Global Network Organization Research Articles

Ubiquitous IT: The case of the Boeing 787 and implications for strategic IT research

Case-based research was conducted on strategy and IT evolution in the Boeing Company. Results showed IT investment in the 20th century supported an increasingly decentralized hierarchical functional corporate organization structure, and shifted during the early decades of the 21st century toward an IT-enabled global network organization structure. IT investment context changed from an inward focus to an outward, IT-ecosystem focus. IT had penetrated every facet of the corporation creating IT ubiquity. But while IT was everywhere, IT strategic leadership remained fragmented and nowhere. Further research is required to define strategic IT leadership and its locus in the modern corporation.

Synthesis and in Vitro Evaluation of a Biotinylated Dextran-Derived Probe for Molecular Imaging

Herein we report the design, synthesis, and in vitro evaluation of a gadolinium-containing biotinylated dextran-derived molecular imaging probe as a prospective neuroanatomical tracer by means of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The probe was effectively taken up by cultured differentiated murine neuroblastoma cells and significantly enhanced the contrast in T(1)- and T(2)-weighted MR images of labeled cells under physiological conditions. A significant longitudinal relaxation rate enhancement in the presence of avidin was observed allowing the verification of the results in the end of noninvasive longitudinal MRI connectivity studies by post-mortem histology. The in vitro results indicate that the probe has the potential to be used in vivo to identify the organization of global neuronal networks in the brain with MRI.

Functional brain networks before the onset of psychosis: A prospective fMRI study with graph theoretical analysis

Individuals with an at-risk mental state (ARMS) have a risk of developing a psychotic disorder significantly greater than the general population. However, it is not currently possible to predict which ARMS individuals will develop psychosis from clinical assessment alone. Comparison of ARMS subjects who do, and do not, develop psychosis can reveal which factors are critical for the onset of illness. In the present study, 37 patients with an ARMS were followed clinically at least 24 months subsequent to initial referral. Functional MRI data were collected at the beginning of the follow-up period during performance of an executive task known to recruit frontal lobe networks and to be impaired in psychosis. Graph theoretical analysis was used to compare the organization of a functional brain network in ARMS patients who developed a psychotic disorder following the scan (ARMS-T) to those who did not become ill during the same follow-up period (ARMS-NT) and aged-matched controls. The global properties of each group's representative network were studied (density, efficiency, global average path length) as well as regionally-specific contributions of network nodes to the organization of the system (degree, farness-centrality, betweenness-centrality). We focused our analysis on the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a region known to support executive function that is structurally and functionally impaired in ARMS patients. In the absence of between-group differences in global network organization, we report a significant reduction in the topological centrality of the ACC in the ARMS-T group relative to both ARMS-NT and controls. These results provide evidence that abnormalities in the functional organization of the brain predate the onset of psychosis, and suggest that loss of ACC topological centrality is a potential biomarker for transition to psychosis.

General and Specific Functional Connectivity Disturbances in First-Episode Schizophrenia During Cognitive Control Performance

Cognitive control impairments in schizophrenia are thought to arise from dysfunction of interconnected networks of brain regions, but interrogating the functional dynamics of large-scale brain networks during cognitive task performance has proved difficult. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to generate event-related whole-brain functional connectivity networks in participants with first-episode schizophrenia and healthy control subjects performing a cognitive control task. Functional connectivity during cognitive control performance was assessed between each pair of 78 brain regions in 23 patients and 25 control subjects. Network properties examined were region-wise connectivity, edge-wise connectivity, global path length, clustering, small-worldness, global efficiency, and local efficiency. Patients showed widespread functional connectivity deficits in a large-scale network of brain regions, which primarily affected connectivity between frontal cortex and posterior regions and occurred irrespective of task context. A more circumscribed and task-specific connectivity impairment in frontoparietal systems related to cognitive control was also apparent. Global properties of network topology in patients were relatively intact. The first episode of schizophrenia is associated with a generalized connectivity impairment affecting most brain regions but that is particularly pronounced for frontal cortex. Superimposed on this generalized deficit, patients show more specific cognitive-control-related functional connectivity reductions in frontoparietal regions. These connectivity deficits occur in the context of relatively preserved global network organization.

Mild traumatic brain injury: Graph-model characterization of brain networks for episodic memory

Episodic memory is among the cognitive functions that can be affected in the acute phase following mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI). The present study used EEG recordings to evaluate global synchronization and network organization of rhythmic activity during the encoding and recognition phases of an episodic memory task varying in stimulus type (kaleidoscope images, pictures, words, and pseudowords). Synchronization of oscillatory activity was assessed using a linear and nonlinear connectivity estimator and network analyses were performed using algorithms derived from graph theory. Twenty five MTBI patients (tested within days post-injury) and healthy volunteers were closely matched on demographic variables, verbal ability, psychological status variables, as well as on overall task performance. Patients demonstrated sub-optimal network organization, as reflected by changes in graph parameters in the theta and alpha bands during both encoding and recognition. There were no group differences in spectral energy during task performance or on network parameters during a control condition (rest). Evidence of less optimally organized functional networks during memory tasks was more prominent for pictorial than for verbal stimuli.

International commission on irrigation and drainage (ICID): its objectives, achievements and plans

AbstractThe International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID), a global network organization with 106 member countries in its fold, is dedicated to the promotion of best practices in water for agriculture, and addresses water supply and management for food production, including drainage and flood control. While striving to improve water and land management, and enhancing the world supply of food and fibre, ICID takes on board environmental concerns and seeks sustainable solutions. In its efforts to contribute positively to achieving the primary goal of halving the number affected by hunger, as set forth in the Millennium Development Goals, ICID aims to improve quality of life and reduce poverty in developing countries.ICID's efforts in stimulating and promoting the development of the art, science and techniques of engineering, agriculture, economics, ecology and social sciences for better land and water management are achieved through specialized internationally composed work groups. These work bodies attempt to produce updates that are focused not only on the scientific and technological aspects, but also emerging trends in management and sustainable solutions of water management for agriculture.ICID played a crucial role, together with other leading international organizations, to develop a joint vision on water for future generations. This included leading in the formation of the World Water Council.In the paper, an attempt has been made to highlight some of the recent achievements and other roles that ICID has played in the global water arena. ICID's strong country network enables best practices to be implemented at the local level. Thanks to the inherent strength of its broad‐based National Committees, ICID's efforts and activities trickle down to irrigators, food producers and water user groups. The National Committees are also a source of identification of unique problems and challenges in the field, which require the concerted attention of the global body of expertise residing in ICID. The immediate challenges facing ICID are responses to the current global food crisis and the impacts of the global financial crisis on water and food security in a global context. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A framework for modeling the growth and development of neurons and networks.

The development of neural tissue is a complex organizing process, in which it is difficult to grasp how the various localized interactions between dividing cells leads relentlessly to global network organization. Simulation is a useful tool for exploring such complex processes because it permits rigorous analysis of observed global behavior in terms of the mechanistic axioms declared in the simulated model. We describe a novel simulation tool, CX3D, for modeling the development of large realistic neural networks such as the neocortex, in a physical 3D space. In CX3D, as in biology, neurons arise by the replication and migration of precursors, which mature into cells able to extend axons and dendrites. Individual neurons are discretized into spherical (for the soma) and cylindrical (for neurites) elements that have appropriate mechanical properties. The growth functions of each neuron are encapsulated in set of pre-defined modules that are automatically distributed across its segments during growth. The extracellular space is also discretized, and allows for the diffusion of extracellular signaling molecules, as well as the physical interactions of the many developing neurons. We demonstrate the utility of CX3D by simulating three interesting developmental processes: neocortical lamination based on mechanical properties of tissues; a growth model of a neocortical pyramidal cell based on layer-specific guidance cues; and the formation of a neural network in vitro by employing neurite fasciculation. We also provide some examples in which previous models from the literature are re-implemented in CX3D. Our results suggest that CX3D is a powerful tool for understanding neural development.

Global production networks, ethical campaigning, and the embeddedness of responsible governance

This article presents a theoretically informed consideration of the role of ethical campaigning in shaping organizational practices of power and authority in global production networks (GPNs). It does so through a focus on responsibility, and the ways in which ethical consumption is challenging the organization of global networks of supply. The arguments draw upon and develop two geographical approaches to understanding transnational trade, namely the GPN framework and the study of commodity knowledge. First, understandings of ethical consumption and circuitous commodity knowledge are mobilized to capture the practices of knowledge translation through which ethics are woven into particular forms of supply network coordination. Second, through a comparative case study of UK and US corporate retailers’ ethical trading programmes, notions of embeddedness advanced by the GPN framework are used and further developed to illuminate how the mobilization of ethics into different forms of network coordination involves organizational processes influenced by spaces of retail and consumption. It is argued from this that the influences of retail and consumption should be more fully incorporated into analytical frameworks for understanding GPNs.

Predicting the connectivity of primate cortical networks from topological and spatial node properties

BackgroundThe organization of the connectivity between mammalian cortical areas has become a major subject of study, because of its important role in scaffolding the macroscopic aspects of animal behavior and intelligence. In this study we present a computational reconstruction approach to the problem of network organization, by considering the topological and spatial features of each area in the primate cerebral cortex as subsidy for the reconstruction of the global cortical network connectivity. Starting with all areas being disconnected, pairs of areas with similar sets of features are linked together, in an attempt to recover the original network structure.ResultsInferring primate cortical connectivity from the properties of the nodes, remarkably good reconstructions of the global network organization could be obtained, with the topological features allowing slightly superior accuracy to the spatial ones. Analogous reconstruction attempts for the C. elegans neuronal network resulted in substantially poorer recovery, indicating that cortical area interconnections are relatively stronger related to the considered topological and spatial properties than neuronal projections in the nematode.ConclusionThe close relationship between area-based features and global connectivity may hint on developmental rules and constraints for cortical networks. Particularly, differences between the predictions from topological and spatial properties, together with the poorer recovery resulting from spatial properties, indicate that the organization of cortical networks is not entirely determined by spatial constraints.

The Role of Price and Cost Competitiveness in Apparel Exports, Post-MFA: A Review

In the wake of China's tremendous surge in apparel exports in the first months of quota removal there is a growing view that price, unit costs, and volumes appear to be crucial determinants of export competitiveness in the world without quotas. This has led many countries and firms to try to increase their scale of production and lower production in the hope of maintaining their place in the global division of labor in textiles and apparel. This paper reviews a growing body of literature that focuses on the institutional organization of global trade and production networks to question this view. It shows that in an environment characterized by fragmented demand and volatile markets where buyers are increasingly demanding good quality, variety, and timely delivery in addition to price, large scales of operation can add to unless they are embedded within other capabilities of timely supply and low inventories that the environment demands. It also shows that the popular attribution of China's remarkable export performance in textiles and apparel to its low unit and large scales of production is, in part, a misreading of the China story. China's are low, and its production scales enormous, but they are embedded within crucial abilities that lower the costs of large scales of operation (i.e., of rigidity) in the context of uncertain markets. China's low cost producers, for example, are deeply embedded within the marketing, distribution and supply management networks of locally rooted Hong Kong, Taiwanese and South Korean 'triangle manufacturers' who understand global markets well and have a long history of doing business with the most demanding of industrial markets. These intermediaries have mastered the capability of managing diversified production networks to deliver a wide range of quality products in a timely way. Access to these institutional resources and the ability to supply quality products on time makes China much more than a mere low-cost apparel exporter. The review highlights alternative, more dynamic paths of growth that apparel producers can adopt other than those based solely on price.

The Global Network Organization of the Future: Information Management Opportunities and Challenges

The key information processing building blocks for yesterday's organizations were typewriters, carbon paper, filing cabinets, and a government mail service. The constraints of these crude information processing technologies often required workers to be located under one roof and organizations to arrange themselves as efficient, but relatively change-resistant, management hierarchies. Those legacy organization designs have persisted despite fundamental changes in information processing technology. Tomorrow's successful organizations will be designed around the building blocks of advanced computer and communications technology. The success of these organizations will come from the ability to couple to, and decouple from, the networks of knowledge nodes. These networked organizations will link, on an as-needed basis, teams of empowered employees, consultants, suppliers, and customers. These ad hoc teams will solve one-time problems, provide personalized customer service, and then, as lubricant for subsequent interactions, evaluate one another's performance. In the network organization, structure will dominate strategy, credentials will give way to performance and knowledge, and human resources will be the only sustainable advantage. Despite the promise, networked organizations present difficult information management challenges. Among these are developing a flexible and efficient information architecture, establishing new values, attitudes, and behaviors concerning information sharing, building databases that can provide integrated customer support on a worldwide basis, and protecting personal freedoms and privacy. Here, we explore the opportunities and challenges that networked organizations will present for information technology management.

Telecommunications—the state of the art

Abstract This article is a survey of the technological foundations of telecommunications, including both point-to-point electrical communication wing wires, cables and other guiding media. and radio wave broadcasting to many receivers via terrestrial transmitters or Earth-orbiting space satellites. The characteristics of analogue and digital telecommunication signals, the means available for their transmission and switching me described, together with the organization of local distribution, national and global networks. The various services that can be provided over such networks, including in addition to telephonic communication, audio and video conferencing, data and facsimile transmission and new vied-display data/information access services (Teletext) are outlined. Finally, the sociological implications of these technological and service developments me considered, for example in terms of their impact on urban and rural planning, where people live and work, and on energy economy by reducing the need t...