Business Informatics and the Information Systems Perspective: Implementing the IS 2010 Curriculum

This article describes how the Business Informatics program at Northern Kentucky University (NKU) has evolved and, in so doing, has addressed the call from the IS 2010 Curriculum Design Committee listed below. The article initiates this discussion with a discussion of the basic systems perspective that underlies the information systems discipline. The next section presents a review of the creation of a College of Informatics (COI) at NKU that included the strategic decision of structurally moving the Information Systems Department from the College of Business. The authors then document the perceptual shift this decision created as the Information Systems Department changed its name to Business Informatics and took on the goal of expanding the discipline beyond the business domain with partnerships across campus. A short discussion on the progress made in implementing this vision is detailed. The article closes with a discussion of problems and opportunities generated.     

Specialization by university presses

Just as scholars now specialize, so do university presses. This article explains why university presses designate publishing lists, discusses how they determine their list-building areas, and analyzes the listbuilding designations of eighty leading American university presses. Listbuilding at university presses is heavily weighted toward the humanities and social sciences, with less emphasis on the natural sciences. Paul Parsons is R.M. Seaton Professor in the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Kansas State University and author ofGetting Published: The Acquisition Process at University Press (University of Tennessee Press, 1989).     

Teaching technical authorship

MA students in professional writing and editing researched technical writing in specific workplace cultures. Their research is interpreted in light of recent theory on authorship as a cultural rather than individual phenomenon. Students’ constructs for understanding their own writerly selves are discussed, as are constructs that emerged for the interpretations of selves and others in workplace cultures. Teaching technical authorship meant addressing such constructs, implicating issues of status, affect and effect, representation, and expertise.     

Changes in short-term power output in 10- to 12-year-olds

In this study, we used multi-level regression modelling to assess the influence of age, sex, body size, skinfold thicknesses, maturity, thigh muscle volume and isokinetic leg strength on the development of load- and inertia-adjusted peak (1 s) and mean power (30 s) determined using the Wingate anaerobic test. Fifteen males and 19 females were measured twice, first aged 10.0 +/- 0.3 years and then aged 11.8 +/- 0.3 years. Initial models identified body mass and height as significant explanatory variables (P < 0.05) for peak power and mean power, with an additional age effect for the former. No significant differences between the sexes or maturity effects were observed for either peak or mean power (P > 0.05). The introduction of sum of skinfolds improved the fit of the model and rendered the height term non-significant for both peak and mean power (P> 0.05). An age effect became apparent for mean power. When isokinetic leg strength and thigh muscle volume were entered into the model, the latter exerted a significant effect on both peak and mean power (P< 0.05), whereas isokinetic leg strength was not a significant explanatory variable for either (P> 0.05). In conclusion, thigh muscle volume exerts a positive influence on young people's short-term power output, which is additional to the effects of body mass, sum of skinfolds and age.