Design and Evaluation of a Smart-Glasses-based Service Support System

The character of IT transformed from an attached commodity to the center of new products and services. Especially in technical customer services, new technologies such as smart glasses offer great opportunities to overcome current challenges. Due to the complexity of service systems engineering, guidance on how to design smart glasses-based service support systems is necessary. To overcome this complexity and fill the research gap of design knowledge, we (1) analyze the domain in a multi-method approach eliciting meta-requirements, (2) propose design principles, and (3) instantiate them in a prototype. We follow a design science research approach combing the buildphase with four evaluation cycles obtaining focus groups twice, demonstration with prototype and, based on that, a survey with 105 experts from the agricultural sector. We address real-world problems of information provisioning at the point of service and, thereby, contribute to the methodological knowledge base of IS Design and Service Systems Engineering

Evidence of positive selection at codon sites localized in extracellular domains of mammalian CC motif chemokine receptor proteins

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>CC chemokine receptor proteins (CCR1 through CCR10) are seven-transmembrane G-protein coupled receptors whose signaling pathways are known for their important roles coordinating immune system responses through targeted trafficking of white blood cells. In addition, some of these receptors have been identified as fusion proteins for viral pathogens: for example, HIV-1 strains utilize CCR5, CCR2 and CCR3 proteins to obtain cellular entry in humans. The extracellular domains of these receptor proteins are involved in ligand-binding specificity as well as pathogen recognition interactions.</p> <p>In mammals, the majority of chemokine receptor genes are clustered together; in humans, seven of the ten genes are clustered in the 3p21-24 chromosome region. Gene conversion events, or exchange of DNA sequence between genes, have been reported in chemokine receptor paralogs in various mammalian lineages, especially between the cytogenetically closely located pairs CCR2/5 and CCR1/3. Datasets of mammalian orthologs for each gene were analyzed separately to minimize the potential confounding impact of analyzing highly similar sequences resulting from gene conversion events.</p> <p>Molecular evolution approaches and the software package Phylogenetic Analyses by Maximum Likelihood (PAML) were utilized to investigate the signature of selection that has acted on the mammalian CC chemokine receptor (<it>CCR</it>) gene family. The results of neutral vs. adaptive evolution (positive selection) hypothesis testing using Site Models are reported. In general, positive selection is defined by a ratio of nonsynonymous/synonymous nucleotide changes (dN/dS, or ω) >1.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of the ten mammalian CC motif chemokine receptor sequence datasets analyzed, only <it>CCR2 </it>and <it>CCR3 </it>contain amino acid codon sites that exhibit evidence of positive selection using site based hypothesis testing in PAML. Nineteen of the twenty codon sites putatively indentified as likely to be under positive selection code for amino acid residues located in extracellular domains of the receptor protein products.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results suggest that amino acid residues present in intracellular and membrane-bound domains are more selectively constrained for functional signal transduction and homo- or heterodimerization, whereas amino acid residues in extracellular domains of these receptor proteins evolve more quickly, perhaps due to heightened selective pressure resulting from ligand-binding and pathogen interactions of extracellular domains.</p

Experimental investigation of drying by pore networks: influence of pore size distribution and temperature

Isothermal and non-isothermal drying of pore structures has been experimentally investigated using 2D square network models of interconnected etched channels with different (Gaussian) distributions of the channel width. In experiments with imposed temperature gradients, the temperatures either increase from the open side of the network with increasing network depth (referred to as the positive temperature gradient) or the temperatures decrease with increasing distance from the network opening (i.e. a negative temperature gradient). Experiments reveal that the observed phase patterns, or the distributions of liquid and gas, during drying are significantly depending on the direction of the temperature gradient; but also the presence of macro channels can have a strong effect on the phase patterns as well as on drying time

Huisken-Yau-type uniqueness for area-constrained Willmore spheres

Let $(M,g)$ be a Riemannian $3$-manifold that is asymptotic to Schwarzschild. We study the existence of large area-constrained Willmore spheres $\Sigma \subset M$ with non-negative Hawking mass and inner radius $\rho$ dominated by the area radius $\lambda$. If the scalar curvature of $(M,g)$ is non-negative, we show that no such surfaces with $\log \lambda \ll \rho$ exist. This answers a question of G. Huisken.Comment: All comments welcom

Convective Vortices on Mars: A Reanalysis of Viking Lander 2 Meteorological Data, Sols 1-50

On 7th August 1976 the Viking 2 lander touched down at Utopia Planitia, Mars. We have reanalysed Viking lander 2 meteorological data, and it is the object of this research to give not only annual but diurnal statistics of convective vortex formation for the Viking 2 landing site