Classical literature gives life to business paradox and systems integration

Professors bemoan the great difficulty students have understanding the complexity of their disciplines or functional specializations. Many non-traditional students have work and family commitments that limit the time needed to reflect professionally and to master these concepts. This disconnect has persisted despite decades of work developing more integrated, interdisciplinary curricula. One potential, partial solution is to simply start sooner and partner with liberal arts courses to introduce business students to complexity and paradox before they arrive at the business school. Grounding these concepts in the Classics embeds them in great stories of passion, betrayal, commitment, and emotion normally absent in business courses. Business textbooks and cases are usually sanitized, simplified, and quantified, stripping them of the chaos normally experienced in reality. These classical tales are captivating and compelling, making the business concepts used to analyze them more memorable and hopefully retained until encountered again in the business curriculum. The classics deal with real and raw emotions, with powerful prose more likely to capture and engage students on a very personal level. This article explores how economics can be used to analyze Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, how multi-stakeholder theory can be used to analyze Sophocles’ Antigone, and how business contract law can be used to analyze William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. Liberal Arts programs will gain additional relevance, commanding further student respect; business schools will stand a better chance of meeting AACSB gold-standard, interdisciplinary learning outcomes when students are exposed to these concepts before arriving at the business school

The Use of Text Analytics to Investigate Concepts in Intra- and Inter-disciplinary Software Piracy Research Inter-disciplinary Software Piracy Research

IS research has linked collaborators from diverse domains. IS research requires selecting and addressing an appropriate intradisciplinary or interdisciplinary scope. Identifying gaps in the current literature and deciding when and how collaborations among different disciplines may be fruitful poses challenges. We propose a process to analyze a corpus of documents from any topic, to identify potential collaboration areas. A text analytics process is used to find areas of commonality and exclusivity among questions addressed in existing IS work by analyzing abstracts in papers from multiple disciplines studying \u27software piracy.\u27 We use term-term co-occurrence to find all the terms used in close proximity to the topic. We identify which terms are most prominent in each discipline, show quantitatively how these usages coincide or diverge across disciplines, measure the overlap between pairs of disciplines, and identify clusters of terms shared among disciplines. Specific findings from this case of software piracy are presented

EVResponse - Moving Beyond Traditional Emergency Response Notification

Federal, state and local governmental agencies have been investing considerably in emergency response management systems to assist crisis management officers in the assessment, mitigation and response to emergency situations. In crisis management contexts, the timeliness of a response may be determined with reference to a fixed instant in the form of an absolute action threshold. This establishes the last possible point in time where any sort of solution is available. Once an action threshold is passed, a crisis is no longer containable; whatever adverse consequences a problem portends are thereafter inescapable. In this paper, we describe a special GIS-based response management system, EVResponse that combines GIS capabilities with web based voice translation technologies such as VoiceXML to effectively coordinate the pre, current and post crisis management activities. VoiceXML provides open standards based methodology to facilitate the integration and communication of emergency response systems with existing disaster planning systems. The EVResponse application uses web services to provide real-time reporting capabilities to both decision makers and first response units

The Use of Text Analytics to Investigate Concepts in Intra- and Inter-disciplinary Software Piracy Research

IS research has linked collaborators from diverse domains. IS research requires selecting and addressing an appropriate intradisciplinary or interdisciplinary scope. Identifying gaps in the current literature and deciding when and how collaborations among different disciplines may be fruitful poses challenges. We propose a process to analyze a corpus of documents from any topic, to identify potential collaboration areas. A text analytics process is used to find areas of commonality and exclusivity among questions addressed in existing IS work by analyzing abstracts in papers from multiple disciplines studying \u27software piracy.\u27 We use term-term co-occurrence to find all the terms used in close proximity to the topic. We identify which terms are most prominent in each discipline, show quantitatively how these usages coincide or diverge across disciplines, measure the overlap between pairs of disciplines, and identify clusters of terms shared among disciplines. Specific findings from this case of software piracy are presented

Improving the geometry of manholes designed for separate sewer systems

The design of manholes dates back more than 100 years. However, there have been developments such as the use of new materials for the manufacture of manholes, and advances in inspection and maintenance technologies, allowing improvements to the shape of manholes. This paper presents an innovative design for manholes, created to overcome the challenges associated with the installation of separate sewer systems in narrow streets, common to both UK and EU cities. The traditional separate sewer system has two separate manholes. The proposed manhole combines these two manholes into one structure, with two separate chambers, to allow storm flow and foul flow to pass through the same manhole without mixing. The structural performance of the new design has been tested using mathematical modelling validated by experimental tests. The results are compared with the structural performance of traditional manholes. The new design shows an improved resistance to high live loads

Photoreactivation of total heterotrophic bacteria in bottled drinking water after inactivation with pulsed ultra-violet light

Bacteria which cause opportunistic infections such as Pseudomonas can self resuscitate incircumstances where effective UV disinfection is compromised and is exposed to sunlight. The study investigated the effect of sub-lethal doses of pulsed ultra-violet (PUV) light on total heterotrophic bacteria (THB) in three brands of bottled water packed in glass and plastic bottles and how photoreactivation and dark repair occurred. The effect of exposure time on photoreactivation of Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa after inactivation with PUV was also investigated. THB in brands 1, 2 and 3 were completely inactivated by 7, 3 and 5 pulses of UV light respectively. Light repair of THB varied in the three brands of bottled water due perhaps to differences in the ionic composition of the three brands. Brands 1, 2 and 3 having 0.4, 0.7 and 1.7 log units of repair. respectively. Evidence of dark repair was not significant. Photo-repair in E. coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa increased gradually with continual exposure to irradiating light for a period after which there was a decrease, suggesting that for a particular bacterium and illuminating source, an optimum time of exposure exist during which maximum photo-repair occur

Users’ Perceptions of Information Systems Implementation in Banking Institutions in a Developing Nation

Information systems projects are undertaken by institutions due to perceived need and benefits that such systems promise. The understanding of users’ perception of ICT implementation enables organizations benefit from such investments. Although research on IS investments in developed nations abound, there is scare research on developing nations especially those south of the Sahara. This paper examined the success of electronic banking systems implementation in a developing nation environment. We evaluated users’ perception on seven dimensions of IS success using one national and one international bank. Our results show that users of both the national and international bank had high perception of IS implementations success although the Natbank’s responders had higher perception than IntBank’s responders on all seven dimensions. Further, the differences in users’ perception of information quality, system quality, information quality and intend to use/Use were statistically significant while the difference in user satisfaction and net benefits were not. While this study is exploratory in nature, the results provide a guide for further studies on success of IS implementation in developing nations

Examining Users’ Information Disclosure and Audience Support Response Dynamics in Online Health Communities: An Empirical Study

Online healthcare communities (OHCs) facilitate two-way interaction. Examining users’ information disclosure-audience support response dynamics can reveal insights for fostering a supportive environment, community engagement, bond formation, knowledge sharing, and sustained participation in OHCs. We propose a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) model of user disclosure and response dynamics in OHCs. Based on the health disclosure decision-making model and daily time series data, we examine the two-way interaction of two dimensions of disclosure efficacy with audience support response acceptance. Findings of the impulse response functions reveal that user information density leads to positive support response acceptance, whereas support response acceptance reduces the information density of a user post over time. Further, higher information efficacy leads to more support response acceptance with long run improved information efficacy. Theoretically, findings extend the disclosure decision-making model in OHCs. Practically, the results provide insights for OHC management to facilitate two-way dynamic users’ interactions

Yam Tuber Dormancy and Sprouting: The Role of Concentration Dynamics of Endogenous Gibberellic Acid

The role of endogenous gibberellic acid (GA ) in the regulation of yam (Dioscorea spp.) tuber 3 dormancy was investigated by determining the changes in the endogenous GA levels during 3 natural dormancy progression. Two Dioscorea rotundata cultivars ('Pona' and 'Labreko') and one Dioscorea alata cultivar ('CRI-Ahoɔdenfoɔ') used in these studies have varying dormancy duration. Endogenous GA levels determined for the yam tubers ranged from 1.53 – 3.05 mg/g dw 3 and 1.23 – 1.58 mg/g dw for 'Pona'; 1.53 – 3.40 mg/g dw and 1.25–1.57 mg/g dw for 'Labreko'; 1.48 – 3.62 mg/g dw and 1.28 – 1.60 mg/g dw for 'CRI-Ahoɔdenfoɔ', respectively, for the outer and inner portions. 'Pona' and 'Labreko' had dormancy break at 60 days after harvest (DAH), but at 90 DAH for 'CRI-Ahoɔdenfoɔ'. Generally, GA levels increased from harvest to the maximum 3 at 30 DAH, then declined to the minimum at 60 DAH before finally increasing again at 90 DAH for the outer portions of the yam tuber. For the inner portions of the tuber, GA levels rather 3 declined significantly to the minimum at 30 DAH, increased at 60 DAH and then decreased again at 90 DAH. GA levels in the outer portions of the tubers increased by 84-122%, 65-77% and 61- 3 65%, respectively, in 'CRI-Ahoɔdenfoɔ', 'Labreko' and 'Pona', but decreased in the inner portions by 19-23%, 24-26% and 26-28%. Essentially, higher amounts of endogenous gibberellins in yam tubers induced longer dormancy duration whereas lower amounts were indicative of dormancy termination and subsequent initiation of sprouting.&nbsp

A narrative synthesis of illustrative evidence on effects of capitation payment for primary care: lessons for Ghana and other low/middle-income countries

Objective: To analyse and synthesize available international experiences and information on the motivation for, and effects of using capitation as provider payment method in country health systems and lessons and implications for low/middle-income countries.Methods: We did narrative review and synthesis of the literature on the effects of capitation payment on primary care.Results: Eleven articles were reviewed. Capitation payment encourages efficiency: drives down cost, serves as critical source of income for providers, promotes adherence to guidelines and policies, encourages providers to work better and give health education to patients. It, however, induces reduction in the quantity and quality of care providedand encourages skimming on inputs, underserving of patients in bad state of health, “dumping” of high risk patients and negatively affect patient-provider relationship.Conclusion: The illustrative evidence adduced from the review demonstrates that capitation payment in primary care can create positive incentives but could also elicit un-intended effects. However, due to differences in country context, policy makers in Ghana and other low/middle-income countries may only be guided by the illustrative evidencein their design of a context-specific capitation payment for primary care.Funding: Netherlands Fellowship Programme (NFP), Fellowship number: NFP-PhD.12/352Keywords: Capitation payment, primary care, cost-containment, national health insurance, Ghan