Travel Package Selection User Interface

When selecting elements of a travel package, consumers are inundated with information and options. This paper articulates challenges that a typical traveler encounters when attempting to make his/her selections and proposes a number of graphical user interfaces (GUI) that resolve those problems

How Does the Crowdsourcing Experience Impact Participants\u27 Engagement? An Empirical Illustration

A largely neglected aspect in crowdsourcing research is the “Crowdsourcing Experience” itself, which every crowdsourcee is necessarily exposed to throughout the IT-mediated interaction process, potentially stimulating engagement towards the crowdsourcer. Hence, the crowdsourcees’ engagement process is conceptualized and illustrated with empirical findings from a pilot case. It exemplifies that crowdsourcing has the potential to generate high levels of attitudinal and behavioral engagement, depending on prior experiences and perceived cognitions and emotions. Related stimuli characteristics are identified, which serve as a first indication of the foundations of the engagement process. This study offers IS-researchers first insights on the so far under-researched topic of IT-enabled engagement processes between individuals and entities

Revealing the Impact of the Crowdsourcing Experience on the Engagement Process

A largely neglected aspect in crowdsourcing research is the “Crowdsourcing Experience”, which every crowdsourcee is necessarily exposed to throughout the IT-mediated crowdsourcing journey, potentially stimulating engagement. In the context of value co-creation participant’s engagement, defined as a psychological state that fosters directly and indirectly related value contributions, is argued to be a holistic measure for crowdsourcing success. Hence, this paper proposes a theoretical framework of the crowdsourcees’ engagement process and a novel approach for assessment. The recommended research design combines case study research with the sequential incident laddering technique to unravel an individual’s Crowdsourcing Experience and its impact on engagement. To the knowledge of the authors, the engagement process was not assessed in the field of crowdsourcing yet and no particular research approach exists. This research in progress offers IS-researchers and practitioners initial insights on IT-enabled engagement processes between individuals and entities to enhance knowledge on mutual value-creation

Why Incorporating a Platform-Intermediary can Increase Crowdsourcees’ Engagement - Case-Study Based Insights

While the crowdsourcer’s job is to encourage valuable contributions and sustained commitment in a cost- effective manner, it seems as if the primary attention of management and research is still centered on the evaluation of contributions rather than the crowd. As many crowd- sourcers lack the resources to successfully execute such projects, crowdsourcing intermediaries play an increas- ingly important role. First studies dealt with internal management challenges of incorporating an intermediary. However, the issue of how intermediaries influence crowdsourcees’ psychological and behavioral responses, further referred to as engagement, has not been addressed yet. Consequently, two leading research questions guide this paper: (1) How can the engagement process of crowdsourcees be conceptualized? (2) How and why do crowdsourcing intermediaries impact crowdsourcees’ engagement? This study extends existing knowledge by offering IS-researchers a process perspective on engage- ment and exploring the underlying mechanisms and IT- enabled stimuli that foster value-creation in a mediated and non-mediated setting. A theoretical process model is first conceptualized and then explored with insights from two common cases in the growing field of crowd testing. By triangulating platform and interview data, initial proposi- tions concerning the role of specific stimuli and the inter- mediary within the engagement process are derived. It is proposed that crowdsourcing enterprises, incorporating intermediaries, have the potential to generate a desired engagement state when perceived stimuli under their con- trol belong to the so-called group of ‘‘game changers’’ and ‘‘value adders’’, while the intermediary controls mainly ‘‘risk factors’’ for absorbing negative experiences. Apart from the theoretical relevance of studying mediated engagement processes and explaining voluntary use and participation in a socio-technical system, findings support decisions on how to effectively incorporate platform intermediaries

A Mixed Method Approach to Understanding Crowdsourcees’ Engagement Behavior

With an increasing amount of arising crowdsourcing initiatives, insights are needed on how to successfully drive initial and sustained platform-activity, as a form of value co-creation between crowdsourcer and crowdsourcees. Therefore, the engagement concept, known as a micro-foundation of value co-creation, serves to holistically understand crowdsourcees’ psychological and behavioral responses along the IT-mediated crowdsourcing journey. Due to the multidimensionality of the concept, a mixed method approach is proposed for exploring qualitatively and quantitatively stimuli’s effect on psychological states and engagement behaviors. Therefore, two measuring approaches, the Sequential Incident Laddering Technique and a Panel Poisson Model, are presented. Preliminary findings suggest that, next to other factors, crowdsourcer-interaction and high-effort tasks serve as dominant drivers, fostering psychological engagement beyond the interaction process, while crowd-interaction rather drives within-process engagement behavior. This research in progress provides IS-researchers and practitioners initial insights into IT-enabled value co-creation processes

The enteric nervous system promotes intestinal health by constraining microbiota composition

<div><p>Sustaining a balanced intestinal microbial community is critical for maintaining intestinal health and preventing chronic inflammation. The gut is a highly dynamic environment, subject to periodic waves of peristaltic activity. We hypothesized that this dynamic environment is a prerequisite for a balanced microbial community and that the enteric nervous system (ENS), a chief regulator of physiological processes within the gut, profoundly influences gut microbiota composition. We found that zebrafish lacking an ENS due to a mutation in the Hirschsprung disease gene, <i>sox10</i>, develop microbiota-dependent inflammation that is transmissible between hosts. Profiling microbial communities across a spectrum of inflammatory phenotypes revealed that increased levels of inflammation were linked to an overabundance of pro-inflammatory bacterial lineages and a lack of anti-inflammatory bacterial lineages. Moreover, either administering a representative anti-inflammatory strain or restoring ENS function corrected the pathology. Thus, we demonstrate that the ENS modulates gut microbiota community membership to maintain intestinal health.</p></div

Inflamed intestines are rescued by anti-inflammatory bacterial isolates or transplantation of WT ENS into <i>sox10</i> mutants.

<p><b>(A)</b> Addition of a representative <i>Escherichia</i> isolate, <i>E</i>. <i>coli</i> HS, to CV <i>sox10</i> mutants reduces intestinal neutrophil accumulation. Monoassociation of <i>sox10</i> mutants with <i>E</i>. <i>coli</i> HS does not increase neutrophil level over that observed in GF zebrafish. <i>n</i> > 20, from at least three independent experiments. <b>(B)</b> Correlation between absolute abundance of <i>E</i>. <i>coli</i> HS and log₁₀(intestinal neutrophil number + 1) in experiments with added <i>E</i>. <i>coli</i> HS. Linear regression analysis with 95% confidence intervals. For A, B: <i>n</i> > 35, from three to six independent experiments. <b>(C)</b> Representative images of distal intestine from WT, <i>sox10</i>^<i>-</i>, and <i>sox10</i>^<i>-</i> rescued by WT ENS precursor transplantation. Anti-ElavI1–labeled enteric neurons are white (white arrow); neutrophils are black (black arrow). Scale bar = 100 μm. <b>(D)</b> Quantification of intestinal neutrophil number per 140 μm of distal intestine. <i>n</i> > 6 for all conditions, *<i>p</i> < 0.05, **<i>p</i> < 0.01, ****<i>p</i> < 0.0001, ANOVA with Tukey’s range test. See also <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.2000689#pbio.2000689.s004" target="_blank">S4 Fig</a>.</p

Increased bacterial colonization level does not drive increased intestinal neutrophil accumulation or pro-inflammatory gene expression.

<p>Quantification of intestinal neutrophil number <b>(A)</b> and bacterial colonization level <b>(B)</b> in the <i>sox10</i>^<i>-</i>, Tg<i>(mpx</i>:<i>GFP)</i> line. <i>sox10</i>^<i>-</i> fish were split into two groups, “<i>sox10</i>^<i>-</i> low” (bottom half) and “<i>sox10</i>^<i>-</i> high” (top half) based on intestinal neutrophil number. Ten representative fish from each group were plated to determine total CFU/intestine. <i>n</i> ≥ 9 per group. *<i>p</i> < 0.05, **<i>p</i> < 0.01, ****<i>p</i> < 0.0001, ANOVA with Tukey’s range test. <b>(C)</b> Relative expression calculated by the 2^-ΔΔCt method of immune genes from dissected intestines. For <i>mpx</i>, <i>saa</i>, <i>il1b</i>, and <i>c3</i>, <i>n</i> = 5 pools of 5 dissected intestines; for <i>tnfα</i> and <i>mmp9</i>, <i>n</i> = 3 pools of 18 dissected intestines. Graph displays average ± standard deviation (SD); **<i>p</i> < 0.01, <i>t</i> test corrected for multiple comparisons using Holm–Šidák method.</p

<i>sox10</i> mutants experience bacterial overgrowth and physiological indications of dysbiosis.

<p><b>(A)</b> Schematic representation of the location and orientation of images in B and D. <b>(B)</b> Representative images of the panbacterial population by FISH on the esophageal-intestinal junction of WT (left) and <i>sox10</i>^<i>-</i> (right) fish. Blue, DNA; red, eubacteria. <b>(C)</b> Quantification of bacterial colonization level in <i>sox10</i> mutants and WT siblings. <b>(D)</b> Representative images of WT, <i>sox10</i> mutant, and tumor necrosis factor receptor (<i>tnfr</i>) morpholino (MO) injected larvae of both genotypes. Arrowhead indicates neutrophil. <b>(E)</b> Quantification of intestinal neutrophil number per 140 μm of distal intestine. <b>(F)</b> Total numbers of proliferating cells over 30 serial sections beginning at the esophageal-intestinal junction and proceeding into the bulb in 6-d-post-fertilization (dpf) fish. Box plots represent the median and interquartile range; whiskers represent the 5–95 percentile. <i>n</i> > 15 per group, *<i>p</i> < 0.05, ***<i>p</i> < 0.001, ****<i>p</i> < 0.0001, ANOVA with Tukey’s range test. Also see <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.2000689#pbio.2000689.s001" target="_blank">S1 Fig</a>. Scale bars = 50 μm.</p