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Purple- and red-fleshed potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.) were evaluated for their total anthocyanin (ACY), total phenolic (PHEN), and antioxidant capacity. The ACY and PHEN compounds were distributed throughout the tubers; however, a higher concentration was found at the stem-end than the bud-end. Although ACY and PHEN concentrations in potato peel were 0.9-to 1.6-fold higher than in potato flesh, overall contribution of the peel to ACY and PHEN contents of a potato slice was ∼20%. These observations differ from the widespread idea that phytonutrients are mostly accumulated in the peel of tubers. The ACY and PHEN contents of different purple- and red-fleshed potato genotypes ranged from 11 to 174 mg cyanidin-3-glucoside/100 g fresh weight and from 76 to 181 mg chlorogenic acid/100 g fresh weight, respectively, and were genotype and location dependent. High positive correlations between antioxidant capacity and ACY and PHEN suggest that these compounds are mainly responsible for the antioxidant capacity. These results provide useful and important information for potato breeders and researchers in order to increase the antioxidant capacity and functional value of purple- and red-fleshed potatoes for the food and nutraceutical industries.

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to propose a theoretical model explaining information technology outsourcing performance in the public sector as well as a set of empirically testable propositions to improve the understanding of key determinants of success. Design/methodology/approach – Based on Fountain ' s technology enactment framework, the authors integrated inter-organizational factors, such as trust, knowledge sharing, and quality of outsourcing interfaces, in the model and added organizational culture alignment between service providers and public administration to enhance Fountain ' s original framework. Findings – The authors proposed 17 empirically testable propositions to establish the relationships between key variables in IT outsourcing projects in the public sector. Research limitations/implications – The proposed model provides guidance for future research aimed at advancing knowledge of IT outsourcing. Originality/value – The contribution lies in the development of specific variables, such as trust, knowledge, and organizational culture, which are related to building an outsourcing relationship and are used as determinants of the quality of organizational interfaces between public bureaucracies and IT outsourcing providers.

Changes in content and yield of anthocyanins (ACY) and total phenolics (PHEN) during development of purple- and red-flesh potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) were studied in cultivars grown in Texas and Colorado. In both locations, the ACY and PHEN content (mg/100 g tissue) decreased with tuber growth and maturity, while tuber weight (kg), total yield (Ton ha-1) and compound yields (kg ha-1) increased. Longer days and cooler temperatures in Colorado favored about a 2.5- and 1.4-times higher ACY and PHEN content, respectively, than in Texas-grown tubers. Harvesting potatoes at later maturity stages maximized compound yields while minimizing the glycoalkaloid content. This information can be useful to potato breeders and producers in selecting appropriate growing conditions for the enhancement of natural colorant and antioxidant yields in purple- and red-flesh potatoes for the nutraceutical and food industry.

Many IT outsourcing operations fail, and when they do not fail they often impose renegotiations over the life of the contract between outsourcers and service providers. Possible remedies include the improvement of knowledge-sharing processes over organizational boundaries between partners, who may learn more about the problems that occur while looking at possible solutions together. Ensuring the right flow of knowledge in the two directions is central to the success of IT outsourcing operations, particularly in the transition stage of the relationship. However, these solutions do not fully acknowledge the different interrelationships between the main factors affecting knowledge transfer in outsourcing relationships in a dynamic way. In this paper, previous research on modeling knowledge-sharing across boundaries is applied to IT outsourcing contracts during the transition phase of the IT outsourcing relationship. Simulation experiments suggest that four reinforcing processes play key roles in the progress of the outsourcing relationship: trust, outsourcers’ and providers’ knowledge, commitment, and interfacing.

Travel time reliability promotes the quality and consistency of the roadway trips. To improve travel time reliability, transportation agencies need data monitoring, analysis, and planning tools to understand fluctuations in traffic and, to identify effective strategies to reduce uncertainties caused by recurring and nonrecurring congestions. The Strategic Highway Research Program 2 (SHRP2) developed reliability solutions to improve analysis abilities for transportation professional. As one of the reliability products, the SHRP2 L07 refers to \"Identification and Evaluation of the Cost-Effectiveness of Highway Design Features to Reduce Nonrecurrent Congestion\". The L07 tool allows for estimating the effectiveness of physical design treatments for improving travel-time reliability and comparing the economic benefits of different locationspecific design options. In this study, we evaluated the costeffectiveness of the Freeway Service Team (FST) program implemented in Wisconsin, USA. The implementation of incident management programs such as FST is a common practice by transportation agencies to reduce nonrecurrent congestion. The FST treatment was implemented on a 12mile freeway segment in Brown County, Wisconsin and, its potential safety and operational benefits due to reduced frequency and duration of crash and non-crash incidents were evaluated in two scenarios. The estimated economic benefits using the L07 tool showed that the FST is an effective way to reduce nonrecurrent congestions and its impacts.

Quantifying signals and uncertainties in climate models is essential for the detection, attribution, prediction and projection of climate change 1 – 3 . Although inter-model agreement is high for large-scale temperature signals, dynamical changes in atmospheric circulation are very uncertain 4 . This leads to low confidence in regional projections, especially for precipitation, over the coming decades 5 , 6 . The chaotic nature of the climate system 7 – 9 may also mean that signal uncertainties are largely irreducible. However, climate projections are difficult to verify until further observations become available. Here we assess retrospective climate model predictions of the past six decades and show that decadal variations in North Atlantic winter climate are highly predictable, despite a lack of agreement between individual model simulations and the poor predictive ability of raw model outputs. Crucially, current models underestimate the predictable signal (the predictable fraction of the total variability) of the North Atlantic Oscillation (the leading mode of variability in North Atlantic atmospheric circulation) by an order of magnitude. Consequently, compared to perfect models, 100 times as many ensemble members are needed in current models to extract this signal, and its effects on the climate are underestimated relative to other factors. To address these limitations, we implement a two-stage post-processing technique. We first adjust the variance of the ensemble-mean North Atlantic Oscillation forecast to match the observed variance of the predictable signal. We then select and use only the ensemble members with a North Atlantic Oscillation sufficiently close to the variance-adjusted ensemble-mean forecast North Atlantic Oscillation. This approach greatly improves decadal predictions of winter climate for Europe and eastern North America. Predictions of Atlantic multidecadal variability are also improved, suggesting that the North Atlantic Oscillation is not driven solely by Atlantic multidecadal variability. Our results highlight the need to understand why the signal-to-noise ratio is too small in current climate models 10 , and the extent to which correcting this model error would reduce uncertainties in regional climate change projections on timescales beyond a decade. Current models are too noisy to predict climate usefully on decadal timescales, but two-stage post-processing of model outputs greatly improves predictions of decadal variations in North Atlantic winter climate.

The bactericidal effect of silver nanoparticles (SNP) has lead to their application in several products mainly in the medicine field. This study analyzed the distribution, accumulation, and toxicity in principal organs of Wistar rats exposed to SNP suspensions by oral administration. Two sizes of washed SNP (14 and 36 nm) were prepared, characterized, and redispersed in deionized water. Each suspension was administrated to Wistar rats by oral way for 55 days; after finishing this treatment time, rats were sacrificed by anesthesia overdose. Organs were collected, processed, and prepared; then, accumulation and concentrations of SNP were obtained using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Toxicity was determined by clinical chemistry and hematology from blood samples in three different periods; light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were applied to evaluate histopathology in tissues. Silver concentrations were higher in small intestine, followed by kidney, liver, and brain. Clinical chemistry and hematology showed altered values in blood urea nitrogen, total proteins, and mean corpuscular hemoglobin, concentration values had statistical difference in both groups (14 and 36 nm) ( p  < 0.05). LM, SEM, ICP-MS, clinical chemistry, and hematology tests suggest that the administration way, concentration, shape, size, presentation, administration time of SNP used in this study, do not change significantly these values.

Lightning initiation and propagation is complex and probabilistic in nature. In this study, we attempt to replicate these phenomena using an electric circuit model. We reproduce lightning behaviors numerically by dividing an air column into discrete cells of resistor and capacitor components. First, we reproduce the attributes of classical tripole structure of electric field in thunderclouds. We represent charging mechanisms due to electrification and precipitation as current sources in the circuit. As a cell charges, the electric field increases to near dielectric strength limit causing its resistor to breakdown probabilistically and create a discharge path for the current to flow. Then, the voltage and electric field across the cells are measured by solving the finite difference form of the circuit equation with a Gaussian solver package for Java in Eclipse IDE. The electric discharge paths revealed that lightning is initiated at the negative charge pole 4.5 km from the ground. However, a propagation path toward the center of the thundercloud can be produced once an initiation leader induces electric breakdown in nearby cells. With our model, three types of natural lightning propagation paths were reproduced consisting of split intra-cloud (IC), downward cloud-to-ground (CG), and upward intra-cloud. Numerical trials of 1000 simulations identified the occurrence of 284 downward CG, 709 split IC, and 7 upward IC lightning. We observed a ratio of 2.52 from the numerically generated IC and CG lightning paths, which is in good agreement with observations from satellite- and surface-based recorded lightning measurements.