168 research outputs found
Reflections on Combining Action Research and Actor-Network Theory
No full textIn this paper I address two questions: do their dissimilarities prevent action research (AR) and actor-network theory (ANT) from being used together? If not, how can they complement each other? To do so, I discuss literature from each approach, the only two studies I found that combine AR and ANT (both from organization management) and anecdotes from my field-work experience on the participatory management of urban spaces. On one hand, combining AR and ANT helped me deal with the unpredictability of collaborative research projects by 1) helping me adapt to circumstances while remaining aware of my agency, and 2) report systematically on diverse interactions while also letting a shared vocabulary and narrative emerge. On the other, my adherence to the principles of each approach and the comparability of my experience were affected by a lack of both time and control over the processes in which I was involved. I hope to support a debate that crosses disciplinary and methodological boundaries about the realities of doing collaborative inquiry, not by seeking normative statements about research practice, but by emphasizing how the latter cannot exist without a complex network of relations that inevitably affect its validity
Spaces of Participation: (Non-)Humans (Un)Making Community Hubs
No full textL'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen
Beyond standards and regulations: Obstacles to local open government data initiatives in Italy and France
No full textChapter 3 in the book The Social Dynamics of Open Data.Published by African Minds
Zonocypris berthoui Piovesan & Melo & Cabral & Guzmán 2022, sp. nov.
No full textZonocypris berthoui sp. nov. (Fig. 2) 1994 Zonocypris sp. Berthou et al.: 541, pl. 1, figs 8–10. 1997 Zonocypris sp. Colin & Dépêche: 433, figs 2–14, 2–17. ZooBank-link: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 879AA9BD-FBAA-4B02-945F-41844FAB3DE0 Etymology: In honor of the late Pierre-Yves Berthou, for his pioneering studies on ostracods of the Araripe Basin, including the first record of the species described herein. Type-locality: Nova Olinda Municipality, Ceará State, Northeast Brazil. Type-horizon: Late Aptian. Crato Formation, Santana Group, Araripe Basin, Brazil. Outcrop sample 1BAr17a, coordinates 7°06’52.3”S, 39°41’51.5”W. Material: Four adult carapaces. Holotype: LMA-00305, C, Adult female; L: 0.40 mm, H: 0.28 mm, W: 0.26 mm (Figs 2A–F). Outcrop sample 1BAr17a (Três Irmãos Quarry). Paratypes: LMA-00331, C, Adult male, L: 0.42 mm, H: 0.28 mm. W: 0.27 mm (Figs 2G–H), 2-AR-SR-1A-CE well core sample from depth interval 124.55–124.58 m; LMA-00332, Adult female L: 0.42 mm, H: 0.22 mm, W: 0.31 mm (Figs 2I–K), 2-AR-SR-1A-CE well core sample from depth interval 121.05–121.09 m. Repository: Collection of the Laboratório de Micropaleontologia Aplicada [Applied Micropaleontology Laboratory] (LMA) from UFPE, Recife, Brazil. Diagnosis: A species of Zonocypris with a small, sub-ovate to sub-triangular carapace in lateral view, with the typical ornamentation of thick, concentric ribs (except in the central area, where three sub-rectilinear ribs are present) containing abundant normal pore canals; intercostal areas narrow and smooth. Description: Small carapace, sub-ovate to sub-triangular in lateral view; strongly tumid, with biconvex dorsal and ventral views. Valves slightly unequal, LV overlapping the RV on all sides. Greatest height located in anteromedian area, at anterior cardinal angle; height c. 2/3 of length in females. Greatest length below mid-height. Greatest width slightly posterior to mid-length, larger than half of length in females, smaller in males. Dorsal margin sub-rectilinear and short, ventral margin convex; anterior margin broadly rounded, posterior end infracurvate and subacute. Sexual dimorphism present, with female carapace more inflated in dorsal view, and male carapace more elongate and subtriangular laterally. Surface entirely covered by coarse, sub-oval and regularly distributed concentric ribs, except in central area, where three sub-rectilinear ribs are present. In dorsal and ventral views, ribs are subparallel to major axis. Intercostal areas smooth and narrower than ribs. Abundant, round, simple normal pore canals (type A’ of Puri & Dickau 1969 and A1 of Danielopol et al. 2018) occur on ribs or adjacent to them throughout valve surface (Figs 2I and K). Some best preserve pores with very thin lip around hole, seen at high-resolution (Figs 2F and J), possibly belonging to the type A” of Puri & Dickau (1969) and A2 of Danielopol et al. (2018). Marginal pore canals also present, densely arranged (Fig. 2E). Presence of microdenticles in anteroventral area only observed when carapace is disarticulated or broken in this zone (Fig. 2K). Other internal features not available. Remarks: Normal pore canals and marginal pore canals are rarely referred to in the descriptions of Zonocypris species, probably because they both require high magnifications of SEM images to be clearly observed; moreover, many descriptions of Zonocypris species predated the widespread use of SEM, particularly those of recent species, where these small structures are easier to see. However, in recent publications with SEM images, the normal pore canals are often visible at high magnifications. We verified their presence in several fossil and extant species, always located on the ribs or adjacent to them; in Whatley et al. (2002) the presence of normal pore canals on the ribs of Zonocypris labyrinthicus Whatley, Bajpai & Srinivasan, 2002 was noted. The marginal pore canals are more difficult to observe. In Krstić (2006) there is a figure (Pl. LXVI, fig. 8) with the marginal pore canals of Zonocypris membranae quadricella Stancheva, 1966; the author described them as “long, thin and densely arranged”. The presence of microdenticles in the RV is common in extant and sub-fossil species of Zonocypris. In the description of the extant Zonocypris cordata Sars, 1924, from South Africa, the author refers to a “row of minute tubercles”, “both in front and behind” on the RV; microdenticles are also present in the anterior and posterior-ventral parts of the selvage of the RV of a very well preserved Holocene species from Mozambique (MCC observation on material from M. J. Martins, ICArEHB, Universidade do Algarve, Portugal, Project InMoz -PTDC/HAR-ARQ/28148/2017, ongoing studies); in the extant Zonocypris mardinensis Külköylüoðlu et al., 2021, from Turkey, the presence of a row of fine denticles is referred to, but only in the posterior part of the calcified inner lamella of the RV (in the selvage, as we can see in fig. 4F, of Külköylüoðlu et al. 2021). The lack of descriptions of these structures in fossil species is probably due to the rarity of loose valves where they can be observed. Zonocypris berthoui sp. nov. differs from other Early Cretaceous species of the genus mainly by its sub-triangular to ovoid outline and the ribs distribution pattern. Compared to Zonocypris ? expansa Tian & Zhao, 1982, from the Aptian-Albian of NE China, it is significantly smaller, with a very different lateral outline and thicker ribs. Zonocypris sp. recorded by Carignano et al. (2017) in the Barremian?–Aptian interval of Argentina has a rounded sub-trapezoidal outline in lateral view, a greatest width clearly in the posterior third and more asymmetrical arrangement of the concentric ribs in the center of the valve. Some species from the Late Cretaceous resemble our proposed species. In India, Zonocypris labyrinthicus Whatley, Bajpai & Srinivasan, 2002 from the Maastrichtian of Mohagaonkala, and Zonocypris gujaratensis Bhandari & Colin, 1999, from the Upper Maastrichtian-Base of Paleocene? of Anjar, Kachchh, Gujarat State, also show sexual dimorphism, but have a very small carapace with a more rounded lateral outline than Z. berthoui sp. nov.; moreover Z. labyrinthicus has RV>LV and lacks the ribs in the central part of the valves, and in Z. gujaratensis the greatest height is almost in the middle of the length. Zonocypris spirula Whatley & Bajpai, 2000, from the Late Cretaceous and Paleogene of India, differs from the present species in having a very small carapace with spirally arranged ornament comprising a single helicoidal rib coiled on the valve surface. The Campanian Zonocypris digitalis Babinot, 2003, from south-east France, presents a similar rib pattern, but differs in the truncated anterior and posterior margins, and in size, which is very small. The specimen of Zonocypris ? sp. from the Campanian–Early Maastrichtian? of Mali, figured in Colin et al. (1996), very likely belongs to the genus and shows similarities with Z. berthoui sp. nov., however it has an almost round outline and the intercostal areas are pitted. Occurrence: Late Aptian, Crato Formation, Araripe Basin, Barbalha, Crato and Nova Olinda municipalities, Ceará State, Brazil (Berthou et al. 1994; Colin & Dépêche 1997; this study).Published as part of Piovesan, Enelise Katia, Melo, Gustavo Dias, Cabral, Maria Cristina & Guzmán, Juliana, 2022, New Early Cretaceous species of Zonocypris G. W. Müller, 1898 (Crustacea: Ostracoda) from the Crato Formation, Brazil, pp. 581-591 in Zootaxa 5141 (6) on pages 584-586, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5141.6.4, http://zenodo.org/record/659816
FFPred 2.0: Improved Homology-Independent Prediction of Gene Ontology Terms for Eukaryotic Protein Sequences
No full textTo understand fully cell behaviour, biologists are making progress towards cataloguing the functional elements in the human genome and characterising their roles across a variety of tissues and conditions. Yet, functional information - either experimentally validated or computationally inferred by similarity - remains completely missing for approximately 30% of human proteins. FFPred was initially developed to bridge this gap by targeting sequences with distant or no homologues of known function and by exploiting clear patterns of intrinsic disorder associated with particular molecular activities and biological processes. Here, we present an updated and improved version, which builds on larger datasets of protein sequences and annotations, and uses updated component feature predictors as well as revised training procedures. FFPred 2.0 includes support vector regression models for the prediction of 442 Gene Ontology (GO) terms, which largely expand the coverage of the ontology and of the biological process category in particular. The GO term list mainly revolves around macromolecular interactions and their role in regulatory, signalling, developmental and metabolic processes. Benchmarking experiments on newly annotated proteins show that FFPred 2.0 provides more accurate functional assignments than its predecessor and the ProtFun server do; also, its assignments can complement information obtained using BLAST-based transfer of annotations, improving especially prediction in the biological process category. Furthermore, FFPred 2.0 can be used to annotate proteins belonging to several eukaryotic organisms with a limited decrease in prediction quality. We illustrate all these points through the use of both precision-recall plots and of the COGIC scores, which we recently proposed as an alternative numerical evaluation measure of function prediction accuracy
Business Game
No full textnoneLa tesi è basta su una simulazione aziendale con l'obiettivo di attuare una strategia competitiva al fine di massimizzare gli indicatori aziendali di redditività per il raggiungimento del successo finale dell'azienda stessa. Per tale scopo è stato realizzato un lavoro di squadra, concluso con opportune analisi e riflessioni sui risultati ottenut
Global disruptions and supply chain vulnerabilities: a critical analysis of strategic resilience
No full textreservedThis thesis aims to analyze the impact of global disruptions, in particular the recent war in the Red Sea, on the dynamics of supply from the Asian continent and on warehouse stock management strategies.
The analysis focuses on a specific business case, using real data to examine how the change in sea routes, with the circumnavigation of Africa and the by-passing of the Suez Canal, has affected costs, delivery times and logistics operations.
The importance of the concept of supply chain resilience in the context of global disruptions is emphasized, underlining the relevaance of good risk management strategies. In addition, the thesis examines nearshoring as an alternative solution to reduce exposure to such disruptions and improve supply chain responsiveness.
The final objective is therefore to provide practical ideas for companies, with the aim of limiting the impact of unforeseen events, optimizing logistics operations in an increasingly uncertain global context
- …
