Scenario-Driven Supply Chain Charaterization Using a Multi-Dimensional Approach

Extreme disruptive events, such as the volcano eruption in Iceland, the Japanese tsunami, and the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as constant changes in customers’ needs and expectations, have forced supply chains to continuously adapt to new environments. Consequently, it is paramount to understand the supply chain characteristics for possible future scenarios, in order to know how to respond to threats and take advantage of the opportunities that the next years will bring. This chapter focuses on describing the characteristics of the supply chain in each of the six macro-scenarios presented in Sardesai et al. (2020b), as final stage of the scenario building methodology. Supply chains for each scenario are characterized in eight dimensions: Products and Services, Supply Chain Paradigm, Sourcing and Distribution, Technology Level, Supply Chain Configuration, Manufacturing Systems, Sales Channel, and Sustainability

Targeted array comparative genomic hybridization: a new diagnostic tool for the detection of large copy number variations in nemaline myopathy-causing genes

Nemaline myopathy (NM) constitutes a heterogeneous group of congenital myopathies. Mutations in the nebulin gene (NEB) are the main cause of recessively inherited NM. NEB is one of the most largest genes in human. To date, 68 NEB mutations, mainly small deletions or point mutations have been published. The only large mutation characterized is the 2.5 kb deletion of exon 55 in the Ashkenazi Jewish population. To investigate any copy number variations in this enormous gene, we designed a novel custom comparative genomic hybridization microarray, NM-CGH, targeted towards the seven known genes causative for NM. During the validation of the NM-CGH array we identified two novel deletions in two different families. The first is the largest deletion characterized in NEB to date, (∼53 kb) encompassing 24 exons. The second deletion (1 kb) covers two exons. In both families, the copy number change was the second mutation to be characterized and shown to have been inherited from one of the healthy carrier parents. In addition to these novel mutations, copy number variation was identified in four samples in three families in the triplicate region of NEB. We conclude that this method appears promising for the detection of copy number variations in NEB

Is a taximeter a guarantee of honesty or a barrier to entry?:exploring technology discourses as consequences of policy ambiguity

Abstract Information Systems (IS) researchers have become increasingly interested in policy. Government policy enables and constrains the range of technologies operating on the market. In the spirit of enabling innovation, governments around the world have moved to the principle of technological neutrality: regulating goals instead of specific technologies. In this paper, we focus on the legislative context of the Finnish taxi industry. Finland’s previous legislation mandated all taxicabs to be equipped with a taximeter, while prohibiting other vehicle classes from using it. Finland’s recent deregulation reform The Act on Transport Services adopted the principle of technology neutrality and thus introduced deliberate ambiguity into legal text. This ambiguity leaves room for different stakeholders to construct their own interpretations. For this paper, we conducted 19 interviews with five stakeholder types in the Finnish taxi industry and related regulatory bodies: legislators, legislation implementers, new entrants, incumbent taxi industry, and incumbent technology providers. We found how policy ambiguity opened a plethora of contesting discourses about what this seemingly mundane technology is for. We depart from the mainstream conception of policy, which views policy as a “best practice” that can be easily transferred across contexts. Instead, we call for more attention to policy ambiguity, multi-stakeholder policy contexts, and conflicting power interests