WorldWideScience

Sample records for facilitating scientific communication

  1. Using Communication Technology to Facilitate Scientific Literacy: A Framework for Engaged Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    VanBuskirk, Shireen Adele

    The purpose of this research project is to describe how existing communication technologies are used to foster scientific literacy for secondary students. This study develops a new framework as an analytic tool to categorize the activities of teachers and students involved in scientific literacy to describe what elements of scientific literacy are facilitated by such technologies. Four case studies are analyzed using the framework to describe the scientific literacy initiatives. Data collection at each site included interviews with the teacher, student focus groups, student surveys, and classroom observations. Qualitative analysis of the data provided insight into the learning activities and student experiences in the four cases. This study intentionally provides a platform for student voice. Very few previous empirical studies in the area of scientific literacy include the student experience. This represents a significant gap in the current literature on scientific literacy. An interpretation of scientific literacy that promotes student engagement, interaction, and initiative corresponds to a need to listen to students' perspectives on these experiences. Findings of the study indicated that the classroom activities depended on the teacher's philosophy regarding scientific literacy. Communication technology was ubiquitous; where the teacher did not initiate the use of social media in the classroom, the students did. The goal of supporting scientific literacy in students is an objective that extends beyond the boundaries of classroom walls, and it can be facilitated by technologies that seem both abundant and underutilized. Technology-enhanced pedagogy altered the classroom practices and resulted in more student participation and engagement.

  2. Scientific communication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aleksander Kobylarek

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available The article tackles the problem of models of communication in science. The formal division of communication processes into oral and written does not resolve the problem of attitude. The author defines successful communication as a win-win game, based on the respect and equality of the partners, regardless of their position in the world of science. The core characteristics of the process of scientific communication are indicated , such as openness, fairness, support, and creation. The task of creating the right atmosphere for science communication belongs to moderators, who should not allow privilege and differentiation of position to affect scientific communication processes.

  3. A Programme-Wide Training Framework to Facilitate Scientific Communication Skills Development amongst Biological Sciences Masters Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Divan, Aysha; Mason, Sam

    2016-01-01

    In this article we describe the effectiveness of a programme-wide communication skills training framework incorporated within a one-year biological sciences taught Masters course designed to enhance the competency of students in communicating scientific research principally to a scientific audience. In one class we analysed the numerical marks…

  4. On the communication of scientific data: The Full-Metadata Format

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Riede, Moritz; Schueppel, Rico; Sylvester-Hvid, Kristian O.

    2010-01-01

    In this paper, we introduce a scientific format for text-based data files, which facilitates storing and communicating tabular data sets. The so-called Full-Metadata Format builds on the widely used INI-standard and is based on four principles: readable self-documentation, flexible structure, fail...

  5. Open scientific communication urged

    Science.gov (United States)

    Richman, Barbara T.

    In a report released last week the National Academy of Sciences' Panel on Scientific Communication and National Security concluded that the ‘limited and uncertain benefits’ of controls on the dissemination of scientific and technological research are ‘outweighed by the importance of scientific progress, which open communication accelerates, to the overall welfare of the nation.’ The 18-member panel, chaired by Dale R. Corson, president emeritus of Cornell University, was created last spring (Eos, April 20, 1982, p. 241) to examine the delicate balance between open dissemination of scientific and technical information and the U.S. government's desire to protect scientific and technological achievements from being translated into military advantages for our political adversaries.The panel dealt almost exclusively with the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union but noted that there are ‘clear problems in scientific communication and national security involving Third World countries.’ Further study of this matter is necessary.

  6. The (Surplus) Value of Scientific Communication

    OpenAIRE

    Fröhlich, Gerhard

    1996-01-01

    In research on scientific communication there are above all theory-less and formal/natural scientific models of scientific communication. These are juxtaposed to social-scientific, power-sensitive models (Elias, Bourdieu, Merton). The (surplus) value of scientific communication can be variously understood: either as inherent surplus values in the sense of potential effects of stimulation, synergy, critique, quality control; or as symbolic surplus value in the sense of symbolic capital (Bourdi...

  7. Internet website as a tool of communication in scientific institutions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marzena Feldy

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the article is to analyze the use of websites in communication activities and image building of national scientific institutions. One of the reasons for undertaking this subject is the greater attention paid to scientific communication and its link to the need for society involvement in research, that was expressed in the “Rome Declaration on Responsible Research and Innovation in Europe” in 2014. Apart from that, there is an enhanced science mediatization that requires from PR specialists an extra effort to ensure that their messages are not distorted. The subject seems to be vital as there is a growing emphasis on commercialization of scientific research that creates the need to undertake deliberate efforts to popularize scientific discoveries. Moreover, a demographic decline, which more and more touches higher education institutions and forces them to strive for creating well-known brands, contributes to the subject’s importance. In order to realize the objective, in July 2015, 605 websites of national research institutions were reviewed to determine whether their operators shared contact details to the employee responsible for communication, posted messages informing about current events as well as visual content, used such tools as newsletters, RSS feeds and social media, utilized solutions that facilitate contacts with experts and reprinted materials about themselves published by other medias. The analyzes were performed taking into account the type of each scientific institution (i.e.: a public university, a private university, a research institute or the PAS institute, its size and the empowerment to award scientific degrees. The results show that relatively few scientific institutions fully exploit the potential of websites in public relations activities. According to anticipation, scientific institutions with a department or at least a single position responsible for communication are more active in this field

  8. Visual communication of engineering and scientific data in the courtroom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jackson, Gerald W.; Henry, Andrew C.

    1993-01-01

    Presenting engineering and scientific information in the courtroom is challenging. Quite often the data is voluminous and, therefore, difficult to digest by engineering experts, let alone a lay judge, lawyer, or jury. This paper discusses computer visualization techniques designed to provide the court methods of communicating data in visual formats thus allowing a more accurate understanding of complicated concepts and results. Examples are presented that include accident reconstructions, technical concept illustration, and engineering data visualization. Also presented is the design of an electronic courtroom which facilitates the display and communication of information to the courtroom.

  9. Scientific Communication and the Nature of Science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nielsen, Kristian H.

    2013-01-01

    Communication is an important part of scientific practice and, arguably, may be seen as constitutive to scientific knowledge. Yet, often scientific communication gets cursory treatment in science studies as well as in science education. In Nature of Science (NOS), for example, communication is rarely mentioned explicitly, even though, as will be…

  10. Scientific visualization for enhanced interpretation and communication of geoscientific information

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vorauer, A.; Cotesta, L.

    2006-01-01

    Ontario Power Generation's Deep Geologic Repository Technology Program has undertaken applied research into the application of scientific visualization technologies to: i) improve the interpretation and synthesis of complex geoscientific field data; ii) facilitate the development of defensible conceptual site descriptive models; and iii) enhance communication between multi-disciplinary site investigation teams and other stakeholders. Two scientific visualization projects are summarized that benefited from the use of the Gocad earth modelling software and were supported by an immersive virtual reality laboratory: i) the Moderately Fractured Rock experiment at the 125,000 m 3 block scale; and ii) the Sub-regional Flow System Modelling Project at the 100 km 2 scale. (author)

  11. Energy and scientific communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Sanctis, E.

    2013-06-01

    Energy communication is a paradigmatic case of scientific communication. It is particularly important today, when the world is confronted with a number of immediate, urgent problems. Science communication has become a real duty and a big challenge for scientists. It serves to create and foster a climate of reciprocal knowledge and trust between science and society, and to establish a good level of interest and enthusiasm for research. For an effective communication it is important to establish an open dialogue with the audience, and a close collaboration among scientists and science communicators. An international collaboration in energy communication is appropriate to better support international and interdisciplinary research and projects.

  12. SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATION WITH A FOCUS ON SESAME

    CERN Document Server

    ahmad, sameem

    2017-01-01

    Scientific communication, the representation of CERN and raising awareness about science to a wide range of audiences is very important for the CERN communication teams. Having a physics background and an interest in science administration, communication and research, I was based in the International Relations sector, working in various groups and focusing on written communication. I gained experience in many aspects of scientific communications by finding out how CERN in represented in the press and media, other online forums and in outreach.

  13. Scientific writing and communication papers, proposals, and presentations

    CERN Document Server

    Hofmann, Angelika H

    2014-01-01

    Scientific Writing and Communication: Papers, Proposals, and Presentations, Second Edition, serves as a comprehensive " reference guide to scientific writing and communication. The second edition of Angelika Hofmann's successful text covers all the areas of scientific communication that a scientist needs to know and master in order to successfully promote his or her research and career. This unique "all-in-one" handbook begins with a discussion of the basic principles of scientific writing style and composition and then applies these principles to writing research papers, review articles, grant proposals, research statements, and resumes, as well as to preparing academic presentations and posters. Scientific Writing and Communication: Papers, Proposals, and Presentations has been used successfully for a number of years in courses on scientific writing at various universities and institutes worldwide. Readers of the second edition will find numerous new examples and exercises, many with an expanded interdiscip...

  14. Creating Posters for Effective Scientific Communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bavdekar, Sandeep B; Vyas, Shruti; Anand, Varun

    2017-08-01

    A scientific poster is a summary of one's research that is presented in a visually engaging manner. Posters are presented as a means of short and quick scientific communications at conferences and scientific meetings. Presenting posters has advantages for the presenters and for conference attendees and organizers. It also plays a part in dissemination of research findings and furthering science. An effective poster is the one that focuses on a single message and conveys it through a concise and artistically attractive manner. This communication intends to provide tips on creating an effective poster to young scientists. © Journal of the Association of Physicians of India 2011.

  15. Roles of Illustrators in Visual Communication of Scientific Knowledge

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kana Okawa

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available Scientific knowledge is the knowledge accumulated by systematic studies and organized by general principles. Visual, verbal, numeric, and other types of representation are used to communicate scientific knowledge. Scientific illustration is the visual representation of objects and concepts in order to record and to convey scientific knowledge(Ford, 1993. There are some discussions on scientific illustrations in history, philosophy and the sociology of science(Burri & Dumit, 2008, but little has been done on the creation of scientific illustrations by illustrators. This study focuses on the creation of scientific illustrations by illustrators. The purpose is to show how illustrators create the visual messages in communications of scientific knowledge. Through analysis of semi-structured interviews with 6 professional illustrators, creators and art directors, it is showed that illustrators select and edit scientific information, add non-scientific information, and organize information into one visual representation of scientific knowledge. The implication of this research will provide a new perspective to multisensory communication of scientific knowledge.

  16. The development of scientific communication skills: a qualitative study of the perceptions of trainees and their mentors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cameron, Carrie; Collie, Candice L; Baldwin, Constance D; Bartholomew, L Kay; Palmer, J Lynn; Greer, Marilyn; Chang, Shine

    2013-10-01

    Scientific communication, both written and oral, is the cornerstone of success in biomedical research, yet formal instruction is rarely provided. Trainees with little exposure to standard academic English may find developing scientific communication skills challenging. In this exploratory, hypothesis-generating qualitative study, the authors examined the process by which mentored junior researchers learn scientific communication skills, their feelings about the challenges, and their mentor's role in the process. In 2010, the authors conducted semistructured focus groups and interviews to explore research trainees' and faculty mentors' perceptions and practices regarding scientific communication skills development, as part of the development phase of a larger quantitative study. The facilitator took detailed notes and verified their accuracy with participants during the sessions; a second member of the research team observed and verified the recorded notes. Three coders performed a thematic analysis, and the other authors reviewed it. Forty-three trainees and 50 mentors participated. Trainees and mentors had diverging views on the role of mentoring in fostering communication skills development. Trainees expressed varying levels of self-confidence but considerable angst. Mentors felt that most trainees have low self-confidence. Trainees expressed interest in learning scientific communication skills, but mentors reported that some trainees were insufficiently motivated and seemed resistant to guidance. Both groups agreed that trainees found mentors' feedback difficult to accept. The degree of distress, dissatisfaction, and lack of mutual understanding between mentors and trainees was striking. These themes have important implications for best practices and resource development.

  17. Evaluation of Eight Case Studies of Facilitated Communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moore, Susan; And Others

    1993-01-01

    The ability of eight adults with mental retardation (and in some cases cerebral palsy) to communicate using facilitated communication was assessed by a multidisciplinary team. Not one of the subjects demonstrated an ability to communicate using the technique. (JDD)

  18. Ethical principles of scientific communication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Baranov G. V.

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available the article presents the principles of ethical management of scientific communication. The author approves the priority of ethical principle of social responsibility of the scientist.

  19. Using Scientific and Industrial Films in Teaching Technical Communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Veeder, Gerry

    A film course especially designed for technical communication students can illustrate basic film concepts and techniques while showing how film effectively communicates ideas in an industrial and scientific communication system. After a basic introduction to film terms, the study of actual scientific and industrial films demonstrates the following…

  20. Communication of geo-scientific safety arguments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Flavelle, P.; Goodwin, B.; Jensen, M.; Linden, R.; Mazurek, M.; Srivastave, M.; Strom, A.; Sudicky, E.; Voinis, S.

    2007-01-01

    Working Group B addressed the communication of geo-scientific safety arguments through a discussion of practical experience as it related to the methods, types of information and specific arguments found to best communicate geo-scientific concepts and notions of safety with broad audiences including, colleagues, authorities and regulators, political decision makers, academics, and the general public. The following questions were suggested by the programme committee of the AMIGO-2 workshop for discussion by Working Group B with respect to the communication of geo-scientific information and safety arguments: - What is the place of geo-scientific arguments in relation to quantitative and qualitative topics like scenario and FEPs (features, events, processes) assessment, simulated repository evolution, calculated dose or risk impacts, engineering tests of materials, etc., when presenting a safety case to different audiences and with respect to the various stages of the repository programme? (see section 3). - Would we be better off focusing messages to the public on time scales of a few hundred years or a few generations? (see section 4). - How do you handle the fact that geoscience interpretations seldom are unique and data often are open to various interpretations? (see section 5). - How do you handle expert controversy on a specific topic? (see section 6). (authors)

  1. Science communication at scientific societies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Braha, Jeanne

    2017-10-01

    Scientific societies can play a key role in bridging the research and practice of scientists' engagement of public audiences. Societies are beginning to support translation of science communication research, connections between scientists and audiences, and the creation of opportunities for scientists to engage publics without extensive customization. This article suggests roles, strategies, and mechanisms for scientific societies to promote and enhance their member's engagement of public audiences. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Communicating novel and conventional scientific metaphors

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Knudsen, Sanne

    2005-01-01

    . But we still need empirical studies of the career of metaphors in scientific discourse and of the communicative strategies identifying a given metaphor as either novel or conventional. This paper presents a case study of the discursive development of the metaphor of "the genetic code" from......Metaphors are more popular than ever in the study of scientific reasoning and culture because of their innovative and generative powers. It is assumed, that novel scientific metaphors become more clear and well-defined, as they become more established and conventional within the relevant discourses...... the introduction of the metaphor to it was established as an entire network of interrelated conventional metaphors. Not only do the strategies in communicating the metaphor change as the metaphor becomes more established within the discourse, but the genres in which the metaphor is developed and interpreted...

  3. Scientific text as a special form of communication

    OpenAIRE

    CHERNYAKOVA NATALIA STEPANOVNA

    2016-01-01

    It is asserted in the article that scientific text, even being a product of spiritual culture, never ceased to be the main form of an objectivization of scientific thought and the means of special scientific communication.

  4. Communication; A Scientific American Book.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scientific American, Inc., New York, NY.

    With present advances in communication technology, profound and qualitative changes in our civilization are taking place--in business and politics, in education, in entertainment, interpersonal relations, and the organization of society itself. In honor of the significance of such developments, an entire issue of "Scientific American" magazine…

  5. Getting the Words Out: Case Studies in Facilitated Communication Training.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crossley, Rosemary

    1992-01-01

    Case studies are presented of three individuals with severe communication impairments who had been judged to be intellectually impaired but revealed unexpected achievements after training in nonspeech communication. The communication training used facilitation to circumvent hand function impairments. (JDD)

  6. Developments in scientific communication: considerations on the value chain

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Geurts, Petrus A.T.M.; Roosendaal, Hans E.; van der Vet, P.E.

    2001-01-01

    This article analyses the transformation of the value chain of scientific information in response to concomitant changes in scientific research and education. The scientific communication market is described in terms of main driving forces and their interplay. These forces are the actor

  7. The Need for More Scientific Approaches to Science Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sadri, S.

    2015-12-01

    Two possible goals for public science communication are: a) improving the public's in-depth understanding of the scientific subject; and b) fostering the public's belief that scientific efforts make a better world. Although (a) is often a natural target when scientists try to communicate their subject, the importance of (b) is underscored by the NSF, who investigated the "cultural authority of science" to understand science's role in policymaking. Surveys consistently find that there is a huge divergence between "knowledge" and "admiration" of science in society because science literacy has very little to do with public perception of science. However, even if both goals could be achieved, it doesn't necessarily mean that the general public will act on scientific advice. Different parts of society have different criteria for reaching judgments about how to act in their best interests. This makes the study of science communication important when controversies arise requiring public engagement. Climate change, sustainability, and water crises are only a few examples of such controversial subjects. Science communication can be designed carefully to sponsor dialogue and participation, to overcome perceptual obstacles, and to engage with stakeholders and the wider public. This study reviews work in social science that tries to answer: When is science communication necessary? What is involved in science communication? What is the role of media in effective science communication? It also reviews common recommendations for improved public engagement by scientists and science organizations. As part of this effort, I will present some portions of my science films. I will conclude with suggestions on what scientific institutions can focus on to build trust, relationships, and participation across segments of the public. Keywords: informal learning, popular science, climate change, water crisis, science communication, science films, science policy.

  8. Teacher’s Mathematical Communication Profile in Facilitating and Guiding Discussion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Umami, R.; Budayasa, I. K.; Suwarsono, St.

    2018-01-01

    Teacher’s communication skill plays an important role, one of which is to guide a class discussion for teaching purposes. This study aimed to investigate a teacher’s mathematical communication profile in facilitating and guiding a class discussion. This study is qualitative. A junior teacher of high school (i.e., a teacher with 1 to 5 year teaching experience) teaching mathematics at X-Social Class was selected as the subject of this study. The data was collected by observing the teacher’s mathematical communication in facilitating and guiding a discussion with the rules of sinus as the teaching material, and it was followed by a deep interview. The result showed that the junior teacher facilitated and guided a class discussion include providing responses (answer) addressing students’ difficulties and providing chances for students to propose and explain their ideas and be active in discussion. The junior teacher provides responses at sharp, optimal, and specific manner. In addition, she provides chances for her students to explain their thinking and have a discussion in anticipative, observative, selective, and connective manner. However, the study found that some of high-school teachers develop mathematical communication skills and use them to develop students’ mathematical communication skills.

  9. A Case Study: Follow-Up Assessment of Facilitated Communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simon, Elliott W.; And Others

    1996-01-01

    This study of an adolescent with multiple disabilities, including moderate mental retardation, who was reported to engage in validated facilitated communication (FC) found he did not engage in validated FC; performance was equivalent whether food or nonfood reinforcers were used; and the Picture Exchange Communication System was a valid and…

  10. Enhancing Scientific Communication Through an Undergraduate Biology and Journalism Partnership.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schwingel, Johanna M

    2018-01-01

    Scientific terminology presents an obstacle to effective communication with nonscientific audiences. To overcome this obstacle, biology majors in a general microbiology elective completed a project involving two different audiences: a scientific audience of their peers and a general, nonscientific audience. First, students presented an overview of a primary research paper and the significance of its findings to a general, nonscientific audience in an elevator-type talk. This was followed by a peer interview with a student in a journalism course, in which the biology students needed to comprehend the article to effectively communicate it to the journalism students, and the journalism students needed to ask questions about an unfamiliar, technical topic. Next, the biology students wrote a summary of their article for a scientific audience. Finally, the students presented a figure from the article to their peers in a scientific, Bio-Minute format. The biology-journalism partnership allowed biology students to develop their ability to communicate scientific information and journalism students their ability to ask appropriate questions and establish a base of knowledge from which to write.

  11. Successfully Operationalizing a Franchise-Level Scientific Communication Platform

    OpenAIRE

    Kistler, Jamie; Wilson, Leanne; Wehner, Erica; Fallon, Judy; Gooljarsingh, Tricia

    2018-01-01

    Objective: To ensure consistency in language and communication points across a franchise of products by developing a franchise-level scientific communication platform (SCP) and creating a tool for its dissemination for use by a cross-functional team. Challenge/Problem: A franchise-level SCP was needed to achieve broad alignment on external communications supporting the products, leverage strengths and opportunities, and optimize differentiation in a competitive landscape. An ef...

  12. Visualization and Interaction in Research, Teaching, and Scientific Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ammon, C. J.

    2017-12-01

    Modern computing provides many tools for exploring observations, numerical calculations, and theoretical relationships. The number of options is, in fact, almost overwhelming. But the choices provide those with modest programming skills opportunities to create unique views of scientific information and to develop deeper insights into their data, their computations, and the underlying theoretical data-model relationships. I present simple examples of using animation and human-computer interaction to explore scientific data and scientific-analysis approaches. I illustrate how valuable a little programming ability can free scientists from the constraints of existing tools and can facilitate the development of deeper appreciation data and models. I present examples from a suite of programming languages ranging from C to JavaScript including the Wolfram Language. JavaScript is valuable for sharing tools and insight (hopefully) with others because it is integrated into one of the most powerful communication tools in human history, the web browser. Although too much of that power is often spent on distracting advertisements, the underlying computation and graphics engines are efficient, flexible, and almost universally available in desktop and mobile computing platforms. Many are working to fulfill the browser's potential to become the most effective tool for interactive study. Open-source frameworks for visualizing everything from algorithms to data are available, but advance rapidly. One strategy for dealing with swiftly changing tools is to adopt common, open data formats that are easily adapted (often by framework or tool developers). I illustrate the use of animation and interaction in research and teaching with examples from earthquake seismology.

  13. Communication about scientific uncertainty in environmental nanoparticle research - a comparison of scientific literature and mass media

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heidmann, Ilona; Milde, Jutta

    2014-05-01

    The research about the fate and behavior of engineered nanoparticles in the environment is despite its wide applications still in the early stages. 'There is a high level of scientific uncertainty in nanoparticle research' is often stated in the scientific community. Knowledge about these uncertainties might be of interest to other scientists, experts and laymen. But how could these uncertainties be characterized and are they communicated within the scientific literature and the mass media? To answer these questions, the current state of scientific knowledge about scientific uncertainty through the example of environmental nanoparticle research was characterized and the communication of these uncertainties within the scientific literature is compared with its media coverage in the field of nanotechnologies. The scientific uncertainty within the field of environmental fate of nanoparticles is by method uncertainties and a general lack of data concerning the fate and effects of nanoparticles and their mechanisms in the environment, and by the uncertain transferability of results to the environmental system. In the scientific literature, scientific uncertainties, their sources, and consequences are mentioned with different foci and to a different extent. As expected, the authors in research papers focus on the certainty of specific results within their specific research question, whereas in review papers, the uncertainties due to a general lack of data are emphasized and the sources and consequences are discussed in a broader environmental context. In the mass media, nanotechnology is often framed as rather certain and positive aspects and benefits are emphasized. Although reporting about a new technology, only in one-third of the reports scientific uncertainties are mentioned. Scientific uncertainties are most often mentioned together with risk and they arise primarily from unknown harmful effects to human health. Environmental issues itself are seldom mentioned

  14. Journal entries facilitating preprofessional scientific literacy and mutualistic symbiotic relationships

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vander Vliet, Valerie J.

    This study explored journal writing as an alternative assessment to promote the development of pre-professional scientific literacy and mutualistic symbiotic relationships between teaching and learning, instruction and assessment, and students and teachers. The larger context of this study is an action reaction project of the attempted transformation of a traditional first year undergraduate pre-professional biology class to sociocultural constructivist principles. The participants were commuter and residential, full and part-time students ranging in age from 18 to 27 and 18/21 were female. The backgrounds of the students varied considerably, ranging from low to upper middle income, including students of Black and Asian heritage. The setting was a medium-sized Midwestern university. The instructor has twenty years of experience teaching Biology at the college level. The data were analyzed using the constant comparative method and the development of grounded theory. The journal entries were analyzed as to their function and form in relationship to the development of multiple aspects of pre-professional scientific literacy. The perceptions of the students as to the significance of the use of journal entries were also determined through the analysis of their use of journal entries in their portfolios and statements in surveys and portfolios. The analysis revealed that journal entries promoted multiple aspects of pre-professional scientific literacy in both students and the instructor and facilitated the development of mutualistic symbiotic relationships between teaching and learning, instruction and assessment, and students and teachers. The function analysis revealed that the journal entries fulfilled the functions intended for the development of multiple aspects of pre-professional scientific literacy. The complexity of journal writing emerged from the form analysis, which revealed the multiple form elements inherent in journal entries. Students perceived journal

  15. Economic Feasibility of Staffing the Intensive Care Unit with a Communication Facilitator.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khandelwal, Nita; Benkeser, David; Coe, Norma B; Engelberg, Ruth A; Curtis, J Randall

    2016-12-01

    In the intensive care unit (ICU), complex decision making by clinicians and families requires good communication to ensure that care is consistent with the patients' values and goals. To assess the economic feasibility of staffing ICUs with a communication facilitator. Data were from a randomized trial of an "ICU communication facilitator" linked to hospital financial records; eligible patients (n = 135) were admitted to the ICU at a single hospital with predicted mortality ≥30% and a surrogate decision maker. Adjusted regression analyses assessed differences in ICU total and direct variable costs between intervention and control patients. A bootstrap-based simulation assessed the cost efficiency of a facilitator while varying the full-time equivalent of the facilitator and the ICU mortality risk. Total ICU costs (mean 22.8k; 95% CI, -42.0k to -3.6k; P = 0.02) and average daily ICU costs (mean, -0.38k; 95% CI, -0.65k to -0.11k; P = 0.006)] were reduced significantly with the intervention. Despite more contacts, families of survivors spent less time per encounter with facilitators than did families of decedents (mean, 25 [SD, 11] min vs. 36 [SD, 14] min). Simulation demonstrated maximal weekly savings with a 1.0 full-time equivalent facilitator and a predicted ICU mortality of 15% (total weekly ICU cost savings, $58.4k [95% CI, $57.7k-59.2k]; weekly direct variable savings, $5.7k [95% CI, $5.5k-5.8k]) after incorporating facilitator costs. Adding a full-time trained communication facilitator in the ICU may improve the quality of care while simultaneously reducing short-term (direct variable) and long-term (total) health care costs. This intervention is likely to be more cost effective in a lower-mortality population.

  16. Evaluations of children who have disclosed sexual abuse via facilitated communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Botash, A S; Babuts, D; Mitchell, N; O'Hara, M; Lynch, L; Manuel, J

    1994-12-01

    To review the findings of interdisciplinary team evaluations of children who disclosed sexual abuse via facilitated communication. Case series. Tertiary care hospital outpatient child sexual abuse program in central New York. Between January 1990 and March 1993, 13 children who disclosed sexual abuse via facilitated communication and were referred to a university hospital child abuse referral and evaluation center. The range of previously determined developmental diagnosis included mental retardation, speech delay, and autism. None. Medical records were reviewed for (1) disclosure, (2) physical evidence, (3) child's behavioral and medical history, (4) disclosures by siblings, (5) perpetrator's confession, (6) child protective services determinations, and (7) court findings. Four children had evidence of sexual abuse: two had physical findings consistent with sexual abuse, one also disclosed the allegation verbally, and one perpetrator confessed. These results neither support nor refute validation of facilitated communication. However, many children had other evidence of sexual abuse, suggesting that each child's case should be evaluated without bias.

  17. Perceived barriers and facilitators for general practitioner-patient communication in palliative care: a systematic review

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Slort, W.; Schweitzer, B.P.M.; Blankenstein, A.H.; Abarshi, E.A.; Riphagen, I.I.; Echteld, M.A.; Aaronson, N.K.; van der Horst, H.E.; Deliens, L.

    2011-01-01

    While effective general practitioner (GP)-patient communication is required for the provision of good palliative care, barriers and facilitators for this communication are largely unknown. We aimed to identify barriers and facilitators for GP-patient communication in palliative care. In a systematic

  18. Perceived barriers and facilitators for general practitioner-patient communication in palliative care: A systematic review

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Slort, W.; Schweitzer, B.P.M.; Blankenstein, A.H.; Abarshi-Fatiregun, E.A.B.; Riphagen, I.; Echteld, M.A.; Aaronson, N.K.; van der Horst, H.E.; Deliens, L.

    2011-01-01

    While effective general practitioner (GP)-patient communication is required for the provision of good palliative care, barriers and facilitators for this communication are largely unknown. We aimed to identify barriers and facilitators for GP-patient communication in palliative care. In a systematic

  19. The epistemic representation: visual production and communication of scientific knowledge.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Francisco López Cantos

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Despite its great influence on the History of Science, visual representations have attracted marginal interest until very recently and have often been regarded as a simple aid for mere illustration or scientific demonstration. However, it has been shown that visualization is an integral element of reasoning and a highly effective and common heuristic strategy in the scientific community and that the study of the conditions of visual production and communication are essential in the development of scientific knowledge. In this paper we deal with the nature of the various forms of visual representation of knowledge that have been happening throughout the history of science, taking as its starting point the illustrated monumental works and three-dimensional models that begin to develop within the scientific community around the fifteenth century. The main thesis of this paper is that any scientific visual representations have common elements that allow us to approach them from epistemic nature, heuristic and communicative dimension.

  20. Reading, Writing, and Presenting Original Scientific Research: A Nine-Week Course in Scientific Communication for High School Students†

    Science.gov (United States)

    Danka, Elizabeth S.; Malpede, Brian M.

    2015-01-01

    High school students are not often given opportunities to communicate scientific findings to their peers, the general public, and/or people in the scientific community, and therefore they do not develop scientific communication skills. We present a nine-week course that can be used to teach high school students, who may have no previous experience, how to read and write primary scientific articles and how to discuss scientific findings with a broad audience. Various forms of this course have been taught for the past 10 years as part of an intensive summer research program for rising high school seniors that is coordinated by the Young Scientist Program at Washington University in St. Louis. The format presented here includes assessments for efficacy through both rubric-based methods and student self-assessment surveys. PMID:26753027

  1. Facilitating a generic communication interface to distributed energy resources

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pedersen, Anders Bro; Hauksson, Einar Bragi; Andersen, Peter Bach

    2010-01-01

    As the power system evolves into a smarter and more flexible state, so must the communication technologies that support it. A key requirement for facilitating the distributed production of future grids is that communication and information are standardized to ensure interoperability. The IEC 61850...... a server using these technologies can be used to interface with DERs as diverse as Electric Vehicles (EVs) and micro Combined Heat and Power (μCHP) units....

  2. Facilitating interaction, communication and collaboration in online courses

    Science.gov (United States)

    McNeil, Sara G.; Robin, Bernard R.; Miller, Robert M.

    2000-07-01

    As the Internet evolves into a truly world wide communications medium, the roles of faculty and students at institutions of higher learning are changing. Traditional face-to-face classes are being converted to an online setting, where materials from syllabi to lectures to assignments are available at the click of a mouse. New technological options are challenging and changing the very nature of teaching as faculty migrate from being deliverers of information to facilitators and mentors. Students are also undergoing a transformation from passive recipients to participants in an active learning environment. Interactions are at the heart of this revolution as students and faculty create new methodologies for the online classroom. New types of interactions are emerging between faculty and students, between students and other students and between students and the educational resources they are exploring. As the online teaching and learning environment expands and matures, new social and instructional interactions are replacing the traditional occurrences in face-to-face classrooms. New communication options are also evolving as a critical component of the online classroom. The shift from a synchronous to an asynchronous communication structure has also had a significant impact on the way students and faculty interact. The use of e-mail, listservs and web-based conferencing has given teachers and learners new flexibility and has fostered a climate where learning takes place wherever and whenever it is convenient. HyperGroups, a communication tool that was developed at the University of Houston, allows students and faculty to seamlessly participate in course-related discussions and easily share multimedia resources. This article explores the many issues associated with facilitating interaction, communication and collaboration in online courses.

  3. A three-phase model proposal for the evolution of scientific communication: from first print periodicals to current electronic communication system

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patrícia Bertin

    Full Text Available Scientific communication has undergone deep transformations, since the emergence of Internet. Aiming to provide further thought on the evolution of scientific communication, this paper features a historical overview of the scientific communication advances over the last twenty years through a three-phase model for the evolution of the electronic journal and the preprints services, and presents Brazilian contemporary panorama for scientific communication. The three-phase model presented in this work is an adaptation of that one proposed by Tenopir et al. (2003 to describe the patterns of journal use by scientists since 1990. The early evolutionary phase followed the emergence of the first digital journals and the creation of repositories in the Web for publishing preliminary versions of scientific literature on the author’s initiative; by that time, most academics reproved electronic publishing initiatives. From 1996 and forward, in the consolidation phase, electronic journals were commonly identical to their print counterparts; the acceptance of the electronic format began to increase, and preprint services got underway in several disciplines. The advanced evolutionary phase started with the world discussion on open access to scientific information. The comparison of the current electronic journal with that viewed by enthusiasts in the first years of the 1990s shows that some aspects still remain to be improved in electronic formal and informal communication, towards effective dissemination of scientific information.

  4. Forces and functions in scientific communication: an analysis of their interplay

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Roosendaal, Hans E.; Geurts, Petrus A.T.M.

    1997-01-01

    This article deals with the transformation of the familiar, linear scientific information chain into an interactive scientific communication “network” in response to concomitant changes in scientific research and education. Societal conditions are seen to lead worldwide to the concept of strategic

  5. Principles and Ethics in Scientific Communication in Biomedicine

    OpenAIRE

    Donev, Doncho

    2013-01-01

    Introduction and aim: To present the basic principles and standards of scientific communication and writing a paper, to indicate the importance of honesty and ethical approach to research and publication of results in scientific journals, as well as the need for continuing education in the principles and ethics in science and publication in biomedicine. Methods: An analysis of relevant materials and documents, sources from the internet and published literature and personal experience and obse...

  6. Helping Students Move from Coding to Publishing - Teaching Scientific Communication to Science Interns

    Science.gov (United States)

    Batchelor, R.; Haacker-Santos, R.; Pandya, R. E.

    2012-12-01

    To help young scientists succeed in our field we should not only model scientific methods and inquiry, but also train them in the art of scientific writing - after all, poorly written proposals, reports or journal articles can be a show stopper for any researcher. Research internships are an effective place to provide such training, because they offer a unique opportunity to integrate writing with the process of conducting original research. This presentation will describe how scientific communication is integrated into the SOARS program. Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science (SOARS) is an undergraduate-to graduate bridge program that broadens participation in the geosciences. SOARS aims to foster the next generation of leaders in the atmospheric and related sciences by helping students develop investigative expertise complemented by leadership and communication skills. Each summer, interns (called protégés) attend a weekly seminar designed to help them learn scientific writing and communication skills. The workshop is organized around the sections of a scientific paper. Workshop topics include reading and citing scientific literature, writing an introduction, preparing a compelling abstract, discussing results, designing effective figures, and writing illuminating conclusions. In addition, protégés develop the skills required to communicate their research to both scientists and non-scientists through the use of posters, presentations and informal 'elevator' speeches. Writing and communication mentors guide protégés in applying the ideas from the workshop to the protégés' required summer scientific paper, poster and presentation, while a strong peer-review component of the program gives the protégés a taste of analyzing, critiquing and collaborating within a scientific forum. This presentation will provide practical tips and lessons learned from over ten years of scientific communications workshops within the SOARS program

  7. Poster Development and Presentation to Improve Scientific Inquiry and Broaden Effective Scientific Communication Skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rauschenbach, Ines; Keddis, Ramaydalis; Davis, Diane

    2018-01-01

    We have redesigned a tried-and-true laboratory exercise into an inquiry-based team activity exploring microbial growth control, and implemented this activity as the basis for preparing a scientific poster in a large, multi-section laboratory course. Spanning most of the semester, this project culminates in a poster presentation of data generated from a student-designed experiment. Students use and apply the scientific method and improve written and verbal communication skills. The guided inquiry format of this exercise provides the opportunity for student collaboration through cooperative learning. For each learning objective, a percentage score was tabulated (learning objective score = points awarded/total possible points). A score of 80% was our benchmark for achieving each objective. At least 76% of the student groups participating in this project over two semesters achieved each learning goal. Student perceptions of the project were evaluated using a survey. Nearly 90% of participating students felt they had learned a great deal in the areas of formulating a hypothesis, experimental design, and collecting and analyzing data; 72% of students felt this project had improved their scientific writing skills. In a separate survey, 84% of students who responded felt that peer review was valuable in improving their final poster submission. We designed this inquiry-based poster project to improve student scientific communication skills. This exercise is appropriate for any microbiology laboratory course whose learning outcomes include the development of scientific inquiry and literacy.

  8. The sciences of science communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fischhoff, Baruch

    2013-08-20

    The May 2012 Sackler Colloquium on "The Science of Science Communication" brought together scientists with research to communicate and scientists whose research could facilitate that communication. The latter include decision scientists who can identify the scientific results that an audience needs to know, from among all of the scientific results that it would be nice to know; behavioral scientists who can design ways to convey those results and then evaluate the success of those attempts; and social scientists who can create the channels needed for trustworthy communications. This overview offers an introduction to these communication sciences and their roles in science-based communication programs.

  9. The Experimental Social Scientific Model in Speech Communication Research: Influences and Consequences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferris, Sharmila Pixy

    A substantial number of published articles in speech communication research today is experimental/social scientific in nature. It is only in the past decade that scholars have begun to put the history of communication under the lens. Early advocates of the adoption of the method of social scientific inquiry were J. A. Winans, J. M. O'Neill, and C.…

  10. Barriers and facilitators to end-of-life communication in advanced chronic organ failure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van den Heuvel, Liza Amc; Spruit, Martijn A; Schols, Jos Mga; Hoving, Ciska; Wouters, Emiel Fm; Janssen, Daisy Ja

    2016-05-01

    The aim of this quantitative, cross-sectional study was to identify barriers and facilitators to end-of-life communication experienced by family caregivers of patients with advanced chronic organ failure and to examine agreement in barriers and facilitators between family caregivers and patients. Patients and family caregivers were interviewed using the barriers and facilitators questionnaire. Agreement was determined using intraclass correlation coefficients for continuous variables and Cohen's kappa for categorical variables. A total of 158 patients and family caregiver dyads were included. The most important barriers for family caregivers were related to uncertainty about expected care and focus on staying alive instead of dying. The facilitators were related to trust in and competence of their physician and earlier experiences with death in their (social) environment. For most barriers and facilitators, agreement between patients and family caregivers was fair to moderate. Differences in barriers and facilitators between patients and family caregivers ask for an individual approach to facilitate end-of-life communication.

  11. Scientific communication in clinical psychology: examining patterns of citations and references.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kiselica, Andrew M; Ruscio, John

    2014-01-01

    Previous studies of scientific communication used citation mapping, establishing psychology as a 'hub science' from which many other fields draw information. Within psychology, the clinical and counselling discipline is a major 'knowledge broker'. This study analyzed scientific communication among three major subdisciplines of clinical psychology-the cognitive-behavioural, psychodynamic and humanistic schools of thought-by examining patterns of references within and citations to 305 target articles published in leading journals of these subdisciplines. The results suggest that clinical researchers of each theoretical orientation engage in more insular scientific communication than an integrationist would find desirable and that cognitive-behavioural articles are more closely connected to mainstream psychology and related fields. Eclectic practitioners draw on several different theoretical orientations to inform their practice; as such, they should be interested in understanding the patterns of scientific communication within and across theoretical orientations. Practitioners work in a variety of different mental health settings, with a variety of other professionals in psychology-related fields, and should be interested in how much influence their particular theoretical orientation has on the work of colleagues. Many practitioners rely on new, evidence-based research to inform their work. The results of this study provide these individuals with an objective measure of the influence of empirical work in different areas of clinical psychology. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  12. The analysis of scientific communications and students’ character development through guided inquiry learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sarwi, S.; Fauziah, N.; Astuti, B.

    2018-03-01

    This research is setting by the condition of students who have difficulty in ideas delivery, written scientific communication, and still need the development of student character. The objectives of the research are to determine the improvement of concept understanding, to analyze scientific communication skills and to develop the character of the students through guided inquiry learning. The design in this research is quasi experimental control group preposttest, with research subject of two group of grade X Senior High School in Semarang. One group of controller uses non tutorial and treatment group using tutorial in guided inquiry. Based on result of gain test analysis, obtained = 0.71 for treatment and control group = 0.60. The t-test result of mean mastery of concept of quantity and unit using t-test of right side is t count = 2.37 (p=0.003) while t table = 1.67 (α = 5%), which means that the results of the study differed significantly. The results of the students' scientific communication skills analysis showed that the experimental group was higher than the control, with an average of 69% and 63% scientific communication skills. The character values are effective developed through guided inquiry learning. The conclusion of the study is guided inquiry learning tutorial better than guided inquiry non tutorial learning in aspect understanding concept, scientific communication skills; but the character development result is almost the same.

  13. Developments in scientific communication - The virtual marketplace as a prerequisite for growth

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Geurts, Petrus A.T.M.; van der Vet, P.E.; Roosendaal, Hans E.; Frederiksson, E.H.

    2001-01-01

    This article analyses the transformation of value chain of scientific information in response to concomitant changes in scientific research and education. The scientific communication market is described in terms of main driving forces and their interplay. These forces are the actor (author/reader),

  14. Scientific risk communication about controversial issues influences public perceptions of scientists' political orientations and credibility.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vraga, Emily; Myers, Teresa; Kotcher, John; Beall, Lindsey; Maibach, Ed

    2018-02-01

    Many scientists communicate with the public about risks associated with scientific issues, but such communication may have unintended consequences for how the public views the political orientations and the credibility of the communicating scientist. We explore this possibility using an experiment with a nationally representative sample of Americans in the fall of 2015. We find that risk communication on controversial scientific issues sometimes influences perceptions of the political orientations and credibility of the communicating scientist when the scientist addresses the risks of issues associated with conservative or liberal groups. This relationship is moderated by participant political ideology, with liberals adjusting their perceptions of the scientists' political beliefs more substantially when the scientist addressed the risks of marijuana use when compared with other issues. Conservatives' political perceptions were less impacted by the issue context of the scientific risk communication but indirectly influenced credibility perceptions. Our results support a contextual model of audience interpretation of scientific risk communication. Scientists should be cognizant that audience members may make inferences about the communicating scientist's political orientations and credibility when they engage in risk communication efforts about controversial issues.

  15. Optimizing Communications Between Arctic Residents and IPY Scientific Researchers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stapleton, M.; Carpenter, L.

    2007-12-01

    BACKGROUND International Polar Year, which was launched in March 2007, is an international program of coordinated, interdisciplinary scientific research on Earth's polar regions. The northern regions of the eight Arctic States (Canada, Alaska (USA), Russia, Sweden, Norway, Finland. Iceland and Greenland (Denmark) have significant indigenous populations. The circumpolar Arctic is one of the least technologically connected regions in the world, although Canada and others have been pioneers in developing and suing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in remote areas. The people living in this vast geographic area have been moving toward taking their rightful place in the global information society, but are dependent on the outreach and cooperation of larger mainstream societies. The dominant medium of communication is radio, which is flexible in accommodating multiple cultures, languages, and factors of time and distance. The addition of newer technologies such as streaming on the Internet can increase access and content for all communities of interest, north and south. The Arctic Circle of Indigenous Communicators (ACIC) is an independent association of professional Northern indigenous media workers in the print, radio, television, film and Internet industries. ACIC advocates the development of all forms of communication in circumpolar North areas. It is international in scope. Members are literate in English, French, Russian and many indigenous languages. ACIC has proposed the establishment of a headquarters for monitoring IPY projects are in each area, and the use of community radio broadcasters to collect and disseminate information about IPY. The cooperation of Team IPY at the University of Colorado, Arctic Net at Laval University, and others, is being developed. ACIC is committed to making scientific knowledge gained in IPY accessible to those most affected - residents of the Arctic. ABSTRACT The meeting of the American Geophysical Union will be held

  16. The 'credibility paradox' in China's science communication: Views from scientific practitioners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Joy Yueyue

    2015-11-01

    In contrast to increasing debates on China's rising status as a global scientific power, issues of China's science communication remain under-explored. Based on 21 in-depth interviews in three cities, this article examines Chinese scientists' accounts of the entangled web of influence which conditions the process of how scientific knowledge achieves (or fails to achieve) its civic authority. A main finding of this study is a 'credibility paradox' as a result of the over-politicisation of science and science communication in China. Respondents report that an absence of visible institutional endorsements renders them more public credibility and better communication outcomes. Thus, instead of exploiting formal channels of science communication, scientists interviewed were more keen to act as 'informal risk communicators' in grassroots and private events. Chinese scientists' perspectives on how to earn public support of their research sheds light on the nature and impact of a 'civic epistemology' in an authoritarian state. © The Author(s) 2015.

  17. Assessment of Scientific Communication Self-Efficacy, Interest, and Outcome Expectations for Career Development in Academic Medicine

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson, Cheryl B.; Lee, Hwa Young; Byars-Winston, Angela; Baldwin, Constance D.; Cameron, Carrie; Chang, Shine

    2015-01-01

    Competency in forms of scientific communication, both written and spoken, is essential for success in academic science. This study examined the psychometric properties of three new measures, based on social cognitive career theory, that are relevant to assessment of skill and perseverance in scientific communication. Pre- and postdoctoral trainees in biomedical science (N = 411) completed online questionnaires assessing self-efficacy in scientific communication, career outcome expectations, and interest in performing tasks in scientific writing, oral presentation, and impromptu scientific discourse. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate factor structures and model relations. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a 22-item, 3-factor measure of self-efficacy, an 11-item, 2-factor measure of outcome expectations, and a 12-item, 3-factor measure of interest in scientific communication activities. Construct validity was further demonstrated by theory-consistent inter-factor relations and relations with typical communications performance behaviors (e.g., writing manuscripts, abstracts, presenting at national meetings). PMID:26924920

  18. Teaching Scientific Communication Skills in Science Studies: Does It Make a Difference?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spektor-Levy, Ornit; Eylon, Bat-Sheva; Scherz, Zahava

    2009-01-01

    This study explores the impact of "Scientific Communication" (SC) skills instruction on students' performances in scientific literacy assessment tasks. We present a general model for skills instruction, characterized by explicit and spiral instruction, integration into content learning, practice in several scientific topics, and application of…

  19. Communicating with public and scientific audiences: Are they really any different?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gray, R.H.; Brown, T.L.

    1991-01-01

    Efforts to communicate the results of environmental studies and involve the public in environmental decisions have increased nation-wide. Frequently, the assumption is made that communicating with the public is somehow different than communicating with scientific audiences. Our experience shows that this often is not the case. Today's multidisciplinary environmental issues pose communications problems that are the same in public as they are in scientific forums. Outreach efforts on the U.S. Department of Energy's Hanford Nuclear Site have drawn on a broad spectrum of communications media including technical articles (open literature and symposium publications, annual and topical reports); information brochures; video productions; interactive exhibits; presentations at scientific, technical, civic and other public meetings; and, more recently, pro-active interactions with the news media and local, state and federal agencies. In addition, plans are being made for representatives of local communities to operate off-site sampling stations in Hanford's environmental monitoring network. All major environmental programs, such as the current 5-year effort to reconstruct past radiological doses to off-site human populations, are conducted with open public participation. This presentation describes Hanford's public outreach efforts, our successes and failures, and the lessons learned. For example, developing brochures and videos is of little value without also developing and implementing a detailed distribution plan. Follow-up activities are often neglected during initial planning stages but must be considered in outreach efforts

  20. Perceived barriers and facilitators for general practitioner-patient communication in palliative care: a systematic review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Slort, W; Schweitzer, B P M; Blankenstein, A H; Abarshi, E A; Riphagen, I I; Echteld, M A; Aaronson, N K; van der Horst, He; Deliens, L

    2011-09-01

    While effective general practitioner (GP)-patient communication is required for the provision of good palliative care, barriers and facilitators for this communication are largely unknown. We aimed to identify barriers and facilitators for GP-patient communication in palliative care. In a systematic review seven computerized databases were searched to find empirical studies on GP-patient communication in palliative care. Fifteen qualitative studies and seven quantitative questionnaire studies were included. The main perceived barriers were GPs' lack of availability, and patients' and GPs' ambivalence to discuss 'bad prognosis'. Main perceived facilitators were GPs being available, initiating discussion about several end-of-life issues and anticipating various scenarios. Lack of availability and failure to discuss former mistakes appear to be blind spots of GPs. GPs should be more forthcoming to initiate discussions with palliative care patients about prognosis and end-of-life issues. Empirical studies are needed to investigate the effectiveness of the perceived barriers and facilitators.

  1. Poster Development and Presentation to Improve Scientific Inquiry and Broaden Effective Scientific Communication Skills †

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rauschenbach, Ines; Keddis, Ramaydalis; Davis, Diane

    2018-01-01

    We have redesigned a tried-and-true laboratory exercise into an inquiry-based team activity exploring microbial growth control, and implemented this activity as the basis for preparing a scientific poster in a large, multi-section laboratory course. Spanning most of the semester, this project culminates in a poster presentation of data generated from a student-designed experiment. Students use and apply the scientific method and improve written and verbal communication skills. The guided inquiry format of this exercise provides the opportunity for student collaboration through cooperative learning. For each learning objective, a percentage score was tabulated (learning objective score = points awarded/total possible points). A score of 80% was our benchmark for achieving each objective. At least 76% of the student groups participating in this project over two semesters achieved each learning goal. Student perceptions of the project were evaluated using a survey. Nearly 90% of participating students felt they had learned a great deal in the areas of formulating a hypothesis, experimental design, and collecting and analyzing data; 72% of students felt this project had improved their scientific writing skills. In a separate survey, 84% of students who responded felt that peer review was valuable in improving their final poster submission. We designed this inquiry-based poster project to improve student scientific communication skills. This exercise is appropriate for any microbiology laboratory course whose learning outcomes include the development of scientific inquiry and literacy. PMID:29904518

  2. Scientific institution’s ways of communicating with the environment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joanna Pruchnicka

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available The Internet has given its users ways for fast and inexpensive publication of information, dissemination of their creativity, experiences and thoughts.Blogs have become one of the forms particularly popular over the recent years.Impact of blogs on the audience has turned out to be so significant that they quickly have begun to be used as a marketing tool, both in the area of public relations as well as advertising. By definition, blog imposes a significant simplification on the message conveyed, both in terms of content and language, making them more legible, comprehensible and interesting for each recipient.This makes this form of communication extremely attractive for science, especially in the context of its commercialization and dissemination of information on the scientific and research achievements. For science, scientific and research institutions and scientists a certain dualism arises in the approach to using blogs as a means of communicating with the environment.On one hand, blogs provide a quick, simple transmission of information and knowledge, on the other hand, most people feel that scientific blogs lack credibility and seriousness usually associated with messages coming from the world of science, research and experiments. For many years, blog have been extremely popular, even the required form of communication used by the American and Western scientists.There is a growing awareness of the merits of blogging on the subjects of science in Poland. However, in the opinion of the respondents of the research presented in the article, the dominant tools for the dissemination and promotion of science are scientific conferences and publications, namely those which by their very nature limit the range and spread of information.

  3. Discovering Communicable Scientific Knowledge from Spatio-Temporal Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schwabacher, Mark; Langley, Pat; Norvig, Peter (Technical Monitor)

    2001-01-01

    This paper describes how we used regression rules to improve upon a result previously published in the Earth science literature. In such a scientific application of machine learning, it is crucially important for the learned models to be understandable and communicable. We recount how we selected a learning algorithm to maximize communicability, and then describe two visualization techniques that we developed to aid in understanding the model by exploiting the spatial nature of the data. We also report how evaluating the learned models across time let us discover an error in the data.

  4. The sciences of science communication

    OpenAIRE

    Fischhoff, Baruch

    2013-01-01

    The May 2012 Sackler Colloquium on “The Science of Science Communication” brought together scientists with research to communicate and scientists whose research could facilitate that communication. The latter include decision scientists who can identify the scientific results that an audience needs to know, from among all of the scientific results that it would be nice to know; behavioral scientists who can design ways to convey those results and then evaluate the success of those attempts; a...

  5. International scientific communication in the context of social networking sites for scientists

    OpenAIRE

    Stachowiak, Beata

    2016-01-01

    In this paper, the author considers the alterations that occurred in the international scientific communication. It is mainly technological development that exerts the influence over these alterations – particularly the emergence of new media. The major part of this paper is dedicated to the issue of the use of social networking sites in scientific communication. In her considerations, the author refers to the world-wide research pertaining to social media in the meantime demonstrating the at...

  6. Tools for Reproducibility and Extensibility in Scientific Research

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva

    2018-01-01

    Open inquiry through reproducing results is fundamental to the scientific process. Contemporary research relies on software engineering pipelines to collect, process, and analyze data. The open source projects within Project Jupyter facilitate these objectives by bringing software engineering within the context of scientific communication. We will highlight specific projects that are computational building blocks for scientific communication, starting with the Jupyter Notebook. We will also explore applications of projects that build off of the Notebook such as Binder, JupyterHub, and repo2docker. We will discuss how these projects can individually and jointly improve reproducibility in scientific communication. Finally, we will demonstrate applications of Jupyter software that allow researchers to build upon the code of other scientists, both to extend their work and the work of others.    There will be a follow-up demo session in the afternoon, hosted by iML. Details can be foun...

  7. Verbal Communication of Story Facilitators in Multi-player Role-Playing Games

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tychsen, Anders; Brolund, Thea; Hitchens, Michael

    2008-01-01

    Multi-player role-playing games form one of the key examples of interactive, emergent and collaborative storytelling systems available. These games and the collaborative stories that they create, are commonly facilitated by a specialized participant, the game master. In the current study, the ver......Multi-player role-playing games form one of the key examples of interactive, emergent and collaborative storytelling systems available. These games and the collaborative stories that they create, are commonly facilitated by a specialized participant, the game master. In the current study......, the verbal communication of game masters in a series of role-playing game sessions is categorized and analyzed depending on form and content, using protocol analysis, establishing a model for the verbal communication of game masters....

  8. ENGLISH AS A MEANS OF SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATION: LINGUISTIC IMPERIALISM OR INTERLINGUA?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Natalia G. Popova

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: the process of globalisation has strengthened the position of the English language as a means of communication in all spheres of life, including scientific communication. The expansion of one language not only necessitates changes in the status of other national languages and the emergence of a hierarchical relationship between them, but also significantly affects the political and economic balance of power in the world. The global dominance of English in science not only confers distinct advantages on its native speakers but also discriminates against scholars from non-Anglophone societies. As a result, a threat arises concerning the loss to humanity of unique, culture-specific ways of understanding reality. Materials and Methods: on the basis of an analysis of modern trends and literature review, such mani¬festations of linguistic imperialism in the field of academic communication as the IMRaD format, CLIL teaching technologies and English academic writing centres are revealed. Subsequently, these phenomena are investigated using empirical sociological methods: in-depth expert interviews, participant observation and the content study of chemistry papers indexed in Scopus. Results: it is demonstrated that the Anglophone societies use the global distribution of the English language to advance their competitive advantage in the field of science. The implementation of English language instruction in higher education and Anglophone communicative patterns in scholarly communication – particularly with regard to the representation of research results – might have a negative effect both on the development of researchers’ competencies and their future effectiveness in advancing science. Discussion and Conclusions: it is concluded that an increased awareness of potential threats caused by the dominance of the English language in scientific communication is needed among all the participants of scientific communication, including

  9. The role by scientific publications in science communication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Martha Fabbri

    2007-03-01

    Full Text Available In their contributions to this special issue, the British science writer Jon Turney and the American scholar Bruce Lewenstein discuss the validity of the book as a means for science communication in the era of the Internet, whereas the article by Vittorio Bo deals with scientific publishing in a broader sense.

  10. A participative model for undertaking and evaluating scientific communication in Earth Observation

    Science.gov (United States)

    L'Astorina, Alba; Tomasoni, Irene

    2015-04-01

    Public communication of Science and Technology (PCST) is an integral part of the mission of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and widely carried out among the scientific community. Recently it has also become a research field investigating practices, channels, tools and models of public engagement and their impact on the relation between Science and Society. Understanding such aspects is increasingly considered relevant for an effective and aware outreach. Within this context, CNR has adopted some innovative communication approaches addressed to different publics, such as stakeholders, users, media, young people and the general public, using participative methodologies. Besides being practices of communication promoting the scientific culture, such initiatives aim at understanding the models at the basis of the relationship between the scientific community and the public. To what extent do scientists put their communication and involvement strategies in discussion? Do they use to have a real exchange with their publics in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the participatory techniques they adopt in communicating and disseminating their activities? In this paper we present a case study of a communication and educational proposal recently developed by CNR in order to promote a mutual exchange between Education/School and Research, that are the most important actors in the production and the revision of the scientific knowledge. The proposal brings an ongoing CNR research project (its steps, subjects, tools, activities, costs etc) in classrooms, making use of interactive Earth Sciences workshops conducted directly by researchers. The ongoing CNR project shared with students studies Innovative Methodologies of Earth Observation supporting the Agricultural sector in Lombardy. It aims at exploiting the Aerospace Earth Observation (EO) tools to develop dedicated agricultural downstream services that will bring added economic value and benefits for Lombardy

  11. Familiar communication partners' facilitation of topic management in conversations with individuals with dementia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hall, Karinna; Lind, Christopher; Young, Jessica A; Okell, Elise; van Steenbrugge, Willem

    2018-05-01

    Language and memory impairments affect everyday interactions between individuals with dementia and their communication partners. Impaired topic management, which compromises individuals' construction of relevant, meaningful discourse, is commonly reported amongst individuals with dementia. Currently, limited empirical evidence describes the sequential patterns of behaviour comprising topic-management practices in everyday conversation between individuals with dementia and their communication partners. To describe the sequential patterns of behaviour relating to the manifestation of topic-management impairments and facilitative behaviours in everyday interactions between individuals with dementia and their familiar communication partners (FCPs). Three 20-min conversations between individuals with moderate to severe dementia and their FCPs were recorded. Conversation Analysis was used to examine sequences in which topic-management appeared to be impaired. Conversational behaviours that reflected a difficulty in contributing on-topic talk were pervasive in the talk of the three individuals with dementia. FCPs responded to these conversational difficulties by using two categories of facilitative behaviours. The first involved responding to an individual with dementia's explicit repair-initiation by performing repair. In the second category, explicit repair-initiation was absent; instead, the distance of the conversational difficulty from the prior topic-shifting turn mediated the form and outcome of the FCPs' facilitative behaviours. Each category successfully facilitated the individual with dementia to contribute on-topic talk. The findings contribute to a growing understanding of topic-management abilities in everyday interactions involving individuals with dementia. Individuals with dementia took a proactive role in eliciting topic-management support. The FCPs responded with turns that facilitated the individuals with dementia to talk on-topic. Clinically, the

  12. Person-Centered Planning: Strategies to Encourage Participation and Facilitate Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wells, Jenny C.; Sheehey, Patricia H.

    2012-01-01

    Person-centered planning is a process that allows individuals, family members, and friends an opportunity to share information to develop a personal profile and a future vision for an individual. This article describes strategies and technology that teachers can use to promote parents' participation and facilitate communication while maintaining…

  13. An interdisciplinary space of scientific communication in Collective (Public) Health: the journal interface--Communication, Health, Education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cyrino, Antonio Pithon; Lima, Elizabeth Araújo; Garcia, Vera Lucia; Teixeira, Ricardo Rodrigues; Foresti, Miriam Celí Pimentel Porto; Schraiber, Lilia Blima

    2015-07-01

    This is a reflection upon 17 years of experience in the production of an interdisciplinary scientific journal, the publication "Interface: Communication, Health, Education," whose scope is in the fields of Collective (Public) Health, Education and Communication. It also examines retrospectively the themes published by the journal, seeking to identify them in different sections of this publication. Finally, the evolution of the journal is analyzed.

  14. Scientific Strategies and practices in Latin American Scientific Communication Reviews. An approach to their structural features

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dr. Gustavo A. León Duarte

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available The scientific production of the magazines here analyzed emphasizes the existence of a specializing and dominant perspective of study in the field of the Latin-American research in communication in the last years. This perspective of study has clearly two trends of practical boarding. A trend is the one that is debated in the research applied to the communication in means, where there exists the predominance of two particular lines of study and today probably turned into both principal slopes of study inside the Latin-American research of the communication. On the other hand, there is emphasized the research of the properly academic communication, where, in general lines, his idea of construction it develops from a particular perspective of study of the communication that no doubt is analogous to what they raise and demand separately and with different shades two of the principal institutional initiatives and collective academic that generate nowadays the Latin-American Thought of the Communication (PLC: The called Latin-American School of the Communication (ELACOM and the Researcher Latin-American Association of the Communication (ALAIC.

  15. From the Editors: The present and future of the scientific communication system

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jose Maria Sallan

    2007-07-01

    Full Text Available Scientific progress today is a collective task. Faculty working in different institutions collaborate, directly or using extant research published by their colleagues, on the development of the body of knowledge of a scientific paradigm. The scientific communication system (SCS allows that invisible college to communicate; therefore we consider it a cornerstone of the research system, and a key resource for the advance of science. In that editorial note we show the main threats for the future of the SCM. We describe the evolution of the roles of the main agents involved: publishers, academics, suppliers of bibliometric information and the public sector. We argue that initiatives such as SPARC or the creation of open access journals can contribute to the development of an effective SCS in the future.

  16. Aristotelian Rhetorical Theory as a Framework for Teaching Scientific and Technical Communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Newman, Sara

    1999-01-01

    Describes an upper level rhetorical theory course for Scientific and Technical Communication majors (developed and taught by the author) that is grounded in Aristotle's "On Rhetoric" and in his understanding that effective communication is a systematic "tekhne"/art. Describes how the course uses Aristotle's work as a…

  17. Context and Communication Strategies in Naturalistic Behavioural Intervention: A Framework for Understanding How Practitioners Facilitate Communication in Children with ASD

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sowden, Hannah; Perkins, Mick; Clegg, Judy

    2011-01-01

    There are many different approaches to intervention aimed at facilitating the social and communicative abilities of children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Behavioural interventions seek to improve the social and communicative abilities of children with ASD through interaction. Recently there has been a move towards naturalistic…

  18. Barriers and facilitators to effective communication experienced by patients with malignant lymphoma at all stages after diagnosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Bruinessen, Inge Renske; van Weel-Baumgarten, Evelyn M; Gouw, Hans; Zijlstra, Josée M; Albada, Akke; van Dulmen, Sandra

    2013-12-01

    This study aims to gain insight into patient-perceived communication barriers and facilitators at different stages after the diagnosis of malignant lymphoma. We have detected patterns to explain when these factors influence communication predominantly. A qualitative approach was applied, derived from the context mapping framework. A total of 28 patients completed a set of assignments about their experiences with provider-patient communication during medical consultations. Subsequently, these patients and nine companions shared their experiences during a semistructured (group) interview, which was recorded on audiotape. The audiotapes and assignments were analysed with MAXQDA software. From the patients' viewpoint, communicating effectively appears to depend on their own attributes (e.g. emotions), the health care professionals' attributes (e.g. attitude) and external factors (e.g. time pressure). Three patient communication states were identified: (i) overwhelmed, passive; (ii) pro-active, self-motivated; and (iii) proficient, empowered. Patients seem to behave differently in the three communication states. This study lists patient-perceived communication barriers and facilitators and identifies three different communication states, which indicate when certain barriers and facilitators are encountered. These findings may support health care professionals to tailor the provision of support and information and remove communication barriers accordingly. Additionally, they provide input for interventions to support patients in effective communication. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  19. Scientific Discovery in Deep Social Space: Sociology without Borders

    OpenAIRE

    Joseph Michalski

    2008-01-01

    Globalization affords an excellent opportunity to develop a genuinely universal, scientific sociology. In recent decades the politicization of the discipline has undermined the central mission of sociology: scientific discovery and explanation. The paper identifies several intellectual shifts that will facilitate the expansion and communication of such a science in an emerging global village of sociological analysts: 1) breaking with classical sociology to build upon innovative theoretical id...

  20. Data at Risk Initiative: Examining and Facilitating the Scientific Process in Relation to Endangered Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Angela P Murillo

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Examining the scientific process in relation to endangered data, data reuse, and sharing is crucial in facilitating scientific workflow. Deterioration, format obsolescence, and insufficient metadata for discovery are significant problems leading to loss of scientific data. The research presented in this paper considers these potentially lost data. Four one-hour focus groups and a demographic survey were conducted with 14 scientists to learn about their attitudes toward endangered data, data sharing, data reuse, and their opinions of the DARI inventory. The results indicate that unavailability, lack of context, accessibility issues, and potential endangerment are key concerns to scientists.

  1. Optimizing students’ scientific communication skills through higher order thinking virtual laboratory (HOTVL)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sapriadil, S.; Setiawan, A.; Suhandi, A.; Malik, A.; Safitri, D.; Lisdiani, S. A. S.; Hermita, N.

    2018-05-01

    Communication skill is one skill that is very needed in this 21st century. Preparing and teaching this skill in teaching physics is relatively important. The focus of this research is to optimizing of students’ scientific communication skills after the applied higher order thinking virtual laboratory (HOTVL) on topic electric circuit. This research then employed experimental study particularly posttest-only control group design. The subject in this research involved thirty senior high school students which were taken using purposive sampling. A sample of seventy (70) students participated in the research. An equivalent number of thirty five (35) students were assigned to the control and experimental group. The results of this study found that students using higher order thinking virtual laboratory (HOTVL) in laboratory activities had higher scientific communication skills than students who used the verification virtual lab.

  2. Evolution and creation in the arena of scientific communication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Telmo Pievani

    2006-06-01

    Full Text Available The debate on Darwin’s theory of evolution is a unique case for observing some particular ways in which science is perceived and experienced in society. It is a dispute which is really not very scientific at all, since it ultimately derives from the attempt to discredit a corroborated scientific explanation (and to limit its teaching by fundamentalist fringe groups of religious and political movements of various extraction. However, it is undeniable that the clash between creationists and evolutionists must also involve, in a critical and self-reflective way, the communicative weaknesses of science and its inability to assert itself as a widespread and fully shared culture, as was also stressed by the Nature magazine in April 2005. With an international viewpoint, ranging from the United States to Europe, from Australia to Italy, in this dossier we try to make a summary investigation of the current state of the debate, with a particularly attentive eye on the communicative strategies that contend in the two fields.

  3. Facilitation of risk communication during the anthrax attacks of 2001: the organizational backstory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chess, Caron; Clarke, Lee

    2007-09-01

    The anthrax attacks of 2001 created risk communication problems that cannot be fully understood without appreciating the dynamics among organizations. Case studies of communication in New Jersey, consisting of interviews with a range of participants, found that existing organizational and professional networks facilitated trust among decisionmakers. This interpersonal trust improved communication among agencies and thereby risk communication with the public. For example, "white powder scares" were a problem even in places without contamination. Professionals' trust in each other was vital for responding productively. Conversely, organizational challenges, including conflict among agencies, hindered communication with key audiences. Although centralization and increased control are often seen as the remedy for communicative confusion, they also can quash the improvisational responses needed during crises.

  4. The Facilitators and Barriers to Communication between Nurses and Family Member in Intensive Care Unit in Kerman, Iran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laleh loghmani

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: The communication between nurses and patients' families is commun- ication significantly impacts patient well-being as well as the quality and outcome of nursing care, this study aimed to demonstrated the facilitators and barriers which influence the role of communication among Iranian nurses and families member in ICU. Methods: This study was conducted by the grounded theory method. Participants comprised eight registered nurses and ten families. Patients were admitted to the ICU of two large university hospitals in Kerman, Iran. We used non-structured interviews for data collection. All interviews were transcribed verbatim with a simultaneous, constant comparative analysis of the audio tapes performed according to the Strauss and Corbin method (1998. Results: According to data analysis, Facilitative factors between nurses and families' communication consisted of two categories, i spiritual care, emotional support, Participation, notification and consultation and Barriers that were three categories: i misunderstandings regarding treatment ii job and iii patient difficulties.Conclusion: The findings led into the recognition of the important barriers and facilitators in communication between ICU team and the family of the patients. By identification of the barriers and facilitators of communication, establishing new rules and using creative methods in education and establishing the communication of ICU team and rules and using patient-based approach we can have effective communication.

  5. The ‘credibility paradox’ in China’s science communication: Views from scientific practitioners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Joy Yueyue

    2015-01-01

    In contrast to increasing debates on China’s rising status as a global scientific power, issues of China’s science communication remain under-explored. Based on 21 in-depth interviews in three cities, this article examines Chinese scientists’ accounts of the entangled web of influence which conditions the process of how scientific knowledge achieves (or fails to achieve) its civic authority. A main finding of this study is a ‘credibility paradox’ as a result of the over-politicisation of science and science communication in China. Respondents report that an absence of visible institutional endorsements renders them more public credibility and better communication outcomes. Thus, instead of exploiting formal channels of science communication, scientists interviewed were more keen to act as ‘informal risk communicators’ in grassroots and private events. Chinese scientists’ perspectives on how to earn public support of their research sheds light on the nature and impact of a ‘civic epistemology’ in an authoritarian state. PMID:26307594

  6. Relational grounding facilitates development of scientifically useful multiscale models

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lam Tai

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract We review grounding issues that influence the scientific usefulness of any biomedical multiscale model (MSM. Groundings are the collection of units, dimensions, and/or objects to which a variable or model constituent refers. To date, models that primarily use continuous mathematics rely heavily on absolute grounding, whereas those that primarily use discrete software paradigms (e.g., object-oriented, agent-based, actor typically employ relational grounding. We review grounding issues and identify strategies to address them. We maintain that grounding issues should be addressed at the start of any MSM project and should be reevaluated throughout the model development process. We make the following points. Grounding decisions influence model flexibility, adaptability, and thus reusability. Grounding choices should be influenced by measures, uncertainty, system information, and the nature of available validation data. Absolute grounding complicates the process of combining models to form larger models unless all are grounded absolutely. Relational grounding facilitates referent knowledge embodiment within computational mechanisms but requires separate model-to-referent mappings. Absolute grounding can simplify integration by forcing common units and, hence, a common integration target, but context change may require model reengineering. Relational grounding enables synthesis of large, composite (multi-module models that can be robust to context changes. Because biological components have varying degrees of autonomy, corresponding components in MSMs need to do the same. Relational grounding facilitates achieving such autonomy. Biomimetic analogues designed to facilitate translational research and development must have long lifecycles. Exploring mechanisms of normal-to-disease transition requires model components that are grounded relationally. Multi-paradigm modeling requires both hyperspatial and relational grounding.

  7. From Scientific Innovation to Popularization of Science: a Theoretical Model TOC \\o "1-5" \\h \\z of Science Communication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Svetlana M. Medvedeva

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Science communication is process of promotion of scientific ideas from a scientist through scientific community to muss public. Now this research area attracts a lot of attention from scientists. At the same time science communication suffers from the lack of theoretical framework, which can integrate it. In this article we try to contribute to the further theoretical integration of this area. Here we discuss a model of motion and transformation of ideas from the moment of their generation to the time of their appearance in public movies and literature. The model consists of 5 elements: phase of a scientist (generation of ideas; phase of scientific community (promotion of the ideas among scientists; phase of interested groups (communication with business and government, education of future scientists; phase of popular science (promotion of ideas into mass culture; phase of fiction (subject of communication becomes not scientific knowledge, but myth about science. Each phase is conceived as equal in value stage of existence of scientific ideas. There is a consistent interaction between all phases. The ideas can flow sequentially through all five phases. But independent communication among separate stages is also possible. Furthermore, the ideas can flow in both directions from scientific community to public and visa verse. As a result, scientific communication becomes a real dialogue with equal partners.

  8. Case Study in Interdisciplinary Scientific Communication: A Decade of the INDECS Journal

    OpenAIRE

    Stepanić, Josip; Zoroja, Jovana; Šimičević, Vanja

    2017-01-01

    Background: Interdisciplinary scientific areas regularly develop unique methodologies, yet utilise the conventional communication modes to disseminate results of their researches. Objectives: This paper analyses whether a novel, interdisciplinary communication mode can be found in a gradually developing interdisciplinary journal. Methods/Approach: The content of the journal was categorised based on the characteristics attributed to the published papers. Statistical tests were performed to che...

  9. Communicating with disabled children when inpatients: barriers and facilitators identified by parents and professionals in a qualitative study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharkey, Siobhan; Lloyd, Claire; Tomlinson, Richard; Thomas, Eleanor; Martin, Alice; Logan, Stuart; Morris, Christopher

    2016-06-01

    Communication is a fundamental part of health care, but can be more difficult with disabled children. Disabled children are more frequently admitted to hospital than other children. To explore experiences of ward staff and families to identify barriers and facilitators to effective communication with disabled children whilst inpatients. This was an exploratory qualitative study. We consulted 25 staff working on paediatric wards and 15 parents of disabled children recently admitted to those wards. We had difficulty in recruiting children and evaluating their experiences. Data were collected through interviews and focus groups. A thematic analysis of the data supported by the Framework Approach was used to explore experiences and views about communication. Emerging themes were subsequently synthesised to identify barriers and facilitators to good communication. Barriers to communication included time, professionals not prioritising communication in their role and poor information sharing between parents and professionals. Facilitators included professionals building rapport with a child, good relationships between professionals and parents, professionals having a family-centred approach, and the use of communication aids. Communication with disabled children on the ward was perceived as less than optimal. Parents are instrumental in the communication between their children and professionals. Although aware of the importance of communication with disabled children, staff perceived time pressures and lack of priority given to communicating directly with the child as major barriers. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  10. Realizing Loose Communication with Tangible Avatar to Facilitate Recipient’s Imagination

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shinichi Endo

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Social network services (SNSs allow users to share their daily experiences and significant life events with family, friends, and colleagues. However, excessive use of SNSs or dependence upon them can cause a problem known as “SNS fatigue” that is associated with feelings of anxiety and loneliness. In other words, the tighter and stronger the social bonds are through SNSs, the more users feel anxiety and loneliness. We propose a method for providing users with a sense of security and connectedness with others by facilitating loose communication. Loose communication is defined by the presentation of abstract information and passive (one-way communication. By focusing on the physicality and anthropomorphic characteristics of tangible avatars, we investigated a communication support system, Palco, that displays three types of contextual information with respect to the communication partner—emotional state, activity, and location—in a loose manner. Our approach contrasts with typical SNS interaction methods characterized by tight communication with interactivity and concrete information. This paper describes the design and implementation of Palco, as well as its usefulness as a communication tool. The emotional effects on the users are evaluated through a user study with 10 participants over four days. The results imply that Palco can effectively communicate the context of the communication partner, and provide a sense of security.

  11. Communicating Scientific Findings to Lawyers, Policy-Makers, and the Public (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, W.; Velsko, S. P.

    2013-12-01

    This presentation will summarize the authors' collaborative research on inferential errors, bias and communication difficulties that have arisen in the area of WMD forensics. This research involves analysis of problems that have arisen in past national security investigations, interviews with scientists from various disciplines whose work has been used in WMD investigations, interviews with policy-makers, and psychological studies of lay understanding of forensic evidence. Implications of this research for scientists involved in nuclear explosion monitoring will be discussed. Among the issues covered will be: - Potential incompatibilities between the questions policy makers pose and the answers that experts can provide. - Common misunderstandings of scientific and statistical data. - Advantages and disadvantages of various methods for describing and characterizing the strength of scientific findings. - Problems that can arise from excessive hedging or, alternatively, insufficient qualification of scientific conclusions. - Problems that can arise from melding scientific and non-scientific evidence in forensic assessments.

  12. The use of extemporizing in music therapy to facilitate communication in a person with dementia

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ridder, Hanne Mette Ochsner; Gummesen, Elisabeth

    2015-01-01

    A person who has dementia may also have aphasia and severe communicative disabilities with the risk of leading to social isolation. This study explored the music therapeutic process with a person with dementia and aphasia in order to understand how music therapy may facilitate communication...

  13. African-American Fathers' Perspectives on Facilitators and Barriers to Father-Son Sexual Health Communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Randolph, Schenita D; Coakley, Tanya; Shears, Jeffrey; Thorpe, Roland J

    2017-06-01

    African-American males ages 13 through 24 are disproportionately affected by sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), accounting for over half of all HIV infections in this age group in the United States. Clear communication between African-American parents and their youth about sexual health is associated with higher rates of sexual abstinence, condom use, and intent to delay initiation of sexual intercourse. However, little is known about African-American fathers' perceptions of what facilitates and inhibits sexual health communication with their preadolescent and adolescent sons. We conducted focus groups with 29 African-American fathers of sons ages 10-15 to explore perceived facilitators and barriers for father-son communication about sexual health. Participants were recruited from barbershops in metropolitan and rural North Carolina communities highly affected by STIs and HIV, and data were analyzed using content analysis. Three factors facilitated father-son communication: (a) fathers' acceptance of their roles and responsibilities; (b) a positive father-son relationship; and (c) fathers' ability to speak directly to their sons about sex. We also identified three barriers: (a) fathers' difficulty in initiating sexual health discussions with their sons; (b) sons' developmental readiness for sexual health information; and (c) fathers' lack of experience in talking with their own fathers about sex. These findings have implications for father-focused prevention interventions aimed at reducing risky sexual behaviors in adolescent African-American males. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  14. Communication, The Essence of Science Facilitating Information Exchange Among Librarians, Scientists, Engineers and Students

    CERN Document Server

    Garvey, W D

    1979-01-01

    Communication: The Essence of Science provides information pertinent to the fundamental aspects of scientific communication. This book focuses on those information-exchange activities that take place mainly among scientists actively involved on the research front. Organized into five chapters, this book begins with an overview of the psychologists' description of the communication structure of science. This text then examines the relationship among spanning, connecting, and integrating the various streams of activities involved in the production of information. Other chapters consider some of

  15. Peer Mentoring to Facilitate Original Scientific Research by Students With Special Needs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Danch, J. M.

    2007-12-01

    Developed to allow high school students with special needs to participate in original scientific research, the Peer Mentoring Program was a supplement to existing science instruction for students in a self-contained classroom. Peer mentors were high school seniors at the end of a three-year advanced science research course who used their experience to create and develop inquiry-based research activities appropriate for students in the self- contained classroom. Peer mentors then assisted cooperative learning groups of special education students to facilitate the implementation of the research activities. Students with special needs successfully carried out an original research project and developed critical thinking and laboratory skills. Prior to embarking on their undergraduate course of study in the sciences, peer mentors developed an appreciation for the need to bring original scientific research to students of all levels. The program will be expanded and continued during the 2007-2008 school year.

  16. Optimize scientific communication skills on work and energy concept with implementation of interactive conceptual instruction and multi representation approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patriot, E. A.; Suhandi, A.; Chandra, D. T.

    2018-05-01

    The ultimate goal of learning in the curriculum 2013 is that learning must improve and balance between soft skills and hard skills of learners. In addition to the knowledge aspect, one of the other skills to be trained in the learning process using a scientific approach is communication skills. This study aims to get an overview of the implementation of interactive conceptual instruction with multi representation to optimize the achievement of students’ scientific communication skills on work and energy concept. The scientific communication skills contains the sub-skills were searching the information, scientific writing, group discussion and knowledge presentation. This study was descriptive research with observation method. Subjects in this study were 35 students of class X in Senior High School at Sumedang. The results indicate an achievement of optimal scientific communication skills. The greatest achievement of KKI based on observation is at fourth meeting of KKI-3, which is a sub-skill of resume writing of 89%. Allmost students responded positively to the implication of interactive conceptual instruction with multi representation approach. It can be concluded that the implication of interactive conceptual instruction with multi representation approach can optimize the achievement of students’ scientific communication skill on work and energy concept.

  17. [The evaluation of nursing graduates' scientific reasoning and oral and written communication].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Demandes, Ingrid; Latrach, Cecilia A; Febre, Naldy Pamela; Muñoz, Claudia; Torres, Pamela; Retamal, Jessica

    2012-08-01

    This descriptive, cross-sectional study was performed in Santiago de Chile, with the objective to evaluate the scientific reasoning and the oral and written communication of nursing graduates. The sample consisted of 37 nursing graduates who participated in the three stages of the study: I) creation and validation of the instrument; II) training the faculty participating in the study to apply the instrument uniformly; and III) application of the instrument and data analysis. The data show different percentages regarding this competency, with the predominance of scientific reasoning (83.16%), followed by oral and written communication (78.37%). In conclusion, this study demonstrates the value for nursing schools to implement a formal evaluation that allows for determining the profile of nursing graduates, guaranteeing the quality of their training and education.

  18. Integrating entertainment and scientific rigor to facilitate a co-creation of knowledge

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hezel, Bernd; Broschkowski, Ephraim; Kropp, Jürgen

    2013-04-01

    The advancing research on the changing climate system and on its impacts has uncovered the magnitude of the expectable societal implications. It therefore created substantial awareness of the problem with stakeholders and the general public. But despite this awareness, unsustainable trends have continued untamed. For a transition towards a sustainable world it is, apparently, not enough to disseminate the "scientific truth" and wait for the people to "understand". In order to remedy this problem it is rather necessary to develop new entertaining formats to communicate the complex topic in an integrated and comprehensive way. Beyond that, it could be helpful to acknowledge that science can only generate part of the knowledge that is necessary for the transformation. The nature of the problem and its deep societal implications call for a co-creation of knowledge by science and society in order to enable change. In this spirit the RAMSES project (Reconciling Adaptation, Mitigation and Sustainable Development for Cities) follows a dialogic communication approach allowing for a co-formulation of research questions by stakeholders. A web-based audio-visual guidance application presents embedded scientific information in an entertaining and intuitive way on the basis of a "complexity on demand" approach. It aims at enabling decision making despite uncertainty and it entails a reframing of the project's research according to applied and local knowledge.

  19. Communicational devices and the production of imaginaries: the case of scientific journals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luciana Salazar Salgado

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available From the French tradition of discourse analysis (AD, this article aims at reflecting upon notes of journal’s peer review forms from the Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros (IEB/USP and the Graduate Program in Geogra- phy of FFLCH-USP, GEOUSP: Espaço e Tempo, mobilizing the notion of device recently developed by Jean-Jacques Courtine (2013. It focuses the imaginary of science which is (rebuilt up from the way the editorial processes occurs and characterizes the scientific communication, weaving what Dominique Maingueneau (2006 considers as a discursive institution. On the basis of considerations of the research entitled Editorial genetic rites and scientific communication: a review of activity in journals, this work intended to highlight the configuration of these journals as communicative devices. Therefore, some evidences are presented of the constitution of this imaginary by showing some editorial genetic rites adopted in the journal’s editorial mediation processes. So far, this investigation proves that some dimensions of the editorial mediation are guided by the imaginary of science which puts academic knowledge into public circulation.

  20. The Role of Government Public Relations As Facilitators Communication in Bureau of Public Relation at South Kalimantan Province

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Belinda Devi Larasati Siswanto

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available As the windows of information, communication facilitator role in Government Public Relation (GPR serve as all-in-and-out of information from or to publics. For that, this research be held to find about the communication facilitator role on GPR of South Kalimantan Provincial Government. This research intends to knowing communication facilitator role to provide information to people and otherwise. This research uses qualitative approach with descriptive case study method, the data collection through observation and depth interview with informants purposively selection. The research result showing the communication facilitator role in GPR Bureau is not optimal, caused by unavailable information who can be accessed by the public or the otherwise. Government Information which should can be accessed at government official website or at the social media not be optimized by the GPR Bureau well as the Main Information Management and Documentation Officer (IMDO whose role is held by the GPR Bureau of the information that should be accessible through the website, is not available. This contrasts with some Local Work Unit function only a Subsidiary IMDO, but they were ready to provide information to the public through a website managed

  1. Facilitating tolerance of delayed reinforcement during functional communication training.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fisher, W W; Thompson, R H; Hagopian, L P; Bowman, L G; Krug, A

    2000-01-01

    Few clinical investigations have addressed the problem of delayed reinforcement. In this investigation, three individuals whose destructive behavior was maintained by positive reinforcement were treated using functional communication training (FCT) with extinction (EXT). Next, procedures used in the basic literature on delayed reinforcement and self-control (reinforcer delay fading, punishment of impulsive responding, and provision of an alternative activity during reinforcer delay) were used to teach participants to tolerate delayed reinforcement. With the first case, reinforcer delay fading alone was effective at maintaining low rates of destructive behavior while introducing delayed reinforcement. In the second case, the addition of a punishment component reduced destructive behavior to near-zero levels and facilitated reinforcer delay fading. With the third case, reinforcer delay fading was associated with increases in masturbation and head rolling, but prompting and praising the individual for completing work during the delay interval reduced all problem behaviors and facilitated reinforcer delay fading.

  2. Actions for Professional Development to Enhance Competence in Communicating Scientific Results

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexeis Ruíz-Díaz

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available The main goal of this research is to propose an action plan for professional development to enhance competence in communicating scientific results in teachers of municipal secondary schools. The research is part of a complementary methodological approach that combines different quantitative and qualitative methods based on specific objectives. The diagnosis was made at the Municipal University Center of Sagua La Grande, with a sample of 25 teachers who are members of the Industrial Engineering career staff at the institution, attached to the Central University “Marta Abreu” of Las Villas, Cuba. Regularities were found from the stage of the initial diagnosis of professional development needs and the level in which the “competence in communicating scientific results” variable was. With this information justifying the purposes of this research, a process was designed following a systemic approach, and the practical result was the proposal of the organization and design of an action plan for development through postgraduate education forms during the implementation phase.

  3. Presentation of the paper “Open access repositories as channel of publication scientific grey literature”

    OpenAIRE

    Ferreras Fernández, Tránsito; García-Peñalvo, Francisco José; Merlo Vega, José Antonio

    2015-01-01

    This is the presentation of the paper entitled “Open access repositories as channel of publication scientific grey literature” in the TEEM 2015 International Conference held in Porto (Portugal) in October 7-9, 2015. In this paper we describe how the open access repositories are valid channels for the publication of scientific grey literature. Technological development facilitates the communication of scientific knowledge, allowing expand distribution channels and significantly reducing tra...

  4. [History in the public communication of specialist scientific societies: history marketing].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moll, F H; Halling, T; Rathert, P; Fangerau, H

    2014-10-01

    History is nowadays used as an economic factor. The past is therefore specifically targeted and cultivated, which for specialist scientific associations and societies often fullfils totally different functions in comparison to the open market, although the techniques and requirements are similar. Within medical specialties these facts are often still unknown. Museums and archives as well as the historians and curators working in them are very familiar with the special cultures of communication within these scientific communities and they play a major role in the establishment and development of history as a modern part of public relations and public identity.

  5. Dynamic Framing in the Communication of Scientific Research: Texts and Interactions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davis, Pryce R.; Russ, Rosemary S.

    2015-01-01

    The fields of science education and science communication share the overarching goal of helping non-experts and non-members of the professional science community develop knowledge of the content and processes of scientific research. However, the specific audiences, methods, and aims employed in the two fields have evolved quite differently and as…

  6. Scientific papers for health informatics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pereira, Samáris Ramiro; Duarte, Jacy Marcondes; Bandiera-Paiva, Paulo

    2013-01-01

    From the hypothesis that the development of scientific papers, mainly in interdisciplinary areas such as Health Informatics, may bring difficulties to the author, as had its communicative efficacy decreased or compromising their approval for publication; we aim to make considerations on the main items to good players making this kind of text. The scientific writing has peculiarities that must be taken into consideration when it writes: general characteristics, such as simplicity and objectivity, and characteristics of each area of knowledge, such as terminology, formatting and standardization. The research methodology adopted is bibliographical. The information was based on literature review and the authors' experience, teachers and assessors of scientific methodology in peer review publications in the area. As a result, we designed a checklist of items to be checked before submission of a paper to a scientific publication vehicle in order to contribute to the promotion of research, facilitating the publication and increase its capacity in this important area of knowledge.

  7. Broadening the voice of science: Promoting scientific communication in the undergraduate classroom.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cirino, Lauren A; Emberts, Zachary; Joseph, Paul N; Allen, Pablo E; Lopatto, David; Miller, Christine W

    2017-12-01

    Effective and accurate communication of scientific findings is essential. Unfortunately, scientists are not always well trained in how to best communicate their results with other scientists nor do all appreciate the importance of speaking with the public. Here, we provide an example of how the development of oral communication skills can be integrated with research experiences at the undergraduate level. We describe our experiences developing, running, and evaluating a course for undergraduates that complemented their existing undergraduate research experiences with instruction on the nature of science and intensive training on the development of science communication skills. Students delivered science talks, research monologues, and poster presentations about the ecological and evolutionary research in which they were involved. We evaluated the effectiveness of our approach using the CURE survey and a focus group. As expected, undergraduates reported strong benefits to communication skills and confidence. We provide guidance for college researchers, instructors, and administrators interested in motivating and equipping the next generation of scientists to be excellent science communicators.

  8. Barriers and facilitators to effective communication experienced by patients with malignant lymphoma at all stages after diagnosis

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bruinessen, I.R. van; Weel-Baumgarten, E.M. van; Gouw, H.; Zijlstra, J.M.; Albada, A.; Dulmen, S. van

    2013-01-01

    OBJECTIVE: This study aims to gain insight into patient-perceived communication barriers and facilitators at different stages after the diagnosis of malignant lymphoma. We have detected patterns to explain when these factors influence communication predominantly. METHOD: A qualitative approach was

  9. Barriers and facilitators to effective communication experienced by patients with malignant lymphoma at all stages after diagnosis.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bruinessen, I.R. van; Weel, E.M. van; Gouw, H.; Zijlstra, J.M.; Albada, A.; Dulmen, S. van

    2013-01-01

    Objective: This study aims to gain insight into patient-perceived communication barriers and facilitators at different stages after the diagnosis of malignant lymphoma. We have detected patterns to explain when these factors influence communication predominantly. Method: A qualitative approach was

  10. The role by scientific publications in science communication (Italian original version

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Martha Fabbri

    2007-03-01

    Full Text Available In their contributions to this special issue, the British science writer Jon Turney and the American scholar Bruce Lewenstein discuss the validity of the book as a means for science communication in the era of the Internet, whereas the article by Vittorio Bo deals with scientific publishing in a broader sense.

  11. Social behavioural epistemology and the scientific community.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watve, Milind

    2017-07-01

    The progress of science is influenced substantially by social behaviour of and social interactions within the scientific community. Similar to innovations in primate groups, the social acceptance of an innovation depends not only upon the relevance of the innovation but also on the social dominance and connectedness of the innovator. There are a number of parallels between many well-known phenomena in behavioural evolution and various behavioural traits observed in the scientific community. It would be useful, therefore, to use principles of behavioural evolution as hypotheses to study the social behaviour of the scientific community. I argue in this paper that a systematic study of social behavioural epistemology is likely to boost the progress of science by addressing several prevalent biases and other problems in scientific communication and by facilitating appropriate acceptance/rejection of novel concepts.

  12. Boletim and Arquivos: scientific communication until the creation of the Revista de Saúde Pública

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marques, Maria Cristina da Costa; Dolci, Mariana de Carvalho

    2016-01-01

    ABSTRACT Based on historical references of scientific communication, we analyzed the issues of the Boletim do Instituto de Higiene de São Paulo and of the Arquivos da Faculdade de Higiene e Saúde Pública da Universidade de São Paulo. Published respectively from 1919 to 1946 and from 1947 to 1966, they totaled 120 issues. In their 48 years of publication, their goal was to disseminate the scientific production of the institution and to legitimize the theoretical debate of the field, in addition to supporting the public health intervention models, written by leading researchers of the institution and by contributors and managers in the field of public health. Both the Boletim and the Arquivos were recognized as scientific communication of national reference, and have laid the foundations for the creation of the Revista de Saúde Pública, in 1967. PMID:27783712

  13. Public scientific communication: reflections on the public and its participation forms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peter Sekloča

    2009-09-01

    Full Text Available Scientific communication also pertains to the domain of society, where the formation of public opinion about science and technology is taking place. Concerning this process, two main points are exposed in the commentary. The first is a proposition on how the public as a social category may be conceptualized, and the second is the extent of the participation of members of the public in strengthening socialization and democratization practices in new, highly complex, contexts of scientific research. The public is conceptualized to include all citizens no matter their professional origin, including scientists, which promotes the idea of openness and equality of the public sphere where scientific issues are discussed. To be democratic in its practical-political setting, such a conception needs to deal with the problems of participation in a highly mediatized world, where not every member of the public could be included into scientific research. The author thus reflects on the mechanisms which would enable the formation of public forums where the trust of influential public actors as stakeholders of research can be tested.

  14. Communicating with scientific graphics: A descriptive inquiry into non-ideal normativity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sheredos, Benjamin

    2017-06-01

    Scientists' graphical practices have recently become a target of inquiry in the philosophy of science, and in the cognitive sciences. Here I supplement our understanding of graphical practices via a case study of how researchers crafted the graphics for scientific publication in the field of circadian biology. The case highlights social aspects of graphical production which have gone understudied - especially concerning the negotiation of publication. I argue that it also supports a challenge to the claim that empirically-informed "cognitive design principles" offer an apt understanding of the norms of success which govern good scientific graphic design to communicate data and hypotheses to other experts. In this respect, the case-study also illustrates how "descriptive" studies of scientific practice can connect with normative issues in philosophy of science, thereby addressing a central concern in recent discussions of practice-oriented philosophy of science. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Scientometric analysis of the means of scientific communication of the problem of medical consequences of Chernobyl Nuclear accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Artamonova, N.O.; Kulyinyich, G.V.; Pavlyichenko, Yu.V.; Gorvan', A.Je.; Zakrut'ko, L.Yi.; Novgorods'ka, L.M.; Byilan, L.G.

    2014-01-01

    In this paper evaluation of the structure and trends in the development of the Ukrainian scientific communication tools on the medical consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear accident using bibliometric methods has been given. The main developers of methodical documents are allocated, the dynamics of the distribution of methodical references, information letters and innovations is estimated. The importance of scientific communications tools in dissemination and use of new medical knowledge is demonstrated

  16. Examples of Video to Communicate Scientific Findings to Non-Scientists-Bayesian Ecological Modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moorman, M.; Harned, D. A.; Cuffney, T.; Qian, S.

    2011-12-01

    The U.S Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA) provides information about (1) water-quality conditions and how those conditions vary locally, regionally, and nationally, (2) water-quality trends, and (3) factors that affect those conditions. As part of the NAWQA Program, the Effects of Urbanization on Stream Ecosystems (EUSE) study examined the vulnerability and resilience of streams to urbanization. Completion of the EUSE study has resulted in over 20 scientific publications. Video podcasts are being used in addition to these publications to communicate the relevance of these scientific findings to more general audiences such as resource managers, educational groups, public officials, and the general public. An example of one of the podcasts is a film about the results of modeling the effects urbanization on stream ecology. The film describes some of the results of the EUSE ecological modeling effort and the advantages of the Bayesian and multi-level statistical modeling approaches, while relating the science to fly fishing. The complex scientific discussion combined with the lighter, more popular activity of fly fishing leads to an entertaining forum while educating viewers about a complex topic. This approach is intended to represent the scientists as interesting people with diverse interests. Video can be an effective scientific communication tool for presenting scientific findings to a broad audience. The film is available for access from the EUSE website (http://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/urban/html/podcasts.html). Additional films are planned to be released in 2012 on other USGS project results and programs.

  17. Communicating and countering misconceptions about the scientific consensus on human-caused global warming

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cook, J.

    2016-12-01

    A number of studies have sought to quantify the level of agreement among climate scientists on human-caused global warming. This has included surveys of the scientific community, analyses of public declarations about climate change and analyses of peer-reviewed climate papers. This body of research has found that the level of consensus increases with expertise in climate science, culminating in 97% agreement among publishing climate scientists. Despite this robust finding, there is a significant gap between public perception of scientific consensus and the overwhelming agreement among climate scientists. This "consensus gap" is due in large part to a persistent, focused campaign to manufacture doubt about the scientific consensus by opponents of climate action. This campaign has employed non-expert spokespeople, magnified the small minority of dissenting scientists and exploited the journalistic norm of balance to generate the impression of an equal debate among scientists. Given the importance of perceived consensus as a "gateway belief" influencing a number of climate beliefs and attitudes, it is imperative that climate communicators close the consensus gap. This can be achieved by communicating the 97% consensus and explaining the techniques used to cast doubt on the consensus.

  18. An analysis of nanoscientists as public communicators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dudo, Anthony; Kahlor, Leeann; Abighannam, Niveen; Lazard, Allison; Liang, Ming-Ching

    2014-10-01

    The American public remains unfamiliar with nanotechnology despite more than a decade of investment and development. Nanoscientists have an opportunity to contribute to public conversations about their work, and its potential implications, through their engagement with lay audiences and media professionals. Indeed, the leaderships of many professional scientific organizations have placed a renewed focus on the public communication of science, particularly in the light of drastic changes in the information landscape and the increasing politicization of many technological and scientific issues. However, we have a limited understanding of nanoscientists' perceptions and behaviours regarding their participation in public communication. Here, we report survey results that provide an examination of the public communication behaviours of nanoscientists affiliated with the National Science Foundation's (NSF) National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN), an integrated partnership of US research institutions designed to facilitate nanoscale research and development. Our results suggest that nanoscientists are relatively frequent public communicators who commonly associate their communication efforts with positive impacts on their professional success. We also identify a handful of characteristics that drive nanoscientists' intentions to communicate with the public about nanotechnology.

  19. Science and the media alternative routes in scientific communication

    CERN Document Server

    Bucchi, Massimiano

    1998-01-01

    In the days of global warming and BSE, science is increasingly a public issue. This book provides a theoretical framework which allows us to understand why and how scientists address the general public. The author develops the argument that turning to the public is not simply a response to inaccurate reporting by journalists or to public curiosity, nor a wish to gain recognition and additional funding. Rather, it is a tactic to which the scientific community are pushed by certain "internal" crisis situations. Bucchi examines three cases of scientists turning to the public: the cold fusion case, the COBE/Big Bang issue and Louis Pasteur's public demonstration of the anthrax vaccine, a historical case of "public science." Finally, Bucchi presents his unique model of communications between science and the public, carried out through the media. This is a thoughtful and wide-ranging treatment of complex contemporary issues, touching upon the history and sociology of science, communication and media studies. Bucchi...

  20. Institute of Philology and Intercultural Communication (Volgograd State University: Scientific and Research Innovations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Violetta S. Molchanova

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper describes different scientific innovations, applied in the course of study at the Institute of Philology and Intercultural Communication of Volgograd State University. Special attention is attached to technological component and personnel developments, aimed at the education process improvement and optimization.

  1. Evolution and creation in the arena of scientific communication (Italian original version

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Telmo Pievani

    2006-06-01

    Full Text Available The debate on Darwin’s theory of evolution is a unique case for observing some particular ways in which science is perceived and experienced in society. It is a dispute which is really not very scientific at all, since it ultimately derives from the attempt to discredit a corroborated scientific explanation (and to limit its teaching by fundamentalist fringe groups of religious and political movements of various extraction. However, it is undeniable that the clash between creationists and evolutionists must also involve, in a critical and self-reflective way, the communicative weaknesses of science and its inability to assert itself as a widespread and fully shared culture, as was also stressed by the Nature magazine in April 2005. With an international viewpoint, ranging from the United States to Europe, from Australia to Italy, in this dossier we try to make a summary investigation of the current state of the debate, with a particularly attentive eye on the communicative strategies that contend in the two fields.

  2. Randomized Trial of Communication Facilitators to Reduce Family Distress and Intensity of End-of-Life Care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Curtis, J Randall; Treece, Patsy D; Nielsen, Elizabeth L; Gold, Julia; Ciechanowski, Paul S; Shannon, Sarah E; Khandelwal, Nita; Young, Jessica P; Engelberg, Ruth A

    2016-01-15

    Communication with family of critically ill patients is often poor and associated with family distress. To determine if an intensive care unit (ICU) communication facilitator reduces family distress and intensity of end-of-life care. We conducted a randomized trial at two hospitals. Eligible patients had a predicted mortality greater than or equal to 30% and a surrogate decision maker. Facilitators supported communication between clinicians and families, adapted communication to family needs, and mediated conflict. Outcomes included depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among family 3 and 6 months after ICU and resource use. We identified 488 eligible patients and randomized 168. Of 352 eligible family members, 268 participated (76%). Family follow-up at 3 and 6 months ranged from 42 to 47%. The intervention was associated with decreased depressive symptoms at 6 months (P = 0.017), but there were no significant differences in psychological symptoms at 3 months or anxiety or PTSD at 6 months. The intervention was not associated with ICU mortality (25% control vs. 21% intervention; P = 0.615) but decreased ICU costs among all patients (per patient: $75,850 control, $51,060 intervention; P = 0.042) and particularly among decedents ($98,220 control, $22,690 intervention; P = 0.028). Among decedents, the intervention reduced ICU and hospital length of stay (28.5 vs. 7.7 d and 31.8 vs. 8.0 d, respectively; P Communication facilitators may be associated with decreased family depressive symptoms at 6 months, but we found no significant difference at 3 months or in anxiety or PTSD. The intervention reduced costs and length of stay, especially among decedents. This is the first study to find a reduction in intensity of end-of-life care with similar or improved family distress. Clinical trial registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT 00720200).

  3. Facilitators and barriers for GP-patient communication in palliative care: a qualitative study among GPs, patients, and end-of-life consultants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Slort, Willemjan; Blankenstein, Annette H; Deliens, Luc; van der Horst, Henriëtte E

    2011-04-01

    Effective communication is considered to be essential for the delivery of high-quality care. Communication in palliative care may be particularly difficult, and there is still no accepted set of communication skills for GPs in providing palliative care. To obtain detailed information on facilitators and barriers for GP-patient communication in palliative care, with the aim to develop training programmes that enable GPs to improve their palliative care communication skills. Qualitative study with focus groups, interviews, and questionnaires. GPs with patients receiving palliative care at home, and end-of-life consultants in the Netherlands. GP (n = 20) focus groups discussing facilitators and barriers, palliative care patient (n = 6) interviews regarding facilitators, and end-of-life consultant (n = 22) questionnaires concerning barriers. Facilitators reported by both GPs and patients were accessibility, taking time, commitment, and listening carefully. GPs emphasise respect, while patients want GPs to behave in a friendly way, and to take the initiative to discuss end-of-life issues. Barriers reported by both GPs and end-of-life consultants were: difficulty in dealing with former doctors' delay and strong demands from patients' relatives. GPs report difficulty in dealing with strong emotions and troublesome doctor-patient relationships, while consultants report insufficient clarification of patients' problems, promises that could not be kept, helplessness, too close involvement, and insufficient anticipation of various scenarios. The study findings suggest that the quality of GP-patient communication in palliative care in the Netherlands can be improved. It is recommended that specific communication training programmes for GPs should be developed and evaluated.

  4. Lessons Learned about Best Practices for Communicating Earthquake Forecasting and Early Warning to Non-Scientific Publics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sellnow, D. D.; Sellnow, T. L.

    2017-12-01

    Earthquake scientists are without doubt experts in understanding earthquake probabilities, magnitudes, and intensities, as well as the potential consequences of them to community infrastructures and inhabitants. One critical challenge these scientific experts face, however, rests with communicating what they know to the people they want to help. Helping scientists translate scientific information to non-scientists is something Drs. Tim and Deanna Sellnow have been committed to for decades. As such, they have compiled a host of data-driven best practices for communicating effectively to non-scientific publics about earthquake forecasting, probabilities, and warnings. In this session, they will summarize what they have learned as it may help earthquake scientists, emergency managers, and other key spokespersons share these important messages to disparate publics in ways that result in positive outcomes, the most important of which is saving lives.

  5. Iridium: Global OTH data communications for high altitude scientific ballooning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Denney, A.

    While the scientific community is no stranger to embracing commercially available technologies, the growth and availability of truly affordable cutting edge technologies is opening the door to an entirely new means of global communications. For many years high altitude ballooning has provided science an alternative to costly satellite based experimental platforms. As with any project, evolution becomes an integral part of development. Specifically in the NSBF ballooning program, where flight durations have evolved from the earlier days of hours to several weeks and plans are underway to provide missions up to 100 days. Addressing increased flight durations, the harsh operational environment, along with cumbersome and outdated systems used on existing systems, such as the balloon vehicles Support Instrumentation Package (SIP) and ground-based systems, a new Over-The-Horizon (OTH) communications medium is sought. Current OTH equipment planning to be phased-out include: HF commanding systems, ARGOS PTT telemetry downlinks and INMARSAT data terminals. Other aspects up for review in addition to the SIP to utilize this communications medium include pathfinder balloon platforms - thereby, adding commanding abilities and increased data rates, plus providing a package for ultra-small experiments to ride aloft. Existing communication systems employed by the National Scientific Balloon Facility ballooning program have been limited not only by increased cost, slow data rates and "special government use only" services such as TDRSS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System), but have had to make special provisions to geographical flight location. Development of the Support Instrumentation Packages whether LDB (Long Duration Balloon), ULDB (Ultra Long Duration Balloon) or conventional ballooning have been plagued by non-standard systems configurations requiring additional support equipment for different regions and missions along with a myriad of backup for redundancy. Several

  6. Several Factors of Library Publishing Services Facilitate Scholarly Communication Functions. A Review of: Park, J.-H., & Shim, J. (2011. Exploring how library publishing services facilitate scholarly communication. Journal of Scholarly Publishing, 43(1, 76-89. doi: 10.1353/scp.2011.0038

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leslie Bussert

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Objective – To identify and examine thefactors of library publishing services thatfacilitate scholarly communication.Design – Analysis of library publishing serviceprograms.Setting – North American research libraries.Subjects – Eight research libraries selectedfrom the signatories for the Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity (COPE CornellUniversity Library’s Center for InnovativePublishing; Dartmouth College Library’sDigital Publishing Program and ScholarsPortal Project; MIT Libraries’ Office ofScholarly Publishing and Licensing; ColumbiaUniversity Libraries’ Center for DigitalResearch and Scholarship; University ofMichigan Library’s Scholarly PublishingOffice; Duke University Library’s Office ofScholarly Communications; University ofCalgary Libraries and Cultural Resources’Centre for Scholarly Communication; andSimon Fraser University Library’s ScholarlyPublishing.Methods – The authors used Roosendaal andGeurt’s (1997 four functions of scholarlycommunication to analyze and categorizelibrary publishing services provided bylibraries included in the study. The fourfunctions of scholarly communication includeregistration, certification, awareness, andarchiving.Main Results – Analysis of the registration functions provided by library publishing services in this study revealed three types of facilitating factors: intellectual property, licensing, and publishing. These include services such as repositories for digital scholarly work and research, ISBN/ISSN registration, and digital publishing. Analysis of archiving functions demonstrated that most programs in the study focus on repository-related services in support of digital content preservation of papers, datasets, technical reports, etc. Analysis of certification functions provided by these services exposed a focus on expert review and research support. These include services like professional assessment of information sources, consultation on appropriate

  7. Diagramming Scientific Papers - A New Idea for Understanding/Teaching/Sharing Science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saltus, R. W.; Fedi, M.

    2014-12-01

    How do we best communicate scientific results? As the number of scientists and scientific papers steadily increases, one of the greatest challenges is effective and efficient sharing of science. The official repository of scientific knowledge is the peer-reviewed journal archive. However, this primary knowledge can be difficult to access and understand by anyone but a relevant specialist. We propose some new ideas for diagramming the content and significance of scientific papers using a simple and intuitive graphical approach. We propose a visual mapping that highlights four fundamental aspects of most scientific papers: Data, Methods/Models, Results/Ideas, and Implications/Importance. Each of these aspects is illustrated within boxed fields which contain one or more labeled elements positioned to reflect novelty (aka originality) and impact relative to the vertical and horizontal axes. The relative position of the boxed fields themselves indicates the relative significance of data, methods, ideas, or implications to the paper. Optional lines between boxed elements indicate the flow and dependence of data/methods/ideas within the paper. As with any graphical depiction, you need to see it to best appreciate it -- this written abstract is only meant as an introduction to the idea.We anticipate that diagramming may prove useful in both communication of scientific ideas among scientists as well as in education and outreach. For example, professors could assign diagramming of papers as a way to help students organize their thoughts about the structure and impact of scientific articles. Students could compare and defend their diagrams as a way to facilitate discussion/debate. Authors could diagram their own work as a way to efficiently summarize the importance and significance of their work. We also imagine that (in the future) automatic diagramming might be used to help summarize or facilitate the discovery of archived work.

  8. Facilitators and barriers for GP–patient communication in palliative care: a qualitative study among GPs, patients, and end-of-life consultants

    Science.gov (United States)

    Slort, Willemjan; Blankenstein, Annette H; Deliens, Luc; van der Horst, Henriëtte E

    2011-01-01

    Background Effective communication is considered to be essential for the delivery of high-quality care. Communication in palliative care may be particularly difficult, and there is still no accepted set of communication skills for GPs in providing palliative care. Aim To obtain detailed information on facilitators and barriers for GP–patient communication in palliative care, with the aim to develop training programmes that enable GPs to improve their palliative care communication skills. Design of study Qualitative study with focus groups, interviews, and questionnaires. Setting GPs with patients receiving palliative care at home, and end-of-life consultants in the Netherlands. Method GP (n = 20) focus groups discussing facilitators and barriers, palliative care patient (n = 6) interviews regarding facilitators, and end-of-life consultant (n = 22) questionnaires concerning barriers. Results Facilitators reported by both GPs and patients were accessibility, taking time, commitment, and listening carefully. GPs emphasise respect, while patients want GPs to behave in a friendly way, and to take the initiative to discuss end-of-life issues. Barriers reported by both GPs and end-of-life consultants were: difficulty in dealing with former doctors' delay and strong demands from patients' relatives. GPs report difficulty in dealing with strong emotions and troublesome doctor–patient relationships, while consultants report insufficient clarification of patients' problems, promises that could not be kept, helplessness, too close involvement, and insufficient anticipation of various scenarios. Conclusion The study findings suggest that the quality of GP–patient communication in palliative care in the Netherlands can be improved. It is recommended that specific communication training programmes for GPs should be developed and evaluated. PMID:21439174

  9. Scientific Management in Higher Education: Concerns and Using Collaborative School Management to Improve Communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koermer, Chas; Petelle, John

    1996-01-01

    Explores problems associated with using "scientific management" ideals as a means of governance in higher education. Discusses hierarchial control, fitting in, paper bureaucracy, and committees. Describes the Collaborative School Management technique and how it fosters a more productive communication environment and facilitates…

  10. Teaching scientific concepts through simple models and social communication techniques

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tilakaratne, K.

    2011-01-01

    For science education, it is important to demonstrate to students the relevance of scientific concepts in every-day life experiences. Although there are methods available for achieving this goal, it is more effective if cultural flavor is also added to the teaching techniques and thereby the teacher and students can easily relate the subject matter to their surroundings. Furthermore, this would bridge the gap between science and day-to-day experiences in an effective manner. It could also help students to use science as a tool to solve problems faced by them and consequently they would feel science is a part of their lives. In this paper, it has been described how simple models and cultural communication techniques can be used effectively in demonstrating important scientific concepts to the students of secondary and higher secondary levels by using two consecutive activities carried out at the Institute of Fundamental Studies (IFS), Sri Lanka. (author)

  11. Ethics in scientific communication: study of a problem case.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berger, R L

    1994-12-01

    The hypothermia experiments performed on humans during the Second World War at the German concentration camp in Dachau have been regarded as crimes against humanity, disguised as medical research. For almost 50 years, scientists maintained that the study produced valuable, even if not totally reliable, information. In recent years, the results from the Dachau hypothermia project were glamorized with life-saving potential and a heated ethical dialogue was activated about the use of life-saving but tainted scientific information. In the wake of the debate, an in-depth examination of the scientific rigour of the project was performed and revealed that neither the science nor the scientists from Dachau could be trusted and that the data were worthless. The body of medical opinion accepted the unfavourable determination but a few scientists and ethicists have continued to endorse the validity, of at least parts, of the Dachau hypothermia data. The conduct of the scientific communications about the Dachau hypothermia experiments by the scientific and ethical communities invites serious consideration of a possible ethical misadventure. It appears that for almost 50 years, the results of the study had been endorsed without careful examination of the scientific base of the experiments and that secondary citation of relevant original material may have been commonly employed. These infractions contributed to a myth that good science was practised by the Nazis at Dachau. The more recent emphasis on the life-saving potential of the Dachau data, without citation of credible supporting evidence, has also been misleading. Similarly, acceptance of a determination by an in-depth examination that the 'whole' Dachau project if flawed with simultaneous endorsement of the validity of 'parts' of the results, poses an ethical problem. It is advisable that before seeking ethical consultation about the use of unethically obtained data, scientists should examine the quality of science behind

  12. Facilitating Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals through Open Scientific Data and Indicators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, R. S.; Levy, M. A.; de Sherbinin, A. M.; Fischer, A.

    2015-12-01

    The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent an unprecedented international commitment to a shared future encompassing sustainable management of the planet and significant improvement in the human condition around the world. The scientific community has both an ethical responsibility and substantial self-interest—as residents of this planet—to help the world community to better understand the complex, interlinked behavior of human and environmental systems and to elucidate pathways to achieve long-term sustainability. Critical to making progress towards the SDGs is the open availability of timely, reliable, usable, and well integrated data and indicators relevant to all SDGs and associated targets. Such data and indicators will not only be valuable in monitoring and evaluation of progress, but also in developing policies and making decisions on environmental and societal issues affecting sustainability from local to global scales. The open availability of such data and indicators can help motivate performance, promote accountability, and facilitate cooperation. A range of scientific, technical, organizational, political, and resource challenges need to be addressed in developing a coherent SDG monitoring and indicator framework. For example, assembling and integrating diverse data on consistent spatial and temporal scales across the relevant natural, social, health, and engineering sciences pose both scientific and technical difficulties, and may require new ways to interlink and organize existing cyberinfrastructure, reconcile different data policy regimes, and fund integration efforts. New information technologies promise more timely and efficient ways of collecting many types of data, but may also raise privacy, control, and equity issues. Scientific review processes to ensure data quality need to be coordinated with the types of quality control and review employed by national statistical agencies for trusted economic and social statistics. Although

  13. Does the public communication of science influence scientific vocation? Results of a national survey.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stekolschik, Gabriel; Draghi, Cecilia; Adaszko, Dan; Gallardo, Susana

    2010-09-01

    The purpose of this work was to determine if public communication of science and technology (PCST) has any influence on people's decision to become dedicated to scientific research. For this reason, a national survey involving 852 researchers from all disciplines was conducted in Argentina. The results showed that the factors affecting scientific vocation are many, and that, regardless of differences in gender, age or discipline, the greatest influence on the decision to go into scientific research is exerted by teachers. The analysis also demonstrated that different manifestations of PCST (science books, press articles, audiovisual material, and activities such as visits to science museums) play a significant role in awakening the vocation for science. From these results it may be stated that PCST--in addition to its function of informing and forming citizens--exerts a significant influence in fostering scientific vocation.

  14. Communication, interventions, and scientific advances in autism: a commentary.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Llaneza, Danielle C; DeLuke, Susan V; Batista, Myra; Crawley, Jacqueline N; Christodulu, Kristin V; Frye, Cheryl A

    2010-06-01

    Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) affect approximately 1 in 150 children across the U.S., and are characterized by abnormal social actions, language difficulties, repetitive or restrictive behaviors, and special interests. ASD include autism (autistic disorder), Asperger Syndrome, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS or atypical autism). High-functioning individuals may communicate with moderate-to-high language skills, although difficulties in social skills may result in communication deficits. Low-functioning individuals may have severe deficiencies in language, resulting in poor communication between the individual and others. Behavioral intervention programs have been developed for ASD, and are frequently adjusted to accommodate specific individual needs. Many of these programs are school-based and aim to support the child in the development of their skills, for use outside the classroom with family and friends. Strides are being made in understanding the factors contributing to the development of ASD, particularly the genetic contributions that may underlie these disorders. Mutant mouse models provide powerful research tools to investigate the genetic factors associated with ASD and its co-morbid disorders. In support, the BTBR T+tf/J mouse strain incorporates ASD-like social and communication deficits and high levels of repetitive behaviors. This commentary briefly reviews the reciprocal relationship between observations made during evidence-based behavioral interventions of high- versus low-functioning children with ASD and the accumulating body of research in autism, including animal studies and basic research models. This reciprocity is one of the hallmarks of the scientific method, such that research may inform behavioral treatments, and observations made during treatment may inform subsequent research. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Comparative analysis between scientific and the media communication following facial transplantation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Belanger, M; Harris, P G; Nikolis, A; Danino, A M

    2009-03-01

    Our aim was to analyze the communications about three outstanding medical reports. Was there any difference in the reports of the three allografts? Was there a correlation between the media and the scientific world? The Internet sites of three major newspapers were used for the media database. Those results were compared with PubMed between 2005 and 2007 using these key words: "facial graft," "facial allograft," "composite tissue allograft," and names of surgeons of the graft. We did a comparative analysis using a word processor and a quality analysis software. We analyzed 51 articles from the media and six from the PubMed database. In PubMed, 100% of the articles were on the first graft and respected the privacy of the patient compared to 67% of the media who unveiled the identity. The communication following a medical premiere depends on the team, which performes the act. We observed a major difference between the three cases. Ethical considerations are different for the media and for scientists. The communication management of a medical premiere takes preparation and evaluation.

  16. Risk communication in environmental assessment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rahm-Crites, L. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab., Germantown, MD (United States). Washington Operations Office

    1996-08-26

    Since the enactment of NEPA and other environmental legislation, the concept of `risk communication` has expanded from simply providing citizens with scientific information about risk to exploring ways of making risk information genuinely meaningful to the public and facilitating public involvement in the very processes whereby risk is analyzed and managed. Contemporary risk communication efforts attempt to find more effective ways of conveying increasingly complex risk information and to develop more democratic and proactive approaches to community involvement, in particular to ensuring the participation of diverse populations in risk decisions. Although considerable progress has been made in a relatively short time, risk communication researchers and practitioners currently face a number of challenges in a time of high expectations, low trust, and low budgets.

  17. Barriers and Facilitators to Patient-Provider Communication When Discussing Breast Cancer Risk to Aid in the Development of Decision Support Tools.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yi, Haeseung; Xiao, Tong; Thomas, Parijatham S; Aguirre, Alejandra N; Smalletz, Cindy; Dimond, Jill; Finkelstein, Joseph; Infante, Katherine; Trivedi, Meghna; David, Raven; Vargas, Jennifer; Crew, Katherine D; Kukafka, Rita

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to identify barriers and facilitators to patient-provider communication when discussing breast cancer risk to aid in the development of decision support tools. Four patient focus groups (N=34) and eight provider focus groups (N=10) took place in Northern Manhattan. A qualitative analysis was conducted using Atlas.ti software. The coding yielded 62.3%-94.5% agreement. The results showed that 1) barriers are time constraints, lack of knowledge, low health literacy, and language barriers, and 2) facilitators are information needs, desire for personalization, and autonomy when communicating risk in patient-provider encounters. These results will inform the development of a patient-centered decision aid (RealRisks) and a provider-facing breast cancer risk navigation (BNAV) tool, which are designed to facilitate patient-provider risk communication and shared decision-making about breast cancer prevention strategies, such as chemoprevention.

  18. Scientific Utopia: An agenda for improving scientific communication (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nosek, B.

    2013-12-01

    The scientist's primary incentive is publication. In the present culture, open practices do not increase chances of publication, and they often require additional work. Practicing the abstract scientific values of openness and reproducibility thus requires behaviors in addition to those relevant for the primary, concrete rewards. When in conflict, concrete rewards are likely to dominate over abstract ones. As a consequence, the reward structure for scientists does not encourage openness and reproducibility. This can be changed by nudging incentives to align scientific practices with scientific values. Science will benefit by creating and connecting technologies that nudge incentives while supporting and improving the scientific workflow. For example, it should be as easy to search the research literature for my topic as it is to search the Internet to find hilarious videos of cats falling off of furniture. I will introduce the Center for Open Science (http://centerforopenscience.org/) and efforts to improve openness and reproducibility such as http://openscienceframework.org/. There will be no cats.

  19. Multiple perspectives on students’ scientific communication & reasoning in chemistry education [VISIONS 2011: Teaching

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maik Walpuski

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available Both students and teachers need different competences for scientific reasoning. Apart from the required content knowledge and the ability of using it adequately, both groups need elaborated knowledge of strategies for decision-making and argumentation. These competences concerning decision-making are highly dependent on how frequently students are given the chance to argue in science classes. This article pools the results of three different research projects in chemistry education which focus on these three aspects: Students’ competences, the classroom situation with regard to communication and reasoning and teachers’ competences. Students’ skills needed for discussing chemistry content and for decision-making in scientific contexts are analyzed first. Following this, the opportunities for improving these skills during science lessons are researched and related to results from a study of teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK in this domain. The analysis of students’ and teachers’ communication skills is conducted in two different ways which are paper-pencil tests and video analysis. Paper-pencil tests are used to assess students’ performance in reasoning. The test items deal with chemistry-specific situations, including opportunities for decision-making, which are typical of socio-scientific issues (study 1. The study shows that students’ decision-making skills are poor when the topics deal with scientific contexts, but that students perform better when dealing with everyday-life contexts. One reason might be the lack of reasoning in chemistry lessons, as shown by a video study conducted in chemistry classes. Students’ and teachers’ in-class behavior and communication patterns are analyzed with regard to students’ and teachers’ contributions (study 2. The amount and the quality of students’ and teachers’ statements as well as the interactions, especially teachers’ reactions to students’ statements are

  20. A Lightweight I/O Scheme to Facilitate Spatial and Temporal Queries of Scientific Data Analytics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tian, Yuan; Liu, Zhuo; Klasky, Scott; Wang, Bin; Abbasi, Hasan; Zhou, Shujia; Podhorszki, Norbert; Clune, Tom; Logan, Jeremy; Yu, Weikuan

    2013-01-01

    In the era of petascale computing, more scientific applications are being deployed on leadership scale computing platforms to enhance the scientific productivity. Many I/O techniques have been designed to address the growing I/O bottleneck on large-scale systems by handling massive scientific data in a holistic manner. While such techniques have been leveraged in a wide range of applications, they have not been shown as adequate for many mission critical applications, particularly in data post-processing stage. One of the examples is that some scientific applications generate datasets composed of a vast amount of small data elements that are organized along many spatial and temporal dimensions but require sophisticated data analytics on one or more dimensions. Including such dimensional knowledge into data organization can be beneficial to the efficiency of data post-processing, which is often missing from exiting I/O techniques. In this study, we propose a novel I/O scheme named STAR (Spatial and Temporal AggRegation) to enable high performance data queries for scientific analytics. STAR is able to dive into the massive data, identify the spatial and temporal relationships among data variables, and accordingly organize them into an optimized multi-dimensional data structure before storing to the storage. This technique not only facilitates the common access patterns of data analytics, but also further reduces the application turnaround time. In particular, STAR is able to enable efficient data queries along the time dimension, a practice common in scientific analytics but not yet supported by existing I/O techniques. In our case study with a critical climate modeling application GEOS-5, the experimental results on Jaguar supercomputer demonstrate an improvement up to 73 times for the read performance compared to the original I/O method.

  1. Obligatory course unit! Trainee astronomers learn to communicate their future scientific results

    Science.gov (United States)

    Del Puerto, C.

    2008-06-01

    A scientist must not only do science, but must also know how to communicate it. It is possible that he or she even ends up becoming devoted professionally either to outreach or to teaching. Therefore, the Master's Degree Course in Astrophysics, created by the University of La Laguna (ULL) with the collaboration of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC), includes in its programme the four-month core course unit Communicating Astronomy: Professional Results and Educational Practice (in Spanish, Comunicación de Resultados Cientificos y Didactica de la Astronomia), that is worth three ECTs. In this poster, I present the results of our experience from the academic year 2006-2007, in which seventeen Master's students, in addition to learning the skills necessary to communicating their results within the scientific community, have also studied the language of popularisation in a practical and fun way through role-playing as science writers and schoolteachers in the classroom.

  2. The Visual Image in Managerial Communication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tudor Ioan

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available The increasing proliferation and diversification of artificial languages have become a prerequisite for an efficient managerial discourse. The inclusion of language in a philosophy of management is justified by at least three reasons: language becomes the condition, the model and the object of scientific management. Implementing one�s management plan is consistent with the ability to send easily decipherable messages. It is a fact that one of the most important qualities of a leader is his or her ability to communicate. Career success is conditioned by facilitating the ease of communication between employees and superiors. Communication skills can lauch or ruin a career. Advances in messaging technology have a profound impact on our psychology. Communication through image, especially nowadays, is of particular importance. Included among the expressive behaviors, nonverbal communication is characterized by several aspects.

  3. Health literacy, emotionality, scientific evidence: Elements of an effective communication in public health.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Biasio, Luigi Roberto; Carducci, Annalaura; Fara, Gaetano Maria; Giammanco, Giuseppe; Lopalco, Pier Luigi

    2018-01-30

    The importance of healthcare providers' communication abilities is still underestimated. Informing the population on the basis of documented evidence is essential but not enough to induce a change in the beliefs of who is doubtful or does not accept preventive interventions, such as vaccination. Lining up the offer of prevention to the knowledge of the citizens, also improving Health Literacy skills, is a critical step toward their empowerment and behavior change. The 2017 Erice Declaration was drafted to propose to the Institutions and the scientific community the main goals to improve communication and counteract Vaccine Hesitancy, at a very critical time, when mandatory vaccination was introduced in Italy.

  4. Communicative Gestures Facilitate Problem Solving for Both Communicators and Recipients

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lozano, Sandra C.; Tversky, Barbara

    2006-01-01

    Gestures are a common, integral part of communication. Here, we investigate the roles of gesture and speech in explanations, both for communicators and recipients. Communicators explained how to assemble a simple object, using either speech with gestures or gestures alone. Gestures used for explaining included pointing and exhibiting to indicate…

  5. Communicating with public and scientific audiences: Are they really any different?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gray, R.H.; Brown, T.L.

    1991-04-01

    Efforts to communicate the results of environmental studies and involve the public in environmental decisions have increased nationwide. Outreach efforts on the US Department of Energy's Hanford Nuclear Site have drawn on a broad spectrum of communications media including technical articles (open literature and symposium publications, annual and topical reports); information brochures; video productions; interactive exhibits; presentations at scientific, technical, civic and other public meetings; and, more recently, proactive interactions with the news media and local, state, and federal agencies. In addition, plans are being made for representatives of local communities to operate offsite sampling stations in Hanford's environmental monitoring network. All major environmental programs, such as the current five-year effort to reconstruct past radiological doses to offsite human populations, are conducted with open public participation. This presentation describes Hanford's public outreach efforts, our successes and failures, and the lessons learned. 9 refs., 4 figs

  6. Informational and Communicational Aspects of Forming and Functioning Scientific Schools of Publishing and Printing Branch

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Semenyuk, E.P.

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Essential typological features of scientific schools are investigated, paying special attention to informational and communicational aspects of the problem. Peculiarities of scientific research organization in printing and publishing branches are revealed. A specific character of branch science consisting in the fact of close connection between scientific school formation and the activities of specialized higher education institutions is noted. The process of the establishment and development of the Lviv-Kyiv school of printing industry technologies, particularly regarding activities on development and application of photopolymer printing forms in printing production is analysed. On the example of the formation and the activity of the Lviv-Kyiv school of printing and publishing technologies the features of scientific school are listed. It is shown that scientific schools are formed under the influence of society demands, by the logic of science and practice development providing long-term fundamental and applied research and having essential achievements of public recognition in the homeland and abroad. Given this the functions of scientific schools are defined.

  7. Engagement through communication

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lykke, Marianne

    2018-01-01

    In this chapter, we work from the assumption that university engagement can be fostered by addressing the dissemination of scientific knowledge as a communication process, and we explore how university engagement can be encouraged through the communication of scientific knowledge to SMEs (small...... and potentials) in relation to scientific knowledge, which must be taken into account in attempts to communicate scientific knowledge to SMEs. Based on this analysis, we discuss solutions and outline some communicative principles that can contribute with a solution-oriented perspective on how communicating...

  8. The scientific communication for prevention: an ethic mission for the geologists

    Science.gov (United States)

    Romana Lugeri, Francesca; Farabollini, Piero; Aldighieri, Barbara

    2013-04-01

    Referring to the so called "catastrophic" events often occurring in Italy, emerges clearly the ethical vocation linked to the profession of geologist: today more than ever, is urgent an efficient and timely activation in geo-environmental protection as well as in the field of scientific communication. This era (defined "postmodern" by a socio-economically point of view) is also identified and classified "Anthropocene", term coined by Paul Jozef Crutzen, Nobel Prize in 1995, to define the first geological Era in which human activities have been able to influence the planet Earth and alter its balances. The researchers can advise on some objectives, more urgent or strategic, mainly related to the prevention of risks, and cooperate in finding proper methodological paths to prevent or manage the emergencies. Knowledge is the key tool: the diffusion of scientific heritage, may represent one of the new goals for the Territorial Sciences. At the same time, emerges the need to create a new kind of communication that can activate a wider and conscious target, providing society with correct and clear information on the geo-environmental scenarios of our country. There is an obvious need for a new approach to the problems related to the complex context that now shows us a planet going beyond the critical point. A holistic approach is imperative to study the planet, a method that considers environmental and social ecosystem on the whole, providing all policy makers with a realistic view of the situation and the possible developments. The Landscape is the object of human perceptions and, at the same time, can be considered the result of the interaction of many natural and cultural components: therefore it could become a "medium" to communicate the Earth Sciences to the whole society. Moreover, the landscape is an expression of geology: even at different scales, the endogenous and exogenous processes, and the rocks, as elements of the landscape, condition the evolution of

  9. The importance of assessing and communicating scientific consensus

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maibach, Edward W.; van der Linden, Sander L.

    2016-09-01

    The spread of influential misinformation, such as conspiracy theories about the existence of a secret, large-scale atmospheric spraying program (SLAP), is contributing to the politicization of science. In an important recent study, Shearer et al (2016 Environ. Res. Lett. 11 084011) employ a novel methodology to quantify the expert consensus of popular SLAP assertions. The authors find that 99% (76/77) of surveyed experts have not encountered any evidence that would support the existence of such a program. Here we argue that this finding is important because a growing body of research has shown that the public’s perception of expert consensus on key societal issues acts an important ‘gateway’ to science acceptance. Furthermore, communicating normative agreement among experts, such as the strong scientific consensus against the existence of a SLAP, can help limit the spread of misinformation and promote more effective public decision-making about science and society.

  10. Why is risk communication hardly applied in Japan? Psychological problem of scientific experts

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kosugi, Motoko; Tsuchiya, Tomoko; Taniguchi, Taketoshi

    2000-01-01

    The purpose of this paper is to discuss the problems that impair to communicate about technological risks with the public in Japan, especially focusing on views of experts as a supplier of risk information. In this study, we also clarified through the questionnaire surveys that there were significant differences of risk perception and of information environment about science and technology between the public and scientific experts, as many previous studies showed. And most important fact is that experts perceive the difference in risk perception between the public and experts larger than the public does. We conclude that this experts' cognition impedes to take a first step toward communicating with the public about technological risks. (author)

  11. The 24th National Session of Scientific Communications. Abstracts

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1998-01-01

    The 24th National Session of Scientific Communications was held on 7-9 October, 1998 in Caciulata-Valcea, Romania. The Session covered the following research fields: 1. organic and technological chemistry; 2. inorganic and technological chemistry; 3. polymer chemistry and technology; 4. chemical engineering; 5. environment protection. The section 2 contains two communications referring to 99m Tc-ROMTEC generator and the Romanian production of radioactive labelled products. The section 3 contains a study on polymer radiolysis investigated by computational methods. The following section referring to chemical engineering contains a study of surface science in heavy water facilities, an investigation of corrosion process in CANDU steam generator components and of oxidation in zircaloy-4 tubes, a report referring to o-xylene deuteration technology and a report on 15 N separation by isotopic exchange. Finally, the environment protection section contains a paper reporting on retaining process of UO 3 3+ from uranium in exhausted reactor waters. Proceedings of a poster section are also included. Abstracts of papers on the following items are given: radioluminescent composite materials, radiochemical compatibility of polymers, gamma irradiation effects on elution polymers used in the production of 99m Tc generator, obtaining tritium and deuterium labelled polyacrylic acid and radioinduced grafting of acrylic acid

  12. Developing CORE model-based worksheet with recitation task to facilitate students’ mathematical communication skills in linear algebra course

    Science.gov (United States)

    Risnawati; Khairinnisa, S.; Darwis, A. H.

    2018-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to develop a CORE model-based worksheet with recitation task that were valid and practical and could facilitate students’ communication skills in Linear Algebra course. This study was conducted in mathematics education department of one public university in Riau, Indonesia. Participants of the study were media and subject matter experts as validators as well as students from mathematics education department. The objects of this study are students’ worksheet and students’ mathematical communication skills. The results of study showed that: (1) based on validation of the experts, the developed students’ worksheet was valid and could be applied for students in Linear Algebra courses; (2) based on the group trial, the practicality percentage was 92.14% in small group and 90.19% in large group, so the worksheet was very practical and could attract students to learn; and (3) based on the post test, the average percentage of ideals was 87.83%. In addition, the results showed that the students’ worksheet was able to facilitate students’ mathematical communication skills in linear algebra course.

  13. Science communication as political communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scheufele, Dietram A.

    2014-01-01

    Scientific debates in modern societies often blur the lines between the science that is being debated and the political, moral, and legal implications that come with its societal applications. This manuscript traces the origins of this phenomenon to professional norms within the scientific discipline and to the nature and complexities of modern science and offers an expanded model of science communication that takes into account the political contexts in which science communication takes place. In a second step, it explores what we know from empirical work in political communication, public opinion research, and communication research about the dynamics that determine how issues are debated and attitudes are formed in political environments. Finally, it discusses how and why it will be increasingly important for science communicators to draw from these different literatures to ensure that the voice of the scientific community is heard in the broader societal debates surrounding science. PMID:25225389

  14. Science communication as political communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scheufele, Dietram A

    2014-09-16

    Scientific debates in modern societies often blur the lines between the science that is being debated and the political, moral, and legal implications that come with its societal applications. This manuscript traces the origins of this phenomenon to professional norms within the scientific discipline and to the nature and complexities of modern science and offers an expanded model of science communication that takes into account the political contexts in which science communication takes place. In a second step, it explores what we know from empirical work in political communication, public opinion research, and communication research about the dynamics that determine how issues are debated and attitudes are formed in political environments. Finally, it discusses how and why it will be increasingly important for science communicators to draw from these different literatures to ensure that the voice of the scientific community is heard in the broader societal debates surrounding science.

  15. Facilitative Communication Strategies of Hearing Mothers with Their Children Who Are Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahmad, Aznan Che; Brown, P. Margaret

    2016-01-01

    This study investigated how the type and duration of early intervention (EI) experience impacts hearing parents' views of the importance of different types of facilitative communication strategies when interacting with their children who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH). Sixteen mothers were involved in the study. Respondents were allocated to…

  16. The gap in scientific knowledge and role of science communication in South Korea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, Jeong-Heon; Kim, Sei-Hill; Kang, Myung-Hyun; Shim, Jae Chul; Ma, Dong Hoon

    2017-01-01

    Using data from a national survey of South Koreans, this study explores the role of science communication in enhancing three different forms of scientific knowledge ( factual, procedural, and subjective). We first assess learning effects, looking at the extent to which citizens learn science from different channels of communication (interpersonal discussions, traditional newspapers, television, online newspapers, and social media). We then look into the knowledge gap hypothesis, investigating how different communication channels can either widen or narrow the gap in knowledge between social classes. Television was found to function as a "knowledge leveler," narrowing the gap between highly and less educated South Koreans. The role of online newspapers in science learning is pronounced in our research. Reading newspapers online indicated a positive relationship to all three measures of knowledge. Contrary to the knowledge-leveling effect of television viewing, reading online newspapers was found to increase, rather than decrease, the gap in knowledge. Implications of our findings are discussed in detail.

  17. The Facilitators and Barriers to Communication between Nurses and Family Member in Intensive Care Unit in Kerman, Iran

    OpenAIRE

    Laleh loghmani; Fariba borhani; Abbas Abbaszadeh

    2014-01-01

    Introduction: The communication between nurses and patients' families is commun- ication significantly impacts patient well-being as well as the quality and outcome of nursing care, this study aimed to demonstrated the facilitators and barriers which influence the role of communication among Iranian nurses and families member in ICU. Methods: This study was conducted by the grounded theory method. Participants comprised eight registered nurses and ten families. Patients were admitted to the ...

  18. When 'paradigms' differ: scientific communication between skepticism and hope in recent philosophy of science

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. Coletto

    2008-07-01

    Full Text Available The first half of this article illustrates how contemporary humanist philosophy of science got caught up in a gradual loss of confidence concerning the possibility of sound communication among scholars holding on to different paradigms or presuppositions. The second half is dedicated to the responses provided by a Christian school of philosophy to the bleak possibility of a communication crisis. The resources deployed by the reformational school of philosophy are argued to constitute valuable instruments to create a more hopeful attitude towards scientific dialogue. A final note is dedicated to the possible causes of the difficulties experienced in this area of reflection by contemporary humanist philosophy of science.

  19. Collaborative Posters Develop Students' Ability to Communicate about Undervalued Scientific Resources to Nonscientists.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mayfield, Teresa J; Olimpo, Jeffrey T; Floyd, Kevin W; Greenbaum, Eli

    2018-01-01

    Scientists are increasingly called upon to communicate with the public, yet most never receive formal training in this area. Public understanding is particularly critical to maintaining support for undervalued resources such as biological collections, research data repositories, and expensive equipment. We describe activities carried out in an inquiry-driven organismal biology laboratory course designed to engage a diverse student body using biological collections. The goals of this cooperative learning experience were to increase students' ability to locate and comprehend primary research articles, and to communicate the importance of an undervalued scientific resource to nonscientists. Our results indicate that collaboratively created, research-focused informational posters are an effective tool for achieving these goals and may be applied in other disciplines or classroom settings.

  20. Using Scientific Visualizations to Enhance Scientific Thinking In K-12 Geoscience Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robeck, E.

    2016-12-01

    The same scientific visualizations, animations, and images that are powerful tools for geoscientists can serve an important role in K-12 geoscience education by encouraging students to communicate in ways that help them develop habits of thought that are similar to those used by scientists. Resources such as those created by NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS), which are intended to inform researchers and the public about NASA missions, can be used in classrooms to promote thoughtful, engaged learning. Instructional materials that make use of those visualizations have been developed and are being used in K-12 classrooms in ways that demonstrate the vitality of the geosciences. For example, the Center for Geoscience and Society at the American Geosciences Institute (AGI) helped to develop a publication that outlines an inquiry-based approach to introducing students to the interpretation of scientific visualizations, even when they have had little to no prior experience with such media. To facilitate these uses, the SVS team worked with Center staff and others to adapt the visualizations, primarily by removing most of the labels and annotations. Engaging with these visually compelling resources serves as an invitation for students to ask questions, interpret data, draw conclusions, and make use of other processes that are key components of scientific thought. This presentation will share specific resources for K-12 teaching (all of which are available online, from NASA, and/or from AGI), as well as the instructional principles that they incorporate.

  1. Facilitated Playgroups to Promote Speech and Language Skills of Young Children with Communication Delays: A Pilot Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Green, Katherine B.; Towson, Jacqueline A.; Head, Cynthia; Janowski, Brittany; Smith, Laura

    2018-01-01

    Family-centered practices that build caregiver capacity are a central focus of early intervention services for young children with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of adapting the "Parents Interacting with Infants" (PIWI) facilitated playgroup model to target effective communication strategies for…

  2. Geoethical implications in the L'Aquila case: scientific knowledge and communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Di Capua, Giuseppe

    2013-04-01

    On October 22nd 2012, three and a half years after the earthquake that destroyed the city of L'Aquila (central Italy), killing more than 300 people and wounding about 1,500, a landmark judgment for the scientific research established the condemnation of six members of the Major Risks Committee of the Italian Government and a researcher of INGV (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia), called to provide information about the evolution of the seismic sequence. The judge held that these Geoscientists were negligent during the meeting of 31st March 2009, convened to discuss the scientific aspects of the seismic risk of this area, affected by a long seismic sequence, also in the light of repeated warnings about the imminence of a strong earthquake, on the base of measurements of radon gas by an Italian independent technician, transmitted to the population by mass-media. Without going into the legal aspects of the criminal proceedings, this judgment strikes for the hardness of the condemnation to be paid by the scientists (six years of imprisonment, perpetual disqualification from public office and legal disqualification during the execution of the penalty, compensation for victims up to several hundred thousands of Euros). Some of them are scientists known worldwide for their proven skills, professionalism and experience. In conclusion, these scientists were found guilty of having contributed to the death of many people, because they have not communicated in an appropriate manner all available information on the seismic hazard and vulnerability of the area of L'Aquila. This judgment represents a watershed in the way of looking at the social role of geoscientists in the defense against natural hazards and their responsibility towards the people. But, in what does this responsibility consist of? It consists of the commitment to conduct an updated and reliable scientific research, which provides for a detailed analysis of the epistemic uncertainty for a more

  3. Communication in superconductivity research: A study of scientific discoveries with particular reference to a developing country

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chu, H.

    1991-01-01

    The main objective is to study the communications dimensions of China's contribution to the discovery of high-Tc superconductors. Chinese researchers of the field were compared with non-Chinese superconductivity scientists from developed countries to reveal similarities and differences in the formal as well as the informal domains of scholarly communication. 240 documents highly cited in a manually created Chinese data base and in Science Citation Index for the period of 1987-89 were examined to delineate the formal structure of communication in the area. Noteworthy similarities, e.g., similar cited cores, identical publication sources, and comparable intellectual structures of cocitation data, were found in formal communication between Chinese and non-Chinese scientists. Nevertheless, differences were also located in regard to citedness, timeliness and direction of communication. Findings reflect the role Chinese scientists played in the discovery of high-Tc superconductors. Chinese researchers overall did better in the formal domain than in the informal realm of scientific communication. Informal communication with scientists from advanced nations appears to be a very weak element in China's endeavors of searching for high-Tc superconductors

  4. Innovation and Organizational Communication in Corporate America: The Rhetorical Visions of Managers, Facilitators, and Employees on Quality Circles.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eyo, Bassey A.

    1992-01-01

    Examines the dynamics of organizational communication following corporate implementation of quality circles. Describes the rhetorical visions of people at three organizational levels closely associated with quality circles: (1) managers; (2) facilitators who organize the quality circles; and (3) employees. (SR)

  5. Scientific communication and online attention: in search of virtual colleges underpinning altmetrics data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ronaldo Ferreira de Araújo

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Informational exchanges around scientific communication activity have become increasingly dynamic in cyberspace, changing the practice of scientists and expanding the reach of research results that attain an increasingly significant online attention among different groups. Aim: To analyze whether altmetric data regarding online attention point to the existence of "virtual colleges" - composed of people from inside and outside the scientific community - around the scientific topic being discussed and shared in social media. Methodology: An exploratory pilot study, with analysis focused on the impact of the open access article with the highest altmetric indicator for the year 2015, as disclosed by Altmetric.com in its ranking "Top 100". The qualification of online attention is described by the most expressive media (Twitter and Facebook in a random sample (n = 10% on which content analysis was carried out and categorization of the types of interaction and characterization of social groups that interacted around the article. Results: The most common form of dissemination observed was retweeting on Twitter (62% and sharing on Facebook (45%, followed by "conclusive" (16% and 25% and “argumentative” (15% and 9.6% categories. The profile of the users responsible for the circulation of and discussion about the article indicates the prevalence of members from the general public. Conclusion: Altmetrics permit the tracking of the potentially more social and democratic impact assessment of scientific research, which becomes particularly evident for the case of articles featuring scientific research deemed to epitomise scientific controversies, the dimensions of which are played out in these “virtual colleges”.

  6. Managing scientific information and research data

    CERN Document Server

    Baykoucheva, Svetla

    2015-01-01

    Innovative technologies are changing the way research is performed, preserved, and communicated. Managing Scientific Information and Research Data explores how these technologies are used and provides detailed analysis of the approaches and tools developed to manage scientific information and data. Following an introduction, the book is then divided into 15 chapters discussing the changes in scientific communication; new models of publishing and peer review; ethics in scientific communication; preservation of data; discovery tools; discipline-specific practices of researchers for gathering and using scientific information; academic social networks; bibliographic management tools; information literacy and the information needs of students and researchers; the involvement of academic libraries in eScience and the new opportunities it presents to librarians; and interviews with experts in scientific information and publishing.

  7. Mundane science use in a practice theoretical perspective: Different understandings of the relations between citizen-consumers and public communication initiatives build on scientific claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Halkier, Bente

    2015-08-13

    Public communication initiatives play a part in placing complicated scientific claims in citizen-consumers' everyday contexts. Lay reactions to scientific claims framed in public communication, and attempts to engage citizens, have been important subjects of discussion in the literatures of public understanding and public engagement with science. Many of the public communication initiatives, however, address lay people as consumers rather than citizens. This creates specific challenges for understanding public engagement with science and scientific citizenship. The article compares five different understandings of the relations between citizen-consumers and public issue communication involving science, where the first four types are widely represented in the Public Understanding of Science discussions. The fifth understanding is a practice theoretical perspective. The article suggests how the public understanding of and engagement in science literature can benefit from including a practice theoretical approach to research about mundane science use and public engagement. © The Author(s) 2015.

  8. Perceptions that influence the maintenance of scientific integrity in community-based participatory research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kraemer Diaz, Anne E; Spears Johnson, Chaya R; Arcury, Thomas A

    2015-06-01

    Scientific integrity is necessary for strong science; yet many variables can influence scientific integrity. In traditional research, some common threats are the pressure to publish, competition for funds, and career advancement. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) provides a different context for scientific integrity with additional and unique concerns. Understanding the perceptions that promote or discourage scientific integrity in CBPR as identified by professional and community investigators is essential to promoting the value of CBPR. This analysis explores the perceptions that facilitate scientific integrity in CBPR as well as the barriers among a sample of 74 professional and community CBPR investigators from 25 CBPR projects in nine states in the southeastern United States in 2012. There were variations in perceptions associated with team member identity as professional or community investigators. Perceptions identified to promote and discourage scientific integrity in CBPR by professional and community investigators were external pressures, community participation, funding, quality control and supervision, communication, training, and character and trust. Some perceptions such as communication and training promoted scientific integrity whereas other perceptions, such as a lack of funds and lack of trust could discourage scientific integrity. These results demonstrate that one of the most important perceptions in maintaining scientific integrity in CBPR is active community participation, which enables a co-responsibility by scientists and community members to provide oversight for scientific integrity. Credible CBPR science is crucial to empower the vulnerable communities to be heard by those in positions of power and policy making. © 2015 Society for Public Health Education.

  9. Using Visualization Science to Evaluate Effective Communication of Climate Indicators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gerst, M.; Kenney, M. A.; Wolfinger, F.; Lloyd, A.

    2015-12-01

    Indicators are observations or calculations that are used to track social and environmental conditions over time. For a large coupled system such as the economy and environment, the choice of indicators requires a structured process that involves co-production among facilitators, subject-matter experts, decision-makers, and the general public. This co-production is needed in part because such indicators serve a duel role of scientifically tracking change and of communicating to non-scientists important changes and information that may be useful in decision contexts. Because the goal is to communicate and inform decisions it is critical that indicators be understood by non-scientific audiences, which may require different visualization techniques than for scientific audiences. Here we describe a process of rigorously evaluating visual communication efficacy by using a simplified taxonomy of visualization design problems and trade-offs to assess existing and redesigned indicator images. The experimental design is three-part. It involves testing non-scientific audiences' understandability of scientific images found in the literature along with similar information shaped by a partial co-production process that informed the U.S. Global Change Research Program prototype indicators system, released in Spring 2015. These recommendations for physical, natural, and societal indicators of changes and impacts involved input from over 200 subject-matter experts, organized into 13 technical teams. Using results from the first two parts, we then explore visualization design improvements that may increase understandability to non-scientific audiences. We anticipate that this work will highlight important trade-offs in visualization design when moving between audiences that will be of great use to scientists who wish to communicate their results broader audiences.

  10. Facilitating Stewardship of scientific data through standards based workflows

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bastrakova, I.; Kemp, C.; Potter, A. K.

    2013-12-01

    There are main suites of standards that can be used to define the fundamental scientific methodology of data, methods and results. These are firstly Metadata standards to enable discovery of the data (ISO 19115), secondly the Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) suite of standards that include the O&M and SensorML standards and thirdly Ontology that provide vocabularies to define the scientific concepts and relationships between these concepts. All three types of standards have to be utilised by the practicing scientist to ensure that those who ultimately have to steward the data stewards to ensure that the data can be preserved curated and reused and repurposed. Additional benefits of this approach include transparency of scientific processes from the data acquisition to creation of scientific concepts and models, and provision of context to inform data use. Collecting and recording metadata is the first step in scientific data flow. The primary role of metadata is to provide details of geographic extent, availability and high-level description of data suitable for its initial discovery through common search engines. The SWE suite provides standardised patterns to describe observations and measurements taken for these data, capture detailed information about observation or analytical methods, used instruments and define quality determinations. This information standardises browsing capability over discrete data types. The standardised patterns of the SWE standards simplify aggregation of observation and measurement data enabling scientists to transfer disintegrated data to scientific concepts. The first two steps provide a necessary basis for the reasoning about concepts of ';pure' science, building relationship between concepts of different domains (linked-data), and identifying domain classification and vocabularies. Geoscience Australia is re-examining its marine data flows, including metadata requirements and business processes, to achieve a clearer link between

  11. A Writing-Intensive Course Improves Biology Undergraduates' Perception and Confidence of Their Abilities to Read Scientific Literature and Communicate Science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brownell, Sara E.; Price, Jordan V.; Steinman, Lawrence

    2013-01-01

    Most scientists agree that comprehension of primary scientific papers and communication of scientific concepts are two of the most important skills that we can teach, but few undergraduate biology courses make these explicit course goals. We designed an undergraduate neuroimmunology course that uses a writing-intensive format. Using a mixture of…

  12. Volcano alert level systems: managing the challenges of effective volcanic crisis communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fearnley, C. J.; Beaven, S.

    2018-05-01

    Over the last four decades, volcano observatories have adopted a number of different communication strategies for the dissemination of information on changes in volcanic behaviour and potential hazards to a wide range of user groups. These commonly include a standardised volcano alert level system (VALS), used in conjunction with other uni-valent communication techniques (such as information statements, reports and maps) and multi-directional techniques (such as meetings and telephone calls). This research, based on interviews and observation conducted 2007-2009 at the five US Geological Survey (USGS) volcano observatories, and including some of the key users of the VALS, argues for the importance of understanding how communicating volcanic hazard information takes place as an everyday social practice, focusing on the challenges of working across the boundaries between the scientific and decision-making communities. It is now widely accepted that the effective use, value and deployment of information across science-policy interfaces of this kind depend on three criteria: the scientific credibility of the information, its relevance to the needs of stakeholders and the legitimacy of both the information and the processes that produced it. Translation and two-way communication are required to ensure that all involved understand what information is credible and relevant. Findings indicate that whilst VALS play a role in raising awareness of an unfolding situation, supplementary communication techniques are crucial in facilitating situational understanding of that situation, and the uncertainties inherent to its scientific assessment, as well as in facilitating specific responses. In consequence, `best practice' recommendations eschew further standardisation, and focus on the in situ cultivation of dialogue between scientists and stakeholders as a means of ensuring that information, and the processes through which it is produced are perceived to be legitimate by all

  13. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES IN PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY OF SCIENTIFIC AND EDUCATIONAL PERSONNEL IN THE SPHERE OF POST DIPLOMA MILITARY MEDECINE EDUCATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ivan F. Honcharenko

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available The article deals with the place and the role of information and communication technologies in the scientific and pedagogical activity of pedagogical personnel in the sphere of post diploma military medicine education. The results of the questionnaire for the above mentioned personnel are presented in the article. There are emphasized and generalized the problems of information and communication competence formation of scientific and educational personnel in the sphere of post diploma military medicine using ICT in their teaching activities in the process of post-diploma education.

  14. Barriers and Facilitators of Collaborative Management in Technological Innovation Projects

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sonia Regina Hierro Parolin

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available Discussions about innovation tend to a more systemic and cooperative approach in which those networks focused on scientific and technological development are considered. This article aims to identify the barriers and facilitators in the collaborative management process of technological innovation projects and a study has been carried out by the cooperation action for innovation with 17 industries in Brazil. The primary evidence refers to the crucial role of project managers when leading the structural demands, and clarity on the relevance of the communication of strategic guidelines among the organizations involved for the achievement of the results in the industries.

  15. A polythematic real-time synergistic hybrid data telecommunication system for scientific research with bidirectional fuzzy feedback peer review by expert referees

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Panagiotis Petratos

    2003-02-01

    Full Text Available Heterogeneous research environments, interests and locations do not necessarily coincide, thus hitherto the primary method of communication amongst researchers has been email. In this article a novel unified polythematic, real-time, synergistic, data telecommunication system is proposed with peer-reviewed, bidirectional fuzzy feedback for research scientists, to facilitate scientific information exchange via the extensible markup language (XML on multiple scientific topics, e.g. in mathematics, physics, biology and chemistry.

  16. Facilitating awareness of philosophy of science, ethics and communication through manual skills training in undergraduate education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kordahl, Hilde Lund; Fougner, Marit

    2017-03-01

    Professional health science education includes a common theoretical basis concerning the theory of science, ethics and communication. Former evaluations by first-year students of the bachelor physiotherapy program at Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences (HiOA) show that they find it hard to understand the relation between these particular topics and future professional practice. This challenge is the starting point for a pedagogical development project that aims to develop learning contexts that highlight the relevance of these theoretical concepts. The aim of the study is to explore and present findings on the value of using Sykegrep manual skills classes as an arena in which students can be encouraged to think about, reflect on and appreciate the role and value of the philosophical perspectives that inform their practice and contributes to practise knowledge. A qualitative study with data collection through focus groups was performed and analyzed using thematic content analysis. Eighteen first-year undergraduate students, who had completed the manual skills course, participated in the study. Analysis of the data yielded three categories of findings that can be associated with aspects of philosophy of science, ethics and communication. These are as follows: 1) preconceived understanding of physiotherapy; 2) body knowledge perspectives; and 3) relational aspects of interactions. Undergraduate students' understanding and experience of philosophy of science, ethics and communication may be facilitated by peer collaboration, reflection on intimacy and touch and the ethical aspects of interaction during manual skills training. Practical classes in Sykegrep provide a basis for students' discussions about the body as well as their experiences with the body in the collaborative learning context. The students' reflections on their expectations of manual skills in physiotherapy and experiences of touch and being touched can facilitate an awareness of

  17. Speech and scientific paper. A rhetorical approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juan Carlos Carmona Sandoval

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This essay attempts to show that the ancient rhetorical theory has explanatory capabilities to understand and learn to write modern texts and to analyze them in order to understand their communication skills, as in the scientific article, one of the most prestigious forms on scientific communication. It starts with the notion of discourse in the field of scientific communication and then address the rhetorical dimension of the paper.

  18. New and innovative exhibition concepts at science centres using communication technologies

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Quistgaard, Nana; Kahr-Højland, Anne

    2010-01-01

    Will new communication technologies mean the death of science centres, as Bradburne predicted 12 years ago-or are they alive and kicking? And if science centres do survive, what role could they possibly play in today's society? What mechanisms underlie the development of science centres...... direction, e.g., regarding the emphasised importance of facilitating scientific literacy and critical reflection. We argue that new communication technologies hold potential to accommodate new trends and that science centres have shown to be enterprising in their use of such technologies, e.g., mobile...

  19. Use of a facilitated discussion model for antenatal care to improve communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lori, Jody R; Munro, Michelle L; Chuey, Meagan R

    2016-02-01

    Achieving health literacy is a critical step to improving health outcomes and the health of a nation. However, there is a lack of research on health literacy in low-resource countries, where maternal health outcomes are at their worst. To examine the usefulness and feasibility of providing focused antenatal care (FANC) in a group setting using picture cards to improve patient-provider communication, patient engagement, and improve health literacy. An exploratory, mixed methods design was employed to gather pilot data using the Health Literacy Skills Framework. A busy urban district hospital in the Ashanti Region of Ghana was used to gather data during 2014. A facility-driven convenience sample of midwives (n=6) aged 18 years or older, who could speak English or Twi, and had provided antenatal care at the participating hospital during the previous year prior to the start of the study participated in the study. Data were collected using pre-test and post-test surveys, completed three months after the group FANC was implemented. A semi-structured focus group was conducted with four of the participating midwives and the registered nurse providing support and supervision for the study (n=5) at the time of the post-test. Data were analyzed concurrently to gain a broad understanding of patient communication, engagement, and group FANC. There were no significant differences in the mean communication (t(df=3)=0.541, p=0.626) and engagement (t(df=3)=-0.775, p=0.495) scores between the pre- and post-test. However, the focus group revealed the following themes: (a) improved communication through the use of picture cards; (b) enhanced information sharing and peer support through the facilitated group process and; and (c) an improved understanding of patient concerns. The improved communication noted through the use of picture cards and the enhanced information sharing and peer support elicited through the group FANC undoubtedly provided patients with additional tools to invoke

  20. Using Video to Communicate Scientific Findings -- Habitat Connections in Urban Streams

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harned, D. A.; Moorman, M.; Fitzpatrick, F. A.; McMahon, G.

    2011-12-01

    The U.S Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA) provides information about (1) water-quality conditions and how those conditions vary locally, regionally, and nationally, (2) water-quality trends, and (3) factors that affect those conditions. As part of the NAWQA Program, the Effects of Urbanization on Stream Ecosystems (EUSE) study examined the vulnerability and resilience of streams to urbanization. Completion of the EUSE study has resulted in over 20 scientific publications. Video podcasts are being used in addition to these publications to communicate the relevance of these scientific findings to more general audiences such as resource managers, educational groups, public officials, and the general public. An example of one of the podcasts is a film examining effects of urbanization on stream habitat. "Habitat Connections in Urban Streams" explores how urbanization changes some of the physical features that provide in-stream habitat and examines examples of stream restoration projects designed to improve stream form and function. The "connections" theme is emphasized, including the connection of in-stream habitats from the headwaters to the stream mouth; connections between stream habitat and the surrounding floodplains, wetlands and basin; and connections between streams and people-- resource managers, public officials, scientists, and the general public. Examples of innovative stream restoration projects in Baltimore Maryland; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Portland Oregon are shown with interviews of managers, engineers, scientists, and others describing the projects. The film is combined with a website with links to extended film versions of the stream-restoration project interviews. The website and films are an example of USGS efforts aimed at improving science communication to a general audience. The film is available for access from the EUSE website: http://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/urban/html/podcasts.html. Additional films are

  1. Communication: Facilitating Intelligent Business Dialogue.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hulbert, Jack E.

    1979-01-01

    Discusses effective oral communication as a prime requisite for business management success. Both speaking and listening skills are needed to encourage intercommunication, invite feedback, respond to other opinions, and solicit participation to contribute to the manager's decisions for organizational action. (MF)

  2. Training facilitators and supervisors

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kjær, Louise Binow; O Connor, Maja; Krogh, Kristian

    At the Master’s program in Medicine at Aarhus University, Denmark, we have developed a faculty development program for facilitators and supervisors in 4 progressing student modules in communication, cooperation, and leadership. 1) A course for module 1 and 3 facilitators inspired by the apprentic...

  3. Identifying and Applying the Communicative and the Constructivist Approaches To Facilitate Transfer of Knowledge in the Bilingual Classroom.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olivares, Rafael A.; Lemberger, Nancy

    2002-01-01

    Provides recommendations for the implementation of the communication, constructivism, and transference of knowledge (CCT) model in the education of English language learners (ELLS). Describes how the CCT model is identified in research studies and suggests specific recommendations to facilitate the implementation of the model in the education of…

  4. ncISO Facilitating Metadata and Scientific Data Discovery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neufeld, D.; Habermann, T.

    2011-12-01

    Increasing the usability and availability climate and oceanographic datasets for environmental research requires improved metadata and tools to rapidly locate and access relevant information for an area of interest. Because of the distributed nature of most environmental geospatial data, a common approach is to use catalog services that support queries on metadata harvested from remote map and data services. A key component to effectively using these catalog services is the availability of high quality metadata associated with the underlying data sets. In this presentation, we examine the use of ncISO, and Geoportal as open source tools that can be used to document and facilitate access to ocean and climate data available from Thematic Realtime Environmental Distributed Data Services (THREDDS) data services. Many atmospheric and oceanographic spatial data sets are stored in the Network Common Data Format (netCDF) and served through the Unidata THREDDS Data Server (TDS). NetCDF and THREDDS are becoming increasingly accepted in both the scientific and geographic research communities as demonstrated by the recent adoption of netCDF as an Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standard. One important source for ocean and atmospheric based data sets is NOAA's Unified Access Framework (UAF) which serves over 3000 gridded data sets from across NOAA and NOAA-affiliated partners. Due to the large number of datasets, browsing the data holdings to locate data is impractical. Working with Unidata, we have created a new service for the TDS called "ncISO", which allows automatic generation of ISO 19115-2 metadata from attributes and variables in TDS datasets. The ncISO metadata records can be harvested by catalog services such as ESSI-labs GI-Cat catalog service, and ESRI's Geoportal which supports query through a number of services, including OpenSearch and Catalog Services for the Web (CSW). ESRI's Geoportal Server provides a number of user friendly search capabilities for end users

  5. SALTON SEA SCIENTIFIC DRILLING PROJECT: SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sass, J.H.; Elders, W.A.

    1986-01-01

    The Salton Sea Scientific Drilling Project, was spudded on 24 October 1985, and reached a total depth of 10,564 ft. (3. 2 km) on 17 March 1986. There followed a period of logging, a flow test, and downhole scientific measurements. The scientific goals were integrated smoothly with the engineering and economic objectives of the program and the ideal of 'science driving the drill' in continental scientific drilling projects was achieved in large measure. The principal scientific goals of the project were to study the physical and chemical processes involved in an active, magmatically driven hydrothermal system. To facilitate these studies, high priority was attached to four areas of sample and data collection, namely: (1) core and cuttings, (2) formation fluids, (3) geophysical logging, and (4) downhole physical measurements, particularly temperatures and pressures.

  6. Efficacy of Cancer Care Communication Between Clinicians and Latino Patients in a Rural US-Mexico Border Region: a Qualitative Study of Barriers and Facilitators to Better Communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ko, Eunjeong; Zúñiga, María Luisa; Peacher, Diana; Palomino, Helen; Watson, Mercedes

    2018-02-01

    Quality of clinician-patient cancer communication is vital to cancer care and survivorship. Racial/ethnic minority patients in rural regions may have unique characteristics including cultural beliefs, language barriers, and low health literacy which require effective cross-cultural cancer communication. Despite the growing US population of racial/ethnic minorities and widespread emphasis on culturally appropriate health communication, little is known about challenges and facilitators of cancer communication among underserved rural Latino cancer patients in the US-Mexico border region. This study conducted secondary data analysis of interview data collected from 22 individual cancer patients living on the US side of the US-Mexico border. Thematic analysis was conducted to explore a priori questions regarding patient experiences with cancer care communication with their providers. Emerging themes included lack of language concordance, patient perspectives on clarity and accuracy of information provided, patient perceptions on provider sensitivity in giving cancer diagnosis, and improving the clinical interpersonal relationship. Practice guidelines are suggested and discussed. These findings illuminate the importance of advancing improvement of cancer communication between clinicians and Spanish language-dominant Latinos.

  7. Communicating Science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holland, G. J.; McCaffrey, M. S.; Kiehl, J. T.; Schmidt, C.

    2010-12-01

    We are in an era of rapidly changing communication media, which is driving a major evolution in the modes of communicating science. In the past, a mainstay of scientific communication in popular media was through science “translators”; science journalists and presenters. These have now nearly disappeared and are being replaced by widespread dissemination through, e.g., the internet, blogs, YouTube and journalists who often have little scientific background and sharp deadlines. Thus, scientists are required to assume increasing responsibility for translating their scientific findings and calibrating their communications to non-technical audiences, a task for which they are often ill prepared, especially when it comes to controversial societal issues such as tobacco, evolution, and most recently climate change (Oreskes and Conway 2010). Such issues have been politicized and hi-jacked by ideological belief systems to such an extent that constructive dialogue is often impossible. Many scientists are excellent communicators, to their peers. But this requires careful attention to detail and logical explanation, open acknowledgement of uncertainties, and dispassionate delivery. These qualities become liabilities when communicating to a non-scientific audience where entertainment, attention grabbing, 15 second sound bites, and self assuredness reign (e.g. Olson 2009). Here we report on a program initiated by NCAR and UCAR to develop new approaches to science communication and to equip present and future scientists with the requisite skills. If we start from a sound scientific finding with general scientific consensus, such as the warming of the planet by greenhouse gases, then the primary emphasis moves from the “science” to the “art” of communication. The art cannot have free reign, however, as there remains a strong requirement for objectivity, honesty, consistency, and above all a resistance to advocating particular policy positions. Targeting audience

  8. Development of Scientific Thinking Facilitated by Reflective Self-Assessment in a Communication-Intensive Food Science and Human Nutrition Course

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hendrich, Suzanne; Licklider, Barbara; Thompson, Katherine; Thompson, Janette; Haynes, Cynthia; Wiersema, Jan

    2018-01-01

    A one-credit seminar on controversies in food science and human nutrition was a platform to introduce students to learning frameworks for thinking-like-a-scientist. We hypothesized that explicitly engaging students in thinking about their thinking abilities within these frameworks would enhance their self-perception of scientific thinking, an…

  9. One exhibition, many goals. A case study on how to combine scientific questions with stakeholder views on effective communication of risks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Charriere, M. K. M.; Junier, S.; Bogaard, T.; Mostert, E.; Malet, J. P.

    2014-12-01

    How effective is visual communication to increase awareness of natural hazards and risks? To answer this research question, we developed a research design that was at the same time an experimental setting and an actual communication effort. This contribution will address the scientists-stakeholders interaction that was involved, the resulting exhibition, the lessons learned and the value it had for the researchers and for the other stakeholders. Throughout the full length of the 2-years project held in the Ubaye valley (southeastern France) we collaborated with local and regional stakeholders (politicians and technicians). Informal meetings with local stakeholders were organized to determine what they perceived as the needs in term of risk communication and to investigate the potential to develop activities that would benefit both them and us. We were offered the opportunity to design an exhibition for the local public library. We proposed the content and this was adjusted in interaction with the stakeholders. Later local technicians and inhabitants contributed to the content of the exhibition and regional stakeholders helped with the funding of the exhibition. Finally, employees of the public library took the lead in advertising the activity, gathering participants and they helped designing the scientific survey. This survey was the key activity from a scientific point of view as it allowed us to measure the impact of this communication activity on risk awareness. Moreover, the principal scientist was present during all opening hours of the exhibition. This allowed direct and indirect contact with the visitors. The benefits of this exhibition for the community included triggering memories, encouraging exchanges, especially inter-generational, reinforcing stakeholders-to-stakeholders relationships and promote further communication on the topic. The scientific benefits are that we have an experiment that allows us to measure the impact of a communication effort, not

  10. What Does the Future Hold for Scientific Journals? Visual Abstracts and Other Tools for Communicating Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nikolian, Vahagn C; Ibrahim, Andrew M

    2017-09-01

    Journals fill several important roles within academic medicine, including building knowledge, validating quality of methods, and communicating research. This section provides an overview of these roles and highlights innovative approaches journals have taken to enhance dissemination of research. As journals move away from print formats and embrace web-based content, design-centered thinking will allow for engagement of a larger audience. Examples of recent efforts in this realm are provided, as well as simplified strategies for developing visual abstracts to improve dissemination via social media. Finally, we hone in on principles of learning and education which have driven these advances in multimedia-based communication in scientific research.

  11. One exhibition, many goals. Combining scientific research and risk communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Charrière, Marie; Bogaard, Thom; Junier, Sandra; Malet, Jean-Philippe; Mostert, Erik

    2015-04-01

    How effective is visual communication to increase awareness of natural hazards and risks? To answer this research question, we developed a research design that was at the same time an experimental setting and an actual communication effort. Throughout the full length of the 2-years project held in the Ubaye valley (southeastern France), we collaborated with local and regional stakeholders (politicians and technicians). During a consultation phase, the communication context was determined, the audience of the project was defined and finally the testing activity-communication effort was determined. We were offered the opportunity to design an exhibition for the local public library. In a consultation phase that corresponded to the design of the exhibition, the stakeholders contributed to its content as well as helping with the funding of the exhibition. Finally, during the experimentation phase, the stakeholders participated in advertising the activity, gathering of participants and designing the scientific survey. In order to assess the effects of the exhibition on risk awareness, several groups of children, teenagers and adults were submitted to a research design, consisting of 1) a pre-test, 2) the visit of the exhibition and 3) a post-test similar to the pre-test. In addition, the children answered a second post-test 3 months after the visit. Close ended questions addressed the awareness indicators mentioned in the literature, i.e. worry level, previous experiences with natural hazards events, exposure to awareness raising, ability to mitigate/respond/prepare, attitude to risk, and demographics. In addition, the post-test included several satisfaction questions concerning the visual tools displayed in the exhibition. A statistical analysis of the changes between the pre- and post- tests (paired t-test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test and bootstrapping) allowed to verify whether the exhibition had an impact on risk awareness or not. In order to deduce which variable

  12. Open science: policy implications for the evolving phenomenon of user-led scientific innovation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Victoria Stodden

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available From contributions of astronomy data and DNA sequences to disease treatment research, scientific activity by non-scientists is a real and emergent phenomenon, and raising policy questions. This involvement in science can be understood as an issue of access to publications, code, and data that facilitates public engagement in the research process, thus appropriate policy to support the associated welfare enhancing benefits is essential. Current legal barriers to citizen participation can be alleviated by scientists’ use of the “Reproducible Research Standard,” thus making the literature, data, and code associated with scientific results accessible. The enterprise of science is undergoing deep and fundamental changes, particularly in how scientists obtain results and share their work: the promise of open research dissemination held by the Internet is gradually being fulfilled by scientists. Contributions to science from beyond the ivory tower are forcing a rethinking of traditional models of knowledge generation, evaluation, and communication. The notion of a scientific “peer” is blurred with the advent of lay contributions to science raising questions regarding the concepts of peer-review and recognition. New collaborative models are emerging around both open scientific software and the generation of scientific discoveries that bear a similarity to open innovation models in other settings. Public engagement in science can be understood as an issue of access to knowledge for public involvement in the research process, facilitated by appropriate policy to support the welfare enhancing benefits deriving from citizen-science.

  13. Transactions of the Zimbabwe Scientific Association

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The Zimbabwe Scientific Association was founded in Bulawayo in 1899 (called the Rhodesia Scientific Assocation at the time) to promote the study and advancement of science in Zimbabwe and to facilitate the acquisition and dissemination of scientific knowledge. Its journal, Transactions of the Zimbabwe Scientific ...

  14. EFSA Scientific Committee; Scientific Opinion on Risk Assessment Terminology

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hald, Tine

    of improving the expression and communication of risk and/or uncertainties in the selected opinions. The Scientific Committee concluded that risk assessment terminology is not fully harmonised within EFSA. In part this is caused by sectoral legislation defining specific terminology and international standards......The Scientific Committee of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) reviewed the use of risk assessment terminology within its Scientific Panels. An external report, commissioned by EFSA, analysed 219 opinions published by the Scientific Committee and Panels to recommend possible ways......, the Scientific Committee concludes that particular care must be taken that the principles of CAC, OIE or IPPC are followed strictly. EFSA Scientific Panels should identify which specific approach is most useful in dealing with their individual mandates. The Scientific Committee considered detailed aspects...

  15. The digital object identifier (DOI in electronic scientific journals of communication and information

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Erik André de Nazaré Pires

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The present study seeks to investigate the use of the Digital Object Identifier (DOI in the scientific journals of Communication and Information and, providing new integration utilities with the Lattes Platform. In this sense, it aims to inform the existing titles in Communication Information in electronic format, demonstrate the importance of DOI in the integration with the Lattes Platform in order to guarantee author credibility and analyze the characteristics of publications that have DOI. The methodology used for the development of this study is bibliographic, research with descriptive-descriptive characteristics. From the development of the research, it is inferred that of all the analyzed journals (33 journals, 10 titles in the evaluation of 2013 and 06 titles of the evaluation of 2014 present DOI in their publications, all have WebQualis classification, Qualis A1 in the area Communication and Information. Most publications are international and only 3 titles are national. It is necessary that journals, principally national ones, accompany new technologies such as DOI for objects and ORCID for the identification of people, bringing more mechanisms that guarantee authors 'credibility and to bring the researchers' connection, and both can already be adopted in the Platform Lattes.

  16. Emotions facilitate the communication of ambiguous group memberships.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tskhay, Konstantin O; Rule, Nicholas O

    2015-12-01

    It is well known that emotions intersect with obvious social categories (e.g., race), influencing both how targets are categorized and the emotions that are read from their faces. Here, we examined the influence of emotional expression on the perception of less obvious group memberships for which, in the absence of obvious and stable physical markers, emotion may serve as a major avenue for group categorization and identification. Specifically, we examined whether emotions are embedded in the mental representations of sexual orientation and political affiliation, and whether people may use emotional expressions to communicate these group memberships to others. Using reverse correlation methods, we found that mental representations of gay and liberal faces were characterized by more positive facial expressions than mental representations of straight and conservative faces (Study 1). Furthermore, participants were evaluated as expressing more positive emotions when enacting self-defined "gay" and "liberal" versus "straight" and "conservative" facial expressions in the lab (Study 2). In addition, neutral faces morphed with happiness were perceived as more gay than when morphed with anger, and when compared to unmorphed controls (Study 3). Finally, we found that affect facilitated perceptions of sexual orientation and political affiliation in naturalistic settings (Study 4). Together, these studies suggest that emotion is a defining characteristic of person construal that people tend to use both when signaling their group memberships and when receiving those signals to categorize others. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

  17. Improving doctor-patient communication in the outpatient setting using a facilitation tool: a preliminary study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neeman, Naama; Isaac, Thomas; Leveille, Suzanne; Dimonda, Clementina; Shin, Jacob Y; Aronson, Mark D; Freedman, Steven D

    2012-08-01

    Patients often do not fully understand medical information discussed during office visits. This can result in lack of adherence to recommended treatment plans and poorer health outcomes. We developed and implemented a program utilizing an encounter form, which provides structure to the medical interaction and facilitates bidirectional communication and informed decision-making. We conducted a prospective quality improvement intervention at a large tertiary-care academic medical center utilizing the encounter form and studied the effect on patient satisfaction, understanding and confidence in communicating with physicians. The intervention included 108 patients seen by seven physicians in five sub-specialties. Ninety-eight percent of patients were extremely satisfied (77%) or somewhat satisfied (21%) with the program. Ninety-six percent of patients reported being involved in decisions about their care and treatments as well as high levels of understanding of medical information that was discussed during visit. Sixty-nine percent of patients reported that they shared the encounter form with their families and friends. Patients' self-confidence in communicating with their doctors increased from a score of 8.1 to 8.7 post-intervention (P-value = 0.0018). When comparing pre- and post-intervention experiences, only 38% of patients felt that their problems and questions were adequately addressed by other physicians' pre-intervention, compared with 94% post-intervention. We introduced a program to enhance physician-patient communication and found that patients were highly satisfied, more informed and more actively involved in their care. This approach may be an easily generalizable approach to improving physician-patient communication at outpatient visits.

  18. Case histories in scientific and pseudo-scientific mass-media communication in energy/heat production from underground (geogas storage, geothermics, hydrocarbons), in the frame of Nimby Sindrome enhancement in Europe: the proposal of a new European Direct

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quattrocchi, Fedora; Boschi, Enzo

    2014-05-01

    In the frame of energy/heat production from underground, the paper considers some European case histories and the needs of a complex and motley stakeholders community, made by scientific-industry-institutions, involved in the difficult task to study and accept (or refuse) projects strongly impacting the lived territory & underground, in densely populate countries, as Italy, in terms of appropriate public communication and sound deontological behaviour. Successively, the paper recalls years of "scientific" communication within the mass-media, highlighting the positive and negative messages, in comparison to the true and objective experimental data gathered by the real scientific work, as perceived by citizens of medium scholastic culture, which not delve the geologic disciplines, but receive simply the journalistic front-end, very often as sensationalist scoop. The authors retrace case histories of heuristic-participatory communication with the citizenship about the scientific results on challenges raised by certain technologies. The objective and rational communication is often impeded by local interests and by local journalism, which prefers to create sensationalist news more than scientific truths. This path progressively tangles as a consequence of the complex and with conflicting use of underground to produce energy (heat as gas storage, geothermical, unconventional gas exploitation, mining, etc…). Even the chain of renewables meets by now serious issues, exacerbated also by the need to start mining and drilling for the smart grids materials too (metals, rare Earths, etc..). A new text for a smart and innovative European Directivity is discussed, starting from the Italian regulatory issue. The review efforts for a "paper" on both a newspaper or a blog could be more difficult than the review a scientific paper, as a consequence of the peculiar situations behind the scenes and the conflicts of interests staying in the nest in a newspaper article or in a blog

  19. mCell: Facilitating Mobile Communication of Small Groups

    OpenAIRE

    Mikko T. Tarkiainen; Jonna Häkkilä; Jan Blom; Merja Haveri; Jyri Virtanen

    2008-01-01

    Mobile communication technology offers a potential platform for new types of communication applications. Here, we describe the development and experiences with a mobile group communication application, mCell, that runs on a mobile phone. We present the underlying design implications, the application implementation, and a user study, where three groups used the application for one month. The findings of the user study reveal general user experiences with the application and show different patt...

  20. The importance of professional skills alongside scientific and technical excellence to underpin ethical geoscience practice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Allington, Ruth; Fernandez-Fuentes, Isabel

    2013-04-01

    There is consensus that reliable ground models, based on a sound understanding of the geology and surface processes are vital as a basis for natural hazard identification and risk assessment, and there is a great deal of skill and experience in the geoscience community with mapping, modelling and predicting natural hazards and their likely impacts. This presentation will highlight the contributions of geology and geomorphology in the identification of natural hazards and mitigation of their impacts. It will then consider a range of "professional skills" that are needed by geoscientists working with other specialists and non-specialists (e.g. engineers, emergency services, land-use planners, architects responsible for building codes, politicians, regulators, the public etc) alongside technical and scientific excellence. It will argue that development and application of both scientific/technical and professional skills is essential to ensure that the maps, models and other data relevant to natural hazards and environmental change are used to provide effective public protection through communication, land-use planning and planning for resilience. The professional skills of particular importance include interdisciplinary collaboration; project management; cost-benefit analysis; effective communication with specialists and non specialists (especially the public); and facilitative skills. All the technical, scientific and professional skills need to be applied competently and with the highest standards of ethical underpinning. The contribution will consider how this can be achieved (or at least facilitated) through professional training, award of professional titles, licensure etc, drawing on international examples of best practice in professional codes of conduct and regulation directed to the protection of the public.

  1. THE USE OF NARRATIVES IN SCIENCE COMMUNICATION: An example of the use of comic strips (narratives) in communicating scientific information about sustainable development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Negrete, Aquiles

    2015-04-01

    It is quite reasonable to claim that narratives can include, explain and recreate science and that this means of science communication is generally popular. This idea seems to be supported by the fact that many contemporary authors who include science as a theme in their work receive a good reception among the public (at least in Britain). Novels like Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh, Longitude by Dava Sobel and Neuromancer by William Gibson stayed on the best seller lists for weeks. Plays like Copenhagen by Michael Frayn, Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, Oxigen by Carl Djerassi and Ronald Hoffmann, Diary of a steak by Deborah Levy as well as Blue heart by Caryl Churchill enjoyed complete sell-outs in London and other cities in Britain. The explanation for this popularity seems to be that narratives are amusing, attractive, and interesting. Therefore, we can maintain that they are popular. But are they also a long-lasting way of transmitting knowledge? Do people remember scientific information conveyed by this means better than they remember the traditional formats like paradigmatic textbooks? These are questions that need to be addressed. To understand how narratives organize, represent and convey information, it is an important task to evaluate the advantages that this media offers for the communication of science. Narratives include several characteristics that make them memorable, understandable, enjoyable and a good way to present and communicate knowledge. Some of these attributes are achieved through narrative structures, including literary devices. In this research I discuss how the general public is familiar with the narrative structure of a story, how schemas for these narrative structures allow identification, induce emotions and promote understanding - important elements for the learning and memory process. I also look at how individually the narrative resources (or literary devices), in addition to their aesthetic value, can also work as mnemonic

  2. Health information technology to facilitate communication involving health care providers, caregivers, and pediatric patients: a scoping review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gentles, Stephen James; Lokker, Cynthia; McKibbon, K Ann

    2010-06-18

    Pediatric patients with health conditions requiring follow-up typically depend on a caregiver to mediate at least part of the necessary two-way communication with health care providers on their behalf. Health information technology (HIT) and its subset, information communication technology (ICT), are increasingly being applied to facilitate communication between health care provider and caregiver in these situations. Awareness of the extent and nature of published research involving HIT interventions used in this way is currently lacking. This scoping review was designed to map the health literature about HIT used to facilitate communication involving health care providers and caregivers (who are usually family members) of pediatric patients with health conditions requiring follow-up. Terms relating to care delivery, information technology, and pediatrics were combined to search MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CINAHL for the years 1996 to 2008. Eligible studies were selected after three rounds of duplicate screening in which all authors participated. Data regarding patient, caregiver, health care provider, HIT intervention, outcomes studied, and study design were extracted and maintained in a Microsoft Access database. Stage of research was categorized using the UK's Medical Research Council (MRC) framework for developing and evaluating complex interventions. Quantitative and qualitative descriptive summaries are presented. We included 104 eligible studies (112 articles) conducted in 17 different countries and representing 30 different health conditions. The most common conditions were asthma, type 1 diabetes, special needs, and psychiatric disorder. Most studies (88, 85%) included children 2 to 12 years of age, and 73 (71%) involved home care settings. Health care providers operated in hospital settings in 96 (92%) of the studies. Interventions featured 12 modes of communication (eg, Internet, intranets, telephone, video conferencing, email, short message service [SMS], and

  3. Secondary School Congress on Environment and Sustainable Development (CEMADS): an efficient tool to improve student knowledge on scientific research and communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jarque, Pilar; García-Paz, Maria; Olivares, Conchi; Fernández-Boán, Isabel

    2013-04-01

    Secondary school students in Spain commonly show little knowledge on the way science is produced and diffused. To familiarize students with the scientific method and scientific communication, we have simulated a scientific congress on Earth Sciences at the secondary school level. Since 2002, the congress takes place yearly and it is attended by teachers and students from high schools of our hometown and beyond. Since its onset, the project follows several phases: (i) In the first phase (First Call), 14- to 18-year-old students are invited to register by means of brochures containing basic information on the congress (terms, conditions and main topics). (ii) Teachers from each participating school explain students the basis of scientific posters and oral presentations and encourage them to participate in the congress. (iii) Students prepare presentations describing the results of small scientific experiments carried out for this purpose and present them to the local organizing committee. (iv) The committee then reviews all presentations and select the best ones for public exposition. (v) In the final phase, the congress takes place. It includes registration, opening ceremony attended by educational authorities, plenary conference delivered by an outstanding local scientist, coffee break, oral presentations and closing ceremony. The project lasts for one day. It has been attended by an average of 250 students and teachers from 4 schools, and has been widely reported in the local media. Post-congress evaluation shows that the project is highly motivating for students and it improves student knowledge on scientific research and communication.

  4. Trieste's lesson in scientific communication

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1968-01-01

    The opening of the new home of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste also marked the start of a most important manifestation in science - a review of the whole of contemporary physics carried out by world leaders of scientific thought. Eight Nobel Laureates were included among more than 300 distinguished participants. (author)

  5. Spectral summation and facilitation in on- and off-responses for optimized representation of communication calls in mouse inferior colliculus.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akimov, Alexander G; Egorova, Marina A; Ehret, Günter

    2017-02-01

    Selectivity for processing of species-specific vocalizations and communication sounds has often been associated with the auditory cortex. The midbrain inferior colliculus, however, is the first center in the auditory pathways of mammals integrating acoustic information processed in separate nuclei and channels in the brainstem and, therefore, could significantly contribute to enhance the perception of species' communication sounds. Here, we used natural wriggling calls of mouse pups, which communicate need for maternal care to adult females, and further 15 synthesized sounds to test the hypothesis that neurons in the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus of adult females optimize their response rates for reproduction of the three main harmonics (formants) of wriggling calls. The results confirmed the hypothesis showing that average response rates, as recorded extracellularly from single units, were highest and spectral facilitation most effective for both onset and offset responses to the call and call models with three resolved frequencies according to critical bands in perception. In addition, the general on- and/or off-response enhancement in almost half the investigated 122 neurons favors not only perception of single calls but also of vocalization rhythm. In summary, our study provides strong evidence that critical-band resolved frequency components within a communication sound increase the probability of its perception by boosting the signal-to-noise ratio of neural response rates within the inferior colliculus for at least 20% (our criterion for facilitation). These mechanisms, including enhancement of rhythm coding, are generally favorable to processing of other animal and human vocalizations, including formants of speech sounds. © 2016 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  6. Facilitating parent-teenager communication through interactive photo cubes

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Golsteijn, C.; Hoven, van den E.A.W.H.

    2013-01-01

    Because most teenagers strive for freedom and try to live autonomously, communication with their parents could be improved. It appeared from a literature review and a diary study that parent-teenager communication primarily addresses teenager-oriented everyday activities. However, it also showed

  7. Risk perception, scientific culture and communication media

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pinto Lobo, M. R.

    2002-01-01

    The people who asked me to give a talk for the Spanish Nuclear Society's 28th Annual Meeting, at the invitation of WIN (Women in Nuclear), have challenged me, or at least that is what my colleagues believe, to tackle the difficult task of venturing into fields unfamiliar to anyone who is not involved in University teaching in communication and journalism. However, the challenge was very appealing to me, first of all because it was an invitation from WIN (Women in Nuclear), which I would like to congratulate, together with the Steering Committee, for having selected Salamanca as the meeting venue in this very important year for this city (it has been selected as European cultural city for 2002, along with the Belgian city of Bruges), If there is any place that has been immersed in scientific culture throughout the centuries it is Salamanca, where every one of its stones could tell us a history of the convergence and divergence between knowledge and society. This Universidad Pontificia of Salamanca also encloses centuries of wisdom within its walls. I have mentioned the first reason for accepting the challenge: the invitation from WIN Espana. The second reason why I accepted is that, some years ago, the world of nuclear energy, them unknown to me, started coming up in conversations with friends, one of whom works in this field. That history of discovery began in a levelly little Swiss town, in Grundenwald, not far from Eintein's Bern, whom I will mention later on

  8. Project connect online: randomized trial of an internet-based program to chronicle the cancer experience and facilitate communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stanton, Annette L; Thompson, Elizabeth H; Crespi, Catherine M; Link, John S; Waisman, James R

    2013-09-20

    Evidence suggests that expressing emotions related to cancer and receiving interpersonal support can promote psychological and physical health in women diagnosed with breast cancer. However, adaptive expression of feelings and communication with one's social network can pose challenges for patients with cancer. We report on a randomized controlled trial of an intervention, Project Connect Online, for patients with breast cancer to create personal Web sites to chronicle their experience and communicate with their social network. Women (N = 88) diagnosed with breast cancer (any stage, any interval since diagnosis) were randomly assigned to participate in a 3-hour workshop for hands-on creation of personal Web sites with a follow-up call to facilitate Web site use, or to a waiting-list control. Assessed before randomization and 6 months after the intervention, dependent variables included depressive symptoms, positive and negative mood, cancer-related intrusive thoughts, and perceived cancer-related benefits in life appreciation and strengthened relationships. Relative to control participants, women randomly assigned to Project Connect Online evidenced significant benefit 6 months later on depressive symptoms, positive mood, and life appreciation, but not negative mood, perceived strengthened relationships, or intrusive thoughts. Treatment status moderated the intervention effects, such that women currently undergoing medical treatment for cancer benefitted significantly more from the intervention on depressive symptoms and positive mood than did women not receiving treatment. Findings suggest the promise of an intervention to facilitate the ability of women diagnosed with breast cancer to chronicle their experience and communicate with their social network via the Internet.

  9. Facilitating climate change adaptation through communication

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Glaas, Erik; Gammelgaard Ballantyne, Anne; Neset, Tina Simone

    2015-01-01

    with the context of the target audience, provides intelligible information and addresses perceived barriers to adaptation. In this paper we reflect upon criteria for useful climate change communication gained over a three year development process of a web-based tool - VisAdapt™ - aimed at increasing...

  10. Anthropological film: a scientific and humanistic resource.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soren, E R

    1974-12-20

    More than a scientific endeavor but not strictly one of the humanities either, anthropology stands between these basic kinds of intellectual pursuit, bridging and contributing to both. Not limited to natural history, anthropology touches art, historical process, and human values, drawing from the materials and approaches of both science and humanities. This professional interest in a broad understanding of the human condition has led anthropologists to adapt and use modern cameras and films to inquire further into the variety of ways of life of mankind and to develop method and theory to prepare anthropological film as a permanent scientific and humanistic resource. Until quite recently the evolution of human culture and organization has diverged in the hitherto isolated regions of the world. Now this divergence has virtually ceased; we are witnessing an unprecedented period in human history-one where cultural divergence has turned to cultural convergence and where the varieties of independently evolved expressions of basic human potential are giving way to a single system of modern communications, transport, commerce, and manufacturing technology. Before the varieties of ways of life of the world disappear, they can be preserved in facsimile in anthropological films. As primary, undifferentiated visual information, these films facilitate that early step in the creation of new knowledge which is sometimes called humanistic and without which scientific application lies dormant, lacking an idea to test. In keeping with the two scholarly faces of anthropology, humanistic and scientific, anthropological films may provide material permitting both humanistic insight and the more controlled formulations of science. The lightweight filming equipment recently developed has been adapted by anthropologists as a tool of scholarly visual inquiry; methods of retrieving visual data from changing and vanishing ways of life have been developed; and new ways to reveal human beings

  11. Improving communication for interdisciplinary teams working on storage of digital information in DNA.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hesketh, Emily E; Sayir, Jossy; Goldman, Nick

    2018-01-01

    Close collaboration between specialists from diverse backgrounds and working in different scientific domains is an effective strategy to overcome challenges in areas that interface between biology, chemistry, physics and engineering. Communication in such collaborations can itself be challenging.  Even when projects are successfully concluded, resulting publications - necessarily multi-authored - have the potential to be disjointed. Few, both in the field and outside, may be able to fully understand the work as a whole. This needs to be addressed to facilitate efficient working, peer review, accessibility and impact to larger audiences. We are an interdisciplinary team working in a nascent scientific area, the repurposing of DNA as a storage medium for digital information. In this note, we highlight some of the difficulties that arise from such collaborations and outline our efforts to improve communication through a glossary and a controlled vocabulary and accessibility via short plain-language summaries. We hope to stimulate early discussion within this emerging field of how our community might improve the description and presentation of our work to facilitate clear communication within and between research groups and increase accessibility to those not familiar with our respective fields - be it molecular biology, computer science, information theory or others that might become relevant in future. To enable an open and inclusive discussion we have created a glossary and controlled vocabulary as a cloud-based shared document and we invite other scientists to critique our suggestions and contribute their own ideas.

  12. A Sample Practical Report to Facilitate Writing in the Scientific Style

    Science.gov (United States)

    Corradi, Hazel Ruth

    2012-01-01

    The ability to write concise and accurate scientific reports is highly valued in university level science. From reflection on marking student final year reports, it was apparent that many students have had insufficient practice at writing complete "scientific paper" style reports by that time, although some do it very well. This is a previously…

  13. Communicating science better through personal divestment from ideological strongholds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Myhre, S. E.

    2017-12-01

    There is an urgent need for the geoscience community to participate as trusted brokers of information in the partisan landscape of science communication. In the current moment of political engagement, academic-industry partnerships, and social justice organizing, the most immediate, inexpensive, and effective change to facilitate public trust-building is through changing the paradigm of professional science communication. Scientists must own the public trust of their intellectual station - and to do so effectively requires a concerted effort to professionally divest from personal ideological positions. Transparency and ideological divestment are hallmarks of public leadership, and yet these values often do not percolate into the existing cannon of communication best practices. However, it is likely that even seasoned communicators rely on a handful of values-based reframing messages to scaffold their science communication in public. Without clear examination of such values, these reframing messages often can function as communicative "tells" or ideological signals, and such signal will actively backfire by disenfranchising audiences with alternate or oppositional ideology. Therefore, it behooves science communicators to actively examine their personal and political ideology, and to build communicative strategies that do not include ideological tells. This practice, while potentially uncomfortable, will strengthen scientists' capacities to communicate evidence and scientific consensus across partisan and rhetorical chasms.

  14. Barriers and facilitators to self-care communication during medical appointments in the United States for adults with type 2 diabetes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ritholz, Marilyn D; Beverly, Elizabeth A; Brooks, Kelly M; Abrahamson, Martin J; Weinger, Katie

    2014-12-01

    Diabetes self-care is challenging and requires effective patient-provider communication to achieve optimal treatment outcomes. This study explored perceptions of barriers and facilitators to diabetes self-care communication during medical appointments. Qualitative study using in-depth interviews with a semistructured interview guide. Thirty-four patients with type 2 diabetes and 19 physicians who treat type 2 diabetes. Physicians described some patients as reluctant to discuss their self-care behaviors primarily because of fear of being judged, guilt, and shame. Similarly, patients described reluctant communication resulting from fear of being judged and shame, particularly shame surrounding food intake and weight. Physicians and patients recommended trust, nonjudgmental acceptance, open/honest communication, and providing patients hope for living with diabetes as important factors for improving self-care communication. Further, patients stressed the clinical benefits of physicians directly addressing poor self-care behaviors while physicians described having few strategies to address these difficulties. Physician-patient self-care communication barriers included patients' reluctance to discuss self-care behaviors and physicians' perceptions of few options to address this reluctance. Treatment recommendations stressed the importance of establishing trusting, nonjudgmental and open patient-provider communication for optimal diabetes treatment. Medical education is needed to improve physicians' strategies for addressing self-care communication during medical appointments. © The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav.

  15. Making better scientific figures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hawkins, Ed; McNeall, Doug

    2016-04-01

    In the words of the UK government chief scientific adviser "Science is not finished until it's communicated" (Walport 2013). The tools to produce good visual communication have never been so easily accessible to scientists as at the present. Correspondingly, it has never been easier to produce and disseminate poor graphics. In this presentation, we highlight some good practice and offer some practical advice in preparing scientific figures for presentation to peers or to the public. We identify common mistakes in visualisation, including some made by the authors, and offer some good reasons not to trust defaults in graphics software. In particular, we discuss the use of colour scales and share our experiences in running a social media campaign (http://tiny.cc/endrainbow) to replace the "rainbow" (also "jet", or "spectral") colour scale as the default in (climate) scientific visualisation.

  16. Secondary Science Student Teachers' Use of Verbal Discourse to Communicate Scientific Ideas in Their Field Placement Classrooms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cian, Heidi; Cook, Michelle

    2018-06-01

    Student teachers struggle to identify themselves as teachers in their field placement during their student teaching year, and some of the difficulty can be attributed to the change they encounter when they must communicate scientific ideas to students in a language that differs from how they recently learned science at the university level. Using developmental levels of student teaching (Drafall and Grant in Music Educators Journal, 81(1), 35-38, 1995), we explore how three cases differ in their use of verbal classroom discourse over the course of their student teaching year. We use data from six observations, post-observation debriefs, reflections associated with the observations, and responses to assignments from the student teachers' teaching classes as data to demonstrate how the cases differ in the proficiency of their verbal communication in their classroom placement. We find that when student teachers have difficulty communicating science to their students, they struggle to use lectures effectively or engage students in meaningful conversation or questioning. This work suggests a need for more study as to the causes of different communication proficiencies and how methods instructors can help teachers develop awareness of the value of their verbal discourse interactions with students.

  17. Understanding Science: Frameworks for using stories to facilitate systems thinking

    Science.gov (United States)

    ElShafie, S. J.; Bean, J. R.

    2017-12-01

    Studies indicate that using a narrative structure for teaching and learning helps audiences to process and recall new information. Stories also help audiences retain specific information, such as character names or plot points, in the context of a broader narrative. Stories can therefore facilitate high-context systems learning in addition to low-context declarative learning. Here we incorporate a framework for science storytelling, which we use in communication workshops, with the Understanding Science framework developed by the UC Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) to explore the application of storytelling to systems thinking. We translate portions of the Understanding Science flowchart into narrative terms. Placed side by side, the two charts illustrate the parallels between the scientific process and the story development process. They offer a roadmap for developing stories about scientific studies and concepts. We also created a series of worksheets for use with the flowcharts. These new tools can generate stories from any perspective, including a scientist conducting a study; a character that plays a role in a larger system (e.g., foraminifera or a carbon atom); an entire system that interacts with other systems (e.g., the carbon cycle). We will discuss exemplar stories about climate change from each of these perspectives, which we are developing for workshops using content and storyboard models from the new UCMP website Understanding Global Change. This conceptual framework and toolkit will help instructors to develop stories about scientific concepts for use in a classroom setting. It will also help students to analyze stories presented in class, and to create their own stories about new concepts. This approach facilitates student metacognition of the learning process, and can also be used as a form of evaluation. We are testing this flowchart and its use in systems teaching with focus groups, in preparation for use in teacher professional development workshops.

  18. Translanguaging in a middle school science classroom: Constructing scientific arguments in English and Spanish

    Science.gov (United States)

    Licona, Peter R.

    This dissertation investigates translanguaging in an English/Spanish dual language middle school science classroom as the teacher and students worked through a curriculum unit focusing on socioscientific issues and implementing a scientific argumentation framework. Translanguaging is the process in which bilingual speakers fluidly and dynamically draw from their full linguistic repertoire to perform a communicative act. Using ethnographically informed data collection in conjunction with discourse analysis, teacher translanguaging was examined for its related functions in the science classroom and how teacher translanguaging afforded opportunities for framing and supporting scientific argumentation. Results suggest that the functions of teacher translanguaging fell into three main themes: maintaining classroom culture, facilitating the academic task, and framing epistemic practices. Of the three categories of translanguaging, framing epistemic practices proved to be of paramount importance in the teacher presenting and supporting the practice of scientific argumentation. Implications from this study are relevant for pre-service science teacher preparation and in-service science teacher professional development for teachers working with emergent bilingual students.

  19. Boletim and Arquivos: scientific communication until the creation of the Revista de Saúde Pública.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marques, Maria Cristina da Costa; Dolci, Mariana de Carvalho

    2016-10-24

    Based on historical references of scientific communication, we analyzed the issues of the Boletim do Instituto de Higiene de São Paulo and of the Arquivos da Faculdade de Higiene e Saúde Pública da Universidade de São Paulo. Published respectively from 1919 to 1946 and from 1947 to 1966, they totaled 120 issues. In their 48 years of publication, their goal was to disseminate the scientific production of the institution and to legitimize the theoretical debate of the field, in addition to supporting the public health intervention models, written by leading researchers of the institution and by contributors and managers in the field of public health. Both the Boletim and the Arquivos were recognized as scientific communication of national reference, and have laid the foundations for the creation of the Revista de Saúde Pública, in 1967. RESUMO Com base em referenciais históricos da comunicação científica, foram analisadas as edições do Boletim do Instituto de Higiene de São Paulo e dos Arquivos da Faculdade de Higiene e Saúde Pública da Universidade de São Paulo. Publicadas respectivamente de 1919 a 1946 e de 1947 a 1966, totalizam 120 edições. Em seus 48 anos de publicação, o objetivo era disseminar a produção científica da instituição e legitimar o debate teórico do campo, além de apoiar os modelos de intervenção de saúde pública, escrita por importantes pesquisadores da instituição e colaboradores e gestores do campo da saúde pública. Tanto o Boletim como os Arquivos foram reconhecidos como comunicação científica de referência nacional e lançaram as bases para a criação da Revista de Saúde Pública, em 1967.

  20. Expectations for a scientific collaboratory

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sonnenwald, Diane H.

    2003-01-01

    In the past decade, a number of scientific collaboratories have emerged, yet adoption of scientific collaboratories remains limited. Meeting expectations is one factor that influences adoption of innovations, including scientific collaboratories. This paper investigates expectations scientists have...... with respect to scientific collaboratories. Interviews were conducted with 17 scientists who work in a variety of settings and have a range of experience conducting and managing scientific research. Results indicate that scientists expect a collaboratory to: support their strategic plans; facilitate management...... of the scientific process; have a positive or neutral impact on scientific outcomes; provide advantages and disadvantages for scientific task execution; and provide personal conveniences when collaborating across distances. These results both confirm existing knowledge and raise new issues for the design...

  1. Training Elementary Teachers to Prepare Students for High School Authentic Scientific Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Danch, J. M.

    2017-12-01

    The Woodbridge Township New Jersey School District has a 4-year high school Science Research program that depends on the enrollment of students with the prerequisite skills to conduct authentic scientific research at the high school level. A multifaceted approach to training elementary teachers in the methods of scientific investigation, data collection and analysis and communication of results was undertaken in 2017. Teachers of predominately grades 4 and 5 participated in hands on workshops at a Summer Tech Academy, an EdCamp, a District Inservice Day and a series of in-class workshops for teachers and students together. Aspects of the instruction for each of these activities was facilitated by high school students currently enrolled in the High School Science Research Program. Much of the training activities centered around a "Learning With Students" model where teachers and their students simultaneously learn to perform inquiry activities and conduct scientific research fostering inquiry as it is meant to be: where participants produce original data are not merely working to obtain previously determined results.

  2. Modern computer technologies facilitate communication with a young cancer patient.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ripamonti, Carla Ida; Piccinelli, Claudia; Pessi, Maria Adelaide; Clerici, Carlo Alfredo

    2010-01-01

    The aim of this paper is to show how new technologies may help the communication process in clinical practice in a department providing supportive care to patients undergoing cancer treatment. Communication via Internet chat between the psychologist and a young man who sees chatting on the Internet as a natural and familiar mode of expression was shown to be useful. The Internet link enabled us to open a communication channel with the patient and to have a conversation that would otherwise have been impossible. Although verbal communication is the most important way to communicate among people, Internet communications are certainly an opportunity worth exploring, because they may open up new channels for cancer patients whose ability to speak is restricted. We might imagine using this approach in pediatric oncology, with adolescents and preadolescents, and with young adults like the patient discussed here. The case discussed highlights the enormous difference between the mere transfer of information and genuine communication, the latter involving an encounter with the patient.

  3. INTEGRATION OF UKRAINIAN INDUSTRY SCIENTIFIC PERIODACLS INTO WORLD SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION SPACE: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    T. O. Kolesnykova

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available Purpose. Problem of representation lack of scientists’ publications, including transport scientists, in the international scientometric databases is the urgent one for Ukrainian science. To solve the problem one should study the structure and quality of the information flow of scientific periodicals of railway universities in Ukraine and to determine the integration algorithm of scientific publications of Ukrainian scientists into the world scientific information space. Methodology. Applying the methods of scientific analysis, synthesis, analogy, comparison and prediction the author has investigated the problem of scientific knowledge distribution using formal communications. The readiness of Ukrainian railway periodicals to registration procedure in the international scientometric systems was analyzed. The level of representation of articles and authors of Ukrainian railway universities in scientometric database Scopus was studied. Findings. Monitoring of the portals of railway industry universities of Ukraine and the sites of their scientific periodicals and analysis of obtained data prove insufficient readiness of most scientific publications for submission to scientometric database. The ways providing sufficient "visibility" of industry periodicals of Ukrainian universities in the global scientific information space were proposed. Originality. The structure and quality of documentary flow of scientific periodicals in railway transport universities of Ukraine and its reflection in scientometric DB Scopus were first investigated. The basic directions of university activities to integrate the results of transport scientists research into the global scientific digital environment were outlined. It was determined the leading role of university libraries in the integration processes of scientific documentary resources of universities into the global scientific and information communicative space. Practical value. Implementation of the proposed

  4. Communicating science in politicized environments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lupia, Arthur

    2013-08-20

    Many members of the scientific community attempt to convey information to policymakers and the public. Much of this information is ignored or misinterpreted. This article describes why these outcomes occur and how science communicators can achieve better outcomes. The article focuses on two challenges associated with communicating scientific information to such audiences. One challenge is that people have less capacity to pay attention to scientific presentations than many communicators anticipate. A second challenge is that people in politicized environments often make different choices about whom to believe than do people in other settings. Together, these challenges cause policymakers and the public to be less responsive to scientific information than many communicators desire. Research on attention and source credibility can help science communicators better adapt to these challenges. Attention research clarifies when, and to what type of stimuli, people do (and do not) pay attention. Source credibility research clarifies the conditions under which an audience will believe scientists' descriptions of phenomena rather than the descriptions of less-valid sources. Such research can help communicators stay true to their science while making their findings more memorable and more believable to more audiences.

  5. Communicating science in politicized environments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lupia, Arthur

    2013-01-01

    Many members of the scientific community attempt to convey information to policymakers and the public. Much of this information is ignored or misinterpreted. This article describes why these outcomes occur and how science communicators can achieve better outcomes. The article focuses on two challenges associated with communicating scientific information to such audiences. One challenge is that people have less capacity to pay attention to scientific presentations than many communicators anticipate. A second challenge is that people in politicized environments often make different choices about whom to believe than do people in other settings. Together, these challenges cause policymakers and the public to be less responsive to scientific information than many communicators desire. Research on attention and source credibility can help science communicators better adapt to these challenges. Attention research clarifies when, and to what type of stimuli, people do (and do not) pay attention. Source credibility research clarifies the conditions under which an audience will believe scientists’ descriptions of phenomena rather than the descriptions of less-valid sources. Such research can help communicators stay true to their science while making their findings more memorable and more believable to more audiences. PMID:23940336

  6. The Communication in Science Inquiry Project (CISIP): A Project to Enhance Scientific Literacy through the Creation of Science Classroom Discourse Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baker, Dale R.; Lewis, Elizabeth B.; Purzer, Senay; Watts, Nievita Bueno; Perkins, Gita; Uysal, Sibel; Wong, Sissy; Beard, Rachelle; Lang, Michael

    2009-01-01

    This study reports on the context and impact of the Communication in Science Inquiry Project (CISIP) professional development to promote teachers' and students' scientific literacy through the creation of science classroom discourse communities. The theoretical underpinnings of the professional development model are presented and key professional…

  7. Computer Simulation in Information and Communication Engineering

    CERN Multimedia

    Anton Topurov

    2005-01-01

    CSICE'05 Sofia, Bulgaria 20th - 22nd October, 2005 On behalf of the International Scientific Committee, we would like to invite you all to Sofia, the capital city of Bulgaria, to the International Conference in Computer Simulation in Information and Communication Engineering CSICE'05. The Conference is aimed at facilitating the exchange of experience in the field of computer simulation gained not only in traditional fields (Communications, Electronics, Physics...) but also in the areas of biomedical engineering, environment, industrial design, etc. The objective of the Conference is to bring together lectures, researchers and practitioners from different countries, working in the fields of computer simulation in information engineering, in order to exchange information and bring new contribution to this important field of engineering design and education. The Conference will bring you the latest ideas and development of the tools for computer simulation directly from their inventors. Contribution describ...

  8. Facilitation Skills for Library Professionals

    OpenAIRE

    O'Shea, Anne; Matheson, Laura

    2010-01-01

    Session summary: Brainstorming, problem-solving, team-building and group communication – all of these things can be made easier through facilitation! Come to this fun, interactive workshop to learn techniques and exercises to boost your group meetings. Taught by two information professionals with formal facilitation training and experience, this workshop will give you theory, hands-on practice time and feedback. What participants will learn: Participants will learn techniques to he...

  9. Communication Requirements and Interconnect Optimization forHigh-End Scientific Applications

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kamil, Shoaib; Oliker, Leonid; Pinar, Ali; Shalf, John

    2007-11-12

    The path towards realizing peta-scale computing isincreasingly dependent on building supercomputers with unprecedentednumbers of processors. To prevent the interconnect from dominating theoverall cost of these ultra-scale systems, there is a critical need forhigh-performance network solutions whose costs scale linearly with systemsize. This work makes several unique contributions towards attaining thatgoal. First, we conduct one of the broadest studies to date of high-endapplication communication requirements, whose computational methodsinclude: finite-difference, lattice-bolzmann, particle in cell, sparselinear algebra, particle mesh ewald, and FFT-based solvers. Toefficiently collect this data, we use the IPM (Integrated PerformanceMonitoring) profiling layer to gather detailed messaging statistics withminimal impact to code performance. Using the derived communicationcharacterizations, we next present fit-trees interconnects, a novelapproach for designing network infrastructure at a fraction of thecomponent cost of traditional fat-tree solutions. Finally, we propose theHybrid Flexibly Assignable Switch Topology (HFAST) infrastructure, whichuses both passive (circuit) and active (packet) commodity switchcomponents to dynamically reconfigure interconnects to suit thetopological requirements of scientific applications. Overall ourexploration leads to a promising directions for practically addressingthe interconnect requirements of future peta-scale systems.

  10. Scientific-methodological aspects of communication management on industrial enterprises

    OpenAIRE

    L.Yu. Sager

    2012-01-01

    The article explains the purpose of communication management and proposes the scheme of communication process. The groups of potential obstacles of effective communication management and basic measures to overcome them are allocated.

  11. Enhancing Transparency in Multidisciplinary Expert Communication

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hukki, Kristiina; Pulkkinen, Urho

    2003-01-01

    Faced with problems of public acceptance most nuclear waste management organisations now acknowledge the importance of transparency in their pursuit of solutions for high-level nuclear waste disposal. To make progress the implementing organizations need the trust of other stakeholders in the decision-making process. For such trust these outside stakeholders need knowledge on the grounds for the judgments and decisions made in different scientific and technical disciplines. Transparency is, however, at least as important for the multidisciplinary expert communication itself. As a matter of fact, the transparency of the internal expert interaction processes is a prerequisite for the true transparency of the communication between the implementer and the external stakeholder groups. The introduced conceptual framework has been developed for the identification of the requirements of safety-informed communication in multidisciplinary expert work in nuclear waste management. The framework offers a common thinking model and common concepts which can be utilized in the development of the communication practices. The basis of the framework is on the possibility to understand the safety-critical significance of one's work. The transparency of communication is, for its part, based on making explicit the relevant knowledge necessary for gaining the understanding. This supplementary knowledge, which is related to the substance issues but is not scientific-technical by nature, enhances the experts' awareness of the context of their own contribution and of the background of the other experts' contributions. The common conceptualization and modelling of the knowledge-related dependencies between the tasks make it possible to realize the significance of the supplementary knowledge for transparent communication in actual situations. They also facilitate the recognition of the need for different types of supplementary knowledge in the interfaces between the tasks. By enhancing mutual

  12. Millennials Need Training Too: Using Communication Technology to Facilitate Teamwork

    Science.gov (United States)

    Charsky, Dennis; Kish, Mary L.; Briskin, Jessica; Hathaway, Sarah; Walsh, Kira; Barajas, Nicolas

    2009-01-01

    Human Communication in Organizations (HCO) is an introductory college course at Ithaca College, typically taken in the freshman year, in which students from a wide variety of majors examine the basic concepts, issues, and uses of organizational communication including communication theory, superior-subordinate and peer relationships, leadership,…

  13. Facilitating Students' Conceptual Change and Scientific Reasoning Involving the Unit of Combustion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Chin-Quen; She, Hsiao-Ching

    2010-01-01

    This article reports research from a 3 year digital learning project to unite conceptual change and scientific reasoning in the learning unit of combustion. One group of students had completed the course combining conceptual change and scientific reasoning. The other group of students received conventional instruction. In addition to the…

  14. Scientific Jargon, Good and Bad

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hirst, Russel

    2003-01-01

    Scientific and technical jargon--specialized vocabulary, usually Latinate--plays a vital role in scientific and technical communication. But its proper use continues to be a point of discussion because of our concern with audience adaptation, rhetorical exigence, rhetorical purpose, and ethics. We've focused on teaching students--and on convincing…

  15. Evolution of the scientific paper

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Harmon, J.E.

    1992-09-01

    The first papers reporting original research results in technical periodicals and proceedings appeared in the late 17th century. Since that time, the typical scientific paper has evolved from a fairly simple document, accessible to a general audience, to a much more complex one, aimed at a specialized audience. The purpose of this article is to give an overview of what the first scientific papers were like and how they evolved to their present form and style. To facilitate this discussion, the scientific paper`s development has arbitrarily been divided into four stages: the origin and formative years of the scientific paper (1665-1765), emergence of scientific papers written for specialized publications (1765-1865), development of the modem scientific paper (1865-1965), and hyperspecialization and computerization of the modem scientific paper (1965-?).

  16. Evolution of the scientific paper

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Harmon, J.E.

    1992-01-01

    The first papers reporting original research results in technical periodicals and proceedings appeared in the late 17th century. Since that time, the typical scientific paper has evolved from a fairly simple document, accessible to a general audience, to a much more complex one, aimed at a specialized audience. The purpose of this article is to give an overview of what the first scientific papers were like and how they evolved to their present form and style. To facilitate this discussion, the scientific paper's development has arbitrarily been divided into four stages: the origin and formative years of the scientific paper (1665-1765), emergence of scientific papers written for specialized publications (1765-1865), development of the modem scientific paper (1865-1965), and hyperspecialization and computerization of the modem scientific paper (1965- ).

  17. Communicating scientific findings in the courtroom, Oxford Online Bibliographies

    OpenAIRE

    Vuille Joelle; Egli Nicole

    2016-01-01

    The number of civil and criminal trials in which there is presented at least one piece of scientific evidence—by which we mean the analysis and interpretation of physical evidence derived from the so called hard sciences (thus excluding the fields of psychology psychiatry and the social and behavioral sciences)—is constantly increasing. Yet the fact finders be they judges or juries or the attorneys arguing the cases have limited scientific education. In this context the way scientific experts...

  18. Communication about childhood obesity on Twitter.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harris, Jenine K; Moreland-Russell, Sarah; Tabak, Rachel G; Ruhr, Lindsay R; Maier, Ryan C

    2014-07-01

    Little is known about the use of social media as a tool for health communication. We used a mixed-methods design to examine communication about childhood obesity on Twitter. NodeXL was used to collect tweets sent in June 2013 containing the hashtag #childhoodobesity. Tweets were coded for content; tweeters were classified by sector and health focus. Data were also collected on the network of follower connections among the tweeters. We used descriptive statistics and exponential random graph modeling to examine tweet content, characteristics of tweeters, and the composition and structure of the network of connections facilitating communication among tweeters. We collected 1110 tweets originating from 576 unique Twitter users. More individuals (65.6%) than organizations (32.9%) tweeted. More tweets focused on individual behavior than environment or policy. Few government and educational tweeters were in the network, but they were more likely than private individuals to be followed by others. There is an opportunity to better disseminate evidence-based information to a broad audience through Twitter by increasing the presence of credible sources in the #childhoodobesity conversation and focusing the content of tweets on scientific evidence.

  19. Estructura y contenidos de la comunicación y redacción de artículos científicos Structure and content of communication and writing scientific articles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jerónimo Maqueda Blasco

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available La comunicación científica es parte del proceso investigador y representa unos de los retornos que recibe la Sociedad del investigador. La comunicación científica se somete a una estructura internacionalmente aceptada: Introducción, Material y Métodos, Resultados, Conclusiones y Discusión, en la que cada apartado tiene una finalidad y una intención. Tras haber realizado una revisión de las publicaciones y guías más recientes sobre comunicación científica en salud se ha sintetizado las recomendaciones más relevantes con la intención de orientar a los autores noveles en la redacción de sus primeras publicaciones.Scientific communication is part of the research process and represents one of the returns that Society receives from researchers. Scientific communication is under an internationally accepted structure: Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Conclusions and Discussion, each item have a concrete purpose and intention. After has conducted a review of the most recent publications and guidelines on health science communication we have synthesized the most relevant recommendations in order to guide early scientific authors in write his scientific papers.

  20. Pseudo-communication vs Quasi-communication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Елена Константиновна Черничкина

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The article is devoted to the analysis of such specific forms of human interaction as quasi- and pseudo-communication. The authors specify the terms which sometimes are used interchangeably. The aim of the conducted research is to find out and demonstrate existing differences and similarities of these communicative phenomena on the basis of theoretical and empirical analysis of the research material in the Russian and English languages. The authors describe communicative features of these phenomena and consider the reasons for such forms of communication and their increased use at present. The research material is represented fiction extracts, film scripts, jokes, print media, a collection of oral speech records both in Russian and English. The authors make use of the following research methods: definitional analysis (to define the terminology of the research, the method of linguistic observation and introspection (to select the communicative situations, the descriptive-analytical method and the method of comparative analysis (to identify similarities and differences of the target phenomena, and the conversational analysis method (to view productivity and effectiveness of a dialogue, etc. The classification of possible forms of their existence in different discourses is suggested. The authors assume that both pseudo- and quasi-communication are characterized as fictitious forms of human interaction with some noticeable violation of the basic communicative model. Pseudo-communication suffers from the discrepancy of the meaning of a coded and decoded message. The authors put forward the main parameters of scientific classification of it as follows: adequate understanding, intentionality, and the stage of communicative action where the failure takes place. At the same time they stress the necessity to distinguish the cases of pseudo talks from phatic and indirect communication. Quasi-communcation is marked by the lack of a real partner and hence

  1. Communications fabric for scientific collaboration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stillerman, J.; Baron, D.; Fredian, T.; Greenwald, M.; Schulzrinne, H.

    2008-01-01

    Today's fusion experiments are geographically and institutionally dispersed collaborations. This makes the need for good remote collaboration tools particularly acute. Informal interactions between scientists are particularly important and hard to realize with traditional communications approaches. We are testing existing packages based on the IETF SIP (session initiation protocol) standard and integrating them into our applications to address these issues. Development of additional tools may be needed to provide better integration and enhanced functionality. By providing a spectrum of tools encompassing instant messaging, voice, video, presence, event notification and application sharing, we hope to overcome technical hurdles and a natural reluctance, among researchers, to interact with colleagues who are not on site. Existing web pages, which support integrated and shared workspaces, such as electronic logbooks, code and experimental run management, records of presentations and publications, personnel databases, and physical site maps will be 'communications enabled', so that just as currently there are 'mailto' links we will be able to have 'speak to:', 'instant message to:', 'video to:', and 'share with:' links. Mechanisms will be provided for session portability; a conference might be moved from a hard phone to a soft phone so that video or application sharing could be enabled. This paper discusses our ongoing efforts in these areas, including a prototype implementation of some of these tools

  2. Communications fabric for scientific collaboration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stillerman, J. [MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, NW17-268 Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States)], E-mail: jas@psfc.mit.edu; Baron, D. [MIT Information Services and Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States); Fredian, T.; Greenwald, M. [MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, NW17-268 Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States); Schulzrinne, H. [Columbia University Computer Science Department, New York, NY 10027 (United States)

    2008-04-15

    Today's fusion experiments are geographically and institutionally dispersed collaborations. This makes the need for good remote collaboration tools particularly acute. Informal interactions between scientists are particularly important and hard to realize with traditional communications approaches. We are testing existing packages based on the IETF SIP (session initiation protocol) standard and integrating them into our applications to address these issues. Development of additional tools may be needed to provide better integration and enhanced functionality. By providing a spectrum of tools encompassing instant messaging, voice, video, presence, event notification and application sharing, we hope to overcome technical hurdles and a natural reluctance, among researchers, to interact with colleagues who are not on site. Existing web pages, which support integrated and shared workspaces, such as electronic logbooks, code and experimental run management, records of presentations and publications, personnel databases, and physical site maps will be 'communications enabled', so that just as currently there are 'mailto' links we will be able to have 'speak to:', 'instant message to:', 'video to:', and 'share with:' links. Mechanisms will be provided for session portability; a conference might be moved from a hard phone to a soft phone so that video or application sharing could be enabled. This paper discusses our ongoing efforts in these areas, including a prototype implementation of some of these tools.

  3. Communicating geological hazards: assisting geoscientists in communication skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liverman, D. G. E.

    2009-04-01

    Communication is important in all aspects of the geosciences but is more prominent in the area of geological hazards, as the main audience for scientific information often lacks a geoscience background; and because the implications of not communicating results effectively can be very serious. Geoscientists working in the hazards area face particular challenges in communicating the concepts of risk, probability and uncertainty. Barriers to effective communication of geoscience include the complex language used by geoscientists, restriction of dissemination of results to traditional scientific media, identification of the target audience, inability to tailor products to a variety of audiences, and lack of institutional support for communication efforts. Geoscientists who work in the area of natural hazards need training in risk communication, media relations, and communicating to non-technical audiences. Institutions need to support the efforts of geoscientists in communicating their results through providing communications training; ensuring access to communications professionals; rewarding efforts to engage the public; and devoting sufficient staff and budget to the effort of disseminating results. Geoscientists themselves have to make efforts to change attitudes towards social science, and to become involved in decision making at a community level. The International Union of Geological Sciences Commission for "Geoscience for Environmental Management" established a working group to deal with these issues. This group is holding workshops, publishing collections of papers, and is looking at other means to aid geoscientists in addressing these problems.

  4. Advanced Artificial Science. The development of an artificial science and engineering research infrastructure to facilitate innovative computational modeling, analysis, and application to interdisciplinary areas of scientific investigation.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Saffer, Shelley (Sam) I.

    2014-12-01

    This is a final report of the DOE award DE-SC0001132, Advanced Artificial Science. The development of an artificial science and engineering research infrastructure to facilitate innovative computational modeling, analysis, and application to interdisciplinary areas of scientific investigation. This document describes the achievements of the goals, and resulting research made possible by this award.

  5. Communication System Architecture for Planetary Exploration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Braham, Stephen P.; Alena, Richard; Gilbaugh, Bruce; Glass, Brian; Norvig, Peter (Technical Monitor)

    2001-01-01

    Future human missions to Mars will require effective communications supporting exploration activities and scientific field data collection. Constraints on cost, size, weight and power consumption for all communications equipment make optimization of these systems very important. These information and communication systems connect people and systems together into coherent teams performing the difficult and hazardous tasks inherent in planetary exploration. The communication network supporting vehicle telemetry data, mission operations, and scientific collaboration must have excellent reliability, and flexibility.

  6. Toward a new information infrastructure in health technology assessment: communication, design, process, and results.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neikter, Susanna Allgurin; Rehnqvist, Nina; Rosén, Måns; Dahlgren, Helena

    2009-12-01

    The aim of this study was to facilitate effective internal and external communication of an international network and to explore how to support communication and work processes in health technology assessment (HTA). STRUCTURE AND METHODS: European network for Health Technology Assessment (EUnetHTA) connected sixty-four HTA Partner organizations from thirty-three countries. User needs in the different steps of the HTA process were the starting point for developing an information system. A step-wise, interdisciplinary, creative approach was used in developing practical tools. An Information Platform facilitated the exchange of scientific information between Partners and with external target groups. More than 200 virtual meetings were set up during the project using an e-meeting tool. A Clearinghouse prototype was developed with the intent to offering a single point of access to HTA relevant information. This evolved into a next step not planned from the outset: Developing a running HTA Information System including several Web-based tools to support communication and daily HTA processes. A communication strategy guided the communication effort, focusing on practical tools, creating added value, involving stakeholders, and avoiding duplication of effort. Modern technology enables a new information infrastructure for HTA. The potential of information and communication technology was used as a strategic tool. Several target groups were represented among the Partners, which supported collaboration and made it easier to identify user needs. A distinctive visual identity made it easier to gain and maintain visibility on a limited budget.

  7. Constructivist Learning Theory and Climate Science Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Somerville, R. C.

    2012-12-01

    Communicating climate science is a form of education. A scientist giving a television interview or testifying before Congress is engaged in an educational activity, though one not identical to teaching graduate students. Knowledge, including knowledge about climate science, should never be communicated as a mere catalogue of facts. Science is a process, a way of regarding the natural world, and a fascinating human activity. A great deal is already known about how to do a better job of science communication, but implementing change is not easy. I am confident that improving climate science communication will involve the paradigm of constructivist learning theory, which traces its roots to the 20th-century Swiss epistemologist Jean Piaget, among others. This theory emphasizes the role of the teacher as supportive facilitator rather than didactic lecturer, "a guide on the side, not a sage on the stage." It also stresses the importance of the teacher making a serious effort to understand and appreciate the prior knowledge and viewpoint of the student, recognizing that students' minds are not empty vessels to be filled or blank slates to be written on. Instead, students come to class with a background of life experiences and a body of existing knowledge, of varying degrees of correctness or accuracy, about almost any topic. Effective communication is also usually a conversation rather than a monologue. We know too that for many audiences, the most trusted messengers are those who share the worldview and cultural values of those with whom they are communicating. Constructivist teaching methods stress making use of the parallels between learning and scientific research, such as the analogies between assessing prior knowledge of the audience and surveying scientific literature for a research project. Meanwhile, a well-funded and effective professional disinformation campaign has been successful in sowing confusion, and as a result, many people mistakenly think climate

  8. How to write and publish a scientific paper

    CERN Document Server

    Day, Robert A

    2011-01-01

    Writing and publishing journal articles are crucial to scientific careers. Unfortunately, many young scientists find the process of communicating scientific information effectively a complete mystery. By providing practical, readable, and sometimes humorous guidance, this book helps researchers gain the knowledge, skills, and confidence to succeed in communicating about their work. This seventh edition of "How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper" contains 41 chapters focused upon two separate tasks: how to write the respective sections of a scientific paper and how to publish the paper. Other related topics include approaching a writing project, following ethical principles in scientific publishing, preparing oral presentations and poster presentations, writing grant proposals, and working with the popular media. The authors provide considerable guidance on appropriate scientific writing style as well as an extensive list of words and expressions to avoid - and supply the language to substitute for them.

  9. Prior Knowledge Facilitates Mutual Gaze Convergence and Head Nodding Synchrony in Face-to-face Communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thepsoonthorn, C; Yokozuka, T; Miura, S; Ogawa, K; Miyake, Y

    2016-12-02

    As prior knowledge is claimed to be an essential key to achieve effective education, we are interested in exploring whether prior knowledge enhances communication effectiveness. To demonstrate the effects of prior knowledge, mutual gaze convergence and head nodding synchrony are observed as indicators of communication effectiveness. We conducted an experiment on lecture task between lecturer and student under 2 conditions: prior knowledge and non-prior knowledge. The students in prior knowledge condition were provided the basic information about the lecture content and were assessed their understanding by the experimenter before starting the lecture while the students in non-prior knowledge had none. The result shows that the interaction in prior knowledge condition establishes significantly higher mutual gaze convergence (t(15.03) = 6.72, p < 0.0001; α = 0.05, n = 20) and head nodding synchrony (t(16.67) = 1.83, p = 0.04; α = 0.05, n = 19) compared to non-prior knowledge condition. This study reveals that prior knowledge facilitates mutual gaze convergence and head nodding synchrony. Furthermore, the interaction with and without prior knowledge can be evaluated by measuring or observing mutual gaze convergence and head nodding synchrony.

  10. MSL: Facilitating automatic and physical analysis of published scientific literature in PDF format.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahmed, Zeeshan; Dandekar, Thomas

    2015-01-01

    Published scientific literature contains millions of figures, including information about the results obtained from different scientific experiments e.g. PCR-ELISA data, microarray analysis, gel electrophoresis, mass spectrometry data, DNA/RNA sequencing, diagnostic imaging (CT/MRI and ultrasound scans), and medicinal imaging like electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), echocardiography  (ECG), positron-emission tomography (PET) images. The importance of biomedical figures has been widely recognized in scientific and medicine communities, as they play a vital role in providing major original data, experimental and computational results in concise form. One major challenge for implementing a system for scientific literature analysis is extracting and analyzing text and figures from published PDF files by physical and logical document analysis. Here we present a product line architecture based bioinformatics tool 'Mining Scientific Literature (MSL)', which supports the extraction of text and images by interpreting all kinds of published PDF files using advanced data mining and image processing techniques. It provides modules for the marginalization of extracted text based on different coordinates and keywords, visualization of extracted figures and extraction of embedded text from all kinds of biological and biomedical figures using applied Optimal Character Recognition (OCR). Moreover, for further analysis and usage, it generates the system's output in different formats including text, PDF, XML and images files. Hence, MSL is an easy to install and use analysis tool to interpret published scientific literature in PDF format.

  11. Scientific communication across the Iron Curtain

    CERN Document Server

    Hollings, Christopher D

    2016-01-01

    This monograph provides a concise introduction to the tangled issues of communication between Russian and Western scientists during the Cold War. It details the extent to which mid-twentieth-century researchers and practitioners were able to communicate with their counterparts on the opposite side of the Iron Curtain. Drawing upon evidence from a range of disciplines, a decade-by-decade account is first given of the varying levels of contact that existed via private correspondence and conference attendance. Next, the book examines the exchange of publications and the availability of one side's work in the libraries of the other. It then goes on to compare general language abilities on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain, with comments on efforts in the West to learn Russian and the systematic translation of Russian work. In the end, author Christopher Hollings argues that physical accessibility was generally good in both directions, but that Western scientists were afflicted by greater linguistic difficultie...

  12. Changing the Culture of Science Communication Training for Junior Scientists

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bankston, Adriana; McDowell, Gary S.

    2018-01-01

    Being successful in an academic environment places many demands on junior scientists. Science communication currently may not be adequately valued and rewarded, and yet communication to multiple audiences is critical for ensuring that it remains a priority in today’s society. Due to the potential for science communication to produce better scientists, facilitate scientific progress, and influence decision-making at multiple levels, training junior scientists in both effective and ethical science communication practices is imperative, and can benefit scientists regardless of their chosen career path. However, many challenges exist in addressing specific aspects of this training. Principally, science communication training and resources should be made readily available to junior scientists at institutions, and there is a need to scale up existing science communication training programs and standardize core aspects of these programs across universities, while also allowing for experimentation with training. We propose a comprehensive core training program be adopted by universities, utilizing a centralized online resource with science communication information from multiple stakeholders. In addition, the culture of science must shift toward greater acceptance of science communication as an essential part of training. For this purpose, the science communication field itself needs to be developed, researched and better understood at multiple levels. Ultimately, this may result in a larger cultural change toward acceptance of professional development activities as valuable for training scientists. PMID:29904538

  13. Changing the Culture of Science Communication Training for Junior Scientists.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bankston, Adriana; McDowell, Gary S

    2018-01-01

    Being successful in an academic environment places many demands on junior scientists. Science communication currently may not be adequately valued and rewarded, and yet communication to multiple audiences is critical for ensuring that it remains a priority in today's society. Due to the potential for science communication to produce better scientists, facilitate scientific progress, and influence decision-making at multiple levels, training junior scientists in both effective and ethical science communication practices is imperative, and can benefit scientists regardless of their chosen career path. However, many challenges exist in addressing specific aspects of this training. Principally, science communication training and resources should be made readily available to junior scientists at institutions, and there is a need to scale up existing science communication training programs and standardize core aspects of these programs across universities, while also allowing for experimentation with training. We propose a comprehensive core training program be adopted by universities, utilizing a centralized online resource with science communication information from multiple stakeholders. In addition, the culture of science must shift toward greater acceptance of science communication as an essential part of training. For this purpose, the science communication field itself needs to be developed, researched and better understood at multiple levels. Ultimately, this may result in a larger cultural change toward acceptance of professional development activities as valuable for training scientists.

  14. Inhibition of Connexin 26/43 and Extracellular-Regulated Kinase Protein Plays a Critical Role in Melatonin Facilitated Gap Junctional Intercellular Communication in Hydrogen Peroxide-Treated HaCaT Keratinocyte Cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hyo-Jung Lee

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Though melatonin was known to regulate gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC in chick astrocytes and mouse hepatocytes, the underlying mechanism by melatonin was not elucidated in hydrogen peroxide- (H2O2- treated HaCaT keratinocyte cells until now. In the current study, though melatonin at 2 mM and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2 at 300 μM showed weak cytotoxicity in HaCaT keratinocyte cells, melatonin significantly suppressed the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS in H2O2-treated HaCaT cells compared to untreated controls. Also, the scrape-loading dye-transfer assay revealed that melatonin enhances the intercellular communication by introducing Lucifer Yellow into H2O2-treated cells. Furthermore, melatonin significantly enhanced the expression of connexin 26 (Cx26 and connexin 43 (Cx43 at mRNA and protein levels, but not that of connexin 30 (Cx30 in H2O2-treated HaCaT cells. Of note, melatonin attenuated the phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated protein kinases (ERKs more than p38 MAPK or JNK in H2O2-treated HaCaT cells. Conversely, ERK inhibitor PD98059 promoted the intercellular communication in H2O2-treated HaCaT cells. Furthermore, combined treatment of melatonin (200 μM and vitamin C (10 μg/mL significantly reduced ROS production in H2O2-treated HaCaT cells. Overall, these findings support the scientific evidences that melatonin facilitates gap junctional intercellular communication in H2O2-treated HaCaT keratinocyte cells via inhibition of connexin 26/43 and ERK as a potent chemopreventive agent.

  15. Facilitating Transfers

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kjær, Poul F.

    to specific logics of temporalisation and spatial expansion of a diverse set of social processes in relation to, for example, the economy, politics, science and the mass media. On this background, the paper will more concretely develop a conceptual framework for classifying different contextual orders...... that the essential functional and normative purpose of regulatory governance is to facilitate, stabilise and justify the transfer of condensed social components (such as economic capital and products, political decisions, legal judgements, religious beliefs and scientific knowledge) from one social contexts...

  16. Cartograms Facilitate Communication of Climate Change Risks and Responsibilities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Döll, Petra

    2017-12-01

    Communication of climate change (CC) risks is challenging, in particular if global-scale spatially resolved quantitative information is to be conveyed. Typically, visualization of CC risks, which arise from the combination of hazard, exposure and vulnerability, is confined to showing only the hazards in the form of global thematic maps. This paper explores the potential of contiguous value-by-area cartograms, that is, distorted density-equalizing maps, for improving communication of CC risks and the countries' differentiated responsibilities for CC. Two global-scale cartogram sets visualize, as an example, groundwater-related CC risks in 0.5° grid cells, another one the correlation of (cumulative) fossil-fuel carbon dioxide emissions with the countries' population and gross domestic product. Viewers of the latter set visually recognize the lack of global equity and that the countries' wealth has been built on harmful emissions. I recommend that CC risks are communicated by bivariate gridded cartograms showing the hazard in color and population, or a combination of population and a vulnerability indicator, by distortion of grid cells. Gridded cartograms are also appropriate for visualizing the availability of natural resources to humans. For communicating complex information, sets of cartograms should be carefully designed instead of presenting single cartograms. Inclusion of a conventionally distorted map enhances the viewers' capability to take up the information represented by distortion. Empirical studies about the capability of global cartograms to convey complex information and to trigger moral emotions should be conducted, with a special focus on risk communication.

  17. Science From Beyond: NASA's Pioneer Plaque and the History of Interstellar Communication, 1957- 1972

    Science.gov (United States)

    Macauley, William

    2012-05-01

    In the late twentieth century, science and technology facilitated exploration beyond the Solar System and extended human knowledge through messages comprised of pictures and mathematical symbols, transmitted from radio telescopes and inscribed on material artifacts attached to spacecraft. ‘Interstellar communication' refers to collective efforts by scientists and co-workers to detect and transmit intelligible messages between humans and supposed extraterrestrial intelligence in remote star systems. Interstellar messages are designed to communicate universal knowledge without recourse to text, human linguistic systems or anthropomorphic content because it is assumed that recipients have no prior knowledge of humankind or the planet we inhabit. Scientists must therefore imagine how extraterrestrials will relate to human knowledge and culture. The production and transmission of interstellar messages became interdisciplinary design problems that involved collaboration and exchange of ideas between scientists, visual artists, and others. My proposed paper will review sociocultural aspects of interstellar communication since the late 1950s and focus on key issues regarding conception, design and production of a specific interstellar message launched into space during the early 1970s - NASA's Pioneer plaque. The paper will explore how research on the history of interstellar communication relates to previous historical and sociological studies on rhetorical aspects of visual representation and mathematics in scientific practice. In particular, I will explain how the notion of ‘inscription' is an appropriate conceptual tool for analyzing how scientists have used pictures to articulate and validate knowledge claims and scientific facts. I argue that scientific knowledge carried on interstellar messages such as the Pioneer plaque is constituted in material practices and inscription technologies that translate natural objects, agency and culture into legible forms

  18. Modeling of digital communication systems using SIMULINK

    CERN Document Server

    Giordano, Arthur A

    2015-01-01

    Arthur Giordano, PhD, is a consultant in the field of military and commercial communications specializing in wireless communications. He is a co-founder of G5 Scientific, LLC, is a senior member of the IEEE and has taught graduate communications courses. He has developed numerous models using MathWorks®' SIMULINK®® to characterize digital communications systems. Allen Levesque, PhD, is a consultant specializing in digital communications systems, and is a partner in G5 Scientific, LLC. He has taught graduate courses in digital communications at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and is currently

  19. How the Television Show "Mythbusters" Communicates the Scientific Method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zavrel, Erik; Sharpsteen, Eric

    2016-01-01

    The importance of understanding and internalizing the scientific method can hardly be exaggerated. Unfortunately, it is all too common for high school--and even university--students to graduate with only a partial or oversimplified understanding of what the scientific method is and how to actually employ it. Help in remedying this situation may…

  20. The Chicago guide to communicating science

    CERN Document Server

    Montgomery, Scott L

    2017-01-01

    For more than a decade, The Chicago Guide to Communicating Science has been the go-to reference for anyone who needs to write or speak about their research. Whether a student writing a thesis, a faculty member composing a grant proposal, or a public information officer crafting a press release, Scott Montgomery’s advice is perfectly adaptable to any scientific writer’s needs. This new edition has been thoroughly revised to address crucial issues in the changing landscape of scientific communication, with an increased focus on those writers working in corporate settings, government, and nonprofit organizations as well as academia. Half a dozen new chapters tackle the evolving needs and paths of scientific writers. These sections address plagiarism and fraud, writing graduate theses, translating scientific material, communicating science to the public, and the increasing globalization of research. The Chicago Guide to Communicating Science recognizes that writers come to the table with different needs and...

  1. The PBase Scientific Workflow Provenance Repository

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Víctor Cuevas-Vicenttín

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Scientific workflows and their supporting systems are becoming increasingly popular for compute-intensive and data-intensive scientific experiments. The advantages scientific workflows offer include rapid and easy workflow design, software and data reuse, scalable execution, sharing and collaboration, and other advantages that altogether facilitate “reproducible science”. In this context, provenance – information about the origin, context, derivation, ownership, or history of some artifact – plays a key role, since scientists are interested in examining and auditing the results of scientific experiments. However, in order to perform such analyses on scientific results as part of extended research collaborations, an adequate environment and tools are required. Concretely, the need arises for a repository that will facilitate the sharing of scientific workflows and their associated execution traces in an interoperable manner, also enabling querying and visualization. Furthermore, such functionality should be supported while taking performance and scalability into account. With this purpose in mind, we introduce PBase: a scientific workflow provenance repository implementing the ProvONE proposed standard, which extends the emerging W3C PROV standard for provenance data with workflow specific concepts. PBase is built on the Neo4j graph database, thus offering capabilities such as declarative and efficient querying. Our experiences demonstrate the power gained by supporting various types of queries for provenance data. In addition, PBase is equipped with a user friendly interface tailored for the visualization of scientific workflow provenance data, making the specification of queries and the interpretation of their results easier and more effective.

  2. [The Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency's Approach to Facilitate Risk Communication and Its Challenges].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kondo, Emiko; Torii, Mayumi; Oba, Izumi; Okamoto, Mai

    2018-01-01

     The issue of drug lag in Japan has been rapidly reduced in recent years, and newly approved drugs now become available on Japanese and international markets at the same time. In this context, the risk management plan (RMP) system was introduced in 2012. RMPs describe important safety concerns recognized by Japan's Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) and marketing authorization holders (MAHs), as well as safety measures that MAHs request healthcare professionals (HCPs) to follow. The publication of RMPs is expected to support the sharing of drug risk management among HCPs during the postmarketing phase. In addition, to encourage risk communication between HCPs and patients, the PMDA website provides drug guides for patients and other information to promote proper understanding of drugs by patients and their families and enable them to identify serious adverse drug reactions at an early stage. However, the results of surveys conducted by the PMDA in FY2014 and FY2015 revealed low levels of awareness of RMPs and drug guides for patients in hospitals and other healthcare institutions. The surveys also showed that information regarding the proper use of drugs from MAHs and the PMDA was not incorporated into practice at healthcare institutions, resulting in the repeated release of identical safety alerts. To facilitate the increased utilization of risk communication tools, the PMDA has been providing and disseminating these tools through its website. This study addresses those efforts and the associated challenges.

  3. Communicating with individuals receiving home mechanical ventilation: the experiences of key communication partners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laakso, Katja; Markström, Agneta; Havstam, Christina; Idvall, Markus; Hartelius, Lena

    2014-01-01

    The aim of the study was to explore the communication experiences of key communications partners (CPs) of individuals receiving home mechanical ventilation (HMV), with particular emphasis on the possibilities, difficulties and limitations CPs experienced in communication, possible support given to facilitate communication and exploring what made a skilled communicator. A qualitative research design using interviews was used. The participants included 19 key CPs of individuals receiving HMV. The analysis resulted in five themes: Encountering communication limitations, Functional communication strategies, Being a communication facilitator, Role insecurity and Emotional reactions and coping. The findings revealed that CPs needed to develop partly new reference frames for communication. In particular, participants emphasised the need to understand and interpret subtle details in the communicative interaction. The findings are discussed in the light of previous research, in particular an earlier study exploring another perspective; the ventilator-supported individuals' experiences of communication. Issues relating to the educational needs of CPs of individuals receiving HMV are discussed. The results are intended to enhance understanding of the challenges that individuals receiving HMV and their CPs face with communication, which should be of relevance not only to speech therapists, but for all healthcare practitioners in the field of HMV.

  4. Soil Storytelling: Developing a Seminar to Fuse Scientific Foundations with Artistic Expression

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chiartas, Jessica

    2017-04-01

    Soils hold a unique position at the nexus of the major global issues we face - socioeconomic injustices, health/nutrition and the rise in chronic disease, and environmental degradation/climate change. They serve as the base of our global economy; the source of food, of life; and are a dominant player in the provision of ecosystem services, upon which we all depend. As the millenial generation comes of age, inheriting the challenge of feeding nine billion on fewer acres with less impact amidst an uncertain climate, they often look upward to other planets or towards innovative technologies to dig us out, when a myriad of solutions lie right beneath their feet, unbeknownst to them. Millenials tend to be largely purpose-driven, adept at organizing and collaborating, and aware of their agency in facilitating change, but there is currently a vast disconnect between the scientific community and the general populace and an even larger disconnect between ourselves and the land. Educating millenials about the value and importance of soil provides a unique opportunity to empower and engage young minds in developing real, sustainable solutions. By illuminating the hidden world underfoot - its beauty, mystery and vibrancy - we can awaken a sense of awe and wonder, reconnect people to the natural world, and inspire a generation of explorers focused on the final frontier right here on Earth. Taking a page out of the industry playbook, wherein carefully crafted messaging campaigns are employed to tell clear, concise stories that "sell" to the masses and directly influence consumer habits; the scientific community can invoke the timeless art of storytelling to communicate soil science in an accessible way that evokes an emotional response, influences public opinion and inspires social change. While a plethora of quality, soil-related resources can be found on the web, there exists no centralized multimedia hub that is palatable to the masses and targeted at millenials; fusing

  5. A framework for communication between visually impaired, hearing impaired and speech impaired using arduino

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sujatha, R.; Khandelwa, Prakhar; Gupta, Anusha; Anand, Nayan

    2017-11-01

    A long time ago our society accepted the notion of treating people with disabilities not as unviable and disabled but as differently-abled, recognizing their skills beyond their disabilities. The next step has to be taken by our scientific community, that is, to normalize lives of the people with disabilities and make it so as if they are no different to us. The primary step in this direction would be to normalize communication between people. People with an impaired speech or impaired vision or impaired hearing face difficulties while having a casual conversation with others. Any form of communication feels so strenuous that the impaired end up communicating just the important information and avoid a casual conversation. To normalize conversation between the impaired we need a simple and compact device which facilitates the conversation by providing the information in the desired form.

  6. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication (14th, Orlando, Florida, October 7-9, 1987).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Geonetta, Sam C., Ed.

    Based on the notion of "reaching out," this proceedings presents papers from the annual meeting of the Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication. Papers in the proceedings are: "Southern Tech's Technical Writing Certificate" (William S. Pfeiffer); "Reach Out and Quack Someone" (Daniel R. Jones);…

  7. Student Teachers' Situated Emotions: A Study of How Electronic Communication Facilitates Their Expression and Shapes Their Impact on Novice Teacher Development during Practice Placements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gleaves, Alan; Walker, Caroline

    2010-01-01

    Research suggests that pre-service teaching students embarking on practice placements encounter affect both in a personal and a professional sense more acutely than at any other time during their professional careers. A few studies emphasise the use of electronic communications in facilitating effective peer and tutor support during these…

  8. Exploring effectiveness of team communication: Balancing synchronous and asynchronous communication in design teams

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Otter, den A.F.H.J.; Emmitt, S.

    2007-01-01

    Purpose – Effective teams use a balance of synchronous and asynchronous communication. Team communication is dependent on the communication acts of team members and the ability of managers to facilitate, stimulate and motivate them. Team members from organizations using different information systems

  9. Transversality and universality of scientific tools ? Comparative analysis of institutional and organisational communications in France and Tunisia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bertrand CABEDOCHE

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Because the organization has been, since a long time ago, analyzed as an open system, it necessarily includes communicational problematics which transcend it. Key issues that the organization reflects refers too to issues, ever discussed in other places. For example, the development of interactive corporate sites challenges the definition of public spaces, which has already been questioned for its symbolic dimension, reduced to the level of an event democracy, for example in the case territorial communication. Interactivity proclaimed still raises the question of the exploitation of the diversity displayed by the company, the French pragmatic sociology has already critically debated the intentionality and reference to the connectionist society within the project-based-City. In some ways convincing with regard to the application of scientific tools already tested elsewhere, analogies let open, however, the question of modeling, when the environment is playing along with its own cultural characteristics, as it is in the case of business sites in Tunisia.

  10. The Science of Science Communication and Protecting the Science Communication Environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kahan, D.

    2012-12-01

    Promoting public comprehension of science is only one aim of the science of science communication and is likely not the most important one for the well-being of a democratic society. Ordinary citizens form quadrillions of correct beliefs on matters that turn on complicated scientific principles they cannot even identify much less understand. The reason they fail to converge on beliefs consistent with scientific evidence on certain other consequential matters—from climate change to genetically modified foods to compusory adolescent HPV vaccination—is not the failure of scientists or science communicators to speak clearly or the inability of ordinary citizens to understand what they are saying. Rather, the source of such conflict is the proliferation of antagonistic cultural meanings. When they become attached to particular facts that admit of scientific investigation, these meanings are a kind of pollution of the science communication environment that disables the faculties ordinary citizens use to reliably absorb collective knowledge from their everyday interactions. The quality of the science communication environment is thus just as critical for enlightened self-government as the quality of the natural environment is for the physical health and well-being of a society's members. Understanding how this science communication environment works, fashioning procedures to prevent it from becoming contaminated with antagonistic meanings, and formulating effective interventions to detoxify it when protective strategies fail—those are the most critical functions science communication can perform in a democratic society.

  11. Use of podcast technology to facilitate education, communication and dissemination in palliative care: the development of the AmiPal podcast.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nwosu, Amara Callistus; Monnery, Daniel; Reid, Victoria Louise; Chapman, Laura

    2017-06-01

    Podcasts have the potential to facilitate communication about palliative care with researchers, policymakers and the public. Some podcasts about palliative care are available; however, this is not reflected in the academic literature. Further study is needed to evaluate the utility of podcasts to facilitate knowledge-transfer about subjects related to palliative care. The aims of this paper are to (1) describe the development of a palliative care podcast according to international recommendations for podcast quality and (2) conduct an analysis of podcast listenership over a 14-month period. The podcast was designed according to internationally agreed quality indicators for medical education podcasts. The podcast was published on SoundCloud and was promoted via social media. Data were analysed for frequency of plays and geographical location between January 2015 and February 2016. 20 podcasts were developed which were listened to 3036 times (an average of 217 monthly plays). The Rich Site Summary feed was the most popular way to access the podcast (n=1937; 64%). The mean duration of each podcast was 10 min (range 3-21 min). The podcast was listened to in 68 different countries and was most popular in English-speaking areas, of which the USA (n=1372, 45.2%), UK (n=661, 21.8%) and Canada (n=221, 7.3%) were most common. A palliative care podcast is a method to facilitate palliative care discussion with global audience. Podcasts offer the potential to develop educational content and promote research dissemination. Future work should focus on content development, quality metrics and impact analysis, as this form of digital communication is likely to increase and engage wider society. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

  12. Communicating uncertainty: managing the inherent probabilistic character of hazard estimates

    Science.gov (United States)

    Albarello, Dario

    2013-04-01

    Science is much more fixing the limits of our knowledge about possible occurrences than the identification of any "truth". This is particularly true when scientific statements concern prediction of natural phenomena largely exceeding the laboratory scale as in the case of seismogenesis. In these cases, many scenarios about future occurrences result possible (plausible) and the contribution of scientific knowledge (based on the available knowledge about underlying processes or the phenomenological studies) mainly consists in attributing to each scenario a different level of likelihood (probability). In other terms, scientific predictions in the field of geosciences (hazard assessment) are inherently probabilistic. However, despite of this, many scientist (seismologists, etc.) in communicating their position in public debates tend to stress the " truth" of their statements against the fancy character of pseudo-scientific assertions: stronger is the opposition of science and pseudo-science, more hidden becomes the probabilistic character of scientific statements. The problem arises when this kind of "probabilistic" knowledge becomes the basis of any political action (e.g., to impose expensive form of risk reducing activities): in these cases the lack of any definitive "truth" requires a direct assumption of responsibility by the relevant decider (being the single citizen or the legitimate expression of a larger community) to choose among several possibilities (however characterized by different levels of likelihood). In many cases, this can be uncomfortable and strong is the attitude to delegate to the scientific counterpart the responsibility of these decisions. This "transfer" from the genuine political field to an improper scientific context is also facilitated by the lack of a diffuse culture of "probability" outside the scientific community (and in many cases inside also). This is partially the effect of the generalized adoption (by media and scientific

  13. Ethical Implications of Seismic Risk Communication in Istanbul - Insights from a Transdisciplinary, Film-based Science Communication Workshop

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ickert, Johanna; Stewart, Iain S.

    2016-04-01

    For more than a decade, social science studies indicate that there is little or no correlation between the provision of scientific information about geohazards and risks and the adaptive changes in individual or community behaviour that would reduce risk. Bridging that gap to effectively convey hazard science 'the last mile' to those communities at risk raises a number of ethical issues about the role and responsibilities of geoscientists as communicators. Those issues emerge from a methodological shift away from the dominant interpretation of seismic risk communication as a transfer of scientific facts to "the public", towards more inclusive transdisciplinary communication strategies that incorporate peer-role models, adopt social network-based strategies and directly engage with communities in motivating preparedness actions. With this methodological shift comes ethical dilemmas. What are the target-groups that should be prioritised? What are the professional expectations and levels of personal engagement required of geo-communicators? How able and willing are geoscientists to include other forms of knowledge (e.g. from local communities or other disciplines)? What media formats can reconcile argumentative, informational "matters of fact" with sociocultural and psychological "matters of concern"? How should scientists react to political controversies related to risk mitigation and its communication? In the context of these ethical concerns, many geoscientist struggle to switch from conventional communication modes in which they are the technical 'experts' to more community-centered, participatory modes of public engagement. We examine this research question through a case study on seismic risk communication challenges in Istanbul, a megacity with one of the highest seismic vulnerabilities in the world. Currently, there are few formal mechanisms to facilitate interchange between academic geoscientists and the general public in Istanbul. In order to reduce the city

  14. Clients’ psychosocial communication and midwives’ verbal and nonverbal communication during prenatal counseling for anomaly screening.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Martin, L.; Gitsels-van der Wal, J.T.; Pereboom, M.T.R.; Spelten, E.R.; Hutton, E.K.; Dulmen, S. van

    2016-01-01

    Objectives: This study focuses on facilitation of clients’ psychosocial communication during prenatal counseling for fetal anomaly screening. We assessed how psychosocial communication by clients is related to midwives’ psychosocial and affective communication, client-directed gaze and counseling

  15. CREATIVE COMMUNICATIVE BEHAVIOR AS A MEANS OF CREATIVE SELF-REALIZATION OF THE INDIVIDUAL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Galina I. Zhelezovskaya

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the investigation is to designate a problem of formation of creative communicative behaviour of graduates mastering at “Creative Economics” through the system of vocational training. Methods. The research is constructed on the review and the comparative analysis of works of the foreign and Russian scientists dealing with the subject of creativeness, psychology of creativity and studying of communicative behaviour.Results and scientific novelty. The article explains the need to prepare students for the development of creativity. Concept definition «creative formation» is given; the system of requirements shown to educational process corresponding to it is designated. Research positions in the field of creativeness studying, different lines of thought to its interpretation and directions of scientific search of the decision of a problem of formation of creative communicative behaviour are considered. Complexity of a problem is connected with the crudity of theories and techniques of the system, and complex description of communicative behaviour of this or that generality and absence of a common opinion concerning the issue that it is still uncertain, which scientific representatives should be engaged in this field. The authors suppose that studying of communicative behaviour is a synthetic philological and socially-anthropological perspective scientific direction. On the one hand, the description of communicative behaviour is a component of the description of any language as cultural-historical phenomenon; on the other, the given behaviour is based on the certain developed and standard social norms. This behaviour can be implemented in oral and written speech of participants of process of communications, and also in nonverbal displays of dialogue, and may serve as a means of self-realisation of the person. The problem of vocational training system is to create conditions for development of skills of such behaviour. The future

  16. A critical reflection on how information communication technology can facilitate high quality teaching and learning for dyslexic children and their spelling

    OpenAIRE

    Green, Stacey

    2017-01-01

    This paper discusses how information communication technology (ICT) can facilitate high quality teaching and learning for dyslexic children and their spelling. Previous research has suggested that ICT can have a positive effect on dyslexic children’s spelling ability and confidence (Lange et al, 2006, Tuner and Pughe, 2003). The use of an IPad therefore was utilised in small group spelling sessions to assess the effect ICT, specifically IPads, can have on pupils who have a diagnosis of dyslex...

  17. What would a 'scientifically engaged Australia' look like?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Donald, Tegan N.

    In 2010 the Australian Federal Government released the landmark report Inspiring Australia which described the first national strategy for engagement with the sciences, and aimed to create a ‘scientifically engaged Australia’. This study investigates what might be meant by a ‘scientifically engaged Australia’ by creating a snapshot picture of the current Australian science communication landscape: its priorities, its limitations and its key players’ envisioned recommendations for future activity. It draws on several sources of data to create this picture: academic and practitioner literature regarding the emerging concept of ‘public engagement’; literature and case studies that discuss the appropriate place for deficit model and one-way approaches to science communication; the Inspiring Australia report itself and other government policy documents; and a series of interviews with top level public figures in Australian science policy and advocacy. A central finding of this study is the absence of a universal and unambiguous definition of public engagement. In addition, in contrast to trends within much of the scholarly literature, the study highlights the persistence of one-way methods and to a lesser degree the deficit model in practice. The ongoing use and relevance of one-way communication is evident; it remains a popular, albeit often default, choice in practice and is seen as ideal for the communication of fixed messages. Science communication in Australia remains, for the foreseeable future, dominated by one-way methods, in particular in the use of traditional and social media. In this respect, a scientifically engaged Australia would seem to be one in which a great deal of one-way communication takes place, supplemented by small moves towards dialogical or participatory communication. Finally, this study highlights two dominant motivations behind the call for a ‘scientifically engaged Australia’. Much high level discourse on this topic is

  18. Visual Display of Scientific Studies, Methods, and Results

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saltus, R. W.; Fedi, M.

    2015-12-01

    The need for efficient and effective communication of scientific ideas becomes more urgent each year.A growing number of societal and economic issues are tied to matters of science - e.g., climate change, natural resource availability, and public health. Societal and political debate should be grounded in a general understanding of scientific work in relevant fields. It is difficult for many participants in these debates to access science directly because the formal method for scientific documentation and dissemination is the journal paper, generally written for a highly technical and specialized audience. Journal papers are very effective and important for documentation of scientific results and are essential to the requirements of science to produce citable and repeatable results. However, journal papers are not effective at providing a quick and intuitive summary useful for public debate. Just as quantitative data are generally best viewed in graphic form, we propose that scientific studies also can benefit from visual summary and display. We explore the use of existing methods for diagramming logical connections and dependencies, such as Venn diagrams, mind maps, flow charts, etc., for rapidly and intuitively communicating the methods and results of scientific studies. We also discuss a method, specifically tailored to summarizing scientific papers that we introduced last year at AGU. Our method diagrams the relative importance and connections between data, methods/models, results/ideas, and implications/importance using a single-page format with connected elements in these four categories. Within each category (e.g., data) the spatial location of individual elements (e.g., seismic, topographic, gravity) indicates relative novelty (e.g., are these new data?) and importance (e.g., how critical are these data to the results of the paper?). The goal is to find ways to rapidly and intuitively share both the results and the process of science, both for communication

  19. Why (we think) facilitation works: insights from organizational learning theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berta, Whitney; Cranley, Lisa; Dearing, James W; Dogherty, Elizabeth J; Squires, Janet E; Estabrooks, Carole A

    2015-10-06

    Facilitation is a guided interactional process that has been popularized in health care. Its popularity arises from its potential to support uptake and application of scientific knowledge that stands to improve clinical and managerial decision-making, practice, and ultimately patient outcomes and organizational performance. While this popular concept has garnered attention in health services research, we know that both the content of facilitation and its impact on knowledge implementation vary. The basis of this variation is poorly understood, and understanding is hampered by a lack of conceptual clarity. In this paper, we argue that our understanding of facilitation and its effects is limited in part by a lack of clear theoretical grounding. We propose a theoretical home for facilitation in organizational learning theory. Referring to extant literature on facilitation and drawing on theoretical literature, we discuss the features of facilitation that suggest its role in contributing to learning capacity. We describe how facilitation may contribute to generating knowledge about the application of new scientific knowledge in health-care organizations. Facilitation's promise, we suggest, lies in its potential to stimulate higher-order learning in organizations through experimenting with, generating learning about, and sustaining small-scale adaptations to organizational processes and work routines. The varied effectiveness of facilitation observed in the literature is associated with the presence or absence of factors known to influence organizational learning, since facilitation itself appears to act as a learning mechanism. We offer propositions regarding the relationships between facilitation processes and key organizational learning concepts that have the potential to guide future work to further our understanding of the role that facilitation plays in learning and knowledge generation.

  20. EPA scientific integrity policy draft

    Science.gov (United States)

    Showstack, Randy

    2011-08-01

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued its draft scientific integrity policy on 5 August. The draft policy addresses scientific ethical standards, communications with the public, the use of advisory committees and peer review, and professional development. The draft policy was developed by an ad hoc group of EPA senior staff and scientists in response to a December 2010 memorandum on scientific integrity from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The agency is accepting public comments on the draft through 6 September; comments should be sent to osa.staff@epa.gov. For more information, see http://www.epa.gov/stpc/pdfs/draft-scientific-integrity-policy-aug2011.pdf.

  1. Assessing what to address in science communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bruine de Bruin, Wändi; Bostrom, Ann

    2013-08-20

    As members of a democratic society, individuals face complex decisions about whether to support climate change mitigation, vaccinations, genetically modified food, nanotechnology, geoengineering, and so on. To inform people's decisions and public debate, scientific experts at government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and other organizations aim to provide understandable and scientifically accurate communication materials. Such communications aim to improve people's understanding of the decision-relevant issues, and if needed, promote behavior change. Unfortunately, existing communications sometimes fail when scientific experts lack information about what people need to know to make more informed decisions or what wording people use to describe relevant concepts. We provide an introduction for scientific experts about how to use mental models research with intended audience members to inform their communication efforts. Specifically, we describe how to conduct interviews to characterize people's decision-relevant beliefs or mental models of the topic under consideration, identify gaps and misconceptions in their knowledge, and reveal their preferred wording. We also describe methods for designing follow-up surveys with larger samples to examine the prevalence of beliefs as well as the relationships of beliefs with behaviors. Finally, we discuss how findings from these interviews and surveys can be used to design communications that effectively address gaps and misconceptions in people's mental models in wording that they understand. We present applications to different scientific domains, showing that this approach leads to communications that improve recipients' understanding and ability to make informed decisions.

  2. Risk communication: Translating technically complex information to facilitate informed decision-making

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sprecher, W.M.; Turner, E.

    1991-01-01

    Based on a review of risk communication and related literature, including policy material, this paper describes the newly revamped risk management program of the DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM), and some of the risk-related issues being confronted as the high-level waste management program moves forward. It also describes preliminary activities underway in which the OCRWM is developing strategies for risk communication. The authors offer a definition of risk management as comprised by the components of risk assessment and risk communication. The paper explores the discrepant views that experts and nonexperts have with respect to what constitutes a valid risk assessment model. By illustrating differences in the assessment of risk by experts and lay people, the paper demonstrates how these differences can create challenges in communicating risk and making decisions about risk. Finally, the paper discusses ways in which risk communication could be enhance, and elaborates on the OCRWM's commitment to improve its overall risk management efforts

  3. Interfacility Transfers to General Pediatric Floors: A Qualitative Study Exploring the Role of Communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosenthal, Jennifer L; Okumura, Megumi J; Hernandez, Lenore; Li, Su-Ting T; Rehm, Roberta S

    2016-01-01

    Children with special health care needs often require health services that are only provided at subspecialty centers. Such children who present to nonspecialty hospitals might require a hospital-to-hospital transfer. When transitioning between medical settings, communication is an integral aspect that can affect the quality of patient care. The objectives of the study were to identify barriers and facilitators to effective interfacility pediatric transfer communication to general pediatric floors from the perspectives of referring and accepting physicians, and then develop a conceptual model for effective interfacility transfer communication. This was a single-center qualitative study using grounded theory methodology. Referring and accepting physicians of children with special health care needs were interviewed. Four researchers coded the data using ATLAS.ti (version 7, Scientific Software Development GMBH, Berlin, Germany), using a 2-step process of open coding, followed by focused coding until no new codes emerged. The research team reached consensus on the final major categories and subsequently developed a conceptual model. Eight referring and 9 accepting physicians were interviewed. Theoretical coding resulted in 3 major categories: streamlined transfer process, quality handoff and 2-way communication, and positive relationships between physicians across facilities. The conceptual model unites these categories and shows how these categories contribute to effective interfacility transfer communication. Proposed interventions involved standardizing the communication process and incorporating technology such as telemedicine during transfers. Communication is perceived to be an integral component of interfacility transfers. We recommend that transfer systems be re-engineered to make the process more streamlined, to improve the quality of the handoff and 2-way communication, and to facilitate positive relationships between physicians across facilities. Copyright

  4. Improving communication for interdisciplinary teams working on storage of digital information in DNA [version 1; referees: 2 approved

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emily E. Hesketh

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Close collaboration between specialists from diverse backgrounds and working in different scientific domains is an effective strategy to overcome challenges in areas that interface between biology, chemistry, physics and engineering. Communication in such collaborations can itself be challenging.  Even when projects are successfully concluded, resulting publications — necessarily multi-authored — have the potential to be disjointed. Few, both in the field and outside, may be able to fully understand the work as a whole. This needs to be addressed to facilitate efficient working, peer review, accessibility and impact to larger audiences. We are an interdisciplinary team working in a nascent scientific area, the repurposing of DNA as a storage medium for digital information. In this note, we highlight some of the difficulties that arise from such collaborations and outline our efforts to improve communication through a glossary and a controlled vocabulary and accessibility via short plain-language summaries. We hope to stimulate early discussion within this emerging field of how our community might improve the description and presentation of our work to facilitate clear communication within and between research groups and increase accessibility to those not familiar with our respective fields — be it molecular biology, computer science, information theory or others that might become relevant in future. To enable an open and inclusive discussion we have created a glossary and controlled vocabulary as a cloud-based shared document and we invite other scientists to critique our suggestions and contribute their own ideas.

  5. The efficacy of a standardized questionnaire in facilitating personalized communication about problems encountered in cancer genetic counseling: design of a randomized controlled trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eijzenga, Willem; Aaronson, Neil K; Kluijt, Irma; Sidharta, Grace N; Hahn, Daniela Ee; Ausems, Margreet Gem; Bleiker, Eveline Ma

    2014-01-15

    Individuals with a personal or family history of cancer, can opt for genetic counseling and DNA-testing. Approximately 25% of these individuals experience clinically relevant levels of psychosocial distress, depression and/or anxiety after counseling. These problems are frequently left undetected by genetic counselors. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of a cancer genetics-specific screening questionnaire for psychosocial problems, the 'Psychosocial Aspects of Hereditary Cancer (PAHC) questionnaire' together with the Distress Thermometer, in: (1) facilitating personalized counselor-counselee communication; (2) increasing counselors' awareness of their counselees' psychosocial problems; and (3) facilitating the management of psychosocial problems during and after genetic counseling. This multicenter, randomized controlled trial will include 264 individuals undergoing cancer genetic counseling in two family cancer clinics in the Netherlands. Participants will be randomized to either: (1) an intervention group that completes the PAHC questionnaire, the results of which are made available to the genetic counselor prior to the counseling session; or (2) a control group that completes the PAHC questionnaire, but without feedback being given to the genetic counselor. The genetic counseling sessions will be audiotaped for content analysis. Additionally, study participants will be asked to complete questionnaires at baseline, three weeks after the initial counseling session, and four months after a telephone follow-up counseling session. The genetic counselors will be asked to complete questionnaires at the start of and at completion of the study, as well as a checklist directly after each counseling session. The questionnaires/checklists of the study include items on communication during genetic counseling, counselor awareness of their clients' psychosocial problems, the (perceived) need for professional psychosocial support, cancer worries, general

  6. Innovation and learning facilitated by play

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Poul H. Kyvsgård; O´Connor, Rory

    2008-01-01

    "This paper describes an approach to facilitate interaction between students and industrial companies in a problem based learning environment. The approach is adapted from a methodology developed at the LEGO Company and relies on an improved ability to communicate complex problems when using...

  7. Opportunities and Challenges in Using Research to Facilitate Climate Communication Collaborations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akerlof, K.; Johnson, B. B.; Nackerman, C. J.; Maibach, E.

    2014-12-01

    Climate change represents the worst of wicked environmental problems, requiring collaborations among individuals and groups that cross public, private and voluntary sectors on a global scale to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prepare for impacts. The Climate Communication Consortium of Maryland represents such a collaboration on a state level for the purpose of supporting governments, non-profits, businesses and universities in communicating with the public about climate and energy within the context of multiple frames, such as public health, extreme weather, and coastal resilience. The collaboration was developed using communication research as an organizational framework - providing data from yearly public opinion surveys on Marylanders' attitudes, behaviors and policy support, and a variety of other qualitative and quantitative studies. In this presentation, we will highlight four dimensions of the use of research within collaborative organizational climate communication that can lead to success, or impediments: 1) individual organizational ability and resources for using audience data; 2) the linking of research questions to programmatic development goals and processes; 3) the weighing of audience- versus communicator-oriented values and priorities; and 4) identification of overarching communication objectives that span individual organizational interests. We will illustrate these dimensions using findings from surveys of our member organizations describing the types of barriers organizations face in communicating about climate change effectively, including their use of formative and evaluative research, and will discuss some of the findings from our public opinion and experimental research, illustrating the ways in which these findings influenced programmatic development and were used by Consortium member organizations.

  8. Pertinent Strategy Issues in Scientific Information and Communication in 2004

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Roosendaal, Hans E.; Geurts, Petrus A.T.M.; Hilf, E.R.; Hauke, P.

    2005-01-01

    In this article we will discuss some broader developments in the field of scientific information with the aim to determine and analyse some of the pertinent strategic issues that the stakeholders will face at present time. The stakeholders in the value chain of scientific information are: the user

  9. Communicating science in social settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scheufele, Dietram A

    2013-08-20

    This essay examines the societal dynamics surrounding modern science. It first discusses a number of challenges facing any effort to communicate science in social environments: lay publics with varying levels of preparedness for fully understanding new scientific breakthroughs; the deterioration of traditional media infrastructures; and an increasingly complex set of emerging technologies that are surrounded by a host of ethical, legal, and social considerations. Based on this overview, I discuss four areas in which empirical social science helps clarify intuitive but sometimes faulty assumptions about the social-level mechanisms of science communication and outline an agenda for bench and social scientists--driven by current social-scientific research in the field of science communication--to guide more effective communication efforts at the societal level in the future.

  10. Communicating marine reserve science to diverse audiences

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grorud-Colvert, Kirsten; Lester, Sarah E.; Airamé, Satie; Neeley, Elizabeth; Gaines, Steven D.

    2010-01-01

    As human impacts cause ecosystem-wide changes in the oceans, the need to protect and restore marine resources has led to increasing calls for and establishment of marine reserves. Scientific information about marine reserves has multiplied over the last decade, providing useful knowledge about this tool for resource users, managers, policy makers, and the general public. This information must be conveyed to nonscientists in a nontechnical, credible, and neutral format, but most scientists are not trained to communicate in this style or to develop effective strategies for sharing their scientific knowledge. Here, we present a case study from California, in which communicating scientific information during the process to establish marine reserves in the Channel Islands and along the California mainland coast expanded into an international communication effort. We discuss how to develop a strategy for communicating marine reserve science to diverse audiences and highlight the influence that effective science communication can have in discussions about marine management. PMID:20427745

  11. Clinical expectations: what facilitators expect from ESL students on clinical placement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    San Miguel, Caroline; Rogan, Fran

    2012-03-01

    Many nursing students for whom English is a second language (ESL) face challenges related to communication on clinical placement and although clinical facilitators are not usually trained language assessors, they are often in a position of needing to assess ESL students' clinical language performance. Little is known, however, about the particular areas of clinical performance facilitators focus on when they are assessing ESL students. This paper discusses the results of a study of facilitators' written assessment comments about the clinical performance of a small group of ESL nursing students over a two and a half year period. These comments were documented on students' clinical assessment forms at the end of each placement. The results provide a more detailed insight into facilitators' expectations of students' language performance and the particular challenges faced by ESL students and indicate that facilitators have clear expectations of ESL students regarding communication, learning styles and professional demeanour. These findings may help both ESL students and their facilitators better prepare for clinical placement. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Digital mobile technology facilitates HIPAA-sensitive perioperative messaging, improves physician-patient communication, and streamlines patient care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gordon, Chad R; Rezzadeh, Kameron S; Li, Andrew; Vardanian, Andrew; Zelken, Jonathan; Shores, Jamie T; Sacks, Justin M; Segovia, Andres L; Jarrahy, Reza

    2015-01-01

    %). Satisfaction with the service was high: 94.2 % of users "enjoyed this software" and and 94.2 % of family/friends "felt more connected to their loved ones during surgery." 92.5 % would "recommend their loved ones sign up for this service". Ninety percent of patients who completed the survey reported "an improved hospital experience". Digital communications platforms can facilitate the immediate transfer of HIPAA-compliant data to patients and their designees. Such systems can greatly improve the level of communication between physicians, patients, and patients' families and caregivers. All types of users, including healthcare professionals, patients, and their loved ones, recorded high levels of satisfaction. Based on these observations, we conclude that mobile digital communications platforms represent a way to harness the power of social media to enhance patient care.

  13. Improving Communicative Competence through Synchronous Communication in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Environments: A Systematic Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Xi

    2018-01-01

    Computer-supported collaborative learning facilitates the extension of second language acquisition into social practice. Studies on its achievement effects speak directly to the pedagogical notion of treating communicative practice in synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC): real-time communication that takes place between human beings…

  14. WE-F-211-01: The Evolving Landscape of Scientific Publishing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Armato, S; Hendee, W; Marshall, C; Curran, B

    2012-06-01

    The dissemination of scientific advances has changed little since the first peer-reviewed journal was published in 1665 - that is, until this past decade. The print journal, delivered by mail and stored on office shelves and in library reading rooms around the world, has been transformed by immediate, on-demand access to scientific discovery in electronic form. At the same time, the producers and consumers of that scientific content have greatly increased in number, and the balance between supply and demand has required innovations in the world of scientific publishing. In light of technological advances and societal expectations, the dissemination of scientific knowledge has assumed a new form, one that is dynamic and rapidly changing. The academic medical physicist must understand this evolution to ensure that appropriate decisions are made with regard to journal submission strategies and that relevant information on new findings is obtained in a timely manner. Medical Physics is adapting to these changes in substantive ways. This new scientific publishing landscape has implications for subscription models, targeted access through semantic enrichment, user interactivity with content, customized content delivery, and advertising opportunities. Many organizations, including the AAPM, depend on scientific publishing as a significant source of revenue, but web-based delivery raises the expectation that access should be free and threatens this model. The purpose of this symposium is to explore the factors that have contributed to the current state of scientific publishing, to anticipate future directions in this arena, and to convey how medical physicists may benefit from the expanded opportunities, both as authors and as readers. 1. To appreciate the importance of scientific and clinical practice communication for the advancement of the medical physics field 2. To understand the roles of the Editorial Board and the Journal Business Management Committee in the

  15. [Scientific journalism and epidemiological risk].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luiz, Olinda do Carmo

    2007-01-01

    The importance of the communications media in the construction of symbols has been widely acknowledged. Many of the articles on health published in the daily newspapers mention medical studies, sourced from scientific publications focusing on new risks. The disclosure of risk studies in the mass media is also a topic for editorials and articles in scientific journals, focusing the problem of distortions and the appearance of contradictory news items. The purpose of this paper is to explore the meaning and content of disclosing scientific risk studies in large-circulation daily newspapers, analyzing news items published in Brazil and the scientific publications used as their sources during 2000. The "risk" is presented in the scientific research projects as a "black box" in the meaning of Latour, with the news items downplaying scientific disputes and underscoring associations between behavioral habits and the occurrence of diseases, emphasizing individual aspects of the epidemiological approach, to the detriment of the group.

  16. Information behavior versus communication: application models in multidisciplinary settings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cecília Morena Maria da Silva

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper deals with the information behavior as support for models of communication design in the areas of Information Science, Library and Music. The communication models proposition is based on models of Tubbs and Moss (2003, Garvey and Griffith (1972, adapted by Hurd (1996 and Wilson (1999. Therefore, the questions arose: (i what are the informational skills required of librarians who act as mediators in scholarly communication process and informational user behavior in the educational environment?; (ii what are the needs of music related researchers and as produce, seek, use and access the scientific knowledge of your area?; and (iii as the contexts involved in scientific collaboration processes influence in the scientific production of information science field in Brazil? The article includes a literature review on the information behavior and its insertion in scientific communication considering the influence of context and/or situation of the objects involved in motivating issues. The hypothesis is that the user information behavior in different contexts and situations influence the definition of a scientific communication model. Finally, it is concluded that the same concept or a set of concepts can be used in different perspectives, reaching up, thus, different results.

  17. Generic communications index. Listings of communications 1971-1989

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hagemeyer, D; Towle, H

    1991-05-01

    As part of its program to feed back information on operating experience to industry, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issues generic communications called bulletins (about 5/yr), circulars (now discontinued), generic letters (about 20/yr), and information notices (about 100/yr). The report presents an updated Generic Communications Index (GCI; previously published in NUREG/CR-4690, Vol. 1, December 1987) of all such communications from 1971, when such documentation started, to 1989. The GCI consists of records, one for each communication, containing fields for identification number, title, NRC technical contact, general system or topic, specific component or topic, cause or defect, potential effect, remarks, and vendors involved. To facilitate information retrieval, the report also contains topical listings of generic communications numbers. (author)

  18. Open archives, the expectations of the scientific communities

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva

    2007-01-01

    Open archives (OA) started in physics more than 15 years ago with ArXiv, and have since played a more and more important role in the activity of the disciplin; actually, in many fields of physics, ArXiv has now become the major vector or scientific communication. We now have two communication channels in parallel, traditional scientific journals with peer review, and open archives, both with different functionalities and both indispensable. It it therefore interesting to try and transpose to other disciplins the scheme that has worked so well for physicists, which means that the reasons for the success of ArXiv should be analyzed. Scientists do not care about the technicalities, and whether or not the OA is centralized, or distributed with a high level of interoperability. What they wish is to have one single interface where all the scientific information in their domain is available, with the same scientific classifications, etc.. In case of collaborations beween different institutions, they do not wish to ...

  19. [Elucidating! But how? Insights into the impositions of modern science communication].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lehmkuh, Markus

    2015-01-01

    The talk promotes the view that science communication should abandon the claim that scientific information can convince others. This is identified as one of the impositions modern science communication is exposed to. Instead of convin cing others, science communication should focus on identifying societally relevant scientific knowledge and on communicating it accurately and coherently.

  20. Between understanding and appreciation. Current science communication in Denmark

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kristian Hvidtfelt Nielsen

    2005-12-01

    Full Text Available In this paper I use the concepts “understanding of science” and “appreciation of science” to analyze selected case studies of current science communication in Denmark. The Danish science communication system has many similarities with science communication in other countries: the increasing political and scientific interest in science communication, the co-existence of many different kinds of science communication, and the multiple uses of the concepts of understanding vs. appreciation of science. I stress the international aspects of science communication, the national politico-scientific context as well as more local contexts as equally important conditions for understanding current Danish science communication.

  1. Challenges and Facilitators to Promoting a Healthy Food Environment and Communicating Effectively with Parents to Improve Food Behaviors of School Children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luesse, Hiershenee B; Paul, Rachel; Gray, Heewon L; Koch, Pamela; Contento, Isobel; Marsick, Victoria

    2018-02-14

    Background Childhood obesity is a major public health concern and families play an important role. Improving strategies to reach parents and directing tailored nutrition education to them is needed. Purpose To investigate the challenges and facilitators to promoting a healthy environment at home and to identify communication preferences to inform intervention strategies for effectively reaching low-income urban minority families. Procedure Semi-structured focus group interviews were conducted with four groups involving 16 low-income urban parents (94% female; 88% Hispanic/Latino, 12% African American) of elementary school children. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed applying Social Cognitive Theory and using in-vivo coding. Main Findings The most common barriers to parents providing healthy foods to their children were accommodating child preferences and familial opposition. Parents showed intentionality to engage in healthy behaviors, and often shared procedural knowledge for reaching health goals. The analyses of desired communication channels yielded major preferences: tailored information, information provided through multiple mediums, appropriate duration/frequency of messages, and presented from a voice of authority. Conclusion and Implication While parents expressed desires to be healthy, the home food environment presented substantial challenges. Multi-media supports such as workshops, flyers, and text messaging may be useful to facilitate the sharing of information to minimize the tensions between intentionality and reaching desired goals to be healthy. Some parents thought that information received through text messaging could be easily shared and would act as a voice of authority to support child behavior change.

  2. Artificial intelligence support for scientific model-building

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keller, Richard M.

    1992-01-01

    Scientific model-building can be a time-intensive and painstaking process, often involving the development of large and complex computer programs. Despite the effort involved, scientific models cannot easily be distributed and shared with other scientists. In general, implemented scientific models are complex, idiosyncratic, and difficult for anyone but the original scientific development team to understand. We believe that artificial intelligence techniques can facilitate both the model-building and model-sharing process. In this paper, we overview our effort to build a scientific modeling software tool that aids the scientist in developing and using models. This tool includes an interactive intelligent graphical interface, a high-level domain specific modeling language, a library of physics equations and experimental datasets, and a suite of data display facilities.

  3. “Dude, You’re Such a Slut!” Barriers and Facilitators of Sexual Communication Among Young Gay Men and Their Best Friends

    Science.gov (United States)

    McDavitt, Bryce; Mutchler, Matt G.

    2014-01-01

    Conversations with friends are a crucial source of information about sexuality for young gay men, and a key way that sexual health norms are shared during emerging adulthood. However, friends can only provide this support if they are able to talk openly about sexuality. We explored this issue through qualitative interviews with an ethnically diverse sample of young gay men and their best friends. Using theories of sexual scripts, stigma, and emerging adulthood, we examined how conversations about sex could be obstructed or facilitated by several key factors, including judgmentalism, comfort/discomfort, and receptivity. Gay male friends sometimes spoke about unprotected sex in judgmental ways (e.g., calling a friend “slut” or “whore” for having sex without condoms). In some cases, this language could be used playfully, while in others it had the effect of shaming a friend and obstructing further communication about sexual risk. Female friends were rarely openly judgmental, but often felt uncomfortable talking about gay male sexuality, which could render this topic taboo. Sexual communication was facilitated most effectively when friends encouraged it through humor or supportive questioning. Drawing on these findings, we show how judgmentalism and discomfort may generate sexual scripts with contradictory norms, and potentially obstruct support from friends around sexual exploration during a period of life when it may be most developmentally important. PMID:25419044

  4. Machine Translation Effect on Communication

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Mika Yasuoka; Bjørn, Pernille

    2011-01-01

    Intercultural collaboration facilitated by machine translation has gradually spread in various settings. Still, little is known as for the practice of machine-translation mediated communication. This paper investigates how machine translation affects intercultural communication in practice. Based...... on communication in which multilingual communication system is applied, we identify four communication types and its’ influences on stakeholders’ communication process, especially focusing on establishment and maintenance of common ground. Different from our expectation that quality of machine translation results...

  5. Scientific uncertainty in media content: Introduction to this special issue.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peters, Hans Peter; Dunwoody, Sharon

    2016-11-01

    This introduction sets the stage for the special issue on the public communication of scientific uncertainty that follows by sketching the wider landscape of issues related to the communication of uncertainty and showing how the individual contributions fit into that landscape. The first part of the introduction discusses the creation of media content as a process involving journalists, scientific sources, stakeholders, and the responsive audience. The second part then provides an overview of the perception of scientific uncertainty presented by the media and the consequences for the recipients' own assessments of uncertainty. Finally, we briefly describe the six research articles included in this special issue. © The Author(s) 2016.

  6. Happy creativity: Listening to happy music facilitates divergent thinking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ritter, Simone M; Ferguson, Sam

    2017-01-01

    Creativity can be considered one of the key competencies for the twenty-first century. It provides us with the capacity to deal with the opportunities and challenges that are part of our complex and fast-changing world. The question as to what facilitates creative cognition-the ability to come up with creative ideas, problem solutions and products-is as old as the human sciences, and various means to enhance creative cognition have been studied. Despite earlier scientific studies demonstrating a beneficial effect of music on cognition, the effect of music listening on creative cognition has remained largely unexplored. The current study experimentally tests whether listening to specific types of music (four classical music excerpts systematically varying on valance and arousal), as compared to a silence control condition, facilitates divergent and convergent creativity. Creativity was higher for participants who listened to 'happy music' (i.e., classical music high on arousal and positive mood) while performing the divergent creativity task, than for participants who performed the task in silence. No effect of music was found for convergent creativity. In addition to the scientific contribution, the current findings may have important practical implications. Music listening can be easily integrated into daily life and may provide an innovative means to facilitate creative cognition in an efficient way in various scientific, educational and organizational settings when creative thinking is needed.

  7. Proposed structure of a data paper structure as scientific publication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sandra M. Roa-Martínez

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a review of the main motivations and paths for publishing datasets that are generated and managed during the research process. The Data Paper is considered as a form of scientific publication with the same recognition, acceptance and scientific rigor as conventional research articles. Therefore we propose a common structure defined by elements based mainly on dataset metadata. This will enable creators, publishers, consumers and expert peer reviewers to recognise, share, evaluate and facilitate data reuse. Doing so will facilitate information reproducibility, validation of results, and rapid new research generation.

  8. Facilitators and barriers to discussing HIV prevention with adolescents: perspectives of HIV-infected parents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edwards, Laura L; Reis, Janet S; Weber, Kathleen M

    2013-08-01

    We examined HIV-infected parents' conversations about HIV prevention with their uninfected children, including what facilitated or hindered communication. Parents with HIV/AIDS (n = 90) who had children aged 10 to 18 years were recruited for a mixed method study from 2009 to 2010. Interviews assessed facilitators and barriers to discussing HIV prevention. A questionnaire identified the frequency and content of conversations, parental confidence level, and perceived importance of discussing preventive topics. Eighty-one percent of parents reported "sometimes" or "often" communicating about HIV prevention. A subset of parents found these conversations difficult; 44% indicated their desire for support. Facilitators to communication included utilizing support, focusing on the benefits of talking, and having a previous relationship with one's child. Barriers to discussions included fear of negative consequences, living in denial, and lacking a parental role model who discussed safer sex. Parents varied as to how they believed their HIV status affected communication. Those who did not disclose their HIV status to their children reported less frequent communication; self-efficacy partially mediated this relationship. Findings highlighted the need for communication skills training that support HIV-infected parents in their efforts to discuss HIV-related information with adolescents.

  9. RAISING INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES COMPETENCE OF SCIENTIFIC AND PEDAGOGICAL EMPLOYEES - A KEY REQUIREMENT OF THE QUALITY OF EDUCATIONAL PROCESS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nataliia V. Morze

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available In the article it was analyzed one of the basic conditions of providing the quality of higher education according to the system of internal quality assurance standards ESG (European quality assurance standards and guidelines to increase the ICT competence of scientific-pedagogical staff of the University. It was described the modular system of training for scientific and pedagogical staff of the Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University. Special attention is paid to the description of the system of raising the level of formation the ICT competence as one of the key competences of the modern teacher. The system of professional development, which is based on creating mixed studying and technology of "flipped classroom", formative assessment, innovative educational and ICT technologies according to the specially designed informative module "Informational and communication technologies", which allows scientific-pedagogical staff to use modern ICT and educational technologies effectively for their further applying in the provision of educational services and the development of quality of open educational content and open educational e-environment available to the student at any convenient time, which will significantly improve the quality of the educational process.

  10. Communicating Ocean Sciences College Courses: Science Faculty and Educators Working and Learning Together

    Science.gov (United States)

    Halversen, C.; Simms, E.; McDonnell, J. D.; Strang, C.

    2011-12-01

    As the relationship between science and society evolves, the need for scientists to engage and effectively communicate with the public about scientific issues has become increasingly urgent. Leaders in the scientific community argue that research training programs need to also give future scientists the knowledge and skills to communicate. To address this, the Communicating Ocean Sciences (COS) series was developed to teach postsecondary science students how to communicate their scientific knowledge more effectively, and to build the capacity of science faculty to apply education research to their teaching and communicate more effectively with the public. Courses are co-facilitated by a faculty scientist and either a K-12 or informal science educator. Scientists contribute their science content knowledge and their teaching experience, and educators bring their knowledge of learning theory regarding how students and the public make meaning from, and understand, science. The series comprises two university courses for science undergraduate and graduate students that are taught by ocean and climate scientists at approximately 25 universities. One course, COS K-12, is team-taught by a scientist and a formal educator, and provides college students with experience communicating science in K-12 classrooms. In the other course, COSIA (Communicating Ocean Sciences to Informal Audiences), a scientist and informal educator team-teach, and the practicum takes place in a science center or aquarium. The courses incorporate current learning theory and provide an opportunity for future scientists to apply that theory through a practicum. COS addresses the following goals: 1) introduce postsecondary students-future scientists-to the importance of education, outreach, and broader impacts; 2) improve the ability of scientists to communicate science concepts and research to their students; 3) create a culture recognizing the importance of communicating science; 4) provide students and

  11. Practising science communication in the information age theorising professional practices

    CERN Document Server

    Holliman, Richard

    2008-01-01

    What is the impact of open access on science communication? How can scientists effectively engage and interact with the public? What role can science communication have when scientific controversies arise? Practising science communication in the information age is a collection of newly-commissioned chapters by leading scholars and practitioners of science communication. It considers how scientists communicate with each other as part of their professional practice, critically evaluating how this forms the basis of the documenting of scientific knowledge, and investigating how open access publication and open review are influencing current practices. It also explores how science communication can play a crucial role when science is disputed, investigating the role of expertise in the formation of scientific controversy and consensus. The volume provides a theoretically informed review of contemporary trends and issues that are engaging practitioners of science communication, focusing on issues such as the norms...

  12. NASA science communications strategy

    Science.gov (United States)

    1995-01-01

    In 1994, the Clinton Administration issued a report, 'Science in the National Interest', which identified new national science goals. Two of the five goals are related to science communications: produce the finest scientists and engineers for the 21st century, and raise scientific and technological literacy of all Americans. In addition to the guidance and goals set forth by the Administration, NASA has been mandated by Congress under the 1958 Space Act to 'provide for the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination concerning its activities and the results thereof'. In addition to addressing eight Goals and Plans which resulted from a January 1994 meeting between NASA and members of the broader scientific, education, and communications community on the Public Communication of NASA's Science, the Science Communications Working Group (SCWG) took a comprehensive look at the way the Agency communicates its science to ensure that any changes the Agency made were long-term improvements. The SCWG developed a Science Communications Strategy for NASA and a plan to implement the Strategy. This report outlines a strategy from which effective science communications programs can be developed and implemented across the agency. Guiding principles and strategic themes for the strategy are provided, with numerous recommendations for improvement discussed within the respective themes of leadership, coordination, integration, participation, leveraging, and evaluation.

  13. Communication and dissemination strategies to facilitate the use of health-related evidence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCormack, Lauren; Sheridan, Stacey; Lewis, Megan; Boudewyns, Vanessa; Melvin, Cathy L; Kistler, Christine; Lux, Linda J; Cullen, Katherine; Lohr, Kathleen N

    2013-11-01

    This review examined how to best communicate and disseminate evidence, including uncertain evidence, to inform health care decisions. The review focused on three primary objectives--comparing the effectiveness of: (1) communicating evidence in various contents and formats that increase the likelihood that target audiences will both understand and use the information (KQ 1); (2) a variety of approaches for disseminating evidence from those who develop it to those who are expected to use it (KQ 2); and (3) various ways of communicating uncertainty-associated health-related evidence to different target audiences (KQ 3). A secondary objective was to examine how the effectiveness of communication and dissemination strategies varies across target audiences, including evidence translators, health educators, patients, and clinicians. We searched MEDLINE®, the Cochrane Library, Cochrane Central Trials Registry, PsycINFO®, and the Web of Science. We used a variety of medical subject headings (MeSH terms) and major headings, and used free-text and title and abstract text-word searches. The search was limited to studies on humans published from 2000 to March 15, 2013, for communication and dissemination, given the prior systematic reviews, and from 1966 to March 15, 2013, for communicating uncertainty. We used standard Evidence-based Practice Center methods of dual review of abstracts, full-text articles, and abstractions, and quality ratings and group consensus to resolve disagreements. We used group consensus to grade strength of evidence. The search identified 4,152 articles (after removing duplicates) for all three KQs. After dual review at the title/abstract stage and full-text review stage, we retained 61 articles that directly (i.e., head to head) compared strategies to communicate and disseminate evidence. Across the KQs, many of the comparisons yielded insufficient evidence to draw firm conclusions. For KQ 1, we found that investigators frequently blend more than

  14. Motives for metaphor in scientific and technical communication

    CERN Document Server

    Giles, Timothy D

    2017-01-01

    Examination of the work of scientific icons-Newton, Descartes, and others-reveals the metaphors and analogies that directed their research and explain their discoveries. Today, scientists tend to balk at the idea of their writing as rhetorical, much less metaphorical. How did this schism over metaphor occur in the scientific community? To establish that scientists should use metaphors to explain science to the public and need to be conscious of how metaphor can be useful to their research, this book examines the controversy over cloning and the lack of a metaphor to explain it to a public fearful of science's power.The disjunction between metaphor and science is traced to the dispensation of the Solar System Analogy in favor of a mathematical model. Arguing that mathematics is metaphorical, the author supports the idea of all language as metaphorical-unlike many rhetoricians and philosophers of science who have proclaimed all language as metaphorical but have allowed a distinction between a metaphorical use o...

  15. Scientific report 1998

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1998-01-01

    The aim of this report is to outline the main developments of the ''Departement des Reacteurs Nucleaires'', (DRN) during the year 1998. DRN is one of the CEA Institution. This report is divided in three main parts: the DRN scientific programs, the scientific and technical publications (with abstracts in english) and economic data on staff, budget and communication. Main results of the Department, for the year 1998, are presented giving information on the reactors technology and safety, the neutronics, the transmutation and the hybrid systems, the dismantling and the sites improvement, the nuclear accidents, the nuclear matter transport, the thermonuclear fusion safety, the fuel cladding materials and radioactive waste control. (A.L.B.)

  16. Current Efforts in European Projects to Facilitate the Sharing of Scientific Observation Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bredel, Henning; Rieke, Matthes; Maso, Joan; Jirka, Simon; Stasch, Christoph

    2017-04-01

    This presentation is intended to provide an overview of currently ongoing efforts in European projects to facilitate and promote the interoperable sharing of scientific observation data. This will be illustrated through two examples: a prototypical portal developed in the ConnectinGEO project for matching available (in-situ) data sources to the needs of users and a joint activity of several research projects to harmonise the usage of the OGC Sensor Web Enablement standards for providing access to marine observation data. ENEON is an activity initiated by the European ConnectinGEO project to coordinate in-situ Earth observation networks with the aim to harmonise the access to observations, improve discoverability, and identify/close gaps in European earth observation data resources. In this context, ENEON commons has been developed as a supporting Web portal for facilitating discovery, access, re-use and creation of knowledge about observations, networks, and related activities (e.g. projects). The portal is based on developments resulting from the European WaterInnEU project and has been extended to cover the requirements for handling knowledge about in-situ earth observation networks. A first prototype of the portal was completed in January 2017 which offers functionality for interactive discussion, information exchange and querying information about data delivered by different observation networks. Within this presentation, we will introduce the presented prototype and initiate a discussion about potential future work directions. The second example concerns the harmonisation of data exchange in the marine domain. There are many organisation who operate ocean observatories or data archives. In recent years, the application of the OGC Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) technology has become more and more popular to increase the interoperability between marine observation networks. However, as the SWE standards were intentionally designed in a domain independent manner

  17. Patients' communication with doctors: a randomized control study of a brief patient communication intervention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Talen, Mary R; Muller-Held, Christine F; Eshleman, Kate Grampp; Stephens, Lorraine

    2011-09-01

    In research on doctor-patient communication, the patient role in the communication process has received little attention. The dynamic interactions of shared decision making and partnership styles which involve active patient communication are becoming a growing area of focus in doctor-patient communication. However, patients rarely know what makes "good communication" with medical providers and even fewer have received coaching in this type of communication. In this study, 180 patients were randomly assigned to either an intervention group using a written communication tool to facilitate doctor-patient communication or to standard care. The goal of this intervention was to assist patients in becoming more effective communicators with their physicians. The physicians and patients both rated the quality of the communication after the office visit based on the patients' knowledge of their health concerns, organizational skills and questions, and attitudes of ownership and partnership. The results supported that patients in the intervention group had significantly better communication with their doctors than patients in the standard care condition. Physicians also rated patients who were in the intervention group as having better overall communication and organizational skills, and a more positive attitude during the office visit. This study supports that helping patients structure their communication using a written format can facilitate doctor-patient communication. Patients can become more adept at describing their health concerns, organizing their needs and questions, and being proactive, which can have a positive effect on the quality of the doctor-patient communication during outpatient office visits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).

  18. An Empirical Evaluation of Spelling Boards as a Means of Communication for the Multihandicapped.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klewe, Lars

    1993-01-01

    An interdisciplinary research group in Denmark examined use of facilitated communication, via spelling boards, by 17 patients with communication disorders. Meaningful communication took place only when the facilitators had access to the information to be communicated. (JDD)

  19. Integrating Computer-Mediated Communication Strategy Instruction

    Science.gov (United States)

    McNeil, Levi

    2016-01-01

    Communication strategies (CSs) play important roles in resolving problematic second language interaction and facilitating language learning. While studies in face-to-face contexts demonstrate the benefits of communication strategy instruction (CSI), there have been few attempts to integrate computer-mediated communication and CSI. The study…

  20. Barriers and facilitators to mobile phone use for people with aphasia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Greig, Carole-Ann; Harper, Renée; Hirst, Tanya; Howe, Tami; Davidson, Bronwyn

    2008-01-01

    Mobile phone use increases social participation. People with the communication disorder of aphasia are disadvantaged in the use of information and communication technology such as mobile phones and are reported to be more socially isolated than their peers. The World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health provides a framework to address the impact of environmental factors on individual participation. The aim of this preliminary study was to identify the barriers and facilitators to mobile phone use for people with aphasia. A qualitative descriptive study involving two phases was conducted: (1) semi-structured interviews with 6 individuals with aphasia who owned or expressed a desire to own a mobile phone; (2) structured observations of key scenarios identified in the interviews of 3 participants who were sampled from the interview study. Results identified 18 barriers and 9 facilitators to mobile phone use. Key barriers and facilitators were identified in the areas of design and features, written support and training, and communicative partners. Mobile phone use can be problematic for people with aphasia. Intervention needs to address the barriers and utilise the facilitators to mobile phone use for this population. Further research is required to inform policy and intervention programs to ensure that people with aphasia have access to this technology.

  1. [The representation of scientific research through a poster].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dupin, Cécile-Marie

    2013-12-01

    The poster is a medium of scientific communication. When presented in public, it optimises the value of an original research approach. The poster sessions are devoted to one-to-one exchanges with peers on the subject of the research. The poster can help to integrate scientific knowledge into the nursing decision-making process.

  2. The production of scientific videos: a theoretical approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carlos Ernesto Gavilondo Rodriguez

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The article presents the results of theoretical research on the production of scientific videos and its application to the teaching-learning process carried out in schools in the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador. It is located within the production line and Audiovisual Communication. Creation of scientific videos, from the Communication major with a concentration in audiovisual production and multimedia of the Salesian Polytechnic University. For the realization of the article it was necessary to use key terms that helped subsequently to data collection. used terms such as: audiovisual production, understood as the production of content for audiovisual media; the following term used audiovisual communication is recognized as the process in which there is an exchange of messages through an audible and / or visual system; and the last term we use is scientifically video, which is one that uses audiovisual resources to obtain relevant and reliable information.As part of the theoretical results a methodological proposal for the video production is presented for educational purposes. In conclusion set out, first, that from the communicative statement in recent times, current social relations, constitute a successful context of possibilities shown to education to generate meeting points between the world of the everyday and the knowledge. Another indicator validated as part of the investigation, is that teachers surveyed use the potential of the audiovisual media, and supported them, deploy alternatives for use. 

  3. Introducing Pre-University Students to Primary Scientific Literature through Argumentation Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koeneman, Marcel; Goedhart, Martin; Ossevoort, Miriam

    2013-01-01

    Primary scientific literature is one of the most important means of communication in science, written for peers in the scientific community. Primary literature provides an authentic context for showing students how scientists support their claims. Several teaching strategies have been proposed using (adapted) scientific publications, some for…

  4. Defending the scientific integrity of conservation-policy processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carroll, Carlos; Hartl, Brett; Goldman, Gretchen T; Rohlf, Daniel J; Treves, Adrian; Kerr, Jeremy T; Ritchie, Euan G; Kingsford, Richard T; Gibbs, Katherine E; Maron, Martine; Watson, James E M

    2017-10-01

    Government agencies faced with politically controversial decisions often discount or ignore scientific information, whether from agency staff or nongovernmental scientists. Recent developments in scientific integrity (the ability to perform, use, communicate, and publish science free from censorship or political interference) in Canada, Australia, and the United States demonstrate a similar trajectory. A perceived increase in scientific-integrity abuses provokes concerted pressure by the scientific community, leading to efforts to improve scientific-integrity protections under a new administration. However, protections are often inconsistently applied and are at risk of reversal under administrations publicly hostile to evidence-based policy. We compared recent challenges to scientific integrity to determine what aspects of scientific input into conservation policy are most at risk of political distortion and what can be done to strengthen safeguards against such abuses. To ensure the integrity of outbound communications from government scientists to the public, we suggest governments strengthen scientific integrity policies, include scientists' right to speak freely in collective-bargaining agreements, guarantee public access to scientific information, and strengthen agency culture supporting scientific integrity. To ensure the transparency and integrity with which information from nongovernmental scientists (e.g., submitted comments or formal policy reviews) informs the policy process, we suggest governments broaden the scope of independent reviews, ensure greater diversity of expert input and transparency regarding conflicts of interest, require a substantive response to input from agencies, and engage proactively with scientific societies. For their part, scientists and scientific societies have a responsibility to engage with the public to affirm that science is a crucial resource for developing evidence-based policy and regulations in the public interest.

  5. An exploration of tutors' experiences of facilitating problem-based learning. Part 2--implications for the facilitation of problem based learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haith-Cooper, Melanie

    2003-01-01

    This paper is the second of two parts exploring a study that was undertaken to investigate the role of the tutor in facilitating problem-based learning (PBL). The first part focussed on the methodological underpinnings of the study. This paper aims to focus on the findings of the study and their implications for the facilitation of PBL. Six essential themes emerged from the findings that described the facilitation role. The tutors believed that their facilitation role was essentially structured around the decision of when to intervene and how to intervene in the PBL process. Modelling and non-verbal communication were seen as essential strategies for the facilitator. Underpinning these decisions was the need to trust in the philosophy of PBL. However, within many of the themes, there was a divergence of opinion as to how the role should actually be undertaken. Despite this, these findings have implications for the future role of PBL facilitators in Health Professional Education.

  6. Clients' psychosocial communication and midwives' verbal and nonverbal communication during prenatal counseling for anomaly screening.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martin, Linda; Gitsels-van der Wal, Janneke T; Pereboom, Monique T R; Spelten, Evelien R; Hutton, Eileen K; van Dulmen, Sandra

    2016-01-01

    This study focuses on facilitation of clients' psychosocial communication during prenatal counseling for fetal anomaly screening. We assessed how psychosocial communication by clients is related to midwives' psychosocial and affective communication, client-directed gaze and counseling duration. During 184 videotaped prenatal counseling consultations with 20 Dutch midwives, verbal psychosocial and affective behavior was measured by the Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS). We rated the duration of client-directed gaze. We performed multilevel analyses to assess the relation between clients' psychosocial communication and midwives' psychosocial and affective communication, client-directed gaze and counseling duration. Clients' psychosocial communication was higher if midwives' asked more psychosocial questions and showed more affective behavior (β=0.90; CI: 0.45-1.35; pcommunication was not related to midwives" client-directed gaze. Additionally, psychosocial communication by clients was directly, positively related to the counseling duration (β=0.59; CI: 0.20-099; p=0.004). In contrast with our expectations, midwives' client-directed gaze was not related with psychosocial communication of clients. In addition to asking psychosocial questions, our study shows that midwives' affective behavior and counseling duration is likely to encourage client's psychosocial communication, known to be especially important for facilitating decision-making. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  7. Risk assessment terminology: risk communication part 1

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gaetano Liuzzo

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available The paper describes the terminology of risk communication in the view of food safety: the theory of stakeholders, the citizens’ involvement and the community interest and consultation are reported. Different aspects of risk communication (public communication, scientific uncertainty, trust, care, consensus and crisis communication are discussed.

  8. How NASA is building and sustaining a community of scientist-communicators through virtual technology, graphic facilitation and other community-building tools

    Science.gov (United States)

    DeWitt, S.; Bovaird, E.; Stewart, N.; Reaves, J.; Tenenbaum, L. F.; Betz, L.; Kuchner, M. J.; Dodson, K. E.; Miller, A.

    2013-12-01

    In 2013 NASA launched its first agency-wide effort to cultivate and support scientist-communicators. The multiple motivations behind this effort are complex and overlapping, and include a desire to connect the agency's workforce to its mission and to each other in the post-Space Shuttle era; a shift in how the agency and the world communicates about science; the current public perception of science and of NASA, and a desire to share the stories of the real people behind the agency's technical work. Leaders in the NASA science, communications and public outreach communities partnered with the agency's training and leadership development organization to: identify and fully characterize the need for training and development in science communication, experiment with various learning models, and invite early-adopter scientists to evaluate these models for future agency investment. Using virtual collaboration technology, graphic facilitation, and leadership development methods, we set out to create an environment where scientist-communicators can emerge and excel. First, we asked scientists from across the agency to identify their motivations, opportunities, barriers and areas of interest in science communication. Scientists identified a need to go beyond traditional media training, a need for continuous practice and peer feedback, and a need for agency incentives and sustained support for this kind of work. This community-driven approach also uncovered a serious need for communication support in the wake of diminishing resources for travel and conference attendance. As a first step, we offered a series of virtual learning events - highly collaborative working sessions for scientists to practice their communication technique, develop and apply new skills to real-world situations, and gain valuable feedback from external subject matter experts and fellow scientists from across the agency in a supportive environment. Scientists from ten NASA centers and a broad range of

  9. Revolutionizing Climate Science: Using Teachers as Communicators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Warburton, J.; Crowley, S.; Wood, J.

    2012-12-01

    PolarTREC (Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating) is a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded program in which K-12 teachers participate in hands-on field research experiences in the Polar Regions. Teachers are the dynamic conduits for communicating climate science. In the PolarTREC final report, researchers found that teachers were vital in refining the language of their science and have shaped the goals of the scientific project. Program data demonstrates that science in classrooms is better understood when teachers have a full-spectrum grasp of project intricacies from defining the project, to field data collection, encountering situations for creativity and critical thinking, as well as participating in data and project analysis. Teachers' translating the authentic scientific process is integral in communicating climate science to the broader public. Teachers playing a major role in polar science revolutionize the old paradigm of "in-school learning". Through daily online journaling and forums, social media communication, live webinars with public, and professional development events, these teachers are moving beyond classrooms to communicate with society. Through teachers, climate policy can be shaped for the future by having scientifically literate students as well as assessable science. New paradigms come as teachers attain proficient levels of scientific understanding paired with the expert abilities for communication with years of experience. PolarTREC teachers are a model for new interactions peer-to-peer learning and mentorship for young scientists. Our programmatic goal is to expand the opportunities for PolarTREC teachers to share their involvement in science with additional formal and informal educators. 'Teaching the teachers' will reach exponential audiences in media, policy, and classrooms. Modeling this program, we designed and conducted a teacher training on climate science in Denali National Park. Utilizing expert university

  10. A guide for writing in the scientific forum.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kotsis, Sandra V; Chung, Kevin C

    2010-11-01

    When considering the importance of scientific writing in disseminating new discoveries and ideas, it is quite remarkable that few physicians have received any formal instruction in this essential process. This article focuses on the fundamental principles of scientific writing that also include a "style and grace" component. The art of good scientific writing is to convey scientific materials in a clear and interesting way, while avoiding incomprehensible sentences that only serve to disguise marginal contents within the article. The goal of this article is to encourage authors and readers to critically examine the art of scientific writing to overcome the barrier to effective communication.

  11. Improving risk communication through interactive training in communication skills

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    White, D.A.; White, R.K.

    1991-01-01

    This paper describes a workshop in communication and public speaking skills recently conducted for a group of public officials whose responsibilities include presenting risk information at public meetings associated with hazardous waste sites. We detail the development and solution of the 2 1/2-day workshop, including the development and integration of a 45-minute video of a simulated public meeting used to illustrate examples of good and bad communication behaviors. The workshop uses a mock public meeting video, participatory video exercises, role-playing, an instructor and a resource text. This interactive approach to teaching communication skills can help sensitize scientists to the public's understanding of risk and improve scientists confidence and effectiveness in communicating scientific information

  12. [Communicating research with social media].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bennato, Davide

    2014-09-01

    Participation is the new keyword of communication. In the scientific field, communication is a very complex task that can't ignore the careful consideration of the target audience. To minimize the difficulties, it is useful to rely on storytelling: it can greatly benefit from the space offered by social media that can be used to raise awareness and to engage through the sharing of experiences. The marriage between scientific research and social media can take place, as long as you carefully reflect on the roles, strategies and appropriate tools.

  13. Dynamics of group knowledge production in facilitated modelling workshops

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tavella, Elena; Franco, L. Alberto

    2015-01-01

    by which models are jointly developed with group members interacting face-to-face, with or without computer support. The models produced are used to inform negotiations about the nature of the issues faced by the group, and how to address them. While the facilitated modelling literature is impressive......, the workshop. Drawing on the knowledge-perspective of group communication, we conducted a micro-level analysis of a transcript of a facilitated modelling workshop held with the management team of an Alternative Food Network in the UK. Our analysis suggests that facilitated modelling interactions can take...

  14. Improving Communicative Competence through Synchronous Communication in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Environments: A Systematic Review

    OpenAIRE

    Xi Huang

    2018-01-01

    Computer-supported collaborative learning facilitates the extension of second language acquisition into social practice. Studies on its achievement effects speak directly to the pedagogical notion of treating communicative practice in synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC): real-time communication that takes place between human beings via the instrumentality of computers in forms of text, audio and video communication, such as live chat and chatrooms as socially-oriented meaning c...

  15. Facilitators and Barriers to Discussing HIV Prevention With Adolescents: Perspectives of HIV-Infected Parents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reis, Janet S.; Weber, Kathleen M.

    2013-01-01

    Objectives. We examined HIV-infected parents’ conversations about HIV prevention with their uninfected children, including what facilitated or hindered communication. Methods. Parents with HIV/AIDS (n = 90) who had children aged 10 to 18 years were recruited for a mixed method study from 2009 to 2010. Interviews assessed facilitators and barriers to discussing HIV prevention. A questionnaire identified the frequency and content of conversations, parental confidence level, and perceived importance of discussing preventive topics. Results. Eighty-one percent of parents reported “sometimes” or “often” communicating about HIV prevention. A subset of parents found these conversations difficult; 44% indicated their desire for support. Facilitators to communication included utilizing support, focusing on the benefits of talking, and having a previous relationship with one’s child. Barriers to discussions included fear of negative consequences, living in denial, and lacking a parental role model who discussed safer sex. Parents varied as to how they believed their HIV status affected communication. Those who did not disclose their HIV status to their children reported less frequent communication; self-efficacy partially mediated this relationship. Conclusions. Findings highlighted the need for communication skills training that support HIV-infected parents in their efforts to discuss HIV-related information with adolescents. PMID:23763390

  16. Improving Scientific Voice in the Science Communication Center at UT Knoxville

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hirst, Russel

    2013-01-01

    Many science students believe that scientific writing is most impressive (and most professionally acceptable) when impersonal, dense, complex, and packed with jargon. In particular, they have the idea that legitimate scientific writing must suppress the subjectivity of the human voice. But science students can mature into excellent writers whose…

  17. Enhancing research publications and advancing scientific writing in health research collaborations: sharing lessons learnt from the trenches.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Guowei; Jin, Yanling; Mbuagbaw, Lawrence; Dolovich, Lisa; Adachi, Jonathan D; Levine, Mitchell Ah; Cook, Deborah; Samaan, Zainab; Thabane, Lehana

    2018-01-01

    Disseminating research protocols, processes, methods or findings via peer-reviewed publications has substantive merits and benefits to various stakeholders. In this article, we share strategies to enhance research publication contents (ie, what to write about) and to facilitate scientific writing (ie, how to write) in health research collaborations. Empirical experience sharing. To enhance research publication contents, we encourage identifying appropriate opportunities for publications, publishing protocols ahead of results papers, seeking publications related to methodological issues, considering justified secondary analyses, and sharing academic process or experience. To advance writing, we suggest setting up scientific writing as a goal, seeking an appropriate mentorship, making full use of scientific meetings and presentations, taking some necessary formal training in areas such as effective communication and time and stress management, and embracing the iterative process of writing. All the strategies we share are dependent upon each other; and they advocate gradual academic accomplishments through study and training in a "success-breeds-success" way. It is expected that the foregoing shared strategies in this paper, together with other previous guidance articles, can assist one with enhancing research publications, and eventually one's academic success in health research collaborations.

  18. Facilitating Service Learning in the Online Technical Communication Classroom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nielsen, Danielle

    2016-01-01

    Drawing from the author's experience teaching online technical communication courses with an embedded service-learning component, this essay opens the discussion to the potential problems involved in designing online service-learning courses and provides practical approaches to integrating service learning into online coursework. The essay…

  19. Using Social Media to Communicate Science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bohon, W.

    2017-12-01

    Social media (SM) is a popular and ubiquitous communication method and as such offers scientists an opportunity to directly interface with the public, improve public perception of science and scientists, and combat the growing tide of scientific misunderstanding and misinformation. It's become increasingly critical for scientists to use their voice and influence to communicate science and address misinformation. More than 60% of US adults get news from SM (1) but studies find that scientists infrequently post about science (2), missing a rich opportunity to combat scientific disinformation. While it may seem like a futile exercise to educate over SM, even passive exposure to new information can change public perceptions and behavior (3). Additionally, scientists, especially early career scientists, have social networks populated largely by non-scientists (2), allowing them an opportunity to speak to an audience that already trusts and values their scientific judgment. Importantly, these networks are often ideologically and politically diverse (4). However, science communication isn't as simple as a presentation of facts, and effective science communication via SM requires both SM competence and science communication proficiency. Thus, a discussion of best practices for both topics would benefit the scientific community. The range of potential topics for discussion is broad and could include scientific storytelling, empathetic communication, crafting a message, using SM to "humanize science", tips and tricks for broad SM information dissemination and how to run an effective SM campaign. (1) Gottfried J, Shearer E. New use across social media platforms: Pew Research Center; 2016. Available from: http://www.journalism.org/2016/05/26/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-2016/. (2) McClain, Craig R., Practices and promises of Facebook for science outreach:Becoming a "Nerd of Trust". PLOS Biology 15(6). 2017; https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2002020(3) Messing S

  20. Social Media to Facilitate Public Participation in IA

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Naber, A.C.; Enserink, B.

    2012-01-01

    Social media are web-based and mobile technologies that facilitate interaction between organizations, communities and individuals. Important characteristics are that the technologies are ubiquitous, communication instantaneous and that they enable the creation and exchange of user-generated content.

  1. The scientific productivity in Communication across the journal Zer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David Roca-Correa

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available This article presents the results of a study on the individual and institutional research productivity in Zer Journal of Communication Studies, during its first ten years of history (1996-2005. This journal has been chosen for four reasons: it is the highest ranked publication; it is the journal in which most researchers want to publish their latest work; it is one of the top three journals in terms of impact in the field of communication; and it is one of the twelve Spanish journals of communication indexed in international databases. This is the first study on research productivity carried out in Spain to offer a ranking of authors. In order to identify and rank the most productive authors and universities, quantitative content analysis was conducted on the 220 research articles published by Zer from 1996 to 2005. The findings reveal that research productivity is low; that three universities produce more than half of the articles; that collaboration between universities is low; and that international collaboration is moderate.

  2. African indigenous knowledge: scientific or unscientific ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Meanwhile, the attainment of such a sophisticated status in Western scientific research has been facilitated by its experimental methodology which has made possible the transfer of knowledge from one generation to another. However, other non- Western forms of knowledge that lack these characteristics are regarded as ...

  3. Exploring effectiveness of team communication: Balancing synchronous and asynchronous communication in design teams

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    den Otter, Ad; Emmitt, Stephen

    2007-01-01

    Effective teams use a balance of synchronous and asynchronous communication. Team communication is dependent on the communication acts of team members and the ability of managers to facilitate, stimulate and motivate them. Team members from organizations using different information systems tend...... to have different understanding, opinions, and rates of adoption and skills levels regarding specific IT tools. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effective use of tools for communication in design teams and the strategies for the use of specific tools....

  4. Is there a need for a code of ethics in science communication and Communicating Uncertainties on Climate Change?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cegnar, T.; Benestad, R.; Billard, C.

    2010-09-01

    The EMS Media team recognises that: Scientific knowledge is valuable for society, but it also becomes fragile in a media-dominated society where the distortion of facts clouds the validity of the information. The use of scientific titles in communication normally brings expectations of high standards regarding the information content. Freedom of speech is fragile in the sense that it can be diluted by a high proportion of false information. The value of scientific and scholastic titles is degraded when they are used to give the impression of false validity. Science communication is powerful, and implies a certain responsibility and ethical standard. The scientific community operates with a more or less tacit ethics code in all areas touching the scientists' activities. Even though many scientific questions cannot be completely resolved, there is a set of established and unequivocal scientific practices, methods, and tests, on which our scientific knowledge rests. Scientists are assumed to master the scientific practices, methods, and tests. High standard in science-related communication and media exposure, openness, and honesty will increase the relevance of science, academies, and scientists in the society, in addition to benefiting the society itself. Science communication is important to maintain and enhance the general appreciation of science. The value of the role of science is likely to increase with a reduced distance between scientists and the society and a lower knowledge barrier. An awareness about the ethical aspects of science and science communication may aid scientists in making decisions about how and what to say. Scientists are often not trained in communication or ethics. A set of guide lines may lower the barrier for scientists concerned about tacit codes to come forward and talk to the media. Recommendations: The mass media should seek more insight into scientific knowledge, history, principles, and societies. Journalists and artists should be

  5. Language-based communication strategies that support person-centered communication with persons with dementia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Savundranayagam, Marie Y; Moore-Nielsen, Kelsey

    2015-10-01

    There are many recommended language-based strategies for effective communication with persons with dementia. What is unknown is whether effective language-based strategies are also person centered. Accordingly, the objective of this study was to examine whether language-based strategies for effective communication with persons with dementia overlapped with the following indicators of person-centered communication: recognition, negotiation, facilitation, and validation. Conversations (N = 46) between staff-resident dyads were audio-recorded during routine care tasks over 12 weeks. Staff utterances were coded twice, using language-based and person-centered categories. There were 21 language-based categories and 4 person-centered categories. There were 5,800 utterances transcribed: 2,409 without indicators, 1,699 coded as language or person centered, and 1,692 overlapping utterances. For recognition, 26% of utterances were greetings, 21% were affirmations, 13% were questions (yes/no and open-ended), and 15% involved rephrasing. Questions (yes/no, choice, and open-ended) comprised 74% of utterances that were coded as negotiation. A similar pattern was observed for utterances coded as facilitation where 51% of utterances coded as facilitation were yes/no questions, open-ended questions, and choice questions. However, 21% of facilitative utterances were affirmations and 13% involved rephrasing. Finally, 89% of utterances coded as validation were affirmations. The findings identify specific language-based strategies that support person-centered communication. However, between 1 and 4, out of a possible 21 language-based strategies, overlapped with at least 10% of utterances coded as each person-centered indicator. This finding suggests that staff need training to use more diverse language strategies that support personhood of residents with dementia.

  6. Stephen Hawking's Community-Bound Voice A Functional Investigation of Self-Mentions in Stephen Hawking's Scientific Prose

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Davud Kuhi

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Thanks to the development of the concept of metadiscourse, it is now widely acknowledged that academic/scientific writing is not only concerned with communicating purely propositional meanings: what is communicated through academic/scientific communication is seen to be intertwined with the negotiation of social and interpersonal meanings. While a large number of so called metadiscoursal resources contribute to the simultaneous negotiation of propositional and interpersonal meanings, the present study aimed at investigating the functions self-mention forms can fulfill in academic/scientific communication. Two of Stephen Hawking's scientific books were selected as the corpus of the research, and based on Tang and John's (1999 model, the constructed corpus was analyzed in terms of the functions self-mention forms can fulfill in academic/scientific writing. The findings revealed that from among the different roles identified by Tang and John, the representative role constituted the most frequent self-mention function in the corpus. The remarkably heavy presence of representative role in Hawking's scientific prose was interpreted as a further evidence for the claim that scientists are more likely to persuade readers of their ideas if they frame their messages in ways which appeal to appropriate community-recognized relationships.

  7. Technical innovation and policy of scientific technique

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Song, Wi Jin

    2006-04-01

    This book deals with system of innovation and policy of scientific technology : main view point and Topic, technical politics and technical learning, spread of internet and change of structure in information and communications industry, characteristic of technical innovation of software as open source, transfer into national innovation system, change of activity of public scientific technology, theory on technical innovation, evolution of technical innovation policy and participation of civil.

  8. Advanced Excel for scientific data analysis

    CERN Document Server

    De Levie, Robert

    2004-01-01

    Excel is by far the most widely distributed data analysis software but few users are aware of its full powers. Advanced Excel For Scientific Data Analysis takes off from where most books dealing with scientific applications of Excel end. It focuses on three areas-least squares, Fourier transformation, and digital simulation-and illustrates these with extensive examples, often taken from the literature. It also includes and describes a number of sample macros and functions to facilitate common data analysis tasks. These macros and functions are provided in uncompiled, computer-readable, easily

  9. Expert Opinion Is Necessary: Delphi Panel Methodology Facilitates a Scientific Approach to Consensus.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hohmann, Erik; Brand, Jefferson C; Rossi, Michael J; Lubowitz, James H

    2018-02-01

    Our current trend and focus on evidence-based medicine is biased in favor of randomized controlled trials, which are ranked highest in the hierarchy of evidence while devaluing expert opinion, which is ranked lowest in the hierarchy. However, randomized controlled trials have weaknesses as well as strengths, and no research method is flawless. Moreover, stringent application of scientific research techniques, such as the Delphi Panel methodology, allows survey of experts in a high quality and scientific manner. Level V evidence (expert opinion) remains a necessary component in the armamentarium used to determine the answer to a clinical question. Copyright © 2017 Arthroscopy Association of North America. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Facilitating Learning at Conferences

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ravn, Ib; Elsborg, Steen

    2011-01-01

    The typical conference consists of a series of PowerPoint presentations that tend to render participants passive. Students of learning have long abandoned the transfer model that underlies such one-way communication. We propose an al-ternative theory of conferences that sees them as a forum...... for learning, mutual inspiration and human flourishing. We offer five design principles that specify how conferences may engage participants more and hence increase their learning. In the research-and-development effort reported here, our team collaborated with conference organizers in Denmark to introduce...... and facilitate a variety of simple learning techniques at thirty one- and two-day conferences of up to 300 participants each. We present ten of these techniques and data evaluating them. We conclude that if conference organizers allocate a fraction of the total conference time to facilitated processes...

  11. Facilitating Transfers

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kjær, Poul F.

    2018-01-01

    Departing from the paradox that globalisation has implied an increase, rather than a decrease, in contextual diversity, this paper re-assesses the function, normative purpose and location of Regulatory Governance Frameworks in world society. Drawing on insights from sociology of law and world...... society studies, the argument advanced is that Regulatory Governance Frameworks are oriented towards facilitating transfers of condensed social components, such as economic capital and products, legal acts, political decisions and scientific knowledge, from one legally-constituted normative order, i.......e. contextual setting, to another. Against this background, it is suggested that Regulatory Governance Frameworks can be understood as schemes which act as ‘rites of passage’ aimed at providing legal stabilisation to social processes characterised by liminality, i.e ambiguity, hybridity and in-betweenness....

  12. Improving risk communication through interactive training in communication skills

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    White, D.A.; White, R.K.

    1990-01-01

    This paper describes a workshop in communication and public speaking skills recently conducted for a group of public officials whose responsibilities include presenting risk information at public meetings associated with hazardous waste sites. We detail the development and execution of the 2 1/2 day workshop, including the development and integration of a 45-minute video of a simulated public meeting used to illustrate examples of good and bad communication behaviors. The workshop uses a mock public meeting video, participatory video exercises, role-playing, and instructor, and a resource text. This interactive approach to teaching communication skills can help sensitize scientists to the public's understanding of risk and improve scientists' confidence and effectiveness in communicating scientific information. 10 refs., 1 fig.

  13. Interdisciplinary Communication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nagib Callaos

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Communication is fundamental in scientific practice and an integral part of academic work. The practice of communication cannot be neglected by those who are trying to advance scientific research. Effective means should continuously be identified in order to open channels of communication within and among disciplines, among scientists and between scientists and the general public.[1]The increasing importance of interdisciplinary communication has been pointed out by an increasing number of researchers and scholars, as well as in conferences and roundtables on the subject. Some authors even estimate that "interdisciplinary study represents the future of the university."[2] Since interdisciplinary study is "the most underthought critical, pedagogical and institutional concept in modern academy"[3] it is important to think and reflect, and even do some research, on this concept or notion. Research and practice based reflections with regards to this issue are important especially because the increasing complexity and proliferation of scientific research is generating countless specialties, sub-specialties and sub-sub-specialties, with their respective special languages; which were "created for discrete local areas of research based upon the disconnected branches of science."[4] On the other hand, scientific, technical and societal problems are requiring multi- or inter-disciplinary consideration. Consequently, interdisciplinary communication channels are being needed with urgency, and scientific research should be integrated, not just in the context of its discipline, but also in the context of related disciplines. Much more reflection and research should be done on this issue. Research on adequate research integration and communication is urgently required, i.e. meta-research efforts should be done in order to relate research results in an adequate and more useful way. This meta-research effort might be done in the context of each particular

  14. Communicating science in social settings

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scheufele, Dietram A.

    2013-01-01

    This essay examines the societal dynamics surrounding modern science. It first discusses a number of challenges facing any effort to communicate science in social environments: lay publics with varying levels of preparedness for fully understanding new scientific breakthroughs; the deterioration of traditional media infrastructures; and an increasingly complex set of emerging technologies that are surrounded by a host of ethical, legal, and social considerations. Based on this overview, I discuss four areas in which empirical social science helps clarify intuitive but sometimes faulty assumptions about the social-level mechanisms of science communication and outline an agenda for bench and social scientists—driven by current social-scientific research in the field of science communication—to guide more effective communication efforts at the societal level in the future. PMID:23940341

  15. Scientific and technological information: analysis of periodic publications of information science

    OpenAIRE

    Mayara Cintya do Nascimento Vasconcelos; Gabriela Belmont de Farias

    2017-01-01

    The research analyzes the articles published in national scientific journals of the area of Information Science, classified with Qualis A1, having as parameter the term "scientific and technological information". It presents concepts about scientific and technological information and the processes that involve its uses, as well as scientific communication, information flows and sources of information. The methodology used is a descriptive study with a quantitative-qualitative approach, using ...

  16. "That is how I speak nowadays" - experiences of remote communication among persons with communicative and cognitive disabilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buchholz, Margret; Ferm, Ulrika; Holmgren, Kristina

    2018-06-01

    The aim of the study was to explore the experiences of remote communication (i.e., communication between persons who are not in the same place) among people with communicative and cognitive disabilities. Eleven adolescents and adults were interviewed using Talking Mats and interview data was analyzed qualitatively with systematic text condensation. The use of remote communication varies between the participants. The participants also value remote communication differently. Having the possibility to choose between different means of remote communication is important. Being able to determine whether to communicate independently or with support from another person is also valued as relevant. Strategies used to manage remote communication include facilitating for the communication partner and preparing for future communication situations. Those who are able to use writing as an alternative to problematic spoken remote communication like phone calls, for example by using chat or text messaging. Decisions regarding means of communication and human support relate to the concept of self-determination. Better access to remote communication trough assistive technology such as speech synthesis and picture symbols would make remote communication easier and facilitate participation for people with communicative and cognitive disabilities. Implications for rehabilitation People with communicative and cognitive disabilities face challenges with access to remote communication. Access to communication technology including remote communication is important for self-determination, for personal safety and for overall participation in society. Communication technology should be considered in the rehabilitation process and training is crucial. To understand the possible benefits of remote communication, people with communicative and cognitive disability need to get the possibility to practice. Professionals play a key role in the assessment and intervention of remote communication for

  17. How Scientists Develop Competence in Visual Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ostergren, Marilyn

    2013-01-01

    Visuals (maps, charts, diagrams and illustrations) are an important tool for communication in most scientific disciplines, which means that scientists benefit from having strong visual communication skills. This dissertation examines the nature of competence in visual communication and the means by which scientists acquire this competence. This…

  18. Improving nurse-patient communication with patients with communication impairments: hospital nurses' views on the feasibility of using mobile communication technologies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharpe, Bridget; Hemsley, Bronwyn

    2016-05-01

    Nurses communicating with patients who are unable to speak often lack access to tools and technologies to support communication. Although mobile communication technologies are ubiquitous, it is not known whether their use to support communication is feasible on a busy hospital ward. The aim of this study was to determine the views of hospital nurses on the feasibility of using mobile communication technologies to support nurse-patient communication with individuals who have communication impairments. This study involved an online survey followed by a focus group, with findings analyzed across the two data sources. Nurses expected that mobile communication devices could benefit patient care but lacked access to these devices, encountered policies against use, and held concerns over privacy and confidentiality. The use of mobile communication technologies with patients who have communication difficulties is feasible and may lead to improvements in communication and care, provided environmental barriers are removed and facilitators enhanced. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. Insafing: New Promising Form of Intellectual Communication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yury P. Dus

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available The article explores a new form of intellectual communication built in accordance with an in-advance-prepared sense scheme. This type of communication utilizes the elements of Activity Organizing Games called Insafing. The article suggests a retrospective review of the scientific researches, particularly, the researches of the Russian scientific schools that served as the basis for Insafing technology development. Furthermore, the scientific and methodological fundamentals of Insafing based on the Theory of Dynamic Information Systems (TDIS and the methods of cognitive engineering are discussed. The article also provides an example of Insafing application to tourism industry development in an urban area.

  20. Using Television Sitcoms to Facilitate Asynchronous Discussions in the Online Communication Course

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tolman, Elizabeth; Asbury, Bryan

    2012-01-01

    Asynchronous discussions are a useful instructional resource in the online communication course. In discussion groups students have the opportunity to actively participate and interact with students and the instructor. Asynchronous communication allows for flexibility because "participants can interact with significant amounts of time between…

  1. Fostering Scientific Reasoning in Education--Meta-Analytic Evidence from Intervention Studies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Engelmann, Katharina; Neuhaus, Birgit J.; Fischer, Frank

    2016-01-01

    Scientific reasoning skills are not just for researchers, they are also increasingly relevant for making informed decisions in our everyday lives. How can these skills be facilitated? The current state of research on supporting scientific reasoning includes intervention studies but lacks an integrated analysis of the approaches to foster…

  2. Listening for Details of Talk: Early Childhood Parent-Teacher Conference Communication Facilitators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheatham, Gregory A.; Ostrosky, Michaelene M.

    2009-01-01

    In this article, the authors present parent-educator conversations, which were selected to illustrate common communication patterns and provide links to some of the Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children's recommended practices for communicating and collaborating with parents. Using conversation analysis, researchers…

  3. Recommended programming practices to facilitate the portability of science computer programs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1983-01-01

    This standard recommends programming practices to facilitate the portability of computer programs prepared for scientific and engineering computations. These practices are intended to simplify implementation, conversion, and modification of computer programs

  4. Envisioning Instructional Communication Research as a Multi-Paradigmatic Response to Neoliberalism's Effect on Instruction. Forum: The Future of Instructional Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kahl, David H., Jr.

    2017-01-01

    Throughout its history, instructional communication research has played an important role in the discipline of Communication. In tracing its lineage, Myers (2010) explains that instructional communication research has focused on communicative behaviors that instructors use with their students to better understand and facilitate affective and…

  5. Scientific publications in Nepal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Magar, A

    2012-09-01

    Scientific publications have become a mainstay of communication among readers, academicians, researchers and scientists worldwide. Although, its existence dates back to 17 th century in the West, Nepal is still struggling to take few steps towards improving its local science for last 50 years. Since the start of the first medical journal in 1963, the challenges remains as it were decades back regarding role of authors, peer reviewers, editors and even publishers in Nepal. Although, there has been some development in terms of the number of articles being published and appearances of the journals, yet there is a long way to go. This article analyzes the past and present scenario, and future perspective for scientific publications in Nepal.

  6. Mental Health Consultation: An Untapped Tool for Facilitating Volatile Intercultural Diversity Group Dialogs

    Science.gov (United States)

    marbley, aretha faye; Stevens, Hal; Taylor, Colette M.; Ritter, Rachelle Berg; Robinson, Petra A.; McGaha, Valerie; Bonner, Fred A., II; Li, Jiaqi

    2015-01-01

    There is an urgent need for leadership skills when facilitating communication and engendering acceptance and respect among people from culturally different backgrounds, opposing viewpoints, and vastly different experiences. Thus, when facilitating intercultural group dialogs, varying institutions, agencies, and businesses need culturally competent…

  7. Interprofessional communication in organ transplantation in ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Results. Facilitators of interprofessional transplant communication included appreciation of its importance to good practice and cohesive individual transplant teams. Barriers to interprofessional communication were observed when individual teams had to come together in a multi-team, interdisciplinary environment, when ...

  8. THE IMPACT OF NEW INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS ACCOUNTING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Valentin Ioan UŞURELU

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available The studied field has suffered continuous transformation, both in interaction with other scientific fields and in constituent sub-classes, for discovering and understanding more deeply the contemporary economic realities under the impact of major trends of world development. This paper aims to analyze the location and the effects of information and communication technologies within the public accounting in order to evaluate the effects of this element on accounting research, teaching and professional practice. In a comprehensive approach of public institutions accounting, new information and communication technologies represent a tool that facilitates the accounting function and realizes the connection between the transmitter and the receiver, both within and outside the organization, not just at the micro and macro economic level but also at the micro and macro social one. The advantages of recent progress of information and communication technologies are obvious for the organizations management. It highlights the developments and challenges represented by these new technologies for researchers and professionals in the idea of performing a broad and flexible view of public accounting enabling them to provide useful services for all categories of users of accounting information.

  9. Communications programs: Planning for the future

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    D'Alessandro, J.S.

    1991-01-01

    In the past, the norm has been for developers and project managers to treat communications programs as a secondary, and thus less important, component of a project. Today, a communications program is one of the most important components of a project and communications personnel must be considered integral members of the project management team. The first step to facilitate the flow of information is to establish a presence in the affected community as soon as possible. Design a communications program that operates on several levels simultaneously. While the message should remain consistent, delivery mechanisms and packaging should be tailored to the particular audience. Realize that the communications program is as important to the success of the project as is its financing and engineering. Choose the right people to communicate the message; they must be believable. Never forget that the project is affecting the lives of real people and that it is real people you are attempting to communicate with. The final suggestion is to design the communications program so that it has as many avenues for input, both internally and externally, as it does for output. For any communications program to be truly effective, it must not merely communicate a message, but must also facilitate the establishment of positive relationships between the project and both its supporters and opponents

  10. Measuring social networks in British primary schools through scientific engagement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Conlan, A. J. K.; Eames, K. T. D.; Gage, J. A.; von Kirchbach, J. C.; Ross, J. V.; Saenz, R. A.; Gog, J. R.

    2011-01-01

    Primary schools constitute a key risk group for the transmission of infectious diseases, concentrating great numbers of immunologically naive individuals at high densities. Despite this, very little is known about the social patterns of mixing within a school, which are likely to contribute to disease transmission. In this study, we present a novel approach where scientific engagement was used as a tool to access school populations and measure social networks between young (4–11 years) children. By embedding our research project within enrichment activities to older secondary school (13–15) children, we could exploit the existing links between schools to achieve a high response rate for our study population (around 90% in most schools). Social contacts of primary school children were measured through self-reporting based on a questionnaire design, and analysed using the techniques of social network analysis. We find evidence of marked social structure and gender assortativity within and between classrooms in the same school. These patterns have been previously reported in smaller studies, but to our knowledge no study has attempted to exhaustively sample entire school populations. Our innovative approach facilitates access to a vitally important (but difficult to sample) epidemiological sub-group. It provides a model whereby scientific communication can be used to enhance, rather than merely complement, the outcomes of research. PMID:21047859

  11. Instant messenger-facilitated knowledge sharing and team performance

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ou, C.X.J.; Davison, R.M.; Leung, D.

    2014-01-01

    The instant messenger (IM) is frequently encountered as a facilitator of communication in both social and working contexts. Nevertheless, there are concerns about the extent to which IMs bring organizational benefits, thereby overcoming interruptions to work. In this study, we focus on how IM tools

  12. IPEN (Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares) technical-scientific production - 1995-1996

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1998-03-01

    The biannual report of 1995-1996 of IPEN (Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares) - Brazilian organization - presents the technical and scientific production accomplished in the period - 975 woks - and introduces the next main topics: articles of periodicals; scientific events - complete texts; dissertations and thesis; scientific events - complete texts - communications, summaries and panels; IPEN publications; books; authors index; scientific events index; subjects index; and periodicals index

  13. A framework for visual communication at Nature.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krause, Kelly

    2016-04-25

    The scientific journal Nature, published weekly since 1869, serves as an excellent case study in visual communication. While journals are becoming increasingly specialist, Nature remains firmly multidisciplinary; and unlike many scientific journals, it contains original journalism, opinion pieces, and expert analysis in addition to peer-reviewed research papers. This variety of content types-covering an extensive range of scientific disciplines-translates into a wide and varied audience, and the need to employ an equally wide variety of communication styles.For example, a research paper may employ technical language to communicate to a highly specialized audience in that field, whereas a news story on the same subject will explain the science to an educated lay audience, often adding a wider context and stripping out acronyms. Each type of piece will use a communication approach tailored for its intended audience.This is true for visual content as well: the intended audience of a scientific figure, illustration or data visualization will determine the design approach to that visual. At Nature, given the high volume of content plus high quality standards, this process is applied in a fairly systematic way, using a framework to guide creative decision-making. That framework is described here, along with a discussion of best practices for the design of research figures and graphics by context. © The Author(s) 2016.

  14. Design and Assessment of an Assignment-Based Curriculum to Teach Scientific Writing and Scientific Peer Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Glaser, Rainer E.

    2014-01-01

    A writing-intensive, upper-level undergraduate course which integrates content, context, collaboration, and communication in a unique fashion, is described. The topic of the seminar is "Scientific Writing in Chemistry" and an assignment-based curriculum was developed to instruct students on best practices in all aspects of science…

  15. Writing-to-Learn, Writing-to-Communicate, & Scientific Literacy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balgopal, Meena; Wallace, Alison

    2013-01-01

    Writing-to-learn (WTL) is an effective instructional and learning strategy that centers on the process of organizing and articulating ideas, as opposed to writing-to-communicate, which centers on the finished written product. We describe a WTL model that we have developed and tested with various student groups over several years. With effective…

  16. Of Human Bodies in Scientific Communication and Enculturation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hwang, SungWon; Roth, Wolff-Michael

    2008-01-01

    How do students become enculturated and come to enact culture in ways that are new to them? This study probes the dialectical processes of enculturation, the central aspect of which is the role of human bodies in communication. For students, as for any individual, culture exists in terms of action possibilities that presuppose their…

  17. Introducing Pre-university Students to Primary Scientific Literature Through Argumentation Analysis

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Koeneman, Marcel; Goedhart, Martin; Ossevoort, Miriam

    2013-01-01

    Primary scientific literature is one of the most important means of communication in science, written for peers in the scientific community. Primary literature provides an authentic context for showing students how scientists support their claims. Several teaching strategies have been proposed using

  18. THE ANALYTICAL SURVEY OF THE MODERN UKRAINIAN SCIENTIFIC-PEDAGOGICAL ONLINE PERIODICALS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nataliia A. Khmil

    2010-08-01

    Full Text Available The analysis of the modern native scientific-pedagogical online periodicals (there are concurrent, integrated and original are represented in this article. Their structure and their informational renewal, advantages and disadvantages as the manner of scientific-pedagogical communication are observed.

  19. Center for Technology for Advanced Scientific Component Software (TASCS)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Damevski, Kostadin [Virginia State Univ., Petersburg, VA (United States)

    2009-03-30

    A resounding success of the Scientific Discover through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) program is that high-performance computational science is now universally recognized as a critical aspect of scientific discovery [71], complementing both theoretical and experimental research. As scientific communities prepare to exploit unprecedened computing capabilities of emerging leadership-class machines for multi-model simulations at the extreme scale [72], it is more important than ever to address the technical and social challenges of geographically distributed teams that combine expertise in domain science, applied mathematics, and computer science to build robust and flexible codes that can incorporate changes over time. The Center for Technology for Advanced Scientific Component Software (TASCS) tackles these issues by exploiting component-based software development to facilitate collaborative hig-performance scientific computing.

  20. INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION IN POLITICS?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ovidiu-Aurel GHIUŢĂ

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available The current study has practical applicability in politic al domain and theoretical involvement at politicalmarketing communication level. The type of the research is a qualitative one, using as survey methods scientificobservation and documentary search. The aim of the research is to prove the applicability of marketing communicationconcept integrated in political marketing and global marketing communication. There are also exceptions, justanalyzing the industry – politics, in which integrated communication can’t be considered global communication.The subject of integrated marketing communication is relatively a new one in marketing (two decades, but itsapplicability in political domain and the specifications that assumes this application represents o new vision atEuropean and worldwide level. This study clearly presents the differences between the integrated marketingcommunication and global marketing communication.In documentary research, the author used studies belonging to Anglo – Saxons theoreticians and practitioners(Americans, Canadians, British but also Europeans (French, Belgians, Romanians. The main reason is the fact that inmarketing domain on extremely narrow scientific sections the visions belonging to these two main orientations aren’talways equable. Also, in scientific observation, t he research analyses political events from United States of America,France and Romania. Due to this reason, we can affirm that the current study has not only a regional applicability butalso a global one.

  1. The Psychological Scientific Community that Publishes in the Journal Universitas Psychologica (2002-2008

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    DIEGO MAURICIO RIVERA-GARZÓN

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available The bibliometric analysis is presented in the journal Universitas Psychologica of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana during the period 2002-2008, to identify the scientific community in the area of Psychology that published in the journal and to know the communication networks used by the community. It works with bibliometric methods to characterize the scientific community that publishes a journal, for which information was structured as follows: citante information to identify the relationships inherent in the scientific community psychology, and the information cited, which refers to the identification of the types or communication channels, which are cited in articles identified in the information citante, namely the community that publishes a journal with respect to the international scientific community

  2. Research initiatives for plug-and-play scientific computing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McInnes, Lois Curfman; Dahlgren, Tamara; Nieplocha, Jarek; Bernholdt, David; Allan, Ben; Armstrong, Rob; Chavarria, Daniel; Elwasif, Wael; Gorton, Ian; Kenny, Joe; Krishan, Manoj; Malony, Allen; Norris, Boyana; Ray, Jaideep; Shende, Sameer

    2007-01-01

    This paper introduces three component technology initiatives within the SciDAC Center for Technology for Advanced Scientific Component Software (TASCS) that address ever-increasing productivity challenges in creating, managing, and applying simulation software to scientific discovery. By leveraging the Common Component Architecture (CCA), a new component standard for high-performance scientific computing, these initiatives tackle difficulties at different but related levels in the development of component-based scientific software: (1) deploying applications on massively parallel and heterogeneous architectures, (2) investigating new approaches to the runtime enforcement of behavioral semantics, and (3) developing tools to facilitate dynamic composition, substitution, and reconfiguration of component implementations and parameters, so that application scientists can explore tradeoffs among factors such as accuracy, reliability, and performance

  3. The National Climate Assessment as a Resource for Science Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Somerville, R. C. J.

    2014-12-01

    The 2014 Third National Climate Assessment (NCA3) is scientifically authoritative and features major advances, relative to other assessments produced by several organizations. NCA3 is a valuable resource for communicating climate science to a wide variety of audiences. Other assessments were often overly detailed and laden with scientific jargon that made them appear too complex and technical to many in their intended audiences, especially policymakers, the media, and the broad public. Some other assessments emphasized extensive scientific caveats, quantitative uncertainty estimates and broad consensus support. All these attributes, while valuable in research, carry the risk of impeding science communication to non-specialists. Without compromising scientific accuracy and integrity, NCA3 is written in exceptionally clear and vivid English. It includes outstanding graphics and employs powerful techniques aimed at conveying key results unambiguously to a wide range of audiences. I have used NCA3 as a resource in speaking about climate change in three very different settings: classroom teaching for undergraduate university students, presenting in academia to historians and other non-scientists, and briefing corporate executives working on renewable energy. NCA3 proved the value of developing a climate assessment with communication goals and strategies given a high priority throughout the process, not added on as an afterthought. I draw several lessons. First, producing an outstanding scientific assessment is too complex and demanding a task to be carried out by scientists alone. Many types of specialized expertise are also needed. Second, speaking about science to a variety of audiences requires an assortment of communication skills and tools, all tailored to specific groups of listeners. Third, NCA3 is scientifically impeccable and is also an outstanding example of effective communication as well as a valuable resource for communicators.

  4. Final Scientific/Technical Report Solar America Initiative: Solar Outreach and Communications

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Weissman, Jane M

    2011-09-10

    The purpose of the Solar America Initiative: Solar Outreach and Communications grant was to promote better communications among stakeholders; address infrastructure barriers to solar energy; and coordinate with industry, the U.S. Department of Energy, national laboratories, states, cities and counties. The Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC), a non-profit organization formed in 1982, approached this grant project by establishing a wide range of communication and outreach activities including newsletters, workshops, webinars, model practices and publications; by advancing easy and fair hook-up rules to the utility grid; and by upgrading training based on industry competency standards. The Connecting to the Grid project and the Solar Codes and Standards Public Hearings project offered communication coupled with technical assistance to overcome interconnection, net metering and other regulatory and program barriers. The Workforce Development Project tackled building a strong workforce through quality training and competency assessment programs. IREC's web site, the semi-monthly state and stakeholder newsletter and the metrics report resulted in better communications among stakeholders. Workshops and phone seminars offered technical assistance and kept stakeholders up-to-date on key issues. All of these activities resulted in implementing sustainable solutions to institutional and market barriers to solar energy and getting the right information to the right people.

  5. Using Modality Replacement to Facilitate Communication between Visually and Hearing-Impaired People

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Moustakas, K.; Tzovaras, D.; Dybkjaer, L.

    2011-01-01

    Using sign language, speech, and haptics as communication modalities, a virtual treasure-hunting game serves as an entertainment and educational tool for visually-and hearing-impaired users.......Using sign language, speech, and haptics as communication modalities, a virtual treasure-hunting game serves as an entertainment and educational tool for visually-and hearing-impaired users....

  6. Between understanding and appreciation. Current science communication in Denmark (Danish original version

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kristian Hvidtfelt Nielsen

    2005-12-01

    Full Text Available In this paper I use the concepts “understanding of science” and “appreciation of science” to analyze selected case studies of current science communication in Denmark. The Danish science communication system has many similarities with science communication in other countries: the increasing political and scientific interest in science communication, the co-existence of many different kinds of science communication, and the multiple uses of the concepts of understanding vs. appreciation of science. I stress the international aspects of science communication, the national politico-scientific context as well as more local contexts as equally important conditions for understanding current Danish science communication.

  7. Nutrition Labelling: Applying Biological Concepts and Reasoning to Socio-Scientific Issues

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Yeung Chung

    2016-01-01

    Nutrition labelling, which helps consumers to make informed choices, can be used as both a context and a vehicle for students to consolidate and apply their knowledge of food and nutrition to improve health. It also facilitates students' ability to negotiate socio-scientific issues from scientific and other perspectives. This article reports a…

  8. An evaluation on the analysis of communication faculties and education system compliance with new communication technologies in Turkey

    OpenAIRE

    Bulunmaz Barış

    2016-01-01

    One of the disciplines covered in the social sciences is communication sciences. Communication; when considered from an overall and simple perspective, is defined as the transfer of messages between sender and receiver. As every kind of innovation is integrated into social life over time, increasing human-based practices and significant importance of communication emerge both scientifically and socially; communication has been more institutionalized and gained its current structure. Communica...

  9. Is risk analysis scientific?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hansson, Sven Ove; Aven, Terje

    2014-07-01

    This article discusses to what extent risk analysis is scientific in view of a set of commonly used definitions and criteria. We consider scientific knowledge to be characterized by its subject matter, its success in developing the best available knowledge in its fields of study, and the epistemic norms and values that guide scientific investigations. We proceed to assess the field of risk analysis according to these criteria. For this purpose, we use a model for risk analysis in which science is used as a base for decision making on risks, which covers the five elements evidence, knowledge base, broad risk evaluation, managerial review and judgment, and the decision; and that relates these elements to the domains experts and decisionmakers, and to the domains fact-based or value-based. We conclude that risk analysis is a scientific field of study, when understood as consisting primarily of (i) knowledge about risk-related phenomena, processes, events, etc., and (ii) concepts, theories, frameworks, approaches, principles, methods and models to understand, assess, characterize, communicate, and manage risk, in general and for specific applications (the instrumental part). © 2014 Society for Risk Analysis.

  10. Scientific report 1999

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1999-01-01

    The aim of this report is to outline the main developments of the 'Departement des Reacteurs Nucleaires' (DRN) during the year 1999. DRN is one of the CEA Institutions. This report is divided in three main parts: the DRN scientific programs, the scientific and technical publications (with abstracts in English) and economic data on staff, budget and communication. Main results of the Department for the year 1999 are presented giving information on the simulation of low mach number compressible flow, experimental irradiation of multi-materials, progress in the dry route conversion process of UF 6 to UO 2 , the neutronics, the CASCADE installation, the corium, the BWR type reactor cores technology, the reactor safety, the transmutation of americium and fuel cell flow studies, the crack propagation, the hybrid systems and the CEA sites improvement. (A.L.B.)

  11. Strategies towards Evaluation beyond Scientific Impact. Pathways not only for Agricultural Research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Birge M. Wolf

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Various research fields, like organic agricultural research, are dedicated to solving real-world problems and contributing to sustainable development. Therefore, systems research and the application of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches are increasingly endorsed. However, research performance depends not only on self-conception, but also on framework conditions of the scientific system, which are not always of benefit to such research fields. Recently, science and its framework conditions have been under increasing scrutiny as regards their ability to serve societal benefit. This provides opportunities for (organic agricultural research to engage in the development of a research system that will serve its needs. This article focuses on possible strategies for facilitating a balanced research evaluation that recognises scientific quality as well as societal relevance and applicability. These strategies are (a to strengthen the general support for evaluation beyond scientific impact, and (b to provide accessible data for such evaluations. Synergies of interest are found between open access movements and research communities focusing on global challenges and sustainability. As both are committed to increasing the societal benefit of science, they may support evaluation criteria such as knowledge production and dissemination tailored to societal needs, and the use of open access. Additional synergies exist between all those who scrutinise current research evaluation systems for their ability to serve scientific quality, which is also a precondition for societal benefit. Here, digital communication technologies provide opportunities to increase effectiveness, transparency, fairness and plurality in the dissemination of scientific results, quality assurance and reputation. Furthermore, funders may support transdisciplinary approaches and open access and improve data availability for evaluation beyond scientific impact. If they begin to

  12. Navigating climate communication in Trump's America

    Science.gov (United States)

    Myhre, S. E.

    2017-12-01

    The rise of anti-evidence, climate-dismissive hate speech from the United States Presidency changes the landscape of decisions and public actions for scientists. Indeed, it is a challenging and necessary time to communicate in public as a scientist. The professional paradigm of science communication, which emphasizes storytelling, narrative, and personality, is an insufficient toolkit for navigating these political, ideological, and dysfunctional spaces. When basic scientific evidence is distorted through a partisan lens, scientific communication will be viewed as political speech. This is a problem, because information and data are critical tools for governance. What is more, tribalism, nationalism, misogyny, and racism have been emboldened in our culture, and these views can be coupled with climate-dismissive public voices. It is naïve for institutions, in this political moment, to expect scholars participating in public communication and engagement to simply "keep it to the science". In truth, that apolitical middle ground does not exist - it is a fabrication meant to devalue consensus climate science and to devalue the voices of women, people of color, and other marginalized scientists. Who are we to not advocate for the lives and futures of our families, colleagues, and communities? We need to look directly at the misfit between our public scientific communication and the vacuum of leadership and integrity exhibited at the very top of the US political system. Scientists have a vital culture role, and we must choose wholehearted public engagement and climate leadership during this challenging time.

  13. Scientific Integrity Policy Creation and Implementation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koizumi, K.

    2017-12-01

    Ensuring the integrity of science was a priority for the Obama Administration. In March 2009, President Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum that recognized the need for the public to be able to trust the science and scientific process informing public policy decisions. In 2010, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued a Memorandum providing guidelines for Federal departments and agencies to follow in developing scientific integrity policies. This Memorandum describes minimum standards for: (1) strengthening the foundations of scientific integrity in government, including by shielding scientific data and analysis from inappropriate political influence; (2) improving public communication about science and technology by promoting openness and transparency; (3) enhancing the ability of Federal Advisory Committees to provide independent scientific advice; and (4) supporting the professional development of government scientists and engineers. The Memorandum called upon the heads of departments and agencies to develop scientific integrity policies that meet these requirements. At the end of the Obama Administration, 24 Federal departments and agencies had developed and implemented scientific integrity policies consistent with the OSTP guidelines. This year, there are significant questions as to the Trump Administration's commitment to these scientific integrity policies and interest in the Congress in codifying these policies in law. The session will provide an update on the status of agency scientific integrity policies and legislation.

  14. Communication access in the library for individuals who use augmentative and alternative communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shepherd, Tracy A; McDougall, Stacy

    2008-12-01

    Libraries for All is a community-based program that aims to enhance communication access to the library for individuals who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), by providing resources and instruction. The goals are to (a) provide communication boards, (b) complete facilitator training, and (c) promote the program. To accomplish these goals, four communication boards were created and provided to all public libraries in London, Ontario. A train-the-trainer model was employed to ensure that all members of the library staff were familiar with the boards and aware of strategies to communicate more effectively with individuals who use AAC. Marketing materials were sent to potential stakeholders. The success of the program in meeting these three goals is highlighted.

  15. Resonant communicators, effective communicators. Communicator’s flow and credibility

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Irene García-Ureta, Ph.D

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Communication studies have been integrating the latest developments in cognitive sciences and acknowledging the importance of understanding the subjective processes involved in communication. This article argues that communication studies should also take into account the psychology of the communicator. This article presents the theoretical basis and the results of a training programme designed for audiovisual communicators. The programme is based on the theories of self-efficacy and flow and seeks to improve students’ communication competencies through the use of presentation techniques and psychological skills to tackle communication apprehension. The programme involves an active methodology that is based on modelling, visualisation, immediate feedback and positive reinforcement. A repeated-measures ANOVA shows that the programme successfully decreases the level of communication apprehension, improves the perceived self-efficacy, improves the psychological state needed to perform better in front of the cameras (flow, and improves students’ communication skills. A path analysis proved that the perceived self-efficacy and anxiety levels predict the level of flow during the communication act. At the end of the training programme, those who experienced higher levels of flow and enjoyment during the communication task achieved higher quality levels in their communication exercise. It is concluded that the concepts of self-efficacy and flow facilitate advancing in the understanding of the factors that determine a communicator’s credibility and ability to connect with the audience.

  16. Communicating Ocean Acidification and Climate Change to Public Audiences Using Scientific Data, Interactive Exploration Tools, and Visual Narratives

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, M. K.; Rossiter, A.; Spitzer, W.

    2016-12-01

    The Exploratorium, a hands-on science museum, explores local environmental conditions of San Francisco Bay to connect audiences to the larger global implications of ocean acidification and climate change. The work is centered in the Fisher Bay Observatory at Pier 15, a glass-walled gallery sited for explorations of urban San Francisco and the Bay. Interactive exhibits, high-resolution data visualizations, and mediated activities and conversations communicate to public audiences the impacts of excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and ocean. Through a 10-year education partnership with NOAA and two environmental literacy grants funded by its Office of Education, the Exploratorium has been part of two distinct but complementary strategies to increase climate literacy beyond traditional classroom settings. We will discuss two projects that address the ways complex scientific information can be transformed into learning opportunities for the public, providing information citizens can use for decision-making in their personal lives and their communities. The Visualizing Change project developed "visual narratives" that combine scientific visualizations and other images with story telling about the science and potential solutions of climate impacts on the ocean. The narratives were designed to engage curiosity and provide the public with hopeful and useful information to stimulate solutions-oriented behavior rather than to communicate despair about climate change. Training workshops for aquarium and museum docents prepare informal educators to use the narratives and help them frame productive conversations with the pubic. The Carbon Networks project, led by the Exploratorium, uses local and Pacific Rim data to explore the current state of climate change and ocean acidification. The Exploratorium collects and displays local ocean and atmosphere data as a member of the Central and Northern California Ocean Observing System and as an observing station for NOAA's Pacific

  17. A Progressive Reading, Writing, and Artistic Module to Support Scientific Literacy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stephanie B. Stockwell

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Scientific literacy, marked by the ability and willingness to engage with scientific information, is supported through a new genre of citizen science—course-based research in association with undergraduate laboratories. A three-phased progressive learning module was developed to enhance student engagement in such contexts while supporting three learning outcomes: I present an argument based on evidence, II analyze science and scientists within a social context, and III experience, reflect upon, and communicate the nature of scientific discovery. Phase I entails guided reading and reflection of citizen science–themed texts. In Phase II, students write, peer-review, and edit position and counterpoint papers inspired by the following prompt, “Nonscientists should do scientific research.” Phase III involves two creative assignments intended to communicate the true nature of science. Students work collaboratively to develop public service announcement–like poster campaigns to debunk a common misconception about the nature of science or scientists. Individually, they create a work of art to communicate a specific message about the raw experience of performing scientific research. Suggestions for implementation and modifications are provided. Strengths of the module include the development of transferable skills, temporal distribution of grading demands, minimal in-class time needed for implementation, and the inclusion of artistic projects to support affective learning domains. This citizen science–themed learning module is an excellent complement to laboratory coursework, as it serves to surprise, challenge, and inspire students while promoting disciplinary values.

  18. A Progressive Reading, Writing, and Artistic Module to Support Scientific Literacy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stockwell, Stephanie B

    2016-03-01

    Scientific literacy, marked by the ability and willingness to engage with scientific information, is supported through a new genre of citizen science-course-based research in association with undergraduate laboratories. A three-phased progressive learning module was developed to enhance student engagement in such contexts while supporting three learning outcomes: I) present an argument based on evidence, II) analyze science and scientists within a social context, and III) experience, reflect upon, and communicate the nature of scientific discovery. Phase I entails guided reading and reflection of citizen science-themed texts. In Phase II, students write, peer-review, and edit position and counterpoint papers inspired by the following prompt, "Nonscientists should do scientific research." Phase III involves two creative assignments intended to communicate the true nature of science. Students work collaboratively to develop public service announcement-like poster campaigns to debunk a common misconception about the nature of science or scientists. Individually, they create a work of art to communicate a specific message about the raw experience of performing scientific research. Suggestions for implementation and modifications are provided. Strengths of the module include the development of transferable skills, temporal distribution of grading demands, minimal in-class time needed for implementation, and the inclusion of artistic projects to support affective learning domains. This citizen science-themed learning module is an excellent complement to laboratory coursework, as it serves to surprise, challenge, and inspire students while promoting disciplinary values.

  19. A Progressive Reading, Writing, and Artistic Module to Support Scientific Literacy†

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stockwell, Stephanie B.

    2016-01-01

    Scientific literacy, marked by the ability and willingness to engage with scientific information, is supported through a new genre of citizen science—course-based research in association with undergraduate laboratories. A three-phased progressive learning module was developed to enhance student engagement in such contexts while supporting three learning outcomes: I) present an argument based on evidence, II) analyze science and scientists within a social context, and III) experience, reflect upon, and communicate the nature of scientific discovery. Phase I entails guided reading and reflection of citizen science–themed texts. In Phase II, students write, peer-review, and edit position and counterpoint papers inspired by the following prompt, “Nonscientists should do scientific research.” Phase III involves two creative assignments intended to communicate the true nature of science. Students work collaboratively to develop public service announcement–like poster campaigns to debunk a common misconception about the nature of science or scientists. Individually, they create a work of art to communicate a specific message about the raw experience of performing scientific research. Suggestions for implementation and modifications are provided. Strengths of the module include the development of transferable skills, temporal distribution of grading demands, minimal in-class time needed for implementation, and the inclusion of artistic projects to support affective learning domains. This citizen science–themed learning module is an excellent complement to laboratory coursework, as it serves to surprise, challenge, and inspire students while promoting disciplinary values. PMID:27047600

  20. Religious communication and hegemony of mass media

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Petrushkevych Maria Stefanivna

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Religious communication is the complex object of scientific research that involves existential component and the inextricable link with relevant historical trends. Mass culture and the information society put pressure on modern religious communication. Media is actively integrating into the system of religious communication. Hegemony of mass communication is realized through the media and religious communicative system becomes the part of this hegemony. Peculiarities of religious communication processes are conditioned by consciousness of itself impact and the need to integrate into the media system.

  1. The role of law as an instrument of communication within legal positivism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Claudiu Ramon D. Butculescu

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available This article tackles some aspects concerning the role of law as an instrument of communication from the perspective of legal positivism. The paper presents considerations regarding law communication in relation to legal positivism and scientific positivism. At the same time, the article examines the correlations between the legal communication models and the various inclinations developed under legal positivism. Both within legal positivism and the scientific positivism, the role of law as a communication tool is essential. The concept of legal communication should be considered as the idea of understanding the legal norm by the recipients of law, namely by persons and also acceptance of these rules in order to respect them. Also, clarity and transparency in law communication are very important elements that contribute to the way in which legal standards are received. The analysis of legal communication from the perspective of legal positivism presents a special scientific interest, given the very essence of positivism, namely that the laws are commands of the human being. Thus, it is important to analyze communication patterns that can be applied in the positivist orientation to consistently appreciate the ways in which legal communication can be improved.

  2. NASA Guidelines for Promoting Scientific and Research Integrity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaminski, Amy P.; Neogi, Natasha A.

    2017-01-01

    This guidebook provides an overarching summary of existing policies, activities, and guiding principles for scientific and research integrity with which NASA's workforce and affiliates must conform. This document addresses NASA's obligations as both a research institution and as a funder of research, NASA's use of federal advisory committees, NASA's public communication of research results, and professional development of NASA's workforce. This guidebook is intended to provide a single resource for NASA researchers, NASA research program administrators and project managers, external entities who do or might receive funding from NASA for research or technical projects, evaluators of NASA research proposals, NASA advisory committee members, NASA communications specialists, and members of the general public so that they can understand NASA's commitment to and expectations for scientific and integrity across the agency.

  3. Climate Change: Making the Best Use of Scientific Information

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva

    2012-01-01

    Climate science regularly makes headlines in the media, usually after an extreme weather event or a disaster, or in the wake of campaigns by think tanks about the science of climate change. In this presentation, I discuss four specific challenges that are posed to climate scientist when communicating with the public: (i) The widening gap between the scientific literacy of the public and the communication literacy of the scientists; (ii), the multiplicity of scientific information conduits; (iii), information of, and under, uncertainty; and (iv), the requirement to be precise without using technical language. It turns out that these challenges are quite generic to science communication. Climate scientists have learned from the regular international assessments they perform under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and have accumulated a collective experience of more than 20 years. In this presentation I discuss the most important lessons learned from this experience and their relevant...

  4. Communications: roots of the problem

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Olds, F.C.

    1986-01-01

    Waste management programs are having great difficulty in gaining public and political acceptance in a number of countries. Communications have played a major role in this adverse development. The spectrum of communications consists of many types of information exchange. At one end of the spectrum is the scientific peer-group discussion through which a consensus of technical truth is established. At the other end of the spectrum lies the political type of communication, the goal of which is to win scientific truths, not withstanding. Opponents of nuclear power have had much more success in their use of political types of communications than the proponents have had in their use of scientific facts. The reasons for this difference in degrees of success are set forth. Political and social trends play an important role. For example, the trend toward what is called 'participatory democracy' is advantageous for nuclear power opponents because it puts the power of making final decisions on complex matters into the hands of masses of people who lack the knowledge by which to arrive at intelligent decisions. All these adverse factors, however weighty they are, should not have rendered the nuclear industry as helpless as it seems to be in its quest for public and political acceptance. There are some 50 ways of reaching the public and the politicians that do not depend on such mass media vehicles as TV and newspapers. These 50 are under-utilized by the nuclear community

  5. Medical students' and facilitators' experiences of an Early Professional Contact course: active and motivated students, strained facilitators.

    Science.gov (United States)

    von Below, Bernhard; Hellquist, Gunilla; Rödjer, Stig; Gunnarsson, Ronny; Björkelund, Cecilia; Wahlqvist, Mats

    2008-12-02

    Today, medical students are introduced to patient contact, communication skills, and clinical examination in the preclinical years of the curriculum with the purpose of gaining clinical experience. These courses are often evaluated from the student perspective. Reports with an additional emphasis on the facilitator perspective are scarce. According to constructive alignment, an influential concept from research in higher education, the learning climate between students and teachers is also of great importance. In this paper, we approach the learning climate by studying both students' and facilitators' course experiences.In 2001, a new "Early Professional Contact" longitudinal strand through term 1-4, was introduced at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. General practitioners and hospital specialists were facilitators.The aim of this study was to assess and analyse students' and clinical facilitators' experiences of the Early Professional Contact course and to illuminate facilitators' working conditions. Inspired by a Swedish adaptation of the Course Experience Questionnaire, an Early Professional Contact Questionnaire was constructed. In 2003, on the completion of the first longitudinal strand, a student and facilitator version was distributed to 86 students and 21 facilitators. In the analysis, both Chi-square and the Mann-Whitney tests were used. Sixty students (70%) and 15 facilitators (71%) completed the questionnaire. Both students and facilitators were satisfied with the course. Students reported gaining iiration for their future work as doctors along with increased confidence in meeting patients. They also reported increased motivation for biomedical studies. Differences in attitudes between facilitators and students were found. Facilitators experienced a greater workload, less reasonable demands and less support, than students. In this project, a new Early Professional Contact course was analysed from both student and facilitator

  6. Medical students' and facilitators' experiences of an Early Professional Contact course: Active and motivated students, strained facilitators

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gunnarsson Ronny

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Today, medical students are introduced to patient contact, communication skills, and clinical examination in the preclinical years of the curriculum with the purpose of gaining clinical experience. These courses are often evaluated from the student perspective. Reports with an additional emphasis on the facilitator perspective are scarce. According to constructive alignment, an influential concept from research in higher education, the learning climate between students and teachers is also of great importance. In this paper, we approach the learning climate by studying both students' and facilitators' course experiences. In 2001, a new "Early Professional Contact" longitudinal strand through term 1–4, was introduced at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. General practitioners and hospital specialists were facilitators. The aim of this study was to assess and analyse students' and clinical facilitators' experiences of the Early Professional Contact course and to illuminate facilitators' working conditions. Methods Inspired by a Swedish adaptation of the Course Experience Questionnaire, an Early Professional Contact Questionnaire was constructed. In 2003, on the completion of the first longitudinal strand, a student and facilitator version was distributed to 86 students and 21 facilitators. In the analysis, both Chi-square and the Mann-Whitney tests were used. Results Sixty students (70% and 15 facilitators (71% completed the questionnaire. Both students and facilitators were satisfied with the course. Students reported gaining iiration for their future work as doctors along with increased confidence in meeting patients. They also reported increased motivation for biomedical studies. Differences in attitudes between facilitators and students were found. Facilitators experienced a greater workload, less reasonable demands and less support, than students. Conclusion In this project, a new Early

  7. Colloid-Facilitated Transport of Radionuclides Through The Vadose Zone

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Markus Flury; James B. Harsh; John F. McCarthy' Peter C. Lichtner; John M. Zachara

    2007-01-01

    The main purpose of this project was to advance the basic scientific understanding of colloid and colloid-facilitated Cs transport of radionuclides in the vadose zone. We focused our research on the hydrological and geochemical conditions beneath the leaking waste tanks at the USDOE Hanford reservation. Specific objectives were (1) to determine the lability and thermodynamic stability of colloidal materials, which form after reacting Hanford sediments with simulated Hanford Tank Waste, (2) to characterize the interactions between colloidal particles and contaminants, i.e., Cs and Eu, (3) to determine the potential of Hanford sediments for in situ mobilization of colloids, (4) to evaluate colloid-facilitated radionuclide transport through sediments under unsaturated flow, (5) to implement colloid-facilitated contaminant transport mechanisms into a transport model, and (6) to improve conceptual characterization of colloid-contaminant-soil interactions and colloid-facilitated transport for clean-up procedures and long-term risk assessment

  8. Community Intelligence in Knowledge Curation: An Application to Managing Scientific Nomenclature

    OpenAIRE

    Dai, Lin; Xu, Chao; Tian, Ming; Sang, Jian; Zou, Dong; Li, Ang; Liu, Guocheng; Chen, Fei; Wu, Jiayan; Xiao, Jingfa; Wang, Xumin; Yu, Jun; Zhang, Zhang

    2013-01-01

    Harnessing community intelligence in knowledge curation bears significant promise in dealing with communication and education in the flood of scientific knowledge. As knowledge is accumulated at ever-faster rates, scientific nomenclature, a particular kind of knowledge, is concurrently generated in all kinds of fields. Since nomenclature is a system of terms used to name things in a particular discipline, accurate translation of scientific nomenclature in different languages is of critical im...

  9. General consumer communication tools for improved image management and communication in medicine

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ratib, Osman M.; Rosset, Antoine; McCoy, J. Michael

    2005-04-01

    We elected to explore emerging consumer technologies that can be adopted to improve and facilitate image and data communication in medical and clinical environment. The wide adoption of new communication paradigm such as instant messaging, chatting and direct emailing can be integrated in specific applications. The increasing capacity of portable and hand held devices such as iPod music players offer an attractive alternative for data storage that exceeds the capabilities of traditional offline storage media such as CD or even DVD. We adapted medical image display and manipulation software called OSIRIX to integrate different innovative technologies facilitating the communication and data transfer between remote users. We integrated email and instant messaging features to the program allowing users to instantaneously email an image or a set of images that are displayed on the screen. Using iChat instant messaging application from Apple a user can share the content of his screen with a remote correspondent and communicate in real time using voice and video. To provide convenient mechanism for exchange of large data sets the program can store the data in DICOM format on CD or DVD, but was also extended to use the large storage capacity of iPod hard disks as well as Apple"s online storage service "dot Mac" that users can subscribe to benefit from scalable secure storage that accessible from anywhere on the internet. The adoption of these innovative technologies is likely to change the architecture of traditional picture archiving and communication systems and provide more flexible and efficient means of communication.

  10. Communication Matters: Exploring the Intersection of Family and Practitioner End of Life Communication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leah M. Omilion-Hodges

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available After establishing a baseline understanding of some of the factors that influence and shape family end of life communication, empirical research centered on the communication tendencies of nationally-recognized palliative care clinicians is presented. Because death is no longer confined to the bedroom and individuals are increasingly turning to hospitals and health care institutes to assist with end of life, the role of palliative care practitioners is vital. To that end, common communication-rooted issues that may transpire among various medical personnel are explored. Focus on a shared underlying tension—care vs. cure—links the findings between family and palliative care clinician communication regarding end of life. Practical communication solutions and suggestions are offered to facilitate productive and mindful end of life communication between and among family members and health care practitioners.

  11. Neurodharma Self-Help: Personalized Science Communication as Brain Management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eklöf, Jenny

    2017-09-01

    Over the past ten to fifteen years, medical interventions, therapeutic approaches and scientific studies involving mindfulness meditation have gained traction in areas such as clinical psychology, psychotherapy, and neuroscience. Simultaneously, mindfulness has had a very strong public appeal. This article examines some of the ways in which the medical and scientific meaning of mindfulness is communicated in public and to the public. In particular, it shows how experts in the field of mindfulness neuroscience seek to communicate to the public at large the imperative of brain fitness for the promotion of health, wellbeing and happiness. The study identifies claims being made in popular outlets that, by and large, bypass traditional mass media, such as self-help books, websites and online videos. By treating this material as a form of personalized science communication, this article contributes to the body of literature that understands science communication as a continuum and the boundary between science and popularized science as the outcome of human negotiations. The study finds that processes of personalization help to build bridges between scientific findings and their supposed application, that they infuse science with subjective meaning, and turn expert communication with the public into a moral vocation.

  12. Scientific literacy and academic identity: Creating a community of practice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reveles, John Michael

    2005-07-01

    This one-year ethnographic study of a third grade classroom examined the construction of elementary school science. The research focused on the co-development of scientific literacy and academic identity. Unlike much research in science education that views literacy as merely supportive of science; this dissertation research considers how students learned both disciplinary knowledge in science as well as about themselves as learners through language use. The study documented and analyzed how students came to engage with scientific knowledge and the impact this engagement had upon their academic identities over time. Ethnographic and discourse analytic methods were employed to investigate three research questions: (a) How were the students in a third grade classroom afforded opportunities to acquire scientific literate practices through the spoken/written discourse and science activities? (b) In what ways did students develop and maintain academic identities taken-up over time as they discursively appropriated scientific literate practices via classroom discourse? and (c) How did students collectively and individually inscribe their academic identities and scientific knowledge into classroom artifacts across the school year? Through multiple forms of analyses, I identified how students' communication and participation in science investigations provided opportunities for them to learn specific scientific literate practices. The findings of this empirical research indicate that students' communication and participation in science influenced the ways they perceived themselves as active participants within the classroom community. More specifically, students were observed to appropriate particular discourse practices introduced by the teacher to frame scientific disciplinary knowledge and investigations. Thus, emerging academic identities and developing literate practices were documented via analysis of discursive (spoken, written, and enacted) classroom interactions. A

  13. Strengthening Communication and Scientific Reasoning Skills of Graduate Students Through the INSPIRE Program

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pierce, Donna M.; McNeal, K. S.; Radencic, S. P.; Schmitz, D. W.; Cartwright, J.; Hare, D.; Bruce, L. M.

    2012-10-01

    Initiating New Science Partnerships in Rural Education (INSPIRE) is a five-year partnership between Mississippi State University and three nearby school districts. The primary goal of the program is to strengthen the communication and scientific reasoning skills of graduate students in geosciences, physics, chemistry, and engineering by placing them in area middle school and high school science and mathematics classrooms for ten hours a week for an entire academic year as they continue to conduct their thesis or dissertation research. Additional impacts include increased content knowledge for our partner teachers and improvement in the quality of classroom instruction using hands-on inquiry-based activities that incorporate ideas used in the research conducted by the graduate students. Current technologies, such as Google Earth, GIS, Celestia, benchtop SEM and GCMS, are incorporated into many of the lessons. Now in the third year of our program, we will present the results of our program to date, including an overview of documented graduate student, teacher, and secondary student achievements, the kinds of activities the graduate students and participating teachers have developed for classroom instruction, and the accomplishments resulting from our four international partnerships. INSPIRE is funded by the Graduate K-12 (GK-12) STEM Fellowship Program (Award No. DGE-0947419), which is part of the Division for Graduate Education of the National Science Foundation.

  14. The Role of the Spacecraft Operator in Scientific Exploration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Love, S. G.

    2011-03-01

    Pilot and flight engineer crew members can improve scientific exploration missions and effectively support field work that they may not understand by contributing leadership, teamwork, communication, and operational thinking skills.

  15. Do Digital Technologies Facilitate Illicit Financial Flows?

    OpenAIRE

    Tropina, Tatiana

    2016-01-01

    The emerging concept of illicit financial flows has become a crosscutting issue on the international agenda in recent years. This umbrella term refers to money illegally earned, transferred, or used. With the development of digital technologies, the use of information and communications networks as a tool for facilitating illicit financial flows is rising as one of the key challenges in ta...

  16. AGU's Updated Scientific Integrity and Professional Ethics Policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    McPhaden, M. J.

    2017-12-01

    AGU'S mission is to promote discovery in Earth and space science for the benefit of humanity. This mission can only be accomplished if all those engaged in the scientific enterprise uphold the highest standards of scientific integrity and professional ethics. AGU's Scientific Integrity and Professional Ethics Policy provides a set of principles and guidelines for AGU members, staff, volunteers, contractors, and non-members participating in AGU sponsored programs and activities. The policy has recently been updated to include a new code of conduct that broadens the definition of scientific misconduct to include discrimination, harassment, and bullying. This presentation provides the context for what motivated the updated policy, an outline of the policy itself, and a discussion of how it is being communicated and applied.

  17. A communication training perspective on AND versus DNR directives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Levin, Tomer T; Coyle, Nessa

    2015-04-01

    From a communication perspective, the term "do not resuscitate" (DNR) is challenging to use in end-of-life discussions because it omits the goals of care. An alternative, "Allow Natural Death" (AND), has been proposed as a better way of framing this palliative care discussion. We present a case where a nurse unsuccessfully discusses end-of-life goals of care using the term DNR. Subsequently, with the aid of a communication trainer, he is coached to successfully use the term "AND" to facilitate this discussion and advance his goal of palliative care communication and planning. We contrast the advantages and disadvantages of the term AND from the communication training perspective and suggest that AND-framing language replace DNR as a better way to facilitate meaningful end-of-life communication. One well-designed, randomized, controlled simulation study supports this practice. We also consider the communication implications of "natural" versus "unnatural" death.

  18. Formation communication technologies in business activity

    OpenAIRE

    Miceski, Trajko; Deskovska, Aneta

    2016-01-01

    Coomunication skills represents the ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently. Business managers with good verbal, non verbal and written communication skills help facilitate the sharing of information between people within a company for its commercial benefit. Today’s business leaders above all need to be able to communicate well, work efficiently in teams and be comfortable with change. In today’s world, managers need to effectively communicate i...

  19. Scientific Communication for Positive Action: Do's and Don'ts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanquini, A.; Wood, M. M.

    2015-12-01

    Natural hazard presentations often highlight disasters that may ensue from natural processes when mitigation or preparedness actions are not taken. Examples include images of raging fires, collapsed buildings, and flooded urban areas. Research has shown that this makes presentations more interesting and more memorable. Such images are the stock and trade of disaster reporting by the media. Unfortunately, it may also trigger avoidance and denial in the audience, resulting in preparedness reduction; the opposite effect of what may have been intended by the speaker. Recent social research has provided insight into a better approach. The theory of communicating actionable risk posits that people will take action against hazards when they know what to do, think it would work, and know someone who did it. This approach was recently applied in an intervention designed to motivate earthquake-resistant construction in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. Social theory further suggests that a tendency towards action is strengthened by hearing a consistent message over time, and by providing the audience with an appropriate opportunity to seek out relevant information. This presentation shows how, by taking this transdisciplinary step, scientists can make small changes in their hazard communication, thereby acting as positive influencers of change. A summary of "do's" and "don'ts" is given for reference. 1. Show examples of what to do. 2. Show effectiveness of actions. 3. Give sense of knowing someone who did it. 4. Deliver consistent message, repeatedly. 5. Give opportunity for more information. DON'T: 1. Make the disaster the star. 2. Contradict other communications.

  20. Science Communication in Teacher Personal Pronouns

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oliveira, Alandeom W.

    2011-09-01

    In this study, I explore how personal pronouns used by elementary teachers during science inquiry discussions communicate science and frame teacher-student-science relations. A semiotic framework is adopted wherein teacher pronominal choices are viewed as symbolically expressing cognitive meanings (scientific thinking, forms of expression, and concepts) and indexically communicating social meanings (hidden messages about social and personal aspects of science-human agency, science membership, and gender). Through the construction of interactional maps and micro-ethnographic analysis of classroom video-recordings, I focus specifically on participant examples (oral descriptions of actual or hypothetical situations wherein the teacher presents herself and/or her students as characters to illustrate topics under discussion). This analysis revealed that the teacher use of the generalised you communicated to the students how to mean scientifically (i.e. to speak like a scientist), while I communicated scientific ways of thinking and reasoning. Furthermore, teacher pronouns communicated the social nature of science (NOS) (e.g. science as a human enterprise) as well as multiple teacher-student-science relational frames that were inclusive of some students (mainly boys) but excluded girls (i.e. positioned them as science outsiders). Exclusive use of he was taken as indicative of a gender bias. It is argued that science teachers should become more aware of the range of personal pronouns available for science instruction, their advantages and constraints for science discussions, their potential as instructional tools for humanising and personalising impersonal science curricula as well as the risk of 'NOS' miscommunication.

  1. Presenting Fake Figures: A Tool to Teach Effective Scientific Figure Design

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Veronica A. Segarra

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available As trained scientists, we become adept not only at analyzing and understanding figures in the scientific literature, but also at designing figures to effectively represent our own data and findings. As educators, we strive to pass on these skills to our students, some of whom will ultimately become scientists themselves. Conveying the principles of effective figure design can be challenging, particularly when students have had little exposure to the process of reading scientific literature, much less writing a piece of scientific literature. Improvisational activities in the classroom reinforce teaching goals such as spontaneity, risk-taking, creativity, communication skills, team-building, and critical thinking (2. Indeed, improv training for scientists is becoming more common, helping scientists to communicate more spontaneously about their work and connect with their audience (1. In this article, we present an improvisational game that can aid in the teaching of effective scientific figure design. This “Present-a-Fake-Figure Exercise” is applicable to both the classroom and laboratory settings. In this learning activity, students improvise presenting fake scientific figures to an audience of their peers. These fake figures are prepared beforehand by the instructor and exemplify the do’s and don’ts of scientific figure design. Some of the learning outcomes of the activity include (1 identifying what makes a scientific figure cohesive, easy to analyze, and reader-friendly, and (2 identifying strategies that are useful in the design of a multi-panel figure to convey a scientific story.

  2. The role of law as an instrument of communication within legal positivism

    OpenAIRE

    Claudiu Ramon D. Butculescu

    2015-01-01

    This article tackles some aspects concerning the role of law as an instrument of communication from the perspective of legal positivism. The paper presents considerations regarding law communication in relation to legal positivism and scientific positivism. At the same time, the article examines the correlations between the legal communication models and the various inclinations developed under legal positivism. Both within legal positivism and the scientific positivism, the role of law as a ...

  3. Scientific and non-scientific information in the uptake of health information: The case of Ebola

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bankole A. Falade

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available The Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa (2013–2016 claimed over 10 000 lives in less than 18 months. Low levels of familiarity with the disease, ease of transmission, scale of infection, gruesomeness of symptoms, lack of cure and high fatality rate created a global panic. From the perspective of the social psychology of communication and content analysis, this study examines media coverage of the crisis in Africa with a view to unpacking the scientific and non-scientific information that may have framed public understanding of the disease. Findings show that accepting scientific advice was not unproblematic, because of the similarity of early symptoms with known diseases such as Lassa, dengue and malaria fevers. Cultural and religious actors and beliefs posed a paradox for believers as the public assimilated disease prevention information into existing norms and practices. Rumours and conspiracy theories about Western governments and pharmaceuticals also contributed to the rejection of the scientific explanation of its origin. Fear of the devastating effects of the disease and the lack of a cure led to the stigmatisation of the infected and treatment centres and ultimately to public revolts. Findings show the importance of non-scientific information and actors in matters of health and illness in Africa. Significance: Scientific knowledge is not enough to change health behaviour. Non-scientific knowledge and actors, traditional and religious practices, rumours and conspiracy theories must all be factored into efforts to address behavioural change.

  4. The role of mobile phones in facilitating communication among the ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    It was also revealed that mobile phones are used for communicating with friends, family and veterinarians in carrying out financial transactions, finding out livestock prices in the market and information on new grazing areas. The constraints encountered in the use of mobile phones include network outage, high cost of ...

  5. Amplify scientific discovery with artificial intelligence

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gil, Yolanda; Greaves, Mark T.; Hendler, James; Hirsch, Hyam

    2014-10-10

    Computing innovations have fundamentally changed many aspects of scientific inquiry. For example, advances in robotics, high-end computing, networking, and databases now underlie much of what we do in science such as gene sequencing, general number crunching, sharing information between scientists, and analyzing large amounts of data. As computing has evolved at a rapid pace, so too has its impact in science, with the most recent computing innovations repeatedly being brought to bear to facilitate new forms of inquiry. Recently, advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have deeply penetrated many consumer sectors, including for example Apple’s Siri™ speech recognition system, real-time automated language translation services, and a new generation of self-driving cars and self-navigating drones. However, AI has yet to achieve comparable levels of penetration in scientific inquiry, despite its tremendous potential in aiding computers to help scientists tackle tasks that require scientific reasoning. We contend that advances in AI will transform the practice of science as we are increasingly able to effectively and jointly harness human and machine intelligence in the pursuit of major scientific challenges.

  6. Measuring mumbo jumbo: A preliminary quantification of the use of jargon in science communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharon, Aviv J; Baram-Tsabari, Ayelet

    2014-07-01

    Leaders of the scientific community encourage scientists to learn effective science communication, including honing the skill to discuss science with little professional jargon. However, avoiding jargon is not trivial for scientists for several reasons, and this demands special attention in teaching and evaluation. Despite this, no standard measurement for the use of scientific jargon in speech has been developed to date. Here a standard yardstick for the use of scientific jargon in spoken texts, using a computational linguistics approach, is proposed. Analyzed transcripts included academic speech, scientific TEDTalks, and communication about the discovery of a Higgs-like boson at CERN. Findings suggest that scientists use less jargon in communication with a general audience than in communication with peers, but not always less obscure jargon. These findings may lay the groundwork for evaluating the use of jargon.

  7. Modern structure of marketing communications complex

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hrebenyukova Elena

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available The article presents the results of the desk research, in which the current structure of the marketing communications complex was analyzed. According to the results of the content analysis of scientific and educational literature in marketing it was proved that there is a certain structural asymmetry in today's complex of marketing communication: the rejection of impersonal tools and actualization of those which make possible personalized communication with the consumer.

  8. Scholarly Communication in AERA Journals, 1931 to 2014

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vanderstraeten, Raf; Vandermoere, Frédéric; Hermans, Maarten

    2016-01-01

    Scientific disciplines build on social structures, such as scholarly associations and scholarly journals, that facilitate the formation of communities of specialists. Analyses of such social structures can thus also be used to shed light on the morphogenesis of scientific specializations. The authors analyze how two journals of the American…

  9. Learning to communicate risk information in groups

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hsuchi Ting

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available Despite vigorous research on risk communication, little is known about the social forces that drive these choices. Erev, Wallsten, and Neal (1991 showed that forecasters learn to select verbal or numerical probability estimates as a function of which mode yields on average the larger group payoffs. We extend the result by investigating the effect of group size on the speed with which forecasters converge on the better communication mode. On the basis of social facilitation theory we hypothesized that small groups induce less arousal and anxiety among their members than do large groups when performing new tasks, and therefore that forecasters in small groups will learn the better communication mode more quickly. This result obtained in Experiment 1, which compared groups of size 3 to groups of size 5 or 6. To test whether social loafing rather than social facilitation was mediating the effects, Experiment 2 compared social to personal feedback holding group size constant at 3 members. Learning was faster in the personal feedback condition, suggesting that social facilitation rather than loafing underlay the results.

  10. Academic status of deaf and hard-of-hearing students in public schools: student, home, and service facilitators and detractors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reed, Susanne; Antia, Shirin D; Kreimeyer, Kathryn H

    2008-01-01

    We examined facilitators and detractors of academic success of 25 deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) students selected from a pool of 187 students attending general education classes and enrolled in a study of academic progress. Interviews with their teachers of DHH, general education teachers, principals, parents, interpreters, and students themselves were analyzed for child, family, and school facilitators and detractors of academic status. Facilitators included student self-advocacy and motivation, high family and school expectations, families' ability to help with homework, and good communication between professionals. Detractors included additional disabilities and poor family-school communication. A comparison of above- and below-average students revealed no single distinguishing facilitator or detractor. Each above-average student had many facilitators, whereas each below-average student had several significant detractors.

  11. Produtividade científica: impactos na normalização e na comunicação científica / Scientific productivity: impacts on standardization and scientific communication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Célia Maria Ribeiro

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available Analisar das novas tendências na área de normalização no que se refere à apresentação dos trabalhos acadêmicos do tipo teses e dissertações. O universo da pesquisa é a área de ciências biológicas da Universidade Estadual de Campinas, no período de 1999 a 2005. Dada a importância da padronização para que a comunicação científica se efetive, destaca-se a necessidade de formular diretrizes mais consistentes para orientar os pesquisadores, de forma a atender tanto aos critérios de avaliação de produtividade científica como aos requisitos da qualidade formal das publicações. A aplicação de método qualitativo, por meio de entrevistas com os coordenadores de pós-graduação e bibliotecários da área leva a algumas reflexões sobre o papel do bibliotecário, das agências de normalização e dos órgãos de financiamento da pesquisa nesse novo cenário.The aim of this work is to analyze the new trends on standardization of academic publications, thesis and dissertations. The scope of the study is the Biological Sciences of The State University of Campinas from 1999 to 2005. Taking into consideration the importance of standardization to make scientific communication effective, it emphasizes the need to create more elaborated rules in order to help researchers, permitting them to attend both evaluation criteria of scientific production and quality requirements of publications. The use of the qualitative method, through interviews with the coordinators of graduate courses and librarians of the major studied brought some thinking about the librarian role, national organizations of standardization responsibility and also a brief comment on the legislation of Brazilian scientific dissemination.

  12. On multi-level thinking and scientific understanding

    Science.gov (United States)

    McIntyre, Michael Edgeworth

    2017-10-01

    Professor Duzheng YE's name has been familiar to me ever since my postdoctoral years at MIT with Professors Jule CHARNEY and Norman PHILLIPS, back in the late 1960s. I had the enormous pleasure of meeting Professor YE personally in 1992 in Beijing. His concern to promote the very best science and to use it well, and his thinking on multi-level orderly human activities, reminds me not only of the communication skills we need as scientists but also of the multi-level nature of science itself. Here I want to say something (a) about what science is; (b) about why multi-level thinking—and taking more than one viewpoint—is so important for scientific as well as for other forms of understanding; and (c) about what is meant, at a deep level, by "scientific understanding" and trying to communicate it, not only with lay persons but also across professional disciplines. I hope that Professor YE would approve.

  13. Effective communication during an influenza pandemic: the value of using a crisis and emergency risk communication framework.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reynolds, Barbara; Quinn Crouse, Sandra

    2008-10-01

    During a crisis, an open and empathetic style of communication that engenders the public's trust is the most effective when officials are attempting to galvanize the population to take a positive action or refrain from a harmful act. Although trust is imperative in a crisis, public suspicions of scientific experts and government are increasing for a variety of reasons, including access to more sources of conflicting information, a reduction in the use of scientific reasoning in decision making, and political infighting. Trust and credibility--which are demonstrated through empathy and caring, competence and expertise, honesty and openness, and dedication and commitment--are essential elements of persuasive communication.

  14. Communicating Biotech Advances: Fiction versus Reality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Małyska, Aleksandra; Bolla, Robert; Twardowski, Tomasz

    2018-02-01

    Bioscience novels use selected technologies of genetic engineering and synthetic biology to create entertaining stories. These novels are usually based on scientific knowledge, but they may arouse public concerns about technology and drive public reluctance to accept innovative technologies. The scientific community must adopt more efficient communication and transparency. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Facilitating Preschoolers' Scientific Knowledge Construction via Computer Games Regarding Light and Shadow: The Effect of the Prediction-Observation-Explanation (POE) Strategy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hsu, Chung-Yuan; Tsai, Chin-Chung; Liang, Jyh-Chong

    2011-10-01

    Educational researchers have suggested that computer games have a profound influence on students' motivation, knowledge construction, and learning performance, but little empirical research has targeted preschoolers. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of implementing a computer game that integrates the prediction-observation-explanation (POE) strategy (White and Gunstone in Probing understanding. Routledge, New York, 1992) on facilitating preschoolers' acquisition of scientific concepts regarding light and shadow. The children's alternative conceptions were explored as well. Fifty participants were randomly assigned into either an experimental group that played a computer game integrating the POE model or a control group that played a non-POE computer game. By assessing the students' conceptual understanding through interviews, this study revealed that the students in the experimental group significantly outperformed their counterparts in the concepts regarding "shadow formation in daylight" and "shadow orientation." However, children in both groups, after playing the games, still expressed some alternative conceptions such as "Shadows always appear behind a person" and "Shadows should be on the same side as the sun."

  16. Public Communication of Science in Blogs: Recontextualizing Scientific Discourse for a Diversified Audience

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luzón, María José

    2013-01-01

    New media are having a significant impact on science communication, both on the way scientists communicate with peers and on the dissemination of science to the lay public. Science blogs, in particular, provide an open space for science communication, where a diverse audience (with different degrees of expertise) may have access to science…

  17. Information and Communication Technology and School Based ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Information and Communication technology and school based assessment (SBA) is practice that broadens the form mode, means and scope of assessment in the school using modern technologies in order to facilitate and enhance learning. This study sought to ascertain the efficacy of Information and Communication ...

  18. Web-Based Virtual Environments for Facilitating Assessment of L2 Oral Communication Ability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ockey, Gary J.; Gu, Lin; Keehner, Madeleine

    2017-01-01

    A growing number of stakeholders argue for the use of second language (L2) speaking assessments that measure the ability to orally communicate in real time. A Web-based virtual environment (VE) that allows live voice communication among individuals may have potential for aiding in delivering such assessments. While off-the-shelf voice…

  19. Epistemological pluralism and scientific development: an argument against authoritative nosologies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Markon, Kristian E

    2013-10-01

    The author examines the influence of authoritative nosological systems--those developed by an authoritative body or organization (e.g., the DSM, ICD, RDoC)--on the development of scientific theory and research. Although there has been extensive discussion of how such systems should be organized, and of the historical role of such systems, little focus has been placed on whether these systems impede or facilitate scientific progress. The author reviews the nature and role of constructs in scientific theory and the role of authoritative taxonomy in science. He presents an argument that, although authoritative classification systems clearly have value for nonscientific purposes, or for specific scientific purposes, the systems themselves, at least as they have been constructed thus far, likely impede scientific development by constraining competitive discourse. Implications and recommendations are discussed.

  20. Benefits of trade facilitation as a simpler procedure for world trade growth

    OpenAIRE

    Miteva-Kacarski, Emilija; Gorgieva-Trajkovska, Olivera

    2011-01-01

    “The simplification and harmonisation of international trade procedures” where trade procedures are the “activities, practices and formalities involved in collecting, presenting, communicating and processing data required for the movement of goods in international trade” is trade facilitation according the WTO. Trade facilitation initiatives benefit both the business community and governments. The business community benefits by obtaining enhanced competitiveness in national and international ...

  1. The Effects of STEM PBL on Students' Mathematical and Scientific Vocabulary Knowledge

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bilgin, Ali; Boedeker, Peter; Capraro, Robert M.; Capraro, Mary M.

    2015-01-01

    Vocabulary is at the surface level of language usage; thus, students need to develop mathematical and scientific vocabulary to be able to explicitly communicate their mathematical and scientific reasoning with others. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) have both created…

  2. Mapping Perceptions of Lupus Medication Decision-Making Facilitators: The Importance of Patient Context.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qu, Haiyan; Shewchuk, Richard M; Alarcón, Graciela; Fraenkel, Liana; Leong, Amye; Dall'Era, Maria; Yazdany, Jinoos; Singh, Jasvinder A

    2016-12-01

    Numerous factors can impede or facilitate patients' medication decision-making and adherence to physicians' recommendations. Little is known about how patients and physicians jointly view issues that affect the decision-making process. Our objective was to derive an empirical framework of patient-identified facilitators to lupus medication decision-making from key stakeholders (including 15 physicians, 5 patients/patient advocates, and 8 medical professionals) using a patient-centered cognitive mapping approach. We used nominal group patient panels to identify facilitators to lupus treatment decision-making. Stakeholders independently sorted the identified facilitators (n = 98) based on their similarities and rated the importance of each facilitator in patient decision-making. Data were analyzed using multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis. A cognitive map was derived that represents an empirical framework of facilitators for lupus treatment decisions from multiple stakeholders' perspectives. The facilitator clusters were 1) hope for a normal/healthy life, 2) understand benefits and effectiveness of taking medications, 3) desire to minimize side effects, 4) medication-related data, 5) medication effectiveness for "me," 6) family focus, 7) confidence in physician, 8) medication research, 9) reassurance about medication, and 10) medication economics. Consideration of how different stakeholders perceive the relative importance of lupus medication decision-making clusters is an important step toward improving patient-physician communication and effective shared decision-making. The empirically derived framework of medication decision-making facilitators can be used as a guide to develop a lupus decision aid that focuses on improving physician-patient communication. © 2016, American College of Rheumatology.

  3. First a hero of science and now a martyr to science: the James Watson Affair - political correctness crushes free scientific communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Charlton, Bruce G

    2008-01-01

    James Watson will not just be exonerated but vindicated as an exemplar of the true morality of science: that scientific communication needs to be allowed to be clear, direct - even crass - in the pursuit of truth. James Watson has been a hero of science for the achievements of his career, and also a martyr for science at the end of his career.

  4. NeuroTalk: Improving the Communication of Neuroscience

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moser, Mary Anne; McCormick, Jennifer B.; Racine, Eric; Blakeslee, Sandra; Caplan, Arthur; Hayden, Erika Check; Ingram, Jay; Lohwater, Tiffany; McKnight, Peter; Nicholson, Christie; Phillips, Anthony; Sauvé, Kevin D.; Snell, Elaine; Weiss, Sam

    2010-01-01

    There is increasing pressure for neuroscientists to communicate their research and the societal implications of their findings to the public. Communicating science is challenging and the transformation of communication by digital and interactive media makes the challenge even greater. To successfully facilitate dialogue with the public in this new media landscape we suggest three courses of action for the neuroscience community: a cultural shift that explicitly recognizes and rewards public outreach, the identification and development of neuroscience communication experts, and ongoing empirical research on public communication of neuroscience. PMID:19953102

  5. Scientific and technical production of IPEN - Nuclear and Energetic Research Institute, SP, Brazil. 1997-1999

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2001-01-01

    This document reports the general activities results of technical and scientific research production of the Institute for Energetic and Nuclear Researches, IPEN, Brazil, during the year of 1997-1999, listing journal articles, scientific events (complete texts, communications, abstracts and panels), thesis and dissertations, books, technical and scientific reports

  6. Risk communication on climate change

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wardekker, J.A.

    2004-10-01

    For the title study use has been made of available scientific literature, results of new surveys and interviews. In the first part of the study attention is paid to the exchange of information between parties involved in climate change and differences in supply and demand of information. In the second part citizens' views on climate change, problems with communication on climate change, and the resulting consequences and options for communication are dealt with. In this second part also barriers to action that are related or influenced by communication are taken into consideration

  7. Impact of Student vs Faculty Facilitators on Motivational Interviewing Student Outcomes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Widder-Prewett, Rebecca; Draime, Juanita A; Cameron, Ginger; Anderson, Douglas; Pinkerton, Mark; Chen, Aleda M H

    2017-08-01

    Objective. To determine the impact of student or faculty facilitation on student self-assessed attitudes, confidence, and competence in motivational interviewing (MI) skills; actual competence; and evaluation of facilitator performance. Methods. Second-year pharmacy (P2) students were randomly assigned to a student or faculty facilitator for a four-hour, small-group practice of MI skills. MI skills were assessed in a simulated patient encounter with the mMITI (modified Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity) tool. Students completed a pre-post, 6-point, Likert-type assessment addressing the research objectives. Differences were assessed using a Mann-Whitney U test. Results. Student (N=44) post-test attitudes, confidence, perceived or actual competence, and evaluations of facilitator performance were not different for faculty- and student-facilitated groups. Conclusion. Using pharmacy students as small-group facilitators did not affect student performance and were viewed as equally favorable. Using pharmacy students as facilitators can lessen faculty workload and provide an outlet for students to develop communication and facilitation skills that will be needed in future practice.

  8. Developing Evaluation and Communication Capacity in Information ...

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

    It will result in a trained cadre of regional mentors who are able to facilitate advanced methodologies in both evaluation and communications. Participating flagship project teams will develop their evaluation and communication skills, and gain opportunities for policy and practice change. More will be learned about practical ...

  9. Tools for Observation: Art and the Scientific Process

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pettit, E. C.; Coryell-Martin, M.; Maisch, K.

    2015-12-01

    Art can support the scientific process during different phases of a scientific discovery. Art can help explain and extend the scientific concepts for the general public; in this way art is a powerful tool for communication. Art can aid the scientist in processing and interpreting the data towards an understanding of the concepts and processes; in this way art is powerful - if often subconscious - tool to inform the process of discovery. Less often acknowledged, art can help engage students and inspire scientists during the initial development of ideas, observations, and questions; in this way art is a powerful tool to develop scientific questions and hypotheses. When we use art as a tool for communication of scientific discoveries, it helps break down barriers and makes science concepts less intimidating and more accessible and understandable for the learner. Scientists themselves use artistic concepts and processes - directly or indirectly - to help deepen their understanding. Teachers are following suit by using art more to stimulate students' creative thinking and problem solving. We show the value of teaching students to use the artistic "way of seeing" to develop their skills in observation, questioning, and critical thinking. In this way, art can be a powerful tool to engage students (from elementary to graduate) in the beginning phase of a scientific discovery, which is catalyzed by inquiry and curiosity. Through qualitative assessment of the Girls on Ice program, we show that many of the specific techniques taught by art teachers are valuable for science students to develop their observation skills. In particular, the concepts of contour drawing, squinting, gesture drawing, inverted drawing, and others can provide valuable training for student scientists. These art techniques encourage students to let go of preconceptions and "see" the world (the "data") in new ways they help students focus on both large-scale patterns and small-scale details.

  10. The Role of Communication and Interpersonal Skills in Clinical Ethics Consultation: The Need for a Competency in Advanced Ethics Facilitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shelton, Wayne; Geppert, Cynthia; Jankowski, Jane

    2016-01-01

    Clinical ethics consultants (CECs) often face some of the most difficult communication and interpersonal challenges that occur in hospitals, involving stressed stakeholders who express, with strong emotions, their preferences and concerns in situations of personal crisis and loss. In this article we will give examples of how much of the important work that ethics consultants perform in addressing clinical ethics conflicts is incompletely conceived and explained in the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities Core Competencies for Healthcare Ethics Consultation and the clinical ethics literature. The work to which we refer is best conceptualized as a specialized type of interviewing, in which the emotional barriers of patients and their families or surrogates can be identified and addressed in light of relevant ethical obligations and values within the context of ethics facilitation. Copyright 2016 The Journal of Clinical Ethics. All rights reserved.

  11. Digital communication constraints in prior space missions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yassine, Nathan K.

    2004-01-01

    Digital communication is crucial for space endeavors. Jt transmits scientific and command data between earth stations and the spacecraft crew. It facilitates communications between astronauts, and provides live coverage during all phases of the mission. Digital communications provide ground stations and spacecraft crew precise data on the spacecraft position throughout the entire mission. Lessons learned from prior space missions are valuable for our new lunar and Mars missions set by our president s speech. These data will save our agency time and money, and set course our current developing technologies. Limitations on digital communications equipment pertaining mass, volume, data rate, frequency, antenna type and size, modulation, format, and power in the passed space missions are of particular interest. This activity is in support of ongoing communication architectural studies pertaining to robotic and human lunar exploration. The design capabilities and functionalities will depend on the space and power allocated for digital communication equipment. My contribution will be gathering these data, write a report, and present it to Communications Technology Division Staff. Antenna design is very carefully studied for each mission scenario. Currently, Phased array antennas are being developed for the lunar mission. Phased array antennas use little power, and electronically steer a beam instead of DC motors. There are 615 patches in the phased array antenna. These patches have to be modified to have high yield. 50 patches were created for testing. My part is to assist in the characterization of these patch antennas, and determine whether or not certain modifications to quartz micro-strip patch radiators result in a significant yield to warrant proceeding with repairs to the prototype 19 GHz ferroelectric reflect-array antenna. This work requires learning how to calibrate an automatic network, and mounting and testing antennas in coaxial fixtures. The purpose of this

  12. From Communication Skills to Skillful Communication: A Longitudinal Integrated Curriculum for Critical Care Medicine Fellows.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roze des Ordons, Amanda L; Doig, Christopher J; Couillard, Philippe; Lord, Jason

    2017-04-01

    Communication with patients and families in critical care medicine (CCM) can be complex and challenging. A longitudinal curricular model integrating multiple techniques within classroom and clinical milieus may facilitate skillful communication across diverse settings. In 2014-2015, the authors developed and implemented a curriculum for CCM fellows at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, to promote the longitudinal development of skillful communication. A departmental needs assessment informed curriculum development. Five 4-hour classroom sessions were developed: basic communication principles, family meetings about goals and transitions of care, discussing patient safety incidents, addressing conflict, and offering organ donation. Teaching methods-including instructor-led presentations incorporating a consistent framework for approaching challenging conversations, simulation and clinical practice, and feedback from peers, trained facilitators, family members, and clinicians-supported integration of skills into the clinical setting and longitudinal development of skillful communication. Seven fellows participated during the first year of the curriculum. CCM fellows engaged enthusiastically in the program, commented that the framework provided was helpful, and highly valued the opportunity to practice challenging communication scenarios, learn from observing their peers, and receive immediate feedback. More detailed accounts of fellows', patients', and family members' experiences will be obtained to guide curricular development. The curriculum will be expanded to involve other members of the multidisciplinary intensive care unit team, and faculty education initiatives will be offered to enhance the quality of the feedback provided. The impact of the curriculum on initial skill development, retention, and progression will be assessed.

  13. The MPO API: A tool for recording scientific workflows

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wright, John C., E-mail: jcwright@mit.edu [MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Cambridge, MA (United States); Greenwald, Martin; Stillerman, Joshua [MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Cambridge, MA (United States); Abla, Gheni; Chanthavong, Bobby; Flanagan, Sean; Schissel, David; Lee, Xia [General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States); Romosan, Alex; Shoshani, Arie [Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, CA (United States)

    2014-05-15

    Highlights: • A description of a new framework and tool for recording scientific workflows, especially those resulting from simulation and analysis. • An explanation of the underlying technologies used to implement this web based tool. • Several examples of using the tool. - Abstract: Data from large-scale experiments and extreme-scale computing is expensive to produce and may be used for high-consequence applications. The Metadata, Provenance and Ontology (MPO) project builds on previous work [M. Greenwald, Fusion Eng. Des. 87 (2012) 2205–2208] and is focused on providing documentation of workflows, data provenance and the ability to data-mine large sets of results. While there are important design and development aspects to the data structures and user interfaces, we concern ourselves in this paper with the application programming interface (API) – the set of functions that interface with the data server. Our approach for the data server is to follow the Representational State Transfer (RESTful) software architecture style for client–server communication. At its core, the API uses the POST and GET methods of the HTTP protocol to transfer workflow information in message bodies to targets specified in the URL to and from the database via a web server. Higher level API calls are built upon this core API. This design facilitates implementation on different platforms and in different languages and is robust to changes in the underlying technologies used. The command line client implementation can communicate with the data server from any machine with HTTP access.

  14. The MPO API: A tool for recording scientific workflows

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wright, John C.; Greenwald, Martin; Stillerman, Joshua; Abla, Gheni; Chanthavong, Bobby; Flanagan, Sean; Schissel, David; Lee, Xia; Romosan, Alex; Shoshani, Arie

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • A description of a new framework and tool for recording scientific workflows, especially those resulting from simulation and analysis. • An explanation of the underlying technologies used to implement this web based tool. • Several examples of using the tool. - Abstract: Data from large-scale experiments and extreme-scale computing is expensive to produce and may be used for high-consequence applications. The Metadata, Provenance and Ontology (MPO) project builds on previous work [M. Greenwald, Fusion Eng. Des. 87 (2012) 2205–2208] and is focused on providing documentation of workflows, data provenance and the ability to data-mine large sets of results. While there are important design and development aspects to the data structures and user interfaces, we concern ourselves in this paper with the application programming interface (API) – the set of functions that interface with the data server. Our approach for the data server is to follow the Representational State Transfer (RESTful) software architecture style for client–server communication. At its core, the API uses the POST and GET methods of the HTTP protocol to transfer workflow information in message bodies to targets specified in the URL to and from the database via a web server. Higher level API calls are built upon this core API. This design facilitates implementation on different platforms and in different languages and is robust to changes in the underlying technologies used. The command line client implementation can communicate with the data server from any machine with HTTP access

  15. Team science for science communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wong-Parodi, Gabrielle; Strauss, Benjamin H

    2014-09-16

    Natural scientists from Climate Central and social scientists from Carnegie Mellon University collaborated to develop science communications aimed at presenting personalized coastal flood risk information to the public. We encountered four main challenges: agreeing on goals; balancing complexity and simplicity; relying on data, not intuition; and negotiating external pressures. Each challenge demanded its own approach. We navigated agreement on goals through intensive internal communication early on in the project. We balanced complexity and simplicity through evaluation of communication materials for user understanding and scientific content. Early user test results that overturned some of our intuitions strengthened our commitment to testing communication elements whenever possible. Finally, we did our best to negotiate external pressures through regular internal communication and willingness to compromise.

  16. Students’ scientific production: a proposal to encourage it.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Corrales-Reyes, Ibraín Enrique; Dorta-Contreras, Alberto Juan

    2018-01-31

    The scientific production of medical students in Latin America, is poor and below their potential. The reason for this is the low theoretical and practical knowledge of scientific writing, a low margin for new knowledge generation, a heavy academic and clinical load, and the expected profile of the medical school graduate. In the present short communication, we propose teaching courses in research methodology, scientific writing in English and Spanish, a personalized search for students and mentors with research aptitudes. Also, we propose academic and material stimuli for publishing, rewards for the best papers made by students and the development and support of scientific student journals. Other proposals are the requirement to publish a paper for graduation, and sharing the most outstanding experiences.

  17. Neighborhood communication paradigm to increase scalability in large-scale dynamic scientific applications

    KAUST Repository

    Ovcharenko, Aleksandr

    2012-03-01

    This paper introduces a general-purpose communication package built on top of MPI which is aimed at improving inter-processor communications independently of the supercomputer architecture being considered. The package is developed to support parallel applications that rely on computation characterized by large number of messages of various sizes, often small, that are focused within processor neighborhoods. In some cases, such as solvers having static mesh partitions, the number and size of messages are known a priori. However, in other cases such as mesh adaptation, the messages evolve and vary in number and size and include the dynamic movement of partition objects. The current package provides a utility for dynamic applications based on two key attributes that are: (i) explicit consideration of the neighborhood communication pattern to avoid many-to-many calls and also to reduce the number of collective calls to a minimum, and (ii) use of non-blocking MPI functions along with message packing to manage message flow control and reduce the number and time of communication calls. The test application demonstrated is parallel unstructured mesh adaptation. Results on IBM Blue Gene/P and Cray XE6 computers show that the use of neighborhood-based communication control leads to scalable results when executing generally imbalanced mesh adaptation runs. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  18. Scientists' Perceptions of Communicating During Crises

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dohaney, J. A.; Hudson-Doyle, E.; Brogt, E.; Wilson, T. M.; Kennedy, B.

    2015-12-01

    To further our understanding of how to enhance student science and risk communication skills in natural hazards and earth science courses, we conducted a pilot study to assess the different perceptions of expert scientists and risk communication practitioners versus the perceptions of students. These differences will be used to identify expert views on best practice, and improve the teaching of communication skills at the University level. In this pilot study, a perceptions questionnaire was developed and validated. Within this, respondents (geoscientists, engineers, and emergency managers; n=44) were asked to determine their agreement with the use and effectiveness of specific communication strategies (within the first 72 hours after a devastating earthquake) when communicating to the public. In terms of strategies and information to the public, the respondents were mostly in agreement, but there were several statements which elicited large differences between expert responses: 1) the role and purpose of the scientific communication during crises (to persuade people to care, to provide advice, to empower people to take action); 2) the scientist's delivery (showing the scientists emotions and enthusiasm for scientific concepts they are discussing); and 3) the amount of data that is discussed (being comprehensive versus 'only the important' data). The most disagreed upon dimension was related to whether to disclose any political influence on the communication. Additionally, scientists identified that being an effective communicator was an important part of their job, and agreed that it is important to practice these skills. Respondents generally indicated that while scientists should be accountable for the science advice provided, they should not be held liable.

  19. [Development and opportunities from de scientific committee of 25 SECA congress held in Barcelona, 2007].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Astier Peña, M P; Lorenzo Martínez, S; Santiñá, M; Martín, A

    2009-01-01

    To perform a self-assessment of the Scientific Committee of the 25th Conference of the Spanish Society for Quality in Healthcare held in Barcelona on October 2007 in order to identify improvement areas for future Conferences. Applying PDCA methodology to the tasks undertaken by the Scientific Committee (SC) of the Conference. Plan: A description of the preparation of the conference based on the abstract management of the Scientific Committee. Do: description of the implementation. Check: evaluation of activities. A: improvement proposals for the coming conferences. The SC (22 people) worked in the abstracts management, book publishing and development of the scientific aspects of the Conference. Abstracts evaluation was conducted by 11 pairs of blind evaluators who analysed 348 oral communications and 457 posters, and 10.09% were rejected. Oral communications were performed in a total of 36 oral presentations sessions and 24 poster sessions. The book was published with the abstracts, addresses and the Conference opening and closing sessions. Awards: communications graded over 7.5 applied for an award and were reassessed by the SC. The on-line conference was also well received. The satisfaction with the Conference regarding the scientific activities was good; however, several areas of improvement were identified.

  20. Disorders of consciousness and communication. Ethical motivations and communication-enabling attributes of consciousness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tamburrini, Guglielmo; Mattia, Donatella

    2011-01-01

    Envisaged extensions of a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique allowing communication with patients affected by disorders of consciousness are here examined in connection with subjective symptom reporting, informed consent, and continued medical care decision-making. The principles of medical beneficence, personal autonomy protection, and the right to participate in social life are isolated as appropriate sources of ethical motivations for the use of fMRI-enabled communication. Consciousness requirements for each communication context are identified on the basis of qualitative distinctions between the access, phenomenal, and narrative varieties of consciousness. Ethically motivated uses of fMRI-enabled communication are hierarchically organized in terms of progressively more demanding consciousness requirements for successful communication. The outcomes of this analysis can be used to curb unrealistic expectations of these new scientific developments, and to promote mutual trust between medical doctors, patient surrogates and families.

  1. The communication of scientific knowledge in society : the role of the media

    CERN Multimedia

    Göpfert, W

    1999-01-01

    In that view the jobe of science journalism is not only to translate scientific speech into everyday language... Why should the media report on science-and how? Increasingly scientific influence is regarded as risky or even dangerous, be informed about these kinds of science. And where science itself is under scrutiny, media have to provide arguments and room or time for discussion. for example nuclear power or genetic engineering. Societies have to decide on such issues and therefore people have to

  2. Computing, Information, and Communications Technology (CICT) Program Overview

    Science.gov (United States)

    VanDalsem, William R.

    2003-01-01

    The Computing, Information and Communications Technology (CICT) Program's goal is to enable NASA's Scientific Research, Space Exploration, and Aerospace Technology Missions with greater mission assurance, for less cost, with increased science return through the development and use of advanced computing, information and communication technologies

  3. Communicating uncertainties in assessments of future sea level rise

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wikman-Svahn, P.

    2013-12-01

    How uncertainty should be managed and communicated in policy-relevant scientific assessments is directly connected to the role of science and the responsibility of scientists. These fundamentally philosophical issues influence how scientific assessments are made and how scientific findings are communicated to policymakers. It is therefore of high importance to discuss implicit assumptions and value judgments that are made in policy-relevant scientific assessments. The present paper examines these issues for the case of scientific assessments of future sea level rise. The magnitude of future sea level rise is very uncertain, mainly due to poor scientific understanding of all physical mechanisms affecting the great ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica, which together hold enough land-based ice to raise sea levels more than 60 meters if completely melted. There has been much confusion from policymakers on how different assessments of future sea levels should be interpreted. Much of this confusion is probably due to how uncertainties are characterized and communicated in these assessments. The present paper draws on the recent philosophical debate on the so-called "value-free ideal of science" - the view that science should not be based on social and ethical values. Issues related to how uncertainty is handled in scientific assessments are central to this debate. This literature has much focused on how uncertainty in data, parameters or models implies that choices have to be made, which can have social consequences. However, less emphasis has been on how uncertainty is characterized when communicating the findings of a study, which is the focus of the present paper. The paper argues that there is a tension between on the one hand the value-free ideal of science and on the other hand usefulness for practical applications in society. This means that even if the value-free ideal could be upheld in theory, by carefully constructing and hedging statements characterizing

  4. Direct interactions of OCA-B and TFII-I regulate immunoglobulin heavy-chain gene transcription by facilitating enhancer-promoter communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ren, Xiaodi; Siegel, Rachael; Kim, Unkyu; Roeder, Robert G

    2011-05-06

    B cell-specific coactivator OCA-B, together with Oct-1/2, binds to octamer sites in promoters and enhancers to activate transcription of immunoglobulin (Ig) genes, although the mechanisms underlying their roles in enhancer-promoter communication are unknown. Here, we demonstrate a direct interaction of OCA-B with transcription factor TFII-I, which binds to DICE elements in Igh promoters, that affects transcription at two levels. First, OCA-B relieves HDAC3-mediated Igh promoter repression by competing with HDAC3 for binding to promoter-bound TFII-I. Second, and most importantly, Igh 3' enhancer-bound OCA-B and promoter-bound TFII-I mediate promoter-enhancer interactions, in both cis and trans, that are important for Igh transcription. These and other results reveal an important function for OCA-B in Igh 3' enhancer function in vivo and strongly favor an enhancer mechanism involving looping and facilitated factor recruitment rather than a tracking mechanism. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  5. The communication of scientific knowledge in society.The role of the media

    CERN Multimedia

    Göpfert, W

    1999-01-01

    Why should the media report on science - and how? Increasingly scientific influence is regarded as risky or even dangerous, for example nuclear power or genetic engineering. Societies have to decide on such issues and therefore people have to be informed about these kinds of science. And where science itself is under scrutiny, media have to provide arguments and room or time for discussion. In that view the job of science journalism is not only to translate scientific speech into everyday language - as science journalism is often regarded. Science journalism also has to consider the context the man in the street is interested in. These are two different goals science reporting has to address. And it is necessary to distinguish between the two levels of serving readers interests. Science journalists should orient themselves on journalistic rules, not scientific needs. And scientists should know that journalists are not the translators of scientists. The arising conflicts between scientists and Journalists will...

  6. Factors affecting the nurse-patients' family communication in intensive care unit of kerman: a qualitative study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Loghmani, Laleh; Borhani, Fariba; Abbaszadeh, Abbas

    2014-03-01

    The communication between nurses and patients' families impacts patient well-being as well as the quality and outcome of nursing care, this study aimed to demonstrated the facilitators and barriers which influence the role of communication among Iranian nurses and families member in ICU. This study is a qualitative study with content analysis. Participants were eight registered nurses and ten of patients' families. Patients were admitted to the ICU of two large university hospitals in Kerman, Iran. We used non-structured interviews for data collection. All interviews were transcribed verbatim with a simultaneous, constant comparative analysis of the audio tapes. According to data analysis, facilitative factors between nurses and families' communication consisted of spiritual care, emotional support, Participation, notification and consultation and barriers that were misunderstandings regarding treatment, job and patient difficulties. The findings led into the recognition of the important barriers and facilitators in communication between ICU team and the family of the patients. By identification of the barriers and facilitators of communication, establishing new rules and using creative methods in education and establishing the communication of ICU team especially using patient-based approach we can have effective communication.

  7. Press releases — the new trend in science communication

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Autzen, Charlotte

    2014-01-01

    Scientific institutions have for a long time known the importance of framing and owning stories about science They also know the effective way of communicating science in a press release This is part of the institution’s public relations. Enhanced competition among research institutions has led...... to a buildup of communicative competences and professionalization of public relations inside the institutions and the press release has become an integrated part of science communication from these institutions. Changing working conditions in the media, where fewer people have to publish more, have made press...... releases from trustworthy scientific institutions into free and easily copied content for the editors. In this commentary I investigate and discuss the communicative ecosystem of the university press release. I especially take a close look at the role of the critical and independent science journalist...

  8. The comprehensive ‘Communicate to Vaccinate’ taxonomy of communication interventions for childhood vaccination in routine and campaign contexts

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jessica Kaufman

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Communication can be used to generate demand for vaccination or address vaccine hesitancy, and is crucial to successful childhood vaccination programmes. Research efforts have primarily focused on communication for routine vaccination. However, vaccination campaigns, particularly in low- or middle-income countries (LMICs, also use communication in diverse ways. Without a comprehensive framework integrating communication interventions from routine and campaign contexts, it is not possible to conceptualise the full range of possible vaccination communication interventions. Therefore, vaccine programme managers may be unaware of potential communication options and researchers may not focus on building evidence for interventions used in practice. In this paper, we broaden the scope of our existing taxonomy of communication interventions for routine vaccination to include communication used in campaigns, and integrate these into a comprehensive taxonomy of vaccination communication interventions. Methods Building on our taxonomy of communication for routine vaccination, we identified communication interventions used in vaccination campaigns through a targeted literature search; observation of vaccination activities in Cameroon, Mozambique and Nigeria; and stakeholder consultations. We added these interventions to descriptions of routine vaccination communication and categorised the interventions according to their intended purposes, building from an earlier taxonomy of communication related to routine vaccination. Results The comprehensive taxonomy groups communication used in campaigns and routine childhood vaccination into seven purpose categories: ‘Inform or Educate’; ‘Remind or Recall’; ‘Enhance Community Ownership’; ‘Teach Skills’; ‘Provide Support’; ‘Facilitate Decision Making’ and ‘Enable Communication’. Consultations with LMIC stakeholders and experts informed the taxonomy’s definitions and

  9. Translating Scientific Conclusions about Risk for Public Audiences

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bowman, T. E.

    2009-12-01

    Climate change has been aptly described as a problem of risk management, yet the scientific community has not been successful in helping the public engage in risk management effectively. Behavioral science studies demonstrate that, while the public generally accepts the reality of anthropogenic climate change today, the immanence of impacts and scale of risk and opportunities for effective mitigation are poorly understood. Helping the public overcome these misperceptions and engage in decision-making about climate risks is, perhaps, the climate communication community’s most urgent priority. Scientific writing and graphic conventions are poorly suited for communicating with non-scientists. Using examples from the IPCC 4th Assessment, this session will demonstrate how specific conventions in science writing and graph making have obscured critical information about climate risks. The session will further demonstrate how reformatting the graphical information can create an exceptionally clear picture of where humanity stands and the implications of various emissions pathways for the future. Attendees will appreciate how presentations of science results can be tailored to answer the public’s questions more effectively by highlighting useful information in accurate, yet accessible ways. Decision-makers and the public urgently need information about climate impact risks and the consequences of various emissions pathways. Yet written and graphic descriptions from the IPCC and other assessment agencies burden non-scientists with multiple temperature baselines (e.g., pre-Industrial, mid-20th century, late 20th century, today), two confusingly similar measures for the key human contribution to atmospheric composition (CO2 and CO2-eq), and multiple ways of describing probability and certainty. The public is further confounded by inconsistent graphic conventions in scientific figures, including inconsistent color-coding, labeling, axis orientation, and treatment of

  10. Quality and impact assessment in new geoscience communication : future perspectives through digital communication and Big Data exploration techniques

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vicari, Rosa; Schertzer, Daniel; Deutsch, Jean-Claude; Moilleron, Regis

    2015-04-01

    Since 1990s up to now, climate and environmental science communication has gradually become a priority of policy programmes, a consolidated subject of training and education, a developed and greatly expanded field of professional practices. However, in contrast to this very fast evolution there is presumably a deficit in terms of research and reflection on objective tools to assess the quality and impact of communication activities. The quality of communication in the field of science has become more and more challenging due to the fact that the role of traditional mediators (e.g. well reputed newspapers or broadcasters, science museums), that used to be considered quality guarantors, has now become marginal. Today, a new generation of communication professionals tend to be employed by research institutes to respond to a stronger request to develop accountable research projects, to increase transparency and trust and to disseminate and implementation of research findings. This research aims to understand how communication strategies, addressed to the general public, can optimise the impact of research findings in hydrology for resilient cities. The research will greatly benefit from the development of automated analysis of unstructured Big Data that allows the exploration of huge amounts of digital communication data: blogs, social networks postings, public speeches, press releases, publications, articles... Furthermore, these techniques facilitate the crossing of socio-economic and physical-environmental data and possibly lead to the identification of existing correlations. Case studies correspond to those of several research projects under the umbrella of the Chair "Hydrology for resilient cities" aimed to develop and test new solutions in urban hydrology that will contribute to the resilience of our cities to extreme weather. This research was initiated in the framework of the Interreg IVB project RAINGAIN and pursued in the project Blue Green Dream of the EU

  11. Rapid development of scalable scientific software using a process oriented approach

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Friborg, Rune Møllegaard; Vinter, Brian

    2011-01-01

    Scientific applications are often not written with multiprocessing, cluster computing or grid computing in mind. This paper suggests using Python and PyCSP to structure scientific software through Communicating Sequential Processes. Three scientific applications are used to demonstrate the features...... of PyCSP and how networks of processes may easily be mapped into a visual representation for better understanding of the process workflow. We show that for many sequential solutions, the difficulty in implementing a parallel application is removed. The use of standard multi-threading mechanisms...

  12. Scientific culture: A theoretical approach to the term

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rafael Antonio Hernández Cruz Pérez

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Presently article is made a valuation of the term scientific culture starting from a realized systematizing to the records from the term to international level, but with emphasis in the positions assumed by Cuban authors and you culminates with the definition of Scientific Culture of (Pinar 2006. This definition, contrary to those mentioned, explicit the process for the development of the Scientific Culture, having present the Ethics and the historical-social context in its development, for what is not limited alone to the knowledge related with the Science and the Technology. As essential element in this definition the humanist focus is revealed, it is emphasized in the related with the man's development and with its autorrealización that will facilitate them a harmonic bond with the Nature and the Society.

  13. Latino Teen Theater: A Theater Intervention to Promote Latino Parent-Adolescent Sexual Communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Noone, Joanne; Castillo, Nancy; Allen, Tiffany L; Esqueda, Teresa

    2015-01-01

    Latina teen pregnancy rates continue to be a health disparity in the United States. This study evaluated a parenting intervention using interactive theater to facilitate Latino parent-adolescent communication about sexuality and pregnancy prevention. The intervention, conducted in Spanish and with teen actors, consisted of scenes involving the audience. Fifty-nine parents participated in this 3-month prospective study. Spanish measures of comfort with communication, general communication, and parent-child sexual communication were employed comparing paired t tests for each scale. Acceptability of the intervention was assessed and demonstrated. Eighty-six percent of parents used information from the performance to talk to their child. Improvements in general communication (p < .02), sexual communication (p < .001), and comfort (p < .001) occurred. Interactive theater is an innovative approach to facilitate Latino parent communication about sexuality and pregnancy prevention.

  14. Scientific report 1998; Rapport scientifique 1998

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1998-07-01

    The aim of this report is to outline the main developments of the ''Departement des Reacteurs Nucleaires'', (DRN) during the year 1998. DRN is one of the CEA Institution. This report is divided in three main parts: the DRN scientific programs, the scientific and technical publications (with abstracts in english) and economic data on staff, budget and communication. Main results of the Department, for the year 1998, are presented giving information on the reactors technology and safety, the neutronics, the transmutation and the hybrid systems, the dismantling and the sites improvement, the nuclear accidents, the nuclear matter transport, the thermonuclear fusion safety, the fuel cladding materials and radioactive waste control. (A.L.B.)

  15. Scientific report 1998; Rapport scientifique 1998

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1998-07-01

    The aim of this report is to outline the main developments of the ''Departement des Reacteurs Nucleaires'', (DRN) during the year 1998. DRN is one of the CEA Institution. This report is divided in three main parts: the DRN scientific programs, the scientific and technical publications (with abstracts in english) and economic data on staff, budget and communication. Main results of the Department, for the year 1998, are presented giving information on the reactors technology and safety, the neutronics, the transmutation and the hybrid systems, the dismantling and the sites improvement, the nuclear accidents, the nuclear matter transport, the thermonuclear fusion safety, the fuel cladding materials and radioactive waste control. (A.L.B.)

  16. Selecting and implementing scientific objectives. [for Voyager 1 and 2 planetary encounters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miner, E. D.; Stembridge, C. H.; Doms, P. E.

    1985-01-01

    The procedures used to select and implement scientific objectives for the Voyager 1 and 2 planetary encounters are described. Attention is given to the scientific tradeoffs and engineering considerations must be addressed at various stages in the mission planning process, including: the limitations of ground and spacecraft communications systems, ageing of instruments in flight, and instrument calibration over long distances. The contribution of planetary science workshops to the definition of scientific objectives for deep space missions is emphasized.

  17. An interprofessional approach to teaching communication skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sargeant, Joan; MacLeod, Tanya; Murray, Anne

    2011-01-01

    Recent research suggests that effective interprofessional communication and collaboration can positively influence patient satisfaction and outcomes. Health professional communication skills do not necessarily improve over time but can improve with formal communication skills training (CST). This article describes the development, evaluation, and lessons learned for a novel theater-based role-play CST program designed to improve community cancer care for patients and families by enhancing health care professionals' communication skills. Four 2-hour interprofessional communication skills workshops for Nova Scotia health professionals were developed. Topics were (1) Essential Communication Skills, (2) Delivering Difficult News and Providing Support, (3) When Patients and Families Are Angry, and (4) Managing Conflict in the Workplace. Strategies for enhancing communication skills based on the science (evidence-based practice and teaching) and the art (interactive theater) of communication skills were included. Facilitators included professional actors, communication skills facilitators, and trained health professionals. We used a mixed-methods evaluation design assessing 4 levels of educational outcomes at 3 points: pre- and post-workshop and follow-up. Five hundred eighteen professionals representing over 20 health professions attended 17 workshops. Data showed the workshops were well received, despite some discomfort with role-playing. Pre/post paired t-tests of self-reported communication skills showed significant improvement after all workshops (p ≤ 0.05); 92% indicated intended changes to their communication practice immediately following the workshops. Of 68 respondents to the follow-up, 59 (87%) reported positive changes in the responses of their patients. Both positive and negative lessons learned are described. Copyright © 2011 The Alliance for Continuing Medical Education, the Society for Academic Continuing Medical Education, and the Council on CME

  18. Trusted Sources: The Role Scientific Societies Can Play in Improving Public Opinions on Climate Change

    Science.gov (United States)

    McEntee, C.; Cairns, A.; Buhrman, J.

    2012-12-01

    Public acceptance of the scientific consensus regarding climate change has eroded and misinformation designed to confuse the public is rapidly proliferating. Those issues, combined with an increase of politically motivated attacks on climate scientists and their research, have led to a place where ideology can trump scientific consensus as the foundation for developing policy solutions. The scientific community has been, thus far, unprepared to respond effectively to these developments. However, as a scientific society whose members engage in climate science research, and one whose organizational mission and vision are centered on the concepts of science for the benefit of humanity and ensuring a sustainable future, the American Geophysical Union can, and should, play an important role in reversing this trend. To that end, in 2011, AGU convened a Leadership Summit on Climate Science Communication, in which presidents, executive directors, and senior public policy staff from 17 scientific organizations engaged with experts in the social sciences regarding effective communication of climate science and with practitioners from agriculture, energy, and the military. The discussions focused on three key issues: the environment of climate science communication; public understanding of climate change; and the perspectives of consumers of climate science-based information who work with specific audiences. Participants diagnosed previous challenges and failings, enumerated the key constituencies that need to be effectively engaged, and identified the critical role played by cultural cognition—the influence of group values, particularly around equality and authority, individualism, and community; and the perceptions of risk. Since that meeting, AGU has consistently worked to identify and explore ways that it, and its members, and improve the effectiveness of their communication with the public about climate change. This presentation will focus on the insights AGU has

  19. Communication characteristics of young children with HIV in South ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    ... provided with relevant literature or training regarding the communication development of children infected with HIV. This will facilitate appropriate referrals for ECI services. Keywords: Early Communication Intervention (ECI), Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART), opportunistic infections, speech-language therapist ...

  20. Center for Center for Technology for Advanced Scientific Component Software (TASCS)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kostadin, Damevski [Virginia State Univ., Petersburg, VA (United States)

    2015-01-25

    A resounding success of the Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) program is that high-performance computational science is now universally recognized as a critical aspect of scientific discovery [71], complementing both theoretical and experimental research. As scientific communities prepare to exploit unprecedented computing capabilities of emerging leadership-class machines for multi-model simulations at the extreme scale [72], it is more important than ever to address the technical and social challenges of geographically distributed teams that combine expertise in domain science, applied mathematics, and computer science to build robust and flexible codes that can incorporate changes over time. The Center for Technology for Advanced Scientific Component Software (TASCS)1 tackles these these issues by exploiting component-based software development to facilitate collaborative high-performance scientific computing.

  1. International scientific communications in the field of colorectal tumour markers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ivanov, Krasimir; Donev, Ivan

    2017-05-27

    To analyze scientometrically the dynamic science internationalization on colorectal tumour markers as reflected in five information portals and to outline the significant journals, scientists and institutions. A retrospective problem-oriented search was performed in Web of Science Core Collection (WoS), MEDLINE, BIOSIS Citation Index (BIOSIS) and Scopus for 1986-2015 as well as in Dervent Innovations Index (Derwent) for 1995-2015. Several specific scientometric parameters of the publication output and citation activity were comparatively analyzed. The following scientometric parameters were analyzed: (1) annual dynamics of publications; (2) scientific institutions; (3) journals; (4) authors; (5) scientific forums; (6) patents - number of patents, names and countries of inventors, and (7) citations (number of citations to publications by single authors received in WoS, BIOSIS Citation Index and Scopus). There is a trend towards increasing publication output on colorectal tumour markers worldwide along with high citation rates. Authors from 70 countries have published their research results in journals and conference proceedings in 21 languages. There is considerable country stratification similar to that in most systematic investigations. The information provided to end users and scientometricians varies between these data-bases in terms of most parameters due to different journal coverage, indexing systems and editorial policy. The lists of the so-called "core" journals and most productive authors in WoS, BIOSIS, MEDLINE and Scopus along with the list of the most productive authors - inventors in Derwent present a particular interest to the beginners in the field, the institutional and national science managers and the journal editorial board members. The role of the purposeful assessment of scientific forums and patents is emphasized. Our results along with this problem-oriented collection containing the researchers' names, addresses and publications could

  2. Communication-Gateway Software For NETEX, DECnet, And TCP/IP

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keith, B.; Ferry, D.; Fendler, E.

    1990-01-01

    Communications gateway software, GATEWAY, provides process-to-process communication between remote applications programs in different protocol domains. Communicating peer processes may be resident on any paired combination of NETEX, DECnet, or TCP/IP hosts. Provides necessary mapping from one protocol to another and facilitates practical intermachine communications in cost-effective manner by eliminating need to standardize on single protocol or to implement multiple protocols in host computers. Written in Ada.

  3. Lexical Features of Scientific Discourse

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tatjana Rusko

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Currently, a lot of emphasis is placed of the ability of a person to successfully communicate in any sphere of activity, which along with upbringing and education is among the factors that determine a person’s culture. In the context of rapid scientific and technological progress, it is vital to constantly exchange relevant infor- mation. The effectiveness of this process relies not only on the proficient knowledge of the subject and the ability to make grammatically correct sentences, but to a large extent on the level of competence in scientific language. The present article attempts to consider the interaction of discourse and vocabulary, different types of cognitive phenomena responsible for the use of a language in real time and related to the language as a means of storing and organising information. Analysing and classifying some key elements of a scientific discourse lexicon contributes to the development of certain provisions of lexicology, functional stylistics, cognitive linguistics and terminology. The results of the analysis may be advantageous both to linguistics and teaching the language for specific purposes.

  4. An Interdisciplinary Network Making Progress on Climate Change Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spitzer, W.; Anderson, J. C.; Bales, S.; Fraser, J.; Yoder, J. A.

    2012-12-01

    Public understanding of climate change continues to lag far behind the scientific consensus not merely because the public lacks information, but because there is in fact too much complex and contradictory information available. Fortunately, we can now (1) build on careful empirical cognitive and social science research to understand what people already value, believe, and understand; and then (2) design and test strategies for translating complex science so that people can examine evidence, make well-informed inferences, and embrace science-based solutions. Informal science education institutions can help bridge the gap between climate scientists and the public. In the US, more than 1,500 informal science venues (science centers, museums, aquariums, zoos, nature centers, national parks, etc.) are visited annually by 61% of the population. Extensive research shows that these visitors are receptive to learning about climate change and trust these institutions as reliable sources. Ultimately, we need to take a strategic approach to the way climate change is communicated. An interdisciplinary approach is needed to bring together three key areas of expertise (as recommended by Pidgeon and Fischhoff, 2011): 1. Climate and decision science experts - who can summarize and explain what is known, characterize risks, and describe appropriate mitigation and adaptation strategies; 2. Social scientists - who can bring to bear research, theory, and best practices from cognitive, communication, knowledge acquisition, and social learning theory; and 3. Informal educators and program designers - who bring a practitioner perspective and can exponentially facilitate a learning process for additional interpreters. With support from an NSF CCEP Phase I grant, we have tested this approach, bringing together Interdisciplinary teams of colleagues for a five month "study circles" to develop skills to communicate climate change based on research in the social and cognitive sciences. In 2011

  5. Data Visualization and Infographics In Visual Communication Design Education at The Age of Information

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Banu Inanc Uyan Dur

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Scientific and technologic developments in the last century facilitate people’s lives while also causing them to face more information. Information design has become much more important as a result of the chaos created by the unprocessed heap of data and information traffic. Therefore, people need designed information like infographics and data visualisation today. Design of information, which is among the most significant requirements of our age, has become a subject which needs to be dealt with more systematically in the education of visual communication design. Visual design of information and data is important not only for increasing perceptibility but also revealing the patterns within complex information, and being educative, persuasive and guiding depending on the content and objective. In this sense, incorporating data visualization and infographics works into the education of visual communication design would have significant contributions to train designers with sufficient qualification to meet the requirements of today’s world. This study examines the current/potential expansion of data visualization and infographics in the education of visual communication design  at the age of information. With respect to students, it deals with its effects to the design method, process and perception and its contributions to the multidisciplinary design approach.

  6. Using Just-in-Time Information to Support Scientific Discovery Learning in a Computer-Based Simulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hulshof, Casper D.; de Jong, Ton

    2006-01-01

    Students encounter many obstacles during scientific discovery learning with computer-based simulations. It is hypothesized that an effective type of support, that does not interfere with the scientific discovery learning process, should be delivered on a "just-in-time" base. This study explores the effect of facilitating access to…

  7. Founder of a scientific school on plasma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon

    2003-01-01

    The academician Mikhail Aleksandrovitch Leontovitch is a physicist-theorist of a wide profile (physical optics, oscillation theory, acoustics, statistical physics, thermodynamics), who became the founder of the largest scientific schools on the radiophysics and plasma physics. Namely due to his effective leadership in developing the theory our theoretical studies on the controlled thermonuclear synthesis reached high level and facilitated the success of the experiment [ru

  8. Major Development Communication Paradigms and Practices ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    info

    major paradigms of development and communication practices on graphic ... mobilize, educate and persuade target audience to support human development ... facilitates the understanding of the themes, issues and facts of a campaign.

  9. Incorporation of Socio-scientific Content into Active Learning Activities

    Science.gov (United States)

    King, D. B.; Lewis, J. E.; Anderson, K.; Latch, D.; Sutheimer, S.; Webster, G.; Moog, R.

    2014-12-01

    Active learning has gained increasing support as an effective pedagogical technique to improve student learning. One way to promote active learning in the classroom is the use of in-class activities in place of lecturing. As part of an NSF-funded project, a set of in-class activities have been created that use climate change topics to teach chemistry content. These activities use the Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) methodology. In this pedagogical approach a set of models and a series of critical thinking questions are used to guide students through the introduction to or application of course content. Students complete the activities in their groups, with the faculty member as a facilitator of learning. Through assigned group roles and intentionally designed activity structure, process skills, such as teamwork, communication, and information processing, are developed during completion of the activity. Each of these climate change activities contains a socio-scientific component, e.g., social, ethical and economic data. In one activity, greenhouse gases are used to explain the concept of dipole moment. Data about natural and anthropogenic production rates, global warming potential and atmospheric lifetimes for a list of greenhouse gases are presented. The students are asked to identify which greenhouse gas they would regulate, with a corresponding explanation for their choice. They are also asked to identify the disadvantages of regulating the gas they chose in the previous question. In another activity, where carbon sequestration is used to demonstrate the utility of a phase diagram, students use economic and environmental data to choose the best location for sequestration. Too often discussions about climate change (both in and outside the classroom) consist of purely emotional responses. These activities force students to use data to support their arguments and hypothesize about what other data could be used in the corresponding discussion to

  10. Implementation of fall prevention in residential care facilities: A systematic review of barriers and facilitators.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vlaeyen, Ellen; Stas, Joke; Leysens, Greet; Van der Elst, Elisa; Janssens, Elise; Dejaeger, Eddy; Dobbels, Fabienne; Milisen, Koen

    2017-05-01

    To identify the barriers and facilitators for fall prevention implementation in residential care facilities. Systematic review. Review registration number on PROSPERO: CRD42013004655. Two independent reviewers systematically searched five databases (i.e. MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Web of Science) and the reference lists of relevant articles. This systematic review was conducted in line with the Center for Reviews and Dissemination Handbook and reported according to the PRISMA guideline. Only original research focusing on determinants of fall prevention implementation in residential care facilities was included. We used the Mixed Method Appraisal Tool for quality appraisal. Thematic analysis was performed for qualitative data; quantitative data were analyzed descriptively. To synthesize the results, we used the framework of Grol and colleagues that describes six healthcare levels wherein implementation barriers and facilitators can be identified. We found eight relevant studies, identifying 44 determinants that influence implementation. Of these, 17 were facilitators and 27 were barriers. Results indicated that the social and organizational levels have the greatest number of influencing factors (9 and 14, respectively), whereas resident and economical/political levels have the least (3 and 4, respectively). The most cited facilitators were good communication and facility equipment availability, while staff feeling overwhelmed, helpless, frustrated and concerned about their ability to control fall management, staffing issues, limited knowledge and skills (i.e., general clinical skill deficiencies, poor fall management skills or lack of computer skills); and poor communication were the most cited barriers. Successful implementation of fall prevention depends on many factors across different healthcare levels. The focus of implementation interventions, however, should be on modifiable barriers and facilitators such as communication, knowledge, and skills

  11. Factors influencing intercultural doctor-patient communication: a realist review.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Paternotte, E.; Dulmen, S. van; Lee, N. van der; Scherpbier, A.J.J.A.; Scheele, F.

    2015-01-01

    Objective: Due to migration, doctors see patients from different ethnic backgrounds. This causes challenges for the communication. To develop training programs for doctors in intercultural communication (ICC), it is important to know which barriers and facilitators determine the quality of ICC. This

  12. The Role of Communication in International Relations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Constantin Frosin

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper provides an overview of the impact of (global communication on international relations in various fields: military, diplomatic, economic, scientific, educational, and cultural, and to draw out the implications of the communication in each field. The main idea is that in the absence of the communication, nothing is possible, either the peace or the welfare of the humankind. Global communication it is blurring technological, economic, political, and cultural boundaries and, particularly in its interactive forms, has created immense new moral spaces for exploring new communities of affinity rather than vicinity. First, dialogue and communication are the essence of the foreign relations.

  13. Science Learning with Information Technologies as a Tool for "Scientific Thinking" in Engineering Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smirnov, Eugeny; Bogun, Vitali

    2011-01-01

    New methodologies in science (or mathematics) learning process and scientific thinking in the classroom activity of engineer students with ICT (information and communication technology), including graphic calculator are presented: visual modelling with ICT, action research with graphic calculator, insight in classroom and communications and…

  14. List of the main scientific laboratories in the world

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Iung, J.; Bourrely, H.; Bettembourg, O.; Roule, L.; Leroy, A.

    1956-01-01

    The Documentation Service of the French atomic energy commission (CEA) started in December 1955 a compilation list of the different public and private scientific institutes and laboratories over the world. This list aimed at facilitating the future exchanges between the CEA and other potential research organisations. Labs are sorted by country

  15. African Scientific Network: A model to enhance scientific research in developing countries

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kebede, Abebe

    2002-03-01

    Africa has over 350 higher education institutions with a variety of experiences and priorities. The primary objectives of these institutions are to produce white-collar workers, teachers, and the work force for mining, textiles, and agricultural industries. The state of higher education and scientific research in Africa have been discussed in several conferences. The proposals that are generated by these conferences advocate structural changes in higher education, North-South institutional linkages, mobilization of the African Diaspora and funding. We propose a model African Scientific Network that would facilitate and enhance international scientific partnerships between African scientists and their counterparts elsewhere. A recent article by James Lamout (Financial Times, August 2, 2001) indicates that emigration from South Africa alone costs $8.9 billion in lost human resources. The article also stated that every year 23,000 graduates leave Africa for opportunities overseas, mainly in Europe, leaving only 20,000 scientists and engineers serving over 600 million people. The International Organization for Migration states that the brain drain of highly skilled professionals from Africa is making economic growth and poverty alleviation impossible across the continent. In our model we will focus on a possible networking mechanism where the African Diaspora will play a major role in addressing the financial and human resources needs of higher education in Africa

  16. Scientific Story Telling & Social Media The role of social media in effectively communicating science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brinkhuis, D.; Peart, L.

    2012-12-01

    Scientific discourse generally takes place in appropriate journals, using the language and conventions of science. That's fine, as long as the discourse remains in scientific circles. It is only outside those circles that the rules and techniques of engaging social media tools gain importance. A young generation of scientists are eager to share their experiences by using social media, but is this effective? And how can we better integrate all outreach & media channels to engage general audiences? How can Facebook, Twitter, Skype and YouTube be used as synergy tools in scientific story telling? Case: during IODP Expedtion 342 (June-July 2012) onboard the scientific drillship JOIDES Resolution an onboard educator and videographer worked non-stop fort two months on an integrated outreach plan that tried and tested the limits of all social media tools available to interact with an international public while at sea. The results are spectacular!

  17. Uncertainty As a Trigger for a Paradigm Change in Science Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schneider, S.

    2014-12-01

    Over the last decade, the need to communicate uncertainty increased. Climate sciences and environmental sciences have faced massive propaganda campaigns by global industry and astroturf organizations. These organizations use the deep societal mistrust in uncertainty to point out alleged unethical and intentional delusion of decision makers and the public by scientists and their consultatory function. Scientists, who openly communicate uncertainty of climate model calculations, earthquake occurrence frequencies, or possible side effects of genetic manipulated semen have to face massive campaigns against their research, and sometimes against their person and live as well. Hence, new strategies to communicate uncertainty have to face the societal roots of the misunderstanding of the concept of uncertainty itself. Evolutionary biology has shown, that human mind is well suited for practical decision making by its sensory structures. Therefore, many of the irrational concepts about uncertainty are mitigated if data is presented in formats the brain is adapted to understand. At the end, the impact of uncertainty to the decision-making process is finally dominantly driven by preconceptions about terms such as uncertainty, vagueness or probabilities. Parallel to the increasing role of scientific uncertainty in strategic communication, science communicators for example at the Research and Development Program GEOTECHNOLOGIEN developed a number of techniques to master the challenge of putting uncertainty in the focus. By raising the awareness of scientific uncertainty as a driving force for scientific development and evolution, the public perspective on uncertainty is changing. While first steps to implement this process are under way, the value of uncertainty still is underestimated in the public and in politics. Therefore, science communicators are in need for new and innovative ways to talk about scientific uncertainty.

  18. Science Communications: Providing a Return on Investment to the Taxpayer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Horack, John M.; Borchelt, Rick E.

    1999-01-01

    Nowhere is the disconnect between needing to better communicate science and technology and the skills and techniques used for that communication more evident than in the Federal research enterprise. As Federal research budgets stagnate or decline, and despite public clamor for more and better scientific information, communication of basic research results continues to rank among the lowest agency priorities, mortgaged against traditional public-relations activities to polish an agency's image or control negative information flow to the press and public. Alone among the Federal agencies, NASA articulates in its strategic plan the need "...to advance and communicate scientific knowledge and understanding..." These words emphasize the reality that if new knowledge is generated but not communicated, only half the job has been done. This is a reflection of the transition of NASA from primarily an engineering organization used to help win the Cold War to a producer of new knowledge and technology in the National interest for the 21st century.

  19. Popularization of science and scientific journalism: possibilities of scientific literacy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alessandro Augusto Barros Façanha

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available This study evidences the intersection between science education and communication in the perspective of the popularization of sciences based on the evidence produced in a specific column of a large circulation newspaper of the city of Teresina / PI. The discussions were based on the analysis of content carried out in the context of science classes in a school of basic education with elementary students, where journalistic texts were used with diverse themes that involved science and daily life in order to understand the interpretation of texts And the relationship with the context of scientific dissemination and citizenship. The analysis of the content was used and the answers were stratified into categories of conceptual nature and application of the themes. The analyses show that the texts of scientific dissemination have a contribution in relation to the popularization of Sciences, fomentation to the debate in the classroom, didactic increment in the classes of sciences, in spite of their insertion still incipient in the context of science education. However, the results of the research denote the difficulty faced by the students in understanding the text of dissemination in their conceptual comprehension and resolution of daily problems, as well as the distance between the context of the sciences in their theoretical scope and their presentation in everyday situations, Despite this, the texts of divulgation corroborated as an important way of real insertion in the process of scientific literacy and promotion of citizenship.

  20. Facilitating communication about sexual health between aging women and their health care providers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hughes, Anne K; Lewinson, Terri D W

    2015-04-01

    Many women experience changes in sexual health as they age, and discussing these changes with health care providers is an essential component of optimal health management. The purpose of this study was to understand aging women's perspectives about communicating with providers about sexual health. We used the integrative model of behavioral prediction as a theoretical lens to explore women's attitudes, perceived norms, and perceived self-efficacy that promote or inhibit the likelihood of communicating about sexual health. In this theory-based qualitative study, we interviewed 28 community-dwelling older women in the Midwestern United States. Through thematic analysis, we identified both positive and negative attitudes about communicating with providers. Women seemed most inclined to discuss sexual health if they perceived that important patient-provider conditions, such as trust and rapport, were in place. Despite situational obstacles and perceived norms, these women held strong beliefs about their abilities to discuss sexual health topics with providers. © The Author(s) 2014.