41 research outputs found

    Southeastern Librarian 71(1) Spring 2023 (Full Issue)

    Get PDF
    Complete issue of The Southeastern Librarian Volume 71 Number

    Using Design Science Research to Develop a Conceptual Solution for Improving Knowledge Sharing in a Virtual Workspace

    Full text link
    Enhancements in technology have resulted in significant changes to day-to-day operations of organizations in the present day. One especially noteworthy change is the alteration in the nature of teams from being co-located, with face-to-face interaction, to virtual, with the involvement of information and communication technologies (ICT) to facilitate communication. This change in team character has had a downstream impact on a key element of an organization’s competitive edge, namely knowledge. Overall, there is consensus that knowledge is a crucial facet of the competitive edge of an organization. Consequently, knowledge management, knowledge sharing, and organizational learning are essential components of an organization’s sustained existence and effectiveness in the competitive marketplace and considerable academic and industry attention has been paid to this matter. However, the present day scenario of global organizations and dispersed teams, within and across geographies, transforms the matter of knowledge sharing and organizational learning into one of great complexity. Thus, the present study was interested in understanding the modalities of knowledge sharing and consequently organizational learning in the context of a virtual workspace, that is, teams operating from physically distinct locations and communicating using ICT tools. Overall, the objective of this study was to propose a conceptual model using the Design Science Research (DSR) approach to enhance organizational learning and knowledge sharing in the context of the virtual workspaces of the present day work environment. Further, the conceptual model is extended to propose the use of a Learnin

    Structural material from cellulose fibres: design-driven research case

    Get PDF
    Innovative wood-based biomaterials can be seen as a strategic asset for Finland, both from economic and environmental perspectives. Pioneering research programmes such as FinnCERES are positioning the country at the cutting edge of global forest material innovation, targeting novel material solutions with advanced properties and efficient manufacturing technologies. Simultaneously, the contribution of design gradually increases in the field of material research. Design transforms from a separate practice into a valuable component of a collaborative approach. Multiple recent projects have exhibited the potential of design to accelerate scientific innovation of wood-based materials. This thesis describes a design-driven case of applied research focused on wood-based fibre materials. It provides a detailed description of an experimental process leading to a structured approach that facilitates interdisciplinary material development. The study is practice-based, and focuses on the development of foam-formed structures from cellulose fibres. Previous research of new foam forming technology indicates a unique property of precision in surface texture. Building upon this discovery, an attempt was made to produce a structural material composed of millimetre-scale units by a combination of geometrical design and the understanding of cellulose fibre interactions. The research was performed as an iterative process composed of five cycles. Each cycle consists of a series of practical experiments focusing on the development of material structures via prototyping. The experiments included design of foam-formed structures, and qualitative assessment and mechanical testing of the prototypes. Improved understanding of the materials and manufacturing process was obtained through observation and analysis of the experiments, which was transformed into new concepts during collaborative ideation. Interdisciplinary collaboration between material scientists and designer resulted in combined expertise that is at the core of the iterative approach. The outcome of iterative exploration is expressed in structural material prototypes with improved technical properties and appealing perceptual characteristics. The prototypes demonstrate the feasibility of foam forming as a mean of production for cellulosic materials with increased compressive strength and reduced density. Correspondingly, the obtained visual and associative material properties provide a new perspective on fibre materials and an engaging experience for future users. This material has potential for further development into lightweight applications that can become alternatives to fossil-derived products. The detailed description of the process showcases the benefits of interdisciplinary methods in materials development and provides the background needed for future research

    Yearning for identity in the glimmer of America: a corpus-assisted analysis of the south asian american diaspora literature

    Get PDF
    The analysis of diaspora and its characteristics have constituted a substantial body of recent studies and researchers in different disciplines have tried to provide a new definition of diaspora. There are several reasons for the growing interest in the notion of diaspora, the most important of which is the possibility it provides to question the basic, yet fundamental concepts. Diaspora breaks the conceptual relations between concepts and their meanings and acts as a third space for them to be redefined all over again. Diaspora deconstructs the meaning of home, identity, culture, language, memories, ethnicity, belonging and traditions and by doing so, forces those in diaspora to re-evaluate the meanings, re-establish the connections and reread themselves using the newly defined concepts. Given that diaspora provides a space for concepts to be in the process of becoming and not being, it also makes it possible for the stereotypes to be revisited and redefined. South Asian Americans are one of the most significant minority groups in the United States who not only contributed to the advancement of the Diaspora literature but also tried to redefine themselves and the existing stereotypes about them. This study aimed to uncover the central framework of the South Asian American Diasporic literature and to investigate the linguistic and literary patterns of it. The evaluation was carried out through the employment of the corpus analytical methods, including keywords, concordance, and collocations on the compiled corpus for this study. The analyses of the corpus revealed the distinguishing features of the South Asian American Diaspora literature written by the female authors and identified the embedded ideas within the context of this group. This study also illustrated the similarities and the differences between the findings of this study using corpus analytical methods and the literary readings. The findings of this study can be helpful in identifying the benefits of computational criticism in the study of literature

    Multireference approaches for excited states of molecules

    Get PDF
    Understanding the properties of electronically excited states is a challenging task that becomes increasingly important for numerous applications in chemistry, molecular physics, molecular biology, and materials science. A substantial impact is exerted by the fascinating progress in time-resolved spectroscopy, which leads to a strongly growing demand for theoretical methods to describe the characteristic features of excited states accurately. Whereas for electronic ground state problems of stable molecules the quantum chemical methodology is now so well developed that informed nonexperts can use it efficiently, the situation is entirely different concerning the investigation of excited states. This review is devoted to a specific class of approaches, usually denoted as multireference (MR) methods, the generality of which is needed for solving many spectroscopic or photodynamical problems. However, the understanding and proper application of these MR methods is often found to be difficult due to their complexity and their computational cost. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the most important facts about the different theoretical approaches available and to present by means of a collection of characteristic examples useful information, which can guide the reader in performing their own applications

    User Review Analysis for Requirement Elicitation: Thesis and the framework prototype's source code

    Get PDF
    Online reviews are an important channel for requirement elicitation. However, requirement engineers face challenges when analysing online user reviews, such as data volumes, technical supports, existing techniques, and legal barriers. Juan Wang proposes a framework solving user review analysis problems for the purpose of requirement elicitation that sets up a channel from downloading user reviews to structured analysis data. The main contributions of her work are: (1) the thesis proposed a framework to solve the user review analysis problem for requirement elicitation; (2) the prototype of this framework proves its feasibility; (3) the experiments prove the effectiveness and efficiency of this framework. This resource here is the latest version of Juan Wang's PhD thesis "User Review Analysis for Requirement Elicitation" and all the source code of the prototype for the framework as the results of her thesis

    Olfactory dysfunction in the pathophysiological continuum of dementia

    Get PDF
    Sensory capacities like smell, taste, hearing, vision decline with aging, but increasing evidence show that sensory dysfunctions are one of the early signs diagnosing the conversion from physiological to pathological brain state. Smell loss represents the best characterized sense in clinical practice and is considered as one of the first preclinical signs of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, occurring a decade or more before the onset of cognitive and motor symptoms. Despite the numerous scientific reports and the adoption in clinical practice, the etiology of sensory damage as prodromal of dementia remains largely unexplored and more studies are needed to resolve the mechanisms underlying sensory network dysfunction. Although both cognitive and sensory domains are progressively affected, loss of sensory experience in early stages plays a major role in reducing the autonomy of demented people in their daily tasks or even possibly contributing to their cognitive decline. Interestingly, the chemosensory circuitry is devoid of a blood brain barrier, representing a vulnerable port of entry for neurotoxic species that can spread to the brain. Furthermore, the exposure of the olfactory system to the external environment make it more susceptible to mechanical injury and trauma, which can cause degenerative neuroinflammation. In this review, we will summarize several findings about chemosensory impairment signing the conversion from healthy to pathological brain aging and we will try to connect those observations to the promising research linking environmental influences to sporadic dementia. The scientific body of knowledge will support the use of chemosensory diagnostics in the presymptomatic stages of AD and other biomarkers with the scope of finding treatment strategies before the onset of the disease

    Parallel and Distributed Computing

    Get PDF
    The 14 chapters presented in this book cover a wide variety of representative works ranging from hardware design to application development. Particularly, the topics that are addressed are programmable and reconfigurable devices and systems, dependability of GPUs (General Purpose Units), network topologies, cache coherence protocols, resource allocation, scheduling algorithms, peertopeer networks, largescale network simulation, and parallel routines and algorithms. In this way, the articles included in this book constitute an excellent reference for engineers and researchers who have particular interests in each of these topics in parallel and distributed computing
    corecore