Relative Dissimilarity Research Articles

Information systems outsourcing: Replicating an existing framework in a different cultural context

In order for any field of study to refine the promising concepts and weed out the weaker concepts it is necessary that researchers revisit earlier studies from time to time and evaluate their general applicability to new contexts. Replication is an important technique for researchers to embrace in order to achieve this goal. In this study, we test one of the frameworks of technology outsourcing developed in the West, by changing the cultural context. Following Kodak's historic outsourcing decision, technology outsourcing has assumed significant importance among researchers and practitioners. Most of the research in relation to technology outsourcing has been conducted in the Western culture (including the USA and the UK), so our goal in this study is to extend the understanding of technology outsourcing research conducted in the West to another culture-that of Korea, through replication. We focused on information systems (IS) outsourcing decision making as a case in point and found both similarities and dissimilarities in relation to the current understanding of the same. These similarities and differences in turn, reveal the distinctions between the Western and the Korean approaches toward achieving outsourcing success. The similarities are the partial preference for short-term contracts and contracting out to external vendors. However, the two cultures differed in their decision making in the way they pursue contractual completeness, whether in-house departments competes or not, design of contract to include partnership measures, criticality of tasks outsourced, familiarity with the outsourced task, postponing a few outsourcing decisions, and withholding a piece of a contract as bait. We also found “trust” and “task partitioning to gain advantage of varied expertise” to be important for achieving outsourcing success in the Korean organization. In addition, we observed that outsourcing success is achieved by maximizing reliability and relationship in the Korean context rather than by maximizing flexibility and control, as was observed in the Western context. We argue that this difference is a function of cultural diversity.

Relational Models Dissimilarity Within and Across Situations: Understanding Conflict and Other Process Inefficiencies in Culturally Diverse Groups

This empirical paper investigates how group members' dissimilar use of mental models of appropriate social interaction patterns affects group member interaction and the attitudinal and performance outcomes of culturally diverse groups. Narratives from 29 interviews with members of science research groups provide the data for an extension to Alan Fiske's relational models theory. The findings from this study indicate that relational models dissimilarity among group members increases conflict and deteriorates group interaction within a given situation. However, relational models dissimilarity is desirable when group members use different models across different situations as long as group members use the same relational model within each given situation.

An inversion scheme to model subsurface fracture systems using shear wave splitting polarization and delay time observations simultaneously

SUMMARY Shear wave splitting polarization (p) and delay time (Δt) observations are used to invert for fracture orientation and intensity of fracturing, simultaneously. By addressing the different levels of uncertainty involved in measurements of these two parameters, as well as their dissimilar relationships to fracture configuration, we have developed an inversion algorithm which reduces the primary double-response inversion to two connected single-response ones. We show that its inherent non-linearity complicates this problem, which therefore requires a more sophisticated attack than conventional inversion schemes. It will be shown that the construction of residue function contours in the model plane and the generation of surrogate data by simulation process are essential to this approach. We illustrate the capabilities of this technique by inverting shear wave splitting data from The Geysers geothermal reservoir in California. In principle the method should be useful for characterizing fractured reservoirs, whether geothermal or hydrocarbon.

Origins of non‐linear and dissimilar relationships between epidermal UV absorbance and UV absorbance of extracted phenolics in leaves of grapevine and barley

ABSTRACTA recent review of climate patterns in Southern Germany has suggested significant increases in ultraviolet (UV) radiation due to decreases in cloud coverage and in cloud frequency which compound the effects of stratospheric ozone depletion. Whether such UV radiation increases result in UV damage of higher plant leaves depends partly on the capacity of UV‐absorbing hydroxycinnamic acids and flavonoids located in the plant epidermis to screen out UV radiation. Epidermal UV screening is most often assessed from UV absorbance of whole‐leaf extracts but in the present work, this method is critically examined. In grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.), hydroxycinnamic acid as well as mono‐hydroxylated and ortho‐dihydroxylated flavonoid concentrations increased in parallel with fluorometrically detected adaxial epidermal UV absorbance but only the latter class of flavonoids was associated with epidermal UV absorbance in barley (Hordeum vulgare L). For both species, curvilinear relationships between epidermal and total phenolic UV absorbance were established: initial slopes of the curves differed markedly between species. Modelling suggested that curvilinearity arises from UV‐transparent epidermal areas located between vacuoles which are particularly UV‐absorbing due to high levels of phenolics. The species‐dependent differences were related to allocation of high amounts of phenolics in the mesophyll and abaxial epidermis in barley but not in grapevine. Both factors, optical heterogeneity and variable distribution of phenolics, severely restrict the use of phenolic absorbance to estimate true epidermal screening.

Improvements in Real-Time Feature-Based License Plate Character Recognition

This paper presents an effective method for segmenting and recognizing license plate characters on a moving vehicle in actual outdoor environment. It is applicable to various camera conditions and installation environment and provides some effective methods to improve the rate of recognition and procedure speed. This paper is concerned not only implementations in laboratory environment but also in outdoor environment like roads, entrances of parking areas and other similar places where license recognition is needed. The digital images used can be obtained from any digital camera. The proposed vehicle license plate character recognition methods are constructed from a feature-based approach. By regulating a character, a unique structural feature for each character can be extracted. The extracted feature is insensible to changes in the outdoor environments. The proposed recognition system has two main processes: 1) to construct the feature information and 2) to segment a character image from any object image of a license plate and identify it. The relative regulations, the similarity and dissimilarity between each character, are used as recognition features.

Sticking Out Like a Sore Thumb: Employee Dissimilarity and Deviance at Work*

This study examined demographic‐ and personality‐based employee dissimilarities in relation to organizational and interpersonal deviant behaviors. Perceived organizational support (POS), organizational commitment, perceived coworker support, and coworker satisfaction were proposed as mediators. The results revealed that dissimilarities in ethnicity, Agreeableness, and Openness to Experience were significantly related to organizational deviance; dissimilarities in gender, Conscientiousness, and Extraversion were significantly related to interpersonal deviance. In addition, ethnic dissimilarity negatively predicted POS and organizational commitment, age dissimilarity positively predicted perceived coworker support, Extraversion dissimilarity positively predicted coworker satisfaction, Agreeableness dissimilarity negatively predicted POS, and Openness to Experience dissimilarity negatively predicted POS, organizational commitment, perceived coworker support, and coworker satisfaction. Finally, POS partially mediated the relationship between Agreeableness dissimilarity and organizational deviance. Interpretations of results, implications for management, and future research are discussed.

Use of the Genomic Signature in Bacterial Classification and Identification

In this study we investigated the correlation between dinucleotide relative abundance values (the genomic signature) obtained from bacterial whole-genome sequences and two parameters widely used for bacterial classification, 16S rDNA sequence similarity and DNA-DNA hybridisation values. Twenty-eight completely sequenced bacterial genomes were included in the study. The correlation between the genomic signature and DNA-DNA hybridisation values was high and taxa that showed less than 30% DNA-DNA binding will in general not have dinucleotide relative abundance dissimilarity (delta*) values below 40. On the other hand, taxa showing more than 50% DNA-DNA binding will not have delta* values higher than 17. Our data indicate that the overall correlation between genomic signature and 16S rDNA sequence similarity is low, except for closely related organisms (16S rDNA similarity >94%). Statistical analysis of delta* values between different subgroups of the Proteobacteria indicate that the beta- and gamma-Proteobacteria are more closely related to each other than to the other subgroups of the Proteobacteria and that the alpha- and epsilon-Proteobacteria form clearly separate subgroups. Using the genomic signature we have also predicted DNA-DNA binding values for fastidious or unculturable endosymbionts belonging to the genera Rickettsia, Wigglesworthia and Buchnera.

Convergence Between Dung Beetle Assemblages of a Post‐Mining Vegetational Chronosequence and Unmined Dune Forest

Abstract In Maputaland, South Africa vegetative and microclimatic changes on mined dunes drive the composition of the dung beetle fauna toward convergence with that in natural dune forest on unmined dunes. We assessed the pattern of these changes using a 23‐year vegetational chronosequence on mined dunes, which passes from grassland (approximately 1 year) to open Acacia shrubland thicket to Acacia karroo‐dominated woodland (approximately 9 years). Across this sequence, which represents successional stages in the restoration of dune forest, there was a sequential trend toward convergence in dung beetle species composition in both the entire species complement and, particularly, in shade specialist species. However, species abundance patterns showed a trend toward convergence only in early chronosequence Acacia woodland, followed by a decline in similarity between dung beetle assemblages of older Acacia woodland and unmined natural forest. This trend toward divergence was common both to the entire species complement, which includes widespread taxa, and to species endemic to Maputaland or the east coast. These trends in similarity and dissimilarity between dung beetle assemblages closely parallel the greater physiognomic and microclimatic similarity between early Acacia woodland and natural forest and the relative dissimilarity of older Acacia woodland. In conclusion, although percentage similarities between dung beetle assemblages of approximately 12‐year woodland and natural forests were comparable with those between each natural forest stand, decline in similarity in older woodland stands suggests that lasting convergence in dung beetle species abundance will only be attained once the Acacia woodland is replaced by secondary natural forest.

Multiple strains of the parasitic dinoflagellate Amoebophrya exist in Chesapeake Bay.

Small subunit rRNA sequences were amplified from Amoebophrya strains infecting Karlodinium micrum, Gymnodinium instriatum and an unidentified Scrippsiella species in Chesapeake Bay. The alignable parts of the sequences differed from each other and from the previously reported rRNA sequence of the Amoebophrya strain infecting Akashiwo sanguinea in Chesapeake Bay by 4 to 10%. This is a greater degree of difference than sometimes found between sequences from separate genera of free-living dinoflagellates. These sequence differences indicate that the Amoebophrya strains parasitizing dinoflagellates in Chesapeake Bay do not all belong to the same species. In spite of their relative dissimilarity, the sequences do group together into a single clade with high bootstrap support in phylogenetic trees constructed from the sequences.

An adaptive approach to offline handwritten word recognition

An adaptive handwritten word recognition method is presented. A recursive architecture based on interaction between flexible character classification and deductive decision making is developed. The recognition process starts from the initial coarse level using a minimum number of features, then increases the discrimination power by adding other features adaptively and recursively until the result is accepted by the decision maker. For the computational aspect of a feasible solution, a unified decision metric, recognition confidence; is derived from two measurements: pattern confidence, evaluation of absolute confidence using shape features, and lexical confidence, evaluation of the relative string dissimilarity in the lexicon. Practical implementation and experimental results in reading the handwritten words of the address components of US mail pieces are provided. Up to a 4 percent improvement in recognition performance is achieved compared to a nonadaptive method. The experimental result shows that the proposed method has advantages in producing valid answers using the same number of features as conventional methods.

Development and application of a fatty acid based microbial community structure similarity index

AbstractThis article presents an index of similarity that has application in monitoring relative changes of complex microbial communities for the purpose of understanding the impact of community instability in biological wastewater treatment systems. Gas chromatographic data quantifying microbial fatty acid esters extracted from biosolids samples can be used to infer the occurrence of changes in mixed culture community structure. One approach to rapidly assess the relative dissimilarity between samples is to calculate a similarity index scaled between 0 and 1. The many arbitrary scales that are associated with the available calculation methods for similarity indices limits the extent of application. Therefore, a specialized index of similarity was derived from consideration of the measurement errors associated with the chromatographic data. The resultant calculation method provides a clear mechanism for calibrating the sensitivity of the similarity index, such that inherent measurement variability is accommodated and standardization of scaling is achieved. The similarity index sensitivity was calibrated with respect to an effective gas chromatographic peak coefficient of variation, and this calibration was particularly important for facilitating comparisons made between different systems or experiments. The proposed index of similarity was tested with data acquired from a recently completed study of contaminant removal from pulp mill wastewater. The results suggest that this index can be used as a screening tool to rapidly process microbial fatty acid (MFA) compositional data, with the objective of making preliminary identification of underlying trends in (MFA) community structure, over time or between experimental conditions. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Effect of parental social class, own education and social class on mortality among young men.

The aim of the study is to examine the effects of parental class, own education and social class on mortality by cause of death among young men. The study is based on 1990 census records for 186,408 Finnish men, aged 30-34 in 1990, linked with death records for 1991-95 (1530 deaths). Parental class was associated with all-cause (Index of Relative Dissimilarity (IRD) = 12%) and cause-specific mortality before adjustment for one's own social class and education. Adjustment reduced the IRD by 18-58%, depending on the cause of death, and caused mortality differences to disappear for causes other than cardiovascular diseases and those related to alcohol. The unadjusted variation in all-cause mortality by educational attainment (IRD = 33%) and by own class (IRD = 38%) was greater than by parental class. Adjustment for parental class had only a minor effect on the variation by education and own class. Adjustment for own class reduced the IRD for education in all-cause mortality by 31%, in mortality from disease by 17%, and in mortality from external causes by 33%. For own class the reductions in the IRD obtained by adjustment for education were 36%, 46%, and 33%, respectively. The effect of parental class on the mortality of young men is indirect and mainly mediated through its influence on education and social class. The effect of education on mortality is as strong as that of occupation-based social class. These variables are not interchangeable measures of socioeconomic status; they both should be taken into account in studies on inequalities in mortality.

Molecular Analysis of Hybrids among the Ornamental Eucalypts Eucalyptus macrocarpa, E. pyriformis, and E. youngiana

The potential for hybridization among three species of Eucalyptus L'Hér in the Series Macrocarpae, E. macrocarpa Hook (Mottlecah), E. pyriformis Turcz. (pear-fruited mallee), and E. youngiana F. Muell. (large-fruited mallee), was investigated using molecular data generated by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD)-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis. Samples of DNA from seedlings derived from controlled pollinations, and from different individuals from each species, were amplified with six different 10-mer primers. The presence or absence of RAPD fragments was used to generate a dendrogram based on genetic similarity, an ordination derived by multidimensional scaling (MDS), and a minimum spanning tree (MST) to show the relative links and dissimilarities between the individuals tested. Two clusters were identified on the unweighted pair-group method arithmetric average dendrogram. The first included all of the E. macrocarpa genotypes and all but one of the E. macrocarpa hybrids. The second included all of the E. youngiana and E. pyriformis genotypes and their hybrids. The MDS ordinations placed the hybrid seedlings between the parent species. From the 30 progeny investigated, 28 were assessed from the molecular data to be hybrids from controlled pollinations. The remaining two seedlings appeared to be derived from self-pollination. The parentage of two mature trees, thought to be natural hybrids involving the three species, was also investigated. One was confirmed as a cross between E. youngiana and E. pyriformis, but the second was less certain because of its low genetic similarity to all other individuals, and may be a hybrid involving species not included in this study.

Molecular analysis of an interspecific hybrid ornamental eucalypt for parental identification

The parentage of ‘Urrbrae Gem’, an ornamental hybrid Eucalyptus, was investigated using RAPD-PCR. The female parent was known to be E. erythronema var. erythronema but previous opinion, based on adult morphological characters, placed the male parent as either E. stricklandii or E. gomphocephala. Samples of DNA, extracted from leaves of different individuals within each species, were amplified with six different 10-mer primers to produce RAPD fingerprints. These were used to generate a UPGMA dendrogram based on genetic similarities, and an ordination plot, derived by multi-dimensional scaling (MDS), and minimum spanning tree (MST) to show the relative dissimilarities between the individuals tested. The UPGMA dendrogram divided the samples into three clusters, with the hybrid slightly closer to E. stricklandii than E. gomphocephala. The MDS ordination and MST placed the hybrid between E. erythronema var. erythronema and E. stricklandii, supporting E. stricklandii as the male parent.

Functional Reconstitution of Substrate Transport by Purified Multidrug Resistance Protein MRP1 (ABCC1) in Phospholipid Vesicles

The 190-kDa multidrug resistance protein MRP1 (ABCC1) is a polytopic transmembrane protein belonging to the ATP-binding cassette transporter superfamily. In addition to conferring resistance to various antineoplastic agents, MRP1 is a transporter of conjugated organic anions, including the cysteinyl leukotriene C(4) (LTC(4)). We previously characterized the ATPase activity of reconstituted immunoaffinity-purified native MRP1 and showed it could be stimulated by its organic anion substrates (Mao, Q., Leslie, E. M., Deeley, R. G., and Cole, S. P. C. (1999) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1461, 69-82). Here we show that purified reconstituted MRP1 is also capable of active transport of its substrates. Thus LTC(4) uptake by MRP1 proteoliposomes was osmotically sensitive and could be inhibited by two MRP1-specific monoclonal antibodies. LTC(4) uptake was also markedly reduced by the competitive inhibitor, S-decyl-glutathione, as well as by the MRP1 substrates 17 beta-estradiol 17-beta-(d-glucuronide), oxidized glutathione, and vincristine in the presence of reduced glutathione. The K(m) for ATP and LTC(4) were 357 +/- 184 microm and 366 +/- 38 nm, respectively, and 2.14 +/- 0.75 microm for 17 beta-estradiol 17-beta-(d-glucuronide). Transport of vincristine required the presence of both ATP and GSH. Conversely, GSH transport was stimulated by vincristine and verapamil. Our data represent the first reconstitution of transport competent purified native MRP1 and confirm that MRP1 is an efflux pump, which can transport conjugated organic anions and co-transport vincristine together with GSH.

Similarities and dissimilarities in the structure-function relation between the cytochrome c oxidase from bovine heart and from Paracoccus denitrificans as revealed by FT-IR difference spectroscopy

The redox dependent changes in the cytochrome c oxidase from bovine heart were studied with a combined electrochemical and FT-IR spectroscopic approach. A direct comparison to the electrochemically induced FT-IR difference spectra of the cytochrome c oxidase from Paracoccus denitrificans reveals differences in the structure and intensity of vibrational modes. These differences are partially attributed to interactions of subunits influencing the heme and protein modes. In the spectral regions characteristic for ν(C=O) and ν(COO −) s/as modes of protonated and deprotonated Asp and Glu residues, additional signals at 1736, 1602 and 1588 cm −1 are observed. On this basis, the possible involvement of Asp-51, a residue specifically conserved in mammalian oxidase and previously proposed to show redox depended conformational changes in the respective X-ray structures, is critically discussed.

Interclonal Variation in Response to Simazine Stress in Lemna gibba (Lemnaceae)

We addressed the question of whether results gathered from single-species laboratory bioassays can be extrapolated to field populations by evaluating the response of 14 geographically isolated clones of Lemna gibba L. to the toxic compound simazine. The plants were exposed to a herbicide stress and several effects were studied in laboratory bioassays lasting 14 days. The ranges of the EC50 values registered among the clones were 0.31–0.62, 0.26–0.55, 0.29–0.53 and 0.33–0.53 mg a.i.T1 for the frond number, dry weight, total chlorophyll and surface area, respectively. The orders of the sensitivity and dissimilarity relationships between the clones (as well as the ecotoxicological parameters) were exclusive of each growth response. However, the groups of more sensitive clones and more resistant clones were the same for each of the effects analysed. Within the effects studied the highest variation between the clones was observed at concentrations of >0.1 mg a.i.l−1. The results show that the extrapolation considered is influenced by two main factors: the herbicide concentration and its temporal variation in the aquatic medium. The broad phenotypic plasticity probably reduced the variability of the ecotoxicological parameters between clones considering the important genotypic differences of L. gibba clones previously studied. In order to extrapolate the results from laboratory studies to natural populations of L. gibba it seems more important to consider the variation in environmental conditions than the genetic diversity of natural populations.

Comparison of vocal tract formants in singing andnonperiodic phonation

The skilled use of nonperiodic phonation techniques in combination with spectrum analysis has been proposed here as a practical method for locating formant frequencies in the singing voice. The study addresses the question of the degree of similarity between sung phonations and their nonperiodic imitations, with respect to both frequency of the first two formants as well as posture of the vocal tract. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), linear predictive coding (LPC), and spectrum analysis, two types of nonperiodic phonation (ingressive and vocal fry) are compared with singing phonations to determine the degree of similarity/difference in acoustic and spatial dimensions of the vocal tract when these phonation types are used to approximate the postures of singing. In comparing phonation types, the close similarity in acoustic data in combination with the relative dissimilarity in spatial data indicates that the accurate imitations are not primarily the result of imitating the singing postures, but have instead an aural basis.

The Neurotopography of Vowels as Mirrored by Evoked Magnetic Field Measurements

The auditory evoked neuromagnetic field elicited by synthetic specimens of the vowels [a], [æ], [u], and [i] was recorded over the left and the right hemisphere of 11 subjects. The N100m and the SF deflection of the recorded signal was submitted to equivalent current source analysis using the model of a single dipole in a spherical volume conductor. Vowel processing was hypothesized to occur in a multistage process rendering a sequence of representations of the acoustic input. Vowel representations were considered to differ among each other in the features they make salient, thus, in the kind of dissimilarity relationship they establish, and, by implication, in terms of the vowel space defined by the respective set of dissimilarities. It was investigated whether a mapping exists between at least one of a number of hypothetical vowel spaces and the cortical response space spanned by the spatial distribution of vowel evoked equivalent current dipoles. Although the spatial configuration of vowel evoked sources proved to be highly variable across subjects, the ordering of distances between N100m and SF equivalent current dipole locations turned out to correspond to the ordering of distances between the corners of a vowel trapezium. There were some, albeit weak, indications of hemispheric differences in vowel processing. The results suggest that the spatial distribution of the equivalent current dipole sources of both the N100m and the SF deflection of the neuromagnetic field elicited by vowels reflect a processing stage transitional between auditory and phonetic representation.

The evolutionary transition from uracil to thymine balances the genetic code

A multivariate quantitative physicochemical characterization of the five bases adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), thymine (T) and uracil (U), followed by principal component analysis, shows that the relative dissimilarities between the bases of DNA (A, C, G and T) are almost the same (i.e. balanced). In contrast, mRNA (containing U instead of T) has a considerably larger relative physicochemical similarity between C and U than between all other pairs of bases and is therefore inherently more unbalanced. These results provide a physicochemical explanation of the presence of thymine instead of uracil as an element of DNA. The principal component scores enable a quantitative description of nucleic acid sequence data to be made for structure-activity modelling purposes.