How Information Systems are Shaped from the Decision-Making Level to Technical Implementation: Case Trucking

Digitalization is advancing in all walks of life. One of the areas undergoing a sector-wide transformation is trucking, as part of the logistics sector. This will have a profound impact from societal and economic level down to the individual trucker. Information Systems research has for long focused on system design and deployment on organizational level, implying that this level has the actual power to decide about the design directions. However, our study shows that the transformation is more complex and involves technical and societal aspects that shape the decisions before a single organization, or a network of companies get involved. We thus argue that there is a need to take a broader view to the change. We interviewed 14 high-profile actors in Finland and at the European Union level, trying to understand the highest level of this transformation, how the forces are shaped into drivers, what technical manifestations are foreseen, and how the voice of the individual worker can be heard at this level of the process

Media- ja viestintäpolitiikan nykytila ja mittaaminen

Tämä tutkimushanke on toteutettu liikenne- ja viestintäministeriön toimeksiannosta yhteistyössä media-alan toimijoiden kanssa. Sen tavoitteena on ollut tuottaa uuden kansallisen mediapoliittisen ohjelman valmistelutyön pohjaksi monialainen yhteiskuntatieteellinen perusselvitys mediapolitiikan nykytilasta Suomessa. Aiemman sektoripohjaisen lähestymistavan sijaan tässä raportissa on haettu uutta, kokonaisvaltaisempaa tapaa hahmottaa median ja viestinnän kehitystä. Niinpä käsillä olevassa loppuraportissa nykyistä tilannetta kuvataan seitsemän media- ja viestintäpolitiikan perusperiaatteen (Pi-card ja Pickard 2017) sekä kansainvälisen vertailun näkökulmasta eri aineistojen avulla. Raportissa esitellään selvitystyön tuloksien pohjalta laadittu mittaristomalli suomalaisen media- ja viestintäpolitiikan eri osa-alueiden muutoksen seurantaa varten. Seitsemän osa-alueen muutoksen seuraamiseksi ehdotetaan kaikkiaan 26 muuttu-jaa ja 52 eri indikaattoria. Muuttujat edustavat kunkin perusperiaatteen keskeisiä ulottuvuuksia. Ehdotetut indikaattorit ovat pääosin määrällisiä ja perustuvat olemassa olevaan numeeriseen tietoon, jota päivitetään säännöllisesti. Näin ollen moni indikaattori mahdollistaa pidemmän aikavälin kehityksen tarkastelun myös taannehtivasti. Osa mittareista edellyttää kuiten-kin dataa, jota ei toistaiseksi ole olemassa tai jonka tuottaminen tulisi käynnistää uudelleen. Raportin päätteeksi tekijät esittävät omat suosituksensa jatkotoimist

“We come together as one…and hope for solidarity to live on”: On designing technologies for activism and the commemoration of lost lives

On the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers (IDEVASW), sex worker rights advocates and support services commemorate lives lost due to violence. In this paper we describe and reflect on a Feminist Participatory Action Research project that supported the activities of IDEVASW over two years in North East England. Working alongside a charity that provides services to women who are sex workers or have experienced sexual exploitation, we co-organised the first activist march on the day. As researchers and service providers, we present detailed reflections on the use of digital technologies during the public activist march, a private service for commemoration, and the development of a semi-public archive to collect experiences of the day. We develop three implications for the design of digital technologies for activism and the commemoration of lost lives: as catalysts for reflection and opportunities to layer experience

Effect of remdesivir post hospitalization for COVID-19 infection from the randomized SOLIDARITY Finland trial

We report the first long-term follow-up of a randomized trial (NCT04978259) addressing the effects of remdesivir on recovery (primary outcome) and other patient-important outcomes one year after hospitalization resulting from COVID-19. Of the 208 patients recruited from 11 Finnish hospitals, 198 survived, of whom 181 (92%) completed follow-up. At one year, self-reported recovery occurred in 85% in remdesivir and 86% in standard of care (SoC) (RR 0.94, 95% CI 0.47-1.90). We infer no convincing difference between remdesivir and SoC in quality of life or symptom outcomes (p > 0.05). Of the 21 potential long-COVID symptoms, patients reported moderate/major bother from fatigue (26%), joint pain (22%), and problems with memory (19%) and attention/concentration (18%). In conclusion, after a one-year follow-up of hospitalized patients, one in six reported they had not recovered well from COVID-19. Our results provide no convincing evidence of remdesivir benefit, but wide confidence intervals included possible benefit and harm.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Effect of remdesivir post hospitalization for COVID-19 infection from the randomized SOLIDARITY Finland trial

We report the first long-term follow-up of a randomized trial (NCT04978259) addressing the effects of remdesivir on recovery (primary outcome) and other patient-important outcomes one year after hospitalization resulting from COVID-19. Of the 208 patients recruited from 11 Finnish hospitals, 198 survived, of whom 181 (92%) completed follow-up. At one year, self-reported recovery occurred in 85% in remdesivir and 86% in standard of care (SoC) (RR 0.94, 95% CI 0.47-1.90). We infer no convincing difference between remdesivir and SoC in quality of life or symptom outcomes (p > 0.05). Of the 21 potential long-COVID symptoms, patients reported moderate/major bother from fatigue (26%), joint pain (22%), and problems with memory (19%) and attention/concentration (18%). In conclusion, after a one-year follow-up of hospitalized patients, one in six reported they had not recovered well from COVID-19. Our results provide no convincing evidence of remdesivir benefit, but wide confidence intervals included possible benefit and harm.Peer reviewe

The impact of work development on information systems

The historical development of work is analyzed using the division into con-ception and execution aspects proposed by Braverman. The result is com-pared with the historical development of information systems. It is found that although the support of group conception is needed in the developing work organization, no information systems yet exist for this purpose. Some features needed in such systems are presented

2 Activity Theory as a Potential Framework for Human- Computer Interaction Research

In recent years the mainstream framework for human-computer interaction research—information processing cognitive psychology—has come under increasing criticism because of serious problems in applying it in both research and practical design. In a debate within the HCI research community, the capability of information processing psychology has been questioned and new theoretical frameworks considered. This chapter presents an overview of the situation and discusses the potential of activity theory as an alternative framework for HCI research and design. Human-computer interaction has existed for some time as a research domain and gained a reputation as one of the central elements in designing computer applications. Several international journals cover the domain, several international conferences have been held every year, and a huge number of books on the topic have been published. Many, if not most, curricula for software design professionals contain a course in HCI. Given this record, one would assume that there exists a well-established body of harmonious scientific knowledge covering the basic foundation of the discipline. At first sight this belief seems to be valid, because apparently HCI seems to be based on the application of the information processing branch of cognitive psychology: ``The chapters in this volume provide an interim report on the project of establishing an applied science of human-computer interaction grounded in the framework of cognitive science'&apos

Numerical assessment of the effects of microcrack interaction in AM components

A combined analytical–numerical method to study the effects of linear microcracks and their interaction in additively manufactured components is presented. The 2-D method combines an analytical technique to solve the interaction of microcracks and a numerical RVE type technique to represent the microcracking within a finite element framework using Abaqus finite element software. The method is applied to both a unit cell and test specimen type geometries containing defect patterns generated based on general trends reported for AM materials. The approach is able to determine the local stress intensity factors for each microcrack and their stiffness degradation effects in the continuum. Parallel defect patterns, such as co-oriented lack-of-fusion defects between build layers in AM materials, induce the greatest interaction effects while overall interaction effects in random patterns tend to cancel out. Stacked surface defects produce shielding effects on each other, which may cause a neighbouring subsurface defect to be more critical than the surface defects. The results show that the common geometrical interacting defect re-characterisation rules may provide an incorrect prediction of the failure origin. Finally, the applicability of the method is demonstrated with an example AM component.</p