Dealing with mobility: Understanding access anytime, anywhere

The rapid and accelerating move towards the adoption and use of mobile technologies has increasingly provided people and organisations with the ability to work away from the office and on the move. The new ways of working afforded by these technologies are often characterised in terms of access to information and people ‘anytime, anywhere’. This paper presents a study of mobile workers that highlights different facets of access to remote people and information, and different facets of anytime, anywhere. Four key factors in mobile work are identified from the study: the role of planning, working in ‘dead time’, accessing remote technological and informational resources, and monitoring the activities of remote colleagues. By reflecting on these issues, we can better understand the role of technology and artefact use in mobile work and identify the opportunities for the development of appropriate technological solutions to support mobile workers

Secondary user relations in emerging mobile computing environments

Mobile technologies are enabling access to information in diverse environ.ments, and are exposing a wider group of individuals to said technology. Therefore, this paper proposes that a wider view of user relations than is usually considered in information systems research is required. Specifically, we examine the potential effects of emerging mobile technologies on end-­‐user relations with a focus on the ‘secondary user’, those who are not intended to interact directly with the technology but are intended consumers of the technology’s output. For illustration, we draw on a study of a U.K. regional Fire and Rescue Service and deconstruct mobile technology use at Fire Service incidents. Our findings provide insights, which suggest that, because of the nature of mobile technologies and their context of use, secondary user relations in such emerging mobile environments are important and need further exploration

Quantum to classical crossover in generalized spin systems -- the temperature-dependent spin dynamics of FeI2_2

Simulating quantum spin systems at finite temperatures is an open challenge in many-body physics. This work studies the temperature-dependent spin dynamics of a pivotal compound, FeI$_2$, to determine if universal quantum effects can be accounted for by a phenomenological renormalization of the dynamical spin structure factor $S(\mathbf{q}, \omega)$ measured by inelastic neutron scattering. Renormalization schemes based on the quantum-to-classical correspondence principle are commonly applied at low temperatures to the harmonic oscillators describing normal modes. However, it is not clear how to extend this renormalization to arbitrarily high temperatures. Here we introduce a temperature-dependent normalization of the classical moments, whose magnitude is determined by imposing the quantum sum rule, i.e. $\int d\omega d\mathbf{q} S(\mathbf{q}, \omega) = N_S S (S+1)$ for $N_S$ dipolar magnetic moments. We show that this simple renormalization scheme significantly improves the agreement between the calculated and measured $S(\mathbf{q}, \omega)$ for FeI$_{2}$ at all temperatures. Due to the coupled dynamics of dipolar and quadrupolar moments in that material, this renormalization procedure is extended to classical theories based on SU(3) coherent states, and by extension, to any SU(N) coherent state representation of local multipolar moments.Comment: Associated source code for reproducing calculations available at: https://github.com/SunnySuite/SunnyContribute

Actors and networks or agents and structures: towards a realist view of information systems

Actor-network theory (ANT) has achieved a measure of popularity in the analysis of information systems. This paper looks at ANT from the perspective of the social realism of Margaret Archer. It argues that the main issue with ANT from a realist perspective is its adoption of a `flat' ontology, particularly with regard to human beings. It explores the value of incorporating concepts from ANT into a social realist approach, but argues that the latter offers a more productive way of approaching information systems

Field-induced spin level crossings within a quasi-XY antiferromagnetic state in Ba2_{2}FeSi2_{2}O7_{7}

We present a high-field study of the strongly anisotropic easy-plane square lattice $S$ = 2 quantum magnet Ba$_{2}$FeSi$_{2}$O$_{7}$. This compound is a rare high-spin antiferromagnetic system with very strong easy-plane anisotropy, such that the interplay between spin level crossings and antiferromagnetic order can be studied. We observe a magnetic field-induced spin level crossing occurring within an ordered state. This spin level crossing appears to preserve the magnetic symmetry while producing a non-monotonic dependence the order parameter magnitude. The resulting temperature-magnetic field phase diagram exhibits two dome-shaped regions of magnetic order overlapping around 30 T. The ground state of the lower-field dome is predominantly a linear combination of $| S^{z} = 0 \rangle$ and $|S^{z} = 1 \rangle$ states, while the ground state of the higher-field dome can be approximated by a linear combination of $| S^{z} = 1 \rangle$ and $| S^{z} = 2\rangle$ states. At 30 T, where the spin levels cross, the magnetization exhibits a slanted plateau, {\color {black}the magnetocaloric effect shows a broad hump, and the electric polarization shows a weak slope change}. We determined the detailed magnetic phase boundaries and the spin level crossings using measurements of magnetization, electric polarization, and the magnetocaloric effect in pulsed magnetic fields to 60 T. We calculate these properties using a mean field theory based on direct products of SU(5) coherent states and find good agreement. Finally, we measure and calculate the magnetically-induced electric polarization that reflects magnetic ordering and spin level crossings. This multiferroic behavior provides another avenue for detecting phase boundaries and symmetry changes.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Quantum physics meets biology

Quantum physics and biology have long been regarded as unrelated disciplines, describing nature at the inanimate microlevel on the one hand and living species on the other hand. Over the last decades the life sciences have succeeded in providing ever more and refined explanations of macroscopic phenomena that were based on an improved understanding of molecular structures and mechanisms. Simultaneously, quantum physics, originally rooted in a world view of quantum coherences, entanglement and other non-classical effects, has been heading towards systems of increasing complexity. The present perspective article shall serve as a pedestrian guide to the growing interconnections between the two fields. We recapitulate the generic and sometimes unintuitive characteristics of quantum physics and point to a number of applications in the life sciences. We discuss our criteria for a future quantum biology, its current status, recent experimental progress and also the restrictions that nature imposes on bold extrapolations of quantum theory to macroscopic phenomena.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figures, Perspective article for the HFSP Journa

The role of emotion, values, and beliefs in the construction of innovative work realities

Traditional approaches to requirements elicitation stress systematic and rational analysis and representation of organizational context and system requirements. This paper argues that (1) for an organization, a software system implements a shared vision of a future work reality and that (2) understanding the emotions, feelings, values, beliefs, and interests that drive organizational human action is needed in order to invent the requirements of such a software system. This paper debunks some myths about how organizations transform themselves through the adoption of Information and Communication Technology; describes the concepts of emotion, feeling, value, and belief; and presents some constructionist guidelines for the process of eliciting requirements for a software system that helps an organization to fundamentally change its work patterns.(undefined

The future of hybrid imaging—part 2: PET/CT

Since the 1990s, hybrid imaging by means of software and hardware image fusion alike allows the intrinsic combination of functional and anatomical image information. This review summarises the state-of-the-art of dual-modality imaging with a focus on clinical applications. We highlight selected areas for potential improvement of combined imaging technologies and new applications. In the second part, we briefly review the background of dual-modality PET/CT imaging, discuss its main applications and attempt to predict technological and methodological improvements of combined PET/CT imaging. After a decade of clinical evaluation, PET/CT will continue to have a significant impact on patient management, mainly in the area of oncological diseases. By adopting more innovative acquisition schemes and data processing PET/CT will become a fast and dose-efficient imaging method and an integral part of state-of-the-art clinical patient management

Housing Conditions Differentially Affect Physiological and Behavioural Stress Responses of Zebrafish, as well as the Response to Anxiolytics

Zebrafish are a widely utilised animal model in developmental genetics, and owing to recent advances in our understanding of zebrafish behaviour, their utility as a comparative model in behavioural neuroscience is beginning to be realised. One widely reported behavioural measure is the novel tank-diving assay, which has been often cited as a test of anxiety and stress reactivity. Despite its wide utilisation, and various validations against anxiolytic drugs, reporting of pre-test housing has been sparse in the literature. As zebrafish are a shoaling species, we predicted that housing environment would affect their stress reactivity and, as such, their response in the tank-diving procedure. In our first experiment, we tested various aspects of housing (large groups, large groups with no contact, paired, visual contact only, olfactory contact only) and found that the tank diving response was mediated by visual contact with conspecifics. We also tested the basal cortisol levels of group and individually housed fish, and found that individually housed individuals have lower basal cortisol levels. In our second experiment we found ethanol appeared to have an anxiolytic effect with individually housed fish but not those that were group housed. In our final experiment, we examined the effects of changing the fishes' water prior to tank diving as an additional acclimation procedure. We found that this had no effect on individually housed fish, but appeared to affect the typical tank diving responses of the group housed individuals. In conclusion, we demonstrate that housing represents an important factor in obtaining reliable data from this methodology, and should be considered by researchers interested in comparative models of anxiety in zebrafish in order to refine their approach and to increase the power in their experiments