Leveraging Open Innovation to improve society

Open Innovation (OI) is an approach which describes a purposive attempt to draw together knowledge from different contributors to develop and exploit innovation. It has become clear that OI directly benefits organisations' economic performance and resilience, but researchers, practitioners, and policy makers became also convinced that OI might be the way forward to tackle the world's most pressing societal challenges, representing unresolved Grand Challenges, which can only be weathered by diverse sets of collaborative partners that join forces. Although anecdotal evidence points at how OI practices can be employed to achieve societal impact not only in private firms but also in public organisations, very little understanding exists-beyond anecdotal-to link OI to societal impact. This special issue has the ambition to start the discussion and establish a framework as the stepping stone to tackle this complex research gap

Rac1/WAVE2 and Cdc42/N-WASP Participation in Actin-Dependent Host Cell Invasion by Extracellular Amastigotes of Trypanosoma cruzi

This study evaluated the participation of host cell Rho-family GTPases and their effector proteins in the actin-dependent invasion by Trypanosoma cruzi extracellular amastigotes (EAs). We observed that all proteins were recruited and colocalized with actin at EA invasion sites in live or fixed cells. EA internalization was inhibited in cells depleted in Rac1, N-WASP, and WAVE2. Time-lapse experiments with Rac1, N-WASP and WAVE2 depleted cells revealed that EA internalization kinetics is delayed even though no differences were observed in the proportion of EA-induced actin recruitment in these groups. Overexpression of constitutively active constructs of Rac1 and RhoA altered the morphology of actin recruitments to EA invasion sites. Additionally, EA internalization was increased in cells overexpressing CA-Rac1 but inhibited in cells overexpressing CA-RhoA. WT-Cdc42 expression increased EA internalization, but curiously, CA-Cdc42 inhibited it. Altogether, these results corroborate the hypothesis of EA internalization in non-phagocytic cells by a phagocytosis-like mechanism and present Rac1 as the key Rho-family GTPase in this process.Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e TecnologicoUniv Fed Sao Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, Dept Microbiol Imunol & Parasitol, Sao Paulo, BrazilUniv Fed Sao Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, Dept Microbiol Imunol & Parasitol, Sao Paulo, BrazilFAPESP: 2012/21335-8, 2011/51475-3CNPq: 302068/2016-3Web of Scienc

Tool fingerprinting: Characterising management tools

Academics have long been interested in understanding the nature of management tools such as roadmapping or scenario planning and to derive guidance on how they should be used. A typical approach to this challenge has been proposing rules and classifications to select and configure management tools. However, none of those proposed so far has been universally recognised. This paper argues that the characterisation of instances of tools implementation (tools-in-action) according to five key dimensions allows an easier and more robust approach to theoretically understand tools and to help practitioners with the configuration of toolkits. In order to highlight the advantages and the potential limitations of this characterization approach, a toolkit is examined.This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final version has been published by IEEE in Proceedings of PICMET '14: Infrastructure and Service Integration at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=692132

Inscrição votiva em língua lusitana (Arronches Portalegre)

Propõe-se leitura, interpretação e integração histórica da epígrafe redi- gida em língua lusitana, proveniente de uma herdade dos arredores de Arronches. Documenta o sacrifício de animais, designadamente de dez ovelhas, a divindades indígenas – Banda, Reva, Munis, Broeneia... – cujos nomes se fazem acompanhar de epítetos, um dos quais repetido com grafias diferentes (em dativo, Haracui, Aharacui, Harase), passí- vel de relacionar-se com o topónimo actual, Arronches. Na segunda parte, os três dedicantes, que poderão identificar-se como criadores de ovelhas, suplicam às divindades que lhes aceitem os sacrifícios. Considera-se muito viável a hipótese de relacionar esta e as outras epígrafes em língua lusitana – de Lamas de Moledo e Cabeço das Frá- guas – com as rotas da transumância logo nos primórdios da domina- ção romana

Photoplethysmographic measurements from central nervous system tissue

A new system for measuring the oxygen saturation of blood within tissue has been developed, for a number of potential patient monitoring applications. This proof of concept project aims to address the unmet need of real-time measurement of oxygen saturation in the central nervous system (CNS) for patients recovering from neurosurgery or trauma, by developing a fibre optic signal acquisition system for internal placement through small apertures. The development and testing of a two-wavelength optical fibre reflectance photoplethysmography (PPG) system is described together with measurements in rats and preliminary results from a clinical trial of the system in patients undergoing neurosurgery. It was found that good quality red and near-infrared PPG signals could be consistently obtained from the rat spinal cord (n=6) and human cerebral cortex (n=4) using the fibre optic probe. These findings justify further development and clinical evaluation of this fibre optic system

Amastigote Synapse: The Tricks of Trypanosoma cruzi Extracellular Amastigotes

To complete its life cycle within the mammalian host, Trypanosoma cruzi, the agent of Chagas’ disease, must enter cells. Trypomastigotes originating from the insect vector (metacyclic) or from infected cells (bloodstream/tissue culture-derived) are the classical infective forms of the parasite and enter mammalian cells in an actin-independent manner. By contrast, amastigotes originating from the premature rupture of infected cells or transformed from swimming trypomastigotes (designated extracellular amastigotes, EAs) require functional intact microfilaments to invade non-phagocytic host cells. Earlier work disclosed the key features of EA-HeLa cell interplay: actin-rich protrusions called ‘cups’ are formed at EA invasion sites on the host cell membrane that are also enriched in actin-binding proteins, integrins and extracellular matrix elements. In the past decades we described the participation of membrane components and secreted factors from EAs as well as the actin-regulating proteins of host cells involved in what we propose to be a phagocytic-like mechanism of parasite uptake. Thus, regarding this new perspective herein we present previously described EA-induced ‘cups’ as parasitic synapse since they can play a role beyond its architecture function. In this review, we focus on recent findings that shed light on the intricate interaction between extracellular amastigotes and non-phagocytic HeLa cells

Protocol of a scoping review assessing injury rates and their determinants among healthcare workers in western countries

Introduction Healthcare workers (HCWs) are exposed to various risk factors and risky behaviours that may seriously affect their health and ability to work. The aim of this protocol is to detail the steps to follow in order to carry out a scoping review to assess the prevalence/incidence of injuries among HCWs. Methods and analysis The study will be carried out in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses-Protocols guidelines. Studies will be selected according to the following criteria: P (HCWs), E (exposure to injuries), C (different types of exposure and different categories of HCWs) and O (prevalence/incidence and determinants of injuries). A time filter has been set (literature between 2000 and 2018) to enable updated, direct comparison between the findings and the epidemiological data available at national and local \u20acIstituto Nazionale per l'Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro' (National Institute for Insurance Against Accidents at Work) centres in Italy. No language restriction will be applied. Ethics and dissemination Formal ethical approval is not required; primary data will not be collected, as they have already been published. The results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publication(s), conference presentation(s) and the press