1,720,987 research outputs found
Variational approach for a technology acquisition strategy model in context of the Internet of Things
No full textIn the era of highly dynamicity and uncertainty, it is of great importance to analyze the strategic decision process for companies’ technology acquisition between internal and external. In particular, the Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged as one of the crucial technologies that contribute to the resiliency and flexibility of companies willing to remain competitive in the markets. Despite the perceived advantages of IoT, it remains unclear what drive companies to adopt IoT in their businesses, due to strategic considerations about technology adoption and strategy selection. In that regard, this paper considers the relative payoffs among technology manufacturers, firms and demand markets, using game theory models and numerical analysis. Precisely by adopting a supply chain network perspective, our game theoretic representation assumes that technology manufacturers produce a technology that sell to firms, which in turn use the acquired technology to produce a commodity that is designed to be sold in the demand markets. Assuming that all the agents seek to maximize their profit functions, whereas the consumers want to satisfy their commodity requirement, in making their consumption decisions, the network structure of the problem is identified, the equilibrium conditions are derived, and the finite-dimensional variational inequality formulation is established. Finally, making use of the variational inequality theory, an existence and uniqueness theorem for the equilibrium distribution is obtained. The findings provide implications for competitive enterprises evaluating whether to adopt a new technology, identifying what conditions lead to win-win outcomes. In particular, firms must carefully consider the transaction costs both with technology manufacturers and demand markets, as key drivers of strategic considerations about the source of innovation. More precisely, when confronted with limited resources and the speed at which technology develop in the market, our findings suggest to companies to pursue a buy strategy, as it allows to gain time and benefit from lower innovation costs with respect to the alternative make strategy
Role of FlgM in SigD-dependent gene expression in Bacillus subtilis
No full textThe alternative sigma factor sigma D directs transcription of a number of genes involved in chemotaxis, motility, and autolysis in Bacillus subtilis (sigmaD regulon). The activity of SigD is probably in contrast to that of FlgM, which acts as an antisigma factor and is responsible for the coupling of late flagellar gene expression to the assembly of the hook-basal body complex. We have characterized the effects of an in-frame deletion mutation of flgM. By transcriptional fusions to lacZ, we have shown that in FlgM-depleted strains there is a 10-fold increase in transcription from three different sigmaD-dependent promoters, i.e., Phag, PmotAB, and PfliDST. The number of flagellar filaments was only slightly increased by the flgM mutation. Overexpression of FlgM from a multicopy plasmid under control of the isopropyl-beta-D-thiogalactopyranoside-inducible spac promoter drastically reduced the level of transcription from the hag promoter. On the basis of these results, we conclude that, as in Salmonella typhimurium, FlgM inhibits the activity of SigD, but an additional element is involved in determining the number of flagellar filaments
Total factor logistics productivity: A spatial approach to the Italian regions
No full textThe evolution of economic systems has produced a new vision of the spatial and localization models in which transport and logistics are deemed to play a major role in generating value to economic areas. Different methods of parametric and nonparametric analysis are applied to deal with the issue of the efficiency and competitiveness of territories. Using an original dataset, we set out to estimate productivity differentials between companies or industries located in different Italian regions. Unlike previous works aimed at investigating logistics productivity, this paper focuses on the main variables affecting Total Factor Productivity (TFP) in the transport and logistics sectors. The findings of this study contribute to filling the gap in transport related literature on the issue of ‘Total Factor Regional Logistics Productivity’ (TFRLP), identifying the most important elements able to improve the TFP level using an econometric estimate. In a second step, we carry out a comparison among the different Italian regions with a view to testing the relationship between the logistics and economic activities of a territory. The results of this latter analysis show that, in the different Italian regions, the logistics sector is characterised by a high resilience capacity, so innovation in the logistics industry is a strong element in driving regional exports
Coupling of flagellin gene transcription to flagellar assembly in Bacillus subtilis
No full textThe regulation of flagellin gene expression in Bacillus subtilis was examined in vivo by means of a/lacZ translational fusion to the flagellin structural gene (hag). We have tested the effects of two known mutations (flaA4 and flaA15) in the major flagellar operon and of three deletions. One deletion was in frame in the fliI cistron, one was out of frame in the fliK cistron, and the last spanned about 21 kb of the flaA operon. In all instances, the expression of the flagellin gene was defective. Flagellin gene expression was restored in the strain with the 21-kb deletion by overexpression of the sigD gene under control of the isopropyl-β-D- thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG)-inducible spac promoter. These results indicate that transcription of the flagellin gene is dependent on the formation of the flagellar basal body but that such a requirement can be bypassed by overexpression of sigD. Lack of expression of hag was observed in the presence of flaD1, flaD2, and Δsin mutations as well
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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