Determinants of value creation from organizational performance-based view: Implications for IT industry in the Post-Covid-19 World

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to identify the variables that drive value creation in the Information Technology (IT) industry specifically, in the post-Covid-19 world. Design/methodology/approach - This study has synthesized existing literature through which it identifies the variables driving value creation in the IT industry. Findings - The results of the study show that competitive advantage, cross-disciplinary communication, and diversity drive value creation in the IT industry. Furthermore, the discussion extends organizations' absorptive capacity through the means of integration, learning, and reconfiguring knowledge by assimilating the knowledge process to sense and seize vital opportunities in the market, enablingservice innovation practices outcome, driving enterprise agility by leading digital adoptions in the Post-Covid-19 times,yielding the higher organization value by the extent of social-network heterogeneity (SNH) and focussing on the principle of “the strength of weak ties”are the abilities of an organization to react to a crisis. Research limitations/implications – This study proposes that this article should help the IT industry and the organizations underneath to achieve greater agility, stability through the extent of IT infrastructure, IT human resource, and IT knowledge management, focusing on cross-disciplinary as a collection of practices over a) intentional learning, b) strategic leadership, and c) transforming practices into integrating systems and embracing design thinking (DT) by encompassing emotional intelligence, integral intelligence, and experiential intelligence approaches, in these post-Covid-19 times more effectively and confidently. Additionally, leveraging absorptive capacity is a key resource in developing and increasing organizations' knowledge pools. Originality/value – This study offers a theoretical platform for the study ofvalue creation in the IT industry. The present study is the first step towards integrating the elements of value creation with dynamic capabilities to enhance the absorptive capacity of an organization, promoting entrepreneurial behavior and diversity management capabilities. Furthermore, this study ascertains the role of market dynamism, Schumpeter's innovation dimensions, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, constructivism, organizational learning,resilience-enhancing diversity management (REDM), strategic human resource management (HRM),and resource- based view as implementation models for the variables identified

POSITIVE BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTIONS AND SUPPORTS AT A NC PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL: A PROGRAM EVALUATION

AB STRACT Chris Meadows, POSITIVE BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTIONS AND SUPPORTS AT A NC PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL: A PROGRAM EVALUATION (Under the direction of Dr. Marjorie Ringler). Department of Educational Leadership, December 2020. Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a multi-tiered framework utilized in over 26,000 schools across the United States, to create a school culture consisting of a positive learning environment and successful student (Sugai & Horner, 2020). This study sought to determine the effectiveness of PBIS at a North Carolina public charter school in regards to three major indicators: student attendance; student academic achievement; and student discipline. The rise of charter schools in both the US and NC is discussed along with charter school advocate and critic perceptions. To gain a greater understanding of the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of PBIS at this charter, many topics were detailed to mirror the charter’s student population. At the time of the study, the study site was predominately African American and high poverty. Because of the predominate student population of the study’s site, African American and high poverty student issues and concerns are discussed based on numerous educational theorist’s ideas and their respective research. Determining the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of PBIS at the charter occur through data collection procured through various PBIS documents from the three years at the charter, equating to the first year (2017-18) of PBIS implementation, the second year (2018-2019) of PBIS implementation, and the third year (2019- 2020) of PBIS implementation. The three years of data included student proficiency on NC End of Grade (EOG) assessments, student suspension data, and student attendance rates. Qualitative data was obtained from charter school staff responses of semi-structured interview questions. The evaluation of this this program was completed with the CIPP (Context; Input; Process; and Product) method. The program evaluation was favorable overall in the fidelity of PBIS implementation and generated the following findings: academic growth in each of the three years of PBIS implementation; a decrease in student short-term suspensions in each of the three years of PBIS implementation; and a steady and remarkable increase in student attendance rate in each of the three years of PBIS implementation

Disentangling the influence of livestock vs. farm density on livestock disease epidemics

Susceptible host density is a key factor that influences the success of invading pathogens. However, for diseases affecting livestock, there are two aspects of host density: livestock and farm density, which are seldom considered independently. Traditional approaches of simulating disease outbreaks on real‐world farm data make dissecting the relative importance of farm and livestock density difficult owing to their inherent correlation in many farming regions. We took steps to disentangle these densities and study their relative influences on epidemic size by simulating foot‐and‐mouth disease outbreaks on factorial combinations of cattle and farm populations in artificial county areas, resulting in 50 unique cattle/farm density combinations. In these simulations, increasing cattle density always resulted in larger epidemics, regardless of farm density. Alternatively, increasing farm density only led to larger epidemics in scenarios of high cattle density. We compared these results with simulations performed on real‐world farm data from the United States, where we initiated outbreaks in U.S. counties that varied in county‐level cattle density and farm density. We found a similar, but weaker relationship between cattle density and epidemic size in the U.S. simulations. We tested the sensitivity of these outcomes to variation in pathogen dispersal and farm‐level susceptibility model parameters and found that although variation in these parameters quantitatively influenced the size of the epidemic, they did not qualitatively change the relative influence of cattle vs. farm density in factorial simulations. By reducing the correlation between farm and livestock density in factorial simulations, we were able to clearly demonstrate the increase in epidemic size that occurred as farm sizes grew larger (i.e., through increasing county‐level cattle populations), across levels of farm density. These results suggest livestock production trends in many industrialized countries that concentrate livestock on fewer, but larger farms have the potential to facilitate larger livestock epidemics

Mitigating Worst-Case Exozodiacal Dust Structure in High-contrast Images of Earth-like Exoplanets

Detecting Earth-like exoplanets in direct images of nearby Sun-like systems brings a unique set of challenges that must be addressed in the early phases of designing a space-based direct imaging mission. In particular, these systems may contain exozodiacal dust, which is expected to be the dominant source of astrophysical noise. Previous work has shown that it may be feasible to subtract smooth, symmetric dust from observations; however, we do not expect exozodiacal dust to be perfectly smooth. Exozodiacal dust can be trapped into mean motion resonances with planetary bodies, producing large-scale structures that orbit in lock with the planet. This dust can obscure the planet, complicate noise estimation, or be mistaken for a planetary body. Our ability to subtract these structures from high-contrast images of Earth-like exoplanets is not well understood. In this work, we investigate exozodi mitigation for Earth--Sun-like systems with significant mean motion resonant disk structures. We find that applying a simple high-pass filter allows us to remove structured exozodi to the Poisson noise limit for systems with inclinations $< 60^\circ$ and up to 100 zodis. However, subtracting exozodiacal disk structures from edge-on systems may be challenging, except for cases with densities $<5$ zodis. For systems with three times the dust of the Solar System, which is the median of the best fit to survey data in the habitable zones of nearby Sun-like stars, this method shows promising results for mitigating exozodiacal dust in future HWO observations, even if the dust exhibits significant mean-motion resonance structure.Comment: Accepted to AJ. 18 pages, 10 figure

Finding the Needles in the Haystacks: High-Fidelity Models of the Modern and Archean Solar System for Simulating Exoplanet Observations

We present two state-of-the-art models of the solar system, one corresponding to the present day and one to the Archean Eon 3.5 billion years ago. Each model contains spatial and spectral information for the star, the planets, and the interplanetary dust, extending to 50 AU from the sun and covering the wavelength range 0.3 to 2.5 micron. In addition, we created a spectral image cube representative of the astronomical backgrounds that will be seen behind deep observations of extrasolar planetary systems, including galaxies and Milky Way stars. These models are intended as inputs to high-fidelity simulations of direct observations of exoplanetary systems using telescopes equipped with high-contrast capability. They will help improve the realism of observation and instrument parameters that are required inputs to statistical observatory yield calculations, as well as guide development of post-processing algorithms for telescopes capable of directly imaging Earth-like planets.Comment: Accepted for publication in PAS

Group-based exercise for Parkinson’s: a qualitative study of participants and partners’ perceptions of an exercise class delivered through a community-university collaboration

Background Community-based exercise programmes (CBEPs) offer a practical and viable approach to providing people with Parkinson's disease (PwP) the opportunity to exercise as an ancillary therapeutic benefit to pharmacological management. This study explores the perceptions of exercising participants (PwP) and non-participating partners involved in an exercise class delivered through a community-university partnership. Methods Two separate focus group discussions were conducted: one with class participants (PwP: n = 7, H&Y scale I to III), and the other with non-participating partners of PwP (n = 4). Results Thematic analysis of the data identified that a range of physical, psychological and social factors were perceived to influence engagement: (1) actively taking control, (2) exercise is medicine for the mind and body, and (3) a community working together to promote exercise for parkinson's. Participants and partners felt that the support from the group, including the instructors and student volunteers, empowered and supported PwP to proactively self-manage their health, enjoy exercise in an inclusive group setting, and develop strong social connections with others in the local Parkinson's community. Support to exercise from healthcare professionals was identified as both an enabler and barrier to participation. Conclusions This study underscores the significance of a community-university partnership as a complementary therapeutic approach for PwP. It also provides critical reflections on its sustainability, including implications for how exercise is considered as medicine for PwP. Additionally, it offers practical recommendations to galvanise community participation and provide inclusive and viable exercise opportunities for PwP

Group-based exercise for Parkinson’s: a qualitative study of participants and partners’ perceptions of an exercise class delivered through a community-university collaboration

Background Community-based exercise programmes (CBEPs) offer a practical and viable approach to providing people with Parkinson's disease (PwP) the opportunity to exercise as an ancillary therapeutic benefit to pharmacological management. This study explores the perceptions of exercising participants (PwP) and non-participating partners involved in an exercise class delivered through a community-university partnership. Methods Two separate focus group discussions were conducted: one with class participants (PwP: n = 7, H&Y scale I to III), and the other with non-participating partners of PwP (n = 4). Results Thematic analysis of the data identified that a range of physical, psychological and social factors were perceived to influence engagement: (1) actively taking control, (2) exercise is medicine for the mind and body, and (3) a community working together to promote exercise for parkinson's. Participants and partners felt that the support from the group, including the instructors and student volunteers, empowered and supported PwP to proactively self-manage their health, enjoy exercise in an inclusive group setting, and develop strong social connections with others in the local Parkinson's community. Support to exercise from healthcare professionals was identified as both an enabler and barrier to participation. Conclusions This study underscores the significance of a community-university partnership as a complementary therapeutic approach for PwP. It also provides critical reflections on its sustainability, including implications for how exercise is considered as medicine for PwP. Additionally, it offers practical recommendations to galvanise community participation and provide inclusive and viable exercise opportunities for PwP