Developing a Human Centered Business Index – Leading with Purpose, Empathy, Systems-Approach and Resilience in ‘Business Beyond Sustainability’

The scope of contemporary global challenges demands new modes of problem-solving, and the process of identifying solutions requires a diversity of perspectives. Business plays a critical role in forging the path forward, yet siloed sustainability efforts are no longer sufficient in tackling and leveraging the complex web of relationships and stakeholders at play. This paper introduces the concept of Human Centered Business, including the methodology and applied research that resulted in the Human Centered Business Index – a framework that measures performance based on purpose, empathy, systems-approach and resilience – and its findings. It provides a methodological and empirical blueprint for highlighting future frontrunners of Human Centered Business, and encourages future application, development, and good practice. The expectation is that this pilot assemblage of methodology, applied research and good practice will ignite further discussion on the future of Human Centered Business

Contested suburban mobilities: towards a sustainable urbanism of justice and difference

Presented at the Environmental justice in the Anthropocene symposium held on April 24-25, 2017 at the Lory Student Center, Colorado State University, Fort Collins Colorado. This symposium aims to bring together academics (faculty and graduate students), independent researchers, community and movement activists, and regulatory and policy practitioners from across disciplines, research areas, perspectives, and different countries. Our overarching goal is to build on several decades of EJ research and practice to address the seemingly intractable environmental and ecological problems of this unfolding era. How can we explore EJ amongst humans and between nature and humans, within and across generations, in an age when humans dominate the landscape? How can we better understand collective human dominance without obscuring continuing power differentials and inequities within and between human societies? What institutional and governance innovations can we adopt to address existing challenges and to promote just transitions and futures?Mainstream understandings of sustainability are dominated by post-political discourses that tend to favour technological solutions while overlooking social justice. This paper draws attention to the different and often uneven ways in which sustainable urban environments, and their associated practices of citizenship and mobility, are produced and contested. By combining critical approaches to sustainable urbanism, ecological citizenship and mobility with social practice theory, this paper highlights the social justice dimensions of 'green' transitions through the case of a cycling-promoting initiative within a sustainable regeneration project ('Sustainable Järva') in Järva, an ethnically diverse suburb outside Stockholm, Sweden. The results reveal divergent understandings of suburban regeneration and ecological citizenship among different groups, and the deeply political nature of cycling. In 'Sustainable Järva', the practices of ecological citizenship promoted have overlapped with norms and values linked to a 'Swedish' identity associated with environmental responsibility, familiarity with nature, and active outdoor mobility, thus normatively reproducing power structures of class and race in the public opinion on desired forms of ecological citizenship and mobility. The results challenge post-political understandings of 'sustainability', affirming that just transitions to sustainable futures that ensure both the 'green' and the 'just' require environmentally progressive ontologies of sustainability, urbanism, ecological citizenship and mobility, promoting ecologically sound transitions while accommodating difference, and addressing the joint environmental and social justice implications for diverse communities

Endoscopic submucosal dissection for gastric ectopic pancreas: a single-center experience

Abstract Background and objective Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) is a minimal invasive technology and could allow “en bloc” resection for superficial gastric tumors. The aim of this study is to evaluate the safety and feasibility of ESD for gastric ectopic pancreas (EP). Methods A total of 93 patients diagnosed with ectopic pancreas who underwent ESD between January 2011 and June 2017 were enrolled. The demographic, clinical, and endoscopic data were collected and analyzed. Results The average maximal diameter of lesions was 1.01 (range 0.4–3.0) cm with mean age of patients which was 39.75 (range 15–66) years. Overall, all of procedures en bloc was successful. The median operative time was 76.87 (range 30–160) min. A total of 12 patients experienced complications. In seven patients, bleeding occurred during the operation and was treated using hot biopsy forceps or metal clip. Five cases suffered from pneumoperitoneum which was managed well. The mean length of postoperative hospital stay was 5.7 (range 2–17) days. There was no relapse in any cases during the follow-up. Conclusion ESD appears to be a safe and feasible approach for curative treatment in gastric ectopic pancreas. Larger studies are needed to identify the role and the outcomes of ESD in another center

Transcriptome Analysis of <i>Colletotrichum fructicola</i> Infecting <i>Camellia oleifera</i> Indicates That Two Distinct Geographical Fungi Groups Have Different Destructive Proliferation Capacities Related to Purine Metabolism

Anthracnose, caused by Colletotrichum spp., is a significant disease affecting oil tea (Camellia oleifera Abel.). Extensive molecular studies have demonstrated that Colletotrichum fructicola is the dominant pathogen of oil tea anthracnose in China. This study aims to investigate differences in molecular processes and regulatory genes at a late stage of infection of C. fructicola, to aid in understanding differences in pathogenic mechanisms of C. fructicola of different geographic populations. We compared the pathogenicity of C. fructicola from different populations (Wuzhishan, Hainan province, and Shaoyang, Hunan province) and gene expression of representative strains of the two populations before and after inoculation in oil tea using RNA sequencing. The results revealed that C. fructicola from Wuzhishan has a more vital ability to impact oil tea leaf tissue. Following infection with oil tea leaves, up-regulated genes in the strains from two geographic populations were associated with galactosidase activity, glutamine family amino acid metabolism, arginine, and proline metabolism. Additionally, up-regulated gene lists associated with infection by Wuzhishan strains were significantly enriched in purine metabolism pathways, while Shaoyang strains were not. These results indicate that more transcriptional and translational activity and the greater regulation of the purine metabolism pathway in the C. fructicola of the Wuzhishan strain might contribute to its stronger pathogenicity

Identification and Biological Validation of a Chemokine/Chemokine Receptor-Based Risk Model for Predicting Immunotherapeutic Response and Prognosis in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Over 80% of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients failed to respond to immunotherapy, which can likely be attributed to the tumor microenvironment (TME) remolding mediated by chemokines/chemokine receptors (C/CR). This study aimed to establish a C/CR-based risk model for better immunotherapeutic responses and prognosis. After assessing the characteristic patterns of the C/CR cluster from the TCGA-HNSCC cohort, a six-gene C/CR-based risk model was developed to stratify patients by LASSO Cox analysis. The screened genes were multidimensionally validated by RT-qPCR, scRNA-seq, and protein data. A total of 30.4% of patients in the low-risk group had better responses to anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy. A Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that patients in the low-risk group had longer overall survival. A time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curve and Cox analyses indicated that risk score served as an independent predictive indicator. The robustness of the immunotherapy response and prognosis prediction was also validated in independent external datasets. Additionally, the TME landscape revealed that the low-risk group was immune activated. Furthermore, the cell communication analysis on the scRNA-seq dataset revealed that cancer-associated fibroblasts were the main communicators within the C/CR ligand–receptor network of TME. Collectively, The C/CR-based risk model simultaneously predicted immunotherapeutic response and prognosis, potentially optimizing personalized therapeutic strategies of HNSCC

Expression, purification and antimicrobial activity analysis of recombination peptide subtilosin A in Escherichia coli using SUMO fusion technology

138-144Subtilosin A is an antimicrobial peptide isolated from Bacillus subtilis, and it possess broad-spectrum antibacterial activity. As subtilosin A prevents biofilm formation by inhibiting bacterial quorum sensing processes against Gram-positive, Gram-negative, and Gram-variable bacteria, it is urgent to obtain high-quality subtilosin A production in an economical and effective way. Escherichia coli is undoubtedly a most preferred host system for production of heterologous recombinant proteins. However, subtilosin A has the inhibitory effects against E. coli and it is easily to be degraded. To produce subtilosin A in E. coli, the application of small ubiquitin-related modifier (SUMO) fusion system with the purpose of stability and prevention of antimicrobial activity is the best practices in this regard. In this study, subtilosin A gene with codon optimization was cloned into the Stu I/Hind III sites of pSUMO vector after SUMO tag and transformed to E. coli BL21 (DE3). The SUMO-subtilosin A fusion protein was induced at 15ºC for 16 hours with 0.5 mM isopropyl thio-β-D- galactoside (IPTG) induction. The fusion protein with a molecular weight of approximately 20 kDa was confirmed by SDS-PAGE. The subtilosin A was then released by SUMO protease cleavage at the junction site and isolated and purified by affinity and cation exchange chromatography. The recombinant subtilosin A demonstrated a good antibacterial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Gram-negative bacteria) and Staphylococcus aureus (Gram-positive bacteria), with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of 100 mg/L and 100 mg/L, respectively. These results showed an efficient method for synthesis functional subtilosin A

Contralesional Cortical and Network Features Associated with Preoperative Language Deficit in Glioma Patients

Lower-grade Gliomas anchored in eloquent areas cause varying degrees of language impairment. Except for a tumor&rsquo;s features, contralesional compensation may explain these differences. Therefore, studying changes in the contralateral hemisphere can provide insights into the underlying mechanisms of language function compensation in patients with gliomas. This study included 60 patients with eloquent-area or near-eloquent-area gliomas. The participants were grouped according to the degree of language defect. T1 and diffusion tensor imaging were obtained. The contralesional cortical volume and the subcortical network were compared between groups. Patients with unimpaired language function showed elevated cortical volume in the midline areas of the frontal and temporal lobes. In subcortical networks, the group also had the highest global efficiency and shortest global path length. Ten nodes had intergroup differences in nodal efficiency, among which four nodes were in the motor area and four nodes were in the language area. Linear correlation was observed between the efficiency of the two nodes and the patient&rsquo;s language function score. Functional compensation in the contralesional hemisphere may alleviate language deficits in patients with gliomas. Structural compensation mainly occurs in the contralesional midline area in the frontal and temporal lobes, and manifests as an increase in cortical volume and subcortical network efficiency

The Multiplicity of Infection-Dependent Effects of Recombinant Adenovirus Carrying HGF Gene on the Proliferation and Osteogenic Differentiation of Human Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Absence of effective therapeutic methods for avascular necrosis of femoral head (ANFH) is still perplexing the world’s medical community. Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) adoptive cell therapy combined with core decompression is a promising modality, which is highly dependent on the cellular activities of BMSCs. Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a survival factor for BMSCs, yet the underlying mechanism is not fully elucidated. In this study, the effects of multiplicity of infections (MOIs) of recombinant adenovirus carrying HGF gene (rAd-HGF) on human BMSC proliferation and osteogenic differentiation were systemically examined. Infection of rAd-HGF produced secretory HGF and promoted hBMSC proliferation in a MOI-dependent manner, while the osteogenesis was also strengthened as indicated by enhanced calcium nodule formation with the strongest effects achieved at MOI = 250. Blocking the activities of c-MET or its downstream signaling pathways, WNT, ERK1/2, and PI3K/AKT led to differential consequents. Specifically, blockage of the WNT pathway significantly promoted osteogenic differentiation, which also showed additive effects when combined application with rAd-HGF. Our data demonstrated the pro-osteogenic effects of optimized MOIs of rAd-HGF, while inhibition of WNT pathway or activation of PI3K/AKT pathway may act as candidate adjuvant modalities for promoting osteogenic differentiation in rAd-HGF-modified hBMSC treatment on ANFH