E. Hagen | Searcharxiv

arXiv2025

State-dependent brain responsiveness, from local circuits to the whole brain

The objective of this paper is to review physiological and computational aspects of the responsiveness of the cerebral cortex to stimulation, and how responsiveness depends on the state of the system. This correspondence between brain state and brain responsiveness (state-dependent responses) is outlined at different scales from the cellular and circuit level, to the mesoscale and macroscale level. At each scale, we review how quantitative methods can be used to characterize network states based on brain responses, such as the Perturbational Complexity Index (PCI). This description will compare data and models, systematically and at multiple scales, with a focus on the mechanisms that explain how brain responses depend on brain states.

q-bio.NC↗

arXiv2021

An Empirical Investigation of Pull Requests in Partially Distributed BizDevOps Teams

In globally distributed projects, virtual teams are often partially dispersed. One common setup occurs when several members from one company work with a large outsourcing vendor based in another country. Further, the introduction of the popular BizDevOps concept has increased the necessity to cooperate across departments and reduce the age-old disconnection between the business strategy and technical development. Establishing a good collaboration in partially distributed BizDevOps teams requires extensive collaboration and communication techniques. Nowadays, a common approach is to rely on collaboration through pull requests and frequent communication on Slack. To investigate barriers for pull requests in distributed teams, we examined an organization located in Scandinavia where cross-functional BizDevOps teams collaborated with off-site team members in India. Data were collected by conducting 14 interviews, observing 23 entire days with the team, and observing 37 meetings. We found that the pull-request approach worked very well locally but not across sites. We found barriers such as domain complexity, different agile processes (timeboxed vs. flow-based development), and employee turnover. Using an intellectual capital lens on our findings, we discuss barriers and positive and negative effects on the success of the pull-request approach.

cs.SE↗