Prize Volatility and Presence or Absence of Anticipatory Sitmulus Signally Reward as Predictors of Electronic Game Machine Behaviour of Gamblers

This study investigated the effect of changes in prize volatility and presence or absence of an anticipatory stimulus signally reward on verbal ratings, playing behaviour, and biometric responses in casual and frequent electronic gaming machine (EGM) players. Biometric measurements of 129 participants were recorded while they played an actual EGM with money provided by the experimenters. However, only the data from 95 participants were analysed. Participants were first connected to biometric sensors to record their heart rate and galvanic skin responses, and completed a demographic questionnaire. All participants then played an EGM game for 10 minutes. After playing the EGM game, they either played the same EGM game or a different EGM game for another 10 minutes in accord with their experimental condition. The second game was characterized by one of four conditions, (a) low volatility, absence of anticipatory stimulus, (b) low volatility, presence of anticipatory stimulus, (c) high volatility, absence of anticipatory stimulus, and (d) high volatility, presence of anticipatory stimulus. After 20 minutes of EGM play, participants completed the Canadian Problem Gambling Index (CPGI; Ferris & Wynne, 2001). Statistical results revealed that the volatility condition had a significant effect on how quickly a player would bet. That is, players bet later in conditions with higher volatility. Furthermore, frequent players bet later than casual players. There was a significant interaction between volatility and player type, but the anticipatory stimulus condition was not found to have a significant effect on playing behaviour

Modes of multipurpose disinfection: What are the costs?

Modes of multipurpose disinfection: What are the costs

Fungal ecological strategies reflected in gene transcription - a case study of two litter decomposers.

Microbial communities interplay with their environment through their functional traits that can be a response or an effect on the environment. Here, we explore how a functional trait-the decomposition of organic matter, can be addressed based on genetic markers and how the expression of these markers reflect ecological strategies of two fungal litter decomposer Gymnopus androsaceus and Chalara longipes. We sequenced the genomes of these two fungi, as well as their transcriptomes at different steps of Pinus sylvestris needles decomposition in microcosms. Our results highlighted that if the gene content of the two species could indicate similar potential decomposition abilities, the expression levels of specific gene families belonging to the glycoside hydrolase category reflected contrasting ecological strategies. Actually, C. longipes, the weaker decomposer in this experiment, turned out to have a high content of genes involved in cell wall polysaccharides decomposition but low expression levels, reflecting a versatile ecology compare to the more competitive G. androsaceus with high expression levels of keystone functional genes. Thus, we established that sequential expression of genes coding for different components of the decomposer machinery indicated adaptation to chemical changes in the substrate as decomposition progressed

Logistics service innovation management : evidence from two longitudinal case studies at Deutsche Post

This study aims at exploring ways to better manage organisational development and change in practice. For project managers like myself it is important to gain a solid understanding about the drivers or inhibitors in these developments and change processes. I was particularly interested in those development and change processes aimed at the achievement or maintenance of competitive advantage within an industry. One way of achieving or maintaining competitive advantage may be based on serving the customer’s strategic needs through innovation (Chapman et. al., 2003). Various process models propose how service innovation projects in general should be managed. However, large and mature organisations in particular may encounter difficulties in their implementation (Dougherty and Hardy, 1996). From a practitioner’s point of view, this is an especially dire situation as service innovations, particularly those driven by strategic intent, are under great pressure from decision-makers to succeed. Along these lines Dougherty (1996) suggests a shift of focus, to a focus on the fact that innovation activities have inherent ‘tensions’. She defines ‘tensions’ as challenges that have to be dealt with during an innovation project. Drawing on the evidence of three sequential projects conducted at DHL Express, the parcel branch of Deutsche Post, I tried to investigate the nature of service innovations and their inherent tensions. By longitudinally tracking the activities and their inherent tension’s life cycle in an exploratory case study, I tried to get a better understanding of how tensions appear in innovation projects, as well as the dynamics of these tensions. The evidence of this first case study was used to theorise about an optimised sequence of activities, as well as first propositions about how tensions might be managed. The first set of propositions derived from the exploratory case was then given a trial in a second longitudinal case study. The activities of the first logistics service innovation project included a major ‘information engineering’ component. According to Davenport (1993) ‘information engineering’ deals with description of an already conceptualised process in informational terms, such that a system can be rapidly and rigorously constructed to support the new process design. Hence, the set of activities proposed in this study include the capability to include an information system component as a service innovation deliverable; a capability long recognised to be essential for exhorting positive influences on the operation of logistics systems (Kent, 1996). This research was conducted in the context of a number of unusual opportunities. First and foremost, both case studies had similar stakeholders and objectives. Secondly, all stakeholders contributing to the first case study were willing and able to collaboratively contribute to improvements in the management of activities and their inherent tensions. Finally, all inquiry participants then implemented those propositions into the following case study for inspection. Based on the evidence of the second case study, I show how managing activities and tensions with congenerous dedication exploited all four tensions to improve the probability of innovation projects to deliver.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Exoplanet Diversity in the Era of Space-based Direct Imaging Missions

This whitepaper discusses the diversity of exoplanets that could be detected by future observations, so that comparative exoplanetology can be performed in the upcoming era of large space-based flagship missions. The primary focus will be on characterizing Earth-like worlds around Sun-like stars. However, we will also be able to characterize companion planets in the system simultaneously. This will not only provide a contextual picture with regards to our Solar system, but also presents a unique opportunity to observe size dependent planetary atmospheres at different orbital distances. We propose a preliminary scheme based on chemical behavior of gases and condensates in a planet's atmosphere that classifies them with respect to planetary radius and incident stellar flux.Comment: A white paper submitted to the National Academy of Sciences Exoplanet Science Strateg

The state of the Martian climate

60°N was +2.0°C, relative to the 1981–2010 average value (Fig. 5.1). This marks a new high for the record. The average annual surface air temperature (SAT) anomaly for 2016 for land stations north of starting in 1900, and is a significant increase over the previous highest value of +1.2°C, which was observed in 2007, 2011, and 2015. Average global annual temperatures also showed record values in 2015 and 2016. Currently, the Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of lower latitudes

cPath: open source software for collecting, storing, and querying biological pathways

BACKGROUND: Biological pathways, including metabolic pathways, protein interaction networks, signal transduction pathways, and gene regulatory networks, are currently represented in over 220 diverse databases. These data are crucial for the study of specific biological processes, including human diseases. Standard exchange formats for pathway information, such as BioPAX, CellML, SBML and PSI-MI, enable convenient collection of this data for biological research, but mechanisms for common storage and communication are required. RESULTS: We have developed cPath, an open source database and web application for collecting, storing, and querying biological pathway data. cPath makes it easy to aggregate custom pathway data sets available in standard exchange formats from multiple databases, present pathway data to biologists via a customizable web interface, and export pathway data via a web service to third-party software, such as Cytoscape, for visualization and analysis. cPath is software only, and does not include new pathway information. Key features include: a built-in identifier mapping service for linking identical interactors and linking to external resources; built-in support for PSI-MI and BioPAX standard pathway exchange formats; a web service interface for searching and retrieving pathway data sets; and thorough documentation. The cPath software is freely available under the LGPL open source license for academic and commercial use. CONCLUSION: cPath is a robust, scalable, modular, professional-grade software platform for collecting, storing, and querying biological pathways. It can serve as the core data handling component in information systems for pathway visualization, analysis and modeling