Collaborative Regional Innovation Initiatives: A Booster for Local Company Innovation Processes?

It is widely acknowledged that the rate of innovations can be enhanced through interaction between new constellations of actors, crossing borderlines between different mindsets, knowledge and skill bases (e.g. Brown and Duguid, Org Sci 2(1):40–57, 1991; Cooke and Morgan, The associational economy: firms, regions, and innovation, 1998; Leonard-Barton, Wellsprings of knowledge: building and sustaining the sources of innovation, 1995, p. 64; Stamm, Managing innovation, design and creativity, 2008, p. 335). Studies of economic prosperity have also pointed to cooperation and competition between neighboring actors as a driver for competitiveness and innovativeness, be it for a company, a business area or a region (e.g. Piore and Sabel, The second industrial divide: possibilities for prosperity, 1984; Porter, The competitive advantage of nations, 1990). The hypothesis behind the geographical focus is that geographical proximity between actors promotes interaction and hence innovation. In EU, and also in Norway, this has been used actively as guidance in national and regional policy, where construction of innovation systems such as clusters and interorganizational networks are promoted and funded. To get organizations and institutions in a region to collaborate more is seen as the panacea for innovation, transformation and prosperity. However, companies often treat such constructed initiatives as an add-on to their ordinary, often long-lasting, business relationships between customers and suppliers (Håkansson et al., Business in networks, 2009, p. 13). This could imply that the necessary anchoring of such new innovation system initiatives with the companies’ own innovation processes is weak or missing. The terminology system points to the importance of the different elements (actors) in the system, their interrelatedness and their impact on each other (Meadows, Thinking in systems. A primer, 2009). An innovation system, like a network, cannot deliver innovation if the elements (i.e. the companies) of the systems don’t respond with related actions to the common endeavor. However, the different actors’ intraorganizational innovation processes are hardly mentioned in the innovation systems theories, thus lacking the important system feedback link between the intraorganizational innovation processes within the single company and the interorganizational innovation processes which are taking place in the collaborative initiative. In this article it is argued, supported by a case story, that attention to both of these processes and the nexus between them is needed in order to construct sustainable interorganizational innovation system initiatives. A model for this is proposed, based on a dual organization development process, encouraging system feedback loops and thereby bridging the single participating organization and the interorganizational collaborative initiative.     

Two distinct modes of guidance signalling during collective migration of border cells

Although directed migration is a feature of both individual cells and cell groups, guided migration has been studied most extensively for single cells in simple environments. Collective guidance of cell groups remains poorly understood, despite its relevance for development and metastasis. Neural crest cells and neuronal precursors migrate as loosely organized streams of individual cells, whereas cells of the fish lateral line, Drosophila tracheal tubes and border-cell clusters migrate as more coherent groups. Here we use Drosophila border cells to examine how collective guidance is performed. We report that border cells migrate in two phases using distinct mechanisms. Genetic analysis combined with live imaging shows that polarized cell behaviour is critical for the initial phase of migration, whereas dynamic collective behaviour dominates later. PDGF- and VEGF-related receptor and epidermal growth factor receptor act in both phases, but use different effector pathways in each. The myoblast city (Mbc, also known as DOCK180) and engulfment and cell motility (ELMO, also known as Ced-12) pathway is required for the early phase, in which guidance depends on subcellular localization of signalling within a leading cell. During the later phase, mitogen-activated protein kinase and phospholipase Cgamma are used redundantly, and we find that the cluster makes use of the difference in signal levels between cells to guide migration. Thus, information processing at the multicellular level is used to guide collective behaviour of a cell group.     

One or more bound planets per Milky Way star from microlensing observations

Most known extrasolar planets (exoplanets) have been discovered using the radial velocity or transit methods. Both are biased towards planets that are relatively close to their parent stars, and studies find that around 17-30% (refs 4, 5) of solar-like stars host a planet. Gravitational microlensing, on the other hand, probes planets that are further away from their stars. Recently, a population of planets that are unbound or very far from their stars was discovered by microlensing. These planets are at least as numerous as the stars in the Milky Way. Here we report a statistical analysis of microlensing data (gathered in 2002-07) that reveals the fraction of bound planets 0.5-10?AU (Sun-Earth distance) from their stars. We find that 17(+6)(-9)% of stars host Jupiter-mass planets (0.3-10?M(J), where M(J) = 318?M(⊕) and M(⊕) is Earth's mass). Cool Neptunes (10-30?M(⊕)) and super-Earths (5-10?M(⊕)) are even more common: their respective abundances per star are 52(+22)(-29)% and 62(+35)(-37)%. We conclude that stars are orbited by planets as a rule, rather than the exception.     

Exotoxin A-eEF2 complex structure indicates ADP ribosylation by ribosome mimicry

The bacteria causing diphtheria, whooping cough, cholera and other diseases secrete mono-ADP-ribosylating toxins that modify intracellular proteins. Here, we describe four structures of a catalytically active complex between a fragment of Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin A (ETA) and its protein substrate, translation elongation factor 2 (eEF2). The target residue in eEF2, diphthamide (a modified histidine), spans across a cleft and faces the two phosphates and a ribose of the non-hydrolysable NAD+ analogue, betaTAD. This suggests that the diphthamide is involved in triggering NAD+ cleavage and interacting with the proposed oxacarbenium intermediate during the nucleophilic substitution reaction, explaining the requirement of diphthamide for ADP ribosylation. Diphtheria toxin may recognize eEF2 in a manner similar to ETA. Notably, the toxin-bound betaTAD phosphates mimic the phosphate backbone of two nucleotides in a conformational switch of 18S rRNA, thereby achieving universal recognition of eEF2 by ETA.     

Cold tolerance of two Antarctic terrestrial arthropods

Summary Two Antarctic arthropods,Alaskozetes antarcticus (Acari) andCryptopygus antarcticus (Collembola) possess the ability to supercool to –30°C, but the realisation of this potential is dependent on starvation. The mite contains glycerol in a concentration of about 1% fresh weight.Acknowledgments. We thank the British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge and the Zoological Institute. University of Oslo for support and reasearch facilities, and the Natural Environment Research Council for a research grant (GR. 3/2797). We are grateful to Ms I. Tambs-Lyche for technical assistance.     

Further observations on the effects of selenium and antioxidants on exudative diathesis in chicks

Zusammenfassung Bei Fütterung von Küken mit einer Vitamin-E-freien Nahrung unter Zugabe von 0,1–1 ppm Selen in der ersten Woche wurde das Auftreten exsudativer Diathese 2–7 Tage hinausgeschoben. Es wird deshalb angenommen, dass die biologisch aktive Verbindung von Selen nur geringfügig deponiert wird.Die von amerikanischen Forschern gefundene Schutzwirkung von Ethoxyquin gegen exsudative Diathese wird bestätigt.

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Fulbright Research Scholar 1959–1960.