63 research outputs found
Interplay between network configurations and network governance mechanisms in supply networks a systematic literature review
No full textPurpose: This work systematically reviews the extant academic management literature on supply networks. It specifically examines how network configurations and network governance mechanisms influence each other in supply networks.
Design: 125 analytical and empirical studies were identified using an evidence-based approach to review the literature mainly published between 1985 and 2012.
Synthesis: Drawing on a multi-disciplinary theoretical foundation, this work develops an integrative framework to identify three distinct yet interdependent themes that characterize the study of supply networks: a) Network Configurations (structures and relationships); b) Network Governance Mechanisms (formal and informal); and c) The Interplay between Network Configurations and Network Governance Mechanisms.
Findings: Network configurations and network governance mechanisms mutually influence each other and cannot be considered in isolation. Formal and informal governance mechanisms provide better control when used as complements rather than as substitutes. The choice of governance mechanism depends on the nature of exchange; role of management; desired level of control; level of flexibility in formal contracts; and complementary role of formal and informal governance mechanism.
Research implications: This nascent field has thematic and methodological research opportunities for academics. Comparative network analysis using longitudinal case studies offers a rich area for further study.
Practical Implications: The complexity surrounding the conflicting roles of managers at the organisation and network levels poses a significant challenge during the development and implementation stage of strategic network policies.
Originality/value: This review reveals that formal and informal governance mechanisms provide better control when used as complements rather than as substitutes
Text-to-Comic Generative Adversarial Network
No full textDrawing and annotating comic illustrations is a complex and difficult process. No existing machine learning algorithms have been developed to create comic illustrations based on descriptions of illustrations, or the dialogue in comics. Moreover, it is not known if a generative adversarial network (GAN) can generate original comics that correspond to the dialogue and/or descriptions. GANs are successful in producing photo-realistic images, but this technology does not necessarily translate to generation of flawless comics. What is more, comic evaluation is a prominent challenge as common metrics such as Inception Score will not perform comparably, as they are designed to work on photos. In this paper, we: 1. Extend state of the art GANs to enable a comics-focused GAN architecture; 2) We implement DescriptionGAN, a novel text-to-comic pipeline based on a text-to-image GAN that synthesizes comics according to text descriptions. 3. We describe an in-depth empirical study of the technical difficulties of comic generation using GAN’s. DescriptionGAN has two novel features: (i) text description creation from labels via permutation and augmentation, and (ii) custom image encoding with Convolutional Neural Networks. We extensively evaluate the proposed DescriptionGAN in twoscenarios, namely image generation from descriptions, and image generation from dialogue. Our results on 1000 Dilbert comic panels and 6000 descriptions show synthetic comic panels from text inputs resemble original Dilbert panels. Novel methods for text description creation and custom image encoding brought improvements to Frechet Inception Distance, detail, and overall image quality over baseline algorithms. Generating illustrations from descriptions provided clear comics including characters and colours that were specified in the descriptions.Comics Illustration Synthesizer using Generative Adversarial NetworksCSE3000 Research ProjectComputer Science and Engineerin
Reducing sea lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis) infestation of farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) through functional feeds
No full textHealth diets for Atlantic salmon have become an important component of the integrated pest management strategies targeting sea lice. A challenge trial was performed to examine the effect of supplementing salmon diets with either immunostimulants or essential oils. One control and four experimental diets containing immunostimulants or natural identical extracts were fed to Atlantic salmon in triplicate tanks for 4 weeks before challenging the fish with the sea lice copepodids. Prevalence of infection was 100%, and the mean abundance of infection was 21.2. The lowest mean lice count of 17 per fish (P< 0.05) was found in the group fed a mix of natural identical plant extracts (PX I). This represents a 20% reduction in infection, showing the potential for health diets to be employed as a tool to help control sea lice. To gain an understanding of the mechanisms of action underlying this protection, fish fed the control diet and fish fed the PX I diet were compared using quantitative histology of the epidermis and proteomic analysis of epidermal mucus. No significant differences were seen in the thickness of the epidermis or mucous cell percentage area, but differences in expression were seen for a number of proteins, including heat shock proteins, in epidermal mucus
Discovering Genesis content, interpretation, reception
No full textComprehensive, up-to-date and student-friendly introduction to Genesis: its structure, content, theological concerns, key interpretative debates and historical reception. Encourages students to engage with Genesis for themselves, by alerting them to key issues and questions raised by the text Explores and explains the approaches of a wide range of interpreters - both ancient and modern Special sections on the reception of Genesis and its distinctive influence on Christian history and culture This introduction to the interpretation of Genesis encourages in-depth study of the text, and genuine grappling with the theological and historical questions raised, by providing a critical assessment of key interpreters and interpretative debates. It draws on a range of methodological approaches (author-, text- and reader-centred), as complementary rather than mutually exclusive ways of understanding the text. It also reflects the growing scholarly attention to the reception history of biblical texts, increasingly viewed as a vital aspect of interpretation rather than an optional extr
Advances in ITP - therapy and quality of life - a patient survey.
No full textCurrent guidelines recommend glucocorticoids and splenectomy as standard 1(st) and 2(nd) line treatments for chronic immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). We sought to find out how German ITP-patients are treated with respect to these guidelines. Members of a patient support association ≥18 years with a self-reported history of chronic ITP>12 months were surveyed with a web-based questionnaire. 122 questionnaires were evaluated. 70% of patients had chronic ITP for more than 5 years and 20% an average platelet count of ≤30·10(9)/L. 41% of the patients reported haematomas or petechiae more than once or twice and up to 12 times or more per year and 17% oropharyngeal and nasal bleeds. 11% had been admitted to hospital during the last 12 months. 88% had received or currently receive glucocorticoids, 27% were splenectomised. IVIG had been given to 55%, rituximab to 22%, anti-D to 12%, ciclosporin to 7%, while complementary and alternative medical treatments had been used by 36%. 50 women responded to questions concerning pregnancy. 14 (28%) had been advised not to become pregnant. 23 reported pregnancies and 10 (44%) required treatment for their ITP during pregnancy. Glucocorticoids are the most common therapy for chronic ITP but complementary and alternative treatments already come second and less than ⅓ of patients are splenectomised. This and the frequent use of complementary medicines suggests patients' dissatisfaction with conventional approaches. Many patients receive off-label therapies. There is a major need for adequate counselling and care for pregnant ITP-patients
Deletion of the Nitrate Reductase N-Terminal Domain Still Allows Binding of 14-3-3 Proteins but Affects Their Inhibitory Properties
No full textKartlegging av råstoff som grunnlag for proteinkilder til fôr i Rogaland
No full textRapporten gir en oversikt over den regionale råstoffsituasjonen for fôrproduksjon i Rogaland. Fokus i rapporten er på tilgjengelig råstoff for protein. Kilder til EPA/DHA er dermed ikke vurdert. Rogaland er et spennende fylke med tanke på fôrproduksjon. Sentrale globale fôraktører som Cargill og Skretting har FoU aktivitet her og Skretting sitt hovedkontor er lokalisert i Stavanger. I tillegg er det næringsaktivitet samt FoU knyttet til proteinproduksjon basert på encellede mikroorganismer og børstemark. Rogaland er et viktig landbruksfylke og det er tilgjengelig forholdsvis store ressurser både i from av restråstoff og jordbruksvekster. Rapporten gir en oversikt over hvilke fôrressurser som er tilgjengelig i regionen, hva som er et interessant minimumsnivå for råvaren og hvordan pris og markedssituasjonen er. Videre gis det informasjon om teknologi og kompetanse i regionen. Forhold som regional/nasjonal investeringsvilje diskuteres samt regulatoriske forhold knyttet til fôringredienser belyses.Kartlegging av råstoff som grunnlag for proteinkilder til fôr i RogalandpublishedVersio
Community-Based Collaboration: A Philanthropic Model for Positive Social Change
No full text· A highly publicized incident served as a catalyst for the Austin, Texas, community, convened by the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, to address gaps in the behavioral health system.
· The foundation worked with the local behavioral health authority, the mayor’s office, police and sheriff’s departments, and the city health department to design the Austin Mayor’s Mental Health Task Force. The task force was succeeded by a monitoring committee that identified six focus areas in which to develop action plans and monitor community progress.
· This collaborative process aimed to strengthen public commitment to behavioral health services and create a cross-agency planning structure to make concrete improvements in the existing service delivery systems.
· Fourteen indicators were compiled into a Mentally Healthy Community Score Card, including indicators related to positive behavioral health, such as fitness, housing, and employment. Of the 14 scored indicators, 78 percent showed improvement between 2005 and 2006.
· System change outcomes included improved quality and access to data, greater public awareness of mental health issues, and the development of new programs, including funding for pilot programs
Use of genetic methods for determining patterns and processes during marine biological invasions
No full textInvasive species are widely recognised as one of the major threats to marine biodiversity worldwide. With increasingly faster and more frequent transoceanic shipping, propagule pressure in the marine environment is likely to further increase, leading to a need for effective strategies for the early detection, prevention and control of marine invasive species. However, such strategies are often difficult to implement as many marine species cannot be accurately categorised as either native or non-native. For these reasons molecular genetic methods have increasingly been utilised for the study of marine invasive species. The potential for molecular data to enhance traditional morphology-based information is recognised and there has been huge progress in the application of molecular genetic methods to the study of marine bioinvasions in the last two decades. This work aims to build on and extend current advances in the use of molecular techniques for understanding marine bioinvasions, and in particular invasive ascidians. Part One (Chapters Two and Three) contains chapters that focus on the detection and identification of marine invasive species with molecular methods. Part Two (Chapters Four, Five and Six) examines how molecular methods can aid in understanding marine invasions and the affect of genetic diversity on invasive populations.
The research in this thesis demonstrates the usefulness of molecular genetics for marine invasive species research. Chapter Two describes the development of a highly sensitive assay for rapid and accurate identification of an invasive clam from environmental samples and has the ability to enhance current marine pest surveillance methods. Chapter Three demonstrates the power of molecular methods for invasive species identification. To effectively monitor and / or control the ongoing anthropogenic spread of invasive marine species there is also a need for extensive molecular inventories of the extant marine invertebrate biodiversity.
An understanding of the genetic diversity of invasive species populations is also required and will increase understanding of the species biology and lead to more effective management strategies. Chapters Four and Five highlight the applications of molecular genetic methods for identifying the invasive species / variants present and elucidating particular populations that served as the source of an introduction. This information can contribute to effective national and international policies and management strategies.
Chapters Five and Six also show how molecular genetic data can aid in understanding why some species are invasive. The results from these two chapters add to growing evidence that, for colonial organisms, reductions in population level genetic diversity may alter colony interaction dynamics and enhance the invasive potential of newly colonising species.
In the future, invasive species research will increasingly utilise metagenomics / next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies. Such applications will provide the ability to not only detect specific invasive species but also the native species present in a sample to assess environmental health. Studies of invasive species are increasingly using functional markers to identify physiologically and ecologically important traits. Future gene expression experiments can utilise NGS technology to identify the genes involved in producing invasive phenotypes and species. Such studies may provide findings which could be of both evolutionary and importantly, practical interest for guiding invasive species management decisions. The application of molecular genetic methods to understanding the biology of invasive species is an extremely promising area of research and such knowledge should be utilised to guide and inform management decisions
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