Introduction: Acting (on) the Text: the Case of New Media

No abstract (available)

Unlocking the full potential of Big Data: A change management approach

Big Data has experienced recent developments in the field of Business Intelligence and has captured the increasing interest of enterprises who are trying to seize its potential. More and more companies, operating in industries ranging from insurance to the entertainment industry, are moving forward with the adoption of Big Data, in an attempt to gain significant benefits, such as customer insight, increased value, faster decision-making, and the ability to maintain competitive advantage. Although a few companies, such as Amazon, Google, IBM and Netflix, have managed to reap the benefits from Big Data, most firms are in the very early stages of addressing the challenges presented by this new phenomenon and they still struggle to adapt to the changes that are required by Big Data. This research aims to apply the theories of change management on the concept of Big Data, in order to develop a strategic model, which can later be used by companies to implement changes that may help in unlocking the full potential of Big Data. For that purpose, a mixed methods approach was chosen and the data was collected through the use of a questionnaire and interviews conducted worldwide with managers, consultants and experts in the field. The final findings indicate that changes in both corporate resources and culture are necessary. In particular, corporate culture should favor close collaboration and knowledge exchange between data specialists and decision-makers. That is, leaders should encourage this change, and soft skills such us communication, teamwork and problem-solving should be pursued. At the same time, decision-makers should change their mindset, shifting from a decision-making process based on their “gut feeling” to a data-driven approach. The resulting resistance to change can originate from decision-makers mainly due to lack of information about the reasons of the change and from other employees, due to fear of not having the skills required. Moreover, companies where Big Data brings episodic changes are more likely to encounter resistance than others. In order to maximize the benefits of the change, companies should work to prevent and overcome specific instances of resistance by means of education and communication, initiatives for decision-makers and facilitation and support for all employees

Proyecto Venus: An Interview with Roberto Jacoby

 No abstract availabl

Functional genomics of a symbiotic community : shared traits in the olive fruit fly gut microbiota

The olive fruit fly Bactrocera oleae is a major pest of olives worldwide and houses a specialized gut microbiota dominated by the obligate symbiont “Candidatus Erwinia dacicola”. Ca. E. dacicola is thought to supplement dietary nitrogen to the host, with only indirect evidence for this hypothesis so far. Here, we sought to investigate the contribution of the symbiosis to insect fitness and explore the ecology of the insect gut. For this purpose, we examined the composition of bacterial communities associated with Cretan olive fruit fly populations, and inspected several genomes and one transcriptome assembly. We identified, and reconstructed the genome of, a novel component of the gut microbiota, Tatumella sp. TA1, which is stably associated with Mediterranean olive fruit fly populations. We also reconstructed a number of pathways related to nitrogen assimilation and interactions with the host. The results show that, despite variation in taxa composition of the gut microbial community, core functions related to the symbiosis are maintained. Functional redundancy between different microbial taxa was observed for genes involved in urea hydrolysis. The latter is encoded in the obligate symbiont genome by a conserved urease operon, likely acquired by horizontal gene transfer, based on phylogenetic evidence. A potential underlying mechanism is the action of mobile elements, especially abundant in the Ca. E. dacicola genome. This finding, along with the identification, in the studied genomes, of extracellular surface structure components that may mediate interactions within the gut community, suggest that ongoing and past genetic exchanges between microbes may have shaped the symbiosis

The monument in conjunction with its archive: historical narrative and the dialectics of experience in a Michael Sandle archive exhibition

The problematics of history in the presentation of Michael Sandle's Malta War Memorial