in the presence of oxygen. In addition, in biological media (i.e., in the presence of proteins) the surface of silver nanoparticles is rapidly coated by a protein corona that influences their physicochemical and biological properties including cellular uptake. Silver nanoparticles are taken up by cell-type specific endocytosis pathways as demonstrated for hMSC, primary T-cells, primary monocytes, and astrocytes. A visualization of particles inside cells is possible by X-ray microscopy, fluorescence microscopy, and combined FIB/SEM analysis. By staining organelles, their localization inside the cell can be additionally determined. While primary brain astrocytes are shown to be fairly tolerant toward silver nanoparticles, silver nanoparticles induce the formation of DNA double-strand-breaks (DSB) and lead to chromosomal aberrations and sister-chromatid exchanges in Chinese hamster fibroblast cell lines (CHO9, K1, V79B). An exposure of rats to silver nanoparticles in vivo induced a moderate pulmonary toxicity, however, only at rather high concentrations. The same was found in precision-cut lung slices of rats in which silver nanoparticles remained mainly at the tissue surface. In a human 3D triple-cell culture model consisting of three cell types (alveolar epithelial cells, macrophages, and dendritic cells), adverse effects were also only found at high silver concentrations. The silver ions that are released from silver nanoparticles may be harmful to skin with disrupted barrier (e.g., wounds) and induce oxidative stress in skin cells (HaCaT). In conclusion, the data obtained on the effects of this well-defined type of silver nanoparticles on various biological systems clearly demonstrate that cell-type specific properties as well as experimental conditions determine the biocompatibility of and the cellular responses to an exposure with silver nanoparticles

Molecular dynamics simulations of glassy polymers

We review recent results from computer simulation studies of polymer glasses, from chain dynamics around the glass transition temperature Tg to the mechanical behaviour below Tg. These results clearly show that modern computer simulations are able to address and give clear answers to some important issues in the field, in spite of the obvious limitations in terms of length and time scales. In the present review we discuss the cooling rate effects, and dynamic slowing down of different relaxation processes when approaching Tg for both model and chemistry-specific polymer glasses. The impact of geometric confinement on the glass transition is discussed in detail. We also show that computer simulations are very useful tools to study structure and mechanical response of glassy polymers. The influence of large deformations on mechanical behaviour of polymer glasses in general, and strain hardening effect in particular are reviewed. Finally, we suggest some directions for future research, which we believe will be soon within the capabilities of state of the art computer simulations, and correspond to problems of fundamental interest.Comment: To apear in "Soft Matter

Factors associated with worse lung function in cystic fibrosis patients with persistent staphylococcus aureus

Background Staphylococcus aureus is an important pathogen in cystic fibrosis (CF). However, it is not clear which factors are associated with worse lung function in patients with persistent S. aureus airway cultures. Our main hypothesis was that patients with high S. aureus density in their respiratory specimens would more likely experience worsening of their lung disease than patients with low bacterial loads. Methods Therefore, we conducted an observational prospective longitudinal multi-center study and assessed the association between lung function and S. aureus bacterial density in respiratory samples, co-infection with other CF-pathogens, nasal S. aureus carriage, clinical status, antibiotic therapy, IL-6- and IgG-levels against S. aureus virulence factors. Results 195 patients from 17 centers were followed; each patient had an average of 7 visits. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and generalized linear mixed models. Our main hypothesis was only supported for patients providing throat specimens indicating that patients with higher density experienced a steeper lung function decline (p<0.001). Patients with exacerbations (n = 60), S. aureus small-colony variants (SCVs, n = 84) and co-infection with Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (n = 44) had worse lung function (p = 0.0068; p = 0.0011; p = 0.0103). Patients with SCVs were older (p = 0.0066) and more often treated with trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (p = 0.0078). IL-6 levels positively correlated with decreased lung function (p<0.001), S. aureus density in sputa (p = 0.0016), SCVs (p = 0.0209), exacerbations (p = 0.0041) and co-infections with S. maltophilia (p = 0.0195) or A. fumigatus (p = 0.0496). Conclusions In CF-patients with chronic S. aureus cultures, independent risk factors for worse lung function are high bacterial density in throat cultures, exacerbations, elevated IL-6 levels, presence of S. aureus SCVs and co-infection with S. maltophilia

Modelling human choices: MADeM and decision‑making

Research supported by FAPESP 2015/50122-0 and DFG-GRTK 1740/2. RP and AR are also part of the Research, Innovation and Dissemination Center for Neuromathematics FAPESP grant (2013/07699-0). RP is supported by a FAPESP scholarship (2013/25667-8). ACR is partially supported by a CNPq fellowship (grant 306251/2014-0)