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Artificial scaffolds such as synthetic gels or chemically-modified glass surfaces that have often been used to achieve cell adhesion are xenobiotic and may harm cells. To enhance the value of cell studies in the fields of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering, it is becoming increasingly important to create a cell-friendly technique to promote cell–cell contact. In the present study, we developed a novel method for constructing stable cellular assemblies by using optical tweezers in a solution of a natural hydrophilic polymer, dextran. In this method, a target cell is transferred to another target cell to make cell–cell contact by optical tweezers in a culture medium containing dextran. When originally non-cohesive cells are held in contact with each other for a few minutes under laser trapping, stable cell–cell adhesion is accomplished. This method for creating cellular assemblies in the presence of a natural hydrophilic polymer may serve as a novel next-generation 3D single-cell assembly system with future applications in the growing field of regenerative medicine.

Employees are motivated intrinsically as well as extrinsically. Intrinsic motivation is crucial when tacit knowledge in and between teams must be transferred. Organizational forms enable different kinds of motivation and have different capacities to generate and transfer tacit knowledge. Since knowledge generation and transfer are essential for a firm's sustainable competitive advantage, we ask specifically what kinds of motivation are needed to generate and transfer tacit knowledge, as opposed to explicit knowledge.

In his seminal 1970 book, \"The Gift Relationship\", Richard Titmuss argued that monetary compensation for donating blood might crowd out the supply of blood donors. To test this claim we carried out a field experiment with three different treatments. In the first treatment subjects were given the opportunity to become blood donors without any compensation. In the second treatment subjects received a payment of SEK 50 (about $7) for becoming blood donors, and in the third treatment subjects could choose between a SEK 50 payment and donating SEK 50 to charity. The results differ markedly between men and women. For men the supply of blood donors is not significantly different among the three experimental groups. For women there is a significant crowding- out effect. The supply of blood donors decreases by almost half when a monetary payment is introduced. There is also a significant effect of allowing individuals to donate the payment to charity, and this effect fully counteracts the crowding-out effect.

We conduct a laboratory experiment to investigate whether the rebate and matching subsidy schemes cause crowding-out or crowding-in effects (reductions or increases in amount donated) on individual net donations. We find that when the rebate subsidy scheme is implemented, it does not result in crowding-out or crowding-in effects on individual net donations. However, when the matching subsidy scheme is implemented, it encourages individuals to donate more and generates crowding-in effects on individual net donations.

This study investigates the effectiveness, allocative efficiency, and crowding‐out effects of health expenditures in response to traditional infectious diseases and the COVID‐19 pandemic. Through theoretical analysis and empirical data from Korean local governments, employing a two‐way fixed effects model, we derive several key findings. First, social insurance health expenditures were significantly effective in controlling both traditional infectious diseases and COVID‐19, whereas general government health expenditures were not. Second, allocative efficiency, the principle of allocating more resources where needed, was not observed in the response to traditional infectious diseases but was significant in the COVID‐19 response. Third, we identified a crowding‐out effect where increased health expenditures for COVID‐19 reduced funds for traditional infectious disease responses. These findings offer strategic insights for Asia‐Pacific countries in optimising health resource allocation and budget management amidst evolving health crises.

The previous empirical literature, relevant to Central, East and Southeast European (CESEE) countries, has mostly examined the effect of inward FDI but neglected the effect of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) on domestic investment. Domestic companies and local foreign subsidiaries owned by multinational companies are the main sources of OFDI from the CESEE countries. The growth in the volume of OFDI from CESEE countries is a consequence of strengthening the competitiveness of companies. Despite this, these countries are still net recipients of FDI, because they get significantly higher FDI inflow than FDI outflow. We used the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model, a sample of 13 CESEE countries and the annual data for the period from 1995 to 2019 in this study. In the long run, we found there to be an asymmetric effect from OFDI on the domestic investments of Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Russia, Slovenia and the Ukraine. We also found that OFDI has a crowding-out effect on the domestic investment of Bulgaria, Poland and the Slovenia, while it has a crowding-in effect on the domestic investment of Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine and the Russia.

Biological macromolecules function in highly crowded cellular environments. The structure and dynamics of proteins and nucleic acids are well characterized in vitro, but in vivo crowding effects remain unclear. Using molecular dynamics simulations of a comprehensive atomistic model cytoplasm we found that protein-protein interactions may destabilize native protein structures, whereas metabolite interactions may induce more compact states due to electrostatic screening. Protein-protein interactions also resulted in significant variations in reduced macromolecular diffusion under crowded conditions, while metabolites exhibited significant two-dimensional surface diffusion and altered protein-ligand binding that may reduce the effective concentration of metabolites and ligands in vivo. Metabolic enzymes showed weak non-specific association in cellular environments attributed to solvation and entropic effects. These effects are expected to have broad implications for the in vivo functioning of biomolecules. This work is a first step towards physically realistic in silico whole-cell models that connect molecular with cellular biology. Much of the work that has been done to understand how cells work has involved studying parts of a cell in isolation. This is particularly true of studies that have examined the arrangement of atoms in large molecules with elaborate structures like proteins or DNA. However, cells are densely packed with many different molecules and there is little proof that proteins keep the same structures inside cells that they have when they are studied alone. To really understand how cells work, new ways to understand how molecules behave inside cells are needed. While this cannot be achieved directly, technology has now reached the stage where we can, to some extent, study living cells by recreating them virtually. Simulated cells can copy the atomic details of all the molecules in a cell and can estimate how different molecules might behave together. Yu et al. have now developed a computer simulation of part of a cell from the bacterium, Mycoplasma genitalium, one of the simplest forms of life on Earth. This model suggested new possible interactions between molecules inside cells that cannot currently be studied in real cells. The model shows that some proteins have a much less rigid structure in cells than they do in isolation, whilst others are able to work together more closely to carry out certain tasks. Finally, the model predicted that small molecules such as food, water and drugs would move more slowly through cells as they become stuck or trapped by larger molecules. These results could be particularly important in helping to improve drug design. Currently the simulations are limited, and can only model parts of simple cells for less than a thousandth of a second. However, in future it should be possible to recreate larger and more complex cells, including human cells, for longer periods of time. These could be used to better study human diseases and help to design new treatments. The ultimate goal is to simulate a whole cell in full detail by combining all the available experimental data.

Online communities may increase customer brand loyalty, deliver customer feedback, and lead to cost savings. Yet they also suffer from weak contributions that limit their survival chances. This study explores whether two types of explicit incentives-monetary and normative pleas-encourage members of an online community to contribute actively. Community managers often administer explicit incentives to increase members' participation, but economic and psychological theories indicate that their effects depend on members' previous levels of voluntary contributions. An experimental study among members of a large, public question-and-answer community confirms varying effects: Online community managers can use monetary incentives to increase active and passive community members' participation in the short term, but these rewards' hidden costs likely emerge in the long run because participation motivation among formerly active members decreases after the incentives expire. Explicit normative pleas should be administered only to increase active members' short-term intentions to post messages. These results can help community managers decide whether to use explicit incentives to increase member participation and which kinds of explicit incentives to offer to various community members.

We performed experiments to elucidate the conformations of a single centimeter-sized bead chain through the mechanical vertical agitation under different crowding levels mediated by granular spheres. The bead chain adopted various conformations, such as a compact toroid, swelled toroid, rod-like shape, and random coil, depending on the solution conditions and experimental parameters like the crowding level and strength of the mechanical agitation. The characteristic conformations generated in macroscopic real-world experiments at several tens of centimeters exhibited similarity with those of a single giant double-stranded DNA chain above several tens of kilobase pairs, at several tens of micrometers, despite the significant difference in length scales. We performed Monte Carlo simulation and showed that the conformations of a semiflexible chain captured the essential structural features observed in the bead-chain experiment by adjusting the strength of vertical fluctuation and crowding level, suggesting general features of the semiflexible chain.

ABSTRACT IN SPANISH: La relación entre la familia y el Estado se ha planteado en términos de sustitución de éste por aquella, lo cual produciria un efecto de debilitamiento de la solidaridad privada (\"crowding-out\"). Desde un punto de vista opuesto, se han estudiado empíricamente los mecanismos a través de los cuales las políticas sociales refuerzan la solidaridad interna de la familia, complementándose así ambas instituciones e incluso aumentando la ayuda mutua entre personas emparentadas (\"crowding-in\"). Sin embargo, en contextos sociales distintos la significación de los conceptos de sustitución y complementariedad puede variar. En el artículo, se estudia la relación entre Estado y familia en lo que se refiere al cuidado de las personas para el caso español, donde la escasa y tardía aparición de políticas sociales hace que se invierta la relación. Hay un proceso de sustitución pero no de la familia por el Estado sino de la esperable intervención estatal que no llega por la familia. Sin embargo, se trata de un nuevo papel de la familia en el que el protagonismo va más allá del ámbito nuclear y más altá de las mujeres. Son las redes familiares, y en especial las abuelas y los abuelos, quienes asumen una parte clave del cuidado de los menores. Por tanto, es la propia familia la que sustituye a la acción del Estado inexistente o insuficiente. Los datos empiricos proceden la Encuesta de Redes Familiares de Andalucía que permite estudiar con detalle los factores explicativos de la solidaridad intrafamiliar. // ABSTRACT IN ENGLISH: The relationship between family and State has been conceptualised in terms of substitution of the former by the latter, which would have a weakening effect of private solidarity (`crowding-out'). From an opposite approach, the mechanisms through which the internal solidarity of the family is reinforced by social policies have been studied. In this case, both institutions complement each other and mutual support between relatives can even increase (`crowding-in'). In different social contexts, though, the meaning of substitution and complement varies. The article studies the relationship between family and State in care for the Spanish case, where the delayed and limited social policies invert the relation between these two institutions. Substitution takes place, but it is rather the family that substitutes the expected State intervention which does not appear. This is a new role for the family beyond the nuclear circle and beyond women as carers. Family networks, and especially grandparents, assume a key role in child care. The family substitutes the absent State. Empirical data come form the Family Networks Survey of Andalusia which allows detailed analysis of the explaining factors of solidarity in the family.