An Exploration of Baby Boomer Mass Retirement Effects on Information Systems Organizations

The potential knowledge loss from Baby Boomer generation employee retirements can negatively affect information systems organizations. The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenology study was to explore the lived experiences of the leaders and managers of information systems organizations as they tried to maintain operational continuity after Baby Boomer worker retirements. The impact of this issue was the operational continuity after the Baby Boomer worker retirement. The social impact of this issue was the knowledge loss events that might result in business loss or even bankruptcy. McElroy\u27s knowledge life cycle model was the conceptual framework for this study that included knowledge production and knowledge integration processes within a feedback loop. The lived experiences of 20 knowledgeable participants who had experienced institutional knowledge loss from retired Baby Boomer generation employees were captured through purposeful sampling. Data were collected through individual interviews using either face-to-face or a web conferencing tool such as Skype and analyzed through a modified Van Kaam. Five themes were identified: business climate, delivery practices, work processes, camaraderie, and management response. Significant attributes that added to the body of knowledge were workplace navigation, alternate focus, and outsourcing management. The results of the study may enable organizations to be better able to understand and manage the Baby Boomer knowledge loss effects and subsequently create systems to help maintain their competitive edge and avoid knowledge loss that might result in business loss or even bankruptcy

Pathways towards reverse logistics adoption in Indian educational institutes: a challenging factors analysis

Reverse logistics (RL) has been proven to have a positive effect on addressing the issue of effectively utilizing resources. India has a population of over one billion people with most of it dominated by youth. Developing RL strategies and exposing it to students will encourage them to find ways to manage the limited resources available in our country. This study is focused on identifying the challenges of RL implementation in education institutes in India and finding the inter-relationship among them. The most crucial barrier to RL implementation in educational institutes is also sought in the process. We initially review the RL practices in the Indian sub-continent to examine the challenges of effectively implementing RL. We then identify the challenges of RL based on literature and discussions with experts from the education industry. The experts selected for this study include administrators from schools and universities in Kerala, India (South India). A survey was conducted in two phases. The Fuzzy-DEMATEL technique was applied to determine the inter-relationship between the challenges and obtain the causal diagram. Initially, 45 challenges were identified. Based on responses from experts from phase one of the survey, it was narrowed down to 29 crucial challenges. A pairwise comparison among the challenges was then done by experts in the education field. Finally, on the application of Fuzzy-DEMATEL, a causal diagram was generated to indicate the extent of influence of the RL challenges. Our findings indicate that educational institutions are faced with lack of awareness about reverse logistic, lack of responsibilities about environment, resistance to change, lack of supplies on supplier end, lack of knowledge, and no proper outlet for disposal in managing RL operations in educational institutes. The challenges identified in our study is unique to the Indian sub-continent and provides a result based on the current scenario of RL implementation in Indian educational institutes. The findings from our study indicate a unique perspective of RL implementation challenges. We analyzed 29 challenges to obtain our findings. Furthermore, we use Fuzzy-DEMATEL as our analysis tool to facilitate finding results. We present this as the uniqueness of our study from the available literature

A rare case of patellar fracture with quadriceps tendon rupture

Quadriceps tendon rupture is the rarest injury with an incidence of 1.37/1,00,000/year. A patellar fracture is the most common injury associated with extensor mechanism lag, but it is rarely found to have quadriceps rupture rather than patellar tendon rupture. Normally when patella fracture occurs the force is disseminated at the bone level rather than at the muscular level. In this case, the force has disseminated at both muscle and bone leading to fracture of patella and quadriceps tendon rupture. Here we report a case of patellar fracture along with quadriceps tendon rupture

NOVEL SYNTHESIS, CHARACTERIZATION AND ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF SILVER NANOPARTICLES USING LEAF EXTRACT OF MELOTHRIA MADERASPATANA (LINN) CONG

Objective: This study aims to investigate the green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) Melothria maderaspatana (MM), and evaluation of their antibacterial activities for the first time. It is observed that MM leaf extract can reduce silver ions into AgNPs.Methods: The obtained particles were analyzed by UV-visible spectrophotometry, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, to understand the morphology of AgNPs. In addition, the antibacterial activity by MM extract synthesized AgNPs (MM AgNPs) was also investigated. FTIR spectroscopic studies were carried out to find possible bio-reducing agent present in the plant leaves.Results: The formation and stability of the reduced AgNPs in the colloidal solution were monitored by UV-Vis spectrophotometer analysis.SEM and FT-IR spectra of the leaf extract after the development of nanoparticles are determined to allow identification of possible functional groups responsible for the conversion of metal ions to metal nanoparticles.Conclusion: Further, the AgNPs thus acquired showed highly potent antibacterial activity toward Gram-positive (Bacillus cereus) and Gram-negative (E. coli, pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Klebsiella sps) microorganisms.Keywords: Green synthesis, Nanoparticles, Melothria maderaspatana, Antibacterial activity, Human pathogen

Rapid detection of Ganoderma lucidum and assessment of inhibition effect of various control measures by immunoassay and PCR

Molecular and immunological methods have been applied for detecting the Ganoderma disease of coconut. Polyclonal antibodies (PAbs) raised against basidiocarp protein of Ganoderma were used for detection. For polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, the primer generated from the internal transcribed spacer region one (ITS 1) of ribosomal DNA gene of Ganoderma, which produced a PCR product of 167 bp in size is used for early detection. Ganoderma disease in apparently healthy palms in two coconut gardens was tested by ELISA test using basidiocarp protein antiserum. Field trials were laid out in these early-diagnosed palms for the management of the disease. Based on the ELISA results,Pseudomonas fluorescens + Trichoderma viride with chitin amended treatments arrested the multiplication of the pathogen and showed below the infection level of optical density (O.D) within six months. Integrated disease management (IDM) and fungicide tridemorph treated palms showed below infection level (O.D value) within seven months and T. harzianum and P. fluorescens + T. viride treatedpalms showed below infection level (OD value) of the disease in eighth months

Applying Reflexivity to Artificial Intelligence for Researching Marginalized Communities and Real-World Problems

Despite advances in artificial intelligence (AI), ethical principles have been overlooked, harming marginalized communities. These flaws are due to a lack of critical insight into the complex positionality of the researcher, power dynamics between scholars and the communities being studied, and the structural impact on real-world problems when AI systems appear to be accurate but ethically fail. Reflexivity is a process that yields a better understanding of community-specific nuances, areas requiring local expertise, and the potential consequences of scholastic interventions for real-world problems (i.e., social, environmental, or socioeconomic). The paper builds on the five stages of social work reflexivity that can be applied to AI researchers and provided questions that can be asked in order to increase privacy, accountability, and fairness. We discuss the effective implementation of reflexivity in research, detail the stages of social work reflexivity and highlight key questions for AI researchers to ask throughout the research process

Parameter uniform convergence of a finite element method for a singularly perturbed linear reaction diffusion system with discontinuous source terms

A linear system of ’n’ second order ordinary differential equations of reaction-diffusion type with discontinuous source terms is considered. On a piecewise uniform Shishkin mesh, a numerical system is built that employs the finite element method. The numerical approximations obtained by this approach are proven to be effectively almost second order convergent

Speaking skills enhancement through digital storytelling among primary school students in Malaysia

Speaking skills can be considered a key measure of success in learning a language. Learning Tamil, as an elective language in Malaysian National Primary schools, is extremely difficult for beginners compared to students in National Type Tamil Primary Schools in Malaysia. The aim of the research is to apply digital storytelling as a pedagogical approach in speaking classes in national primary schools with a view to promote Tamil speaking abilities of children. A collaborative quasi-experimental action research design was adopted to measure the efficacy of digital storytelling in enhancing students' Tamil speaking skills. Action research was conducted with thirteen 2nd standard students aged between 7 and 8 years old, in a national primary school, in Pasir Gudang district, Johor, on a pilot project. The Tamil digital storytelling modules were developed in a mobile application with pre-and post-test survey tools and the respective class teachers were trained on the module to work with children in a regular classroom setting. The results showed that significant improvements were observed in students' comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency elements of the speaking skills after their participation in the digital storytelling sessions. As a result, the study suggests that digital storytelling may be an effective pedagogical approach to enhance students' speaking abilities in the classroom and beyond to improve the students' mother-tongue as second-language learning in schools

Second order parameter-uniform numerical method for a partially singularly perturbed linear system of reaction-diusion type

A partially singularly perturbed linear system of second order ordinary differential equations of reaction-diffusion type with given boundary conditions is considered. The leading terms of first $m$ equations are multiplied by small positive singular perturbation parameters which are assumed to be distinct. The rest of the equations are not singularly perturbed. The first $m$ components of the solution exhibit overlapping layers and the remaining $n-m$ components have less-severe overlapping layers. Shishkin piecewise-uniform meshes are used in conjunction with a classical finite difference discretisation, to construct a numerical method for solving this problem. It is proved that the numerical approximation obtained by this method is essentially second order convergent uniformly with respect to all the parameters. Numerical illustrations are presented in support of the theory

Parametric Tolerance Impact on Algebraic Position and Joint Torques of a Three Link Planar Manipulator using Evolutionary Techniques

814-818Tolerance analysis is a difficult task and an optimum tolerance allocation for individual parts is done to reduce the process error. This paper articulates the effect of changes in the link lengths due to manufacturing tolerance variation on the target path, assembly cost and joint torques of an R-R-R (three revolute joints) configuration planar three link robot manipulator. Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Elitist Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II (NSGA-II) are utilized to find optimum link lengths for the three link planar manipulator to minimize the errors. The analyses are further extended to identify the effect due to the three types of tolerances (fine, medium and coarse tolerances) on link lengths using C program codes and the results obtained from evolutionary algorithms are compared