LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Investigating Information Systems Strategic Alignment

Although strategic alignment is an important theoretical concept, and achieving alignment or fit among organizational elements would seem to be an important business objective, empirical demonstrations of the importance of alignment have been uncommon (White 1986). This study attempted to provide an empirical assessment of the nature and importance of information systems strategic alignlnent There is much discussion today about the importance of 1. THE CONCEPTUAL MODEL strategic alignment in general (e.g., Venkatraman and Camillus 1984; White 1986) and information systems (IS) The conceptual model underlying the study is depicted in strategic alignment in particular (e.g., Elam et al. 1988; Figure 1. It depicts the propositions that IS.strategic Henderson and Thomas 1992; Henderson and Venkatraman 1992; Keen 1991; Ward, Griffiths and Whitmore 1990). alignment, defined as the fit existing between business The discussion generally suggests that the better the alignstrategy and IS strategy, impacts performance at the IS ment, the better the expected company performance. level and at the overall business level. However, there have been few empirical verifications of this proposition (White 1986). In addition, the discussion The results of the overall study, and detailed descriptions of about alignment has tended to be imprecise and vague (Van the instruments used to measure business strategy, IS de Ven and Drazin 1985). Important objectives of this strategy, IS effectiveness and business performance, have study were to identify a useful, precise model for the IS been described in Chan et al. (1993) and Chan and Huff strategic alignment construct and to examine empirically (1992) respectively. (Table 1 provides a brief outline of relationships among IS strategic alignment; IS effectiveness, the overall study.) This paper discusses the derivation and and business performance. significance of the IS strategic alignment computations and The discussion opens with a brief overview of the concepthe study's findings regarding alignment tual model underlying this study. Next, instruments that measure business strategy and IS strategy are introduced. Then instruments that measure IS effectiveness and business performance are outlined. This is followed by a 2. MEASURING BUSINESS STRATEGY AND general discussion of various approaches that are used to INFORMATION SYSTEMS STRATEGY assess alignment. Specific models of alignment are evaluated and the primary model for IS strategic alignment used within this research is selected and described. The links In order to assess IS strategic alignment, there needed to be between IS strategic alignment and performance are then assessments of both business strategy and IS strategy. discussed. Finally, the paper concludes with a description Table 2 lists the dimensions of these constructs as operaof the study's implications for management and future tionalized in this study. Multiple indicators were used to research. measure each dimension.
Mindfulness based cognitive therapy versus treatment as usual in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

BACKGROUND
Adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often present with a lifelong pattern of core symptoms that is associated with impairments of functioning in daily life. This has a substantial personal and economic impact. In clinical practice there is a high need for additional or alternative interventions for existing treatments, usually consisting of pharmacotherapy and/or psycho-education. Although previous studies show preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions in reducing ADHD symptoms and improving executive functioning, these studies have methodological limitations. This study will take account of these limitations and will examine the effectiveness of Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) in further detail.


METHODS/DESIGN
A multi-centre, parallel-group, randomised controlled trial will be conducted in N = 120 adults with ADHD. Patients will be randomised to MBCT in addition to treatment as usual (TAU) or TAU alone. Assessments will take place at baseline and at three, six and nine months after baseline. Primary outcome measure will be severity of ADHD symptoms rated by a blinded clinician. Secondary outcome measures will be self-reported ADHD symptoms, executive functioning, mindfulness skills, self-compassion, positive mental health and general functioning. In addition, a cost-effectiveness analysis will be conducted.


DISCUSSION
This trial will offer valuable information about the clinical and cost-effectiveness of MBCT in addition to TAU compared to TAU alone in adults swith ADHD.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02463396. Registered 8 June 2015.
Computability in the Lattice of Equivalence Relations

We investigate computability in the lattice of equivalence relations on the natural numbers. We mostly investigate whether the subsets of appropriately defined subrecursive equivalence relations -for example the set of all polynomial-time decidable equivalence relations- form sublattices of the lattice.
Treatment of poststroke pain by epidural motor cortex stimulation with a new octopolar lead.

BACKGROUND
Chronic, drug-resistant neuropathic pain can be treated by surgically implanted motor cortex stimulation (MCS). The leads used for MCS have not been specifically designed for this application.


OBJECTIVE
To study the value of a new 8-contact lead for MCS therapy in a series of 6 patients with refractory central poststroke pain.


METHODS
The study comprised a 1-month randomized phase, starting 1 month after implantation, during which the neurostimulator was switched on in one-half of the patients or remained off in the other half, followed by an open phase of 10 months, during which the stimulator was switched on in all patients. Clinical assessment was performed at baseline and 1, 2, 3, 6, and 12 months after implantation with the following scales: Visual Analog Scale, Verbal Rating Scale, Brief Pain Inventory, McGill Pain Questionnaire, Sickness Impact Profile, and Medication Quantification Scale.


RESULTS
In the randomized phase, clinical scores were found to be globally reduced in the on- vs off-stimulation condition. In the open follow-up phase, all clinical scores improved significantly over time. The ratio between affective and sensory McGill Pain Questionnaire subscores decreased, suggesting a preferential effect of MCS on the affective component of pain. Compared with preoperative baseline, 2 patients were totally relieved of central poststroke pain, 3 patients were very much relieved, and 1 patient remained unchanged at the final examination.


CONCLUSION
A good clinical outcome was observed in all patients except 1, suggesting that this new octopolar lead could be used for MCS therapy to treat refractory central poststroke pain.
Analysis of L-Band Digital Aeronautical Communication Systems: L-DACS1 and L-DACS2

New air-to-ground wireless datalinks are needed to supplement existing civil aviation technologies. The 960 – 1164 MHz part of the IEEE L band has been identified as a candidate spectrum. EUROCONTROL — the European organization for the Safety of Air Navigation, has funded two parallel projects and developed two proposals called L-DACS1 and L-DACS2. Although, there is a significant amount of literature available on each of the two technologies from the two teams that designed the respective proposals, there is very little independent comparison of the two proposals. The goal of this paper is to provide this comparison. We compare the two proposals in terms of their scalability, spectral efficiency, and interference resistance. Both the technologies have to co-exist with several other aeronautical technologies that use the same L-band. 12
[Effects of an exercise training program on the quality of life of women with breast cancer on chemotherapy].

BACKGROUND
Exercise may reduce anxiety and depression associated to the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.


AIM
To assess the effects of a physical training program during chemotherapy among women with breast cancer.


PATIENTS AND METHODS
Twenty two women aged 49 +/- 7 years with breast cancer voluntarily agreed to take part in the study, after surgical treatment. Functional capacity (Karnofsky Performance Status), psychological status (General Health Questionnaire, GHQ) and quality of life (EORTC QLQ-C30) were evaluated at baseline and at the end of the study. Before beginning with adjuvant chemotherapy, ten women were randomly assigned to a program of physical exercise and seven to a control group. The program lasted 18 to 22 weeks, depending on the duration of chemotherapy.


RESULTS
Five women were lost from follow up. Before starting chemotherapy, 41% of women were working and all had to kit. At baseline all had a normal Karnofski score and quality of life was compromised. At the end of the study, the intervention group had an improvement of their quality of life, compared to the control group that did not experience significant changes.


CONCLUSIONS
An exercise training program improves quality of life of women with breast cancer on chemotherapy.
The distal triceps tendon footprint and a biomechanical analysis of 3 repair techniques.

BACKGROUND
Anatomic repair of tendon ruptures is an important goal of surgical treatment. There are limited data on the triceps brachii insertion, footprint, and anatomic reconstruction of the distal triceps tendon.


HYPOTHESIS
An anatomic repair of distal triceps tendon ruptures more closely imitates the preinjury anatomy and may result in a more durable repair.


STUDY DESIGN
Descriptive and controlled laboratory studies.


METHODS
The triceps tendon footprint was measured in 27 cadaveric elbows, and a distal tendon rupture was created. Elbows were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 repair groups: cruciate repair group, suture anchor group, and anatomic repair group. Biomechanical measurement of load at yield and peak load were measured. Cyclic loading was performed for a total of 1500 cycles and displacement measured.


RESULTS
The average bony footprint of the triceps tendon was 466 mm2. Cyclic loading of tendons from the 3 repair types demonstrated that the anatomic repair produced the least amount of displacement when compared with the other repair types (P < .05). Load at yield and peak load were similar for all repair types (P > .05).


CONCLUSION
The triceps bony footprint is a large area on the olecranon that should be considered when repairing distal triceps tendon ruptures. Anatomic repair of triceps tendon ruptures demonstrated the most anatomic restoration of distal triceps ruptures and showed statistically significantly less repair-site motion when cyclically loaded.


CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Anatomic repair better restores preinjury anatomy compared with other types of repairs and demonstrates less repair-site motion, which may play a role in early postoperative management.
Cilostazol as an add-on therapy for patients with Alzheimer’s disease in Taiwan: a case control study

BACKGROUND
Combination therapy using acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs) and cilostazol is of unknown efficacy for patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD).


METHODS
We explored the therapeutic responses by using a case-control study, which was conducted in Taiwan. We enrolled 30 participants with stable AD who were receiving cilostazol (50 mg) twice per day as an add-on therapy combined with AChEIs, and 30 participants as controls who were not receiving cilostazol as an add-on therapy. The therapeutic responses were measured using neuropsychological assessments and analyzed in relation to cilostazol use, apolipoprotein E genotype, and demographic characteristics. Mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and clinical dementia rating sum of boxes (CDR-SB) were administered at the outset of the study and 12 months later. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the association between the therapeutic response and cilostazol use.


RESULTS
For the therapeutic indicator of cognition, Cilostazol use (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 0.17, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.03-0.80), initial CDR-SB score (aOR = 2.06, 95% CI = 1.31-3.72), and initial MMSE score (aOR = 1.41, 95% CI = 1.11-1.90), but not age, sex, education, or ApoE ε4 status, were significantly associated with poor therapeutic outcomes. For the therapeutic indicator of global status, no significant association was observed between the covariates and poor therapeutic outcomes.


CONCLUSIONS
Cilostazol may reduce the decline of cognitive function in stable AD patients when applied as an add-on therapy.
Printing arbitrary meshes with a 5DOF wireframe printer

Traditional 3D printers fabricate objects by depositing material to build up the model layer by layer. Instead printing only wireframes can reduce printing time and the cost of material while producing effective depictions of shape. However, wireframe printing requires the printer to undergo arbitrary 3D motions, rather than slice-wise 2D motions, which can lead to collisions with already-printed parts of the model. Previous work has either limited itself to restricted meshes that are collision free by construction, or simply dropped unreachable parts of the model, but in this paper we present a method to print arbitrary meshes on a 5DOF wireframe printer. We formalize the collision avoidance problem using a directed graph, and propose an algorithm that finds a locally minimal set of constraints on the order of edges that guarantees there will be no collisions. Then a second algorithm orders the edges so that the printing progresses smoothly. Though meshes do exist that still cannot be printed, our method prints a wide range of models that previous methods cannot, and it provides a fundamental enabling algorithm for future development of wireframe printing.
An improved box-counting method for image fractal dimension estimation

Article history: Received 6 September 2007 Received in revised form 14 January 2009 Accepted 2 March 2009
EasiMed: A remote health care solution

An embedded remote health care system based on wireless sensor network technology was established. Firstly, a new system architecture was proposed which introduced a scalable wireless personal medical sensor network around human's body. Then the designs of several sensor node and the care base-station were presented. The wireless communication between the sensor nodes and the care base-station used IEEE 802.15.4/Zigbee standard whilst the care base-station and the remote central server was connected in one of the following ways, including computing network, GSM short messages and telephone modem. The system can be used for remote health care at home or in the hospitals
The influence of community-based participatory research principles on the likelihood of participation in health research in American Indian communities.

OBJECTIVES
Advocates of community-based participatory research (CBPR) have emphasized the need for such efforts to be collaborative, and close partnerships with the communities of interest are strongly recommended in developing study designs. However, to date, no systematic, empiric inquiry has been made into whether CBPR principles might influence an individual's decision to participate in research.


DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Using vignettes that described various types of research, we surveyed 1066 American Indian students from three tribal colleges/universities to ascertain the extent to which respondent age, gender, education, cultural affiliation, tribal status, and prior experience with research may interact with the implementation of critical CBPR principles to increase or decrease the likelihood of participating in health research.


RESULTS
Many factors significantly increased odds of participation and included the study's being conducted by a tribal college/university or national organization, involving the community in study development, an American Indian's leading the study, addressing serious health problems of concern to the community, bringing money into the community, providing new treatments or services, compensation, anonymity, and using the information to answer new questions. Decreased odds of participation were related to possible discrimination against one's family, tribe, or racial group; lack of confidentiality; and possible physical harm.


CONCLUSIONS
Employing CBPR principles such as community involvement in all phases of the research, considering the potential benefits of the research, building on strengths and resources within the community and considering how results will be used is essential to conceptualizing, designing, and implementing successful health research in partnership with American Indians.
The impact of perceived interpersonal functioning on treatment for adolescent depression: IPT-A versus treatment as usual in school-based health clinics.

OBJECTIVE
Aspects of depressed adolescents' perceived interpersonal functioning were examined as moderators of response to treatment among adolescents treated with interpersonal psychotherapy for depressed adolescents (IPT-A; Mufson, Dorta, Moreau, & Weissman, 2004) or treatment as usual (TAU) in school-based health clinics.


METHOD
Sixty-three adolescents (12-18 years of age) participated in a clinical trial examining the effectiveness of IPT-A (Mufson, Dorta, Wickramaratne, et al., 2004). The sample was 84.1% female and 15.9% male (mean age = 14.67 years). Adolescents were 74.6% Latino, 14.3% African American, 1.6% Asian American, and 9.5% other. They came primarily from low-income families. Adolescents were randomly assigned to receive IPT-A or TAU delivered by school-based mental health clinicians. Assessments, completed at baseline and at Weeks 4, 8, and 12 (or at early termination), included the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (Hamilton, 1967), the Conflict Behavior Questionnaire (Robin & Foster, 1989), and the Social Adjustment Scale-Self-Report (Weissman & Bothwell, 1976).


RESULTS
Multilevel modeling indicated that treatment condition interacted with adolescents' baseline reports of conflict with their mothers and social dysfunction with friends to predict the trajectory of adolescents' depressive symptoms over the course of treatment, controlling for baseline levels of depression. The benefits of IPT-A over TAU were particularly strong for the adolescents who reported high levels of conflict with their mothers and social dysfunction with friends.


CONCLUSIONS
Replication with larger samples would suggest that IPT-A may be particularly helpful for depressed adolescents who are reporting high levels of conflict with their mothers or interpersonal difficulties with friends.
The sharing economy: Why people participate in collaborative consumption

Information and communications technologies (ICTs) have enabled the rise of so-called “Collaborative Consumption” (CC): the peer-to-peer-based activity of obtaining, giving, or sharing the access to goods and services, coordinated through community-based online services. CC has been expected to alleviate societal problems such as hyper-consumption, pollution, and poverty by lowering the cost of economic coordination within communities. However, beyond anecdotal evidence, there is a dearth of understanding why people participate in CC. Therefore, in this article we investigate people’s motivations to participate in CC. The study employs survey data (N = 168) gathered from people registered onto a CC site. The results show that participation in CC is motivated by many factors such as its sustainability, enjoyment of the activity as well as economic gains. An interesting detail in the result is that sustainability is not directly associated with participation unless it is at the same time also associated with positive attitudes towards CC. This suggests that sustainability might only be an important factor for those people for whom ecological consumption is important. Furthermore, the results suggest that in CC an attitudebehavior gap might exist; people perceive the activity positively and say good things about it, but this good attitude does not necessary translate into action. Introduction
Efficacy and Safety of Botulinum Toxin A Injection Compared with Topical Nitroglycerin Ointment for the Treatment of Chronic Anal Fissure: A Prospective Randomized Study

OBJECTIVES:To evaluate the efficacy and safety of botulinum toxin A injection compared with topical nitroglycerin ointment for the treatment of chronic anal fissure (CAF).METHODS:Fifty outpatients with CAF were randomized to receive either a single botulinum toxin injection (30 IU Botox®) or topical nitroglycerin ointment 0.2% b.i.d. for 2 wk. If the initial therapy failed, patients were assigned to the other treatment group for a further 2 wk. If CAF still showed no healing at wk 4, patients received combination therapy of botulinum toxin and nitroglycerin for 4 additional wk. Persisting CAF at wk 8 was treated according to the investigator's decision. Healing rates, symptoms, and side effects of the therapy were recorded at wk 2, 4, 8, 12, and 24 after randomization.RESULTS:The group initially treated with nitroglycerin showed a higher healing rate of CAF (13 of 25, 52%) as compared with the botulinum toxin group (6 of 25, 24%) after the first 2 wk of therapy (p < 0.05). At the end of wk 4, CAF healed in three additional patients, all receiving nitroglycerin after initial botulinum toxin injection. Mild side effects occurred in 13 of 50 (26%) patients, all except one were on nitroglycerin.CONCLUSIONS:Nitroglycerin ointment was superior to the more expensive and invasive botulinum toxin injection for initial healing of CAF, but was associated with more but mild side effects.
A longitudinal study of the relation between adolescent boys and girls' computer use with friends and friendship quality: Support for the social compensation or the rich-get-richer hypothesis?

0747-5632/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. A doi:10.1016/j.chb.2010.02.004 * Corresponding author. E-mail address: malinda.desjarlais@gmail.com (M. Using computers with friends either in person or online has become ubiquitous in the life of most adolescents; however, little is known about the complex relation between this activity and friendship quality. This study examined direct support for the social compensation and rich-get-richer hypotheses among adolescent girls and boys by including social anxiety as a moderating factor. A sample of 1050 adolescents completed a survey in grade 9 and then again in grades 11 and 12. For girls, there was a main effect of using computers with friends on friendship quality; providing support for both hypotheses. For adolescent boys, however, social anxiety moderated this relation, supporting the social compensation hypothesis. These findings were identical for online communication and were stable throughout adolescence. Furthermore, participating in organized sports did not compensate for social anxiety for either adolescent girls or boys. Therefore, characteristics associated with using computers with friends may create a comfortable environment for socially anxious adolescents to interact with their peers which may be distinct from other more traditional adolescent activities. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.