With the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the United States in 2002, and an ever-increasing corporate focus on ensuring prudent returns on technology investments, the notion of IT governance became a major issue for both business practitioners and academics. Although the term "IT governance" is a relatively new addition to the syntax of academic research, significant previous work is reported on IT decisions rights and IT loci of control, notions that are synonymous with the current understanding of IT governance. This paper presents a literature review for existing research in IT governance. A framework, named the Conceptual Framework For IT Governance Research is proposed to provide a logical structure for existing research results. Using this framework, we classify the previous literature on governance into two separate streams that follow parallel paths of advancement. A popular contemporary notion of IT governance is then presented, together with the argument that this new notion, by implicitly extending both streams of research, represents an initial amalgamation of the two paths of literature. We conclude that even with the consideration of contemporary structures, academicians and practitioners alike continue to explore the concept of IT governance in an attempt to find appropriate mechanisms to govern corporate IT decisions.

Endothelial cells (ECs) are exposed to cytotoxic reactive oxygen species and oxidation products of NO, yet they are characterized by low apoptotic rates and have an average life span of many years. EC exposure to flow has been shown to downregulate cell cycle-related genes and cause cytoskeletal rearrangement. We hypothesized that exposure to flow also causes molecular and physiological changes that induce antioxidant properties in ECs. We used cDNA array expression profiling and protein analysis to study the responses of human ECs exposed to flow in a hollow fiber apparatus or the same ECs grown under static conditions. Our results show that shear-induced synchronized expression of processes control oxidant production; these changes included upregulation of NADH-producing enzymes (Krebs cycle dehydrogenases and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase [GAPDH]) accompanied by simultaneous decrease in NADH-depleting pathways (e.g., lactate dehydrogenase [LDH]) and diminished production of lactate. Exposure to flow upregulated cytoskeletal genes. Our results suggest that, in addition to inhibition of cell cycle, exposure to flow influences ECs by controlling expression of enzymes involved in the generation of antioxidant intermediates and in adaptive control of cell shape. These changes may explain longevity and antioxidant efficiency of ECs and may provide insight in mechanisms leading to pathological conditions such as arteriosclerosis.

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for assessing the maturity level of electronic government (e-government). Design/methodology/approach -The conceptual framework is based on two models: the intellectual capital (IC) management and the capability maturity model integration (CMMI). Findings -The framework is composed of four input areas (human capital, structural capital, relational capital, and IT investment) and five maturity stages (web presence, interaction, transaction, integration, and continuous improvement). These areas are assessed by using the IC management model and the CMMI model. Employing the IC management process enables not only practitioners to effectively manage resources, but also auditors to more objectively assess the input area. Using the CMMI model allows governments to conduct process-based assessments. Originality/value -The paper contributes to the literature and practice in the following ways. First, it outlines how to define and assess key attributes of e-government activities. It can help governments to enhance the awareness and understanding of maturity levels of e-government. Second, this research expands the scope of current studies on a maturity model by providing a balanced view between input factors (resources) and results (maturity stages). For practitioners, assessing the input factors enables them to realize how to prioritize strategies and resources. For academics, this attempt sheds light on the concepts of IC in e-government studies. Third, considering the CMMI model will be helpful to conduct an objective and useful assessment. On the basis of a matrix for assessing maturity levels, governments can conduct self-assessment and establish stable and mature implementation processes.

This paper explores the issue of strategic alignment and enterprise systems (ES) implementation from the point of view of one organization involved in deploying an enterprise resource planning system globally. Two questions motivated this research. First, given that strategic information systems (IS) alignment is viewed as essential to organizational success in deriving value from information technology (IT) investments, what is the experience of organizations in practice in aligning their IT strategies with their business strategies? Second, what is the impact of global ES deployments on strategic IS alignment? Based on an in-depth case study of one organization's experience, the research shows that achieving alignment is still important yet difficult to attain. The pressure for alignment may be even more intense with the deployment of global enterprise-wide systems. The study provides additional empirical support for the strategic IS alignment construct and goes further to suggest that deploying an ES does not by itself create integrated and seamless operating environments. In addition, such an outcome requires significant organizational change at all levels.

EACHING HAS NEVER BEEN easy. Individuals of extraordinary talent have been crushed in the schoolroom. D. H. Lawrence, who taught seventh and eighth graders, found that school was " mean and miserable-and I hate conflict. I was never born to command .... Think of a quivering greyhound sent to mind a herd of pigs and you see my teaching." No doubt Lawrence left teaching for some of the same reasons that teachers have always quit. The stresses associated with teaching reside in the task: to establish the minimum order necessary so that education may take place, to gain the trust of pupils, to motivate and engage the students with the subject in ways that ensure that they will learn. The teacher's voice is seldom heard in contemporary debates about educational reform , and the ethos of the public school-its collective psychology-is only vaguely understood. Early in this decade, I undertook a study to understand what shapes the ethos of a school. In the initial stage of the research, my colleagues and I visited 33 public and private schools. Later we conducted year-long observations in five schools, and in the end I focused on a single school , renamed here Hamilton High-a racially, ethnically, and economically integrated school, located in a mid-sized Northeastern city. Hamilton High had been born amid the selfconfident spirit of pre-Sputnik America, and underwent a series of fundamental changes in later decades. It served as a microcosm to

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