The Managed Service Paradox

This paper examines the contrasts in the provision of managed service in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector. It highlights the polarization between infrastructure services that are growing in scale and increasingly becoming a commoditized, and customized or even one-of-a-kind service projects. The paper refers to the approaches taken by three highly innovative advanced service companies, IBM, Ericsson, and Cable & Wireless, to package and deliver ICT service on a more industrialized basis. The authors identify the six-stage process that describes these companies’ journeys to date from. They explore the challenges these companies faced on that journey as well those currently facing them as they move to a higher degree of industrialization. To address these challenges, the authors propose a model with three axes: offering development, service delivery, and go to market. The model demonstrates how the increasing industrialization of managed service requires an approach integrating all three of these dimensions. They also show that strong governance is required to address the impacts of technological evolution, marketplace dynamics, and corporate culture. The paper has formed the basis of the academic and executive education programs taught at both Imperial College and is the heart of the new service design masters program at the Royal College of Art. Because of its relevance to large industrial companies seeking to transition from an industrial offering to a service or solution led offering, the paper has been turned into a course that has been delivered to Arup, Vodafone, Finmeccanica, Telefonica, Samsung and Laing O’Rourke to date and this programme has been delivered by the authors in Korea, Taiwan, US and the UK

Off the Beaten Path: Let's Replace Term-Based Retrieval with k-NN Search

Retrieval pipelines commonly rely on a term-based search to obtain candidate records, which are subsequently re-ranked. Some candidates are missed by this approach, e.g., due to a vocabulary mismatch. We address this issue by replacing the term-based search with a generic k-NN retrieval algorithm, where a similarity function can take into account subtle term associations. While an exact brute-force k-NN search using this similarity function is slow, we demonstrate that an approximate algorithm can be nearly two orders of magnitude faster at the expense of only a small loss in accuracy. A retrieval pipeline using an approximate k-NN search can be more effective and efficient than the term-based pipeline. This opens up new possibilities for designing effective retrieval pipelines. Our software (including data-generating code) and derivative data based on the Stack Overflow collection is available online

Physiological responses of reared sea bream (Sparus aurata Linnaeus, 1758) to an Amyloodinium ocellatum outbreak

Amyloodiniosis represents a major bottleneck for semi-intensive aquaculture production in Southern Europe, causing extremely high mortalities. Amyloodinium ocellatum is a parasitic dinoflagellate that can infest almost all fish, crustacean and bivalves that live within its ecological range. Fish mortalities are usually attributed to anoxia, associated with serious gill hyperplasia, inflammation, haemorrhage and necrosis in heavy infestations; or with osmoregulatory impairment and secondary microbial infections due to severe epithelial damage in mild infestation. However, physiological information about the host responses to A.ocellatum infestation is scarce. In this work, we analysed the proteome of gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata) plasma and relate it with haematological and immunological indicators, in order to enlighten the different physiological responses when exposed to an A.ocellatum outbreak. Using 2D-DIGE, immunological and haematological analysis and in response to the A.ocellatum contamination we have identified several proteins associated with acute-phase response, inflammation, lipid transport, homoeostasis, and osmoregulation, wound healing, neoplasia and iron transport. Overall, this preliminary study revealed that amyloodiniosis affects some fish functional pathways as revealed by the changes in the plasma proteome of S. aurata, and that the innate immunological system is not activated in the presence of the parasite.DIVERSIAQUA, Portugal [MAR2020]Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia [SFRH/BD/118601/2016]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Towards business integration as a service 2.0 (BIaaS 2.0)

Cloud Computing Business Framework (CCBF) is a framework for designing and implementation of Could Computing solutions. This proposal focuses on how CCBF can help to address linkage in Cloud Computing implementations. This leads to the development of Business Integration as a Service 1.0 (BIaaS 1.0) allowing different services, roles and functionalities to work together in a linkage-oriented framework where the outcome of one service can be input to another, without the need to translate between domains or languages. BIaaS 2.0 aims to allow automation, enhanced security, advanced risk modelling and improved collaboration between processes in BIaaS 1.0. The benefits from adopting BIaaS 1.0 and developing BIaaS 2.0 are illustrated using a case study from the University of Southampton and several collaborators including IBM US. BIaaS 2.0 can work with mainstream technologies such as scientific workflows, and the proposal and demonstration of BIaaS 2.0 will be aimed to certainly benefit industry and academia. © 2011 IEEE

Developmental and gender trends in emotional literacy and interpersonal competence among Japanese children

This study explored cross-sectional gender and grade level trends in emotional literacy and interpersonal competence among 913 elementary and middle school students in Japan. Students were presented with two hypothetical scenarios involving mixed emotions and potential interpersonal dilemmas. Results indicated that older children possess greater emotional literacy when compared to younger children. Additionally, girls identified a greater number of emotions, were better able to identify mixed emotions, and were more likely to identify empathic interpersonal behaviours. These gender and grade level considerations may be incorporated into social-emotional learning curricula to enhance the utility and effectiveness of programs for diverse populations.peer-reviewe

A recipe for myositis : nuclear factor κB and nuclear factor of activated T-cells transcription factor pathways spiced up by cytokines

Nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) is a well-known pro-inflammatory transcription factor that regulates the expression of the tissue’s immune-active components, which include cytokines, chemokines and adhesion molecules. In addition, the versatile nuclear factor of activated T-cells (NFAT) family of transcription factors plays a crucial role in the development and function of the immune system, integrating calcium signaling with other signaling pathways. NF-κB and NFAT share many structural and functional characteristics and likely regulate gene expression through shared enhancer elements. This review describes recent research data that has led to new insights into the involvement of NFκB- and NFAT-mediated pathways in the different idiopathic inflammatory myopathies. The general activation of NF-κB p65 in blood vessel endothelium, seems to flag down inflammatory cells that subsequently accumulate mostly at perimysial sites in dermatomyositis. The joint activation of p65 and NFAT5 in myofibers specifically at perifascicular areas reflects the characteristic tissue damage pattern observed in that particular subgroup of patients. In immune cells actively invading nonnecrotic muscle fibers in polymyositis and sporadic inclusion body myositis on the other hand, p65 activation is an important aspect of their cytotoxic and chemoattactant properties. In addition, both transcription factor families are generally upregulated in regenerating muscle fibers as components of the differentiation process. It can be concluded that the two transcription factor families function in close relationship with each other, representing two-edged swords for muscle disease: on the one hand promoting cell growth and regeneration, while on the other hand actively participating in inflammatory cell damage. In this respect, cytokines function as important go-betweens at the crossroads of the pathways. Beyond NF-κB and NFAT, many fascinating winding roads relevant to inflammatory myopathy disease management still lie ready for the exploring

Towards Business Integration as a Service 2.0

Cloud Computing Business Framework (CCBF) is a framework for designing and implementation of Could Computing solutions. This proposal focuses on how CCBF can help to address linkage in Cloud Computing implementations. This leads to the development of Business Integration as a Service 1.0 (BIaS 1.0) allowing different services, roles and functionalities to work together in a linkage-oriented framework where the outcome of one service can be input to another, without the need to translate between domains or languages. BIaS 2.0 aims to allow full automation, enhanced security, advanced risk modelling and improved collaboration between processes in BIaaS 1.0. The benefits from adopting BIaS 1.0 and developing BIaS 2.0 are illustrated using a case study from the University of Southampton and several collaborators including IBM US. BIaS 2.0 can work with mainstream technologies such as scientific workflows, and the proposal and demonstration of BIaaS 2.0 will certainly benefit industry and academia

Special Libraries, February 1962

Volume 53, Issue 2https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1962/1001/thumbnail.jp