Identity Change through Affordances Actualization: Evidence from Healthcare Workers

As more and more digital technologies are used in healthcare organizations, the way healthcare workers work and doctor-patient communication are changing. These changes will lead to identity change of healthcare workers. Some scholars try to understand technological changes in terms of the affordance theory. However, there are few relevant studies that incorporate specific application scenarios. In this paper, we explore the specific performance of the digital technology affordance and the impact on healthcare workers’ identity in China. We conducted in-depth interviews with 14 healthcare workers and used grounded theory to summarize three kinds of digital technology affordance, namely functional affordance, process affordance and performance affordance. The findings suggest that on the one hand, digital technology affordance increase the efficiency of healthcare workers and enhance collaboration among colleagues, thus reinforcing the healthcare workers’ identity. On the other hand, over-reliance on digital technology may also lead to unnecessary hassles that worsen healthcare workers’ identity. Our study enriches the affordance theory and identity theory, and has constructive implications for the quality of healthcare services in a digital context

IOT-enabled Quality Management Process Innovation and Analytics in China’s Dairy Industry: A Data Flow Modeling Perspective

Since the melamine incident was reported in China, China’s dairy industry attracts more and more attention, leading some scholars to conduct research on quality management and safety monitoring issues of China’s dairy industry. The technology of the Internet of Things (IOT) is viewed as one of the best ways to solve the safety problems of China’s dairy industry by supporting the development of dairy traceability systems. This paper firstly analyses the current situation of China’s dairy industry supply chain to get at the root of the problem. We then propose an IOT-enabled quality management framework which is an innovation mode of quality management in China’s dairy industry supply chain. To further highlight the important role of IOT technology, we employ a business process modeling approach based on data flow perspective to describe this innovation management mode. The artifacts we design, especially the matrix of dairy products and process information, can help the practitioners to efficiently monitor the quality information of dairy products

Silicene Nanomesh

Similar to graphene, zero band gap limits the application of silicene in nanoelectronics despite of its high carrier mobility. By using first-principles calculations, we reveal that a band gap is opened in silicene nanomesh (SNM) when the width W of the wall between the neighboring holes is even. The size of the band gap increases with the reduced W and has a simple relation with the ratio of the removed Si atom and the total Si atom numbers of silicene. Quantum transport simulation reveals that the sub-10 nm single-gated SNM field effect transistors show excellent performance at zero temperature but such a performance is greatly degraded at room temperature

Insights into distinct regulatory modes of nucleosome positioning

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The nucleosome is the fundamental unit of eukaryotic genomes. Experimental evidence suggests that the genomic DNA sequence and a variety of protein factors contribute to nucleosome positioning <it>in vivo</it>. However, how nucleosome positioning is determined locally is still largely unknown.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found that transcription factor binding sites (TFBSs) with particular nucleosomal contexts show a preference to reside on specific chromosomes. We identified four typical gene classes associated with distinct regulatory modes of nucleosome positioning, and further showed that they are distinguished by transcriptional regulation patterns. The first mode involves the cooperativity between chromatin remodeling and stable transcription factor (TF)-DNA binding that is linked to high intrinsic DNA binding affinities, evicting nucleosomes from favorable DNA sequences. The second is the DNA-encoded low nucleosome occupancy that is associated with high gene activity. The third is through chromatin remodeling and histone acetylation, sliding nucleosomes along DNA. This mode is linked to more cryptic sites for TF binding. The last consists of the nucleosome-enriched organization driven by other factors that overrides nucleosome sequence preferences. In addition, we showed that high polymerase II (Pol II) occupancy is associated with high nucleosome occupancy around the transcription start site (TSS).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We identified four different regulatory modes of nucleosome positioning and gave insights into mechanisms that specify promoter nucleosome location. We suggest two distinct modes of recruitment of Pol II, which are selectively employed by different genes.</p

UNDERSTANDING THE EVOLUTION OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESEARCH FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF CO-AUTHORSHIP NETWORK: A COMPREHENSIVE DATA ANALYSIS FROM 1993 TO 2012

Based on the articles published in three top journals in the field of information systems (MISQ, ISR and JMIS) from 1993 to 2012, we conduct a research of the structure, characteristics and development trend of co-authorship network through scientometrics and social network analysis approaches. We gain a number of insights after synthetical analysis. In the last two decades the whole co-authorship network density in information systems faces a tendency of decrease. The co-authorship network presents properties of “small world”. The number of articles published by scholars and institutions in the three elite journals all display a ‘long tail’ phenomenon. The field of information systems has a stable development in the biggest component, and has not yet went into a mature and steady stage. Quite a lot of outstanding scholars and educational resources came from USA, Canada and Hong Kong, and USA has held eight institutions of the top ten. The ranking of an entire institution can be influenced by even one or two authors, indicating that outcome from one level might propagate to the next level

A fast approach to removing muscle artifacts for EEG with signal serialization based Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition

An electroencephalogram (EEG) is an electrophysiological signal reflecting the functional state of the brain. As the control signal of the brain-computer interface (BCI), EEG may build a bridge between humans and computers to improve the life quality for patients with movement disorders. The collected EEG signals are extremely susceptible to the contamination of electromyography (EMG) artifacts, affecting their original characteristics. Therefore, EEG denoising is an essential preprocessing step in any BCI system. Previous studies have confirmed that the combination of ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) and canonical correlation analysis (CCA) can effectively suppress EMG artifacts. However, the time-consuming iterative process of EEMD limits the application of the EEMD-CCA method in real-time monitoring of BCI. Compared with the existing EEMD, the recently proposed signal serialization based EEMD (sEEMD) is a good choice to provide effective signal analysis and fast mode decomposition. In this study, an EMG denoising method based on sEEMD and CCA is discussed. All of the analyses are carried out on semi-simulated data. The results show that, in terms of frequency and amplitude, the intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) decomposed by sEEMD are consistent with the IMFs obtained by EEMD. There is no significant difference in the ability to separate EMG artifacts from EEG signals between the sEEMD-CCA method and the EEMD-CCA method (p > 0.05). Even in the case of heavy contamination (signal-to-noise ratio is less than 2 dB), the relative root mean squared error is about 0.3, and the average correlation coefficient remains above 0.9. The running speed of the sEEMD-CCA method to remove EMG artifacts is significantly improved in comparison with that of EEMD-CCA method (p < 0.05). The running time of the sEEMD-CCA method for three lengths of semi-simulated data is shortened by more than 50%. This indicates that sEEMD-CCA is a promising tool for EMG artifact removal in real-time BCI systems.Fil: Dai, Yangyang. Nankai University; ChinaFil: Duan, Feng. Nankai University; ChinaFil: Feng, Fan. Nankai University; ChinaFil: Sun, Zhe. RIKEN; JapónFil: Zhang, Yu. Lehigh University Bethlehem; Estados UnidosFil: Caiafa, César Federico. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía; ArgentinaFil: Marti Puig, Pere. Central University of Catalonia; EspañaFil: Solé Casals, Jordi. Central University of Catalonia; Españ

Genome-wide analysis of interactions between ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling and histone modifications

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling and the covalent modification of histones play central roles in determining chromatin structure and function. Although several specific interactions between these two activities have been elaborated, the global landscape remains to be elucidated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this paper, we have developed a computational method to generate the first genome-wide landscape of interactions between ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling and the covalent modification of histones in <it>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</it>. Our method succeeds in identifying known interactions and uncovers many previously unknown interactions between these two activities. Analysis of the genome-wide picture revealed that transcription-related modifications tend to interact with more chromatin remodelers. Our results also demonstrate that most chromatin remodeling-modification interactions act via interactions of remodelers with both histone-modifying enzymes and histone residues. We also found that the co-occurrence of both modification and remodeling has significantly different influences on multiple gene features (e.g. nucleosome occupancy) compared with the presence of either one.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We gave the first genome-wide picture of ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling-histone modification interactions. We also revealed how these two activities work together to regulate chromatin structure and function. Our results suggest that distinct strategies for regulating chromatin activity are selectively employed by genes with different properties.</p