Towards the Model Driven Organization

Modern organizations are faced with the need to rapidly respond to frequent changes arising from external business pressures. The effect of such continuous evolution eventually leads to organizational misalignment, that is, situations in which sub-optimal configurations of underlying systems significantly reduce an organization's ability to meet its strategic goals. Ensuring alignment of an organization's systems and its goals has been a concern of researchers and practitioners in the enterprise architecture (EA) domain. Unfortunately, current approaches do not adequately address alignment problems that modern organizations face. In this paper we propose that alignment concerns can be better addressed by making models the primary entities that stakeholders within and outside of an organization use to interact with the organization. We call an organization that maintains and uses an integrated set of models to manage alignment concerns a Model Driven Organization (MDO). In this paper we characterize the alignment problem, discuss the shortcomings of current alignment management approaches and present our MDO vision

Evaluating Algibon adsorbent and adsorption kinetics for launderette water treatment : towards sustainable water management

Grey water from commercial laundry facility was used for treatment to substitute the conventional water sources. Algibon, A800 derived from mesoporous alginic acid and Starbon S300, carbonaceous mesoporous polysaccharide-derived materials, silica gel (SG) and activated carbon (AC) were used for the treatment of wastewater. The optimum adsorbent dosing and pH value for each adsorption system are defined. The adsorption efficiency are in the order of A800 > SG > AC > S300 and the removal rate reached to 91% when A800 was used. Furthermore, the reaction followed the second-order kinetic model and the rate constant is high when A800 adsorbent is applied

Ensuring transparency and minimization of methodologic bias in preclinical pain research:PPRECISE considerations

Acknowledgements The authors thank Allison Lin, Dan Mellon, and LiSheng Chen for their help throughout the process of writing this article.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Determination of the strong coupling constant αs from transverse energy–energy correlations in multijet events at s√=8 TeV using the ATLAS detector

Measurements of transverse energy–energy correlations and their associated asymmetries in multi-jet events using the ATLAS detector at the LHC are presented. The data used correspond to s√=8 TeV proton–proton collisions with an integrated luminosity of 20.2 fb−1 . The results are presented in bins of the scalar sum of the transverse momenta of the two leading jets, unfolded to the particle level and compared to the predictions from Monte Carlo simulations. A comparison with next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD is also performed, showing excellent agreement within the uncertainties. From this comparison, the value of the strong coupling constant is extracted for different energy regimes, thus testing the running of αs(μ) predicted in QCD up to scales over 1 TeV . A global fit to the transverse energy–energy correlation distributions yields αs(mZ)=0.1162±0.0011(exp.) +0.0084−0.0070(theo.) , while a global fit to the asymmetry distributions yields a value of αs(mZ)=0.1196±0.0013(exp.) +0.0075−0.0045(theo.)

Mating and aggregative behaviors among basal hexapods in the Early Cretaceous

Among the many challenges in paleobiology is the inference and reconstruction of behaviors that rarely, if ever, leave a physical trace on the environment that is suitable for fossilization. Of particular significance are those behaviors tied to mating and courtship, individual interactions critical for species integrity and continuance, as well as those for dispersal, permitting the taxon to expand its distribution as well as access new habitats in the face of local or long-term environmental change. In this context, two recently discovered fossils from the Early Cretaceous amber of Spain (ca. 105 mya) give a detailed view of otherwise fleeting ethologies in Collembola. These occurrences are phylogenetically spaced across the class, and from species representing the two major clades of springtailsÐSymphypleona and Entomobryomorpha. Specifically, we report unique evidence from a symphypleonan male (Pseudosminthurides stoechus SaÂnchez-GarcõÂa & Engel, 2016) with modified antennae that may have functioned as a clasping organ for securing females during mating on water's surface, and from an aggregation of entomobryomorphan individuals (Proisotoma communis Sánchez-García & Engel, 2016) purportedly representing a swarming episode on the forest floor. We demonstrate that the mating behavioral repertoire in P. stoechus, which is associated with considerable morphological adaptations, likely implied elaborate courtship and maneuvering for guarantee sperm transfer in an epineustic species. These discoveries reveal significant behaviors consistent with modern counterparts and a generalized stasis for some ancient hexapod ethologies associated with complex mating and courtship and social or pre-social aggregations, so critical to specific constancy and dispersal