Enhancing Nurses Access for Care Quality and Knowledge through ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Enhancing Nurses Access for Care Quality and Knowledge through ... Special journal issue highlights IDRC-supported findings on women's paid work ... New website will help record vital life events to improve access to services for all.

Open Access Citation Advantage in selected Information Science journals: an extended analysis to altmetrics indicators

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paulo Roberto Cintra

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Open access refers to scientific literature available free of charge and free of copyright restrictions and licensing for its reuse. An increase in the total number of citations received by articles available in open access in relation to those of restricted, pay-walled access is expected, according to the Open Access Citation Advantage hypothesis. Objective: Assess the possible citation advantages and mentions on the social web that open access can offer to the Information Science area. Methodology: Bibliometric and altmetric indicators were analyzed in two journals: Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Scientometrics. Data collection was conducted in the Web of Science, Google Scholar, Altmetric.com and Mendeley. Results: The results indicated that for both journals, open access offers an advantage in the number of citations received by articles. It was also demonstrated that the advantage is maintained over time. Conclusions: This research confirmed the hypothesis of an Open Access Citation Advantage for the journals analyzed in the area of Information Science. This pattern was also observed for the altmetric data.

The Open Access Availability of Library and Information Science Literature

Science.gov (United States)

Way, Doug

2010-01-01

To examine the open access availability of Library and Information Science (LIS) research, a study was conducted using Google Scholar to search for articles from 20 top LIS journals. The study examined whether Google Scholar was able to find any links to full text, if open access versions of the articles were available and where these articles…

Lowering the barriers for accessing distributed geospatial big data to advance spatial data science: the PolarHub solution

Science.gov (United States)

Li, W.

2017-12-01

Data is the crux of science. The widespread availability of big data today is of particular importance for fostering new forms of geospatial innovation. This paper reports a state-of-the-art solution that addresses a key cyberinfrastructure research problem—providing ready access to big, distributed geospatial data resources on the Web. We first formulate this data-access problem and introduce its indispensable elements, including identifying the cyber-location, space and time coverage, theme, and quality of the dataset. We then propose strategies to tackle each data-access issue and make the data more discoverable and usable for geospatial data users and decision makers. Among these strategies is large-scale web crawling as a key technique to support automatic collection of online geospatial data that are highly distributed, intrinsically heterogeneous, and known to be dynamic. To better understand the content and scientific meanings of the data, methods including space-time filtering, ontology-based thematic classification, and service quality evaluation are incorporated. To serve a broad scientific user community, these techniques are integrated into an operational data crawling system, PolarHub, which is also an important cyberinfrastructure building block to support effective data discovery. A series of experiments were conducted to demonstrate the outstanding performance of the PolarHub system. We expect this work to contribute significantly in building the theoretical and methodological foundation for data-driven geography and the emerging spatial data science.

Variation in cooking and eating quality traits in Japanese rice germplasm accessions.

Science.gov (United States)

Hori, Kiyosumi; Suzuki, Keitaro; Iijima, Ken; Ebana, Kaworu

2016-03-01

The eating quality of cooked rice is important and determines its market price and consumer acceptance. To comprehensively describe the variation of eating quality in 183 rice germplasm accessions, we evaluated 33 eating-quality traits including amylose and protein contents, pasting properties of rice flour, and texture of cooked rice grains. All eating-quality traits varied widely in the germplasm accessions. Principal-components analysis (PCA) revealed that allelic differences in the Wx gene explained the largest proportion of phenotypic variation of the eating-quality traits. In 146 accessions of non-glutinous temperate japonica rice, PCA revealed that protein content and surface texture of the cooked rice grains significantly explained phenotypic variations of the eating-quality traits. An allelic difference based on simple sequence repeats, which was located near a quantitative trait locus (QTL) on the short arm of chromosome 3, was associated with differences in the eating quality of non-glutinous temperate japonica rice. These results suggest that eating quality is controlled by genetic factors, including the Wx gene and the QTL on chromosome 3, in Japanese rice accessions. These genetic factors have been consciously selected for eating quality during rice breeding programs in Japan.

Path Not Found: Disparities in Access to Computer Science Courses in California High Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Martin, Alexis; McAlear, Frieda; Scott, Allison

2015-01-01

"Path Not Found: Disparities in Access to Computer Science Courses in California High Schools" exposes one of the foundational causes of underrepresentation in computing: disparities in access to computer science courses in California's public high schools. This report provides new, detailed data on these disparities by student body…

Does the public deserve free access to climate system science?

Science.gov (United States)

Grigorov, Ivo

2010-05-01

Some time ago it was the lack of public access to medical research data that really stirred the issue and gave inertia for legislation and a new publishing model that puts tax payer-funded medical research in the hands of those who fund it. In today's age global climate change has become the biggest socio-economic challenge, and the same argument resonates: climate affects us all and the publicly-funded science quantifying it should be freely accessible to all stakeholders beyond academic research. Over the last few years the ‘Open Access' movement to remove as much as possible subscription, and other on-campus barriers to academic research has rapidly gathered pace, but despite significant progress, the climate system sciences are not among the leaders in providing full access to their publications and data. Beyond the ethical argument, there are proven and tangible benefits for the next generation of climate researchers to adapt the way their output is published. Through the means provided by ‘open access', both data and ideas can gain more visibility, use and citations for the authors, but also result in a more rapid exchange of knowledge and ideas, and ultimately progress towards a sought solution. The presentation will aim to stimulate discussion and seek progress on the following questions: Should free access to climate research (& data) be mandatory? What are the career benefits of using ‘open access' for young scientists? What means and methods should, or could, be incorporated into current European graduate training programmes in climate research, and possible ways forward?

Open-access databases as unprecedented resources and drivers of cultural change in fisheries science

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McManamay, Ryan A [ORNL; Utz, Ryan [National Ecological Observatory Network

2014-01-01

Open-access databases with utility in fisheries science have grown exponentially in quantity and scope over the past decade, with profound impacts to our discipline. The management, distillation, and sharing of an exponentially growing stream of open-access data represents several fundamental challenges in fisheries science. Many of the currently available open-access resources may not be universally known among fisheries scientists. We therefore introduce many national- and global-scale open-access databases with applications in fisheries science and provide an example of how they can be harnessed to perform valuable analyses without additional field efforts. We also discuss how the development, maintenance, and utilization of open-access data are likely to pose technical, financial, and educational challenges to fisheries scientists. Such cultural implications that will coincide with the rapidly increasing availability of free data should compel the American Fisheries Society to actively address these problems now to help ease the forthcoming cultural transition.

Increasing Access to Atmospheric Science Research at NASA Langley Research Center

Science.gov (United States)

Chambers, L. H.; Bethea, K. L.; LaPan, J. C.

2013-12-01

The Science Directorate (SD) at NASA's Langley Research Center conducts cutting edge research in fundamental atmospheric science topics including radiation and climate, air quality, active remote sensing, and upper atmospheric composition. These topics matter to the public, as they improve our understanding of our home planet. Thus, we have had ongoing efforts to improve public access to the results of our research. These efforts have accelerated with the release of the February OSTP memo. Our efforts can be grouped in two main categories: 1. Visual presentation techniques to improve science understanding: For fundamental concepts such as the Earth's energy budget, we have worked to display information in a more "digestible" way for lay audiences with more pictures and fewer words. These audiences are iPad-lovers and TV-watchers with shorter attention spans than audiences of the past. They are also educators and students who need a basic understanding of a concept delivered briefly to fit into busy classroom schedules. We seek to reach them with a quick, visual message packed with important information. This presentation will share several examples of visual techniques, such as infographics (e.g., a history of lidar at Langley and a timeline of atmospheric research, ozone garden diagrams (http://science-edu.larc.nasa.gov/ozonegarden/ozone-cycle.php); history of lidar at LaRC; DISCOVER-AQ maps. It will also share examples of animations and interactive graphics (DISCOVER-AQ); and customized presentations (e.g., to explain the energy budget or to give a general overview of research). One of the challenges we face is a required culture shift between the way scientists traditionally share knowledge with each other and the way these public audiences ingest knowledge. A cross-disciplinary communications team in SD is crucial to bridge that gap. 2. Lay research summaries to make research more accessible: Peer-reviewed publications are a primary product of the SD, with more

Remote Sensing Open Access Journal: Increasing Impact through Quality Publications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Prasad S. Thenkabail

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Remote Sensing, an open access journal (http://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing has grown at rapid pace since its first publication five years ago, and has acquired a strong reputation. It is a “pathfinder” being the first open access journal in remote sensing. For those academics who were used to waiting a year or two for their peer-reviewed scientific work to be reviewed, revised, edited, and published, Remote Sensing offers a publication time frame that is unheard of (in most cases, less than four months. However, we do this after multiple peer-reviews, multiple revisions, much editorial scrutiny and decision-making, and professional editing by an editorial office before a paper is published online in our tight time frame, bringing a paradigm shift in scientific publication. As a result, there has been a swift increase in submissions of higher and higher quality manuscripts from the best authors and institutes working on Remote Sensing, Geographic Information Systems (GIS, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS, GIScience, and all related geospatial science and technologies from around the world. The purpose of this editorial is to update everyone interested in Remote Sensing on the progress made over the last year, and provide an outline of our vision for the immediate future. [...

Design and Implementation of a Library and Information Science Open Access Journal Union Catalogue System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sinn-Cheng Lin

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Open access is a mode of academic communication that has been on the rise in recent years, but open access academic resources are widely dispersed across the internet, making it occasionally inconvenient in terms of its use. This research is focused on library and information science, using the OAIS reference model as the system framework, two open access platform, DOAJ and E-LIS as the data sources, and through system implementation develop a “library and information science open access journal union catalogue” system. Using the OAI-PMH protocol as the data interoperability standard, and LAMP as the development environment, four major functionalities: injest, archiving, management and access of information were designed, developed, and integrated into system build. Actual testing and verification showed this system is able to successfully collect data from DOAJ and E-LIS open journal resources related to library and information science. The system is now active and functional, and can be used by researchers in the library and science information field.

Striving for Diversity, Accessibility and Quality: Evaluating SiSAL Journal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jo Mynard

2014-06-01

Full Text Available After establishing a journal, it is important to evaluate its progress to ensure that the principles that underpin its existence continue to be a priority. In this article, the author reports on measures that were used to evaluate Studies in Self-Access Learning (SiSAL Journal. The research was designed to investigate the three principles that the journal values: diversity, accessibility and quality. The results identified some successful factors such as accessibility and favourable perceptions of SiSAL Journal’s quality. However, the results also identified areas that could be improved to further increase diversity and to encourage submissions from more authors based in different locations.

A Bibliometric Study of Scholarly Articles Published by Library and Information Science Authors about Open Access

Science.gov (United States)

Grandbois, Jennifer; Beheshti, Jamshid

2014-01-01

Introduction: This study aims to gain a greater understanding of the development of open access practices amongst library and information science authors, since their role is integral to the success of the broader open access movement. Method: Data were collected from scholarly articles about open access by library and information science authors…

Primary Science Quality Mark--2016 Update

Science.gov (United States)

Turner, Jane

2016-01-01

Back in May 2011, an article in "Primary Science" described how the idea for a quality mark for primary science was developed from an initial conversation at an Association for Science Education annual conference (Turner, Marshall and Elsmore, 2011). Its intention then, as now, was to support and champion good practice and raise the…

A Big Data Task Force Review of Advances in Data Access and Discovery Within the Science Disciplines of the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD)

Science.gov (United States)

Walker, R. J.; Beebe, R. F.

2017-12-01

One of the basic problems the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) faces when dealing with preservation of scientific data is the variety of the data. This stems from the fact that NASA's involvement in the sciences spans a broad range of disciplines across the Science Mission Directorate: Astrophysics, Earth Sciences, Heliophysics and Planetary Science. As the ability of some missions to produce large data volumes has accelerated, the range of problems associated with providing adequate access to the data has demanded diverse approaches for data access. Although mission types, complexity and duration vary across the disciplines, the data can be characterized by four characteristics: velocity, veracity, volume, and variety. The rate of arrival of the data (velocity) must be addressed at the individual mission level, validation and documentation of the data (veracity), data volume and the wide variety of data products present huge challenges as the science disciplines strive to provide transparent access to their available data. Astrophysics, supports an integrated system of data archives based on frequencies covered (UV, visible, IR, etc.) or subject areas (extrasolar planets, extra galactic, etc.) and is accessed through the Astrophysics Data Center (https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/astrophysics-data-centers/). Earth Science supports the Earth Observing System (https://earthdata.nasa.gov/) that manages the earth science satellite data. The discipline supports 12 Distributed Active Archive Centers. Heliophysics provides the Space Physics Data Facility (https://spdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/) that supports the heliophysics community and Solar Data Analysis Center (https://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/index.html) that allows access to the solar data. The Planetary Data System (https://pds.nasa.gov) is the main archive for planetary science data. It consists of science discipline nodes (Atmospheres, Geosciences, Cartography and Imaging Sciences, Planetary Plasma Interactions

Promoting open access to science through effective communication

Science.gov (United States)

Egger, A. E.

2006-12-01

Geology is a difficult subject to communicate effectively. Many people associate geology with memorizing rock and mineral names and not with dynamic earth processes. Even more challenging for the non-geologist is the concept of deep time, and why processes that happened millions of years ago are important to us today. Additionally, many people view science itself as inaccessible and difficult. And yet, geology is a naturally accessible subject, as it is all around us. In order to communicate effectively, geologists must convince others that their work is both accessible and relevant, even though it may not directly generate economic benefits or lend insight into solutions for our modern problems like climate change. As scientists, we know the connections are there, but convincing others requires creating face-to-face, positive interactions through the use of active techniques to help bring the audience to an understanding of the process of science in addition to the subject matter itself. My overarching motive for creating and participating in communication activities with a broad audience is thus to demonstrate that science is accessible to everyone, that a scientific way of thinking can be both fun and useful, and that a little knowledge about geology can give you a new perspective on the world. Using this motivation as a guiding principle regardless of the specific audience, two techniques are important to make the communication effective. First, whenever possible, I conduct activities in the field (broadly speaking), or at least bring the field into the talk, and model the scientific process by asking for participation. This allows the audience to fully understand how geologic work is done, including the mundane and the mistakes. Second, I take my audience seriously, including all questions and observations, in order to build confidence in everyone that they are able to contribute to and understand both geology and the scientific process in general. Despite the

The choices, choosing model of quality of life: linkages to a science base.

Science.gov (United States)

Gurland, Barry J; Gurland, Roni V

2009-01-01

A previous paper began with a critical review of current models and measures of quality of life and then proposed criteria for judging the relative merits of alternative models: preference was given to finding a model with explicit mechanisms, linkages to a science base, a means of identifying deficits amenable to rational restorative interventions, and with embedded values of the whole person. A conjectured model, based on the processes of accessing choices and choosing among them, matched the proposed criteria. The choices and choosing (c-c) process is an evolved adaptive mechanism dedicated to the pursuit of quality of life, driven by specific biological and psychological systems, and influenced also by social and environmental forces. In this paper the c-c model is examined for its potential to strengthen the science base for the field of quality of life and thus to unify many approaches to concept and measurement. A third paper in this set will lay out a guide to applying the c-c model in evaluating impairments of quality of life and will tie this evaluation to corresponding interventions aimed at relieving restrictions or distortions of the c-c process; thus helping people to preserve and improve their quality of life. The fourth paper will demonstrate empirical analyses of the relationship between health imposed restrictions of options for living and conventional indicators of diminished quality of life. (c) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Access and quality in South African higher education: the twin ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

with the transformation agenda in South Africa. It is proposed that a comprehensive quality assurance framework with embedded commitment to access is likely to respond appropriately to national development prerogatives of higher education access. South African Journal of Higher Education Vol. 21 (3) 2007: pp. 385-399.

The quality and accessibility of Australian depression sites on the World Wide Web.

Science.gov (United States)

Griffiths, Kathleen M; Christensen, Helen

2002-05-20

To provide information about Australian depression sites and the quality of their content; to identify possible indicators of the quality of site content; and determine the accessibility of Australian depression web sites. Cross-sectional survey of 15 Australian depression web sites. (i) Quality of treatment content (concordance of site information with evidence-based guidelines, number of evidence-based treatments recommended, discussion of other relevant issues, subjective rating of treatment content); (ii) potential quality indicators (conformity with DISCERN criteria, citation of scientific evidence); (iii) accessibility (search engine rank). Mean content quality scores were not high and site accessibility was poor. There was a consistent association between the quality-of-content measures and the DISCERN and scientific accountability scores. Search engine rank was not associated with content quality. The quality of information about depression on Australian websites could be improved. DISCERN may be a useful indicator of website quality, as may scientific accountability. The sites that received the highest quality-of-content ratings were beyondblue, BluePages, CRUfAD and InfraPsych.

Seed quality of common bean accessions under organic and conventional farming systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Diego Medeiros Gindri

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Agrobiodiversity is essential for a sustainable food production, and the knowledge of the potential characteristics of landrace seeds may prompt farmers to adopt the habit of seed conservation for this species. This study aimed at categorizing landrace and commercial common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L. accessions, according to the physiological quality (viability and vigor of seeds produced in the field, during two growing seasons, under organic and conventional farming systems. Germination percentage, field emergence, electrical conductivity, accelerated aging, cold test and seedling length were assessed. The landrace bean accessions exhibit diversity in the physiological seed quality, in terms of their viability and vigor. No differences were observed between the farming systems, in relation to the physiological quality of the seeds produced. The categorization of landrace common bean accessions allows to identify those with superior physiological seed quality.

Improving accessibility and discovery of ESA planetary data through the new planetary science archive

Science.gov (United States)

Macfarlane, A. J.; Docasal, R.; Rios, C.; Barbarisi, I.; Saiz, J.; Vallejo, F.; Besse, S.; Arviset, C.; Barthelemy, M.; De Marchi, G.; Fraga, D.; Grotheer, E.; Heather, D.; Lim, T.; Martinez, S.; Vallat, C.

2018-01-01

The Planetary Science Archive (PSA) is the European Space Agency's (ESA) repository of science data from all planetary science and exploration missions. The PSA provides access to scientific data sets through various interfaces at http://psa.esa.int. Mostly driven by the evolution of the PDS standards which all new ESA planetary missions shall follow and the need to update the interfaces to the archive, the PSA has undergone an important re-engineering. In order to maximise the scientific exploitation of ESA's planetary data holdings, significant improvements have been made by utilising the latest technologies and implementing widely recognised open standards. To facilitate users in handling and visualising the many products stored in the archive which have spatial data associated, the new PSA supports Geographical Information Systems (GIS) by implementing the standards approved by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). The modernised PSA also attempts to increase interoperability with the international community by implementing recognised planetary science specific protocols such as the PDAP (Planetary Data Access Protocol) and EPN-TAP (EuroPlanet-Table Access Protocol). In this paper we describe some of the methods by which the archive may be accessed and present the challenges that are being faced in consolidating data sets of the older PDS3 version of the standards with the new PDS4 deliveries into a single data model mapping to ensure transparent access to the data for users and services whilst maintaining a high performance.

Making science accessible through collaborative science teacher action research on feminist pedagogy

Science.gov (United States)

Capobianco, Brenda M.

research. This study revealed that there are no uniform solutions or standard methods to address issues of equity and accessibility in science education. This study recommends teachers be given time, support, and freedom to collaborate with other teacher-researchers, enact decisions for change, and reflect on and make public the results of their work. Additional implications suggest science teacher educators collaborate with practicing science teachers to devise practical applications and feasible resources for a wider audience.

The Dissemination of Science and Science Journalism in Brazilian Universities: Analyzing Strategies that Facilitate Access to Science & Technology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giuliana Batista Rodrigues de Queiroz

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This article is a mapping of Brazilian universities that maintain a structured work for Science Journalism and / or the dissemination of science. It analyses the strategies used by the top 50 Brazilian universities for including dissemination of science in their communication activities. In order to do this each institution’s website was examined for the purpose of collecting a large sample size of universities that organize and prioritize the dissemination of science and science journalism, and make their studies and projects available to the public. The dissemination of science is a priority for only 15 universities; ones that have structured science journalism programs. 11 of these universities are among the top 25 in the country which indicates that there is a direct relationship between academic quality and dissemination of science. Thus, this study lends to a deeper understanding of the field of science journalism.

Open access publishing in the biomedical sciences: could funding agencies accelerate the inevitable changes?

Science.gov (United States)

Glover, Steven William; Webb, Anne; Gleghorn, Colette

2006-09-01

Open access is making a noticeable impact on access to information. In 2005, many major research funders, including the Wellcome Trust, National Institutes for Health (NIH), and the Research Councils UK (RCUK), set out their position in a number of statements. Of particular note was the stipulation that authors receiving grants must deposit their final manuscript in an open access forum within 6-12 months of publication. The paper will look at the open access position statements issued by some of the major funding bodies in the biomedical sciences. The paper will also look at the models used by publishers to provide open or delayed access, such as Oxford Open from Oxford University Press, HighWire Press' delayed access policy, BioMed Central, and Public Library of Science (PLoS). There are now over 1.2 million articles in PubMed that are freely accessible via publishers' websites.(1) Could funding agencies accelerate the move to open access? The list of funding agencies supporting open access is growing. The National Institutes for Health and the Wellcome Trust have been joined by many of the world's major funders in biomedical research whose goal it is to make their research findings available with no barriers.

Science Education on the Internet: Conference for Developers of OnLine Curricula ''Learning Strategies for Science Education Websites''; FINAL

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gesteland, Raymond F.; Dart, Dorothy S.; Logan, Jennifer; Stark, Louisa

2000-01-01

Internet-based science education programs are coming of age. Educators now look seriously to the Internet as a source of accessible classroom materials, and they are finding many high-quality online science programs. Beyond providing solid curriculum, these programs have many advantages. They provide materials that are far more current than what textbooks offer and are more accessible to disadvantaged and rural population. Students can engage in inquiry-based learning online through interactive and virtual activities, accessing databases, tracking nature occurrences in real time, joining online science communities and conversing with scientists

Remote Access to Instrumental Analysis for Distance Education in Science

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dietmar Kennepohl

2005-11-01

Full Text Available Remote access to experiments offers distance educators another tool to integrate a strong laboratory component within a science course. Since virtually all modern chemical instrumental analysis in industry now use devices operated by a computer interface, remote control of instrumentation is not only relatively facile, it enhances students’ opportunity to learn the subject matter and be exposed to “real world” contents. Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT and Athabasca University are developing teaching laboratories based on the control of analytical instruments in real-time via an Internet connection. Students perform real-time analysis using equipment, methods, and skills that are common to modern analytical laboratories (or sophisticated teaching laboratories. Students obtain real results using real substances to arrive at real conclusions, just as they would if they were in a physical laboratory with the equipment; this approach allows students to access to conduct instrumental science experiments, thus providing them with an advantageous route to upgrade their laboratory skills while learning at a distance.

There’s More to Science than Research: A Team-Based Role Game to Develop School Students’ Understanding of Science Careers in Pharmaceutical Quality Control

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rachael Collins

2015-08-01

Full Text Available School students lack information about STEM based careers, a subject that is not sufficiently embedded in the national science curriculum. As a result, students feel they receive insufficient advice to support their choice of subjects at GCSE level and beyond. Students struggle to envisage potential career pathways leading on from studying science at school, and especially for younger students it is difficult to convey typical science-based career pictures in a way that is easily accessible to them. To address this need, we developed an interactive team-based activity which uses role play to help students envisage typical work processes within a science-based career—microbial quality control in a pharmaceutical industrial environment. This activity addresses children’s curiosity about science-based careers, by enabling them to experience typical every day work processes in an industrial environment in a hands-on fashion. Additionally, the activity helps to convey abstract concepts, such as the abundance of microbes in the natural environment, microbial contamination and the importance of hygiene, which link to the science curriculum.

A new approach to the tradeoff between quality and accessibility of health care.

Science.gov (United States)

Tanke, Marit A C; Ikkersheim, David E

2012-05-01

Quality of care is associated with patient volume. Regionalization of care is therefore one of the approaches that is suited to improve quality of care. A disadvantage of regionalization is that the accessibility of the facilities can decrease. By investigating the tradeoff between quality and accessibility it is possible to determine the optimal amount of treatment locations in a health care system. In this article we present a new model to quantitatively 'solve' this tradeoff. We use the condition breast cancer in the Netherlands as an example. We calculated the expected quality gains in Quality Adjusted Lifetime Years (QALY's) due to stepwise regionalization using 'volume-outcome' literature for breast cancer. Decreased accessibility was operationalized as increased (travel) costs due to regionalization by using demographic data, drive-time information, and the national median income. The total sum of the quality and accessibility function determines the optimum range of treatment locations for this particular condition, given the 'volume-quality' relationship and Dutch demographics and geography. Currently, 94 locations offer breast cancer treatment in the Netherlands. Our model estimates that the optimum range of treatment locations for this particular condition in the Netherlands varies from 15 locations to 44 locations. Our study shows that the Dutch society would benefit from regionalization of breast cancer care as possible quality gains outweigh heightened travel costs. In addition, this model can be used for other medical conditions and in other countries. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Social Equity and Access to a Philippine STEM School

Science.gov (United States)

Talaue, Frederick Toralballa

2014-01-01

Like most developing countries in the world, there is a huge gap in opportunities to access quality science education between students from the high- and low-socioeconomic strata of Philippine society. In establishing its own science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) high school, despite limited public funding in 1964, the…

Tenure-Track Science Faculty and the 'Open Access Citation Effect'

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. Christopher Doty

2013-02-01

Full Text Available INTRODUCTION The observation that open access (OA articles receive more citations than subscription-based articles is known as the OA citation effect (OACE. Implicit in many OACE studies is the belief that authors are heavily invested in the number of citations their articles receive. This study seeks to determine what influence the OACE has on the decision-making process of tenure-track science faculty when they consider where to submit a manuscript for publication. METHODS Fifteen tenure-track faculty members in the Departments of Biology and Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill participated in semi-structured interviews employing a variation of the critical incident tecnique. RESULTS Seven of the fifteen faculty members said they would consider making a future article freely-available based on the OACE. Due to dramatically different expectations with respect to the size of the OACE, however, only one of them is likely to seriously consider the OACE when deciding where to submit their next manuscript for publication. DISCUSSION Journal reputation and audience, and the quality of the editorial and review process are the most important factors in deciding where to submit a manuscript for publication. Once a subset of journals has satisfied these criteria, financial and access issues compete with the OACE in making a final decision. CONCLUSION In order to increase the number of OA materials, librarians should continue to emphasize depositing pre- and post-prints in disciplinary and institutional repositories and retaining the author rights prior to publication in order to make it possible to do so.

Improving Access to NASA Earth Science Data through Collaborative Metadata Curation

Science.gov (United States)

Sisco, A. W.; Bugbee, K.; Shum, D.; Baynes, K.; Dixon, V.; Ramachandran, R.

2017-12-01

The NASA-developed Common Metadata Repository (CMR) is a high-performance metadata system that currently catalogs over 375 million Earth science metadata records. It serves as the authoritative metadata management system of NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS), enabling NASA Earth science data to be discovered and accessed by a worldwide user community. The size of the EOSDIS data archive is steadily increasing, and the ability to manage and query this archive depends on the input of high quality metadata to the CMR. Metadata that does not provide adequate descriptive information diminishes the CMR's ability to effectively find and serve data to users. To address this issue, an innovative and collaborative review process is underway to systematically improve the completeness, consistency, and accuracy of metadata for approximately 7,000 data sets archived by NASA's twelve EOSDIS data centers, or Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs). The process involves automated and manual metadata assessment of both collection and granule records by a team of Earth science data specialists at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The team communicates results to DAAC personnel, who then make revisions and reingest improved metadata into the CMR. Implementation of this process relies on a network of interdisciplinary collaborators leveraging a variety of communication platforms and long-range planning strategies. Curating metadata at this scale and resolving metadata issues through community consensus improves the CMR's ability to serve current and future users and also introduces best practices for stewarding the next generation of Earth Observing System data. This presentation will detail the metadata curation process, its outcomes thus far, and also share the status of ongoing curation activities.

Effects of free-range access on production parameters and meat quality, composition and taste in slow-growing broiler chickens.

Science.gov (United States)

Stadig, Lisanne M; Rodenburg, T Bas; Reubens, Bert; Aerts, Johan; Duquenne, Barbara; Tuyttens, Frank A M

2016-12-01

Demand for meat from free-range broiler chickens is increasing in several countries. Consumers are motivated by better animal welfare and other product attributes such as quality and taste. However, scientific literature is not unanimous about whether free-range access influences quality, composition, and taste of the meat. Because chickens normally do not use free-range areas optimally, it is possible that provision of more suitable shelter will lead to more pronounced differences between chickens raised indoors and outdoors. In this study, an experiment with 2 production rounds of 600 slow-growing broilers each was performed. In each round, 200 chickens were raised indoors (IN), 200 had free-range access to grassland with artificial shelter (AS), and 200 had free-range access to short-rotation coppice with willow (SRC). Free-range use, feed intake, and growth were monitored, and after slaughter (d72) meat quality, composition, and taste were assessed. Free-range use was higher in SRC than in AS chickens (42.8 vs. 35.1%, P free-range access was darker (P = 0.021) and yellower (P = 0.001) than that of IN chickens. Ultimate pH was lower (5.73 vs. 5.79; P = 0.006) and drip loss higher (1.29 vs. 1.09%; P = 0.05) in IN versus AS chickens. The percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acids was higher in AS than in IN meat (35.84 vs. 34.59%; P = 0.021). The taste panel judged breast meat of SRC chickens to be more tender (P = 0.003) and less fibrous (P = 0.013) compared to that of AS and IN chickens, and juicier compared to the IN chickens (P = 0.017). Overall, free-range access negatively affected slaughter weight, but positively affected meat quality, taste, and composition. Only a few differences between AS and SRC were found, possibly due to limited differences in free-range use. © 2016 Poultry Science Association Inc.

77 FR 76028 - Access to Confidential Business Information by Science Applications International Corporation and...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-12-26

... Business Information by Science Applications International Corporation and Its Identified Subcontractor...: EPA has authorized its contractor, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) of McLean, VA... information may be claimed or determined to be Confidential Business Information (CBI). DATES: Access to the...

78 FR 66697 - Access to Confidential Business Information by Science Applications International Corporation and...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-11-06

... Business Information by Science Applications International Corporation and Its Identified Subcontractors..., Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) of McLean, VA, and its subcontractors to access...). Some of the information may have been claimed or determined to be Confidential Business Information...

The Online Public Access Catalogue at the Cite des Sciences Mediatheque in Paris.

Science.gov (United States)

Witt, Maria

1990-01-01

Provides background on the holdings, services, and layout of the mediatheque (multimedia library) at the Cite des Sciences et de l'Industrie (originally the Museum of Science, Technology, and Industry) in Paris. The library's online public access catalog and use of the catalog by children and the visually handicapped are described. (four…

Development of an Instructional Quality Assurance Model in Nursing Science

Science.gov (United States)

Ajpru, Haruthai; Pasiphol, Shotiga; Wongwanich, Suwimon

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to develop an instructional quality assurance model in nursing science. The study was divided into 3 phases; (1) to study the information for instructional quality assurance model development (2) to develop an instructional quality assurance model in nursing science and (3) to audit and the assessment of the developed…

Optimal Reorganization of NASA Earth Science Data for Enhanced Accessibility and Usability for the Hydrology Community

Science.gov (United States)

Teng, William; Rui, Hualan; Strub, Richard; Vollmer, Bruce

2016-01-01

A long-standing "Digital Divide" in data representation exists between the preferred way of data access by the hydrology community and the common way of data archival by earth science data centers. Typically, in hydrology, earth surface features are expressed as discrete spatial objects (e.g., watersheds), and time-varying data are contained in associated time series. Data in earth science archives, although stored as discrete values (of satellite swath pixels or geographical grids), represent continuous spatial fields, one file per time step. This Divide has been an obstacle, specifically, between the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. and NASA earth science data systems. In essence, the way data are archived is conceptually orthogonal to the desired method of access. Our recent work has shown an optimal method of bridging the Divide, by enabling operational access to long-time series (e.g., 36 years of hourly data) of selected NASA datasets. These time series, which we have termed "data rods," are pre-generated or generated on-the-fly. This optimal solution was arrived at after extensive investigations of various approaches, including one based on "data curtains." The on-the-fly generation of data rods uses "data cubes," NASA Giovanni, and parallel processing. The optimal reorganization of NASA earth science data has significantly enhanced the access to and use of the data for the hydrology user community.

Open access behaviours and perceptions of health sciences faculty and roles of information professionals.

Science.gov (United States)

Lwoga, Edda T; Questier, Frederik

2015-03-01

This study sought to investigate the faculty's awareness, attitudes and use of open access, and the role of information professionals in supporting open access (OA) scholarly communication in Tanzanian health sciences universities. A cross-sectional survey was conducted. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 librarians, while questionnaires were physically distributed to 415 faculty members in all eight Tanzanian health sciences universities, with a response rate of 71.1%. The study found that most faculty members were aware about OA issues. However, the high level of OA awareness among faculty members did not translate into actual dissemination of faculty's research outputs through OA web avenues. A small proportion of faculty's research materials was made available as OA. Faculty were more engaged with OA journal publishing than with self-archiving practices. Senior faculty with proficient technical skills were more likely to use open access than junior faculty. Major barriers to OA usage were related to ICT infrastructure, awareness, skills, author-pay model, and copyright and plagiarism concerns. Interviews with librarians revealed that there was a strong support for promoting OA issues on campus; however, this positive support with various open access-related tasks did not translate into actual action. It is thus important for librarians and OA administrators to consider all these factors for effective implementation of OA projects in research and academic institutions. This is the first comprehensive and detailed study focusing on the health sciences faculty's and librarians' behaviours and perceptions of open access initiatives in Tanzania and reveals findings that are useful for planning and implementing open access initiatives in other institutions with similar conditions. © 2015 Health Libraries Journal.

Network Performance and Quality of Experience of Remote Access Laboratories

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexander A. Kist

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Remote Access Laboratories (RAL have become important learning and teaching tools. This paper presents a performance study that targets a specific remote access architecture implemented within a universities operational environment. This particular RAL system provides globally authenticated and arbitrated remote access to virtualized computers as well as computer controlled hardware experiments. This paper presents system performance results that have been obtained utilizing both a set of automated and human subject tests. Principle objectives of the study were: To gain a better understanding of the nature of network traffic caused by experimental activity usage; to obtain an indication of user expectations of activity performance; and to develop a measure to predict Quality of Experience, based on easily measurable Quality of Service parameters. The study emulates network layer variation of access-bandwidth and round-trip-time of typical usage scenarios and contrasts against user perception results that allow classifying expected user performance. It demonstrates that failure rate is excellent measure of usability, and that round-trip-time predominantly affects user experience. Thin-client and remote desktop architectures are popular to separate the location of users and the actual data processing and use similar structures, hence results of this study to be applied in these application areas as well.

Systems Science in Support of Total Quality Management,

Science.gov (United States)

Quality Management (TQM). This paper bridges the gap between these two subjects to illustrate specific means by which systems science can begin to augment TQM. This construction is based upon the consideration of two topics. First, a brief introduction to systems science is provided. Second, systems science is applied through the concept of the Conant-Ashby

Qualities of effective secondary science teachers: Perspectives of university biology students

Science.gov (United States)

McCall, Madelon J.

This research was an attempt to hear the student voice concerning secondary science teacher effectiveness and to share that voice with those who impact the educational process. It was a snapshot of university freshmen biology students' opinions of the qualities of effective secondary science teachers based on their high school science experiences. The purpose of this study was to compile a list of effective secondary science teacher qualities as determined through a purposeful sampling of university second semester biology students and determine the role of the secondary science teacher in promoting interest and achievement in science, as well as the teacher's influence on a students' choice of a science career. The research was a mixed methods design using both quantitative and qualitative data obtained through the use of a 24 question electronic survey. There were 125 participants who provided information concerning their high school science teachers. Respondents provided information concerning the qualities of effective secondary science teachers and influences on the students' present career choice. The quantitative data was used to construct a hierarchy of qualities of effective secondary science teachers, divided into personal, professional, and classroom management qualities. The qualitative data was used to examine individual student responses to questions concerning secondary science teacher effectiveness and student career choice. The results of the research indicated that students highly value teachers who are both passionate about the subject taught and passionate about their students. High school science students prefer teachers who teach science in a way that is both interesting and relevant to the student. It was determined that the greatest influence on a secondary student's career choice came from family members and not from teachers. The secondary teacher's role was to recognize the student's interest in the career and provide encouragement

Positioning Open Access Journals in a LIS Journal Ranking

Science.gov (United States)

Xia, Jingfeng

2012-01-01

This research uses the h-index to rank the quality of library and information science journals between 2004 and 2008. Selected open access (OA) journals are included in the ranking to assess current OA development in support of scholarly communication. It is found that OA journals have gained momentum supporting high-quality research and…

NASA's Global Change Master Directory: Discover and Access Earth Science Data Sets, Related Data Services, and Climate Diagnostics

Science.gov (United States)

Aleman, Alicia; Olsen, Lola; Ritz, Scott; Morahan, Michael; Cepero, Laurel; Stevens, Tyler

2011-01-01

NASA's Global Change Master Directory provides the scientific community with the ability to discover, access, and use Earth science data, data-related services, and climate diagnostics worldwide. The GCMD offers descriptions of Earth science data sets using the Directory Interchange Format (DIF) metadata standard; Earth science related data services are described using the Service Entry Resource Format (SERF); and climate visualizations are described using the Climate Diagnostic (CD) standard. The DIF, SERF and CD standards each capture data attributes used to determine whether a data set, service, or climate visualization is relevant to a user's needs. Metadata fields include: title, summary, science keywords, service keywords, data center, data set citation, personnel, instrument, platform, quality, related URL, temporal and spatial coverage, data resolution and distribution information. In addition, nine valuable sets of controlled vocabularies have been developed to assist users in normalizing the search for data descriptions. An update to the GCMD's search functionality is planned to further capitalize on the controlled vocabularies during database queries. By implementing a dynamic keyword "tree", users will have the ability to search for data sets by combining keywords in new ways. This will allow users to conduct more relevant and efficient database searches to support the free exchange and re-use of Earth science data. http://gcmd.nasa.gov/

76 FR 37111 - Access to Confidential Business Information by Computer Sciences Corporation and Its Identified...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-06-24

... Business Information by Computer Sciences Corporation and Its Identified Subcontractors AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: EPA has authorized its contractor, Computer Sciences Corporation of Chantilly, VA and Its Identified Subcontractors, to access information which has...

Ensuring and Improving Information Quality for Earth Science Data and Products: Role of the ESIP Information Quality Cluster

Science.gov (United States)

Ramapriyan, Hampapuram; Peng, Ge; Moroni, David; Shie, Chung-Lin

2016-01-01

Quality of products is always of concern to users regardless of the type of products. The focus of this paper is on the quality of Earth science data products. There are four different aspects of quality - scientific, product, stewardship and service. All these aspects taken together constitute Information Quality. With increasing requirement on ensuring and improving information quality, there has been considerable work related to information quality during the last several years. Given this rich background of prior work, the Information Quality Cluster (IQC), established within the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) has been active with membership from multiple organizations. Its objectives and activities, aimed at ensuring and improving information quality for Earth science data and products, are discussed briefly.

Ensuring and Improving Information Quality for Earth Science Data and Products Role of the ESIP Information Quality Cluster

Science.gov (United States)

Ramapriyan, H. K. (Rama); Peng, Ge; Moroni, David; Shie, Chung-Lin

2016-01-01

Quality of products is always of concern to users regardless of the type of products. The focus of this paper is on the quality of Earth science data products. There are four different aspects of quality scientific, product, stewardship and service. All these aspects taken together constitute Information Quality. With increasing requirement on ensuring and improving information quality, there has been considerable work related to information quality during the last several years. Given this rich background of prior work, the Information Quality Cluster (IQC), established within the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) has been active with membership from multiple organizations. Its objectives and activities, aimed at ensuring and improving information quality for Earth science data and products, are discussed briefly.

Developing Information Services and Tools to Access and Evaluate Data Quality in Global Satellite-based Precipitation Products

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Z.; Shie, C. L.; Meyer, D. J.

2017-12-01

Global satellite-based precipitation products have been widely used in research and applications around the world. Compared to ground-based observations, satellite-based measurements provide precipitation data on a global scale, especially in remote continents and over oceans. Over the years, satellite-based precipitation products have evolved from single sensor and single algorithm to multi-sensors and multi-algorithms. As a result, many satellite-based precipitation products have been enhanced such as spatial and temporal coverages. With inclusion of ground-based measurements, biases of satellite-based precipitation products have been significantly reduced. However, data quality issues still exist and can be caused by many factors such as observations, satellite platform anomaly, algorithms, production, calibration, validation, data services, etc. The NASA Goddard Earth Sciences (GES) Data and Information Services Center (DISC) is home to NASA global precipitation product archives including the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM), as well as other global and regional precipitation products. Precipitation is one of the top downloaded and accessed parameters in the GES DISC data archive. Meanwhile, users want to easily locate and obtain data quality information at regional and global scales to better understand how precipitation products perform and how reliable they are. As data service providers, it is necessary to provide an easy access to data quality information, however, such information normally is not available, and when it is available, it is not in one place and difficult to locate. In this presentation, we will present challenges and activities at the GES DISC to address precipitation data quality issues.

Editorial and scientific quality in the parameters for inclusion of journals commercial and open access databases

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cecilia Rozemblum

2015-04-01

Full Text Available In this article, the parameters used by RedALyC, Catalogo Latindex, SciELO, Scopus and Web of Science for the incorporation of scientific journals in their collections are analyzed with the goal of proving their relation with the objectives of each database in addition of debating the valuation that the scientific society is giving to those systems as decisive of "scientific quality". The used indicators are classified in: 1 Editorial quality (formal aspects or editorial management. 2 Content quality (peer review or originality and 3 Visibility (prestige of editors and editorial use and impact, accessibility and indexing It is revealed that: a between 9 and 16% of the indicators are related to the quality of content; b Lack specificity in their definition and determination of measure systems, and c match the goals of each base, although a marked trend towards formal aspects related and visibility is observed. Thus makes it clear that these systems pursuing their own objectives, making a core of journals of “quality” for its readership. We conclude, therefore, that the presence or absence of a journal in these collections is not sufficient to determine the quality of scientific magazine and its contents parameter.

CILogon: An Integrated Identity and Access Management Platform for Science

Science.gov (United States)

Basney, J.

2016-12-01

When scientists work together, they use web sites and other software to share their ideas and data. To ensure the integrity of their work, these systems require the scientists to log in and verify that they are part of the team working on a particular science problem. Too often, the identity and access verification process is a stumbling block for the scientists. Scientific research projects are forced to invest time and effort into developing and supporting Identity and Access Management (IAM) services, distracting them from the core goals of their research collaboration. CILogon provides an IAM platform that enables scientists to work together to meet their IAM needs more effectively so they can allocate more time and effort to their core mission of scientific research. The CILogon platform enables federated identity management and collaborative organization management. Federated identity management enables researchers to use their home organization identities to access cyberinfrastructure, rather than requiring yet another username and password to log on. Collaborative organization management enables research projects to define user groups for authorization to collaboration platforms (e.g., wikis, mailing lists, and domain applications). CILogon's IAM platform serves the unique needs of research collaborations, namely the need to dynamically form collaboration groups across organizations and countries, sharing access to data, instruments, compute clusters, and other resources to enable scientific discovery. CILogon provides a software-as-a-service platform to ease integration with cyberinfrastructure, while making all software components publicly available under open source licenses to enable re-use. Figure 1 illustrates the components and interfaces of this platform. CILogon has been operational since 2010 and has been used by over 7,000 researchers from more than 170 identity providers to access cyberinfrastructure including Globus, LIGO, Open Science Grid

Highly qualified does not equal high quality: A study of urban stakeholders' perceptions of quality in science teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Miranda, Rommel Joseph

By employing qualitative methods, this study sought to determine the perceptions that urban stakeholders hold about what characteristics should distinguish a high school science teacher whom they would consider to demonstrate high quality in science teaching. A maximum variation sample of six science teachers, three school administrators, six parents and six students from a large urban public school district were interviewed using semi-structured, in-depth interview techniques. From these data, a list of observable characteristics which urban stakeholders hold as evidence of high quality in science teaching was generated. Observational techniques were utilized to determine the extent to which six urban high school science teachers, who meet the NCLB Act criteria for being "highly qualified", actually possessed the characteristics which these stakeholders hold as evidence of high quality in science teaching. Constant comparative analysis was used to analyze the data set. The findings suggest that urban stakeholders perceive that a high school science teacher who demonstrates high quality in science teaching should be knowledgeable about their subject matter, their student population, and should be resourceful; should possess an academic background in science and professional experience in science teaching; should exhibit professionalism, a passion for science and teaching, and a dedication to teaching and student learning; should be skillful in planning and preparing science lessons and in organizing the classroom, in presenting the subject matter to students, in conducting a variety of hands-on activities, and in managing a classroom; and should assess whether students complete class goals and objectives, and provide feedback about grades for students promptly. The findings further reveal that some of the urban high school science teachers who were deemed to be "highly qualified", as defined by the NCLB Act, engaged in practices that threatened quality in science

Understanding and Improving Blind Students' Access to Visual Information in Computer Science Education

Science.gov (United States)

Baker, Catherine M.

Teaching people with disabilities tech skills empowers them to create solutions to problems they encounter and prepares them for careers. However, computer science is typically taught in a highly visual manner which can present barriers for people who are blind. The goal of this dissertation is to understand and decrease those barriers. The first projects I present looked at the barriers that blind students face. I first present the results of my survey and interviews with blind students with degrees in computer science or related fields. This work highlighted the many barriers that these blind students faced. I then followed-up on one of the barriers mentioned, access to technology, by doing a preliminary accessibility evaluation of six popular integrated development environments (IDEs) and code editors. I found that half were unusable and all had some inaccessible portions. As access to visual information is a barrier in computer science education, I present three projects I have done to decrease this barrier. The first project is Tactile Graphics with a Voice (TGV). This project investigated an alternative to Braille labels for those who do not know Braille and showed that TGV was a potential alternative. The next project was StructJumper, which created a modified abstract syntax tree that blind programmers could use to navigate through code with their screen reader. The evaluation showed that users could navigate more quickly and easily determine the relationships of lines of code when they were using StructJumper compared to when they were not. Finally, I present a tool for dynamic graphs (the type with nodes and edges) which had two different modes for handling focus changes when moving between graphs. I found that the modes support different approaches for exploring the graphs and therefore preferences are mixed based on the user's preferred approach. However, both modes had similar accuracy in completing the tasks. These projects are a first step towards

Open Access, impact and quality: an even harder future for gatekeepers?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fabio Turone

2013-06-01

Full Text Available With the advent of open access publishing, coupled with easy electronic access to journals, many of the historical constraints towards access to the litterature – both as an author and as a reader – have recently been reshaped, and are still changing, raising among others issues about the quality of what is published. Many aspects are being looked at very carefully, but so far the role of the media has only occasionally been investigated. On one side, more and more scholars oppose the current use of...

Accessing Earth Science Data Visualizations through NASA GIBS & Worldview

Science.gov (United States)

Cechini, M. F.; Boller, R. A.; Baynes, K.; Wong, M. M.; King, B. A.; Schmaltz, J. E.; De Luca, A. P.; King, J.; Roberts, J. T.; Rodriguez, J.; Thompson, C. K.; Pressley, N. N.

2017-12-01

For more than 20 years, the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) has operated dozens of remote sensing satellites collecting nearly 15 Petabytes of data that span thousands of science parameters. Within these observations are keys the Earth Scientists have used to unlock many things that we understand about our planet. Also contained within these observations are a myriad of opportunities for learning and education. The trick is making them accessible to educators and students in convenient and simple ways so that effort can be spent on lesson enrichment and not overcoming technical hurdles. The NASA Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) system and NASA Worldview website provide a unique view into EOS data through daily full resolution visualizations of hundreds of earth science parameters. For many of these parameters, visualizations are available within hours of acquisition from the satellite. For others, visualizations are available for the entire mission of the satellite. Accompanying the visualizations are visual aids such as color legends, place names, and orbit tracks. By using these visualizations, educators and students can observe natural phenomena that enrich a scientific education. This poster will provide an overview of the visualizations available in NASA GIBS and Worldview and how they are accessed. We invite discussion on how the visualizations can be used or improved for educational purposes.

Creating Accessible Science Museums with User-Activated Environmental Audio Beacons (Ping!)

Science.gov (United States)

Landau, Steven; Wiener, William; Naghshineh, Koorosh; Giusti, Ellen

2005-01-01

In 2003, Touch Graphics Company carried out research on a new invention that promises to improve accessibility to science museums for visitors who are visually impaired. The system, nicknamed Ping!, allows users to navigate an exhibit area, listen to audio descriptions, and interact with exhibits using a cell phone-based interface. The system…

Life sciences flight experiments program, life sciences project division, procurement quality provisions

Science.gov (United States)

House, G.

1980-01-01

Methods are defined for implementing quality assurance policy and requirements for life sciences laboratory equipment, experimental hardware, integration and test support equipment, and integrated payloads.

Quality-assurance and data-management plan for water-quality activities in the Kansas Water Science Center, 2014

Science.gov (United States)

Rasmussen, Teresa J.; Bennett, Trudy J.; Foster, Guy M.; Graham, Jennifer L.; Putnam, James E.

2014-01-01

As the Nation’s largest water, earth, and biological science and civilian mapping information agency, the U.S. Geological Survey is relied on to collect high-quality data, and produce factual and impartial interpretive reports. This quality-assurance and data-management plan provides guidance for water-quality activities conducted by the Kansas Water Science Center. Policies and procedures are documented for activities related to planning, collecting, storing, documenting, tracking, verifying, approving, archiving, and disseminating water-quality data. The policies and procedures described in this plan complement quality-assurance plans for continuous water-quality monitoring, surface-water, and groundwater activities in Kansas.

Effects of Funding Sources on Access to Quality Higher Education in Public Universities in Kenya: A Case Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John Mutinda Mutiso

2015-04-01

Full Text Available In the last two decades, Kenya has witnessed an exponential growth of students’ enrolment in its public universities and an oscillatory government funding in these institutions precipitating quality concerns by employers on the skills of the graduates to meet industry needs. In education finance, the sources of funds and the size of the resources are key determinants of quality education. The objective of the study was to determine the relationship between various funding sources and access to quality education in Kenya public universities using a case approach. The data collection instruments used were an interview guide, a focus group discussion guide, a student’s survey questionnaire and secondary document analysis. Data was collected from October to December 2014 in the case university from a sample population of 10 top university management staff, 36 heads of department (HoDs and 400 undergraduate students. The study employed the education production function as a basic model of the study. The validity of the data collection instruments was established through scrutiny by thesis supervisors and the reliability test of the students’ questionnaire returned a cronbach alpha of 0.88. F-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA methods were used with aid of the statistical package for social science (SPSS version 2.0.The conclusion of the study was that, the sources of funds had a positive effect on quality though the results were not significant, while government capitation, tuition and other sources of funds were significantly important for the access of quality of education in the institution (P =0.30, P = 0.018, P = 0.000. The study recommended the adoption of performance based funding to enhance quality in higher education.

ScienceCentral: open access full-text archive of scientific journals based on Journal Article Tag Suite regardless of their languages.

Science.gov (United States)

Huh, Sun

2013-01-01

ScienceCentral, a free or open access, full-text archive of scientific journal literature at the Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies, was under test in September 2013. Since it is a Journal Article Tag Suite-based full text database, extensible markup language files of all languages can be presented, according to Unicode Transformation Format 8-bit encoding. It is comparable to PubMed Central: however, there are two distinct differences. First, its scope comprises all science fields; second, it accepts all language journals. Launching ScienceCentral is the first step for free access or open access academic scientific journals of all languages to leap to the world, including scientific journals from Croatia.

Information Accessibility and Utilization as Correlate of Quality Of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The quality of life of people in developing countries, including Nigeria, is often adjudged to be lower than the expected standard. This is worse with women living in the rural areas whose lives are characterised by inadequate access and use of basic amenities of life. The situation is compounded by the women's lack of ...

ROSA P : The National Transportation Library’s Repository and Open Science Access Portal

Science.gov (United States)

2018-01-01

The National Transportation Library (NTL) was founded as an all-digital repository of US DOT research reports, technical publications and data products. NTLs primary public offering is ROSA P, the Repository and Open Science Access Portal. An open...

Application of ESE Data and Tools to Air Quality Management: Services for Helping the Air Quality Community use ESE Data (SHAirED)

Science.gov (United States)

Falke, Stefan; Husar, Rudolf

2011-01-01

The goal of this REASoN applications and technology project is to deliver and use Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) data and tools in support of air quality management. Its scope falls within the domain of air quality management and aims to develop a federated air quality information sharing network that includes data from NASA, EPA, US States and others. Project goals were achieved through a access of satellite and ground observation data, web services information technology, interoperability standards, and air quality community collaboration. In contributing to a network of NASA ESE data in support of particulate air quality management, the project will develop access to distributed data, build Web infrastructure, and create tools for data processing and analysis. The key technologies used in the project include emerging web services for developing self describing and modular data access and processing tools, and service oriented architecture for chaining web services together to assemble customized air quality management applications. The technology and tools required for this project were developed within DataFed.net, a shared infrastructure that supports collaborative atmospheric data sharing and processing web services. Much of the collaboration was facilitated through community interactions through the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Air Quality Workgroup. The main activities during the project that successfully advanced DataFed, enabled air quality applications and established community-oriented infrastructures were: develop access to distributed data (surface and satellite), build Web infrastructure to support data access, processing and analysis create tools for data processing and analysis foster air quality community collaboration and interoperability.

Increasing Access to Science Oriented Education Programmes in Tertiary Institutions in Ghana through Distance Education

Science.gov (United States)

Osei, C. K.; Mensah, J. A.

2014-01-01

There is emphasis in the educational policy of Ghana for the promotion of Distance Education programmes to widen access to education at all levels and facilitate human resource development. This study examined the level of access and challenges faced by learners in science oriented programmes offered by distance in the Kwame Nkrumah University of…

Dilemma of Access and Provision of Quality Basic Education in Central Region, Ghana

Science.gov (United States)

Amakyi, Michael; Ampah-Mensah, Alfred

2016-01-01

A survey research was conducted to find out if reported improvements in access to education in Ghana are reflected in comparable improvements in delivery of quality education. The study examined theoretical constructs on adequacy and quality assurance in education to ascertain the state of quality provision in education, and whether there is a…

REGION - the online open-access journal of ERSA

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Koschinsky, Julia; Koster, Sierdjan; Patuelli, R.; Royuela, Vicente; Tselios, Vassilis

2014-01-01

This editorial launches REGION, the new online and open-access journal of ERSA. REGION aims to be a high-quality academic journal in the field of regional science. To its contributors, it offers a solid peer-review process and immediate publication upon acceptance. Also, it will be a flexible

Does Accelerating Access to Higher Education Lower Its Quality? The Australian Experience

Science.gov (United States)

Pitman, Tim; Koshy, Paul; Phillimore, John

2015-01-01

In the pursuit of mass higher education, fears are often expressed that the quality of higher education suffers as access is increased. This quantitative study considers three proxies of educational quality: (1) prior academic achievement of the student, (2) attrition and retention rates and (3) progression rates, to establish whether educational…

Overcoming Exclusion through Quality Schooling. Pathways to Access. Research Monograph No. 65

Science.gov (United States)

Govinda, R.; Bandyopadhyay, Madhumita

2011-01-01

In the era of globalisation, provision of quality education is increasingly gaining importance across the world. Like elsewhere, it has already been realised in India that equal attention is needed simultaneously on access, equity and quality to achieve the goal of universalisation of elementary education. It has also been experienced that…

Maui Citizen Science Coastal Water Quality Data

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — A network of citizen science volunteers periodically monitors water quality at several beaches across the island of Maui in the State of Hawaii. This community-based...

Coordination mechanisms for quality improvement and market access in Ethiopian potato value chains

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Abebe, G.K.

2013-01-01

Market access for smallholders in developing countries often requires the improvement of product quality. As products are traded in value chains, quality improvement entails the coordination of activities and decisions by all actors in the chain. Thus, enhancing smallholders’

Severe road traffic injuries in Kenya, quality of care and access ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Severe road traffic injuries in Kenya, quality of care and access. ... hospitals were interviewed on availability of emergency care and resources. ... Training of motorists and general public in first aid should be considered in RTI control initiatives.

Quality Assessment of Collection 6 MODIS Atmospheric Science Products

Science.gov (United States)

Manoharan, V. S.; Ridgway, B.; Platnick, S. E.; Devadiga, S.; Mauoka, E.

2015-12-01

Since the launch of the NASA Terra and Aqua satellites in December 1999 and May 2002, respectively, atmosphere and land data acquired by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) sensor on-board these satellites have been reprocessed five times at the MODAPS (MODIS Adaptive Processing System) located at NASA GSFC. The global land and atmosphere products use science algorithms developed by the NASA MODIS science team investigators. MODAPS completed Collection 6 reprocessing of MODIS Atmosphere science data products in April 2015 and is currently generating the Collection 6 products using the latest version of the science algorithms. This reprocessing has generated one of the longest time series of consistent data records for understanding cloud, aerosol, and other constituents in the earth's atmosphere. It is important to carefully evaluate and assess the quality of this data and remove any artifacts to maintain a useful climate data record. Quality Assessment (QA) is an integral part of the processing chain at MODAPS. This presentation will describe the QA approaches and tools adopted by the MODIS Land/Atmosphere Operational Product Evaluation (LDOPE) team to assess the quality of MODIS operational Atmospheric products produced at MODAPS. Some of the tools include global high resolution images, time series analysis and statistical QA metrics. The new high resolution global browse images with pan and zoom have provided the ability to perform QA of products in real time through synoptic QA on the web. This global browse generation has been useful in identifying production error, data loss, and data quality issues from calibration error, geolocation error and algorithm performance. A time series analysis for various science datasets in the Level-3 monthly product was recently developed for assessing any long term drifts in the data arising from instrument errors or other artifacts. This presentation will describe and discuss some test cases from the

Association of mandated language access programming and quality of care provided by mental health agencies.

Science.gov (United States)

McClellan, Sean R; Snowden, Lonnie

2015-01-01

This study examined the association between language access programming and quality of psychiatric care received by persons with limited English proficiency (LEP). In 1999, the California Department of Mental Health required county Medicaid agencies to implement a "threshold language access policy" to meet the state's Title VI obligations. This policy required Medi-Cal agencies to provide language access programming, including access to interpreters and translated written material, to speakers of languages other than English if the language was spoken by at least 3,000, or 5%, of the county's Medicaid population. Using a longitudinal study design with a nonequivalent control group, this study examined the quality of care provided to Spanish speakers with LEP and a severe mental illness before and after implementation of mandatory language access programming. Quality was measured by receipt of at least two follow-up medication visits within 90 days or three visits within 180 days of an initial medication visit over a period of 38 quarter-years. On average, only 40% of Spanish-speaking clients received at least three medication follow-up visits within 180 days. In multivariate analyses, language access programming was not associated with receipt of at least two medication follow-up visits within 90 days or at least three visits within 180 days. This study found no evidence that language access programming led to increased rates of follow-up medication visits for clients with LEP.

Cuban Science and the Open Access Alternative

CERN Document Server

Arencibia Jorge, Ricardo; Torricella-Morales, Raúl G

2004-01-01

Science in Cuba has experienced extraordinary development since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, in spite of the blockade to which Cuba has been subjected by the United States Government, and thanks to the support and cooperation of the countries that were part of the former Socialist Block. However, after the destruction of the Socialist Block, the Cuban economy suffered through a restructuring process that included the reorganization of the traditional systems for spreading scientific information. At that moment, it was necessary to use alternative means to effectively publicise, to the international scientific community, the information generated by Cuban scientists and scholars. This paper briefly reviews this new era, the institutions that led the process of change, and the future projections based on knowledge of the digital environment and the creation of electronic and open access information sources.

Open Access Policies of Research Funders: The Case Study of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)

OpenAIRE

Tonto, Yaşar; Doğan, Güleda; Al, Umut; Madran, Orçun

2015-01-01

The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) is the main funder for basic research in Austria. FWF has been instrumental in promoting Open Access in Austria and elsewhere and possesses a strong Open Access policy for the research it funds. This case study presents FWF as a good practice of an effective funder policy on account of its comprehensive strategy and multi-faceted approach for implementing and supporting it.

Symposium 1: Challenges in science education and popularization of Science

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ildeo de Castro Moreira

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Science education and popularization of science are important elements for social inclusion. The Brazil exhibits strong inequalities regarding the distribution of wealth, access to cultural assets and appropriation of scientific and technological knowledge. Each Brazilian should have the opportunity to acquire a basic knowledge of science and its operation that allow them to understand their environment and expand their professional opportunities. However, the overall performance of Brazilian students in science and math is bad. The basic science education has, most often, few resources and is discouraging, with little appreciation of experimentation, interdisciplinarity and creativity. Beside the shortage of science teachers, especially teachers with good formation, predominate poor wage and working conditions, and deficiencies in instructional materials and laboratories. If there was a significant expansion in access to basic education, the challenge remains to improve their quality. According to the last National Conference of STI, there is need of a profound educational reform at all levels, in particular with regard to science education. Already, the popularization of science can be an important tool for the construction of scientific culture and refinement of the formal teaching instrument. However, we still lack a comprehensive and adequate public policy to her intended. Clearly, in recent decades, an increase in scientific publication occurred: creating science centers and museums; greater media presence; use of the internet and social networks; outreach events, such as the National Week of CT. But the scenario is shown still fragile and limited to broad swathes of Brazilians without access to scientific education and qualified information on CT. In this presentation, from a general diagnosis of the situation, some of the main challenges related to education and popularization of science in the country will address herself.

Socioeconomic inequalities in the access to and quality of health care services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bruno Pereira Nunes

2014-12-01

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE To assess the inequalities in access, utilization, and quality of health care services according to the socioeconomic status. METHODS This population-based cross-sectional study evaluated 2,927 individuals aged ≥ 20 years living in Pelotas, RS, Southern Brazil, in 2012. The associations between socioeconomic indicators and the following outcomes were evaluated: lack of access to health services, utilization of services, waiting period (in days for assistance, and waiting time (in hours in lines. We used Poisson regression for the crude and adjusted analyses. RESULTS The lack of access to health services was reported by 6.5% of the individuals who sought health care. The prevalence of use of health care services in the 30 days prior to the interview was 29.3%. Of these, 26.4% waited five days or more to receive care and 32.1% waited at least an hour in lines. Approximately 50.0% of the health care services were funded through the Unified Health System. The use of health care services was similar across socioeconomic groups. The lack of access to health care services and waiting time in lines were higher among individuals of lower economic status, even after adjusting for health care needs. The waiting period to receive care was higher among those with higher socioeconomic status. CONCLUSIONS Although no differences were observed in the use of health care services across socioeconomic groups, inequalities were evident in the access to and quality of these services.

[Access to prenatal care and quality of care in the Family Health Strategy: infrastructure, care, and management].

Science.gov (United States)

Guimarães, Wilderi Sidney Gonçalves; Parente, Rosana Cristina Pereira; Guimarães, Thayanne Louzada Ferreira; Garnelo, Luiza

2018-05-10

This study focuses on access to prenatal care and quality of care in the Family Health Strategy in Brazil as a whole and in the North region, through evaluation of infrastructure characteristics in the health units, management, and supply of care provided by the teams, from the perspective of regional and state inequalities. A cross-sectional evaluative and normative study was performed, drawing on the external evaluation component of the second round of the Program for Improvement of Access and Quality of Primary Care, in 2013-2014. The results revealed the inadequacy of the primary healthcare network's infrastructure for prenatal care, low adequacy of clinical actions for quality of care, and the teams' low management capacity to guarantee access and quality of care. In the distribution according to geopolitical regions, the findings pertaining to the units' infrastructure indicate a direct relationship between the infrastructure's adequacy and social contexts with higher municipal human development indices and income. For the clinical actions in patient care, the teams in all the regions scored low on adequacy, with slightly better results in the North and South regions of the country. There were important differences between the states of the North, and the states with higher mean income and human development scored higher on adequacy. The results indicate important organizational difficulties in both access and quality of care provided by the health teams, in addition to visible insufficiency in management activities aimed to improve access and quality of prenatal care.

Socioeconomic inequalities in the access to and quality of health care services

OpenAIRE

Nunes, Bruno Pereira; Thumé, Elaine; Tomasi, Elaine; Duro, Suele Manjourany Silva; Facchini, Luiz Augusto

2014-01-01

OBJECTIVE To assess the inequalities in access, utilization, and quality of health care services according to the socioeconomic status. METHODS This population-based cross-sectional study evaluated 2,927 individuals aged ≥ 20 years living in Pelotas, RS, Southern Brazil, in 2012. The associations between socioeconomic indicators and the following outcomes were evaluated: lack of access to health services, utilization of services, waiting period (in days) for assistance, and waiting time (in...

Information Quality as a Foundation for User Trustworthiness of Earth Science Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Y.; Moroni, D. F.; Ramapriyan, H.; Peng, G.

2017-12-01

Information quality is multidimensional. Four different aspects of information quality can be defined based on the lifecycle stages of Earth Science data products: science, product, stewardship and services. With increasing requirements on ensuring and improving information quality coming from multiple government agencies and throughout industry, there have been considerable efforts toward improving information quality during the last decade, much of which has not been well vetted in a collective sense until recently. Given this rich background of prior work, the Information Quality Cluster (IQC), established within the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) in 2011, and reactivated in the summer of 2014, has been active with membership from multiple organizations. The IQC's objectives and activities, aimed at ensuring and improving information quality for Earth science data and products, are also considered vital toward improving the trustworthiness of Earth science data to a vast and interdisciplinary community of data users. During 2016, several members of the IQC have led the development and assessment of four use cases. This was followed up in 2017 with multiple panel sessions at the 2017 Winter and Summer ESIP Meetings to survey the challenges posed in the various aspects of information quality. What was discovered to be most lacking is the transparency of data lineage (i.e., provenance and maturity), uniform methods for uncertainty characterization, and uniform quality assurance data and metadata. While solutions to these types of issues exist, most data producers have little time to investigate and collaborate to arrive at and conform to a consensus approach. The IQC has positioned itself as a community platform to bring together all relevant stakeholders from data producers, repositories, program managers, and the end users. A combination of both well-vetted and "trailblazing" solutions are presented to address how data trustworthiness can

A Comparative Study of the Quality of Teaching Learning Process at Post Graduate Level in the Faculty of Science and Social Science

Science.gov (United States)

Shahzadi, Uzma; Shaheen, Gulnaz; Shah, Ashfaque Ahmed

2012-01-01

The study was intended to compare the quality of teaching learning process in the faculty of social science and science at University of Sargodha. This study was descriptive and quantitative in nature. The objectives of the study were to compare the quality of teaching learning process in the faculty of social science and science at University of…

Examining Deaf Students' Equitable Access to Science vis-a-vis Contemporary Pedagogical Practices

Science.gov (United States)

Ross, Annemarie D.

As a Deaf individual, it is important to ensure the growth of the Deaf community as science-literate members of society. While many predecessors have contributed to the body of research in Deaf pedagogy, there is still much to be done in safeguarding Deaf learners' equitable access to science education. One area of concern is in narrowing the statistically significant gap in Climate Change knowledge between Deaf students' and Hearing students' at the Rochester Institute of Technology. It is within this topic that the writing-to-learn-science framework is practiced and Deaf students in the Laboratory Science Technology program at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf participate in a study to assess whether or not the use of writing-to-learn-science strategies help them become better scientists, writers and learners. In this study, the social constructivist framework (Vygotsky, 1987) is used to study the impact of the use of the Berland and Reiser (2009) argumentation framework, so that they write-to-learn-science through the steps of sense-making, articulation and persuasion.

The effect of social franchising on access to and quality of health services in low- and middle-income countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Koehlmoos, Tracey Perez; Gazi, Rukhsana; Hossain, S Shahed; Zaman, K

2009-01-21

Social franchising has developed as a possible means of improving provision of health services through engaging the non-state sector in low- and middle-income countries. To examine the evidence that social franchising has on access to and quality of health services in low- and middle-income countries. We searched the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC) Group Specialised Register (up to October 2007), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (The Cochrane Library 2007, Issue 3), MEDLINE, Ovid (1950 to September Week 3 2007), EMBASE, Ovid (1980 to 2007 Week 38), CINAHL, Ovid (1982 to September Week 3 2007), EconLit, WebSPIRS (1969 to Sept 2007), LILACS, Science Citation Index Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index (1975 to March 2008), Sociological Abstracts, CSA Illumnia (1952 September 2007), WHOLIS (1948 November 2007). Randomized controlled trials, non-randomized controlled trials, controlled before and after studies and interrupted time series comparing social franchising models with other models of health service delivery, other social franchising models or absence of health services. Two review authors independently applied the criteria for inclusion and exclusion of studies to scan titles and abstracts. The same two review authors independently screened full reports of selected citations . At each stage, results were compared and discrepancies settled through discussion. No studies were found which were eligible for inclusion in this review. There is a need to develop rigorous studies to evaluate the effects of social franchising on access to and quality of health services in low- and middle-income countries. Such studies should be informed by the wider literature to identify models of social franchising that have a sound theoretical basis and empirical research addressing their reach, acceptability, feasibility, maintenance and measurability.

Polymers – A New Open Access Scientific Journal on Polymer Science

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shu-Kun Lin

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Polymers is a new interdisciplinary, Open Access scientific journal on polymer science, published by Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI. This journal welcomes manuscript submissions on polymer chemistry, macromolecular chemistry, polymer physics, polymer characterization and all related topics. Both synthetic polymers and natural polymers, including biopolymers, are considered. Manuscripts will be thoroughly peer-reviewed in a timely fashion, and papers will be published, if accepted, within 6 to 8 weeks after submission. [...

Growth performance and nutrient quality of three Moringa oleifera ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Growth performance and nutrient quality of three Moringa oleifera accessions grown as potherbs under varied manure rates and watering intervals were investigated at the Department of Crop Science, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The treatments included three accessions of Moringa (Awo-Anaekpa, Idere and Kano), ...

mORCA: ubiquitous access to life science web services.

Science.gov (United States)

Diaz-Del-Pino, Sergio; Trelles, Oswaldo; Falgueras, Juan

2018-01-16

Technical advances in mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets have produced an extraordinary increase in their use around the world and have become part of our daily lives. The possibility of carrying these devices in a pocket, particularly mobile phones, has enabled ubiquitous access to Internet resources. Furthermore, in the life sciences world there has been a vast proliferation of data types and services that finish as Web Services. This suggests the need for research into mobile clients to deal with life sciences applications for effective usage and exploitation. Analysing the current features in existing bioinformatics applications managing Web Services, we have devised, implemented, and deployed an easy-to-use web-based lightweight mobile client. This client is able to browse, select, compose parameters, invoke, and monitor the execution of Web Services stored in catalogues or central repositories. The client is also able to deal with huge amounts of data between external storage mounts. In addition, we also present a validation use case, which illustrates the usage of the application while executing, monitoring, and exploring the results of a registered workflow. The software its available in the Apple Store and Android Market and the source code is publicly available in Github. Mobile devices are becoming increasingly important in the scientific world due to their strong potential impact on scientific applications. Bioinformatics should not fall behind this trend. We present an original software client that deals with the intrinsic limitations of such devices and propose different guidelines to provide location-independent access to computational resources in bioinformatics and biomedicine. Its modular design makes it easily expandable with the inclusion of new repositories, tools, types of visualization, etc.

Quality Uncertainty Erodes Trust in Science

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Simine Vazire

2017-02-01

Full Text Available When consumers of science (readers and reviewers lack relevant details about the study design, data, and analyses, they cannot adequately evaluate the strength of a scientific study. Lack of transparency is common in science, and is encouraged by journals that place more emphasis on the aesthetic appeal of a manuscript than the robustness of its scientific claims. In doing this, journals are implicitly encouraging authors to do whatever it takes to obtain eye-catching results. To achieve this, researchers can use common research practices that beautify results at the expense of the robustness of those results (e.g., p-hacking. The problem is not engaging in these practices, but failing to disclose them. A car whose carburetor is duct-taped to the rest of the car might work perfectly fine, but the buyer has a right to know about the duct-taping. Without high levels of transparency in scientific publications, consumers of scientific manuscripts are in a similar position as buyers of used cars – they cannot reliably tell the difference between lemons and high quality findings. This phenomenon – quality uncertainty – has been shown to erode trust in economic markets, such as the used car market. The same problem threatens to erode trust in science. The solution is to increase transparency and give consumers of scientific research the information they need to accurately evaluate research. Transparency would also encourage researchers to be more careful in how they conduct their studies and write up their results. To make this happen, we must tie journals’ reputations to their practices regarding transparency. Reviewers hold a great deal of power to make this happen, by demanding the transparency needed to rigorously evaluate scientific manuscripts. The public expects transparency from science, and appropriately so – we should be held to a higher standard than used car salespeople.

In Support of Access and Inclusion: Joint Professional Development for Science and Special Educators

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rita Brusca-Vega

2014-11-01

Full Text Available This article addresses the need for collaborative professional development of science and special educators to enhance access and inclusion for students with disabilities and improve science learning for all students. The purpose of the study was to examine changes in the teaching practices of science and special educators, grades 4 to 8, as they jointly completed an intense year-long professional development program designed to promote hands-on, inquiry-based science in their classrooms; expand their instructional repertoires to better serve students with disabilities and other learning problems; and facilitate communication between the groups. Quantitative and qualitative measures, including pre and post ratings of teacher classroom performance, action research projects, and teacher interviews, were used to determine changes in teacher instructional and collaborative practices.

Scrambling for access: availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of healthcare for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in South Africa.

Science.gov (United States)

Müller, Alex

2017-05-30

Sexual orientation and gender identity are social determinants of health for people identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT), and health disparities among sexual and gender minority populations are increasingly well understood. Although the South African constitution guarantees sexual and gender minority people the right to non-discrimination and the right to access to healthcare, homo- and transphobia in society abound. Little is known about LGBT people's healthcare experiences in South Africa, but anecdotal evidence suggests significant barriers to accessing care. Using the framework of the UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights General Comment 14, this study analyses the experiences of LGBT health service users using South African public sector healthcare, including access to HIV counselling, testing and treatment. A qualitative study comprised of 16 semi-structured interviews and two focus group discussions with LGBT health service users, and 14 individual interviews with representatives of LGBT organisations. Data were thematically analysed within the framework of the UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights General Comment 14, focusing on availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of care. All interviewees reported experiences of discrimination by healthcare providers based on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Participants recounted violations of all four elements of the UN General Comment 14: 1) Availability: Lack of public health facilities and services, both for general and LGBT-specific concerns; 2) Accessibility: Healthcare providers' refusal to provide care to LGBT patients; 3) Acceptability: Articulation of moral judgment and disapproval of LGBT patients' identity, and forced subjection of patients to religious practices; 4) Quality: Lack of knowledge about LGBT identities and health needs, leading to poor-quality care. Participants had delayed or

New Image Qualities in Education: A Comparative Study

Science.gov (United States)

Çankaya, Ibrahim

2018-01-01

The aim of this study is to compare Turkish and European Union Countries Educations in terms of the new image qualities such as data like access to online education, digital access, foreign languages learnt per pupil, research & development investments, human resources employed in science and technology, the study opportunities offered to…

Access, Participation, and Supports: The Defining Features of High-Quality Inclusion

Science.gov (United States)

Buysse, Virginia

2011-01-01

This article describes current knowledge about early childhood inclusion, summarizing research and the DEC/NAEYC joint position statement on inclusion. The article also describes effective or promising educational practices that promote access, participation, and supports--the defining features of high-quality inclusion. Future efforts to improve…

Recommendations for Mass Spectrometry Data Quality Metrics for Open Access Data (Corollary to the Amsterdam Principles)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kinsinger, Christopher R.; Apffel, James; Baker, Mark

2012-01-01

Policies supporting the rapid and open sharing of proteomic data are being implemented by the leading journals in the field. The proteomics community is taking steps to ensure that data are made publicly accessible and are of high quality, a challenging task that requires the development...... of such methods for open access proteomics data. The stakeholders at the workshop enumerated the key principles underlying a framework for data quality assessment in mass spectrometry data that will meet the needs of the research community, journals, funding agencies, and data repositories. Attendees discussed....... This workshop report explores the historic precedents, key discussions, and necessary next steps to enhance the quality of open access data. By agreement, this article is published simultaneously in the Journal of Proteome Research, Molecular and Cellular Proteomics, Proteomics, and Proteomics Clinical...

Recommendations for Mass Spectrometry Data Quality Metrics for Open Access Data (Corollary to the Amsterdam Principles)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kinsinger, Christopher R.; Apffel, James; Baker, Mark

2011-01-01

Policies supporting the rapid and open sharing of proteomic data are being implemented by the leading journals in the field. The proteomics community is taking steps to ensure that data are made publicly accessible and are of high quality, a challenging task that requires the development...... of such methods for open access proteomics data. The stakeholders at the workshop enumerated the key principles underlying a framework for data quality assessment in mass spectrometry data that will meet the needs of the research community, journals, funding agencies, and data repositories. Attendees discussed....... This workshop report explores the historic precedents, key discussions, and necessary next steps to enhance the quality of open access data. By agreement, this article is published simultaneously in the Journal of Proteome Research, Molecular and Cellular Proteomics, Proteomics, and Proteomics Clinical...

Access to New Zealand Sign Language interpreters and quality of life for the deaf: a pilot study.

Science.gov (United States)

Henning, Marcus A; Krägeloh, Christian U; Sameshima, Shizue; Shepherd, Daniel; Shepherd, Gregory; Billington, Rex

2011-01-01

This paper aims to: (1) explore usage and accessibility of sign language interpreters, (2) appraise the levels of quality of life (QOL) of deaf adults residing in New Zealand, and (3) consider the impact of access to and usage of sign language interpreters on QOL. Sixty-eight deaf adults living in New Zealand participated in this study. Two questionnaires were employed: a 12-item instrument about access and use of New Zealand sign language interpreters and the abbreviated version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF). The results showed that 39% of this sample felt that they were unable to adequately access interpreting services. Moreover, this group scored significantly lower than a comparable hearing sample on all four WHOQOL-BREF domains. Finally, the findings revealed that access to good quality interpreters were associated with access to health services, transport issues, engagement in leisure activities, gaining more information, mobility and living in a healthy environment. These findings have consequences for policy makers and agencies interested in ensuring that there is an equitable distribution of essential services for all groups within New Zealand which inevitably has an impact on the health of the individual.

U.S. Government Open Internet Access to Sub-meter Satellite Data

Science.gov (United States)

Neigh, Christopher S. R> Masek, Jeffery G.; Nickeson, Jaime E.

2012-01-01

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has contracted United States commercial remote sensing companies GeoEye and Digital Globe to provide very high resolution commercial quality satellite imagery to federal/state government agencies and those projects/people who support government interests. Under NextView contract terms, those engaged in official government programs/projects can gain online access to NGA's vast global archive. Additionally, data from vendor's archives of IKONOS-2 (IK-2), OrbView-3 (OB-3), GeoEye-1 (GE-1), QuickBird-1 (QB-1), WorldView-1 (WV-1), and WorldView-2 (WV-2), sensors can also be requested under these agreements. We report here the current extent of this archive, how to gain access, and the applications of these data by Earth science investigators to improve discoverability and community use of these data. Satellite commercial quality imagery (CQI) at very high resolution (source to U.S. federal, state, and local governments for many different purposes. The rapid growth of free global CQI data has been slow to disseminate to NASA Earth Science community and programs such as the Land-Cover Land-Use Change (LCLUC) program which sees potential benefit from unprecedented access. This article evolved from a workshop held on February 23rd, 2012 between representatives from NGA, NASA, and NASA LCLUC Scientists discussion on how to extend this resource to a broader license approved community. Many investigators are unaware of NGA's archive availability or find it difficult to access CQI data from NGA. Results of studies, both quality and breadth, could be improved with CQI data by combining them with other moderate to coarse resolution passive optical Earth observation remote sensing satellites, or with RADAR or LiDAR instruments to better understand Earth system dynamics at the scale of human activities. We provide the evolution of this effort, a guide for qualified user access, and describe current to potential use of these data in

Grain quality of drought tolerant accessions within the MRI Zemun Polje maize germplasm collection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jelena Vančetović

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Maize Research Institute Zemun Polje (MRI gene bank created an elite drought tolerant core collection of 40 accessions, based on field trials and general combining ability with inbred lines from the main heterotic groups (Lancaster, Iowa Stiff Stalk Synthetic - BSSS and Iodent. A total of seven genetic groups were identified. Seven accessions showed good combining abilities with three testers from chosen heterotic groups, thus forming a dinstinctive genetic group (Unknown. In the present research, accessions with drought tolerance were also analyzed for grain quality, as these two traits are becoming highly important due to global warming and population growth. Kernel macronutrients contents (oil, protein and starch were determined using Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIR. Oil, protein and starch contents were significantly higher in introduced populations than in landraces for 0.43%, 0.12% and 0.85%, respectively (p<0.01. The greatest progress from the selection based on the expected genetic gain (ΔG for 5% selection intensity would be obtained for oil (14.74% followed by protein (10.14%. Landraces showed the least potential for the grain quality improvement due to the lowest expected ΔG for the three macronutrients. The differences between macronutrient content among genetic groups defined them as potentially favourable sources for a specific trait. According to ΔG values, the greatest progress in breeding would be accomplished for increased oil content with accessions from the Unknown group. Identification of the accessions with several favorable traits is valuable for simultaneous breeding for drought tolerance and grain quality.

Grain quality of drought tolerant accessions within the MRI Zemun Polje maize germplasm collection

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vancetovic, J.; Ignjatovic-Micic, D.; Bozinovic, S.; Babbic, M.; Filipovic, M.; Grcic, N.; Andjelkovic, V.

2014-06-01

Maize Research Institute Zemun Polje (MRI) gene bank created an elite drought tolerant core collection of 40 accessions, based on field trials and general combining ability with inbred lines from the main heterotic groups (Lancaster, Iowa Stiff Stalk Synthetic . BSSS and Iodent). A total of seven genetic groups were identified. Seven accessions showed good combining abilities with three testers from chosen heterotic groups, thus forming a distinctive genetic group (Unknown). In the present research, accessions with drought tolerance were also analyzed for grain quality, as these two traits are becoming highly important due to global warming and population growth. Kernel macronutrients contents (oil, protein and starch) were determined using Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIR). Oil, protein and starch contents were significantly higher in introduced populations than in landraces for 0.43%, 0.12% and 0.85%, respectively (p < 0.01). The greatest progress from the selection based on the expected genetic gain ({Delta}G) for 5% selection intensity would be obtained for oil (14.74%) followed by protein (10.14%). Landraces showed the least potential for the grain quality improvement due to the lowest expected {Delta}G for the three macronutrients. The differences between macronutrient content among genetic groups defined them as potentially favourable sources for a specific trait. According to {Delta}G values, the greatest progress in breeding would be accomplished for increased oil content with accessions from the Unknown group. Identification of the accessions with several favorable traits is valuable for simultaneous breeding for drought tolerance and grain quality. (Author)

Open Access Research via Collaborative Educational Blogging: A Case Study from Library & Information Science

Science.gov (United States)

Rebmann, Kristen Radsliff; Clark, Camden Bernard

2017-01-01

This article charts the development of activities for online graduate students in library and information science. Project goals include helping students develop competencies in understanding open access publishing, synthesizing research in the field, and engaging in scholarly communication via collaborative educational blogging. Using a design…

SCIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE IN TERMS OF QUALITY AND QUALITY IN TERMS OF DEVELOPMENT OF KNOWLEDGE AND SCIENCE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Milan Perovic

2007-12-01

Full Text Available The paper starts with a dilemma whether the quality, as a circular logic of the process model, is a scientific discipline or just an art of achieving and satisfaction of requests and wishes of the customer. Beginning from that dilemma, a relationship between science, knowledge and the quality management system has been elaborated. That relationship has been articulated in this paper using examples of improvement as a key principle of QMS. Elaboration of the improvement system is based on QMS principles and requests of international ISO 9000 standards. Connection of requests for improvement and teamwork is a key for understanding of this process. It is associated by one more factor during the operation, also a key for its understanding. It is a training and knowledge, which are foundation of the philosophy of success. This work indicates that it is impossible to achieve improvements without training and new acknowledgements and teamwork. Paper especially refers to the issue of relation between improvements and application of scientific methods and creation of virtual teams structured by the "owner" of the process and scientist from institutes and universities. Improvement, training, science - improvement make a spiral of the success which when initialized generated new cycles of the improvement. If quality is based on continual improvements and dynamic process of acknowledgement and if it founded on scientific prevention, scientific design, scientific recognition and scientific application, does that make it a scientific discipline.

Improving the Accessibility and Use of NASA Earth Science Data

Science.gov (United States)

Tisdale, Matthew; Tisdale, Brian

2015-01-01

Many of the NASA Langley Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) multidimensional tropospheric and atmospheric chemistry data products are stored in HDF4, HDF5 or NetCDF format, which traditionally have been difficult to analyze and visualize with geospatial tools. With the rising demand from the diverse end-user communities for geospatial tools to handle multidimensional products, several applications, such as ArcGIS, have refined their software. Many geospatial applications now have new functionalities that enable the end user to: Store, serve, and perform analysis on each individual variable, its time dimension, and vertical dimension. Use NetCDF, GRIB, and HDF raster data formats across applications directly. Publish output within REST image services or WMS for time and space enabled web application development. During this webinar, participants will learn how to leverage geospatial applications such as ArcGIS, OPeNDAP and ncWMS in the production of Earth science information, and in increasing data accessibility and usability.

Analisis Quality of Service (QoS Jaringan Telekomunikasi High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA pada Teknologi 3.5G

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mey Fenny Wati Simanjuntak

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Sejak layanan teknologi 3G pertama kali diperkenalkan, permintaan akan layanan berbasis paket data dari tahun ke tahun mengalami peningkatan yang pesat. Menanggapi hal tersebut, para penyedian jaringan telekomunikasi terus berusaha untuk meningkatkan kemampuan jaringannya. Salah satu solusinya menerapkan teknologi High-Speed Downlink Packet Access yang direkomendasikan oleh 3GPP Release 5. Penelitian ini dikhususkan untuk menganalisis Quality of Service jaringan telekomunikasi High-Speed Downlink Packet Access di Kecamatan Tembalang Kota Semarang. Analisis Quality of Service jaringan telekomunikasi High-Speed Downlink Packet Access pada penelitian ini bertujuan untuk memberikan gambaran kualitas jaringan telekomunikasi High-Speed Downlink Packet Access dari sisi bandwidth, throughput, packet loss dan delay. Metode penelitian yang dibahas dalam penelitian ini yaitu penelitian kualitatif observatif, dimana akan dilakukan pengamatan tentang bagaimana QoS jaringan telekomunikasi High-Speed Downlink Packet Access pada teknologi 3.5G di Kecamatan Tembalang Kota Semarang. Proses pengamatan dalam menganalisis Quality of Service jaringan telekomunikasi High-Speed Downlink Packet Access di Kecamatan Tembalang Kota Semarang berdasarkan 4 parameter diantaranya bandwidth, throughput, packet loss dan delay. Aplikasi yang digunakan yaitu monitoring application Elnus Bandwidth Meter dan Axence NetTools Professional 4.0. Selain itu, Quality of Service jaringan telekomunikasi High- Speed Downlink Packet Access di Kecamatan Tembalang Kota Semarang diamati berdasarkan waktu yaitu harian, mingguan dan bulanan.

The accessibility, readability, and quality of online resources for gender affirming surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Vargas, Christina R; Ricci, Joseph A; Lee, Michelle; Tobias, Adam M; Medalie, Daniel A; Lee, Bernard T

2017-09-01

The transgender population is disproportionally affected by health disparities related to access to care. In many communities, transgender specialists are geographically distant and locally available medical professionals may be unfamiliar with unique needs of transgender patients. As a result, use of Internet resources for information about gender affirming surgery is particularly important. This study simulates a patient search for online educational material about gender affirming surgery and evaluates the accessibility, readability, and quality of the information. An Internet search for the term "transgender surgery" was performed, and the first 10 relevant hits were identified. Readability was assessed using 10 established tests: Coleman-Liau, Flesch-Kincaid, FORCAST, Fry, Gunning Fog, New Dale-Chall, New Fog Count, Raygor Estimate, Simple Measure of Gobbledygook, and Flesch Reading Ease. Quality was assessed using Journal of the American Medical Association criteria and the DISCERN instrument. Review of 69 results was required to identify 10 sites with relevant patient information. There were 97 articles collected; overall mean reading level was 14.7. Individual Web site reading levels ranged from 12.0 to 17.5. All articles and Web sites exceeded the recommended sixth grade level. Quality ranged from 0 to 4 (Journal of the American Medical Association) and 35 to 79 (DISCERN) across Web sites. Web sites with relevant patient information about gender affirming surgery were difficult to identify from search results. The content of these sites universally exceeded the recommended reading level. A wide range of Web site quality was noted, and this may further complicate successful navigation. Barriers in access to appropriately written patient information on the Internet may contribute to disparities in referral, involvement, satisfaction, and outcomes. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Information-Seeking in Family Day Care: Access, Quality and Personal Cost

Science.gov (United States)

Corr, L.; Davis, E.; Cook, K.; Mackinnon, A.; Sims, M.; Herrman, H.

2014-01-01

Family day-care (FDC) educators work autonomously to provide care and education for children of mixed ages, backgrounds and abilities. To meet the demands and opportunities of their work and regulatory requirements, educators need access to context-relevant and high quality information. No previous research has examined how and where these workers…

Health care access and quality for persons with disability: Patient and provider recommendations.

Science.gov (United States)

McClintock, Heather F; Kurichi, Jibby E; Barg, Frances K; Krueger, Alice; Colletti, Patrice M; Wearing, Krizia A; Bogner, Hillary R

2018-07-01

Significant disparities in health care access and quality persist between persons with disabilities (PWD) and persons without disabilities (PWOD). Little research has examined recommendations of patients and providers to improve health care for PWD. We sought to explore patient and health care provider recommendations to improve health care access and quality for PWD through focus groups in the physical world in a community center and in the virtual world in an online community. In all, 17 PWD, 4 PWOD, and 6 health care providers participated in 1 of 5 focus groups. Focus groups were conducted in the virtual world in Second Life ® with Virtual Ability, an online community, and in the physical world at Agape Community Center in Milwaukee, WI. Focus group data were analyzed using a grounded theory methodology. Themes that emerged in focus groups among PWD and PWOD as well as health care providers to improve health care access and quality for PWD were: promoting advocacy, increasing awareness and knowledge, improving communication, addressing assumptions, as well as modifying and creating policy. Many participants discussed political empowerment and engagement as central to health care reform. Both PWD and PWOD as well as health care providers identified common themes potentially important for improving health care for PWD. Patient and health care provider recommendations highlight a need for modification of current paradigms, practices, and approaches to improve the quality of health care provision for PWD. Participants emphasized the need for greater advocacy and political engagement. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Open science, e-science and the new technologies: Challenges and old problems in qualitative research in the social sciences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ercilia García-Álvarez

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Purpose: As well as introducing the articles in the special issue titled "Qualitative Research in the Social Sciences", this article reviews the challenges, problems and main advances made by the qualitative paradigm in the context of the new European science policy based on open science and e-Science and analysis alternative technologies freely available in the 2.0 environment and their application to fieldwork and data analysis. Design/methodology: Theoretical review. Practical implications: The article identifies open access technologies with applications in qualitative research such as applications for smartphones and tablets, web platforms and specific qualitative data analysis software, all developed in both the e-Science context and the 2.0 environment. Social implications: The article discusses the possible role to be played by qualitative research in the open science and e-Science context and considers the impact of this new context on the size and structure of research groups, the development of truly collaborative research, the emergence of new ethical problems and quality assessment in review processes in an open environment. Originality/value: The article describes the characteristics that define the new scientific environment and the challenges posed for qualitative research, reviews the latest open access technologies available to researchers in terms of their main features and proposes specific applications suitable for fieldwork and data analysis.

Quality of Recovery Evaluation of the Protection Schemes for Fiber-Wireless Access Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Fu, Minglei; Chai, Zhicheng; Le, Zichun

2016-03-01

With the rapid development of fiber-wireless (FiWi) access network, the protection schemes have got more and more attention due to the risk of huge data loss when failures occur. However, there are few studies on the performance evaluation of the FiWi protection schemes by the unified evaluation criterion. In this paper, quality of recovery (QoR) method was adopted to evaluate the performance of three typical protection schemes (MPMC scheme, OBOF scheme and RPMF scheme) against the segment-level failure in FiWi access network. The QoR models of the three schemes were derived in terms of availability, quality of backup path, recovery time and redundancy. To compare the performance of the three protection schemes comprehensively, five different classes of network services such as emergency service, prioritized elastic service, conversational service, etc. were utilized by means of assigning different QoR weights. Simulation results showed that, for the most service cases, RPMF scheme was proved to be the best solution to enhance the survivability when planning the FiWi access network.

Increasing the Use of Earth Science Data and Models in Air Quality Management.

Science.gov (United States)

Milford, Jana B; Knight, Daniel

2017-04-01

In 2010, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) initiated the Air Quality Applied Science Team (AQAST) as a 5-year, $17.5-million award with 19 principal investigators. AQAST aims to increase the use of Earth science products in air quality-related research and to help meet air quality managers' information needs. We conducted a Web-based survey and a limited number of follow-up interviews to investigate federal, state, tribal, and local air quality managers' perspectives on usefulness of Earth science data and models, and on the impact AQAST has had. The air quality managers we surveyed identified meeting the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone and particulate matter, emissions from mobile sources, and interstate air pollution transport as top challenges in need of improved information. Most survey respondents viewed inadequate coverage or frequency of satellite observations, data uncertainty, and lack of staff time or resources as barriers to increased use of satellite data by their organizations. Managers who have been involved with AQAST indicated that the program has helped build awareness of NASA Earth science products, and assisted their organizations with retrieval and interpretation of satellite data and with application of global chemistry and climate models. AQAST has also helped build a network between researchers and air quality managers with potential for further collaborations. NASA's Air Quality Applied Science Team (AQAST) aims to increase the use of satellite data and global chemistry and climate models for air quality management purposes, by supporting research and tool development projects of interest to both groups. Our survey and interviews of air quality managers indicate they found value in many AQAST projects and particularly appreciated the connections to the research community that the program facilitated. Managers expressed interest in receiving continued support for their organizations' use of

Computer Access and Computer Use for Science Performance of Racial and Linguistic Minority Students

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Mido; Kim, Sunha

2009-01-01

This study examined the effects of computer access and computer use on the science achievement of elementary school students, with focused attention on the effects for racial and linguistic minority students. The study used the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K) database and conducted statistical analyses with proper weights and…

Strategic purchasing reform in Estonia: Reducing inequalities in access while improving care concentration and quality.

Science.gov (United States)

Habicht, Triin; Habicht, Jarno; van Ginneken, Ewout

2015-08-01

As of 2014, the Estonian Health Insurance Fund has adopted new purchasing procedures and criteria, which it now has started to implement in specialist care. Main changes include (1) redefined access criteria based on population need rather than historical supply, which aim to achieve more equal access of providers and specialties; (2) stricter definition and use of optimal workload criteria to increase the concentration of specialist care (3) better consideration of patient movement; and (4) an increased emphasis on quality to foster quality improvement. The new criteria were first used in the contract cycle that started in 2014 and resulted in fewer contracted providers for a similar volume of care compared to the previous contract cycle. This implies that provision of specialized care has become concentrated at fewer providers. It is too early to draw firm conclusions on the impact on care quality or on actors, but the process has sparked debate on the role of selective contracting and the role of public and private providers in Estonian health care. Lastly, the Estonian experience may hold important lessons for other countries looking to overcome inequalities in access while concentrating care and improving care quality. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Translating Behavioral Science into Practice: A Framework to Determine Science Quality and Applicability for Police Organizations.

Science.gov (United States)

McClure, Kimberley A; McGuire, Katherine L; Chapan, Denis M

2018-05-07

Policy on officer-involved shootings is critically reviewed and errors in applying scientific knowledge identified. Identifying and evaluating the most relevant science to a field-based problem is challenging. Law enforcement administrators with a clear understanding of valid science and application are in a better position to utilize scientific knowledge for the benefit of their organizations and officers. A recommended framework is proposed for considering the validity of science and its application. Valid science emerges via hypothesis testing, replication, extension and marked by peer review, known error rates, and general acceptance in its field of origin. Valid application of behavioral science requires an understanding of the methodology employed, measures used, and participants recruited to determine whether the science is ready for application. Fostering a science-practitioner partnership and an organizational culture that embraces quality, empirically based policy, and practices improves science-to-practice translation. © 2018 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

LudusScope: Accessible Interactive Smartphone Microscopy for Life-Science Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Honesty; Gerber, Lukas Cyrill; Chiu, Daniel; Lee, Seung Ah; Cira, Nate J; Xia, Sherwin Yuyang; Riedel-Kruse, Ingmar H

2016-01-01

For centuries, observational microscopy has greatly facilitated biology education, but we still cannot easily and playfully interact with the microscopic world we see. We therefore developed the LudusScope, an accessible, interactive do-it-yourself smartphone microscopy platform that promotes exploratory stimulation and observation of microscopic organisms, in a design that combines the educational modalities of build, play, and inquire. The LudusScope's touchscreen and joystick allow the selection and stimulation of phototactic microorganisms such as Euglena gracilis with light. Organismal behavior is tracked and displayed in real time, enabling open and structured game play as well as scientific inquiry via quantitative experimentation. Furthermore, we used the Scratch programming language to incorporate biophysical modeling. This platform is designed as an accessible, low-cost educational kit for easy construction and expansion. User testing with both teachers and students demonstrates the educational potential of the LudusScope, and we anticipate additional synergy with the maker movement. Transforming observational microscopy into an interactive experience will make microbiology more tangible to society, and effectively support the interdisciplinary learning required by the Next Generation Science Standards.

Improving antivenom availability and accessibility: science, technology, and beyond.

Science.gov (United States)

Gutiérrez, José María

2012-09-15

Snakebite envenomings constitute a serious and neglected public health problem. Despite the fact that effective treatment exists, i.e. administration of animal-derived antivenoms, the availability and accessibility of these life-saving immunobiologicals is deficitary in various parts of the world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and some regions of Asia. This article discusses some of the problems that need to be circumvented in order to improve the availability and accessibility of antivenoms. The conglomerate of antivenom manufacturers is highly heterogeneous in terms of technological base, qualification of staff, implementation of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), and volume of production. Therefore, improvements in antivenom quality and availability should be based on strategies tailored to the situation of each region or country; in this context, three different scenarios are discussed. Accessibility of antivenoms demands concerted efforts at multiple levels, including raising the awareness of public health authorities on the relevance of the problem, implementing innovative antivenom purchasing schemes, strengthening national distribution channels on the basis of robust epidemiological information, improving the cold chain and the provision of health services in remote rural settings, supporting the correct use of antivenoms, and promoting the involvement of local community organizations in various aspects of prevention and management. These tasks should be envisaged in terms of synergistic, interprogrammatic and intersectorial interventions, with the participation of many players. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

THE WAYS OF INCREASING OF QUALITY AND ACCESSIBILITY OF PEDIATRIC MEDICAL SERVICE IN OUT-PATIENT CLINICS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A.A. Baranov

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The analysis of dynamics of official statistics rates (population size, morbidity, disability, and mortality, and results of special scientific studies (morbidity, physical development, make it possible to show basic tendencies of children’s health state changes in modern conditions. The result of pediatrists from out-patient clinics survey, questioning of parents and adolescents (12–17 years old, on the problem of children’s health service, are presented. Questionnaire poll was held in regions of Central, Privolzhskiy, and Siberian Federal Districts. The complex analysis of obtained results show low quality level and accessibility of prophylactic and treatment medical service in children. This data became the basis of main directions of work of controlling and public health service in the field of increasing of quality and accessibility of pediatric medical service in out-patient clinics.Key words: children, medical service, out-patient clinics, quality, accessibility.(Voprosy sovremennoi pediatrii — Current Pediatrics. 2009;8(4:5-9

Open data used in water sciences - Review of access, licenses and understandability

Science.gov (United States)

Falkenroth, Esa; Lagerbäck Adolphi, Emma; Arheimer, Berit

2016-04-01

The amount of open data available for hydrology research is continually growing. In the EU-funded project SWITCH-ON (Sharing Water-related Information to Tackle Changes in the Hydrosphere - for Operational Needs: www.water-switch-on.eu), we are addressing water concerns by exploring and exploiting the untapped potential of these new open data. This work is enabled by many ongoing efforts to facilitate the use of open data. For instance, a number of portals provide the means to search for open data sets and open spatial data services (such as the GEOSS Portal, INSPIRE community geoportal or various Climate Services and public portals). However, in general, many research groups in water sciences still hesitate in using this open data. We therefore examined some limiting factors. Factors that limit usability of a dataset include: (1) accessibility, (2) understandability and (3) licences. In the SWITCH-ON project we have developed a search tool for finding and accessing data with relevance to water science in Europe, as the existing ones are not addressing data needs in water sciences specifically. The tool is filled with some 9000 sets of metadata and each one is linked to water related key-words. The keywords are based on the ones developed within the CUAHSI community in USA, but extended with non-hydrosphere topics, additional subclasses and only showing keywords actually having data. Access to data sets: 78% of the data is directly accessible, while the rest is either available after registration and request, or through a web client for visualisation but without direct download. However, several data sets were found to be inaccessible due to server downtime, incorrect links or problems with the host database management system. One possible explanation for this could be that many datasets have been assembled by research project that no longer are funded. Hence, their server infrastructure would be less maintained compared to large-scale operational services

Recommendations for Mass Spectrometry Data Quality Metrics for Open Access Data (Corollary to the Amsterdam Principles)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kinsinger, Christopher R.; Apffel, James; Baker, Mark

2011-01-01

and deployment of methods for measuring and documenting data quality metrics. On September 18, 2010, the United States National Cancer Institute convened the "International Workshop on Proteomic Data Quality Metrics" in Sydney, Australia, to identify and address issues facing the development and use......Policies supporting the rapid and open sharing of proteomic data are being implemented by the leading journals in the field. The proteomics community is taking steps to ensure that data are made publicly accessible and are of high quality, a challenging task that requires the development...... of such methods for open access proteomics data. The stakeholders at the workshop enumerated the key principles underlying a framework for data quality assessment in mass spectrometry data that will meet the needs of the research community, journals, funding agencies, and data repositories. Attendees discussed...

Recommendations for Mass Spectrometry Data Quality Metrics for Open Access Data (Corollary to the Amsterdam Principles)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kinsinger, Christopher R.; Apffel, James; Baker, Mark

2012-01-01

and deployment of methods for measuring and documenting data quality metrics. On September 18, 2010, the United States National Cancer Institute convened the "International Workshop on Proteomic Data Quality Metrics" in Sydney, Australia, to identify and address issues facing the development and use......Policies supporting the rapid and open sharing of proteomic data are being implemented by the leading journals in the field. The proteomics community is taking steps to ensure that data are made publicly accessible and are of high quality, a challenging task that requires the development...... of such methods for open access proteomics data. The stakeholders at the workshop enumerated the key principles underlying a framework for data quality assessment in mass spectrometry data that will meet the needs of the research community, journals, funding agencies, and data repositories. Attendees discussed...

El acceso a VacciMonitor puede hacerse a través de la Web of Science / Accessing VacciMonitor by the Web of Science

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Francisco Arencibia-Arrebola

2015-01-01

integrated databases: Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Science Citation Index and Art & Humanities Citation Index (1. By analyzing the information available in WoS, it is possible to know in a general way, which researchers are more productive and influent in the knowledge fields, which institutions has more productions and are more quoted, which journals have more presence (impact in different disciplines, where the journal articles, quoted in documents published by interest institution, come from (4. Finally, which the more discussed topics are and in which knowledge area the researchers from a certain country have more presence. (4. Individually, it permits to know how many quotes exists by knowledge area, with this information the researcher knows if his/her articles surpass or not the average and facilitates the decision making to increase visibility and quotes of the researches (5. Currently, in VacciMonitor was crucial its indexation in SciELO and SCOPUS, for it will allow, among other criteria, the inclusion in WoS, in addition it permitted to access to the impact index according to SJR (SCImago Journal & Country Rank. VacciMonitor is confirmed as the leader journal on vaccinology in our region and it aims at gradually increasing its scope by accessing new databases. We would like to appreciate authors, for sending high scientific quality papers, reviewers for their correct and critical recommendations and the editorial and scientific board for the revision, editing and constancy. Referencias/References Thomson Reuters. Web of Science: The definitive resource for global research. New York: Thomson Reuters; 2014. Disponible en: /scientific.thomsonreuters.com/. 2. Thomson Reuters. Web of Knowledge notas de la versión v5.11. New York: Thomson Reuters; 2013. Disponible en: wokinfo.com/media/pdf/wok_5-11_releasenotes-es.pdf. 3. Romero L. Respondiendo preguntas. Rev Peru Biol 2009;16(1:3-4. 4. Cortés J. Web of Science: termómetro de la producción internacional

A service for the application of data quality information to NASA earth science satellite records

Science.gov (United States)

Armstrong, E. M.; Xing, Z.; Fry, C.; Khalsa, S. J. S.; Huang, T.; Chen, G.; Chin, T. M.; Alarcon, C.

2016-12-01

A recurring demand in working with satellite-based earth science data records is the need to apply data quality information. Such quality information is often contained within the data files as an array of "flags", but can also be represented by more complex quality descriptions such as combinations of bit flags, or even other ancillary variables that can be applied as thresholds to the geophysical variable of interest. For example, with Level 2 granules from the Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) project up to 6 independent variables could be used to screen the sea surface temperature measurements on a pixel-by-pixel basis. Quality screening of Level 3 data from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) instrument can be become even more complex, involving 161 unique bit states or conditions a user can screen for. The application of quality information is often a laborious process for the user until they understand the implications of all the flags and bit conditions, and requires iterative approaches using custom software. The Virtual Quality Screening Service, a NASA ACCESS project, is addressing these issues and concerns. The project has developed an infrastructure to expose, apply, and extract quality screening information building off known and proven NASA components for data extraction and subset-by-value, data discovery, and exposure to the user of granule-based quality information. Further sharing of results through well-defined URLs and web service specifications has also been implemented. The presentation will focus on overall description of the technologies and informatics principals employed by the project. Examples of implementations of the end-to-end web service for quality screening with GHRSST and SMAP granules will be demonstrated.

Open Access Scholarly Publications as OER

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Terry Anderson

2013-06-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the rationale, common practices, challenges, and some personal anecdotes from a journal editor on the production, use, and re-use of peer-reviewed scholarly articles as open educational resources (OER. The scholarly and professional discourse related to open educational resources has largely focused on open learning objects, courseware, and textbooks. However, especially in graduate education, articles published in scholarly journals are often a major component of the course content in formal education. In addition, open access journal articles are critical to expanding access to knowledge by scholars in the developing world and in fostering citizen science, by which everyone has access to the latest academic information and research results. In this article, I highlight some of the challenges, economic models, and evidence for quality of open access journal content and look at new affordances provided by the Net for enhanced functionality, access, and distribution.In the 17 years since I graduated with a doctorate degree, the climate and acceptance of open access publishing has almost reversed itself. I recall a conversation with my PhD supervisor in which he argued that publishing online was not a viable option as the product would not have permanency, scholarly recognition, or the prestige of a paper publication. His comments reflect the confusion between online resources and those described as open access, but as well illustrate the change in academic acceptance and use of open access products during the past decade. The evolution from paper to online production and consumption is a disruptive technology in which much lower cost and increased accessibility of online work opens the product to a completely new group of potential users. In the case of OER these consumers are primarily students, but certainly access to scholars from all parts of the globe and the availability to support citizen science (Silvertown, 2009

Instructional quality of lower grades natural science classes: the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

... classes: the case of primary schools linked to Kemise College of Teacher Education. ... the quality of natural science education classroom instruction in lower grade ... on pedagogical and subject matter issue, closer support and supervision.

Cowpea fresh pods - a new legume for the market: assessment of their quality and dietary characteristics of 37 cowpea accessions grown in southern Europe.

Science.gov (United States)

Karapanos, Ioannis; Papandreou, Anastasia; Skouloudi, Marianna; Makrogianni, Despoina; Fernández, Juan A; Rosa, Eduardo; Ntatsi, Georgia; Bebeli, Penelope J; Savvas, Dimitrios

2017-10-01

Cowpea is traditionally cultivated in some regions of southern Europe for its dried seeds; however, there is a scarcity of information on the quality and dietary characteristics of fresh pods, which are occasionally used in folk diets. This paper aims at covering this gap in knowledge, thereby contributing to the dissemination of fresh cowpea pods as a novel product for the market. The quality and dietary characteristics of pods from 37 accessions (Vigna unguiculata ssp. unguiculata and ssp. sesquipedalis) grown in southern Europe were assessed in an attempt to provide information on pod quality and nutritional properties and to identify relationships between quality traits and accession origin. Pods from the sesquipedalis accessions were heavier and larger, and reached commercial maturity 2 days later, than those from the unguiculata accessions. There were also large differences in the quality and dietary characteristics of the accessions. The pods of most accessions were rich in proteins, chlorophylls, carotenoids and phenolics, and showed high antioxidant activity and low concentrations of nitrates and raffinose-family oligosaccharides. Cluster analysis based on quality, dietary or antinutritional traits did not reveal any apparent grouping among the accessions. All the quality characteristics were independent of accession origin and subspecies. Most of the accessions produced fresh pods of good quality and high dietary value, suitable for introduction in the market and/or for use as valuable genetic material for the development of new improved varieties. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

Recommendations for Mass Spectrometry Data Quality Metrics for Open Access Data (Corollary to the Amsterdam Principles)*

Science.gov (United States)

Kinsinger, Christopher R.; Apffel, James; Baker, Mark; Bian, Xiaopeng; Borchers, Christoph H.; Bradshaw, Ralph; Brusniak, Mi-Youn; Chan, Daniel W.; Deutsch, Eric W.; Domon, Bruno; Gorman, Jeff; Grimm, Rudolf; Hancock, William; Hermjakob, Henning; Horn, David; Hunter, Christie; Kolar, Patrik; Kraus, Hans-Joachim; Langen, Hanno; Linding, Rune; Moritz, Robert L.; Omenn, Gilbert S.; Orlando, Ron; Pandey, Akhilesh; Ping, Peipei; Rahbar, Amir; Rivers, Robert; Seymour, Sean L.; Simpson, Richard J.; Slotta, Douglas; Smith, Richard D.; Stein, Stephen E.; Tabb, David L.; Tagle, Danilo; Yates, John R.; Rodriguez, Henry

2011-01-01

Policies supporting the rapid and open sharing of proteomic data are being implemented by the leading journals in the field. The proteomics community is taking steps to ensure that data are made publicly accessible and are of high quality, a challenging task that requires the development and deployment of methods for measuring and documenting data quality metrics. On September 18, 2010, the United States National Cancer Institute convened the “International Workshop on Proteomic Data Quality Metrics” in Sydney, Australia, to identify and address issues facing the development and use of such methods for open access proteomics data. The stakeholders at the workshop enumerated the key principles underlying a framework for data quality assessment in mass spectrometry data that will meet the needs of the research community, journals, funding agencies, and data repositories. Attendees discussed and agreed up on two primary needs for the wide use of quality metrics: 1) an evolving list of comprehensive quality metrics and 2) standards accompanied by software analytics. Attendees stressed the importance of increased education and training programs to promote reliable protocols in proteomics. This workshop report explores the historic precedents, key discussions, and necessary next steps to enhance the quality of open access data. By agreement, this article is published simultaneously in the Journal of Proteome Research, Molecular and Cellular Proteomics, Proteomics, and Proteomics Clinical Applications as a public service to the research community. The peer review process was a coordinated effort conducted by a panel of referees selected by the journals. PMID:22052993

Recommendations for Mass Spectrometry Data Quality Metrics for Open Access Data (Corollary to the Amsterdam Principles)

Science.gov (United States)

Kinsinger, Christopher R.; Apffel, James; Baker, Mark; Bian, Xiaopeng; Borchers, Christoph H.; Bradshaw, Ralph; Brusniak, Mi-Youn; Chan, Daniel W.; Deutsch, Eric W.; Domon, Bruno; Gorman, Jeff; Grimm, Rudolf; Hancock, William; Hermjakob, Henning; Horn, David; Hunter, Christie; Kolar, Patrik; Kraus, Hans-Joachim; Langen, Hanno; Linding, Rune; Moritz, Robert L.; Omenn, Gilbert S.; Orlando, Ron; Pandey, Akhilesh; Ping, Peipei; Rahbar, Amir; Rivers, Robert; Seymour, Sean L.; Simpson, Richard J.; Slotta, Douglas; Smith, Richard D.; Stein, Stephen E.; Tabb, David L.; Tagle, Danilo; Yates, John R.; Rodriguez, Henry

2011-01-01

Policies supporting the rapid and open sharing of proteomic data are being implemented by the leading journals in the field. The proteomics community is taking steps to ensure that data are made publicly accessible and are of high quality, a challenging task that requires the development and deployment of methods for measuring and documenting data quality metrics. On September 18, 2010, the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) convened the “International Workshop on Proteomic Data Quality Metrics” in Sydney, Australia, to identify and address issues facing the development and use of such methods for open access proteomics data. The stakeholders at the workshop enumerated the key principles underlying a framework for data quality assessment in mass spectrometry data that will meet the needs of the research community, journals, funding agencies, and data repositories. Attendees discussed and agreed up on two primary needs for the wide use of quality metrics: (1) an evolving list of comprehensive quality metrics and (2) standards accompanied by software analytics. Attendees stressed the importance of increased education and training programs to promote reliable protocols in proteomics. This workshop report explores the historic precedents, key discussions, and necessary next steps to enhance the quality of open access data. By agreement, this article is published simultaneously in the Journal of Proteome Research, Molecular and Cellular Proteomics, Proteomics, and Proteomics Clinical Applications as a public service to the research community. The peer review process was a coordinated effort conducted by a panel of referees selected by the journals. PMID:22053864

The philosophy of information quality

CERN Document Server

Illari, Phyllis

2014-01-01

This work fulfills the need for a conceptual and technical framework to improve understanding of Information Quality (IQ) and Information Quality standards. The meaning and practical implementation of IQ are addressed, as it is relevant to any field where there is a need to handle data and issues such as accessibility, accuracy, completeness, currency, integrity, reliability, timeliness, usability, the role of metrics and so forth are all a part of Information Quality. In order to support the cross-fertilization of theory and practice, the latest research is presented in this book. The perspectives of experts from beyond the origins of IQ in computer science are included: library and information science practitioners and academics, philosophers of information, of engineering and technology, and of science are all contributors to this volume. The chapters in this volume are based on the work of a collaborative research project involving the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Google and led by Professor...

A global survey of clinicians' awareness, accessibility, utilization of e-continuous education, and quality of clinical blood use: policy considerations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Smit Sibinga CT

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Cees Th Smit Sibinga,1 Maruff A Oladejo,2 Olamide Hakeem Adejumo,3 Quentin Eichbaum,4 Midori Kumagawa,5 Shuichi Kino,5 Sima Zolfaghari,6 Silvano Wendel,7 Gordana Rasovic,8 Namjil Erdenebayar,9 Maya Makhmudova,10 Loyiso Mpuntsha,11 Charlotte Ingram,11 Bakyt B Kharabaev,12 Isaac Kajja,13 Zainab Mukhtar Hussain Sanji,14 Maria M M Satti15 1IQM Consulting for International Development of Quality Management in Transfusion Medicine, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands; 2Department of Educational Management, University of Lagos, Lagos, 3Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, Nigeria; 4Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA; 5Japanese Red Cross Hokkaido Block Blood Center, Japan; 6IBTO, Tehran, Iran; 7Blood Bank, Hospital Sirio Libanês, Sao Paulo, Brazil; 8Montenegro National Blood Transfusion Center, Podgorica, Montenegro; 9National Center for Transfusion Medicine, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; 10Consultant IQM Consulting, Tashkent, Uzbekistan; 11South Africa National Blood Transfusion Service, Johannesburg, South Africa; 12National Blood Transfusion Service, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; 13Department of Orthopedics, Mulago Hospital, Makerere University, Uganda; 14Consultant, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan; 15National Blood Transfusion Service, Khartoum, Sudan Introduction: Clinical use of blood has shown the least developed part in the vein-to-vein transfusion chain. This global study was carried out in order to investigate the level of awareness, accessibility and utilization of continuous e-learning and education, and quality of blood use among blood prescribing clinicians and nurses.Approach: Descriptive ex post facto survey design.Methods: A total of 264 purposively selected blood prescribing clinicians and nurses from the four Human Development Index (HDI groups of countries (low, medium, high, and very high participated in this study

RURAL-URBAN DIFFERENCES IN NURSING HOME ACCESS, QUALITY AND COST

OpenAIRE

Yu, Wei; Bradford, Garnett L.

1995-01-01

Rural-urban differences in the supply of nursing home services as hypothesized to be jointly affected by competitive and regulatory forces, government policies, and the cost structure. Study findings indicate that rural services are slightly less accessible and lower in quality. A translog cost share function reveals no difference in the operating cost structure of rural and urban homes. Cost shares for nursing care are directly related to the degree of skilled nursing provided by homes. Sign...

Passive samplers and community science in regional air quality measurement, education and communication

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

DeForest Hauser, Cindy; Buckley, Alexandra; Porter, Juliana

2015-01-01

Charlotte, in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, was ranked in the top ten cities with the worst air quality for ozone in the United States by the American Lung Association from 2009 to 2011. Nearby counties that may experience similar air quality do not have state or county monitors. This study utilized NO x and ozone Ogawa passive samplers and community scientists to monitor air quality in five counties surrounding Charlotte and increase public engagement in air quality issues. Community scientists deployed samplers weekly at a residential site within each county. Samples were analyzed using spectrophotometry and ion chromatography. Elevated NO x concentrations were observed in four of the five counties relative to those with existing monitors. Ozone concentrations showed little county to county variation, except Iredell and Cabarrus which had higher concentrations than Rowan. Community involvement in this work led to an increase in local dissemination of the results, thus increasing air quality awareness. - Highlights: • NO x concentrations in four adjacent counties were higher than the Mecklenburg site. • Ozone concentrations showed little county to county variation. • Passive samplers and community science can extend the air quality monitoring network. • Community science increases community awareness of air quality issues. - Regional community air quality monitoring is important in educating communities about air quality science issues that can impact personal health and behavior

Water Quality vs. Sanitation Accessibility: What is the most effective intervention point for preventing cholera in Dhaka, Bangladesh?

Science.gov (United States)

Majumder, M. S.; Gute, D.; Faruque, A. S.

2011-12-01

Every year, 3 to 5 million individuals contract cholera, an acute diarrheal infection that is caused by the ingestion of food or water containing the Vibrio cholerae bacterium. Because cholera is a waterborne disease, it can be transmitted quickly in environments with inadequate water and sanitation systems where infected waste can easily pollute drinking water. Today, Bangladesh continues to struggle with endemic cholera. Donor organizations address water and sanitation via localized initiatives, including the installation of community water collection sites (i.e. tubewells; water-boiling points; etc.). At this small-scale level, water quality and sanitation accessibility can be improved independently of one another, and when resources are limited, donors must invest in the most effective disease prevention options. This study used laboratory-confirmed cholera incidence data (2000-2009) collected by the International Centre of Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh at their on-site hospital to compare the efficacy of interventions addressing water quality versus sanitation accessibility in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Data regarding use of sanitary latrines and boiling of drinking water were extracted from sequential patient interviews conducted at the Dhaka facility and used as surrogate variables for sanitation accessibility and water quality respectively. Our analysis indicates that boiling water is 10 times more effective at preventing cholera than the use of a sanitary latrine. This finding suggests that regulating water quality is perhaps more critical to cholera prevention than increasing sanitation accessibility in an urban environment like that of Dhaka. At present, WaterAid - one of Bangladesh's most significant water and sanitation donor organizations - invests the majority of its budget on improving sanitation accessibility. The World Health Organization and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals also prioritize sanitation accessibility. However, in

Laboratory science with space data accessing and using space-experiment data

CERN Document Server

van Loon, Jack J W A; Zell, Martin; Beysens, Daniel

2011-01-01

For decades experiments conducted on space stations like MIR and the ISS have been gathering data in many fields of research in the natural sciences, medicine and engineering. The European Union-sponsored ULISSE project focused on exploring the wealth of unique experimental data provided by revealing raw and metadata from these studies via an Internet Portal. This book complements the portal. It serves as a handbook of space experiments and describes the various types of experimental infrastructure areas of research in the life and physical sciences and technology space missions that hosted scientific experiments the types and structures of the data produced and how one can access the data through ULISSE for further research. The book provides an overview of the wealth of space experiment data that can be used for additional research and will inspire academics (e.g. those looking for topics for their PhD thesis) and research departments in companies for their continued development.

Socioeconomic Inequalities in Green Space Quality and Accessibility-Evidence from a Southern European City.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoffimann, Elaine; Barros, Henrique; Ribeiro, Ana Isabel

2017-08-15

Background : The provision of green spaces is an important health promotion strategy to encourage physical activity and to improve population health. Green space provision has to be based on the principle of equity. This study investigated the presence of socioeconomic inequalities in geographic accessibility and quality of green spaces across Porto neighbourhoods (Portugal). Methods : Accessibility was evaluated using a Geographic Information System and all the green spaces were audited using the Public Open Space Tool. Kendall's tau-b correlation coefficients and ordinal regression were used to test whether socioeconomic differences in green space quality and accessibility were statistically significant. Results : Although the majority of the neighbourhoods had an accessible green space, mean distance to green space increased with neighbourhood deprivation. Additionally, green spaces in the more deprived neighbourhoods presented significantly more safety concerns, signs of damage, lack of equipment to engage in active leisure activities, and had significantly less amenities such as seating, toilets, cafés, etc. Conclusions : Residents from low socioeconomic positions seem to suffer from a double jeopardy; they lack both individual and community resources. Our results have important planning implications and might contribute to understanding why deprived communities have lower physical activity levels and poorer health.

Quality-assurance plan for water-quality activities in the U.S. Geological Survey Washington Water Science Center

Science.gov (United States)

Conn, Kathleen E.; Huffman, Raegan L.; Barton, Cynthia

2017-05-08

In accordance with guidelines set forth by the Office of Water Quality in the Water Mission Area of the U.S. Geological Survey, a quality-assurance plan has been created for use by the Washington Water Science Center (WAWSC) in conducting water-quality activities. This qualityassurance plan documents the standards, policies, and procedures used by the WAWSC for activities related to the collection, processing, storage, analysis, and publication of water-quality data. The policies and procedures documented in this quality-assurance plan for water-quality activities complement the quality-assurance plans for surface-water and groundwater activities at the WAWSC.

Special issue on enabling open and interoperable access to Planetary Science and Heliophysics databases and tools

Science.gov (United States)

2018-01-01

The large amount of data generated by modern space missions calls for a change of organization of data distribution and access procedures. Although long term archives exist for telescopic and space-borne observations, high-level functions need to be developed on top of these repositories to make Planetary Science and Heliophysics data more accessible and to favor interoperability. Results of simulations and reference laboratory data also need to be integrated to support and interpret the observations. Interoperable software and interfaces have recently been developed in many scientific domains. The Virtual Observatory (VO) interoperable standards developed for Astronomy by the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) can be adapted to Planetary Sciences, as demonstrated by the VESPA (Virtual European Solar and Planetary Access) team within the Europlanet-H2020-RI project. Other communities have developed their own standards: GIS (Geographic Information System) for Earth and planetary surfaces tools, SPASE (Space Physics Archive Search and Extract) for space plasma, PDS4 (NASA Planetary Data System, version 4) and IPDA (International Planetary Data Alliance) for planetary mission archives, etc, and an effort to make them interoperable altogether is starting, including automated workflows to process related data from different sources.

ACCESS - A Science and Engineering Assessment of Space Coronagraph Concepts for the Direct Imaging and Spectroscopy of Exoplanetary Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Trauger, John

2008-01-01

Topics include and overview, science objectives, study objectives, coronagraph types, metrics, ACCESS observatory, laboratory validations, and summary. Individual slides examine ACCESS engineering approach, ACCESS gamut of coronagraph types, coronagraph metrics, ACCESS Discovery Space, coronagraph optical layout, wavefront control on the "level playing field", deformable mirror development for HCIT, laboratory testbed demonstrations, high contract imaging with the HCIT, laboratory coronagraph contrast and stability, model validation and performance predictions, HCIT coronagraph optical layout, Lyot coronagraph on the HCIT, pupil mapping (PIAA), shaped pupils, and vortex phase mask experiments on the HCIT.

Reasons to temper enthusiasm about open access nursing journals.

Science.gov (United States)

de Jong, Gideon

2017-04-01

Open access is a relatively new phenomenon within nursing science. Several papers from various nursing journals have been published recently on the disadvantages of the traditional model of purchasing proprietary fee-based databases to access scholarly information. Just few nursing scholars are less optimistic about the possible benefits of open access nursing journals. A critical reflection on the merits and pitfalls of open access journals along insights from the literature and personal opinion. Two arguments are discussed, providing justification for tempering enthusiasm about open access journals. First, only research groups with sufficient financial resources can publish in open access journals. Second, open access has conflicting incentives, where the aim is to expand production at the expense of publishing quality articles; a business model that fits well into a neoliberal discourse. There are valid reasons to criticise the traditional publishers for the excessive costs of a single article, therefore preventing the dissemination of scholarly nursing information. On the contrary, the business model of open access publishers is no less imbued with the neoliberal tendency of lining the pockets.

Changes in perceptions of quality of, and access to, services among clients of a fractional franchise network in Nepal.

Science.gov (United States)

Agha, Sohail; Gage, Anastasia; Balal, Asma

2007-05-01

With declining levels of international donor funding for financing reproductive health programmes, developing country governments and international donors are looking towards private sector strategies to expand the supply of quality reproductive health services. One of the challenges of a health franchise is to improve the quality of services provided by independent private practitioners. Private providers are more likely to abide by the quality standards set by a franchiser if they see a financial benefit resulting from franchise participation. This study was conducted to measure whether (a) there were improvements in perceived quality of care and perceived access to health facilities once these facilities became part of a franchise and (b) improvements in perceived quality and perceived access were associated with increased client loyalty to franchised clinics. Franchisees were given basic reproductive health training for seven days and services marketing training for two days. Exit interviews were conducted with male and female clients at health facilities. A pre-test measurement was taken in April 2001, prior to the start of project activities. A post-test measurement was taken in February/March 2002, about 9 months after the pre-test. Multilevel regression analysis, which takes the hierarchical structure of the data into account, was used for the analysis. After taking provider-level variation into account and controlling for client characteristics, the analyses showed significant improvements in perceived quality of care and perceived access to services. Private provider participation in a franchise network helps improve client perceptions of quality of, and access to, services. Improvements in client perceptions of quality and access contribute to increased client loyalty to franchised clinics. Once increased client loyalty translates into higher client volumes, providers are likely to see the benefits of franchise participation. In turn, this should lead to

Data quality in citizen science urban tree inventories

Science.gov (United States)

Lara A. Roman; Bryant C. Scharenbroch; Johan P.A. Ostberg; Lee S. Mueller; Jason G. Henning; Andrew K. Koeser; Jessica R. Sanders; Daniel R. Betz; Rebecca C. Jordan

2017-01-01

Citizen science has been gaining popularity in ecological research and resource management in general and in urban forestry specifically. As municipalities and nonprofits engage volunteers in tree data collection, it is critical to understand data quality. We investigated observation error by comparing street tree data collected by experts to data collected by less...

Researchers' perspectives on open access scholarly communication in Tanzanian public universities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

F.W. Dulle

2009-04-01

Full Text Available This research explored the awareness, usage and perspectives of Tanzanian researchers on open access as a mode of scholarly communication. A survey questionnaire targeted 544 respondents selected through stratified random sampling from a population of 1088 university researchers of the six public universities in Tanzania. With a response rate of 73%, the data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. The study reveals that the majority of the researchers were aware of and were positive towards open access. Findings further indicate that the majority of researchers in Tanzanian public universities used open access outlets more to access scholarly content than to disseminate their own research findings. It seems that most of these researchers would support open access publishing more if issues of recognition, quality and ownership were resolved. Thus many of them supported the idea of establishing institutional repositories at their respective universities as a way of improving the dissemination of local content. The study recommends that public universities and other research institutions in the country should consider establishing institutional repositories, with appropriate quality assurance measures, to improve the dissemination of research output emanating from these institutions.

Science Teacher Education in Australia: Initiatives and Challenges to Improve the Quality of Teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Treagust, David F.; Won, Mihye; Petersen, Jacinta; Wynne, Georgie

2015-02-01

In this article, we describe how teachers in the Australian school system are educated to teach science and the different qualifications that teachers need to enter the profession. The latest comparisons of Australian students in international science assessments have brought about various accountability measures to improve the quality of science teachers at all levels. We discuss the issues and implications of government initiatives in preservice and early career teacher education programs, such as the implementation of national science curriculum, the stricter entry requirements to teacher education programs, an alternative pathway to teaching and the measure of effectiveness of teacher education programs. The politicized discussion and initiatives to improve the quality of science teacher education in Australia are still unfolding as we write in 2014.

Online medical books: their availability and an assessment of how health sciences libraries provide access on their public Websites.

Science.gov (United States)

MacCall, Steven L

2006-01-01

The objective of this study was to determine the number and topical range of available online medical books and to assess how health sciences libraries were providing access to these resources on their public Websites. The collection-based evaluative technique of list checking was used to assess the number and topical range of online medical books of the six largest publishers. Publisher inventory lists were downloaded over a two-day period (May 16-17, 2004). Titles were counted and compared with the 2003 Brandon/Hill list. A sample of health sciences libraries was subsequently derived by consulting the 2004 "Top Medical Schools-Research" in U.S. News & World Report. Bibliographic and bibliothecal access methods were evaluated based on an inspection of the publicly available Websites of the sample libraries. Of 318 currently published online medical books, 151 (47%) were Brandon/Hill titles covering 42 of 59 Brandon/Hill topics (71%). These 151 titles represented 22% (N = 672) of the Brandon/Hill list, which further broke down as 52 minimal core, 41 initial purchase, and 58 other recommended Brandon/Hill titles. These numbers represented 50%, 28%, and 12%, respectively, of all Brandon/Hill titles corresponding to those categories. In terms of bibliographic access, 20 of 21 of sampled libraries created catalog records for their online medical books, 1 of which also provided analytical access at the chapter level, and none provided access at the chapter section level. Of the 21 libraries, 19 had library Website search engines that provided title-level access and 4 provided access at the chapter level and none that at the chapter section level. For bibliothecal access, 19 of 21 libraries provided title-level access to medical books, 8 of which provided classified and alphabetic arrangements, 1 provided a classified arrangement only, and 10 provided an alphabetic arrangement only. No library provided a bibliothecal arrangement for medical book chapters or chapter

Quality Science Teacher Professional Development and Student Achievement

Science.gov (United States)

Dubner, J.

2007-12-01

Studies show that socio-economic background and parental education accounts for 50-60 percent of a child's achievement in school. School, and other influences, account for the remaining 40-50 percent. In contrast to most other professions, schools require no real apprenticeship training of science teachers. Overall, only 38 percent of United States teachers have had any on-the-job training in their first teaching position, and in some cases this consisted of a few meetings over the course of a year between the beginning teacher and the assigned mentor or master teacher. Since individual teachers determine the bulk of a student's school experiences, interventions focused on teachers have the greatest likelihood of affecting students. To address this deficiency, partnerships between scientists and K-12 teachers are increasingly recognized as an excellent method for improving teacher preparedness and the quality of science education. Columbia University's Summer Research Program for Science Teachers' (founded in 1990) basic premise is simple: teachers cannot effectively teach science if they have no firsthand experience doing science, hence the Program's motto, "Practice what you teach." Columbia University's Summer Research Program for Science Teachers provides strong evidence that a teacher research program is a very effective form of professional development for secondary school science teachers and has a direct correlation to increased student achievement in science. The author will present the methodology of the program's evaluation citing statistically significant data. The author will also show the economic benefits of teacher participation in this form of professional development.

Strengthening Mathematics And Science Education (SMASE) For Improving The Quality Of Teachers in Nigeria

Science.gov (United States)

Shuaibu, Zainab Muhammad

2016-04-01

The education system in Nigeria, especially at the basic education level, teachers who teach mathematics and science need to be confident with what they are teaching, they need to have appropriate techniques and strategies of motivating the pupils. If these subjects are not taught well at the basic education level its extraordinarily hard to get them (pupils/students) back to track, no matter what will be done in the secondary and tertiary level. Teachers as the driving force behind improvements in the education system are in the best position to understand and propose solutions to problems faced by students. Teachers must have access to sustainable, high quality professional development in order to improve teaching and student learning. Teachers' professional development in Nigeria, however, has long been criticized for its lack of sustainability and ability to produce effective change in teaching and students achievement. Education theorists today believe that a critical component of educational reform lies in providing teachers with various opportunities and supports structures that encourage ongoing improvement in teachers' pedagogy and discipline-specific content knowledge. However, the ongoing reforms in education sector and the need to refocus the Nigeria education system towards the goal of the National Economical Empowerment and Development Strategies (NEEDS) demand that the existing In-service and Education Training (INSET) in Nigeria be refocused. It is against this premise that an INSET programme aimed at Strengthening Mathematics And Science Education (SMASE) for primary and secondary school teachers was conceived. The relevance of the SMASE INSET according to the Project Design Matrix (PDM) was derived from an In-service aimed at enhancing the quality of teachers in terms of positive attitude, teaching methodology, mastery of content, resource mobilization and utilization of locally available teaching and learning materials. The intervention of

Overview: Routes to Open Access

OpenAIRE

Tullney, Marco; van Wezenbeek, Wilma

2017-01-01

Slides of an overview presentation given at a CESAER workshop on Open Access, February 2nd, 2017, in Brussels Cover major routes to more open access as discussed in the Task Force Open Science of CESAER: (national) open access strategies open access mandates open access incentives open access awareness open access publishing open access infrastructure

Role of Institutes of Social Sciences in Enhancing the Quality of Postgraduate Education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yılmaz TONBUL

2017-04-01

Full Text Available This study aimed to develop suggestions for the management of the Institute of Social Sciences on the effective execution of postgraduate education. A ‘mixed’ design was used. Data collection tools were applied directly to student population without the use of any sampling method. For advisors, criterion sampling was used.The participants of the study were composed of 207 postgraduate students registered at the Institute of Social Sciences and 39 instructors at Ege University. The student data were collected via the Supervisor Evaluation Scale and interview guide consisting of open-ended questions. The instructor data were collected during semi-structured focus group interviews. The participants stressed the informative, supportive and instructional roles of the institute for improving the quality of graduate education. In addition, differences as well as commonalities between the expectations of the students and those of the instructors were detected. The students’ expectations from the institute were the protection of students’ rights, mediation, ensuring the diversity of elective courses, the proper teaching of the courses in accordance with the nature of graduate education, and provision of information about career, time and stress management. Besides, the instructors’ expectations included attracting qualified candidates to programs, informing students, supporting the students with cadre and scholarship, reducing bureaucratic procedures, regulating the processes of supervisor selection and thesis proposal, providing access to resources during the processes of both course work and thesis writing, and forming colloquiums. The institute’s existing structure, authority distribution, staff and budget resources were found to be inadequate for increasing the quality of postgraduate education. Regarding the course and thesis stages, one third of the supervisors were evaluated as insufficient by the students. Many suggestions related to

Educational Access Is Educational Quality: Indigenous Parents' Perceptions of Schooling in Rural Guatemala

Science.gov (United States)

Ishihara-Brito, Reiko

2013-01-01

This paper presents the findings and implications of a qualitative study conducted in Guatemala, which focused on rural, indigenous parents' perceptions of their children's schooling and educational quality. For these parents, the simple fact that their children had improved access to school signifies a satisfactory educational accomplishment;…

Sustained Assessment Metadata as a Pathway to Trustworthiness of Climate Science Information

Science.gov (United States)

Champion, S. M.; Kunkel, K.

2017-12-01

The Sustained Assessment process has produced a suite of climate change reports: The Third National Climate Assessment (NCA3), Regional Surface Climate Conditions in CMIP3 and CMIP5 for the United States: Differences, Similarities, and Implications for the U.S. National Climate Assessment, Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment, The State Climate Summaries, as well as the anticipated Climate Science Special Report and Fourth National Climate Assessment. Not only are these groundbreaking reports of climate change science, they are also the first suite of climate science reports to provide access to complex metadata directly connected to the report figures and graphics products. While the basic metadata documentation requirement is federally mandated through a series of federal guidelines as a part of the Information Quality Act, Sustained Assessment products are also deemed Highly Influential Scientific Assessments, which further requires demonstration of the transparency and reproducibility of the content. To meet these requirements, the Technical Support Unit (TSU) for the Sustained Assessment embarked on building a system for not only collecting and documenting metadata to the required standards, but one that also provides consumers unprecedented access to the underlying data and methods. As our process and documentation have evolved, the value of both continue to grow in parallel with the consumer expectation of quality, accessible climate science information. This presentation will detail the how the TSU accomplishes the mandated requirements with their metadata collection and documentation process, as well as the technical solution designed to demonstrate compliance while also providing access to the content for the general public. We will also illustrate how our accessibility platforms guide consumers through the Assessment science at a level of transparency that builds trust and confidence in the report

Research report 1987-1989: Environmental Quality Laboratory and Environmental Engineering Science, W. M. Keck Laboratories

OpenAIRE

Brooks, Norman H.

1990-01-01

This research biennial report for 1987-89 covers the activities of both the Environmental Engineering Science program and the Environmental Quality Laboratory for the period October 1987-November 1989. Environmental Engineering Science is the degree-granting academic program housed in the Keck Laboratories, with associated research projects. The Environmental Quality Laboratory is a research center focusing on large scale problems of environmental quality and natural resources. All the facult...

Van Allen Probes Science Gateway: Single-Point Access to Long-Term Radiation Belt Measurements and Space Weather Nowcasting

Science.gov (United States)

Romeo, G.; Barnes, R. J.; Ukhorskiy, A. Y.; Sotirelis, T.; Stephens, G.

2017-12-01

The Science Gateway gives single-point access to over 4.5 years of comprehensive wave and particle measurements from the Van Allen Probes NASA twin-spacecraft mission. The Gateway provides a set of visualization and data analysis tools including: HTML5-based interactive visualization of high-level data products from all instrument teams in the form of: line plots, orbital content plots, dynamical energy spectra, L-shell context plots (including two-spacecraft plotting), FFT spectra of wave data, solar wind and geomagnetic indices data, etc.; download custom multi-instrument CDF data files of selected data products; publication quality plots of digital data; combined orbit predicts for mission planning and coordination including: Van Allen Probes, MMS, THEMIS, Arase (ERG), Cluster, GOES, Geotail, FIREBIRD; magnetic footpoint calculator for coordination with LEO and ground-based assets; real-time computation and processing of empirical magnetic field models - computation of magnetic ephemeris, computation of adiabatic invariants. Van Allen Probes is the first spacecraft mission to provide a nowcast of the radiation environment in the heart of the radiation belts, where the radiation levels are the highest and most dangerous for spacecraft operations. For this purpose, all instruments continuously broadcast a subset of their science data in real time. Van Allen Probes partners with four foreign institutions who operate ground stations that receive the broadcast: Korea (KASI), the Czech republic (CAS), Argentina (CONAE), and Brazil (INPE). The SpWx broadcast is then collected at APL and delivered to the community via the Science Gateway.

Approaches to Open Data for Science in Spain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E Wulff-Barreiro

2011-10-01

Full Text Available As observational data has attained new legal status, allowing their integration into open Internet systems, and experimental data continues to be assembled in common and free platforms, state of the art, easy to access data repositories have been designed in Spain. These repositories have removed many obstacles to re-utilization of GIS and other data. European legislation has also made advances in opening biodiversity data, including a European space in the Latin-American grid infrastructure. Open access biomedical repositories attract commercial attention while astronomical, meteorological, and oncological institutions promote data quality and access. This paper describes recent approaches to open access data for science in Spain.

Supporting the advancement of science: Open access publishing and the role of mandates

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Phelps Lisa

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract In December 2011 the United States House of Representatives introduced a new bill, the Research Works Act (H.R.3699, which if passed could threaten the public's access to US government funded research. In a digital age when professional and lay parties alike look more and more to the online environment to keep up to date with developments in their fields, does this bill serve the best interests of the community? Those in support of the Research Works Act argue that government open access mandates undermine peer-review and take intellectual property from publishers without compensation, however journals like Journal of Translational Medicine show that this is not the case. Journal of Translational Medicine in affiliation with the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer demonstrates how private and public organisations can work together for the advancement of science.

The need for a formalised system of Quality Control for environmental policy-science.

Science.gov (United States)

Larcombe, Piers; Ridd, Peter

2018-01-01

Research science used to inform public policy decisions, herein defined as "Policy-Science", is rarely subjected to rigorous checking, testing and replication. Studies of biomedical and other sciences indicate that a considerable fraction of published peer-reviewed scientific literature, perhaps half, has significant flaws. To demonstrate the potential failings of the present approaches to scientific Quality Control (QC), we describe examples of science associated with perceived threats to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), Australia. There appears a serious risk of efforts to improve the health of the GBR being directed inefficiently and/or away from the more serious threats. We suggest the need for a new organisation to undertake quality reviews and audits of important scientific results that underpin government spending decisions on the environment. Logically, such a body could also examine policy science in other key areas where governments rely heavily upon scientific results, such as education, health and criminology. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Leveraging Open Standards and Technologies to Enhance Community Access to Earth Science Lidar Data

Science.gov (United States)

Crosby, C. J.; Nandigam, V.; Krishnan, S.; Cowart, C.; Baru, C.; Arrowsmith, R.

2011-12-01

Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) data, collected from space, airborne and terrestrial platforms, have emerged as an invaluable tool for a variety of Earth science applications ranging from ice sheet monitoring to modeling of earth surface processes. However, lidar present a unique suite of challenges from the perspective of building cyberinfrastructure systems that enable the scientific community to access these valuable research datasets. Lidar data are typically characterized by millions to billions of individual measurements of x,y,z position plus attributes; these "raw" data are also often accompanied by derived raster products and are frequently terabytes in size. As a relatively new and rapidly evolving data collection technology, relevant open data standards and software projects are immature compared to those for other remote sensing platforms. The NSF-funded OpenTopography Facility project has developed an online lidar data access and processing system that co-locates data with on-demand processing tools to enable users to access both raw point cloud data as well as custom derived products and visualizations. OpenTopography is built on a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) in which applications and data resources are deployed as standards compliant (XML and SOAP) Web services with the open source Opal Toolkit. To develop the underlying applications for data access, filtering and conversion, and various processing tasks, OpenTopography has heavily leveraged existing open source software efforts for both lidar and raster data. Operating on the de facto LAS binary point cloud format (maintained by ASPRS), open source libLAS and LASlib libraries provide OpenTopography data ingestion, query and translation capabilities. Similarly, raster data manipulation is performed through a suite of services built on the Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL). OpenTopography has also developed our own algorithm for high-performance gridding of lidar point cloud data

Citizen science for water quality monitoring: Data implications of citizen perspectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Jollymore, Ashlee; Haines, Morgan J; Satterfield, Terre; Johnson, Mark S

2017-09-15

Citizen science, where citizens play an active role in the scientific process, is increasingly used to expand the reach and scope of scientific research while also achieving engagement and educational goals. Despite the emergence of studies exploring data outcomes of citizen science, the process and experience of engaging with citizens and citizen-lead groups through participatory science is less explored. This includes how citizen perspectives alter data outcomes, a critical upshot given prevalent mistrust of citizen versus scientist data. This study uses a citizen science campaign investigating watershed impacts on water quality to interrogate the nature and implications of citizen involvement in producing scientifically and societally relevant data. Data representing scientific outcomes are presented alongside a series of vignettes that offer context regarding how, why, and where citizens engaged with the project. From these vignettes, six specific lessons are examined towards understanding how integration of citizen participation alters data outcomes relative to 'professional' science. In particular, elements of participant social identity (e.g., their motivation for participation), and contextual knowledge (e.g., of the research program itself) can shape participation and resulting data outcomes. Such scientific outcomes are particularly relevant given continued concerns regarding the quality of citizen data, which could hinder scientific acceptance of citizen sciences. Importantly, the potential for meaningful engagement with citizen and participants within citizen groups - given significant capacity within the community - represents a substantial and under-realized opportunity. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Access to Research Inputs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Czarnitzki, Dirk; Grimpe, Christoph; Pellens, Maikel

2015-01-01

The viability of modern open science norms and practices depends on public disclosure of new knowledge, methods, and materials. However, increasing industry funding of research can restrict the dissemination of results and materials. We show, through a survey sample of 837 German scientists in life...... sciences, natural sciences, engineering, and social sciences, that scientists who receive industry funding are twice as likely to deny requests for research inputs as those who do not. Receiving external funding in general does not affect denying others access. Scientists who receive external funding...... of any kind are, however, 50 % more likely to be denied access to research materials by others, but this is not affected by being funded specifically by industry...

Access to Research Inputs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Czarnitzki, Dirk; Grimpe, Christoph; Pellens, Maikel

The viability of modern open science norms and practices depend on public disclosure of new knowledge, methods, and materials. However, increasing industry funding of research can restrict the dissemination of results and materials. We show, through a survey sample of 837 German scientists in life...... sciences, natural sciences, engineering, and social sciences, that scientists who receive industry funding are twice as likely to deny requests for research inputs as those who do not. Receiving external funding in general does not affect denying others access. Scientists who receive external funding...... of any kind are, however, 50% more likely to be denied access to research materials by others, but this is not affected by being funded specifically by industry....

Assessing Effects of Climate Change on Access to Ecosystem Services in Rural Alaska: Enhancing the Science through Community Engagement

Science.gov (United States)

Brinkman, T. J.; Cold, H.; Brown, D. N.; Brown, C.; Hollingsworth, T. N.; Verbyla, D.

2017-12-01

In Arctic-Boreal regions, studies quantifying the characteristics and prevalence of environmental disruptions to access to ecosystem services are lacking. Empirical investigations are needed to assess the vulnerability of rural communities to climate change. We integrated community-based local observation (9 Interior Alaska Communities), field-based ground measurements, and remote sensing data to: 1) identify and prioritize the relative importance of different environmental changes affecting access, 2) characterize the biophysical causes and mechanisms related to access, and 3) evaluate long-term (30 year) trends in the environment that are challenging access. Dynamic winter ice and snow conditions (e.g., dangerous ice travel; n =147) were the most commonly reported cause of disturbance to access, followed by changes in summer hydrology (e.g., river navigability; n = 77) and seasonal shifts in freeze/thaw cycles (n = 31). Supporting local observations, our remote-sensing analysis indicated a trend toward environmental conditions that hinder or disrupt traditional uses of ecosystem services. For example, we found that the window of safe travel on ice has narrowed by approximately 2 weeks since the 1980s. Shifts in travel have implications on the effectiveness of subsistence activities, such as winter trapping and spring waterfowl hunting. From a methods perspective, we implemented a study design that generated novel science while also addressing locally relevant issues. Our approach and findings highlight opportunities for connecting biophysical science with societal concerns.

A Survey of Physical Sciences, Engineering and Mathematics Faculty Regarding Author Fees in Open Access Journals

Science.gov (United States)

Cusker, Jeremy; Rauh, Anne E.

2014-01-01

Discussions of the potential of open access publishing frequently must contend with the skepticism of research authors regarding the need to pay author fees (also known as publication fees). With that in mind, the authors undertook a survey of faculty, postdocs, and graduate students in physical science, mathematics, and engineering fields at two…

Recent Advances in Point-of-Access Water Quality Monitoring

Science.gov (United States)

Korostynska, O.; Arshak, K.; Velusamy, V.; Arshak, A.; Vaseashta, Ashok

Clean water is one of our most valuable natural resources. In addition to providing safe drinking water it assures functional ecosystems that support fisheries and recreation. Human population growth and its associated increased demands on water pose risks to maintaining acceptable water quality. It is vital to assess source waters and the aquatic systems that receive inputs from industrial waste and sewage treatment plants, storm water systems, and runoff from urban and agricultural lands. Rapid and confident assessments of aquatic resources form the basis for sound environmental management. Current methods engaged in tracing the presence of various bacteria in water employ bulky laboratory equipment and are time consuming. Thus, real-time water quality monitoring is essential for National and International Health and Safety. Environmental water monitoring includes measurements of physical characteristics (e.g. pH, temperature, conductivity), chemical parameters (e.g. oxygen, alkalinity, nitrogen and phosphorus compounds), and abundance of certain biological taxa. Monitoring could also include assays of biological activity such as alkaline phosphatase, tests for toxins such as microcystins and direct measurements of pollutants such as heavy metals or hydrocarbons. Real time detection can significantly reduce the level of damage and also the cost to remedy the problem. This paper presents overview of state-of-the-art methods and devices used for point-of-access water quality monitoring and suggest further developments in this area.

Health-related quality of life of HIV-infected patients taking different ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

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Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research March 2018; 17 (3): 549-557 ... Purpose: To evaluate the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of patients taking ... Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Directory of Open Access Journals.

Nurturing Quality Science Learning and Teaching: The Impact of a Reading Group

Science.gov (United States)

Fitzgerald, Ange; Cooper, Rebecca; Sarkar, Mahbub

2016-01-01

Teachers are key to the delivery of quality science education experiences in Australian classrooms. In achieving this, there is a need for teachers to be better supported in thinking reflexively and critically about their practice. The Centre for Science, Mathematics and Technology Education (CSMTE) at Monash University took action to address this…

Computer science and quality. An applied example on environment; Informatica e qualita': un esempio applicativo sull'ambiente

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

De Vanna, A; Moretti, L [ENEA, Centro Ricerche Ezio Clementel, Bologna (Italy). Dipt. Ambiente

1998-07-01

Within the ENEA (National Agency for New Technology, Energy and the Environment)-MURST (Ministry of University and Scientific and Technological Research) programme agreement, the report shows a relational database containing all the project bibliography on the Park of Two Lakes (Emilia Romagna region, Italy) and now accessible in Internet. The paper also discusses briefly the relationship between environmental problems and computer science and about the information management quality. [Italian] Nell'ambito dell'accordo di programma ENEA-MURST (Ministero per l'Universita', la Ricerca scientifica e Tecnologica), e' stato realizzato un databse contenente tutta la bibliografia sul progetto del Parco dei due Laghi (Emilia Romagna), accessibile in Internet. Il rapporto illustra l'architettua del database dopo una breve trattazione del rapporto tra problematiche ambientali e informatica e sulla qualita' della gestione dell'informazione.

Engaging Remote Sensing and Citizen Science into Water Quality Monitoring: A Case Study in Nhue-Day River Basin, Vietnam

Science.gov (United States)

Thi Van Le, Khoa; Minkman, Ellen; Nguyen Thi Phuong, Thuy; Rutten, Martine; Bastiaanssen, Wim

2016-04-01

Remote sensing and citizen science can be utilized to fulfill the gap of conventional monitoring methods. However, how to engage these techniques, principally taking advantage of local capacities and of globally accessible data for satisfying the continuous data requirements and uncertainties are exciting challenges. Previous studies in Vietnam showed that official documents regulated towards responding the vital need of upgrading national water monitoring infrastructures do not put the huge potentials of free satellite images and crowd-based data collection into account, this factor also limits publications related to these techniques. In this research, a new water monitoring approach will be developed friendly with areas suffering poor quality monitoring works. Particularly, algorithms respecting to the relationship between temperature, total suspended sediment (TSS), chlorophyll and information collected by sensors onboard Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 MSI satellites are built in the study area in Northern Vietnam; additionally, undergraduate student volunteers were sent to the sites with all the measurement activities are designed to coincide with the time when the study area captured by the satellites to compare the results. While conventional techniques are proving their irreplaceable role in the water monitoring network, the utilization of remote sensing techniques and citizen science in this study will demonstrate highly supportive values, saving monitoring costs and time; advantaging local human resources to science; providing an inclusive assessment of water quality changes along with land-use change in the study area, these approaches are excellent alternatives to meet the demand of real-time, continuous data nationwide.

Strategic Accessibility Competition

OpenAIRE

Bacchiega, Emanuele; Randon, Emanuela; Zirulia, Lorenzo

2010-01-01

We analyze the effect of competition in market-accessibility enhancement among quality-differentiated firms. Firms are located in regions with different ex-ante transport costs to reach the final market. We characterize the equilibrium of the two-stage game in which firms first invest to improve market accessibility and then compete in prices. Efforts in accessibility improvement crucially depend on the interplay between the willingness to pay for the quality premium of the median consumer an...

Urban air quality management and information systems in Europe: legal framework and information access

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Karatzas, K.; Moussiopoulos, N.

2000-01-01

The European Union (EU) legislative framework related to air quality, together with national legislation and relevant declarations of the United Nations (UN), requires an integrated approach concerning air quality management (AQM), and accessibility of related information for the citizens. In the present paper, the main requirements of this legislative framework are discussed and main air quality management and information system characteristics are drawn. The use of information technologies is recommended for the construction of such systems. The World Wide Web (WWW) is considered a suitable platform for system development and integration and at the same time as a medium for communication and information dissemination. (author)

Urban air quality management and information systems in Europe: legal framework and information access

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Karatzas, K.; Moussiopoulos, N. [Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece). Department of Mechanical Engineering, Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Environmental Engineering

2000-06-01

The European Union (EU) legislative framework related to air quality, together with national legislation and relevant declarations of the United Nations (UN), requires an integrated approach concerning air quality management (AQM), and accessibility of related information for the citizens. In the present paper, the main requirements of this legislative framework are discussed and main air quality management and information system characteristics are drawn. The use of information technologies is recommended for the construction of such systems. The World Wide Web (WWW) is considered a suitable platform for system development and integration and at the same time as a medium for communication and information dissemination. (author)

A global regulatory science agenda for vaccines.

Science.gov (United States)

Elmgren, Lindsay; Li, Xuguang; Wilson, Carolyn; Ball, Robert; Wang, Junzhi; Cichutek, Klaus; Pfleiderer, Michael; Kato, Atsushi; Cavaleri, Marco; Southern, James; Jivapaisarnpong, Teeranart; Minor, Philip; Griffiths, Elwyn; Sohn, Yeowon; Wood, David

2013-04-18

The Decade of Vaccines Collaboration and development of the Global Vaccine Action Plan provides a catalyst and unique opportunity for regulators worldwide to develop and propose a global regulatory science agenda for vaccines. Regulatory oversight is critical to allow access to vaccines that are safe, effective, and of assured quality. Methods used by regulators need to constantly evolve so that scientific and technological advances are applied to address challenges such as new products and technologies, and also to provide an increased understanding of benefits and risks of existing products. Regulatory science builds on high-quality basic research, and encompasses at least two broad categories. First, there is laboratory-based regulatory science. Illustrative examples include development of correlates of immunity; or correlates of safety; or of improved product characterization and potency assays. Included in such science would be tools to standardize assays used for regulatory purposes. Second, there is science to develop regulatory processes. Illustrative examples include adaptive clinical trial designs; or tools to analyze the benefit-risk decision-making process of regulators; or novel pharmacovigilance methodologies. Included in such science would be initiatives to standardize regulatory processes (e.g., definitions of terms for adverse events [AEs] following immunization). The aim of a global regulatory science agenda is to transform current national efforts, mainly by well-resourced regulatory agencies, into a coordinated action plan to support global immunization goals. This article provides examples of how regulatory science has, in the past, contributed to improved access to vaccines, and identifies gaps that could be addressed through a global regulatory science agenda. The article also identifies challenges to implementing a regulatory science agenda and proposes strategies and actions to fill these gaps. A global regulatory science agenda will enable

Sea Surface Height Deviation, Aviso, 0.25 degrees, Global, Science Quality

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Aviso Sea Surface Height Deviation is the deviation from the mean geoid as measured from 1993 - 1995. This is Science Quality data.

Sea Surface Height, Absolute, Aviso, 0.25 degrees, Global, Science Quality

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Aviso Absolute Sea Surface Height is the Sea Surface Height Deviation plus the long term mean dynamic height. This is Science Quality data.

A Case of Fragmented High School Earth and Space Science Education in the Great Plains: Tracing Teacher Certification Policy to Students' Access

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis, Elizabeth; Lu, Jia

2017-01-01

Although U.S. high school students' access to Earth and space science (ESS) varies widely from state to state, nationally, ESS content is the most neglected area of science education and scientific literacy. States have been considering whether they will formally adopt, or less formally adapt, the new national science education standards, the Next…

Educational policy for the democratization of access to science and technology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alvori Ahlert

2007-11-01

Full Text Available State educational services suffered a plague of privatisation during the 1980s and 1990s, inspired by the neoliberal hegemony of the time. This article looks into what contribution education can make to the construction of an informed, and participative democracy. The teaching of science and technology needs to be based on principles of justice and equality, and, to ensure that all have equal opportunity to reach the highest levels, should be public, free and of high quality.

Internet pharmacy: issues of access, quality, costs, and regulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Crawford, Stephanie Y

2003-02-01

Internet pharmacy has been the focus of heightened interest over the past 3 years since the first major Web site was introduced in the United States. This paper addresses issues pertaining to Internet pharmacies that sell prescriptions and other products to consumers at the retail level. The Internet pharmacy industry has shifted rapidly in the short time span. This paper begins with a summary of historical considerations and the shifting organization of Internet pharmacy. The advantages and disadvantages of online pharmacy practice are listed. Issues of access, quality, and cost are described. The challenges in regulation at the state and federal levels are presented. Advice to consumers is offered regarding the use of Internet pharmacy sites for purchasing prescription drug products.

ARM User Survey Report: Data Access, Quality, and Delivery

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mather, JH; Roeder, LR; Sivaraman, C

2012-06-28

The objective of this survey was to obtain user feedback to determine how users of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility Data Archive interact with the more than 2000 available types of datastreams. The survey also gathered information about data discovery and data quality. The Market and Competitive Analysis group at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory worked with web administrators to develop a landing page from which users could access the survey. A survey invitation was sent by ARM via email to about 6100 users on February 22, 2012. The invitation was also posted on the ARM website and Facebook page. Reminders were sent via e-mail and posted on Facebook while the survey was open, February 22-March 23, 2012.

News from the Library: Publishing Open Access articles beyond High Energy Physics

CERN Multimedia

CERN Library

2012-01-01

CERN has supported Open Access Publishing for many years, and the Scientific Information Service is working to implement this vision. We have just launched the flagship project SCOAP3 (Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics) aimed at converting high-quality journals in High Energy Physics to Open Access for articles published as of 2014. More details here.   In parallel, several win-win arrangements allow experimental and theoretical high-energy physics results from CERN to be published in Open Access in a variety of high-impact journals. More information can be found here. Open Access publishing at CERN goes far beyond High Energy Physics. Indeed, CERN is a key supporter of Open Access in accelerator science, through sponsorship of the APS journal PRSTAB and participation in the JACoW collaboration. Now CERN authors publishing in the field of engineering will also have th...

Interactive effects of carbon footprint information and its accessibility on value and subjective qualities of food products.

Science.gov (United States)

Kimura, Atsushi; Wada, Yuji; Kamada, Akiko; Masuda, Tomohiro; Okamoto, Masako; Goto, Sho-ichi; Tsuzuki, Daisuke; Cai, Dongsheng; Oka, Takashi; Dan, Ippeita

2010-10-01

We aimed to explore the interactive effects of the accessibility of information and the degree of carbon footprint score on consumers' value judgments of food products. Participants (n=151, undergraduate students in Japan) rated their maximum willingness to pay (WTP) for four food products varying in information accessibility (active-search or read-only conditions) and in carbon footprint values (low, middle, high, or non-display) provided. We also assessed further effects of information accessibly and carbon footprint value on other product attributes utilizing the subjective estimation of taste, quality, healthiness, and environmental friendliness. Results of the experiment demonstrated an interactive effect of information accessibility and the degree of carbon emission on consumer valuation of carbon footprint-labeled food. The carbon footprint value had a stronger impact on participants' WTP in the active-search condition than in the read-only condition. Similar to WTP, the results of the subjective ratings for product qualities also exhibited an interactive effect of the two factors on the rating of environmental friendliness for products. These results imply that the perceived environmental friendliness inferable from a carbon footprint label contributes to creating value for a food product.

Implementation Science: New Approaches to Integrating Quality and Safety Education for Nurses Competencies in Nursing Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Dolansky, Mary A; Schexnayder, Julie; Patrician, Patricia A; Sales, Anne

Although quality and safety competencies were developed and disseminated nearly a decade ago by the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) project, the uptake in schools of nursing has been slow. The use of implementation science methods may be useful to accelerate quality and safety competency integration in nursing education. The article includes a definition and description of implementation science methods and practical implementation strategies for nurse educators to consider when integrating the QSEN competencies into nursing curriculum.

Data Access, Interoperability and Sustainability: Key Challenges for the Evolution of Science Capabilities

Science.gov (United States)

Walton, A. L.

2015-12-01

In 2016, the National Science Foundation (NSF) will support a portfolio of activities and investments focused upon challenges in data access, interoperability, and sustainability. These topics are fundamental to science questions of increasing complexity that require multidisciplinary approaches and expertise. Progress has become tractable because of (and sometimes complicated by) unprecedented growth in data (both simulations and observations) and rapid advances in technology (such as instrumentation in all aspects of the discovery process, together with ubiquitous cyberinfrastructure to connect, compute, visualize, store, and discover). The goal is an evolution of capabilities for the research community based on these investments, scientific priorities, technology advances, and policies. Examples from multiple NSF directorates, including investments by the Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Division, are aimed at these challenges and can provide the geosciences research community with models and opportunities for participation. Implications for the future are highlighted, along with the importance of continued community engagement on key issues.

Publishing in Open Access Education Journals: The Authors' Perspectives

Science.gov (United States)

Coonin, Bryna; Younce, Leigh M.

2010-01-01

Open access publishing is now an accepted method of scholarly communication. However, the greatest traction for open access publishing thus far has been in the sciences. Penetration of open access publishing has been much slower among the social sciences. This study surveys 309 authors from recent issues of open access journals in education to…

Formative and summative assessment of science in English primary schools: evidence from the Primary Science Quality Mark

Science.gov (United States)

Earle, Sarah

2014-05-01

Background:Since the discontinuation of Standard Attainment Tests (SATs) in science at age 11 in England, pupil performance data in science reported to the UK government by each primary school has relied largely on teacher assessment undertaken in the classroom. Purpose:The process by which teachers are making these judgements has been unclear, so this study made use of the extensive Primary Science Quality Mark (PSQM) database to obtain a 'snapshot' (as of March 2013) of the approaches taken by 91 English primary schools to the formative and summative assessment of pupils' learning in science. PSQM is an award scheme for UK primary schools. It requires the science subject leader (co-ordinator) in each school to reflect upon and develop practice over the course of one year, then upload a set of reflections and supporting evidence to the database to support their application. One of the criteria requires the subject leader to explain how science is assessed within the school. Sample:The data set consists of the electronic text in the assessment section of all 91 PSQM primary schools which worked towards the Quality Mark in the year April 2012 to March 2013. Design and methods:Content analysis of a pre-existing qualitative data set. Text in the assessment section of each submission was first coded as describing formative or summative processes, then sub-coded into different strategies used. Results:A wide range of formative and summative approaches were reported, which tended to be described separately, with few links between them. Talk-based strategies are widely used for formative assessment, with some evidence of feedback to pupils. Whilst the use of tests or tracking grids for summative assessment is widespread, few schools rely on one system alone. Enquiry skills and conceptual knowledge were often assessed separately. Conclusions:There is little consistency in the approaches being used by teachers to assess science in English primary schools. Nevertheless

The integration of open access journals in the scholarly communication system: Three science fields

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Faber Frandsen, Tove

2009-01-01

across disciplines. This study is an analysis of the citing behaviour in journals within three science fields: biology, mathematics, and pharmacy and pharmacology. It is a statistical analysis of OAJs as well as non-OAJs including both the citing and cited side of the journal to journal citations......The greatest number of open access journals (OAJs) is found in the sciences and their influence is growing. However, there are only a few studies on the acceptance and thereby integration of these OAJs in the scholarly communication system. Even fewer studies provide insight into the differences....... The multivariate linear regression reveals many similarities in citing behaviour across fields and media. But it also points to great differences in the integration of OAJs. The integration of OAJs in the scholarly communication system varies considerably across fields. The implications for bibliometric research...

Setting up crowd science projects.

Science.gov (United States)

Scheliga, Kaja; Friesike, Sascha; Puschmann, Cornelius; Fecher, Benedikt

2016-11-29

Crowd science is scientific research that is conducted with the participation of volunteers who are not professional scientists. Thanks to the Internet and online platforms, project initiators can draw on a potentially large number of volunteers. This crowd can be involved to support data-rich or labour-intensive projects that would otherwise be unfeasible. So far, research on crowd science has mainly focused on analysing individual crowd science projects. In our research, we focus on the perspective of project initiators and explore how crowd science projects are set up. Based on multiple case study research, we discuss the objectives of crowd science projects and the strategies of their initiators for accessing volunteers. We also categorise the tasks allocated to volunteers and reflect on the issue of quality assurance as well as feedback mechanisms. With this article, we contribute to a better understanding of how crowd science projects are set up and how volunteers can contribute to science. We suggest that our findings are of practical relevance for initiators of crowd science projects, for science communication as well as for informed science policy making. © The Author(s) 2016.

Methods and applications of statistics in engineering, quality control, and the physical sciences

CERN Document Server

Balakrishnan, N

2011-01-01

Inspired by the Encyclopedia of Statistical Sciences, Second Edition (ESS2e), this volume presents a concise, well-rounded focus on the statistical concepts and applications that are essential for understanding gathered data in the fields of engineering, quality control, and the physical sciences. The book successfully upholds the goals of ESS2e by combining both previously-published and newly developed contributions written by over 100 leading academics, researchers, and practitioner in a comprehensive, approachable format. The result is a succinct reference that unveils modern, cutting-edge approaches to acquiring and analyzing data across diverse subject areas within these three disciplines, including operations research, chemistry, physics, the earth sciences, electrical engineering, and quality assurance. In addition, techniques related to survey methodology, computational statistics, and operations research are discussed, where applicable. Topics of coverage include: optimal and stochastic control, arti...

Student Assessment of Quality of Access at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juliet Obhajajie Inegbedion

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a study conducted by Inegbedion, Adu and Ofulue from the National Open University of Nigeria. The study focused on the quality of access (admission and registration at NOUN from a student perspective. A survey design was used for the study while a multi-stage sampling technique was used to select the sample size. All the 78,555 registered students in all the 61 Study Centres of the University at the time of the study formed the population; out of which 3,060 students were sampled. The questionnaire instrument is the Institutional Internal QA Tools and Instrument developed by the African Council for Distance Education (ACDE as a regulatory mechanism. The data collected were analyzed using simple statistics. The result showed that 66% of the students confirmed that NOUN has published clear policies on the admission and registration of students. About 29.1% of the students were not satisfied with the transparency of the admission process. In conclusion, the study revealed high quality of access and some deficiencies in website and Internet connectivity.

Quality and bioactive compounds in fruit of foreign accessions of mango conserved in an Active Germplasm Bank1

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thalita Passos Ribeiro

Full Text Available The aim of this study was to characterise the quality and levels of bioactive compounds in the fruit of 22 foreign accessions of the mango belonging to the Active Germplasm Bank of Embrapa Semiárido. Sixty fruits from each of the accessions: Florigon, Haden, 65, Irwin, M 13269, Momi-K, Scuper Many, Simmonds, Tommy Atkins, Van Dyke, Winter, Zill, Amrapali, Olour, Aplle DCG 406, Mon Amon DCG 407, Black Java, Kensington, Chené, Manila, Manzanillo and Maya, were harvested upon reaching physiological maturity, one half being analysed when harvested and the other half stored at ambient temperature (25.4 ± 2.9 ºC and 41 ± 9% RH until ripe. The experimental design was completely randomised in a 22 x 2 factorial (accession x maturity stage, with three replications of ten fruits. The accessions Chene, Momi-K and Van Dyke stood out for their physical attributes: weight, length, diameter and firmness of pulp, and for their good post-harvest conservation. The accession Amrapali was different because of its high levels of soluble solids, total soluble sugars, starch, ascorbic acid and carotenoids, suggesting a high potential for insertion into a breeding program aimed at the quality of the mango.

Geosciences: An Open Access Journal on Earth and Planetary Sciences and Their Interdisciplinary Approaches

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jesus Martinez-Frias

2011-05-01

Full Text Available On behalf of the Editorial Board and the editorial management staff of MDPI, it is my great pleasure to introduce this new journal Geosciences. Geosciences is an international, peer-reviewed open access journal, which publishes original papers, rapid communications, technical notes and review articles, and discussions about all interdisciplinary aspects of the earth and planetary sciences. Geosciences may also include papers presented at scientific conferences (proceedings or articles on a well defined topic assembled by individual editors or organizations/institutions (special publications.

Remote Sensing Open Access Journal: Leading a New Paradigm in Publishing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Prasad S. Thenkabail

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Remote Sensing is a pathfinding open access journal providing great opportunities for the growing community of remote sensing and geoscience scientists and practitioners to publish high quality research and practical papers expeditiously. It is a journal keeping up with the changing times we live in: open access, instant access, free access, and global access from whichever precise latitude and longitude you live in on the planet Earth or for that matter anywhere in space as long as we have internet access! So, open access journals are breaking many paradigms and setting forth new ones that will soon become the norm as we advance into the twenty-first century. The days of inordinate delays in publishing good science research articles are fast disappearing with open access journals. In remote sensing and geoscience, Remote Sensing (http://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing/ is one of the pioneers, thanks to the vision of Dr. Shu-Kun Lin, the publisher. It started in the year 2009 with headquarters in Basel, Switzerland and a branch office in Beijing, China. It will soon complete Volume 3 by the end of 2011.

Archives: Afrique Science: Revue Internationale des Sciences et ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Items 1 - 31 of 31 ... Archives: Afrique Science: Revue Internationale des Sciences et Technologie. Journal Home > Archives: Afrique Science: Revue Internationale des Sciences et Technologie. Log in or Register to get access to full text downloads.

Effects of free-range access on production parameters and meat quality, composition and taste in slow-growing broiler chickens

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stadig, Lisanne M.; Rodenburg, Bas; Reubens, Bert; Aerts, Johan; Duquenne, Barbara; Tuyttens, Frank A.M.

2016-01-01

Demand for meat from free-range broiler chickens is increasing in several countries. Consumers are motivated by better animal welfare and other product attributes such as quality and taste. However, scientific literature is not unanimous about whether free-range access influences quality,

Premenstrual syndrome and life quality in Turkish health science students.

Science.gov (United States)

İşik, Hatice; Ergöl, Şule; Aynioğlu, Öner; Şahbaz, Ahmet; Kuzu, Ayşe; Uzun, Müge

2016-04-19

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the incidence of PMS, risk factors affecting PMS symptoms, and life quality in health science students. A total of 608 volunteer female students studying at the health campus of a state university in Turkey were included in the study. The participants were asked to fill out questionnaires on sociodemographic data, PMS symptoms, and SF-36 life quality tests. The overall frequency of PMS among participants was 84.5%. The average PMS and general health SF scores were 118.34 ± 37.3 and 20.03 ± 3.72, respectively. Students who had irregular breakfast, drank ≥2 cups of coffee/day, and consumed alcohol or fast food had higher PMS scores. Irregular menstruation and family history increased PMS scores and decreased life quality (P life quality of the students significantly decreased as the severity of PMS increased (P life quality, students should be informed about the symptoms, risk factors, and management options of PMS.

Science Laboratories and Indoor Air Quality in Schools. Technical Bulletin.

Science.gov (United States)

Jacobs, Bruce W.

Some of the issues surrounding the indoor air quality (IAQ) problems presented by science labs are discussed. Described are possible contaminants in labs, such as chemicals and biological organisms, and ways to lessen accidents arising from these sources are suggested. Some of the factors contributing to comfort, such as temperature levels, are…

What has Science’s open-access sting taught us about the quality of peer review?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mićo Tatalović

2013-11-01

Full Text Available In October this year, Science published a journalistic investigation into quality of peer review in open access journals [1]. The results were sobering. Around 60% of all journals accepted to publish a research paper with most obvious and basic mistakes - in fact the whole paper, its data, authors and their affiliations were entirely made up by the journalist, John Bohannon, to expose poor peer review. The article has provoked a lot of media attention as well as a backlash from open-access publishers and supporters, who called it unethical, unsound and even accused the journalist of being racist (for making up authors with African names. But regardless of the criticisms, the paper’s surprising findings stand and should be a cause of grave concern for science and science publishing: it shows that many - if not most - open access journals do not have a strict enough editorial and peer review process to catch poor research and flawed papers. The article intrigued me especially, as I commissioned a similar feature article for the website where I edit new and feature, SciDev.Net, which we published earlier this year [2]. I also had the idea of sending out fake and flawed papers to catch ’bad journals’ who accept it, but the time and money needed to do this meant we ended up skipping the investigative part, and we based our article only on reporting interviews with people affected. The key findings were that this is a global problem with some journals prey on researchers going for their money but not providing proper peer review, and that pressure to publish draws scientists, especially in developing countries, to publish in such journals. Experts suggested investigation and regulation is needed to ensure proper peer review, but there was little indication that this regulation will happen any time soon. Another key reason for not sending out fake papers were concerns over how to do this ethically and legally - in fact, the prospects of being

Examining data access and use in science

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yan, E.; Zhao, M.

2016-07-01

In this research-in-progress paper, we provide preliminary evidence of data access and use in scientific literature based on a content analysis of 600 stratified sampled PLOS ONE publications. Results show that data access and use varied greatly from one paper to another in terms of how datasets were collected, referenced, and curated. (Author)

Data Access Services that Make Remote Sensing Data Easier to Use

Science.gov (United States)

Lynnes, Christopher

2010-01-01

This slide presentation reviews some of the processes that NASA uses to make the remote sensing data easy to use over the World Wide Web. This work involves much research into data formats, geolocation structures and quality indicators, often to be followed by coding a preprocessing program. Only then are the data usable within the analysis tool of choice. The Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center is deploying a variety of data access services that are designed to dramatically shorten the time consumed in the data preparation step. On-the-fly conversion to the standard network Common Data Form (netCDF) format with Climate-Forecast (CF) conventions imposes a standard coordinate system framework that makes data instantly readable through several tools, such as the Integrated Data Viewer, Gridded Analysis and Display System, Panoply and Ferret. A similar benefit is achieved by serving data through the Open Source Project for a Network Data Access Protocol (OPeNDAP), which also provides subsetting. The Data Quality Screening Service goes a step further in filtering out data points based on quality control flags, based on science team recommendations or user-specified criteria. Further still is the Giovanni online analysis system which goes beyond handling formatting and quality to provide visualization and basic statistics of the data. This general approach of automating the preparation steps has the important added benefit of enabling use of the data by non-human users (i.e., computer programs), which often make sub-optimal use of the available data due to the need to hard-code data preparation on the client side.

Quality, language, subdiscipline and promotion were associated with article accesses on Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro).

Science.gov (United States)

Yamato, Tiê P; Arora, Mohit; Stevens, Matthew L; Elkins, Mark R; Moseley, Anne M

2018-03-01

To quantify the relationship between the number of times articles are accessed on the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) and the article characteristics. A secondary aim was to examine the relationship between accesses and the number of citations of articles. The study was conducted to derive prediction models for the number of accesses of articles indexed on PEDro from factors that may influence an article's accesses. All articles available on PEDro from August 2014 to January 2015 were included. We extracted variables relating to the algorithm used to present PEDro search results (research design, year of publication, PEDro score, source of systematic review (Cochrane or non-Cochrane)) plus language, subdiscipline of physiotherapy, and whether articles were promoted to PEDro users. Three predictive models were examined using multiple regression analysis. Citation and journal impact factor were downloaded. There were 29,313 articles indexed in this period. We identified seven factors that predicted the number of accesses. More accesses were noted for factors related to the algorithm used to present PEDro search results (synthesis research (i.e., guidelines and reviews), recent articles, Cochrane reviews, and higher PEDro score) plus publication in English and being promoted to PEDro users. The musculoskeletal, neurology, orthopaedics, sports, and paediatrics subdisciplines were associated with more accesses. We also found that there was no association between number of accesses and citations. The number of times an article is accessed on PEDro is partly predicted by how condensed and high quality the evidence it contains is. Copyright © 2017 Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Gender-heterogeneous working groups produce higher quality science.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lesley G Campbell

Full Text Available Here we present the first empirical evidence to support the hypothesis that a gender-heterogeneous problem-solving team generally produced journal articles perceived to be higher quality by peers than a team comprised of highly-performing individuals of the same gender. Although women were historically underrepresented as principal investigators of working groups, their frequency as PIs at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis is now comparable to the national frequencies in biology and they are now equally qualified, in terms of their impact on the accumulation of ecological knowledge (as measured by the h-index. While women continue to be underrepresented as working group participants, peer-reviewed publications with gender-heterogeneous authorship teams received 34% more citations than publications produced by gender-uniform authorship teams. This suggests that peers citing these publications perceive publications that also happen to have gender-heterogeneous authorship teams as higher quality than publications with gender uniform authorship teams. Promoting diversity not only promotes representation and fairness but may lead to higher quality science.

Gender-heterogeneous working groups produce higher quality science.

Science.gov (United States)

Campbell, Lesley G; Mehtani, Siya; Dozier, Mary E; Rinehart, Janice

2013-01-01

Here we present the first empirical evidence to support the hypothesis that a gender-heterogeneous problem-solving team generally produced journal articles perceived to be higher quality by peers than a team comprised of highly-performing individuals of the same gender. Although women were historically underrepresented as principal investigators of working groups, their frequency as PIs at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis is now comparable to the national frequencies in biology and they are now equally qualified, in terms of their impact on the accumulation of ecological knowledge (as measured by the h-index). While women continue to be underrepresented as working group participants, peer-reviewed publications with gender-heterogeneous authorship teams received 34% more citations than publications produced by gender-uniform authorship teams. This suggests that peers citing these publications perceive publications that also happen to have gender-heterogeneous authorship teams as higher quality than publications with gender uniform authorship teams. Promoting diversity not only promotes representation and fairness but may lead to higher quality science.

Peer review quality and transparency of the peer-review process in open access and subscription journals

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wicherts, J.M.

2016-01-01

Background Recent controversies highlighting substandard peer review in Open Access (OA) and traditional (subscription) journals have increased the need for authors, funders, publishers, and institutions to assure quality of peer-review in academic journals. I propose that transparency of the

A New Open Access Journal of Marine Science and Engineering

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anthony S. Clare

2013-03-01

Full Text Available The oceans cover approximately 71% of the Earth’s surface and contain more than 97% of the planet’s water, representing over 100 times more liveable volume than the terrestrial habitat. Approximately fifty percent of the species on the planet occupy this ocean biome, much of which remains unexplored. The health and sustainability of the oceans are threatened by a combination of pressures associated with climate change and the ever-increasing demands we place on them for food, recreation, trade, energy and minerals. The biggest threat, however, is the pace of change to the oceans, e.g., ocean acidification, which is unprecedented in human history. Consequently, there has never been a greater need for the rapid and widespread dissemination of the outcomes of research aimed at improving our understanding of how the oceans work and solutions to their sustainable use. It is our hope that this new online, open-access Journal of Marine Science and Engineering will go some way to fulfilling this need. [...

Stakeholder values and ecosystems in developing open access to research data.

Science.gov (United States)

Wessels, Bridgette; Sveinsdottir, Thordis; Smallwood, Rod

2014-05-01

One aspect of understanding how to develop open access to research data is to understand the values of stakeholders in the emerging open data ecosystem. The EU FP7 funded project Policy RECommendations for Open Access to Research Data in Europe (RECODE) (Grant Agreement No: 321463) undertook such research to identify stakeholder values and mapped the emerging ecosystem. In this paper we outline and discuss the findings of this research. We address three key objectives, which are: (a) the identification and mapping of the diverse range of stakeholder values in Open Access data and data dissemination and preservation; (b) mapping stakeholder values on to research ecosystems using case studies from different disciplinary perspectives; and (c) evaluate and identify good practice in addressing conflicting value chains and stakeholder fragmentation. The research was structured on three related actions: (a) an analysis of policy and related documents and protocols, in order to map the formal expression of values and motivations; (b) conducting five case studies in particle physics, health sciences, bioengineering, environmental research and archaeology. These explored issues of data size; quality control, ethics and data security; replication of large datasets; interoperability; and the preservation of diverse types of data; and (c) undertaking a validation and dissemination workshop that sought to better understand how to match policies with stakeholder drivers and motivations to increase their effectiveness in promoting Open Access to research data. The research findings include that there is clearly an overall drive for Open Data Access within the policy documents, which is part of a wider drive for open science in general. This is underpinned by the view of science as an open enterprise. Although there is a strong argument for publicly funded science to be made open to the public the details of how to make research data open as yet still unclear. Our research found

Communicative Access Measures for Stroke: Development and Evaluation of a Quality Improvement Tool.

Science.gov (United States)

Kagan, Aura; Simmons-Mackie, Nina; Victor, J Charles; Chan, Melodie T

2017-11-01

To (1) develop a systems-level quality improvement tool targeting communicative access to information and decision-making for stroke patients with language disorders; and (2) evaluate the resulting tool-the Communicative Access Measures for Stroke (CAMS). Survey development and evaluation was in line with accepted guidelines and included item generation and reduction, survey formatting and composition, pretesting, pilot testing, and reliability assessment. Development and evaluation were carried out in hospital and community agency settings. The project used a convenience sample of 31 participants for the survey development, and 63 participants for the CAMS reliability study (broken down into 6 administrators/managers, 32 frontline staff, 25 participants with aphasia). Eligible participants invited to the reliability study included individuals from 45 community-based organizations in Ontario as well as 4400 individuals from communities of practice. Not applicable. Data were analyzed using kappa statistics and intraclass correlations for each item score on all surveys. A tool, the CAMS, comprising 3 surveys, was developed for health facilities from the perspectives of (1) administrators/policymakers, (2) staff/frontline health care providers, and (3) patients with aphasia (using a communicatively accessible version). Reliability for items on the CAMS-Administrator and CAMS-Staff surveys was moderate to high (kappa/intraclass correlation coefficients [ICCs], .54-1.00). As expected, reliability was lower for the CAMS-Patient survey, with most items having ICCs between 0.4 and 0.6. These findings suggest that CAMS may provide useful quality improvement information for health care facilities with an interest in improving care for patients with stroke and aphasia. Copyright © 2017 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Wind, QuikSCAT SeaWinds, 0.25 degrees, Global, Science Quality, Meridional

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Remote Sensing Inc. distributes science quality wind velocity data from the SeaWinds instrument onboard NASA's QuikSCAT satellite. SeaWinds is a microwave...

Wind, QuikSCAT SeaWinds, 0.25 degrees, Global, Science Quality, Modulus

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Remote Sensing Inc. distributes science quality wind velocity data from the SeaWinds instrument onboard NASA's QuikSCAT satellite. SeaWinds is a microwave...

Ekman Upwelling, QuikSCAT SeaWinds, 0.25 degrees, Global, Science Quality

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — NOAA CoastWatch distributes science quality Ekman current (in zonal, meridional, and modulus sets) and Ekman upwelling data. This data begins with wind velocity...

Globus Identity, Access, and Data Management: Platform Services for Collaborative Science

Science.gov (United States)

Ananthakrishnan, R.; Foster, I.; Wagner, R.

2016-12-01

Globus is software-as-a-service for research data management, developed at, and operated by, the University of Chicago. Globus, accessible at www.globus.org, provides high speed, secure file transfer; file sharing directly from existing storage systems; and data publication to institutional repositories. 40,000 registered users have used Globus to transfer tens of billions of files totaling hundreds of petabytes between more than 10,000 storage systems within campuses and national laboratories in the US and internationally. Web, command line, and REST interfaces support both interactive use and integration into applications and infrastructures. An important component of the Globus system is its foundational identity and access management (IAM) platform service, Globus Auth. Both Globus research data management and other applications use Globus Auth for brokering authentication and authorization interactions between end-users, identity providers, resource servers (services), and a range of clients, including web, mobile, and desktop applications, and other services. Compliant with important standards such as OAuth, OpenID, and SAML, Globus Auth provides mechanisms required for an extensible, integrated ecosystem of services and clients for the research and education community. It underpins projects such as the US National Science Foundation's XSEDE system, NCAR's Research Data Archive, and the DOE Systems Biology Knowledge Base. Current work is extending Globus services to be compliant with FEDRAMP standards for security assessment, authorization, and monitoring for cloud services. We will present Globus IAM solutions and give examples of Globus use in various projects for federated access to resources. We will also describe how Globus Auth and Globus research data management capabilities enable rapid development and low-cost operations of secure data sharing platforms that leverage Globus services and integrate them with local policy and security.

A Correlational Analysis: Electronic Health Records (EHR) and Quality of Care in Critical Access Hospitals

Science.gov (United States)

Khan, Arshia A.

2012-01-01

Driven by the compulsion to improve the evident paucity in quality of care, especially in critical access hospitals in the United States, policy makers, healthcare providers, and administrators have taken the advise of researchers suggesting the integration of technology in healthcare. The Electronic Health Record (EHR) System composed of multiple…

Wind, QuikSCAT SeaWinds, 0.25 degrees, Global, Science Quality, Meridional

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) distributes science quality wind velocity data from the SeaWinds instrument onboard NASA's QuikSCAT satellite. SeaWinds is a...

Wind, QuikSCAT SeaWinds, 0.25 degrees, Global, Science Quality, Zonal

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) distributes science quality wind velocity data from the SeaWinds instrument onboard NASA's QuikSCAT satellite. SeaWinds is a...

Educating science editors: is there a comprehensive strategy?

Science.gov (United States)

Gasparyan, Armen Yuri; Yessirkepov, Marlen; Gorin, Sergey V; Kitas, George D

2014-12-01

The article considers available options to educate science editors in the fast-transforming digital environment. There is no single course or resource that can cover their constantly changing and diversifying educational needs. The involvement in research, writing, and reviewing is important for gaining editing skills, but that is not all. Membership in editorial associations and access to updated scholarly information in the field are mandatory for maintaining editorial credentials. Learned associations offer access to a few widely-recognized periodicals. There are also formal training courses covering issues in science writing and ethical editing, but no high-level evidence data exist to promote any of these. Networking with like-minded specialists within the global and regional editorial associations seems a useful strategy to upgrade editorial skills and resolve problems with the quality control and digitization of scholarly periodicals.

elevatr: Access Elevation Data from Various APIs | Science ...

Science.gov (United States)

Several web services are available that provide access to elevation data. This package provides access to several of those services and returns elevation data either as a SpatialPointsDataFrame from point elevation services or as a raster object from raster elevation services. Currently, the package supports access to the Mapzen Elevation Service, Mapzen Terrain Service, and the USGS Elevation Point Query Service. The R language for statistical computing is increasingly used for spatial data analysis . This R package, elevatr, is in response to this and provides access to elevation data from various sources directly in R. The impact of `elevatr` is that it will 1) facilitate spatial analysis in R by providing access to foundational dataset for many types of analyses (e.g. hydrology, limnology) 2) open up a new set of users and uses for APIs widely used outside of R, and 3) provide an excellent example federal open source development as promoted by the Federal Source Code Policy (https://sourcecode.cio.gov/).

The Effect of Infrastructure Access and Quality on Non-farm Employment and Income in Rural Indonesia

OpenAIRE

Olivia, Susan; Gibson, John

2008-01-01

There is growing interest in the rural non-farm sector in developing countries as a contributor to economic growth, employment generation, livelihood diversification and poverty reduction. Access to infrastructure is identified in some studies as a factor that affects non-farm rural employment and income but less attention has been paid to the constraints imposed by poor quality infrastructure. In this paper we use data from 4000 households in rural Indonesia to show that the quality of two k...

Science Teacher Education in Australia: Initiatives and Challenges to Improve the Quality of Teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Treagust, David F.; Won, Mihye; Petersen, Jacinta; Wynne, Georgie

2015-01-01

In this article, we describe how teachers in the Australian school system are educated to teach science and the different qualifications that teachers need to enter the profession. The latest comparisons of Australian students in international science assessments have brought about various accountability measures to improve the quality of science…

Web portal on environmental sciences "ATMOS''

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. P. Gordov

2006-01-01

Full Text Available The developed under INTAS grant web portal ATMOS (http://atmos.iao.ru and http://atmos.scert.ru makes available to the international research community, environmental managers, and the interested public, a bilingual information source for the domain of Atmospheric Physics and Chemistry, and the related application domain of air quality assessment and management. It offers access to integrated thematic information, experimental data, analytical tools and models, case studies, and related information and educational resources compiled, structured, and edited by the partners into a coherent and consistent thematic information resource. While offering the usual components of a thematic site such as link collections, user group registration, discussion forum, news section etc., the site is distinguished by its scientific information services and tools: on-line models and analytical tools, and data collections and case studies together with tutorial material. The portal is organized as a set of interrelated scientific sites, which addressed basic branches of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate Modeling as well as the applied domains of Air Quality Assessment and Management, Modeling, and Environmental Impact Assessment. Each scientific site is open for external access information-computational system realized by means of Internet technologies. The main basic science topics are devoted to Atmospheric Chemistry, Atmospheric Spectroscopy and Radiation, Atmospheric Aerosols, Atmospheric Dynamics and Atmospheric Models, including climate models. The portal ATMOS reflects current tendency of Environmental Sciences transformation into exact (quantitative sciences and is quite effective example of modern Information Technologies and Environmental Sciences integration. It makes the portal both an auxiliary instrument to support interdisciplinary projects of regional environment and extensive educational resource in this important domain.

Free access to science

CERN Multimedia

2003-01-01

Several influential American scientists have begun to argue that the cost of research publications has grown so large that it impedes the distribution of knowledge. Some subscriptions cost thousands of dollars per year, and those journals are usually available online only to subscribers. So a coalition led by Harold Varmus, the former director of the National Institutes of Health, is creating a new model, called the Public Library of Science (1/2 page).

Accounting for water quality in monitoring access to safe drinking-water as part of the Millennium Development Goals: lessons from five countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Bain, Rob E S; Gundry, Stephen W; Wright, Jim A; Yang, Hong; Pedley, Steve; Bartram, Jamie K

2012-03-01

To determine how data on water source quality affect assessments of progress towards the 2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target on access to safe drinking-water. Data from five countries on whether drinking-water sources complied with World Health Organization water quality guidelines on contamination with thermotolerant coliform bacteria, arsenic, fluoride and nitrates in 2004 and 2005 were obtained from the Rapid Assessment of Drinking-Water Quality project. These data were used to adjust estimates of the proportion of the population with access to safe drinking-water at the MDG baseline in 1990 and in 2008 made by the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation, which classified all improved sources as safe. Taking account of data on water source quality resulted in substantially lower estimates of the percentage of the population with access to safe drinking-water in 2008 in four of the five study countries: the absolute reduction was 11% in Ethiopia, 16% in Nicaragua, 15% in Nigeria and 7% in Tajikistan. There was only a slight reduction in Jordan. Microbial contamination was more common than chemical contamination. The criterion used by the MDG indicator to determine whether a water source is safe can lead to substantial overestimates of the population with access to safe drinking-water and, consequently, also overestimates the progress made towards the 2015 MDG target. Monitoring drinking-water supplies by recording both access to water sources and their safety would be a substantial improvement.

The "Consumer Report" version of Earth Science Data Quality description

Science.gov (United States)

Vicente, G. A.

2014-12-01

The generation, delivery and access of Earth Observation (EO) data quality information is a difficult problem because it is not uniquely defined, user dependent, difficult to be quantified, handled differently by different teams and perceived differently by data providers and data users. Initiatives such as the International Organization for Standards (ISO) 19115 and 19157 are important steps forward but difficult to implement, too complex and out of reach for the majority of data producers and users. This is because most users only want a quick and intelligible way to compare data sets from different providers to find the ones that best fit their interest. Therefore we need to simplify the problem by focusing on a few relevant quality parameters and develop a common framework to deliver them. This work is intended to tap into the data producers and user's knowledge and expertise on data quality for the development and adoption of a "Consumer Report" version of a "Data Quality Matrix". The goal is to find the most efficient and friendly approach to displays a selected number of quality parameters rated to each product and to target group of users.

The IEO Data Center Management System: Tools for quality control, analysis and access marine data

Science.gov (United States)

Casas, Antonia; Garcia, Maria Jesus; Nikouline, Andrei

2010-05-01

Since 1994 the Data Centre of the Spanish Oceanographic Institute develops system for archiving and quality control of oceanographic data. The work started in the frame of the European Marine Science & Technology Programme (MAST) when a consortium of several Mediterranean Data Centres began to work on the MEDATLAS project. Along the years, old software modules for MS DOS were rewritten, improved and migrated to Windows environment. Oceanographic data quality control includes now not only vertical profiles (mainly CTD and bottles observations) but also time series of currents and sea level observations. New powerful routines for analysis and for graphic visualization were added. Data presented originally in ASCII format were organized recently in an open source MySQL database. Nowadays, the IEO, as part of SeaDataNet Infrastructure, has designed and developed a new information system, consistent with the ISO 19115 and SeaDataNet standards, in order to manage the large and diverse marine data and information originated in Spain by different sources, and to interoperate with SeaDataNet. The system works with data stored in ASCII files (MEDATLAS, ODV) as well as data stored within the relational database. The components of the system are: 1.MEDATLAS Format and Quality Control - QCDAMAR: Quality Control of Marine Data. Main set of tools for working with data presented as text files. Includes extended quality control (searching for duplicated cruises and profiles, checking date, position, ship velocity, constant profiles, spikes, density inversion, sounding, acceptable data, impossible regional values,...) and input/output filters. - QCMareas: A set of procedures for the quality control of tide gauge data according to standard international Sea Level Observing System. These procedures include checking for unexpected anomalies in the time series, interpolation, filtering, computation of basic statistics and residuals. 2. DAMAR: A relational data base (MySql) designed to

A Survey on Quality of Service Monitoring and Analysis of Network of Agricultural Science and Technology Resources

OpenAIRE

Jian , Ma

2014-01-01

International audience; First, current situation on Network of agricultural science and technology resources is described. Then we pay much attention to the quality of service monitoring and analysis system of network resources. And finally, we come to the conclusion that the construction of Quality of service monitoring, analysis of network of agricultural science and technology resources is in great need.

Impact of problem finding on the quality of authentic open inquiry science research projects

Science.gov (United States)

Labanca, Frank

2008-11-01

Problem finding is a creative process whereby individuals develop original ideas for study. Secondary science students who successfully participate in authentic, novel, open inquiry studies must engage in problem finding to determine viable and suitable topics. This study examined problem finding strategies employed by students who successfully completed and presented the results of their open inquiry research at the 2007 Connecticut Science Fair and the 2007 International Science and Engineering Fair. A multicase qualitative study was framed through the lenses of creativity, inquiry strategies, and situated cognition learning theory. Data were triangulated by methods (interviews, document analysis, surveys) and sources (students, teachers, mentors, fair directors, documents). The data demonstrated that the quality of student projects was directly impacted by the quality of their problem finding. Effective problem finding was a result of students using resources from previous, specialized experiences. They had a positive self-concept and a temperament for both the creative and logical perspectives of science research. Successful problem finding was derived from an idiosyncratic, nonlinear, and flexible use and understanding of inquiry. Finally, problem finding was influenced and assisted by the community of practicing scientists, with whom the students had an exceptional ability to communicate effectively. As a result, there appears to be a juxtaposition of creative and logical/analytical thought for open inquiry that may not be present in other forms of inquiry. Instructional strategies are suggested for teachers of science research students to improve the quality of problem finding for their students and their subsequent research projects.

Open Access von A bis Z

OpenAIRE

Stieg, Kerstin; Pavlovic, Karlo

2012-01-01

The glossary „Open Access from A to Z“ comprises essential key terms on Open Access such as arXiv, The Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI), Creative Commons (CC), the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR), the EU project Digital Repository Infrastructure Vision for European Research (DRIVER), the Finch Report,...

Graphical user interface for accessing water-quality data for the Devils Lake basin, North Dakota

Science.gov (United States)

Ryberg, Karen R.; Damschen, William C.; Vecchia, Aldo V.

2005-01-01

Maintaining the quality of surface waters in the Devils Lake Basin in North Dakota is important for protecting the agricultural resources, fisheries, waterfowl and wildlife habitat, and recreational value of the basin. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with local, State, and Federal agencies, has collected and analyzed water-quality samples from streams and lakes in the basin since 1957, and the North Dakota Department of Health has collected and analyzed water-quality samples from lakes in the basin since 2001. Because water-quality data for the basin are important for numerous reasons, a graphical user interface was developed to access, view, and download the historical data for the basin. The interface is a web-based application that is available to the public and includes data through water year 2003. The interface will be updated periodically to include data for subsequent years.

The Relationship of IEP Quality to Curricular Access and Academic Achievement for Students with Disabilities

Science.gov (United States)

La Salle, Tamika P.; Roach, Andrew T.; McGrath, Dawn

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the quality of Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and its influence on academic achievement, inclusion in general education classrooms, and curricular access for students with disabilities. 130 teachers from the state of Indiana were asked to submit the most recent IEP of one of their students in…

Nature and quality of teacher – pupil interactions in primary science ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Within the constructivist framework, a science teacher is expected to be an active facilitator who orchestrates and supports interaction with learners with the aim of stimulating learning. The quality of teacher – pupil interaction would, therefore, determine the effectiveness of the learning process. This study investigated the ...

The Quality of Open-Access Video-Based Orthopaedic Instructional Content for the Shoulder Physical Exam is Inconsistent.

Science.gov (United States)

Urch, Ekaterina; Taylor, Samuel A; Cody, Elizabeth; Fabricant, Peter D; Burket, Jayme C; O'Brien, Stephen J; Dines, David M; Dines, Joshua S

2016-10-01

The internet has an increasing role in both patient and physician education. While several recent studies critically appraised the quality and accuracy of web-based written information available to patients, no studies have evaluated such parameters for open-access video content designed for provider use. The primary goal of the study was to determine the accuracy of internet-based instructional videos featuring the shoulder physical examination. An assessment of quality and accuracy of said video content was performed using the basic shoulder examination as a surrogate for the "best-case scenario" due to its widely accepted components that are stable over time. Three search terms ("shoulder," "examination," and "shoulder exam") were entered into the four online video resources most commonly accessed by orthopaedic surgery residents (VuMedi, G9MD, Orthobullets, and YouTube). Videos were captured and independently reviewed by three orthopaedic surgeons. Quality and accuracy were assessed in accordance with previously published standards. Of the 39 video tutorials reviewed, 61% were rated as fair or poor. Specific maneuvers such as the Hawkins test, O'Brien sign, and Neer impingement test were accurately demonstrated in 50, 36, and 27% of videos, respectively. Inter-rater reliability was excellent (mean kappa 0.80, range 0.79-0.81). Our results suggest that information presented in open-access video tutorials featuring the physical examination of the shoulder is inconsistent. Trainee exposure to such potentially inaccurate information may have a significant impact on trainee education.

Harnessing implementation science to improve care quality and patient safety: a systematic review of targeted literature.

Science.gov (United States)

Braithwaite, Jeffrey; Marks, Danielle; Taylor, Natalie

2014-06-01

Getting greater levels of evidence into practice is a key problem for health systems, compounded by the volume of research produced. Implementation science aims to improve the adoption and spread of research evidence. A linked problem is how to enhance quality of care and patient safety based on evidence when care settings are complex adaptive systems. Our research question was: according to the implementation science literature, which common implementation factors are associated with improving the quality and safety of care for patients? We conducted a targeted search of key journals to examine implementation science in the quality and safety domain applying PRISMA procedures. Fifty-seven out of 466 references retrieved were considered relevant following the application of exclusion criteria. Included articles were subjected to content analysis. Three reviewers extracted and documented key characteristics of the papers. Grounded theory was used to distil key features of the literature to derive emergent success factors. Eight success factors of implementation emerged: preparing for change, capacity for implementation-people, capacity for implementation-setting, types of implementation, resources, leverage, desirable implementation enabling features, and sustainability. Obstacles in implementation are the mirror image of these: for example, when people fail to prepare, have insufficient capacity for implementation or when the setting is resistant to change, then care quality is at risk, and patient safety can be compromised. This review of key studies in the quality and safety literature discusses the current state-of-play of implementation science applied to these domains. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press in association with the International Society for Quality in Health Care; all rights reserved.

The Level and Quality of Accountability Talk in the Science Lessons

Science.gov (United States)

Motlhabane, Abraham

2016-01-01

Teachers are actively encouraged to plan their lessons such that there is maximum classroom talk, namely accountability talk. However, many lessons do not display sufficient accountability talk. This study attempted to better understand the level and quality of accountability talk in six science lessons. The study aimed to provide teachers with…

Computer science and quality. An applied example on environment; Informatica e qualita': un esempio applicativo sull'ambiente

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

De Vanna, A.; Moretti, L. [ENEA, Centro Ricerche Ezio Clementel, Bologna (Italy). Dipt. Ambiente

1998-07-01

Within the ENEA (National Agency for New Technology, Energy and the Environment)-MURST (Ministry of University and Scientific and Technological Research) programme agreement, the report shows a relational database containing all the project bibliography on the Park of Two Lakes (Emilia Romagna region, Italy) and now accessible in Internet. The paper also discusses briefly the relationship between environmental problems and computer science and about the information management quality. [Italian] Nell'ambito dell'accordo di programma ENEA-MURST (Ministero per l'Universita', la Ricerca scientifica e Tecnologica), e' stato realizzato un databse contenente tutta la bibliografia sul progetto del Parco dei due Laghi (Emilia Romagna), accessibile in Internet. Il rapporto illustra l'architettua del database dopo una breve trattazione del rapporto tra problematiche ambientali e informatica e sulla qualita' della gestione dell'informazione.

Predatory Publishing Is a Threat to Non-Mainstream Science

Science.gov (United States)

Nurmashev, Bekaidar

2017-01-01

This article highlights the issue of wasteful publishing practices that primarily affect non-mainstream science countries and rapidly growing academic disciplines. Numerous start-up open access publishers with soft or nonexistent quality checks and huge commercial interests have created a global crisis in the publishing market. Their publishing practices have been thoroughly examined, leading to the blacklisting of many journals by Jeffrey Beall. However, it appears that some subscription journals are also falling short of adhering to the international recommendations of global editorial associations. Unethical editing agencies that promote their services in non-mainstream science countries create more problems for inexperienced authors. It is suggested to regularly monitor the quality of already indexed journals and upgrade criteria of covering new sources by the Emerging Sources Citation Index (Web of Science), Scopus, and specialist bibliographic databases. Regional awareness campaigns to inform stakeholders of science communication about the importance of ethical writing, transparency of editing services, and permanent archiving can be also helpful for eradicating unethical publishing practices. PMID:28378542

Pediatric central venous access devices: nursing interventions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Duffy EA

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Elizabeth A Duffy, Kathryn N Nelson Department of Health Behavior and Biological Sciences, The University of Michigan School of Nursing, Ann Arbor, MI, USA Abstract: A central venous catheter (CVC is an indwelling catheter that provides permanent or temporary stable venous access for both acute and chronically ill pediatric patients. These catheters provide stable venous access that can be used for a variety of medical purposes including drawing blood, hemodynamic monitoring, infusion of intravenous medications, infusion of intravenous fluids, chemotherapy, blood products, and parenteral nutrition. Each day, nurses access and care for CVCs in infants, children, and adolescents; the precision of this care can prevent life-threatening complications. The purpose of this review and the case study is to highlight the importance and components of evidence-based nursing practice in pediatric CVC care. A historical perspective of CVC care is provided in conjunction with current national initiatives to improve patient outcomes for children with CVCs. Infection prevention, clinical practice guidelines, quality improvement, and evidence-based care bundles are discussed. Keywords: pediatric nursing, central venous catheters, central line-associated bloodstream infection, care bundles, pediatric case study 

Community-Level Sanitation Coverage More Strongly Associated with Child Growth and Household Drinking Water Quality than Access to a Private Toilet in Rural Mali

Science.gov (United States)

2017-01-01

Sanitation access can provide positive externalities; for example, safe disposal of feces by one household prevents disease transmission to households nearby. However, little empirical evidence exists to characterize the potential health benefits from sanitation externalities. This study investigated the effect of community sanitation coverage versus individual household sanitation access on child health and drinking water quality. Using a census of 121 villages in rural Mali, we analyzed the association of community latrine coverage (defined by a 200 m radius surrounding a household) and individual household latrine ownership with child growth and household stored water quality. Child height-for-age had a significant and positive linear relationship with community latrine coverage, while child weight-for-age and household water quality had nonlinear relationships that leveled off above 60% coverage (p water quality were not associated with individual household latrine ownership. The relationship between community latrine coverage and child height was strongest among households without a latrine; for these households, each 10% increase in latrine coverage was associated with a 0.031 (p-value = 0.040) increase in height-for-age z-score. In this study, the level of sanitation access of surrounding households was more important than private latrine access for protecting water quality and child health. PMID:28514143

Accounting for water quality in monitoring access to safe drinking-water as part of the Millennium Development Goals: lessons from five countries

Science.gov (United States)

Bain, Rob ES; Wright, Jim A; Yang, Hong; Pedley, Steve; Bartram, Jamie K

2012-01-01

Abstract Objective To determine how data on water source quality affect assessments of progress towards the 2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target on access to safe drinking-water. Methods Data from five countries on whether drinking-water sources complied with World Health Organization water quality guidelines on contamination with thermotolerant coliform bacteria, arsenic, fluoride and nitrates in 2004 and 2005 were obtained from the Rapid Assessment of Drinking-Water Quality project. These data were used to adjust estimates of the proportion of the population with access to safe drinking-water at the MDG baseline in 1990 and in 2008 made by the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation, which classified all improved sources as safe. Findings Taking account of data on water source quality resulted in substantially lower estimates of the percentage of the population with access to safe drinking-water in 2008 in four of the five study countries: the absolute reduction was 11% in Ethiopia, 16% in Nicaragua, 15% in Nigeria and 7% in Tajikistan. There was only a slight reduction in Jordan. Microbial contamination was more common than chemical contamination. Conclusion The criterion used by the MDG indicator to determine whether a water source is safe can lead to substantial overestimates of the population with access to safe drinking-water and, consequently, also overestimates the progress made towards the 2015 MDG target. Monitoring drinking-water supplies by recording both access to water sources and their safety would be a substantial improvement. PMID:22461718

Evaluation of an Intervention to Improve Essential Obstetric and Newborn Care Access and Quality in Cotopaxi, Ecuador.

Science.gov (United States)

Broughton, Edward; Hermida, Jorge; Hill, Kathleen; Sloan, Nancy; Chavez, Mario; Gonzalez, Daniel; Freire, Juana Maria; Gudino, Ximena

2016-01-01

Despite improvements in health-care utilization, disadvantages persist among rural, less educated, and indigenous populations in Ecuador. The United States Agency for International Development-funded Cotopaxi Project created a provincial-level network of health services, including community agents to improve access, quality, and coordination of essential obstetric and newborn care. We evaluated changes in participating facilities compared to non-participating controls. The 21 poorest parishes (third-level administrative unit) in Cotopaxi were targeted from 2010 to 2013 for a collaborative health system performance improvement. The intervention included service reorganization, integration of traditional birth attendants (TBAs) with formal supervision, community outreach and education, and health worker technical training. Baseline ( n  = 462) and end-line ( n  = 412) household surveys assessed access, quality and use of care, and women's knowledge and practices. TBAs' knowledge and skills were assessed from simulations. Chart audits were used to assess facility obstetric and newborn care quality. Provincial government data were used for change in neonatal mortality between intervention and non-intervention parishes using weighted linear regression. The percentage of women receiving a postnatal visit within first 2 days of delivery increased from 53 to 81 in the intervention group and from 70 to 90 in the comparison group ( p  ≤ 0.001). Postpartum/counseling on newborn care increased 18% in the intervention compared with 5% in the comparison group ( p  ≤ 0.001). The project increased community and facility care quality and improved mothers' health knowledge. Intervention parishes experienced a nearly continual decline in newborn mortality between 2009 and 2012 compared with an increase in control parishes ( p  ≤ 0.001). The project established a comprehensive coordinated provincial-level network of health services and strengthened links

Evaluation of an intervention to improve essential obstetric and newborn care access and quality in Cotopaxi, Ecuador

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Edward Broughton

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Background Despite improvements in health care utilization, disadvantages persist among rural, less educated and indigenous populations in Ecuador. The USAID-funded Cotopaxi Project created a provincial-level network of health services, including community agents to improve access, quality and coordination of essential obstetric and newborn care. We evaluated changes in participating facilities compared to non-participating controls. MethodsThe 21 poorest parishes (third-level administrative unit in Cotopaxi were targeted from 2010-2013 for a collaborative health system performance improvement. The intervention included service reorganization, integration of traditional birth attendants with formal supervision, community outreach and education, and health worker technical training.Baseline (n=462 and end-line (n=412 household surveys assessed access, quality and use of care and women's knowledge and practices. Traditional birth attendants’ knowledge and skills were assessed from simulations. Chart audits were used to assess facility obstetric and newborn care quality. Provincial government data were used for change in neonatal mortality between intervention and non-intervention parishes using weighted linear regression. Results The percentage of women receiving a post-natal visit within first 2 days of delivery increased from 53% to 81% in the intervention group and from 70% to 90% in the comparison group (p≤0.001. Postpartum/counseling on newborn care increased 18% in the intervention compared with 5% in the comparison group (p≤0.001. The project increased community and facility care quality and improved mothers’ health knowledge. Intervention parishes experienced a nearly continual decline in newborn mortality between 2009 and 2012 compared with an increase in control parishes (p≤0.001.ConclusionsThe project established a comprehensive coordinated provincial-level network of health services and strengthened links between community

A National Study of the Relationship between Home Access to a Computer and Academic Performance Scores of Grade 12 U.S. Science Students: An Analysis of the 2009 NAEP Data

Science.gov (United States)

Coffman, Mitchell Ward

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the relationship between student access to a computer at home and academic achievement. The 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) dataset was probed using the National Data Explorer (NDE) to investigate correlations in the subsets of SES, Parental Education, Race, and Gender as it relates to access of a home computer and improved performance scores for U.S. public school grade 12 science students. A causal-comparative approach was employed seeking clarity on the relationship between home access and performance scores. The influence of home access cannot overcome the challenges students of lower SES face. The achievement gap, or a second digital divide, for underprivileged classes of students, including minorities does not appear to contract via student access to a home computer. Nonetheless, in tests for significance, statistically significant improvement in science performance scores was reported for those having access to a computer at home compared to those not having access. Additionally, regression models reported evidence of correlations between and among subsets of controls for the demographic factors gender, race, and socioeconomic status. Variability in these correlations was high; suggesting influence from unobserved factors may have more impact upon the dependent variable. Having access to a computer at home increases performance scores for grade 12 general science students of all races, genders and socioeconomic levels. However, the performance gap is roughly equivalent to the existing performance gap of the national average for science scores, suggesting little influence from access to a computer on academic achievement. The variability of scores reported in the regression analysis models reflects a moderate to low effect, suggesting an absence of causation. These statistical results are accurate and confirm the literature review, whereby having access to a computer at home and the

Peer Review Quality and Transparency of the Peer-Review Process in Open Access and Subscription Journals.

Science.gov (United States)

Wicherts, Jelte M

2016-01-01

Recent controversies highlighting substandard peer review in Open Access (OA) and traditional (subscription) journals have increased the need for authors, funders, publishers, and institutions to assure quality of peer-review in academic journals. I propose that transparency of the peer-review process may be seen as an indicator of the quality of peer-review, and develop and validate a tool enabling different stakeholders to assess transparency of the peer-review process. Based on editorial guidelines and best practices, I developed a 14-item tool to rate transparency of the peer-review process on the basis of journals' websites. In Study 1, a random sample of 231 authors of papers in 92 subscription journals in different fields rated transparency of the journals that published their work. Authors' ratings of the transparency were positively associated with quality of the peer-review process but unrelated to journal's impact factors. In Study 2, 20 experts on OA publishing assessed the transparency of established (non-OA) journals, OA journals categorized as being published by potential predatory publishers, and journals from the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Results show high reliability across items (α = .91) and sufficient reliability across raters. Ratings differentiated the three types of journals well. In Study 3, academic librarians rated a random sample of 140 DOAJ journals and another 54 journals that had received a hoax paper written by Bohannon to test peer-review quality. Journals with higher transparency ratings were less likely to accept the flawed paper and showed higher impact as measured by the h5 index from Google Scholar. The tool to assess transparency of the peer-review process at academic journals shows promising reliability and validity. The transparency of the peer-review process can be seen as an indicator of peer-review quality allowing the tool to be used to predict academic quality in new journals.

Getting from Here to There: The Roles of Policy Makers and Principals in Increasing Science Teacher Quality

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Ji; Gerard, Libby; Bowyer, Jane

2010-04-01

In this study we investigate how federal and state policy makers, and school principals are working to improve science teacher quality. Interviews, focused discussions, and policy documents serve as the primary data source. Findings suggest that both policy makers and principals prioritize increasing incentives for teachers entering the science teaching profession, providing professional development for new teachers, and using students’ data to evaluate and improve instruction. Differences between the two leadership groups emerged in terms of the grain size and practicality of their concerns. Our findings indicate that the complexity of educational challenges to improve science teacher quality call for the co-construction of policy by multiple constituent groups including school principals, federal and state policy makers, and science education researchers.

Dairy cows welfare quality in tie-stall housing system with or without access to exercise

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

Background Tie-stall housing of dairy cows is used extensively worldwide, despite of the welfare concerns regarding the restriction of voluntary movement and limitation of expression of the cows’ natural behaviour. The aim of this study was to compare the welfare quality of dairy cows kept in two types of tie-stall housing systems: with regular outdoor exercise and without access to exercise. In addition, the study investigated the relationship between different welfare measures of dairy cows kept in tie-stalls. Methods 3,192 lactating cows were assessed using the Welfare Quality® assessment protocol for cattle in 80 commercial dairy farms, half of the farms providing outdoor access for the animals to exercise. The descriptive statistical indicators were determined for the assessed measures and for the welfare criteria and principle scores. The data obtained in the two housing types were compared and the correlation coefficients were calculated between the different welfare measures. Results The significant differences found between the two housing systems for the majority of the animal based measures indicate the positive effect of exercise on the welfare of tethered cows. Many of the animal welfare parameters correlated with each other. For the farms allowing the cows’ turnout in a paddock, pasture or both, the mean scores for the welfare criteria and principles were higher than for the farms with permanent tethering of the cows, except the criteria absence of prolonged hunger and expression of social behaviours. The lowest scores were obtained for the criterion positive emotional state, in both housing systems. With regard to the overall classification, none of the farms were considered excellent. In the not classified category were only farms with all-year-round tethering of the animals and in the enhanced category only farms where the cows had outdoor access. Conclusions The welfare quality of the investigated dairy cows was significantly better in the

Wind Stress, QuikSCAT SeaWinds, 0.25 degrees, Global, Science Quality, Zonal

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — NOAA CoastWatch distributes science quality wind stress data in zonal, meridional, modulus, and wind stress curl sets. This data begins with wind velocity...

Wind Stress, QuikSCAT SeaWinds, 0.25 degrees, Global, Science Quality, Curl

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — NOAA CoastWatch distributes science quality wind stress data in zonal, meridional, modulus, and wind stress curl sets. This data begins with wind velocity...

Wind Stress, QuikSCAT SeaWinds, 0.25 degrees, Global, Science Quality, Meridional

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — NOAA CoastWatch distributes science quality wind stress data in zonal, meridional, modulus, and wind stress curl sets. This data begins with wind velocity...

Wind Stress, QuikSCAT SeaWinds, 0.25 degrees, Global, Science Quality, Modulus

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — NOAA CoastWatch distributes science quality wind stress data in zonal, meridional, modulus, and wind stress curl sets. This data begins with wind velocity...

From Science, Engineering and Innovation to Sustainable Development: The Path Forward

Science.gov (United States)

Turekian, Vaughan

2017-01-01

In September 2015, world leaders committed to a new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aimed at ending poverty, hunger and inequality, taking action on the environment and climate change, and improving access to health and education. Science, technology and innovation (STI) underpin the achievement of all of the SDGs, whether it is expanding access to health services and quality education; improving food security; and access to clean water and sanitation; building transparent, accountable, and stable institutions; empowering women and minorities; or promoting the sustainable management and use of renewable energy and natural resources. The goals speak to a broad range of directions the world needs to go to promote economic, environmental, and social well-being. The goals are interdependent and achieving one will only be possible by achieving all. We have an obligation to take necessary steps that integrate all the different stakeholders and constant advances in innovation, science, and technology.

Using social determinants of health to link health workforce diversity, care quality and access, and health disparities to achieve health equity in nursing.

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, Shanita D; Hansen, Kristen; Smithey, Marian; Burnley, Josepha; Koplitz, Michelle; Koyama, Kirk; Young, Janice; Bakos, Alexis

2014-01-01

It is widely accepted that diversifying the nation's health-care workforce is a necessary strategy to increase access to quality health care for all populations, reduce health disparities, and achieve health equity. In this article, we present a conceptual model that utilizes the social determinants of health framework to link nursing workforce diversity and care quality and access to two critical population health indicators-health disparities and health equity. Our proposed model suggests that a diverse nursing workforce can provide increased access to quality health care and health resources for all populations, and is a necessary precursor to reduce health disparities and achieve health equity. With this conceptual model as a foundation, we aim to stimulate the conceptual and analytical work-both within and outside the nursing field-that is necessary to answer these important but largely unanswered questions.

Engaging youth of color in applied science education and public health promotion

Science.gov (United States)

Sprague Martinez, Linda; Bowers, Edmond; Reich, Amanda J.; Ndulue, Uchenna J.; Le, Albert An; Peréa, Flavia C.

2016-03-01

Participation in inquiry-based science education, which focuses on student-constructed learning, has been linked to academic success. Whereas the benefits of this type of science education are evident, access to such high-quality science curriculum and programming is not equitable. Black and Latino students in particular have less access to supplementary science programming, and fewer opportunities to engage in inquiry-based education. This paper describes outcomes associated with an inquiry-based out-of-school time science education program, Nuestro Futuro: Applied Science Education to Engage Black and Latino Youth (NFASE), which sought to build the capacity of middle school students of color to 'think' like health scientists from diverse disciplinary perspectives. The program was designed with the intent of (1) improving student attitudes toward and motivation for science and (2) increasing active and engaged citizenship (AEC). NFASE students explored health inequity and the social determinants of health locally and engaged in developing health promotion, outreach and education efforts targeted to their peers, parents/families, and community. Interest in the program was high overall, but implementation was not without challenges. Although evaluation outcomes indicate that there were no statistically significant changes in science-related attitudes or motivation, students reported significant increases in neighborhood social connection, as well as overall AEC.

Producing More Actionable Science Isn't the Problem; It's Providing Decision-Makers with Access to Right Actionable Knowledge

Science.gov (United States)

Trexler, M.

2017-12-01

Policy-makers today have almost infinite climate-relevant scientific and other information available to them. The problem for climate change decision-making isn't missing science or inadequate knowledge of climate risks; the problem is that the "right" climate change actionable knowledge isn't getting to the right decision-maker, or is getting there too early or too late to effectively influence her decision-making. Actionable knowledge is not one-size-fit-all, and for a given decision-maker might involve scientific, economic, or risk-based information. Simply producing more and more information as we are today is not the solution, and actually makes it harder for individual decision-makers to access "their" actionable knowledge. The Climatographers began building the Climate Web five years ago to test the hypothesis that a knowledge management system could help navigate the gap between infinite information and individual actionable knowledge. Today the Climate Web's more than 1,500 index terms allow instant access to almost any climate change topic. It is a curated public-access knowledgebase of more than 1,000 books, 2,000 videos, 15,000 reports and articles, 25,000 news stories, and 3,000 websites. But it is also much more, linking together tens of thousands of individually extracted ideas and graphics, and providing Deep Dives into more than 100 key topics from changing probability distributions of extreme events to climate communications best practices to cognitive dissonance in climate change decision-making. The public-access Climate Web is uniquely able to support cross-silo learning, collaboration, and actionable knowledge dissemination. The presentation will use the Climate Web to demonstrate why knowledge management should be seen as a critical component of science and policy-making collaborations.

Quality-assurance plan for groundwater activities, U.S. Geological Survey, Washington Water Science Center

Science.gov (United States)

Kozar, Mark D.; Kahle, Sue C.

2013-01-01

This report documents the standard procedures, policies, and field methods used by the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Washington Water Science Center staff for activities related to the collection, processing, analysis, storage, and publication of groundwater data. This groundwater quality-assurance plan changes through time to accommodate new methods and requirements developed by the Washington Water Science Center and the USGS Office of Groundwater. The plan is based largely on requirements and guidelines provided by the USGS Office of Groundwater, or the USGS Water Mission Area. Regular updates to this plan represent an integral part of the quality-assurance process. Because numerous policy memoranda have been issued by the Office of Groundwater since the previous groundwater quality assurance plan was written, this report is a substantial revision of the previous report, supplants it, and contains significant additional policies not covered in the previous report. This updated plan includes information related to the organization and responsibilities of USGS Washington Water Science Center staff, training, safety, project proposal development, project review procedures, data collection activities, data processing activities, report review procedures, and archiving of field data and interpretative information pertaining to groundwater flow models, borehole aquifer tests, and aquifer tests. Important updates from the previous groundwater quality assurance plan include: (1) procedures for documenting and archiving of groundwater flow models; (2) revisions to procedures and policies for the creation of sites in the Groundwater Site Inventory database; (3) adoption of new water-level forms to be used within the USGS Washington Water Science Center; (4) procedures for future creation of borehole geophysics, surface geophysics, and aquifer-test archives; and (5) use of the USGS Multi Optional Network Key Entry System software for entry of routine water-level data

Availability and Overlap of Quality Computer Science Journal Holdings in Selected University Libraries in Malaysia

OpenAIRE

Zainab, A.N.; Ng, S.L.

2003-01-01

The study reveals the availability status of quality journals in the field of computer science held in the libraries of the University of Malaya, (UM), University of Science Malaysia (USM), University of Technology Malaysia (UTM), National University of Malaysia (UKM) and University Putra Malaysia (UPM). These universities are selected since they offer degree programmes in computer science. The study also investigates the degree of overlaps and unique titles in the five libraries. The Univers...

Farmers Perception of the Quality and Accessibility of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

User

enforcement of pesticide regulations, high cost, and porous borders. This study therefore .... personal savings were very accessible, while accessibility of agrochemicals from ..... Valuing the Benefits and Costs of Improved Food Safety and.

Urban Water and Riverine Quality: Participatory Science in Singapore

Science.gov (United States)

Higgitt, D. L.

2011-12-01

Singapore is a highly urbanised environment experiencing tropical monsoon hydrological regimes. A heavily engineered fluvial system has been developed over time to provide efficient drainage and reduce the area subject to flood risk. However, recent interest in ecosystem-based approaches to river management and the enhancement of the aesthetic and ecological 'quality' of riverine landscape, coupled with concerns about climate change, has challenged the prevailing engineering view. This is reflected in the Public Utility Board (PUB) ABC Waters Programme, which also seeks to develop community interest in riverine environments and engagement with water-related concerns. As part of a programme developing participatory GIS (PGIS) with school and university students, we have undertaken applications involving participant observation, reporting and analysis of water quality data and habitat quality based on a simplified version of the UK Environment Agency's River Habitat Survey. From an educational perspective, there is evidence that these PGIS initiatives raise environmental awareness and enhance geospatial thinking, particularly in relation to catchment management concepts. The extent to which participant-derived data can contribute to a citizen science of urban water quality and hence deliver some aspects of the community engagement sought after by the authorities, is a topic of debate.

Q-SOS—A Sensor Observation Service for Accessing Quality Descriptions of Environmental Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anusuriya Devaraju

2015-08-01

Full Text Available The worldwide Sensor Web comprises observation data from diverse sources. Each data provider may process and assess datasets differently before making them available online. This information is often invisible to end users. Therefore, publishing observation data with quality descriptions is vital as it helps users to assess the suitability of data for their applications. It is also important to capture contextual information concerning data quality such as provenance to trace back incorrect data to its origins. In the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC’s Sensor Web Enablement (SWE framework, there is no sufficiently and practically applicable approach how these aspects can be systematically represented and made accessible. This paper presents Q-SOS—an extension of the OGC’s Sensor Observation Service (SOS that supports retrieval of observation data together with quality descriptions. These descriptions are represented in an observation data model covering various aspects of data quality assessment. The service and the data model have been developed based on open standards and open source tools, and are productively being used to share observation data from the TERENO observatory infrastructure. We discuss the advantages of deploying the presented solutions from data provider and consumer viewpoints. Enhancements applied to the related open-source developments are also introduced.

Chlorophyll-a, Orbview-2 SeaWiFS, 0.04167 degrees, Alaska, Science Quality

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — NASA GSFC Ocean Color Web distributes science-quality chlorophyll-a concentration data from the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) on the Orbview-2...

Investigation of the Relationship between Psychological Variables and Sleep Quality in Students of Medical Sciences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Majid Najafi Kalyani

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Objectives. Students of medical sciences are exposed to many emotional and mental problems. In light of the importance of sleep quality in learning and liveliness, this study was conducted to examine the relationship between psychological variables (stress, anxiety, and depression and sleep quality of students. Design. This research is a cross-sectional analytical study, where all students studying at Fasa University of Medical Sciences in 2012-2013 year were selected. To examine the students’ stress, anxiety, and depression values, the standardized 21-item DASS-21 was used, and to examine their sleep quality, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI was used. Results. The results of the study demonstrated that 73% of the students have moderate and severe stress, and 46.4% of them have PSQ scores ≥ 5. The students’ mean sleep quality score was 4.65±2.37, and their stress score was 8.09±5.14. A statistically significant relationship was found between the students’ stress levels and sleep quality (P<0.001. Conclusion. The high stress levels decrease students’ sleep quality. High stress levels and also the significant relationship between stress value and decrease in students’ sleep quality call for more attention to and care for students’ emotional and mental issues and timely proper interference on the part of authorities.

Optimized Scheduling of Smart Meter Data Access for Real-time Voltage Quality Monitoring

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kemal, Mohammed Seifu; Olsen, Rasmus Løvenstein; Schwefel, Hans-Peter

2018-01-01

Abstract—Active low-voltage distribution grids that support high integration of distributed generation such as photovoltaics and wind turbines require real-time voltage monitoring. At the same time, countries in Europe such as Denmark have close to 100% rollout of smart metering infrastructure....... The metering infrastructure has limitations to provide real-time measurements with small-time granularity. This paper presents an algorithm for optimized scheduling of smart meter data access to provide real-time voltage quality monitoring. The algorithm is analyzed using a real distribution grid in Denmark...

Mapping the hinterland: Data issues in open science.

Science.gov (United States)

Grand, Ann; Wilkinson, Clare; Bultitude, Karen; Winfield, Alan F T

2016-01-01

Open science is a practice in which the scientific process is shared completely and in real time. It offers the potential to support information flow, collaboration and dialogue among professional and non-professional participants. Using semi-structured interviews and case studies, this research investigated the relationship between open science and public engagement. This article concentrates on three particular areas of concern that emerged: first, how to effectively contextualise and narrate information to render it accessible, as opposed to simply available; second, concerns about data quantity and quality; and third, concerns about the skills required for effective contextualisation, mapping and interpretation of information. © The Author(s) 2014.

Mapping the hinterland: Data issues in open science

Science.gov (United States)

Grand, Ann; Wilkinson, Clare; Bultitude, Karen; Winfield, Alan F. T.

2016-01-01

Open science is a practice in which the scientific process is shared completely and in real time. It offers the potential to support information flow, collaboration and dialogue among professional and non-professional participants. Using semi-structured interviews and case studies, this research investigated the relationship between open science and public engagement. This article concentrates on three particular areas of concern that emerged: first, how to effectively contextualise and narrate information to render it accessible, as opposed to simply available; second, concerns about data quantity and quality; and third, concerns about the skills required for effective contextualisation, mapping and interpretation of information. PMID:24769860

Enabling the Usability of Earth Science Data Products and Services by Evaluating, Describing, and Improving Data Quality throughout the Data Lifecycle

Science.gov (United States)

Downs, R. R.; Peng, G.; Wei, Y.; Ramapriyan, H.; Moroni, D. F.

2015-12-01

Earth science data products and services are being used by representatives of various science and social science disciplines, by planning and decision-making professionals, by educators and learners ranging from primary through graduate and informal education, and by the general public. The diversity of users and uses of Earth science data is gratifying and offers new challenges for enabling the usability of these data by audiences with various purposes and levels of expertise. Users and other stakeholders need capabilities to efficiently find, explore, select, and determine the applicability and suitability of data products and services to meet their objectives and information needs. Similarly, they need to be able to understand the limitations of Earth science data, which can be complex, especially when considering combined or simultaneous use of multiple data products and services. Quality control efforts of stakeholders, throughout the data lifecycle, can contribute to the usability of Earth science data to meet the needs of diverse users. Such stakeholders include study design teams, data producers, data managers and curators, archives, systems professionals, data distributors, end-users, intermediaries, sponsoring organizations, hosting institutions, and others. Opportunities for engaging stakeholders to review, describe, and improve the quality of Earth science data products and services throughout the data lifecycle are identified and discussed. Insight is shared from the development of guidelines for implementing the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Data Management Principles, the recommendations from the Earth Science Data System Working Group (ESDSWG) on Data Quality, and the efforts of the Information Quality Cluster of the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP). Examples and outcomes from quality control efforts of data facilities, such as scientific data centers, that contribute to the usability of Earth science data also are offered.

[Accessibility and quality to health social services in Italy for the patients with rare diseases: the opinion of associations].

Science.gov (United States)

Agazio, E; Salerno, P; Mirabella, F; Gnessi, F; Mastroiacovo, P; Morosini, P; Tarsitani, G; Taruscio, D

2005-01-01

This paper concerns the first phase of a study about the perception of social and health needs of people with rare diseases. The study was performed by the National Center for Rare Diseases at the Italian National Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità - ISS). The project wants to be an example of collaboration between the research and the association worlds. Responsible of Associations of Patients and their relatives were asked their opinion about the accessibility and quality of important features of health and social services (accessibility and quality of diagnostic, pharmacological, psychological and rehabilitative interventions, social support, school and vocational training, information that was given to relatives). An ad hoc questionnaire was developed through focus groups. The questionnaire was completed by 108 associations (26,5% of the associations thar are recorded in the ISS database). Average scores showed satisfaction only for some variables and a negative gradient north-south was observed. The most frequent complaints were about information, quality of school and job training services and availability of psychological support. The study showed an high level of dissatisfaction with availability, quality and integration health and social services.

INDEXING OF MAPING SCIENCE JOURNALS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jadranka Stojanovski

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Bibliometric analyses based on citations are most often at the forefront where scientific publications are concerned. A fact often neglected is that the visibility and availability of scientific publications are basic prerequisites for future reading, citation and influence. Journal visibility can be significantly improved by providing open access and availability through popular online databases. In this study, we investigated 112 mapping science journals to determine the visibility of scientific publications in a smaller interdisciplinary field. In addition to other data, we collected data on open access, indexing, subject areas within the Web of Science and Scopus bibliographic databases and the number of journals in these databases. The coverage of mapping science journals in 14 bibliographic databases was analyzed. Only 11% of the titles from the journals analyzed were indexed in 10 or more databases. Google Scholar, Scopus, Bibliotheca Cartographica and GEOBASE include most mapping science journals, while only 19 are included in Web of Science. A comparison indicates more thorough coverage of an individual journal in Web of Science than in Scopus. Only a few mapping science journals appear in the Directory of Open Access Journals, despite the large number of open access mapping science journals available. Adding subject categories within databases does not facilitate finding mapping science journals, which are dispersed among numerous, mostly inadequate categories in the Web of Science and Scopus databases.

Evaluating the state of quality-improvement science through evidence synthesis: insights from the closing the quality gap series.

Science.gov (United States)

McDonald, Kathryn M; Schultz, Ellen M; Chang, Christine

2013-01-01

The Closing the Quality Gap series from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality summarizes evidence for eight high-priority health care topics: outcomes used in disability research, bundled payment programs, public reporting initiatives, health care disparities, palliative care, the patient-centered medical home, prevention of health care-associated infections, and medication adherence. To distill evidence from this series and provide insight into the "state of the science" of quality improvement (QI). We provided common guidance for topic development and qualitatively synthesized evidence from the series topic reports to identify cross-topic themes, challenges, and evidence gaps as related to QI practice and science. Among topics that examined effectiveness of QI interventions, we found improvement in some outcomes but not others. Implementation context and potential harms from QI activities were not widely evaluated or reported, although market factors appeared important for incentive-based QI strategies. Patient-focused and systems-focused strategies were generally more effective than clinician-focused strategies, although the latter approach improved clinician adherence to infection prevention strategies. Audit and feedback appeared better for targeting professionals and organizations, but not patients. Topic reviewers observed heterogeneity in outcomes used for QI evaluations, weaknesses in study design, and incomplete reporting. Synthesizing evidence across topics provided insight into the state of the QI field for practitioners and researchers. To facilitate future evidence synthesis, consensus is needed around a smaller set of outcomes for use in QI evaluations and a framework and lexicon to describe QI interventions more broadly, in alignment with needs of decision makers responsible for improving quality.

Global forces and local currents in Argentina's science policy crossroads: restricted access or open knowledge

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Horacio Javier Etchichury

2014-11-01

Full Text Available The article describes the tensions between two competing approaches to scientific policy in Argentina. The traditional vision favors autonomous research. The neoliberal conception fosters the link between science and markets. In the past few years, a neodevelopmentalist current also tries to stress relevance of scientific research. Finally, the article describes how the Open Access movement has entered the debate. The World Bank intervention and the human rights dimension of the question are discussed in depth. The article introduces the notion of open knowledge as a guiding criterion to design a human-rights based scientific policy.

An Improved Forensic Science Information Search.

Science.gov (United States)

Teitelbaum, J

2015-01-01

Although thousands of search engines and databases are available online, finding answers to specific forensic science questions can be a challenge even to experienced Internet users. Because there is no central repository for forensic science information, and because of the sheer number of disciplines under the forensic science umbrella, forensic scientists are often unable to locate material that is relevant to their needs. The author contends that using six publicly accessible search engines and databases can produce high-quality search results. The six resources are Google, PubMed, Google Scholar, Google Books, WorldCat, and the National Criminal Justice Reference Service. Carefully selected keywords and keyword combinations, designating a keyword phrase so that the search engine will search on the phrase and not individual keywords, and prompting search engines to retrieve PDF files are among the techniques discussed. Copyright © 2015 Central Police University.

Access and Quality of Care in Direct-to-Consumer Telemedicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Uscher-Pines, Lori; Mulcahy, Andrew; Cowling, David; Hunter, Gerald; Burns, Rachel; Mehrotra, Ateev

2016-04-01

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) telemedicine serves millions of patients; however, there is limited research on the care provided. This study compared the quality of care at Teladoc ( www.teladoc.com ), a large DTC telemedicine company, with that at physician offices and compared access to care for Teladoc users and nonusers. Claims from all enrollees 18-64 years of age in the California Public Employees' Retirement System health maintenance organization between April 2012 and October 2013 were analyzed. We compared the performance of Teladoc and physician offices on applicable Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set measures. Using geographic information system analyses, we compared Teladoc users and nonusers with respect to rural location and available primary care physicians. Of enrollees offered Teladoc (n = 233,915), 3,043 adults had a total of 4,657 Teladoc visits. For the pharyngitis performance measure (ordering strep test), Teladoc performed worse than physician offices (3% versus 50%, p located within a healthcare professional shortage area (odds ratio = 1.12, p = 0.10) or rural location (odds ratio = 1.0, p = 0.10). Teladoc providers were less likely to order diagnostic testing and had poorer performance on appropriate antibiotic prescribing for bronchitis. Teladoc users were not preferentially located in underserved communities. Short-term needs include ongoing monitoring of quality and additional marketing and education to increase telemedicine use among underserved patients.

Quality gap of educational services in viewpoints of students in Hormozgan University of medical sciences.

Science.gov (United States)

Aghamolaei, Teamur; Zare, Shahram

2008-06-18

Higher education is growing fast and every day it becomes more and more exposed to globalization processes. The aim of this study was to determine the quality gap of educational services by using a modified SERVQUAL instrument among students in Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences. A cross-sectional study was carried out at Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences in 2007. In this study, a total of 300 students were selected randomly and asked to complete a questionnaire that was designed according to SERVQUAL methods. This questionnaire measured students' perceptions and expectations in five dimensions of service that consists of assurance, responsiveness, empathy, reliability and tangibles. The quality gap of educational services was determined based on differences between students' perceptions and expectations. The results demonstrated that in each of the five SERVQUAL dimensions, there was a negative quality gap. The least and the most negative quality gap means were in the reliability (-0.71) and responsiveness (-1.14) dimensions respectively. Also, there were significant differences between perceptions and expectations of students in all of the five SERVQUAL dimensions (p < 0.001). Negative quality gaps mean students' expectations exceed their perceptions. Thus, improvements are needed across all five dimensions.

Analysis of chemistry textbook content and national science education standards in terms of air quality-related learning goals

Science.gov (United States)

Naughton, Wendy

In this study's Phase One, representatives of nine municipal agencies involved in air quality education were interviewed and interview transcripts were analyzed for themes related to what citizens need to know or be able to do regarding air quality concerns. Based on these themes, eight air quality Learning Goal Sets were generated and validated via peer and member checks. In Phase Two, six college-level, liberal-arts chemistry textbooks and the National Science Education Standards (NSES) were analyzed for congruence with Phase One learning goals. Major categories of desired citizen understandings highlighted in agency interviews concerned air pollution sources, impact, detection, and transport. Identified cognitive skills focused on information-gathering and -evaluating skills, enabling informed decision-making. A content match was found between textbooks and air quality learning goals, but most textbooks fail to address learning goals that remediate citizen misconceptions and inabilities---particularly those with a "personal experience" focus. A partial match between NSES and air quality learning goals was attributed to differing foci: Researcher-derived learning goals deal specifically with air quality, while NSES focus is on "fundamental science concepts," not "many science topics." Analysis of findings within a situated cognition framework suggests implications for instruction and NSES revision.

Enhancing Cellular Coverage Quality by Virtual Access Point and Wireless Power Transfer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jinsong Gui

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The ultradensification deploying for cellular networks is a direct and effective method for the improvement of network capacity. However, the benefit is achieved at the cost of network infrastructure investment and operating overheads, especially when there is big gap between peak-hour Internet traffic and average one. Therefore, we put forward the concept of virtual cellular coverage area, where wireless terminals with high-end configuration are motivated to enhance cellular coverage quality by both providing RF energy compensation and rewarding free traffic access to Internet. This problem is formulated as the Stackelberg game based on three-party circular decision, where a Macro BS (MBS acts as the leader to offer a charging power to Energy Transferring Relays (ETRs, and the ETRs and their associating Virtual Access Points (VAPs act as the followers to make their decisions, respectively. According to the feedback from the followers, the leader may readjust its strategy. The circular decision is repeated until the powers converge. Also, the better response algorithm for each game player is proposed to iteratively achieve the Stackelberg-Nash Equilibrium (SNE. Theoretical analysis proves the convergence of the proposed game scheme, and simulation results demonstrate its effectiveness.

Do private hospitals outperform public hospitals regarding efficiency, accessibility, and quality of care in the European Union? A literature review.

Science.gov (United States)

Kruse, Florien M; Stadhouders, Niek W; Adang, Eddy M; Groenewoud, Stef; Jeurissen, Patrick P T

2018-03-02

European countries have enhanced the scope of private provision within their health care systems. Privatizing services have been suggested as a means to improve access, quality, and efficiency in health care. This raises questions about the relative performance of private hospitals compared with public hospitals. Most systematic reviews that scrutinize the performance of the private hospitals originate from the United States. A systematic overview for Europe is nonexisting. We fill this gap with a systematic realist review comparing the performance of public hospitals to private hospitals on efficiency, accessibility, and quality of care in the European Union. This review synthesizes evidence from Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Greece, Austria, Spain, and Portugal. Most evidence suggests that public hospitals are at least as efficient as or are more efficient than private hospitals. Accessibility to broader populations is often a matter of concern in private provision: Patients with higher social-economic backgrounds hold better access to private hospital provision, especially in private parallel systems such as the United Kingdom and Greece. The existing evidence on quality of care is often too diverse to make a conclusive statement. In conclusion, the growth in private hospital provision seems not related to improvements in performance in Europe. Our evidence further suggests that the private (for-profit) hospital sector seems to react more strongly to (financial) incentives than other provider types. In such cases, policymakers either should very carefully develop adequate incentive structures or be hesitant to accommodate the growth of the private hospital sector. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Accessibility and quality of life: time-geographic perspectives

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dijst, M.J.; Kwan, M.P.

2005-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to describe two different but related approaches to the study of individual accessibility to shed new light on the effect of various types of constraints on individual life choices (especially in the context of access to activity and travel choices). We examine how these

Editorial: The FQS-Issue "Doing Biographical Research". Four Years of Publishing FQS as an Example for Social Science Open Access Journals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katja Mruck

2003-09-01

Full Text Available In FQS 4(3—"Doing Biographical Research"—social scientists discuss from different disciplinary and national stances the interview with Hülya, a Turkish migrant living and working in Germany. In addition to contributions linked directly to the issue topic, eight single contributions, nine review essays and review notes and two conference reports are published, coming from researchers from eight nations and seven academic disciplines. Approximately 450 articles have been published since the first FQS issue was accessible on-line in January 2000. In addition to the contributions to the new issue "Doing Biographical Research," the current state of FQS is briefly reviewed. FQS is also discussed as an example for social science open access journals, being part of the open access initiatives which aim to make scientific information accessible worldwide free of cost. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0303176

Wind Diffusivity Current, QuikSCAT SeaWinds, 0.25 degrees, Global, Science Quality, Meridional

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — NOAA CoastWatch distributes science quality Ekman current (in zonal, meridional, and modulus sets) and Ekman upwelling data. This data begins with wind velocity...

Wind Diffusivity Current, QuikSCAT SeaWinds, 0.25 degrees, Global, Science Quality, Zonal

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — NOAA CoastWatch distributes science quality Ekman current (in zonal, meridional, and modulus sets) and Ekman upwelling data. This data begins with wind velocity...

Wind Diffusivity Current, QuikSCAT SeaWinds, 0.25 degrees, Global, Science Quality, Modulus

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — NOAA CoastWatch distributes science quality Ekman current (in zonal, meridional, and modulus sets) and Ekman upwelling data. This data begins with wind velocity...

Drinking water insecurity: water quality and access in coastal south-western Bangladesh.

Science.gov (United States)

Benneyworth, Laura; Gilligan, Jonathan; Ayers, John C; Goodbred, Steven; George, Gregory; Carrico, Amanda; Karim, Md Rezaul; Akter, Farjana; Fry, David; Donato, Katherine; Piya, Bhumika

2016-01-01

National drinking water assessments for Bangladesh do not reflect local variability, or temporal differences. This paper reports on the findings of an interdisciplinary investigation of drinking water insecurity in a rural coastal south-western Bangladesh. Drinking water quality is assessed by comparison of locally measured concentrations to national levels and water quality criteria; resident's access to potable water and their perceptions are based on local social surveys. Residents in the study area use groundwater far less than the national average; salinity and local rainwater scarcity necessitates the use of multiple water sources throughout the year. Groundwater concentrations of arsenic and specific conductivity (SpC) were greater than surface water (pond) concentrations; there was no statistically significant seasonal difference in mean concentrations in groundwater, but there was for ponds, with arsenic higher in the dry season. Average arsenic concentrations in local water drinking were 2-4 times times the national average. All of the local groundwater samples exceeded the Bangladesh guidance for SpC, although the majority of residents surveyed did not perceive their water as having a 'bad' or 'salty' taste.

Improving data discoverability, accessibility, and interoperability with the Esri ArcGIS Platform at the NASA Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC).

Science.gov (United States)

Tisdale, M.

2017-12-01

NASA's Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) is operationally using the Esri ArcGIS Platform to improve data discoverability, accessibility and interoperability to meet the diversifying user requirements from government, private, public and academic communities. The ASDC is actively working to provide their mission essential datasets as ArcGIS Image Services, Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Mapping Services (WMS), and OGC Web Coverage Services (WCS) while leveraging the ArcGIS multidimensional mosaic dataset structure. Science teams at ASDC are utilizing these services through the development of applications using the Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS and the ArcGIS API for Javascript. These services provide greater exposure of ASDC data holdings to the GIS community and allow for broader sharing and distribution to various end users. These capabilities provide interactive visualization tools and improved geospatial analytical tools for a mission critical understanding in the areas of the earth's radiation budget, clouds, aerosols, and tropospheric chemistry. The presentation will cover how the ASDC is developing geospatial web services and applications to improve data discoverability, accessibility, and interoperability.

Image Quality Assessment of JPEG Compressed Mars Science Laboratory Mastcam Images using Convolutional Neural Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Kerner, H. R.; Bell, J. F., III; Ben Amor, H.

2017-12-01

The Mastcam color imaging system on the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover acquires images within Gale crater for a variety of geologic and atmospheric studies. Images are often JPEG compressed before being downlinked to Earth. While critical for transmitting images on a low-bandwidth connection, this compression can result in image artifacts most noticeable as anomalous brightness or color changes within or near JPEG compression block boundaries. In images with significant high-frequency detail (e.g., in regions showing fine layering or lamination in sedimentary rocks), the image might need to be re-transmitted losslessly to enable accurate scientific interpretation of the data. The process of identifying which images have been adversely affected by compression artifacts is performed manually by the Mastcam science team, costing significant expert human time. To streamline the tedious process of identifying which images might need to be re-transmitted, we present an input-efficient neural network solution for predicting the perceived quality of a compressed Mastcam image. Most neural network solutions require large amounts of hand-labeled training data for the model to learn the target mapping between input (e.g. distorted images) and output (e.g. quality assessment). We propose an automatic labeling method using joint entropy between a compressed and uncompressed image to avoid the need for domain experts to label thousands of training examples by hand. We use automatically labeled data to train a convolutional neural network to estimate the probability that a Mastcam user would find the quality of a given compressed image acceptable for science analysis. We tested our model on a variety of Mastcam images and found that the proposed method correlates well with image quality perception by science team members. When assisted by our proposed method, we estimate that a Mastcam investigator could reduce the time spent reviewing images by a minimum of 70%.

Planetary Sciences Literature - Access and Discovery

Science.gov (United States)

Henneken, Edwin A.; ADS Team

2017-10-01

The NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) has been around for over 2 decades, helping professional astronomers and planetary scientists navigate, without charge, through the increasingly complex environment of scholarly publications. As boundaries between disciplines dissolve and expand, the ADS provides powerful tools to help researchers discover useful information efficiently. In its new form, code-named ADS Bumblebee (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu), it may very well answer questions you didn't know you had! While the classic ADS (http://ads.harvard.edu) focuses mostly on searching basic metadata (author, title and abstract), today's ADS is best described as a an "aggregator" of scholarly resources relevant to the needs of researchers in astronomy and planetary sciences, and providing a discovery environment on top of this. In addition to indexing content from a variety of publishers, data and software archives, the ADS enriches its records by text-mining and indexing the full-text articles (about 4.7 million in total, with 130,000 from planetary science journals), enriching its metadata through the extraction of citations and acknowledgments. Recent technology developments include a new Application Programming Interface (API), a new user interface featuring a variety of visualizations and bibliometric analysis, and integration with ORCID services to support paper claiming. The new ADS provides powerful tools to help you find review papers on a given subject, prolific authors working on a subject and who they are collaborating with (within and outside their group) and papers most read by by people who read recent papers on the topic of your interest. These are just a couple of examples of the capabilities of the new ADS. We currently index most journals covering the planetary sciences and we are striving to include those journals most frequently cited by planetary science publications. The ADS is operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory under NASA

Use of the Paid Open Access Option in Hybrid Open Access Journals in Agriculture: A Mixed-Methods Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Megan Kocher

2016-12-01

Full Text Available We explore the use and usefulness of the hybrid open access publishing model in agricultural sciences using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. To ascertain the level of usage of the paid open access option in hybrid open access journals in agriculture, we studied the agriculture-related journals published by six commercial publishers. These publishers offer authors the option of paying a fee, often close to $3,000 per article, to make their article immediately freely available, usually with a Creative Commons license. We defined agriculture broadly but also assigned each journal to a subspecialty (e.g., animal science in order to see if there were differences based on these subdivisions. For each journal we gathered data for 2014-2015 and noted the total number of research articles and the number of those that were made freely available by authors paying the open access fee. To give context to our results we also surveyed local faculty in agricultural sciences, asking their reasons for considering the paid open access options and the sources of the funds to pay for it. Survey respondents were asked about their academic position and rank to see if there were differences to be noted. We also investigated the findability of the open access articles, noting if each individual publisher offered a way to easily locate all the freely available articles in a particular journal and if there are other avenues to easily locate these articles.

Further Democratizing Latin America: Broadening Access to Higher Education and Promoting Science Policies Focused on the Advanced Training of Human Resources

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Manuel Heitor

2014-08-01

Full Text Available We focus this paper on the conditions to build reliable science, technology and higher education systems in Latin America, based on international comparative studies, fieldwork and interviews conducted over the last three years. The analysis shows that science can have a major role in furthering the democratization of society through public policies that foster opportunities to access knowledge and the advanced training of human resources. Broadening the social basis for higher education promotes the qualification of the labour force and contributes to social and economic development. The need to guarantee higher education diversity, strengthening scientific institutions and investing in a strong science base, is deemed as critical, but goes far beyond policies centred on innovation and industry-science relationships. It requires adequate training and attraction of skilled people, as well as the social promotion of a scientific and technological culture.

Structural violence and simplified paternalistic ideas of patient empowerment decreases health care access, quality & outcome for ethnic minority patients

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sodemann, Morten

Increasing complexity of health care organization, rapid hyperspecialization of medical care, lack of ’patient literacy’ and pressure on patients to take over responsibility, challenges political dreams of equal access to patient centered high quality secure care....

Science Standards, Science Achievement, and Attitudes about Evolution

Science.gov (United States)

Belin, Charlie M.; Kisida, Brian

2015-01-01

This article explores the relationships between (a) the quality of state science standards and student science achievement, (b) the public's belief in teaching evolution and the quality of state standards, and (c) the public's belief in teaching evolution and student science achievement. Using multiple measures, we find no evidence of a…

Interaction between NGOs and science through science shops

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, Michael Søgaard

and institutions have more resources themselves and easier access to and influence on the research facilities than NGO’s like consumer organisations, environmental organisations, trade unions, social organisations etc. Science shops are organisations that offer NGO’s free or very low-cost access to scientific...... knowledge and research in order to help them achieve social and environmental improvement. Originally developed at Dutch universities during the 1970’s, science shops now also exist in Austria, Denmark, Germany, Romania and the U.K., as well as in a number of non-European countries including Australia......, Canada, Malaysia, South Korea and the USA. Some science shops are independent not-for-profit research centres and some are affiliated to a university acting as the intermediary between NGO’s and university researchers, teachers and students, who conduct research in response. Most university based science...

International production on science oriented towards data: analysis of the terms data science and e-science in scopus and the web of science

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leilah Santiago Bufrem

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Introduction: current configuration in the dynamics of production and scientific communication reveals the role of Science Oriented Towards Data, a comprehensive conception represented, mainly, by terms such as "e-Science" and "Data Science". Objective: To present the global scientific production on Science Oriented Towards Data by using the terms "e-Science" and "Data Science" in Scopus and the Web of Science during 2006-2016. Methodology: The study is divided into five phases: a search for information in Scopus and the Web of Science data bases; b obtaining bibliometric records; c complementing keywords; d data correction and crossing; e analytical data representation. Results: The most important terms within the analyzed scientific production were Distributed computer systems (2006, Grid computing (2007-2013 and Big data (2014- 2016. In the area of Library and Information Science, the emphasis was on Digital Library and Open Access issues, highlighting the importance of the field for the discussions on the devices providing access to scientific information in digital media. Conclusions: Under a diachronic look, it was found a visible shift of focus, from issues approaching data exchange operations to an analytical perspective for finding patterns in large data volumes

Communicating Science to Impact Learning? A Phenomenological Inquiry into 4th and 5th Graders' Perceptions of Science Information Sources

Science.gov (United States)

Gelmez Burakgazi, Sevinc; Yildirim, Ali; Weeth Feinstein, Noah

2016-04-01

Rooted in science education and science communication studies, this study examines 4th and 5th grade students' perceptions of science information sources (SIS) and their use in communicating science to students. It combines situated learning theory with uses and gratifications theory in a qualitative phenomenological analysis. Data were gathered through classroom observations and interviews in four Turkish elementary schools. Focus group interviews with 47 students and individual interviews with 17 teachers and 10 parents were conducted. Participants identified a wide range of SIS, including TV, magazines, newspapers, internet, peers, teachers, families, science centers/museums, science exhibitions, textbooks, science books, and science camps. Students reported using various SIS in school-based and non-school contexts to satisfy their cognitive, affective, personal, and social integrative needs. SIS were used for science courses, homework/project assignments, examination/test preparations, and individual science-related research. Students assessed SIS in terms of the perceived accessibility of the sources, the quality of the content, and the content presentation. In particular, some sources such as teachers, families, TV, science magazines, textbooks, and science centers/museums ("directive sources") predictably led students to other sources such as teachers, families, internet, and science books ("directed sources"). A small number of sources crossed context boundaries, being useful in both school and out. Results shed light on the connection between science education and science communication in terms of promoting science learning.

What can Citizen Science do for Ocean Science and Ocean Scientists?

Science.gov (United States)

Best, M.; Hoeberechts, M.; Mangin, A.; Oggioni, A.; Orcutt, J. A.; Parrish, J.; Pearlman, J.; Piera, J.; Tagliolato, P.

2016-12-01

The ocean represents over 70% of our planet's surface area, over 90% of the living space. Humans are not marine creatures, we therefore have fundamentally not built up knowledge of the ocean in the same way we have on land. The more we learn about the ocean, the more we understand it is the regulatory engine of our planet…How do we catch up? Answers to this question will need to come from many quarters; A powerful and strategic option to complement existing observation programs and infrastructure is Citizen Science. There has been significant and relevant discussion of the importance of Citizen Science to citizens and stakeholders. The missing effective question is sometimes what is the potential of citizen science for scientists? The answers for both scientists and society are: spatial coverage, remote locations, temporal coverage, event response, early detection of harmful processes, sufficient data volume for statistical analysis and identification of outliers, integrating local knowledge, data access in exchange for analysis (e.g. with industry) and cost-effective monitoring systems. Citizens can be involved in: instrument manufacture and maintenance, instrument deployment/sample collection, data collection and transmission, data analysis, data validation/verification, and proposals of new topics of research. Such opportunities are balanced by concern on the part of scientists about the quality, the consistency and the reliability of citizen observations and analyses. Experience working with citizen science groups continues to suggest that with proper training and mentoring, these issues can be addressed, understanding both benefits and limitations. How to do it- implementation and maintenance of citizen science: How to recruit, engage, train, and maintain Citizen Scientists. Data systems for acquisition, assessment, access, analysis, and visualisation of distributed data sources. Tools/methods for acquiring observations: Simple instruments, Smartphone Apps

An educational ethnography of teacher-developed science curriculum implementation: Enacting conceptual change-based science inquiry with Hispanic students

Science.gov (United States)

Brunsell, Eric Steven

An achievement gap exists between White and Hispanic students in the United States. Research has shown that improving the quality of instruction for minority students is an effective way to narrow this gap. Science education reform movements emphasize that science should be taught using a science inquiry approach. Extensive research in teaching and learning science also shows that a conceptual change model of teaching is effective in helping students learn science. Finally, research into how Hispanic students learn best has provided a number of suggestions for science instruction. The Inquiry for Conceptual Change model merges these three research strands into a comprehensive yet accessible model for instruction. This study investigates two questions. First, what are teachers' perceptions of science inquiry and its implementation in the classroom? Second, how does the use of the Inquiry for Conceptual Change model affect the learning of students in a predominantly Hispanic, urban neighborhood. Five teachers participated in a professional development project where they developed and implemented a science unit based on the Inquiry for Conceptual Change model. Three units were developed and implemented for this study. This is a qualitative study that included data from interviews, participant reflections and journals, student pre- and post-assessments, and researcher observations. This study provides an in-depth description of the role of professional development in helping teachers understand how science inquiry can be used to improve instructional quality for students in a predominantly Hispanic, urban neighborhood. These teachers demonstrated that it is important for professional development to be collaborative and provide opportunities for teachers to enact and reflect on new teaching paradigms. This study also shows promising results for the ability of the Inquiry for Conceptual Change model to improve student learning.

Teaching Science through Story

Science.gov (United States)

Horton, Jessica

2013-01-01

Children find comfort in stories. They are familiar, accessible and entertaining. By teaching science through narratives, we can provide that same comfort and access to scientific content to children of all ages. In this article, I will discuss how, through the use of narratives in science instruction, we can provide students with a deeper…

Beyond access to transformations: A cross-national analysis of women in science and engineering education, 1970--2000

Science.gov (United States)

Wotipka, Christine Min

2001-12-01

reliance on liberal feminist suggestions such as access and equal opportunities for women in science. More recently, UNESCO publications have included some transformative perspectives that entail possibilities for the inclusion of women's needs and interests into the existing male-dominated scientific curricula and structures. The same is true of some of the most recent international conferences.

Egyptian Journal of Biomedical Sciences

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The Egyptian Journal of Biomedical Sciences publishes in all aspects of biomedical research sciences. Both basic and clinical research papers are welcomed. Vol 23 (2007). DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT Open Access DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT Subscription or Fee Access. Table of Contents. Articles. Phytochemical And ...

Image size invariant visual cryptography for general access structures subject to display quality constraints.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Kai-Hui; Chiu, Pei-Ling

2013-10-01

Conventional visual cryptography (VC) suffers from a pixel-expansion problem, or an uncontrollable display quality problem for recovered images, and lacks a general approach to construct visual secret sharing schemes for general access structures. We propose a general and systematic approach to address these issues without sophisticated codebook design. This approach can be used for binary secret images in non-computer-aided decryption environments. To avoid pixel expansion, we design a set of column vectors to encrypt secret pixels rather than using the conventional VC-based approach. We begin by formulating a mathematic model for the VC construction problem to find the column vectors for the optimal VC construction, after which we develop a simulated-annealing-based algorithm to solve the problem. The experimental results show that the display quality of the recovered image is superior to that of previous papers.

Analytical Chemistry in the Regulatory Science of Medical Devices.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yi; Guan, Allan; Wickramasekara, Samanthi; Phillips, K Scott

2018-06-12

In the United States, regulatory science is the science of developing new tools, standards, and approaches to assess the safety, efficacy, quality, and performance of all Food and Drug Administration-regulated products. Good regulatory science facilitates consumer access to innovative medical devices that are safe and effective throughout the Total Product Life Cycle (TPLC). Because the need to measure things is fundamental to the regulatory science of medical devices, analytical chemistry plays an important role, contributing to medical device technology in two ways: It can be an integral part of an innovative medical device (e.g., diagnostic devices), and it can be used to support medical device development throughout the TPLC. In this review, we focus on analytical chemistry as a tool for the regulatory science of medical devices. We highlight recent progress in companion diagnostics, medical devices on chips for preclinical testing, mass spectrometry for postmarket monitoring, and detection/characterization of bacterial biofilm to prevent infections.

Impact of Depressive Disorder on Access and Quality of Care in Veterans With Prevalent Cardiovascular Disease.

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Srivastava, Pallavi; Butler, Javed; Shroyer, A Laurie; Lacey, Matthew; Parikh, Puja B

2018-06-15

Although depressive disorders have been associated with increased risk of worse outcomes with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), its relation with access to and quality of cardiovascular care is not well studied. Accordingly, we sought to assess the association between depressive disorders and access and quality of care among United States veterans with CVD. The 2013 Centers for Disease Control's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey was utilized to identify a cohort of 13,126 veterans with CVD. Demographic and clinical history were recorded in adults with and without a depressive disorder (defined as self-reported diagnosis of depression, major depression, minor depression, or dysthymia). Among 13,126 veterans studied, a total of 2,889 (22.0%) adults had a depressive disorder whereas 10,237 (78.0%) did not. The veterans with a depressive disorder were younger, more often female and non-white, and had higher rates of multiple medical co-morbidities. They were more likely to report a delay in receiving medical care and financial barriers to seeking care and taking prescription drugs. They also reported significantly lower rates of aspirin and antihypertensive drug use. In multivariate analysis, depressive disorder was independently associated with higher risk of delay in receiving medical care (OR [odds ratio] 2.07, 95% CI [confidence interval] 1.65 to 2.60), financial barriers to medical care (OR 1.96, 95% CI 1.45 to 2.65), and prescription drugs (OR 1.45, 95% CI 1.02 to 2.08). In conclusion, depressive disorders were associated with impaired access to care among United States veterans with CVD. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Assessment of Service Desk Quality at an Academic Health Sciences Library.

Science.gov (United States)

Blevins, Amy E; DeBerg, Jennifer; Kiscaden, Elizabeth

2016-01-01

Due to an identified need for formal assessment, a small team of librarians designed and administered a survey to gauge the quality of customer service at their academic health sciences library. Though results did not drive major changes to services, several important improvements were implemented and a process was established to serve as a foundation for future use. This article details the assessment process used and lessons learned during the project.

Collaborative activities for improving the quality of science teaching and learning and learning to teach science

Science.gov (United States)

Tobin, Kenneth

2012-03-01

I have been involved in research on collaborative activities for improving the quality of teaching and learning high school science. Initially the collaborative activities we researched involved the uses of coteaching and cogenerative dialogue in urban middle and high schools in Philadelphia and New York (currently I have active research sites in New York and Brisbane, Australia). The research not only transformed practices but also produced theories that informed the development of additional collaborative activities and served as interventions for research and creation of heuristics for professional development programs and teacher certification courses. The presentation describes a collage of collaborative approaches to teaching and learning science, including coteaching, cogenerative dialogue, radical listening, critical reflection, and mindful action. For each activity in the collage I provide theoretical frameworks and empirical support, ongoing research, and priorities for the road ahead. I also address methodologies used in the research, illustrating how teachers and students collaborated as researchers in multilevel investigations of teaching and learning and learning to teach that included ethnography, video analysis, and sophisticated analyses of the voice, facial expression of emotion, eye gaze, and movement of the body during classroom interactions. I trace the evolution of studies of face-to-face interactions in science classes to the current focus on emotions and physiological aspects of teaching and learning (e.g., pulse rate, pulse strength, breathing patterns) that relate to science participation and achievement.

Making connections: Exploring student agency in a science classroom in India

Science.gov (United States)

Sharma, Ajay

India has been a free country for more than half a century now. In this time, the state has succeeded to a large extent in providing universal access to at least elementary education to all the citizens. However, the quality of education provided in state-run schools remains far removed from the ideals endorsed in policy documents. The vast majority of Indian poor, especially in rural areas, depend upon state-run schools for access to education. However, the low quality of education provided in these schools militates against their hopes and efforts for securing a better future through education. Undergirded by concerns over the raw deal students of government run schools get in rural India, this study is an ethnographic exploration of science learning in a rural middle school classroom in India. The study was conducted in the government middle school at the village Rajkheda, in the Hoshangabad district of the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. The study focused on the nature and scope of student participation in a middle school science classroom of rural school in India. Taking a socio-cultural perspective, it explored student participation in science classroom as engagement in a socioculturally mediated dialogue with the natural and the social world. Thus, two parallel yet intersecting themes run through the narrative this study presents. On one hand, it focuses on students' efforts to both learn and survive science as taught in that school. While on the other, it details the nature of their engagement with and knowledge of their immediate material world. The study shows that through active engagement with their local material and social world, students of the 8th grade had acquired an extensive, useful and situated funds of experiential knowledge that enabled them to enact their agency in the material world around them. This knowledge revealed itself differently in different contexts. Their knowledge representations about school science and the material world were

Exposing the Science in Citizen Science: Fitness to Purpose and Intentional Design.

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Parrish, Julia K; Burgess, Hillary; Weltzin, Jake F; Fortson, Lucy; Wiggins, Andrea; Simmons, Brooke

2018-05-21

Citizen science is a growing phenomenon. With millions of people involved and billions of in-kind dollars contributed annually, this broad extent, fine grain approach to data collection should be garnering enthusiastic support in the mainstream science and higher education communities. However, many academic researchers demonstrate distinct biases against the use of citizen science as a source of rigorous information. To engage the public in scientific research, and the research community in the practice of citizen science, a mutual understanding is needed of accepted quality standards in science, and the corresponding specifics of project design and implementation when working with a broad public base. We define a science-based typology focused on the degree to which projects deliver the type(s) and quality of data/work needed to produce valid scientific outcomes directly useful in science and natural resource management. Where project intent includes direct contribution to science and the public is actively involved either virtually or hands-on, we examine the measures of quality assurance (methods to increase data quality during the design and implementation phases of a project) and quality control (post hoc methods to increase the quality of scientific outcomes). We suggest that high quality science can be produced with massive, largely one-off, participation if data collection is simple and quality control includes algorithm voting, statistical pruning and/or computational modeling. Small to mid-scale projects engaging participants in repeated, often complex, sampling can advance quality through expert-led training and well-designed materials, and through independent verification. Both approaches - simplification at scale and complexity with care - generate more robust science outcomes.

Evolving Metadata in NASA Earth Science Data Systems

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Mitchell, A.; Cechini, M. F.; Walter, J.

2011-12-01

NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) is a coordinated series of satellites for long term global observations. NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) is a petabyte-scale archive of environmental data that supports global climate change research by providing end-to-end services from EOS instrument data collection to science data processing to full access to EOS and other earth science data. On a daily basis, the EOSDIS ingests, processes, archives and distributes over 3 terabytes of data from NASA's Earth Science missions representing over 3500 data products ranging from various types of science disciplines. EOSDIS is currently comprised of 12 discipline specific data centers that are collocated with centers of science discipline expertise. Metadata is used in all aspects of NASA's Earth Science data lifecycle from the initial measurement gathering to the accessing of data products. Missions use metadata in their science data products when describing information such as the instrument/sensor, operational plan, and geographically region. Acting as the curator of the data products, data centers employ metadata for preservation, access and manipulation of data. EOSDIS provides a centralized metadata repository called the Earth Observing System (EOS) ClearingHouse (ECHO) for data discovery and access via a service-oriented-architecture (SOA) between data centers and science data users. ECHO receives inventory metadata from data centers who generate metadata files that complies with the ECHO Metadata Model. NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project established a Tiger Team to study and make recommendations regarding the adoption of the international metadata standard ISO 19115 in EOSDIS. The result was a technical report recommending an evolution of NASA data systems towards a consistent application of ISO 19115 and related standards including the creation of a NASA-specific convention for core ISO 19115 elements. Part of

The Mission Accessible Near-Earth Object Survey (MANOS) -- Science Highlights

Science.gov (United States)

Moskovitz, Nicholas; Thirouin, Audrey; Binzel, Richard; Burt, Brian; Christensen, Eric; DeMeo, Francesca; Endicott, Thomas; Hinkle, Mary; Mommert, Michael; Person, Michael; Polishook, David; Siu, Hosea; Thomas, Cristina; Trilling, David; Willman, Mark

2015-08-01

Near-Earth objects (NEOs) are essential to understanding the origin of the Solar System through their compositional links to meteorites. As tracers of other parts of the Solar System they provide insight to more distant populations. Their small sizes and complex dynamical histories make them ideal laboratories for studying ongoing processes of planetary evolution. Knowledge of their physical properties is essential to impact hazard assessment. And the proximity of NEOs to Earth make them favorable targets for a variety of planetary mission scenarios. However, in spite of their importance, only the largest NEOs are well studied and a representative sample of physical properties for sub-km NEOs does not exist.MANOS is a multi-year physical characterization survey, originally awarded survey status by NOAO. MANOS is targeting several hundred mission-accessible, sub-km NEOs across visible and near-infrared wavelengths to provide a comprehensive catalog of physical properties (astrometry, light curves, spectra). Accessing these targets is enabled through classical, queue, and target-of-opportunity observations carried out at 1- to 8-meter class facilities in the northern and southern hemispheres. Our observing strategy is designed to rapidly characterize newly discovered NEOs before they fade beyond observational limits.Early progress from MANOS includes: (1) the de-biased taxonomic distribution of spectral types for NEOs smaller than ~100 meters, (2) the distribution of rotational properties for approximately 100 previously unstudied NEOs, (3) detection of the fastest known rotation period of any minor planet in the Solar System, (4) an investigation of the influence of planetary encounters on the rotational properties of NEOs, (5) dynamical models for the evolution of the overall NEO population over the past 0.5 Myr, and (6) development of a new set of online tools at asteroid.lowell.edu that will enable near realtime public dissemination of our data products while

Sierra Stars Observatory Network: An Accessible Global Network

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, Richard; Beshore, Edward

2011-03-01

The Sierra Stars Observatory Network (SSON) is a unique partnership among professional observatories that provides its users with affordable high-quality calibrated image data. SSON comprises observatories in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere and is in the process of expanding to a truly global network capable of covering the entire sky 24 hours a day in the near future. The goal of SSON is to serve the needs of science-based projects and programs. Colleges, universities, institutions, and individuals use SSON for their education and research projects. The mission of SSON is to promote and expand the use of its facilities among the thousands of colleges and schools worldwide that do not have access to professional-quality automated observatory systems to use for astronomy education and research. With appropriate leadership and guidance educators can use SSON to help teach astronomy and do meaningful scientific projects. The relatively small cost of using SSON for this type of work makes it affordable and accessible for educators to start using immediately. Remote observatory services like SSON need to evolve to better support education and research initiatives of colleges, institutions and individual investigators. To meet these needs, SSON is developing a sophisticated interactive scheduling system to integrate among the nodes of the observatory network. This will enable more dynamic observations, including immediate priority interrupts, acquiring moving objects using ephemeris data, and more.

Improving the quality of science reporting: a case study of Metcalf's Annual Science Immersion Workshop for Journalists

Science.gov (United States)

Murray, Cara

Environmental journalists and science writers express a strong desire for professional development opportunities. These groups often identify inadequate training in science and science writing as their biggest obstacles to accurate reporting. To fill these training gaps, science immersion workshops for journalists, focused on a particular specialization such as marine reporting, offer both practical and pedagogical advantages. However, few efforts have been made to evaluate the efficacy of these workshops in a quantitative way. This case study of the Annual Science Immersion Workshop for Journalists, offered by the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting, aimed to determine whether journalists' reporting is more accurate as a result of program participation. Survey data, collected from 11 years of workshop alumni, indicate neutral to positive responses on all measures of change. Using an exploratory approach, this study analyzed survey results by five categories---year of attendance, education level and type, media format, and years of journalism experience---to investigate the role of demographic variables in participants' learning experience. Some results of these comparative analyses correlate with programmatic changes made during the 11 years surveyed. The presence or absence of specific workshop activities coincides with higher and lower levels of reported change for specific learning objectives targeted by those activities. Other results have possible implications for program design or participant eligibility to maximize program impact. Journalists with more formal education report more change on multiple learning objectives, such as data use, understanding of scientific uncertainty, desire to report on environmental topics, and communication with scientists. At the same time, journalists with less formal education and less professional experience are more likely to have recommended the program to others. Some confounding results suggest a

Data quality studies for burst analysis of Virgo data acquired during Weekly Science Runs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Acernese, F; Amico, P; Alshourbagy, M

2007-01-01

Virgo started collecting science data during weekends in order to not interfere with commissioning activities. The goal of Weekly Science Runs is to ease the transition between commissioning periods and data taking periods, in addition to providing data sets exploiting the stationary behavior of the detector. The detection of gravitational wave (GW) bursts emitted by core collapse of supernovae is one of the most difficult tasks for the GW community due to the fact that there are uncertainties in the exact shape of the waveforms, as we do not have complete models. A major task for this kind of detection effort is the cleaning of the event triggers found by the detection pipelines, namely the removal of accidental transient signals due to noise source events. In order to clean our data from false GW events, we need to define a strategy for data quality cut and veto of auxiliary and environmental monitoring channels. In this paper we report on the analysis we performed on data acquired during Weekly Science Runs to explore and define the data quality cut and veto studies for burst analysis

Interactive access to LP DAAC satellite data archives through a combination of open-source and custom middleware web services

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Brian N.; Werpy, Jason; Friesz, Aaron M.; Impecoven, Kevin; Quenzer, Robert; Maiersperger, Tom; Meyer, David J.

2015-01-01

Current methods of searching for and retrieving data from satellite land remote sensing archives do not allow for interactive information extraction. Instead, Earth science data users are required to download files over low-bandwidth networks to local workstations and process data before science questions can be addressed. New methods of extracting information from data archives need to become more interactive to meet user demands for deriving increasingly complex information from rapidly expanding archives. Moving the tools required for processing data to computer systems of data providers, and away from systems of the data consumer, can improve turnaround times for data processing workflows. The implementation of middleware services was used to provide interactive access to archive data. The goal of this middleware services development is to enable Earth science data users to access remote sensing archives for immediate answers to science questions instead of links to large volumes of data to download and process. Exposing data and metadata to web-based services enables machine-driven queries and data interaction. Also, product quality information can be integrated to enable additional filtering and sub-setting. Only the reduced content required to complete an analysis is then transferred to the user.

Moving toward quality palliative cancer care: parent and clinician perspectives on gaps between what matters and what is accessible.

Science.gov (United States)

Kassam, Alisha; Skiadaresis, Julia; Habib, Sharifa; Alexander, Sarah; Wolfe, Joanne

2013-03-01

The National Consensus Project (NCP) published a set of standards for quality palliative care delivery. A key step before applying these guidelines to pediatric oncology is to evaluate how much families and clinicians value these standards. We aimed to determine which elements of palliative care are considered important according to bereaved parents and pediatric oncology clinicians and to determine accessibility of these elements. We administered questionnaires to 75 bereaved parents (response rate, 54%) and 48 pediatric oncology clinicians (response rate, 91%) at a large teaching hospital. Outcome measures included importance ratings and accessibility of core elements of palliative care delivery. Fifteen of 20 core elements were highly valued by both parents and clinicians (defined as > 60% of parents and clinicians reporting the item as important). Compared with clinicians, parents gave higher ratings to receiving cancer-directed therapy during the last month of life (P involvement of a spiritual mentor (P = .03). Of the valued elements, only three were accessible more than 60% of the time according to clinicians and parents. Valued elements least likely to be accessible included a direct admission policy to hospital, sibling support, and parent preparation for medical aspects surrounding death. Parents and clinicians highly value a majority of palliative care elements described in the NCP framework. Children with advanced cancer may not be receiving key elements of palliative care despite parents and clinicians recognizing them as important. Evaluation of barriers to provision of quality palliative care and strategies for overcoming them are critical.

Database Quality and Access Issues Relevant to Research Using Anesthesia Information Management System Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Epstein, Richard H; Dexter, Franklin

2018-07-01

For this special article, we reviewed the computer code, used to extract the data, and the text of all 47 studies published between January 2006 and August 2017 using anesthesia information management system (AIMS) data from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital (TJUH). Data from this institution were used in the largest number (P = .0007) of papers describing the use of AIMS published in this time frame. The AIMS was replaced in April 2017, making this finite sample finite. The objective of the current article was to identify factors that made TJUH successful in publishing anesthesia informatics studies. We examined the structured query language used for each study to examine the extent to which databases outside of the AIMS were used. We examined data quality from the perspectives of completeness, correctness, concordance, plausibility, and currency. Our results were that most could not have been completed without external database sources (36/47, 76.6%; P = .0003 compared with 50%). The operating room management system was linked to the AIMS and was used significantly more frequently (26/36, 72%) than other external sources. Access to these external data sources was provided, allowing exploration of data quality. The TJUH AIMS used high-resolution timestamps (to the nearest 3 milliseconds) and created audit tables to track changes to clinical documentation. Automatic data were recorded at 1-minute intervals and were not editable; data cleaning occurred during analysis. Few paired events with an expected order were out of sequence. Although most data elements were of high quality, there were notable exceptions, such as frequent missing values for estimated blood loss, height, and weight. Some values were duplicated with different units, and others were stored in varying locations. Our conclusions are that linking the TJUH AIMS to the operating room management system was a critical step in enabling publication of multiple studies using AIMS data. Access to this and

ICSU and the Challanges of Data and Information Management for International Science

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Fox

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The International Council for Science (ICSU vision explicitly recognises the value of data and information to science and particularly emphasises the urgent requirement for universal and equitable access to high quality scientific data and information. A universal public domain for scientific data and information will be transformative for both science and society. Over the last several years, two ad-hoc ICSU committees, the Strategic Committee on Information and Data (SCID and the Strategic Coordinating Committee on Information and Data (SCCID, produced key reports that make 5 and 14 recommendations respectively aimed at improving universal and equitable access to data and information for science and providing direction for key international scientific bodies, such as the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA as well as a newly ratified (by ICSU in 2008 formation of the World Data System. This contribution outlines the framing context for both committees based on the changed world scene for scientific data conduct in the 21st century. We include details on the relevant recommendations and important consequences for the worldwide community of data providers and consumers, ultimately leading to a conclusion, and avenues for advancement that must be carried to the many thousands of data scientists world-wide.

InvertNet: a new paradigm for digital access to invertebrate collections

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chris Dietrich

2012-07-01

Full Text Available InvertNet, one of the three Thematic Collection Networks (TCNs funded in the first round of the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections (ADBC program, is tasked with providing digital access to ~60 million specimens housed in 22 arthropod (primarily insect collections at institutions distributed throughout the upper midwestern USA. The traditional workflow for insect collection digitization involves manually keying information from specimen labels into a database and attaching a unique identifier label to each specimen. This remains the dominant paradigm, despite some recent attempts to automate various steps in the process using more advanced technologies. InvertNet aims to develop improved semi-automated, high-throughput workflows for digitizing and providing access to invertebrate collections that balance the need for speed and cost-effectiveness with long-term preservation of specimens and accuracy of data capture. The proposed workflows build on recent methods for digitizing and providing access to high-quality images of multiple specimens (e.g., entire drawers of pinned insects simultaneously. Limitations of previous approaches are discussed and possible solutions are proposed that incorporate advanced imaging and 3-D reconstruction technologies. InvertNet couples efficient digitization workflows with a highly robust network infrastructure capable of managing massive amounts of image data and related metadata and delivering high-quality images, including interactive 3-D reconstructions in real time via the Internet.

An exploration of elementary science teachers' expertise, creativity skills, and motivation in relation to the use of an innovation and the delivery of high-quality science instruction

Science.gov (United States)

Falkenberg, Karen L.

This two-year study sought to uncover characteristic differences among a purposive sample of 23 elementary teachers who were using an elementary science innovation with various levels of proficiency. Two theoretical frameworks supported the development of the research, the Concerns Based Adoption Model Level of Use (LoU) (Hord, Rutherford, Huling-Austin & Hall, 1987) and Amabile's (1996) Componential Model of Creativity. Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies were employed to gather data on participants' science content knowledge, pedagogical skill, creativity relevant process skills, motivation orientation, self-efficacy, outcome expectancy and workplace environment. Results dispute the common conception among educators that "mechanical use" teachers do not provide high quality lessons. A new method for categorizing teachers' proficiency with an innovation is suggested by this study that incorporates both qualitative data from the LoU interview and classroom observation. Additionally, results show that the quality of the observed science lessons was associated with a teacher's creativity. The data suggest that a teacher's creativity relevant process skills and expertise are indicators of lesson quality. There were important differences among teachers' conceptions of creativity, how they involved students in the reported lessons and in the type of adaptations they made to the innovation. The more creative teachers tended to provide lessons that were more complex, of longer duration, had ties to student home life, and used multiple resources. Following an analysis of these results is a set of suggested professional development strategies and workplace changes to support less proficient teachers in their ability to provide higher quality elementary science lessons.

Is problem-based learning a quality approach to education in health sciences?

Science.gov (United States)

Kwan, C Y

2001-07-01

The Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University has pioneered, experimented and finally excelled in the application of problem-based learning (PBL) as an entire medical curriculum for the past 35 years. However, the general practice of PBL by other medical schools around the globe has progressed slowly. In theory, PBL as an educational philosophy has long been considered as a quality cognitive concept and was adopted by many medical schools via curriculum reform to improve students' learning attitude. In practice, what is the experimental evidence for PBL meeting the expectation of a quality education in health sciences? How do we differentiate problems associated with PBL philosophy per se from those associated with the ways PBL are handled and implemented? I will address these questions from the perspective of the assessment of performance of students, graduates and practising physicians from the PBL track compared to those from the conventional track based on literature information. Ample evidence suggests that PBL is superior in producing more compassionate physicians and graduates with lifelong learning and leadership quality. But, some educators and administrators are still skeptical that the benefits from PBL may be too marginal to justify the resources required in sustaining it. In this presentation, the assessment of PBL, in both theoretical and practical terms, will be discussed using McMaster PBL as a convenient example because of its relatively long history in practising PBL in medical education.

Data Quality Objectives Supporting Radiological Air Emissions Monitoring for the Marine Sciences Laboratory, Sequim Site

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Barnett, J. Matthew; Meier, Kirsten M.; Snyder, Sandra F.; Antonio, Ernest J.; Fritz, Brad G.; Poston, Theodore M.

2012-12-27

This document of Data Quality Objectives (DQOs) was prepared based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Guidance on Systematic Planning Using the Data Quality Objectives Process, EPA, QA/G4, 2/2006 (EPA 2006), as well as several other published DQOs. The intent of this report is to determine the necessary steps required to ensure that radioactive emissions to the air from the Marine Sciences Laboratory (MSL) headquartered at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Sequim Marine Research Operations (Sequim Site) on Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula are managed in accordance with regulatory requirements and best practices. The Sequim Site was transitioned in October 2012 from private operation under Battelle Memorial Institute to an exclusive use contract with the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Pacific Northwest Site Office.

Freely Accessible Chemical Database Resources of Compounds for in Silico Drug Discovery.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, JingFang; Wang, Di; Jia, Chenyang; Wang, Mengyao; Hao, GeFei; Yang, GuangFu

2018-05-07

In silico drug discovery has been proved to be a solidly established key component in early drug discovery. However, this task is hampered by the limitation of quantity and quality of compound databases for screening. In order to overcome these obstacles, freely accessible database resources of compounds have bloomed in recent years. Nevertheless, how to choose appropriate tools to treat these freely accessible databases are crucial. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first systematic review on this issue. The existed advantages and drawbacks of chemical databases were analyzed and summarized based on the collected six categories of freely accessible chemical databases from literature in this review. Suggestions on how and in which conditions the usage of these databases could be reasonable were provided. Tools and procedures for building 3D structure chemical libraries were also introduced. In this review, we described the freely accessible chemical database resources for in silico drug discovery. In particular, the chemical information for building chemical database appears as attractive resources for drug design to alleviate experimental pressure. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

Access to major overseas research facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bolderman, J. W.

1997-01-01

This paper will describe four schemes which have been established to permit Australian researchers access to some of the most advanced overseas research facilities. These include, access to Major Research Facilities Program, the Australian National Beamline Facility at the Photon Factory, the Australian Synchrotron Research Program and the ISIS Agreement. The details of each of these programs is discussed and the statistics on the scientific output provided. All programs are managed on behalf of the Department of Industry, Science and Tourism by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. One hundred and thirteen senior scientists plus forty, one postgraduate, students were supported through these schemes during the 1996-1997 financial year

Strategies to improve quality of childbirth care

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

farahnaz Changaee

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Access to affordable and quality health care is one of the most important ways for reducing maternal and child mortality. The purpose of this study was to provide strategies to promote the quality of care during childbirth in Lorestan province in 2011. Materials and Methods: This research was a mixed method (quantitative, qualitative, study in which quality of 200 care during childbirth in hospitals of Lorestan Province were evaluated. Data gathered through self-made tools (Checklists prepared according to the guidelines of the ministry of health. Descriptive statistics and SPSS software were used to data analysis.In the second part of the study which was qualitative, interview with service providers, hospital officials and high-ranking officials of Lorestan university of medical sciences (decision makers was used to discuss strategies to improve the quality of care. Results: The results showed that the care of the first stage delivery in %54.5, second stage %57 and third stage 66% were in accordance with the desired status and care in this three stages was of moderate quality. Based on the interviews, the officials who are in charge of Lorestan university of medical sciences, proposed strategies such as financial incentives and in-service training of midwives as suitable strategies to improve quality of services. Conclusion: According to the results, strategies such as financial incentives, increased use of private sector services to reduce the workload of the public sector and increase of quality and use of more in-service training, to improve the quality of services, are recommended.

Health care quality, access, cost, workforce, and surgical education: the ultimate perfect storm.

Science.gov (United States)

Schwartz, Marshall Z

2012-01-01

The discussions on health care reform over the past two years have focused on cost containment while trying to maintain quality of care. Focusing on just cost and quality unfortunately does not address other very important factors that impact on our health care delivery system. Availability of a well-trained workforce, maintaining the sophisticated medical/surgical education system, and ultimately access to quality care by the public are critical to maintaining and enhancing our health care delivery system. Unfortunately, all five of these components are under at risk. Thus, we have evolving the ultimate perfect storm affecting our health care delivery system. Although not ideal and given the uniqueness of our population and their expectations, our current delivery system is excellent compared to other countries. However, the cost of our current system is rising at an alarming rate. Currently, health care consumes 17% of our gross domestic product. If our system is not revised this will continue to rise and by 2025 it will consume 48%. The dilemma, given the current state of our overall economy and rising debt, is how to address this major problem. Unfortunately, the Affordable Care Act, which is now law, does not address most of the issues and the cost was initially grossly under estimated. Furthermore, the law does not address the issues of workforce, maintaining our medical education system or ultimately, access. A major revision of our system will be necessary to truly create a system that protects and enhances all five of the components of our health care delivery system. To effectively accomplish this will require addressing those issues that lead to wasteful spending and diversion of our health care dollars to profit instead of care. Improved and efficient delivery systems that reduce complications, reduction of duplication of tertiary and quaternary programs or services within the same markets (i.e. regionalization of care), health insurance reform, and

Groundwater science relevant to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement: A status report

Science.gov (United States)

Grannemann, Norman G.; Van Stempvoort, Dale

2016-01-01

When the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) was signed in 1972 by the Governments of Canada and the United States (the “Parties”) (Environment Canada, 2013a), groundwater was not recognized as important to the water quality of the Lakes. At that time, groundwater and surface water were still considered as two separate systems, with almost no appreciation for their interaction. When the GLWQA was revised in 1978 (US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), 2012), groundwater contamination, such as that reported at legacy industrial sites such as those at Love Canal near the Niagara River, was squarely in the news. Consequently, the potential impacts of contaminated groundwater from such sites on Great Lakes water quality became a concern (Beck, 1979), and Annex 16 was added to the agreement, to address “pollution from contaminated groundwater” (Francis, 1989). However, no formal process for reporting under this annex was provided. The GLWQA Protocol in 1987 modified Annex 16 and called for progress reports beginning in 1988 (USEPA, 1988). The Protocol in 2012 provided a new Annex 8 to address groundwater more holistically (Environment 2 Canada, 2013b). Annex 8 (Environment Canada, 2013b) commits the Parties to coordinate groundwater science and management actions; as a first step, to “publish a report on the relevant and available groundwater science” by February 2015 (this report); and to “identify priorities for science activities and actions for groundwater management, protection, and remediation…” The broader mandate of Annex 8 is to (1) “identify groundwater impacts on the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the Waters of the Great Lakes;” (2) “analyze contaminants, including nutrients in groundwater, derived from both point and non-point sources impacting the Waters of the Great Lakes;” (3) “assess information gaps and science needs related to groundwater to protect the quality of the Waters of the Great Lakes

Accessing antiretroviral therapy for children: Caregivers' voices

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Margaret (Maggie) Williams

ScienceDirect journal homepage: http://ees.elsevier.com/hsag/default.asp ... inability of their caregivers to travel the distance requisite to accessing ... and describe the experiences of caregivers accessing ART for .... In this study credibility was facilitated by the researchers ensuring that .... educational assets to assist them.

The ends of uncertainty: Air quality science and planning in Central California

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fine, James [Univ. of California, San Francisco, CA (United States)

2003-09-01

Air quality planning in Central California is complicated and controversial despite millions of dollars invested to improve scientific understanding. This research describes and critiques the use of photochemical air quality simulation modeling studies in planning to attain standards for ground-level ozone in the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Joaquin Valley during the 1990's. Data are gathered through documents and interviews with planners, modelers, and policy-makers at public agencies and with representatives from the regulated and environmental communities. Interactions amongst organizations are diagramed to identify significant nodes of interaction. Dominant policy coalitions are described through narratives distinguished by their uses of and responses to uncertainty, their exposures to risks, and their responses to the principles of conservatism, civil duty, and caution. Policy narratives are delineated using aggregated respondent statements to describe and understand advocacy coalitions. I found that models impacted the planning process significantly, but were used not purely for their scientific capabilities. Modeling results provided justification for decisions based on other constraints and political considerations. Uncertainties were utilized opportunistically by stakeholders instead of managed explicitly. Ultimately, the process supported the partisan views of those in control of the modeling. Based on these findings, as well as a review of model uncertainty analysis capabilities, I recommend modifying the planning process to allow for the development and incorporation of uncertainty information, while addressing the need for inclusive and meaningful public participation. By documenting an actual air quality planning process these findings provide insights about the potential for using new scientific information and understanding to achieve environmental goals, most notably the analysis of uncertainties in modeling applications. Concurrently

Using Citizen Science for Water Quality Monitoring: Preaching the Message Beyond the Choir

Science.gov (United States)

Jollymore, A. J.

2015-12-01

Citizen science has emerged a means for augmenting the scope of research while educating the community. Environmental research has a particularly strong motivation for engagement, given its often-local context. We implemented a citizen science campaign to investigate relationships between land use and dissolved organic matter (DOM) in surface water environments proximal to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Citizen science was intended to increase sampling breadth, and engage the community about human activities and water quality effects. Participants were given a sample kit and a simple sampling protocol; we then used fast and economic absorbance and fluorescence spectrophotometry to determine DOM concentration and composition. Participants, including individuals from over 10 municipalities and community organizations, submitted over 200 samples; these were compared to investigator-led sampling, as well as data mining existing sources, to verify results. Analyzing the fluorescence excitation-emission matrices (EEMs) with a five-component parallel factor (PARAFAC) model showed that samples from watersheds with increased urbanization had unique microbial-like peaks, suggesting variances in DOM lability and origins compared to more pristine watersheds. Community engagement was extended by making data available online in an interactive map, as well as by presenting the project to the public. Despite this, engagement occurred most with community organizations; these participants tended to have scientific training, with a higher knowledge baseline regarding their specific watershed and water quality issues generally. While this served scientific goals, our campaign was less successful at engaging citizens with less-developed scientific backgrounds. In this presentation we will discuss the merits and scientific milestones enabled by citizen science, and lessons learned about how to get beyond 'preaching to the choir' in crafting and implementing such projects.

Drinking water sources, availability, quality, access and utilization for goats in the Karak Governorate, Jordan.

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Khaza'leh, Ja'far Mansur; Reiber, Christoph; Al Baqain, Raid; Valle Zárate, Anne

2015-01-01

Goat production is an important agricultural activity in Jordan. The country is one of the poorest countries in the world in terms of water scarcity. Provision of sufficient quantity of good quality drinking water is important for goats to maintain feed intake and production. This study aimed to evaluate the seasonal availability and quality of goats' drinking water sources, accessibility, and utilization in different zones in the Karak Governorate in southern Jordan. Data collection methods comprised interviews with purposively selected farmers and quality assessment of water sources. The provision of drinking water was considered as one of the major constraints for goat production, particularly during the dry season (DS). Long travel distances to the water sources, waiting time at watering points, and high fuel and labor costs were the key reasons associated with the problem. All the values of water quality (WQ) parameters were within acceptable limits of the guidelines for livestock drinking WQ with exception of iron, which showed slightly elevated concentration in one borehole source in the DS. These findings show that water shortage is an important problem leading to consequences for goat keepers. To alleviate the water shortage constraint and in view of the depleted groundwater sources, alternative water sources at reasonable distance have to be tapped and monitored for water quality and more efficient use of rainwater harvesting systems in the study area is recommended.

Publishing Ethics and Predatory Practices: A Dilemma for All Stakeholders of Science Communication.

Science.gov (United States)

Gasparyan, Armen Yuri; Yessirkepov, Marlen; Diyanova, Svetlana N; Kitas, George D

2015-08-01

Publishing scholarly articles in traditional and newly-launched journals is a responsible task, requiring diligence from authors, reviewers, editors, and publishers. The current generation of scientific authors has ample opportunities for publicizing their research. However, they have to selectively target journals and publish in compliance with the established norms of publishing ethics. Over the past few years, numerous illegitimate or predatory journals have emerged in most fields of science. By exploiting gold Open Access publishing, these journals paved the way for low-quality articles that threatened to change the landscape of evidence-based science. Authors, reviewers, editors, established publishers, and learned associations should be informed about predatory publishing practices and contribute to the trustworthiness of scholarly publications. In line with this, there have been several attempts to distinguish legitimate and illegitimate journals by blacklisting unethical journals (the Jeffrey Beall's list), issuing a statement on transparency and best publishing practices (the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association's and other global organizations' draft document), and tightening the indexing criteria by the Directory of Open Access Journals. None of these measures alone turned to be sufficient. All stakeholders of science communication should be aware of multiple facets of unethical practices and publish well-checked and evidence-based articles.

Efficient, quality-assured data capture in operational research through innovative use of open-access technology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kumar, A M V; Naik, B; Guddemane, D K

2013-01-01

to these issues can pose a significant bottleneck for operational research in resource-limited settings. In this article, we describe an innovative and efficient way of coordinating data capture in multicentre operational research using a combination of three open access technologies-EpiData for data capture......Ensuring quality of data during electronic data capture has been one of the most neglected components of operational research. Multicentre studies are also challenged with issues about logistics of travel, training, supervision, monitoring and troubleshooting support. Allocating resources...

The effects of home computer access and social capital on mathematics and science achievement among Asian-American high school students in the NELS:88 data set

Science.gov (United States)

Quigley, Mark Declan

The purpose of this researcher was to examine specific environmental, educational, and demographic factors and their influence on mathematics and science achievement. In particular, the researcher ascertained the interconnections of home computer access and social capital, with Asian American students and the effect on mathematics and science achievement. Coleman's theory on social capital and parental influence was used as a basis for the analysis of data. Subjects for this study were the base year students from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) and the subsequent follow-up survey data in 1990, 1992, and 1994. The approximate sample size for this study is 640 ethnic Asians from the NELS:88 database. The analysis was a longitudinal study based on the Student and Parent Base Year responses and the Second Follow-up survey of 1992, when the subjects were in 12th grade. Achievement test results from the NELS:88 data were used to measure achievement in mathematics and science. The NELS:88 test battery was developed to measure both individual status and a student's growth in a number of achievement areas. The subject's responses were analyzed by principal components factor analysis, weights, effect sizes, hierarchial regression analysis, and PLSPath Analysis. The results of this study were that prior ability in mathematics and science is a major influence in the student's educational achievement. Findings from the study support the view that home computer access has a negative direct effect on mathematics and science achievement for both Asian American males and females. None of the social capital factors in the study had either a negative or positive direct effect on mathematics and science achievement although some indirect effects were found. Suggestions were made toward increasing parental involvement in their children's academic endeavors. Computer access in the home should be considered related to television viewing and should be closely

The Thames Science Plan: Suggested Hydrologic Investigations to Support Nutrient-Related Water-Quality Improvements in the Thames River Basin, Connecticut

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Todd Trench, Elaine C

2005-01-01

... (CTDEP). The Science Plan outlines water-quality investigations that could provide information necessary for the CTDEP to develop water-quality management and restoration strategies for nutrient-related...

The ethics of open access publishing.

Science.gov (United States)

Parker, Michael

2013-03-22

Should those who work on ethics welcome or resist moves to open access publishing? This paper analyses arguments in favour and against the increasing requirement for open access publishing and considers their implications for bioethics research. In the context of biomedical science, major funders are increasingly mandating open access as a condition of funding and such moves are also common in other disciplines. Whilst there has been some debate about the implications of open-access for the social sciences and humanities, there has been little if any discussion about the implications of open access for ethics. This is surprising given both the central role of public reason and critique in ethics and the fact that many of the arguments made for and against open access have been couched in moral terms. In what follows I argue that those who work in ethics have a strong interest in supporting moves towards more open publishing approaches which have the potential both to inform and promote richer and more diverse forms of public deliberation and to be enriched by them. The importance of public deliberation in practical and applied ethics suggests that ethicists have a particular interest in the promotion of diverse and experimental forms of publication and debate and in supporting new, more creative and more participatory approaches to publication.

CESAME: Providing High Quality Professional Development in Science and Mathematics for K-12 Teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Hickman, Paul

2002-04-01

It is appropriate that after almost half a century of Science and Mathematics education reform we take a look back and a peek forward to understand the present state of this wonderfully complex system. Each of the components of this system including teaching, professional development, assessment, content and the district K-12 curriculum all need to work together if we hope to provide quality science, mathematics and technology education for ALL students. How do the state and national standards drive the system? How do state policies on student testing and teacher licensure come into play? How do we improve the preparation, retention and job satisfaction of our K-12 teachers? What initiatives have made or are making a difference? What else needs to be done? What can the physics community do to support local efforts? This job is too big for any single organization or individual but we each can contribute to the effort. Our Center at Northeastern University, with support from the National Science Foundation, has a sharply defined focus: to get high quality, research-based instructional materials into the hands of K-12 classroom teachers and provide the support they need to use the materials effectively in their classrooms.

Physics teachers' perspectives on factors that affect urban physics participation and accessibility

Science.gov (United States)

Kelly, Angela M.

2013-06-01

The accessibility of secondary physics in U.S. urban school districts is a complex issue. Many schools do not offer a physics option, and for those that do, access is often restricted by various school policies and priorities that do not promote physics participation for all. To analyze this problem in greater depth, I adopted a qualitative phenomenological methodology to explore urban physics teachers’ views on school- and district-based conditions that may marginalize traditionally underrepresented students. Teachers from three large urban districts shared concerns and suggestions regarding administrative commitment, student preparedness for physics, reform initiatives and testing mandates, promoting physics enrollments, and implementing high quality instruction. Data from interviews and focus groups provided contextual insights into ways in which physics study may be improved and encouraged for urban youth. Teachers believed expanding access could be facilitated with differentiated levels of physics, incorporating mathematical applications with multiple representations, educating students and counselors on the ramifications of choosing or not choosing elective sciences, well-designed grant-funded initiatives, and flexibility with prerequisites and science course sequencing. Teachers experienced frustration with standardized testing, lack of curricular autonomy, shifting administrative directives, and top-down reforms that did not incorporate their feedback in the decision-making processes. Data from this study revealed that physics teacher networks, often housed at local universities, have been a key resource for establishing supportive professional communities to share best practices that may influence school-based reforms that promote physics participation in urban schools.

Worms to astronauts: Canadian Space Agency approach to life sciences in support of exploration

Science.gov (United States)

Buckley, Nicole; Johnson-Green, Perry; Lefebvre, Luc

As the pace of human exploration of space is accelerated, the need to address the challenges of long-duration human missions becomes imperative. Working with limited resources, we must determine the most effective way to meet this challenge. A great deal of science management centres on "applied" versus "basic" research as the cornerstone of a program. We have chosen to largely ignore such a labeling of science and concentrate on quality, as determined by peer review, as the primary criterion for science selection. Space Life Sciences is a very young science and access to space continues to be difficult. Because we have few opportunities for conducting science, and space life science is very challenging, we are comfortable maintaining a very high bar for selection. In order to ensure adequate depth to our community we have elected to concentrate our efforts. Working in concert with members of the community, we have identified specific areas of focus that are chosen by their importance in space, but also according to Canada's strength in the terrestrial counterpart of the research. It is hoped that through a balanced but highly competitive program with the emphasis on quality, Canadian scientists can contribute to making space a safer, more welcoming place for our astronauts.

Science commons

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2007-01-01

SCP: Creative Commons licensing for open access publishing, Open Access Law journal-author agreements for converting journals to open access, and the Scholar's Copyright Addendum Engine for retaining rights to self-archive in meaningful formats and locations for future re-use. More than 250 science and technology journals already publish under Creative Commons licensing while 35 law journals utilize the Open Access Law agreements. The Addendum Engine is a new tool created in partnership with SPARC and U.S. universities. View John Wilbanks's biography

Cryosat: Mission Status, Achievements and Data Access

Science.gov (United States)

Parrinello, T.; Mardle, N.; Hoyos Ortega, B.; Bouzinac, C.; Badessi, S.; Frommknecht, B.; Wingham, D.; CryoSat Mission Team

2011-12-01

CryoSat-2 was launched on the 8th April 2010 and it is the first European ice mission dedicated to monitoring precise changes in the thickness of polar ice sheets and floating sea ice over a 3-year period. Cryosat-2 carries an innovative radar altimeter called the Synthetic Aperture Interferometric Altimeter (SIRAL) with two antennas and with extended capabilities to meet the measurement requirements for ice-sheets elevation and sea-ice freeboard. Initial results have shown that data is of high quality thanks to an altimeter that is behaving exceptional well within its design specifications. After an intensive but rewarding six months of commissioning, the CryoSat mission entered the science phase in November last year. Data was released to the scientific community in February 2011 and since then, products have been systematically distributed to more than 150 Principal Investigators and used by more than 400 scientists worldwide. This community is increasing every day. Scope of this paper is to describe the current mission status and the main scientific achievements since the start of the science phase. Topics will also include programmatic highlights and information on accessing Cryosat products following the new ESA Earth Observation Data Policy.

Open Access Data Centers as an Essential Partner to a Data Publication Journal

Science.gov (United States)

Carlson, D.; Pfeiffenberger, H.

2016-12-01

The success of Earth System Science Data derives in part from key infrastructure: digital object identifiers (doi) and open access data centers. Our concept that a data journal should promote access and exchange through publication of reviewed data descriptions presupposed third parties to hold the data. As minimum criteria for those data centers we expected international reputation for quality of service and an active lifetime extending at least a decade into the future. We also expected modern access interfaces offering geographic, topical and parameter-based browsing - so that users could discover related holdings through an ESSD link or discover ESSD by way of links in data sets revealed through the center's browse tools - and true open access. True open access means one or two clicks from abstract in ESSD to the data itself without barriers. We started with Pangaea and CDIAC. Data providers already used these centers, the staff welcomed the ESSD initiative and all parties cooperated on doi. With this initial support ESSD proved the basic concept of data publication and demonstrated utility to a larger group of data providers, many of whom suggested additional centers. So long as those data centers met expectations for open access and quality and durability of service, ESSD agreed to collaborate. Through back-door collaborations - e.g. service on particular data sets - ESSD developed working partnerships with more than 30 data centers in 13 countries. Data centers ask to join our list. We encourage those centers to stimulate local providers to submit a data set to ESSD, thus preserving our practical data-set by data-set partnership mode. For a few data centers where national policies impose a registration step, center staff and ESSD editors created bypass access routes to facilitate anonymous reviews. For ESSD purposes, open access and doi cooperation leading to reliable curation allows a win, win, win partnership among centers, providers, and journal.

SPECIAL REPORT - The KC EMPOWER Project: Designing More Accessible STEM Learning Activities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bob Hirshon

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The overall purpose of the Kinetic City (KC Empower project was to examine how informal science activities can be made accessible for students with disabilities. The premise of this project was that all students, including those with disabilities, are interested in and capable of engaging in science learning experiences, if these experiences are accessible to them. Drawing on resources from Kinetic City, a large collection of science experiments, games, and projects developed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS, the project researched and adapted five afterschool science activities guided by universal design for learning principles.

Education Scholars' Perceptions and Practices toward Open Access Publishing

Science.gov (United States)

Ellingford, Lori Michelle

2012-01-01

Although open access publishing has been available since 1998, we know little regarding scholars' perceptions and practices toward publishing in open access outlets, especially in the social science community. Open access publishing has been slow to penetrate the field of education, yet the potential impact of open access could make this…

Efficient, quality-assured data capture in operational research through innovative use of open-access technology.

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, A M V; Naik, B; Guddemane, D K; Bhat, P; Wilson, N; Sreenivas, A N; Lauritsen, J M; Rieder, H L

2013-03-21

Ensuring quality of data during electronic data capture has been one of the most neglected components of operational research. Multicentre studies are also challenged with issues about logistics of travel, training, supervision, monitoring and troubleshooting support. Allocating resources to these issues can pose a significant bottleneck for operational research in resource-limited settings. In this article, we describe an innovative and efficient way of coordinating data capture in multicentre operational research using a combination of three open access technologies-EpiData for data capture, Dropbox for sharing files and TeamViewer for providing remote support.

Monographs and Open Access

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Geoffrey Crossick

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This article presents the project that I led for HEFCE on the implications of OA (open access for monographs and other long-form research publications. The likely requirement that books should be OA if submitted to the REF (Research Excellence Framework after next means that OA development must be based on an understanding of the importance of the monograph in the AHSS (arts, humanities and social sciences as well as the challenges involved in making the transition to online OA. The project focused on three issues and each is summarized in turn in the article: What is the place of the monograph and other long-form publications in AHSS disciplines that makes it so important? What is happening to the monograph and is there a crisis as some suggest? What are the issues involved in moving monographs into a digital and OA environment – not just the challenge of effective business models but also many other aspects of sustaining and enhancing the qualities of the monograph? These include third-party rights, technical challenges, licences and the need for international collaboration.

Non-Quality Controlled Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on International Space Station (ISS) Science Data Vb0

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Non-Quality Controlled Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on International Space Station (ISS) Science Data were collected by the LIS instrument on the ISS used to...

Access to major overseas research facilities

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bolderman, J. W. [Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Lucas Heights, NSW (Australia)

1997-12-31

This paper will describe four schemes which have been established to permit Australian researchers access to some of the most advanced overseas research facilities. These include, access to Major Research Facilities Program, the Australian National Beamline Facility at the Photon Factory, the Australian Synchrotron Research Program and the ISIS Agreement. The details of each of these programs is discussed and the statistics on the scientific output provided. All programs are managed on behalf of the Department of Industry, Science and Tourism by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. One hundred and thirteen senior scientists plus forty, one postgraduate, students were supported through these schemes during the 1996-1997 financial year. 1 fig.

Advancing Water Science through Improved Cyberinfrastructure

Science.gov (United States)

Koch, B. J.; Miles, B.; Rai, A.; Ahalt, S.; Band, L. E.; Minsker, B.; Palmer, M.; Williams, M. R.; Idaszak, R.; Whitton, M. C.

2012-12-01

Major scientific advances are needed to help address impacts of climate change and increasing human-mediated environmental modification on the water cycle at global and local scales. However, such advances within the water sciences are limited in part by inadequate information infrastructures. For example, cyberinfrastructure (CI) includes the integrated computer hardware, software, networks, sensors, data, and human capital that enable scientific workflows to be carried out within and among individual research efforts and across varied disciplines. A coordinated transformation of existing CI and development of new CI could accelerate the productivity of water science by enabling greater discovery, access, and interoperability of data and models, and by freeing scientists to do science rather than create and manage technological tools. To elucidate specific ways in which improved CI could advance water science, three challenges confronting the water science community were evaluated: 1) How does ecohydrologic patch structure affect nitrogen transport and fate in watersheds?, 2) How can human-modified environments emulate natural water and nutrient cycling to enhance both human and ecosystem well-being?, 3) How do changes in climate affect water availability to support biodiversity and human needs? We assessed the approaches used by researchers to address components of these challenges, identified barriers imposed by limitations of current CI, and interviewed leaders in various water science subdisciplines to determine the most recent CI tools employed. Our preliminary findings revealed four areas where CI improvements are likely to stimulate scientific advances: 1) sensor networks, 2) data quality assurance/quality control, 3) data and modeling standards, 4) high performance computing. In addition, the full potential of a re-envisioned water science CI cannot be realized without a substantial training component. In light of these findings, we suggest that CI

Disability in two health care systems: access, quality, satisfaction, and physician contacts among working-age Canadians and Americans with disabilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Gulley, Stephen P; Altman, Barbara M

2008-10-01

An overarching question in health policy concerns whether the current mix of public and private health coverage in the United States can be, in one way or another, expanded to include all persons as it does in Canada. As typically high-end consumers of health care services, people with disabilities are key stakeholders to consider in this debate. The risk is that ways to cover more persons may be found only by sacrificing the quantity or quality of care on which people with disabilities so frequently depend. Yet, despite the many comparisons made of Canadian and U.S. health care, few focus directly on the needs of people with disabilities or the uninsured among them in the United States. This research is intended to address these gaps. Given this background, we compare the health care experiences of working-age uninsured and insured Americans with Canadian individuals (all of whom, insured) with a special focus on disability. Two questions for research guide our inquiry: (1) On the basis of disability severity level and health insurance status, are there differences in self-reported measures of access, utilization, satisfaction with, or quality of health care services within or between the United States and Canada? (2) After controlling covariates, when examining each level of disability severity, are there any significant differences in these measures of access, utilization, satisfaction, or quality between U.S. insured and Canadian persons? Cross-sectional data from the Joint Canada/United States Survey of Health (JCUSH) are analyzed with particular attention to disability severity level (none, nonsevere, or severe) among three analytic groups of working age residents (insured Americans, uninsured Americans, and Canadians). Differences in three measures of access, one measure of satisfaction with care, one quality of care measure, and two varieties of physician contacts are compared. Multivariate methods are then used to compare the healthcare experiences of

In ... and out: open access publishing in scientific journals.

Science.gov (United States)

Boumil, Marcia M; Salem, Deeb N

2014-01-01

Open access (OA) journals are a growing phenomenon largely of the past decade wherein readers can access the content of scientific journals without paying for a subscription. The costs are borne by authors (or their institutions) who pay a fee to be published, thus allowing readers to access, search, print, and cite the journals without cost. Although the OA model, in and of itself, need not diminish scientific rigor, selectivity, or peer review, the "author pays" model creates an inherent conflict of interest: it operates with the incentive on the part of the journal to publish more and reject less. This is coupled with cost containment measures that affect the journals' ability to engage experienced editors and professional staff to scrutinize data, data analyses, and author conflicts of interest. While some OA journals appear to be comparable to their print competitors, others are "predatory" and have no legitimacy at all. Two recent "scams"--one recently published in Science--highlight the urgency of addressing the issues raised by OA publication so that OA does not lose its credibility just as it begins to gather substantial momentum. High-quality journals develop their reputations over time, and OA outlets will be no exception. For this to occur, however, the OA audience will need to be satisfied that OA can deliver high-quality publications utilizing rigorous peer review, editing, and conflict of interest scrutiny. Academic tenure and promotion committees that review scholarly credentials are understandably skeptical of publications in unrecognized journals, and the large number of new OA outlets contributes to this urgency from their perspective as well.

Open Access Papers Have a Greater Citation Advantage in the Author-Pays Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elaine Sullo

2016-03-01

; they also verified that the journals were using the APC model by visiting each journal’s website. Because of the large number of subject areas of the identified journals, the researchers decided to classify the journals into four broader categories: Health Sciences, Life Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences and Humanities. To calculate the impact of OA papers, citation per paper (CPP was calculated for each subject area. Impact values were calculated on an annual basis as well. The researchers calculated the citation advantage of OA articles as the “difference between the open access and toll access impacts in terms of a percentage of the latter” (p. 585. Main Results – The authors categorized their findings according to three themes: the growth of APC funded OA papers, the number of OA papers by discipline, and citation advantage of OA vs. TA in general and by subject area. Together, Springer and Elsevier published 18,654 OA papers in the APC journals; this number represents 4.7% of the 396,760 papers published between 2007 and 2011. While the number of OA and TA papers has been growing annually, the number of OA papers has been growing more rapidly compared to the TA papers. In terms of subject areas, Life Sciences had the largest number of OA and TA papers (184,315, followed by Health Sciences (149,341, Natural Sciences (121,274, and Social Sciences and Humanities (42,824. Natural Sciences had the most OA papers (5.7% in terms of the number of papers in this subject area being OA papers, followed by Social Sciences and Humanities (5.2%, Health Sciences (4.6% and Life Sciences (3.6%. Overall, the researchers found that the impact values of OA papers were larger than those of the TA papers for each year examined. In considering subject areas, in all disciplines except Life Sciences, the most highly cited paper in the field is an OA paper. In Life Sciences, the most highly cited TA paper had 2,215 citations, compared to the OA paper, which had 1

Water-Quality Data

Science.gov (United States)

... Water Quality? [1.7MB PDF] Past featured science... Water Quality Data Today's Water Conditions Get continuous real- ... list of USGS water-quality data resources . USGS Water Science Areas Water Resources Groundwater Surface Water Water ...

Open Access and repositories beyond green and gold

CERN Document Server

2007-01-01

Access to previous results and their reuse in new research are at the very basis of scientific progress. In the era of e-Science and when the Open Access paradigm is changing scholarly communication, there is an unprecedented need for rapid and effective online access to scientific information. High-Energy Physics (HEP) pioneered innovation in scholarly communication with the invention of the Web, originally a vehicle of scientific information, and with the inception of online preprint repositories, introducing Open Access to preliminary scientific results. With the imminent start-up of the CERN LHC accelerator, one of the flagships of European science, the HEP community urgently needs a new platform for scientific information. A multi-disciplinary collaboration of academies, research laboratories and industrial partners has developed a vision to build such an innovative e-infrastructure: HEPIS (High Energy Physics Information System). HEPIS will integrate present European and American databases and repositor...

Private-Sector Social Franchising to Accelerate Family Planning Access, Choice, and Quality: Results From Marie Stopes International.

Science.gov (United States)

Munroe, Erik; Hayes, Brendan; Taft, Julia

2015-06-17

To achieve the global Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) goal of reaching 120 million more women with voluntary family planning services, rapid scale-up of services is needed. Clinical social franchising, a service delivery approach used by Marie Stopes International (MSI) in which small, independent health care businesses are organized into quality-assured networks, provides an opportunity to engage the private sector in improving access to family planning and other health services. We analyzed MSI's social franchising program against the 4 intended outputs of access, efficiency, quality, and equity. The analysis used routine service data from social franchising programs in 17 African and Asian countries (2008-2014) to estimate number of clients reached, couple-years of protection (CYPs) provided, and efficiency of services; clinical quality audits of 636 social franchisees from a subset of the 17 countries (2011-2014); and exit interviews with 4,844 clients in 14 countries (2013) to examine client satisfaction, demographics (age and poverty), and prior contraceptive use. The MSI "Impact 2" model was used to estimate population-level outcomes by converting service data into estimated health outcomes. Between 2008 and 2014, an estimated 3,753,065 women cumulatively received voluntary family planning services via 17 national social franchise programs, with a sizable 68% choosing long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs). While the number of social franchisee outlets increased over time, efficiency also significantly improved over time, with each outlet delivering, on average, 178 CYPs in 2008 compared with 941 CYPs in 2014 (P = .02). Clinical quality audit scores also significantly improved; 39.8% of social franchisee outlets scored over 80% in 2011 compared with 84.1% in 2014. In 2013, 40.7% of the clients reported they had not been using a modern method during the 3 months prior to their visit (95% CI = 37.4, 44.0), with 46.1% (95% CI = 40.9, 51.2) of

African Health Sciences: Submissions

African Journals Online (AJOL)

African Health Sciences is an internationally refereed, free access, journal publishing original articles on research, clinical practice, public health, policy, planning, ... Makerere University School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences

Sleep Hygiene Practices and Their Relation to Sleep Quality in Medical Students of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences

OpenAIRE

Yazdi, Zohreh; Loukzadeh, Ziba; Moghaddam, Parichehr; Jalilolghadr, Shabnam

2016-01-01

Introduction: Poor quality of sleep is a distressing and worrying condition that can disturb academic performance of medical students. Sleep hygiene practices are one of the important variables that affect sleep quality. The objective of this study was to assess association between sleep hygiene practices and sleep quality of medical students in Qazvin University of Medical Sciences. Methods: In this descriptive-correlational study, a total of 285 ...

Nine meta-functions for science museums and science centres

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Achiam, Marianne; Sølberg, Jan

2017-01-01

Science centres and science museums face challenges such as increased accountability, increased demands for accessibility, and growing competition from leisure experiences. On their own, the traditional museum practices of preservation, communication, and research are insufficient to address...... Ecsite conference, to map out how these institutions address modern-day challenges. This analysis generates a new framework of nine meta-functions for science centres and science museums that can guide and help qualify discussions about their present and future activities. We discuss the new meta...

Methodological adequacy of articles published in two open-access Brazilian cardiology periodicals.

Science.gov (United States)

Macedo, Cristiane Rufino; Silva, Davi Leite da; Puga, Maria Eduarda

2010-01-01

The use of rigorous scientific methods has contributed towards developing scientific articles of excellent methodological quality. This has made it possible to promote their citation and increase the impact factor. Brazilian periodicals have had to adapt to certain quality standards demanded by these indexing organizations, such as the content and the number of original articles published in each issue. This study aimed to evaluate the methodological adequacy of two Brazilian periodicals within the field of cardiology that are indexed in several databases and freely accessible through the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), and which are now indexed by the Web of Science (Institute for Scientific Information, ISI). Descriptive study at Brazilian Cochrane Center. All the published articles were evaluated according to merit assessment (content) and form assessment (performance). Ninety-six percent of the articles analyzed presented study designs that were adequate for answering the objectives. These two Brazilian periodicals within the field of cardiology published methodologically adequate articles, since they followed the quality standards. Thus, these periodicals can be considered both for consultation and as vehicles for publishing future articles. For further analyses, it is essential to apply other indicators of scientific activity such as bibliometrics, which evaluates quantitative aspects of the production, dissemination and use of information, and scientometrics, which is also concerned with the development of science policies, within which it is often superimposed on bibliometrics.

Citizen Science in the Classroom: Perils and Promise of the New Web

Science.gov (United States)

Loughran, T.; Dirksen, R.

2010-12-01

Classroom citizen science projects invite students to generate, curate, post, query, and analyze data, publishing and discussing results in potentially large collaborative contexts. The new web offers a rich palette of such projects for any STEM educator to select from or create. This easy access to citizen science in the classroom is full of both promise and peril for science education. By offering examples of classroom citizen science projects in particle physics, earth and environmental sciences, each supported by a common mashup of technologies available to ordinary users, we will illustrate something of the promise of these projects for science education, and point to some of the challenges and failure modes--the peril--raised by easy access and particularly easy publication of data. How one sensibly responds to this promise and peril depends on how one views the goals of science (or more broadly, STEM) education: either as the equipping of individual students with STEM knowledge and skills so as to empower them for future options, or as the issuing of effective invitations into STEM communities. Building on the claim that these are complementary perspectives, both of value, we will provide an example of a classroom citizen science project analyzed from both perspectives. The BOSCO classroom-to-classroom water source mapping project provides students both in Northern Uganda and in South Dakota a collaborative platform for analyzing and responding to local water quality concerns. Students gather water quality data, use Google Forms embedded in a project wiki to enter data in a spreadsheet, which then automatically (through Mapalist, a free web service) gets posted to a Google Map, itself embedded in the project wiki. Using these technologies, data is thus collected and posted for analysis in a collaborative environment: the stage is set for classroom citizen science. In the context of this project we will address the question of how teachers can take advantage

Fulfillment Research Resources through Access Financial Report fo Go Public Company at Library STIE Perbanas Surabaya Perpustakaan STIE Perbanas Surabaya

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Melati Purba Bestari

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Modern libraries are characterized by the diversity of information services to users, including to fulfill the information needs of researchers. Fulfill the information requirements for this research group is very important because the information provided affect the quality of research. Library of STIE Perbanas Surabaya efforts to fulfill the information needs of researchers is to provide research resources through the provision of access annual and financial report for go public company. To provide convenience to users who do research and need annual and financial report for go public, library of STIE Perbanas Surabaya provide easy access through online catalog. To fulfill the annual and financial report for go public company, library tracking data on Indonesian stock exchange and go public company. Library attempts to provide easy access to information is expected to support a process that requires researchers and  annual and financial report data so as to improve the quality and quantity of scientific works in the field of economics science, especially for subject of banking, finance and business.

Fulfillment Research Resources through Access Financial Report fo Go Public Company at Library STIE Perbanas Surabaya Perpustakaan STIE Perbanas Surabaya

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Melati Purba Bestari

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Modern libraries are characterized by the diversity of information services to users, including to fulfill the information needs of researchers. Fulfilling the information requirements for this research group is very important because the information provided affect the quality of research. Library of STIE Perbanas Surabaya efforts to fulfill the information needs of researchers is to provide research resources through the provision of access annual and financial report for go public company. To provide convenience to users who do research and need annual and financial report for go public, library of STIE Perbanas Surabaya provide easy access through online catalog. To fulfill the annual and financial report for go public company, library tracked data on Indonesian stock exchange and go public company. Library attempts to provide easy access to information is expected to support a process that requires researchers and annual and financial report data so as to improve the quality and quantity of scientific works in the field of economics science, especially for subject of banking, finance and business.

SPECIAL REPORT - The KC EMPOWER Project: Designing More Accessible STEM Learning Activities

OpenAIRE

Bob Hirshon; Laureen Summers; Babette Moeller; Wendy Martin

2016-01-01

The overall purpose of the Kinetic City (KC) Empower project was to examine how informal science activities can be made accessible for students with disabilities. The premise of this project was that all students, including those with disabilities, are interested in and capable of engaging in science learning experiences, if these experiences are accessible to them. Drawing on resources from Kinetic City, a large collection of science experiments, games, and projects developed by the American...

A data discovery index for the social sciences.

Science.gov (United States)

Krämer, Thomas; Klas, Claus-Peter; Hausstein, Brigitte

2018-04-10

This paper describes a novel search index for social and economic research data, one that enables users to search up-to-date references for data holdings in these disciplines. The index can be used for comparative analysis of publication of datasets in different areas of social science. The core of the index is the da|ra registration agency's database for social and economic data, which contains high-quality searchable metadata from registered data publishers. Research data's metadata records are harvested from data providers around the world and included in the index. In this paper, we describe the currently available indices on social science datasets and their shortcomings. Next, we describe the motivation behind and the purpose for the data discovery index as a dedicated and curated platform for finding social science research data and gesisDataSearch, its user interface. Further, we explain the harvesting, filtering and indexing procedure and give usage instructions for the dataset index. Lastly, we show that the index is currently the most comprehensive and most accessible collection of social science data descriptions available.

Data life cycle: a perspective from the Information Science

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ricardo César Gonçalves Sant’Ana

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Access and use of data as a key factor has been extended to several areas of knowledge of today's society. It’s necessary to develop a new perspective that presents phases and factors involved in these processes, providing an initial analysis structure, allowing the efforts, skills and actions organization related to the data life cycle. Purpose: This article is a proposal for a new look at the data life cycle, that assumes, as a central element, the data itself, supporting itself on the concepts and contributions that Information Science can provide, without giving up the reflections on the role of other key areas such as Computer Science. Methodology: The methodological procedures consisted of bibliographic research and content analysis to describe the phases and factors related to the Data Life Cycle, developing reflections and considerations from context already consolidated in the development of systems that can corroborate the idea of centrality of data. Results: The results describe the phases of: collect, storage, recovery and discard, permeated by transverse factors: privacy, integration, quality, copyright, dissemination and preservation, composing a Data Life Cycle. Conclusions: The current context of the availability of large volumes of data, with great variety and at speeds that provide access in real time, setting the so-called Big Data that requires new concerns about access and use processes of data. The Information Science may offer a new approach, now centered in the data, and contribute to the optimization of Data Life Cycle as a whole, extending bridges between users and the data they need.

The SCOAP3 initiative and the Open Access Article-Processing-Charge market: global partnership and competition improve value in the dissemination of science

CERN Document Server

Romeu, Clément; Kohls, Alexander; Mansuy, Anne; Mele, Salvatore; Vesper, Martin

2014-01-01

The SCOAP3 (Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics) initiative is an international partnership to convert to Open Access the published literature in the field of High-Energy Physics (HEP). It has been in operation since January 2014, and covers more than 4’000 articles/year. Originally initiated by CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, and now counting partners representing 41 countries and 3 intergovernmental organizations, SCOAP3 has successfully converted to Open Access all, or part of, 6 HEP journals previously restricted to subscribers. It is also supporting publication of articles in 4 existing Open Access journals. As a “Gold” Open Access initiative, SCOAP3 pays Article Processing Charges (APCs), as publishers’ source of revenue for the publication service. Differentiating itself from other Open Access initiatives, SCOAP3 set APCs through a tendering process, correlating quality and price, at consistent conditions across participating publishers. Th...

Momona Ethiopian Journal of Science: Editorial Policies

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Momona Ethiopian Journal of Science (MEJS) is a free access e-journal ... related to Earth Science, Physical Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Biological Sciences and ... materials, information related to conferences and any other relevant topics.

Listening to the Patient: Women Veterans' Insights About Health Care Needs, Access, and Quality in Rural Areas.

Science.gov (United States)

Brooks, Elizabeth; Dailey, Nancy K; Bair, Byron D; Shore, Jay H

2016-09-01

Many work to ensure that women veterans receive appropriate and timely health care, yet the needs of those living in rural areas are often ignored. This is a critical oversight given the multitude of reports documenting rural access problems and health disparities. Lacking this, we are unable to plan for and evaluate appropriate care for this specific group. In this project, we spoke with rural women veterans to document service needs and quality of care from their perspective. Rural women veterans' views about health care access and quality were ascertained in a series of five, semistructured focus groups (n = 35) and completion of a demographic questionnaire. Content analysis documented focus-group themes. Participants said that local dental, mental health, and gender-specific care options were needed, as well as alternative healing options. Community-based support for women veterans and interaction with female peers were absent. Participants' support for telehealth was mixed, as were requests for gender-specific care. Personal experiences in the military impacted participants' current service utilization. Action by both Veterans Affairs and the local community is vital to improving the health of women veterans. Service planning should consider additional Veterans Affairs contracts, mobile health vans, peer support, and enhanced outreach. Reprint & Copyright © 2016 Association of Military Surgeons of the U.S.

Semantic Data Access Services at NASA's Atmospheric Science Data Center

Science.gov (United States)

Huffer, E.; Hertz, J.; Kusterer, J.

2012-12-01

The corpus of Earth Science data products at the Atmospheric Science Data Center at NASA's Langley Research Center comprises a widely heterogeneous set of products, even among those whose subject matter is very similar. Two distinct data products may both contain data on the same parameter, for instance, solar irradiance; but the instruments used, and the circumstances under which the data were collected and processed, may differ significantly. Understanding the differences is critical to using the data effectively. Data distribution services must be able to provide prospective users with enough information to allow them to meaningfully compare and evaluate the data products offered. Semantic technologies - ontologies, triple stores, reasoners, linked data - offer functionality for addressing this issue. Ontologies can provide robust, high-fidelity domain models that serve as common schema for discovering, evaluating, comparing and integrating data from disparate products. Reasoning engines and triple stores can leverage ontologies to support intelligent search applications that allow users to discover, query, retrieve, and easily reformat data from a broad spectrum of sources. We argue that because of the extremely complex nature of scientific data, data distribution systems should wholeheartedly embrace semantic technologies in order to make their data accessible to a broad array of prospective end users, and to ensure that the data they provide will be clearly understood and used appropriately by consumers. Toward this end, we propose a distribution system in which formal ontological models that accurately and comprehensively represent the ASDC's data domain, and fully leverage the expressivity and inferential capabilities of first order logic, are used to generate graph-based representations of the relevant relationships among data sets, observational systems, metadata files, and geospatial, temporal and scientific parameters to help prospective data consumers

Stepping up Open Science Training for European Research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Birgit Schmidt

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Open science refers to all things open in research and scholarly communication: from publications and research data to code, models and methods as well as quality evaluation based on open peer review. However, getting started with implementing open science might not be as straightforward for all stakeholders. For example, what do research funders expect in terms of open access to publications and/or research data? Where and how to publish research data? How to ensure that research results are reproducible? These are all legitimate questions and, in particular, early career researchers may benefit from additional guidance and training. In this paper we review the activities of the European-funded FOSTER project which organized and supported a wide range of targeted trainings for open science, based on face-to-face events and on a growing suite of e-learning courses. This article reviews the approach and experiences gained from the first two years of the project.

Can contracted out health facilities improve access, equity, and quality of maternal and newborn health services? Evidence from Pakistan.

Science.gov (United States)

Zaidi, Shehla; Riaz, Atif; Rabbani, Fauziah; Azam, Syed Iqbal; Imran, Syeda Nida; Pradhan, Nouhseen Akber; Khan, Gul Nawaz

2015-11-25

The case of contracting out government health services to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has been weak for maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) services, with documented gains being mainly in curative services. We present an in-depth assessment of the comparative advantages of contracting out on MNCH access, quality, and equity, using a case study from Pakistan. An end-line, cross-sectional assessment was conducted of government facilities contracted out to a large national NGO and government-managed centres serving as controls, in two remote rural districts of Pakistan. Contracting out was specific for augmenting MNCH services but without contractual performance incentives. A household survey, a health facility survey, and focus group discussions with client and spouses were used for assessment. Contracted out facilities had a significantly higher utilization as compared to control facilities for antenatal care, delivery, postnatal care, emergency obstetric care, and neonatal illness. Contracted facilities had comparatively better quality of MNCH services but not in all aspects. Better household practices were also seen in the district where contracting involved administrative control over outreach programs. Contracting was also faced with certain drawbacks. Facility utilization was inequitably higher amongst more educated and affluent clients. Contracted out catchments had higher out-of-pocket expenses on MNCH services, driven by steeper transport costs and user charges for additional diagnostics. Contracting out did not influence higher MNCH service coverage rates across the catchment. Physical distances, inadequate transport, and low demand for facility-based care in non-emergency settings were key client-reported barriers. Contracting out MNCH services at government health facilities can improve facility utilization and bring some improvement in  quality of services. However, contracting out of health facilities is insufficient to increase

Agricultural and Food Science Journal of Ghana

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The Agricultural and Food Science Journal of Ghana publishes papers describing research, observational or experimental and critical reviews in Agriculture and Food Science. Vol 10, No 1 (2017). DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT Open Access DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT Subscription or Fee Access. Table of Contents. Articles ...

Quality of Kindergarten Teachers Training in regard to Science: a joint Nordic Approach

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sortland, Merete; Tikkanen, Tarja Irene; Presthus Heggen, Marianne

2017-01-01

This article presents a new joint Nordic study module consisting of a theoretical framework, the kindergarten teacher students’ case study and a reflection talk, in natural science for the kindergarten teacher education. The module is developed through an interdisciplinary collaboration in the No......This article presents a new joint Nordic study module consisting of a theoretical framework, the kindergarten teacher students’ case study and a reflection talk, in natural science for the kindergarten teacher education. The module is developed through an interdisciplinary collaboration...... and competence are shortly discussed. It is followed by the module’s theoretical framework. Then the study module’s development process is described accompanied by reflections of the student’s case studies in relation to the theoretical framework. At the end, the work with the study module is summarised......, and the main conclusion is that the study module contributes positively to the students’ skills development, both in science and quality....

Australian synchrotron radiation science

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

White, J.W.

1996-01-01

Full text: The Australian Synchrotron Radiation Program, ASRP, has been set up as a major national research facility to provide facilities for scientists and technologists in physics, chemistry, biology and materials science who need access to synchrotron radiation. Australia has a strong tradition in crystallography and structure determination covering small molecule crystallography, biological and protein crystallography, diffraction science and materials science and several strong groups are working in x-ray optics, soft x-ray and vacuum ultra-violet physics. A number of groups whose primary interest is in the structure and dynamics of surfaces, catalysts, polymer and surfactant science and colloid science are hoping to use scattering methods and, if experience in Europe, Japan and USA can be taken as a guide, many of these groups will need third generation synchrotron access. To provide for this growing community, the Australian National Beamline at the Photon Factory, Tsukuba, Japan, has been established since 1990 through a generous collaboration with Japanese colleagues, the beamline equipment being largely produced in Australia. This will be supplemented in 1997 with access to the world's most powerful synchrotron x-ray source at the Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, USA. Some recent experiments in surface science using neutrons as well as x-rays from the Australian National Beamline will be used to illustrate one of the challenges that synchrotron x-rays may meet

Making the innovation case in Open Access scholary communication

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2005-01-01

It seems almost unnecessary to have to elaborate additional reasons for the adoption of Open Access scholarly communication (OA sc) as manifested through Open Access journals and self-archiving practices. To those active within the OA arena, the case has been convincingly made, and current arguments merely need to be disseminated beyond the Library and Information Science (LIS) sphere. However, it is my contention that a convincing argument for OA sc needs to be launched from the Science Policy perspective if any government mandated pro-OA policy changes are to be effected. This paper, then, is an attempt at taking the OA discussion beyond the LIS arena and into the realm of Science and Innovation Policy. Using Innovation Theory as its theoretical framework, it is argued that Open Access scholarly communication can only serve to bolster Innovation Systems, be they national, regional, or sectoral. The case of South Africa is taken as an illustrative example, though the case can and will be generalised to beyon...

ScienceOrganizer System and Interface Summary

Science.gov (United States)

Keller, Richard M.; Norvig, Peter (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

ScienceOrganizer is a specialized knowledge management tool designed to enhance the information storage, organization, and access capabilities of distributed NASA science teams. Users access ScienceOrganizer through an intuitive Web-based interface that enables them to upload, download, and organize project information - including data, documents, images, and scientific records associated with laboratory and field experiments. Information in ScienceOrganizer is "threaded", or interlinked, to enable users to locate, track, and organize interrelated pieces of scientific data. Linkages capture important semantic relationships among information resources in the repository, and these assist users in navigating through the information related to their projects.

Quality in environmental science for policy: Assessing uncertainty as a component of policy analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maxim, Laura; Sluijs, Jeroen P. van der

2011-01-01

The sheer number of attempts to define and classify uncertainty reveals an awareness of its importance in environmental science for policy, though the nature of uncertainty is often misunderstood. The interdisciplinary field of uncertainty analysis is unstable; there are currently several incomplete notions of uncertainty leading to different and incompatible uncertainty classifications. One of the most salient shortcomings of present-day practice is that most of these classifications focus on quantifying uncertainty while ignoring the qualitative aspects that tend to be decisive in the interface between science and policy. Consequently, the current practices of uncertainty analysis contribute to increasing the perceived precision of scientific knowledge, but do not adequately address its lack of socio-political relevance. The 'positivistic' uncertainty analysis models (like those that dominate the fields of climate change modelling and nuclear or chemical risk assessment) have little social relevance, as they do not influence negotiations between stakeholders. From the perspective of the science-policy interface, the current practices of uncertainty analysis are incomplete and incorrectly focused. We argue that although scientific knowledge produced and used in a context of political decision-making embodies traditional scientific characteristics, it also holds additional properties linked to its influence on social, political, and economic relations. Therefore, the significance of uncertainty cannot be assessed based on quality criteria that refer to the scientific content only; uncertainty must also include quality criteria specific to the properties and roles of this scientific knowledge within political, social, and economic contexts and processes. We propose a conceptual framework designed to account for such substantive, contextual, and procedural criteria of knowledge quality. At the same time, the proposed framework includes and synthesizes the various

An Assessment of Female Prisoners' Perception of the Accessibility ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Background: Accessibility of quality healthcare across the globe has generated a lot of attention among public health practitioners. Aim: This study explored the background characteristics of female prisoners and how it influences their assessment of the quality of accessible healthcare in the Kumasi Female Prison. Subjects ...

Community health centers and primary care access and quality for chronically-ill patients - a case-comparison study of urban Guangdong Province, China.

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Leiyu; Lee, De-Chih; Liang, Hailun; Zhang, Luwen; Makinen, Marty; Blanchet, Nathan; Kidane, Ruth; Lindelow, Magnus; Wang, Hong; Wu, Shaolong

2015-11-30

Reform of the health care system in urban areas of China has prompted concerns about the utilization of Community Health Centers (CHC). This study examined which of the dominant primary care delivery models, i.e., the public CHC model, the 'gate-keeper' CHC model, or the hospital-owned CHC models, was most effective in enhancing access to and quality of care for patients with chronic illness. The case-comparison design was used to study nine health care organizations in Guangzhou, Dongguan, and Shenzhen cities within Guangdong province, China. 560 patients aged 50 or over with hypertension or diabetes who visited either CHCs or hospitals in these three cities were surveyed by using face-to-face interviews. Bivariate analyses were performed to compare quality and value of care indicators among subjects from the three cities. Multivariate analyses were used to assess the association between type of primary care delivery and quality as well as value of chronic care after controlling for patients' demographic and health status characteristics. Patients from all three cities chose their current health care providers primarily out of concern for quality of care (both provider expertise and adequate medical equipment), patient-centered care, and insurance plan requirement. Compared with patients from Guangzhou, those from Dongguan performed significantly better on most quality and value of care indicators. Most of these indicators remained significantly better even after controlling for patients' demographic and health status characteristics. The Shenzhen model (hospital-owned and -managed CHC) was generally effective in enhancing accessibility and continuity. However, coordination suffered due to seemingly duplicating primary care outpatients at the hospital setting. Significant associations between types of health care facilities and quality of care were also observed such that patients from CHCs were more likely to be satisfied with traveling time and follow-up care by

Young "Science Ambassadors" Raise the Profile of Science

Science.gov (United States)

Ridley, Katie

2014-01-01

Katie Ridley, science coordinator at St. Gregory's Catholic Primary School, Liverpool, UK, states that the inspiration for "science ambassadors" came after embarking on the Primary Science Quality Mark programme at their school. Ridley realized that science was just not recognised as such by the children, they talked about scientific…

A Technique to Speedup Access to Web Contents

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education; Volume 7; Issue 7. Web Caching - A Technique to Speedup Access to Web Contents. Harsha Srinath Shiva Shankar Ramanna. General Article Volume 7 Issue 7 July 2002 pp 54-62 ... Keywords. World wide web; data caching; internet traffic; web page access.

Support for improved quality control but misplaced criticism of GBR science. Reply to viewpoint "The need for a formalised system of Quality Control for environmental policy-science" by P. Larcombe and P. Ridd (Marine Pollution Bulletin 126: 449-461, 2018).

Science.gov (United States)

Schaffelke, Britta; Fabricius, Katharina; Kroon, Frederieke; Brodie, Jon; De'ath, Glenn; Shaw, Roger; Tarte, Diane; Warne, Michael; Thorburn, Peter

2018-04-01

This is a response to the published Viewpoint by Larcombe and Ridd (2018). We agree with Larcombe and Ridd (2018) that scientific merit goes hand in hand with rigorous quality control. However, we are responding here to several points raised by Larcombe and Ridd (2018) which in our view were misrepresented. We describe the formal and effective science review, synthesis and advice processes that are in place for science supporting decision-making in the Great Barrier Reef. We also respond in detail to critiques of selected publications that were used by Larcombe and Ridd (2018) as a case study to illustrate shortcomings in science quality control. We provide evidence that their representation of the published research and arguments to support the statement that "many (…) conclusions are demonstrably incorrect" is based on misinterpretation, selective use of data and over-simplification, and also ignores formal responses to previously published critiques. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

SciELO, Scientific Electronic Library Online, a Database of Open Access Journals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rogerio Meneghini

2013-09-01

Full Text Available   This essay discusses SciELO, a scientific journal database operating in 14 countries. It covers over 1000 journals providing open access to full text and table sets of scientometrics data. In Brazil it is responsible for a collection of nearly 300 journals, selected along 15 years as the best Brazilian periodicals in natural and social sciences. Nonetheless, they still are national journal in the sense that over 80% of the articles are published by Brazilian scientists. Important initiatives focused on professionalization and internationalization are considered to bring these journals to a higher level of quality and visibility. DOI: 10.18870/hlrc.v3i3.153

Investigations in the Science of Sports.

Science.gov (United States)

Hammrich, Penny L.; Fadigan, Kathleen

2003-01-01

Describes the Sisters in Sport Science (SISS) program which provides equitable access for girls to science and mathematics through sports. Includes a sample SISS activity that integrates track and physical sciences. (YDS)

Web Accessibility in Romania: The Conformance of Municipal Web Sites to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

OpenAIRE

Costin PRIBEANU; Ruxandra-Dora MARINESCU; Paul FOGARASSY-NESZLY; Maria GHEORGHE-MOISII

2012-01-01

The accessibility of public administration web sites is a key quality attribute for the successful implementation of the Information Society. The purpose of this paper is to present a second review of municipal web sites in Romania that is based on automated accessibility checking. A number of 60 web sites were evaluated against WCAG 2.0 recommendations. The analysis of results reveals a relatively low web accessibility of municipal web sites and highlights several aspects. Firstly, a slight ...

Digitisation and public accessibility of old Polish guides on self-treatment and quality-of-life improvement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joanna Nowak

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This letter to the Editor can prove useful as a mini-guide. Interest in health and quality of life is continuing to grow in the second decade of the 21st century, both among professionals actively involved in giving advice to others and among diverse social groups, as well as individually, among those sick and those healthy. Along with recent novelties, traditional Old Polish methods also feature prominently in discussions, but those interested know relatively little about how to access source materials. This letter therefore describes the possibilities for open access to Polish-language health guides from the Renaissance and Baroque era, whose authors included medical doctors and which focused on describing food and herbs used in self-treatment and promoting the healthy life style of the period. The works of Andrzej from Kobylin, Zawacki, Śleszkowski, Olszowski and Haur are briefly described and information is given about their availability in full-text on-line data bases.

The provision and impact of online patient access to their electronic health records (EHR) and transactional services on the quality and safety of health care: systematic review protocol.

Science.gov (United States)

Mold, Freda; Ellis, Beverley; de Lusignan, Simon; Sheikh, Aziz; Wyatt, Jeremy C; Cavill, Mary; Michalakidis, Georgios; Barker, Fiona; Majeed, Azeem; Quinn, Tom; Koczan, Phil; Avanitis, Theo; Gronlund, Toto Anne; Franco, Christina; McCarthy, Mary; Renton, Zoë; Chauhan, Umesh; Blakey, Hannah; Kataria, Neha; Jones, Simon; Rafi, Imran

2012-01-01

Innovators have piloted improvements in communication, changed patterns of practice and patient empowerment from online access to electronic health records (EHR). International studies of online services, such as prescription ordering, online appointment booking and secure communications with primary care, show good uptake of email consultations, accessing test results and booking appointments; when technologies and business process are in place. Online access and transactional services are due to be rolled out across England by 2015; this review seeks to explore the impact of online access to health records and other online services on the quality and safety of primary health care. To assess the factors that may affect the provision of online patient access to their EHR and transactional services, and the impact of such access on the quality and safety of health care. Two reviewers independently searched 11 international databases during the period 1999-2012. A range of papers including descriptive studies using qualitative or quantitative methods, hypothesis-testing studies and systematic reviews were included. A detailed eligibility criterion will be used to shape study inclusion. A team of experts will review these papers for eligibility, extract data using a customised extraction form and use the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) instrument to determine the quality of the evidence and the strengths of any recommendation. Data will then be descriptively summarised and thematically synthesised. Where feasible, we will perform a quantitative meta-analysis. Prospero (International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews) registration number: crd42012003091.

Coverage and quality: A comparison of Web of Science and Scopus databases for reporting faculty nursing publication metrics.

Science.gov (United States)

Powell, Kimberly R; Peterson, Shenita R

Web of Science and Scopus are the leading databases of scholarly impact. Recent studies outside the field of nursing report differences in journal coverage and quality. A comparative analysis of nursing publications reported impact. Journal coverage by each database for the field of nursing was compared. Additionally, publications by 2014 nursing faculty were collected in both databases and compared for overall coverage and reported quality, as modeled by Scimajo Journal Rank, peer review status, and MEDLINE inclusion. Individual author impact, modeled by the h-index, was calculated by each database for comparison. Scopus offered significantly higher journal coverage. For 2014 faculty publications, 100% of journals were found in Scopus, Web of Science offered 82%. No significant difference was found in the quality of reported journals. Author h-index was found to be higher in Scopus. When reporting faculty publications and scholarly impact, academic nursing programs may be better represented by Scopus, without compromising journal quality. Programs with strong interdisciplinary work should examine all areas of strength to ensure appropriate coverage. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Improving Science Pedagogic Quality in Elementary School Using Process Skill Approach Can Motivate Student to Be Active in Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Sukiniarti

2016-01-01

On global era todays, as the professional teacher should be improving their pedagogic competency, including to improve their science pedagogy quality. This study is aimed to identify: (1) Process skill approach which has been used by Elementary School Teacher in science learning; (2) Teacher's opinion that process skill can motivate the student to…

African Journals Online: Veterinary Science

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Items 1 - 15 of 15 ... African Journals Online: Veterinary Science ... Browse By Category · Browse Alphabetically · Browse By Country · List All Titles · Free to read Titles This Journal is Open Access ... Life Sciences, Chemistry, Mathematics & Physics, Earth Sciences ... The Nigerian Journal of Animal Science (NJAS) is an official ...

Using performance tasks employing IOM patient safety competencies to introduce quality improvement processes in medical laboratory science education.

Science.gov (United States)

Golemboski, Karen; Otto, Catherine N; Morris, Susan

2013-01-01

In order to contribute to improved healthcare quality through patient-centered care, laboratory professionals at all levels of practice must be able to recognize the connection between non-analytical factors and laboratory analysis, in the context of patient outcomes and quality improvement. These practices require qualities such as critical thinking (CT), teamwork skills, and familiarity with the quality improvement process, which will be essential for the development of evidence-based laboratory science practice. Performance tasks (PT) are an educational strategy which can be used to teach and assess CT and teamwork, while introducing Medical Laboratory Science (MLS) students at both baccalaureate and advanced-practice levels to the concepts of quality improvement processes and patient outcomes research. PT presents students with complex, realistic scenarios which require the incorporation of subject-specific knowledge with competencies such as effective team communication, patient-centered care, and successful use of information technology. A PT with assessment rubric was designed for use in a baccalaureate-level MLS program to teach and assess CT and teamwork competency. The results indicated that, even when students were able to integrate subject-specific knowledge in creative ways, their understanding of teamwork and quality improvement was limited. This indicates the need to intentionally teach skills such as collaboration and quality system design. PT represent one of many strategies that may be used in MLS education to develop essential professional competencies, encourage expert practice, and facilitate quality improvement.

The Role and Evolution of NASA's Earth Science Data Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Ramapriyan, H. K.

2015-01-01

One of the three strategic goals of NASA is to Advance understanding of Earth and develop technologies to improve the quality of life on our home planet (NASA strategic plan 2014). NASA's Earth Science Data System (ESDS) Program directly supports this goal. NASA has been launching satellites for civilian Earth observations for over 40 years, and collecting data from various types of instruments. Especially since 1990, with the start of the Earth Observing System (EOS) Program, which was a part of the Mission to Planet Earth, the observations have been significantly more extensive in their volumes, variety and velocity. Frequent, global observations are made in support of Earth system science. An open data policy has been in effect since 1990, with no period of exclusive access and non-discriminatory access to data, free of charge. NASA currently holds nearly 10 petabytes of Earth science data including satellite, air-borne, and ground-based measurements and derived geophysical parameter products in digital form. Millions of users around the world are using NASA data for Earth science research and applications. In 2014, over a billion data files were downloaded by users from NASAs EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS), a system with 12 Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) across the U. S. As a core component of the ESDS Program, EOSDIS has been operating since 1994, and has been evolving continuously with advances in information technology. The ESDS Program influences as well as benefits from advances in Earth Science Informatics. The presentation will provide an overview of the role and evolution of NASAs ESDS Program.

Enhancing Access to and Use of NASA Earth Sciences Data via CUAHSI-HIS (Hydrologic Information System) and Other Hydrologic Community Tools

Science.gov (United States)

Rui, H.; Strub, R.; Teng, W. L.; Vollmer, B.; Mocko, D. M.; Maidment, D. R.; Whiteaker, T. L.

2013-12-01

The way NASA earth sciences data are typically archived (by time steps, one step per file, often containing multiple variables) is not optimal for their access by the hydrologic community, particularly if the data volume and/or number of data files are large. To enhance the access to and use of these NASA data, the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) adopted two approaches, in a project supported by the NASA ACCESS Program. The first is to optimally reorganize two large hydrological data sets for more efficient access, as time series, and to integrate the time series data (aka 'data rods') into hydrologic community tools, such as CUAHSI-HIS, EPA-BASINS, and Esri-ArcGIS. This effort has thus far resulted in the reorganization and archive (as data rods) of the following variables from the North American and Global Land Data Assimilation Systems (NLDAS and GLDAS, respectively): precipitation, soil moisture, evapotranspiration, runoff, near-surface specific humidity, potential evaporation, soil temperature, near surface air temperature, and near-surface wind. The second approach is to leverage the NASA Simple Subset Wizard (SSW), which was developed to unite data search and subsetters at various NASA EOSDIS data centers into a single, simple, seamless process. Data accessed via SSW are converted to time series before being made available via Web service. Leveraging SSW makes all data accessible via SSW potentially available to HIS users, which increases the number of data sets available as time series beyond those available as data rods. Thus far, a set of selected variables from the NASA Modern Era-Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications Land Surface (MERRA-Land) data set has been integrated into CUAHSI-HIS, including evaporation, land surface temperature, runoff, soil moisture, soil temperature, precipitation, and transpiration. All data integration into these tools has been conducted in collaboration with their

Data quality and consistency in Scopus and Web of Science in their indexing of Czech Journals

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mika, P.; Szarzec, J.; Sivertsen, G.

2016-07-01

This study addresses the discussion of “quality versus coverage” that often arises if a choice is needed between Scopus and Web of Science (WoS). We present a new methodology to detect problems in the quality of indexing procedures. Our preliminary findings indicate the same degree and types of errors in Scopus and WoS. The more serious errors seem to occur in the indexing of cited references, not in the recording of traditional metadata. (Author)

Task-role-based Access Control Model in Smart Health-care System

OpenAIRE

Wang Peng; Jiang Lingyun

2015-01-01

As the development of computer science and smart health-care technology, there is a trend for patients to enjoy medical care at home. Taking enormous users in the Smart Health-care System into consideration, access control is an important issue. Traditional access control models, discretionary access control, mandatory access control, and role-based access control, do not properly reflect the characteristics of Smart Health-care System. This paper proposes an advanced access control model for...

The science behind One Health: at the interface of humans, animals, and the environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Murtaugh, Michael P; Steer, Clifford J; Sreevatsan, Srinand; Patterson, Ned; Kennedy, Shaun; Sriramarao, P

2017-05-01

Humans face a grand quality-of-life challenge as growing demands for resources for an ever-expanding population threaten the existence of wildlife populations, degrade land, and pollute air and water. Public investment and policy decisions that will shape future interactions of humans, animals, and the environment need scientific input to help find common ground for durable and sustainable success. The Second International Conference on One Medicine One Science brought together a broad range of scientists, trainees, regulatory authorities, and health experts from 34 countries to inform and discuss the human impacts of air quality; the complexities of water quality, access, and conflicts; the opportunities and uncertainties in precision medicine; and the role of science communication in health policy formulation. Workshops focused on the roles and development of physician-scientists and multidisciplinary teams in complex problem solving, Big Data tools for analysis and visualization, international policy development processes, and health models that benefit animals and humans. Key realizations were that local and regional health challenges at the interface of humans, animals, and the environment are variations of the same overarching conflicts and that international gatherings provide new opportunities for investigation and policy development that are broadly applicable. © 2017 The Authors. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of New York Academy of Sciences.

Equitable science education in urban middle schools: Do reform efforts make a difference?

Science.gov (United States)

Hewson, Peter W.; Butler Kahle, Jane; Scantlebury, Kathryn; Davies, Darleen

2001-12-01

A central commitment of current reforms in science education is that all students, regardless of culture, gender, race, and/ or socioeconomic status, are capable of understanding and doing science. The study Bridging the Gap: Equity in Systemic Reform assessed equity in systemic reform using a nested research design that drew on both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. As part of the study, case studies were conducted in two urban middle schools in large Ohio cities. The purpose of the case studies was to identify factors affecting equity in urban science education reform. Data were analyzed using Kahle's (1998) equity metric. That model allowed us to assess progress toward equity using a range of research-based indicators grouped into three categories critical for equitable education: access to, retention in, and achievement in quality science education. In addition, a fourth category was defined for systemic indicators of equity. Analyses indicated that the culture and climate of the case study schools differentially affected their progress toward equitable reform in science education.

Open access – deus ex machina for publishing scholarly journals?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ivana Hebrang Grgić

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The article describes the evolution of scholarly communication through scholarly journals. It gives a short overview of the historical development, starting from the first journals in the 17th century to problems in the 20th century (such as increase in the number of journals, problems of accessibility, visibility, and journal access crisis. The open access (OA movement is described. It arose from the “old tradition” facing new technologies and was supposed to be the solution to the journal crisis that culminated in 1990s. The idea, defined in the Budapest Open Access Initiative, was to assure free and unrestricted online availability of peer-reviewed journal literature. The beginnings of formal scholarly communication, back in 1665, had similar ideas of making research results available to the widest possible public. The idea was excellent – removing access barriers would increase visibility, impact and quality of research. Research has shown that OA articles have better impact and visibility (Lawrence, Brody, Harnad, Haajem, etc.. However, publishing scientific information has its costs. New models have been developed, some of them causing new restrictions and barriers. The most popular model is the author-pays model (article processing charges, APC – if authors can afford to pay the processing charges, their work is published and thus more visible and more citable. However, if they cannot, a new problem arises – some research results, although valuable, are not published in open access and therefore they have lower visibility and impact. Another problem is the phenomenon of the so-called predatory publishers. Those publishers use the APC model but neglect quality control mechanisms in order to make profit. Their criteria for publishing are not positive peer-reviews but payments made by authors or their institutions. Predatory publishers’ practices are not only unethical, but also illegal, and they are a great threat to the

Educational Service Quality in Zanjan University of Medical Sciences from Students' Point of View

Science.gov (United States)

Mohammadi, Ali; Mohammadi, Jamshid

2014-01-01

This study aims at evaluating perceived service quality in Zanjan University of Medical Sciences (ZUMS). This study was cross-sectional and authors surveyed educational services at ZUMS. Through stratified random sampling, 384 students were selected and an adapted SERVQUAL instrument was used for data collection. Data analysis was performed by…

Comparison of Accessibility, Cost, and Quality of Elective Coronary Revascularization Between Veterans Affairs and Community Care Hospitals.

Science.gov (United States)

Barnett, Paul G; Hong, Juliette S; Carey, Evan; Grunwald, Gary K; Joynt Maddox, Karen; Maddox, Thomas M

2018-02-01

The Veterans Affairs (VA) Community Care (CC) Program supplements VA care with community-based medical services. However, access gains and value provided by CC have not been well described. To compare the access, cost, and quality of elective coronary revascularization procedures between VA and CC hospitals and to evaluate if procedural volume or publicly reported quality data can be used to identify high-value care. Observational cohort study of veterans younger than 65 years undergoing an elective coronary revascularization, controlling for differences in risk factors using propensity adjustment. The setting was VA and CC hospitals. Participants were veterans undergoing elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and veterans undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) procedures between October 1, 2008, and September 30, 2011. The analysis was conducted between July 2014 and July 2017. Receipt of an elective coronary revascularization at a VA vs CC facility. Access to care as measured by travel distance, 30-day mortality, and costs. In the 3 years ending on September 30, 2011, a total of 13 237 elective PCIs (79.1% at the VA) and 5818 elective CABG procedures (83.6% at the VA) were performed in VA or CC hospitals among veterans meeting study inclusion criteria. On average, use of CC was associated with reduced net travel by 53.6 miles for PCI and by 73.3 miles for CABG surgery compared with VA-only care. Adjusted 30-day mortality after PCI was higher in CC compared with VA (1.54% for CC vs 0.65% for VA, P publicly reported mortality data identified hospitals that provided higher-value care with the exception that CABG mortality was lower in small-volume CC hospitals. In this veteran cohort, PCIs performed in CC hospitals were associated with shorter travel distance but with higher mortality, higher costs, and minimal travel savings compared with VA hospitals. The CABG procedures performed in CC hospitals were associated with shorter travel distance

Global Scenarios of Air Pollution until 2030: Combining Air Quality, Climate Change and Energy Access Policies

Science.gov (United States)

Rao, S.; Dentener, F. J.; Klimont, Z.; Riahi, K.

2011-12-01

Outdoor air pollution is increasingly recognized as a significant contributor to global health outcomes. This has led to the implementation of a number of air quality policies worldwide, with total air pollution control costs in 2005 estimated at US$195 billion. More than 80% of the world's population is still found to be exposed to PM2.5 concentrations exceeding WHO air quality guidelines and health impacts resulting from these exposures estimated at around 2-5% of the global disease burden. Key questions to answer are 1) How will pollutant emissions evolve in the future given developments in the energy system and how will energy and environmental policies influence such emission trends. 2) What implications will this have for resulting exposures and related health outcomes. In order to answer these questions, varying levels of stringency of air quality legislation are analyzed in combination with policies on universal access to clean cooking fuels and limiting global temperature change to 2°C in 2100. Bottom-up methodologies using energy emissions modeling are used to derive sector-based pollutant emission trajectories until 2030. Emissions are spatially downscaled and used in combination with a global transport chemistry model to derive ambient concentrations of PM2.5. Health impacts of these exposures are further estimated consistent with WHO data and methodology. The results indicate that currently planned air quality legislation combined with rising energy demand will be insufficient in controlling future emissions growth in developing countries. In order to achieve significant reductions in pollutant emissions of the order of more than 50% from 2005 levels and reduce exposures to levels consistent with WHO standards, it will be necessary to increase the stringency of such legislations and combine them with policies on energy access and climate change. Combined policies also result in reductions in air pollution control costs as compared to those associated

Urban farmers' markets: accessibility, offerings, and produce variety, quality, and price compared to nearby stores.

Science.gov (United States)

Lucan, Sean C; Maroko, Andrew R; Sanon, Omar; Frias, Rafael; Schechter, Clyde B

2015-07-01

Most food-environment research has focused narrowly on select stores and restaurants. There has been comparatively less attention to non-storefront food sources like farmers' markets (FMs), particularly in urban communities. The objective of the present study was to assess FMs' potential contribution to an urban food environment in terms of specific foods offered, and compare FM accessibility as well as produce variety, quality, and price to that of nearby stores. Investigators conducted a detailed cross-sectional assessment of all FMs in Bronx County, NY, and of the nearest store(s) selling produce within a half-mile walking distance (up to two stores per FM). The study included 26 FMs and 44 stores. Investigators assessed accessibility (locations of FMs and stores relative to each other, and hours of operation for each), variety (the number and type of all food items offered at FMs and all fresh produce items offered at stores), quality (where produce items were grown and if they were organic), and price (including any sales prices or promotional discounts). Analyses included frequencies, proportions, and variable distributions, as well as mixed-effect regressions, paired t-tests, and signed rank tests to compare FMs to stores. Geographic information systems (GIS) allowed for mapping of FM and store locations and determining street-network distances between them. The mean distance between FMs and the nearest store selling fresh produce was 0.15 miles (range 0.02-0.36 miles). FMs were open substantially fewer months, days, and hours than stores. FMs offered 26.4 fewer fresh produce items on average than stores (p values operation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Examining of the Predictors of Pre-Service Teachers' Perceptions of the Quality of the Science Fair Projects in Turkey

Science.gov (United States)

Tortop, Hasan Said

2014-01-01

This study aimed at examining the predictors of quality of science fair (SF) projects in the light of pre-service teachers' evaluation of SF rubric' domains. These projects were selected by judges in A city for the A Regional Exhibition of Science and Mathematics Project Study for Primary School Students: The SF projects were evaluated by thirty…

Open Access to Mexican Academic Production

Science.gov (United States)

Adame, Silvia I.; Llorens, Luis

2016-01-01

This paper presents a description of the metadata harvester software development. This system provides access to reliable and quality educational resources, shared by Mexican Universities through their repositories, to anyone with Internet Access. We present the conceptual and contextual framework, followed by the technical basis, the results and…

Monitoring Accessibility Services in Digital Television

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francisco Utray

2012-01-01

Full Text Available This paper addresses methodology and tools applied to the monitoring of accessibility services in digital television at a time when the principles of accessibility and design are being considered in all new audiovisual media communication services. The main objective of this research is to measure the quality and quantity of existing accessibility services offered by digital terrestrial television (DTT. The preliminary results, presented here, offer the development of a prototype for automatic monitoring and a methodology for obtaining quality measurements, along with the conclusions drawn by initial studies carried out in Spain. The recent approval of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities gives special relevance to this research because it provides valuable guidelines to help set the priorities to improve services currently available to users.

Opening science: New publication forms in science

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Scheliga, Kaja

2014-12-01

Full Text Available [english] Digital technologies change how scientists access and process information and consequently impact publication forms in science. Even though the core of scientific publications has remained the same, established publication formats, such as the scientific paper or book, are succumbing to the transitions caused by digital technologies. At the same time, new online tools enable new publication forms, such as blogs, microblogs or wikis, to emerge. This article explores the changing and emerging publications forms in science and also reflects upon the changing role of libraries. The transformations of publishing forms are discussed in the context of open science.

Editorial - Open Access and accessing openness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yngve Nordkvelle

2008-12-01

Full Text Available Seminar.net enters it’s fourth year, and has reached a state of maturity in a number of meanings: it receives manuscripts from all continents, the articles are read from 134 countries, of which India represents the highest number of readers, a number of articles have been read by more than 10 000 interested persons, and the frequency of issues is now three per year, and will reach four by next year. Interested parties now approach us in order to learn about our policies and practices.It takes time to become established and influential in the sense that articles are cited and referred to in prestigious publications. Still, the most prestigious publications are on paper. Many countries now embark on a policy that rewards researchers that publish in international journals, preferably in English. National languages are rendered less significant. In the UK, the research assessment exercise (RAE, and several other countries with a publication or citation based reward system in research, tend to favour quantitative dimensions at the expense of the quality of the publication. International publishing houses are huge profit-making companies that over years have increased their profit rates, charging increasingly economically pressured higher education institution with high subscription rates. With the advent of electronic publishing their position is severely challenged. It has been noted that the most significant publication of the last couple of decades was an electronic publication: Tim Berners Lee published the protocol for the World Wide Web in 1990. It was never refereed, nor was controlled by appointed gatekeepers of the “establishment”. The number of Open Access publications is rising every day, and the number of e-journals for academic publishing is reaching higher and higher numbers. In a recent case The Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University decided, that Harvard employees must publish all their material simultaneously on the

Usage Trends of Open Access and Local Journals: A Korean Case Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Seo, Jeong-Wook; Chung, Hosik; Yun, Jungmin; Park, Jin Young; Park, Eunsun; Ahn, Yuri

2016-01-01

Articles from open access and local journals are important resources for research in Korea and the usage trends of these articles are important indicators for the assessment of the current research practice. We analyzed an institutional collection of published papers from 1998 to 2014 authored by researchers from Seoul National University, and their references from papers published between 1998 and 2011. The published papers were collected from Web of Science or Scopus and were analyzed according to the proportion of articles from open access journals. Their cited references from published papers in Web of Science were analyzed according to the proportion of local (South Korean) or open access journals. The proportion of open access papers was relatively stable until 2006 (2.5 ~ 5.2% in Web of Science and 2.7 ~ 4.2% in Scopus), but then increased to 15.9% (Web of Science) or 18.5% (Scopus) in 2014. We analyzed 2,750,485 cited references from 52,295 published papers. We found that the overall proportion of cited articles from local journals was 1.8% and that for open access journals was 3.0%. Citations of open access articles have increased since 2006 to 4.1% in 2011, although the increase in open access article citations was less than for open access publications. The proportion of citations from local journals was even lower. We think that the publishing / citing mismatch is a term to describe this difference, which is an issue at Seoul National University, where the number of published papers at open access or local journals is increasing but the number of citations is not. The cause of this discrepancy is multi-factorial but the governmental / institutional policies, social / cultural issues and authors' citing behaviors will explain the mismatch. However, additional measures are also necessary, such as the development of an institutional citation database and improved search capabilities with respect to local and open access documents.

Usage Trends of Open Access and Local Journals: A Korean Case Study

Science.gov (United States)

Chung, Hosik; Yun, Jungmin; Park, Jin Young; Park, Eunsun; Ahn, Yuri

2016-01-01

Articles from open access and local journals are important resources for research in Korea and the usage trends of these articles are important indicators for the assessment of the current research practice. We analyzed an institutional collection of published papers from 1998 to 2014 authored by researchers from Seoul National University, and their references from papers published between 1998 and 2011. The published papers were collected from Web of Science or Scopus and were analyzed according to the proportion of articles from open access journals. Their cited references from published papers in Web of Science were analyzed according to the proportion of local (South Korean) or open access journals. The proportion of open access papers was relatively stable until 2006 (2.5 ~ 5.2% in Web of Science and 2.7 ~ 4.2% in Scopus), but then increased to 15.9% (Web of Science) or 18.5% (Scopus) in 2014. We analyzed 2,750,485 cited references from 52,295 published papers. We found that the overall proportion of cited articles from local journals was 1.8% and that for open access journals was 3.0%. Citations of open access articles have increased since 2006 to 4.1% in 2011, although the increase in open access article citations was less than for open access publications. The proportion of citations from local journals was even lower. We think that the publishing / citing mismatch is a term to describe this difference, which is an issue at Seoul National University, where the number of published papers at open access or local journals is increasing but the number of citations is not. The cause of this discrepancy is multi-factorial but the governmental / institutional policies, social / cultural issues and authors' citing behaviors will explain the mismatch. However, additional measures are also necessary, such as the development of an institutional citation database and improved search capabilities with respect to local and open access documents. PMID:27195948

Usage Trends of Open Access and Local Journals: A Korean Case Study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jeong-Wook Seo

Full Text Available Articles from open access and local journals are important resources for research in Korea and the usage trends of these articles are important indicators for the assessment of the current research practice. We analyzed an institutional collection of published papers from 1998 to 2014 authored by researchers from Seoul National University, and their references from papers published between 1998 and 2011. The published papers were collected from Web of Science or Scopus and were analyzed according to the proportion of articles from open access journals. Their cited references from published papers in Web of Science were analyzed according to the proportion of local (South Korean or open access journals. The proportion of open access papers was relatively stable until 2006 (2.5 ~ 5.2% in Web of Science and 2.7 ~ 4.2% in Scopus, but then increased to 15.9% (Web of Science or 18.5% (Scopus in 2014. We analyzed 2,750,485 cited references from 52,295 published papers. We found that the overall proportion of cited articles from local journals was 1.8% and that for open access journals was 3.0%. Citations of open access articles have increased since 2006 to 4.1% in 2011, although the increase in open access article citations was less than for open access publications. The proportion of citations from local journals was even lower. We think that the publishing / citing mismatch is a term to describe this difference, which is an issue at Seoul National University, where the number of published papers at open access or local journals is increasing but the number of citations is not. The cause of this discrepancy is multi-factorial but the governmental / institutional policies, social / cultural issues and authors' citing behaviors will explain the mismatch. However, additional measures are also necessary, such as the development of an institutional citation database and improved search capabilities with respect to local and open access documents.

The provision and impact of online patient access to their electronic health records (EHR and transactional services on the quality and safety of health care: systematic review protocol

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Freda Mold

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Background Innovators have piloted improvements in communication, changed patterns of practice and patient empowerment from online access to electronic health records (EHR. International studies of online services, such as prescription ordering, online appointment booking and secure communications with primary care, show good uptake of email consultations, accessing test results and booking appointments; when technologies and business process are in place. Online access and transactional services are due to be rolled out across England by 2015; this review seeks to explore the impact of online access to health records and other online services on the quality and safety of primary health care.Objective To assess the factors that may affect the provision of online patient access to their EHR and transactional services, and the impact of such access on the quality and safety of health care.Method Two reviewers independently searched 11 international databases during the period 1999–2012. A range of papers including descriptive studies using qualitative or quantitative methods, hypothesis-testing studies and systematic reviews were included. A detailed eligibility criterion will be used to shape study inclusion .A team of experts will review these papers for eligibility, extract data using a customised extraction form and use the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE instrument to determine the quality of the evidence and the strengths of any recommendation. Data will then be descriptively summarised and thematically synthesised. Where feasible, we will perform a quantitative meta-analysis.Prospero (International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews registration number: crd42012003091.

Awareness and Use of Open Access Scholarly Publications by ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The study investigated the awareness and use of Open Access scholarly publications by postgraduate students of Faculty of Science in Ahmadu Bello University Zaria (ABU), Kaduna State, Nigeria. The study was guided by four research objectives namely to determine the channels of awareness of Open Access ...

Understanding and improving access to prompt and effective malaria treatment and care in rural Tanzania: the ACCESS Programme.

Science.gov (United States)

Hetzel, Manuel W; Iteba, Nelly; Makemba, Ahmed; Mshana, Christopher; Lengeler, Christian; Obrist, Brigit; Schulze, Alexander; Nathan, Rose; Dillip, Angel; Alba, Sandra; Mayumana, Iddy; Khatib, Rashid A; Njau, Joseph D; Mshinda, Hassan

2007-06-29

Prompt access to effective treatment is central in the fight against malaria. However, a variety of interlinked factors at household and health system level influence access to timely and appropriate treatment and care. Furthermore, access may be influenced by global and national health policies. As a consequence, many malaria episodes in highly endemic countries are not treated appropriately. The ACCESS Programme aims at understanding and improving access to prompt and effective malaria treatment and care in a rural Tanzanian setting. The programme's strategy is based on a set of integrated interventions, including social marketing for improved care seeking at community level as well as strengthening of quality of care at health facilities. This is complemented by a project that aims to improve the performance of drug stores. The interventions are accompanied by a comprehensive set of monitoring and evaluation activities measuring the programme's performance and (health) impact. Baseline data demonstrated heterogeneity in the availability of malaria treatment, unavailability of medicines and treatment providers in certain areas as well as quality problems with regard to drugs and services. The ACCESS Programme is a combination of multiple complementary interventions with a strong evaluation component. With this approach, ACCESS aims to contribute to the development of a more comprehensive access framework and to inform and support public health professionals and policy-makers in the delivery of improved health services.

Free access to science... but at what cost?

CERN Multimedia

Anaïs Schaeffer

2011-01-01

At the last meeting of CERN’s Scientific Information Policy Board (SIPB), on 20 October this year, participants were informed of a practice that is disconcerting to say the least: some publishers are compiling books from free access material, which they then market at relatively high prices.   Some theses, which are freely accessible on CDS, are being sold at incredibly high prices on Amazon. The problem is that buyers don't know they are buying theses that are available for free. “When I found out, I was really astonished!” admits Tullio Basaglia, head of the Library Section of CERN’s Scientific Information Service. Tullio was referring to the distinctly unorthodox practice of certain unscrupulous publishers who are selling freely available information! They simply poach articles from Wikipedia, compile them, bind them into a book, and then sell them at a high price under the name of a non-existent author. Thus, for instance, a certain Lambert...

Ocean Drilling Program: Web Site Access Statistics

Science.gov (United States)

web site ODP/TAMU Science Operator Home Ocean Drilling Program Web Site Access Statistics* Overview See statistics for JOIDES members. See statistics for Janus database. 1997 October November December

Electronic Information Access and Utilization by Makerere University Students in Uganda

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elisam Magara

2008-09-01

Full Text Available Objectives – The objectives of this study were to establish the level of computer utilization skills of Makerere University (Uganda Library and Information Science (LIS students; to determine the use of electronic information resources by LIS students; to determine the attitudes of LIS students towards electronic information resources; and to establish the problems faced by LIS students in accessing electronic information resources.Methods – A questionnaire survey was used for data collection.Results – The majority of Library and Information Science students at Makerere University depend on university computers for their work, and very few of them access the library’s e-resources. The few who access e-resources are self-taught. The majority of students surveyed were unaware of Emerald and EBSCO databases relevant to Library and Information Science students, and they found accessing eresources time-consuming. Conclusion – The study concluded that a concerted effort is needed by both LIS lecturers and university librarians in promoting use of the library’s electronic resources.

Development and case study of a science-based software platform to support policy making on air quality.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Yun; Lao, Yanwen; Jang, Carey; Lin, Chen-Jen; Xing, Jia; Wang, Shuxiao; Fu, Joshua S; Deng, Shuang; Xie, Junping; Long, Shicheng

2015-01-01

This article describes the development and implementations of a novel software platform that supports real-time, science-based policy making on air quality through a user-friendly interface. The software, RSM-VAT, uses a response surface modeling (RSM) methodology and serves as a visualization and analysis tool (VAT) for three-dimensional air quality data obtained by atmospheric models. The software features a number of powerful and intuitive data visualization functions for illustrating the complex nonlinear relationship between emission reductions and air quality benefits. The case study of contiguous U.S. demonstrates that the enhanced RSM-VAT is capable of reproducing the air quality model results with Normalized Mean Bias quality policy making in near real time. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Legislation should support optimal breastfeeding practices and access to low-cost, high-quality complementary foods: Indonesia provides a case study.

Science.gov (United States)

Soekarjo, Damayanti; Zehner, Elizabeth

2011-10-01

It is important to support women to exclusively breastfeed for 6 months and continue breastfeeding for 24 months and beyond. It is also necessary to provide the poor with access to affordable ways to improve the quality of complementary foods. Currently, many countries do not have the legal and policy environment necessary to support exclusive and continued breastfeeding. Legislative and policy changes are also necessary for introducing complementary food supplements, allowing them to be marketed to those who need them, and ensuring that marketing remains appropriate and in full compliance with the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes. This paper aims to illustrate the above with examples from Indonesia and to identify legislative requirements for supporting breastfeeding and enabling appropriate access to high-quality complementary food supplements for children 6-24 months of age. Requirements include improved information, training, monitoring and enforcement systems for the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes; implementation and monitoring of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative; establishment of a registration category for complementary food supplements to enhance availability of high-quality, low-cost fortified products to help improve young child feeding; clear identification and marketing of these products as complementary food supplements for 6-24-month-olds so as to promote proper use and not interfere with breastfeeding. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Private-Sector Social Franchising to Accelerate Family Planning Access, Choice, and Quality: Results From Marie Stopes International

Science.gov (United States)

Munroe, Erik; Hayes, Brendan; Taft, Julia

2015-01-01

Background: To achieve the global Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) goal of reaching 120 million more women with voluntary family planning services, rapid scale-up of services is needed. Clinical social franchising, a service delivery approach used by Marie Stopes International (MSI) in which small, independent health care businesses are organized into quality-assured networks, provides an opportunity to engage the private sector in improving access to family planning and other health services. Methods: We analyzed MSI’s social franchising program against the 4 intended outputs of access, efficiency, quality, and equity. The analysis used routine service data from social franchising programs in 17 African and Asian countries (2008–2014) to estimate number of clients reached, couple-years of protection (CYPs) provided, and efficiency of services; clinical quality audits of 636 social franchisees from a subset of the 17 countries (2011–2014); and exit interviews with 4,844 clients in 14 countries (2013) to examine client satisfaction, demographics (age and poverty), and prior contraceptive use. The MSI “Impact 2” model was used to estimate population-level outcomes by converting service data into estimated health outcomes. Results: Between 2008 and 2014, an estimated 3,753,065 women cumulatively received voluntary family planning services via 17 national social franchise programs, with a sizable 68% choosing long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs). While the number of social franchisee outlets increased over time, efficiency also significantly improved over time, with each outlet delivering, on average, 178 CYPs in 2008 compared with 941 CYPs in 2014 (P = .02). Clinical quality audit scores also significantly improved; 39.8% of social franchisee outlets scored over 80% in 2011 compared with 84.1% in 2014. In 2013, 40.7% of the clients reported they had not been using a modern method during the 3 months prior to their visit (95% CI = 37.4, 44

BioFed: federated query processing over life sciences linked open data.

Science.gov (United States)

Hasnain, Ali; Mehmood, Qaiser; Sana E Zainab, Syeda; Saleem, Muhammad; Warren, Claude; Zehra, Durre; Decker, Stefan; Rebholz-Schuhmann, Dietrich

2017-03-15

Biomedical data, e.g. from knowledge bases and ontologies, is increasingly made available following open linked data principles, at best as RDF triple data. This is a necessary step towards unified access to biological data sets, but this still requires solutions to query multiple endpoints for their heterogeneous data to eventually retrieve all the meaningful information. Suggested solutions are based on query federation approaches, which require the submission of SPARQL queries to endpoints. Due to the size and complexity of available data, these solutions have to be optimised for efficient retrieval times and for users in life sciences research. Last but not least, over time, the reliability of data resources in terms of access and quality have to be monitored. Our solution (BioFed) federates data over 130 SPARQL endpoints in life sciences and tailors query submission according to the provenance information. BioFed has been evaluated against the state of the art solution FedX and forms an important benchmark for the life science domain. The efficient cataloguing approach of the federated query processing system 'BioFed', the triple pattern wise source selection and the semantic source normalisation forms the core to our solution. It gathers and integrates data from newly identified public endpoints for federated access. Basic provenance information is linked to the retrieved data. Last but not least, BioFed makes use of the latest SPARQL standard (i.e., 1.1) to leverage the full benefits for query federation. The evaluation is based on 10 simple and 10 complex queries, which address data in 10 major and very popular data sources (e.g., Dugbank, Sider). BioFed is a solution for a single-point-of-access for a large number of SPARQL endpoints providing life science data. It facilitates efficient query generation for data access and provides basic provenance information in combination with the retrieved data. BioFed fully supports SPARQL 1.1 and gives access to the