Evolving Trends in Information Systems Education

Information Systems (IS) education has evolved over the last fifteen years. The old paradigm for IS education, as described in the paper, failed to provide students with the knowledge and skills that they need to succeed. This paper examines the paradigm shift in IS education and presents it in the form of a word framework. This framework should be useful in course and curricular development

Disciplinary Evolution and the Rise of the Transdiscipline

This paper challenges readers to reflect on academic disciplines in a new way, through the lens of the theory of evolution. Indeed, how disciplines came into being has been largely left unexplored. This paper shows how the concepts of evolution can be productively applied to describe the development, creation, and diminishment of disciplines. These concepts include natural selection, speciation, parallel evolution, extinction, and heterosis, among others. The paper concludes that these forces lead to a prediction that a new form of organization, the transdiscipline, is evolving to become perhaps predominant

Photo-Crosslinkable Colloids: From Fluid Structure and Dynamics of Spheres to Suspensions of Ellipsoids

Recently-developed photo-crosslinkable PMMA (polymethylmethacrylate) colloidal spheres are a highly promising system for fundamental studies in colloidal physics and may have a wide range of future technological applications. We synthesize these colloids and characterize their size distribution. Their swelling in a density- and index- matching organic solvent system is demonstrated and we employ dynamic light scattering (DLS), as also the recently-developed confocal differential dynamic microscopy (ConDDM), to characterize the structure and the dynamics of a fluid bulk suspension of such colloids at different particle densities, detecting significant particle charging effects. We stretch these photo-crosslinkable spheres into ellipsoids. The fact that the ellipsoids are cross-linked allows them to be fluorescently stained, permitting a dense suspension of ellipsoids, a simple model of fluid matter, to be imaged by direct confocal microscopy

COSMOLOGICAL GAMMA RAY BURSTS AND THE HIGHEST ENERGY COSMIC RAYS

We discuss a scenario in which the highest energy cosmic rays (CR's) and cosmological $\gamma$-ray bursts (GRB's) have a common origin. This scenario is consistent with the observed CR flux above $10^{20}\text{eV}$, provided that each burst produces similar energies in $\gamma$-rays and in CR's above $10^{20}\text{eV}$. Protons may be accelerated by Fermi's mechanism to energies $\sim10^{20}\text{eV}$ in a dissipative, ultra-relativistic wind, with luminosity and Lorentz factor high enough to produce a GRB. For a homogeneous GRB distribution, this scenario predicts an isotropic, time-independent CR flux.Comment: Phys. Rev. Lett. in press (Received: March 22, 1995; Accepted: May 17, 1995

MTADV 5-MER peptide suppresses chronic inflammations as well as autoimmune pathologies and unveils a new potential target-Serum Amyloid A.

Despite the existence of potent anti-inflammatory biological drugs e.g., anti-TNF and anti IL-6 receptor antibodies, for treating chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, these are costly and not specific. Cheaper oral available drugs remain an unmet need. Expression of the acute phase protein Serum Amyloid A (SAA) is dependent on release of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1, IL-6 and TNF-α during inflammation. Conversely, SAA induces pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion, including Th17, leading to a pathogenic vicious cycle and chronic inflammation. 5- MER peptide (5-MP) MTADV (methionine-threonine-alanine-aspartic acid-valine), also called Amilo-5MER, was originally derived from a sequence of a pro-inflammatory CD44 variant isolated from synovial fluid of a Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patient. This human peptide displays an efficient anti-inflammatory effects to ameliorate pathology and clinical symptoms in mouse models of RA, Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Bioinformatics and qRT-PCR revealed that 5-MP, administrated to encephalomyelytic mice, up-regulates genes contributing to chronic inflammation resistance. Mass spectrometry of proteins that were pulled down from an RA synovial cell extract with biotinylated 5-MP, showed that it binds SAA. 5-MP disrupted SAA assembly, which is correlated with its pro-inflammatory activity. The peptide MTADV (but not scrambled TMVAD) significantly inhibited the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and IL-1β from SAA-activated human fibroblasts, THP-1 monocytes and peripheral blood mononuclear cells. 5-MP suppresses the pro-inflammatory IL-6 release from SAA-activated cells, but not from non-activated cells. 5-MP could not display therapeutic activity in rats, which are SAA deficient, but does inhibit inflammations in animal models of IBD and MS, both are SAA-dependent, as shown by others in SAA knockout mice. In conclusion, 5-MP suppresses chronic inflammation in animal models of RA, IBD and MS, which are SAA-dependent, but not in animal models, which are SAA-independent

Chronic psychosocial and financial burden accelerates 5-year telomere shortening: findings from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study.

Leukocyte telomere length, a marker of immune system function, is sensitive to exposures such as psychosocial stressors and health-maintaining behaviors. Past research has determined that stress experienced in adulthood is associated with shorter telomere length, but is limited to mostly cross-sectional reports. We test whether repeated reports of chronic psychosocial and financial burden is associated with telomere length change over a 5-year period (years 15 and 20) from 969 participants in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study, a longitudinal, population-based cohort, ages 18-30 at time of recruitment in 1985. We further examine whether multisystem resiliency, comprised of social connections, health-maintaining behaviors, and psychological resources, mitigates the effects of repeated burden on telomere attrition over 5 years. Our results indicate that adults with high chronic burden do not show decreased telomere length over the 5-year period. However, these effects do vary by level of resiliency, as regression results revealed a significant interaction between chronic burden and multisystem resiliency. For individuals with high repeated chronic burden and low multisystem resiliency (1 SD below the mean), there was a significant 5-year shortening in telomere length, whereas no significant relationships between chronic burden and attrition were evident for those at moderate and higher levels of resiliency. These effects apply similarly across the three components of resiliency. Results imply that interventions should focus on establishing strong social connections, psychological resources, and health-maintaining behaviors when attempting to ameliorate stress-related decline in telomere length among at-risk individuals

PTF11eon/SN2011dh: Discovery of a Type IIb Supernova From a Compact Progenitor in the Nearby Galaxy M51

On May 31, 2011 UT a supernova (SN) exploded in the nearby galaxy M51 (the Whirlpool Galaxy). We discovered this event using small telescopes equipped with CCD cameras, as well as by the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) survey, and rapidly confirmed it to be a Type II supernova. Our early light curve and spectroscopy indicates that PTF11eon resulted from the explosion of a relatively compact progenitor star as evidenced by the rapid shock-breakout cooling seen in the light curve, the relatively low temperature in early-time spectra and the prompt appearance of low-ionization spectral features. The spectra of PTF11eon are dominated by H lines out to day 10 after explosion, but initial signs of He appear to be present. Assuming that He lines continue to develop in the near future, this SN is likely a member of the cIIb (compact IIb; Chevalier and Soderberg 2010) class, with progenitor radius larger than that of SN 2008ax and smaller than the eIIb (extended IIb) SN 1993J progenitor. Our data imply that the object identified in pre-explosion Hubble Space Telescope images at the SN location is possibly a companion to the progenitor or a blended source, and not the progenitor star itself, as its radius (~10^13 cm) would be highly inconsistent with constraints from our post-explosion photometric and spectroscopic data