Collective institutional work: the case of Airbnb in Amsterdam,London and New York

ABSTRACT

Given that online platforms disrupt established industries and challenge existing institutions, they can only be successful if their innovation becomes both legal and legitimate. This requires ‘institutional work’ that changes perceptions and regulations within society. Rather than only focussing on the online platform as the sole agent engaging in institutional work, our study analyses institutional work as a collective process. We investigate the case of home-sharing platform Airbnb and the process of institutional change its introduction prompted regarding short-term rental in Amsterdam, London and New York. We find, contrary to the popular view of online platforms as disruptive entrepreneurs, that the platform mainly focusses on creating new institutions rather than disrupting existing ones, and that users and non-users undertake most of the institutional work activities. We also show that different types of actors carry out different types of institutional work suggesting that the process of institutional work is highly distributed.     

Organizational Characteristics Influencing SME Information Security Maturity

In the current business environment, many organizations use popular standards such as the ISO 27000x series, COBIT, and related frameworks to protect themselves against security incidents. However, these standards and frameworks are overly complicated for small to medium-sized enterprises, leaving these organizations with no easy to understand toolkit to address their security needs. This research builds upon the recent Information Security Focus Area Maturity (ISFAM) model for SME information security as a cornerstone in the development of an assessment tool for tailor-made, fast, and easy-to-use information security advice for SMEs. By performing an extensive literature review and evaluating the results with security experts, we propose the Characterizing Organizations’ Information Security for SMEs (CHOISS) model to relate measurable organizational characteristics in four categories through 47 parameters to help SMEs distinguish and prioritize which risks to mitigate.     

Applied data science in patient-centric healthcare: Adaptive analytic systems for empowering physicians and patients

We define the emerging research field of applied data science as the knowledge discovery process in which analytic systems are designed and evaluated to improve the daily practices of domain experts. We investigate adaptive analytic systems as a novel research perspective of the three intertwining aspects within the knowledge discovery process in healthcare: domain and data understanding for physician- and patient-centric healthcare, data preprocessing and modelling using natural language processing and (big) data analytic techniques, and model evaluation and knowledge deployment through information infrastructures. We align these knowledge discovery aspects with the design science research steps of problem investigation, treatment design, and treatment validation, respectively. We note that the adaptive component in healthcare system prototypes may translate to data-driven personalisation aspects including personalised medicine. We explore how applied data science for patient-centric healthcare can thus empower physicians and patients to more effectively and efficiently improve healthcare. We propose meta-algorithmic modelling as a solution-oriented design science research framework in alignment with the knowledge discovery process to address the three key dilemmas in the emerging “post-algorithmic era” of data science: depth versus breadth, selection versus configuration, and accuracy versus transparency.     

Use of infrared spectroscopy for the determination of electronegativity of rare earth elements

Infrared spectroscopy has been used to study a series of synthetic agardite minerals. Four OH stretching bands are observed at around 3568, 3482, 3362, and 3296 cm(-1). The first band is assigned to zeolitic, non-hydrogen-bonded water. The band at 3296 cm(-1) is assigned to strongly hydrogen-bonded water with an H bond distance of 2.72 A. The water in agardites is better described as structured water and not as zeolitic water. Two bands at around 999 and 975 cm(-1) are assigned to OH deformation modes. Two sets of AsO symmetric stretching vibrations were found and assigned to the vibrational modes of AsO(4) and HAsO(4) units. Linear relationships between positions of infrared bands associated with bonding to the OH units and the electronegativity of the rare earth elements were derived, with correlation coefficients >0.92. These linear functions were then used to calculate the electronegativity of Eu, for which a value of 1.1808 on the Pauling scale was found.     

Accuracy of self-reported data for estimating crash severity

Estimated traveling speed and speed limit have typically been used in population-based surveillance data to estimate crash severity. The accuracy of these measures in predicting crash severity is unknown. The Partners for Child Passenger Safety (PCPS) surveillance system offers a unique opportunity to compare these measures, as well as a novel measure of crash severity, “self-report” delta-V, to the accepted measure of delta-V estimated during detailed crash-investigations in 118 crashes. This “self-report” delta-V was computed from the estimated traveling speeds and direction of impact obtained from telephone interviews with drivers. These “self-reported” delta-V estimates are modestly associated with crash-investigation delta-V estimates, with the degree of association a function of the direction of impact: when the respondent was struck from the rear, the degree of association is strong; frontal, side, and single-vehicle crashes yield weaker associations. This “self-reported” delta-V measure, however, is a substantial improvement over use of estimated traveling speed or speed limit only.     

Four practical and conceptual assessment issues that evaluators should address in capital case mental retardation evaluations.

What unique assessment issues do evaluators face when conducting mental retardation evaluations in capital cases? This article describes 4 assessment issues and reports how 20 evaluators in 1 state have approached them: (a) What methods are appropriate for evaluating adaptive functioning in this context? (b) Should information about criminal behavior be used as evidence of adaptive functioning? (c) Should correctional officers serve as informants regarding adaptive behavior? and (d) How should the Flynn effect influence the interpretation of intelligence test scores? Implications for practice are that practitioners should expect to be asked about the relation between criminal behavior and adaptive functioning, must think carefully about the validity of tests of adaptive functioning for inmates, and must be knowledgeable about the current state of Flynn effect research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cold water stress abolishes hyperactivity produced by cortical suction lesions without altering noradrenergic depletion.

Through the 30-day postoperative period following focal right hemisphere cortical suction lesions, lesioned and sham-operated control male Sprague-Dawley rats were placed in cold water for 5 min either 4 times at weekly intervals, once during the 1st postoperative week, or not at all. Results indicate different effects of the swim on lesioned and control Ss. Stress at weekly intervals produced hyperactivity in controls but weekly stress in lesioned Ss blocked the development of their expected hyperactivity. A single stress experience occurring 1 wk postoperatively was also sufficient to block the development of hyperactivity in lesioned Ss. Stress, although affecting behavior, did not alter the pattern of norepinephrine depletions in lesioned Ss. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developing community capacity to treat post-deployment mental health problems: A public health initiative.

Meeting the mental health needs of Veterans returning from recent deployment requires the coordinated effort of partnerships across Department of Defense (DoD), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and state and local communities. Although the proportion of Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who have accessed VA health care has grown, the majority of these new combat Veterans have yet to present for VA care. The stigma associated with reporting a deployment-related mental health problem may be one factor in this, but access to treatment may also be an important concern among the one third of American Veterans who live in rural or highly rural areas. As these Veterans are more likely to present to a primary care, faith-based or mental health provider in their own community, partnerships between community providers, DoD, and VA are of critical importance in ensuring appropriate care, regardless of treatment setting. In an effort to improve services and access to services, especially to rural Veterans, an educational public health initiative was created to educate community providers about military culture, deployment-related mental health issues, VA resources, and evidence-based treatments. We describe the development, dissemination and evaluation of this initiative, as well as lessons learned for future similar endeavors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Glyphosate immunosensor. Application for water and soil analysis

A fully automated immunosensor for the herbicide glyphosate has been developed on the basis of the immunocomplex capture assay protocol. The sensor carries out on-line analyte derivatization prior to the assay and uses a selective anti-glyphosate serum, a glyphosate peroxidase enzyme tracer, and fluorescent detection. Under optimal conditions, the detection limit achieved is 0.021 microg/L with an analysis rate of 25 min per assay, autonomy of more than 48 h, and sensor reusability >500 analytical cycles. The immunosensor is able to discriminate structurally related molecules, such as aminomethylphosphonic acid, the main metabolite of glyphosate, and other related herbicides, such as glufosinate and glyphosine. Interferences from naturally occurring species (anions, cations, and humic substances) and their elimination were also studied. The immunosensor has been successfully applied to water and soil sample analysis, with good recoveries at levels lower than 1 microg/L. Results obtained with the immunosensor correlate well with data from a magnetic particle ELISA and LC/LC/MS chromatographic method.     

Computer-controlled microcirculatory support system for endothelial cell culture and shearing

Endothelial cells (ECs) lining the inner lumen of blood vessels are continuously subjected to hemodynamic shear stress, which is known to modify EC morphology and biological activity. This paper describes a self-contained microcirculatory EC culture system that efficiently studies such effects of shear stress on EC alignment and elongation in vitro. The culture system is composed of elastomeric microfluidic cell shearing chambers interfaced with computer-controlled movement of piezoelectric pins on a refreshable Braille display. The flow rate is varied by design of channels that allow for movement of different volumes of fluid per variable-speed pump stroke. The integrated microfluidic valving and pumping system allowed primary EC seeding and differential shearing in multiple compartments to be performed on a single chip. The microfluidic flows caused ECs to align and elongate significantly in the direction of flow according to their exposed levels of shear stress. This microfluidic system overcomes the small flow rates and the inefficiencies of previously described microfluidic and macroscopic systems respectively to conveniently perform parallel studies of EC response to shear stress.