An Exploration of the Impact of Personality and Role Behaviour on Team Effectiveness

This study investigates how individual personalities influence team effectiveness. A questionnaire was used to test the relationship between personality and role behaviour as well as how team task specificity and team interdependence moderate the personality-behaviour relationships. Findings of the first, quantitative phase, informed the second, interview phase, which provided additional understanding of the statistical results. Outcomes of this research add to literature by providing new insights into the relationship between personality and team effectiveness

Two Rules on the Protein-Ligand Interaction

So far, we still lack a clear molecular mechanism to explain the protein-ligand interaction on the basis of electronic structure of a protein. By combining the calculation of the full electronic structure of a protein along with its hydrophobic pocket and the perturbation theory, we found out two rules on the protein-ligand interaction. One rule is the interaction only occurs between the lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals (LUMOs) of a protein and the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of its ligand, not between the HOMOs of a protein and the LUMO of its ligand. The other rule is only those residues or atoms located both on the LUMOs of a protein and in a surface pocket of a protein are activity residues or activity atoms of the protein and the corresponding pocket is the ligand binding site. These two rules are derived from the characteristics of energy levels of a protein and might be an important criterion of drug design

Pollution Reduction and Economic Growth —A Small Town’s Journey to Sustainable Development

It’s commonly believed that one can do well by doing good. When applied to business, the concept means that an environmentally friendly and responsible business can also do well in regards to profit. Or, if a state or region devotes resources to improving the environment, the economic growth will be strengthened. This concept echoes the essential meaning of the famous quote by China’s leader Xi Jinping, “Clean waters and green mountains mean mountains of gold and silver.” Is this theory true in the real world? We intend to investigate the case of a small rural town from northern China which went from a heavily polluted town with small businesses scattered around, to today’s paradise with clean waters, green parks, and sustainable agro-farms. The town went from a poor rural town with low GDP before the 1990s to boomed economy in early 2000s, when the heavy pollution imposed a threat to the health of local residents. After almost two decades of government intervention, the town has transformed into a clean and sustainable community with public parks and agro-tourism based farms.Our paper intends to take a close look at the transformation process, and describe key factors of success, and identify areas for improvement. We also attempt to provide implications for future research, and recommendations for policy makers

Inhibition of Neovascularization by Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles

The present invention provides methods for reducing, reversing or inhibiting neovascularization of a tissue of a mammalian subject having a pathological condition involving neovascularization by administration in vivo of nanoceria particles (cerium oxide nanoparticles) to the subject. The method of the invention is useful, for example, for reducing, treating, reversing, or inhibiting neovascularization in ocular tissue such as the retina, macula, or the cornea; in skin; in synovial tissue; in intestinal tissue; or in bone. In addition, the method of the invention is useful for reducing or inhibiting neovascularization in a neoplasm (tumors), which can be benign or malignant, where malignant, can be a metastatic neoplasm. As such, the invention provides compositions, which contain nanoceria particles and are useful for reducing, treating, reversing, or inhibiting angiogenesis in a mammalian subject

DP-4-colorability of two classes of planar graphs

DP-coloring (also known as correspondence coloring) is a generalization of list coloring introduced recently by Dvo\v{r}\'ak and Postle (2017). In this paper, we prove that every planar graph $G$ without $4$-cycles adjacent to $k$-cycles is DP-$4$-colorable for $k=5$ and $6$. As a consequence, we obtain two new classes of $4$-choosable planar graphs. We use identification of verticec in the proof, and actually prove stronger statements that every pre-coloring of some short cycles can be extended to the whole graph.Comment: 12 page

Self-folding shape memory laminates for automated fabrication

Nature regularly uses self-folding as an efficient approach to automated fabrication. In engineered systems, however, the use of self-folding has been primarily restricted to the assembly of small structures using exotic materials and/or complex infrastructures. In this paper we present three approaches to the self-folding of structures using low-cost, rapid-prototyped shape memory laminates. These structures require minimal deployment infrastructure, and are activated by light, heat, or electricity. We compare the fabrication of a fundamental structure (a cube) using each approach, and test ways to control fold angles in each case. Finally, for each self-folding approach we present a unique structure that the approach is particularly suited to fold, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Award CCF-1138967)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Award EFRI-1240383

Neuralized functions as an E3 ubiquitin ligase during Drosophila development

AbstractThe Notch pathway is a widely studied means of intercellular signaling responsible for the determination of cell fate, cell differentiation, and boundary formation (reviewed in [1, 2]). The main effectors of this pathway, Notch (N) and Delta (Dl), have been shown to function as a receptor and ligand, respectively. Genetic and phenotypic studies suggest that Neuralized (Neu), a RING finger protein, also plays a role within the N-Dl pathway, although its biochemical function is unknown. Here, we show that Neu is required at the plasma membrane for functional activity and that its RING finger domain acts as an E3 ubiquitin ligase. These data suggest that the role of Neu is to target components of the N-Dl pathway for ubiquitination, allowing for propagation and/or regulation of the signal

BAR: Blockwise Adaptive Recoding for Batched Network Coding

Multi-hop networks become popular network topologies in various emerging Internet of things applications. Batched network coding (BNC) is a solution to reliable communications in such networks with packet loss. By grouping packets into small batches and restricting recoding to the packets belonging to the same batch, BNC has a much smaller computational and storage requirements at the intermediate nodes compared with a direct application of random linear network coding. In this paper, we propose a practical recoding scheme called blockwise adaptive recoding (BAR) which learns the latest channel knowledge from short observations so that BAR can adapt to the fluctuation of channel conditions. We focus on investigating practical concerns such as the design of efficient BAR algorithms. We also design and investigate feedback schemes for BAR under imperfect feedback systems. Our numerical evaluations show that BAR has significant throughput gain for small batch size compared with the existing baseline recoding scheme. More importantly, this gain is insensitive to inaccurate channel knowledge. This encouraging result suggests that BAR is suitable to be realized in practice as the exact channel model and its parameters could be unknown and subject to change from time to time.Comment: submitted for journal publicatio

Adaptive drawing canvas supported by machine learning

This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Thesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2019Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 55-58).Despite numerous recent advances in the field of deep learning for artistic purposes, the integration of these state-of-the-art machine learning tools into applications for drawing and visual expression has been an underexplored field. Bridging this gap has the potential to empower a large subset of the population, from children to the elderly, with a new medium to represent and visualize their ideas. Paper Dreams is a web-based canvas for sketching and storyboarding, with a multimodal user interface integrated with a variety of machine learning models. By using sketch recognition, style transfer, and natural language processing, the system can contextualize what the user is drawing; it then can color the sketch appropriately, suggest related objects for the user to draw, and allow the user to pull from a database of related images to add onto the canvas. Furthermore, the user can influence the output of the models via a serendipity dial that affects how "wacky" the system's outputs are. By processing a variety of multimodal inputs and automating artistic processes, Paper Dreams becomes an efficient tool for quickly generating vibrant and complex artistic scenes.by Lily Zhou.M. Eng.M.Eng. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Scienc

Concert recording 2017-11-30b

[Track 1]. Sonata for clarinet and piano. I. Mässig bewegt / Paul Hindemith -- [Track 2]. Concertino in E♭ major, op. 26 / Carl Maria von Weber -- [Track 3]. Five bagatelles for clarinet and piano, op. 23. I. Prelude / Gerald Finzi -- [Track 4]. Solo de concours, op. 10 / Henri Rabaud -- [Track 5]. Concerto no. 2 in E♭ major, op. 74. III. Alla polacca / Weber -- [Track 6]. Six studies in English folk song. II. Andante sostenuto (\u27Spurn point\u27) [Track 7]. III. Larghetto ( Van Dieman\u27s land\u27) in D modal minor [Track 8]. IV. Lento (\u27She borrowed some of her mother\u27s gold\u27) in D major / Ralph Vaughan Williams -- [Track 9]. Concerto no. 2 in F minor, op. 5. III. Rondo: allegretto / Bernard Crusell -- [Track 10]. Premiere rhapsodie / Claude Debussy -- [Track 11]. Fantasy for clarinet and piano / Carl Nielsen