Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG): Intersections and Linkages With the IS Curriculum

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) programs and risks are increasingly important to organizations and their stakeholders, e.g., customers, employees, and investors. Information technology (IT) solutions and practices will help to enable organizations to achieve their ESG goals. As ESG concepts become more relevant to both IT-producing organizations and IT-using organizations, they should be represented in one or more learning outcomes for students in information systems (IS) academic programs. But ESG is a broad term that has multiple meanings and taxonomies. It overlaps with its predecessor term, corporate social responsibility (CSR), which many business and IS academic programs already cover. This raises questions on whether and how to include ESG concepts in the IS curriculum. For instance, should ESG be a theme running through one or more existing IS courses? Should there be an entire course devoted to ESG (or a subset of ESG)? How should coverage of ESG replace or augment existing coverage of subjects such as e-waste, digital ethics, and societal impacts of computing? This session will share ideas from ongoing research into the intersections and linkages of ESG and IS academic programs. Topics will include the current state, key trends, and options for IS programs looking to update and strengthen their coverage of ESG concepts

Cell Biology: A Tense but Good Day for Actin at Cell–Cell Junctions

SummaryCells have evolved an elegant tuning mechanism to maintain tissue integrity, in which increasing mechanical tension stimulates actin assembly at cell–cell junctions. The mechanosensitive junctional protein α-catenin acts through vinculin and Ena/VASP proteins to reinforce the cell against mechanical stress

Wider Perspective of Testing Early Shrinkage of Concrete Modified with Admixtures in Changeable W/C Ratio as Innovative Solution in Civil Engineering

AbstractThe problems of concrete shrinkage have been debated by a number of authors, including those specializing in concrete chemistry. The development of concrete technologies, introducing chemical admixtures and mineral additives and high resistance concretes has contributed to creating a wider perspective on shrinkage in recent years and charting a new area of research. This article is the result of author's work in creating innovative solution for concrete shrinkage testing taking into consideration the following stages: initial shrinkage comprising: swelling, chemical (contraction), and plastic shrinkage, followed by expansion and then a second shrinkage (during drying)

Development of a Microraft-based Invasion Assay for the Selection of Single Cells based on Metastatic Potential

Motility and invasion are key steps in the metastatic cascade, enabling cells to move through normal tissue borders into the surrounding stroma. Most available in vitro assays track cell motility or cell invasion but lack the ability to measure both simultaneously and then separate single cells with unique behaviors. This dissertation describes the development of a cell-separation platform capable of tracking cell movement and invasion through an extracellular matrix in space and time utilizing microraft arrays. Microraft arrays consist of an elastomeric microwell grid, where each microwell contains an individually addressable, micromolded cell culture element. These elements, or “microrafts,” are doped with nanoparticles to enable the targeted magnetic collection of selected microrafts and their respective cellular contents. The ability to collect cells of interest by performing imaging cytometry on the microraft array platform has been previously demonstrated. However, previous platforms lack the ability to track complex phenotypic behaviors such as cellular invasion. Furthermore, standard microraft materials lack the optical properties to track discrete changes in fluorescence intensity that may correlate with cell invasion. In this dissertation, a microraft based invasion assay was designed using a collagen scaffold with embedded tumor cells overlaid onto a microraft array. Confocal microscopy enabled high resolution monitoring of cell movement within the scaffolds. To validate this method, two pancreatic cancer cell lines with known differing invasiveness were characterized and the platform identified a difference in cell motility between the two cell lines. In addition to the development of this successful platform, novel magnetic microraft materials were characterized to assess whether they possessed suitable optical properties for tracking cell invasion using widefield microscopy. To determine whether existing invasion technologies were directly translatable to the microraft array platform, several biosensing hydrogels were screened for the ability to coat microrafts and indicate cellular invasion in a quantifiable manner. This work demonstrates the feasibility of sorting single cells based on complex phenotypes along with the capability to further probe those cells and explore biological phenomena.Doctor of Philosoph

Roles and interactions of Enabled, Diaphanous and Capping Protein in regulation of actin structures in Drosophila development

Proper regulation of the actin cytoskeleton is integral for development. As a dynamic polymer, actin is highly regulated by a host of binding proteins, which alter the geometry of the polymer network. Specific actin geometries are associated with migration, protrusive behavior, and cell shape changes. Individual cell shape changes are coupled via cell - cell adhesion to affect both wound healing and morphogenesis -- the dynamic tissue rearrangements associated with development. Improper actin regulation is associated with cancer and disease. Here we use Drosophila oogenesis and embryonic morphogenesis as models for in vivo actin regulation to explore: (1) How the balance between filament elongation and filament capping affects development, finding that the antagonistic relationship between the filament elongator, Enabled, and the filament capper, Capping Protein, is integral for proper oogenesis. (2) How filament elongation factors interact and modulate actin dynamics biochemically, in cell culture and in vivo. Here we found Enabled and another elongation factor, Diaphanous, directly interact, resulting in negative regulation of Diaphanous' effect on actin polymerization. (3) Finally I expand on how the relationship between elongation factors works in vivo, finding that each elongation factor plays a dominant role in separate tissues in filopodium formation during a dynamic morphogenetic event.Doctor of Philosoph

Lean management in small and medium-sized construction enterprises in Poland – selected results

Research related to the check of the use of improvement tools in small and medium-sized companies in construction sector are not so popular and not many researchers take up the topic. Article presents the survey results on group of 217 small medium-sized enterprises regarding Lean Management method use, knowledge and efficiency assessment. Presented results showed among others that there is a need for smaller companies to focus on gaining actual knowledge about new management methods that could improve their efficiency and workflow, and that there is still place for further examination of Lean Management introduction especially in construction sector

Destabilization of The Ornithine Decarboxylase mRNA Transcript by the RNA-Binding Protein Tristetraprolin

Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) is the first and usually rate-limiting enzyme in the polyamine biosynthetic pathway. In a normal physiological state, ODC is tightly regulated. However, during neoplastic transformation, ODC expression becomes upregulated. The studies described here show that the ODC mRNA transcript is destabilized by the RNA-binding protein tristetraprolin (TTP). We show that TTP is able to bind to the ODC mRNA transcript in both non-transformed RIE-1 cells and transformed Ras12V cells. Moreover, using mouse embryonic fibroblast cell lines that are devoid of a functional TTP protein, we demonstrate that in the absence of TTP both ODC mRNA stability and ODC enzyme activity increase when compared to wild-type cells. Finally, we show that the ODC 3′ untranslated region contains cis acting destabilizing elements that are affected by, but not solely dependent on, TTP expression. Together, these data support the hypothesis that TTP plays a role in the post-transcriptional regulation of the ODC mRNA transcript

Robust estimation and forecasting of the long-term seasonal component of electricity spot prices

When building stochastic models for electricity spot prices the problem of uttermost importance is the estimation and consequent forecasting of a component to deal with trends and seasonality in the data. While the short-term seasonal components (daily, weekly) are more regular and less important for valuation of typical power derivatives, the long-term seasonal components (LTSC; seasonal, annual) are much more difficult to tackle. Surprisingly, in many academic papers dealing with electricity spot price modeling the importance of the seasonal decomposition is neglected and the problem of forecasting it is not considered. With this paper we want to fill the gap and present a thorough study on estimation and forecasting of the LTSC of electricity spot prices. We consider a battery of models based on Fourier or wavelet decomposition combined with linear or exponential decay. We find that all considered wavelet-based models are significantly better in terms of forecasting spot prices up to a year ahead than all considered sine-based models. This result questions the validity and usefulness of stochastic models of spot electricity prices built on sinusoidal long-term seasonal components

Ornithine Decarboxylase mRNA is Stabilized in an mTORC1-dependent Manner in Ras-transformed Cells

Upon Ras activation, ODC (ornithine decarboxylase) is markedly induced, and numerous studies suggest that ODC expression is controlled by Ras effector pathways. ODC is therefore a potential target in the treatment and prevention of Ras-driven tumours. In the present study we compared ODC mRNA translation profiles and stability in normal and Ras12V-transformed RIE-1 (rat intestinal epithelial) cells. While translation initiation of ODC increased modestly in Ras12V cells, ODC mRNA was stabilized 8-fold. Treatment with the specific mTORC1 [mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) complex 1] inhibitor rapamycin or siRNA (small interfering RNA) knockdown of mTOR destabilized the ODC mRNA, but rapamycin had only a minor effect on ODC translation initiation. Inhibition of mTORC1 also reduced the association of the mRNA-binding protein HuR with the ODC transcript. We have shown previously that HuR binding to the ODC 3′UTR (untranslated region) results in significant stabilization of the ODC mRNA, which contains several AU-rich regions within its 3′UTR that may act as regulatory sequences. Analysis of ODC 3′UTR deletion constructs suggests that cis-acting elements between base 1969 and base 2141 of the ODC mRNA act to stabilize the ODC transcript. These experiments thus define a novel mechanism of ODC synthesis control. Regulation of ODC mRNA decay could be an important means of limiting polyamine accumulation and subsequent tumour development