How Does Enterprise Social Media Help Retail Employees Innovate?

An increasing number of organizations have installed enterprise social media (ESM) platforms to allow employees to collaborate, work independently, and to innovate more easily. While research has started to explain how such technologies can lead to improved collaboration and productivity, their role in assisting employees in innovation processes remains unclear. In our research-in-progress we examine the case of a global retail organization that adopted ESM for all employees with the view to foster employee-driven innovation. We report on our on-going data collection and analysis, in which we focus on the salient mechanisms and contingency factors why ESM under some conditions facilitates employee-driven innovation and why under some conditions it does not. We report on on-going data collection, data analysis strategies and emergent findings, and conclude with a brief outlook on our future research strategies. \ \ Keywords: Enterprise Social Media, social networks, employee-driven innovation, case study.

Design for Co-Design in a Computer Science Curriculum Research-Practice Partnership

This paper reports on a study of the dynamics of a Research-Practice Partnership (RPP) oriented around design, specifically the co-design model. The RPP is focused on supporting elementary school computer science (CS) instruction by involving paraprofessional educators and teachers in curricular co-design. A problem of practice addressed is that few elementary educators have backgrounds in teaching CS and have limited available instructional time and budget for CS. The co-design strategy entailed highlighting CS concepts in the mathematics curriculum during classroom instruction and designing computer lab lessons that explored related ideas through programming. Analyses focused on tensions within RPP interaction dynamics and how they were accommodated when RPP partners were designing for co-design activities, a critical component that leads to curricular co-design itself. We illustrate these tensions with examples of clusters of activity that appeared repeatedly among the research and practice team members when designing for co-design

Facilitating Mathematics and Computer Science Connections: A Cross-Curricular Approach

In the United States, school curricula are often created and taught with distinct boundaries between disciplines. This division between curricular areas may serve as a hindrance to students\u27 long-term learning and their ability to generalize. In contrast, cross-curricular pedagogy provides a way for students to think beyond the classroom walls and make important connections across disciplines. The purpose of this paper is a theoretical reflection on our use of Expansive Framing in our design of lessons across learning environments within the school. We provide a narrative account of our early work in using this theoretical framework to co-plan and enact interdisciplinary mathematics and computer science (CS) tasks with a team of elementary school educators and school district personnel. The unit focuses on the concepts of exponents in mathematics and repeat loops as a control structure in computer science. Using a narrative approach, we describe what occurred during the collaborative planning of lessons and subsequent enactments in two fifth-grade classrooms and one computer lab and provide a practitioner-oriented account of our experience

Cache Code Math: Fractions, Functions, & For-Loops Preparatory Materials

These instructional guides are used in the 5th-grade computer labs in conjunction with JavaScript/CodeHS. Computer Lab Specialists are provided with step-by-step instructions to review with students how to use functions and for-loops. These lessons support learning the following CS ideas: repeat/for, functions, algorithmic thinking, and abstraction. These preparatory activities are meant to be delivered before the Cache Code Math: Fractions, Functions, & For-Loops

Canalization of the evolutionary trajectory of the human influenza virus

Since its emergence in 1968, influenza A (H3N2) has evolved extensively in genotype and antigenic phenotype. Antigenic evolution occurs in the context of a two-dimensional 'antigenic map', while genetic evolution shows a characteristic ladder-like genealogical tree. Here, we use a large-scale individual-based model to show that evolution in a Euclidean antigenic space provides a remarkable correspondence between model behavior and the epidemiological, antigenic, genealogical and geographic patterns observed in influenza virus. We find that evolution away from existing human immunity results in rapid population turnover in the influenza virus and that this population turnover occurs primarily along a single antigenic axis. Thus, selective dynamics induce a canalized evolutionary trajectory, in which the evolutionary fate of the influenza population is surprisingly repeatable and hence, in theory, predictable.Comment: 29 pages, 5 figures, 10 supporting figure

Analyzing Somatic DNA Repair in Arabidopsis Meiotic Mutants

Meiotic and somatic recombination share a common set of factors. Thus, the analysis of somatic DNA repair in meiotic mutant lines should be of special interest. Growth defects of mutant plants induced by specific genotoxins can thereby hint to DNA repair functions of the affected proteins. Here, we describe two kinds of approaches to characterize deficiencies in DNA repair in mutant lines of Arabidopsis thaliana, after genotoxin treatment

Quantification of aminobutyric acids and their clinical applications as biomarkers for osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is a highly prevalent chronic aging-related disease that frequently is only detected after fracture. We hypothesized that aminobutyric acids could serve as biomarkers for osteoporosis. We developed a quick, accurate, and sensitive screening method for aminobutyric acid isomers and enantiomers yielding correlations with bone mineral density (BMD) and osteoporotic fracture. In serum, γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and (R)-3-aminoisobutyric acid (D-BAIBA) have positive associations with physical activity in young lean women. D-BAIBA positively associated with hip BMD in older individuals without osteoporosis/osteopenia. Lower levels of GABA were observed in 60-80 year old women with osteoporotic fractures. Single nucleotide polymorphisms in seven genes related to these metabolites associated with BMD and osteoporosis. In peripheral blood monocytes, dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase, an enzyme essential to D-BAIBA generation, exhibited positive association with physical activity and hip BMD. Along with their signaling roles, BAIBA and GABA might serve as biomarkers for diagnosis and treatments of osteoporosis

Shifting patterns of dengue three years after Zika virus emergence in Brazil

This is the final version. Available from Nature Research via the DOI in this record. Data availability: Counts of probable dengue virus cases and hospitalizations for individual states and the city of Salvador, Bahia, were obtained from the Brazilian Information System for Notifiable Diseases (SINAN, https://datasus.saude.gov.br/acesso-a-informacao/doencas-e-agravos-de-notificacao-2001-a-2006-sinan and https://datasus.saude.gov.br/acesso-a-informacao/doencas-e-agravos-de-notificacao-de-2007-em-diante-sinan) and Unified Health System (SUS) through the DATASUS (https://datasus.saude.gov.br/acesso-a-informacao/morbidade-hospitalar-do-sus-sih-sus). Population size estimates were obtained from DATASUS (https://datasus.saude.gov.br/populacao-residente). Weekly DENV and ZIKV notified cases (clinically suspected and confirmed) in the Bahian city of Feira de Santana were obtained directly from the Secretaria Municipal de Saúde of the city (https://www.feiradesantana.ba.gov.br/servicos.asp?id=14&link=sms/vigilancia_saude/vigilancia_epidemiologica.asp). All relevant data used in Figs. 1–3 and Supplementary Fig. 1-8,14,16 are available in the GitHub repository https://github.com/francescopinotti92/dengue_and_zika_brazil.n 2015, the Zika virus (ZIKV) emerged in Brazil, leading to widespread outbreaks in Latin America. Following this, many countries in these regions reported a significant drop in the circulation of dengue virus (DENV), which resurged in 2018-2019. We examine age-specific incidence data to investigate changes in DENV epidemiology before and after the emergence of ZIKV. We observe that incidence of DENV was concentrated in younger individuals during resurgence compared to 2013-2015. This trend was more pronounced in Brazilian states that had experienced larger ZIKV outbreaks. Using a mathematical model, we show that ZIKV-induced cross-protection alone, often invoked to explain DENV decline across Latin America, cannot explain the observed age-shift without also assuming some form of disease enhancement. Our results suggest that a sudden accumulation of population-level immunity to ZIKV could suppress DENV and reduce the mean age of DENV incidence via both protective and disease-enhancing interactions.UK Research and InnovationHuman Frontiers Science ProgrammePON ‘Ricerca e Innovazione’ 2014-202