Factors that Effect the Impact of State Telemedicine Policies on Telemedicine Activities

Policies that govern the telecommunications industry will significantly impact the use and evolution of IT. Although there is substantial research on telecommunications policy at the national level, very little has been done at the state level. A major policy initiative at the state level has been the creation of a telemedicine industry. This research piece studied factors that effect the impact of state government telemedicine policy on telemedicine activities

Conceptual Data Modeling in the Introductory Database Course: Is it Time for UML?

Traditionally, the typical undergraduate database course uses a form of Entity-Relationship (ER) notation when teaching conceptual modeling. While we have seen an increase in the academic coverage of UML in the database course, it is very rare to see UML as the primary modeling notation when teaching conceptual data modeling. However, outside of academe, there has been advocacy for the use of UML as an effective modeling tool for database design and for it to provide a unifying modeling framework. This paper examines the level of support for using UML vs. established ER notations for teaching conceptual data modeling in the introductory undergraduate database course. An analysis of textbook and tool support as well as a survey of what IS undergraduate programs are using in their introductory undergraduate database courses is included

Research Report: Modifying Paradigms—Individual Differences, Creativity Techniques, and Exposure to Ideas in Group Idea Generation

In today's networked economy, ideas that challenge existing business models and paradigms are becoming more important. This study investigated how individual differences, groupware-based creativity techniques, and ideas from others influenced the type of ideas that individuals generated. While individual differences were important (in that some individuals were inherently more likely to generate ideas that followed the existing problem paradigm while others were more likely to generate paradigm-modifying ideas that attempted to change the problem paradigm), the exposure to paradigm-modifying ideas from others and the use of intuitive groupware-based creativity techniques rather than analytical groupware-based creativity techniques were found to increase the number of paradigm-modifying ideas produce

Characteristics of Effective GSS Facilitators

As businesses increase their use of groups to solve problems, the importance of strong group facilitation skills has increased. This paper investigates the characteristics of high-performing group facilitators versus low-performing group facilitators. The characteristics investigated represent two broad areas of interest: general facilitator background and skills possessed by the facilitator. The facilitator background factors that proved to be good predictors of high performance included: overall experience and number of computer-supported meeting facilitated. The skills possessed by high performers included: plans and designs meetings, demonstrates flexibility, and listens to, clarifies, and integrates information. The analysis provides a rule for accurately predicting whether a facilitator is a high-performer or a low-performer more than 77% of the time

Dynamic GABAergic afferent modulation of AgRP neurons

Agouti-related peptide (AgRP) neurons of the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus (ARC) promote homeostatic feeding at times of caloric insufficiency, yet they are rapidly suppressed by food-related sensory cues prior to ingestion. Here we identify a highly selective inhibitory afferent to AgRP neurons that serves as a neural determinant of this rapid modulation. Specifically, GABAergic projections arising from the ventral compartment of the dorsomedial nucleus of the hypothalamus (vDMH) contribute to the pre-consummatory modulation of ARCAgRP neurons. In a manner reciprocal to ARCAgRP neurons, ARC-projecting leptin receptor (LepR)-expressing GABAergic DMH neurons exhibit rapid activation upon availability of food that additionally reflects the relative value of the food. Thus, DMHLepR neurons form part of the sensory network that relays real-time information about the nature and availability of food to dynamically modulate ARCAgRP neuron activity and feeding behavior

The Adoption and Use of GSS in Project Teams: Toward More Participative Processes and Outcomes

This paper reports the results of a field study of six medical project teams that worked together in meetings over a seven-week period to develop plans to improve customer service within a hospital. Half the teams used a group support system (GSS), while the other half used traditional processes that were the habitual norms for this organization. In the teams using traditional project team processes, the leaders defined the teams’ project goal, directed discussions, recorded and controlled the teams’ notes, assigned tasks to team members, and prepared and presented the teams’ report. In the GSS teams, the leaders faced leadership challenges or abdicated, regular members participated to a greater extent, the project goal emerged from team discussion, and the teams’ notes were open and widely distributed. In short, processes in the GSS teams were more participatory and democratic. At first, teams found the GSS-based meeting processes very uncomfortable and returned to traditional verbal discussion-based processes. Once they returned to these traditional processes, however, they found them uncomfortable and moved back to include more electronic communication-based processes. Participants’ attitudes (satisfaction, perceived effectiveness, and cohesiveness) were initially lower in GSS teams, but gradually increased, until they equaled those of the traditional teams. There were significant differences in overall project outcomes: traditional teams developed conservative projects that met the unstated project agenda perceived by the team leaders. In contrast, GSS teams developed projects more closely aligned to the interests of team members

Conceptualizing the Impact of Social Capital on Knowledge Creation: Mediating Roles of Socialization and Externalization in a Multi-Stakeholder Agricultural Innovation Platform

In a collaborative knowledge creation environment knowledge is socially constructed and the nature of knowledge being shared, integrated and converted is dominantly tacit. Achieving the required level of exchange, proliferation and extraction of tacit knowledge in a social network context is intimately tied to social capital and the socialization and externalization modes of knowledge conversion. Empirical support is scarce on how social capital dynamically influences socialization and externalization and the knowledge creation outcomes. Through an in-depth field study to be conducted in two multi-stakeholder innovation platforms in Ethiopia, this research-in-progress will examine how social capital impact the knowledge creation outcomes with mediating roles of socialization and externalization. Therefore, this study addresses the following two research questions: How do multiple stakeholders interact and create knowledge in a collaborative agricultural innovation platform? How do factors of social capital impact socialization and externalization processes and then the knowledge creation outcome