THE SYMBOLEC POTENTKAL OF COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY: DI[FFERENCES AMONG WHITE-COLLAR WORKERS

Evidence that computers can act as status symbols is presented. Organizational symbols and factors empirically associated with income (one measure of status) are discussed. This paper presents quantitative evidence that computer terminals are allocated according to both use and status and, thus, may act as symbols of status. A field study of computer-using white collar work groups found that the distributions of terminals and income were similar and they shared many of the same predictors when other relevant factors were controlled (computer skills, experience and use). Exploratory analyses indicated that the pattern of results differed by occupation with strongest evidence of symbolic value found among professional workers. Managerial implications are described

The Effect of Task Type and Information Format on Web Searching Performance

Web search engines have become a useful tool helping Web users seek required information. Such Web sites typically present searched results as a textual list that may include thousands of Web pages. Because of the unstructured content and format of information that searchers receive, they often feel the pressure of information overload, which will inevitably compromise the quality of decision-making. Although researchers as well as practitioners have developed various information visualization approaches to enhance information presentation on Web search engines, the benefits of using such technology are unknown. This study will investigate whether and under what circumstances visualization of search results enhances users’ search performance. Cognitive fit theory will be used as the theoretical foundation of this paper. The objectives of the paper are 1) to extent cognitive fit theory in the emergent domain of Web searching, 2) to understand the effects of the user interface on search performance, and 3) to guide search engine designers on how to best present results to support different search tasks

The Personal in the Policy Cascade

Policy change can cascade down from law and regulation, but Giddens’ structuration theory argues that it can also flow upward from everyday action. We all have the power to take immediate action in our professional lives to create the policies we want. We use the example of gender equality to show the daily choices that you as an IS academic can make that strengthen or change existing policies. You can enhance the voices of members of undervalued groups, reduce inequities in access to resources and positions of power, and create and enforce rules, regulations, and codes that encourage more equitable outcomes. Policy influences action, but action equally influences policy. Your everyday actions either reinforce existing policies and structures or undermine and change them. We should make these choices mindfully, with an understanding of the power we are wielding, the values we are enacting, and the society we are creating

Minding the IS Soft Skills Gap: Evidence of Discourse Convergence and Organizational Field Structure

IS continually struggles with the ‘gap’ between academic preparation and industry needs. To close this gap, we need to better understand its causes. Recent IS research suggests that gaps may arise when issues receive attention in only practitioner or academic discourses. Institutionalism suggests that gaps can be attributed to the structure of the organizational field. We conduct two studies to investigate these rival explanations. In Study 1 we analyze the practitioner and academic discourses on the need for soft skills in IS. In Study 2 we identify important actors in the IS field and the degree to which they are tightly coupled as evidenced by linkages in their discourses. We then present a process model of the identification, development and assessment of requisite IS skills. We conclude that convergence between academic and practitioner discourses alone cannot close the gap between preparation and industry needs in a loosely coupled organizational field

Triangles Ramps and Energy

Students will be able to identify the base and height in different types of triangles

Formation of Se (0) Nanoparticles by Duganella sp. and Agrobacterium sp. isolated from Se-laden soil of North-East Punjab, India

Background: Selenium (Se) is an essential trace element, but is toxic at high concentrations. Depending upon the geological background, the land use or on anthropogenic pollution, different amounts of Se may be present in soil. Its toxicity is related to the oxyanions selenate and selenite as they are water soluble and bioavailable. Microorganisms play an important role in Se transformations in soil and its cycling in the environment by transforming water-soluble oxyanions into water insoluble, non-toxic elemental Se (0). For this study, soil samples were collected from selenium-contaminated agricultural soils of Punjab/India to enrich and isolate microbes that interacted with the Se cycle. Results: A mixed microbial culture enriched from the arable soil of Punjab could reduce 230 mg/l of water soluble selenite to spherical Se (0) nanoparticles during aerobic growth as confirmed by SEM-EDX. Four pure cultures (C 1, C 4, C 6, C 7) of Gram negative, oxidase and catalase positive, aerobic bacteria were isolated from this mixed microbial consortium and identified by 16 S rDNA gene sequence alignment as two strains of Duganella sp. (C 1, C 4) and two strains of Agrobacterium sp.(C 6, C 7). SEM/TEM-EDX analyses of the culture broth of the four strains revealed excretion of uniformly round sharply contoured Se (0) nanoparticles by all cultures. Their size ranged from 140–200 nm in cultures of strains C 1 and C 4, and from 185–190 nm in cultures of strains C 6 and C 7. Both Duganella sp. revealed better selenite reduction efficiencies than the two Agrobacterium sp. Conclusions: This is the first study reporting the capability of newly isolated, aerobically growing Duganella sp. And Agrobacterium sp. from soils of Punjab/India to form spherical, regularly formed Se (0) nanoparticles from water soluble selenite. Among others, the four strains may significantly contribute to the biogeochemical cycling of Se in soil. Bioconversion of toxic selenite to non-toxic Se (0) nanoparticles under aerobic conditions in general may be useful for detoxification of agricultural soil, since elemental Se may not be taken up by the roots of plants and thus allow non-dangerous fodder and food production on Se-containing soil

Visualization and Correction of Automated Segmentation, Tracking and Lineaging from 5-D Stem Cell Image Sequences

Results: We present an application that enables the quantitative analysis of multichannel 5-D (x, y, z, t, channel) and large montage confocal fluorescence microscopy images. The image sequences show stem cells together with blood vessels, enabling quantification of the dynamic behaviors of stem cells in relation to their vascular niche, with applications in developmental and cancer biology. Our application automatically segments, tracks, and lineages the image sequence data and then allows the user to view and edit the results of automated algorithms in a stereoscopic 3-D window while simultaneously viewing the stem cell lineage tree in a 2-D window. Using the GPU to store and render the image sequence data enables a hybrid computational approach. An inference-based approach utilizing user-provided edits to automatically correct related mistakes executes interactively on the system CPU while the GPU handles 3-D visualization tasks. Conclusions: By exploiting commodity computer gaming hardware, we have developed an application that can be run in the laboratory to facilitate rapid iteration through biological experiments. There is a pressing need for visualization and analysis tools for 5-D live cell image data. We combine accurate unsupervised processes with an intuitive visualization of the results. Our validation interface allows for each data set to be corrected to 100% accuracy, ensuring that downstream data analysis is accurate and verifiable. Our tool is the first to combine all of these aspects, leveraging the synergies obtained by utilizing validation information from stereo visualization to improve the low level image processing tasks.Comment: BioVis 2014 conferenc