Management of information technology in Swedish firms: An empirical study

This study examines the role and the involvement of management in information technology acquisition, planning, and development. The results indicate that top management plays a major role in setting the overall information technology policies. In addition, the Chief Information Officer (CIO) plays a crucial role in the merger of information strategy and corporate strategy. The result also indicates that user\u27s satisfaction is considered to be the most important r factor for justification of information technology acquisition

Revalidation and electronic cataract surgery audit: a Scottish survey on current practice and opinion

PURPOSE: To determine current knowledge and opinion on revalidation, and methods of cataract surgery audit in Scotland and to outline the current and future possibilities for electronic cataract surgery audit. METHODS: In 2010 we conducted a prospective, cross-sectional, Scottish-wide survey on revalidation knowledge and opinion, and cataract audit practice among all senior NHS ophthalmologists. Results were anonymised and recorded manually for analysis. RESULTS: In all, 61% of the ophthalmologists surveyed took part. Only 33% felt ready to take part in revalidation, whereas 76% felt they did not have adequate information about the process. Also, 71% did not feel revalidation would improve patient care, but 85% agreed that cataract surgery audit is essential for ophthalmic practice. In addition, 91% audit their cataract outcomes; 52% do so continuously. Further, 63% audit their subspecialist surgical results. Only 25% audit their cataract surgery practice electronically, and only 12% collect clinical data using a hospital PAS system. Funding and system incompatibility were the main reasons cited for the lack of electronic audit setup. Currently, eight separate hospital IT patient administration systems are used across 14 health boards in Scotland. CONCLUSION: Revalidation is set to commence in 2012. The Royal College of Ophthalmologists will use cataract outcome audit as a tool to ensure surgical competency for the process. Retrospective manual auditing of cataract outcome is time consuming, and can be avoided with an electronic system. Scottish ophthalmologists view revalidation with scepticism and appear to have inadequate knowledge of the process. However, they strongly agree with the concept of cataract surgery audit. The existing and future electronic applications that may support surgical audit are commercial electronic records, web-based applications, centrally funded software applications, and robust NHS connections between community and hospital

A Theoretical And Experimental Investigation Of Coke Gasification In A Batch Reactor

A computer model has been developed to simulate the char-gasification process occurring in the gasification component of a crossflow coal gasifier. This process corresponds to the batch gasification process in a combustion pot. Temperature and concentration profiles along the gasifier were obtained by solving the material and energy balances. In order to obtain the data necessary for evaluating and improving the computer model, an experimental system was developed to obtain data for the char-gasification process in the combustion pot. The results show that the gasification rate strongly depends on the air flow rate and that the reactivity of the char has a strong effect on the output gas composition. The results from the computer model were compared with available literature data on the fixed-bed gasifier and the experimental data obtained from this study, and were found to be in good agreement. A sensitivity analysis was performed on the input parameters (heat transfer coefficient, void fraction, particle diameter, and reactivity factor coefficients) of the computer model. The results show the importance of the input parameters in predicting the desired gas composition and total process time

Ultrafast High-Energy Electron Diffraction Study of Photoexcited Bismuth Nanoclusters by Femtosecond Laser Pulses

The advancement in ultrafast electron crystallography (UEC) over the past few decades facilitated the study of structural dynamics in all phases of matter induced by femtosecond laser pulses. This technique became very powerful when the spatial resolution was combined with the temporal resolution, and succeeded in studying chemical reactions by ultrafast electron diffraction, bulk crystal phonons and melting by X-ray diffraction. In this dissertation, I demonstrate the uniqueness of UEC and its potential in monitoring in real time the structural dynamics of bismuth (Bi) nanoclusters and islands induced by femtosecond laser pulses. Our approach to accomplish this task includes building a time-resolved high energy electron diffraction setup that is capable of delivering high energy and short electron pulses, less than 3 ps, which will facilitate the real time measurement of the Bragg diffraction ring intensity, shift in the peak position and the diffraction ring full width at half maximum (FWHM) at different delay times with respect to the femtosecond excitation. Additionally, the temperature evolution of the same parameters, intensity, position and FWHM of the diffraction peaks, was monitored by using conventional direct current heating stage. Another task was accomplished in which I utilized the pump-probe ultrafast electron diffraction setup that I built and tested with picoseconds laser pulses in PERI lab - Old Dominion University, transferred later to the Applied Research Center where a femtosecond laser system was used to characterize the transient effects induced in Bi nanoclusters due to femtosecond laser excitation. The sample under consideration is excited by a femtosecond laser pulses with moderate fluence just to induce an observable change in the diffraction pattern and far from sample damage. The femtosecond laser pulses induce changes in the charge carrier distribution function of Bi nanoclusters, which leads to a disturbance in the lattice potential and drives the solid-liquid phase transformation. The melting is detected as decrease in the integrated intensity of the Bragg peaks with time delay. Another interesting behavior is observed in these experiments in which a lattice contraction following femtosecond laser excitation and proceeding over a time period of ∼ 6ps precedes the lattice expansion in Bi (012) planes. Again, the electronic excitation, here, plays an important role in inducing a sudden change in the interatomic forces which leads to A1g phonon excitation. Due to the limited resolution of our system (2–3 ps) we were not able to detect the A1g oscillation frequency/wavelength, but its effects which appear as lattice contraction upon its decay can be seen from the temporal evolution of the Bragg peak position over the time period, 0 \u3c t \u3c 6 ps. The incident laser fluence was not high enough to induce full melting, but was enough to induce partial lattice melting. This was observed as a gradual increase in the FWHM of the Bragg peaks as a function of delay time, i.e., formation of thin liquid layer which increases in size with time when the lattice temperature increases through electron-phonon and/or phonon-phonon relaxation. Also, the time evolution of the relative Bragg peak intensity, Δd/d and FWHM were monitored for Bi islands. Bi islands were prepared by annealing the as-deposited Bi thin film (5 nm, average coverage) solely by either raising its temperature slowly up to ∼ 525 K or with ultrafast laser pulses of fluence 0.8 mJ/cm² - 2.4 mJ/cm²

Governance of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Cameroon: What lessons can we learn?

The aim of this paper is to find out the effects of the COBAC regulations regulating the microfinance industry on the governance of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Cameroon. The paper is based on 35 in-depth interviews carried out from May to June 2011 and June to July 2012 with managers and accountants from MFIs in Cameroon, MFI clients and non-clients, regulatory authorities in the Ministry of Finance, and accounting professionals. The findings show that the regulations have broken down the governance within the MFIs in Cameroon thus turning MFIs into hybrid organizations with managers striving to meet their shareholders' interests

Anisotropic Response of Nanosized Bismuth Films Upon Femtosecond Laser Excitation Monitored by Ultrafast Electron Diffraction

The lattice response of 5 nm thick bismuth film to femtosecond laser excitation is probed by ultrafast electron diffraction. The transient decay time after laser excitation is greater for diffraction from (012) lattice planes compared to (110) planes and is reduced for both planes with the increased laser fluence. These results indicate that different energy coupling mechanisms to the lattice occur depending on the crystal direction. The behavior of the diffraction peak width indicates partial disorder of the film upon photoexcitation that increases together with the laser fluence. © 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3652919

Transient Characterization of Type B Particles in a Transport Riser

Simple and rapid dynamic tests were used to evaluate fluid dynamic behavior of granular materials in the transport regime. Particles with densities ranging from 189 to 2,500 kg/m3 and Sauter mean size from 61 to 812 μm were tested in a 0.305 m diameter, 15.5 m height circulating fluidized bed (CFB) riser. The transient tests involved the abrupt stoppage of solids flow for each granular material over a wide range gas flow rates. The riser emptying time was linearly related to the Froude number in each of three different operating regimes. The flow structure along the height of the riser followed a distinct pattern as tracked through incremental pressures. These results are discussed to better understand the transformations that take place when operating over various regimes. During the transients the particle size distribution was measured. The effects of pressure, particle size, and density on test performance are also presented

Classification and analyses of of coating flows

YesA classification of coating flows is presented to facilitate a fundamental approach to their study. Four categories are observed: free, metered, transfer and gravure coating flows. They are all limited by free surface(s) which make their analysis difficult. Various analytical approaches have been used and these are briefly reviewed in this paper

Applications of tribology and fracture mechanics to determine wear and impact attrition of particulate solids in CFB systems

In recent years, much attention has been focused on the development of novel technologies for carbon capture and chemicals production that utilize a circulating fluidized bed configuration; examples include chemical looping combustion and circulation of temperature swing adsorbents in a CFB configuration for CO2 capture. A major uncertainty in determining the economic feasibility of these technologies is the required solids makeup rate, which, among other factors, is due to impact and wear attrition at various locations, including standpipes, cyclones, and the gas jets in fluid beds. While correlations have been developed that estimate the attrition rates at these areas, these correlations are dependent on constants that are an unknown function of the solid properties and system. Thus, it is difficult to determine the attrition rate a priori without performing extensive experiments on the materials or scaling up entirely. In this work, the authors apply knowledge of fundamental material properties from fields of tribology (the study of wear) and fracture mechanics to the knowledge of forces and sliding distances determined from hydrodynamic models to develop basic attrition models for novel CFB systems. The equations are derived for common equipment found in CFBs, and the equations are compared to experimental data of attrition in the literature