changing environments
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Author(s):  
Bruno Arcanjo ◽  
Bruno Ferrarini ◽  
Michael J Milford ◽  
Klaus Mcdonald-Maier ◽  
Shoaib Ehsan

2022 ◽  
pp. 21-30
Author(s):  
Wlademir Leite Correia Filho ◽  
Daniel Knebel Baggio

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated changes in company management, valuing coopetition as a collective strategy by strengthening the dynamic capabilities defined by Teece et al. as the firm's ability to integrate, build, and reconfigure external and internal competencies in rapidly changing environments. The adaptive capacity will prepare the company for adversity; the absorptive capacity favors the acquisition, assimilation, transformation, and application of external knowledge to create and maintain competitive advantages, and the capacity to innovate allows the identification of new business opportunities. The research showed that for the studied group, the good use of the dynamic absorption and adaptation capacities present in coopetition strongly contributes to the development of innovation competences, thus achieving and sustaining competitive advantage.


Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Nicholas M. Cronin ◽  
Kris A. DeMali

The shape of cells is altered to allow cells to adapt to their changing environments, including responding to internally generated and externally applied force. Force is sensed by cell surface adhesion proteins that are enriched in sites where cells bind to the extracellular matrix (focal adhesions) and neighboring cells (cell–cell or adherens junctions). Receptors at these adhesion sites stimulate intracellular signal transduction cascades that culminate in dramatic changes in the actin cytoskeleton. New actin filaments form, and/or new and existing filaments can be cleaved, branched, or bundled. Here, we discuss the actin cytoskeleton and its functions. We will examine the current understanding for how the actin cytoskeleton is tethered to adhesion sites. Finally, we will highlight recent studies describing how the actin cytoskeleton at these adhesion sites is remodeled in response to force.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia Klein ◽  
Victoria Frazier ◽  
Timothy Readdean ◽  
Emily Lucas ◽  
Erica P. Diaz-Jimenez ◽  
...  

The anthozoan sea anemone Nematostella vectensis belongs to the phylum of cnidarians which also includes jellyfish and corals. Nematostella are native to United States East Coast marsh lands, where they constantly adapt to changes in salinity, temperature, oxygen concentration and pH. Its natural ability to continually acclimate to changing environments coupled with its genetic tractability render Nematostella a powerful model organism in which to study the effects of common pollutants on the natural development of these animals. Potassium nitrate, commonly used in fertilizers, and Phthalates, a component of plastics are frequent environmental stressors found in coastal and marsh waters. Here we present data showing how early exposure to these pollutants lead to dramatic defects in development of the embryos and eventual mortality possibly due to defects in feeding ability. Additionally, we examined the microbiome of the animals and identified shifts in the microbial community that correlated with the type of water that was used to grow the animals, and with their exposure to pollutants.


Neuroforum ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda C. Weiss

Abstract Phenotypic plasticity describes the ability of an organism with a given genotype to respond to changing environmental conditions through the adaptation of the phenotype. Phenotypic plasticity is a widespread means of adaptation, allowing organisms to optimize fitness levels in changing environments. A core prerequisite for adaptive predictive plasticity is the existence of reliable cues, i.e. accurate environmental information about future selection on the expressed plastic phenotype. Furthermore, organisms need the capacity to detect and interpret such cues, relying on specific sensory signalling and neuronal cascades. Subsequent neurohormonal changes lead to the transformation of phenotype A into phenotype B. Each of these activities is critical for survival. Consequently, anything that could impair an animal’s ability to perceive important chemical information could have significant ecological ramifications. Climate change and other human stressors can act on individual or all of the components of this signalling cascade. In consequence, organisms could lose their adaptive potential, or in the worst case, even become maladapted. Therefore, it is key to understand the sensory systems, the neurobiology and the physiological adaptations that mediate organisms’ interactions with their environment. It is, thus, pivotal to predict the ecosystem-wide effects of global human forcing. This review summarizes current insights on how climate change affects phenotypic plasticity, focussing on how associated stressors change the signalling agents, the sensory systems, receptor responses and neuronal signalling cascades, thereby, impairing phenotypic adaptations.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Guglielmini Tomasi ◽  
Alexander M. J. Hall ◽  
Jessica T. P. Schweber ◽  
Charles L. Dulberger ◽  
Kerry McGowen ◽  
...  

Toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems allow bacteria to adapt to changing environments without altering gene expression. Despite being overrepresented in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), their individual physiological roles remain elusive. We describe a TA system in Mtb which we have named TacAT due to its homology to previously discovered systems in Salmonella. The toxin, TacT, blocks growth by acetylating glycyl-tRNAs and inhibiting translation. Its effects are reversed by the enzyme peptidyl tRNA hydrolase (Pth), which also cleaves peptidyl tRNAs that are prematurely released from stalled ribosomes. Pth is essential in most bacteria and thereby has been proposed as a promising drug target for complex pathogens like Mtb. Transposon sequencing data suggest that the tacAT operon is nonessential for Mtb growth in vitro, and premature stop mutations in this TA system present in some clinical isolates suggest that it is also dispensable in vivo. We assessed whether TacT modulates pth essentiality in Mtb, as drugs targeting Pth might be ineffective if TacAT is disrupted. We find that pth essentiality is unaffected by the absence of tacAT. These results highlight a fundamental aspect of mycobacterial biology and indicate that Pth's essential role hinges on its peptidyl-tRNA hydrolase activity. Our work underscores Pth's potential as a viable target for new antibiotics.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiorella Del Popolo Cristaldi ◽  
Giulia Buodo ◽  
Filippo Gambarota ◽  
Suzanne Oosterwijk ◽  
Giovanni Mento

People use their previous experience to predict present affective events. Since we live in ever-changing environments, affective predictions must generalize from past contexts (from which they are implicitly learned) to new, potentially ambiguous contexts. This study investigated how past (un)certain relationships influence subjective experience following new ambiguous cues, and whether past relationships can be learned implicitly. Two S1-S2 paradigms were employed as learning and test phases in two experiments. S1s were colored circles, S2s negative or neutral affective pictures. Participants (N = 121, 116) were assigned to the certain (CG) or uncertain group (UG), and they were presented with 100% (CG) or 50% (UG) S1-S2 congruency during an uninstructed (Experiment 1) or implicit (Experiment 2) learning phase. During the test phase both groups were presented with a new 75% S1-S2 paradigm, and ambiguous (Experiment 1) or unambiguous (Experiment 2) S1s. Participants were asked to rate the expected valence of upcoming S2s (expectancy ratings), or their experienced valence and arousal (valence and arousal ratings). In Experiment 1 ambiguous cues elicited less negative expectancy ratings, and less unpleasant valence ratings, independently from prior experience. In Experiment 2, participants in the CG reported more negative expectancy ratings after the S1s previously paired with negative stimuli. Overall, we found that in the presence of ambiguous cues subjective affective experience is dampened, and we confirmed that people are able to infer probabilistic relationships from the environment (and to use them later) at an implicit level.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohan Balakrishnan ◽  
Roshali T Silva ◽  
Terence Hwa ◽  
Jonas Cremer

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatrice Van der Heijden ◽  
Aukje Nauta ◽  
Mel Fugate ◽  
Ans De Vos ◽  
Nikos Bozionelos

We describe how idiosyncratic deals (I-deals), in this case I-deals focused on workers’ employability enhancement, can serve as a powerful strategic HR tool for simultaneously meeting both the strategic goals of employers and the career goals of employees. Building on a sustainable career perspective, I-deals are interpreted as highly valuable, as they can help individual employees to more easily adapt to the fast-changing environments that nowadays characterize society and the labor market. After theoretical outlines on the concepts of I-deals and employability, we argue that I-deals can form the basis for integrative employment relationships aimed at employability enhancement. This article concludes with concrete recommendations for practice, indicating that in order to enable the sound use of I-deals as a strategic HR tool, organizations should discuss I-deals and employability openly through constructive dialogue. Moreover, examples for achieving this through specific practices, such as working with employability coaches and world cafés on employability, are described.


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