The Triple Helix of innovation as a double game involving domestic and foreign actors

Purpose:The collaboration relationships between innovation actors at a geographic level may be considered as grouping two separate layers,the domestic and the foreign.At the level of each layer,the relationships and the actors involved constitute a Triple Helix game.The paper distinguished three levels of analysis:the global grouping together all actors,the domestic grouping together domestic actors,and the foreign related to only actors from partner countries.Design/methodology/approach:Bibliographic records data from the Web of Science for South Korea and West Africa breakdown per innovation actors and distinguishing domestic and international collaboration are analyzed with game theory.The core,the Shapley value,and the nucleolus are computed at the three levels to measure the synergy between actors.Findings:The synergy operates more in South Korea than in West Africa;the government is more present in West Africa than in South Korea;domestic actors create more synergy in South Korea,but foreign more in West Africa;South Korea can consume all the foreign synergy,which is not the case of West Africa.Research limitations:Research data are limited to publication records;techniques and methods used may be extended to other research outputs.Practical implications:West African governments should increase their investment in science,technology,and innovation to benefit more from the synergy their innovation actors contributed at the foreign level.However,the results of the current study may not be sufficient to prove that greater investment will yield benefits from foreign synergies.Originality/value:This paper uses game theory to assess innovation systems by computing the contribution of foreign actors to knowledge production at an area level.It proposes an indicator to this end.

Collagen triple helix repeat containing-1 promotes functional recovery of sweat glands by inducing adjacent microvascular network reconstruction in vivo

Background:Sweat glands(SGs)have low regenerative potential after severe burns or trauma and their regeneration or functional recovery still faces many obstacles.In practice,restoring SG function requires not only the structural integrity of the gland itself,but also its neighboring tissues,especially blood vessels.Collagen triple helix repeat containing-1(CTHRC1)was first identified in vascular repair,and increasing reports showed a close correlation between cutaneous appendage specification,patterning and regeneration.The purpose of the present study was to clarify the role of CTHRC1 in SGs and their adjacent microvessels and find therapeutic strategies to restore SG function.Methods:The SGs and their adjacent microvascular network of Cthrc^(1−/−)mice were first inves-tigated using sweat test,laser Doppler imaging,tissue clearing technique and transcriptome analysis.The effects of CTHRC1 on dermal microvascular endothelial cells(DMECs)were further explored with cell proliferation,DiI-labeled acetylated low-density lipoprotein uptake,tube for-mation and intercellular junction establishment assays.The effects of CTHRC1 on SG function restoration were finally confirmed by replenishing the protein into the paws of Cthrc(1−/−)mice.Results:CTHRC1 is a key regulator of SG function in mice.At the tissue level,Cthrc1 deletion resulted in the disorder and reduction of the microvascular network around SGs.At the molecular level,the knockout of Cthrc1 reduced the expression of vascular development genes and functional proteins in the dermal tissues.Furthermore,CTHRC1 administration considerably enhanced SG function by inducing adjacent vascular network reconstruction.Conclusions:CTHRC1 promotes the development,morphogenesis and function execution of SGs and their neighboring vasculature.Our study provides a novel target for the restoration or regeneration of SG function in vivo.

Cell therapy of a patient with type Ⅲ Osteogenesis imperfecta caused by mutation in COL1A2 gene and unstable collagen type I

The allogenic bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells transplantation was given to the newborn girl diagnosed with osteogenesis imperfecta type III, with multiple bone fractures, extreme shortness and limbs deformities. The treatment was performed at the age of 4 and 6 weeks. The clinical diagnosis was supported by biochemical analysis of collagen type I recovered from culture medium of cultivated patient’s skin fibroblast, which revealed its triple helix instability at temperature about 2?C lower than normal. Sequencing of both genes encoding procollagen type I revealed heterozygous substitution G23569Ain COL1A2 gene causing change of glycine at position 517 to aspartate. The donor of mesenchymal stem cells was the girl’s father. She received two intravenous infusions of suspended cultured mesenchymal cells in 16 days apart without any side effects. An analysis of procollagen type I secreted to the culture medium by bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells obtained from the patient, 3 months following transplantation revealed its normal triple helix stability. During the subsequent two years of follow up two new bone fractures were noted. Currently a two-year-old girl’s presents extreme growth and weight deficiency. The motoric development is also retarded, but the patient constantly improves and makes progresses.

Innovation:A state-of-the-art review and typology

Innovation is often an object of study in economics and management.However,the social and behavioral aspects of innovation acceptance are as important as the economics of product development.A significant portion of the literature considers innovation as a change in the way social actions are conducted,entailing a wide range of social,economic,behavioral,and institutional changes.Various approaches have given rise to the need for a typology.Sundbo(1998)divided innovation into three groups depending on the aspects of the phenomenon:theory of entrepreneurship,technological and social aspects,and strategic aspects.Adopting Sundbo's conceptual framework,this study supplemented and developed it based on recent literature that appeared after 1998.Moreover,this study added new directions at the second level of decomposition and the relationships between different aspects of innovation.In particular,this study analyzed phenomena such as open innovation,agile innovation,and“helix”models.Thus,this study developed a novel typology of innovation that expands the theoretical knowledge in this field.Based on these findings,this study proposed promising areas for future innovation studies.

Hepatitis B virus hijacks CTHRC1 to evade host immunity and maintain replication

HepatitisBvirus(HBV)infection causes acuteand chronic liver diseases,but is not directly cytopathic.Liver injury results fromrepeated attempts of the cellular immune response system to control the viral infection.Here,we investigate the roles of cellular factors and signaling pathways involved in the regulation of HBV replication to reveal the mechanism underlying HBV infection and pathogenesis.Weshowthat collagen triple helix repeat containing 1(CTHRC1)expression is elevated in HBV-infected patients andin HBV-transfected cells through epigenetic modification and transcriptional regulation.CTHRC1 facilitates HBV replication in cultured cells and BALB/c mice by activating the PKCa/ERK/JNK/c-Jun cascade to repress the IFN/JAK/STAT pathway.HBV-activated CTHRC1 downregulates the activityof typeI interferon(IFN),theproductionof IFN-stimulatedgenes(ISGs),andthephosphorylationofsignal transducerandactivator of transcription 1/2(STAT1/2),whereas it upregulates the phosphorylation and ubiquitination of type I IFN receptors(IFNARa/b).Thus,our results showthat HBV uses a novelmechanismto hijack cellular factors and signal cascades in order to evade host antiviral immunity and maintain persistent infection.We also demonstrate that CTHRC1 has a novel role in viral infection.

The new inclusive role of university technology transfer:Setting an agenda for further research

Universities are coming under increasing pressure to produce impact that contributes to socio-economic development. Previous studies have focused on university technology transfer (UTT) mechanisms that lead to the commercialisation of intellectual property. We find that off-late, the legitimacy of such mechanisms, owing to high-failure rates of IP-based start-ups, has come into question. Universities are being invited to widen their academic entrepreneurship (AE) practices to include other forms of knowledge transfer. The increased attention on contemporary concepts such as social entrepreneurship calls for broadening UTT performance indicators to include multiple bottom-lines. These bottom-lines should amplify the societal benefits of AE. This new emphasis raises high-level questions about the societal role of universities and UTT. The aim in this paper is to, therefore, reframe the debate on UTT processes by highlighting a revised agenda for further research. This is done by analysing the extant literature on UTT, academic entre-preneurship, entrepreneurial universities and innovation. The analysis includes a critical review of 96 peer-reviewed articles. As a result, a macro perspective is presented which highlights UTT as-a-mechanism for universities' contribution to collective societal goals. Propositions are outlined for future research;these can be used for developing new un-derstanding on how universities can actively contribute to socio-economic development agendas.

Fluorescence characterization of the thermal stability of collagen mimic peptides

The thermal stability of triple helical structure plays a critical role in collagen biosynthesis,function and degradation.CD technique was utilized to characterize the thermal stability of synthetic collagen mimic peptides.Fluorescence spectroscopy is widely used with easy access all around the world because of its inexpensive instrumentation,low operation cost,easy operation,and high sensitivity.Here we have developed an alternative fluorescence method to detect the thermal stability of collagen mimic peptides.We have demonstrated that fluorescence spectroscopy could measure the thermal stability of collagen mimic peptides with low concentrations under different circumstances.This highly sensitive fluorescence self-quenching assay will greatly expedite the studies of sequence-dependent properties of collagen mimic peptides,and it has great potential in the application of determining the thermal stability of triple helix systems such as collagens,collectins,adiponectin,macrophage scavenger and C1q.