Working Toward Policy-Relevant Air Quality Emissions Scenarios

Science.gov (United States)

Holloway, T.

2010-12-01

Though much work has been done to develop accurate chemical emission inventories, few publicly available inventories are appropriate for realistic policy analysis. Emissions from the electricity and transportation sectors, in particular, respond in complex ways to policy, technology, and energy use change. Many widely used inventories, such as the EPA National Emissions Inventory, are well-suited for modeling current air quality, but do not have the specificity needed to address "what if?" questions. Changes in electricity demand, fuel prices, new power sources, and emission controls all influence the emissions from regional power production, requiring a plant-by-plant assessment to capture the spatially explicit impacts. Similarly, land use, freight distribution, or driving behavior will yield differentiated transportation emissions for urban areas, suburbs, and rural highways. We here present results from three recent research projects at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, where bottom-up emission inventories for electricity, freight transport, and urban vehicle use were constructed to support policy-relevant air quality research. These three studies include: 1) Using the MyPower electricity dispatch model to calculate emissions and air quality impacts of Renewable Portfolio Standards and other carbon-management strategies; 2) Using advanced vehicle and commodity flow data from the Federal Highway Administration to evaluate the potential to shift commodities from truck to rail (assuming expanded infrastructure), and assess a range of alternative fuel suggestions; and 3) Working with urban planners to connect urban density with vehicle use to evaluate the air quality impacts of smart-growth in major Midwest cities. Drawing on the results of these three studies, and on challenges overcome in their execution, we discuss the current state of policy-relevant emission dataset generation, as well as techniques and attributes that need to be further refined in order

The relevance of systematic reviews on pharmaceutical policy to low- and middle-income countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Gray, Andrew Lofts; Suleman, Fatima

2015-10-01

Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) rely on available evidence when devising and implementing pharmaceutical policies. Aim of the review To provide a critical overview of systematic reviews of pharmaceutical policies, with particular focus on the relevance of such reviews in low- and middle-income countries. A search for systematic reviews (SRs) of studies of the interventions of interest was conducted until May 2009 in MEDLINE, EconLit, CINAHL, the Cochrane site, ProQuest, EMBASE, JOLIS, ISI Web of Science, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, International Network for Rational Use of Drugs, National Technical Information Service, Public Affairs Information Service, SourceOECD, the System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe, and the WHO library database. The search was updated to July 2013, based on the yields of the initial search strategy. 20 SRs that met all inclusion criteria were retrieved in full text. Four SRs were subsequently rejected on the basis of quality considerations and the findings of 16 SRs were extracted and their applicability in LMICs considered. Of these, 5 were Cochrane Reviews. All included SRs were published in English. SRs related to registration and classification policies, marketing policies, prescribing policies, reimbursement policies, policies on price and payments, co-payments and caps and multi-component policies were retrieved. No SRs related to patent and profit policies, sales and dispensing policies, policies that regulate the provision of health insurance, or policies on patient information were retrieved. Only one of the systematic reviews retrieved utilised a study conducted in a developing country. The direct applicability of the evidence from these SRs in LMICs is limited. However, as middle-income countries move towards universal health coverage, the multi-component policies that govern reimbursement for medicines, and which impose caps on payments and co-payments by patients, may become more applicable

Shifting from policy relevance to policy translation: Do housing and neighborhoods affect children’s mental health?

Science.gov (United States)

Osypuk, Theresa L.

2016-01-01

The impact of housing and neighborhood context on children’s mental health, as addressed by Flouri and colleagues [1], is an important, understudied topic in social epidemiology. Although the vast majority of this body of research has been descriptive, generating translational research is essential. This article offers guidance on interpreting evidence from observational studies for translation into policy, related to three policy-relevant elements of housing: receipt of affordable housing subsidies, the target population to which results generalize, and operationalization and modeling of neighborhood context. Policy translation is imperative for understanding which levers outside the health sector can be manipulated to change fundamental causes of mental health related to housing and neighborhood. Shifting from policy relevance to policy translation may be challenging, especially for understanding social causation in observational studies, but it’s a necessary shift for improving population health. PMID:25527210

Guidelines for Using Movement Science to Inform Biodiversity Policy

Science.gov (United States)

Barton, Philip S.; Lentini, Pia E.; Alacs, Erika; Bau, Sana; Buckley, Yvonne M.; Burns, Emma L.; Driscoll, Don A.; Guja, Lydia K.; Kujala, Heini; Lahoz-Monfort, José J.; Mortelliti, Alessio; Nathan, Ran; Rowe, Ross; Smith, Annabel L.

2015-10-01

Substantial advances have been made in our understanding of the movement of species, including processes such as dispersal and migration. This knowledge has the potential to improve decisions about biodiversity policy and management, but it can be difficult for decision makers to readily access and integrate the growing body of movement science. This is, in part, due to a lack of synthesis of information that is sufficiently contextualized for a policy audience. Here, we identify key species movement concepts, including mechanisms, types, and moderators of movement, and review their relevance to (1) national biodiversity policies and strategies, (2) reserve planning and management, (3) threatened species protection and recovery, (4) impact and risk assessments, and (5) the prioritization of restoration actions. Based on the review, and considering recent developments in movement ecology, we provide a new framework that draws links between aspects of movement knowledge that are likely the most relevant to each biodiversity policy category. Our framework also shows that there is substantial opportunity for collaboration between researchers and government decision makers in the use of movement science to promote positive biodiversity outcomes.

Guidelines for Using Movement Science to Inform Biodiversity Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Barton, Philip S; Lentini, Pia E; Alacs, Erika; Bau, Sana; Buckley, Yvonne M; Burns, Emma L; Driscoll, Don A; Guja, Lydia K; Kujala, Heini; Lahoz-Monfort, José J; Mortelliti, Alessio; Nathan, Ran; Rowe, Ross; Smith, Annabel L

2015-10-01

Substantial advances have been made in our understanding of the movement of species, including processes such as dispersal and migration. This knowledge has the potential to improve decisions about biodiversity policy and management, but it can be difficult for decision makers to readily access and integrate the growing body of movement science. This is, in part, due to a lack of synthesis of information that is sufficiently contextualized for a policy audience. Here, we identify key species movement concepts, including mechanisms, types, and moderators of movement, and review their relevance to (1) national biodiversity policies and strategies, (2) reserve planning and management, (3) threatened species protection and recovery, (4) impact and risk assessments, and (5) the prioritization of restoration actions. Based on the review, and considering recent developments in movement ecology, we provide a new framework that draws links between aspects of movement knowledge that are likely the most relevant to each biodiversity policy category. Our framework also shows that there is substantial opportunity for collaboration between researchers and government decision makers in the use of movement science to promote positive biodiversity outcomes.

Information Needs/Relevance

OpenAIRE

Wildemuth, Barbara M.

2009-01-01

A user's interaction with a DL is often initiated as the result of the user experiencing an information need of some kind. Aspects of that experience and how it might affect the user's interactions with the DL are discussed in this module. In addition, users continuously make decisions about and evaluations of the materials retrieved from a DL, relative to their information needs. Relevance judgments, and their relationship to the user's information needs, are discussed in this module. Draft

Is Information Still Relevant?

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Lia

2013-01-01

Introduction: The term "information" in information science does not share the characteristics of those of a nomenclature: it does not bear a generally accepted definition and it does not serve as the bases and assumptions for research studies. As the data deluge has arrived, is the concept of information still relevant for information…

Relevance: An Interdisciplinary and Information Science Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Howard Greisdorf

2000-01-01

Full Text Available Although relevance has represented a key concept in the field of information science for evaluating information retrieval effectiveness, the broader context established by interdisciplinary frameworks could provide greater depth and breadth to on-going research in the field. This work provides an overview of the nature of relevance in the field of information science with a cursory view of how cross-disciplinary approaches to relevance could represent avenues for further investigation into the evaluative characteristics of relevance as a means for enhanced understanding of human information behavior.

Invalidating Policies using Structural Information

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kammuller, Florian; Probst, Christian W.

2013-01-01

by invalidating policies using structural information of the organisational model. Based on this structural information and a description of the organisation's policies, our approach invalidates the policies and identifies exemplary sequences of actions that lead to a violation of the policy in question. Based...... on these examples, the organisation can identify real attack vectors that might result in an insider attack. This information can be used to refine access control system or policies....

Cartographic Communication and Information Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

van de Waal, E. Hans

Trends in information policy are discussed as they impact on cartographic information, stressing particularly the relationships between cartographic communication, documentation, and policy making. Distinction is made between cartographic communication as a subject for information policy and cartographic communication as an expedient in public…

Policy relevance of various proposals for greening GDP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

De Wit, G.

1996-02-01

From the study on the title subject it appears that the use of a number of separate physical indicators is valuable for policy making but that it would be helpful for policy to develop (alongside the conventional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and these environmental indicators) an extra 'green' GDP. The analysis of the various surveyed proposals of greening GDP results into the conclusion that adjustments should be made as follows: (1) adjustment for the net depletion of natural resources according to the net price method, (2) adjustment for the degradation of nature by polluting emissions with the aid of shadow prices derived from politics, and (3) adjustment for certain categories of environmental defensive expenditures. The major reasons for this recommendation are: (1) such a GDP can facilitate government in decisions where trade-offs between production and a clean environment are at stake, (2) the recommended way of valuation minimizes the inherent subjectiveness of valuing nature, (3) the way of valuation of nature is not likely to lead to an overestimation, and (4) at least for the Netherlands the proposal is operational in the near future. In Chapter 2 a set of evaluation criteria is designed. One evaluation criterion is the potential policy relevance of a proposed indicator, i.e. its relevance when the indicator measures exactly what it is intended to measure. In Chapter 3 the potential policy relevance of an adjusted GDP is elaborated. Another evaluation criterion is the scientific validity of a proposed indicator: is the indicator really measuring what it is intended to measure? To judge whether this is the case for the various proposals for adjusting GDP, a theoretical framework that facilitates such a judgement is discussed in Chapter 4. In Chapters 5, 6 and 7 actual evaluation of the various proposals for environmental indicators is carried out. In Chapter 5 proposals regarding the depletion of natural resources are evaluated. (Abstract Truncated)

The role of migration-specific and migration-relevant policies in migrant decision-making in transit

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kuschminder - de Guerre, Katie; Koser, Khalid

2017-01-01

This paper examines the role of migration-specific and migration-relevant policies in migrant decision-making factors for onwards migration or stay in Greece and Turkey. In this paper we distinguish migration-specific policies from migration-relevant policies in transit and destination countries,

Information Flow and Health Policy Literacy: The Role of the Media

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sophya Yumakulov

2012-08-01

Full Text Available People increasingly can and want to obtain and generate health information themselves. With the increasing do-it-yourself sentiment comes also the desire to be more involved in one’s health care decisions. Patient driven health-care and health research models are emerging; terms such as participatory medicine and quantified-self are visible increasingly. Given the health consumer’s desire to be more involved in health data generation and health care decision making processes the authors submit that it is important to be health policy literate, to understanding how health policies are developed, what themes are discussed among health policy researchers and policy makers, to understand how ones demands would be discussed within health policy discourses. The public increasingly obtains their knowledge through the internet by searching web browsers for keywords. Question is whether the “health consumer” to come has knowledge of key terms defining key health policy discourses which would enable them to perform targeted searches for health policy literature relevant to their situation. The authors found that key health policy terms are virtually absent from printed and online news media which begs the question how the “health consumer” might learn about key health policy terms needed for web based searches that would allow the “health consumer” to access health policy discourses relevant to them.

A Compositional Relevance Model for Adaptive Information Retrieval

Science.gov (United States)

Mathe, Nathalie; Chen, James; Lu, Henry, Jr. (Technical Monitor)

1994-01-01

There is a growing need for rapid and effective access to information in large electronic documentation systems. Access can be facilitated if information relevant in the current problem solving context can be automatically supplied to the user. This includes information relevant to particular user profiles, tasks being performed, and problems being solved. However most of this knowledge on contextual relevance is not found within the contents of documents, and current hypermedia tools do not provide any easy mechanism to let users add this knowledge to their documents. We propose a compositional relevance network to automatically acquire the context in which previous information was found relevant. The model records information on the relevance of references based on user feedback for specific queries and contexts. It also generalizes such information to derive relevant references for similar queries and contexts. This model lets users filter information by context of relevance, build personalized views of documents over time, and share their views with other users. It also applies to any type of multimedia information. Compared to other approaches, it is less costly and doesn't require any a priori statistical computation, nor an extended training period. It is currently being implemented into the Computer Integrated Documentation system which enables integration of various technical documents in a hypertext framework.

Policy revision in health enterprise information security: P3WG final report

Science.gov (United States)

Sostrom, Kristen; Collmann, Jeff R.

2003-05-01

Health information management policies usually address the use of paper records with little or no mention of electronic health records. Information Technology (IT) policies often ignore the health care business needs and operational use of the information stored in its systems. Representatives from the Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC), TRICARE and Offices of the Surgeon General of each Military Service, collectively referred to as the Policies, Procedures and Practices Work Group (P3WG) examined military policies and regulations relating to computer-based information systems and medical records management. Using an interdisciplinary and interservice QA approach they compared existing military policies with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule to identify gaps and discrepancies. The final report, including a plain English explanation of the individual standards and relevance to the Department of Defense (DoD), a comparative analysis and recommendations, will feed in to the security management process and HIPAA implementation efforts at multiple levels within the DoD. In light of High Reliability Theory, this process models how large enterprises may coordinate policy revision and reform across broad organizational and work domains, building consensus on key policy reforms among military stakeholders across different disciplines, levels of command hierarchy and services.

Invalidating Policies using Structural Information

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kammuller, Florian; Probst, Christian W.

2014-01-01

by invalidating policies using structural information of the organisational model. Based on this structural information and a description of the organisation’s policies, our approach invalidates the policies and identifies exemplary sequences of actions that lead to a violation of the policy in question. Based...... on these examples, the organisation can identify real attack vectors that might result in an insider attack. This information can be used to refine access control systems or policies. We provide case studies showing how mechanical verification tools, i.e. modelchecking with MCMAS and interactive theorem proving...

Information Support of Foreign Policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olga A. Melnikova

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Informatization and modern information technologies cover the most various areas of social, spiritual and material human life and have become the dominating globalization factor with major impact on world events. Modern international relations present new challenges and threats ofcross-border nature, which fall within the area of information security. This brings issues of informational influence on international policy to the fore. In this context the question of improvement and modernization of policy instruments for more effective use of modern means of implementation of foreign policy priorities, including information support of international activities, achieves fundamental importance. Given the complexity of modern international relations and tasks facing foreign affairs departments, diplomatic success in many cases depends onthe efficiency of information support. The article analyses current objectives and methods of information support of foreign policy in the context of modern Russian legislation. The author examines the approach of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Ministryof Foreign Affairs,a subdivision responsible for information support and international cooperation in the media sphere. The article specifies the key role of new information technologies for informing the audience expeditiously and to the full extent in regard to Russian approaches to the solution of international problems, foreign policy initiatives and actions of the Russian Federation, and for counteracting attempts to discredit Russian foreign policy.

Information security policy: contributions from internal marketing for its effectiveness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristiane Ellwanger

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Protecting sources of information has become a great challenge to the organizations, due to the advance of the information technologies, the integration between them and the constant stream of information that flows through the communication networks. The establishment of an Information Security Policy – PSI may resolve a part of the problems related to security, but it cannot totally solve them, since the human resources present in the internal environment of the organizations may spoil the effectiveness of the PSI. Given the importance of the human aspects in the context of the information security, the present work discusses the use of internal marketing as a management strategy in order to obtain or reestablish the commitment of the users to the principles defined in the PSI, and demonstrates, through an experimental research, the impact of using internal marketing techniques to the effectiveness of that policy. The results of this experiment make quantitatively evident how relevant the use of these techniques may be in order to have the procedures described in the PSI actually carried out by the users, and demonstrates a 402,4% increase in the support to the information security policy, considering the procedures indicated in the PSI that were totally executed.

46 CFR 560.5 - Receipt of relevant information.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 46 Shipping 9 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Receipt of relevant information. 560.5 Section 560.5... FOREIGN PORTS § 560.5 Receipt of relevant information. (a) In making its decision on matters arising under... submissions should be supported by affidavits of fact and memorandum of law. Relevant information may include...

Evaluating policy-relevant emission inventories for transportation and electricity (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Holloway, T.; Meier, P.; Bickford, E. E.

2013-12-01

We explore the challenges and opportunities in evaluating bottom-up emission inventories for transportation and electricity. These anthropogenic emissions respond in complex ways to technology and activity changes. Thus, it is essential that inventories capture historic emissions consistent with observations, as well as future emissions consistent with policy scenarios. For transportation, we focus on freight-related trucking emissions, represented by the Wisconsin Inventory for Freight Emissions (WIFE), developed with activity data from the U.S. Federal Highway Administration Freight Analysis Framework and emission factors from the EPA MOVES model. Because WIFE is linked to commodity flows and roadway speeds, it offers a useful data set to evaluate policy changes such as truck-to-rail modal shifts and alternative fuel choices. However, the value of the inventory in assessing these scenarios depends on its skill in calculating frieght-related emissions. Satellite data of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) from the OMI instrument aboard the NASA Aura satellite is used to evaluate truck and rail NOx emissions, especially on rural highways away from ground-based monitors. For electricity, we use the MyPower electricity dispatch model to calculate emissions and power generation in response to policy and technology changes. These include renewable portfolio standards, conservation, increased natural gas, and response to building demand. To evaluate MyPower, we compare with the Clean Air Markets database, and 2007 calculated daily afternoon emissions with satellite-derived NO2 from OMI. Drawing on the results of these studies, we discuss strategies to meet the information demands of both historically correct air quality inputs and future-relevant policy scenarios.

Has Financial Statement Information become Less Relevant?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thinggaard, Frank; Damkier, Jesper

This paper presents insights into the question of whether accounting information based on the EU’s Accounting Directives has become less value-relevant to investors over time. The study is based on a research design first used by Francis and Schipper (1999), where value-relevance is measured......? The sample is based on non-financial companies listed on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange in the period 1984-2002. Our analyses show that all the applied accounting measures are value-relevant as investment strategies based on the information earn positive market-adjusted returns in our sample period....... The results provide some indication of a decline in the value-relevance of earnings information in the 1984-2001 period, and mixed, but not statistically reliable, evidence for accounting measures where book value information and asset values are also extracted from financial statements. The results seem...

Converging research needs across framework convention on tobacco control articles: making research relevant to global tobacco control practice and policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Leischow, Scott J; Ayo-Yusuf, Olalekan; Backinger, Cathy L

2013-04-01

Much of the research used to support the ratification of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) was conducted in high-income countries or in highly controlled environments. Therefore, for the global tobacco control community to make informed decisions that will continue to effectively inform policy implementation, it is critical that the tobacco control community, policy makers, and funders have updated information on the state of the science as it pertains to provisions of the FCTC. Following the National Cancer Institute's process model used in identifying the research needs of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's relatively new tobacco law, a core team of scientists from the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco identified and commissioned internationally recognized scientific experts on the topics covered within the FCTC. These experts analyzed the relevant sections of the FCTC and identified critical gaps in research that is needed to inform policy and practice requirements of the FCTC. This paper summarizes the process and the common themes from the experts' recommendations about the research and related infrastructural needs. Research priorities in common across Articles include improving surveillance, fostering research communication/collaboration across organizations and across countries, and tracking tobacco industry activities. In addition, expanding research relevant to low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), was also identified as a priority, including identification of what existing research findings are transferable, what new country-specific data are needed, and the infrastructure needed to implement and disseminate research so as to inform policy in LMIC.

Canadian Government Electronic Information Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Nilsen, Kirsti

1993-01-01

Examines development and evolution of Canadian government information policy in response to issues of preservation of data, information industry involvement in government data development and marketing, role of Crown copyright, and public access to government information in electronic formats. Six key information policy instruments are also…

From Imitation to Innovation: A Study of China’s Drug R&D and Relevant National Policies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jinxi Ding

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Research & Development (R&D plays an increasingly important role in China’s pharmaceutical industry. To gain a competitive edge in the global pharmaceutical market, the current national strategy of China forcefully pushes for independent drug innovations. This article investigates the historical, legal, and institutional contexts in which China’s drug R&D has evolved. Based on an analysis of the drug R&D evolution and national policies in China, it predicts the future trend of China’s policies relevant to drug innovations. This paper helps to understand the impact of national policies on drug R&D in China, which can be used to inform decision-making on investments in China’s pharmaceutical market or conducting technology trade and international cooperation with Chinese partners.

Signal Enhancement as Minimization of Relevant Information Loss

OpenAIRE

Geiger, Bernhard C.; Kubin, Gernot

2012-01-01

We introduce the notion of relevant information loss for the purpose of casting the signal enhancement problem in information-theoretic terms. We show that many algorithms from machine learning can be reformulated using relevant information loss, which allows their application to the aforementioned problem. As a particular example we analyze principle component analysis for dimensionality reduction, discuss its optimality, and show that the relevant information loss can indeed vanish if the r...

Natural brain-information interfaces: Recommending information by relevance inferred from human brain signals

Science.gov (United States)

Eugster, Manuel J. A.; Ruotsalo, Tuukka; Spapé, Michiel M.; Barral, Oswald; Ravaja, Niklas; Jacucci, Giulio; Kaski, Samuel

2016-01-01

Finding relevant information from large document collections such as the World Wide Web is a common task in our daily lives. Estimation of a user’s interest or search intention is necessary to recommend and retrieve relevant information from these collections. We introduce a brain-information interface used for recommending information by relevance inferred directly from brain signals. In experiments, participants were asked to read Wikipedia documents about a selection of topics while their EEG was recorded. Based on the prediction of word relevance, the individual’s search intent was modeled and successfully used for retrieving new relevant documents from the whole English Wikipedia corpus. The results show that the users’ interests toward digital content can be modeled from the brain signals evoked by reading. The introduced brain-relevance paradigm enables the recommendation of information without any explicit user interaction and may be applied across diverse information-intensive applications. PMID:27929077

Resource Efficiency. What does it mean and why is it relevant? Policy Brief

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jansen, J.C. [ECN Policy Studies, Petten (Netherlands)

2013-04-15

The European Commission has launched a Resource-Efficient Europe as one of its seven flagship initiatives under the Europe 2020 Strategy and has published the document 'Roadmap to a Resource-Efficient Europe'. The Roadmap specifies a proposed pathway to action for a resource efficient Europe. This document sets out to describe the essence of the resource efficiency concept and to sketch the relevance of EU resource efficiency policy for application at EU member state level with special reference to the Netherlands. The following questions will be addressed: What is resource efficiency?; How does it relate to sustainability and environmental footprint?; What is the relevance of EU resource efficiency policy for the member states?; Which aspects of resource efficiency are relevant for the Netherlands?; and To what extent is resource efficiency reflected in current Dutch policies?.

49 CFR 556.9 - Public inspection of relevant information.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 49 Transportation 6 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Public inspection of relevant information. 556.9... NONCOMPLIANCE § 556.9 Public inspection of relevant information. Information relevant to a petition under this... Administration, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590. Copies of available information may be obtained in...

Software Helps Retrieve Information Relevant to the User

Science.gov (United States)

Mathe, Natalie; Chen, James

2003-01-01

The Adaptive Indexing and Retrieval Agent (ARNIE) is a code library, designed to be used by an application program, that assists human users in retrieving desired information in a hypertext setting. Using ARNIE, the program implements a computational model for interactively learning what information each human user considers relevant in context. The model, called a "relevance network," incrementally adapts retrieved information to users individual profiles on the basis of feedback from the users regarding specific queries. The model also generalizes such knowledge for subsequent derivation of relevant references for similar queries and profiles, thereby, assisting users in filtering information by relevance. ARNIE thus enables users to categorize and share information of interest in various contexts. ARNIE encodes the relevance and structure of information in a neural network dynamically configured with a genetic algorithm. ARNIE maintains an internal database, wherein it saves associations, and from which it returns associated items in response to a query. A C++ compiler for a platform on which ARNIE will be utilized is necessary for creating the ARNIE library but is not necessary for the execution of the software.

The Development of Relevance in Information Retrieval

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mu-hsuan Huang

1997-12-01

Full Text Available This article attempts to investigate the notion of relevance in information retrieval. It discusses various definitions for relevance from historical viewpoints and the characteristics of relevance judgments. Also, it introduces empirical results of important related researches.[Article content in Chinese

The case for policy-relevant conservation science

Science.gov (United States)

Rose, David C

2015-01-01

Drawing on the “evidence-based” (Sutherland et al. 2013) versus “evidence-informed” debate (Adams & Sandbrook 2013), which has become prominent in conservation science, I argue that science can be influential if it holds a dual reference (Lentsch & Weingart 2011) that contributes to the needs of policy makers whilst maintaining technical rigor. In line with such a strategy, conservation scientists are increasingly recognizing the usefulness of constructing narratives through which to enhance the influence of their evidence (Leslie et al. 2013; Lawton & Rudd 2014). Yet telling stories alone is rarely enough to influence policy; instead, these narratives must be policy relevant. To ensure that evidence is persuasive alongside other factors in a complex policy-making process, conservation scientists could follow 2 steps: reframe within salient political contexts and engage more productively in boundary work, which is defined as the ways in which scientists “construct, negotiate, and defend the boundary between science and policy” (Owens et al. 2006:640). These will both improve the chances of evidence-informed conservation policy. El Caso para la Ciencia de la Conservación con Relevancia Política Resumen A partir del debate “con base en evidencia” (Sutherland et al. 2013) versus “informado con evidencia” (Adams & Sandbrook 2013), debate que se ha vuelto prominente en la ciencia de la conservación, argumento que la ciencia puede ser influyente si mantiene una referencia dual (Lentsch & Weingart 2011) que contribuya a las necesidades de quienes hacen la política a la vez que mantiene un rigor técnico. En línea con dicha estrategia, los científicos de la conservación cada vez reconocen más la utilidad de construir narrativas con las cuales pueden mejorar la influencia de sus evidencias (Leslie et al. 2013; Lawton & Rudd 2014). Sin embargo, sólo contar historias rara vez es suficiente para influir sobre la política; en su lugar, estas

5 CFR 294.201 - Public information policy.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... Office. (b) The Assistant Director for Public Affairs carries out the public information policy of the... 5 Administrative Personnel 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Public information policy. 294.201... AVAILABILITY OF OFFICIAL INFORMATION The Public Information Function § 294.201 Public information policy. (a...

Adoption of an information systems security policy in small and medium sized enterprises.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Isabel Maria Lopes

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Information Systems Security (ISS is a relevant fact for current organizations. This paper focuses on Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs. This article aims to constitute an empirical study on the applicability of the Action Research (AR method in information systems, more specifically by assessing the adoption of an ISS policy in six SMEs, and identifying the critical success factors in adopting an ISS policy. The research question we intend to answer is to what extent this research method is adequate to reach the proposed goal. The results of the study suggest that AR is a promising means for the evaluation of ISS policies adoption. It can both act as a research method that improves the understanding about the reasons why the policy has been abandoned, and as a change method, assisting practitioners to overcome barriers and suggesting measures to be implemented.

Experiences and attitudes towards evidence-informed policy-making among research and policy stakeholders in the Canadian agri-food public health sector.

Science.gov (United States)

Young, I; Gropp, K; Pintar, K; Waddell, L; Marshall, B; Thomas, K; McEwen, S A; Rajić, A

2014-12-01

Policy-makers working at the interface of agri-food and public health often deal with complex and cross-cutting issues that have broad health impacts and socio-economic implications. They have a responsibility to ensure that policy-making based on these issues is accountable and informed by the best available scientific evidence. We conducted a qualitative descriptive study of agri-food public health policy-makers and research and policy analysts in Ontario, Canada, to understand their perspectives on how the policy-making process is currently informed by scientific evidence and how to facilitate this process. Five focus groups of 3-7 participants and five-one-to-one interviews were held in 2012 with participants from federal and provincial government departments and industry organizations in the agri-food public health sector. We conducted a thematic analysis of the focus group and interview transcripts to identify overarching themes. Participants indicated that the following six key principles are necessary to enable and demonstrate evidence-informed policy-making (EIPM) in this sector: (i) establish and clarify the policy objectives and context; (ii) support policy-making with credible scientific evidence from different sources; (iii) integrate scientific evidence with other diverse policy inputs (e.g. economics, local applicability and stakeholder interests); (iv) ensure that scientific evidence is communicated by research and policy stakeholders in relevant and user-friendly formats; (V) create and foster interdisciplinary relationships and networks across research and policy communities; and (VI) enhance organizational capacity and individual skills for EIPM. Ongoing and planned efforts in these areas, a supportive culture, and additional education and training in both research and policy realms are important to facilitate evidence-informed policy-making in this sector. Future research should explore these findings further in other countries and contexts. �

Nuclear deception: soviet information policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hoffmann, E.P.

1986-01-01

The effect of the accident at the Chernobyl Unit 4 Reactor on information policies in the USSR is examined. The lack of an agreed-upon information policy and intraparty disagreement over domestic and foreign policy help to explain the delay in disclosure of the accident and conflicting statements concerning long-term health effects. A modest change in policy since Chernobyl has been noted: the willingness of Soviet spokespersons to discuss and debate issues with foreign correspondents, to publish sharply critical letters from citizens and a few foreign officials, and to provide many details about the nature and consequences of the accident

Informed policies

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

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH CENTRE. Informed ... more evidence-based policy on social ... Community involvement is key to the success of CBMS in reducing poverty. IDRC ... nationwide network of “telecentres” that ... and holidays for young people to use for ... National Conference on Youth led to the.

Evaluating automatic attentional capture by self-relevant information.

Science.gov (United States)

Ocampo, Brenda; Kahan, Todd A

2016-01-01

Our everyday decisions and memories are inadvertently influenced by self-relevant information. For example, we are faster and more accurate at making perceptual judgments about stimuli associated with ourselves, such as our own face or name, as compared with familiar non-self-relevant stimuli. Humphreys and Sui propose a "self-attention network" to account for these effects, wherein self-relevant stimuli automatically capture our attention and subsequently enhance the perceptual processing of self-relevant information. We propose that the masked priming paradigm and continuous flash suppression represent two ways to experimentally examine these controversial claims.

Evolutionary relevance facilitates visual information processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, Russell E; Calvillo, Dusti P

2013-11-03

Visual search of the environment is a fundamental human behavior that perceptual load affects powerfully. Previously investigated means for overcoming the inhibitions of high perceptual load, however, generalize poorly to real-world human behavior. We hypothesized that humans would process evolutionarily relevant stimuli more efficiently than evolutionarily novel stimuli, and evolutionary relevance would mitigate the repercussions of high perceptual load during visual search. Animacy is a significant component to evolutionary relevance of visual stimuli because perceiving animate entities is time-sensitive in ways that pose significant evolutionary consequences. Participants completing a visual search task located evolutionarily relevant and animate objects fastest and with the least impact of high perceptual load. Evolutionarily novel and inanimate objects were located slowest and with the highest impact of perceptual load. Evolutionary relevance may importantly affect everyday visual information processing.

Political economy models and agricultural policy formation : empirical applicability and relevance for the CAP

OpenAIRE

Zee, van der, F.A.

1997-01-01

This study explores the relevance and applicability of political economy models for the explanation of agricultural policies. Part I (chapters 4-7) takes a general perspective and evaluates the empirical applicability of voting models and interest group models to agricultural policy formation in industrialised market economics. Part II (chapters 8-11) focuses on the empirical applicability of political economy models to agricultural policy formation and agricultural policy developmen...

Information for mental health systems: an instrument for policy-making and system service quality.

Science.gov (United States)

Lora, A; Lesage, A; Pathare, S; Levav, I

2017-08-01

Information is crucial in mental healthcare, yet it remains undervalued by stakeholders. Its absence undermines rationality in planning, makes it difficult to monitor service quality improvement, impedes accountability and human rights monitoring. For international organizations (e.g., WHO, OECD), information is indispensable for achieving better outcomes in mental health policies, services and programs. This article reviews the importance of developing system level information with reference to inputs, processes and outputs, analyzes available tools for collecting and summarizing information, highlights the various goals of information gathering, discusses implementation issues and charts the way forward. Relevant publications and research were consulted, including WHO studies that purport to promote the use of information systems to upgrade mental health care in high- and low-middle income countries. Studies have shown that once information has been collected by relevant systems and analyzed through indicator schemes, it can be put to many uses. Monitoring mental health services, represents a first step in using information. In addition, studies have noted that information is a prime resource in many other areas such as evaluation of quality of care against evidence based standards of care. Services data may support health services research where it is possible to link mental health data with other health and non-health databases. Information systems are required to carefully monitor involuntary admissions, restrain and seclusion, to reduce human rights violations in care facilities. Information has been also found useful for policy makers, to monitor the implementation of policies, to evaluate their impact, to rationally allocate funding and to create new financing models. Despite its manifold applications, Information systems currently face many problems such as incomplete recording, poor data quality, lack of timely reporting and feedback, and limited

Evolutionary Relevance Facilitates Visual Information Processing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Russell E. Jackson

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Visual search of the environment is a fundamental human behavior that perceptual load affects powerfully. Previously investigated means for overcoming the inhibitions of high perceptual load, however, generalize poorly to real-world human behavior. We hypothesized that humans would process evolutionarily relevant stimuli more efficiently than evolutionarily novel stimuli, and evolutionary relevance would mitigate the repercussions of high perceptual load during visual search. Animacy is a significant component to evolutionary relevance of visual stimuli because perceiving animate entities is time-sensitive in ways that pose significant evolutionary consequences. Participants completing a visual search task located evolutionarily relevant and animate objects fastest and with the least impact of high perceptual load. Evolutionarily novel and inanimate objects were located slowest and with the highest impact of perceptual load. Evolutionary relevance may importantly affect everyday visual information processing.

Political economy models and agricultural policy formation : empirical applicability and relevance for the CAP

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zee, van der F.A.

1997-01-01

This study explores the relevance and applicability of political economy models for the explanation of agricultural policies. Part I (chapters 4-7) takes a general perspective and evaluates the empirical applicability of voting models and interest group models to agricultural policy

Many-to-Many Information Flow Policies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Baldan, Paolo; Beggiato, Alessandro; Lluch Lafuente, Alberto

2017-01-01

Information flow techniques typically classify information according to suitable security levels and enforce policies that are based on binary relations between individual levels, e.g., stating that information is allowed to flow from one level to another. We argue that some information flow...... of competing agencies might agree to disclose their secrets, with individual disclosures being undesired, etc. Motivated by this we propose a simple language for expressing information flow policies where the usual admitted flow relation between individual security levels is replaced by a relation between sets...... of security levels, thus allowing to capture coordinated flows of information. The flow of information is expressed in terms of causal dependencies and the satisfaction of a policy is defined with respect to an event structure that is assumed to capture the causal structure of system computations. We suggest...

Types of Lexicographical Information Needs and their Relevance for Information Science

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bergenholtz, Henning

2017-09-01

Full Text Available In some situations, you need information in order to solve a problem that has occurred. In information science, user needs are often described through very specific examples rather than through a classification of situation types in which information needs occur. Furthermore, information science often describes general human needs, typically with a reference to Maslow's classification of needs (1954, instead of actual information needs. Lexicography has also focused on information needs, but has developed a more abstract classification of types of information needs, though (until more recent research into lexicographical functions with a particular interest in linguistic uncertainties and the lack of knowledge and skills in relation to one or several languages. In this article, we suggest a classification of information needs in which a tripartition has been made according to the different types of situations: communicative needs, cognitive needs, and operative needs. This is a classification that is relevant and useful in general in our modern information society and therefore also relevant for information science, including lexicography.

Policy Makers, Information and Learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Beers, Pieter J.; van Asselt, Marjolein B. A.; Vermunt, Jan D.; Kirschner, Paul A.

2003-01-01

Interviews explored the information needs of seven Dutch policymakers dealing with global sustainability. They sought information on cultural perspectives and linkages. Information gathering emphasized filtering to find specific information. Most used an application-oriented working style that, combined with policy-driven information seeking, was…

The Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Advancing Innovative, Policy-Relevant Methods

Science.gov (United States)

Crootof, A.; Albrecht, T.; Scott, C. A.

2017-12-01

The water-energy-food (WEF) nexus is rapidly expanding in scholarly literature and policy settings as a novel way to address complex Anthropocene challenges. The nexus approach aims to identify tradeoffs and synergies of water, energy, and food systems, internalize social and environmental impacts, and guide development of cross-sectoral policies. However, a primary limitation of the nexus approach is the absence - or gaps and inconsistent use - of adequate methods to advance an innovative and policy-relevant nexus approach. This paper presents an analytical framework to identify robust nexus methods that align with nexus thinking and highlights innovative nexus methods at the frontier. The current state of nexus methods was assessed with a systematic review of 245 journal articles and book chapters. This review revealed (a) use of specific and reproducible methods for nexus assessment is uncommon - less than one-third of the reviewed studies present explicit methods; (b) nexus methods frequently fall short of capturing interactions among water, energy, and food - the very concept they purport to address; (c) assessments strongly favor quantitative approaches - 70% use primarily quantitative tools; (d) use of social science methods is limited (26%); and (e) many nexus methods are confined to disciplinary silos - only about one-quarter combine methods from diverse disciplines and less than one-fifth utilize both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Despite some pitfalls of current nexus methods, there are a host of studies that offer innovative approaches to help quantify nexus linkages and interactions among sectors, conceptualize dynamic feedbacks, and support mixed method approaches to better understand WEF systems. Applying our analytical framework to all 245 studies, we identify, and analyze herein, seventeen studies that implement innovative multi-method and cross-scalar tools to demonstrate promising advances toward improved nexus assessment. This paper

Testing the idea of privileged awareness of self-relevant information.

Science.gov (United States)

Stein, Timo; Siebold, Alisha; van Zoest, Wieske

2016-03-01

Self-relevant information is prioritized in processing. Some have suggested the mechanism driving this advantage is akin to the automatic prioritization of physically salient stimuli in information processing (Humphreys & Sui, 2015). Here we investigate whether self-relevant information is prioritized for awareness under continuous flash suppression (CFS), as has been found for physical salience. Gabor patches with different orientations were first associated with the labels You or Other. Participants were more accurate in matching the self-relevant association, replicating previous findings of self-prioritization. However, breakthrough into awareness from CFS did not differ between self- and other-associated Gabors. These findings demonstrate that self-relevant information has no privileged access to awareness. Rather than modulating the initial visual processes that precede and lead to awareness, the advantage of self-relevant information may better be characterized as prioritization at later processing stages. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Immunization Information Systems: A Decade of Progress in Law and Policy

Science.gov (United States)

Martin, Daniel W.; Lowery, N. Elaine; Brand, Bill; Gold, Rebecca; Horlick, Gail

2015-01-01

This article reports on a study of laws, regulations, and policies governing Immunization Information Systems (IIS, also known as “immunization registries”) in states and selected urban areas of the United States. The study included a search of relevant statutes, administrative codes and published attorney general opinions/findings, an online questionnaire completed by immunization program managers and/or their staff, and follow-up telephone interviews. The legal/regulatory framework for IIS has changed considerably since 2000, largely in ways that improve IIS’ ability to perform their public health functions while continuing to maintain strict confidentiality and privacy controls. Nevertheless, the exchange of immunization data and other health information between care providers and public health and between entities in different jurisdictions remains difficult due in part to ongoing regulatory diversity. To continue to be leaders in health information exchange and facilitate immunization of children and adults, IIS will need to address the challenges presented by the interplay of federal and state legislation, regulations, and policies and continue to move toward standardized data collection and sharing necessary for interoperable systems. PMID:24402434

Re-thinking the relevance of philosophy of education for educational policy making

OpenAIRE

Griffiths, Morwenna

2014-01-01

The overall question addressed in this article is,‘What kind of philosophy of education is relevant to educational policy makers?’ The article focuses on the following four themes: The meanings attached to the term philosophy (of education) by philosophers themselves; the meanings attached to the term philosophy (of education) by policy makers; the difference place and time makes to these meanings; how these different meanings affect the possibility of philosophy (of education) influencing po...

Value Relevance of Accounting Information in the United Arab Emirates

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jamal Barzegari Khanagha

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This paper examines the value relevance of accounting information in per and post-periods of International Financial Reporting Standards implementation using the regression and portfolio approaches for sample of the UAE companies. The results obtained from a combination of regression and portfolio approaches, show accounting information is value relevant in UAE stock market. A comparison of the results for the periods before and after adoption, based on both regression and portfolio approaches, shows a decline in value relevance of accounting information after the reform in accounting standards. It could be interpreted to mean that following to IFRS in UAE didn’t improve value relevancy of accounting information. However, results based on and portfolio approach shows that cash flows’ incremental information content increased for the post-IFRS period.

Information Policy for (Digital Information in Archaeology: current state and suggestions for development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lisa Börjesson

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The introduction of digital data capturing and management technologies has transformed information practices in archaeology. Digital documentation and digital infrastructures are integrated in archaeologists' daily work now more than ever. International and national institutions and projects have contributed to the development of digital archiving and curation practices. Because knowledge production in archaeology depends heavily on documentation and information dissemination, and on retrieval of past documentation, the question of how information is managed is profoundly intertwined with the possibilities for knowledge production. Regulations at different levels articulate demands and expectations from the emerging digital information practices, but how are these different regulations coordinated, and do they support archaeological knowledge production? In this article we look into the state of information policy - the sum of principles guiding decisions about information - in archaeology and related areas. The aim of the article is to shed light on how information policy directs practice in archaeology, and to show that analysis of such policies is therefore vital. Information policy in legislation and guidelines in Swedish archaeology serves as a case study, and examples from development-led archaeology and the museum sector illustrate how information policies have varied roles across different heritage sectors. There are historical and local trajectories in the policy documents specific to Sweden, but the discussion shows that the emergence of Swedish policies have many parallels with processes in other countries. The article provides recommendations for information policy development for archaeology and related areas.

Greek health professionals' perceptions of the HPV vaccine, state policy recommendations and their own role with regards to communication of relevant health information.

Science.gov (United States)

Karamanidou, Christina; Dimopoulos, Kostas

2016-06-03

Every year in Europe 60,000 women develop cervical cancer and 30,000 die from the disease. HPV vaccines are currently believed to constitute an important element of cervical cancer control strategy. Currently in Greece, the HPV vaccine is given on demand after prescription by a healthcare professional. Health care professionals' role is key as they are in a position to discuss HPV vaccination with parents, adolescents and young women. This study is aiming to explore health care professionals' perceptions of the HPV vaccine, state policy recommendations and their own role with regards to communication of relevant health information. This was an in-depth, qualitative study, employing a stratified, purposeful sampling. Fifteen face-to-face, semi-structured interviews were conducted with health care professionals from a variety of disciplines: pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, infectious diseases, pharmacy, dermatology, general practice. Thematic qualitative analysis was used to analyze participants' accounts. Five major themes were identified: health care professionals' perceptions towards the HPV vaccine (recognition of importance, concerns about safety, effectiveness and impact of long-term use), animosity between medical specialties (territorial disputes among professional bodies, role advocacy, role limitations), health care professionals' perceptions of the public's attitudes (effects of cultural beliefs, health professionals' attitudes, media and family), the role of the state (health policy issues, lack of guidance, unmet expectations) and their own role (provision of health information, sex education). Health professionals' concerns, lack of role definition and uniform information provision have led to territorial disputes among professional bodies and distrust among different medical specialties. Positive and negative judgements deriving from a multitude of sources have resulted in the confusion of the general public, as manifested by low vaccination

50 CFR 424.13 - Sources of information and relevant data.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 50 Wildlife and Fisheries 7 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Sources of information and relevant data... Sources of information and relevant data. When considering any revision of the lists, the Secretary shall..., administrative reports, maps or other graphic materials, information received from experts on the subject, and...

The state and the development of an information society: Greek policy and experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Boucas, Dimitris

2017-09-01

The paper looks into the dynamics of information society policy and its implementation in the Greek context. It argues that information society development is a contested process, influenced by pre-existing state, economy and society relations. Based on this, it looks into the different aspects of the idiosyncratic path which the evolution of the Greek information society has followed, particularly after 2000. Using Bob Jessop's strategic-relational approach (SRA) to the state as an analytical framework and drawing on a number of in-depth interviews with relevant political actors, it provides insights into policy implementation by examining: the public management of information technology projects, how such projects were received in bureaucratic structures and practices, as well as the relationship between the state and the information and communication technology (ICT) sector in public procurement processes. The emphasis is on the period 2000-2008, during which a major operational programme on the information society in Greece was put into effect. The paper also touches upon the post-2008 experience, suggesting that information society developments might include dynamics operating independently and even in contradiction to the state agenda. © London School of Economics and Political Science 2017.

An integrated assessment of climate change impacts for Athens- relevance to stakeholders and policy makers

Science.gov (United States)

Giannakopoulos, C.; Hatzaki, M.; Kostopoulou, E.; Varotsos, K.

2010-09-01

Analysing climate change and its impact needs a production of relevant elements for policy making that can be very different from the parameters considered by climate experts. In the framework of EU project CIRCE, a more realistic approach to match stakeholders and policy-makers demands is attempted. For this reason, within CIRCE selected case studies have been chosen that will provide assessments that can be integrated in practical decision making. In this work, an integrated assessment of climate change impacts on several sectors for the urban site of Athens in Greece is presented. The Athens urban case study has been chosen since it provides excellent opportunities for using an integrated approach across multiple temporal and spatial scales and sectors. In the spatial dimension, work extends from the inner city boundaries to the surrounding mountains and forests. In the temporal dimension, research ranges from the current observed time period (using available meteorological and sector data) to future time periods using data from several climate change projections. In addition, a multi-sector approach to climate change impacts is adopted. Impacts sectors covered range from direct climate impacts on natural ecosystems (such as flash floods, air pollution and forest fire risk) to indirect impacts resulting from combined climate-social-economic linkages (such as energy demand, tourism and health). Discussion of impact sector risks and adaptation measures are also exploited. Case-study work on impact sector risk to climate change is of particular interest to relevant policy makers and stakeholders, communication with who is ensured through a series of briefing notes and information sheets and through regional workshops.

Alpha power gates relevant information during working memory updating.

Science.gov (United States)

Manza, Peter; Hau, Chui Luen Vera; Leung, Hoi-Chung

2014-04-23

Human working memory (WM) is inherently limited, so we must filter out irrelevant information in our environment or our mind while retaining limited important relevant contents. Previous work suggests that neural oscillations in the alpha band (8-14 Hz) play an important role in inhibiting incoming distracting information during attention and selective encoding tasks. However, whether alpha power is involved in inhibiting no-longer-relevant content or in representing relevant WM content is still debated. To clarify this issue, we manipulated the amount of relevant/irrelevant information using a task requiring spatial WM updating while measuring neural oscillatory activity via EEG and localized current sources across the scalp using a surface Laplacian transform. An initial memory set of two, four, or six spatial locations was to be memorized over a delay until an updating cue was presented indicating that only one or three locations remained relevant for a subsequent recognition test. Alpha amplitude varied with memory maintenance and updating demands among a cluster of left frontocentral electrodes. Greater postcue alpha power was associated with the high relevant load conditions (six and four dots cued to reduce to three relevant) relative to the lower load conditions (four and two dots reduced to one). Across subjects, this difference in alpha power was correlated with condition differences in performance accuracy. In contrast, no significant effects of irrelevant load were observed. These findings demonstrate that, during WM updating, alpha power reflects maintenance of relevant memory contents rather than suppression of no-longer-relevant memory traces.

Navigating the science-policy spectrum: Opportunities to work on policies related to your research

Science.gov (United States)

Licker, R.; Ekwurzel, B.; Goldman, G. T.; DeLonge, M. S.

2017-12-01

Many scientists conduct research with direct policy relevance, whether it be producing sea-level projections that are taken-up by local decision-makers, or developing new agricultural technologies. All scientists are affected by policies made by their respective local, regional, and federal governments. For example, budgets affect the grant resources available to conduct research and policies on visas influence the accessibility of new positions for foreign scientists. As a result, many scientists would like to engage with the policy domain, and either bring their science to bear on new policies that are in the works (science-for-policy) or inform policies on the scientific research enterprise (policy-for-science). Some scientists prefer to engage and be neutral to the policy outcome, serving primarily as an information resource. Many may choose to also advocate for a particular outcome based on their expertise and experience. Research shows that policy decisions benefit greatly from the input of scientific experts. We explore the spectrum between informing policies in a "non-prescriptive" manner to working on policies in an advocacy space. We highlight tips for successful engagement along this spectrum. Finally, we review current science-for-policy and policy-for-science issues of relevance to the geophysical sciences.

76 FR 34075 - Request for Information (RFI) To Identify and Obtain Relevant Information From Public or Private...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-06-10

... Relevant Information From Public or Private Entities With an Interest in Biovigilance; Extension AGENCY... and obtain relevant information regarding the possible development of a public-private partnership... Identify and Obtain Relevant Information from Public or Private Entities with an Interest in Biovigilance...

Staffing Policy for Solving the Information Security

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. I. Tolstoy

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Determining staffing policy implementation of information security tasks is given. The basic requirements that must be taken into account when developing policies are defined. The policy framework is determined and recommendations for the design of such policies are formulated. Requirements for the implementation of the policy are defined.

Relevance of PLUREL's results to policies at EU, national, regional and local level

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fertner, Christian; Nielsen, Thomas Alexander Sick

and results to policies and policy development at the EU-level, as well as the national and regional level. PLUREL has peri-urban land use relationships as its main focus. This includes analysis of drivers, consequences, policies and scenarios for the future. Even though PLUREL aims for pan-European coverage...... of natural resources as well as an attractive development in general. Besides these spatial relevant sector policies, the EU enforces legislation which is translated into spatial explicit instruments on sub-regional level. E.g. the Habitat and Birds Directive caused the development of Natura 2000 areas......, an EU-wide network of nature protection areas. The implementation of Trans-European Networks through funding programmes is another sector policy having an impact on land-use change and rural-urban relations. On the sub-regional scale the perception on overall goals like sustainability can be very...

Re-Thinking the Relevance of Philosophy of Education for Educational Policy Making

Science.gov (United States)

Griffiths, Morwenna

2014-01-01

The overall question addressed in this article is,"What kind of philosophy of education is relevant to educational policy makers?" The article focuses on the following four themes: The meanings attached to the term philosophy (of education) by philosophers themselves; the meanings attached to the term philosophy (of education) by policy…

Informal alcohol in Malawi: stakeholder perceptions and policy recommendations.

Science.gov (United States)

Limaye, Rupali J; Rutkow, Lainie; Rimal, Rajiv N; Jernigan, David H

2014-02-01

Through the eyes of those involved in the alcohol policy-making process in Malawi, we explored the role of informal (non-commercial) alcohol in rural communities, its harmful effects, and implications for appropriate national policy. Harms included early drinking initiation, violence, and sexual risk exposure. Informants suggested that policy should address informal alcohol's content, selling times, and easy access. Because most informal alcohol producers are women who rely upon sales for subsistence, policies must avoid limiting women's economic opportunities while protecting community health.

Validity of information security policy models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joshua Onome Imoniana

Full Text Available Validity is concerned with establishing evidence for the use of a method to be used with a particular set of population. Thus, when we address the issue of application of security policy models, we are concerned with the implementation of a certain policy, taking into consideration the standards required, through attribution of scores to every item in the research instrument. En today's globalized economic scenarios, the implementation of information security policy, in an information technology environment, is a condition sine qua non for the strategic management process of any organization. Regarding this topic, various studies present evidences that, the responsibility for maintaining a policy rests primarily with the Chief Security Officer. The Chief Security Officer, in doing so, strives to enhance the updating of technologies, in order to meet all-inclusive business continuity planning policies. Therefore, for such policy to be effective, it has to be entirely embraced by the Chief Executive Officer. This study was developed with the purpose of validating specific theoretical models, whose designs were based on literature review, by sampling 10 of the Automobile Industries located in the ABC region of Metropolitan São Paulo City. This sampling was based on the representativeness of such industries, particularly with regards to each one's implementation of information technology in the region. The current study concludes, presenting evidence of the discriminating validity of four key dimensions of the security policy, being such: the Physical Security, the Logical Access Security, the Administrative Security, and the Legal & Environmental Security. On analyzing the Alpha of Crombach structure of these security items, results not only attest that the capacity of those industries to implement security policies is indisputable, but also, the items involved, homogeneously correlate to each other.

The Unexpected Negotiator at the Table: How the European Commission’s Expertise Informs Intergovernmental EU Policies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Meng-Hsuan Chou

2015-03-01

Full Text Available How, if at all, does the Commission’s expertise inform intergovernmental decision-making within the EU? In this article, we aim to capture the relationship between the Commission’s expertise and its influence within intergovernmental policy-areas through a study of Commission influence in two least likely sectors: security and defence policies (military mission Atalanta and EU Maritime Security Strategy and external migration (EU mobility partnerships with third countries. In these cases we observe that the Commission strongly informs policy developments even though it has only limited formal competences. To explore whether and, if so, how this influence is linked to its expertise, we develop and consider two hypotheses: The expert authority hypothesis and the expert arguments hypothesis. To identify possible additional channels of influence, we also consider the relevance of two alternative hypotheses: The strategic coalition hypothesis and the institutional circumvention hypothesis. We find that the Commission’s use of its expertise is indeed key to understanding its de facto influence within policy-areas where its formal competences remain limited. Our findings add to the existing literature by revealing how expertise matters. Specifically, our cases show that the Commission informs intergovernmental decision-making by successfully linking discussions to policy-areas where it holds expert authority. However, the Commission also informs EU policies by circumventing the formal lines of intergovernmental decision-making, and by cooperating with member states that share its preference for further integration.

A Review of Concepts from Policy Studies Relevant for the Analysis of EFA in Developing Countries

OpenAIRE

Lall, Marie

2007-01-01

This paper aims to give an introduction to the central concepts and the literature of Policy Studies in education. The first part of the paper addresses the questions of what policy is. How is it made and why is it relevant? It looks in particular at the role of the state and the Policy cycle framework which is an analytical tool that helps to analyse how policy is made and later implemented. The second part then focuses on the central concepts. The two main paradigms of education policy stud...

Support Vector Machines: Relevance Feedback and Information Retrieval.

Science.gov (United States)

Drucker, Harris; Shahrary, Behzad; Gibbon, David C.

2002-01-01

Compares support vector machines (SVMs) to Rocchio, Ide regular and Ide dec-hi algorithms in information retrieval (IR) of text documents using relevancy feedback. If the preliminary search is so poor that one has to search through many documents to find at least one relevant document, then SVM is preferred. Includes nine tables. (Contains 24…

Greek health professionals’ perceptions of the HPV vaccine, state policy recommendations and their own role with regards to communication of relevant health information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christina Karamanidou

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Every year in Europe 60,000 women develop cervical cancer and 30,000 die from the disease. HPV vaccines are currently believed to constitute an important element of cervical cancer control strategy. Currently in Greece, the HPV vaccine is given on demand after prescription by a healthcare professional. Health care professionals’ role is key as they are in a position to discuss HPV vaccination with parents, adolescents and young women. This study is aiming to explore health care professionals’ perceptions of the HPV vaccine, state policy recommendations and their own role with regards to communication of relevant health information. Methods This was an in-depth, qualitative study, employing a stratified, purposeful sampling. Fifteen face-to-face, semi-structured interviews were conducted with health care professionals from a variety of disciplines: pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, infectious diseases, pharmacy, dermatology, general practice. Thematic qualitative analysis was used to analyze participants’ accounts. Results Five major themes were identified: health care professionals’ perceptions towards the HPV vaccine (recognition of importance, concerns about safety, effectiveness and impact of long-term use, animosity between medical specialties (territorial disputes among professional bodies, role advocacy, role limitations, health care professionals’ perceptions of the public’s attitudes (effects of cultural beliefs, health professionals’ attitudes, media and family, the role of the state (health policy issues, lack of guidance, unmet expectations and their own role (provision of health information, sex education. Conclusions Health professionals’ concerns, lack of role definition and uniform information provision have led to territorial disputes among professional bodies and distrust among different medical specialties. Positive and negative judgements deriving from a multitude of sources have

Integrating Information and Communication Technology for Health Information System Strengthening: A Policy Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Marzuki, Nuraidah; Ismail, Saimy; Al-Sadat, Nabilla; Ehsan, Fauziah Z; Chan, Chee-Khoon; Ng, Chiu-Wan

2015-11-01

Despite the high costs involved and the lack of definitive evidence of sustained effectiveness, many low- and middle-income countries had begun to strengthen their health information system using information and communication technology in the past few decades. Following this international trend, the Malaysian Ministry of Health had been incorporating Telehealth (National Telehealth initiatives) into national health policies since the 1990s. Employing qualitative approaches, including key informant interviews and document review, this study examines the agenda-setting processes of the Telehealth policy using Kingdon's framework. The findings suggested that Telehealth policies emerged through actions of policy entrepreneurs within the Ministry of Health, who took advantage of several simultaneously occurring opportunities--official recognition of problems within the existing health information system, availability of information and communication technology to strengthen health information system and political interests surrounding the national Multimedia Super Corridor initiative being developed at the time. The last was achieved by the inclusion of Telehealth as a component of the Multimedia Super Corridor. © 2015 APJPH.

Credibility of Policy Announcements Under Asymmetric Information

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Michael

1999-01-01

In a simple macro-economic model, where the monetary authorities process superior information about a real shocks, the scope for an active stabilization policy is shown to depend on the credibility of the policy maker. Lack of credibility increases the need for an active stabilization policy...

Information security policy development for compliance

CERN Document Server

Williams, Barry L

2013-01-01

Although compliance standards can be helpful guides to writing comprehensive security policies, many of the standards state the same requirements in slightly different ways. Information Security Policy Development for Compliance: ISO/IEC 27001, NIST SP 800-53, HIPAA Standard, PCI DSS V2.0, and AUP V5.0 provides a simplified way to write policies that meet the major regulatory requirements, without having to manually look up each and every control. Explaining how to write policy statements that address multiple compliance standards and regulatory requirements, the book will he

System for selecting relevant information for decision support.

Science.gov (United States)

Kalina, Jan; Seidl, Libor; Zvára, Karel; Grünfeldová, Hana; Slovák, Dalibor; Zvárová, Jana

2013-01-01

We implemented a prototype of a decision support system called SIR which has a form of a web-based classification service for diagnostic decision support. The system has the ability to select the most relevant variables and to learn a classification rule, which is guaranteed to be suitable also for high-dimensional measurements. The classification system can be useful for clinicians in primary care to support their decision-making tasks with relevant information extracted from any available clinical study. The implemented prototype was tested on a sample of patients in a cardiological study and performs an information extraction from a high-dimensional set containing both clinical and gene expression data.

Reviewing and reforming policy in health enterprise information security

Science.gov (United States)

Sostrom, Kristen; Collmann, Jeff R.

2001-08-01

Health information management policies usually address the use of paper records with little or no mention of electronic health records. Information Technology (IT) policies often ignore the health care business needs and operational use of the information stored in its systems. Representatives from the Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center, TRICARE and Offices of the Surgeon General of each Military Service, collectively referred to as the Policies, Procedures and Practices Work Group (P3WG), examined military policies and regulations relating to computer-based information systems and medical records management. Using a system of templates and matrices created for the purpose, P3WG identified gaps and discrepancies in DoD and service compliance with the proposed Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Standard. P3WG represents an unprecedented attempt to coordinate policy review and revision across all military health services and the Office of Health Affairs. This method of policy reform can identify where changes need to be made to integrate health management policy and IT policy in to an organizational policy that will enable compliance with HIPAA standards. The process models how large enterprises may coordinate policy revision and reform across broad organizational and work domains.

A User-Centered Approach to Adaptive Hypertext Based on an Information Relevance Model

Science.gov (United States)

Mathe, Nathalie; Chen, James

1994-01-01

Rapid and effective to information in large electronic documentation systems can be facilitated if information relevant in an individual user's content can be automatically supplied to this user. However most of this knowledge on contextual relevance is not found within the contents of documents, it is rather established incrementally by users during information access. We propose a new model for interactively learning contextual relevance during information retrieval, and incrementally adapting retrieved information to individual user profiles. The model, called a relevance network, records the relevance of references based on user feedback for specific queries and user profiles. It also generalizes such knowledge to later derive relevant references for similar queries and profiles. The relevance network lets users filter information by context of relevance. Compared to other approaches, it does not require any prior knowledge nor training. More importantly, our approach to adaptivity is user-centered. It facilitates acceptance and understanding by users by giving them shared control over the adaptation without disturbing their primary task. Users easily control when to adapt and when to use the adapted system. Lastly, the model is independent of the particular application used to access information, and supports sharing of adaptations among users.

Models of policy-making and their relevance for drug research.

Science.gov (United States)

Ritter, Alison; Bammer, Gabriele

2010-07-01

Researchers are often frustrated by their inability to influence policy. We describe models of policy-making to provide new insights and a more realistic assessment of research impacts on policy. We describe five prominent models of policy-making and illustrate them with examples from the alcohol and drugs field, before drawing lessons for researchers. Policy-making is a complex and messy process, with different models describing different elements. We start with the incrementalist model, which highlights small amendments to policy, as occurs in school-based drug education. A technical/rational approach then outlines the key steps in a policy process from identification of problems and their causes, through to examination and choice of response options, and subsequent implementation and evaluation. There is a clear role for research, as we illustrate with the introduction of new medications, but this model largely ignores the dominant political aspects of policy-making. Such political aspects include the influence of interest groups, and we describe models about power and pressure groups, as well as advocacy coalitions, and the challenges they pose for researchers. These are illustrated with reference to the alcohol industry, and interest group conflicts in establishing a Medically Supervised Injecting Centre. Finally, we describe the multiple streams framework, which alerts researchers to 'windows of opportunity', and we show how these were effectively exploited in policy for cannabis law reform in Western Australia. Understanding models of policy-making can help researchers maximise the uptake of their work and advance evidence-informed policy.

Policy relevance and the valence of interests: Policy learning in the liberalization of the railways and the electricity sector in Belgium

NARCIS (Netherlands)

S. Moyson (Stéphane)

2013-01-01

markdownabstract__Abstract__ Policy learning designates the relatively enduring alterations of policymakers’ beliefs and preferences regarding policies, following new information and experience. Policy leaning being a crucial factor of policy change, the study of its factors is central. The

78 FR 24749 - Health Information Technology Policy Committee Appointment

Science.gov (United States)

2013-04-26

... GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE Health Information Technology Policy Committee Appointment AGENCY... Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) established the Health Information Technology Policy Committee to make recommendations on the implementation of a nationwide health information technology...

To bail out or not to bail out systemically relevant financial institutions: The incentives of policy makers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lucas Marc Fuhrer

2012-11-01

Full Text Available The recent financial crisis has shown that many financial institutions may be systemically relevant. Their bankruptcy would cause significant costs for the overall economy. However, a clear definition of systemic risks still does not exist. Thus, the decision, whether an institution is, or is not systemically relevant is in the end made by policy makers. This paper takes a closer look at the incentives available to policy makers and their influence on the bailout decision. In the model presented here it is possible to show, that too many financial institutions get bailed out, when assuming that policy makers tend to be more risk-averse than socially optimal. The costs due to this misallocation of resources can be significant.

The Impact of the Introduction of Web Information Systems (WIS) on Information Policies: An Analysis of the Canadian Federal Government Policies Related to WIS.

Science.gov (United States)

Dufour, Christine; Bergeron, Pierette

2002-01-01

Presents results of an analysis of the Canadian federal government information policies that govern its Web information systems (WIS) that was conducted to better understand how the government has adapted its information policies to the WIS. Discusses results that indicate new policies have been crafted to take into account the WIS context.…

78 FR 42945 - Health Information Technology Policy Committee Vacancy

Science.gov (United States)

2013-07-18

... GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE Health Information Technology Policy Committee Vacancy AGENCY... American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) established the Health Information Technology Policy... its 20 members. ARRA requires that one member have expertise in health information privacy and...

A content relevance model for social media health information.

Science.gov (United States)

Prybutok, Gayle Linda; Koh, Chang; Prybutok, Victor R

2014-04-01

Consumer health informatics includes the development and implementation of Internet-based systems to deliver health risk management information and health intervention applications to the public. The application of consumer health informatics to educational and interventional efforts such as smoking reduction and cessation has garnered attention from both consumers and health researchers in recent years. Scientists believe that smoking avoidance or cessation before the age of 30 years can prevent more than 90% of smoking-related cancers and that individuals who stop smoking fare as well in preventing cancer as those who never start. The goal of this study was to determine factors that were most highly correlated with content relevance for health information provided on the Internet for a study group of 18- to 30-year-old college students. Data analysis showed that the opportunity for convenient entertainment, social interaction, health information-seeking behavior, time spent surfing on the Internet, the importance of available activities on the Internet (particularly e-mail), and perceived site relevance for Internet-based sources of health information were significantly correlated with content relevance for 18- to 30-year-old college students, an educated subset of this population segment.

77 FR 27774 - Health Information Technology Policy Committee Vacancy

Science.gov (United States)

2012-05-11

... GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE Health Information Technology Policy Committee Vacancy AGENCY... American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) established the Health Information Technology Policy.... ADDRESSES: GAO: [email protected] . GAO: 441 G Street NW., Washington, DC 20548. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION...

Informality as a stepping stone: A search-theoretical assessment of informal sector and government policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Semih Tümen

2016-09-01

Full Text Available This paper develops a model of sequential job search to understand the factors determining the effect of tax and enforcement policies on the size (i.e., employment share of informal sector. The focus is on the role of informal sector as a stepping stone to formal jobs. I argue that the stepping-stone role of informal jobs is an important concept determining how strongly government policies affect the size of informal sector. I measure the extent of the stepping-stone role with the intensity of skill accumulation in the informal sector. If informal jobs help workers acquire skills, gain expertise, and build professional networks for boosting the chances to switch to a formal job, then the size of informal sector is less sensitive to government policy. In this case, the option value of a job in informal sector will be high and a worker with an informal job will not rush to switch to a formal job when a policy encouraging formal employment is in effect. If, on the other hand, informal sector does not provide satisfactory training opportunities, then the size of informal sector becomes more sensitive to government policy. Calibrating the model to the Brazilian data, I perform numerical exercises confirming that the effect of government policy on the size of informal sector is a decreasing function of the intensity of skill acquisition in the informal sector.

Health policy making under information constraints: an evaluation of the policy responses to the economic crisis in Greece.

Science.gov (United States)

Goranitis, Ilias; Siskou, Olga; Liaropoulos, Lycourgos

2014-09-01

Cost consolidation in the highly fragmented and inefficient Greek health care system was necessary. However, policies introduced were partly formed in a context of insufficient information. Expenditure data from a consumption point of view were lacking and the depth of the political and structural problems was of unknown magnitude to the supervisory authorities. Drawing upon relevant literature and evidence from the newly implemented OECD System of Health Accounts, the paper evaluates the health policy responses to the economic crisis in Greece. The discussion and recommendations are also of interest to other countries where data sources are not reliable or decisions are based on preliminary data and projections. Between 2009 and 2012, across-the-board cuts have resulted in a decline in public health expenditure for inpatient care by 8.6%, for pharmaceuticals by 42.3% and for outpatient care by 34.6%. Further cuts are expected from the ongoing reforms but more structural changes are needed. Cost-containment was not well targeted and expenditure cuts were not always addressed to the real reasons of the pre-crisis cost explosion. Policy responses were restricted to quick and easy fiscal adjustment, ignoring the need for substantial structural reforms or individuals' right to access health care irrespective of their financial capacity. Developing appropriate information infrastructure, restructuring and consolidating the hospital sector and moving toward a tax-based national health insurance could offer valuable benefits to the system. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

An Integrative Behavioral Model of Information Security Policy Compliance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sang Hoon Kim

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The authors found the behavioral factors that influence the organization members’ compliance with the information security policy in organizations on the basis of neutralization theory, Theory of planned behavior, and protection motivation theory. Depending on the theory of planned behavior, members’ attitudes towards compliance, as well as normative belief and self-efficacy, were believed to determine the intention to comply with the information security policy. Neutralization theory, a prominent theory in criminology, could be expected to provide the explanation for information system security policy violations. Based on the protection motivation theory, it was inferred that the expected efficacy could have an impact on intentions of compliance. By the above logical reasoning, the integrative behavioral model and eight hypotheses could be derived. Data were collected by conducting a survey; 194 out of 207 questionnaires were available. The test of the causal model was conducted by PLS. The reliability, validity, and model fit were found to be statistically significant. The results of the hypotheses tests showed that seven of the eight hypotheses were acceptable. The theoretical implications of this study are as follows: (1 the study is expected to play a role of the baseline for future research about organization members’ compliance with the information security policy, (2 the study attempted an interdisciplinary approach by combining psychology and information system security research, and (3 the study suggested concrete operational definitions of influencing factors for information security policy compliance through a comprehensive theoretical review. Also, the study has some practical implications. First, it can provide the guideline to support the successful execution of the strategic establishment for the implement of information system security policies in organizations. Second, it proves that the need of education and training

An integrative behavioral model of information security policy compliance.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Sang Hoon; Yang, Kyung Hoon; Park, Sunyoung

2014-01-01

The authors found the behavioral factors that influence the organization members' compliance with the information security policy in organizations on the basis of neutralization theory, Theory of planned behavior, and protection motivation theory. Depending on the theory of planned behavior, members' attitudes towards compliance, as well as normative belief and self-efficacy, were believed to determine the intention to comply with the information security policy. Neutralization theory, a prominent theory in criminology, could be expected to provide the explanation for information system security policy violations. Based on the protection motivation theory, it was inferred that the expected efficacy could have an impact on intentions of compliance. By the above logical reasoning, the integrative behavioral model and eight hypotheses could be derived. Data were collected by conducting a survey; 194 out of 207 questionnaires were available. The test of the causal model was conducted by PLS. The reliability, validity, and model fit were found to be statistically significant. The results of the hypotheses tests showed that seven of the eight hypotheses were acceptable. The theoretical implications of this study are as follows: (1) the study is expected to play a role of the baseline for future research about organization members' compliance with the information security policy, (2) the study attempted an interdisciplinary approach by combining psychology and information system security research, and (3) the study suggested concrete operational definitions of influencing factors for information security policy compliance through a comprehensive theoretical review. Also, the study has some practical implications. First, it can provide the guideline to support the successful execution of the strategic establishment for the implement of information system security policies in organizations. Second, it proves that the need of education and training programs suppressing

Cogito ergo video: Task-relevant information is involuntarily boosted into awareness.

Science.gov (United States)

Gayet, Surya; Brascamp, Jan W; Van der Stigchel, Stefan; Paffen, Chris L E

2015-01-01

Only part of the visual information that impinges on our retinae reaches visual awareness. In a series of three experiments, we investigated how the task relevance of incoming visual information affects its access to visual awareness. On each trial, participants were instructed to memorize one of two presented hues, drawn from different color categories (e.g., red and green), for later recall. During the retention interval, participants were presented with a differently colored grating in each eye such as to elicit binocular rivalry. A grating matched either the task-relevant (memorized) color category or the task-irrelevant (nonmemorized) color category. We found that the rivalrous stimulus that matched the task-relevant color category tended to dominate awareness over the rivalrous stimulus that matched the task-irrelevant color category. This effect of task relevance persisted when participants reported the orientation of the rivalrous stimuli, even though in this case color information was completely irrelevant for the task of reporting perceptual dominance during rivalry. When participants memorized the shape of a colored stimulus, however, its color category did not affect predominance of rivalrous stimuli during retention. Taken together, these results indicate that the selection of task-relevant information is under volitional control but that visual input that matches this information is boosted into awareness irrespective of whether this is useful for the observer.

Bootstrapping agency: How control-relevant information affects motivation.

Science.gov (United States)

Karsh, Noam; Eitam, Baruch; Mark, Ilya; Higgins, E Tory

2016-10-01

How does information about one's control over the environment (e.g., having an own-action effect) influence motivation? The control-based response selection framework was proposed to predict and explain such findings. Its key tenant is that control relevant information modulates both the frequency and speed of responses by determining whether a perceptual event is an outcome of one's actions or not. To test this framework empirically, the current study examines whether and how temporal and spatial contiguity/predictability-previously established as being important for one's sense of agency-modulate motivation from control. In 5 experiments, participants responded to a cue, potentially triggering a perceptual effect. Temporal (Experiments 1a-c) and spatial (Experiments 2a and b) contiguity/predictability between actions and their potential effects were experimentally manipulated. The influence of these control-relevant factors was measured, both indirectly (through their effect on explicit judgments of agency) and directly on response time and response frequency. The pattern of results was highly consistent with the control-based response selection framework in suggesting that control relevant information reliably modulates the impact of "having an effect" on different levels of action selection. We discuss the implications of this study for the notion of motivation from control and for the empirical work on the sense of agency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Rationales for technology-specific RES support and their relevance for German policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gawel, Erik; Lehmann, Paul; Purkus, Alexandra; Söderholm, Patrik; Witte, Katherina

2017-01-01

In order to achieve cost-effective RES-E deployment it is often argued that technology-neutral support schemes for renewables are indispensable. Against this background, RES-E support policies making widely use of technology differentiation in remuneration settings, e.g. across the EU, are frequently criticized from a theoretical point of view. However, in this paper we provide a systematic critique of the technology neutrality concept as a foundation for designing policy support schemes in the RES-E technology field. Specifically, the main objective of the paper is to scrutinize the arguments for technology-neutrality, and discuss three conceptual arguments for why technology-specific support schemes could in fact help minimize the societal costs of reaching future RES-E targets. We also briefly address different political economy concerns, which could constrain the choice of cost-effective policy support schemes, and that have to be taken into account for economic policy advice. For empirical illustration of the key arguments we refer to the case of German RES-E policy-making. The central conclusion from this paper is that technology-specific RES-E support schemes may generate significant economic benefits, particularly if technology markets work imperfectly and in second-best policy settings with additional non-internalized market failures. - Highlights: • Three theoretical cost-effectiveness reasons for technology-specific RES-E support. • German case study to show relevance of theoretical arguments for policy-making. • Political economy constraints to technology-neutral support are demonstrated. • Technology-specific RES-E support may generate significant economic benefits.

78 FR 7784 - Health Information Technology Policy Committee Nomination Letters

Science.gov (United States)

2013-02-04

... GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE Health Information Technology Policy Committee Nomination Letters.... SUMMARY: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) established the Health Information Technology Policy Committee (Health IT Policy Committee) and gave the Comptroller General responsibility for...

Fuzzy Mutual Information Based min-Redundancy and Max-Relevance Heterogeneous Feature Selection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daren Yu

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Feature selection is an important preprocessing step in pattern classification and machine learning, and mutual information is widely used to measure relevance between features and decision. However, it is difficult to directly calculate relevance between continuous or fuzzy features using mutual information. In this paper we introduce the fuzzy information entropy and fuzzy mutual information for computing relevance between numerical or fuzzy features and decision. The relationship between fuzzy information entropy and differential entropy is also discussed. Moreover, we combine fuzzy mutual information with qmin-Redundancy-Max-Relevanceq, qMax-Dependencyq and min-Redundancy-Max-Dependencyq algorithms. The performance and stability of the proposed algorithms are tested on benchmark data sets. Experimental results show the proposed algorithms are effective and stable.

International benchmaking: Supplying the information for product efficiency policy makers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Siderius, H.P.; Jeffcott, S.; Blok, K.

2012-01-01

In the development of effective product efficiency policy, the critical element for policy makers is comprehensive, independent information. However, easily accessible, reliable information on the energy performance of products and policies is often scarce within a particular market, and rarer still

Fuzzy Information Retrieval Using Genetic Algorithms and Relevance Feedback.

Science.gov (United States)

Petry, Frederick E.; And Others

1993-01-01

Describes an approach that combines concepts from information retrieval, fuzzy set theory, and genetic programing to improve weighted Boolean query formulation via relevance feedback. Highlights include background on information retrieval systems; genetic algorithms; subproblem formulation; and preliminary results based on a testbed. (Contains 12…

Persistent misunderstandings about evidence-based (sorry: informed!) policy-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Bédard, Pierre-Olivier; Ouimet, Mathieu

2016-01-01

The field of research on knowledge mobilization and evidence-informed policy-making has seen enduring debates related to various fundamental assumptions such as the definition of 'evidence', the relative validity of various research methods, the actual role of evidence to inform policy-making, etc. In many cases, these discussions serve a useful purpose, but they also stem from serious disagreement on methodological and epistemological issues. This essay reviews the rationale for evidence-informed policy-making by examining some of the common claims made about the aims and practices of this perspective on public policy. Supplementing the existing justifications for evidence-based policy making, we argue in favor of a greater inclusion of research evidence in the policy process but in a structured fashion, based on methodological considerations. In this respect, we present an overview of the intricate relation between policy questions and appropriate research designs. By closely examining the relation between research questions and research designs, we claim that the usual points of disagreement are mitigated. For instance, when focusing on the variety of research designs that can answer a range of policy questions, the common critical claim about 'RCT-based policy-making' seems to lose some, if not all of its grip.

Information security policies and procedures a practitioner's reference

CERN Document Server

Peltier, Thomas R

2004-01-01

INFORMATION SECURITY POLICIES AND PROCEDURES Introduction Corporate Policies Organizationwide (Tier 1) Policies Organizationwide Policy Document Legal Requirements Duty of Loyalty Duty of Care Other Laws and Regulations Business Requirements Where to Begin? Summary Why Manage This Process as a Project? Introduction First Things First: Identify the Sponsor Defining the Scope of Work Time Management Cost Management Planning for Quality Managing Human Resources Creating a Communications Plan Summary Planning and Preparation Introduction Objectives of Policies, Stand

Disclosure of Non-Financial Information: Relevant to Financial Analysts?

OpenAIRE

ORENS, Raf; LYBAERT, Nadine

2013-01-01

The decline in the relevance of financial statement information to value firms leads to calls from organizational stakeholders to convey non-financial information in order to be able to judge firms' financial performance and value. This literature review aims to report extant literature findings on the use of corporate non-financial information by sell-side financial analysts, the information intermediaries between corporate management and investors. Prior studies highlight that financial ana...

Emergent information technologies and enabling policies for counter-terrorism

CERN Document Server

Popp, R

2006-01-01

Explores both counter-terrorism and enabling policy dimensions of emerging information technologies in national security After the September 11th attacks, "connecting the dots" has become the watchword for using information and intelligence to protect the United States from future terrorist attacks. Advanced and emerging information technologies offer key assets in confronting a secretive, asymmetric, and networked enemy. Yet, in a free and open society, policies must ensure that these powerful technologies are used responsibly, and that privacy and civil liberties remain protected. Emergent Information Technologies and Enabling Policies for Counter-Terrorism provides a unique, integrated treatment of cutting-edge counter-terrorism technologies and their corresponding policy options. Featuring contributions from nationally recognized authorities and experts, this book brings together a diverse knowledge base for those charged with protecting our nation from terrorist attacks while preserving our civil liberti...

Advancing science, practice, and policy relevant to school psychology.

Science.gov (United States)

Jimerson, Shane R

2013-03-01

The purpose of this editorial to inform both readers and potential authors, the editor provides a few details relevant to the School Psychology Quarterly (SPQ) including: the mission, contemporary context, the new emphases of SPQ, the editorial board, and advice for authors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).

Strategic information for industrial policy-making in developing countries; Information strategique pour le policy-making industriel dans les pays en developpement

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gonod, P F

1990-05-01

The practice shows that many crucial decisions for industrialization in developing countries have been taken based on incomplete information. For strategic decisions an incomplete information may have catastrophic consequences. The function of policy-making is defined as the process by which the information generated/or used in a particular context is reevaluated in a different context in order to formulate/or execute a policy of alternative decisions. It follows that the industrial information must be presented in such a manner to allow a reevaluation and alternative decisions. 30 notes.

relevance of information warfare models to critical infrastructure

African Journals Online (AJOL)

ismith

Critical infrastructure models, strategies and policies should take information ... gain an advantage over a competitor or adversary through the use of one's own .... digital communications system, where the vehicles are analogous to bits or packets, ..... performance degraded, causing an increase in traffic finding a new route.

Building Land Information Policies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Enemark, Stig

2004-01-01

The paper presents a conceptual understanding in the areas of Cadastre, Land Administration, and Land Management as a basis for building adequate land information policies. To develop this understanding the paper looks at each area as a system or an infrastructure designed for handling specific...... of measurement science, spatial information, management, and land management. (2) To establish national professional associations which accommodate a modern interdisciplinary profile. (3) To assess the capacity needs in land administration and to develop the capacity needed at societal, institutional...... and personal level.    (4) To establish appropriate institutional and organisational infrastructures to manage the integration of topographic mapping and cadastral information into a coherent land administration system for sustainable development. The paper aims to establish the basic understanding for dealing...

Information sharing during diagnostic assessments: what is relevant for parents?

Science.gov (United States)

Klein, Sheryl; Wynn, Kerry; Ray, Lynne; Demeriez, Lori; LaBerge, Patricia; Pei, Jacqueline; St Pierre, Cherie

2011-05-01

ABSTRACT This descriptive qualitative study facilitates the application of family-centered care within a tertiary care interdisciplinary neurodevelopmental diagnostic assessment clinic by furthering an understanding of parent perceptions of the relevance of diagnostic information provision. An interdisciplinary assessment team completed an open-ended questionnaire to describe parent information provision. Parents from 9 families completed in-depth parent interviews following clinic attendance to discuss perceptions of information received. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and coded by related themes. Parents did not perceive the information in the way professionals expected. Parents acknowledged receipt of comprehensive information relevant to the diagnosis but indicated that not all their needs were met. During the interviews, parents described the assessment process, preassessment information, and "steps in their journey." They noted that a strength-based approach and a focus on parental competency would support their coping efforts. Results underscore the need for professionals to be attentive to parents' individualized needs.

New institutional mechanisms to bridge the information gap between climate science and public policy decisions

Science.gov (United States)

Rogers, W.; Gulledge, J. M.

2010-12-01

Many decision makers lack actionable scientific information needed to prepare for future challenges associated with climate change. Although the scope and quality of available scientific information has increased dramatically in recent years, this information does not always reach - or is not presented in a form that is useful to - decision makers who need it. The producer (i.e. scientists) community tends to be stovepiped, even though consumers (i.e. decision makers) often need interdisciplinary science and analysis. Consumers, who may also be stovepiped in various agencies or subject areas, may lack familiarity with or access to these separate communities, as well as the tools or time to navigate scientific information and disciplines. Closing the communication gap between these communities could be facilitated by institutionalizing processes designed for this purpose. We recommend a variety of mainstreaming policies within the consumer community, as well as mechanisms to generate a strong demand signal that will resonate more strongly with the producer community. We also recommend institutional reforms and methods of incentivizing policy-oriented scientific analysis within the producer community. Our recommendations focus on improving information flow to national security and foreign policy decision makers, but many are relevant to public policy writ large. Recommendations for Producers 1. The scientific community should formally encourage collaborations between natural and social scientists and reward publications in interdisciplinary outlets Incentives could include research funding and honorary awards recognizing service to public policy. 2. Academic merit review should reward research grants and publications targeted at interdisciplinary and/or policy-oriented audiences. Reforms of merit review may require new policies and engaged institutional leadership. Recommendations for Consumers 1. Congress should amend Title VI of the National Defense Education Act

Impact of Non Accounting Information on The Value Relevance of Accounting Information: The Case of Jordan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

DHIAA SHAMKI

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The paper presents empirical evidence about the impact of firm’s shareholders number as non accounting information on the value relevance of its earnings and book value of equity as accounting information for Jordanian industrial firms for the period from 1993 to 2002. Employing the return regression analysis and using shareholders number in two proxies namely local and foreign shareholders number, the findings of the study are fourfold. First, Individual earnings are value relevant while book value is irrelevant. Second, combining earnings with book value leads both of them to be irrelevant. Third, extending local shareholders number has significant impact on the value relevance of individual and combined earnings. Forth, extending foreign shareholders number has significant impact on the value relevance of individual book value and combined earnings. Since studies on the value relevance of these variables have neglected Jordan (and the Middle Eastern region, the study is the first especially in Jordan that tries to fill this gap by examiningthe impact of shareholders numbers on the value relevance of earnings and book valueto indicate firm value.

Developing decision-relevant data and information systems for California water through listening and collaboration

Science.gov (United States)

Bales, R. C.; Bernacchi, L.; Conklin, M. H.; Viers, J. H.; Fogg, G. E.; Fisher, A. T.; Kiparsky, M.

2017-12-01

California's historic drought of 2011-2015 provided excellent conditions for researchers to listen to water-management challenges from decision makers, particularly with regard to data and information needs for improved decision making. Through the UC Water Security and Sustainability Research Initiative (http://ucwater.org/) we began a multi-year dialog with water-resources decision makers and state agencies that provide data and technical support for water management. Near-term products of that collaboration will be both a vision for a 21st-century water data and information system, and near-term steps to meet immediate legislative deadlines in a way that is consistent with the longer-term vision. While many university-based water researchers engage with state and local agencies on both science and policy challenges, UC Water's focus was on: i) integrated system management, from headwaters through groundwater and agriculture, and on ii) improved decision making through better water information systems. This focus aligned with the recognition by water leaders that fundamental changes in the way the state manages water were overdue. UC Water is focused on three "I"s: improved water information, empowering Institutions to use and to create new information, and enabling decision makers to make smart investments in both green and grey Infrastructure. Effective communication with water decision makers has led to engagement on high-priority programs where large knowledge gaps remain, including more-widespread groundwater recharge of storm flows, restoration of mountain forests in important source-water areas, governance structures for groundwater sustainability, and filling information gaps by bringing new technology to bear on measurement and data programs. Continuing engagement of UC Water researchers in public dialog around water resources, through opinion pieces, feature articles, blogs, white papers, social media, video clips and a feature documentary film have

From Population Databases to Research and Informed Health Decisions and Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Machluf, Yossy; Tal, Orna; Navon, Amir; Chaiter, Yoram

2017-01-01

In the era of big data, the medical community is inspired to maximize the utilization and processing of the rapidly expanding medical datasets for clinical-related and policy-driven research. This requires a medical database that can be aggregated, interpreted, and integrated at both the individual and population levels. Policymakers seek data as a lever for wise, evidence-based decision-making and information-driven policy. Yet, bridging the gap between data collection, research, and policymaking, is a major challenge. To bridge this gap, we propose a four-step model: (A) creating a conjoined task force of all relevant parties to declare a national program to promote collaborations; (B) promoting a national digital records project, or at least a network of synchronized and integrated databases, in an accessible transparent manner; (C) creating an interoperative national research environment to enable the analysis of the organized and integrated data and to generate evidence; and (D) utilizing the evidence to improve decision-making, to support a wisely chosen national policy. For the latter purpose, we also developed a novel multidimensional set of criteria to illuminate insights and estimate the risk for future morbidity based on current medical conditions. Used by policymakers, providers of health plans, caregivers, and health organizations, we presume this model will assist transforming evidence generation to support the design of health policy and programs, as well as improved decision-making about health and health care, at all levels: individual, communal, organizational, and national.

Information centres: hyper-qualitative tool of Cogema's communication policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chadeyron, P.

1993-01-01

The information centres are an indispensable link in the chain of Cogema's communication policy. They enable a complete adaptation to each visitor's different level of understanding and thus improve the quality of the transmission of information to a reduced, but totally sensitive, target. The information centres therefore represent ''quality'' tools which are complementary to other means of communication. Moreover, they emphasize Cogema's resolution to communicate and formalize its communication policy. (author)

Information Literacy Policy Development in Canada: Is It Time?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cara Bradley

2013-10-01

Full Text Available This article examines policy issues related to information literacy in Canada. It provides some background on the information literacy concept, reflecting on popular definitions offered by American, British, and Australian library associations, before advocating for a broader definition that views information literacy as a human right. Information literacy is also considered in relationship to the proliferation of other “literacies,” such as digital, web, media, and information technology, that are the subject of increased advocacy and attention from interest groups and educators. The ongoing need for improved information literacy levels is analyzed not only in the context of inputs (the increasing complexity of the information environment but also in terms of potential personal, social, and economic outcomes that can be realized through widespread information literacy education efforts. The paper argues that information literacy must become a priority not only among academic librarians but also school, public, and special librarians, as well as others outside of the library sector, if significant improvements in information literacy levels are to be realized. Such a coordinated approach can only be achieved in the context of policies that require, and adequately support, widespread efforts at improving information literacy levels. After a review of the ad-hoc state of information literacy education in Canada today, this paper analyzes information literacy-related policy development efforts in Canada to date in the four arenas where one would expect to see such activity: the Government of Canada, provincial governments, library associations, and other stakeholder groups. This article aims to start a wide-reaching discussion about information literacy and associated policy issues in Canada.

Threshold policy for global games with noisy information sharing

KAUST Repository

Mahdavifar, Hessam

2015-12-15

It is known that global games with noisy sharing of information do not admit a certain type of threshold policies [1]. Motivated by this result, we investigate the existence of threshold-type policies on global games with noisy sharing of information and show that such equilibrium strategies exist and are unique if the sharing of information happens over a sufficiently noisy environment. To show this result, we establish that if a threshold function is an equilibrium strategy, then it will be a solution to a fixed point equation. Then, we show that for a sufficiently noisy environment, the functional fixed point equation leads to a contraction mapping, and hence, its iterations converge to a unique continuous threshold policy.

A fraud prevention policy: Its relevance and implication at a university of technology in South Africa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amelia Rorwana

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Using research grants administrators and their clients (academic researchers as the lens, this paper investigated the relevance and implication of a fraud prevention policy at a University of Technology (UoT in South Africa. The paper adopted a quantitative approach in which closed-ended questions were complemented by open-ended questions in the survey questionnaire in the attempt to capture the perceptions of both research grants administrators and their clients on the relevance and implications of a fraud and irregularity prevention policy. The results indicate that both research grants administrators (71.4 %, and their clients (73% do not know if UoTx has a fraud and irregularity policy. While only 36% of research grants administrators indicated that they would feel safe reporting deceitful activities, a slight majority (59% of the clients reported same. With regards to the steps to follow to report fraudulent activity, it was noted that while all (100% the research grants administrators noted that they were clueless, ironically an overwhelming majority of their clients indicated otherwise. Notwithstanding, both research grants administrators and their clients (93% and 95% respectively concurred that a fraud prevention policy was necessary for UoTx. The implication is that having phenomenal controls that are not effectively publicized, monitored or worse still overridden by someone are useless.

Strategic information for industrial policy-making in developing countries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gonod, P.F.

1990-05-01

The practice shows that many crucial decisions for industrialization in developing countries have been taken based on incomplete information. For strategic decisions an incomplete information may have catastrophic consequences. The function of policy-making is defined as the process by which the information generated/or used in a particular context is reevaluated in a different context in order to formulate/or execute a policy of alternative decisions. It follows that the industrial information must be presented in such a manner to allow a reevaluation and alternative decisions. 30 notes

The relevance of accounting information enclosed in performance indicators

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mihaela-Cristina Onica

2012-12-01

Full Text Available This research study is analyzing the relevance of accounting information reflected through the elaboration of firm performance variables and administration because of the necessity of performance to be administrated. The subject of the theme is enclosed in current development of accounting norms at national , european, (Directives and international levels (IAS/IFRS. The analyised topic is based upon the capabilty of accounting to generate information , throug synthesis calculus being settled the nature , the characteristics and the informational valences of financial performance of an organization. The accounting infromation is base for performing the decison process. The rol of accounting in insurring the relevance and comparability of information increased significantly, being already indispensable. A real solution for communication misunderstanig elimination emerged, as result of diputes in perception and interpretation of economic information, as results for the national speciffic norms.The economic communication is demanding for firm not only in its expression but in thinking and in the process of method conceptualization of organization and administration. A detailed financial situation analysis, which are employing annual financial analysis procedures, underling the performance and risks influencing factors, are considering one starting point for addressing the issue. The introduced variables are insuring a whole vision of firm activity and an appropriate strategy for results significance.

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Policy

Science.gov (United States)

This policy establishes EPA requirements for complying with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) as amended, EPA FOIA regulations, and guidance issued by the U. S. Department of Justice and the National Archives and Records Administration.

Electronic patient records in action: Transforming information into professionally relevant knowledge.

Science.gov (United States)

Winman, Thomas; Rystedt, Hans

2011-03-01

The implementation of generic models for organizing information in complex institutions like those in healthcare creates a gap between standardization and the need for locally relevant knowledge. The present study addresses how this gap can be bridged by focusing on the practical work of healthcare staff in transforming information in EPRs into knowledge that is useful for everyday work. Video recording of shift handovers on a rehabilitation ward serves as the empirical case. The results show how extensive selections and reorganizations of information in EPRs are carried out in order to transform information into professionally relevant accounts. We argue that knowledge about the institutional obligations and professional ways of construing information are fundamental for these transitions. The findings point to the need to consider the role of professional knowledge inherent in unpacking information in efforts to develop information systems intended to bridge between institutional and professional boundaries in healthcare. © The Author(s) 2011.

Current systematic carbon-cycle observations and the need for implementing a policy-relevant carbon observing system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ciais, P.; Peregon, A.; Chevallier, F.; Bopp, L.; Breon, F.M.; Broquet, G.; Luyssaert, S.; Moulin, C.; Paris, J.D.; Poulter, B.; Rivier, L.; Wang, R.

2014-01-01

A globally integrated carbon observation and analysis system is needed to improve the fundamental understanding of the global carbon cycle, to improve our ability to project future changes, and to verify the effectiveness of policies aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration. Building an integrated carbon observation system requires transformational advances from the existing sparse, exploratory framework towards a dense, robust, and sustained system in all components: anthropogenic emissions, the atmosphere, the ocean, and the terrestrial biosphere. The paper is addressed to scientists, policy makers, and funding agencies who need to have a global picture of the current state of the (diverse) carbon observations. We identify the current state of carbon observations, and the needs and notional requirements for a global integrated carbon observation system that can be built in the next decade. A key conclusion is the substantial expansion of the ground-based observation networks required to reach the high spatial resolution for CO 2 and CH 4 fluxes, and for carbon stocks for addressing policy-relevant objectives, and attributing flux changes to underlying processes in each region. In order to establish flux and stock diagnostics over areas such as the southern oceans, tropical forests, and the Arctic, in situ observations will have to be complemented with remote-sensing measurements. Remote sensing offers the advantage of dense spatial coverage and frequent revisit. A key challenge is to bring remote-sensing measurements to a level of long-term consistency and accuracy so that they can be efficiently combined in models to reduce uncertainties, in synergy with ground based data. Bringing tight observational constraints on fossil fuel and land use change emissions will be the biggest challenge for deployment of a policy-relevant integrated carbon observation system. This will require in situ and remotely sensed data at much higher

From Population Databases to Research and Informed Health Decisions and Policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yossy Machluf

2017-09-01

Full Text Available BackgroundIn the era of big data, the medical community is inspired to maximize the utilization and processing of the rapidly expanding medical datasets for clinical-related and policy-driven research. This requires a medical database that can be aggregated, interpreted, and integrated at both the individual and population levels. Policymakers seek data as a lever for wise, evidence-based decision-making and information-driven policy. Yet, bridging the gap between data collection, research, and policymaking, is a major challenge.The modelTo bridge this gap, we propose a four-step model: (A creating a conjoined task force of all relevant parties to declare a national program to promote collaborations; (B promoting a national digital records project, or at least a network of synchronized and integrated databases, in an accessible transparent manner; (C creating an interoperative national research environment to enable the analysis of the organized and integrated data and to generate evidence; and (D utilizing the evidence to improve decision-making, to support a wisely chosen national policy. For the latter purpose, we also developed a novel multidimensional set of criteria to illuminate insights and estimate the risk for future morbidity based on current medical conditions.ConclusionUsed by policymakers, providers of health plans, caregivers, and health organizations, we presume this model will assist transforming evidence generation to support the design of health policy and programs, as well as improved decision-making about health and health care, at all levels: individual, communal, organizational, and national.

Elections, Private Information, and State-Dependent Candidate Quality

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Thomas

In this paper we contribute to the study of how democracy works when politicians are better informed than the electorate about conditions relevant for policy choice. We do so by setting up and analyzing a game theoretic model of electoral competition. An important feature of the model is that can......In this paper we contribute to the study of how democracy works when politicians are better informed than the electorate about conditions relevant for policy choice. We do so by setting up and analyzing a game theoretic model of electoral competition. An important feature of the model...... is that candidate quality is state-dependent. Our main insight is that if the electorate is sufficiently well informed then there exists an equilibrium where the candidates' policy positions reveal their information and the policy outcome is the same as it would be if voters were fully informed (the median policy...

Evidence for informing health policy development in Low-income Countries (LICs): perspectives of policy actors in Uganda.

Science.gov (United States)

Nabyonga-Orem, Juliet; Mijumbi, Rhona

2015-03-08

Although there is a general agreement on the benefits of evidence informed health policy development given resource constraints especially in Low-Income Countries (LICs), the definition of what evidence is, and what evidence is suitable to guide decision-making is still unclear. Our study is contributing to filling this knowledge gap. We aimed to explore health policy actors' views regarding what evidence they deemed appropriate to guide health policy development. Using exploratory qualitative methods, we conducted interviews with 51 key informants using an in-depth interview guide. We interviewed a diverse group of stakeholders in health policy development and knowledge translation in the Uganda health sector. Data were analyzed using inductive content analysis techniques. Different stakeholders lay emphasis on different kinds of evidence. While donors preferred international evidence and Ministry of Health (MoH) officials looked to local evidence, district health managers preferred local evidence, evidence from routine monitoring and evaluation, and reports from service providers. Service providers on the other hand preferred local evidence and routine monitoring and evaluation reports whilst researchers preferred systematic reviews and clinical trials. Stakeholders preferred evidence covering several aspects impacting on decision-making highlighting the fact that although policy actors look for factual information, they also require evidence on context and implementation feasibility of a policy decision. What LICs like Uganda categorize as evidence suitable for informing policy encompasses several types with no consensus on what is deemed as most appropriate. Evidence must be of high quality, applicable, acceptable to the users, and informing different aspects of decision-making. © 2015 by Kerman University of Medical Sciences.

Evidence for Informing Health Policy Development in Low- Income Countries (LICS: Perspectives of Policy Actors in Uganda

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juliet Nabyonga-Orem

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Background Although there is a general agreement on the benefits of evidence informed health policy development given resource constraints especially in Low-Income Countries (LICs, the definition of what evidence is, and what evidence is suitable to guide decision-making is still unclear. Our study is contributing to filling this knowledge gap. We aimed to explore health policy actors’ views regarding what evidence they deemed appropriate to guide health policy development. Methods Using exploratory qualitative methods, we conducted interviews with 51 key informants using an indepth interview guide. We interviewed a diverse group of stakeholders in health policy development and knowledge translation in the Uganda health sector. Data were analyzed using inductive content analysis techniques. Results Different stakeholders lay emphasis on different kinds of evidence. While donors preferred international evidence and Ministry of Health (MoH officials looked to local evidence, district health managers preferred local evidence, evidence from routine monitoring and evaluation, and reports from service providers. Service providers on the other hand preferred local evidence and routine monitoring and evaluation reports whilst researchers preferred systematic reviews and clinical trials. Stakeholders preferred evidence covering several aspects impacting on decision-making highlighting the fact that although policy actors look for factual information, they also require evidence on context and implementation feasibility of a policy decision. Conclusion What LICslike Uganda categorize as evidence suitable for informing policy encompasses several types with no consensus on what is deemed as most appropriate. Evidence must be of high quality, applicable, acceptable to the users, and informing different aspects of decision-making.

Policy, Procedures and Standards for Enterprise Information Management

Science.gov (United States)

This policy establishes a standard approach for managing information produced by, funded by, or received per regulated reporting and/or federal-wide requirements and subsequently held or cataloged in information management systems by EPA.

Task-relevant information is prioritized in spatiotemporal contextual cueing.

Science.gov (United States)

Higuchi, Yoko; Ueda, Yoshiyuki; Ogawa, Hirokazu; Saiki, Jun

2016-11-01

Implicit learning of visual contexts facilitates search performance-a phenomenon known as contextual cueing; however, little is known about contextual cueing under situations in which multidimensional regularities exist simultaneously. In everyday vision, different information, such as object identity and location, appears simultaneously and interacts with each other. We tested the hypothesis that, in contextual cueing, when multiple regularities are present, the regularities that are most relevant to our behavioral goals would be prioritized. Previous studies of contextual cueing have commonly used the visual search paradigm. However, this paradigm is not suitable for directing participants' attention to a particular regularity. Therefore, we developed a new paradigm, the "spatiotemporal contextual cueing paradigm," and manipulated task-relevant and task-irrelevant regularities. In four experiments, we demonstrated that task-relevant regularities were more responsible for search facilitation than task-irrelevant regularities. This finding suggests our visual behavior is focused on regularities that are relevant to our current goal.

Iterative Filtering of Retrieved Information to Increase Relevance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robert Zeidman

2007-12-01

Full Text Available Efforts have been underway for years to find more effective ways to retrieve information from large knowledge domains. This effort is now being driven particularly by the Internet and the vast amount of information that is available to unsophisticated users. In the early days of the Internet, some effort involved allowing users to enter Boolean equations of search terms into search engines, for example, rather than just a list of keywords. More recently, effort has focused on understanding a user's desires from past search histories in order to narrow searches. Also there has been much effort to improve the ranking of results based on some measure of relevancy. This paper discusses using iterative filtering of retrieved information to focus in on useful information. This work was done for finding source code correlation and the author extends his findings to Internet searching and e-commerce. The paper presents specific information about a particular filtering application and then generalizes it to other forms of information retrieval.

Electronic U.S. Government Information: Policy Issues and Directions.

Science.gov (United States)

Hernon, Peter; McClure, Charles R.

1993-01-01

Provides an overview of U.S. federal information policy and its treatment of electronic information resources. Highlights include government publications; electronic government information; main providers of government information, including the Government Printing Office; the Freedom of Information Act; public access and use; information…

Finding electronic information for health policy advocacy: a guide to improving search results.

Science.gov (United States)

Olsan, Tobie H; Bianchi, Carolanne; White, Pamela; Glessner, Theresa; Mapstone, Pamela L

2011-12-01

The success of advanced practice registered nurses' (APRNs') health policy advocacy depends on staying well informed about key issues. Searching for high-quality health policy information, however, can be frustrating and time consuming. Busy clinicians need strategies and tips to reduce information overload and to access synthesized research for evidence-based health policy. This article therefore offers APRNs practical guidelines and resources for searching electronic health policy information. Scholarly databases and Internet sites. Electronic health policy information is generated by a wide variety of public and private organizations and disseminated in hundreds of journals and Web pages. Specialty search tools are needed to retrieve the unindexed gray literature, which includes government documents, agency reports, fact sheets, standards, and statistics not produced by commercial publishers. Further, Internet users need to examine search results with a critical eye for information quality. Expertise in searching electronic health policy information is a prerequisite for developing APRNs' leadership in political arenas to influence health policy and the delivery of healthcare services. ©2011 The Author(s) Journal compilation ©2011 American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.

Online drug databases: a new method to assess and compare inclusion of clinically relevant information.

Science.gov (United States)

Silva, Cristina; Fresco, Paula; Monteiro, Joaquim; Rama, Ana Cristina Ribeiro

2013-08-01

Evidence-Based Practice requires health care decisions to be based on the best available evidence. The model "Information Mastery" proposes that clinicians should use sources of information that have previously evaluated relevance and validity, provided at the point of care. Drug databases (DB) allow easy and fast access to information and have the benefit of more frequent content updates. Relevant information, in the context of drug therapy, is that which supports safe and effective use of medicines. Accordingly, the European Guideline on the Summary of Product Characteristics (EG-SmPC) was used as a standard to evaluate the inclusion of relevant information contents in DB. To develop and test a method to evaluate relevancy of DB contents, by assessing the inclusion of information items deemed relevant for effective and safe drug use. Hierarchical organisation and selection of the principles defined in the EGSmPC; definition of criteria to assess inclusion of selected information items; creation of a categorisation and quantification system that allows score calculation; calculation of relative differences (RD) of scores for comparison with an "ideal" database, defined as the one that achieves the best quantification possible for each of the information items; pilot test on a sample of 9 drug databases, using 10 drugs frequently associated in literature with morbidity-mortality and also being widely consumed in Portugal. Main outcome measure Calculate individual and global scores for clinically relevant information items of drug monographs in databases, using the categorisation and quantification system created. A--Method development: selection of sections, subsections, relevant information items and corresponding requisites; system to categorise and quantify their inclusion; score and RD calculation procedure. B--Pilot test: calculated scores for the 9 databases; globally, all databases evaluated significantly differed from the "ideal" database; some DB performed

Mapping local knowledge of hazards to inform research, practice and policy in the Americas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Coles, Ashley; Eosco, Gina; Norton, Todd; Ruiz, Jorge; Tate, Eric; Weathers, Melinda

2011-01-01

Hazards are fundamentally understood and experienced spatially; therefore, it is not surprising that hazards research, management, communication, and policy have relied heavily on spatial representations using geomatics tools such as remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS). As powerful and useful as these tools have been, they tend to privilege the collection and utilization of quantifiable data at the expense of qualitative data (e.g., experiential local knowledge). Local knowledge has been increasingly used both to challenge and to supplement mapping strategies, although less so in the realm of hazards than in other areas such as natural resource management. In this paper, we propose a unique framework for taking these approaches one-step further through the development of a knowledge management system that integrates local knowledge of hazards with spatial visualization tools. First, we discuss relevant literature related to current tools and practices for visualizing hazard information. Next we propose a methodology for mapping mental models of individuals. Finally, we discuss the potential applications of such a framework for hazards research, practice, and policy, as well as discuss the challenges associated with this framework.

Systematic environmental monitoring model for decision in Public Policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jair Cunha Cardoso Filho

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Addresses the existing interdisciplinary between Information Science and public policies, and proposes to environmental monitoring tool as a relevant tool for improving the process of evaluating the effectiveness of these social policies and social programs, there included the legislative branch, through the collection, processing and provision of information allowing to identify the environmental changes and propose, consistently, the improvement of public policies that meet the demands of citizens.

Communicating stereotype-relevant information: is factual information subject to the same communication biases as fictional information?

Science.gov (United States)

Goodman, Ruth L; Webb, Thomas L; Stewart, Andrew J

2009-07-01

Factual information is more frequently read and discussed than fictional information. However, research on the role of communication in shaping stereotypes has focused almost exclusively on fictional narratives. In Experiments 1 and 2 a newspaper article containing information about heroin users was communicated along chains of 4 people. No stereotype-consistency bias was observed. Instead, a greater proportion of stereotype-inconsistent information was communicated than was stereotype-consistent or -neutral information. Three further experiments investigated explanations for the difference between the communication of fictional and factual information. Experiment 3 ruled out the possibility that participants' beliefs about the validity of the information could influence the way that it is communicated. Experiments 4 and 5 divided information into concrete (a specific event or fact) or abstract (opinion). A stereotype-consistency bias emerged only for abstract information. In summary, linguistic abstraction moderates whether stereotype-consistency biases emerge in the communication of stereotype-relevant factual information.

Why relevance theory is relevant for lexicography

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bothma, Theo; Tarp, Sven

2014-01-01

This article starts by providing a brief summary of relevance theory in information science in relation to the function theory of lexicography, explaining the different types of relevance, viz. objective system relevance and the subjective types of relevance, i.e. topical, cognitive, situational...... that is very important for lexicography as well as for information science, viz. functional relevance. Since all lexicographic work is ultimately aimed at satisfying users’ information needs, the article then discusses why the lexicographer should take note of all these types of relevance when planning a new...... dictionary project, identifying new tasks and responsibilities of the modern lexicographer. The article furthermore discusses how relevance theory impacts on teaching dictionary culture and reference skills. By integrating insights from lexicography and information science, the article contributes to new...

Grenada School Nutrition Study: Evidence to Inform Policy | CRDI ...

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

Grenada School Nutrition Study: Evidence to Inform Policy ... LMICs can direct their efforts to changing the environments and habits that promote ... Report Card that will be suited for advocacy work, and could be used to influence policy.

Policy-relevant behaviours predict heavier drinking and mediate the relationship with age, gender and education status: Analysis from the International Alcohol Control study.

Science.gov (United States)

Casswell, Sally; Huckle, Taisia; Wall, Martin; Parker, Karl; Chaiyasong, Surasak; Parry, Charles D H; Viet Cuong, Pham; Gray-Phillip, Gaile; Piazza, Marina

2018-02-21

To investigate behaviours related to four alcohol policy variables (policy-relevant behaviours) and demographic variables in relation to typical quantities of alcohol consumed on-premise in six International Alcohol Control study countries. General population surveys with drinkers using a comparable survey instrument and data analysed using path analysis in an overall model and for each country. typical quantities per occasion consumed on-premise; gender, age; years of education, prices paid, time of purchase, time to access alcohol and liking for alcohol advertisements. In the overall model younger people, males and those with fewer years of education consumed larger typical quantities. Overall lower prices paid, later time of purchase and liking for alcohol ads predicted consuming larger typical quantities; this was found in the high-income countries, less consistently in the high-middle-income countries and not in the low middle-income country. Three policy-relevant behaviours (prices paid, time of purchase, liking for alcohol ads) mediated the relationships between age, gender, education and consumption in high-income countries. International Alcohol Control survey data showed a relationship between policy-relevant behaviours and typical quantities consumed and support the likely effect of policy change (trading hours, price and restrictions on marketing) on heavier drinking. The path analysis also revealed policy-relevant behaviours were significant mediating variables between the effect of age, gender and educational status on consumption. However, this relationship is clearest in high-income countries. Further research is required to understand better how circumstances in low-middle-income countries impact effects of policies. © 2018 The Authors Drug and Alcohol Review published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.

Uncertainty as Information: Narrowing the Science-policy Gap

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. A. Bradshaw

2000-07-01

Full Text Available Conflict and indecision are hallmarks of environmental policy formulation. Some argue that the requisite information and certainty fall short of scientific standards for decision making; others argue that science is not the issue and that indecisiveness reflects a lack of political willpower. One of the most difficult aspects of translating science into policy is scientific uncertainty. Whereas scientists are familiar with uncertainty and complexity, the public and policy makers often seek certainty and deterministic solutions. We assert that environmental policy is most effective if scientific uncertainty is incorporated into a rigorous decision-theoretic framework as knowledge, not ignorance. The policies that best utilize scientific findings are defined here as those that accommodate the full scope of scientifically based predictions.

Age differences in attention toward decision-relevant information: education matters.

Science.gov (United States)

Xing, Cai; Isaacowitz, Derek

2011-01-01

Previous studies suggested that older adults are more likely to engage in heuristic decision-making than young adults. This study used eye tracking technique to examine young adults' and highly educated older adults' attention toward two types of decision-relevant information: heuristic cue vs. factual cues. Surprisingly, highly educated older adults showed the reversed age pattern-they looked more toward factual cues than did young adults. This age difference disappeared after controlling for educational level. Additionally, education correlated with attentional pattern to decision-relevant information. We interpret this finding as an indication of the power of education: education may modify what are thought to be "typical" age differences in decision-making, and education may influence young and older people's decision-making via different paths.

Monitoring long-term ecological changes through the Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network: science-based and policy relevant.

Science.gov (United States)

Vaughan, H; Brydges, T; Fenech, A; Lumb, A

2001-01-01

Ecological monitoring and its associated research programs have often provided answers to various environmental management issues. In the face of changing environmental conditions, ecological monitoring provides decision-makers with reliable information as they grapple with maintaining a sustainable economy and healthy environment. The Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network (EMAN) is a national ecological monitoring network consisting of (1) about 100 case study sites across the country characterized by long-term multi-disciplinary environmental work conducted by a multitude of agencies (142 partners and counting); (2) a variety of less comprehensive yet more extensive monitoring sites; (3) a network where core monitoring variables of ecosystem change are measured; and (4) geo-referenced environmental observations. Environment Canada is the co-ordinating partner for the network through the EMAN Co-ordinating Office. EMAN's mission is to focus a scientifically-sound, policy-relevant ecosystem monitoring and research network based on (a) stabilizing a network of case-study sites operated by a variety of partners, and (b) developing a number of cooperative dispersed monitoring initiatives in order to deliver unique and needed goods and services. These goods and services include: (1) an efficient and cost-effective early warning system which detects, describes and reports on changes in Canadian ecosystems at a national or ecozone scale; and (2) cross-disciplinary and cross-jurisdictional assessments of ecosystem status, trends and processes. The early warning system and assessments of ecosystem status, trends and processes provide Environment Canada and partner organizations with timely information that facilitates increasingly adaptive policies and priority setting. Canadians are also informed of changes and trends occurring in Canadian ecosystems and, as a result, are better able to make decisions related to conservation and sustainability.

National platforms for evidence-informed physical activity policy making

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rus, Diana; Bozdog, Elena; Loncarevic, Natasa

Evidence-informed policy making in physical activity calls for inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary collaboration. To facilitate the exchange of knowledge, experiences and ideas across practice, policy and research, as part of the REPOPA Project and dissemination work, it was encouraged...

For a cyberspace information policy: advances, perspectives and challenges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jakeline Amparo Villota Enríquez

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This article is to describe and analyze the policies of information in cyberspace, both global and regionally, in different directions: programs, resolutions, and projects from the information sector. Likewise, an overview of the same is presented in the Latin American and Caribbean region. Through documentary analysis of the literature related to the topic, the article is based on a review of literature raised from scientific materials such as: books, thesis papers, dissertations, texts on internet sites and articles, resolutions, projects and decrees dealing with the same topic. As a result, cyberspace is conceptualized and its elements, dimensions, strategies and variations are characterized, by analyzing the information from cyberspace policy, based on the global stage to relate it, finally, to the region of Latin America and the Caribbean, with the idea of better addressing the problems. The cyberspace information policy experience a minor and slow process in the field of cyber war; resulting from the obstacle of international cooperation defined by the disparate ambitions of the State or region.

Phase synchronization of delta and theta oscillations increase during the detection of relevant lexical information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Enzo eBrunetti

2013-06-01

Full Text Available During monitoring of the discourse, the detection of the relevance of incoming lexical information could be critical for its incorporation to update mental representations in memory. Because, in these situations, the relevance for lexical information is defined by abstract rules that are maintained in memory, results critical to understand how an abstract level of knowledge maintained in mind mediates the detection of the lower-level semantic information. In the present study, we propose that neuronal oscillations participate in the detection of relevant lexical information, based on ‘kept in mind’ rules deriving from more abstract semantic information. We tested our hypothesis using an experimental paradigm that restricted the detection of relevance to inferences based on explicit information, thus controlling for ambiguities derived from implicit aspects. We used a categorization task, in which the semantic relevance was previously defined based on the congruency between a kept in mind category (abstract knowledge, and the lexical-semantic information presented. Our results show that during the detection of the relevant lexical information, phase synchronization of neuronal oscillations selectively increases in delta and theta frequency bands during the interval of semantic analysis. These increments were independent of the semantic category maintained in memory, had a temporal profile specific for each subject, and were mainly induced, as they had no effect on the evoked mean global field power. Also, recruitment of an increased number of pairs of electrodes was a robust observation during the detection of semantic contingent words. These results are consistent with the notion that the detection of relevant lexical information based on a particular semantic rule, could be mediated by increasing the global phase synchronization of neuronal oscillations, which may contribute to the recruitment of an extended number of cortical regions.

Phase synchronization of delta and theta oscillations increase during the detection of relevant lexical information.

Science.gov (United States)

Brunetti, Enzo; Maldonado, Pedro E; Aboitiz, Francisco

2013-01-01

During monitoring of the discourse, the detection of the relevance of incoming lexical information could be critical for its incorporation to update mental representations in memory. Because, in these situations, the relevance for lexical information is defined by abstract rules that are maintained in memory, a central aspect to elucidate is how an abstract level of knowledge maintained in mind mediates the detection of the lower-level semantic information. In the present study, we propose that neuronal oscillations participate in the detection of relevant lexical information, based on "kept in mind" rules deriving from more abstract semantic information. We tested our hypothesis using an experimental paradigm that restricted the detection of relevance to inferences based on explicit information, thus controlling for ambiguities derived from implicit aspects. We used a categorization task, in which the semantic relevance was previously defined based on the congruency between a kept in mind category (abstract knowledge), and the lexical semantic information presented. Our results show that during the detection of the relevant lexical information, phase synchronization of neuronal oscillations selectively increases in delta and theta frequency bands during the interval of semantic analysis. These increments occurred irrespective of the semantic category maintained in memory, had a temporal profile specific for each subject, and were mainly induced, as they had no effect on the evoked mean global field power. Also, recruitment of an increased number of pairs of electrodes was a robust observation during the detection of semantic contingent words. These results are consistent with the notion that the detection of relevant lexical information based on a particular semantic rule, could be mediated by increasing the global phase synchronization of neuronal oscillations, which may contribute to the recruitment of an extended number of cortical regions.

Policies and strategies for radioactive waste management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2009-01-01

A policy for spent fuel and radioactive waste management should include a set of goals or requirements to ensure the safe and efficient management of spent fuel and radioactive waste in the country. Policy is mainly established by the national government and may become codified in the national legislative system. The spent fuel and radioactive waste management strategy sets out the means for achieving the goals and requirements set out in the national policy. It is normally established by the relevant waste owner or nuclear facility operator, or by government (institutional waste). Thus, the national policy may be elaborated in several different strategy components. To ensure the safe, technically optimal and cost effective management of radioactive waste, countries are advised to formulate appropriate policies and strategies. A typical policy should include the following elements: defined safety and security objectives, arrangements for providing resources for spent fuel and radioactive waste management, identification of the main approaches for the management of the national spent fuel and radioactive waste categories, policy on export/import of radioactive waste, and provisions for public information and participation. In addition, the policy should define national roles and responsibilities for spent fuel and radioactive waste management. In order to formulate a meaningful policy, it is necessary to have sufficient information on the national situation, for example, on the existing national legal framework, institutional structures, relevant international obligations, other relevant national policies and strategies, indicative waste and spent fuel inventories, the availability of resources, the situation in other countries and the preferences of the major interested parties. The strategy reflects and elaborates the goals and requirements set out in the policy statement. For its formulation, detailed information is needed on the current situation in the country

Detecting clinically relevant new information in clinical notes across specialties and settings.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Rui; Pakhomov, Serguei V S; Arsoniadis, Elliot G; Lee, Janet T; Wang, Yan; Melton, Genevieve B

2017-07-05

Automated methods for identifying clinically relevant new versus redundant information in electronic health record (EHR) clinical notes is useful for clinicians and researchers involved in patient care and clinical research, respectively. We evaluated methods to automatically identify clinically relevant new information in clinical notes, and compared the quantity of redundant information across specialties and clinical settings. Statistical language models augmented with semantic similarity measures were evaluated as a means to detect and quantify clinically relevant new and redundant information over longitudinal clinical notes for a given patient. A corpus of 591 progress notes over 40 inpatient admissions was annotated for new information longitudinally by physicians to generate a reference standard. Note redundancy between various specialties was evaluated on 71,021 outpatient notes and 64,695 inpatient notes from 500 solid organ transplant patients (April 2015 through August 2015). Our best method achieved at best performance of 0.87 recall, 0.62 precision, and 0.72 F-measure. Addition of semantic similarity metrics compared to baseline improved recall but otherwise resulted in similar performance. While outpatient and inpatient notes had relatively similar levels of high redundancy (61% and 68%, respectively), redundancy differed by author specialty with mean redundancy of 75%, 66%, 57%, and 55% observed in pediatric, internal medicine, psychiatry and surgical notes, respectively. Automated techniques with statistical language models for detecting redundant versus clinically relevant new information in clinical notes do not improve with the addition of semantic similarity measures. While levels of redundancy seem relatively similar in the inpatient and ambulatory settings in the Fairview Health Services, clinical note redundancy appears to vary significantly with different medical specialties.

Features of information policy in the Nordic countries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. A. Strunin

2014-06-01

A result of research features implementation of information policy in the Nordic countries it is possible to identify common characteristics of all the countries: access to information; create a national information potential; use of information resources in the national interest; create a common health information; promote international cooperation in the field of communication and information; warranty information sovereignty of the state; development of information infrastructure; development of e­government; enhance information literacy; use of ICT in all spheres of society – the economy, education, medicine and so on.

Public Access to Government Electronic Information. Policy Framework.

Science.gov (United States)

Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science, 1992

1992-01-01

This policy framework provides guidelines for federal agencies on public access to government electronic information. Highlights include reasons for disseminating information; defining user groups; which technology to use; pricing flexibility; security and privacy issues; and the private sector and state and local government roles. (LRW)

Leadership development in the English National Health Service: A counter narrative to inform policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Hewison, Alistair; Morrell, Kevin

2014-04-01

To examine the current approach to leadership development in the English National Health Service (NHS) and consider its implications for nursing. To stimulate debate about the nature of leadership development in a range of health care settings. Good leadership is central to the provision of high quality nursing care. This has focussed attention on the leadership development of nurses and other health care staff. It has been a key policy concern in the English NHS of late and fostered the growth of leadership development programmes founded on competency based approaches. This is a policy review informed by the concept of episteme. Relevant policy documents and related literature. Using Foucault's concept of episteme, leadership development policy is examined in context and a 'counter narrative' developed to demonstrate that current approaches are rooted in competency based accounts which constitute a limited, yet dominant narrative. Leadership takes many forms and varies hugely according to task and context. Acknowledging this in the form of a counter narrative offers a contribution to more constructive policy development in the English NHS and more widely. A more nuanced debate about leadership development and greater diversity in the provision of development programmes and activities is required. Leadership development has been advocated as being crucial to the advancement of nursing. Detailed analysis of its nature and function is essential if it is to meet the needs of nurse leaders. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The relevance of music information representation metadata from the perspective of expert users

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Camila Monteiro de Barros

Full Text Available The general goal of this research was to verify which metadata elements of music information representation are relevant for its retrieval from the perspective of expert music users. Based on a bibliographical research, a comprehensive metadata set of music information representation was developed and transformed into a questionnaire for data collection, which was applied to students and professors of the Graduate Program in Music at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. The results show that the most relevant information for expert music users is related to identification and authorship responsibilities. The respondents from Composition and Interpretative Practice areas agree with these results, while the respondents from Musicology/Ethnomusicology and Music Education areas also consider the metadata related to the historical context of composition relevant.

U.S. International Agricultural Trade Policy: Interests, Institutions and Information in the Corn Supply Chain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laís Forti Thomaz

2016-04-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this article is to analyze the U.S. international agricultural trade policy by focusing on instruments and institutional arrangements. Policy decision-making is analyzed by means of three variables: 1 how interests are mobilized; 2 how information is disseminated; and 3 how spaces are occupied in deliberation arenas. The study refers to the corn sector and observes how the National Corn Growers Association operated to ensure subsidies and incentives for this supply chain along the elaboration of the 2002 and 2008 Farm Bills, as well as from other laws pertaining to agricultural and energy incentives. This paper provides evidences in favor of four arguments: first, empirical studies on the formulation and implementation of foreign trade policy, especially when it comes to agricultural issues, would greatly benefit with a greater attention on understanding the role domestic actors play in the decision-making processes; second, interest groups play a key role in this decision-making process; third, they provide the rationale for the formulation and implementation of the U.S. international agricultural trade policy; and, fourth, when the economic sector coordinates complex and relevant supply chains in the U.S. economy, it is hardly possible to revert the U.S. protectionist position in the Legislative branch.

Analysis of Russian Federation Foreign Policy in the Field of International Information Security

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elena S. Zinovieva

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Information and communication technologies (ICT play an essential role in the improvement of the quality of life, economic and socio-political of individual countries and humanity in general. However, ICT development is fraught with new challenges and threats to international and national security. Interstate rivalry in the information sphere generates conflicts, an extreme form of which is an information war. Since 1998, the Russian initiative supports the international cooperation on information security at the global and regional level as well as within the framework of the bilateral relations. The article analyzes the characteristics of the global information society, which has a decisive influence on the international security in the information age, as well as international cooperation in this field. The analysis of Russian foreign policy initiatives in the field of international information security is also presented. Today more than 130 countries develop cyber capabilities, both defensive and offensive, that pose serious threats to the international stability. It's difficult to trace the source of information attacks and its consequences can be devastating and cause retaliation, including the use of conventional weapons. In this situation Russian approach, advocating for the development of the rules of conduct of States and demilitarization of information space in order to ensure its safety, seems urgent and relevant with the international situation.

Information Needs for Water Management

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Timmerman, J.G.

2014-01-01

This book provides the necessary elements to determine exactly what information should be collected to make the collected information relevant for policy makers. It highlights the dissatisfaction of information users about the information they get and the reasons for this dissatisfaction. It also

Enhancing the Capacity of Policy-Makers to Develop Evidence-Informed Policy Brief on Infectious Diseases of Poverty in Nigeria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chigozie Jesse Uneke

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Background The lack of effective use of research evidence in policy-making is a major challenge in most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs. There is need to package research data into effective policy tools that will help policy-makers to make evidence-informed policy regarding infectious diseases of poverty (IDP. The objective of this study was to assess the usefulness of training workshops and mentoring to enhance the capacity of Nigerian health policy-makers to develop evidence-informed policy brief on the control of IDP. Methods A modified “before and after” intervention study design was used in which outcomes were measured on the target participants both before the intervention is implemented and after. A 4-point Likert scale according to the degree of adequacy; 1 = “grossly inadequate,” 4 = “very adequate” was employed. The main parameter measured was participants’ perceptions of their own knowledge/understanding. This study was conducted at subnational level and the participants were the career health policy-makers drawn from Ebonyi State in the South-Eastern Nigeria. A oneday evidence-to-policy workshop was organized to enhance the participants’ capacity to develop evidence-informed policy brief on IDP in Ebonyi State. Topics covered included collaborative initiative; preparation and use of policy briefs; policy dialogue; ethics in health policy-making; and health policy and politics. Results The preworkshop mean of knowledge and capacity ranged from 2.49-3.03, while the postworkshop mean ranged from 3.42–3.78 on 4-point scale. The percentage increase in mean of knowledge and capacity at the end of the workshop ranged from 20.10%–45%. Participants were divided into 3 IDP mentorship groups (malaria, schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis [LF] and were mentored to identify potential policy options/recommendations for control of the diseases for the policy briefs. These policy options were subjected to research

Enhancing the Capacity of Policy-Makers to Develop Evidence-Informed Policy Brief on Infectious Diseases of Poverty in Nigeria

Science.gov (United States)

Uneke, Chigozie Jesse; Ezeoha, Abel Ebeh; Uro-Chukwu, Henry; Ezeonu, Chinonyelum Thecla; Ogbu, Ogbonnaya; Onwe, Friday; Edoga, Chima

2015-01-01

Background: The lack of effective use of research evidence in policy-making is a major challenge in most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). There is need to package research data into effective policy tools that will help policy-makers to make evidence-informed policy regarding infectious diseases of poverty (IDP). The objective of this study was to assess the usefulness of training workshops and mentoring to enhance the capacity of Nigerian health policy-makers to develop evidence-informed policy brief on the control of IDP. Methods: A modified "before and after" intervention study design was used in which outcomes were measured on the target participants both before the intervention is implemented and after. A 4-point Likert scale according to the degree of adequacy; 1 = "grossly inadequate," 4 = "very adequate" was employed. The main parameter measured was participants’ perceptions of their own knowledge/understanding. This study was conducted at subnational level and the participants were the career health policy-makers drawn from Ebonyi State in the South-Eastern Nigeria. A one-day evidence-to-policy workshop was organized to enhance the participants’ capacity to develop evidence-informed policy brief on IDP in Ebonyi State. Topics covered included collaborative initiative; preparation and use of policy briefs; policy dialogue; ethics in health policy-making; and health policy and politics. Results: The preworkshop mean of knowledge and capacity ranged from 2.49-3.03, while the postworkshop mean ranged from 3.42–3.78 on 4-point scale. The percentage increase in mean of knowledge and capacity at the end of the workshop ranged from 20.10%–45%. Participants were divided into 3 IDP mentorship groups (malaria, schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis [LF]) and were mentored to identify potential policy options/recommendations for control of the diseases for the policy briefs. These policy options were subjected to research evidence synthesis by each

Perspectives on econometric modelling to inform policy: a UK qualitative case study of minimum unit pricing of alcohol.

Science.gov (United States)

Katikireddi, Srinivasa V; Bond, Lyndal; Hilton, Shona

2014-06-01

Novel policy interventions may lack evaluation-based evidence. Considerations to introduce minimum unit pricing (MUP) of alcohol in the UK were informed by econometric modelling (the 'Sheffield model'). We aim to investigate policy stakeholders' views of the utility of modelling studies for public health policy. In-depth qualitative interviews with 36 individuals involved in MUP policy debates (purposively sampled to include civil servants, politicians, academics, advocates and industry-related actors) were conducted and thematically analysed. Interviewees felt familiar with modelling studies and often displayed detailed understandings of the Sheffield model. Despite this, many were uneasy about the extent to which the Sheffield model could be relied on for informing policymaking and preferred traditional evaluations. A tension was identified between this preference for post hoc evaluations and a desire for evidence derived from local data, with modelling seen to offer high external validity. MUP critics expressed concern that the Sheffield model did not adequately capture the 'real life' world of the alcohol market, which was conceptualized as a complex and, to some extent, inherently unpredictable system. Communication of modelling results was considered intrinsically difficult but presenting an appropriate picture of the uncertainties inherent in modelling was viewed as desirable. There was general enthusiasm for increased use of econometric modelling to inform future policymaking but an appreciation that such evidence should only form one input into the process. Modelling studies are valued by policymakers as they provide contextually relevant evidence for novel policies, but tensions exist with views of traditional evaluation-based evidence. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association.

Fair Information Principles of Brazilian Companies online privacy policies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patricia Zeni Marchiori

2016-05-01

Full Text Available This research aims to present the Fair Information Principles in the privacy policies of the websites of major Brazilian companies (according to the 2014 Forbes Magazine list. The check and analysis were supported by a checklist compiled from documents issued by the Federal Trade Commission and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and development. The study selected fourteen companies from a universe of twenty-five, considering the immediacy criterion of access to the privacy policy on their websites. The security (safeguards principle is the most widespread foundation at the privacy policies of the companies selected (existing in eight of the fourteen analyzed policies; and the principle of responsibility receives less adhesion due to the fact that it is not covered in any of the examined online privacy policies. The Sabesp Company presents the most complete privacy policy, considering the compliance with the Fair Information Principles when compared to the others perused, while WEG does not present any of the principles identified in the documental survey. As for e-commerce, the number of companies that assume some of the Principles is further reduced. For the selected universe the adherence to the Fair information Principles is still incipient, althought its use is not mandatory. An open discussion of the proposed Brazilian law about personal data protection should play an important role in creating further guidance on the subject. Additional studies in this subject should involve the perception of users, as well as a cutout of companies which target e-commerce, considering that an effective alignment with these principles and other guidelines are required in order to protect the user’s privacy and personal data in the web environment.

Informal care and the self-management partnership: implications for Australian health policy and practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Essue, Beverley M; Jowsey, Tanisha; Jeon, Yun-Hee; Mirzaei, Masoud; Pearce-Brown, Carmen L; Aspin, Clive; Usherwood, Tim P

2010-11-01

The Serious and Continuing Illness Policy and Practice Study (SCIPPS) aims to improve the care and support for patients with chronic illness and their family carers. Here we describe the carers' contribution to the self-management partnership and discuss the policy and practice implications that are relevant to improving the support available for informal care in Australia. A secondary analysis of SCIPPS data. Fourteen carers of patients between 45 and 85 years with chronic heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes were conveniently sampled from western Sydney and the Australian Capital Territory. Semi-structured interviews were conducted. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Key roles that carers perform in the self-management partnership included: home helper; lifestyle coach; advocate; technical care manager; and health information interpreter. Two negative consequences of juggling these roles included: self-neglect and conflict. Rigid eligibility criteria limit carers' access to essential support programs which underestimates and undervalues their contributions to the self-management partnership. Support services should focus on the development of practical skills to perform the caregiving roles. In addition, health professionals require support to work more effectively with carers to minimise the conflict that can overshadow the care and self-management partnership.

A Literature Review of Homelessness and Aging: Suggestions for a Policy and Practice-Relevant Research Agenda.

Science.gov (United States)

Grenier, Amanda; Barken, Rachel; Sussman, Tamara; Rothwell, David; Bourgeois-Guérin, Valérie; Lavoie, Jean-Pierre

2016-03-01

Homelessness among older people is a growing concern across Canada and is expected to rise with demographic change (Crane & Warnes, 2010; Culhane, Metraux, Byrne, Stino, & Bainbridge, 2013). Yet current knowledge, policies, and practices on homelessness largely focus on younger populations. Likewise, research and policies on aging typically overlook homelessness. Responses to homelessness among older people must address complex needs related to health, income security, and housing. Based on a comprehensive literature review, this article outlines the existing and needed research with regards to homelessness among older people. We clarify the intersections of aging and homelessness; review the relevant statistics, including estimated prevalence; discuss pathways and variations in experience; and identify gaps in knowledge. We conclude with a call for an inclusive research agenda that will help build policies and practices to reduce and ultimately to eliminate homelessness among older people in Canada.

the effect of current and relevant information sources on the use

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Admin

reported similar findings at Yaba College of. Technology, Lagos. However, in a ... values. In other words, current information sources resulted in the use of the library. Jam (1992) identified lack of relevant information sources to be one of the problems facing library users and has ... Bachelor's degree holders. That those with.

Evidence Informed Policy Network (EVIPNet) for Better Health ...

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

Research results have no value unless they are made available for due consideration by practitioners and policymakers. Scientific articles are not enough. There is need to package research results for a wider audience and to insure that the flow of information goes both ways, resulting in evidence-informed policy and ...

Task-Relevant Information Modulates Primary Motor Cortex Activity Before Movement Onset.

Science.gov (United States)

Calderon, Cristian B; Van Opstal, Filip; Peigneux, Philippe; Verguts, Tom; Gevers, Wim

2018-01-01

Monkey neurophysiology research supports the affordance competition hypothesis (ACH) proposing that cognitive information useful for action selection is integrated in sensorimotor areas. In this view, action selection would emerge from the simultaneous representation of competing action plans, in parallel biased by relevant task factors. This biased competition would take place up to primary motor cortex (M1). Although ACH is plausible in environments affording choices between actions, its relevance for human decision making is less clear. To address this issue, we designed an functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment modeled after monkey neurophysiology studies in which human participants processed cues conveying predictive information about upcoming button presses. Our results demonstrate that, as predicted by the ACH, predictive information (i.e., the relevant task factor) biases activity of primary motor regions. Specifically, first, activity before movement onset in contralateral M1 increases as the competition is biased in favor of a specific button press relative to activity in ipsilateral M1. Second, motor regions were more tightly coupled with fronto-parietal regions when competition between potential actions was high, again suggesting that motor regions are also part of the biased competition network. Our findings support the idea that action planning dynamics as proposed in the ACH are valid both in human and non-human primates.

Endogenous information, adverse selection, and prevention: Implications for genetic testing policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Peter, Richard; Richter, Andreas; Thistle, Paul

2017-09-01

We examine public policy toward the use of genetic information by insurers. Individuals engage in unobservable primary prevention and have access to different prevention technologies. Thus, insurance markets are affected by moral hazard and adverse selection. Individuals can choose to take a genetic test to acquire information about their prevention technology. Information has positive decision-making value, that is, individuals may adjust their behavior based on the result of the test. However, testing also exposes individuals to uncertainty over the available insurance contract, so-called classification risk, which lowers the value of information. In our analysis we distinguish between four different policy regimes, determine the value of information under each regime and associated equilibrium outcomes on the insurance market. We show that the policy regimes can be Pareto ranked, with a duty to disclose being the preferred regime and an information ban the least preferred one. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Relevant Information and Informed Consent in Research: In Defense of the Subjective Standard of Disclosure.

Science.gov (United States)

Dranseika, Vilius; Piasecki, Jan; Waligora, Marcin

2017-02-01

In this article, we seek to contribute to the debate on the requirement of disclosure in the context of informed consent for research. We defend the subjective standard of disclosure and describe ways to implement this standard in research practice. We claim that the researcher should make an effort to find out what kinds of information are likely to be relevant for those consenting to research. This invites researchers to take empirical survey information seriously, attempt to understand the cultural context, talk to patients to be better able to understand what can be potentially different concerns and interests prevalent in the target population. The subjective standard of disclosure should be seen as a moral ideal that perhaps can never be perfectly implemented but still can and should be used as a normative ideal guiding research practice. In the light of these discussions, we call for more empirical research on what considerations are likely to be perceived as relevant by potential research participants recruited from different socio-economic and cultural groups.

Goodnip - Good Practices in Nordic Innovation Policies. Part 3

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Søren Christrup; Edwards, Kasper; Pedersen, Jørgen Lindgaard

This report 3 is essentially a reference book for innovation policies in the Nordic countries and includes presentations of the innovation policy governance structures of teh Nordic countries. There are summaries of relevant policy documents, datasheets presenting selected innovation policy measu...... measures and an extended list of policy measures that goes beyond teh ones presented in teh datasheet section. For more information see the GoodNIP web site at http://www.step.no/goodnip...

77 FR 42339 - Improving Contracting Officers' Access to Relevant Integrity Information

Science.gov (United States)

2012-07-18

... contracting officers' access to relevant information about contractor business ethics in the Federal Awardee... ability to evaluate the business ethics of prospective contractors and protect the Government from...

The Common Body of Knowledge: A Framework to Promote Relevant Information Security Research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kenneth J. Knapp

2007-03-01

Full Text Available This study proposes using an established common body of knowledge (CBK as one means of organizing information security literature.  Consistent with calls for more relevant information systems (IS research, this industry-developed framework can motivate future research towards topics that are important to the security practitioner.  In this review, forty-eight articles from ten IS journals from 1995 to 2004 are selected and cross-referenced to the ten domains of the information security CBK.  Further, we distinguish articles as empirical research, frameworks, or tutorials.  Generally, this study identified a need for additional empirical research in every CBK domain including topics related to legal aspects of information security.  Specifically, this study identified a need for additional IS security research relating to applications development, physical security, operations security, and business continuity.  The CBK framework is inherently practitioner oriented and using it will promote relevancy by steering IS research towards topics important to practitioners.  This is important considering the frequent calls by prominent information systems scholars for more relevant research.  Few research frameworks have emerged from the literature that specifically classify the diversity of security threats and range of problems that businesses today face.  With the recent surge of interest in security, the need for a comprehensive framework that also promotes relevant research can be of great value.

From DTCA-PD to patient information to health information: the complex politics and semantics of EU health policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Brooks, Eleanor; Geyer, Robert

2012-12-01

Between 2001 and 2011 the pharmaceutical industry, supported by DG Enterprise, was engaged in an ongoing campaign to repeal/amend the European Union (EU) ban on direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs (DTCA-PD). As it became increasingly clear that the ban would not be repealed, DTCA-PD supporters tried to shift the debate away from advertising and towards the provision of 'patient information' and the rights of patients to access such information. Meanwhile, a variety of national and European health organizations, supported by DG SANCO, sought to maintain the ban and oppose the industry-supported 'patient information' campaign. Instead, they promoted a concept of 'health information' that included all aspects of citizens' health, not just pharmaceuticals. This article aims to analyse the transition from DTCA-PD to patient information to health information and examine its implications for EU health policy as a complex policy space. The article examines the emergence and development of EU health policy and the evolution of the DTCA-PD debate through the lens of complexity theory. It analyses the nature of the semantic, political and policy transition and asks why it occurred, what it tells us about EU health policy and future EU health legislation and how it may be understood from a complexity perspective. The article concludes that the complexity framework is ideally suited for the field of public health and, in particular, the DTCA-PD debate. Having successfully shifted the policy-focus of the debate to patients' rights and health information, opponents of the legislation are likely to face their next battle in the realm of cyberspace, where regulatory issues change the nature of advertising. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Energy for climate in Europe. An assessment of energy policies with climate-relevance. The LinkS Project.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ruud, Audun; Knudsen, Joergen K.; Jacobsen, Gerd B.

2011-07-01

The LinkS project aims at providing a better linkage between perspectives and projections for global climate policy development and regional energy systems, by linking relevant modelling tools. The present report provides a specific focus on energy policy measures within the EY with climate relevance. The EU has in recent years aimed at reinforcing the linkage between the climate and energy policies, both at strategic and operational levels. The EU has pledged itself to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with 8 percent by 2008-12 as compared to the 1990 level, and by 20 percent by 2020 as compared to the as compared to the 2005 level. The EU-27 reduced it GHG emissions with 11,3 percent in 1990-2008. The 2020-target, however, will require stronger efforts and energy is a key sector: The EU has decided that 20 percent of the energy must be renewable, and that the energy usage in 2020 is to be 20 per sent more efficient than in 2005. A number of policy strategies, measures and legislation are formulated to fulfil these targets. In order to highlight the potential of these measures, this report specifically addresses the drivers and limitations given the existing decision-making structures in the EU. The methodology employed is mainly qualitative, based on document analysis and a review of secondary literature. Climate-change mitigation is in principle based on supra-national decision-making, but unanimity among all Eu Member States is still required in critical issues related to the energy sector. In addition, the national follow-up of the targets constitutes a particular challenge. This is here illustrated by the cases of Denmark and Norway. Energy policy is also substantially characterised by several conflicting interests between the Member States, resulting in diverging policy priorities. It is, therefore, an open question whether the EU will succeed in fulfilling its 20/20/20 percent targets by 2020, and will be the actual role of energy within the climate

Social Welfare Policy in an Information Age: New Vision or More of the Same?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John G. McNutt

2005-05-01

Full Text Available As we move into the 21st Century, the social policy enterprise stands as the nexus between technological, political and social forces that will undermine the base that contemporary programs and policies depend upon. Assumptions about work and the workforce, the nature of governance and the role of technology will radically change. If our social welfare system is to remain relevant, changes will be needed. This paper explores these changing systems and examines how they will influence the current system. It will also speculate on the types of changes that will be necessary if social welfare is to remain relevant to the society of the future.

Unification of Information Security Policies for Network Security Solutions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D.S. Chernyavskiy

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Diversity of command languages on network security solutions’ (NSS interfaces causes problems in a process of information security policy (ISP deployment. Unified model for security policy representation and implementation in NSS could aid to avoid such problems and consequently enhance efficiency of the process. The proposed solution is Unified language for network security policy (ULNSP. The language is based on formal languages theory, and being coupled with its translator, ULNSP makes it possible to formalize and implement ISP independently of particular NSS.

THE RELEVANCE OF ECONOMIC INFORMATION IN ANALYZING THE ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

PATRUTA MIRCEA IOAN

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The performance analysis is based on an informational system, which provides financial information in various formatsand with various applicabilities.We intend to formulate a set of important caracteristics of financial information along with identifying a set of relevant financial rates and indicatorsused to appreciate the performance level of a company. Economic performance can be interpreted in different ways at each level of analysis. Generally, it refers to economic growth, increased productivity and profitability. The growth of labor productivity or increased production per worker is a measure of efficient use of resources in value creation.

76 FR 49459 - Notice of Proposed Information Collection Requests

Science.gov (United States)

2011-08-10

... countries review current policy and develop informed education policy by providing accurate and relevant... feedback; teachers' instructional beliefs and pedagogical practices; school climate and ethos; [[Page 49460...

Pengaruh Participation Budgeting, Information Asimetry dan Job Relevant Information terhadap Budget Slack pada Institusi Pendidikan (Studi pada Institusi Pendidikan Universitas Kristen Maranatha)

OpenAIRE

K. S., Christine Dwi; Agustina, Lidya

2010-01-01

The purpose of this research is to analyze and examine the hyphothesis effect of participation budgeting on job relevant information and  information asimetry as a moderating variable , and effect of participation budgeting and information asimetry on budget slack and job relevant information as mediating varible. The respondent of this research are 30 structural staf of program and ministry in Maranatha Christian University who have participated to make  budgeting. This method that...

Income inequality: Implications and relevant economic policies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arestis Philip

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this contribution is to discuss closely the implications of income inequality and the economic policies to tackle it, especially so in view of inequality being one of the main causes of the 2007/2008 international financial crisis and the “great recession” that subsequently emerged. Wealth inequality is also important in this respect, but the focus is on income inequality. Ever since the financial crisis and the subsequent “great recession”, inequality of income, and wealth, has increased and the demand for economic policy initiatives to produce a more equal distribution of income and wealth has become more urgent. Such reduction would help to increase the level of economic activity as has been demonstrated again more recently. A number of economic policy initiatives for this purpose will be the focus of this contribution.

Impact of Asymmetric Carbon Information on Supply Chain Decisions under Low-Carbon Policies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lei Yang

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Through the establishment of the leading manufacturer Stackelberg game model under asymmetric carbon information, this paper investigates the misreporting behaviors of the supply chain members and their influences on supply chain performance. Based on “Benchmarking” allocation mechanism, three policies are considered: carbon emission trading, carbon tax, and a new policy which combined carbon quota and carbon tax mechanism. The results show that, in the three models, the leader in the supply chain, even if he has advantages of carbon information, will not lie about his information. That is because the manufacturer’s misreporting behavior has no effect on supply chain members’ performance. But the retailer will lie about the information when he has carbon information advantage. The high-carbon-emission retailers under the carbon trading policy, all the retailers under the carbon tax policy, and the high-carbon-emission retailers under combined quotas and tax policy would like to understate their carbon emissions. Coordination of revenue sharing contract is studied in supply chain to induce the retailer to declare his real carbon information. Optimal contractual parameters are deduced in the three models, under which the profit of the supply chain can be maximized.

Monitoring the Carbon Cycle: Improving Our Ability to Proved Policy Relevant Information

Science.gov (United States)

Bruhwiler, L.

2017-12-01

Humans have altered the energy balance of the climate system mainly by producing and consuming fossil fuels, but also by emissions from food production. Manufacture and use of halocarbons, many of which are also strong greenhouse gases (GHGs) have added to anthropogenic radiative forcing. In response, the global atmosphere has warmed over the last half century at a rate of 0.17°C. The largest contribution to radiative forcing is due to CO2, and at present, about half of all anthropogenic CO2 emissions have been taken up by the oceans and terrestrial biosphere. The size of this "carbon emission discount" may change in the future as more carbon accumulates in the oceans, as human alter landscapes, and as climate changes. Efforts to limit global average temperature increases to 2°C and avoid the most catastrophic consequences of climate change depend on keeping track of both human emissions of greenhouse gases and changes in natural fluxes of carbon and nitrogen that occur in response to human activities and changing climate. Global in situ network observations provide information about changes in global GHG abundances over recent decades, as well as changing distributions between hemispheres. This information gives insight into changes in global and hemispheric sources and sinks of GHGs. It is, however, currently difficult to obtain robust information about regional sources and to discriminate between natural and anthropogenic fluxes. Information about regional sources is needed for GHG policymaking, while discrimination of natural sources is necessary for detection of trends in GHG fluxes and evaluation of coupled carbon cycle climate models. Although column average GHG abundances from space-based remote sensing data could provide considerable constraints on GHG budgets, there are still technical challenges to be overcome. Possible strategies for making progress involve greater increased observational coverage and more international collaboration, as well as

Age Differences in Attention toward Decision-Relevant Information: Education Matters

Science.gov (United States)

Xing, Cai; Isaacowitz, Derek

2011-01-01

Previous studies suggested that older adults are more likely to engage in heuristic decision-making than young adults. This study used eye tracking technique to examine young adults' and highly educated older adults' attention toward two types of decision-relevant information: heuristic cue vs. factual cues. Surprisingly, highly educated older…

Information System Security: Army Web Site Administration, Policies, and Practices

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

2002-01-01

.... The Policy requires heads of DoD Components to establish a process to identify appropriate information for posting to Web sites and to review all information placed on publicly accessible Web sites...

The pricing relevance of insider information; Die Preiserheblichkeit von Insiderinformationen

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kruse, Dominik

2011-07-01

The publication attempts to describe the so far discussion concerning the feature of pricing relevance and to develop it further with the aid of new research approaches. First, a theoretical outline is presented of the elementary regulation problem of insider trading, its historical development, and the regulation goals of the WpHG. This is followed by an analysis of the concrete specifications of the law. In view of the exemplarity of US law, a country with long experience in regulation of the capital market, the materiality doctrine of US insider law is gone into in some detail. The goals and development of the doctrine are reviewed in the light of court rulings. The third part outlines the requirements of German law in order to forecast the pricing relevance of insider information, while the final part presents a critical review of the current regulations on pricing relevance. (orig./RHM)

Spatially Compact Neural Clusters in the Dorsal Striatum Encode Locomotion Relevant Information.

Science.gov (United States)

Barbera, Giovanni; Liang, Bo; Zhang, Lifeng; Gerfen, Charles R; Culurciello, Eugenio; Chen, Rong; Li, Yun; Lin, Da-Ting

2016-10-05

An influential striatal model postulates that neural activities in the striatal direct and indirect pathways promote and inhibit movement, respectively. Normal behavior requires coordinated activity in the direct pathway to facilitate intended locomotion and indirect pathway to inhibit unwanted locomotion. In this striatal model, neuronal population activity is assumed to encode locomotion relevant information. Here, we propose a novel encoding mechanism for the dorsal striatum. We identified spatially compact neural clusters in both the direct and indirect pathways. Detailed characterization revealed similar cluster organization between the direct and indirect pathways, and cluster activities from both pathways were correlated with mouse locomotion velocities. Using machine-learning algorithms, cluster activities could be used to decode locomotion relevant behavioral states and locomotion velocity. We propose that neural clusters in the dorsal striatum encode locomotion relevant information and that coordinated activities of direct and indirect pathway neural clusters are required for normal striatal controlled behavior. VIDEO ABSTRACT. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Changing Zaire to Congo: the fate of no-longer relevant mnemonic information.

Science.gov (United States)

Eriksson, Johan; Stiernstedt, Mikael; Öhlund, Maria; Nyberg, Lars

2014-11-01

In an ever-changing world there is constant pressure on revising long-term memory, such when people or countries change name. What happens to the old, pre-existing information? One possibility is that old associations gradually are weakened and eventually lost. Alternatively, old and no longer relevant information may still be an integral part of memory traces. To test the hypothesis that old mnemonic information still becomes activated when people correctly retrieve new, currently relevant information, brain activity was measured with fMRI while participants performed a cued-retrieval task. Paired associates (symbol-sound and symbol-face pairs) were first learned during two days. Half of the associations were then updated during the next two days, followed by fMRI scanning on day 5 and also 18 months later. As expected, retrieval reactivated sensory cortex related to the most recently learned association (visual cortex for symbol-face pairs, auditory cortex for symbol-sound pairs). Critically, retrieval also reactivated sensory cortex related to the no-longer relevant associate. Eighteen months later, only non-updated symbol-face associations were intact. Intriguingly, a subset of the updated associations was now treated as though the original association had taken over, in that memory performance was significantly worse than chance and that activity in sensory cortex for the original but not the updated associate correlated (negatively) with performance. Moreover, the degree of "residual" reactivation during day 5 inversely predicted memory performance 18 months later. Thus, updating of long-term memory involves adding new information to already existing networks, in which old information can stay resilient for a long time. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Policy for Rural ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Policy for Rural Community ... It is against this background that the Nigerian Government has formulated ... The desire is there, the awareness has been created but the will power to budget ...

Assimilation of tourism satellite accounts and applied general equilibrium models to inform tourism policy analysis

OpenAIRE

Rossouw, Riaan; Saayman, Melville

2011-01-01

Historically, tourism policy analysis in South Africa has posed challenges to accurate measurement. The primary reason for this is that tourism is not designated as an 'industry' in standard economic accounts. This paper therefore demonstrates the relevance and need for applied general equilibrium (AGE) models to be completed and extended through an integration with tourism satellite accounts (TSAs) as a tool for policy makers (especially tourism policy makers) in South Africa. The paper sets...

The temporal-relevance temporal-uncertainty model of prospective duration judgment.

Science.gov (United States)

Zakay, Dan

2015-12-15

A model aimed at explaining prospective duration judgments in real life settings (as well as in the laboratory) is presented. The model is based on the assumption that situational meaning is continuously being extracted by humans' perceptual and cognitive information processing systems. Time is one of the important dimensions of situational meaning. Based on the situational meaning, a value for Temporal Relevance is set. Temporal Relevance reflects the importance of temporal aspects for enabling adaptive behavior in a specific moment in time. When Temporal Relevance is above a certain threshold a prospective duration judgment process is evoked automatically. In addition, a search for relevant temporal information is taking place and its outcomes determine the level of Temporal Uncertainty which reflects the degree of knowledge one has regarding temporal aspects of the task to be performed. The levels of Temporal Relevance and Temporal Uncertainty determine the amount of attentional resources allocated for timing by the executive system. The merit of the model is in connecting timing processes with the ongoing general information processing stream. The model rests on findings in various domains which indicate that cognitive-relevance and self-relevance are powerful determinants of resource allocation policy. The feasibility of the model is demonstrated by analyzing various temporal phenomena. Suggestions for further empirical validation of the model are presented. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Climate change science and the development of environment/energy policies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bernabo, J.C.

1994-01-01

For the past decade climate research in the US has focused on long-term-understanding of earth systems rather than addressing the more immediate information needs of decision makers, such as information on impacts and solutions. During the Bush Administration, the primary objective was to determine if there was a problem, with little emphasis on developing information on what to do about the issue. The Clinton Administration is trying to refocus research to assist more effectively in decision making. This reevaluation is part of the post-Cold War shift toward funding federal research based more explicitly on the relevancy to societal needs. The Joint Climate Project to Address Decision Makers' Uncertainties was sponsored by EPRI, DOE, DOI, EPA, USDA, and USFS to assess what information is most relevant for decision making and how research could address those needs. The results of this stakeholders' needs assessment are being used to help reorient the federal program. Decision makers' priorities include greater emphasis on impacts and responses. More work is required in the ecological and social sciences to provide information for policy making. Researchers periodically need to provide interim information and policy-relevant assessments while continuing to improve long-term scientific understanding

How Long Should Routine EEG Be Recorded to Get Relevant Information?

Science.gov (United States)

Doudoux, Hannah; Skaare, Kristina; Geay, Thomas; Kahane, Philippe; Bosson, Jean L; Sabourdy, Cécile; Vercueil, Laurent

2017-03-01

The optimal duration of routine EEG (rEEG) has not been determined on a clinical basis. This study aims to determine the time required to obtain relevant information during rEEG with respect to the clinical request. All rEEGs performed over 3 months in unselected patients older than 14 years in an academic hospital were analyzed retrospectively. The latency required to obtain relevant information was determined for each rEEG by 2 independent readers blinded to the clinical data. EEG final diagnoses and latencies were analyzed with respect to the main clinical requests: subacute cognitive impairment, spells, transient focal neurologic manifestation or patients referred by epileptologists. From 430 rEEGs performed in the targeted period, 364 were analyzed: 92% of the pathological rEEGs were provided within the first 10 minutes of recording. Slowing background activity was diagnosed from the beginning, whereas interictal epileptiform discharges were recorded over time. Moreover, the time elapsed to demonstrate a pattern differed significantly in the clinical groups: in patients with subacute cognitive impairment, EEG abnormalities appeared within the first 10 minutes, whereas in the other groups, data could be provided over time. Patients with subacute cognitive impairment differed from those in the other groups significantly in the elapsed time required to obtain relevant information during rEEG, suggesting that 10-minute EEG recordings could be sufficient, arguing in favor of individualized rEEG. However, this conclusion does not apply to intensive care unit patients.

The Economic Value of Personal Information and Policy Implication

OpenAIRE

Kim, Jiin; Nam, Changi; Kim, Seongcheol

2015-01-01

Personal information is essential in an information-oriented society for societal development and as a valuable business resource. However, because of poor management and a lack of proper protection, leakage of personal information can take place over time, and the standard for compensation is not well established. In order to establish appropriate policies for its protection, we need to know the economic value of personal information. Using conjoint analysis, we analyze the potential value o...

Knowledge exchange in the Pacific: The TROPIC (Translational Research into Obesity Prevention Policies for Communities) project

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

Background Policies targeting obesogenic environments and behaviours are critical to counter rising obesity rates and lifestyle-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Policies are likely to be most effective and enduring when they are based on the best available evidence. Evidence-informed policy making is especially challenging in countries with limited resources. The Pacific TROPIC (Translational Research for Obesity Prevention in Communities) project aims to implement and evaluate a tailored knowledge-brokering approach to evidence-informed policy making to address obesity in Fiji, a Pacific nation challenged by increasingly high rates of obesity and concomitant NCDs. Methods The TROPIC project draws on the concept of ‘knowledge exchange’ between policy developers (individuals; organisations) and researchers to deliver a knowledge broking programme that maps policy environments, conducts workshops on evidence-informed policy making, supports the development of evidence-informed policy briefs, and embeds evidence-informed policy making into organisational culture. Recruitment of government and nongovernment organisational representatives will be based on potential to: develop policies relevant to obesity, reach broad audiences, and commit to resourcing staff and building a culture that supports evidence-informed policy development. Workshops will increase awareness of both obesity and policy cycles, as well as develop participants’ skills in accessing, assessing and applying relevant evidence to policy briefs. The knowledge-broking team will then support participants to: 1) develop evidence-informed policy briefs that are both commensurate with national and organisational plans and also informed by evidence from the Pacific Obesity Prevention in Communities project and elsewhere; and 2) collaborate with participating organisations to embed evidence-informed policy making structures and processes. This knowledge broking initiative will be evaluated via

Improving access to skilled attendance at delivery: a policy brief for Uganda.

Science.gov (United States)

Nabudere, Harriet; Asiimwe, Delius; Amandua, Jacinto

2013-04-01

This study describes the process of production, findings for a policy brief on Increasing Access to Skilled Birth Attendance, and subsequent use of the report by policy makers and others from the health sector in Uganda. The methods used to prepare the policy brief use the SUPPORT Tools for evidence-informed health policy making. The problem that this evidence brief addresses was identified through an explicit priority setting process involving policy makers and other stakeholders, further clarification with key informant interviews of relevant policy makers, and review of relevant documents. A working group of national stakeholder representatives and external reviewers commented on and contributed to successive drafts of the report. Research describing the problem, policy options, and implementation considerations was identified by reviewing government documents, routinely collected data, electronic literature searches, contact with key informants, and reviewing the reference lists of relevant documents that were retrieved. The proportion of pregnant women delivering from public and private non-profit facilities was low at 34 percent in 2008/09. The three policy options discussed in the report could be adopted independently or complementary to the other to increase access to skilled care. The Ministry of Health in deliberating to provide intrapartum care at first level health facilities from the second level of care, requested for research evidence to support these decisions. Maternal waiting shelters and working with the private-for-profit sector to facilitate deliveries in health facilities are promising complementary interventions that have been piloted in both the public and private health sector. A combination of strategies is needed to effectively implement the proposed options as discussed further in this article. The policy brief report was used as a background document for two stakeholder dialogue meetings involving members of parliament, policy makers

機構典藏相關政策之探討 A Study on Relevant Policies for Institutional Repositories

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ching-Chun Lo

2005-12-01

Full Text Available 本研究旨在探討制定機構典藏政策的相關議題，藉由文獻探討瞭解國際之研究與發展現況，並透過內容分析法分析國外54所大學所制定之機構典藏政策內容，據以製作問卷，於訪談國內12所大學圖書館同時進行調查，期能瞭解國內大學對典藏政策制定之相關意見，並根據調查與研究結果，對國內未來發展機構典藏及制定政策提出結論與建議。This research aims to investigate the relevant policies for Institutional Repositories (IRs. According to literature review, the international research and development are also investigated. In addition, by utilizing content analysis method, 54 foreign universities are studied for their policies of IRs. Simultaneous questionnaire survey and interview are conducted with 12 university libraries in Taiwan, to better understand the recent development of IRs, and to get some feedback on the policy issues. Finally, according to these results, conclusion and suggestion are made for the future development and relevant policies for IRs.

Earlier saccades to task-relevant targets irrespective of relative gain between peripheral and foveal information.

Science.gov (United States)

Wolf, Christian; Schütz, Alexander C

2017-06-01

Saccades bring objects of interest onto the fovea for high-acuity processing. Saccades to rewarded targets show shorter latencies that correlate negatively with expected motivational value. Shorter latencies are also observed when the saccade target is relevant for a perceptual discrimination task. Here we tested whether saccade preparation is equally influenced by informational value as it is by motivational value. We defined informational value as the probability that information is task-relevant times the ratio between postsaccadic foveal and presaccadic peripheral discriminability. Using a gaze-contingent display, we independently manipulated peripheral and foveal discriminability of the saccade target. Latencies of saccades with perceptual task were reduced by 36 ms in general, but they were not modulated by the information saccades provide (Experiments 1 and 2). However, latencies showed a clear negative linear correlation with the probability that the target is task-relevant (Experiment 3). We replicated that the facilitation by a perceptual task is spatially specific and not due to generally heightened arousal (Experiment 4). Finally, the facilitation only emerged when the perceptual task is in the visual but not in the auditory modality (Experiment 5). Taken together, these results suggest that saccade latencies are not equally modulated by informational value as by motivational value. The facilitation by a perceptual task only arises when task-relevant visual information is foveated, irrespective of whether the foveation is useful or not.

Measuring Efficacy of Information Security Policies : A Case Study of UAE based company

OpenAIRE

Qureshi, Muhammad Sohail

2012-01-01

Nowadays information security policies are operative in many organizations. Currently few organizations take the pain of verifying the efficacy of these policies. Different standards and procedures exist about methods of measuring efficacy of information security policies. Choosing and implementing them depends mainly on the key performance indicators (KPIs) and key risk indicators (KRIs) of any particular organization. This thesis is a case study of an organization in United Arab Emirates (U...

Making robust policy decisions using global biodiversity indicators.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emily Nicholson

Full Text Available In order to influence global policy effectively, conservation scientists need to be able to provide robust predictions of the impact of alternative policies on biodiversity and measure progress towards goals using reliable indicators. We present a framework for using biodiversity indicators predictively to inform policy choices at a global level. The approach is illustrated with two case studies in which we project forwards the impacts of feasible policies on trends in biodiversity and in relevant indicators. The policies are based on targets agreed at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD meeting in Nagoya in October 2010. The first case study compares protected area policies for African mammals, assessed using the Red List Index; the second example uses the Living Planet Index to assess the impact of a complete halt, versus a reduction, in bottom trawling. In the protected areas example, we find that the indicator can aid in decision-making because it is able to differentiate between the impacts of the different policies. In the bottom trawling example, the indicator exhibits some counter-intuitive behaviour, due to over-representation of some taxonomic and functional groups in the indicator, and contrasting impacts of the policies on different groups caused by trophic interactions. Our results support the need for further research on how to use predictive models and indicators to credibly track trends and inform policy. To be useful and relevant, scientists must make testable predictions about the impact of global policy on biodiversity to ensure that targets such as those set at Nagoya catalyse effective and measurable change.

Proactive Support of Internet Browsing when Searching for Relevant Health Information.

Science.gov (United States)

Rurik, Clas; Zowalla, Richard; Wiesner, Martin; Pfeifer, Daniel

2015-01-01

Many people use the Internet as one of the primary sources of health information. This is due to the high volume and easy access of freely available information regarding diseases, diagnoses and treatments. However, users may find it difficult to retrieve information which is easily understandable and does not require a deep medical background. In this paper, we present a new kind of Web browser add-on, in order to proactively support users when searching for relevant health information. Our add-on not only visualizes the understandability of displayed medical text but also provides further recommendations of Web pages which hold similar content but are potentially easier to comprehend.

The Limitations of Quantitative Social Science for Informing Public Policy

Science.gov (United States)

Jerrim, John; de Vries, Robert

2017-01-01

Quantitative social science (QSS) has the potential to make an important contribution to public policy. However it also has a number of limitations. The aim of this paper is to explain these limitations to a non-specialist audience and to identify a number of ways in which QSS research could be improved to better inform public policy.

Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN)

Science.gov (United States)

site. IABIN Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN) OAS » SEDI » DSD » IABIN IABIN GEF Logo inbio natserve usgs polpar wcm The Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN , and use of biodiversity information relevant to policy and decision-making on natural resources

Prioritising the relevant information for learning and decision making within orbital and ventromedial prefrontal cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Walton, Mark E; Chau, Bolton K H; Kennerley, Steven W

2015-02-01

Our environment and internal states are frequently complex, ambiguous and dynamic, meaning we need to have selection mechanisms to ensure we are basing our decisions on currently relevant information. Here, we review evidence that orbitofrontal (OFC) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) play conserved, critical but distinct roles in this process. While OFC may use specific sensory associations to enhance task-relevant information, particularly in the context of learning, VMPFC plays a role in ensuring irrelevant information does not impinge on the decision in hand.

A Parallel Relational Database Management System Approach to Relevance Feedback in Information Retrieval.

Science.gov (United States)

Lundquist, Carol; Frieder, Ophir; Holmes, David O.; Grossman, David

1999-01-01

Describes a scalable, parallel, relational database-drive information retrieval engine. To support portability across a wide range of execution environments, all algorithms adhere to the SQL-92 standard. By incorporating relevance feedback algorithms, accuracy is enhanced over prior database-driven information retrieval efforts. Presents…

Book value, earnings, dividends, and audit quality on the value relevance of accounting information among Nigerian listed firms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammad Yusuf Alkali

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The objective of this paper is to determine the effect of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS as a new accounting reporting among Nigerian listed firms. This study uses book value, earnings and dividends to fill in the gap using a sample of 126 Nigerian listed firms in the stock market from 2009 to 2013 (pre and Post-IFRS adoption. Data was collected from Thompson Reuters, Bank scope DataStreams and annual reports. The study adopted Ohlson (1995 [Ohlson, J. (1995. Earnings, book-value, and dividends in equity valuation. Contemporary Accounting Research, 11(2, 661–687.] price model that has been frequently used in determining the quality of accounting information studies. The study finds that combined book value, earnings and dividends do not provide statistical significance effects on IFRS after adoption on the quality of accounting information. This could be possible, as dividends do not provide a significant effect in the presence of earnings. Furthermore, the audit big 4 quality provided an effect on the quality of accounting information because of IFRS adoption. Therefore, findings of this study provide additional literature on the decreasing quality of accounting information in an emerging market setting like Nigeria. The study implication is to the policy makers, regulators, and government that accounting information do not provide value relevance among Nigerian listed firms after IFRS adoption.

European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network Representatives' Conceptions of the Role of Information and Communication Technologies Related to National Guidance Policies

Science.gov (United States)

Kettunen, Jaana; Vuorinen, Raimo; Ruusuvirta, Outi

2016-01-01

This article reports findings from a phenomenographic investigation into European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network representatives' conceptions of the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) related to national lifelong guidance policies. The role of ICT in relation to national lifelong guidance policies was conceived as (1)…

Addressing the Challenges in Tonsillectomy Research to Inform Health Care Policy: A Review.

Science.gov (United States)

Mandavia, Rishi; Schilder, Anne G M; Dimitriadis, Panagiotis A; Mossialos, Elias

2017-09-01

Eighty-five percent of investment in medical research has been wasted, with lack of effect on clinical practice and policy. There is increasing effort to improve the likelihood of research being used to influence clinical practice and policy. Tonsillectomy is one of the most common otorhinolaryngologic surgical procedures, and its frequency, cost, and morbidity create a clear need for evidence-based guidelines and policy. The first systematic review on tonsillectomy was conducted 40 years ago and highlighted the lack of definitive evidence for the procedure. Since that study, the body of evidence has still not been able to sufficiently inform policy. This review provides an overview of the key challenges in research to inform tonsillectomy policy and recommendations to help bridge the evidence-policy gap. The challenges in using research to inform policy can be summarized as 4 main themes: (1) non-policy-focused evidence and lack of available evidence, (2) quality of evidence, (3) communication of research findings, and (4) coordinating time frames. Researchers and decision makers should be aware of the limitations of research designs and conflicts of interest that can undermine policy decisions. Researchers must work with decision makers and patients throughout the research process to identify areas of unmet need and political priority, align research and policy time frames, and disseminate research findings. Incentives for researchers should be reorganized to promote dissemination of findings. It is important to consider why evidence gaps in tonsillectomy research have not been addressed during the past 40 years despite considerable investment in time and resources. These findings and recommendations will help produce research that is more responsive to policy gaps and more likely to result in policy changes.

Bangladesh policy on prevention and control of non-communicable diseases: a policy analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Biswas, Tuhin; Pervin, Sonia; Tanim, Md Imtiaz Alam; Niessen, Louis; Islam, Anwar

2017-06-19

This paper is aimed at critically assessing the extent to which Non-Communicable Disease NCD-related policies introduced in Bangladesh align with the World Health Organization's (WHO) 2013-2020 Action Plan for the Global Strategy for the Prevention and Control of NCDs. The authors reviewed all relevant policy documents introduced by the Government of Bangladesh since its independence in 1971. The literature review targeted scientific and grey literature documents involving internet-based search, and expert consultation and snowballing to identify relevant policy documents. Information was extracted from the documents using a specific matrix, mapping each document against the six objectives of the WHO 2013-2020 Action Plan for the Global Strategy for the Prevention and Control of NCDs. A total of 51 documents were identified. Seven (14%) were research and/or surveys, nine were on established policies (17%), while seventeen (33%) were on action programmes. Five (10%) were related to guidelines and thirteen (25%) were strategic planning documents from government and non-government agencies/institutes. The study covered documents produced by the Government of Bangladesh as well as those by quasi-government and non-government organizations irrespective of the extent to which the intended policies were implemented. The policy analysis findings suggest that although the government has initiated many NCD-related policies or programs, they lacked proper planning, implementation and monitoring. Consequently, Bangladesh over the years had little success in effectively addressing the growing burden of non-communicable diseases. It is imperative that future research critically assess the effectiveness of national NCD policies by monitoring their implementation and level of population coverage.

An Exponential Increase in Regional Health Information Exchange With Collaborative Policies and Technologies.

Science.gov (United States)

Downing, N Lance; Lane, Steven; Eisenberg, Mathew; Sharp, Christopher; Palma, Jonathan; Longhurst, Christopher

2015-01-01

In the United States, the ability to securely exchange health information between organization has been limited by technical interoperability, patient identity matching, and variable institutional policies. Here, we examine the regional experience in a national health information exchange network by examining clinical data sharing between eleven Northern California organizations using the same health information exchange (HIE) platform between 2013-2014. We identify key policies and technologies that have led to a dramatic increase in health information exchange.

Impact of reserves information on formulating government policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ekelund, M.W.; Anderson, B.; Khan, M.; Hudson, B.

1997-01-01

Policies regarding the development and production of Alberta's mineral resources such as oil, gas, and bitumen, are developed by the Alberta Ministry of Energy. The Ministry is divided into the Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) and the Department of Energy. The EUB deals with conservation, production measurement and reporting, environmental issues and some public utility issues. The Department of Energy deals with determining the appropriate fiscal and tenure regimes, market effectiveness issues and collection of Alberta's share of production. Reserve estimates are used for policy development and implementation purposes. The impact of some doubts regarding the reliability of reserves information and its impact on provincial policy recommendations were highlighted. Examples were drawn from bitumen reserves determination in the Athabasca Oil Sands area, enhanced oil recovery programs within the conventional oil sector, and royalty formulation within the conventional oil and gas sectors

Video coding and decoding devices and methods preserving ppg relevant information

NARCIS (Netherlands)

2013-01-01

The present invention relates to a video encoding device (10) for encoding video data and a corresponding video decoding device, wherein during decoding PPG relevant information shall be preserved. For this purpose the video coding device (10) comprises a first encoder (20) for encoding input video

African communalism and public health policies: the relevance ofindigenous concepts of personal identity to HIV/AIDS policies in Botswana.

Science.gov (United States)

Jensen, Kipton; Gaie, Joseph Br

2010-09-01

This article explores the possible relevance of African communalism to HIV/AIDS policies in Botswana and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa. We examine various interpretations of African communalism, which many consider to be the cardinal insight of African thought. We suggest several applications of this indigenous notion of personhood to HIV prevention in general and to routine HIV-testing policies in particular. This analysis demonstrates some of the ethical dilemmas and cultural complexities inherent in designing as well as implementing effective HIV-prevention programmes that strike a conscientious balance between protecting individual freedoms and securing public health. Recovering past traditions (such as African conceptions of personal identity) is valuable not only for the purpose of self-identification but also for helping us meet the challenges and problems of today in Africa. We also suggest that the human-rights-based approach to HIV prevention, which strives to protect individuals, is possibly incompatible with the socio-ethical ideals espoused by African communalism. We conclude that public health programmes in Botswana and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa would be more effective if those who designed and implemented them possessed a better understanding of indigenous conceptions of personhood or human agency as well as existing ethno-medical beliefs and cultural practices.

Cannabis vaping and public health--some comments on relevance and implications.

Science.gov (United States)

Fischer, Benedikt; Russell, Cayley; Tyndall, Mark W

2015-11-01

Cannabis-vaping entails relevant but probably varied effects for public health: it may reduce certain cannabis use-related health risks, but entice cannabis-naive individuals into use due to "cleaner" imagery. Improved evidence is needed to guide informed and differentiated policies for cannabis-vaping, which emphasizes the urgent need for public health-based cannabis regulation.

Acoustic fine structure may encode biologically relevant information for zebra finches.

Science.gov (United States)

Prior, Nora H; Smith, Edward; Lawson, Shelby; Ball, Gregory F; Dooling, Robert J

2018-04-18

The ability to discriminate changes in the fine structure of complex sounds is well developed in birds. However, the precise limit of this discrimination ability and how it is used in the context of natural communication remains unclear. Here we describe natural variability in acoustic fine structure of male and female zebra finch calls. Results from psychoacoustic experiments demonstrate that zebra finches are able to discriminate extremely small differences in fine structure, which are on the order of the variation in acoustic fine structure that is present in their vocal signals. Results from signal analysis methods also suggest that acoustic fine structure may carry information that distinguishes between biologically relevant categories including sex, call type and individual identity. Combined, our results are consistent with the hypothesis that zebra finches can encode biologically relevant information within the fine structure of their calls. This study provides a foundation for our understanding of how acoustic fine structure may be involved in animal communication.

A Planetary Defense Gateway for Smart Discovery of relevant Information for Decision Support

Science.gov (United States)

Bambacus, Myra; Yang, Chaowei Phil; Leung, Ronald Y.; Barbee, Brent; Nuth, Joseph A.; Seery, Bernard; Jiang, Yongyao; Qin, Han; Li, Yun; Yu, Manzhu;

Information Policy and Social Media: Accept or Decline

Science.gov (United States)

Walster, Dian

2017-01-01

In this article I examine how intersections between information policy and social media affect professional ethics and instructional decision making as considered through the lens of professional development and continuing education. The discussion uses techniques from autoethnography such as personal narrative, figurative language and scenarios.…

Disseminating relevant health information to underserved audiences: implications of the Digital Divide Pilot Projects.

Science.gov (United States)

Kreps, Gary L

2005-10-01

This paper examines the influence of the digital divide on disparities in health outcomes for vulnerable populations, identifying implications for medical and public libraries. The paper describes the results of the Digital Divide Pilot Projects demonstration research programs funded by the National Cancer Institute to test new strategies for disseminating relevant health information to underserved and at-risk audiences. The Digital Divide Pilot Projects field-tested innovative systemic strategies for helping underserved populations access and utilize relevant health information to make informed health-related decisions about seeking appropriate health care and support, resisting avoidable and significant health risks, and promoting their own health. The paper builds on the Digital Divide Pilot Projects by identifying implications for developing health communication strategies that libraries can adopt to provide digital health information to vulnerable populations.

Video coding and decoding devices and methods preserving PPG relevant information

NARCIS (Netherlands)

2015-01-01

The present invention relates to a video encoding device (10, 10', 10") and method for encoding video data and to a corresponding video decoding device (60, 60') and method. To preserve PPG relevant information after encoding without requiring a large amount of additional data for the video encoder

Video coding and decoding devices and methods preserving ppg relevant information

NARCIS (Netherlands)

2013-01-01

The present invention relates to a video encoding device (10, 10', 10'') and method for encoding video data and to a corresponding video decoding device (60, 60') and method. To preserve PPG relevant information after encoding without requiring a large amount of additional data for the video encoder

Perceived relevance and information needs regarding food topics and preferred information sources among Dutch adults: results of a quantitative consumer study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dillen, van S.M.E.; Hiddink, G.J.; Koelen, M.A.; Graaf, de C.; Woerkum, van C.M.J.

2004-01-01

Objective: For more effective nutrition communication, it is crucial to identify sources from which consumers seek information. Our purpose was to assess perceived relevance and information needs regarding food topics, and preferred information sources by means of quantitative consumer research.

Using a trauma-informed policy approach to create a resilient urban food system.

Science.gov (United States)

Hecht, Amelie A; Biehl, Erin; Buzogany, Sarah; Neff, Roni A

2018-07-01

Food insecurity is associated with toxic stress and adverse long-term physical and mental health outcomes. It can be experienced chronically and also triggered or exacerbated by natural and human-made hazards that destabilize the food system. The Baltimore Food System Resilience Advisory Report was created to strengthen the resilience of the city's food system and improve short- and long-term food security. Recognizing food insecurity as a form of trauma, the report was developed using the principles of trauma-informed social policy. In the present paper, we examine how the report applied trauma-informed principles to policy development, discuss the challenges and benefits of using a trauma-informed approach, and provide recommendations for others seeking to create trauma-informed food policy. Report recommendations were developed based on: semi-structured interviews with food system stakeholders; input from community members at outreach events; a literature review; Geographic Information System mapping; and other analyses. The present paper explores findings from the stakeholder interviews. Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Baltimore food system stakeholders stratified by two informant categories: organizations focused on promoting food access (n 13) and community leaders (n 12). Stakeholder interviews informed the recommendations included in the report and supported the idea that chronic and acute food insecurity are experienced as trauma in the Baltimore community. Applying a trauma-informed approach to the development of the Baltimore Food System Resilience Advisory Report contributed to policy recommendations that were community-informed and designed to lessen the traumatic impact of food insecurity.

Teaching Information Policy in the Digital Age: Issues, Strategies, and Innovation

Science.gov (United States)

Jaeger, Paul T.; Gorham, Ursula; Taylor, Natalie Greene; Bertot, John C.

2015-01-01

As technology continues to advance at a rapid rate, it is increasingly important to consider how information policies are formulated and the impact that they have on both the public's access to information and the roles of information professionals. As such, current and future information professionals must be adequately prepared through education…

Expanding Protection Motivation Theory: The Role of Individual Experience in Information Security Policy Compliance

Science.gov (United States)

Mutchler, Leigh Ann

2012-01-01

The purpose of the present study is to make contributions to the area of behavioral information security in the field of Information Systems and to assist in the improved development of Information Security Policy instructional programs to increase the policy compliance of individuals. The role of an individual's experience in the context of…

Internationalisation of information services for publishers' open access policies: the DINI multilingual integration layer

Science.gov (United States)

Scholze, Frank

2008-01-01

It is essential for the strategy of open access self-archiving that scientific authors are given comprehensive information on publisher copyright policies. DINI, the German Initiative for Networked Information, has developed a German (and potentially multilingual) interface to the English SHERPA/RoMEO service to provide additional information on German publishers' open access policies. As a next step, this interface was enhanced to an integration layer combining different sources on publisher copyright policies. This integration layer can be used in many different contexts. Together with the SHERPA/RoMEO team, DINI aims to build an international support structure for open access information. PMID:18662383

Innovation system approach to agricultural development: Policy ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Several other relevant macro economic and meso level factors such as policy and legislative framework and nature of human capital, physical infrastructure, finance and investment climate and system for facilitating information and knowledge flows were not considered as important. The emerging reforms and changes in

Informing principal policy reforms in South Africa through data-based evidence

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gabrielle Wills

2015-12-01

Full Text Available In the past decade there has been a notable shift in South African education policy that raises the value of school leadership as a lever for learning improvements. Despite a growing discourse on school leadership, there has been a lack of empirical based evidence on principals to inform, validate or debate the efficacy of proposed policies in raising the calibre of school principals. Drawing on findings from a larger study to understand the labour market for school principals in South Africa, this paper highlights four overarching characteristics of this market with implications for informing principal policy reforms. The paper notes that improving the design and implementation of policies guiding the appointment process for principals is a matter of urgency. A substantial and increasing number of principal replacements are taking place across South African schools given a rising age profile of school principals. In a context of low levels of principal mobility and high tenure, the leadership trajectory of the average school is established for nearly a decade with each principal replacement. Evidence-based policy making has a strong role to play in getting this right.

Key Informant Views of a Free Delivery and Caesarean Policy in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Erah

The policy was introduced in 2005 in five more deprived regions ... informants who had technical and administrative or political responsibility for the policy at .... the first year of leadership from the ..... rhetoric of free services and the reality of .... augmented to include the materials to ..... mothers and children in Bolivia.

The Peruvian Congress: Public Policies and Informal Influence over the Bureaucracy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Enrique Patriau

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The Peruvian Constitution grants presidents the power to participate in the policy making process. At the same time, the Peruvian Congress is considered to lack the technical and professional ability to fully participate in such a process. However, such analysis neglects the influence that the Congress can exert through informal politics. Based on 31 interviews with legislators, political authorities, officials and experts in public administration this paper shows that the Peruvian legislature participates in the policy making process albeit through informal channels of influence over the bureaucracy.

Disseminating relevant health information to underserved audiences: implications of the Digital Divide Pilot Projects*

Science.gov (United States)

Kreps, Gary L.

2005-01-01

Objective: This paper examines the influence of the digital divide on disparities in health outcomes for vulnerable populations, identifying implications for medical and public libraries. Method: The paper describes the results of the Digital Divide Pilot Projects demonstration research programs funded by the National Cancer Institute to test new strategies for disseminating relevant health information to underserved and at-risk audiences. Results: The Digital Divide Pilot Projects field-tested innovative systemic strategies for helping underserved populations access and utilize relevant health information to make informed health-related decisions about seeking appropriate health care and support, resisting avoidable and significant health risks, and promoting their own health. Implications: The paper builds on the Digital Divide Pilot Projects by identifying implications for developing health communication strategies that libraries can adopt to provide digital health information to vulnerable populations. PMID:16239960

An Object-Oriented Information Model for Policy-based Management of Distributed Applications

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Diaz, G.; Gay, V.C.J.; Horlait, E.; Hamza, M.H.

2002-01-01

This paper presents an object-oriented information model to support a policy-based management for distributed multimedia applications. The information base contains application-level information about the users, the applications, and their profile. Our Information model is described in details and

Networked Authoritarianism and the Geopolitics of Information: Understanding Russian Internet Policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nathalie Maréchal

2017-03-01

Full Text Available In the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. election, researchers, policymakers and the general public are grappling with the notion that the 45th president of the United States may very well owe his electoral victory to a sophisticated propaganda effort masterminded by the Kremlin. This article synthesizes existing research on Russia’s domestic information controls, its internet policy at the global level (notably via internet governance processes, and the country’s resurgence as a major geopolitical player to argue that policymakers as well as the general public should consider these themes holistically, particularly as they formulate responses to what many see as the Russian threat to Western liberal democracy. Russia may have lost the Cold War, but it is now waging information warfare against the liberal democracies of Europe and North America in a sophisticated bid to win the next round. Russia does not view internet governance, cybersecurity, and media policy as separate domains. Rather, all the areas covered by those disciplines fall under “information security” for Russian foreign policy. The paper begins by tracing the history of information controls within what is now the Russian Federation before discussing the role of information and internet policy in Russian foreign policy, drawing connections between the Russian government’s control and manipulation of information—including its internet policy—in the domestic and international arenas. Next, it discusses the spread of networked authoritarianism and suggests that a “geopolitics of information” will become increasingly necessary in the coming years. Just as networked authoritarianism establishes strategic infrastructures to control the message domestically and intervene in global media systems, liberal democracies need to rethink media and communication infrastructures to ensure they foster pluralist, rights-respecting societies that are resilient to authoritarianism and

A health app developer's guide to law and policy: a multi-sector policy analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Parker, Lisa; Karliychuk, Tanya; Gillies, Donna; Mintzes, Barbara; Raven, Melissa; Grundy, Quinn

2017-10-02

Apps targeted at health and wellbeing sit in a rapidly growing industry associated with widespread optimism about their potential to deliver accessible and cost-effective healthcare. App developers might not be aware of all the regulatory requirements and best practice principles are emergent. Health apps are regulated in order to minimise their potential for harm due to, for example, loss of personal health privacy, financial costs, and health harms from delayed or unnecessary diagnosis, monitoring and treatment. We aimed to produce a comprehensive guide to assist app developers in producing health apps that are legally compliant and in keeping with high professional standards of user protection. We conducted a case study analysis of the Australian and related international policy environment for mental health apps to identify relevant sectors, policy actors, and policy solutions. We identified 29 policies produced by governments and non-government organisations that provide oversight of health apps. In consultation with stakeholders, we developed an interactive tool targeted at app developers, summarising key features of the policy environment and highlighting legislative, industry and professional standards around seven relevant domains: privacy, security, content, promotion and advertising, consumer finances, medical device efficacy and safety, and professional ethics. We annotated this developer guidance tool with information about: the relevance of each domain; existing legislative and non-legislative guidance; critiques of existing policy; recommendations for developers; and suggestions for other key stakeholders. We anticipate that mental health apps developed in accordance with this tool will be more likely to conform to regulatory requirements, protect consumer privacy, protect consumer finances, and deliver health benefit; and less likely to attract regulatory penalties, offend consumers and communities, mislead consumers, or deliver health harms. We

Using Knowledge of the Past to Improve Education Today: US Education History and Policy-Making

Science.gov (United States)

Vinovskis, Maris A.

2015-01-01

Early American historians provided the public and policy-makers with information about US history that provided both entertainment and policy suggestions. As American historians became more professionalised in the early twentieth century, they concentrated more on their own scholarly concerns and less on policy-relevant writings. In recent…

Effect of the Adoption of IFRS on the Information Relevance of Accounting Profits in Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mateus Alexandre Costa dos Santos

2014-12-01

Full Text Available This study aimed to assess the effect of adopting the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS in Brazil on the information relevance of accounting profits of publicly traded companies. International studies have shown that the adoption of IFRS improves the quality of accounting information compared with domestic accounting standards. Concurrent evidence is sparse in Brazil. Information relevance is understood herein as a multidimensional attribute that is closely related to the quality and usefulness of the information conveyed by accounting profits. The associative capacity and information timeliness of accounting profits in relation to share prices were examined. Furthermore, the level of conditional conservatism present in accounting profits was also analyzed because according to Basu (1997, this aspect is related to timeliness. The study used pooled regressions and panel data models to analyze the quarterly accounting profits of 246 companies between the first quarter of 1999 and the first quarter of 2013, resulting in 9,558 quarter-company observations. The results indicated that the adoption of IFRS in Brazil (1 increased the associative capacity of accounting profits; (2 reduced information timeliness to non-significant levels; and (3 had no effect on conditional conservatism. The joint analysis of the empirical evidence from the present study conclusively precludes stating that the adoption of IFRS in Brazil contributed to an increase the information relevance of accounting profits of publicly traded companies.

Perceived Relevance of an Introductory Information Systems Course to Prospective Business Students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Irene Govender

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The study is designed to examine students’ perceptions of the introductory Information Systems (IS course. It was an exploratory study in which 67 students participated. A quantitative approach was followed making use of questionnaires for the collection of data. Using the theory of reasoned action as a framework, the study explores the factors that influence non-IS major students’ perceived relevance of the IS introductory course. The analysis of collected data included descriptive and inferential statistics. Using multiple regression analysis, the results suggest that overall, the independent variables, relevance of the content, previous IT knowledge, relevance for professional practice, IT preference in courses and peers’ influence may account for 72% of the explanatory power for the dependent variable, perceived relevance of the IS course. In addition, the results have shown some strong predictors (IT preference and peers’ influence that influence students’ perceived relevance of the IS course. Practical work was found to be a strong mediating variable toward positive perceptions of IS. The results of this study suggest that students do indeed perceive the introductory IS course to be relevant and match their professional needs, but more practical work would enhance their learning. Implications for theory and practice are discussed as a result of the behavioural intention to perceive the IS course to be relevant and eventually to recruit more IS students.

75 FR 8953 - Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology HIT Policy Committee...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-02-26

... Coordinator for Health Information Technology, HHS. ACTION: Notice of meeting. This notice announces a... Information Technology (ONC). The meeting will be open to the public. Name of Committee: HIT Policy Committee... a policy framework for the development and adoption of a nationwide health information technology...

Behavioral and Event-Related-Potential Correlates of Processing Congruent and Incongruent Self-Relevant Information

Science.gov (United States)

Clark, Sheri L.

2013-01-01

People want to be viewed by others as they view themselves. Being confronted with self-relevant information that is either congruent or incongruent with one's self-view has been shown to differentially affect subsequent behavior, memory for the information, and evaluation of the source of the information. However, no research has examined…

Translanguaging in Self-Access Language Advising: Informing Language Policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Naoki Fujimoto-Adamson

2012-03-01

Full Text Available This study investigates language advising in a self-access center (SAC with the purpose of informing language policy. This center is located in a new Japanese university and has shifted from an initially teacher-imposed ‘English-only’ language policy into one which encourages “translanguaging” (Blackledge & Creese, 2010, p. 105 between the students’ and center advisors’ (termed as mentors in this center L1 (Japanese and their L2 (English. Data from audio-recordings of interaction with advisors and students and between students themselves, interviews with mentors, and student questionnaires all reveal how translanguaging occurs in practice and how it helps to create a learning space in which the “local, pragmatic coping tactics” (Lin, 2005, p. 46 of code-switching offer a more viable approach for learning than under its initial monolingual policy. Mentor interviews and student questionnaires indicate generally positive attitudes towards translanguaging; however, some students still favor an ‘English-only’ policy. Conclusions reveal that a looser language policy in the center is emerging in which mentors now guide students towards their own individualized language policies. It is argued in this paper that this “code choice” (Levine, 2011 in language use is therefore aligned more closely to the principles of student-direction in self-access use.

Base Stock Policy in a Join-Type Production Line with Advanced Demand Information

Science.gov (United States)

Hiraiwa, Mikihiko; Tsubouchi, Satoshi; Nakade, Koichi

Production control such as the base stock policy, the kanban policy and the constant work-in-process policy in a serial production line has been studied by many researchers. Production lines, however, usually have fork-type, join-type or network-type figures. In addition, in most previous studies on production control, a finished product is required at the same time as arrival of demand at the system. Demand information is, however, informed before due date in practice. In this paper a join-type (assembly) production line under base stock control with advanced demand information in discrete time is analyzed. The recursive equations for the work-in-process are derived. The heuristic algorithm for finding appropriate base stock levels of all machines at short time is proposed and the effect of advanced demand information is examined by simulation with the proposed algorithm. It is shown that the inventory cost can decreases with little backlogs by using the appropriate amount of demand information and setting appropriate base stock levels.

The Practice of Industrial Policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Much of the information relevant to policy formulation for industrial development is held by the private sector, not by public officials. There is, therefore, fairly broad agreement in the development literature that some form of structured engagement—often referred to as close or strategic...... of poverty reduction. In 2014, the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) launched a joint research project: The Practice of Industrial Policy. The aim is to help African policy makers develop better...... coordination between public and private sectors in order to identify the constraints to faster structural transformation and design, implement, and monitor policies to remove them. This book, written by national researchers and international experts, presents the results of that research by combining a set...

Suppression of no-longer relevant information in Working Memory: An alpha-power related mechanism?

Science.gov (United States)

Poch, Claudia; Valdivia, María; Capilla, Almudena; Hinojosa, José Antonio; Campo, Pablo

2018-03-27

Selective attention can enhance Working Memory (WM) performance by selecting relevant information, while preventing distracting items from encoding or from further maintenance. Alpha oscillatory modulations are a correlate of visuospatial attention. Specifically, an enhancement of alpha power is observed in the ipsilateral posterior cortex to the locus of attention, along with a suppression in the contralateral hemisphere. An influential model proposes that the alpha enhancement is functionally related to the suppression of information. However, whether ipsilateral alpha power represents a mechanism through which no longer relevant WM representations are inhibited has yet not been explored. Here we examined whether the amount of distractors to be suppressed during WM maintenance is functionally related to alpha power lateralized activity. We measure EEG activity while participants (N = 36) performed a retro-cue task in which the WM load was varied across the relevant/irrelevant post-cue hemifield. We found that alpha activity was lateralized respect to the locus of attention, but did not track post-cue irrelevant load. Additionally, non-lateralized alpha activity increased with post-cue relevant load. We propose that alpha lateralization associated to retro-cuing might be related to a general orienting mechanism toward relevant representation. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Comparisons of different monetary policies in China with yield curve information

OpenAIRE

Pang, Iris Ai Jao

2010-01-01

This work compares the effectiveness of quantity-based and price-based monetary policies in China using FAVAR. This essay is the pioneer to identify the 1-year lending rate and deposit rate as the policy rates, and includes yield curve information in the analysis. It is found that effects of tightening monetary policies in China follow largely the stylized facts of long run neutrality of money on real activities, a long term fall in inflation and a short term rise in interest rates.

Advancing Open 3D Modelling Standards in National Spatial Information Policy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Trakas, A.; Janssen, P.; Stoter, J.

2012-01-01

Individuals and organisations around the world - facing extraordinary challenges and new opportunities - are together engaged in numerous projects, involving natural and built environments. Spatial information policy is at the heart of these projects. The information technologies available enable

Use of national clinical databases for informing and for evaluating health care policies.

Science.gov (United States)

Black, Nick; Tan, Stefanie

2013-02-01

Policy-makers and analysts could make use of national clinical databases either to inform or to evaluate meso-level (organisation and delivery of health care) and macro-level (national) policies. Reviewing the use of 15 of the best established databases in England, we identify and describe four published examples of each use. These show that policy-makers can either make use of the data itself or of research based on the database. For evaluating policies, the major advantages are the huge sample sizes available, the generalisability of the data, its immediate availability and historic information. The principal methodological challenges involve the need for risk adjustment and time-series analysis. Given their usefulness in the policy arena, there are several reasons why national clinical databases have not been used more, some due to a lack of 'push' by their custodians and some to the lack of 'pull' by policy-makers. Greater exploitation of these valuable resources would be facilitated by policy-makers' and custodians' increased awareness, minimisation of legal restrictions on data use, improvements in the quality of databases and a library of examples of applications to policy. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Public consultation in public policy information: a state-of-the-art report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bishop, A.B.; McKee, M.; Hansen, R.D.

1977-01-01

The purpose of the National Waste Terminal Storage (NWTS) Program is to site, construct and operate nuclear waste repositories at several locations. Recent experience indicates that the public is aware of the problems of nuclear waste disposal, and correspondingly there is public concern about how and where to dispose of nuclear wastes. The selection of sites involves a wide range of considerations including geological, technical and environmental feasibility. In addition to these, it is important that societal acceptance of repository options also be taken into account in moving foward with the NWTS Program. Such an incorporation of social considerations and preferences correspondingly implies the need for public consultation in the site selection process. In exploring the concept and state-or-the-art of public involvement in public policy decision, a number of important questions are relevant: (1) What are the basic objectives of public participation in policy formation and program decisions. (2) Who are the ''publics'' that should be involved and how can they be identified. (3) What information should be communicated between the agency and the publics. (4) What techniques are available to elicit public participation and involvement and what are their capabilities. At the outset, it should be noted that the purpose of this paper in addressing these questions is not to design public participation procedures for the NWTS program. Rather, the above are questions that provide a broad framework for developing an understanding of citizen participation in public policy decisions, such as nuclear waste disposal. In this sense, the following discussion is to provide a context and guidance for approaching the problem of organizing and structuring involvement in the NWTS program. Annotated bibliography of 95 references is included

Public consultation in public policy information: a state-of-the-art report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bishop, A.B.; McKee, M.; Hansen, R.D.

1977-01-01

The purpose of the National Waste Terminal Storage (NWTS) Program is to site, construct and operate nuclear waste repositories at several locations. Recent experience indicates that the public is aware of the problems of nuclear waste disposal, and correspondingly there is public concern about how and where to dispose of nuclear wastes. The selection of sites involves a wide range of considerations including geological, technical and environmental feasibility. In addition to these, it is important that societal acceptance of repository options also be taken into account in moving foward with the NWTS Program. Such an incorporation of social considerations and preferences correspondingly implies the need for public consultation in the site selection process. In exploring the concept and state-or-the-art of public involvement in public policy decision, a number of important questions are relevant: (1) What are the basic objectives of public participation in policy formation and program decisions. (2) Who are the ''publics'' that should be involved and how can they be identified. (3) What information should be communicated between the agency and the publics. (4) What techniques are available to elicit public participation and involvement and what are their capabilities. At the outset, it should be noted that the purpose of this paper in addressing these questions is not to design public participation procedures for the NWTS program. Rather, the above are questions that provide a broad framework for developing an understanding of citizen participation in public policy decisions, such as nuclear waste disposal. In this sense, the following discussion is to provide a context and guidance for approaching the problem of organizing and structuring involvement in the NWTS program. Annotated bibliography of 95 references is included.

A Study of the Effect of Information Security Policies on Information Security Breaches in Higher Education Institutions

Science.gov (United States)

Waddell, Stanie Adolphus

2013-01-01

Many articles within the literature point to the information security policy as one of the most important elements of an effective information security program. Even though this belief is continually referred to in many information security scholarly articles, very few research studies have been performed to corroborate this sentiment. Doherty and…

Challenges to generating evidence-informed policy and the role of systematic reviews and (perceived) conflicts of interest.

Science.gov (United States)

Apollonio, Dorie E; Bero, Lisa A

2016-01-01

Multiple efforts to generate evidence-informed policy have attempted to teach policymakers how to understand and apply scientific research findings in their decision-making. These efforts have had limited success, because policymakers generally do not understand scientific methods. We piloted efforts to teach policy intermediaries - specifically consumer advocacy groups - how to understand and apply health research, anticipating that they might offer such evidence to policymakers in more accessible forms. Four workshops focusing on research design and methods were conducted with consumer advocacy groups in 2010. We coded and analyzed participant responses regarding their confidence in interpreting research findings and assessments of research credibility, and the extent to which their knowledge about research findings changed after completing the workshops. Our findings suggest that although participants expressed strong interest in understanding scientific research, their ability to develop confidence about scientific research methods was limited. However, like policymakers, consumer advocacy group members intuited that financial conflicts of interest could compromise scientific findings, although they initially underestimated their effects on research results. After training, consumer advocates also saw the value of using systematic reviews rather than individual studies. Our findings suggest that although advocates may not feel confident in their understanding of scientific research, they found it easier to understand the value of systematic reviews and the risks of conflicts of interest than other statistical concepts and terminology. Focusing on making these types of information available may offer a useful way for policymakers and consumer advocates to interpret the validity of policy-relevant scientific research.

Task relevance of emotional information affects anxiety-linked attention bias in visual search.

Science.gov (United States)

Dodd, Helen F; Vogt, Julia; Turkileri, Nilgun; Notebaert, Lies

2017-01-01

Task relevance affects emotional attention in healthy individuals. Here, we investigate whether the association between anxiety and attention bias is affected by the task relevance of emotion during an attention task. Participants completed two visual search tasks. In the emotion-irrelevant task, participants were asked to indicate whether a discrepant face in a crowd of neutral, middle-aged faces was old or young. Irrelevant to the task, target faces displayed angry, happy, or neutral expressions. In the emotion-relevant task, participants were asked to indicate whether a discrepant face in a crowd of middle-aged neutral faces was happy or angry (target faces also varied in age). Trait anxiety was not associated with attention in the emotion-relevant task. However, in the emotion-irrelevant task, trait anxiety was associated with a bias for angry over happy faces. These findings demonstrate that the task relevance of emotional information affects conclusions about the presence of an anxiety-linked attention bias. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Collecting Safeguards Relevant Trade Information: The IAEA Procurement Outreach Programme

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schot, P.; El Gebaly, A.; Tarvainen, M.

2010-01-01

The increasing awareness of activities of transnational procurement networks to covertly acquire sensitive nuclear related dual use equipment prompted an evolution of safeguards methodologies. One of the responses to this challenge by the Department of Safeguards in the IAEA was to establish the Trade and Technology Unit (TTA) in November 2004 to analyse and report on these covert nuclear related trade activities. To obtain information relevant to this analysis, TTA is engaging States that might be willing to provide this information to the Secretariat on a voluntary basis. This paper will give an overview of current activities, sum up the results achieved and discuss suggestions to further improve this programme made by Member States. (author)

Accomplishing Water Strategy Policies in Hospitals: The Role of Management Information Systems and Managerial Styles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Naranjo-Gil

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Hospitals are using more sophisticated and comprehensive management information systems to implement multiple strategic policies towards water cost saving and water quality enhancement. However, they do not always achieve the intended strategic goals. This paper analyzes how managerial styles interact with sophisticated management information systems to achieve different water strategic priorities. How proactive vs. reactive managerial styles moderate the effects of management information systems on water cost saving and water quality enhancement is analyzed. Relationships are explored using data collected from 122 general services directors in Spanish public hospitals. The findings show a positive effect of sophisticated management information systems on the achievement of water policies focused on cost saving and quality enhancement. Results also show a different moderated effect of managerial styles; thus, sophisticated management information systems with a proactive managerial style facilitate managers to achieve better water quality policies rather than water cost saving policies.

Informing climate policy given incommensurable benefits estimates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jacoby, H.D.

2003-01-01

Underlying individual positions in debates over climate policy are assessments of benefit and costs - sometimes explicit, but more often implicit. What should we be willing to pay in the near term to reduce human emissions, given our understanding of the value of climate impacts avoided? What actions are justified now to ease adaptation to change that may come in any event? Such assessments may reflect the viewpoint of one nation, a group like Annex B, or the sum of all nations. They may incorporate uncertainty in different ways, and include different assumptions about future behavior as it influences the marginal benefit of action today. But, however done, any recommendation of a limit on human influence in the long term, or of the level of current effort, implies a weighing-up of the benefits expected, for comparison with the costs to be borne. An ability to communicate about perceived benefits thus is essential for authorities seeking a common response to the threat of human-caused change. They need some shared conception of what is at stake in the choice of one level of effort or another, and a common terminology for incorporating these considerations into international negotiations and domestic decision-making. The frustration of OECD governments with the current state of benefit information is revealed in the ambitious set of objectives set for this benefits project (OECD, 2002). They seek recommendations on how to develop a framework to assess not only the costs but the benefits of climate strategies, to improve the accounting for benefits to facilitate goal-setting for international policies. Besides this focus on global benefits, the OECD also looks for results that are relevant to national policy-making and to the development of adaptation strategies. Particular attention is asked to problems of accounting for non-market benefits, along with the intersection of climate policy with developing country issues. It is appropriate that the OECD seeks a

The dynamics of energy policy in Lebanon when research, politics, and policy fail to intersect

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khodr, Hiba; Uherova Hasbani, Katarina

2013-01-01

This paper is an exploratory study on energy policymaking in Lebanon aiming at investigating the contributing factors to the absence of evidence-informed policy by analyzing the relation between energy-related research and policy. It uses a qualitative approach in which two complementary types of data sources are employed. Data was mainly obtained from in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted with 40 key stakeholders. The data was further enhanced by an extensive review of related documents available in the public domain as well as research-related activities. Data were analyzed using iterative thematic content analysis which findings served to illustrate the theoretical perspectives in the relevant prevailing literature on linking policy and research. This paper suggests that the politicization of energy policy, the nature of the generated evidence and the lack of communication of evidence among policy actors as well as the weak and non-institutionalized links between researchers and policymakers have posed as an obstacle to an effective, efficient and evidence-based policy. There is a dearth of academic studies that have investigated this issue from a policy perspective. The analysis lays the foundation for much needed future studies on the country's energy policy by identifying the participants, mapping out the process and providing policy recommendations. - Highlights: • We study energy policymaking in Lebanon. • We analyze the relation between research and policy. • We identify contributing factors to the absence of evidence-informed policy. • The politicization of policy and nature of research have posed as obstacles. • Evidence of non-institutionalized links between researchers and policymakers

The impact of intangibles on the value relevance of accounting information: Evidence from French companies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bilal Kimouche

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Purpose: The paper aims to explore whether intangible items that recognised in financial statements are value-relevant to investors in the French context, and whether these items affect the value relevance of accounting information. Design/methodology/approach: Empirical data were collected from a sample of French listed companies, over the nine-year period of 2005 to 2013. Starting of Ohlson’s (1995 model, the correlation analysis and the linear multiple regressions have been applied. Findings: We find that intangibles and traditional accounting measures as a whole are value relevant. However, the amortization and impairment charges of intangibles and cash flows do not affect the market values of French companies, unlike other variables, which affect positively and substantially the market values. Also goodwill and book values are more associated with market values than intangible assets and earnings respectively. Finally, we find that intangibles have improved the value relevance of accounting information. Practical implications: French legislators must give more interest for intangibles, in order to enrich the financial statements content and increasing the pertinence of accounting information. Auditors must give more attention for intangibles’ examination process, in order to certify the amounts related to intangibles in financial statements, and hence enrich their reliability, what provides adequacy guarantees for investors to use them in decision making. Originality/value: The paper used recently available financial data, and proposed an improvement concerning the measure of incremental value relevance of intangibles items.

The use of a policy dialogue to facilitate evidence-informed policy development for improved access to care: the case of the Winnipeg Central Intake Service (WCIS).

Science.gov (United States)

Damani, Zaheed; MacKean, Gail; Bohm, Eric; DeMone, Brie; Wright, Brock; Noseworthy, Tom; Holroyd-Leduc, Jayna; Marshall, Deborah A

2016-10-18

Policy dialogues are critical for developing responsive, effective, sustainable, evidence-informed policy. Our multidisciplinary team, including researchers, physicians and senior decision-makers, comprehensively evaluated The Winnipeg Central Intake Service, a single-entry model in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to improve patient access to hip/knee replacement surgery. We used the evaluation findings to develop five evidence-informed policy directions to help improve access to scheduled clinical services across Manitoba. Using guiding principles of public participation processes, we hosted a policy roundtable meeting to engage stakeholders and use their input to refine the policy directions. Here, we report on the use and input of a policy roundtable meeting and its role in contributing to the development of evidence-informed policy. Our evidence-informed policy directions focused on formal measurement/monitoring of quality, central intake as a preferred model for service delivery, provincial scope, transparent processes/performance indicators, and patient choice of provider. We held a policy roundtable meeting and used outcomes of facilitated discussions to refine these directions. Individuals from our team and six stakeholder groups across Manitoba participated (n = 44), including patients, family physicians, orthopaedic surgeons, surgical office assistants, Winnipeg Central Intake team, and administrators/managers. We developed evaluation forms to assess the meeting process, and collected decision-maker partners' perspectives on the value of the policy roundtable meeting and use of policy directions to improve access to scheduled clinical services after the meeting, and again 15 months later. We analyzed roundtable and evaluation data using thematic analysis to identify key themes. Four key findings emerged. First, participants supported all policy directions, with revisions and key implementation considerations identified. Second, participants felt the policy roundtable

Empirical Models of Demand for Out-Patient Physician Services and Their Relevance to the Assessment of Patient Payment Policies: A Critical Review of the Literature

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olga Skriabikova

2010-06-01

Full Text Available This paper reviews the existing empirical micro-level models of demand for out-patient physician services where the size of patient payment is included either directly as an independent variable (when a flat-rate co-payment fee or indirectly as a level of deductibles and/or co-insurance defined by the insurance coverage. The paper also discusses the relevance of these models for the assessment of patient payment policies. For this purpose, a systematic literature review is carried out. In total, 46 relevant publications were identified. These publications are classified into categories based on their general approach to demand modeling, specifications of data collection, data analysis, and main empirical findings. The analysis indicates a rising research interest in the empirical micro-level models of demand for out-patient physician services that incorporate the size of patient payment. Overall, the size of patient payments, consumer socio-economic and demographic features, and quality of services provided emerge as important determinants of demand for out-patient physician services. However, there is a great variety in the modeling approaches and inconsistencies in the findings regarding the impact of price on demand for out-patient physician services. Hitherto, the empirical research fails to offer policy-makers a clear strategy on how to develop a country-specific model of demand for out-patient physician services suitable for the assessment of patient payment policies in their countries. In particular, theoretically important factors, such as provider behavior, consumer attitudes, experience and culture, and informal patient payments, are not considered. Although we recognize that it is difficult to measure these factors and to incorporate them in the demand models, it is apparent that there is a gap in research for the construction of effective patient payment schemes.

Empirical models of demand for out-patient physician services and their relevance to the assessment of patient payment policies: a critical review of the literature.

Science.gov (United States)

Skriabikova, Olga; Pavlova, Milena; Groot, Wim

2010-06-01

This paper reviews the existing empirical micro-level models of demand for out-patient physician services where the size of patient payment is included either directly as an independent variable (when a flat-rate co-payment fee) or indirectly as a level of deductibles and/or co-insurance defined by the insurance coverage. The paper also discusses the relevance of these models for the assessment of patient payment policies. For this purpose, a systematic literature review is carried out. In total, 46 relevant publications were identified. These publications are classified into categories based on their general approach to demand modeling, specifications of data collection, data analysis, and main empirical findings. The analysis indicates a rising research interest in the empirical micro-level models of demand for out-patient physician services that incorporate the size of patient payment. Overall, the size of patient payments, consumer socio-economic and demographic features, and quality of services provided emerge as important determinants of demand for out-patient physician services. However, there is a great variety in the modeling approaches and inconsistencies in the findings regarding the impact of price on demand for out-patient physician services. Hitherto, the empirical research fails to offer policy-makers a clear strategy on how to develop a country-specific model of demand for out-patient physician services suitable for the assessment of patient payment policies in their countries. In particular, theoretically important factors, such as provider behavior, consumer attitudes, experience and culture, and informal patient payments, are not considered. Although we recognize that it is difficult to measure these factors and to incorporate them in the demand models, it is apparent that there is a gap in research for the construction of effective patient payment schemes.

In the Dark: Young Men's Stories of Sexual Initiation in the Absence of Relevant Sexual Health Information

Science.gov (United States)

Kubicek, Katrina; Beyer, William J.; Weiss, George; Iverson, Ellen; Kipke, Michele D.

2010-01-01

A growing body of research has investigated the effectiveness of abstinence-only sexual education. There remains a dearth of research on the relevant sexual health information available to young men who have sex with men (YMSM). Drawing on a mixed-methods study with 526 YMSM, this study explores how and where YMSM receive relevant information on…

Feature-selective Attention in Frontoparietal Cortex: Multivoxel Codes Adjust to Prioritize Task-relevant Information.

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, Jade; Rich, Anina N; Williams, Mark A; Woolgar, Alexandra

2017-02-01

Human cognition is characterized by astounding flexibility, enabling us to select appropriate information according to the objectives of our current task. A circuit of frontal and parietal brain regions, often referred to as the frontoparietal attention network or multiple-demand (MD) regions, are believed to play a fundamental role in this flexibility. There is evidence that these regions dynamically adjust their responses to selectively process information that is currently relevant for behavior, as proposed by the "adaptive coding hypothesis" [Duncan, J. An adaptive coding model of neural function in prefrontal cortex. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2, 820-829, 2001]. Could this provide a neural mechanism for feature-selective attention, the process by which we preferentially process one feature of a stimulus over another? We used multivariate pattern analysis of fMRI data during a perceptually challenging categorization task to investigate whether the representation of visual object features in the MD regions flexibly adjusts according to task relevance. Participants were trained to categorize visually similar novel objects along two orthogonal stimulus dimensions (length/orientation) and performed short alternating blocks in which only one of these dimensions was relevant. We found that multivoxel patterns of activation in the MD regions encoded the task-relevant distinctions more strongly than the task-irrelevant distinctions: The MD regions discriminated between stimuli of different lengths when length was relevant and between the same objects according to orientation when orientation was relevant. The data suggest a flexible neural system that adjusts its representation of visual objects to preferentially encode stimulus features that are currently relevant for behavior, providing a neural mechanism for feature-selective attention.

CLASP Middle School/High School Boys of Color Policy Scan and Information Gathering

Science.gov (United States)

Toldson, Ivory A.; Crowell, Candice

2012-01-01

The purpose of this project is to provide an analysis of policy issues affecting middle school and high school-aged boys and young men of color in the areas of education, health, and pathways to employment. This policy scan and subsequent recommendations will provide valuable background knowledge to inform the future direction of policy efforts…

The feasibility of measuring and monitoring social determinants of health and the relevance for policy and programme - a qualitative assessment of four countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Blas, Erik; Ataguba, John E; Huda, Tanvir M; Bao, Giang Kim; Rasella, Davide; Gerecke, Megan R

2016-01-01

Since the publication of the reports by the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH), many research papers have documented inequities, explaining causal pathways in order to inform policy and programmatic decision-making. At the international level, the sustainable development goals (SDGs) reflect an attempt to bring together these themes and the complexities involved in defining a comprehensive development framework. However, to date, much less has been done to address the monitoring challenges, that is, how data generation, analysis and use are to become routine tasks. To test proposed indicators of social determinants of health (SDH), gender, equity, and human rights with respect to their relevance in tracking progress in universal health coverage and population health (level and distribution). In an attempt to explore these monitoring challenges, indicators covering a wide range of social determinants were tested in four country case studies (Bangladesh, Brazil, South Africa, and Vietnam) for their technical feasibility, reliability, and validity, and their communicability and usefulness to policy-makers. Twelve thematic domains with 20 core indicators covering different aspects of equity, human rights, gender, and SDH were tested through a review of data sources, descriptive analyses, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions. To test the communicability and usefulness of the domains, domain narratives that explained the causal pathways were presented to policy-makers, managers, the media, and civil society leaders. For most countries, monitoring is possible, as some data were available for most of the core indicators. However, a qualitative assessment showed that technical feasibility, reliability, and validity varied across indicators and countries. Producing understandable and useful information proved challenging, and particularly so in translating indicator definitions and data into meaningful lay and managerial narratives, and

Analysis of the Relevance of Information Content of the Value Added Statement in the Brazilian Capital Markets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Márcio André Veras Machado

2015-04-01

Full Text Available The usefulness of financial statements depends, fundamentally, on the degree of relevance of the information they disclose to users. Thus, studies that measure the relevance of accounting information to the users of financial statements are of some importance. One line of research within this subject is in ascertaining the relevance and importance of accounting information for the capital markets: if a particular item of accounting information is minimally reflected in the price of a share, it is because this information has relevance, at least at a certain level of significance, for investors and analysts of the capital markets. This present study aims to analyze the relevance, in the Brazilian capital markets, of the information content of the Value Added Statement (or VAS - referred to in Brazil as the Demonstração do Valor Adicionado, or DVA. It analyzed the ratio between stock price and Wealth created per share (WCPS, using linear regressions, for the period 2005-2011, for non-financial listed companies included in Melhores & Maiores ('Biggest & Best', an annual listing published by Exame Magazine in Brazil. As a secondary objective, this article seeks to establish whether WCPS represents a better indication of a company's result than Net profit per share (in this study, referred to as NPPS. The empirical evidence that was found supports the concept that the VAS has relevant information content, because it shows a capacity to explain a variation in the share price of the companies studied. Additionally, the relationship between WCPS and the stock price was shown to be significant, even after the inclusion of the control variables Stockholders' equity per share (which we abbreviate in this study to SEPS and NPPS. Finally, the evidence found indicates that the market reacts more to WCPS (Wealth created per share than to NPPS. Thus, the results obtained give some indication that, for the Brazilian capital markets, WCPS may be a better proxy

28 CFR 20.35 - Criminal Justice Information Services Advisory Policy Board.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 28 Judicial Administration 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Criminal Justice Information Services Advisory Policy Board. 20.35 Section 20.35 Judicial Administration DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE CRIMINAL JUSTICE..., concept, and operational principles of various criminal justice information systems managed by the FBI's...

Climate policy, asymmetric information and firm survival

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hagem, C.

2001-02-01

The purpose of this paper is to compare the effect of different domestic climate policy instruments under asymmetric information when the regulator wants to secure the survival of a specific firm. It is a well-known result from economic theory that emission taxes lead to a cost-effective distribution of abatement across polluters. However, if the regulator wants to ensure the survival of a specific firm, it may need to design policy instruments that reduce the firm's cost of complying with an emission tax regime. The climate policy instruments considered in this paper are tradable emission permits with distribution of free permits, emission taxes in combination with a fixed subsidy, and two types of voluntary agreements. It demonstrates first that if distributing free tradable permits shall have a preventing effect, the allocation of permits has to be made contingent on production. It further shows that a voluntary agreement where a specific abatement target is set by the regulator can prevent a shutdown but leads to lower welfare than the use of emission taxes in combination with a fixed subsidy. And finally it illustrates that a voluntary agreement designed as a menu of abatement contracts increases social welfare compared to an emission tax regime

48 CFR 1552.211-79 - Compliance with EPA Policies for Information Resources Management.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... Policies for Information Resources Management. 1552.211-79 Section 1552.211-79 Federal Acquisition... Information Resources Management (OCT 2000) (a) Definition. Information Resources Management (IRM) is defined... includes both information itself, and the management of information and related resources such as personnel...

40 CFR 86.1862-04 - Maintenance of records and submittal of information relevant to compliance with fleet average NOX...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... of information relevant to compliance with fleet average NOX standards. 86.1862-04 Section 86.1862-04...-Cycle Heavy-Duty Vehicles § 86.1862-04 Maintenance of records and submittal of information relevant to..., maintain, and retain the following information in adequately organized and indexed records for each model...

Assessing the impact of information and framing on support for climate policy action

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hatfield-Dodds, Steve

2007-01-01

Full text: A significant share of the public appears mislead by the way the economic impacts of emissions reductions are traditionally communicated. This misunderstanding is associated with reduced support for policy action, and risks long term climate impacts that would be avoided if results were communicated properly. Correct this basis appears likely to have a larger effect on attitudes than new research and information on the impacts of climate change. Government action to achieve deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions - like other major policy changes -depends on public support, which in turn depends on perceptions of policy impacts. This paper reports research exploring the effect of three factors on support for policy action: the way that policy impacts are described; the magnitude of these impacts, and additional information on climate change impacts, provided internally through the surveys and externally through the release of An Inconvenient Truth and media coverage of the Stern Report (2006). The research used split sample phone and internet surveys (n = 4264) conducted in Australia and New Zealand in four waves from April to December 2006. The study gives rise to four major findings: Support for policy action is sensitive to the magnitude of expected economic impacts, with predicted support varying from 27% to 84% across the different levels of policy impact presented; Current approaches to communicating policy impacts are associated with public support for policy action being 8-10% lower than it would be if policy impacts were well communicated. This bias may be corrected by describing policy impacts in terms of changes relative to current levels - stating that incomes continue to rise - as well as describing impacts relative to the base case; The reduction in support associated with these biases is much larger than the increase in support associated with providing credible additional information on the impacts of climate change; Significantly more than

Scientific Information Policy Board 90th Meeting

CERN Multimedia

AUTHOR|(CDS)2051371

2017-01-01

Gigi Rolandi, sitting in the middle, chairing his last meeting of the Scientific Information Policy Board before his retirement. Rolandi was the chairman of the board from March 2006 until April 2017, a period that has seen lots of dynamics within the field of authoring, publishing and librarianship - both at CERN and beyond. In the first row from left to right: Eckhard Elsen (Director of Research), Jens Vigen (Head Librarian) Gigi Rolandi (SIPB Chair), Anita Hollier (Archivist) and Urs Wiedemann (Theory). In the second row from left to right: Nikos Kasioumis (Invited speaker), Alexander Kohls (Invited speaker), Stella Christodoulaki (Invited speaker), Nick Ellis (Chair CREB), Clara Troncon (ACCU), Annette Holtkamp (Scientific Information Service), Tim Smith (IT) Brigitte Bloch-Devaux (non-LHC experiments), Constantinos Loizides (ALICE), Thierry Stora (Engineering), John Jowett (Beams), Arjan Verweij (Technology), Anne Gentil-Beccot (Scientific Information Service), Fergus Wilson (LHCb), Ludmila Marian (Invit...

How Is Behaviour Policy in Scotland Made, and What Does This Mean for the Policy That Ensues?

Science.gov (United States)

Macleod, Gale

2014-01-01

In this largely theory-focused paper it is argued that there is a tension between demands for particular knowledge, relevant to local policy contexts, and calls for universal, generalizable evidence to inform policymaking. Some consequences of this tension, in terms of the forms of knowledge that may be drawn on in policymaking at the local level,…

ODIN. Online Database Information Network: ODIN Policy & Procedure Manual.

Science.gov (United States)

Townley, Charles T.; And Others

Policies and procedures are outlined for the Online Database Information Network (ODIN), a cooperative of libraries in south-central Pennsylvania, which was organized to improve library services through technology. The first section covers organization and goals, members, and responsibilities of the administrative council and libraries. Patrons…

The public multi-coil information (PUMCIN) policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Juchem, Christoph; de Graaf, Robin A

2017-11-01

Multi-coil (MC) magnetic field modeling has emerged as a viable alternative to conventional field generation based on spherical harmonic shapes, and an active MC community is forming. Although all MC applications share the same modeling concept, the specific MC designs can largely differ as a result of disparities in region of interest (eg, human versus rodent), intended MR application (eg, B 0 shimming versus spatial encoding), or other experimental constraints (eg, available bore space or integration with radiofrequency technology). To date, a lack of detailed information on existing MC designs complicates the assessment and precludes a meaningful comparison. Here, we suggest that future publications involving the MC technique not only report the benefits for the application at hand, but also include an explicit description of the MC wire pattern used. This public multi-coil information (PUMCIN) policy represents a voluntary commitment to promoting free public access to the details necessary for reproducing and benefiting from MC research. The PUMCIN policy is expected to initiate a paradigm shift with respect to the way MC innovation is reported. By setting an example, we hope to encourage the evolving MC community to maximize the benefits for science and society by embracing it. Magn Reson Med 78:2042-2047, 2017. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Mediating Policy-Relevant Evidence at Speed: Are Systematic Reviews of Systematic Reviews a Useful Approach?

Science.gov (United States)

Caird, Jenny; Sutcliffe, Katy; Kwan, Irene; Dickson, Kelly; Thomas, James

2015-01-01

When swift, accurate appraisal of evidence is required to inform policy concerning broad research questions, and budgetary constraints limit the employment of large research teams, researchers face a significant challenge which is sometimes met by reviewing existing systematic reviews. In this paper we highlight the challenges inherent in the…

Heterogeneity among informal microenterprises in Mexico: empirical evidence and some policy implications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

René Rivera Huerta

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Unlike traditional theories of development, new schools of thinking consider nonfarm informal micro-enterprises as a dynamic sector. Nevertheless, social researchers from both streams recognize the necessity of policies to formalize and increase the productivity of such kind of enterprises. Using Mexican data from 2008 and cluster analysis techniques, this work proposes that informal micro-enterprises constitute a very heterogeneous group and that such heterogeneity deserves a diversified strategy of development: while some entrepreneurs would benefit from productivity policies, some others would require an assistance approach.

Beyond the lab: observations on the process by which science successfully informs management and policy decisions

Science.gov (United States)

Flores, S.

2012-12-01

Scientific findings inform management decisions and policy products through various ways, these include: synthesis reports, white papers, in-person and web-based seminars (webinars), communication from specialized staff, and seminal peer-reviewed journal articles. Scientists are often told that if they want their science to inform management decisions and policy products that they must: clearly and simply articulate discreet pieces of scientific information and avoid attaching advocacy messages to the science; however, solely relying on these tenants does not ensure that scientific products will infuse the realms of management and policy. The process by which science successfully informs management decisions and policy products rarely begins at the time the results come out of the lab, but rather, before the research is carried out. Having an understanding of the political climate, management needs, agency research agendas, and funding limitations, as well as developing a working relationship with the intended managers and policy makers are key elements to developing the kind of science results and products that often make an impact in the management and policy world. In my presentation I will provide case-studies from California (USA) to highlight the type of coastal, ocean and climate science that has been successful in informing management decisions and policy documents, as well as provide a state-level agency perspective on the process by which this occurs.

Strategic relevance and accountability expectations: new perspectives for health care information technology design.

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, J K; Modrow, R E

1999-05-01

In this article, we discuss the traditional systems analysis perspective on end-user information requirements analysis and extend it to merge with the new accountability expectations perspective to guide the future planning and design of health organization information systems. Underlying the strategic relevance of health care information technology (HCIT) are three critical questions: (1) What is the ideal HCIT model for the health organization in terms of achieving strategic expertise and competitive advantage? Specifically, how does this model link industry performance standards with organizational performance and accountability expectations? (2) How should the limitations of past HCIT models be reconciled to the benefits presented by the superior arrangement of the ideal model in the context of changing accountability expectations? (3) How should alternative HCIT solutions be evaluated in light of evidence-based accountability and organizational performance benchmarking? Insights into these questions will ensure that health care managers, HCIT practitioners and researchers can continue to focus on the most critical issues in harnessing today's fast-paced changing technologies for evolving strategically relevant, performance-based health organization systems.

75 FR 70923 - Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology; HIT Policy Committee...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-11-19

... Technology; HIT Policy Committee Advisory Meeting; Notice of Meeting AGENCY: Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, HHS ACTION: Notice of meeting. This notice announces a... Information Technology (ONC). The meeting will be open to the public. Name of Committee: HIT Policy Committee...

Relevant cost information for order acceptance decisions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wouters, M.J.F.

1997-01-01

Some economic considerations for order acceptance decisions are discussed. The relevant economic considerations for order acceptance are widely discussed in the literature: only those costs are relevant which would be avoidable by not accepting the order incremental costs plus opportunity costs .

Divided attention selectively impairs memory for self-relevant information.

Science.gov (United States)

Turk, David J; Brady-van den Bos, Mirjam; Collard, Philip; Gillespie-Smith, Karri; Conway, Martin A; Cunningham, Sheila J

2013-05-01

Information that is relevant to oneself tends to be remembered more than information that relates to other people, but the role of attention in eliciting this "self-reference effect" is unclear. In the present study, we assessed the importance of attention in self-referential encoding using an ownership paradigm, which required participants to encode items under conditions of imagined ownership by themselves or by another person. Previous work has established that this paradigm elicits a robust self-reference effect, with more "self-owned" items being remembered than "other-owned" items. Access to attentional resources was manipulated using divided-attention tasks at encoding. A significant self-reference effect emerged under full-attention conditions and was related to an increase in episodic recollection for self-owned items, but dividing attention eliminated this memory advantage. These findings are discussed in relation to the nature of self-referential cognition and the importance of attentional resources at encoding in the manifestation of the self-reference effect in memory.

Federal Information Policies: The Impact on Competitiveness. A Summary of Proceedings of a Federal Library and Information Center Committee (FLICC) Annual Forum on Federal Information Policies (5th, Washington, DC, March 7, 1988).

Science.gov (United States)

Brooks, Douglas C.

This booklet summarizes the proceedings of a forum on the state of federal information policies as they relate to aiding American competitiveness in industrial and information markets at home and abroad. Speakers whose remarks are summarized include Librarian of Congress James H. Billington; New York Congressman Sherwood Boehlert, the keynote…

An analysis of contextual information relevant to medical care unexpectedly volunteered to researchers by asthma patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Black, Heather L; Priolo, Chantel; Gonzalez, Rodalyn; Geer, Sabrina; Adam, Bariituu; Apter, Andrea J

2012-09-01

To describe and categorize contextual information relevant to patients' medical care unexpectedly volunteered to research personnel as part of a patient advocate (PA) intervention to facilitate access health care, communication with medical personnel, and self-management of a chronic disease such as asthma. We adapted a patient navigator intervention, to overcome barriers to access and communication for adults with moderate or severe asthma. Informed by focus groups of patients and providers, our PAs facilitated preparation for a visit with an asthma provider, attended the visit, confirmed understanding, and assisted with post-visit activities. During meetings with researchers, either for PA activities or for data collection, participants frequently volunteered personal and medical information relevant for achieving successful self-management that was not routinely shared with medical personnel. For this project, researchers journaled information not captured by the structured questionnaires and protocol. Using a qualitative analysis, we describe (1) researchers' journals of these unique communications; (2) their relevance for accomplishing self-management; (3) PAs' formal activities including teach-back, advocacy, and facilitating appointment making; and (4) observations of patients' interactions with the clinical practices. In 83 journals, patients' social support (83%), health (68%), and deportment (69%) were described. PA assistance with navigating the medical system (59%), teach-back (46%), and observed interactions with patient and medical staff (76%) were also journaled. Implicit were ways patients and practices could overcome barriers to access and communication. These journals describe the importance of seeking contextual and medically relevant information from all patients and, especially, those with significant morbidities, prompting patients for barriers to access to health care, and confirming understanding of medical information.

Information security in academic libraries: the role of the librarian in planning and introducing institutional policies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juliana Soares Lima

2017-04-01

Full Text Available This study presents a short discussion about the role of the librarian as a mediator at planning, developing and implementing an Information Security Policy in Academic Libraries, by working together with professionals in the field of Information Technology. It also discusses the main virtual threats and some risks that are prone to infect computers in libraries. Based on the current legislation and on some normative documents about information security, it is confirmed the importance of the librarian take part in the main decision-making related to information security, such as planning a consistent Information Security Policy which be able to see the specific needs of Academic Libraries as institutions prone to cyberattacks. The main topics and guidelines to carry out an Information Security Policy are presented based on the results that were obtained through an action research, by visiting libraries to fill in application forms and to compose reports whose content was analyzed. Finally, the study concludes that Information Security Policy must be validated by managers of sectors or departments which the Academic Library is hierarchically subordinate to.

The feasibility of measuring and monitoring social determinants of health and the relevance for policy and programme – a qualitative assessment of four countries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erik Blas

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Background: Since the publication of the reports by the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH, many research papers have documented inequities, explaining causal pathways in order to inform policy and programmatic decision-making. At the international level, the sustainable development goals (SDGs reflect an attempt to bring together these themes and the complexities involved in defining a comprehensive development framework. However, to date, much less has been done to address the monitoring challenges, that is, how data generation, analysis and use are to become routine tasks. Objective: To test proposed indicators of social determinants of health (SDH, gender, equity, and human rights with respect to their relevance in tracking progress in universal health coverage and population health (level and distribution. Design: In an attempt to explore these monitoring challenges, indicators covering a wide range of social determinants were tested in four country case studies (Bangladesh, Brazil, South Africa, and Vietnam for their technical feasibility, reliability, and validity, and their communicability and usefulness to policy-makers. Twelve thematic domains with 20 core indicators covering different aspects of equity, human rights, gender, and SDH were tested through a review of data sources, descriptive analyses, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions. To test the communicability and usefulness of the domains, domain narratives that explained the causal pathways were presented to policy-makers, managers, the media, and civil society leaders. Results: For most countries, monitoring is possible, as some data were available for most of the core indicators. However, a qualitative assessment showed that technical feasibility, reliability, and validity varied across indicators and countries. Producing understandable and useful information proved challenging, and particularly so in translating indicator definitions and data

The Relevance of Using Mathematical Models in Macroeconomic Policies Theory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nora Mihail

2006-11-01

Full Text Available The article presents a look of the principal’s mathematical models – starting with Theil, Hansen and Tinbergen work – and their results used to analysis and design macroeconomic policies. In modeling field changes are very fast in theoretical aspects of modeling the many problems of macroeconomic policies and in using in practice the different political models elaboration. The article points out the problems of static and dynamic theory used in macro-policies modeling.

The Relevance of Using Mathematical Models in Macroeconomic Policies Theory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nora Mihail

2006-09-01

Full Text Available The article presents a look of the principal’s mathematical models – starting with Theil, Hansen and Tinbergen work – and their results used to analysis and design macroeconomic policies. In modeling field changes are very fast in theoretical aspects of modeling the many problems of macroeconomic policies and in using in practice the different political models elaboration. The article points out the problems of static and dynamic theory used in macro-policies modeling.

Respecting Young People's Informal Learning: Circumventing Strategic Policy Evasions

Science.gov (United States)

Quinn, Jocey

2018-01-01

This paper explores experiences at the interface of research and policy through the lens of informal learning. The paper contends that in order to further social justice it is essential to value the informal learning that takes place outside the confines of educational institutions. However, it also demonstrates the difficulties in getting…

Towards brain-activity-controlled information retrieval: Decoding image relevance from MEG signals.

Science.gov (United States)

Kauppi, Jukka-Pekka; Kandemir, Melih; Saarinen, Veli-Matti; Hirvenkari, Lotta; Parkkonen, Lauri; Klami, Arto; Hari, Riitta; Kaski, Samuel

2015-05-15

We hypothesize that brain activity can be used to control future information retrieval systems. To this end, we conducted a feasibility study on predicting the relevance of visual objects from brain activity. We analyze both magnetoencephalographic (MEG) and gaze signals from nine subjects who were viewing image collages, a subset of which was relevant to a predetermined task. We report three findings: i) the relevance of an image a subject looks at can be decoded from MEG signals with performance significantly better than chance, ii) fusion of gaze-based and MEG-based classifiers significantly improves the prediction performance compared to using either signal alone, and iii) non-linear classification of the MEG signals using Gaussian process classifiers outperforms linear classification. These findings break new ground for building brain-activity-based interactive image retrieval systems, as well as for systems utilizing feedback both from brain activity and eye movements. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Information visualisation for science and policy: engaging users and avoiding bias.

Science.gov (United States)

McInerny, Greg J; Chen, Min; Freeman, Robin; Gavaghan, David; Meyer, Miriah; Rowland, Francis; Spiegelhalter, David J; Stefaner, Moritz; Tessarolo, Geizi; Hortal, Joaquin

2014-03-01

Visualisations and graphics are fundamental to studying complex subject matter. However, beyond acknowledging this value, scientists and science-policy programmes rarely consider how visualisations can enable discovery, create engaging and robust reporting, or support online resources. Producing accessible and unbiased visualisations from complicated, uncertain data requires expertise and knowledge from science, policy, computing, and design. However, visualisation is rarely found in our scientific training, organisations, or collaborations. As new policy programmes develop [e.g., the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)], we need information visualisation to permeate increasingly both the work of scientists and science policy. The alternative is increased potential for missed discoveries, miscommunications, and, at worst, creating a bias towards the research that is easiest to display. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Applying knowledge translation tools to inform policy: the case of mental health in Lebanon.

Science.gov (United States)

Yehia, Farah; El Jardali, Fadi

2015-06-06

Many reform efforts in health systems fall short because the use of research evidence to inform policy remains scarce. In Lebanon, one in four adults suffers from a mental illness, yet access to mental healthcare services in primary healthcare (PHC) settings is limited. Using an "integrated" knowledge framework to link research to action, this study examines the process of influencing the mental health agenda in Lebanon through the application of Knowledge Translation (KT) tools and the use of a KT Platform (KTP) as an intermediary between researchers and policymakers. This study employed the following KT tools: 1) development of a policy brief to address the lack of access to mental health services in PHC centres, 2) semi-structured interviews with 10 policymakers and key informants, 3) convening of a national policy dialogue, 4) evaluation of the policy brief and dialogue, and 5) a post-dialogue survey. Findings from the key informant interviews and a comprehensive synthesis of evidence were used to develop a policy brief which defined the problem and presented three elements of a policy approach to address it. This policy brief was circulated to 24 participants prior to the dialogue to inform the discussion. The policy dialogue validated the evidence synthesized in the brief, whereby integrating mental health into PHC services was the element most supported by evidence as well as participants. The post-dialogue survey showed that, in the following 6 months, several implementation steps were taken by stakeholders, including establishing national taskforce, training PHC staff, and updating the national essential drug list to include psychiatric medications. Relationships among policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders were strengthened as they conducted their own workshops and meetings after the dialogue to further discuss implementation, and their awareness about and demand for KT tools increased. This case study showed that the use of KT tools in Lebanon to

Attitude importance and the accumulation of attitude-relevant knowledge in memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Holbrook, Allyson L; Berent, Matthew K; Krosnick, Jon A; Visser, Penny S; Boninger, David S

2005-05-01

People who attach personal importance to an attitude are especially knowledgeable about the attitude object. This article tests an explanation for this relation: that importance causes the accumulation of knowledge by inspiring selective exposure to and selective elaboration of relevant information. Nine studies showed that (a) after watching televised debates between presidential candidates, viewers were better able to remember the statements made on policy issues on which they had more personally important attitudes; (b) importance motivated selective exposure and selective elaboration: Greater personal importance was associated with better memory for relevant information encountered under controlled laboratory conditions, and manipulations eliminating opportunities for selective exposure and selective elaboration eliminated the importance-memory accuracy relation; and (c) people do not use perceptions of their knowledge volume to infer how important an attitude is to them, but importance does cause knowledge accumulation.

Using language models to identify relevant new information in inpatient clinical notes.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Rui; Pakhomov, Serguei V; Lee, Janet T; Melton, Genevieve B

2014-01-01

Redundant information in clinical notes within electronic health record (EHR) systems is ubiquitous and may negatively impact the use of these notes by clinicians, and, potentially, the efficiency of patient care delivery. Automated methods to identify redundant versus relevant new information may provide a valuable tool for clinicians to better synthesize patient information and navigate to clinically important details. In this study, we investigated the use of language models for identification of new information in inpatient notes, and evaluated our methods using expert-derived reference standards. The best method achieved precision of 0.743, recall of 0.832 and F1-measure of 0.784. The average proportion of redundant information was similar between inpatient and outpatient progress notes (76.6% (SD=17.3%) and 76.7% (SD=14.0%), respectively). Advanced practice providers tended to have higher rates of redundancy in their notes compared to physicians. Future investigation includes the addition of semantic components and visualization of new information.

Opportunities for strengthening infant and young child feeding policies in South Asia: Insights from the SAIFRN policy analysis project.

Science.gov (United States)

Thow, Anne Marie; Karn, Sumit; Devkota, Madhu Dixit; Rasheed, Sabrina; Roy, S K; Suleman, Yasmeen; Hazir, Tabish; Patel, Archana; Gaidhane, Abhay; Puri, Seema; Godakandage, Sanjeeva; Senarath, Upul; Dibley, Michael J

2017-06-13

South Asian countries experience some of the highest levels of child undernutrition in the world, strongly linked to poor infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices. Strong and responsive policy support is essential for effective interventions to improve IYCF. This study aimed to identify opportunities for strengthening the policy environment in the region to better support appropriate infant and young child feeding. We mapped policies relevant to infant and young child feeding in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, based on a common matrix. The matrix described potentially relevant policies ranging from high-level strategic policy documents to implementation-level guidelines. We analyzed the data based on themes focused on caregiver interactions with IYCF interventions: provision of correct information to mothers, training of frontline workers, enabling mothers to engage with service providers and strategic support for IYCF. Policy support for IYCF was present in relation to each of the themes assessed. In all countries, there was support for nutrition in National Development Plans, and all countries had some level of maternity protection and restrictions on marketing of breast milk substitutes. Sectoral and implementation-level policy documents contained provisions for system strengthening for IYCF and for training of frontline workers. The key opportunities for strengthening IYCF policy support were in relation to translating strategic directives into implementation level documents; improving multi-sectoral support and coordination; and increased clarity regarding roles and responsibilities of frontline workers interacting with mothers. These findings can support efforts to strengthen IYCF policy at the national and regional level.

Opportunities for strengthening infant and young child feeding policies in South Asia: Insights from the SAIFRN policy analysis project

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anne Marie Thow

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background South Asian countries experience some of the highest levels of child undernutrition in the world, strongly linked to poor infant and young child feeding (IYCF practices. Strong and responsive policy support is essential for effective interventions to improve IYCF. This study aimed to identify opportunities for strengthening the policy environment in the region to better support appropriate infant and young child feeding. Methods We mapped policies relevant to infant and young child feeding in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, based on a common matrix. The matrix described potentially relevant policies ranging from high-level strategic policy documents to implementation-level guidelines. We analyzed the data based on themes focused on caregiver interactions with IYCF interventions: provision of correct information to mothers, training of frontline workers, enabling mothers to engage with service providers and strategic support for IYCF. Results Policy support for IYCF was present in relation to each of the themes assessed. In all countries, there was support for nutrition in National Development Plans, and all countries had some level of maternity protection and restrictions on marketing of breast milk substitutes. Sectoral and implementation-level policy documents contained provisions for system strengthening for IYCF and for training of frontline workers. Conclusions The key opportunities for strengthening IYCF policy support were in relation to translating strategic directives into implementation level documents; improving multi-sectoral support and coordination; and increased clarity regarding roles and responsibilities of frontline workers interacting with mothers. These findings can support efforts to strengthen IYCF policy at the national and regional level.

Policy-Making Theory as an Analytical Framework in Policy Analysis: Implications for Research Design and Professional Advocacy.

Science.gov (United States)

Sheldon, Michael R

2016-01-01

Policy studies are a recent addition to the American Physical Therapy Association's Research Agenda and are critical to our understanding of various federal, state, local, and organizational policies on the provision of physical therapist services across the continuum of care. Policy analyses that help to advance the profession's various policy agendas will require relevant theoretical frameworks to be credible. The purpose of this perspective article is to: (1) demonstrate the use of a policy-making theory as an analytical framework in a policy analysis and (2) discuss how sound policy analysis can assist physical therapists in becoming more effective change agents, policy advocates, and partners with other relevant stakeholder groups. An exploratory study of state agency policy responses to address work-related musculoskeletal disorders is provided as a contemporary example to illustrate key points and to demonstrate the importance of selecting a relevant analytical framework based on the context of the policy issue under investigation. © 2016 American Physical Therapy Association.

Integrating research, legal technical assistance, and advocacy to inform shared use legislation in Mississippi.

Science.gov (United States)

Spengler, John O; Frost, Natasha R; Bryant, Katherine K

2014-01-01

The purpose of this article was to describe the process by which research findings informed the successful passage of legislation designed to increase opportunities for physical activity in Mississippi, and discuss implications and lessons learned from this process. The article is descriptive and conceptual, and addresses the collaborative process by which research, legal technical assistance, and advocacy informed and shaped shared use legislation in Mississippi. Collaborators informing this article were an Active Living Research grantee, a staff attorney with the Public Health Law Center, the American Heart Association Mississippi Government Relations Director, and community partners. The American Heart Association and Public Health Law Center developed policy guidance in the form of sample language for legislation as a starting point for states in determining policy needed to eliminate or reduce barriers to the shared use of school recreational facilities. The policy guidance was informed by evidence from Active Living Research-funded research studies. The American Heart Association, supporting a bill shaped by the policy guidance, led the effort to advocate for successful shared use legislation in Mississippi. Research should be policy relevant and properly translated and disseminated. Legal technical assistance should involve collaboration with both researchers and advocates so that policymakers have the information to make evidence-based decisions. Government relations directors should collaborate with legal technical staff to obtain and understand policy guidance relevant to their advocacy efforts. Effective collaborations, with an evidence-based approach, can lead to informed, successful policy change.

Information sources for obesity prevention policy research: a review of systematic reviews.

Science.gov (United States)

Hanneke, Rosie; Young, Sabrina K

2017-08-08

Systematic identification of evidence in health policy can be time-consuming and challenging. This study examines three questions pertaining to systematic reviews on obesity prevention policy, in order to identify the most efficient search methods: (1) What percentage of the primary studies selected for inclusion in the reviews originated in scholarly as opposed to gray literature? (2) How much of the primary scholarly literature in this topic area is indexed in PubMed/MEDLINE? (3) Which databases index the greatest number of primary studies not indexed in PubMed, and are these databases searched consistently across systematic reviews? We identified systematic reviews on obesity prevention policy and explored their search methods and citations. We determined the percentage of scholarly vs. gray literature cited, the most frequently cited journals, and whether each primary study was indexed in PubMed. We searched 21 databases for all primary study articles not indexed in PubMed to determine which database(s) indexed the highest number of these relevant articles. In total, 21 systematic reviews were identified. Ten of the 21 systematic reviews reported searching gray literature, and 12 reviews ultimately included gray literature in their analyses. Scholarly articles accounted for 577 of the 649 total primary study papers. Of these, 495 (76%) were indexed in PubMed. Google Scholar retrieved the highest number of the remaining 82 non-PubMed scholarly articles, followed by Scopus and EconLit. The Journal of the American Dietetic Association was the most-cited journal. Researchers can maximize search efficiency by searching a small yet targeted selection of both scholarly and gray literature resources. A highly sensitive search of PubMed and those databases that index the greatest number of relevant articles not indexed in PubMed, namely multidisciplinary and economics databases, could save considerable time and effort. When combined with a gray literature search and

How to decide on the scope, priorities and coordination of information society policy? Analytical framework and three case studies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Poel, M.; Kool, L.; Giessen, A. van der

2010-01-01

Purpose: ICT is everywhere, but information society policy cannot address all the sectors and policy issues in which ICT plays a role. This paper's aim is to develop an analytical framework to assist policy makers in deciding on the priorities and coordination of information society policy.

Linking attentional processes and conceptual problem solving: visual cues facilitate the automaticity of extracting relevant information from diagrams.

Science.gov (United States)

Rouinfar, Amy; Agra, Elise; Larson, Adam M; Rebello, N Sanjay; Loschky, Lester C

2014-01-01

This study investigated links between visual attention processes and conceptual problem solving. This was done by overlaying visual cues on conceptual physics problem diagrams to direct participants' attention to relevant areas to facilitate problem solving. Participants (N = 80) individually worked through four problem sets, each containing a diagram, while their eye movements were recorded. Each diagram contained regions that were relevant to solving the problem correctly and separate regions related to common incorrect responses. Problem sets contained an initial problem, six isomorphic training problems, and a transfer problem. The cued condition saw visual cues overlaid on the training problems. Participants' verbal responses were used to determine their accuracy. This study produced two major findings. First, short duration visual cues which draw attention to solution-relevant information and aid in the organizing and integrating of it, facilitate both immediate problem solving and generalization of that ability to new problems. Thus, visual cues can facilitate re-representing a problem and overcoming impasse, enabling a correct solution. Importantly, these cueing effects on problem solving did not involve the solvers' attention necessarily embodying the solution to the problem, but were instead caused by solvers attending to and integrating relevant information in the problems into a solution path. Second, this study demonstrates that when such cues are used across multiple problems, solvers can automatize the extraction of problem-relevant information extraction. These results suggest that low-level attentional selection processes provide a necessary gateway for relevant information to be used in problem solving, but are generally not sufficient for correct problem solving. Instead, factors that lead a solver to an impasse and to organize and integrate problem information also greatly facilitate arriving at correct solutions.

CERN has a new cultural policy

CERN Multimedia

Katarina Anthony

2010-01-01

A new cultural policy is to be unveiled at the beginning of 2011. Although CERN has been inspiring the works of artists for decades, the new policy represents the first official framework for CERN's engagement with the arts.   Screenshot of the upcoming ARTS@CERN Website. The new cultural policy features four main activities: the creation of an honorary advisory board, the launch of an Artist in Residence programme, support for the various cultural events developed at CERN, and a new website which will showcase CERN’s significant cultural activities and provide relevant information for both artists and people working at CERN. “The new cultural policy shows how much CERN values its significant role in culture,” explains Ariane Koek, the Communication Group’s cultural specialist working on this project. “CERN’s policy is extremely progressive, as it brings together art and science at the same level – Great Arts for Great Sci...

Chain-computerisation for interorganisational public policy implementation : A new approach to developing non-intrusive information infrastructures that improve public policy implementation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Grijpink, J.H.A.M.

1999-01-01

In two articles the author presents some key elements from his recently completed thesis about functional, non-intrusive information infrastructures for interorganisational public policy implementation. The development of these information infrastructures requires a new approach,

State Responses to Alcohol Use and Pregnancy: Findings From the Alcohol Policy Information System (APIS)

OpenAIRE

DRABBLE, LAURIE; THOMAS, SUE; O’CONNOR, LISA; ROBERTS, SARAH CM

2014-01-01

This article describes U.S. state policies related to alcohol use during pregnancy, using data from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) Alcohol Policy Information System (APIS). Specifically, this study examines trends in policies enacted by states over time and types of policies enacted across states in the U.S., with a focus on whether laws were supportive or punitive toward women. Findings revealed substantial variability in characteristics of policies (19 primar...

Information Operations, Electronic Warfare, and Cyberwar: Capabilities and Related Policy Issues

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Wilson, Clay

2007-01-01

.... It also suggests related policy issues of potential interest to Congress. For military planners, the control of information is critical to military success, and communications networks and computers are of vital operational importance...

Active Labour Market Policies for Disabled People in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Høgelund, Jan; Greve, Jane

The main objective of this paper is to provide relevant information about existing active labour market policies for the disabled people in Denmark. The paper presents an over-view of active labour market schemes in Denmark. The description suggests that the policy emphasises active labour market...... market policy towards disabled people but no vital reforms. Incentives to strengthen (re-)integration of disabled people at the labour market and increasing responsibilities of non-public actors (e.g. employers) are some of the main characteristics of the Danish employment policy. Available evaluative...... studies on active labour market policy in Denmark, is set out in the final section of this paper. In general these studies suggest that active labour market policies facilitate the employment of disabled people but that some of the policies also have negative side effects such as stigmatisation and dead...

76 FR 44337 - Comments and Information Relevant to Mid Decade Review of NORA

Science.gov (United States)

2011-07-25

... NIOSH-244] Comments and Information Relevant to Mid Decade Review of NORA AGENCY: Department of Health...) is conducting a review of the processes of the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA). In 2006, NORA entered its second decade with an industry sector-based structure. In 2011, as NORA reaches the...

Policy Implementation of Working Procedures of Information and Documentation Officer at Cimahi City

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karina Intan Permatasari

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Since one year after the enactment of Public Information Disclosure Rights Number 14 of 2008 in April 2010, all government in Indonesia shall establish Information and Documentation Officer (PPID and all supporting instruments. Cimahi itself had made Cimahi Mayor Regulation No. 4 of 2011 on the Working Procedures and Documentation Information Management Officer at Cimahi in response to the main policy. However, despite being implemented for 3 years, implementation of this policy is not in accordance with UU KIP sought to assess and analyse the factors that cause these obstacles by using the theory of Charles O. Jones who focuses on organizational aspects, aspects of the interpretation and application of aspects of using qualitative research methods.

Informing principal policy reforms in South Africa through data-based evidence

OpenAIRE

Gabrielle Wills

2015-01-01

In the past decade there has been a notable shift in South African education policy that raises the value of school leadership as a lever for learning improvements. Despite a growing discourse on school leadership, there has been a lack of empirical based evidence on principals to inform, validate or debate the efficacy of proposed policies in raising the calibre of school principals. Drawing on findings from a larger study to understand the labour market for school principals in South Africa...

Motivated memory: memory for attitude-relevant information as a function of self-esteem

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wiersema, D.V.; van der Pligt, J.; van Harreveld, F.

2010-01-01

In this article we offer a new perspective on the contradictory findings in the literature on memory for attitude-relevant information. We propose that biases in memory are most likely to occur when the attitude involved is connected to personally important values and the self; i.e., if the attitude

Relevance between the degree of industrial competition and fair value information: Study on the listed companies in China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xuemin Zhuang

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Purpose: The purpose of this article is to study whether there exists natural relationship between fair value and corporate external market. A series of special phenomenon in the application of fair value arouses our research interests, which present evidences on how competition affects the correlation of fair value information. Design/methodology/approach: this thesis chooses fair value changes gains and losses and calculate the ratio of DFVPSit as the alternative variable of the fair value. In order to effectively inspect the mutual influence between the degree of industry competition and the value relevance of fair value, and reduce the impact of multi-collinearity, we built a regression model on the hypothesis, which supposes that if other conditions are the same, the fair value information has greater value relevance if the degree of the industry competition is greater. To test the hypothesis, we use the comparison of the DFVPSit coefficient absolute value to judge the value relevance of fair value information, and the greater the absolute value is, the higher relevance between the changes in fair value per share profits and losses with the stock prices. Findings: The higher the degree of competition in the industry is, the more fair value information relevance is. Also, there are evidences representing that fair value information often presents negative correlation with the stock price. Originality/value: The main contribution of the article is to show that not only need we make the formulation and implementation of the high quality of fair value accounting standards to suit for both the national conditions and international practice, but also need we further to improve the company's external governance mechanism to promote fair value’s information correlation.

Turkey in Search of Relevant Foreign Policy Strategy (2002-2016

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Urmanov Dayan R.

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The main idea of this article is to describe the process of Turkish foreign policy evolvement during the rule of Justice and Development party (JDP. From weak economy and unstable political situation in 2001, JDP quickly formulated a new strategy of foreign policy and stabilized economy. In the article the Turkish foreign policy in the 21st century is divided into several stages which respond to different international threats and circumstances. The first stage was a peacekeeping stage when Turkey tried to stabilize the situation near its borders and implement peace initiatives for the purpose to find new markets and allies. As a result, Turkey formulated a new strategy of foreign policy, called “Zero Problems Policy” which aimed to create a ring of friendly countries on the borders. On the second stage, Turkish foreign policy was more active – Turkey tried to balance among regional power centers and confront with one of the most powerful actors – Israel. Confrontation with Tel Aviv was a preface to the third stage, and today under the influence of “Arab Spring” and desire to change its role in international relations, Turkey refused “Zero Problems Policy” strategy and turned to a new aggressive and revanchist idea – neo- Ottomanism. Ankara tries to build a new regional set of rules where Turkey will play a leading role.

Ministry of health on facebook: an information policy case study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Flávia Moraes Moreira

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Introduction: The growth of social networks on the internet is visible. Everywhere people use these tools on various places, either via desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone. In Brazil, the most prominent network in recent years is Facebook, which reached 76 million users in June 2013, an unprecedented number in the country. The growth allowed governments to perceive this virtual space as a potential place to present their work and communicate with society. Objectives: The study goal is to observe how information has been publicized by the Ministry of Health through Facebook since 2010 (year of creation of the page until October 2013, taking as an analytical category the implemented information policy, in order to propose a discussion about democratization of access to health information. Methodology: case study; Non-participant observation, data collection and documental analysis. Results: The main issues addressed by the Ministry of Health on Facebook are organizational actions and government programs instead of posts with guidance for a healthy living style. Also noteworthy is the low interaction of the Ministry page moderators with the users profile. The study showed most of the questions and comments made by the public are not answered by the institutional body. Conclusions: Need of strengthening the mediaton process of the information policies from the Ministry of Health on Facebook.

The use of stereotypes and individuating information in political person perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Crawford, Jarret T; Jussim, Lee; Madon, Stephanie; Cain, Thomas R; Stevens, Sean T

2011-04-01

This article introduces the political person perception model, which identifies conditions under which perceivers rely on stereotypes (party membership), individuating information (issue position), or both in political person perception. Three studies supported the model's predictions. Study 1 showed that perceivers gave primacy to target information that was narrowly relevant to a judgment, whether that information was stereotypic or individuating. Study 2 found that perceivers relied exclusively on individuating information when it was narrowly relevant to the judgment and relied on both stereotype and individuating information when individuating information was not narrowly relevant to the judgment but did imply a political ideology. Study 3 replicated these findings in a more ecologically valid context and showed that people relied on party information in the absence of narrowly relevant policy positions and when individuating information did not imply a political ideology. Implications for political person perception and theories of stereotyping are discussed.

Research on the Dividend Policy of Listed Company and Fluctuation Effect of Stock Market

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wang Hua

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Based on the dividend policy and theory, this article takes the events that A stock of all the listed banking companies (16 in total issued dividend in the CSI stock market for 5 years from 2008 to 2012 as the investigation samples to inspect the relevance of dividend policy with the fluctuation of stock price and transaction volume, thus to prove the dividend policy is an efficient mechanism for information transmission.

Informal public transport driver behaviour and regulatory policy linkage: An expose

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Smart Dumba

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Background: Literature on the negative socio-economic and environmental externalities generated by informal public transport (IPT in developing countries is vast, vibrant and growing fast. These externalities include but are not limited to noise, air and land pollution, accidents and, more importantly, a source of congestion (human and vehicular because of poor driver behaviour. In this article, the research does not seek to reinstate these, but rather, it argues that poor driver behaviour is a dependent variable to some regulatory policy stimuli. Yet, an extensive literature survey has shown that the driver behaviour and urban transport regulation linkage remain little explored. Objective: The purpose of this article was to unpack the relationship between informal public transport driver behaviour and the prevailing regulatory framework. Method: Based on a case study of Harare, Zimbabwe, the researcher adopted a mixed-methods paradigm and interrogated the prevailing urban public transport regulatory regimes and applied professional judgement, oral interviews backed by some quantitative data and relate these to obtaining IPT driver behavioural characteristics. Results: Poor driver behaviour exhibited by IPT were generated, exacerbated and or eased by the prevailing regulatory policy. This is well depicted through an IPT driver behaviour and regulation loop reinforcing diagram. Conclusion: Following this argument, the article cautions policy makers and urban managers alike that direct approaches and interventions when trying to regulate IPT poor driver behaviour and its secondary negative effects will be futile as long as the regulatory policy remains the same. Failure to recognise and connect the dots between IPT driver behaviour and policy partly explains why globally, the IPT sector has proved difficult in prohibiting, restructuring or even formalising it.

The Encryption Export Policy Controversy: Searching for Balance in the Information Age

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Miller, Marcus S

2000-01-01

.... The federal government s encryption export policy highlights a complex information age issue involving seemingly insurmountable conflicts between national security, law enforcement, privacy, and business interests...

75 FR 10507 - Information Security Oversight Office; National Industrial Security Program Policy Advisory...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-03-08

... NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION Information Security Oversight Office; National Industrial Security Program Policy Advisory Committee (NISPPAC) AGENCY: National Archives and Records... individuals planning to attend must be submitted to the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) no later...

IMPACT OF THE CONVERGENCE PROCESS TO INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL REPORTING STANDARDS ON THE VALUE RELEVANCE OF FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcelo Alvaro da Silva Macedo

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Law 11.638/07 marked the start of a series of changes in the laws that regulate Brazilian accounting practices. The main reason for these changes is the convergence process of local with international accounting standards. As a result of Law 11.638/07, the legal precedent was established to achieve convergence. In that context, the aim of this study is to analyze the impact of the convergence process with international accounting standards on the relevance of financial information, based on data for 2007, without and with the alterations Law 11.638/07 introduced and according to the CPC Pronouncements, applicable as from 2008 onwards. Therefore, a value relevance study is used, applying regression analysis to annual stock price information (dependent variable and net profit per share (NPPS and net equity per share (NEPS as independent variables. The main results show that financial information on NPPS and NEPS for 2007, with and without the legal alterations, are relevant for the capital market. A comparison between both regressions used in the analysis, however, shows an information gain for financial information that includes the changes introduced in the first phase of the accounting convergence process with the international standards.

Advancing Open 3D Modelling Standards in National Spatial Information Policy

OpenAIRE

Trakas, A.; Janssen, P.; Stoter, J.

2012-01-01

Individuals and organisations around the world - facing extraordinary challenges and new opportunities - are together engaged in numerous projects, involving natural and built environments. Spatial information policy is at the heart of these projects. The information technologies available enable individuals to observe, measure, describe, map and portray these environments with increasing ease, flexibility and precision. In our time, individuals create digital geographic objects that reflect ...

A policy of openness and information at Valduc

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

2000-01-01

CEA-Valduc located 45 kilometers northwest of Dijon is one of the facilities belonging to the Division of Military Applications (DAM) of the CEA (French Atomic Energy Commission). Established In 1957 on an estate of roughly two thousand acres, this center of expertise on nuclear materials brings together roughly 1,000 research scientists, engineers and technicians. The facility has been committed to the quality approach for many years. It has also Initiated an Environment Management System policy for the preservation of the environment. True to its commitment to information dissemination and openness, CEA -Valduc is involved in the works of the SEIVA, an independent exchange and information agency chaired by Gerard Niquet, Senior Lecturer at the University of Burgundy. (author)

Designing evaluation studies to optimally inform policy: what factors do policy-makers in China consider when making resource allocation decisions on healthcare worker training programmes?

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Shishi; Legido-Quigley, Helena; Spencer, Julia; Coker, Richard James; Khan, Mishal Sameer

2018-02-23

In light of the gap in evidence to inform future resource allocation decisions about healthcare provider (HCP) training in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and the considerable donor investments being made towards training interventions, evaluation studies that are optimally designed to inform local policy-makers are needed. The aim of our study is to understand what features of HCP training evaluation studies are important for decision-making by policy-makers in LMICs. We investigate the extent to which evaluations based on the widely used Kirkpatrick model - focusing on direct outcomes of training, namely reaction of trainees, learning, behaviour change and improvements in programmatic health indicators - align with policy-makers' evidence needs for resource allocation decisions. We use China as a case study where resource allocation decisions about potential scale-up (using domestic funding) are being made about an externally funded pilot HCP training programme. Qualitative data were collected from high-level officials involved in resource allocation at the national and provincial level in China through ten face-to-face, in-depth interviews and two focus group discussions consisting of ten participants each. Data were analysed manually using an interpretive thematic analysis approach. Our study indicates that Chinese officials not only consider information about the direct outcomes of a training programme, as captured in the Kirkpatrick model, but also need information on the resources required to implement the training, the wider or indirect impacts of training, and the sustainability and scalability to other settings within the country. In addition to considering findings presented in evaluation studies, we found that Chinese policy-makers pay close attention to whether the evaluations were robust and to the composition of the evaluation team. Our qualitative study indicates that training programme evaluations that focus narrowly on direct training

Creation of reliable relevance judgments in information retrieval systems evaluation experimentation through crowdsourcing: a review.

Science.gov (United States)

Samimi, Parnia; Ravana, Sri Devi

2014-01-01

Test collection is used to evaluate the information retrieval systems in laboratory-based evaluation experimentation. In a classic setting, generating relevance judgments involves human assessors and is a costly and time consuming task. Researchers and practitioners are still being challenged in performing reliable and low-cost evaluation of retrieval systems. Crowdsourcing as a novel method of data acquisition is broadly used in many research fields. It has been proven that crowdsourcing is an inexpensive and quick solution as well as a reliable alternative for creating relevance judgments. One of the crowdsourcing applications in IR is to judge relevancy of query document pair. In order to have a successful crowdsourcing experiment, the relevance judgment tasks should be designed precisely to emphasize quality control. This paper is intended to explore different factors that have an influence on the accuracy of relevance judgments accomplished by workers and how to intensify the reliability of judgments in crowdsourcing experiment.

How do experts define relevance criteria when initiating Health Impact Assessments of national policies?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kraemer, Stella Rj; Gulis, Gabriel

2014-01-01

The aim of this article is to present how the Danish Disease Prevention Committee (DDPC) members and HIA-experts understand when HIA is "relevant", which in this context means when there is "presumed to be a direct and documented effect on the health and morbidity of citizens". Method: DDPC members...... were interviewed face-to-face; HIA experts participated in an e-survey. Results: Six DDPC members were interviewed and 100 HIA-experts participated in a survey. The DDPC members consider direct as the link between determinants and the related risk factors. The HIA experts consider direct as the link...... between policy and the related risk factors. Both groups favour the use of scientific evidence according to the traditional biomedical evidence hierarchy but HIA-experts also judge that there is value in using evidence that can be considered weak such as local community knowledge. Conclusions: It is clear...

Informal Payments in the Health Care System - Research, Media and Policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Răzvan Cherecheş

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Informal payments in the health system refer to any payment made outside the legal funding framework. The existence of the phenomenon in Central and Eastern European countries relates to the characteristics of the health systems in the communist period. The analysis is based on three types of data: a set of data gathered from literature review; a second set of data gathered from online media; and a third set of data collected from legislative and public policy. The analysis was pursued using the key words such as informal payment, under-the-table payment, out-of-pocket payment, envelope payment, healthcare corruption, under-the-counter payment. As reflected in the media reports and even publicly recognized by the officials of the Ministry of Health, informal payments are a serious problem of the Romanian healthcare system. Nevertheless, the studies pursued by local researchers are inconsistent with the actual magnitude of the problem. Besides that, there is a serious gap between the findings in this area and the policies intended to reduce the phenomenon.

Reply to Ridoutt and Huang: From water footprint assessment to policy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hoekstra, Arjen Y.; Mekonnen, Mesfin

2012-01-01

According to Ridoutt and Huang (1), “environmental relevance must be taken into consideration if water footprints are to inform wise decision making and policy development.” Indeed, reduction targets regarding water footprints (WFs) within catchments should be formulated on the basis of relative

The Limits to Relevance

Science.gov (United States)

Averill, M.; Briggle, A.

2006-12-01

Science policy and knowledge production lately have taken a pragmatic turn. Funding agencies increasingly are requiring scientists to explain the relevance of their work to society. This stems in part from mounting critiques of the "linear model" of knowledge production in which scientists operating according to their own interests or disciplinary standards are presumed to automatically produce knowledge that is of relevance outside of their narrow communities. Many contend that funded scientific research should be linked more directly to societal goals, which implies a shift in the kind of research that will be funded. While both authors support the concept of useful science, we question the exact meaning of "relevance" and the wisdom of allowing it to control research agendas. We hope to contribute to the conversation by thinking more critically about the meaning and limits of the term "relevance" and the trade-offs implicit in a narrow utilitarian approach. The paper will consider which interests tend to be privileged by an emphasis on relevance and address issues such as whose goals ought to be pursued and why, and who gets to decide. We will consider how relevance, narrowly construed, may actually limit the ultimate utility of scientific research. The paper also will reflect on the worthiness of research goals themselves and their relationship to a broader view of what it means to be human and to live in society. Just as there is more to being human than the pragmatic demands of daily life, there is more at issue with knowledge production than finding the most efficient ways to satisfy consumer preferences or fix near-term policy problems. We will conclude by calling for a balanced approach to funding research that addresses society's most pressing needs but also supports innovative research with less immediately apparent application.

Case study of information product for strategy research, planning research, and policy research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yuan Yujun; Zou Lin; Liu Qun; Wang Yongping

2010-01-01

Soft science research is significant and can directly support the decision-making and development. The strategy research, planning research, and policy research each play an important role in soft science research. As the National Strategy of Informatization being implemented and advanced, some progress are made and some special information tools are produced in the process of strengthening the development research with information technologies. At first, the article introduced some cases of information products application, such as the domestic and overseas information products for energy strategy research and planning research and policy research, the governmental management information system for planning and investment, examination and approval and permission system for the planning of the land for construction, China agriculture decision support system and so on, and also gave a brief analysis on the theories and methods, main functions and application status. And then, with a analysis on the features of the works of development planning of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) development, this article gave some suggestions on how to strengthen the development of information system for the development planning of the CNNC. (authors)

Deep learning relevance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lioma, Christina; Larsen, Birger; Petersen, Casper

2016-01-01

train a Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) on existing relevant information to that query. We then use the RNN to "deep learn" a single, synthetic, and we assume, relevant document for that query. We design a crowdsourcing experiment to assess how relevant the "deep learned" document is, compared...... to existing relevant documents. Users are shown a query and four wordclouds (of three existing relevant documents and our deep learned synthetic document). The synthetic document is ranked on average most relevant of all....

Strategizing for Public Policy: The Information Literacy State Proclamation Project

Science.gov (United States)

Weiner, Sharon A.; Jackman, Lana W.; Prause, Emily

2013-01-01

This article describes a project designed to raise the awareness of policymakers about the importance of information literacy to achieve societal goals. Issues benefit from the governmental support, prioritization, mandates, and funding that can result when there is policy behind them. Studies indicate that many people lack the ability to draw on…

Outcome and value uncertainties in global-change policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hammitt, J.K.

1995-01-01

Choices among environmental policies can be informed by analysis of the potential physical, biological, and social outcomes of alternative choices, and analysis of social preferences among these outcomes. Frequently, however, the consequences of alternative policies cannot be accurately predicted because of substantial outcome uncertainties concerning physical, chemical, biological, and social processes linking policy choices to consequences. Similarly, assessments of social preferences among alternative outcomes are limited by value uncertainties arising from limitations of moral principles, the absence of economic markets for many environmental attributes, and other factors. Outcome and value uncertainties relevant to global-change policy are described and their magnitudes are examined for two cases: stratospheric-ozone depletion and global climate change. Analysis of information available in the mid 1980s, when international ozone regulations were adopted, suggests that contemporary uncertainties surrounding CFC emissions and the atmospheric response were so large that plausible ozone depletion, absent regulation, ranged from negligible to catastrophic, a range that exceeded the plausible effect of the regulations considered. Analysis of climate change suggests that, important as outcome uncertainties are, uncertainties about values may be even more important for policy choice. 53 refs., 3 figs., 3 tabs

Expert vs. novice differences in the detection of relevant information during a chess game: evidence from eye movements.

Science.gov (United States)

Sheridan, Heather; Reingold, Eyal M

2014-01-01

The present study explored the ability of expert and novice chess players to rapidly distinguish between regions of a chessboard that were relevant to the best move on the board, and regions of the board that were irrelevant. Accordingly, we monitored the eye movements of expert and novice chess players, while they selected white's best move for a variety of chess problems. To manipulate relevancy, we constructed two different versions of each chess problem in the experiment, and we counterbalanced these versions across participants. These two versions of each problem were identical except that a single piece was changed from a bishop to a knight. This subtle change reversed the relevancy map of the board, such that regions that were relevant in one version of the board were now irrelevant (and vice versa). Using this paradigm, we demonstrated that both the experts and novices spent more time fixating the relevant relative to the irrelevant regions of the board. However, the experts were faster at detecting relevant information than the novices, as shown by the finding that experts (but not novices) were able to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information during the early part of the trial. These findings further demonstrate the domain-related perceptual processing advantage of chess experts, using an experimental paradigm that allowed us to manipulate relevancy under tightly controlled conditions.

Expert versus novice differences in the detection of relevant information during a chess game: Evidence from eye movements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Heather eSheridan

2014-08-01

Full Text Available The present study explored the ability of expert and novice chess players to rapidly distinguish between regions of a chessboard that were relevant to the best move on the board, and regions of the board that were irrelevant. Accordingly, we monitored the eye movements of expert and novice chess players, while they selected white’s best move for a variety of chess problems. To manipulate relevancy, we constructed two different versions of each chess problem in the experiment, and we counterbalanced these versions across participants. These two versions of each problem were identical except that a single piece was changed from a bishop to a knight. This subtle change reversed the relevancy map of the board, such that regions that were relevant in one version of the board were now irrelevant (and vice versa. Using this paradigm, we demonstrated that both the experts and novices spent more time fixating the relevant relative to the irrelevant regions of the board. However, the experts were faster at detecting relevant information than the novices, as shown by the finding that experts (but not novices were able to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information during the early part of the trial. These findings further demonstrate the domain-related perceptual processing advantage of chess experts, using an experimental paradigm that allowed us to manipulate relevancy under tightly controlled conditions.

Ancillary health effects of climate mitigation scenarios as drivers of policy uptake: a review of air quality, transportation and diet co-benefits modeling studies

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Kelly M.; Hess, Jeremy J.; Balbus, John M.; Buonocore, Jonathan J.; Cleveland, David A.; Grabow, Maggie L.; Neff, Roni; Saari, Rebecca K.; Tessum, Christopher W.; Wilkinson, Paul; Woodward, Alistair; Ebi, Kristie L.

2017-11-01

Background: Significant mitigation efforts beyond the Nationally Determined Commitments (NDCs) coming out of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement are required to avoid warming of 2 °C above pre-industrial temperatures. Health co-benefits represent selected near term, positive consequences of climate policies that can offset mitigation costs in the short term before the beneficial impacts of those policies on the magnitude of climate change are evident. The diversity of approaches to modeling mitigation options and their health effects inhibits meta-analyses and syntheses of results useful in policy-making. Methods/Design: We evaluated the range of methods and choices in modeling health co-benefits of climate mitigation to identify opportunities for increased consistency and collaboration that could better inform policy-making. We reviewed studies quantifying the health co-benefits of climate change mitigation related to air quality, transportation, and diet published since the 2009 Lancet Commission ‘Managing the health effects of climate change’ through January 2017. We documented approaches, methods, scenarios, health-related exposures, and health outcomes. Results/Synthesis: Forty-two studies met the inclusion criteria. Air quality, transportation, and diet scenarios ranged from specific policy proposals to hypothetical scenarios, and from global recommendations to stakeholder-informed local guidance. Geographic and temporal scope as well as validity of scenarios determined policy relevance. More recent studies tended to use more sophisticated methods to address complexity in the relevant policy system. Discussion: Most studies indicated significant, nearer term, local ancillary health benefits providing impetus for policy uptake and net cost savings. However, studies were more suited to describing the interaction of climate policy and health and the magnitude of potential outcomes than to providing specific accurate estimates of health co-benefits. Modeling

[An overview of the definition and implementation of the Brazilian National Policy on Health Data and Information Technology].

Science.gov (United States)

Cavalcante, Ricardo Bezerra; Kerr-Pinheiro, Marta Macedo; Guimarães, Eliete Albano de Azevedo; Miranda, Richardson Machado

2015-05-01

The This qualitative study aimed to analyze the development and implementation of the Brazilian National Policy on Health Data and Information Technology (NPIIH). We analyzed documents and applied an online questionnaire to the experts involved in developing the policy. The data were submitted to content analysis using the categorical thematic modality. The PNIIS is the target of debate and proposals at various levels. Provisions have appeared in parallel to regulate measures on health data and information technology. Community participation in developing this policy and the convergence of laws, standards, resolutions, and policy-making levels in a common and broadly acknowledged and enforced policy are challenges, in addition to linking the public and private sectors. The study concludes that the National Policy on Health Data and Information Technology is making gradual progress, predominantly in theoretical debates, revisions, and updates. There are numerous challenges for its implementation and a prevailing need for legitimation.

LANGUAGE EXPERIENCE SHAPES PROCESSING OF PITCH RELEVANT INFORMATION IN THE HUMAN BRAINSTEM AND AUDITORY CORTEX: ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL EVIDENCE.

Science.gov (United States)

Krishnan, Ananthanarayan; Gandour, Jackson T

2014-12-01

Pitch is a robust perceptual attribute that plays an important role in speech, language, and music. As such, it provides an analytic window to evaluate how neural activity relevant to pitch undergo transformation from early sensory to later cognitive stages of processing in a well coordinated hierarchical network that is subject to experience-dependent plasticity. We review recent evidence of language experience-dependent effects in pitch processing based on comparisons of native vs. nonnative speakers of a tonal language from electrophysiological recordings in the auditory brainstem and auditory cortex. We present evidence that shows enhanced representation of linguistically-relevant pitch dimensions or features at both the brainstem and cortical levels with a stimulus-dependent preferential activation of the right hemisphere in native speakers of a tone language. We argue that neural representation of pitch-relevant information in the brainstem and early sensory level processing in the auditory cortex is shaped by the perceptual salience of domain-specific features. While both stages of processing are shaped by language experience, neural representations are transformed and fundamentally different at each biological level of abstraction. The representation of pitch relevant information in the brainstem is more fine-grained spectrotemporally as it reflects sustained neural phase-locking to pitch relevant periodicities contained in the stimulus. In contrast, the cortical pitch relevant neural activity reflects primarily a series of transient temporal neural events synchronized to certain temporal attributes of the pitch contour. We argue that experience-dependent enhancement of pitch representation for Chinese listeners most likely reflects an interaction between higher-level cognitive processes and early sensory-level processing to improve representations of behaviorally-relevant features that contribute optimally to perception. It is our view that long

Information technology in developing countries: a study to guide policy formulation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Boer, S.J.; Walbeek, M.M.

1999-01-01

This article discusses the information gap between industrialised and developing countries. In view of this gap, the Dutch Ministry of Development Co-operation decided to finance research aimed at formulating policy recommendations on the removal of bottlenecks preventing or slowing down the growth

77 FR 74625 - Policy To Encourage Trial Disclosure Programs; Information Collection

Science.gov (United States)

2012-12-17

... BUREAU OF CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION 12 CFR Chapter X [Docket No. CFPB-2012-0046] Policy To Encourage Trial Disclosure Programs; Information Collection AGENCY: Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection... Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau) invites the general public and other Federal agencies to...

Lending policies of informal, formal and semiformal lenders - Evidence from Vietnam

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pham, Thi Thu Tra; Lensink, Robert

2007-01-01

This paper compares lending policies of formal, informal and semiformal lenders with respect to household lending in Vietnam. The analysis suggests that the probability of using formal or semiformal credit increases if borrowers provide collateral, a guarantor and/or borrow for business-related

Regulations, policies and practices concerning work stress in five European countries

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kompier, M.; Gier, E. de; Smulders, P.; Draaisma, D.

1994-01-01

A comparative inventory of regulations, policies and practices in The Netherlands, Sweden, UK, Germany and France with regard to the prevention of work stress was carried out. In each country data were collected by means of interviews with key informants and through exploring relevant documents and

Truth and Credibility in Sincere Policy Analysis: Alternative Approaches for the Production of Policy-Relevant Knowledge.

Science.gov (United States)

Bozeman, Barry; Landsbergen, David

1989-01-01

Two competing approaches to policy analysis are distinguished: a credibility approach, and a truth approach. According to the credibility approach, the policy analyst's role is to search for plausible argument rather than truth. Each approach has pragmatic tradeoffs in fulfilling the goal of providing usable knowledge to decision makers. (TJH)

Identifying relevant group of miRNAs in cancer using fuzzy mutual information.

Science.gov (United States)

Pal, Jayanta Kumar; Ray, Shubhra Sankar; Pal, Sankar K

2016-04-01

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) act as a major biomarker of cancer. All miRNAs in human body are not equally important for cancer identification. We propose a methodology, called FMIMS, which automatically selects the most relevant miRNAs for a particular type of cancer. In FMIMS, miRNAs are initially grouped by using a SVM-based algorithm; then the group with highest relevance is determined and the miRNAs in that group are finally ranked for selection according to their redundancy. Fuzzy mutual information is used in computing the relevance of a group and the redundancy of miRNAs within it. Superiority of the most relevant group to all others, in deciding normal or cancer, is demonstrated on breast, renal, colorectal, lung, melanoma and prostate data. The merit of FMIMS as compared to several existing methods is established. While 12 out of 15 selected miRNAs by FMIMS corroborate with those of biological investigations, three of them viz., "hsa-miR-519," "hsa-miR-431" and "hsa-miR-320c" are possible novel predictions for renal cancer, lung cancer and melanoma, respectively. The selected miRNAs are found to be involved in disease-specific pathways by targeting various genes. The method is also able to detect the responsible miRNAs even at the primary stage of cancer. The related code is available at http://www.jayanta.droppages.com/FMIMS.html .

Metrics for evaluating patient navigation during cancer diagnosis and treatment: crafting a policy-relevant research agenda for patient navigation in cancer care.

Science.gov (United States)

Guadagnolo, B Ashleigh; Dohan, Daniel; Raich, Peter

2011-08-01

Racial and ethnic minorities as well as other vulnerable populations experience disparate cancer-related health outcomes. Patient navigation is an emerging health care delivery innovation that offers promise in improving quality of cancer care delivery to these patients who experience unique health-access barriers. Metrics are needed to evaluate whether patient navigation can improve quality of care delivery, health outcomes, and overall value in health care during diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Information regarding the current state of the science examining patient navigation interventions was gathered via search of the published scientific literature. A focus group of providers, patient navigators, and health-policy experts was convened as part of the Patient Navigation Leadership Summit sponsored by the American Cancer Society. Key metrics were identified for assessing the efficacy of patient navigation in cancer diagnosis and treatment. Patient navigation data exist for all stages of cancer care; however, the literature is more robust for its implementation during prevention, screening, and early diagnostic workup of cancer. Relatively fewer data are reported for outcomes and efficacy of patient navigation during cancer treatment. Metrics are proposed for a policy-relevant research agenda to evaluate the efficacy of patient navigation in cancer diagnosis and treatment. Patient navigation is understudied with respect to its use in cancer diagnosis and treatment. Core metrics are defined to evaluate its efficacy in improving outcomes and mitigating health-access barriers. Copyright © 2011 American Cancer Society.

Autism Spectrum Disorder Updates - Relevant Information for Early Interventionists to Consider.

Science.gov (United States)

Allen-Meares, Paula; MacDonald, Megan; McGee, Kristin

2016-01-01

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a pervasive developmental disorder characterized by deficits in social communication skills as well as repetitive, restricted or stereotyped behaviors (1). Early interventionists are often found at the forefront of assessment, evaluation, and early intervention services for children with ASD. The role of an early intervention specialist may include assessing developmental history, providing group and individual counseling, working in partnership with families on home, school, and community environments, mobilizing school and community resources, and assisting in the development of positive early intervention strategies (2, 3). The commonality among these roles resides in the importance of providing up-to-date, relevant information to families and children. The purpose of this review is to provide pertinent up-to-date knowledge for early interventionists to help inform practice in working with individuals with ASD, including common behavioral models of intervention.

Comparative analysis of aging policy reforms in Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, and Mexico.

Science.gov (United States)

Calvo, Esteban; Berho, Maureen; Roqué, Mónica; Amaro, Juan Sebastián; Morales, Fernando; Rivera, Emiliana; Gutiérrez Robledo, Luis Miguel F; López, Elizabeth Caro; Canals, Bernardita; Kornfeld, Rosa

2018-04-16

This investigation uses case studies and comparative analysis to review and analyze aging policy in Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, and Mexico, and uncovers similarities and relevant trends in the substance of historical and current aging policy across countries. Initial charity-based approaches to poverty and illness have been gradually replaced by a rights-based approach considering broader notions of well-being, and recent reforms emphasize the need for national, intersectoral, evidence-based policy. The results of this study have implications for understanding aging policy in Latin America from a welfare regime and policymakers' perspective, identifying priorities for intervention, and informing policy reforms in developing countries worldwide.

Issue-Relevant Values and Opinions About Gay Rights: Beyond Equality and Morality.

Science.gov (United States)

Rhodebeck, Laurie

2018-01-01

Although many studies have examined the role of values in shaping public opinion, the number of values that inform this research is limited. This article employs the concept of issue-relevant values as a means to explore the broader range of values associated with policy issues. After discussing the concept in general terms, the article explores issue-relevant values pertinent to public opinion about gay rights. Using the policy examples of employment nondiscrimination and same-sex couple adoption, the present study identifies, measures, and assesses several values that add to the very short list previously used to explain public opinion about gay rights issues. Content from interest-group Web sites and news media coverage of the two issues aided in identifying the values. Data from an original Internet survey yield valid measures of the values. Multivariate analyses indicate that the values behave in predictable ways: they are strongly influenced by partisanship, and they strongly affect opinions about the two issues. The performance of the values is consistent with findings from previous research on the partisan basis of values and the value-based nature of opinions. The article concludes with suggestions for further empirical and theoretical work that could apply and extend the concept of issue-relevant values.

75 FR 6398 - Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology; HIT Policy Committee's...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-02-09

... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology; HIT Policy Committee's Adoption/Certification Workgroup Meeting; Notice of Meeting AGENCY: Office... of Committee: HIT Policy Committee's Adoption/Certification Workgroup. General Function of the...

Policy and Strategies for Environmental Remediation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2015-01-01

In the environmental remediation of a given site, concerned and interested parties have diverse and often conflicting interests with regard to remediation goals, the time frames involved, reuse of the site, the efforts necessary and cost allocation. An environmental remediation policy is essential for establishing the core values on which remediation is to be based. It incorporates a set of principles to ensure the safe and efficient management of remediation situations. Policy is mainly established by the national government and may become codified in the national legislative system. An environmental remediation strategy sets out the means for satisfying the principles and requirements of the national policy. It is normally established by the relevant remediation implementer or by the government in the case of legacy sites. Thus, the national policy may be elaborated in several different strategies. To ensure the safe, technically optimal and cost effective management of remediation situations, countries are advised to formulate an appropriate policy and strategies. Situations involving remediation include remediation of legacy sites (sites where past activities were not stringently regulated or adequately supervised), remediation after emergencies (nuclear and radiological) and remediation after planned ongoing operation and decommissioning. The environmental policy involves the principles of justification, optimization of protection, protection of future generations and the environment, efficiency in the use of resources, and transparent interaction with stakeholders. A typical policy will also take into account the national legal framework and institutional structure and applicable international conventions while providing for the allocation of responsibilities and resources, in addition to safety and security objectives and public information and participation in the decision making process. The strategy reflects and elaborates the goals and requirements set

Influence of municipal policy and individual characteristics on the use of informal and formal domestic help in the Netherlands.

Science.gov (United States)

Marangos, Anna Maria; Waverijn, Geeke; de Klerk, Mirjam; Iedema, Jurjen; Groenewegen, Peter P

2018-05-24

The responsibility for care and social support in the Netherlands has been decentralized to the municipalities, on the assumption that they are able to organise care and social support more effectively and efficiently. Municipalities are responsible for offering citizens the social support they need. They have policy discretion to decide how and to what extent they encourage and support the use of informal help. This article explored whether the local policy focus on informal or formal help influences the actual take-up of domestic help. Data on 567 physically disabled people who use informal or formal help in the household were linked to local policy data in 167 municipalities. We performed multilevel multinomial regression analyses. Since we expected that local policy will have more influence on people with slight or moderate disabilities, cohabitees and people aged under 75, cross-level interaction terms were included between characteristics of local policy and of individuals. The findings reveal differences between municipalities in their policy on support and differences in the use of formal or informal support between municipalities. We found no relationship between local emphasis on informal help and the use of informal help. Possible explanations: some people have a small social network, people using informal help did not apply for municipality support or even do not know the possibility exists. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Australian television news coverage of alcohol, health and related policies, 2005 to 2010: implications for alcohol policy advocates.

Science.gov (United States)

Fogarty, Andrea S; Chapman, Simon

2012-12-01

To describe television news coverage between 2005 and 2010 of alcohol, health and relevant alcohol-control policies, with a view to informing policy advocacy. A content analysis of all alcohol stories archived by the Australian Health News Research Collaboration. We recorded what triggered a news item, the main topics covered, whether risks to health were communicated, whether alcohol-control policies were featured and which news-actors appeared. We identified 612 stories, where 69.2% were triggered by a particular newsworthy incident or the release of new findings. The most frequently reported alcohol stories were focused on associated harms (30.2%) and 'binge drinking' (19.0%). A majority (75.3%) reported a variety of positive and negative health effects, yet mainly focused on short-term consequences. Combined, 63% mentioned an alcohol-control policy, yet no one particular policy was featured in more than 10% of all stories. The most commonly featured news-actors included public-health professionals (50.0%), members of affected communities (28.4%) and government representatives (24.3%) Problems related to alcohol were well-established foci of news attention and reportage and covered a broad spectrum of issues related to public health goals, yet less coverage centred on long-term health consequences or effective policy solutions. Future policy advocacy could focus on moving the debate away from simple problem definition to better communication of long-term health risks, existing policies, and evidence of their effectiveness and arguments for their adoption. Future research might consider audience understanding of the information. © 2012 The Authors. ANZJPH © 2012 Public Health Association of Australia.

Common pathways toward informing policy and environmental strategies to promote health: a study of CDC's Prevention Research Centers.

Science.gov (United States)

Neri, Elizabeth M; Stringer, Kate J; Spadaro, Antonia J; Ballman, Marie R; Grunbaum, Jo Anne

2015-03-01

This study examined the roles academic researchers can play to inform policy and environmental strategies that promote health and prevent disease. Prevention Research Centers (PRCs) engage in academic-community partnerships to conduct applied public health research. Interviews were used to collect data on the roles played by 32 PRCs to inform policy and environmental strategies that were implemented between September 2009 and September 2010. Descriptive statistics were calculated in SAS 9.2. A difference in roles played was observed depending on whether strategies were policy or environmental. Of the policy initiatives, the most common roles were education, research, and partnership. In contrast, the most prevalent roles the PRCs played in environmental approaches were research and providing health promotion resources. Academic research centers play various roles to help inform policy and environmental strategies. © 2014 Society for Public Health Education.

Advancing team-based primary health care: a comparative analysis of policies in western Canada.

Science.gov (United States)

Suter, Esther; Mallinson, Sara; Misfeldt, Renee; Boakye, Omenaa; Nasmith, Louise; Wong, Sabrina T

2017-07-17

We analyzed and compared primary health care (PHC) policies in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan to understand how they inform the design and implementation of team-based primary health care service delivery. The goal was to develop policy imperatives that can advance team-based PHC in Canada. We conducted comparative case studies (n = 3). The policy analysis included: Context review: We reviewed relevant information (2007 to 2014) from databases and websites. Policy review and comparative analysis: We compared and contrasted publically available PHC policies. Key informant interviews: Key informants (n = 30) validated narratives prepared from the comparative analysis by offering contextual information on potential policy imperatives. Advisory group and roundtable: An expert advisory group guided this work and a key stakeholder roundtable event guided prioritization of policy imperatives. The concept of team-based PHC varies widely across and within the three provinces. We noted policy gaps related to team configuration, leadership, scope of practice, role clarity and financing of team-based care; few policies speak explicitly to monitoring and evaluation of team-based PHC. We prioritized four policy imperatives: (1) alignment of goals and policies at different system levels; (2) investment of resources for system change; (3) compensation models for all members of the team; and (4) accountability through collaborative practice metrics. Policies supporting team-based PHC have been slow to emerge, lacking a systematic and coordinated approach. Greater alignment with specific consideration of financing, reimbursement, implementation mechanisms and performance monitoring could accelerate systemic transformation by removing some well-known barriers to team-based care.

State of the States 2016: Arts Education State Policy Summary

Science.gov (United States)

Aragon, Stephanie

2016-01-01

The "State of the States 2016" summarizes state policies for arts education identified in statute or administrative code for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Information is based on a comprehensive search of state education statute and codes on each state's relevant websites. Complete results from this review are available in…

Cultural Requirements of Policy Making System for Hijab and Dignity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shahla Bagheri

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Policy making and policy measures is important in the social system. occurs. Policy maker aimed to achieve cultural requirements of policy making system by interaction stale and society. After the Islamic Revolution of Iran. the strengths and weaknesses of the different levels of the system politically has been accompanied in the field of moral and sexual dignity and chastity, aside from the basic necessity of building systems - Iranian, coordination and harmony of the system was not relevant. That is in the realm of theoretical ideas and goals are expressed in practice, the relationship between logical and measurable programs are executed with the goals and policies have been developed. measures to improve processes, motivate and educate individuals and groups, and to monitor the development of information systems.

Human capital information in management reports: An analysis of compliance with the characteristic of the relevance of disclosure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ainhoa Saitua

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Purpose: The aim of this paper is to assess the compliance with the characteristic of the relevance of disclosure in Management Reports, particularly dealing with Human Capital (HC information.Design/methodology/approach: We codify all instances where narratives of IBEX-35 stock index companies over a five year period in Spain comply with the recommendations for a “high quality” Management Commentary (MC in terms of the relevance characteristic of the information disclosed (IASB, 2005.Findings: The analysis results show that a greater quantity of information about HC in terms of the number of pages devoted is not always indicative of higher quality in terms of relevance if we look for the application of IASB recommendations.Research limitations/implications: Further research could assess compliance with other qualitative characteristics required by other standards or guidances that were internationaly generaly accepted.Practical implications: Among the areas that require improvement in HC disclosures we highlight forward-looking information.Social implications: We propose that an internationally accepted agreement must be struck to unite all the efforts that are being made to improve narrative information in the MC section, and specifically with reference to HC.Originality/value: This work compiles the HC disclosures identified as best practices that may serve as a reference to other companies.

The Credibility of Policy Reporting Across Learning Disciplines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Carley, S.; Youtie, J.; Solomon, G.; Porter, A.

2016-07-01

The notion of a credibility map argues that everyone has a distinctive map that dictates the preference given to different types and sources of information. When seeking to influence other academic fields, scholars will likely turn to scientific and technical information though other types, such as policy reports, may also be relevant. We draw on the credibility mapping concept to understand how a major policy report is taken up by the target academic community. The report, How People Learn, was published by the US National Academies in 2000, to expose the education community (mainly educational researchers but also knowledge-seeking practitioners) to major cognitive science research findings of relevance to learning. We applied several search strings to measure the take up of this report in the target community. We used Google Scholar to evince that that How People Learn was cited in nearly 15,000 publications, these citations grew particularly steeply from 2000 to 2008, and most were in education-related journal papers. We performed a similar analysis using the Web of Science, which showed that most of the citations were substantial as opposed to perfunctory. (Author)

Assessment of efficiency of functioning the infocommunication systems a special purpose in the conditions of violation quality of relevance information

Science.gov (United States)

Parinov, A. V.; Korotkikh, L. P.; Desyatov, D. B.; Stepanov, L. V.

2018-03-01

The uniqueness of information processing mechanisms in special-purpose infocommunication systems and the increased interest of intruders lead to an increase in the relevance of the problems associated with their protection. The paper considers the issues of building risk-models for the violation of the relevance and value of information in infocommunication systems for special purposes. Also, special attention is paid to the connection between the qualities of relevance and the value of information obtained as a result of the operation of infocommunication systems for special purposes. Analytical expressions for the risk and damage function in the time range in special-purpose infocommunication systems are obtained, which can serve as a mathematical basis for risk assessment. Further, an analytical expression is obtained to assess the chance of obtaining up-to-date information in the operation of infocommunication systems up to the time the information quality is violated. An analytical expression for estimating the chance can be used to calculate the effectiveness of a special-purpose infocommunication system.

Information and Communication Technologies in International Education: A Canadian Policy Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Aucoin, Robert C.

2011-01-01

The rhetoric surrounding the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in international education speaks of providing education access for all. However, an examination of actual policies reveals an emphasis not on creating an educated population, but on improving economic opportunities using discourses such as globalization,…

Developing effective policy strategies to retain health workers in rural Bangladesh: a policy analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Rawal, Lal B; Joarder, Taufique; Islam, Sheikh Md Shariful; Uddin, Aftab; Ahmed, Syed Masud

2015-05-20

Retention of human resources for health (HRH), particularly physicians and nurses in rural and remote areas, is a major problem in Bangladesh. We reviewed relevant policies and provisions in relation to HRH aiming to develop appropriate rural retention strategies in Bangladesh. We conducted a document review, thorough search and review of relevant literature published from 1971 through May 2013, key informant interviews with policy elites (health policy makers, managers, researchers, etc.), and a roundtable discussion with key stakeholders and policy makers. We used the World Health Organization's (WHO's) guidelines as an analytical matrix to examine the rural retention policies under 4 domains, i) educational, ii) regulatory, iii) financial, and iv) professional and personal development, and 16 sub-domains. Over the past four decades, Bangladesh has developed and implemented a number of health-related policies and provisions concerning retention of HRH. The district quota system in admissions is in practice to improve geographical representation of the students. Students of special background including children of freedom fighters and tribal population have allocated quotas. In private medical and nursing schools, at least 5% of seats are allocated for scholarships. Medical education has a provision for clinical rotation in rural health facilities. Further, in the public sector, every newly recruited medical doctor must serve at least 2 years at the upazila level. To encourage serving in hard-to-reach areas, particularly in three Hill Tract districts of Chittagong division, the government provides an additional 33% of the basic salary, but not exceeding US$ 38 per month. This amount is not attractive enough, and such provision is absent for those working in other rural areas. Although the government has career development and promotion plans for doctors and nurses, these plans are often not clearly specified and not implemented effectively. The government is

[Framework for the strengthening of health information systems in Peru].

Science.gov (United States)

Curioso, Walter H; Espinoza-Portilla, Elizabeth

2015-01-01

In this article we present the essential components and policies that are most relevant regarding the conceptual framework to strengthen the health information systems in Peru. The article also presents the main policies, actions and strategies made in the field of electronic health in Peru that are most significant. The health information systems in Peru play a key role and are expected to achieve an integrated and interoperable information system. This will allow health information to be complete, efficient, of good quality and available in a timely manner to achieve better quality of life for people and allow meaningful modernization of public health in the context of health reform in Peru.

From Access to Documents to Consumption of Information: The European Commission Transparency Policy for the TTIP Negotiations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Evelyn Coremans

2017-09-01

Full Text Available To increase transparency of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP negotiations, the European Commission has reformed existing information sharing systems for trade policy. The Commission has moved from a strategy of providing transparency in the form of access to documents to one of access to information, geared specifically towards enhancing consumption of the available information. In both public and institutional transparency policy, the width of the target audience and the depth of the information have increased, and the manner of provision has shifted from reactive to proactive provision of information. As a result, the TTIP is now being coined as the most transparent trade negotiation ever in the EU’s history and a pilot project for transparency policy in future trade negotiations. The article adopts a supply-centred perspective to explain a transparency policy that goes beyond the legal minimum imposed by formal requirements. It relies on interview data of the changes brought about in inter-institutional relations since 2014, basic quantitative and qualitative analysis of document material, and a five-month participatory observation by the author in the secretariat of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade.

Information Acquisition and Excessive Risk: Impact of Policy Rate and Market Volatility

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Volha Audzei

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Excessive risk-taking of financial agents drew a lot of attention in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Low interest rates and subdued market volatility during the Great Moderation are sometimes blamed for stimulating risk-taking and leading to the recent financial crisis. In recent years, with many central banks around the world conducting the policy of low interest rates and mitigating market risks, it has been debatable whether this policy contributes to the building up of another credit boom. This paper addresses this issue by focusing on information acquisition by the financial agents. We build a theoretical model which captures excessive risk taking in response to changes in policy rate and market volatility. This excessive risk takes the form of an increased risk appetite of the agents, but also of decreased incentives to acquire information about risky assets. As a result, with market risk being reduced, agents tend to acquire more risk in their portfolios then they would with the higher market risk. The same forces increase portfolio risk when the safe interest rate is falling. The robustness of the results is considered with different learning rules.

Bridging the Gap between Climate Research and Policy

Science.gov (United States)

Weiss, M.; Lambert, K. F.; Buonocore, J.; Driscoll, C. T.

2016-12-01

The weak link between science and policy jeopardizes the wellbeing of people and the planet. Climate change is a pressing example of this disconnect. Policies are not keeping pace with the best of our knowledge from climate change research. We are working to bridge the science-policy divide and advance climate solutions by focusing on the positive health, ecosystem, and economic benefits of policy action. In 2013, we brought together an interdisciplinary team to estimate the co-benefits of U.S. power plant carbon standards for air quality and health, plus the economic value of the benefits. The results demonstrate that strong carbon standards with flexible compliance options can change the power sector, yielding substantial air quality and health benefits nationwide. The results also show that the economic value of these benefits outweighs the costs nationally and regionally. We advanced the policy applications of this research through a strategic campaign with three key elements: media communication, targeted outreach, and information for policymakers. Our strategy was to build widespread awareness of the research outcomes via media engagement, amplify our message via targeted outreach to citizens groups, and inform policy solutions by sharing research results with decision makers. The research was reported in more than 600 unique news stories in mainstream media outlets and received social media posts by members of Congress and senior White House officials. We amplified the messages via 14 webinars for citizens groups. We also held 16 briefings for policymakers and the public, in addition to meetings with relevant policy staff. Regional, state and federal policy leaders have used the research to understand air quality and health benefits of power plant carbon standards. This model of pairing research with media communication, targeted outreach, and information for policymakers is effective for bridging the gap between climate research and policy, and can be

Anti-smoking policy in Russia: Relevant factors and program planning.

Science.gov (United States)

Kossova, Tatiana; Kossova, Elena; Sheluntcova, Maria

2018-08-01

In this paper, we consider anti-smoking policy in Russia and the socioeconomic factors that influence an individual's decision to smoke. Among various factors, we investigate the individual time preferences of Russians. To estimate individual time preferences, we use an experiment in which survey respondents are given hypothetical money prizes. We find that being middle-aged, being unmarried and having parents who smoke are positively correlated with both men and women's likelihood of taking up smoking in Russia. We consider the possible endogeneity of an individual's health status and find a positive relationship between smoking and the time preferences of Russians. Our findings confirm that decisionmakers should devote their efforts primarily to developing restrictive anti-smoking policy. The choice of policy measures should be guided by the individual characteristics of target population groups. Social advertising, public lectures and preventive care should be actively engaged in forming public attitudes towards smoking. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Stimulus-response correspondence effect as a function of temporal overlap between relevant and irrelevant information processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Dong-Yuan Debbie; Richard, F Dan; Ray, Brittany

2016-01-01

The stimulus-response correspondence (SRC) effect refers to advantages in performance when stimulus and response correspond in dimensions or features, even if the common features are irrelevant to the task. Previous research indicated that the SRC effect depends on the temporal course of stimulus information processing. The current study investigated how the temporal overlap between relevant and irrelevant stimulus processing influences the SRC effect. In this experiment, the irrelevant stimulus (a previously associated tone) preceded the relevant stimulus (a coloured rectangle). The irrelevant and relevant stimuli onset asynchrony was varied to manipulate the temporal overlap between the irrelevant and relevant stimuli processing. Results indicated that the SRC effect size varied as a quadratic function of the temporal overlap between the relevant stimulus and irrelevant stimulus. This finding extends previous experimental observations that the SRC effect size varies in an increasing or decreasing function with reaction time. The current study demonstrated a quadratic function between effect size and the temporal overlap.

Domestic Violence and Pregnancy: A CBPR Coalition Approach to Identifying Needs and Informing Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Bright, Candace Forbes; Bagley, Braden; Pulliam, Ivie; Newton, Amy Swetha

2018-01-01

Community engagement-the collaborative process of addressing issues that impact the well-being of a community-is a strategic effort to address community issues. The Gulf States Health Policy Center (GS-HPC) formed the Hattiesburg Area Health Coalition (HAHC) in November 2014 for the purpose of addressing policies impacting the health of Forrest and Lamar counties in Mississippi. To chronicle the community-based participatory research (CBPR) process used by HAHC's identification of infant and maternal health as a policy area, domestic violence in pregnancy as a priority area within infant and maternal health, and a community action plan (CAP) regarding this priority area. HAHC reviewed data and identified infant and maternal health as a priority area. They then conducted a policy scan of local prenatal health care to determine the policy area of domestic violence in pregnancy. HAHC developed a CAP identifying three goals with regard to domestic violence and pregnancy that together informed policy. Changes included the development of materials specific to resources available in the area. The materials and recommended changes will first be implemented by Southeast Mississippi Rural Health Initiative (SeMRHI) through a screening question for all pregnant patients, and the adoption of policies for providing information and referrals. The lack of community-level data was a challenge to HAHC in identifying focus and priority areas, but this was overcome by shared leadership and community engagement. After completion of the CAP, 100% of expecting mothers receiving prenatal care in the area will be screened for domestic violence.

Bilgi Politikalari Açısından Kapitalist Ekonomik Sistemde Bilgi Toplumu Olgusu / Information Policies of Information Societies in the Realm of Capitalistic Type of Economic Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tülay Fenerci

2004-04-01

Full Text Available Information society which is a contemporary fact, represents a new economic, social and political era where information and information technologies are primary instruments of production. Actually this fact flourishes and disseminates in the capitalist system. Both capitalist system and information society offer oppurtunities and consist challenges especially for developing countries. In order to get benefit from oppurtunities and reduce risks, the information policies should be formulated rationally. However the information policies should not be asserted only as a problem of implementing infrastructure.

Policy Learning and Organizational Capacities in Innovation Policies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Borrás, Susana

2011-01-01

Bengt-Åke Lundvall’s work has underlined the importance of policy learning for inducing innovation systems’ adaptability. In spite of his efforts and of the general interest in this topic, studies of policy learning in innovation policy continue to be scarce. Elaborating from recent theoretical...... advances, the paper identifies three levels of policy learning and argues that their effects on innovation systems are related to specific capacities of the relevant organizations implementing change. This analytical framework is used in the study of trans-national policy learning in Europe in the area...... of science–industry relations, showing the importance of capacities (or lack thereof). This calls for the practical need of addressing organizational capacity-building, in particular of analytical capacity, for truly strategic innovation policy-making....

76 FR 9782 - Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology; HIT Policy Committee's...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-02-22

... Coordinator for Health Information Technology, HHS. ACTION: Notice of meetings. This notice announces... for Health Information Technology (ONC). The meetings will be open to the public via dial-in access... policy framework for the development and adoption of a nationwide health information technology...

Radiation protection, public policies and education

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alves, Simone F.; Jacomino, Vanusa M.F.; Barreto, Alberto A.

2011-01-01

The objective of this paper is to inform about the aspects of radiation protection public policies concerning the public spheres and the ordinary population. It is known that information has been considered a very important good in several knowledge areas. However, the efficiency of their transmission mechanisms should be periodically evaluated, checking existing critical and stagnation points. Nuclear area can be mentioned as a historically typical case, where the public policies assume relevant importance as tool for promotion, control and education of the population in general. Considering the polemic nature of such subject, it is clear that there is a need for conducting the construction of educational contents taking in account the educator training necessities. The addressing of radiation protection aspects applied to nuclear techniques conducts, for example, to the awareness on the benefits of radiation and its industrial and medical applications, which are established considering the worldwide adopted basic principles of radiation protection. Such questions, concerned with (or related to) public policies, establish a link between radiation protection and education, themes explored in this article to provide a better view of the current Brazilian scenario. (author)

The energy policy relevance of the 2014 IPCC Working Group III report on the macro-economics of mitigating climate change

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rosen, Richard A.; Guenther, Edeltraud

2016-01-01

Research which attempted to determine the macroeconomic importance of mitigating climate change through 2100 was presented primarily in Chapter 6 of the 2014 IPCC Working Group III report. Some of the findings of this chapter were then summarized in the Summary for Policy Makers (SPMs) of both the Synthesis Report, and the WGIII report. Unfortunately, these SPMs omitted key aspects of what the overall macroeconomic results for the costs and benefits of mitigating climate change actually did and did not include, how they were produced, and a careful assessment of their uncertainty and scientific validity. Yet, many of the major omissions were acknowledged deep in the text of Chapter 6, but were not revealed to the public. We conclude, therefore, that neither of these SPMs was useful for energy policy makers and energy managers, and they were misleading due to their many key omissions. Finally, we recommend several improvements that can be made to integrated assessment modeling methodologies so that the macroeconomic analysis of mitigating climate change resulting from the use of such models can be more relevant and useful to energy policy makers in the future, and can be communicated to them better. - Highlights: •The 2014 IPCC Working Group III Report has major omissions in its economic analysis. •Many well-known benefits of mitigation are not included in its economic results. •The Summary for Policy Makers is not very useful for energy policy decision makers. •The upcoming Sixth IPCC WGIII analysis should be structured quite differently.

77 FR 70181 - Request for Information on Adopting Smoke-Free Policies in Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) and...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-11-23

... Adopting Smoke-Free Policies in Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) and Multifamily Housing: Reopening of Public... smoke-free policies for both public housing and multifamily housing. HUD was seeking information from... implementing smoke-free policies for both public housing and multifamily housing. In the October 4, 2012 notice...

AGU Public Affairs: How to Get Involved in Science Policy

Science.gov (United States)

Landau, E. A.; Hankin, E. R.; Uhlenbrock, K. M.

2012-12-01

AGU Public Affairs offers many ways for its members to get involved in science policy at different levels of participation, whether you would love to spend a year working as a resident science expert in a congressional office in Washington, D.C., or would rather simply receive email alerts about Earth and space science policy news. How you can get involved: Sign up for AGU Science Policy Alerts to receive the most relevant Earth and space science policy information delivered to your email inbox. Participate in one of AGU's Congressional Visits Days to speak with your legislators about important science issues. Attend the next AGU Science Policy Conference in spring 2013. Participate in events happening on Capitol Hill, and watch video of past events. Learn about AGU Embassy Lectures, where countries come together to discuss important Earth and space science topics. Learn how you can comment on AGU Position Statements. Apply to be an AGU Congressional Science Fellow, where you can work in a congressional office for one year and serve as a resident science expert, or to be an AGU Public Affairs Intern, where you can work in the field of science policy for three months. The AGU Public Affairs Team will highlight ways members can be involved as well as provide information on how the team is working to shape policy and inform society about the excitement of AGU science.

Getting sports injury prevention on to public health agendas - addressing the shortfalls in current information sources.

Science.gov (United States)

Finch, Caroline F

2012-01-01

Public health policy is a successful population-level strategy for injury prevention but it is yet to be widely applied to the sports sector. Such policy is generally coordinated by government health departments concerned with the allocation of limited resources to health service delivery and preventive programs for addressing large community health issues. Prioritisation of sports injury prevention (SIP) requires high-quality evidence about the size of the problem and its public health burden; identification of at-risk vulnerable groups; confirmed effective prevention solutions; evidence of intervention cost-effectiveness; and quantification of both financial and policy implications of inaction. This paper argues that the major reason for a lack of sports injury policy by government departments for health or sport to date is a lack of relevant information available for policy makers to make their decisions. Key information gaps evident in Australia are used to highlight this problem. SIP policy does not yet rank highly because, relative to other health/injury issues, there is very little hard evidence to support: claims for its priority ranking, the existence of solutions that can be implemented and which will work, and potential cost-savings to government agencies. Moreover, policy action needs to be integrated across government portfolios, including sport, health and others. Until sports medicine research generates high-quality population-level information of direct relevance and importance to policy makers, especially intervention costing and implementation cost-benefit estimates, and fully engage in policy-informing partnerships, SIP will continue to be left off the public health agenda.

75 FR 16126 - Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology; HIT Policy Committee...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-03-31

... Coordinator for Health Information Technology, HHS. ACTION: Notice of meeting. This notice announces a... Information Technology (ONC). The meeting will be open to the public. Name of Committee: HIT Policy Committee... framework for the development and adoption of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure that...

75 FR 151 - Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology; HIT Policy Committee...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-04

... Coordinator for Health Information Technology, HHS. ACTION: Notice of meeting. This notice announces a... Information Technology (ONC). The meeting will be open to the public. Name of Committee: HIT Policy Committee... framework for the development and adoption of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure that...

76 FR 9784 - Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology; HIT Policy Committee...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-02-22

... Coordinator for Health Information Technology, HHS. ACTION: Notice of meeting. This notice announces a... Information Technology (ONC). The meeting will be open to the public. Name of Committee: HIT Policy Committee... framework for the development and adoption of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure that...

75 FR 65486 - Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology; HIT Policy Committee...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-25

... Coordinator for Health Information Technology, HHS. ACTION: Notice of meeting. This notice announces a... Information Technology (ONC). The meeting will be open to the public. Name of Committee: HIT Policy Committee... framework for the development and adoption of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure that...

75 FR 29762 - Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology; HIT Policy Committee...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-05-27

... Coordinator for Health Information Technology, HHS. ACTION: Notice of meeting. This notice announces a... Information Technology (ONC). The meeting will be open to the public. Name of Committee: HIT Policy Committee... framework for the development and adoption of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure that...

75 FR 51820 - Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology; HIT Policy Committee...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-08-23

... Coordinator for Health Information Technology, HHS. ACTION: Notice of meeting. This notice announces a... Information Technology (ONC). The meeting will be open to the public. Name of Committee: HIT Policy Committee... framework for the development and adoption of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure that...

76 FR 4352 - Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology; HIT Policy Committee...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-25

... Coordinator for Health Information Technology, HHS. ACTION: Notice of meeting. This notice announces a... Information Technology (ONC). The meeting will be open to the public. Name of Committee: HIT Policy Committee... framework for the development and adoption of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure that...

75 FR 5595 - Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology; HIT Policy Committee...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-02-03

... Coordinator for Health Information Technology, HHS. ACTION: Notice of meeting. This notice announces a... Information Technology (ONC). The meeting will be open to the public. Name of Committee: HIT Policy Committee... framework for the development and adoption of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure that...

75 FR 57026 - Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology; HIT Policy Committee...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-09-17

... Coordinator for Health Information Technology, HHS. ACTION: Notice of meeting. This notice announces a... Information Technology (ONC). The meeting will be open to the public. Name of Committee: HIT Policy Committee... framework for the development and adoption of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure that...

75 FR 42091 - Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology; HIT Policy Committee...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-20

... Coordinator for Health Information Technology, HHS. ACTION: Notice of meeting. This notice announces a... Information Technology (ONC). The meeting will be open to the public. Name of Committee: HIT Policy Committee... framework for the development and adoption of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure that...

75 FR 57276 - Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology; HIT Policy Committee...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-09-20

...: Health IT Policy Committee's Governance Workgroup. General Function of the Health IT Policy Committee: To... use of health information as is consistent with the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan and that includes... needed. Purpose of the Governance Workgroup: To draft a set of recommendations on the scope and process...

Evidence-informed primary health care workforce policy: are we asking the right questions?

Science.gov (United States)

Naccarella, Lucio; Buchan, Jim; Brooks, Peter

2010-01-01

Australia is facing a primary health care workforce shortage. To inform primary health care (PHC) workforce policy reforms, reflection is required on ways to strengthen the evidence base and its uptake into policy making. In 2008 the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute funded the Australian Health Workforce Institute to host Professor James Buchan, Queen Margaret University, UK, an expert in health services policy research and health workforce planning. Professor Buchan's visit enabled over forty Australian PHC workforce mid-career and senior researchers and policy stakeholders to be involved in roundtable policy dialogue on issues influencing PHC workforce policy making. Six key thematic questions emerged. (1) What makes PHC workforce planning different? (2) Why does the PHC workforce need to be viewed in a global context? (3) What is the capacity of PHC workforce research? (4) What policy levers exist for PHC workforce planning? (5) What principles can guide PHC workforce planning? (6) What incentives exist to optimise the use of evidence in policy making? The emerging themes need to be discussed within the context of current PHC workforce policy reforms, which are focussed on increasing workforce supply (via education/training programs), changing the skill mix and extending the roles of health workers to meet patient needs. With the Australian government seeking to reform and strengthen the PHC workforce, key questions remain about ways to strengthen the PHC workforce evidence base and its uptake into PHC workforce policy making.

Associations between presence of relevant information in referrals to radiology and prevalence rates in patients with suspected pulmonary embolism.

Science.gov (United States)

Hedner, Charlotta; Sundgren, Pia C; Kelly, Aine Marie

2013-09-01

The purpose of this study was to assess if the presence of information including the pretest probability (Wells score), other known risk factors, and symptoms given on referrals for computed tomography (CT) pulmonary angiography correlated with prevalence rates for pulmonary embolism (PE). Also, to evaluate for differences between a university and a regional hospital setting regarding patient characteristics, amount of relevant information provided on referrals, and prevalence rates for pulmonary embolism. Retrospective review of all consecutive referrals (emergency room, inpatient, and outpatient) for CT performed on children and adults for suspected PE from two sites: a tertiary (university) hospital (site 1) and a secondary (regional) hospital (site 2) over a 5-year period. The overall prevalence rate was 510/3641 or 14% of all referrals. Significantly higher number of males had a positive CT compared to women (18% versus 12%, P relevant information on the referral and the probability for positive finding existed, a slight trend was noted (P = .09). In two categories, "hypoxia" and "signs of deep vein thrombosis," the presence of this information conferred a higher probability for pulmonary embolism, P information conferred a higher probability for pulmonary embolism. The amount of relevant clinical information on the request did not correlate with prevalence rates, which may reflect a lack of documentation on the part of emergency physicians who may use a "gestalt" approach. Request forms likely did not capture all relevant patient risks and many factors may interact with each other, both positively and negatively. Pretest probability estimations were rarely performed, despite their inclusion in major society guidelines. Copyright © 2013 AUR. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Conceptualising the policy practice and behavioural research relationship

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yeatman Heather

2008-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Policy is frequently identified in the behavioural nutrition and physical activity research literature as a necessary component of effective research and practice. The purpose of this commentary is to promote a dialogue to contribute towards the further development of conceptual understandings and theories of the relationship between policy practice and behavioural research and how these two activities might work synergistically to improve public health outcomes. Methods Drawing on policy and public health literature, this commentary presents a a conceptual model of the interaction and mediation between nutrition and physical activity-relevant policy and behavioural nutrition and physical activity research, environments, behaviours and public health implications. The selling of food in school canteens in several Australian states is discussed to illustrate components of the relationship and the interactions among its components. Results The model depicts a relationship that is interdependent and cyclic. Policy contributes to the relationship through its role in shaping environmental and personal-cognitive determinants of behaviours and through these determinants it can induce behaviour change. Behavioural research describes behaviours, identifies determinants of behaviour change and therefore helps inform policy development and monitor and evaluate its impact. Conclusion The model has implications for guiding behavioural research and policy practice priorities to promote public health outcomes. In particular, we propose that policy practice and behavioural research activities can be strengthened by applying to each other the theories from the scientific disciplines informing these respective activities. Behavioural science theories can be applied to help understand policy-making and assist with disseminating research into policy and practice. In turn, policy science theories can be applied to support the 'institutionalisation

Age and self-relevance effects on information search during decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Hess, Thomas M; Queen, Tara L; Ennis, Gilda E

2013-09-01

We investigated how information search strategies used to support decision making were influenced by self-related implications of the task to the individual. Consistent with the notion of selective engagement, we hypothesized that increased self-relevance would result in more adaptive search behaviors and that this effect would be stronger in older adults than in younger adults. We examined search behaviors in 79 younger and 81 older adults using a process-tracing procedure with 2 different decision tasks. The impact of motivation (i.e., self-related task implications) was examined by manipulating social accountability and the age-related relevance of the task. Although age differences in search strategies were not great, older adults were more likely than younger adults to use simpler strategies in contexts with minimal self-implications. Contrary to expectations, young and old alike were more likely to use noncompensatory than compensatory strategies, even when engaged in systematic search, with education being the most important determinant of search behavior. The results support the notion that older adults are adaptive decision makers and that factors other than age may be more important determinants of performance in situations where knowledge can be used to support performance.

Consumer Food Security and Labeling Intervention on Food Products through Public Policies in Romania

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dacinia Crina Petrescu

2018-02-01

Full Text Available The correct understanding of consumers’ food labeling knowledge and perceptions is a prerequisite to develop and implement coherent and appropriate food safety policies. One objective of the paper was to discover how often consumers access and use specific food label information. Another objective was to explore stakeholders’ preferences for several public policy options relevant for food safety. In this respect, a survey on a sample of 312 Romanian consumers and the evaluation of several public policy options by four stakeholder groups (food producers and sellers, doctors, fitness trainers, and consumers were carried out. The results revealed that the most frequently read types of information on the label were “expiration date” and “price”, closely followed by “quantity” and “brand”. Among tested public policies, those related to the traffic light labels and to the social interest messages with health claims were rewarded with high scores by investigated stakeholders. Although nutrition has a decisive impact on health state, nutrition information was not frequently read by people, thus justifying the implementation of a public policy meant to enhance consumers’ interest in and reading frequency of nutrition information on food label.

Systems Thinking and Simulation Modeling to Inform Childhood Obesity Policy and Practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Powell, Kenneth E; Kibbe, Debra L; Ferencik, Rachel; Soderquist, Chris; Phillips, Mary Ann; Vall, Emily Anne; Minyard, Karen J

In 2007, 31.7% of Georgia adolescents in grades 9-12 were overweight or obese. Understanding the impact of policies and interventions on obesity prevalence among young people can help determine statewide public health and policy strategies. This article describes a systems model, originally launched in 2008 and updated in 2014, that simulates the impact of policy interventions on the prevalence of childhood obesity in Georgia through 2034. In 2008, using information from peer-reviewed reports and quantitative estimates by experts in childhood obesity, physical activity, nutrition, and health economics and policy, a group of legislators, legislative staff members, and experts trained in systems thinking and system dynamics modeling constructed a model simulating the impact of policy interventions on the prevalence of childhood obesity in Georgia through 2034. Use of the 2008 model contributed to passage of a bill requiring annual fitness testing of schoolchildren and stricter enforcement of physical education requirements. We updated the model in 2014. With no policy change, the updated model projects that the prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents aged ≤18 in Georgia would hold at 18% from 2014 through 2034. Mandating daily school physical education (which would reduce prevalence to 12%) and integrating moderate to vigorous physical activity into elementary classrooms (which would reduce prevalence to 10%) would have the largest projected impact. Enacting all policies simultaneously would lower the prevalence of childhood obesity from 18% to 3%. Systems thinking, especially with simulation models, facilitates understanding of complex health policy problems. Using a simulation model to educate legislators, educators, and health experts about the policies that have the greatest short- and long-term impact should encourage strategic investment in low-cost, high-return policies.

What defines 'enough' information? How policy workers make judgements and decisions during information seeking: preliminary results from an exploratory study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J.M. Berryman

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction. Reports findings from research in progress investigating judgment and decision making during information seeking in the workplace, in particular, the assessment of enough information. Characteristics of this judgment and the role of context in shaping it are framed against theories of human judgment and decision making. Method. Thirty-three semi-structured interviews were conducted with public sector policy workers in Australia. Two interviews were carried out, the first with individual participants and the second, a joint interview with two participants. Interviews were taped and transcribed and inductive data analysis carried out. Findings. Findings discussed in this paper focus on contextual factors that frame policy workers' judgment and decision making while information seeking, factors including ill-structured problems, shifting goals, time stress and action-feedback loops. Also revealed was the importance of developing a framework, against which the judgment of enough information can be made, and the fluid and iterative nature of these judgments. Conclusion. The contextual factors reported show similarities with those identified by naturalistic decision making researchers, suggesting this new field of decision theory has much to offer researchers into information seeking in context.

Informing Ex Ante Event Studies with Macro-Econometric Evidence on the Structural and Policy Impacts of Terrorism.

Science.gov (United States)

Nassios, Jason; Giesecke, James A

2018-04-01

Economic consequence analysis is one of many inputs to terrorism contingency planning. Computable general equilibrium (CGE) models are being used more frequently in these analyses, in part because of their capacity to accommodate high levels of event-specific detail. In modeling the potential economic effects of a hypothetical terrorist event, two broad sets of shocks are required: (1) physical impacts on observable variables (e.g., asset damage); (2) behavioral impacts on unobservable variables (e.g., investor uncertainty). Assembling shocks describing the physical impacts of a terrorist incident is relatively straightforward, since estimates are either readily available or plausibly inferred. However, assembling shocks describing behavioral impacts is more difficult. Values for behavioral variables (e.g., required rates of return) are typically inferred or estimated by indirect means. Generally, this has been achieved via reference to extraneous literature or ex ante surveys. This article explores a new method. We elucidate the magnitude of CGE-relevant structural shifts implicit in econometric evidence on terrorist incidents, with a view to informing future ex ante event assessments. Ex post econometric studies of terrorism by Blomberg et al. yield macro econometric equations that describe the response of observable economic variables (e.g., GDP growth) to terrorist incidents. We use these equations to determine estimates for relevant (unobservable) structural and policy variables impacted by terrorist incidents, using a CGE model of the United States. This allows us to: (i) compare values for these shifts with input assumptions in earlier ex ante CGE studies; and (ii) discuss how future ex ante studies can be informed by our analysis. © 2017 Society for Risk Analysis.

Policy content and stakeholder network analysis for infant and young child feeding in Nepal.

Science.gov (United States)

Karn, Sumit; Devkota, Madhu Dixit; Uddin, Shahadat; Thow, Anne Marie

2017-06-13

Despite concerted effort from government and partners, Nepal continues to have a high burden of under nutrition among children. Identifying opportunities to strengthen policy support for infant and young child feeding (IYCF) is a key component to improve child survival, growth and development. This study aims to explore policy support for IYCF and to identify the influential stakeholders for IYCF for effective future policy development and programmatic action. Policies relevant to IYCF were identified through web searches and direct approaches to relevant government ministries. Policy content was analysed based on four key domains focussed on mothers, using a qualitative synthesis approach. Three group interviews were conducted using the participatory tool "Net-Map", to identify the influential stakeholders in IYCF policy and programming processes. Twenty-six relevant policy documents were analysed for content relating to IYCF. General support for IYCF was found in most of the development plans and high-level health sector policies. Most implementation level documents included support for provision of correct information to mothers. Capacity building of frontline workers for IYCN and system strengthening were well supported through sectoral plans and policies. However, gaps were identified regarding maternity protection, support for monitoring and evaluation, and translation of high-level policy directives into implementation level guidelines, resulting in a lack of clarity over roles and responsibilities. Both government and non-governmental stakeholders, particularly donors, emerged as influential drivers of IYCF policy decisions in Nepal, through technical assistance and funding. The Nutrition Technical Committee under the Ministry of Health, UNICEF, Suaahara, USAID and WHO were identified as key actors providing technical assistance. Key funding agencies were identified as UNICEF and USAID. This study reveals strong policy support for key dimensions of IYCF

Policy content and stakeholder network analysis for infant and young child feeding in Nepal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sumit Karn

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Despite concerted effort from government and partners, Nepal continues to have a high burden of under nutrition among children. Identifying opportunities to strengthen policy support for infant and young child feeding (IYCF is a key component to improve child survival, growth and development. This study aims to explore policy support for IYCF and to identify the influential stakeholders for IYCF for effective future policy development and programmatic action. Methods Policies relevant to IYCF were identified through web searches and direct approaches to relevant government ministries. Policy content was analysed based on four key domains focussed on mothers, using a qualitative synthesis approach. Three group interviews were conducted using the participatory tool “Net-Map”, to identify the influential stakeholders in IYCF policy and programming processes. Results Twenty-six relevant policy documents were analysed for content relating to IYCF. General support for IYCF was found in most of the development plans and high-level health sector policies. Most implementation level documents included support for provision of correct information to mothers. Capacity building of frontline workers for IYCN and system strengthening were well supported through sectoral plans and policies. However, gaps were identified regarding maternity protection, support for monitoring and evaluation, and translation of high-level policy directives into implementation level guidelines, resulting in a lack of clarity over roles and responsibilities. Both government and non-governmental stakeholders, particularly donors, emerged as influential drivers of IYCF policy decisions in Nepal, through technical assistance and funding. The Nutrition Technical Committee under the Ministry of Health, UNICEF, Suaahara, USAID and WHO were identified as key actors providing technical assistance. Key funding agencies were identified as UNICEF and USAID. Conclusions

Lending Policies of Informal, Formal, and Semi-formal Lenders: Evidence from Vietnam

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lensink, B.W.; Pham, T.T.T.

2007-01-01

This paper compares lending policies of formal, informal and semiformal lenders with respect to household lending in Vietnam. The analysis suggests that the probability of using formal or semiformal credit increases if borrowers provide collateral, a guarantor and/or borrow for business-related