Governing individual learning in the transition phase of software maintenance offshoring: a dynamic perspective

Prior studies suggest that clients need to actively govern knowledge transfer to vendor staff in offshore outsourcing. In this paper, we analyze longitudinal data from four software maintenance offshore out-sourcing projects to explore why governance may be needed for knowledge transfer and how governance and the individual learning of vendor engineers inter-act over time. Our results suggest that self-control is central to learning, but may be hampered by low levels of trust and expertise at the outset of projects. For these foundations to develop, clients initially need to exert high amounts of formal and clan controls to enforce learning activities against barriers to knowledge sharing. Once learning activities occur, trust and expertise increase and control portfolios may show greater emphases on self-control.

Learning software-maintenance tasks in offshoring projects: a cognitive-load perspective

Individual learning is central to the success of the transition phase in software mainte-nance offshoring projects. However, little is known on how learning activities, such as on-the-job training and formal presentations, are effectively combined during the tran-sition phase. In this study, we present and test propositions derived from cognitive load theory. The results of a multiple-case study suggest that learning effectiveness was highest when learning tasks such as authentic maintenance requests were used. Con-sistent with cognitive load theory, learning tasks were most effective when they imposed moderate cognitive load. Our data indicate that cognitive load was influenced by the expertise of the onsite coordinator, by intrinsic task complexity, by the degree of specifi-cation of tasks, and by supportive information. Cultural and semantic distances may in-fluence learning by inhibiting supportive information, specification, and the assignment of learning tasks.

Periodontal and general health in long-term periodontal maintenance patients treated in a Norwegian private practice: a descriptive report from a compliant and partially compliant survivor population

BACKGROUND There is weak evidence to support the benefit of periodontal maintenance therapy in preventing tooth loss. In addition, the effects of long-term periodontal treatment on general health are unclear. METHODS Patients who were compliant and partially compliant (15 to 25 years' follow-up) in private practice were observed for oral and systemic health changes. RESULTS A total of 219 patients who were compliant (91 males and 128 females) were observed for 19.1 (range 15 to 25; SD ± 2.8) years. Age at reassessment was 64.6 (range: 39 to 84; SD ± 9.0) years. A total of 145 patients were stable (0 to 3 teeth lost), 54 were downhill (4 to 6 teeth lost), and 21 patients extreme downhill (>6 teeth lost); 16 patients developed hypertension, 13 developed type 2 diabetes, and 15 suffered myocardial infarcts (MIs). A minority developed other systemic diseases. Risk factors for MI included overweight (odds ratio [OR]: 9.04; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.9 to 27.8; P = 0.000), family history with cardiovascular disease (OR: 3.10; 95% CI: 1.07 to 8.94; P = 0.029), type 1 diabetes at baseline (P = 0.02), and developing type 2 diabetes (OR: 7.9; 95% CI: 2.09 to 29.65; P = 0.000). A total of 25 patients who were partially compliant (17 males and eight females) were observed for 19 years. This group had a higher proportion of downhill and extreme downhill cases and MI. CONCLUSIONS Patients who left the maintenance program in a periodontal specialist practice in Norway had a higher rate of tooth loss than patients who were compliant. Patients who were compliant with maintenance in a specialist practice in Norway have a similar risk of developing type 2 diabetes as the general population. A rate of 0.0037 MIs per patient per year was recorded for this group. Due to the lack of external data, it is difficult to assess how this compares with patients who have periodontal disease and are untreated.

Learning Software-Maintenance Tasks in the Transition Phase of Offshore Outsourcing Projects: Two Learning-Theoretical Perspectives

The increasing practice of offshore outsourcing software maintenance has posed the challenge of effectively transferring knowledge to individual software engineers of the vendor. In this theoretical paper, we discuss the implications of two learning theories, the model of work-based learning (MWBL) and cognitive load theory (CLT), for knowledge transfer during the transition phase. Taken together, the theories suggest that learning mechanisms need to be aligned with the type of knowledge (tacit versus explicit), task characteristics (complexity and recurrence), and the recipients’ expertise. The MWBL proposes that learning mechanisms need to include conceptual and practical activities based on the relative importance of explicit and tacit knowledge. CLT explains how effective portfolios of learning mechanisms change over time. While jobshadowing, completion tasks, and supportive information may prevail at the outset of transition, they may be replaced by the work on conventional tasks towards the end of transition.

From language maintenance to bilingual parenting: Negotiating behavior and language choice at the dinner table in binational-bilingual families

This article contributes to the study of language maintenance as an everyday activity in binational-bilingual families. By embedding the question of language maintenance into a language socialization framework and adopting a conversation-analytic approach to language alternation, three excerpts of mealtime interactions in Russian–French speaking families are analyzed. Their analysis shows that in bilingual families situations focusing on the interactional definition and negotiation of children’s behavior simultaneously involve the negotiation of language choice. It reveals how parents in binational-bilingual families accomplish bilingual (language) socialization in daily practice while dealing with the complex task of combining educational goals with language maintenance.

Russian language maintenance through bedtime story reading?: Linguistic strategies and language negotiation in Russian-French speaking families in Switzerland

This article proposes an interactional approach to the question of Russian language maintenance through the activity of bedtime story-reading in Russian-French bilingual families in French speaking Switzerland. Reading stories appears to be a language maintenance strategy commonly employed by the Russian speaking parent. The ritual and recreational moment of story-reading therefore becomes an opportunity for language learning. Drawing upon a language socialization perspective, this paper proposes an interactional analysis of the language use in the activity of story-reading. It shows how the language choice of the participants may be requested, negotiated and challenged during the interaction. The analysis further informs us about the language choice pattern and the bilingual competences in these families. We will gain insight into (Russian) language maintenance as a daily social and linguistic practice.

Do Integration Policies Affect Immigrants' Voluntary Engagement? An Exploration at Switzerland's Subnational Level

This paper investigates whether integration policies influence immigrants' propensity to volunteer, the latter being an important element of immigrants' integration into the host society. By distinguishing different categories of integration policies at Switzerland's subnational level and applying a Bayesian multilevel approach, our results suggest varying policy effects: while policies fostering socio-structural rights enhance immigrants' propensity to volunteer, we observe a negative curvilinear relationship between cultural rights and obligations and immigrants' volunteerism implying that a combination of cultural entitlements and obligations is most conducive to immigrants' civic engagement.

Knowledge transfer in software-maintenance offshore outsourcing

Software-maintenance offshore outsourcing (SMOO) projects have been plagued by tedious knowledge transfer during the service transition to the vendor. Vendor engineers risk being over-strained by the high amounts of novel information, resulting in extra costs that may erode the business case behind offshoring. Although stakeholders may desire to avoid these extra costs by implementing appropriate knowledge transfer practices, little is known on how effective knowledge transfer can be designed and managed in light of the high cognitive loads in SMOO transitions. The dissertation at hand addresses this research gap by presenting and integrating four studies. The studies draw on cognitive load theory, attributional theory, and control theory and they apply qualitative, quantitative, and simulation methods to qualitative data from eight in-depth longitudinal cases. The results suggest that the choice of appropriate learning tasks may be more central to knowledge transfer than the amount of information shared with vendor engineers. Moreover, because vendor staff may not be able to and not dare to effectively self-manage learn-ing tasks during early transition, client-driven controls may be initially required and subsequently faded out. Collectively, the results call for people-based rather than codification-based knowledge management strategies in at least moderately specific and complex software environments.

Dominance and the maintenance of polymorphism in multiallelic migration-selection models with two demes

The maintenance of genetic variation in a spatially heterogeneous environment has been one of the main research themes in theoretical population genetics. Despite considerable progress in understanding the consequences of spatially structured environments on genetic variation, many problems remain unsolved. One of them concerns the relationship between the number of demes, the degree of dominance, and the maximum number of alleles that can be maintained by selection in a subdivided population. In this work, we study the potential of maintaining genetic variation in a two-deme model with deme-independent degree of intermediate dominance, which includes absence of G x E interaction as a special case. We present a thorough numerical analysis of a two-deme three-allele model, which allows us to identify dominance and selection patterns that harbor the potential for stable triallelic equilibria. The information gained by this approach is then used to construct an example in which existence and asymptotic stability of a fully polymorphic equilibrium can be proved analytically. Noteworthy, in this example the parameter range in which three alleles can coexist is maximized for intermediate migration rates. Our results can be interpreted in a specialist-generalist context and (among others) show when two specialists can coexist with a generalist in two demes if the degree of dominance is deme independent and intermediate. The dominance relation between the generalist allele and the specialist alleles play a decisive role. We also discuss linear selection on a quantitative trait and show that G x E interaction is not necessary for the maintenance of more than two alleles in two demes.

Shoot meristem maintenance is controlled by a GRAS-gene mediated signal from differentiating cells

Plant shoot development depends on the perpetuation of a group of undifferentiated cells in the shoot apical meristem (SAM). In the Petunia mutant hairy meristem (ham), shoot meristems differentiate postembryonically as continuations of the subtending stem. HAM encodes a putative transcription factor of the GRAS family, which acts non-cell-autonomously from L3-derived tissue of lateral organ primordia and stem provasculature. HAM acts in parallel with TERMINATOR (PhWUSCHEL) and is required for continued cellular response to TERMINATOR and SHOOTMERISTEMLESS (PhSTM). This reveals a novel mechanism by which signals from differentiating tissues extrinsically control stem cell fate in the shoot apex.

Voluntary ingestion of antiparasitic drugs emulsified in honey represents an alternative to gavage in mice

The oral route is the most frequently used method of drug intake in humans. Oral administration of drugs to laboratory animals such as mice typically is achieved through gavage, in which a feeding needle is introduced into the esophagus and the drug is delivered directly into the stomach. This method requires technical skill, is stressful for animals, and introduces risk of injury, pain and morbidity. Here we investigated another method of drug administration. The benzimidazole derivative albendazole was emulsified in commercially available honey and administered to mice by voluntary feeding or gavage. Mice that received albendazole by either gavage or honey ingestion had virtually identical levels of serum albendazole sulfoxide, indicating that uptake and metabolism of albendazole was similar for both administration techniques. In addition, dosing mice with the albendazole-honey mixture for 8 wk had antiparasitic activity comparable to earlier studies using gavage for drug administration. Compared with gavage, voluntary ingestion of a drug in honey is more rapid, less stressful to the animal, and less technically demanding for the administrator. Because of its low cost and ready availability, honey presents a viable vehicle for drug delivery.

Managing Knowledge Transfer in Software-Maintenance Outsourcing Transitions: A System-Dynamics Perspective

The existing literature suggests that transitions in software-maintenance offshore outsourcing projects are prone to knowledge transfer blockades, i.e. situations in which the activities that would yield effective knowledge transfer do not occur, and that client management involvement is central to overcome them. However, the theoretical understanding of the knowledge transfer blockade is limited, and the reactive management behavior reported in case studies suggests that practitioners may frequently be astonished by the dynamics that may give rise to the blockade. Drawing on recent research from offshore sourcing and reference theories, this study proposes a system dynamics framework that may explain why knowledge transfer blockades emerge and how and why client management can overcome the blockade. The results suggest that blockades may emerge from a vicious circle of weak learning due to cognitive overload of vendor staff and resulting negative ability attributions that result in reduced helping behavior and thus aggravate cognitive load. Client management may avoid these vicious circles by selecting vendor staff with strong prior related experience. Longer phases of coexistence of vendor staff and subject matter experts and high formal and clan controls may also mitigate vicious circles.