Adoption of Interorganizational Business Process Standards in Business-to-Business Integration: An Exploratory Study

We conducted an exploratory study to understand the factors that played important role in the adoption of RosettaNet-based interorganizational business process standards (IBPS) in business-to-business integration (B2Bi). We found 3 sets of drivers of IBPS adoption in organizations: i.e., external, internal, and instrumental. External factors include institutional pressures, standards uncertainty, and quality of interorganizational relationships. Internal factors include internal pressures, job change, technology readiness, ICT competence, and organizational culture. Finally, instrumental factors include perceived benefits, process compatibility, and complexity

Unmeasured anions: the unknown unknowns

Evidence is emerging that elevated concentrations of the intermediates of the citric acid cycle may contribute to unmeasured anions in critical illness. Both the anion gap and the strong ion gap are used as scanning tools for recognition of these anions. The mechanisms underlying these elevations and their significance require further clarification

Clinical review: Adiponectin biology and its role in inflammation and critical illness

Adiponectin is an adipokine first described just over a decade ago. Produced almost exclusively by adipocytes, adiponectin circulates in high concentrations in human plasma. Research into this hormone has revealed it to have insulin-sensitizing, anti-inflammatory and cardioprotective roles. This review discusses the history, biology and physiological role of adiponectin and explores its role in disease, with specific focus on adiponectin in inflammation and sepsis. It appears that an inverse relationship exists between adiponectin and inflammatory cytokines. Low levels of adiponectin have been found in critically ill patients, although data are limited in human subjects at this stage. The role of adiponectin in systemic inflammation and critical illness is not well defined. Early data suggest that plasma levels of adiponectin are decreased in critical illness. Whether this is a result of the disease process itself or whether patients with lower levels of this hormone are more susceptible to developing a critical illness is not known. This observation of lower adiponectin levels then raises the possibility of therapeutic options to increase circulating adiponectin levels. The various options for modulation of serum adiponectin (recombinant adiponectin, thiazolidinediones) are discussed

Optimal operation of small, numerous, and disparate DERs via aggregation in transactive distribution systems with universal metering

Transactive energy distribution systems (TEDS) have unleashed new economic opportu-nities in the distribution sector via a new local distribution operator (LDO) that enablestransactions between peers and the LDO (P2LDO) and peer-to-peer transactions. Aimingto unleash full benefits from existing distributed energy resources (DERs), this paper intro-duces an optimization algorithm for the operation of small, numerous, and disparate DERaggregations. The proposed algorithm seeks to maximize aggregator profits obtained viaP2LDO and peer-to-peer transactions for energy and demand response, while being cog-nizant of capacity obligations acquired during transactive energy distribution system plan-ning phases. In addition, the concept of universal metering is introduced to upgrade theeconomic opportunity of DERs. Results obtained via case studies show that the proposedapproach can help DER owners to increase their revenue. An aggregated case study for300 m shows that the overall revenue can be increased by more than 100% when operatingDERs in an aggregated fashio

IT Use and Job Outcomes: A Longitudinal Field Study of Technology Contingencies

As information technology (IT) continues to be an integral yet evolving component in work settings, organizations need to ensure that they realize value from IT. Prior studies examining the post-adoption consequences of IT use in terms of employee job outcomes have been inconclusive with respect to the magnitude and direction of these impacts—i.e., the positive, negative, and nonsignificant impacts of IT use on job outcomes. The question of under what conditions IT use leads to favorable job outcomes over time thus remains largely unanswered. We develop a model of IT-related contingencies that integrates core constructs from the IT adoption research with two key job outcomes: job satisfaction and job performance. We hypothesize that in the post-adoption phase, technology-job fit is a key moderator of the relationships between IT use for supporting sales operations and job outcomes. Further, we suggest a theoretical extension of the classical predictors of IT adoption—perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use—as we expect them to moderate the effect of IT use on job performance over time. We tested our model in a longitudinal field study among 295 field sales personnel over a 24-month period. We found that although IT use had a negative effect on job satisfaction during the post-adoption phase, this effect was moderated by technology-job fit such that the negative effect was significantly attenuated by technology-job fit. We also found that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and technology-job fit enhanced the positive effect of IT use on job performance. Our findings offer insights into the mechanisms and conditions related to the post-adoption impacts of IT use on key job outcomes

Locational Marginal Pricing for Distribution Networks: Review and Applications

Many distribution networks are operating based on uniform energy price rate for all the system nodes. However, with high penetration of distributed energy resources (DER), energy storage (ES) and flexible demands (FD), there is a big opportunity to optimally operate the distribution networks. In this context, distribution locational marginal pricing (DLMP) can be employed, similar to that of whole-sale electricity market, as the distribution pricing mechanism. The main advantage of DLPM that it can count for the network losses and congestion, so it can ensure a competitive and fair participation for all the entities, such as DERs and FDs, on the distribution side. With introduction of transactive energy system (TES) on wider scale in modern power systems, there will be a big necessity to adopt a robust pricing mechanism such as DLMP to consider both technical and economic concerns of distribution networks. In this paper, a brief review has been conducted on DLMP and its application. Further, an illustrative example is provided to demonstrate several attributes for the operation of distribution networks and its impacts on the DLMP values

Comprehensive platform for distribution transactiveenergy markets

Reducing the cost of distributed energy resources (DERs) such as renewables, storage,electric vehicles and smart loads is driving their increased connection to distributionsystems. Extracting maximum benefits from DERs require liberalising distribution sys-tems by allowing: (1) a distribution transactive energy market (DTEM) operated by alocal distribution operator (LDO) and (2) peer-to-peer (P2P), peer-to-LDO (P2LDO) andTransmission-to-LDO (T2LDO) type transactions. A DTEM will bring several benefitssuch as: (1) enhanced economic opportunity for DERs, making them more profitable and(2) increased social welfare benefiting both buyers and sellers. To achieve this objective, wedevelop a comprehensive three-phase DTEM platform that provides maximum economicopportunities for DERs and maximises social welfare that benefits all market participants,while considering P2P, P2LDO and T2LDO transactions, for both energy and ancillaryservices. Interaction between bulk electricity market independent system operator (ISO)and LDO controlled DTEM is presented. The DTEM model is implemented as a practi-cal mixed-integer linear programming formulation that includes a network reconfigurationfeature. The DTEM model is studied on three-phase 5-bus and 34-bus systems, demon-strating its effectiveness to settle energy and ancillary service transactions, while obtainingdistribution locational marginal prices. Results show that P2P transactions, when allowed,increase social welfare and increases profitability of DER