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To address societal challenges, innovators committed to responsibility need to find ways to break away from unsustainable, or otherwise undesirable, path-dependencies in sociotechnical regimes. Such path-breaking innovation should not come at the expense of socioethical desirability. The emerging literature on responsible innovation ecosystems has focused on socioethical desirability but has neglected sociotechnical viability beyond a protected niche. Drawing on theoretical insights and concepts from the literature on Responsible Innovation, innovation ecosystems, and transition studies, we distinguish four types of ecosystems along the axes of desirability and viability and discuss examples of these types. We introduce the concept of transformative innovation ecosystems to refer to a type of ecosystem that combines desirability with viability. The concept is developed by bringing theoretical perspectives into conversation with empirical insights from the high-tech research and innovation cluster NeuroSys, which aims to create an ecosystem around brain-inspired computing.

The experience of socially aversive events is proposed to be a critical etiological factor in the development of social anxiety symptoms even though the experience itself is also common among healthy individuals. Rather than the event itself, accompanying factors such as maladaptive processing might be associated with higher levels of social anxiety symptoms. One-hundred-seventy-four individuals participated in this online-survey comprising questionnaires regarding social anxiety symptoms and retrospective reports concerning maladaptive processing of the worst socially aversive event. Structural equation modelling was used to analyze the hypothesized mediation of maladaptive processing and fear of negative evaluation by intrusive re-experiencing and social phobic beliefs. The positive association between retrospectively evaluated maladaptive processing after the worst socially aversive event and fear of negative evaluation was mediated by social phobic beliefs but not by intrusive re-experiencing. These results point towards the relevance of further investigating processing strategies after socially aversive events as a potential influencing factor for SAD development. Trial registration. The trial was registered at the German Clinical Trial Register (DRKS00021502) on June 3.sup.rd, 2020., Author(s): Rosa J. Seinsche [sup.1] [sup.2] , Bertram Walter [sup.2] [sup.3] , Susanne Fricke [sup.1] [sup.2] , Marie K. Neudert [sup.1] [sup.2] , Raphaela I. Zehtner [sup.1] [sup.2] , Rudolf [...]

Abstract The anatomy of the auditory region of fossil hominins may shed light on the emergence of human spoken language. Humans differ from other great apes in several features of the external, middle and inner ear (e.g., short external ear canal, small tympanic membrane, large oval window). However, the functional implications of these differences remain poorly understood as comparative audiometric data from great apes are scarce and conflicting. Here, we measure the sound transfer function of the external and middle ears of humans, chimpanzees and bonobos, using laser-Doppler vibrometry and finite element analysis. This sound transfer function affects auditory thresholds, which relate to speech reception thresholds in humans. Unexpectedly we find that external and middle ears of chimpanzees and bonobos transfer sound better than human ones in the frequency range of spoken language. Our results suggest that auditory thresholds of the last common ancestor of Homo and Pan were already compatible with speech reception as observed in humans. Therefore, it seems unlikely that the morphological evolution observed in the bony auditory region of fossil hominins was driven by the emergence of spoken language. Instead, the peculiar human configuration may be a by-product of morpho-functional constraints linked to brain expansion.

We are developing a phase-modulating micro mirror-array spatial light modulator to be used for real holography within the EU-funded project REALHOLO, featuring millions of pixels that can be individually positioned in a piston mode at a large frame rate. We found earlier that an electrostatic comb-drive array offers the best performance for the actuators: sufficient yoke forces for fast switching even at low voltages compatible with the CMOS addressing backplane. In our first design, the well-known electrostatic cross-talk issue had already been much smaller than would have been possible for parallel-plate actuators, but it was still larger than the precision requirements for high-image-quality holography. In this paper, we report on our analysis of the crucial regions for the electrostatic cross-talk and ways to reduce it while observing manufacturing constraints as well as avoiding excessively high field strengths that might lead to electrical breakdown. Finally, we present a solution that, in FEM simulations, reduces the remaining cross-talk to well below the required specification limit. This solution can be manufactured without any additional processing steps and suffers only a very small reduction of the yoke forces.

Worldwide, governments are increasingly concerned about the spread of online harms and big tech’s apparent inability to effectively curb them. While some democracies have swiftly implemented regulatory reforms, others, including the United Kingdom, have encountered challenges in developing regulations aimed at platforms. This research investigates the development of the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) as a key case to examine government capacity for regulating digital platforms. It explores the dynamics between the UK government and platforms, revealing persistent resource asymmetries that not only challenge the government's capacity to regulate but also significantly impact the development of regulatory policies. Drawing from empirical evidence from 33 in-depth, elite interviews with stakeholders from government, industry, and civil society, and archival review, the paper proposes an original framework of regulatory capacity consisting of four resources: information, treasure, authority, and organised expertise. The study finds: 1) the government lacks fundamental regulatory capacity, impeding the development of effective platform regulation; 2) platforms hold superior resources for countering online safety issues; 3) capacity asymmetries between government and platforms pose sustained risks for regulatory capture. Bringing these findings into context with the OSA, this research contends that the Act empowers the government to effectively utilise platform resources for regulatory purposes. However, the success of the Act hinges on the government's capacity to use its authority and enforce the online safety regime. Moving forward, the capacity-based approach introduced in this research offers a rich, analytical framework to examine how the complex interplay between actors and resources affects emergent regulatory systems, thus guiding the development of more robust regulatory strategies.

Background & Aims: Patient-derived organoid cancer models are generated from epithelial tumor cells and reflect tumor characteristics. However, they lack the complexity of the tumor microenvironment, which is a key driver of tumorigenesis and therapy response. Here, we developed a colorectal cancer organoid model that incorporates matched epithelial cells and stromal fibroblasts. Methods: Primary fibroblasts and tumor cells were isolated from colorectal cancer specimens. Fibroblasts were characterized for their proteome, secretome, and gene expression signatures. Fibroblast/organoid co-cultures were analyzed by immunohistochemistry and compared with their tissue of origin, as well as on gene expression levels compared with standard organoid models. Bioinformatics deconvolution was used to calculate cellular proportions of cell subsets in organoids based on single-cell RNA sequencing data. Results: Normal primary fibroblasts, isolated from tumor adjacent tissue, and cancer associated fibroblasts retained their molecular characteristics in vitro, including higher motility of cancer associated compared with normal fibroblasts. Importantly, both cancer-associated fibroblasts and normal fibroblasts supported cancer cell proliferation in 3D co-cultures, without the addition of classical niche factors. Organoids grown together with fibroblasts displayed a larger cellular heterogeneity of tumor cells compared with mono-cultures and closely resembled the in vivo tumor morphology. Additionally, we observed a mutual crosstalk between tumor cells and fibroblasts in the co-cultures. This was manifested by considerably deregulated pathways such as cell-cell communication and extracellular matrix remodeling in the organoids. Thrombospondin-1 was identified as a critical factor for fibroblast invasiveness. Conclusion: We developed a physiological tumor/stroma model, which will be vital as a personalized tumor model to study disease mechanisms and therapy response in colorectal cancer.