A Systems Analysis and Design Case: ABC Church

The information systems (IS) profession requires a diverse blend of technical and non-technical skills. To develop these skills, IS educators often use group projects in systems analysis and design courses, sometimes involving written cases. This article presents a case that can be utilized for a group project in a systems analysis and design course. The case is sufficiently detailed to stimulate students\u27 creative thinking about a systems solution. It also concerns an organization with which most students have some life experience, a church. The case emphasizes the church as an organization with information needs. This article presents background information about the case, the text of the case, and a discussion of analysis and design phase requirements. Teaching notes and possible solutions for selected project requirements are also provided. These materials are designed to be useful to systems analysis and design instructors who want to use a written case for a group project in their courses

Writing IS Teaching Cases: Guidelines for JISE Submission

Over the past year, JISE began accepting Teaching Cases for publication. Many information systems (IS) academicians and professionals have valuable experiences that are ripe for translating into cases. Students and instructors would benefit from the communication of these experiences into realistic, well-written cases to promote active learning. To encourage case submissions, the purpose of this article is twofold: (1) to provide potential authors with helpful advice and suggestions for writing case manuscripts; and (2) to communicate JISE guidelines for Teaching Case submissions. This paper is designed to serve as a resource for writers who are interested in developing Teaching Cases for publication

The Year 2000 Problem: An Ethical View

After years of avoidance, many organizations are struggling to make their computer systems year 2000 compliant. There is little question thatmeeting the year 2000 challenge is important from a business perspective since the survival of organizations may depend on it. However, a second, more neglected concern is whether system developers and their organizations have an ethical obligation to address the year 2000 problem. This paper examines three codes of ethics for information systems professionals to draw conclusions about this issue

Jay\u27s Collectibles

There is growing interest in collectibles of many types, as indicated by the popularity of television programs such as the History Channel’s Pawn Stars and American Pickers and the Public Broadcasting Service’s Antiques Road Show. The availability of online auction sites such as eBay has enabled many people to collect items of interest as a hobby and to sell parts of their collection as a business or for extra income. As a collection grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to track through manual methods, and it is often useful to develop a computer-based system for this purpose. This case raises the possibility of developing an information system to manage a collection of sports autographs. This case may be used in a systems analysis and design, database, or systems development course to address a number of important topics such as: systems scope identification, problem and opportunity analysis, requirements analysis, data modeling, and application development. The case is designed to provoke interest and raise a sufficient level of complexity to challenge students to apply a range of systems development and database concepts. While the case addresses sports collectibles, its concepts may be applicable other types of systems, especially those involving other types of collections or “one of a kind” items. Since many students are likely to have at least some experience using online auction sites, following professional sports, seeing television programs about collectibles, or attending flea markets where collectibles are sold, the case builds in some way on their life experience. This teaching case enables students to discover how systems development and database concepts are applicable to a practical problem solving scenario

Solvent effects on the harvesting of stratum corneum from hairless mouse skin through adhesive tape stripping in vitro

125 [mu]l of a propylene glycol/ethanol/water vehicle were applied for various lengths of time to 1.77 cm2 area of excised hairless mouse skin sections held in in vitro diffusion cells. After removal from the cell, each skin section was stripped repeatedly with a non-hygroscopic polypropylene tape. The amount of tissue removed in each strip was determined after allowing the volatile solvents to evaporate. Weights were corrected for residual propylene glycol and water, the amounts of which were determined radioisotopically. More tissue was harvested in the first and second strips from skin conditioned with the vehicle for more than 12 h. The effect of vehicle treatment on stripping properties precludes one from determining drug and vehicle concentration gradients in the stratum corneum at different treatment times by direct comparison of corresponding strips. While it does not appear that a penetrant's deposition as a function of time can be followed easily and directly by stripping and then quantifying the drug (or solvent) in the respective layers, the stripping technique may still be useful in separating stratum corneum (or epidermis) from dermis.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/29469/1/0000555.pd

Uptake of hysterectomy and bilateral salpingooophorectomy in carriers of pathogenic mismatch repair variants:a Prospective Lynch Syndrome Database report

Purpose: This study aimed to report the uptake of hysterectomy and/or bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (BSO) to prevent gynaecological cancers (risk-reducing surgery [RRS]) in carriers of pathogenic MMR (path_MMR) variants. Methods: The Prospective Lynch Syndrome Database (PLSD) was used to investigate RRS by a cross-sectional study in 2292 female path_MMR carriers aged 30-69 years. Results: Overall, 144, 79, and 517 carriers underwent risk-reducing hysterectomy, BSO, or both combined, respectively. Two-thirds of procedures before 50 years of age were combined hysterectomy and BSO, and 81% of all procedures included BSO. Risk-reducing hysterectomy was performed before age 50 years in 28%, 25%, 15%, and 9%, and BSO in 26%, 25%, 14% and 13% of path_MLH1, path_MSH2, path_MSH6, and path_PMS2 carriers, respectively. Before 50 years of age, 107 of 188 (57%) BSO and 126 of 204 (62%) hysterectomies were performed in women without any prior cancer, and only 5% (20/392) were performed simultaneously with colorectal cancer (CRC) surgery. Conclusion: Uptake of RRS before 50 years of age was low, and RRS was rarely undertaken in association with surgical treatment of CRC. Uptake of RRS aligned poorly with gene-and age-associated risk estimates for endometrial or ovarian cancer that were published recently from PLSD and did not correspond well with current clinical guidelines. The reasons should be clarified. Decision-making on opting for or against RRS and its timing should be better aligned with predicted risk and mortality for endometrial and ovarian cancer in Lynch syn-drome to improve outcomes. (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd

Lack of association between screening interval and cancer stage in Lynch syndrome may be accounted for by over-diagnosis; a prospective Lynch syndrome database report

BackgroundRecent epidemiological evidence shows that colorectal cancer (CRC) continues to occur in carriers of pathogenic mismatch repair (path_MMR) variants despite frequent colonoscopy surveillance in expert centres. This observation conflicts with the paradigm that removal of all visible polyps should prevent the vast majority of CRC in path_MMR carriers, provided the screening interval is sufficiently short and colonoscopic practice is optimal.MethodsTo inform the debate, we examined, in the Prospective Lynch Syndrome Database (PLSD), whether the time since last colonoscopy was associated with the pathological stage at which CRC was diagnosed during prospective surveillance. Path_MMR carriers were recruited for prospective surveillance by colonoscopy. Only variants scored by the InSiGHT Variant Interpretation Committee as class 4 and 5 (clinically actionable) were included. CRCs detected at the first planned colonoscopy, or within one year of this, were excluded as prevalent cancers.ResultsStage at diagnosis and interval between last prospective surveillance colonoscopy and diagnosis were available for 209 patients with 218 CRCs, including 162 path_MLH1, 45 path_MSH2, 10 path_MSH6 and 1 path_PMS2 carriers. The numbers of cancers detected within 3.5years since last colonoscopy were 36, 93, 56 and 33, respectively. Among these, 16.7, 19.4, 9.9 and 15.1% were stage III-IV, respectively (p=0.34). The cancers detected more than 2.5years after the last colonoscopy were not more advanced than those diagnosed earlier (p=0.14).ConclusionsThe CRC stage and interval since last colonoscopy were not correlated, which is in conflict with the accelerated adenoma-carcinoma paradigm. We have previously reported that more frequent colonoscopy is not associated with lower incidence of CRC in path_MMR carriers as was expected. In contrast, point estimates showed a higher incidence with shorter intervals between examinations, a situation that may parallel to over-diagnosis in breast cancer screening. Our findings raise the possibility that some CRCs in path_MMR carriers may spontaneously disappear: the host immune response may not only remove CRC precursor lesions in path_MMR carriers, but may remove infiltrating cancers as well. If confirmed, our suggested interpretation will have a bearing on surveillance policy for path_MMR carriers.Peer reviewe