The Inter-organizational Business Case in ES Implementations: Exploring the Impact of Coordination Structures and Their Properties

Developing the business case (BC) for an inter-organizational network is a major challenge. Factors like competition and differences in semantics between actors influence the stakeholders’ willingness to share information necessary for the BC development. In this paper we develop an exploratory framework showing the effect that coordination structure and project scope have on the development of a shared BC. We defined several coordination properties, such as competition, decision making location and decision power that mitigate this effect. We applied the framework in a case study where a BC is developed for an inter-organizational network. Our findings show that current BC development methods need to be re-stated and complemented by extra tools and interventions to support stakeholders in the inter-organizational specific setting

Mechanisms of Foreign Body Response Mitigation by Nitric Oxide Release

Implantable glucose biosensors provide real-time information about blood glucose fluctuations, but their utility and accuracy are time-limited due to the foreign body response (FBR) following their insertion beneath the skin. The slow release of nitric oxide (NO), a gasotransmitter with inflammation regulatory properties, from a sensor surface has been shown to dramatically improve sensors’ analytical biocompatibility by reducing the overall FBR response. Indeed, work in a porcine model suggests that as long as the implants (sensors) continue to release NO, even at low levels, the inflammatory cell infiltration and resulting collagen density are lessened. While these studies strongly support the benefits of NO release in mitigating the FBR, the mechanisms through which exogenous NO acts on the surrounding tissue, especially under the condition of hyperglycemia, remain vague. Such knowledge would inform strategies to refine appropriate NO dosage and release kinetics for optimal therapeutic activity. In this study, we evaluated mediator, immune cell, and mRNA expression profiles in the local tissue microenvironment surrounding implanted sensors as a function of NO release, diabetes, and implantation duration. A custom porcine wound healing-centric multiplex gene array was developed for nanoString barcoding analysis. Tissues adjacent to sensors with sustained NO release abrogated the implant-induced acute and chronic FBR through modulation of the tissue-specific immune chemokine and cytokine microenvironment, resulting in decreased cellular recruitment, proliferation, and activation at both the acute (7-d) and chronic (14-d) phases of the FBR. Further, we found that sustained NO release abrogated the implant-induced acute and chronic foreign body response through modulation of mRNA encoding for key immunological signaling molecules and pathways, including STAT1 and multiple STAT1 targets including MAPK14, IRAK4, MMP2, and CXCL10. The condition of diabetes promoted a more robust FBR to the implants, which was also controlled by sustained NO release

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02

Genetic research: the role of citizens, public health and international stakeholders

Background: Genetic research has become an indispensable instrument for medical research, and the subjects involved have both divergent and convergent interests. Objective: The possibility of having more detailed genetic information undoubtedly offers benefits for the health of the subject, but could also pose risks and make the subject vulnerable to discrimination. Methods: The scientific community has viewed very favorably the public health utility of family history, in which data from a family whose members suffer from chronic pathologies is collected and filed, in order to develop a sort of “stratification of family risk.” Even though in the last decade the scientific and juridical literature has contributed greatly to the topic of biobanks, the perplexities that continue to surround this theme give the idea that current ethical protocols on research are inadequate. Results: Researchers, citizens, International stakeholders, mass media, Public Health and Governments play a key role in genetic research. It is obvious that the methods used for genetic research do not present intrinsic risks; they are much less dangerous than other activities of diagnosis and research. Before authorizing a research project, it is important to reflect on the responsibility and transparency of the studies to be conducted, and on the impact they may have on the interests of public health. Conclusion: We believe that the highest priority need is to develop a common language on the theme, as is the case in the sphere of clinical experimentation where rules of good clinical practice, albeit at times conflicting, have led to uniform convergences in the scientific world on the points to be actuated

Search for dark matter produced in association with a hadronically decaying vector boson in pp collisions at sqrt (s) = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search is presented for dark matter produced in association with a hadronically decaying W or Z boson using 3.2 fb−1 of pp collisions at View the MathML sources=13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events with a hadronic jet compatible with a W or Z boson and with large missing transverse momentum are analysed. The data are consistent with the Standard Model predictions and are interpreted in terms of both an effective field theory and a simplified model containing dark matter

Measurement of the View the tt production cross-section using eμ events with b-tagged jets in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper describes a measurement of the inclusive top quark pair production cross-section (σtt¯) with a data sample of 3.2 fb−1 of proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 13 TeV, collected in 2015 by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. This measurement uses events with an opposite-charge electron–muon pair in the final state. Jets containing b-quarks are tagged using an algorithm based on track impact parameters and reconstructed secondary vertices. The numbers of events with exactly one and exactly two b-tagged jets are counted and used to determine simultaneously σtt¯ and the efficiency to reconstruct and b-tag a jet from a top quark decay, thereby minimising the associated systematic uncertainties. The cross-section is measured to be: σtt¯ = 818 ± 8 (stat) ± 27 (syst) ± 19 (lumi) ± 12 (beam) pb, where the four uncertainties arise from data statistics, experimental and theoretical systematic effects, the integrated luminosity and the LHC beam energy, giving a total relative uncertainty of 4.4%. The result is consistent with theoretical QCD calculations at next-to-next-to-leading order. A fiducial measurement corresponding to the experimental acceptance of the leptons is also presented