Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Globally distributed knowledge sharing in social software environments : barriers and interventions

Pirkkalainen, Henri Globally Distributed Knowledge Sharing in Social Software Environments: Barriers and Interventions Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2014, 71 p. (+ included articles) (Jyväskylä studies in computing ISSN 1456-5390; 196) ISBN 978-951-39-5829-9 (nid.) ISBN 978-951-39-5830-5 (PDF) The benefits of adopting social software in organizational knowledge sharing activities have been argued to improve communication and outreach to key stakeholders. In such situations, social software, collaboration and networking enabling tools are adopted to support both formal and informal exchanges of knowledge. These attempts to integrate social software into distributed collaboration very often fail in both private and public organizations. As an example, there is a high amount of interest toward the uptake of social software to support the knowledge sharing of educators in educational institutions. Still, most of the services and tools fail to attract users. Investigations explaining the reasons for the failed attempts have reported a variety of interpersonal and organizational barriers that disrupt adoption. The available knowledge about overcoming these barriers for the successful usage of social software in distributed knowledge sharing is still shallow. Previous studies have overlooked the interdependencies of the barriers affecting adoption, and especially, the role of cultural barriers in the knowledge sharing activities that are supported by social software. This thesis addresses the research gap by investigating the context-specific and interrelated barriers that need to be understood to find suitable and sustainable interventions to overcome the barriers. The empirical investigation that applies both quantitative and qualitative methods to study the identified research gap was situated in the open education domain. This dissertation provides organizations with a basis for implementing their knowledge management strategies on social software. The findings point out how the barriers to knowledge sharing in social software environments can be explained through organizational, social, cultural and technical dimensions. The results indicate that the barriers truly are interlinked, and are contextand even age-dependent. Of the identified barriers, cultural ones are most likely to lead to the decreased motivation of the users of social software. This dissertation offers a framework to support the coordination activities of knowledge management when social software is being considered for adoption. The results from the empirical studies provide evidence and analysis support for finding sustainable ways to overcome the barriers. As most of the barriers are not technical, the interventions to overcome them have to be addressed in a holistic manner, from both organizational and technical perspectives.
ErbB2 regulates autophagic flux to modulate the proteostasis of APP-CTFs in Alzheimer’s disease

Significance We demonstrate that ErbB2 can regulate autophagic flux through its direct interaction with Beclin-1, which effectively blocks autophagy initiation. Although the expression of ErbB2 becomes dormant during adulthood, it becomes reactivated during the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), blocking the autophagy-mediated clearance of amyloid precursor protein (APP) C-terminal fragments (CTFs) [99-residue CTF (C99)]. Consequently, the accumulated APP-C99 can be further processed by γ-secretase, resulting in augmented production of amyloid-β and the APP intracellular domain. The chemical inhibition of ErbB2 by CL-387,785 effectively rescues the cognitive impairment of APP/presenilin-1 (PS1) transgenic AD mice. The present study thus defines a molecular basis by which the aberrant expression of ErbB2 could instigate the pathogenesis of AD. These findings provide the proof-of-principle evidence for rational design of ErbB2-targeted therapeutics for AD. Proteolytic processing of amyloid precursor protein (APP) C-terminal fragments (CTFs) by γ-secretase underlies the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). An RNA interference screen using APP-CTF [99-residue CTF (C99)]- and Notch-specific γ-secretase interaction assays identified a unique ErbB2-centered signaling network that was predicted to preferentially govern the proteostasis of APP-C99. Consistently, significantly elevated levels of ErbB2 were confirmed in the hippocampus of human AD brains. We then found that ErbB2 effectively suppressed autophagic flux by physically dissociating Beclin-1 from the Vps34–Vps15 complex independent of its kinase activity. Down-regulation of ErbB2 by CL-387,785 decreased the levels of C99 and secreted amyloid-β in cellular, zebrafish, and mouse models of AD, through the activation of autophagy. Oral administration of an ErbB2-targeted CL-387,785 for 3 wk significantly improves the cognitive functions of APP/presenilin-1 (PS1) transgenic mice. This work unveils a noncanonical function of ErbB2 in modulating autophagy and establishes ErbB2 as a therapeutic target for AD.
Incidence of histomonosis in turkeys in France since the bans of dimetridazole and nifursol

Between April 2003 and March 2005, 113 outbreaks of histomonosis were recorded in standard turkey farms in France, and 15 cases were recorded in turkey breeding centres. Most of the cases were in north-west France, the principal farming area for turkeys. The majority of the cases occurred during the hottest months, from April to September. Large numbers of cases occurred among birds from four to eight weeks of age, but there were some cases in three-week-old birds and some in birds up to 17 weeks of age. In most of the standard turkey flocks the mortality was less than 10 per cent, but it was above 30 per cent in nearly 20 per cent of the outbreaks. In the breeding flocks, the average mortality was 60·2 per cent. The size of the flocks, the sex of the birds and the age at which the first clinical signs appeared did not seem to influence the mortality.
Actin assembly induced by polylysine beads or purified phagosomes: quantitation by a new flow cytometry assay.

BACKGROUND Actin assembly on biological membranes is a poorly understood process. We have previously shown that phagosomal membranes could induce actin assembly in the presence of thymosin beta4 (an actin sequestering protein that inhibits nonspecific nucleation), via the barbed ends of actin filaments. METHODS Here, we have developed an in vitro system based on fluorescein-labeled G (monomeric) actin and flow cytometry analysis, which allowed us to quantify de novo actin assembly on the cytoplasmic side of purified phagosomes. To standardize the system, we also used latex beads covalently coupled with polylysine, which efficiently promote actin nucleation. RESULTS Flow cytometry analysis showed that the percentage of polylysine beads positive for F-actin filaments increased in a time- and G-actin concentration-dependent manner. Incubation of phagosomes with reagents affecting actin dynamics allowed us to extend our previous data showing that the phagosomal membranes assemble actin filaments de novo. Finally, our results pin-point a potential role for gelsolin as a positive regulator of actin assembly on the phagosomal membrane. CONCLUSIONS We propose that our system could facilitate the development of other in vitro assays for the analysis of actin assembly and its links to signaling in cells.
Product Bundling Under Three-Part Tariffs

A strategy used by firms in industries such as wireless is to bundle several services into a service plan and administer a nonlinear price with different marginal prices for different usage levels. Moreover firms offer a menu of service plans targeting different consumer segments to implement second-degree price discrimination. To explore the profit impacts of these service plans we need to understand and predict consumer choices, and towards this goal we develop a structural model of consumers' choice of plans and usage decisions, and estimate the model using a dataset from a wireless service provider. We find that both voice calls and text messages are important drivers of consumer utility. Moreover, consumer preferences for the two services are positively correlated. The current service plans in our data are not optimal, perhaps due to incorrect customer segmentation strategy of the firm. Our pricing experiments based on estimated consumer preferences suggest that the firm should offer one plan targeting heavy users, with a higher access fee and higher free usage for voice calls and text messages, and another plan targeting light users, with a lower access fee and lower free usages, as either a replacement for or in addition to current plans.
Solving the Boltzmann equation to obtain electron transport coefficients and rate coefficients for fluid models

Fluid models of gas discharges require the input of transport coefficients and rate coefficients that depend on the electron energy distribution function. Such coefficients are usually calculated from collision cross-section data by solving the electron Boltzmann equation (BE). In this paper we present a new user-friendly BE solver developed especially for this purpose, freely available under the name BOLSIG+, which is more general and easier to use than most other BE solvers available. The solver provides steady-state solutions of the BE for electrons in a uniform electric field, using the classical two-term expansion, and is able to account for different growth models, quasi-stationary and oscillating fields, electron–neutral collisions and electron–electron collisions. We show that for the approximations we use, the BE takes the form of a convection-diffusion continuity-equation with a non-local source term in energy space. To solve this equation we use an exponential scheme commonly used for convection-diffusion problems. The calculated electron transport coefficients and rate coefficients are defined so as to ensure maximum consistency with the fluid equations. We discuss how these coefficients are best used in fluid models and illustrate the influence of some essential parameters and approximations.
BIOINFORMATICS APPLICATIONS NOTE

Summary: TFInfer is a novel open access, standalone tool for genome-wide inference of transcription factor activities from gene expression data. Based on an earlier MATLAB version, the software has now been extended in a number of ways. It has been signiﬁcantly optimised in terms of performance, and it was given novel functionality, by allowing the user to model both time series and data from multiple independent conditions. With a full documentation and intuitive graphical user interface, together with an in-built data base of yeast and Escherichia coli transcription factors, the software does not require any mathematical or computational expertise to be used effectively.
Knowledge of Livestock Grading and Market Participation among Small Ruminant Producers in Northern Somalia

ABSTRACT This study focused on market participation and producers’ knowledge of the indigenous livestock grading and pricing system applied to small ruminant marketing in Somaliland. Data were collected from a random sample of 144 men and women producers in three livelihood zones: Hawd pastoral, West Golis pastoral and Togdheer agro-pastoral zones. Results confirmed the importance of small ruminants as sources of income in producer households. Knowledge about the grading system was generally widespread, and this was important for market participation. Factors that significantly influenced market participation were number of animals kept, gender of sales/decision maker, age of household head and livelihood zone.
Confounding and Effect Modification in the Short-Term Effects of Ambient Particles on Total Mortality: Results from 29 European Cities within the APHEA2 Project

We present the results of the Air Pollution and Health: A European Approach 2 (APHEA2) project on short-term effects of ambient particles on mortality with emphasis on effect modification. We used daily measurements for particulate matter less than 10 &mgr;m in aerodynamic diameter (PM10) and/or black smoke from 29 European cities. We considered confounding from other pollutants as well as meteorologic and chronologic variables. We investigated several variables describing the cities’ pollution, climate, population, and geography as potential effect modifiers. For the individual city analysis, generalized additive models extending Poisson regression, using a smoother to control for seasonal patterns, were applied. To provide quantitative summaries of the results and explain remaining heterogeneity, we applied second-stage regression models. The estimated increase in the daily number of deaths for all ages for a 10 &mgr;g/m3 increase in daily PM10 or black smoke concentrations was 0.6% [95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.4–0.8%], whereas for the elderly it was slightly higher. We found important effect modification for several of the variables studied. Thus, in a city with low average NO2, the estimated increase in daily mortality for an increase of 10 &mgr;g/m3 in PM10 was 0.19 (95% CI = 0.00–0.41), whereas in a city with high average NO2 it was 0.80% (95% CI = 0.67–0.93%); in a relatively cold climate the corresponding effect was 0.29% (95% CI = 0.16–0.42), whereas in a warm climate it was 0.82% (95% CI = 0.69–0.96); in a city with low standardized mortality rate it was 0.80% (95% CI = 0.65–0.95%), and in one with a high rate it was 0.43% (95% CI = 0.24–0.62). Our results confirm those previously reported on the effects of ambient particles on mortality. Furthermore, they show that the heterogeneity found in the effect parameters among cities reflects real effect modification, which is explained by specific city characteristics.
Adaptive exploiting user profile and interpretation policy for searching and browsing the Web on KODAMA system

The main thrust of the KODAMA research project is an investigation into novel ways of agentifying the Web based on the pre-existing hyper-link structure, and how this community of agents can automatically achieve and update its interpretation policies and cooperate with other agents to retrieve online distributed relevant information on the Web. The paper focuses on the use of the user interface agents in the KODAMA system for personalized information filtering and adapting, and discusses the method to update a user profile and interpretation policies adaptively for the user. This is an ideal and challenging environment for interface agents. The proposed idea is to employ an adaptive autonomous user interface agent that works for satisfying a user's information needs cooperatively with other agents in the KODAMA system, Web page agents and server agents.
Moon Landing Trajectory Optimization

Trajectory optimization is a crucial process during the planning phase of a spacecraft landing mission. Once a trajectory is determined, guidance algorithms are created to guide the vehicle along the given trajectory. Because fuel mass is a major driver of the total vehicle mass, and thus mission cost, the objective of most guidance algorithms is to minimize the required fuel consumption. Most of the existing algorithms are termed as “near-optimal” regarding fuel expenditure. The question arises as to how close to optimal are these guidance algorithms. To answer this question, numerical trajectory optimization techniques are often required. With the emergence of improved processing power and the application of new methods, more direct approaches may be employed to achieve high accuracy without the associated difficulties in computation or pre-existing knowledge of the solution. An example of such an approach is DIDO optimization. This technique is applied in the current research to find these minimum fuel optimal trajectories.
MIS research: a profile of leading journals and universities

MIS research is emerging as an electric and diverse body of literature. Frameworks have been developed to define and direct research efforts. Considerable variation in research methodology, however, creates problems of effective comparison and evaluation of merit. In this article, MIS research is reviewed from the perspective of an examination of leading journals in the field. A taxonomy is proposed and tested, illustrating research preference by journals and universities. Significant differences of research methodology and . journal preference are noted between the top publishing universities both within that group and in comparison to the wider body of publishing institutions.
Influence of growth media and temperature on bacterial adhesion to polystyrene surfaces

Bacterial adhesion to inert surfaces is a complex process influenced by environmental conditions. In this work, the influence of growth medium and temperature on the adhesion of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Serratia marcescens, Staphylococcus aureus, Micrococcus luteus and Listeria monocytogenes to polystyrene surfaces was studied. Most bacteria demonstrated the highest adhesion when cultured in TSYEA, except S. marcescens, which showed to be positively influenced by the pigment production, favored in poor nutrient media (lactose and peptone agar). P. aeruginosa adhesion to polystyrene increased at low temperatures whatever the medium used. The culture medium influenced the surface properties of the bacteria as assessed by the MATS test.
Innovation diffusion of producer institution to achieve better equity in furniture industry in Indonesia

Furniture is a culturally rooted industry in Indonesia, where millions of people depend on it. The district of Jepara, Central Java is the center of furniture and carving activities in Indonesia. In many developing countries, the furniture industry is dominated by small-scale enterprises and is buyer driven. Small-scale enterprises adapt their processes and products to follow buyer’s demand. Otherwise, they will not survive in the fierce market competition. An individual small-scale producer has low bargaining power against brokers and end buyers in selling their products. An effort to strengthen small-scale producers of furniture in Jepara, Indonesia has been facilitated by the establishment of the Jepara Furniture Small-scale Enterprise Association (APKJ) in 2009. APKJ is an institutional innovation which has organization, rules and activities. The APKJ innovation is attributed by relative advantages, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability. This paper describes how APKJ diffuses to 12 thousand business units through chains of innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. A spatially explicit agent based modeling (ABM) was used to simulate the diffusion of APKJ innovation. The results show an S-curve of innovation diffusion. The theory of complexity as well ABM were useful in understanding common property. Although the model is specific to the Jepara furniture industry, its lessons and conceptual model can be implemented in other parts of the world.
Nanoparticle‐rich diesel exhaust‐induced liver damage via inhibited transactivation of peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor alpha

Diesel exhaust emission contains a high amount of nano‐sized particles and is considered to be systemically distributed in the body. However, few studies about the effects of nanoparticle rich‐diesel exhaust (NR‐DE) on liver have been reported. The present investigation focuses on the effects of NR‐DE on livers in rats, especially concerning inflammation and lipid metabolism. Male F344 rats were exposed to fresh air or low (24 ± 7 µg/m3), medium (39 ± 4 µg/m3) and high (138 ± 20 µg/m3) concentrations of NR‐DE for 1, 2, or 3 months (5 hours/day, 5 days/week). Exposure to both medium and high concentrations of NR‐DE for one month increased plasma asparate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase activities, while only high concentrations increased plasma interleukin‐6 and hepatic nuclear factor kappa B (NFκB), suggesting that activation of hepatic inflammatory signaling took place. Although these exposures elevated peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor (PPAR) α levels or its binding activity to the response element, neither activated PPARα‐target genes such as β‐oxidative enzymes nor inhibited NFκB elevation. Thus, NR‐DE may contain some materials that inhibit PPARα activation in relation to lipid metabolism and inflammation. Taken together, NR‐DE exposure at one month may cause inflammation; however, this finding may not be observed after a longer exposure period. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 31: 1985–1995, 2016.
Timing-driven multi-layer Steiner tree construction with obstacle avoidance

Given a set of connecting nodes in a signal net with a set of obstacles on different layers for 3D ICs, based on the refinement of minimum routing region and the concept of hidden Steiner-point assignment on the same layer or different layers, a merging-based approach is proposed to construct a timing-driven 3D rectilinear Steiner tree with obstacle avoidance. Compared with a spanning-tree-based approach, the experimental results show that our proposed approach has 9.7%~17.3% improvement in timing delay for the tested examples in reasonable CPU time.
Draft Genome Sequence of Talaromyces cellulolyticus Strain Y-94, a Source of Lignocellulosic Biomass-Degrading Enzymes

ABSTRACT Talaromyces cellulolyticus (formerly Acremonium cellulolyticus) is a promising fungus for cellulase production. Here, we present the draft genome sequence of T. cellulolyticus strain Y-94. The genome is 36.4 Mbp long and contains genes for several enzymes involved in the degradation of lignocellulosic biomass, including cellulases, hemicellulases, pectinases, and amylases.
Business Transformation Management: A View on the Orchestration of Management Services (Research In Progress)

Business transformations are large-scale organisational change projects that, evidence suggests, are often unsuccessful. This study aims to develop a conceptual model that explains how management services that are required for a business transformation are orchestrated during such a initiative. We classify management services such as (but not limited to) change management, risk management, IT management, financial management, program management and so forth as bearing transformational and/or transactional capabilities in a transformation initiative. We then draw upon three principles of musical composition, namely melody, harmony and rhythm, and illustrate how they apply to the orchestration of management services in the management of business transformations. In order to illustrate our emerging model, we examine the case of Malaysia Airlines, who have managed to successfully turnaround the near-bankrupt organisation beyond survival. We demonstrate how the notions of melody, harmony and rhythm can be used to describe their endeavour. We conclude by discussing next steps of our research.
Control Stability of TP Model Transformation Design via Probabilistic Error Bound of Plant Model

Recently, an emerging numerical controller design based on Tensor-Product model transformation has proven to work on a number of nonlinear systems by both simulations and practical implementations. In this paper, aiming at fully utilizing the power of approximation of TP model transformation, a new control stability analysis is proposed in a probabilistic framework. We utilize the matrix 2-norm to characterize the maximum deviation of the approximated system from the actual one. However, the theoretical boundary of the maximum deviation is hard to determine. Therefore, probabilistic error bound estimation is introduced with the aid of Chebyshev inequality to define a practical bound of deviation for the approximated system. This new analysis technique allows practical controller design for approximated TP system model by solving a set of Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMI). Examples using the benchmark Translational Oscillator with Rotational Actuator (TORA) system are presented to illustrate our formulation, showing that the designed controller can guarantee asymptotic stability with sufficiently high probability.