Event-based prospective memory performance in autism spectrum disorder

The purpose of the present study was to investigate event-based prospective memory performance in individuals with autism spectrum disorder and to explore possible relations between laboratory-based prospective memory performance and everyday performance. Nineteen children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder and 19 matched neurotypical controls participated. The laboratory-based prospective memory test was embedded in a visuo-spatial working memory test and required participants to remember to respond to a cue-event. Everyday planning performance was assessed with proxy ratings. Although parents of the autism group rated their children’s everyday performance as significantly poorer than controls’ parents, no group differences were found in event-based prospective memory. Nevertheless, individual differences in laboratory-based and everyday performances were related. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed

FinTech revolution: the impact of management information systems upon relative firm value and risk

The FinTech or ‘financial technology’ revolution has been gaining increasing interest as technologies are fundamentally changing the business of financial services. Consequently, financial technology is playing an increasingly important role in providing relative performance growth to firms. It is also well known that such relative performance can be observed through pairs trading investment. Therefore pairs trading have implications for understanding financial technology performance, yet the relationships between relative firm value and financial technology are not well understood. In this paper we investigate the impact of financial technology upon relative firm value in the banking sector. Firstly, using pairs trade data we show that financial technologies reveal differences in relative operational performance of firms, providing insight on the value of financial technologies. Secondly, we find that contribution of relative firm value growth from financial technologies is dependent on the specific business characteristics of the technology, such as the business application and activity type. Finally, we show that financial technologies impact the operational risk of firms and so firms need to take into account both the value and risk benefits in implementing new technological innovations. This paper will be of interest to academics and industry professionals

Ontology-based end-user visual query formulation: Why, what, who, how, and which?

Value creation in an organisation is a time-sensitive and data-intensive process, yet it is often delayed and bounded by the reliance on IT experts extracting data for domain experts. Hence, there is a need for providing people who are not professional developers with the flexibility to pose relatively complex and ad hoc queries in an easy and intuitive way. In this respect, visual methods for query formulation undertake the challenge of making querying independent of users’ technical skills and the knowledge of the underlying textual query language and the structure of data. An ontology is more promising than the logical schema of the underlying data for guiding users in formulating queries, since it provides a richer vocabulary closer to the users’ understanding. However, on the one hand, today the most of world’s enterprise data reside in relational databases rather than triple stores, and on the other, visual query formulation has become more compelling due to ever-increasing data size and complexity—known as Big Data. This article presents and argues for ontology-based visual query formulation for end-users; discusses its feasibility in terms of ontology-based data access, which virtualises legacy relational databases as RDF, and the dimensions of Big Data; presents key conceptual aspects and dimensions, challenges, and requirements; and reviews, categorises, and discusses notable approaches and systems

Internalised Values and Fairness Perception: Ethics in Knowledge Management

This chapter argues for ethical consideration in knowledge management (KM). It explores the effect that internalised values and fairness perception have on individuals’ participation in KM practices. Knowledge is power, and organisations seek to manage knowledge through KM practices. For knowledge to be processed, individual employees—the source of all knowledge—need to be willing to participate in KM practices. As knowledge is power and a key constituent part of knowledge is ethics, individuals’ internalised values and fairness perception affect knowledge-processing. Where an organisation claims ownership over knowledge, an individual may perceive being treated unfairly, which may obstruct knowledge-processing. Through adopting ethical KM practices, individual needs are respected, enabling knowledge-processing. Implications point towards an ethical agenda in KM theory and practice

Some Catalytic and Regulatory Properties of Pyruvate Kinase from the Spadix and Retractor Muscles of Nautilus pompilius

Pyruvate kinase was partially purified from the spadix and retractor muscles of Nautilus pompilius. In both cases, the enzyme was activated by magnesium and potassium ions with similar affinities (apparent Ka values were 0.63 ± 0.04 mM and 5.8 ± 0.4 mM, respectively, for the enzyme from the spadix; and 0.77 ± 0.06 mM and 6.7 ± 0.8 mM, respectively, for the enzyme from the retractor muscle). The enzymes showed normal hyperbolic saturation kinetics for the substrates adenosine Y-diphosphate and phosphoenolpyruvate, and the apparent Km values were identical when measured at saturating concentrations of the cosubstrate (apparent Km values were 0.28 ± 0.01 mM and 0.063 ± 0.005 mM, respectively, for the spadix). Adenosine 5'-triphosphate, alanine, and citrate were found to be inhibitors. The enzyme from the spadix was more susceptible to inhibition by alanine than that from the retractor muscle. For the latter enzyme, inhibition by alanine was noncompetitive with respect to phosphoenolpyruvate, but the inhibition was nonlinear; it also decreased the affinity for Mg2+. For the enzyme from the spadix, inhibition by alanine changed the saturation kinetics for phosphoenolpyruvate to sigmoidal form. The affinity for Mg2+ was also decreased by alanine. For both enzymes, fructose-I, 6-bisphosphate at a concentration of 0.05 mM partially reversed the inhibition by alanine, but not that by adenosine Y-triphosphate. The sigmoidal kinetics observed for phosphoenolpyruvate could also be reversed by increasing the concentration of Mg2 +. In general, the properties were found to be similar to those of other pyruvate kinases from the mantle muscle of squid and octopus, except for the observation of inhibition by alanine. These regulatory properties are discussed with respect to potential control of glycolytic flux during muscle activity