Assessing Value in Organizational Knowledge Creation: Considerations for Knowledge Workers

This is the published version. Copyright 2005 MIS Quarterly.To maintain competitive advantage, a firm's investment decisions related to knowledge creation are likely to be strategic in nature. However, strategic investments usually have an element of risk linked to uncertain and deferred investment benefits. To date, such investment decisions relating to knowledge workers have not been extensively researched. In this paper, we explore the following research question: How do we strategically assess knowledge creation over time giving consideration to complex decision criteria in order to improve organizational value? We develop a model based on economic and organization theory for assessing organizational value with regard to knowledge creation investments. Our model prototype provides managers with a learning tool relating to the timing and selection of knowledge creation investments. Our own use of the tool in simulation experiments yielded several insights which suggest that the decisions typically made by managers may dilute knowledge creation investments. Our results demonstrate that the organizational benefit of knowledge creation processes should be well aligned with near-term tasks. Under instances of high knowledge depreciation, however, it is unlikely that individual workers can optimize knowledge creation process decisions without organizational involvement in matching skills to task complexities. The organizational benefits of consistent and frequent knowledge creation process participation increase over time as the match of skills and task complexities improve

Can Online Wait Be Managed? The Effect of Filler Interfaces and Presentation Modes on Perceived Waiting Time Online

This is the published version. Copyright 2012 MIS Quarterly.Long waits online undermine users’ evaluations of Web sites and their providers, triggering abandonment behaviors. Yet e-business researchers and practitioners have not perfected mechanisms to respond to online wait issues. A filler interface that runs during the wait for search results may influence online users’ perceived waiting time (PWT); however, no scientific investigation has attempted to design effective filler interfaces for managing online waits. By adopting resource allocation theory, cognitive absorption theory, and human computer interaction (HCI) theories (competition for attention, visual search, and motion effect), we design diverse filler interfaces and investigate their effects on antecedents of PWT. The proposed research model considers cognitive absorption factors such as temporal dissociation, focused immersion, and heightened enjoyment as antecedents of PWT, which in turn triggers three outcomes: affective appraisals, cognitive appraisals, and Web site use intention. A multistage, multimethod approach is used to test the research hypotheses. In the first stage, we compare a filler interface condition with a no-filler interface condition, and find the superiority of a filler interface with respect to inducing focused immersion and temporal dissociation. In the second stage, we conduct two controlled experiments to examine whether filler interfaces with various designs (varying the presence and relevance of image, text, and image motion) distinctly influence antecedents of PWT and confirm their distinctive effects on focused immersion, temporal dissociation, and heightened enjoyment. In addition, by conducting a structural equation modeling analysis, we find that our research model explains 51 percent, 51 percent, 44 percent, and 45 percent of the variance in PWT, affective appraisals, cognitive appraisals, and Web site use intention respectively. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are provided

Layered Antiferromagnetism Induces Large Negative Magnetoresistance in the van der Waals Semiconductor CrSBr

The recent discovery of magnetism within the family of exfoliatable van der Waals (vdW) compounds has attracted considerable interest in these materials for both fundamental research and technological applications. However current vdW magnets are limited by their extreme sensitivity to air, low ordering temperatures, and poor charge transport properties. Here we report the magnetic and electronic properties of CrSBr, an air-stable vdW antiferromagnetic semiconductor that readily cleaves perpendicular to the stacking axis. Below its N\'{e}el temperature, $T_N = 132 \pm 1$ K, CrSBr adopts an A-type antiferromagnetic structure with each individual layer ferromagnetically ordered internally and the layers coupled antiferromagnetically along the stacking direction. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy and photoluminescence (PL) reveal that the electronic gap is $\Delta_E = 1.5 \pm 0.2$ eV with a corresponding PL peak centered at $1.25 \pm 0.07$ eV. Using magnetotransport measurements, we demonstrate strong coupling between magnetic order and transport properties in CrSBr, leading to a large negative magnetoresistance response that is unique amongst vdW materials. These findings establish CrSBr as a promising material platform for increasing the applicability of vdW magnets to the field of spin-based electronics

Warped Kaluza-Klein Dark Matter

Warped compactifications of type IIB string theory contain natural dark matter candidates: Kaluza-Klein modes along approximate isometry directions of long warped throats. These isometries are broken by the full compactification, including moduli stabilization; we present a thorough survey of Kaluza-Klein mode decay rates into light supergravity modes and Standard Model particles. We find that these dark matter candidates typically have lifetimes longer than the age of the universe. Interestingly, some choices for embedding the Standard Model in the compactification lead to decay rates large enough to be observed, so this dark matter sector may provide constraints on the parameter space of the compactification.Comment: 37pp; v2. references, minor clarificatio

Rescue of the MERTK phagocytic defect in a human iPSC disease model using translational read-through inducing drugs.

Inherited retinal dystrophies are an important cause of blindness, for which currently there are no effective treatments. In order to study this heterogeneous group of diseases, adequate disease models are required in order to better understand pathology and to test potential therapies. Induced pluripotent stem cells offer a new way to recapitulate patient specific diseases in vitro, providing an almost limitless amount of material to study. We used fibroblast-derived induced pluripotent stem cells to generate retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) from an individual suffering from retinitis pigmentosa associated with biallelic variants in MERTK. MERTK has an essential role in phagocytosis, one of the major functions of the RPE. The MERTK deficiency in this individual results from a nonsense variant and so the MERTK-RPE cells were subsequently treated with two translational readthrough inducing drugs (G418 & PTC124) to investigate potential restoration of expression of the affected gene and production of a full-length protein. The data show that PTC124 was able to reinstate phagocytosis of labeled photoreceptor outer segments at a reduced, but significant level. These findings represent a confirmation of the usefulness of iPSC derived disease specific models in investigating the pathogenesis and screening potential treatments for these rare blinding disorders

Measurement-based quantum computation in a 2D phase of matter

Recently it has been shown that the non-local correlations needed for measurement based quantum computation (MBQC) can be revealed in the ground state of the Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki (AKLT) model involving nearest neighbor spin-3/2 interactions on a honeycomb lattice. This state is not singular but resides in the disordered phase of ground states of a large family of Hamiltonians characterized by short-range-correlated valence bond solid states. By applying local filtering and adaptive single particle measurements we show that most states in the disordered phase can be reduced to a graph of correlated qubits that is a scalable resource for MBQC. At the transition between the disordered and Neel ordered phases we find a transition from universal to non-universal states as witnessed by the scaling of percolation in the reduced graph state.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, comments welcome. v2: published versio

Worldvolume Superalgebra Of BLG Theory With Nambu-Poisson Structure

Recently it was proposed that the Bagger-Lambert-Gustavsson theory with Nambu-Poisson structure describes an M5-brane in a three-form flux background. In this paper we investigate the superalgebra associated with this theory. We derive the central charges corresponding to M5-brane solitons in 3-form backgrounds. We also show that double dimensional reduction of the superalgebra gives rise to the Poisson bracket terms of a non-commutative D4-brane superalgebra. We provide interpretations of the D4-brane charges in terms of spacetime intersections.Comment: 23 pages; references added, section 4 clarification

Stochastic Inflation Revisited: Non-Slow Roll Statistics and DBI Inflation

Stochastic inflation describes the global structure of the inflationary universe by modeling the super-Hubble dynamics as a system of matter fields coupled to gravity where the sub-Hubble field fluctuations induce a stochastic force into the equations of motion. The super-Hubble dynamics are ultralocal, allowing us to neglect spatial derivatives and treat each Hubble patch as a separate universe. This provides a natural framework in which to discuss probabilities on the space of solutions and initial conditions. In this article we derive an evolution equation for this probability for an arbitrary class of matter systems, including DBI and k-inflationary models, and discover equilibrium solutions that satisfy detailed balance. Our results are more general than those derived assuming slow roll or a quasi-de Sitter geometry, and so are directly applicable to models that do not satisfy the usual slow roll conditions. We discuss in general terms the conditions for eternal inflation to set in, and we give explicit numerical solutions of highly stochastic, quasi-stationary trajectories in the relativistic DBI regime. Finally, we show that the probability for stochastic/thermal tunneling can be significantly enhanced relative to the Hawking-Moss instanton result due to relativistic DBI effects.Comment: 38 pages, 2 figures. v3: minor revisions; version accepted into JCA

The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope: Instrument and Data Characteristics

The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) was flown as part of the Astro observatory on the Space Shuttle Columbia in December 1990 and again on the Space Shuttle Endeavor in March 1995. Ultraviolet (1200-3300 Angstroms) images of a variety of astronomical objects, with a 40 arcmin field of view and a resolution of about 3 arcsec, were recorded on photographic film. The data recorded during the first flight are available to the astronomical community through the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC); the data recorded during the second flight will soon be available as well. This paper discusses in detail the design, operation, data reduction, and calibration of UIT, providing the user of the data with information for understanding and using the data. It also provides guidelines for analyzing other astronomical imagery made with image intensifiers and photographic film.Comment: 44 pages, LaTeX, AAS preprint style and EPSF macros, accepted by PAS

Timelike Boundary Liouville Theory

The timelike boundary Liouville (TBL) conformal field theory consisting of a negative norm boson with an exponential boundary interaction is considered. TBL and its close cousin, a positive norm boson with a non-hermitian boundary interaction, arise in the description of the $c=1$ accumulation point of $c<1$ minimal models, as the worldsheet description of open string tachyon condensation in string theory and in scaling limits of superconductors with line defects. Bulk correlators are shown to be exactly soluble. In contrast, due to OPE singularities near the boundary interaction, the computation of boundary correlators is a challenging problem which we address but do not fully solve. Analytic continuation from the known correlators of spatial boundary Liouville to TBL encounters an infinite accumulation of poles and zeros. A particular contour prescription is proposed which cancels the poles against the zeros in the boundary correlator d(\o) of two operators of weight \o^2 and yields a finite result. A general relation is proposed between two-point CFT correlators and stringy Bogolubov coefficients, according to which the magnitude of d(\o) determines the rate of open string pair creation during tachyon condensation. The rate so obtained agrees at large \o with a minisuperspace analysis of previous work. It is suggested that the mathematical ambiguity arising in the prescription for analytic continuation of the correlators corresponds to the physical ambiguity in the choice of open string modes and vacua in a time dependent background.Comment: 28 pages, 1 figure, v2 reference and acknowledgement adde