47 research outputs found
Integrating Communities of Practice in Technology Development Projects
Get PDFTechnology development projects usually benefit when knowledge and expertise are drawn from a variety of sources, including potential users. Orchestrating the involvement of people from disparate groups is a crucial task for project managers. It requires finding a balance between differentiation, when teams work in isolation, and integration, when groups come together to exchange knowledge. This article argues that a “community of practice” perspective can help project managers to achieve this balance, by drawing attention to the assumptions, interests, skills, and formal and tacit knowledge of the different groups involved. Successful integration can be achieved by ensuring that the developing technology is comprehensible to all the groups concerned, and making sure that it satisfies their various interests
Massively Parallel RNA Sequencing Identifies a Complex Immune Gene Repertoire in the lophotrochozoan Mytilus edulis
Get PDFThe marine mussel Mytilus edulis and its closely related sister species are distributed world-wide and play an important role in coastal ecology and economy. The diversification in different species and their hybrids, broad ecological distribution, as well as the filter feeding mode of life has made this genus an attractive model to investigate physiological and molecular adaptations and responses to various biotic and abiotic environmental factors. In the present study we investigated the immune system of Mytilus, which may contribute to the ecological plasticity of this species. We generated a large Mytilus transcriptome database from different tissues of immune challenged and stress treated individuals from the Baltic Sea using 454 pyrosequencing. Phylogenetic comparison of orthologous groups of 23 species demonstrated the basal position of lophotrochozoans within protostomes. The investigation of immune related transcripts revealed a complex repertoire of innate recognition receptors and downstream pathway members including transcripts for 27 toll-like receptors and 524 C1q domain containing transcripts. NOD-like receptors on the other hand were absent. We also found evidence for sophisticated TNF, autophagy and apoptosis systems as well as for cytokines. Gill tissue and hemocytes showed highest expression of putative immune related contigs and are promising tissues for further functional studies. Our results partly contrast with findings of a less complex immune repertoire in ecdysozoan and other lophotrochozoan protostomes. We show that bivalves are interesting candidates to investigate the evolution of the immune system from basal metazoans to deuterostomes and protostomes and provide a basis for future molecular work directed to immune system functioning in Mytilus
Independent measure of the neutrino mixing angle θ13 via neutron capture on hydrogen at Daya Bay
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Organo-template control of inorganic structures: A low-symmetry two-dimensional sheet aluminophosphate3[NH(3)CHMeCH(2)NH(3)][Al6P8O32]center dot H2O
No full textA new low-symmetry two-dimensional AlPO network is found for [Al3P4O16](3-) With [NH(3)CHMeCH(2)NH(3)](2+) as the templating cation; calculations show that all existing AlPO two-dimensional nets are of comparable energy and that several hypothetical nets are energetically feasible
