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Despite the broad application of the technology–organisation–environment (TOE) framework to explain firms' adoption of technology, prior research tends to over‐emphasise the independent effects of TOE elements while neglecting decision makers' strategic orientations when making organisational technology adoption decisions. This over‐simplistic interpretation of the TOE framework has culminated in inconsistent findings within extant literature. Considering the interdependencies among the three TOE elements in shaping organisational technology adoption and also decision‐makers' inclination to weigh the three TOE elements differently based on their strategic orientations, this study views organisational technology adoption from a systems standpoint based on a configurational approach. Particularly, we differentiate between two types of strategic orientations, namely functional orientation, which accentuates the technology‐induced efficiency gains and symbolic orientation, which stresses the image or reputation afforded through technology adoption. We advance a configurational model for organisational technology adoption that: (1) conceptualises organisational technology adoption as an outcome arising from distinct configurations of TOE elements, and; (2) extends the TOE framework by incorporating strategic orientation as an inevitable aspect of decision‐making for organisational technology adoption. To validate our proposed model, we conducted a field survey of 183 firms to collect data on their considerations underpinning organisational technology adoption before employing fuzzy‐set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to derive configurations of TOE elements responsible for driving such adoption. Analytical results reveal that the TOE configurations vary across three types of organisations (namely performance enhancer, image builder and strategic transformer). The theoretical and practical implications of our study are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The maelstrom spermatogenic transposon silencer (MAEL) function in postmeiotic germ cells remains unclear, and its protein localization in human testis and spermatozoa awaits determination. This study aims to clarify the MAEL expression in human spermatogenesis and to explore its role in sperm function. Materials and methods: Twenty‐seven asthenozoospermic men, 40 normozoospermic controls, and three obstructive azoospermic men were enrolled. The transcripts of MAEL in the seminiferous epithelium and MAEL downstream targets were identified by bioinformatics analysis. MAEL protein expression in human testis and ejaculated sperms were examined by immunohistochemical and immunogold staining, respectively. The roles of MAEL in mitochondria function were investigated by siRNA knockdown in human H358 cells. The association between MAEL protein levels and clinical sperm features was evaluated. Results: Abundant MAEL was expressed in spermatid and spermatozoa of the human testis. Remarkably, MAEL was located in the mitochondria of ejaculated sperm, and bioinformatics analysis identified GPX4 and UBL4B as MAEL's downstream targets. Knockdown of MAEL sabotaged mitochondria function and reduced adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production in H358 cells. MAEL, GPX4, and UBL4B expression levels were significantly decreased in asthenozoospermic sperms than in controls. The MAEL protein levels were positively correlated with GPX4 and UBL4B in human sperm. Total motile sperm count (TMSC) was positively correlated with protein levels of MAEL, GPX4, and UBL4B in ejaculated sperms. Conclusions: We highlight prominent MAEL expression in the intratesticular spermatid and the mitochondria of ejaculated spermatozoa. MAEL directly binds to GPX4 and UBL4B, and loss of MAEL induces mitochondrial dysfunction. MAEL‐mitochondrial function‐motility relationship might advance our understanding of the causes of asthenozoospermia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY Subscriber stations located in different places encounter various interferences in an IEEE 802.16 network, resulting in that their communication channels experience varying channel conditions. Thus, an excellent bandwidth allocation algorithm should not only satisfy various QoS required by heterogeneous traffic, but also consider the channel quality to maximize bandwidth utilization. In this paper, a bandwidth allocation algorithm with channel quality awareness and QoS guarantee, called CQQ, is proposed. CQQ not only satisfies each connection's QoS requirement, but also dynamically adjusts the downlink/uplink bandwidth to match current downlink/uplink traffic ratio. CQQ allocates more bandwidth to the connections having better channel quality by applying weighted fair queuing strategy to raise the bandwidth usage. CQQ provides lower delay violation ratio and higher goodput than the previous algorithms, as observed from the simulation results. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]