Digital Transformation. Understanding Business Goals, Risks, Processes, and Decisions

Whilst digitisation is far from a new concept, many assume that simply introducing automation and information systems in various forms will be enough to make their organisation’s operations more efficient. This misconception can often lead to disarray and costly mistakes. Digital Transformation: Understanding Business Goals, Risks, Processes, and Decisions shows how to avoid such issues via careful consideration of what an enterprise really needs. Unlike many other books on digital transformation, the authors do not dwell on database design or the details of implementing information systems. Instead, they emphasise the importance of a clear understanding of all aspects of an organisation in order to effectively implement and manage digital systems, from business goals and strategies to structuring information and making decisions, risk assessments, project management, organising, and procuring services and products. Organised in eleven chapters, and drawing on examples from all over the world, this book will be of interest to university students of business administration, management, information systems, and computer science, as well as practitioners seeking to better understand how to handle digital transformation in their own organisation

Validity, reliability, and responsiveness of a self-reported foot and ankle score (SEFAS)

Background and purpose A questionnaire was introduced by the New Zealand Arthroplasty Registry for use when evaluating the outcome of total ankle replacement surgery. We evaluated the reliability, validity, and responsiveness of the modified Swedish version of the questionnaire (SEFAS) in patients with osteoarthritis or inflammatory arthritis before and/or after their ankle was replaced or fused. Patients and methods The questionnaire was translated into Swedish and cross-culturally adapted according to a standardized procedure. It was sent to 135 patients with ankle arthritis who were scheduled for or had undergone surgery, together with the foot and ankle outcome score (FAOS), the short form 36 (SF-36) score, and the EuroQol (EQ-5D) score. Construct validity was evaluated with Spearman's correlation coefficient when comparing SEFAS with FAOS, SF-36, and EQ-5D, content validity by calculating floor and ceiling effects, test-retest reliability with intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), internal consistency with Cronbach's alpha (n = 62), agreement by Bland-Altman plot, and responsiveness by effect size and standardized response mean (n = 37). Results For construct validity, we correlated SEFAS with the other scores and 70% or more of our predefined hypotheses concerning correlations could be confirmed. There were no floor or ceiling effects. ICC was 0.92 (CI 95%: 0.88-0.95), Cronbach's alpha 0.96, effect size was 1.44, and the standardized response mean was 1.00. Interpretation SEFAS is a self-reported foot and ankle score with good validity, reliability and responsiveness, indicating that the score can be used to evaluate patients with osteoarthritis or inflammatory arthritis of the ankle and outcome of surgery

CULTIVATION EFFECTS IN A FRAGMENTED MEDIA ENVIRONMENT. Examining the reciprocal relationship between selective media use and crime perceptions

Our media environment has changed rapidly since the cultivation theory was proposed by Gerbner in the late '60s. The amount of news media content has increased to an unprecedented level and the surge of alternative media sites has given news media consumers the option to selectively expose themselves to news that conveys a version of reality which is aligned with their own perceptions. This study aims to examine whether the cultivation theory, as it is currently defined, is still relevant in today's fragmented media landscape or if it should be redefined to better capture selective reinforcing cultivation effects. This will be done by theoretically synthesising the cultivation theory with the reinforcement spirals model. To address these questions empirically, this study relies on a combination of a quantitative media content analysis (N=904) matched with longitudinal panel survey data (N=1508). Thereby, content differences in violent crimes news reporting can be linked to public perceptions about the development of violent crimes in society. The findings from the content analysis suggest that there are significant differences between violent crimes news content in alternative media and in traditional media. The results from the cross-lagged panel analyses suggest that reinforcing cultivation effects only occur for alternative media use. The theoretical implication of this is that it is no longer reasonable to assume that significant cultivation effects will occur on the large mass. Instead, reinforcing cultivation processes occur on smaller segments of the population where media selectivity is the driving force. Cultivation theory should, thus, be redefined to include the selectivity aspect of media consumption. To synthesise cultivation theory with the reinforcement spirals model is, as shown in this study, one way of doing this but an even better way would be to develop the original theory to include the aspect of selectivity and exclude the idea of mainstreaming

Patient-reported outcome after hallux valgus surgery — a two year follow up

Background: Patients with hallux valgus deformity may require surgery but prospective patient-reported data is scarce. Methods: We evaluated 53 patients with a mean age of 55.3 years (SD 14.1, 50 women), who underwent surgery due to hallux valgus. They completed the PROMs SEFAS, EQ-5D and SF-36 before and 6, 12 and 24 months after surgery. Results: All patient-reported outcomes improved at 6, 12 and 24 months compared with the preoperative status. The greatest improvement occurred at 6 months: SEFAS Δ 10.0 (95% confidence interval 7.8–12.2), EQ-5D Δ 0.22 (0.15–0.29), EQ-VAS Δ 8.4 (4.4–12.4), PF SF-36 Δ 22.0 (14.6–29.3) and BP SF-36 Δ 30.6 (23.1–38.1). Conclusions: Hallux valgus surgery considerably reduced pain and improved function already within 6 months after surgery. The improvement between 6 and 24 months’ follow-up was minimal measured with PROMs. Level of clinical evidence: III — prospective observational cohort study

Compression of Complex Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Data

This paper describes new approaches to compress complex SAR data using wavelet transform with thresholding and vector quantisation. The image quality is proved using several parameters. Preliminary results show, that the presented compression technique enables polarimetric and interferometric applications for a compression ratio up to 9

Wavelet Based Approaches for Efficient Compression of Complex SAR Image Data

New wavelet based approaches for efficient data compression of complex SAR images with high reconstruction quality are presented. These approaches compress either magnitude and phase information of the complex SAR images separately or use a Fourier transform scheme to convert the complex image data format to a real data format before applying wavelet decomposition technique