3,952 research outputs found
Spotify tailoring for promoting effectiveness in cross-functional autonomous squads
Organisations tend to tailor agile methods to scale employed practices to have cross-functional autonomous teams while promoting sustainable creative and productive development at a constant pace. Thus, it is important to investigate how organisations tailor agile practices to get the balance right between teams' autonomy and alignment. Spotify model is originally introduced to facilitate the development of music streaming services in a very large-scale project with a Business-to-Consumer (B2C) model. However, developing a large-scale mission-critical project with a Business-to-Business (B2B) model is not essentially supported by the Spotify model. Thus, embracing Spotify model for such projects should be concerned about the question of how Spotify practices are adjusted to promote the effectiveness of cross-functional autonomous squads in a mission-critical project with B2B model?
In this paper, we conduct a longitudinal embedded case study, which lasted 21 months during which 14 semi-structured interviews were conducted. The Grounded Theory (GT) is adopted to analyse the collected data. As a result, we identify practices and processes that promote effectiveness in cross-functional autonomous squads, which have never been discussed in terms of Spotify model before. We also present Spotify Tailoring by highlighting modified and newly introduced practices by the organisation in which the case study was conducted
Micropulsations in the electric field near the plasmapause, observed by ISEE-1
The occurrence of micropulsations near and inside the plasmapause was surveyed. The observed pulsations, classified as Pc3 and Pi2, are discussed. In addition one single event of Pc1 was observed. The frequencies in the Pc3 and Pi2 bands, the amplitude ranges, and the direction of rotation for the electric field vector are reported
Responsiveness of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) Core Set for rheumatoid arthritis
Background: The comprehensive International
Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF)
Core Set for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a selection of 96
categories from the ICF, representing relevant aspects in
the functioning of patients with RA.
Objectives: To study the responsiveness of the ICF Core
Set for RA in rheumatological practice.
Methods: A total of 46 patients with RA (72% women,
mean (SD) age 53.6 (12.6) years, disease duration 6.3
(8.0) years) were interviewed at baseline and again after
6 months treatment with a disease-modifying antirheumatic
drug (DMARD), applying the ICF Core Set for RA
with qualifiers for problems on a modified three-point
scale (no problem, mild/moderate, severe/complete).
Patient-reported outcomes included Modified Health
Assessment Questionnaire (MHAQ) and Short-Form 36
(SF-36) health survey, and disease activity was calculated.
Responsiveness was measured as change in
qualifiers in ICF categories, and was also compared with
change in patient-reported outcomes.
Results: After 6 months of DMARD treatment,
improvement by at least one qualifier was seen in 20% of
patients (averaged across all ICF categories), 71%
experienced no change and 9% experienced worsening
symptoms. Findings were similar across the different
aspects of functioning. Mainly moderate effect sizes were
seen for 6-month changes in the ICF Core Set for RA,
especially in patients with improved health status, with
similar effect size for disease activity. The components in
the ICF Core Set for RA were only weakly associated with
patient-reported outcomes and disease activity.
Conclusions: The ICF Core Set for RA demonstrated
moderate responsiveness in this real-life setting of
patients where minor changes occurred during treatment
with DMARDs
Measuring Column Densities in Quasar Outflows: VLT Observations of QSO 2359-1241
We present high resolution spectroscopic VLT observations of the outflow seen
in QSO 2359-1241. These data contain absorption troughs from five resonance Fe
II lines with a resolution of ~7 km/s and signal-to-noise ratio per resolution
element of order 100. We use this unprecedented high quality data set to
investigate the physical distribution of the material in front of the source,
and by that determine the column densities of the absorbed troughs. We find
that the apparent optical depth model gives a very poor fit to the data and
greatly underestimates the column density measurements. Power-law distributions
and partial covering models give much better fits with some advantage to
power-law models, while both models yield similar column density estimates. The
better fit of the power-law model solves a long standing problem plaguing the
partial covering model when applied to large distance scale outflow: How to
obtain a velocity dependent covering factor for an outflow situated at
distances thousands of time greater than the size of the AGN emission source.
This problem does not affect power-law models. Therefore, based on the better
fit and plausibility of the physical model, we conclude that in QSO 2359-1241,
the outflow covers the full extent of the emission source but in a
non-homogeneous way.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figures, to appear on ApJ Jul 10. The full (online)
version of figure 2 can be obtained here:
http://www.phys.vt.edu/~arav/f2_online_version.p
EUV Sunspot Plumes Observed with SOHO
Bright EUV sunspot plumes have been observed in five out of nine sunspot
regions with the Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer -- CDS on SOHO. In the other
four regions the brightest line emissions may appear inside the sunspot but are
mainly concentrated in small regions outside the sunspot areas. These results
are in contrast to those obtained during the Solar Maximum Mission, but are
compatible with the Skylab mission results. The present observations show that
sunspot plumes are formed in the upper part of the transition region, occur
both in magnetic unipolar-- and bipolar regions, and may extend from the umbra
into the penumbra.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, to be published in ApJ Letter
Cost-effective processing of a piezoresistive MEMS cantilever sensor
In this paper cost-effective methods for fabrication of a piezoresistive cantilever sensor for industrial use are focused. The intended use of the presented cantilever is a medical application. A closer description of the cantilever design is given. The low-cost processing sequence is presented and each processing step is explained in detail. Results from electrical probing and mechanical strength test are given. The results demonstrate that the chosen low-cost processing route results in high yield and a mechanical robust device
Dynamical mechanism of atrial fibrillation: a topological approach
While spiral wave breakup has been implicated in the emergence of atrial
fibrillation, its role in maintaining this complex type of cardiac arrhythmia
is less clear. We used the Karma model of cardiac excitation to investigate the
dynamical mechanisms that sustain atrial fibrillation once it has been
established. The results of our numerical study show that spatiotemporally
chaotic dynamics in this regime can be described as a dynamical equilibrium
between topologically distinct types of transitions that increase or decrease
the number of wavelets, in general agreement with the multiple wavelets
hypothesis. Surprisingly, we found that the process of continuous excitation
waves breaking up into discontinuous pieces plays no role whatsoever in
maintaining spatiotemporal complexity. Instead this complexity is maintained as
a dynamical balance between wave coalescence -- a unique, previously
unidentified, topological process that increases the number of wavelets -- and
wave collapse -- a different topological process that decreases their number.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figure
Distance to Multiple Kinematic Components of Quasar Outflows: VLT Observations of QSO 2359-1241 and SDSS J0318-0600
Using high resolution VLT spectra, we study the multi-component outflow
systems of two quasars exhibiting intrinsic Fe II absorption (QSO 2359-1241 and
SDSS J0318-0600). From the extracted ionic column densities and using
photoionization modeling we determine the gas density, total column density,
and ionization parameter for several of the components. For each object the
largest column density component is also the densest, and all other components
have densities of roughly 1/4 of that of the main component. We demonstrate
that all the absorbers lie roughly at the same distance from the source.
Further, we calculate the total kinetic luminosities and mass outflow rates of
all components and show that these quantities are dominated by the main
absorption component.Comment: 27 pages, 5 figure
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