An Investigation of the Utility of Microblogging in a Virtual Organisation

Virtualisation is one possible business strategy of an organisation. The nature of virtual organisations is that individuals or teams are distributed over different work sites. This leads to barriers in communication,coordination and collaboration between these entities due to dispersed expertise, time zones, languages, cultures, etc. To address these issues, virtual organisations have invested in ICT for supporting collaboration between cross-site colleagues. One very new collaborative technology is microblogging. Microblogging supports asynchronous communication between multiple persons. Microblogging is based upon transmission of short messages that can be sent from Web-based microblogging systems, instant messaging tools, email or mobile phones. Microblogging has some relevant features like simplicity, immediacy, accessibility and presence. This paper describes our investigation of the utility of microblogging, particularly the Twitter tool, for collaboration support in a virtual organisation. Since microblogging is very new and was introduced only recently, no work has been done on this exact topic. The investigation involved conducting an online survey to collect participants’ opinions about the utility of Twitter in the workplace after using Twitter over a three-week period. The study yielded quantitative and qualitative results regarding participants’ experience of Twitter. It was found that microblogging could be adapted to virtual organisations quickly due to ease of use in terms of taking less time and effort for creating microblogs. Twitter could be used in virtual organisations for collaboration support because it is believed that the use of Twitter could somewhat improve communication between cross-site co-workers. However, to be well accepted by virtual organisations, Twitter needs improvement and addition to its existing functionality

A Dynamical Model of Twitter Activity Profiles

The advent of the era of Big Data has allowed many researchers to dig into various socio-technical systems, including social media platforms. In particular, these systems have provided them with certain verifiable means to look into certain aspects of human behavior. In this work, we are specifically interested in the behavior of individuals on social media platforms---how they handle the information they get, and how they share it. We look into Twitter to understand the dynamics behind the users' posting activities---tweets and retweets---zooming in on topics that peaked in popularity. Three mechanisms are considered: endogenous stimuli, exogenous stimuli, and a mechanism that dictates the decay of interest of the population in a topic. We propose a model involving two parameters $\eta^\star$ and $\lambda$ describing the tweeting behaviour of users, which allow us to reconstruct the findings of Lehmann et al. (2012) on the temporal profiles of popular Twitter hashtags. With this model, we are able to accurately reproduce the temporal profile of user engagements on Twitter. Furthermore, we introduce an alternative in classifying the collective activities on the socio-technical system based on the model.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Child Abuse Doesn\u27t Just Affect Them Now

Child abuse has lasting effects that can lead up and into adulthood, leaving scars mentally and physically on their bodies and mind. More than six- hundred thousand cases are reported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and people need to know what abuse can affect and alter a person for the rest of their life. According to McQueen multiple forms of child abuse can lead to many behavioral issues such as depression, anxiety, and disassociation in both childhood and adulthood. I believe that it is important for people to know that abuse isn\u27t some type of punishment, it can lead to suicide and death.

Flight Dynamics Study with the XCOR Lynx using the Suborbital Space Flight Simulator and Mission Control Center

This study was conducted to better understanding of the XCOR Lynx vehicle. Because the Lynx development was halted, the best knowledge of vehicle dynamics can only be found through simulator flights. X-Plane 10 was chosen for its robust applications and accurate portrayal of dynamics on a vehicle in flight. The Suborbital Space Flight Simulator (SSFS) and Mission Control Center (MCC) were brought to the Applied Aviation Sciences department in fall 2015. This academic and research tool is a department asset capable of providing multiple fields of data about suborbital simulated flights. This tool will allow us to assess different aspects of a suborbital flight dynamics and a trajectory map was created. It was found that the XCOR Lynx is an unstable platform but has good glide capabilities. This information is of use for pilots who may someday fly the XCOR Lynx as well as air traffic controllers who may have Lynx operations at their airports

The Effects of Foreign Language Acquisition on Wages for US College Graduates

This paper seeks to determine whether fluency in a foreign language has a significant impact on future earnings. The sample in question is made up of US college graduates who attained their bachelor’s degrees during the 2007-2008 school year. While previous literature suggests that there is a positive impact of 2-3% higher wages on top of a bachelor’s degree for those who are fluent in a foreign language, I am unable to find this general premium for fluency in a foreign language. I look at interactions of foreign language and their relative difficulty and, once again, do not find a significant relationship between the difficulty of a language and wages. However, I find that foreign language fluency provides a significant impact on wages only in certain sectors. Specifically, a positive increase in hourly wage is found in personal service and sales occupations. A negative relationship with hourly wage is found in science and technology related as well as “other” (which includes agricultural) fields

The Effects of Foreign Language Acquisition on Wages for US College Graduates

This paper seeks to determine whether fluency in a foreign language has a significant impact on future earnings. The sample in question is made up of US college graduates who attained their bachelor’s degrees during the 2007-2008 school year. While previous literature suggests that there is a positive impact of 2-3% higher wages on top of a bachelor’s degree for those who are fluent in a foreign language, I am unable to find this general premium for fluency in a foreign language. I look at interactions of foreign language and their relative difficulty and, once again, do not find a significant relationship between the difficulty of a language and wages. However, I find that foreign language fluency provides a significant impact on wages only in certain sectors. Specifically, a positive increase in hourly wage is found in personal service and sales occupations. A negative relationship with hourly wage is found in science and technology related as well as “other” (which includes agricultural) fields

Anticancer Activity of Natural Health Products (Dandelion Root, Lemongrass, and Hibiscus Extracts); A Study of Efficacy, Interaction, and Mechanism of Action

Cancer continues to be the leading cause of death in Canada. Many conventional chemotherapies have indicated side effects due to a lack of treatment specificity and are thus not suitable for long-term usage. Natural health products (NHPs) are well-tolerated and safe for consumption, and some have pharmaceutical uses particularly for their anti-cancer effects. We have previously investigated the anti-cancer efficacy of dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) root, lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus), and hibiscus (Hibiscus syriacus) extracts. However, their efficacy on prostate, colorectal, and breast cancer as well as their interactions with standard chemotherapeutics have not been studied to determine if they will be suitable for adjuvant therapies. If successful, these extracts could potentially be used in conjunction with chemotherapeutics to minimize the risk of drug-related toxicity and enhance the efficacy of the treatment. This work aimed evaluate the efficacy and mechanism of apoptotic induction in various cancer cells, assess the drug-drug interactions of NHPs and chemotherapeutics, and investigate the effects of these NHPs on tumour xenografted mice models. Using standard biochemical and morphological assays, we have demonstrated that dandelion root extract (DRE), lemongrass extract (LGE), and hibiscus extract (HE) exhibit selective anti-cancer activity. These extracts were also able to enhance the anticancer efficacy of common chemotherapeutics and protect normal healthy cells from toxicity. In mice xenografted with human cancer cells, DRE and LGE were able to reduce tumour burden and LGE was able to enhance FOLFOX activity. Thus, the implementation of these well-tolerated extracts in adjuvant therapies could be a selective and efficacious approach to cancer treatment. These findings provide scientific validation to support the safe and effective use of NHPs as well-tolerated and effective forms of cancer treatment