Pro‐active neutrality: The key to understanding creative facilitation

Facilitation is a critical means of supporting creative processes in teams. Previous studies have shown that neutrality is central to effective facilitation but no clear conceptualization of neutrality has been provided to date. The aim of this paper is to explore how neutrality is enacted by facilitators, what its key elements and mechanisms are, and how it is perceived in the creative facilitation context. We adopt a theory building mode and conduct an in‐depth case study, following an innovation project in the IT sector with a series of facilitated creativity workshops. Our results show that neutrality is a multi‐dimensional construct that interacts with several outcome dimensions of facilitation, i.e. people, process, and product. We introduce a pro‐active neutrality framework, which explains the mechanisms of neutrality in facilitation and thereby extend theory on both neutrality and facilitation. We further outline a number of propositions that could be explored by future research as well as provide important creativity management implications that will enhance creativity and innovation in the workplace.     

Context-Aware Holographic Communication Based on Semantic Knowledge Extraction

Augmented, mixed and virtual reality are changing the way people interact and communicate. Five dimensional communications and services, integrating information from all human senses are expected to emerge, together with holographic communications (HC), providing a truly immersive experience. HC presents a lot of challenges in terms of data gathering and transmission, demanding Artificial Intelligence empowered communication technologies such as 5G. The goal of the paper is to present a model of a context-aware holographic architecture for real time communication based on semantic knowledge extraction. This architecture will require analyzing, combining and developing methods and algorithms for: 3D human body model acquisition; semantic knowledge extraction with deep neural networks to predict human behaviour; analysis of biometric modalities; context-aware optimization of network resource allocation for the purpose of creating a multi-party, from-capturing-to-rendering HC framework. We illustrate its practical deployment in a scenario that can open new opportunities in user experience and business model innovation.

     

Increased growth of Bifidobacterium and Eubacterium by germinated barley foodstuff, accompanied by enhanced butyrate production in healthy volunteers

Germinated barley foodstuff (GBF) derived from the aleurone and scutellum fractions of germinated barley mainly consists of low-lignified hemicellulose and glutamine-rich protein. GBF improves the proliferation of intestinal epithelial cells and defecation, through the bacterial production of short chain fatty acids (SCFA), especially butyrate. In this study we investigated the mechanism of production of butyrate by microflora in humans and in vitro. Daily administration of 9 g GBF for 14 successive days significantly increased fecal butyrate content. Fecal Bifidobacterium and Eubacterium were also significantly increased by GBF administration in healthy volunteers. Ten anaerobic micro-organisms selected from intestinal microflora were cultured in vitro in the medium containing GBF as a sole carbon source (GBF medium). After a 3-day incubation, 7 strains (Bifidobacterium breve, Bifidobacterium longum, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei subsp. casei, Bacteroides ovatus, Clostridium butyricum, and Eubacterium limosum) lowered the medium pH producing SCFA. Eubacterium grown together with Bifidobacterium in GBF medium efficiently produced butyrate. On the other hand, GBF changed the intestinal microflora and increased probiotics such as Bifidobacterium in the intestinal tract. As a result, butyrate was produced by the mutual action of Eubacterium and Bifidobacterium. This butyrate is considered to enhance the proliferation of colonic epithelial cells.     

In-milk inactivation of Escherichia coli O157:H7 by the environmental lytic bacteriophage ECPS-6

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli is a common foodborne pathogen which transmission includes dairy products. In the search for novel biocontrol methods, bacteriophages have become important candidates for the eradication of foodborne pathogens. The aim of this study was to evaluate the bacteriophage-mediated reduction of E. coli O157:H7 in raw and filtered milk. Laboratory-scale tests showed that the bacteriophage ECPS-6 efficiently adsorbed to E. coli O157: H7 cells. Furthermore, ECPS-6 remained stable when heated at 70°C for 20 min and in a wide pH range from 3.0 to 11.0. The trials on contaminated milk were performed using filtered and unfiltered raw milk contaminated with 1 × 10⁵ CFU × ml⁻¹ of E. coli O157: H7. Bacteriophage was added at multiplicity of infection (MOI) 5 and 50. The ECPS-6 reached the highest lytic activity at MOI = 5 (25°C) which resulted in 4.74 Log₁₀ CFU × ml⁻¹ and 7.3 Log₁₀ CFU × ml⁻¹ reduction after 10 days for both tested strains, respectively. Under refrigerated conditions (4°C) the quantity of E. coli decreased to 1.5 Log₁₀ CFU × ml⁻¹ and 3.04 Log₁₀ CFU × ml⁻¹ for these strains, respectively. Usage of MOI = 50 for the treatment unfiltered milk led to the reduction of E. coli O157:H7 A-2 below the detection limit after 6 hr.     

Diffuse and point sources of silica in the Seine River watershed

Dissolved silica (DSi) is believed to enter aquatic ecosystems primarily through diffuse sources by weathering. Point sources have generally been considered negligible, although recent reports of DSi inputs from domestic and industrial sources suggest otherwise. In addition, particulate amorphous silica (ASi) inputs from terrestrial ecosystems during soil erosion and in vegetation can dissolve and also be a significant source of DSi. We quantify here both point and diffuse sources of DSi and particulate ASi to the Seine River watershed. The total per capita point source inputs of Si (DSi + ASi) were found to be 1.0 and 0.8 g Si inhabitant(-1) d(-1) in raw and treated waters of the Achères wastewater treatment plant, in agreement with calculations based on average food intake and silica-containing washing products consumption. A mass balance of Si inputs and outputs for the Seine drainage network was established for wet and dry hydrological conditions (2001 and 2003, respectively). Diffuse sources of Si are of 1775 kg Si km(-2) y(-1) in wet conditions and 762 kg Si km(-2) y(-1) in dry conditions, with the proportion of ASi around 6%. Point sources of Si from urban discharge can contribute to more than 8% of the total Si inputs at the basin scale in hydrologically dry years. An in-stream retention of 6% of total inputs in dry conditions and 12% in wet conditions is inferred from the budget.     

Hydrogen production by the thermophilic eubacterium Thermotoga neapolitana from storage polysaccharides of the CO2-fixing diatom Thalassiosira weissflogii

Planktic diatoms are the largest primary producers in marine and freshwater habitats. Their dry biomass accumulates up to 50% of lipids and contains water-soluble β-1,3-glucans as major storage products. Because of the world-wide abundance of these photosynthetic protists, β-1,3-glucans may rival cellulose as the polysaccharide with the highest annual production on Earth. Here we show the feasibility of a simple and efficient process leading to bio-hydrogen by dark fermentation of microalgal biomass with the thermophilic bacterium Thermotoga neapolitana. Production of the biogas on minimum medium supplemented only with the extract of the diatom Thalassiosira weissflogii proved that algal biomass per se can serve as substrate for sustaining the biotechnological process with no requirement of any pretreatment and external integration of other nutrients. At the same time, lipids unused for the anaerobic production of the biogas, can be employed for production of bio-diesel, thus considerably increasing the economic potential of these renewable feedstocks.     

Diabetic Kinome Inhibitors—A New Opportunity for β-Cells Restoration

Diabetes, and several diseases related to diabetes, including cancer, cardiovascular diseases and neurological disorders, represent one of the major ongoing threats to human life, becoming a true pandemic of the 21st century. Current treatment strategies for diabetes mainly involve promoting β-cell differentiation, and one of the most widely studied targets for β-cell regeneration is DYRK1A kinase, a member of the DYRK family. DYRK1A has been characterized as a key regulator of cell growth, differentiation, and signal transduction in various organisms, while further roles and substrates are the subjects of extensive investigation. The targets of interest in this review are implicated in the regulation of β-cells through DYRK1A inhibition—through driving their transition from highly inefficient and death-prone populations into efficient and sufficient precursors of islet regeneration. Increasing evidence for the role of DYRK1A in diabetes progression and β-cell proliferation expands the potential for pharmaceutical applications of DYRK1A inhibitors. The variety of new compounds and binding modes, determined by crystal structure and in vitro studies, may lead to new strategies for diabetes treatment. This review provides recent insights into the initial self-activation of DYRK1A by tyrosine autophosphorylation. Moreover, the importance of developing novel DYRK1A inhibitors and their implications for the treatment of diabetes are thoroughly discussed. The evolving understanding of DYRK kinase structure and function and emerging high-throughput screening technologies have been described. As a final point of this work, we intend to promote the term “diabetic kinome” as part of scientific terminology to emphasize the role of the synergistic action of multiple kinases in governing the molecular processes that underlie this particular group of diseases.     

Size exclusion and reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography/UV for routine control of thermal processing of cows' and donkey milk major proteins

Cows' and donkey milks (raw and thermally processed) and respective whey were analysed for quantification of major proteins. Two different chromatographic approaches, size exclusion (SE-HPLC) and reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) both coupled to UV detection were used. Usefulness of these methods for routine control of the effect of thermal processing was evaluated. The external standard method was used to calibrate the SE-HPLC and RP-HPLC systems. Concerning quantification of β-lactoglobulin (β-lg), α-lactalbumin (α-la), lysozyme (lys), and total casein (cn), no significant differences between results obtained by SE-HPLC and by RP-HPLC (t-test, P>0·05) were observed for raw milks and whey. Heating of cows' milk promoted aggregation of denatured proteins as observed by SE-HPLC, whereas α-la and β-lg from donkey milk were stable to thermal processing at 100 °C (5 min). Lys was quantified in donkey raw milk and whey however, in thermally processed donkey milk lys was denatured and could not be quantified by HPLC.