Reconciling user and project manager perceptions of IT project risk: a Delphi study1

Abstract. In an increasingly dynamic business environment characterized by fast cycle times, shifting markets and unstable technology, a business organization’s survival hinges on its ability to align IT capabilities with business goals. To facilitate the successful introduction of new IT applications, issues of project risk must be addressed, and the expectations of multiple stakeholders must be managed appropriately. To the extent that users and developers may harbour different perceptions regarding project risk, areas of conflict may arise. By understanding the differences in how users and project managers perceive the risks, insights can be gained that may help to ensure the successful delivery of systems. Prior research has focused on the project manager’s perspective of IT project risk. This paper explores the issue of IT project risk from the user perspective and compares it with risk perceptions of project managers. A Delphi study reveals that these two stakeholder groups have different perceptions of risk factors. Through comparison with a previous study on project manager risk perceptions, zones of concordance and discordance that must be reconciled are identified.     

A General Role for Early Onset Cues and Intra-Event Learning; Comment on McDonald and Siegel (2004).

Research on classical conditioning with drug unconditional stimuli has had a profound effect on the understanding of general conditioning processes. The experiment reported by R. V. McDonald and S. Siegel (see record 2004-10475-001) demonstrates that cues coincident with the onset of an event can become associated with the rest of the event. This sort of learning is probably ubiquitous and has been proposed as a mechanism behind the development of panic disorder, in which interoceptive cues coincident with the start of a panic attack can be associated with the rest of the attack and can eventually come to elicit full-blown panic on their own. Evidence that extinction exposure to early onset cues can reduce their power is especially important. Drug conditioning research continues to provide a powerful testing ground for important general principles of learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rater reliability and concurrent validity of the Keyboard Personal Computer Style instrument (K-PeCS)

This paper describes the inter-rater and intra-rater reliability, and the concurrent validity of an observational instrument, the Keyboard Personal Computer Style instrument (K-PeCS), which assesses stereotypical postures and movements associated with computer keyboard use. Three trained raters independently rated the video clips of 45 computer keyboard users to ascertain inter-rater reliability, and then re-rated a sub-sample of 15 video clips to ascertain intra-rater reliability. Concurrent validity was assessed by comparing the ratings obtained using the K-PeCS to scores developed from a 3D motion analysis system. The overall K-PeCS had excellent reliability [inter-rater: intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC)=.90; intra-rater: ICC=.92]. Most individual items on the K-PeCS had from good to excellent reliability, although six items fell below ICC=.75. Those K-PeCS items that were assessed for concurrent validity compared favorably to the motion analysis data for all but two items. These results suggest that most items on the K-PeCS can be used to reliably document computer keyboarding style.     

Rapid detection of Vibrio parahaemolyticus strains and virulent factors by loop-mediated isothermal amplification assays

A loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) method for rapid detection of the foodborne Vibrio parahaemolyticus strains and related virulent factors had been developed and evaluated in this study. Six primers, including outer primers, inner primers, and loop primers, were specially designed for recognizing 8 distinct sequences on 3 target genes, which were tlh, tdh, and trh. The detection limits were found to be 100, 100 fg, and 1 pg DNA/tube for tlh, tdh, and trh, respectively. Application of LAMP assays were performed on 368 foodborne V. parahaemolyticus strains, the sensitivities of LAMP assays for the tlh, tdh, and trh were 100, 95.6, and 96.4%, and the negative predictive values (NPV) were 100, 84.7, and 93.1%, respectively; with a 100% specificity and positive predictive value (PPV) for all 3 target genes.     

Assessing Grey Squirrel Dispersal Patterns within the Landscape Using Sequence Variation

Abstract

The grey squirrel Sciurus carolinensis is thought to have contributed to the decline of red squirrel S. vulgaris populations in the UK through resource competition and disease spread. This study used mtDNA sequencing to assess patterns of grey squirrel dispersal in the UK. Patterns of genetic variation within the dloop sequence were characterised for seven grey squirrel populations. Infiltration directions and potential barriers to dispersal are identified and discussed, with a focus on Cumbria, a county at the forefront of grey squirrel expansion. Understanding the dynamics of grey squirrel dispersal will aid their management at a landscape scale and enhance the conservation of red squirrels.     

The eyelids and tear film in contact lens discomfort

Purpose

To investigate characteristics of the eyelid margins, meibomian glands and the tear film of contact lens wearers, and to determine whether these characteristics were related to symptoms of contact lens discomfort.

Alleviating convergence problems in Group Support Systems

Not all Group Support Systems are identical, as is demonstrated by their software implementations. We discuss two existing implementations of group support tools and the process models underlying them. We demonstrate that fundamental to both processes is the merging or integration of individual data. Based on this and other empirical research, the Shared Context Model (SCM) of cooperative work is adopted and we show that it supports existing processes and others. We expect that groups will find merging their work easier with the SCM. This model is presented and embedded in the architecture and implementation of four group tools. Because these tools are destined to be used by dispersed groups, synchronously or asynchronously, an object-based communication and control mechanism is incorporated. Finally, as graphics and multi-tasking have been shown to be increasingly important, the tools are implemented in Microsoft Windows for personal computers attached to local area networks.     

Automatic Flow-Control Adaptation for Enhancing Network Performance in Computational Grids

With the advent of computational Grids, networking performance over the wide-area network (WAN) has become a critical component in the Grid infrastructure. Unfortunately, many high-performance Grid applications only use a small fraction of their available bandwidth because operating systems and their associated protocol stacks are still tuned for yesterday's WAN speeds. As a result, network gurus undertake the tedious process of manually tuning system buffers to allow TCP flow control to scale to today's WAN Grid environments. And although recent research has shown how to set the size of these system buffers automatically at connection set-up, the buffer sizes are only appropriate at the beginning of the connection's lifetime. To address these problems, we describe an automated and lightweight technique called dynamic right-sizing that can improve throughput by as much as an order of magnitude while still abiding by TCP semantics.     

Self‐Powered Iontophoretic Transdermal Drug Delivery System Driven and Regulated by Biomechanical Motions

Transdermal drug delivery (TDD) systems with feedback control have attracted extensive research and clinical interest owing to their unique advantages of convenience, self‐administration, and safety. Here, a self‐powered wearable iontophoretic TDD system that can be driven and regulated by the energy harvested from biomechanical motions is proposed for closed‐loop motion detection and therapy. A wearable triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is used as the motion sensor and energy harvester that can convert biomechanical motions into electricity for iontophoresis without stored‐energy power sources, while a hydrogel‐based soft patch with side‐by‐side electrodes is designed to enable noninvasive iontophoretic TDD. Proof‐of‐concept experiments on pig skin with dyes as model drugs successfully demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed system. This work not only extends the application of TENG in the biomedical field, but may also provide a cost‐effective solution for noninvasive, electrically assisted TDD with closed‐loop sensing and treatment.