Mobile phone and e-government in Turkey: practices and technological choices at the cross-road

Enhanced data services through mobile phones are expected to be soon fully transactional and embedded within future mobile consumption practices. While private services will surely continue to take the lead, others such as government and NGOs will become more prominent m-players. It is not yet sure which form of technological standards will take the lead including enhance SMS based operations or Internet based specifically developed mobile phone applications. With the introduction of interactive transactions via mobile phones, currently untapped segment of the populations (without computers) have the potential to be accessed. Our research, as a reflection of the current market situation in an emerging country context, in the case of mobile phones analyzes the current needs or emergence of dependencies regarding the use of m/e-government services from the perspective of municipality officers. We contend that more research is needed to understand current preparatory bottlenecks and front loading activities to be able to encourage future intention to use e-government services through mobile phone technologies. This study highlights and interprets the current emerging practices and praxis for consuming m-government services within government

An actor-network theory (ANT) approach to Turkish e-government gateway initiative

There are various models proposed in the literature to analyze trajectories of e-Government projects in terms of success and failure. Yet, only the Actor-Network Theory (ANT) perspective (Heeks and Stanforth, 2007) considers the interaction factors among network actors and actants. This paper proposes the ANT for approaching to the Turkish e-Government Gateway initiative as a case study. In doing so, it provides valuable insight in terms of both local and global actor-networks which surround the initiative

Service value creation in supplier-buyer interactions

Tedarik Zinciri Yönetimi (TZY), imalat, yöneylem, müşteri yönetimi ve dağıtım gibi değişik disiplinlerin ilgisini çekmiştir. Küresel tedarik, zaman ve kalite temelli rekabet, teknolojik gelişmeler ve çevresel belirsizlik unsurları sonucunda, TZY akademik araştırmalar için güncel bir başlık haline gelmiştir. Artan küresel rekabet, tedarik zinciri halkalarının birbirleri ile daha yakın koordinasyon sağlamasını ve kendilerini diğer halkaların konumlarını dikkate alarak daha iyi hizalamalarını gerektirmektedir. Bu sebeple, tedarikçi-alıcı çiftlerinin yakından incelenmesi hayati önem taşımaktadır. Fiyat bir ürünün en önemli özelliği haline dönüştükçe karlılık düşmekte, rekabet avantajı azalmaktadır, buna ek olarak  bilişim teknolojilerinin tedarikçi-alıcı çiftlerinin daha yakın koordinasyonuna imkan tanımayan araçları geliştikçe, tedarikçiler ürünlerini sundukları hizmetler ile desteklemektedirler. Öyle ki, hizmet kalitesi, ürün kalitesinden daha önemli bir sipariş kazandıran olarak anılmaktadır. Ancak, hizmetler yolu ile farklılaştırma yakalanması zor bir kavramdır. Ürünlere eşlik ederek melez ürün oluşumuna katkıda bulunan hizmetler, tedarikçilerin rekabetçiliklerini daha da geliştirebilecekleri unsurlar arasında yer almaktadır. Ancak, alıcıların hizmetlere dair öznel beklentilerinin gelişimleri ve değişkenlikleri sebebi ile tedarikçiler sunumunda bulunacakları hizmet seviyesi gereklerini öngörmekte zorlanmaktadırlar. Bu çalışmanın hedeflediği amaçlar çeşitlidir. Hizmetlerin Tedarik Zinciri Yönetimi (TZY) içerisindeki önemini ortaya koyarak, tedarikçi-alıcı etkileşimlerinde katma değer yaratabilme kabiliyetlerini ortaya koymak bu amaçlardan ilkidir. Ayrıca, tedarikçilerin alıcılarının hizmet seviyesi gereklerini belirleyebilmeleri için Snell Kanunu’ndan yararlanılarak, tedarikçilere ışık tutacak bir model geliştirmek de amaçlanmaktadır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Tedarik Zinciri Yönetimi, Tedarikçi-Alıcı etkileşimi, hizmetler, değer yaratımı.Supply chain management has attracted attention from various multi-disciplinary fields, which include manufacturing, operations management, customer management and transportation. Global sourcing, time and quality based competition, improvements in technology, and environmental uncertainties have placed supply chain management as a timely topic for academic research. Defect-free, fast and reliable delivery has almost become the necessities to be in the market, rather than competitive advantage. Ever stiff competition in the global arena calls for closer coordination and better alignment between supply chain participants. Therefore, a closer examination of supplier and buyer interactions is vital. As price becomes the most important feature of a product and reduces profitability and competitive advantage, and as information technology tools that help in a closer coordination with buyer and supplier emerge, suppliers get engaged in providing services around their products. Moreover, service quality is referred as a more important order winner than the product quality. Yet differentiation via services dimension is not an easy concept to grasp. Firms often perform services according to the norms they have established over years of experience. Though, the breadth of experience commonly varies from one firm to another. Therefore, norms adopted for services vary, too. A norm considered for a specific service in one company might not exist at another company, or even if exist could be underestimated. When placed in the context of complex supply chains, this presents a supplier with often buyers that have different services' norms. A certain aspect of a supplier's service might be deemed superior at one buyer, while normal or even inferior at another buyer. Therefore, provision of services in supply chain management presents a promising research area. There is a need to understand if supplier's provision of services is capable of generating superior or inferior perceived buyer value. For a firm to gain and retain value additive beneficial relationships with its buyers, its offer should often involve some social values (something that will make buyer's life a better one) either by clearly identifying the needs of its buyers or by outperforming what other suppliers already do. Suppliers demand more information on sophisticated norms and specifications of their buyers to formulate their services. This research attempts to shed the light on the issues discussed, and also uncover the possible causes of superior perceived buyer value creation upon supplier's provision of services in supply chain. An exploratory research model has been developed by the aid of an analogy from Snell's Law of the physics as services creation of value has an instantaneous nature like that of the passage of a beam of light from one medium to another one. Two propositions had stemmed from the exploratory research. Firstly, lower operational medium on supply side is likely to cause inferiority in perceived buyer value for an encounter. Secondly, higher operational medium on supply side is likely to cause superiority in perceived buyer value for an encounter. A panel of experts had been devised to confirm usefulness and meaningfulness of the developed model. The research process for the panel of experts was a qualitative technique based on an interpretive orientation. Participants included 9 provincial individuals. In all, there were 19 interviews, involving 9 individuals. In four instances more than one person participated in an interview. Thirteen of the interviews were face-to-face, and three were conducted by telephone. Interviewees confirmed the model by the practices they are involved within the industry, as well as with the exemplifying issues they have presented. No changes were requested for the developed exploratory model. The main contribution of this research endeavor to academia is the developed exploratory model, which explains creation of superior perceived buyer value via provision of services in a supplier-buyer interaction. Therefore, reference disciplines, including supply chain management and services have received contribution. High levels of services are often costly for suppliers to adopt for the entire buyer base due to two major reasons: the unnecessary high costs incurred for buyers who were not necessarily expecting such high services for value creation, and the dramatically raised expectations which will set the base for all forthcoming services of the supplier that'll force the supplier to perform an ever higher levels of services. Developed model facilitates detection of possible opportunities to improve service levels through which a supplier can create superior perceived buyer value. Keywords: Supply chain management, supplier-buyer interaction, services, value creation

Service value creation in supplier-buyer interactions

Tedarik Zinciri Yönetimi (TZY), imalat, yöneylem, müşteri yönetimi ve dağıtım gibi değişik disiplinlerin ilgisini çekmiştir. Küresel tedarik, zaman ve kalite temelli rekabet, teknolojik gelişmeler ve çevresel belirsizlik unsurları sonucunda, TZY akademik araştırmalar için güncel bir başlık haline gelmiştir. Artan küresel rekabet, tedarik zinciri halkalarının birbirleri ile daha yakın koordinasyon sağlamasını ve kendilerini diğer halkaların konumlarını dikkate alarak daha iyi hizalamalarını gerektirmektedir.  Bu sebeple, tedarikçi-alıcı çiftlerinin yakından incelenmesi hayati önem taşımaktadır. Fiyat bir ürünün en önemli özelliği haline dönüştükçe karlılık düşmekte, rekabet avantajı azalmaktadır, buna ek olarak  bilişim teknolojilerinin tedarikçi-alıcı çiftlerinin daha yakın koordinasyonuna imkan tanımayan araçları geliştikçe, tedarikçiler ürünlerini sundukları hizmetler ile desteklemektedirler. Öyle ki, hizmet kalitesi, ürün kalitesinden daha önemli bir sipariş kazandıran olarak anılmaktadır. Ancak, hizmetler yolu ile farklılaştırma yakalanması zor bir kavramdır. Ürünlere eşlik ederek melez ürün oluşumuna katkıda bulunan hizmetler, tedarikçilerin rekabetçiliklerini daha da geliştirebilecekleri unsurlar arasında yer almaktadır. Ancak, alıcıların hizmetlere dair öznel beklentilerinin gelişimleri ve değişkenlikleri sebebi ile tedarikçiler sunumunda bulunacakları hizmet seviyesi gereklerini öngörmekte zorlanmaktadırlar. Bu çalışmanın hedeflediği amaçlar çeşitlidir. Hizmetlerin Tedarik Zinciri Yönetimi (TZY) içerisindeki önemini ortaya koyarak, tedarikçi-alıcı etkileşimlerinde katma değer yaratabilme kabiliyetlerini ortaya koymak bu amaçlardan ilkidir. Ayrıca, tedarikçilerin alıcılarının hizmet seviyesi gereklerini belirleyebilmeleri için Snell Kanunu’ndan yararlanılarak, tedarikçilere ışık tutacak bir model geliştirmek de amaçlanmaktadır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Tedarik zinciri yönetimi, tedarikçi-alıcı etkileşimi, hizmetler, değer yaratımı.Supply chain management has attracted attention from various multi-disciplinary fields, which include manufacturing, operations management, customer management and transportation. Global sourcing, time and quality based competition, improvements in technology, and environmental uncertainties have placed supply chain management as a timely topic for academic research. Defect-free, fast and reliable delivery has almost become the necessities to be in the market, rather than competitive advantage. Ever stiff competition in the global arena calls for closer coordination and better alignment between supply chain participants. Therefore, a closer examination of supplier and buyer interactions is vital. As price becomes the most important feature of a product and reduces profitability and competitive advantage, and as information technology tools that help in a closer coordination with buyer and supplier emerge, suppliers get engaged in providing services around their products. Moreover, service quality is referred as a more important order winner than the product quality. Yet differentiation via services dimension is not an easy concept to grasp. Firms often perform services according to the norms they have established over years of experience. Though, the breadth of experience commonly varies from one firm to another. Therefore, norms adopted for services vary, too. A norm considered for a specific service in one company might not exist at another company, or even if exist could be underestimated. When placed in the context of complex supply chains, this presents a supplier with often buyers that have different services' norms. A certain aspect of a supplier's service might be deemed superior at one buyer, while normal or even inferior at another buyer. Therefore, provision of services in supply chain management presents a promising research area. There is a need to understand if supplier's provision of services is capable of generating superior or inferior perceived buyer value. For a firm to gain and retain value additive beneficial relationships with its buyers, its offer should often involve some social values (something that will make buyer's life a better one) either by clearly identifying the needs of its buyers or by outperforming what other suppliers already do. Suppliers demand more information on sophisticated norms and specifications of their buyers to formulate their services. This research attempts to shed the light on the issues discussed, and also uncover the possible causes of superior perceived buyer value creation upon supplier's provision of services in supply chain. An exploratory research model has been developed by the aid of an analogy from Snell's Law of the physics as services creation of value has an instantaneous nature like that of the passage of a beam of light from one medium to another one. Two propositions had stemmed from the exploratory research. Firstly, lower operational medium on supply side is likely to cause inferiority in perceived buyer value for an encounter. Secondly, higher operational medium on supply side is likely to cause superiority in perceived buyer value for an encounter. A panel of experts had been devised to confirm usefulness and meaningfulness of the developed model. The research process for the panel of experts was a qualitative technique based on an interpretive orientation. Participants included 9 provincial individuals. In all, there were 19 interviews, involving 9 individuals. In four instances more than one person participated in an interview. Thirteen of the interviews were face-to-face, and three were conducted by telephone. Interviewees confirmed the model by the practices they are involved within the industry, as well as with the exemplifying issues they have presented. No changes were requested for the developed exploratory model. The main contribution of this research endeavor to academia is the developed exploratory model, which explains creation of superior perceived buyer value via provision of services in a supplier-buyer interaction. Therefore, reference disciplines, including supply chain management and services have received contribution. High levels of services are often costly for suppliers to adopt for the entire buyer base due to two major reasons: the unnecessary high costs incurred for buyers who were not necessarily expecting such high services for value creation, and the dramatically raised expectations which will set the base for all forthcoming services of the supplier that'll force the supplier to perform an ever higher levels of services. Developed model facilitates detection of possible opportunities to improve service levels through which a supplier can create superior perceived buyer value. Keywords: Supply chain management, supplier-buyer interaction, services, value creation

Unusual multisystemic involvement and a novel BAG3 mutation revealed by NGS screening in a large cohort of myofibrillar myopathies

Background: Myofibrillar myopathies (MFM) are a group of phenotypically and genetically heterogeneous neuromuscular disorders, which are characterized by protein aggregations in muscle fibres and can be associated with multisystemic involvement. Methods: We screened a large cohort of 38 index patients with MFM for mutations in the nine thus far known causative genes using Sanger and next generation sequencing (NGS). We studied the clinical and histopathological characteristics in 38 index patients and five additional relatives (n = 43) and particularly focused on the associated multisystemic symptoms. Results: We identified 14 heterozygous mutations (diagnostic yield of 37%), among them the novel p.Pro209Gln mutation in the BAG3 gene, which was associated with onset in adulthood, a mild phenotype and an axonal sensorimotor polyneuropathy, in the absence of giant axons at the nerve biopsy. We revealed several novel clinical phenotypes and unusual multisystemic presentations with previously described mutations: hearing impairment with a FLNC mutation, dysphonia with a mutation in DES and the first patient with a FLNC mutation presenting respiratory insufficiency as the initial symptom. Moreover, we described for the first time respiratory insufficiency occurring in a patient with the p.Gly154Ser mutation in CRYAB. Interestingly, we detected a polyneuropathy in 28% of the MFM patients, including a BAG3 and a MYOT case, and hearing impairment in 13%, including one patient with a FLNC mutation and two with mutations in the DES gene. In four index patients with a mutation in one of the MFM genes, typical histological findings were only identified at the ultrastructural level (29%). Conclusions: We conclude that extraskeletal symptoms frequently occur in MFM, particularly cardiac and respiratory involvement, polyneuropathy and/or deafness. BAG3 mutations should be considered even in cases with a mild phenotype or an adult onset. We identified a genetic defect in one of the known genes in less than half of the MFM patients, indicating that more causative genes are still to be found. Next generation sequencing techniques should be helpful in achieving this aim

Membrane Traffic and Muscle: Lessons from Human Disease

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73369/1/j.1600-0854.2008.00716.x.pd

A review of timetabling and resource allocation models for light-rail transportation systems

This paper surveys the relevant operations research literature on timetabling and resource allocationproblems with a special attention paid to the transportation systems. The purpose of this review is to define the critical objectives, determine the key components and identify the key issues for developing a comprehensive mathematical model for timetabling of light rail transit vehicles in sequence with the assignment of drivers as an available resource. In doing so, the implications of the emerging timetabling research is discussed, components of the mathematical models proposed are reviewed, and the extend they reflect real business practices are analyzed. Finally, fundamental issues and primary elements of a simple model in association with general timetabling and resource allocation problems are presented