Strategic alignment: An approach to the harmonisation of Business and Information Systems strategies

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Information Systems are fundamental to both the day to day operations and competitiveness of most organisations. As the rate of change in organisations continues to increase this dependency has become more critical. However methods for determining the Information Systems that an organisation needs have not moved forward to reflect these increases in organisational turbulence and new capabilities offered by Information Technology. Strategic Alignment is proposed as a new method for Information Systems Planning which recognises the dynamic role of Information Systems as an agent of change and to enable organisations to model and determine how Information Systems can be exploited to improve and transform Business Strategies. Important innovations in the method are incorporation of feedback to ensure that analysis of the interaction of the Information Systems and Business objects within the model is bidirectional. Also that the development of an Information Systems Plan is a complex process which has to be modular. This enables it to incorporate existing results and information where applicable and to deliver its results incrementally. The Strategic Alignment Method has been developed from extensive research which used the Electricity Supply Industry as the source of information because it was facing immense change after its privatisation. As a result detailed case study material is presented as well as the Strategic Alignment Methodology. Maintenance of an Information Systems Plan is also addressed. Once an Information Systems Plan is produced, its implementation can take a number of years. During this time the changes in Business Strategy and Information Systems capability will change. Strategic Alignment proposes methods that will ensure the ongoing harmonisation of the Strategies during the implementation of the plan. The practical nature of the research is reflected in the Addendum which describes the work that has been done to incorporate Strategic Alignment into ICL's services methodology and to train ICL Consultants in its use

Beethoven\u27s Eroica Sketchbooks: From Scribbles to Symphony

This paper will help readers to gain new insights on Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Op. 55, also known as Eroica, by exploring the sketches related to this symphony. The background of the piece is discussed, and the sketches have been compared to the completed symphony. Beethoven’s sketching process was dramatically different from other composers of his time, and his sketches included even more musical material than was eventually included in the symphony

Rigorous computer-assisted bounds on the period doubling renormalisation fixed point and eigenfunctions in maps with critical point of degree 4

We gain tight rigorous bounds on the renormalisation fixed point for period doubling in families of unimodal maps with degree $4$ critical point. We use a contraction mapping argument to bound essential eigenfunctions and eigenvalues for the linearisation of the operator and for the operator controlling the scaling of added noise. Multi-precision arithmetic with rigorous directed rounding is used to bound operations in a space of analytic functions yielding tight bounds on power series coefficients and universal constants to over $320$ significant figures.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure

Influence of Internalised Homonegativity on Sexual Risk Behaviour of Men Who Have Sex with Men in Spain

In a sample of men who have sex with men (MSM) (N = 3436) in Spain who bear intrinsic HIV risk, we investigated how internalised homonegativity (IH) is associated with the number of non-steady male partners with condomless intercourse (as a proxy of sexual risk behaviour). Using structural equation modelling (SEM), we examined the relationship between IH and sexual risk behaviour, and mediating effects of HIV/PrEP knowledge and substance use during sex on this relationship. We found no direct association between IH and sexual risk behaviour, nor did IH influence substance use during sex. In line with our hypothesis, association between IH and sexual risk behaviour was significant when mediated by HIV/PrEP knowledge. We found that as IH increased, sexual risk behaviour decreased, because higher IH was associated with lower HIV/PrEP knowledge while higher HIV/PrEP knowledge was associated with increased non-condom use with non-steady partners. Substance use during sex was significantly associated with sexual risk behaviour. Our results emphasize the continuing importance of prevention strategies focused on behavioural changes and community level interventions, especially targeting substance use

The impact of distance and a shifting temperature gradient on genetic connectivity across a heterogeneous landscape

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Inter-population distance and differences in breeding times are barriers to reproduction that can contribute to genotypic differentiation between populations. Temporal changes in environmental conditions and local selective processes can further contribute to the establishment of reproductive barriers. <it>Telopea speciosissima </it>(Proteaceae) is an excellent subject for studying the effect of geographic, edaphic and phenological heterogeneity on genotypic differentiation because previous studies show that these factors are correlated with morphological variation. Molecular, morphological and environmental datasets were combined to characterise the relative influence of these factors on inter-population differentiation, and Bayesian analyses were used to investigate current levels of admixture between differentiated genomes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A landscape genetic approach involving molecular and morphological analyses identified three endpoints of differentiated population groups: coastal, upland and southern. The southern populations, isolated from the other populations by an edaphic barrier, show low migration and no evidence of admixture with other populations. Amongst the northern populations, coastal and upland populations are connected along a skewed altitudinal gradient by genetically intermediate populations. The strong association between temperature and flowering time in <it>Telopea speciosissima </it>was shown to maintain a temporally unstable reproductive barrier between coastal and upland populations.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Substrate-mediated allopatry appears to be responsible for long-term genetic isolation of the southern populations. However, the temperature-dependent reproductive barrier between upland and coastal populations bears the genetic signature of temporal adjustments. The extreme climatic events of the last glacial maximum are likely to have caused more complete allochronic isolation between upland and coastal populations, as well as exerting increased selective pressure upon local genomes. However, at intermediate altitudes, current climatic conditions allow for the incorporation of alleles from previously distinct genomes, generating new, intermediate genomic assemblages and possibly increasing overall adaptive potential.</p