Software as a Service Adoption: impact on IT workers and functions of IT Department

Software as a Service (SaaS), a type of cloud computing is based on information technology (IT) capabilities in a utility model that enhances the reliability and scalability at relatively low costs as compared to on-premise IT systems. Other benefits SaaS provides to customers include: no upfront investment cost required, elasticity of computing resources, vendor support and upgrades, agile response to markets, usage metered as utility, resource pooling the ability to add computing resources as needed. Consequently, organisations may decide to adopt SaaS model based on these potential benefits. However, these benefits may have some implications on the roles of IT workers and functions of IT department. These implications include: changing IT workers’ skill sets requirements, widespread of layoffs of hardware IT workers, and IT department loses control of IT-Servers, and focuses more on data security, vendor management, as IT system support moves to cloud service provider. Similarly, IT workers believe that turning IT resource and support to a cloud service provider poses significant risks to their own jobs [1]. There is a lack of research conducted on the implications of SaaS model on IT department and associated human resource management. Thus, this paper seeks to fill this gap by examining how SaaS adoption may change IT workers’ roles and tasks, and functions of IT department. Drawing on adaptive structuration theory, a modified framework is constructed to support the change dynamics from SaaS adoption. Using examples of functions of IT department in tertiary institutions, we explored sources of structures from advanced IT and the ways in which organisational and human interactions have an impact on how SaaS is appropriated and institutionalised into business processes, and brings about changes in an organisation. This paper contributes to the theory by examining the way emergent and new structures are formulated at the macro and group level of the organisational structure. Implications for researchers and practitioners are provide

Re-Arrest Among Juvenile Justice-Involved Youth: An Examination Of The Static And Dynamic Risk Factors

The purpose of this study is to investigate the static and dynamic risk factors for re-arrest among detained youth by examining gender, race/ethnicity, age, special education and mental health variables (i.e., anger/irritability, depression/anxiety, somatic complaints, suicide ideation, thought disturbances, and traumatic experiences). The demographic profiles of detained youth with one admit were also compared with those with multiple admits to the juvenile detention center. With regards to static risk factors, older, white, and special education were significantly at risk of re-arrest. Concerning dynamic risk factors, only anger/irritability predicted re-arrest. Practice implications are also discussed

Socializing One Health: an innovative strategy to investigate social and behavioral risks of emerging viral threats

In an effort to strengthen global capacity to prevent, detect, and control infectious diseases in animals and people, the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT) PREDICT project funded development of regional, national, and local One Health capacities for early disease detection, rapid response, disease control, and risk reduction. From the outset, the EPT approach was inclusive of social science research methods designed to understand the contexts and behaviors of communities living and working at human-animal-environment interfaces considered high-risk for virus emergence. Using qualitative and quantitative approaches, PREDICT behavioral research aimed to identify and assess a range of socio-cultural behaviors that could be influential in zoonotic disease emergence, amplification, and transmission. This broad approach to behavioral risk characterization enabled us to identify and characterize human activities that could be linked to the transmission dynamics of new and emerging viruses. This paper provides a discussion of implementation of a social science approach within a zoonotic surveillance framework. We conducted in-depth ethnographic interviews and focus groups to better understand the individual- and community-level knowledge, attitudes, and practices that potentially put participants at risk for zoonotic disease transmission from the animals they live and work with, across 6 interface domains. When we asked highly-exposed individuals (ie. bushmeat hunters, wildlife or guano farmers) about the risk they perceived in their occupational activities, most did not perceive it to be risky, whether because it was normalized by years (or generations) of doing such an activity, or due to lack of information about potential risks. Integrating the social sciences allows investigations of the specific human activities that are hypothesized to drive disease emergence, amplification, and transmission, in order to better substantiate behavioral disease drivers, along with the social dimensions of infection and transmission dynamics. Understanding these dynamics is critical to achieving health security--the protection from threats to health-- which requires investments in both collective and individual health security. Involving behavioral sciences into zoonotic disease surveillance allowed us to push toward fuller community integration and engagement and toward dialogue and implementation of recommendations for disease prevention and improved health security

Software as a Service adoption: implications on IT workers and organisation structure

Software as a Service (SaaS) is based on IT capabilities in a utility model that enhances the reliability and scalability at relatively low costs as compared to on-premise IT systems. Consequently, organisations may decide to adopt SaaS based on these potential benefits. However, these benefits may have some implications on the roles of IT workers and organisational structure of IT department. There is a lack of research conducted on the implications of SaaS on organisational structure and associated human resource management. Thus, this research-in-progress seeks to fill this gap by examining how SaaS adoption may change IT workers’ roles and tasks, and structure of IT department. Drawing on adaptive structuration theory, a modified framework is proposed to support the change dynamics from SaaS adoption. We explored sources of structures from advanced IT and the ways in which organisational and human interactions have an impact on how SaaS is appropriated and institutionalised into business processes, and brings about changes in an organisation. This study contributes to the theory by explaining the way emergent and new structures are formulated at the macro and group level of the organisation structure. Implications for researchers and practitioners are provided

The validation of a three-stage screening methodology for detecting active convulsive epilepsy in population-based studies in health and demographic surveillance systems.

UNLABELLED: BACKGROUND: There are few studies on the epidemiology of epilepsy in large populations in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC). Most studies in these regions use two-stage population-based screening surveys, which are time-consuming and costly to implement in large populations required to generate accurate estimates. We examined the sensitivity and specificity of a three-stage cross-sectional screening methodology in detecting active convulsive epilepsy (ACE), which can be embedded within on-going census of demographic surveillance systems.We validated a three-stage cross-sectional screening methodology on a randomly selected sample of participants of a three-stage prevalence survey of epilepsy. Diagnosis of ACE by an experienced clinician was used as 'gold standard'. We further compared the expenditure of this method with the standard two-stage methodology. RESULTS: We screened 4442 subjects in the validation and identified 35 cases of ACE. Of these, 18 were identified as false negatives, most of whom (15/18) were missed in the first stage and a few (3/18) in the second stage of the three-stage screening. Overall, this methodology had a sensitivity of 48.6% and a specificity of 100%. It was 37% cheaper than a two-stage survey. CONCLUSION: This was the first study to evaluate the performance of a multi-stage screening methodology used to detect epilepsy in demographic surveillance sites. This method had poor sensitivity attributed mainly to stigma-related non-response in the first stage. This method needs to take into consideration the poor sensitivity and the savings in expenditure and time as well as validation in target populations. Our findings suggest the need for continued efforts to develop and improve case-ascertainment methods in population-based epidemiological studies of epilepsy in LMIC

Prevalence and clinical significance of respiratory viruses and bacteria detected in tuberculosis patients compared to household contact controls in Tanzania: a cohort study

To describe the prevalence of respiratory pathogens in tuberculosis (TB) patients and in their household contact controls, and to determine the clinical significance of respiratory pathogens in TB patients.; We studied 489 smear-positive adult TB patients and 305 household contact controls without TB with nasopharyngeal swab samples within an ongoing prospective cohort study in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, between 2013 and 2015. We used multiplex real-time PCR to detect 16 respiratory viruses and seven bacterial pathogens from nasopharyngeal swabs.; The median age of the study participants was 33 years; 61% (484/794) were men, and 21% (168/794) were HIV-positive. TB patients had a higher prevalence of HIV (28.6%; 140/489) than controls (9.2%; 28/305). Overall prevalence of respiratory viral pathogens was 20.4% (160/794; 95%CI 17.7-23.3%) and of bacterial pathogens 38.2% (303/794; 95%CI 34.9-41.6%). TB patients and controls did not differ in the prevalence of respiratory viruses (Odds Ratio [OR] 1.00, 95%CI 0.71-1.44), but respiratory bacteria were less frequently detected in TB patients (OR 0.70, 95%CI 0.53-0.94). TB patients with both respiratory viruses and respiratory bacteria were likely to have more severe disease (adjusted OR [aOR] 1.6, 95%CI 1.1-2.4; p 0.011). TB patients with respiratory viruses tended to have more frequent lung cavitations (aOR 1.6, 95%CI 0.93-2.7; p 0.089).; Respiratory viruses are common for both TB patients and household controls. TB patients may present with more severe TB disease, particularly when they are co-infected with both bacteria and viruses

Magnitude and factors associated with nonadherence to antiepileptic drug treatment in Africa: A cross‐sectional multisite study

Objectives The epilepsy treatment gap is large in low‐ and middle‐income countries, but the reasons behind nonadherence to treatment with antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) across African countries remain unclear. We investigated the extent to which AEDs are not taken and associated factors in people with active convulsive epilepsy (ACE) identified in cross‐sectional studies conducted in five African countries. Methods We approached 2,192 people with a confirmed diagnosis of ACE for consent to give blood voluntarily. Participants were asked if they were taking AEDs, and plasma drug concentrations were measured using a fluorescence polarization immunoassay analyzer. Information about possible risk factors was collected using questionnaire‐based clinical interviews. We determined factors associated with nonadherence to AED treatment in children and adults, as measured by detectable and optimal levels, using multilevel logistic regression. Results In 1,303 samples assayed (43.7% were children), AEDs were detected in 482, but only 287 had optimal levels. Of the 1,303 samples, 532 (40.8%) were from people who had reported they were on AEDs. The overall prevalence of nonadherence to treatment was 63.1% (95% confidence interval [CI] 60.5–65.6%) as measured by detectable AED levels and 79.1% (95% CI 73.3–84.3%) as measured by optimal AED levels; self‐reported nonadherence was 65.1% (95% CI 45.0–79.5%). Nonadherence was significantly (p < 0.001) more common among the children than among adults for optimal and detectable levels of AEDs, as was the self‐reported nonadherence. In children, lack of previous hospitalization and learning difficulties were independently associated with nonadherence to treatment. In adults, history of delivery at home, absence of burn marks, and not seeking traditional medicine were independently associated with the nonadherence to AED treatment. Significance Only about 20% of people with epilepsy benefit fully from antiepileptic drugs in sub‐Saharan Africa, according to optimum AEDs levels. Children taking AEDs should be supervised to promote compliance