Information System Development Team Collaboration Antecedents

Despite information system development companies have invested substantial resources to support the success of information system development (ISD) projects, the failure rate is still high. Extant studies indicated that the constant changes from socio-technical environments are the main causes of the low success rate. This study argues that team collaboration is a key factor to effectively cope with unexpected disruptions that would have negative effect on overall software product success. This study proposes a research model exploring factors that influence the development of team collaboration. These factors include the team commitment, transactive memory systems (TMS), and collective mind. In addition, the study suggests that the collective mind has an intermediate effect on the team commitment, TMS, and team collaboration. This study takes the information development teams of various companies in Taiwan as its subjects

Block of Tetrodotoxin-resistant Na+ Channel Pore by Multivalent Cations: Gating Modification and Na+ Flow Dependence

Tetrodotoxin-resistant (TTX-R) Na+ channels are much less susceptible to external TTX but more susceptible to external Cd2+ block than tetrodotoxin-sensitive (TTX-S) Na+ channels. Both TTX and Cd2+ seem to block the channel near the “DEKA” ring, which is probably part of a multi-ion single-file region adjacent to the external pore mouth and is involved in the selectivity filter of the channel. In this study we demonstrate that other multivalent transitional metal ions such as La3+, Zn2+, Ni2+, Co2+, and Mn2+ also block the TTX-R channels in dorsal root ganglion neurons. Just like Cd2+, the blocking effect has little intrinsic voltage dependence, but is profoundly influenced by Na+ flow. The apparent dissociation constants of the blocking ions are always significantly smaller in inward Na+ currents than those in outward Na+ current, signaling exit of the blocker along with the Na+ flow and a high internal energy barrier for “permeation” of these multivalent blocking ions through the pore. Most interestingly, the activation and especially the inactivation kinetics are slowed by the blocking ions. Moreover, the gating changes induced by the same concentration of a blocking ion are evidently different in different directions of Na+ current flow, but can always be correlated with the extent of pore block. Further quantitative analyses indicate that the apparent slowing of channel activation is chiefly ascribable to Na+ flow–dependent unblocking of the bound La3+ from the open Na+ channel, whereas channel inactivation cannot happen with any discernible speed in the La3+-blocked channel. Thus, the selectivity filter of Na+ channel is probably contiguous to a single-file multi-ion region at the external pore mouth, a region itself being nonselective in terms of significant binding of different multivalent cations. This region is “open” to the external solution even if the channel is “closed” (“deactivated”), but undergoes imperative conformational changes during the gating (especially the inactivation) process of the channel

Phosphorous Diffuser Diverged Blue Laser Diode for Indoor Lighting and Communication.

An advanced light-fidelity (Li-Fi) system based on the blue Gallium nitride (GaN) laser diode (LD) with a compact white-light phosphorous diffuser is demonstrated for fusing the indoor white-lighting and visible light communication (VLC). The phosphorous diffuser adhered blue GaN LD broadens luminescent spectrum and diverges beam spot to provide ample functionality including the completeness of Li-Fi feature and the quality of white-lighting. The phosphorous diffuser diverged white-light spot covers a radiant angle up to 120(o) with CIE coordinates of (0.34, 0.37). On the other hand, the degradation on throughput frequency response of the blue LD is mainly attributed to the self-feedback caused by the reflection from the phosphor-air interface. It represents the current state-of-the-art performance on carrying 5.2-Gbit/s orthogonal frequency-division multiplexed 16-quadrature-amplitude modulation (16-QAM OFDM) data with a bit error rate (BER) of 3.1 × 10(-3) over a 60-cm free-space link. This work aims to explore the plausibility of the phosphorous diffuser diverged blue GaN LD for future hybrid white-lighting and VLC systems