Information Systems Solutions for Environmental Sustainability: How Can We Do More?

We contend that too few information systems (IS) academics engage in impactful research that offers solutions to global warming despite the fact that climate change is one of the most critical challenges facing this generation. Climate change is a major threat to global sustainability in the 21st century. Unfortunately, from submissions of our call for papers presenting IS solutions for environmental sustainability, we found only one paper worthy of publication. Given that IS have been the major force for productivity increases in the last half-century, we suggest that IS scholars should immerse themselves in creating solutions for environmental problems. Moreover, information is a perquisite for assessing the state of the environment and making appropriate decisions to ameliorate identified problems. Indeed, the IS scholarly community needs to help create a sustainable society. While there is an emerging body of IS scholarship under the banner of green IS, we strongly believe that we need to step up these efforts. Our experience indicates that the emergence of green IS as an academic discipline is still by far too slow relative to the needs of society. Too few people are working on green IS given its importance, and fewer still are publishing papers about IS solutions that could contribute to dealing with climate change. In this editorial, we speculate on some reasons for why and explore how the IS discipline can grasp the opportunity to contribute to one of the most important societal challenges of our time. We identify the major barriers that we assert curtail the involvement of IS scholars in green IS research; namely, incentives misalignment, the low status of practice science, data analysis poverty, identification of research scope, and research methods. We discuss each barrier and propose solutions for them

En billig GPS data analyse platform

Denne artikel præsenterer en komplet software platform til analyse af GPS data. Platformen er bygget udelukkende vha. open-source komponenter. De enkelte komponenter i platformen beskrives i detaljer. Fordele og ulemper ved at bruge open-source diskuteres herunder hvilke IT politiske tiltage, der er nødvendige i en organisation for at bruge open-source. Map-matching diskuteres i flere omgange fordi det har været en udfordring at få implementeret. Platformen er udrullet og taget i produktion hos et mindre selskab. Konklusionen er, at med et meget begrænset budget (15.000,- kr.) kan alle organisationer med et digitalt vejkort og GPS data begynde at lave trafikanalyser på disse data. Det er et krav, at der er passende IT kompetencer tilstede i organisationen

Chordal force distribution determines systolic mitral leaflet configuration and severity of functional mitral regurgitation

AbstractOBJECTIVESThe purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the chordae tendineae force distribution on systolic mitral leaflet geometry and mitral valve competence invitro.BACKGROUNDFunctional mitral regurgitation is caused by changes in several elements of the valve apparatus. Interaction among these have to comply with the chordal forcedistribution defined by the chordal coapting forces (FC) created by the transmitral pressure difference, which close the leaflets and the chordal tethering forces(FT) pulling the leaflets apart.METHODSPorcine mitral valves (n = 5) were mounted in a left ventricular model where leading edge chordal forces measured by dedicated miniature force transducers werecontrolled by changing left ventricular pressure and papillary muscle position. Chordae geometry and occlusional leaflet area (OLA) needed to cover the leaflet orifice for a givenleaflet configuration were determined by two-dimensional echo and reconstructed three-dimensionally. Occlusional leaflet area was used as expression for incomplete leafletcoaptation. Regurgitant fraction (RF) was measured with an electromagnetic flowmeter.RESULTSMixed procedure statistics revealed a linear correlation between the sum of the chordal net forces, ∑[FC−FT]s, and OLA with regression coefficient (minimum − maximum) beta = −115 to −65 [mm2/N]; p< 0.001 and RF (beta = −0.06 to −0.01 [%/N]; p < 0.001). Increasing FTby papillary muscle malalignment restrictedleaflet mobility, resulting in a tented leaflet configuration due to an apical and posterior shift of the coaptation line. Anterior leaflet coapting forces increased due to mitralleaflet remodeling, which generated a nonuniform regurgitant orifice area.CONCLUSIONSAltered chordal force distribution caused functional mitral regurgitation based on tented leaflet configuration as observed clinically

IS 2009: Changing the Course for Undergraduate IS Model Curricula

In this panel, the joint AIS / ACM Information Systems undergraduate model curriculum task force members together with other curriculum experts will be presenting and discussing the IS 2009 Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Information Systems document and soliciting IS community feedback regarding ongoing IS curriculum development efforts. As such, the panel discussion will center on the significant components embedded in the newly revised curriculum document. This includes: 1) an introduction to the key principles that guided the development of the document, 2) a list of features incorporated into the new model curricula, 3) the future of curriculum development efforts, and 4) proposed mechanism to solicit feedback from the academy

Hydrogen bond rotations as a uniform structural tool for analyzing protein architecture

Proteins fold into three-dimensional structures, which determine their diverse functions. The conformation of the backbone of each structure is locally at each Cα effectively described by conformational angles resulting in Ramachandran plots. These, however, do not describe the conformations around hydrogen bonds, which can be non-local along the backbone and are of major importance for protein structure. Here, we introduce the spatial rotation between hydrogen bonded peptide planes as a new descriptor for protein structure locally around a hydrogen bond. Strikingly, this rotational descriptor sampled over high-quality structures from the protein data base (PDB) concentrates into 30 localized clusters, some of which correlate to the common secondary structures and others to more special motifs, yet generally providing a unifying systematic classification of local structure around protein hydrogen bonds. It further provides a uniform vocabulary for comparison of protein structure near hydrogen bonds even between bonds in different proteins without alignment

Association Between Urinary Markers of Nucleic Acid Oxidation and Mortality in Type 2 Diabetes:A population-based cohort study

OBJECTIVE: We recently showed that RNA oxidation, estimated by urinary excretion of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanosine (8-oxoGuo), independently predicted mortality in a cohort of 1,381 treatment-naive patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes. In the present investigation, we analyzed urine collected 6 years after the diagnosis to assess the association between urinary markers of nucleic acid oxidation and mortality in patients with established and treated diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We used data from the 970 patients who attended the screening for diabetes complications 6 years after the diagnosis. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to examine the relationship between urinary markers of DNA oxidation (8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2′-deoxyguanosine [8-oxodG] [n = 938]) and RNA oxidation (8-oxoGuo [n = 936]) and mortality. RESULTS: During a median of 9.8 years of follow-up, 654 patients died. Urinary 8-oxoGuo assessed 6 years after the diagnosis was significantly associated with mortality. The multivariate-adjusted hazard ratios for all-cause and diabetes-related mortality of patients with 8-oxoGuo levels in the highest quartile compared with those in the lowest quartile were 1.86 (95% CI 1.34–2.58) and 1.72 (1.11–2.66), respectively. Conversely, 8-oxodG was not associated with mortality. In addition, we found an association between changes in 8-oxoGuo from diagnosis to 6-year follow-up and mortality, with increased risk in patients with an increase and decreased risk in patients with a decrease in 8-oxoGuo. CONCLUSIONS: The RNA oxidation marker 8-oxoGuo is an independent predictor of mortality in patients with established and treated type 2 diabetes, and changes in 8-oxoGuo during the first 6 years after diagnosis are associated with mortality

Low birthweight is associated with a higher incidence of type 2 diabetes over two decades independent of adult BMI and genetic predisposition

Aims/hypothesis: Low birthweight is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes. Most previous studies are based on cross-sectional prevalence data, not designed to study the timing of onset of type 2 diabetes in relation to birthweight. We aimed to examine associations of birthweight with age-specific incidence rate of type 2 diabetes in middle-aged to older adults over two decades. Methods: Adults aged 30–60 years enrolled in the Danish Inter99 cohort in 1999–2001 (baseline examination), with information on birthweight from original birth records from 1939–1971 and without diabetes at baseline, were eligible. Birth records were linked with individual-level data on age at diabetes diagnosis and key covariates. Incidence rates of type 2 diabetes as a function of age, sex and birthweight were modelled using Poisson regression, adjusting for prematurity status at birth, parity, polygenic scores for birthweight and type 2 diabetes, maternal and paternal diabetes history, socioeconomic status and adult BMI. Results: In 4590 participants there were 492 incident type 2 diabetes cases during a mean follow-up of 19 years. Type 2 diabetes incidence rate increased with age, was higher in male participants, and decreased with increasing birthweight (incidence rate ratio [95% CI per 1 kg increase in birthweight] 0.60 [0.48, 0.75]). The inverse association of birthweight with type 2 diabetes incidence was statistically significant across all models and in sensitivity analysis. Conclusions/interpretation: A lower birthweight was associated with increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes independent of adult BMI and genetic risk of type 2 diabetes and birthweight