The overall goal of this research was to understand the role of inter-kingdom signaling in enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) infections of the human gastro-intestinal (GI) tract from the perspective of both the invading pathogen and the human intestinal epithelial cells, which they colonize. Differential gene expression of EHEC was studied upon exposure to the human neuroendocrine hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine. We determined that these hormones increase EHEC chemotaxis, motility, biofilm formation, colonization of host cells, and virulence gene expression. We also studied the EHEC response to the GI tract commensal bacterial signaling molecules indole and autoinducer-2 (AI-2). We observed that indole decreases all the EHEC phenotypes that are increased by the human hormones and represses EHEC virulence. However, the effect of AI-2 was similar to that observed with hormones and opposite to that observed with indole, i.e. AI-2 increases EHEC virulence phenotypes. We studied changes in host cell transcriptome in the presence of the commensal bacterial signal indole. Indole increases expression of genes involved in tight junction and gap junction formation, and production of mucins and actin cytoskeleton genes. Indole also down-regulates genes encoding for pro-inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, and Toll-like receptors. The gene expression results were confirmed with phenotypic assays where we observed an increase in trans-epithelial resistance, increase in the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10, decrease in the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-8, decrease in the activity of the pro-inflammatory transcription factor NF-κB, and decrease in colonization by EHEC of the indole-pre-treated HCT-8 cells. We established that factors secreted by epithelial cells are important determinants of EHEC virulence. Gene expression studies showed that 34 out of 41 LEE virulence genes were induced when EHEC was cultured in conditioned medium. In addition, the data showed increased expression of the shiga toxin-2 prophage 933W. These changes in gene expression were corroborated by a 5-fold increase in HCT-8 cell colonization and increased intracellular Stx2 phage titers. We determined that the HCT-8-secreted factor(s) was protein-based and that it was greater than 3 kDa in size. In conclusion, we have characterized the pathogen response to various eukaryotic and prokaryotic GI tract signals. We have established, for the first time, that the commensal bacterial signal indole is an inter-kingdom signal for the host epithelial cells. Overall, our studies provide a greater understanding of host-pathogen interactions.

In contemporary times, policy makers and risk managers find themselves required to make decisions about how to prevent or mitigate complex risks that face society. Risks, such as global warming and energy production, are considered complex because they require knowledge from multiple scientific and technical disciplines to explain the mechanisms that cause and/or prevent hazards. This dissertation focuses on these types of situations: when experts from different disciplines and professions interact to coordinate and legitimize risk characterizations. A review of the risk communication literature highlights three main critiques: (1) Risk communication research historically treats expert groups as uniform and does not consider the processes by which they construct and legitimize risk understandings. (2) Risk communication research tends to privilege transmissive and message-centered approached to communication rather than examine the discursive management and coordination of different risk understandings. (3) Rather than assuming the taken-for-granted position that objective scientific knowledge is the source of legitimacy for technical risk understandings, risk communication research should examine the way that expert groups legitimate their knowledge claims and emphasize the transparency of norms and values in public discourse. This study performs an in-depth analysis of the case of cesium chloride. Cesium chloride is a radioactive source that has several beneficial uses medical, research, and radiation safety applications. However, it has also been identified as a security threat due to the severity of its consequences if used in a radiological dispersal device, better known as a “dirty bomb.” A recent National Academy of Sciences study recommended the replacement or elimination of cesium chloride sources. This case is relevant to the study of risk communication among multidisciplinary experts because it involves a wide variety of fields to discuss and compare terrorism risks and health risks. This study uses a multi-perspectival framework based on Bakhtin’s dialogism that enables entrance into the discourse of experts’ risk communication from different vantage points. Three main implications emerge from this study as seen through the lens of dialogism. (1) Expert risk communication in cross-disciplinary situations is a tension-filled process. (2) Experts who interact in cross-disciplinary situations manage the tension between discursive openness and closure through the use of shared resources between the interpretative repertoires, immersion and interaction with other perspectives, and the layering of risk logics with structural resources. (3) The emergence of security risk Discourse in a post-9/11 world involves a different set of resources and strategies that risk communication studies need to address. In the case of cesium chloride issue, the interaction of experts negotiated conflict about the characterization of this isotope as a security threat or as being useful and unique. Even though participants and organizations vary in how they characterize cesium chloride, most maintained some level of balance between both characterizations—a balance that was constructed through their interactions with each other. This project demonstrates that risk characterizations risks shape organizational decisions and priorities in both policy-making and regulatory organizations and private-sector and functional organizations.

This thesis presents the design and implementation of the pipeline architecture of H.264/AVC video decoder. The H.264 video compression standard is one of the emerging standards proposed by Joint Video Team (JVT), which can provide high compression ratio and good rate distortion efficiency. It adopts smaller block size and finer motion vector resolution to achieve better predicted motion compensated pictures. While the compression ratio is greatly improved, the computational complexity also increases a lot. How to design the efficient H.264 decoder has become an important topic. This thesis first addresses the design issue of the individual module, and several good architectural solutions are proposed. For the design of the interpolation module, a novel interpolator architecture which can dynamically configure the datapath to perform different computation schedules suitable for the input order of reference samples is proposed. The resulted architecture not only reduces the hardware requirement, but most importantly the communication time spent to move the reference data can be overlapped with the computation time of the predicted samples. Our experimental result shows that the proposed interpolator can achieve 40% average cycle reduction with less hardware cost. For the design of deblocking filter, the thesis also proposes a novel schedule which interleaves the operation of row and column filtering that can lead to a low-cost deblocking filter based on the single-port memory. For the design of variable length decoder, this thesis proposes a new table partitioning method to reduce the overall table size. Finally, all the individual modules are further integrated in the pipelining fashion to increase the overall decoding throughput. The minimum pipelining unit between different stages used in the proposed decoder is the 4x4 block such the memory buffer required can be greatly reduced. The proposed architecture can perform the real-time decoding of video at the resolution of 640x480 pixels.

With rapid growth for years, Taiwan IC industry has played an important position in the world. In addition to the growth, close interaction and cooperation among firms have become the characteristics of Taiwan IC industry. Currently, time-based competition has been one of the most important factors for business success, and the competition in the 21st century relies on strategic supply chain management. Through interfirm collaboration by sharing information among supply chain partners, some activities originally performed in an individual firm are replaced by firms with core competency. In performing these activities, the competitive advantages through the supply chain information integration are gradually recognized. The objective of this article is to realize the current situation and future plan of inter-organizational information sharing (IOIS) in Taiwan IC industry. From literature, there are lots of factors that influence the success of IOIS, this paper focuses on some areas, such as benefits from IOIS, motivations of IOIS, risks from IOIS, strategic or operational reasons, IT maturity among firms, key success factors of IOIS, and the initiator of industrial IOIS. Through questionnaire survey, we collect and analyze various viewpoints from companies of Taiwan IC industry supply chain, including IC design houses, IC fabs, assembly and testing houses, assembly material and equipment suppliers. After the empirical analysis, we compare the findings with literatures. We conclude that the IOIS, namely networked IOIS, in Taiwan IC industry proceeds toward reciprocal interdependencies between organizations. The coordination mechanisms count on standards, rules, and mutual adjustment. Initially, the networked IOIS will tend to be much less structured and the potential for conflict may be higher. At present, because of lack of reliable and mature information connection among firms, the intensive information technology support is needed. Finally, based on the findings, we summarize the characteristics and present the model of IOIS for Taiwan IC industry supply chain. Then, some suggestions are arisen for industry reference, including mutual benefit realization and cooperation willingness, protection of business confidential and data security, integration of enterprise systems and industrial standard messages, proposal of IC industry association to be the coordinator or initiator of IOIS, step by step implementation according to priorities of information type, and integration of information flow with manufacturing goods flow in the supply chain.

<p>Background: Information technology (IT) has drastically changed the traditional way to do business. In theory,</p><p>coordinating information sharing among organisational partners offers notable advantages through cost savings,</p><p>productivity, improved decision making, and better customer service. Supported by modern information technology,</p><p>business processes can change and be developed into new more effective forms, both internally and externally.</p><p>However, as IT facilitates new business opportunities, it requires a steady flow of information and information</p><p>exchange, both within intra- and inter-organisational contexts where a consensus on terms and definitions</p><p>coordinating the uniform communication is vital.</p><p>Purpose: With the focal point on inter-organisational information exchange, the purpose of the thesis is to define</p><p>a set of guidelines for AI that can be used and adjusted according to the needs of a specific situation or context.</p><p>Method: The thesis was carried out with a Multi Grounded Theory approach. Interviews were conducted at a local</p><p>IT-company and with an associate professor of Informatics at Jönköping International Business School.</p><p>Results: Five categories were discovered which impact AI: integration governance, project management, context, integration</p><p>content, and testing. The result also implied the importance to distinguish between an operational and strategic level</p><p>when working with Application Integration.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2003. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xiii, 280 p.; also includes graphics. Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: Robert F. Rodgers, Dept. of Educational Policy and Leadership. Includes bibliographical references (p. 256-267).

Background Every company nowadays needs to use ICT artifacts to cope with the business development. The adoption and use of ICT involves different actors who make sense of ICT in relation to their work environment. This thesis focuses on the relationships between the actors involved in SME’s ICT adoption and their influence upon the process. Purpose          The purpose of this thesis is to explore the interactions between different actors in the SME’s network and analyze how they influence the SMEs ICT adoption process. Method          An embedded single case study strategy was chosen as research strategy, in line with the explorative nature of the purpose. A conceptual framework was created giving structure to the entire research. The empirical data was gathered through observations, one in-depth interview and ten semi-structured interviews. The method used for data analysis had the same qualitative and deductive nature following the areas highlighted by the conceptual framework; the data was summarized condensing meanings around the relationships between actors and the evolution of the sense-making process of ICT adoption, in order to provide answers to the two research questions. Conclusion    The research has shown that the customer and the strategic suppliers as human actors have an important influence on the sense-making process of ICT adoption as well as the non-human actor - the ICT artifact. The actors are influencing the ICT adoption process through series of adaptive processes generated by an inter-organizational sense-making process shaped by the design of the ICT artifact. The study contributes to the body of knowledge through a new construct that enriches the conceptual framework with the findings of the research.

The objective of this research is to develop physical design methodologies for monolithic 3D ICs and use them to evaluate the improvements in the power-performance envelope offered over 2D ICs. In addition, design-for-test (DfT) techniques essential for the adoption of shorter term through-silicon-via (TSV) based 3D ICs are explored. Testing of TSV-based 3D ICs is one of the last challenges facing their commercialization. First, a pre-bond testable 3D scan chain construction technique is developed. Next, a transition-delay-fault test architecture is presented, along with a study on how to mitigate IR-drop. Finally, to facilitate partitioning, a quick and accurate framework for test-TSV estimation is developed. Block-level monolithic 3D ICs will be the first to emerge, as significant IP can be reused. However, no physical design flows exist, and hence a monolithic 3D floorplanning framework is developed. Next, inter-tier performance differences that arise due to the not yet mature fabrication process are investigated and modeled. Finally, an inter-tier performance-difference aware floorplanner is presented, and it is demonstrated that high quality 3D floorplans are achievable even under these inter-tier differences. Monolithic 3D offers sufficient integration density to place individual gates in three dimensions and connect them together. However, no tools or techniques exist that can take advantage of the high integration density offered. Therefore, a gate-level framework that leverages existing 2D ICs tools is presented. This framework also provides congestion modeling and produces results that minimize routing congestion. Next, this framework is extended to commercial 2D IC tools, so that steps such as timing optimization and clock tree synthesis can be applied. Finally, a voltage-drop-aware partitioning technique is presented that can alleviate IR-drop issues, without any impact on the performance or maximum operating temperature of the chip.

Although the United States has hired private contractors to execute government-funded work since its inception, these contractors have become increasingly more common since the 1980s. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been no exception; the number of for- and non-profit contractors designing and implementing international foreign aid projects has proliferated. The complicated relationships among USAID, nonprofit, and for-profit contractors raise important questions about the factors that influence 1) which types of organizations receive contracts, and 2) which characteristics increase the likelihood that contractors will form inter-organizational partnerships via their work on USAID's contracts. This dissertation explores both by examining 232 contractors that implemented USAID's democracy-building projects abroad 1999-2004. First, logistic regressions were used to assess the influence of nonprofit organizations' political affiliations on their ability to obtain USAID's contracts. The results of these analyses suggest that that in certain years, nonprofit organizations with prominent, politically connected board members were more successful than others in obtaining USAID contracts. In other time periods, the composition of nonprofits' boards had no significant impact on organizational success in acquiring contracts.Second, this dissertation evaluates whether inter-organizational familiarity influences the likelihood of contractors partnering on USAID-funded contracts. The results of logistic regressions indicate that inter-organizational familiarity from past partnerships has increased the chance that organizations partner in certain time periods. These findings stress the role of organizational learning in their decisions to partner, as well as the impact of government programs designed to diversify the pool of available contractors. This research considers the ways that changing political environments influence the availability of resources for contracting organizations with particular characteristics. Moreover, it underscores the need to assess the contracting system in order to ensure that those chosen to implement government-funded work are as capable, innovative, and accountable for their work as possible.

Arbetstillfredsställelse innebär hur människor anpassar sig och trivs på arbetet. Forskning har visat att personer med hög självkänsla ofta upplever arbetstillfredställellse i högre grad än de med låg självkänsla. Det har också framkommit att människor som uppvisar perfektionistiska drag ofta har hög motivation men kan ha sämre välbefinnande. Syftet med studien var att undersöka om arbetstillfredsställelse är relaterad till perfektionism samt vilken roll självkänsla spelar i perfektionism. En enkätundersökning genomfördes med 60 deltagare från ett internationellt företag. Resultatet visade att både perfektionism och självkänsla hade ett positivt samband med arbetstillfredsställelse men det framkom en interaktion som visade att det endast var perfektionister med hög självkänsla som var högt tillfredställda på sin arbetsplats.