Implementing A Business Intelligence (BI)/Corporate Performance Management (CPM) Solution: Challenges Faced By A Major National Retailer

Based on actual events, this case is concerned with the practical and managerial challenges associated with analyzing, designing and implementing a Business Intelligence (BI) / Corporate Performance Management (CPM)information technology solution in a large national retailer. Secondary issues examined include strategy, project management and conflict resolution. This case is appropriate for upper-level undergraduate and masters-level graduate courses in information technology, accounting information systems and project management. It is designed to be taught in about one class hour, and requires four to six hours of outside preparation by students.

Jewish Persecutions and Weather Shocks: 1100–1800

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137319/1/ecoj12331_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137319/2/ecoj12331-sup-0001-AppendixA-D.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137319/3/ecoj12331.pd

Chapter 9: Aquatic Macroinvertebrates, Section A: Aquatic Macroinvertebrates (Exclusive of Mosquitoes)

Final Report. Excerpt (Chapter 9, Section A) from The Des Plaines River Wetlands Demonstration Project, Volume II, Baseline Survey, edited by Donald L. Hey and Nancy S. PhilippiReport issued on: October 1985INHS Technical Report prepared for Wetlands Research, Inc

A revolute joint with linear load-displacement response for a deployable lidar telescope

NASA Langley Research Center is developing concepts for an advanced spacecraft, called LidarTechSat, to demonstrate key structures and mechanisms technologies necessary to deploy a segmented telescope reflector. Achieving micron-accuracy deployment requires significant advancements in deployment mechanism design, such as the revolute joint presented herein. The joint exhibits load-cycling response that is essentially linear with less than 2% hysteresis, and the joint rotates with less than 7 mN-m (1 in-oz) of resistance. A prototype reflector metering truss incorporating the joint exhibits only a few microns of kinematic error under repected deployment and impulse loading. No other mechanically deployment structure found in the literature has been demonstrated to be this kinematically accurate

Elucidation of the anaerobic pathway for the corrin component of cobalamin (vitamin B12)

It has been known for the past 20 years that two pathways exist in nature for the de novo biosynthesis of the coenzyme form of vitamin B12, adenosylcobalamin, representing aerobic and anaerobic routes. In contrast to the aerobic pathway, the anaerobic route has remained enigmatic because many of its intermediates have proven technically challenging to isolate, because of their inherent instability. However, by studying the anaerobic cobalamin biosynthetic pathway in Bacillus megaterium and using homologously overproduced enzymes, it has been possible to isolate all of the intermediates between uroporphyrinogen III and cobyrinic acid. Consequently, it has been possible to detail the activities of purified cobinamide biosynthesis (Cbi) proteins CbiF, CbiG, CbiD, CbiJ, CbiET, and CbiC, as well as show the direct in vitro conversion of 5-aminolevulinic acid into cobyrinic acid using a mixture of 14 purified enzymes. This approach has resulted in the isolation of the long sought intermediates, cobalt-precorrin-6A and -6B and cobalt-precorrin-8. EPR, in particular, has proven an effective technique in following these transformations with the cobalt(II) paramagnetic electron in the dyz orbital, rather than the typical dz2. This result has allowed us to speculate that the metal ion plays an unexpected role in assisting the interconversion of pathway intermediates. By determining a function for all of the pathway enzymes, we complete the tool set for cobalamin biosynthesis and pave the way for not only enhancing cobalamin production, but also design of cobalamin derivatives through their combinatorial use and modification

Evaluating multiple criteria for species delimitation: an empirical example using Hawaiian palms (Arecaceae: Pritchardia)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Robust species delimitations are fundamental for conservation, evolutionary, and systematic studies, but they can be difficult to estimate, particularly in rapid and recent radiations. The consensus that species concepts aim to identify evolutionarily distinct lineages is clear, but the criteria used to distinguish evolutionary lineages differ based on the perceived importance of the various characteristics of evolving populations. We examined three different species-delimitation criteria (monophyly, absence of genetic intermediates, and diagnosability) to determine whether currently recognized species of Hawaiian <it>Pritchardia </it>are distinct lineages.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Data from plastid and nuclear genes, microsatellite loci, and morphological characters resulted in various levels of lineage subdivision that were likely caused by differing evolutionary rates between data sources. Additionally, taxonomic entities may be confounded because of the effects of incomplete lineage sorting and/or gene flow. A coalescent species tree was largely congruent with the simultaneous analysis, consistent with the idea that incomplete lineage sorting did not mislead our results. Furthermore, gene flow among populations of sympatric lineages likely explains the admixture and lack of resolution between those groups.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Delimiting Hawaiian <it>Pritchardia </it>species remains difficult but the ability to understand the influence of the evolutionary processes of incomplete lineage sorting and hybridization allow for mechanisms driving species diversity to be inferred. These processes likely extend to speciation in other Hawaiian angiosperm groups and the biota in general and must be explicitly accounted for in species delimitation.</p

Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy: An experimentally accessible paradigm for quantum computing

We present experimental results which demonstrate that nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy is capable of efficiently emulating many of the capabilities of quantum computers, including unitary evolution and coherent superpositions, but without attendant wave-function collapse. Specifically, we have: (1) Implemented the quantum XOR gate in two different ways, one using Pound-Overhauser double resonance, and the other using a spin-coherence double resonance pulse sequence; (2) Demonstrated that the square root of the Pound-Overhauser XOR corresponds to a conditional rotation, thus obtaining a universal set of gates; (3) Devised a spin-coherence implementation of the Toffoli gate, and confirmed that it transforms the equilibrium state of a four-spin system as expected; (4) Used standard gradient-pulse techniques in NMR to equalize all but one of the populations in a two-spin system, so obtaining the pseudo-pure state that corresponds to |00>; (5) Validated that one can identify which basic pseudo-pure state is present by transforming it into one-spin superpositions, whose associated spectra jointly characterize the state; (6) Applied the spin-coherence XOR gate to a one-spin superposition to create an entangled state, and confirmed its existence by detecting the associated double-quantum coherence via gradient-echo methods.Comment: LaTeX + epsfig + amsmath packages, 27 pages, 12 figures, to appear in Physica D; revision updates list of authors and reference

Coyote, Canis latrans - Rio Grande Turkey, Meleagris gallopavo intermedia, Interactions

Coyotes (Canis latrans) are widely known to be predators of Wild Turkeys (Meleagris gallopauo sspp.). We describe two observations of single Coyotes coming within 10 m of feeding Wild Turkey flocks without attempting to predate them in Stevens County, Kansas. We relate these observations to Coyote predation on turkeys and mobbing behavior

Short-term genome stability of serial Clostridium difficile ribotype 027 isolates in an experimental gut model and recurrent human disease

Copyright: © 2013 Eyre et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are creditedClostridium difficile whole genome sequencing has the potential to identify related isolates, even among otherwise indistinguishable strains, but interpretation depends on understanding genomic variation within isolates and individuals.Serial isolates from two scenarios were whole genome sequenced. Firstly, 62 isolates from 29 timepoints from three in vitro gut models, inoculated with a NAP1/027 strain. Secondly, 122 isolates from 44 patients (2–8 samples/patient) with mostly recurrent/on-going symptomatic NAP-1/027 C. difficile infection. Reference-based mapping was used to identify single nucleotide variants (SNVs).Across three gut model inductions, two with antibiotic treatment, total 137 days, only two new SNVs became established. Pre-existing minority SNVs became dominant in two models. Several SNVs were detected, only present in the minority of colonies at one/two timepoints. The median (inter-quartile range) [range] time between patients’ first and last samples was 60 (29.5–118.5) [0–561] days. Within-patient C. difficile evolution was 0.45 SNVs/called genome/year (95%CI 0.00–1.28) and within-host diversity was 0.28 SNVs/called genome (0.05–0.53). 26/28 gut model and patient SNVs were non-synonymous, affecting a range of gene targets.The consistency of whole genome sequencing data from gut model C. difficile isolates, and the high stability of genomic sequences in isolates from patients, supports the use of whole genome sequencing in detailed transmission investigations.Peer reviewe