An Integrated Framework of Individual Acceptance of Agile Methodologies

Although systems development methodologies (SDM) are believed to help improve the software development process, the deployment of SDMs often encounters developers’ resistance. Agile methodologies, the latest batch of SDMs that are better in dealing with volatile business requirements, are likely to face the same problems since they require developers to drastically change their work habits and acquire new skills. Therefore, it is essential to identify the factors that could potentially influence individual developer’s acceptance of agile methodologies. This paper reviews the literature on the acceptance of SDMs and agile methodologies, which serves to assess current understanding in the acceptance of SDMs and agile methodologies. From this review, we identify a set of potential factors and develop a framework to guide future research in individual acceptance of agile methodologies

The Impact of Animated Banner Ads on Online Consumers: A Feature-Level Analysis Using Eye Tracking

Despite the popular use of animated banner ads on websites, extant research on the effects of web animation has generated mixed results. We argue that it is critical to identify feature-level animation characteristics and examine their individual and combined effects on capturing online consumers’ attention across different task conditions. We identify three key animation features (i.e., motion, lagging, and looming) based on three attention theories and investigate their effects on online consumers’ attention and recall across browsing and searching tasks in three laboratory experiments using an eye tracking machine. Experiment 1 found that both motion and looming (animation features) are effective in attracting online consumers’ attention to animated ads when they are performing a browsing task. However, combining a salient feature (e.g., motion) with another salient feature (e.g., looming) does not improve the original attention attraction effect, suggesting a “banner saturation” effect. Further, we found that online consumers’ attention positively affects their recall performance. In Experiment 2, none of the animation features or their interactions had a significant effect when the subjects were performing a searching task, indicating that task is an important boundary condition when applying attention theories. Experiment 3 replicated Experiment 1 in a more realistic context and produced similar results. We conclude the paper by discussing theoretical and practical implications as well as avenues for future research

Effects of Animation on Attentional Resources of Online Consumers

Websites commonly use animation to capture the attentional resources of online consumers. While prior research has focused on the effects of animation on animated banner ads, limited research has examined the effects of animation on other items on the same webpage. Drawing from psychological theories that the amount of an individual’s attentional resources may vary under different conditions, this study focuses on the effects of animation on how individuals allocate attentional resources to both the animated item and the remaining non-animated items. We conducted an eye-tracking experiment to follow online consumers’ visual attention while they performed two types of online shopping tasks: browsing and searching tasks. The results showed that a product item that used animation led to increased visual attention to all items on a webpage, which suggests that the amount of attentional resources increases when a webpage includes animation. Meanwhile, animation influenced how individuals allocate their attentional resources such that it increased visual attention on the animated item at the expense of attention on nonanimated items on the same webpage. In addition, the type of shopping task moderated animation’s effect on how individuals allocate their attentional resources. Specifically, animation’s effect on attracting attentional resources to the animated item was stronger when online consumers browsed than when they searched for a specific target item. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings

Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology: A Synthesis and the Road Ahead

The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) is a little over a decade old and has been used extensively in information systems (IS) and other fields, as the large number of citations to the original paper that introduced the theory evidences. In this paper, we review and synthesize the IS literature on UTAUT from September 2003 until December 2014, perform a theoretical analysis of UTAUT and its extensions, and chart an agenda for research going forward. Based on Weber’s (2012) framework of theory evaluation, we examined UTAUT and its extensions along two sets of quality dimensions; namely, the parts of a theory and the theory as a whole. While our review identifies many merits to UTAUT, we also found that the progress related to this theory has hampered further theoretical development in research into technology acceptance and use. To chart an agenda for research that will enable significant future work, we analyze the theoretical contributions of UTAUT using Whetten’s (2009) notion of cross-context theorizing. Our analysis reveals several limitations that lead us to propose a multi-level framework that can serve as the theoretical foundation for future research. Specifically, this framework integrates the notion of research context and cross-context theorizing with the theory evaluation framework to: 1) synthesize the existing UTAUT extensions across both the dimensions and the levels of the research context and 2) highlight promising research directions. We conclude with recommendations for future UTAUT-related research using the proposed framework

Flexural behaviour of precast segmental concrete beams internally prestressed with unbonded CFRP tendons under four-point loading

This study investigates the use of carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) tendons on precast segmental beams (PSBs) to tackle the corrosion problems which are likely to occur at joint locations of PSBs prestressed with steel tendons. Up to date, the use of CFRP tendons was extensively documented for monolithic beams while their application on PSBs has not been reported yet. Three precast segmental T-section beams including two beams with unbonded CFRP and one with steel tendons were built and tested under four-point loads in this study. The test results showed that CFRP tendons can be well used to replace the steel tendons on PSBs. The beams with CFRP tendons demonstrated both high strength and high ductility as compared to the beam with steel tendons. However, the stresses in the unbonded CFRP tendons at ultimate loading conditions of the tested beams were low, ranging from only about 66% to 72% of the nominal breaking tensile strength. The type of joints i.e. dry and epoxied, greatly affects the initial stiffness of the beams but has no effect on the opening of joints at ultimate loading stage. Moreover, a comprehensive examination on four existing code equations to predict the stress in the unbonded tendons showed that the four examined codes predicted well the stress at the ultimate loading condition of the unbonded steel tendons, however, they significantly under predicted those in the CFRP tendons. A modification in the strain reduction coefficient used by ACI 440.4R for predicting the stress increment in unbonded CFRP tendons of monolithic beams is therefore proposed for PSBs based on the experimental results

Suppression of monocyte and neutrophil function by recombinant IL-2

Little IS known about the influence of IL-2 on phagocytes. We now describe the effects of human recombinant IL-2 on human neutrophil and monocyte functions related to mobility, phagocytosis, glucose uptake, respiration and degranulation. Neutrophil adherence and hexose monophosphate shunt activities were both suppressed after incubation with IL-2. IL-2 had no effect on neutrophil migration, phagocytosis, deoxyglucose uptake or degranulation, ionocytes demonstrated a greater sensitivity to IL-2 with suppression of monocyte adherence, random and stimulated migration, glucose uptake and hexose monophosphate shunt activity, even after addition of phorbol myristate acetate. Monocyte phagocytosis and degranulation were not affected. All of the effects observed were dose-dependent within a biologically active range for IL-2. These studies suggest that IL-2 may have an important down-regulatory role across a broad range of monocyte functions including movement, deoxyglucose uptake and respiration. However, its role in regulation of neutrophil function is limited to adherence and respiration. IL-2 may be a more versatile cytokine than has previously been appreciated

Simulation of the Control of Vortex Breakdown in a Closed Cylinder Using a Small Rotating Disk

The enhancement or suppression of vortex breakdown in a closed cylinder caused by a small rotating disk embedded in the nonrotating endwall is simulated in this study. This paper shows that corotation or counter-rotation of the control disk with respect to the driving lid is able to promote or suppress the “bubble-type” vortex breakdown. This is achieved using only a small fraction of the power required to drive the main lid. The simulations show that the vortex breakdown induced or suppressed by flow control displays similar characteristics near the breakdown region as produced by varying the flow Reynolds number. These include near-axis swirl, centerline axial velocity, and centerline pressure. The influence of the size of the control disk is also quantified

Fabrication of Highly Ordered Nanoparticle Arrays Using Thin Porous Alumina Masks

Highly ordered nanoparticle arrays have been successfully fabricated by our group recently using ultra-thin porous alumina membranes as masks in the evaporation process. The sizes of the nanoparticles can be adjusted from 5-10 nm to 200 nm while the spacing between adjacent particles can also be adjusted from several nanometers to about twice the size of a nanoparticle. The configuration of the nanoparticles can be adjusted by changing the height of the alumina masks and the evaporation direction. Due to the high pore regularity and good controllability of the particle size and spacing, this method is useful for the ordered growth of nanocrystals. Different kinds of nanoparticle arrays have been prepared on silicon wafer including semiconductors (e.g., germanium) and metals (e.g., nickel). The germanium nanoparticle arrays have potential applications in memory devices while the nickel catalyst nanoparticle arrays can be used for the growth of ordered carbon nanotubes.Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA

The impact of having both cancer and diabetes on patient-reported outcomes: a systematic review and directions for future research

Purpose: This systematic review aims to summarize the current literature regarding potential effects of having both cancer and diabetes on patient-reported outcomes (PROs) and to provide directions for future research. Methods: MEDLINE, The Cochrane Library, CINAHL, and PsycINFO were searched from inception to January 2015. All English peer-reviewed studies that included patients with both cancer and diabetes and assessed PROs were included. All included studies were independently assessed on methodological quality by two investigators. Results: Of the 3553 identified studies, 10 studies were included and all were considered of high (40 %) or adequate (60 %) methodological quality. Eight of the 10 studies focused on health-related quality of life (HRQoL), functioning, or symptoms and 2 studies assessed diabetes self-management. Overall, HRQoL and functioning was lower, and symptoms were higher among patients with both cancer and diabetes as compared to having cancer or diabetes alone. Furthermore, one study reported that diabetes self-management was impaired after chemotherapy. Conclusions: Having both cancer and diabetes resulted in worse PROs compared to having either one of the diseases, however, the considerable heterogeneity of the included studies hampered strong conclusions. Future studies are needed as this research area is largely neglected. As the majority of the included studies focused on HRQoL, future research should address the impact of both diseases on other PROs such as depression, patient empowerment and self-management. Implications for Cancer Survivor: Having both cancer and diabetes might result in worse PROs, however, more research is needed as current evidence is scarce