Diversification of prey capture techniques among the piscivores in Lake Tana's (Ethiopia) Labeobarbus species flock (Cyprinidae)

Lake Tana harbours the only known intact species flock of large cyprinid fishes (15 Labeobarbus spp.). One of the most curious aspects of this species flock is the large number (8) of piscivorous species. Cyprinids are not well designed for piscivory (i.e. small slit-shaped pharyngeal cavity, lack of teeth in the oral jaws, lack of a stomach), which raises the question how well adapted these labeobarbs actually are to function as piscivores? In this study we analyse the kinematics of prey capture (by varied combinations of suction, swimming and jaw protrusion) among Lake Tana's piscivorous labeobarbs. Suction feeding kinematics were similar to values reported for other piscivorous fish species. A detailed analysis of several Labeobarbus species displayed distinct types of techniques (overswimming, velocity/volume suction with jaw protrusion) suited to capture elusive prey in different macro-habitats, Lake Tana's Labeobarbus species evolved a wide range of piscivorous predation techniques, a unique scenario for cyprinid fishes

Modeling Uranium Transport in Koongarra, Australia: The Effect of a Moving Weathering Zone

Natural analogues are an important source of long-term data and may be viewed as naturally occurring experiments that often include processes, phenomena, and scenarios that are important to nuclear waste disposal safety assessment studies. The Koongarra uranium deposit in the Alligator Rivers region of Australia is one of the best-studied natural analogue sites. The deposit has been subjected to chemical weathering over several million years, during which many climatological, hydrological, and geological changes have taken place, resulting in the mobilization and spreading of uranium. Secondary uranium mineralization and dispersed uranium are present from the surface down to the base of the weathering zone, some 25 m deep. In this work, a simple uranium transport model is presented and sensitivity analyses are conducted for key model parameters. Analyses of field and laboratory data show that three layers can be distinguished in the Koongarra area: (1) a top layer that is fully weathered, (2) an intermediate layer that is partially weathered (the weathering zone), and (3) a lower layer that is unweathered. The weathering zone has been moving downward as the weathering process proceeds. Groundwater velocities are found to be largest in the weathering zone. Transport of uranium is believed to take place primarily in this zone. It appears that changes in the direction of groundwater flow have not had a significant effect on the uranium dispersion pattern. The solid-phase uranium data show that the uranium concentration does not significantly change with depth within the fully weathered zone. This implies that uranium transport has stopped in these layers. A two-dimensional vertically integrated model for transport of uranium in the weathering zone has been developed. Simulations with a velocity field constant in time and space have been carried out, taking into account the downward movement of this zone and the dissolution of uranium in the orebody. The latter has been modelled by a nonequilibrium relationship. In these simulations, pseudo-steady state uranium distributions are computed. The main conclusion drawn from this study is that the movement of the weathering zone and the nonequilibrium dissolution of uranium in the orebody play an important role in the transport of uranium. Despite the fact that the model is a gross simplification of what has actually happened in the past two million years, a reasonable fit of calculated and observed uranium distributions was obtained with acceptable values for the model parameters

Nutrient loss pathways from grazed grasslands and the effects of decreasing inputs: experimental results for three soil types

Agriculture is a main contributor of diffuse emissions of N and P to the environment. For N the main loss pathways are NH3-volatilization, leaching to ground and surface water and N-2(O) emissions. Currently, imposing restraints on farm inputs are used as policy tool to decrease N and P leaching to ground water and to surface water, and the same measure is suggested to combat emissions of N2O. The response, however, to these measures largely depends on the soil type. In this study nutrient flows of three dairy farms in The Netherlands with comparable intensity on sand, peat and clay soils were monitored for at least 2 years. The first aim was to provide quantitative data on current nutrient loss pathways. The second aim was to explore the responses in partitioning of the nutrient loss pathways when farm inputs were altered. Mean denitrification rates ranged from 103 kg N ha(-1) year(-1) for the sandy soil to 170 kg N ha(-1) year(-1) for the peat soil and leaching to surface water was about 73 kg N ha(-1) year(-1) for the sandy soil, 15 kg N ha(-1) year(-1) for the clay soil and 38 kg N ha(-1) year(-1) for the peat soil. For P, leaching to surface water ranged from 2 kg P ha(-1) year(-1) for the sandy site to 5 kg P ha(-1) year(-1) for the peat site. The sandy soil was most responsive to changes in N surpluses on leaching to surface water, followed by the peat soil and least responsive was the clay soil. For P, a similar sequence was found. This article demonstrates that similar reductions of N and P inputs result in different responses in N and P loss pathways for different soil types. These differences should be taken into account when evaluating measures to improve environmental performance of (dairy) farm

Prevent, Redesign, Adopt or Ignore: Improving Healthcare Using Knowledge of Workarounds

The complex and variable nature of healthcare work makes alignment of health information systems to healthcare processes a challenge, causing the emergence of workarounds. We developed three artifacts to use knowledge of workarounds to address this misalignment and enable the improvement of work systems. (1) The Workaround Snapshot, in which the necessary social and technical information about a workaround is captured, such as motivation, impact on the work system, and possible actions that can be taken. (2) The Workaround Action Impact Matrix, which illustrates the possible decisions that can be made. (3) The Workaround Snapshot Approach, a socio-technical approach that uses the previous artifacts to enable continuous improvement. Following the principles of design science, the artifacts are demonstrated and evaluated through a case study at a Dutch hospital, where we identified and examined twelve workarounds. The approach has proven to enable the organization to make well-informed decisions on actions to be taken, which at times result in direct improvement of the work system. We contribute to existing research in moving past the identification and categorization of workarounds, towards utilizing explicit knowledge of workarounds to improve the work system

Water- en zoutoverlast gezien in relatie tot de verbreding en verdieping van het kanaal van Gent naar Terneuzen

In verband met het toenemend aantal klachten over gewassenschade, op landbouwgronden grenzend aan het Kanaal van Gent naar Terneuzen welke schade te wijten zou zijn aan de gevolgen van wateroverlast of zout, is op verzoek van het Landbouwschap door de Commissie Waterbeheersing en Ontzilting een onderzoek ingesteld naar een mogelijk oorzakelijk verband tussen deze plaatselijk optredende wateroverlast en de uitgevoerde werkzaamheden in het kanaal

Organizing for exploration and exploitation

Exploitation of current technologies and competences generates revenues in the present, while exploration of new technological options creates the basis for future revenues. Exploitation is needed for short-term survival, while exploration is needed for long-term survival. Between exploration and exploitation, a tension exists, which is one of the essential tensions in the management of innovation. To develop and maintain innovation strategies and organizational forms that facilitate both exploration and exploitation and that can cope with the tensions, is a major challenge for the management of innovation. The purpose of this paper is to give a succinct overview of relevant literature, and to draw the outline of a research project on the organization of exploration and exploitation in the field of biotechnology. The main research questions of this project are: Under which circumstances is the strategic choice to engage in multiple technological trajectories sensible? and: To what extent are ambidextrous organizational forms effective structures for firms pursuing a multiple technology strategy

Why do Companies Adopt or Reject SaaS? Looking at the Organizational Aspect

The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of three organizational factors on the adoption of SaaS in Indonesian companies, namely top management support, organizational readiness, and organizational size. We conducted interviews with 15 case companies. Our results show that top management support has a positive influence on SaaS adoption, while organizational readiness and organizational size have an inverse effect. This is surprising, since it contradicts existing research on IT innovation adoption. We also found that the SaaS awareness level of our interviewees remains low, especially among the non-adopters. These findings have implications for IT service providers that want to formulate strategies to increase the intention to adopt SaaS in Indonesian companies; as well as for IT innovation researchers who have an interest in SaaS adoption in developing countries

THE ADOPTION OF SOFTWARE-AS-SERVICE: AN INDONESIAN CASE STUDY

The goal of this study is to discover the technological, organizational, and environmental determinants for Software as a Service (SaaS) adoption in Indonesian companies. The technologicalorganizational-environmental (TOE) framework was adopted as a primary theoretical lens, combined with five innovation characteristics of Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory, which incorporated in technological context of the framework. We used a questionnaire to collect data from 147 of Indonesian companies. A logistic regression was carried out to test our hypotheses. The results confirmed that compatibility, observability, market competition, and government have positive relationship with SaaS adoption in Indonesian, while complexity found to be the negative determinant to its adoption. We also found that the organizational context of TOE framework did not contribute to the prediction of SaaS adoption in Indonesian companies. The findings offer valuable insights for researchers of SaaS and innovation adoption, for Indonesian policy makers that want to encourage SaaS adoption, as well as for SaaS vendors that want to develop strategies to persuade companies in Indonesia to adopt SaaS

A Meta-analysis of IT Innovation Adoption Factors: The Moderating Effect of Product and Process Innovations

The aim of our research is to seek an explanation for contradicting results in innovation studies that use technological, organizational and environmental (TOE) factors to explain the adoption of Information Technology (IT) innovations. We do this by taking into account the type of innovation, specifically product and process innovation. We carried out a meta-analysis of 35 IT innovation adoption studies. The results show that five factors consistently affect the adoption decision for both product and process innovations, namely relative advantage, compatibility, top management support, organizational readiness, and competition. Two factors, namely organizational size and external pressure, showed significant effect for product innovations, but not for process innovations. Accordingly, we conclude that distinguishing product and process innovations can be useful in studying the influence of TOE factors in IT innovation adoption