Absence Of Alignment Research Articles

Adaptive content suppression based on shared‐hidden‐layer convolutional autoencoder for blind image forensics

SummaryDouble JPEG (DJPEG) compression detection is one of the crucial issues in detecting the presence of image forgery or tampering in blind image forensics. To address this challenge, this article investigates DJPEG compression detection in aligned and nonaligned tampering cases using adaptive image content removal based on a shared‐hidden‐layer convolutional autoencoder for preprocessing. Then the suppressed content images are classified with two convolutional neural networks (CNNs) in a parallel structure. These two networks are responsible for separating the small 64 × 64 single JPEG compression images from the DJPEG ones. The results indicate appropriate performance in the aligned and especially nonaligned cases. The detection possibility in the absence of alignment was investigated and favorable results were achieved. Since it is not possible to determine the exact values of the quality factor (QF) for optimal detection in some cases, we examined the network sensitivity to these QFs. The experimental results were satisfactory, especially in the aligned case. Comparing state‐of‐the‐art methods, we achieved a relative error reduction of about 69% in some cases. In addition, we determined the manipulated locations with high accuracy.

Current practice trends in the surgical management of patellofemoral instability: a survey of the Paediatric Research in Sports Medicine (PRiSM) Society.

PurposePatellofemoral instability (PFI) in young athletes presents both diagnostic and management dilemmas for which consensus often does not exist. The purpose of this study was to identify trends in management of PFI in children and adolescents in the United States and nationwide.MethodsA 27-question multiple choice survey was distributed in 2018 to the members of the Pediatric Research in Sports Medicine (PRiSM) Society regarding treatment of PFI in paediatric and adolescent patients.ResultsIn all, 56 of the respondents who were orthopaedic surgeons that manage patellar instability in children and adolescents and had performed PFI surgery more than five times in the past year completed the entire survey. A total of 41% of respondents reported that surgery for fragment refixation or loose body removal was indicated when a loose body or osteochondral fragment was evident, regardless of fragment size. Overall, 74% reported that if surgery was performed for an osteochondral loose body, primary repair (36%) or reconstruction (38%) of medial patellofemoral ligament (MPFL) was also completed. A total of 89% of members reported MPFL reconstruction in the absence of alignment or rotational abnormalities, tibial tubercle lateralization or trochlear dysplasia in skeletally immature patients; 59% reported performing the MPFL reconstruction with hamstring allograft, while 30% prefer autograft (hamstring, quadriceps). For patients with significant trochlear dysplasia, 87% reported no surgical management of trochlea in first-time or in revision surgery.ConclusionThere is a lack of consensus regarding optimal diagnostic and treatment algorithms in the management of PFI, however, consistent trends have emerged among paediatric sports medicine surgeons.Level of EvidenceLevel V – survey of expert opinion and experience

Antecedents Factors Affecting Alignment and Its Impact to Organizational Performance in Universities

Business and Information Technology (IT) alignment involves applying IT in an appropriate and timely way, in harmony with business strategies, goals and needs. Prior research argues that achieving alignment contributes immensely to ensuring that IT investments improve organisational performance. One important issue in business–IT alignment study is the absence of alignment. Findings indicate that there are many factors/variables that consistently enhance business-IT alignment. By identifying factors to achieve business-IT alignment, the problem on the absence of alignment could be addressed. Due to the complexity of business-IT alignment, there is possibility that successful alignment focuses on managing specific alignment dimension by investigating factors that encourage particular dimension. Past studies have shown the relationship between business-IT alignment and organizational performance. However, only few researchers tried to relate between the factors with organizational performance. Literature on alignment discovered that there seems to be confusion in clarifying the business-IT alignment concept. Based on this gap, this paper examines problem and issues on alignment, identify, analyze and discuss factors affecting alignment, then categorize the constructs identified into dimensions and propose a model for alignment in universities. The study contributes to the formation of a theoretical model influencing alignment dimension that has impact on organizational performance. The model is important to provide empirical evidence that confirms the importance of categorizing factors into dimensions in achieving business-IT alignment and their influence on universities’ performance.

The Influence of Employee Demotivation and Employee Motivation on Employee Performance: Case Study of Farven

Farven is a local startup fashion brand established in 2019 that provides eco-friendly fashion. Looking at the problem in terms of helicopter view, the problem that was first exposed can be seen from the decrease in the effectiveness of the company, then the company's OKR that was not achieved, the progress KPI only reached 20%, the jobdesk provided was not implemented, and the monthly target was not achieved. After performing a 5-way method to find the core of the problem, researchers found the core problem was due to the demotivation of employees that affected the performance of workers. Workers as an essential to give their efforts in every action to achieve goals in the organization. Workers need triggers to do things well and produce good performance, one of the driving factors is good motivation. Good motivation will result in high performance, low turnover, loyalty, alignment, which contributes significantly to the growth and development of the company. Conversely, if the driving factor is bad motivation or commonly called demotivation, it will result in low performance, high turnover, low loyalty, absence of alignment, nor does it contribute significantly to the growth and development of the company. Moreover, currently the country of Indonesia is a developing country that has great potential to compete in the field of development, one of the developments for human resources that have good quality, which will affect the results of work and company. Farven as a startup that has workers want to also contribute in developing good resources by maintaining good quality workers, but Farven has some challenges one of which is the problem of worker demotivation that has been felt by all Farven workers. In this study, researchers aimed to know the dimensions of worker demotivation and worker motivation that affect worker performance and wanted to know the indicators of the dimensions that most influence the demotivation of workers and also the motivation of workers. Researchers used a semi-structure interview in the interview process to three Farven workers. The order of questions may also vary depending on the conversation flow. On the other hand, additional questions, and objectives with the nature of certain events in a particular organization. Informant will be selected through nonprobability sampling i.e. purposive sampling or specifically using judgement sampling. The interview will primarily explore the dimensions of employee motivation and employee motivation according to the participant's experience as a Farven employee. This study used thematic coding to analyze qualitative data.

PSS Strategic Alignment: Linking Service Transition Strategy with PSS Business Model

One of the most promising business models towards economic circularity is product-service system (PSS). Despite its great potential benefits, shifting the traditional business model of a manufacturer into PSS business model commonly refers to service transition and triggers inconsistencies between strategic direction and organization arrangement at an operational level. The absence of alignment between the service transition strategy and the PSS business model is greatly emphasized as a crucial enabler, risk factor and key success factor of the service transition. However, limited academic works have concretely contributed to the strategic alignment. Through a systematic literature review, this paper proposes a PSS business alignment that enables the manufacturer to identify the strategic objective of its service transition strategy and align it with PSS business model. The theoretical version of the proposed framework is redefined and redeveloped through two cycles of action research involving 11 Japanese companies.

Performance management in university hospitals: an empirical analysis in a Brazilian institution

This study analyzed how performance management takes place in a teaching hospital located in the south of Brazil. A case study comprising several data collection techniques – including interviews, document research, and participant observation – was conducted with the aim of understanding the processes involved in performance management in the institution, and the meanings attributed to the phenomenon.Findings indicate the absence of alignment between strategy, performance management and decision-making, as well as inadequacies of the artifact and the reward system. These results have motivated reflections on the alignment between the institution’s strategic plan, its performance management system, and the relationship between decision-making and strategy. The study may provide important information to similar institutions regarding the implementation of performance management systems, and the elaboration of propositions by accounting researchers.

The politics of coaching assistant principals: exploring principal control

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how school principals influenced or controlled leadership coaches working with assistant principals in urban secondary schools. Design/methodology/approach – This longitudinal qualitative case study drew upon semi-structured interviews and program documents obtained from participants in a university-based leadership coaching program across three academic years. The study included 22 total participants, including ten assistant principals, nine leadership coaches, and three program staff. Findings – A thematic analysis of the data produced three themes. First, principals controlled coaches’ work with assistant principals both directly and indirectly. Second, the extent of principal control influenced how coaches developed a confidential relationship with the assistant principals and what strategies they used to preserve the confidential nature of the coaching relationship. Third, the focus of the coaching support evolved in response to the assignment of responsibilities and duties to the assistant principals, which were largely outside the assistant principal and leadership coach’s control. The absence of alignment between coaching priorities and leadership responsibilities frustrated coaches. Originality/value – The findings from this study make two significant empirical contributions to the literature. First, the study provides critical new insights about the extent to which politics generated by principals and administrative teams may influence the work of leadership coaches. Second, the study contributes to the sparse literature about leadership coaching for assistant principals, particularly those working in secondary school settings in the USA.

Holes and channels between the ventricles revisited.

Although holes, or channels, between the ventricles are the commonest congenital cardiac malformations, there is still no consensus as to how they can best be described and categorised. So as to assess whether it is possible to produce a potentially universally acceptable system, we have analysed the hearts categorised as having ventricular septal defects in a large archive held at Birmingham Children's Hospital. Materials and methods We analysed all the hearts categorised as having isolated ventricular septal defects, or those associated with aortic coarctation or interruption in the setting of concordant ventriculo-arterial connections, in the archive of autopsied hearts held at Birmingham Children's Hospital, United Kingdom. We found 147 hearts within the archive fulfilling our criterions for inclusion. All could be classified within one of three groups depending on their borders as seen from the right ventricle. To provide full description, however, it was also necessary to take account of the way the defects opened to the right ventricle, and the presence or absence of alignment between the septal components. By combining information on the phenotypic specificity defined on the basis of their borders, the direction of opening into the right ventricle, and the presence or absence of septal malalignment, it proved possible to categorise all hearts examined within the archive of Birmingham Children's Hospital. Our findings have necessitated creation of new numbers within the European Paediatric Cardiac Code.

A agenda ambiental pública: barreiras para a articulação entre critérios de sustentabilidade e as novas diretrizes da administração pública federal brasileira

A pesquisa tem como objetivo analisar a Instrução Normativa N01/2010 e suas implicações práticas, como novo instrumento de política pública o qual determina condições para viabilizar a agenda ambiental da gestão pública emanadas do Ministério de Orçamento, Planejamento e Gestão. Esta dispõe sobre os critérios de sustentabilidade ambiental na aquisição de bens, contratação de serviços ou obras pela administração pública federal. Assim supõe-se que haja uma necessidade de apreensão de novas formas de diálogo entre o público e o privado, o Estado e a sociedade face às mudanças institucionais postas à atual gestão pública e implícita na norma. Entretanto apresenta-se como problema de pesquisa o seguinte questionamento: quais fatores estariam causando o não alinhamento dos critérios de sustentabilidade ambiental exigidos à administração pública federal diante da situação em que se encontram as organizações parceiras contratadas, de modo a promover tal sustentabilidade? Realizou-se um estudo qualitativo, de natureza exploratória, abarcando pesquisa bibliográfica, documental e de campo. Esta última envolvendo gestores públicos federais que atuam em processos de licitação, em elaboração de projetos de obras e de fiscalização da construção das novas edificações públicas. Os resultados da pesquisa confirmam a suposição do estudo e apresentam as principais barreiras para a efetividade da norma sinalizando que sem uma maior articulação dos órgãos ambientais às novas diretrizes da administração pública federal e com claras responsabilizações quanto à norma em foco, estará comprometido o designo ambiental a que se propõe a nova legislação.

A Model for Business-IT Alignment in Malaysian Public Universities

Business-IT alignment is defined as a stage where the mission, objective, and planning within business strategy is shared and supported by IT strategy. This definition is extended to cover the situation where business executive and IT executive comprehended and committed towards achieving the mission, objective, and plan for both business and IT. One important issue in business–IT alignment study is the absence of alignment. By identifying factors to achieve business-IT alignment, the problem on the absence of alignment could be addressed. Due to the complexity of business-IT alignment, there is possibility that successful alignment focuses on managing specific alignment dimension by investigating factors that encourage particular dimension. Past studies have shown the relationship between business-IT alignment and organisation performance. However, only few researchers tried to relate between the factors with organisational performance. Therefore, the aim of this research is to contribute to the formation of a theoretical model influencing alignment dimension that has impact on organisational performance. The model is important to provide empirical evidence that confirms the importance of categorizing factors into dimensions in achieving business-IT alignment and their influence on universities’ performance.

A framework for engaging diverse communities in citizen science in the US

Citizen science is a powerful tool for connecting people to science, but in the US, such initiatives have not connected as well to groups that have been historically underrepresented in science. Research suggests that while several factors contribute to this lack of diverse participation in citizen science, the critical hurdle may be an absence of alignment between community priorities and research objectives. Here, I discuss a participatory framework for designing citizen‐science programs that align with community priorities.

Going underground? learning and assessment in an ambiguous Space1

This article offers three interrelated arguments for the adoption of a cultural approach to the study of learning. It then presents some early analyses of data from a case study of one learning site, concerned with the assessment of learning in the workplace. These analyses show how the shape of the learning site – for example, the nature of learning, the extent of opportunities for learning – is partly a product of the playing out of tutor disposition in relation to a field. Specifically, it is suggested that the absence of alignment between tutor disposition and the field within which her practices are located has resulted in ‘underground learning’, beyond the gaze of college processes. At the same time, all parties are dependent upon the success that is the end result of this underground learning. This scenario, in turn, presents difficulties for any conventional notion of ‘improvement’, and the discussion illustrates the power and the utility of a cultural approach for a deeper understanding of learning, with implications for both practice and policy.

Review of Microstructural Evidence of Magmatic and Solid-State Flow

Evidence of magmatic flow includes: (a) parallel to sub-parallel alignment of elongate euhedral crystals (e.g., of feldspar or hornblende) that are not internally deformed, (b) imbrication (‘tiling’) of elongate euhedral crystals that are not internally deformed, (c) insufficient solid-state strain in regions between aligned or imbricated crystals to accommodate phenocryst rotation, (d) elongation of microgranitoid enclaves without plastic deformation of the minerals, (e) magmatic flow foliations and elongate microgranitoid enclaves deflected around xenoliths, and (f) schlieren layering (if due to flow sorting) in the absence of plastic deformation of the minerals involved. These features are consistent with rotation of crystals in a much weaker medium, namely a melt phase, at a stage when the magma has become viscous enough to preserve the alignment. Evidence of solid-state flow includes: (a) internal deformation and recrystallization of grains, (b) recrystallized “tails,” (c) elongation of recrystallized aggregates (e.g. of quartz and mica), (d) grainsize reduction, (e) fine-grained folia anastomosing around less deformed relics, (f) microcline twinning, (g) myrmekite, (h) flame perthite, (i) boudinage of strong minerals, typically with recrystallized aggregates of weaker minerals (e.g. quartz and mica) between the boudins, (j) foliation passing through, rather than around enclaves, and (k) heterogeneous strain with local mylonitic zones. Several criteria suggest “submagmatic flow,” including recrystallized feldspar, inferred transitions from magmatic imbrication to solid-state S/C arrangements, evidence of c-slip in quartz, and especially evidence of migration of residual melt into lower-pressure sites. Recent experimental studies indicate that a change from grain-supported flow to suspension flow typically occurs in deforming magmas at melt contents of between 20% to 40%, and that large amounts of strain may accumulate in magmas without being recorded by the final fabric. At lower melt percentages, perhaps as low as a few percent, depending on the minerals and their shapes, strain may be accommodated by: (a) melt-assisted grain-boundary sliding, (b) contact-melting assisted grain-boundary migration, (c) strain partitioning into melt-rich zones, (d) intracrystalline plastic deformation (c-slip in quartz indicating plastic deformation at temperatures near the granite solidus), and (f) transfer of melt to sites of low mean stress. The only indication of strain in the absence of crystal plasticity may be an alignment of crystals. Moreover, magmatic flow microstructures may be destroyed by fracturing, crystal plasticity and recrystallization before the magma reaches its solidus. Many rocks show evidence of solid-state flow superimposed on magmatic flow. Evidence of magmatic flow is commonly preserved in deformed felsic metamorphic rocks: for example the alignment of rectangular K-feldspar megacrysts and of microgranitoid enclaves. However, absence of alignment does not preclude a magmatic origin for K-feldspar megacrysts in felsic gneisses, as magmatic flow may cease before the magma becomes viscous enough to preserve an alignment.

The 1972 Biological Weapons Convention: A view from the South

Before addressing the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) itself, we should point out that any view of the treaty from a Southern perspective can be only partial, that is, one perspective among many possible others. Developing and non-aligned countries may have different — and equally legitimate — interests and expectations regarding a particular international instrument. In fact, this diversity is itself one of the defining characteristics of the “South”, a term we use to categorize developing States whose main point in common is the absence of alignment with any great power and, indeed, with each other.

Polarized light interferometer for laser fusion studies

A polarized light interferometer, suitable for the high-speed photography of microscopic objects in laser fusion experiments, is described. Based on a Wollaston prism as beam splitter, its main advantages are its relative simplicity, the absence of alignment and stability problems, and the extended spectral range down to 0.18 mum wavelength. The interferometer has been successfully applied in CO(2) and neodymium laser plasma interaction studies with laser illumination at 0.694 mum (ruby laser) and 0.265 mum (4th harmonic of the Nd(3+) laser) wavelength.