Patient locus of control (LOC) is a strong determinant of health outcomes, yet healthcare systems rarely use patient LOC to devise treatment plans. Our clinical research applies action design research methods to design and evaluate healthcare information systems to improve paths and outcomes of patient care. Socio-technical synergies between the interior (technical) and exterior (socio) designs support effective human-computer interfaces and interactions. Rigorous focus group evaluations of the systems for capturing LOC information and using that information in treatment plans are performed and system refinements are implemented. The practitioner organisation has future plans for full implementation of the designed systems.

Online analytical processing (OLAP) engines display aggregated data to help business analysts compare data, observe trends, and make decisions. Issues of data quality and, in particular, issues with missing data impact the quality of the information. Key decision-makers who rely on these data typically make decisions based on what they assume to be all the available data. The authors investigate three approaches to dealing with missing data: 1) ignore missing data, 2) show missing data explicitly (e.g., as unknown data values), and 3) design mitigation algorithms for missing data (e.g., allocate missing data into known value categories). The authors evaluate the approach with focus groups and controlled experiments. When one tries to inform decision-makers using the approaches in the research, the authors find that they often alter their decisions and adjust their decision confidence: individual differences of tolerance for ambiguity and pre-existing omission bias in the decision context influence their decisions.

On the 10th anniversary of the NeuroIS field, we reflect on accomplishments but, more importantly, on the future of the field. This commentary presents our thoughts on a future NeuroIS research agenda with the potential for high impact societal contributions. Four key areas for future information systems (IS) research are: (1) IS design, (2) IS use, (3) emotion research, and (4) neuro-adaptive systems. We reflect on the challenges of each area and provide specific research questions that serve as important directions for advancing the NeuroIS field. The research agenda supports fellow researchers in planning, conducting, publishing, and reviewing high impact studies that leverage the potential of neuroscience knowledge and tools to further information systems research.

This research essay proposes an elaborated process model for applying the action design research (ADR) approach to immersive industry-based projects. Building on the original ADR concepts, we identify four distinct types of ADR cycles for diagnosis, design, implementation, and evolution of the growing artefact-based solution. Each ADR cycle moves through activities of problem formulation, artefact creation, evaluation, reflection, and learning. Rapid iterations of ADR cycles provide a well-defined process map for managing and performing an emergent ADR project. The proposed model supports multiple entry points based on the current state of the problem environment and the goals of the ADR project. The elaborated ADR process model provides a more flexible yet disciplined inquiry into the initiation, conduct, reflection, and presentation of rigorous and relevant ADR projects.

This paper extends an exponential reliability growth model to determine the optimal number of test cases to be executed for various use case scenarios during the system testing of software. An example demonstrates a practical application of the optimization model for system test planning

Reviews and inspections of software artifacts throughout the development life cycle are effective techniques for identifying defects and improving software quality. While review methods for text-based artifacts (e.g., code) are well understood, very little guidance is available for performing reviews of software diagrams, which are rapidly becoming the dominant form of software specification and design. Drawing upon human cognitive theory, we study how 12 experienced software developers perform individual reviews on a software design containing two types of diagrams: entity-relationship diagrams and data flow diagrams. Verbal protocol methods are employed to describe and analyze defect search patterns among the software artifacts, both text and diagrams, within the design. Results indicate that search patterns that rapidly switch between the two design diagrams are the most effective. These findings support the cognitive theory thesis that how an individual processes information impacts processing success. We conclude with specific recommendations for improving the practice of reviewing software diagrams.

A formal procedure is given based on the use of regular expressions, to identify and eliminate nontraversable paths in a structured program. By reducing the use of control variables, the program is transformed into an unstructured variant and then restructured into a semantic equivalent of the original program with nontraversable paths eliminated. The authors demonstrate this procedure with an example and discuss its maintenance advantages.>

The author demonstrates the natural extension of the box structure theory and techniques of system development to concurrent system design. The semantics and syntax of box structures for designing concurrency are presented. Concurrent box structure designs for several concurrent system environments are shown. Extensions to more complex environments are suggested.>

Distributed databases on local area networks present additional considerations for query optimization over databases on geographically distributed, point-to-point networks. This paper surveys and evaluates the state of current research on distributed query optimization for local area networks. A classification taxonomy is presented and used to analyze the proposed query-optimization algorithms. The unique features of each algorithm are highlighted and a qualitative comparison of the algorithms is given. Future research directions are discussed.

We propose a design methodology based on data flow analysis for a functionally distributed, multiprocessor database machine. We define a cost model of database processing with the objective cost being response time of a set of query strategies. Heuristic optimization techniques are proposed using the operations of grouping, decomposition, and replication. We apply the new optimization techniques in several realistic multiprocessor environments. The resulting configurations of multiprocessors demonstrate significant performance improvements over more traditional designs.

Database machine architectures have been proposed as a promising alternative to improve database system performance, control, and flexibility. While many claims have been made for the database machine concept, few studies have been made to test the performance advantages and disadvantages of a database machine in an application environment. A comprehensive benchmark study comparing the performance of database systems on a conventional computer system and a database machine is reported in this paper. The results show the database machine architecture to have superior performance in most cases. The performance advantage is sensitive to the communication line speed between the host computer and the database machine. The effects of line speed are studied and displayed in the benchmark results. A summary of the similarities and differences between the architectures based upon our benchmark results completes the paper.

Local area networks are becoming widely used as the database communication framework for sophisticated information systems. Databases can be distributed among stations on a network to achieve the advantages of performance, reliability, availability, and modularity. Efficient distributed query optimization algorithms are presented here for two types of local area networks: address ring networks and broadcast networks . Optimal algorithms are designed for simple queries . Optimization principles from these algorithms guide the development of effective heuristic algorithms for general queries on both types of networks. Several examples illustrate distributed query processing on local area networks.

The form has become an important abstraction for data management in an office application environment.Structured office forms present data to users in an easily understood and easily manipulated manner.In this paper we classify forms systems in terms of three dimensions: data structuring, user interfaces, and programming interfaces.Current forms systems are analyzed under these dimensions.We have designed a comprehensive forms management system, FORMANAGER, that includes facilities for form specification, form processing, and form control.The system transforms data from a relational database into a hierarchical data structure which defines the form.The design and algorithms for implementation of the system are described, and future extensions to enhance the capabilities of forms systems are proposed.

The efficiency of processing strategies for queries in a distributed database is critical for system performance. Methods are studied to minimize the response time and the total time for distributed queries. A new algorithm (Algorithm GENERAL) is presented to derive processing strategies for arbitrarily complex queries. Three versions of the algorithm are given: one for minimizing response time and two for minimizing total time. The algorithm is shown to provide optimal solutions under certain conditions.

Query processing in a distributed system requires the transmission f data between computers in a network. The arrangement of data transmissions and local data processing is known as a distribution strategy for a query. Two cost measures, response time and total time are used to judge the quality of a distribution strategy. Simple algorithms are presented that derive distribution strategies which have minimal response time and minimal total time, for a special class of queries. These optimal algorithms are used as a basis to develop a general query processing algorithm. Distributed query examples are presented and the complexity of the general algorithm is analyzed. The integration of a query processing subsystem into a distributed database management system is discussed.