Demand for Information Technology Workers in Central Florida

This is a study which attempts to determine the current and future demand for Information technology (IT) employees. A total of fifty-two (52) organizations from Central Florida responded to this study. Several interesting findings included: 1) seventy-five percent of the companies surveyed have a current hiring freeze in place for IT positions; 2) by 2006 forty percent of the companies are expected to resume hiring some IT personnel; 3) the areas of security, client support, systems analysis and consulting show the greatest demand and; 4) the most essential skills for an entry level IT position include: communications (verbal and written), database, system analysis and project management

The DAGS Model: Relevance to Environmental Decision Support Systems

Environmental decision support systems (EDSS) involve both theoretical and applied concerns. Theoretical in terms of decision making and applied in terms of the development of actual systems to support decision making related to environmental issues. In this paper we describe a general research framework for conducting IS design research (the DAGS model), and show how that model is relevant to EDSS research. We argue that the dual goals of contributing to both theory and practice can at least in part be realized by more emphasis on the use of engineering and architecture as reference disciplines, and the use of Design science, Action research, Grounded theory, and Systems development as the components for this framework. The framework is illustrated with projects related to environmental issues

Understanding the Drivers and Outcomes of Healthcare Organizational Privacy Responses

This research adopts a grounded theory approach to examine the drivers, safeguards and operational outcomes of organizational information privacy responses in the healthcare context. Semi-structured interviews with key healthcare stakeholders were conducted. The findings are sobering. First, privacy safeguards are driven by legal compliance, competitive advantages, available resources and best practices. However, organizations have to balance conflicting risks associated with these drivers. Second, this study identifies the operational and behavioral outcomes which results in major balance issues. Third, the adoption of a privacy impact assessment (PIA) allows the integration of a risk management approach to effectively assess the different types of privacy risks. The findings provide evidence for: (1) a gap between privacy responses and their outcomes on healthcare practice and delivery; (2) the importance of the privacy impact assessment as a risk management tool; and (3) the challenging context of the healthcare environment of how privacy responses are unfolding

Churchman\u27s Inquiring Systems: Kernel Theories for Knowledge Management

Churchman [1971] defines inquiry as an activity that produces knowledge. He examines the epistemologies of five schools of philosophy from the perspective of general systems theory, asking the question as to whether each is suitable as the basis for the design of computer-based inquiring systems. He considers systems design and design theory in some detail. We believe that Churchman\u27s inquiring systems can form the basis for the design of knowledge management systems and that the IS research community has hardly tapped the potential of inquiring systems in that regard. Mason and Mitroff [1973] brought inquiring systems into the IS literature early on, essentially making the work endogenous to the field. We argue that building on inquiring systems can contribute to developing IS as a discipline by maintaining continuity in research and developing a theory that IS can call its own. We believe that the lack of use of Churchman\u27s work may be due to its lack of visibility in recent years and attempt to remedy that by summarizing the basics of the inquirers in some detail, trying not to interpret, but to remain faithful to the original. The paper encourages readers to study the original and develop their own notion of how the inquirers might be used in knowledgemanagement work. There are probably as many different perspectives on how inquiring systems could support KMS as there are IS researchers willing to study them. We would like to encourage a proliferation of such perspectives

PufQ regulates porphyrin flux at the haem/bacteriochlorophyll branchpoint of tetrapyrrole biosynthesis via interactions with ferrochelatase

Facultative phototrophs such as Rhodobacter sphaeroides can switch between heterotrophic and photosynthetic growth. This transition is governed by oxygen tension and involves the large-scale production of bacteriochlorophyll, which shares a biosynthetic pathway with haem up to protoporphyrin IX. Here, the pathways diverge with the insertion of Fe(2+) or Mg(2+) into protoporphyrin by ferrochelatase or magnesium chelatase, respectively. Tight regulation of this branchpoint is essential, but the mechanisms for switching between respiratory and photosynthetic growth are poorly understood. We show that PufQ governs the haem/bacteriochlorophyll switch; pufQ is found within the oxygen-regulated pufQBALMX operon encoding the reaction centre-light harvesting photosystem complex. A pufQ deletion strain synthesises low levels of bacteriochlorophyll and accumulates the biosynthetic precursor coproporphyrinogen III; a suppressor mutant of this strain harbours a mutation in the hemH gene encoding ferrochelatase, substantially reducing ferrochelatase activity. FLAG-immunoprecipitation experiments retrieve a ferrochelatase-PufQ-carotenoid complex, proposed to regulate the haem/bacteriochlorophyll branchpoint by directing porphyrin flux towards bacteriochlorophyll production under oxygen-limiting conditions. The co-location of pufQ and the photosystem genes in the same operon ensures that switching of tetrapyrrole metabolism towards bacteriochlorophyll is coordinated with the production of reaction centre and light harvesting polypeptides. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Pilot, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical field study to evaluate the effectiveness of bupivacaine liposome injectable suspension for the provision of post-surgical analgesia in dogs undergoing stifle surgery

Abstract Background Local anesthetics are an important component of perioperative pain management, but the duration of action of available products is limited. We hypothesized that a single local infiltration of a novel bupivacaine liposome injectable suspension (AT-003) would provide clinically effective analgesia over a 72-h period. In a masked, randomized, placebo-controlled, multi-center pilot field study, dogs undergoing lateral retinacular suture placement for cranial cruciate insufficiency were randomly assigned to surgical site infiltration with AT-003 (5.3 mg/kg) or an equivalent volume of saline. Infiltration of the surgical site was done prior to closure. Primary outcome measure was the Glasgow Composite Measure Pain Scale (CMPS-SF) assessed prior to surgery and at 2, 4, 8, 12, 24, 30, 36, 48, 54, 60 and 72 h following surgery by trained individuals. Provision for rescue analgesia was employed. Repeated measures analysis of variance were utilized to test for possible differences between treatment groups and a success/failure analysis was also employed, based on the need for rescue analgesia. Results Forty-six dogs were enrolled and evaluated. For CMPS-SF scores there was a significant overall treatment effect (p = 0.0027) in favor of AT-003. There were significantly more successes in the AT-003 group compared to placebo over each time period (p = 0.0001 for 0–24 h, p = 0.0349 for 0–48 h, and p = 0.0240 for 0-72 h). No significant adverse events were seen. Conclusions AT-003 (bupivacaine liposome injectable suspension) provided measurable local analgesia over a 72-h period following post-stifle surgery surgical site tissue infiltration. Further work is indicated to develop this product for clinical use

Assessment of a carbon dioxide laser for the measurement of thermal nociceptive thresholds following intramuscular administration of analgesic drugs in pain-free female cats

Objective: To assess the potential for using a thermal carbon dioxide (CO2) laser to 8 assess anti-nociception in pain-free cats. Animals: Sixty healthy adult female cats with a mean weight (± SD) of 3.3 k g (± 0. 6 11 kg). Methods: This is a prospective, blinded and randomised study. Cats were systematically allocated to one of six treatments 1) saline 0.2 ml/cat; 2) morphine 0.5 mg/kg; 3) buprenorphine 20 μg/kg; 4) medetomidine 2 μg/kg; 5) tramadol 2mg/kg; 6) ketoprofen 2 mg/kg. Latency to respond to thermal stimulation was assessed prior to intramuscular injection and at 6 time periods following injection (15-30; 30-45; 45- 18 60; 60-75; 90-105; 120-135 min). Thermal thresholds were assessed using time to respond behaviourally to stimulation with a 500 mW CO2 laser with maximum latency to respond set at 60 seconds. Differences in response latency for each treatment across the duration of the experiment were assessed using a Friedman's test. Differences between treatments at any given time were assessed using an independent Kruskal-Wallis test. Where significant effects were identified, pair-wise comparisons were conducted at 30-45, 60-75 and 120-135 min to further explain the direction of the effect. Results: Cats treated with morphine (χ2 = 12.90; df = 6; P = 0.045) and tramadol (χ2 = 20.28; df = 6; P = 0.002) showed significant increases in latency to respond over the duration of the test period. However, subsequent pairwise comparisons indicated that latencies at specific time points were only significantly different (P < 0.05) for tramadol at 60-75 and 90-105 min after administration. No significant pairwise comparisons were found within the morphine treatment group. Injection of saline, ketoprofen, medetomidine or buprenorphine showed no significant effect on latency to respond. Conclusions: This project further validates the CO 2 laser technique for use in cats. It can be used for assessment of thermal nociceptive thresholds in pain-free cats after analgesic administration and shows some promise in differentiating amongst analgesic treatments. It may provide a simpler alternative to existing systems although further exploration is required both in terms of its sensitivity and comparative utility (i.e. relative to other thermal threshold systems). Future experiments should seek to quantify the effects of skin temperature and sedation on latency to respond. Given that this technique was found to cause minor skin blistering in individuals that reached the 60 s exposure limit, a cut off time of <45 s is recommended

CATALISE: A multinational and multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study. Identifying language impairments in children

© 2016 Bishop et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Delayed or impaired language development is a common developmental concern, yet there is little agreement about the criteria used to identify and classify language impairments in children. Children\u27s language difficulties are at the interface between education, medicine and the allied professions, who may all adopt different approaches to conceptualising them. Our goal in this study was to use an online Delphi technique to see whether it was possible to achieve consensus among professionals on appropriate criteria for identifying children who might benefit from specialist services. We recruited a panel of 59 experts representing ten disciplines (including education, psychology, speech-language therapy/pathology, paediatrics and child psychiatry) from English-speaking countries (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom and USA). The starting point for round 1 was a set of 46 statements based on articles and commentaries in a special issue of a journal focusing on this topic. Panel members rated each statement for both relevance and validity on a sevenpoint scale, and added free text comments. These responses were synthesised by the first two authors, who then removed, combined or modified items with a view to improving consensus. The resulting set of statements was returned to the panel for a second evaluation (round 2). Consensus (percentage reporting \u27agree\u27 or \u27strongly agree\u27) was at least 80 percent for 24 of 27 round 2 statements, though many respondents qualified their response with written comments. These were again synthesised by the first two authors. The resulting consensus statement is reported here, with additional summary of relevant evidence, and a concluding commentary on residual disagreements and gaps in the evidence base

CATALISE: A multinational and multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study. Identifying language impairments in children

Delayed or impaired language development is a common developmental concern, yet thereis little agreement about the criteria used to identify and classify language impairments inchildren. Children's language difficulties are at the interface between education, medicineand the allied professions, who may all adopt different approaches to conceptualising them.Our goal in this study was to use an online Delphi technique to see whether it was possibleto achieve consensus among professionals on appropriate criteria for identifying childrenwho might benefit from specialist services. We recruited a panel of 59 experts representingten disciplines (including education, psychology, speech-language therapy/pathology, paediatricsand child psychiatry) from English-speaking countries (Australia, Canada, Ireland,New Zealand, United Kingdom and USA). The starting point for round 1 was a set of 46statements based on articles and commentaries in a special issue of a journal focusing onthis topic. Panel members rated each statement for both relevance and validity on a sevenpointscale, and added free text comments. These responses were synthesised by the firsttwo authors, who then removed, combined or modified items with a view to improving consensus.The resulting set of statements was returned to the panel for a second evaluation(round 2). Consensus (percentage reporting 'agree' or 'strongly agree') was at least 80 percentfor 24 of 27 round 2 statements, though many respondents qualified their responsewith written comments. These were again synthesised by the first two authors. The resultingconsensus statement is reported here, with additional summary of relevant evidence, and aconcluding commentary on residual disagreements and gaps in the evidence base.</p