An Investigation of Volitional Control in Information Ethics

The main motivation of this research is how the issue of volitional control might affect the application of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to research decisions related to information ethics. Specifically, a TPB- based model provides the best fit to the sample collected for the present study. In this model, the contribution of both the attitude and perceived behavioral control to the intention is shown to fluctuate depending upon the degree of volitional control concerning the targeted behavior. As the behaviorís degree of volitional control lessens, the weighted influence of perceived behavioral control increases and that of the attitude decreases. Thus we confirm that degree of volitional control concerning an ethical act indeed plays a central role in applying the theory of planned behavior to information ethics research

A Study of the Cognition-Action Gap in Knowledge Management

We investigated three types of volitional control mechanisms that may impact people’s knowledge management (KM) practices. Our results show that, when employing KM, people do not always perform in a manner consis- tent with their beliefs concerning attitudes and intentions. This cognition-behavior inconsistency can be ex- plained by volitional control mechanisms. Specifically, both perceived self-efficacy (Bandura 1997) and action control (Kuhl and Bechmänn 1985) play a role in motivating individuals to share and use knowledge, while perceived behavioral control does not. In addition, action/state orientation moderates a person’s enactment of subjective norm and self-efficacy beliefs into intentions just as it moderates enactment of perceived behavioral control belief into behaviors. These results have important theoretical and managerial implication

Artificial Intelligence in Media:Journalists’Perceptions and Organizational Talk

Artificial Intelligence’s cost-efficient nature and speed of operation has naturally prompted many media organizations to consider its broader application in the media industry. But it has also prompted concern among human journalists that they will be marginalized and ultimately replaced by AI. This study employs qualitative methods to explore the perceptions of media practitioners working in Chinese media context in relation to the impact of AI on media employment, and attempts to shed light on how talk/discourse about AI is shaping perceptions at the individual (micro) level and institutional communication at the organizational (meso) level.La rentabilité et la rapidité de fonctionnement de l'intelligence artificielle ont naturellement incité de nombreuses organisations médiatiques à envisager une application plus large dans les médias. Mais elle a également suscité l'inquiétude des journalistes humains qui craignent d'être marginalisés et finalement remplacés par l'intelligence artificielle. Cette étude utilise des méthodes qualitatives pour explorer les perceptions des professionnels des médias chinois sur l'impact de l'intelligence artificielle sur l'emploi et tente de mettre en lumière la façon dont le discours sur l'intelligence artificielle façonne les perceptions aux niveaux individuel (micro) et organisationnel (méso).La eficacia en función de los costos y la rapidez de funcionamiento de la inteligencia artificial ha impulsado naturalmente a muchas organizaciones de medios de comunicación a considerar su aplicación más amplia en los medios de comunicación. Pero también ha suscitado la preocupación de los periodistas humanos que temen ser marginados y eventualmente reemplazados por la inteligencia artificial. En el presente estudio se utilizan métodos cualitativos para explorar las percepciones de los profesionales de los medios de comunicación chinos sobre la repercusión de la inteligencia artificial en el empleo y se intenta arrojar luz sobre la forma en que el discurso sobre la inteligencia artificial conforma las percepciones a nivel individual (micro) y organizativo (meso)

Ionic selectivity in L-type calcium channels by electrostatics and hard-core repulsion

A physical model of selective “ion binding” in the L-type calcium channel is constructed, and consequences of the model are compared with experimental data. This reduced model treats only ions and the carboxylate oxygens of the EEEE locus explicitly and restricts interactions to hard-core repulsion and ion–ion and ion–dielectric electrostatic forces. The structural atoms provide a flexible environment for passing cations, thus resulting in a self-organized induced-fit model of the selectivity filter. Experimental conditions involving binary mixtures of alkali and/or alkaline earth metal ions are computed using equilibrium Monte Carlo simulations in the grand canonical ensemble. The model pore rejects alkali metal ions in the presence of biological concentrations of Ca2+ and predicts the blockade of alkali metal ion currents by micromolar Ca2+. Conductance patterns observed in varied mixtures containing Na+ and Li+, or Ba2+ and Ca2+, are predicted. Ca2+ is substantially more potent in blocking Na+ current than Ba2+. In apparent contrast to experiments using buffered Ca2+ solutions, the predicted potency of Ca2+ in blocking alkali metal ion currents depends on the species and concentration of the alkali metal ion, as is expected if these ions compete with Ca2+ for the pore. These experiments depend on the problematic estimation of Ca2+ activity in solutions buffered for Ca2+ and pH in a varying background of bulk salt. Simulations of Ca2+ distribution with the model pore bathed in solutions containing a varied amount of Li+ reveal a “barrier and well” pattern. The entry/exit barrier for Ca2+ is strongly modulated by the Li+ concentration of the bath, suggesting a physical explanation for observed kinetic phenomena. Our simulations show that the selectivity of L-type calcium channels can arise from an interplay of electrostatic and hard-core repulsion forces among ions and a few crucial channel atoms. The reduced system selects for the cation that delivers the largest charge in the smallest ion volume

Overview of BioCreative II gene mention recognition.

Nineteen teams presented results for the Gene Mention Task at the BioCreative II Workshop. In this task participants designed systems to identify substrings in sentences corresponding to gene name mentions. A variety of different methods were used and the results varied with a highest achieved F1 score of 0.8721. Here we present brief descriptions of all the methods used and a statistical analysis of the results. We also demonstrate that, by combining the results from all submissions, an F score of 0.9066 is feasible, and furthermore that the best result makes use of the lowest scoring submissions

Altimetry for the future: Building on 25 years of progress

In 2018 we celebrated 25 years of development of radar altimetry, and the progress achieved by this methodology in the fields of global and coastal oceanography, hydrology, geodesy and cryospheric sciences. Many symbolic major events have celebrated these developments, e.g., in Venice, Italy, the 15th (2006) and 20th (2012) years of progress and more recently, in 2018, in Ponta Delgada, Portugal, 25 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry. On this latter occasion it was decided to collect contributions of scientists, engineers and managers involved in the worldwide altimetry community to depict the state of altimetry and propose recommendations for the altimetry of the future. This paper summarizes contributions and recommendations that were collected and provides guidance for future mission design, research activities, and sustainable operational radar altimetry data exploitation. Recommendations provided are fundamental for optimizing further scientific and operational advances of oceanographic observations by altimetry, including requirements for spatial and temporal resolution of altimetric measurements, their accuracy and continuity. There are also new challenges and new openings mentioned in the paper that are particularly crucial for observations at higher latitudes, for coastal oceanography, for cryospheric studies and for hydrology. The paper starts with a general introduction followed by a section on Earth System Science including Ocean Dynamics, Sea Level, the Coastal Ocean, Hydrology, the Cryosphere and Polar Oceans and the ‘‘Green” Ocean, extending the frontier from biogeochemistry to marine ecology. Applications are described in a subsequent section, which covers Operational Oceanography, Weather, Hurricane Wave and Wind Forecasting, Climate projection. Instruments’ development and satellite missions’ evolutions are described in a fourth section. A fifth section covers the key observations that altimeters provide and their potential complements, from other Earth observation measurements to in situ data. Section 6 identifies the data and methods and provides some accuracy and resolution requirements for the wet tropospheric correction, the orbit and other geodetic requirements, the Mean Sea Surface, Geoid and Mean Dynamic Topography, Calibration and Validation, data accuracy, data access and handling (including the DUACS system). Section 7 brings a transversal view on scales, integration, artificial intelligence, and capacity building (education and training). Section 8 reviews the programmatic issues followed by a conclusion

Potential of Core-Collapse Supernova Neutrino Detection at JUNO

JUNO is an underground neutrino observatory under construction in Jiangmen, China. It uses 20kton liquid scintillator as target, which enables it to detect supernova burst neutrinos of a large statistics for the next galactic core-collapse supernova (CCSN) and also pre-supernova neutrinos from the nearby CCSN progenitors. All flavors of supernova burst neutrinos can be detected by JUNO via several interaction channels, including inverse beta decay, elastic scattering on electron and proton, interactions on C12 nuclei, etc. This retains the possibility for JUNO to reconstruct the energy spectra of supernova burst neutrinos of all flavors. The real time monitoring systems based on FPGA and DAQ are under development in JUNO, which allow prompt alert and trigger-less data acquisition of CCSN events. The alert performances of both monitoring systems have been thoroughly studied using simulations. Moreover, once a CCSN is tagged, the system can give fast characterizations, such as directionality and light curve