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Academic literature has mostly discussed digital skills concerning end-users’ capability to access and use single technologies. Against this background, the paper sheds light on a missing element: the digital literacy of those who frame ICT-mediated policies that pursue sustainable development. The paper offers a novel conceptualization of digital skills as the capabilities to understand the socio-technical assemblages that emerge in social contexts after the adoption of ICT-mediated policies. Exploring the case study of the United Kingdom’s Government Digital Service, the paper argues that empowering public administrators and civil servants with these digital skills is paramount to design, implement, and manage ICT-mediated policies that aim to achieve Sustainable Development Goals.

The cartilaginous endplates (CEP) are key components of the intervertebral disc (IVD) necessary for sustaining the nutrition of the disc while distributing mechanical loads and preventing the disc from bulging into the adjacent vertebral body. The size, shape, and composition of the CEP are essential in maintaining its function, and degeneration of the CEP is considered a contributor to early IVD degeneration. In addition, the CEP is implicated in Modic changes, which are often associated with low back pain. This review aims to tackle the current knowledge of the CEP regarding its structure, composition, permeability, and mechanical role in a healthy disc, how they change with degeneration, and how they connect to IVD degeneration and low back pain. Additionally, the authors suggest a standardized naming convention regarding the CEP and bony endplate and suggest avoiding the term vertebral endplate. Currently, there is limited data on the CEP itself as reported data is often a combination of CEP and bony endplate, or the CEP is considered as articular cartilage. However, it is clear the CEP is a unique tissue type that differs from articular cartilage, bony endplate, and other IVD tissues. Thus, future research should investigate the CEP separately to fully understand its role in healthy and degenerated IVDs. Further, most IVD regeneration therapies in development failed to address, or even considered the CEP, despite its key role in nutrition and mechanical stability within the IVD. Thus, the CEP should be considered and potentially targeted for future sustainable treatments.

This paper investigates the influence of algorithms on the administrative processes within public organizations, utilizing the foundational theory of formalization from Walsh and Dewar (1987) as a framework. Introduces the concept of “algorithmic formalization”, a new form of formalization induced by the adoption of algorithms, which fundamentally alters administrative workflows. Focusing on COMPAS algorithm used in the US judiciary for risk assessment, the paper illustrates how the algorithm serves multiple roles – as code, channel, and standard – systematizing administrative processes related to risk assessment and judicial decisions. By delving into COMPAS case study, the research sheds light on the novel concept of algorithmic formalization, emphasizing its significant repercussions for analyzing and applying algorithmic administrative processes.

Existing literature has predominantly concentrated on the legal and ethical aspects of government initiatives to regulate AI, often relegating the technological dimension to the periphery. However, the emergence and widespread use of generative AI models present new challenges for public regulators. Generative AI operates on distinctive technological properties which require a comprehensive understanding by regulators prior to the enactment of pertinent legislation. This paper focuses on the recent case of the Italian ban on ChatGPT to illustrate the public regulators' failure in acknowledging the unique characteristics intrinsic to generative AI, culminating in a flawed regulatory endeavour. By drawing on the findings of an exploratory case study, this paper contributes to the theoretical understanding of AI regulation, highlighting the discordance between the dynamism and fluidity of generative AI and the rigidity of regulatory frameworks. The paper contends that until this tension is effectively addressed, public regulatory interventions are likely to underachieve their intended objectives.

Public sector organizations literature has addressed the influence of AI on decision-making process, looking mainly at rationalization and efficiency. However, recent adoptions of AI have been challenged because of their discriminatory nature. As a result, questions emerged on the accountability of AI supported decision-making processes in the public sector. This research sheds light on how AI transforms decision-making processes in the public sector and hence on their accountability. The paper illustrates that AI adoptions lead to the emergency of techno-legal entanglements - assemblages - which might impact upon AI accountability. Building on the findings of some of the most controversial and discussed cases of AI adoption in the public sector - COMPAS in the US and UKVI in the UK - the paper makes the case for a new approach to AI supported public sector decision-making accountability.

E-government literature has widely investigated how different understandings of technology impact on the trajectory of technology-based policies and projects. Yet, limited attention has been given to the effects that the social construction of technology has on the public values that public organizations aim to achieve through e-government projects. Building on technological frames theory, the paper aims to offer a contribution to public value literature: we show how different understandings of technology within public organizations define the nature of the public values related to policies and projects. The paper relies on the findings of a Japanese government web portal case to illustrate how the different frames of technology forced the public managers to rethink the organization strategy, and how this had an effect on the transformation and change of the public values the e-government project aimed to achieve.

Academic literature has mostly discussed digital skills concerning end-users’ capability to access and use single technologies. Against this background, the paper sheds light on a missing element: the digital literacy of those who frame ICT-mediated policies that pursue sustainable development. The paper offers a novel conceptualization of digital skills as the capabilities to understand the socio-technical assemblages that emerge in social contexts after the adoption of ICT-mediated policies. Exploring the case study of the United Kingdom’s Government Digital Service, the paper argues that empowering public administrators and civil servants with these digital skills is paramount to design, implement, and manage ICT-mediated policies that aim to achieve Sustainable Development Goals.