How does Digitalization Affect Change Management: Empirical Research at an Innovative Industrial Group

Digitalization plays an important role in transformation processes of manufacturing companies. Technology driven projects are heavily initiated, many of them, however, fail to institutionalize change. The technological change is often not integrated within the organizational strategy, structure, behavior, and in consequence, such digitalization projects fail to deliver the expected performance outcomes, as well.We used qualitative research methods to explore how digitalization affects change management within a multinational industrial group that provides innovative manufacturing services to automotive original equipment manufacturers. The industrial group had been undertaking a transformation process towards digitalization and they had been implementing significant innovations regarding their core businesses.We identified the parallel presence of three key competencies of digitalization project team members: ICT management, project management, and change management competencies. These competencies proved to be main characteristics of projects that bring change into an organization by introducing new technologies.Three critical change drivers have also been identified: leadership, communication and stakeholder management. These proved to be essential competencies in order to deliver successful digitalization initiatives.Moreover, institutionalization of the digitalization initiatives has resulted in strategic changes within the critical organizational characteristics of the industrial group: a direct impact on corporate strategy, structural change and behavioral change has also been identified.All the above-mentioned factors have contributed to an increased operational and organizational effectiveness, improved workflows and cross-departmental communications. Keywords:change management, organizational changes, digitalization, transformation, innovation, manufacturing, project management, ICT managemen

AN EXAMINATION OF LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS FOR NEWLY-GRADUATED STUDENTS BY QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

Nowadays the rising unemployment rate for newly-graduated students poses a considerable problem. Although obtaining a degree and certificate are not enough on the labour market, it is a fact that college graduates' unemployment rates over all are still lower than the national average. These days the successful graduate job applicant has to (fluently) speak foreign language(s). In order to ensure that candidates can fulfil this requirement, universities and colleges have to modify the language teaching strategy according to the needs of the labour market

AN EXAMINATION OF LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS FOR NEWLY-GRADUATED STUDENTS BY QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

Nowadays the rising unemployment rate for newly-graduated students poses a considerable problem. Although obtaining a degree and certificate are not enough on the labour market, it is a fact that college graduates' unemployment rates over all are still lower than the national average. These days the successful graduate job applicant has to (fluently) speak foreign language(s). In order to ensure that candidates can fulfil this requirement, universities and colleges have to modify the language teaching strategy according to the needs of the labour market

Frequency-dependent electron power absorption mode transitions in capacitively coupled argon-oxygen plasmas

Phase Resolved Optical Emission Spectroscopy (PROES) measurements combined with 1d3v Particle-in-Cell/Monte Carlo Collision (PIC/MCC) simulations are performed to investigate the excitation dynamics in low-pressure capacitively coupled plasmas (CCPs) in argon-oxygen mixtures. The system used for this study is a geometrically symmetric CCP reactor operated in a fixed mixture gas composition, at fixed pressure and voltage amplitude, with a wide range of driving RF frequencies (2$~$MHz$~\le f \le~15~$MHz). The measured and calculated spatio-temporal distributions of the electron impact excitation rates from the Ar ground state to the Ar$~\rm{2p_1}$ state (with a wavelength of 750.4~nm) show good qualitative agreement. The distributions show significant frequency dependence, which is generally considered to be predictive of transitions in the dominant discharge operating mode. Three frequency ranges can be distinguished, showing distinctly different excitation characteristics: (i) in the low frequency range ($f \le~3~$MHz), excitation is strong at the sheaths and weak in the bulk region; (ii) at intermediate frequencies (3.5$~$MHz$~\le f \le~5~$MHz), the excitation rate in the bulk region is enhanced and shows striation formation; (iii) above 6$~$MHz, excitation in the bulk gradually decreases with increasing frequency. Boltzmann term analysis was performed to quantify the frequency dependent contributions of the Ohmic and ambipolar terms to the electron power absorption.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2205.0644

Dynamics of re-constitution of the human nuclear proteome after cell division is regulated by NLS-adjacent phosphorylation

Phosphorylation by the cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (Cdk1) adjacent to nuclear localization signals (NLSs) is an important mechanism of regulation of nucleocytoplasmic transport. However, no systematic survey has yet been performed in human cells to analyze this regulatory process, and the corresponding cell-cycle dynamics have not yet been investigated. Here, we focused on the human proteome and found that numerous proteins, previously not identified in this context, are associated with Cdk1-dependent phosphorylation sites adjacent to their NLSs. Interestingly, these proteins are involved in key regulatory events of DNA repair, epigenetics, or RNA editing and splicing. This finding indicates that cell-cycle dependent events of genome editing and gene expression profiling may be controlled by nucleocytoplasmic trafficking. For in-depth investigations, we selected a number of these proteins and analyzed how point mutations, expected to modify the phosphorylation ability of the NLS segments, perturb nucleocytoplasmic localization. In each case, we found that mutations mimicking hyper-phosphorylation abolish nuclear import processes. To understand the mechanism underlying these phenomena, we performed a video microscopy-based kinetic analysis to obtain information on cell-cycle dynamics on a model protein, dUTPase. We show that the NLS-adjacent phosphorylation by Cdk1 of human dUTPase, an enzyme essential for genomic integrity, results in dynamic cell cycle-dependent distribution of the protein. Non-phosphorylatable mutants have drastically altered protein re-import characteristics into the nucleus during the G1 phase. Our results suggest a dynamic Cdk1-driven mechanism of regulation of the nuclear proteome composition during the cell cycle

De novo implantation vs. upgrade cardiac resynchronization therapy: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Patients with conventional pacemakers or implanted defibrillators are often considered for cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). Our aim was to summarize the available evidences regarding the clinical benefits of upgrade procedures. A systematic literature search was performed from studies published between 2006 and 2017 in order to compare the outcome of CRT upgrade vs. de novo implantations. Outcome data on all-cause mortality, heart failure events, New York Heart Association (NYHA) Class, QRS narrowing and echocardiographic parameters were analysed. A total of 16 reports were analysed comprising 489,568 CRT recipients, of whom 468,205 patients underwent de novo and 21,363 upgrade procedures. All-cause mortality was similar after CRT upgrade compared to de novo implantations (RR 1.19, 95% CI 0.88-1.60, p = 0.27). The risk of heart failure was also similar in both groups (RR 0.96, 95% CI 0.70-1.32, p = 0.81). There was no significant difference in clinical response after CRT upgrade compared to de novo implantations in terms of improvement in left ventricular ejection fraction (DeltaEF de novo - 6.85% vs. upgrade - 9.35%; p = 0.235), NYHA class (DeltaNYHA de novo - 0.74 vs. upgrade - 0.70; p = 0.737) and QRS narrowing (DeltaQRS de novo - 9.6 ms vs. upgrade - 29.5 ms; p = 0.485). Our systematic review and meta-analysis of currently available studies reports that CRT upgrade is associated with similar risk for all-cause mortality compared to de novo resynchronization therapy. Benefits on reverse remodelling and functional capacity improved similarly in both groups suggesting that CRT upgrade may be safely and effectively offered in routine practice. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: Prospero Database-CRD42016043747