The tendency to underestimate others’ relative performance compared to one’s own is widespread among individuals in all work environments. We examine the relationship between, and the driving forces behind, individual overconfidence and voluntary cooperation in team production. Our experimental data suggest an indirect and gender-specific link: Overconfident men hold more optimistic beliefs abo...

Scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive x-ray analyses of desert varnish reveal that microorganisms concentrate ambient manganese that becomes greatly enhanced in brown to black varnish. Specific characteristics of desert varnish and of varnish bacteria support a microbial origin for manganese-rich films. Varnish microbes can be cultured and produce laboratory manganese films. Accord...

In this paper, we depart from TCP-Probing [13, 14] and propose an experimental transport protocol that has energy and throughput performance gains in both wired and wireless environments. Our approach decouples error recovery from contention estimation and focuses on how these two mechanisms can (i) feed the decision process and (ii) implement the protocol strategy by shaping traffic, according...

Automated control weaknesses are associated with defects in computer hardware or computer applications. AU 319 does not require auditors to add professionals with specialized skills in automated controls (or IT audit specialists) to the audit engagement. Auditors may encounter a material automated control weakness and adjust their audit plan without the assistance of an IT audit specialists. Th...

It is estimated that 400,000 people in Japan are currently working in environments with serious particle contamination [1]. The particles, including Fe3O4, may be inhaled from work or urban environments, and cause pneumoconiosis. Accordingly, Japan has established particle control laws and strictly regulates work environments. Despite this, the incidence of lung disease due to particles is exhi...

Designing complex products such as aircrafts, helicopters and launchers must rely on well-founded and standardized processes. These processes should be executed in the context of dynamic cross-organizational collaboration environments. In this dissertation, we present a formal framework that ensures sustainable interoperability for cross-organizational processes in dynamic environments. We prop...

Ambient Intelligence (AmI) and Intelligent environments (IEs) are characterized by information and communication technologies embedded so seamlessly into our physical environments and in various everyday objects that computer-enabled features will become a natural part of our living and working environments [6]. According to Cook and Das [4], the most critical feature that separates intelligent...