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

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

Scaling violation in hadron-nucleus interaction

The scaling violation within the pionization region in the energy range of 0.2 to 2.0 TeV is shown on the basis of the analysis of angular characteristics in the interactions of the cosmic radiation hadrons with the nuclei of various substances (CH2, Al, Cu, Pb)

Imitation of complex social responses under conditions of prior positive social interaction and withdrawal of positive social interaction.

A major drawback in extending social learning principles to non laboratory situations has been the highly personalized and qualified nature of social reinforcement. Much research has produced few uniform conclusions about the kinds of demographic, personality, and situational variables which tend to facilitate the effectiveness of social reinforcement. Little is known about why one person is an effective reinforcing agent while another person with similar characteristics is an ineffective reinforcing agent. Moreover, the choice of tasks employed by previous studies indicates that the working philosophy has been that the complexities of social reinforcer effectiveness can be unravelled only in highly structured, cognitive, taskoriented situations

Targets of Suspicion: The Impact of Post-9/11 Policies on Muslims, Arabs and South Asians in the US

In response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S. government began a campaign of aggressive immigration enforcement targeted at Muslims, Arabs and South Asians. Rather than first seeking to identify suspected terrorists, the government initiated harsh law enforcement actions against whole communities with the hope that some of those caught might be terrorist suspects

The Parkinson's progression markers initiative (PPMI) - establishing a PD biomarker cohort.

ObjectiveThe Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) is an observational, international study designed to establish biomarker-defined cohorts and identify clinical, imaging, genetic, and biospecimen Parkinson's disease (PD) progression markers to accelerate disease-modifying therapeutic trials.MethodsA total of 423 untreated PD, 196 Healthy Control (HC) and 64 SWEDD (scans without evidence of dopaminergic deficit) subjects were enrolled at 24 sites. To enroll PD subjects as early as possible following diagnosis, subjects were eligible with only asymmetric bradykinesia or tremor plus a dopamine transporter (DAT) binding deficit on SPECT imaging. Acquisition of data was standardized as detailed at www.ppmi-info.org.ResultsApproximately 9% of enrolled subjects had a single PD sign at baseline. DAT imaging excluded 16% of potential PD subjects with SWEDD. The total MDS-UPDRS for PD was 32.4 compared to 4.6 for HC and 28.2 for SWEDD. On average, PD subjects demonstrated 45% and 68% reduction in mean striatal and contralateral putamen Specific Binding Ratios (SBR), respectively. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was acquired from >97% of all subjects. CSF (PD/HC/SWEDD pg/mL) α-synuclein (1845/2204/2141) was reduced in PD vs HC or SWEDD (P < 0.03). Similarly, t-tau (45/53) and p-tau (16/18) were reduced in PD versus HC (P < 0.01).InterpretationPPMI has detailed the biomarker signature for an early PD cohort defined by clinical features and imaging biomarkers. This strategy provides the framework to establish biomarker cohorts and to define longitudinal progression biomarkers to support future PD treatment trials

A comparison of laboratory, clinical and self-report measures of prospective memory in healthy adults and individuals with brain injury

Individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) have demonstrated deficits in prospective memory (PM) functioning when compared to healthy adults. These deficits have been measured using laboratory measures, clinical measures and self-report questionnaires. However, PM has been shown to involve multiple cognitive processes and have a variety of stages. Thus, it is not known if these measures all assess the same aspects of PM. Thus, this study was designed to measure the convergent validity of the three types of PM measures in both healthy adults and individuals with TBI. We aimed to investigate the convergent validity of the three types of tasks in two ways. First, we sought to investigate if the PM deficits experienced by people with TBI are consistent across tasks. And, second, we sought to examine the relationship between the three types of tasks. Results demonstrated that while all three types of measures were sensitive to PM deficits in TBI, there were differences in the aspects/processes of PM being measured. Data from the laboratory measure suggested a specific difficulty with detecting the correct cue. Data from the clinical measure suggested that TBI has a greater effect on time-based cues than event-based cues and that the primary deficit is a prospective intention retrieval deficit rather than the retrospective memory component. In addition, those with TBI did not differ from healthy adults when the time delay was short enough, suggesting that PM is not universally impaired. Data from the self-report questionnaire suggested that those with TBI are more sensitive to difficulties with basic activities of daily living rather than instrumental activities on daily living. These results are discussed in terms of rehabilitation techniques that could focus first on cue detection and use basic activities of daily living as outcome measures