Knowledge Sharing Matters: A Mixed Methods Study on Knowledge Practices Among University Presses

Knowledge sharing in an organization helps improving its organizational performance (Walczak, 2008). Knowledge flows from various sources in various ways (Ahmed & Ahsan, 2014). Without effective knowledge sharing among employees, organizations cannot remain competitive in the ever-changing environments they face. The capturing of knowledge and human capital management are strategically important in a climate of retiring baby boomer workers and millennial workers\u27 behavior of working for a short term with each employer (Liebowitz, 2008).This study adapted Brenda Dervin’s Sense-Making Metaphor and Weick’s Organizational Sensemaking Theory to identify and explore the current knowledge-sharing practices of university presses. Since 2016, the not-for-profit university publishers have experienced alarming declines in their sales data and are struggling for survival. Acquiring an understanding of their current knowledge practices is a productive first step in their strategic planning process. It is time for university publishers to reinvent themselves strategically. This research used a sequential mixed methods study to collect quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data were gathered using a five-issue survey of university press employees. Qualitative data were gleaned from interviews of university press directors to understand top management’s perceptions of their organizations’ knowledge sharing practices. A major finding of this study is that the information behavior of the members of the university press organizations is strongly tied to social norms. Implications for knowledge management studies in Information Science contexts are discussed, and recommendations are made for future research

Virtual teenage talk in game play: the nuances and variants in interactive written discourse

In recent years, research in computer-mediated communication (CMC) via the Internet has revealed the fostering of a sense of community in which special, close, and intimate interactions can be traced. These research studies have employed both qualitative and quantitative approaches to get insights into the understudied virtual phenomenon. In an attempt to add to this body of knowledge, a study was conceptualized to analyse interactive written discourse (IWD) that takes place in game play. Game play attracts teenagers as participants and allows them to express themselves in virtual space that invites reciprocal exchange in a variety of contexts. These exchanges are subject to content and textual analysis to show the forms and performatives of language use in a specific sub-community of teenagers which invariably forms part of the larger community. The data give information about ‘virtual speak’ that helps to illuminate how and what teenagers talk about in virtual space through IWD. The results show specific themes of social interaction and particularities in language use that characterize the social dynamics of engagement in teenage game play

Role of intonation and sentence final particles in comprehension of irony in typically developing children and children with ASD

Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2010."A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, June 30, 2010."Includes bibliographical references (p. 24-29).This paper investigates the role of intonation cue and SFPs in the comprehension of verbal irony in Cantonese-speaking children with ASD and their typically developing (TD) peers. Thirteen children with ASD (8;3-12;9) were language-matched with 13 TD peers. By manipulating the two variables, 16 vignettes embedded with potentially ironic criticisms were constructed. The participants were asked to judge the belief and intention of the characters in the vignettes with reference to the remarks. Both groups performed similarly well in the judgement of the speaker’s belief. For the speaker’s intent, the clinical group performed significantly poorer and did not rely on either cue, whereas the control group depended more on SFPs than supra-segmental intonation cues. The differential patterns between the two groups were discussed in light of the literature on the theory of mind ability as well as the typological features of Cantonese.published_or_final_versionSpeech and Hearing SciencesBachelorBachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Science

Substitution reactions of carbon nanotube template

Substitution reactions between carbon nanotube (CNT) template and SiO with the formation of carbon rich silicon oxide nanowires (SiO&ndash;C-NWs) have been investigated using transmission electron microscopy and x-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy. The reaction was carried out by thermal annealing at 1200 &deg;C for 1 h of a mixture of silicon monoxide (SiO) and iron (II) phthalocyanine, FeC32N8H16 (FePc) powders. Multiwalled CNTs were produced first via pyrolysis of FePc at a lower temperature (1000 &deg;C). SiO vapors reacted with the CNTs at higher temperatures to produce amorphous SiO&ndash;C-NWs with a uniform diameter and a length in tens of micrometers. The special bamboolike structure of the CNTs allows the reaction to start from the external surface of the tubes and transform each CNT into a solid nanowire section by section.<br /

The effects of Cantonese tones on vocal attack time (VAT)

"A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, June 30, 2009."Includes bibliographical references (p. 27-30).Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2009.published_or_final_versionSpeech and Hearing SciencesBachelorBachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Science

Substitution reactions of carbon nanotube template

Substitution reactions between carbon nanotube(CNT) template and SiO with the formation of carbon rich silicon oxide nanowires (SiO–C-NWs) have been investigated using transmission electron microscopy and x-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy. The reaction was carried out by thermal annealing at 1200°C for 1h of a mixture of silicon monoxide (SiO) and iron (II) phthalocyanine, FeC₃₂N₈H₁₆ (FePc) powders. Multiwalled CNTs were produced first via pyrolysis of FePc at a lower temperature (1000°C). SiO vapors reacted with the CNTs at higher temperatures to produce amorphous SiO–C-NWs with a uniform diameter and a length in tens of micrometers. The special bamboolike structure of the CNTs allows the reaction to start from the external surface of the tubes and transform each CNT into a solid nanowire section by section.This project is partially supported by a Discovery Project awarded by Australian Research Council

COMPUTATIONAL MODELS OF FEATURE REPRESENTATIONS IN THE VENTRAL VISUAL STREAM

Understanding vision requires unpacking the representations of the visual processing hierarchy. One major and unresolved challenge is to understand the representations of high-level category-selective areas – areas that respond preferentially to certain semantic categories of stimuli (e.g., scene-selective areas respond more to scenes than objects). Attempts at characterizing the representations of category-selective areas have been hampered by the difficulty of describing their complex perceptual representations in words — these representations exist in an “ineffable valley” between the describable patterns of perceptual features (e.g., edges, colors) and the commonsense concepts of visual cognition (e.g., object categories). Here I developed a novel approach to identify the emergent properties of mid-level representations in purely feedforward deep convolutional neural network (CNN) models of category-selective cortex. Using this approach, CNN models were fit to scene-evoked fMRI responses in both scene-selective cortex and object-selective cortex. This method uses a semantically-guided image-occlusion procedure together with behavioral ratings to systematically characterize the tuning profiles of the category-selective CNNs. I found that while the representations in category-selective CNNs appear complex and difficult to describe at a surface level, large-scale computational analyses can reveal 1) interpretable descriptions of mid-level feature representations and 2) the emergence of semantic selectivity through purely bottom-up perceptual feature tuning. Specifically, these models provide a proof-of-principle demonstration of how the semantic selectivity of category-selective regions could arise through perceptual-feature tuning in a small series of feedforward computations. These effects were robust to variations of model hyperparameters and were reproducible across different CNN architectures and training procedures. Taken together, I demonstrated how large datasets and in-silico computational models can be used to reveal the tuning profiles of category-selective regions and to identify how semantic preferences could emerge through bottom-up processes

Investigation of sensitivity of surface deformation to subsurface properties and reservoir operations

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 60).An experimental study is performed to understand the sensitivity of ground deformation to subsurface properties and operations of oil and gas fields. Ground deformation, or more severely subsidence, may pose concerns for human settlements situated above the reservoir. This Masters thesis will study a realistic sample problem on its surface deformation sensitivity, in hopes of providing a sound basis for future characterization of subsurface properties and the forecast of surface deformation due to oil and gas production. Iteratively coupled simulations are performed to test how sensitive the surface deformation is to changing subsurface parameters. To test the validity of such coupled simulator, comparison of the displacement results with those of another commercially available software is also carried out. Results show that the change of surface displacement particularly in the vertical direction tends to be within the range of detection of satellites, of which data will serve as the input of future inversions with the Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF).by Pui-Wa Li.S.M