NOW: THE PARTICIPATORY MARKETPLACE FOR A TOURIST DESTINATION

Framing metamorphosis: In a unique, bottom-up, destination management case - exploiting mobileinternet based communication – operators’ competition is washed out, in favour of shared sense making, cooperation, and coordination. How is it possible? What are the drivers, enablers, and success factors? What makes it sustainable? What produces shared self-awareness in the community, to gain group access to online trade? What magic organisational intervention produces the “miracle”? Different perspectives: Qualitative analysis interpretation, in a soft, participated, action-case, yields: from a socio-technical perspective: local dimension and participation (sustainability of solution, convenience; a working online market; putting the tourist at centre); from a social perspective: adapt to various users\u27 situation (location, context, and mood; don’t take all, select on quality; crossmarketing partnership); from an IS discipline perspective: social-practice-design intervention; mobile- Internet driven business-model and cooperation; APPs and user configurability. Theory stands: Digging into the conceptual fabrics of the case, unquestionably unveils the embodiment of some anticipated, crisp, phenomenology-based IS concepts, in the social structuration back-bones of human behaviour of NOW: i) personal sense making and motivation (situation, context and mood, convenience, sustainability); ii) people participation to technology-based innovation (participatory-design, constructing well functioning socio-technical infrastructures, user-design in use); iii) intervention for consensus-based, organizational change by social-practice-design (facilitation for shared sense making, trust and cooperation building, bottom-up governance)

Antecedents of success in IS offshoring projects - Proposal for an empirical research study

The paper presents a research model and a measurement instrument for a research-in-progress study on the antecedents of success in IS offshoring projects. In this empirical-confirmatory study, we intend to analyse the impact of the constructs “offshoring expertise”, “trust in offshore service provider”, “project suitability”, “knowledge transfer”, and “liaison quality” on offshore project success. Constructs and indicators are derived from an extensive literature review. We plan to formulate a structural equation model and to test it using partial least squares (PLS) as an analysis technique. Our research model addresses the paucity of research that quantitatively examines offshoring success

APPLYING LESSONS LEARNED FROM COUNSELLING: ON NURTURING RELATIONS IN E-GOVERNMENT PROJECTS

This paper elaborates on the relevance of deploying focus and effort on personal relation, in interventions for organisational innovation. Supporting the establishment of sense making and trust with Social Practice Design (SPD) approaches is found to be of primary importance in an e- Government development project. Here regional employees user-design a computer-based aid for public tender editing – a tender configurator - with the support of facilitators. The paper offers a demonstration of the mission critical relevance of the relational component in SPD, intertwined with the customary functional component, in resuming governance towards project success. We address the structural problem with infra-structural measures including open conversations to promote shared understanding, and user design laboratories to promote concept emergence and learning, while practicing relation and trust building all along. Our constructivist approach renounces from the start to solve the governance problem within a narrow managerial perspective. This experience is far from a complete experiment. But a wealth of indications and partial results have been harvested on needs, opportunities, and practices, for promoting shared understanding and trust in the project, and letting emerge idiosyncratic solutions. Our SPD approach is entrenched in the deployment of facilitator interventions in the case site, in an action research (AR) like approach employing Interactive Use Cases (IUC) as a Participative Design (PD) tool. Key is the awareness and intentionality in conceiving, proposing, co-constructing with users the appropriate path, in the context, towards desired change. A holistic, long-term commitment. Quality of the path more important, that the very goal. The SPD approach is evolved through: a) the attempts from facilitators to build up personal relations of trust with managers and personnel; b) ethnographic observations; c) the analysis and awareness creation of the main traits of the extant situation in the company, through interviews, meetings, and workshops; d) the joint identification with the company’s personnel of the crucial how question e) the conception and joint co-construction of visions of solution by personnel and facilitators. PD techniques employed as special measures include: user laboratories, learning sessions, design sessions. We judge the quality of the SPD approach by three requirements (Baskerville and Myers 2004): a contribution to practice (the action), a contribution to research (the theory), the criteria by which to judge the research, and we show explicitly how the research in the case meets these criteria

Well-posedness of two pseudo-parabolic problems for electrical conduction in heterogeneous media

We prove a well-posedness result for two pseudo-parabolic problems, which can be seen as two models for the same electrical conduction phenomenon in heterogeneous media, neglecting the magnetic field. One of the problems is the concentration limit of the other one, when the thickness of the dielectric inclusions goes to zero. The concentrated problem involves a transmission condition through interfaces, which is mediated by a suitable Laplace-Beltrami type equation.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figure

Pharmacological Effects of the Ruthenium Complex NAMI-A Given Orally to CBA Mice With MCa Mammary Carcinoma

NAMI-A, imidazolium trans-imidazoledimethylsulfoxidetetrachlororuthenate, is a ruthenium based compounds capable of inhibiting the growth of lung metastases of solid tumours in a number of experimental conditions.The aim of this study was to investigate the potential use of NAMI-A by the oral route to treat lung metastases of MCa mammary carcinoma in the CBA mouse. treatment of mice, carrying intramuscular tumours in advanced stage of growth, for 11 consecutive days caused a significant reduction of the weight of lung metastases over the range of doses from 150 to 600 mg/kg/day. No sign of toxicity was observed at the histological analysis in the gut epithelium or in the kidney parenchyma, and NAMI-A concentration in the kidney was more than 10-fold lower than after intraperitoneal treatments. NAMI-A is thus active against metastases also by the oral route, suggesting the use of this way to treat tumour bearing hosts for long periods

Declinazioni del "femminile" nell'antimodernismo tedesco. Ludwig Klages e i suoi contemporanei (1893-1933).

At the beginning of the 20th century, Johann Jakob Bachofen’s notion of the Maternal as the origin of all things opened a broader scholarly debate in which gender categories became critical tools against modernity. According to each scholar’s political view point, the Feminine is now perceived as the repressed Other of European history, a utopian alternative to modernity, linked to ideas such as archaism, naturalness or backwardness. The present study is an attempt to trace and explain the persistence of the Feminine in German Anti-Modernism and is something else than a contribution to the debate about the historical existence of matriarchies and the linked political and social implications. Within this framework the reception of the matriarchy and of Bachofen’s theories by Ludwig Klages is compared with that of his contemporaries. Indeed, Klages’ radical employment of Bachofen’s matriarchy, considered as ‘feminine principle’ against the instrumental rationalism of the ‘masculine’ modernity, has a significant impact on his time. First of all his influence can be perceived in the so called Munich Cosmic Circle, of which Klages was one of the founder members together with Alfred Schuler and Karl Wolfskehl. Stefan George and the members of his Circle were also inspired by his work, as later the theorists of the Frankfurt School, especially Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno and Ernst Bloch. Klages’ use of the “Feminine” is also compared with that of the feminist movement active in the same historical period, including the particular point of view supported by Franziska zu Reventlow in her novels. Starting from the above-mentioned comparisons, the present study aims at demonstrating that the male-female dualism is crucial for the paradigmatic “struggle” for Bachofen and at defining the nature of the crisis of modernity

Solitary fibrous tumor

Solitary fibrous tumor (SFT) is a rare mesenchymal neoplasm which may be found everywhere in the body. It is now distinguished into two forms, pleural and extrapleural, which morphologically resemble each other. Abdominal localizations are quite rare, with 10 cases only reported in bladder; rarely they can be source of paraneoplastic syndromes (i.e., hypoglycemia secondary to insulin-like growth factor). In April 2006 a 74-year-old white male presented with chills, diaphoresis and acute abdominal pain with hematuria. At admission in emergency he underwent an abdominal Xray (no pathological findings) and an ultrasound examination of the kidneys and urinary tract, which revealed a pelvic hyperechogenic neoformation measuring approximately 10×8×7 cm, compressing the bladder. Blood chemistry at admission revealed only a mild neutrophilic leucocytosis (WBC 16600, N 80%, L 11%), elevated fibrinogen and ESR, and hypoglycemia (38 mg/dL). Macro scopic hematuria was evident, while urinocolture was negative. Contrast enhanced CT scan of the abdomen and pelvic region revealed a large round neoformation dislocating the bladder, with an evident contrast-enhanced periphery and a central necrotic area. Continuous infusion of glucose 5% solution was necessary in order to maintain blood glucose levels above 50 mg/dL. The patient underwent complete surgical resection of an ovoidal mass coated by adipose tissue, with well delimited margins; histological findings were consistent with solitary fibrous tumor (SFT). Hypoglycemia resolved completely with removal of the growth. In this case report we describe a SFT growing in the bladder, a quite rare localization, which presented a unique hypoglycemia. In contrast to the majority of cases reported in the literature, the behavior of this SFT was not aggressive, and, since the patient is still alive, surgical resection was considered conclusive

FACILITATING CO-CONSTRUCTION BY SOCIAL PRACTICE DESIGN: A CASE OF GEODISTRIBUTED EMPLOYEES FACING THE DESIGN OF MODEL-BASED ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS

This paper describes the experiences of practicing social practice design (SPD) activities with user groups, in geographically distributed, collaborating manufacturing companies, struggling with the introduction of model based enterprise systems. Within a European project, we observed and routinely analyzed ongoing development and assessment work of model based technologies and methodologies, in these companies. Based on an ethnographic study of Modelling sessions and Validation sessions, we performed an in depth analysis of people semantic and pragmatic perspectives (a necessary and needed ‘second step back’), and identified core disconnects on modelling concept use and language, and on motivations and goals, between technology designers – modellers - and domain experts – users - clearly hindering project progress -. These disconnects were addressed with user groups in the form of SPD sessions (‘second order’ activities), which consisted mostly in a series of design game and scenario-building workshops, enriched by open conversations and perspective sharing and comparison. The paper describes how these SPD sessions facilitated the creation of sense making and trust, enabling participants to engage and learn, and to act as change agents in the project, opening the way to co-construction of solutions with other actors. Observations of Modelling and Validation sessions showed that participants could not automatically build on a deep understanding of modelling and its trade-offs; they adopted the representational conventions they had learned to use. Lack of sense making and lack of co-construction were observed, along with lack of facilitation for genuinely participative conditions. Modeller-guided Modelling sessions showed no appropriation of object decomposition and relationship structures by domain experts, nor contribution from users to leadership in the modelling process; only imposition of hierarchical structures by modellers, in the midst of a cloud of mistrust and suspicion. Validation sessions of the model-based approach showed that ‘common’ users do not perceive the value of the approach, as they have not been helped to gain a conceptual understanding of modelling, of the tradeoffs of abstractions, and of how a model may productively interact with work practices. In this distributed project, different concepts of various user groups all conflicted with modellers’ concept. The SPD facilitation interventions helped participants in stepping back from the “official view” of the work process created in the course of the project, and in focussing more on their own experiences, opening up for creativity. SPD events were grounded in the belief that, when it comes to one’s own things, people with no special knowledge of the issues to be discussed can contribute something valuable, especially on those matters that they perceive as problems for themselves; it was impressive to witness how people with no management perspective can engage in strategy development within a very short time. The methods were easy enough to adopt without much preparation and rich enough to stimulate learning and valuable insights; people felt comfortable and not at risk at being judged. Participants expressed how important the experience of working creatively on solving “real problems” had been for them. We can understand this also as a result of the longitudinal character of our SPD engagement with people in the project, which had provided us with good knowledge about work practices, potentials and problems on the one hand, allowed trust building on the other hand

Oxidative Stress, DNA Damage, and c-Abl Signaling: At the Crossroad in Neurodegenerative Diseases?

The c-Abl tyrosine kinase is implicated in diverse cellular activities including growth factor signaling, cell adhesion, oxidative stress, and DNA damage response. Studies in mouse models have shown that the kinases of the c-Abl family play a role in the development of the central nervous system. Recent reports show that aberrant c-Abl activation causes neuroinflammation and neuronal loss in the forebrain of transgenic adult mice. In line with these observations, an increased c-Abl activation is reported in human neurodegenerative pathologies, such as Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's diseases. This suggests that aberrant nonspecific posttranslational modifications induced by c-Abl may contribute to fuel the recurrent phenotypes/features linked to neurodegenerative disorders, such as an impaired mitochondrial function, oxidative stress, and accumulation of protein aggregates. Herein, we review some reports on c-Abl function in neuronal cells and we propose that modulation of different aspects of c-Abl signaling may contribute to mediate the molecular events at the interface between stress signaling, metabolic regulation, and DNA damage. Finally, we propose that this may have an impact in the development of new therapeutic strategies