A New Species of Freshwater Plankton Discovered

In cooperation with a Germancolleague, researchers from theCAS Institute of Hydrobiology(IHB) discovered a new species ofthe mono-cel l ul ar organi sm,Difflugia mulanensis nov. spec.Their work was reported as a coverstory by the fourth issue of theEurope…     

Knowledge generation and sharing in UK universities: A tale of two cultures?

As economies become more knowledge intensive it has become evident to most organizations that knowledge is a valuable resource. This is particularly true in academic organizations, which have the generation and dissemination of knowledge as their principal mission. This research assesses whether path-dependency exists in relation to cultural expectations of knowledge generation and sharing in knowledge intensive organizations. This paper adopts a constructivist approach facilitated by focus group discussions which were conducted in two UK universities, one Russell group university and the other a post-1992. Institutional culture and path dependency play a major role in the willingness of institutions to generate and share knowledge. Each institution exemplified a distinct path-dependency that underpinned cultural expectations but in each case internal and external factors were necessitating changes regarding knowledge sharing and generation which affected individual perspectives and organizational structures. The paper concludes by purporting that certain universities display critical junctures and cultural transformation in terms of knowledge generation, dissemination and sharing.     

Understanding How Gut Bacteria Is Related to Type Ⅱ Diabetes

正The gut microbiota has been recognized as a key contributor to human health.Various chronic diseases,including type II diabetes,are connected with the dysbiosis of the intestinal microbiota.Bacteriophages are the killers of gut bacteria by infecting and lysing their hosts,and are thought to be the most abundant biological entities in the human gut.     

A Precious Fern Species Discovered in Jiulong, Sichuan

Supported by the US NationalScience Foundation and theNational Natural ScienceFoundation of China, a rare anden dang er e d f er n, I s oe t e shypsophila, was discovered by aSino-US research team headed byProf. SUN Hang from the CASKunming Institute of Botany (KIB)and Dr. David E. Boufford fromHarvard University in a recent tripto Jiulong, Sichuan, during its bo-tanical survey in the HengduanMountains in south China. Scien-tists say the plant is found for thefirst time in the r…     

4Co-moderating Effects of Knowledge Characteristic and Tie Strength on Knowledge Transfer：A Cost Perspective

知识转移是当前企业知识管理实践和学术研究关注的热点。整合并提出了知识转移成本分析框架,采集了369份问卷进行分析,在个体层面验证了知识距离与知识转移容易性负相关。结果显示,受各种知识转移成本影响,知识隐含性对知识距离与知识转移容易性关系有显著调节效应,联系强度与知识隐含性的联合调节效应显著。进一步发现：联系强度调节知识距离与知识转移容易性关系有赖于知识隐含性,知识隐含性与联系强度存在匹配关系。     

Knowledge management and ERP: Complementary or contradictory?

This research aims at deepening the understanding of the effects of information systems on supply chain operations, and to find the level and direction of the relationship between Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Knowledge Management (KM) in the context of operational and financial performance. Essentially, this study emphasizes the explanation of the complementary relationship between ERP and KM. Therefore, the mediating effect of KM is also analyzed. Using a survey method, 163 responses are collected from Turkish manufacturing companies which operate in a variety of industries. A structural equation modelling (SEM) is used to test both the reliability and validity of measurement and the structural path model. The results show that ERP has no significantly positive effect on operational performance, but it is a precedent of KM. Moreover, results also show that KM affects operational performance positively and it has a mediating effect for the relationship between ERP and operational performance. Lastly, the path analysis shows that operational performance is positively associated with financial performance.     

Is chess the drosophila artificial intelligence? A social history of an algorithm

Since the mid 1960s, researchers in computer science have famously referred to chess as the 'drosophila' of artificial intelligence (AI). What they seem to mean by this is that chess, like the common fruit fly, is an accessible, familiar, and relatively simple experimental technology that nonetheless can be used productively to produce valid knowledge about other, more complex systems. But for historians of science and technology, the analogy between chess and drosophila assumes a larger significance. As Robert Kohler has ably described, the decision to adopt drosophila as the organism of choice for genetics research had far-reaching implications for the development of 20th century biology. In a similar manner, the decision to focus on chess as the measure of both human and computer intelligence had important and unintended consequences for AL research. This paper explores the emergence of chess as an experimental technology, its significance in the developing research practices of the AI community, and the unique ways in which the decision to focus on chess shaped the program of AI research in the decade of the 1970s. More broadly, it attempts to open up the virtual black box of computer software--and of computer games in particular--to the scrutiny of historical and sociological analysis.     

Is Italian science declining?

The paper analyses the Italian contribution to the world scientific production, its relative citation impact, its international collaborations and scientific productivity compared with the most productive EU countries over the period 1980–2009. It shows that despite the fact that the level of funding has been dramatically low during the past decades, Italian science has been able to increase its performance up to 2007. Italian science is a “cathedral in the desert”. However, a recent reduction in the level of scientific production, the lagging behind in international scientific collaboration (highly correlated with the relative citation impact) and the great heterogeneity of researchers’ productivity (absence of correlation of number of researchers with quality and quantity of scientific production) may mark the start of a decline of Italian science. The paper concludes that the increased funding must go hand-in-hand with reform of autonomy and governance and calling for a sound system of internal quality control and performance enhancement.     

At the Intersection of the Digital Divide and the Knowledge Gap: Do Knowledge Domains and Measures Matter?

This study reports on knowledge gain, examined through three separate measures (free recall, comprehension and recognition) among high- and low-education groups who used two types of news media (newspaper vs. online) to consume two kinds of news (public affairs vs. entertainment). Results (n = 123) confirm the knowledge gap and validate concerns about the digital divide. Yet three different knowledge acquisition measures generated dissimilar findings: strong education effects for free recall, strong media format effects for recognition, and strong interaction effects between education and media format for comprehension. The implications of these inconsistencies are considered for measuring knowledge gaps in future research.     

Knowledge management practices and performance: are they truly linked?

Knowledge management (KM) has often been claimed to be an essential ingredient in building competitive advantage. Yet, KM adoption is relatively slow, especially in the Malaysian context. Most organizations are unsure if the promised performance improvement is just a passing fad. This study intends to provide empirical verifications to support the link between KM practices and performance outcomes for organizations. Responses from 180 knowledge-based organizations were analysed. The analysis indicated that knowledge acquisition and knowledge utilization positively influenced strategic and operational improvement in organizations, whereas the positive effect of knowledge dissemination was only evident in the case of strategic improvement. Organization size had some interesting moderating impact on the tested relationships.     

Is graphite lithiophobic or lithiophilic?

Graphite and lithium metal are two classic anode materials and their composite has shown promising performance for rechargeable batteries. However, it is generally accepted that Li metal wets graphite poorly, causing its spreading and infiltration difficult. Here we show that graphite can either appear superlithiophilic or lithiophobic, depending on the local redox potential. By comparing the wetting performance of highly ordered pyrolytic graphite, porous carbon paper (PCP), lithiated PCP and graphite powder, we demonstrate that the surface contaminants that pin the contact-line motion and cause contact-angle hysteresis have their own electrochemical-stability windows. The surface contaminants can be either removed or reinforced in a time-dependent manner, depending on whether the reducing agents (C₆→LiC₆) or the oxidizing agents (air, moisture) dominate in the ambient environment, leading to bifurcating dynamics of either superfast or superslow wetting. Our findings enable new fabrication technology for Li–graphite composite with a controllable Li-metal/graphite ratio and present great promise for the mass production of Li-based anodes for use in high-energy-density batteries.