University of North Carolina at Charlotte

About: University of North Carolina at Charlotte is a education organization based out in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 8772 authors who have published 22239 publications receiving 562529 citations. The organization is also known as: UNC Charlotte & UNCC.

Host genetics and diet, but not immunoglobulin A expression, converge to shape compositional features of the gut microbiome in an advanced intercross population of mice.

Abstract: Individuality in the species composition of the vertebrate gut microbiota is driven by a combination of host and environmental factors that have largely been studied independently. We studied the convergence of these factors in a G10 mouse population generated from a cross between two strains to search for quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that affect gut microbiota composition or ileal Immunoglobulin A (IgA) expression in mice fed normal or high-fat diets. We found 42 microbiota-specific QTLs in 27 different genomic regions that affect the relative abundances of 39 taxa, including four QTL that were shared between this G10 population and the population previously studied at G4. Several of the G10 QTLs show apparent pleiotropy. Eight of these QTLs, including four at the same site on chromosome 9, show significant interaction with diet, implying that diet can modify the effects of some host loci on gut microbiome composition. Utilization patterns of IghV variable regions among IgA-specific mRNAs from ileal tissue are affected by 54 significant QTLs, most of which map to a segment of chromosome 12 spanning the Igh locus. Despite the effect of genetic variation on IghV utilization, we are unable to detect overlapping microbiota and IgA QTLs and there is no significant correlation between IgA variable pattern utilization and the abundance of any of the taxa from the fecal microbiota. We conclude that host genetics and diet can converge to shape the gut microbiota, but host genetic effects are not manifested through differences in IgA production.

Characterization of Surface Texture Generated by Plateau Honing Process

Abstract: The plateau honing operation is being widely used for finishing of cylinder liners for internal combustion engines Plateau honing has been shown to significantly reduce the costly running-in period due to the fact that very little further modification of the texture is required once the liner is put into operation In order to better understand, control, and ultimately “engineer” plateau honed surfaces, a comprehensive means of characterizing this texture is required In this paper the techniques currently used are briefly reviewed and an alternate approach is proposed The proposed approach is based on analyzing the cumulative distribution plot on a normal probability graph

The Shaping of Information by Visual Metaphors

Abstract: The nature of an information visualization can be considered to lie in the visual metaphors it uses to structure information. The process of understanding a visualization therefore involves an interaction between these external visual metaphors and the user's internal knowledge representations. To investigate this claim, we conducted an experiment to test the effects of visual metaphor and verbal metaphor on the understanding of tree visualizations. Participants answered simple data comprehension questions while viewing either a treemap or a node-link diagram. Questions were worded to reflect a verbal metaphor that was either compatible or incompatible with the visualization a participant was using. The results suggest that the visual metaphor indeed affects how a user derives information from a visualization. Additionally, we found that the degree to which a user is affected by the metaphor is strongly correlated with the user's ability to answer task questions correctly. These findings are a first step towards illuminating how visual metaphors shape user understanding, and have significant implications for the evaluation, application, and theory of visualization.

The Influence of CEO Gender on Market Orientation and Performance in Service Small and Medium‐Sized Service Businesses

Abstract: This study examines the effects of CEO gender on market orientation and performance (growth and profitability) among a sample of small and medium-sized service businesses. Gender was found to have significant indirect effects (via market orientation) on both market performance (growth) and financial performance (profitability). That is, female-led service SMEs perform significantly better due to their stronger market orientation relative those led by males. The findings further suggest that female-led firms were slightly better than their male-led counterparts in transmitting market performance into financial performance, although the differences were not statistically significant.

Following display rules in good or bad faith?: Customer orientation as a moderator of the display rule-emotional labor relationship

Abstract: Organizational display rules (e.g., “service with a smile”) have had mixed relationships with employee emotional labor—either in the form of “bad faith” surface acting (suppressing or faking expressions) or “good faith” deep acting (modifying inner feelings). We draw on the motivational perspective of emotional labor to argue that individual differences in customer orientation will directly and indirectly relate to these acting strategies in response to display rules. With a survey of more than 500 working adults in customer contact positions, and controlling for affective disposition, we find that customer orientation directly increases “good faith” acting while it moderates the relationship of display rules with “bad faith” acting.