IS Information Systems a (Social) Science?

McBride (2018) worries that researchers increasingly approach information systems (IS) research like a natural science whereby they seek to develop general laws “by applying statistical surveys and running laboratory experiments”. While it is interesting to liken IS to the hard sciences, the discipline has deep interdisciplinary roots that join many ontological, epistemological, and even philosophical understandings of phenomena related to information technology (IT). These diverse viewpoints strengthen the discipline. They are healthy and beneficial for a discipline that studies rapidly moving, complex phenomena. Rather than turn away from rigorous, statistically intensive methods, we propose that IS researchers embrace diversity and adopt an entrepreneurial model of scholarship. By employing entrepreneurial mindsets to guide their selection of theories and methods, we believe IS scholars can create opportunities to conduct rigorous, relevant work that examines increasingly diverse, complex, and emerging IT-related phenomena

Can Trust be Trusted in Cybersecurity?

Human compliance in cybersecurity continues to be a persistent problem for organizations. This research-in-progress advances theoretical understanding of the negative effects of trust formed between individuals and the cybersecurity function (i.e., those responsible for protection), cybersecurity system (i.e., the protective technologies), and organization (i.e., those verifying the cybersecurity department) that leads to suboptimal compliance behaviors. In contrast to the current information security literature that focuses on how organizations can induce compliance, this study begins to provide understanding into the degradation of compliance by organizations and how to combat it. An integrated model is conceptualized using the theories of trust and attention. This model provides the theoretical foundation to study the role of dark side trust in the context of cybersecurity and provides initial mechanisms to reduce it. Additionally, by developing this conceptualization of dark side trust and model, this study contributes to the general study of trust in information systems research outside of the domain of cybersecurity

Information Systems Betrayal: When Cybersecurity Systems Shift from Agents of Protection to Agents of Harm

Cybersecurity systems provide a unique opportunity of study as they can be used as agents of protection and harm. Practice uses these systems of protection against employees through the use of red team and black hat tactics for perimeter testing as well as invasive, complex monitoring for defense of internal threats. It is important to understand the effects of these actions on end users. This study seeks to understand the effects of these cybersecurity practices on individuals through the perspectives of trust, betrayal, aversion, and resistance. An integrative model is built and employed to understand the formation and consequences of IS betrayal

A Taxonomy of Phishing: Attack Types Spanning Economic, Temporal, Breadth, and Target Boundaries

Phishing remains a pernicious problem for organizations. Phishing attacks are increasing in sophistication, which hinders the ability of cybersecurity functions to effectively defend against them. These attacks are becoming increasingly complex, dynamic, and multifaceted to evade the organizational, individual, and technical countermeasures employed in a cybersecurity ecosystem. Information security (ISec) phishing research and practice have provided an understanding of generalized phishing attacks and their subsequent defense. Yet by applying generalized phishing rules to these studies, it may not be sufficient to understand and defend escalated forms of phishing. This study seeks to develop a taxonomy of phishing to provide a more nuanced understanding of this phenomena. This taxonomy may assist ISec research in providing theoretical guidance for the understanding and defense of the various forms of phishing

Toward Conceptualizing Perplexity in Cybersecurity: An Exploratory Study

As cybersecurity threats continue to evolve, and cybersecurity teams strive to protect digital infrastructures, employees often get perplexed by the threats and corresponding countermeasures. Drawing from a literature review and a qualitative exploratory study with 85 participants, this paper conceptualizes a novel concept, namely, cybersecurity perplexity. Cybersecurity perplexity refers to a paradoxical psychological state that individuals experience when facing adverse cybersecurity conditions in the workplace (e.g., ambiguous or surprising information security (ISec) policies or awareness of cybersecurity threats). Cybersecurity perplexity has three interrelated dimensions: cybersecurity confusion, cybersecurity pressure, and cybersecurity response uncertainty. Central to cybersecurity perplexity is that individuals are confused and uncertain about responding to adverse cybersecurity conditions yet feel pressure to act. We contribute to the ISec literature by providing a conceptualization of cybersecurity perplexity and initiating a discussion about this novel phenomenon encouraging future research

Beyond the androgen receptor II: New approaches to understanding and treating metastatic prostate cancer; Report from the 2017 Coffey‐Holden Prostate Cancer Academy Meeting

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138883/1/pros23424.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138883/2/pros23424_am.pd

A Phase 3 Trial of 2 Years of Androgen Suppression and Radiation Therapy With or Without Adjuvant Chemotherapy for High-Risk Prostate Cancer: Final Results of Radiation Therapy Oncology Group Phase 3 Randomized Trial NRG Oncology RTOG 9902.

PURPOSE: Long-term (LT) androgen suppression (AS) with radiation therapy (RT) is a standard treatment of high-risk, localized prostate cancer (PCa). Radiation Therapy Oncology Group 9902 was a randomized trial testing the hypothesis that adjuvant combination chemotherapy (CT) with paclitaxel, estramustine, and oral etoposide plus LT AS plus RT would improve overall survival (OS). METHODS AND MATERIALS: Patients with high-risk PCa (prostate-specific antigen 20-100 ng/mL and Gleason score [GS] ≥ 7 or clinical stage ≥ T2 and GS ≥ 8) were randomized to RT and AS (AS + RT) alone or with adjuvant CT (AS + RT + CT). CT was given as four 21-day cycles, delivered beginning 28 days after 70.2 Gy of RT. AS was given as luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone for 24 months, beginning 2 months before RT plus an oral antiandrogen for 4 months before and during RT. The study was designed based on a 6% improvement in OS from 79% to 85% at 5 years, with 90% power and a 2-sided alpha of 0.05. RESULTS: A total of 397 patients (380 eligible) were randomized. The patients had high-risk PCa, 68% with GS 8 to 10 and 34% T3 to T4 tumors, and median prostate-specific antigen of 22.6 ng/mL. The median follow-up period was 9.2 years. The trial closed early because of excess thromboembolic toxicity in the CT arm. The 10-year results for all randomized patients revealed no significant difference between the AS + RT and AS + RT + CT arms in OS (65% vs 63%; P=.81), biochemical failure (58% vs 54%; P=.82), local progression (11% vs 7%; P=.09), distant metastases (16% vs 14%; P=.42), or disease-free survival (22% vs 26%; P=.61). CONCLUSIONS: NRG Oncology RTOG 9902 showed no significant differences in OS, biochemical failure, local progression, distant metastases, or disease-free survival with the addition of adjuvant CT to LT AS + RT. The trial results provide valuable data regarding the natural history of high-risk PCa treated with LT AS + RT and have implications for the feasibility of clinical trial accrual and tolerability using CT for PCa

Macroscopic transport by synthetic molecular machines

Nature uses molecular motors and machines in virtually every significant biological process, but demonstrating that simpler artificial structures operating through the same gross mechanisms can be interfaced with—and perform physical tasks in—the macroscopic world represents a significant hurdle for molecular nanotechnology. Here we describe a wholly synthetic molecular system that converts an external energy source (light) into biased brownian motion to transport a macroscopic cargo and do measurable work. The millimetre-scale directional transport of a liquid on a surface is achieved by using the biased brownian motion of stimuli-responsive rotaxanes (‘molecular shuttles’) to expose or conceal fluoroalkane residues and thereby modify surface tension. The collective operation of a monolayer of the molecular shuttles is sufficient to power the movement of a microlitre droplet of diiodomethane up a twelve-degree incline.

Definitions of disease burden across the spectrum of metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer: comparison by disease outcomes and genomics

BACKGROUND: Several definitions have attempted to stratify metastatic castrate-sensitive prostate cancer (mCSPC) into low and high-volume states. However, at this time, comparison of these definitions is limited. Here we aim to compare definitions of metastatic volume in mCSPC with respect to clinical outcomes and mutational profiles. METHODS: We performed a retrospective review of patients with biochemically recurrent or mCSPC whose tumors underwent somatic targeted sequencing. 294 patients were included with median follow-up of 58.3 months. Patients were classified into low and high-volume disease per CHAARTED, STAMPEDE, and two numeric (≤3 and ≤5) definitions. Endpoints including radiographic progression-free survival (rPFS), time to development of castration resistance (tdCRPC), and overall survival (OS) were evaluated with Kaplan-Meier survival curves and log-rank test. The incidence of driver mutations between definitions were compared. RESULTS: Median OS and tdCRPC were shorter for high-volume than low-volume disease for all four definitions. In the majority of patients (84.7%) metastatic volume classification did not change across all four definitions. High volume disease was significantly associated with worse OS for all four definitions (CHAARTED: HR 2.89; p < 0.01, STAMPEDE: HR 3.82; p < 0.01, numeric ≤3: HR 4.67; p < 0.01, numeric ≤5: HR 3.76; p < 0.01) however, were similar for high (p = 0.95) and low volume (p = 0.79) disease across all four definitions. Those with discordant classification tended to have more aggressive clinical behavior and mutational profiles. Patients with low-volume disease and TP53 mutation experienced a more aggressive course with rPFS more closely mirroring high-volume disease. CONCLUSIONS: The spectrum of mCSPC was confirmed across four different metastatic definitions for clinical endpoints and genetics. All definitions were generally similar in classification of patients, outcomes, and genetic makeup. Given these findings, the simplicity of numerical definitions might be preferred, especially when integrating metastasis directed therapy. Incorporation of tumor genetics may allow further refinement of current metastatic definitions

Fostering global data sharing: Highlighting the recommendations of the Research Data Alliance COVID-19 working group

© 2020 Austin CC et al. The systemic challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic require cross-disciplinary collaboration in a global and timely fashion. Such collaboration needs open research practices and the sharing of research outputs, such as data and code, thereby facilitating research and research reproducibility and timely collaboration beyond borders. The Research Data Alliance COVID-19 Working Group recently published a set of recommendations and guidelines on data sharing and related best practices for COVID-19 research. These guidelines include recommendations for researchers, policymakers, funders, publishers and infrastructure providers from the perspective of different domains (Clinical Medicine, Omics, Epidemiology, Social Sciences, Community Participation, Indigenous Peoples, Research Software, Legal and Ethical Considerations). Several overarching themes have emerged from this document such as the need to balance the creation of data adherent to FAIR principles (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable), with the need for quick data release; the use of trustworthy research data repositories; the use of well-annotated data with meaningful metadata; and practices of documenting methods and software. The resulting document marks an unprecedented cross-disciplinary, cross-sectoral, and cross-jurisdictional effort authored by over 160 experts from around the globe. This letter summarises key points of the Recommendations and Guidelines, highlights the relevant findings, shines a spotlight on the process, and suggests how these developments can be leveraged by the wider scientific community