Creative Insight Research Articles

SURFACE DESIGN TRAINING USING SUMINAGASHI TECHNIQUE TO INCREASE STUDENT CREATIVITY IN PKBM BINAR, SOUTH TANGERANG

Apart from entering the workforce or pursuing higher education, high school and vocational school graduates are encouraged to become creative entrepreneurs. Creative businesses are rapidly developing and play a vital role in creating high-quality products with added value that contribute significantly to the economy. A training program on making surface designs using the suminagashi technique serves as a community service activity aimed at enhancing the motivation and creativity of PKBM Binar students in the Bintaro area of South Tangerang. Surface design involves creating patterns on a material’s surface to enhance its functional value. Suminagashi is an ancient Japanese technique that uses water to create marbled patterns, resembling marble textures. While often applied to fabric, this technique can also be used on other materials like wood, synthetic leather, and ceramics. The community service implementation consists of material presentation, discussions, and hands-on training. The presentation and discussion methods will introduce the material effectively. The goal of this community service is to expand the creative insight of PKBM Binar students, enabling them to produce value-added products through the application of the suminagashi surface design technique. This initiative seeks to inspire creativity and innovation among participants.

Flocculation potential regulation to achieve the improved thermal‐mechanical performance for CB/GO reinforced NR nanocomposites

AbstractWith the rapid development of modern transportation systems, optimizing the relationship between structure and performance to obtain natural rubber‐based nanocomposites with excellent comprehensive performance is still worth to investigation. Herein, the regulation of flocculation potential through different flocculants selection on the thermomechanical properties for carbon black/graphene oxide reinforced natural rubber (CB/GO/NR) nanocomposites were investigated based on the compression electric double layer theory. The results showed that formic acid owned the highest zeta potential with comparison of sodium chloride (NaCl), calcium chloride (CaCl2), and aluminum chloride (AlCl3). Meanwhile, as the content was 8 wt%, tensile strength, tearing strength and thermal conductivity could achieve to 27.64 MPa, 56.89 N/mm, and 1.05 W m−1 K−1, respectively. While the heat generation after compression fatigue dropped to 10.1°C. These findings reveal that the highest zeta potential of formic acid could promote the improvement of flocculation degree between GO and NR latex and significantly enhanced the thermomechanical properties of CB/GO/NR nanocomposites due to the larger flocculation potential difference. Therefore, this study not only provides important theoretical insights for preparing high‐performance NR‐based nanocomposites, but also highlights the crucial role of high zeta potential flocculants in optimizing the composite performance. More importantly, the findings offer the creative insights for preparation of the excellent comprehensive NR nanocomposites for the practical industry application.Highlights The effect of flocculation degree on the properties of CB/GO/NR composites was studied. Formic acid was benefit to the flocculation and could promote the surface interaction. CB/GO/NR composites possessed the improved thermal and mechanical properties.

Been around the block: Is the prior experience of coaches in the workplace helpful?

ABSTRACT While most business coaches have prior experience of a workplace, there is debate as to how this should, or does, contribute to their coaching. It is often considered that coaches should be an expert in the process of coaching, and not their client’s business. This study utilised an inductive design to explore the perception of the contribution of prior work experience through semi-structured interviews with 11 clients and 13 experienced coaches. The interviews were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The data showed that both clients and coaches valued the coach having experience of working at a similar level. This helped establish credentials at the point of hiring, as well as providing authority and confidence during the coaching relationship. Such experience was also seen to give reference points and wisdom. However, while some participants saw advantages in the coach having a similar work background to the client (providing a common language and shared experiences), others considered that, while it was important that the coach had ‘been around the block’, this could be in a different work domain to the client. Clients also valued the wider experiences of a coach (such as artistic or socio-political) that brought creative insights and wider experiences.

The everyday phenomenology of bedside insight: Response to Paley's critique of phenomenological research in nursing.

The quality of phenomenological research in nursing has been a subject of long-standing debate and critique, but conversation took a particularly contentious turn following publication of John Paley's 2017 Phenomenology as Qualitative Research (Routledge), which elicited strong reactions. Faculty in nursing doctoral programs now face a challenge: in light of current controversies, what can we teach that is appropriately labeled phenomenological, and is there a way to present philosophical concepts that might equip students to avoid the most egregious mistakes of the past? In this article, I suggest that ordinary clinical nursing practice is an inherently phenomenological enterprise, and creative bedside insights belong at the center of our teaching, as they embody an everyday phenomenology which exemplifies core elements of the phenomenological method. Instead of following ever-more-precisely elaborated instructional manuals, I propose, our students should begin their studies of phenomenology by returning attention to the way creative insight emerges during routine care. Bedside insights have been rendered invisible by our discipline's valuing of technical proceduralism over artistry in research and by the turn to evidence-based practice in clinical work, but they are a valuable pathway to learning and should be part of our response to the current crisis.

“This Is Not What I Normally Do”

This video essay, a product of the “Videographic Methods and Practices: Embodying the Video Essay” workshop (Bowdoin College, July 2023), is comprised of two sections, exploring constraint-based approaches to videographic scholarship. Part 1, “The Incredible Machine,” documents an attempt at recreating a 1990s Rube Goldberg-inspired computer game interface through the handling of various film clips arranged on a computer desktop. The deliberate avoidance of digital shortcuts highlights the value of playful experimentation within scholarly and artistic practices. Part 2, “The Five Obstructions,” presents five interviews conducted under randomly-assigned constraints, fostering unforeseen responses and creative insights. These ludic experiments demonstrate the potential of constraints to stimulate creativity and to provoke unconventional outputs. Emphasizing process over outcome, the video showcases the laborious yet rewarding nature of scholarly experimentation, echoing a broader shift towards embracing the creative-academic journey in videographic scholarship.

Stepwise-targeting and hypoxia-responsive liposome AMVY@NPs carrying siYAP and verteporfin for glioblastoma therapy

BackgroundThe Hippo pathway is a conserved tumour suppressor signalling pathway, and its dysregulation is often associated with abnormal cell growth and tumorigenesis. We previously revealed that the transcriptional coactivator Yes-associated protein (YAP), the key effector of the Hippo pathway, is a molecular target for glioblastoma (GBM), the most common malignant brain tumour. Inhibiting YAP with small interfering RNA (siYAP) or the specific inhibitor verteporfin (VP) can diminish GBM growth to a certain degree.ResultsIn this study, to enhance the anti-GBM effect of siYAP and VP, we designed stepwise-targeting and hypoxia-responsive liposomes (AMVY@NPs), which encapsulate hypoxia-responsive polymetronidazole-coated VP and DOTAP adsorbed siYAP, with angiopep-2 (A2) modification on the surface. AMVY@NPs exhibited excellent blood‒brain barrier crossing, GBM targeting, and hypoxia-responsive and efficient siYAP and VP release properties. By inhibiting the expression and function of YAP, AMVY@NPs synergistically inhibited both the growth and stemness of GBM in vitro. Moreover, AMVY@NPs strongly inhibited the growth of orthotopic U87 xenografts and improved the survival of tumour-bearing mice without adverse effects.ConclusionSpecific targeting of YAP with stepwise-targeting and hypoxia-responsive liposome AMVY@NPs carrying siYAP and VP efficiently inhibited GBM progression. This study provides a valuable drug delivery platform and creative insights for molecular targeted treatment of GBM in the future.

Sleep and quiet wakefulness signify an idling brain hub for creative insights.

Long-term potentiation of synaptic strength is a fundamental aspect of learning and memory. Memories are believed to be stored within specific populations of neurons known as engram cells, which are subsequently reactivated during sleep, facilitating the consolidation of stored information. However, sleep and offline reactivations are associated not only with past experiences but also with anticipation of future events. During periods of offline reactivation, which occur during sleep and quiet wakefulness, the brain exhibits a capability to form novel connections. This process links various past experiences, often leading to the emergence of qualitatively new information that was not initially available. Brain activity during sleep and quiet wakefulness is referred to as the 'idling brain'. Idling brain activity is believed to play a pivotal role in abstracting essential information, comprehending underlying rules, generating creative ideas and fostering insightful thoughts. In this review, we will explore the current state of research and future directions in understanding how sleep and idling brain activity are interconnected with various cognitive functions, especially creative insights. These insights have profound implications for our daily lives, impacting our ability to process information, make decisions and navigate complex situations effectively. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Long-term potentiation: 50 years on'.

How Adversarial REM Dreams May Facilitate Creativity, and Why We Become Aware of Them

The importance of sleep for healthy brain function is widely acknowledged. However, it remains unclear how the internal generation of dreams might facilitate cognitive processes. In this perspective, we review a computational approach inspired by artificial intelligence that proposes a framework for how dreams occurring during rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep can contribute to learning and creativity. In this framework, REM dreams are characterized by an adversarial process that, against the dream reality, tells a discriminator network to classify the internally created sensory activity as real. Such an adversarial dreaming process is shown to facilitate the emergence of real-world semantic representations in higher cortical areas. We further discuss the potential contributions of adversarial dreaming beyond learning, such as balancing fantastic and realistic dream elements and facilitating the occurrence of creative insights. We characterize non-REM (NREM) dreams, where a single hippocampal memory is replayed at a time, as serving the complementary role of improving the robustness of cortical representations to environmental perturbations. We finally explain how subjects can become aware of the adversarial REM dreams, but less of the NREM dreams, and how content- and state-awareness in wake, dream, and lucid dreaming may appear.

Opening up openings: Zooming in on improvisation in the Theater of Home

This article presents a qualitative analysis of the opening section of an online improvisation session. The session, which was organized by the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, included an international group of musicians. It took place during the global COVID-19 pandemic where the participants were experiencing lockdown conditions. Phenomenological reflexive analysis and video elicitation techniques were utilized to develop a number of key themes related to the multimodal improvisation strategies identified as emergent in the session. The results highlight how technical, physical, and psychological constraints of online practice can facilitate new creative insights and approaches to improvisation. Particular emphasis is placed upon how an improvisation begins and the role of distributed and collaborative creativity within the overall process. The importance of the domestic environment, what we term The Theater of Home, is central to these new ideas, as is how particular scenarios/items function as psychological and creative boundary objects. The spontaneous multimodal integration of text, visual, and audio material within the domestic and virtual environment can be seen to support a new type of creative collaboration and one that draws out features of social improvisation.

Book review on Ayurvedic Treatments of Kerala

Kerala physicians have made significant contributions to Ayurvedic literature by documenting their clinical experiences. Many of these texts emphasize Panchakarma and its preparatory stages, crucial components of Ayurvedic treatment. This publication aims to promote the practice of Panchakarma in Kerala, offering detailed explanations of unique Kerala therapies like Pizhichil, Navara kizhi, Sirovasti, Siraseka, along with dietary recommendations. The book also addresses challenges encountered during Keraleeya kriya kramas. Delving into various Keraleeya kriya krama procedures such as Pindasweda, Annalepanam, Kayasekam/Pizhichil, Sirovasthi, Sirosekam/Dhara, and Sirolepanam, it draws from personal experiences to elucidate concepts like diet and daily routines during and after treatment. Additionally, the book discusses the instruments used and provides relevant formulations. Despite primarily focusing on six prevalent procedures, it also covers essential aspects like diet plans and sleep schedules, presenting the author's creative insights in a scientifically sound manner through detailed descriptions of techniques.

The color of FinTech: FinTech and corporate green transformation in China

How to drive the transformation toward a green economy has become an urgent topic of concern around the world under the pressure of global warming. This study sheds light on the effect of FinTech on corporate green transformation. Based on machine learning and text analysis methods to construct the two key metrics, our findings show that FinTech promotes corporate green transformation, which is mainly achieved by alleviating information asymmetry, relaxing financial constraints and increasing risk-taking. The above conclusions remain unchanged after a series of robustness tests, such as instrumental variable and difference-in-difference methods, etc. Additionally, this positive effect is more pronounced in high-tech, non-state-owned and heavily-polluting companies, and it is amplified by the peer groups' green transformation strategies. Overall, our study reveals the green nature of FinTech and provides creative insights into the achievement of the goal of carbon emission peak and neutrality in China.

ARTISTIC INTERPRETATIONS OF WATER ISSUES IN THE CONTEXT OF URBANISM : THE YAMUNA RIVER IN DELHI

The present paper explores the reflection of water issues within urban spaces in contemporary art practices, specifically focusing on the Yamuna river in Delhi. The Yamuna holds historical and religious significance and plays a crucial role in meeting the water needs of Delhi's 31.2 million population. However, the rapid urbanization of Delhi has led to detrimental consequences for the river, including increased pollution levels, encroachment on river banks, water scarcity, reduced water flow and detachment from its surroundings. The paper examines contemporary artistic interventions that address these ecological concerns through new media, site-specific art projects and public art. The aim of this paper is to identify those artists and to discuss the various artistic modalities in which these ecological concerns are addressed in the form of aesthetical structures and to discover how art is functionalized as a social and collective agent to create awareness among the public. It also aims to explore how artists are incorporating the ecological aspect of Urbanity in their works. the methodology involves interviews with artists, where their creative insights are explored to discern the multifaceted relationship between the river's ecological challenges and urban development. The study employs an interdisciplinary approach that sheds light on the complex interplay between environmental concerns and artistic expression. the paper concludes how art functions as a social and collective agent, raising awareness among the public about the ecological urgency caused by rampant urbanization.

The Self and the Other: A Further Reflection on Buddhist–Christian Dialogue

The dialogue between and comparative research into Christianity and Buddhism theoretically involve the issues of self and other. Faced with the cultural reality of religious diversity, theologies of religions provide four modes of dialogue through which Christianity can interface with religious others. The exploration of the infinite and transcendent traits of otherness in contemporary phenomenological philosophy, as well as the emphasis on differences in postmodern philosophy, contributes to maintaining a clear awareness of otherness and self-identity in the Buddhist–Christian dialogue. Following the dialogical path in comparative theology, which leads one out of oneself, into the other, and back into oneself, in experimental Buddhist-Christian dialogue activities, both Christianity and Buddhism figure as the self and the other. If they openly accept each other’s otherness and heterogeneity, view each other as mirrors, and criticize and reflect on themselves, then creative insights into themselves will ultimately be generated. Their selves will be rediscovered, and their understanding and expression will be updated. Reflecting on the Buddhist–Christian dialogue from four aspects, namely, ultimate realism, cosmology, ethics, and religious ideals, can eliminate some misunderstandings and deepen both parties’ understandings of themselves and others.

Othering Older People's Housing: Gaming Ageing to Support Future-Planning.

The 'othering' of ageing is linked to an integrated process of ageism and hinders planning for the future for both individuals and practitioners delivering housing and health services. This paper aims to explore how creative interventions can help personalise, exchange knowledge and lead to system changes that tackle the 'othering' of ageing. The Designing Homes for Healthy Cognitive Ageing (DesHCA) project offers new and creative insights through an innovative methodology utilising 'serious games' with a co-produced tool called 'Our House' that provides insights into how to deliver housing for older people for ageing well in place. In a series of playtests with over 128 people throughout the UK, the findings show that serious games allow interaction, integration and understanding of how ageing affects people professionally and personally. The empirical evidence highlights that the game mechanisms allowed for a more in-depth and nuanced consideration of ageing in a safe and creative environment. These interactions and discussions enable individuals to personalise and project insights to combat the 'othering' of ageing. However, the solutions are restrained as overcoming the consequences of ageism is a societal challenge with multilayered solutions. The paper concludes that serious gaming encourages people to think differently about the concept of healthy ageing-both physically and cognitively-with the consideration of scalable and creative solutions to prepare for ageing in place.

Silence between words: Is solitude important for relatedness?

Chronic loneliness is a risk factor for physical and health problems, in part due to dysfunction of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and sympathetic nervous system. In contrast, temporary moments of positive solitude (passing good times alone and not feeling lonely) appear to have positive effects on mental health, social life, and creativity, and seems to be a buffer against loneliness. Herein, three ways of how solitude may have positive effects on health and relatedness are discussed, namely effects on enhancement of mind-wandering, interoceptive awareness, and spirituality. Solitude may facilitate (1) activation of the default mode network (DMN) underlying mind-wandering including daydreaming about other people; (2) activation of brain areas supporting interoceptive awareness; (3) deactivation of prefrontal cortex, or deactivation and decreased connectivity of the DMN, giving raise to susceptibility to spiritual experiences. The capacity to handle and enjoy solitude is a developmental process that may be difficult for many persons. Craving for social connections and external stimulation with digital technologies (e.g., internet, smartphones, social media) might be interfering with the development of the capacity for solitude and thereby increasing loneliness; this might be partly due to impaired interoceptive awareness and impaired functional mind-wandering (common in solitude). Congruently, overuse of digital technologies was associated with reduced activity, and reduced gray matter volume and density, in brain areas supporting interoceptive awareness, as well as with decreased connectivity of the DMN supporting creative insights. Solitude has been a relatively dismissed topic in neuroscience and health sciences, but a growing number of studies is highlighting its importance for well-being.

The Receptive Brain: Up-Regulated Right Temporal Alpha Oscillation Boosting Aha!

ABSTRACT Chance favors the prepared mind, said Louis Pasteur. Sometimes, significant breakthroughs occur when we creatively integrate new information, leading to a creative insight or an Aha! moment, while at other times when we fail to use a clue, we remain stuck in our habitual thinking patterns. In this study, we hypothesized that the brain’s transient oscillatory states would characterize its receptivity or preparedness for such insights. We conducted a real-time brain-state-dependent cognitive stimulation experiment during insightful problem-solving. We showed that participants were more successful in utilizing clues and experienced more Aha responses when these clues were presented at the spontaneously up-regulated state of right temporal alpha oscillation, as opposed to the down-regulated state. Furthermore, we observed an inverse correlation between the coupling of alpha oscillation phase and gamma oscillation power and the frequency of insight. These results shed light on the neural mechanism underpinning the brain’s receptivity to integrate upcoming semantic information, emphasizing the pivotal role of dynamical brain oscillations in the Aha! experience.

Exploring feminist political economy and feminist critical discourse analysis as methodologies in critical nursing research.

This paper explores two critical feminist methodologies for nursing research: feminist political economy and feminist critical discourse analysis. The aim was to appreciate varied methodological approaches available for nurses to understand complexities in healthcare environments, above and beyond socially normative ways of knowing. Discursive paper. Published articles from nursing databases (CINAHL and ProQuest; no date restrictions) and interdisciplinary databases (Women's Studies International, Sociological Abstracts and Ovid MEDLINE; publication dates between 2017 and 2022). A discursive paper exploring and critically synthesizing the literature on feminist political economy and feminist critical discourse analysis to demonstrate how each methodological approach can be used in nursing. The findings of this discursive paper suggest there is an opportunity to draw on interdisciplinary studies for creative insights into how these methodologies may be helpful for nurses' scholarship and programmes of research. Although few nursing studies explicitly name a feminist political economy or feminist critical discourse analysis approach, several studies apply principles of these methodological approaches. There is an opportunity for these methodologies to be applied within the same project when there is a fit between the research questions and aims of both methodologies (studies where notions of gender and power are considered central and there are potential insights from exploring social progress, structures and the material, along with the social relations of discourses). Feminist political economy and feminist critical discourse analysis offer novel options for methodological analyses. Application of these methodologies may benefit critical nursing scholars looking for diverse critical methodological avenues to explore and to broaden nursing's methodological toolbox towards meeting social justice aims. No patient or public contribution.

The Nonbinary Blackness of Pauli Murray and Ornette Coleman: Constraint and Freedom within the Glandular Imaginary

Abstract: This short essay reflects on desires for body modification expressed by civil rights activist Pauli Murray and jazz innovator Ornette Coleman to offer some preliminary thoughts on the concept of “nonbinary Blackness.” It compares the different ways Murray and Coleman negotiated the “glandular imaginary” that informed mid-twentieth-century ideas about sex, gender, and identity, and influenced decisions they made about their own bodies. The transmasculine Murray reconciled to living as a woman once medical examinations determined that there was no hormonal or gonadal cause for her/their masculine identifications, while Coleman, a seemingly cisgender man, drew creative insight from his decision to undergo the genital surgery of circumcision.

Heterodimensional Structure Switching Multispectral Stealth and Multimedia Interaction Devices.

Lightweight and flexible electronic materials with high energy attenuation hold an unassailable position in electromagnetic stealth and intelligent devices. Among them, emerging heterodimensional structure draws intensive attention in the frontiers of materials, chemistry, and electronics, owing to the unique electronic, magnetic, thermal, and optical properties. Herein, an intrinsic heterodimensional structure consisting of alternating assembly of 0D magnetic clusters and 2D conductive layers is developed, and its macroscopic electromagnetic properties are flexibly designed by customizing the number of oxidative molecular layer deposition (oMLD) cycles. This unique heterodimensional structure features highly ordered spatial distribution, with an achievement of electron-dipole and magnetic-dielectric double synergies, which exhibits the high attenuation of electromagnetic energy (160) and substantial improvement of dielectric loss tangent (≈200%). It can respond to electromagnetic waves of different bands to achieve multispectral stealth, covering visible light, infrared radiation, and gigahertz wave. Importantly, two kinds of ingenious information interaction devices are constructed with heterodimensional structure. The hierarchical antennas allow precise targeting of operating bands (S- to Ku- bands) by oMLD cycles. The strain imaging device with high sensitivity opens a new horizon for visual interaction. This work provides a creative insight for developing advanced micro-nano materials and intelligent devices.

Constructing Visibility: Esther Born’s Photography beyond the Archives

Esther Baum Born was an American photographer who worked in both the United States and Mexico. Beginning in the 1920s, she exhibited her work regularly in New York galleries and saw her photographs published in a broad spectrum of architectural journals. Born’s book, The New Architecture in Mexico (1937), stands as an undisputed monument to her creative insights and a respected source for cutting-edge ideas about modern building. Less well known to the scholarly community are the sensitive portraits that Born took of her own artistic milieu: Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Frank Lloyd Wright, to name only a few, appeared before her camera. The author argues that these images represent an area for future research. In any event, Born’s creative flourishing was largely eclipsed once she joined the highly successful architectural practice of her husband, Ernest Born. She gave up photography entirely in the 1940s to support his work. The legacy of both Borns remains fairly well-known to students of Bay Area architecture, who have admired their contributions to public transportation (designing train stations), urban renewal (developing master planning documents), and book design (such as the Plan of St. Gall, co-authored with art historian, Walter Horn). Much of the couple’s joint career is documented in established archives throughout the United States and Canada, although it needs to be said that Ernest Born is typically given top billing for the work. Esther Born’s early efforts as a photographer sit in these archives, too. A full assessment of her legacy as a photographer waits to be written. This paper attempts to give greater visibility to her ambitions as well as to the lasting consequence of her work’s placement within the many archival situations where it can be found today.