The incompatibility of knowledge regimes: consequences of the material world for cross-domain work

In this paper, we argue that successful integration of knowledge across work domains in the short-term can mask the generation of long-term consequences. We explore a setting, the introduction of environmental considerations into semiconductor manufacturing, where the eventual adoption of common measurement artifacts and associated practices enabled knowledge integration, but failed to address significant underlying consequences. Drawing from observational, interview, and archival data we develop an understanding of the work practices of the Tech and EnviroTech groups as structured by the material world and broader collective conventions. We introduce the concept of knowledge regime to outline the differences in knowledge across these work domains. More specifically, we find that differences in the causal specificity and developmental time horizon of knowledge and the measurement artifacts that result contribute to the relative power of one knowledge regime over another. Understanding these sources of incompatibility provides insight into the design requirements of information systems as boundary objects for knowledge integration, but also specifies the potential limits to any design effort.     

Dynamic Waveband Switching in WDM Mesh Networks Based on a Generic Auxiliary Graph Model

Waveband switching (WBS) is a promising technique to reduce the switching and transmission costs in the optical domain of a wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) network. This paper considers the problem of provisioning dynamic traffic using WBS in a WDM mesh network. The network of interest is a homogeneous WBS network, where each node has the functionality of WBS. The problem is called the dynamic WBS problem, which involves searching waveband-routes or wavelength-routes for the dynamically arriving traffic requests. The objective is to minimize the total switching and transmission costs in the optical domain. To solve the dynamic WBS problem, an auxiliary graph model capturing the network state is proposed. Based on the auxiliary graph, two heuristic on-line WBS algorithms with different waveband grouping policies are proposed, namely the wavelength-first WBS algorithm based on the auxiliary graph (WFAUG) and the waveband-first WBS algorithm based on the auxiliary graph (BFAUG). Simulation results indicate that WBS is an attractive technique which reduces the overall switching and transmission costs by up to 30% in the network. The results also show that the WFAUG algorithm outperforms the BFAUG algorithm in terms of port savings and cost savings.     

Perceived risk and trust associated with purchasing at electronic marketplaces

Understanding consumer behaviour is of vital importance to consumer-oriented e-business models today. In this paper, we study the relationships between consumer perceptions of risk and trust and the attitude towards purchasing at a consumer-to-consumer electronic marketplace (EM). Typical for EM settings is that consumer behaviour is subject to perceptions of the selling party as well as of the institutional structures of the intermediary that is operating the EM. Building upon the well-established literature of trust, we consider the concepts of intermediary trust and seller trust. We extend this categorisation by introducing the concepts of intermediary risk and seller risk. We developed measurement instruments for intermediary risk and seller risk. All measurement scales have acceptable alphas and are unidimensional. An empirical study is conducted to explore the relationships between the risk and trust types and consumer purchase attitude. The results reveal significant, direct effects of seller trust and seller risk. Second-order effects of intermediary trust and intermediary risk are investigated and reported. The paper concludes with general observations and recommendations for research and practice.     

Boron removal by titanium addition in solidification refining of silicon with Si-Al melt

In order to effectively remove B from Si for its use in solar cells, a process involving B removal by solidification refining of Si using a Si-Al melt with Ti addition was investigated. For clarifying the effect of Ti addition on B removal from the Si-Al melt, TiB₂ solubilities in Si-64.6 at. pct Al melt at 1173 K and Si-60.0 at. pct Al melt at 1273 K were determined by measuring the equilibrium concentrations of B and Ti in the presence of TiB₂ precipitates. The small solubilities of TiB₂ in the Si-Al melt indicate the effective removal of B from the Si-Al melt by Ti addition. Further, solidification experiments of Si-Al alloys containing B by Ti addition were performed, and the effect of Ti addition on the solidification refining of Si with the Si-Al melt was successfully confirmed.     

An explanation of disproportionate growth using linear 3-dimensional informetrics and its relation with the fractal dimension

Summary We study new and existing data sets which show that growth rates of sources usually are different from growth rates of items. Examples: references in publications grow with a rate that is different (usually higher) from the growth rate of the publications themselves; article growth rates are different from journal growth rates and so on. In this paper we interpret this phenomenon of “disproportionate growth' in terms of Naranan's growth model and in terms of the self-similar fractal dimension of such an information system, which follows from Naranan's growth model. The main part of the paper is devoted to explain disproportionate growth. We show that the “simple' 2-dimensional informetrics models of source-item relations are not able to explain this but we also show that linear 3-dimensional informetrics (i.e. adding a new source set) is capable to model disproportionate growth. Formulae of such different growth rates are presented using Lotkaian informetrics and new and existing data sets are presented and interpreted in terms of the used linear 3-dimensional model.     

Application of Differential Evolution for Irrigation Planning: An Indian Case Study

The present paper demonstrates the applicability of population based search optimization method, namely, Differential Evolution (DE) to a case study of Mahi Bajaj Sagar Project (MBSP), India. Ten different strategies of DE are employed to assess the ability of DE for solving higher dimensional problems as an alternative methodology for irrigation planning. The parameters considered in DE are population size, crossover constant and weighting factor. Linear Programming (LP) is utilized as a comparative approach to assess the ability of DE. Comparison of results of LP and the 10 DE strategies for the given parameters indicated that both the results are comparable even for high dimensional problems. Extensive sensitivity analysis studies, performed for 3,600 combinations of above parameters for the 10 DE strategies suggested that DE/rand-to-best/1/bin strategy is the best strategy giving maximum benefits taking minimum CPU time. It is concluded that DE can be utilized for efficient planning of any irrigation system with suitable modifications.