83 research outputs found
Large-Scale Agile Transformation: A Case Study of Transforming Business, Development and Operations
Today, product development organizations are adopting agile methods in units outside the software development unit, such as in sales, market, legal, operations working with the customer. This broader adoption of agile methods has been labeled large-scale agile transformation and is considered a particular type of organizational change, originating in the software development units. So far, there is little research-based advice on conducting such transformations. Aiming to contribute towards providing relevant research advice on large-scale agile transformation, we apply a research-based framework for evaluating organizational agility on a product development program in a maritime service provider organization. We found that doing a large-scale agile transformation involves many significant challenges, such as having a shared understanding of the problem, getting access to users, and getting commitment to change that needs to be done. In order to overcome such challenges, we discuss the need for a holistic and integrated approach to agile transformation involving all the units linked to software development.publishedVersio
Role of Homer Proteins in the Maintenance of Sleep-Wake States
Sleep is an evolutionarily conserved process that is linked to diurnal cycles and normal daytime wakefulness. Healthy sleep and wakefulness are integral to a healthy lifestyle; this occurs when an organism is able to maintain long bouts of both sleep and wake. Homer proteins, which function as adaptors for group 1 metabotropic glutamate receptors, have been implicated in genetic studies of sleep in both Drosophila and mouse. Drosophila express a single Homer gene product that is upregulated during sleep. By contrast, vertebrates express Homer as both constitutive and immediate early gene (H1a) forms, and H1a is up-regulated during wakefulness. Genetic deletion of Homer in Drosophila results in fragmented sleep and in failure to sustain long bouts of sleep, even under increased sleep drive. However, deletion of Homer1a in mouse results in failure to sustain long bouts of wakefulness. Further evidence for the role of Homer1a in the maintenance of wake comes from the CREB alpha delta mutant mouse, which displays a reduced wake phenotype similar to the Homer1a knockout and fails to up-regulate Homer1a upon sleep loss. Homer1a is a gene whose expression is induced by CREB. Sustained behaviors of the sleep/wake cycle are created by molecular pathways that are distinct from those for arousal or short bouts, and implicate an evolutionarily-conserved role for Homer in sustaining these behaviors
The Gaia-ESO survey: Matching chemodynamical simulations to observations of the Milky Way
The typical methodology for comparing simulated galaxies with observational
surveys is usually to apply a spatial selection to the simulation to mimic the
region of interest covered by a comparable observational survey sample. In this
work we compare this approach with a more sophisticated post-processing in
which the observational uncertainties and selection effects (photometric,
surface gravity and effective temperature) are taken into account. We compare a
`solar neighbourhood analogue' region in a model Milky Way-like galaxy
simulated with RAMSES-CH with fourth release Gaia-ESO survey data. We find that
a simple spatial cut alone is insufficient and that observational uncertainties
must be accounted for in the comparison. This is particularly true when the
scale of uncertainty is large compared to the dynamic range of the data, e.g.
in our comparison, the [Mg/Fe] distribution is affected much more than the more
accurately determined [Fe/H] distribution. Despite clear differences in the
underlying distributions of elemental abundances between simulation and
observation, incorporating scatter to our simulation results to mimic
observational uncertainty produces reasonable agreement. The quite complete
nature of the Gaia-ESO survey means that the selection function has minimal
impact on the distribution of observed age and metal abundances but this would
become increasingly more important for surveys with narrower selection
functions
Efflux in Fungi: La Pièce de Résistance
Pathogens must be able to overcome both host defenses and antimicrobial treatment in order to successfully infect and maintain colonization of the host. One way fungi accomplish this feat and overcome intercellular toxin accumulation is efflux pumps, in particular ATP-binding cassette transporters and transporters of the major facilitator superfamily. Members of these two superfamilies remove many toxic compounds by coupling transport with ATP hydrolysis or a proton gradient, respectively. Fungal genomes encode a plethora of members of these families of transporters compared to other organisms. In this review we discuss the role these two fungal superfamilies of transporters play in virulence and resistance to antifungal agents. These efflux transporters are responsible not only for export of compounds involved in pathogenesis such as secondary metabolites, but also export of host-derived antimicrobial compounds. In addition, we examine the current knowledge of these transporters in resistance of pathogens to clinically relevant antifungal agents
The genome of the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus
We report the sequence and analysis of the 814-megabase genome of the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus
purpuratus, a model for developmental and systems biology. The sequencing strategy combined
whole-genome shotgun and bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) sequences. This use of BAC clones,
aided by a pooling strategy, overcame difficulties associated with high heterozygosity of the genome.
The genome encodes about 23,300 genes, including many previously thought to be vertebrate
innovations or known only outside the deuterostomes. This echinoderm genome provides an
evolutionary outgroup for the chordates and yields insights into the evolution of deuterostomes
Large-Scale Agile Transformation: A Case Study of Transforming Business, Development and Operations
Today, product development organizations are adopting agile methods in units outside the software development unit, such as in sales, market, legal, operations working with the customer. This broader adoption of agile methods has been labeled large-scale agile transformation and is considered a particular type of organizational change, originating in the software development units. So far, there is little research-based advice on conducting such transformations. Aiming to contribute towards providing relevant research advice on large-scale agile transformation, we apply a research-based framework for evaluating organizational agility on a product development program in a maritime service provider organization. We found that doing a large-scale agile transformation involves many significant challenges, such as having a shared understanding of the problem, getting access to users, and getting commitment to change that needs to be done. In order to overcome such challenges, we discuss the need for a holistic and integrated approach to agile transformation involving all the units linked to software development
Detection of Visible and Latent Fingerprints Using Micro-X-ray Fluorescence Elemental Imaging*
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