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This article proposes that creativity and criticality not only can but should be entangled and elevated in participatory futuring engagements. Selected concepts from creativity theory and critical futures studies are applied to develop a set of futuring games through action research. We claim that participatory processes designed to entangle and elevate creativity and criticality produce more novel and varied ideas that better fit the purposes of futures studies. This article offers four arguments for combining creativity and criticality in participatory futuring engagements. First, due to complexity and uncertainty, the future is ultimately unknowable and requires tools to probe the unknown. Second, novelty is difficult to achieve in practice while creativity and criticality can help overcome these challenges. Third, discontinuities are the main sources of futures that are most radically different from the present and will have the biggest impact. Fourth, creativity and criticality support the rigorous imagining required for exploring and discovering new possible futures. This article analyzes three experimentations in entangling and elevating creativity and criticality in game-based futuring, stemming from Causal Layered Analysis. Based on these examples, we demonstrate that creativity and criticality, when combined, help people break through the limitations of current understanding, reveal approaching tipping points, and find the "unvisited cavities" through rhizomatic knowledge creation. However, there remain challenges in evaluating how well various participatory designs support creativity and criticality in practice. Context-sensitive evaluation tools and open sharing of outcomes are needed to develop participation design principles capable of supporting creativity and criticality in participatory futuring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scenario thinking is one of the key elements of futures studies, and therefore, "Scenario Thinking" is one of the first compulsory courses in the Master's Degree Programme in Futures Studies at the University of Turku. Scenario methods are continuously evolving, and our educational practices must reflect recent developments while giving a clear outline of the big picture. Furthermore, increasing interest is being taken in hybrid methods, and such hybridity can also be introduced to teaching scenario thinking. This article discusses an experiment of using causal layered analysis (CLA) to complement and deepen scenarios made by student groups for a Finnish company during an introductory course on scenario thinking. During a first-year master's degree course, a two-hour CLA session was conducted, and student groups were instructed to include the results into their scenario reports. From a methodological point of view, we discuss using CLA as a disruption in the middle of the scenario process to increase reflexivity. From a pedagogical point of view, we discuss how a relatively complex method combination (CLA and scenarios) can be made accessible to first-year master's students conducting their first scenario study. As material, we use our own firsthand experiences from the scenario course and the CLA session as well as a subsequent survey with students. The intention of the paper is to quickly distribute educational practices for assessment by the futures education community and, thus, contribute to improving the state of futures studies and foresight education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing a theoretical foundation toward establishing a futures science requires reconstructing original roots, whereby this field is conceptualized at higher generality levels. This article aims to provide a unifying framework for expressing any of the futures (from possible to plausible, plausible to undecidable) plus the mechanisms for manipulating these futures, with a view to promoting genuine futures thinking. Despite more than sixty years of studies about "the future," the logical status of future-based conceptualizations still remains, at best, unclear. This article proposes to fill the continuity gap through designing a generative mechanism for expanding futures concepts based on formal theory. We use the well-developed Concept-Knowledge theory from Mines ParisTech, founded on set theory without the axiom of choice. The space K represents known/knowable things (present and past facts, available knowledge, what is known-to-be-known/to-be-not-known). The space C of concepts represents what is undecidable, neither provable nor unprovable at a given time. The C-K operating mechanism logically expands C concepts relatively to K, until they result in a conjunction with K—that is, become possible—possibly requiring extra development work. The article illustrates the approach on a series of field cases, whereby the path to futures robustness starts upstream at undecidable stages, as if to open up vast conceptual reservoirs of "futurabilities"—a foundational step transcending traditional futures studies. Futuring becomes a constructive and generative process, potentially leading to accepting infinities of futures formulations, where generativity is monitored as a design-oriented logic working on knowledge. Such an approach should improve the foresight practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonautologous bone grafts have limited osteoinductive potential and thus there is substantial interest in reconstituting these graft materials with osteogenic factors such as bone morphogenic protein 2 (BMP2). However, one limitation of this approach is that BMP2 is typically weakly bound to the graft, which can lead to side effects associated with BMP2 dissemination. In the current study we added a hydroxyapatite (HA)-binding domain onto BMP2 to increase coupling to the graft surface. A sequence consisting of eight glutamate residues (E8) was inserted into the C-terminus of BMP2, and the recombinant protein (rBMP2-E8) was expressed in E. coli. Compared with rBMP2, rBMP2-E8 displayed markedly enhanced binding to HA disks and was better retained on the disks following exposure to vigorous wash steps. Furthermore, rBMP2-E8 was purified using a heparin column, and evaluated for its capacity to stimulate osteoblastic cell signaling. Treatment of SAOS2 cells with rBMP2-E8 induced SMAD 1/5 activation, confirming that the protein retains activity. Collectively these results suggest that the E8 domain serves as an effective tool for improving rBMP2 coupling to graft materials. The increased retention of rBMP2-E8 on the graft surface is expected to prolong BMP2’s osteoinductive activity within the graft site, while simultaneously reducing off-target effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vascularization of bone grafts is vital for graft integration and bone repair, however non-autologous graft sources have limited potential to induce angiogenesis. Accordingly, intensive research has focused on functionalizing non-autologous materials with angiogenic factors. In the current study we evaluated a method for coupling an angiogenic peptide to the surface of two clinically-relevant graft materials, anorganic bovine bone (ABB) and synthetic hydroxyapatite (HA). Specifically, the VEGF-derived “QK” peptide was synthesized with a heptaglutamate (E7) domain, a motif that has strong affinity for calcium phosphate graft materials. Compared with unmodified QK, a 4–6 fold enrichment was observed in the binding of E7-modified QK (E7-QK) to ABB and HA. The E7-QK peptide was then assessed for its capacity to stimulate angiogenic cell behaviors. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were treated with solutions of either QK or E7-QK, and it was found that QK and E7-QK elicited equivalent levels of cell migration, tubule formation and activation of the Akt and ERK signaling pathways. These data confirmed that the inherent bioactivity of the QK sequence was not diminished by the addition of the E7 domain. We further verified that the activity of E7-QK was retained following peptide binding to the graft surface. HA disks were coated with QK or E7-QK, and then HUVECs were seeded onto the disks. Consistent with the increased amount of E7-QK bound to HA, relative to QK, markedly greater activation of Akt and ERK 1/2 was observed in cells exposed to the E7-QK-coated disks. Taken together, these results suggest that the E7 domain can be leveraged to concentrate angiogenic peptides on graft materials, facilitating delivery of higher peptide concentrations within the graft site. The ability to endow diverse graft materials with angiogenic potential holds promise for augmenting the regenerative capacity of non-autologous bone grafts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent study challenges the idea that complex societies and permanent settlements could only arise after the advent of agriculture. In central Siberia, hunter-gatherers built the world's oldest known fortresses 8,000 years ago, complete with elaborate defenses and dwellings sunk deep into the ground for warmth. These fortresses were built thousands of years before agriculture reached some parts of Europe and Asia, suggesting that alternate pathways to complexity exist. The findings in Siberia, along with other archaeological evidence, are prompting a re-evaluation of how complex societies developed and challenging the traditional view that agriculture was the primary driver of cultural complexity. [Extracted from the article]

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, hundreds of buildings, including museums and churches, have been damaged. Now, Ukrainian and U.S. archaeologists are surveying the destruction of Ukraine's archaeological heritage, which includes underground and unexcavated sites. The damage threatens settlements from the early days of farming, medieval necropolises, and Bronze Age burial mounds. International organizations like UNESCO mainly focus on documenting damage to buildings, so the archaeologists hope to draw attention to the damage and start a conversation about comprehensive archaeological preservation. However, surveying the damage remotely is challenging due to restrictions on drones and low-resolution satellite images. The archaeologists plan to document the sites, assess the damage, and conduct controlled surveys to understand the impact of trenches and other features. They emphasize the urgency of addressing the destruction, especially as another winter approaches. [Extracted from the article]

Archaeologists have used satellite imagery to discover over 100 Bronze Age enclosures in Serbia, shedding light on a previously overlooked region. These enclosures, which were part of a vast network of settlements, were likely involved in a continent-wide bronze trade that flourished around 3600 years ago. The structures were hidden from view due to centuries of agriculture and destruction, but were identified through aerial surveys and ground investigations. The purpose of these enclosures, as well as their connection to other civilizations, remains unclear, but their discovery has provided valuable insights into the Bronze Age in Europe. [Extracted from the article]

As Spanish and Portuguese cattle herds in the New World grew, ranchers "needed trained, skilled workers, and African ranchers were more knowledgeable about raising cattle in tropical environments", Delsol says. Modern American cattle are a mix of European and African breeds, researchers thought the African contribution came via Spain, or from cattle imported in the 19th century. [Extracted from the article]

The article reports on a new study led by Philipp Stockhammer of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich has provided new insight into the ancient Egyptian mummification process. It mentions that the study has analyzed residues found in labeled jars and embalming vessels in a 2700-year-old mummification workshop in Saqqara, near Cairo, Egypt that provides information about the specific ingredients used in the process, including cedar resin, cypressor juniper resin, and animal fat.