WorldWideScience

Sample records for research interests involve

  1. Conflicts of interest in research involving human beings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Greco, Dirceu; Diniz, Nilza Maria

    2008-01-01

    Conflicts of interest are inherent to the majority of relationships among individuals and of these with companies and institutions and, certainly, research involving human beings is no exception. In relation to clinical research, the main focus of this manuscript, conflicts of interest occur at different levels and usually permeate among them: In the pharmaceutical industry in their decisions to invest to develop new products, especially vaccines and drugs, and also in relation to marketing of these products; Among the investigators the conflicts may be related to the financial gains to participate in pharma sponsored trials, or to the expected academic career boost attained with the publication of the results of the trials and also to personal interests such as the financial support for trips to international conferences. Often the participation of host country investigators is restricted to performing phase III or IV protocols developed abroad, many times with low scientific relevance, and even lower relevance to public health; Universities or research institutes themselves also have conflicts of interest, as the sponsored projects may help increase their budgets, both directly (taxes) and indirectly (e.g., improvement of physical infrastructure of laboratories or out patient clinics); For the trial volunteers in developing countries, and Brazil is no exception despite free and universal access to its health system, participation in clinical trials is many times seen as, and can really be, an unique opportunity of receiving better health care, better treatment by the health professionals, easier access to costly lab exams and also to receiving certain medications which would otherwise be difficult to have access to. In order to handle these conflicts of interest, Brazil has a well-established and respected legal support and ethical normatization. The latter is represented by Resolution 196/96 of the Brazilian National Research Ethics Committee (CONEP). This

  2. [Conflict of interests in clinical research].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alves, Elaine Maria de Oliveira; Tubino, Paulo

    2007-01-01

    In clinical research there is a real possibility to have some conflict of interests. Even for the researcher, the identification of these conflicts cannot be clear. There are many aspects to be considered, involving all participants of the process: the research subject, the researcher, the institution where the research is carried through, the sponsor, the ethics committees, the regulating agencies, the scientific community and the society. The conclusion is that conflicts of interests are common and inevitable in the academic field. The challenge is not to eradicate them, but to recognize them and to manage them properly. The only acceptable way to do this is to expose clearly the conflicts of interests and always to submit the clinical research projects to the ethics committees.

  3. Public interest group involvement

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shelley, P.

    1986-01-01

    Including public interest groups in the siting process for nuclear waste disposal facilities is of great importance. Controversial sitings often result in litigation, but involving public interest groups early in the process will lessen the change of this. They act as surrogates for the general public and should be considered as members of the team. It is important to remember though, that all public interest groups are different. In choosing public panels such as public advisory committees, members should not be chosen on the basis of some quota. Opposition groups should not be excluded. Also, it is important to put the right person in charge of the committee. The goal of public involvement is to identify the conflicts. This must be done during the decision process, because conflicts must be known before they can be eliminated. Regarding litigation, it is important to ease through and around legal battles. If the siting process has integrity and a good faith effort has been shown, the court should uphold the effort. In addition, it is important to be negotiable and to eliminate shortcuts

  4. Patient involvement in research priorities (PIRE)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Piil, Karin; Jarden, Mary

    2016-01-01

    Introduction: Patient involvement in healthcare has expanded from the clinical practice setting to include collaboration during the research process. There has been a growing international interest in patient and public involvement in setting research priorities to reduce the risk of discrepancy...... between what patients with cancer and their relatives experience as important unanswered questions and those which are actually researched. This study aims to challenge the conventional research process by inviting patients with life-threatening cancer (primary malignant brain tumours or acute leukaemia......), relatives and patient organisations to join forces with clinical specialists and researchers to identify, discuss and prioritise supportive care and rehabilitation issues in future research. Methods and analysis: This is an exploratory qualitative study comprising two sets of three focus group interviews...

  5. [Conflict of interest in medical practice and research].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Youn, Young Hoon; Lee, Ilhak

    2012-09-25

    In recent years, medical professionals are in charge with multiple roles. They have to work as an educator, researcher, and administrator, as well as medical practitioner. In addition, they experience a conflict between the primary responsibilities that each role requires of them. A conflict of interest (COI) is a set of circumstances that creates a risk that professional judgment or actions regarding a primary interest will be unduly influenced by a secondary interest. It occurs when an individual or organization is involved in multiple interests, one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation for an act in the other. The COI should be managed appropriately to preserve the value of public trust, scientific objectivity, and the benefit and safety of patients. Primary interest of medical professionals refers to the principal goals of the medical profession, such as the health and safety of patients, and the integrity of research. Secondary interest includes not only financial gain but also such motives as the desire for professional advancement and the wish to do favors for family and friends, but COI rules usually focus on financial relationships because they are relatively more objective, fungible, and quantifiable. This article will briefly review the COI in medical practice and research, discuss about what is COI, why we should manage it, and how we can manage it.

  6. Ethics and conflict of interest in psychiatric research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fernando Portela Câmara

    Full Text Available This article discusses the relationship between personal interests and medical research. The presence of research professionals who conduct studies which will later be used for market investments through new pharmaceutical products or procedures has brought up a number of issues, especially regarding the neutrality of the use of such products. The fact that some researchers receive shares in stocks and profits of some companies, and the way the companies finance them and use their credibility in scientific marketing have been a source of concern to scientific journals, the academic community and the better-informed public as to the validity of the results presented and the reliability of the pharmaceutical products themselves. The question of how neutrality can be preserved without the inevitable involvement of these interests is an ethical issue that has yet to be carefully examined by agencies that regulate the medical profession.

  7. Foster Parents' Involvement in Authoritative Parenting and Interest in Future Parenting Training

    Science.gov (United States)

    King, Keith A.; Kraemer, Linda K.; Bernard, Amy L.; Vidourek, Rebecca A.

    2007-01-01

    We surveyed 191 Southwest Ohio foster parents regarding their involvement in authoritative parenting and interest for additional parenting education. Our results showed that most respondents reported using an authoritative parenting style and were interested in receiving future training. Involvement in authoritative parenting differed…

  8. Pediatric oncologists' attitudes towards involving adolescents in decision-making concerning research participation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Vries, Martine C; Wit, Jan M; Engberts, Dirk P; Kaspers, Gertjan J L; van Leeuwen, Evert

    2010-07-15

    Various regulations and guidelines stipulate the importance of involving adolescents in decision-making concerning research participation. Several studies have shown that in the context of pediatric oncology this involvement is difficult to achieve due to emotional stress, the complexity of research protocols and limited time. Still, up to 80% of adolescents with cancer enter onto a trial during their illness. The aim of this study was to determine clinicians' views and attitudes towards enrolling adolescents in research, considering the difficulties surrounding their involvement in decision-making. A qualitative multicenter study was performed, using in-depth semi-structured interviews on the informed consent process with 15 pediatric hemato-oncologists. Four central themes emerged that characterize clinicians' attitudes towards involving adolescents in the decision-making process: (1) clinicians regard most adolescents as not capable of participating meaningfully in discussions regarding research; (2) clinicians do not always provide adolescents with all information; (3) proxy consent from parents is obtained and is deemed sufficient; (4) clinician-investigator integrity: clinicians judge research protocols as not being harmful and even in the best interest of the adolescent. Clinicians justify not involving adolescents in research discussions by referring to best interest arguments (adolescents' incompetence, proxy consent, and investigator integrity), although this is not in line with legal regulations and ethical guidelines.

  9. Survey Regarding the Competence and Interest towards Research of Romanian University Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Demjén, Beátrix-Aletta; Ciascai, Liliana

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to find out the respondents' opinion regarding their abilities and interest towards research. The survey was carried out on a sample of 51 respondents that are involved in research activities in the universities of origin. The participants are students from Faculties of Real and Applied Sciences. The results highlight…

  10. Disclosure, Evaluation and Management of Financial Conflict of Interest in Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ward, Winona; Strong, Carolyn

    2016-01-01

    The most difficult aspect of financial conflict of interest (FCOI) and compliance with federal regulations involves the assessment and management of identified FCOIs. While some federal agencies provide examples of the structure and content of management plans, it is up to institutions to evaluate FCOI to determine whether and how research may be…

  11. Salutogenic service user involvement in nursing research: a case study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mjøsund, Nina Helen; Vinje, Hege Forbech; Eriksson, Monica; Haaland-Øverby, Mette; Jensen, Sven Liang; Kjus, Solveig; Norheim, Irene; Portaasen, Inger-Lill; Espnes, Geir Arild

    2018-05-12

    The aim was to explore the process of involving mental healthcare service users in a mental health promotion research project as research advisors and to articulate features of the collaboration which encouraged and empowered the advisors to make significant contributions to the research process and outcome. There is an increasing interest in evaluating aspects of service user involvement in nursing research. Few descriptions exist of features that enable meaningful service user involvement. We draw on experiences from conducting research which used the methodology interpretative phenomenological analysis to explore how persons with mental disorders perceived mental health. Aside from the participants in the project, five research advisors with service user experience were involved in the entire research process. We applied a case study design to explore the ongoing processes of service user involvement. Documents and texts produced while conducting the project (2012-2016), as well as transcripts from multistage focus group discussions with the research advisors, were analysed. The level of involvement was dynamic and varied throughout the different stages of the research process. Six features: leadership, meeting structure, role clarification, being members of a team, a focus on possibilities and being seen and treated as holistic individuals, were guiding principles for a salutogenic service user involvement. These features strengthened the advisors' perception of themselves as valuable and competent contributors. Significant contributions from research advisors were promoted by facilitating the process of involvement. A supporting structure and atmosphere were consistent with a salutogenic service user involvement. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

  12. Balancing research interests and patient interests: a qualitative study into the intertwinement of care and research in paediatric oncology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dekking, Sara A S; van der Graaf, Rieke; Kars, Marijke C; Beishuizen, Auke; de Vries, Martine C; van Delden, Johannes J M

    2015-05-01

    Traditionally, in ethical guidelines and in research ethics literature, care and research are clearly separated based on their different objectives. In contrast, in paediatric oncology, research and care are closely combined. Currently, it is unknown how relevant actors in paediatric oncology perceive this combination of research and care. We conducted a qualitative study into the experiences of those involved in Dutch paediatric oncology with the intertwinement of research and care and the dual role of paediatric oncologists as researchers and treating physicians. A qualitative study approach, using two focus groups and 19 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with paediatric oncologists, research coordinators, parents of children with cancer, and adolescents with cancer. Four themes characterize how actors experience the intertwinement of research and care in paediatric oncology. First, research is considered of major importance, and paediatric oncology professionals convey this message to patients and their parents. Second, there is ambiguity about categorization of studies into cancer therapy as either research or treatment. Third, role conflicts appear within the work of the paediatric oncologists. Finally, the various benefits of combining treatment with research are emphasized. Research is regarded as a fundamental and indispensable characteristic of paediatric oncology practice. Paediatric oncology professionals, parents, and patients have a very positive outlook on combining research and care, but they may not be sufficiently critical with respect to potential conflicts. Increased reflection on how to optimally combine research and care could serve as an important protection of the interests of children with cancer and their parents. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  13. Public Interest in Medical Research Participation: Does It Matter if Patients or Community Members Have Helped Design the Study?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cobb, Enesha M; Gebremariam, Achamyeleh; Singer, Dianne; Davis, Matthew M

    2015-10-01

    We determined national levels of public participation in medical research study design. We compared public interest in medical research participation (MRP) in studies overall, versus studies explicitly designed with public involvement. Cross-sectional household survey of US population in June 2013. Descriptive statistics estimated participation in medical research study design. Chi-square test compared levels of interest in MRP if respondent knew patients or community members helped design the study. Of 2,048 respondents (participation rate 60%), 5% knew someone who had helped design a medical research study. There was no association between having known someone or personal participation in study design and willingness to engage in MRP. Although the overall proportion of respondents who would consider MRP initially (51%) was similar to the proportion who would consider MRP with community member involvement in study design (49%), the changes in respondents' views across the different scenarios were significantly greater than what would have been expected by chance. We found similar levels of interest in MRP whether or not the public is involved in medical research study design. This finding may indicate that public involvement in study design, like community-based participatory research, may not affect overall rates of MRP. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  14. 25 CFR 900.234 - What types of personal conflicts of interest involving tribal officers, employees or...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false What types of personal conflicts of interest involving... ASSISTANCE ACT Conflicts of Interest § 900.234 What types of personal conflicts of interest involving tribal... in which that person has a financial or employment interest that conflicts with that of the trust...

  15. [Research interest by general practitioners: a survey].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rossi, S; Zoller, M; Steurer, J

    2006-12-06

    For doing research on topics in primary care medicine participation of primary care physicians is necessary. Research in this field of medicine is only marginally established in Switzerland. In a postal survey we evaluate the general attitudes of physicians towards research in the field of primary care. In particular we were interested in their willingness to participate in research projects and the facilitating and impeding factors to take part in such projects. A purpose designed questionnaire was sent by post to 3044 primary care physicians in the central and eastern parts of Switzerland. The return rate was 52%. A majority of 94% of the responding physicians revealed interest in primary care research and 60% of all responders are willing to participate actively in such projects. They are prepared to spend about 15 min a day for data acquisition. Their willingness to participate depends on the conditions that, first, the research topic is relevant for daily practice and, second, boards odder Continuous Medical Education credits for time spent for research. Time constraints, additional administrative work and lack of relevance of research topics to daily practice are the main barriers. This survey demonstrates the general interest of primary care physicians to participate in relevant research projects. Therefore the structure to set up such research should be established.

  16. Getting involved in research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Banner, Davina; Grant, Lyle G

    2011-01-01

    The need for quality nursing research to promote evidence-based practice and optimize patient care is well recognized. This is particularly pertinent in cardiovascular nursing, where cardiovascular disease continues to be the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide (World Health Organization, 2007). Across the spectrum of academic, clinical, and health care administration nursing roles, research remains fundamental to bridging theory, practice, and education (LoBiondo-Wood, Haber, Cameron, & Singh, 2009). Despite recognition of the importance of nursing research, the gap between research and practice continues to be an ongoing issue (Funk, Tornquist, & Champagne, 1995; Pettengill, Gillies, & Clark, 1994; Rizzuto, Bostrom, Suterm, & Chenitz, 1994; Rolfe, 1998). Nurses are appropriately situated to contribute to research that improves clinical outcomes and health service delivery. However, the majority of nurses in clinical practice do not have a significant research component structured into their nursing role. In this research column, the authors outline the importance of nurses being engaged in research and present some different levels of involvement that nurses may assume. A continuum of nursing research involvement includes asking researchable questions, being a savvy consumer of research evidence, finding your own level of research involvement, and aspiring to lead.

  17. Capturing Parents' Individual and Institutional Interest Toward Involvement in Science Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaya, Sibel; Lundeen, Cynthia

    2010-11-01

    Parents are generally less involved in their children’s science education (as compared to reading and mathematics) due to low self-efficacy and a lack of home-school communication. This study examined parental interest and attitudes in science as well as the nature of parent-to-child questioning during an interactive home, school, and community collaboration in the southeastern United States. Study results, compiled from observations, exit surveys, and interviews revealed largely positive family interactions and attitudes about science learning and increased parental interest toward involvement in elementary science. Parents frequently used productive questioning techniques during activities. These results imply that successful home, school, and community partnerships may elevate levels of parental participation in their children’s science education and the parents’ perception of themselves as being competent in assisting in science.

  18. Strategies for involving undergraduates in mentored research (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marin-Spiotta, E.

    2013-12-01

    Early engagement in research can transform the undergraduate experience and has a positive effect on minority student recruitment to graduate school. Multiple strategies used to involve undergraduates in research at a large R1 university are presented. During my first four years as an assistant professor, my lab has hosted 14 undergraduates, 9 of them women and 4 of them Hispanic. Institutional support has been critical for undergraduate student involvement. UW supports a research program for incoming underrepresented students. An advantage of this program is very early research participation, with the opportunity for long-term training. One disadvantage is that many first year students have not yet identified their interests. The Biology major also requires students to complete an independent project, which culminates in a research symposium. Competitive research fellowships and grants are available for students to conduct work under faculty mentorship. We have been successful at keeping students on even when their majors are very different from our research discipline, mainly by providing flexibility and a welcoming lab environment. This mentoring culture is strongly fostered by graduate student interest and involvement with all undergraduates as well as active mentor training. By offering multiple pathways for involvement, we can accommodate students' changing schedules and priorities as well as changing lab needs. Students can volunteer, receive course credit, conduct an independent project or honors thesis, contribute to an existing project, do lab work or write a literature review, work with one mentor or on multiple projects. We often provide employment over the summer and subsequent semesters for continuing students. Some will increase their commitment over time and work more closely with me. Others reduce down to a few hours a week as they gain experience elsewhere. Most students stay multiple semesters and multiple years because they 'enjoy being in the

  19. Ethical issues when involving people newly diagnosed with dementia in research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holland, Suzanne; Kydd, Angela

    2015-03-01

    To discuss the methodological and ethical review challenges encountered by researchers who want to enable people with dementia to be involved in research. There has been increasing recognition of the importance of involving people with dementia in research. However, an argument has centred on the protection of these vulnerable clients versus their freedom to be involved as participants in research. People with dementia do have the right to have their experiences explored. Involving this client group in research is essential to gain a true understanding of their needs. The lead author's experience of conducting a study in which people newly diagnosed with dementia were recruited as research participants. An interpretive phenomenological approach was adopted during this qualitative study, with data collected by means of one to one interviews with people newly diagnosed with dementia. This study was completed within the set timeframe, but a large part of the work was spent gaining ethical approval. This meant that the timeframe of the study period was reduced and as a result, it was only possible to recruit three participants. However, people with dementia are perhaps one of the most vulnerable client groups and it is only right that they should not be subjected to harm. Ethical review is an important part of research. Meeting the ethical requirements of research involving people with dementia requires time and careful preparation to ensure that researchers safeguard the interests of this vulnerable client group, while also allowing the participants the opportunity to exercise their autonomy to their fullest potential. Conducting research that involves people with dementia may be time consuming, but it is only fair that this client group are afforded the freedom to be involved in research. This small time-limited study points to the need for larger pilot studies to hear from individuals what needs they have following a diagnosis of dementia.

  20. Media in a Crisis Situation Involving National Interest:

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Xigen, Li; Lindsay, Laura; Mogensen, Kirsten

    A content analysis of coverage of 9/11 incident during the first eight hours examined how five television networks framed the news coverage as events unfolded. Media performed their function in a crisis basically as they were expected and coverage and issues do not vary significantly among...... the networks. This study found that a variety of sources was used, and the influence of government officials was not as great as in the coverage of a crisis with less involvement of U.S. national interest. Media primarily serve as the sources of accurate information instead of guidance and consolation...

  1. Social Cognitive Predictors of Interest in Research Among Life Sciences Academics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sawitri, Dian R.; Nurtjahjanti, Harlina; Prasetyo, Anggun R.

    2018-02-01

    Research interest is the degree to which an individual is interested in conducting research-related activities. Nowadays, Indonesian higher education academics are expected to be research productive, especially those in life sciences. However, what predicts interest in research among life sciences academics is rarely known. We surveyed 240 life sciences academics (64.6% female, mean age = 31.91 years) from several higher degree institutions in Indonesia, using interest in research, research self-efficacy, and research outcome expectations questionnaires. We used social cognitive career theory which proposes that individual’s interests are the results of the interaction between one’s self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations overtime. Structural equation modelling demonstrated that research self-efficacy was directly and indirectly associated with interest in research via research outcome expectations. Understanding the social cognitive predictors of interest in research contributes to an understanding of the associations between research self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and interest in research. Recommendations for life sciences academics, faculties, and higher education institutions are discussed.

  2. Undergraduate Research Involving Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students in Interdisciplinary Science Projects

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Todd Pagano

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Scientific undergraduate research in higher education often yields positive outcomes for student and faculty member participants alike, with underrepresented students often showing even more substantial gains (academic, professional, and personal as a result of the experience. Significant success can be realized when involving deaf and hard-of-hearing (d/hh undergraduate students, who are also vastly underrepresented in the sciences, in interdisciplinary research projects. Even d/hh Associate degree level students and those in the first two years of their postsecondary careers can contribute to, and benefit from, the research process when faculty mentors properly plan/design projects. We discuss strategies, including the dissemination/communication of research results, for involving these students in research groups with different communication dynamics and share both findings of our research program and examples of successful chemical and biological research projects that have involved d/hh undergraduate students. We hope to stimulate a renewed interest in encouraging diversity and involving students with disabilities into higher education research experiences globally and across multiple scientific disciplines, thus strengthening the education and career pipeline of these students.

  3. Effects of Disclosing Financial Interests on Attitudes Toward Clinical Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hall, Mark A.; Dinan, Michaela A.; DePuy, Venita; Friedman, Joëlle Y.; Allsbrook, Jennifer S.; Sugarman, Jeremy

    2008-01-01

    Background The effects of disclosing financial interests to potential research participants are not well understood. Objective To examine the effects of financial interest disclosures on potential research participants’ attitudes toward clinical research. Design and Participants Computerized experiment conducted with 3,623 adults in the United States with either diabetes mellitus or asthma, grouped by lesser and greater severity. Respondents read a description of a hypothetical clinical trial relevant to their diagnosis that included a financial disclosure statement. Respondents received 1 of 5 disclosure statements. Measurements Willingness to participate in the hypothetical clinical trial, relative importance of information about the financial interest, change in trust after reading the disclosure statement, surprise regarding the financial interest, and perceived effect of the financial interest on the quality of the clinical trial. Results Willingness to participate in the hypothetical clinical trial did not differ substantially among the types of financial disclosures. Respondents viewed the disclosed information as less important than other factors in deciding to participate. Disclosures were associated with some respondents trusting the researchers less, although trust among some respondents increased. Most respondents were not surprised to learn of financial interests. Researchers owning equity were viewed as more troubling than researchers who were compensated for the costs of research through per capita payments. Conclusions Aside from a researcher holding an equity interest, the disclosure to potential research participants of financial interests in research, as recommended in recent policies, is unlikely to affect willingness to participate in research. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11606-008-0590-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. PMID:18386101

  4. Resident interest and factors involved in entering a pediatric pulmonary fellowship

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gershan William M

    2004-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Relatively little is known about interest in pediatric pulmonology among pediatric residents. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to determine at this institution: 1 the level of pediatric resident interest in pursuing a pulmonary fellowship, 2 potential factors involved in development of such interest, 3 whether the presence of a pulmonary fellowship program affects such interest. Methods A questionnaire was distributed to all 52 pediatric residents at this institution in 1992 and to all 59 pediatric residents and 14 combined internal medicine/pediatrics residents in 2002, following development of a pulmonary fellowship program. Results Response rates were 79% in 1992 and 86% in 2002. Eight of the 43 responders in 1992 (19% had considered doing a pulmonary fellowship compared to 7 of 63 (11% in 2002. The highest ranked factors given by the residents who had considered a fellowship included wanting to continue one's education after residency, enjoying caring for pulmonary patients, and liking pulmonary physiology and the pulmonary faculty. Major factors listed by residents who had not considered a pulmonary fellowship included not enjoying the tracheostomy/ventilator population and chronic pulmonary patients in general, and a desire to enter general pediatrics or another fellowship. Most residents during both survey periods believed that they would be in non-academic or academic general pediatrics in 5 years. Only 1 of the 106 responding residents (~1% anticipated becoming a pediatric pulmonologist. Conclusions Although many pediatric residents consider enrolling in a pulmonary fellowship (~10–20% here, few (~1% here will actually pursue a career in pediatric pulmonology. The presence of a pulmonary fellowship program did not significantly alter resident interest, though other confounding factors may be involved.

  5. Monitoring Financial Conflict of Interest

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hickson, Lorraine

    2016-01-01

    Conflict of interest is heavily intertwined with research. The purpose of this study was to examine the literature and regulations in order to describe efforts required to properly monitor and disclose conflict of interest as researchers become steadily involved in innovation and discovery. The public assumes that when a conflict is disclosed, it…

  6. A Guide for Scientists Interested in Researching Student Outcomes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buxner, Sanlyn R.; Anbar, Ariel; Semken, Steve; Mead, Chris; Horodyskyj, Lev; Perera, Viranga; Bruce, Geoffrey; Schönstein, David

    2015-11-01

    Scientists spend years training in their scientific discipline and are well versed the literature, methods, and innovations in their own field. Many scientists also take on teaching responsibilities with little formal training in how to implement their courses or assess their students. There is a growing body of literature of what students know in space science courses and the types of innovations that can work to increase student learning but scientists rarely have exposure to this body of literature. For scientists who are interested in more effectively understanding what their students know or investigating the impact their courses have on students, there is little guidance. Undertaking a more formal study of students poses more complexities including finding robust instruments and employing appropriate data analysis. Additionally, formal research with students involves issues of privacy and human subjects concerns, both regulated by federal laws.This poster details the important decisions and issues to consider for both course evaluation and more formal research using a course developed, facilitated, evaluated and researched by a hybrid team of scientists and science education researchers. HabWorlds, designed and implemented by a team of scientists and faculty at Arizona State University, has been using student data to continually improve the course as well as conduct formal research on students’ knowledge and attitudes in science. This ongoing project has had external funding sources to allow robust assessment not available to most instructors. This is a case study for discussing issues that are applicable to designing and assessing all science courses. Over the course of several years, instructors have refined course outcomes and learning objectives that are shared with students as a roadmap of instruction. The team has searched for appropriate tools for assessing student learning and attitudes, tested them and decided which have worked, or not, for

  7. Involving Nepali academics in health research

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Neupane, Dinesh; van Teijlingen, E; Khanal, V

    2013-01-01

    Many academics from Nepal do not involve in research activities. There are several factors hindering the involvement such as inadequate human resources and lack of financial resources. Despite limited human and financial resources, we believe it is still possible to attract many Nepali academics...... in health research. This paper purposes some ideas to increase involvement of Nepali academics in health research....

  8. 25 CFR 1000.463 - What types of personal conflicts of interest involving tribal officers, employees or...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false What types of personal conflicts of interest involving...-DETERMINATION AND EDUCATION ACT Conflicts of Interest § 1000.463 What types of personal conflicts of interest... financial or employment interest that conflicts with that of the trust beneficiary, whether the tribe...

  9. Trend of Medical Tourism Publications: An Attempt to Explore the Involved Academic Disciplines and Interests.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rokni, Ladan; Park, Sam-Hun

    2018-02-01

    Medical tourism suffers from the lack of a consensus regarding the involved categories. This study aimed to address this gap from the academic disciplines and publications perspective. Totally 1954 citations were identified through a formula of keyword search of SCOPUS. In order to classify the various subject areas, we followed the international standard classification of education (ISCED) developed by UNESCO. Moreover, the trends of publications were identified based on their popularity between 2000 and 2017. The category with the most interests on publication about medical tourism was 'health and welfare', followed by 'social science'. Even though various disciplines were involved in the medical tourism, it seems that a downward trend has been experienced since 2015. The identified key trends of medical tourism publications will benefit researchers exploring the categories of medical tourism or health travel. The results contribute to advance the state of knowledge from the academic perspective.

  10. Conflicts of interest in research: looking out for number one means keeping the primary interest front and center.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Romain, Paul L

    2015-06-01

    Conflicts of interest represent circumstances in which professional judgments or actions regarding a primary interest, such as the responsibilities of a medical researcher, may be at risk of being unduly influenced by a secondary interest, such as financial gain or career advancement. The secondary interest may be financial or non-financial, and the resultant bias may be conscious or unconscious. The presence of conflicts of interest poses a problem for professional, patient, and public trust in research and the research enterprise. Effective means of identifying and managing conflicts are an important element in successfully achieving the goals of research. These strategies typically focus on the investigator and rely upon disclosure, which has substantial limitations. Additional management strategies include process-oriented steps and outcomes-oriented strategies. More attention to identifying and managing non-financial conflicts is needed. Future empirical research will be important for defining which conflicts need to be better addressed and how to achieve this goal.

  11. Ethics in research involving prisoners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pont, Jörg

    2008-01-01

    Research involving prisoners repeatedly went astray during the last century, culminating in the cruel medical experiments inside the Nazi concentration camps that gave rise to the Nuremberg Code. However, prisoners continued to become victims of scientific exploitation by the rapidly evolving biomedical research industry. The common roots of these abuses were the flawed philosophy that the needs of the society outweigh the needs of the individual and the researchers' view that prisoners are cheap, easy to motivate and stable research subjects. Prisoners are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse by research because their freedom for consent can easily be undermined, and because of learning disabilities, illiteracy and language barriers prevailing within prisoner populations. Therefore, penal laws of some countries supported by a number of internationally agreed documents prohibit research involving prisoners completely. However, prisoners must also be regarded as vulnerable to the specific health problems in prisons, e.g. transmissible diseases, mental disorders and suicide - problems that need to be addressed by research involving prisoners. Additionally, the participation of prisoner patients in research they directly can benefit from should be provided. Hence, it must be a common objective to find the right balance between protection from exploitation and access to research beneficial to prisoners.

  12. THE CONTRIBUTION OF PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH TO TRANSPORTATION POLICY

    OpenAIRE

    Makoto ITOH

    2003-01-01

    Established in 1995 with the basic philosophy of serving as a bridge between research and practice, the Institute for Transport Policy Studies conducts activities in support of transportation policy research in the public interest. This paper aims to describe the contribution of public interest research to transportation policy as seen in the Institute's activities. Touching first on the context and events leading to its establishment, the paper then describes the Institute's guiding principl...

  13. Involving Research Stakeholders in Developing Policy on Sharing Public Health Research Data in Kenya

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jao, Irene; Kombe, Francis; Mwalukore, Salim; Bull, Susan; Parker, Michael; Kamuya, Dorcas; Molyneux, Sassy

    2015-01-01

    Increased global sharing of public health research data has potential to advance scientific progress but may present challenges to the interests of research stakeholders, particularly in low-to-middle income countries. Policies for data sharing should be responsive to public views, but there is little evidence of the systematic study of these from low-income countries. This qualitative study explored views on fair data-sharing processes among 60 stakeholders in Kenya with varying research experience, using a deliberative approach. Stakeholders’ attitudes were informed by perceptions of benefit and concerns for research data sharing, including risks of stigmatization, loss of privacy, and undermining scientific careers and validity, reported in detail elsewhere. In this article, we discuss institutional trust-building processes seen as central to perceptions of fairness in sharing research data in this setting, including forms of community involvement, individual prior awareness and agreement to data sharing, independence and accountability of governance mechanisms, and operating under a national framework. PMID:26297748

  14. The Principle of Least Interest: Inequality in Emotional Involvement in Romantic Relationships

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sprecher, Susan; Schmeeckle, Maria; Felmlee, Diane

    2006-01-01

    Data from a longitudinal sample of dating couples (some of whom married) were analyzed to test the aspect of Waller's (1938) principle of least interest that states that unequal emotional involvement between romantic partners has implications for relationship quality and stability. Both members of the couples were asked multiple times over several…

  15. Undergraduates' Perceived Knowledge, Self-Efficacy, and Interest in Social Science Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boswell, Stefanie S.

    2013-01-01

    This study investigated the relationship between perceived knowledge of research methods, research self-efficacy, interest in learning about research, and interest in performing research-related tasks in one's career. The study also investigated the effect of a research methods course with both didactic and experiential components on these…

  16. Assessment by human research ethics committees of potential conflicts of interest arising from pharmaceutical sponsorship of clinical research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Newcombe, J P; Kerridge, I H

    2007-01-01

    Conflicts of interest arising from pharmaceutical industry sponsorship of clinical research have the potential to bias research outcomes and ultimately prejudice patient care. It is unknown how Australian Human Research Ethics Committees (HREC) assess and manage such conflicts of interest. We aimed to gain an understanding of how HREC approach the problem of potential conflicts of interest arising from pharmaceutical sponsorship of clinical research. We conducted a survey of HREC chairpersons in New South Wales. HREC vary widely in their approaches to conflicts of interest, including in their use of National Health and Medical Research Council guidelines, which were often misinterpreted or overlooked. Many committees rely primarily on researchers disclosing potential conflicts of interest, whereas a majority of HREC use disclosure to research participants as the primary tool for preventing and managing conflicts of interest. Almost no HREC place limitations on researcher relationships with pharmaceutical companies. These findings suggest reluctance on the part of HREC to regulate many potential conflicts of interest between researchers and pharmaceutical sponsors, which may arise from uncertainty regarding the meaning or significance of conflicts of interest in research, from ambiguity surrounding the role of HREC in assessing and managing conflicts of interest in research or from misinterpretation or ignorance of current National Health and Medical Research Council guidelines. Further review of policies and practices in this important area may prove beneficial in safeguarding clinical research and patient care while promoting continuing constructive engagement with the pharmaceutical industry.

  17. Charities' response to the European Commission call of interest for their involvement in the European Research Area

    CERN Document Server

    Sessano, D.

    2003-01-01

    This paper presents an exploratory study to investigate what could be the role of the charities concerned with scientific research in the European Research Area (ERA). The analysis particularly concentrates on UK and Italy. The questions on which the exploratory study was developed are: 1. “In what specific areas of the ERA did the European Commission (EC) for the involvement of charities? And could there be other areas in which charities might participate?” 2. “Given the role and situation of charities in UK and Italy, what role, if any, could they be willing to play in the ERA? Is it the same as the one proposed by the Commission or not?” In order to answer these questions, the following discussion will focus at first on a short overview of the charity sector, both at the general level and at the national level in UK and Italy. Then a brief presentation of the European Research Area will be given. The hypotheses of the study will then be presented, followed by a methodological section. Results wi...

  18. 42 CFR 52h.5 - Conflict of interest.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Conflict of interest. 52h.5 Section 52h.5 Public... RESEARCH GRANT APPLICATIONS AND RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CONTRACT PROJECTS § 52h.5 Conflict of interest. (a) This section applies only to conflicts of interest involving members of peer review groups. This...

  19. Career Interests of Canadian Psychiatry Residents: What Makes Residents Choose a Research Career?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laliberté, Vincent; Rapoport, Mark J.; Andrew, Melissa; Davidson, Marla

    2016-01-01

    Objectives: Training future clinician-researchers remains a challenge faced by Canadian psychiatry departments. Our objectives were to determine the prevalence of residents interested in pursuing research and other career options as part of their practice, and to identify the factors associated with interest in research. Method: Data from a national online survey of 207 Canadian psychiatry residents from a total of 853 (24.3% response rate) were examined. The main outcome was interest in research as part of residents’ future psychiatrist practice. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify demographic and vocational variables associated with research interest. Results: Interest in research decreases by 76% between the first and fifth year of psychiatry residency (OR 0.76 per year, 95% CI 0.60 to 0.97). Training in a department with a residency research track did not correlate with increased research interest (χ2 = 0.007, df = 1, P = 0.93). Conclusions: Exposing and engaging psychiatry residents in research as early as possible in residency training appears key to promoting future research interest. Psychiatry residency programs and research tracks could consider emphasizing research training initiatives and protected research time early in residency. PMID:27253699

  20. Non-financial conflicts of interests in psychiatric research and practice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maj, Mario

    2008-08-01

    Not all conflicts of interests affecting psychiatry are financial in nature. Our field is vulnerable to some varieties of nonfinancial conflicts of interests. Examples include the possible conflict between a researcher's allegiance to a school of thought and the integrity of psychotherapy research, or between a psychiatrist's political commitment and patients' welfare.

  1. A simple model for research interest evolution patterns

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jia, Tao; Wang, Dashun; Szymanski, Boleslaw

    Sir Isaac Newton supposedly remarked that in his scientific career he was like ``...a boy playing on the sea-shore ...finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary''. His remarkable modesty and famous understatement motivate us to seek regularities in how scientists shift their research focus as the career develops. Indeed, despite intensive investigations on how microscopic factors, such as incentives and risks, would influence a scientist's choice of research agenda, little is known on the macroscopic patterns in the research interest change undertaken by individual scientists throughout their careers. Here we make use of over 14,000 authors' publication records in physics. By quantifying statistical characteristics in the interest evolution, we model scientific research as a random walk, which reproduces patterns in individuals' careers observed empirically. Despite myriad of factors that shape and influence individual choices of research subjects, we identified regularities in this dynamical process that are well captured by a simple statistical model. The results advance our understanding of scientists' behaviors during their careers and open up avenues for future studies in the science of science.

  2. Motivating Students' Research Skills and Interests through a Multimodal, Multigenre Research Project

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bailey, Nancy M.; Carroll, Kristen M.

    2010-01-01

    The authors investigate how innovative research assignments based on students' personal interests can help them want to develop their research skills. They find that multimodal communication and representation, including film, written scripts, comic strips, music, and photography, encourage students to carefully select information from the…

  3. [Conflicts of interests in clinical research in primary health care].

    Science.gov (United States)

    González-de Paz, L; Navarro-Rubio, M D; Sisó-Almirall, A

    2014-03-01

    Conflicts of interests between professionals and patients in biomedical research, is an ethical problem. None of the laws in Spain mention whether the clinical researcher has to clarify to participants the reasons why it proposes them to participate in a clinical trial. In this article, conflicts of interests in research are discussed in the context of primary healthcare. In this area conflicts of interests might alter the confidence between patients and healthcare professionals. Finally, we suggest some practical strategies that can help participants make the decision to participate in a clinical trial more willingly and freely. Copyright © 2013 Sociedad Española de Médicos de Atención Primaria (SEMERGEN). Publicado por Elsevier España. All rights reserved.

  4. Ordinal Position Research Related to Vocational Interest

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gandy, Gerald L.

    1974-01-01

    Birth order studies directly related to vocational interest were reviewed to discern support for certain theoretical susumptions: firstborns are more directing, controlling, and organizing than later borns and later borns are more sociable, empathic, and sympathetic than firstborns. The research was inconsistent, contradictory, and speculative.…

  5. EdD Students’ Self-Efficacy and Interest in Conducting Research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Monica R Kerrigan

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Today’s educational practitioners are expected to know how to gather, analyze, and report on data for accountability purposes and to use that information to improve student outcomes. However, there is little understanding of how to support practitioners’ learning of and engagement with research and few studies on the research experiences of students enrolled in Doctorate of Education (EdD programs. The success of students enrolled in Doctor of Philosophy (PhD programs in conducting research has been found to be related to students’ self-efficacy and interest, but these concepts have not been explored with EdD students who are more likely to engage in applied research in their workplace than to create a research-focused career. This study sought to understand the self-efficacy and interest that EdD students enrolled in an Educational Leadership program have in research skills and tasks in order to improve research course offerings. Our findings with EdD students are consistent with existing research on PhD students regarding research self-efficacy but we did not observe significant changes in students’ interest over time. We suggest avenues for future study in light of current accountability reporting requirements for practitioners.

  6. 33 CFR 148.510 - What happens when a petition for exemption involves the interests of an adjacent coastal State?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... exemption involves the interests of an adjacent coastal State? 148.510 Section 148.510 Navigation and... petition for exemption involves the interests of an adjacent coastal State? If the petition for exemption concerns an adjacent coastal State, the Commandant (CG-5) forwards the petition to the Governor of the...

  7. Researcher views about funding sources and conflicts of interest in nanotechnology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McComas, Katherine A

    2012-12-01

    Dependence in nanotechnology on external funding and academic-industry relationships has led to questions concerning its influence on research directions, as well as the potential for conflicts of interest to arise and impact scientific integrity and public trust. This study uses a survey of 193 nanotechnology industry and academic researchers to explore whether they share similar concerns. Although these concerns are not unique to nanotechnology, its emerging nature and the prominence of industry funding lend credence to understanding its researchers' views, as these researchers are shaping the norms and direction of the field. The results of the survey show general agreement that funding sources are influencing research directions in nanotechnology; many respondents saw this influence in their own work as well as other researchers' work. Respondents also agreed that funding considerations were likely to influence whether researchers shared their results. Irrespective of their institutional affiliation or funding status, twice as many researchers as not considered financial conflicts of interest a cause for concern, and three times as many respondents as not disagreed financial conflicts of interest in nanotechnology were uncommon. Only a third was satisfied with the way that conflicts of interest are currently managed and believed current procedures would protect the integrity of nanotechnology research. The results also found differences in views depending on researchers' institutional affiliation and funding status.

  8. Conflito de interesses em pesquisa clínica Conflict of interests in clinical research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elaine Maria de Oliveira Alves

    2007-10-01

    Full Text Available Na pesquisa clínica há um grande potencial para o conflito de interesses e, mesmo para o pesquisador, a identificação desses conflitos pode não ser muito clara. Há muitos aspectos a serem considerados, com implicações que atingem todos os agentes que participam do processo: o sujeito da pesquisa, o pesquisador, a instituição onde a pesquisa é realizada, o patrocinador, os comitês de ética, as agências reguladoras, a comunidade científica e a sociedade em geral. A conclusão é que os conflitos de interesses são generalizados e inevitáveis na vida acadêmica. O desafio não é erradicá-los, mas reconhecê-los e manejá-los adequadamente. A única prática aceitável é que sejam expostos claramente e que todas as pesquisas em seres humanos passem pelo crivo dos comitês de ética em pesquisa.In clinical research there is a real possibility to have some conflict of interests. Even for the researcher, the identification of these conflicts cannot be clear. There are many aspects to be considered, involving all participants of the process: the research subject, the researcher, the institution where the research is carried through, the sponsor, the ethics committees, the regulating agencies, the scientific community and the society. The conclusion is that conflicts of interests are common and inevitable in the academic field. The challenge is not to eradicate them, but to recognize them and to manage them properly. The only acceptable way to do this is to expose clearly the conflicts of interests and always to submit the clinical research projects to the ethics committees.

  9. Community Involvement in TB Research

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    M. van der Werf (Marloes); S.G. Heumann (Silke); E.M.H. Mitchell

    2011-01-01

    textabstractWhile communities at risk have been both drivers and partners in HIV research, their important role in TB research is yet to be fully realized. Involvement of communities in tuberculosis care and prevention is currently on the international agenda. This creates opportunities and

  10. Enhancing public involvement in assistive technology design research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williamson, Tracey; Kenney, Laurence; Barker, Anthony T; Cooper, Glen; Good, Tim; Healey, Jamie; Heller, Ben; Howard, David; Matthews, Martin; Prenton, Sarah; Ryan, Julia; Smith, Christine

    2015-05-01

    To appraise the application of accepted good practice guidance on public involvement in assistive technology research and to identify its impact on the research team, the public, device and trial design. Critical reflection and within-project evaluation were undertaken in a case study of the development of a functional electrical stimulation device. Individual and group interviews were undertaken with lay members of a 10 strong study user advisory group and also research team members. Public involvement was seen positively by research team members, who reported a positive impact on device and study designs. The public identified positive impact on confidence, skills, self-esteem, enjoyment, contribution to improving the care of others and opportunities for further involvement in research. A negative impact concerned the challenge of engaging the public in dissemination after the study end. The public were able to impact significantly on the design of an assistive technology device which was made more fit for purpose. Research team attitudes to public involvement were more positive after having witnessed its potential first hand. Within-project evaluation underpins this case study which presents a much needed detailed account of public involvement in assistive technology design research to add to the existing weak evidence base. The evidence base for impact of public involvement in rehabilitation technology design is in need of development. Public involvement in co-design of rehabilitation devices can lead to technologies that are fit for purpose. Rehabilitation researchers need to consider the merits of active public involvement in research.

  11. Ethical issues in neonatal research involving human subjects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fleischman, Alan R

    2016-06-01

    Research involving critically ill neonates creates many ethical challenges. Neonatal clinical research has always been hard to perform, is very expensive, and may generate some unique ethical concerns. This article describes some examples of historical and modern controversies in neonatal research, discusses the justification for research involving such vulnerable and fragile patients, clarifies current federal regulations that govern research involving neonates, and suggests ways that clinical investigators can develop and implement ethically grounded human subjects research. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. 7 CFR 1810.2 - Adjustment of interest rates for certain loans involving use of or construction on prime or...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 12 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Adjustment of interest rates for certain loans... INTEREST RATES, TERMS, CONDITIONS, AND APPROVAL AUTHORITY Interest Rates, Amortization, Guarantee Fee, Annual Charge, and Fixed Period § 1810.2 Adjustment of interest rates for certain loans involving use of...

  13. Freedom of research and public interest

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jonas, H.

    1988-01-01

    The author is a philosopher concerned with responsibility. He argues that the pretext of 'purely theoretical interest of science' is no longer valid for some modern key sciences and, on the contrary, science has entered the field of social action where each prepetrator vouch for his deeds. His critical opinion on nuclear energy is expressed not in the main text but in figures showing nuclear power plants and lengthly legends attached to them. He does not make the common distinction between science and technology. Thus nuclear energy is for him a piece of science done in the world-as-a-laboratory and is moreover a technology 'which presumably will never get rid of its experimental nature'. Therefore the Freedom of Research must be cancelled by the state in the public interest. Even more horrifying than nuclear energy is to the author however gene technology. (qui)

  14. Undergraduates' Perceptions of Conflict of Interest in Industry-Sponsored Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perry, Heather Brodie

    2018-01-01

    The prevalence of industry-sponsored research has led to significant concerns about financial conflicts of interest and the impact on research findings. This case study sought to examine how students considered conflict of interest when establishing the cognitive authority of a journal article. The case study used a mixed methods pretest and…

  15. The Role of Interest in Physical Education: A Review of Research Evidence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Ang; Wang, Yubing

    2017-01-01

    This article focuses on the research on interest, especially situational interest, in physical education. Interest has been considered a powerful motivator for children and adolescents. Based on a conceptualization of individual and situational interest, a reasonable size of evidence has been accumulated showing that situational interest motivates…

  16. Research on listed bank profit model under the interest rate liberalization

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Geyao Zhu

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available With constantly deepening the interest rate liberalization, shrinking the net interest margin and the ever-rising non-performing loan ratio, the traditional commercial banks with the main profit model of credit suffers from a severe challenge. The research significance of this paper lies in helping China’s commercial bank convert management philosophy, developing a new financial business and improving the profit model. Through the empirical research of 80 samples of China’s listed commercial banks: under the condition of interest rate liberalization, the net interest margin is still the current major profit model of the commercial bank, but the intermediate business is the future development model of the commercial banks.

  17. Research interests: their dynamics, structures and applications in unifying search and reasoning

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zeng, Y.; Zhou, E.; Wang, Y.; Ren, X.; Qin, Y.; Huang, Z.; Zhong, N.

    2011-01-01

    Most scientific publication information, which may reflects scientists' research interests, is publicly available on the Web. Understanding the characteristics of research interests from previous publications may help to provide better services for scientists in the Web age. In this paper, we

  18. Increasing High School Student Interest in Science: An Action Research Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vartuli, Cindy A.

    An action research study was conducted to determine how to increase student interest in learning science and pursuing a STEM career. The study began by exploring 10th-grade student and teacher perceptions of student interest in science in order to design an instructional strategy for stimulating student interest in learning and pursuing science. Data for this study included responses from 270 students to an on-line science survey and interviews with 11 students and eight science teachers. The action research intervention included two iterations of the STEM Career Project. The first iteration introduced four chemistry classes to the intervention. The researcher used student reflections and a post-project survey to determine if the intervention had influence on the students' interest in pursuing science. The second iteration was completed by three science teachers who had implemented the intervention with their chemistry classes, using student reflections and post-project surveys, as a way to make further procedural refinements and improvements to the intervention and measures. Findings from the exploratory phase of the study suggested students generally had interest in learning science but increasing that interest required including personally relevant applications and laboratory experiences. The intervention included a student-directed learning module in which students investigated three STEM careers and presented information on one of their chosen careers. The STEM Career Project enabled students to explore career possibilities in order to increase their awareness of STEM careers. Findings from the first iteration of the intervention suggested a positive influence on student interest in learning and pursuing science. The second iteration included modifications to the intervention resulting in support for the findings of the first iteration. Results of the second iteration provided modifications that would allow the project to be used for different academic levels

  19. Parent Involvement in Homework: A Research Synthesis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patall, Erika A.; Cooper, Harris; Robinson, Jorgianne Civey

    2008-01-01

    New emphasis is being placed on the importance of parent involvement in children's education. In a synthesis of research on the effects of parent involvement in homework, a meta-analysis of 14 studies that manipulated parent training for homework involvement reveals that training parents to be involved in their child's homework results in (a)…

  20. Increasing High School Student Interest in Science: An Action Research Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vartuli, Cindy A.

    2016-01-01

    An action research study was conducted to determine how to increase student interest in learning science and pursuing a STEM career. The study began by exploring 10th-grade student and teacher perceptions of student interest in science in order to design an instructional strategy for stimulating student interest in learning and pursuing science.…

  1. Financial Conflicts of Interest Checklist 2010 for clinical research studies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rochon, Paula A; Hoey, John; Chan, An-Wen; Ferris, Lorraine E; Lexchin, Joel; Kalkar, Sunila R; Sekeres, Melanie; Wu, Wei; Van Laethem, Marleen; Gruneir, Andrea; Maskalyk, James; Streiner, David L; Gold, Jennifer; Taback, Nathan; Moher, David

    2010-01-01

    A conflict of interest is defined as "a set of conditions in which professional judgment concerning a primary interest (such as a patient's welfare or the validity of research) tends to be unduly influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain)" [Thompson DF. Understanding financial conflicts of interest. N Engl J Med 1993;329(8):573-576]. Because financial conflict of interest (fCOI) can occur at different stages of a study, and because it can be difficult for investigators to detect their own bias, particularly retrospectively, we sought to provide funders, journal editors and other stakeholders with a standardized tool that initiates detailed reporting of different aspects of fCOI when the study begins and continues that reporting throughout the study process to publication. We developed a checklist using a 3-phase process of pre-meeting item generation, a stakeholder meeting and post-meeting consolidation. External experts (n = 18), research team members (n = 12) and research staff members (n = 4) rated or reviewed items for some or all of the 7 major iterations. The resulting Financial Conflicts of Interest Checklist 2010 consists of 4 sections covering administrative, study, personal financial, and authorship information, which are divided into 6 modules and contain a total of 15 items and their related sub-items; it also includes a glossary of terms. The modules are designed to be completed by all investigators at different points over the course of the study, and updated information can be appended to the checklist when it is submitted to stakeholder groups for review. We invite comments and suggestions for improvement at http://www.openmedicine.ca/fcoichecklist and ask stakeholder groups to endorse the use of the checklist.

  2. A devolved model for public involvement in the field of mental health research: case study learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moule, Pam; Davies, Rosie

    2016-12-01

    Patient and public involvement in all aspects of research is espoused and there is a continued interest in understanding its wider impact. Existing investigations have identified both beneficial outcomes and remaining issues. This paper presents the impact of public involvement in one case study led by a mental health charity conducted as part of a larger research project. The case study used a devolved model of working, contracting with service user-led organizations to maximize the benefits of local knowledge on the implementation of personalized budgets, support recruitment and local user-led organizations. To understand the processes and impact of public involvement in a devolved model of working with user-led organizations. Multiple data collection methods were employed throughout 2012. These included interviews with the researchers (n = 10) and research partners (n = 5), observation of two case study meetings and the review of key case study documentation. Analysis was conducted in NVivo10 using a coding framework developed following a literature review. Five key themes emerged from the data; Devolved model, Nature of involvement, Enabling factors, Implementation challenges and Impact. While there were some challenges of implementing the devolved model it is clear that our findings add to the growing understanding of the positive benefits research partners can bring to complex research. A devolved model can support the involvement of user-led organizations in research if there is a clear understanding of the underpinning philosophy and support mechanisms are in place. © 2015 The Authors. Health Expectations Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  3. Extent and impact of industry sponsorship conflicts of interest in dermatology research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perlis, Clifford S; Harwood, Michael; Perlis, Roy H

    2005-06-01

    Many published clinical trials are authored by investigators with financial conflicts of interest. The general medical literature documents the pervasive extent and sometimes problematic impact of these conflicts. Accordingly, there is renewed discussion about author disclosure and clinical trial registry to minimize publication bias from financial conflicts of interest. Despite this evolving discussion in the general medical literature, little is known about the extent or role of financial conflicts of interest in dermatology research. Our purpose was to determine the extent and impact of industry sponsorship conflicts of interest in dermatology research. We recorded potential financial conflicts of interest, study design, and study outcome in 179 clinical trials published between Oct 1, 2000 and Oct 1, 2003 in four leading dermatology journals. Forty-three percent of analyzed studies included at least one author with a reported conflict of interest. These studies were more likely to report a positive result, demonstrate higher methodological quality, and include a larger sample size. Conflict of interest in clinical investigations in dermatology appears to be prevalent and associated with potentially significant differences in study methodology and reporting.

  4. Research on the User Interest Modeling of Personalized Search Engine

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    LI Zhengwei; XIA Shixiong; NIU Qiang; XIA Zhanguo

    2007-01-01

    At present, how to enable Search Engine to construct user personal interest model initially, master user's personalized information timely and provide personalized services accurately have become the hotspot in the research of Search Engine area.Aiming at the problems of user model's construction and combining techniques of manual customization modeling and automatic analytical modeling, a User Interest Model (UIM) is proposed in the paper. On the basis of it, the corresponding establishment and update algorithms of User Interest Profile (UIP) are presented subsequently. Simulation tests proved that the UIM proposed and corresponding algorithms could enhance the retrieval precision effectively and have superior adaptability.

  5. Is it really all about the money? Reconsidering non-financial interests in medical research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saver, Richard S

    2012-01-01

    Concern about financial conflicts crowds out sufficient consideration of other interests that may bias research conduct. Regulations, institutional policies, and guidance from professional bodies and medical journals all primarily focus on financial ties. But why? Economic gain is not the only powerful influence. This article argues that we under-prioritize non-financial interests in the regulation of medical research. It critiques the usual reasons given for regulating financial and non-financial interests differently - that the interests contrast in terms of tangibility, that financial interests are optional, and that financial interests can be efficiently carved out as a discrete area of focus. Moreover, disparate regulatory treatment seems inattentive to the very similar social and psychological forces that animate the bias effect of both financial and non-financial interests and fails to account for how financial and non-financial interests synergistically interact. Under-prioritization of non-financial interests threatens to erode public trust and creates negative spillover effects that weaken financial conflicts regulation. Optimal regulation requires a more integrated, balanced, and proportionate response to secondary interests in medical research. © 2012 American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Inc.

  6. Cyprinid herpesvirus 3: an interesting virus for applied and fundamental research

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-01-01

    Cyprinid herpesvirus 3 (CyHV-3), a member of the family Alloherpesviridae is the causative agent of a lethal, highly contagious and notifiable disease in common and koi carp. The economic importance of common and koi carp industries together with the rapid spread of CyHV-3 worldwide, explain why this virus became soon after its isolation in the 1990s a subject of applied research. In addition to its economic importance, an increasing number of fundamental studies demonstrated that CyHV-3 is an original and interesting subject for fundamental research. In this review, we summarized recent advances in CyHV-3 research with a special interest for studies related to host-virus interactions. PMID:24073814

  7. Musings on privacy issues in health research involving disaggregate geographic data about individuals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boulos, Maged N Kamel; Curtis, Andrew J; Abdelmalik, Philip

    2009-07-20

    This paper offers a state-of-the-art overview of the intertwined privacy, confidentiality, and security issues that are commonly encountered in health research involving disaggregate geographic data about individuals. Key definitions are provided, along with some examples of actual and potential security and confidentiality breaches and related incidents that captured mainstream media and public interest in recent months and years. The paper then goes on to present a brief survey of the research literature on location privacy/confidentiality concerns and on privacy-preserving solutions in conventional health research and beyond, touching on the emerging privacy issues associated with online consumer geoinformatics and location-based services. The 'missing ring' (in many treatments of the topic) of data security is also discussed. Personal information and privacy legislations in two countries, Canada and the UK, are covered, as well as some examples of recent research projects and events about the subject. Select highlights from a June 2009 URISA (Urban and Regional Information Systems Association) workshop entitled 'Protecting Privacy and Confidentiality of Geographic Data in Health Research' are then presented. The paper concludes by briefly charting the complexity of the domain and the many challenges associated with it, and proposing a novel, 'one stop shop' case-based reasoning framework to streamline the provision of clear and individualised guidance for the design and approval of new research projects (involving geographical identifiers about individuals), including crisp recommendations on which specific privacy-preserving solutions and approaches would be suitable in each case.

  8. Methodological issues involved in conducting qualitative research ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The purpose of this article is to describe the methodological issues involved in conducting qualitative research to explore and describe nurses' experience of being directly involved with termination of pregnancies and developing guidelines for support for these nurses. The article points out the sensitivity and responsibility ...

  9. Creating and sustaining a military women's Health Research Interest Group.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, Candy; Trego, Lori; Rychnovsky, Jacqueline; Steele, Nancy; Foradori, Megan

    2015-01-01

    In 2008, four doctorate military nurse scientists representing the triservices (Army, Navy, and Air Force) identified a common interest in the health and care of all women in the armed forces. For 7 years, the team's shared vision to improve servicewomen's health inspired them to commit to a rigorous schedule of planning, developing, and implementing an innovative program that has the capability of advancing scientific knowledge and influencing health policy and practice through research. The ultimate goal of the Military Women's Health Research Interest Group (MWHRIG) is to support military clinicians and leaders in making evidence-based practice and policy decisions. They developed a 4-pronged approach to cultivate the science of military women's healthcare: evaluate the existing evidence, develop a research agenda that addresses gaps in knowledge, facilitate the collaboration of multidisciplinary research, and build the bench of future researchers. The MWHRIG has been a resource to key leaders; its value has been validated by multiservice and multidisciplinary consultations. However, the journey to goal attainment has only been achieved by the enduring commitment of these MWHRIG leaders and their passion to ensure the health and wellbeing of the many women who serve in the United States military. This article describes their journey of dedication.

  10. Can We Trust Positive Findings of Intervention Research? The Role of Conflict of Interest.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gorman, Dennis M

    2018-04-01

    In recent years, there has been increased attention to the issue of conflict of interest within prevention research. The aims of this paper are to discuss these developments and to relate them to discussions of conflict of interest in the broader scientific literature. Although there has been concern expressed about the extent to which conflicts of interest can be defined and measured, empirical research suggests that financial conflicts can be easily identified and assessed in meta-analyses focused on their effects on research quality. Research evidence also shows that conflict of interest is associated with use of flexible data analysis practices and the reporting of chance positive findings, both within prevention research and related disciplines such as public health and psychology. However, the overwhelming majority of published studies report positive results, and there are a number of other influences within academia (such as pressure to publish) that account for this and for the use of flexible data analysis practices. Accordingly, introducing measures to improve research quality in general, rather than just focusing on problems specific to research in which there is a clearly identifiable conflict of interest, may prove more effective and less controversial. Most such efforts focus on introducing greater transparency into research design, practice, and reporting. These both curtail employment of flexible data analysis practices and make their use transparent to investigators seeking to assess their effects on research quality. Also, requiring detailed disclosures of conflicts be reported by all investigators (not just senior authors) would improve current disclosure practices.

  11. Evidence Regarding the Impact of Conflicts of Interest on Environmental and Occupational Health Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wells, Ellen M

    2017-06-01

    This review describes published literature providing evidence for financial conflicts of interest in environmental and occupational health research. Secondary goals were to describe evidence that (a) utilized quantitative methods to evaluate the association of conflicts with study outcomes, and (b) assessed undisclosed as well as disclosed conflicts of interest. Forty-three studies were identified which contained descriptions of the impact of financial conflicts of interest on research results; 11 of these conducted quantitative analyses to demonstrate these relationships. All 11 articles which quantified associations identified significant associations of the presence of financial conflicts of interest with study findings. In studies which measured undisclosed conflicts, these comprised a substantial proportion of all conflicts. Suggestions for improving understanding and interpretation of research results are presented.

  12. Musings on privacy issues in health research involving disaggregate geographic data about individuals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    AbdelMalik Philip

    2009-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract This paper offers a state-of-the-art overview of the intertwined privacy, confidentiality, and security issues that are commonly encountered in health research involving disaggregate geographic data about individuals. Key definitions are provided, along with some examples of actual and potential security and confidentiality breaches and related incidents that captured mainstream media and public interest in recent months and years. The paper then goes on to present a brief survey of the research literature on location privacy/confidentiality concerns and on privacy-preserving solutions in conventional health research and beyond, touching on the emerging privacy issues associated with online consumer geoinformatics and location-based services. The 'missing ring' (in many treatments of the topic of data security is also discussed. Personal information and privacy legislations in two countries, Canada and the UK, are covered, as well as some examples of recent research projects and events about the subject. Select highlights from a June 2009 URISA (Urban and Regional Information Systems Association workshop entitled 'Protecting Privacy and Confidentiality of Geographic Data in Health Research' are then presented. The paper concludes by briefly charting the complexity of the domain and the many challenges associated with it, and proposing a novel, 'one stop shop' case-based reasoning framework to streamline the provision of clear and individualised guidance for the design and approval of new research projects (involving geographical identifiers about individuals, including crisp recommendations on which specific privacy-preserving solutions and approaches would be suitable in each case.

  13. Regulating hematology/oncology research involving human participants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kapp, Marshall B

    2002-12-01

    The conduct of hematology/oncology research, particularly clinical trials involving human participants, is an extensively regulated enterprise. Professionals in the specialty of hematology/oncology have important stakes in the success of biomedical research endeavors. Knowledge about and compliance strategies regarding the pertinent regulatory parameters are essential for avoiding negative legal repercussions for involved professionals. At the same time, there is a need to be aware of and actively resist the danger that strong [legal] protectionism might inadvertently result in undermining physician investigators' sense of personal moral responsibility in the conduct of human experiments. For all the limitations of that virtue in the protection of human subjects, it is surely not one that we would want medical scientists to be without [47]. Members of the potential participant pool, financial sponsors, and the general public must be convinced that everyone involved in the research enterprise is committed to operating within acceptable legal and ethical boundaries if the atmosphere of confidence and trust that is indispensable to the continued process and progress of investigation aimed at extending and improving quality of life for all of us in the future is to continue and flourish [48].

  14. Financial Conflicts of Interest and Study Results in Environmental and Occupational Health Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Friedman, Lee; Friedman, Michael

    2016-03-01

    To date, there is no comprehensive analysis of the relationship between financial conflict of interest (COI) and a potential publication bias in environmental and occupational health studies. We analyzed original research articles published in 2012 in 17 peer-reviewed journals. Multivariable ordinal logistic regression models were developed to evaluate the relationship between financial COI and the study outcome. Of the 373 studies included in the analysis, 17.2% had a financial COI associated with organizations involved with the processing, use, or disposal of industrial and commercial products, and studies with this type of COI were more likely to report negative results (Adjusted Odds Ratio = 4.31), as were studies with any COI associated with the military (employment or funding; Adjusted Odds Ratio = 9.15). Our findings show a clear relationship between direction of reported findings and specific types of financial COI.

  15. Supporting public involvement in research design and grant development: a case study of a public involvement award scheme managed by a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Research Design Service (RDS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boote, Jonathan D; Twiddy, Maureen; Baird, Wendy; Birks, Yvonne; Clarke, Clare; Beever, Daniel

    2015-10-01

    It is good practice for the public to be involved in developing health research. Resources should be available for researchers to fund the involvement of the public in the development of their grants. To describe a funding award scheme to support public involvement in grant development, managed by an NIHR Research Design Service (RDS). Case examples of how the award contributed to successful grant applications and findings from a recent evaluation of the scheme are presented. A case study of resource provision to support public involvement activities in one region of England. University and NHS-based researchers, and members of the public. Between 2009 and 2012, the RDS approved 45 public involvement funding awards (totalling nearly £19,000). These awards contributed to 27 submitted applications at the time of writing, of which 11 were successful (totalling over £7.5 million). The evaluation revealed difficulties encountered by some researchers when involving the public in grant development, which led to suggestions about how the scheme could be improved. This award scheme represents an efficient method of providing researchers with resources to involve the public in grant development and would appear to represent good value for money. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  16. The impact of consumer involvement in research: an evaluation of consumer involvement in the London Primary Care Studies Programme.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wyatt, Katrina; Carter, Mary; Mahtani, Vinita; Barnard, Angela; Hawton, Annie; Britten, Nicky

    2008-06-01

    The value of consumer involvement in health services research is widely recognized. While there is a growing body of evidence about the principles of good consumer involvement, there is little research about the effect that involvement can have on the research. This evaluation assessed the level and impact of consumer involvement in the London Primary Care Studies Programme (LPCSP), all of whose individual projects had to demonstrate substantial involvement as a condition of funding. To evaluate consumer involvement in the LPSCP and understand what impact consumers had on the research process and outcomes. A multi-method case study approach was undertaken, using survey techniques, interviews, focus groups, observation and scrutiny of written documents. The overall data set comprised 61 questionnaires, 44 semi-structured interviews, 2 focus groups and 15 hours of observation of meetings. Eleven primary care-based research projects which together made up the LPCSP. An in-depth description of consumer involvement in the Programme was produced. Nine projects had consumers as co-applicants, four projects had been completed before the evaluation began and one was still ongoing at the time of the evaluation. Of the eight projects which have produced final reports, all met their aims and objectives. Consumers had had an additional impact in the research, in the initial design of the study, in recruitment of the research subjects, in developing data collection tools, in collecting the data, in analysis and disseminating the findings. Consumer involvement in National Health Service research is a relatively recent policy development and while there is an increasing amount of literature about how and why consumers should be involved in research, there is less evidence about the impact of such involvement. This evaluation provides evidence about the impact that consumers have not only on the research process but also on the outcomes of the research.

  17. Research Involving Health Providers and Managers: Ethical Issues Faced by Researchers Conducting Diverse Health Policy and Systems Research in Kenya.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Molyneux, Sassy; Tsofa, Benjamin; Barasa, Edwine; Nyikuri, Mary Muyoka; Waweru, Evelyn Wanjiku; Goodman, Catherine; Gilson, Lucy

    2016-12-01

    There is a growing interest in the ethics of Health Policy and Systems Research (HPSR), and especially in areas that have particular ethical salience across HPSR. Hyder et al (2014) provide an initial framework to consider this, and call for more conceptual and empirical work. In this paper, we respond by examining the ethical issues that arose for researchers over the course of conducting three HPSR studies in Kenya in which health managers and providers were key participants. All three studies involved qualitative work including observations and individual and group interviews. Many of the ethical dilemmas researchers faced only emerged over the course of the fieldwork, or on completion, and were related to interactions and relationships between individuals operating at different levels or positions in health/research systems. The dilemmas reveal significant ethical challenges for these forms of HPSR, and show that potential 'solutions' to dilemmas often lead to new issues and complications. Our experiences support the value of research ethics frameworks, and suggest that these can be enriched by incorporating careful consideration of context embedded social relations into research planning and conduct. Many of these essential relational elements of ethical practice, and of producing quality data, are given stronger emphasis in social science research ethics than in epidemiological, clinical or biomedical research ethics, and are particularly relevant where health systems are understood as social and political constructs. We conclude with practical and research implications. © 2016 The Authors Developing World Bioethics Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  18. Exploring areas of consensus and conflict around values underpinning public involvement in health and social care research: a modified Delphi study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Snape, D; Kirkham, J; Preston, J; Popay, J; Britten, N; Collins, M; Froggatt, K; Gibson, A; Lobban, F; Wyatt, K; Jacoby, A

    2014-01-01

    Objective There is growing interest in the potential benefits of public involvement (PI) in health and social care research. However, there has been little examination of values underpinning PI or how these values might differ for different groups with an interest in PI in the research process. We aimed to explore areas of consensus and conflict around normative, substantive and process-related values underpinning PI. Design Mixed method, three-phase, modified Delphi study, conducted as part of a larger multiphase project. Setting The UK health and social care research community. Participants Stakeholders in PI in research, defined as: clinical and non-clinical academics, members of the public, research managers, commissioners and funders; identified via research networks, online searches and a literature review. Results We identified high levels of consensus for many normative, substantive and process-related issues. However, there were also areas of conflict in relation to issues of bias and representativeness, and around whether the purpose of PI in health and social care research is to bring about service change or generate new knowledge. There were large differences by group in the percentages endorsing the ethical justification for PI and the argument that PI equalises power imbalances. With regard to practical implementation of PI, research support infrastructures were reported as lacking. Participants reported shortcomings in the uptake and practice of PI. Embedding PI practice and evaluation in research study designs was seen as fundamental to strengthening the evidence base. Conclusions Our findings highlight the extent to which PI is already embedded in research. However, they also highlight a need for ‘best practice’ standards to assist research teams to understand, implement and evaluate PI. These findings have been used in developing a Public Involvement Impact Assessment Framework (PiiAF), which offers guidance to researchers and members of the

  19. Graduate Students' Research Interest in Business Ethics: A Study of Dissertations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Piotrowski, Chris; Guyette, Roger W.

    2014-01-01

    Research on the nature of business ethics education during graduate-level training is somewhat limited. One approach in determining advanced students' research interest in the area is to examine the selection of "business ethics" topics for dissertation research. The current study addressed this issue by conducting a topical…

  20. Committees for Ethics in Research involving human subjects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hossne, William Saad; Vieira, Sonia; De Freitas, Corina Bontempo Duca

    2008-01-01

    In Brazil since October 1996 there have been guidelines for research involving human subjects. Now human subjects know when their treatment is part of research. Deceit is no longer tolerated. But is not enough to say we offer an explanation to the potential subject and we offer a choice before he or she is confronted with an informed consent form. As in all professional activity, scientific investigation needs social controls. In Brazil, the ultimate responsibility of an investigation lies on the investigator, but in every institution where research is carried out there is a Committee for Ethics in Research. All Committees are subordinated to the National Commission of Ethics in Research, which is submitted to the Brazilian Institute of Health. During 2005 around 17,000 protocols involving 700,000 human subjects were revised by 475 Committees distributed all over the country. Approximately 7,000 people are now working in these Committees.

  1. California Energy Commission Public Interest EnergyResearch/Energy System Integration -- Transmission-Planning Research&Development Scoping Project

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Eto, Joseph H.; Lesieutre, Bernard; Widergren, Steven

    2004-07-01

    The objective of this Public Interest Energy Research (PIER)scoping project is to identify options for public-interest research and development (R&D) to improve transmission-planning tools, techniques, and methods. The information presented was gathered through a review of current California utility, California Independent System Operator (ISO), and related western states electricity transmission-planning activities and emerging needs. This report presents the project teams findings organized under six topic areas and identifies 17 distinct R&D activities to improve transmission-planning in California and the West. The findings in this report are intended for use, along with other materials, by PIER staff, to facilitate discussions with stakeholders that will ultimately lead to development of a portfolio of transmission-planning R&D activities for the PIER program.

  2. Ethical issues in research involving children and young people

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Scally, Andy

    2014-01-01

    This article identifies the key ethical issues that need to be addressed in any research study involving children and young people, accessed through the NHS. It makes specific reference to the Declaration of Helsinki and to additional guidance developed for researchers from a variety of disciplines, both within healthcare and in other fields of study. The focus of the paper is on defining the key ethical issues, identifying the complexities in the legislative framework underpinning research involving this patient group and offering practical advice on when, and how, ethical approval needs to be sought

  3. The food industry and conflicts of interest in nutrition research: A Latin American perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barnoya, Joaquin; Nestle, Marion

    2016-12-01

    Conflicts of interest arise when corporations marketing harmful products establish financial relationships with research institutions, researchers, or public health organizations. As obesity becomes a worldwide epidemic, such relationships threaten to jeopardize the integrity of scientific research. Latin America, a region undergoing rapid development, is particularly vulnerable to such conflicts. Here, we provide examples of how food and beverage companies are funding nutrition-focused research and institutions in Latin America, putting their credibility at risk. Public health organizations and institutions should take measures to identify, manage, and limit (or eliminate) conflicts of interest caused by partnerships with food companies making and marketing unhealthful products.

  4. Interest in Collaborative, Practice-Based Research Networks in Pediatric Refugee Health Care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shah, Sural; Yun, Katherine

    2018-02-01

    Over the last decade, approximately 200,000 refugee children have resettled across the United States. This population is dispersed, resulting in limited data. Collaborative research networks, where clinicians across distinct practice sites work together to answer research questions, can improve the evidence base regarding clinical care. We distributed a web-based survey to pediatric refugee providers around North America to assess priorities, perceived barriers and benefits to collaborative research. We recruited 57 participants. Of respondents, 89 % were interested in collaborative research, prioritizing: (1) access to health care (33 %), (2) mental health (24 %) and (3) nutrition/growth (24 %). Perceived benefits were "improving clinical practice" (98 %) and "raising awareness about the needs of pediatric refugees" (94 %). Perceived barriers were "too many other priorities" (89 %) and "lack of funding for data entry" (78 %). There is widespread interest in collaborative networks around pediatric refugee healthcare. A successful network will address barriers and emphasize priorities.

  5. Views of potential research participants on financial conflicts of interest: barriers and opportunities for effective disclosure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weinfurt, Kevin P; Friedman, Joëlle Y; Allsbrook, Jennifer S; Dinan, Michaela A; Hall, Mark A; Sugarman, Jeremy

    2006-09-01

    There is little guidance regarding how to disclose researchers' financial interests to potential research participants. To determine what potential research participants want to know about financial interests, their capacity to understand disclosed information and its implications, and the reactions of potential research participants to a proposed disclosure statement. Sixteen focus groups in 3 cities, including 6 groups of healthy adults, 6 groups of adults with mild chronic illness, 1 group of parents of healthy children, 1 group of parents of children with leukemia or brain tumor, 1 group of adults with heart failure, and 1 group of adults with cancer. Focus group discussions covered a range of topics including financial relationships in clinical research, whether people should be told about them, and how they should be told. Audio-recordings of focus groups were transcribed, verified, and coded for analysis. Participants wanted to know about financial interests, whether or not those interests would affect their participation. However, they varied in their desire and ability to understand the nature and implications of financial interests. Whether disclosure was deemed important depended upon the risk of the research. Trust in clinicians was also related to views regarding disclosure. If given the opportunity to ask questions during the consent process, some participants would not have known what to ask; however, after the focus group sessions, participants could identify information they would want to know. Financial interests are important to potential research participants, but obstacles to effective disclosure exist.

  6. Involving disabled children and young people as partners in research: a systematic review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bailey, S; Boddy, K; Briscoe, S; Morris, C

    2015-07-01

    Children and young people can be valuable partners in research, giving their unique perspectives on what and how research should be done. However, disabled children are less commonly involved in research than their non-disabled peers. This review investigated how disabled children have been involved as research partners; specifically how they have been recruited, the practicalities and challenges of involvement and how these have been overcome, and impacts of involvement for research, and disabled children and young people. The INVOLVE definition of involvement and the Equality and Human Rights Commission definition of disability were used. Relevant bibliographic databases were searched. Websites were searched for grey literature. Included studies had involved disabled children and young people aged 5-25 years in any study design. Reviews, guidelines, reports and other documents from the grey literature were eligible for inclusion. Twenty-two papers were included: seven reviews, eight original research papers, three reports, three guidelines and one webpage. Nine examples of involvement were identified. Recommendations included developing effective communication techniques, using flexible methods that can be adapted to needs and preferences, and ensuring that sufficient support and funding is available for researchers undertaking involvement. Positive impacts of involvement for disabled children included increased confidence, self-esteem and independence. Positive impacts for research were identified. Involving disabled children in research can present challenges; many of these can be overcome with sufficient time, planning and resources. More needs to be done to find ways to involve those with non-verbal communication. Generally, few details were reported about disabled children and young people's involvement in studies, and the quality of evidence was low. Although a range of positive impacts were identified, the majority of these were authors' opinions rather

  7. Status, challenges and facilitators of consumer involvement in Australian health and medical research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Girgis Afaf

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The emergent international practice of involving consumers in health research is driven, in part, by the growing share of health research that can only be applied in and emerge from knowledge that is shaped by human values and societal contexts. This is the first investigation of its kind to identify the current prevalence, challenges, enabling factors and range of approaches to consumer involvement in health and medical research in Australia. Methods A nation-wide survey of research funding organisations and organisations that conduct research was performed during 2008-2009. Results Marked variation in consumer involvement experience and perceptions exists between research funders and researchers. Research funders were over eight times more likely than organisations conducting research to involve consumers in identifying research needs and prioritising research topics. Across both groups, practical and time constraints were reported as key challenges to involving consumers, while guidelines on consumer involvement and evidence of effect were the most important potential enablers. More than a third of research organisations indicated that when consumer involvement was a condition of research funding, it was an important facilitator of involvement. Conclusion It is no longer simply enough to keep society informed of important scientific breakthroughs. If Australian health research is to take into account important social contexts and consequences, it must involve consumers. A set of minimum consumer involvement standards and associated guidelines, that are agreed and routinely adopted, could ensure that consumers and the Australian community they represent, are given an opportunity to shed light on experiences and local circumstance, and express views and concerns relevant to health research.

  8. INVOLVING CHILDREN AND THEIR PARENTS IN RESEARCH DESIGN.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hibberd, Suzannah

    2016-09-01

    Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, states that children should be involved in decisions that directly affect them.1 Research involving children should ensure that the opinions and assistance of children and young people is sought at the beginning of the project as their perspectives may influence all aspects of the research design. To describe the challenges recruiting paediatric patients and members of the public to consult on the design of a research project. Posters were put up around the Children's Hospital including pharmacy to recruit paediatric patients and parents to review a research proposal involving children with long-term conditions. There were two responses to the poster, a father and his 15 year old daughter, and a father with a 2 year old child. The father of the 15 year old attended the initial planning meeting, unfortunately the 15 year old and the father of the 2 year old were unable to attend on the day although both agreed to participate in the project. The meeting gave the opportunity to explain the research proposal and answer questions. It was established that the lay team would review the lay summary, participant information leaflet (PIL), and questionnaires that would be sent to the participants. It was arranged that all further contact would be via email due to travel constraints.Patient and public involvement (PPI) in research requires the individuals to be reimbursed for their time. The National Institute for Health Research rate is £18.75 per hour. The lay team members were informed of this and were reimbursed for attending the planning meeting. The use of posters to recruit PPI into the research design had limited success. Since recruitment, the Children's Hospital has launched a youth partnership which may be able to assist in recruitment of lay team members in the future.The logistics of how to pay the lay team members needed to be resolved before their recruitment to ensure timely payment. A form has been

  9. Ethics, Ethical Human Research and Human Research Ethics Committees

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindorff, Margaret

    2010-01-01

    Non-medical research involves the same issues of justice, beneficence, and respect for persons that apply to non-medical research. It also may involve risk of harm to participants, and conflicts of interest for researchers. It is therefore not possible to argue that such research should be exempt from ethical review. This paper argues that…

  10. Research between conflicts of interest in a small German municipality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meinikmann, Karin; Lewandowski, Jörg

    2017-04-01

    Lake eutrophication is a traditional topic in hydrology which attracts the attention of scientists all over the world to date. However, in single cases of lakes experiencing severe consequences of nutrient overloads (e.g., toxic algae blooms, loss of species richness…) also a non-scientific public arouses interest in processes behind and reasons for these phenomena. This interest results from the various effects of eutrophication on the anthropogenic use of the lake, such as loss of the lakés recreational value, potential health impairments from contact with lake water, changes of the ecological/esthetical status, etc. We present our manifold experiences in communicating with different actors who are or at least feel affected by our research to identify sources for elevated phosphorus loads to Lake Arendsee in Germany. Among those are supporters and opponents of restoration plans as there are for example • representatives of different public authorities, • inhabitants of local communities making their income from tourism around the lake, • farmers, • fishermen, • etc. We describe different conflicts of interest arising from this situation and describe problems we had interacting with single actors. A citizen-science action was initiated which increased both, the research output and the awareness of the problem within the general local public. We conclude that even in small municipalities a complex structure of stakeholders may develop who might act in unpredictable ways to achieve their personal or political goals.

  11. Pharmacists' views on involvement in pharmacy practice research: Strategies for facilitating participation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Armour, Carol; Brillant, Martha; Krass, Ines

    2007-01-01

    In order for community pharmacy practice to continue to evolve, pharmacy practice research on potential new services is essential. This requires the active participation of community pharmacists. At present the level of involvement of community pharmacists in pharmacy practice research is minimal. To ascertain the attitudes of a group of research-experienced community pharmacists towards participating in research; to investigate the barriers and facilitators to participation; to identify potential strategies to increase the involvement of community pharmacists in research. A focus group was conducted with a purposive sample of 11 research-experienced community pharmacists. A pharmacist academic moderated the focus group using a semi-structured interview guide. The participants were asked about their attitudes towards research, previous involvement in research, barriers to their involvement and strategies to overcome these barriers. The session was audio-taped and notes were taken by an observer. Thematic analysis of the notes and audio-tape transcripts was conducted. Three themes emerged around pharmacists' attitudes towards research: pharmacists' perception of the purpose of research, pharmacists' motivation for involvement in research, and pharmacists' desired role in research. Barriers to research participation were grouped into four themes: pharmacists' mindset, communication, infrastructure (time, money and staff), and skills/knowledge. Strategies to address each of these barriers were suggested. Participants recognised the importance of research towards advancing their profession and this was a motivating factor for involvement in research. They perceived their role in research primarily as data collection. A series of practical strategies to overcome the barriers to participation were offered that researchers may wish to consider when promoting research outcomes and designing research projects.

  12. Pharmacists’ views on involvement in pharmacy practice research: Strategies for facilitating participation.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Armour C

    2007-06-01

    Full Text Available In order for community pharmacy practice to continue to evolve, pharmacy practice research on potential new services is essential. This requires the active participation of community pharmacists. At present the level of involvement of community pharmacists in pharmacy practice research is minimal. Objectives: To ascertain the attitudes of a group of research-experienced community pharmacists towards participating in research; to investigate the barriers and facilitators to participation; to identify potential strategies to increase the involvement of community pharmacists in research. Methods: A focus group was conducted with a purposive sample of 11 research-experienced community pharmacists. A pharmacist academic moderated the focus group using a semi-structured interview guide. The participants were asked about their attitudes towards research, previous involvement in research, barriers to their involvement and strategies to overcome these barriers. The session was audio-taped and notes were taken by an observer. Thematic analysis of the notes and audio-tape transcripts was conducted.Results: Three themes emerged around pharmacists’ attitudes towards research: pharmacists’ perception of the purpose of research, pharmacists’ motivation for involvement in research, and pharmacists’ desired role in research. Barriers to research participation were grouped into four themes: pharmacists’ mindset, communication, infrastructure (time, money and staff, and skills/knowledge. Strategies to address each of these barriers were suggested.Conclusions: Participants recognised the importance of research towards advancing their profession and this was a motivating factor for involvement in research. They perceived their role in research primarily as data collection. A series of practical strategies to overcome the barriers to participation were offered that researchers may wish to consider when promoting research outcomes and designing research

  13. E-Learning: A Means to Increase Learner Involvement in Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Beer, Marie; Mason, Roger B.

    2014-01-01

    This paper investigates a method for increasing the involvement of marketing fourth year learners in academic research, by encouraging greater participation in, and commitment to, their research project in the Applied Marketing IV subject. It is assumed that greater involvement will result in a greater pass rate. The main reasons for this lack of…

  14. YouTube videos of 'research in action' foster diverse public interest in science

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael A. Gil

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Globally, scientific enterprises seek to diversify interest and participation in STEM fields, to both provide equitable opportunities and to push research forward. However, diversity in STEM remains low in many institutions. Internet-based video has emerged as a dominant communication medium that scientists can use to communicate the motivations, process, and products of their work to a diverse, mass audience. Here I describe my use of internet-based video about my research and career as a marine biologist as a tool to inspire broad public interest in science. With my YouTube videos, I have reached a diverse and growing global viewership, amassing >10,000 hours of watch time at the time of this writing. Viewer surveys revealed that my videos have improved individual perceptions about science and science careers, particularly among women and minority groups. I conclude that the emergence of internet-based video as a dominant, ever-expanding communication medium provides an unprecedented but largely untapped opportunity for scientists to broadly communicate their research and to inspire diverse interest in STEM careers.

  15. Vocational Interests and Performance: A Quantitative Summary of Over 60 Years of Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nye, Christopher D; Su, Rong; Rounds, James; Drasgow, Fritz

    2012-07-01

    Despite early claims that vocational interests could be used to distinguish successful workers and superior students from their peers, interest measures are generally ignored in the employee selection literature. Nevertheless, theoretical descriptions of vocational interests from vocational and educational psychology have proposed that interest constructs should be related to performance and persistence in work and academic settings. Moreover, on the basis of Holland's (1959, 1997) theoretical predictions, congruence indices, which quantify the degree of similarity or person-environment fit between individuals and their occupations, should be more strongly related to performance than interest scores alone. Using a comprehensive review of the interest literature that spans more than 60 years of research, a meta-analysis was conducted to examine the veracity of these claims. A literature search identified 60 studies and approximately 568 correlations that addressed the relationship between interests and performance. Results showed that interests are indeed related to performance and persistence in work and academic contexts. In addition, the correlations between congruence indices and performance were stronger than for interest scores alone. Thus, consistent with interest theory, the fit between individuals and their environment was more predictive of performance than interest alone. © The Author(s) 2012.

  16. ECUT: Energy Conversion and Utilization Technologies program. Industry, university and research interest in the US Department of Energy ECUT biocatalysis research activity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilcox, R. E.

    1983-01-01

    The results of a Research Opportunity Notice (RON) disseminated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy Conversion and Utilization Technologies (ECUT) Program's Biocatalysis Research Activity are presented. The RON was issued in late April of 1983 and solicited expressions of interest from petrochemical and chemical companies, bioengineering firms, biochemical engineering consultants, private research laboratories, and universities for participating in a federal research program to investigate potential applications of biotechnology in producing chemicals. The RON results indicate that broad interest exists within the nation's industry, universities, and research institutes for the Activity and its planned research and development program.

  17. Accessible Article: Involving People with Learning Disabilities in Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garbutt, Ruth; Tattersall, John; Dunn, Jo; Boycott-Garnett, Rachel

    2010-01-01

    This is an article that talks about our research about sex and relationships for people with learning disabilities. It talks about how people with learning disabilities have been fully involved in the research. (Contains 2 footnotes.)

  18. Interested in research? Start here (Editorial

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lindsay Glynn

    2007-03-01

    Full Text Available Hey, there it is. An idea. A question. Finding an answer to that question would be really useful, wouldn’t it? I’ll bet that other people would find the answer useful too, since they probably have asked themselves that very same question. Has anyone else made an attempt to answer that question in the literature? Nope. Hmmm...you’ve found a gap in theliterature on an idea that you have identified and in which you are interested. Looks like you have a research project on your hands. It is at this point that many people become intimidated. The thought of designing a study, collecting and interpreting data and maybe even publishing the results can be daunting, whether you are familiar with research methods or not. Where do you begin? How do you determine the study design? How do you narrow down your idea to a manageable hypothesis? What statistical tests should you utilize? In other words, help! Even the most seasoned researchers don’t do it all on their own. They, just like new researchers, consult guides and textbooks and enlist the help of statisticians and coders. A research project is a huge undertaking, but it is more manageable than you might think. In this issue of Evidence Based Library and Information Practice you will find a Feature section on research. The articles in this section are designed to act as guides for those new to research or for those needing a refresher. Diane Lorenzetti and Lisa Given take a close look at qualitative and quantitative research design in their articles. Both these articles will help you choose the most appropriate study design based on your question type. Research can be costly and therefore, funding is often sought. Lynne Langille and Theresa Mackenzie provide valuable and practical advice on how to write a successful grant application. In her two articles, Lisa Goddard identifies a wealth of data that is available to you in web server logs and specific library applications. The possibilities of

  19. Student involvement and research for the nuclear industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ginniff, M.E.

    1980-01-01

    Nuclear engineering is one of the modern and rapidly advancing technologies. Those already involved in it are continually updating their knowledge to keep abreast of the developments. Of course the sound basic principles of engineering still apply but the scene of application can be transformed in a few years. In fact, because of this, many engineers from more traditional industries often express the view that presently the total range of nuclear engineering is research and development. How can students be trained for such a rapidly advancing technology. Is not the answer early involvement. Effective early involvement for students can only come about by the close co-operation and involvement of the staff of universities and industry. The theme is developed. (author)

  20. Community perspectives on research consent involving vulnerable children in Western Kenya.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vreeman, Rachel; Kamaara, Eunice; Kamanda, Allan; Ayuku, David; Nyandiko, Winstone; Atwoli, Lukoye; Ayaya, Samuel; Gisore, Peter; Scanlon, Michael; Braitstein, Paula

    2012-10-01

    Involving vulnerable pediatric populations in international research requires culturally appropriate ethical protections. We sought to use mabaraza, traditional East African community assemblies, to understand how a community in western Kenya viewed participation of children in health research and informed consent and assent processes. Results from 108 participants revealed generally positive attitudes towards involving vulnerable children in research, largely because they assumed children would directly benefit. Consent from parents or guardians was understood as necessary for participation while gaining child assent was not. They felt other caregivers, community leaders, and even community assemblies could participate in the consent process. Community members believed research involving orphans and street children could benefit these vulnerable populations, but would require special processes for consent.

  1. Methods for Involving Older People in Health Research-A Review of the Literature.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schilling, Imke; Gerhardus, Ansgar

    2017-11-29

    Demographic change has increased the need for research on healthcare for older people. Recently there has been a growing awareness that research might benefit from actively involving patients and the public in study design and conduct. Besides empowering patients and democratizing research, involvement enhances the quality of research and the development of equitable healthcare solutions. Little is known about how to involve older people. This review aims to support scientists intending to involve older people in health research by systematically identifying and describing studies involving older people and analyzing associated facilitators and challenges. Old people were operationalized as people living with old-age-related conditions. We conducted a systematic search in PubMed, CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), and Cochrane library for the period 2007 to July 2017 and also manually searched reference lists of the nine retrieved articles and other relevant sources. While involvement of older people in research is feasible, specific challenges related to this group need be taken into account. Strategies to enhance effective involvement comprise a thoughtful choice of location, use of visualization and accessible communication, building good relationships and flexible approaches. Further research is needed on the involvement of people in care homes or with vision, hearing or mobility limitations.

  2. Consumer and community involvement in health and medical research: evaluation by online survey of Australian training workshops for researchers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McKenzie, Anne; Alpers, Kirsten; Heyworth, Jane; Phuong, Cindy; Hanley, Bec

    2016-01-01

    In Australia, since 2009, the Consumer and Community Involvement Program (formerly the Consumer and Community Participation Program) has developed and run workshops to help people working in health and medical research involve more consumers (patients) and community members (the public) in their research. In 2012, workshop attendees were invited to do an online survey to find out the effect, if any, that attending a workshop had on their awareness of and attitudes to consumer and community involvement. They were also asked about changes in their behaviour when it came to the involvement of consumers and the community in their work. The study found that, for people who answered the survey, more than double the number found consumer and community involvement very relevant after attending a workshop, compared with the number who thought that before attending one. Also, amongst those who answered the survey, 94 % thought that the workshop increased their understanding about involvement. Background There is limited evidence of the benefits of providing training workshops for researchers on how to involve consumers (patients) and the community (public) in health and medical research. Australian training workshops were evaluated to contribute to the evidence base. The key objective was to evaluate the impact of the workshops in increasing awareness of consumer and community involvement; changing attitudes to future implementation of involvement activities and influencing behaviour in the methods of involvement used. A secondary objective was to use a formal evaluation survey to build on the anecdotal feedback received from researchers about changes in awareness, attitudes and behaviours. Methods The study used a cross-sectional, online survey of researchers, students, clinicians, administrators and members of non-government organisations who attended Consumer and Community Involvement Program training workshops between 2009 and 2012 to ascertain changes to awareness

  3. Embedding a Recovery Orientation into Neuroscience Research: Involving People with a Lived Experience in Research Activity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stratford, Anthony; Brophy, Lisa; Castle, David; Harvey, Carol; Robertson, Joanne; Corlett, Philip; Davidson, Larry; Everall, Ian

    2016-03-01

    This paper highlights the importance and value of involving people with a lived experience of mental ill health and recovery in neuroscience research activity. In this era of recovery oriented service delivery, involving people with the lived experience of mental illness in neuroscience research extends beyond their participation as "subjects". The recovery paradigm reconceptualises people with the lived experience of mental ill health as experts by experience. To support this contribution, local policies and procedures, recovery-oriented training for neuroscience researchers, and dialogue about the practical applications of neuroscience research, are required.

  4. Involving lay People in Research and Professional Development Through Gaming

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Magnussen, Rikke

    2017-01-01

    a systematic mapping review methodology, the focus was to map and examine research in these types of games or game environments, and to identify potentials and gaps in the field to inform future research. 89 studies were identified through iterative searching and identification processes applying keywords......Due to the increasing significance of games where lay people are involved in generating knowledge for research or development, the current paper presents a mapping review of status and trends in research of games designed for citizen science, crowdsourcing or community driven research. Using...... they were involved and studies where participants develop knowledge for professional use. The 32 studies were selected for a grounded theory inspired qualitative review and six themes were identified: 1. Motivation; 2. Quality of participant contribution; 3. Learning/education; 4. System/task analysis; 5...

  5. Public Domain; Public Interest; Public Funding: Focussing on the ‘three Ps’ in Scientific Research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mags McGinley

    2005-03-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to discuss the ‘three Ps’ of scientific research: Public Domain; Public Interest; Public Funding. This is done by examining some of the difficulties faced by scientists engaged in scientific research who may have problems working within the constraints of current copyright and database legislation, where property claims can place obstacles in the way of research, in other words, the public domain. The article then looks at perceptions of the public interest and asks whether copyright and the database right reflect understandings of how this concept should operate. Thirdly, it considers the relevance of public funding for scientific research in the context of both the public domain and of the public interest. Finally, some recent initiatives seeking to change the contours of the legal framework are be examined.

  6. A SHARED study-the benefits and costs of setting up a health research study involving lay co-researchers and how we overcame the challenges.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mockford, Carole; Murray, Matt; Seers, Kate; Oyebode, Jan; Grant, Richard; Boex, Sue; Staniszewska, Sophie; Diment, Yvonne; Leach, Jim; Sharma, Uma; Clarke, Rosemary; Suleman, Rashida

    2016-01-01

    memory loss and their carers, on discharge from acute hospital to the community. Methods This began with a discussion of an initial research idea with a lay group of carers and people living with dementia. Once funded, approval was sought from the Research Ethics Committee and NHS Trusts to conduct the research including the active involvement of lay co-researchers. Finally, to recruit, train and pay lay co-researchers in their role. Results The benefits of PPI have included developing ideas which are important to people living with memory loss; support for PPI received from the funders and research ethics committee, high levels of interest from volunteer groups, and lasting enthusiasm from many of the co-researchers. Organisational challenges were met in the requirement for research passports and with payment methods for the co-researchers. Training was beneficial but incurred extra costs for repeated training days. Discussion Overall the benefits outweighed the challenges which were overcome to varying degrees. The lay co-researchers gained membership of a study group and a beneficial partnership developed with the third sector. The biggest challenge was in overcoming the differences in approach to lay co-researchers between NHS Trusts. Organisational culture has been slow to incorporate PPI and this has not yet been fully addressed. It has the potential to delay the start of projects, affect recruitment time, incur extra research costs and disadvantage PPI. Conclusion Buy-in to service user involvement in research studies could be improved by clarifying the requirements for NHS Trust approval and by simplifying the system for financial reimbursement to lay co-researchers. This would improve inclusivity and provide a smoother process for the research team and the co-researchers.

  7. Alcohol research and the alcoholic beverage industry: issues, concerns and conflicts of interest.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Babor, Thomas F

    2009-02-01

    Using terms of justification such as 'corporate social responsibility' and 'partnerships with the public health community', the alcoholic beverage industry (mainly large producers, trade associations and 'social aspects' organizations) funds a variety of scientific activities that involve or overlap with the work of independent scientists. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the ethical, professional and scientific challenges that have emerged from industry involvement in alcohol science. Source material came from an extensive review of organizational websites, newspaper articles, journal papers, letters to the editor, editorials, books, book chapters and unpublished documents. Industry involvement in alcohol science was identified in seven areas: (i) sponsorship of research funding organizations; (ii) direct financing of university-based scientists and centers; (iii) studies conducted through contract research organizations; (iv) research conducted by trade organizations and social aspects/public relations organizations; (v) efforts to influence public perceptions of research, research findings and alcohol policies; (vi) publication of scientific documents and support of scientific journals; and (vii) sponsorship of scientific conferences and presentations at conferences. While industry involvement in research activities is increasing, it constitutes currently a rather small direct investment in scientific research, one that is unlikely to contribute to alcohol science, lead to scientific breakthroughs or reduce the burden of alcohol-related illness. At best, the scientific activities funded by the alcoholic beverage industry provide financial support and small consulting fees for basic and behavioral scientists engaged in alcohol research; at worst, the industry's scientific activities confuse public discussion of health issues and policy options, raise questions about the objectivity of industry-supported alcohol scientists and provide industry with a

  8. Industry interests in gambling research: Lessons learned from other forms of hazardous consumption.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cowlishaw, S; Thomas, S L

    2018-03-01

    Research indicates that the evidential bases for many harm reduction policies targeting hazardous consumptions (including tobacco, alcohol and gambling) have been distorted by commercial industries that derive revenue from such commodities. These distortions are best illustrated by research on tobacco and alcohol, which indicates similar tactics used by industries to determine favourable policy environments through engineering of evidence, among other approaches. Although there is concern that gambling research is similarly vulnerable to commercial interests, the relevant literature lags far behind other fields and the aim of this paper is to increase familiarity with tactics used by industries for influencing research. It summarises the conceptual and empirical bases for expecting conflicts between goals of public health and companies that profit from hazardous consumptions. It also summarises evidence describing practices deployed by tobacco corporations, which include third-party techniques and the selective funding of research to manufacture doubt and deflect attention away from the consequences of smoking. It then reviews both early and emerging evidence indicating similar strategies used by alcohol industry, and uses this literature to view practices of the gambling industry. It argues that parallels regarding selective funding of research and third-party techniques provide grounds for strong concern about commercial influences on gambling research, and implementation of precautionary approaches to management of vested interests. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Participatory action research: involving students in parent education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fowler, Cathrine; Wu, Cynthia; Lam, Winsome

    2014-01-01

    Competition for scarce clinical placements has increased requiring new and innovative models to be developed to meet the growing need. A participatory action research project was used to provide a community nursing clinical experience of involvement in parent education. Nine Hong Kong nursing students self-selected to participate in the project to implement a parenting program called Parenting Young Children in a Digital World. Three project cycles were used: needs identification, skills development and program implementation. Students were fully involved in each cycle's planning, action and reflection phase. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected to inform the project. The overall outcome of the project was the provision of a rich and viable clinical placement experience that created significant learning opportunities for the students and researchers. This paper will explore the student's participation in this PAR project as an innovative clinical practice opportunity. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. The alcohol industry and public interest science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stenius, Kerstin; Babor, Thomas F

    2010-02-01

    This report argues that the growing involvement of the alcohol industry in scientific research needs to be acknowledged and addressed. It suggests a set of principles to guide ethical decision-making in the future. We review relevant issues with regard to relationships between the alcohol industry and the international academic community, especially alcohol research scientists. The guiding principles proposed are modelled after expert committee statements, and describe the responsibilities of governmental agencies, the alcohol industry, journal editors and the academic community. These are followed by recommendations designed to inform individuals and institutions about current 'best practices' that are consistent with the principles. Growing evidence from the tobacco, pharmaceutical and medical fields suggests that financial interests of researchers may compromise their professional judgement and lead to research results that are biased in favour of commercial interests. It is recommended that the integrity of alcohol science is best served if all financial relationships with the alcoholic beverage industry are avoided. In cases where research funding, consulting, writing assignments and other activities are initiated, institutions, individuals and the alcoholic beverage industry itself are urged to follow appropriate guidelines that will increase the transparency and ethicality of such relationships.

  11. Religion, finding interests in life, and change in self-esteem during late life.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krause, Neal; Hayward, R David

    2014-05-01

    Research indicates that greater involvement in activities is essential for successful aging. The purpose of the current study is to examine a construct that motivates involvement in activities-finding interests in life. In the process, we also show how involvement in religion may help promote interests. In order to examine these issues, a conceptual model is tested that contains the following core hypotheses: (1) older people who go to church more often will be more likely to have stronger God-mediated control beliefs (i.e., the belief that God works together with people to resolve problems and reach desired goals); (2) older adults with a stronger sense of God-mediated control will be more likely to find things in life that are interesting; and (3) older individuals with more interests experience a greater sense of self-worth over time. Findings from a nationwide survey provide support for the key relationships described above. © The Author(s) 2013.

  12. Can the impact of public involvement on research be evaluated? A mixed methods study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barber, Rosemary; Boote, Jonathan D; Parry, Glenys D; Cooper, Cindy L; Yeeles, Philippa; Cook, Sarah

    2011-01-01

    Abstract Background  Public involvement is central to health and social research policies, yet few systematic evaluations of its impact have been carried out, raising questions about the feasibility of evaluating the impact of public involvement. Objective  To investigate whether it is feasible to evaluate the impact of public involvement on health and social research. Methods  Mixed methods including a two‐round Delphi study with pre‐specified 80% consensus criterion, with follow‐up interviews. UK and international panellists came from different settings, including universities, health and social care institutions and charitable organizations. They comprised researchers, members of the public, research managers, commissioners and policy makers, self‐selected as having knowledge and/or experience of public involvement in health and/or social research; 124 completed both rounds of the Delphi process. A purposive sample of 14 panellists was interviewed. Results  Consensus was reached that it is feasible to evaluate the impact of public involvement on 5 of 16 impact issues: identifying and prioritizing research topics, disseminating research findings and on key stakeholders. Qualitative analysis revealed the complexities of evaluating a process that is subjective and socially constructed. While many panellists believed that it is morally right to involve the public in research, they also considered that it is appropriate to evaluate the impact of public involvement. Conclusions  This study found consensus among panellists that it is feasible to evaluate the impact of public involvement on some research processes, outcomes and on key stakeholders. The value of public involvement and the importance of evaluating its impact were endorsed. PMID:21324054

  13. Can the impact of public involvement on research be evaluated? A mixed methods study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barber, Rosemary; Boote, Jonathan D; Parry, Glenys D; Cooper, Cindy L; Yeeles, Philippa; Cook, Sarah

    2012-09-01

      Public involvement is central to health and social research policies, yet few systematic evaluations of its impact have been carried out, raising questions about the feasibility of evaluating the impact of public involvement.   To investigate whether it is feasible to evaluate the impact of public involvement on health and social research.   Mixed methods including a two-round Delphi study with pre-specified 80% consensus criterion, with follow-up interviews. UK and international panellists came from different settings, including universities, health and social care institutions and charitable organizations. They comprised researchers, members of the public, research managers, commissioners and policy makers, self-selected as having knowledge and/or experience of public involvement in health and/or social research; 124 completed both rounds of the Delphi process. A purposive sample of 14 panellists was interviewed.   Consensus was reached that it is feasible to evaluate the impact of public involvement on 5 of 16 impact issues: identifying and prioritizing research topics, disseminating research findings and on key stakeholders. Qualitative analysis revealed the complexities of evaluating a process that is subjective and socially constructed. While many panellists believed that it is morally right to involve the public in research, they also considered that it is appropriate to evaluate the impact of public involvement.   This study found consensus among panellists that it is feasible to evaluate the impact of public involvement on some research processes, outcomes and on key stakeholders. The value of public involvement and the importance of evaluating its impact were endorsed. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  14. How do we interest students in science?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murray, L.

    2016-02-01

    In today's world science literacy is now, more than ever, critical to society. However, today's technically savvy student tends to be bored by "cook-book" laboratory exercises and dated lecture style, which typifies the way that most science courses are taught. To enhance student interest in and understanding of the sciences, we developed two unique programs, in which teachers were provided with the tools and hands-on experience that enabled them to implement research- and inquiry-based projects with their students. The approach was based a framework that is student driven and enables active participation and innovation in the study of the environment. The framework involved selection of a theme and an activity that captured the interest of the participants, participant development of research or investigative questions based on the theme, experimentation to address the research questions, formulation of conclusions, and communication of these results. The projects consisted of two parts: a professional development institute for teachers and the classroom implementation of student research projects, both of which incorporated the framework process. The institutes focused on modeling the framework process, with teachers actively developing questions, researching the question, formulating results and conclusions. This method empowered teachers to be confident in the implementation of the process with their students. With support from project staff, teachers followed up by incorporating the method of teaching with their students. Evaluation results from the programs concluded that projects such as these can increase student interest in and understanding of the scientific process.

  15. Involving people with early-stage dementia in qualitative research about their lifeworld perspectives

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thoft, Diana Schack

    Involving people with early-stage dementia in qualitative research about their lifeworld perspectives......Involving people with early-stage dementia in qualitative research about their lifeworld perspectives...

  16. Patient involvement in research programming and implementation: a responsive evaluation of the Dialogue Model for research agenda setting

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Abma, T.A.; Pittens, C.A.C.M.; Visse, M.; Elberse, J.E.; Broerse, J.E.W.

    2015-01-01

    Background: The Dialogue Model for research agenda-setting, involving multiple stakeholders including patients, was developed and validated in the Netherlands. However, there is little insight into whether and how patient involvement is sustained during the programming and implementation of research

  17. Intersecting Interests: Qualitative Research Synthesis on Art in the Social Work Classroom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wehbi, Samantha; Cowell, Amanda; Perreault-Laird, Jordyn; El-Lahib, Yahya; Straka, Silvia

    2017-01-01

    This paper reports on a qualitative research synthesis that explored the intersections between art and social work. The scholarship notes a rise in interest in integrating creative arts practices in social work classrooms from assignment design to classroom activities. Also highlighted are the potential contributions of these artsinformed…

  18. Forced migrants involved in setting the agenda and designing research to reduce impacts of complex emergencies: combining Swarm with patient and public involvement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brainard, Julii Suzanne; Al Assaf, Enana; Omasete, Judith; Leach, Steve; Hammer, Charlotte C; Hunter, Paul R

    2017-01-01

    were identified as a potential priority topic area, two representatives of forced migrant communities were recruited to explore possible research ideas. These representatives helped set the specific research objectives and advised on aspects of implementation, still within the swarm framework for project development. Over ten months, many research ideas were considered by the collaborative working group in a series of six group meetings, supplemented by email contact in between. Up to four possible research ideas were scrutinised at any one meeting, with a focus on identifying practical or desirable aspects of each proposed project. Interest settled on a study to solicit original data about successful strategies that forced migrants use to adapt to life in the UK, with an emphasis on successfully promoting resilience and minimizing emotional distress. "Success in resettlement" was identified to be a more novel theme than "barriers to adaption" research. A success approach encourages participation when individuals may find discussion of mental illness stigmatising. The patient representatives helped with design of patient-facing and interview training materials, interviewer training (mock interviews), and aspects of the recruitment. Using patient and public involvement (PPI) within an early failure development approach that itself arises from theory on complex adaptive systems, we successfully implemented a dynamic development process to determine research topic and study design. The PPI representatives were closely involved in setting research objectives and aspects of implementation.

  19. Evaluating public involvement in research design and grant development: Using a qualitative document analysis method to analyse an award scheme for researchers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baxter, Susan; Muir, Delia; Brereton, Louise; Allmark, Christine; Barber, Rosemary; Harris, Lydia; Hodges, Brian; Khan, Samaira; Baird, Wendy

    2016-01-01

    The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Research Design Service (RDS) for Yorkshire and Humber has been running a public involvement funding scheme since 2008. This scheme awards researchers a small amount of money to help them get involvement from patients and/or the public. Involvement activities take place at the time when researchers are planning studies, and when they are completing application forms to request funding for a proposed research project. After the public involvement activities researchers are asked to write a report for the RDS describing what they did with the public involvement funding. This study analysed those reports using an approach which included members of a public involvement panel in the data analysis process. The aim of the work was to see what the views and experiences of researchers who received funding were, and what might be learned for the future of the scheme. Twenty five reports were analysed. Four main themes were identified, these described: the added value of public involvement; aspects to consider when planning and designing public involvement; different roles of public contributors; and aspects of valuing public member contributions. The group approach to analysis was successful in enabling involvement of a variety of individuals in the process. The findings of the study provide evidence of the value of public involvement during the development of applications for research funding. The results also indicate that researchers recognise the variety in potential roles for the public in research, and acknowledge how involvement adds value to studies. Background A regional Research Design Service, funded by the National Institute for Health Research, introduced a small grant in 2008, to support public involvement (often known as patient and public involvement [PPI]) activities during the development of applications for research funding. Successful applicants are requested to submit a report detailing how the grant

  20. Disclosures of funding sources and conflicts of interest in published HIV/AIDS research conducted in developing countries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klitzman, Robert; Chin, Lisa Judy; Rifai-Bishjawish, Hoda; Kleinert, Kelly; Leu, Cheng-Shiun

    2010-08-01

    Disclosures of funding sources and conflicts of interests (COI) in published peer-reviewed journal articles have recently begun to receive some attention, but many critical questions remain, for example, how often such reporting occurs concerning research conducted in the developing world and what factors may be involved. Of all articles indexed in Medline reporting on human subject HIV research in 2007 conducted in four countries (India, Thailand, Nigeria and Uganda), this study explored how many disclosed a funding source and COI, and what factors are involved. Of 221 articles that met the criteria, 67.9% (150) disclosed the presence or absence of a funding source, but only 20% (44) disclosed COI. Studies from Uganda were more likely, and those from Nigeria were less likely to mention a funding source (pfunding was more likely when: > or = 50% of the authors and the corresponding author were from the sponsoring country, the sponsor country was the USA, and the articles were published in journals in which more of the editors were from the sponsoring countries. Of the published studies examined, over a third did not disclose funding source (ie, whether or not there was a funding source) and 80% did not disclose whether COI existed. Most articles in ICMJE-affiliated journals did not disclose COI. These data suggest the need to consider alteration of policies to require that published articles include funding and COI information, to allow readers to assess articles as fully as possible.

  1. The benefits of patient involvement for translational research

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van der Scheer, Lieke; Garcia, Elisa; van der Laan, A.L.; van der Burg, Simone; Boenink, Marianne

    The question we raise in this paper is, whether patient involvement might be a beneficial way to help determine and achieve the aims of translational (TR) research and, if so, how to proceed. TR is said to ensure a more effective movement (‘translation’) of basic scientific findings to relevant and

  2. The Benefits of Patient Involvement for Translational Research

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Scheer, L. van der; Garcia, E.; Laan, A.L. van der; Burg, S. van der; Boenink, M.

    2017-01-01

    The question we raise in this paper is, whether patient involvement might be a beneficial way to help determine and achieve the aims of translational (TR) research and, if so, how to proceed. TR is said to ensure a more effective movement ('translation') of basic scientific findings to relevant and

  3. Students' Involvement in Faculty Research: Ethical and Methodological Issues

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Linda M. Ferguson

    2004-12-01

    Full Text Available Faculty who engage students as participants in their qualitative research often encounter methodological and ethical problems. Ethical issues arise from the fiduciary relationship between faculty and their students, and violations of that relationship occur when the educator has a dual role as researcher with those students. Methodological issues arise from research designs to address these ethical issues. This conflict is particularly evident in faculty research on pedagogy in their own disciplines, for which students are necessary as participants but are captive in the relationship. In this article, the authors explore the issues of double agency when faculty involve students as participants in their research.

  4. Malaysian Secondary School Students' Knowledge and Interest in Biotechnology: A Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gelamdin, Rashidah Begum; Daniel, Esther Gnanamalar Sarojini

    2016-01-01

    This paper investigates the level of knowledge and interest in biotechnology education of Malaysian secondary school students. The research was based on a questionnaire adapted from the instruments developed by Prokop et al. and Kidman. Six schools in the Klang Valley were involved in the research and with participation by a total of 427 Grade 11…

  5. Summary of the 2017 Alcohol and Immunology Research Interest Group (AIRIG) meeting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hulsebus, Holly J; Curtis, Brenda J; Molina, Patricia E; Afshar, Majid; Boule, Lisbeth A; Morris, Niya; Keshavarzian, Ali; Kolls, Jay K; Yeligar, Samantha M; Price, Michael E; Wyatt, Todd A; Choudhry, Mashkoor A; Kovacs, Elizabeth J

    2018-06-01

    On June 24, 2017, the 22nd annual Alcohol and Immunology Research Interest Group (AIRIG) meeting was held as a satellite conference during the annual Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA) Scientific Meeting in Denver, Colorado. The 2017 meeting focused broadly on mechanisms that link alcohol to tissue injury and inflammation, and how this research can be translated to improve human health. Two plenary sessions composed the meeting, which first explored the association between alcohol and trauma/tissue injury, and finished with a discussion of alcohol and mucosal inflammation. The presentations encompassed diverse areas of alcohol research, from effects on the brain, to airway and pulmonary systems, to gut barrier disruption. The discussions also thoughtfully highlighted how current laboratory and clinical research can be used to prevent or treat alcohol-related morbidity and mortality. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. Good and Bad Research Collaborations: Researchers' Views on Science and Ethics in Global Health Research.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael Parker

    Full Text Available There has been a dramatic rise in the scale and scope of collaborative global health research. A number of structural and scientific factors explain this growth and there has been much discussion of these in the literature. Little, if any, attention has been paid, however, to the factors identified by scientists and other research actors as important to successful research collaboration. This is surprising given that their decisions are likely to play a key role in the sustainability and effectiveness of global health research initiatives. In this paper, we report on qualitative research with leading scientists involved in major international research collaborations about their views on good and bad collaborations and the factors that inform their decision-making about joining and participating actively in research networks. We identify and discuss eight factors that researchers see as essential in judging the merits of active participation in global health research collaborations: opportunities for active involvement in cutting-edge, interesting science; effective leadership; competence of potential partners in and commitment to good scientific practice; capacity building; respect for the needs, interests and agendas of partners; opportunities for discussion and disagreement; trust and confidence; and, justice and fairness in collaboration. Our findings suggest that the sustainability and effectiveness of global health research collaborations has an important ethical or moral dimension for the research actors involved.

  7. Good and Bad Research Collaborations: Researchers' Views on Science and Ethics in Global Health Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parker, Michael; Kingori, Patricia

    2016-01-01

    There has been a dramatic rise in the scale and scope of collaborative global health research. A number of structural and scientific factors explain this growth and there has been much discussion of these in the literature. Little, if any, attention has been paid, however, to the factors identified by scientists and other research actors as important to successful research collaboration. This is surprising given that their decisions are likely to play a key role in the sustainability and effectiveness of global health research initiatives. In this paper, we report on qualitative research with leading scientists involved in major international research collaborations about their views on good and bad collaborations and the factors that inform their decision-making about joining and participating actively in research networks. We identify and discuss eight factors that researchers see as essential in judging the merits of active participation in global health research collaborations: opportunities for active involvement in cutting-edge, interesting science; effective leadership; competence of potential partners in and commitment to good scientific practice; capacity building; respect for the needs, interests and agendas of partners; opportunities for discussion and disagreement; trust and confidence; and, justice and fairness in collaboration. Our findings suggest that the sustainability and effectiveness of global health research collaborations has an important ethical or moral dimension for the research actors involved.

  8. Facilitating interest and out-of-school engagement in science in secondary school girls: Increasing the effectiveness of the teaching for transformative experience in science model through parental involvement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heddy, Benjamin Charles

    This study investigated the impact of adding a parental involvement intervention to the Teaching for Transformative Experience in Science (TTES) model in science courses (biology and chemistry) in an all-girl middle and high school (N = 89). Specifically, the goal was to increase out-of-school engagement, interest, parental involvement, and achievement. Analysis showed that TTES with the addition of a parent intervention (TTES+PI) facilitated more out-of-school engagement and parent involvement than a comparison. Furthermore, a high initial level of situational and individual interest was maintained in the TTES+PI condition; whereas both forms of interest decreased in the comparison. A content analysis of transformative experience journal entries suggested that when parents showed value for science concepts, students' experiential value increased. The results provide evidence that the addition of a parent intervention may increase the effectiveness of TTES and maintain girl's interest in science, which has theoretical and practical implications.

  9. Lay and professional stakeholder involvement in scoping palliative care issues: Methods used in seven European countries

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Brereton, L.; Ingleton, C.; Gardiner, C.; Goyder, E.; Mozygemba, K.; Lysdahl, K.B.; Tummers, M.J.; Sacchini, D.; Leppert, W.; Blazeviciene, A.; Wilt, G.J. van der; Refolo, P.; Nicola, M. De; Chilcott, J.; Oortwijn, W.

    2017-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Stakeholders are people with an interest in a topic. Internationally, stakeholder involvement in palliative care research and health technology assessment requires development. Stakeholder involvement adds value throughout research (from prioritising topics to disseminating findings).

  10. Biomedical databases: protecting privacy and promoting research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wylie, Jean E; Mineau, Geraldine P

    2003-03-01

    When combined with medical information, large electronic databases of information that identify individuals provide superlative resources for genetic, epidemiology and other biomedical research. Such research resources increasingly need to balance the protection of privacy and confidentiality with the promotion of research. Models that do not allow the use of such individual-identifying information constrain research; models that involve commercial interests raise concerns about what type of access is acceptable. Researchers, individuals representing the public interest and those developing regulatory guidelines must be involved in an ongoing dialogue to identify practical models.

  11. Trends in research involving human beings in Brazil

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ricardo Eccard da Silva

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Developing countries have experienced a dramatic increase in the number of clinical studies in the last decades. The aim of this study was to describe 1 the number of clinical trials submitted to the Brazilian Health Surveillance Agency (Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária, Anvisa from 2007 to 2012 and the number of human-subject research projects approved by research ethics committees (RECs and the National Research Ethics Committee (Comissão Nacional de Ética em Pesquisa, CONEP in Brazil from 2007 to 2011 and 2 the diseases most frequently studied in Brazilian states in clinical trials approved in the country from 2009 to 2012, based on information from an Anvisa databank. Two databases were used: 1 the National Information System on Research Ethics Involving Human Beings (Sistema Nacional de Informação Sobre Ética em Pesquisa envolvendo Seres Humanos, SISNEP and 2 Anvisa's Clinical Research Control System (Sistema de Controle de Pesquisa Clínica, SCPC. Data from the SCPC indicated an increase of 32.7% in the number of clinical trials submitted to Anvisa, and data from the SISNEP showed an increase of 69.9% in those approved by RECs and CONEP (from 18 160 in 2007 to 30 860 in 2011. Type 2 diabetes (26.0% and breast cancer (20.5%-related to the main causes of mortality in Brazil-were the two most frequently studied diseases. The so-called “neglected diseases,” such as dengue fever, were among the least studied diseases in approved clinical trials, despite their significant impact on social, economic, and health indicators in Brazil. Overall, the data indicated 1 a clear trend toward more research involving human beings in Brazil, 2 good correspondence between diseases most studied in clinical trials approved by Anvisa and the main causes of death in Brazil, and 3 a low level of attention to neglected diseases, an issue that should be considered in setting future research priorities, given their socioeconomic and health effects.

  12. Improving the use of research evidence in guideline development: 4. Managing conflicts of interests

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bero Lisa A

    2006-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The World Health Organization (WHO, like many other organisations around the world, has recognised the need to use more rigorous processes to ensure that health care recommendations are informed by the best available research evidence. This is the fourth of a series of 16 reviews that have been prepared as background for advice from the WHO Advisory Committee on Health Research to WHO on how to achieve this. Objectives We reviewed the literature on conflicts of interest to answer the following questions: 1. What is the best way to obtain complete and accurate disclosures on financial ties and other competing interests? 2. How to determine when a disclosed financial tie or other competing interest constitutes a conflict of interest? 3. When a conflict of interest is identified, how should the conflict be managed? 4. How could conflict of interest policies be enforced? Methods We searched PubMed, the Cochrane Methodology Register and selectively searched for the published policies of several organizations, We did not conduct systematic reviews ourselves. Our conclusions are based on the available evidence, consideration of what WHO and other organisations are doing and logical arguments. Key questions and answers What is the best way to obtain complete and accurate disclosures on financial ties and other competing interests? • Although there is little empirical evidence to guide the development of disclosure forms, minimal or open-ended formats are likely to be uninformative. We recommend the development of specific, detailed, structured forms that solicit as much information as possible about the nature and extent of the competing interests. How to determine when a disclosed financial tie or other competing interest constitutes a conflict of interest? • There is no empirical evidence to suggest that explicit criteria are preferable to ad hoc committee decisions when deciding if a disclosed financial tie is a conflict of

  13. Lay involvement in the analysis of qualitative data in health services research: a descriptive study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garfield, S; Jheeta, S; Husson, F; Jacklin, A; Bischler, A; Norton, C; Franklin, B D

    2016-01-01

    There is a consensus that patients and the public should be involved in research in a meaningful way. However, to date, lay people have been mostly involved in developing research ideas and commenting on patient information.We previously published a paper describing our experience with lay partners conducting observations in a study of how patients in hospital are involved with their medicines. In a later part of the same study, lay partners were also involved in analysing interviews that a researcher had conducted with patients, carers and healthcare professionals about patient and carer involvement with medicines in hospital. We therefore wanted to build on our previous paper and report on our experiences with lay partners helping to conduct data analysis. We therefore interviewed the lay members and researchers involved in the analysis to find out their views.Both lay members and researchers reported that lay partners added value to the study by bringing their own perspectives and identifying further areas for the researcher to look for in the interviews. In this way researchers and lay partners were able to work together to produce a richer analysis than would have been possible from either alone. Background It is recognised that involving lay people in research in a meaningful rather than tokenistic way is both important and challenging. In this paper, we contribute to this debate by describing our experiences of lay involvement in data analysis. Methods We conducted semi-structured interviews with the lay partners and researchers involved in qualitative data analysis in a wider study of inpatient involvement in medication safety. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and coded using open thematic analysis. Results We interviewed three lay partners and the three researchers involved. These interviews demonstrated that the lay members added value to the analysis by bringing their own perspectives; these were systematically integrated into the analysis by the

  14. Involving users with learning difficulties in health improvement: lessons from inclusive learning disability research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walmsley, Jan

    2004-03-01

    In this paper the author considers the lessons to be drawn from what is termed "inclusive" learning disability research for user involvement around health improvement. Inclusive learning disability research refers to research where people with learning difficulties (intellectual disability) are involved as active participants, as opposed to passive subjects. There is by now a considerable body of such research, developed over the past 25 years. From the review, the author draws attention to areas which can inform practice in involvement of users in a way that adds value.

  15. What drives consumer involvement? The relative impact of product category and product attribute

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    de Barcellos, Marcia Dutra; Kügler, Jens Oliver; Scholderer, Joachim

    2009-01-01

    , foods, household appliances, alcoholic beverages) and on two involvement dimensions (interest and importance). The results indicate that in three of the four super-categories the predominant source of variation in product involvement were the attributes of the products, not the product category...... they belong to. Only for foods, the traditional conceptualisation of involvement held. The findings suggest that parts of previous research on involvement may have to be re-interpreted and that future research should adopt more complex conceptualisations of involvement. From a managerial point of view...

  16. Authorship, plagiarism and conflict of interest: views and practices from low/middle-income country health researchers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rohwer, Anke; Young, Taryn; Wager, Elizabeth; Garner, Paul

    2017-11-22

    To document low/middle-income country (LMIC) health researchers' views about authorship, redundant publication, plagiarism and conflicts of interest and how common poor practice was in their institutions. We developed a questionnaire based on scenarios about authorship, redundant publication, plagiarism and conflicts of interest. We asked participants whether the described practices were acceptable and whether these behaviours were common at their institutions. We conducted in-depth interviews with respondents who agreed to be interviewed. We invited 607 corresponding authors of Cochrane reviews working in LMICs. From the 583 emails delivered, we obtained 199 responses (34%). We carried out in-depth interviews with 15 respondents. Seventy-seven per cent reported that guest authorship occurred at their institution, 60% reported text recycling. For plagiarism, 12% of respondents reported that this occurred 'occasionally', and 24% 'rarely'. Forty per cent indicated that their colleagues had not declared conflicts of interest in the past. Respondents generally recognised poor practice in scenarios but reported that they occurred at their institutions. Themes identified from in-depth interviews were (1) authorship rules are simple in theory, but not consistently applied; (2) academic status and power underpin behaviours; (3) institutions and culture fuel bad practices and (4) researchers are uncertain about what conflict of interests means and how this may influence research. LMIC researchers report that guest authorship is widely accepted and common. While respondents report that plagiarism and undeclared conflicts of interest are unacceptable in practice, they appear common. Determinants of poor practice relate to academic status and power, fuelled by institutional norms and culture. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

  17. Partnering Research Involving Mentoring and Education (PRIME) in Prostate Cancer

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Price, Marva M

    2007-01-01

    Partnering Research Involving Mentoring and Education in Prostate Cancer (PRIME) is a partnership between two nursing schools, Duke University School of Nursing and North Carolina Central University (NCCU...

  18. Partnering Research Involving Mentoring and Education (PRIME) in Prostate Cancer

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Price, Marva M

    2006-01-01

    Partnering Research Involving Mentoring and Education in Prostate Cancer (PRIME) is a partnership between two nursing schools, Duke University School of Nursing and North Carolina Central University (NCCU...

  19. Partnering Research Involving Mentoring and Education (PRIME) in Prostate Cancer

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Price, Marva M

    2008-01-01

    Partnering Research Involving Mentoring and Education in Prostate Cancer (PRIME) was a partnership between two nursing schools, Duke University School of Nursing and North Carolina Central University (NCCU...

  20. 78 FR 10538 - Protections for Subjects in Human Research Involving Pesticides

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-02-14

    ... involving intentional exposure of children or of pregnant or nursing women, unless relying on the data is crucial to a decision that would impose a more stringent regulatory restriction that would improve... itself to conduct or support any research involving intentional exposure of pregnant or nursing women or...

  1. Alzheimer Europe's position on involving people with dementia in research through PPI (patient and public involvement)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gove, Dianne; Diaz-Ponce, Ana; Georges, Jean

    2018-01-01

    This paper reflects Alzheimer Europe's position on PPI (patient and public involvement) in the context of dementia research and highlights some of the challenges and potential risks and benefits associated with such meaningful involvement. The paper was drafted by Alzheimer Europe in collaboration...... with members of INTERDEM and the European Working Group of People with Dementia. It has been formally adopted by the Board of Alzheimer Europe and endorsed by the Board of INTERDEM and by the JPND working group 'Dementia Outcome Measures - Charting New Territory'. Alzheimer Europe is keen to promote...

  2. The construct of food involvement in behavioral research: scale development and validation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bell, Rick; Marshall, David W

    2003-06-01

    The construct of involvement has been found to influence brand loyalty, product information search processing, responses to advertising communications, diffusion of innovations, and ultimately, product choice decisions. Traditionally, involvement has been defined as being a characteristic of either a product or of an individual. In the present research, we make an assumption that an individual's 'food involvement' is a somewhat stable characteristic and we hypothesized that involvement with foods would vary between individuals, that individuals who are more highly involved with food would be better able to discriminate between a set of food samples than would less food involved individuals, and that this discrimination would operate both in affective and perceptive relative judgments. Using standard scale construction techniques, we developed a measure of the characteristic of food involvement, based on activities relating to food acquisition, preparation, cooking, eating and disposal. After several iterations, a final 12-item measure was found to have good test-retest reliability and internal consistency within two subscales. A behavioral validation study demonstrated that measures of food involvement were associated with discrimination and hedonic ratings for a range of foods in a laboratory setting. These findings suggest that food involvement, as measured by the Food Involvement Scale, may be an important mediator to consider when undertaking research with food and food habits.

  3. Challenges and opportunities in international molecular cancer prevention research: An ASPO Molecular Epidemiology and the Environment and International Cancer Prevention Interest Groups Report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Epplein, Meira; Bostick, Roberd M; Mu, Lina; Ogino, Shuji; Braithwaite, Dejana; Kanetsky, Peter A

    2014-11-01

    The International Agency for Research on Cancer estimates that over half of the new cancer cases and almost two-thirds of the cancer deaths in 2012 occurred in low and middle income countries. To discuss the challenges and opportunities to reducing the burden of cancer worldwide, the Molecular Epidemiology and the Environment and the International Issues in Cancer Special Interest Groups joined forces to hold a session during the 38th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Preventive Oncology (March 2014, Arlington, Virginia). The session highlighted three topics of particular interest to molecular cancer prevention researchers working internationally, specifically: 1) biomarkers in cancer research; 2) environmental exposures and cancer; and 3) molecular pathological epidemiology. A major factor for successful collaboration illuminated during the discussion was the need for strong, committed, and reliable international partners. A key element of establishing such relationships is to thoroughly involve individual international collaborators in the development of the research question; engaged international collaborators are particularly motivated to champion and shepherd the project through all necessary steps, including issues relating to institutional review boards, political sensitivity, laboratory-based assays, and tumor subtyping. Also essential is allotting time for the building, maintaining, and investing in such relationships so that successful international collaborations may take root and bloom. While there are many challenges inherent to international molecular cancer research, the opportunities for furthering the science and prevention of cancer worldwide are great, particularly at this time of increasing cancer incidence and prevalence in low and middle income countries. ©2014 American Association for Cancer Research.

  4. Action research methodology in clinical pharmacy: how to involve and change.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nørgaard, Lotte Stig; Sørensen, Ellen Westh

    2016-06-01

    Introduction The focus in clinical pharmacy practice is and has for the last 30-35 years been on changing the role of pharmacy staff into service orientation and patient counselling. One way of doing this is by involving staff in change process and as a researcher to take part in the change process by establishing partnerships with staff. On the background of the authors' widespread action research (AR)-based experiences, recommendations and comments for how to conduct an AR-study is described, and one of their AR-based studies illustrate the methodology and the research methods used. Methodology AR is defined as an approach to research which is based on a problem-solving relationship between researchers and clients, which aims at both solving a problem and at collaboratively generating new knowledge. Research questions relevant in AR-studies are: what was the working process in this change oriented study? What learning and/or changes took place? What challenges/pitfalls had to be overcome? What were the influence/consequences for the involved parts? When to use If you want to implement new services and want to involve staff and others in the process, an AR methodology is very suitable. The basic advantages of doing AR-based studies are grounded in their participatory and democratic basis and their starting point in problems experienced in practice. Limitations Some of the limitations in AR-studies are that neither of the participants in a project steering group are the only ones to decide. Furthermore, the collective process makes the decision-making procedures relatively complex.

  5. Research Data Alliance's Interest Group on "Weather, Climate and Air Quality"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bretonnière, Pierre-Antoine; Benincasa, Francesco

    2016-04-01

    Research Data Alliance's Interest Group on "Weather, Climate and Air Quality" More than ever in the history of Earth sciences, scientists are confronted with the problem of dealing with huge amounts of data that grow continuously at a rate that becomes a challenge to process and analyse them using conventional methods. Data come from many different and widely distributed sources, ranging from satellite platforms and in-situ sensors to model simulations, and with different degrees of openness. How can Earth scientists deal with this diversity and big volume and extract useful information to understand and predict the relevant processes? The Research Data Alliance (RDA, https://rd-alliance.org/), an organization that promotes and develops new data policies, data standards and focuses on the development of new technical solutions applicable in many distinct areas of sciences, recently entered in its third phase. In this framework, an Interest Group (IG) comprised of community experts that are committed to directly or indirectly enable and facilitate data sharing, exchange, or interoperability in the fields of weather, climate and air quality has been created recently. Its aim is to explore and discuss the challenges for the use and efficient analysis of large and diverse datasets of relevance for these fields taking advantage of the knowledge generated and exchanged in RDA. At the same time, this IG intends to be a meeting point between members of the aforementioned communities to share experiences and propose new solutions to overcome the forthcoming challenges. Based on the collaboration between several research meteorological and European climate institutes, but also taking into account the input from the private (from the renewable energies, satellites and agriculture sectors for example) and public sectors, this IG will suggest practical and applicable solutions for Big Data issues, both at technological and policy level, encountered by these communities. We

  6. How Common is Men's Self-Reported Sexual Interest in Prepubescent Children?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dombert, Beate; Schmidt, Alexander F; Banse, Rainer; Briken, Peer; Hoyer, Jürgen; Neutze, Janina; Osterheider, Michael

    2016-01-01

    Consistent evidence exists for sexual interest in children in nonclinical/nonforensic male populations. However, prevalences for community men's self-reported sexual interest in children have been based on indiscriminate definitions including postpubescent individuals, age-restricted samples, and/or small convenience samples. The present research assessed men's self-reported sexual interest in children (including child prostitution and child sex tourism) on the community level and examined the link between strictly defined sexual fantasies and behaviors involving prepubescent children. In an online survey of 8,718 German men, 4.1% reported sexual fantasies involving prepubescent children, 3.2% reported sexual offending against prepubescent children, and 0.1% reported a pedophilic sexual preference. Sexual fantasies involving prepubescent children were positively related to sexual offending against prepubescent children. Sexual interest in children was associated with subjectively perceived need for therapeutic help. In contrast to findings from forensic samples, men who reported child pornography use exclusively were identified as a subgroup differing from contact sexual offenders against prepubescent children and men who reported both child pornography use and contact sexual offenses against prepubescent children. The empirical link between child-related sexual fantasies and sexual victimization of prepubescent children and high levels of subjective distress from this inclination underscore the importance of evidence-based child sexual abuse prevention approaches in the community. Findings are discussed in terms of their relation to pedophilic disorder.

  7. Drug research methodology. Volume 2, The identification of drugs of interest in highway safety

    Science.gov (United States)

    1980-03-01

    This report presents findings of a workshop on the identification of drugs that should be the focus of near-term highway safety research. Drugs of interest are those that have a potential to increase the likelihood of traffic crashes and their attend...

  8. Authorship, plagiarism and conflict of interest: views and practices from low/middle-income country health researchers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Young, Taryn; Garner, Paul

    2017-01-01

    Objectives To document low/middle-income country (LMIC) health researchers’ views about authorship, redundant publication, plagiarism and conflicts of interest and how common poor practice was in their institutions. Design We developed a questionnaire based on scenarios about authorship, redundant publication, plagiarism and conflicts of interest. We asked participants whether the described practices were acceptable and whether these behaviours were common at their institutions. We conducted in-depth interviews with respondents who agreed to be interviewed. Participants We invited 607 corresponding authors of Cochrane reviews working in LMICs. From the 583 emails delivered, we obtained 199 responses (34%). We carried out in-depth interviews with 15 respondents. Results Seventy-seven per cent reported that guest authorship occurred at their institution, 60% reported text recycling. For plagiarism, 12% of respondents reported that this occurred ‘occasionally’, and 24% ‘rarely’. Forty per cent indicated that their colleagues had not declared conflicts of interest in the past. Respondents generally recognised poor practice in scenarios but reported that they occurred at their institutions. Themes identified from in-depth interviews were (1) authorship rules are simple in theory, but not consistently applied; (2) academic status and power underpin behaviours; (3) institutions and culture fuel bad practices and (4) researchers are uncertain about what conflict of interests means and how this may influence research. Conclusions LMIC researchers report that guest authorship is widely accepted and common. While respondents report that plagiarism and undeclared conflicts of interest are unacceptable in practice, they appear common. Determinants of poor practice relate to academic status and power, fuelled by institutional norms and culture. PMID:29170291

  9. Involving Latina/o parents in patient-centered outcomes research: Contributions to research study design, implementation and outcomes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pérez Jolles, Mónica; Martinez, Maria; Garcia, San Juanita; Stein, Gabriela L; Thomas, Kathleen C

    2017-10-01

    Comparative effectiveness research (CER) is supported by policymakers as a way to provide service providers and patients with evidence-based information to make better health-care decisions and ultimately improve services for patients. However, Latina/o patients are rarely involved as study advisors, and there is a lack of documentation on how their voices contribute to the research process when they are included as collaborators. The purpose of this article was to contribute to the literature by presenting concrete contributions of Latina/o parent involvement to study design, implementation and outcomes in the context of a CER study called Padres Efectivos (Parent Activation). Researchers facilitated a collaborative relationship with parents by establishing a mentor parent group. The contributions of parent involvement in the following stages of the research process are described: (i) proposal development, (ii) implementation of protocols, (iii) analysis plan and (iv) dissemination of results. Mentor parents' contributions helped tailor the content of the intervention to their needs during proposal, increased recruitment, validated the main outcome measure and added two important outcome measures, emphasized the importance of controlling for novice treatment status and developed innovative dissemination strategies. Mentor parents' guidance to the researchers has contributed to reaching recruitment goals, strengthened the study protocol, expanded findings, supported broad ownership of study implications and enriched the overall study data collection efforts. These findings can inform future research efforts seeking an active Latino parent collaboration and the timely incorporation of parent voices in each phase of the research process. © 2017 The Authors Health Expectations Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  10. Children's Decision-Making Involvement About Research Participation: Associations With Perceived Fairness and Self-Efficacy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Victoria A; Feudtner, Chris; Jawad, Abbas F

    2017-04-01

    The primary objective of this study was to examine the associations of children's involvement in decisions about research participation with their perceptions of the decision-making process and self-efficacy. Participants were children (ages 8-17) who enrolled in research studies in the prior 2 months. Children completed a questionnaire that yielded three decision-making involvement subscales: Researcher Engages Child, Researcher Supports Autonomy, and Child Participates. Children reported on fairness of the decision-making process and health-related decision self-efficacy. After adjusting for age, higher scores on Researcher Engages Child were associated with greater self-efficacy, and higher scores on Researcher Supports Autonomy were associated with greater perceived fairness. These data underscore the potential importance of researcher-child interactions about research participation when assent is sought, including proactively involving children in the decision by asking for their opinions and communicating their central role in the decision, which are likely to be more meaningful to children than receiving information or signing a form.

  11. Partners in projects: preparing for public involvement in health and social care research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parkes, Jacqueline H; Pyer, Michelle; Wray, Paula; Taylor, Jane

    2014-09-01

    In recent years, several UK and, international funders of health and social care related research have adopted the policy of requiring explicit evidence of the 'public' voice in all aspects of project design. For many academic researchers engaged within research, evaluations or audit projects, this formal requirement to actively engage members of the public will present them with both benefits and challenges to securing knowledgeable, skilled, and confident lay representation onto project teams. This could potentially lead to the exploitation of those individuals who are available, appropriately informed, and adequately prepared for such activities. Currently, much of the preparation of patients or members of the public for research involvement tends to be aligned to specific projects; however, with the call for greater active and meaningful involvement of lay representatives in future national and international funding applications, there is clearly a growing need to 'train' sufficient numbers of confident and competent representatives to meet this growing demand. This paper describes the development of a specifically designed research awareness training programme and underpinning theoretical model, which has been specifically designed to support active and meaningful lay involvement in research, evaluations and audit projects. Developed over a four year period, the course is a culmination of learning extracted from a series of four completed research projects, which have incorporated an element of public and patient involvement (PPI) training in their overall design. Crown Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Pediatric oncologists' attitudes towards involving adolescents in decision-making concerning research participation.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vries, M.C. de; Wit, J.M.; Engberts, D.P.; Kaspers, G.J.L.; Leeuwen, E. van

    2010-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Various regulations and guidelines stipulate the importance of involving adolescents in decision-making concerning research participation. Several studies have shown that in the context of pediatric oncology this involvement is difficult to achieve due to emotional stress, the complexity

  13. The power of symbolic capital in patient and public involvement in health research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Locock, Louise; Boylan, Anne-Marie; Snow, Rosamund; Staniszewska, Sophie

    2017-10-01

    Policy-makers and health research funders increasingly require researchers to demonstrate that they have involved patients in the design and conduct of research. However, the extent to which patients and public have the power to get involved on an equal footing is dependent on their economic, cultural, social and symbolic capital. To explore power relations in patient and public involvement (PPI) in research, particularly how patients may wield symbolic capital to develop a more equal relationship. Narrative interviews with a maximum variation sample of 38 people involved as patients, carers or public in health research, analysed thematically. Symbolic capital may be demonstrated in a range of ways (sometimes alongside or in the absence of other forms of capital): illness experience, technical illness knowledge and the challenging outsider. Symbolic capital is unstable and dependent on others for recognition and legitimacy. Nonetheless, participants identify a gradual shift in power relations over time. Research into PPI has been conceptually and theoretically poor, limiting our understanding of its mechanisms and wider contextual elements. Our findings demonstrate the importance of reflecting on the forms of power and capital wielded by the health research community, and of acknowledging the way in which PPI is challenging the status quo. As one of the first papers to conceptualize how different forms of symbolic capital operate and their critical role in challenging the balance of power, our findings may help researchers better plan their PPI activities and reflect on their own power. © 2016 The Authors. Health Expectations Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  14. An Observational Study of Children's Involvement in Informed Consent for Exome Sequencing Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Victoria A; Werner-Lin, Allison; Walser, Sarah A; Biswas, Sawona; Bernhardt, Barbara A

    2017-02-01

    The goal of this study was to examine children's involvement in consent sessions for exome sequencing research and associations of involvement with provider and parent communication. Participants included 44 children (8-17 years) from five cohorts who were offered participation in an exome sequencing study. The consent sessions were audiotaped, transcribed, and coded. Providers attempted to facilitate the child's involvement in the majority (73%) of sessions, and most (75%) children also verbally participated. Provider facilitation was strongly associated with likelihood of child participation. These findings underscore that strategies such as asking for children's opinions and soliciting their questions show respect for children and may increase the likelihood that they are engaged and involved in decisions about research participation.

  15. A Research Framework for Understanding the Practical Impact of Family Involvement in the Juvenile Justice System: The Juvenile Justice Family Involvement Model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walker, Sarah Cusworth; Bishop, Asia S; Pullmann, Michael D; Bauer, Grace

    2015-12-01

    Family involvement is recognized as a critical element of service planning for children's mental health, welfare and education. For the juvenile justice system, however, parents' roles in this system are complex due to youths' legal rights, public safety, a process which can legally position parents as plaintiffs, and a historical legacy of blaming parents for youth indiscretions. Three recent national surveys of juvenile justice-involved parents reveal that the current paradigm elicits feelings of stress, shame and distrust among parents and is likely leading to worse outcomes for youth, families and communities. While research on the impact of family involvement in the justice system is starting to emerge, the field currently has no organizing framework to guide a research agenda, interpret outcomes or translate findings for practitioners. We propose a research framework for family involvement that is informed by a comprehensive review and content analysis of current, published arguments for family involvement in juvenile justice along with a synthesis of family involvement efforts in other child-serving systems. In this model, family involvement is presented as an ascending, ordinal concept beginning with (1) exclusion, and moving toward climates characterized by (2) information-giving, (3) information-eliciting and (4) full, decision-making partnerships. Specific examples of how courts and facilities might align with these levels are described. Further, the model makes predictions for how involvement will impact outcomes at multiple levels with applications for other child-serving systems.

  16. Physician-industry collaboration: conflicts of interest and the imputation of motive.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wadmann, Sarah

    2014-08-01

    Policies about physicians' involvement with pharmaceutical companies spawn contradictory ideas. One set of policies aims to stimulate collaboration between private companies and publicly employed researchers to spur innovation and economic growth, another addresses what is seen as the problem of physicians' conflicts of interest stemming from industry collaboration. This article explores how these contradictory policies interact with everyday practice in clinical hypertension research in Denmark. I argue that 'corporate' and 'academic' research is entangled as physicians participate in industry trials to pursue their own research. Building on document analysis, observations of contract research, and interviews with clinician researchers and industry executives, I show how the establishment of industry 'ties' can serve as a way for physicians to navigate the constraints of research infrastructures and live up to intergenerational norms that knit the medical collective together. I discuss how this entanglement shapes medical research in ways that may run counter to the aims of medical innovation policies and that conflicts of interest policies do little to address. I conclude that appreciation of the ways in which economic and moral valuations come together is necessary to understand the conditions for medical research in an intertwined public-private research environment.

  17. The School Research Lead

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bennett, Tom

    2015-01-01

    The researchED movement has generated a new debate about the role of research in schools. Of course there have always been teachers interested in undertaking research and applying the research findings of others. However, involvement in research has tended to be the personal enthusiasm of the individual teacher rather than a coordinated whole…

  18. Framing the Undergraduate Research Experience: Discovery Involvement in Retailing Undergraduate Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sternquist, Brenda; Huddleston, Patricia; Fairhurst, Ann

    2018-01-01

    We provide an overview of ways to involve undergraduate business and retailing students in faculty research projects and discuss advantages of these student-faculty collaborations. We use Kolb's experiential learning cycle to provide a framework for creating an effective and engaging undergraduate research experience and use it to classify types…

  19. ORGANIC RESEARCH AND STAKEHOLDERS INVOLVEMENT: THE IFOAM EU REGIONAL GROUP CONTRIBUTION

    OpenAIRE

    Gonzalvez, Mr V; Schlueter, Mr M; Slabe, Ms A; Schmid, Mr O

    2006-01-01

    The paper presents the concepts, criteria, procedures and some methodologies to increase stakeholders involvement and participatioin in organic research Projects in the European Union, based on the experiencie and practise of the IFOAM EU Regional Group (IFOAM-EURG), in transnational Organic research Projects, enfatising in achivements, dificulties and trends for the future

  20. When Dishonesty Leads to Trust: Moral Judgments Biased by Self-interest are Truly Believed

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bocian Konrad

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Research has shown that cheating is perceived as immoral when it serves the cheater’s interests, though it can be seen as moral when it serves the interests of the perceiver. However, are such biased moral judgments real, or are they merely lip service? To answer the question of whether biased moral judgments actually inform behavior, the authors asked participants to observe a confederate who either cheated for money or did not cheat, which benefited either the confederate alone or both the confederate and the participating observer. Then, participants evaluated the confederate and, finally, played a one shot trust game with her. Cheating influenced moral judgments and decreased behavioral trust, but this only occurred when self-interest was not involved. When self-interest was involved, participants showed no significant differences in trust levels, independent of whether the confederate had cheated or not. Implications for the dual process theory in moral psychology are discussed.

  1. Patient and public involvement in primary care research - an example of ensuring its sustainability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jinks, Clare; Carter, Pam; Rhodes, Carol; Taylor, Robert; Beech, Roger; Dziedzic, Krysia; Blackburn, Steven; Hughes, Rhian; Ong, Bie Nio

    2016-01-01

    The international literature on patient and public involvement (PPI) in research covers a wide range of issues, including active lay involvement throughout the research cycle; roles that patients/public can play; assessing impact of PPI and recommendations for good PPI practice. One area of investigation that is less developed is the sustainability and impact of PPI beyond involvement in time-limited research projects. This paper focuses on the issues of sustainability, the importance of institutional leadership and the creation of a robust infrastructure in order to achieve long-term and wide-ranging PPI in research strategy and programmes. We use the case of a Primary Care Research Centre to provide a historical account of the evolution of PPI in the Centre and identified a number of key conceptual issues regarding infrastructure, resource allocation, working methods, roles and relationships. The paper concludes about the more general applicability of the Centre's model for the long-term sustainability of PPI in research.

  2. Summary of the 2016 Alcohol and Immunology Research Interest Group (AIRIG) meeting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boule, Lisbeth A; Ju, Cynthia; Agudelo, Marisela; Parira, Tiyash; Cannon, Abigail; Davis, Booker; Eby, Jonathan; Cresci, Gail; Samuelson, Derrick R; Shukla, Pradeep; Alrefai, Waddah A; Sureshchandra, Suhas; Pandey, Subhash C; Schnabl, Bernd; Curtis, Brenda J; Wyatt, Todd A; Choudhry, Mashkoor A; Kovacs, Elizabeth J

    2018-02-01

    On November 18, 2016 the 21st annual Alcohol and Immunology Research Interest Group (AIRIG) meeting was held at the Center for Translational Research and Education at Loyola University Chicago's Health Sciences Campus in Maywood, IL. The 2016 meeting focused broadly on alcohol and inflammation, epigenetics, and the microbiome. The four plenary sessions of the meeting were Alcohol, Inflammation, and Immunity; Alcohol and Epigenetics; Alcohol, Transcriptional Regulation, and Epigenetics; and Alcohol, Intestinal Mucosa, and the Gut Microbiome. Presentations in all sessions of the meeting explored putative underlying causes for chronic diseases and mortality associated with alcohol consumption, shedding light on future work and potential therapeutic targets to alleviate the negative effects of alcohol misuse. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Are You Interested? A Meta-Analysis of Relations between Vocational Interests and Employee Performance and Turnover

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van Iddekinge, Chad H.; Roth, Philip L.; Putka, Dan J.; Lanivich, Stephen E.

    2011-01-01

    A common belief among researchers is that vocational interests have limited value for personnel selection. However, no comprehensive quantitative summaries of interests validity research have been conducted to substantiate claims for or against the use of interests. To help address this gap, we conducted a meta-analysis of relations between…

  4. Involvement of consumers in studies run by the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit: Results of a survey

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vale Claire L

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background We aimed to establish levels of consumer involvement in randomised controlled trials (RCTs, meta-analyses and other studies carried out by the UK Medical Research Council (MRC Clinical Trials Unit across the range of research programs, predominantly in cancer and HIV. Methods Staff responsible for studies that were included in a Unit Progress Report (MRC CTU, April 2009 were asked to complete a semi-structured questionnaire survey regarding consumer involvement. This was defined as active involvement of consumers as partners in the research process and not as subjects of that research. The electronic questionnaires combined open and closed questions, intended to capture quantitative and qualitative information on whether studies had involved consumers; types of activities undertaken; recruitment and support; advantages and disadvantages of involvement and its perceived impact on aspects of the research. Results Between October 2009 and April 2010, 138 completed questionnaires (86% were returned. Studies had been conducted over a 20 year period from 1989, and around half were in cancer; 30% in HIV and 20% were in other disease areas including arthritis, tuberculosis and blood transfusion medicine. Forty-three studies (31% had some consumer involvement, most commonly as members of trial management groups (TMG [88%]. A number of positive impacts on both the research and the researcher were identified. Researchers generally felt involvement was worthwhile and some felt that consumer involvement had improved the credibility of the research. Benefits in design and quality, trial recruitment, dissemination and decision making were also perceived. Researchers felt they learned from consumer involvement, albeit that there were some barriers. Conclusions Whilst most researchers identified benefits of involving consumers, most of studies included in the survey had no involvement. Information from this survey will inform the development

  5. Involvement of consumers in studies run by the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit: results of a survey.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vale, Claire L; Thompson, Lindsay C; Murphy, Claire; Forcat, Silvia; Hanley, Bec

    2012-01-13

    We aimed to establish levels of consumer involvement in randomised controlled trials (RCTs), meta-analyses and other studies carried out by the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) Clinical Trials Unit across the range of research programs, predominantly in cancer and HIV. Staff responsible for studies that were included in a Unit Progress Report (MRC CTU, April 2009) were asked to complete a semi-structured questionnaire survey regarding consumer involvement. This was defined as active involvement of consumers as partners in the research process and not as subjects of that research. The electronic questionnaires combined open and closed questions, intended to capture quantitative and qualitative information on whether studies had involved consumers; types of activities undertaken; recruitment and support; advantages and disadvantages of involvement and its perceived impact on aspects of the research. Between October 2009 and April 2010, 138 completed questionnaires (86%) were returned. Studies had been conducted over a 20 year period from 1989, and around half were in cancer; 30% in HIV and 20% were in other disease areas including arthritis, tuberculosis and blood transfusion medicine. Forty-three studies (31%) had some consumer involvement, most commonly as members of trial management groups (TMG) [88%]. A number of positive impacts on both the research and the researcher were identified. Researchers generally felt involvement was worthwhile and some felt that consumer involvement had improved the credibility of the research. Benefits in design and quality, trial recruitment, dissemination and decision making were also perceived. Researchers felt they learned from consumer involvement, albeit that there were some barriers. Whilst most researchers identified benefits of involving consumers, most of studies included in the survey had no involvement. Information from this survey will inform the development of a unit policy on consumer involvement, to guide future

  6. Financial Conflicts of Interest, Disclosure, and Academic Discipline.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bruton, Samuel V; Sacco, Donald F; Didlake, Ralph

    2016-04-01

    Peer assessments of researchers' financial conflicts of interest (FCOIs) are crucial to effective FCOI management. We sought to determine how academics perceive FCOI disclosure and whether their perceptions vary depending on discipline and educational backgrounds. Participants (faculty and staff members from a multi-disciplinary academic medical center) responded to a questionnaire involving 10 hypothetical scenarios in which researchers either disclosed or failed to disclose a financial conflict (between-participants manipulation). Participants viewed disclosure as important and believed that researchers' objectivity would be affected by undisclosed FCOIs. In contrast to non-physicians, physicians showed greater recognition that the existence of an FCOI does not depend on its disclosure. This suggests that physicians are relatively well informed about FCOIs, which is likely attributable to more education about them. © The Author(s) 2016.

  7. Lay and professional stakeholder involvement in scoping palliative care issues: Methods used in seven European countries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brereton, Louise; Ingleton, Christine; Gardiner, Clare; Goyder, Elizabeth; Mozygemba, Kati; Lysdahl, Kristin Bakke; Tummers, Marcia; Sacchini, Dario; Leppert, Wojciech; Blaževičienė, Aurelija; van der Wilt, Gert Jan; Refolo, Pietro; De Nicola, Martina; Chilcott, James; Oortwijn, Wija

    2017-02-01

    Stakeholders are people with an interest in a topic. Internationally, stakeholder involvement in palliative care research and health technology assessment requires development. Stakeholder involvement adds value throughout research (from prioritising topics to disseminating findings). Philosophies and understandings about the best ways to involve stakeholders in research differ internationally. Stakeholder involvement took place in seven countries (England, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Poland). Findings informed a project that developed concepts and methods for health technology assessment and applied these to evaluate models of palliative care service delivery. To report on stakeholder involvement in the INTEGRATE-HTA project and how issues identified informed project development. Using stakeholder consultation or a qualitative research design, as appropriate locally, stakeholders in seven countries acted as 'advisors' to aid researchers' decision making. Thematic analysis was used to identify key issues across countries. A total of 132 stakeholders (82 professionals and 50 'lay' people) aged ⩾18 participated in individual face-to-face or telephone interviews, consultation meetings or focus groups. Different stakeholder involvement methods were used successfully to identify key issues in palliative care. A total of 23 issues common to three or more countries informed decisions about the intervention and comparator of interest, sub questions and specific assessments within the health technology assessment. Stakeholders, including patients and families undergoing palliative care, can inform project decision making using various involvement methods according to the local context. Researchers should consider local understandings about stakeholder involvement as views of appropriate and feasible methods vary. Methods for stakeholder involvement, especially consultation, need further development.

  8. Consumer and community involvement in health and medical research: evaluation by online survey of Australian training workshops for researchers

    OpenAIRE

    McKenzie, Anne; Alpers, Kirsten; Heyworth, Jane; Phuong, Cindy; Hanley, Bec

    2016-01-01

    Plain English Summary In Australia, since 2009, the Consumer and Community Involvement Program (formerly the Consumer and Community Participation Program) has developed and run workshops to help people working in health and medical research involve more consumers (patients) and community members (the public) in their research. In 2012, workshop attendees were invited to do an online survey to find out the effect, if any, that attending a workshop had on their awareness of and attitudes to con...

  9. Co-researching with people with learning disabilities: an experience of involvement in qualitative data analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tuffrey-Wijne, Irene; Butler, Gary

    2010-06-01

    People with learning disabilities have been included in research as co-researchers since the 1990s. However, there is limited literature about the processes of involving people with learning disabilities in the more intellectual and analytical stages of the research process. To examine the potential contribution of people with learning disabilities to data analysis in qualitative research. This article is a reflection on one research experience. The two authors include one researcher with and one without learning disabilities. They each describe their experience and understanding of user involvement in analysing the data of an ethnographic study of people with learning disabilities who had cancer. The researcher with learning disabilities was given extensive vignettes and extracts from the research field notes, and was supported to extract themes, which were cross-compared with the analysis of other members of the research team. The researcher with learning disabilities coped well with the emotive content of the data and with the additional support provided, he was able to extract themes that added validity to the overall analysis. His contribution complemented those of the other members of the research team. There were unexpected benefits, in particular, in terms of a more reciprocal and supportive relationship between the two researchers. It is possible and valuable to extend involvement to data analysis, but to avoid tokenism and maintain academic rigour, there must be a clear rationale for such involvement. Extra support, time and costs must be planned for.

  10. Power to the people: To what extent has public involvement in applied health research achieved this?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Green, Gill

    2016-01-01

    Public involvement is required for applied health research funded in the UK. One of the largest funders, the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR), makes it clear that it values the knowledge of patients and the public. As a result, there are now many resources to make sure that the public voice is included in decision-making about research. However, there is concern that the public voice still has limited impact on research decision-making. This article asks to what extent has power shifted from the scientific research community to the public? It looks at how much power and impact patients and members of the public have about research by asking: How do the public contribute to deciding which research areas and which research projects should be funded? How do they influence how the research is carried out? The article argues that there is evidence that the public voice is present in research decision-making. However, there is less evidence of a change in the power dynamic between the scientific research community and the public. The public involved in research are not always equal partners. The scientific research community still has the loudest voice and patients and the public do not always feel sufficiently empowered to challenge it. Public involvement in applied health research is a pre-requisite for funding from many funding bodies. In particular the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) in the UK, clearly states that it values lay knowledge and there is an expectation that members of the public will participate as research partners in research. As a result a large public involvement infrastructure has emerged to facilitate this. However, there is concern that despite the flurry of activity in promoting public involvement, lay knowledge is marginalised and has limited impact on research decision-making. This article asks to what extent has power shifted from the scientific research community to the public? It discusses the meaning of power and

  11. Interest Organisations and European Integration

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pedersen, Ove K.

    This paper examines the influence of European integration on the relationship between state administration and private interests in the four Nordic countries - Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. By private interests I mean interest organizations, private corporations and independent experts....... The paper focuses exclusively on the national policy processes that are involved with managing European Union (EU) issues. More specifically, this paper discusses two aspects of multi-level governance. First is the important role of private interests in the coordination of decision making at the national...... level preceding their government's representation of national interests in the European Council of Ministers and other EU organizations. Second is the effect of all this on national democratic systems....

  12. Normative changes in interests from adolescence to adulthood: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoff, Kevin A; Briley, Daniel A; Wee, Colin J M; Rounds, James

    2018-04-01

    Vocational interests predict a variety of important outcomes and are among the most widely applied individual difference constructs in psychology and education. Despite over 90 years of research, little is known about the longitudinal development of interests. In this meta-analysis, the authors investigate normative changes in interests through adolescence and young adulthood. Effect sizes were aggregated from 49 longitudinal studies reporting mean-level changes in vocational interests, containing 98 total samples and 20,639 participants. Random effects meta-analytic regression models were used to assess age-related changes and gender differences across Holland's (1959, 1997) RIASEC categories and composite dimensions (people, things, data, and ideas). Results showed that mean-level interest scores generally increase with age, but effect sizes varied across interest categories and developmental periods. Adolescence was defined by two broad patterns of change: interest scores generally decreased during early adolescence, but then increased during late adolescence. During young adulthood, the most striking changes were found across the people and things orientations. Interests involving people tended to increase (artistic, social, and enterprising), whereas interests involving things either decreased (conventional) or remained constant (realistic and investigative). Gender differences associated with occupational stereotypes reached a lifetime peak during early adolescence, then tended to decrease in all subsequent age periods. Overall findings suggest there are normative changes in vocational interests from adolescence to adulthood, with important implications for developmental theories and the applied use of interests. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  13. How embedded is public involvement in mainstream health research in England a decade after policy implementation? A realist evaluation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, Patricia; Mathie, Elspeth; Poland, Fiona; Keenan, Julia; Howe, Amanda; Munday, Diane; Kendall, Sally; Cowe, Marion; Staniszewska, Sophie; Goodman, Claire

    2018-04-01

    Objectives To explore how embedded patient and public involvement is within mainstream health research following two decades of policy-driven work to underpin health research with patient and public involvement in England. Methods Realist evaluation using Normalization Process Theory as a programme theory to understand what enabled patient and public involvement to be embedded as normal practice. Data were collected through a national scoping and survey, and qualitative methods to track patient and public involvement processes and impact over time within 22 nationally funded research projects. Results In research studies that were able to create reciprocal working relationships and to embed patient and public involvement this was contingent on: the purpose of patient and public involvement being clear; public contributors reflecting research end-beneficiaries; researchers understanding the value of patient and public involvement; patient and public involvement opportunities being provided throughout the research and ongoing evaluation of patient and public involvement. Key contested areas included: whether to measure patient and public involvement impact; seeking public contributors to maintain a balance between being research-aware and an outsider standpoint seen as 'authentically' lay; scaling-up patient and public involvement embedded within a research infrastructure rather than risk token presence and whether patient and public involvement can have a place within basic science. Conclusions While patient and public involvement can be well-integrated within all types of research, policy makers should take account of tensions that must be navigated in balancing moral and methodological imperatives.

  14. 42 CFR 51.26 - Conflicts of interest.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Conflicts of interest. 51.26 Section 51.26 Public... Priorities § 51.26 Conflicts of interest. The P&A system must develop appropriate policies and procedures to avoid actual or apparent conflict of interest involving clients, employees, contractors and...

  15. Involving Communities in Deciding What Benefits They Receive in Multinational Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wendler, David; Shah, Seema

    2015-10-01

    There is wide agreement that communities in lower-income countries should benefit when they participate in multinational research. Debate now focuses on how and to what extent these communities should benefit. This debate has identified compelling reasons to reject the claim that whatever benefits a community agrees to accept are necessarily fair. Yet, those who conduct clinical research may conclude from this rejection that there is no reason to involve communities in the process of deciding how they benefit. Against this possibility, the present manuscript argues that involving host communities in this process helps to promote four important goals: (1) protecting host communities, (2) respecting host communities, (3) promoting transparency, and (4) enhancing social value. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, Inc. 2015.

  16. Involving the public in mental health and learning disability research: Can we, should we, do we?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paul, C; Holt, J

    2017-10-01

    WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: UK health policy is clear that researchers should involve the public throughout the research process. The public, including patients, carers and/or local citizens can bring a different and valuable perspective to the research process and improve the quality of research undertaken. Conducting health research is demanding with tight deadlines and scarce resources. This can make involving the public in research very challenging. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE?: This is the first time the attitudes of researchers working in mental health and learning disability services towards PPI have been investigated. The principles of service user involvement in mental health and learning disability services may support PPI in research as a tool of collaboration and empowerment. This article extends our understanding of the cultural and attitudinal barriers to implementing PPI guidelines in mental health and learning disability services. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE?: Researchers in mental health and learning disability services need to champion, share and publish effective involvement work. Structural barriers to PPI work should be addressed locally and successful strategies shared nationally and internationally. Where PPI guidelines are being developed, attention needs to be paid to cultural factors in the research community to win "hearts and minds" and support the effective integration of PPI across the whole research process. Introduction Patient and public involvement (PPI) is integral to UK health research guidance; however, implementation is inconsistent. There is little research into the attitudes of NHS health researchers towards PPI. Aim This study explored the attitude of researchers working in mental health and learning disability services in the UK towards PPI in health research. Method Using a qualitative methodology, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of eight researchers. A

  17. Does source of funding and conflict of interest influence the outcome and quality of spinal research?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amiri, Amir Reza; Kanesalingam, Kavitha; Cro, Suzie; Casey, Adrian T H

    2014-02-01

    There has been longstanding controversy surrounding the influence of funding source on the conduct and outcome of medical research. In 2011, a systematic review of the use of recombinant bone morphogenetic protein-2 revealed underreporting of unfavorable outcomes in some industry-sponsored trials. We hypothesize that Industrial funding and the presence of potential conflict of interest will be associated with low levels of evidence (LOE) and greater proportions of favorable outcomes in spinal research. The aim of this study is to investigate the association between funding source and potential conflict of interest on the LOE and study outcome in the current spinal research. Systematic review of all the spinal publications in five leading spinal, orthopedics, neurosurgery, and general medical journals during 2010 (print and online). Supplements were included. Outcome and the LOE of research papers. Two reviewers independently assessed all publications. Commentaries, editorials, letters, open operating theatres, case reports, narrative reviews, and study protocols were excluded. The self-reported potential conflict of interest and type of funding was extracted from each paper. Funding type was classified as foundation, industry, public, intramural, multiple (including industry), multiple (without industry), and unfunded. The outcome of each study was classified as favorable, unfavorable, equivocal, or not applicable. Clinical publications were ranked using the LOE guidelines produced by the Oxford Center for Evidence-Based Medicine. Overall, 1356 papers were analyzed, out of which 864 were suitable for LOE grading. There was good interobserver reliability for assignment of LOE grade, κ=0.897 (psource of funding (psource and study outcome (p=.01). The proportion of industry-funded studies with favorable outcomes (88%) was higher than that of publicly and foundation-funded studies (73% and 74%, respectively). The associated odds ratio for reporting favorable outcomes

  18. Implicit User Interest Profile

    CERN Document Server

    Chan, K

    2002-01-01

    User interest profile presents items that the users are interested in. Typically those items can be listed or grouped. Listing is good but it does not possess interests at different abstraction levels - the higher-level interests are more general, while the lower-level ones are more specific. Furthermore, more general interests, in some sense, correspond to longer-term interests, while more specific interests correspond to shorter-term interests. This hierarchical user interest profile has obvious advantages: specifying user's specific interests and general interests and representing their relationships. Current user interest profile structures mostly do not use implicit method, nor use an appropriate clustering algorithm especially for conceptually hierarchical structures. This research studies building a hierarchical user interest profile (HUIP) and the hierarchical divisive algorithm (HDC). Several users visit hundreds of web pages and each page is recorded in each users profile. These web pages are used t...

  19. Association of research self-efficacy with medical student career interests, specialization, and scholarship: a case study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bierer, S Beth; Prayson, Richard A; Dannefer, Elaine F

    2015-05-01

    This study used variables proposed in social cognitive career theory (SCCT) to focus the evaluation of a research curriculum at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University (CCLCM). Eight cohorts of CCLCM medical students completed a web-based version of the six-scale Clinical Research Appraisal Inventory-Short Form (CRAI-SF) items at matriculation (n = 128) or graduation (n = 111) during 2009-2013. Parametric statistics were used to compare CRAI-SF scales to domains proposed in SCCT: trainees' characteristics (gender, training level, advanced degree), career interests, career intentions (medical specialty), and performance (peer-reviewed publications and required thesis topic). A number of lessons emerged in using theory to frame the evaluation of a complex educational program. Graduates rated their research self-efficacy significantly higher on all six CRAI-SF scales with large effect sizes (>.90) on five scales (Conceptualizing a Study, Study Design and Analysis, Responsible Research Conduct, Collaborating with Others, and Reporting a Study). Women and men did not have significantly different scores on CRAI-SF scales (p > .05), suggesting that the research program provides adequate supports for women students. Most thesis projects addressed clinical (36.9 %, n = 41) or translational (34.2 %, n = 38) research topics. The CRAI-SF discriminated between medical school matriculates and graduates, suggesting that research self-efficacy increases with mastery experiences. No significant relationships occurred between CRAI-SF scores and graduates' thesis topics or chosen clinical specialty. Correlations demonstrated significant relationships between graduates' perceptions of research self-efficacy and their interest in clinical research careers.

  20. Human Securitability: A Participatory Action Research Study Involving Novice Teachers and Youngsters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kravale-Paulina, Marite; Olehnovica, Eridiana

    2015-01-01

    Civic participation, initiative and interest in current events can bridge the alienation felt towards national and municipal institutions, thereby enabling individuals to improve their quality of life and contribute to all-round sustainable development of their resident state. This paper reports on a participatory action research study into civic…

  1. Public involvement in research within care homes: benefits and challenges in the APPROACH study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Froggatt, Katherine; Goodman, Claire; Morbey, Hazel; Davies, Sue L; Masey, Helen; Dickinson, Angela; Martin, Wendy; Victor, Christina

    2016-12-01

    Public involvement in research (PIR) can improve research design and recruitment. Less is known about how PIR enhances the experience of participation and enriches the data collection process. In a study to evaluate how UK care homes and primary health-care services achieve integrated working to promote older people's health, PIR was integrated throughout the research processes. This paper aims to present one way in which PIR has been integrated into the design and delivery of a multisite research study based in care homes. A prospective case study design, with an embedded qualitative evaluation of PIR activity. Data collection was undertaken in six care homes in three sites in England. Six PIR members participated: all had prior personal or work experience in care homes. Qualitative data collection involved discussion groups, and site-specific meetings to review experiences of participation, benefits and challenges, and completion of structured fieldwork notes after each care home visit. PIR members supported recruitment, resident and staff interviews and participated in data interpretation. Benefits of PIR work were resident engagement that minimized distress and made best use of limited research resources. Challenges concerned communication and scheduling. Researcher support for PIR involvement was resource intensive. Clearly defined roles with identified training and support facilitated involvement in different aspects of the data collection process. This can also ensure that vulnerable older people who participate in research have a positive experience that reinforces the value of their views. © 2015 The Authors Health Expectations Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  2. A Review of Conflict of Interest, Competing Interest, and Bias for Toxicologists

    Science.gov (United States)

    One of the issues often associated with scientific misconduct is conflict of interest (CoI). Although there is a lack of uniformity in the definition of CoI, many express concerns that competing interests may bias research methods and the interpretation of data and conclusions. ...

  3. Priorities for methodological research on patient and public involvement in clinical trials: A modified Delphi process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kearney, Anna; Williamson, Paula; Young, Bridget; Bagley, Heather; Gamble, Carrol; Denegri, Simon; Muir, Delia; Simon, Natalie A; Thomas, Stephen; Elliot, Jim T; Bulbeck, Helen; Crocker, Joanna C; Planner, Claire; Vale, Claire; Clarke, Mike; Sprosen, Tim; Woolfall, Kerry

    2017-12-01

    Despite increasing international interest, there is a lack of evidence about the most efficient, effective and acceptable ways to implement patient and public involvement (PPI) in clinical trials. To identify the priorities of UK PPI stakeholders for methodological research to help resolve uncertainties about PPI in clinical trials. A modified Delphi process including a two round online survey and a stakeholder consensus meeting. In total, 237 people registered of whom 219 (92%) completed the first round. One hundred and eighty-seven of 219 (85%) completed the second; 25 stakeholders attended the consensus meeting. Round 1 of the survey comprised 36 topics; 42 topics were considered in round 2 and at the consensus meeting. Approximately 96% of meeting participants rated the top three topics as equally important. These were as follows: developing strong and productive working relationships between researchers and PPI contributors; exploring PPI practices in selecting trial outcomes of importance to patients; and a systematic review of PPI activity to improve the accessibility and usefulness of trial information (eg participant information sheets) for participants. The prioritized methodological research topics indicate important areas of uncertainty about PPI in trials. Addressing these uncertainties will be critical to enhancing PPI. Our findings should be used in the planning and funding of PPI in clinical trials to help focus research efforts and minimize waste. © 2017 The Authors Health Expectations Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  4. Human subjects research handbook: Protecting human research subjects. Second edition

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1996-01-30

    This handbook serves as a guide to understanding and implementing the Federal regulations and US DOE Orders established to protect human research subjects. Material in this handbook is directed towards new and continuing institutional review board (IRB) members, researchers, institutional administrators, DOE officials, and others who may be involved or interested in human subjects research. It offers comprehensive overview of the various requirements, procedures, and issues relating to human subject research today.

  5. The Article Idea Chart: A participatory action research tool to aid involvement in dissemination

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cheryl Forchuk

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Participatory-action research encourages the involvement of all key stakeholders in the research process and is especially well suited to mental health research. Previous literature outlines the importance of engaging stakeholders in the development of research questions and methodologies, but little has been written about ensuring the involvement of all stakeholders (especially non-academic members in dissemination opportunities such as publication development. The Article Idea Chart was developed as a specific methodology for engaging all stakeholders in data analysis and publication development. It has been successfully utilised in a number of studies and is an effective tool for ensuring the dissemination process of participatory-action research results is both inclusive and transparent to all team members, regardless of stakeholder group. Keywords: participatory-action research, mental health, dissemination, community capacity building, publications, authorship

  6. Research Attitudes and Involvement among Medical Students and Students of Allied Health Occupations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Delin, Catherine R.

    1994-01-01

    Medicine has a long research tradition, whereas allied health areas have only recently become involved in research. A questionnaire study was conducted to investigate the attitudes to research of a total of 314 students of medicine, dentistry, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, and nursing courses on the city campuses of two South Australian…

  7. [Conflict of interest and bioethics].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kemelmajer De Carlucci, Aida

    2014-06-01

    "Conflicts of interests" is a multi-meaning expression. To give a juridical concept is not easy because this concept is applied in public and private law. Maybe this is the reason of not having a law giving a valid definition in any case In health area, a conflict of interests is present many times, i.e. at the beginning of a research, when informing its results, etc. This conflict of interests may affect different aspects of the research work, economic or not; sometimes totally or partially. The economic resources is one of the most common reasons of the conflict of interests. The mass media often cause conflicts of interests informing the general public about new scientific discovery in a simple way to be understood but without been quite assertive. Other times, great enterprises hide information about new and better medicines due to the fact that they have many old medicines that should be sold before introducing in the market the new ones. From the academic point of view, conflicts may arise when the public funds are wrongly used to support unworthy researches.

  8. An alternative path to improving university Earth science teaching and developing the geoscience workforce: Postdoctoral research faculty involvement in clinical teacher preparation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zirakparvar, N. A.; Sessa, J.; Ustunisik, G. K.; Nadeau, P. A.; Flores, K. E.; Ebel, D. S.

    2013-12-01

    preparation in that postdoctoral research scientists are directly involved in the clinical preparation of the teacher candidates7. In this program, professional educators and senior scientists guide and work closely with the postdoctoral scientists in developing lessons and field experiences for the teacher candidates. This exposes the postdoctoral scientists to pedagogical techniques. Furthermore, postdoctoral scientists make regular visits to partner schools and share their research interests with high school science students8. Regular assessments about the quality of the postdoctoral scientist's teaching, in the form of course evaluations and informal discussions with the teacher candidates and professional educators, further augments the postdoctoral scientists teaching skills. These experiences can ultimately improve university level science teaching, should the postdoctoral scientists find positions within a university setting. Here, five postdoctoral researchers present self-studies of changing instructional practice born of their involvement in clinical teacher preparation in the AMNH-MAT program.

  9. Researching Style: Epistemology, Paradigm Shifts and Research Interest Groups

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rayner, Stephen

    2011-01-01

    This paper identifies the need for a deliberate approach to theory building in the context of researching cognitive and learning style differences in human performance. A case for paradigm shift and a focus upon research epistemology is presented, building upon a recent critique of style research. A proposal for creating paradigm shift is made,…

  10. Involving People with Lived Experience of Homelessness in Electronic Health Records Research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Serena Luchenski

    2017-04-01

    Using a participatory and dynamic approach to involve people with lived experience of homelessness and exclusion is an effective public engagement methodology for complex topics such as EHR research and data linkage. Information provided in the workshop was useful for interpreting findings, identifying strengths and gaps in health and social services, and developing research and practice recommendations.

  11. DOES UNCOVERED INTEREST RATE PARITY HOLD IN TURKEY?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ozcan Karahan

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Most of the earlier empirical studies focusing on developed countries failed to give evidence in favor of the Uncovered Interest Rate Parity (UIP. After intensive financial liberalization processes and mostly preferred free exchange rate regimes, a new area of research starts to involve the investigation whether UIP holds for developing economies differently. Accordingly, we tested the UIP for Turkey’s monthly interest rate and exchange rate data between 2002 and 2011. We run conventional regressions in the form of Ordinary Least Squares (OLS and used a simple Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (GARCH analysis. The empirical results of both methods do not support the validity of UIP for Turkey. Thus, together with most of the earlier empirical studies focusing on developed countries and detecting the invalidity of UIP, we can argue that the experience of Turkey and developed economies are not different.

  12. Participacion de los padres en las escuelas (Father Involvement in Schools). ERIC Digest.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nord, Christine Winquist

    Until recently, fathers were the hidden parents in research on children's well-being. Research stimulated by the new interest in fathers suggests that fathers' involvement in their children's schools does make a difference in their children's education. Using data from the 1996 National Household Education Survey (NHES:96), this Digest looks at…

  13. Clinical research data sharing: what an open science world means for researchers involved in evidence synthesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ross, Joseph S

    2016-09-20

    The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recently announced a bold step forward to require data generated by interventional clinical trials that are published in its member journals to be responsibly shared with external investigators. The movement toward a clinical research culture that supports data sharing has important implications for the design, conduct, and reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. While data sharing is likely to enhance the science of evidence synthesis, facilitating the identification and inclusion of all relevant research, it will also pose key challenges, such as requiring broader search strategies and more thorough scrutiny of identified research. Furthermore, the adoption of data sharing initiatives by the clinical research community should challenge the community of researchers involved in evidence synthesis to follow suit, including the widespread adoption of systematic review registration, results reporting, and data sharing, to promote transparency and enhance the integrity of the research process.

  14. International Study of Chaplains' Attitudes About Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Snowden, Austyn; Fitchett, George; Grossoehme, Daniel H; Handzo, George; Kelly, Ewan; King, Stephen D W; Telfer, Iain; Tan, Heather; Flannelly, Kevin J

    2017-01-01

    An online survey was conducted by twelve professional chaplain organizations to assess chaplains' attitudes about and involvement in research. A total of 2,092 chaplains from 23 countries responded to the survey. Over 80% thought research was definitely important and nearly 70% thought chaplains should definitely be research literate. Just over 40% said they regularly read research articles and almost 60% said they occasionally did. The respondents rated their own research literacy as 6.5 on a 0-10 scale. Significant positive inter-correlations were found among all four measures: importance of (a) research and (b) research literacy; (c) frequency of reading articles; and (d) research literacy rating. Approximately 35% were never involved, 37% had been involved, 17% were currently involved, and 11% expected to be involved in research. The last three groups were significantly more likely to think research and research literacy were important and to read research articles than chaplains who were never involved in research. Given chaplains' interest in research, actions should be undertaken to facilitate further research engagement.

  15. Being useful: achieving indigenous youth involvement in a community-based participatory research project in Alaska

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tara Ford

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available Objectives. To report on a participatory research process in southwest Alaska focusing on youth involvement as a means to facilitate health promotion. We propose youth-guided community-based participatory research (CBPR as way to involve young people in health promotion and prevention strategizing as part of translational science practice at the community-level. Study design. We utilized a CBPR approach that allowed youth to contribute at all stages. Methods. Implementation of the CBPR approach involved the advancement of three key strategies including: (a the local steering committee made up of youth, tribal leaders, and elders, (b youth-researcher partnerships, and (c youth action-groups to translate findings. Results. The addition of a local youth-action and translation group to the CBPR process in the southwest Alaska site represents an innovative strategy for disseminating findings to youth from a research project that focuses on youth resilience and wellbeing. This strategy drew from two community-based action activities: (a being useful by helping elders and (b being proud of our village. Conclusions. In our study, youth informed the research process at every stage, but most significantly youth guided the translation and application of the research findings at the community level. Findings from the research project were translated by youth into serviceable action in the community where they live. The research created an experience for youth to spend time engaged in activities that, from their perspectives, are important and contribute to their wellbeing and healthy living. Youth-guided CBPR meant involving youth in the process of not only understanding the research process but living through it as well.

  16. Collisional processes of interest in MFE plasma research

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Olson, R.E.

    1991-01-01

    Research on this grant is devoted to the calculation of heavy particle collision cross sections needed for diagnostic studies of magnetic fusion plasmas. This work requires the development and testing of new theoretical methods, with the implementation of benchmarked techniques to collisions pertinent to fusion reactors. Within the last context, we have provided charge-exchange-recombination cross sections to specific n,l-levels for diagnostic studies on TFTR and for major compilations for the IAEA. We have also completed a cross section study related to the planned neutral beam current drive for ITER. In addition, calculations were made to assess the use of He neutral atom angular scattering measurements for JT-60. Also, new theoretical methods have been developed to more accurately calculate cross sections involving either He or H 2 targets and partially stripped multiply-charged ions. Our most recent work concentrates on alpha particle diagnostics and collision processes of ''helium ash'' in burning reactors. Here, we are providing atomic cross section data for the carbon pellet alpha particle diagnostic work at General Atomics and the neutral He beam alpha particle diagnostic under study by the IAEA

  17. People involved in radiation research and protection - an historical perspective

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Toussaint, L.F.

    2010-01-01

    Full text: The lives of selected people involved in radiation research are covered in two parts: 1. history of radiation and radioactivity; and 2. historical aspects of radiation and radiation protection in Western Australia. History of radiation/radioactivity: The background of some of the key people involved in early radiation research is discussed. These include Rontgen and Becqucrel who undertook early research into X-rays and radioactivity respectively. As well as the radiation hazards which early radiation scientists faced, there were also social pressures, as exemplified by the life of women such as Marie Curie, particularly after the death of her husband Pierre. Despite this being the time of the so-called 'beautiful years' in Europe, where there was a friendly exchange of ideas between scientists from various countries, there were also protracted disagreements. Some of the scientific findings of the Curies' daughter (Irene Joliot-Curie) and husband (Frederic Joliot-Curie) were vigorously disputed by Lisa Meitner (and colleague Otto Hahn) in Vienna. The 'beautiful years' came to an end when politics intruded and scientists such as Lisa Meitner had to flee from persecution. The splitting of the atom and realisation (by Leo Szilard) that a chain reaction was possible, led to political barriers being erected around scientists. With Europe poised for war, the implication of this science for warfare application was cause for concern among many of the normally free thinking and co-operative scientists. Secrecy now prevailed.

  18. Biomedical research involving patients with disorders of consciousness: ethical and legal dimensions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michele Farisco

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available The directive 2001/20/UE and the research involving patients with docs. Research involving patients with disorders of consciousness (DOCs deserves special ethical and legal attention because of its Janus-faced nature. On the one hand, it raises concerns about the risk to expose the involved subjects to disproportionate risks not respecting their individual dignity, particularly their right to be cared for; on the other hand, research is an essential tool in order to improve the clinical condition of patients with DOCs. The present paper concerns the ethical and legal dimensions of biomedical research involving patients with disorders of consciousness. In particular, it focuses on informed consent to experimental treatments, which is a challenging issue both from an ethical and legal point of view. The first part reads the Directive 2001/20/EU in the light of the experimentation of patients with DOCs, and suggests a revision in order to better assess the issue of informed consent. The particular case of informed consent for observational studies of non-communicative patients. The second part presents an informed consent form for studies through video-recording of patients unable to communicate their own consent. This form has been elaborated by the bioethics unit of the project "Review of the nosography of vegetative states: application of methods of behavioral analysis to individuals in coma or vegetative state" developed at the Italian National Institute of Health. Relevance of the suggested form. The paper describes the conceptual framework of the form for informed consent to studies through video-recoding, which is a relevant example of what issues should be included in an informed consent for any type of studies through video-recording of patients unable to express their own consent. The article has been sent on November the 7th 2013, before the adoption of the Regulation (EU no. 536/2014 (and consequent abrogation of the Directive 2001

  19. Presentations of scientific research results as a strategy to increase the interest of students in physiology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Caroline Dalla Colletta Altermann

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available In the search for strategies to arouse the interest of undergraduate students in science, it was proposed the project "Colloquiums in Physiology" in order to disseminate and discuss scientific discoveries and improve the students’ interest in Physiology. This work aimed to verify the perception of participants about the impact of this activity. The activity included lectures throughout the semester and at the end of each lecture, a questionnaire was applied to listeners. Among the 171 students who answered the questionnaire, 81% (n=139 considers that this proposal increased their interest in physiology, 96% (n=164 believes that it is an important activity and achieved its goal of promote science disclosure, and 83% (n=142 stated that the project promotes interaction between research, teaching and outreach activities. Thus, it highlights the importance of this type of event for the academic formation.

  20. Interesting Interest Points

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Aanæs, Henrik; Dahl, Anders Lindbjerg; Pedersen, Kim Steenstrup

    2012-01-01

    on spatial invariance of interest points under changing acquisition parameters by measuring the spatial recall rate. The scope of this paper is to investigate the performance of a number of existing well-established interest point detection methods. Automatic performance evaluation of interest points is hard......Not all interest points are equally interesting. The most valuable interest points lead to optimal performance of the computer vision method in which they are employed. But a measure of this kind will be dependent on the chosen vision application. We propose a more general performance measure based...... position. The LED illumination provides the option for artificially relighting the scene from a range of light directions. This data set has given us the ability to systematically evaluate the performance of a number of interest point detectors. The highlights of the conclusions are that the fixed scale...

  1. 45 CFR 680.11 - Staff involvement with NSF proposals and awards.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... teaching careers to spend a year or two at NSF and then return to research and teaching, usually at the... SCIENCE FOUNDATION NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION RULES OF PRACTICE AND STATUTORY CONFLICT-OF-INTEREST EXEMPTIONS Rules of Practice for the National Science Foundation § 680.11 Staff involvement with NSF...

  2. Patient involvement in a scientific advisory process: setting the research agenda for medical products.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Elberse, J.E.; Pittens, C.A.C.M.; de Cock Buning, J.T.; Broerse, J.E.W.

    2012-01-01

    Patient involvement in scientific advisory processes could lead to more societally relevant advice. This article describes a case study wherein the Health Council of the Netherlands involved patient groups in an advisory process with a predefined focus: setting a research agenda for medical products

  3. Systematic Assessment of Research on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Mercury Reveals Conflicts of Interest and the Need for Transparency in Autism Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kern, Janet K; Geier, David A; Deth, Richard C; Sykes, Lisa K; Hooker, Brian S; Love, James M; Bjørklund, Geir; Chaigneau, Carmen G; Haley, Boyd E; Geier, Mark R

    2017-12-01

    Historically, entities with a vested interest in a product that critics have suggested is harmful have consistently used research to back their claims that the product is safe. Prominent examples are: tobacco, lead, bisphenol A, and atrazine. Research literature indicates that about 80-90% of studies with industry affiliation found no harm from the product, while only about 10-20% of studies without industry affiliation found no harm. In parallel to other historical debates, recent studies examining a possible relationship between mercury (Hg) exposure and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show a similar dichotomy. Studies sponsored and supported by industry or entities with an apparent conflict of interest have most often shown no evidence of harm or no "consistent" evidence of harm, while studies without such affiliations report positive evidence of a Hg/autism association. The potentially causal relationship between Hg exposure and ASD differs from other toxic products since there is a broad coalition of entities for whom a conflict of interest arises. These include influential governmental public health entities, the pharmaceutical industry, and even the coal burning industry. This review includes a systematic literature search of original studies on the potential relationship between Hg and ASD from 1999 to August 2015, finding that of the studies with public health and/or industry affiliation, 86% reported no relationship between Hg and ASD. However, among studies without public health and/or industry affiliation, only 21% find no relationship between Hg and ASD. The discrepancy in these results suggests a bias indicative of a conflict of interest.

  4. "Do-It-Ourselves Science": Case Studies of Volunteer-Initiated Citizen Science Involvement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raddick, Jordan; Bracey, G.; Gay, P. L.

    2009-05-01

    Galaxy Zoo is a citizen science website in which members of the public volunteer to classify galaxies, thereby helping astronomers conduct publishable research into galaxy morphologies and environments. Although the site was originally created to answer a few specific questions, some members of the community - both scientists and volunteers - have spontaneously developed an interest in a wider variety of questions. Volunteers have pursued answers to these questions with guidance from professional astronomers; in completing these projects, volunteers have independently used some of the same data viewing and analysis tools that professional astronomers use, and have even developed their own online tools. They have created their own research questions and their own plans for data analysis, and are planning to write scientific papers with the results to be submitted to peer-reviewed scientific journals. Volunteers have identified a number of such projects. These volunteer-initiated projects have extended the scientific reach of Galaxy Zoo, while also giving volunteers first-hand experience with the process of science. We are interested in the process by which volunteers become interested in volunteer-initiated projects, and what tasks they participate in, both initially and as their involvement increases. What motivates a volunteer to become involved in a volunteer-initiated project? How does his or her motivation change with further involvement? We are conducting a program of qualitative education research into these questions, using as data sources the posts that volunteers have made to the Galaxy Zoo forum and transcripts of interviews with volunteers.

  5. Increasing User Involvement in Health Care and Health Research Simultaneously

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kaltoft, Mette Kjer; Nielsen, Jesper Bo; Salkeld, Glenn

    2014-01-01

    of the effects of different actions and interventions on their health, including those implying contact with health care services. We see their research as primarily carried out in order to make better decisions for themselves, but they can offer to contribute the results to the wider population. We see...... at the point of decision need, when motivation is highest. Some basic distinctions, such as those between science and non-science, research and practice, community and individual, and lay and professional become somewhat blurred and may need to be rethought in light of this approach....... to increased user involvement, though somewhat more aligned with the former. METHODS: Our online decision support tools, delivered directly to the person in the community and openly accessible, are to be seen as research resources. They will take the form of interactive decision aids for a variety of specific...

  6. Knowledge and attitude regarding pharmacogenetics among formerly pregnant women in the Netherlands and their interest in pharmacogenetic research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Daud, Aizati N A; Bergsma, Eefke L; Bergman, Jorieke E H; De Walle, Hermien E K; Kerstjens-Frederikse, Wilhelmina S; Bijker, Bert J; Hak, Eelko; Wilffert, Bob

    2017-04-14

    Pharmacogenetics is an emerging field currently being implemented to improve safety when prescribing drugs. While many women who take drugs during pregnancy would likely benefit from such personalized drug therapy, data is lacking on the awareness towards pharmacogenetics among women. We aim to determine the level of knowledge and acceptance of formerly pregnant women in the Netherlands regarding pharmacogenetics and its implementation, and their interest in pharmacogenetic research. A population-based survey using postal questionnaires was conducted among formerly pregnant women in the Northern parts of the Netherlands. A total of 986 women were invited to participate. Of the 219 women who returned completed questionnaires (22.2% response rate), only 22.8% had heard of pharmacogenetics, although the majority understood the concept (64.8%). Women who had experience with drug side-effects were more likely to know about pharmacogenetics [OR = 2.06, 95% CI 1.16, 3.65]. Of the respondents, 53.9% were positive towards implementing pharmacogenetics in their future drug therapy, while 46.6% would be willing to participate in pharmacogenetic research. Among those who were either not willing or undecided in this regard, their concerns were about the consequences of the pharmacogenetic test, including the privacy and anonymity of their genetic information. The knowledge and attitude regarding the concept of pharmacogenetics among our population of interest is good. Also, their interest in pharmacogenetic research provides opportunities for future research related to drug use during pregnancy and fetal outcome.

  7. How do STEM-interested students pursue multiple interests in their higher educational choice?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vulperhorst, Jonne Pieter; Wessels, Koen Rens; Bakker, Arthur; Akkerman, Sanne Floor

    2018-05-01

    Interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) has lately received attention in research due to a gap between the number of STEM students and the needs of the labour market. As interest seems to be one of the most important factors in deciding what to study, we focus in the present study on how STEM-interested students weigh multiple interests in making educational choices. A questionnaire with both open-ended and closed-ended items was administered to 91 STEM-interested students enrolled in a STEM programme of a Dutch University for secondary school students. Results indicate that students find it important that a study programme allows them to pursue multiple interests. Some students pursued multiple interests by choosing to enrol in two programmes at the same time. Most students chose one programme that enabled them to combine multiple interests. Combinations of pursued interests were dependent on the disciplinary range of interests of students. Students who were interested in diverse domains combined interests in an educational programme across academic and non-academic domains, whilst students who were mainly interested in STEM combined only STEM-focused interests. Together these findings stress the importance of taking a multiple interest perspective on interest development and educational choice.

  8. Conflicts of interests and access to information resulting from biomedical research: an international legal perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Byk, Christian

    2002-07-01

    Recently adopted international texts have given a new focus on conflicts of interests and access to information resulting from biomedical research. They confirmed ethical review committees as a central point to guarantee individual rights and the effective application of ethical principles. Therefore specific attention should be paid in giving such committees all the facilities necessary to keep them independent and qualified.

  9. Spousal Conflicts of Interest

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lewis, Shana R.

    2005-01-01

    Romantic relationships bud and sometimes bloom in the school district workplace. When those relationships involve a sitting member of a school board or an administrator with responsibility for managing other employees, questions about a conflict of interest will be raised. Most states have laws prohibiting a public official from taking official…

  10. Re-Conceptualizing the Past: Historical Data in Vocational Interest Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Armstrong, Patrick Ian; Rounds, James; Hubert, Lawrence

    2008-01-01

    Noteworthy progress has been made in the development of statistical models for evaluating the structure of vocational interests over the past three decades. It is proposed that historically significant interest datasets, when combined with modern structural methods of data analysis, provide an opportunity to re-examine the underlying assumptions…

  11. A Guide for Graduate Students Interested in Postdoctoral Positions in Biology Education Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aikens, Melissa L.; Corwin, Lisa A.; Andrews, Tessa C.; Couch, Brian A.; Eddy, Sarah L.; McDonnell, Lisa; Trujillo, Gloriana

    2016-01-01

    Postdoctoral positions in biology education research (BER) are becoming increasingly common as the field grows. However, many life science graduate students are unaware of these positions or do not understand what these positions entail or the careers with which they align. In this essay, we use a backward-design approach to inform life science graduate students of postdoctoral opportunities in BER. Beginning with the end in mind, we first discuss the types of careers to which BER postdoctoral positions lead. We then discuss the different types of BER postdoctoral positions, drawing on our own experiences and those of faculty mentors. Finally, we discuss activities in which life science graduate students can engage that will help them gauge whether BER aligns with their research interests and develop skills to be competitive for BER postdoctoral positions. PMID:27856554

  12. Consumers’ versatile buying behavior irrespective to high and low involvement products

    OpenAIRE

    Hasan, Syed Akif; Subhani, Muhammad Imtiaz; Osman, Ms. Amber

    2012-01-01

    The consumers of today are impulse and cautious buyers at the same time. This study basically comprehends the concept of non-linearity towards the consumer purchase behavior for either high or low involvement of products. The research was interesting to note the consumption patterns of different product classes. The peculiarity of this study found the same non-linearity wavelengths between the high and low involvement products’ that was shaped by the consumers buying intention and actions. AD...

  13. Medical staff involvement in nursing homes: development of a conceptual model and research agenda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shield, Renée; Rosenthal, Marsha; Wetle, Terrie; Tyler, Denise; Clark, Melissa; Intrator, Orna

    2014-02-01

    Medical staff (physicians, nurse practitioners, physicians' assistants) involvement in nursing homes (NH) is limited by professional guidelines, government policies, regulations, and reimbursements, creating bureaucratic burden. The conceptual NH Medical Staff Involvement Model, based on our mixed-methods research, applies the Donabedian "structure-process-outcomes" framework to the NH, identifying measures for a coordinated research agenda. Quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews conducted with medical directors, administrators and directors of nursing, other experts, residents and family members and Minimum Data Set, the Online Certification and Reporting System and Medicare Part B claims data related to NH structure, process, and outcomes were analyzed. NH control of medical staff, or structure, affects medical staff involvement in care processes and is associated with better outcomes (e.g., symptom management, appropriate transitions, satisfaction). The model identifies measures clarifying the impact of NH medical staff involvement on care processes and resident outcomes and has strong potential to inform regulatory policies.

  14. Correlates of Student Interest in Social Issues.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fenske, Robert H.; Carmody, James F.

    This study assessed the degree of intellectual interest or involvement which a national sample of 5,623 seniors in 65 colleges and universities has in eight contemporary social issues. Also examined were the relationships of some commonly studied educational variables to this interest. Questionnaire items pertained to the students' evaluation of…

  15. Institutional ethical review and ethnographic research involving injection drug users: a case study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Small, Will; Maher, Lisa; Kerr, Thomas

    2014-03-01

    Ethnographic research among people who inject drugs (PWID) involves complex ethical issues. While ethical review frameworks have been critiqued by social scientists, there is a lack of social science research examining institutional ethical review processes, particularly in relation to ethnographic work. This case study describes the institutional ethical review of an ethnographic research project using observational fieldwork and in-depth interviews to examine injection drug use. The review process and the salient concerns of the review committee are recounted, and the investigators' responses to the committee's concerns and requests are described to illustrate how key issues were resolved. The review committee expressed concerns regarding researcher safety when conducting fieldwork, and the investigators were asked to liaise with the police regarding the proposed research. An ongoing dialogue with the institutional review committee regarding researcher safety and autonomy from police involvement, as well as formal consultation with a local drug user group and solicitation of opinions from external experts, helped to resolve these issues. This case study suggests that ethical review processes can be particularly challenging for ethnographic projects focused on illegal behaviours, and that while some challenges could be mediated by modifying existing ethical review procedures, there is a need for legislation that provides legal protection of research data and participant confidentiality. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Public involvement in the dose reconstruction study: the colorado story

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Morin, Norma C.; Lockhart, Ann J.

    2000-01-01

    Public involvement was a critical component for building awareness, trust, and credibility for the dose reconstruction study for the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Facility in Colorado. The research team developed a process to inform, involve, and encourage public participation over the nine-year study period. Key affected and interested groups with a legitimate stake in the study were identified and invited to identify concerns and offer suggestions for the study. In many cases, the public actually provided direction for the research. Many issues were studied more in-depth as result of public concern. Proactive community outreach was undertaken; quarterly public meetings and workshops were held to inform the public about the study's progress and to hear their comments. Quarterly newsletters were mailed to stake holders. A speaker's bureau was established and more than 50 presentations were made to 1,500 community members in various civic, business, neighborhood, and technical groups. Fact sheets, citizen summaries of technical reports, technical topic papers, and a video were developed to provide a complete overview of the studies and the findings at the conclusion of the project. The video was provided to local cable television stations, and publications were taken to local libraries. A web site was developed to allow the public to readily access information and to order technical reports. Public comments on draft technical reports were solicited; questions and concerns were addressed and investigated. The staff answered citizen calls, and the research team responded in writing to more than 200 issues raised by very concerned citizens. In addition, a citizen's group was formed in 1992 to conduct an independent study of plutonium levels found in soil samples collected around Rocky Flats. Made up of homeowners, public interest groups, local health departments, interested citizens, and Health Advisory Panel members, the committee arranged for sampling and analysis of

  17. Situational interest in engineering design activities

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dohn, Niels Bonderup

    2013-01-01

    The aim of the present mixed-method study was to investigate task-based situational interest of sixth grade students (n=46), between 12 and 14 years old, during an eight-week engineering design programme in a Science & Technology-class. Students’ interests were investigated by means...... of a descriptive interpretative analysis of qualitative data from classroom observations and informal interviews. The analysis was complemented by a self-report survey to validate findings and determine prevalence. The analysis revealed four main sources of interest: designing inventions, trial......-and-error experimentation, achieved functionality of invention, and collaboration. These sources differ in terms of stimuli factors, such as novelty, autonomy (choice), social involvement, self-generation of interest, and task goal orientation. The study shows that design tasks stimulated interest, but only to the extent...

  18. Reporting of ethical protection in recent oral and maxillofacial surgery research involving human subjects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pitak-Arnnop, P; Sader, R; Hervé, C; Dhanuthai, K; Bertrand, J-Ch; Hemprich, A

    2009-07-01

    This retrospective observational study investigated the frequency of reporting ethical approval and informed consent in recently published oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS) research involving human subjects. All research involving human subjects published in the International Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, British Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and Journal of Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery during January to June 2005-2007 were analysed for disclosure of ethical approval by a local ethical committee and obtaining informed consent from the subjects. 534 articles were identified; ethical approval was documented in 118 (22%) and individual patient consent in 135 (25%). 355 reports (67%) did not include a statement on ethical approval or informed consent and only 74 reports (14%) disclosed statements of both. Ethical documentation in retrospective and observational studies was scant; 12% of randomised controlled trials and 38% of non-random trials did not report both of ethical protections. Most recent OMS publications involving humans failed to mention ethical review or subjects' consent. Authors must adhere to the international research ethics guidelines and journal instructions, while editors should play a gatekeeper role to protect research participants, uphold scientific integrity and maintain public trust in the experimental process and OMS profession.

  19. Quantifying and Interpreting Group Differences in Interest Profiles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Armstrong, Patrick Ian; Fouad, Nadya A.; Rounds, James; Hubert, Lawrence

    2010-01-01

    Research on group differences in interests has often focused on structural hypotheses and mean-score differences in Holland's (1997) theory, with comparatively little research on basic interest measures. Group differences in interest profiles were examined using statistical methods for matching individuals with occupations, the C-index, Q…

  20. Decentralized energy studies: compendium of international studies and research

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wallace, C.

    1980-03-01

    The purpose of the compendium is to provide information about research activities in decentralized energy systems to researchers, government officials, and interested citizens. The compendium lists and briefly describes a number of studies in other industrialized nations that involve decentralized energy systems. A contact person is given for each of the activities listed so that interested readers can obtain more information.

  1. Nutrition policy in whose interests? A New Zealand case study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jenkin, Gabrielle; Signal, Louise; Thomson, George

    2012-08-01

    In the context of the global obesity epidemic, national nutrition policies have come under scrutiny. The present paper examines whose interests - industry or public health - are served by these policies and why. Using an exemplary case study of submissions to an inquiry into obesity, the research compared the positions of industry and public health groups with that taken by government. We assessed whether the interests were given equal consideration (a pluralist model of influence) or whether the interests of one group were favoured over the other (a neo-pluralist model). 2006 New Zealand Inquiry into Obesity. Food and advertising industry and public health submitters. The Government's position was largely aligned with industry interests in three of four policy domains: the national obesity strategy; food industry policy; and advertising and marketing policies. The exception to this was nutrition policy in schools, where the Government's position was aligned with public health interests. These findings support the neo-pluralist model of interest group influence. The dominance of the food industry in national nutrition policy needs to be addressed. It is in the interests of the public, industry and the state that government regulates the food and advertising industries and limits the involvement of industry in policy making. Failure to do so will be costly for individuals, in terms of poor health and earlier death, costly to governments in terms of the associated health costs, and costly to both the government and industry due to losses in human productivity.

  2. Institutional Oversight of Occupational Health and Safety for Research Programs Involving Biohazards.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dyson, Melissa C; Carpenter, Calvin B; Colby, Lesley A

    2017-06-01

    Research with hazardous biologic materials (biohazards) is essential to the progress of medicine and science. The field of microbiology has rapidly advanced over the years, partially due to the development of new scientific methods such as recombinant DNA technology, synthetic biology, viral vectors, and the use of genetically modified animals. This research poses a potential risk to personnel as well as the public and the environment. Institutions must have appropriate oversight and take appropriate steps to mitigate the risks of working with these biologic hazards. This article will review responsibilities for institutional oversight of occupational health and safety for research involving biologic hazards.

  3. Data collection using open access technology in multicentre operational research involving patient interviews.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shewade, H D; Chadha, S S; Gupta, V; Tripathy, J P; Satyanarayana, S; Sagili, K; Mohanty, S; Bera, O P; Pandey, P; Rajeswaran, P; Jayaraman, G; Santhappan, A; Bajpai, U N; Mamatha, A M; Maiser, R; Naqvi, A J; Pandurangan, S; Nath, S; Ghule, V H; Das, A; Prasad, B M; Biswas, M; Singh, G; Mallick, G; Jeyakumar Jaisingh, A J; Rao, R; Kumar, A M V

    2017-03-21

    Conducting multicentre operational research is challenging due to issues related to the logistics of travel, training, supervision, monitoring and troubleshooting support. This is even more burdensome in resource-constrained settings and if the research includes patient interviews. In this article, we describe an innovative model that uses open access tools such as Dropbox, TeamViewer and CamScanner for efficient, quality-assured data collection in an ongoing multicentre operational research study involving record review and patient interviews. The tools used for data collection have been shared for adaptation and use by other researchers.

  4. Community males show multiple-perpetrator rape proclivity: development and preliminary validation of an interest scale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alleyne, Emma; Gannon, Theresa A; Ó Ciardha, Caoilte; Wood, Jane L

    2014-02-01

    The literature on Multiple Perpetrator Rape (MPR) is scant; however, a significant proportion of sexual offending involves multiple perpetrators. In addition to the need for research with apprehended offenders of MPR, there is also a need to conduct research with members of the general public. Recent advances in the forensic literature have led to the development of self-report proclivity scales. These scales have enabled researchers to conduct evaluative studies sampling from members of the general public who may be perpetrators of sexual offenses and have remained undetected, or at highest risk of engaging in sexual offending. The current study describes the development and preliminary validation of the Multiple-Perpetrator Rape Interest Scale (M-PRIS), a vignette-based measure assessing community males' sexual arousal to MPR, behavioral propensity toward MPR and enjoyment of MPR. The findings show that the M-PRIS is a reliable measure of community males' sexual interest in MPR with high internal reliability and temporal stability. In a sample of university males we found that a large proportion (66%) did not emphatically reject an interest in MPR. We also found that rape-supportive cognitive distortions, antisocial attitudes, and high-risk sexual fantasies were predictors of sexual interest in MPR. We discuss these findings and the implications for further research employing proclivity measures referencing theory development and clinical practice.

  5. Journey in Aeronautical Research: A Career at NASA Langley Research Center. No. 12; Monographs in Aerospace History

    Science.gov (United States)

    Phillips, W. Hewitt

    1998-01-01

    An autobiography, of a noted aeronautical engineer, W. Hewitt Phillips, whose career spanned 58 years (1940-1998) at NASA Langley is presented. This work covers his early years to the Sputnik launch. His interests have been in research in aeronautics and in the related problems of spaceflight. After an introduction, his early life through the college years is reviewed, and his early interest in model airplanes is described. The first assignment for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which would later become NASA, was with the Flight Research Division. His early work involved "Flying Qualities", i.e., the stability and control characteristics of an airplane. The next chapter describes his early analytical studies. His work during World War II in the design of military airplanes, and the other effects of the war on research activities, is covered in the next two chapters. This research was involved in such innovations and refinements as the swept wing, the flettner tabs, servo tabs, spring tabs and whirlerons. The rest of the work covers the research which Mr. Hewitt was involved in, after the war until the Sputnik launch. These areas include unsteady lift, measurements of turbulence in the atmosphere, gust alleviation, and lateral response to random turbulence. He was also involved in several investigations of airplane accidents. The last two chapters cover the administration of the Langley Research Center, and the dawn of the Space Age. A complete bibliography of reports written by Mr. Hewitt, is included.

  6. Co-producing public involvement training with members of the public and research organisations in the East Midlands: creating, delivering and evaluating the lay assessor training programme.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Horobin, Adele; Brown, George; Higton, Fred; Vanhegan, Stevie; Wragg, Andrew; Wray, Paula; Walker, Dawn-Marie

    2017-01-01

    Members of the public share their views with researchers to improve health and social care research. Lay assessing is one way of doing this. This is where people, drawing upon personal and general life experience, comment on material, such as grant applications and patient information, to highlight strengths and weaknesses and to suggest improvements. This paper reports on setting up a training programme for lay assessors. Meetings were held between interested public and staff from research organisations. People discussed what lay assessing is, why they want to do it, skills and support needed and if training was wanted. They were invited to form a group to develop the training together. Training was delivered in the East Midlands. People who attended gave their thoughts about it by completing questionnaires and joining a feedback event. The group developed the structure of the training programme together and it oversaw the development of the training content by individual members. People who attended training reported feeling more confident about lay assessing. This was particularly so for those who had not done lay assessing before. They indicated how valuable it was to talk with others at the training. Our findings support the National Institute for Health Research recommendations for improving learning and development for public involvement in research. This project has created a solid base for local research organisations to work together in public involvement training. Lay assessor training is now part of a wider programme of shared resources called the Sharebank. Background Involving members of the public in research can improve its quality and incorporate the needs and views of patients. One method for doing this is lay assessing, where members of the public are consulted to improve research materials. This paper documents the establishment of a pilot training programme for lay assessors. It describes a way of working that embodies a regional, cross

  7. 32 CFR 776.26 - Conflict of interest: General rule.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 5 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Conflict of interest: General rule. 776.26... ADVOCATE GENERAL Rules of Professional Conduct § 776.26 Conflict of interest: General rule. (a) Conflict of... involved. (b) Reserve judge advocates. These conflict of interest rules only apply when Reservists are...

  8. INTEREST AND READING MOTIVATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alhamdu Alhamdu

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between interest and reading motivation based on literature review. The concept of the interest portrayed as a psychological state that occurs during interaction between individual and specific topic, object or activity including process of willingness, increased attention, concentration and positive feeling to the topic, object or activity. Meanwhile reading motivation emphasized to mental readiness, willingness and refers to beliefs and perception of individual to engage in reading activity. Some researchers were identified factors that influenced reading motivation such as intrinsic and extrinsic factors, self-concept and value of reading, and interest. In general, the literature review described that have positive relationship between interest and reading motivation.

  9. Correlates of admitted sexual interest in children among individuals convicted of child pornography offenses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seto, Michael C; Eke, Angela W

    2017-06-01

    Recent research on a risk assessment tool for child pornography offending suggests that admission of sexual interest in children is a risk factor for any sexual recidivism. Admission is easily vulnerable to lying, however, or to refusals to respond when asked about sexual interests. This may become a particular issue when individuals are concerned about the potential impact of admission of sexual interest on sentencing and other risk-related decisions. In this study, we identified the following behavioral correlates (coded yes/no) of admission of sexual interest in children in the risk tool development sample of 286 men convicted of child pornography offenses: (a) never married (54% of sample), (b) child pornography content included child sexual abuse videos (64%), (c) child pornography content included sex stories involving children (31%), (d) evidence of interest in child pornography spanned 2 or more years (55%), (e) volunteered in a role with high access to children (7%), and (f) engaged in online sexual communication with a minor or officer posing as a minor (10%). When summed, the average score on this Correlates of Admission of Sexual Interest in Children (CASIC) measure was 2.21 (SD = 1.22, range 0-6) out of a possible 6, and the CASIC score was significantly associated with admission of sexual interest in children, area under the curve (AUC) = .71, 95% CI [ .65, .77]. The CASIC had a stronger relationship with admission in a small cross-validation sample of 60 child pornography offenders, AUC = .81, 95% CI [.68, .95]. CASIC scores may substitute for admission of sexual interest in risk assessment involving those with child pornography offenses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

  10. Situational Interest in Engineering Design Activities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonderup Dohn, Niels

    2013-08-01

    The aim of the present mixed-method study was to investigate task-based situational interest of sixth grade students (n = 46), between 12 and 14 years old, during an eight-week engineering design programme in a Science & Technology-class. Students' interests were investigated by means of a descriptive interpretative analysis of qualitative data from classroom observations and informal interviews. The analysis was complemented by a self-report survey to validate findings and determine prevalence. The analysis revealed four main sources of interest: designing inventions, trial-and-error experimentation, achieved functionality of invention, and collaboration. These sources differ in terms of stimuli factors, such as novelty, autonomy (choice), social involvement, self-generation of interest, and task goal orientation. The study shows that design tasks stimulated interest, but only to the extent that students were able to self-regulate their learning strategies.

  11. Assessing the Influence of Researcher-Partner Involvement on the Process and Outcomes of Participatory Research in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Scoping Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jivraj, Jamil; Sacrey, Lori-Ann; Newton, Amanda; Nicholas, David; Zwaigenbaum, Lonnie

    2014-01-01

    Participatory research aims to increase the relevance and broaden the implementation of health research by involving those affected by the outcomes of health studies. Few studies within the field of neurodevelopmental disorders, particularly autism spectrum disorders, have involved autistic individuals as partners. This study sought to identify…

  12. The motivation for special interests in individuals with autism and controls: Development and validation of the special interest motivation scale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grove, Rachel; Roth, Ilona; Hoekstra, Rosa A

    2016-06-01

    Clinical observations and first person accounts of living with autism suggest that individuals with autism are highly motivated to engage in special interests, and that these interests remain important throughout life. Previous research assessing special interests has mainly focused on parental reports of children with autism spectrum conditions (ASC). To better understand the significance of and motivations for engaging in special interests it is essential to use self-report ratings. This paper aims to systematically explore the motivations for engagement in special interests, and whether these differ in adults with ASC, first-degree relatives and general population controls. The Special Interest Motivation Scale (SIMS) was developed to assess motivation to engage in special interests. The internal structure of this scale was evaluated using factor analysis, and mean scores on the SIMS factors were subsequently compared across individuals with autism, parents and general population controls. Factor analysis indicated a 20-item SIMS containing five factors assessing Personal life values and goals; Intrinsic interest and knowledge; Prestige; Engagement and "flow" and Achievement. Individuals with autism were more motivated by Intrinsic interest and knowledge and by Engagement and flow than controls. The 20-item SIMS is a quick to administer measure that provides a reliable description of motivation to engage in special interests. This study indicates that individuals with ASC are highly motivated to engage in their special interest, and are more motivated than controls by intrinsic motivational factors, some of which are associated with positive affect. This has implications for research and clinical practice. Autism Res 2016, 9: 677-688. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  13. Managing diversity in organisations: practitioner and academic perspectives: report from a gender in management special interest group research event

    OpenAIRE

    Beauregard, T. Alexandra

    2008-01-01

    Purpose - This report aims to provide a brief summary of the presentations made by researchers and practitioners at the Gender in Management Special Interest Group’s research event, Managing Diversity in Organisations: Practitioner and Academic Perspectives.\\ud \\ud Design/methodology/approach - The research seminar was chaired by Dr. Adelina Broadbridge (University of Stirling) and Dr. Gillian Maxwell (Glasgow Caledonian University), and featured five presentations related to diversity in org...

  14. 7 CFR 3401.14 - Conflicts of interest.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Conflicts of interest. 3401.14 Section 3401.14 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) COOPERATIVE STATE RESEARCH, EDUCATION... Review of Research Applications for Funding § 3401.14 Conflicts of interest. Members of peer review...

  15. 7 CFR 3415.12 - Conflicts of interest.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Conflicts of interest. 3415.12 Section 3415.12 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) COOPERATIVE STATE RESEARCH, EDUCATION... Scientific Peer Review of Research Grant Applications § 3415.12 Conflicts of interest. Members of peer review...

  16. 7 CFR 3400.12 - Conflicts of interest.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Conflicts of interest. 3400.12 Section 3400.12 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) COOPERATIVE STATE RESEARCH, EDUCATION... Review of Research Grant Applications § 3400.12 Conflicts of interest. Members of peer review groups...

  17. Methodological issues involved in conducting qualitative research on support for nurses directly involved with women who chose to terminate their pregnancy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antoinette Gmeiner

    2001-11-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this article is to describe the methodological issues involved in conducting qualitative research to explore and describe nurses’ experience of being directly involved with termination of pregnancies and developing guidelines for support for these nurses. Opsomming Die doel van hierdie artikel is om die metodologiese vraagstukke te beskryf rondom die uitvoer van kwalitatiewe navorsing waar verpleegkundiges se ervaring van hul direkte betrokkenheid by terminasie van swangerskap verken en beskryf is. *Please note: This is a reduced version of the abstract. Please refer to PDF for full text.

  18. Future-Proofing Japan’s Interests in the Arctic

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tonami, Aki

    2014-01-01

    credentials Japan has to be involved in the leading Arctic forum. However, a closer look at its engagement in the Arctic indicates that Japan has genuine interests in political, economic, and environmental developments there. This essay examines Japan’s interests in the Arctic, its new role as an observer...

  19. What do pharmaceutical industry professionals in Europe believe about involving patients and the public in research and development of medicines? A qualitative interview study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parsons, Suzanne; Starling, Bella; Mullan-Jensen, Christine; Tham, Su-Gwan; Warner, Kay; Wever, Kim

    2016-01-07

    To explore European-based pharmaceutical industry professionals' beliefs about patient and public involvement (PPI) in medicines research and development (R&D). Pharmaceutical companies in the UK, Poland and Spain. 21 pharmaceutical industry professionals, four based in the UK, five with pan-European roles, four based in Spain and eight based in Poland. Qualitative interview study (telephone and face-to-face, semistructured interviews). All interviews were audio taped, translated (where appropriate) and transcribed for analysis using the Framework approach. 21 pharmaceutical industry professionals participated. Key themes were: beliefs about (1) whether patients and the public should be involved in medicines R&D; (2) the barriers and facilitators to PPI in medicines R&D and (3) how the current relationships between the pharmaceutical industry, patient organisations and patients influence PPI in medicines R&D. Although interviewees appeared positive about PPI, many were uncertain about when, how and which patients to involve. Patients and the public's lack of knowledge and interest in medicines R&D, and the pharmaceutical industry's lack of knowledge, interest and receptivity to PPI were believed to be key challenges to increasing PPI. Interviewees also believed that relationships between the pharmaceutical industry, patient organisations, patients and the public needed to change to facilitate PPI in medicines R&D. Existing pharmaceutical industry codes of practice and negative media reporting of the pharmaceutical industry were also seen as negative influences on these relationships. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

  20. Avenues for Scientist Involvement in Planetary Science Education and Public Outreach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shipp, S. S.; Buxner, S.; Cobabe-Ammann, E. A.; Dalton, H.; Bleacher, L.; Scalice, D.

    2012-12-01

    The Planetary Science Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) Forum is charged by NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD) with engaging, extending, and supporting the community of E/PO professionals and scientists involved in planetary science education activities in order to help them more effectively and efficiently share NASA science with all learners. A number of resources and opportunities for involvement are available for planetary scientists involved in - or interested in being involved in - E/PO. The Forum provides opportunities for community members to stay informed, communicate, collaborate, leverage existing programs and partnerships, and become more skilled education practitioners. Interested planetary scientists can receive newsletters, participate in monthly calls, interact through an online community workspace, and attend annual E/PO community meetings and meetings of opportunity at science and education conferences. The Forum also provides professional development opportunities on a myriad of topics, from common pre-conceptions in planetary science to program evaluation, to delivering effective workshops. Thematic approaches, such as the Year of the Solar System (http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/yss), are coordinated by the Forum; through these efforts resources are presented topically, in a manner that can be easily ported into diverse learning environments. Information about the needs of audiences with which scientists interact - higher education, K-12 education, informal education, and public - currently is being researched by SMD's Audience-Based Working Groups. Their findings and recommendations will be made available to inform the activities and products of E/PO providers so they are able to better serve these audiences. Also in production is a "one-stop-shop" of SMD E/PO products and resources that can be used in conjunction with E/PO activities. Further supporting higher-education efforts, the Forum coordinates a network of planetary science

  1. Balancing research interests and patient interests: A qualitative study into the intertwinement of care and research in paediatric oncology

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dekking, Sara; van der Graaf, R; Kars, Marijke C.; Beishuizen, A.; de Vries, Martine; van Delden, J. (Hans) J.M.

    BACKGROUND: Traditionally, in ethical guidelines and in research ethics literature, care and research are clearly separated based on their different objectives. In contrast, in paediatric oncology, research and care are closely combined. Currently, it is unknown how relevant actors in paediatric

  2. DO CUSTOMERS’ INVOLVEMENT, SATISFACTION AND LOYALTY LEVELS DIFFER ACCORDING TO GENDER?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Volkan Özbek

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The main aim of this study is to reveal whether consumers’ product involvement, satisfaction and loyalty levels differentiate in terms of smart phones and perfume. In order to achieve this goal, a research was implemented by using survey method on 665 Balıkesir University Burhaniye School of Applied Science students who are determined with convenience sampling method. The reason of using this sample is the anticipation of that university students’ consciousness and involvement levels about smart phones and perfumes might be higher than other populations. The research results demonstrate that there are differences according to gender in symbolic value, risk probability, and hedonic value dimensions of involvement terms of smart phones. In terms of perfume products involvement, the results also indicate that there are differences according to gender in interest and hedonic value dimensions of involvement. In addition, it is identified that satisfaction and loyalty towards perfume brands is higher for women than men. However, it is found that satisfaction and loyalty levels towards smart phones do not show any difference according to gender.

  3. Influence of information communicative technologies on students’ sport-oriented physical education interest

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Oleg Olkhovy

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: determination the influence of information communicative technologies on students’ interest in regular exercise of sport-oriented physical education. Material and Methods: in the researches were involved 1–5 year basic department students of V. N Karazin Kharkov National University (n=36402. Methods: analysis of literature sources, formatted pedagogical experiment, sociological research, maths statistics. Results: through experimental research we found out that that usage of information communicative technologies in authors’ model of sport-oriented physical education in high schools had provided increase in amount of students, who engaged in chosen sports (moving activity, by 14,4% (1463 persons. Conclusion: the usage of information communicative technologies in educational process promoted increasing of student quantity in the sport-oriented groups

  4. Multiple Comorbidities and Interest in Research Participation Among Clients of a Nonprofit Food Distribution Site.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Higashi, Robin T; Craddock Lee, Simon J; Leonard, Tammy; Cuate, Erica L; Cole, Jay; Pruitt, Sandi L

    2015-10-01

    Persons accessing food from nonprofit distribution sites face numerous challenges and typically have significant unmet health needs. However, given limited and intermittent healthcare system engagement, this vulnerable population is underrepresented in clinical research. We sought to better understand the health needs of a nonclinical population to inform future research and interventions. Focus groups were conducted in English (n = 4) and Spanish (n = 4) with clients of Crossroads Community Services (CCS), the largest distributor of North Texas Food Bank. Discussions probed participants' health status, healthcare utilization, understanding and utilization of mammography, and attitudes toward participation in research. Participants included 42 CCS clients, primarily Hispanic or African American women. Participants reported multiple comorbid conditions among household members, yet utilization of health services was often limited by cost. The majority expressed interest in participating in research to communicate their health concerns and obtain emotional support. CCS clients represent a high-need, under-reached population willing to engage in health-related research that affords them opportunity to connect with peers in group settings and obtain information to improve management of daily life challenges. The Community Assistance Research (CARe) Initiative, a community-academic collaboration, establishes a much-needed opportunity for ongoing clinical research and intervention among this underserved population. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  5. Improving Hawaiian and Filipino involvement in clinical research opportunities: qualitative findings from Hawai'i.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gollin, Lisa X; Harrigan, Rosanne C; Calderón, José L; Perez, John; Easa, David

    2005-01-01

    Investigate the barriers to participation in medical research that involves Asian and Pacific Islander (API) populations in Hawai'i. Fifty people (27 Filipinos, 23 Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders) in five different communities on Oahu. Nine focus groups with an ethnically matched moderator were held to explore people's feelings, problems, and recommendations regarding medical research. Sessions were audiotaped, transcribed, and qualitatively analyzed with the constant comparison method. Only 12% of study participants said that they absolutely would not participate in a clinical study. Most agreed that research is vital. Filipino participants were more optimistic about the safety and value of joining in medical research. Hawaiian groups were more hesitant and fearful. Reasons for nonparticipation included negative feelings about the purpose and intent of clinical trials and language and cultural barriers. Suggestions on how to encourage API populations to participate in research investigations included improving peoples' understanding of the benefits to family and community. Hawaiian and Filipino groups differed only slightly in their assessments of the type of research needed in their communities. Recruitment campaigns must improve people's awareness of the process of informed consent, research safeguards, and benefits to family and community. Attention should focus on K-12 health education to use members of the younger generations to access and educate elders, involving persons with medical research experience as a recruitment resource, returning results to study participants, and increasing the number of healthcare professionals and researchers that are culturally and linguistically matched to the community.

  6. A framework for public involvement at the design stage of NHS health and social care research: time to develop ethically conscious standards.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pandya-Wood, Raksha; Barron, Duncan S; Elliott, Jim

    2017-01-01

    Researchers who conduct studies in health and social care are encouraged to involve the public as early as possible in the process of designing their studies. Before their studies are allowed to start researchers must seek approval from a Research Ethics Committee, which will assess whether the study is going to be safe and ethical for patients or healthy volunteers to take part in. The process of ethical review does not consider how researchers work with patients and the public early on to design their studies. Furthermore, there is no requirement for researchers to seek ethical approval for public involvement. However, in our work advising researchers about public involvement we have found that the ways in which researchers involve the public in the design of their studies are sometimes unintentionally unethical, and this is the focus of our paper. We have observed ten areas where ethical issues may arise because of the actions researchers may or may not take and which might consequently have a negative impact. Therefore, we have used these observations to develop a "framework" to help researchers and the public work together at the early design stage in ways that are ethical. Our intention for the framework is to help researchers be mindful of these ten areas and how easily ethical issues can arise. The framework suggests some ways to overcome the potential issues in each of the ten areas. The ten areas are: 1) Allocating sufficient time for public involvement; 2) Avoiding tokenism; 3) Registering research design stage public involvement work with NHS Research & Development Trust Office at earliest opportunity; 4) Communicating clearly from the outset; 5) Entitling public contributors to stop their involvement for any unstated reasons; 6) Operating fairness of opportunity; 7) Differentiating qualitative research methods and public involvement activities; 8) Working sensitively; 9) Being conscious of confidentiality and 10) Valuing, acknowledging and rewarding

  7. 75 FR 62738 - Revisions to EPA's Rule on Protections for Subjects in Human Research Involving Pesticides...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-13

    ... addressed in EPA science and ethics reviews of proposed and completed human research for pesticides, based... Revisions to EPA's Rule on Protections for Subjects in Human Research Involving Pesticides; Notification to... protection of human subjects of research that apply to third parties who conduct or support research for...

  8. Evidence Based Research Activities, Interests and Opportunities Exist for Practitioners in all Library Sectors in the British Isles. A review of: McNicol, Sarah. “Is Research an Untapped Resource in the Library and Information Profession?” Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 36.3 (September 2004:119-26.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Julie McKenna

    2006-03-01

    Full Text Available Objective – To scope the range, nature and challenges of present, planned and future research by practitioners within libraries in the British Isles. Design – A series of survey questionnaires sent by mail. Setting – Public, academic, health, special and school libraries of the British Isles. Subjects – A total of 2384 questionnaires were sent out and 334 responses were received. 62 academic libraries, 83 health libraries, 78 public libraries, 63 school libraries and 48 special libraries participated in the study. Methods – This study was undertaken in 2003 by a research team at the University of Central England. Survey questionnaires were sent by mail to library directors in all public library authorities, academic libraries, health libraries and special libraries in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In addition, questionnaires were sent to the librarians in all state and independent schools within a sample of nine local education authorities. Each participant was asked to identify past and future research issues of interest and the barriers to research practice within their library. Research was defined to include work on both externally funded and inhouse projects and examples of the types of activities that this might include were provided. Main results – Half the respondents reported that they had been involved in some form of research in the past two years, with the lowest level of involvement from school libraries and the highest in public libraries. Generally, only the library directly involved in conducting the research made use of the findings and a gap in the dissemination of results was identified across sectors. User surveys were the most common form of research undertaken across libraries and slightly fewer respondents intended to carry out research in the coming twelve months than had in the past (the area most commonly mentioned was user surveys. Information and communications

  9. Service user involvement enhanced the research quality in a study using interpretative phenomenological analysis - the power of multiple perspectives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mjøsund, Nina Helen; Eriksson, Monica; Espnes, Geir Arild; Haaland-Øverby, Mette; Jensen, Sven Liang; Norheim, Irene; Kjus, Solveig Helene Høymork; Portaasen, Inger-Lill; Vinje, Hege Forbech

    2017-01-01

    The aim of this study was to examine how service user involvement can contribute to the development of interpretative phenomenological analysis methodology and enhance research quality. Interpretative phenomenological analysis is a qualitative methodology used in nursing research internationally to understand human experiences that are essential to the participants. Service user involvement is requested in nursing research. We share experiences from 4 years of collaboration (2012-2015) on a mental health promotion project, which involved an advisory team. Five research advisors either with a diagnosis or related to a person with severe mental illness constituted the team. They collaborated with the research fellow throughout the entire research process and have co-authored this article. We examined the joint process of analysing the empirical data from interviews. Our analytical discussions were audiotaped, transcribed and subsequently interpreted following the guidelines for good qualitative analysis in interpretative phenomenological analysis studies. The advisory team became 'the researcher's helping hand'. Multiple perspectives influenced the qualitative analysis, which gave more insightful interpretations of nuances, complexity, richness or ambiguity in the interviewed participants' accounts. The outcome of the service user involvement was increased breadth and depth in findings. Service user involvement improved the research quality in a nursing research project on mental health promotion. The interpretative element of interpretative phenomenological analysis was enhanced by the emergence of multiple perspectives in the qualitative analysis of the empirical data. We argue that service user involvement and interpretative phenomenological analysis methodology can mutually reinforce each other and strengthen qualitative methodology. © 2016 The Authors. Journal of Advanced Nursing Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  10. Time, science and consensus: the different times involving scientific research, political decision and public opinion

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    José Aparecido de

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available This essay analyses the asymmetrical relationship between the time of scientific research and the time of the different segments interested in their results, focusing mainly on necessity to establish technical consensus about the fields of science that require rigorous investigations and texts. In the last years, civil society sectors - mainly scientific journalism, legislative power, and public opinion - has shown growing interest in participating of the decision making process that regulates science routes. In this study, we analyzed the decision making process of the Biosafety Law, as it allows research with embryonic stem cells in Brazil. The results allow us to conclude that this asymmetrical relationship between the different times (of science, scientific disclosure, public opinion, and public power contribute to the maturing of the dialog on scientific policies, as well as to the establishment of a consensus concerning science routes, which aims at the democratization of scientific work.

  11. Interests diffusion in social networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    D'Agostino, Gregorio; D'Antonio, Fulvio; De Nicola, Antonio; Tucci, Salvatore

    2015-10-01

    We provide a model for diffusion of interests in Social Networks (SNs). We demonstrate that the topology of the SN plays a crucial role in the dynamics of the individual interests. Understanding cultural phenomena on SNs and exploiting the implicit knowledge about their members is attracting the interest of different research communities both from the academic and the business side. The community of complexity science is devoting significant efforts to define laws, models, and theories, which, based on acquired knowledge, are able to predict future observations (e.g. success of a product). In the mean time, the semantic web community aims at engineering a new generation of advanced services by defining constructs, models and methods, adding a semantic layer to SNs. In this context, a leapfrog is expected to come from a hybrid approach merging the disciplines above. Along this line, this work focuses on the propagation of individual interests in social networks. The proposed framework consists of the following main components: a method to gather information about the members of the social networks; methods to perform some semantic analysis of the Domain of Interest; a procedure to infer members' interests; and an interests evolution theory to predict how the interests propagate in the network. As a result, one achieves an analytic tool to measure individual features, such as members' susceptibilities and authorities. Although the approach applies to any type of social network, here it is has been tested against the computer science research community. The DBLP (Digital Bibliography and Library Project) database has been elected as test-case since it provides the most comprehensive list of scientific production in this field.

  12. Senate hearings whet interest in oil shale

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Remirez, R

    1967-06-05

    Recent oil shale hearings by the U.S. Senate disclosed the proposed leasing rules for federal oil-shale lands. In addition, Oil Shale Corp. announced that the first commercial shale-oil processing plant would be on stream in 1970. Both these announcements are expected to create a stronger interest in what is possibly the greatest untapped natural wealth in the U.S. According to the leasing rules, development leases would involve the following phases: (1) the contractor would have a 10-yr limit to conduct a research and development program on the leased territory; and (2) upon completion of a successful research program, the Interior Department will make available to lease at least enough land to sustain commercial operation. The terms that applicants will have to meet are included in this report. At the Senate hearing, discussions ranged from opinions indicating that development of oil shale recovery was not immediately necessary to opinions urging rapid development. This report is concluded with a state-of-the-art review of some of the oil shale recovery processes.

  13. A clash of paradigms? Western and indigenous views on health research involving Aboriginal peoples.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Campbell, Theresa Diane

    2014-07-01

    To explore the issues of data management and data ownership with regard to health research conducted in aboriginal or indigenous populations in Canada. Research with aboriginal communities in Canada has often been conducted by researchers who had little or no understanding of the community in which the research was taking place. This led to 'helicopter' research, which benefitted the researcher but not the community. National aboriginal leadership developed the ownership, control, access, and possession (OCAP) principles, which outline how to manage research data regarding aboriginal people and to counteract disrespectful methodologies. However, these principles present their own set of challenges to those who would conduct research with aboriginal populations. Documents from the Assembly of First Nations, the Government of Canada, Aboriginal writers and researchers, and Nursing theorists and researchers. This is a methodology paper that reviews the issues of data ownership when conducting research with Aboriginal populations. The authors explore indigenous and Western views of knowledge development, outline and discuss the OCAP principles, and present the Canadian Institute of Health Research's guidelines for health research involving aboriginal people as a guide for those who want to carry out ethical and culturally competent research, do no harm and produce research that can benefit aboriginal peoples. There are special considerations associated with conducting research with Aboriginal populations. The Assembly of First Nations wants researchers to use the Ownership, Control, Access and Possession (OCAP) principles with First Nations data. These principles are restrictive and need to be discussed with stakeholders before research is undertaken. In Canada, it is imperative that researchers use the Canadian Institute of Health Research Guidelines for Health Research Involving Aboriginal People to ensure culturally sensitive and ethical conduct during the course of

  14. "…Their Opinions Mean Something": Care Staff's Attitudes to Health Research Involving People with Intellectual Disabilities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hall, Natalie; Durand, Marie-Anne; Mengoni, Silvana E.

    2017-01-01

    Background: Despite experiencing health inequalities, people with intellectual disabilities are under-represented in health research. Previous research has identified barriers but has typically focused on under-recruitment to specific studies. This study aimed to explore care staff's attitudes to health research involving people with intellectual…

  15. What women want from women's reproductive health research: a qualitative study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pandey, Shilpi; Porter, Maureen; Bhattacharya, Siladitya

    2015-12-01

    Researchers are being urged to involve patients in the design and conduct of studies in health care with limited insight at present into their needs, abilities or interests. This is particularly true in the field of reproductive health care where many conditions such as pregnancy, menopause and fertility problems involve women who are otherwise healthy. To ascertain the feasibility of involving patients and members of the public in research on women's reproductive health care (WRH). University and tertiary care hospital in north-east Scotland; 37 women aged 18-57. Four focus groups and one individual interview were audio-recorded and verbatim transcripts analysed thematically by two researchers using a grounded theory approach. Most participants were interested in WRH, but some participated to promote a health issue of special concern to them. Priorities for research reflected women's personal concerns: endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome, menopause, fertility risks of delaying parenthood and early post-natal discharge from hospital. Women were initially enthusiastic about getting involved in research on WRH at the design or delivery stage, but after discussion in focus groups, some questioned their ability to do so or the time available to commit to research. None of the respondents expected payment for any involvement, believing that the experience would be rewarding enough in itself. Involving patients and public in research would include different perspectives and priorities; however, recruiting for this purpose would be challenging. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  16. Identifying interested parts in the implementation of a radiological waste repository in Brazil: presumption of interests and relationships between stakeholders

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nouailhetas, Yannick; Mezrahi, Arnaldo

    2009-01-01

    In Brazil, like in many countries, the use of radiation sources of various type and activities in industry, medicine, research and development as well as fuel cycle installations and nuclear reactors are increasing yearly. Consequently final disposal of the wastes generated by those activities represent a very important issue. The challenges arise more than ever from the country's plans to expand the nuclear power program and on the increasing use of radioisotopes. The construction of repositories must have specific site characteristics, design, operational procedures, among other peculiarities together with a safety analysis in order to accomplish needed provisions to restrict risks. Public opinion is currently more concerned about the consequences of global warming than the overall impact of nuclear activities on the environment. The success of finding a place for a repository depends on the participation of the interested parts. It is necessary to ensure that their expectations and needs are known and considered by the repository owners. In general, those expectations involve satisfaction of needs, financial compensation, ethical behavior and regional specificities. In this article, an attempt is made to identify these main involved parts, their wills and concerns, as well as other interest relationships that might arise as a result of this entrepreneurship. It is evident that a number of relationships ranging from partnership to antagonism might arise. So different strategies and considerations should be applied by those responsible for the project in order to optimize the positive aspects of the relationship or conduct with the less favorable ones. (author)

  17. The situational interest of undergraduate students in zoophysiology

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dohn, Niels Bonderup; Madsen, Peter Teglberg; Malte, H.

    2009-01-01

    Situational interest has been identified as an important motivational variable that has an impact on students' academic performances, yet little is known about how the specific variable of the learning environment might trigger students' situational interest. The purpose of this study...... of the faculty and should be considered when planning instruction. By focusing on the enhancement of situational interest in physiology lessons, faculty members can find ways to foster students' involvement in specific content areas and increase levels of academic motivation...

  18. One-Two Punch: Utilizing Teacher Research Experiences and Related Classroom Activities to Increase Student Interest in STEM

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wold-Brennon, R.; Cooper, S. K.

    2014-12-01

    Through collaborations between scientists and educators, the Consortium for Ocean Leadership developed a series of marine geosciences classroom activities and lesson plans -- including the Adopt-a-Microbe project, a collection of hands-on science lessons that use the sub-seafloor microbiology topics to provide engaging pathways for K-12 students to learn about the world around them. The goal of these activities has been to introduce youth to deep ocean exploration, inspire interest in microbial oceanography, and foster higher education goals and career paths in related sciences for our youth. From the beginning, these lessons were developed in close working relationships between scientists and educators, and the lessons geared towards middle school have been recently piloted with the intent to maximize sustained student interest in STEM topics. While teaching these units, educators used surveys, polls, group discussions, and interviews to shed light on correlations between student interest in STEM and their close proximity to exemplary and enthusiastic educators and student leaders who are active in STEM activities such as research projects and expeditions. Educators continue to use Adopt-a-Microbe and related expedition science-based lessons to explore the broader impacts of their professional development in the Geosciences on their students' professed interest in STEM.

  19. Public interest approach to data protection law: the meaning, value and utility of the public interest for research uses of data

    OpenAIRE

    Stevens, Leslie Anne

    2017-01-01

    Due to legal uncertainty surrounding the application of key provisions of European and UK data protection law, the public interest in protecting individuals’ informational privacy is routinely neglected, as are the public interests in certain uses of data. Consent or anonymisation are often treated as the paradigmatic example of compliance with data protection law, even though both are unable to attend to the full range of rights and interests at stake in data processing. Curre...

  20. 7 CFR 1219.3 - Conflict of interest.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 10 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Conflict of interest. 1219.3 Section 1219.3..., AND INFORMATION Hass Avocado Promotion, Research, and Information Order Definitions § 1219.3 Conflict of interest. Conflict of interest means a situation in which a Board member or employee has a direct...

  1. 7 CFR 3411.12 - Conflicts of interest.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Conflicts of interest. 3411.12 Section 3411.12... PROGRAM Scientific Peer Review of Research Grant Applications § 3411.12 Conflicts of interest. (a) Members... which they have an interest. For the purposes of determining whether such a conflict exists, an...

  2. Less Interested after Lessons? Report on a Small-Scale Research Study into 12- to 13-Year-Old Students' Attitudes to Earth Science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hetherington, Lindsay

    2010-01-01

    Results of a small-scale research study conducted with year 8 (ages 12-13) students suggest that although these students have generally positive attitudes towards earth science, girls tend to be less interested in it than boys. Interest in earth science was found to separate into two dominant factors, labelled "scientific" and…

  3. Prediction of Interests from Values: A Longitudinal Investigation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mason, Avonne; And Others

    Interest in the attitude-behavior relationship has generated much research since the concept was introduced into research in 1934. This study examined the relationship between values and behavioral intentions, specifically in regard to interest in entering a particular medical specialization. Using structural equation techniques and a longitudinal…

  4. Student Youth: Dynamics of Political Interests (Regional Aspect

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Morozova Galina Viktorovna

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The article presents the main results of the research of interests and political orientations of student youth which was carried out in 2014 at the Kazan federal university and its branches in the territory of the Republic of Tatarstan. The choice of student youth as a reference group is caused by a number of factors, among which we should name the status of intellectual elite, social and political mobility that allows to consider students as the potential actors of socio-political transformations in the country. The data obtained during poll compared with the results of last research allow defining the dynamics of development of student youth’s political sentiment in the region. The study of political attitudes, preferences of students was based on the identification of a number of indicators (degree of interest in politics, the level of personal involvement in political life and on the study of factors that determine the motivation of political behavior of students. Empirical studies make it possible to rank the problems that dominate the political consciousness of students in the region. These include a high level of corruption in the government, inflation, rising prices, the state of health and education systems and the growing income inequality. Particular attention is accented on the problems associated with the foreign policy aspects, threats, aggression from abroad. The study showed that most young people’s interest in politics is limited primarily by informational level, rarely they have desire to express their own position or judgments in political situations. The level of real political participation, socio-political activity of students is low. Obtained results let us notice the increasing trend of demonstration of protest behavior among certain part of the students.

  5. Air Toxics Under the Big Sky: examining the effectiveness of authentic scientific research on high school students' science skills and interest

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ward, Tony J.; Delaloye, Naomi; Adams, Earle Raymond; Ware, Desirae; Vanek, Diana; Knuth, Randy; Hester, Carolyn Laurie; Marra, Nancy Noel; Holian, Andrij

    2016-04-01

    Air Toxics Under the Big Sky is an environmental science outreach/education program that incorporates the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) 8 Practices with the goal of promoting knowledge and understanding of authentic scientific research in high school classrooms through air quality research. This research explored: (1) how the program affects student understanding of scientific inquiry and research and (2) how the open-inquiry learning opportunities provided by the program increase student interest in science as a career path. Treatment students received instruction related to air pollution (airborne particulate matter), associated health concerns, and training on how to operate air quality testing equipment. They then participated in a yearlong scientific research project in which they developed and tested hypotheses through research of their own design regarding the sources and concentrations of air pollution in their homes and communities. Results from an external evaluation revealed that treatment students developed a deeper understanding of scientific research than did comparison students, as measured by their ability to generate good hypotheses and research designs, and equally expressed an increased interest in pursuing a career in science. These results emphasize the value of and need for authentic science learning opportunities in the modern science classroom.

  6. Factors associated with pharmacy student interest in international study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Owen, Chelsea; Breheny, Patrick; Ingram, Richard; Pfeifle, William; Cain, Jeff; Ryan, Melody

    2013-04-12

    OBJECTIVES. To examine the interest of pharmacy students in international study, the demographic factors and involvement characteristics associated with that interest, and the perceived advantages and barriers of engaging in international opportunities during pharmacy school. METHODS. A self-administered electronic survey instrument was distributed to first-, second-, and third-year pharmacy students at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy. RESULTS. There were 192 total respondents, for a response rate of 50.9%. Seventy-two percent reported interest in international study. Previous international study experience (p=0.001), previous international travel experience (p=0.002), year in pharmacy school (p=0.03), level of academic involvement (pinternational study interest. Positive influences to international study included desire to travel and availability of scholarships. Perceived barriers included an inability to pay expenses and lack of foreign language knowledge. CONCLUSIONS. The needs and interests of pharmacy students should be considered in the development and expansion of internationalization programs in order to effectively optimize global partnerships and available international experiences. Colleges and schools of pharmacy should engage students early in the curriculum when interest in study-abroad opportunities is highest and seek to alleviate concerns about expenses as a primary influence on study-abroad decisions through provision of financial assistance.

  7. Investigating Situational Interest in Primary Science Lessons

    Science.gov (United States)

    Loukomies, Anni; Juuti, Kalle; Lavonen, Jari

    2015-01-01

    Pupils' interest has been one of the major concerns in science education research because it can be seen as a gateway to more personalised forms of interest and motivation. However, methods to investigate situational interest in science teaching and learning are not broadly examined. This study compares the pupils' observed situational interest…

  8. 7 CFR 1280.104 - Conflict of Interest.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 10 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Conflict of Interest. 1280.104 Section 1280.104... INFORMATION ORDER Lamb Promotion, Research, and Information Order Definitions § 1280.104 Conflict of Interest. Conflict of interest means a situation in which a member or employee of a board has a direct or indirect...

  9. 7 CFR 1216.5 - Conflict of interest.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 10 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Conflict of interest. 1216.5 Section 1216.5... INFORMATION ORDER Peanut Promotion, Research, and Information Order Definitions § 1216.5 Conflict of interest. Conflict of interest means a situation in which a member or employee of the Board has a direct or indirect...

  10. 7 CFR 1221.5 - Conflict of interest.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 10 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Conflict of interest. 1221.5 Section 1221.5... INFORMATION ORDER Sorghum Promotion, Research, and Information Order Definitions § 1221.5 Conflict of interest. Conflict of interest means a situation in which a representative or employee of the Board has a direct or...

  11. 7 CFR 1206.3 - Conflict of interest.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 10 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Conflict of interest. 1206.3 Section 1206.3... INFORMATION Mango Promotion, Research, and Information Order Definitions § 1206.3 Conflict of interest. Conflict of interest means a situation in which a member or employee of the Board has a direct or indirect...

  12. Dynamic Game Analysis of Coal Electricity Market Involving Multi-Interests

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yu Xiaobao

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The coal consumption of China reached 2.75 billion tons of standard coal in 2013, which accounted for 67.5% of total energy consumption and more than 50% of global coal consumption. Therefore, the impact of coal price is huge on coal market and even energy market in China. As a large consumer of coal, thermal power enterprise has a strong sensitivity to coal price. In order to balance the rising cost of enterprises due to coal price, we need to analyze the interests of multiple stakeholders. Firstly, this paper combined the Nash equilibrium and cobweb model and proposed the characteristics in different cobweb model. Then, for coal, power, and energy companies, the dynamic game analysis model is constructed. This model gives a game analysis in four scenarios and quantifies the decision of each stakeholder in different coal prices. Finally, the impact figure of different coal prices on each stakeholder has been drawn. The impacts of different coal or thermal power prices on different markets have been put forward, so relevant policy recommendations have been proposed combined with the cobweb model.

  13. Air Toxics Under the Big Sky: Examining the Effectiveness of Authentic Scientific Research on High School Students' Science Skills and Interest.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ward, Tony J; Delaloye, Naomi; Adams, Earle Raymond; Ware, Desirae; Vanek, Diana; Knuth, Randy; Hester, Carolyn Laurie; Marra, Nancy Noel; Holian, Andrij

    2016-01-01

    Air Toxics Under the Big Sky is an environmental science outreach/education program that incorporates the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) 8 Practices with the goal of promoting knowledge and understanding of authentic scientific research in high school classrooms through air quality research. A quasi-experimental design was used in order to understand: 1) how the program affects student understanding of scientific inquiry and research and 2) how the open inquiry learning opportunities provided by the program increase student interest in science as a career path . Treatment students received instruction related to air pollution (airborne particulate matter), associated health concerns, and training on how to operate air quality testing equipment. They then participated in a yearlong scientific research project in which they developed and tested hypotheses through research of their own design regarding the sources and concentrations of air pollution in their homes and communities. Results from an external evaluation revealed that treatment students developed a deeper understanding of scientific research than did comparison students, as measured by their ability to generate good hypotheses and research designs, and equally expressed an increased interest in pursuing a career in science. These results emphasize the value of and need for authentic science learning opportunities in the modern science classroom.

  14. Air Toxics Under the Big Sky: Examining the Effectiveness of Authentic Scientific Research on High School Students’ Science Skills and Interest

    Science.gov (United States)

    Delaloye, Naomi; Adams, Earle Raymond; Ware, Desirae; Vanek, Diana; Knuth, Randy; Hester, Carolyn Laurie; Marra, Nancy Noel; Holian, Andrij

    2016-01-01

    Air Toxics Under the Big Sky is an environmental science outreach/education program that incorporates the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) 8 Practices with the goal of promoting knowledge and understanding of authentic scientific research in high school classrooms through air quality research. A quasi-experimental design was used in order to understand: 1) how the program affects student understanding of scientific inquiry and research and 2) how the open inquiry learning opportunities provided by the program increase student interest in science as a career path. Treatment students received instruction related to air pollution (airborne particulate matter), associated health concerns, and training on how to operate air quality testing equipment. They then participated in a yearlong scientific research project in which they developed and tested hypotheses through research of their own design regarding the sources and concentrations of air pollution in their homes and communities. Results from an external evaluation revealed that treatment students developed a deeper understanding of scientific research than did comparison students, as measured by their ability to generate good hypotheses and research designs, and equally expressed an increased interest in pursuing a career in science. These results emphasize the value of and need for authentic science learning opportunities in the modern science classroom. PMID:28286375

  15. 76 FR 5735 - Revisions to EPA's Rule on Protections for Subjects in Human Research Involving Pesticides

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-02-02

    ... addressed in EPA science and ethics reviews of proposed and completed human research with pesticides, drawn..., which suggest ethical considerations relevant to evaluation of human studies. Third, Petitioners argued... Revisions to EPA's Rule on Protections for Subjects in Human Research Involving Pesticides AGENCY...

  16. Reconsidering Interests: The Next Big Idea in Career Counseling Theory Research and Practice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chope, Robert C.

    2011-01-01

    A population of people that are living longer and working longer invite a reconsideration of interests and interest measurement as individuals make substantial changes in their vocational and avocational pursuits later in life. The relationship of interests to vocational hope and childhood exposure to work is also discussed.

  17. Exploring intentions of physician-scientist trainees: factors influencing MD and MD/PhD interest in research careers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kwan, Jennifer M; Daye, Dania; Schmidt, Mary Lou; Conlon, Claudia Morrissey; Kim, Hajwa; Gaonkar, Bilwaj; Payne, Aimee S; Riddle, Megan; Madera, Sharline; Adami, Alexander J; Winter, Kate Quinn

    2017-07-11

    Prior studies have described the career paths of physician-scientist candidates after graduation, but the factors that influence career choices at the candidate stage remain unclear. Additionally, previous work has focused on MD/PhDs, despite many physician-scientists being MDs. This study sought to identify career sector intentions, important factors in career selection, and experienced and predicted obstacles to career success that influence the career choices of MD candidates, MD candidates with research-intense career intentions (MD-RI), and MD/PhD candidates. A 70-question survey was administered to students at 5 academic medical centers with Medical Scientist Training Programs (MSTPs) and Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) from the NIH. Data were analyzed using bivariate or multivariate analyses. More MD/PhD and MD-RI candidates anticipated or had experienced obstacles related to balancing academic and family responsibilities and to balancing clinical, research, and education responsibilities, whereas more MD candidates indicated experienced and predicted obstacles related to loan repayment. MD/PhD candidates expressed higher interest in basic and translational research compared to MD-RI candidates, who indicated more interest in clinical research. Overall, MD-RI candidates displayed a profile distinct from both MD/PhD and MD candidates. MD/PhD and MD-RI candidates experience obstacles that influence their intentions to pursue academic medical careers from the earliest training stage, obstacles which differ from those of their MD peers. The differences between the aspirations of and challenges facing MD, MD-RI and MD/PhD candidates present opportunities for training programs to target curricula and support services to ensure the career development of successful physician-scientists.

  18. Remarks on Interest Rate Risk Management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elena-Violeta DRAGOI

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Bank interest and interest rate risk management is a contemporary subject and for socio-economic environment of Romania cause serious consequences in the level of economic development. The purpose of this research is to highlight the main indicator that measures the total cost of a loan, namely the annual percentage rate (APR, because if we refer to an interest rate lower, at first glance that loan seems more advantageous, but at a closer look, taking into account the commissions charged by the bank, we see that the loan is more expensive compared to another, whose interest rate is higher.

  19. Undergraduate Research in Quantum Information Science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lyons, David W.

    2017-01-01

    Quantum Information Science (QIS) is an interdisciplinary field involving mathematics, computer science, and physics. Appealing aspects include an abundance of accessible open problems, active interest and support from government and industry, and an energetic, open, and collaborative international research culture. We describe our student-faculty…

  20. VOLUNTARY INTEREST ARBITRATION IN THE ETHIOPIAN ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    *Birhanu is currently working as the Manager of the Legal Research and Advisory Division ... forth voluntary interest arbitration to the attention of lawyers, employees, .... being selective is a poor design since the basic rules of this law are not .... courts to review interest arbitrators decision on the merit by way of appeal.

  1. Gender Differences in High School Students' Interests in Physics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baran, Medine

    2016-01-01

    The aim of this research was to determine the interests of high school students in Physics and variable of how the influential factors on their interests depending on gender. The research sample included 154 (F:78 M:76) high school students. A structured interview form was used as the data collection tool in the study. The research data were…

  2. Public and patient involvement in quantitative health research: A statistical perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hannigan, Ailish

    2018-06-19

    The majority of studies included in recent reviews of impact for public and patient involvement (PPI) in health research had a qualitative design. PPI in solely quantitative designs is underexplored, particularly its impact on statistical analysis. Statisticians in practice have a long history of working in both consultative (indirect) and collaborative (direct) roles in health research, yet their perspective on PPI in quantitative health research has never been explicitly examined. To explore the potential and challenges of PPI from a statistical perspective at distinct stages of quantitative research, that is sampling, measurement and statistical analysis, distinguishing between indirect and direct PPI. Statistical analysis is underpinned by having a representative sample, and a collaborative or direct approach to PPI may help achieve that by supporting access to and increasing participation of under-represented groups in the population. Acknowledging and valuing the role of lay knowledge of the context in statistical analysis and in deciding what variables to measure may support collective learning and advance scientific understanding, as evidenced by the use of participatory modelling in other disciplines. A recurring issue for quantitative researchers, which reflects quantitative sampling methods, is the selection and required number of PPI contributors, and this requires further methodological development. Direct approaches to PPI in quantitative health research may potentially increase its impact, but the facilitation and partnership skills required may require further training for all stakeholders, including statisticians. © 2018 The Authors Health Expectations published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  3. Involvement and emancipation of the worker. Action research in a university hospital.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bolis, Ivan; Brunoro, Claudio; Sznelwar, Laerte Idal

    2012-01-01

    The present action research article is linked to an ergonomics project in a university hospital. The author's proposal is to focus action on the effective worker involvement required for the creation of spaces/mechanisms within organizations where people can enhance cooperation and deliberation on matters relating to work. For this purpose, a committee was introduced to assist in finding problems and solutions directly in work situations, so that workers could experience relative autonomy allowing them to develop procedures and choose tools appropriate to their own real needs. Based on this organizational implementation and on subsequent interviews, the practical results are analyzed and related to employee involvement. One can conclude that workers in all areas of the organization can be active elements for improving working conditions and productivity in companies.

  4. Research attitudes and experiences of radiation therapists

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Scutter, Sheila; Halkett, Georgia

    2003-01-01

    An important factor in professional status is the ongoing development of the area as a result of research findings. However, involvement by radiation therapists in research, publication and higher degree study is limited. The aim of the current study was to investigate the attitudes of radiation therapists towards research, and to investigate the major factors contributing to their limited participation in research. To achieve this, an anonymous questionnaire was developed and distributed to radiation therapists working at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH). The study found that radiation therapists at the RAH are interested in research but there are several factors that limit their involvement. These factors include limited knowledge about research processes, lack of support and lack of time to undertake research. Copyright (2003) Australian Institute of Radiography

  5. Teaching Earth Sciences as an interdisciplinary subject: Novel module design involving research literature

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tong, Vincent C. H.

    2010-05-01

    The study of Earth Sciences requires an interdisciplinary approach as it involves understanding scientific knowledge originating from a wide spectrum of research areas. Not only does it include subjects ranging from, for instance, hydrogeology to deep crustal seismology and from climate science to oceanography, but it also has many direct applications in closely related disciplines such as environmental engineering and natural resources management. While research crossing traditional disciplinary boundaries in geosciences is becoming increasingly common, there is only limited integration of interdisciplinary research in the teaching of the subject. Given that the transition from undergraduate education based on subject modules to postgraduate interdisciplinary research is never easy, such integration is a highly desirable pedagogical approach at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. My presentation is based on a recent teaching project involving novel design of an undergraduate course. The course is implemented in order to address the synergy between research and teaching (Tong, 2009). This project has been shown to be effective and successful in teaching geosciences undergraduates at the University of London. The module consists of studying core geophysical principles and linking them directly to a selection of recently published research papers in a wide range of interdisciplinary applications. Research reviewing and reporting techniques are systematically developed, practised and fully integrated into teaching of the core scientific theories. A fully-aligned assignment with a feedback website invites the students to reflect on the scientific knowledge and the study skills related to research literature they have acquired in the course. This teaching project has been recognized by a teaching award (http://www.clpd.bbk.ac.uk/staff/BETA). In this presentation, I will discuss how undergraduate teaching with a focus on research literature in Earth Sciences can

  6. Research involving subjects with Alzheimer's disease in Italy: the possible role of family members.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Porteri, Corinna; Petrini, Carlo

    2015-03-04

    Alzheimer's disease is a very common, progressive and still incurable disease. Future possibilities for its cure lie in the promotion of research that will increase our knowledge of the disorder's causes and lead to the discovery of effective remedies. Such research will necessarily involve individuals suffering from Alzheimer's disease. This raises the controversial issue of whether patients with Alzheimer's disease are competent to give their consent for research participation. We discuss the case of subjects with Alzheimer's disease who may have impaired decision-making capacity and who could be involved in research protocols, taking into consideration aspects of the Italian normative framework, which requires a court-appointed legal representative for patients who are not able to give consent and does not recognise the legal value of advance directives. We show that this normative framework risks preventing individuals with Alzheimer's disease from taking part in research and that a new policy that favours research while promoting respect for patients' well-being and rights needs to be implemented. We believe that concerns about the difficulty of obtaining fully valid consent of patients with Alzheimer's disease should not prevent them from participating in clinical trials and benefiting from scientific progress. Therefore, we argue that the requirement for patients to have a legal representative may not be the best solution in all countries and clinical situations, and suggest promoting the role of patients' family members in the decision-making process. In addition, we outline the possible role of advance directives and ethics committees.

  7. Missed opportunities for impact in patient and carer involvement: a mixed methods case study of research priority setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Snow, R; Crocker, J C; Crowe, S

    2015-01-01

    Healthcare workers want to listen more to patients and their carers in all sorts of areas of healthcare. This can include choosing topics for medical research. We looked at how patients and carers have helped to choose topics for research about type I diabetes. We aimed to find out if, and why, researchers often rejected their choices. We looked at a project which brought together patients, carers and healthcare workers to choose topics for research about type 1 diabetes. The group first asked patients, carers and healthcare workers to suggest ideas for research questions. But the group had to follow rules about what counted as a good research question. Some people's ideas did not count as good research questions, and they were rejected at the start. We looked at who were most likely to have their ideas rejected at the start. We found that patients and carers were most likely to have a suggestion rejected. Then we looked at the rejected questions in detail. They were mostly about curing diabetes, preventing diabetes and understanding how diabetes works. There were also some questions about access to medicines and the quality of care. Researchers should ask patients and carers for help deciding what counts as a good research question from the start of projects like these. We should also think about what might be getting in the way of patients and carers making more of a difference in research. Background Patients and carers are increasingly involved in deciding on topics for medical research. However, so far, it has been difficult to gain an accurate picture of the impact of such involvement because of poor reporting and evaluation in published studies to date. This study aimed to explore how a partnership of patients, carers, healthcare professionals and organisations identified questions for future research and why patients and carers had a limited impact on this process. Methods In the first stage of the partnership process, relevant service users and providers

  8. Leashes and Lies: Navigating the Colonial Tensions of Institutional Ethics of Research Involving Indigenous Peoples in Canada

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Martha L. Stiegman

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Ethical standards of conduct in research undertaken at Canadian universities involving humans has been guided by the three federal research funding agencies through the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (or TCPS for short since 1998. The statement was revised for the first time in 2010 and is now commonly referred to as the TCPS2, which includes an entire chapter (Chapter 9 devoted to the subject of research involving First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples of Canada. While the establishment of TCPS2 is an important initial step on the long road towards decolonizing Indigenous research within the academy, our frustrations—which echo those of many colleagues struggling to do research “in a good way” (see, for example, Ball & Janyst 2008; Bull, 2008; Guta et al., 2010 within this framework—highlight the urgent work that remains to be done if university-based researchers are to be enabled by establishment channels to do “ethical” research with Aboriginal peoples. In our (and others’ experience to date, we seem to have been able to do research in a good way, despite, not because of the TCPS2 (see Castleden et al., 2012. The disconnect between the stated goals of TCPS2, and the challenges researchers face when attempting to navigate how individual, rotating members of REBs interpret the TPCS2 and operate within this framework, begs the question: Wherein lies the disconnect? A number of scholars are currently researching this divide (see for example see Guta et al. 2010; Flicker & Worthington, 2011; and Guta et al., 2013. In this editorial, we offer an anecdote to illustrate our experience regarding some of these tensions and then offer reflections about what might need to change for the next iteration of the TCPS.

  9. Recommendations for the Involvement of Patient Research Partners (PRP) in OMERACT Working Groups. A Report from the OMERACT 2014 Working Group on PRP.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheung, Peter P; de Wit, Maarten; Bingham, Clifton O; Kirwan, John R; Leong, Amye; March, Lyn M; Montie, Pam; Scholte-Voshaar, Marieke; Gossec, Laure

    2016-01-01

    Patient participation in research is increasing; however, practical guidelines to enhance this participation are lacking. Specifically within the Outcome Measures in Rheumatology (OMERACT) organization, although patients have participated in OMERACT meetings since 2002, consensus about the procedures for involving patients in working groups has not been formalized. The objective is to develop a set of recommendations regarding patient research partner (PRP) involvement in research working groups. We conducted a systematic literature review on recommendations/guidelines of PRP involvement in research; elaborated a structured consensus process involving multiple participants to develop a set of recommendations; and sought endorsement of recommendations by OMERACT. In the 18 articles included in the literature review, there was general agreement on the broad concepts for recommendations covering PRP involvement in research although they were heterogeneous in detail. Most considered PRP involvement in all phases of research with early engagement, training, and support important, but details on the content were scarce. This review informed a larger consensus-building process regarding PRP inclusion in OMERACT research. Three overarching principles and 8 recommendations were developed, discussed, and refined at OMERACT 2014. The guiding principles were endorsed during the OMERACT plenary session. These recommendations for PRP involvement in OMERACT research reinforce the importance of patient participation throughout the research process as integral members. Although the applicability of the recommendations in other research contexts should be assessed, the generalizability is expected to be high. Future research should evaluate their implementation and their effect on outcome development.

  10. Managing Ethical Problems in Qualitative Research Involving Vulnerable Populations, Using a Pilot Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Evalina van Wijk RN, PhD

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of the researcher's study was to examine the meaning that intimate partners of female rape victims attached to their lived experiences after the rape. The conduct of qualitative research concerning non-offending partners of female rape victims, however, often involves multifaceted ethical and practical challenges, which can be managed through the use of pilot studies. The pilot study described in this report had three objectives. The first was to pretest and refine the proposed method for locating, accessing, and recruiting intimate partners of female rape victims, within the first two weeks after the rape, for participation in a six-month longitudinal study. The second objective was to identify and prevent all possible risk factors in the proposed recruitment and data collection methods that could harm the participants' safety during the main study. The third objective was to determine the feasibility of the main study, in terms of the limited financial and human resources available. The pilot phase was valuable in identifying ethical and methodological problems during the recruitment of participants and collection of data. It allowed for methodological adjustments prior to the main study and confirmed the feasibility of the overall research design. A pilot, pretesting phase is therefore seen as an essential component of a qualitative study involving a vulnerable population.

  11. Canadian governance of health research involving human subjects: is anybody minding the store?

    Science.gov (United States)

    McDonald, M

    2001-01-01

    From an ethical perspective, good governance involves the translation of collective moral intentions into effective and accountable institutional actions. With respect to the use of human subjects in Canadian health research, I contend that there have been many good intentions but very little in the way of appropriate governance arrangements. Hence, the question, "who minds the store?" is especially acute with respect to the protection of vulnerable individuals and groups that are typically recruited as subjects for health research in Canada. Beyond diagnosing failures in governance and their causes, I offer suggestions for significant reforms, including evidence-based ethics assessment, independent oversight, and greater participation of research subjects in governance. I will close with some more general reflections on ethics, law, and governance.

  12. Involving mental health service users in suicide-related research: a qualitative inquiry model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lees, David; Procter, Nicholas; Fassett, Denise; Handley, Christine

    2016-03-01

    To describe the research model developed and successfully deployed as part of a multi-method qualitative study investigating suicidal service-users' experiences of mental health nursing care. Quality mental health care is essential to limiting the occurrence and burden of suicide, however there is a lack of relevant research informing practice in this context. Research utilising first-person accounts of suicidality is of particular importance to expanding the existing evidence base. However, conducting ethical research to support this imperative is challenging. The model discussed here illustrates specific and more generally applicable principles for qualitative research regarding sensitive topics and involving potentially vulnerable service-users. Researching into mental health service users with first-person experience of suicidality requires stakeholder and institutional support, researcher competency, and participant recruitment, consent, confidentiality, support and protection. Research with service users into their experiences of sensitive issues such as suicidality can result in rich and valuable data, and may also provide positive experiences of collaboration and inclusivity. If challenges are not met, objectification and marginalisation of service-users may be reinforced, and limitations in the evidence base and service provision may be perpetuated.

  13. Mycobacteria of clinical interest

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Casal, M.

    1986-01-01

    This book is based upon a symposium on mycobacteria of clinical interest. Due to the multidisciplinary participation of, among others, microbiologists, clinicians, immunologists and epidemiologists, a very wide and thorough presentation of the present state of clinical research in this field is ensured. Topics of particular interest included in this volume were the new antimicrobial agents active against mycobacteria; new therapeutic possibilities; a system of rapid diagnosis of tuberculosis and mycobacteriosis; mycobacteriosis in AIDS; progress in immunopathology of tuberculosis and leprosy; progress in bacteriology and vaccination in leprosy; progress in immunological diagnosis and new epidemiological biovars of M. tuberculosis. (Auth.)

  14. A Preliminary Exploration of Operating Models of Second Cycle/Research Led Open Education Involving Industry Collaboration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olsson, Ulf

    2014-01-01

    Scientists from five Swedish universities were interviewed about open second cycle education. Research groups and scientists collaborate closely with industry, and the selection of scientists for the study was made in relation to an interest in developing technology-enhanced open education, indicated by applications for funding from the Knowledge…

  15. THE ATTITUDES AND INTERESTS OF FEMALE STUDENTS FOR THE TEACHING CONTENTS AND THE CLASSES OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Goran Šekeljić

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, using as a sample of 142 fourth-grade female pupils from three primary schools in Uzice and Pozega, their interests for physical education classes and the teaching contents in this subject have been examined. The results of the research point to the fact that the girls of this age are interested in basketball, handball and football. This fact should be considered when making the teaching curricula The results of the research point to the fact that the girls of this age like physiacal education and that it is their favourite school subject. On the basis of that fact it is possible to draw an indirect conclusion that the classes have been realized on the methodological level which presupposes obtaining the highest goal of physical education, and that is being involved in physical activity.

  16. Interests and propriety: some voices of brazilian cultural field

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rafael Cruz

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available This article originates of the strangeness generated by using the term piracy for any type of unauthorized reproduction. The article try to understand the relationship between values and interests related to two forms of propriety, copyright and intellectual property. For an interest in the collective representation, the general idea or dominant ideology associated with the subject, uses of media reports as documentary fonts for analysis of values and interests of three groups involved in discussions about the topic: the culture industry, government and artists / producers. Finally, performs a synthesis of the comparison between the values defended and the interests manifests (or hidden of the groups.

  17. Research Ethics III: Publication Practices and Authorship, Conflicts of Interest, and Research Misconduct

    Science.gov (United States)

    Horner, Jennifer; Minifie, Fred D.

    2011-01-01

    Purpose: In this series of articles--"Research Ethics I", "Research Ethics II", and "Research Ethics III"--the authors provide a comprehensive review of the 9 core domains for the responsible conduct of research (RCR) as articulated by the Office of Research Integrity. Method: In "Research Ethics III", they review the RCR domains of publication…

  18. The Human Rights Context for Ethical Requirements for Involving People with Intellectual Disability in Medical Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iacono, T.; Carling-Jenkins, R.

    2012-01-01

    Background: The history of ethical guidelines addresses protection of human rights in the face of violations. Examples of such violations in research involving people with intellectual disabilities (ID) abound. We explore this history in an effort to understand the apparently stringent criteria for the inclusion of people with ID in research, and…

  19. Is perceived patient involvement in mental health care associated with satisfaction and empowerment?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tambuyzer, Else; Van Audenhove, Chantal

    2015-08-01

    Patients increasingly assume active roles in their mental health care. While there is a growing interest in patient involvement and patient-reported outcomes, there is insufficient research on the outcomes of patient involvement. The research questions in this study are as follows: 'To what extent is perceived patient involvement associated with satisfaction and empowerment?'; 'What is the nature of the relationship between satisfaction and empowerment?'; and 'To what extent are background variables associated with satisfaction and empowerment?'. We assumed that a higher degree of patient involvement is associated with higher satisfaction and empowerment scores and that satisfaction and empowerment are positively associated. Data were gathered using surveys of 111 patients of 36 multidisciplinary care networks for persons with serious and persistent mental illness. Demographic characteristics, patient involvement and satisfaction were measured using a new questionnaire. Empowerment was assessed using the Dutch Empowerment Scale. Descriptive, univariate (Pearson's r and independent-samples t-tests), multivariate (hierarchical forced entry regression) and mixed-model analyses were conducted. The hypotheses of positive associations between patient involvement, satisfaction and empowerment are confirmed. The demographics are not significantly related to satisfaction or empowerment, except for gender. Men reported higher empowerment scores than did women. Making patient involvement a reality is more than just an ethical imperative. It provides an opportunity to enhance patient-reported outcomes such as satisfaction and empowerment. Future research should focus on the nature of the association between satisfaction and empowerment. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  20. Research Education: Perspectives and subjective processes involved in educational research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Harm H. Tillema

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available Educational research acknowledges that researcher’s beliefs and training play a role in framing the outcomes of any study. Research not only consists of defining objectives and following certain methods (search but also of making decisions over the steps taking during the inquiry process (research.Establishing a conceptual framework to guide actions on the subjective processes in research is then crucial to control them. With that purpose in mind we offer researchers and Teacher Educators a heuristic tool to be conscious on the risks that can be taken when immersed in research interpretative process. This instrument could be utilised in PhD programs, masters and research projects.

  1. Different Aspects of Involving Family in School Life

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Blândul Valentin-Cosmin

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available The school has come to not have a huge credibility even, sometimes being abandoned, primarily because, nowadays, no matter hierarchy and is not perceived as a value. The actual society no longer has trust in the educational establishment, the values acquired and ranked by the amount of learning embedded in it. Such an attitude is reflected by the relationship between “parent - teacher” and “student - teacher”. Based on these findings, the present study aims to investigate the main features of the relationship that is established between school and family, concerned how parents can get involved in school life effectively. The lot of subjects was represented by 212 teachers from secondary schools in Bihor, Romania and the instrument used in the research was a questionnaire consisting of 46 objective and subjective items. The results are very interesting and shows that many respondents argue that parents show indifference to the formal education of their children, not involved in the didactic or extracurricular activities and in school life, not take part in parent meetings or when called for, is difficult to communicate with parents etc. There are some cases when, because of the family economic situation is poor, parents send their children to work, offering less time and interest in their education and instruction.

  2. Financial and non-financial conflicts of interests in psychiatry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maj, Mario

    2010-11-01

    A conflict of interests occurs when a doctor is unduly influenced by a secondary interest (i.e., a personal incentive) in his acts concerning one of the primary interests to which he is professionally committed (the welfare of patients, the progress of science, or the education of students or residents). One specific variety of conflicts of interests has monopolized the attention of the scientific and lay press: the financial conflicts of interests arising from the relationships between doctors and drug companies. A large literature has described the many, sometimes subtle, ways by which a psychiatrist can be influenced in his prescribing habits or research activities by his relationships with the industry. Some empirical evidence is now available in this area. On the other hand, it has been pointed out that the current debate on this issue is sometimes "affectively charged" or fails to take into account that the interests of patients, families and mental health professionals and those of the industry may be often convergent. Other types of conflicts of interests are beginning now to be discussed. There is evidence that the allegiance of a researcher to a given school of thought may influence the results of studies comparing different psychotherapeutic techniques, thus colliding with the primary interest represented by the progress of science. Political commitment is also emerging as a source of conflicts of interests. Financial and non-financial conflicts of interests are widespread in psychiatric practice and research. They cannot be eradicated, but must be managed more effectively than is currently the case.

  3. Conducting phenomenological research: Rationalizing the methods and rigour of the phenomenology of practice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Errasti-Ibarrondo, Begoña; Jordán, José Antonio; Díez-Del-Corral, Mercedes P; Arantzamendi, María

    2018-03-15

    To offer a complete outlook in a readable easy way of van Manen's hermeneutic-phenomenological method to nurses interested in undertaking phenomenological research. Phenomenology, as research methodology, involves a certain degree of complexity. It is difficult to identify a single article or author which sets out the didactic guidelines that specifically guide research of this kind. In this context, the theoretical-practical view of Max van Manen's Phenomenology of Practice may be seen as a rigorous guide and directive on which researchers may find support to undertake phenomenological research. Discussion paper. This discussion paper is based on our own experiences and supported by literature and theory. Our central sources of data have been the books and writings of Max van Manen and his website "Phenomenologyonline". The principal methods of the hermeneutic-phenomenological method are addressed and explained providing an enriching overview of phenomenology of practice. A proposal is made for the way the suggestions made by van Manen might be organized for use with the methods involved in Phenomenology of Practice: Social sciences, philosophical and philological methods. Thereby, nurse researchers interested in conducting phenomenological research may find a global outlook and support to understand and conduct this type of inquiry which draws on the art. The approach in this article may help nurse scholars and researchers reach an overall, encompassing perspective of the main methods and activities involved in doing phenomenological research. Nurses interested in doing phenomenology of practice are expected to commit with reflection and writing. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  4. Interests versus morality in politics

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    Radojčić Mirjana S.

    2002-01-01

    Full Text Available In this individual project the relationship between interests and moral in politics will be considered, taking into consideration the disintegration of former Yugoslavia and the processes of globalization. The starting thesis of the research is that the main actors of global politics are still guided by the modern principles of real-politics with interests as its basic category and power as its supreme value. In that context the main elements of external politics of USA as the key actor of the processes will be specially considered. In the concluding part of the research author will be argue in favor of the affirmation of a new model of global politics, matching the character and scope of the problems faced by humanity at the turn of the century and the millenium.

  5. Patient engagement with research: European population register study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McKevitt, Christopher; Fudge, Nina; Crichton, Siobhan; Bejot, Yannick; Daubail, Benoît; Di Carlo, Antonio; Fearon, Patricia; Kolominsky-Rabas, Peter; Sheldenkar, Anita; Newbound, Sophie; Wolfe, Charles D A

    2015-12-01

    Lay involvement in implementation of research evidence into practice may include using research findings to guide individual care, as well as involvement in research processes and policy development. Little is known about the conditions required for such involvement. To assess stroke survivors' research awareness, use of research evidence in their own care and readiness to be involved in research processes. Cross sectional survey of stroke survivors participating in population-based stroke registers in six European centres. The response rate was 74% (481/647). Reasons for participation in register research included responding to clinician request (56%) and to 'give something back' (19%); however, 20% were unaware that they were participating in a stroke register. Research awareness was generally low: 57% did not know the purpose of the register they had been recruited to; 73% reported not having received results from the register they took part in; 60% did not know about any research on stroke care. Few participants (7.6%) used research evidence during their consultations with a doctor. The 34% of participants who were interested in being involved in research were younger, more highly educated and already research aware. Across Europe, stroke survivors already participating in research appear ill informed about stroke research. Researchers, healthcare professionals and patient associations need to improve how research results are communicated to patient populations and research participants, and to raise awareness of the relationship between research evidence and increased quality of care. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  6. The Significance of Benefit Perceptions for the Ethics of HIV Research Involving Adolescents in Kenya.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rennie, Stuart; Groves, Allison K; Hallfors, Denise Dion; Iritani, Bonita J; Odongo, Fredrick S; Luseno, Winnie K

    2017-10-01

    Assessment of benefits is traditionally regarded as crucial to the ethical evaluation of research involving human participants. We conducted focus group discussions (FGDs) with health and other professionals engaged with adolescents, caregivers/parents, and adolescents in Siaya County, Kenya, to solicit opinions about appropriate ways of conducting HIV research with adolescents. Our data revealed that many focus group participants have a profoundly positive conception of participation in health research, including studies conferring seemingly few benefits. In this article, we identify and analyze five different but interrelated types of benefits as perceived by Kenyan adolescent and adult stakeholders in HIV research, and discuss their ethical significance. Our findings suggest that future empirical and conceptual research should concentrate on factors that may trigger researcher obligations to improve benefit perceptions among research participants.

  7. CEO Interests and Concerns in Second Wave ERP

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Simonsen, Martin Lyngaa; Nielsen, Esben Toftdahl; Kræmmergaard, Pernille

    2006-01-01

    This paper is the product of a study of what top management find interesting and what is of concern to them in relation to the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in the second wave of ERP. Very little empirical research exists on the subject of the interests and concerns of CEOs in relation...... to a company's ERP System. However research into information system literature indicates that CEOs are valued as key players in the management of IT to secure that the IT strategy is aligned with the business strategy. Based on the fact that very little prior research exists on the CEOs' interests and concerns...... in relation to the ERP system in the second wave, we employed an interpretive explorative case study with a grounded approach carried out through open interviews with CEOs. The research was conducted in three mid-size Danish production companies all of which have an ERP system. The contribution of this paper...

  8. REACHING OUT TO INTERESTED PARTIES: NEW APPROACHES FOR A NATIONAL LABORATORY

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    BRIGGS, S.L.K.

    2001-01-01

    Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a multi-disciplinary research facility that experienced several environmental incidents, resulting in an immediate and intense reaction from community members, activist groups, elected officials and regulators. A new management firm with a strong commitment to environmental stewardship, open communication, and cultural change, assumed management of BNL in March 1998, and immediately began to develop an IS0 14001 Environmental Management System that emphasized community outreach. This paper describes how BSA reengineered their external communications program to regain the trust of their stakeholders. The underlying goal was to ''inform and involve.'' A Community Involvement Plan was developed to solicit input from interested parties and use it in Laboratory decision-making processes. A Community Advisory Committee was formed to provide direct input to the Laboratory Director. A formal channel for two-way communication with elected officials and regulators was created. Finally, BNL utilized a previously untapped yet invaluable resource to reach out to the community: their employees

  9. Summary of my experiences as an undergraduate researcher in the U.S. and as a Fulbright Student Researcher at the Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy in Poland

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zelasko Susan

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Over the course of my undergraduate studies in Molecular and Cellular Biology and the experiences following my graduation, I became increasingly interested in research that can directly improve patient care. My research experiences in the U.S. include studying cytochrome P450 enzymes in Nanodiscs at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and examining immune evasion by acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells at the University of Colorado Cancer Center. Beyond work in the laboratory, I also participated in a year-long project to implement a water delivery system in Honduras, leading to my interest in infectious disease research. My interest in this field grew after learning about phage therapy, a way of treating antibiotic-resistant infections, during an honors virology seminar. Only a few research groups are dedicated to studying phage therapy, which includes the Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy (IIET in Poland. I was fortunate enough to receive a U.S. Fulbright research grant to study the immune response to phage therapy under the mentorship of Prof. hab. n. med. Andrzej Górski at the IIET. In this article, I will discuss my involvement at U.S. and European institutions, the insights I have gained, and how other students can similarly get involved in research.

  10. Legislative Issues in Disclosing Financial Conflicts of Interest to Participants in Biomedical Research: Effectiveness and Methodology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Jae Sun

    2017-12-01

    This research focuses on the analysis regarding disclosure of financial conflicts of interest (FCOI) after Gelsinger v. University of Pennsylvania (Penn). The main legal issue was that the participants did not have enough opportunity to make an autonomous decision about participating in the research because he was not informed about the researchers' and the institution's substantial FCOI. The disclosure system was adopted by the Code of Federal Regulations. Under the regulation, researchers and institutions need to report FCOI over $5,000 to the institution, and the internal review boards have to report to the federal authority if needed. In case of human research, the disclosure to Food and Drug Administration is mandatory. FCOI disclosure system would help participants to make an autonomous decision, and increase trust to the research process and researchers. Moreover, the system would let researchers keep fiduciary duty while (possibly) lowering legal liability in case of a lawsuit. There were discussions about the disclosure methodology in the United States. However, there have not been a lot of discussions in Korea even after the "Humidifier Disinfectant" case. Therefore, new legislations need to be considered. First, the system requires disclosure funded by not only government but also private institutions. Second, like California Supreme Court, the subject would be reviewed under the reasonable person standard by participants, including patents, equity, and stock. Third, the disclosure needs to include simple or brief explanation to the FCOI to be better understood by the participants. Fourth, the disclosure should be in the informed consent process. © 2017 The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences.

  11. Fundamental care and knowledge interests: Implications for nursing science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Granero-Molina, José; Fernández-Sola, Cayetano; Mateo-Aguilar, Ester; Aranda-Torres, Cayetano; Román-López, Pablo; Hernández-Padilla, José Manuel

    2017-11-09

    To characterise the intratheoretical interests of knowledge in nursing science as an epistemological framework for fundamental care. For Jürgen Habermas, theory does not separate knowledge interests from life. All knowledge, understanding and human research is always interested. Habermas formulated the knowledge interests in empirical-analytical, historical-hermeneutic and critical social sciences; but said nothing about health sciences and nursing science. Discursive paper. The article is organised into five sections that develop our argument about the implications of the Habermasian intratheoretical interests in nursing science and fundamental care: the persistence of a technical interest, the predominance of a practical interest, the importance of an emancipatory interest, "being there" to understand individuals' experience and an "existential crisis" that uncovers the individual's subjectivity. The nursing discipline can take on practical and emancipatory interests (together with a technical interest) as its fundamental knowledge interests. Nurses' privileged position in the delivery of fundamental care gives them the opportunity to gain a deep understanding of the patient's experience and illness process through physical contact and empathic communication. In clinical, academic and research environments, nurses should highlight the importance of fundamental care, showcasing the value of practical and emancipatory knowledge. This process could help to improve nursing science's leadership, social visibility and idiosyncrasy. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  12. Strategic Integration: The Practical Politics of Integrated Research in Context

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lorrae van Kerkhoff

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available Designing an integrative research program requires that research leaders negotiate a balance between the scientific interest of research and the practical interests of non-scientific partners. This paper examines the ways integrated research is formally categorised, and analyses the tangible expressions of the practical politics involved in reconciling scientific and practical interests. Drawing on a comparative study of two Australian Cooperative Research Centres, I argue that categories used by the research leaders to describe the research programs embody three different strategies for structuring the relationships between researchers and their partners. These include matching research program categories to partners’ implementation program categories, reproducing existing integrative partnership models, and filling gaps in understanding with new technical approaches. These strategies offer different advantages and disadvantages. The cases suggest that the integrative approach favoured by each Centre depended on issues such as the geographic scope of policy arenas, sources of scientific credibility, and the political risks facing partners. The practical politics of research organisation offers a new lens for understanding both the practice and theory of integrated research.

  13. Scientific journals and conflict of interest disclosure: what progress has been made?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruff, Kathleen

    2015-05-30

    The article addresses the failure of the scientific community to create an effective mechanism to protect the integrity of the scientific literature from improper influence by vested interests. The seriousness of this threat is increasingly recognized. Scientists willing to distort scientific research to serve vested interests receive millions of dollars for their services. Organizations such as the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, the World Association of Medical Editors and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) have launched initiatives to establish international standards for Conflict of Interest (COI) disclosure. COPE requires its 7,000 member journals to comply with its Code of Conduct for Journal Editors. While these initiatives are encouraging, they are internal educational endeavours only. Five examples are given showing failure of COPE member journals to comply with COPE's Code of Conduct. While COPE offers a complaint process, it involves only discussion and voluntary compliance. COPE neither polices nor enforces its Code. Instead of the current feeble, un-resourced process, which delivers neither transparency nor accountability, the article proposes the creation of a mechanism that will employ specific, effective measures to address contraventions of COI disclosure requirements.

  14. The Pulsar Search Collaboratory: Involving High School Students in Astronomical Research -- A Progress Report

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosen, Rachel; Heatherly, S.; McLauglin, M.; Lorimer, D.

    2010-01-01

    The National Science Foundation funded "Pulsar Search Collaboratory” project is a collaboration between the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, WV and West Virginia University aimed at provoking interest in Science-Technology-Engineering-Math (STEM) careers and increasing scientific and information technology literacy among high-school students within the state and region. Over the initial three-year phase of this program, 60 high-school teachers at schools throughout region and over 300 students will be involved in the search for new pulsars and transient objects by analyzing over 30 TB of data collected by the Green Bank Telescope in 2007. Although training is provided to teachers and student leaders via a summer workshop, additional students may join the program, learning from their peers how to conduct the data analysis. We are now in the second year of the PSC and we present a progress report from the first year of the PSC. We will summarize our approaches to implementing this challenging project, including the use of online tools to communicate with and sustain interest among the student teams, and the development of a unique graphical database through which students access and analyze pulsar plots. We will present the student results including one astronomical discovery as well as statistics on the plots that students have analyzed, including distribution among schools, number of known pulsars found, and RFI detection. Finally we will present evaluation results and lessons learned from the first year of the PSC. These include results from pre/post testing of teachers and students that show changes in student interest in STEM careers resulting from the PSC, and statistics on student participation.

  15. Interest in health promotion among Korean American Seventh-day Adventists attending a religious retreat.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jo, Angela M; Maxwell, Annette E; Choi, Sunhye; Bastani, Roshan

    2012-01-01

    Little is known about interest in faith-based health promotion programs among Asian American populations. Among the Christian denominations, the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) church is known to place a strong doctrinal emphasis on health. To understand appropriate ways to develop and implement health promotion programs and to conduct research among Korean American SDAs. We collaborated with the North American Division of Korean SDA Churches which sponsors annual week-long religious retreats for their church members. We developed and administered a 10-page questionnaire at their 2009 retreat in order to assess socio-demographic and church characteristics, religiosity, perceived relationship between health and religion, and interest and preferences for church-based health promotion programs. Overall, 223 participants completed our survey (123 in Korean and 100 in English). The sample consisted of regular churchgoers who were involved in a variety of helping activities, and many holding leadership positions in their home churches. The vast majority was interested in receiving health information at church (80%) in the form of seminars, cooking classes and workshops (50-60%). Fewer respondents were interested in support groups (27%). Some interests and preferences differed between English and Korean language groups. Korean American SDA church retreat participants from a large geographic area are very interested in receiving health information and promoting health at their churches and can potentially serve as "agents of influence" in their respective communities.

  16. The Challenge and Opportunity of Parental Involvement in Juvenile Justice Services.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burke, Jeffrey D; Mulvey, Edward P; Schubert, Carol A; Garbin, Sara R

    2014-04-01

    The active involvement of parents - whether as recipients, extenders, or managers of services - during their youth's experience with the juvenile justice system is widely assumed to be crucial. Parents and family advocacy groups note persisting concerns with the degree to which successful parental involvement is achieved. Justice system providers are highly motivated and actively working to make improvements. These coalescing interests provide a strong motivation for innovation and improvement regarding family involvement, but the likely success of these efforts is severely limited by the absence of any detailed definition of parental involvement or validated measure of this construct. Determining whether and how parental involvement works in juvenile justice services depends on the development of clear models and sound measurement. Efforts in other child serving systems offer guidance to achieve this goal. A multidimensional working model developed with parents involved in child protective services is presented as a template for developing a model for parental involvement in juvenile justice. Features of the model requiring changes to make it more adaptable to juvenile justice are identified. A systematic research agenda for developing methods and measures to meet the present demands for enhanced parental involvement in juvenile justice services is presented.

  17. Inclusive Research and Inclusive Education: Why Connecting Them Makes Sense for Teachers' and Learners' Democratic Development of Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nind, Melanie

    2014-01-01

    Following pushes from the disability movement(s) and increased interest in children and young people becoming involved in research concerning them, inclusive research is growing within and beyond education establishments. Yet this arena is alive with interesting and largely unanswered questions. This paper discusses some of them: What do inclusive…

  18. Barriers and facilitators experienced in collaborative prospective research in orthopaedic oncology

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rendon, J S; Swinton, M; Bernthal, N

    2017-01-01

    by orthopaedic oncological surgeons involved or interested in prospective multicentre collaboration. METHODS: All surgeons who were involved, or had expressed an interest, in the ongoing Prophylactic Antibiotic Regimens in Tumour Surgery (PARITY) trial were invited to participate in a focus group to discuss......: The 13 surgeons who participated in the discussion represented orthopaedic oncology practices from seven countries (Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Spain, Denmark, United States and Canada). Four categories and associated themes emerged from the discussion: the need for collaboration in the field...... of orthopaedic oncology due to the rarity of the tumours and the need for high level evidence to guide treatment; motivational factors for participating in collaborative research including establishing proof of principle, learning opportunity, answering a relevant research question and being part...

  19. [Significance of COI disclosure in medical research in Japan].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sone, Saburo

    2011-11-01

    In medical research, remarkable increase in collaboration with industry, public organizations such as universities, research institutions, and academic societies makes researchers to be more deeply involved with the activities of commercial entities. Activities of education and research, which are the responsibilities of academic institutions and societies, conflict with the interests of individuals associated with industrial-academic collaboration. Management of such conflict of interest (COI) is of much importance for academic institutions and societies to appropriately promote industrial-academic collaborative activities. Particularly, participation not only by healthy individuals, but also patients, is essential in the medical field as subjects of clinical research. For those involved in medical research, the deeper the level of COI with commercial entities, who are the financial or benefit provider, becomes serious, the more human rights of subjects could be violated, safety of life could be endangered, and research methods, data analysis and interpretation of results could be distorted. It is also possible that research may be unfairly evaluated or not published, even if the results are accurate, sometimes resulting in the ascertained effects of reporting bias included the overestimation of efficacy and the underestimation of safety risks of interventions. According to the COI management guideline of the Japanese Association of Medical Science (JAMS), significance of COI management is discussed.

  20. SELF-REPORTED DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CRASH-INVOLVED AND NON-CRASH-INVOLVED THREE-WHEELER DRIVERS IN SRI LANKA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A.K. SOMASUNDARASWARAN, Dr.

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available Despite being an important mode of transportation in the developing world, little research has been conducted to understand the factors contributing to crashes involving three wheel vehicles. This study surveyed a convenient sample of 505 professional three-wheeler drivers in Sri Lanka to explore the similarities and differences in the demographic and work characteristics between three-wheeler drivers who reported experiencing at least one collision in the past twelve months and those who reported that they were not involved in any collisions. Our study revealed some interesting results that were quite different from those obtained in the studies on professional drivers in developed countries. In particular, both drivers with less than one year and more than five years of driving experience in our study were found to be associated with higher probability of crash involvement. Also, the number of trips per day and the average travel distance per trip were found to be insignificant in delineating between crash-involved and non-crash-involved drivers. Moreover, crash-involved drivers, on average, have significantly fewer working days per week and fewer hours per day, suggesting that the conventional approach used in most developed countries to tackle fatigue among professional drivers do not appear to be suitable for solving the road safety problem involving three-wheeler drivers in a developing country. Also, since the age of most drivers falls in a narrow range, this U-shaped relationship is not likely to be a result of youth and ageing but of inexperience in newer drivers and complacency in more experienced drivers. Lastly, since a relatively large proportion of the drivers had driven without a valid driving license, legislation and enforcement interventions are likely to be less effective than education and engineering countermeasures.

  1. Strategies to enhance participant recruitment and retention in research involving a community-based population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCullagh, Marjorie C; Sanon, Marie-Anne; Cohen, Michael A

    2014-11-01

    Challenges associated with recruiting and retaining community-based populations in research studies have been recognized yet remain of major concern for researchers. There is a need for exchange of recruitment and retention techniques that inform recruitment and retention strategies. Here, the authors discuss a variety of methods that were successful in exceeding target recruitment and retention goals in a randomized clinical trial of hearing protector use among farm operators. Recruitment and retention strategies were 1) based on a philosophy of mutually beneficial engagement in the research process, 2) culturally appropriate, 3) tailored to the unique needs of partnering agencies, and 4) developed and refined in a cyclical and iterative process. Sponsoring organizations are interested in cost-effective recruitment and retention strategies, particularly relating to culturally and ethnically diverse groups. These approaches may result in enhanced subject recruitment and retention, concomitant containment of study costs, and timely accomplishment of study aims. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. Community Participation in Health Systems Research: A Systematic Review Assessing the State of Research, the Nature of Interventions Involved and the Features of Engagement with Communities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    George, Asha S; Mehra, Vrinda; Scott, Kerry; Sriram, Veena

    2015-01-01

    acceptability, with fewer efforts focused on quality, and few designs able to measure impact on health outcomes. With regards to participation, most articles supported community's in implementing interventions (95%, n = 247/260), in contrast to involving communities in identifying and defining problems (18%, n = 46/260). Many articles did not discuss who in communities participated, with just over a half of the articles disaggregating any information by sex. Articles were largely under theorized, and only five mentioned power or control. Majority of the articles (57/64) described community participation processes as being collaborative with fewer describing either community mobilization or community empowerment. Intrinsic individual motivations, community-level trust, strong external linkages, and supportive institutional processes facilitated community participation, while lack of training, interest and information, along with weak financial sustainability were challenges. Supportive contextual factors included decentralization reforms and engagement with social movements. Despite positive examples, community participation in health systems interventions was variable, with few being truly community directed. Future research should more thoroughly engage with community participation theory, recognize the power relations inherent in community participation, and be more realistic as to how much communities can participate and cognizant of who decides that.

  3. Involvement of stakeholders in determining health priorities of adolescents in rural South Africa.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Twine, Rhian; Kahn, Kathleen; Scholtz, Alexandra; Norris, Shane A

    2016-01-01

    When developing intervention research, it is important to explore issues from the community perspective. Interventions that promote adolescent health in South Africa are urgently needed, and Project Ntshembo ('hope') aims to improve the health of young women and their offspring in the Agincourt sub-district of rural northeast South Africa, actively using stakeholder involvement throughout the research process. This study aimed to determine adolescent health priorities according to key stakeholders, to align stakeholder and researcher priorities, and to form a stakeholder forum, which would be active throughout the intervention. Thirty-two stakeholders were purposefully identified as community members interested in the health of adolescents. An adapted Delphi incorporating face-to-face discussions, as well as participatory visualisation, was used in a series of three workshops. Consensus was determined through non-parametric analysis. Stakeholders and researchers agreed that peer pressure and lack of information, or having information but not acting on it, were the root causes of adolescent health problems. Pregnancy, HIV, school dropout, alcohol and drug abuse, not accessing health services, and unhealthy lifestyle (leading to obesity) were identified as priority adolescent health issues. A diagram was developed showing how these eight priorities relate to one another, which was useful in the development of the intervention. A stakeholder forum was founded, comprising 12 of the stakeholders involved in the stakeholder involvement process. The process brought researchers and stakeholders to consensus on the most important health issues facing adolescents, and a stakeholder forum was developed within which to address the issues. Stakeholder involvement as part of a research engagement strategy can be of mutual benefit to the researchers and the community in which the research is taking place.

  4. Inclusive research and inclusive education: why connecting them makes sense for teachers’ and learners’ democratic development of education

    OpenAIRE

    Nind, Melanie

    2014-01-01

    Following pushes from the disability movement(s) and increased interest in children and young people becoming involved in research concerning them, inclusive research is growing within and beyond education establishments. Yet this arena is alive with interesting and largely unanswered questions. This paper discusses some of them: What do inclusive research and inclusive education have in common? Where have the moves towards inclusive (participatory and emancipatory) research happened and why?...

  5. Institutional Motivation and Policy Change Associated with Land Grant Institutions' Involvement in Economic Development. ASHE Annual Meeting Paper.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cote, Lawrence S.; And Others

    A study investigated: (1) the degree of land grant institution involvement in economic development activity, defined in terms of 17 selected cooperative research and technology exchange activities; (2) changes in selected academic policies (patents, consulting, conflict of interest, conflict of commitment, and extra compensation); and (3) the…

  6. Impact of consumers' health beliefs, involvement and risk perception of fish consumption

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pieniak, Zuzanna; Verbeke, Wim; Scholderer, Joachim

    2008-01-01

    Purpose - To investigate the impact of consumers' health beliefs, involvement, and risk perception on fish consumption in five European countries. Design/methodology/approach - Cross-sectional data were collected through the SEAFOODplus pan-European consumer survey (n=4,786) with samples represen......Purpose - To investigate the impact of consumers' health beliefs, involvement, and risk perception on fish consumption in five European countries. Design/methodology/approach - Cross-sectional data were collected through the SEAFOODplus pan-European consumer survey (n=4,786) with samples...... representative for age and region in Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Spain and Poland. Structural equation modeling (LISREL) was used in order to simultaneously estimate the strength and direction of all relationships in our model.- Our model contributes to a better understanding of factors influencing fish...... consumption. Health involvement is found as an indirect whilst interest in healthy eating emerges as a direct driver of fish consumption behaviour. On the contrary, risk perception has a negative impact on fish consumption. Research limitations/implications - Further research using survey questionnaires could...

  7. 'But is it a question worth asking?' A reflective case study describing how public involvement can lead to researchers' ideas being abandoned.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boote, Jonathan D; Dalgleish, Mary; Freeman, Janet; Jones, Zena; Miles, Marianne; Rodgers, Helen

    2014-06-01

    It is good practice for the public to be involved in developing research ideas into grant applications. Some positive accounts of this process have been published, but little is known about when their reactions are negative and when researchers' ideas are abandoned. To present a case study account of when an academic-led idea for funding was not supported by stroke survivors and carers who were asked to contribute to its development, together with a reflection on the implications of the case from all the stakeholders involved. A reflective case study of a research idea, developed by an academic researcher, on which stakeholders were consulted. University researchers, clinicians, public involvement managers, and stroke survivors and carers from the NIHR's Stroke Research Network. Although the idea met with the approval of health professionals, who were keen to develop it into a funding bid, the stroke survivors and carers did not think the idea worth pursuing. This lack of patient and carer support led to the idea being abandoned. Reflecting on this, those involved in the consultation believed that the savings accrued from abandoning the idea, in terms of ensuring that public money is not wasted, should be seen as an important benefit of public involvement in the research process. Little is known about the role of the public in the abandonment of research ideas. We recommend that further research is undertaken into this important contribution that patients and the public can make to health research. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  8. Using mixed methods research in medical education: basic guidelines for researchers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schifferdecker, Karen E; Reed, Virginia A

    2009-07-01

    Mixed methods research involves the collection, analysis and integration of both qualitative and quantitative data in a single study. The benefits of a mixed methods approach are particularly evident when studying new questions or complex initiatives and interactions, which is often the case in medical education research. Basic guidelines for when to use mixed methods research and how to design a mixed methods study in medical education research are not readily available. The purpose of this paper is to remedy that situation by providing an overview of mixed methods research, research design models relevant for medical education research, examples of each research design model in medical education research, and basic guidelines for medical education researchers interested in mixed methods research. Mixed methods may prove superior in increasing the integrity and applicability of findings when studying new or complex initiatives and interactions in medical education research. They deserve an increased presence and recognition in medical education research.

  9. Novel participatory methods of involving patients in research: naming and branding a longitudinal cohort study, BRIGHTLIGHT.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taylor, Rachel M; Mohain, Jasjeet; Gibson, Faith; Solanki, Anita; Whelan, Jeremy; Fern, Lorna A

    2015-03-14

    Patient and public involvement (PPI) is central to research and service planning. Identifying effective, meaningful ways of involvement is challenging. The cohort study 'Do specialist services for teenagers and young adults with cancer add value?' follows young people for three years, examining outcomes associated with specialist care. Participant retention in longitudinal research can be problematic potentially jeopardising study completion. Maximising study awareness through high impact branding and publicity may improve study retention. Study names are typically generated by researchers rather than designed with patients. We aimed to involve young people in developing a brand identity and name to 'Do specialist services for teenagers and young adults with cancer add value?'. Nine young people aged 17-26 years diagnosed with cancer when aged 14-25 years participated in a one day workshop with further data collection at a patient conference. Methodology was similar to conventional branding and naming exercises and was divided into six stages. The workshop comprised five stages. Stage 1: 'What's in a brand' allowed young people to enquire why brands/logos are important, Stage 2: 'Brand Transformation' identified what young people needed to know and believe about the study when approached about participation, Stage 3: 'Brand Essence' determined how we wanted the study to be perceived by young people, Stage 4: 'What's in a name' identified potential names for the study. Stage 5: 'Logo creation' assembled the mood and feel of logos. Stage 6 was logo design and an electronic survey of 249 young people attending a patient conference. BRIGHTLIGHT was the final study name and the brand essence (or study personality) was friendly, supportive and inspiring. Four logos were designed and the final logo received 47% (n = 115) of votes. Acceptance and retention to BRIGHTLIGHT is higher than anticipated (80% versus 60%), this may be related to our integral PPI strategy. We

  10. News at Biochemia Medica: research integrity corner, updated guidelines to authors, revised author statement form and adopted ICMJE Conflict-of-Interest Form.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simundic, Ana-Maria

    2013-01-01

    From the issue 23(1) we have implemented several major changes in the editorial policies and procedures. We hope that those changes will raise awareness of our potential authors and reviewers for research and publication integrity issues as well as to improve the quality of our submissions and published articles. Among those changes is the launch of a special journal section called Research Integrity Corner. In this section we aim to publish educational articles dealing with different research and publication misconduct issues. Moreover, we have done a comprehensive revision of our Instructions to authors. Whereas our former Instructions to authors have mostly been concerned with recommendations for manuscript preparation and submission, the revised document additionally describes the editorial procedure for all submitted articles and provides exact journal policies towards research integrity, authorship, copyright and conflict of interest. By putting these Guidelines into action, we hope that our main ethical policies and requirements are now visible and available to all our potential authors. We have also revised the former Authorship and copyright form which is now called the Author statement form. This form now contains statements on the authorship, originality of work, research ethics, patient privacy and confidentiality, and copyright transfer. Finally, Journal has adopted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. From this issue, for each submitted article, authors are requested to fill out the "ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest" as well as the Author statement form and upload those forms during the online manuscript submission process. We honestly believe that our authors and readers will appreciate such endeavors. In this Editorial article we briefly explain the background and the nature of those recent major editorial changes.

  11. Involving Members of the Public in Health Economics Research: Insights from Selecting Health States for Valuation to Estimate Quality-Adjusted Life-Year (QALY) Weights.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goodwin, Elizabeth; Boddy, Kate; Tatnell, Lynn; Hawton, Annie

    2018-04-01

    Over recent years, public involvement in health research has expanded considerably. However, public involvement in designing and conducting health economics research is seldom reported. Here we describe the development, delivery and assessment of an approach for involving people in a clearly defined piece of health economics research: selecting health states for valuation in estimating quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs). This involvement formed part of a study to develop a condition-specific preference-based measure of health-related quality of life, the Multiple Sclerosis Impact Scale (MSIS-8D), and the work reported here relates to the identification of plausible, or realistic, health states for valuation. An Expert Panel of three people with multiple sclerosis (MS) was recruited from a local involvement network, and two health economists designed an interactive task that enabled the Panel to identify health states that were implausible, or unlikely to be experienced. Following some initial confusion over terminology, which was resolved by discussion with the Panel, the task worked well and can be adapted to select health states for valuation in the development of any preference-based measure. As part of the involvement process, five themes were identified by the Panel members and the researchers which summarised our experiences of public involvement in this health economics research example: proportionality, task design, prior involvement, protectiveness and partnerships. These are described in the paper, along with their practical implications for involving members of the public in health economics research. Our experience demonstrates how members of the public and health economists can work together to improve the validity of health economics research. Plain Language Summary It has become commonplace to involve members of the public in health service research. However, published reports of involving people in designing health economics research are rare. We

  12. Patient involvement in Danish health care

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vrangbaek, Karsten

    2015-01-01

    PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to investigate different types of patient involvement in Denmark, and to discuss the potential implications of pursuing several strategies for patient involvement simultaneously. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The paper presents a preliminary framework for anal......PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to investigate different types of patient involvement in Denmark, and to discuss the potential implications of pursuing several strategies for patient involvement simultaneously. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The paper presents a preliminary framework...... for analysis of patient involvement in health care. This framework is used to analyze key governance features of patient involvement in Denmark based on previous research papers and reports describing patient involvement in Danish health care. FINDINGS: Patient involvement is important in Denmark...... be identified when pursuing the strategies at the same time. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS: Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed framework further. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The paper includes...

  13. Curiosity, Interest and Engagement in Technology-Pervasive Learning Environments: A New Research Agenda

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arnone, Marilyn P.; Small, Ruth V.; Chauncey, Sarah A.; McKenna, H. Patricia

    2011-01-01

    This paper identifies the need for developing new ways to study curiosity in the context of today's pervasive technologies and unprecedented information access. Curiosity is defined in this paper in a way which incorporates the concomitant constructs of interest and engagement. A theoretical model for curiosity, interest and engagement in new…

  14. Bioethical Principles of Biomedical Research Involving Animals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bakir Mehić

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available A major requirement both of national and international ethical codes for human experimentation, and of national legislation in many cases, is that new substances or devices should not be used for the first time on human beings unless previous tests on animals have provided a reasonable presumption of their safety. That is so called: Good Clinical Praxis (GCP. There are two international ethical codes intended principally for the guidance of countries or institutions that have not yet formulated their own ethical requirements for human experimentation: The Declaration of Helsinki of the World Medical Association and The Proposed International Guidelines for Biomedical Research Involving Human Subjects of the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences and the World Health Organization[1].Animal experimentation is fundamental to the biomedical sciences, not only for the advancement of specific vital processes, but also for the improvement of methods of prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease both in man and in animals. The use of animals is also indispensable for testing the potency and safety of biological substances used in human and veterinary medicine, as well as for determining the toxicity of the rapidly growing number of molecules that never existed before in nature and which may represent a hazard to health. This extensive exploitation by man of animals implies philosophical and moral problems that are not peculiar to their use for scientific purposes, and there are no objective ethical criteria by which to judge claims and counterclaims in such matters[2]. However, there is a consensus that „deliberate cruelty is repugnant”.While many countries have general laws or regulations imposing penalties for ill-treatment of animals, relatively few make specific provision for their use for scientific purposes. Because of differing legal systems and cultural backgrounds there are varying approaches to the use of

  15. Effects of Cognitive Demand on Situational Interest and Running Task Performances

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, Xihe; Chen, Senlin

    2017-01-01

    This study examined the effect of cognitive demand on situational interest and performance using running tasks in physical education. Adolescents (N = 179) participated in a field study involving three different levels of cognitive demand. Running performances and situational interest were measured four times with a testing interval of seven days.…

  16. The Relations of Vocational Interests and Mathematical Literacy: On the Predictive Power of Interest Profiles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Warwas, Jasmin; Nagy, Gabriel; Watermann, Rainer; Hasselhorn, Marcus

    2009-01-01

    This study examines the relationships of vocational interests and mathematical literacy both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Extending previous research, the results of Holland's RIASEC (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional) scale scores are compared with results from a reductionist approach using…

  17. Gender-related academic and occupational interests and goals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Petersen, Jennifer; Hyde, Janet Shibley

    2014-01-01

    This chapter reviews the theories and empirical evidence concerning whether gender differences in academic and occupational goals and interests exist, and if so, why those differences may be present. Expectancy-value theory, stereotype threat, sociocultural theory, and the gender similarities hypothesis lay the theoretical framework for this chapter. Following a brief review of these theories, we describe the evidence for gender differences in academic ability and occupational interests and goals, using meta-analytic reviews wherever possible. Although there are few gender differences in academic ability, some gender differences in occupational goals and interests persist, particularly in science and mathematics. These gender differences may be due to parental or cultural expectations, changes in developmental trends, stereotypes and discrimination, or gendered-expectations to achieve work-family balance. Overall, the pathways to adult occupations are complex, involving many factors that affect occupational goals, interests, and self-concept.

  18. Focusing on Cause or Cure?: Priorities and Stakeholder Presence in Childhood Psychiatry Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Milner, Lauren C; Cho, Mildred K

    2014-01-01

    Biomedical research is influenced by many factors, including the involvement of stakeholder groups invested in research outcomes. Stakeholder involvement in research efforts raise questions of justice as their specific interests and motivations play a role in directing research resources that ultimately produce knowledge shaping how different conditions (and affected individuals) are understood and treated by society. This issue is highly relevant to child psychiatry research where diagnostic criteria and treatment strategies are often controversial. Biological similarities and stakeholder differences between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) provide an opportunity to explore this issue by comparing research foci and stakeholder involvement in these conditions. A subset of ADHD and ASD research articles published between 1970-2010 were randomly selected from the PubMed database and coded for research focus, funding source(s), and author-reported conflicts of interest (COIs). Chi-square analyses were performed to identify differences between and within ADHD and ASD research across time. The proportion of ADHD research dedicated to basic, description, and treatment research was roughly similar and remained stable over time, while ASD research showed a significant increase in basic research over the past decade. Government was the primary research funder for both conditions, but for-profit funders were a notable presence in ADHD research, while joint-funding efforts between non-profit and government funders were a notable presence in ASD research. Lastly, COIs were noted more frequently in ADHD than in ASD research. Our study shows significant differences in research foci and funding sources between the conditions, and identifies the specific involvement of for-profit and non-profit groups in ADHD and ASD, respectively. Our findings highlight the relationship between stakeholders outside the research community and

  19. Fake facts and alternative truths in medical research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hofmann, Bjørn

    2018-01-27

    Fake news and alternative facts have become commonplace in these so-called "post-factual times." What about medical research - are scientific facts fake as well? Many recent disclosures have fueled the claim that scientific facts are suspect and that science is in crisis. Scientists appear to engage in facting interests instead of revealing interesting facts. This can be observed in terms of what has been called polarised research, where some researchers continuously publish positive results while others publish negative results on the same issue - even when based on the same data. In order to identify and address this challenge, the objective of this study is to investigate how polarised research produce "polarised facts." Mammography screening for breast cancer is applied as an example. The main benefit with mammography screening is the reduced breast cancer mortality, while the main harm is overdiagnosis and subsequent overtreatment. Accordingly, the Overdiagnosis to Mortality Reduction Ratio (OMRR) is an estimate of the risk-benefit-ratio for mammography screening. As there are intense interests involved as well as strong opinions in debates on mammography screening, one could expect polarisation in published results on OMRR. A literature search identifies 8 studies publishing results for OMRR and reveals that OMRR varies 25-fold, from 0.4 to 10. Two experts in polarised research were asked to rank the attitudes of the corresponding authors to mammography screening of the identified publications. The results show a strong correlation between the OMRR and the authors' attitudes to screening (R = 0.9). Mammography screening for breast cancer appears as an exemplary field of strongly polarised research. This is but one example of how scientists' strong professional interests can polarise research. Instead of revealing interesting facts researchers may come to fact interests. In order to avoid this and sustain trust in science, researchers should disclose

  20. Development and testing of a medline search filter for identifying patient and public involvement in health research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rogers, Morwenna; Bethel, Alison; Boddy, Kate

    2017-06-01

    Research involving the public as partners often proves difficult to locate due to the variations in terms used to describe public involvement, and inability of medical databases to index this concept effectively. To design a search filter to identify literature where patient and public involvement (PPI) was used in health research. A reference standard of 172 PPI papers was formed. The references were divided into a development set and a test set. Search terms were identified from common words, phrases and synonyms in the development set. These terms were combined as a search strategy for medline via OvidSP, which was then tested for sensitivity against the test set. The resultant search filter was then assessed for sensitivity, specificity and precision using a previously published systematic review. The search filter was found to be highly sensitive 98.5% in initial testing. When tested against results generated by a 'real-life' systematic review, the filter had a specificity of 81%. However, sensitivity dropped to 58%. Adjustments to the population group of terms increased the sensitivity to 73%. The PPI filter designed for medline via OvidSP could aid information specialists and researchers trying to find literature specific to PPI. © 2016 Health Libraries Group.

  1. Senior high school female students' interest in physics as a course ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The study of females interest in physics is an issue of international concern. Of the sciences, physics is the subject in which the increase in the number of females involved has been particularly low. The term 'interest' may usually refers to preference to engage in some types of activities rather than others. This study ...

  2. Creative and Arts-Based Research Methods in Academic Research. Lessons from a Participatory Research Project in the Netherlands

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gwenda van der Vaart

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available This article contributes to the discussion on the value of creative and arts-based research methods to researchers interested in community resilience. Based on a participatory research project that used a mix of these methods conducted in a Dutch village, we provide more nuanced, concrete insights into their value. We elaborate on the three project stages: walking interviews, group discussions, and a creative workshop that resulted in an exhibition, and on the challenges encountered during our project. We discuss how each project stage contributed to producing multifaceted knowledge. Researchers can benefit from the discussions about the process and implications of creative and arts-based methods such as ours as, to date, there has been relatively little methodological reflection on these methods. Based on our study, we conclude that despite some challenges, creative and arts-based research methods have much to offer researchers interested in community resilience. We found they can: 1. generate deep insight by going beyond rational-cognitive ways of knowing and providing new ways of understanding people's real lived experiences and views; and 2. offer ways to "give back" and contribute to a community, potentially igniting a spark among community members to engage in further action and contribute to their community's resilience. This aligns with the, currently often articulated, aims of researchers to directly benefit those involved and to share their research findings with a broader non-academic audience.

  3. Doing Research, Doing Politics: ICT Research as a Form of Activism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juliet Webster

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Why do we do research into ICTs and society at all?  Apart from advancing our analytical understanding of technological and social change, for many researchers, social studies of technology provide a way of supplying evidence for social policy, or shaping social practice.  Even if we do not always make it explicit, for many of us, our research is both political and personal.   In this paper, I consider the ways in which social and political values shape research questions and research methods.   Drawing on examples of recent feminist and other research which has investigated the employment relations of technological change, I discuss the academic and political ambitions of the work, the recognition of interests and the involvement of stakeholders, and the relationship between researchers and ‘users’ of the research.  I reflect on the importance of revealing and explicating the politics of ICT research, particularly in the context of imminent economic and social restructuring.

  4. Conflict of interest reporting by authors involved in promotion of off-label drug use: an analysis of journal disclosures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kesselheim, Aaron S; Wang, Bo; Studdert, David M; Avorn, Jerry

    2012-01-01

    Litigation documents reveal that pharmaceutical companies have paid physicians to promote off-label uses of their products through a number of different avenues. It is unknown whether physicians and scientists who have such conflicts of interest adequately disclose such relationships in the scientific publications they author. We collected whistleblower complaints alleging illegal off-label marketing from the US Department of Justice and other publicly available sources (date range: 1996-2010). We identified physicians and scientists described in the complaints as having financial relationships with defendant manufacturers, then searched Medline for articles they authored in the subsequent three years. We assessed disclosures made in articles related to the off-label use in question, determined the frequency of adequate disclosure statements, and analyzed characteristics of the authors (specialty, author position) and articles (type, connection to off-label use, journal impact factor, citation count/year). We identified 39 conflicted individuals in whistleblower complaints. They published 404 articles related to the drugs at issue in the whistleblower complaints, only 62 (15%) of which contained an adequate disclosure statement. Most articles had no disclosure (43%) or did not mention the pharmaceutical company (40%). Adequate disclosure rates varied significantly by article type, with commentaries less likely to have adequate disclosure compared to articles reporting original studies or trials (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 0.10, 95%CI = 0.02-0.67, p = 0.02). Over half of the authors (22/39, 56%) made no adequate disclosures in their articles. However, four of six authors with ≥ 25 articles disclosed in about one-third of articles (range: 10/36-8/25 [28%-32%]). One in seven authors identified in whistleblower complaints as involved in off-label marketing activities adequately disclosed their conflict of interest in subsequent journal publications. This is a much

  5. Conflict of interest reporting by authors involved in promotion of off-label drug use: an analysis of journal disclosures.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aaron S Kesselheim

    Full Text Available Litigation documents reveal that pharmaceutical companies have paid physicians to promote off-label uses of their products through a number of different avenues. It is unknown whether physicians and scientists who have such conflicts of interest adequately disclose such relationships in the scientific publications they author.We collected whistleblower complaints alleging illegal off-label marketing from the US Department of Justice and other publicly available sources (date range: 1996-2010. We identified physicians and scientists described in the complaints as having financial relationships with defendant manufacturers, then searched Medline for articles they authored in the subsequent three years. We assessed disclosures made in articles related to the off-label use in question, determined the frequency of adequate disclosure statements, and analyzed characteristics of the authors (specialty, author position and articles (type, connection to off-label use, journal impact factor, citation count/year. We identified 39 conflicted individuals in whistleblower complaints. They published 404 articles related to the drugs at issue in the whistleblower complaints, only 62 (15% of which contained an adequate disclosure statement. Most articles had no disclosure (43% or did not mention the pharmaceutical company (40%. Adequate disclosure rates varied significantly by article type, with commentaries less likely to have adequate disclosure compared to articles reporting original studies or trials (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 0.10, 95%CI = 0.02-0.67, p = 0.02. Over half of the authors (22/39, 56% made no adequate disclosures in their articles. However, four of six authors with ≥ 25 articles disclosed in about one-third of articles (range: 10/36-8/25 [28%-32%].One in seven authors identified in whistleblower complaints as involved in off-label marketing activities adequately disclosed their conflict of interest in subsequent journal publications. This is

  6. Psychometric characteristics of a public-domain self-report measure of vocational interests: the Oregon Vocational Interest Scales.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pozzebon, Julie A; Visser, Beth A; Ashton, Michael C; Lee, Kibeom; Goldberg, Lewis R

    2010-03-01

    We investigated the psychometric properties of the Oregon Vocational Interest Scales (ORVIS), a brief public-domain alternative to commercial inventories, in a large community sample and in a college sample. In both samples, we examined the factor structure, scale intercorrelations, and personality correlates of the ORVIS, and in the community sample, we also examined the correlations of the ORVIS scales with cognitive abilities and with the scales of a longer, proprietary interest survey. In both samples, all 8 scales-Leadership, Organization, Altruism, Creativity, Analysis, Producing, Adventuring, and Erudition-showed wide variation in scores, high internal-consistency reliabilities, and a pattern of high convergent and low discriminant correlations with the scales of the proprietary interest survey. Overall, the results support the construct validity of the scales, which are recommended for use in research on vocational interests and other individual differences.

  7. Finding and engaging patients and the public to work collaboratively on an acute infection microbiology research public panel.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grier, Sally; Evans, David; Gibson, Andy; Chin, Teh Li; Stoddart, Margaret; Kok, Michele; Campbell, Richard; Kenny, Val; MacGowan, Alasdair

    2018-01-01

    In 2015 a microbiology team in Bristol joined a European research project that aims to develop new antibiotics to fight drug resistant infections. The microbiology team were convinced of the benefits of patient and public involvement, but had found it difficult to find former patients to work with on earlier microbiology research. This paper describes how the team overcame this challenge to successfully recruit a PPI panel to develop PPI within the European project.The advice from people with experience in public involvement was to decide what criteria were desirable for panel membership, think about what the work of the panel might involve and how long the project will go on. The team decided that experience of suffering a serious acute infection would qualify people to comment on this project. Next, the team needed to identify ways of finding people to join the PPI panel.The microbiology research team tried different ways to approach potential panel members. These included distributing flyers at public research events, sending emails to potentially interested people, posting a message on the hospital Facebook page and approaching eligible people known to the team. A direct approach was the most successful method - either by email, mail or in person. Ultimately 16 people were selected to form the panel. Key factors for success were planning what the work of the panel might be, perseverance despite early lack of success, and one person having overall responsibility for setting up the panel, with the support of the whole team. Background In 2015 the microbiology research team became involved in a large European programme of research aiming to bring new antimicrobial drugs onto the market to combat the increasing problem of multi-drug resistant infection. With the purpose of developing patient and public involvement (PPI) in this project, the team decided to recruit a PPI panel to work with. The microbiology team had previously worked with a PPI panel on other

  8. Consumer involvement in dietary guideline development: opinions from European stakeholders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Kerry A; Hermoso, Maria; Timotijevic, Lada; Barnett, Julie; Lillegaard, Inger Therese L; Řehůřková, Irena; Larrañaga, Ainhoa; Lončarević-Srmić, Azra; Andersen, Lene Frost; Ruprich, Jiří; Fernández-Celemín, Laura; Raats, Monique M

    2013-05-01

    The involvement of consumers in the development of dietary guidelines has been promoted by national and international bodies. Yet, few best practice guidelines have been established to assist with such involvement. Qualitative semi-structured interviews explored stakeholders' beliefs about consumer involvement in dietary guideline development. Interviews were conducted in six European countries: the Czech Republic, Germany, Norway, Serbia, Spain and the UK. Seventy-seven stakeholders were interviewed. Stakeholders were grouped as government, scientific advisory body, professional and academic, industry or non-government organisations. Response rate ranged from 45 % to 95 %. Thematic analysis was conducted with the assistance of NVivo qualitative software. Analysis identified two main themes: (i) type of consumer involvement and (ii) pros and cons of consumer involvement. Direct consumer involvement (e.g. consumer organisations) in the decision-making process was discussed as a facilitator to guideline communication towards the end of the process. Indirect consumer involvement (e.g. consumer research data) was considered at both the beginning and the end of the process. Cons to consumer involvement included the effect of vested interests on objectivity; consumer disinterest; and complications in terms of time, finance and technical understanding. Pros related to increased credibility and trust in the process. Stakeholders acknowledged benefits to consumer involvement during the development of dietary guidelines, but remained unclear on the advantage of direct contributions to the scientific content of guidelines. In the absence of established best practice, clarity on the type and reasons for consumer involvement would benefit all actors.

  9. The Public Health Service guidelines. Governing research involving human subjects: An analysis of the policy-making process

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frankel, M. S.

    1972-01-01

    The policy making process which led to development of the Public Health Service Guidelines governing research involving human subjects is outlined. Part 1 examines the evolution of PHS Guidelines, tracing (1) evolution of thought and legal interpretation regarding research using human subjects; (2) initial involvement of the Federal government; (3) development of the government's research program; (4) the social-political environment in which formal government policy was developed; and (5) various policy statements issued by the government. Part 2 analyzes the process by which PHS Guidelines were developed and examines the values and other underlying factors which contributed to their development. It was concluded that the evolution of the Guidelines is best understood within the context of a mixed-scanning strategy. In such a strategy, policy makers make fundamental decisions regarding the basic direction of policy and subsequent decisions are made incrementally and within the contexts set by the original fundamental decisions.

  10. Interest Matters: The Importance of Promoting Interest in Education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harackiewicz, Judith M; Smith, Jessi L; Priniski, Stacy J

    2016-10-01

    Interest is a powerful motivational process that energizes learning, guides academic and career trajectories, and is essential to academic success. Interest is both a psychological state of attention and affect toward a particular object or topic, and an enduring predisposition to reengage over time. Integrating these two definitions, the four-phase model of interest development guides interventions that promote interest and capitalize on existing interests. Four interest-enhancing interventions seem useful: attention-getting settings, contexts evoking prior individual interest, problem-based learning, and enhancing utility value. Promoting interest can contribute to a more engaged, motivated, learning experience for students.

  11. Ideals, practices, and future prospects of stakeholder involvement in sustainability science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mielke, Jahel; Vermaßen, Hannah; Ellenbeck, Saskia

    2017-12-12

    This paper evaluates current stakeholder involvement (SI) practices in science through a web-based survey among scholars and researchers engaged in sustainability or transition research. It substantiates previous conceptual work with evidence from practice by building on four ideal types of SI in science. The results give an interesting overview of the varied landscape of SI in sustainability science, ranging from the kinds of topics scientists work on with stakeholders, over scientific trade-offs that arise in the field, to improvements scientists wish for. Furthermore, the authors describe a discrepancy between scientists' ideals and practices when working with stakeholders. On the conceptual level, the data reflect that the democratic type of SI is the predominant one concerning questions on the understanding of science, the main goal, the stage of involvement in the research process, and the science-policy interface. The fact that respondents expressed agreement to several types shows they are guided by multiple and partly conflicting ideals when working with stakeholders. We thus conclude that more conceptual exchange between practitioners, as well as more qualitative research on the concepts behind practices, is needed to better understand the stakeholder-scientist nexus. Copyright © 2017 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.

  12. Funding Science with Science: Cryptocurrency and Independent Academic Research Funding

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Edward Lehner

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Scientific funding within the academy is an often complicated affair involving disparate and competing interests. Private universities, for instance, are vastly outpacing public institutions in garnering large, prestigious, science-related grants and external research investment. Inequities also extend to the types of research funded, with government, corporate, and even military interests privileging certain types of inquiry. This article proposes an innovative type of science research fund using cryptocurrencies, a fast-growing asset class. Although not a total funding solution, staking coins, specifically, can be strategically invested in to yield compound interest. These coins use masternode technologies to collateralize the network and speed transaction pace and may pay dividends to masternode holders, allowing institutions that purchase these types of central hubs to potentially engage in a lucrative form of dividend reinvestment. Using cryptocurrencies as a new funding stream may garner large amounts of capital and creation of nonprofit institutes to support the future of funding scientific research within educational institutions.

  13. How to Improve Interest, IQ, and Motivation of Vocational Students?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sumual, H.; Ombuh, D. M.

    2018-02-01

    The aim of this research was to study the effect of interest, motivation and IQ of students on the learning result. The survey method with quantitative approach was used in this study. The data were then analysed using path paradigm. Data were collected by questionnaire technique, special tests for IQ and documentation for learning outcomes. The results showed that the interest, IQ and the motivation influence significantly and positively on learning result as well as interest to learning motivation. However, no significant influence of IQ on Learning Motivation was detected in this research.

  14. Handling ethical, legal and social issues in birth cohort studies involving genetic research: responses from studies in six countries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    LeGrandeur Jane

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Research involving minors has been the subject of much ethical debate. The growing number of longitudinal, pediatric studies that involve genetic research present even more complex challenges to ensure appropriate protection of children and families as research participants. Long-term studies with a genetic component involve collection, retention and use of biological samples and personal information over many years. Cohort studies may be established to study specific conditions (e.g. autism, asthma or may have a broad aim to research a range of factors that influence the health and development of children. Studies are increasingly intended to serve as research platforms by providing access to data and biological samples to researchers over many years. This study examines how six birth cohort studies in North America and Europe that involve genetic research handle key ethical, legal and social (ELS issues: recruitment, especially parental authority to include a child in research; initial parental consent and subsequent assent and/or consent from the maturing child; withdrawal; confidentiality and sample/data protection; handling sensitive information; and disclosure of results. Methods Semi-structured telephone interviews were carried out in 2008/09 with investigators involved in six birth cohort studies in Canada, Denmark, England, France, the Netherlands and the United States. Interviewees self-identified as being knowledgeable about ELS aspects of the study. Interviews were conducted in English. Results The studies vary in breadth of initial consent, but none adopt a blanket consent for future use of samples/data. Ethics review of new studies is a common requirement. Studies that follow children past early childhood recognise a need to seek assent/consent as the child matures. All studies limit access to identifiable data and advise participants of the right to withdraw. The clearest differences among studies concern

  15. Avenues for Scientist Involvement in Earth and Space Science Education and Public Outreach (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peticolas, L. M.; Gross, N. A.; Hsu, B. C.; Shipp, S. S.; Buxner, S.; Schwerin, T. G.; Smith, D.; Meinke, B. K.

    2013-12-01

    used in conjunction with E/PO activities, NASA Wavelength (http://nasawavelength.org). Further supporting higher-education efforts, the Forums coordinate a network of science faculty, bringing them together at science conferences to share resources and experiences and to discuss pertinent education research. An online higher education clearinghouse, EarthSpace (http://www.lpi.usra.edu/earthspace), has been developed to provide faculty with news and funding information, the latest education research and resources for teaching undergraduates, and undergraduate course materials, including lectures, labs, and homework. This presentation will explore the Science E/PO Forums' pathways and tools available to support scientists involved in - or interested in being involved in - E/PO.

  16. PROPOSED CHANGES TO TAX LAW IN SOUTH AFRICA: INTEREST-FREE LOANS AS A TOOLIN ESTATE PLANNING?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. J. Preston

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Estate planning often involves the sale of an asset by an estate planner (the ownerof the asset to aninter vivostrust, as a related family trust. It also often happensthat the buying trust does not have the necessary funds to pay the purchase price.In this situation it is common practice to finance the sale by means of an interest-free loan agreement. The buying trust becomes the owner of the property, whilethe purchase price remains due and payable to the seller, without the loan amountaccruing interest. The result achieved by the estate planner is that potential furthergrowth of the asset soldis shifted to thetrust, resulting in an estate duty benefit forthe seller. The debate surrounding the use of the interest-free loan as an estateplanning tool has been polarised for years with most researchers concluding thatthe interest-free loan remains a useful estate planning tool. Doubts regarding theuse of such agreements and the trust for estate planning have recently neemrenewed. Since 2013, several statements by the different Ministers of Finance, intheir respective budget speeches, indicated that governmentwill propose taxavoidance legislation that will directly impact the taxation of trusts and connectedparties to a trust. This study will focus on the effect which the recent proposedchanges to the Income Tax Act (58 of 1962 might have on the use of interest-freeloans as an estate planning tool. The study is qualitative in nature with documentanalysis at its core. The main aim is to provide more clarity to estate planners inthis regard. The research concludes that the interest-free loan still has someadvantage as an estate planning tool, but if estate planning is done with only taxplanning and tax savings as motivation, that advantagemay disappear.

  17. Reflecting Contemporary Design Research

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Engholm, Ida

    2017-01-01

    In recent years, design research has been the object of growing attention in universities and academies throughout the world. The present paper addresses the heterogeneous character of design research and the current need for reflection on the various approaches and interests. For this purpose......, the paper follows two steps. First, it proposes a categorization of the field in the form of a position model. The paper’s underlying assumption is that design research as a discipline exists in many different forms that cannot necessarily be brought together under one common academic research tradition......; instead it is necessary to attempt to define the field in order to initiate discussions about what constitutes the various research bases for design. Second, the paper discusses the implication for future design research when it is an interdisciplinary field that involves many disciplines, mindsets...

  18. Contextual Factors and Vocational Interests in South Asian Americans' Vocational Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kantamneni, Neeta; Fouad, Nadya A.

    2013-01-01

    Examining vocational interests is a central component of career counseling; yet, little research has investigated structural differences for specific subpopulations or the role of cultural factors on vocational interests. The purpose of this study was to examine the structure of interests, congruence between expressed and measured interests, and…

  19. Involving the public in epidemiological public health research: a qualitative study of public and stakeholder involvement in evaluation of a population-wide natural policy experiment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson de Cuevas, Rachel; Nylén, Lotta; Burström, Bo; Whitehead, Margaret

    2018-04-20

    Public involvement in research is considered good practice by European funders; however, evidence of its research impact is sparse, particularly in relation to large-scale epidemiological research. To explore what difference public and stakeholder involvement made to the interpretation of findings from an evaluation of a natural policy experiment to influence the wider social determinants of health: 'Flexicurity'. Stockholm County, Sweden. Members of the public from different occupational groups represented by blue-collar and white-collar trade union representatives. Also, members of three stakeholder groups: the Swedish national employment agency; an employers' association and politicians sitting on a national labour market committee. Total: 17 participants. Qualitative study of process and outcomes of public and stakeholder participation in four focused workshops on the interpretation of initial findings from the flexicurity evaluation. New insights from participants benefiting the interpretation of our research findings or conceptualisation of future research. Participants sensed more drastic and nuanced change in the Swedish welfare system over recent decades than was evident from our literature reviews and policy analysis. They also elaborated hidden developments in the Swedish labour market that were increasingly leading to 'insiders' and 'outsiders', with differing experiences and consequences for financial and job security. Their explanation of the differential effects of the various collective agreements for different occupational groups was new and raised further potential research questions. Their first-hand experience provided new insights into how changes to the social protection system were contributing to the increasing trends in poverty among unemployed people with limiting long-standing illness. The politicians provided further reasoning behind some of the policy changes and their intended and unintended consequences. These insights fed into

  20. Situational interest of high school students who visit an aquarium

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dohn, Niels Bonderup

    2011-01-01

    of a combined analytical tool that captures both social and psychological aspects. Qualitative methods were used to generate data: observation, video recording, and interviews. The findings showed that the aquarium visit triggered a lot of situational interest among the students and led to positive emotions...... visits. This study suggests that teachers can find ways to foster students’ involvement in specific content areas and increase levels of academic motivation regardless of prior interest....

  1. Scientists Involved in K-12 Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robigou, V.

    2004-12-01

    The publication of countless reports documenting the dismal state of science education in the 1980s, and the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) report (1996) called for a wider involvement of the scientific community in K-12 education and outreach. Improving science education will not happen without the collaboration of educators and scientists working in a coordinated manner and it requires a long-term, continuous effort. To contribute effectively to K-12 education all scientists should refer to the National Science Education Standards, a set of policies that guide the development of curriculum and assessment. Ocean scientists can also specifically refer to the COSEE recommendations (www.cosee.org) that led to the creation of seven regional Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence. Scientists can get involved in K-12 education in a multitude of ways. They should select projects that will accommodate time away from their research and teaching obligations, their talent, and their interest but also contribute to the education reform. A few examples of effective involvement are: 1) collaborating with colleagues in a school of education that can lead to better education of all students and future teachers, 2) acting as a resource for a national program or a local science fair, 3) serving on the advisory board of a program that develops educational material, 4) speaking out at professional meetings about the value of scientists' involvement in education, 5) speaking enthusiastically about the teaching profession. Improving science education in addition to research can seem a large, overwhelming task for scientists. As a result, focusing on projects that will fit the scientist's needs as well as benefit the science reform is of prime importance. It takes an enormous amount of work and financial and personnel resources to start a new program with measurable impact on students. So, finding the right opportunity is a priority, and stepping

  2. A Qualitative Investigation of Californian Youth Interests in the Outdoors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marni Goldenberg

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available Prior research has found connections between youth participation in recreational activities and academic achievement, civic involvement, and improved health. To investigate California youth outdoor recreation attitudes, behaviors, and constraints, eight focus groups were conducted with community recreation center youth participants. Youth answered 10 questions about their experiences, attitudes, and perceptions of outdoor recreation. Data were analyzed using grounded theory. Three to seven axial codes were identified for each question. Results showed that youth want to have more access to outdoor recreational activities. However, there are frequently considerable constraints for the youth to overcome including draws of technology, family obligations, and laziness. Safety was a recurring concern among participants. Understanding youth attitudes and perceptions allows managers to meet youth needs, program for youth interests, and provides a strong foundation for marketing and as a rational for funding grants.

  3. Motivating the interest in Danish literature with Mobile Persuasive Learning

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gram-Hansen, Sandra Burri; Kristensen, Karina Dyrby; Gram-Hansen, Lasse Burri

    2013-01-01

    This paper analyses and discusses the potential of Mobile Persuasive Learning (MPL) in relation to learning scenarios that involve complex and interdisciplinary learning material. A specific example of MPL is presented, which has been developed with the intent to motivate the interest of the life...... and works of Danish author and playwright Kaj Munk. A Persuasive Learning Design (PLD) is tried in a specific learning scenario that aims to introduce the history of Kaj Munk to students in lower secondary education in Vester Hassing in Northern Jutland. The methodological background for the chosen scenario...... is described and evaluation activities are presented and discussed and it is argued that while the topic is possibly too complex for the particular age group of students chosen, evaluation feedback and researcher observations point towards a significant potential in further developing MPL-designs in a school...

  4. 21 CFR 56.110 - Expedited review procedures for certain kinds of research involving no more than minimal risk...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 21 Food and Drugs 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Expedited review procedures for certain kinds of research involving no more than minimal risk, and for minor changes in approved research. 56.110 Section 56.110 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES GENERAL...

  5. Implementation of a Collaborative Series of Classroom-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences Spanning Chemical Biology, Biochemistry, and Neurobiology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kowalski, Jennifer R.; Hoops, Geoffrey C.; Johnson, R. Jeremy

    2016-01-01

    Classroom undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) provide students access to the measurable benefits of undergraduate research experiences (UREs). Herein, we describe the implementation and assessment of a novel model for cohesive CUREs focused on central research themes involving faculty research collaboration across departments. Specifically, we implemented three collaborative CUREs spanning chemical biology, biochemistry, and neurobiology that incorporated faculty members’ research interests and revolved around the central theme of visualizing biological processes like Mycobacterium tuberculosis enzyme activity and neural signaling using fluorescent molecules. Each CURE laboratory involved multiple experimental phases and culminated in novel, open-ended, and reiterative student-driven research projects. Course assessments showed CURE participation increased students’ experimental design skills, attitudes and confidence about research, perceived understanding of the scientific process, and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. More than 75% of CURE students also engaged in independent scientific research projects, and faculty CURE contributors saw substantial increases in research productivity, including increased undergraduate student involvement and academic outputs. Our collaborative CUREs demonstrate the advantages of multicourse CUREs for achieving increased faculty research productivity and traditional CURE-associated student learning and attitude gains. Our collaborative CURE design represents a novel CURE model for ongoing laboratory reform that benefits both faculty and students. PMID:27810870

  6. Research Stakeholders’ Views on Benefits and Challenges for Public Health Research Data Sharing in Kenya: The Importance of Trust and Social Relations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jao, Irene; Kombe, Francis; Mwalukore, Salim; Bull, Susan; Parker, Michael; Kamuya, Dorcas; Molyneux, Sassy; Marsh, Vicki

    2015-01-01

    Background There is increasing recognition of the importance of sharing research data within the international scientific community, but also of the ethical and social challenges this presents, particularly in the context of structural inequities and varied capacity in international research. Public involvement is essential to building locally responsive research policies, including on data sharing, but little research has involved stakeholders from low-to-middle income countries. Methods Between January and June 2014, a qualitative study was conducted in Kenya involving sixty stakeholders with varying experiences of research in a deliberative process to explore views on benefits and challenges in research data sharing. In-depth interviews and extended small group discussions based on information sharing and facilitated debate were used to collect data. Data were analysed using Framework Analysis, and charting flow and dynamics in debates. Findings The findings highlight both the opportunities and challenges of communicating about this complex and relatively novel topic for many stakeholders. For more and less research-experienced stakeholders, ethical research data sharing is likely to rest on the development and implementation of appropriate trust-building processes, linked to local perceptions of benefits and challenges. The central nature of trust is underpinned by uncertainties around who might request what data, for what purpose and when. Key benefits perceived in this consultation were concerned with the promotion of public health through science, with legitimate beneficiaries defined differently by different groups. Important challenges were risks to the interests of study participants, communities and originating researchers through stigmatisation, loss of privacy, impacting autonomy and unfair competition, including through forms of intentional and unintentional 'misuse' of data. Risks were also seen for science. Discussion Given background structural

  7. Research Stakeholders' Views on Benefits and Challenges for Public Health Research Data Sharing in Kenya: The Importance of Trust and Social Relations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jao, Irene; Kombe, Francis; Mwalukore, Salim; Bull, Susan; Parker, Michael; Kamuya, Dorcas; Molyneux, Sassy; Marsh, Vicki

    2015-01-01

    There is increasing recognition of the importance of sharing research data within the international scientific community, but also of the ethical and social challenges this presents, particularly in the context of structural inequities and varied capacity in international research. Public involvement is essential to building locally responsive research policies, including on data sharing, but little research has involved stakeholders from low-to-middle income countries. Between January and June 2014, a qualitative study was conducted in Kenya involving sixty stakeholders with varying experiences of research in a deliberative process to explore views on benefits and challenges in research data sharing. In-depth interviews and extended small group discussions based on information sharing and facilitated debate were used to collect data. Data were analysed using Framework Analysis, and charting flow and dynamics in debates. The findings highlight both the opportunities and challenges of communicating about this complex and relatively novel topic for many stakeholders. For more and less research-experienced stakeholders, ethical research data sharing is likely to rest on the development and implementation of appropriate trust-building processes, linked to local perceptions of benefits and challenges. The central nature of trust is underpinned by uncertainties around who might request what data, for what purpose and when. Key benefits perceived in this consultation were concerned with the promotion of public health through science, with legitimate beneficiaries defined differently by different groups. Important challenges were risks to the interests of study participants, communities and originating researchers through stigmatisation, loss of privacy, impacting autonomy and unfair competition, including through forms of intentional and unintentional 'misuse' of data. Risks were also seen for science. Given background structural inequities in much international research

  8. Research Stakeholders' Views on Benefits and Challenges for Public Health Research Data Sharing in Kenya: The Importance of Trust and Social Relations.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Irene Jao

    Full Text Available There is increasing recognition of the importance of sharing research data within the international scientific community, but also of the ethical and social challenges this presents, particularly in the context of structural inequities and varied capacity in international research. Public involvement is essential to building locally responsive research policies, including on data sharing, but little research has involved stakeholders from low-to-middle income countries.Between January and June 2014, a qualitative study was conducted in Kenya involving sixty stakeholders with varying experiences of research in a deliberative process to explore views on benefits and challenges in research data sharing. In-depth interviews and extended small group discussions based on information sharing and facilitated debate were used to collect data. Data were analysed using Framework Analysis, and charting flow and dynamics in debates.The findings highlight both the opportunities and challenges of communicating about this complex and relatively novel topic for many stakeholders. For more and less research-experienced stakeholders, ethical research data sharing is likely to rest on the development and implementation of appropriate trust-building processes, linked to local perceptions of benefits and challenges. The central nature of trust is underpinned by uncertainties around who might request what data, for what purpose and when. Key benefits perceived in this consultation were concerned with the promotion of public health through science, with legitimate beneficiaries defined differently by different groups. Important challenges were risks to the interests of study participants, communities and originating researchers through stigmatisation, loss of privacy, impacting autonomy and unfair competition, including through forms of intentional and unintentional 'misuse' of data. Risks were also seen for science.Given background structural inequities in much

  9. Perceived organizational support and job involvement in the Iranian health care system: A case study of emergency room nurses in general hospitals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gorji, Hassan Abolghasem; Etemadi, Manal; Hoseini, Fatemeh

    2014-01-01

    Researchers believe that there are social exchanges between the employers and employees, because the employees would be interested in their organization and trust it based on how the organization values them and their welfare, comfort, and security. This belief is known as perceived organizational support that makes employees consider themselves as a part of their organization and have a commitment to it. The literature review is very limited in both variables in Iran and thus few studies also report the perceived organizational support and job involvement at the lower levels in our country. This research aimed at studying the levels of perceived organizational support and job involvement, relationship between this two, and the demographic factors relationship with both of them. This research was a descriptive analytical study conducted in 2012. The population included 123 emergency nurses in General Hospitals of Qom. Data were collected through Perceived Organizational Support and Job Involvement Questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS software, descriptive statistics and Spearman correlation and Chi-square test. Both mean scores for perceived organizational support and job involvement were in average level, 146/12 and 35/38, respectively. There was a significant relationship between perceived organizational support and age, education, tenure, organizational position, and job shift. There was also a significant relationship between job involvement and age and education and finally between perceived organizational support and job involvement (P = 0/029). The high correlation between perceived organizational support and job involvement indicates that the improvement of perceived organizational support are necessary through motivating the employees, showing interest in them, paying attention to them, respecting them, and providing development opportunity in the organization. These should be always considered by managers to improve job involvement.

  10. How does Student Interest Influence Their Participation Pursuing Accounting Educational Profession?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ika Dewi Hartutik

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available This purpose of this study is to determine the effect of career motivation, motivation quality, economic motivation, social motivation, and motivation on the interest of accounting students to enroll in education programs designed to produce professional accountants. Data analysis here involves descriptive statistics, classical assumptions, and hypothesis testing with multiple linear regression analysis. The results of the study clearly show (1 the motivation of career affects the interest of accounting students to follow PPAk; (2 quality motivation does not affect the interest of accounting students to follow PPAk; (3 economic motivation does not affect the interest of accounting students to follow PPAk; (4 social motivation does not affect the interest of accounting students to follow PPAk; (5 the degree motivation does not affect the interest of accounting students to follow PPAk.   Keywords: motivation, interests, education accounting profession, PPAk

  11. Integrated Cancer Research in Five Thematic Areas of Interest

    Science.gov (United States)

    2007-07-01

    Pulsar I LC/MS/MS instrument acquired in year 01 of the CDMRP award has logged over 8,000 sample hours since its commissioning. Newly acquired...previous confocal techniques which have been funded via the CDMRP. Left alone the TIRF technology is a powerful tool of discovery for cellular activity...Research Grade MALDI-ToF mass analysis via an ABI Voyager DE Star • Research Grade LC/MS/MS mass analysis via an ABI Q-Star Pulsar I • Research Grade

  12. Sociologies of energy. Towards a research agenda

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tomás Ariztía

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available This article offers a panoramic view of the field of the social studies of energy while introducing the articles of the special issue. It begins by discussing the progressive interest on studying the social aspects of energy. We relate this interest to the increasing challenges imposed by global climate change as well as the growing sociological attention to the material dimension of social life. The article suggests understanding energy and energy related phenomena as a socio-technical object which involve material, social, cultural and technical elements. The article then briefly describes different research areas concerning the intersection between energy and society and present the contributions to the monograph. We suggest that the articles comprised in this special issue are not only relevant for social scientist interested on energy related issues; they might also help energy professionals and researchers from outside the social sciences to further problematize the social aspects and challenges of energy.

  13. National evaluation of policies on individual financial conflicts of interest in Canadian academic health science centers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lexchin, Joel; Sekeres, Melanie; Gold, Jennifer; Ferris, Lorraine E; Kalkar, Sunila R; Wu, Wei; Van Laethem, Marleen; Chan, An-Wen; Moher, David; Maskalyk, M James; Taback, Nathan; Rochon, Paula A

    2008-11-01

    Conflicts of interest (COI) in research are an important emerging topic of investigation and are frequently cited as a serious threat to the integrity of human participant research. To study financial conflicts of interest (FCOI) policies for individual investigators working in Canadian academic health centers. Survey instrument containing 61 items related to FCOI. All Canadian academic health science centers (universities with faculties of medicine, faculties of medicine and teaching hospitals) were requested to provide their three primary FCOI policies. Number of all centers and teaching hospitals with policies addressing each of the 61 items related to FCOI. Only one item was addressed by all 74 centers. Thirteen items were present in fewer than 25% of centers. Fewer than one-quarter of hospitals required researchers to disclose FCOI to research participants. The role of research ethics boards (REBs) in hospitals was marginal. Asking centers to identify only three policies may not have inclusively identified all FCOI policies in use. Additionally, policies at other levels might apply. For instance, all institutions receiving federal grant money must comply with the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans. Canadian centers within the same level (for instance, teaching hospitals) differ significantly in the areas that their policies address and these policies differ widely in their coverage. Presently, no single policy in any Canadian center informs researchers about the broad range of individual FCOI issues. Canadian investigators need to understand the environment surrounding FCOI, be able to access and follow the relevant policies and be confident that they can avoid entering into a FCOI.

  14. Evolving the multiple roles of 'patients' in health-care research: reflections after involvement in a trial of shared decision-making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thornton, Hazel; Edwards, Adrian; Elwyn, Glyn

    2003-09-01

    This paper offers 'consumer-led' reflections by steering group members of a patient-centred research study involving consumer advocates, patients' associations and patients, throughout the whole study, from pre- to post-study phases. ORIGINAL STUDY DESIGN: The study: 'Shared decision making and risk communication in general practice' incorporated systematic reviews, psychometric evaluation of outcome measures, and quantitative, qualitative and health economic analyses of a cluster randomized trial of professional skill development, all informed by consumer and patient engagement. The work was produced by a wide collaboration led by researchers from the Department of General Practice, University of Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff, including a consumers' advisory group and a patients' association. The study participants were 20 general practitioners from Gwent, their practice staff, and almost 800 patients at these practices. Consumers and patients contributed to several stages of the research from inception and design, securing of funding, implementation of the protocol, and interpretation and dissemination of the findings. 'Patient involvement' research initiatives that include an equally wide variety of 'user' participants as 'health-professional' participants, accountable to a 'Health in Partnership' funded project, require a user-led viewpoint to be presented and disseminated. This paper presents reflections on the processes of the research, the interpretations of study findings by the involved parties, and notes how this model is fundamental to effective research in the field of patient-centred health care if future practice, policy and research are to change.

  15. STRATEGIES TO DEVELOP TEACHING AND LEARNING INTEREST A SECOND FOREIGN LANGUAGE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Geovanni Javier González-Ramos

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available This work shows the results of an investigation carried out at superior level where there were made learning atmospheres as a tool to stimulate the interest and learning for a second language. Through a qualitative approaching, the research method action strategies were used to achieve the relevant English learning among the sixth semester students. The technique used was no participant observation in order to analyze the scenarios with instruments such as check lists, rubrics, assessment course questionnaires and observation guides. The strategies applied showed that involving previous experiences and knowledge, inside activities which caught participants ́ attention, makes easier the appropriation of the second language in respect and tolerance environments, when the students ́ attention is caught the participative motivation is activated and becomes objective.

  16. Interest, Motivation and Attitude towards Science and Technology at K-12 Levels: A Systematic Review of 12?Years of Educational Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Potvin, Patrice; Hasni, Abdelkrim

    2014-01-01

    The relationship that exists between students and science and technology (S&T) is a complex and important one. If it is positive, then social, economic and environmental consequences are to be expected. Yet, many problems of interest/motivation/attitude (I/M/A) towards S&T have been recorded. A lot of research has been conducted on this…

  17. A research perspective on stakeholder involvement in radioactive waste management State of the art and future prospects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gaston Meskens; Erik Laes; Gilbert Eggermont

    2006-01-01

    Full text of publication follows: Our modern society is increasingly faced with challenges and problems that cannot be solved by a purely technical, political or social approach. Radioactive waste disposal site selection and management can be characterised as one of these challenges that require a trans-disciplinary approach, integrating social, philosophical and ethical aspects in a 'technical' practice. Along the spirit of this trans-disciplinary approach, and in order to ensure the necessary public support for a policy decision regarding this practice, stakeholder involvement is more and more seen as a necessary policy element in the decision making process. The aim is to achieve the broad involvement of individuals from civil society, with significant representation from local communities, elected representatives and NGO's, as well as scientists from outside radioactive waste management organisations, together with established players in the field, such as the implementers of radioactive waste management, public authorities, experts and waste producers. Several initiatives regarding stakeholder involvement in radioactive waste management have been taken already in Europe, as well in the research era as in 'the real world'. The presentation will give a state of the art by examining some representative examples on both national and European level. The focus will be on the main social, philosophical and ethical aspects of the problem at stake, seen through a trans-disciplinary research lens. The presentation will conclude with some ideas that could inspire as well theoretical researchers as stakeholders-in-the-field. (authors)

  18. A Research Perspective on Stakeholder Involvement in Radioactive Waste Management - State of the Art and Future Prospects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Meskens, Gaston; Laes, Erik; Eggermont, Gilbert

    2006-01-01

    Our modern society is increasingly faced with challenges and problems that cannot be solved by a purely technical, political or social approach. Radioactive waste disposal site selection and management can be characterised as one of these challenges that require a transdisciplinary approach, integrating social, philosophical and ethical aspects in a 'technical' practice. Along the spirit of this transdisciplinary approach, and in order to ensure the necessary public support for a policy decision regarding this practice, stakeholder involvement is more and more seen as a necessary policy element in the decision making process. The aim is to achieve the broad involvement of individuals from civil society, with significant representation from local communities, elected representatives and NGO's, as well as scientists from outside radioactive waste management organisations, together with established players in the field, such as the implementers of radioactive waste management, public authorities, experts and waste producers. Several initiatives regarding stakeholder involvement in radioactive waste management have been taken already in Europe, as well in the research era as in 'the real world'. The presentation will give a state of the art by examining some representative examples on both national and European level. The focus will be on the main social, philosophical and ethical aspects of the problem at stake, seen through a transdisciplinary research lens. The presentation will conclude with some ideas that could inspire as well theoretical researchers as stakeholders-in-the-field (Full text of contribution)

  19. Biomedical Science Ph.D. Career Interest Patterns by Race/Ethnicity and Gender.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kenneth D Gibbs

    Full Text Available Increasing biomedical workforce diversity remains a persistent challenge. Recent reports have shown that biomedical sciences (BMS graduate students become less interested in faculty careers as training progresses; however, it is unclear whether or how the career preferences of women and underrepresented minority (URM scientists change in manners distinct from their better-represented peers. We report results from a survey of 1500 recent American BMS Ph.D. graduates (including 276 URMs that examined career preferences over the course of their graduate training experiences. On average, scientists from all social backgrounds showed significantly decreased interest in faculty careers at research universities, and significantly increased interest in non-research careers at Ph.D. completion relative to entry. However, group differences emerged in overall levels of interest (at Ph.D. entry and completion, and the magnitude of change in interest in these careers. Multiple logistic regression showed that when controlling for career pathway interest at Ph.D. entry, first-author publication rate, faculty support, research self-efficacy, and graduate training experiences, differences in career pathway interest between social identity groups persisted. All groups were less likely than men from well-represented (WR racial/ethnic backgrounds to report high interest in faculty careers at research-intensive universities (URM men: OR 0.60, 95% CI: 0.36-0.98, p = 0.04; WR women: OR: 0.64, 95% CI: 0.47-0.89, p = 0.008; URM women: OR: 0.46, 95% CI: 0.30-0.71, p<0.001, and URM women were more likely than all other groups to report high interest in non-research careers (OR: 1.93, 95% CI: 1.28-2.90, p = 0.002. The persistence of disparities in the career interests of Ph.D. recipients suggests that a supply-side (or "pipeline" framing of biomedical workforce diversity challenges may limit the effectiveness of efforts to attract and retain the best and most

  20. Literacy and students' interest on Geosciences - Findings and results of GEOschools project

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fermeli, Georgia; Steininger, Fritz; Dermitzakis, Michael; Meléndez, Guillermo; Page, Kevin

    2014-05-01

    GEOschools is a European project supported by the Lifelong Learning Programme. Among the main aims of the project were to investigate the interest secondary school students have on geosciences and the teaching strategies used. Also, the development of a guide for Geosciences Literacy at a European level (Fermeli et al., 2011). GEOschools' literacy framework proposal is based on a comparative analysis of geoscience curricula in the partner countries (Austria, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal). Results of an "Interest Research" survey involved around 1750 students and 60 teachers from partner countries, combined with specific proposals by the project partners (Calonge et al., 2011). Results of the GEOschools "Interest research" survey evidence students show a higher interest in those topics which have a potentially higher social impact, such as mass extinctions, dinosaurs, geological hazards and disasters and origin and evolution of life (including human evolution). These results provide an evidence base to justify why curriculum content and teaching strategies can be made more effective through focusing mainly on such "interest topics", instead of trying to follow an excessively rigid, or academic, development of teaching programs (Fermeli et al., 2013). GEOschools literacy framework is summarized in 14 separate chapters, each including a brief description of the main themes of each subject, the intended learning outcomes as well as keywords and a bibliography. More particularly, the chapters of the framework describe what students should know and do, and how they should relate, as European citizens, to the geosciences. To face the challenges of the present and the future, modern citizens should be literate in natural sciences and, within the context of the geosciences, be able to: • Demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of basic principles, models, laws and terminology of Geosciences. • Know how and where to find and access scientifically reliable

  1. Interest rates and coupon bonds in quantum finance

    CERN Document Server

    Baaquie, Belal E

    2009-01-01

    The economic crisis of 2008 has shown that the capital markets need new theoretical and mathematical concepts to describe and price financial instruments. Focusing almost exclusively on interest rates and coupon bonds, this book does not employ stochastic calculus - the bedrock of the present day mathematical finance - for any of the derivations. Instead, it analyzes interest rates and coupon bonds using quantum finance. The Heath-Jarrow-Morton and the Libor Market Model are generalized by realizing the forward and Libor interest rates as an imperfectly correlated quantum field. Theoretical models have been calibrated and tested using bond and interest rates market data. Building on the principles formulated in the author's previous book (Quantum Finance, Cambridge University Press, 2004) this ground-breaking book brings together a diverse collection of theoretical and mathematical interest rate models. It will interest physicists and mathematicians researching in finance, and professionals working in the fin...

  2. Radiation risk statement in the participant information for a research protocol that involves exposure to ionising radiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Caon, Martin

    2005-01-01

    A Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) is required to scrutinise the protocols of clinical drug trials that recruit patients as participants. If the study involves exposing the participants to ionizing radiation the information provided to the participant should contain a radiation risk statement that is understandable by the Committee and the participant. The information that should be included in the risk statement is available from a variety of published sources and is discussed. The ARPANSA Code of Practice Exposure of Humans to Ionizing Radiation for Research Purposes (2005) states explicitly what the responsibilities of the researcher and the HREC are. Some research protocols do not provide the information required by good radiation protection practice and explicitly called for by the Code. Nine points (including: state that ionizing radiation is involved; that the radiation is additional to standard care; the effective dose to be received; the dose compared to natural background; the dose to the most exposed organs; a statement of risk; the benefits accruing from the exposure; ask the participant about previous exposures; name a contact person from whom information may be sought) that should be considered for inclusion in the participant information are presented and discussed. An example of a radiation risk statement is provided

  3. Teasing apart the relations between age, birth cohort, and vocational interests.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leuty, Melanie E; Hansen, Jo-Ida C

    2014-04-01

    Empirical evidence supports that aging is related to differences in work attitudes and motivation (Inceoglu, Segers, & Bartram, 2012; Kooij, de Lange, Jansen, Kanfer, & Kikkers, 2011; Ng & Feldman, 2008, 2010), but little research has explored the relations between age and vocational interests. Furthermore, recent studies of age and work attitudes suggest that generational experiences (i.e., birth year) may account for age differences in the workplace (Inceoglu et al., 2012; Ng & Feldman, 2008, 2010), which in turn suggests that researchers need to incorporate both age and birth cohort effects in their designs. Thus, this study was designed to explore the relations of age at the time of testing and birth year to vocational interests using a sample of adults (N = 1,792) collected over a period of 3 decades. As expected, age was not a significant predictor of most interests, but birth year also was not found to predict most interests, with the significant prediction of Realistic interests by both age and birth year being the exception. Gender, however, significantly predicted most areas of interests. Neither age nor gender moderated any relationships between birth year and interests. Results suggest that birth year and age were minimally related to interests as all effect sizes were small. Discussion of the results illustrates the need for further research on this issue and also offers considerations for attracting and retaining different generations of workers in light of the findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

  4. STEM development: A study of 6th--12th grade girls' interest and confidence in mathematics and science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heaverlo, Carol Ann

    Researchers, policymakers, business, and industry have indicated that the United States will experience a shortage of professionals in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. Several strategies have been suggested to address this shortage, one of which includes increasing the representation of girls and women in the STEM fields. In order to increase the representation of women in the STEM fields, it is important to understand the developmental factors that impact girls' interest and confidence in STEM academics and extracurricular programs. Research indicates that greater confidence leads to greater interest and vice versa (Denissen et al., 2007). This study identifies factors that impact girls' interest and confidence in mathematics and science, defined as girls' STEM development. Using Bronfenbrenner's (2005) bioecological model of human development, several factors were hypothesized as having an impact on girls' STEM development; specifically, the macrosystems of region of residence and race/ethnicity, and the microsystems of extracurricular STEM activities, family STEM influence, and math/science teacher influence. Hierarchical regression analysis results indicated that extracurricular STEM involvement and math teacher influence were statistically significant predictors for 6--12th grade girls' interest and confidence in mathematics. Furthermore, hierarchical regression analysis results indicated that the only significant predictor for 6--12th grade girls' interest and confidence in science was science teacher influence. This study provides new knowledge about the factors that impact girls' STEM development. Results can be used to inform and guide educators, administrators, and policy makers in developing programs and policy that support and encourage the STEM development of 6--12th grade girls.

  5. An abridged history of federal involvement in space weather forecasting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Caldwell, Becaja; McCarron, Eoin; Jonas, Seth

    2017-10-01

    Public awareness of space weather and its adverse effects on critical infrastructure systems, services, and technologies (e.g., the electric grid, telecommunications, and satellites) has grown through recent media coverage and scientific research. However, federal interest and involvement in space weather dates back to the decades between World War I and World War II when the National Bureau of Standards led efforts to observe, forecast, and provide warnings of space weather events that could interfere with high-frequency radio transmissions. The efforts to observe and predict space weather continued through the 1960s during the rise of the Cold War and into the present with U.S. government efforts to prepare the nation for space weather events. This paper provides a brief overview of the history of federal involvement in space weather forecasting from World War II, through the Apollo Program, and into the present.

  6. China in the Arctic: interests, actions and challenges

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Njord Wegge

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available This article gives an overview of China’s interest in and approach to the Arctic region. The following questions are raised: 1.Why is China getting involved in the Arctic, 2. How is China’s engagement in the Arctic playing out? 3, What are the most important issues that need to be solved in order for China to increase its relevance and importance as a political actor and partner in the Arctic. In applying a rationalist approach when answering the research questions, I identify how China in the last few years increasingly has been accepted as a legitimate stakeholder in the Arctic, with important stakes and activities in areas such as shipping, resource utilization and environmental science.  The article concludes with pointing out some issues that remain to be solved including Chinas role in issues of global politics, the role of observers in the Arctic Council as well as pointing out how China itself needs to decide important aspects of their future role in the region.

  7. Petroleum in the South China Sea : a Chinese national interest

    OpenAIRE

    Snildal, Knut

    2000-01-01

    The thesis analyses the relationship between China's petroleum policies and China's involvement in the South China Sea conflict. The aim of the thesis is to determine what China's national interest are in the South China Sea, and to detect who forms, and how, China's South China Sea policy. The thesis discusses whether China's assumed interest in the South China Sea of exploiting the petroleum reserves of the territorially disputed areas of the South China Sea is a short-term national interes...

  8. Congressional interest and input

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Donnelly, W.H.

    1985-01-01

    While congressional interest in nonproliferation policy has been evident since the 1940s, the 1970s were propitious for efforts by Congress to exert influence in this sphere. Its suspicions of the executive branch had been stirred by controversies over Vietnam and Watergate at the beginning of the decade; by the end of the decade, Congress was able to curtail the unrestrained freedom of the executive branch to carry out the vaguely stated policies of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954. Congressional nonproliferation interests were further amplified during the decade by pressures from the expanding environmental movement, which included a strong antinuclear plank. This was to bring down the powerful Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). The Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 abolished the AEC and divided its responsibilities between the new Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA), later to become the Department of Energy (DOE), and the new Nuclear Regulatory Commission

  9. Involving healthcare professionals and family carers in setting research priorities for end-of-life care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diffin, Janet; Spence, Michael; Spencer, Rebecca; Mellor, Peter; Grande, Gunn

    2017-02-02

    It is important to ensure regional variances are considered when setting future end-of-life research priorities, given the differing demographics and service provision. This project sought to identify end-of-life research priorities within Greater Manchester (United Kingdom). Following an initial scoping exercise, six topics within the 10 national priorities outlined by The Palliative and end-of-life care Priority Setting Partnership were selected for exploration. A workshop involving 32 healthcare professionals and a consultation process with 26 family carers was conducted. Healthcare professionals and carers selected and discussed the topics important to them. The topics selected most frequently by both healthcare professionals and carers were 'Access to 24 hour care', 'Planning end-of-life care in advance' and 'Staff and carer education'. Healthcare professionals also developed research questions for their topics of choice which were refined to incorporate carers' views. These questions are an important starting point for future end-of-life research within Greater Manchester.

  10. STEM Learning through Engineering Design: Impact on Middle Secondary Students' Interest towards STEM

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shahali, Edy Hafizan Mohd; Halim, Lilia; Rasul, Mohamad Sattar; Osman, Kamisah; Zulkifeli, Mohd Afendi

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to identify students' changes of (i) interest toward STEM subjects and (ii) interest to pursuing STEM career after participating in non-formal integrated STEM education programme. The programme exposed students with integrated STEM education through project based learning involving the application of five phases…

  11. RUSSIAN CORPORATIONS: THE PROBLEM OF INTRACORPORATE RELATIONS AND INTERESTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olga Brizhak

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available The article actualizes the problem of the study of intra-corporate relations and economic interests of the various economic actors involved in the corporate environment of the Russian economy. The author considers the specific conditions of socio-economic and innovative development of Russian big business.

  12. Undergraduate Student Involvement in International Research - The IRES Program at MAX-lab, Sweden

    Science.gov (United States)

    Briscoe, William; O'Rielly, Grant; Fissum, Kevin

    2014-03-01

    Undergraduate students associated with The George Washington University and UMass Dartmouth have had the opportunity to participate in nuclear physics research as a part of the PIONS@MAXLAB Collaboration performing experiments at MAX-lab at Lund University in Sweden. This project has supported thirteen undergraduate students during 2009 - 2011. The student researchers are involved with all aspects of the experiments performed at the laboratory, from set-up to analysis and presentation at national conferences. These experiments investigate the dynamics responsible for the internal structure of the nucleon through the study of pion photoproduction off the nucleon and high-energy Compton scattering. Along with the US and Swedish project leaders, members of the collaboration (from four different countries) have contributed to the training and mentoring of these students. This program provides students with international research experiences that prepare them to operate successfully in a global environment and encourages them to stay in areas of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) that are crucial for our modern, technology-dependent society. We will present the history, goals and outcomes in both physics results and student success that have come from this program. This work supported by NSF OISE/IRES award 0553467.

  13. Enhancing Students’ Interest through Mathematics Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Azmidar, A.; Darhim, D.; Dahlan, J. A.

    2017-09-01

    A number of previous researchers indicated that students’ mathematics interest still low because most of them have perceived that mathematics is very difficult, boring, not very practical, and have many abstract theorems that were very hard to understand. Another cause is the teaching and learning process used, which is mechanistic without considering students’ needs. Learning is more known as the process of transferring the knowledge to the students. Let students construct their own knowledge with the physical and mental reflection that is done by activity in the new knowledge. This article is literature study. The purpose of this article is to examine the Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract approach in theoretically to improve students’ mathematics interest. The conclusion of this literature study is the Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract approach can be used as an alternative to improve students’ mathematics interest.

  14. Brain regions involved in observing and trying to interpret dog behaviour.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Desmet, Charlotte; van der Wiel, Alko; Brass, Marcel

    2017-01-01

    Humans and dogs have interacted for millennia. As a result, humans (and especially dog owners) sometimes try to interpret dog behaviour. While there is extensive research on the brain regions that are involved in mentalizing about other peoples' behaviour, surprisingly little is known of whether we use these same brain regions to mentalize about animal behaviour. In this fMRI study we investigate whether brain regions involved in mentalizing about human behaviour are also engaged when observing dog behaviour. Here we show that these brain regions are more engaged when observing dog behaviour that is difficult to interpret compared to dog behaviour that is easy to interpret. Interestingly, these results were not only obtained when participants were instructed to infer reasons for the behaviour but also when they passively viewed the behaviour, indicating that these brain regions are activated by spontaneous mentalizing processes.

  15. The Greater Involvement of People Living with AIDS principle: theory versus practice in Ontario's HIV/AIDS community-based research sector.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Travers, R; Wilson, M G; Flicker, S; Guta, A; Bereket, T; McKay, C; van der Meulen, A; Cleverly, S; Dickie, M; Globerman, J; Rourke, S B

    2008-07-01

    Drawing on the Greater Involvement of People with HIV/AIDS (GIPA) principle, the HIV/AIDS movement began to "democratize" research in Canada in the mid-1990s. To date, there is little evidence about the success of the community-based research (CBR) movement in relation to the implementation of GIPA. We draw on findings from a larger study examining barriers and facilitating factors in relation to HIV-related CBR in Ontario, Canada. An online survey was completed by 39 senior managers in Ontario AIDS service organizations (ASOs). Twenty-five in-depth, semi-structured interviews were then conducted to further explore the survey findings. Survey respondents reported that, compared to researchers and frontline service providers, people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) tended to be the least involved in all stages (input, process and outcome) of CBR projects. AIDS service organizations with a mandate that included serving rural and urban communities reported even lower levels of PLWHA involvement in CBR. Qualitative data reveal complex barriers that make meaningful PLWHA engagement in CBR difficult, including: HIV-related stigma; health-related challenges; "credentialism"; lack of capacity to engage in research; other issues taking priority; and mistrust of researchers. Facilitating factors included valuing lived experience; training and mentoring opportunities; financial compensation; trust building; and accommodating PLWHA's needs. While there is strong support for the GIPA principles in theory, practice lags far behind.

  16. Teachers’ knowledge for teaching compound interest

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Craig Pournara

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available There is increasing acknowledgement that teachers’ knowledge for teaching mathematics is multifaceted and topic specific. Given the paucity of research on the teaching and learning of financial mathematics in general, little can be known about teachers’ knowledge for teaching compound interest. However, since financial mathematics is a component of the school curriculum in South Africa, and an important element of financial literacy more broadly, attention needs to be given to knowledge for teaching financial mathematics, and compound interest in particular. Drawing from a larger study in which the author taught a financial mathematics course to pre-service secondary mathematics teachers, a theoretical elaboration is provided of the underlying mathematics of compound interest, and connections with the world of banking. Based on findings from the study, two key student errors are identified: the over-generalisation of linear thinking in multiplicative scenarios, and the over-generalisation of reversible operations in percentage-change scenarios. Taken together, teachers’ knowledge of relevant mathematics, of the banking context and of learners’ conceptions will contribute to building a knowledge-base for teachers’ knowledge for teaching compound interest.

  17. Personality, Vocational Interests, and Work Values of Medical Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duffy, Ryan D.; Borges, Nicole J.; Hartung, Paul J.

    2009-01-01

    Interests, personality, and values figure prominently in work motivation, yet little research has examined the combined influence of these factors on vocational behavior. The present study therefore examined relationships among these variables in a sample of 282 medical students (169 women, 113 men) who responded to the Strong Interest Inventory,…

  18. The undergraduate research fellows program: a unique model to promote engagement in research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vessey, Judith A; DeMarco, Rosanna F

    2008-01-01

    Well-educated nurses with research expertise are needed to advance evidence-based nursing practice. A primary goal of undergraduate nursing curricula is to create meaningful participatory experiences to help students develop a research skill set that articulates with rapid career advancement of gifted, young graduates interested in nursing research and faculty careers. Three research enrichment models-undergraduate honors programs, research assistant work-for-hire programs, and research work/mentorship programs-to be in conjunction with standard research content are reviewed. The development and implementation of one research work/mentorship program, the Boston College undergraduate research fellows program (UGRF), is explicated. This process included surveying previous UGRFs followed by creating a retreat and seminars to address specific research skill sets. The research skill sets included (a) how to develop a research team, (b) accurate data retrieval, (c) ethical considerations, (d) the research process, (e) data management, (f) successful writing of abstracts, and (g) creating effective poster presentations. Outcomes include evidence of involvement in research productivity and valuing of evidenced-based practice through the UGRF mentorship process with faculty partners.

  19. Correction of refractive errors in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) involved in visual research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mitchell, Jude F; Boisvert, Chantal J; Reuter, Jon D; Reynolds, John H; Leblanc, Mathias

    2014-08-01

    Macaques are the most common animal model for studies in vision research, and due to their high value as research subjects, often continue to participate in studies well into old age. As is true in humans, visual acuity in macaques is susceptible to refractive errors. Here we report a case study in which an aged macaque demonstrated clear impairment in visual acuity according to performance on a demanding behavioral task. Refraction demonstrated bilateral myopia that significantly affected behavioral and visual tasks. Using corrective lenses, we were able to restore visual acuity. After correction of myopia, the macaque's performance on behavioral tasks was comparable to that of a healthy control. We screened 20 other male macaques to assess the incidence of refractive errors and ocular pathologies in a larger population. Hyperopia was the most frequent ametropia but was mild in all cases. A second macaque had mild myopia and astigmatism in one eye. There were no other pathologies observed on ocular examination. We developed a simple behavioral task that visual research laboratories could use to test visual acuity in macaques. The test was reliable and easily learned by the animals in 1 d. This case study stresses the importance of screening macaques involved in visual science for refractive errors and ocular pathologies to ensure the quality of research; we also provide simple methodology for screening visual acuity in these animals.

  20. Robust Canonical Correlation Analysis: Audio-visual fusion for learning continuous interest

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nicolaou, Mihalis A.; Panagakis, Yannis; Zafeiriou, Stefanos; Pantic, Maja

    The problem of automatically estimating the interest level of a subject has been gaining attention by researchers, mostly due to the vast applicability of interest detection. In this work, we obtain a set of continuous interest annotations for the SE-MAINE database, which we analyse also in terms of

  1. Revisiting Uncovered Interest Rate Parity: Switching Between UIP and the Random Walk

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    R. Huisman (Ronald); R.J. Mahieu (Ronald)

    2007-01-01

    textabstractIn this paper, we examine in which periods uncovered interest rate parity was likely to hold. Empirical research has shown mixed evidence on UIP. The main finding is that it doesn’t hold, although some researchers were not able to reject UIP in periods with large interest differentials

  2. The ecological research needs of business.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Armsworth, Paul R; Armsworth, Anastasia N; Compton, Natalie; Cottle, Phil; Davies, Ian; Emmett, Bridget A; Fandrich, Vanessa; Foote, Matthew; Gaston, Kevin J; Gardiner, Phil; Hess, Tim; Hopkins, John; Horsley, Nick; Leaver, Natasha; Maynard, Trevor; Shannon, Delia

    2010-04-01

    Businesses have an unrivalled ability to mobilize human, physical and financial capital, often manage large land holdings, and draw on resources and supply products that impact a wide array of ecosystems. Businesses therefore have the potential to make a substantial contribution to arresting declines in biodiversity and ecosystem services. To realize this potential, businesses require support from researchers in applied ecology to inform how they measure and manage their impacts on, and opportunities presented to them by, biodiversity and ecosystem services.We reviewed papers in leading applied ecology journals to assess the research contribution from existing collaborations involving businesses. We reviewed applications to, and grants funded by, the UK's Natural Environment Research Council for evidence of public investment in such collaborations. To scope opportunities for expanding collaborations with businesses, we conducted workshops with three sectors (mining and quarrying, insurance and manufacturing) in which participants identified exemplar ecological research questions of interest to their sector.Ten to fifteen per cent of primary research papers in Journal of Applied Ecology and Ecological Applications evidenced business involvement, mostly focusing on traditional rural industries (farming, fisheries and forestry). The review of UK research council funding found that 35% of applications mentioned business engagement, while only 1% of awarded grants met stricter criteria of direct business involvement.Some questions identified in the workshops aim to reduce costs from businesses' impacts on the environment and others to allow businesses to exploit new opportunities. Some questions are designed to inform long-term planning undertaken by businesses, but others would have more immediate commercial applications. Finally, some research questions are designed to streamline and make more effective those environmental policies that affect businesses

  3. The humanitarian and scientific interests of Thomas Hodgkin (1798 ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    ... and his involvement in the movement for the abolition of capital punishment and in mental hospital and prison reform. His wide range of scientific interests included medical education, geography, ethnology and social anthropology. He is buried in Jaffa, Israel, where he died of dysentery while on a trip with Montefiore.

  4. Why do policies change? Institutions, interests, ideas and networks in three cases of policy reform.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shearer, Jessica C; Abelson, Julia; Kouyaté, Bocar; Lavis, John N; Walt, Gill

    2016-11-01

    Policy researchers have used various categories of variables to explain why policies change, including those related to institutions, interests and ideas. Recent research has paid growing attention to the role of policy networks-the actors involved in policy-making, their relationships with each other, and the structure formed by those relationships-in policy reform across settings and issues; however, this literature has largely ignored the theoretical integration of networks with other policy theories, including the '3Is' of institutions, interests and ideas. This article proposes a conceptual framework integrating these variables and tests it on three cases of policy change in Burkina Faso, addressing the need for theoretical integration with networks as well as the broader aim of theory-driven health policy analysis research in low- and middle-income countries. We use historical process tracing, a type of comparative case study, to interpret and compare documents and in-depth interview data within and between cases. We found that while network changes were indeed associated with policy reform, this relationship was mediated by one or more of institutions, interests and ideas. In a context of high donor dependency, new donor rules affected the composition and structure of actors in the networks, which enabled the entry and dissemination of new ideas and shifts in the overall balance of interest power ultimately leading to policy change. The case of strategic networking occurred in only one case, by civil society actors, suggesting that network change is rarely the spark that initiates the process towards policy change. This analysis highlights the important role of changes in institutions and ideas to drive policymaking, but hints that network change is a necessary intermediate step in these processes. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press in association with The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. All rights reserved. For

  5. Strengthening Knowledge Co-Production Capacity: Examining Interest in Community-University Partnerships

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kathleen P. Bell

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available Building successful, enduring research partnerships is essential for improving links between knowledge and action to address sustainability challenges. Communication research can play a critical role in fostering more effective research partnerships, especially those concerned with knowledge co-production processes. This article focuses on community-university research partnerships and factors that influence participation in the co-production process. We identify specific pathways for improving partnership development through a prospective analytical approach that examines community officials’ interest in partnering with university researchers. Using survey responses from a statewide sample of Maine municipal officials, we conduct a statistical analysis of community-university partnership potential to test a conceptual model of partnership interest grounded in natural resource management theory and environmental communication. Our findings both support and advance prior research on collaborations. Results reveal that belief in the helpfulness of the collaborator to solve problems, institutional proximity, familiarity, perceived problem severity and problem type and trust influence interest in developing community-university partnerships. These findings underscore the benefits of proactively assessing partnership potential prior to forming partnerships and the important roles for communication research within sustainability science, especially with regard to strengthening partnership formation and knowledge co-production processes.

  6. Interest in science: a RIASEC-based analysis of students' interests

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dierks, Pay O.; Höffler, Tim N.; Blankenburg, Janet S.; Peters, Heide; Parchmann, Ilka

    2016-01-01

    Considering the reported lack of interest in the STEM-domain and the consequential difficulties in recruiting talented and interested young academics, the development of effective enrichment measures is indispensable. This requires a precise picture of students' interests. The paper presents an approach to characterize interest profiles in explicitly science-related activities. Adapting Holland's RIASEC-model, an instrument was developed and tested which allows the description of interest in activities along Holland's dimensions (and a seventh dimension networking) within the confined science domain. The findings of a study with N = 247 students (age cohorts 12-19 years) uncovered interest differences for the environments school, enrichment, and (prospective) vocation. The mutual importance of the performed activity and the environment the activity is performed in is confirmed by a cross-classified model. Contrasting different subgroups revealed multiple results, e.g., girls showed more interest in artistic and social activities within the science domain. High achieving students showed more interest in science-related activities in all dimensions. In conclusion, using our adapted model, students' interest structure can be described in a differentiated manner. This could lay the foundation for further analyses of students' interest profiles and thereby contribute to future development of effective and congruent enrichment measures, thus enhancing interest in science.

  7. Changes in Student Science Interest from Elementary to Middle School

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coutts, Trudi E.

    This study is a transcendental phenomenological study that described the experience of students’ interest in science from elementary school through middle school grades and the identification of the factors that increase or decrease interest in science. Numerous researchers have found that interest in science changes among children and the change in interest seems to modulate student motivation, which ultimately leads to fewer children choosing not only science classes in the future but science careers. Research studies have identified numerous factors that affect student interest in science; however, this study incorporated the lived experience of the child and looked at this interest in science through the lens of the child. The study design was a collective cross-case study that was multi-site based. This study utilized a sample of children in fifth grade classes of three different elementary schools, two distinct seventh grade classes of different middle schools, and ninth grade children from one high school in the State of Illinois. The phenomenon was investigated through student interviews. The use of one-on-one semi-structured interviews limited to 45 minutes in length provided the researcher with data of each child’s description of science interest. All interviews were audio- recorded and transcribed verbatim. The data was collected and analyzed in order to identify themes, and finally checked for validity. The most significant findings of this study, and possible factors contributing to science interest in children as they progress from elementary to high school, were those findings relating to hands-on activities, the degree to which a student was challenged, the offering of new versus previously studied topics in the curriculum, the perceived relevance of the curricular materials to personal life, and the empowerment children felt when they were allowed to make choices related to their learning experiences. This study’s possible implications for

  8. Are the lights going out on British science? Researchers are in uproar after a recently established

    CERN Multimedia

    2008-01-01

    Scientists involved in physics and space research - and I'm one of them - are fortunate people. Their work is stimulating; it's the basis for most of the technologies that modern life depends on; and its research frontiers - from atoms to the cosmos - interest a wide public.

  9. Research network involving retired experts as a means to keep alive relevant knowledge - The case of IPEN in Brazil

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Barroso, A.C.O.; Imakuma, K.; Reis, J.S.B. Jr.

    2007-01-01

    courses within the USP grid. 3) The fact that the Brazilian Council for Scientific and Technological Development - CNPq has a range of research productivity fellowships for people who achieve a certain sustained level of publications. Depending on the researcher's classification, this mechanism includes a monthly income addition plus small funds for expenditures in traveling and laboratory consumables. Items a and b have caused many IPEN employees start to work towards graduate education at USP (IPEN). As they take most of the disciplines in subjects related to nuclear, which are taught by senior researchers / professors of IPEN, they end up performing their degree research work in fields that, most of the times, are related to the current work of their advisors at IPEN. Retired researchers usually keep the professor status and activities, probably because of their strong research group links, constructed over the years, but also because to have students is possibly the most important lever to keep up the indexes to maintain the CNPq productivity fellowship. This dynamic network is a powerful natural mechanism to transfer knowledge from retiring experts and also to disseminate nuclear knowledge, since IPEN has a diversified portfolio of disciplines that is also of interest to other students of the USP community. Based on the co-authorship of publications involving people from IPEN, collected annually from 2000 up to 2005, the social network evidenced by these data bases was analyzed. For the network 'photography' of each year a set of indicators were computed: a participation index of retirees in the publications of IPEN (no. of publications involving retirees / total no. of publications); a partnership index measuring the 'social capillarity' of the average collaborating retiree (no. of current workers that co-authored / no. of retired co-authors); a publication productivity index for the retired researchers; and some SN indexes, such as, diameter of the network

  10. Programmatic research. A desirable (or despotic?) nursing strategy for the future.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Emden, C; Borbasi, S

    2000-01-01

    Programmatic research is a planned and purposeful strategy in the development of a nursing discipline. We discuss the case made for programmatic research by international scholars as a determinant of scholarship and professional advancement, as well as issues about whether it should be knowledge or methods driven. As an example, the development of a clinical program involving the establishment of 'nursing beds' in the United Kingdom is described, together with a published critique of the program. While the literature portrays an overwhelmingly positive outlook for programmatic research, there are some cautionary tales to be told. We address these by way of the literature and personal experience--especially relating to tensions created by fixed research agendas, inability of researchers to follow their own research interests and funding difficulties. Potential disadvantages of programmatic research are also included. We conclude with suggestions as to how research students, early career researchers, and experienced researchers might become involved with programmatic research in positive ways.

  11. Has Research on Collaborative Learning Technologies Addressed Massiveness? A Literature Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Manathunga, Kalpani; Hernández-Leo, Davinia

    2015-01-01

    There is a growing interest in understanding to what extent innovative educational technologies can be used to support massive courses. Collaboration is one of the main desired elements in massive learning actions involving large communities of participants. Accumulated research in collaborative learning technologies has proposed and evaluated…

  12. Patterns of Word Reading Skill, Interest and Self-Concept of Ability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Viljaranta, Jaana; Kiuru, Noona; Lerkkanen, Marja-Kristiina; Silinskas, Gintautas; Poikkeus, Anna-Maija; Nurmi, Jari-Erik

    2017-01-01

    The majority of previous research on academic skills, self-concept of ability and interest has deployed the variable-oriented approach and focused on self-concept, or ability, or interest only. This study examined the patterns and dynamics of pattern change in Finnish children's word reading skill, self-concept of ability and interest from…

  13. Involving children and young people in clinical research through the forum of a European Young Persons' Advisory Group: needs and challenges.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gaillard, Segolene; Malik, Salma; Preston, Jenny; Escalera, Begonya Nafria; Dicks, Pamela; Touil, Nathalie; Mardirossian, Sandrine; Claverol-Torres, Joana; Kassaï, Behrouz

    2018-02-19

    Children and young people are seen as fundamental to the design and delivery of clinical research as active and reflective participants. In Europe, involvement of children and young people in clinical research is promoted extensively in order to engage young people in research as partners and to give them a voice to raise their own issues or opinions and for their involvement in planning and decision making in addition to learning research skills. Children and young people can be trained in clinical research through participation in young person advisory groups (YPAGs). Members of YPAGs assist other children and young people to learn about clinical research and share their experience and point of view with researchers, thereby possibly influencing all phases of research including the development and prioritization of research questions, design and methods, recruitment plans, and strategies for results dissemination. In the long term, the expansion of YPAGs in Europe will serve as a driving force for refining pediatric clinical research. It will help in a better definition of research projects according to the patients' needs. Furthermore, direct engagement of children and young people in research will be favorable to both researchers and young people. © 2018 Société Française de Pharmacologie et de Thérapeutique.

  14. Vocational interest, counselling, socioeconomic status and age as ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between vocational interest, counselling, socio-economic status and age on re-entry of girls into school in Edo State. One research hypothesis was formulated to guide the study. The design was correlational. Five research instruments were used: they are the Modified ...

  15. Call for expressions of interest: Strengthening engineering research ...

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

    cgu

    2017-08-14

    Aug 14, 2017 ... significant are the many structural barriers that pertain to the overall ... professional engineering organizations in supporting the ... and research-based solutions in the Global South, IDRC is uniquely .... to engage in the project throughout its duration through: student internships, equipment-sharing,.

  16. The Role of Interest in Learning Science through Stories

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klassen, Stephen; Klassen, Cathrine Froese

    2015-01-01

    A major aspect of the power of a historically based science story derives from its ability to cultivate interest in the reader or listener. In this paper, we review the research on interest originating from diverse scholarly areas and apply it to the understanding, construction, and effective use of science stories in both formal and informal…

  17. Interest rate modeling post-crisis challenges and approaches

    CERN Document Server

    Grbac, Zorana

    2015-01-01

    Filling a gap in the literature caused by the recent financial crisis, this book provides a treatment of the techniques needed to model and evaluate interest rate derivatives according to the new paradigm for fixed income markets. Concerning this new development, there presently exist only research articles and two books, one of them an edited volume, both being written by researchers working mainly in practice. The aim of this book is to concentrate primarily on the methodological side, thereby providing an overview of the state-of-the-art and also clarifying the link between the new models and the classical literature. The book is intended to serve as a guide for graduate students and researchers as well as practitioners interested in the paradigm change for fixed income markets. A basic knowledge of fixed income markets and related stochastic methodology is assumed as a prerequisite.

  18. A Low-involvement Choice Model for Consumer Panel Data

    OpenAIRE

    Brugha, Cathal; Turley, Darach

    1987-01-01

    The long overdue surge of interest in consumer behaviour texts in low-involvement purchasing has only begun to gather momemtum. It often takes the form of asking whether concepts usually associated with high-involvement purchasing can be applied, albeit in a modified form, to low-involvement purchasing. One such concept is evoked set, that is the range of brands deemed acceptable by a consumer in a particular product area. This has characteristically been associated with consumption involving...

  19. Measuring spirituality as a universal human experience: development of the Spiritual Attitude and Involvement List (SAIL).

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Jager Meezenbroek, Eltica; Garssen, Bert; Van den Berg, Machteld; Tuytel, Gerwi; Van Dierendonck, Dirk; Visser, Adriaan; Schaufeli, Wilmar B

    2012-01-01

    Many cancer patients experience spirituality as highly supportive while coping with their disease. Most research as well as most questionnaires in this field is religious orientated. The Spiritual Attitude and Involvement List was developed to enable research on spirituality among religious and nonreligious people. It consists of seven subscales that measure connectedness with oneself, with others and nature, and with the transcendent. Among a student, a healthy population, a healthy interested, a curative cancer, and a palliative cancer sample factorial, convergent and discriminant validity were demonstrated, as well as adequate internal consistency and test-retest reliability.

  20. Competitive Analysis for Online Leasing Problem with Compound Interest Rate

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xingyu Yang

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available We introduce the compound interest rate into the continuous version of the online leasing problem and discuss the generalized model by competitive analysis. On the one hand, the optimal deterministic strategy and its competitive ratio are obtained; on the other hand, a nearly optimal randomized strategy is constructed and a lower bound for the randomized competitive ratios is proved by Yao's principle. With the help of numerical examples, the theoretical results show that the interest rate puts off the purchase date and diminishes the uncertainty involved in the decision making.

  1. Rethinking Interventionist Research: Navigating Oppositional Networks in a Danish Hospital

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Niels Christian Nickelsen

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available This article reports on a researcher's experience of being invited to improve upon an organisational situation in a hospital in Denmark. Being engaged with different networks of participants in the organisational situation, the researcher found himself wrapped up in various agendas, with different sections of the staff trying to persuade him to support their own respective interests. The article theorises these persuasions as "seductions." Consequently, the task of the researcher involves selecting, prioritising, and working upon his connections with various networks, while each continues to represent a different set of values, expectations, interests, and experiences. Based on this conceptualisation, the article interrogates the notion of interventionist research. Intervention is not limited only to a simple one-way causation where the interventionist does something useful in a studied field; it also involves engagement with multiple networks present in the field, each of which tries to seduce the researcher in order to befriend this potentially powerful collaborator. Using the term "interference," rather than intervention, to represent the researcher's action, the article suggests that the researcher is often not able to control the effect of his or her interference unilaterally. Neither is the researcher able to establish an overarching perspective which can be used to evaluate the final outcome. The article calls for fresh thinking on how a researcher may be engaged usefully in an organisational situation, working within the boundaries defined by the institutional logic, confronting the seductions from multiple sources, and still seeking to maintain a ground that justifies one's identity as a researcher.

  2. Health Behavior Interests of Adolescents with Unhealthy Diet and Exercise: Implications for Weight Management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thunfors, Peter; Collins, Bradley N.; Hanlon, Alexandra L.

    2009-01-01

    This study sought to determine individual factors that may influence adolescents' interests in various health behaviors and, by extension, their potential interest in programs that promote healthy lifestyles and reduce obesity. The sample consisted of 737 rural Pennsylvania (United States) middle and high school students not involved in either…

  3. Librarian involvement in a nutrition undergraduate research course: preparing nutrition students for evidence-based practice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Susan C; Penumetcha, Meera

    2010-01-01

    Given the foundational importance of literature searching skills to later stages of research and, ultimately, evidence-based practice, the authors wanted to assess a unique strategy for teaching such skills. This pilot study describes the results of an undergraduate nutrition research course in which a librarian lead several class sessions. The goal of this study was to assess students' perceptions, attitudes and use of research literature and resources before and after a course partially taught by a librarian. Twenty-seven students enrolled in an undergraduate Introduction to Research course at Georgia State University were given pre- and post-test questionnaires at the beginning and end of a course that included three librarian-led class sessions. Most of the results indicate that the repeated involvement of a librarian enriched this particular undergraduate research course. By the end of the course, students were more comfortable in libraries and with using library resources; they used the campus library more frequently; they were more confident in their ability to find high-quality information on nutrition-related topics and identify strengths and weaknesses of different information sources; and they felt they gained skills that will help them achieve their educational and career goals.

  4. History-Based Instruction Enriched with Various Sources of Situational Interest on the Topic of the Atom: the Effect on Students' Achievement and Interest

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pekdağ, Bülent; Azizoğlu, Nursen

    2018-05-01

    This study examines the effect of history-based instruction on the topic of the atom on students' academic achievement and their interest in the history of science, investigating as well the relationship between student interest and academic achievement. The sample of the study consisted of two groups of freshman students from an undergraduate elementary science teachers program. The same chemistry instructor taught the groups, which were randomly assigned as an experimental and a control group. The students in the control group received traditional teacher-centered instruction, while the experimental group students were taught the topic of the atom using history-based instruction enriched with various sources of situational interest such as novelty, autonomy, social involvement, and knowledge acquisition (NASK). Data gathering instruments were the Atom Achievement Test and the History of Science Interest Scale, administered to both of the groups before and after the instruction. The data were analyzed with the independent-samples t test, the paired-samples t test, and one-way ANCOVA statistical analysis. The results showed that the history-based instruction including NASK was more effective than traditional instruction in improving the students' learning of the subject of the atom as well as in stimulating and improving students' interest in the history of science. Further, students with high interest displayed significantly better achievement than students with low interest. The better learning of the topic of the atom was more pronounced in the case of students with a high interest in the history of science compared to students with moderate or low interest.

  5. Experience and meaning of user involvement: some explorations from a community mental health project.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Truman, Carole; Raine, Pamela

    2002-05-01

    With an increased interest in and policy commitment to involving service users in the planning and delivery of health service provision, there is a clear need to explore both the rhetoric and realities of what user involvement entails. In the present paper, by drawing upon an evaluation of a community-based exercise facility for people with mental health problems, the authors explore ways in which the reality of user involvement is subject to a range of configurations within health services. The paper describes a piece of qualitative research that was undertaken within a participatory framework to explore the nature of user involvement within the facility. The data have been analysed using a grounded theory approach to provide insights into: the organisational context in which user involvement takes place; factors which encourage meaningful participation on the part of service users; perceived barriers to user involvement; and issues of sustainability and continuity. This research approach has enabled the authors to explore the views and experiences of users, service providers and referral agencies in relation to the nature and potential for user involvement. The findings illustrate ways in which user involvement may take place under both flexible and formal arrangements across a variety of activities. The present paper provides an account of some of the meanings and experiences of what 'successful' user participation may involve and the conditions which underpin 'success'. The authors conclude that successful and meaningful user involvement should enable and support users to recognise their existing skills, and to develop new ones, at a pace that suits their particular circumstances and personal resources. This process may require adaptation not only by organisations, but also by service providers and non-involved users.

  6. Research Notes ~ Selecting Research Areas and Research Design Approaches in Distance Education: Process Issues

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sudarshan Mishra

    2004-11-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to study the process used for selecting research areas and methodological approaches in distance education in India. Experts from the field of distance education in India were interviewed at length, with the aim of collecting qualitative data on opinions on process-issues for selecting areas for research, research design, and appropriate methodological approaches in distance education. Data collected from these interviews were subjected to content analysis; triangulation and peer consultation techniques were used for cross-checking and data verification. While the findings and recommendations of this study have limited application in that they can only be used in the specific context outlined in this paper, respondents in this study nonetheless revealed the pressing need for more process-oriented research in examining media and technology, learners and learning, and distance learning evaluation processes. Our research, which yielded interesting empirical findings, also determined that a mixed approach – one that involves both quantitative and qualitative methods – is more appropriate for conducting research in distance education in India. Qualitative evidence from our research also indicates that respondents interviewed felt that emphasis should be placed on interdisciplinary and systemic research, over that of traditional disciplinary research. Research methods such as student self-reporting, extensive and highly targeted interviews, conversation and discourse analysis, were determined to as useful for data collection for this study.

  7. What Motivates Brazilian Academic Researchers to Transfer Technology?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lisiane Closs

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available This study investigated what motivates Brazilian academic researchers to get involved in University-Industry Technology Transfer (UITT and deterrents to contributing to this process. The research relied on interviews with experienced academic scientists and managers from four universities in Brazil. Determination, persistence and entrepreneurship, related to motivational types Self-direction and Stimulation, were prominent. Hedonism, Achievement and Power - highlighting a shift in their professional identity - were also observed. Universalism type involved opening career opportunities, awakening and maintaining the interest of students. The major motivational goals were: generate resources, solve problems, professional challenge, personal gains, personal gratification, academic prestige, competition, and solving problems of society. Factors that discouraged researchers were: time required for UITT, lack of incentive, innovation environment, and fear of contravening university rules, among others. Knowledge of motivational profiles of academic scientists favors the development of incentive policies and programs for UITT, helping to attract and retain qualified researchers at Brazilian universities.

  8. A review of the issues and challenges involved in using participant-produced photographs in nursing research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balmer, Claire; Griffiths, Frances; Dunn, Janet

    2015-07-01

    To discuss the issues and challenges that may occur when using participant-produced photographs in nursing research. The place of visual representation in society is increasingly being recognized and there is a growing discussion on the advantages of implementing visual methods, such as photography, in health and illness research. Integrating photographs has much potential for both nurse researchers and participants but it remains a novel method of gathering qualitative data and many aspects have had little consideration in the nursing and medical literature. This paper presents a discussion of some of the issues that may arise when using photographs as data. It draws on examples of the insights and experiences we had when we asked study participants to produce photographs to complement their interviews designed to explore their experience of living after cancer. Discussion paper This paper is based on our own experiences and supported by literature and theory. Disseminating this research has prompted much interest from nurses and clinical staff. This paper should highlight some of the factors that may need to be addressed before employing such a novel method, thus ensuring the research process is positive and the outcome relevant for all parties. Examples are used here to illustrate practical, ethical and philosophical issues around the research plan, creating and interpreting photographic data, confidentiality and copyright and analysing and disseminating photographs produced for research. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  9. Stakeholder involvement in the evaluation of a multipurpose canister system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Williams, J.R.; Kane, D.; Smith, T.B. Jr.

    1994-01-01

    The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM), began evaluating a multipurpose canister (MPC) concept in October of 1992. This followed recommendations by the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB) and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that DOE develop a nuclear waste management system that achieves system integration, standardization, and reduced fuel-handling operations. Industry organizations such as Edison Electric Institute (EEI) and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) had conducted earlier studies that concluded advantages to the nuclear waste management system may be offered by such a concept. The MPC concept involves a metal canister which would contain multiple spent nuclear fuel assemblies. The canister would be sealed at the nuclear power plant and would not be reopened. The MPC would then be placed inside separate casks or overpacks for storage, transportation, and disposal. An important factor in DOE's evaluation of the MPC concept was the involvement of external parties. This paper describes that involvement process for the OCRWM's MPC implementation program. External parties who have an interest or stake in the program are referred to as stakeholders

  10. Personality Facets and RIASEC Interests: An Integrated Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Armstrong, Patrick Ian; Anthoney, Sarah Fetter

    2009-01-01

    Research examining links between personality and interest have typically focused on links between measures of the five factor model and Holland's RIASEC types. However, the five factor model of personality can be divided in to a larger set of narrow domain personality scales measuring facets of the "big five" traits. Research in a number of fields…

  11. INTEREST RATES AND CURRENCIES EFFECTS ON ISLAMIC AND CONVENTIONAL BONDS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ghazali Syamni

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available Bond markets have not been well developed in emerging countries. Realizing its important role, especially after the 1997 crises and the islamic economics development, emerging countries have started to develop such markets. This research examines the effect of interest rates and currencies on Islamic and conventional bonds in Bursa Malaysia. The analysis on Islamic bonds shows that interest rates and currencies do not influence Islamic bonds, which supports the prohibition of interest in Islam. The analysis on conventional bonds finds evidence that both interest rates and currencies affect conventional bond. It also finds evidence of a negative association between interest rates and a conventional bond. Keywords: Interest rate, currency, conventional bond, Islamic bond JEL classification numbers: G11, G12, G15

  12. The area-of-interest problem in eyetracking research: A noise-robust solution for face and sparse stimuli.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hessels, Roy S; Kemner, Chantal; van den Boomen, Carlijn; Hooge, Ignace T C

    2016-12-01

    A problem in eyetracking research is choosing areas of interest (AOIs): Researchers in the same field often use widely varying AOIs for similar stimuli, making cross-study comparisons difficult or even impossible. Subjective choices while choosing AOIs cause differences in AOI shape, size, and location. On the other hand, not many guidelines for constructing AOIs, or comparisons between AOI-production methods, are available. In the present study, we addressed this gap by comparing AOI-production methods in face stimuli, using data collected with infants and adults (with autism spectrum disorder [ASD] and matched controls). Specifically, we report that the attention-attracting and attention-maintaining capacities of AOIs differ between AOI-production methods, and that this matters for statistical comparisons in one of three groups investigated (the ASD group). In addition, we investigated the relation between AOI size and an AOI's attention-attracting and attention-maintaining capacities, as well as the consequences for statistical analyses, and report that adopting large AOIs solves the problem of statistical differences between the AOI methods. Finally, we tested AOI-production methods for their robustness to noise, and report that large AOIs-using the Voronoi tessellation method or the limited-radius Voronoi tessellation method with large radii-are most robust to noise. We conclude that large AOIs are a noise-robust solution in face stimuli and, when implemented using the Voronoi method, are the most objective of the researcher-defined AOIs. Adopting Voronoi AOIs in face-scanning research should allow better between-group and cross-study comparisons.

  13. Learning to work together - lessons from a reflective analysis of a research project on public involvement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Howe, A; Mathie, E; Munday, D; Cowe, M; Goodman, C; Keenan, J; Kendall, S; Poland, F; Staniszewska, S; Wilson, P

    2017-01-01

    Patient and public involvement (PPI) in research is very important, and funders and the NHS all expect this to happen. What this means in practice, and how to make it really successful, is therefore an important research question. This article analyses the experience of a research team using PPI, and makes recommendations on strengthening PPI in research. There were different PPI roles in our study - some people were part of the research team: some were on the advisory group; and there were patient groups who gave specific feedback on how to make research work better for their needs. We used minutes, other written documents, and structured individual and group reflections to learn from our own experiences over time. The main findings were:- for researchers and those in a PPI role to work in partnership, project structures must allow flexibility and responsiveness to different people's ideas and needs; a named link person can ensure support; PPI representatives need to feel fully included in the research; make clear what is expected for all roles; and ensure enough time and funding to allow meaningful involvement. Some roles brought more demands but also more rewards than others - highlighting that it is important that people giving up their time to help with research experience gains from doing so. Those contributing to PPI on a regular basis may want to learn new skills, rather than always doing the same things. Researchers and the public need to find ways to develop roles in PPI over time. We also found that, even for a team with expertise in PPI, there was a need both for understanding of different ways to contribute, and an evolving 'normalisation' of new ways of working together over time, which both enriched the process and the outputs. Background Patient and public involvement (PPI) is now an expectation of research funders, in the UK, but there is relatively little published literature on what this means in practice - nor is there much evaluative research

  14. Potential harms, anonymization, and the right to withdraw consent to biobank research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eriksson, Stefan; Helgesson, Gert

    2005-09-01

    This paper discusses the potential harms involved in biobank research and how ethical review, informed consent, withdrawals, and anonymization of samples should be handled in the light of these harms. There is less risk involved in biobank research than in human subject research; it should therefore be treated differently. In our view, anonymization should not be an automatically permissible response to requests for withdrawal. Nor should a request for withdrawal necessarily stop research on identifiable samples. Apart from not being particularly appropriate for protecting the interests of individuals, anonymization of samples has a negative impact on research. We suggest that the current view on withdrawal from research, supported by the Declaration of Helsinki and subsequent ethical guidelines, be abandoned in the context of biobank research and be replaced by an approach inspired by the Nuremberg Code. This approach requires those wishing to withdraw their samples from research to present sufficient reason for doing so. Our interpretation of 'sufficient reason' includes all those involving genuine, deeply felt concerns that are not based on misconceptions. Still, this underlines the fact that we all share a responsibility for health research and that no one should take withdrawal from biobank research lightly.

  15. Expanding the Reach of Physics-Engaging Students in Interdisciplinary Research Involving complex, real-world situation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bililign, Solomon

    2014-03-01

    Physics plays a very important role in most interdisciplinary efforts and can provide a solid foundation for students. Retention of students in STEM areas can be facilitated by enhanced interdisciplinary education and research since students are strongly attracted to research with societal relevance and show increasing enthusiasm about problems that have practical consequences. One such area of research is a collaborative Earth System Science. The Earth System is dynamic and complex. It is comprised of diverse components that interact. By providing students the opportunities to work in interdisciplinary groups on a problem that reflects a complex, real-world situation they can see the linkages between components of the Earth system that encompass climate and all its components (weather precipitation, temperature, etc.) and technology development and deployment of sensors and sensor networks and social impacts. By involving students in the creation of their own personalized professional development plan, students are more focused and engaged and are more likely to remain in the program.

  16. Conflict of interest: A tenacious ethical dilemma in public health ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    In addition to the ethical practice of individual health professionals, bioethical debate about conflict of interest (CoI) must include the institutional ethics of public policy-making, as failure to establish independence from powerful stakeholder influence may pervert public health goals. All involved in public policy processes are ...

  17. Development of a Regional Nursing Research Partnership for Academic and Practice Collaborations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Heather L. Tubbs-Cooley

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Background. Collaborative nursing research across academic and practice settings is imperative to generate knowledge to improve patient care. Models of academic/practice partnerships for nursing research are lacking. This paper reports data collected before and during a one-day retreat for nurse researchers and administrators from local universities and health care organizations designed to establish a regional nursing research partnership. Methods. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to address the study aims: (1 to assess research involvement and institutional research resources; (2 to assess interest in and concerns regarding cross-institutional collaborations; and (3 to describe perceptions of the purpose of a partnership and resources needed to ensure success. Results. Participants (n=49 had differing perceptions of accessibility to resources; participants in practice settings reported less accessibility to resources, notably grant development, informatics, and research assistant support. Participants were interested in collaboration although concerns about conflict of interest were expressed. Four themes related to partnering were identified: harnessing our nursing voice and identity; developing as researchers; staying connected; and positioning for a collaborative project. Conclusion. Academic-practice research collaborations will become increasingly important with health care system changes. Strategies to develop and sustain productive partnerships should be supported.

  18. INVOLVING STUDENTS IN RESEARCH AS A FORM OF INTEGRATION OF ENGINEERING WITH MATHEMATICAL EDUCATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Viktor M. Fedoseyev

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: questions of integration of mathematical with engineering training in educational process of higher education institution are explored. The existing technologies of the integrated training are analyzed, and the project-oriented direction is distinguished. Research involving students as an organisational and methodical form of training bachelors of the technical speciali sations is discussed. Materials and Methods: results of article are based on researches of tendencies of development of technical and mathematical education, works on the theory and methodology of pedagogical integration, methodology of mathematics and technical science. Methods of historical and pedagogical research, analytical, a method of mathematical modeling were used. Results: the main content of the paper is to make discussion of experience in developing and using integrated educational tasks in real educational process. Discussion is based on a specific technological assignment including a number of mathematical tasks used as a subject of research for students. In the assignment a special place is allocated to the questions reflecting the interplay of a technical task with a mathematical method of research highlighting the objective significance of mathematics as a method to solve engineering problems. Discussion and Conclusions: the paper gives reasons to conditions for using research work with students as an organisational and methodical form of integrated training in mathematics. In realisation of educational technology it is logical to apply the method of projects. It is necessary to formulate a task as an engineering project: to set an engineering objective of research, to formulate specifications; to differentiate between engineering and mathematical tasks of the project, to make actual interrelations between them; the mathematical part of the project has to be a body of research; assessment of the project must be carried out not only accounting for

  19. The extent, quality and impact of patient and public involvement in primary care research: a mixed methods study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blackburn, Steven; McLachlan, Sarah; Jowett, Sue; Kinghorn, Philip; Gill, Paramjit; Higginbottom, Adele; Rhodes, Carol; Stevenson, Fiona; Jinks, Clare

    2018-01-01

    In the UK, more patients go to primary care than other parts of the health service. Therefore it is important for research into primary care to include the insights and views of people who receive these services. To explore the extent, quality and impact of patient and public involvement (PPI) in primary care research, we examined documents of 200 projects and surveyed 191 researchers.We found that about half of studies included PPI to develop research ideas and during the study itself. Common activities included designing study materials, advising on methods, and managing the research. Some studies did not undertake the PPI activities initially planned and funded for. PPI varied by study design, health condition and study population. We found pockets of good practice: having a PPI budget, supporting PPI contributors, and PPI informing recruitment issues. However, good practice was lacking in other areas. Few projects offered PPI contributors training, used PPI to develop information for participants about study progress and included PPI to advise on publishing findings.Researchers reported beneficial impacts of PPI. Most impact was reported when the approach to PPI included more indicators of good practice. The main cost of PPI for researchers was their time. Many reported difficulties providing information about PPI.In partnership with PPI contributors, we have used these findings to develop:a new Cost and Consequences Framework for PPI highlighting financial and non-financial costs, benefits and harms of PPIFifteen co-produced recommendations to improve the practice and delivery of PPI. Background: To improve the lives of patients in primary care requires the involvement of service users in primary care research. We aimed to explore the extent, quality and impact of patient and public involvement (PPI) in primary care research. Methods: We extracted information about PPI from grant applications, reports and an electronic survey of researchers of studies funded

  20. Understanding Differences in Neurotypical and Autism Spectrum Special Interests through Internet Forums

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jordan, Chloe Jennifer; Caldwell-Harris, Catherine L.

    2012-01-01

    Special interests are frequently developed by individuals with autism spectrum disorder, expressed as an intense focus on specific topics. Neurotypical individuals also develop special interests, often in the form of hobbies. Although past research has focused on special interests held by children with autism spectrum disorder, little is known…

  1. The visible hand of the state : on the organizational development of interest groups

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Fraussen, B.

    2014-01-01

    To understand dynamics within communities of organized interests, researchers have primarily studied organizational births and deaths. The organizational development of established interest organizations has received far less attention. This article claims that the evolution of interest groups'

  2. Consumer-Involved Participatory Research to Address General Medical Health and Wellness in a Community Mental Health Setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iyer, Sharat P; Pancake, Laura S; Dandino, Elizabeth S; Wells, Kenneth B

    2015-12-01

    Barriers to sustainably implementing general medical interventions in community mental health (CMH) settings include role uncertainty, consumer engagement, workforce limitations, and sustainable reimbursement. To address these barriers, this project used a community-partnered participatory research framework to create a stakeholder-based general medical and wellness intervention in a large CMH organization, with consumers involved in all decision-making processes. Consumers faced practical barriers to participating in organizational decision making, but their narratives were critical in establishing priorities and ensuring sustainability. Addressing baseline knowledge and readiness of stakeholders and functional challenges to consumer involvement can aid stakeholder-based approaches to implementing general medical interventions in CMH settings.

  3. Psychological aspects of the concept “the interests of the child”

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S.A. Terekhina

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available Based on the legal aspects, the author analyzes the psychological content of the concept “the interests of the child”, involving theoretical and conceptual framework of modern developmental psychology. Following the main provisions of child psychology, the author stresses the importance of a differentiated examination of the category “interests of the child”, depending on his age characteristics. The article describes the main problems and contradictions of modern approaches to the standards of children's development, the ratio of general and individual variations in normal development, as well as deviations from the norm, which hinder the development of the psychological component of the concept “the interests of the child”.

  4. Conflict of interest - serious issue on publication ethics for Indian medical journals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Das, Kusal K; Vallabha, Tejaswini; Ray, Jaydeb; Murthy, P S N

    2013-01-01

    There are several vested interest lies on research publication hence the editorial policy is the sole important factor to control and regulate ethical publications in medical sciences especially on 'conflict of interest' issue. The study was aimed to assess on awareness of 'conflict of interest' issue in medical research and publication among the editorial staff, peer reviewers and authors of Indian medical journals. Total 61 authors who have published research articles recently in Indian medical journals from 2008-2012, 56 peer reviewers who reviewed the manuscripts during same period and 35 editorial board members of various Indian medical journals were assessed by questionnaire and telephone interview regarding their understanding and knowledge on 'conflict of interest' issue for ethical publication. Only seven (12%) of the authors knew about the 'conflict of interest' issue and 11 (19%) of the medical authors have just heard about it. Out of 12% of authors who knew 'conflict of interest' issue only 15% provided that statement to the journals. Among the peer reviewers only 17 (30%) knew about 'conflict of interest' of which 51 (91.5%) stated that they do not bother about this issue while reviewing the manuscripts. But interestingly 42 (75%) of the peer reviewers confessed that they had a bias on the topics written by their friends or students. Among the editorial board members of Indian medical journals only 14 (25%) have any idea on 'conflict of interest issue'. Results clearly shows poor understanding of 'conflict of interest' like important ethical issue among Indian medical scientists or journals.

  5. Habermasian knowledge interests: epistemological implications for health sciences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Granero-Molina, José; Fernández-Sola, Cayetano; Muñoz Terrón, José María; Aranda Torres, Cayetano

    2015-04-01

    The Habermasian concept of 'interest' has had a profound effect on the characterization of scientific disciplines. Going beyond issues unrelated to the theory itself, intra-theoretical interest characterizes the specific ways of approaching any science-related discipline, defining research topics and methodologies. This approach was developed by Jürgen Habermas in relation to empirical-analytical sciences, historical-hermeneutics sciences, and critical sciences; however, he did not make any specific references to health sciences. This article aims to contribute to shaping a general epistemological framework for health sciences, as well as its specific implications for the medical and nursing areas, via an analysis of the basic knowledge interests developed by Habermas. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  6. Affective neural response to restricted interests in autism spectrum disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cascio, Carissa J; Foss-Feig, Jennifer H; Heacock, Jessica; Schauder, Kimberly B; Loring, Whitney A; Rogers, Baxter P; Pryweller, Jennifer R; Newsom, Cassandra R; Cockhren, Jurnell; Cao, Aize; Bolton, Scott

    2014-01-01

    Restricted interests are a class of repetitive behavior in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) whose intensity and narrow focus often contribute to significant interference with daily functioning. While numerous neuroimaging studies have investigated executive circuits as putative neural substrates of repetitive behavior, recent work implicates affective neural circuits in restricted interests. We sought to explore the role of affective neural circuits and determine how restricted interests are distinguished from hobbies or interests in typical development. We compared a group of children with ASD to a typically developing (TD) group of children with strong interests or hobbies, employing parent report, an operant behavioral task, and functional imaging with personalized stimuli based on individual interests. While performance on the operant task was similar between the two groups, parent report of intensity and interference of interests was significantly higher in the ASD group. Both the ASD and TD groups showed increased BOLD response in widespread affective neural regions to the pictures of their own interest. When viewing pictures of other children's interests, the TD group showed a similar pattern, whereas BOLD response in the ASD group was much more limited. Increased BOLD response in the insula and anterior cingulate cortex distinguished the ASD from the TD group, and parent report of the intensity and interference with daily life of the child's restricted interest predicted insula response. While affective neural network response and operant behavior are comparable in typical and restricted interests, the narrowness of focus that clinically distinguishes restricted interests in ASD is reflected in more interference in daily life and aberrantly enhanced insula and anterior cingulate response to individuals' own interests in the ASD group. These results further support the involvement of affective neural networks in repetitive behaviors in ASD. © 2013 The

  7. Advancing LDCs Interests in the WTO: Strengthening Participation ...

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

    The World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference, held in Nairobi from ... It will include: (i) rigorous evidence-based research on the trade interests of LDCs; ... The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Minister of International Trade, ...

  8. A critical analysis of the implementation of service user involvement in primary care research and health service development using normalization process theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tierney, Edel; McEvoy, Rachel; O'Reilly-de Brún, Mary; de Brún, Tomas; Okonkwo, Ekaterina; Rooney, Michelle; Dowrick, Chris; Rogers, Anne; MacFarlane, Anne

    2016-06-01

    There have been recent important advances in conceptualizing and operationalizing involvement in health research and health-care service development. However, problems persist in the field that impact on the scope for meaningful involvement to become a routine - normalized - way of working in primary care. In this review, we focus on current practice to critically interrogate factors known to be relevant for normalization - definition, enrolment, enactment and appraisal. Ours was a multidisciplinary, interagency team, with community representation. We searched EBSCO host for papers from 2007 to 2011 and engaged in an iterative, reflexive approach to sampling, appraising and analysing the literature following the principles of a critical interpretive synthesis approach and using Normalization Process Theory. Twenty-six papers were chosen from 289 papers, as a purposeful sample of work that is reported as service user involvement in the field. Few papers provided a clear working definition of service user involvement. The dominant identified rationale for enrolling service users in primary care projects was linked with policy imperatives for co-governance and emancipatory ideals. The majority of methodologies employed were standard health services research methods that do not qualify as research with service users. This indicates a lack of congruence between the stated aims and methods. Most studies only reported positive outcomes, raising questions about the balance or completeness of the published appraisals. To improve normalization of meaningful involvement in primary care, it is necessary to encourage explicit reporting of definitions, methodological innovation to enhance co-governance and dissemination of research processes and findings. © 2014 The Authors Health Expectations Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  9. Informing and involving: the community`s right to know [marine oil spills

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Watson, G. [Marine and Coastal Community Network, Perth, WA (Australia)

    1996-12-31

    The Marine and Coastal Community Network was established in 1993 to facilitate communication between all user groups of Australia`s coasts and seas, to promote ecological sustainability, to encourage greater community involvement, and to provide information. It is proving successful in providing a line of communication between a broad range of sectorial interests and developing a cooperative approach to ecological sustainability. This paper addresses the question of how the oil industry is shaping up in relation to providing relevant, accessible, understandable and up-to-date information to the community, in involving the community, and in developing and delivering industry best practice. It also outlines what the community wants to know and what industry can do better. The community, it is concluded, is always going to react very strongly over oil spills. Maintenance of water quality and the conservation of Australia`s coastline are extremely important issues for the community. A greater willingness to involve the community and a greater commitment to better research and practices is considered necessary. (author). 1 tab., 1 fig., 20 refs.

  10. The Revival of Research Circles: Meeting the Needs of Modern Aging and the Third Age

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ostlund, Britt

    2008-01-01

    This article provides evidence that it is worthwhile to reconsider the traditional research circle method as a means of involving people in the third age in fulfilling their needs to participate in learning activities and make their voices heard. The findings are based on three cases of research circles consistently driven by the interests of the…

  11. Profile of Pre-Service Science Teachers Based on STEM Career Interest Survey

    Science.gov (United States)

    Winarno, N.; Widodo, A.; Rusdiana, D.; Rochintaniawati, D.; Afifah, R. M. A.

    2017-09-01

    This study aims to investigate the profile of pre-service science teachers based on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Career Interest Survey. The study uses descriptive survey method as the research design. Samples collected from 66 preservice science teachers in a university located in Bandung, Indonesia. The results of the study are the profile of pre-service science teachers based on STEM Career Interest Survey shows that the average number of career interest in the field of technology is 4.08, in science 3.80, mathematics 3.39 and engineering 3.30. Pre-service science teachers are found to have interests in the STEM career fields. This research is necessary as there are many instances of people choosing majors or studies that are not in accordance with their interests and talents. The recommendation of this study is to develop learning in pre-service science teachers by using STEM approach.

  12. The "medication interest model": an integrative clinical interviewing approach for improving medication adherence-part 2: implications for teaching and research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shea, Shawn Christopher

    2009-01-01

    Over the past several decades, exciting advances have been made in the art and science of teaching clinical interviewing, which are supported by an ever-growing evidence base documenting their effectiveness. In this second article in a 2-part series, the training and research implications of an innovative approach to improving medication adherence based on these educational advances--the medication interest model (MIM)--are described. The objective is to provide an "insider's view" of how to creatively teach the MIM to case managers, as well as design state-of-the-art courses and research platforms dedicated to improving medication adherence through improved clinical interviewing skills in both nursing and medical student education. The teaching and research design concepts are applicable to all primary care settings as well as specialty areas from endocrinology and cardiology to psychiatry. Evidence-based advances in the teaching of clinical interviewing skills such as response-mode research, facilic supervision, microtraining, and macrotraining lend a distinctive quality and integrative power to the MIM. The model delineates several new platforms for training and research regarding the enhancement of medication adherence including an approach for collecting individual interviewing techniques into manageable "learning modules" amenable to competency evaluation and potential certification.

  13. Research within the coordinated programme on neutron scattering techniques in applied research

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Satya Murthy, N.S.

    1982-02-01

    This paper reviews developments of neutron scattering studies at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) over the past two decades through utilisation of Apsara and Circus reactor facilities. Salient results in neutron crystallography, magnetic diffraction and inelastic neutron scattering will be presented highlighting progressive involvement in more and more complex studies. The growth of non-neutronic activities as a natural outcome of overall necessity and interest of investigators will be indicated. A description of facilities planned at R5 and the nature of studies that are likely to be taken up at R5 will be briefly discussed. (author)

  14. [Human cloning and the protection of women's interests].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Canabes, Marcela Ahumada

    2008-01-01

    The Human Cloning, both therapeutic and full birth cloning, involves and affects women in a special way. The United Nation's Declaration on the Cloning of Human Beings includes a special clause referred to them. Also the Spanish law does it. This works pretend to analyse the meaning of the inclusion of women's interests in this document. At the same time, I will consider the foundations and the importance of the reference to the women.

  15. What Researchers Should Know and be Able to do When Contemplating Involvement in Education and Outreach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ridky, R. W.

    2004-12-01

    At some point in their careers, many researchers are motivated to share what they have learned with a wider audience. As their studies mature, and national awareness for more effective integration of research and education intensifies, researchers are increasingly directing efforts toward informal and pre-college educational sectors. Each initiative comes with good intentions, but many fall short of intended benefit. Quality education and outreach programs develop from the same precepts that shape research programs of high professional standing. A researcher is most likely to make useful contributions when they are willing and able to implement familiar research principles to broader educational endeavors. As with research endeavors, principles of significance, literacy, design, feasibility, analysis and dissemination need to be regarded as essential indicators of education program quality. It is helpful to provide researchers who are contemplating more active educational involvement with more than casual understanding of the purposes underlying their pending contributions. Such understanding is premised on the tenet that education and research are always in the public service and therefore inextricably bound at all levels. Both research and education have, as their ultimate goal, enhanced scientific literacy of the citizenry. By example, it can be shown that the best-supported programs, within government and academia, recognize that the way they translate knowledge and make it available to scientific organizations and the public is critical to their intrinsic societal value and level of support. As education conjures up a host of operational meanings arising from one's own values and experiences, the knowledge researchers bring to pre-college and informal educational settings is often based on personal experience rather than on education research, practice and policy. Researchers may believe that because they spent 13 years in school, an additional 4 years at a

  16. Communication and Stakeholder Involvement in Environmental Remediation Projects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2014-01-01

    The way in which members of the public perceive a contamination situation and an approach to the remediation of contaminated land will influence the decision making process in a variety of ways. Through communication between experts, decision makers and members of stakeholder communities, participatory processes and negotiation between different interest groups can sometimes be used effectively as mechanisms for improving the overall decision making process. The intention is to ensure a technically sound and socially acceptable decision that meets norms of adequacy or satisfactory performance in relation to a whole range of different concerns. Good communication strategies will encourage cooperation and understanding between different interested parties in remediation projects. Involvement of affected or interested persons can prevent fear driven reactions, which potentially damage public response and create undue expectations or unnecessary anxiety. For all environmental remediation (ER) cases, there is a risk that the process will fail if it does not respect social, environmental, political and economic dimensions. This requires open, clear and mutually agreed lines of communication among stakeholders within a well defined legal framework. A general recommendation is to involve them from a very early point in the process. This publication presents ER in plain language in such a way that implementers and regulators can communicate the motives and objectives of remediation projects to a variety of stakeholder communities in order to improve mutual understanding and facilitate dialogue between interested parties. ER is considered from two perspectives: technical and non-technical. A section that gives general ideas on the strategies to deal with stakeholder involvement and which discusses different aspects of the communication approaches in ER is then included. It is recognized that social, cultural and political situations are very diverse in different countries in

  17. Communication and Stakeholder Involvement in Environmental Remediation Projects

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2014-05-15

    The way in which members of the public perceive a contamination situation and an approach to the remediation of contaminated land will influence the decision making process in a variety of ways. Through communication between experts, decision makers and members of stakeholder communities, participatory processes and negotiation between different interest groups can sometimes be used effectively as mechanisms for improving the overall decision making process. The intention is to ensure a technically sound and socially acceptable decision that meets norms of adequacy or satisfactory performance in relation to a whole range of different concerns. Good communication strategies will encourage cooperation and understanding between different interested parties in remediation projects. Involvement of affected or interested persons can prevent fear driven reactions, which potentially damage public response and create undue expectations or unnecessary anxiety. For all environmental remediation (ER) cases, there is a risk that the process will fail if it does not respect social, environmental, political and economic dimensions. This requires open, clear and mutually agreed lines of communication among stakeholders within a well defined legal framework. A general recommendation is to involve them from a very early point in the process. This publication presents ER in plain language in such a way that implementers and regulators can communicate the motives and objectives of remediation projects to a variety of stakeholder communities in order to improve mutual understanding and facilitate dialogue between interested parties. ER is considered from two perspectives: technical and non-technical. A section that gives general ideas on the strategies to deal with stakeholder involvement and which discusses different aspects of the communication approaches in ER is then included. It is recognized that social, cultural and political situations are very diverse in different countries in

  18. Anthropogenic versus natural processes and pollution in Padana Valley in last years involving new communication/policy strategies and ethical issues in research evaluation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quattrocchi, Fedora; Vaccaro, Carmela; Boschi, Enzo

    2014-05-01

    reconstruction of the true facts. Moreover these areas are affected by natural enrichment in heavy metals and toxic elements harmful to the health: geochemical surveying may allow both to recognize issues of diffuse "natural pollution" and to identify markers and tracers able to discriminate among anthropogenic and natural anomalies by geochemical methods mostly. The discovery of pollution emergency poses the problem of how to share to the public scientific data, avoiding that communication produces alarmism or persecution for the involved researchers, as occurred in the past. When diffuse pollution is linked to natural causes which can be defined as transient that precede potential gas-burst disasters, the risk communication by researchers not always meets sufficient support from those who are responsible for the administration of the territory, being afraid to lose the political consensus. Conflicts of interest in promoting certain non urgent research should be highlighted readily and clearly. This is one of the main cause of low resources devoted to the study of transient geochemical contamination in shallow aquifers, which could be useful for seismotectonic research too. A discussion about: i) intellectual property & equal opportunity for all Earth Science researchers to have access to the public research calls (MIUR, MATT MSE Ministries); ii) about the critical research on some short-term hazards, which penalized the researchers in terms of scientific productivity and career was opened by the paper, suggesting new research evaluation indicators -ethical ones- than Impact Factor only.

  19. Research priority setting for health policy and health systems strengthening in Nigeria: the policymakers and stakeholders perspective and involvement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uneke, Chigozie Jesse; Ezeoha, Abel Ebeh; Ndukwe, Chinwendu Daniel; Oyibo, Patrick Gold; Onwe, Friday; Aulakh, Bhupinder Kaur

    2013-01-01

    Nigeria is one of the low and middle income countries (LMICs) facing severe resource constraint, making it impossible for adequate resources to be allocated to the health sector. Priority setting becomes imperative because it guides investments in health care, health research and respects resource constraints. The objective of this study was to enhance the knowledge and understanding of policymakers on research priority setting and to conduct a research priority setting exercise. A one-day evidence-to-policy research priority setting meeting was held. The meeting participants included senior and middle level policymakers and key decision makers/stakeholders in the health sector in Ebonyi State southeastern Nigeria. The priorities setting meeting involved a training session on priority setting process and conduction of priority setting exercise using the essential national health research (ENHR) approach. The focus was on the health systems building blocks (health workforce; health finance; leadership/governance; medical products/technology; service delivery; and health information/evidence). Of the total of 92 policymakers invited 90(97.8%) attended the meeting. It was the consensus of the policymakers that research should focus on the challenges of optimal access to health products and technology; effective health service delivery and disease control under a national emergency situation; the shortfalls in the supply of professional personnel; and the issues of governance in the health sector management. Research priority setting exercise involving policymakers is an example of demand driven strategy in the health policymaking process capable of reversing inequities and strengthening the health systems in LMICs.

  20. Disciplinary Differences in Conflict of Interest Policy Communication, Attitudes, and Knowledge

    Science.gov (United States)

    Canary, Heather E.; Hansen, Kody D.; Rinehart, Marc D.; May, Kristal; Barlow, Jahn

    2015-01-01

    Research institutions are charged with developing and managing conflict of interest (COI) policies regarding the design, conduct, and reporting of research. Prior research indicates that university researchers may not understand the purpose of these policies and may resent the time taken to demonstrate compliance. Policy communication is not a…

  1. NASA's Interests in Bioregenerative Life Support

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wheeler, Raymond M.

    2018-01-01

    NASA and other space agencies and around the world have had long-standing interest in using plants and biological approaches for regenerative life support. In particular, NASA's Kennedy Space Center, has conducted research in this area for over 30 years. One unique aspect to this testing was NASA's Biomass Production Chamber, which had four vertically stacked growing shelves inside a large, 113 cubic meter chamber. This was perhaps one of the first working examples of a vertical agriculture system in the world. A review of some of this research along with some of the more salient findings will be presented.

  2. `Hard science': a career option for socially and societally interested students? Grade 12 students' vocational interest gap explored

    Science.gov (United States)

    Struyf, Annemie; Boeve-de Pauw, Jelle; Van Petegem, Peter

    2017-11-01

    A key theme in science education research concerns the decline in young peoples' interest in science and the need for professionals in hard science. Goal Congruity Theory posits that an important aspect of the decision whether to pursue hard science for study or as a career is the perception that hard science careers do not fulfil social (working with people) and societal (serving or helping others) interests. In this qualitative study, we explore grade 12 students' perceptions about the social and societal orientation of hard science careers. Furthermore, we investigate the variation in students' social and societal interests. Six focus groups were conducted with 58 grade 12 students in Flanders. Our results indicate that a number of students hold stereotypical views about hard science careers' social orientation, while others believe cooperation with others is an important aspect of hard science careers nowadays. Furthermore, our results show that students believe hard science careers can be societally oriented in the sense that they often associate them with innovation or societal progress. Finally, our results indicate that students may differentiate direct versus indirect societal orientation. These findings contribute to literature regarding social and societal interests and students' perceptions of hard science careers.

  3. The Timing Effects of Reward, Business Longevity, and Involvement on Consumers’ Responses to a Reward Program

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Badri Munir Sukoco

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Managers could elicit customers’ repeat purchase behavior through a well-designed reward program. This study examines two extrinsic cues - business longevity and timing effects of reward – to determine the consumers’ perceived risk and intention to participate in this kind of program. Moreover, this study discusses how different levels of involvement might interact with these two cues. An experiment with a 2 (business longevity: long vs. short x 2 (timing of reward: delayed vs. immediate x 2 (involvement: high vs. low between-subject factorial design is conducted to validate the proposed research hypotheses. The results show that an immediate reward offered by an older, more established, firm for a highly-involved product, make loyalty programs less risky and consequently attract consumers to participate. Interestingly, immediate rewards that are offered by older firms for a product that customers are less involved in has the opposite effects. Managerial and academic implications are further presented in this study.

  4. Intersecting Interests: Qualitative Research Synthesis on Art in the Social Work Classroom

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Samantha Wehbi

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper reports on a qualitative research synthesis that explored the intersections between art and social work. The scholarship notes a rise in interest in integrating creative arts practices in social work classrooms from assignment design to classroom activities. Also highlighted are the potential contributions of these arts-informed practices to teaching about topics related to oppression. The synthesis presented in this paper explored this potential through an interpretivist analysis of articles on the intersection of art and social work. Findings highlight the contribution of this approach to enhancing student engagement and critical reflexivity; creating a sense of collectivity and solidarity in the classroom; as well as transforming the role of the educator. Findings suggest the need for further research to explore the potential contributions of arts-informed approaches in social work education beyond a single classroom. Cet article présente la synthèse d’une recherche qualitative qui a exploré les intersections entre l’art et le travail social. Les recherches effectuées indiquent qu’il existe une augmentation de l’intérêt à intégrer les pratiques des arts créatifs dans les salles de classe de travail social, allant de la conception des devoirs aux activités en salle de classe. Les contributions potentielles de ces pratiques qui intègrent l’art à l’enseignement de sujets liés à l’oppression sont également mises en relief. Les synthèses présentées dans cet article explorent ce potentiel par le biais d’une analyse interprétative d’articles qui se situent à l’intersection de l’art et du travail social. Les résultats mettent en relief la contribution de cette approche à l’amélioration de l’engagement des étudiants et de la réflexion critique; à la création d’un sens de collectivité et de solidarité dans la salle de classe; ainsi qu’à la transformation du rôle de l

  5. 76 FR 60319 - Prohibition Against Conflicts of Interest in Certain Securitizations

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-09-28

    ... do not constitute the type of `material conflicts' intended to be regulated by Section 621''). \\26... terms. Pool selection may also involve conflicts * * * We believe that conflicts of this type, relating... Part 230 Prohibition Against Conflicts of Interest in Certain Securitizations; Proposed Rule #0;#0...

  6. Interest rate derivatives

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Svenstrup, Mikkel

    This Ph.D. thesis consists of four self-contained essays on valuation of interest rate derivatives. In particular derivatives related to management of interest rate risk care are considered.......This Ph.D. thesis consists of four self-contained essays on valuation of interest rate derivatives. In particular derivatives related to management of interest rate risk care are considered....

  7. The best-interests standard as threshold, ideal, and standard of reasonableness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kopelman, L M

    1997-06-01

    The best-interests standard is a widely used ethical, legal, and social basis for policy and decision-making involving children and other incompetent persons. It is under attack, however, as self-defeating, individualistic, unknowable, vague, dangerous, and open to abuse. The author defends this standard by identifying its employment, first, as a threshold for intervention and judgment (as in child abuse and neglect rulings), second, as an ideal to establish policies or prima facie duties, and, third, as a standard of reasonableness. Criticisms of the best-interests standard are reconsidered after clarifying these different meanings.

  8. Interest-free and Interest-bearing Money Demand: Policy Invariance and Stability

    OpenAIRE

    Amir Kia

    2001-01-01

    This paper, using quarterly Iranian data for the period of 1966-1998, extends the literature by investigating the stability of the interest-free money demand function. The study also examines the stability of economic agents' behavior in demanding interest-bearing and interest-free money. It was found, contrary to interest-bearing demand or money, both short- and long-run demand for interest-free money functions are stable and their coefficients are invariant with respect to policy and other ...

  9. It's not just 'What' you do, it's also the 'Way' that you do it: Patient and Public Involvement in the Development of Health Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Devonport, Tracey J; Nicholls, Wendy; Johnston, Lynne H; Gutteridge, Robin; Watt, Angela

    2018-03-01

    This article presents a reflective account of Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in the development of obesity and binge eating research. We established Patient Advisory Groups (PAGs) at two English regional National Health Service (NHS) weight management services. PPI was evaluated as follows: (i) PAG members completed a Post Participation Evaluation Questionnaire, (ii) PAG meetings captured group discussion on PPI involvement, (iii) practitioner and researchers produced written reflections on PPI and (iv) sources one to three were consolidated during reflections that took place via e-mail and telephone correspondence between researchers and practitioners, culminating in a summary SKYPE meeting between one practitioner and one researcher involved in the PAGs. Results in the form of reflections suggest guidelines on undertaking PPI were helpful with regard 'what to do', but less helpful on 'how'. For example, suggestions for the management of interpersonal factors such as eliciting self-disclosure and managing power differentials are insufficiently addressed in existing guidelines. The present case study illustrated how interpersonal considerations can help or hinder the optimal use of PPI. Recommendations for practitioners and researchers planning PPI are offered.

  10. Global Manufacturing Research: Experience Exchange Group (EEG) contributions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bruun, Peter

    1998-01-01

    of preliminary studies found interesting to set upan EEG composed of representatives from industry and a researcher. Inthe paper some general research methods pertinent to the areaindustrial management is discussed. The EEG concept is introduced andcharacterised in comparison with the other methods. EEG...... activities aredescribed and a tentative coupling to the phases in a research processis proposed. Following this is a discussion of methodological andquality requirements. It is considered how EEG activities couldpossible contribute to an industrial rooted research. The paper endsup looking at future research......The intention of this paper is to clarify if and how an ExperienceExchange Group (EEG) can be involved in a research process in the areaof industrial management. For exemplification of the topic an ongoingresearch in global manufacturing is referred to. In this research itwas after a series...

  11. Promoting the inclusion of Afghan women and men in research: reflections from research and community partners involved in implementing a 'proof of concept' project.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riggs, Elisha; Yelland, Jane; Szwarc, Josef; Casey, Sue; Chesters, Donna; Duell-Piening, Philippa; Wahidi, Sayed; Fouladi, Fatema; Brown, Stephanie

    2015-01-31

    With mounting evidence that poor maternal and child health outcomes are related to the social determinants of health, researchers need to engage with vulnerable and isolated communities to gather the evidence that is essential to determine appropriate solutions. Conventional research methods may not ensure the degree and quality of participation that is necessary for meaningful study findings. Participatory methods provide reciprocal opportunities for often excluded communities to both take part in, and guide the conduct of research. The Having a baby in a new country research project was undertaken to provide evidence about how women and men of refugee background experience health services at the time of having a baby. This two year, multifaceted proof of concept study comprised: 1) an organisational partnership to oversee the project; 2) a community engagement framework including: female and male Afghan community researchers, community and sector stakeholder advisory groups and community consultation and engagement. Inclusive research strategies that address power imbalances in research, and diversity of and within communities, are necessary to obtain the evidence required to address health inequalities in vulnerable populations. Such an approach involves mindfully adapting research processes to ensure that studies have regard for the advice of community members about the issues that affect them. Researchers have much to gain by committing time and resources to engaging communities in reciprocal ways in research processes.

  12. 40 CFR 26.1203 - Prohibition of research involving intentional exposure of any human subject who is a pregnant...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Prohibition of research involving intentional exposure of any human subject who is a pregnant woman (and therefore her fetus), a nursing woman, or a child. 26.1203 Section 26.1203 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY GENERAL...

  13. Involving older people in research: practical considerations when using the authenticity criteria in constructivist inquiry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, Christine Brown; Clissett, Philip

    2011-01-01

    Aim The purpose of this paper is to identify practical suggestions that could enable other researchers to consider how quality may be evidenced using constructivist principles including the perspectives of older people and their caregivers. Background Constructivism suggests that reality is part of a social construction, which holds different meanings for each person, in which people are active agents, making autonomous decisions. This approach to research has been identified as suitable for health and social care professionals because these underpinning principles reflect the values of these professions, facilitating the involvement of users and carers. The authenticity criteria have been developed to reflect these philosophical principles but have been criticized for their inaccessible language. To incorporate user and carer perspectives, the criteria have been revised into a more accessible model matrix known as the AldreVast Sjuharad criteria. Discussion This paper reports on two constructivist studies that explored relationships between older people, families and staff in different settings – the community and care homes. Examples from both settings demonstrate how the perspectives of users and carers were incorporated throughout the research process. Following the AldreVast Sjuharad model matrix, practical guidance is provided on how the quality of constructivist research may be implemented in nursing research. Conclusions The different settings in this paper influenced how the AldreVast Sjuharad model matrix was applied. Further work is needed in exploring how the perspective of users and carers may be incorporated into the quality process of constructivist research. PMID:21073505

  14. Conflict of interest and bias in publication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Macklin, Ruth

    2016-01-01

    In his excellent article about commercial conflict of interest, Mark Wilson quotes Dennis Thompson, a political scientist who provided a searching analysis of the concept of conflict of interest (Col). Using Thompson's analysis, Wilson writes: "Determining whether factors such as ambition, the pursuit of fame and financial gain had biased a judgment was challenging. Motives are not always clear to either the conflicted party or to an outside observer." In this commentary, I aim to broaden the discussion beyond the narrowly commercial aspects of Col. I argue that bias can be introduced in major scientific journals by the editors' choices and policies. The context is a controversy that erupted in 2013 over the adequacy of informed consent in a clinical trial involving extremely premature infants. In this, as in Wilson's example, the players included the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), as well as the highest officials of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).

  15. Is it worth it? Patient and public views on the impact of their involvement in health research and its assessment: a UK-based qualitative interview study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crocker, Joanna C; Boylan, Anne-Marie; Bostock, Jennifer; Locock, Louise

    2017-06-01

    There are mounting calls for robust, critical evaluation of the impact of patient and public involvement (PPI) in health research. However, questions remain about how to assess its impact, and whether it should be assessed at all. The debate has thus far been dominated by professionals. To explore the views of PPI contributors involved in health research regarding the impact of PPI on research, whether and how it should be assessed. Qualitative interview study. Thirty-eight PPI contributors involved in health research across the UK. Participants felt that PPI has a beneficial impact on health research. They described various impactful roles, which we conceptualize as the 'expert in lived experience', the 'creative outsider', the 'free challenger', the 'bridger', the 'motivator' and the 'passive presence'. Participants generally supported assessing the impact of PPI, while acknowledging the challenges and concerns about the appropriateness and feasibility of measurement. They expressed a range of views about what impacts should be assessed, by whom and how. Individual feedback on impact was seen as an important driver of improved impact and motivation to stay involved. While there appears to be widespread support for PPI impact assessment among PPI contributors, their views on what to assess and how are diverse. PPI contributors should be involved as equal partners in debates and decisions about these issues. Individual feedback on impact may increase PPI contributors' potential impact and their motivation to stay involved. © 2016 The Authors. Health Expectations Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  16. An analysis of interest in students learning of physical chemistry experiment using Scientific approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Widinda Normalia Arlianty

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available This study was aimed to analyze interest in student learning of physical chemistry experiment on Chemistry Education students, Islamic University of Indonesia. The research was quantitative. The samples of this research were 2nd-semester student academic year 2015. The data learning interest of students were collected by questionnaire and documentation of seven title experimental. Learning interest consisted of three indicators, concluded feeling good, attention and activity in the learning process. The results of this research showed that score mean of feeling good  indicator was  25,9;  score  mean  of attention indicator 17,8, and score mean of  activity indicator 8,41.  Score Mean  students for the questionnaire interest in student learning  was 51,83 and this data was categorized as “good”.

  17. Transport Research Needs

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ortúzar, Juan de Dios; Cherchi, Elisabetta; Rizzi, Luis

    2014-01-01

    Transport is a large, multidisciplinary and fascinating field, encompassing vastly different areas of research. In fact transport interests span from not very well understood (in fieldwork) issues related with survey methods to highly complex questions associated with the dynamic equilibration...... of supply and demand in strategic planning contexts; the latter involving large zoning systems, huge multimodal networks and highly complex dynamic modelling approaches (Mahmassani, 2001). But questions also arise at a more macro level (and in a different time span) regarding the interaction of transport....... For these reasons, in this chapter we will just concentrate on issues related with modelling the demand for travel in the relatively short term. In particular, we will refer to modelling discrete short-term choices, such as mode, route and/or trip timing; although in our analysis we will pay attention to research...

  18. Uncovering patterns of interest in useful plants. Frequency analysis of individual students’ interest types as a tool for planning botany teaching units

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peter Pany

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available The paper presented examines how useful plants can help counteracting “plant blindness” – a phenomenon leading people to overlook plants in everyday-life. Recent research indicates that people are most likely interested in useful plants, hence this group of plants could be used to trigger interest in botanical content in general. This study has investigated the structure of interest in five subgroups of useful plants (medicinal plants, stimulant herbal drugs, spice plants, edible plants, and ornamental plants. For this purpose, the FEIN-questionnaire (Fragebogen zur Erhebung des Interesses an Nutzpflanzen = Questionnaire acquiring interest in useful plants was filled in by N = 1299 pupils from grade 5 to 12. Data analysis shows (for all age groups and both genders that medicinal plants and stimulant herbal drugs trigger high interest while spice plants, edible plants and ornamental plants raise only lower interest. However, mean values do not allow conclusions on individual level (e.g. in a school class. In order to gain information about the interest structure in a specific target group teachers deal with in practice, we have analysed the interests on individual level using frequency analysis of different interest types. Results show that stimulant herbal drugs seem to strongly polarize students, whereas medicinal plants are interesting for almost the whole sample. Eventually, medicinal plants turned out to be well suited to introduce botanical content by means of plants catching the interest of as many students as possible. Therefore, medicinal plants should be established as flagships counteracting plant blindness.

  19. Researcher-library collaborations: Data repositories as a service for researchers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gordon, Andrew S; Millman, David S; Steiger, Lisa; Adolph, Karen E; Gilmore, Rick O

    New interest has arisen in organizing, preserving, and sharing the raw materials-the data and metadata-that undergird the published products of research. Library and information scientists have valuable expertise to bring to bear in the effort to create larger, more diverse, and more widely used data repositories. However, for libraries to be maximally successful in providing the research data management and preservation services required of a successful data repository, librarians must work closely with researchers and learn about their data management workflows. Databrary is a data repository that is closely linked to the needs of a specific scholarly community-researchers who use video as a main source of data to study child development and learning. The project's success to date is a result of its focus on community outreach and providing services for scholarly communication, engaging institutional partners, offering services for data curation with the guidance of closely involved information professionals, and the creation of a strong technical infrastructure. Databrary plans to improve its curation tools that allow researchers to deposit their own data, enhance the user-facing feature set, increase integration with library systems, and implement strategies for long-term sustainability.

  20. Conflict of Interest Arises as Concern in Standards Push

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zehr, Mary Ann

    2009-01-01

    A respected literacy-research organization is asking that a process be put in place to make more transparent potential conflicts of interest that writers of the common national academic standards might have, and to address them. The Literacy Research Association sent a letter Oct. 21 to the groups overseeing the development of common standards…

  1. Self-interest without selfishness: the hedonic benefit of imposed self-interest.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berman, Jonathan Z; Small, Deborah A

    2012-10-01

    Despite commonsense appeal, the link between self-interest and happiness remains elusive. One reason why individuals may not feel satisfied with self-interest is that they feel uneasy about sacrificing the needs of others for their own gain. We propose that externally imposing self-interest allows individuals to enjoy self-benefiting outcomes that are untainted by self-reproach for failing to help others. Study 1 demonstrated that an imposed self-interested option (a reward) leads to greater happiness than does choosing between a self-interested option and a prosocial option (a charity donation). Study 2 demonstrated that this effect is not driven by choice in general; rather, it is the specific trade-off between benefiting the self and benefiting others that inhibits happiness gained from self-interest. We theorize that the agency inherent in choice reduces the hedonic value of self-interest. Results of Study 3 find support for this mechanism.

  2. 40 CFR 26.203 - Prohibition of research conducted or supported by EPA involving intentional exposure of any human...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... her fetus), a nursing woman, or child. 26.203 Section 26.203 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL... 40 Protection of Environment 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Prohibition of research conducted or... Involving Intentional Exposure of Human Subjects who are Children or Pregnant or Nursing Women § 26.203...

  3. Implementation of a Collaborative Series of Classroom-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences Spanning Chemical Biology, Biochemistry, and Neurobiology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kowalski, Jennifer R; Hoops, Geoffrey C; Johnson, R Jeremy

    2016-01-01

    Classroom undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) provide students access to the measurable benefits of undergraduate research experiences (UREs). Herein, we describe the implementation and assessment of a novel model for cohesive CUREs focused on central research themes involving faculty research collaboration across departments. Specifically, we implemented three collaborative CUREs spanning chemical biology, biochemistry, and neurobiology that incorporated faculty members' research interests and revolved around the central theme of visualizing biological processes like Mycobacterium tuberculosis enzyme activity and neural signaling using fluorescent molecules. Each CURE laboratory involved multiple experimental phases and culminated in novel, open-ended, and reiterative student-driven research projects. Course assessments showed CURE participation increased students' experimental design skills, attitudes and confidence about research, perceived understanding of the scientific process, and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. More than 75% of CURE students also engaged in independent scientific research projects, and faculty CURE contributors saw substantial increases in research productivity, including increased undergraduate student involvement and academic outputs. Our collaborative CUREs demonstrate the advantages of multicourse CUREs for achieving increased faculty research productivity and traditional CURE-associated student learning and attitude gains. Our collaborative CURE design represents a novel CURE model for ongoing laboratory reform that benefits both faculty and students. © 2016 J. R. Kowalski et al. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). Two months after publication it is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).

  4. INTERESTS OF THE MEMBER STATES IN THE EURASIAN ECONOMIC UNION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tomasz Michałowski

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The article presents the interests of the member countries in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU, which is formed by Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. The author argues that Russia has been involved in the project primarily for geopolitical reasons. Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan have perceived the integration within EEU primarily through the possible economic benefits. While analyzing the interests of the members in the EEU, the author also refers to the development of the economic situation in each country in recent years. The starting point for discussion is the analysis of benefits of economic integration in the light of theory.

  5. A comparative study of Swedish generation Y decision-making style between high involvement and low involvement products.

    OpenAIRE

    Pakdeejirakul, Warangkhana; Agosi, Micheal

    2013-01-01

    Title A comparative study of Swedish generation Y decision-making style between high involvement and low involvement products. Research questions  How does product involvement influence consumer decision-making styles in Generation Y of Swedish nationals for the two selected products?  To what level does the model proposed by Sproles and Kendall in 1986 now apply to the modern-day Generation Y in Sweden as they decide on both of the selected products? Purpose The purpose of this research unde...

  6. Interests-in-motion in an informal, media-rich learning setting

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ty Hollett

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Much of the literature related to connected learning approaches youth interests as fixed on specific disciplines or activities (e.g. STEM, music production, or game design. As such, mentors design youth-focused programs to serve those interests. Through a micro-ethnographic analysis of two youth’s Minecraft-centered gameplay in a public library, this article makes two primary contributions to research on learning within, and the design of, informal, media-rich settings. First, rather than approach youth interests as fixed on specific disciplines or activities (e.g. STEM, music production, or video games, this article traces youth interests as they spark and emerge among individuals and groups. Then, it follows those interests as they subsequently spread over time, becoming interests-in-motion. Second, recognition of these interests-in-motion can lead mentors to develop program designs that enable learners to work with artifacts (digital and physical that learners can progressively configure and re-configure over time. Mentors, then, design-in-time as they harness the energy surrounding those emergent interests, creating extending learning opportunities in response.

  7. Macroeconomic effects of high interest rate policy: Mexico’s experience

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Julio Lopez Gallardo

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available We study the effects of the high interest rate policy implemented in Mexico under the inflation targeting (IT scheme on the price level and on GDP and its components. We specify a macroeconomic model inspired by the theory of the effective demand, and on this basis we demonstrate, through comparative statics, the complex set of relationships between the variables involved, and the chain of reactions that a shock to the interest rate is likely to provoke. Our main conclusions show that an interest rate rise may be instrumental to control inflation. However, this rise contributes to appreciate the exchange rate, which is the main channel through which inflation is tamed. Currency appreciation raises the share of wages in GDP even as it reduces the debt service of firms indebted in dollars. It follows that the interest rate rise may have, under certain conditions, an indirect positive impact on output. Thus, our results diverge from those entailed by the theory that is at the basis of the inflation-targeting strategy, and even from some contemporary non-conventional approaches.

  8. Diverse Pathways of Psychology Majors: Vocational Interests, Self-Efficacy, and Intentions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rottinghaus, Patrick J.; Gaffey, Abigail R.; Borgen, Fred H.; Ralston, Christopher A.

    2006-01-01

    The authors examine the differences in vocational interests and self-efficacy of 254 undergraduate psychology majors organized by 7 career intention groups (e.g., psychological research). The explanatory power of individual General Occupational Themes (GOTs), Basic Interest Scales (BISs), and Personal Style Scales (PPSs) of the Strong Interest…

  9. Integrating Vocational Interests, Competencies, and Interpersonal Dispositions in Middle School Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sodano, Sandro M.

    2011-01-01

    Vocational interests and interpersonal dispositions have been well researched in adults from the perspectives of Holland's RIASEC (1997) model of interests and the Interpersonal Circumplex (IPC), respectively. Few studies have applied either model to children and no studies have examined their overlap in children. A vector fitting procedure was…

  10. Reconsidering vocational interests for personnel selection: the validity of an interest-based selection test in relation to job knowledge, job performance, and continuance intentions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van Iddekinge, Chad H; Putka, Dan J; Campbell, John P

    2011-01-01

    Although vocational interests have a long history in vocational psychology, they have received extremely limited attention within the recent personnel selection literature. We reconsider some widely held beliefs concerning the (low) validity of interests for predicting criteria important to selection researchers, and we review theory and empirical evidence that challenge such beliefs. We then describe the development and validation of an interests-based selection measure. Results of a large validation study (N = 418) reveal that interests predicted a diverse set of criteria—including measures of job knowledge, job performance, and continuance intentions—with corrected, cross-validated Rs that ranged from .25 to .46 across the criteria (mean R = .31). Interests also provided incremental validity beyond measures of general cognitive aptitude and facets of the Big Five personality dimensions in relation to each criterion. Furthermore, with a couple exceptions, the interest scales were associated with small to medium subgroup differences, which in most cases favored women and racial minorities. Taken as a whole, these results appear to call into question the prevailing thought that vocational interests have limited usefulness for selection.

  11. An Investigation on Individual Students' Perceptions of Interest Utilizing a Blended Learning Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shroff, Ronnie H.; Vogel, Douglas R.

    2010-01-01

    Research has established that individual student interest has a positive effect on learning and academic achievement. However, little is known about the impact of a blended learning approach on individual student interest and whether combinations of online and face-to-face learning activities significantly enhance student interest. This paper…

  12. Dealing with interests, values and knowledge in managing risk

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2004-01-01

    Radioactive waste management is an area of public interest in which Stakeholder involvement has largely proven itself to be beneficial to all parties and processes concerned. With growing experience, sharing best practice can be useful at the international level. These workshop proceedings deal with the local partnership methodology employed in Belgium in order to develop an integrated proposal to the national Government to construct and operate a disposal facility for low-level radioactive waste that is adapted to local conditions. The partnerships are formed amongst representatives of local organisations in affected communities and representatives of the Belgian national radioactive waste management agency. Insights are provided into a unique - and so far very successful - governance approach to dealing with interests, values and knowledge in managing risk. (author)

  13. The Involved Ostrich

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Davies, Andrea; Dobscha, Susan; Geiger, Susi

    2008-01-01

    that the transition into parenthood can be difficult for men due to their lack of a physical connection to the pregnancy, a perception that the baby industry is not designed for them, the continuance of male stereotypes in the media, and also the time available to men to become involved in consumption activities......-natal data. Data revealed that men, according to their partner’s perceptions, used consumption as a virtual umbilical cord, although levels of consumption involvement varied from co-involvement for most purchases, to limited involvement, and/or involvement for ‘large’ items, particularly travel systems...... and technical items. This research also revealed that men partook in highly masculinized forms of “nesting,” and in general shunned pregnancy book reading; although some did engage in “research” activities such as searching the internet for product safety information. We conclude from this study...

  14. Predictors of justice system involvement: Maltreatment and education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robertson, Angela A; Walker, Courtney S

    2018-02-01

    Decades of research have established that experience of abuse and/or neglect in childhood is related to negative outcomes, such as juvenile delinquency. Existing research has shown that involvement in child welfare services is also related to juvenile delinquency, particularly for children who are victims of neglect. Research has also identified educational factors such as chronic absenteeism as significant predictors of involvement in the juvenile justice system. However, little research has investigated the combined influence of educational factors, child abuse, and involvement in child protective services on justice system involvement. The current study examined the influence of educational factors and involvement in child protective services on justice system involvement. The study utilized records from an educational database of children who attended a school within a county of Mississippi in any year from 2003 through 2013. Cases were then matched with records from the county Youth Court, Law Enforcement agencies, and Child Protection Services. A multivariate logistic regression controlling for gender, race, current age, and time at risk was conducted to involvement in the justice system. In general, educational factors were stronger predictors of justice system involvement than allegations of maltreatment. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Research infrastructures of pan-European interest: The EU and Global issues

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pero, Herve, E-mail: Herve.Pero@ec.europa.e [' Research Infrastructures' Unit, DG Research, European Commission, Brussels (Belgium)

    2011-01-21

    Research Infrastructures act as 'knowledge industries' for the society and as a source of attraction for world scientists. At European level, the long-term objective is to support an efficient and world-class eco-system of Research Infrastructures, encompassing not only the large single-site facilities but also distributed research infrastructures, based on a network of 'regional partner facilities', with strong links with world-class universities and centres of excellence. The EC support activities help to promote the development of this fabric of research infrastructures of the highest quality and performance in Europe. Since 2002 ESFRI is also aimed at supporting a coherent approach to policy-making on research infrastructures. The European Roadmap for Research Infrastructures is ESFRI's most significant achievement to date, and KM3Net is one of its identified projects. The current Community support to the Preparatory Phase of this project aims at solving mainly governance, financial, organisational and legal issues. How should KM3Net help contributing to an efficient Research Infrastructure eco-system? This is the question to which the KM3Net stakeholders need to be able to answer very soon!

  16. Research infrastructures of pan-European interest: The EU and Global issues

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pero, Herve

    2011-01-01

    Research Infrastructures act as 'knowledge industries' for the society and as a source of attraction for world scientists. At European level, the long-term objective is to support an efficient and world-class eco-system of Research Infrastructures, encompassing not only the large single-site facilities but also distributed research infrastructures, based on a network of 'regional partner facilities', with strong links with world-class universities and centres of excellence. The EC support activities help to promote the development of this fabric of research infrastructures of the highest quality and performance in Europe. Since 2002 ESFRI is also aimed at supporting a coherent approach to policy-making on research infrastructures. The European Roadmap for Research Infrastructures is ESFRI's most significant achievement to date, and KM3Net is one of its identified projects. The current Community support to the Preparatory Phase of this project aims at solving mainly governance, financial, organisational and legal issues. How should KM3Net help contributing to an efficient Research Infrastructure eco-system? This is the question to which the KM3Net stakeholders need to be able to answer very soon!

  17. Research infrastructures of pan-European interest: The EU and Global issues

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pero, Hervé

    2011-01-01

    Research Infrastructures act as “knowledge industries” for the society and as a source of attraction for world scientists. At European level, the long-term objective is to support an efficient and world-class eco-system of Research Infrastructures, encompassing not only the large single-site facilities but also distributed research infrastructures, based on a network of “regional partner facilities”, with strong links with world-class universities and centres of excellence. The EC support activities help to promote the development of this fabric of research infrastructures of the highest quality and performance in Europe. Since 2002 ESFRI is also aimed at supporting a coherent approach to policy-making on research infrastructures. The European Roadmap for Research Infrastructures is ESFRI's most significant achievement to date, and KM3Net is one of its identified projects. The current Community support to the Preparatory Phase of this project aims at solving mainly governance, financial, organisational and legal issues. How should KM3Net help contributing to an efficient Research Infrastructure eco-system? This is the question to which the KM3Net stakeholders need to be able to answer very soon!

  18. Profiling Religious Fundamentalism's Associations with Vocational Interests

    Science.gov (United States)

    Warlick, Craig A.; Ingram, Paul B.; Multon, Karen D.; Vuyk, M. Alexandra

    2017-01-01

    Religion is a shaping force in the world today, increasingly expressed and integral to the flow and function of the workplace. The relationship between religious identity and work function is clearly present. However, no lines of research have explored how religion explains the variations in vocational interest, despite speculation that it does…

  19. The impact of gambling advertising: Problem gamblers report stronger impacts on involvement, knowledge, and awareness than recreational gamblers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hanss, Daniel; Mentzoni, Rune A; Griffiths, Mark D; Pallesen, Ståle

    2015-06-01

    Although there is a general lack of empirical evidence that advertising influences gambling participation, the regulation of gambling advertising is hotly debated among academic researchers, treatment specialists, lobby groups, regulators, and policymakers. This study contributes to the ongoing debate by investigating perceived impacts of gambling advertising in a sample of gamblers drawn from the general population in Norway (n = 6,034). Three dimensions of advertising impacts were identified, representing perceived impacts on (a) gambling-related attitudes, interest, and behavior ("involvement"); (b) knowledge about gambling options and providers ("knowledge"); and (c) the degree to which people are aware of gambling advertising ("awareness"). Overall, impacts were strongest for the knowledge dimension, and, for all 3 dimensions, the impact increased with level of advertising exposure. Those identified as problem gamblers in the sample (n = 57) reported advertising impacts concerning involvement more than recreational gamblers, and this finding was not attributable to differences in advertising exposure. Additionally, younger gamblers reported stronger impacts on involvement and knowledge but were less likely to agree that they were aware of gambling advertising than older gamblers. Male gamblers were more likely than female gamblers to report stronger impacts on both involvement and knowledge. These findings are discussed with regard to existing research on gambling advertising as well as their implications for future research and policy-making. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

  20. Effective pseudonymisation and explicit statements of public interest to ensure the benefits of sharing health data for research, quality improvement and health service management outweigh the risks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Simon de Lusignan

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available This journal strongly supports the sharing of data to support research and quality improvement. However, this needs to be done in a way that ensures the benefits vastly outweigh the risks, and vitally using methods which are inspire both public and professional confidences – robust pseudonymisation is needed to achieve this. The case for using routine data for research has already been well made and probably also for quality improvement; however, clearer mechanisms are needed of how we test that the public interest is served. Ensuring that the public interest is served is essential if we are to maintain patients’ and public’s trust, especially in the English National Health Service where the realpolitik is that patients can opt out of data sharing.