The IS Core - VI: Further Along the Road to the IT Artifact

In one of the recent additions to the IS identity and diversity discussion, Alter questions the definition and relevance of IT artifact as defined by Benbasat and Zmud. In terms of definition, we believe that there is no substantial difference between Alter\u27s work system construct and IT artifact. However, when it comes to enhancing the relevance of and guiding the diversity in IT research, Alter\u27s boundary based approach may be less powerful than a core, IT-artifact based approach. Alter\u27s focus on systems, nonetheless, has it merits and therefore we suggest a possible convergence of Alter and Benbasat and Zmud\u27s constructs

Interface Complexity and Elderly Users: Revisited

The ever-increasing functionality of today’s software applications comes in tandem with added complexity, which may hinder elderly citizens’ full participation in the digital world. Building upon Van Slyke et al’s (2004) extension to TAM, the authors explicate the relationships between software functionality/complexity and users’ perceived usefulness and ease-of-use of software. The influence of age difference on these relationships is also examined

Decision Making, IT Governance, and Information Systems Security

The complex issue of IS security involves organizational factors. Decision making, an important area of organizations, however, has only been studied to a limited extent in relation to IS security. In this paper we explore the relationship between organizational distribution of decision rights and IS security. We review the security literature and identify three aspects of an organization as what we term the pillars bolstering the success of IS security – people, processes/structures, and technology. We top our IS Security Architecture with the integrative truss of IS security strategy. Employing Weill and Ross’ (2004) IT governance archetypes, we link this IS Security Architecture to IT governance, and propose that IT governance patterns can enhance security when the governance archetype in place matches the decision profile required by a security practice

Influence of Social Context and Affect on Individuals\u27 Implementation of Information Security Safeguards

Individuals’ use of safeguards against information security risks is commonly conceptualized as the result of a risk-benefit analysis. This economic perspective assumes a “rational actor” whereas risk is subjectively perceived by people who may be influenced by a number of social, psychological, cultural, and other “soft” factors. Their decisions thus may deviate from what economic risk assessment analysis would dictate. In this respect, a phenomenon interesting to study is that on social network sites (SNSes) people tend to, despite a number of potential security risks, provide an amount of personal information that they would otherwise frown upon. In this study we explore how people’s affect toward online social networking may impact their use of privacy safeguards. Since building social capital is a main purpose of online social networking, we use social capital theory to examine some potential contextual influence on the formation of the affect. More specifically, we adopt the perspective proposed by Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998), which views social capital as a composite of structural, relational, and cognitive capitals. Preliminary analysis of 271 survey responses shows that (a) a person’s structural and relational embeddedness in her online social networks, as well as her cognitive ability in maintaining those networks, are positively related to her affect toward SNSes; (b) a person’s affect toward SNSes moderates the relationship between her perception of privacy risk and the privacy safeguards she implements on the SNSes

Community environment, cognitive impairment and dementia in later life: results from the Cognitive Function and Ageing Study

Background: Few studies have investigated the impact of the community environment, as distinct from area deprivation, on cognition in later life. This study explores cross-sectional associations between cognitive impairment and dementia and environmental features at the community level in older people. Method: The postcodes of the 2424 participants in the year-10 interview of the Cognitive Function and Ageing Study in England were mapped into small area level geographical units (Lower-layer Super Output Areas) and linked to environmental data in government statistics. Multilevel logistic regression was conducted to investigate associations between cognitive impairment (defined as MMSE3 in GMS-AGECAT) and community level measurements including area deprivation, natural environment, land use mix and crime. Sensitivity analyses tested the impact of people moving residence within the last two years. Results: Higher levels of area deprivation and crime were not significantly associated with cognitive impairment and dementia after accounting for individual level factors. Living in areas with high land use mix was significantly associated with a nearly 60% reduced odds of dementia (OR: 0.4; 95% CI: 0.2, 0.8) after adjusting for individual level factors and area deprivation, but there was no linear trend for cognitive impairment. Increased odds of dementia (OR: 2.2, 95% CI: 1.2, 4.2) and cognitive impairment (OR: 1.4, 95% CI: 1.0, 2.0) were found in the highest quartile of natural environment availability. Findings were robust to exclusion of the recently relocated. Conclusion: Features of land use have complex associations with cognitive impairment and dementia. Further investigations should focus on environmental influences on cognition to inform health and social policies

Security Awareness Programs

A critical component of security design is security awareness programs. Implemented effectively, security awareness programs enable organizational members to understand the organizations security posture, their responsibilities, and courses of action in the face of security incidents (Purser, 2004). Awareness training programs should be designed as an initiative to foster organizational learning. In addition to the widely used training methods built with traditional or computer-based media, organizational learning tools, such as cognitive maps, are recommended in training to build security awareness as one type of distributed cognition

E-Commerce/Network Security Considerations

E-Commerce security issues can be grouped under the categories of system availability, data integrity, and data privacy. System availability means that all necessary components are available to support a given users transmission requirements. Data integrity means that all valid messages that are sent are received, messages are not altered in such as way as to make them invalid, and unauthorized messages are not introduced and transmitted over the network. Data privacy means that transmitted messages contain only 'need to know' information and are seen only by their intended audience. Enterprise network security is typically reactive, and relies heavily on host security. This approach creates complicated interactions between protocols and systems that can cause incorrect behavior and slow response to attacks. Network security at both the e-commerce and customer sites must be constantly reviewed and suitable countermeasures must be planned. The security of a site depends on the security of the internal systems and the security of external networks

A high frame rate wearable EIT system using active electrode ASICs for lung respiration and heart rate monitoring

A high specification, wearable, electrical impedance tomography (EIT) system with 32 active electrodes is presented. Each electrode has an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) mounted on a flexible printed circuit board, which is then wrapped inside a disposable fabric cover containing silver-coated electrodes to form the wearable belt. It is connected to a central hub that operates all the 32 ASICs. Each ASIC comprises a high- performance current driver capable of up to 6 mAp−p output, a voltage buffer for EIT and heart rate signal recording as well as contact impedance monitoring, and a sensor buffer that provides multi-parameter sensing. The ASIC was designed in a CMOS 0.35-μm high-voltage process technology. It operates from ±9-V power supplies and occupies a total die area of 3.9 mm2. The EIT system has a bandwidth of 500 kHz and employs two parallel data acquisition channels to achieve a frame rate of 107 frames/s, the fastest wearable EIT system reported to date. Measured results show that the system has a measurement accuracy of 98.88% and a minimum EIT detectability of 0.86 Q/frame. Its successful operation in capturing EIT lung respiration and heart rate biosignals from a volunteer is demonstrated

Fucosyltransferase 1 and 2 play pivotal roles in breast cancer cells.

FUT1 and FUT2 encode alpha 1, 2-fucosyltransferases which catalyze the addition of alpha 1, 2-linked fucose to glycans. Glycan products of FUT1 and FUT2, such as Globo H and Lewis Y, are highly expressed on malignant tissues, including breast cancer. Herein, we investigated the roles of FUT1 and FUT2 in breast cancer. Silencing of FUT1 or FUT2 by shRNAs inhibited cell proliferation in vitro and tumorigenicity in mice. This was associated with diminished properties of cancer stem cell (CSC), including mammosphere formation and CSC marker both in vitro and in xenografts. Silencing of FUT2, but not FUT1, significantly changed the cuboidal morphology to dense clusters of small and round cells with reduced adhesion to polystyrene and extracellular matrix, including laminin, fibronectin and collagen. Silencing of FUT1 or FUT2 suppressed cell migration in wound healing assay, whereas FUT1 and FUT2 overexpression increased cell migration and invasion in vitro and metastasis of breast cancer in vivo. A decrease in mesenchymal like markers such as fibronectin, vimentin, and twist, along with increased epithelial like marker, E-cadherin, was observed upon FUT1/2 knockdown, while the opposite was noted by overexpression of FUT1 or FUT2. As expected, FUT1 or FUT2 knockdown reduced Globo H, whereas FUT1 or FUT2 overexpression showed contrary effects. Exogenous addition of Globo H-ceramide reversed the suppression of cell migration by FUT1 knockdown but not the inhibition of cell adhesion by FUT2 silencing, suggesting that at least part of the effects of FUT1/2 knockdown were mediated by Globo H. Our results imply that FUT1 and FUT2 play important roles in regulating growth, adhesion, migration and CSC properties of breast cancer, and may serve as therapeutic targets for breast cancer

Older people, the natural environment and common mental disorders: cross-sectional results from the Cognitive Function and Ageing Study.

OBJECTIVES: To explore the hypothesis that higher exposure to natural environments in local areas is associated with a lower odds of depression and anxiety in later life. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study based on the year-10 interview of the Medical Research Council Cognitive Function and Ageing Study (CFAS), a population-based study of ageing in the UK. Postcodes of the CFAS participants were mapped onto small geographic units, lower-layer super output areas (LSOAs) and linked to environmental data from government databases. The natural environment was characterised as the percentage of green space and private gardens in each LSOA based on the UK Generalised Land Use 2001 Dataset. PARTICIPANTS: 2424 people aged 74 and over in the CFAS year-10 follow-up interview (2001) from 4 English centres (Cambridgeshire, Nottingham, Newcastle and Oxford). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Depression and anxiety; clinical and subthreshold cases were identified using the Geriatric Mental State Examination (GMS) package and its associated diagnostic algorithm: the Automated Geriatric Examination for Computer Assisted Taxonomy. RESULTS: Compared with the lowest quartile, living in the highest quartile of neighbourhood natural environment provision was associated with a reduced odds of subthreshold depression (OR 0.66, 95% CI 0.46 to 0.95), anxiety symptoms (OR 0.62, 95% CI 0.46 to 0.83) and their co-occurrence (OR 0.55, 95% CI 0.35 to 0.84) after adjusting for individual-level factors. Controlling for area deprivation attenuated the strength of associations for subthreshold depression by 20% but not for anxiety symptoms or for co-occurrence of the conditions. CONCLUSIONS: A high exposure to natural environments (green space and gardens) in communities was associated with fewer mental disorders among older people. Increasing provision of green environments in local areas could be a potential population-level intervention to improve mental health among older people.The Cognitive Function and Ageing Studies (CFAS) were funded by the Department of Health and the Medical Research Council [grant number G9901400]. Yu-Tzu Wu received a PhD scholarship from the Cambridge Trust, University of Cambridge. Fiona E. Matthews and A. Matthew Prina were supported by the Medical Research Council [grant number U105292687 and MR/K021907/1].This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from BMJ via http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2015-00793