A framework and a tool to generate e-business options

In early stages, many organizations started to use the internet in more or less ad hoc and experimental ways. After this first stage of learning and experimentation there often arises a need for more systematic approaches to identify, order, and assess e-business options. This paper addresses this need and presents a framework as well as a tool supporting this framework, helping management to generate and order e-business options for their organization. The framework consists of two parts. The first part covers the identification of the dimensions of e-business options. Six dimensions are identified: external stakeholders groups, stakeholder statuses, channel strategies, communication modes, products/service groups, and product/service statuses. Users of this framework can apply these dimensions given the specific characteristics of the organization at hand. Subsequently, these dimensions are combined, generating, in many cases, a multitude of potential e-business options. The second part of the framework supports the process of ordering this large set of generated potential e-business options given certain criteria. This can be accomplished by ordering the dimensions as well as the elements along each distinguished dimension. Some of these elements are company-independent, while others are company-dependent. The framework is illustrated by a case study as a running example. We also offer a design of a tool supporting our framework. The framework focuses on e-business options between an organization and its current or new external stakeholders: possible internal e-business applications are excluded in this paper. The framework can be used as a tool for practitioners, such as consultants or managers, to generate e-business options for a company. They can use it -for example- in workshops to support idea-generation with respect to e-business planning in a creative and structured way. The framework also contributes to theory by providing a method that systematically offers new possibilities for using the internet. After the identification and the ordering of e-business options, the generated and ordered options have to be assessed and selected; this paper however, only focuses on the generating and ordering process.

Effects of climate change on pup growth and survival in a cooperative mammal, the meerkat

Breeding systems in which group members help to raise the offspring of co-members are associated with arid, unpredictable environments. Cooperative rearing may mitigate the effects of adverse environmental conditions on pup growth and survival. However, few studies have explored the relationship between environmental variation and breeding success, and the role of helpers. Here, we show that reductions in the growth and survival of meerkat (Suricata suricatta) pups have been associated with increases in daily maximum air temperatures (Tmax) in the southern Kalahari over the last 20 years. On days when Tmax was high, meerkat pups gained less body mass than on cooler days. Reductions in the diurnal body mass gain (ΔMb) of pups on hotter days were not a consequence of reductions in the frequency with which pups were fed by adults as feeding rate increased with Tmax, suggesting that the reductions in ΔMb by pups on hot days reflected a decrease in water content of the food items or an increased water and energy cost of thermoregulation. Reductions in pup ΔMb on hot days were smaller in larger groups, in which helper-to-pup ratios were relatively high. As increases in air temperature are predicted with climate change, further reductions in meerkat pup growth and survival seem inevitable. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.European Research Council (grants 294494 and 742808) University Research Office and the Brain Function Research Group of the University of the Witwatersran

Field Theory And Second Renormalization Group For Multifractals In Percolation

The field-theory for multifractals in percolation is reformulated in such a way that multifractal exponents clearly appear as eigenvalues of a second renormalization group. The first renormalization group describes geometrical properties of percolation clusters, while the second-one describes electrical properties, including noise cumulants. In this context, multifractal exponents are associated with symmetry-breaking fields in replica space. This provides an explanation for their observability. It is suggested that multifractal exponents are ''dominant'' instead of ''relevant'' since there exists an arbitrary scale factor which can change their sign from positive to negative without changing the Physics of the problem.Comment: RevTex, 10 page

Avaliação da contagem de ovos por grama de fezes de ovinos infectados com nematóides gastrintestinais e tratados com extratos de Artemisia annua.

O uso intensivo de antiparasitários tem contribuído, a nível mundial, para uma situação de resistência dos parasitas a estes. Muitos princípios ativos comercialmente disponíveis frequentemente não possuem a eficácia desejada em várias propriedades que criam pequenos ruminantes. Conforme levantamentos científicos, (Asteraceae) tem diversas aplicações no campo medicinal, pois possui propriedades anti-inflamatória, sedativa, vermífuga, além de uso no controle da malária. Atualmente, os estudos fitoquímicos de extratos vegetais fornecem informações quanto à natureza dos bioativos, o que pode servir de embasamento para elaboração de formulações antiparasitárias. Este trabalho teve como objetivo primordial verificar a eficácia do extrato diclorometano obtido a partir de no controle antiparasitário ( ) de ovinos. Para a execução do presente estudo, utilizou-se 24 ovinos da raça Santa Inês do rebanho da Embrapa Pecuária Sudeste, localizada em São Carlos, SP, que foram tratados com antihelmíntico e infectados artificialmente com 4.000 larvas (no 3º estágio de desenvolvimento) de . Os animais foram divididos em 4 grupos de 6 animais para os seguintes tratamentos: controle (água), extrato de bicarbonato de sódio de , extrato diclorometano de (ambos via oral, 2g/kg p.v.) e fosfato de levamisol injetável na dose de 4,7 mg/kg. A média de ovos por grama (OPG) de fezes dos grupos no dia zero foi de: 1.741, 1.733, 1.758 e 1.741, respectivamente. Foram realizadas contagens nos dias 3, 7, 10 e 14. A porcentagem de eficácia dos tratamentos realizados foi calculada usando-se o programa RESO para o OPG de fezes do 14° dia dos grupos tratados em relação ao controle. Os dois extratos foram produzidos no Centro Pluridisciplinar de Pesquisas Químicas, Biológicas e Agrícolas (CPQBA) da Unicamp. Detectou-se a presença da artemisinina em 0,6% no extrato de bicarbonato e em 11% do extrato diclorometano. Ao final do experimento (dia 14), pôde-se observar uma redução de 94% do OPG para o grupo levamisol em relação ao controle e de 0% para os extratos vegetais. Concluiu-se que os extratos de não se mostraram eficazes, embora o extrato de diclorometano contivesse uma quantidade elevada de artemisinina. Essa substância é considerada ativa no controle dos parasitas causadores da malária, mas não apresentou eficácia sobre o nematóide gastrintestinal , considerado o mais importante na criação de ovinos

Financial instability from local market measures

We study the emergence of instabilities in a stylized model of a financial market, when different market actors calculate prices according to different (local) market measures. We derive typical properties for ensembles of large random markets using techniques borrowed from statistical mechanics of disordered systems. We show that, depending on the number of financial instruments available and on the heterogeneity of local measures, the market moves from an arbitrage-free phase to an unstable one, where the complexity of the market - as measured by the diversity of financial instruments - increases, and arbitrage opportunities arise. A sharp transition separates the two phases. Focusing on two different classes of local measures inspired by real markets strategies, we are able to analytically compute the critical lines, corroborating our findings with numerical simulations.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figure

A biophysical model of prokaryotic diversity in geothermal hot springs

Recent field investigations of photosynthetic bacteria living in geothermal hot spring environments have revealed surprisingly complex ecosystems, with an unexpected level of genetic diversity. One case of particular interest involves the distribution along hot spring thermal gradients of genetically distinct bacterial strains that differ in their preferred temperatures for reproduction and photosynthesis. In such systems, a single variable, temperature, defines the relevant environmental variation. In spite of this, each region along the thermal gradient exhibits multiple strains of photosynthetic bacteria adapted to several distinct thermal optima, rather than the expected single thermal strain adapted to the local environmental temperature. Here we analyze microbiology data from several ecological studies to show that the thermal distribution field data exhibit several universal features independent of location and specific bacterial strain. These include the distribution of optimal temperatures of different thermal strains and the functional dependence of the net population density on temperature. Further, we present a simple population dynamics model of these systems that is highly constrained by biophysical data and by physical features of the environment. This model can explain in detail the observed diversity of different strains of the photosynthetic bacteria. It also reproduces the observed thermal population distributions, as well as certain features of population dynamics observed in laboratory studies of the same organisms

Beyond the Fragmentation Threshold Hypothesis: Regime Shifts in Biodiversity Across Fragmented Landscapes

Ecological systems are vulnerable to irreversible change when key system properties are pushed over thresholds, resulting in the loss of resilience and the precipitation of a regime shift. Perhaps the most important of such properties in human-modified landscapes is the total amount of remnant native vegetation. In a seminal study Andrén proposed the existence of a fragmentation threshold in the total amount of remnant vegetation, below which landscape-scale connectivity is eroded and local species richness and abundance become dependent on patch size. Despite the fact that species patch-area effects have been a mainstay of conservation science there has yet to be a robust empirical evaluation of this hypothesis. Here we present and test a new conceptual model describing the mechanisms and consequences of biodiversity change in fragmented landscapes, identifying the fragmentation threshold as a first step in a positive feedback mechanism that has the capacity to impair ecological resilience, and drive a regime shift in biodiversity. The model considers that local extinction risk is defined by patch size, and immigration rates by landscape vegetation cover, and that the recovery from local species losses depends upon the landscape species pool. Using a unique dataset on the distribution of non-volant small mammals across replicate landscapes in the Atlantic forest of Brazil, we found strong evidence for our model predictions - that patch-area effects are evident only at intermediate levels of total forest cover, where landscape diversity is still high and opportunities for enhancing biodiversity through local management are greatest. Furthermore, high levels of forest loss can push native biota through an extinction filter, and result in the abrupt, landscape-wide loss of forest-specialist taxa, ecological resilience and management effectiveness. The proposed model links hitherto distinct theoretical approaches within a single framework, providing a powerful tool for analysing the potential effectiveness of management interventions