An ethical framework in information systems decision making using normative theories of business ethics

As business environments become more complex and reliant on information systems, the decisions made by managers affect a growing number of stakeholders. This paper proposes a framework based on the application of normative theories in business ethics to facilitate the evaluation of IS related ethical dilemmas and arrive at fair and consistent decisions. The framework is applied in the context of an information privacy dilemma to demonstrate the decision making process. The ethical dilemma is analyzed using each one of the three normative theories—the stockholder theory, stakeholder theory, and social contract theory. The challenges associated with the application of these theories are also discussed.     

Logarithmic spiral — A splendid curve

Due to its various peculiarities, logarithmic spiral drew the attention of mathematicians and was called ‘spiral mirabilis’ by Jacob Bernoulli I. In this article some properties of logarithmic spiral have been described along with the appearance as well as applications of the curve in art and nature.     

Silence of the genes

The 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Andrew Fire and Craig Mello for discovering “RNA interference—genesilencing by double-stranded RNA”. The Nobel Committee at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden selected them for the award for unraveling “a fundamental mechanism for controlling the flow of genetic information” that is “already being widely used in basic science as a method to study the function of genes and may lead to novel therapies in the future”. This has been one of the fastest Nobel Prizes conferred in physiology or medicine, considering that Fire and Mello published their path-breaking article in the journal Nature in 1998, less than ten years ago. Utpal Nath is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, IISc. His laboratory is studying the genetic mechanisms of plant development. Saumitra Das is an Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, IISc. His laboratory is interested in the translational control of cellular and viral RNA.     

Mercator and his map

In this article we present briefly some preliminary ideas of map projection, followed by a detailed account of the Mercator projection.     

Precession of the equinoxes and its importance in calendar making

Just like the axis of a rotating top, the axis of the Earth moves in a conical path about the ecliptic pole and completes it in about 25800 years. This motion of the Earth is known as precession. Due to this precessional motion, the equinoctial points experience a westward motion and hence the cardinal points shift their positions with the passage of time. In this article, the causes of precessional motion and its effect on calendar preparation are discussed. Utpal Mukhopadhyay obtained his MSc degree in Applied Mathematica from the University of Calcutta in 1986 and since then he is serving as a teacher of Barasat Satyabharti Vidyapith. He is actively engaged in science popularisation programme and regularty writes popular and semipopular articles on astronomy, mathematics and physics in various journals of India and abroad.     

Fermat: A versatile genius

Fermat, a lawyer by profession, was a mathematical genius. Apart from being regarded as the founder of modern number theory, he made seminal contributions to calculus and probability theory. In this article, various mathematical works of Fermat are discussed briefly along with the notoriously difficult FLT associated with him.     

Schmallenberg virus

Schmallenberg virus causes stillbirths in animal populations like cattle, goats, sheep, bison and Alpaca. The first case was reported in Germany in November 2011 in a town called Schmallenberg. Consequently, many more cases were reported all over Europe, in The Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom and France. Here, we elaborate on the recently identified Schmallenberg virus and its pathological outbreak in animals.