A Preliminary Examination of Stressors in Information Systems Personnel

The impact of stress on information systems (IS) personnel has been noted in several recent practitioner articles (McGee, 1996). However, no empirical studies have been conducted to identify stressors for information systems personnel. This research reports the results of three studies designed to examine and measure factors which cause stress in IS personnel. In the first study, data collected from 38 IS employees in an insurance company was analyzed for specific stress factors.In the second study, an openended questionnaire was filled out by another 30 employees of the same company. In the third study, a final questionnaire was administered to 187 IS professionals. Data collected from the survey resulted in the identification of 12 distinct stress factors. A secondorder factor analysis identified three factors related to users, time constraints, and the work environmen

The Multidimensional Nature of Organizational Commitment Among Information Systems Personnel

Two distinct views of organizational commitment are examined in this study. Affective commitment describes an employee\u27s emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in the organization. Continuance commitment is a behavioral view of commitment and describes an attachment to an organization based on side-bets, or extraneous interests, such as pensions and seniority, which create costs in leaving an organization. These two dimensions are empirically examined for the case of 312 information systems (IS) employees. These findings demonstrate the importance of distinguishing between commitment based on a desire to stay in an organization and commitment based on a need to stay because of other factors, as well as the importance of fostering affective commitment in organizations

Modelling and validation of Selective Laser sintering of PA12

One of the larger growing fields within additive manufacturing is the selective laser sintering process of semi-crystalline polymer powders. The powder is locally fused at certain areas, due to the energy output of a laser. This method allows for rapid production of complex parts, which are well suited for prototyping. The overall accuracy and stability of the process along with part properties are highly related to the process parameter. A better control of these parameters will therefore optimize the process even further. The current paper propos a numerical modelling approach and the model makes it possible, to analyze the influence of the laser-related input parameters concerning the temperature distribution and size of the melt pool. For the validation, certain outputs from the model are compared to the ones found from experimental single-line track data, where the melt pool geometry can be compared to the numerical measurements

Blockchain implementation in health care: Protocol for a systematic review

Background: A blockchain is a digitized, decentralized, distributed public ledger that acts as a shared and synchronized database that records cryptocurrency transactions. Despite the shift toward digital platforms enabled by electronic medical records, demonstrating a will to reform the health care sector, health systems face issues including security, interoperability, data fragmentation, timely access to patient data, and silos. The application of health care blockchains could enable data interoperability, enhancement of precision medicine, and reduction in prescription frauds through implementing novel methods in access and patient consent. Objective: To summarize the evidence on the strategies and frameworks utilized to implement blockchains for patient data in health care to ensure privacy and improve interoperability and scalability. It is anticipated this review will assist in the development of recommendations that will assist key stakeholders in health care blockchain implementation, and we predict that the evidence generated will challenge the health care status quo, moving away from more traditional approaches and facilitating decision making of patients, health care providers, and researchers. Methods: A systematic search of MEDLINE/PubMed, Embase, Scopus, ProQuest Technology Collection and Engineering Index will be conducted. Two experienced independent reviewers will conduct titles and abstract screening followed by full-text reading to determine study eligibility. Data will then be extracted onto data extraction forms before using the Cochrane Collaboration Risk of Bias Tool to appraise the quality of included randomized studies and the Risk of Bias in nonrandomized studies of Interventions to assess the quality of nonrandomized studies. Data will then be analyzed and synthesized. Results: Database searches will be initiated in September 2018. We expect to complete the review in January 2019. Conclusions: This review will summarize the strategies and frameworks used to implement blockchains in health care to increase data privacy, interoperability, and scalability. This review will also help clarify if the strategies and frameworks required for the operationalization of blockchains in health care ensure the privacy of patient data while enabling efficiency, interoperability, and scalability

Dark Patterns after the GDPR: Scraping Consent Pop-ups and Demonstrating their Influence

New consent management platforms (CMPs) have been introduced to the web to conform with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, particularly its requirements for consent when companies collect and process users' personal data. This work analyses how the most prevalent CMP designs affect people's consent choices. We scraped the designs of the five most popular CMPs on the top 10,000 websites in the UK (n=680). We found that dark patterns and implied consent are ubiquitous; only 11.8% meet the minimal requirements that we set based on European law. Second, we conducted a field experiment with 40 participants to investigate how the eight most common designs affect consent choices. We found that notification style (banner or barrier) has no effect; removing the opt-out button from the first page increases consent by 22--23 percentage points; and providing more granular controls on the first page decreases consent by 8--20 percentage points. This study provides an empirical basis for the necessary regulatory action to enforce the GDPR, in particular the possibility of focusing on the centralised, third-party CMP services as an effective way to increase compliance.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures. To appear in the Proceedings of CHI '20 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, April 25--30, 2020, Honolulu, HI, US

The chlorite proximitor: A new tool for detecting porphyry ore deposits

publisher: Elsevier articletitle: The chlorite proximitor: A new tool for detecting porphyry ore deposits journaltitle: Journal of Geochemical Exploration articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gexplo.2015.01.005 content_type: article copyright: Crown copyright © 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. or its licensors or contributors. ScienceDirect ® is a registered trademark of Elsevier B.V. [Creative Commons License 4.0]. The attached file is the published version of the article

Single-laser 32.5 Tbit/s Nyquist WDM transmission

We demonstrate 32.5 Tbit/s 16QAM Nyquist WDM transmission over a total length of 227 km of SMF-28 without optical dispersion compensation. A number of 325 optical carriers are derived from a single laser and encoded with dual-polarization 16QAM data using sinc-shaped Nyquist pulses. As we use no guard bands, the carriers have a spacing of 12.5 GHz equal to the Nyquist bandwidth of the data. We achieve a high net spectral efficiency of 6.4 bit/s/Hz using a software-defined transmitter which generates the electrical modulator drive signals in real-time.Comment: (c) 2012 Optical Society of America. One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic reproduction and distribution, duplication of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modifications of the content of this paper are prohibite

Guidance for Developers of Health Research Reporting Guidelines

David Moher and colleagues from the EQUATOR network offer guidance and recommended steps for developing health research reporting guidelines