Profiling Quality Management in Systems Development: An Empirically Study

The critical role of information systems in organizations has focussed attention on the need to manage quality in systems development. Existing quality management practices have been found inadequate to meet the escalating demands in systems delivery performance (Cusumano, 1991; Matsumoto, 1987). Problems such as poor quality,low productivity, cost over runs, late deliveries and user dissatisfaction have become common in systems development (Hamid & Madnick, 1989). These problems highlight the critical need to reengineer the systems delivery process (Rockart & Hofman, 1992). Several IS organizations have responded to this challenge by adopting Total Quality Management (TQM) practices. Success of TQM initiatives in organizations like Corning Inc (Shrendick et al, 1993) and Dun & Bradstreet suggests a positive relationship between quality management practices and quality performance. However, the reported failures of TQM programs in organizations like Florida Power and Kodak (Grant et al, 1994) suggest that systematic study is necessary to develop a richer understanding of how TQM works and when it is effective. The quality management literature adopts an universalistic perspective that TQM involves a set of principles and practices that are applicable across organizations (Juran, 1986). However, recent empirical studies (Bensen et al, 1991; Flynn et al, 1994) and theoretical work (Sitkin et al, 1994) highlight that quality management is context-dependent and organizations that have recognized this have been relatively successful in implementing TQM programs (Ernst & Young, 1992).This contingent perspective which is rooted in systems theory suggests that quality management practices vary across organizations. Understanding these variations is perhaps the first step towards theory development in this area. Accordingly, this study focuses on developing a descriptive profile of quality management practices in the context of systems development. The rest of the paper is organized as follows: first, a description of the empirical study is presented; this is followed by a discussion of the data analysis; next the results and findings of the study are presented and their implications are discussed

Are There Rational Bubbles in the US Stock Market? Overview and a New Test

A speculative bubble is usually defined as the difference between the market value of a security and its fundamental value. Although there are several important theoretical issues surrounding the topic of asset bubbles, the existence of bubbles is inherently an empirical issue that has not been settled yet. This paper reviews several important tests and offers one more methodology that improves upon the existing ones. The new test is applied to the annual US stock market data spanning over a century and at the monthly frequency covering the post-war period. Although we find evidence of stock price bubble in both cases, the post-war period exhibit only positive component whereas the annual data exhibit some episode of negative bubble

Speculative Non-Fundamental Components in Mature Stock Markets: Do They Exist and Are They Related?

Economists have long conjectured that movements in stock prices may involve speculative components, called bubbles. A bubble is defined as the difference between the market value of a security and its fundamental value. The topic of asset bubbles remains controversial because the existence of a bubble is inherently an empirical issue and no satisfactory test has yet been devised to estimate the magnitude of a bubble. This paper proposes a new methodology for testing for the existence of rational bubbles. Unlike previous authors, we treat both the dividend that drives the fundamental part and the nonfundamental process as part of the state vector. This new methodology is applied to the four mature markets of the US, Japan, England, and Germany to test whether a speculative component was present during the period of January 1951 to December 1998 in these markets. The paper also examines whether there are linkages between these national speculative components. We find evidence that the nonfundamental component in the US market causes the other three markets but we find no evidence for reverse causality

Information Systems to Manage Local Climate Change Effects: A Unified Framework

In many localities, local climate change effects are disasters-in-the-making or -in- waiting. They must therefore be managed coherently and consistently to assure the resilience of the local population and its communities. They are of deep concern at the local, state, federal, and international levels of government. Information systems play a critical role in managing local climate change effects. We draw upon many simple and selective frameworks in the literature, some explicitly articulated, and others implicitly incorporated, to present a unified framework for information systems to manage local climate change effects. The framework is both systemic in its coverage and systematic in its development. Its outlook is symmetrically neutral with respect to local climate change effects, recognizing that the change could be both beneficial and harmful to the local community. It is presented using structured natural English and can be easily understood, interpreted, and applied by the researchers, policy makers, and practitioners

What Has Driven the U.S. Monthly Oil Production Since 2009? Empirical Results from Two Modeling Approaches

From the early 1970s to the Global Financial Crisis of 2007–09, U.S. crude oil production followed a declining trend. After the Global Financial Crisis, U.S. crude oil production increased rapidly. This paper addresses the important question “what economic factors have driven U.S. crude oil production since the Global Financial Crisis?”. We propose that factors such as: the price of oil, the one period lagged price of oil, the price of copper, the crude oil price volatility, the Trade Weighted U.S. Dollar Index, and the high yield index spread, are important explanatory variables. Using two modeling approaches, namely, multiple regression, and the random tree methodology, we conclude that the one month lagged price of oil is the most significant explanatory variable, among all considered, for the upward trend of U.S. oil production from 2009 to early 2020

Australia's national health programs: An ontological mapping

Australia has a large number of health program initiatives whose comprehensive assessment will help refine and redefine priorities by highlighting areas of emphasis, under-emphasis, and non-emphasis. The objectives of our research are to: (a) systematically map all the programs onto an ontological framework, and (b) systemically analyse their relative emphases at different levels of granularity. We mapped all the health program initiatives onto an ontology with five dimensions, namely: (a) Policy-scope, (b) Policy-focus, (c) Outcomes, (d) Type of care, and (e) Population served. Each dimension is expanded into a taxonomy of its constituent elements. Each combination of elements from the five dimensions is a possible policy initiative component. There are 30,030 possible components encapsulated in the ontology. It includes, for example: (a) National financial policies on accessibility of preventive care for family, and (b) Local-urban regulatory policies on cost of palliative care for individual-aged. Four of the authors mapped all of Australia's health programs and initiatives on to the ontology. Visualizations of the data are used to highlight the relative emphases in the program initiatives. The dominant emphasis of the program initiatives is: [National] [educational, personnel-physician, information] policies on [accessibility, quality] of [preventive, wellness] care for the [community]. However, although (a) information is emphasized technology is not and (b) accessibility and quality are emphasized cost, satisfaction, and quality are not. The ontology and the results of the mapping can help systematically reassess and redirect the relative emphases of the programs and initiatives from a systemic perspective

In vivo Spectroscopic and Imaging Studies of Photosensitizer in Photodynamic Therapy

Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) has emerged as a useful cancer treatment modality which utilizes a tumor localizing dye and activating light to selectively destroy neoplastic tissue. In an effort to understand the newly synthesized photosensitizers, we are studying them in a mouse tumor model grown on the dorsal side of the foot by in vivo magnetic resonance techniques. We have synthesized several photosensitizers which are specifically labeled with fluorine. Several coils appropriate for the tumor study by 19F NMR were designed and constructed for this project. The solenoid coil tunable to both 1Hand 19F nuclei was used to monitor the 19F labeled photosensitizer in the mouse foot tumor. An in vivo 19F NMR technique was used to study the retention of the photosensitizer over time in the tumor. We have used 31P NMR to study the outcome of PDT after using the new photosensitizer

Engraftment Syndrome after Nonmyeloablative Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: Incidence and Effects on Survival

AbstractEngraftment syndrome (ES) encompasses a constellation of symptoms that occur during neutrophil recovery after both autologous and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT). Although it is well characterized after conventional myeloablative procedures, limited data exist on this complication after nonmyeloablative allogeneic HCT. The clinical manifestations, incidence, and risk factors associated with ES were investigated in a consecutive series of patients undergoing cyclophosphamide/fludarabine-based nonmyeloablative allogeneic HCT from a related HLA-compatible donor. Fifteen (10%) of 149 patients (median age, 53 years; range, 27–66 years) developed ES; the onset of symptoms occurred at a median of 10 days (range, 3–14 days), and they consisted of fever (100%), cough (53%), diffuse pulmonary infiltrates (100%), rash (13%), and room air hypoxia (87%). ES was more likely to develop in patients who received empiric amphotericin formulations after transplant conditioning (Fisher exact test; P = .007). In a multivariate analysis, older patient age, female sex, and treatment with amphotericin were predictors for the development of ES. Intravenous methylprednisolone led to the rapid resolution of ES; however, transplant-related mortality was significantly higher (cumulative incidence, 49% versus 16%; P = .0005), and median survival was significantly shorter (168 versus 418 days; P = .005) in patients with ES compared with non-ES patients. In conclusion, ES occurs commonly after cyclophosphamide/fludarabine-based nonmyeloablative transplantation and responds rapidly to corticosteroid treatment, but it is associated with a higher risk of nonrelapse mortality and with shorter overall survival

Plasmodium P-Type Cyclin CYC3 Modulates Endomitotic Growth during Oocyst Development in Mosquitoes

Cell-cycle progression and cell division in eukaryotes are governed in part by the cyclin family and their regulation of cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs). Cyclins are very well characterised in model systems such as yeast and human cells, but surprisingly little is known about their number and role in Plasmodium, the unicellular protozoan parasite that causes malaria. Malaria parasite cell division and proliferation differs from that of many eukaryotes. During its life cycle it undergoes two types of mitosis: endomitosis in asexual stages and an extremely rapid mitotic process during male gametogenesis. Both schizogony (producing merozoites) in host liver and red blood cells, and sporogony (producing sporozoites) in the mosquito vector, are endomitotic with repeated nuclear replication, without chromosome condensation, before cell division. The role of specific cyclins during Plasmodium cell proliferation was unknown. We show here that the Plasmodium genome contains only three cyclin genes, representing an unusual repertoire of cyclin classes. Expression and reverse genetic analyses of the single Plant (P)-type cyclin, CYC3, in the rodent malaria parasite, Plasmodium berghei, revealed a cytoplasmic and nuclear location of the GFP-tagged protein throughout the lifecycle. Deletion of cyc3 resulted in defects in size, number and growth of oocysts, with abnormalities in budding and sporozoite formation. Furthermore, global transcript analysis of the cyc3-deleted and wild type parasites at gametocyte and ookinete stages identified differentially expressed genes required for signalling, invasion and oocyst development. Collectively these data suggest that cyc3 modulates oocyst endomitotic development in Plasmodium berghei