Unpacking the Evolution of Big Data and Organizing: An Illustrative Case Study

In the last decade we have witnessed the growth of emerging technologies like big data that have challenged our understanding on how we carry out work and processes in organizations. I have collected over 10 years of data containing over 1.6 million comments from a popular big data community to understand how organizations resolve the tensions between the moving parts of the firm and big data technologies. As big data technologies are complex, organizations can struggle in terms of transitioning to big data systems unlike the traditional IT systems, hence I plan on conducting a qualitative study by analyzing the comments to understand the evolution process of big data technologies. I plan on using the routine lens to study this phenomenon as it can shed light into the mechanisms through which organizations resolve tensions while implementing big data systems. Specifically, the proposed research study has two goals. First, I wish to develop a formal process theory about the adoption of big data innovations and organizing using grounded theory approach. Second, through this study I would like to unpack how organizations resolve tensions between while implementing big data technologies

NON INVASIVE DELIVERY OF PROTEIN AND PEPTIDE DRUGS: A REVIEW

Till recent, injections remained the most common route for administration of protein and peptide drugs because of their poor bioavailability in the other routes. Because it is generally recognized that injection based delivery is a major impediment to the commercial success of therapeutic proteins and peptides, research in both academia and industry continues to focus on ways to overcome this problem. Possible non-parenteral administration routes for delivery of peptide and protein drugs include oral, nasal, ocular, transdermal, rectal, colonic, and vaginal route. The large surface area associated with most of these routes makes them attractive targets for drug delivery. While non-invasive administration by these routes is considered a more logical and achievable option for local treatment regimens, systemic delivery of proteins and peptides is significantly more challenging. In spite of effort made on the development of drugs for these routes, most of the successes fail to address how the technology will be transformed to a commercial product. The only notable exceptions have been the successful commercialization of nasal formulations for systemic delivery of a limited number of therapeutic peptides, and recent regulatory approvals of both pulmonary and buccal delivery systems for systemic delivery of insulin and an oral formulation of a small peptide analog, cyclosporine, have been commercialized. The present review aims to discuss the potential non-invasive routes of protein and peptide drug delivery. The factors which will affect drug transport and the bioavailability of proteins administered through these routes is also emphasize

Quality in Requirements Engineering (RE) Explained Using Distributed Cognition: A Case of Open Source Development

Requirements have been the culprits for budget overruns and failures in software development projects. Fixing the requirements in the early stages of a project can dramatically reduce recurring costs. Past research has focused on linear sequential requirements activities as a means to fix the requirement problems. This line of thinking has led researchers to overlook the possible solutions to requirement problems in social, cognitive, and organizational factors. We probe the success of open source software development and its implications for the linear approach to requirements activity. Despite a wide scale distribution of requirements knowledge among people and artifacts, open source projects have been able to manage and evolve requirements in an organic way leading to high quality outcomes. Even though such efforts include little emphasis on explicit quality in RE practices, these projects often come up with software that meets high quality requirements. In order to understand this anomaly in open source software development, we apply the theory of distributed cognition to understand how social, structural, and temporal dimension impacts the quality of the requirements

Unpacking Agile Enterprise Architecture Innovation work practices: A Qualitative Case Study of a Railroad Company

Agile EA is the process for managing enterprise architecture modeling and redesign efforts with principles of agile methods. However, very little work has been done till date on how organizations adopt these methodological innovations such as integration of agile methods with enterprise architecture. This is problematic, because we know that organizations face stiff challenges in bringing new innovations that fundamentally disrupt their enterprise architecture. Hence we ask: How does agile EA get adopted in practice and what are the underlying mechanisms through which teams self-organize and adapt? To this end, we studied a large-scale agile EA development effort to modernize the legacy systems at a top railroad company referred to as “Alpha” (a pseudonym). Our qualitative analysis shows how multi-teams self-organize and adjust the pace of the development efforts by strategically (1) choosing different type of agile methods and (2) embedding resources across teams for increasing communications

Numerical investigation of residual stresses in welded joints of cylindrical shell

Welded cylinder structures such as pressure vessels and pipes for transportation have been applied in power stations, aerospace, and shipping industries. The study of weld-induced residual stress is vital in predicting the life of welded cylinder vessels. Depending upon the required diameter and length, they are welded by either circumferential welding or longitudinal welding. In the present work, a sequentially coupled thermal, structural analysis is carried out on circumferential and longitudinal butt weld joints of AH-36 cylinder components. The thermal field distribution and subsequent residual stresses during Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW) are studied. The moving heat source considered for analysis is based upon Goldak’s double ellipsoidal model. The weld-induced axial and hoop stresses are evaluated on both the outer and inner surfaces of the cylinder. The results for circumferential and longitudinal butt weld joints are compared. The magnitude of peak hoop and axial stresses in longitudinal butt weld joints are 45% and 95% higher than in circumferential butt weld joints. The developed analysis model, used to evaluate the thermal histories and residual stresses, is validated with experimental measurements

Crossing the Chasm of Agile Enterprise Architecture Innovation: A Case Study of Service Modernization at a Railroad Company

Agile EA is the process for managing enterprise architecture modeling and redesign efforts with principles of agile methods such as iterations, lean thinking, pair programming etc., for faster development times. However, very little work has been done till date on how organizations adopt these methodological innovations such as integration of agile methods with enterprise architecture. This is problematic, because we know that organizations face stiff challenges in bringing new innovations that fundamentally disrupt their enterprise architecture. It is for this reason organizations rely on external consultants to internalize the concepts that are non-native to its actors. Hence we ask: What factors affect the adoption process of agile EA in organizations? If so what is the adoption rate over time? And what is the role of internal and external change agents in adoption process? To address this questions, we plan on conducting a field study in a top railroad company referred to as “Alpha” (a pseudonym) for exploring the variations in routines to understand the agile EA adoption process. Specifically, the proposed research study has two goals. First, we wish to develop a formal process theory about the adoption of agile enterprise architecture innovations using grounded theory approach. Second, through this study we would like to provide design guidelines for crossing the chasm of agile EA

Multivariate analysis of genetic diversity in Phytophthora pod rot resistant exotic cocoa germplasm

The current research work was carried out to evaluate the genetic diversity associated with thirty cocoa accessions resistant to Phytophthora. The cluster analysis and principal component analysis evaluated the genetic variability among the different genotypes. The highest number of genotypes were observed in cluster III (8) when qualitative traits were considered. In quantitative cluster analysis, most of the genotypes were placed in separate clusters due to high variability in the germplasm. Principal component (PC) analysis showed that the first three PCs with more than one Eigen-value contributed to 79.9 per cent of variability for different traits. When qualitative and quantitative characters were considered along with resistant reaction, clusters with genotypes highly resistant to Phytophthora pod rot were observed. Hybridization programme involving these resistant hybrids belonging to diverse clusters will result in high yielding hybrids with ample resistance

Flotation Kinetics of Coking Coal Fines

Investigations were carried out on the coking coal fines generated at Bhelatand Washery. The studies include inve-stigations on physical, chemical and flotation chara-cteristics. Different operating parameters were optimised in flotation to get best product with low ash content. Flotation performance was evaluated by studying the kinetics of different size fractions and also on sample ground for different length of time. Flotation rate constant was calculated using Klimpei's model. Maximum Rate constants were obtained for size fraction -300+150μm (-0.0082)and one minute ground product (-0.0077) with low ash content. From these observations it is concluded that less than one minute grinding is sufficient for these coal fines to achieve a better product with minimum sh

Ozone in Dental Therapy : An Outlook

Dentistry is in a continual battle with infection, soft tissue, and/or hard tissue. These infections come from bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites. An infection can be of a single organism or a combination of all the above. The use of ozone in dentistry is gaining place in every day’s dental practise and is used in almost all dental applications with no toxicity and side effects. The undisputed disinfection power of ozone in dentistry is a very good alternative and/or additional disinfectant to standard antiseptics. Ozone therapy in dentistry is now the new standard of care in all disciplines of dentistry. Ozone therapy holds great potential as an atraumatic treatment modality to incorporate into dental practice