THE MANAGEMENT OF CROSS-CULTURAL VIRTUAL TEAMS

The accelerated development of information and communication technology, the transformation of business activity, which has become more global and competitive, and the prevalence of services based on knowledge and information led to the appearance of new models of virtual teamwork, more flexible and adaptive, which go beyond the classical functional departmental barriers and require the collaboration of employees with diverse skills, judgments and expertise. The COVID-19 pandemic event accelerated the adoption of these new work models worldwide at a scale never seen before. Cross-cultural virtual teams can be found in several fields, such as research and product development, quality circles, affinity groups, outsourcing teams, customer services, helpdesk services, academic and research groups. Under the framework of crossvergence theory, this conceptual article explores the contingencies of cross-cultural virtual teams, discussing its main challenges and explores a set of practices for multicultural team management in the virtual environment.  Article visualizations

A CRITICAL REALIST INSPIRED MULTILEVEL RESEARCH METHOD: COMBINING NETNOGRAPHY AND SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS TO STUDY CONSUMER BEHAVIOR IN ONLINE COMMUNITIES

Framed by the philosophy of critical realism, this methodological article proposes a research design involving a case-study approach that combines netnography with social network analysis to study consumer behavior and social interactions in online communities. This research strategy holds to a critical realist stratified emergent ontology, in which the empirical domain, comprising the experiences and perceptions of consumers, is qualitatively analyzed through a form of ethnography adapted to the online environment. The actual domain is explored through a quantitative method based on graph theory that investigates structure and agency processes by analyzing the patterns of social interaction. It is argued that this dualist approach allows researchers to inquire into the deepest level of reality or the real domain and to focus on structures and generative mechanisms as objects of inquiry. The philosophical reasoning for combining netnography and social network analysis is discussed as well as the quality of the research work in terms of reliability, validity, and potential for generalization.  Article visualizations

A spiral structure in the disk of EX Draconis on the rise to outburst maximum

We report on the R-band eclipse mapping analysis of high-speed photometry of the dwarf nova EX Dra on the rise to the maximum of the November 1995 outburst. The eclipse map shows a one-armed spiral structure of ~180 degrees in azimuth, extending in radius from R ~0.2 to 0.43 R_{L1} (where R_{L1} is the distance from the disk center to the inner Lagrangian point), that contributes about 22 per cent of the total flux of the eclipse map. The spiral structure is stationary in a reference frame co-rotating with the binary and is stable for a timescale of at least 5 binary orbits. The comparison of the eclipse maps on the rise and in quiescence suggests that the outbursts of EX Dra may be driven by episodes of enhanced mass-transfer from the secondary star. Possible explanations for the nature of the spiral structure are discussed.Comment: To appear in the Astrophysical Journal Letters; 8 pages, 2 figures; coded with AAS latex styl

cFFR as an alternative to FFR: please do not contrast simplicity!

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Mathematical model of brain tumour with glia-neuron interactions and chemotherapy treatment

Acknowledgements This study was possible by partial financial support from the following Brazilian government agencies: Fundação Araucária, EPSRC-EP/I032606/1 and CNPq, CAPES and Science Without Borders Program Process nos. 17656125, 99999.010583/2013-00 and 245377/2012-3.Peer reviewedPreprin

The dynamics of vortices on S^2 near the Bradlow limit

The explicit solutions of the Bogomolny equations for N vortices on a sphere of radius R^2 > N are not known. In particular, this has prevented the use of the geodesic approximation to describe the low energy vortex dynamics. In this paper we introduce an approximate general solution of the equations, valid for R^2 close to N, which has many properties of the true solutions, including the same moduli space CP^N. Within the framework of the geodesic approximation, the metric on the moduli space is then computed to be proportional to the Fubini- Study metric, which leads to a complete description of the particle dynamics.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figure

The Multi-center Evaluation of the Accuracy of the Contrast MEdium INduced Pd/Pa RaTiO in Predicting FFR (MEMENTO-FFR) Study.

AIMS: Adenosine administration is needed for the achievement of maximal hyperaemia fractional flow reserve (FFR) assessment. The objective was to test the accuracy of Pd/Pa ratio registered during submaximal hyperaemia induced by non-ionic contrast medium (contrast FFR [cFFR]) in predicting FFR and comparing it to the performance of resting Pd/Pa in a collaborative registry of 926 patients enrolled in 10 hospitals from four European countries (Italy, Spain, France and Portugal). METHODS AND RESULTS: Resting Pd/Pa, cFFR and FFR were measured in 1,026 coronary stenoses functionally evaluated using commercially available pressure wires. cFFR was obtained after intracoronary injection of contrast medium, while FFR was measured after administration of adenosine. Resting Pd/Pa and cFFR were significantly higher than FFR (0.93±0.05 vs. 0.87±0.08 vs. 0.84±0.08, p<0.001). A strong correlation and a close agreement at Bland-Altman analysis between cFFR and FFR were observed (r=0.90, p<0.001 and 95% CI of disagreement: from -0.042 to 0.11). ROC curve analysis showed an excellent accuracy (89%) of the cFFR cut-off of ≤0.85 in predicting an FFR value ≤0.80 (AUC 0.95 [95% CI: 0.94-0.96]), significantly better than that observed using resting Pd/Pa (AUC: 0.90, 95% CI: 0.88-0.91; p<0.001). A cFFR/FFR hybrid approach showed a significantly lower number of lesions requiring adenosine than a resting Pd/Pa/FFR hybrid approach (22% vs. 44%, p<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: cFFR is accurate in predicting the functional significance of coronary stenosis. This could allow limiting the use of adenosine to obtain FFR to a minority of stenoses with considerable savings of time and costs.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Mutual information rate and bounds for it

The amount of information exchanged per unit of time between two nodes in a dynamical network or between two data sets is a powerful concept for analysing complex systems. This quantity, known as the mutual information rate (MIR), is calculated from the mutual information, which is rigorously defined only for random systems. Moreover, the definition of mutual information is based on probabilities of significant events. This work offers a simple alternative way to calculate the MIR in dynamical (deterministic) networks or between two data sets (not fully deterministic), and to calculate its upper and lower bounds without having to calculate probabilities, but rather in terms of well known and well defined quantities in dynamical systems. As possible applications of our bounds, we study the relationship between synchronisation and the exchange of information in a system of two coupled maps and in experimental networks of coupled oscillators

Fat area and lipid droplet morphology of porcine oocytes during in vitro maturation with trans-10, cis-12 conjugated linoleic acid and forskolin

Lipid droplets (LD) in porcine oocytes form a dark mass reaching almost all cytoplasm. Herein we investigated changes in fat areas, cytoplasmic tone and LD morphology during in vitro maturation (IVM) of porcine oocytes cultured with 100mM trans-10, cis-12 conjugated linoleic acid (t10,c12 CLA) or 10mM forskolin at different time periods. Four groups were constituted: control, excipient, t10,c12 CLA and forskolin, with drugs being supplemented during 44 to 48h and the initial 22 to 24h in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively. In Experiment 3, forskolin was supplemented for the first 2 h. Matured oocytes were inseminated with frozen-thawed boar semen and cleavage rate recorded. Before and during IVM, samples of oocytes were evaluated for LD, total and fat areas and fat gray value or for meiotic progression. Results showed that forskolin supplementation during 44 to 48 h or 22 to 24 h inhibits oocyte maturation (exp. 1: forskolin = 5.1±8.0%, control = 72.6±5.0%; exp. 2: forskolin =24.3±7.4%, control =71.6±5.6%) and cleavage (exp. 1: forskolin=0.0±0.0%, control=55.4±4.1%; exp. 2: forskolin=8.3±3.3%, control=54.5±3.0%). Forskolin also reduced oocyte and fat areas. In Experiment 3, forskolin negative effect on oocyte maturation and cleavage disappeared, although minor (P<0.03) LD and oocyte fat areas were identified at 22 to 24 h of IVM. Oocytes supplemented with t10,c12 CLA during 44 to 48h presented a lighter (P<0.04) colour tone cytoplasm than those of control and forskolin. In conclusion, t10,c12 CLA and forskolin were capable of modifying the distribution and morphology of cytoplasmic LD during porcine oocyte maturation, thus reducing its lipid content in a time-dependent manner