Cloud computing services for the small and medium enterprises: Key considerations for sourcing sustainable business value

The concept of cloud computing services (CCS) is appealing to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). However, while there is a significant push by various authorities on SMEs to adopt the CCS, knowledge of the key considerations to adopt the CCS is very limited. We use the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework to suggest that a strategic and incremental intent, understanding the organizational structure and culture, understanding the external factors, and consideration of the human resource capacity can contribute to sustainable business value from CCS. Using survey data, we find evidence of a positive association between these considerations and the CCS-related business objectives. We also find evidence of positive association between the CCS-related business objectives and CCS-related financial objectives. The results suggest that the proposed considerations can ensure sustainable business value from the CCS. This study provides guidance to SMEs on a path to adopting the CCS with the intention of a long-term commitment and achieving sustainable business value from these services.

On the definition of a small orifice

An attempt is made to draw a line of demarcation between small orifices and large orifices. It is proposed that an orifice can be considered 'small' if the discharge through it calculated on the small-orifice assumption differs from the exact discharge by less than half of one per cent. Using this criterion, it is shown that a circular or elliptic orifice can be deemed 'small' as long as the ratio of the depth of the orifice to the head causing the flow (measured from the center of the orifice to the liquid surface) is less than 0.8; a rectangular orifice can be deemed 'small' if the ratio is less than 0.7. A correction factor is suggested for the coefficient of discharge to account for the deviation from the exact discharge.

Small State Cultures of Consensus : State Traditions and Consensus-Seeking in the Neo-Corporatist and Neutrality Policies in Post-1945 Austria and Finland

Austria and Finland are persistently referred to as the “success stories” of post-1945 European history. Notwithstanding their different points of departure, in the course of the Cold War both countries portrayed themselves as small and neutral border-states in the world dictated by superpower politics. By the 1970s, both countries frequently ranked at the top end in various international classifications regarding economic development and well-being in society. This trend continues today. The study takes under scrutiny the concept of consensus which figures centrally in the two national narratives of post-1945 success. Given that the two domestic contexts as such only share few direct links with one another and are more obviously different than similar in terms of their geographical location, historical experiences and politico-cultural traditions, the analogies and variations in the anatomies of the post-1945 “cultures of consensus” provide an interesting topic for a historical comparative and cross-national examination. The main research question concerns the identification and analysis of the conceptual and procedural convergence points of the concepts of the state and consensus. The thesis is divided into six main chapters. After the introduction, the second chapter presents the theoretical framework in more detail by focusing on the key concepts of the study – the state and consensus. Chapter two also introduces the comparative historical and cross-national research angles. Chapter three grounds the key concepts of the state and consensus in the historical contexts of Austria and Finland by discussing the state, the nation and democracy in a longer term comparative perspective. The fourth and fifth chapter present case studies on the two policy fields, the “pillars”, upon which the post-1945 Austrian and Finnish cultures of consensus are argued to have rested. Chapter four deals with neo-corporatist features in the economic policy making and chapter five discusses the building up of domestic consensus regarding the key concepts of neutrality policies in the 1950s and 1960s. The study concludes that it was not consensus as such but the strikingly intense preoccupation with the theme of domestic consensus that cross-cut, in a curiously analogous manner, the policy-making processes studied. The main challenge for the post-1945 architects of Austrian and Finnish cultures of consensus was to find strategies and concepts for consensus-building which would be compatible with the principles of democracy. Discussed at the level of procedures, the most important finding of the study concerns the triangular mechanism of coordination, consultation and cooperation that set into motion and facilitated a new type of search for consensus in both post-war societies. In this triangle, the agency of the state was central, though in varying ways. The new conceptions concerning a small state’s position in the Cold War world also prompted cross-nationally perceivable willingness to reconsider inherited concepts and procedures of the state and the nation. At the same time, the ways of understanding the role of the state and its relation to society remained profoundly different in Austria and Finland and this basic difference was in many ways reflected in the concepts and procedures deployed in the search for consensus and management of domestic conflicts. For more detailed information, please consult the author.

The Macroeconomic Effects of Fiscal Policy in a Small Open Economy under a Flexible Exchange Rate Regime

This licentiate's thesis analyzes the macroeconomic effects of fiscal policy in a small open economy under a flexible exchange rate regime, assuming that the government spends exclusively on domestically produced goods. The motivation for this research comes from the observation that the literature on the new open economy macroeconomics (NOEM) has focused almost exclusively on two-country global models and the analyses of the effects of fiscal policy on small economies are almost completely ignored. This thesis aims at filling in the gap in the NOEM literature and illustrates how the macroeconomic effects of fiscal policy in a small open economy depend on the specification of preferences. The research method is to present two theoretical model that are extensions to the model contained in the Appendix to Obstfeld and Rogoff (1995). The first model analyzes the macroeconomic effects of fiscal policy, making use of a model that exploits the idea of modelling private and government consumption as substitutes in private utility. The model offers intuitive predictions on how the effects of fiscal policy depend on the marginal rate of substitution between private and government consumption. The findings illustrate that the higher the substitutability between private and government consumption, (i) the bigger is the crowding out effect on private consumption (ii) and the smaller is the positive effect on output. The welfare analysis shows that the less fiscal policy decreases welfare the higher is the marginal rate of substitution between private and government consumption. The second model of this thesis studies how the macroeconomic effects of fiscal policy depend on the elasticity of substitution between traded and nontraded goods. This model reveals that this elasticity a key variable to explain the exchange rate, current account and output response to a permanent rise in government spending. Finally, the model demonstrates that temporary changes in government spending are an effective stabilization tool when used wisely and timely in response to undesired fluctuations in output. Undesired fluctuations in output can be perfectly offset by an opposite change in government spending without causing any side-effects.

Causes and consequences of inbreeding in the ant Formica exsecta

Human actions cause destruction and fragmentation of natural habitats, predisposing populations to loss of genetic diversity and inbreeding, which may further decrease their fitness and survival. Understanding these processes is a main concern in conservation genetics. Yet data from natural populations is scarce, particularly on invertebrates, owing to difficulties in measuring both fitness and inbreeding in the wild. Ants are social insects, and a prime example of an ecologically important group for which the effects of inbreeding remain largely unstudied. Social insects serve key roles in all terrestrial ecosystems, and the division of labor between the females in the colonies queens reproduce, workers tend to the developing brood probably is central to their ecological success. Sociality also has important implications for the effects of inbreeding. Despite their relative abundance, the effective population sizes of social insects tend to be small, owing to the low numbers of reproductive individuals relative to the numbers of sterile workers. This may subject social insects to loss of genetic diversity and subsequent inbreeding depression. Moreover, both the workers and queens can be inbred, with different and possibly multiplicative consequences. The aim of this study was to investigate causes and consequences of inbreeding in a natural population of ants. I used a combination of long-term field and genetic data from colonies of the narrow-headed ant Formica exsecta to examine dispersal, mating behavior and the occurrence of inbreeding, and its consequences on individual and colony traits. Mating in this species takes place in nuptial flights that have been assumed to be population-wide and panmictic. My results, however, show that dispersal is local, with queens establishing new colonies as close as 60 meters from their natal colony. Even though actual sib-mating was rare, individuals from different but related colonies pair, which causes the population to be inbred. Furthermore, multiple mates of queens were related to each other, which also indicates localized mating flights. Hence, known mechanisms of inbreeding avoidance, dispersal and multiple mating, were not effective in this population, as neither reduced inbreeding level of the future colony. Inbreeding had negative consequences both at the individual and colony level. A queen that has mated with a related male produces inbred workers, which impairs the colony s reproductive success. The inbred colonies were less productive and, specifically, produced fewer new queens, possibly owing to effects of inbreeding on the caste determination of female larvae. A striking finding was that males raised in colonies with inbred workers were smaller, which reflects an effect of the social environment as males, being haploid, cannot be inbred themselves. The queens produced in the inbred colonies, in contrast, were not smaller, but their immune response was up-regulated. Inbreeding had no effect on queen dispersal, but inbred queens had a lower probability of successfully founding a new colony. Ultimately, queens that survived through the colony founding phase had a shorter lifespan. This supports the idea that inbreeding imposes a genetic stress, leading to inbreeding depression on both the queen and the colony level. My results show that inbreeding can have profound consequences on insects in the wild, and that in social species the effects of inbreeding may be multiplicative and mediated through the diversity of the social environment, as well as the genetic makeup of the individuals themselves. This emphasizes the need to take into account all levels of organization when assessing the effects of genetic diversity in social animals.

Characterization of small GTPase Cdc42 from the ectomycorrhizal fungus Suillus bovinus and Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation of fungi

Ectomycorrhizal formation between the host tree, Pinus sylvestris and fungal symbiont, Suillus bovinus was investigated at the molecular level by isolating genes regulating the organization of the actin cytoskeleton in the fungal partner S. bovinus. An Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated transformation (ATMT) system was developed for the ectomycorrhizal fungi in order to assign specific functions to the cloned molecules. The developed ATMT system was also used to transform a plant pathogenic fungus, Helminthosporium turcicum, to hygromycin B resistance. Small GTPases Cdc42 and Rac1, the regulators of actin cytoskeleton in eukaryotes were isolated from S. bovinus. Sbcdc42 and Sbrac1, are both expressed in vegetative and in the symbiotic hyphae of S. bovinus . Using IIF microscopy, Cdc42 and actin were co-localized at the tips of vegetative hyphae and were visualized in association with the plasma membrane in swollen cells typical to the symbiotic hyphae. These results suggest that the small GTPases Cdc42 may play a significant role in the polarized growth of S. bovinus hyphae and regulate fungal morphogenesis during ectomycorrhiza formation through reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton. The functional equality of Cdc42 was tested in yeast complementation experiments using a Saccharomyces cerevisiae temperature sensitive mutant, cdc42-1ts. The genomic clone of CDC42 was isolated from S. bovinus genomic DNA via specific primers for Cdc42. The analogous S. cerevisiae cdc42 mutations, dominant active G12V and dominant negative D118A, were generated in the Sbcdc42 gene by in-vitro mutagenesis. The ectomycorrhizal fungi, S. bovinus, P. involutus and H. cylindroporum were transformed using ATMT and phleomycin as a selectable marker. PCR screeing suggested that the T-DNA was inserted in all the three fungal genomes but the fate of integration could not be proved by Southern blot analysis. An alternative Agrobacterium strain, AGL-1 and selection marker, hygromycin was used to transform our model fungus S. bovinus. PCR and Southern analysis suggested an improved efficiency of transformation. All the transformed fungal colonies selected for hygromycin gave positives in PCR and the Southerns showed multiple or single copy T-DNA integrations into the S. bovinus genome. Using the same Agrobacterium strain and the selectable marker, a maize pathogen, H. turcicum was also subjected to ATMT. The H. turcicum transformation data suggested the single copy T-DNA integrations into the genome of the screened transformants that further confirms wider applicability of the ATMT. The plasmids carrying the wild-type (pHGCDC42) and the mutated Sbcdc42 alleles (pHGGV; pHGDA) under Agaricus bisporus gpd promoter were constructed in an A. tumefaciens vector. ATMT was used to transform S. bovinus with the plasmids carrying the wild-type and mutated Sbcdc42 alleles. The isolation of Sbcdc42 and Sbrac1 genes and some other functionally related genes from ectomycorrhizal fungus, S. bovinus will form the basis of future work to resolve the signalling pathway leading to ectomycorrhizal symbiosis. The development of ATMT system will be a valuable tool in analysing the exact function of signalling pathway components in ectomycorrhizal symbiosis or in plant pathogenic interactions. The transformation frequency and broad applicability along with the simplicity of T-DNA integration make Agrobacterium a valuable, new and a powerfull tool for targeted and insertional mutagenesis in these plant associated fungi. The developed ATMT systems should therefore make it possible to generate large number of transformants with tagged genes which could then be screened for their specific roles in symbiosis and pathogenecity, respectively.

Economics of tourism & growth for small island countries

We theoretically analyze the impact of changes in foreign income from tourism source countries on the growth of tourism dependent small island economies. Using a general theoretical construct, we attempt to answer the question of how price elasticity of demand, income elasticity of tourist and the degree of competition in the service sector influence the economic development of small economies. One of the main results is that politicians may consider applying policies which lead to a competitive environment in the service sector to maximize growth and the consequent labor income share.

Correcting trade distortions in a small open economy

This paper considers the second-best strategy of correcting a wide variety of trade distortions in a small open economy with perfect competition in all markets. Using the tools of duality, we obtain some general properties of the structure and the levels of the optimal taxlsubsidy rates. The paper also analyzes the welfare effects of unilateral piecemeal trade policy reforms when some of the quota distortions—imposed by the foreign countries—are unalterable. It is shown that the merits of unilateral trade policy reforms that are emphasized in the literature crucially depend on the absence of unalterable foreign imposed quotas.

Tariff strategies and small open economies

In this paper we examine the issue of optimal tariffs for a small economy that trades with a large economy. We define ‘small’ and ‘large’ in the sense that the world prices are determined solely by the large country, and, therefore, the small country faces exogenously given world prices. Within this framework it is shown that there exist situations in which the small country has an incentive to behave as a Stackelberg leader by committing itself to a non-zero optimal tariff. Although the small country is unable to directly affect world prices, by pre-committing to a non-zero trade tax it may induce a reduction of the large country's optimal trade tax, thereby indirectly improving its terms of trade and welfare. JEL Classification: F13, F35

Experimental investigation of die wear in small-batch hammer-forging under unlubricated conditions

Wear of dies is a serious problem in the forging industry. The materials used for the dies are generally expensive steel alloys and the dies require costly heat treatment and surface finishing operations. Degeneration of the die profile implies rejection of forged components and necessitates resinking or replacement of the die. Measures which reduce wear of the die can therefore aid in the reduction of production costs. The work reported here is the first phase of a study of the causes of die wear in forging production where the batch size is small and the machine employed is a light hammer. This is a problem characteristic of the medium and small scale area of the forging industry where the cost of dies is a significant proportion of the total capital investment. For the same energy input and under unlubricated conditions, die wear has been found to be sensitive to forging temperature; in cold forging the yield strength of the die material is the prime factor governing the degeneration of the die profile, whilst in hot forging the wear resistance of the die material is the main factor which determines the rate of die wear. At an intermediate temperature, such as that characteristic of warm forging, the die wear is found to be less than that in both cold and hot forging. This preliminary study therefore points to the fact that the forging temperature must be taken into account in the selection of die material. Further, the forging industry must take serious note of the warm forging process, as it not only provides good surface finish, as claimed by many authors, but also has an inherent tendency to minimize die wear.

NKT cells from normal and tumor-bearing human livers are phenotypically and functionally distinct from murine NKT cells

A major group of murine NK T (NKT) cells express an invariant Vα14Jα18 TCR α-chain specific for glycolipid Ags presented by CD1d. Murine Vα14Jα18+ account for 30–50% of hepatic T cells and have potent antitumor activities. We have enumerated and characterized their human counterparts, Vα24Vβ11+ NKT cells, freshly isolated from histologically normal and tumor-bearing livers. In contrast to mice, human NKT cells are found in small numbers in healthy liver (0.5% of CD3+ cells) and blood (0.02%). In contrast to those in blood, most hepatic Vα24+ NKT cells express the Vβ11 chain. They include CD4+, CD8+, and CD4−CD8− cells, and many express the NK cell markers CD56, CD161, and/or CD69. Importantly, human hepatic Vα24+ T cells are potent producers of IFN-γ and TNF-α, but not IL-2 or IL-4, when stimulated pharmacologically or with the NKT cell ligand, α-galactosylceramide. Vα24+Vβ11+ cell numbers are reduced in tumor-bearing compared with healthy liver (0.1 vs 0.5%; p < 0.04). However, hepatic cells from cancer patients and healthy donors release similar amounts of IFN-γ in response to α-galactosylceramide. These data indicate that hepatic NKT cell repertoires are phenotypically and functionally distinct in humans and mice. Depletions of hepatic NKT cell subpopulations may underlie the susceptibility to metastatic liver disease.

Interactions between harmful algae and calanoid copepods in the Baltic Sea

The aim of the studies reported in this thesis was to examine the feeding interactions between calanoid copepods and toxic algae in the Baltic Sea. The central questions in this research concerned the feeding, survival and egg production of copepods exposed to toxic algae. Furthermore, the importance of copepods as vectors in toxin transfer was examined. The haptophyte Prymnesium parvum, which produces extracellular toxins, was the only studied species that directly harmed copepods. Beside this, it had allelopathic effects (cell lysis) on non-toxic Rhodomonas salina. Copepods that were exposed to P. parvum filtrates died or became severely impaired, although filtrates were not haemolytic (indicative of toxicity in this study). Monospecific Prymnesium cell suspensions, in turn, were haemolytic and copepods in these treatments became inactive, although no clear effect on mortality was detected. These results suggest that haemolytic activity may not be a good proxy of the harmful effects of P. parvum. In addition, P. parvum deterred feeding, and low egestion and suppressed egg production were consequently observed in monospecific suspensions of Prymnesium. Similarly, ingestion and faecal pellet production rates were suppressed in high concentration P. parvum filtrates and in mixtures of P. parvum and R. salina. These results indicate that the allelopathic effects of P. parvum on other algal species together with lowered viability as well as suppressed production of copepods may contribute to bloom formation and persistence. Furthermore, the availability of food for planktivorous animals may be affected due to reduced copepod productivity. Nodularin produced by Nodularia spumigena was transferred to Eurytemora affinis via grazing on filaments of small N. spumigena and by direct uptake from the dissolved pool. Copepods also acquired nodularin in fractions where N. spumigena filaments were absent. Thus, the importance of microbial food webs in nodularin transfer should be considered. Copepods were able to remove particulate nodularin from the system, but at the same time a large proportion of the nodularin disappeared. This indicates that copepods may possess effective mechanisms to remove toxins from their tissues. The importance of microorganisms, such as bacteria, in the degradation of cyanobacterial toxins could also be substantial. Our results were the first reports of the accumulation of diarrhetic shellfish toxins (DSTs) produced by Dinophysis spp. in copepods. The PTX2 content in copepods after feeding experiments corresponded to the ingestion of <100 Dinophysis spp. cells. However, no DSTs were recorded from field-collected copepods. Dinophysis spp. was not selected by the copepods and consumption remained low. It seems thus likely that copepods are an unimportant link in the transfer of DSTs in the northern Baltic Sea.

Synthesis and Evaluation of a Novel Class of G-Quadruplex-Stabilizing Small Molecules Based on the 1,3-Phenylene-Bis(piperazinyl benzimidazole) System

Achieving stabilization of telomeric DNA in G-quadruplex conformation by Various organic compounds has been an important goal for the medicinal chemists seeking to develop new anticancer agents. Several compounds are known to stabilize G-quadruplexes. However, relatively few are known to induce their formation and/or alter the topology, of the preformed quadruplex DNA. Herein, four compounds having the 1,3-phenylene-bis(piperazinyl benzimidazole) unit as a basic skeleton have been synthesized, and their interactions with the 24-mer telomeric DNA sequences from Tetrahymena thermophilia d(T(2)G(4))(4) have been investigated using high-resolution techniques Such as circular dichroism (CD) spectropolarimetry, CD melting, emission spectroscopy, and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The data obtained, in the presence of one of three ions (Li+, Na+, or K+), indicate that all the new compounds have a high affinity for G-quadruplex DNA, and the strength of the binding with G-quadruplex depends on (1) phenyl ring substitution, (ii) the piperazinyl side chain, and (iii) the type of monovalent cation present in the buffer. Results further Suggest that these compounds are able to abet the conversion of the Intramolecular quadruplex into parallel stranded intermolecular G-quadruplex DNA. Notably, these compounds are also capable of inducing and stabilizing the parallel stranded quadruplex from randomly structured DNA in the absence of any stabilizing cation. The kinetics of the structural changes Induced by these compounds could be followed by recording the changes in the CD signal as a function of time. The implications of the findings mentioned above are discussed in this paper.

Mutations in known monogenic high bone mass loci only explain a small proportion of high bone mass cases

High bone mass (HBM) can be an incidental clinical finding; however, monogenic HBM disorders (eg, LRP5 or SOST mutations) are rare. We aimed to determine to what extent HBM is explained by mutations in known HBM genes. A total of 258 unrelated HBM cases were identified from a review of 335,115 DXA scans from 13 UK centers. Cases were assessed clinically and underwent sequencing of known anabolic HBM loci: LRP5 (exons 2, 3, 4), LRP4 (exons 25, 26), SOST (exons 1, 2, and the van Buchem's disease [VBD] 52-kb intronic deletion 3'). Family members were assessed for HBM segregation with identified variants. Three-dimensional protein models were constructed for identified variants. Two novel missense LRP5 HBM mutations ([c.518C>T; p.Thr173Met], [c.796C>T; p.Arg266Cys]) were identified, plus three previously reported missense LRP5 mutations ([c.593A>G; p.Asn198Ser], [c.724G>A; p.Ala242Thr], [c.266A>G; p.Gln89Arg]), associated with HBM in 11 adults from seven families. Individuals with LRP5 HBM ( approximately prevalence 5/100,000) displayed a variable phenotype of skeletal dysplasia with increased trabecular BMD and cortical thickness on HRpQCT, and gynoid fat mass accumulation on DXA, compared with both non-LRP5 HBM and controls. One mostly asymptomatic woman carried a novel heterozygous nonsense SOST mutation (c.530C>A; p.Ser177X) predicted to prematurely truncate sclerostin. Protein modeling suggests the severity of the LRP5-HBM phenotype corresponds to the degree of protein disruption and the consequent effect on SOST-LRP5 binding. We predict p.Asn198Ser and p.Ala242Thr directly disrupt SOST binding; both correspond to severe HBM phenotypes (BMD Z-scores +3.1 to +12.2, inability to float). Less disruptive structural alterations predicted from p.Arg266Cys, p.Thr173Met, and p.Gln89Arg were associated with less severe phenotypes (Z-scores +2.4 to +6.2, ability to float). In conclusion, although mutations in known HBM loci may be asymptomatic, they only account for a very small proportion ( approximately 3%) of HBM individuals, suggesting the great majority are explained by either unknown monogenic causes or polygenic inheritance.