Governance of Offshore IT Outsourcing at Shell Global Functions IT-BAM Development and Application of a Governance Framework to Improve Outsourcing Relationships

The lack of effective IT governance is widely recognized as a key inhibitor to successful global IT outsourcing relationships. In this study we present the development and application of a governance framework to improve outsourcing relationships. The approach used to developing an IT governance framework includes a meta model and a customization process to fit the framework to the target organization. The IT governance framework consists of four different elements (1) organisational structures, (2) joint processes between in- and outsourcer, (3) responsibilities that link roles to processes and (4) a diverse set of control indicators to measure the success of the relationship. The IT governance framework is put in practice in Shell GFIT BAM, a part of Shell that concluded to have a lack of management control over at least one of their outsourcing relationships. In a workshop the governance framework was used to perform a gap analysis between the current and desired governance. Several gaps were identified in the way roles and responsibilities are assigned and joint processes are set-up. Moreover, this workshop also showed the usefulness and usability of the IT governance framework in structuring, providing input and managing stakeholders in the discussions around IT governance

Generalization of Kirchhoff's Law of Thermal Radiation: The Inherent Relations Between Quantum Efficiency and Emissivity

Planck's law of thermal radiation depends on the temperature, $T$, and the emissivity, $\epsilon$, of a body, where emissivity is the coupling of heat to radiation that depends on both phonon-electron nonradiative interactions and electron-photon radiative interactions. Another property of a body is absorptivity, $\alpha$, which only depends on the electron-photon radiative interactions. At thermodynamic equilibrium, nonradiative interactions are balanced, resulting in Kirchhoff's law of thermal radiation that equals these two properties, i.e., $\epsilon = \alpha$. For non-equilibrium, quantum efficiency ($QE$) describes the statistics of photon emission, which like emissivity depends on both radiative and nonradiative interactions. Past generalized Planck's equation extends Kirchhoff's law out of equilibrium by scaling the emissivity with the pump-dependent chemical-potential $\mu$, obscuring the relations between the body properties. Here we theoretically and experimentally demonstrate a prime equation relating these properties in the form of $\epsilon = \alpha(1-QE)$, which is in agreement with a recent universal modal radiation law for all thermal emitters. At equilibrium, these relations are reduced to Kirchhoff's law. Our work lays out the fundamental evolution of non-thermal emission with temperature, which is critical for the development of lighting and energy devices.Comment: 14 pages, 16 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2104.1013

Packing and Hausdorff measures of stable trees

In this paper we discuss Hausdorff and packing measures of random continuous trees called stable trees. Stable trees form a specific class of L\'evy trees (introduced by Le Gall and Le Jan in 1998) that contains Aldous's continuum random tree (1991) which corresponds to the Brownian case. We provide results for the whole stable trees and for their level sets that are the sets of points situated at a given distance from the root. We first show that there is no exact packing measure for levels sets. We also prove that non-Brownian stable trees and their level sets have no exact Hausdorff measure with regularly varying gauge function, which continues previous results from a joint work with J-F Le Gall (2006).Comment: 40 page

Trends in Insecticide Resistance in Natural Populations of Malaria Vectors in Burkina Faso, West Africa: 10 Years’ Surveys

International audienc

Costs of insensitive acetylcholinesterase insecticide resistance for the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae homozygous for the G119S mutation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The G119S mutation responsible for insensitive acetylcholinesterase resistance to organophosphate and carbamate insecticides has recently been reported from natural populations of <it>Anopheles gambiae </it>in West Africa. These reports suggest there are costs of resistance associated with this mutation for <it>An. gambiae</it>, especially for homozygous individuals, and these costs could be influential in determining the frequency of carbamate resistance in these populations.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Life-history traits of the AcerKis and Kisumu strains of <it>An. gambiae </it>were compared following the manipulation of larval food availability in three separate experiments conducted in an insecticide-free laboratory environment. These two strains share the same genetic background, but differ in being homozygous for the presence or absence of the G119S mutation at the <it>ace-1 </it>locus, respectively.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Pupae of the resistant strain were significantly more likely to die during pupation than those of the susceptible strain. Ages at pupation were significantly earlier for the resistant strain and their dry starved weights were significantly lighter; this difference in weight remained when the two strains were matched for ages at pupation.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The main cost of resistance found for <it>An. gambiae </it>mosquitoes homozygous for the G119S mutation was that they were significantly more likely to die during pupation than their susceptible counterparts, and they did so across a range of larval food conditions. Comparing the frequency of G119S in fourth instar larvae and adults emerging from the same populations would provide a way to test whether this cost of resistance is being expressed in natural populations of <it>An. gambiae </it>and influencing the dynamics of this resistance mutation.</p

Evidence of Introgression of the ace-1R Mutation and of the ace-1 Duplication in West African Anopheles gambiae s. s

Background: The role of inter-specific hybridisation is of particular importance in mosquito disease vectors for predicting the evolution of insecticide resistance. Two molecular forms of Anopheles gambiae s.s., currently recognized as S and M taxa, are considered to be incipient sibling species. Hybrid scarcity in the field was suggested that differentiation of M and S taxa is maintained by limited or absent gene flow. However, recent studies have revealed shared polymorphisms within the M and S forms, and a better understanding of the occurrence of gene flow is needed. One such shared polymorphism is the G119S mutation in the ace-1 gene (which is responsible for insecticide resistance); this mutation has been described in both the M and S forms of A. gambiae s.s. Methods and Results: To establish whether the G119S mutation has arisen independently in each form or by genetic introgression, we analysed coding and non-coding sequences of ace-1 alleles in M and S mosquitoes from representative field populations. Our data revealed many polymorphic sites shared by S and M forms, but no diversity was associated with the G119S mutation. These results indicate that the G119S mutation was a unique event and that genetic introgression explains the observed distribution of the G119S mutation within the two forms. However, it was impossible to determine from our data whether the mutation occurred first in the S form or in the M form. Unexpectedly, sequence analysis of some resistant individuals revealed a duplication of the ace-1 gene that was observed in both A. gambiae s.s. M and S forms. Again, the distribution of this duplication in the two forms most likely occurred through introgression. Conclusions: These results highlight the need for more research to understand the forces driving the evolution of insecticide resistance in malaria vectors and to regularly monitor resistance in mosquito populations of Africa

Dynamics of multiple insecticide resistance in the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae in a rice growing area in South-Western Burkina Faso

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Insecticide resistance of the main malaria vector, <it>Anopheles gambiae</it>, has been reported in south-western Burkina Faso, West Africa. Cross-resistance to DDT and pyrethroids was conferred by alterations at site of action in the sodium channel, the Leu-Phe <it>kdr </it>mutation; resistance to organophosphates and carbamates resulted from a single point mutation in the oxyanion hole of the acetylcholinesterase enzyme designed as <it>ace-1</it>^<it>R</it>.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>An entomological survey was carried out during the rainy season of 2005 at Vallée du Kou, a rice growing area in south-western Burkina Faso. At the Vallée du Kou, both insecticide resistance mechanisms have been previously described in the M and S molecular forms of <it>An. gambiae</it>. This survey aimed i) to update the temporal dynamics and the circumsporozoite infection rate of the two molecular forms M and S of <it>An. gambiae </it>ii) to update the frequency of the Leu-Phe <it>kdr </it>mutation within these forms and finally iii) to investigate the occurrence of the <it>ace-1</it>^{<it>R </it>}mutation.</p> <p>Mosquitoes collected by indoor residual collection and by human landing catches were counted and morphologically identified. Species and molecular forms of <it>An. gambiae</it>, <it>ace-1</it>^{<it>R </it>}and Leu-Phe <it>kdr </it>mutations were determined using PCR techniques. The presence of the circumsporozoite protein of <it>Plasmodium falciparum </it>was determined using ELISA.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>Anopheles gambiae </it>populations were dominated by the M form. However the S form occurred in relative important proportion towards the end of the rainy season with a maximum peak in October at 51%. Sporozoite rates were similar in both forms. The frequency of the Leu-Phe <it>kdr </it>mutation in the S form reached a fixation level while it is still spreading in the M form. Furthermore, the <it>ace</it>-<it>1</it>^{<it>R </it>}mutation prevailed predominately in the S form and has just started spreading in the M form. The two mutations occurred concomitantly both in M and S populations.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results showed that the Vallée du Kou, a rice growing area formerly occupied mainly by M susceptible populations, is progressively colonized by S resistant populations living in sympatry with the former. As a result, the distribution pattern of insecticide resistance mutations shows the occurrence of both resistance mechanisms concomitantly in the same populations. The impact of multiple resistance mechanisms in M and S populations of <it>An. gambiae </it>on vector control measures against malaria transmission, such as insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) and indoor residual spraying (IRS), in this area is discussed.</p