Awareness and Possession of Digital Competencies for Digital Entrepreneurship

AMCIS: Awareness and Possession of Digital Competencies for Digital Entrepreneurship TREO Talk Paper Arvind Gudi Nova Southeastern University [email protected] Ravi Chinta Nova Southeastern University [email protected] Abstract With the rapid development and expansion of digital technologies, we see the emergence of digital entrepreneurship which is the intersection of digital technology and entrepreneurship. As it gains prominence in the economic ecosystem, this topic is of interest to academics, practitioners and policymakers in general. The pre start-up phase in entrepreneurship, which is of particular interest to researchers and entrepreneurial enthusiasts, is still under-researched. Understanding what drives the incessant urge to start a new business in the minds of potential entrepreneurs is still in inchoate stages, given the high risks and uncertainties involved in start-up businesses. Extant literature in entrepreneurship has identified several determinants of persistence of thinking about start-up opportunities, which is essential for entrepreneurship. However, our literature review indicates that there is a paucity of similar research in digital start-ups (Hi-Tech Internet businesses). Our study is designed to fill this gap. This study seeks to explore how digital technologies can drive and influence entrepreneurship. We apply the proposed Digital Entrepreneurship framework (Recker and von Briel 2019) for analysis. The framework suggests three dimensions of digital technologies which can influence entrepreneurship: digital enablers, digital outcomes and digital contexts of entrepreneurial processes. We explore the constructs of awareness of importance of digital capabilities (i.e. digital strategies which include both general and specialized business analytics capabilities), and possession of digital competencies (i.e. knowledge, skills and training). We test the effects of these constructs as drivers of persistence of thinking about opportunities for digital start-ups. We intend to explore which of the above two factors is a necessary and/or sufficient condition for success in entrepreneurship and which dimensions in the framework need to be emphasized. The study has been funded by a research grant and data has been gathered in the state of Florida from approximately 1200 entrepreneurs intending to start a business. Criteria for selection of respondents included: “Intending to start business within next four years”, “Resident of State of Florida”, and “Have not started a business before”. Qualtrics panels conducted the initial screening to select the pool of respondents to send the survey. Three phases of survey selection were conducted to gather the sample of 1200 completed questionnaires. The final research sample comprised of 600 women and 600 men intending to start a business in Florida. Our results show that the awareness of importance of digital capabilities positively affect the persistence of thought about digital start-ups, whereas awareness of the importance of business analytics capabilities does not. More interestingly, the effect of the interaction between awareness and possession is significant and positive on persistence of thought. That is, greater the awareness of importance of digital capabilities, stronger is the relationship between possession of relevant digital competencies and the persistence of thought to start Hi-Tech (Internet) businesses. We expect that this study will contribute to the exciting and novel research stream in digital entrepreneurship, provide managerial implications and insights and offer opportunities related to digital enablers, digital outcomes and digital contexts of entrepreneurial processes. References Recker, J., and von Briel, F. 2019. “The Future of Digital Entrepreneurship Research: Existing and Emerging Opportunities” in Fortieth International Conference on Information Systems, Munich 2019

Competencies and Capabilities as Determinants of Digital Entrepreneurship: An Empirical Validation

This study aims to examine the influence of digital competencies and awareness of digital capabilities on digital entrepreneurial drive in the pre-startup stages of hi-tech businesses. Based on primary data from a sample of 357 respondents, we tested the hypothesized relationships for direct and interactive effects on digital entrepreneurial drive. Our results show that digital competencies and awareness of digital capabilities influence entrepreneurial aspiration and commitment in the pre-startup phase. We use the digital entrepreneurship framework by Recker and von Briel (2019) as the theoretical foundation and demonstrate a novel approach to expand the dimensions of digital enabler, digital outcome, and digital context for further research. We provide unique insights to researchers and practitioners of digital entrepreneurship regarding conceptualizing digital capabilities along with digital competencies. In addition to possessing digital competencies, budding entrepreneurs need to develop a keen awareness of digital capabilities to understand the changing dynamics of the entrepreneurial landscape

Cavernous hemangioma of the parotid gland

Cavernous hemangioma (CH), or cavernoma, is a type of benign tumor occurring mostly in the brain, liver, skin, and retina.1,2 Although less commonly, CH can also occur in the spine, orbit, gastrointestinal tract, skeletal muscle, and long bones.1 CH comprises a cluster of abnormally dilated blood vessels that form a mass or lesion.2,3CH is more commonly found in women than men and typically occur between the ages of 40 and 60. Their precise incidence needs to be well-established; however, they account for 2-4% of all parotid gland tumors.2 Still, they are considered one of the less parotid gland common types of tumors.2,3 Most parotid gland tumors are benign, with only about 20% malignant.1,2CH is typically diagnosed by imaging tests such as MRI or CT scans. The location, size, symptoms, and general health of the patient are among the variables that affect how cavernous hemangiomas are treated. Treatment options in symptomatic cases with functional impairment and high risk of bleeding, include medical (steroid or interferon), embolization, surgery, or radiosurgery.2,4Parotid gland tumors can be either benign or malignant. CH of the parotid gland is a relatively rare but well-documented entity in the medical literature. There is currently not enough knowledge on the prevalence of CH in the parotid gland; there were roughly 50 cases reported worldwide, most of which were individual case reports. Overall, the literature suggests that cavernous hemangioma of the parotid gland is a rare benign entity more common in females and typically presents as a painless mass in the parotid gland area. Surgical removal is the primary treatment, and this entity has a good prognosis and a low recurrence risk.1-4 CH of the parotid gland can present with various symptoms, including a painless mass or swelling in the area of the gland, facial nerve weakness or paralysis, and even hearing loss in some cases. The diagnosis of a CH is usually based on imaging studies such as MRI or CT scans, which can show a well-defined, sharply demarcated mass with areas of low and high intensity.2-4A hemangioma's histopathological appearance can help determine the appropriate management and treatment options. Capillary hemangiomas may be treated with topical or oral medications, while surgical removal may be necessary for cavernous hemangiomas, depending on their size and location.2,3Treatment options for parotid gland cavernous hemangiomas depend on the lesion’s size and location, the patient's symptoms and overall health status. In some cases, surgical removal of the tumor may be necessary, which can be challenging due to the proximity of the facial nerve and the risk of its injury. In other cases, observation or radiation therapy may be recommended.3-5Cavernous hemangioma is a type of vascular malformation, but other types of vascular malformations can present with similar symptoms or imaging findings. The differential diagnosis of vascular malformation with cavernous hemangioma includes (i) Venous malformation: a type of vascular malformation that affects veins, and it can look similar to cavernous hemangioma on imaging studies. However, venous malformations typically have a more uniform appearance, while cavernous hemangiomas have a characteristic “popcorn” appearance due to multiple blood-filled spaces; (ii) Capillary malformation: a type of vascular malformation that affects small blood vessels called capillaries. Capillary malformations can present as flat, red, or pink marks on the skin and can sometimes be mistaken for cavernous hemangioma; (iii) arteriovenous malformation: a type of vascular malformation that involves abnormal connections between arteries and veins. Arteriovenous malformations can cause symptoms such as headaches, seizures, and neurological deficits and can be mistaken for cavernous hemangioma on imaging studies; (iv) Lymphatic malformation: a type of vascular malformation that affects the lymphatic vessels and can cause swelling or abnormal growths. Lymphatic malformations can sometimes be mistaken for cavernous hemangioma in imaging studies.4,5Figure 1 refers to a 42-year-old female patient with a painless, slowly growing mass in the right parotid region. The mass had been present for the past 6 months and has gradually increased. The patient reported no other significant symptoms, such as facial weakness or pain. The physical examination revealed a soft, non-tender mass in the right parotid region that measured approximately 6 cm. The overlying skin was normal, and there were no palpable lymph nodes in the neck. The ultrasound examination showed a well-circumscribed, hypoechoic lesion within the superficial lobe of the parotid gland, measuring 5.2 cm. The lesion had a cystic appearance with internal septations, consistent with a vascular lesion. The patient underwent an MRI, which confirmed the presence of a well-defined, lobulated mass in the superficial lobe of the right parotid gland, measuring 5.5 cm. The lesion was hyperintense on T2-weighted images and demonstrated heterogeneous enhancement with gadolinium. The imaging findings were consistent with a diagnosis of vascular malformation of the parotid gland. The patient was referred to a head and neck surgeon for further evaluation and treatment. Due to the lesion’s size and location, surgical resection was recommended. The patient underwent a superficial parotidectomy, and the postoperative course was uneventful. Histopathological examination of the resected specimen confirmed the diagnosis of CH (Figure 1A-1D). The patient was followed up for several months after the surgery, and there was no evidence of recurrence or complications.Figure 1A - gross image showing normal salivary gland tissue along with a well-encapsulated tumor with areas of hemorrhage and comprising of numerous cystic spaces (vascular channels) scale bar = 2,5 cm; B - microscopic examination at low magnification showing normal salivary gland parenchyma along with a capsulated tumor comprised of many dilated vascular channels (H&E 100X); C - higher magnification image showing thick and thin walls vascular spaces in between fibro-muscular stroma (H&E, 400X); D - immunohistochemical reaction for smooth muscle actin (SMA) demonstrating smooth muscle bundles and vessel walls (SMA, 400X).

Activity report analysis with automatic single or multispan answer extraction

In the era of loT (Internet of Things) we are surrounded by a plethora of Al enabled devices that can transcribe images, video, audio, and sensors signals into text descriptions. When such transcriptions are captured in activity reports for monitoring, life logging and anomaly detection applications, a user would typically request a summary or ask targeted questions about certain sections of the report they are interested in. Depending on the context and the type of question asked, a question answering (QA) system would need to automatically determine whether the answer covers single-span or multi-span text components. Currently available QA datasets primarily focus on single span responses only (such as SQuAD[4]) or contain a low proportion of examples with multiple span answers (such as DROP[3]). To investigate automatic selection of single/multi-span answers in the use case described, we created a new smart home environment dataset comprised of questions paired with single-span or multi-span answers depending on the question and context queried. In addition, we propose a RoBERTa[6]-based multiple span extraction question answering (MSEQA) model returning the appropriate answer span for a given question. Our experiments show that the proposed model outperforms state-of-the-art QA models on our dataset while providing comparable performance on published individual single/multi-span task datasets

TAILORING THE NANOPARTICLES SURFACE FOR EFFICIENT CANCER THERAPEUTICS DELIVERY

Nanotechnology has tremendous advantages in many areas of scientific as well as clinical research. The development of nanoparticles (NPs) that can efficiently deliver drugs specifically to the cancer cells can help reduce normal cells toxicity and co-morbidities. Cancer can be treated by exploiting the unique physiochemical of the NPs, and modulating their surface modifications using ligands which further could be used as drug cargo vehicles. To enhance biocompatibility and drug delivery towards the target site, various modifications can be included to modify the surface of the NPs, such as carbohydrates, dendrimers, DNA, RNA, siRNA, drugs, and other ligands. These ligand-coated NPs have potential applications in the field of biomedical research, including diagnosis, contrast agents for molecular and clinical imaging (Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET)), as cargo vehicles for drugs, increasing the blood circulation half-life, and blood detoxification. Further, the conjugation of anti-cancer drugs to the NPs can be efficiently used to target the cancer disease. This review highlights some of the features and surface modification strategies of the NPs, such as an iron oxide (IO), liposomes (LP)-based NPs, and polymer-based NPs, which show their effectiveness as cargo agents for cancer therapeutics

Gallbladder adenocarcinoma skin metastasis

The skin is one of the largest organs of the human body; however, cutaneous metastases are occasional.1 The overall incidence of cutaneous metastasis due to malignancies is 5.3%.1,2 The most common cutaneous metastases are associated with breast cancer, followed by lung, colorectal, renal, ovarian, and bladder malignancies.2,3Gall bladder carcinoma (GBC) accounts for 80-95% of biliary tract malignancies and carries a poor prognosis.2,3 Most patients remain asymptomatic until the tumor reaches an advanced stage or is incidentally diagnosed. Primary gallbladder carcinoma spread by direct extension and metastasis. By direct extension, the liver is the most usually affected organ, with an incidence of 60 to 90%, while regional lymph nodes are involved in approximately 60% of cases. Extra-abdominal metastasis is rare and is disseminated through vascular dispersion and tumor cell homing. Cutaneous metastasis of primary gallbladder cancer is sporadic and has an incidence of 0.7 to 0.9%.4GBC prevalence varies geographically and racially. The indigenous Mapuche people of Chile have the greatest incidence, with 27.3 per 100,000 person-years documented among females. High rates have also been discovered in regions of India, eastern Asia, and various central and eastern Europe countries. GBC is more common in females with gallstones in Chile and India. It is virtually equally common in men in Eastern Asia, although the link to gallstones is significantly weaker, implying regional etiological differences.2-4 Gallbladder carcinomas diagnosed at an advanced age carry a poor prognosis.1,2 The bile ducts, stomach, duodenum, colon, omentum, abdominal wall, pancreas, and portal vein are involved by direct extension.2 Extra abdominal metastases, vascular dissemination, and tumor cell homing are rare. The lung is the most common extra-abdominal site of metastases. Other rare sites of metastases include the heart, orbit, central nervous system, skin, and bone.3,4Nevertheless, metastases to the scalp have not been fully clarified. According to Paget's “soil-seed” hypothesis, the scalp provided a favorable environment for colonizing and surviving gallbladder cancer cells. In addition, the interaction between tumor cells and certain factors secreted from the dermis or epidermis might be extensively involved in the skin (including the scalp) homing mechanism of metastatic cells.2,3The five-year survival rate among patients diagnosed with gallbladder cancer is <5% and the mean survival time in cases of gallbladder cancer with skin metastasis is 7.5 months. The most common histological type of gallbladder cancer with skin metastasis is adenocarcinoma.5 Typically, the metastatic lesions are non-tender, erythematous, nodular, or cutaneous or subcutaneous. Our literature search in PubMed showed only a few cases of cutaneous metastasis of gallbladder carcinoma to date, of which only six were reported on the scalp. Skin metastases usually present as nodular lesion invading the dermis and subcutaneous fat, and is less than 3 cm in diameter and most often asymptomatic.4,5Non-pruritic, indurated lesions in patients should always raise suspicion for cutaneous metastases from internal malignancy and undergo biopsy. Rarely, these lesions may be the initial presentation of malignancy. Cutaneous metastases from gallbladder cancer represent an advanced disease associated with an abysmal prognosis.2,3 Cutaneous metastasis needs a histopathologic examination, which immunohistochemistry should be accomplished in case of discrepancies for the presumed primary cancer. Fine needle aspiration cytology is also a minimally invasive diagnostic tool, but complete excision is still the method of choice to ensure the best quality of histopathologic examination.Figure 1 refers to a 68-year-old female who presented to the surgery outpatient department (OPD) with swelling over the scalp (Figure 1A) over the last two months. No contributory history was identified. Scalp swelling was fixed, firm, and hard in the right parietal region. No involvement of the underlying bone was observed. On systemic examination, the respiratory system, cardiovascular system, and abdominal examination were within normal limits. Alpha-fetoprotein and liver function tests were within normal limits. Blood investigations revealed microcytic hypochromic anemia and neutrophilic leukocytosis. ESR was two times the reference range. In view of the clinical suspicion of malignancy, a biopsy was taken. Histologic sections showed a skin-covered tissue with focal ulceration and a tumor that extended to the dermis and subcutis (Figure 1B). Tumor cells were arranged in glandular patterns and islands. Individual tumor cells were oval to cuboidal, with a large nucleus, irregular nuclear membrane, vesicular chromatin, prominent nucleoli, and moderate cytoplasm. A few cells showed cytoplasmic clearing. The peritumoral desmoplastic reaction was also identified with intratumorally brisk mitotic figures. Focal areas of necrosis with acute and chronic inflammatory infiltrate were also identified. Immunohistochemistry revealed tumor cells to be diffusely positive for cytokeratin 7 (CK7) and CK19 (Figure 1C and 1D) and negative for CK20, thyroid transcription factor (TTF-1), Gross Cystic Disease Fluid Protein-15 (GCDFP-15), mammaglobin, Hepatocyte Paraffin 1 (Hep Par1), Paired box gene 8 (PAX-8) and Wilms tumor gene 1 (WT1).Figure 1A – Gross view of the swelling over the scalp region, with focal ulceration; B – Photomicrograph of the nodule biopsy shows thinned-out keratinized stratified squamous epithelium. Sub-epithelium shows infiltration by the adenocarcinoma with an intermixed area of fibrosis and mild chronic inflammation. The tumor is reaching up to the overlying skin (H&E, 100X); C – The tumor cells are immunopositive for cytokeratin 7 (CK-7) (100X); D – Immunohistochemistry for CK-19 is positive in tumor cells (200X).: An abdominal computed tomography scan on imaging workup revealed a gallbladder mass with multiple liver lesions and brain metastasis. Based on immunohistochemistry and imaging findings, the diagnosis was metastatic gall bladder carcinoma to the scalp

Yolk sac tumor, a rare and challenging ovarian malignancy: case report

Yolk sac tumors (YST) are rare and rapidly developing neoplasm presenting in young females. They are second most common germ cell tumor after dysgerminomas. Fertility preservation is an important concern in treatment of patients of YST. We present a case of 22 years nulliparous female with rapidly evolving abdominal mass. The patient underwent fertility preserving surgery with four cycles of post operative bleomycin etoposide and paclitaxel (BEP) chemotherapy and is fairly doing well. BEP chemotherapy has successfully improved the treatment outcomes of YST patients

Mining the Mind Research Network: A Novel Framework for Exploring Large Scale, Heterogeneous Translational Neuroscience Research Data Sources

A neuroinformatics (NI) system is critical to brain imaging research in order to shorten the time between study conception and results. Such a NI system is required to scale well when large numbers of subjects are studied. Further, when multiple sites participate in research projects organizational issues become increasingly difficult. Optimized NI applications mitigate these problems. Additionally, NI software enables coordination across multiple studies, leveraging advantages potentially leading to exponential research discoveries. The web-based, Mind Research Network (MRN), database system has been designed and improved through our experience with 200 research studies and 250 researchers from seven different institutions. The MRN tools permit the collection, management, reporting and efficient use of large scale, heterogeneous data sources, e.g., multiple institutions, multiple principal investigators, multiple research programs and studies, and multimodal acquisitions. We have collected and analyzed data sets on thousands of research participants and have set up a framework to automatically analyze the data, thereby making efficient, practical data mining of this vast resource possible. This paper presents a comprehensive framework for capturing and analyzing heterogeneous neuroscience research data sources that has been fully optimized for end-users to perform novel data mining

GlobULeS. IV. UVIT/AstroSat detection of extremely low mass white dwarf companions to blue straggler stars in NGC 362

We report the discovery of extremely low mass white dwarfs (ELM WDs) as a companion of blue straggler stars (BSSs) in the Galactic globular cluster NGC 362 using images from AstroSat's Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT). Spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for 26 far-UV (FUV) bright member BSSs are created using data from the UVIT, the UltraViolet and Optical Telescope (UVOT), Gaia EDR3, and the 2.2 m ESO/MPI telescope. A single SED is fitted to 14 BSSs, whereas double-SED fits revealed ELM WDs as binary companions in 12 of the 26 BSSs studied. The effective temperature, radius, luminosity, and mass of the 12 ELM WDs are found to have a range of Teff = 9750−18,000 K, R = 0.1−0.4 R⊙, L = 0.4−3.3 L⊙, and M = 0.16−0.20 M⊙. These suggest that 12 BSSs are post-mass-transfer systems formed through the case A/B mass transfer pathway. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first finding of ELM WDs as companions to BSSs in globular clusters. This cluster is known to have a binary BSS sequence, and the 12 binary and 14 single BSSs (as classified by the SEDs) follow the mass transfer and collisional sequence of BSSs in the color–magnitude diagram. The cooling ages of nine of the ELM WDs are found to be younger than 500 Myr. Though the binary BSSs may have formed during the core collapse (∼200 Myr) or as part of the dynamical evolution of the cluster, they provide new insights on the dynamics of this cluster