The relation between locus transferrin and the breeding quality traits of country cattle race: lowland Blak-White and Lowland Red-White

International audienc

MISPLACED RESOURCES? FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH COMPUTER LITERACY AMONG END-USERS

Some organizations provide a support infrastructure (e.g., information centers, on-line help) and training (e.g., vendor-supplied, one-on-one) to assist end-users and boost the computer literacy of their workforce. In this paper, we explore the efficacy of a support infrastructure, training, and various computer configurations for enhancing the computer literacy of work groups. Data come from a multi-year (1987 to 1989) study of seventy-seven computer-using work groups in the southern California area, which included two interviews with managers and two questionnaires distributed to workers. Analyses showed that none of the measures of training were associated with computer literacy. Only one kind of infrastructure support, obtaining information from a resident expert in the work group, was related to computer literacy. In contrast, many aspects of the configuration of the computer systems were associated with computer literacy. Implications of these provocative findings for the management of end-user computing are discussed

IS Programs Responding to Industry Demands for Data Scientists: A Comparison Between 2011-2016

The term data scientist has only been in common use since 2008, but in 2016 it is considered one of the top careers in the United States. The purpose of this paper is to explore the growth of data science content areas such as analytics, business intelligence, and big data in AACSB Information Systems (IS) programs between 2011 and 2016. A secondary purpose is to analyze the effect of IS programs’ adherence to IS 2010 Model Curriculum Guidelines for undergraduate MIS programs, as well as the impact of IS programs offering an advanced database course in 2011 on data science course offerings in 2016. A majority (60%) of AACSB IS programs added data science-related courses between 2011 and 2016. Results indicate dramatic increases in courses offered in big data analytics (583%), visualization (300%), business data analysis (260%), and business intelligence (236%). ANOVA results also find a significant effect of departments offering advanced database courses in 2011 on new analytics course offerings in 2016. A Chi-Square analysis did not find an effect of IS 2010 Model Curriculum adherence on analytics course offerings in 2016. Implications of our findings for an MIS department’s ability to respond to changing needs of the marketplace and its students are discussed

Comparison of nanoindentation results obtained with Berkovich and cube-corner indenters

There is increasing interest in using sharp cube corner indenters in nanoindentation experiments to study plastic properties. In combination with finite element methods it is for instance possible to extract stress-strain curves from load-displacement curves measured with differently shaped pyramidal indenters. Another example is the fracture toughness of coatings, which can be studied using cracks produced during indentation with cube corner tips. We have carried out indentation experiments with Berkovich and cube corner indenters on eight different materials with different mechanical properties. To gain information about the formation of pile-up and cracks, indentation experiments with cube corner indenter were performed inside a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) using a custom-built SEMMicroindenter. The results show that reliable hardness and modulus values can be measured using cube corner indenters. However, the fit range of the unloading curve has a much bigger influence on the results for the cube corner than for the Berkovich tip. The unloading curves of a cube corner measurement should therefore be carefully inspected to determine the region of smooth curvature and the unloading fit range chosen warily. Comparison of the modulus results shows that there is no significant difference between cube corner and Berkovich measurements. Also for hardness, no fundamental difference is observed for most of the investigated materials. Exceptions are materials like silicon nitride, cemented carbide or glassy carbon, where a clear difference to the hardness reference value has been observed although the modulus difference is not pronounced

High-energy-low-temperature technologies for the synthesis of nanoparticles: Microwaves and high pressure

Microwave Solvothermal Synthesis (MSS) is a chemical technology, where apart from possible effects of microwaves on the chemical reaction paths, microwave heating allows the precise planning of a time-temperature schedule, as well as to achieve high super-saturation of the reagents uniformly in the reactor vessel. Thus, MSS is suitable for production of nanoparticles with small grain size distribution and a high degree of crystallinity. A further advantage of the technology is a much lower synthesis temperature than for gas phase, plasma or sol-gel technologies. New reactors have been developed to exploit these advantages of the MSS technology of nanoparticles synthesis and to scale up the production rate. Reactor design and realization has been shown to be decisive and critical for the control of the MSS technology. Examples of oxidic and phosphatic nanoparticles synthesis have been reported

Tuning the collapse transition of weakly charged polymers by ion specific screening and adsorption

The experimentally observed swelling and collapse response of weakly charged polymers to the addition of specific salts displays quite convoluted behavior that is not easy to categorize. Here we use a minimalistic implicit solvent / explicit salt simulation model with a focus on ion-specific interactions between ions and a single weakly charged polyelectrolyte to qualitatively explain the observed effects. In particular, we demonstrate ion-specific screening and bridging effects cause collapse at low salt concentrations whereas the same strong ion-specific direct interactions drive re-entrant swelling at high concentrations. Consistently with experiments, a distinct salt concentration at which the salting-out power of anions inverts from the reverse to direct Hofmeister series is observed. At this, so called 'isospheric point', the ion-specific effects vanish. Furthermore, with additional simplifying assumptions, an ion-specific mean-field model is developed for the collapse transition which quantitatively agrees with the simulations. Our work demonstrates the sensitivity of the structural behavior of charged polymers to the addition of specific salt and shall be useful for further guidance of experiments

ATLAS Distributed Data management Operations

ATLAS Distributed Data Management (DDM) service is developed for data transfer between ATLAS sites and for data cataloguing. The Data Management Software (SW) is based on DQ2 and end-users tools (aka dq2_get package). In this paper we address the issue of DDM day-by-day operation, DDM operations team organization, roles and responsibilities of Tier-1s and Tier-2s DDM coordinators

Effect of Pressure on Synthesis of Pr-Doped Zirconia Powders Produced by Microwave-Driven Hydrothermal Reaction

A high-pressure microwave reactor was used to study the hydrothermal synthesis of zirconia powders doped with 1 mol % Pr. The synthesis was performed in the pressure range from 2 to 8 MPa corresponding to a temperature range from 215C∘ to 305C∘. This technology permits a synthesis of nanopowders in short time not limited by thermal inertia of the vessel. Microwave heating permits to avoid contact of the reactants with heating elements, and is thus particularly well suited for synthesis of doped nanopowders in high purity conditions. A mixture of ZrO2 particles with tetragonal and monoclinic crystalline phases, about 15 nm in size, was obtained. The p/T threshold of about 5-6 MPa/265–280C∘ was necessary to obtain good quality of zirconia powder. A new method for quantitative description of grain-size distribution was applied, which is based on analysis of the fine structure of the X-ray diffraction line profiles. It permitted to follow separately the effect of synthesis conditions on the grain-size distribution of the monoclinic and tetragonal phases