How to coexist with fire ants: The roles of behaviour and cuticular compounds

tBecause territoriality is energetically costly, territorial animals frequently respond less aggressively toneighbours than to strangers, a reaction known as the “dear enemy phenomenon” (DEP). The contrary,the “nasty neighbour effect” (NNE), occurs mainly for group-living species defending resource-basedterritories. We studied the relationships between supercolonies of the pest fire ant Solenopsis saevissimaand eight ant species able to live in the vicinity of its nests plus Eciton burchellii, an army ant predatorof other ants. The workers from all of the eight ant species behaved submissively when confrontedwith S. saevissima (dominant) individuals, whereas the contrary was never true. Yet, S. saevissima weresubmissive towards E. burchellii workers. Both DEP and NNE were observed for the eight ant species, withsubmissive behaviours less frequent in the case of DEP. To distinguish what is due to chemical cues fromwhat can be attributed to behaviour, we extracted cuticular compounds from all of the nine ant speciescompared and transferred them onto a number of S. saevissima workers that were then confronted withuntreated conspecifics. The cuticular compounds from three species, particularly E. burchellii, triggeredgreater aggressiveness by S. saevissima workers, while those from the other species did not

Pension Communication in the Netherlands and Other Countries

In many countries, pension reforms reduce the generosity of collective pensions and shift the responsibility for an adequate standard of living after retirement to individuals and their households. Individuals have to make more decisions than before on supplementary pension savings, on how to invest their DC pension assets, etc. Making such decisions is challenging, since retirement planning requires intertemporal decision-making under uncertainty and is subject to behavioural and psychological biases. Many studies in different countries have shown that the large majority lack the interest, knowledge, or skills to make such decisions in a way that is in their own best interest. Governments and the pension industry try to assist individuals in making the right decisions through pension communication. This paper focuses on experiences with pension communication, and the lessons to be learned from them. First, the paper provides an overview of the literature, addressing how pension communication is organized across countries and what can be said about its efficiency. Second, using Dutch longitudinal data at the individual level, we analyse the relations between communication (receiving an annual pension overview), pension knowledge, and conscious pension decision-making. We investigate associations and aim at estimating causal effects exploiting the timing of events

Retirement of the self-employed in the Netherlands

We investigate retirement decisions of the self-employed in the Netherlands using administrative data focusing on individuals around 65, the state pension age, after which each Dutch resident receives the Old Age State Pension annuity. Since the eligibility age and the magnitude of this state pension are known well in advance, we expect to find no impact on labor supply choices, unless individuals face liquidity constraints. We investigate whether this is the case, by looking at retirement and changes in earnings of the self-employed around age 65. We find a peak in retirement when self-employed reach the state pension age, which is unlikely to be due to liquidity constraints but might be explained by behavioral features

Pension Communication in the Netherlands and Other Countries

In many countries, pension reforms reduce the generosity of collective pensions and shift the responsibility for an adequate standard of living after retirement to individuals and their households. Individuals have to make more decisions than before on supplementary pension savings, on how to invest their DC pension assets, etc. Making such decisions is challenging, since retirement planning requires intertemporal decision-making under uncertainty and is subject to behavioural and psychological biases. Many studies in different countries have shown that the large majority lack the interest, knowledge, or skills to make such decisions in a way that is in their own best interest. Governments and the pension industry try to assist individuals in making the right decisions through pension communication. This paper focuses on experiences with pension communication, and the lessons to be learned from them. First, the paper provides an overview of the literature, addressing how pension communication is organized across countries and what can be said about its efficiency. Second, using Dutch longitudinal data at the individual level, we analyse the relations between communication (receiving an annual pension overview), pension knowledge, and conscious pension decision-making. We investigate associations and aim at estimating causal effects exploiting the timing of events

Modelos de maturidade aplicados na gestão da cadeia de suprimentos na indústria farinácea do norte do Paraná

Orientador: Prof. Dr. Cassius Tadeu ScarpinDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Tecnologia, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia de Produção. Defesa : Curitiba, 27/02/2020Inclui referências: p. 111-116Resumo: A indústria de manipulação de trigo possui um papel fundamental para a produção de alimentos, com taxas de processamentos que atingem cerca 45% do trigo plantado no país. A indústria de beneficiamento de trigo possui uma cadeia de suprimentos complexa que influencia desde menores produtores nacionais, cooperativas, a fornecedores e centros de distribuições que atingem tanto o consumidor interno que compra produtos nos supermercados de todo o país,como, também em grandes exportações para o mundo inteiro. Devido a esta abrangência de atuação, é necessário que a empresa possua ferramentas para gerenciar suas operações de forma a se manter competitiva no mercado nacional e internacional. Para que isso aconteça, é necessário medir o grau de maturidade de uma empresa, que corresponde a que nível as operações estão suficientemente maduras de forma a contribuir com a melhor gestão organizacional de suas operações.Define-se maturidade como um estágio em que um tipo de processo pode alcançar e, assim, ser dito mais desenvolvido em algum quesito do que em outro processo de característica similar. Desde meados de 1930 pesquisa-se esse conceito com a função de descrever o caminho de como entidades se desenvolvem a partir de um estado simples, até um estado complexo e robusto. Este trabalho tem como objetivo medir o nível de maturidade, mediante modelos apresentados nas literaturas, os quais foram particularizados, para a indústria farinácea no norte do Estado do Paraná e analisar suas operações. Para tal, foram realizadas entrevistas semi estruturadas de duas empresas do ramo,utilizou-se também o método de análise multicritério Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) para relacionar três diferentes modelos de gestão organizacional mediante o nível de maturidade avaliado na entrevista. Os resultados consideram que as análises do modelo de maturidade aplicadas às empresas tiveram um desempenho assertivo em comparação com o observado e foram capazes de caracterizar a maturidade de ambas no estudo de caso. Mostrou-se que uma das empresas possui, em um nível de 1 a 5, um nível 4 de maturidade enquanto a outra está situada no nível 3 via atitudes e políticas que toma em favor da sua própria cadeia de suprimentos. A análise AHP indicou que para ambas, o modelo de gestão de operações mais recomendado é o de indústria 4.0, mesmo que atualmente, a empresa A possui uma gestão de operações horizontal enquanto a B possui uma gestão mais verticalizada. Por fim, apresentouse um conjunto de sugestões para que elas possam evoluir graus de maturidade para níveis mais altos. Além disso, apresenta-se uma análise qualitativa de como essas sugestões podem impactar no processo de evolução e na busca do modelo de gestão operacional apontado pela análise AHP. Palavras-chave: Gestão da Cadeia de Suprimentos. Modelos de Maturidade. Indústria de Farináceos. Analytical Hierarchy Process.Abstract: The wheat manipulation industry has a fundamental role in food production, with processing rates that reach about 45% of the wheat planted in the country. The wheat processing industry has a complex supply chain that influences from smaller national producers, cooperatives, to suppliers and distribution centers that reach both the domestic consumer who buys products in supermarkets across the country, as well as large exports to the whole world. Due to this scope of action, it is necessary that the company has tools to manage its operations in order to remain competitive in the national and international market. For this to happen, it is necessary to measure the degree of maturity of a company, which corresponds to what level the operations are sufficiently mature in order to contribute to the best organizational management of its operations. Maturity is defined as a stage in which a type process can achieve and thus be said to be more developed in some respect than in another process with a similar characteristic. Since the mid-1930s, this concept has been researched with the function of describing the path of how entities develop from a simple state, to a complex and robust state. This work aims to measure the level of maturity, using models presented in the literature, which were particularized, for the flour industry in the north of the State of Paraná and to analyze its operations. To this end, semistructured interviews were conducted with two companies in the industry, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) multicriteria analysis method was also used to relate three different organizational management models based on the maturity level assessed in the interview. The results consider that the analyzes of the maturity model applied to the companies had an assertive performance in comparison with the observed and were able to characterize the maturity of both in the case study. It was shown that one of the companies has, at a level from 1 to 5, a level 4 of maturity while the other is situated at level 3 via attitudes and policies that it takes in favor of its own supply chain. The AHP analysis indicated that for both, the most recommended operations management model is that of industry 4.0, even though currently, company A has horizontal operations management while B has more vertical management. Finally, a set of suggestions was presented so that they can evolve degrees of maturity to higher levels. In addition, a qualitative analysis of how these suggestions can impact the evolution process and the search for the operational management model pointed out by the AHP analysis is presented. Keywords: Supply Chain Management. Maturity Models. Wheat Industry. Analytical Hierarchy Process

Lean tools in the context of industry 4.0: literature review, implementation and trends

With the evolution of Industry 4.0, some problems related to inefficient digitalization become clearer in organizations. To minimize these problems, implementation of the lean philosophy is needed in the digital environment. However, before Lean can start to solve the digitalization problems, there is a need to digitalize its tools so that they can comprehend the Industry 4.0 dynamics and become more effective. The aim of this study is to contribute to the theoretical development of Lean tools in the context of Industry 4.0, promoting directions for the industrial sector from the evolution, difficulties, benefits, implementation and trends of Lean 4.0 tools. To achieve this objective, this study performs a systematic literature review and content analysis of 53 papers from 35 journals. The main results of the research show: (i) the characterization of the Lean 4.0 tools; (ii) the evolution of the Lean tools after the integration with digital technologies; (iii) the main trends of Lean 4.0; (iv) the proposal of a Lean 4.0 theoretical framework. From these results, this paper seeks to promote insights for studies in the area of Lean 4.0, as well as for companies to implement and use the Lean 4.0 tools for better improvement in their digital processes and avoid the digital waste.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Structure and Oxygen Affinity of Crystalline des-His-146β Human Hemoglobin in the T State *

To correlate directly structure with function, the oxygen affinity and the three-dimensional structure of crystals of the T quaternary state of des-His-146beta human hemoglobin have been determined by polarized absorption microspectrophotometry and x-ray diffraction crystallography. In des-His-146beta, the COOH-terminal histidine residues of the beta chains of hemoglobin A have been removed. Oxygen binding to crystalline des-His hemoglobin is non-cooperative and independent of pH. The oxygen affinity is 1.7-fold greater than that of the crystalline state of hemoglobin A. Removal of His-146beta results in a small movement of the truncated COOH-terminal peptide and in a very small change in quaternary structure. Previously, similar studies on T state crystals of des-Arg-141alpha hemoglobin showed that removal of the COOH termini of the alpha chains results in much larger effects on oxygen affinity and on quaternary structure. Kinetic studies in solution reveal that at pH 7.0, the rates of CO combination with deoxygenated des-His-146beta in the absence and presence of inositol hexaphosphate are 2.5- and 1.3-fold, respectively, more rapid than for hemoglobin A. The values for des-Arg are 7.6- and 3.9-fold. The properties of the T state of hemoglobin both in the crystal and in solution are influenced to a greater degree by the interactions associated with Arg-141alpha than those associated with His-146beta

Aging-aware parallel execution

Computation has been pushed to the edge to decrease latency and alleviate the computational burden of the IoT applications in the cloud. However, the increasing processing demands of Edge Applications make necessary the employment of platforms that exploit thread-level parallelism (TLP). Yet, power and heat dissipation rise as TLP inadvertently increases or when parallelism is not cleverly exploited, which may be the result of the non-ideal use of a given PPI (Parallel Program Interface). Besides the common issues, such as the need for more robust power sources and better cooling, heat also adversely affects aging, accelerating phenomenons such as negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) and hot-carrier injection (HCI), which further reduces processor lifetime. Hence, considering that increasing the lifespan of an edge device is key, so the number of times the application set may execute until its end-of-life is maximized, we propose BALDER. It is a learning framework capable of automatically choosing optimal configuration executions (PPI and number of threads) according to the parallel application at hand, aiming to maximize the trade-off between aging and performance. When executing ten well-known applications on two multicore embedded architectures, we show that BALDER can find a nearly-optimal configuration for all our experiments.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Os efeitos do abuso de maconha em pacientes com transtorno de déficit de atenção e hiperatividade

ResumoUm dos transtornos de aprendizagem mais comuns e mais diagnosticados em crianças e adolescentes é o de deficit de atenção com hiperatividade (TDAH). A extensa produção acadêmica acerca deste transtorno, que é considerado um problema de saúde pública, relata as diversas comorbidades que afetam os portadores. Dentre estas, destaca-se a relação entre o TDAH e o abuso ou a dependência de drogas. Questionando-se sobre os possíveis efeitos da maconha, a substância mais popular entre a população adolescente, o presente artigo caracteriza-se como uma revisão da literatura científica sobre o tema, publicada entre os anos 2000 e 2016, nas bases de dados Scielo, EBSCO e Capes. AbstractThe attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity is one of the most common and more diagnosed learning disorders in children and adolescents. Extensive academic research about this disorder, which is considered a public health problem, reports the number of comorbidities that affect the carriers. Among these one of the most striking and studied comorbidities is the relationship between ADHD and abuse or drug addiction. Questioning on the possible effects of marijuana, the most popular substance among the adolescent population, this article is characterized as a review of the scientific literature on the subject, published from 2000 to 2015, in Scielo, EBSCO and Capes databases. figshare DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.819868

Downregulation of TLX induces TET3 expression and inhibits glioblastoma stem cell self-renewal and tumorigenesis

International audienceGlioblastomas have been proposed to be maintained by highly tumorigenic glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs) that are resistant to current therapy. Therefore, targeting GSCs is critical for developing effective therapies for glioblastoma. In this study, we identify the regulatory cascade of the nuclear receptor TLX and the DNA hydroxylase Ten eleven translocation 3 (TET3) as a target for human GSCs. We show that knockdown of TLX expression inhibits human GSC tumorigenicity in mice. Treatment of human GSC-grafted mice with viral vector-delivered TLX shRNA or nanovector-delivered TLX siRNA inhibits tumour development and prolongs survival. Moreover, we identify TET3 as a potent tumour suppressor downstream of TLX to regulate the growth and self-renewal in GSCs. This study identifies the TLX-TET3 axis as a potential therapeutic target for glioblastoma