All Hands on Deck: Transdisciplinary Approaches to Emerging Infectious Disease

The increasing burden of emerging infectious diseases worldwide confronts us with numerous challenges, including the imperative to design research and responses that are commensurate to understanding the complex social and ecological contexts in which infectious diseases occur. A diverse group of scientists met in Hawaii in March 2005 to discuss the linked social and ecological contexts in which infectious diseases emerge. A subset of the meeting was a group that focused on ‘‘transdisciplinary approaches’’ to integrating knowledge across and beyond academic disciplines in order to improve prevention and control of emerging infections. This article is based on the discussions of that group. Here, we outline the epidemiological legacy that has dominated infectious disease research and control up until now, and introduce the role of new, transdisciplinary and systems-based approaches to emerging infectious diseases.Wedescribe four cases of transboundary health issues and use them to discuss the potential benefits, as well as the inherent difficulties, in understanding the social–ecological contexts in which infectious diseases occur and of using transdisciplinary approaches to deal with them

Implementation Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for ERP: Do they contribute to implementation success and post-implementation performance?

Extent: 55 p.Frequent commentaries in the literature have stated that certain critical success factors (CSFs) have to be accomplished in an organisation for an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system project to be successful. In this study we argue and demonstrate empirically that success in implementing an ERP system and in gaining performance improvement should be conceptualised as two separate dependent variables. The distinction is made because the former aspect is based upon project delivery outcomes, while the latter assesses post-ERP project performance. We question whether some factors labelled as 'critical' success factors for ERP projects are in practice actually critical for achieving success in implementation and improving output performance. To examine this we report an empirical study that has investigated whether four major CSFs are in practice critical for achieving organisational performance improvements, and the role that successful implementation may play in influencing the relationship between CSFs and improvements in organisational performance. A conceptual model was devised and then analysed using structural equation modelling, based on data collected from 217 organisations. We found that some CSFs were not critical to achieve success in ERP implementation but were critical to help an organisational achieve performance improvement from an ERP system. Additionally, we also found that achieving successful ERP system implementation mediates the degree to which a CSF affects output performance improvement. The managerial and research implications of these findings are discussed and the limitations of the study noted.Jiwat Ram, David Corkindale, Ming-Lu W

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)1.

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field

All hands on deck: transdisciplinary approaches to emerging infectious diseases

The increasing burden of emerging infectious diseases worldwide confronts us with numerous challenges, including the imperative to design research and responses that are commensurate to understanding the complex social and ecological contexts in which infectious diseases occur. A diverse group of scientists met in Hawaii in March 2005 to discuss the linked social and ecological contexts in which infectious diseases emerge. A subset of the meeting was a group that focused on "transdisciplinary approaches" to integrating knowledge across and beyond academic disciplines in order to improve prevention and control of emerging infections. This article is based on the discussions of that group. Here, we outline the epidemiological legacy that has dominated infectious disease research and control up until now, and introduce the role of new, transdisciplinary and systems-based approaches to emerging infectious diseases. We describe four cases of transboundary health issues and use them to discuss the potential benefits, as well as the inherent difficulties, in understanding the social-ecological contexts in which infectious diseases occur and of using transdisciplinary approaches to deal with them