Building theories in-practice on Social innovation in disability nonprofit organizations

This chapter discusses the key theoretical and empirical steps undertaken throughout the authors’ previous-but-related mixed methods studies on social innovation in nonprofit organizations (NPOs) in the Australian disability sector with the aim of using the key findings of these studies to develop ‘theories-in-practice’ in disability NPOs. In this chapter, the authors summarize the associated theory-building processes deployed to explain how disability NPOs develop and implement social innovations and the societal ‘system-level’ impacts of such innovations. These theory-building processes involve two broad phases, and the culmination of these phases (grounded in the abductive logics of inquiry, complexity theorizing, and set-theoretic methods) leads to the development of several ‘theories-to-practice’ that not only convey the interactivity of contextual causal mechanisms leading to social innovation by NPOs, but also outline change-oriented solutions for managers who are working to address complex social challenges

Threats to the Critical Information Infrastructure Protection (CIIP) Posed by Modern Terrorism

The emergence of new non-state actors in the post Cold War reality have dramatically changed security environment around the globe. Modern terrorism practiced by Al Qaeda and its associated movement (AQAM) has posed serious threat to critical information infrastructure given the trend of connecting control systems that run these infrastructures to the internet. Although AQAM have not been successful to launch cyber-attack that will cause mass casualties, environment damage or financial effects, the possibility remain alarming since creativity in the age of globalization never ends. Additionally by using the so called “dot-com culture” modern terrorists effectively employ negative effects of globalization to rich to the societies’ remote pockets and Islamic social nomads and thus enlarge their capabilities to affect our critical information infrastructure. Therefore to effectively protect our CII from modern terrorists we need to consider comprehensive and holistic approach build on direct and indirect mechanisms

Assessing electronic health record phenotypes against gold-standard diagnostic criteria for diabetes mellitus

Objective: We assessed the sensitivity and specificity of 8 electronic health record (EHR)-based phenotypes for diabetes mellitus against gold-standard American Diabetes Association (ADA) diagnostic criteria via chart review by clinical experts. Materials and Methods: We identified EHR-based diabetes phenotype definitions that were developed for various purposes by a variety of users, including academic medical centers, Medicare, the New York City Health Department, and pharmacy benefit managers. We applied these definitions to a sample of 173 503 patients with records in the Duke Health System Enterprise Data Warehouse and at least 1 visit over a 5-year period (2007–2011). Of these patients, 22 679 (13%) met the criteria of 1 or more of the selected diabetes phenotype definitions. A statistically balanced sample of these patients was selected for chart review by clinical experts to determine the presence or absence of type 2 diabetes in the sample. Results: The sensitivity (62–94%) and specificity (95–99%) of EHR-based type 2 diabetes phenotypes (compared with the gold standard ADA criteria via chart review) varied depending on the component criteria and timing of observations and measurements. Discussion and Conclusions: Researchers using EHR-based phenotype definitions should clearly specify the characteristics that comprise the definition, variations of ADA criteria, and how different phenotype definitions and components impact the patient populations retrieved and the intended application. Careful attention to phenotype definitions is critical if the promise of leveraging EHR data to improve individual and population health is to be fulfilled