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result(s) for
"Kontrolle"
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Unwatched Pollution
Intermittent monitoring of environmental standards may induce strategic changes in polluting activities. This paper documents local strategic responses to a cyclical, once-every-six-day air quality monitoring schedule under the federal Clean Air Act. Using satellite data of monitored areas, I show that air quality is significantly worse on unmonitored days. This effect is explained by short-term suppression of pollution on monitored days, especially during high-pollution periods when the city’s noncompliance risk is high. Cities’ use of air quality warnings increases on monitored days, which suggests local governments’ role in coordinating emission reductions.
Journal Article
Digital Goods Are Valued Less Than Physical Goods
Digital goods are, in many cases, substantive innovations relative to their physical counterparts. Yet, in five experiments, people ascribed less value to digital than to physical versions of the same good. Research participants paid more for, were willing to pay more for, and were more likely to purchase physical goods than equivalent digital goods, including souvenir photographs, books (fiction and non-fiction), and films. Participants valued physical goods more than digital goods whether their value was elicited in an incentive compatible pay-what-you-want paradigm, with willingness to pay, or with purchase intention. Greater capacity for physical than digital goods to garner an association with the self (i.e., psychological ownership) underlies the greater value ascribed to physical goods. Differences in psychological ownership for physical and digital goods mediated the difference in their value. Experimentally manipulating antecedents and consequents of psychological ownership (i.e., expected ownership, identity relevance, perceived control) bounded this effect, and moderated the mediating role of psychological ownership. The findings show how features of objects influence their capacity to garner psychological ownership before they are acquired, and provide theoretical and practical insights for the marketing, psychology, and economics of digital and physical goods.
Journal Article
3D bioprinting of collagen to rebuild components of the human heart
Collagen is the primary component of the extracellular matrix in the human body. It has proved challenging to fabricate collagen scaffolds capable of replicating the structure and function of tissues and organs. We present a method to 3D-bioprint collagen using freeform reversible embedding of suspended hydrogels (FRESH) to engineer components of the human heart at various scales, from capillaries to the full organ. Control of pH-driven gelation provides 20-micrometer filament resolution, a porous microstructure that enables rapid cellular infiltration and microvascularization, and mechanical strength for fabrication and perfusion of multiscale vasculature and tri-leaflet valves. We found that FRESH 3D-bioprinted hearts accurately reproduce patient-specific anatomical structure as determined by micro-computed tomography. Cardiac ventricles printed with human cardiomyocytes showed synchronized contractions, directional action potential propagation, and wall thickening up to 14% during peak systole.
Journal Article
Control and Surveillance in Work Practice: Cultivating Paradox in ‘New’ Modes of Organizing
The new world of work is being characterized by the emergence of what are, apparently, increasingly autonomous ways of working and living. Mobile work, coworking, flex office, platform-based entrepreneurship, virtual collaborations, Do It Yourself (DIT), remote work, digital nomads, among other trends, epitomize ways of organizing work practice that purportedly align productivity with freedom. But most ethnographical research already reveals many paradoxical experiences associated with these new practices and processes. Indeed, it appears that with autonomy comes surveillance and control, to a point where, as Foucault observed way back, subjectivity and subject become synonyms, and the current pandemic both strengthens and makes visible this situation. In this introduction to the special issue we make a foray into this situation, using four open and related themes developed in the five papers we selected: managerial control and technology; surveillance and platform capitalism; time and space; and new organizational forms and autonomy. Paradoxical movements are identified for each of them, before we conclude by reflecting on a grounding paradox which appears at the centre of this special issue and the themes it covers.
Paper
Control Configuration and Control Enactment in Information Systems Projects
The control of information systems (IS) projects is a key activity for deployment of information technology (IT) resources and ultimately for value creation through IT. For the last 20 years, research on IS project control has grown to cover a wide range of aspects and issues, including control modes, amounts, and portfolios, control in internal and outsourced settings, and control antecedents, consequences, and dynamics. There is an important theoretical and practical impetus for this research, since the nature of IS projects creates specific and challenging conditions for control, and since control research in neighboring disciplines often neglects temporary endeavors such as projects.
In this study, we provide a systematic review and synthesis of the literature and develop an expanded theoretical framework for IS project control with supporting conjectures. Our review reveals that existing research primarily studies the contextual antecedents and performance consequences of control modes and amounts, and thus focuses on control portfolio configurations (what). In contrast, prior research largely neglects control enactment, that is, how the controller interacts with the controllee to put the portfolio of controls into practice. Our expanded framework points to the importance of studying control portfolio configurations and control enactment (in terms of control style and control congruence) in combination, in order to better understand IS project control effectiveness. Expanding the toolbox of concepts available to IS researchers, our framework helps resolve existing research gaps and inconsistencies, and opens up new avenues for future research on the control of IS projects.
Journal Article
Control freaks: Towards optimal selection of control conditions for fMRI neurofeedback studies
fMRI Neurofeedback research employs many different control conditions. Currently, there is no consensus as to which control condition is best, and the answer depends on what aspects of the neurofeedback-training design one is trying to control for. These aspects can range from determining whether participants can learn to control brain activity via neurofeedback to determining whether there are clinically significant effects of the neurofeedback intervention. Lack of consensus over criteria for control conditions has hampered the design and interpretation of studies employing neurofeedback protocols. This paper presents an overview of the most commonly employed control conditions currently used in neurofeedback studies and discusses their advantages and disadvantages. Control conditions covered include no control, treatment-as-usual, bidirectional-regulation control, feedback of an alternative brain signal, sham feedback, and mental-rehearsal control. We conclude that the selection of the control condition(s) should be determined by the specific research goal of the study and best procedures that effectively control for relevant confounding factors.
•fMRI neurofeedback is an expanding field with no consensus on best control conditions.•Strengths/limitations of different control conditions are discussed in this article.•Multiple control conditions may be ideal, but this has to be balanced against power.•An ideal approach would enable exclusion of as many potential confounds as possible.•Early-phase neurofeedback studies may not need control conditions/groups.
Journal Article
Identification of 55,000 Replicated DNA Methylation QTL
DNA methylation plays an important role in the regulation of transcription. Genetic control of DNA methylation is a potential candidate for explaining the many identified SNP associations with disease that are not found in coding regions. We replicated 52,916
cis
and 2,025
trans
DNA methylation quantitative trait loci (mQTL) using methylation from whole blood measured on Illumina HumanMethylation450 arrays in the Brisbane Systems Genetics Study (n = 614 from 177 families) and the Lothian Birth Cohorts of 1921 and 1936 (combined n = 1366). The
trans
mQTL SNPs were found to be over-represented in 1 Mbp subtelomeric regions, and on chromosomes 16 and 19. There was a significant increase in
trans
mQTL DNA methylation sites in upstream and 5′ UTR regions. The genetic heritability of a number of complex traits and diseases was partitioned into components due to mQTL and the remainder of the genome. Significant enrichment was observed for height (p = 2.1 × 10
−10
), ulcerative colitis (p = 2 × 10
−5
), Crohn’s disease (p = 6 × 10
−8
) and coronary artery disease (p = 5.5 × 10
−6
) when compared to a random sample of SNPs with matched minor allele frequency, although this enrichment is explained by the genomic location of the mQTL SNPs.
Journal Article
A quantitative analysis linking sea turtle mortality and plastic debris ingestion
Plastic in the marine environment is a growing environmental issue. Sea turtles are at significant risk of ingesting plastic debris at all stages of their lifecycle with potentially lethal consequences. We tested the relationship between the amount of plastic a turtle has ingested and the likelihood of death, treating animals that died of known causes unrelated to plastic ingestion as a statistical control group. We utilized two datasets; one based on necropsies of 246 sea turtles and a second using 706 records extracted from a national strandings database. Animals dying of known causes unrelated to plastic ingestion had less plastic in their gut than those that died of either indeterminate causes or due to plastic ingestion directly (e.g. via gut impaction and perforation). We found a 50% probability of mortality once an animal had 14 pieces of plastic in its gut. Our results provide the critical link between recent estimates of plastic ingestion and the population effects of this environmental threat.
Journal Article
Identification and application of exogenous dsRNA confers plant protection against Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and Botrytis cinerea
Sclerotinia sclerotiorum
, the causal agent of white stem rot, is responsible for significant losses in crop yields around the globe. While our understanding of
S
.
sclerotiorum
infection is becoming clearer, genetic control of the pathogen has been elusive and effective control of pathogen colonization using traditional broad-spectrum agro-chemical protocols are less effective than desired. In the current study, we developed species-specific RNA interference-based control treatments capable of reducing fungal infection. Development of a target identification pipeline using global RNA sequencing data for selection and application of double stranded RNA (dsRNA) molecules identified single gene targets of the fungus. Using this approach, we demonstrate the utility of this technology through foliar applications of dsRNAs to the leaf surface that significantly decreased fungal infection and
S
.
sclerotiorum
disease symptoms. Select target gene homologs were also tested in the closely related species,
Botrytis cinerea
, reducing lesion size and providing compelling evidence of the adaptability and flexibility of this technology in protecting plants against devastating fungal pathogens.
Journal Article