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HICSS Panel Report on Cognitive Foreshadowing: Next Steps in Applying Neuroscience and Cognitive Science to Information Systems Research
Get PDFThe use of neurophysiological tools in the information systems domain has received increased attention over the last decade. The Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences has helped provide a home for rigorously exploring such work through related minitracks and symposia. This paper reports on a panel presented at the 49th HICSS conference held in 2016 during a symposium organized to help orient interested researchers to the usefulness of cognitive neuroscience in IS research. This paper first introduces the rise in the IS discipline for integrating the methodologies and tools of cognitive neuroscience. It then presents individual viewpoints from the varying panel members at the symposium as they addressed questions of longevity, applicability, and next steps for the neuroIS subdiscipline. The four panel members included Alan Dennis, Angelika Dimoka, Allen Lee, and Ofir Turel
Information Systems Research: Thinking Outside the Basket and Beyond the Journal
Get PDFInformation systems (IS) researchers have long discussed research impact and journal rankings. We believe that any measure of impact should pass the same fundamental tests that we apply to our own research: validity and reliability. In this paper, we examine the impact of journals in the AIS Senior Scholars’ basket of eight journals, three close contenders (i.e., journals that researchers frequently suggest for inclusion in the basket), and six randomly selected IS journals (from the Web of Science list) using a variety of traditional measures (e.g., journal impact factor) and newer measures (e.g., PageRank). Based on the results, we make three rather unpleasant and likely contentious conclusions. First, journal impact factor and other traditional mean-based measures do not represent valid measures so we conclude that one should not use them to measure journal quality. Second, the journal basket does not reliably measure quality, so we conclude that it one should not use it to measure journal quality. Third, the journal in which a paper appears does not reliably measure the paper’s quality, so we conclude that one should not use the number of papers an author has published in certain journals as a criterion for promotion and tenure assessments. We believe that the best way forward involves focusing on paper-level and not journal-level measures. We offer some suggestions, but we fundamentally conclude that we do not know enough to make good recommendations, so we need more research on paper-level measures. We believe that these issues pertain to many disciplines and not just the IS discipline and that we need to take the lead in doing research to identify valid and reliable measures for assessing research impact
The Code of the Platform
Get PDFDigital platform-based businesses such as Uber, eBay, and Google have become ubiquitous in our daily lives. They have done so by expertly harnessing technology to bring supply- and demand-side users together for commercial and social exchange. Users are happy to let these platform companies play “matchmaker” because transaction costs are lowered—it is easier to find or give a ride, buy or sell a product, or obtain almost any kind of information than ever before—and platforms are happy to be at the center of the exchange, taking advantage of network effects to become wildly successful. Despite the success of these platforms, however, there is an increasing unease with the methods that platforms use to sustain their multi-sided markets—namely, users question whether they are being manipulated by some of their favorite companies. This Article offers a first-of-its kind analysis into both the legality and ethicality of platform companies, specifically their use of technologically enhanced behavioral science to mediate user transactions. After providing a descriptive account of how platform companies operate and succeed, including an in-depth analysis of the choice architecture platforms employ to structure almost every decision made on the platform, this Article evaluates whether platforms manipulate users. Various activities of platform companies are assessed and charted on a platform manipulation matrix as part of an integrated framework that evaluates the autonomy costs platforms impose upon users. Once done, it becomes clear that much of what platforms do is indeed manipulative; yet much is also beneficial to users and companies alike. This Article then offers a path forward: an ethical foundation to be used by platforms, users, and regulators aimed at reducing manipulative practices—a new Code of the Platform
Seasonal Injection Strategies for Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering
Get PDFSimulations of stratospheric aerosol geoengineering have typically considered injections at a constant rate over the entire year. However, the seasonal variability of both sunlight and the stratospheric circulation suggests seasonally dependent injection strategies. We simulated single‐point injections of the same amount of SO2 in each of the four seasons and at five different latitudes (30°S, 15°S, equator, 15°N, and 30°N), 5 km above the tropopause. Our findings suggest that injecting only during one season reduces the amount of SO2 needed to achieve a certain aerosol optical depth, thus potentially reducing some of the side effects of geoengineering. We find, in particular, that injections at 15°N or 15°S in spring of the corresponding hemisphere results in the largest reductions in incoming solar radiation. Compared to annual injections, by injecting in the different seasons we identify additional distinct spatiotemporal aerosol optical depth patterns, thanks to seasonal differences in the stratospheric circulation
2,500 Years of Hydroclimate Variability in New Mexico, USA
Get PDFWe provide a 2,508‐year reconstruction (492 BCE–2015 CE) of hydroclimate variability for west‐central New Mexico using the long‐lived conifer Rocky Mountain juniper (Juniperus scopulorum Sarg.). The reconstruction model explains 53% of the instrumental soil moisture variance and all validation statistics indicate a skillful record. More hydroclimate flips (extreme wet‐dry, vice versa) occur during the 20th–21st century than any other century in the past 2,500 years. Yet, drought and pluvial events captured during the instrumental period (since ca. 1900) do not represent the full range and variability of historical conditions. Since ca. 500 BCE, over 50 drought events have surpassed the severity of recent 21st century conditions, including the first documentation of a prolonged and severe drought during the second to third century BCE (Pre‐Ancestral Puebloan). Continued extreme hydroclimate variability (e.g., flips) in the 21st century could create infrastructure challenges for regional water planning authorities in this arid region
Improving polarized neutron imaging for visualization of the Meissner effect in superconductors
Get PDFThe polarized neutron imaging technique provides a non-invasive method of characterizing localized magnetic fields inside superconductors. However, complete understanding of the magnetic field distribution has yet to be realized experimentally due to the complexity of the interaction between neutron polarization and magnetic field. In this article, we show that a well-defined and controlled magnetic field through the neutron path contributes to simplify the data analysis and makes future quantitative polarized neutron imaging possible. This is demonstrated in a set of experiments that visualize the magnetic field distribution inside and around the superconductors. The experimental results demonstrate that proper guide field setup allows the visualization of the magnetic field expulsion at the surface of the superconductor in the zero-field cooling condition, as well as the magnetic field trapped inside the superconductor under field cooling condition
Drought in the Twenty-First Century in a Water-Rich Region: Modeling Study of the Wabash River Watershed, USA
No full textClimate change is expected to alter drought regimes across North America throughout the twenty-first century, and, consequently, future drought risk may not resemble the past. To explore the implications of nonstationary drought risk, this study combined a calibrated, regional-scale hydrological model with statistically downscaled climate projections and standardized drought indices to identify intra-annual patterns in the response of meteorological, soil moisture, and hydrological drought to climate change. We focus on a historically water-rich, highly agricultural watershed in the US Midwest—the Wabash River Basin. The results show likely increases in the frequency of soil moisture and hydrological drought, despite minimal changes in the frequency of meteorological drought. We use multiple linear regression models to interpret these results in the context of climate warming and show that increasing temperatures amplify soil moisture and hydrological drought, with the same amount of precipitation yielding significantly lower soil moisture and significantly lower runoff in the future than in the past. The novel methodology presented in this study can be transferred to other regions and used to understand how the relationship between meteorological drought and soil moisture/hydrological drought will change under continued climate warmin
The Relationship Between Residential Learning Communities and Student Engagement
Get PDFResidential learning communities (RLCs) are residence hall environments designed to deliver academic and social benefits. For decades, many have argued RLCs are an effective means for increasing student success. Yet substantial changes in the defining characteristics of campus housing and student diversity have led to new questions about the impact of living on campus and the benefits of RLCs in particular. Consequently, we investigated the continued efficacy of RLCs as an effective educational practice. Using data from a diverse, multi-institution sample of first-year and sophomore students, this study provides insight into the relationships between RLC participation, student engagement, and perceived gains in learning
Innovation, Habitus, and Heritage: Modeling the Careers of Cultural Forms Through Time
Get PDFSince the 1990s, folklorists have become more deliberate in their use of the concept of heritage, with the term now standing at the center of our theoretical and policy debates. Heritage is both a phenomenon in the world that folklorists think about and a concept that we think with. In this article we build on classic and recent work, presenting an ideal type model of heritage that locates it within the flow of time and in relationship to other modes of culture—particularly innovation and normative culture or, in a somewhat different framework, habitus. The heuristic offered emphasizes the different degrees of metacultural salience characteristic of a cultural form in a particular social, cultural, and historical context and aims to supplement critical perspectives that are particularly focused on formal heritage policies