Virtual Organizational Learnign in Open Source Software Development Projects

We studied the existence of virtual organizational learning in open source software (OSS) development projects. Specifically, our research focused on learning effects of OSS projects and factors that affect the learning process. The number and percentage of resolved bugs and bug resolution time of 118 SourceForge.net OSS projects were used to measure the learning effects> Projects were characterized by project type, number and experience of developers, number of bugs, and bug resolution time. Our results provide evidence of virtual organizational learning in OSS development projects.Virtual organizational leraning: Organizational learning curve: Virtual organization: Open source software development: Project performance

Investigating the Reciprocal Relationships Within Health Virtual Communities

Health virtual communities are a major channel through which health consumers share health-related knowledge and/or exchange social support with their peers. Because of the collaborative nature of health virtual communities, user participation is a critical factor for community growth and prosperity. In this study, we examine the impact of reciprocity on user participation within health virtual communities. Additionally, we investigate the impact of the homophily (similarity of user characteristics such as age, gender, and tenure) on user participation. To do so, we analyzed 1947 messages exchanged between 130 users and their peers. Our results support short-term reciprocity, but refute the positive relationship associated with long-term reciprocity. Among homophily hypotheses, our results support gender homophily, but not age homophily and tenure homophily

Assessing Researcher Publication Productivity in the Leading Information Systems Journals: A 2003-2007 Update

This study examines the leading IS researchers and the universities that supply them. We reviewed publications from nine leading IS journals during calendar years 2003 to 2007. During that time, 3,404 researchers contributed toward 2,155 published articles. Our analysis shows that most of the leading researchers were affiliated with institutions in North America. Our study also includes an analysis of the publication productivity of both IS faculty and doctoral students. This research contributes to the scientometric literature by providing a means for assessing IS publication productivity

Sonar discrimination of cylinders from different angles using neural networks neural networks

This paper describes an underwater object discrimination system applied to recognize cylinders of various compositions from different angles. The system is based on a new combination of simulated dolphin clicks, simulated auditory filters and artificial neural networks. The model demonstrates its potential on real data collected from four different cylinders in an environment where the angles were controlled in order to evaluate the models capabilities to recognize cylinders independent of angles. 1. INTRODUCTION Dolphins possess an excellent sonar system for solving underwater target discrimination and recognition tasks in shallow water (see e.g., [2]). This has inspired research in new sonar systems based on biological knowledge, i.e. modeling the dolphins discrimination capabilities (see e.g., [4] and [5]). The fact that the inner ear of the dolphin has many similarities with the human inner ear makes it tempting to use knowledge from simulations of the human auditory system when t..

Critical Success Factors for an Effective Security Risk Management Program: An Exploratory Case Study at a Fortune 500 Firm

We investigate differences in perception between management and staff with regard to the influence of criticalsuccess factors (CSFs) on security risk management (SRM) effectiveness at a Fortune 500 company. Nine CSFs areconfirmed to exist in the organization. Management and staff agree that each CSF is important for SRMeffectiveness, but differ on the level of importance of each CSF. With regard to six of the nine CSFs (executivemanagement support, organization maturity, open communication, holistic view of organization, corporate securitystrategy, and human resource development), management and staff concur on their current implementation, and havea positive perception about their impact. The results also indicate that both management and staff are not satisfiedwith the current practices pertaining to risk management stakeholders, team member empowerment, and securitymaintenance. Recommendations are presented for the organization as part of possible solutions to counter thedissatisfaction with these three CSFs

A Multilevel Investigation of Participation Within Virtual Health Communities

Virtual health communities are a major channel through which health consumers share health-related knowledge and/or exchange social support with their peers. These virtual environments can be a form of, or a potential component of, integrated Patient-centered e-Health (PCEH) applications, which represent emerging healthcare information systems that emphasize the role of patients and revolve around providing patient-focus, patient-activity, and patient-empowerment services. Because of the collaborative nature of virtual health communities, user participation is a critical factor for community growth and prosperity. In this study, we examine user participation at the individual and group (thread) levels. At the individual level, we investigate the impact of reciprocity and homophily (similarity of user characteristics such as age, gender, and tenure) on user participation within virtual health communities. At the thread level, we study the role of highly active users (power users) as thread initiators as well as the role of thread initiators’ participation on the overall thread vibrancy. To do so, we analyzed 2,176 threads initiated by 130 users and 1,947 messages exchanged between these users and their peers. Our results support short-term reciprocity, but refute the positive relationship associated with long-term reciprocity. Among homophily hypotheses, our results support gender homophily, but not age or tenure homophily. At the thread level our findings suggest that a discussion thread is vibrant if the thread initiator is a power user or participates actively within the thread. These findings have important implications for future research and practice in PCEH applications

Assessing Researcher Publication Productivity in the Leading Information Systems Journals: A 2005–2009 Update

This study is an update of a previous scientometric study that examined the leading Information Systems (IS) researchers, their university affiliations, and the universities that supply them. We provide geographical comparisons of researcher affiliations for the AIS regions and for North American versus global institutions, along with a comparison of prior and current results. Our analysis shows that coauthorship is increasing in the top three IS journals and that most of the leading researchers continue to affiliate with institutions in North America. However, the proportion of publications from North American researchers in the top three journals has decreased slightly over time This research contributes to the scientometric literature by identifying a more broad and inclusive set of leading IS publications and by providing benchmarks for the productivity of IS scholars. These results can be valuable for deans and department chairs making tenure and promotion decisions. Prospective students and faculty can use these results to identify universities which match their personal research goals. This study also helps to define and expand the boundaries of the IS discipline due to its use of a broader set of leading journals

Assessing Wellness Needs of Breast Cancer Survivors in Vermont

Background: • In Vermont, 500 breast cancer diagnoses are made annually. • As of 2005, epidemiological data suggest that as many as 7,000 breast cancer survivors were living in VT. • Dragonheart Vermont’s “Survivorship NOW”4 initiative aims to bridge the gap between treatment and recovery. • A literature review, including the Taking Charge program and a survivor needs assessment done by Dr. Geller, supported conducting a needs assessment in three areas: exercise, nutrition, and emotional support. • UVM COM paired with Dragonheart Vermont’s “Survivorship NOW” initiative to determine how to best address these needs.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1073/thumbnail.jp

Orca-010, a Novel Potency-enhanced Oncolytic Adenovirus, Exerts Strong Antitumor Activity in Preclinical Models

Improving the antitumor potency of current oncolytic adenoviruses represents one of the major challenges in development of these viruses for clinical use. We have generated an oncolytic adenovirus carrying the safety-enhancing E1A Delta 24 deletion, the potency-enhancing T1 mutation, and the infectivity-enhancing fiber RGD modification. The results of in vitro cytotoxicity assays on 15 human cancer cell lines derived from different tumor types demonstrated that ORCA-010 is more potent than Ad5-Delta 24RGD or ONYX-015. As ORCA-010 will initially be developed for the treatment of prostate cancer, selectivity experiments were performed using primary human prostate cells. ORCA-010 killed cancer cells more effectively than these primary human cells. In both primary prostate fibroblasts and epithelial cells, ORCA-010 was as safe as Ad5-Delta 24RGD. Evaluation of ORCA-010 in in vivo xenograft tumor models in nude mice showed that ORCA-010 significantly inhibited growth of prostate, lung, and ovarian tumors and conferred prolonged survival of tumor-bearing animals. Furthermore, we observed a substantial increase in infectious viral particles in tumors injected with ORCA-010. The number of infectious viral particles increased after treatment and infectious particles remained present up to at least 4 weeks posttreatment. Intratumoral virus replication was associated with substantial necrosis and fibrosis. In conclusion, ORCA-010 is more potent than earlier generation oncolytic adenoviruses, without demonstrating increased toxicity. ORCA-010 exerted strong in vivo antitumor activity and is therefore a suitable candidate for clinical evaluation

Cellular metabolism constrains innate immune responses in early human ontogeny

Pathogen immune responses are profoundly attenuated in fetuses and premature infants, yet the mechanisms underlying this developmental immaturity remain unclear. Here we show transcriptomic, metabolic and polysome profiling and find that monocytes isolated from infants born early in gestation display perturbations in PPAR-γ-regulated metabolic pathways, limited glycolytic capacity and reduced ribosomal activity. These metabolic changes are linked to a lack of translation of most cytokines and of MALT1 signalosome genes essential to respond to the neonatal pathogen Candida. In contrast, they have little impact on house-keeping phagocytosis functions. Transcriptome analyses further indicate a role for mTOR and its putative negative regulator DNA Damage Inducible Transcript 4-Like in regulating these metabolic constraints. Our results provide a molecular basis for the broad susceptibility to multiple pathogens in these infants, and suggest that the fetal immune system is metabolically programmed to avoid energetically costly, dispensable and potentially harmful immune responses during ontogeny