PARTICIPATORY URBAN SENSING: CITIZENS\u27 ACCEPTANCE OF A MOBILE REPORTING SERVICE

Urban sensing describes the use of today\u27s mobile devices to collectively gather information about environmental issues of public interest. Such information and communication technology (ICT) tools can enhance current e-government practices by enabling citizens to actively participate in urban decision making and service delivery. Yet, it is widely unclear whether there is a link between the citizens? propensity to participate and the use of urban sensing technology. In this study we draw on technology acceptance literature to propose a model for the acceptance of a mobile reporting service, i.e. a sensing tool for reporting urban infrastructure issues to a municipality. The model explains perceived usefulness of urban sensing by the citizen?s degree of environmental awareness and his/her willingness to participate in public affairs. Furthermore, we conceptualize mobile literacy as an important antecedent of perceived ease of use. Empirical tests using data from 200 potential service adopters support these ideas. The findings also suggest that for mobile e-government offerings, perceived privacy risks are not a significant barrier to adoption. These results provide important implications for theory and practice

The Impact of Software as a Service on IS Authority – A Contingency Perspective

For some business applications, using Software as a Service (SaaS) is becoming increasingly popular. However, it is largely unknown how SaaS adoption affects the arrangements between business and IT departments. In this study, we take a contingency approach to investigate how firms allocate authority for SaaS applications. Based on semi-structured interviews with business and IT representatives of companies that have adopted the wide-spread SaaS solution Salesforce CRM, we extend existing contingency theory to propose a set of factors for governance arrangements on the application level. These factors are used in a comparative case study of 4 cases of SaaS adoption to explain why application authority is allocated either to the business or the IT side. The results suggest that in most cases there exist dominant and reinforcing contingencies determining a definite mode of SaaS governance

Explaining the Governance of Software as a Service Applications: A Process View

Defining the allocation of decision rights for enterprise applications is a crucial issue in IT governance and organization design. Today, emerging delivery models such as Software as a Service (SaaS) defy the notion of the internal IT department as the focal point of centralized governance. Recognizing the importance of this issue, we find that the phenomenon of ‘SaaS governance’ itself is not yet well understood. Based on two cases of SaaS adoption, we take a process-theoretic approach to investigate the complex interaction between factors that influence in the allocation of SaaS authority. The results suggest that some factors, such as the locus of initiative and the decision for SaaS, interact with absorptive capacities and determine the later mode of application governance at a very early stage. Thus, the initiative for introducing SaaS emerges as an important intermediate variable between the overall IT governance mode and the resulting SaaS governance outcome

Microstructural Evolution During Hot Rolling of an AZ31 Mg Alloy

The microstructural evolution of a AZ31 Mg alloy during hot rolling has been investigated using optical microscopy and texture (macro and micro) analysis as the main characterization tools. In particular, the differences between the microstructure obtained by unidirectional rolling (UR) and cross rolling (CR) are studied. Significant twinning activity is observed in both cases. Additionally, after cross rolling, a rather heterogeneous microstructure develops, with scattered regions populated by very fine grains. The strong basal fiber texture of the as-received material remains present after both hot rolling schemes. The imposibility to obtain accurate EBSD measurements within the twinned regions suggests that significant localized deformation takes place in those areas. Thus, due to the increase in the local strain energy, these regions become preferential sites for nucleation of recrystallization.Peer reviewe

List randomization for eliciting HIV status and sexual behaviors in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a randomized experiment using known true values for validation

Background: List randomization (LR), a survey method intended to mitigate biases related to sensitive true/false questions, has received recent attention from researchers. However, tests of its validity are limited, with no study comparing LR-elicited results with individually known truths. We conducted a test of LR for HIV-related responses in a high HIV prevalence setting in KwaZulu-Natal. By using researcher-known HIV serostatus and HIV test refusal data, we were able to assess how LR and direct questionnaires perform against individual known truth. Methods: Participants were recruited from the participation list from the 2016 round of the Africa Health Research Institute demographic surveillance system, oversampling individuals who were HIV positive. Participants were randomized to two study arms. In Arm A, participants were presented five true/false statements, one of which was the sensitive item, the others non-sensitive. Participants were then asked how many of the five statements they believed were true. In Arm B, participants were asked about each statement individually. LR estimates used data from both arms, while direct estimates were generated from Arm B alone. We compared elicited responses to HIV testing and serostatus data collected through the demographic surveillance system. Results: We enrolled 483 participants, 262 (54%) were randomly assigned to Arm A, and 221 (46%) to Arm B. LR estimated 56% (95% CI: 40 to 72%) of the population to be HIV-negative, compared to 47% (95% CI: 39 to 54%) using direct estimates; the population-estimate of the true value was 32% (95% CI: 28 to 36%). LR estimates yielded HIV test refusal percentages of 55% (95% CI: 37 to 73%) compared to 13% (95% CI: 8 to 17%) by direct estimation, and 15% (95% CI: 12 to 18%) based on observed past behavior. Conclusions: In this context, LR performed poorly when compared to known truth, and did not improve estimates over direct questioning methods when comparing with known truth. These results may reflect difficulties in implementation or comprehension of the LR approach, which is inherently complex. Adjustments to delivery procedures may improve LR’s usefulness. Further investigation of the cognitive processes of participants in answering LR surveys is warranted

An application of physical flexibility and software reconfigurability for the automation of battery module assembly

Batteries are a strategic technology to decarbonize conventional automotive powertrains and enable energy policy turnaround from fossil fuels to renewable energy. The demand for battery packs is rising, but they remain unable to compete with conventional technologies, primarily due to higher costs. Major sources of cost remain in manufacturing and assembly. These costs can be attributed to a need for high product quality, material handling complexity, uncertain and fluctuating production volumes, and an unpredictable breadth of product variants. This research paper applies the paradigms of flexibility from a mechanical engineering perspective, and reconfigurability from a software perspective to form a holistic, integrated manufacturing solution to better realize product variants. This allows manufacturers to de-risk investment as there is increased confidence that a facility can meet new requirements with reduced effort, and also shows how part of the vision of Industry 4.0 associated with the integration and exploitation of data can be fulfilled. A functional decomposition of battery packs is used to develop a foundational understanding of how changes in customer requirements can result in physical product changes. A Product, Process, and Resource (PPR) methodology is employed to link physical product characteristics to physical and logical characteristics of resources. This mapping is leveraged to enable the design of a gripper with focused flexibility by the Institute for Machine Tools and Industrial Management (iwb) at the Technical University of Munich, as it is acknowledged that mechanical changes are challenging to realize within industrial manufacturing facilities. Reconfigurability is realised through exploitation of data integration across the PPR domains, through the extension of the capabilities of a non-commercial virtual engineering toolset developed by the Automation Systems Group at the University of Warwick. The work shows an “end-to-end” approach that practically demonstrates the application of the flexibility and reconfigurability paradigms within an industrial engineering context