The Information Of The Milky Way From 2MASS Whole Sky Star Count: The Bimodal Color Distributions

The J-Ks color distribution (CD) with a bin size of 0.05 magnitude for the entire Milky Way has been carried out by using the Two Micron All Sky Survey Point Source Catalog (2MASS PSC). The CDs are bimodal, which has a red peak at 0.8 < J-Ks < 0.85 and a blue peak at 0.3 < J-Ks < 0.4. The colors of the red peak are more or less the same for the whole sky, but that of the blue peak depend on Galactic latitude, (J-Ks ~ 0.35 at low Galactic latitudes and 0.35 < J-Ks < 0.4 for other sky areas). The blue peak dominates the bimodal CDs at low Galactic latitudes and becomes comparable with the red peak in other sky regions. In order to explain the bimodal distribution and the global trend shown by the all sky 2MASS CDs, we assemble an empirical HR diagram, which is composed by observational-based near infrared HR diagrams and color magnitude diagrams, and incorporate a Milky Way model. In the empirical HR diagram, the main sequence stars turnoff the thin disk is relatively bluer, (J-Ks)0 = 0.31, when we compare with the thick disk which is (J-Ks)0 = 0.39. The age of the thin/thick disk is roughly estimated to be around 4-5/8-9 Gyr according to the color-age relation of the main sequence turnoff. In general, the 2MASS CDs can be treated as a tool to census the age of stellar population of the Milky Way in a statistical manner and to our knowledge this is a first attempt to measure the age.Comment: Accepted by ApJ on Sept. 11 201

Knowledge Creation and Firm Performance: Mediating Processes from an Organizational Agility Perspective

Knowledge creation has emerged as a critical area in information systems research in the past decade (Nonaka 1994). However, the mechanism through which knowledge creation enhances firm performance remains unclear. This paper examines the role of organization agility as a mediator between knowledge creation processes and firm performance. Our survey study of 134 firms indicates that two forms of organizational agility – customer agility and operational agility, significantly and fully mediate the effect of knowledge creation on firm performance. Our findings extend prior research by providing insights into the role of organizational agility in facilitating the effect of knowledge creation processes on firm performance. Implications for researchers and managers are discussed

Probing onset of strong localization and electron-electron interactions with the presence of direct insulator-quantum Hall transition

We have performed low-temperature transport measurements on a disordered two-dimensional electron system (2DES). Features of the strong localization leading to the quantum Hall effect are observed after the 2DES undergoes a direct insulator-quantum Hall transition with increasing the perpendicular magnetic field. However, such a transition does not correspond to the onset of strong localization. The temperature dependences of the Hall resistivity and Hall conductivity reveal the importance of the electron-electron interaction effects to the observed transition in our study.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Customized Internet News Services Based on Customer Profiles

The rapid propagation of the Internet and information technologies has changed the nature of many industries through easy collection, analysis, and sharing of information. Rapid response and product customization are major concerns in their marketing and strategic planning. This is particularly significant in the industries that offer digital contents to their clients, such as consulting and news services. In this paper, a news recommendation system that allows a news service provider to analyze its customer profile and then produce customized news services is developed. An empirical study using actual news provided by the China Times shows that the recommendation system outperforms the traditional headline news compiled by the news editor in both objective performance indices and customer satisfaction

Knowledge Creation and Organizational Performation: An Organizational Agility Perspective

This paper is an extended summary of a research that examines the role of organizational agility as a mediator between knowledge creation processes and organizational performance. The moderating role of two knowledge characteristics, tacitness and institutionalization, in the mediation processes are also analyzed. Our results indicate that organizational agility significantly mediated the effect of knowledge creation on organizational creativity, which, in turn, affects organizational performance