How Information Systems are Shaped from the Decision-Making Level to Technical Implementation: Case Trucking

Digitalization is advancing in all walks of life. One of the areas undergoing a sector-wide transformation is trucking, as part of the logistics sector. This will have a profound impact from societal and economic level down to the individual trucker. Information Systems research has for long focused on system design and deployment on organizational level, implying that this level has the actual power to decide about the design directions. However, our study shows that the transformation is more complex and involves technical and societal aspects that shape the decisions before a single organization, or a network of companies get involved. We thus argue that there is a need to take a broader view to the change. We interviewed 14 high-profile actors in Finland and at the European Union level, trying to understand the highest level of this transformation, how the forces are shaped into drivers, what technical manifestations are foreseen, and how the voice of the individual worker can be heard at this level of the process

It\u27s a Big Question – Researchers’ Discourses on Sustainable Technology Development and Use

Sustainability is a major theme in today’s discourses across disciplines, including Information Systems (IS). Creating a more sustainable world is considered an interdisciplinary effort and IS an inherently interdisciplinary field. Working with complex problems benefits from deeper disciplinary understanding than can be obtained by researchers operating within one field. We interviewed 30 researchers from different fields on sustainable technology development and use, analysing their discourses and reflecting those with the Quintuple Helix Innovation Model that aims for sustainable development of innovations. Our findings show power is woven into sustainability: education can empower us to make sustainable choices, politicians must be vigilant of developments in the industry to protect us as companies follow business interests, and we must all be conscious of the impact technology can have on us and our environments. We contribute with insights on the role of researchers in these discourses, and propose an IS research agenda

Diffuse Alveolar Damage: A Common Phenomenon in Progressive Interstitial Lung Disorders

It has become obvious that several interstitial lung diseases, and even viral lung infections, can progress rapidly, and exhibit similar features in their lung morphology. The final histopathological feature, common in these lung disorders, is diffuse alveolar damage (DAD). The histopathology of DAD is considered to represent end stage phenomenon in acutely behaving interstitial pneumonias, such as acute interstitial pneumonia (AIP) and acute exacerbations of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Acute worsening and DAD may occur also in patients with nonspecific interstitial pneumonias (NSIPs), and even in severe viral lung infections where there is DAD histopathology in the lung. A better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the DAD reaction is needed to clarify the treatment for these serious lung diseases. There is an urgent need for international efforts for studying DAD-associated lung diseases, since the prognosis of these patients has been and is still dismal

Bayes in Wonderland! Predictive Supervised Classification Inference Hits Unpredictability

The marginal Bayesian predictive classifiers (mBpc), as opposed to the simultaneous Bayesian predictive classifiers (sBpc), handle each data separately and, hence, tacitly assume the independence of the observations. Due to saturation in learning of generative model parameters, the adverse effect of this false assumption on the accuracy of mBpc tends to wear out in the face of an increasing amount of training data, guaranteeing the convergence of these two classifiers under the de Finetti type of exchangeability. This result, however, is far from trivial for the sequences generated under Partition Exchangeability (PE), where even umpteen amount of training data does not rule out the possibility of an unobserved outcome (Wonderland!). We provide a computational scheme that allows the generation of the sequences under PE. Based on that, with controlled increase of the training data, we show the convergence of the sBpc and mBpc. This underlies the use of simpler yet computationally more efficient marginal classifiers instead of simultaneous. We also provide a parameter estimation of the generative model giving rise to the partition exchangeable sequence as well as a testing paradigm for the equality of this parameter across different samples. The package for Bayesian predictive supervised classifications, parameter estimation and hypothesis testing of the Ewens sampling formula generative model is deposited on CRAN as PEkit package

Bayes in Wonderland! Predictive Supervised Classification Inference Hits Unpredictability

The marginal Bayesian predictive classifiers (mBpc), as opposed to the simultaneous Bayesian predictive classifiers (sBpc), handle each data separately and, hence, tacitly assume the independence of the observations. Due to saturation in learning of generative model parameters, the adverse effect of this false assumption on the accuracy of mBpc tends to wear out in the face of an increasing amount of training data, guaranteeing the convergence of these two classifiers under the de Finetti type of exchangeability. This result, however, is far from trivial for the sequences generated under Partition Exchangeability (PE), where even umpteen amount of training data does not rule out the possibility of an unobserved outcome (Wonderland!). We provide a computational scheme that allows the generation of the sequences under PE. Based on that, with controlled increase of the training data, we show the convergence of the sBpc and mBpc. This underlies the use of simpler yet computationally more efficient marginal classifiers instead of simultaneous. We also provide a parameter estimation of the generative model giving rise to the partition exchangeable sequence as well as a testing paradigm for the equality of this parameter across different samples. The package for Bayesian predictive supervised classifications, parameter estimation and hypothesis testing of the Ewens sampling formula generative model is deposited on CRAN as PEkit package

The Future Digital Innovators: Empowering the Young Generation with Digital Fabrication and Making

So far, the implications of digital fabrication and making on digital innovation and the future of IS discipline and profession remain unexplored. This is where this study contributes and it does so by focusing on the perspective of the young generation, in whose hands the future of IS profession, indeed, lies. Digital technology has become intimately intertwined with our everyday life. New stakeholders take part in its development and innovation processes, including children. Calls for offering more in-depth technology knowledge for children have emerged within research on digital fabrication and the maker movement: children need to be educated to design, make, and build new technology. We critically examine existing studies on digital fabrication and making with children, in order to see what the potential of digital fabrication and making for empowering children to become digital innovators of the future is. Implications to IS research, practice, and education are presented

Coinfection outcome in an opportunistic pathogen depends on the inter-strain interactions

Background: In nature, organisms are commonly coinfected by two or more parasite strains, which has been shown to influence disease virulence. Yet, the effects of coinfections of environmental opportunistic pathogens on disease outcome are still poorly known, although as host-generalists they are highly likely to participate in coinfections. We asked whether coinfection with conspecific opportunistic strains leads to changes in virulence, and if these changes are associated with bacterial growth or interference competition. We infected zebra fish (Danio rerio) with three geographically and/or temporally distant environmental opportunist Flavobacterium columnare strains in single and in coinfection. Growth of the strains was studied in single and in co-cultures in liquid medium, and interference competition (growth-inhibiting ability) on agar. Results: The individual strains differed in their virulence, growth and ability for interference competition. Number of coinfecting strains significantly influenced the virulence of infection, with three-strain coinfection differing from the two-strain and single infections. Differences in virulence seemed to associate with the identity of the coinfecting bacterial strains, and their pairwise interactions. This indicates that benefits of competitive ability (production of growth-inhibiting compounds) for virulence are highest when multiple strains co-occur, whereas the high virulence in coinfection may be independent from in vitro bacterial growth. Conclusions: Intraspecific competition can lead to plastic increase in virulence, likely caused by faster utilization of host resources stimulated by the competitive interactions between the strains. However, disease outcome depends both on the characteristics of individual strains and their interactions. Our results highlight the importance of strain interactions in disease dynamics in environments where various pathogen genotypes co-occur.peerReviewe

Making it Better: Value Perceptions of Usability Workshops in Education Outreach

IS Education outreach programs are important today, as the need for Information Technology (IT) professionals has risen in the last decades. Information Systems (IS) outreach efforts are often short lived and rely heavily on interested individuals to make them happen. This study looks at one case in Finland, where two universities collaborate with a company to create usability improvement workshops to upper secondary school students. By interviewing the stakeholders, this study aims to map the value for each stakeholder group, and their reasons for participating in the studied outreach project. Service dominant logic and value co-creation are used as the theoretical framework to categorize stakeholders’ value expectations, perceptions, and propositions. The paper reports the value experienced by each stakeholder group, compares those to what others expect them to gain, and seeks to find ways to create outreach programs that benefit all participants