Digitizing Products Towards Platforms: The Case of Vehicle Motion System

The development of digital product platforms is a prevailing trend in many industries. As firms incorporate digital technologies into established product categories, they need to manage tensions on multiple organizational layers including strategy, technology and structure. Recent findings suggest that tensions are most likely to be managed by creating resource and coordination flexibility. This paper reports a longitudinal case study of developing a digital product platform. By drawing on organizational ambidexterity theory, we identify four mechanisms—re-scripting, centralizing-re-directing and decoupling—through which the firm creates resource and coordination flexibility. The resulting resource and coordination flexibility in turn lead to the transformation of the firm’s strategy, technology and internal structure. The contribution of this study is in adopting an internal perspective and a bottom-up approach which help to theorize the evolution of digitized products into digital product platforms in an emergent way

Magnetic properties of triethylene glycol coated CoFe2O4 and Mn0.2Co0.8Fe2O4 NP's synthesized by polyol method

AbstractIn this study, we reported on the structural and magnetic properties of TEG-CoFe2O4 and TEG-Mn0.2Co0.8Fe2O4 nanocomposites produced by the glycothermal reaction (polyol). X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and vibration sample magnetometer (VSM) analysis have been carried out in order to understand the effect of Mn2+ into CoFe2O4 and it was observed that the addition of Mn2+ tends to reduce the crystallite size, increase the ao (cell parameter) and increase the TB. The presence of adsorbed polyol entities on the surface of the CoFe2O4 and Mn0.2Co0.8Fe2O4 NP's was also proven by TG measurements. FT-IR analysis suggested the presence of adsorbed TEG molecules on the surface of CoFe2O4 and Mn0.2Co0.8Fe2O4 NP's

Atmospheric transport and chemistry of trace gases in LMDz5B: evaluation and implications for inverse modelling

Representation of atmospheric transport is a major source of error in the estimation of greenhouse gas sources and sinks by inverse modelling. Here we assess the impact on trace gas mole fractions of the new physical parameterizations recently implemented in the atmospheric global climate model LMDz to improve vertical diffusion, mesoscale mixing by thermal plumes in the planetary boundary layer (PBL), and deep convection in the troposphere. At the same time, the horizontal and vertical resolution of the model used in the inverse system has been increased. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of these developments on the representation of trace gas transport and chemistry, and to anticipate the implications for inversions of greenhouse gas emissions using such an updated model. Comparison of a one-dimensional version of LMDz with large eddy simulations shows that the thermal scheme simulates shallow convective tracer transport in the PBL over land very efficiently, and much better than previous versions of the model. This result is confirmed in three-dimensional simulations, by a much improved reproduction of the radon-222 diurnal cycle. However, the enhanced dynamics of tracer concentrations induces a stronger sensitivity of the new LMDz configuration to external meteorological forcings. At larger scales, the inter-hemispheric exchange is slightly slower when using the new version of the model, bringing them closer to observations. The increase in the vertical resolution (from 19 to 39 layers) significantly improves the representation of stratosphere/troposphere exchange. Furthermore, changes in atmospheric thermodynamic variables, such as temperature, due to changes in the PBL mixing modify chemical reaction rates, which perturb chemical equilibriums of reactive trace gases. One implication of LMDz model developments for future inversions of greenhouse gas emissions is the ability of the updated system to assimilate a larger amount of high-frequency data sampled at high-variability stations. Others implications are discussed at the end of the paper

Intra-operative acquisition of sensorimotor fMRI during glioma resection: evaluation of feasibility and clinical applicability

Intra-operative fMRI has the potential to improve neurosurgical outcomes and we have previously shown that the task-related BOLD signal can be acquired under general anaesthesia. Our next goal was to acquire fMRI intra-operatively with the skull open. In 12 patients, we performed 24 acquisitions of a passive sensorimotor paradigm during the resection of their brain tumour. The fMRI data were evaluated by neuroradiologists, assessing its applicability for the provision of a clinical report on the location of sensorimotor activation to the neurosurgeon. 17/24 acquisitions were scored as useful. We conclude that intra-operative fMRI is feasible and produces clinically useful data

Simple sequence repeat-based assessment of genetic diversity in 'Dimrit' and 'Gemre' grapevine accessions from Turkey

It is widely believed that Turkey has played an important role in the evolution of modern day grapes due to its unique geographical location with close proximity to the regions of grape diversity. Despite this, the rich grape germplasm found in Turkey has not been sufficiently analyzed genetically. In this study, 31 grapevine accessions from 'Dimrit' (or 'Dilmit') and 'Gemre' grape groups were genetically analyzed at eight SSR (microsatellite) loci (VVS2, VVMD5, VVMD7, VVMD24, VVMD27, VVMD28, VrZAG62 and VrZAG79) and for a number of ampeolographic characteristics. These analyses identified sufficient genetic diversity between these two grape groups that, in general, clustered separately in the dendrogram constructed based on the SSR data. However, the ecogeographical distribution and genetic relationship of the genotypes did not show any significant correlation. Two 'Gemre' accessions were determined as genetically identical. In addition, one case of synonym and several cases of homonym genotypes were identified. The results reported here are important first steps towards better characterization of these grape genotypes and would aid future germplasm management and breeding efforts.

Genetic characterization of grape (Vitis vinifera L.) germplasm from Southeast Anatolia by SSR markers

Southeast Anatolia is located in close proximity to the center of origin of grapes and is an important grape producing area of Turkey. The important location of this region for grape genetic diversity together with its diverse ecological conditions may have led to the development of grape germplasm that is unique to this region. However, so far little has been done to genetically analyze this grape germplasm. In this study, we genetically analyzed 55 grape cultivars originating from six different provinces of this region using 14 simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci and a number of ampeolographic characteristics. Based on these analyses, one case of synonymous and four cases of homonymous grape cultivars were identified. The contribution of our results to better characterization of the grape germplasm of the region as well as future germplasm management and breeding efforts is discussed.

AREsite: a database for the comprehensive investigation of AU-rich elements

AREsite is an online resource for the detailed investigation of AU-rich elements (ARE) in vertebrate mRNA 3′-untranslated regions (UTRs). AREs are one of the most prominent cis-acting regulatory elements found in 3′-UTRs of mRNAs. Various ARE-binding proteins that possess RNA stabilizing or destabilizing functions are recruited by sequence-specific motifs. Recent findings suggest an essential role of the structural mRNA context in which these sequence motifs are embedded. AREsite is the first database that allows to quantify the structuredness of ARE motif sites in terms of opening energies and accessibility probabilities. Moreover, we also provide a detailed phylogenetic analysis of ARE motifs and incorporate information about experimentally validated targets of the ARE-binding proteins TTP, HuR and Auf1. The database is publicly available at: http://rna.tbi.univie.ac.at/AREsite

Relationships among curricular and extra-curricular activities and fundamental competencies for working persons

Two kinds of data analysis methods were applied to the retrospective survey data collected by Morita, Shimizu, and Funaba (2012) to determine which university education programs and activities influence the　alumni’s job performance. The result by correspondence analysis among university programs and activities　and the fundamental competencies for working persons defined by the Japanese Ministry of Economy,　Trade and Industry (2007) indicated the following four clusters: (1) seminar and one’s ability to deliver　opinions clearly, to analyze the status quo, and to clarify issues; (2) curriculum and one’s foreign language　ability; (3) extra-curricular activities and one’s ability to listen carefully to others’ opinions and to influence and involve others; and (4) one’s activities outside university and the ability to create new values. The causal relationships among the actual degrees of curricular and extra-curricular activities in university, the utility of such activities in university life, and the three factors extracted from the responses to the questions of the fundamental competencies were also analyzed by the path analysis method. Activities outside university affected most significantly the alumni’s ability to solve issues, while a few activitiesrelated to university life affected their ability to collaborate with various people and to manage stress. The methodological issues with the alumni survey were also discussed along with the implications of these findings.大学における教育プログラムと活動が，卒業生の仕事の遂行に与える影響について明らかにするために，森田・清水・船場（2011）によって収集された回想的調査データに2 種類の分析方法論を適用した。経済産業省（2007）によって定義された社会人基礎力と大学におけるプログラム，活動の関係についての対応分析による結果から，以下の4クラスタが得られた：⑴ゼミと自分の意見を分かりやすく伝える力，現状を分析し課題を明らかにする力，⑵講義と語学力，⑶正課外活動と相手の意見を丁寧に聴く力，他人に働きかけ巻き込む力，そして，⑷学外での活動と新しい価値を生み出す力，である。大学の正課・正課外活動，大学生活における幾つかの活動の有用性，そして基礎能力についての質問項目から抽出された3つの因子の因果関係について，パス解析による分析を行った。学外での活動は，課題解決力に対して最も有意に影響していた。大学生活における少数の活動が対人関係力，ストレス耐性力に影響していた。卒業生調査における方法論的問題とこれらの知見について考察を行った