World-wide anthropogenic climate changes: facts, uncertainties and open questions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schoenwiese, C.D.

1994-01-01

Various human activities are, without a doubt, leading to a steady increase world-wide in the emissions of trace gases which affect the climate into the atmosphere. As a result, the global climate is also forced to change. The evidence from climate models regarding this is uncertain, however, both with respect to the quantitative aspect and the regional aspect, especially concerning climatic elements apart from temperature. It is therefore important to examine the data of climate history for anthropogenic climate signals. It is difficult, though, to distinguish between natural and anthropogenic climate effects. Despite these uncertainties, however, which result in many questions remaining open, estimations of risk and the principle of responsibility lead to immediate, international climate protection measures being demanded. (orig.) [de

Will a Black Hole Eventually Swallow Earth?” Fifth Graders' Interest in Questions from a Textbook, an Open Educational Resource and Other Students' Questions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hani Swirski

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Can questions sent to Open-Educational-Resource (OER websites such as Ask-An-Expert serve as indicators for students’ interest in science? This issue was examined using an online questionnaire which included an equal number of questions about the topics “space” and “nutrition” randomly selected from three different sources: a 5th-grade science textbook, the “Ask-An-Expert” website, and questions collected from other students in the same age group. A sample of 113 5th-graders from two elementary schools were asked to rate their interest level in finding out the answer to these questions without knowledge of their source. Significant differences in students’ interest level were found between questions: textbook questions were ranked lowest for both subjects, and questions from the open-resource were ranked high. This finding suggests that questions sent to an open-resource could be used as an indicator of students’ interest in science. In addition, the high correlation of interests expressed by students from the two schools may point to a potential generalization of the findings. This study contributes by highlighting OER as a new and promising indicator of student interest, which may help bring “student voices” into mainstream science teaching to increase student interest in science.

Combining Open-domain and Biomedical Knowledge for Topic Recognition in Consumer Health Questions.

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Mrabet, Yassine; Kilicoglu, Halil; Roberts, Kirk; Demner-Fushman, Dina

2016-01-01

Determining the main topics in consumer health questions is a crucial step in their processing as it allows narrowing the search space to a specific semantic context. In this paper we propose a topic recognition approach based on biomedical and open-domain knowledge bases. In the first step of our method, we recognize named entities in consumer health questions using an unsupervised method that relies on a biomedical knowledge base, UMLS, and an open-domain knowledge base, DBpedia. In the next step, we cast topic recognition as a binary classification problem of deciding whether a named entity is the question topic or not. We evaluated our approach on a dataset from the National Library of Medicine (NLM), introduced in this paper, and another from the Genetic and Rare Disease Information Center (GARD). The combination of knowledge bases outperformed the results obtained by individual knowledge bases by up to 16.5% F1 and achieved state-of-the-art performance. Our results demonstrate that combining open-domain knowledge bases with biomedical knowledge bases can lead to a substantial improvement in understanding user-generated health content.

A Template for Open Inquiry: Using Questions to Encourage and Support Inquiry in Earth and Space Science

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Hermann, Ronald S.; Miranda, Rommel J.

2010-01-01

This article provides an instructional approach to helping students generate open-inquiry research questions, which the authors call the "open-inquiry question template." This template was created based on their experience teaching high school science and preservice university methods courses. To help teachers implement this template, they…

Some open questions concerning biological growth

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Escudero, Carlos

2010-12-01

Full Text Available We briefly review the properties of radially growing interfaces and their connection to biological growth. We focus on simplified models which result from the abstraction of only considering domain growth and not the interface curvature. Linear equations can be exactly solved and the phenomenology of growth can be inferred from the explicit solutions. Nonlinear equations pose interesting open questions that are summarized herein.

En este trabajo revisamos brevemente las propiedades de las superficies que crecen de forma radial y su conexión con el crecimiento biológico. Nos vamos a concentrar en modelos simplificados que resultan de la abstracción de sólo considerar el crecimiento del dominio y no la curvatura de la interfaz. Las ecuaciones lineales se pueden resolver exactamente y la fenomenología del crecimiento puede ser inferida de las soluciones explítas. Las ecuaciones no lineales dan lugar a interesantes problemas abiertos que vamos a resumir aquí.

Diagnosing Students’ conception on atomic structure using open ended questions

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Fitriza, Z.; Gazali, F.

2018-05-01

This study aims to diagnose students’ conception on atomic structure concepts using open ended questions. For this reason, a 7 items of assay test was administered to 135 senior high school students from different schools in West Sumatera. The data were collected using a an open ended test which is covering the concept used in the topic Atomic Structure. The open ended test of students’ conceptual was developed to identify the alternative conceptions that student might have regarding the concepts in Atomic Structure, to measure the level of students’ conceptions, and the way of students’ thinking concerning the concepts. The results showed that students find difficulties about some concepts of Atomic structure such as atom, atomic model, electron configuration, period and group.The result of this study illuminated the concepts to be underlined in developing teaching and learning approach concerning the topic of Atomic Structure.

Developing Open-Ended Questions for Surface Area and Volume of Beam

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Kurniawan, Henry; Putri, Ratu Ilma Indra; Hartono, Yusuf

2018-01-01

The purpose of this research was to show open-ended questions about surface area and beam volume which valid and practice, have potential effect. This research is research development which consists of two main phases: preliminary phase (preparation phase and problem design) and formative evaluation phase (evaluation and revision phases). The…

Spouses of Military Members' Experiences and Insights: Qualitative Analysis of Responses to an Open-Ended Question in a Survey of Health and Wellbeing

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Runge, Catherine E.; Waller, Michael; MacKenzie, Alison; McGuire, Annabel C. L.

2014-01-01

Introduction There are few studies on the experiences of spouses of military members, with most focused on adverse impacts of deployment. Responses to an open-ended question in a survey of spouses' health and wellbeing enabled access to perceptions and insights on a broad range of topics. The objective of this investigation was to examine how respondents used the open-ended question and what they discussed, in aim of informing support service agencies and spouses of military members. Methods Thematic analysis was conducted on responses to the open-ended question. Descriptive analysis was performed on the demographics, military member characteristics and self-reported health of respondents and non-respondents to the open-ended question. Findings Over a quarter (28.5%) of the 1,332 survey participants answered the open-ended question, with respondents having a significantly higher level of education than non–respondents. Respondents expressed negative and positive experiences and insights on military life, provided personal information, commented on the survey, and qualified their responses to closed-ended questions. Topics included ‘inadequate support’, ‘deployment impacts’, ‘suggestions for supporting agencies’, ‘appraisal of experiences’ and ‘coping strategies’. Conclusions This investigation uncovered issues of importance to spouses of military members that were not included or identified in a quantitative study. The findings provide a platform from which to explore these issues further, particularly the impact of military life on the non-serving spouse's career. The findings also provide support agencies with evidence to strengthen their services and they give spouses an opportunity to reflect on their own and others' feelings and evaluations of military life. PMID:25479135

Should essays and other "open-ended"-type questions retain a place in written summative assessment in clinical medicine?

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Hift, Richard J

2014-11-28

Written assessments fall into two classes: constructed-response or open-ended questions, such as the essay and a number of variants of the short-answer question, and selected-response or closed-ended questions; typically in the form of multiple-choice. It is widely believed that constructed response written questions test higher order cognitive processes in a manner that multiple-choice questions cannot, and consequently have higher validity. An extensive review of the literature suggests that in summative assessment neither premise is evidence-based. Well-structured open-ended and multiple-choice questions appear equivalent in their ability to assess higher cognitive functions, and performance in multiple-choice assessments may correlate more highly than the open-ended format with competence demonstrated in clinical practice following graduation. Studies of construct validity suggest that both formats measure essentially the same dimension, at least in mathematics, the physical sciences, biology and medicine. The persistence of the open-ended format in summative assessment may be due to the intuitive appeal of the belief that synthesising an answer to an open-ended question must be both more cognitively taxing and similar to actual experience than is selecting a correct response. I suggest that cognitive-constructivist learning theory would predict that a well-constructed context-rich multiple-choice item represents a complex problem-solving exercise which activates a sequence of cognitive processes which closely parallel those required in clinical practice, hence explaining the high validity of the multiple-choice format. The evidence does not support the proposition that the open-ended assessment format is superior to the multiple-choice format, at least in exit-level summative assessment, in terms of either its ability to test higher-order cognitive functioning or its validity. This is explicable using a theory of mental models, which might predict that the

Open Educational Resources: American Ideals, Global Questions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Steven Weiland

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Educational relations between societies and cultures that begin with benevolent intentions can come to be seen as threats to national autonomy and local preferences. Indeed, side by side with the growth since the first years of this century of Open Educational Resources (OER there has been worry about their impact on global educational development. Evaluation and research have lagged behind the steady expansion of access to online resources, leaving estimates of the value of digital innovation to the enthusiasm of OER providers and technology minded educational reformers. The advent of the “Massive Open Online Course” (or MOOC has exacerbated the problem, with attention moving toward a form of OER reflecting the enthusiasm of leading institutions in industrialized nations. The American led movement on behalf of the MOOC requires new questions about the motives, impact, and future of OER. This essay accounts for the history of OER, culminating in the MOOC, including how the latter in particular is an expression of American pedagogical and institutional interests representing belief in the transformative educational powers of the latest communications technologies. Criticism of OER and MOOCs can reflect organizational, operational, and ideological considerations. But it should recognize what they offer when there are few other opportunities for formal learning, and as research demonstrates their uses and impact.

"Will a Black Hole Eventually Swallow the Earth?" Fifth Graders' Interest in Questions from a Textbook, an Open Educational Resource, and Other Students' Questions

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Swirski, Hani; Baram-Tsabari, Ayelet

2015-01-01

Can questions sent to Open-Educational-Resource (OER) websites such as Ask-An-Expert serve as indicators for students' interest in science? This issue was examined using an online questionnaire which included an equal number of questions about the topics "space" and "nutrition" randomly selected from three different sources: a…

Does the sequence of data collection influence participants' responses to closed and open-ended questions? A methodological study.

Science.gov (United States)

Covell, Christine L; Sidani, Souraya; Ritchie, Judith A

2012-06-01

The sequence used for collecting quantitative and qualitative data in concurrent mixed-methods research may influence participants' responses. Empirical evidence is needed to determine if the order of data collection in concurrent mixed methods research biases participants' responses to closed and open-ended questions. To examine the influence of the quantitative-qualitative sequence on responses to closed and open-ended questions when assessing the same variables or aspects of a phenomenon simultaneously within the same study phase. A descriptive cross-sectional, concurrent mixed-methods design was used to collect quantitative (survey) and qualitative (interview) data. The setting was a large multi-site health care centre in Canada. A convenience sample of 50 registered nurses was selected and participated in the study. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two sequences for data collection, quantitative-qualitative or qualitative-quantitative. Independent t-tests were performed to compare the two groups' responses to the survey items. Directed content analysis was used to compare the participants' responses to the interview questions. The sequence of data collection did not greatly affect the participants' responses to the closed-ended questions (survey items) or the open-ended questions (interview questions). The sequencing of data collection, when using both survey and semi-structured interviews, may not bias participants' responses to closed or open-ended questions. Additional research is required to confirm these findings. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Important questions asked by family members of intensive care unit patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Peigne, Vincent; Chaize, Marine; Falissard, Bruno; Kentish-Barnes, Nancy; Rusinova, Katerina; Megarbane, Bruno; Bele, Nicolas; Cariou, Alain; Fieux, Fabienne; Garrouste-Orgeas, Maite; Georges, Hugues; Jourdain, Merce; Kouatchet, Achille; Lautrette, Alexandre; Legriel, Stephane; Regnier, Bernard; Renault, Anne; Thirion, Marina; Timsit, Jean-Francois; Toledano, Dany; Chevret, Sylvie; Pochard, Frédéric; Schlemmer, Benoît; Azoulay, Elie

2011-06-01

Relatives often lack important information about intensive care unit patients. High-quality information is crucial to help relatives overcome the often considerable situational stress and to acquire the ability to participate in the decision-making process, most notably regarding the appropriate level of care. We aimed to develop a list of questions important for relatives of patients in the intensive care unit. This was a multicenter study. Questions asked by relatives of intensive care unit patients were collected from five different sources (literature, panel of 28 intensive care unit nurses and physicians, 1-wk survey of nurses and 1-wk survey of physicians in 14 intensive care units, and in-depth interviews with 14 families). After a qualitative analysis (framework approach and thematic analysis), questions were rated by 22 relatives and 14 intensive care unit physicians, and the ratings were analyzed using principal component analysis and hierarchical clustering. The five sources produced 2,135 questions. Removal of duplicates and redundancies left 443 questions, which were distributed among nine predefined domains using a framework approach ("diagnosis," "treatment," "prognosis," "comfort," "interaction," "communication," "family," "end of life," and "postintensive care unit management"). Thematic analysis in each domain led to the identification of 46 themes, which were reworded as 46 different questions. Ratings by relatives and physicians showed that 21 of these questions were particularly important for relatives of intensive care unit patients. This study increases knowledge about the informational needs of relatives of intensive care unit patients. This list of questions may prove valuable for both relatives and intensive care unit physicians as a tool for improving communication in the intensive care unit.

Cancer-promoting tumor-associated macrophages: new vistas and open questions.

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Mantovani, Alberto; Germano, Giovanni; Marchesi, Federica; Locatelli, Marco; Biswas, Subhra K

2011-09-01

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are key components of the tumor macroenvironment. Cancer- and host cell-derived signals generally drive the functions of TAMs towards an M2-like polarized, tumor-propelling mode; however, when appropriately re-educated. TAMs also have the potential to elicit tumor destructive reactions. Here, we discuss recent advances regarding the immunobiology of TAMs and highlight open questions including the mechanisms of their accumulation (recruitment versus proliferation), their diversity and how to best therapeutically target these cells. Copyright © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Crystal Nucleation in Liquids: Open Questions and Future Challenges in Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

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Sosso, Gabriele C; Chen, Ji; Cox, Stephen J; Fitzner, Martin; Pedevilla, Philipp; Zen, Andrea; Michaelides, Angelos

2016-06-22

The nucleation of crystals in liquids is one of nature's most ubiquitous phenomena, playing an important role in areas such as climate change and the production of drugs. As the early stages of nucleation involve exceedingly small time and length scales, atomistic computer simulations can provide unique insights into the microscopic aspects of crystallization. In this review, we take stock of the numerous molecular dynamics simulations that, in the past few decades, have unraveled crucial aspects of crystal nucleation in liquids. We put into context the theoretical framework of classical nucleation theory and the state-of-the-art computational methods by reviewing simulations of such processes as ice nucleation and the crystallization of molecules in solutions. We shall see that molecular dynamics simulations have provided key insights into diverse nucleation scenarios, ranging from colloidal particles to natural gas hydrates, and that, as a result, the general applicability of classical nucleation theory has been repeatedly called into question. We have attempted to identify the most pressing open questions in the field. We believe that, by improving (i) existing interatomic potentials and (ii) currently available enhanced sampling methods, the community can move toward accurate investigations of realistic systems of practical interest, thus bringing simulations a step closer to experiments.

Theorizing the Entrepreneurial University: Open Questions and Possible Answers

Science.gov (United States)

Sotiris, Panagiotis

2012-01-01

This article attempts to address theoretical questions regarding the transition towards an entrepreneurial university and the changes associated with this process, namely the increased commodification, the competitive quest for private funding and the introduction of business management practices. The important theoretical advances made in the…

The Use of Open-Ended Questions with Giving Feedback (OEQGF) for Effective Mathematic Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Sabilah, I.; Manoy, J. T.

2018-01-01

Feedback deals with giving information to students related to their task which is done through score of their achievement, reaction, and comments. Considering its hierarchy, task difficulty level consists of low, middle and high levels. The difficulty level of open-ended questions is middle to high. Open-ended question is a good way to train students’ knowledge. This research is a descriptive research which aims at describing teacher’s learning management, students’ activities, students’ learning achievement, and students’ responses in mathematic learning using OEQGF. The subject was a teacher of mathematics who teaches eighth graders, and students themselves. The research design used is one shot case study. The result shows that: management learning has been very well implemented by the teacher; every students’ activity has been carried out by students; the students’ learning achievement have reached the criteria of completeness, and the students’ responses can be considered as positive. Therefore, it can be concluded that mathematic learning using OEQGF is effective.

Physics 30 Program Machine-Scorable Open-Ended Questions: Unit 2: Electric and Magnetic Forces. Diploma Examinations Program.

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Alberta Dept. of Education, Edmonton.

This document outlines the use of machine-scorable open-ended questions for the evaluation of Physics 30 in Alberta. Contents include: (1) an introduction to the questions; (2) sample instruction sheet; (3) fifteen sample items; (4) item information including the key, difficulty, and source of each item; (5) solutions to items having multiple…

Seventy-one important questions for the conservation of marine biodiversity.

Science.gov (United States)

Parsons, E C M; Favaro, Brett; Aguirre, A Alonso; Bauer, Amy L; Blight, Louise K; Cigliano, John A; Coleman, Melinda A; Côté, Isabelle M; Draheim, Megan; Fletcher, Stephen; Foley, Melissa M; Jefferson, Rebecca; Jones, Miranda C; Kelaher, Brendan P; Lundquist, Carolyn J; McCarthy, Julie-Beth; Nelson, Anne; Patterson, Katheryn; Walsh, Leslie; Wright, Andrew J; Sutherland, William J

2014-10-01

The ocean provides food, economic activity, and cultural value for a large proportion of humanity. Our knowledge of marine ecosystems lags behind that of terrestrial ecosystems, limiting effective protection of marine resources. We describe the outcome of 2 workshops in 2011 and 2012 to establish a list of important questions, which, if answered, would substantially improve our ability to conserve and manage the world's marine resources. Participants included individuals from academia, government, and nongovernment organizations with broad experience across disciplines, marine ecosystems, and countries that vary in levels of development. Contributors from the fields of science, conservation, industry, and government submitted questions to our workshops, which we distilled into a list of priority research questions. Through this process, we identified 71 key questions. We grouped these into 8 subject categories, each pertaining to a broad component of marine conservation: fisheries, climate change, other anthropogenic threats, ecosystems, marine citizenship, policy, societal and cultural considerations, and scientific enterprise. Our questions address many issues that are specific to marine conservation, and will serve as a road map to funders and researchers to develop programs that can greatly benefit marine conservation. © 2014 The Authors. Conservation Biology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of The Society for the Study of Evolution.

Metabolism of the Endocannabinoid Anandamide: Open Questions after 25 Years

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mauro Maccarrone

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Cannabis extracts have been used for centuries, but its main active principle ∆9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC was identified about 50 years ago. Yet, it is only 25 years ago that the first endogenous ligand of the same receptors engaged by the cannabis agents was discovered. This “endocannabinoid (eCB” was identified as N-arachidonoylethanolamine (or anandamide (AEA, and was shown to have several receptors, metabolic enzymes and transporters that altogether drive its biological activity. Here I report on the latest advances about AEA metabolism, with the aim of focusing open questions still awaiting an answer for a deeper understanding of AEA activity, and for translating AEA-based drugs into novel therapeutics for human diseases.

Projecting hydropower production under future climates: a review of modelling challenges and open questions

Science.gov (United States)

Schaefli, Bettina

2015-04-01

Hydropower is a pillar for renewable electricity production in almost all world regions. The planning horizon of major hydropower infrastructure projects stretches over several decades and consideration of evolving climatic conditions plays an ever increasing role. This review of model-based climate change impact assessments provides a synthesis of the wealth of underlying modelling assumptions, highlights the importance of local factors and attempts to identify the most urgent open questions. Based on existing case studies, it critically discusses whether current hydro-climatic modelling frameworks are likely to provide narrow enough water scenario ranges to be included into economic analyses for end-to-end climate change impact assessments including electricity market models. This will be completed with an overview of not or indirectly climate-related boundary conditions, such as economic growth, legal constraints, national subsidy frameworks or growing competition for water, which might locally largely outweigh any climate change impacts.

VQABQ: Visual Question Answering by Basic Questions

KAUST Repository

Huang, Jia-Hong

2017-03-19

Taking an image and question as the input of our method, it can output the text-based answer of the query question about the given image, so called Visual Question Answering (VQA). There are two main modules in our algorithm. Given a natural language question about an image, the first module takes the question as input and then outputs the basic questions of the main given question. The second module takes the main question, image and these basic questions as input and then outputs the text-based answer of the main question. We formulate the basic questions generation problem as a LASSO optimization problem, and also propose a criterion about how to exploit these basic questions to help answer main question. Our method is evaluated on the challenging VQA dataset and yields state-of-the-art accuracy, 60.34% in open-ended task.

VQABQ: Visual Question Answering by Basic Questions

KAUST Repository

Huang, Jia-Hong; Alfadly, Modar; Ghanem, Bernard

2017-01-01

Taking an image and question as the input of our method, it can output the text-based answer of the query question about the given image, so called Visual Question Answering (VQA). There are two main modules in our algorithm. Given a natural language question about an image, the first module takes the question as input and then outputs the basic questions of the main given question. The second module takes the main question, image and these basic questions as input and then outputs the text-based answer of the main question. We formulate the basic questions generation problem as a LASSO optimization problem, and also propose a criterion about how to exploit these basic questions to help answer main question. Our method is evaluated on the challenging VQA dataset and yields state-of-the-art accuracy, 60.34% in open-ended task.

Divorce or Continue Marriage for Child? An Important Question about Psychological Adjustment of Child

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nilgun Ongider Gregory

Full Text Available This study focused on finding answers about an important question that parents are recently asking psychological professionals. This question has become more relevant in the last couple of decades as there are increasing divorce rates in Turkey and the rest of the world. Because of this reason, parents are asking the important question: is it better for our child to divorce or continue our marriage? Researchers come up with very different results to this question. They need to not only focus on the effects of divorce itself but also need to examine the quality of the relationship between the parents. Parents need to remember this very important point that divorce is not the only thing that effects children's psychological adjustment by itself. So, the answer of the question to divorce or stay together is answered by the amount of parental conflict and the quality of the parent's relationship. As a result, the ideal environment for children's psychological development is living with both parents in the same household and having a low-conflict parents. [Psikiyatride Guncel Yaklasimlar - Current Approaches in Psychiatry 2016; 8(3.000: 275-289

Frequent Questions about the Hazardous Waste Export-Import Revisions Final Rule

Science.gov (United States)

Answers questions such as: What new requirements did EPA finalize in the Hazardous Waste Export-Import Revisions Final Rule? Why did EPA implement these changes now? What are the benefits of the final rule? What are the compliance dates for the final rule?

Antimicrobial activity of fluoride and its in vivo importance: identification of research questions.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Loveren, C

2001-01-01

This manuscript discusses the antimicrobial activity of fluoride and its in vivo importance in order to identify research questions. There is a lot of information on mechanisms by which fluoride may interfere with bacterial metabolism and dental plaque acidogenicity. The antimicrobial activity of fluoride products is enhanced when fluoride is associated with antimicrobial cations like Sn(2+) and amine. It is not clear whether the antimicrobial mechanisms of fluoride are operating in vivo or even to what extent antimicrobial activity can contribute to caries prevention. This latter question may be the most important one in research. Copyright 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Questions. Is sustainable development compatible with the opening of energy markets? The French trends

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lapeyre, M.

2003-03-01

This document reports on a presentation given at the inter-town syndicate for gas and electricity in Ile-de-France (SIGEIF) by M. Lapeyre from the National federation of granted organizations and public corporations (FNCCR). This presentation treats of the opening of energy markets to competition and its compatibility with the sustainable development concepts: competition in the energy supply: economic growth (good and bad scenarios), social equity (foreign examples, specifications of energy supplies, control of obligations), environment; the network activity monopoly: difficulties generated by the opening of markets (rise of free prices, bad share of investments, outages, environmental constraints), solutions to be implemented to avoid such difficulties (standards, sanctions). A series of questions and answers precise some points of the presentation. (J.S.)

Ten Questions about Emergence

OpenAIRE

Fromm, Jochen

2005-01-01

Self-Organization is of growing importance for large distributed computing systems. In these systems, a central control and manual management is exceedingly difficult or even impossible. Emergence is widely recognized as the core principle behind self-organization. Therefore the idea to use both principles to control and organize large-scale distributed systems is very attractive and not so far off. Yet there are many open questions about emergence and self-organization, ranging from a clear ...

Notochord morphogenesis in mice: Current understanding & open questions.

Science.gov (United States)

Balmer, Sophie; Nowotschin, Sonja; Hadjantonakis, Anna-Katerina

2016-05-01

The notochord is a structure common to all chordates, and the feature that the phylum Chordata has been named after. It is a rod-like mesodermal structure that runs the anterior-posterior length of the embryo, adjacent to the ventral neural tube. The notochord plays a critical role in embryonic tissue patterning, for example the dorsal-ventral patterning of the neural tube. The cells that will come to form the notochord are specified at gastrulation. Axial mesodermal cells arising at the anterior primitive streak migrate anteriorly as the precursors of the notochord and populate the notochordal plate. Yet, even though a lot of interest has centered on investigating the functional and structural roles of the notochord, we still have a very rudimentary understanding of notochord morphogenesis. The events driving the formation of the notochord are rapid, taking place over the period of approximately a day in mice. In this commentary, we provide an overview of our current understanding of mouse notochord morphogenesis, from the initial specification of axial mesendodermal cells at the primitive streak, the emergence of these cells at the midline on the surface of the embryo, to their submergence and organization of the stereotypically positioned notochord. We will also discuss some key open questions. Developmental Dynamics 245:547-557, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

An Important Question for Student Journalists: Must Freedom, Rules/Law Inevitably Conflict?

Science.gov (United States)

Martinson, David L.

2001-01-01

Considers the importance of developing a well constructed publications policy and notes that a carefully designed policy will provide some mechanism for addressing questions regarding the inevitable conflicts that will arise when students express a desire to publish certain controversial material. (SC)

7 Questions to Ask Open Source Vendors

Science.gov (United States)

Raths, David

2012-01-01

With their budgets under increasing pressure, many campus IT directors are considering open source projects for the first time. On the face of it, the savings can be significant. Commercial emergency-planning software can cost upward of six figures, for example, whereas the open source Kuali Ready might run as little as $15,000 per year when…

Importance of questionnaire context for a physical activity question.

Science.gov (United States)

Jørgensen, M E; Sørensen, M R; Ekholm, O; Rasmussen, N K

2013-10-01

Adequate information about physical activity habits is essential for surveillance, implementing, and evaluating public health initiatives in this area. Previous studies have shown that question order and differences in wording result in systematic differences in people's responses to questionnaires; however, this has never been shown for physical activity questions. The aim was to study the influence of different formulations and question order on self-report physical activity in a population-based health interview survey. Four samples of each 1000 adults were drawn at random from the National Person Register. A new question about physical activity was included with minor differences in formulations in samples 1-3. Furthermore, the question in sample 2 was included in sample 4 but was placed in the end of the questionnaire. The mean time spent on moderate physical activity varied between the four samples from 57 to 100 min/day. Question order was associated with the reported number of minutes spent on moderate-intensity physical activity and with prevalence of meeting the recommendation, whereas physical inactivity was associated with the differences in formulation of the question. Questionnaire context influences the way people respond to questions about physical activity significantly and should be tested systematically in validation studies of physical activity questionnaires. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Open forum: Question and responses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schulze, R.H.; Krupa, S.; Shen, T.T.

1993-01-01

The question addressed in this section is: With the end of the Cold War and the exchange of information improving between East and West, what roles should government agencies and non-government organizations from developed countries play in assisting less developed countries in developing a stronger environmental protection program? Responses presented here were obtained from Richard H. Schulze (President of Trinity Consultants, Inc.), Sagar Krupa (Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota), and Thomas T. Shen (Ph.D., D.AAEE, Retiree of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation)

Inconsistencies and open questions regarding low-dose health effects of ionizing radiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nussbaum, R.H.; Koehnlein, W.

1994-01-01

The state of knowledge of health effects from low-dose exposures to ionizing radiation has recently been reviewed in extensive reports by three prestigious national and international commissions of scientific and medical experts with partially overlapping membership, known by their acronyms UNSCEAR (United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation), BEIR V (Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation), and ICRP (International Commission on Radiological Protection). Publication of these reports was followed by a number of summaries in scientific journals, authored by recognized radiation experts, that purport to present a scientific consensus of low-dose effects in a more accessible format for health professionals. A critical comparison between various presentations of accepted views, however, reveals inconsistencies regarding open-quotes establishedclose quotes facts and unsettled questions

Computer-Assisted, Self-Interviewing (CASI Compared to Face-to-Face Interviewing (FTFI with Open-Ended, Non-Sensitive Questions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John Fairweather PhD

2012-07-01

Full Text Available This article reports results from research on cultural models, and assesses the effects of computers on data quality by comparing open-ended questions asked in two formats—face-to-face interviewing (FTFI and computer-assisted, self-interviewing (CASI. We expected that for our non-sensitive topic, FTFI would generate fuller and richer accounts because the interviewer could facilitate the interview process. Although the interviewer indeed facilitated these interviews, which resulted in more words in less time, the number of underlying themes found within the texts for each interview mode was the same, thus resulting in the same models of national culture and innovation being built for each mode. Our results, although based on an imperfect research design, suggest that CASI can be beneficial when using open-ended questions because CASI is easy to administer, capable of reaching more efficiently a large sample, and able to avoid the need to transcribe the recorded responses.

Importance of questionnaire context for a physical activity question

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, M. E.; Sørensen, Mette Rosenlund; Ekholm, O.

2013-01-01

; however, this has never been shown for physical activity questions. The aim was to study the influence of different formulations and question order on self-report physical activity in a population-based health interview survey. Four samples of each 1000 adults were drawn at random from the National Person......Adequate information about physical activity habits is essential for surveillance, implementing, and evaluating public health initiatives in this area. Previous studies have shown that question order and differences in wording result in systematic differences in people's responses to questionnaires...... Register. A new question about physical activity was included with minor differences in formulations in samples 1–3. Furthermore, the question in sample 2 was included in sample 4 but was placed in the end of the questionnaire. The mean time spent on moderate physical activity varied between the four...

Managing an Open Access Fund: Tips from the Trenches and Questions for the Future

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Heidi Zuniga

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The authors describe the process and results of an ongoing Open Access Fund program at the Health Sciences Library of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.  The fund has helped students and other early career researchers pay for the article processing charge or APC to publish their articles in an OA journal since 2013.  In the three years since, the fund has paid the APC for 39 applicants with a total expenditure of $37,576.  Most applicants were students as intended, however the fund supported a surprisingly large number of medical residents and junior faculty.  Individuals associated with the School of Medicine overwhelmingly represented the awardees compared to other units, and the Public Library of Science (PLoS journals were the most common journal they published in.  While acknowledging the undeniable benefit of the fund to the awardees, the authors also pose challenging questions about the future role of libraries in subsidizing open access journals.

Some of the unanswered questions in finance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Đurić Dragana M.

2006-01-01

Full Text Available A very dynamic development of finance in the last 50 years is inter alia probably due to experiments and innovations in this field. Previously theoretical base could not explain and predict movements especially in volatile times. "The new finance" appeared 50 years ago (portfolio theory CAPM, the efficient market theory, M&M theorem and made substantial progress in understanding movements in globalized and internationalized financial markets. However, many questions remain open. The author tries to put emphasis on some of these questions, perfectly aware that these are not the only ones. Unresolved questions are related to company's aims, project's risks, degree of portfolio optimization, importance of liquidity, dividend policy, as well as factors that determine M&A. As the "new finance" is not able to predict and explain volatile movements, a question that should be posed is whether it is appropriate to add some non-economic factors as the behaviorist theory suggests. Although the behaviorist theory is an important part of "new finance", it is unfortunately the only theory able to explain movements in volatile times. In conclusion, many questions still remain unanswered and wait for appropriate theoretical explanations.

Explaining topic prevalence in answers to open-ended survey questions about climate change

Science.gov (United States)

Tvinnereim, Endre; Fløttum, Kjersti

2015-08-01

Citizens’ opinions are crucial for action on climate change, but are, owing to the complexity of the issue, diverse and potentially unformed. We contribute to the understanding of public views on climate change and to knowledge needed by decision-makers by using a new approach to analyse answers to the open survey question `what comes to mind when you hear the words `climate change’?’. We apply automated text analysis, specifically structural topic modelling, which induces distinct topics based on the relative frequencies of the words used in 2,115 responses. From these data, originating from the new, nationally representative Norwegian Citizen Panel, four distinct topics emerge: Weather/Ice, Future/Impact, Money/Consumption and Attribution. We find that Norwegians emphasize societal aspects of climate change more than do respondents in previous US and UK studies. Furthermore, variables that explain variation in closed questions, such as gender and education, yield different and surprising results when employed to explain variation in what respondents emphasize. Finally, the sharp distinction between scepticism and acceptance of conventional climate science, often seen in previous studies, blurs in many textual responses as scepticism frequently turns into ambivalence.

Translating Answers to Open-Ended Survey Questions in Cross-Cultural Research: A Case Study on the Interplay between Translation, Coding, and Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Behr, Dorothée

2015-01-01

Open-ended probing questions in cross-cultural surveys help uncover equivalence problems in cross-cultural survey research. For languages that a project team does not understand, probe answers need to be translated into a common project language. This article presents a case study on translating open-ended, that is, narrative answers. It describes…

Six Open Questions about the Migration of Engineered Nano-Objects from Polymer-Based Food Contact Materials: A Review

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jokar, Maryam; Pedersen, Gitte Alsing; Löschner, Katrin

2017-01-01

. Current research focusing on FCMs has often reached inconsistency regarding migration of ENOs. The scope of this critical review is to give a concise overview of the most relevant aspects of the subject, and to identify and discuss the major open questions in relation to migration of ENOs from FCMs....... This includes the very fundamental questions whether ENOs can migrate from FCMs at all and what the potential release mechanisms of ENOs could be. The inconsistency of findings from experimental studies is highlighted based on the example of silver nanoparticle migration from polymer-based FCMs. Challenges...

Random matrix theory for transition strengths: Applications and open questions

Science.gov (United States)

Kota, V. K. B.

2017-12-01

Embedded random matrix ensembles are generic models for describing statistical properties of finite isolated interacting quantum many-particle systems. A finite quantum system, induced by a transition operator, makes transitions from its states to the states of the same system or to those of another system. Examples are electromagnetic transitions (then the initial and final systems are same), nuclear beta and double beta decay (then the initial and final systems are different) and so on. Using embedded ensembles (EE), there are efforts to derive a good statistical theory for transition strengths. With m fermions (or bosons) in N mean-field single particle levels and interacting via two-body forces, we have with GOE embedding, the so called EGOE(1+2). Now, the transition strength density (transition strength multiplied by the density of states at the initial and final energies) is a convolution of the density generated by the mean-field one-body part with a bivariate spreading function due to the two-body interaction. Using the embedding U(N) algebra, it is established, for a variety of transition operators, that the spreading function, for sufficiently strong interactions, is close to a bivariate Gaussian. Also, as the interaction strength increases, the spreading function exhibits a transition from bivariate Breit-Wigner to bivariate Gaussian form. In appropriate limits, this EE theory reduces to the polynomial theory of Draayer, French and Wong on one hand and to the theory due to Flambaum and Izrailev for one-body transition operators on the other. Using spin-cutoff factors for projecting angular momentum, the theory is applied to nuclear matrix elements for neutrinoless double beta decay (NDBD). In this paper we will describe: (i) various developments in the EE theory for transition strengths; (ii) results for nuclear matrix elements for 130Te and 136Xe NDBD; (iii) important open questions in the current form of the EE theory.

Comparison between Long-Menu and Open-Ended Questions in computerized medical assessments. A randomized controlled trial

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fischer Martin R

2006-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Long-menu questions (LMQs are viewed as an alternative method for answering open-ended questions (OEQs in computerized assessment. So far this question type and its influence on examination scores have not been studied sufficiently. However, the increasing use of computerized assessments will also lead to an increasing use of this question type. Using a summative online key feature (KF examination we evaluated whether LMQs can be compared with OEQs in regard to the level of difficulty, performance and response times. We also evaluated the content for its suitability for LMQs. Methods We randomized 146 fourth year medical students into two groups. For the purpose of this study we created 7 peer-reviewed KF-cases with a total of 25 questions. All questions had the same content in both groups, but nine questions had a different answer type. Group A answered 9 questions with an LM type, group B with an OE type. In addition to the LM answer, group A could give an OE answer if the appropriate answer was not included in the list. Results The average number of correct answers for LMQs and OEQs showed no significant difference (p = 0.93. Among all 630 LM answers only one correct term (0.32% was not included in the list of answers. The response time for LMQs did not significantly differ from that of OEQs (p = 0.65. Conclusion LMQs and OEQs do not differ significantly. Compared to standard multiple-choice questions (MCQs, the response time for LMQs and OEQs is longer. This is probably due to the fact that they require active problem solving skills and more practice. LMQs correspond more suitable to Short answer questions (SAQ then to OEQ and should only be used when the answers can be clearly phrased, using only a few, precise synonyms. LMQs can decrease cueing effects and significantly simplify the scoring in computerized assessment.

Questões discursivas para avaliação escolar = Open-ended questions in school tests

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Auxiliadora Bezerra

2008-07-01

Full Text Available O objetivo deste artigo é descrever questões discursivas presentes em atividades escolares do Ensino Médio para avaliação da aprendizagem. Foram estudadas, à luz de teorias sobre atividades e tarefas escolares (Chartrand, 2002, sobre elaboração de provas eexercícios (Moretto, 2005; Bloom, 1973 e sobre perguntas de compreensão (Marcuschi, 1996, 93 questões recolhidas nas disciplinas Literatura Brasileira, História e Geografia. Foram descritas questões (descontextualizadas, propondo, do ponto de vista cognitivo,tarefas funcionais (predominantes, seguidas de formativas e metacognitivas. Seus comandos são dados por meio de pronomes interrogativos (principalmente e de verbos no imperativo ou no infinitivo. As questões focalizam os conteúdos específicos das disciplinas, privilegiando seus conceitos, e enfatizam o desenvolvimento cognitivo dos alunos, sem relação com aspectos sociais. Parece ser suficiente a demonstração passiva de conhecimentoscomo resultado de uma aprendizagem correspondente a acúmulo de informações e de um ensino entendido como repasse de dados.Open-ended questions in high school activities are described to evaluate the learning process. Ninety-three questions fromBrazilian Literature, History and Geography were analyzed, based on school activity and task theories (Chartrand, 2002, test and exercise theories (Moretto, 2005; Bloom, 1973, and comprehension question theories (Marcuschi, 1996. (Decontextualized questions,which propose (predominantly functional, formative and metacognitive tasks, were described from the cognitive point-of-view. Question instructions were given by using (mainly interrogative pronouns and verbs either in the infinitive or in the imperative. Questions focus on the specific contents of the subject matter, emphasizing concepts and the students’ cognitive development, regardless of social aspects. Passive demonstration of knowledge as a result of learning related to collected passive

A Novel Multiple Choice Question Generation Strategy: Alternative Uses for Controlled Vocabulary Thesauri in Biomedical-Sciences Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Lopetegui, Marcelo A; Lara, Barbara A; Yen, Po-Yin; Çatalyürek, Ümit V; Payne, Philip R O

2015-01-01

Multiple choice questions play an important role in training and evaluating biomedical science students. However, the resource intensive nature of question generation limits their open availability, reducing their contribution to evaluation purposes mainly. Although applied-knowledge questions require a complex formulation process, the creation of concrete-knowledge questions (i.e., definitions, associations) could be assisted by the use of informatics methods. We envisioned a novel and simple algorithm that exploits validated knowledge repositories and generates concrete-knowledge questions by leveraging concepts' relationships. In this manuscript we present the development and validation of a prototype which successfully produced meaningful concrete-knowledge questions, opening new applications for existing knowledge repositories, potentially benefiting students of all biomedical sciences disciplines.

Improve Your Marketing Results by Asking Peter F. Drucker's "Five Most Important Questions."

Science.gov (United States)

Rossum, Constance; Baum, Geoffrey

2001-01-01

This case study demonstrates how the Office of Marketing & Public Relations at Claremont McKenna College used five "Drucker Tool" questions to improve marketing's image on campus and awareness of the college among key constituencies. It concludes with a reevaluation of the initial marketing strategy based on the growing importance of…

Value, Cost, and Sharing: Open Issues in Constrained Clustering

Science.gov (United States)

Wagstaff, Kiri L.

2006-01-01

Clustering is an important tool for data mining, since it can identify major patterns or trends without any supervision (labeled data). Over the past five years, semi-supervised (constrained) clustering methods have become very popular. These methods began with incorporating pairwise constraints and have developed into more general methods that can learn appropriate distance metrics. However, several important open questions have arisen about which constraints are most useful, how they can be actively acquired, and when and how they should be propagated to neighboring points. This position paper describes these open questions and suggests future directions for constrained clustering research.

Open sourse: the Russian experience (legislation and practice)

OpenAIRE

Alexander Savelyev

2013-01-01

The emergence of so-called “free” or “open source” software and the growth of its economic importance in various industries makes questions regarding the legal status of free/open source licenses especially important. In December 2010 new draft amendments to the Russia’s Civil Code were published, introducing new concepts in order to reflect the ideas pursued by these types of licenses. This article analyzes existing problems with the legal status of free/open source licenses, whether propose...

The Importance of Asking Questions – in Different Ways! Most ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

IAS Admin

student tries to consult as many question banks from as many ... papers. In addition to standard questions, I usually have a question in which I produce a drawing (relevant to ... to pass on to all the teachers is that they should encourage their.

Openness Versus Obstruction: The Importance of Protecting Open Data and Transparency, While Guarding Against Obstruction and Interference

Science.gov (United States)

Rosenthal, S.; Kurtz, L.

2017-12-01

Open data plays an important role in facilitating scientific progress and developing sound public policies. However, sometimes important scientific initiatives can be subverted by those seeking to politicize science and attack scientists. There is a critical distinction between data openness, and forcing scientists to live in a fishbowl by demanding disclosure of traditionally confidential materials, such as peer review correspondence or preliminary drafts. The former is intended to promote scientific advances (which may well involve criticisms and disagreements), while the latter is an attempt to chill and disrupt research. Agenda-driven groups have sought to obtain scientists' private emails, preliminary drafts, and peer critiques - which may include technical jargon and "what if" debates that can easily be taken out of context - in an effort to intimidate researchers and disrupt their work. Fostering true transparency requires an understanding of what should be shared to advance scientific research, including disclosing information that might expose potential biases (such as funding information), while also protecting the candid debate, open collaboration, and academic freedom that is integral to the scientific process.

Lessons, open questions, and future prospects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Grupe D.

2012-12-01

Full Text Available We summarize some of the highlights of this workshop, the first of its kind dedicated to observing and modeling the tidal disruption of stars by black holes in the centers of galaxies (or star clusters. We review the lessons learned from recent observations and from theory and identify outstanding questions and areas where more theoretical and observational work is needed. We also consider upcoming observing facilities that can be used to study tidal disruption events and speculate what these new facilities may contribute to the field.

Who Knows? Question Format and Political Knowledge

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Robison, Joshua

2015-01-01

Political knowledge is one of the most influential variables in political science. However, scholars still grapple with its theoretical meaning and how to measure it best. I address the deeply contested issue of whether knowledge should be measured with either an open-ended or closed-choice measure......, the results reported here raise important questions about the validity of knowledge indices and also have implications for the general study of political attitudes and behavior....

Beyond Open Data: the importance of data standards and interoperability - Experiences from ECMWF's Open Data Week

Science.gov (United States)

Wagemann, Julia; Siemen, Stephan

2017-04-01

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) has been providing an increasing amount of data to the public. One of the most widely used datasets include the global climate reanalyses (e.g. ERA-interim) and atmospheric composition data, which are available to the public free of charge. The centre is further operating, on behalf of the European Commission, two Copernicus Services, the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) and Climate Change Service (C3S), which are making up-to-date environmental information freely available for scientists, policy makers and businesses. However, to fully benefit from open data, large environmental datasets also have to be easily accessible in a standardised, machine-readable format. Traditional data centres, such as ECMWF, currently face challenges in providing interoperable standardised access to increasingly large and complex datasets for scientists and industry. Therefore, ECMWF put open data in the spotlight during a week of events in March 2017 exploring the potential of freely available weather- and climate-related data and to review technological solutions serving these data. Key events included a Workshop on Meteorological Operational Systems (MOS) and a two-day hackathon. The MOS workshop aimed at reviewing technologies and practices to ensure efficient (open) data processing and provision. The hackathon focused on exploring creative uses of open environmental data and to see how open data is beneficial for various industries. The presentation aims to give a review of the outcomes and conclusions of the Open Data Week at ECMWF. A specific focus will be set on the importance of data standards and web services to make open environmental data a success. The presentation overall examines the opportunities and challenges of open environmental data from a data provider's perspective.

The importance of open data and software: Is energy research lagging behind?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pfenninger, Stefan; DeCarolis, Joseph; Hirth, Lion; Quoilin, Sylvain; Staffell, Iain

2017-01-01

Energy policy often builds on insights gained from quantitative energy models and their underlying data. As climate change mitigation and economic concerns drive a sustained transformation of the energy sector, transparent and well-founded analyses are more important than ever. We assert that models and their associated data must be openly available to facilitate higher quality science, greater productivity through less duplicated effort, and a more effective science-policy boundary. There are also valid reasons why data and code are not open: ethical and security concerns, unwanted exposure, additional workload, and institutional or personal inertia. Overall, energy policy research ostensibly lags behind other fields in promoting more open and reproducible science. We take stock of the status quo and propose actionable steps forward for the energy research community to ensure that it can better engage with decision-makers and continues to deliver robust policy advice in a transparent and reproducible way. - Highlights: • Energy models and data are an important basis for energy policy. • Opening energy models and data benefits actors inside and outside of academia. • Reasons include higher quality science, greater productivity and recognition. • Private barriers must be overcome, but the private and public gains outweigh them. • We provide advice on how and why the community could coordinate a shift to openness.

A Framework for the Ethics of Open Education

Science.gov (United States)

Farrow, Robert

2016-01-01

What difference does openness make to the ethics of teaching and research? This paper approaches this question both from the perspective of research into the use of open educational resources (OER) in teaching and learning. An outline of the nature and importance of ethics in education research is provided before the basic principles of research…

Seventy-One Important Questions for the Conservation of Marine Biodiversity

Science.gov (United States)

PARSONS, E C M; FAVARO, BRETT; AGUIRRE, A ALONSO; BAUER, AMY L; BLIGHT, LOUISE K; CIGLIANO, JOHN A; COLEMAN, MELINDA A; CÔTÉ, ISABELLE M; DRAHEIM, MEGAN; FLETCHER, STEPHEN; FOLEY, MELISSA M; JEFFERSON, REBECCA; JONES, MIRANDA C; KELAHER, BRENDAN P; LUNDQUIST, CAROLYN J; MCCARTHY, JULIE-BETH; NELSON, ANNE; PATTERSON, KATHERYN; WALSH, LESLIE; WRIGHT, ANDREW J; SUTHERLAND, WILLIAM J

2014-01-01

The ocean provides food, economic activity, and cultural value for a large proportion of humanity. Our knowledge of marine ecosystems lags behind that of terrestrial ecosystems, limiting effective protection of marine resources. We describe the outcome of 2 workshops in 2011 and 2012 to establish a list of important questions, which, if answered, would substantially improve our ability to conserve and manage the world’s marine resources. Participants included individuals from academia, government, and nongovernment organizations with broad experience across disciplines, marine ecosystems, and countries that vary in levels of development. Contributors from the fields of science, conservation, industry, and government submitted questions to our workshops, which we distilled into a list of priority research questions. Through this process, we identified 71 key questions. We grouped these into 8 subject categories, each pertaining to a broad component of marine conservation: fisheries, climate change, other anthropogenic threats, ecosystems, marine citizenship, policy, societal and cultural considerations, and scientific enterprise. Our questions address many issues that are specific to marine conservation, and will serve as a road map to funders and researchers to develop programs that can greatly benefit marine conservation. Setenta y Un Preguntas Importantes para la Conservación de la Biodiversidad Marina Resumen Los océanos proporcionan alimento, actividad económica y valor cultural para una gran porción de la humanidad. Nuestro conocimiento de los ecosistemas marinos está atrasado con respecto al que tenemos de los ecosistemas terrestres, lo que limita la protección efectiva de los recursos naturales. Describimos el resultado de dos talleres en 2011 y 2012 para establecer una lista de preguntas importantes, las cuales al ser respondidas, mejorarían sustancialmente nuestra habilidad de conservar y manejar los recursos marinos del mundo. Entre los

Guarino Guarini open questions, possible solutions

CERN Document Server

2009-01-01

Baroque architect and mathematician Guarino Guarini is the subject of this issue of the Nexus Network Journal. A group of international scholars were invited to contribute papers that shed light on the unanswered questions in several areas: Baroque architecture in general and Guarini’s architecture in particular; philosophy; history of structural mechanics; mathematics and history of mathematics, cosmology. As always, the NNJ takes an interdisciplinary approach to the broad range of subjects that Guarini concerned himself with, thus the final results will add significantly to our understanding of how Guarini’s actual practical and technical processes were informed by knowledge of his multifaceted scientific and philosophical interests.

Open Educational Resources: American Ideals, Global Questions

Science.gov (United States)

Weiland, Steven

2015-01-01

Educational relations between societies and cultures that begin with benevolent intentions can come to be seen as threats to national autonomy and local preferences. Indeed, side by side with the growth since the first years of this century of Open Educational Resources (OER) there has been worry about their impact on global educational…

Computer-Assisted, Self-Interviewing (CASI) Compared to Face-to-Face Interviewing (FTFI) with Open-Ended, Non-Sensitive Questions

OpenAIRE

John Fairweather PhD; Tiffany Rinne PhD; Gary Steel PhD

2012-01-01

This article reports results from research on cultural models, and assesses the effects of computers on data quality by comparing open-ended questions asked in two formats—face-to-face interviewing (FTFI) and computer-assisted, self-interviewing (CASI). We expected that for our non-sensitive topic, FTFI would generate fuller and richer accounts because the interviewer could facilitate the interview process. Although the interviewer indeed facilitated these interviews, which resulted in more w...

Valve’s Organization: Opportunities and open questions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Georg von Krogh

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Valve is a very interesting case study! The company shares many features with open source software projects. In Valve, as in the open source world, the focus is on creating advanced technologies and letting developers self-select projects and tasks. Self-selection seems to work particularly well in an environment where technology development itself has a coordinating function. In software development, people have a strong bond of common knowledge based on design philosophies and approaches, language and terminology, and engineering tasks. In most cases, they also share a similar educational background and/or development experience that helps them implement creative ideas in physical machines and graphic environments. Developers rarely rely on detailed instructions from higher-level managers because they already have the implicit knowledge of what needs to be done. When inconsistent views about development come to the forefront, they are best reconciled where the knowledge resides: with the experts. Moreover, it appears that Valve has uncovered how developers’ self-selection of projects and tasks can be a powerful motivator to unleash their creativity.

Open Innovation in Research Libraries-Myth or Reality?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Scupola, Ada; W. Nicolajsen, Hanne

2009-01-01

  In this article we investigate open innovation in a non commercial setting: research libraries. The research questions are: Do academic libraries engage in open innovation processes? If so, what are the most important actors in e-services innovation and development and what is their role......? By drawing on earlier research on open innovation, new product development and new service development a case study at Roskilde University Library is conducted. We found that research libraries are indeed engaging in open innovation, especially involving competitors, government agencies and users....... In particular collaboration with other Danish research libraries and governmental agencies are important in setting the visions and strategies for e-services innovations; users have a more limited role....

Open Innovation in Research Libraries-Myth or Reality?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Scupola, Ada; Nicolajsen, Hanne Westh

2010-01-01

In this article we investigate open innovation in a non commercial setting: research libraries. The research questions are: Do academic libraries engage in open innovation processes? If so, what are the most important actors in e-services innovation and development and what is their role......? By drawing on earlier research on open innovation, new product development and new service development a case study at Roskilde University Library is conducted. We found that research libraries are indeed engaging in open innovation, especially involving competitors, government agencies and users....... In particular collaboration with other Danish research libraries and governmental agencies are important in setting the visions and strategies for e-services innovations; users have a more limited role....

CO2 sensing and CO2 regulation of stomatal conductance: advances and open questions

Science.gov (United States)

Engineer, Cawas; Hashimoto-Sugimoto, Mimi; Negi, Juntaro; Israelsson-Nordstrom, Maria; Azoulay-Shemer, Tamar; Rappel, Wouter-Jan; Iba, Koh; Schroeder, Julian

2015-01-01

Guard cells form epidermal stomatal gas exchange valves in plants and regulate the aperture of stomatal pores in response to changes in the carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in leaves. Moreover, the development of stomata is repressed by elevated CO2 in diverse plant species. Evidence suggests that plants can sense CO2 concentration changes via guard cells and via mesophyll tissues in mediating stomatal movements. We review new discoveries and open questions on mechanisms mediating CO2-regulated stomatal movements and CO2 modulation of stomatal development, which together function in CO2-regulation of stomatal conductance and gas exchange in plants. Research in this area is timely in light of the necessity of selecting and developing crop cultivars which perform better in a shifting climate. PMID:26482956

Colostomy Irrigation: Issues Most Important to Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses.

Science.gov (United States)

Tallman, Nancy J; Cobb, Martha D; Grant, Marcia; Wendel, Christopher S; Colwell, Janice; Ercolano, Elizabeth; Krouse, Robert

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to describe issues that WOC nurses find most important related to colostomy irrigation (CI). This is an additional analysis of a study focusing on qualitative responses to a survey querying WOC nurses about CI practices. The target population was members of the Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses Society. Of the 985 nurses who responded to the survey, 338 (34.3%) answered the optional open-ended question asking for additional comments. A 1-time online survey was conducted. In addition to demographic, educational information, and forced-choice questions about CI, an open-ended question asked for any additional comments about their experience with irrigation and WOC practice. Content analysis was used to identify common themes identified by WOC nurses. Three hundred thirty-eight out of 985 WOC nurses (34.3%) answered the optional open-ended question asking for additional comments; analysis for this study is based on these responses. WOC nurses who responded to the open-ended question had similar characteristics to those who responded to the entire survey but were significantly more experienced (15.1 vs 11.0 years; P irrigation techniques are recommended.

Open problems in mathematical physics

Science.gov (United States)

Coley, Alan A.

2017-09-01

We present a list of open questions in mathematical physics. After a historical introduction, a number of problems in a variety of different fields are discussed, with the intention of giving an overall impression of the current status of mathematical physics, particularly in the topical fields of classical general relativity, cosmology and the quantum realm. This list is motivated by the recent article proposing 42 fundamental questions (in physics) which must be answered on the road to full enlightenment (Allen and Lidstrom 2017 Phys. Scr. 92 012501). But paraphrasing a famous quote by the British football manager Bill Shankly, in response to the question of whether mathematics can answer the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, mathematics is, of course, much more important than that.

How Pollination Ecology research can help answer important questions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carvalheiro, Luisa G.

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Pollination Ecology is a dynamic field of scientific research constantly adopting novel methods and making progress in understanding the interactions between plants and their pollinators. A recent paper listed the main scientific questions in this field focussing on the ecological and biological system itself. Here, we follow up on that paper and present some ideas on how to broaden our perspective and explore the role that pollination research can play in answering both ecological and societal questions relevant to a range of different stakeholders. We hope this paper may be useful to researchers aiming at improving both the scientific and societal impact of their research.

THE EXPLICIT COMPREHENSION-STRATEGY INSTRUCTION: QUESTION-ANSWER RELATIONSHIP VS SELF-QUESTIONING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lalu Thohir

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This study was aimed at examining and comparing the effectiveness of the Question-Answer Relationship (QAR and Self-Questioning (SQ strategies in improving the reading ability of the undergraduate students. This study was a quasi-experimental study in which two out of three classes of the third semester students at English department of Mataram University were selected randomly to receive either QAR strategy or SQ strategy instructions for ten weekly meetings. The findings of pre- and posttest with multiple-choice questions revealed that both comprehension strategies were effective in improving the undergraduate students‘ reading ability. The findings from the posttest with multiple-choice questions indicated the students who received SQ strategy instruction scored significantly higher than those students who received QAR strategy instruction. On the other hand, the students who received QAR strategy instruction scored slightly higher than those students who received SQ strategy instruction in the posttest with open-ended questions.

Open problems in mathematical physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Coley, Alan A

2017-01-01

We present a list of open questions in mathematical physics. After a historical introduction, a number of problems in a variety of different fields are discussed, with the intention of giving an overall impression of the current status of mathematical physics, particularly in the topical fields of classical general relativity, cosmology and the quantum realm. This list is motivated by the recent article proposing 42 fundamental questions (in physics) which must be answered on the road to full enlightenment (Allen and Lidstrom 2017 Phys. Scr . 92 012501). But paraphrasing a famous quote by the British football manager Bill Shankly, in response to the question of whether mathematics can answer the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, mathematics is, of course, much more important than that. (invited comment)

Teacher's Questions in Reading Classes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zuliati Rohmah

2002-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract: The present paper discusses an English teacher's questions in Reading classes at MAN Malang III. Types of questions, functions of teacher's questions, question levels and the strategies applied by the teacher were put as the research problems. Non-participant observa­tion was applied to collect the data with the researcher as the main in­strument aided by field-notes and a tape recorder. It was found that the distribution of the questions did not allow the students to talk longer and to think more analytically. Meanwhile, the strategies applied by the teacher helped the students to respond to the questions previously unanswered. The teacher is suggested to produce more open and refer­ential question as well as inference and evaluation questions as to give more chances for the students to think aloud more.

The Importance of Connecting Open Innovation to Strategy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vanhaverbeke, Wim; Roijakkers, Nadine; Lorenz, A.; Chesbrough, Henry W.

2017-01-01

Companies that are experienced in open innovation integrate open innovation activities as part of their strategy. By contrast, open innovation research has not been adequately integrated into the strategy literature and vice versa. In this chapter, we discuss a number of existing strategy fields

Biology Question Generation from a Semantic Network

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Lishan

Science instructors need questions for use in exams, homework assignments, class discussions, reviews, and other instructional activities. Textbooks never have enough questions, so instructors must find them from other sources or generate their own questions. In order to supply instructors with biology questions, a semantic network approach was developed for generating open response biology questions. The generated questions were compared to professional authorized questions. To boost students' learning experience, adaptive selection was built on the generated questions. Bayesian Knowledge Tracing was used as embedded assessment of the student's current competence so that a suitable question could be selected based on the student's previous performance. A between-subjects experiment with 42 participants was performed, where half of the participants studied with adaptive selected questions and the rest studied with mal-adaptive order of questions. Both groups significantly improved their test scores, and the participants in adaptive group registered larger learning gains than participants in the control group. To explore the possibility of generating rich instructional feedback for machine-generated questions, a question-paragraph mapping task was identified. Given a set of questions and a list of paragraphs for a textbook, the goal of the task was to map the related paragraphs to each question. An algorithm was developed whose performance was comparable to human annotators. A multiple-choice question with high quality distractors (incorrect answers) can be pedagogically valuable as well as being much easier to grade than open-response questions. Thus, an algorithm was developed to generate good distractors for multiple-choice questions. The machine-generated multiple-choice questions were compared to human-generated questions in terms of three measures: question difficulty, question discrimination and distractor usefulness. By recruiting 200 participants from

Important Questions of Comparative Studies in Asian Countries

Science.gov (United States)

Pazyura, Natalia

2015-01-01

The issue of the "identity" of comparative education as a field of study or a discipline has been discussed for decades. Yet a kind of systematic structure that provides the basic principles for a coherent exposition of the field remains open. "Comparative education" is no longer conceived as an imaginary field's coherence but,…

Neocortical arealization: evolution, mechanisms, and open questions.

Science.gov (United States)

Alfano, Christian; Studer, Michèle

2013-06-01

The mammalian neocortex is a structure with no equals in the vertebrates and is the seat of the highest cerebral functions, such as thoughts and consciousness. It is radially organized into six layers and tangentially subdivided into functional areas deputed to the elaboration of sensory information, association between different stimuli, and selection and triggering of voluntary movements. The process subdividing the neocortical field into several functional areas is called "arealization". Each area has its own cytoarchitecture, connectivity, and peculiar functions. In the last century, several neuroscientists have investigated areal structure and the mechanisms that have led during evolution to the rising of the neocortex and its organization. The extreme conservation in the positioning and wiring of neocortical areas among different mammalian families suggests a conserved genetic program orchestrating neocortical patterning. However, the impressive plasticity of the neocortex, which is able to rewire and reorganize areal structures and connectivity after impairments of sensory pathways, argues for a more complex scenario. Indeed, even if genetics and molecular biology helped in identifying several genes involved in the arealization process, the logic underlying the neocortical bauplan is still beyond our comprehension. In this review, we will introduce the present knowledge and hypotheses on the ontogenesis and evolution of neocortical areas. Then, we will focus our attention on some open issues, which are still unresolved, and discuss some recent studies that might open new directions to be explored in the next few years. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Question presentation methods for paired-associate learning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Engel, F.L.; Geerings, M.P.W.

1988-01-01

Four different methods of question presentation, in interactive computeraided learning of Dutch-English word pairs are evaluated experimentally. These methods are: 1) the 'open-question method', 2) the 'multiple-choice method', 3) the 'sequential method' and 4) the 'true/ false method'. When

Questions and Questioning Techniques: A View of Indonesian Students’ Preferences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Debora Tri Ragawanti

2009-01-01

Full Text Available This study investigated students’ preference on teacher’s questions and questionings techniques and more importantly on how they could facilitate or impede their learning. The results on teacher’s questioning techniques showed that random nomination was more preferred than pre-arranged format nomination. In addition, techniques of nominating volunteering students and of giving wait-time were disliked by most student-respondents. As for types of question, the yes/no question was favored by most of the respondents. Different from the yes/no question, the number of respondents leaning forward to the analysis question, questions about fact of life, and questions to state opinion did not show a significant difference from the number of those leaning against the same questions.

Asking Questions in Academia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Annette Skovsted

2014-01-01

Motivation for the activity In academia the most important skill is to ask academically relevant and sound questions. This is not easy and students need to practice asking questions orally and in writing before they write research papers.......Motivation for the activity In academia the most important skill is to ask academically relevant and sound questions. This is not easy and students need to practice asking questions orally and in writing before they write research papers....

Genetic data suggest a natural prehuman origin of open habitats in northern Madagascar and question the deforestation narrative in this region.

Science.gov (United States)

Quéméré, Erwan; Amelot, Xavier; Pierson, Julie; Crouau-Roy, Brigitte; Chikhi, Lounès

2012-08-07

The impact of climate change and anthropogenic deforestation on biodiversity is of growing concern worldwide. Disentangling how past anthropogenic and natural factors contributed to current biome distribution is thus a crucial issue to understand their complex interactions on wider time scales and to improve predictions and conservation strategies. This is particularly important in biodiversity hotspots, such as Madagascar, dominated by large open habitats whose origins are increasingly debated. Although a dominant narrative argues that Madagascar was originally entirely covered by woodlands, which were destroyed by humans, a number of recent studies have suggested that past climatic fluctuations played a major role in shaping current biome distributions well before humans arrived. Here, we address the question of the origin of open habitats in the Daraina region in northern Madagascar, using a multiproxy approach combining population genetics modeling and remote-sensing analyses. We show that (i) contrary to most regions of Madagascar, the forest cover in Daraina remained remarkably stable over the past 60 y, and (ii) the golden-crowned sifaka (Propithecus tattersalli), a forest-dwelling lemur, underwent a strong population contraction before the arrival of the first humans, hence excluding an anthropogenic cause. Prehuman Holocene droughts may have led to a significant increase of grasslands and a reduction in the species' habitat. This contradicts the prevailing narrative that land cover changes are necessarily anthropogenic in Madagascar but does not preclude the later role played by humans in other regions in which recent lemur bottlenecks have been observed.

Implementing ILDs and Assessment in Small-enrollment, Calculus-based Physics Classes -- Lessons, Observations and Open Questions

Science.gov (United States)

Mason-McCaffrey, Deborah

2011-04-01

At Salem State, we offer a Physics minor, but most of our teaching load is support courses for other science majors and a lab sequence which satisfies the University's core education requirement. In three years of using assessments and ILDs in small-enrollment calculus-based Physics classes, there has been a significant implementation learning curve, there are encouraging results, a few cautions, and still some open questions to report. ILDs can be highly effective teaching tools. They do require significant advance preparation as well as a safe environment for student participation. Motivating students to do their best on assessment pre- and post-tests can also be difficult. Strategies for motivating assessment performance, experiments using clickers to encourage participation in ILDs, and modifying and developing home-grown ILDs are discussed.

Do you remember? How caregivers question their spouses who have Alzheimer's disease and the impact on communication.

Science.gov (United States)

Small, Jeff A; Perry, JoAnn

2005-02-01

This study examined the types of questions caregivers use and their outcomes when conversing with their spouse with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Of particular interest was caregivers' use of yes-no and open-ended questions and the demands they make on the memory of the person with AD. It was hypothesized that communication between caregivers and their spouses would be more successful when caregivers used yes-no rather than open-ended questions; however, it was also predicted that a more positive communication outcome would occur when caregivers used open-ended questions that requested information from semantic rather than episodic memory. Eighteen caregivers and their spouses diagnosed with AD were audiotaped while they conversed for approximately 10 min on a topic of their choosing. The conversations were transcribed and coded according to the occurrence of questions, the type of question (yes-no, choice, or open-ended), the type of memory required to respond to a question (semantic or episodic), and the outcome of a response to a question (communication breakdown). The results indicated that caregivers used yes-no and open-ended questions to a similar extent, whereas episodic questions were used almost twice as frequently as semantic questions. Communication was more successful when caregivers used yes-no compared with open-ended questions and when questions placed demands on semantic rather than episodic memory. The findings from this study suggest that caregivers can reduce communication problems by avoiding the use of questions that depend on episodic memory. In addition, while yes-no questions were associated with more favorable outcomes than open-ended questions, the latter do not need to be avoided if they refer to information that draws only on semantic memory.

Special restaurant opening times

CERN Document Server

HR Department

2008-01-01

1-EASTER Restaurant No. 1 (Novae) will be closed from Friday, 21 March to Monday, 24 March inclusive and will re-open at 7.00 a.m. on Tuesday, 25 March. Restaurant No. 2 (DSR) will remain open during the four days in question (the opening hours can be consulted at: http://resto2.web.cern.ch/resto2/Events/easter2008.html 2-ASCENSION Restaurant No. 2 (DSR) will be closed from Thursday, 1st May to Friday, 2 May. Restaurant No. 2 (Novae) will remain open during the two days in question (from 7.00 a.m. to 10.00 p.m. on the Thursday and from 7.00 till midnight, as usual, on the Friday).

Does Question Structure Affect Exam Performance in the Geosciences?

Science.gov (United States)

Day, E. A.; D'Arcy, M. K.; Craig, L.; Streule, M. J.; Passmore, E.; Irving, J. C. E.

2015-12-01

The jump to university level exams can be challenging for some students, often resulting in poor marks, which may be detrimental to their confidence and ultimately affect their overall degree class. Previous studies have found that question structure can have a strong impact on the performance of students in college level exams (see Gibson et al., 2015, for a discussion of its impact on physics undergraduates). Here, we investigate the effect of question structure on the exam results of geology and geophysics undergraduate students. Specifically, we analyse the performance of students in questions that have a 'scaffolded' framework and compare them to their performance in open-ended questions and coursework. We also investigate if observed differences in exam performance are correlated with the educational background and gender of students, amongst other factors. It is important for all students to be able to access their degree courses, no matter what their backgrounds may be. Broadening participation in the geosciences relies on removing systematic barriers to achievement. Therefore we recommend that exams are either structured with scaffolding in questions at lower levels, or students are explicitly prepared for this transition. We also recommend that longitudinal studies of exam performance are conducted within individual departments, and this work outlines one approach to analysing performance data.

Theorising international monetary relations: three questions about the significance of materiality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna Leander

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract This article engages a conversation with Benjamin Cohen by raising three questions about the significance of materiality. The paper's questions focus on how materiality can be included in theorizations so that its political import is not defined away from the outset. The article does this focussing on Cohen's treatment of electronic money and its significance for the Politics of International Monetary Relations. The first question posed is about ontology, the second about agency and the third about the scope of politics. The three questions are raised as a conversation in which arguments and counterarguments are advanced. The questions are therefore posed with Cohen's contributions to theorizing the political significance of materiality as their point of departure. They are formulated as a consequence of bringing these contributions in relation to insights from the Social Studies of Finance. From this perspective it would seem that a more far reaching engagement with materiality (in terms of ontology, agency and epistemology is necessary to capture its political significance for international monetary politics and currency hierarchies. The article does not conclude in conventional fashion but purposefully strives to leave these questions open for discussion.

Cancer in children residing near nuclear power plants: an open question.

Science.gov (United States)

Ghirga, Giovanni

2010-09-10

Global warming and the established responsibility of the anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases represent a strong push towards the construction of new nuclear power plants (NPPs) to cope with the growing energy needs. The toxicity of nuclear waste associated with the extreme difficulty of their disposal and increase in cancer mortality and incidence following occupational radiation exposure are considered the only health problems. A search of scientific articles and government documents published since January 1, 1980 to July 1, 2010 was performed to evaluate cancer rate and mortality in residents, particularly children, in the vicinity of NPPs. A recent well conducted state-of-the-art case-control study of childhood cancers in the areas around German NPPs (KiKK study) showed a statistically significant cancers (2.2-fold increase in leukemia and a 1.6-fold increase in solid tumor) among children under five years of age living in the inner 5 km circle around NPPs when compared to residence outside this area. These findings have been confirmed by two meta-analyses. Nevertheless, other UK, France, Spain and Finland studies did not find cancer incidence and/or death increase near NPPs. Increased cancer risk near NPPs remains in fact an open question. The stronger evidence from the KiKK study suggests there may well be such increases at least in children regardless of the country in which nuclear reactors are located. In fact, few months ago the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has asked the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to perform a state-of-the-art study on cancer risk for populations surrounding NPPs.

Cancer in children residing near nuclear power plants: an open question

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ghirga Giovanni

2010-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Global warming and the established responsibility of the anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases represent a strong push towards the construction of new nuclear power plants (NPPs to cope with the growing energy needs. The toxicity of nuclear waste associated with the extreme difficulty of their disposal and increase in cancer mortality and incidence following occupational radiation exposure are considered the only health problems. Methods A search of scientific articles and government documents published since January 1, 1980 to July 1, 2010 was performed to evaluate cancer rate and mortality in residents, particularly children, in the vicinity of NPPs. Results A recent well conducted state-of-the-art case-control study of childhood cancers in the areas around German NPPs (KiKK study showed a statistically significant cancers (2.2-fold increase in leukemia and a 1.6-fold increase in solid tumor among children under five years of age living in the inner 5 km circle around NPPs when compared to residence outside this area. These findings have been confirmed by two meta-analyses. Nevertheless, other UK, France, Spain and Finland studies did not find cancer incidence and/or death increase near NPPs. Conclusions Increased cancer risk near NPPs remains in fact an open question. The stronger evidence from the KiKK study suggests there may well be such increases at least in children regardless of the country in which nuclear reactors are located. In fact, few months ago the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has asked the National Academy of Sciences (NAS to perform a state-of-the-art study on cancer risk for populations surrounding NPPs.

When is a research question not a research question?

Science.gov (United States)

Mayo, Nancy E; Asano, Miho; Barbic, Skye Pamela

2013-06-01

Research is undertaken to answer important questions yet often the question is poorly expressed and lacks information on the population, the exposure or intervention, the comparison, and the outcome. An optimal research question sets out what the investigator wants to know, not what the investigator might do, nor what the results of the study might ultimately contribute. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the extent to which rehabilitation scientists optimally define their research questions. A cross-sectional survey of the rehabilitation research articles published during 2008. Two raters independently rated each question according to pre-specified criteria; a third rater adjudicated all discrepant ratings. The proportion of the 258 articles with a question formulated as methods or expected contribution and not as what knowledge was being sought was 65%; 30% of questions required reworking. The designs which most often had poorly formulated research questions were randomized trials, cross-sectional and measurement studies. Formulating the research question is not purely a semantic concern. When the question is poorly formulated, the design, analysis, sample size calculations, and presentation of results may not be optimal. The gap between research and clinical practice could be bridged by a clear, complete, and informative research question.

Open Education: How to Get There If You Want to Go

Science.gov (United States)

Flurry, Ruth C.

1973-01-01

Cautions against rush to import British informal-style classrooms asserting that open education can't be brought about by mandate, questionable motivations, or by a quick, band-aid approach. More long-range planning and better evaluation methods are urged. (ST)

Plastic debris in the open ocean

KAUST Repository

Cozar, Andres

2014-06-30

There is a rising concern regarding the accumulation of floating plastic debris in the open ocean. However, the magnitude and the fate of this pollution are still open questions. Using data from the Malaspina 2010 circumnavigation, regional surveys, and previously published reports, we show a worldwide distribution of plastic on the surface of the open ocean, mostly accumulating in the convergence zones of each of the five subtropical gyres with comparable density. However, the global load of plastic on the open ocean surface was estimated to be on the order of tens of thousands of tons, far less than expected. Our observations of the size distribution of floating plastic debris point at important size-selective sinks removing millimeter-sized fragments of floating plastic on a large scale. This sink may involve a combination of fast nano-fragmentation of the microplastic into particles of microns or smaller, their transference to the ocean interior by food webs and ballasting processes, and processes yet to be discovered. Resolving the fate of the missing plastic debris is of fundamental importance to determine the nature and significance of the impacts of plastic pollution in the ocean.

Plastic debris in the open ocean.

Science.gov (United States)

Cózar, Andrés; Echevarría, Fidel; González-Gordillo, J Ignacio; Irigoien, Xabier; Ubeda, Bárbara; Hernández-León, Santiago; Palma, Alvaro T; Navarro, Sandra; García-de-Lomas, Juan; Ruiz, Andrea; Fernández-de-Puelles, María L; Duarte, Carlos M

2014-07-15

There is a rising concern regarding the accumulation of floating plastic debris in the open ocean. However, the magnitude and the fate of this pollution are still open questions. Using data from the Malaspina 2010 circumnavigation, regional surveys, and previously published reports, we show a worldwide distribution of plastic on the surface of the open ocean, mostly accumulating in the convergence zones of each of the five subtropical gyres with comparable density. However, the global load of plastic on the open ocean surface was estimated to be on the order of tens of thousands of tons, far less than expected. Our observations of the size distribution of floating plastic debris point at important size-selective sinks removing millimeter-sized fragments of floating plastic on a large scale. This sink may involve a combination of fast nano-fragmentation of the microplastic into particles of microns or smaller, their transference to the ocean interior by food webs and ballasting processes, and processes yet to be discovered. Resolving the fate of the missing plastic debris is of fundamental importance to determine the nature and significance of the impacts of plastic pollution in the ocean.

Plastic debris in the open ocean

Science.gov (United States)

Cózar, Andrés; Echevarría, Fidel; González-Gordillo, J. Ignacio; Irigoien, Xabier; Úbeda, Bárbara; Hernández-León, Santiago; Palma, Álvaro T.; Navarro, Sandra; García-de-Lomas, Juan; Ruiz, Andrea; Fernández-de-Puelles, María L.; Duarte, Carlos M.

2014-01-01

There is a rising concern regarding the accumulation of floating plastic debris in the open ocean. However, the magnitude and the fate of this pollution are still open questions. Using data from the Malaspina 2010 circumnavigation, regional surveys, and previously published reports, we show a worldwide distribution of plastic on the surface of the open ocean, mostly accumulating in the convergence zones of each of the five subtropical gyres with comparable density. However, the global load of plastic on the open ocean surface was estimated to be on the order of tens of thousands of tons, far less than expected. Our observations of the size distribution of floating plastic debris point at important size-selective sinks removing millimeter-sized fragments of floating plastic on a large scale. This sink may involve a combination of fast nano-fragmentation of the microplastic into particles of microns or smaller, their transference to the ocean interior by food webs and ballasting processes, and processes yet to be discovered. Resolving the fate of the missing plastic debris is of fundamental importance to determine the nature and significance of the impacts of plastic pollution in the ocean. PMID:24982135

Questions of quality in repositories of open educational resources: a literature review

OpenAIRE

Atenas, J.; Havemann, Leo

2014-01-01

Open educational resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials which are freely available and openly licensed. Repositories of OER (ROER) are platforms that host and facilitate access to these resources. ROER should not just be designed to store this content – in keeping with the aims of the OER movement, they should support educators in embracing open educational practices (OEP) such as searching for and retrieving content that they will reuse, adapt or modify as needed, without econom...

Open Learning for Smart Education: Open educational policies, strategies & access for all

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stracke, Christian M.

2016-01-01

keynote on Open Learning at the International IEEE EDUCON Conference 2016: I will speak about “Open Learning for Smart Education: Open educational policies, strategies and access for all”. This year EDUCON is taking place from 10th to 13th of April 2016 in Abu Dhabi. My questions of the keynote

Globular cluster formation and evolution in the context of cosmological galaxy assembly: open questions

Science.gov (United States)

Forbes, Duncan A.; Bastian, Nate; Gieles, Mark; Crain, Robert A.; Kruijssen, J. M. Diederik; Larsen, Søren S.; Ploeckinger, Sylvia; Agertz, Oscar; Trenti, Michele; Ferguson, Annette M. N.; Pfeffer, Joel; Gnedin, Oleg Y.

2018-02-01

We discuss some of the key open questions regarding the formation and evolution of globular clusters (GCs) during galaxy formation and assembly within a cosmological framework. The current state of the art for both observations and simulations is described, and we briefly mention directions for future research. The oldest GCs have ages greater than or equal to 12.5 Gyr and formed around the time of reionization. Resolved colour-magnitude diagrams of Milky Way GCs and direct imaging of lensed proto-GCs at z˜6 with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) promise further insight. GCs are known to host multiple populations of stars with variations in their chemical abundances. Recently, such multiple populations have been detected in ˜2 Gyr old compact, massive star clusters. This suggests a common, single pathway for the formation of GCs at high and low redshift. The shape of the initial mass function for GCs remains unknown; however, for massive galaxies a power-law mass function is favoured. Significant progress has been made recently modelling GC formation in the context of galaxy formation, with success in reproducing many of the observed GC-galaxy scaling relations.

All channels open

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Frank Huysmans; Jos de Haan

2010-01-01

Original title: Alle kanalen staan open. The rapid changes taking place in the media landscape in the Netherlands - characterised by digitisation and convergence of media technologies - raise the question of how the Dutch are dealing with the many new opportunities that have opened up. All

The nuclear question: rethinking species importance in multi-species animal groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Srinivasan, Umesh; Raza, Rashid Hasnain; Quader, Suhel

2010-09-01

shaping species importance. 5. Our view of nuclearity provides predictive power in examining species roles in a variety of situations (e.g. predicting leadership in differently composed communities), and can be applied to examine a broad range of ecological and evolutionary questions pertinent to multi-species groups in general.

Question popularity analysis and prediction in community question answering services.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Ting; Zhang, Wei-Nan; Cao, Liujuan; Zhang, Yu

2014-01-01

With the blooming of online social media applications, Community Question Answering (CQA) services have become one of the most important online resources for information and knowledge seekers. A large number of high quality question and answer pairs have been accumulated, which allow users to not only share their knowledge with others, but also interact with each other. Accordingly, volumes of efforts have been taken to explore the questions and answers retrieval in CQA services so as to help users to finding the similar questions or the right answers. However, to our knowledge, less attention has been paid so far to question popularity in CQA. Question popularity can reflect the attention and interest of users. Hence, predicting question popularity can better capture the users' interest so as to improve the users' experience. Meanwhile, it can also promote the development of the community. In this paper, we investigate the problem of predicting question popularity in CQA. We first explore the factors that have impact on question popularity by employing statistical analysis. We then propose a supervised machine learning approach to model these factors for question popularity prediction. The experimental results show that our proposed approach can effectively distinguish the popular questions from unpopular ones in the Yahoo! Answers question and answer repository.

Secondary Data Analysis: An Important Tool for Addressing Developmental Questions

Science.gov (United States)

Greenhoot, Andrea Follmer; Dowsett, Chantelle J.

2012-01-01

Existing data sets can be an efficient, powerful, and readily available resource for addressing questions about developmental science. Many of the available databases contain hundreds of variables of interest to developmental psychologists, track participants longitudinally, and have representative samples. In this article, the authors discuss the…

THE IMPORTANCE OF ECONOMIC PROMOTION FOR A SMALL OPEN ECONOMY – THE CASE OF SLOVENIA

OpenAIRE

DEJAN ROMIH

2014-01-01

This paper discusses the importance of economic promotion for Slovenia and certain other European countries affected by the current economic crisis. For a small open economy like Slovenia, economic promotion is particularly important for several reasons. One of them is its contribution to Slovenia’s overall economic performance (in terms of achieving certain economic goals such as reducing unemployment).

Phrasal Paraphrase Based Question Reformulation for Archived Question Retrieval.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yu Zhang

Full Text Available Lexical gap in cQA search, resulted by the variability of languages, has been recognized as an important and widespread phenomenon. To address the problem, this paper presents a question reformulation scheme to enhance the question retrieval model by fully exploring the intelligence of paraphrase in phrase-level. It compensates for the existing paraphrasing research in a suitable granularity, which either falls into fine-grained lexical-level or coarse-grained sentence-level. Given a question in natural language, our scheme first detects the involved key-phrases by jointly integrating the corpus-dependent knowledge and question-aware cues. Next, it automatically extracts the paraphrases for each identified key-phrase utilizing multiple online translation engines, and then selects the most relevant reformulations from a large group of question rewrites, which is formed by full permutation and combination of the generated paraphrases. Extensive evaluations on a real world data set demonstrate that our model is able to characterize the complex questions and achieves promising performance as compared to the state-of-the-art methods.

A Framework for the Ethics of Open Education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robert Farrow

2016-05-01

Full Text Available What difference does openness make to the ethics of teaching and research? This paper approaches this question both from the perspective of research into the use of open educational resources (OER in teaching and learning. An outline of the nature and importance of ethics in education research is provided before the basic principles of research ethics are examined through a discussion of traditional guidance provided by three UK research governance bodies: the Economics and Social Research Council; the British Education Research Association; and the British Psychological Society. The importance and foundation of institutional approval for research activities is analysed with several examples of the differences made by openness. It is argued that openness by its nature provokes particular issues for education researchers. A framework for understanding openness in education is then proposed based on basic meta-ethical positions (deontological; consequentialist; virtue. Used as a tool, the framework attempts to retain relevance in a variety of scenarios without requiring a dogmatic vision of openness (e.g. an insistence on open licensing. This framework is then evaluated in the context of the OER Research Hub project, which developed guidance for others in the form of an 'ethics manual' and online learning provided through the OER Research Hub’s 'Open Research' course hosted on P2PU’s School of Open. Use of the framework is intended to contribute to a better understanding of professional ethics for open practitioners.

Open Access @ DTU

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ekstrøm, Jeannette

Open Access is high on the agenda in Denmark and internationally. Denmark has announced a national strategy for Open Access that aims to achieve Open Access to 80% in 2017 and 100% in 2022 to peer review research articles. All public Danish funders as well as H2020 requires that all peer review...... articles that is an outcome of their funding will be Open Access. Uploading your full texts (your final author manuscript after review ) to DTU Orbit is a fundamental part of providing Open Access to your research. We are here to answer all your questions with regards to Open Access and related topics...... such as copyright, DTU Orbit, Open Access journals, APCs, Vouchers etc....

An examination of the association between interviewer question type and story-grammar detail in child witness interviews about abuse.

Science.gov (United States)

Feltis, Brooke B; Powell, Martine B; Snow, Pamela C; Hughes-Scholes, Carolyn H

2010-06-01

This study compared the effects of open-ended versus specific questions, and various types of open-ended questions, in eliciting story-grammar detail in child abuse interviews. The sample included 34 police interviews with child witnesses aged 5-15 years (M age=9 years, 9 months). The interviewers' questions and their relative sub-types were classified according to definitions reported in the child interview training literature. The children's responses were classified according to the proportion of story grammar and the prevalence of individual story grammar elements as defined by Stein and Glenn (1979). Open-ended questions were more effective at eliciting story grammar than specific questions. This finding was revealed across three age groups, two interview phases and irrespective of how question effectiveness was measured. However, not all types of open-ended questions were equally effective. Open-ended questions that encouraged a broad response, or asked the child to elaborate on a part of their account, elicited more story-grammar detail compared to open-ended questions that requested clarification of concepts or descriptions of the next (or another) activity or detail within a sequence. This study demonstrates that children's ability to provide story-grammar detail is maximised when there is minimal prompting from the interviewer. Given the association between story grammar production and victim credibility, greater guidance is warranted in interviewer training programs in relation to the effects and administration of different types of open-ended questions. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Importance of Broken Gauge Symmetry in Addressing Three, Key, Unanswered Questions Posed by Low Nuclear Reactions (LENR's)

Science.gov (United States)

Chubb, Scott

2003-03-01

Three, Key, Unanswered Questions posed by LENR's are: 1. How do we explain the lack of high energy particles (HEP's)? 2. Can we understand and prioritize the way coupling can occur between nuclear- and atomic- lengthscales, and 3. What are the roles of Surface-Like (SL), as opposed to Bulk-Like (BL), processes in triggering nuclear phenomena. One important source of confusion associated with each of these questions is the common perception that the quantum mechanical phases of different particles are not correlated with each other. When the momenta p of interacting particles is large, and reactions occur rapidly (between HEP's, for example), this is a valid assumption. But when the relative difference in p becomes vanishingly small, between one charge, and many others, as a result of implicit electromagnetic coupling, each charge can share a common phase, relative to the others, modulo 2nπ, where n is an integer, even when outside forces are introduced. The associated forms of broken gauge symmetry, distinguish BL from SL phenomena, at room temperature, also explain super- and normal- conductivity in solids, and can be used to address the Three, Key, Unanswered Questions posed by LENR's.

Questions of Quality in Repositories of Open Educational Resources: A Literature Review

Science.gov (United States)

Atenas, Javiera; Havemann, Leo

2014-01-01

Open educational resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials which are freely available and openly licensed. Repositories of OER (ROER) are platforms that host and facilitate access to these resources. ROER should not just be designed to store this content--in keeping with the aims of the OER movement, they should support educators in…

Questions Concerning Matrix Algebras and Invariance of Spectrum

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Let and be unital Banach algebras with a subalgebra of . Denote the algebra of all × matrices with entries from by M n ( A ) . In this paper we prove some results concerning the open question: If is inverse closed in , then is M n ( A ) inverse closed in M n ( B ) ? We also study related questions in the setting ...

Open- and closed-formula laboratory animal diets and their importance to research.

Science.gov (United States)

Barnard, Dennis E; Lewis, Sherry M; Teter, Beverly B; Thigpen, Julius E

2009-11-01

Almost 40 y ago the scientific community was taking actions to control environmental factors that contribute to variation in the responses of laboratory animals to scientific manipulation. Laboratory animal diet was recognized as an important variable. During the 1970s, the American Institute of Nutrition, National Academy of Science, Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources, and Laboratory Animals Centre Diets Advisory Committee supported the use of 'standard reference diets' in biomedical research as a means to improve the ability to replicate research. As a result the AIN76 purified diet was formulated. During this same time, the laboratory animal nutritionist at the NIH was formulating open-formula, natural-ingredient diets to meet the need for standardized laboratory animal diets. Since the development of open-formula diets, fixed-formula and constant-nutrient-concentration closed-formula laboratory animal natural ingredient diets have been introduced to help reduce the potential variation diet can cause in research.

Towards natural language question generation for the validation of ontologies and mappings.

Science.gov (United States)

Ben Abacha, Asma; Dos Reis, Julio Cesar; Mrabet, Yassine; Pruski, Cédric; Da Silveira, Marcos

2016-08-08

The increasing number of open-access ontologies and their key role in several applications such as decision-support systems highlight the importance of their validation. Human expertise is crucial for the validation of ontologies from a domain point-of-view. However, the growing number of ontologies and their fast evolution over time make manual validation challenging. We propose a novel semi-automatic approach based on the generation of natural language (NL) questions to support the validation of ontologies and their evolution. The proposed approach includes the automatic generation, factorization and ordering of NL questions from medical ontologies. The final validation and correction is performed by submitting these questions to domain experts and automatically analyzing their feedback. We also propose a second approach for the validation of mappings impacted by ontology changes. The method exploits the context of the changes to propose correction alternatives presented as Multiple Choice Questions. This research provides a question optimization strategy to maximize the validation of ontology entities with a reduced number of questions. We evaluate our approach for the validation of three medical ontologies. We also evaluate the feasibility and efficiency of our mappings validation approach in the context of ontology evolution. These experiments are performed with different versions of SNOMED-CT and ICD9. The obtained experimental results suggest the feasibility and adequacy of our approach to support the validation of interconnected and evolving ontologies. Results also suggest that taking into account RDFS and OWL entailment helps reducing the number of questions and validation time. The application of our approach to validate mapping evolution also shows the difficulty of adapting mapping evolution over time and highlights the importance of semi-automatic validation.

Openness to experience is related to better memory ability in older adults with questionable dementia.

Science.gov (United States)

Terry, Douglas P; Puente, Antonio N; Brown, Courtney L; Faraco, Carlos C; Miller, L Stephen

2013-01-01

The personality traits Openness to experience and Neuroticism of the five-factor model have previously been associated with memory performance in nondemented older adults, but this relationship has not been investigated in samples with memory impairment. Our examination of 50 community-dwelling older adults (29 cognitively intact; 21 with questionable dementia as determined by the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale) showed that demographic variables (age, years of education, gender, and estimated premorbid IQ) and current depressive symptoms explained a significant amount of variance of Repeatable Battery of Neuropsychological Status Delayed Memory (adjusted R (2) = 0.23). After controlling for these variables, a measure of global cognitive status further explained a significant portion of variance in memory performance (ΔR(2) = 0.13; adjusted R(2) = 0.36; p better memory performance above and beyond one's cognitive status and demographic variables may suggest that a lifelong pattern of involvement in new cognitive activities could be preserved in old age or protect from memory decline. This study suggests that personality may be a powerful predictor of memory ability and clinically useful in this heterogeneous population.

Some important questions connected with non-targeted effects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baverstock, Keith; Belyakov, Oleg V.

2010-01-01

This paper briefly reviews the highlights of experimental evidence that led to the adoption of the term 'non-targeted' to describe new effects induced by ionising radiation that did not fit the classical radiobiological paradigm, principally genomic instability and bystander effect, identifying the reports that were most influential on the subsequent course of radiobiological research. The issue of appropriate terminology for the new effects is discussed. Particular emphasis is placed on the inheritance of genomic instability, where there are issues concerning which effects should be considered as transgenerational. Finally, in respect of the question as to whether these new effects are likely to have an impact on human health is addressed. It is concluded that there is a need for a clearer terminology to facilitate research progress, that real health effects cannot be ruled out and that therefore there is a need for new paradigms not only for radiobiology but also for risk assessment and radiological protection.

Open magnetic structures on the sun

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Levine, R.H.; Altschuler, M.D.; Harvey, J.W.; Jackson, B.V.

1977-01-01

High-resolution harmonic analysis of the solar magnetic field has been used successfully to calculate the geometry of open magnetic field lines in the solar corona. Comparison of the loci of open field line footpoints with solar X-ray photographs shows that all of the coronal holes during two solar rotations are successfully represented, including details of their evolution. Some open magnetic configurations derived in the calculations precede by up to one solar rotation the manifestation of coincident dark areas on the X-ray photographs. The only other areas that contribute open field lines to the corona are separations between active-region loop systems. By varying the radius at which field lines are forced to be open in the calculation, it is possible to more closely reproduce the surface configuration of particular coronal holes. Comparison of the size of X-ray holes with the fraction of the solar surface covered by open field lines leads to the conclusion that a significant part of the area of coronal holes must contain closed magnetic fields. Comparison of open field lines which lie in the equatorial plane of the Sun with solar wind data indicates that eventual high-speed solar wind streams are associated with those parts of open magnetic structures that diverge the least. Several important questions raised by this study are under investigation using data for the entire Skylab period

Open problems in reprocessing of a molten salt reactor fuel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lelek, Vladimir; Vocka, Radim

2000-01-01

The study of fuel cycle in a molten salt reactor (MSR) needs deeper understanding of chemical methods used for reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel and preparation of MSR fuel, as well as of the methods employed for reprocessing of MSR fuel itself. Assuming that all the reprocessing is done on the basis of electrorefining, we formulate some open questions that should be answered before a flow sheet diagram of the reactor is designed. Most of the questions concern phenomena taking place in the vicinity of an electrode, which influence the efficiency of the reprocessing and sensibility of element separation. Answer to these questions would be an important step forward in reactor set out. (Authors)

The most important water management questions concerning the river basin unit Weser. EG water management guidelines; Die wichtigsten Wasserbewirtschaftungsfragen in der Flussgebietseinheit Weser. EG-Wasserrahmenrichtlinien

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2007-12-15

The most important water management questions concerning the river basin Weser are the following: The salt load of Werra and Weser due to tha actual and former potash mining, the load due to anthropogenic nutrient input, and the disturbance of the watercourses. It is extremely important to discuss not only these questions but also their interdependence and relations. The fish is identified as an efficient indicator of the water quality, esp. migrating species that require different watercourse structures. In order to fulfill the requirements of a sustainable and integrative protection of the resources the water management strategies have do be comprehensive with respect to the discussed questions.

Open Educational Resources and Informational Ecosystems: «Edutags» as a connector for open learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael Kerres

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Teaching and learning in school essentially relies on analogous and digital media, artefacts and tools of all kinds. They are supported and provided by various players. The role of these players for providing learning infrastructures and the interaction between them are discussed in the following paper. Increasingly, Open Educational Resources (OER become available and the question arises how the interaction between these players is impacted. On the one hand, some players implement closed informational ecosystems that might provide a rich and coherent environment for learning, but also lock the users into a defined and often restricted environment. On the other hand, other players are interested in developing an infrastructure that supports open learning without the boundaries of closed informational ecosystems. Such open informational ecosystems must provide interconnections to numerous, in principal, unlimited number of platforms for learning contents. In the context of the project «Edutags» a reference platform is being implemented by way in which the contents of various providers are being connected and enriched through user-generated tags, commentaries and evaluations. The discussion points out that such an independent reference platform, operated separately from content platforms, must be considered as an important element in an open and truly distributed infrastructure for learning resources. Hence, we do not only need open educational resources to support open learning, we also need to establish an open informational ecosystem that supports such approaches.

Complex systems dynamics in aging: new evidence, continuing questions.

Science.gov (United States)

Cohen, Alan A

2016-02-01

There have long been suggestions that aging is tightly linked to the complex dynamics of the physiological systems that maintain homeostasis, and in particular to dysregulation of regulatory networks of molecules. This review synthesizes recent work that is starting to provide evidence for the importance of such complex systems dynamics in aging. There is now clear evidence that physiological dysregulation--the gradual breakdown in the capacity of complex regulatory networks to maintain homeostasis--is an emergent property of these regulatory networks, and that it plays an important role in aging. It can be measured simply using small numbers of biomarkers. Additionally, there are indications of the importance during aging of emergent physiological processes, functional processes that cannot be easily understood through clear metabolic pathways, but can nonetheless be precisely quantified and studied. The overall role of such complex systems dynamics in aging remains an important open question, and to understand it future studies will need to distinguish and integrate related aspects of aging research, including multi-factorial theories of aging, systems biology, bioinformatics, network approaches, robustness, and loss of complexity.

Planetary Ions at Mercury: Unanswered Questions After MESSENGER

Science.gov (United States)

Raines, J. M.

2018-05-01

We will discuss the key open questions relating to planetary ions, including the behavior of recently created photoions, the near absence of Ca+ / K+ in MESSENGER ion measurements, and the role of ion sputtering in the system.

Questioning the Questions

Science.gov (United States)

Tienken, Christopher H.; Goldberg, Stephanie; DiRocco, Dominic

2010-01-01

Historical accounts of questioning used in the education process trace back to Socrates. One of the best examples of his use of questioning is found in Plato's "The Republic." Socrates used a series of strategic questions to help his student Glaucon come to understand the concept of justice. Socrates purposefully posed a series of…

Opening up closed policy communities.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Termeer, C.J.A.M.; Werkman, R.A.

2010-01-01

Agricultural policy networks have served as classic cases of closed policy communities, facing pressure to open up. However attempts to involve new stakeholders slowly move forward. This paper addresses the question why it is so difficult to open up agricultural communities and what might help to

The importance of a culture of openness.

Science.gov (United States)

2016-06-15

Revamping the counselling service at Birmingham Children's Hospital, as well as offering wa 24/7 telephone service and face-to-face counselling, led to reduced work-related stress - as stated in Nursing Management. Sara Brown, deputy chief officer for workforce at the hospital, says a culture of openness is essential for tackling the demands of nursing. She says nurses in management positions are responsible for supporting the daily demands of service delivery.

Opening teaching landscapes: The importance of quality assurance in the delivery of open educational resources

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Javiera Atenas

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Scholars are increasingly being asked to share teaching materials, publish in open access journals, network in social media, and reuse open educational resources (OER. The theoretical benefits of Open Educational Practices (OEP have become understood in the academic community but thus far, the use of OER has not been rapidly adopted. We aim to understand the challenges academics face with in attempting to adopt OEP, and identify whether these are related to or stem from the functionalities afforded by current repositories of OER (ROER. By understanding what academics and experts consider good practices, we can develop guidelines for quality in the development of ROER. In this article we present the findings from a study surveying academics using OER and experts who develop and/or work with ROER. We conclude by suggesting a framework to enhance the development and quality of ROER.http://dx.doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.6.1.81

Socratic Questioning-Guided Discovery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Hakan Türkçapar

2012-04-01

Full Text Available “Socratic Method” is a way of teaching philosophical thinking and knowledge by asking questions which was used by antique period greek philosopher Socrates. Socrates was teaching knowledge to his followers by asking questions and the conversation between them was named “Socratic Dialogues”. In this meaning, no novel knowledge is taught to the individual but only what is formerly known is reminded and rediscovered. The form of socratic questioning which is used during the process of cognitive behavioral therapy is known as Guided Discovery. In this method it is aimed to make the client notice the piece of knowledge which he could notice but is not aware with a series of questions. Socratic method or guided discovery consists of several steps which are: Identifying the problem by listening to the client and making reflections, finding alternatives by examining and evaluating, reidentification by using the newly found information and questioning the old distorted belief and reaching to a conclusion and applying it. Question types used during these procedures are, questions for gaining information, questions revealing the meanings, questions revealing the beliefs, questions about behaviours during the similar past experiences, analyse questions and analytic synthesis questions. In order to make the patient feel understood it is important to be empathetic and summarising the problem during the interview. In this text, steps of Socratic Questioning-Guided Discovery will be reviewed with sample dialogues after eachstep. [JCBPR 2012; 1(1.000: 15-20

The Patient Educator Presentation in Dental Education: Reinforcing the Importance of Learning About Rare Conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Edwards, Paul C; Graham, Jasmine; Oling, Rebecca; Frantz, Kate E

2016-05-01

The aim of this study was to determine whether a patient educator presentation (PEP) on pemphigus vulgaris would increase second-year dental students' awareness of the importance of learning about rare conditions and improve their retention of rare disease knowledge. The study involved students' subjective assessments of a PEP experience at two U.S. dental schools. In this mixed methods study, cross-sectional data were obtained by surveys and in-depth interviews. Questions focused on students' assessment of the messages acquired from the PEP and its likely impact on their future clinical care. At University 1, students completed paper surveys with open-ended questions and participated in a focus group. At University 2, students completed an online survey consisting of rating scale and open-ended questions. Responses to open-ended questions were categorized into themes. At University 1, 79 students (out of a possible 102; response rate 77.5%) completed the survey, and an additional ten students participated in a focus group. At University 2, 30 students (out of a possible 104; response rate 28.8%) completed the survey. At Universities 1 and 2, 88% and 100%, respectively, of respondents stated the PEP would influence their future clinical decision making. The vast majority of respondents (94% and 100% at University 1 and University 2, respectively) were of the opinion that the personal testimonial from a patient would help them recall information about pemphigus vulgaris in five years' time. Respondents from both universities commented that the PEP emphasized the importance of not dismissing a patient's concerns. These results suggest that a presentation by a patient with a rare condition can be an effective educational tool for preclinical dental students.

Questions of quality in repositories of open educational resources: a literature review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Javiera Atenas

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Open educational resources (OER are teaching and learning materials which are freely available and openly licensed. Repositories of OER (ROER are platforms that host and facilitate access to these resources. ROER should not just be designed to store this content – in keeping with the aims of the OER movement, they should support educators in embracing open educational practices (OEP such as searching for and retrieving content that they will reuse, adapt or modify as needed, without economic barriers or copyright restrictions. This paper reviews key literature on OER and ROER, in order to understand the roles ROER are said or supposed to fulfil in relation to furthering the aims of the OER movement. Four themes which should shape repository design are identified, and the following 10 quality indicators (QI for ROER effectiveness are discussed: featured resources; user evaluation tools; peer review; authorship of the resources; keywords of the resources; use of standardised metadata; multilingualism of the repositories; inclusion of social media tools; specification of the creative commons license; availability of the source code or original files. These QI form the basis of a method for the evaluation of ROER initiatives which, in concert with considerations of achievability and long-term sustainability, should assist in enhancement and development.

Young children's impressionable use of teleology: the influence of question wording and questioned topic on teleological explanations for natural phenomena

Science.gov (United States)

Halls, Jonathan Grant; Ainsworth, Shaaron Elizabeth; Oliver, Mary Collette

2018-05-01

There is a significant body of research on children's preconceptions concerning scientific concepts and the impact this has upon their science education. One active issue concerns the extent to which young children's explanations for the existence of natural kinds rely on a teleological rationale: for example, rain is for watering the grass, or tigers' stripes are for camouflage. It has been argued that this teleological tendency hampers children's ability to learn about causality in the natural world. This paper investigates two factors (question wording and topic) which it is argued have led to a misestimation of children's teleological tendencies within the area natural phenomena: i.e. those that are time-constrained, natural events or process such as snow, clouds or night. Sixty-six (5-8 years old) children took part in a repeated-measures experiment, answering both open and leading questions across 10 topics of natural phenomena. The findings indicate that children's teleological reasoning may have been overestimated as open-question forms significantly reduced their tendency to answer teleologically. Moreover, the concept of teleology is more nuanced than often suggested. Consequently, young children may be more able to learn about causal explanations for the existence of natural phenomena than the literature implies.

Open life science research, open software and the open century

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Youhua Chen

2015-05-01

Full Text Available At the age of knowledge explosion and mass scientific information, I highlighted the importance of conducting open science in life and medical researches through the extensive usage of open software and documents. The proposal of conducting open science is to reduce the limited repeatability of researches in life science. I outlined the essential steps for conducting open life science and the necessary standards for creating, reusing and reproducing open materials. Different Creative Commons licenses were presented and compared of their usage scope and restriction. As a conclusion, I argued that open materials should be widely adopted in doing life and medical researches.

'Any questions?'--Clinicians' usage of invitations to ask questions (IAQs) in outpatient plastic surgery consultations.

Science.gov (United States)

Bristowe, Katherine; Patrick, Peter L

2014-12-01

To explore use of 'Invitations to Ask Questions' (IAQs) by plastic surgeons in outpatient consultations, and consider how type of IAQ impacts on patients' responses to, and recollection of, IAQs. Descriptive study: 63 patients were audio recorded in consultation with 5 plastic surgeons, and completed a brief questionnaire immediately after the consultation. Consultation transcripts were analyzed using inductive qualitative methods of Discourse Analysis and compared with questionnaire findings. A taxonomy of IAQs was developed, including three types of IAQ (Overt, Covert, and Borderline). Overt IAQs were rarely identified, and almost all IAQs occurred in the closing stages of the consultation. However, when an overt IAQ was used, patients always recollected being asked if they had any questions after the consultation. Patients are rarely explicitly offered the opportunity to ask questions. When this does occur, it is often in the closing stages of the consultation. Clinicians should openly encourage patients to ask questions frequently throughout the consultation, and be mindful that subtle differences in construction of these utterances may impact upon interpretation. Clear communication, of message and intention, is essential in clinical encounters to minimize misunderstanding, misinterpretation, or missed opportunities for patients to raise concerns. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Online tracking: questioning the power of informed consent

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Eijk, N.; Helberger, N.; Kool, L.; van der Plas, A.; van der Sloot, B.

2011-01-01

Online tracking technologies have raised considerable concerns regarding privacy and the protection of personal data of users. In order to help users to regain control over their personal data, Europe has amended its ePrivacy directive towards an opt-in regime. There are however many open questions

Comparison between Two Assessment Methods; Modified Essay Questions and Multiple Choice Questions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Assadi S.N.* MD

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Aims Using the best assessment methods is an important factor in educational development of health students. Modified essay questions and multiple choice questions are two prevalent methods of assessing the students. The aim of this study was to compare two methods of modified essay questions and multiple choice questions in occupational health engineering and work laws courses. Materials & Methods This semi-experimental study was performed during 2013 to 2014 on occupational health students of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. The class of occupational health and work laws course in 2013 was considered as group A and the class of 2014 as group B. Each group had 50 students.The group A students were assessed by modified essay questions method and the group B by multiple choice questions method.Data were analyzed in SPSS 16 software by paired T test and odd’s ratio. Findings The mean grade of occupational health and work laws course was 18.68±0.91 in group A (modified essay questions and was 18.78±0.86 in group B (multiple choice questions which was not significantly different (t=-0.41; p=0.684. The mean grade of chemical chapter (p<0.001 in occupational health engineering and harmful work law (p<0.001 and other (p=0.015 chapters in work laws were significantly different between two groups. Conclusion Modified essay questions and multiple choice questions methods have nearly the same student assessing value for the occupational health engineering and work laws course.

Variations of serum testosterone levels in prostate cancer patients under LH-releasing hormone therapy: an open question.

Science.gov (United States)

Reis, Leonardo Oliveira

2012-06-01

The hypothesis 'the lower the better when achieving castration levels of testosterone' is based on the data from second-line hormonal manipulation and its molecular basis, and on better oncological results reported for lower castration levels in prostate cancer (PCa) patients, including those achieved with maximal androgen blockade. In this regard, the equivalence of surgical and different pharmacological castrations has been controversial. The modified amino acid structure that makes LH-releasing hormone (LHRH) analogs more potent than LHRH, and the method of delivering the analogs impacts on bioavailibility and potentially causes differences in androgen levels and in its final oncological efficacy. In addition to this, there is a myriad of circumstances, such as those related to ethnic variations and co-morbidities, which uniquely impact on the pharmacological approach in a highly heterogeneous population of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) patients. Ineffective testosterone suppression through hormonal escape is currently poorly recognized and may result in increased PCa mortality. Until now, the optimal serum testosterone level in patients under castration, and the impact of its variations in patients under LHRH therapy, remain open questions and have been merged to a broad spectra of patients who are highly heterogeneous. This heterogeneity relates to a number of mechanisms regarding response to treatment, which influences the biology of the relapsing tumor and the sensitivity to subsequent therapies in the individual patient. The rationale to achieve testosterone levels below 20-50 ng/dl warrant further investigation as these levels have recently rescued CRPC patients. In the last few years and months, important advancements in prostate cancer treatment have been achieved. Nevertheless, these advances are measured in a few months of additional survival and under high costs, not available to most of the world population, compared with the benefits

The open access regulation in Brazil; A regulacao do livre acesso no Brasil

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Andrade, Maisa Medeiros Pacheco de; Siqueira, Mariana de; Xavier, Yanko Marcius de Alencar [Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), Natal, RN (Brazil)

2008-07-01

The present research, attempting for the economic relevance of the natural gas sector, for the lack of a law that disciplines it and, still, for the structural question of the natural gas ducts activity; it analyzes the monopoly of the natural gas ducts activity and the mechanism of competition chosen to brighten up it: the open access. The regulation of the open access and the viability that the insert of this practice has to Brazil nowadays are very important points to be discussed and, in that way, the present research also analyses them. (author)

Open Data and Open Science for better Research in the Geo and Space Domain

Science.gov (United States)

Ritschel, B.; Seelus, C.; Neher, G.; Iyemori, T.; Koyama, Y.; Yatagai, A. I.; Murayama, Y.; King, T. A.; Hughes, S.; Fung, S. F.; Galkin, I. A.; Hapgood, M. A.; Belehaki, A.

2015-12-01

Main open data principles had been worked out in the run-up and finally adopted in the Open Data Charta at the G8 summit in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland in June 2013. Important principles are also valid for science data, such as Open Data by Default, Quality and Quantity, Useable by All, Releasing Data for Improved Governance, Releasing Data for Innovation. There is also an explicit relationship to such areas of high values as earth observation, education and geospatial data. The European union implementation plan of the Open Data Charta identifies among other things objectives such as making data available in an open format, enabling semantic interoperability, ensuring quality, documentation and where appropriate reconciliation across different data sources, implementing software solutionsallowing easy management, publication or visualization of datasets and simplifying clearance of intellectual property rights.Open Science is not just a list of already for a longer time known principles but stands for a lot of initiatives and projects around a better handling of scientific data and openly shared scientific knowledge. It is also about transparency in methodology and collection of data, availability and reuse of scientific data, public accessibility to scientific communication and using of social media to facility scientific collaboration. Some projects are concentrating on open sharing of free and open source software and even further hardware in kind of processing capabilities. In addition question about the mashup of data and publication and an open peer review process are addressed.Following the principles of open data and open science the newest results of the collaboration efforts in mashing up the data servers related to the Japanese IUGONET, the European Union ESPAS and the GFZ ISDC semantic Web projects will be presented here. The semantic Web based approach for the mashup is focusing on the design and implementation of a common but still distributed data

Good Questions: Great Ways to Differentiate Mathematics Instruction

Science.gov (United States)

Small, Marian

2009-01-01

Using differentiated instruction in the classroom can be a challenge, especially when teaching mathematics. This book cuts through the difficulties with two powerful and universal strategies that teachers can use across all math content: Open Questions and Parallel Tasks. Specific strategies and examples for grades Kindergarten - 8 are organized…

78 FR 26031 - Notice of Open Special Meeting of the Sub-Saharan Africa Advisory Committee of the Export-Import...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-05-03

... financial commitments in Sub- Saharan Africa under the loan, guarantee, and insurance programs of the Bank... EXPORT-IMPORT BANK Notice of Open Special Meeting of the Sub-Saharan Africa Advisory Committee of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) SUMMARY: The Sub-Saharan Africa Advisory...

75 FR 9414 - Notice of Open Meeting of the Advisory Committee of the Export-Import Bank of the United States...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-03-02

... EXPORT-IMPORT BANK OF THE UNITED STATES Notice of Open Meeting of the Advisory Committee of the Export- Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) SUMMARY: The Advisory Committee was established by Public Law 98-181, November 30, 1983, to advise the Export-Import Bank on its programs and to provide...

75 FR 73082 - Notice of Open Meeting of the Advisory Committee of the Export-Import Bank of the United States...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-11-29

... EXPORT-IMPORT BANK OF THE UNITED STATES Notice of Open Meeting of the Advisory Committee of the Export- Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) SUMMARY: The Advisory Committee was established by Public Law 98-181, November 30, 1983, to advise the Export-Import Bank on its programs and to provide...

75 FR 54875 - Notice of Open Meeting of the Advisory Committee of the Export-Import Bank of the United States...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-09-09

... EXPORT-IMPORT BANK OF THE UNITED STATES Notice of Open Meeting of the Advisory Committee of the Export- Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) SUMMARY: The Advisory Committee was established by Public Law 98-181, November 30, 1983, to advise the Export-Import Bank on its programs and to provide...

2008 LHC Open Days Training for volunteers

CERN Multimedia

2008-01-01

Information and training sessions are being organised for Open Day volunteers. The Open Days Organising Committee is offering information and training sessions every Thursday in March from 2.00 p.m. to 3.30 p.m. in the Main Building Auditorium. The first session will be on Thursday 6 March. It is important that volunteers attend these sessions to familiarise themselves with the practical arrangements for the two Open Days and with the main messages to be conveyed to the general public in order to make the event a success. General information will be given out at each session, followed by information on a specific theme. The sessions will be organised as follows: 2.00 - 2.45 p.m. : first part - general information 2.45 - 3.30 p.m. : second part - specific information * 6 March - specific theme "How to answer questions about the fears surrounding the LHC" * A different theme will be addressed at each session. The themes of subsequent sessions (13 , 20, 27 March and 3 Ap...

Coalescent: an open-science framework for importance sampling in coalescent theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Tewari, Susanta; Spouge, John L

2015-01-01

Background. In coalescent theory, computer programs often use importance sampling to calculate likelihoods and other statistical quantities. An importance sampling scheme can exploit human intuition to improve statistical efficiency of computations, but unfortunately, in the absence of general computer frameworks on importance sampling, researchers often struggle to translate new sampling schemes computationally or benchmark against different schemes, in a manner that is reliable and maintainable. Moreover, most studies use computer programs lacking a convenient user interface or the flexibility to meet the current demands of open science. In particular, current computer frameworks can only evaluate the efficiency of a single importance sampling scheme or compare the efficiencies of different schemes in an ad hoc manner. Results. We have designed a general framework (http://coalescent.sourceforge.net; language: Java; License: GPLv3) for importance sampling that computes likelihoods under the standard neutral coalescent model of a single, well-mixed population of constant size over time following infinite sites model of mutation. The framework models the necessary core concepts, comes integrated with several data sets of varying size, implements the standard competing proposals, and integrates tightly with our previous framework for calculating exact probabilities. For a given dataset, it computes the likelihood and provides the maximum likelihood estimate of the mutation parameter. Well-known benchmarks in the coalescent literature validate the accuracy of the framework. The framework provides an intuitive user interface with minimal clutter. For performance, the framework switches automatically to modern multicore hardware, if available. It runs on three major platforms (Windows, Mac and Linux). Extensive tests and coverage make the framework reliable and maintainable. Conclusions. In coalescent theory, many studies of computational efficiency consider only

Coalescent: an open-science framework for importance sampling in coalescent theory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susanta Tewari

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Background. In coalescent theory, computer programs often use importance sampling to calculate likelihoods and other statistical quantities. An importance sampling scheme can exploit human intuition to improve statistical efficiency of computations, but unfortunately, in the absence of general computer frameworks on importance sampling, researchers often struggle to translate new sampling schemes computationally or benchmark against different schemes, in a manner that is reliable and maintainable. Moreover, most studies use computer programs lacking a convenient user interface or the flexibility to meet the current demands of open science. In particular, current computer frameworks can only evaluate the efficiency of a single importance sampling scheme or compare the efficiencies of different schemes in an ad hoc manner.Results. We have designed a general framework (http://coalescent.sourceforge.net; language: Java; License: GPLv3 for importance sampling that computes likelihoods under the standard neutral coalescent model of a single, well-mixed population of constant size over time following infinite sites model of mutation. The framework models the necessary core concepts, comes integrated with several data sets of varying size, implements the standard competing proposals, and integrates tightly with our previous framework for calculating exact probabilities. For a given dataset, it computes the likelihood and provides the maximum likelihood estimate of the mutation parameter. Well-known benchmarks in the coalescent literature validate the accuracy of the framework. The framework provides an intuitive user interface with minimal clutter. For performance, the framework switches automatically to modern multicore hardware, if available. It runs on three major platforms (Windows, Mac and Linux. Extensive tests and coverage make the framework reliable and maintainable.Conclusions. In coalescent theory, many studies of computational efficiency

Question Answering for Dutch : Simple does it

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hoekstra, A.H.; Hiemstra, Djoerd; van der Vet, P.E.; Huibers, Theo W.C.; Schobbens, Pierre-Yves; Vanhoof, Wim; Schwanen, Gabriel

2006-01-01

When people pose questions in natural language to search for information on the web, the role of question answering (QA) systems becomes important. In this paper the QAsystem simpleQA, capable of answering Dutch questions on which the answer is a person or a location, is described. The system's

Education effects on authoritarian-libertarian values: a question of socialization.

Science.gov (United States)

Stubager, Rune

2008-06-01

Over the past decades an authoritarian-libertarian value dimension has become increasingly important to electoral behaviour across western countries. Previous analyses have shown that education is the most important social antecedent of individuals' positions on this value dimension; high education groups tend towards the libertarian pole and low education groups tend towards the authoritarian pole. It remains an open question, however, what aspects of education cause this relationship. The article examines a range of explanatory models: a psychodynamic, a cognitive, a socialization, and an allocation effects model. The results strongly favour the socialization model in which the relationship between education and authoritarian-libertarian values is explained as a result of differences in the value sets transferred to students in different educational milieus. The value differences between the educational groups should thus not be seen as reflecting economic differences between the groups but rather as the result of a more fundamental value conflict.

HOW TO GENERATE AUTONOMOUS QUESTIONING IN SECONDARY MATHEMATICS TEACHING?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jessen, Britta Eyrich

2017-01-01

In mathematics education it is still a major challenge to find ways to nurture students to pose and pursue their own questions in order to learn mathematics. During the last three decades problem posing has been explored through different approaches and in empirical studies. This paper presents...... the result of an empirical study, where teaching was designed and conducted based on The Anthropological Theory of the Didactic. It is shown how a changed didactic contract and open generating questions posed by the teacher can support students’ autonomous questioning of the taught knowledge. In the study......, students developed knowledge that went beyond curriculum requirements through autonomous activities, which were different from more traditional school and pedagogical culture....

Plastic debris in the open ocean

OpenAIRE

Cózar, Andrés; Echevarría, Fidel; González-Gordillo, J. Ignacio; Irigoien, Xabier; Úbeda, Bárbara; Hernández-León, Santiago; Palma, Álvaro T.; Navarro, Sandra; García-de-Lomas, Juan; Ruiz, Andrea; Fernández-de-Puelles, María L.; Duarte, Carlos M.

2014-01-01

There is a rising concern regarding the accumulation of floating plastic debris in the open ocean. However, the magnitude and the fate of this pollution are still open questions. Using data from the Malaspina 2010 circumnavigation, regional surveys, and previously published reports, we show a worldwide distribution of plastic on the surface of the open ocean, mostly accumulating in the convergence zones of each of the five subtropical gyres with comparable density. Howeve...

Managing ocean information in the digital era--events in Canada open questions about the role of marine science libraries.

Science.gov (United States)

Wells, Peter G

2014-06-15

Information is the foundation of evidence-based policies for effective marine environmental protection and conservation. In Canada, the cutback of marine science libraries introduces key questions about the role of such institutions and the management of ocean information in the digital age. How vital are such libraries in the mission of studying and protecting the oceans? What is the fate and value of the massive grey literature holdings, including archival materials, much of which is not in digital form but which often contains vital data? How important is this literature generally in the marine environmental sciences? Are we likely to forget the history of the marine pollution field if our digital focus eclipses the need for and access to comprehensive collections and skilled information specialists? This paper explores these and other questions against the backdrop of unprecedented changes in the federal libraries, marine environmental science and legislation in Canada. Copyright © 2014 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Traveling questions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hoeyer, Klaus

2016-01-01

In this paper, I argue that uncertainty and nonknowledge, and not just research results, can be important vehicles of translation through which genetic research participation comes to affect the lives of research participants. Based on interviews with participants in a genetic research project, I....... Research questions, and not just results, may serve as a generative form of knowledge that can travel as fast as any answer....

An open source platform for multi-scale spatially distributed simulations of microbial ecosystems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Segre, Daniel [Boston Univ., MA (United States)

2014-08-14

The goal of this project was to develop a tool for facilitating simulation, validation and discovery of multiscale dynamical processes in microbial ecosystems. This led to the development of an open-source software platform for Computation Of Microbial Ecosystems in Time and Space (COMETS). COMETS performs spatially distributed time-dependent flux balance based simulations of microbial metabolism. Our plan involved building the software platform itself, calibrating and testing it through comparison with experimental data, and integrating simulations and experiments to address important open questions on the evolution and dynamics of cross-feeding interactions between microbial species.

Oil price shocks and economy: an open question

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Di Marzio, G.

2006-01-01

During the 1970s and 1980s advanced oil importing economies faced the adverse effects of oil supply disruptions with abrupt energy price rise, followed by sensible business cycle inversions and stagflation. The negative effects of the sharp energy price increase were amplified by factors such the induced costly resources reallocation between labour and capital, and between sectors of activity; rising uncertainty discouraging investments, and income redistribution consequences on aggregate demands After a shock the economic system generally adjusts in favour of less energy intensive industries; this leads pauses in production as part of the existing capital stock become obsolete, and causes resources under utilization. Since the 1970s a number of economists have been sceptical about why even large price shocks in a resource that accounts for less than 3-4 pct. of global GDP could cause losses of magnitude as those experienced in most advanced economies. They believe that monetary policy has played a role in generating the observed negative correlation between oil prices and economic activity, and question whether the post-oil-shock recessions were attributable to the oil price shocks themselves or to the monetary policy responding to these shocks. Empirical research largely shows a primary responsibility of large price shocks and major oil-supply disruptions on recessionary movements of GDP. Energy prices have risen sharply since 2003, driven by strengthening global demand; market fundamentals suggest that a considerable fraction of recent hikes will be permanent and current price levels remain credible. With limited spare capacity, the medium term oil supply-demand balance is expected to remain tight, and the price probably near current levels. Today' s high oil prices reflect the effects of sustained energy demand trends and, jointly, oil industry under investment during and after the low price era of the 1990s. The apparent moderate macro economic effects of the

Top 40 questions in coupled human and natural systems (CHANS research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Boyd. Kramer

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Understanding and managing coupled human and natural systems (CHANS is a central challenge of the 21st century, but more focus is needed to pursue the most important questions within this vast field given limited research capacity and funding. We present 40 important questions for CHANS research, identified through a two-part crowdsourcing exercise within the CHANS community. We solicited members of the International Network of Research on Coupled Human and Natural Systems (CHANS-Net to submit up to three questions that they considered transformative, receiving 540 questions from 207 respondents. After editing for clarity and consistency, we asked the network's members to each evaluate a random subset of 20 questions in importance on a scale from 1 (least important to 7 (extremely important. Questions on land use and agriculture topped the list, with a median importance ranking of 5.7, followed by questions of scale, climate change and energy, sustainability and development, adaptation and resilience, in addition to seven other categories. We identified 40 questions with a median importance of 6.0 or above, which we highlight as the current view of researchers active in the field as research questions to pursue in order to maximize impact on understanding and managing coupled human and natural systems for achieving sustainable development goals and addressing emerging global challenges.

Effect of Distance on Open Innovation: Differences among Institutions According to Patent Citation and Reference

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

JinHyo Joseph Yun

2017-08-01

Full Text Available The main topic of this paper is the effects of distance between technology and the market, on open innovation. For this, we set up two research questions, as follows: Is there any relation between the distance between technology and the market, and open innovation? If there is, what differences are there in the relation among Fortune 500 companies, non-Fortune 500 companies, laboratories, universities, and start-ups? First, this study measured the distance between technology and the market of a patent by the size of its list of references and citations. Second, the OI network among patent application subjects was described based on patent similarity. Third and most importantly, regression analyses were used to answer the research questions. The first result was that there were differences in the distance and OI among Fortune 500 firms, Fortune non-500 firms, laboratories, universities, and start-ups. Thus, there are relations between the distance between technology and the market, and open innovation. The second result was that the distance between technology and the market was found to moderate the open innovation effect in Fortune 500 companies and laboratories.

Structured Attentions for Visual Question Answering

OpenAIRE

Zhu, Chen; Zhao, Yanpeng; Huang, Shuaiyi; Tu, Kewei; Ma, Yi

2017-01-01

Visual attention, which assigns weights to image regions according to their relevance to a question, is considered as an indispensable part by most Visual Question Answering models. Although the questions may involve complex relations among multiple regions, few attention models can effectively encode such cross-region relations. In this paper, we demonstrate the importance of encoding such relations by showing the limited effective receptive field of ResNet on two datasets, and propose to mo...

Regulation of natural gas: the issue of open access; Regulacao em materia de gas natural: a questao do livre acesso

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sandes, Ingrid; Siqueira, Mariana [Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), Natal, RN (Brazil). Faculdade de Direito

2004-07-01

The present work discusses the question of the open access to the natural gas ducts, trying to show the most relevant aspects of it. Analyzing the regulation existent in Brazil and the main important characteristics of the natural gas activities, it will be tried to suggest new directions to be taken in the future. The open access it is a very important way to introduce new agents on the sector and, in that way, the discussions that try to show new aspects of it, are very relevant (author)

Public evaluation of open space in Illinois: citizen support for natural area acquisition.

Science.gov (United States)

Backlund, Erik A; Stewart, William P; McDonald, Cary; Miller, Craig

2004-11-01

Numerous studies have indicated a broad-based support for open space preservation and protection. Research also has characterized the public values and rationale that underlie the widespread support for open space. In recognition of the widespread public support for open space, various levels of government have implemented programs to provide public access to open space. There are many different types of open space, ranging from golf courses, ball parks, wildlife areas, and prairies, to name a few. This paper addresses questions related to the types of open space that should be prioritized by planners and natural resource managers. The results of this study are based on a stratified random sample of 5000 households in Illinois that were sent a questionnaire related to their support for various types of open space. Through a comparatively simple action grid analysis, the open space types that should be prioritized for public access include forest areas, stream corridors, wildlife habitat, and lakes/ponds. These were the open space types rated of the highest importance, yet were also the open space types rated the lowest in respondent satisfaction. This kind of analysis does not require the technical expertise of other options for land-use prioritizations (e.g., conjoint analysis, contingent valuation), yet provides important policy directives for planners. Although open space funds often allow for purchase of developed sites such as golf courses, ball parks, and community parks, this study indicates that undeveloped (or nature-based) open space lands are most needed in Illinois.

The open library and its enemies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bill Thompson

2014-11-01

Full Text Available In the age of electronics an open society – one in which questions can be asked, where critical thinking is not just permitted but encouraged and where investigation rather than ideology is used to seek out the truth about the world (the open society according to Karl Popper – has also to be an open data society because reusable, structured data has become the main machine for doing the heavy lifting of moving knowledge around, just as books move ideas around. An open library is one that embodies the Open Definition in its working practices, one that is available and accessible, open to all participants, and which offers services that can be freely shared. Such institutions are pillars of any open data society.

Questioning Questions: Elementary Teachers' Adaptations of Investigation Questions Across the Inquiry Continuum

Science.gov (United States)

Biggers, Mandy

2018-02-01

Questioning is a central practice in science classrooms. However, not every question translates into a "good" science investigation. Questions that drive science investigations can be provided by many sources including the teacher, the curriculum, or the student. The variations in the source of investigation questions were explored in this study. A dataset of 120 elementary science classroom videos and associated lesson plans from 40 elementary teachers (K-5) across 21 elementary school campuses were scored on an instrument measuring the amount of teacher-direction or student-direction of the lessons' investigation questions. Results indicated that the investigation questions were overwhelmingly teacher directed in nature, with no opportunities for students to develop their own questions for investigation. This study has implications for researchers and practitioners alike, calling attention to the teacher-directed nature of investigation questions in existing science curriculum materials, and the need for teacher training in instructional strategies to adapt their existing curriculum materials across the continuum of teacher-directed and student-directed investigation questions. Teachers need strategies for adapting the teacher-directed questions provided in their existing curriculum materials in order to allow students the opportunity to engage in this essential scientific practice.

Origins of Life: Open Questions and Debates

Science.gov (United States)

Brack, André

2017-10-01

Stanley Miller demonstrated in 1953 that it was possible to form amino acids from methane, ammonia, and hydrogen in water, thus launching the ambitious hope that chemists would be able to shed light on the origins of life by recreating a simple life form in a test tube. However, it must be acknowledged that the dream has not yet been accomplished, despite the great volume of effort and innovation put forward by the scientific community. A minima, primitive life can be defined as an open chemical system, fed with matter and energy, capable of self-reproduction (i.e., making more of itself by itself), and also capable of evolving. The concept of evolution implies that chemical systems would transfer their information fairly faithfully but make some random errors. If we compared the components of primitive life to parts of a chemical automaton, we could conceive that, by chance, some parts self-assembled to generate an automaton capable of assembling other parts to produce a true copy. Sometimes, minor errors in the building generated a more efficient automaton, which then became the dominant species. Quite different scenarios and routes have been followed and tested in the laboratory to explain the origin of life. There are two schools of thought in proposing the prebiotic supply of organics. The proponents of a metabolism-first call for the spontaneous formation of simple molecules from carbon dioxide and water to rapidly generate life. In a second hypothesis, the primeval soup scenario, it is proposed that rather complex organic molecules accumulated in a warm little pond prior to the emergence of life. The proponents of the primeval soup or replication first approach are by far the more active. They succeeded in reconstructing small-scale versions of proteins, membranes, and RNA. Quite different scenarios have been proposed for the inception of life: the RNA world, an origin within droplets, self-organization counteracting entropy, or a stochastic approach merging

Peeling or not peeling—is that the question?

Science.gov (United States)

Friedrich, Helmut

2018-04-01

The concepts of isolated self-gravitating system, asymptotic flatness and asymptotic simplicity are reconsidered; various related results are discussed and put into perspective; basic open questions are discussed. Extended version of a talk given at the symposium honoring Piotr T Chruściel on the occasion of his 60th birthday, 17–18 August 2017.

Guided Discovery with Socratic Questioning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Hakan Türkçapar

2015-04-01

Full Text Available “The Socratic method” is a way of teaching philosophical thinking and knowledge by asking questions. It was first used by in ancient times by the Greek philosopher Socrates who taught his followers by asking questions; these conversations between them are known as “Socratic dialogues”. In this methodology, no new knowledge is taught to the individual; rather, the individual is guided to remember and rediscover what was formerly known through this process. The main method used in cognitive therapy is guided discovery. There are various methods of guided discovery in cognitive therapy. The form of verbal exchange between the therapist and client which is used during the process of cognitive behavioral therapy is known as “socratic questioning”. In this method the goal is to make the client rediscover, with a series of questions, a piece of knowledge which he could otherwise know but is not presently conscious of. The Socratic Questioning consists of several steps, including: identifying the problem by listening to the client and making reflections, finding alternatives by examining and evaluating, reidentification by using the newly rediscovered information and questioning the old distorted belief, and reaching a new conclusion and applying it. Question types used during these procedures are: questions for collecting information, questions revealing meanings, questions revealing beliefs, questions about behaviours during similar past experiences, analytic questions and analytic synthesis questions. In order to make the patient feel understood, it is important to be empathetic and summarize the problem during the interview. In this text, steps of Socratic Questioning-Guided Discovery will be reviewed with sample dialogues provided for each step. [JCBPR 2015; 4(1.000: 47-53

The Value Question in Metaphysics

Science.gov (United States)

Kahane, Guy

2012-01-01

Much seems to be at stake in metaphysical questions about, for example, God, free will or morality. One thing that could be at stake is the value of the universe we inhabit—how good or bad it is. We can think of competing philosophical positions as describing possibilities, ways the world might turn out to be, and to which value can be assigned. When, for example, people hope that God exists, or fear that we do not possess free will, they express attitudes towards these possibilities, attitudes that presuppose answers to questions about their comparative value. My aim in this paper is to distinguish these evaluative questions from related questions with which they can be confused, to identify structural constraints on their proper pursuit, and to address objections to their very coherence. Answers to such evaluative questions offer one measure of the importance of philosophical disputes. PMID:23024399

The Value Question in Metaphysics.

Science.gov (United States)

Kahane, Guy

2012-07-01

Much seems to be at stake in metaphysical questions about, for example, God, free will or morality. One thing that could be at stake is the value of the universe we inhabit-how good or bad it is. We can think of competing philosophical positions as describing possibilities, ways the world might turn out to be, and to which value can be assigned. When, for example, people hope that God exists, or fear that we do not possess free will, they express attitudes towards these possibilities, attitudes that presuppose answers to questions about their comparative value. My aim in this paper is to distinguish these evaluative questions from related questions with which they can be confused, to identify structural constraints on their proper pursuit, and to address objections to their very coherence. Answers to such evaluative questions offer one measure of the importance of philosophical disputes.

Radiological skull diagnosing - questions of the neurosurgeon to the radiologist

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fahlbusch, R.; Hamburger, C.; Ringel, K.

1982-01-01

A well-adjusted overall picture of the skull is very important to the neurosurgeon for diagnosis and therapy. Without an overall picture of the skull the neurosurgeon is hardly likely to begin a trepanation. There are, however, still same questions open in radiological diagnostics. A solution of the problem might be offered soon by computerized radiography which might even replace the conventional X-ray examination of the skull. The radiological CT-total skeletal examination of polytraumatised patients, which can be carried out in 30 seconds by modern CT equipment makes it possible to also obtain overall pictures of the skull and the upper cervical vertebral column. An advantage in addition to the fast information is the significant reduction of the radiation exposure in comparison to conventional methods. (orig./APR) [de

The Importance of Building and Maintaining Trust in Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug Education Classrooms and Hurdles to Open Communication

Science.gov (United States)

deKoven, Aram

2007-01-01

This research examines the importance of trust in the classroom, and answers the following questions: 1) is trust important to create and maintain in the classroom? 2) What is the significance of trust between a teacher and a student, and 3) do students trust their drug and alcohol educators? In-depth interviews were conducted with 38 middle…

Open innovation : State of the art and future perspectives

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Huizingh, K.R.E.

Open innovation has become one of the hottest topics in innovation management. This article intends to explore the limits in our understanding of the open innovation concept. In doing so, I address the questions of what (the content of open innovation), when (the context dependency) and how (the

The Growth of open source: A look at how companies are utilizing open source software in their business models

OpenAIRE

Feare, David

2009-01-01

This paper examines how open source software is being incorporated into the business models of companies in the software industry. The goal is to answer the question of whether the open source model can help sustain economic growth. While some companies are able to maintain a "pure" open source approach with their business model, the reality is that most companies are relying on proprietary add-on value in order to generate revenue because open source itself is simply not big business. Ultima...

Rating the Quality of Open Textbooks: How Reviewer and Text Characteristics Predict Ratings

Science.gov (United States)

Fischer, Lane; Ernst, David; Mason, Stacie

2017-01-01

Using data collected from peer reviews for Open Textbook Library titles, this paper explores questions about rating the quality of open textbooks. The five research questions addressed the relationship between textbook and reviewer characteristics and ratings. Although reviewers gave textbooks high ratings generally, reviewers identified…

Metaphors of Open Innovation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Marien van den Boom

2010-01-01

In this paper we turn to the field of innovation management and the use of metaphors to address the question: what kind of alternative metaphors and narratives have some open-innovation organizations introduced highlighting and fostering knowledge-intensive organizational change? First we draw a

Problem-solving activities in Biology for Open University students [poster session

OpenAIRE

Ash, P.; Robinson, D.

2006-01-01

Problem-based learning is a valuable tool for enhancing student learning and for providing remedial help in grasping difficult concepts in Biology. Most teaching at the Open University is by course texts, DVDs and television. Teaching material is written by academics and\\ud expert consultants. An important feature of the material is that it includes interactive in-text and self-assessed questions, and also activities which may be home experiments or computer-based.\\ud Students are provided wi...

The seismo-hydromechanical behavior during deep geothermal reservoir stimulations: open questions tackled in a decameter-scale in situ stimulation experiment

Science.gov (United States)

Amann, Florian; Gischig, Valentin; Evans, Keith; Doetsch, Joseph; Jalali, Reza; Valley, Benoît; Krietsch, Hannes; Dutler, Nathan; Villiger, Linus; Brixel, Bernard; Klepikova, Maria; Kittilä, Anniina; Madonna, Claudio; Wiemer, Stefan; Saar, Martin O.; Loew, Simon; Driesner, Thomas; Maurer, Hansruedi; Giardini, Domenico

2018-02-01

In this contribution, we present a review of scientific research results that address seismo-hydromechanically coupled processes relevant for the development of a sustainable heat exchanger in low-permeability crystalline rock and introduce the design of the In situ Stimulation and Circulation (ISC) experiment at the Grimsel Test Site dedicated to studying such processes under controlled conditions. The review shows that research on reservoir stimulation for deep geothermal energy exploitation has been largely based on laboratory observations, large-scale projects and numerical models. Observations of full-scale reservoir stimulations have yielded important results. However, the limited access to the reservoir and limitations in the control on the experimental conditions during deep reservoir stimulations is insufficient to resolve the details of the hydromechanical processes that would enhance process understanding in a way that aids future stimulation design. Small-scale laboratory experiments provide fundamental insights into various processes relevant for enhanced geothermal energy, but suffer from (1) difficulties and uncertainties in upscaling the results to the field scale and (2) relatively homogeneous material and stress conditions that lead to an oversimplistic fracture flow and/or hydraulic fracture propagation behavior that is not representative of a heterogeneous reservoir. Thus, there is a need for intermediate-scale hydraulic stimulation experiments with high experimental control that bridge the various scales and for which access to the target rock mass with a comprehensive monitoring system is possible. The ISC experiment is designed to address open research questions in a naturally fractured and faulted crystalline rock mass at the Grimsel Test Site (Switzerland). Two hydraulic injection phases were executed to enhance the permeability of the rock mass. During the injection phases the rock mass deformation across fractures and within intact rock

How Good is OpenMP

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Timothy G. Mattson

2003-01-01

Full Text Available The OpenMP standard defines an Application Programming Interface (API for shared memory computers. Since its introduction in 1997, it has grown to become one of the most commonly used API's for parallel programming. But success in the market doesn't necessarily imply successful computer science. Is OpenMP a "good" programming environment? What does it even mean to call a programming environment good? And finally, once we understand how good or bad OpenMP is; what can we do to make it even better? In this paper, we will address these questions.

"Open" Philosophy or Down the Rabbit Hole?

Science.gov (United States)

Bowman, Wayne

2017-01-01

In this essay, I challenge the open-closed dualism at the heart of Allsup's project and question the very possibility of an "open" philosophy. I propose an account of music, musical instruction, and philosophy as ethically guided practices, discussing a number of practical and philosophical consequences that follow from such a view.

Identifying Business Barriers and Enablers for the Adoption of Open Source Software

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Holck, Jesper; Holm Larsen, Michael; Pedersen, Mogens Kuhn

2004-01-01

The main research interest in Open Source Software (OSS) has been in answering the questions of why individuals and organizations without economic compensation contribute to OSS projects and how these projects are organized. In this paper we instead focus on managerial decisions for acquisition...... models for these relationships is an important challenge, which we will deal with in a research project, of which this paper should be seen as a first step....

Open Genetic Code: on open source in the life sciences.

Science.gov (United States)

Deibel, Eric

2014-01-01

The introduction of open source in the life sciences is increasingly being suggested as an alternative to patenting. This is an alternative, however, that takes its shape at the intersection of the life sciences and informatics. Numerous examples can be identified wherein open source in the life sciences refers to access, sharing and collaboration as informatic practices. This includes open source as an experimental model and as a more sophisticated approach of genetic engineering. The first section discusses the greater flexibly in regard of patenting and the relationship to the introduction of open source in the life sciences. The main argument is that the ownership of knowledge in the life sciences should be reconsidered in the context of the centrality of DNA in informatic formats. This is illustrated by discussing a range of examples of open source models. The second part focuses on open source in synthetic biology as exemplary for the re-materialization of information into food, energy, medicine and so forth. The paper ends by raising the question whether another kind of alternative might be possible: one that looks at open source as a model for an alternative to the commodification of life that is understood as an attempt to comprehensively remove the restrictions from the usage of DNA in any of its formats.

Concept mapping improves academic performance in problem solving questions in biochemistry subject.

Science.gov (United States)

Baig, Mukhtiar; Tariq, Saba; Rehman, Rehana; Ali, Sobia; Gazzaz, Zohair J

2016-01-01

To assess the effectiveness of concept mapping (CM) on the academic performance of medical students' in problem-solving as well as in declarative knowledge questions and their perception regarding CM. The present analytical and questionnaire-based study was carried out at Bahria University Medical and Dental College (BUMDC), Karachi, Pakistan. In this analytical study, students were assessed with problem-solving questions (A-type MCQs), and declarative knowledge questions (short essay questions), and 50% of the questions were from the topics learned by CM. Students also filled a 10-item, 3-point Likert scale questionnaire about their perception regarding the effectiveness of the CM approach, and two open-ended questions were also asked. There was a significant difference in the marks obtained in those problem-solving questions, which were learned by CM as compared to those topics which were taught by the traditional lectures (pacademic performance in problem solving but not in declarative knowledge questions. Students' perception about the effectiveness of CM was overwhelmingly positive.

A Framework for Open Textbooks Analytics System

Science.gov (United States)

Prasad, Deepak; Totaram, Rajneel; Usagawa, Tsuyoshi

2016-01-01

In the last few years, open textbook development has picked up dramatically due both to the expense of commercially published textbooks and the increasing availability of high-quality OER alternatives. While this offers a tremendous benefit in terms of lowering student textbook costs, the question remains, to what extent (if any) do open textbooks…

Choosing Open Source ERP Systems: What Reasons Are There For Doing So?

Science.gov (United States)

Johansson, Björn; Sudzina, Frantisek

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems attract a high attention and open source software does it as well. The question is then if, and if so, when do open source ERP systems take off. The paper describes the status of open source ERP systems. Based on literature review of ERP system selection criteria based on Web of Science articles, it discusses reported reasons for choosing open source or proprietary ERP systems. Last but not least, the article presents some conclusions that could act as input for future research. The paper aims at building up a foundation for the basic question: What are the reasons for an organization to adopt open source ERP systems.

INDUSTRIAL CONTROL SYSTEM CYBER SECURITY: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS RELEVANT TO NUCLEAR FACILITIES, SAFEGUARDS AND SECURITY

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Robert S. Anderson; Mark Schanfein; Trond Bjornard; Paul Moskowitz

2011-07-01

Typical questions surrounding industrial control system (ICS) cyber security always lead back to: What could a cyber attack do to my system(s) and; how much should I worry about it? These two leading questions represent only a fraction of questions asked when discussing cyber security as it applies to any program, company, business, or organization. The intent of this paper is to open a dialog of important pertinent questions and answers that managers of nuclear facilities engaged in nuclear facility security and safeguards should examine, i.e., what questions should be asked; and how do the answers affect an organization's ability to effectively safeguard and secure nuclear material. When a cyber intrusion is reported, what does that mean? Can an intrusion be detected or go un-noticed? Are nuclear security or safeguards systems potentially vulnerable? What about the digital systems employed in process monitoring, and international safeguards? Organizations expend considerable efforts to ensure that their facilities can maintain continuity of operations against physical threats. However, cyber threats particularly on ICSs may not be well known or understood, and often do not receive adequate attention. With the disclosure of the Stuxnet virus that has recently attacked nuclear infrastructure, many organizations have recognized the need for an urgent interest in cyber attacks and defenses against them. Several questions arise including discussions about the insider threat, adequate cyber protections, program readiness, encryption, and many more. These questions, among others, are discussed so as to raise the awareness and shed light on ways to protect nuclear facilities and materials against such attacks.

Industrial Control System Cyber Security: Questions And Answers Relevant To Nuclear Facilities, Safeguards And Security

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anderson, Robert S.; Schanfein, Mark; Bjornard, Trond; Moskowitz, Paul

2011-01-01

Typical questions surrounding industrial control system (ICS) cyber security always lead back to: What could a cyber attack do to my system(s) and; how much should I worry about it? These two leading questions represent only a fraction of questions asked when discussing cyber security as it applies to any program, company, business, or organization. The intent of this paper is to open a dialog of important pertinent questions and answers that managers of nuclear facilities engaged in nuclear facility security and safeguards should examine, i.e., what questions should be asked; and how do the answers affect an organization's ability to effectively safeguard and secure nuclear material. When a cyber intrusion is reported, what does that mean? Can an intrusion be detected or go un-noticed? Are nuclear security or safeguards systems potentially vulnerable? What about the digital systems employed in process monitoring, and international safeguards? Organizations expend considerable efforts to ensure that their facilities can maintain continuity of operations against physical threats. However, cyber threats particularly on ICSs may not be well known or understood, and often do not receive adequate attention. With the disclosure of the Stuxnet virus that has recently attacked nuclear infrastructure, many organizations have recognized the need for an urgent interest in cyber attacks and defenses against them. Several questions arise including discussions about the insider threat, adequate cyber protections, program readiness, encryption, and many more. These questions, among others, are discussed so as to raise the awareness and shed light on ways to protect nuclear facilities and materials against such attacks.

Student teachers’ mathematical questioning and courage in metaphorical thinking learning

Science.gov (United States)

Hendriana, H.; Hidayat, W.; Ristiana, M. G.

2018-01-01

This study was designed in the form of experiments with control group design and post-test only which aimed to examine the role of metaphorical thinking learning in the mathematical questioning ability of student teachers based on the level of mathematical courage. The population of this study was student teachers of mathematics education study program in West Java Province, while the sample of this study was 152 student teachers which were set purposively and then randomly to be included in the experimental class and control class. Based on the results and discussion, it was concluded that: (a) the mathematical questioning ability of student teachers who received Metaphorical Thinking learning was better than those who received conventional learning seen from mathematical courage level; (b) learning and mathematical courage level factors affected the achievement of student teachers’ mathematical questioning ability. In addition, there was no interaction effect between learning and mathematical courage level (high, medium, and low) simultaneously in developing student teachers’ mathematical questioning ability; (c) achievement of mastering mathematical questioning ability of student teacher was still not well achieved on indicator of problem posing in the form of non-routine question and open question.

Close connections between open science and open-source software

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

YouHua Chen

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Open science is increasingly gaining attention in recent years. In this mini-review, we briefly discuss and summarize the reasons of introducing open science into academic publications for scientists. We argue that open-source software (like R and Python software can be the universal and important platforms for doing open science because of their appealing features: open source, easy-reading document, commonly used in various scientific disciplines like statistics, chemistry and biology. At last, the challenges and future perspectives of performing open science are discussed.

Questioning Questions: Elementary Teachers' Adaptations of Investigation Questions across the Inquiry Continuum

Science.gov (United States)

Biggers, Mandy

2018-01-01

Questioning is a central practice in science classrooms. However, not every question translates into a "good" science investigation. Questions that drive science investigations can be provided by many sources including the teacher, the curriculum, or the student. The variations in the source of investigation questions were explored in…

A Technique Socratic Questioning-Guided Discovery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Hakan Türkçapar

2012-03-01

Full Text Available “Socratic Method” is a way of teaching philosophical thinking and knowledge by asking questions which was used by antique period greek philosopher Socrates. Socrates was teaching knowledge to his followers by asking questions and the conversation between them was named “Socratic Dialogues”. In this meaning, no novel knowledge is taught to the individual but only what is formerly known is reminded and rediscovered. The form of socratic questioning which is used during the process of cognitive behavioral therapy is known as Guided Discovery. In this method it is aimed to make the client notice the piece of knowledge which he could notice but is not aware with a series of questions. Socratic method or guided discovery consists of several steps which are: Identifying the problem by listening to the client and making reflections, finding alternatives by examining and evaluating, reidentification by using the newly found information and questioning the old distorted belief and reaching to a conclusion and applying it. Question types used during these procedures are, questions for gaining information, questions revealing the meanings, questions revealing the beliefs, questions about behaviours during the similar past experiences, analyse questions and analytic synthesis questions. In order to make the patient feel understood it is important to be empathetic and summarising the problem during the interview. In this text, steps of Socratic Questioning-Guided Discovery will be reviewed with sample dialogues after each step

Open Access and ORCID poster presentation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Elbæk, Mikael Karstensen; Ekstrøm, Jeannette

2014-01-01

and related topics such as copyright, DTU Orbit, Open Access journals, APCs, Vouchers etc. ORCID ORCID – Open Research & Contributor ID – is an internationally recognized and widely used researcher-ID. ORCID makes it easy to reuse your data across disciplines, publishers and databases – all you need to do......Open Access Open Access is high on the agenda in Denmark and internationally. Denmark has announced a national strategy for Open Access that aims to achieve Open Access to 80% in 2017 and 100% in 2022 to peer review research articles. All public Danish funders as well as H2020 requires that all...... peer review articles that is an outcome of their funding will be Open Access. Uploading your full texts (your final author manuscript after review ) to DTU Orbit is a fundamental part of providing Open Access to your research. We are here to answer all your questions with regards to Open Access...

Open innovations, innovation communities and firm's innovative activities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Getejanc Vesna

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The open innovation paradigm emphasizes the fact that firms can improve their performance by opening their business models and reduce their R&D costs by effective incorporation of external knowledge. In other words, companies are able to capture value through knowledge that exists outside the boundaries of their organization. The shift from closed to open model of innovation has imposed the necessity to adopt more open approach to innovation within traditional academic view of business strategy. The adoption of this innovative approach is emphasized even more, by the necessity for stronger connection and cooperation among the participants of the innovation process. Free will and collaboration are the main characteristics of open source software, which is recognized in literature as the role model of open innovation and is a rapidly growing method of technology development. Furthermore, innovative communities represent a great opportunity for improvement of the companies' innovation activities, since they have become an important source for identifying the needs and problems of the users. Their development has been fostered by information technologies and recent social changes in user behavior. Recognizing and better understanding the motivation of the members of the innovation communities that guide them to participate in the process of idea generation, can have significant influence on their incorporation within the innovation process. Equally important is to define the incentives that are suited for stimulating and fostering innovative user activities. Taking this topic in consideration, the purpose of this article is to address the following questions: In what way does the collaboration in open source software projects have positive effect on companies' innovation performance? What are the innovation communities and how can companies establish successful interaction with them? Why does the interaction with innovation communities lead to

Rhetorical questions or rhetorical uses of questions?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Špago Džemal

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This paper aims to explore whether some rhetorical questions contain certain linguistic elements or forms which would differentiate them from answer-eliciting and action-eliciting questions, and thereby hint at their rhetorical nature even outside the context. Namely, despite the fact that the same questions can be rhetorical in one context, and answer-eliciting in another, some of them are more likely to be associated with rhetorical or non-rhetorical use. The analysis is based on extensive data (over 1200 examples of rhetorical questions taken from 30 plays by two British and two American writers, and the results are expected to give an insight into whether we can talk about rhetorical questions or just a rhetorical use of questions.

Means of Question-Answer Interaction for Collaborative Development Activity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Petr Sosnin

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The key problem of successful developing of the software intensive system (SIS is adequate conceptual interactions of stakeholders at the early stages of designing. Nowadays the success of development is extremely low. It can be increased with using artificial intelligence (AI means including models of reasoning supported by the human-computer interaction in collaborative development activity. In this paper, a number of question-answer means for modeling reasoning are suggested. Such kind of means is defined and implemented in order to get effects of integrating the collective reasoning for their positive influence on the intellectual activity of designers. Question-answer means are arranged as a specialized processor opening the possibility to question-answer programming of the tasks on the conceptual stage of designing. Suggested and investigated means can be used for solving any complicated task.

The Question Concerning Thinking

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Riis, Søren

2008-01-01

Martin Heidegger's thought-provoking essay "The Question Concerning Technology" (1977a) placed technology at the heart of philosophy. Heidegger tried to show that the essence of technology provokes humans to think about the world in a very dangerous way. Yet if we follow Heidegger's analysis...... of technology, what role does that ascribe to philosophy? To be able to understand the programmatic scope of Heidegger's question ‘concerning' technology, we need to see it as inseparable from his famous thesis about the end of philosophy (1977c) and what he considers to be the ideal kind of thinking. However......, by doing so, we will in the end realize two important things. First, that Heidegger's declaration of the end of philosophy in fact also means the end of anything we can meaningfully call thinking. Second, that Heidegger's own thinking is completely different from his own ideal of thinking. Our question...

Open Access Publishing in the Field of Medical Informatics.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuballa, Stefanie

2017-05-01

The open access paradigm has become an important approach in today's information and communication society. Funders and governments in different countries stipulate open access publications of funded research results. Medical informatics as part of the science, technology and medicine disciplines benefits from many research funds, such as National Institutes of Health in the US, Wellcome Trust in UK, German Research Foundation in Germany and many more. In this study an overview of the current open access programs and conditions of major journals in the field of medical informatics is presented. It was investigated whether there are suitable options and how they are shaped. Therefore all journals in Thomson Reuters Web of Science that were listed in the subject category "Medical Informatics" in 2014 were examined. An Internet research was conducted by investigating the journals' websites. It was reviewed whether journals offer an open access option with a subsequent check of conditions as for example the type of open access, the fees and the licensing. As a result all journals in the field of medical informatics that had an impact factor in 2014 offer an open access option. A predominantly consistent pricing range was determined with an average fee of 2.248 € and a median fee of 2.207 €. The height of a journals' open access fee did not correlate with the height of its Impact Factor. Hence, medical informatics journals have recognized the trend of open access publishing, though the vast majority of them are working with the hybrid method. Hybrid open access may however lead to problems in questions of double dipping and the often stipulated gold open access.

Opening the electricity market - the Swiss Confederation's perspectives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Steinmann, W.

2002-01-01

This article discusses the possibilities offered by the opening of the Swiss electricity market in the European context. The importance of appropriate legislation that would enable Switzerland to actively take part in the shaping of a Europe-wide electricity market is stressed. Measures to be considered such as those in the areas of third-party access, tariffs, security of supply and the promotion of renewable sources of energy are discussed. Questions of public service are addressed and comparisons are made to solutions that have been implemented in other areas such as post, telecommunications and the railway system. The regulations and structures suggested in Swiss proposals for legislation are discussed in detail

Opening the door to innovation in cloud computing

OpenAIRE

Clohessy, Trevor; Acton, Thomas

2013-01-01

peer-reviewed This paper describes research-in-progress that explores the applicability and implications of cloud computing in the creation of business value through open innovation. Both the cloud computing and open innovation paradigms represent recent phenomenon and as such many unanswered questions still persist. In responding to this research gap we propose a new value creation framework which is based on a review of the literature on cloud computing, innovation, open innovation and v...

Beauty from the beast: Avoiding errors in responding to client questions.

Science.gov (United States)

Waehler, Charles A; Grandy, Natalie M

2016-09-01

Those rare moments when clients ask direct questions of their therapists likely represent a point when they are particularly open to new considerations, thereby representing an opportunity for substantial therapeutic gains. However, clinical errors abound in this area because clients' questions often engender apprehension in therapists, causing therapists to respond with too little or too much information or shutting down the discussion prematurely. These response types can damage the therapeutic relationship, the psychotherapy process, or both. We explore the nature of these clinical errors in response to client questions by providing examples from our own clinical work, suggesting potential reasons why clinicians may not make optimal use of client questions, and discussing how the mixed psychological literature further complicates the issue. We also present four guidelines designed to help therapists, trainers, and supervisors respond constructively to clinical questions in order to create constructive interactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Evaluating the assessment of essay type questions in the basic ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Methodology: We examined the merits and demerits of the closed and open systems of assessment of essay type questions and viva voce in professional exams in the Basic Medical Sciences together with the challenges of present day Medical Education. Result: The result showed that the closed system of marking in its ...

Postsecondary Education Issues: Visible Questions. Invisible Answers.

Science.gov (United States)

Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, Boulder, CO. National Center for Higher Education Management Systems.

With some justification, the inability to answer most of the important questions in higher education is due to the lack of necessary information. But careful examination of our many faceted questions suggests that more information may not be the only answer. The National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS) has found other…

Convergent validity between a discrete choice experiment and a direct, open-ended method: comparison of preferred attribute levels and willingness to pay estimates.

Science.gov (United States)

Marjon van der Pol; Shiell, Alan; Au, Flora; Johnston, David; Tough, Suzanne

2008-12-01

The Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) has become increasingly popular as a method for eliciting patient or population preferences. If DCE estimates are to inform health policy, it is crucial that the answers they provide are valid. Convergent validity is tested in this paper by comparing the results of a DCE exercise with the answers obtained from direct, open-ended questions. The two methods are compared in terms of preferred attribute levels and willingness to pay (WTP) values. Face-to-face interviews were held with 292 women in Calgary, Canada. Similar values were found between the two methods with respect to preferred levels for two out of three of the attributes examined. The DCE predicted less well for levels outside the range than for levels inside the range reaffirming the importance of extensive piloting to ensure appropriate level range in DCEs. The mean WTP derived from the open-ended question was substantially lower than the mean derived from the DCE. However, the two sets of willingness to pay estimates were consistent with each other in that individuals who were willing to pay more in the open-ended question were also willing to pay more in the DCE. The difference in mean WTP values between the two approaches (direct versus DCE) demonstrates the importance of continuing research into the different biases present across elicitation methods.

Queer and Feminist Futures: The Importance of a Future and Mobilising Feminist Film in Post Times

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jasmina Šepetavc

2017-05-01

Full Text Available This article is concerned with alternative notions of temporality, specifically with alternative imaginings of the future that are important now more than ever. We try to deconstruct the politics of teleologically ordained linear temporalities which can function – if not questioned – as some sort of repetition without any real difference, through conceptualizing time ruptures and intervals, which would open up important ways of thinking about potentialities of the new. We attempt to think about time and the future through queer and Deleuzian feminist film theory, specifically the feminist film Born in Flames. We argue that cinema affects us, opens us up to thinking about potentialities of the new, futurity and new ways of connecting (new forms of communities, and therefore holds crucial transformative potential.

Inflammatory response and cardioprotection during open-heart surgery: the importance of anaesthetics.

Science.gov (United States)

Suleiman, M-S; Zacharowski, K; Angelini, G D

2008-01-01

Open-heart surgery triggers an inflammatory response that is largely the result of surgical trauma, cardiopulmonary bypass, and organ reperfusion injury (e.g. heart). The heart sustains injury triggered by ischaemia and reperfusion and also as a result of the effects of systemic inflammatory mediators. In addition, the heart itself is a source of inflammatory mediators and reactive oxygen species that are likely to contribute to the impairment of cardiac pump function. Formulating strategies to protect the heart during open heart surgery by attenuating reperfusion injury and systemic inflammatory response is essential to reduce morbidity. Although many anaesthetic drugs have cardioprotective actions, the diversity of the proposed mechanisms for protection (e.g. attenuating Ca(2+) overload, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, pre- and post-conditioning-like protection) may have contributed to the slow adoption of anaesthetics as cardioprotective agents during open heart surgery. Clinical trials have suggested at least some cardioprotective effects of volatile anaesthetics. Whether these benefits are relevant in terms of morbidity and mortality is unclear and needs further investigation. This review describes the main mediators of myocardial injury during open heart surgery, explores available evidence of anaesthetics induced cardioprotection and addresses the efforts made to translate bench work into clinical practice.

Taking Open Innovation to the Molecular Level - Strengths and Limitations.

Science.gov (United States)

Zdrazil, Barbara; Blomberg, Niklas; Ecker, Gerhard F

2012-08-01

The ever-growing availability of large-scale open data and its maturation is having a significant impact on industrial drug-discovery, as well as on academic and non-profit research. As industry is changing to an 'open innovation' business concept, precompetitive initiatives and strong public-private partnerships including academic research cooperation partners are gaining more and more importance. Now, the bioinformatics and cheminformatics communities are seeking for web tools which allow the integration of this large volume of life science datasets available in the public domain. Such a data exploitation tool would ideally be able to answer complex biological questions by formulating only one search query. In this short review/perspective, we outline the use of semantic web approaches for data and knowledge integration. Further, we discuss strengths and current limitations of public available data retrieval tools and integrated platforms.

Questioning As a Pedagogical Tool for Eliciting Student Generated Questions During the Teaching of Acid-base Equilibria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ayoade Ejiwale Okanlawon

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Traditionally, teachers simply taught problem-solving by explaining the worked-out examples taken from textbooks and students were expected to listen quietly, copy the solution to the problem, and then work independently at their desks. But a large body of research notes that guiding students to develop a solution pathway with questioning is more effective than simply explaining the sequence of steps to solve the problem. Students involved in question- and-answer sessions are more attentive than those who listen passively to teacher explanations and they are more likely to generate questions. The questions students ask during a lesson perform a number of important functions, including providing the teacher with valuable information about students’ understanding and misunderstanding, fostering self-regulation, inviting classroom discussions and aiding comprehension of contents presented. The skill of posing questions during classroom instruction is often under-valued and under taught in today’s classrooms. To encourage students to ask quality and thought provoking questions related to the contents taught, explicit instruction is required. This paper, therefore, qualitatively reports factors that foster student generated questions during the problem-solving instruction involving acid-base titration problem.

Questioning care at the end of life.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruopp, Patricia; Good, Mary-Jo Delvecchio; Lakoma, Matthew; Gadmer, Nina M; Arnold, Robert M; Block, Susan D

2005-06-01

The goal of the larger study was to explore physicians' emotional responses to the death of their patients; this study analyzed a subset of physician transcripts to elucidate the construct of questioning care, which emerged from the larger study. To analyzes how physicians question care-expressing concern, unease, or uncertainty about treatment decisions and practices, errors, or adverse events-as they attend dying patients. Retrospective interview study of physicians caring for randomly selected deaths on the medical service of a major academic teaching hospital, using qualitative and quantitative measures. SETTING, SUBJECTS: 188 attendings, residents, and interns on the internal medical services of two academic medical centers were part of the larger study. A subsample of 75 physician narratives was selected for qualitative data analysis for this study. Qualitative measures included open-ended questions eliciting physicians' stories of the most recent and a most emotionally powerful patient death they have experienced. Grounded theory was used to analyze physician narratives. Quantitative instruments measured physician attitudes toward end-of-life care and responses to the most recent and most emotional patient death. Physicians question care more frequently in most emotional deaths (42%) than in most recent deaths (34%). Physicians question communication with patients and families and within medical teams, medical judgment and technique, standards of practice, and high-risk treatments, often assigning responsibility for medical management they perceive as inappropriate, futile, overly aggressive, or mistakes in judgment and technique. Responsibility ranges from the distal (the culture of medicine) to the proximal (personal). Frustration, guilt, and anger are more frequently expressed in these narratives when care is questioned. A typology of questioning care emerged from these physicians' narratives that parallels and reflects recent and classic research on

Can we share questions? Performance of questions from different question banks in a single medical school.

Science.gov (United States)

Freeman, Adrian; Nicholls, Anthony; Ricketts, Chris; Coombes, Lee

2010-01-01

To use progress testing, a large bank of questions is required, particularly when planning to deliver tests over a long period of time. The questions need not only to be of good quality but also balanced in subject coverage across the curriculum to allow appropriate sampling. Hence as well as creating its own questions, an institution could share questions. Both methods allow ownership and structuring of the test appropriate to the educational requirements of the institution. Peninsula Medical School (PMS) has developed a mechanism to validate questions written in house. That mechanism can be adapted to utilise questions from an International question bank International Digital Electronic Access Library (IDEAL) and another UK-based question bank Universities Medical Assessment Partnership (UMAP). These questions have been used in our progress tests and analysed for relative performance. Data are presented to show that questions from differing sources can have comparable performance in a progress testing format. There are difficulties in transferring questions from one institution to another. These include problems of curricula and cultural differences. Whilst many of these difficulties exist, our experience suggests that it only requires a relatively small amount of work to adapt questions from external question banks for effective use. The longitudinal aspect of progress testing (albeit summatively) may allow more flexibility in question usage than single high stakes exams.

Opening remarks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kyd, D.R.

1993-11-01

In his opening remarks Mr. David R. Kyd briefly described the IAEA mission. Then he outlined main aim of the seminar which is bring together journalists, educators, officials and other specialists to let them hear and put questions to experts on various aspects of nuclear energy and techniques. Further he analyzed problems and prospects of energy development in Asia and particularly in China, including environmental considerations. The final part of the remarks was devoted comparative evaluation of different energy production technologies

The Economics of Technology Sharing: Open Source and Beyond

OpenAIRE

Josh Lerner; Jean Tirole

2004-01-01

This paper reviews our understanding of the growing open source movement. We highlight how many aspects of open source software appear initially puzzling to an economist. As we have acknowledged, our ability to answer confidently many of the issues raised here questions is likely to increase as the open source movement itself grows and evolves. At the same time, it is heartening to us how much of open source activities can be understood within existing economic frameworks, despite the presenc...

Is Open Education a revolution or are MOOCs only marketing instruments?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stracke, Christian M.

2017-01-01

This paper presents the current status of Open Education and MOOCs as the main instruments and drivers in the publicity. The evolution from e-Learning towards MOOCs and Open Education is introduced as basis to discuss the main question of this paper: Is Open Education a revolution or are MOOCs only

Open Innovation at the Root of Entrepreneurial Strategy: A Case from the Norwegian Oil Industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tatiana Iakovleva

2013-04-01

Full Text Available This article aims to extend the discussion about entrepreneurial strategies of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs by including the concept of open innovation. How can SMEs overcome the challenges of resource scarcity and harsh competition? How they can gain competitive advantage in today’s ever-changing business environment? The answer to both of these questions might be through open innovation: collaborating with researchers, customers, suppliers – even competitors – as well as research institutions and universities. A common barrier to open innovation in an SME is the perception that it will be too time consuming to gain access to a knowledge base of external knowledge providers and link to “gatekeepers” of knowledge. However, an entrepreneurial mindset might help SMEs to move toward an open-innovation approach, where more codified and transferrable knowledge are important. This article discusses the implications of an entrepreneurial focus for open-innovation activities. The usefulness of the open-innovation principles are highlighted through a case study of an Norwegian SME operating in the maritime-oil industry.

OpenADR Open Source Toolkit: Developing Open Source Software for the Smart Grid

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McParland, Charles

2011-02-01

Demand response (DR) is becoming an increasingly important part of power grid planning and operation. The advent of the Smart Grid, which mandates its use, further motivates selection and development of suitable software protocols to enable DR functionality. The OpenADR protocol has been developed and is being standardized to serve this goal. We believe that the development of a distributable, open source implementation of OpenADR will benefit this effort and motivate critical evaluation of its capabilities, by the wider community, for providing wide-scale DR services

Enabling FAIR and Open Data - The Importance of Communities on Influencing Change

Science.gov (United States)

Stall, S.; Lehnert, K.; Robinson, E.; Parsons, M. A.; Hanson, B.; Cutcher-Gershenfeld, J.; Nosek, B.

2017-12-01

Our research ecosystem is diverse and dependent on many interacting stakeholders that influence and support the process of science. These include funders, institutions, libraries, publishers, researchers, data managers, repositories, archives and communities. Process improvement in this ecosystem thus usually needs support by more than one of these many stakeholders. For example, mandates for open data extend across this ecosystem. Solutions require these stakeholders to come together and agree upon improvements. Recently, the value of FAIR and Open Data has encouraged funders to sponsor discussions with tangible agreements that include the steps needed to move the ecosystem towards results. Work by many of these stakeholders over the past years have developed pilot efforts that are ready to be scaled with broader engagement. A partnership of the AGU, Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP), Research Data Alliance (RDA), Center for Open Science, and key publishers including Science, Nature, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) have agreed to work together to develop integrated processes, leveraging these pilots, to make FAIR and open data the default for Earth and space science publications. This effort will build on the work of COPDESS.org, ESIP, RDA, the scientific journals, and domain repositories to ensure that well documented data, preserved in a repository with community agreed-upon metadata, and supporting persistent identifiers becomes part of the expected research products submitted in support of each publication.

Management of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) questions ampersand answers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1995-11-01

This open-quotes Management of PCBs Questions and Answersclose quotes has been developed from a presentation given by Dr. John Smith of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the transcribed question and answer session which followed the presentation. Dr. Smith was featured at the first DOE complex-wide PCB Focus Group meeting held in San Francisco, California in December 1992. The meeting was attended by representatives from field elements who were actively involved in the management of PCBs. The meeting served as a forum for the exchange of information and discussion of PCB management issues. This document has been prepared as one of several guidance documents developed by the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Policy and Assistance (EH-41) (formerly the Office of Environmental Guidance, EH-23) to assist DOE elements in their PCB management programs. This document is organized into three parts: (1) an introduction describing the conception and development of this document, (2) a summary of Dr. Smith's presentation, and (3) the question and answer session

Inferring Domain Plans in Question-Answering

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Pollack, Martha E

1986-01-01

The importance of plan inference in models of conversation has been widely noted in the computational-linguistics literature, and its incorporation in question-answering systems has enabled a range...

Theorising ageing and the question of a long life: eye openings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Simon Biggs

2015-11-01

Full Text Available A life course perspective, drawing on historical and personal experiences, is used to identify eye-opening concepts that can be used to make sense of the world in terms of personal and social ageing, in the context of intergenerational relationships. Two issues have been identified that characterise a challenge to cultural adaptation: that of generations increasingly becoming approximately the same size as they move from demographic triangles to columns, and that of finding an age-specific purpose for a long life. An analysis of contemporary problems facing gerontology and social policy is given, drawing on the need for complementary life priorities and enhanced generational intelligence. Implications for work, generational rivalry and precarity are examined along with some conclusions on the role of eyeopening conceptual development.

The Knowledge, Awareness, and Practices of Portuguese General Practitioners Regarding Multimorbidity and its Management: Qualitative Perspectives from Open-Ended Questions.

Science.gov (United States)

Prazeres, Filipe; Santiago, Luiz

2016-11-08

Multimorbidity's high prevalence and negative impact has made it a subject of worldwide interest. The main aim of this study was to access the Portuguese knowledge, awareness, and practices of general practitioners (GPs) regarding multimorbidity and its management, in order to aid in the development of interventions for improving outcomes in multimorbid patients in primary care. A web-based qualitative descriptive study was carried out in the first trimester of 2016 with primary care physicians working in two districts of the Centre region of Portugal. Open-ended questions were analysed via inductive thematic content analysis. GPs pointed out several difficulties and challenges while managing multimorbidity. Extrinsic factors were associated with the healthcare system logistics' management (consultation time, organization of care teams, clinical information) and society (media pressure, social/family support). Intrinsic factors related to the GP, patient, and physician-patient relationship were also stated. The most significant conclusion to emerge from this study is that although GPs perceived difficulties and challenges towards multimorbidity, they also have the tools to deal with them: the fundamental characteristics of family medicine. Also, the complex care required by multimorbid patients needs adequate consultation time, multidisciplinary teamwork, and more education/training.

Teacher Openness and Prosocial Motivation: Creating an Environment Where Questions Lead to Engaged Students

Science.gov (United States)

Crane, Bret D.

2017-01-01

Evidence suggests that student engagement in the classroom leads to improved learning outcomes. As a result, teachers of management have promoted ways to involve students through Socratic teaching methods, case-based pedagogy, and class discussion. These approaches to learning emphasize the use of questions to stimulate student engagement.…

Open Innovation Practice: A Case Study of University Spin-Offs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuliya Shutyak

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The paper investigates the practice of Open Innovation (OI of university spin-offs. Three interviews were conducted to discuss the knowledge of spin-offs about OI, their attitude to this innovation management strategy based on perceived advantages and disadvantages, and their motivation towards OI practice in the future. Problems with planning, control and trust appear to be some of the most important for OI success. Focusing on these and other urgent aspects of OI, the article discusses a research agenda that can help in formulating research questions and hypothesis, thus directing their efforts to search for solutions to identified problems

Gluten-related disorders: certainties, questions and doubts.

Science.gov (United States)

Valenti, Simona; Corica, Domenico; Ricciardi, Luisa; Romano, Claudio

2017-11-01

In the last decade, the ingestion of gluten, a heterogeneous complex of proteins present in wheat, rice, barley and probably in oats, has been associated with clinical disorders, such as celiac disease, wheat allergy and recently to non-celiac gluten sensitivity or wheat intolerance syndrome. Gluten-related disorders, which are becoming epidemiologically relevant with an estimated global prevalence of about 5%, require the exclusion of gluten from the diet. For the past 5 years, an important shift in the availability of gluten-free products, together with increased consumption in the general population, has been recorded and is estimated to be about 12-25%. Many people follow a self-prescribed gluten-free diet, despite the fact that the majority have not first been previously excluded, or confirmed, as having gluten disorders. They rely on claims that a gluten-free diet improves general health. In this review, we provide an overview of the clinical disorders related to gluten or wheat ingestion, pointing out the current certainties, open questions, possible answers and several doubts in the management of these conditions. KEY MESSAGE Incidence of gluten-related disorders is increased in the last decade and self-diagnosis is frequent with inappropriate starting of a gluten-free diet. Gluten and wheat are considered as the most important triggers to coeliac disease, wheat allergy and non-celiac gluten sensitivity. Pediatricians, allergologist and gastroenterologist are involved in the management of these conditions and appropriate diagnostic protocols are required.

Open3DQSAR

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tosco, Paolo; Balle, Thomas

2011-01-01

Description Open3DQSAR is an open-source tool aimed at pharmacophore exploration by high-throughput chemometric analysis of molecular interaction fields (MIFs). Open3DQSAR can generate steric potential, electron density and MM/QM electrostatic potential fields; furthermore, it can import GRIDKONT...... binary files produced by GRID and CoMFA/CoMSIA fields (exported from SYBYL with the aid of a small SPL script). Subsequently, Open3DQSAR performs fast, automated PLS chemometric analysis of MIFs allowing to quickly generate and challenge the predictivity of many 3D-QSAR models using different training...... integration with OpenBabel, PyMOL, gnuplot •Multi-threaded computation of MIFs (both MM and QM); support for MMFF94 and GAFF force-fields with automated assignment of atom types to the imported molecular structures •Comprehensive output, including SDF molecular databases, 3D maps and many different plots...

How do 5-year-olds understand questions?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sauerland, Uli; Grohmann, Kleanthes; Teresa Guasti, Maria

2016-01-01

developing children across 19 European countries, 18 different languages, and 7 language (sub-)families. The study investigated the effects of two factors on question formation: (a) whether the question contains a simple interrogative word like ‘who’ or a complex one like ‘which princess’, and (b) whether......The comprehension of constituent questions is an important topic for language acquisition research and for applications in the diagnosis of language impairment. This article presents the results of a study investigating the comprehension of different types of questions by 5-year-old, typically...... the question word was related to the sentential subject or object position of the verb. The findings show that there is considerable variation among languages, but the two factors mentioned consistently affect children’s performance. The cross-linguistic variation shows that three linguistic factors facilitate...

The quality and diagnostic value of open narratives in verbal autopsy: a mixed-methods analysis of partnered interviews from Malawi

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. King

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Verbal autopsy (VA, the process of interviewing a deceased’s family or caregiver about signs and symptoms leading up to death, employs tools that ask a series of closed questions and can include an open narrative where respondents give an unprompted account of events preceding death. The extent to which an individual interviewer, who generally does not interpret the data, affects the quality of this data, and therefore the assigned cause of death, is poorly documented. We aimed to examine inter-interviewer reliability of open narrative and closed question data gathered during VA interviews. Methods During the introduction of VA data collection, as part of a larger study in Mchinji district, Malawi, we conducted partner interviews whereby two interviewers independently recorded open narrative and closed questions during the same interview. Closed questions were collected using a smartphone application (mobile-InterVA and open narratives using pen and paper. We used mixed methods of analysis to evaluate the differences between recorded responses to open narratives and closed questions, causes of death assigned, and additional information gathered by open narrative. Results Eighteen partner interviews were conducted, with complete data for 11 pairs. Comparing closed questions between interviewers, the median number of differences was 1 (IQR: 0.5–3.5 of an average 65 answered; mean inter-interviewer concordance was 92 % (IQR: 92–99 %. Discrepancies in open narratives were summarized in five categories: demographics, history and care-seeking, diagnoses and symptoms, treatment and cultural. Most discrepancies were seen in the reporting of diagnoses and symptoms (e.g., malaria diagnosis; only one pair demonstrated no clear differences. The average number of clinical symptoms reported was 9 in open narratives and 20 in the closed questions. Open narratives contained additional information on health seeking and social issues

OpenStax Connexion versus Wikibooks: A Comparative Analysis of Platforms for the Creation of Open Books

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlos Manuel SECO

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Social and cultural changes that are present in contemporary societies, namely in what concerns the creation, management and dissemination of knowledge, are conducting us to a world of shared, collaborative and collective information. In that context, Open Educational Resources (OERs and Open Educational Practices (OEPs, constitute two essential dimensions of Open Education through which it is possible to promote more equity in a society where Education is more free, accessible and available for all. It is in this framework that we focus, in this paper, on the question of the production of Open Books. We compare two platforms, OpenStax Connexion and Wikibooks, in order to identify the advantages and disadvantages of each of them to support the production of Open Books that can be used as Open Educational Resources in the context of Open Educational Practices. We analyze in detail each of the mentioned platforms and present a comparative grid, with a comparative view of each of the platforms. At the end, we identify useful indicators to make the choices of what platform best fits the proposed objectives of the creation of REAs and PEAs.

If You or Someone You Love is Very Ill...Ask Tough Questions

Science.gov (United States)

If you or someone you love is very ill... ask tough questions* Ask Your Doctor... 1 Will you talk openly and candidly with me and my family ... make decisions about my care? 7 Will you still be available to me even when I’m ...

An Examination of Music Teacher Job Interview Questions

Science.gov (United States)

Juchniewicz, Jay

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine which interview questions principals consider most important when interviewing prospective music teachers. Additionally, data were examined to determine any differences between school grade level, school setting, or years of experience as a principal in preferences for specific interview questions.…

Report on the French gas market opening

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Syrota, J.

2002-10-01

This document takes stock on the french gas market opening since august 2000, implementation of the 98/30/CE directive and proposes recommendations on main questions of the future gas regulations. These questions concern the situation and forecast of the competition in Europe, the access tariffing to the transport networks and to the liquefied natural gas installations, the modalities of the network access for the third (ATR), the juridical aspects. (A.L.B.)

Five questions to ask about the soils

Science.gov (United States)

Kasanin Grubin, Milica

2013-04-01

I think that anyone who ever gave a lecture would agree that this feels like being on a stage. One has to educate the audience of course, but also keep attention and be interesting to the listeners. Authority is important but there is a certain vulnerability at all times. There is also a fine line on both sides that should not be crossed. However, the most important thing is that the audience remembers the lecture and certain points the lecturer made for at least some time, and even more that someone gets interested enough to ask for more details. This is often done by giving interesting examples and unusual comparison. Teaching a soils course there are five main questions to be addressed, of which first four are often subordinated to the fifth being the most complex. First question is "Is the soil alive?". The answer is yes, and that is what it differentiates from any type of sediment or rock, and it is very vulnerable to environmental change. The second question is "Where does it come from?" Rocks being a main origin of soils are often neglected in soil science and petrography in general, and weathering, as an important process for soil formation, are not given enough explaining. Petrography teaches us about rock characteristics, structure and texture and mineralogy. Understanding petrography would help in understanding the weathering processes which are crucial for soil formation and this must not be ignored. The third question is "Is it old?" Yes, it is - at least for everybody else except geologists. It is important to understand how slow the soil formation process is. The forth question is "Does it move?" Yes, it can move and the faster it moves downhill, it less likes it. Erosion is a very important problem for soil and must be addressed. And finally, the fifth question is "What are the main characteristics of soils?" This is an opportunity to talk about physical, chemical, biological, microbiological issues. As the most elaborate question it allows the

Process-orientated psychoanalytic work in initial interviews and the importance of the opening scene.

Science.gov (United States)

Wegner, Peter

2014-06-01

From the very first moment of the initial interview to the end of a long course of psychoanalysis, the unconscious exchange between analysand and analyst, and the analysis of the relationship between transference and countertransference, are at the heart of psychoanalytic work. Drawing on initial interviews with a psychosomatically and depressively ill student, a psychoanalytic understanding of initial encounters is worked out. The opening scene of the first interview already condenses the central psychopathology - a clinging to the primary object because it was never securely experienced as present by the patient. The author outlines the development of some psychoanalytic theories concerning the initial interview and demonstrates their specific importance as background knowledge for the clinical situation in the following domains: the 'diagnostic position', the 'therapeutic position', the 'opening scene', the 'countertransference' and the 'analyst's free-floating introspectiveness'. More recent investigations refer to 'process qualities' of the analytic relationship, such as 'synchronization' and 'self-efficacy'. The latter seeks to describe after how much time between the interview sessions constructive or destructive inner processes gain ground in the patient and what significance this may have for the decision about the treatment that follows. All these factors combined can lead to establishing a differential process-orientated indication that also takes account of the fact that being confronted with the fear of unconscious processes of exchange is specific to the psychoanalytic profession. Copyright © 2014 Institute of Psychoanalysis.

Due diligence in the open-access explosion era: choosing a reputable journal for publication.

Science.gov (United States)

Masten, Yondell; Ashcraft, Alyce

2017-11-15

Faculty are required to publish. Naïve and "in-a-hurry-to-publish" authors seek to publish in journals where manuscripts are rapidly accepted. Others may innocently submit to one of an increasing number of questionable/predatory journals, where predatory is defined as practices of publishing journals for exploitation of author-pays, open-access publication model by charging authors publication fees for publisher profit without provision of expected services (expert peer review, editing, archiving, and indexing published manuscripts) and promising almost instant publication. Authors may intentionally submit manuscripts to predatory journals for rapid publication without concern for journal quality. A brief summary of the open access "movement," suggestions for selecting reputable open access journals, and suggestion for avoiding predatory publishers/journals are described. The purpose is to alert junior and seasoned faculty about predatory publishers included among available open access journal listings. Brief review of open access publication, predatory/questionable journal characteristics, suggestions for selecting reputable open access journals and avoiding predatory publishers/journals are described. Time is required for intentionally performing due diligence in open access journal selection, based on publisher/journal quality, prior to manuscript submission or authors must be able to successfully withdraw manuscripts when submission to a questionable or predatory journal is discovered. © FEMS 2017.

The potential role of open source software in overcoming digital poverty

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Kinyondo, J

2012-09-01

Full Text Available literature analysis, document analysis as well as observations of open source community activities were conducted to identify the ICT acceptance challenges and to formulate questions for a survey instrument and for interviews. Four open source communities...

Ion-Smashing yields new knowledge, but some still question risk

CERN Multimedia

Weaver, Carolyn

2006-01-01

"Experimental results at Brookhaven National Laboratory's supercollider that replicate in miniature the "Big Bang", whn the universe expode into being, were names the top physics story of 2005 by the American Institute of Physis. But some observers say that the possible risks of the experiments, which smash together gold ions traveling near the speed of light, remain an open question"

Facilitation of Quercus ilex recruitment by shrubs in Mediterranean open woodlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Smit, Christian; den Ouden, Jan; Diaz, Mario

Question: Insufficient tree regeneration threatens the long-term persistence of biodiverse Mediterranean open oak woodlands. Could shrubs, scarce due to decades of management ( clearing and ploughing), facilitate holm oak recruitment at both acorn and seedling stages? Location: Open oak woodlands in

Facilitation of Quercus ilex recruitment by shrubs in Mediterranean open woodlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Smit, C.; Ouden, den J.; Diaz, M.

2008-01-01

Question: Insufficient tree regeneration threatens the long-term persistence of biodiverse Mediterranean open oak woodlands. Could shrubs, scarce due to decades of management (clearing and ploughing), facilitate holm oak recruitment at both acorn and seedling stages? Location: Open oak woodlands in

Penetration Tester's Open Source Toolkit

CERN Document Server

Faircloth, Jeremy

2011-01-01

Great commercial penetration testing tools can be very expensive and sometimes hard to use or of questionable accuracy. This book helps solve both of these problems. The open source, no-cost penetration testing tools presented do a great job and can be modified by the user for each situation. Many tools, even ones that cost thousands of dollars, do not come with any type of instruction on how and in which situations the penetration tester can best use them. Penetration Tester's Open Source Toolkit, Third Edition, expands upon existing instructions so that a professional can get the most accura

The antecedents of open business models : an exploratory study of incumbent firms

OpenAIRE

Frankenberger, Karolin; Weiblen, Tobias; Gassmann, Oliver

2014-01-01

Firms engage increasingly in open business models. While most research has previously focused on typologies or challenges of open business models, their specific antecedents have not been studied so far. We use data from eight open business model cases to explore this question and identify five main antecedents of open business models: (1) business model inconsistency, (2) need to create and capture new value, (3) previous experience with collaboration, (4) open business model patterns, and ...

Open cholecystectomy: Exposure and confidence of surgical trainees and new fellows.

Science.gov (United States)

Campbell, Beth M; Lambrianides, Andreas L; Dulhunty, Joel M

2018-03-01

The laparoscopic approach to cholecystectomy has overtaken open procedures in terms of frequency, despite open procedures playing an important role in certain clinical situations. This study explored exposure and confidence of Australasian surgical trainees and new fellows in performing an open versus laparoscopic cholecystectomy. An online survey was disseminated via the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons to senior general surgery trainees (years 3-5 of surgical training) and new fellows (fellowship within the previous 5 years). The survey included questions regarding level of experience and confidence in performing an open cholecystectomy and converting from a laparoscopic to an open approach. A total of 135 participants responded; 58 (43%) were surgical trainees, 58 (43%) were fellows and 19 (14%) did not specify their level of training. Respondents who were involved in more than 20 open cholecystectomy procedures as an assistant or independent operator compared with those less exposed were more likely to feel confident to independently perform an elective open cholecystectomy (87.8% vs. 57.3%, P = 0.001), independently convert from a laparoscopic to open cholecystectomy (87.8% vs. 58.7%, P = 0.001) and independently perform an open cholecystectomy as a surgical consultant based on their level of exposure as a trainee (73.2% vs. 45.3%, P = 0.004). This study suggests the need to ensure surgical trainees are exposed to sufficient open cholecystectomies to enable confidence and skill with performing these procedures when indicated. Greater recognition of the need for exposure during training, including meaningful simulation, may assist. Crown Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Open Method of Co-Ordination for Demoi-Cracy?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Borrás, Susana; Radaelli, Claudio

2014-01-01

Under which conditions does the open method of co-ordination match the standards for demoi-cracy? To answer this question, we need some explicit standards about demoi-cracy. In fact, open co-ordination serves three different but interrelated purposes in European Union policy: to facilitate...... convergence; to support learning processes; and to encourage exploration of policy innovation. By intersecting standards and purposes, we find open co-ordination is neither inherently ‘good’ nor ‘bad’ for demoi-cracy, as it depends on how it has been put into practice. Therefore, we qualify the answer...

Open-charm physics opportunities at PANDA

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Prencipe, Elisabetta; Cao, Lu; Herten, Andreas; Ritman, James [IKP, Forschungszentrum Juelich (Germany); Kang, Donghee [Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz (Germany); Pitka, Andreas [Justus-Liebig Universitaet Giessen (Germany); Collaboration: PANDA-Collaboration

2015-07-01

Open-charm physics is of high interest for the weak and the strong interactions. New observations in spectroscopy and the recent constraining limits on CP violation in the D sector strongly motivate the study of open-charm physics. The experiment PANDA at FAIR (Darmstadt) will investigate fundamental questions of hadron and nuclear physics in interactions of antiprotons with nucleons and nuclei. Among other topics, original contributions are planned from PANDA in the open-charm sector. With high average reaction rates up to 2.10{sup 7} interactions/s, and a factor 20 higher mass resolution than attained at B-factories, PANDA is in a privileged position to perform measurements of widths of narrow states, such as the D{sub s}(2317){sup +} and the D{sub s}(2460){sup +}, and form factors in semileptonic D{sub s} decays. Very rare processes (e.g. D{sup 0} → γγ) can be accessible with unprecedented accuracy. In addition, the search for new physics is a challenge that PANDA can take, for example with the study of the mixing in the D sector, analyzing the channel anti pp → ψ(3770) → anti D{sup 0}D{sup 0}. PANDA is expected to be decisive to answer on these and second-order open questions. A general overview of the benchmark channels in the D sector with PANDA is given in this report, showing the results of recent PandaRoot simulations.

[Psychiatry with open doors. Part 1: Rational for an open door for acute psychiatry].

Science.gov (United States)

Sollberger, D; Lang, U E

2014-03-01

Despite the reform efforts of the last decades modern acute psychiatry still stands between conflicting priorities in everyday practice. The protection of patient autonomy might conflict with a regulatory mandate of psychiatry in societal contexts and the necessity of coercive measures and involuntary treatment might become problematic with respect to presumed but contentious interests of the patient. The conflicts particularly concern questions of involuntary commitment, door closing, coercive and isolation measures. Research on the topic of therapeutic effectiveness of these practices is rare. Accordingly, the practice depends on the federal state, hospital and ward and is very heterogeneous. Epidemiological prognosis predicts an increase of psychiatric disorders; however, simultaneously in terms of medical ethics the warranty of patient autonomy, shared decision-making and informed consent in psychiatry become increasingly more important. This challenges structural and practical changes in psychiatry, particularly in situations of self and third party endangerment which are outlined and a rationale for an opening of the doors in acute psychiatric wards is provided.

Robustness Analysis of Visual Question Answering Models by Basic Questions

KAUST Repository

Huang, Jia-Hong

2017-11-01

Visual Question Answering (VQA) models should have both high robustness and accuracy. Unfortunately, most of the current VQA research only focuses on accuracy because there is a lack of proper methods to measure the robustness of VQA models. There are two main modules in our algorithm. Given a natural language question about an image, the first module takes the question as input and then outputs the ranked basic questions, with similarity scores, of the main given question. The second module takes the main question, image and these basic questions as input and then outputs the text-based answer of the main question about the given image. We claim that a robust VQA model is one, whose performance is not changed much when related basic questions as also made available to it as input. We formulate the basic questions generation problem as a LASSO optimization, and also propose a large scale Basic Question Dataset (BQD) and Rscore (novel robustness measure), for analyzing the robustness of VQA models. We hope our BQD will be used as a benchmark for to evaluate the robustness of VQA models, so as to help the community build more robust and accurate VQA models.

Robustness Analysis of Visual Question Answering Models by Basic Questions

KAUST Repository

Huang, Jia-Hong

2017-01-01

Visual Question Answering (VQA) models should have both high robustness and accuracy. Unfortunately, most of the current VQA research only focuses on accuracy because there is a lack of proper methods to measure the robustness of VQA models. There are two main modules in our algorithm. Given a natural language question about an image, the first module takes the question as input and then outputs the ranked basic questions, with similarity scores, of the main given question. The second module takes the main question, image and these basic questions as input and then outputs the text-based answer of the main question about the given image. We claim that a robust VQA model is one, whose performance is not changed much when related basic questions as also made available to it as input. We formulate the basic questions generation problem as a LASSO optimization, and also propose a large scale Basic Question Dataset (BQD) and Rscore (novel robustness measure), for analyzing the robustness of VQA models. We hope our BQD will be used as a benchmark for to evaluate the robustness of VQA models, so as to help the community build more robust and accurate VQA models.

Two-Year-Old Children Differentiate Test Questions from Genuine Questions

Science.gov (United States)

Grosse, Gerlind; Tomasello, Michael

2012-01-01

Children are frequently confronted with so-called "test questions". While genuine questions are requests for missing information, test questions ask for information obviously already known to the questioner. In this study we explored whether two-year-old children respond differentially to one and the same question used as either a genuine question…

Categorization of questions posed before and after inquiry-based learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sandra Milena García González

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Posing research questions is the central ability of the scientific thought. This article examines the ability of sixth grade children to pose researchable questions before and after a three months’ work on a didactic sequence based on the inquiry school model. According to their purpose, the questions asked by children, after reading a text, were classified into researchable questions -susceptible to be empirically explored-, questions about a cause, and questions on a piece of data. The results show that the amount and the type of questions the students were able to pose during the intervention changed, from most of questions on data or information, to most of researchable questions, subsequently, the importance of designing teaching approaches to foster this ability was proved.

Importance of open (green) spaces in the polluted Ruhr and the resultant consequences for land use planning in the Ruhr

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Froriep, S

1972-01-01

The Siedlungsverband Ruhrkohlenbezirk (SVR) is a regional association formed in 1920, which covers the fourth largest conurbation in the world. At the present time, over 5 1/2 million people live in it, on an area of nearly 4600 sq km, i.e. almost 10% of the population of the Federal Republic on 2% of its area (225 inhabitants per sq km). Apart from its legal obligations in the field of land use planning, it also undertakes other important tasks in the field of landscape care and conservation. The conservation and care of the landscape inside a conurbation is an extremely important social and political problem. Here the open space policy is of special importance. Open (green) spaces help to improve the climate in the development area, to reduce temperature extremes, to restore the air, and to provide scope for recreation outside the residential areas. It is obvious that the open spaces in a conurbation, with a rising population and associated extension of civic and industrial development, are exposed to the danger of being alienated. This applies especially to forest areas. Even so, despite the considerable building activity in the last 50 years, the forest has been maintained so that only about 10,000 ha. (out of 82,000 ha. in 1920) have been lost. The forest forms 15.5% of the total surface area of the SVR region. Every effort should be made not merely to maintain but to increase this percentage. This can be done by afforestation of marginal land, waste land, tips and spoil mounds, and other unused areas. However, a further reduction of the pollution which adversely affects the vegetation is a prerequisite for the conservation of the natural basis of life for man. Environmental hygiene must therefore be included in environmental planning.

Entropy - Some Cosmological Questions Answered by Model of Expansive Nondecelerative Universe

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miroslav Sukenik

2003-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract: The paper summarizes the background of Expansive Nondecelerative Universe model and its potential to offer answers to some open cosmological questions related to entropy. Three problems are faced in more detail, namely that of Hawkings phenomenon of black holes evaporation, maximum entropy of the Universe during its evolution, and time evolution of specific entropy.

Nuclear questions; Le nucleaire en questions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Berg, Eugene

2012-02-15

Civilian and military nuclear questions fill a multitude of publications these days, especially after the Japanese tsunami and the Fukushima disaster. The author analyses some of them and highlights the links between civil and military nuclear industries, the realities of the nuclear cycle and related industrial questions before concluding on the controversial issue of weapons and their proliferation potential

OpenLabNotes--An Electronic Laboratory Notebook Extension for OpenLabFramework.

Science.gov (United States)

List, Markus; Franz, Michael; Tan, Qihua; Mollenhauer, Jan; Baumbach, Jan

2015-10-06

Electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs) are more accessible and reliable than their paper based alternatives and thus find widespread adoption. While a large number of commercial products is available, small- to mid-sized laboratories can often not afford the costs or are concerned about the longevity of the providers. Turning towards free alternatives, however, raises questions about data protection, which are not sufficiently addressed by available solutions. To serve as legal documents, ELNs must prevent scientific fraud through technical means such as digital signatures. It would also be advantageous if an ELN was integrated with a laboratory information management system to allow for a comprehensive documentation of experimental work including the location of samples that were used in a particular experiment. Here, we present OpenLabNotes, which adds state-of-the-art ELN capabilities to OpenLabFramework, a powerful and flexible laboratory information management system. In contrast to comparable solutions, it allows to protect the intellectual property of its users by offering data protection with digital signatures. OpenLabNotes effectively closes the gap between research documentation and sample management, thus making Open-LabFramework more attractive for laboratories that seek to increase productivity through electronic data management.

OpenLabNotes - An Electronic Laboratory Notebook Extension for OpenLabFramework.

Science.gov (United States)

List, Markus; Franz, Michael; Tan, Qihua; Mollenhauer, Jan; Baumbach, Jan

2015-09-01

Electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs) are more accessible and reliable than their paper based alternatives and thus find widespread adoption. While a large number of commercial products is available, small- to mid-sized laboratories can often not afford the costs or are concerned about the longevity of the providers. Turning towards free alternatives, however, raises questions about data protection, which are not sufficiently addressed by available solutions. To serve as legal documents, ELNs must prevent scientific fraud through technical means such as digital signatures. It would also be advantageous if an ELN was integrated with a laboratory information management system to allow for a comprehensive documentation of experimental work including the location of samples that were used in a particular experiment. Here, we present OpenLabNotes, which adds state-of-the-art ELN capabilities to OpenLabFramework, a powerful and flexible laboratory information management system. In contrast to comparable solutions, it allows to protect the intellectual property of its users by offering data protection with digital signatures. OpenLabNotes effectively closes the gap between research documentation and sample management, thus making Open- LabFramework more attractive for laboratories that seek to increase productivity through electronic data management.

A short lecture on Open Licensing

OpenAIRE

Barba, Lorena A.

2017-01-01

Also on SpeakerDeck, for nicer viewing.A lecture as part of the workshop "Essential skills for reproducible research computing," at Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (January 2017).[slide 3]Syllabus of the workshop.[slide 5]In an October-2015 interview by mathematics professor and blogger Robert Talbert, I answer this question … “Why do you advocate so strongly for open-source technology in research and education?” … I start by first clarifying WHAT WE MEAN by “open.” [slide 6]"Free an...

The Knowledge, Awareness, and Practices of Portuguese General Practitioners Regarding Multimorbidity and its Management: Qualitative Perspectives from Open-Ended Questions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Filipe Prazeres

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Multimorbidity’s high prevalence and negative impact has made it a subject of worldwide interest. The main aim of this study was to access the Portuguese knowledge, awareness, and practices of general practitioners (GPs regarding multimorbidity and its management, in order to aid in the development of interventions for improving outcomes in multimorbid patients in primary care. A web-based qualitative descriptive study was carried out in the first trimester of 2016 with primary care physicians working in two districts of the Centre region of Portugal. Open-ended questions were analysed via inductive thematic content analysis. GPs pointed out several difficulties and challenges while managing multimorbidity. Extrinsic factors were associated with the healthcare system logistics’ management (consultation time, organization of care teams, clinical information and society (media pressure, social/family support. Intrinsic factors related to the GP, patient, and physician-patient relationship were also stated. The most significant conclusion to emerge from this study is that although GPs perceived difficulties and challenges towards multimorbidity, they also have the tools to deal with them: the fundamental characteristics of family medicine. Also, the complex care required by multimorbid patients needs adequate consultation time, multidisciplinary teamwork, and more education/training.

Une question interdite

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pierre Legendre

2003-01-01

Full Text Available Is legal history a left-over or is it waiting for a takeover bid (just like a company in serious trouble which would allow the expression of new analyses and outlines for a better understanding of the contemporary western world? Its propositions of erudition, are they just interesting for small academic circles, or could they open a new pathway for fundamental reflections on the phenomenon of norms in general and the structure of its evolution in the special case of norm-production coming from Roman Christianity? And what is the significance of the idea of »legal tradition«, an idea forged in Western Europe, within the framework of a presumed global westernization without any counter-balance? The essay discusses the illegibility of legal history in today’s culture. Under the well reflected motto »The Forbidden Question« it concludes firmly: To renovate itself, this discipline has to perform its work in a new way, guided by a very precise and distinct vision on theory. The author examines the conditions for this.

Relative importance of current and past landscape structure and local habitat conditions for plant species richness in dry grassland-like forest openings.

Science.gov (United States)

Husáková, Iveta; Münzbergová, Zuzana

2014-01-01

In fragmented landscapes, plant species richness may depend not only on local habitat conditions but also on landscape structure. In addition, both present and past landscape structure may be important for species richness. There are, however, only a few studies that have investigated the relative importance of all of these factors. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of current and past landscape structures and habitat conditions on species richness at dry grassland-like forest openings in a forested landscape and to assess their relative importance for species richness. We analyzed information on past and present landscape structures using aerial photographs from 1938, 1973, 1988, 2000 and 2007. We calculated the area of each locality and its isolation in the present and in the past and the continuity of localities in GIS. At each locality, we recorded all vascular plant species (296 species in 110 forest openings) and information on abiotic conditions of the localities. We found that the current species richness of the forest openings was significantly determined by local habitat conditions as well as by landscape structure in the present and in the past. The highest species richness was observed on larger and more heterogeneous localities with rocks and shallow soils, which were already large and well connected to other localities in 1938. The changes in the landscape structure in the past can thus have strong effects on current species richness. Future studies attempting to understand determinants of species diversity in fragmented landscapes should also include data on past landscape structure, as it may in fact be more important than the present structure.

The use of categorization information in language models for question retrieval

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cao, Xin; Cong, Gao; Cui, Bin

2009-01-01

Community Question Answering (CQA) has emerged as a popular type of service meeting a wide range of information needs. Such services enable users to ask and answer questions and to access existing question-answer pairs. CQA archives contain very large volumes of valuable user-generated content...... and have become important information resources on the Web. To make the body of knowledge accumulated in CQA archives accessible, effective and efficient question search is required. Question search in a CQA archive aims to retrieve historical questions that are relevant to new questions posed by users...

Experimental evaluation of ontology-based HIV/AIDS frequently asked question retrieval system.

Science.gov (United States)

Ayalew, Yirsaw; Moeng, Barbara; Mosweunyane, Gontlafetse

2018-05-01

This study presents the results of experimental evaluations of an ontology-based frequently asked question retrieval system in the domain of HIV and AIDS. The main purpose of the system is to provide answers to questions on HIV/AIDS using ontology. To evaluate the effectiveness of the frequently asked question retrieval system, we conducted two experiments. The first experiment focused on the evaluation of the quality of the ontology we developed using the OQuaRE evaluation framework which is based on software quality metrics and metrics designed for ontology quality evaluation. The second experiment focused on evaluating the effectiveness of the ontology in retrieving relevant answers. For this we used an open-source information retrieval platform, Terrier, with retrieval models BM25 and PL2. For the measurement of performance, we used the measures mean average precision, mean reciprocal rank, and precision at 5. The results suggest that frequently asked question retrieval with ontology is more effective than frequently asked question retrieval without ontology in the domain of HIV/AIDS.

Question-Answer Activities in Synchronous Virtual Classrooms in Terms of Interest and Usefulness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Melike Aydemir

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Instructors generally convey their face to face habits to synchronous virtual classrooms, but these face to face strategies do not work in these environments. In this sense, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of question type and answer format used in synchronous class implementations on perceived interest and usefulness. To do this, questions were asked in different ways and answers were requested in different formats in synchronous virtual sessions. The participants consisted of 28 postgraduate students registered in an online criminal justice program at a university located in the North-East part of Turkey. Data was collected in the context of a Research Methods in Security Sciences course during 2012–2013 fall semester. Results showed effects of question type on learner interest, while answer format has an effect on usefulness of online activities. In conclusion, to increase interest in synchronous virtual classrooms by asking questions, instead of closed-ended questions, open-ended questions which everybody can answer should be preferred.

Market opening and information systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dardevet, G.; Dardoise, P.; Dreyer, P.; Flahaut, P.

2007-01-01

The opening of energy markets to competition requires relevant information systems accessible to all end-users in concern without any discrimination. So, how existing information systems can be changed to become conformable with the requested requirements? Concerning the last step of the opening of energy markets which concerns several millions of clients, how this problem will be overcome considering the huge volume of processing needed? Who will decide or pay the forthcoming upgrades of the information system with respect to the evolution of actors' needs? Four participants were invited to this round table to answer these questions. Their answers are reported in this article. (J.S.)

New gas in old pipes: opening the UK residential gas market to competition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Waddams Price, C.; Bennett, M.

1999-01-01

The United Kingdom is introducing competition to its residential gas and electricity markets, the first such experiment on a national level. This paper analyses the behaviour of suppliers and consumers in the first market to be opened, based on suppliers' posted prices, two questionnaires to consumers and information from the incumbent. The results confirm predictions about the unwinding of cross-subsidies; a surprisingly small proportion of consumers are switching to other suppliers, and they are not evenly distributed across consumer groups, raising important policy questions about the future of regulation in such markets

Open3DQSAR

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tosco, Paolo; Balle, Thomas

2011-01-01

Open3DQSAR is a freely available open-source program aimed at chemometric analysis of molecular interaction fields. MIFs can be imported from different sources (GRID, CoMFA/CoMSIA, quantum-mechanical electrostatic potential or electron density grids) or generated by Open3DQSAR itself. Much focus...... has been put on automation through the implementation of a scriptable interface, as well as on high computational performance achieved by algorithm parallelization. Flexibility and interoperability with existing molecular modeling software make Open3DQSAR a powerful tool in pharmacophore assessment...

An open ecosystem engagement strategy through the lens of global food safety

Science.gov (United States)

Stacey, Paul; Fons, Garin; Bernardo, Theresa M

2015-01-01

The Global Food Safety Partnership (GFSP) is a public/private partnership established through the World Bank to improve food safety systems through a globally coordinated and locally-driven approach. This concept paper aims to establish a framework to help GFSP fully leverage the potential of open models. In preparing this paper the authors spoke to many different GFSP stakeholders who asked questions about open models such as: what is it?what’s in it for me?why use an open rather than a proprietary model?how will open models generate equivalent or greater sustainable revenue streams compared to the current “traditional” approaches?  This last question came up many times with assertions that traditional service providers need to see opportunity for equivalent or greater revenue dollars before they will buy-in. This paper identifies open value propositions for GFSP stakeholders and proposes a framework for creating and structuring that value. Open Educational Resources (OER) were the primary open practice GFSP partners spoke to us about, as they provide a logical entry point for collaboration. Going forward, funders should consider requiring that educational resources and concomitant data resulting from their sponsorship should be open, as a public good. There are, however, many other forms of open practice that bring value to the GFSP. Nine different open strategies and tactics (Appendix A) are described, including: open content (including OER and open courseware), open data, open access (research), open government, open source software, open standards, open policy, open licensing and open hardware. It is recommended that all stakeholders proactively pursue "openness" as an operating principle. This paper presents an overall GFSP Open Ecosystem Engagement Strategy within which specific local case examples can be situated. Two different case examples, China and Colombia, are presented to show both project-based and crowd-sourced, direct-to-public paths

Mental competence and the question of beneficent intervention.

Science.gov (United States)

Checkland, D; Silberfeld, M

1996-06-01

The authors examine recent arguments purporting to show that mental incompetence (lack of decision-making capacity) is not a necessary condition for intervention in a person's best interests without consent. It is concluded that these arguments fail to show that competent wishes could justifiably be overturned. Nonetheless, it remains an open question whether accounts of decision-making capacity based solely on the notion of understanding and appreciation can adequately deal with various complexities. Different possible ways of resolving these complexities are outlined, all of which need further exploration.

What’s in a name? A comparison of ‘open government’ definitions across seven Open Government Partnership members

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amanda Clarke

2014-11-01

Full Text Available No longer restricted to access to information laws and accountability measures, “open government” is now associated with a broad range of goals and functions, including public participation, open data, the improvement of public services and government efficiency. The 59 country strong Open Government Partnership (OGP suggests that consensus on the value of open government is emerging amongst public officials. Similarly, academics have shown a renewed interest in open government as they discuss, debate and critique the meaning and role of open government reforms today. Yet, despite the diverse aims and tools characterizing contemporary open government, public officials and academics typically approach the subject as a cohesive unit of analysis, making sweeping—and generally non-empirical—claims about its implications, without accounting for the homegrown flavours that may characterize open government in practice. Simply put, the practice and study of contemporary open government suffers a lack of definitional clarity: what exactly is open government today, and how does it vary across governments? In response to these questions, this paper analyses the content of open government policy documents in seven OGP member states (Azerbaijan, Brazil, Canada, Netherlands, Kenya, United Kingdom, and the United States, providing the first systematic, empirically-grounded multi-country comparison of contemporary open government. The paper suggests where the term departs from and retains its original meaning, and how its definition varies across different governments

Can multiple-choice questions simulate free-response questions?

OpenAIRE

Lin, Shih-Yin; Singh, Chandralekha

2016-01-01

We discuss a study to evaluate the extent to which free-response questions could be approximated by multiple-choice equivalents. Two carefully designed research-based multiple-choice questions were transformed into a free-response format and administered on the final exam in a calculus-based introductory physics course. The original multiple-choice questions were administered in another similar introductory physics course on final exam. Findings suggest that carefully designed multiple-choice...

KAUST Open Access policy

KAUST Repository

Baessa, Mohamed A.

2017-03-07

The transition to open access (OA) is being driven by funders, libraries, researchers and publishers around the world, and is having an impact on us all. It is inevitable that different countries, organisations and disciplines are moving at different rates towards an OA model, and it is this that we will focus on in this session. Drawing on experiences from across Europe and the Middle East we will provide perspectives from both a global publisher and institutions based in the region. Taylor & Francis take a flexible, evidence-based approach to open access, providing a choice of publication routes for our authors, and a choice of agreements for our library customers. Carolyn will outline some of the open access developments, opportunities and challenges at Taylor & Francis. The library plays a critical role in facilitating open access for their researchers, from managing a repository to providing support and information on the OA publication process to their authors. Janis Tyhurst and Dr Imad Bachir will each give an overview of how this is being managed by their institution. There will be an opportunity for questions and discussion with the panel.

Deep Learning in Open Source Learning Streams

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kjærgaard, Thomas

2016-01-01

This chapter presents research on deep learning in a digital learning environment and raises the question if digital instructional designs can catalyze deeper learning than traditional classroom teaching. As a theoretical point of departure the notion of ‘situated learning’ is utilized...... and contrasted to the notion of functionalistic learning in a digital context. The mechanism that enables deep learning in this context is ‘The Open Source Learning Stream’. ‘The Open Source Learning Stream’ is the notion of sharing ‘learning instances’ in a digital space (discussion board, Facebook group......, unistructural, multistructural or relational learning. The research concludes that ‘The Open Source Learning Stream’ can catalyze deep learning and that there are four types of ‘Open Source Learning streams’; individual/ asynchronous, individual/synchronous, shared/asynchronous and shared...

An experiment in using open-text comments from the Australian Rural Mental Health Study on health service priorities.

Science.gov (United States)

Rich, Jane; Handley, Tonelle; Inder, Kerry; Perkins, David

2018-02-01

Conducting research in rural and remote areas is compounded by challenges associated with accessing relatively small populations spread over large geographical areas. Open-ended questions provided in a postal survey format are an advantageous way of including rural and remote residents in research studies. This method means that it is possible to ask for in-depth perspectives, from a large sample, in a relatively resource-efficient way. Such questions are frequently included in population-based surveys; however, they are rarely analysed. The aim of this article is to explore word cloud analysis, to evaluate the utility of automated programs to supplement the analysis of open-ended survey responses. Participants from the Australian Rural Mental Health Study completed the open-ended question 'What health services would you like to see the local health district providing that are currently not available in your area?' A word cloud analysis was then undertaken using the program Wordle; the size of the word in the cloud illustrates how many times, in proportion to other words, a word has appeared in responses, and provides an easily interpretable visual illustration of research results. In total, 388 participants provided a response to the free-text question. Using the word cloud as a visual guide, key words were identified and used to locate relevant quotes from the full open-text responses. \\'Mental health\\' was the most frequent request, cited by 81 people (20.8%). Following mental health, requests for more \\'specialists\\' (n=59) and \\'services\\' (n=53) were the second and third most frequent responses respectively. Visiting specialists were requested by multiple respondents (n=14). Less frequent requests illustrated in the word cloud are important when considering representatives from smaller population groups such as those with specific health needs or conditions including \\'maternity\\' services (n=13), \\'cancer\\' (n=10), \\'drug and alcohol\\' services

What is the importance of open habitat in a predominantly closed forest area to the dung beetle (Coleoptera, Scarabaeinae assemblage?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fábio C. Costa

2013-09-01

Full Text Available What is the importance of open habitat in a predominantly closed forest to the dung beetle assemblage? The Atlantic Forest in Brazil is one of the most highly disturbed ecosystems and is mainly represented by fragmented areas. However, in places where human disturbances have ceased, certain areas are showing a natural regeneration pattern. The aim of the present study was to determine how the dung beetle assemblage responds to distinct habitat structures in a fragment of Atlantic Forest. For such, open and closed forest areas were sampled in a fragment of the Atlantic Forest in the northeastern region of Brazil. Pitfall traps baited with excrement and carrion were used to collect the beetles. A total of 7,267 individuals belonging to 35 species were captured. Canthon chalybaeus and C. mutabilis were restricted to open areas. Nearly 90% of the individuals of C. aff. simulans and Deltochilum aff. irroratum were identified in these areas. A higher percentage (> 50% of Canthon staigi, Dichotomius aff. depressicolis and D. aff. sericeus occurred in closed areas. Abundance differed between areas, with higher values in closed areas. Richness was not influenced by the habitat structure. NMDS ordination exhibited the segregation of areas and ANOSIM confirmed that this variable explained the assemblage of dung beetle species. The findings of the present study validate that open areas are associated to more restrictive conditions, limiting a higher abundance of dung beetle. Although situated near preserved fragments, the studied open areas increase the heterogeneity of the general landscape.

Nanodesign: some basic questions

CERN Document Server

Schommers, Wolfram

2013-01-01

There is no doubt that nanoscience will be the dominant direction for technology in this century, and that this science will influence our lives to a large extent as well as open completely new perspectives on all scientific and technological disciplines. To be able to produce optimal nanosystems with tailor-made properties, it is necessary to analyze and construct such systems in advance by adequate theoretical and computational methods. Since we work in nanoscience and nanotechnology at the ultimate level, we have to apply the basic laws of physics. What methods and tools are relevant here? The book gives an answer to this question. The background of the theoretical methods and tools is critically discussed, and also the world view on which these physical laws are based. Such a debate is not only of academic interest but is of highly general concern, and this is because we constantly move in nanoscience and nanotechnology between two extreme poles, between infinite life and total destruction . On the one ...

Four Questions

Science.gov (United States)

Hark-Weber, Amara G., Ed.

2013-01-01

The author is pleased to introduce a new section in "TAJ," Four Questions. The structure is simple: four questions are asked to teaching artists working in various media and locations. The questions are always the same, but because each teaching artist's approach is unique, their answers will provide an insight into particular methodologies that…

Transnational aspects of the Kurdish question

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bruinessen, M.M. van

2000-01-01

Simplifying a complex question, one may observe that the objectives of all Kurdish political movements of the past century have concerned two central issues, culture and territory. The Kurdish language and the region historically known as Kurdistan are the Kurds’ most important national symbols.

Automatic Generation and Ranking of Questions for Critical Review

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Ming; Calvo, Rafael A.; Rus, Vasile

2014-01-01

Critical review skill is one important aspect of academic writing. Generic trigger questions have been widely used to support this activity. When students have a concrete topic in mind, trigger questions are less effective if they are too general. This article presents a learning-to-rank based system which automatically generates specific trigger…

How Tom Moon's research highlighted the question of glucose tolerance in carnivorous fish.

Science.gov (United States)

Polakof, S; Panserat, S

2016-09-01

Fifteen years ago, Tom Moon wrote a review on this journal in order to propose some explanations to the exacerbated glycaemic response after a glucose load or a carbohydrate meal intake observed in fish, the so-called intolerance to glucose. Before, but in most of cases after this paper, several laboratories worldwide started to make important efforts in order to better understand this strange phenotype observed in fish and that so far seemed to belong to diabetic humans only. Tom had been worked on fish metabolism for at least 30years when he proposed that mini-review and the paths opened by him in 2001 were followed by tens of fish researchers, making this paper a breaking point on the field. Fifteen years later, we propose not only to have a look to the answers given to the questions rose in that paper, but also to summarize how his career over all these years impacted the domain of glucose metabolism in fish. In the review, we will show how Tom Moon analysed at different levels (from genes up to the whole organism), using distinct experimental tools (cells, hormone or glucose injection, pumps, drugs) the questions of glucose metabolism, tolerance and nutrition in fish species. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

OpenSHS: Open Smart Home Simulator

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nasser Alshammari

2017-05-01

Full Text Available This paper develops a new hybrid, open-source, cross-platform 3D smart home simulator, OpenSHS, for dataset generation. OpenSHS offers an opportunity for researchers in the field of the Internet of Things (IoT and machine learning to test and evaluate their models. Following a hybrid approach, OpenSHS combines advantages from both interactive and model-based approaches. This approach reduces the time and efforts required to generate simulated smart home datasets. We have designed a replication algorithm for extending and expanding a dataset. A small sample dataset produced, by OpenSHS, can be extended without affecting the logical order of the events. The replication provides a solution for generating large representative smart home datasets. We have built an extensible library of smart devices that facilitates the simulation of current and future smart home environments. Our tool divides the dataset generation process into three distinct phases: first design: the researcher designs the initial virtual environment by building the home, importing smart devices and creating contexts; second, simulation: the participant simulates his/her context-specific events; and third, aggregation: the researcher applies the replication algorithm to generate the final dataset. We conducted a study to assess the ease of use of our tool on the System Usability Scale (SUS.

OpenSHS: Open Smart Home Simulator.

Science.gov (United States)

Alshammari, Nasser; Alshammari, Talal; Sedky, Mohamed; Champion, Justin; Bauer, Carolin

2017-05-02

This paper develops a new hybrid, open-source, cross-platform 3D smart home simulator, OpenSHS, for dataset generation. OpenSHS offers an opportunity for researchers in the field of the Internet of Things (IoT) and machine learning to test and evaluate their models. Following a hybrid approach, OpenSHS combines advantages from both interactive and model-based approaches. This approach reduces the time and efforts required to generate simulated smart home datasets. We have designed a replication algorithm for extending and expanding a dataset. A small sample dataset produced, by OpenSHS, can be extended without affecting the logical order of the events. The replication provides a solution for generating large representative smart home datasets. We have built an extensible library of smart devices that facilitates the simulation of current and future smart home environments. Our tool divides the dataset generation process into three distinct phases: first design: the researcher designs the initial virtual environment by building the home, importing smart devices and creating contexts; second, simulation: the participant simulates his/her context-specific events; and third, aggregation: the researcher applies the replication algorithm to generate the final dataset. We conducted a study to assess the ease of use of our tool on the System Usability Scale (SUS).

Trade Openness and Domestic Water Use

Science.gov (United States)

Dang, Qian; Konar, Megan

2018-01-01

We contribute to the debate over globalization and the environment by asking, what is the impact of trade on national water use? To address this question, we employ econometric methods to quantify the causal relationship between trade openness and water use. Specifically, we use the instrumental variables methodology to evaluate the impact of trade openness on domestic water withdrawals in agriculture and industry. We find that trade openness does not have a significant impact on total or industrial water withdrawals. However, we show that one percentage point increase in trade openness leads to a 5.21% decrease in agricultural water withdrawals. We find that trade openness reduces water use in agriculture primarily through the intensive margin effect, by leading farmers to produce more with less water, such as through the adoption of technology. We do not find evidence for extensive margin or crop mix impacts on agricultural water withdrawals. Significantly, these results demonstrate that trade openness leads to less water use in agriculture. This finding has broad scientific and policy relevance as we endeavor to untangle causal relationships in the complex global food system and develop policies to achieve water and food security.

Murder, He Wrote: Introducing Christian Ethics through One Question in the "Summa"

Science.gov (United States)

George, William P.

2008-01-01

The topic of murder fascinates and haunts undergraduates just as it does our culture. But even as murder violently closes doors on a human life, as a topic of discussion it can also open minds, provoking, extending, and refining students' questions about the moral life, theologically and religiously understood. The aim of this essay is to explain…

‘Open Access’ or ‘Open Excess’?: libraries at a crossroads

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leo Waaijers

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Comparing the costs of open access (OA and subscriptions is a hot topic at the present time. However, the results of such comparisons often raise questions. This article attempts to provide a more systematic analysis in the form of a question and answer approach. The author states that, in the absence of a market for academic publishing, the concept of average publication fees cannot be used for this purpose. A number of attempts are being made to create such a market, but new contracts for hybrid journals may thwart these initiatives. Libraries are at a crossroads. Will they continue in their current role of money collectors for publishers or revert to their original profession: independent quality control? For the time being, the strict OA policy followed by the Wellcome Trust in the UK has generated a better option for cost comparison.

Openness initiative

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Duncan, S.S. [Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)

1995-12-31

Although antinuclear campaigns seem to be effective, public communication and education efforts on low-level radioactive waste have mixed results. Attempts at public information programs on low-level radioactive waste still focus on influencing public opinion. A question then is: {open_quotes}Is it preferable to have a program focus on public education that will empower individuals to make informed decisions rather than trying to influence them in their decisions?{close_quotes} To address this question, a case study with both quantitative and qualitative data will be used. The Ohio Low-Level Radioactive Waste Education Program has a goal to provide people with information they want/need to make their own decisions. The program initiated its efforts by conducting a statewide survey to determine information needed by people and where they turned for that information. This presentation reports data from the survey and then explores the program development process in which programs were designed and presented using the information. Pre and post data from the programs reveal attitude and knowledge shifts.

Openness initiative

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Duncan, S.S.

1995-01-01

Although antinuclear campaigns seem to be effective, public communication and education efforts on low-level radioactive waste have mixed results. Attempts at public information programs on low-level radioactive waste still focus on influencing public opinion. A question then is: open-quotes Is it preferable to have a program focus on public education that will empower individuals to make informed decisions rather than trying to influence them in their decisions?close quotes To address this question, a case study with both quantitative and qualitative data will be used. The Ohio Low-Level Radioactive Waste Education Program has a goal to provide people with information they want/need to make their own decisions. The program initiated its efforts by conducting a statewide survey to determine information needed by people and where they turned for that information. This presentation reports data from the survey and then explores the program development process in which programs were designed and presented using the information. Pre and post data from the programs reveal attitude and knowledge shifts

The open innovation research landscape

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bogers, Marcel; Zobel, Ann-Kristin; Afuah, Allan

2017-01-01

This paper provides an overview of the main perspectives and themes emerging in research on open innovation (OI). The paper is the result of a collaborative process among several OI scholars – having a common basis in the recurrent Professional Development Workshop on ‘Researching Open Innovation...... as questions for future research – particularly those that span across research domains that have so far developed in isolation.......’ at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management. In this paper, we present opportunities for future research on OI, organised at different levels of analysis. We discuss some of the contingencies at these different levels, and argue that future research needs to study OI – originally an organisational...

Learning Management Systems and Comparison of Open Source Learning Management Systems and Proprietary Learning Management Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yücel Yılmaz

2016-04-01

Full Text Available The concept of learning has been increasingly gaining importance for individuals, businesses and communities in the age of information. On the other hand, developments in information and communication technologies take effect in the field of learning activities. With these technologies, barriers of time and space against the learning activities largely disappear and these technologies make it easier to carry out these activities more effectively. There remain a lot of questions regarding selection of learning management system (LMS to be used for the management of e-learning processes by all organizations conducing educational practices including universities, companies, non-profit organizations, etc. The main questions are as follows: Shall we choose open source LMS or commercial LMS? Can the selected LMS meet existing needs and future potential needs for the organization? What are the possibilities of technical support in the management of LMS? What kind of problems may be experienced in the use of LMS and how can these problems be solved? How much effective can officials in the organization be in the management of LMS? In this study, primarily e-learning and the concept of LMS will be discussed, and in the next section, as for answers to these questions, open source LMSs and centrally developed LMSs will be examined and their advantages and disadvantages relative to each other will be discussed.

Stepping up Open Science Training for European Research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Birgit Schmidt

2016-06-01

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

Shareveillance: Subjectivity between open and closed data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Clare Birchall

2016-11-01

Full Text Available This article attempts to question modes of sharing and watching to rethink political subjectivity beyond that which is enabled and enforced by the current data regime. It identifies and examines a ‘shareveillant’ subjectivity: a form configured by the sharing and watching that subjects have to withstand and enact in the contemporary data assemblage. Looking at government open and closed data as case studies, this article demonstrates how ‘shareveillance’ produces an anti-political role for the public. In describing shareveillance as, after Jacques Rancière, a distribution of the (digital sensible, this article posits a politico-ethical injunction to cut into the share and flow of data in order to arrange a more enabling assemblage of data and its affects. In order to interrupt shareveillance, this article borrows a concept from Édouard Glissant and his concern with raced otherness to imagine what a ‘right to opacity’ might mean in the digital context. To assert this right is not to endorse the individual subject in her sovereignty and solitude, but rather to imagine a collective political subjectivity and relationality according to the important question of what it means to ‘share well’ beyond the veillant expectations of the state.

Opening stages of the marathon at the Maltings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1983-01-01

In this report on the opening stages of the public inquiry into plans to build a new nuclear power station at Sizewell in Suffolk based on the pressurised water reactor system, the opening address of Lord Silsoe QC and the evidence of J. Baker, R. Mathews and J. Wright, all appearing for the CEGB, are summarized. Arguments examined included, economy, siting, safety, diversification of fuel supplies, and the question of using renewable energy sources for alternative power generation. (U.K.)

On a class of quantum Langevin equations and the question of approach to equilibrium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maassen, J.D.M.

1982-01-01

This thesis is concerned with a very simple 'open' quantum system, i.e. being in contact with the outer world. It is asked whether the motion of this system shows frictional behaviour in that it tends to thermal equilibrium. A partial positive answer is given to this question, more precisely, to the question if the solution of the quantum mechanical Langevin equation that describes the Lamb-model (a harmonic oscillator damped by coupling with a string), approaches an equilibrium state. In two sections, the classical and quantum Langevin equations are treated analogously. (Auth.)

Knowledge related activities in open innovation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedrosa, Alex; Välling, Margus; Boyd, Britta

2013-01-01

interaction in open innovation. Despite valuable insights into the importance of the variety of external knowledge sources to enhance (open) innovation, research has overlooked so far that managers’ characteristics and practices are relevant for the absorption of external knowledge in open innovation. Thus......Theory and practice both have recognised the importance of external knowledge to enhance organisations’ innovation performance. Due to organisations’ growing interest in effectively collaborating with external knowledge sources, research has investigated the importance of firm-external stakeholder......, the purpose of this study is to explore how organisations’ absorptive capacity – exploration, transformation, and exploitation – becomes manifested in managers’ characteristics and practices in open innovation. This article reports on the findings obtained from four case studies of manufacturing and service...

Dog Bite Reflections--Socratic Questioning Revisited

Science.gov (United States)

Toledo, Cheri A.

2015-01-01

In the online environment, the asynchronous discussion is an important tool for creating community, developing critical thinking skills, and checking for understanding. As students learn how to use Socratic questions for effective interactions, the discussion boards can become the most exciting part of the course. This sequel to the article…

Going "open" with mesoscopy: a new dimension on multi-view imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Gualda, Emilio; Moreno, Nuno; Tomancak, Pavel; Martins, Gabriel G

2014-03-01

OpenSPIM and OpenSpinMicroscopy emerged as open access platforms for Light Sheet and Optical Projection Imaging, often called as optical mesoscopy techniques. Both projects can be easily reproduced using comprehensive online instructions that should foster the implementation and further development of optical imaging techniques with sample rotation control. This additional dimension in an open system offers the possibility to make multi-view microscopy easily modified and will complement the emerging commercial solutions. Furthermore, it is deeply based on other open platforms such as MicroManager and Arduino, enabling development of tailored setups for very specific biological questions. In our perspective, the open access principle of OpenSPIM and OpenSpinMicroscopy is a game-changer, helping the concepts of light sheet and optical projection tomography (OPT) to enter the mainstream of biological imaging.

Intonational Structures in Romanian Yes-No Questions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vasile Apopei

2006-05-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the conclusions resulted from an intonational analysis of Romanian Yes-No questions. The recent analysis results consist in dividing and structuring the F0 curves into intonational units. Each intonational unit is described by a tone sequence using ToBI labels used in annotation of the most important phonetic events: pitch accents and boundary tones. The authors of the present study propose a description of the resulted patterns for F0 contour in terms of intonational units structures described by their tone sequence. We consider this description suitable for the variety of melodic contours resulted from different speakers and different focalizations in their utterances. In paragraph 3, the paper presents the intonational variants resulted from our speech corpus analysis. The conclusions of Yes-No question analysis are important for linguistic studies and in Romanian speech synthesis.

OpenLabNotes – An Electronic Laboratory Notebook Extension for OpenLabFramework

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

List Markus

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs are more accessible and reliable than their paper based alternatives and thus find widespread adoption. While a large number of commercial products is available, small- to mid-sized laboratories can often not afford the costs or are concerned about the longevity of the providers. Turning towards free alternatives, however, raises questions about data protection, which are not sufficiently addressed by available solutions. To serve as legal documents, ELNs must prevent scientific fraud through technical means such as digital signatures. It would also be advantageous if an ELN was integrated with a laboratory information management system to allow for a comprehensive documentation of experimental work including the location of samples that were used in a particular experiment. Here, we present OpenLabNotes, which adds state-of-the-art ELN capabilities to OpenLabFramework, a powerful and flexible laboratory information management system. In contrast to comparable solutions, it allows to protect the intellectual property of its users by offering data protection with digital signatures. OpenLabNotes effectively closes the gap between research documentation and sample management, thus making Open- LabFramework more attractive for laboratories that seek to increase productivity through electronic data management.

Scientific publishing online,and the question of open access. Why such a long delay?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christine Kosmopoulos

2005-05-01

Full Text Available In October of 2003 in Berlin, twenty directors of European research institutes (the CNRS, INSERM, the Max Plank Institute, ratified a Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, in which they committed themselves to supporting all initiatives based on the paradigm of free access on the Internet. In February 2005, the Berlin 3 Conference, held in Southampton, encouraged researchers to publish in journals offering free access. But while this model is being in...

Beyond Ambiguity: A Practical Framework for Developing and Implementing Open Government Reforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Merlin Chatwin

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The broad idea of ‘Open Government’ is widely accepted as a facilitator for rebuilding trust and validation in governments around the world. The Open Government Partnership is a significant driver of this movement with over 75 member nations, 15 subnational government participants and many others local governments implementing reforms within their national frameworks. The central tenets of transparency, accountability, participation, and collaboration are well understood within scholarly works and practitioner publications. However, open government is yet to be attributed with a universally acknowledged definition. This leads to questions of adaptability and salience of the concept of open government across diverse contexts. This paper addresses these questions by utilizing a human systems framework called the Dialogue Boxes. To develop an understanding of how open government is currently positioned within scholarly works and practitioner publications, an extensive literature search was conducted. The search utilized major search engines, often-cited references, direct journal searches and colleague provided references. Using existing definitions and descriptions, this paper populates the framework with available information and allow for context specific content to be populated by future users. Ultimately, the aim of the paper is to support the development of open government action plans that maximize the direct positive impact on people’s lives.

Organising new business development: Open Innovation at Degussa

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bröring, S.; Herzog, P.

2008-01-01

Abstract: Purpose - To analyse different organizational tools of business development used in practice. This analysis seeks to address the question of how an organization can achieve the recurring shift from exploration to exploitation and at the same time manage to balance its open and closed

On the maturity of open source BPM systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wohed, P.; Hofstede, ter A.H.M.; Russell, N.C.; Andersson, B.; Aalst, van der W.M.P.

2009-01-01

Introduction: Two major trends in the area of information systems development are (1) the growing interest in Workflow and Business Process Management (BPM) systems and (2) the increasing acceptance and use of open source software. This development raises the following questions: 1. What are the

A New Way of Measuring Openness: The Open Governance Index

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liz Laffan

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Open source software is now "business as usual" in the mobile industry. While much attention is given to the importance of open source licenses, we argue in this article that the governance model can be as necessary to a project’s success and that projects vary widely in the governance models – whether open or closed – that they employ. Open source governance models describe the control points that are used to influence open source projects with regard to access to the source code, how the source code is developed, how derivatives are created, and the community structure of the project. Governance determines who has control over the project beyond what is deemed legally necessary via the open source licenses for that project. The purpose of our research is to define and measure the governance of open source projects, in other words, the extent to which decision-making in an open source project is "open" or "closed". We analyzed eight open source projects using 13 specific governance criteria across four areas of governance: access, development, derivatives and community. Our findings suggest that the most open platforms will be most successful in the long term, however we acknowledge exceptions to this rule. We also identify best practices that are common across these open source projects with regard to source code access, development of source code, management of derivatives, and community structure. These best practices increase the likelihood of developer use of and involvement in open source projects.

Impact of Canopy Openness on Spider Communities: Implications for Conservation Management of Formerly Coppiced Oak Forests.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ondřej Košulič

Full Text Available Traditional woodland management created a mosaic of differently aged patches providing favorable conditions for a variety of arthropods. After abandonment of historical ownership patterns and traditional management and the deliberate transformation to high forest after World War II, large forest areas became darker and more homogeneous. This had significant negative consequences for biodiversity. An important question is whether even small-scale habitat structures maintained by different levels of canopy openness in abandoned coppiced forest may constitute conditions suitable for forest as well as open habitat specialists. We investigated the effect of canopy openness in former traditionally coppiced woodlands on the species richness, functional diversity, activity density, conservation value, and degree of rareness of epigeic spiders. In each of the eight studied locations, 60-m-long transect was established consisting of five pitfall traps placed at regular 15 m intervals along the gradient. Spiders were collected from May to July 2012. We recorded 90 spider species, including high proportions of xeric specialists (40% and red-listed threatened species (26%. The peaks of conservation indicators, as well as spider community abundance, were shifted toward more open canopies. On the other hand, functional diversity peaked at more closed canopies followed by a rapid decrease with increasing canopy openness. Species richness was highest in the middle of the canopy openness gradient, suggesting an ecotone effect. Ordinations revealed that species of conservation concern tended to be associated with sparse and partly opened canopy. The results show that the various components of biodiversity peaked at different levels of canopy openness. Therefore, the restoration and suitable forest management of such conditions will retain important diversification of habitats in formerly coppiced oak forest stands. We indicate that permanent presence of small

Two faces of global open society

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cvetićanin Neven

2008-01-01

Full Text Available The Essay considers 'the rule' of the so called post-civil political centre that corresponds to the familiar concept of open society, questioning the good as well as the bad sides of such 'rule'. The research is in the first place about global open society stability and attention is addressed to its present enemies - from terrorism, over organized crime, all the way to the so called local legitimates that are confronting the universal and global legitimates represented by the followers of the open society from the post civil political centre area. The Essay presents the debate with Fukuyama's thesis about the 'end of history' considering that open society, i.e. global post civil political centre has visible enemies who do not allow for dialectics of history to stand still as Fukuyama believed. Instead of Fukuyama's 'end of history' the Essay comes to the conclusion that present global situation is marked by post-modern opposition of liberal-democratic post civil centre and extreme anti civil margins, with reference to the opposition of open society and its enemies, which will put under limits further steps of history towards new socio-historical forms.

The importance of open- and closed-skill agility for team selection of adult male basketball players.

Science.gov (United States)

Scanlan, A T; Tucker, P S; Dalbo, V J

2015-05-01

Open-skill agility qualities have yet to be described in adult male basketball players. Further, the importance of open- and closed-skill agility for team selection remains unknown. Thus, this study aimed to: 1) describe the open- and closed-skill agility of adult male basketball players; and 2) compare these properties between starting and non-starting players. A cross-sectional between-group design was used. Six starting (playing time: 30.1 ± 8.8 min; age: 30.5 ± 4.8 years; height: 192.1 ± 7.7 cm; body mass: 100.5 ± 15.0 kg; VO(2max): 48.4 ± 6.6 mL∙kg⁻¹∙min⁻¹) and six non-starting (4.3 ± 3.6 min; 21.3 ± 5 years; 185.7 ± 7.4 cm; 94.4 ± 17.9 kg; 50.6 ± 3.9 mL∙kg⁻¹∙min⁻¹) state-level basketball players completed multiple trials for the Change of Direction Speed Test (CODST) and Reactive Agility Test (RAT). No statistically significant between-group differences were evident for CODST movement time (starters: 1.652 ± 0.047 s; non-starters: 1.626 ± 0.040 s, P=0.68), RAT response time (starters: 307.5 ± 100.5 ms; non-starters: 426.5 ± 140.7 ms, P=0.12), and RAT decision-making time (starters: 110.7 ± 11.0 ms; non-starters: 147.3 ± 14.2 ms, P=0.08). However, starters (2.001 ± 0.051 s) possessed significantly (P=0.02) faster RAT total movement times than non-starters (2.182 ± 0.040 s). These data support the utility of perceptual and cognitive components of agility performance in distinguishing starting from non-starting players in basketball. Consequently, basketball coaching and conditioning staff should incorporate sport-specific reactive training drills for all players during the annual conditioning plan.

Open areas and open access

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thorndike, A.M.

1979-01-01

The main objective of the two open areas in the present ISABELLE design has been to provide flexibility with respect to the size and shape of experimental equipment that would eventually be installed there. No permanent building would be installed initially. One possibility would be to enclose each experiment in a temporary structure that would provide weatherproofing and shielding; another possibility would be to erect a permanent building at a later time, when experience has made the needs clearer than they are at present. The secondary objective of the design of open areas has been to keep initial costs as low as practicable. Another objective might be added, however, which we indicate by the term ''open access.'' This note will explore this idea and some design concepts based on it. In the ISABELLE 1977 summer workshop there was considerable discussion of the importance of techniques for inserting large pieces of experimental equipment quickly and removing them with equal ease and speed. Since enclosed halls have certain restrictions in this respect, open areas may be helpful in providing this feature. If the mechanical and electrical aspects could be handled quickly, one might even attempt to reduce the time spent on bureaucratic procedures in order to expedite the introduction of new experiments and new ideas in these areas

Staff attitudes to talking openly about ethical dilemmas

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Trapp, Leila

2010-01-01

on business ethics communication and behavior reveals that a good predictor of ethical conduct is open workplace dialogue about ethics.  In this paper, I therefore address the question: What influences employee attitudes to talking openly about ethical issues? Answers are proposed on the basis of focus group...... interviews at the healthcare company Novo Nordisk.   It was found that interest in discussing ethical issues was influenced by two main factors: employee conceptualizations of business ethics, and the level of inter-collegial trust, credibility, and confidence. In this paper, by examining these phenomena, I...... aim at providing insight that can help managers in their attempts to promote open workplace dialogue about ethical issues....

Analysis of multi-stage open shop processing systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Eggermont, C.E.J.; Schrijver, A.; Woeginger, G.J.; Schwentick, T.; Dürr, C.

2011-01-01

We study algorithmic problems in multi-stage open shop processing systems that are centered around reachability and deadlock detection questions. We characterize safe and unsafe system states. We show that it is easy to recognize system states that can be reached from the initial state (where the

Exceptional points in open quantum systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mueller, Markus; Rotter, Ingrid

2008-01-01

Open quantum systems are embedded in the continuum of scattering wavefunctions and are naturally described by non-Hermitian Hamilton operators. In the complex energy plane, exceptional points appear at which two (or more) eigenvalues of the Hamilton operator coalesce. Although they are a countable set of single points in the complex energy plane and therefore of measure zero, they determine decisively the dynamics of open quantum systems. A powerful method for the description of open quantum systems is the Feshbach projection operator formalism. It is used in the present paper as a basic tool for the study of exceptional points and of the role they play for the dynamics of open quantum systems. Among others, the topological structure of the exceptional points, the rigidity of the phases of the eigenfunctions in their vicinity, the enhancement of observable values due to the reduced phase rigidity and the appearance of phase transitions are considered. The results are compared with existing experimental data on microwave cavities. In the last section, some questions being still unsolved, are considered

Augmenting Fellow Education Through Spaced Multiple-Choice Questions.

Science.gov (United States)

Barsoumian, Alice E; Yun, Heather C

2018-01-01

The San Antonio Uniformed Services Health Education Consortium Infectious Disease Fellowship program historically included a monthly short-answer and multiple-choice quiz. The intent was to ensure medical knowledge in relevant content areas that may not be addressed through clinical rotations, such as operationally relevant infectious disease. After completion, it was discussed in a small group with faculty. Over time, faculty noted increasing dissatisfaction with the activity. Spaced interval education is useful in retention of medical knowledge and skills by medical students and residents. Its use in infectious disease fellow education has not been described. To improve the quiz experience, we assessed the introduction of spaced education curriculum in our program. A pre-intervention survey was distributed to assess the monthly quiz with Likert scale and open-ended questions. A multiple-choice question spaced education curriculum was created using the Qstream(R) platform in 2011. Faculty development on question writing was conducted. Two questions were delivered every 2 d. Incorrectly and correctly answered questions were repeated after 7 and 13 d, respectively. Questions needed to be answered correctly twice to be retired. Fellow satisfaction was assessed at semi-annual fellowship reviews over 5 yr and by a one-time repeat survey. Pre-intervention survey of six fellows indicated dissatisfaction with the time commitment of the monthly quiz (median Likert score of 2, mean 6.5 h to complete), neutral in perceived utility, but satisfaction with knowledge retention (Likert score 4). Eighteen fellows over 5 yr participated in the spaced education curriculum. Three quizzes with 20, 39, and 48 questions were designed. Seventeen percentage of questions addressed operationally relevant topics. Fifty-nine percentage of questions were answered correctly on first attempt, improving to 93% correct answer rate at the end of the analysis. Questions were attempted 2,999 times

Spectral-element Seismic Wave Propagation on CUDA/OpenCL Hardware Accelerators

Science.gov (United States)

Peter, D. B.; Videau, B.; Pouget, K.; Komatitsch, D.

2015-12-01

Seismic wave propagation codes are essential tools to investigate a variety of wave phenomena in the Earth. Furthermore, they can now be used for seismic full-waveform inversions in regional- and global-scale adjoint tomography. Although these seismic wave propagation solvers are crucial ingredients to improve the resolution of tomographic images to answer important questions about the nature of Earth's internal processes and subsurface structure, their practical application is often limited due to high computational costs. They thus need high-performance computing (HPC) facilities to improving the current state of knowledge. At present, numerous large HPC systems embed many-core architectures such as graphics processing units (GPUs) to enhance numerical performance. Such hardware accelerators can be programmed using either the CUDA programming environment or the OpenCL language standard. CUDA software development targets NVIDIA graphic cards while OpenCL was adopted by additional hardware accelerators, like e.g. AMD graphic cards, ARM-based processors as well as Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors. For seismic wave propagation simulations using the open-source spectral-element code package SPECFEM3D_GLOBE, we incorporated an automatic source-to-source code generation tool (BOAST) which allows us to use meta-programming of all computational kernels for forward and adjoint runs. Using our BOAST kernels, we generate optimized source code for both CUDA and OpenCL languages within the source code package. Thus, seismic wave simulations are able now to fully utilize CUDA and OpenCL hardware accelerators. We show benchmarks of forward seismic wave propagation simulations using SPECFEM3D_GLOBE on CUDA/OpenCL GPUs, validating results and comparing performances for different simulations and hardware usages.

IT-Enabled Knowledge Creation for Open Innovation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Eseryel, U. Yeliz

2014-01-01

Open innovation is increasingly important for researchers and practitioners alike. Open innovation is closely linked to knowledge creation in that, with open innovation, knowledge inflows and outflows are exploited for innovation. In the information systems field, open innovation has been closely

Practical Usage of Multiple-Choice Questions as Part of Learning and Self-Evaluation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paula Kangasniemi

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The poster describes how the multiple-choice questions could be a part of learning, not only assessing. We often think of the role of questions only in order to test the student's skills. We have tested how questions could be a part of learning in our web-based course of information retrieval in Lapland University. In web-based learning there is a need for high-quality mediators. Mediators are learning promoters which trigger, support, and amplify learning. Mediators can be human mediators or tool mediators. The tool mediators are for example; tests, tutorials, guides and diaries. The multiple-choice questions can also be learning promoters which select, interpret and amplify objects for learning. What do you have to take into account when you are preparing multiple-choice questions as mediators? First you have to prioritize teaching objectives: what must be known and what should be known. According to our experience with contact learning, you can assess what the things are that students have problems with and need more guidance on. The most important addition to the questions is feedback during practice. The questions’ answers (wrong or right are not important. The feedback on the answers are important to guide students on how to search. The questions promote students’ self-regulation and self-evaluation. Feedback can be verbal, a screenshot or a video. We have added a verbal feedback for every question and also some screenshots and eight videos in our web-based course.

Enabling Open Innovation: Lessons from Haier

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Arie Y.Lewin; Liisa V(a)likangas; Jin Chen

2017-01-01

Open innovation has become a dominant innovation paradigm.However,the actual adoption of open innovation organizational designs and practices remains elusive,and ongoing examples of large companies practicing open innovation in mature industries or beyond R&D activities are rare.Despite the continuing interest in open innovation and the surging research on the topic,not much is documented about how,in particular,large companies interpret and implement open innovation or develop and sustain an innovation-enabling culture.This paper reports on a study of Haier's adoption of six radical innovations as it implements an open innovation organization over a period of seven years.The study is unique in that the cases reveal how open innovation is enabled by the socially enabling mechanisms developed under Chairman Ruimin Zhang's leadership.These varied enabling mechanisms open the organization to serendipity at every level,from the bottom up to suppliers.Most importantly,the mechanisms imprint and sustain an open innovation culture recognized as important-yet often left unarticulated in terms of how it is practiced-in the prior literature.The paper contributes to and highlights the centrality of socially enabling mechanisms underlying an organization's innovation absorptive capacity.

The Quality of MOOCs: How to improve the design of open education and online courses for learners?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stracke, Christian M.

2017-01-01

This paper presents the current status of Open Education and MOOCs and discusses their quality following the main question: How can we introduce new design and evaluation methods and personalization strategies to improve the learning quality of Open Education? First, the dimensions of Open Education

The Physics of Open Ended Evolution

Science.gov (United States)

Adams, Alyssa M.

What makes living systems different than non-living ones? Unfortunately this question is impossible to answer, at least currently. Instead, we must face computationally tangible questions based on our current understanding of physics, computation, information, and biology. Yet we have few insights into how living systems might quantifiably differ from their non-living counterparts, as in a mathematical foundation to explain away our observations of biological evolution, emergence, innovation, and organization. The development of a theory of living systems, if at all possible, demands a mathematical understanding of how data generated by complex biological systems changes over time. In addition, this theory ought to be broad enough as to not be constrained to an Earth-based biochemistry. In this dissertation, the philosophy of studying living systems from the perspective of traditional physics is first explored as a motivating discussion for subsequent research. Traditionally, we have often thought of the physical world from a bottom-up approach: things happening on a smaller scale aggregate into things happening on a larger scale. In addition, the laws of physics are generally considered static over time. Research suggests that biological evolution may follow dynamic laws that (at least in part) change as a function of the state of the system. Of the three featured research projects, cellular automata (CA) are used as a model to study certain aspects of living systems in two of them. These aspects include self-reference, open-ended evolution, local physical universality, subjectivity, and information processing. Open-ended evolution and local physical universality are attributed to the vast amount of innovation observed throughout biological evolution. Biological systems may distinguish themselves in terms of information processing and storage, not outside the theory of computation. The final research project concretely explores real-world phenomenon by means of

Pinon and Juniper Field Guide: Asking the Right Questions to Select Appropriate Management Actions

Science.gov (United States)

Tausch, R.J.; Miller, R.F.; Roundy, B.A.; Chambers, J.C.

2009-01-01

Pinon-juniper woodlands are an important vegetation type in the Great Basin. Old-growth and open shrub savanna woodlands have been present over much of the last several hundred years. Strong evidence indicates these woodlands have experienced significant tree infilling and major expansion in their distribution since the late 1800s by encroaching into surrounding landscapes once dominated by shrubs and herbaceous vegetation. Both infilling and expansion affects soil resources, plant community structure and composition, water and nutrient cycles, forage production, wildlife habitat, biodiversity, and fire patterns across the landscape. Another impact is the shift from historic fire regimes to larger and more intense wildfires that are increasingly determining the future of this landscape. This publication helps biologists and land managers consider how to look at expansion of woodlands and determine what questions to ask to develop a management strategy, including prescribed fire or other practices.

CP and T violations: new results leave open questions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Quinn, H.; Hewett, J.

1999-01-01

A steady stream of new results on the violation of charge-parity symmetry has improved our understanding of the difference between matter and antimatter, and will have important consequences for a new generation of particle-physics experiments. Symmetry is one of the most powerful concepts in modern physics and it underlies many fundamental laws, such as the conservation of energy and momentum. However, there is a very obvious lack of symmetry all around us: why is the universe made of matter rather than antimatter? The big bang is thought to have created equal amounts of matter and antimatter but, to the best of our knowledge, all the antimatter has disappeared, along with most of the matter. How can this be explained? The answer is not yet known, but the clues lie in understanding the symmetry, or the lack of it, between the basic interactions of matter and antimatter. In this article the authors describe the search for antisymmetry in particle physics. (UK)

A medical consultation service on Facebook: descriptive analysis of questions answered.

Science.gov (United States)

Helve, Otto

2014-09-04

Social media is used increasingly by the general public to access health information. However, a lack of models for health information distribution limits the presence of publicly funded services on social media sites. The goal of the study was to present a model for delivering child health information to parents through a social media site. A Facebook site was launched for 11 months based on a question-and-answer service produced by a pediatrician and open to Facebook users over 18 years old. If the answer did not include a further referral to a health care service provider, the question was considered comprehensively answered. The site was funded by a pharmaceutical company, and it included an advertisement of a pharmaceutical product for children's fever and pain. During the study, 768 questions were submitted: an average of 69.8 (SD 31.7) per month. There were 245,533 independent Facebook users on the site, with an average of 727.0 (SD 2280.6) per day. Infections were the most common theme in questions (355/768, 46.2%). Questions were more likely to be comprehensively answered if they were related to infections (279/355, 78.6%) than questions related to non-infectious symptoms (265/423, 64.2%, P=.003). On this site aimed at parents of small children, personalized answers were an effective way of delivering information. The service is likely to have reduced the need for further contacts with a health care service provider in more than half of the cases. The site could serve as a model for publicly funded health information distribution.

Questions about Brain Development = Preguntas sobre el desarrollo del cerebro.

Science.gov (United States)

Southeastern Regional Vision for Education (SERVE), Tallahassee, FL.

Noting that new research shows that a baby's earliest years shape how he or she grows later in life, this brochure, in English- and Spanish-language versions, provides brief answers to some important questions parents may have about their baby's brain. The questions answered are: (1) "Why is brain development a popular subject lately?; (2)…

Open areas and open access

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thorndike, A.M.

1978-01-01

One objective of the two open areas in the present ISABELLE design is to provide flexibility with respect to the size and shape of experimental equipment that would eventually be installed there. No permanent building would be installed initially. A second objective of the design of open areas is to keep initial costs as low as practicable. Another objective is open access. This note explores this idea and some design concepts based on it. It would permit inserting large pieces of experimental equipment quickly and removing them with equal ease and speed. Entire experiments would be moved in a single piece (or a few) by building them on movable platforms with capacities of up to about 1000 tons per platform. Most experiments could be built on a single platform or on a few. The shielding must also be moved. It must also be organized into a small number of large units. A scheme using large tanks filled with water is described. It is important to make the equipment on a given platform as complete and self-contained as possible, with a minimum of interconnections for power, coolant, controls, data transmission, etc. 5 figures

The human intestinal IgA response; burning questions.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jo eSpencer

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms that generate the human intestinal IgA response is fundamentally important if effective mucosal vaccination is to be successful and broadly applied. There have been several major advances in this field recently that have allowed us to feel optimistic that this will be achieved. However, there are still many unanswered questions. These questions have been used as a scaffold for this review that considers findings at the current leading edge alongside the many uncertainties in this field.

What explains willingness to pay for smoking-cessation treatments - addiction level, quit-rate effectiveness or the opening bid?

Science.gov (United States)

Olsen, Jan Abel; Røgeberg, Ole J; Stavem, Knut

2012-11-01

Several countries have now passed laws that place limitations on where smokers may smoke. A range of smoking-cessation treatments have become available, many of which have documented increased quit rates. Population surveys show that most smokers wish to quit, and most non-smokers would prefer to reduce the prevalence of smoking in society. The strengths of these preferences, however, as measured by their willingness to pay (WTP), have not yet been investigated. This study aims to identify variables that explain variations in people's answers to WTP questions on smoking-cessation treatments. A representative sample of the Norwegian population was asked their WTP in terms of an earmarked contribution to a public smoking-cessation programme. A sub-group of daily smokers was, in addition, asked about their WTP for a hypothetical treatment that would remove their urge to smoke. The impact of variation in the question format (different opening bids) on stated WTP was compared with that of factors suggested by economic theory, such as quit-rate effectiveness, degree of addiction as measured by the 12-item Cigarette Dependence Scale (CDS-12), and degree of peer group influence as measured by the proportion of one's friends who smoke. In both programmes, the most important determinant for explaining variations in WTP was the size of the opening bid. Differences in quit-rate effectiveness did not matter for people's WTP for the smoking-cessation programme. Addiction, and having a small proportion of friends who smoke, were positively associated with smokers' WTP to quit smoking. Variations in WTP were influenced more by how the question was framed in terms of differences in opening bids, than by variables reflecting the quality (effectiveness) and need (addiction level) for the good in question. While the WTP method is theoretically attractive, the findings that outcomes in terms of different quit rates did not affect WTP, and that WTP answers can be manipulated by the

Generating Sustainable Value from Open Data in a Sharing Society

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jetzek, Thorhildur; Avital, Michel; Bjørn-Andersen, Niels

2014-01-01

Our societies are in the midst of a paradigm shift that transforms hierarchical markets into an open and networked economy based on digital technology and information. In that context, open data is widely presumed to have a positive effect on social, environmental and economic value; however...... the evidence to that effect has remained scarce. Subsequently, we address the question how the use of open data can stimulate the generation of sustainable value. We argue that open data sharing and reuse can empower new ways of generating value in the sharing society. Moreover, we propose a model...... that describes how different mechanisms that take part within an open system generate sustainable value. These mechanisms are enabled by a number of contextual factors that provide individuals with the motivation, opportunity and ability to generate sustainable value...

Question Word in the Mandarin Language

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xu Yunyu

2016-12-01

Full Text Available In an interrogative sentence in Mandarin language, a question word can be placed in the beginning, middle or end of a sentence. Because of the different nation and culture, when a foreign student learns Mandarin, they find it difficult to understand the question words and the position of the question words in that language. Because of that, the writer proposes to explain such problems. This research aims to find out what are the types of question words in Mandarin, and also to explain the function and usage of question words in the Mandarin interrogative sentence. An interrogative sentence is a very important sentence. In Mandarin, the following question words: 谁(shuí “Who”，在哪里(zài nǎli “where”, 在哪儿(zài nǎ’er “where”，为什么(wèi shénme “why”, 怎么(zěnme “why”，多少（duō shǎo） “how many”，多久(duō jiǔ “how long”，什么时候 (shénme shíhòu “when”，什么(shénme “what”，做什么(zuò shénme “why”，干 什么(gàn shénme “why”，干嘛(gànma “why” and so on are used to ask “who”, “where”, “what”, “how much”, “when”, “what time”, and “why”. Those words have different functions and usage. Each sentence has a certain structure and word order. A question word can be placed in the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence. When the place is changed, there is a possibility of miscommunication.   DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.2013.160106

The role of human resource management in open innovation: exploring the relation between HR practices and OI

OpenAIRE

Paul, Svenja

2013-01-01

How do human resource practices strengthen open innovation activities? This inductive study of six cases led to propositions exploring that question. I thereby investigated the role of human resource management in open innovation, specifically the relation between HR practices and an employee's willingness to embrace open innovation.

Open-source tool for automatic import of coded surveying data to multiple vector layers in GIS environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eva Stopková

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This paper deals with a tool that enables import of the coded data in a singletext file to more than one vector layers (including attribute tables, together withautomatic drawing of line and polygon objects and with optional conversion toCAD. Python script v.in.survey is available as an add-on for open-source softwareGRASS GIS (GRASS Development Team. The paper describes a case study basedon surveying at the archaeological mission at Tell-el Retaba (Egypt. Advantagesof the tool (e.g. significant optimization of surveying work and its limits (demandson keeping conventions for the points’ names coding are discussed here as well.Possibilities of future development are suggested (e.g. generalization of points’names coding or more complex attribute table creation.

The Question of Roles and Identities in Public Administration

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Poulsen, Birgitte

2007-01-01

The article argues that we need to open up the question of what it means to be a civil servant today to understand the key characteristics of public administration in contemporary western democracies. The role of the civil servant is characterized by a multitude of expectations deriving from old....... The article presents the results of a case study carried out within three Danish Ministries on the role of the civil servant. It is shown how differently the role is interpreted in the Danish State Administration depending on which of the archaeological layers are activated, and how these different...

Part-Time Learners in Open and Distance Learning: Revisiting the Critical Importance of Choice, Flexibility and Employability

Science.gov (United States)

Butcher, John; Rose-Adams, John

2015-01-01

In this article, we argue that, if open learning seeks to (re)assert a social justice mission, issues of openness and flexibility are more critical than ever. Drawing on qualitative data from a National Union of Students Wales/Open University study, which explored, in the voices of Welsh students, the identity, motivation and barriers faced by…

Open Innovation and Business Model: A Brazilian Company Case Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elzo Alves Aranha

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Open Innovation is increasingly being introduced in international and national organizations for the creation of value. Open innovation is a practical tool, requiring new strategies and decisions from managers for the exploitation of innovative activities. The basic question that this study seeks to answer is linked to the practice of open innovation in connection with the open business model geared towards the creation of value in a Brazilian company. This paper aims to present a case study that illustrates how open innovation offers resources to change the open business model in order to create value for the Brazilian company. The case study method of a company in the sector of pharma-chemical products was used. The results indicate that internal sources of knowledge, external sources of knowledge and accentuate working partnerships were adopted by company as strategies to offer resources to change the open business model in order to create value.

Order Without Intellectual Property Law: Open Science in Influenza.

Science.gov (United States)

Kapczynski, Amy

Today, intellectual property (IP) scholars accept that IP as an approach to information production has serious limits. But what lies beyond IP? A new literature on "intellectual production without IP" (or "IP without IP") has emerged to explore this question, but its examples and explanations have yet to convince skeptics. This Article reorients this new literature via a study of a hard case: a global influenza virus-sharing network that has for decades produced critically important information goods, at significant expense, and in a loose-knit group--all without recourse to IP. I analyze the Network as an example of "open science," a mode of information production that differs strikingly from conventional IP, and yet that successfully produces important scientific goods in response to social need. The theory and example developed here refute the most powerful criticisms of the emerging "IP without IP" literature, and provide a stronger foundation for this important new field. Even where capital costs are high, creation without IP can be reasonably effective in social terms, if it can link sources of funding to reputational and evaluative feedback loops like those that characterize open science. It can also be sustained over time, even by loose-knit groups and where the stakes are high, because organizations and other forms of law can help to stabilize cooperation. I also show that contract law is well suited to modes of information production that rely upon a "supply side" rather than "demand side" model. In its most important instances, "order without IP" is not order without governance, nor order without law. Recognizing this can help us better ground this new field, and better study and support forms of knowledge production that deserve our attention, and that sometimes sustain our very lives.

Beginning EFL Teachers' Beliefs about Quality Questions and Their Questioning Practices

Science.gov (United States)

Pham, Ly Ngoc Khanh; Hamid, M. Obaidul

2013-01-01

Motivated by the scarcity of research that examines the impact of teacher beliefs on their actual practices in Vietnam, this study investigated the relationship between teachers' beliefs about quality questions and their questioning behaviours in terms of questioning purposes, content focus, students' cognitive level, wording and syntax. Thirteen…

The question of caution in professional medium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Godard, O.

2006-01-01

Contrived in Europe to tackle the environment protection policies and management of natural resources, the principle of caution has seen since 1990 its interest developed towards the fields of food safety and public health. The importance and the relevance of questions have lead the national institute of research and safety to constitute a working group to explore the problems and the potentialities that could be linked to the explicit introduction of this principle and this in the field of the prevention of professional risks. This work tackles several aspects of the question of caution in professional medium such history, concepts, evolution...as well as cases judged exemplary ones. (N.C.)

The importance of coughs

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2012-03-14

Mar 14, 2012 ... how important it can be. It is at best ... e. rise of intrathoracic pressure up to 200mm Hg., f. glottic opening and ... The differential diagnosis may be reviewed from knowledge .... cigarette smoking is an important example. 3.

Repetitive Questioning II

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. C. Hamdy MD

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Repetitive questioning is a major problem for caregivers, particularly taxing if they are unable to recognize and understand the reasons why their loved one keeps asking the same question over and over again. Caregivers may be tempted to believe that the patient does not even try to remember the answer given or is just getting obnoxious. This is incorrect. Repetitive questioning is due to the underlying disease: The patient’s short term memory is impaired and he is unable to register, encode, retain and retrieve the answer. If he is concerned about a particular topic, he will keep asking the same question over and over again. To the patient each time she asks the question, it is as if she asked it for the first time. Just answering repetitive questioning by providing repeatedly the same answer is not sufficient. Caregivers should try to identify the underlying cause for this repetitive questioning. In an earlier case study, the patient was concerned about her and her family’s safety and kept asking whether the doors are locked. In this present case study, the patient does not know how to handle the awkward situation he finds himself in. He just does not know what to do. He is not able to adjust to the new unexpected situation. So he repeatedly wants to reassure himself that he is not intruding by asking the same question over and over again. We discuss how the patient’s son-in-law could have avoided this situation and averted the catastrophic ending.

Open source EMR software: profiling, insights and hands-on analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Kiah, M L M; Haiqi, Ahmed; Zaidan, B B; Zaidan, A A

2014-11-01

The use of open source software in health informatics is increasingly advocated by authors in the literature. Although there is no clear evidence of the superiority of the current open source applications in the healthcare field, the number of available open source applications online is growing and they are gaining greater prominence. This repertoire of open source options is of a great value for any future-planner interested in adopting an electronic medical/health record system, whether selecting an existent application or building a new one. The following questions arise. How do the available open source options compare to each other with respect to functionality, usability and security? Can an implementer of an open source application find sufficient support both as a user and as a developer, and to what extent? Does the available literature provide adequate answers to such questions? This review attempts to shed some light on these aspects. The objective of this study is to provide more comprehensive guidance from an implementer perspective toward the available alternatives of open source healthcare software, particularly in the field of electronic medical/health records. The design of this study is twofold. In the first part, we profile the published literature on a sample of existent and active open source software in the healthcare area. The purpose of this part is to provide a summary of the available guides and studies relative to the sampled systems, and to identify any gaps in the published literature with respect to our research questions. In the second part, we investigate those alternative systems relative to a set of metrics, by actually installing the software and reporting a hands-on experience of the installation process, usability, as well as other factors. The literature covers many aspects of open source software implementation and utilization in healthcare practice. Roughly, those aspects could be distilled into a basic taxonomy, making the

Design Support System for Open Distance Learning Student Teamwork

Science.gov (United States)

Putranto, A.; Pradipto, Y. D.

2017-01-01

Open distance learning students in doing team assignment, they seldom face to some problems such as student fell unfair in numbers of workload contribution, instructors also do not know which students do more work than others. So there are some questions ie: how to connect between instructor, team members, and working documents. Methods will be used are first, analyzing current condition and last by designing systems to connect between instructor, team members, and document. The expected result is support systems for open distance learning student teamwork.

The free energies of partially open coronal magnetic fields

Science.gov (United States)

Low, B. C.; Smith, D. F.

1993-01-01

A simple model of the low corona is examined in terms of a static polytropic atmosphere in equilibrium with a global magnetic field. The question posed is whether magnetostatic states with partially open magnetic fields may contain magnetic energies in excess of those in fully open magnetic fields. Based on the analysis presented here, it is concluded that the cross-field electric currents in the pre-eruption corona are a viable source of the bulk of the energies in a mass ejection and its associated flare.

The opening of electricity and natural gas markets to professional clients. Yearly barometer - run 6. September 2010

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2010-09-01

The opening of energy markets to competition became effective to professionals on July 1, 2004. In 2010 this opening has entered into a mature phase. As soon as 2005, a barometer survey has been implemented to investigate the professional clients and to collect statistical data about their behaviour with regards to the opening of markets to competition. This document deals with the results of the sixth run of the professionals' barometer carried out from August 30 to September 10, 2010 by the LH2 institute. Among the 1502 surveyed entities, LH2 has questioned the decision-makers responsible for the electricity and natural gas contracts. The barometer aimed at answering the following questions: - what is the level of knowledge and information of professionals about markets opening and the existing regulation? - What perception of this opening do they have? (pros/cons, advantages/drawbacks); - what behaviour do they have in front of the opening of markets to competition? (approach with respect to information needs, knowledge about the offer, intention to change supplier, brakes/motivations in entering the open market). (J.S.)

The opening of electricity and natural gas markets to professional clients. Yearly barometer - run 4. December 2008

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2008-12-01

The opening of energy markets to competition became effective to professionals on July 1, 2004. In 2008 this opening is entering into a mature phase. As soon as 2005, a barometer survey has been implemented to investigate the professional clients and to collect statistical data about their behaviour with regards to the opening of markets to competition. This document deals with the results of the fourth run of the professionals' barometer carried out from November 19 to December 2, 2008 by the LH2 institute. Among the 1501 surveyed entities, LH2 has questioned the decision-makers responsible for the electricity and natural gas contracts. The barometer aimed at answering the following questions: - what is the level of knowledge and information of professionals about markets opening and the existing regulation? - What perception of this opening do they have? (pros/cons, advantages/drawbacks); - what behaviour do they have in front of the opening of markets to competition? (approach with respect to information needs, knowledge about the offer, intention to change supplier, brakes/motivations in entering the open market). (J.S.)

The opening of electricity and natural gas markets to professional clients. Yearly barometer - run 5. September 2009

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2009-09-01

The opening of energy markets to competition became effective to professionals on July 1, 2004. In 2008 this opening is entering into a mature phase. As soon as 2005, a barometer survey has been implemented to investigate the professional clients and to collect statistical data about their behaviour with regards to the opening of markets to competition. This document deals with the results of the fifth run of the professionals' barometer carried out from September 14 to September 25, 2009 by the LH2 institute. Among the 1501 surveyed entities, LH2 has questioned the decision-makers responsible for the electricity and natural gas contracts. The barometer aimed at answering the following questions: - what is the level of knowledge and information of professionals about markets opening and the existing regulation? - What perception of this opening do they have? (pros/cons, advantages/drawbacks); - what behaviour do they have in front of the opening of markets to competition? (approach with respect to information needs, knowledge about the offer, intention to change supplier, brakes/motivations in entering the open market). (J.S.)

The opening of electricity and natural gas markets to professional clients. Yearly barometer - run 7. September 2011

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2011-09-01

The opening of energy markets to competition became effective to professionals on July 1, 2004. In 2008 this opening is entering into a mature phase. As soon as 2005, a barometer survey has been implemented to investigate the professional clients and to collect statistical data about their behaviour with regards to the opening of markets to competition. This document deals with the results of the seventh run of the professionals' barometer carried out from September 5 to September 12, 2011 by the LH2 institute. Among the 1508 surveyed entities, LH2 has questioned the decision-makers responsible for the electricity and natural gas contracts. The barometer aimed at answering the following questions: - what is the level of knowledge and information of professionals about markets opening and the existing regulation? - What perception of this opening do they have? (pros/cons, advantages/drawbacks); - what behaviour do they have in front of the opening of markets to competition? (approach with respect to information needs, knowledge about the offer, intention to change supplier, brakes/motivations in entering the open market). (J.S.)

Exact results and open questions in first principle functional RG

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Le Doussal, Pierre

2010-01-01

Some aspects of the functional RG (FRG) approach to pinned elastic manifolds (of internal dimension d) at finite temperature T > 0 are reviewed and reexamined in this much expanded version of Le Doussal (2006) . The particle limit d = 0 provides a test for the theory: there the FRG is equivalent to the decaying Burgers equation, with viscosity ν ∼ T-both being formally irrelevant. An outstanding question in FRG, i.e. how temperature regularizes the otherwise singular flow of T = 0 FRG, maps to the viscous layer regularization of inertial range Burgers turbulence (i.e. to the construction of the inviscid limit). Analogy between Kolmogorov scaling and FRG cumulant scaling is discussed. First, multi-loop FRG corrections are examined and the direct loop expansion at T > 0 is shown to fail already in d = 0, a hierarchy of ERG equations being then required (introduced in Balents and Le Doussal (2005) ). Next we prove that the FRG function R(u) and higher cumulants defined from the field theory can be obtained for any d from moments of a renormalized potential defined in an sliding harmonic well. This allows to measure the fixed point function R(u) in numerics and experiments. In d = 0 the beta function (of the inviscid limit) is obtained from first principles to four loop. For Sinai model (uncorrelated Burgers initial velocities) the ERG hierarchy can be solved and the exact function R(u) is obtained. Connections to exact solutions for the statistics of shocks in Burgers and to ballistic aggregation are detailed. A relation is established between the size distribution of shocks and the one for droplets. A droplet solution to the ERG functional hierarchy is found for any d, and the form of R(u) in the thermal boundary layer is related to droplet probabilities. These being known for the d = 0 Sinai model the function R(u) is obtained there at any T. Consistency of the ε=4-d expansion in one and two loop FRG is studied from first principles, and connected to shock and

Questions about Answers: Probing Teachers' Awareness and Planned Remediation of Learners' Misconceptions about Electric Circuits

Science.gov (United States)

Gaigher, Estelle

2014-01-01

This article reports an exploratory multi-case study on how science teachers understand and envisage addressing learners' misconceptions about electric circuits. Four teachers from schools in and around a large South African city participated in the study. An open-ended questionnaire was designed in a novel way, questioning teachers about wrong…

Revista ORL at Open Science Ecosystem

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tránsito FERRERAS FERNÁNDEZ

2018-05-01

Full Text Available In October 2017 they were held at the University of Salamanca the congress Open Knowledge Ecosystems (ACE 2017 posed as an international meeting point for specialists in open access. The congress allowed to approach the open knowledge from the perspectives I + D + i, offering papers and communications on research related to Open Access, as well as experiences developed in repositories and institutions and approaches to innovative trends in any of the fields of open knowledge.The experience of Revista ORL was present in ECA 2017 through a joint communication of several authors titled Nuevas vías de publicación para revistas biomédicas. Proyecto Revista ORL de Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca, offering an overview of the history of the Revista as an open edition project. Although on that occasion it was called a project, now we should call it "reality" fully consolidated because the data on results obtained.Open Science represents a paradigm change in the way to make science. Although this doesn't change substantially with respect to its motivations and objectives, it changes its methods. The change lies in how it is done, not in what is done. It is an open science, collaborative and made with and for society.The concept of Open Science has been preceded by Open Access to academic content and this may have conditioned its understanding. Open Access has been assimilated only with open access to articles, while with Open Science it is considered that what must be open is any research result (articles + data as well as the auxiliary instruments used (for example, laboratory notebooks. However, the double meaning of "open" (free and free is the same for the two concepts.In this paper we pose questions such as What is Open Science? What are the motivations of governments for its promotion? What components does make up this ecosystem? What are the implications for agents of scientific research? What does represent all this for the edition of

Formative student-authored question bank: perceptions, question quality and association with summative performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Walsh, Jason L; Harris, Benjamin H L; Denny, Paul; Smith, Phil

2018-02-01

There are few studies on the value of authoring questions as a study method, the quality of the questions produced by students and student perceptions of student-authored question banks. Here we evaluate PeerWise, a widely used and free online resource that allows students to author, answer and discuss multiple-choice questions. We introduced two undergraduate medical student cohorts to PeerWise (n=603). We looked at their patterns of PeerWise usage; identified associations between student engagement and summative exam performance; and used focus groups to assess student perceptions of the value of PeerWise for learning. We undertook item analysis to assess question difficulty and quality. Over two academic years, the two cohorts wrote 4671 questions, answered questions 606 658 times and posted 7735 comments. Question writing frequency correlated most strongly with summative performance (Spearman's rank: 0.24, p=<0.001). Student focus groups found that: (1) students valued curriculum specificity; and (2) students were concerned about student-authored question quality. Only two questions of the 300 'most-answered' questions analysed had an unacceptable discriminatory value (point-biserial correlation <0.2). Item analysis suggested acceptable question quality despite student concerns. Quantitative and qualitative methods indicated that PeerWise is a valuable study tool. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

The Investigation of Chemistry Questions Asked in Free Boarding and Scholarship Examination for High School Level in the Context of Algorithmic and Conceptual Question Type

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ayşegül DERMAN

2016-06-01

Full Text Available To conduct of the education programs, the most important resource is considered that textbooks but in national assesment tests, chemistry questions prepared according to chemistry curriculum they may be considered reflections of curriculum. The purpose of this study is to review the 140 chemistry questions “algoritmic or conceptual”, asked in “Free Boarding and Scholarship Examination”for 9,10,11 classes between 1998 and 2015 years. The study is a descriptive study. In data analysis, within the scope of the document analysis, qualitative research method was used. Crosstabs and Kappa statistic was used. The findings of this study revealed that the questions asked in “Free Boarding and Scholarship Examination”are 80% conceptual, 20% algorithmic in total. The distribution of question types according to the years indicates that most of questions are consisted of conceptual question types. By the findings are associated with the relevant literature and national chemistry curriculum, inferences and implications for conceptual chemistry teaching and learning have been made

Nuclear questions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Berg, Eugene

2012-01-01

Civilian and military nuclear questions fill a multitude of publications these days, especially after the Japanese tsunami and the Fukushima disaster. The author analyses some of them and highlights the links between civil and military nuclear industries, the realities of the nuclear cycle and related industrial questions before concluding on the controversial issue of weapons and their proliferation potential

OpenAPC. Open-Access-Publikationskosten als Open Data

OpenAIRE

Tullney, Marco

2015-01-01

Präsentationsfolien zum Vortrag „OpenAPC. Open-Access-Publikationskosten als Open Data“ in der Session „Ausgestaltung eines wissenschaftsadäquaten APC-Marktes: Grundsätze, Finanzierungsansätze und Management“ der Open-Access-Tage 2015 in Zürich (https://www.open-access.net/community/open-access-tage/open-access-tage-2015-zuerich/programm/#c1974)

HORIZONTE Y ESTRUCTURA DE LA PREGUNTA PEDAGÓGICA (HORIZON AND STRUCTURE OF THE PEDAGOGICAL QUESTION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. Rillo Arturo

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Resumen:En este artículo se abren caminos para la reflexión y la investigación de la pregunta pedagógica como un problema hermenéutico sustentado en la dialéctica de la pregunta y la respuesta. El punto de partida se construyó mediante las coordenadas propuestas por Heidegger (punto de mira, dirección de la mirada y horizonte de la mira y los prejuicios que subyacen en la tradición educativa contemporánea. El análisis se proyecta hacia la identificación de la estructura y el horizonte de la pregunta pedagógica confrontando los aportes de Heidegger, Gadamer y Freire en la elaboración de una pedagogía de la pregunta. La estructura de la pregunta incluye lo puesto en cuestión, lo preguntado y lo interrogado, lo que posibilita construir un horizonte para comprender la pregunta pedagógica desde la aproximación del estudiante a los saberes desde una praxis liberadora. Se concluye que la estructura y el horizonte de la pregunta pedagógica se sustentan en la lógica concreta del trabajo hermenéutico, donde la apertura del estudiante a las experiencias y vivencias desvela la construcción de su conocimiento mediante el arte de pensar que deriva de la praxis transformadora.Abstract: In this article, open paths for reflection and research on the pedagogical question as a problem of interpretation supported by the dialectic of question and answer. The starting point is constructed using the coordinates proposed by Heidegger (sights, gaze direction and horizon of staff and prejudice that underlie the contemporary educational tradition. The analysis projects to identify the structure and the horizon of the pedagogical question confronting the contributions of Heidegger, Gadamer and Freire in the development of pedagogy of the question. The structure of the question includes the position in question, as asked and questioned, making it possible construct one horizon to understand the pedagogical question from the student with knowledge from

Approaches to Exploring Category Information for Question Retrieval in Community Question-Answer Archives

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cao, Xin; Cong, Gao; Cui, Bin

2012-01-01

, and it applies these approaches to existing question retrieval models, including a state-of-the-art question retrieval model. Experiments conducted on real CQA data demonstrate that the proposed techniques are effective and efficient and are capable of outperforming a variety of baseline methods significantly......Community Question Answering (CQA) is a popular type of service where users ask questions and where answers are obtained from other users or from historical question-answer pairs. CQA archives contain large volumes of questions organized into a hierarchy of categories. As an essential function...

A importância de um questionário de avaliação de unidade curricular

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maristela Reis dos Santos

Full Text Available O objetivo do estudo foi analisar a confiabilidade e validade interna de um questionário de satisfação aplicado prospectivamente a alunos do sexto ano médico que frequentaram o estágio de Neonatologia em uma universidade pública de 2000 a 2011. Responderam ao questionário 1.349 (97,4% alunos. O coeficiente de Cronbach foi 0,7. A análise fatorial determinou quatro domínios: atuação dos docentes, assistência na sala de parto, número de recém-nascidos assistidos e carga teórica, que explicaram, respectivamente, 18%, 16%, 14% e 9% da variância total. O escore de satisfação foi 89,3 ± 7,6% do escore máximo, o número de recém-nascidos recepcionados na sala de parto/aluno foi 4,7 ± 3,3, e as notas do pré-teste e pós-teste foram 5,3 ± 0,9 e 8,8 ± 0,5, respectivamente. A correlação de Pearson entre o escore total e a nota do pós-teste foi 0,7 (p = 0,010 . Houve correlação positiva entre escore de satisfação e qualidade das aulas, aproveitamento na sala de parto, atuação do plantonista e docente, atendimento ao recém-nascido e hospital com condições para o aprendizado. Concluiu-se que a confiabilidade e a validade interna do questionário foram adequadas, e o escore de satisfação do aluno foi elevado.

MOOCs are dead! - Open Education and the Quality of Online Courses Towards a Common Quality Reference Framework

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stracke, Christian M.

2016-01-01

This paper presents the current status of Open Education and MOOCs as the main instruments and drivers in the publicity. The evolution from e-Learning towards MOOCs and Open Education is introduced as basis to discuss the main question of this paper: Is Open Education a revolution or are MOOCs only

Questioning ORACLE: An Assessment of ORACLE's Analysis of Teachers' Questions and [A Comment on "Questioning ORACLE"].

Science.gov (United States)

Scarth, John; And Others

1986-01-01

Analysis of teachers' questions, part of the ORACLE (Observation Research and Classroom Learning Evaluation) project research, is examined in detail. Scarth and Hammersley argue that the rules ORACLE uses for identifying different types of questions involve levels of ambiguity and inference that threaten reliability and validity of the study's…

Laparoscopic and open stone surgery

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hruza, Marcel; Zuazu, Jorge Rioja; Goezen, Ali Serdar; de La Rosette, Jean J. M. C. H.; Rassweiler, Jens J.

2010-01-01

INTRODUCTION: Due to the increasing spread and technical enhancement of endourological methods, open surgery for renal and ureteral calculi almost disappeared. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Based on an actual review of literature, we describe indications, technique and clinical importance of the open and

USEEIOv1.1 - openLCA

Data.gov (United States)

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — This is a version of the full USEEIO v1.1 model in the openLCA schema serialized as JSON-LD that can be imported into openLCA software (www.openlca.org) v1.5 and...

Development of Fruška Gora and some open questions of sustainability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bajić-Brković Milica

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Future development of Fruška Gora triggers numerous questions from the domain of sustainability. The solutions defined in the spatial plan-PPPPN Fruška Gora 2022, can be carried out only on condition that the current course of spatial planning and space related decision making change, so that the respective procedures become more sensitive to the specific requirements of sustainability. Sustainability by itself affects the way planning is being performed, while the specifics of a concrete case, like the case explored in this paper, set up a particular input relevant for both the conceptual and methodological aspects of planning. The proposals of implementing the specific sustainability-based techniques along with the practical implications of their use throughout the planning process are examined in this paper. Normally, most of them are not part of a standard planning procedure, however, they become highly relevant in cases like Fruška Gora, or similar. A sequence of innovations and possible modifications of/within the existing paradigm proposed here include: the prevention techniques, carrying capacity assessment as it relates to the eco-balance, risk assessment, impact analysis, eco-sensitive zoning, GIS based monitoring, etc. Special attention is given to the issues of physical and environmental quality, as they relate to sustainability.

Open Standards, Open Source, and Open Innovation: Harnessing the Benefits of Openness

Science.gov (United States)

Committee for Economic Development, 2006

2006-01-01

Digitization of information and the Internet have profoundly expanded the capacity for openness. This report details the benefits of openness in three areas--open standards, open-source software, and open innovation--and examines the major issues in the debate over whether openness should be encouraged or not. The report explains each of these…

A cross-cultural survey of residents' perceived barriers in questioning/challenging authority.

Science.gov (United States)

Kobayashi, H; Pian-Smith, M; Sato, M; Sawa, R; Takeshita, T; Raemer, D

2006-08-01

To identify perceived barriers to residents' questioning or challenging their seniors, to determine how these barriers affect decisions, and to assess how these barriers differ across cultures. A written questionnaire was administered to residents in teaching hospitals in the US and Japan to assess factors affecting residents' willingness to question or challenge their superiors. The responses were analyzed for statistical significance of differences between the two cultures and to determine the importance of issues affecting decisions. Questionnaires were completed by 175 US and 65 Japanese residents, with an overall response rate of 71%. Trainees from both countries believe that questioning and challenging contribute to safety. The perceived importance of specific beliefs about the workplace differed across cultures in seven out of 22 questions. Residents' decisions to make a challenge were related to the relationships and perceived response of the superiors. There was no statistical difference between the US and Japanese residents in terms of the threshold for challenging their seniors. We have identified attributes of residents' beliefs of communication, including several cross-cultural differences in the importance of values and issues affecting one's decision to question or challenge. In contrast, there was no difference in the threshold for challenging seniors by the Japanese and US residents studied. Changes in organizational and professional culture may be as important, if not more so, than national culture to encourage "speaking up". Residents should be encouraged to overcome barriers to challenging, and training programs should foster improved relationships and communication between trainers and trainees.

Question behaviour in monocultural and intercultural business negotiations : the Dutch-Spanish connection

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ulijn, J.M.; Verweij, M.J.

2000-01-01

This article addresses the issue of asking questions as an important element of international business negotiation where there are differences in cultural background. A Dutch–Spanish difference in questioning was related to differences between the two parties in uncertainty reduction and negotiation

Mind map our way into effective student questioning: A principle-based scenario

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stokhof, Harry; De Vries, Bregje; Bastiaens, Theo; Martens, Rob

2017-01-01

Student questioning is an important self-regulative strategy and has multiple benefits for teaching and learning science. Teachers, however, need support to align student questioning to curricular goals. This study tests a prototype of a principle-based scenario that supports teachers in guiding

Automatic Generation System of Multiple-Choice Cloze Questions and its Evaluation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Takuya Goto

2010-09-01

Full Text Available Since English expressions vary according to the genres, it is important for students to study questions that are generated from sentences of the target genre. Although various questions are prepared, it is still not enough to satisfy various genres which students want to learn. On the other hand, when producing English questions, sufficient grammatical knowledge and vocabulary are needed, so it is difficult for non-expert to prepare English questions by themselves. In this paper, we propose an automatic generation system of multiple-choice cloze questions from English texts. Empirical knowledge is necessary to produce appropriate questions, so machine learning is introduced to acquire knowledge from existing questions. To generate the questions from texts automatically, the system (1 extracts appropriate sentences for questions from texts based on Preference Learning, (2 estimates a blank part based on Conditional Random Field, and (3 generates distracters based on statistical patterns of existing questions. Experimental results show our method is workable for selecting appropriate sentences and blank part. Moreover, our method is appropriate to generate the available distracters, especially for the sentence that does not contain the proper noun.

Curiosity Questions

Science.gov (United States)

Nelsen, Jane; DeLorenzo, Chip

2010-01-01

Have you ever found yourself lecturing a child, with the best of intentions, in an attempt to help him or her learn a lesson or process a situation in a manner that you feel will be productive? Curiosity questions, which the authors also call What and How questions, help children process an experience, event, or natural consequence so that they…

Children Ask Questions about West African Art.

Science.gov (United States)

Abercrombie, Denice; Cochran, Mathilda; Mims, Margaret

1997-01-01

Presents a collection of questions that fifth-grade students asked about African artwork and answers provided by staff from the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas. Observes that students' interest in important visual aspects of the art creates lead-ins to more detailed discussions of West African art and culture. (DSK)

Addressing the Question of Homophobia in Jordanian Public Discourse

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmad El-Sharif

2016-11-01

Full Text Available This article investigates the question of homosexuality, homosexuals, and homophobia in the Jordanian public debate in the aftermath of an LGBTQIA meeting that was held secretly in Amman in May 2015. The main purpose of the article is to demonstrate the constituents and arguments which reproduce the public discourse on anti-homosexuality and anti-homosexuals and homophobia in Jordan. This purpose is reached by analysing 35 journal articles written in Standard Arabic in Jordanian public and open-access media. The analysis involves the qualitative analysis of the argument, processes, and themes used to represent homosexuality and homosexuals by the discourse producers. The analysis reveals that the question of homosexuality and homosexuals in Jordan can be addressed in terms of seven angles: the public anti-homosexuality and anti-homosexuals’ calls, the (Islamic religious argument, protecting and reinforcing law and order, the argument of (homosexually-transmitted diseases, the calls of pro-homosexuality and pro-homosexuals and LGBTQIA’s rights activists, the homosexuals’ own self-representation, and the neutral scientific account and representation.

"Known Unknowns": Current Questions in Muscle Satellite Cell Biology.

Science.gov (United States)

Cornelison, Ddw

2018-01-01

Our understanding of satellite cells, now known to be the obligate stem cells of skeletal muscle, has increased dramatically in recent years due to the introduction of new molecular, genetic, and technical resources. In addition to their role in acute repair of damaged muscle, satellite cells are of interest in the fields of aging, exercise, neuromuscular disease, and stem cell therapy, and all of these applications have driven a dramatic increase in our understanding of the activity and potential of satellite cells. However, many fundamental questions of satellite cell biology remain to be answered, including their emergence as a specific lineage, the degree and significance of heterogeneity within the satellite cell population, the roles of their interactions with other resident and infiltrating cell types during homeostasis and regeneration, and the relative roles of intrinsic vs extrinsic factors that may contribute to satellite cell dysfunction in the context of aging or disease. This review will address the current state of these open questions in satellite cell biology. © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Staff Attitudes to Talking Openly About Ethical Dilemmas

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Trapp, Leila

2011-01-01

, research on business ethics communication and behavior indicates a relatively clear, positive link between open workplace dialogue about ethical issues and ethical conduct. In this paper, I therefore address the question: What influences employee attitudes to talking openly about ethical issues? Answers...... are proposed on the basis of focus group interviews with staff at the Denmark and Brazil affiliates of the global healthcare company Novo Nordisk. It was found that interest in discussing ethical issues was influenced by two main factors: employee conceptualizations of business ethics, and the level of inter......-collegial trust, credibility, and confidence. In this paper, by examining these phenomena, I am at providing insight that can both inform scholars in these fields as well as help managers in their attempts to promote open workplace dialogue about ethical issues....

Open Source Web Based Geospatial Processing with OMAR

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mark Lucas

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The availability of geospatial data sets is exploding. New satellites, aerial platforms, video feeds, global positioning system tagged digital photos, and traditional GIS information are dramatically increasing across the globe. These raw materials need to be dynamically processed, combined and correlated to generate value added information products to answer a wide range of questions. This article provides an overview of OMAR web based geospatial processing. OMAR is part of the Open Source Software Image Map project under the Open Source Geospatial Foundation. The primary contributors of OSSIM make their livings by providing professional services to US Government agencies and programs. OMAR provides one example that open source software solutions are increasingly being deployed in US government agencies. We will also summarize the capabilities of OMAR and its plans for near term development.

Commonly asked questions by critically ill patients relatives in Arabic countries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tayseer Zaytoun

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Background: Relatives often lack important information about intensive care unit patients. Research on ways to improve family satisfaction in the ICU has become a crucial point in ICU quality improvement research. Objective: The aim of this study is to develop and analyze a list of commonly asked questions from relatives of patients in the intensive care unit in Arabic countries. This list might help families to determine which questions they want to ask and help them in decision-making process in emergency situations of their critically ill relatives. Methods: This study was a prospective double center study. It took place in the ICUs of two hospitals in Arabic countries: Egypt and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Alexandria University Main Hospital in Egypt and the ICU of King Fahad specialist Hospital in Dammam in Saudi Arabia. Data collection was done by reporting of Questions asked by the relatives of ICU patients during daily interview. The list of questions generated was checked to identify questions that could be eliminated. The remaining questions were categorized into 9 different groups: diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, comfort, patient interaction, family, mortality, post-ICU management and other questions. WE ranked the questions in the preliminary list through ICU staff, patients families and the patient themselves. Results: 115 Health care professional (34 physicians and 81 nurses participated in the data collection, the questions recorded were 2240 questions. It was found that about 1750 questions (78.12% were duplicated or not clear. The remaining 490 questions were classified into different categories. The same 115 Health care professional (34 physicians and 81 nurses who shared in the collection of data also shared in the ranking of the questions. 128 first degree relatives shared in the evaluation of the relevance of questions as well as 62 patients after they have been cured and before their discharge from ICU.A list was created

How Important Is the Organic Part of Lead Halide Perovskite Photovoltaic Cells? Efficient CsPbBr3 Cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Kulbak, Michael; Cahen, David; Hodes, Gary

2015-07-02

Hybrid organic-inorganic lead halide perovskite photovoltaic cells have already surpassed 20% conversion efficiency in the few years that they have been seriously studied. However, many fundamental questions still remain unanswered as to why they are so good. One of these is "Is the organic cation really necessary to obtain high quality cells?" In this study, we show that an all-inorganic version of the lead bromide perovskite material works equally well as the organic one, in particular generating the high open circuit voltages that are an important feature of these cells.

Instant OpenNMS starter

CERN Document Server

Hachey, Ghislain

2013-01-01

Get to grips with a new technology, understand what it is and what it can do for you, and then get to work with the most important features and tasks. A starters' guide to learning OpenNMS with ease, with a focus on immediate results.Instant OpenNMS Starter is for network administrators of any level with a slight focus on the novice that would enjoy a swift glance at what OpenNMS has to offer. It assumes the reader will have knowledge of basic network operations and protocols such as the Internet Protocol Suite.

Importance of Wellness to the Tourists visiting Batangas Province

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Romualdo L. Roque

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Wellness is having a healthy body, mind and spirit. Health and wellness go hand in hand. Most people link wellness to physical health condition only but the researcher found out the other dimension of wellness that matters to the tourists. This study assessed the other dimensions of wellness such as social, spiritual, intellectual, emotional and occupational wellness and reveals the most significant wellness dimension among the tourists visiting Wellness Spa in Batangas Province. The researcher aimed to present the profile of the wellness spa center along with the facilities and services they offer and how it helped wellness travelers achieve their purpose when visiting wellness spa. Descriptive design was used with 5 Wellness Spa Centers in Batangas as subject of the study with the used of adopted questionnaire; 216 enthusiastic wellness tourists were asked to sincerely answer the questions in order to collect relevant data. This study unveils that social wellness is important among tourists. They visit wellness spa to build social network, to openly communicate to others and openly express their thoughts and feelings. This wellness tourists aging from 26 – 35 years old earning an average of Php20, 000 prefer spa services and facilities to relax, use gym to shape up in order to maintain a healthy physical wellbeing. Knowing their purpose in life and discovering the true meaning of their existence is the aim of this wellness travel. People that acquire a higher educational degree, most of them are married put emphasis about what is important in life and discover the real purpose of their existence.

French nuclear dissuasion after the cold war: continuity, ruptures, questions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tertrais, B.

2000-01-01

Nuclear dissuasion is a slow and permanent process of adjustment to the strategic environment. French dissuasion adaptation to the new international environment covers a full decade, starting in the 1989-1992 era with a re-evaluation of defense programs. It has been followed by the 1994 defense white book which opens up the European perspective and reaches its peak in 1996 with a series of major decisions: renouncement of surface-to-surface missiles, launching of the M51 program, end of nuclear tests and shift towards simulation, dismantling of fissile materials production facilities etc. This process shows up two logics: the one of continuity with the confirmation of the bases of the French nuclear doctrine, and the one of discontinuity with significant changes in the general domain of the French nuclear policy. It also opens up questions about the field of application of dissuasion and the future of the nuclear consensus. (J.S.)

Defining Success in Open Science.

Science.gov (United States)

Ali-Khan, Sarah E; Jean, Antoine; MacDonald, Emily; Gold, E Richard

2018-01-01

Mounting evidence indicates that worldwide, innovation systems are increasing unsustainable. Equally, concerns about inequities in the science and innovation process, and in access to its benefits, continue. Against a backdrop of growing health, economic and scientific challenges global stakeholders are urgently seeking to spur innovation and maximize the just distribution of benefits for all. Open Science collaboration (OS) - comprising a variety of approaches to increase open, public, and rapid mobilization of scientific knowledge - is seen to be one of the most promising ways forward. Yet, many decision-makers hesitate to construct policy to support the adoption and implementation of OS without access to substantive, clear and reliable evidence. In October 2017, international thought-leaders gathered at an Open Science Leadership Forum in the Washington DC offices of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to share their views on what successful Open Science looks like. Delegates from developed and developing nations, national governments, science agencies and funding bodies, philanthropy, researchers, patient organizations and the biotechnology, pharma and artificial intelligence (AI) industries discussed the outcomes that would rally them to invest in OS, as well as wider issues of policy and implementation. This first of two reports, summarizes delegates' views on what they believe OS will deliver in terms of research, innovation and social impact in the life sciences. Through open and collaborative process over the next months, we will translate these success outcomes into a toolkit of quantitative and qualitative indicators to assess when, where and how open science collaborations best advance research, innovation and social benefit. Ultimately, this work aims to develop and openly share tools to allow stakeholders to evaluate and re-invent their innovation ecosystems, to maximize value for the global public and patients, and address long-standing questions

Using internal coupling activities to enhance the effectiveness of open innovation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Burcharth, Ana Luiza de Araújo; Knudsen, Mette Præst; Søndergaard, Helle Alsted

This paper investigates the role of specific intra-organizational mechanisms in analyzing performance implications of openness by addressing two questions: does openness to innovation influence innovation performance? And if so, what organizational activities facilitate increased effectiveness...... of both inbound and outbound open innovation practices? The paper identifies a set of internal management mechanisms that allows the firm to couple the outside-in and inside-out knowledge flows in support of integrating external knowledge and internal competencies. The empirical basis of the study...... is a survey carried out in 321 Danish SMEs in manufacturing industries. The paper cannot substantiate the thus far, seemingly positive evidence of openness on innovation performance. Rather, the paper finds that inbound open innovation is related to the introduction of new products, whereas the adoption...

Chinese Medical Question Answer Matching Using End-to-End Character-Level Multi-Scale CNNs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sheng Zhang

2017-07-01

Full Text Available This paper focuses mainly on the problem of Chinese medical question answer matching, which is arguably more challenging than open-domain question answer matching in English due to the combination of its domain-restricted nature and the language-specific features of Chinese. We present an end-to-end character-level multi-scale convolutional neural framework in which character embeddings instead of word embeddings are used to avoid Chinese word segmentation in text preprocessing, and multi-scale convolutional neural networks (CNNs are then introduced to extract contextual information from either question or answer sentences over different scales. The proposed framework can be trained with minimal human supervision and does not require any handcrafted features, rule-based patterns, or external resources. To validate our framework, we create a new text corpus, named cMedQA, by harvesting questions and answers from an online Chinese health and wellness community. The experimental results on the cMedQA dataset show that our framework significantly outperforms several strong baselines, and achieves an improvement of top-1 accuracy by up to 19%.

Analysis of Turkey’s Institutional Open Repositories: An Example of Dokuz Eylül University Institutional Open Repository

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Korhan Levent Ertürk

2012-03-01

Full Text Available After the declaration of the Budapest Open Access Initiative in 2001, institutional open repositories are known as the most important tool of the self archiving, which is also known as green road. There are 26 institutional repositories, which are all compatible to international standards. All the institutional open repositories of Turkey mentioned before are listed in international open archive directories. In this study institutional open repository of Dokuz Eylül University is examined and institutional open repositories of Turkey are discussed.

Apologies for Blanks or Laments for Dumbness: Tina Darragh’s Opposable Dumbs as Open Source and/or Open Content

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mark Leahy

2016-04-01

Full Text Available This essay engages in a reading of Tina Darragh’s publication 'Opposable Dumbs'  (2010. This reading is carried out in pursuit of a number of critical and theoretical questions, that include asking what sort of text this is, and how we might read it. The essay considers how Darragh’s work connects to the debate around open source and free software, and to the politics and poetics of that debate. Taking up the call for creative responses in Darragh’s anti-rights or inverted copyright statement, the writing takes a route through the text that parallels some of Darragh’s strategies as a writer. This creative reading is linked to a reading of Stephen Voyce’s essay on open source poetics (2011, with some reference to a wider discourse around FLOSS, creative commons, and copyleft strategies. This essay proposes Darragh’s work as a case study for Voyce’s proposals, and suggests that her practice may in fact go further than he proposes in moving from a position of ‘open source’ to one of ‘open content.’

Conditions for exercising shareholders' right to ask questions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Radović Vuk

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Law on Business Organizations from 2011 has significantly improved the regulation of shareholders' right to ask questions in Serbia. In contrast to the previous law from 2004, that has completely transferred regulation to companies which is why there was no guarantee for exercising this right, new law contains detailed norms in this respect. They are written under the dominant influence of German law and are completely harmonized with the Shareholders' Rights Directive. All important issues of shareholders' right to ask questions have been regulated mostly with imperative norms (subject of the right, conditions for exercising this right, debtor of this obligation, court protection, etc.. Corporations have a lot of freedom to adjust exercising this right to their needs, but only by giving more rights to shareholders. Limiting the scope of this right is possible only in certain, precisely defined areas. Although the general impression of the new regulation is very positive, there are certain aspects which can be criticized. Some of them can be cured by adequate judicial interpretation, while others cannot be cured without changes to the law. In the area of conditions for exercising this right, the most important deficiency is the fact that the law has not determined when the right to ask questions can be exercised, and that stands in obvious disharmony with the adopted conception to regulate all important aspects of this right. Contrary to conditions, which basically have been properly formulated, other aspects of legislation regarding this shareholders' right contain more profound obscurities that go beyond the scope of this paper.

Method of Modeling Questions for Automated Grading of Students’ Responses in E-Learning Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. A. Gurchenkov

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction. Problem relevance. The capability to check a solution of practical problems automatically is an important functionality of any learning management system (LMS. Complex types of questions, implying creative approach to problem solving are of particular interest. There are a lot of studies presenting automated scoring algorithms of students' answers, such as mathematical expressions, graphs, molecules, etc. However, the most common types of problems in the open LMS that are being actively implemented in Russian and foreign universities (Moodle, Sakai, Ilias etc. remain simple types of questions such as, for example, multiple choice.Study subject and goal. The purpose of study is to create a method that allows integrating arbitrary algorithms of answer scoring into any existing LMS, as well as its practical implementation in the form of an independent software module, which will handle questions in LMS.Method. The model for objects of type "algorithmic question" is considered. A unified format for storing objects of this type, allowing keeping their state, is developed. The algorithm is a set of variables, which defines the responses versus input data (or vice versa. Basis variables (input are selected pseudo-randomly from a predetermined range, and based on these values resulting variables (responses are calculated. This approach allows us to synthesize variations of the same question. State of the question is saved by means of "seed" of pseudo-random number generator. A set of algorithmic problems was used to build the lifecycle management functions, namely: initialization create (, rendering render (, and evaluation answer (. These functions lay the foundation for the Application Program Interface (API and allow us to control software module responsible for the questions in LMS.Practical results. This study is completed with the implementation of software module responsible for mapping the interaction with the student and automated

Series: Practical guidance to qualitative research. Part 2: Context, research questions and designs.

Science.gov (United States)

Korstjens, Irene; Moser, Albine

2017-12-01

In the course of our supervisory work over the years, we have noticed that qualitative research tends to evoke a lot of questions and worries, so-called frequently asked questions (FAQs). This series of four articles intends to provide novice researchers with practical guidance for conducting high-quality qualitative research in primary care. By 'novice' we mean Master's students and junior researchers, as well as experienced quantitative researchers who are engaging in qualitative research for the first time. This series addresses their questions and provides researchers, readers, reviewers and editors with references to criteria and tools for judging the quality of qualitative research papers. This second article addresses FAQs about context, research questions and designs. Qualitative research takes into account the natural contexts in which individuals or groups function to provide an in-depth understanding of real-world problems. The research questions are generally broad and open to unexpected findings. The choice of a qualitative design primarily depends on the nature of the research problem, the research question(s) and the scientific knowledge one seeks. Ethnography, phenomenology and grounded theory are considered to represent the 'big three' qualitative approaches. Theory guides the researcher through the research process by providing a 'lens' to look at the phenomenon under study. Since qualitative researchers and the participants of their studies interact in a social process, researchers influence the research process. The first article described the key features of qualitative research, the third article will focus on sampling, data collection and analysis, while the last article focuses on trustworthiness and publishing.

Open courses: one view of the future of online education.

Science.gov (United States)

Alemi, Farrokh; Maddox, P J

2008-01-01

Open courses provide the entire course (lectures, assignments, syllabus, student's discussions, and student's projects) online without revealing student's personal information. We report on our experience in managing 8 open online courses at http://nhs.georgetown.edu/open. Open courses have several advantages over password protected courses: (1) they are available through search engines and thus reduce the program's marketing cost, (2) continuous feedback from the web enables rapid improvements to the course, (3) customer relationship tools, tied to open courses, radically reduce faculty time spent on one-on-one emails while increasing student/faculty interaction. We provide details of one course. In 15 weeks, 803 emails were received by and 1181 sent by the faculty (all within 6% of a working week and 82% savings of faculty time). We show how open courses can be accessed through search engines, how students questions are answered on the web and how student projects, in popular sites such as You Tube and Face Book, improve course marketing. The paper reports that student satisfaction with three open online courses delivered overall several semesters was high.

What questions do board members in public service organizations ask about executive compensation?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chris Bart

2014-11-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to investigate the governance questions that board members in public service organizations ask as they go about fulfilling their responsibilities for the oversight of executive compensation. The research uses 24 of the questions – as proposed by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants - that directors should ask about executive compensation and investigates both their usage and perceived importance by board members. The study is based on a usable sample of 47 board members from public service organizations who were attending a Canadian director training program. The research finds that, insofar as public service organizations are concerned, not all of the recommended executive compensation governance questions were asked with the same frequency nor were they considered equally important. Additionally, the relationship between a question’s usage frequency and its perceived importance was not perfect. However, there appears to be a significantly positive relationship among the number of executive compensation governance questions asked and selected elements of a board’s governance structure.

The Open-Source Alternative in E-Government

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Catalin Vrabie

2013-08-01

Full Text Available The last decade has changed again the face of electronic world: from Web 2.0 to open source software; from e-(electronic to m-(mobile and now to touch. For Web developers is a real challenge to make compatible interfaces to all existing Internet browsers. This proves to be even more expensive than the application itself (Softnet; 2012; SIVECO, 2012. From the point of view of the big software development companies these events are just new challenges because they afford to have many employees with different skills and by that being able to cope with market demands. But what happens with the e-government projects at the local level? Budgets are small, so hiring a company specialized in Web application development is sometimes too expensive, this responsibility usually falls in many cases on the employees of the IT department (Vrabie, 2011. If we add to this software component the hardware required for hosting the Web page inside, the budgets are already completely exceeded (or obviously they can choose some other cheap solution but whose reliability is very poor – reason for dissatisfaction among citizens. The importance of the Web platforms for interacting with citizens is very well known (Friedman, 2005; Craig; 2006; Baltac, 2011. In this context, this paper aims to examine in terms of costs, the investments in open-source applications in parallel with the use of social networks as used today. The research methodology is using for the first time an adapted version of cost-effectiveness analysis. Empirical research will be carried out on two platforms of e-Government – one of them developed inside on an open-source solution - used to support a complete interaction with the citizens. The working hypothesis starts from the fact that open source software is cheaper than those developed inside – but of course this is a question to debate at.

Using Invenio for managing and running open data repositories

CERN Multimedia

Simko, Tibor; Nielsen, Lars Holm

2017-01-01

We present how a research data repository manager can build custom open data solutions to ingest, describe, preserve, and disseminate the open research environments, datasets and software using the Invenio digital library framework. We discuss a concrete use case example of the CERN Open Data and Zenodo services, describing technological challenges in preparing large sets of data for general public. We address the questions of efficient linking and sharing of large quantities of data without unnecessary duplication on the backend, the role of the file transfer protocols, as well as the means to visualise data to make it more accessible and interactive for general public. The technological challenges and discussed solutions can be applied to any research discipline outside the domain of particle physics.

Teaching Children with Autism to Ask Questions

Science.gov (United States)

Squires, Katie E.; Bickel, Alyssa

2015-01-01

Children with autism have impairments in communication that make it difficult for them to acquire the ability to ask appropriate wh- questions. This is a very important skill, and one that clinicians often do not know how to target. Search terms were entered into several databases to locate studies published in peer-reviewed journals. The studies…

Relativistic jets in narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies. New discoveries and open questions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D’Ammando F.

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Before the launch of the Fermi satellite only two classes of AGNs were known to produce relativistic jets and thus emit up to the γ-ray energy range: blazars and radio galaxies, both hosted in giant elliptical galaxies. The first four years of observations by the Large Area Telescope on board Fermi confirmed that these two are the most numerous classes of identified sources in the extragalactic γ-ray sky, but the discovery of γ-ray emission from 5 radio-loud narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies revealed the presence of a possible emerging third class of AGNs with relativistic jets. Considering that narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies seem to be typically hosted in spiral galaxy, this finding poses intriguing questions about the nature of these objects, the onset of production of relativistic jets, and the cosmological evolution of radio-loud AGN. Here, we discuss the radio-to-γ-rays properties of the γ-ray emitting narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies, also in comparison with the blazar scenario.

Towards the Adoption of Open Source and Open Access Electronic Health Record Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ilias Maglogiannis

2012-01-01

Full Text Available As the Electronic Health Record (EHR systems constantly expand to support more clinical activities and their implementations in healthcare organizations become more widespread, several communities have been working intensively for several years to develop open access and open source EHR software, aiming at reducing the costs of EHR deployment and maintenance. In this paper, we describe and evaluate the most popular open source electronic medical records such as openEMR, openMRS and patientOS, providing their technical features and potentials. These systems are considered quite important due to their prevalence. The article presents the key features of each system and outlines the advantages and problems of Open Source Software (OSS Systems through a review of the literature, in order to demonstrate the possibility of their adoption in modern electronic healthcare systems. Also discussed are the future trends of OS EHRs in the context of the Personal Health Records and mobile computing paradigm.

Custom OpenStreetMap Rendering – OpenTrackMap Experience

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Radek Bartoň

2010-02-01

Full Text Available After 5 years of its existence, the OpenSteetMap [1] is becoming to be an important and valuable source of a geographic data for all people on the world. Although initially targeted to provide a map of cities for routing services, it can be exploited to other and often unexpected purposes. Such an utilization is an effort to map a network of hiking tracks of the Czech Tourist Club [2].  To support and apply this endeavour, the OpenTrackMap [3] project was started. Its aim is to primarily provide a customized rendering style for Mapnik renderer which emphasizes map features important to tourists and displays a layer with hiking tracks. This article presents obstacles which such project must face and it can be used as a tutorial for other projects of similar type.

Barometer about the open of markets to professional clients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

2009-01-01

This paper reproduces the results of an opinion poll about the opening of electricity and gas markets to professional clients. This poll has been carried out by LH2 on behalf of the Commission of Energy Regulation (CRE) and of the energy mediator. It answers the following questions: what is the level of knowledge and information of professionals concerning the opening of markets and the prevailing regulation? Do they know the concrete result of this opening to competition? Do they feel sufficiently informed about this opening? What type of information do they need? How do they perceive the opening of markets? Do they agree with it? What advantages or drawbacks have they noticed? What is their behaviour in front of the opening of markets to competition? Have they adopted a proactive approach of information search? What energy suppliers do they know and have they had any contact with other suppliers than the historical ones since the opening of markets? Do they wish to change their energy supplier? What are their brakes or motivations to enter the open market? The sample considered for this poll is made of 1501 entities from the public and non-commercial sector (17%) and from the private commercial sector (83%). (J.S.)

Mind Map Our Way into Effective Student Questioning: a Principle-Based Scenario

Science.gov (United States)

Stokhof, Harry; de Vries, Bregje; Bastiaens, Theo; Martens, Rob

2017-07-01

Student questioning is an important self-regulative strategy and has multiple benefits for teaching and learning science. Teachers, however, need support to align student questioning to curricular goals. This study tests a prototype of a principle-based scenario that supports teachers in guiding effective student questioning. In the scenario, mind mapping is used to provide both curricular structure as well as support for student questioning. The fidelity of structure and the process of implementation were verified by interviews, video data and a product collection. Results show that the scenario was relevant for teachers, practical in use and effective for guiding student questioning. Results also suggest that shared responsibility for classroom mind maps contributed to more intensive collective knowledge construction.

Moving targets: Promoting physical activity in public spaces via open streets in the US.

Science.gov (United States)

Hipp, J Aaron; Bird, Alyssa; van Bakergem, Margaret; Yarnall, Elizabeth

2017-10-01

Popularity of Open Streets, temporarily opening streets to communities and closing streets to vehicles, in the US has recently surged. As of January 2016, 122 cities have hosted an Open Streets program. Even with this great expansion, the sustainability of Open Streets remains a challenge in many cities and overall Open Streets in the US differ from their successful counterparts in Central and South America. Between summer 2015 and winter 2016, we reviewed the websites and social media of the 122 identified programs and interviewed 32 unique Open Streets programs. Websites and social media were reviewed for program initiation, number of Open Streets days, length of routes, duration of program, and reported participation. Interview questions focused on barriers and facilitators of expanding Open Streets and specific questioning regarding local evaluation activities. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed with constant comparative methodology. Over three-quarters of US Open Streets programs have been initiated since 2010, with median frequency of one time per year, 4h per date, and 5000-9999 participants. Seventy-seven percent of program routes are under 5km in length. Success of programs was measured by enthusiasm, attendance, social media, survey metrics, and sustainability. Thirteen of 32 program organizers expressed interest in expanding their programs to 12 dates per year, but noted consistent barriers to expansion including funding, permitting, and branding. Though many cities now host Open Streets programs, their ability to effect public health remains limited with few program dates per year. Coordinated efforts, especially around funding, permitting, and branding may assist in expanding program dates. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

It's worth the wait: optimizing questioning methods for effective intraoperative teaching.

Science.gov (United States)

Barrett, Meredith; Magas, Christopher P; Gruppen, Larry D; Dedhia, Priya H; Sandhu, Gurjit

2017-07-01

The use of questioning to engage learners is critical to furthering resident education intraoperatively. Previous studies have demonstrated that higher level questioning and optimal wait times (>3 s) result in learner responses reflective of higher cognition and retention. Given the importance of intraoperative learning, we investigated question delivery in the operating room. A total of 12 laparoscopic cholecystectomies were observed and recorded. All questions were transcribed and classified using Bloom's Taxonomy, a framework associated with hierarchical levels of learning outcomes. Wait time between question end and response was recorded. Six faculty attendings and seven house officers at our institution were observed. A total of 133 questions were recorded with an average number of questions per case of 11.2. The majority of questions 112 out of 133 (84%) were classified as Bloom's levels 1-3, with only 6% of questions of the highest level. The wait time before the resident answered the question averaged 1.75 s, with attendings interceding after 2.50 s. Question complexity and wait time did not vary based on resident postgraduate year level suggesting limited tailoring of question to learner. Intraoperative questioning is not aligned with higher level thinking. The majority of questions were Bloom's level 3 or below, limiting the complexity of answer formulation. Most responses were given within 2 s, hindering opportunity to pursue higher-order thinking. This suggests including higher level questions and tailoring questions to learner level may improve retention and maximize gains. In addition, with attendings answering 20% of their own questions, increasing their wait time offers another area for teaching development. © 2017 Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

Open Data for Territorial Specialization Assessment Territorial Specialization in Attracting Local Development Funds: an Assessment. Procedure Based on Open Data and Open Tools

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giuseppe Las Casas

2014-05-01

Full Text Available The New Cohesion Policy opens to an integrated place-based approach for the improvement of territorial and social cohesion. The issue of territorial impact assessment of regional development policies highlight that data availability, open access to datasets in “near real-time”, participation, knowledge sharing, assumed importance within the development planning process. The contribution of ‘open data’ appears to be mature and in this paper we present an application of spatial analysis techniques for the evaluation of spatial effects of EU funds starting form open data by open-coesione. The application regards an internal areas of Basilicata Region: the Agri Valley. A complex contests in which an environmental and agricultural traditional vocation conflicts with a recent development of oil extraction industries. Conclusions regard further applications and perspectives for improving and supporting regional development planning considering the exploitation of open data sources and spatial analysis.

Questions of Modern Cosmology Galileo's Legacy

CERN Document Server

D'Onofrio, Mauro

2009-01-01

Are we living in the "golden age" of cosmology? Are we close to understanding the nature of the unknown ingredients of the currently most accepted cosmological model and the physics of the early Universe? Or are we instead approaching a paradigm shift? What is dark matter and does it exist? How is it distributed around galaxies and clusters? Is the scientific community open to alternative ideas that may prompt a new scientific revolution - as the Copernican revolution did in Galileo's time? Do other types of supernovae exist that can be of interest for cosmology? Why have quasars never been effectively used as standard candles? Can you tell us about the scientific adventure of COBE? How does the extraction of the Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropy depend on the subtraction of the various astrophysical foregrounds? These, among many others, are the astrophysical, philosophical and sociological questions surrounding modern cosmology and the scientific community that Mauro D'Onofrio and Carlo Burigana pose t...

Medical Marijuana: More Questions than Answers

OpenAIRE

Hill, Kevin P.

2014-01-01

With 23 states and the District of Columbia having enacted medical marijuana laws as of August 2014, it is important that psychiatrists be able to address questions about medical marijuana from patients, families, and other health care professionals. The author discusses the limited medical literature on synthetic cannabinoids and medical marijuana. The synthetic cannabinoids dronabinol and nabilone are approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for nausea and vomiting associa...

The opening of electricity and natural gas markets to residential clients. Yearly barometer - run 4. September 2010

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2010-09-01

The opening of energy markets to competition became effective to individuals ('residential clients') on July 1, 2007 with the possibility to freely choose their energy supplier. This opening of energy markets to residential clients started 3 years after the opening to professionals (July 1, 2004). The Commission of energy regulation (CRE) and the national energy Ombudsman have set in place in 2007 a quantitative yearly survey ('barometer') addressed to residential clients in order to collect statistical data about the behaviour of these clients with regards to the opening of markets to competition. This document deals with the results of the fourth run of this survey carried out from September 6 to September 18, 2010 by the LH2 institute. For the 1504 households investigated, LH2 has questioned the person in charge of the energy bills management. The barometer aimed at answering the following questions: - what is the level of knowledge and information of residential clients about markets opening and the existing regulation? - What perception of this opening do they have? (pros/cons, advantages/drawbacks); - what behaviour do they have in front of the opening of markets to competition? (approach with respect to information needs, knowledge about the offer, intention to change supplier, brakes/motivations in entering the open market). (J.S.)

The opening of electricity and natural gas markets to residential clients. Yearly barometer - run 5. September 2011

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2011-09-01

The opening of energy markets to competition became effective to individuals ('residential clients') on July 1, 2007 with the possibility to freely choose their energy supplier. This opening of energy markets to residential clients started 3 years after the opening to professionals (July 1, 2004). The Commission of energy regulation (CRE) and the national energy Ombudsman have set in place in 2007 a quantitative yearly survey ('barometer') addressed to residential clients in order to collect statistical data about the behaviour of these clients with regards to the opening of markets to competition. This document deals with the results of the fourth run of this survey carried out from September 12 to September 23, 2011 by the LH2 institute. For the 1500 households investigated, LH2 has questioned the person in charge of the energy bills management. The barometer aimed at answering the following questions: - what is the level of knowledge and information of residential clients about markets opening and the existing regulation? - What perception of this opening do they have? (pros/cons, advantages/drawbacks); - what behaviour do they have in front of the opening of markets to competition? (approach with respect to information needs, knowledge about the offer, intention to change supplier, brakes/motivations in entering the open market). (J.S.)

The opening of electricity and natural gas markets to residential clients. Yearly barometer - run 3. September 2009

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2009-09-01

The opening of energy markets to competition became effective to individuals ('residential clients') on July 1, 2007 with the possibility to freely choose their energy supplier. This opening of energy markets to residential clients started 3 years after the opening to professionals (July 1, 2004). The Commission of energy regulation (CRE) and the national energy Ombudsman have set in place in 2007 a quantitative yearly survey ('barometer') addressed to residential clients in order to collect statistical data about the behaviour of these clients with regards to the opening of markets to competition. This document deals with the results of the fourth run of this survey carried out in September 2009 by the LH2 institute. For the 1500 households investigated, LH2 has questioned the person in charge of the energy bills management. The barometer aimed at answering the following questions: - what is the level of knowledge and information of residential clients about markets opening and the existing regulation? - What perception of this opening do they have? (pros/cons, advantages/drawbacks); - what behaviour do they have in front of the opening of markets to competition? (approach with respect to information needs, knowledge about the offer, intention to change supplier, brakes/motivations in entering the open market). (J.S.)

The opening of electricity and natural gas markets to residential clients. Yearly barometer - run 2. December 2008

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2008-12-01

The opening of energy markets to competition became effective to individuals ('residential clients') on July 1, 2007 with the possibility to freely choose their energy supplier. This opening of energy markets to residential clients started 3 years after the opening to professionals (July 1, 2004). The Commission of energy regulation (CRE) and the national energy Ombudsman have set in place in 2007 a quantitative yearly survey ('barometer') addressed to residential clients in order to collect statistical data about the behaviour of these clients with regards to the opening of markets to competition. This document deals with the results of the fourth run of this survey carried out from November 10 to November 20, 2008 by the LH2 institute. For the 1502 households investigated, LH2 has questioned the person in charge of the energy bills management. The barometer aimed at answering the following questions: - what is the level of knowledge and information of residential clients about markets opening and the existing regulation? - What perception of this opening do they have? (pros/cons, advantages/drawbacks); - what behaviour do they have in front of the opening of markets to competition? (approach with respect to information needs, knowledge about the offer, intention to change supplier, brakes/motivations in entering the open market). (J.S.)

How Do 5-Year-Olds Understand Questions? Differences in Languages across Europe

Science.gov (United States)

Sauerland, Uli; Grohmann, Kleanthes K.; Guasti, Maria Teresa; Andelkovic, Darinka; Argus, Reili; Armon-Lotem, Sharon; Arosio, Fabrizio; Avram, Larisa; Costa, João; Dabašinskiene, Ineta; de López, Kristine; Gatt, Daniela; Grech, Helen; Haman, Ewa; van Hout, Angeliek; Hrzica, Gordana; Kainhofer, Judith; Kamandulyte-Merfeldiene, Laura; Kunnari, Sari; Kovacevic, Melita; Kuvac Kraljevic, Jelena; Lipowska, Katarzyna; Mejias, Sandrine; Popovic, Maša; Ruzaite, Jurate; Savic, Maja; Sevcenco, Anca; Varlokosta, Spyridoula; Varnava, Marina; Yatsushiro, Kazuko

2016-01-01

The comprehension of constituent questions is an important topic for language acquisition research and for applications in the diagnosis of language impairment. This article presents the results of a study investigating the comprehension of different types of questions by 5-year-old, typically developing children across 19 European countries, 18…

The potential importance of frost flowers, recycling on snow, and open leads for ozone depletion events

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Piot

2008-05-01

Full Text Available We present model studies with the one-dimensional model MISTRA to investigate the potential role of frost flowers, recycling on snow, and open leads in the depletion of tropospheric ozone in the Arctic spring. In our model, we assumed frost flower aerosols to be the major source of bromine. We show that a major ozone depletion event can be satisfactorily reproduced only if the recycling on snow of deposited bromine into gas phase bromine is assumed. In the model, this cycling is more efficient than the bromine explosion process and maintains sufficiently high levels of bromine to deplete ozone down to few nmol mol⁻¹ within four days. We assessed the influence of different surface combinations (open lead/frost flowers on the chemistry in the model. Results showed noticeable modifications affecting the composition of aerosols and the deposition velocities. A model run with a series of coupled frost flower fields and open leads, separated by large areas of snow, showed results comparable with field observations. In addition, we studied the effects of modified temperature of either the frost flower field or the ambient airmass. A warmer frost flower field increases the relative humidity and the aerosol deposition rate. The deposition/re-emission process gains in importance, inducing more reactive bromine in the gas phase, and a stronger ozone depletion. A decrease of 1K in airmass temperature shows in our model that the aerosol uptake capacities of all gas phase species substantially increases, leading to enhanced uptake of acids from the gas phase. Consequently, the so-called bromine explosion accelerated and O₃ mixing ratios decreased. In our model representation, variations in wind speed affected the aerosol source function and influenced the amount of bromine in the atmosphere and thus the ozone depletion strength. Recent studies have suggested the important role of the precipitation of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃

If reform of science education is the answer - what were the questions?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

2003-01-01

questions remain open: What is the aim of modern natural science education? How can the teaching methods and curriculum structure best support all this? How are changes of teaching practices best initiated? How does the university teacher improve his or her own teaching? These questions were addressed......At most Danish universities dramatic changes of the natural science programmes are under way. These changes are carried out both in response to external forces, and to internal ones, such as the need to rethink curriculum and pedagogy. But while the answer - structural reforms - is clear, the major...... at the third May Conference of the Centre for Educational Development in University Science (Dansk Center for Naturvidenskabsdidaktik, DCN), 22 -23 May, 2003, in Korsør, Denmark. This publication contains presentations given at the conference by keynote speakers. Further, it includes extensive reports from...

Open3DALIGN

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tosco, Paolo; Balle, Thomas

2011-01-01

Description Open3DALIGN is an open-source software aimed at unsupervised molecular alignment. Open3DALIGN is a command-line tool which is operated by means of a few commands which can be entered interactively from a command prompt, read from a batch script or piped through standard input. If Py......MOL is installed on the system while Open3DALIGN is being operated interactively, the setup of alignments can be followed in real time on PyMOL's viewport. A typical workflow could be the following: 1.A dataset is imported as SDF file 2.Optionally, for each compound of the dataset a quenched molecular dynamics...... (QMD) conformational search is carried out to find the most stable conformers in a user-defined energy range from the global minimum 3.One or more template compounds are chosen, then the whole dataset is best-aligned to the template(s). The alignment is a performed rigidly, using for each compound...

Ten questions about radiant heating and cooling systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rhee, Kyu-Nam; Olesen, Bjarne W.; Kim, Kwang Woo

2017-01-01

to extend the applicability of the RHC system are providing the continuous impetus for research on RHC systems. This paper summarizes the important issues involved in the research on RHC system, whereby ten questions and answers concerning the RHC system are discussed, which will help researchers to conduct...

Improving Student Question Classification

Science.gov (United States)

Heiner, Cecily; Zachary, Joseph L.

2009-01-01

Students in introductory programming classes often articulate their questions and information needs incompletely. Consequently, the automatic classification of student questions to provide automated tutorial responses is a challenging problem. This paper analyzes 411 questions from an introductory Java programming course by reducing the natural…

Usability in open source software development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andreasen, M. S.; Nielsen, H. V.; Schrøder, S. O.

2006-01-01

Open Source Software (OSS) development has gained significant importance in the production of soft-ware products. Open Source Software developers have produced systems with a functionality that is competitive with similar proprietary software developed by commercial software organizations. Yet OSS...

Does the Lagoa do Peixe sandbar opening influence the macrophyte richness and composition in Southern Brazil wetlands?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana Silvia Rolon

2013-03-01

Full Text Available The Lagoa do Peixe has its connection with the sea artificially opened every year at the end of winter. However, this management has been carried out without the evaluation of the impact of this opening in the aquatic biodiversity. This information is crucial for the management of the natural resources of the Lagoa do Peixe National Park, the unique Ramsar site in Southern Brazil. The following questions were analyzed: (1 Do richness and composition of aquatic macrophytes from Lagoa do Peixe floodplain varies temporarily according to the sandbar opening and closing? (2 Does the variation pattern of the macrophyte community changed according to the sandbar opening and closing? A set of eight sampling sites of 1ha were selected over the Lagoa do Peixe floodplain: four sites not influenced by the artificial sandbar opening and four sites influenced by this event, being two sites closer to the sandbar opening and the two sites distant to the sandbar opening. The samplings were carried out between November 2007 and October 2009. The results show that although the artificial sandbar breaching does not affect the aquatic macrophyte richness at the floodplain, it affects the dynamics of species composition. The hydrological variation related to this management can be the main factor of the continuous change in the species composition in the floodplain, especially in the Southern portion. In order to avoid impacts in the macrophyte conservation, the artificial sandbar opening should be considered carefully, since the area of study is one of the most important conservation units to wetland systems in Southern Brazil.

Does the Lagoa do peixe sandbar opening influence the macrophyte richness and composition in Southern Brazil wetlands?

Science.gov (United States)

Rolon, Ana Silvia; Rocha, Odete; Maltchik, Leonardo

2013-03-01

The Lagoa do Peixe has its connection with the sea artificially opened every year at the end of winter. However, this management has been carried out without the evaluation of the impact of this opening in the aquatic biodiversity. This information is crucial for the management of the natural resources of the Lagoa do Peixe National Park, the unique Ramsar site in Southern Brazil. The following questions were analyzed: (1) Do richness and composition of aquatic macrophytes from Lagoa do Peixe floodplain varies temporarily according to the sandbar opening and closing? (2) Does the variation pattern of the macrophyte community changed according to the sandbar opening and closing? A set of eight sampling sites of 1ha were selected over the Lagoa do Peixe floodplain: four sites not influenced by the artificial sandbar opening and four sites influenced by this event, being two sites closer to the sandbar opening and the two sites distant to the sandbar opening. The samplings were carried out between November 2007 and October 2009. The results show that although the artificial sandbar breaching does not affect the aquatic macrophyte richness at the floodplain, it affects the dynamics of species composition. The hydrological variation related to this management can be the main factor of the continuous change in the species composition in the floodplain, especially in the Southern portion. In order to avoid impacts in the macrophyte conservation, the artificial sandbar opening should be considered carefully, since the area of study is one of the most important conservation units to wetland systems in Southern Brazil.

Old or not so old: that is the question for deltas and fans in Xanthe Terra, Mars

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hauber, E.; Platz, T.; Reiss, D.; Le Deit, L.; Kleinhans, M.G.; Carbonneau, P.; Haas, T. de; Marra, W.A.

2013-01-01

Most aqueous activity on Mars (except the outflow channels) is thought to be older than ~3.8 Ga [1]. After a major and global environmental change [e.g., 2] of yet unknown reasons [3], the planet approached its current hyperarid climate. Despite this general agreement, many open questions

On the Development of Episodic Memory: Two Basic Questions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dahl, Jonna Jelsbak; Sonne, Trine; Kingo, Osman Skjold

2013-01-01

In this focused review we present and discuss two basic questions related to the early development of episodic memory in children: (1) “What is an episode?”, and (2) “How do preverbal children recall a specific episode of a recurring event?” First, a brief introduction to episodic memory...... is outlined. We argue in favor of employing a definition of episodic memory allowing us to investigate the development of episodic memory by purely behavioral measures. Second, research related to each of the two questions are presented and discussed, at first separately, and subsequently together. We argue...... and attempt to demonstrate, that pursuing answers to both questions is of crucial importance – both conceptually and methodologically - if we are ever to understand the early development of episodic memory. ...

The role of internal coupling activities in explaining the effectiveness of open innovation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Burcharth, Ana Luiza de Araújo; Knudsen, Mette Præst; Søndergaard, Helle Alsted

2013-01-01

This paper investigates the role of internal contingencies in explaining performance implications of open innovation by addressing the questions: does openness drive innovation performance? And if so, what organizational activities impact the effectiveness of both the inbound and the outbound...... finds that the effect of openness is mediated by the use of internal coupling activities that give employees latitude, information and skills to work autonomously. A key result is that the benefits of open innovation are fully captured only when firms adopt a number of activities that provide employees...... with autonomy and empowerment to conduct their work. The paper concludes with implications to theory and practice....

Question Asking in the Science Classroom: Teacher Attitudes and Practices

Science.gov (United States)

Eshach, Haim; Dor-Ziderman, Yair; Yefroimsky, Yana

2014-02-01

Despite the wide agreement among educators that classroom learning and teaching processes can gain much from student and teacher questions, their potential is not fully utilized. Adopting the view that reporting both teachers' (of varying age groups) views and actual classroom practices is necessary for obtaining a more complete view of the phenomena at hand, the present study closely examines both cognitive and affective domains of: (a) teachers' views (via interviews) concerning: (1) importance and roles of teacher and student questions, (2) teacher responses, and (3) planning and teacher training; and (b) teachers' actual practices (via classroom observations) concerning: (1) number and (2) level of teacher and student questions, as well as (3) teachers' responses to questions. The data were collected from 3 elementary, 3 middle, and 3 high school science teachers and their respective classroom students. The findings lay out a wide view of classroom questioning and teachers' responses, and relate what actually occurs in classes to teachers' stated views. Some of the study's main conclusions are that a gap exists between how science researchers and teachers view the role of teacher questions: the former highlight the cognitive domain, while the latter emphasize the affective domain.

Impression formation of tests: retrospective judgments of performance are higher when easier questions come first.

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, Abigail; Greene, Robert L

2014-11-01

Four experiments are reported on the importance of retrospective judgments of performance (postdictions) on tests. Participants answered general knowledge questions and estimated how many questions they answered correctly. They gave higher postdictions when easy questions preceded difficult questions. This was true when time to answer each question was equalized and constrained, when participants were instructed not to write answers, and when questions were presented in a multiple-choice format. Results are consistent with the notion that first impressions predominate in overall perception of test difficulty.

New frontiers in open innovation

CERN Document Server

Vanhaverbeke, Wim; West, Joel

2014-01-01

Companies have to innovate to stay competitive, and they have to collaborate with other organizations to innovate effectively. Although the benefits of "open innovation" have been described in detail before, mechanisms underlying how companies can be successful "open innovators" have not be understood well. A growing community of innovation management researchers started to develop different frameworks to understand open innovation in a more systematic way. This book provides a thorough examination of research conducted to date on open innovation, as well as a comprehensive overview of what will be the most important, most promising and most relevant research topics in this area during the next decade. "Open Innovation: Researching a new paradigm" (OUP 2006) was the first initiative to bring open innovation closer to the academic community. Open innovation research has since then been growing in an exponential way and research has evolved in different and unexpected directions. As the research field is growin...

Retrievability - A too simple answer to a difficult question?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Odhnoff, C.

2002-01-01

Near to Stockholm in October, 1999, KASAM and IAEA held a joint seminar on Retrievability. There were some 40 participants from about ten countries. Consensus was not the objective, moreover, the discussions were conducted in a friendly spirit of respect and wish to understand different opinions. The retrievability option was incorporated into into broader concepts by a stepwise procedure designed to allow the possibility of steps being reversed, thereby reducing the dramatic difference between open and closed repositories. Each step would give you time to consider and best if the repository concept so far was up to expectations. Retrievability is not a simple answer, but it helps to make this question less complicated. (author)

Open Mind, Open Heart: An Anthropological Study of the Therapeutics of Meditation Practice in the US.

Science.gov (United States)

Myers, Neely; Lewis, Sara; Dutton, Mary Ann

2015-09-01

Based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews collected with meditation teachers and students in the United States, this article will argue that active training in meditation-based practices occasions the opportunity for people with traumatic stress to develop a stronger mind-body connection through heightened somatic awareness and a focus on the present moment that they find to be therapeutic. Three important themes related to healing through meditation for trauma emerged from the data and centered around the ways our interlocutors attempted to realign their sense of self, mind and body, after a traumatic experience. The themes helped explain why US women perceive meditation as therapeutic for trauma, namely that the practice of meditation enables one to focus on the lived present rather than traumatic memories, to accept pain and "open" one's heart, and to make use of silence instead of speech as a healing modality. As meditation practices increasingly enter global popular culture, promoted for postulated health benefits, the driving question of this research--how meditation may perpetuate human resilience for women who have experienced trauma based on their own perspectives of meditation practices--is a critical addition to the literature.

Twenty-five questions for string theorists

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Binetruy, Pierre; /Orsay, LPT; Kane, G.L.; /Michigan U., MCTP; Lykken, Joseph D.; /Fermilab; Nelson, Brent D.; /Pennsylvania U.

2005-09-01

In an effort to promote communication between the formal and phenomenological branches of the high-energy theory community, we provide a description of some important issues in supersymmetric and string phenomenology. We describe each within the context of string constructions, illustrating them with specific examples where applicable. Each topic culminates in a set of questions that we believe are amenable to direct consideration by string theorists, and whose answers we think could help connect string theory and phenomenology.

Sport and Exercise Pedagogy and Questions about Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Quennerstedt, Mikael; Öhman, Marie; Armour, Kathleen

2014-01-01

One important challenge ahead for sport and exercise pedagogy (SEP) researchers is to consider afresh questions about learning. Learning in the fields of sport, physical activity and physical education (PE) is a particularly complex business. Most existing theories of learning are defined cognitively, yet learning in sport and physical activity…

Epistemology: 5 Questions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Epistemology: 5 Questions is a collection of short interviews based on 5 questions presented to some of the most influential and prominent scholars in epistemology. We hear their views on epistemology with particular emphasis on the intersection between mainstream and formal approaches to the field...

Spheres of Knowledge that Require Open-mindedness and Open Data

Science.gov (United States)

Branch, B. D.

2009-05-01

The progress of social knowledge is impeded if not paralyzed at present by two fundamental factors, one impinging from knowledge without, and the other operating within the world of science itself' (Mannheim, Wirth, and Shils, p. xi). Hence, a Sphere of Knowledge (SK) defined here as a pseudo-ontology, may require a societal open-mindedness as defined by Dewey (1912). With professional open-mindedness and open data use, such social constructs may bridge and build relations towards efficient and effective societal problem solving. Open data use is defined where information has to be gathered from many sources to provided input for latter decision-making in the public interest. Here, spatial thinking may be the heart of data collection, analysis, and reporting that sustains an informatics experience among all parts of society. Here, at risk may be human survival and sustainability if policy and politics has hindered scientific or evidence-based transfer. Executive Order 12096, Coordinating Geographical Data Acquisition and Access: The National Spatial Data Infrastructure, by the federal government in 1994, may be an example of an informatics gap of knowledge where a federal mandate is not being connected to geosciences tools and community leaders that could benefit an open society. Critical in a SK is how an open society makes effective decisions if the issues it faces are new with unpredictable outcomes. Policy and politics should not impede the scientific or evidence based knowledge transfer but should be a root of democratic tools. Policy development and implementation should reflect such complexities' (Gardner, et al, 2003, p. 2). Conceptually, a SK may be too broad for any one disciplinary to address effectively as a next generation concern. The demand for deep integration of scientific data within and between disciplines is also growing, as larger and broader science questions are becoming more common. Concurrent with the growing demand for next generation

Induced Voltage in an Open Wire

Science.gov (United States)

Morawetz, K.; Gilbert, M.; Trupp, A.

2017-07-01

A puzzle arising from Faraday's law has been considered and solved concerning the question which voltage will be induced in an open wire with a time-varying homogeneous magnetic field. In contrast to closed wires where the voltage is determined by the time variance of the magnetic field and the enclosed area, in an open wire we have to integrate the electric field along the wire. It is found that the longitudinal electric field with respect to the wave vector contributes with 1/3 and the transverse field with 2/3 to the induced voltage. In order to find the electric fields the sources of the magnetic fields are necessary to know. The representation of a spatially homogeneous and time-varying magnetic field implies unavoidably a certain symmetry point or symmetry line which depend on the geometry of the source. As a consequence the induced voltage of an open wire is found to be the area covered with respect to this symmetry line or point perpendicular to the magnetic field. This in turn allows to find the symmetry points of a magnetic field source by measuring the voltage of an open wire placed with different angles in the magnetic field. We present exactly solvable models of the Maxwell equations for a symmetry point and for a symmetry line, respectively. The results are applicable to open circuit problems like corrosion and for astrophysical applications.

Expectations, open questions to be addressed in the workshop within the context of a deep geological repository in clay formations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Landais, Patrick

2013-01-01

Precise knowledge of the clay properties in the various domains concerned by the construction feasibility, the exploitation phase of repository facilities, as well as the long term evolution of the waste and of its environment is of crucial importance in assessing the performance and the safety of the various radioactive waste disposal concepts. The knowledge to be acquired on clays as such goes well beyond solely the field of disposal of radioactive waste. For both, clay formations or bentonites in engineered barriers, the characterization in a continuous way from the nanometer to the micrometer, of their internal structure and the study of the associated physico-chemical phenomena is a fundamental issue. It aims for explaining: The 'Initial state' of the clays, in particular for the clay formations: the nature of the mechanical, hydraulic and geochemical processes, in a broad sense, and the way these processes were involved during the geological history of these formations, The fundamental processes involved by physico-chemical or hydraulic stresses, related to the evolution of the repository at the macroscopic scale. The choice of the characterization scale and relevant modeling is of first importance in the approaches leading to the establishment of the models of representation. Various research works pointed to experimental difficulties in quantifying the microstructure of the clay rocks at scales smaller than a micrometer, because of technical/instrumental limitations. This lack of knowledge at small scales does not allow to fully connect all the Thermal-hydrological-mechanical-chemical (THMC) mechanisms and to integrate them into an up-scaling approach. There already exist conceptual models and experimental approaches to describe the microstructure of argillaceous formations in terms of porosity and texture. Examples on the undisturbed Callovo-Oxfordian (COx) argillite are given in this paper. Questions and objectives to be addressed during the

An Unfulfilled Expectation: Britain’s Response to the Question of Korean Independence, 1903-1905

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Euy Suk Kwon

2018-02-01

Full Text Available This article examines Britain’s response to the question of Korean independence amid Russo-Japanese rivalry between 1903 and 1905. Russo-Japanese tension reached its peak when Russians unilaterally seized and fortified Yongampo in 1903. Britain expected Korea to check the Russian penetration by opening Yongampo and the Yalu River to foreign commerce, but Korea delayed the opening until the country fell under Japanese occupation in March 1904. Korea’s reluctance to open the river also made Britain suspect Korea’s declaration of neutrality. Therefore, when the Russo-Japanese War broke out, Britain acted in cooperation with Japan when they forced Korea to accept Japanese control. Furthermore, since Korea failed to modernise the government, Britain believed that the country should be placed under the control of Japan. Although Kojong and the Korean government were seeking Britain’s support for the integrity of Korea, Britain approved Japan’s plan to make Korea a protectorate and tried to secure their commercial interest in the country.

The Priority of the Question: Focus Questions for Sustained Reasoning in Science

Science.gov (United States)

Lustick, David

2010-08-01

Science education standards place a high priority on promoting the skills and dispositions associated with inquiry at all levels of learning. Yet, the questions teachers employ to foster sustained reasoning are most likely borrowed from a textbook, lab manual, or worksheet. Such generic questions generated for a mass audience, lack authenticity and contextual cues that allow learners to immediately appreciate a question’s relevance. Teacher queries intended to motivate, guide, and foster learning through inquiry are known as focus questions. This theoretical article draws upon science education research to present a typology and conceptual framework intended to support science teacher educators as they identify, develop, and evaluate focus questions with their students.

Dynamically consistent oil import tariffs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Karp, L.; Newbery, D.M.

1992-01-01

The standard theory of optimal tariffs considers tariffs on perishable goods produced abroad under static conditions, in which tariffs affect prices only in that period. Oil and other exhaustable resources do not fit this model, for current tariffs affect the amount of oil imported, which will affect the remaining stock and hence its future price. The problem of choosing a dynamically consistent oil import tariff when suppliers are competitive but importers have market power is considered. The open-loop Nash tariff is solved for the standard competitive case in which the oil price is arbitraged, and it was found that the resulting tariff rises at the rate of interest. This tariff was found to have an equilibrium that in general is dynamically inconsistent. Nevertheless, it is shown that necessary and sufficient conditions exist under which the tariff satisfies the weaker condition of time consistency. A dynamically consistent tariff is obtained by assuming that all agents condition their current decisions on the remaining stock of the resource, in contrast to open-loop strategies. For the natural case in which all agents choose their actions simultaneously in each period, the dynamically consistent tariff was characterized, and found to differ markedly from the time-inconsistent open-loop tariff. It was shown that if importers do not have overwhelming market power, then the time path of the world price is insensitive to the ability to commit, as is the level of wealth achieved by the importer. 26 refs., 4 figs

Open innovation in health care: analysis of an open health platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Bullinger, Angelika C; Rass, Matthias; Adamczyk, Sabrina; Moeslein, Kathrin M; Sohn, Stefan

2012-05-01

Today, integration of the public in research and development in health care is seen as essential for the advancement of innovation. This is a paradigmatic shift away from the traditional assumption that solely health care professionals are able to devise, develop, and disseminate novel concepts and solutions in health care. The present study builds on research in the field of open innovation to investigate the adoption of an open health platform by patients, care givers, physicians, family members, and the interested public. Results suggest that open innovation practices in health care lead to interesting innovation outcomes and are well accepted by participants. During the first three months, 803 participants of the open health platform submitted challenges and solutions and intensively communicated by exchanging 1454 personal messages and 366 comments. Analysis of communication content shows that empathic support and exchange of information are important elements of communication on the platform. The study presents first evidence for the suitability of open innovation practices to integrate the general public in health care research in order to foster both innovation outcomes and empathic support. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

David Falk: Algunas cuestiones abiertas para el marketing deportivo. [David Falk: Some open questions for the sports marketing arena].

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José A. Martínez

2015-04-01

Full Text Available David Falk, el que fuera el representante del jugador de baloncesto Michael Jordan, es una figura de referencia para el marketing deportivo. Falk contribuyó decisivamente a revitalizar el marketing deportivo, ayudó a construir lo que probablemente sea la relación comercial más importante del deporte (Jordan-Nike, y llevó hasta el extremo la filosofía de que en la negociación lo importante es que tu cliente llegue a conseguir el máximo dinero posible, más allá de que ese sea su valor de mercado o que el propio mercado pueda admitir esa inflación. En este artículo se repasan algunos de los hechos más destacados de su vida profesional y, desde una perspectiva crítica, se relacionan con varias cuestiones abiertas que el mundo académico y profesional del deporte continúa discutiendo. Abstract David Falk, former agent of the basketball player Michael Jordan, is a figure of reference for sports marketing. Falk was instrumental in revitalizing the sports marketing. He helped to build what is probably the most important relationship in sport business (Jordan-Nike, and strongly defended a radical philosophy of negotiation, where the most important is the maximization of client gains, regardless their true market value or if the market can admit such inflation. This article reviews some of the highlights of his career facts and, from a critical perspective, discusses several open issues related to the academic and professional world of sports. To achieve this aim, several recent contributions to the marketing and sports literature are commented.

Adding without Contradiction: The Challenge of Opening up Interracial Dialogue

Science.gov (United States)

Cargile, Aaron Castelan

2010-01-01

This essay begins with the question, "What can educators do to minimize the risks inherent to interracial dialogue?" Though no such meaningful conversation ever will be without risk, this article offers two specific strategies that have helped foster open classroom climates: adding without contradiction and granting freedom for conclusions. Both…

The top 100 questions of importance to the future of global agriculture

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pretly, J.; Sutherland, W.J.; Ashby, J.; Auburn, J.; Baulcombe, D.; Bell, M.; Bentley, J.; Bickersteth, S.; Brown, K.; Burke, J.; Campbell, H.; Chen, K.; Crowley, E.; Crute, I.; Dobbelaere, D.; Edwards-Jones, G.; Funes-Monzote, F.; Godfray, H.C.J.; Griffon, M.; Gypmantisiri, P.; Haddad, L.; Halavatau, S.; Herren, H.; Holderness, M.; Izac, A.M.; Jones, M.; Koohafkan, P.; Lal, R.; Lang, T.; McNeely, J.; Mueller, A.; Nisbett, N.; Noble, A.; Pingali, P.; Pinto, Y.; Rabbinge, R.; Ravindranath, N.H.; Rola, A.; Röling, N.G.; Sage, C.; Settle, W.; Sha, J.M.; Luo, S.M.; Simons, T.; Smith, P.; Strzepeck, K.; Swaine, H.; Terry, E.; Tomich, T.P.; Toulmin, C.; Trigo, E.; Twomlow, S.; Vis, J.K.; Wilson, J.; Pilgrim, S.

2010-01-01

Despite a significant growth in food production over the past half-century, one of the most important challenges facing society today is how to feed an expected population of some nine billion by the middle of the 20th century. To meet the expected demand for food without significant increases in

Comments on topical questions of nuclear energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Butz, H.; Noll, M.

1978-05-01

During the 7th legislative period (1972/76) of the German Bundestag the Federal Government has repeatedly commented on questions concerning nuclear energy. The present documentation comprises a selection of the most important issues. The collection contains in particular: written and oral answers of the Federal Government to written or oral questions of members of parliament; answers of the Federal Government to major and minor interpellations of fractions or factions; statements of the chancellor, the ministers and permanent secretaries; bills of the Federal Government if they were issued as parliamentary documents or as plenary minutes. The main attention when selecting the documents was drawn to giving complete recording of the statements on the safety of nuclear plants and on radiation protection. Furthermore, the comments on questions concerning nuclear energy were considered both in general and in connection with alternative energy sources. Eventually, the general situation concerning energy could be verified. The selection of documents has certainly not thoroughly remained uninfluenced by subjective decisions. The parliamentary documents and plenary minutes given here are recorded by chronological order. An index of subject headings will facilitate access to all documents. (orig.) 891 HP [de

Open Source, Open Access, Open Review, Open Data. Initiativen zu mehr Offenheit in der digitalen Welt

OpenAIRE

Herb, Ulrich

2011-01-01

The article discusses the principles of openess, open access and open availability of information based on the examples of open access to scientific information, open government data, open geographical data and open source software.

Open Ephys: an open-source, plugin-based platform for multichannel electrophysiology.

Science.gov (United States)

Siegle, Joshua H; López, Aarón Cuevas; Patel, Yogi A; Abramov, Kirill; Ohayon, Shay; Voigts, Jakob

2017-08-01

Closed-loop experiments, in which causal interventions are conditioned on the state of the system under investigation, have become increasingly common in neuroscience. Such experiments can have a high degree of explanatory power, but they require a precise implementation that can be difficult to replicate across laboratories. We sought to overcome this limitation by building open-source software that makes it easier to develop and share algorithms for closed-loop control. We created the Open Ephys GUI, an open-source platform for multichannel electrophysiology experiments. In addition to the standard 'open-loop' visualization and recording functionality, the GUI also includes modules for delivering feedback in response to events detected in the incoming data stream. Importantly, these modules can be built and shared as plugins, which makes it possible for users to extend the functionality of the GUI through a simple API, without having to understand the inner workings of the entire application. In combination with low-cost, open-source hardware for amplifying and digitizing neural signals, the GUI has been used for closed-loop experiments that perturb the hippocampal theta rhythm in a phase-specific manner. The Open Ephys GUI is the first widely used application for multichannel electrophysiology that leverages a plugin-based workflow. We hope that it will lower the barrier to entry for electrophysiologists who wish to incorporate real-time feedback into their research.

OMPC: an Open-Source MATLAB-to-Python Compiler.

Science.gov (United States)

Jurica, Peter; van Leeuwen, Cees

2009-01-01

Free access to scientific information facilitates scientific progress. Open-access scientific journals are a first step in this direction; a further step is to make auxiliary and supplementary materials that accompany scientific publications, such as methodological procedures and data-analysis tools, open and accessible to the scientific community. To this purpose it is instrumental to establish a software base, which will grow toward a comprehensive free and open-source language of technical and scientific computing. Endeavors in this direction are met with an important obstacle. MATLAB((R)), the predominant computation tool in many fields of research, is a closed-source commercial product. To facilitate the transition to an open computation platform, we propose Open-source MATLAB((R))-to-Python Compiler (OMPC), a platform that uses syntax adaptation and emulation to allow transparent import of existing MATLAB((R)) functions into Python programs. The imported MATLAB((R)) modules will run independently of MATLAB((R)), relying on Python's numerical and scientific libraries. Python offers a stable and mature open source platform that, in many respects, surpasses commonly used, expensive commercial closed source packages. The proposed software will therefore facilitate the transparent transition towards a free and general open-source lingua franca for scientific computation, while enabling access to the existing methods and algorithms of technical computing already available in MATLAB((R)). OMPC is available at http://ompc.juricap.com.

Important atomic physics issues for ion beam fusion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bangerter, Roger.

1986-01-01

The nearly endless variety of interesting and challenging problems makes physics research enjoyable. Most of us would choose to be physicists even if physics had no practical applications. However, physics does have practical applications. This workshop deals with one of those applications, namely ion beam fusion. Not all interesting and challenging atomic physics questions are important for ion beam fusion. This paper suggests some questions that may be important for ion beam fusion. It also suggests some criteria for determining if a question is only interesting, or both interesting and important. Importance is time dependent and, because of some restrictions on the flow of information, also country dependent. In the early days of ion beam fusion, it was important to determine if ion beam fusion made sense. Approximate answers and bounds on various parameters were required. Accurate, detailed answers were not needed. Because of the efforts of many people attending this workshop, we now know that ion beam fusion does make some sense. We must still determine if ion beam fusion truly makes good sense. If it does make good sense, we must determine how to make it work. Accurate detailed answers are becoming increasingly important. (author)

Ten questions concerning the large-eddy simulation of turbulent flows

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pope, Stephen B

2004-01-01

In the past 30 years, there has been considerable progress in the development of large-eddy simulation (LES) for turbulent flows, which has been greatly facilitated by the substantial increase in computer power. In this paper, we raise some fundamental questions concerning the conceptual foundations of LES and about the methodologies and protocols used in its application. The 10 questions addressed are stated at the end of the introduction. Several of these questions highlight the importance of recognizing the dependence of LES calculations on the artificial parameter Δ (i.e. the filter width or, more generally, the turbulence resolution length scale). The principle that LES predictions of turbulence statistics should depend minimally on Δ provides an alternative justification for the dynamic procedure

Openly Published Environmental Sensing (OPEnS) | Advancing Open-Source Research, Instrumentation, and Dissemination

Science.gov (United States)

Udell, C.; Selker, J. S.

2017-12-01

The increasing availability and functionality of Open-Source software and hardware along with 3D printing, low-cost electronics, and proliferation of open-access resources for learning rapid prototyping are contributing to fundamental transformations and new technologies in environmental sensing. These tools invite reevaluation of time-tested methodologies and devices toward more efficient, reusable, and inexpensive alternatives. Building upon Open-Source design facilitates community engagement and invites a Do-It-Together (DIT) collaborative framework for research where solutions to complex problems may be crowd-sourced. However, barriers persist that prevent researchers from taking advantage of the capabilities afforded by open-source software, hardware, and rapid prototyping. Some of these include: requisite technical skillsets, knowledge of equipment capabilities, identifying inexpensive sources for materials, money, space, and time. A university MAKER space staffed by engineering students to assist researchers is one proposed solution to overcome many of these obstacles. This presentation investigates the unique capabilities the USDA-funded Openly Published Environmental Sensing (OPEnS) Lab affords researchers, within Oregon State and internationally, and the unique functions these types of initiatives support at the intersection of MAKER spaces, Open-Source academic research, and open-access dissemination.

Future neutrino oscillation facilities: physics priorities and open issues

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blondel, Alain

2006-01-01

The recent discovery that neutrinos have masses opens a wide new field of experimentation. Accelerator-made neutrinos are essential in this program. Ideas for future facilities include Superbeam, Beta-beam, or Neutrino Factory, each associated with one or several options for detector systems. We now begin a 'scoping study' aimed at determining a set of key R and D projects enabling the community to propose an ambitious accelerator neutrino program at the turn of this decade. As an introduction to this study, a set of physics priorities, a summary of the perceived virtues and shortcomings of the various options, and a number of open questions are presented

The prime questions in authentic patient's consultations: a call for additional research on current and new paradigms.

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, Hanh Thi

2013-01-01

Although the 3 prime questions ("What did your doctor tell you the medication is for?" "How did your doctor tell you to take the medication?," and "What did your doctor tell you to expect?") have been recommended as a way to implement an interactive approach to patient's counseling in pharmacy, research examining how these questions are actually used in practice is relatively sparse. Qualitative approaches might assist to inform pertinent questions that might challenge prevailing paradigms. This commentary calls for a close look at how novice pharmacists in training manage these questions in real-life patient's consultations. These examples are aimed to provide preliminary observations about (1) how the prime questions in their original and modified forms are treated by pharmacists in training and patients, and (2) the interactional functions that the prime questions and similar questions may serve. Preliminary observations based on a conversation analysis of these examples show that the open-ended nature of the original prime questions sometimes leads to interactional problems such as delays in patients' responses and pharmacists' revision of the questions. Modified question formats that involve the use of specific knowledge expected to be possessed by a pharmacist, such as declarative questions and Q-word questions with concrete information, may lead to smoother interaction. Finally, questions about the purpose of the therapy may also be used to create opportunities to express empathy toward the patient or to shift the zone of expertise to the doctor. These initial findings suggest a more context sensitive and adaptive approach to communication in pharmacy. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

PARALLEL IMPORT: REALITY FOR RUSSIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Т. А. Сухопарова

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Problem of parallel import is urgent question at now. Parallel import legalization in Russia is expedient. Such statement based on opposite experts opinion analysis. At the same time it’s necessary to negative consequences consider of this decision and to apply remedies to its minimization.Purchase on Elibrary.ru > Buy now

Open problems in Banach spaces and measure theory | Rodríguez ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

We collect several open questions in Banach spaces, mostly related to measure theoretic aspects of the theory. The problems are divided into five categories: miscellaneous problems in Banach spaces (non-separable Lp spaces, compactness in Banach spaces, w*-null sequences in dual spaces), measurability in Banach ...

Some open questions in K decay

CERN Document Server

Gaillard, Mary Katherin

1974-01-01

Attention is concentrated on the decays K/sub pi 3/- with respect to the origin of the mod Delta I mod =/sup 1///sub 2/ rule and K/sub mu 3 / - with respect to the breaking of chiral symmetry. Comment is also made on K/sub e4/ and K/sub mu mu / decays. The various isospin amplitudes are extracted from existing data on non-leptonic decays and ambiguities arising from electromagnetic mass differences are displayed. The mod Delta I mod =/sup 3///sub 2/ amplitudes are compared with the pole contribution and with current algebra predictions. The extrapolation of the soft pion theorem for K/sub mu 3 / to the physical region is discussed. Bounds are given for the divergence from factor as a function of chiral symmetry breaking parameters under the assumption of twice subtracted scalar and pseudoscalar propagators. (48 refs).

Open questions on nuclear collective motion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Frauendorf, S., E-mail: sfrauend@nd.edu [Department of Physics, University Notre Dame, IN 46557 (United States)

2016-07-07

The status of the macroscopic and microscopic description of the collective quadrupole modes is reviewed, where limits due to non-adiabaticity and decoherence are exposed. The microscopic description of the yrast states in vibrator-like nuclei in the framework of the rotating mean field is presented.

Special relativity as an open question

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Albert, D.Z.

2000-01-01

There seems to me to be a way of reading some of the trouble we have lately been having with the quantum-mechanical measurement problem (not the standard way, mind you, and certainly not the only way; but a way that nonetheless be worth exploring) that suggests that there are fairly prosaic physical circumstances under which it might not be entirely beside the point to look around for observable violations of the special theory of relativity. The suggestion I have in mind is connected with attempts over the past several years to write down a relativistic field-theoretic version of the dynamical reduction theory of Ghirardi, Rimini, and Weber [Physical Review D34, 470-491 (1986)], or rather it is connected with the persistent failure of those attempts, it is connected with the most obvious strategy for giving those attempts up. And that (in the end) is what this paper is going to be about. (orig.)

Asking a Great Question: A Librarian Teaches Questioning Skills to First-Year Medical Students.

Science.gov (United States)

Adams, Nancy E

2015-01-01

In a single one-hour session, first-year medical students were taught a framework for differentiating between lower-order questions that lead to knowledge of facts and higher-order questions that lead to integration of concepts and deeper learning, thereby preparing them for problem-based learning (PBL). Students generated lists of questions in response to an assertion prompt and categorized them according to Bloom's Taxonomy. These data were analyzed in addition to data from the course exam, which asked them to formulate a higher-level question in response to a prompt. Categorizing questions according to Bloom's Taxonomy was a more difficult task for students than was formulating higher-order questions. Students reported that the skills that they learned were used in subsequent PBL sessions to formulate higher-order learning objectives that integrated new and previously-learned concepts.