Enterprise App Adoption: An investigation of the key factors that affect the adoption of mobile apps by Commercial Bankers at a financial services organisation

The purpose of this study is to examine the key factors that affect the adoption of mobile enterprise applications by Commercial Bankers. A review of technology acceptance literature relating to mobile apps for employees found that there was a lack of qualitative studies in this area. A phenomenological approach was used for this qualitative research. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted to deeply explore the participants' point of view, feelings and perspectives about mobile apps. The findings of the interviews confirmed three key advantages to using mobile apps as part of the participant’s employment: time saving, better customer conversations and faster decision-making. The data analysis isolated five key barriers: poor quality data, perceived value, ease of use, reduced customer understanding and mobile devices characteristics. Organisations wishing to speed the adoption of mobile apps by their employees should evaluate the importance and significance of these five identified barriers to adoption, and plan how to overcome them

Head and Black Assistant Coaches in the National Football League: A Comparison of Sociological Profiles

The study attempted to determine empirically if Black assistant coaches in the National Football League (NFL) possessed the “necessary” credentials to be a head coach in the NFL. The problem was investigated by developing profiles of head White and assistant Black coaches and then comparing the credentials of the assistant Black coaches to those of the head White coaches. If the Black assistants did not possess the same credentials as the head White coaches, then the absence of head Black coaches in the NFL could be justified by that fact. However, if the Black assistants’ credentials were equal to or better than those of the head coaches then the all-too-familiar explanation, Blacks lack the necessities,” could no longer justify the lack of head Black coaches in the NFL. All 28 head and 45 Black assistant coaches in the NFL during the 1988-89 season were subjects in the study. Data about each coach were collected, and modal coach profiles were constructed. When the profiles were compared, it was found that NFL Black assistant coaches generally possessed the same achieved occupational credentials as White NFL head coaches and therefore, there is reason to believe that race may have been a factor ln the hiring of head coaches in the NFL

Dynamic Force, Motion, and Life in Digital Design.

The purpose of this paper is to explore specific works that I have created as it relates to digital art and design. My works include abstract, organic objects that exist within surrealistic environments. First, I explain the dynamics of the imagery that has emerged from my career in broadcast television, my coursework in the Department of Art and Design at East Tennessee State University, and the works of fantasy, surreal, and abstract artists. In conclusion, the images discussed impose an idea of abstraction and surrealism with a sense of force, motion, life, and dynamic action

The critical effect : evaluating the effects and use of video game reviews

Game reviews play an important role in both the culture and business of games – the words of a reviewer can have an influential effect on the commercial success of a video game. While reviews are currently used by game developers to aid in important decisions such as project financing and employee bonuses, the effect of game reviews on players is not known. Additionally, the use of game reviews to improve evaluation techniques has received little attention. In this thesis we investigate the effect of game reviews on player experience and perceptions of quality. We show that negative reviews cause a significant effect on how players perceive their in-game experience, and that this effect is a post-play cognitive rationalization of the play experience with the previously-read review text. To address this effect we designed and deployed a new heuristic evaluation technique that specifically uses game reviews to create a fine-grained prioritized list of usability problems based on the frequency, impact, and persistence of each problem. By using our technique we are able to address the most common usability problems identified by game reviews, thus reducing the overall level of negativity found within the review text. Our approach helps to control and eliminate the snowballing effect that can be produced by players reading reviews and subsequently posting their own reviews, and thus improve the commercial success of a game

Sequencing and analysis of the gastrula transcriptome of the brittle star Ophiocoma wendtii

Background The gastrula stage represents the point in development at which the three primary germ layers diverge. At this point the gene regulatory networks that specify the germ layers are established and the genes that define the differentiated states of the tissues have begun to be activated. These networks have been well-characterized in sea urchins, but not in other echinoderms. Embryos of the brittle star Ophiocoma wendtii share a number of developmental features with sea urchin embryos, including the ingression of mesenchyme cells that give rise to an embryonic skeleton. Notable differences are that no micromeres are formed during cleavage divisions and no pigment cells are formed during development to the pluteus larval stage. More subtle changes in timing of developmental events also occur. To explore the molecular basis for the similarities and differences between these two echinoderms, we have sequenced and characterized the gastrula transcriptome of O. wendtii. Methods Development of Ophiocoma wendtii embryos was characterized and RNA was isolated from the gastrula stage. A transcriptome data base was generated from this RNA and was analyzed using a variety of methods to identify transcripts expressed and to compare those transcripts to those expressed at the gastrula stage in other organisms. Results Using existing databases, we identified brittle star transcripts that correspond to 3,385 genes, including 1,863 genes shared with the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus gastrula transcriptome. We characterized the functional classes of genes present in the transcriptome and compared them to those found in this sea urchin. We then examined those members of the germ-layer specific gene regulatory networks (GRNs) of S. purpuratus that are expressed in the O. wendtii gastrula. Our results indicate that there is a shared ‘genetic toolkit’ central to the echinoderm gastrula, a key stage in embryonic development, though there are also differences that reflect changes in developmental processes. Conclusions The brittle star expresses genes representing all functional classes at the gastrula stage. Brittle stars and sea urchins have comparable numbers of each class of genes and share many of the genes expressed at gastrulation. Examination of the brittle star genes in which sea urchin orthologs are utilized in germ layer specification reveals a relatively higher level of conservation of key regulatory components compared to the overall transcriptome. We also identify genes that were either lost or whose temporal expression has diverged from that of sea urchins

Lessons about Reform from “A Very Dangerous Woman”

We discuss reform in antebellum America through the life of Martha Coffin Wright, an activist in the abolition and early women’s rights movements. Consideration of her motivations for reform; the obstacles faced by these movements; their methods, successes, and failures, may offer guidelines for reformers of today

The Cost of Increasing Adoption of Beneficial Nutrient-Management Practices

We estimate the cost of offsets tied to reductions in the use of nitrogen on U.S. cornfields under the proposed American Clean Energy and Security Act.offsets, nitrogen, corn, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Experience of UK Latin Americans caring for a relative living with dementia: A qualitative study of family carers

INTRODUCTION: Most studies of the Latin American immigrant experience and care for relatives living with dementia have been in the United States (US). In the United Kingdom (UK), unlike the US, most Latin Americans are first generation immigrants and are a rapidly increasing population. Therefore, we aimed to explore the UK experiences of Latin Americans caring for a relative with dementia. METHODS: We purposively recruited UK-based Latin American family carers of people with dementia ensuring maximum diversity. We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews (in English or Spanish) with 11 family carers, stopping recruiting when we reached thematic saturation. We took an inductive thematic analytic approach. FINDINGS: Four main themes were identified: (1) Family comes first, particularly older people, leading to an obligation to care; (2) dementia as an illness that is accepted and talked about, which is regarded as positive with close networks but not wider society; (3) difficult behaviours are not the responsibility of the person with dementia, who is often conceptualised as a child; and (4) caring expectations lead to incompatibility with formal services, and a reluctance to leave people with dementia alone. CONCLUSIONS: Familial obligation is the driver for family carers and acceptance of the illness helped despite adversities. Openness to talk about dementia with close networks was distinctive and helpful, contrasting with wider society, where greater awareness of dementia is needed. Considering the person with dementia as a child did not seem to undermine personhood and enabled maintenance of compassion. The relative with dementia was a priority. There was a lack of culturally and linguistically appropriate services, thus restricting family carers' ability to fulfil other roles, such as parental

Philip Livingston and Peter Kean to Susan Ursin Niemcewicz, November 19, 1803

Philip Livingston wrote from New York to Susan Ursin Niemcewicz, his sister, in Elizabethtown. He says his health has no improved and he has not been able to get any exercise as he has been confined to his house. He sends her dividends from her stocks. Also enclosed was a short note from Peter Kean promising he will try to set up in society and be discreet in [his] words and actionshttps://digitalcommons.kean.edu/lhc_1800s/1013/thumbnail.jp

Entha kai entha: spatial metaphors of mental conflict

This thesis takes as its starting point the sunbeam simile used of Medea in Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica (3.755-60). Chapter One examines the simile in detail, arguing for a textual transposition that establishes it as a piece of psychological imagery in which the formula entha kai entha functions as a spatial metaphor of mental vacillation. Chapter Two surveys the use of the formula in Apollonius and Homer and then discusses two passages from the Odyssey, which, owing to multiple correspondences, are argued to be intertextual literary precedents for the Apollonian scene. Chapter Three then expands the scope from the formula to the rest of the simile, and shows how the chosen excerpt is a paradigm of Apollonian use and innovation of Homer