Legacy Effects in Radical Innovation: A Study of European Internet Banking

How do firms cope with the challenges of disruptive change in their industry? Numerous studies have highlighted that success with any prior technology creates a negative legacy effect for the next radical technological shift. We question the overly pessimistic view of such legacy effects and ask how quickly firms embrace technological breakthroughs by radically innovating and who wins in the longer term? In this paper, we argue that legacy is a multi-faceted construct whose diverse aspects could simultaneously have different effects on innovation speed and market performance. We identify three main types of legacy related to technology, organizational, and country-level influences. Previous research tends to focus on technological or market effects in isolation, whereas we seek to study the effects of both firm and country legacy simultaneously on speed to radical innovation and market performance over time. Based on a conceptual framework we develop six hypotheses concerning the legacy effects on initial speed radical innovation and subsequent market performance. We chose the European retail banking industry and the focal innovation of transactional Internet banking as a suitable empirical context to employ quantitative hypothesis testing. Detailed and longitudinal (1996-2001) data were collected for a sample of 123 banks from six European countries: United Kingdom, Germany, France, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark. We specified a model and used threestage least squares (3SLS) as a method to estimate simultaneous regression equations due to endogeneity of a key variable. We show that the prevailing negative view of legacies is likely to be overstated

Blackwater Fever in Ugandan Children With Severe Anemia is Associated With Poor Postdischarge Outcomes: A Prospective Cohort Study

Background: Blackwater fever (BWF), one of the complications of severe malaria, has recently re-emerged as a cause of severe anemia (SA) in African children. However, postdischarge morbidity in children with BWF has previously not been described. Methods: This was a descriptive cohort study in which children, aged 0-5 years, admitted to Jinja Regional Referral Hospital with acute episodes of SA (hemoglobin ≤5.0 g/dL) were followed up for 6 months after hospitalization. Incidence of readmissions or deaths during the follow-up period was compared between SA children with BWF and those without BWF. Results: A total of 279 children with SA including those with BWF (n = 92) and no BWF (n = 187) were followed for the duration of the study. Overall, 128 (45.9%) of the study participants were readmitted at least once while 22 (7.9%) died during the follow-up period. After adjusting for age, sex, nutritional status, and parasitemia, SA children with BWF had higher risk of readmissions (hazard ratio [HR], 1.68; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1-2.5) and a greater risk of death (HR. 3.37; 95% CI, 1.3-8.5) compared with those without BWF. Malaria and recurrence of SA were the most common reasons for readmissions. Conclusions: There is a high rate of readmissions and deaths in the immediate 6 months after initial hospitalization among SA children in the Jinja hospital. SA children with BWF had increased risk of readmissions and deaths in the postdischarge period. Postdischarge malaria chemoprophylaxis should be considered for SA children living in malaria endemic areas

Global research priorities for infections that affect the nervous system

Infections that cause significant nervous system morbidity globally include viral (for example, HIV, rabies, Japanese encephalitis virus, herpes simplex virus, varicella zoster virus, cytomegalovirus, dengue virus and chikungunya virus), bacterial (for example, tuberculosis, syphilis, bacterial meningitis and sepsis), fungal (for example, cryptococcal meningitis) and parasitic (for example, malaria, neurocysticercosis, neuroschistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths) infections. The neurological, cognitive, behavioural or mental health problems caused by the infections probably affect millions of children and adults in low- and middle-income countries. However, precise estimates of morbidity are lacking for most infections, and there is limited information on the pathogenesis of nervous system injury in these infections. Key research priorities for infection-related nervous system morbidity include accurate estimates of disease burden; point-of-care assays for infection diagnosis; improved tools for the assessment of neurological, cognitive and mental health impairment; vaccines and other interventions for preventing infections; improved understanding of the pathogenesis of nervous system disease in these infections; more effective methods to treat and prevent nervous system sequelae; operations research to implement known effective interventions; and improved methods of rehabilitation. Research in these areas, accompanied by efforts to implement promising technologies and therapies, could substantially decrease the morbidity and mortality of infections affecting the nervous system in low- and middle-income countries

Alunos surdos no Ensino Superior: uma discussão necessária

O interesse deste trabalho é discutir as condições que são oferecidas para alunos surdos que freqüentam o ensino superior e contribuir para que sua experiência acadêmica tenha maior qualidade na realidade atual, visto que as mudanças propostas pela política oficial para a educação de surdos em todos os níveis não estão ainda efetivamente implantadas nem as instituições educacionais preparadas para responder às necessidades desses alunos. Essa preocupação conduziu à realização da presente pesquisa, que teve o objetivo de analisar, por meio de entrevistas individuais, os dizeres de alunos surdos e seus professores universitários a respeito dos obstáculos e das possibilidades que o surdo encontra no seu cotidiano de estudo. Os sujeitos foram quatro alunos e seis professores de duas universidades. Com os alunos foram realizadas entrevistas presenciais de caráter semi-estruturado, em LIBRAS, que foram videogravadas e posteriormente traduzidas para o Português. Com os professores as entrevistas aconteceram por meio da internet, utilizando e-mail e Messenger com vídeo conferência. Na fase de análises, os depoimentos dos dois grupos foram organizados em quatro unidades temáticas: 1) atitudes diante da surdez e das demandas de comunicação com o aluno; 2) as aulas e os recursos didáticos; 3) dificuldades relativas à língua portuguesa e aos conteúdos a dominar e 4) condições que favorecem os estudos do aluno surdo no ensino superior. Os achados mostram que, além das barreiras de comunicação e da insatisfação com questões didáticas, o grande obstáculo enfrentado pelos alunos surdos referese às dificuldades na leitura e na escrita, em razão da baixa qualidade de sua escolarização anterior, o que prejudica as possibilidades de expansão dos conhecimentos esperados na sua área de estudos. Os professores destacam essas dificuldades com a língua como um sério entrave para o domínio de conteúdos e o pensamento lógico, e parecem desconhecer as peculiaridades da condição bilíngue do aluno. A maior parte deles mostra-se disposta a receber apoio para adaptações e alternativas didáticas. Quanto às possibilidades de solução dos problemas, os dois grupos de entrevistados referem-se ao âmbito de atuação do intérprete e do coordenador, sem, no entanto, cobrar compromissos institucionais de projetos maior alcance. Embora tais projetos sejam urgentes, sugere-se, como iniciativa de cunho transitório, o oferecimento regular de uma disciplina de língua portuguesa desenvolvida especificamente para surdos e outras ações semelhantes a serem assumidas pelas universidades

Task parallelism and high-performance languages

The definition of High Performance Fortran (HPF) is a significant event in the maturation of parallel computing: it represents the first parallel language that has gained widespread support from vendors and users. The subject of this paper is to incorporate support for task parallelism. The term task parallelism refers to the explicit creation of multiple threads of control, or tasks, which synchronize and communicate under programmer control. Task and data parallelism are complementary rather than competing programming models. While task parallelism is more general and can be used to implement algorithms that are not amenable to data-parallel solutions, many problems can benefit from a mixed approach, with for example a task-parallel coordination layer integrating multiple data-parallel computations. Other problems admit to both data- and task-parallel solutions, with the better solution depending on machine characteristics, compiler performance, or personal taste. For these reasons, we believe that a general-purpose high-performance language should integrate both task- and data-parallel constructs. The challenge is to do so in a way that provides the expressivity needed for applications, while preserving the flexibility and portability of a high-level language. In this paper, we examine and illustrate the considerations that motivate the use of task parallelism. We also describe one particular approach to task parallelism in Fortran, namely the Fortran M extensions. Finally, we contrast Fortran M with other proposed approaches and discuss the implications of this work for task parallelism and high-performance languages

Community seismic network and localized earthquake situational awareness

Community-hosted seismic networks are a solution to the need for large numbers of sensors to operate over a seismically active region in order to accurately measure the size and location of an earthquake, assess resulting damage, and provide alerts. The Community Seismic Network is one such strong-motion network, currently comprising hundreds of elements located in California. It consists of low-cost, three-component, MEMS accelerometers capable of recording accelerations up to twice the level of gravity. The primary product of the network is to produce measurements of shaking of the ground and multiple locations of every upper floor in buildings, in the seconds during and following a major earthquake. Each sensor uses a small, dedicated ARM processor computer running Linux, and analyzes time series data in real time at hundreds of samples per second. The network reports on shaking parameters that indicate intensity of the structural response levels such as maximum floor acceleration and velocity, displacement of a floor in a building, as well as data products that depend on the response time histories. To do this, Cloud computing has been expanded through the use of statically defined subsets of sensors called cloudlets. These are smaller subsets of similar sensors that carry out customized calculations for those locations. The measurements are reported as rapidly as possible following an earthquake so that they may be incorporated into structural diagnosis and prognosis applications that can be used by first responders to prioritize their initial disaster management efforts. The cloudlet displays are customized for specific buildings and they show in real time: instantaneous displacement, inter-story drift, and resonant frequency and mode shapes using system identification software tools. The real-time display products are useful for decision-making about whether the potential for damage exists, what level of damage may have occurred and where, and whether total business disruption is necessary. City-wide dense monitoring makes it possible for emergency response managers to prioritize the target locations requiring first response on a block-by-block scale based on reports of shaking intensity

High performance computing and communications grand challenges program

The so-called protein folding problem has numerous aspects, however it is principally concerned with the {ital de novo} prediction of three-dimensional (3D) structure from the protein primary amino acid sequence, and with the kinetics of the protein folding process. Our current project focuses on the 3D structure prediction problem which has proved to be an elusive goal of molecular biology and biochemistry. The number of local energy minima is exponential in the number of amino acids in the protein. All current methods of 3D structure prediction attempt to alleviate this problem by imposing various constraints that effectively limit the volume of conformational space which must be searched. Our Grand Challenge project consists of two elements: (1) a hierarchical methodology for 3D protein structure prediction; and (2) development of a parallel computing environment, the Protein Folding Workbench, for carrying out a variety of protein structure prediction/modeling computations. During the first three years of this project, we are focusing on the use of two proteins selected from the Brookhaven Protein Data Base (PDB) of known structure to provide validation of our prediction algorithms and their software implementation, both serial and parallel. Both proteins, protein L from {ital peptostreptococcus magnus}, and {ital streptococcal} protein G, are known to bind to IgG, and both have an {alpha} {plus} {beta} sandwich conformation. Although both proteins bind to IgG, they do so at different sites on the immunoglobin and it is of considerable biological interest to understand structurally why this is so. 12 refs., 1 fig

Case Report: Birth Outcome and Neurodevelopment in Placental Malaria Discordant Twins.

Maternal infection during pregnancy can have lasting effects on neurodevelopment, but the impact of malaria in pregnancy on child neurodevelopment is unknown. We present a case of a 24-year-old gravida three woman enrolled at 14 weeks 6 days of gestation in a clinical trial evaluating malaria prevention strategies in pregnancy. She had two blood samples test positive for Plasmodium falciparum using loop-mediated isothermal amplification before 20 weeks of gestation. At 31 weeks 4 days of gestation, the woman presented with preterm premature rupture of membranes, and the twins were delivered by cesarean section. Twin A was 1,920 g and Twin B was 1,320 g. Both placentas tested negative for malaria by microscopy, but the placenta of Twin B had evidence of past malaria by histology. The twins' development was assessed using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development-Third Edition. At 1 year chronologic age, Twin B had lower scores across all domains (composite scores: cognitive, Twin A [100], Twin B [70]; motor, Twin A [88], Twin B [73]; language, Twin A [109], Twin B [86]). This effect persisted at 2 years chronologic age (composite scores: cognitive, Twin A [80], Twin B [60]; motor, Twin A [76], Twin B [67]; language, Twin A [77], Twin B [59]). Infant health was similar over the first 2 years of life. We report differences in neurodevelopmental outcomes in placental malaria-discordant dizygotic twins. Additional research is needed to evaluate the impact of placental malaria on neurodevelopmental complications. Trial registration number: ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02163447. Registered: June 2014, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02163447

Automatic generation of hardware/software interfaces

Enabling new applications for mobile devices often requires the use of specialized hardware to reduce power consumption. Because of time-to-market pressure, current design methodologies for embedded applications require an early partitioning of the design, allowing the hardware and software to be developed simultaneously, each adhering to a rigid interface contract. This approach is problematic for two reasons: (1) a detailed hardware-software interface is difficult to specify until one is deep into the design process, and (2) it prevents the later migration of functionality across the interface motivated by efficiency concerns or the addition of features. We address this problem using the Bluespec Codesign Language~(BCL) which permits the designer to specify the hardware-software partition in the source code, allowing the compiler to synthesize efficient software and hardware along with transactors for communication between the partitions. The movement of functionality across the hardware-software boundary is accomplished by simply specifying a new partitioning, and since the compiler automatically generates the desired interface specifications, it eliminates yet another error-prone design task. In this paper we present BCL, an extension of a commercially available hardware design language (Bluespec SystemVerilog), a new software compiling scheme, and preliminary results generated using our compiler for various hardware-software decompositions of an Ogg Vorbis audio decoder, and a ray-tracing application.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (NSF (#CCF-0541164))National Research Foundation of Korea (grant from the Korean Government (MEST) (#R33-10095)