Impact of Strategic Alignment on IT Outsourcing Success in a Complex Service Setting

Improved conceptual and methodological understanding of strategic alignment is essential for better IT outsourcing decisions. This research will investigate how strategically well aligned ITO investments can lead to improved performance and greater competitive advantage. The strategic alignment literature is dominated by a focus on strategy formulation at a single point in time. In contrast, little is known about how strategic alignment is enacted in the choices managers make over time, and in particular, as it applies to IT outsourcing decisions in complex service settings. To address this situation we: (1) develop a novel dynamic alignment model that links espoused and enacted strategies, (2) operationalize strategy as a set of strategic decisions around capabilities, and (3) apply a range of novel methods to measure the decisions managers make

Effect of Fuselage and Tail Surfaces on Low-speed Yawing Characteristics of a Swept-wing Model as Determined in Curved-flow Test Section of Langley Stability Tunnel

Results are presented of a wind-tunnel investigation made to determine the influence of the fuselage and tail surfaces on the rotary derivatives in yawing flight of a transonic-airplane configuration having 45 degrees sweptback wing and tail surfaces. The tests were run in the curved-flow test section of the Langley stability tunnel at a Reynolds number of 1.07 X 10 to the sixth power and consisted of balance measurements throughout the angle-of-attack range for several flight-path radii of curvature. The results are compared with data from forced-oscillation and free-oscillation tests, and a description of testing techniques used is included

Analysis of temperature distribution in liquid-cooled turbine blades

The temperature distribution in liquid-cooled turbine blades determines the amount of cooling required to reduce the blade temperature to permissible values at specified locations. This report presents analytical methods for computing temperature distributions in liquid-cooled turbine blades, or in simplified shapes used to approximate sections of the blade. The individual analyses are first presented in terms of their mathematical development. By means of numerical examples, comparisons are made between simplified and more complete solutions and the effects of several variables are examined. Nondimensional charts to simplify some temperature-distribution calculations are also given

Weather, Crime, and Mental Illness

ABSTRACT - A simple count of disturbed incidents in the mentally ill and total radio transmissions of the Minneapolis Police Departmenf were collected daily over a six-month period. These were correlated with calendar time, temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure for the same period. Separate comparisons were made of all these measures for December 1959 with those of other Decembers. All the weather variables correlated linearly and significantly with the behavior v.ariables; temperature and humidity, positively; barometric pressure negatively. Calendar time for the half year correlated linearly and negatively. December 1959 had a higher crime and mental disturbance rate than other Decembers; this was accompanied by higher temperature and humidity

An Entomopathogenic Nematode by Any Other Name

Among the diversity of insect-parasitic nematodes, entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) are distinct, cooperating with insect-pathogenic bacteria to kill insect hosts. EPNs have adapted specific mechanisms to associate with and transmit bacteria to insect hosts. New discoveries have expanded this guild of nematodes and refine our understanding of the nature and evolution of insect–nematode associations. Here, we clarify the meaning of “entomopathogenic” in nematology and argue that EPNs must rapidly kill their hosts with the aid of bacterial partners and must pass on the associated bacteria to future generations

Biogeography of bacterioplankton in lakes and streams of an arctic tundra catchment

Author Posting. © Ecological Society of America, 2007. This article is posted here by permission of Ecological Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Ecology 88 (2007): 1365–1378, doi:10.1890/06-0387Bacterioplankton community composition was compared across 10 lakes and 14 streams within the catchment of Toolik Lake, a tundra lake in Arctic Alaska, during seven surveys conducted over three years using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of PCR-amplified rDNA. Bacterioplankton communities in streams draining tundra were very different than those in streams draining lakes. Communities in streams draining lakes were similar to communities in lakes. In a connected series of lakes and streams, the stream communities changed with distance from the upstream lake and with changes in water chemistry, suggesting inoculation and dilution with bacteria from soil waters or hyporheic zones. In the same system, lakes shared similar bacterioplankton communities (78% similar) that shifted gradually down the catchment. In contrast, unconnected lakes contained somewhat different communities (67% similar). We found evidence that dispersal influences bacterioplankton communities via advection and dilution (mass effects) in streams, and via inoculation and subsequent growth in lakes. The spatial pattern of bacterioplankton community composition was strongly influenced by interactions among soil water, stream, and lake environments. Our results reveal large differences in lake-specific and stream-specific bacterial community composition over restricted spatial scales (<10 km) and suggest that geographic distance and connectivity influence the distribution of bacterioplankton communities across a landscape.This research was supported in part by the University of Michigan and University of Maryland, and by National Science Foundation grants OPP-0408371, OPP-9911681, OPP- 9911278, DEB-0423385, DEB-9810222, and ATM-0423385

Provisional time-of-travel for Illinois streams

Bibliography: p. 11.Enumeration continues through succeeding title