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Collaboration among governmental organizations has been regarded as essential for realizing benefits of e-government investments. Inter-organizational collaboration on e-government can appear in several forms and can aim at varying types of benefits. However, few if any studies have delved deeper into analysis of how chosen forms of collaboration might relate to targeted e-government benefits. This article studies five cases of how contemporary acquisitions and implementations of digital archiving systems have been launched through five modes of collaboration (autonomous, standardization, framework agreement, consortium, and central service organization) among organizations in the Swedish public sector. Our analysis reveals that whereas the target system, digital archive in our case, stays similar, expected benefits vary. The article contributes by elaborating the concept of mode of collaboration that identifies typical benefits justifying a choice of a particular collaboration form on e-government development and describing the five modes in more detail based on a multi-case study. The article also outlines fourteen related propositions of the correlation between the collaboration modes and expected benefits to be verified by further research.

This article contributes to the understanding of e-government collaboration, value co-creation and co-destruction when using information systems (IS) artifacts. This is achieved through case study ...

Human-derived environmental pollutants and nutrients that reach the aquatic environment through sewage effluents, agricultural and industrial processes are constantly contributing to environmental changes that serve as drivers for adaptive responses and evolutionary changes in many taxa. In this study, we examined how two types of point sources of aquatic environmental pollution, harbors and sewage treatment plants, affect gene diversity and genetic differentiation in the blue mussel in the Baltic Sea area and off the Swedish west coast (Skagerrak). Reference sites (REF) were geographically paired with sites from sewage treatments plant (STP) and harbors (HAR) with a nested sampling scheme, and genetic differentiation was evaluated using a high-resolution marker amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). This study showed that genetic composition in the Baltic Sea blue mussel was associated with exposure to sewage treatment plant effluents. In addition, mussel populations from harbors were genetically divergent, in contrast to the sewage treatment plant populations, suggesting that there is an effect of pollution from harbors but that the direction is divergent and site specific, while the pollution effect from sewage treatment plants on the genetic composition of blue mussel populations acts in the same direction in the investigated sites.

Habitat fragmentation and the abandonment of former agricultural practices have led to extremely low dispersal rates for plant species growing in traditionally managed hay meadows in Sweden. Histor ...

Collaboration among governmental organizations has been regarded as essential for realizing benefits of e-government investments. Inter-organizational collaboration on e-government can take several forms and can produce varying types of political, organizational, and technological benefits. However, few if any studies have delved deeper into analysis of how chosen modes of collaboration might relate to targeted e-government benefits. This paper studies multiple cases of how contemporary acquisitions and implementations of digital archiving systems have been launched through varying modes of collaboration among Swedish government agencies and municipalities. Our analysis reveals that whereas the target system, digital archive, is the same in all of the studied cases, the expected benefits varies. The article contributes by explaining how selected modes of collaboration in e-government may impact on the particular types of expected benefits.

This paper investigates a complex collaborative e-government initiative in Sweden using Boundary Object theory. 22 Swedish authorities have a joint mission to create a shared submission function to facilitate the communication and collaboration between numerous stakeholders such as forest owners, businesses and several other state-and local authorities. A case study approach is used where data is collected through in-depth interviews with different stakeholders, document studies and one focus group with project managers. Four boundary objects are identified: project, shared submission function, effects analysis and appropriation direction. By analyzing these four we describe how boundary objects are used to facilitate collaboration within an open government ecosystem.

We target Software as a Service (SaaS) vendors currently investigating how to transform their solution towards a Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering. A PaaS offering includes partly opening up the solution for innovators to build additional components. Based on a design science research strategy and a case study from an enterprise feedback management system, five design considerations are presented. The considerations from the case are structured by support from a conceptual model for platforms comprising the categories: Technology, Governance and Marketplace. The design considerations concern legal arrangements, degree of technical openness, maintenance plan, attractive marketplace and quality assurance of components. The paper ends with a call for further investigation of platform design with a focus on how the design influences the collaborative arrangements on the platform.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems are standardized software packages intended to support the majority or all of an organization's processes. Customization of an ERP system is usually required to achieve fit between system and business processes of an organization. Customization options ranges from setting parameters in the system to developing new functionality by modifying source code. Models describing customization options are a decade old. Since then, the trend is for ERP systems to become more flexible. The feasibility of customization is facilitated and new options for customization are made available. Through in depth interviews, this research identifies a need for revising existing models. Presents necessary changes and proposes new customization options that should be included in a new model. There is also a need for customization models for different types of ERP systems. This paper therefore also contributes with describing how customization of cloud ERP relates to existing models.

Tobacco smoking is a risk factor for numerous disorders, including cancers affecting organs outside the respiratory tract. Epidemiological data suggest that smoking is a greater risk factor for these cancers in males compared with females. This observation, together with the fact that males have a higher incidence of and mortality from most non–sex-specific cancers, remains unexplained. Loss of chromosome Y (LOY) in blood cells is associated with increased risk of nonhematological tumors. We demonstrate here that smoking is associated with LOY in blood cells in three independent cohorts [TwinGene: odds ratio (OR) = 4.3, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 2.8 to 6.7; Uppsala Longitudinal Study of Adult Men: OR = 2.4, 95% CI = 1.6 to 3.6; and Prospective Investigation of the Vasculature in Uppsala Seniors: OR = 3.5, 95% CI = 1.4 to 8.4] encompassing a total of 6014 men. The data also suggest that smoking has a transient and dose-dependent mutagenic effect on LOY status. The finding that smoking induces LOY thus links a preventable risk factor with the most common acquired human mutation.

Process orientation and e-services have become essential in revitalizing local government. Although most municipalities offer similar services there is little reuse of e-services or underlying process models among municipalities. Configurable process models represent a promising solution to this challenge by integrating numerous variations of a process in one general model. In this study, design science is used to develop a configurable process model to capture the variability of a number of different processes. The results include a validated configurable process model for social services, a benefits analysis and directions for future development. Although the results are perceived useful by municipal officials, there are several challenges to be met before the benefits of configurable process models are fully utilized.

Smoking of tobacco is a major preventable environmental risk factor related to human health. Smoking killed about 100 million people during the 20th century and is projected to kill one billion people during this century, assuming that the current frequency of smoking is maintained. Lung cancer is the prime cause of cancer-associated death in relation to smoking. However, it is less well appreciated that smoking also causes tumors outside the respiratory tract, which are predominant in men, and cumulatively roughly as common as lung cancer. Moreover, it is known that males have a higher incidence and mortality from most sex-unspecific cancers, regardless of smoking status, and this fact is largely unexplained by known risk factors. We have recently shown that a male specific risk factor, acquired mosaic loss of chromosome Y (LOY) in non-cancerous blood cells, is associated with an increased risk of non-hematological tumors among aging males. Median survival among men with LOY was 5.5 years shorter [1]. We demonstrate here that smoking is associated with LOY in blood cells in three independent cohorts (TwinGene: odds ratio [OR] = 4.3, 95% CI = 2.8-6.7; ULSAM: OR = 2.4, 95% CI = 1.6-3.6; and PIVUS: OR = 3.5, 95% CI = 1.4-8.4) encompassing in total 6014 men. Our data also support a transient and dose-dependent mutagenic effect from smoking on LOY-status [2]. Thus, smoking may induce LOY, linking the most common acquired human mutation with a severe preventable risk factor. Our results could explain the observed sex differences and why smoking seems a greater risk factor for cancer in men than women. The molecular mechanisms behind these observations are not well understood, but LOY appears a strong and male-specific risk factor. Follow up studies are required to understand how cellular Y chromosome deficiency in normal blood cells might cause risk for cancer. We hypothesize that the Y-chromosome loss may be skewed towards, and exert negative effect on, a specific population of immune cells that are responsible for immunosurveillance. Selected references: 1. Forsberg LA, Rasi C, Malmqvist N, Davies H, Pasupulati S, Pakalapati G, Sandgren J, de Stahl TD, Zaghlool A, Giedraitis V, Lannfelt L, Score J, Cross NC, Absher D, Janson ET, Lindgren CM, Morris AP, Ingelsson E, Lind L, Dumanski JP: Mosaic loss of chromosome Y in peripheral blood is associated with shorter survival and higher risk of cancer, Nature Genetics 2014, 46:624-628. 2. Dumanski J, Rasi C, Lönn M, Davies H, Ingelsson M, Giedraitis V, Lannfelt L, Magnusson P, Lindgren C, Morris A, Cesarini D, Johannesson M, Tiensuu Janson E, Lind L, Pedersen N, Ingelsson E, Forsberg L: Smoking is associated with mosaic loss of chromosome Y, Science 2014, in press. Citation Format: Jan P. Dumanski, Chiara Rasi, Mikael Lönn, Hanna Davies, Martin Ingelsson, Vilmantas Giedraitis, Lars Lannfelt, Patrik KE Magnusson, Cecilia M. Lindgren, Andrew P. Morris, David Cesarini, Magnus Johannesson, Eva Tiensuu Janson, Lars Lind, Nancy L. Pedersen, Erik Ingelsson, Lars A. Forsberg. Smoking is associated with mosaic loss of chromosome Y. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 4683. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-4683