Intellectual capital: direction, not blind faith

This study questions the coupling of “intellectual” with “capital” and the assumption that such a coupling legitimises measurement. It suggests this coupling presents intellectual capital as an uncontested construction that attracts a broad audience. However, this study lays bare intellectual capital by revealing its contestability and multiple meanings using rational and non-rational management perspectives as examples. Such contestability can be seen both as a strength and weakness in making intellectual capital a meaningful or meaningless construction. Using a metalectic framework, a process is presented that exposes a variety of attitudes of mind so that the integration of rational and non-rational management perspectives becomes a possibility. Using this framework, intellectual labour is captured operating within an eco-work system, which relies on the human attributes of independency and interdependency working simultaneously. It suggests that intellectual capital can only indicate a direction when imagination, creativity and learning are at work. The intention is not to provide yet another management model that will control or change people’s behaviours. This paper simply presents an alternative thinking process that accommodates a variety of attitudes of mind and argues that such a process is more appropriate than what is currently on offer if intellectual capital is to become more meaningful

Collective creativity: wisdom or oxymoron?

The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate ways in which collective creativity and individual creativity exist in an “and/both” rather than in an “either/or” relationship. This study uses and interrelates a number of dualities using “metalectics”, the principal task of which is to balance seemingly conflicting opposites by revealing them and locating them on their strengths. Collective creativity, as a bridging metaphor, renders itself as an oxymoron, both literally and as an outcome: where individual and collective creativity are dichotomised, diversity is treated as a constraint, and collaboration is confused with coordination. An essential of creativity is deviancy, and that this has to be valued to bring about change. Heterogeneous communities of practice should not be confused with homogenous communities of practice because this causes artificial dialogues that destroy the very creativity they claim to ignite. The paper offers an alternative way of thinking, arguing for a move away from simplified, unbalanced perspectives of creativity that focus on one-dimensionality and asymmetry

Extradenticle and Homothorax Control Adult Muscle Fiber Identity in Drosophila

SummaryHere we identify a key role for the homeodomain proteins Extradenticle (Exd) and Homothorax (Hth) in the specification of muscle fiber fate in Drosophila. exd and hth are expressed in the fibrillar indirect flight muscles but not in tubular jump muscles, and manipulating exd or hth expression converts one muscle type into the other. In the flight muscles, exd and hth are genetically upstream of another muscle identity gene, salm, and are direct transcriptional regulators of the signature flight muscle structural gene, Actin88F. Exd and Hth also impact muscle identity in other somatic muscles of the body by cooperating with Hox factors. Because mammalian orthologs of exd and hth also contribute to muscle gene regulation, our studies suggest that an evolutionarily conserved genetic pathway determines muscle fiber differentiation

Functional redundancy and nonredundancy between two Troponin C isoforms in adult muscles

We investigated the functional overlap of two muscle Troponin C (TpnC) genes that are expressed in the adult fruit fly, : is predominantly expressed in the indirect flight muscles (IFMs), whereas is the main isoform in the tergal depressor of the trochanter muscle (TDT; jump muscle). Using CRISPR/Cas9, we created a transgenic line with a homozygous deletion of and compared its phenotype to a line lacking functional We found that the removal of either of these genes leads to expression of the other isoform in both muscle types. The switching between isoforms occurs at the transcriptional level and involves minimal enhancers located upstream of the transcription start points of each gene. Functionally, the two TpnC isoforms were not equal. Although ectopic TpnC4 in TDT muscles was able to maintain jumping ability, TpnC41C in IFMs could not effectively support flying. Simultaneous functional disruption of both TpnC genes resulted in jump-defective and flightless phenotypes of the survivors, as well as abnormal sarcomere organization. These results indicated that TpnC is required for myofibril assembly, and that there is functional specialization among TpnC isoforms in