DePaul University

About: DePaul University is a education organization based out in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 5658 authors who have published 11562 publications receiving 295257 citations.

Multiple Raters in Survey-Based Operations Management Research: A Review and Tutorial

Abstract: Research in the area of operations strategy has made significant progress during the past decade in terms of quantity of articles published, as well as the quality of these articles. Recent studies have examined the published literature base and determined that, in general, the field has progressed beyond an exploratory stage to a point where there is a core set of basic terminology and models. Concurrent with the formation and solidification of a core terminology, there is an increasing emphasis on developing and employing a set of reliable, valid, and reproducible methods for conducting research on operations strategy. We provide a review of common methods for assessing the degree of reliability and agreement of the responses provided by multiple raters within a given organization to a set of qualitative questions. In particular, we examine four methods of determining whether there is evidence of disagreement or bias between multiple raters within a single organization in a mail survey.

Taxonomy of conflicts in network security policies

Abstract: Network security polices are essential elements in Internet security devices that provide traffic filtering, integrity, confidentiality, and authentication. Network security perimeter devices such as firewalls, IPSec, and IDS/IPS devices operate based on locally configured policies. However, configuring network security policies remains a complex and error-prone task due to rule dependency semantics and the interaction between policies in the network. This complexity is likely to increase as the network size increases. A successful deployment of a network security system requires global analysis of policy configurations of all network security devices in order to avoid policy conflicts and inconsistency. Policy conflicts may cause serious security breaches and network vulnerability such as blocking legitimate traffic, permitting unwanted traffic, and insecure data transmission. This article presents a comprehensive classification of security policy conflicts that might potentially exist in a single security device (intrapolicy conflicts) or between different network devices (interpolicy conflicts) in enterprise networks. We also show the high probability of creating such conflicts even by expert system administrators and network practitioners.

The Effect of Institutional Ownership on Payout Policy: Evidence from Index Thresholds

Abstract: We show that higher institutional ownership causes firms to pay more dividends. Our identification relies on a discontinuity in ownership around Russell index thresholds. Our estimates indicate that a one-percentage-point increase in institutional ownership causes a $7 million (8%) increase in dividends. We also find differences in shareholder proposals and voting patterns that suggest that even nonactivist institutions play an important role in monitoring firm behavior. The effect of institutional ownership on dividends is stronger for firms with higher expected agency costs.

Integrating Soil Ecological Knowledge into Restoration Management

Abstract: The variability in the type of ecosystem degradation and the specificity of restoration goals can challenge restorationists’ ability to generalize about approaches that lead to restoration success. The discipline of soil ecology, which emphasizes both soil organisms and ecosystem processes, has generated a body of knowledge that can be generally useful in improving the outcomes of restoration despite this variability. Here, we propose that the usefulness of this soil ecological knowledge (SEK) for restoration is best considered in the context of the severity of the original perturbation, the goals of the project, and the resilience of the ecosystem to disturbance. A straightforward manipulation of single physical, chemical, or biological components of the soil system can be useful in the restoration of a site, especially when the restoration goal is loosely defined in terms of the species and processes that management seeks to achieve. These single-factor manipulations may in fact produce cascading effects on several ecosystem attributes and can result in unintended recovery trajectories. When complex outcomes are desired, intentional and holistic integration of all aspects of the soil knowledge is necessary. We provide a short roster of examples to illustrate that SEK benefits management and restoration of ecosystems and suggest areas for future research.