Compaction dynamics in ductile granular media

Ductile compaction is common in many natural systems, but the temporal evolution of such systems is rarely studied. We observe surprising oscillations in the weight measured at the bottom of a self-compacting ensemble of ductile grains. The oscillations develop during the first ten hours of the experiment, and usually persist through the length of an experiment (one week). The weight oscillations are connected to the grain--wall contacts, and are directly correlated with the observed strain evolution and the dynamics of grain--wall contacts during the compaction. Here, we present the experimental results and characteristic time constants of the system, and discuss possible reasons for the measured weight oscillations.Comment: 11 pages, 14 figure

Towards a Process Theory of IS Business Value Co-creation. Insights from enterprise systems adoption in an SME cluster

There is a growing emphasis on digital transformation in research and business practice. The creation of value from IS investments is a critical factor in digital transformation. It usually requires significant organizational transformation activities to realize the potential business value. Research has documented that the ability to realize IS value is a very challenging endeavor, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), who because of resource poverty are dependent on external input and cooperation with other companies. There is a general lack of research on how IS business value is co-created, particularly in small and medium-sized enterprises. This paper builds on the findings on value co-creation in a cluster of performing arts enterprises, to theorize about how co-creation among enterprises contribute to IS business value. The enterprises in the cluster engaged in a project to develop a collaborative approach towards strategic audience development utilizing CRM technology. The results expand our understanding of the dynamics related to co-creation. We find that co-creation can be an important avenue for SMEs to invest in IS and realize IS business value. We propose a modified IS business value framework to explain how networks of enterprises can co-create IS business value. This paper builds on the findings on value co-creation in a cluster of performing arts enterprises, to theorize about how co-creation among enterprises contribute to IS business value. The enterprises in the cluster engaged in a project to develop a collaborative approach towards strategic audience development utilizing CRM technology. The results expand our understanding of the dynamics related to co-creation. We find that co-creation can be an important avenue for SMEs to invest in IS and realize IS business value. We propose a modified IS business value framework to explain how networks of enterprises can co-create IS business value

Physical constrains and productivity in the future Arctic Ocean

Published version. Also available at http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2015.00085Today's physical oceanography and primary and secondary production was investigated for the entire Arctic Ocean (AO) with the physical-biologically coupled SINMOD model. To obtain indications on the effect of climate change in the twenty-first century the magnitude of change, and where and when these may take place SINMOD was forced with down-scaled climate trajectories of the International Panel of Climate Change with the A1B climate scenario which appears to predict an average global atmospheric temperature increase of 3.5–4°C at the end of this century. It is projected that some surface water features of the physical oceanography in the AO and adjacent regions will change considerably. The largest changes will occur along the continuous domains of Pacific and in particular regarding Atlantic Water (AW) advection and the inflow shelves. Withdrawal of ice will increase primary production, but stratification will persist or, for the most, get stronger as a function of ice-melt and thermal warming along the inflow shelves. Thus, the nutrient dependent new and harvestable production will not increase proportionally with increasing photosynthetic active radiation (PAR). The greatest increases in primary production are found along the Eurasian perimeter of the AO (up to 40 g C m−2 y−1) and in particular in the northern Barents and Kara Seas (40–80 g C m−2 y−1) where less ice-cover implies less Arctic Water (ArW) and thus less stratification. Along the shelf break engirdling the AO upwelling and vertical mixing supplies nutrients to the euphotic zone when ice-cover withdraws northwards. The production of Arctic copepods along the Eurasian perimeter of the AO will increase significantly by the end of this century (2–4 g C m−2 y−1). Primary and secondary production will decrease along the southern sections of the continuous advection domains of Pacific and AW due to increasing thermal stratification. In the central AO primary production will not increase much due to stratification-induced nutrient limitation

Arachidonic acid and calcium metabolism in rnelittin stimulated neutrophils

Melittin, the predominant fraction of bee venom proteins, was studied in an experimental model of human neutrophil granulocytes to reveal its influence on eicosanoid release, metabolism and receptor function in relation to intracellular calcium metabolism. Melittin (2 μmol/l) was as potent as the calcium ionophore A23187 (10 μmol/l) for activation of 5-lipoxygenase, releasing arachidonate only from phosphatidyl-choline and phosphatidyl-ethanolamine of cellular membranes, as judged from the decreases in radioactivity by 15.4% and 30.5%, respectively. The mechanism responsible for the release of arachidonate from cellular membranes is closely coupled to cellular calcium metabolism, and melittin was found to promote calcium entry through receptor gated calcium channels, probably due to an activation of phospholipase A2. Furthermore, a down-regulation of leukotriene B4 receptors was seen. The maximal number of binding sites per cell was reduced from a median of 1520 to 950 with melittin (1 μmol/l). The study has revealed some factors important for the inflammatory mechanisms mediated by melittin

Local E-Government in Norway: Current Status and Emerging Issues

Recent studies indicate that e-government initiatives have not held their promise of improving government services. The majority of efforts to benchmark e-government have had central government as the unit of analysis. This study employs the MeGAP-3 (The Municipal E-Government Assessmen Project) assessment tool to assess the status of municipal e-government in the Agder region in southern Norway, an area with high Internet penetration and mature information and communication technology (ICT) use. MeGAP-3 proved effective in providing a relative positioning of these Norwegian municipalities, but we argue that country specific assessment indicators are needed to complement the tool and enable cross-country comparisons by relative scores. Surprisingly, the results show that the sophistication of local government web sites was fairly low. A series of qualitative interviews were conducted to explore the factors that shape the development of municipal egovernment. The evidence suggests that the dominant stakeholder in development is the bureaucratic administration rather than citizens or politicians. This group has a strong focus on internal efficiency and cost reduction. The majority of respondents report cost reduction as the major driver behind egovernment development. However we also identified a more citizen-centric approach that stresses the need for improving access and service quality for citizens. The study outlines a number of areas where further research will be needed to fully understand the development of e-government in Norway

Structure of plastically compacting granular packings

The developing structure in systems of compacting ductile grains were studied experimentally in two and three dimensions. In both dimensions, the peaks of the radial distribution function were reduced, broadened, and shifted compared with those observed in hard disk- and sphere systems. The geometrical three--grain configurations contributing to the second peak in the radial distribution function showed few but interesting differences between the initial and final stages of the two dimensional compaction. The evolution of the average coordination number as function of packing fraction is compared with other experimental and numerical results from the literature. We conclude that compaction history is important for the evolution of the structure of compacting granular systems.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figure

B→TB \rightarrow T transition form factors in light-cone sum rules

We present a new calculation of the semileptonic tree-level and flavor-changing neutral current form factors describing $B$-meson transitions to tensor mesons $T=D_2^*,K_2^*,a_2,f_2$ ($J^{P}=2^{+}$). We employ the QCD Light-Cone Sum Rules approach with $B$-meson distribution amplitudes. We go beyond the leading-twist accuracy and provide analytically, for the first time, higher-twist corrections for the two-particle contributions up to twist four terms. We observe that the impact of higher twist terms to the sum rules is noticeable. We study the phenomenological implications of our results on the radiative ${B} \to K_2^{*}\gamma$ and semileptonic ${B} \to D_2^* \ell {\bar \nu}_\ell$, ${B} \to K_2^{*}\ell^+\ell^-$ decays.Comment: 31 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables, references added, slight modifications on the text, numerical results revised using a new fit function, main conclusions unchanged. Version accepted for publication in PR

Process change projects: a study of Norwegian practice

Process change, in various incarnations, has been a central topic in the IS field for several decades. This paper presents an overview of Norwegian model-supported process-change practice, based on in-depth interviews of 33 informants, each describing a different process-change effort in one of 30 Norwegian enterprises. The overview focusses on use of process models, present versus future focus, ICT as enabler of change, participation, resistance to change and process ownership. Norwegian practice is then compared with the predominantly North-American process-change literature from a national-culture perspective. In particular, we find that stakeholder participation is high in Norwegian process-change projects and that resistance tends to be low, a finding consistent with theory on national-culture differences. The paper presents the first results from a larger project that aims to contribute towards a theory of model-based process change