Enhances faculty\u27s teaching by attending a conference devoted to university teaching, a high-i... more Enhances faculty\u27s teaching by attending a conference devoted to university teaching, a high-impact practice, evidence-based practice or a newly developing teaching practice
Journal of the International Academy For Case Studies, Jul 1, 2004
CASE DESCRIPTION The primary subject matter of this case concerns management of mergers and acqui... more CASE DESCRIPTION The primary subject matter of this case concerns management of mergers and acquisitions in a turbulent environment. Secondary issues examined include strategic, organizational, and competitive issues that push the companies to the brink of destruction, and that may induce them to breach the boundaries of ethics and accountability for remaining afloat. The case has a difficulty level appropriate for first year graduate level. The case is designed to be taught in 1.5 class hours and is expected to require 2 hours of outside preparation by students. CASE SYNOPSIS Accounting fraud issues have taken the center stage whenever there is a discussion about the bankruptcy of WorldCom. However, the fraud issues were just an outcome of a deep-rooted deterioration in the performance fundamentals of WorldCom. In this case, we discuss some of the strategic, organizational and environmental issues that led to the survival challenges, and hence precipitated ethical irregularities and downfall of the company. INSTRUCTORS' NOTES OVERVIEW This case focuses on the growth and decline of WorldCom. The case traces the growth of WorldCom, till it filed for bankruptcy in 2002. Although accounting fraud issues have taken center stage when discussing the bankruptcy of WorldCom, the roots of WorldCom's decline lie in its turbulent industry, and strategic and management errors made. WorldCom shows meteoric rise and an equally meteoric fall. The case traces the developments in the telecommunications industry from the breakup of AT&T till 2002. Deregulation and technology have had major roles in shaping the industry. While deregulation increased competition in the long distance business, the local exchange business was not so transformed. Long distance business became increasingly commoditized and competition was price based. Technological advances allowed for massive increases in the transmission capability of networks, resulting in the expectation that there will be a convergence in data, voice and video. Many firms wanted to be the provider who would provide all these services to the consumer and greatly increased their network capacity by laying new lines. Unfortunately the demand boom expected did not happen and all that resulted was a gross mismatch between supply and demand. WorldCom started as a small long distance reseller and by a series of acquisitions managed to become a national player, with a strong presence in the rapidly growing data business. WorldCom was the leader in the internet backbone business and was strong in the business segment of long distance telephony. WorldCom went on to buy MCI, a company much larger than itself. Various problems may be seen with the merger. The price paid was too high and the company took on a lot of debt. MCI was in a slow growing highly competitive segment--the long distance segment. By buying MCI, WorldCom was increasing its exposure to this segment. Whatever synergies and cost savings that this merger might have obtained were quashed with the poor implementation of the integration. Culture clashes and unreasonable cost cutting resulted in MCI executives leaving the company. Another problem with WorldCom was its lack of presence in the wireless business. WorldCom's attempt to correct that--by its bid to acquire Sprint--was defeated when the Justice department turned down the merger. This left WorldCom with strategic weaknesses, financial burdens, and with a large exposure to the slow growing long distance business. The situation came to a head with disclosures of accounting fraud that involved top management--right from the CEO. Failure to make payments resulted in WorldCom filing for bankruptcy protection. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. What are the major driving forces in the telecommunications industry? How have they affected the long distance business? The major driving forces are: regulation/deregulation and technology. …
OpenSHA (http://www.OpenSHA.org) is an object-oriented, open-source, and web-based "community mod... more OpenSHA (http://www.OpenSHA.org) is an object-oriented, open-source, and web-based "community modeling environment" for seismic-hazard analysis (SHA). A primary goal has been to enable any arbitrarily sophisticated (e.g., physics-based) model to "plug in" for analysis without having to change what is being plugged into; that is, without rewriting existing code. Another goal has been to enable the models, as well as the various data repositories upon which they depend, to be geographically distributed and run-time accessible via the Internet. Building such a community-modeling environment has raised several issues related to computational speed, ease of use, error prevention, and repeatability of results in an environment where the models and data are continually being updated. The Information Technology Research collaboration of the Southern California Earthquake Center (http://www.SCEC.org/cme) is helping us resolve some of these issues. Our presentation will include live demonstrations of the framework using applications we've developed for computing hazard curves, hazard maps, and scenario ShakeMaps.
COPD: Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, 2015
The rising prevalence of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is generally attributed... more The rising prevalence of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is generally attributed to smoking, since the role of other risk factors among non-smokers are not well established especially in low and middle income countries like India. This is also reflected by the limited literature available on non-smoking related COPD risk factors like indoor and outdoor air pollution. The present review is an attempt to assess the influence of non-smoking risk factors on COPD and its measures in Indian subcontinent. The most noteworthy factors among non-smokers appear to be the use of biomass fuel for cooking and heating purposes. We observed that the studies undertaken to evaluate the role of such risk factors are inconclusive due to weak methodologies and small sample sizes, may be due to limited financial resources. The present review suggests the need of a nationally representative study to estimate the effect of each of the potential modifiable risk factor (other than smoking) for framing impactful public health policies to prevent and manage COPD at community and population level in India.
In this paper, calcification detection in the coronary arteries of heart is described. The source... more In this paper, calcification detection in the coronary arteries of heart is described. The source data is filtered two dimensional DICOM (Digital imaging & Communications in Medicine) images taken from the 64 Slice Computed tomography Scan Data of the heart using a filter to highlight only the coronary arteries regions. This work has been implemented on Intel(R) Core (TM) i3 at 2.20GHz using MATLAB version 7.8.0.347. Segmentation of coronary arteries of heart has been done on 2-D CT (Computed Tomography) isolated data. 64-Slice CT Scan technology provides a noninvasive method to directly visualize the coronary arteries. Using a small dose of contrast, 64-slice CT angiography provides previously unobtainable visualization of the coronary arteries. The system has been developed using different image processing functions in MATLAB software. The calcification regions in different arteries using this system are labeled by a different color.
In this paper, we propose a low cost, robust vision based system for monitoring patient movements... more In this paper, we propose a low cost, robust vision based system for monitoring patient movements during stereotactic radiotherapy: the Monocular Visual Patient Movement Monitoring (MVPM) System. The system consists of a light weight mouth bite with dual fiducial system used for position tracking. One set of fiducials consist of easy-to-detect checkerboard whose 3D position can be tracked using a pre-calibrated off-the-shelf camera and a set of radio-opaque rods suitable for X-ray imaging. We describe the associated workflow steps for using the system during planning and treatment phases. Also we report experimental results for tracking accuracy using a in-house phantom. 1.
The burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is high and rising in the low and midd... more The burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is high and rising in the low and middle income countries. The most common risk factor is smoking but COPD is a complex multifactorial disease caused by interaction of genes and other environmental factors in addition to smoking. A genetic basis for COPD is illustrated by the rare genetic syndrome of α1- antitrypsin deficiency. Lung volumes (e.g., force vital capacity and forced expiratory volume in 1 second) are quantitative physiologic and diagnostic measures of COPD and have high heritability. Explaining this high heritability of lung function at genomic scale has only become possible in last few years with the advent of genome-wide association studies. In this review, we discuss standard approaches to the study of genetic causes of COPD, present the latest developments in genomics of COPD, and consider the utility of genetic variants in establishing causal relationships between modifiable environmental exposures and COPD...
IEEE Systems and Information Engineering Design Symposium, 2003, 2003
A novel algorithm for image retrieval is presented. The basic idea of the new algorithm is that t... more A novel algorithm for image retrieval is presented. The basic idea of the new algorithm is that the constituent segments of the images are used to retrieve images within a digital library. Image retrieval using segments is distinctive in that the local features of the image are used to retrieve the image instead of the typically utilized global features. In
Enhances faculty\u27s teaching by attending a conference devoted to university teaching, a high-i... more Enhances faculty\u27s teaching by attending a conference devoted to university teaching, a high-impact practice, evidence-based practice or a newly developing teaching practice
Journal of the International Academy For Case Studies, Jul 1, 2004
CASE DESCRIPTION The primary subject matter of this case concerns management of mergers and acqui... more CASE DESCRIPTION The primary subject matter of this case concerns management of mergers and acquisitions in a turbulent environment. Secondary issues examined include strategic, organizational, and competitive issues that push the companies to the brink of destruction, and that may induce them to breach the boundaries of ethics and accountability for remaining afloat. The case has a difficulty level appropriate for first year graduate level. The case is designed to be taught in 1.5 class hours and is expected to require 2 hours of outside preparation by students. CASE SYNOPSIS Accounting fraud issues have taken the center stage whenever there is a discussion about the bankruptcy of WorldCom. However, the fraud issues were just an outcome of a deep-rooted deterioration in the performance fundamentals of WorldCom. In this case, we discuss some of the strategic, organizational and environmental issues that led to the survival challenges, and hence precipitated ethical irregularities and downfall of the company. INSTRUCTORS' NOTES OVERVIEW This case focuses on the growth and decline of WorldCom. The case traces the growth of WorldCom, till it filed for bankruptcy in 2002. Although accounting fraud issues have taken center stage when discussing the bankruptcy of WorldCom, the roots of WorldCom's decline lie in its turbulent industry, and strategic and management errors made. WorldCom shows meteoric rise and an equally meteoric fall. The case traces the developments in the telecommunications industry from the breakup of AT&T till 2002. Deregulation and technology have had major roles in shaping the industry. While deregulation increased competition in the long distance business, the local exchange business was not so transformed. Long distance business became increasingly commoditized and competition was price based. Technological advances allowed for massive increases in the transmission capability of networks, resulting in the expectation that there will be a convergence in data, voice and video. Many firms wanted to be the provider who would provide all these services to the consumer and greatly increased their network capacity by laying new lines. Unfortunately the demand boom expected did not happen and all that resulted was a gross mismatch between supply and demand. WorldCom started as a small long distance reseller and by a series of acquisitions managed to become a national player, with a strong presence in the rapidly growing data business. WorldCom was the leader in the internet backbone business and was strong in the business segment of long distance telephony. WorldCom went on to buy MCI, a company much larger than itself. Various problems may be seen with the merger. The price paid was too high and the company took on a lot of debt. MCI was in a slow growing highly competitive segment--the long distance segment. By buying MCI, WorldCom was increasing its exposure to this segment. Whatever synergies and cost savings that this merger might have obtained were quashed with the poor implementation of the integration. Culture clashes and unreasonable cost cutting resulted in MCI executives leaving the company. Another problem with WorldCom was its lack of presence in the wireless business. WorldCom's attempt to correct that--by its bid to acquire Sprint--was defeated when the Justice department turned down the merger. This left WorldCom with strategic weaknesses, financial burdens, and with a large exposure to the slow growing long distance business. The situation came to a head with disclosures of accounting fraud that involved top management--right from the CEO. Failure to make payments resulted in WorldCom filing for bankruptcy protection. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. What are the major driving forces in the telecommunications industry? How have they affected the long distance business? The major driving forces are: regulation/deregulation and technology. …
OpenSHA (http://www.OpenSHA.org) is an object-oriented, open-source, and web-based "community mod... more OpenSHA (http://www.OpenSHA.org) is an object-oriented, open-source, and web-based "community modeling environment" for seismic-hazard analysis (SHA). A primary goal has been to enable any arbitrarily sophisticated (e.g., physics-based) model to "plug in" for analysis without having to change what is being plugged into; that is, without rewriting existing code. Another goal has been to enable the models, as well as the various data repositories upon which they depend, to be geographically distributed and run-time accessible via the Internet. Building such a community-modeling environment has raised several issues related to computational speed, ease of use, error prevention, and repeatability of results in an environment where the models and data are continually being updated. The Information Technology Research collaboration of the Southern California Earthquake Center (http://www.SCEC.org/cme) is helping us resolve some of these issues. Our presentation will include live demonstrations of the framework using applications we've developed for computing hazard curves, hazard maps, and scenario ShakeMaps.
COPD: Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, 2015
The rising prevalence of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is generally attributed... more The rising prevalence of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is generally attributed to smoking, since the role of other risk factors among non-smokers are not well established especially in low and middle income countries like India. This is also reflected by the limited literature available on non-smoking related COPD risk factors like indoor and outdoor air pollution. The present review is an attempt to assess the influence of non-smoking risk factors on COPD and its measures in Indian subcontinent. The most noteworthy factors among non-smokers appear to be the use of biomass fuel for cooking and heating purposes. We observed that the studies undertaken to evaluate the role of such risk factors are inconclusive due to weak methodologies and small sample sizes, may be due to limited financial resources. The present review suggests the need of a nationally representative study to estimate the effect of each of the potential modifiable risk factor (other than smoking) for framing impactful public health policies to prevent and manage COPD at community and population level in India.
In this paper, calcification detection in the coronary arteries of heart is described. The source... more In this paper, calcification detection in the coronary arteries of heart is described. The source data is filtered two dimensional DICOM (Digital imaging & Communications in Medicine) images taken from the 64 Slice Computed tomography Scan Data of the heart using a filter to highlight only the coronary arteries regions. This work has been implemented on Intel(R) Core (TM) i3 at 2.20GHz using MATLAB version 7.8.0.347. Segmentation of coronary arteries of heart has been done on 2-D CT (Computed Tomography) isolated data. 64-Slice CT Scan technology provides a noninvasive method to directly visualize the coronary arteries. Using a small dose of contrast, 64-slice CT angiography provides previously unobtainable visualization of the coronary arteries. The system has been developed using different image processing functions in MATLAB software. The calcification regions in different arteries using this system are labeled by a different color.
In this paper, we propose a low cost, robust vision based system for monitoring patient movements... more In this paper, we propose a low cost, robust vision based system for monitoring patient movements during stereotactic radiotherapy: the Monocular Visual Patient Movement Monitoring (MVPM) System. The system consists of a light weight mouth bite with dual fiducial system used for position tracking. One set of fiducials consist of easy-to-detect checkerboard whose 3D position can be tracked using a pre-calibrated off-the-shelf camera and a set of radio-opaque rods suitable for X-ray imaging. We describe the associated workflow steps for using the system during planning and treatment phases. Also we report experimental results for tracking accuracy using a in-house phantom. 1.
The burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is high and rising in the low and midd... more The burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is high and rising in the low and middle income countries. The most common risk factor is smoking but COPD is a complex multifactorial disease caused by interaction of genes and other environmental factors in addition to smoking. A genetic basis for COPD is illustrated by the rare genetic syndrome of α1- antitrypsin deficiency. Lung volumes (e.g., force vital capacity and forced expiratory volume in 1 second) are quantitative physiologic and diagnostic measures of COPD and have high heritability. Explaining this high heritability of lung function at genomic scale has only become possible in last few years with the advent of genome-wide association studies. In this review, we discuss standard approaches to the study of genetic causes of COPD, present the latest developments in genomics of COPD, and consider the utility of genetic variants in establishing causal relationships between modifiable environmental exposures and COPD...
IEEE Systems and Information Engineering Design Symposium, 2003, 2003
A novel algorithm for image retrieval is presented. The basic idea of the new algorithm is that t... more A novel algorithm for image retrieval is presented. The basic idea of the new algorithm is that the constituent segments of the images are used to retrieve images within a digital library. Image retrieval using segments is distinctive in that the local features of the image are used to retrieve the image instead of the typically utilized global features. In
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