The internal effects of branding are a topic that is rarely investigated within a business-to-business context. This paper illustrates and validates a conceptual model that connects mechanisms of ...internal branding to job satisfaction. Additionally, it broadens the understanding of internal branding by investigating the impacts of brand individuality and personality brand fit in an intra-organizational context. By applying PLS-SEM on a survey of employees in mechanical engineering firms located in Germany, this paper shows that the employer's brand influences employees' job satisfaction. It confirms mechanisms that help to explain the building of brand knowledge by employees and links this knowledge to the affective evaluation of both the employment and the employer's brand. In particular, the role of brand individuality and personality–brand fit is examined in more detail. This paper shows that the design of the employer's brand can be an instrument that enables firms to achieve higher job satisfaction.
•Internal branding measures influence the employees' evaluation of employment.•Brand individuality plays an important role when employees build brand knowledge.•Personality brand fit also determines employees' commitment to the employer's brand.
The change to Industry 4.0 is primarily aimed at connecting automated production devices and plants. However, many small and medium-sized enterprises are still in the preliminary stage of this ...networking, as they first must automate their production facilities. Various models that are able to calculate the costs of machines to be purchased can be found in the literature. However, most of these models are presented in a rather simplified way for better comprehensibility or so complicated and detailed that they can only be applied with in-depth knowledge. By illustrating three cases from German companies, this study seeks to give a practicable overview of cost types that small and medium-sized enterprises should consider by integrating experiences in automation projects made by these companies.
This paper investigates author collaboration at the Conference on Industrial Product-Service Systems (IPS²). Previous work showed that there is only a loose collaboration between authors from ...different countries in the field of Product-Service System research. This study aims to extend and refine these findings by also taking the authors’ disciplines and affiliations into account. We analyze 694 articles written by a total of 1,131 authors using both bibliometric analysis and a machine learning technique. We identify collaboration patterns that illustrate how researcher communities collaborate within their country, either on countrywide or regional level. Furthermore, the authors’ disciplines also influence their tendency to collaborate with authors from other disciplines. We conclude that a shared cultural background, language, and discipline promote the collaboration of authors from the IPS² community.
The front-end of innovation offers the largest potential for innovation. However, research on unconscious processes of idea development in this stage is scarce. Employees often do not speak about raw ...ideas to avoid a loss of face. Hence, they cannot further develop and contribute their ideas. To explore this phenomenon, we identified the most prevalent needs for ideation in literature and evaluated them by surveying 122 employees of a German automotive company. Our results show that employees with relatively more ideas require the most support. Employees with few ideas need social interactions and access to information technology to gather information and evaluate ideas. We find financial resources and peer support to be of low importance, while role models are highly important. Hence, organizations must address employees' needs differently depending on the phase of the idea development process and the number of ideas employees submit.
3-D astrophysical atmospheres will have random velocity fields. We seek to combine the methods we have developed for solving the 1-D problem with arbitrary flows to those that we have developed for ...solving the fully 3-D relativistic radiative transfer problem in the case of monotonic flows. The methods developed in the case of 3-D atmospheres with monotonic flows, solving the fully relativistic problem along curves defined by an affine parameter, are very flexible and can be extended to the case of arbitrary velocity fields in 3-D. Simultaneously, the techniques we developed for treating the 1-D problem with arbitrary velocity fields are easily adapted to the 3-D problem. The algorithm we present allows the solution of 3-D radiative transfer problems that include arbitrary wavelength couplings. We use a quasi-analytic formal solution of the radiative transfer equation that significantly improves the overall computation speed. We show that the approximate lambda operator developed in previous work gives good convergence, even neglecting wavelength coupling. Ng acceleration also gives good results. We present tests that are of similar resolution to what has been presented using Monte-Carlo techniques, thus our methods will be applicable to problems outside of our test setup. Additional domain decomposition parallelization strategies will be explored in future work.
Der digitale Wandel erfordert einen Wandel des bisherigen Profils eines Innovationsmanagers. Wurde ein Innovationsmanager lange Zeit mit dem Bild des Tüftlers verbunden, so wandelt sich dieses Bild ...in der heutigen Zeit zu einem Koordinator. Die neuen Aufgaben erfordern neue Kompetenzen, die insbesondere auf die Vernetzung der Industrie abzielen, da sowohl innerhalb eines Unternehmens als auch über die Unternehmensgrenzen hinweg kooperiert wird und zudem Unternehmensprozesse ganzheitlich digital durchgängig werden. Die Analyse von 126 Online-Stellenausschreibungen für Innovationsmanager ergab, dass verschiedene Kompetenzen im Zusammenspiel gefordert werden und verschiedene Aufgaben von Innovationsmanagern erfüllt werden müssen. Beispielsweise werden von Innovationsmanagern in den Stellenausschreibungen nur implizit Computerkompetenzen gefordert und dies immer im Zusammenspiel mit weiteren Kompetenzen, wie Sprach-, mathematischen und naturwissenschaftlich-technischen sowie sozialen Kompetenzen. Von Innovationsmanagern wird in Stellenausschreibungen gefordert, eine Art digitaler Wissensmanager und Generalist zu sein. Die Ergebnisse liefern einen Beitrag zur Diskussion formeller Rollenbilder von Innovationsmanagern.
Silver’s unique ability to selectively oxidize ethylene to ethylene oxide under an oxygen atmosphere has long been known. Today it is the foundation of ethylene oxide manufacturing. Yet, the ...mechanism of selective epoxide production is unknown. Here we use a combination of ultrahigh vacuum and in situ experimental methods along with theory to show that the only species that has been shown to produce ethylene oxide, the so-called electrophilic oxygen appearing at 530.2 eV in the O 1s spectrum, is the oxygen in adsorbed SO4. This adsorbate is part of a 2D Ag/SO4 phase, where the nonstoichiometric surface variant, with a formally S(V+) species, facilitates selective transfer of an oxygen atom to ethylene. Our results demonstrate the significant and surprising impact of a trace impurity on a well-studied heterogeneously catalyzed reaction.
Abstract
Context
The mechanisms underlying Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery-induced weight loss and the immediate postoperative beneficial metabolic effects associated with the operation ...remain uncertain. Enteroendocrine cell (EEC) secretory function has been proposed as a key factor in the marked metabolic benefits from RYGB surgery.
Objective
To identify novel gut-derived peptides with therapeutic potential in obesity and/or diabetes by profiling EEC-specific molecular changes in obese patients following RYGB-induced weight loss.
Subjects and Methods
Genome-wide expression analysis was performed in isolated human small intestinal EECs obtained from 20 gut-biopsied obese subjects before and after RYGB. Targets of interest were profiled for preclinical and clinical metabolic effects.
Results
Roux-en-Y gastric bypass consistently increased expression levels of the inverse ghrelin receptor agonist, liver-expressed antimicrobial peptide 2 (LEAP2). A secreted endogenous LEAP2 fragment (LEAP238-47) demonstrated robust insulinotropic properties, stimulating insulin release in human pancreatic islets comparable to the gut hormone glucagon-like peptide-1. LEAP238-47 showed reciprocal effects on growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHSR) activity, suggesting that the insulinotropic action of the peptide may be directly linked to attenuation of tonic GHSR activity. The fragment was infused in healthy human individuals (n = 10), but no glucoregulatory effect was observed in the chosen dose as compared to placebo.
Conclusions
Small intestinal LEAP2 expression was upregulated after RYGB. The corresponding circulating LEAP238-47 fragment demonstrated strong insulinotropic action in vitro but failed to elicit glucoregulatory effects in healthy human subjects.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) represents a spectrum of conditions ranging from simple steatosis (NAFL), over nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) with or without fibrosis, to cirrhosis with ...end-stage disease. The hepatic molecular events underlying the development of NAFLD and transition to NASH are poorly understood. The present study aimed to determine hepatic transcriptome dynamics in patients with NAFL or NASH compared with healthy normal-weight and obese individuals. RNA sequencing and quantitative histomorphometry of liver fat, inflammation and fibrosis were performed on liver biopsies obtained from healthy normal-weight ( n = 14) and obese ( n = 12) individuals, NAFL ( n = 15) and NASH ( n = 16) patients. Normal-weight and obese subjects showed normal liver histology and comparable gene expression profiles. Liver transcriptome signatures were largely overlapping in NAFL and NASH patients, however, clearly separated from healthy normal-weight and obese controls. Most marked pathway perturbations identified in both NAFL and NASH were associated with markers of lipid metabolism, immunomodulation, extracellular matrix remodeling, and cell cycle control. Interestingly, NASH patients with positive Sonic hedgehog hepatocyte staining showed distinct transcriptome and histomorphometric changes compared with NAFL. In conclusion, application of immunohistochemical markers of hepatocyte injury may serve as a more objective tool for distinguishing NASH from NAFL, facilitating improved resolution of hepatic molecular changes associated with progression of NAFLD. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common liver disease in Western countries. NAFLD is associated with the metabolic syndrome and can progress to the more serious form, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and ultimately lead to irreversible liver damage. Using gold standard molecular and histological techniques, this study demonstrates that the currently used diagnostic tools are problematic for differentiating mild NAFLD from NASH and emphasizes the marked need for developing improved histological markers of NAFLD progression.
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