Curriculum Decisions: Assessing and Updating IS Curriculum

The increased level of accountability in higher education has prompted many vomputer-related programs to seek accreditation. As accrediting agencies continue to define and refine exactly what these degrees should entail, institutions struggle with the decisions of aligning their curriculum with a dynamic set of standards set by an outside agency, focusing on the needs identified by their own assessment data, or attempting to marry the two. This paper details how one institution completed comprehensive reviews of their curriculum under two different projects: Expanding Pathways for Educational Development and Information Technology Experiences, an NSF-funded research project investigation and examination of curriculum and regional needs and an ABET evaluation and site visit. The focus of this report is to inform others of local efforts that may be replicated on their campuses, share findings that may be of use to others in similarly situated circumstances, and add to the assessment and accreditation dialog

Fostering Independent Learners of Information Systems in the 21st Century Through Integrated Educational Technologies

The topic of this panel session is the management and delivery of course content through the integration of new instructional technologies to facilitate independent student learning in technical courses. The two lead panelists will provide examples and explanations of newly restructured information systems courses using a range of instructional technologies, including an online course management system, student response system, online video tutorial approach, classroom information systems synchronization tools, smart classroom technologies, and online student collaboration tools. These courses have been developed to foster a move away from the traditional classroom lecture “teaching centric” paradigm to an independent “learner centric” paradigm. This classroom methodology was developed as one result of the work completed for an NSF-funded project, Expanding Pathways for Educational Development and Information Technology Experiences (ExPEDITE). A focus of this classroom methodology is presenting technology-based course material to students with little to no technical background. These students often perceive technology-related classes as extremely difficult and many times overwhelming. The proposed methodology uses the various instructional technologies to slowly build the learner’s background through a gradual, repetitive learning process where the learner becomes more independent with each classroom activity

Validation of Two Nonlinear System Identification Techniques Using an Experimental Testbed

The identification of a nonlinear system is performed using experimental data and two different techniques, i.e. a method based on the Wavelet transform and the Restoring Force Surface method. Both techniques exploit the system free response and result in the estimation of linear and nonlinear physical parameters

BRCA1- A ssociated protein 1 (BAP1) immunohistochemical expression as a diagnostic tool in malignant pleural mesothelioma classification: A large retrospective study

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a highly aggressive disease with limited therapeutic options. Histological subtype remains among the most reliable prognostic factors, because the epithelioid subtype associated with the best prognosis and the sarcomatoid subtype with the worst. The biphasic subtype has an intermediate prognosis, but its definitive histological diagnosis may be challenging owing to the difficulty of assessing the neoplastic nature of the stromal component. Recent data identified BRCA1-associated protein 1 gene (BAP1) as one of the most frequently mutated genes in MPM. Immunohistochemical testing for BRCA1-associated protein 1 (BAP1) has been proposed to be predictive for the detection of BAP1 mutation in neoplastic cells. The aim of the present study was to define the diagnostic usefulness of immunohistochemical determination of BAP1 in MPM, with clinicopathological correlation

The L&E of Intellectual Property – Do we get maximum innovation with the current regime?

Innovation is crucial to economic growth – the essential path for lifting much of the world population out of dire poverty and for maintaining the living standard of those who already have. To stimulate innovation, the legal system has to support the means through which innovators seek to get rewarded for their efforts. Amongst these means, some, such as the first mover advantage or 'lead time,' are not directly legal; but secrets and intellectual property rights are legal institutions supported for the specific purpose of stimulating innovation. Whilst the protection of secrets has not changed very much over recent years, intellectual property (or IP) has. IP borrows some features from ordinary property rights, but is also distinct, in that, unlike physical goods, information, the object of IP, is not inherently scarce; indeed as information and communication technologies expand, the creation and distribution of information is becoming ever cheaper and in many circumstances abundant, so that selection is of the essence ('on the internet, point of view is everything'). Where rights on information extend too far, their monopolising effect may hamper innovation. The paper investigates the underlying structure of IP rights and surveys what we know empirically about the incentive effects of IP as about industries that flourish without formal IP

Monsignor Luigi Biraghi e i falsi di Cernusco

We present here some reflections on an inscription from Cernusco sul Naviglio (Milan) discovered by Monsignor Luigi Biraghi in 1849 and published by Mommsen among the falsae in CIL V 664*. This paper stems from the discovery of some private and unpublished letters by Biraghi that we consulted at the Archive of the Quadronno Institute of the Sisters of St. Marcellina in Milan. This correspondence informs us of Biraghi\u2019s personal and professional relationships with other mid-19th century classical scholars. The analysis of these documents will shed some light on the harsh judgment that Mommsen (along with others) expressed on Biraghi regarding some inscriptions that he had discovered in the Ager Mediolanensis

Talents from Abroad. Foreign Managers and Productivity in the United Kingdom.

In this paper, we test the contribution of foreign management on firms’ competitiveness. We use a novel dataset on the careers of 165,084 managers employed by 13,106 companies in the United Kingdom in the period 2009-2017. We find that a domestic manufacturing firm becomes on average between 9% and 12% more productive after hiring at least one foreign manager. Interestingly, productivity gains by domestic firms after recruiting foreign managers are similar in magnitude to gains after foreign acquisitions as from previous literature. Eventually, we do not find significant gains by foreign-owned firms hiring foreign managers. Our identification strategy combines difference-in-difference and matching techniques to challenge reverse causality. We proxy firms’ competitiveness either by total factor productivity or by technical efficiency derived from stochastic frontier analyses. Eventually, we argue that limits to the circulation of talents, as for example in case of a Brexit event, may hamper the allocation of labor productive resources