Transoral endoscopic thyroidectomy: A case report

AbstractIntroductionEndoscopic thyroidectomy, initially an experimental procedure, is now being performed in increasing frequency. It aims to provide patients undergoing thyroidectomy with a ‘scar-free’ surgery. Transoral endoscopic thyroidectomy is one such novel procedure that is based on the principles of natural orifice translumenal surgery (NOTES) and allows for a truly scar-free surgery with minimal dissection.Presentation of caseA 21-year-old female presented with a swelling over the left side of her neck. Ultrasound revealed a solitary nodule and FNAC showed features suggestive of a follicular adenoma.DiscussionThe patient underwent transoral endoscopic hemi-thyroidectomy. The procedure lasted for 2h and is one of the few documented cases of transoral endoscopic thyroidectomy performed on live patients.ConclusionTransoral endoscopic thyroidectomy is proving to be a feasible technique with little or no complications as compared to other endoscopic thyroid surgeries. It provides surgeons with easy access to the thyroid gland and patients with aesthetically pleasing results

Influence of Appreciative Intelligence and Innovation Factors on Innovation: An Empirical Study

Purpose: Innovation is a critical factor for everlasting success of an organization. Innovation factors along with Appreciative Intelligence are the essential characteristics an organization should have to tread upon the path of successful innovation. Every organization follows some processes, protocols and practices for the day to day and long term operations. Some practices form an important aspect for the success of an organization. Certain practices followed become critical characteristics to beat the competition. Bench marking is always very important to know the strength and weakness of an organization. Thus every organization should know their potential in innovation curve. Since the components of Innovation factors and Appreciative Intelligence are both tangible and intangible, measuring the influence of each of them is not linear. A specific tool developed by me is used for this purpose. The result is analysed to reveal the innovation capability of an organization. Depending on the result measures can be taken by the organization to enhance their innovation potential. Design/Methodology/Approach: Companies belonging to different sectors are contacted and the online tool is circulated among the employees to give the details. The details given are analysed with another tool. Findings/Result: Based on the data received from the tool developed which has components of both Innovation Factors and Appreciative Intelligence the Innovation capability of the organization is inferred. It is found out that an organization which has imbibed the characteristics of Innovation factors and Appreciative Intelligence are more Innovative and successful. Originality/Value: The tool developed can be used to benchmark an organization on their Innovation Capability and to improve if need be. Paper Type: Empirical Researc

ON CATEGORIES OF FACTORS INFLUENCING THE INNOVATION: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY IN IT SECTOR

Innovation has been one of the most important factors in driving the economic growth in all industries and in particular the IT industry. The innovation will give a competitive edge to a company over the others. But the factors which influence innovation are not understood clearly. Nevertheless there are no proper instruments which measure the performance of innovation owing to the complexity involved in selection of different variables. There are some instruments available for innovation performance measurement but they are not complete. The main thrust of this paper is on the development, validation and application of the categories of factors which influence innovation in the IT sector through empirical means. The instrument that is chosen for the empirical study tests the dependence of innovation in the IT sector on the three dimensions of categories of factors. The instrument is validated for content, criterion and constructs validity, which includes the statistical test of significance. The empirical study has been performed using this instrument through random sampling technique. A hypothesis is tested to study whether different categories of factors influence innovation in IT sector. The result of this empirical study is the development of a valid instrument that can be used to study the influence of categories of factors on innovation in IT sector

A Systematic Review on Innovation Factors and Appreciative Intelligence

Purpose: Innovation is a critical phenomenon for an organization to be successful and need of the hour for an organization to stay ahead in the competition.  Innovation is the result of ‘out of the box thinking’ in an organization and is essential in this competitive world for its survival. Appreciative Intelligence is the way forward to identify the opportunities and to focus on growth. The future foreseen through Appreciative Intelligence can be made successful with the Innovation factors. Although through Appreciative Intelligence the future is foreseen from the present, for economic success Innovation is needed. To beat the competition and to spur economic growth innovation is an essential phenomenon. Innovation is the result of multidimensional complex factors. These factors are both tangible and intangible. Thus it is essential to assess the synergy between the factors which have a significant influence on innovation and appreciative intelligence.     Design/Methodology/Approach: Developing a theoretical concept based on a voluminous literature review and analysis of the result of interaction with the professionals across 12 countries. Findings/Result: Based on the developed theoretical conceptual model it is argued that both the factors which have a significant influence on innovation and the features of Appreciative Intelligence complement each other. Thus an organization that has both can envisage the opportunities or create the opportunities and realize the objectives by overcoming all the obstacles. Originality/Value: A new conceptual model titled ApI2Factors (Appreciative Intelligence-Innovation Factors) which is a secret to everlasting success for an organization Paper Type: Conceptual Researc

SARS-CoV-2 infects the human kidney and drives fibrosis in kidney organoids

This work was supported by grants of the German Research Foundation (DFG: KR 4073/11-1; SFBTRR219, 322900939; and CRU344, 428857858, and CRU5011 InteraKD 445703531), a grant of the European Research Council (ERC-StG 677448), the Federal Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF NUM-COVID19, Organo-Strat 01KX2021), the Dutch Kidney Foundation (DKF) TASK FORCE consortium (CP1805), the Else Kroener Fresenius Foundation (2017_A144), and the ERA-CVD MENDAGE consortium (BMBF 01KL1907) all to R.K.; DFG (CRU 344, Z to I.G.C and CRU344 P2 to R.K.S.); and the BMBF eMed Consortium Fibromap (to V.G.P, R.K., R.K.S., and I.G.C.). R.K.S received support from the KWF Kankerbestrijding (11031/2017–1, Bas Mulder Award) and a grant by the ERC (deFiber; ERC-StG 757339). J.J. is supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO Veni grant no: 091 501 61 81 01 36) and the DKF (grant no. 19OK005). B.S. is supported by the DKF (grant: 14A3D104) and the NWO (VIDI grant: 016.156.363). R.P.V.R. and G.J.O. are supported by the NWO VICI (grant: 16.VICI.170.090). P.B. is supported by the BMBF (DEFEAT PANDEMIcs, 01KX2021), the Federal Ministry of Health (German Registry for COVID-19 Autopsies-DeRegCOVID, www.DeRegCOVID.ukaachen.de; ZMVI1-2520COR201), and the German Research Foundation (DFG; SFB/TRR219 Project-IDs 322900939 and 454024652). S.D. received DFG support (DJ100/1-1) as well as support from VGP and TBH (SFB1192). M.d.B,R.R., N.S., and A.A. are supported by an ERC Advanced Investigator grant (H2020-ERC-2017-ADV-788982-COLMIN) to N.S. A.A. is supported by the NWO (VI.Veni.192.094). We thank Saskia de Wildt, Jeanne Pertijs (Radboudumc, Department of Pharmacology), and Robert M. Verdijk (Erasmus Medical Center, Department of Pathology) for providing tissue controls (Erasmus MC Tissue Bank) and Christian Drosten (Charite´ Universitatsmedizin Berlin, Institute of € Virology) and Bart Haagmans (Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam) for providing the SARS-CoV-2 isolate. We thank Kioa L. Wijnsma (Department of Pediatric Nephrology, Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences, Amalia Children’s Hospital, Radboud University Medical Center) for support with statistical analysis regarding the COVID-19 patient cohort.Peer reviewedPublisher PD