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This paper is a first attempt to establish how technology roadmapping, commonly reserved for established organizations, can be adapted for the characteristics and limitations of a startup company. This work was performed in collaboration with a newly founded company to create a technology roadmap for devising a 3D cell culture solution for the fields drug discovery and in vitro disease models. Currently, published literature focuses mainly on the methodology and the application in mature companies and industries and overlooking novel technological multinationals. This paper on the other hand, provides a case of implementing a technology roadmap for a start up technology building product based on an emerging technology in an emerging industry. The paper outlines how it was adopted and implemented successfully in a startup company. The roadmapping process was intended to create a strategic plan that can illustrate to the investors how the acquired resources will be used to develop the product. Additionally, it aimed to assist the company in disclosing diverse gaps and prioritizing efforts and resources to face uncertainty while developing the product and the company. The widespread use of advanced manufacturing has reached the drug discovery and research domain. There is an emerging market with no dominant design; currently, no solution addresses the requirements of the research and industry segments.

The IEEE 802.11-based Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) has become a ubiquitous networking technology deployed around the world. IEEE 802.11 WLAN are now widely used for real-time multimedia applications (e.g. voice and video streaming) and distributed emergency services such as telemedicine, healthcare, and disaster recovery. Both time-sensitive applications and emergency traffic are not only characterized by their high bandwidth requirements, but also impose severe restrictions on end-to-end packet delays (i.e. response time), jitter (i.e. delay variance) and packet losses. In other words, time-sensitive applications and emergency services require a strict Quality of Service (QoS) guarantee. Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol is one of the key factors that influence the performance of WLANs. The IEEE 802.11e working group enhanced the 802.11 MAC to provide QoS support in WLANs. However, recent studies have shown that 802.11e Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) standard has limitations and it neither supports strict QoS guarantee nor emergency traffic. Providing a strict QoS guarantee as well as supporting emergency traffic under high traffic loads is really a challenging task in WLANs. A thorough review of literature on QoS MAC protocols reveals that most QoS schemes have focused on either network throughput enhancement or service differentiation by adjusting Contention Window (CW) or Inter-Frame Spaces (IFS). Therefore, a research on developing techniques to provide a strict QoS guarantee as well as support for emergency traffic is required in such systems. To achieve this objective, a general understanding of WLANs is required. This paper aims introduce various key concepts of WLANs that are necessary for design, model and develop such framework. Our main contribution in this paper is the QoS for IEEE 802.11 WLAN and MAC protocols for supporting industrial emergency traffic over network and future directions.

This paper investigates the spillover effects of aggregate stock market liquidity on bank market power using a sample of 44 countries and 7297 individual banks from 1999 to 2014. Country-level and bank-level analysis shows that enhancement in stock market liquidity strengthens the market power of the banking sector. This relationship is more pronounced in developed market countries and in countries with common law origin, which offer better investor protection. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to provide comprehensive empirical evidence of the complementary relationship between banks and stock markets, providing important policy implications for regulators.

To improve risk management processes, policymakers around the world have encouraged firms to invest in improving risk oversight and governance practices, such as adoption of a board risk committee (BRC). This paper examines whether adoption of a BRC improves a firm's access to capital by reducing financial constraints risk. Using a sample of 28,265 observations from listed firms in the U.S. from 2005 to 2017, we find voluntary adoption of a BRC significantly reduces financial constraints risk. This finding is robust to alternative proxies of financial constraints risk, accounting for sample selection bias and controlling for unobserved firm-level heterogeneity. We also find that BRC characteristics including size, financial experts and female directors are negatively related to financial constraints risk. In addition, we document significant indirect effects of BRCs on financial constraints risk through reducing information asymmetry and agency costs. In summary, the findings of this paper indicate that voluntary adoption of a BRC is important for listed firms without an effective risk governance structure at the board level.

The purpose of this study is to review, synthesize and critique the voluminous, multidisciplinary literature on factors influencing ethical decision making (EDM) by adopting a unique qualitative approach. The main results of this paper initially involve identifying 42 factors provided in the past forty years of research as potentially influencing EDM (provided by four main systematic literature review papers on EDM). We adopt the Ebb and Flow Visualization to summarize and classify those 42 factors by using two main criteria descripted in the paper. The results clearly show that in over forty years of literature, there are factors that have received much more research attention than others and that some factors have been identified more influential than others. A proposed future research agenda has been designed providing possible activities to further investigates the impact of factors influencing EDM. Finally, theoretical and managerial implications are also provided in the conclusion section.

This study examines the portfolio response of US banks to the interbank lending collapse during the global financial crisis. The paper documents that a bank's response to the collapse of interbank markets is related to whether or not the bank was a net borrower or lender of funds. In particular, we find that typical borrowers had lower loan growth than typical lenders, but that the crisis did not differentially affect borrowers and lenders with respect to loan growth. However, borrowing and lending banks were differentially affected by the crisis in terms of their liquid asset growth. The typical borrowers reduced their liquid asset growth relative to lending banks during the crisis. We interpret this finding as saying that borrowing banks had to reduce their risky asset holdings because access to interbank funds had been reduced. The paper presents analogous analyses of the possible differential response of borrowers and lenders to changes in counterparty risk and lending through the Fed's TAF facility.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) approaches have caught the attention of many in health care. Current literature suggests there are many potential benefits that could transform future clinical workflows and decision making. Embedding AI and ML concepts in radiation therapy education could be a fundamental step in equipping radiation therapists (RTs) to engage in competent and safe practice as they utilise clinical technologies. In this discussion paper, the authors provide a brief review of some applications of AI and ML in radiation therapy and discuss pertinent considerations for radiation therapy curriculum enhancement. As the current literature suggests, AI and ML approaches will impose changes to routine clinical radiation therapy tasks. The emphasis in RT education could be on critical evaluation of AI and ML application in routine clinical workflows and gaining an understanding of the impact on quality assurance, provision of quality of care and safety in radiation therapy as well as research. It is also imperative RTs have a broader understanding of AI/ML impact on health care, including ethical and legal considerations. The paper concludes with recommendations and suggestions to deliberately embed AI and ML aspects in RT education to empower future RT practitioners.

BACKGROUND: Prolonged Exposure (PE), a trauma-focused therapy, is one of the most efficacious treatments available for PTSD. However, many people with PTSD do not lose their diagnosis following delivery of PE. The Unified Protocol (UP) for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders is a non-trauma focused treatment that may offer an alternative treatment for PTSD. METHODS: This paper describes the study protocol for IMPACT, an assessor-blinded randomized controlled trial that examines the non-inferiority of UP relative to PE for participants who meet DSM-5 criteria for current PTSD. One hundred and twenty adult participants with PTSD will be randomized to receive either 10 × 90-min sessions of UP or PE with a trained provider. The primary outcome is severity of PTSD symptoms assessed by the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-5 (CAPS-5) at post-treatment. DISCUSSION: While evidence-based treatments are available for PTSD, high levels of treatment dropout and non-response require new approaches to be tested. The UP is based on emotion regulation theory and is effective in treating anxiety and depressive disorders, however, there has been limited application to PTSD. This is the first rigorous study comparing UP to PE in a non-inferiority randomized controlled trial and may help improve clinical outcomes for those with PTSD. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This trial was prospectively registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, Trial ID (ACTRN12619000543189).

Making space and place for innovation and knowledge-intensive activities has been an important task for urban administrators in order to foster, attract and retain talent and investment in the age of global knowledge economy. The paper sets out to derive the efficient approaches for practical integration of place making as a multidimensional strategy for the successful and sustainable generation and dissemination of knowledge in contemporary knowledge and innovation spaces. This research embraces a multidimensional conceptual framework to carry out the investigation in three case studies from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane (Australia). As the methodological approach an interview-based qualitative analysis method, by involving a range of key stakeholders, is adopted. The study finds that, considering the challenges these locations are exposed to, the role of place making extends from merely physical aspects to holistic economic, social, cultural, spatial and organisational outcomes. This paper makes a contribution to the literature by generating insights from the Australian knowledge and innovation space context with the application of an innovative multifaceted approach for fruitful place making.

This paper investigates the problem of stability and stabilization of a class of chaotic system through the use of sampled-data control. By employing a Takagi–Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model to describe the chaotic system and using a time-dependent Lyapunov function, an exponential stability condition is derived for the resulting closed-loop systems with input saturation constraint. Based on this condition, a fuzzy sampled-data controller is designed to stabilize the systems under consideration. The results obtained in this paper are based on the actual characteristic of sampling model. They depend explicitly on both the upper and lower bounds of sampling intervals. The chaotic Lorenz system is considered and solved by using the proposed approach so as to demonstrate the benefits and the superiority of the proposed approach over existing methods.

© 2017 Australian College of Critical Care Nurses Ltd. Background: The risk of fluid overload and mortality is increased in patients with severe acute kidney injury. Charting of daily fluid balance is a key component of fluid assessment but not without problems affecting accuracy. The introduction of electronic bed scales has made routine patient-weighing easier and focused attention on monitoring fluid-related weight changes. Objectives: This paper investigated the frequency of compliance in weighing patients daily using electronic bed scales and evaluated the relationship between calculated fluid balance and body weight changes in patients receiving continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT). Methods: A prospective cohort interventional observation study was conducted in a tertiary ICU between June 2015 and February 2016. All patients who required CRRT, > 18 years with an admission > 24 hours were enrolled. Each patient was able to be weighed daily using electronic bed scales. At the same time daily fluid balances were calculated using paper-based charting. Trends in compliance of recording body weight changes with daily charting of fluid balances was observed until patient no longer required CRRT. Daily differences were compared using Pearson correlation and Bland-Altman analysis. Results: A total of 61 patients were recruited. Four hundred and three days of CRRT was recorded with 286 days (71%) accompanied by a measured body weight. One hundred and eighty-one paired comparisons between body weight change and corresponding fluid balance was obtained from 39 patients (64%). Correlation between changes in body weight with fluid balance was weak (r = 0.34, p. < . .0001). On Bland-Altman analysis mean bias was 0.18. kg (95% CI -ve8.9 to +ve8.6. kg). Conclusion: Change in body weight offers an alternative to charting inputs and outputs in monitoring fluid balance. A physical representation of fluid status is provided rather than a calculated value. Lack of c

In this paper the Rao score and likelihood ratio tests for hypothesis related to exchangeable structure of multivariate data covariance matrix are studied. Under the assumption of large-dimensionality the normal approximation of the Rao score test statistics distribution is proven as well as the exact and approximate distributions of the likelihood ratio test are derived. Simulation studies show the advantage of the Rao score test over the likelihood ratio test in both studied contexts: type I error and power. Moreover, the Rao score test is available in the case of high-dimensionality, and it is shown that the normal approximation matches well its distribution in this case. Thus, this latter approximation could be recommended for practical use., Funding Agencies|Slovak Research and Development Agency [APVV-17-0568]

This paper investigates whether design research in e-government should be conducted in some special way compared with standard models for design research. It reviews literature in e-government and design research in order to generate an answer to this research question. The result of this review affirms that the policy character of e-government should determine the way that such design research is conducted. A tentative e-government design research model, consisting of different activities is formulated. This model consists of the following activities: theorizing, policy analysis, workpractice analysis, co-design and co-evaluation of IT artifact and workpractice. Three specific e-government design research principles are formulated: The policy principle, the co-design principle and the theorizing principle. One important result from this paper is the formulation of the concept of the policy-ingrained artifact as an important empirical outcome from e-government design research. A design research case study on social welfare allowances has been used for the generation as well as the validation of the proposed e-government design research model., Funding Agencies|Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems (VINNOVA)

This paper proposes a novel approach for testing dynamics and control aspects of a large scale photovoltaic (PV) system in real time along with resolving design hindrances of controller parameters using Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS). In general, the harmonic profile of a fast controller has wide distribution due to the large bandwidth of the controller. The major contribution of this paper is that the proposed control strategy gives an improved voltage harmonic profile and distribute it more around the switching frequency along with fast transient response; filter design, thus, becomes easier. The implementation of a control strategy with high bandwidth in small time steps of Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS) is not straight forward. This paper shows a good methodology for the practitioners to implement such control scheme in RTDS. As a part of the industrial process, the controller parameters are optimized using particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique to improve the low voltage ride through (LVRT) performance under network disturbance. The response surface methodology (RSM) is well adapted to build analytical models for recovery time (Rt), maximum percentage overshoot (MPOS), settling time (Ts), and steady state error (Ess) of the voltage profile immediate after inverter under disturbance. A systematic approach of controller parameter optimization is detailed. The transient performance of the PSO based optimization method applied to the proposed sliding mode controlled PV inverter is compared with the results from genetic algorithm (GA) based optimization technique. The reported real time implementation challenges and controller optimization procedure are applicable to other control applications in the field of renewable and distributed generation systems.

As a recommender system, Metacritic (metacritic.com) quantifies and aggregates reviews of entertainment products. The metascore published by Metacritic is controversial in its process for gathering, translating, and aggregating reviews. This study aims to assess the quality of Metacritic’s scoring of movie critics’ reviews. By using a mixed methods approach integrating content analysis and multilevel analysis, we found that the movie review scores assigned by Metacritic reflecting the reviews’ semantic contents, being unbiased across the critics, and differentiating the movies reviewed. The paper provides, also, both theoretical implications, referred to an original framing of professional reviews in the service science, service systems and service quality; and practical implications related to the potential customers and for the entertainment industry.

Introduction: There is little systematized research on the postsex phase of the sexual cycle, due in part to the absence of literature on the period immediately following sexual activity. Aim: The paper describes the development and validation of the Postsex Experience Scale (P-SES), an instrument designed to measure the psychological dimensions of the postsex period of the human sexual response cycle. Methods: Scale development involved (a) item construction, selection, and subsequent validation through item analysis, and (b) a factor analysis of the item intercorrelations of the P-SES and the establishment of its factorial validity, based upon an online survey of 4,217 respondents. Results: In the exploratory factor analysis of the psychometric structure of the scale, structures for males and females differed. 3 factors emerged, which captured the male postsex experience. These factors were labeled Sense of Sexual Alienation, Positive Connection with Self, and Feeling Connected with Partner. 4 factors best captured the female postsex experience and were labeled Self-Loathing, Positive Connection with Self, Sense of Being Emotionally Overwhelmed, and Feeling Connected with Partner. Clinical Implications: There is strong evidence for acknowledging a wide variation in postsex experience in both men and women across sexual orientations. Strengths & Limitations: Strengths include a large heterogeneous sample leading to the provision of a metric to investigate novel aspects of human sexuality. Limitations include the potential underreporting of experiences due to the structure of the scale and its reference to “general experiences” and presentation bias. Conclusions: The P-SES provides a framework for assessing the postsex experience in women and men, providing opportunities to gain a better understanding of the variations in postsex experience. RD Schweitzer, G du Plessis, J Maczkowiack, et al. Development and Validation of the Post Sex Experience (P-SES) Scale.

Digitization is arguably currently the single most important force in entrepreneurship and innovation. In this special issue editorial, we shed light on the current state of digital entrepreneurship and digital innovation research to take stock of past research and identify opportunities for the future. The 11 papers in this special issue present a decisive step in extending the current research by either exploring the context of digital entrepreneurship and digital innovation, by operationalizing digital technologies as moderators or mediators, or by modeling the particularities of the role of digital technologies as independent or dependent variables. This editorial suggests paths for future research and specifically calls for more joint consideration of digital entrepreneurship and digital innovation along with specific theory building and testing that incorporates the specificities of digitization. An important aspect in that process is extending the understanding of the dark side of digitization.

Communication is a key determining factor of success in crowdfunding environments. In this paper, we examine the link between language used by founders and the contribution behavior of funders. Particularly, we investigate how verbal cues – money saliency and sustainability intention – in the communication text can affect the size of the contributing crowd and amount raised in the context of Kickstarter. Given the nature of crowdfunding environments (intrinsically motivated stakeholders) and Kickstarter's rewards-based structure, we hypothesize that there is a potential crowding-out effect in which an increased level of money saliency leads to decreased funding contributions and engagement. However, this effect should be weaker among projects that have non-selfish aims or intentions. Our analysis on close to 80,000 Kickstarter campaigns confirms that there is indeed a price to pay for using monetary-related terms in project descriptions but not among projects identified as sustainability oriented.

Anterior drooling is common in children with cerebral palsy (CP) and poses significant risks to the child's health. Causes of drooling include oro-motor dysfunction, inefficient swallowing and reduced sensation in the orofacial musculature. Behavioural interventions are frequently recommended to reduce drooling; however, this is in the absence of high-quality research evidence. This paper describes a protocol for evaluating the effectiveness of the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment LOUD (LSVT LOUD®) in reducing drooling; and optimising speech and swallowing in a group of children with CP. A structured and systematic visual analysis supplemented with statistical analyses will be used to analyse the data. The risk of bias in n-of-1 trials (RoBiNT) Scale [1] guided the design and implementation of the study.

This paper reviews and discusses e-government (e-gov) issues in general, its global perspective, and then reports the findings of a survey concerning impact of gender and education amongst the e-gov users in Turkey. Although the impact of gender and education in the use of e-gov has long been attracting interests of academics, no quantitative research has ever been realized in this field in the country. The survey was conducted among e-gov users with different gender and level of education from different sectors such as ordinary citizens, government, and private sectors. According to the comparative analysis the use of e-gov content and services is pervasive and is closely linked to gender and level of education. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

This paper reviews and discusses e-government (e-gov) issues in general, its global perspective, and then reports the findings of a survey concerning impact of gender and education amongst the e-gov users in Turkey. Although the impact of gender and education in the use of e-gov has long been attracting interests of academics, no quantitative research has ever been realized in this field in the country. The survey was conducted among e-gov users with different gender and level of education from different sectors such as ordinary citizens, government, and private sectors. According to the comparative analysis the use of e-gov content and services is pervasive and is closely linked to gender and level of education. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

This paper addresses the application of nature inspired methods to the optimization of resin cure in thick or thin composite laminates. The methodology presented in this work consists in the coupling of artificial neural network with optimization algorithms, focusing on the thermal cycle evaluation that further the progress of the degree of cure (DoC) within the material. Simultaneously, inhibition of temperature overshooting and excessive through-thickness gradient of temperature and cure degree is provided. Genetic algorithms and fuzzy logic controller were applied to identify the optimal processing parameters. In the former strategy, the optimization algorithms iteratively refine the thermal cycle, whose fitness score is provided by the neural model. In the latter, the neural network delivers a precise prediction regarding composite material behavior over the course of resin cure, while the fuzzy logic controller continuously applies the correct alterations to the thermal cycle. In both cases, a significant reduction of the thermal cycle, with respect to the recommended one, is demonstrated.