Holonic supply chain:a study from family-based manufacturing perspective

In the contemporary business environment, to adhere to the need of the customers, caused the shift from mass production to mass-customization. This necessitates the supply chain (SC) to be effective flexible. The purpose of this paper is to seek flexibility through adoption of family-based dispatching rules under the influence of inventory system implemented at downstream echelons of an industrial supply chain network. We compared the family-based dispatching rules in existing literature under the purview of inventory system and information sharing within a supply chain network. The dispatching rules are compared for Average Flow Time performance, which is averaged over the three product families. The performance is measured using extensive discrete event simulation process. Given the various inventory related operational factors at downstream echelons, the present paper highlights the importance of strategically adopting appropriate family-based dispatching rule at the manufacturing end. In the environment of mass customization, it becomes imperative to adopt the family-based dispatching rule from the system wide SC perspective. This warrants the application of intra as well as inter-echelon information coordination. The holonic paradigm emerges in this research stream, amidst the holistic approach and the vital systemic approach. The present research shows its novelty in triplet. Firstly, it provides leverage to manager to strategically adopting a dispatching rule from the inventory system perspective. Secondly, the findings provide direction for the attenuation of adverse impact accruing from demand amplification (bullwhip effect) in the form of inventory levels by appropriately adopting family-based dispatching rule. Thirdly, the information environment is conceptualized under the paradigm of Koestler's holonic theory.

An information foraging theory based user study of an adaptive user interaction framework for content-based image retrieval

This paper presents the design and results of a task-based user study, based on Information Foraging Theory, on a novel user interaction framework - uInteract - for content-based image retrieval (CBIR). The framework includes a four-factor user interaction model and an interactive interface. The user study involves three focused evaluations, 12 simulated real life search tasks with different complexity levels, 12 comparative systems and 50 subjects. Information Foraging Theory is applied to the user study design and the quantitative data analysis. The systematic findings have not only shown how effective and easy to use the uInteract framework is, but also illustrate the value of Information Foraging Theory for interpreting user interaction with CBIR. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Evidence based pharmacogenetics study of the use of anti-psychotics in treatment of schizophrenia

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A cross-national comparative study of the roles of men in contemporary France and Britain

The purpose of this thesis is to increase understanding and contribute to knowledge about the attitudes and behaviour of men in contemporary France and Britain. The thesis has three main aims: firstly, to provide the first cross-national comparison of French and British writing and research on the place of men in contemporary society; secondly, to identify similarities and differences in the roles of men in France and Britain; and thirdly, to determine to what extent and in what way such similarities and differences are linked to the social structures and cultural background of each country. The thesis focuses on two main facets of the male experience: the relationship between men and women and the interaction between fathers and their children. Men's attitudes and behaviour are examined in relation to issues such as the division of household tasks and child care within the family, parental roles, female employment, role reversal, gender stereotyping and changes towards a new image of masculinity in society. Particular consideration is given to differences in governmental attitudes in France and Britain towards the introduction of family policy measures for men as fathers. The thesis ends with a discussion of legislative, social and educational measures which could be introduced in France and Britain in order to promote greater flexibility in men's roles and consequently improve gender equality in each country. The data analysed in the thesis are derived from a questionnaire-based empirical study involving 101 men in Britain and seventy-five men in France. The respondents' experience of and attitudes towards their roles in society are analysed and interpreted in the light of profile data relating to their family circumstances and with reference to knowledge about the broader socio-cultural context.

Further evidence for a parent-of-origin effect at the NOP9 locus on language-related phenotypes

Background - Specific language impairment (SLI) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder, observed in 5–10 % of children. Family and twin studies suggest a strong genetic component, but relatively few candidate genes have been reported to date. A recent genome-wide association study (GWAS) described the first statistically significant association specifically for a SLI cohort between a missense variant (rs4280164) in the NOP9 gene and language-related phenotypes under a parent-of-origin model. Replications of these findings are particularly challenging because the availability of parental DNA is required. Methods - We used two independent family-based cohorts characterised with reading- and language-related traits: a longitudinal cohort (n = 106 informative families) including children with language and reading difficulties and a nuclear family cohort (n = 264 families) selected for dyslexia. Results - We observed association with language-related measures when modelling for parent-of-origin effects at the NOP9 locus in both cohorts: minimum P = 0.001 for phonological awareness with a paternal effect in the first cohort and minimum P = 0.0004 for irregular word reading with a maternal effect in the second cohort. Allelic and parental trends were not consistent when compared to the original study. Conclusions - A parent-of-origin effect at this locus was detected in both cohorts, albeit with different trends. These findings contribute in interpreting the original GWAS report and support further investigations of the NOP9 locus and its role in language-related traits. A systematic evaluation of parent-of-origin effects in genetic association studies has the potential to reveal novel mechanisms underlying complex traits.

Ontology ranking based on the analysis of concept structures

In view of the need to provide tools to facilitate the re-use of existing knowledge structures such as ontologies, we present in this paper a system, AKTiveRank, for the ranking of ontologies. AKTiveRank uses as input the search terms provided by a knowledge engineer and, using the output of an ontology search engine, ranks the ontologies. We apply a number of metrics in an attempt to investigate their appropriateness for ranking ontologies, and compare the results with a questionnaire-based human study. Our results show that AKTiveRank will have great utility although there is potential for improvement.

Perceptions of journal quality and research paradigm:results of a web-based survey of British accounting academics

This paper reports the results of a web-based perception study of the ranking of peer reviewed accounting journals by UK academics. The design of the survey instrument allows an interactive selection of journals to be scored. The webbased format is unique in that it also includes a step in which respondents classify the journals according to methodological perspective (paradigm). This is depicted graphically in the paper in a bubble diagram that shows the "positioning" of journals according to perceptions of both paradigm and quality.

The role of attributions in reactions to job relocation

Job relocation refers to the process of simultaneously moving to a new job and house and this can cause considerable stress for the relocator and his/her family. Based upon an attributional analysis, we predicted that negative psychological reactions would be a function of (1) number of relocation problems, and (2) making pessimistic attributions for relocation problems (that is, the tendency to attribute negative events to internal, stable and global causes). Furthermore, these factors should interact, such that individuals with many relocation problems who also make pessimistic attributions will experience the worst psychological reactions. The results from a cross-sectional survey of 93 relocators supported these predictions. As expected, those relocators who had many relocation problems and made pessimistic attributions reported the worst mental health and relocation-specific stress. In addition, a reanalysis of a longitudinal study of relocators by Martin (1996) also supported the above predictions using attributions of perceived control. Furthermore, the relocators predicted to be most at risk (many problems}/low control) reported the worst changes in mental health during the course of the move.

Exploring ant-based algorithms for gene expression data analysis

Objective: Recently, much research has been proposed using nature inspired algorithms to perform complex machine learning tasks. Ant colony optimization (ACO) is one such algorithm based on swarm intelligence and is derived from a model inspired by the collective foraging behavior of ants. Taking advantage of the ACO in traits such as self-organization and robustness, this paper investigates ant-based algorithms for gene expression data clustering and associative classification. Methods and material: An ant-based clustering (Ant-C) and an ant-based association rule mining (Ant-ARM) algorithms are proposed for gene expression data analysis. The proposed algorithms make use of the natural behavior of ants such as cooperation and adaptation to allow for a flexible robust search for a good candidate solution. Results: Ant-C has been tested on the three datasets selected from the Stanford Genomic Resource Database and achieved relatively high accuracy compared to other classical clustering methods. Ant-ARM has been tested on the acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)/acute myeloid leukemia (AML) dataset and generated about 30 classification rules with high accuracy. Conclusions: Ant-C can generate optimal number of clusters without incorporating any other algorithms such as K-means or agglomerative hierarchical clustering. For associative classification, while a few of the well-known algorithms such as Apriori, FP-growth and Magnum Opus are unable to mine any association rules from the ALL/AML dataset within a reasonable period of time, Ant-ARM is able to extract associative classification rules.

Applying Information Foraging Theory to understand user interaction with content-based image retrieval

The paper proposes an ISE (Information goal, Search strategy, Evaluation threshold) user classification model based on Information Foraging Theory for understanding user interaction with content-based image retrieval (CBIR). The proposed model is verified by a multiple linear regression analysis based on 50 users' interaction features collected from a task-based user study of interactive CBIR systems. To our best knowledge, this is the first principled user classification model in CBIR verified by a formal and systematic qualitative analysis of extensive user interaction data. Copyright 2010 ACM.

Genome-wide association analysis identifies novel loci for chronotype in 100,420 individuals from the UK Biobank

Our sleep timing preference, or chronotype, is a manifestation of our internal biological clock. Variation in chronotype has been linked to sleep disorders, cognitive and physical performance, and chronic disease. Here we perform a genome-wide association study of self-reported chronotype within the UK Biobank cohort (n=100,420). We identify 12 new genetic loci that implicate known components of the circadian clock machinery and point to previously unstudied genetic variants and candidate genes that might modulate core circadian rhythms or light-sensing pathways. Pathway analyses highlight central nervous and ocular systems and fear-response-related processes. Genetic correlation analysis suggests chronotype shares underlying genetic pathways with schizophrenia, educational attainment and possibly BMI. Further, Mendelian randomization suggests that evening chronotype relates to higher educational attainment. These results not only expand our knowledge of the circadian system in humans but also expose the influence of circadian characteristics over human health and life-history variables such as educational attainment.