ERP customization failure: Institutionalized accounting practices, power relations and market forces

Purpose: This paper examines a detailed case study of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) customization failure in an Egyptian state-owned company (AML) by drawing on new institutional sociology and its extensions. It explains how ERP customization failure is shaped by the interplay between institutionalised accounting practices, conflicting institutions, power relations and market forces. Methodology/Approach: The research methodology is based on using an intensive case study informed by new institutional sociology, especially the interplay between conflicting institutions, power relations and market forces. Data were collected from multiple sources, including interviews, observations, discussions and documentary analysis. Findings: The findings revealed that the inability of the ERP system to meet the core accounting requirements of the control authorities (the Central Agency for Accountability) was the explicit reason cited for the ERP failure. The externally imposed requirements of the Uniform Accounting System and planning budgets were used to resist both other institutional pressures (from the Holding Company for Engineering Industries) and market and competitive pressures. Research limitations: There are some limitations associated with the use of the case study method, including the inability to generalize from the findings of a single case study, some selectivity in the individuals interviewed, and the subjective interpretation by the researchers of the empirical data. Practical implications: The paper identifies that the interplay between institutional pressures, institutionalised accounting practices, intra-organizational power relations, and market forces contributed to the failure to embed ERP in a major company. Understanding such relationships can help other organisations to become more aware of the factors affecting successful implementation of new ERP systems and provide a better basis for planning the introduction of new technologies. Originality/value of paper: This paper draws on recent research and thinking in sociology, especially the development and application of new institutional sociology. In addition, the paper is concerned with ERP implementation and use and management accounting in a transitional economy, Egypt, and hence contributes to debate about exporting Western accounting practices and other technologies to countries with different cultures and different stages of economic and political development. Classification: Research paper/ case stud

Postpartum administration of Citalopram reverses gestational stress-induced depressive-like behavior and structural modifications in the reward pathway

Postpartum depression (PPD) is a common complication following childbirth experienced by approximately 20% of new mothers. We have previously shown that chronic gestational stress, a risk factor for PPD, induces depressive-like behavior in postpartum rats and impairs maternal care, a rewarding, motivated behavior. These behavioral consequences of gestational stress are accompanied by structural changes on neurons in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a key brain region in the reward pathway which is involved in maternal care and which has been implicated in PPD. Here, we extended our previous work in two experiments. First, we examined the effects of gestational stress on other reward-related behaviors known to be altered in mothers with postpartum depression including anhedonia (as assessed with the sucrose preference test) and maternal motivation (as assessed with the conditioned place preference paradigm). Second, because mothers diagnosed with PPD are often prescribed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) antidepressants to ameliorate mood and other deleterious effects of PPD, we investigated the extent to which the SSRI Citalopram could reverse stress-induced depressive-like behavior and morphological changes in the NAc. Our results show that along with increased depressive-like behavior, postpartum females exposed to chronic stress during pregnancy (from GD7-GD20) exhibited anhedonia, deficits in maternal motivation as well as structural modifications in the NAc. We also found that postpartum administration of Citalopram was able to reverse the depressive-like behavior and the structural modifications in the NAc of gestationally stressed mothers. Overall, our results demonstrate that gestational stress induces numerous behavioral symptoms found in depressed mothers and that depressive-like behavior in gestationally stressed mothers is responsive to antidepressant treatment. In doing so, these results expand the validity of our gestational stress model and suggest that structural plasticity in the NAc pathway may play a critical role in mediating depressive-like behavior in PPD.No embargoAcademic Major: Neuroscienc

Antibody localization in horse, rabbit, and goat antilymphocyte sera

The localization of antibodies was studied in rabbit, goat, and horse ALS raised by weekly immunization with canine or human spleen cells for 4 to 12 weeks. A combination of analytic techniques was used including column chromatography, electrophoresis, immunoelectrophoresis, determination of protein concentration, and measurement of antibody titers. In the rabbit and goat ALS, virtually all of the leukoagglutinins and lymphocytotoxins were in the easily separable IgG; accidentally induced thromboagglutinins were in the same location. In the rabbit hemagglutinins were found in both the IgG and IgM, whereas in the goat these were almost exclusively in the IgM. The antiwhite cell antibodies were most widely distributed in the horse. The cytotoxins were primarily in the IgG, but the leukoagglutinins were most heavily concentrated in the T-equine globulin which consists mostly of IgA. By differential ammonium sulfate precipitation of a horse antidoglymphocyte serum, fractions were prepared that were rich in IgG and IgA. Both were able to delay the rejection of canine renal homografts, the IgA-rich preparation to a somewhat greater degree. The findings in this study have been discussed in relation to the refining techniques that have been used for the production of globulin from heterologous ALS. © 1970

A genetic algorithm based global search strategy for population pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic model selection

The current algorithm for selecting a population pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic model is based on the well-established forward addition/backward elimination method. A central strength of this approach is the opportunity for a modeller to continuously examine the data and postulate new hypotheses to explain observed biases. This algorithm has served the modelling community well, but the model selection process has essentially remained unchanged for the last 30 years. During this time, more robust approaches to model selection have been made feasible by new technology and dramatic increases in computation speed. We review these methods, with emphasis on genetic algorithm approaches and discuss the role these methods may play in population pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic model selection

Behavioral Recovery and Early Decision Making in Patients with Prolonged Disturbance in Consciousness after Traumatic Brain Injury

The extent of behavioral recovery that occurs in patients with traumatic disorders of consciousness (DoC) following discharge from the acute care setting has been under-studied and increases the risk of overly pessimistic outcome prediction. The aim of this observational cohort study was to systematically track behavioral and functional recovery in patients with prolonged traumatic DoC following discharge from the acute care setting. Standardized behavioral data were acquired from 95 patients in a minimally conscious (MCS) or vegetative state (VS) recruited from 11 clinic sites and randomly assigned to the placebo arm of a previously completed prospective clinical trial. Patients were followed for 6 weeks by blinded observers to determine frequency of recovery of six target behaviors associated with functional status. The Coma Recovery Scale-Revised and Disability Rating Scale were used to track reemergence of target behaviors and assess degree of functional disability, respectively. Twenty percent (95% confidence interval [CI]: 13-30%) of participants (mean age 37.2; median 47 days post-injury; 69 men) recovered all six target behaviors within the 6 week observation period. The odds of recovering a specific target behavior were 3.2 (95% CI: 1.2-8.1) to 7.8 (95% CI: 2.7-23.0) times higher for patients in MCS than for those in VS. Patients with preserved language function ("MCS+") recovered the most behaviors (p ≤ 0.002) and had the least disability (p ≤ 0.002) at follow-up. These findings suggest that recovery of high-level behaviors underpinning functional independence is common in patients with prolonged traumatic DoC. Clinicians involved in early prognostic counseling should recognize that failure to emerge from traumatic DoC before 28 days does not necessarily portend unfavorable outcome