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Business analytics systems are seen by many to be a growing source of value and competitive advantage for businesses. However, it is not clear if increasingly advanced analytical capabilities create opportunities for radical change in business or just represent an incremental improvement to existing systems. What are the key questions that researchers should be focusing on to improve our understanding of analytics? And are Information Systems (IS) programs teaching students the right things to be successful in this environment? This panel at International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) 2012 took stock of technological possibilities, practical experience and leading research to assess the current state and future direction of business analytics. In doing so, it brought together senior researchers and industry representatives to share the leading challenges, opportunities and good practice that they see.

Background The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly disrupted international travel and travel medicine services worldwide. Few studies have examined nationwide trends. We analyzed travel clinic visits and travel medicine services in Taiwan across the pandemic to assess its impact and inform future policy and preparedness planning. Methods This population-based longitudinal study utilized nationwide data from Travel Medicine Contract Hospitals from 2019 to 2022. The number of travel clinic visits, travel vaccinations, and International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis (ICVP) issuance were compared between 2019 and subsequent years using paired sample t-tests. Results During 2019–2022, 218,700 travel clinic visits, 92,218 travel vaccine doses, and 162,653 ICVPs were recorded. Clinic visits decreased by 52 % in 2020 but increased by 80 % in 2021 and 143 % in 2022, exceeding pre-pandemic levels. Travel vaccinations decreased by 70 % in 2020, increased by 229 % in 2021, and then decreased slightly by 22 % in 2022. ICVP issuance dropped by 74 % in 2020 but rose more than fivefold by 2022. The surge in travel vaccinations and ICVP issuance in 2021–2022 was mainly attributed to COVID-19 vaccinations and free yellow fever and meningococcal conjugate vaccination campaigns. The most documented vaccine in ICVPs shifted from yellow fever vaccines to COVID-19 vaccines during 2021–2022. Conclusions The pandemic reshaped Taiwan's travel medicine landscape. Coordinated government-hospital efforts enabled timely vaccine allocation, minimized wastage, and maintained service capacity. These results underscore the need for flexible vaccination strategies and the transition toward digital health documentation for future preparedness.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a widespread impact on a global scale, and the evolution of considerable dominants has already taken place. Some variants contained certain key mutations located on the receptor binding domain (RBD) of spike protein, such as E484K and N501Y. It is increasingly worrying that these variants could impair the efficacy of current vaccines or therapies. Therefore, analyzing and predicting the high-risk mutations of SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein is crucial to design future vaccines against the different variants. In this work, we proposed an in silico approach, immune-escaping score ( IES ), to predict high-risk immune-escaping hot spots on the receptor-binding domain (RBD), implemented through integrated delta binding free energy measured by computational mutagenesis of spike-antibody complexes and mutation frequency calculated from viral genome sequencing data. We identified 23 potentially immune-escaping mutations on the RBD by using IES , nine of which occurred in omicron variants (R346K, K417N, N440K, L452Q, L452R, S477N, T478K, F490S, and N501Y), despite our dataset being curated before the omicron first appeared. The highest immune-escaping score ( IES  = 1) was found for E484K, which agrees with recent studies stating that the mutation significantly reduced the efficacy of neutralization antibodies. Furthermore, our predicted delta binding free energy and IES show a high correlation with high-throughput deep mutational scanning data (Pearson’s r  = 0.70) and experimentally measured neutralization titers data (mean Pearson’s r  = −0.80). In summary, our work presents a new method to identify the potentially immune-escaping mutations on the RBD and provides valuable insights into future COVID-19 vaccine design.

Ganoderma mushrooms, used in traditional Chinese medicine to promote health and longevity, have become widely accepted as herbal supplements. Ganoderma lucidum (GL), a commonly seen ganoderma species, is commercially cultivated under controlled conditions for more consistent chemical composition. The medicinal properties of GL are attributable to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. We intended to assess the effect of GL in atherosclerosis, an arterial condition associated with chronic oxidative stress and inflammation, using a carotid-artery-ligation mouse model. Flow turbulence created in the ligated artery induces oxidative stress and neointimal hyperplasia, a feature of early atherogenesis. Daily oral GL prevented neointimal thickening 2 weeks after ligation. Moreover, the ganoderma triterpenoid (GT) crude extract isolated from GL abolished ligation-induced neointima formation. Mechanistically, endothelial dysfunction was observed 3 days after ligation before any structural changes could be detected. GTs alleviated the oxidative stress and restored the atheroresistent status of endothelium by inhibiting the induction of a series of atherogenic factors, including endothelin-1, von Willebrand factor, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 after 3-day ligation. The anti-inflammatory activity of GTs was tested in cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) exposed to disturbed flow in an in vitro perfusion system. GTs abolished the induction of proinflammatory VCAM-1, TNF-α, and IL-6 by oscillatory shear stress. Moreover, the antioxidant activity of GTs was tested in HUVECs against the insult of H2O2. GTs dissipated the cellular superoxide accumulation imposed by H2O2, thereby mitigating H2O2-induced cell damage and proatherogenic response. Our results revealed the atheroprotective properties of ganoderma mushrooms and identified triterpenoids as the critical constituents for those effects. GTs prevent atherogenesis by eliminating disturbed flow-induced oxidative stress and inflammation.

Rapid medical countermeasure (MCM) dispensing is an important intervention during a public health emergency. In the United States, MCM planning and exercising efforts have largely focused on dispensing therapeutics, with less emphasis on mass vaccination operations that would require additional specialized staff and infrastructure. Difficulties in distributing vaccines during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic highlighted the need for enhanced planning and exercising of plans for conducting mass vaccination campaigns. In Taiwan, seasonal influenza mass vaccination campaigns are conducted annually, which both mitigate the effects of seasonal influenza and serve as functional exercises for mass vaccination operations during a pandemic. To identify lessons that can be applied to mass vaccination planning in the United States and elsewhere, we conducted an in-person observation and data review of Taiwan’s annual seasonal influenza mass vaccination efforts in October 2017. We offer findings and recommendations for enhancing preparedness for seasonal and pandemic influenza and other public health emergencies that would require mass vaccination.

In recent years, fluctuations in natural resource prices have significantly impacted the economies of countries that rely heavily on specific natural resources. Previous studies on resource-rich countries have primarily focused on natural resource industries, often overlooking the importance of developing non-natural resource industries, which in turn has constrained broader economic development. In response to this gap, the present study aims to explore how non-natural resource enterprises in resource-rich countries attain enterprise competitiveness. To achieve this, a qualitative case study approach is adopted, with oil-rich Brunei selected as the focal case. Based on the findings, this study proposes 5 strategic dimensions for Brunei's non-oil and gas sector – operation maintaining, financial diagnosing, organization flexibilizing, structure balancing, and development securing – which may serve as a valuable reference for other resource-rich countries seeking to pursue economic diversification.

Dynamic networks are studied by sociologists to understand network evolution, belief formation, friendship formation, etc. Companies make and receive different impacts from other companies in different periods. If one can understand what types of network changes affect a company’s value, then one would be able to predict the future value of the company, grasp industry innovations, and make business more successful. However, it is often difficult to collect continuous records of network changes, and the models of mining longitudinal network are complicated. In this study, we developed algorithms and a system to infer large-scale evolutionary company networks from public news during 1981–2009. Then, based on how networks change over time, and on the financial information of the companies, we predicted company profit and revenue growth. Herein, we propose a feature extraction and selection algorithm for longitudinal networks. This paper is the first to describe a study examining longitudinal network-mining-based company performance analysis. We measured how networks affect company performance and what network features are important.

•Only 81% of surveyed health facilities provided the hepatitis B birth dose (BD).•Lack of vaccine and cold chain were major reasons for not providing the BD.•Only 16% of caregivers surveyed had heard of the BD.•Insufficiencies in supervision, BD management, and community outreach were obstacles to achieving high BD coverage.•Knowledge of BD, antenatal care, and cold chain were associated with BD coverage. Papua New Guinea (PNG) implemented hepatitis B birth dose (BD) vaccination in 2005 yet since that time coverage has remained low, allowing mother-to-child transmission to occur. We conducted a field assessment of the BD vaccination program to develop strategies for improving the BD coverage. We selected five provinces with higher hepatitis B prevalence and five with lower prevalence based on the results of a 2013 hepatitis B serological survey. Within each province, we interviewed district and provincial health officers, health workers, village volunteers, and caregivers from ten randomly selected health facilities. Data were collected on knowledge, practice, vaccine management and data recording/reporting. To identify enabling factors and barriers, we compared health facilities with higher BD coverage with those with lower coverage, and compared caregivers whose children received BD with those whose children did not. Overall timely BD coverage was 31% and BD vaccination was taking place in 81% of sampled health facilities. Lack of cold chain and vaccine were the major reasons for not providing the BD. Insufficiencies in supervision, vaccine management, community outreach, and data management were identified as obstacles to achieving high timely hepatitis B BD coverage. Good supervision, knowledge of hepatitis B and hepatitis B vaccination, antenatal care including information about the hepatitis B BD, provision of vaccine refrigerators in maternity wards, and outreach vaccination for home deliveries were associated with higher timely BD coverage. Several steps will likely be effective in improving BD coverage: strengthening training and supervision among health workers and officers, educating caregivers on the benefits of the BD and delivery in health facilities, improving vaccine management, and improving data quality. Considerable effort and leadership will be needed to achieve these steps.

Security is a major concern in an increasingly multimedia-defined universe where the Internet serves as an indispensable resource for information and entertainment. Digital Rights Management (DRM) is the technology by which network systems protect and provide access to critical and time-sensitive copyrighted material and/or personal information. This book equips savvy technology professionals and their aspiring collegiate protégés with the latest technologies, strategies and methodologies needed to successfully thwart off those who thrive on security holes and weaknesses. Filled with sample application scenarios and algorithms, this book provides an in-depth examination of present and future field technologies including encryption, authentication, copy control, tagging, tracing, conditional access and media identification. The authors present a diversified blend of theory and practice and focus on the constantly changing developments in multimedia applications thus providing an admirably comprehensive book. * Discusses state-of-the-art multimedia authentication and fingerprinting techniques * Presents several practical methodologies from industry, including broadcast encryption, digital media forensics and 3D mesh watermarking * Focuses on the need for security in multimedia applications found on computer networks, cell phones and emerging mobile computing devices