Justifications,Strategies, and Critical Success Factors in Successful ITIL Implementations in U.S. and Australian Companies: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

A growing number of organizations are implementing the ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) “best practice” framework in an attempt to improve their IT service management processes. However, not all ITIL implementations are successful and some companies have been disappointed with the outcomes. This exploratory research reports on four case studies of “successful” implementations of IT service management using the process-based ITIL V2 framework. Two companies are located in the U.S. and two in Australia. The cases demonstrate a mix of implementation justifications and strategies. Critical success factors (CSFs) suggested in the literature are compared against those attributed to these successful ITIL implementations. Some CSFs, including executive management support, interdepartmental communication and collaboration, use of consultants, training and careful software selection are confirmed. Three new CSFs are identified: creating an ITIL-friendly culture, process as a priority, and customer-focused metrics. Practitioner guidelines, to assist IT managers, who are contemplating adopting ITIL for process improvement and organisational transformation, are also provided together with some challenges encountered and their associated resolutions.     

Ethnography of Novices' First Use of Web Search Engines

Abstract

Without prior searching instruction, undergraduate novices wrote structured self-reports during their first session on a Web search engine. Users chose their own topics and followed written instructions that prompted them to describe thoughts and feelings during specified stages of the search: pre-search formulation; search statement formulation; search strategy; and evaluation of results. The sentences in the self-reports were numbered and then coded according to their affective or cognitive function. The affective sentences reveal how users set goals and limit the scope of the cognitive operations. Search acts appear to be governed by an affective filter that organizes incoming information and provides criteria for ranking cognitive relevance to search goal. The cognitive sentences reveal a variety of operations in executing searches. Following the search, students made self-ratings on self-confidence as searchers and satisfaction with the search experience, with explanations of their ratings. Content analysis identified reasons users have for rating self-confidence, stress level, satisfaction, usefulness, and success with future searches.     

Information Counseling Inventory of Affective and Cognitive Reactions While Learning the Internet

Abstract

Library professionals in the information age are called upon to provide user-friendly information environments. To accomplish this, more detailed knowledge is needed about the information behavior of users. The concept “information counseling” reflects this new orientation and involves instruction activities such as: orienting, advising, and reassuring novice learners. The taxonomic approach transforms self-witnessing reports into classified segments of information behaviors at three levels of internalization and in three behavioral domains, including: affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor behavior. Reference librarians and instructors are invited to contribute to the taxonomy and make use of it in planning and designing programs and facilities. This behavioral inventory of information behaviors learning the Internet is presented with illustrative entries under each category for affective and cognitive behavior. Suggested uses for the inventory include promoting information self-counseling skills, helping learners overcome technophobia through generational self-witnessing reports, and creating better point-of-use instructions for novices using complex information systems.     

Appropriating an architectural design tool for musical ends

NURBS (non-uniform rational b-spline) modelling has become a ubiquitous tool within architectural design praxis. In this article I examine three projects that utilise NURBS modelling as a means for which a musical system's inherent spatiality is visualised. There are numerous precedents for which architectural form is a derivation of a musical system, or a musical system is proportionally informed by architectonic gesture. I propose in this article three NURBS modelling methodologies: for the spatial analysis of Karlheinz Stockhausen's sound projection geometries in Pole für 2; for a spatial realisation of John Cage's indeterminate work Variations III; and for the generation of a surface manifold informed by musically derived soundscape data from the Japanese garden Kyu Furukawa Teien. Rather than seeking to translate music into inhabitable architecture, or architectonic form into music, I highlight an approach that produces an interstitial territory between discourses on architecture and music analysis.     

Authentication of the 31 species of toxic and potent Chinese materia medica by microscopic technique assisted by ICP-MS analysis, part 4: four kinds of toxic and potent mineral arsenical CMMs

Toxic and Potent Chinese Materia Medica (T/PCMM) is a special and very important category of Chinese medicines. They have long been used in traditional medical practice and are being used more and more widely throughout the world in recent years. As there may be many fatal toxic effects caused by misusing or confusion of T/PCMM, their quality and safety control arouse increasing attention internationally. Researches on the accurate identification to ensure the safe use of T/PCMM are acquired; however, there are few reports on authentication. We are carrying out a series of studies on 31 T/PCMM originating from plants, animals, minerals, and secreta. In our previous studies, we proved that modern microscopic authentication is a simple, fast, effective, low cost, and less toxic method for identifying animal, seed, and flower T/PCMM. In the present study, we focused on the authentication of four kinds of mineral arsenicals, including orpiment (mainly containing As₂S₃), realgar (mainly containing As₄S₄), arsenolite, and arsenic trioxide (mainly containing As₂O₃). We examined the macroscopic and microscopic characteristics of the above minerals and found that they all can be easily identified and authenticated by using light microscopy coupled with polarized microscopy. Moreover, the authentication results for arsenolite and arsenic trioxide are confirmed by ICP‐MS analysis. We are sure that the morphological and microscopic characteristics indicated here are indispensable to establishing standards for these four mineral T/PCMMs. Microsc. Res. Tech. 74:1‐8, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Effect of slow display on detectability when browsing large image datasets

Abstract— In this work, the effect of display temporal characteristics on detectability of signals was studied by comparing detection performance with a slow liquid‐crystal‐display (LCD) monitor and a fast, cathode‐ray‐tube (CRT) monitor when browsing multi‐slice image datasets in stack‐mode presentation. Thirteen readers evaluated 200 image sequence pairs in a two‐alternative forced choice experiment. The image sets consisted of three‐dimensional cluster lumpy backgrounds and were presented to the readers in two display devices: a three‐million‐pixel medical color LCD and a color desktop CRT. For the LCD, many inter‐gray‐level transitions are on the order of 50–60 msec, which was almost twice the frame time. The CRT had 2–5‐msec inter‐gray‐level transitions. The reader study was performed with a graphical‐user interface programmed using direct calls to OpenGL libraries to precisely control the browsing speed. The results were analyzed in terms of the difference in reader performance for each reader and each display, between a browsing speed of 20 and 50 frames per sec (fps). Average reader performance difference between 20 and 50 fps was measured to be 0.049 and 0.156 for the CRT and LCD monitors, respectively. The corresponding drop in reader performance associated with slow display was 0.11.     

Supporting the creative drive: investigating paralinguistic voice as a mode of interaction for artists with upper limb disabilities

For people with upper limb disabilities visual art is an important activity that allows for expression of individuality and independence. They show remarkable endurance, patience and determination to adapt their remaining capabilities to create visual art. There are significant advantages of digital technologies in assisting artists with upper limb disabilities. Paralinguistic voice recognition technologies have proven to be a particularly promising mode of interaction. Despite these benefits, technological support for people with upper limb disabilities to create visual art is scarce. This paper reports on a number of case studies of several artists with upper limb disabilities. These case studies illustrate the struggles they face to be creative and also show the significant advantages of digital technologies in assisting such artists. An investigation into people’s ability to use the volume of their voice to control cursor movement to create drawings on the screen is also reported. With motivation, training and practise, use of volume to control drawing tasks shows great promise. It is believed that paralinguistic voice has wider implications beyond assisting artists with upper limb disabilities, such as: an alternative mode of interaction for disabled people to perform tasks other than creating visual art, alternative mode of interaction for hands busy environments and as a voice training system for people with speech impairments.     

Liquid crystal oligo(cyclosiloxanes)

The synthesis and properties of individual liquid crystal oligo(cyclosiloxanes),, wherex=4–8 andR is a 4-methoxyphenyl-4-alkyloxybenzoate type of mesogenic group, is described. Preliminary results concerning the effect of ring size on the mesophase formation are included. X-ray diffraction studies have shown that the cyclosiloxanes form a smectic A₁ phase.     

Methane coupling at low temperatures on Ru(0001) and Ru(11¯20) catalysts

The conversion of methane to higher hydrocarbons on single crystal Ru catalysts has been investigated using combined elevated-pressure kinetic measurements/surface science studies. The reaction consists of activation of methane on Ru(0001) and Ru(11¯20) surfaces to produce carbonaceous intermediates at temperatures between 350 and 700 K and rehydrogenation of these species to ethane and propane at 370 K. It is found that under the reaction conditions employed, the maximum yield in ethane/propane production occurs at 500 K on both surfaces. Influence of the hydrogenation temperature on the production of ethane and propane is also examined. On Ru(0001), the yields of ethane and propane maximize at = 400 K, whereas no maximum yield was observed on Ru(11 0) in the 300–500 K temperature range. Under optimum reaction conditions, hydrocarbon products consist of 16% ethane and 2% propane. High-resolution electron energy-loss spectroscopy (HREELS) has been used to identify various forms of hydrocarbonaceous intermediates following methane decomposition. An effort is made to relate the hydrocarbon intermediates identified by HREELS to the gas phase products observed in the elevated pressure experiments.     

Rigor, rigor mortis, and conspiratorial views of depression research.

The authors reassert the need for methodological changes in depression research appearing in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and other personality and social psychology journals. In this rejoinder the authors update their earlier literature review (H. Tennen, J. Hall, & G. Affleck; see record 1995-31710-001) and respond to the commentaries by P C. Kendall and E. C. Flannery-Schroeder (see record 1995-31700-001) and G. Weary, J. A. Edwards, and J. A. Jacobson (see record 1995-31713-001). The authors notice that G. Weary et al.'s own findings demonstrate the need to change how depression is measured and participants are assigned to experimental groups. The authors also challenge G. Weary et al.'s contention that structured interviews are limited because they require interviewer judgments, and they urge personality and social psychologists to learn more about these interviews. Finally, G. Weary et al.'s suspicion that depression research guidelines reflect professional parochialism is disputed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)