The Early Scientific Contributions of J. Robert Oppenheimer: Why Did the Scientific Community Miss the Black Hole Opportunity?

Science.gov (United States)

Ortega-Rodríguez, M.; Solís-Sánchez, H.; Boza-Oviedo, E.; Chaves-Cruz, K.; Guevara-Bertsch, M.; Quirós-Rojas, M.; Vargas-Hernández, S.; Venegas-Li, A.

2017-04-01

We assess the scientific value of Oppenheimer's research on black holes in order to explain its neglect by the scientific community, and even by Oppenheimer himself. Looking closely at the scientific culture and conceptual belief system of the 1930s, the present article seeks to supplement the existing literature by enriching the explanations and complicating the guiding questions. We suggest a rereading of Oppenheimer as a figure both more intriguing for the history of astrophysics and further ahead of his time than is commonly supposed.

The relative importance of relational and scientific characteristics of psychotherapy: Perceptions of community members vs. therapists.

Science.gov (United States)

Farrell, Nicholas R; Deacon, Brett J

2016-03-01

Although client preferences are an integral component of evidence-based practice in psychology (American Psychological Association, 2006), relatively little research has examined what potential mental health consumers value in the psychotherapy they may receive. The present study was conducted to examine community members' preferences for the scientific and relational aspects of psychotherapy for different types of presenting problems, and how accurately therapists perceive these preferences. Community members (n = 200) were surveyed about the importance of scientific (e.g., demonstrated efficacy in clinical trials) and relational (e.g., therapist empathy) characteristics of psychotherapy both for anxiety disorders (e.g., obsessive-compulsive disorder) and disorder-nonspecific issues (e.g., relationship difficulties). Therapists (n = 199) completed the same survey and responded how they expected the average mental health consumer would. Results showed that although community members valued relational characteristics significantly more than scientific characteristics, the gap between these two was large for disorder-nonspecific issues (d = 1.24) but small for anxiety disorders (d = .27). Community members rated scientific credibility as important across problem types. Therapists significantly underestimated the importance of scientific characteristics to community members, particularly in the treatment of disorder-nonspecific issues (d = .74). Therapists who valued research less in their own practice were more likely to underestimate the importance of scientific credibility to community members. The implications of the present findings for understanding the nature of client preferences in evidence-based psychological practice are discussed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Academic Training Lectures | Representing Scientific Communities by Data Visualization | 14-15 March

CERN Multimedia

2016-01-01

Please note that the next series of Academic Training Lectures will take place from 14 to 15 March 2016 and will be given by Dario Rodighiero (EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland).   Representing Scientific Communities by Data Visualisation (1/2)​ Monday, 14 March 2016 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. https://indico.cern.ch/event/465533/ Representing Scientific Communities by Data Visualisation (2/2)​ Tuesday, 15 March 2016 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. https://indico.cern.ch/event/465534/ at CERN, IT Amphitheatre (31-3-004)  Description: These lectures present research that investigates the representation of communities, and the way to foster their understanding by different audiences. Communities are complex multidimensional entities intrinsically difficult to represent synthetically. The way to represent them is likely to differ depending on the audience considered: governi...

Community Science: creating equitable partnerships for the advancement of scientific knowledge for action.

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis, E. S.; Gehrke, G. E.

2017-12-01

In a historical moment where the legitimacy of science is being questioned, it is essential to make science more accessible to the public. Active participation increases the legitimacy of projects within communities (Sidaway 2009). Creating collaborations in research strengthens not only the work by adding new dimensions, but also the social capital of communities through increased knowledge, connections, and decision making power. In this talk, Lewis will discuss how engagement at different stages of the scientific process is possible, and how researchers can actively develop opportunities that are open and inviting. Genuine co-production in research pushes scientists to work in new ways, and with people from different backgrounds, expertise, and lived experiences. This approach requires a flexible and dynamic balance of learning, sharing, and creating for all parties involved to ensure more meaningful and equitable participation. For example, in community science such as that by Public Lab, the community is at the center of scientific exploration. The research is place-based and is grounded in the desired outcomes of community members. Researchers are able to see themselves as active participants in this work alongside community members. Participating in active listening, developing plans together, and using a shared language built through learning can be helpful tools in all co-production processes. Generating knowledge is powerful. Through genuine collaboration and co-creation, science becomes more relevant. When community members are equitable stakeholders in the scientific process, they are better able to engage and advocate for the changes they want to see in their communities. Through this talk, session attendees will learn about practices that promote equitable participation in science, and hear examples of how the community science process engages people in both the knowledge production, and in the application of science.

Basing Science Ethics on Respect for Human Dignity.

Science.gov (United States)

Aközer, Mehmet; Aközer, Emel

2016-12-01

A "no ethics" principle has long been prevalent in science and has demotivated deliberation on scientific ethics. This paper argues the following: (1) An understanding of a scientific "ethos" based on actual "value preferences" and "value repugnances" prevalent in the scientific community permits and demands critical accounts of the "no ethics" principle in science. (2) The roots of this principle may be traced to a repugnance of human dignity, which was instilled at a historical breaking point in the interrelation between science and ethics. This breaking point involved granting science the exclusive mandate to pass judgment on the life worth living. (3) By contrast, respect for human dignity, in its Kantian definition as "the absolute inner worth of being human," should be adopted as the basis to ground science ethics. (4) The pathway from this foundation to the articulation of an ethical duty specific to scientific practice, i.e., respect for objective truth, is charted by Karl Popper's discussion of the ethical principles that form the basis of science. This also permits an integrated account of the "external" and "internal" ethical problems in science. (5) Principles of the respect for human dignity and the respect for objective truth are also safeguards of epistemic integrity. Plain defiance of human dignity by genetic determinism has compromised integrity of claims to knowledge in behavioral genetics and other behavioral sciences. Disregard of the ethical principles that form the basis of science threatens epistemic integrity.

nanoHUB.org: Experiences and Challenges in Software Sustainability for a Large Scientific Community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lynn Zentner

2014-07-01

Full Text Available The science gateway nanoHUB.org, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF, serves a large scientific community dedicated to research and education in nanotechnology with community-contributed simulation codes as well as a vast repository of other materials such as recorded presentations, teaching materials, and workshops and courses. Nearly 330,000 users annually access over 4400 items of content on nanoHUB, including 343 simulation tools. Arguably the largest nanotechnology facility in the world, nanoHUB has led the way not only in providing open access to scientific code in the nanotechnology community, but also in lowering barriers to the use of that code, by providing a platform where developers are able to easily and quickly deploy code written in a variety of languages with user-friendly graphical user interfaces and where users can run the latest versions of codes transparently on the grid or other powerful resources without ever having to download or update code. Being a leader in open access code deployment provides nanoHUB with opportunities and challenges as it meets the current and future needs of its community. This paper discusses the experiences of nanoHUB in addressing and adapting to the changing landscape of scientific software in ways that best serve its community and meet the needs of the largest portion of its user base.

Method-centered digital communities on protocols.io for fast-paced scientific innovation.

Science.gov (United States)

Kindler, Lori; Stoliartchouk, Alexei; Teytelman, Leonid; Hurwitz, Bonnie L

2016-01-01

The Internet has enabled online social interaction for scientists beyond physical meetings and conferences. Yet despite these innovations in communication, dissemination of methods is often relegated to just academic publishing. Further, these methods remain static, with subsequent advances published elsewhere and unlinked. For communities undergoing fast-paced innovation, researchers need new capabilities to share, obtain feedback, and publish methods at the forefront of scientific development. For example, a renaissance in virology is now underway given the new metagenomic methods to sequence viral DNA directly from an environment. Metagenomics makes it possible to "see" natural viral communities that could not be previously studied through culturing methods. Yet, the knowledge of specialized techniques for the production and analysis of viral metagenomes remains in a subset of labs.  This problem is common to any community using and developing emerging technologies and techniques. We developed new capabilities to create virtual communities in protocols.io, an open access platform, for disseminating protocols and knowledge at the forefront of scientific development. To demonstrate these capabilities, we present a virology community forum called VERVENet. These new features allow virology researchers to share protocols and their annotations and optimizations, connect with the broader virtual community to share knowledge, job postings, conference announcements through a common online forum, and discover the current literature through personalized recommendations to promote discussion of cutting edge research. Virtual communities in protocols.io enhance a researcher's ability to: discuss and share protocols, connect with fellow community members, and learn about new and innovative research in the field.  The web-based software for developing virtual communities is free to use on protocols.io. Data are available through public APIs at protocols.io.

Combining Community Engagement and Scientific Approaches in Next-Generation Monitor Siting: The Case of the Imperial County Community Air Network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michelle Wong

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Air pollution continues to be a global public health threat, and the expanding availability of small, low-cost air sensors has led to increased interest in both personal and crowd-sourced air monitoring. However, to date, few low-cost air monitoring networks have been developed with the scientific rigor or continuity needed to conduct public health surveillance and inform policy. In Imperial County, California, near the U.S./Mexico border, we used a collaborative, community-engaged process to develop a community air monitoring network that attains the scientific rigor required for research, while also achieving community priorities. By engaging community residents in the project design, monitor siting processes, data dissemination, and other key activities, the resulting air monitoring network data are relevant, trusted, understandable, and used by community residents. Integration of spatial analysis and air monitoring best practices into the network development process ensures that the data are reliable and appropriate for use in research activities. This combined approach results in a community air monitoring network that is better able to inform community residents, support research activities, guide public policy, and improve public health. Here we detail the monitor siting process and outline the advantages and challenges of this approach.

Electronic Communities: a Forum for Supporting Women Professionals and Students in Technical and Scientific Fields

Science.gov (United States)

Single, Peg Boyle; Muller, Carol B.; Cunningham, Christine M.; Single, Richard M.

In this article, we report on electronic discussion lists (e-lists) sponsored by MentorNet, the National Electronic Industrial Mentoring Network for Women in Engineering and Science. Using the Internet, the MentorNet program connects students in engineering and science with mentors working in industry. These e-lists are a feature of MentorNet's larger electronic mentoring program and were sponsored to foster the establishment of community among women engineering and science students and men and women professionals in those fields. This research supports the hypothesis that electronic communications can be used to develop community among engineering and science students and professionals and identifies factors influencing the emergence of electronic communities (e-communities). The e-lists that emerged into self-sustaining e-communities were focused on topic-based themes, such as balancing personal and work life, issues pertaining to women in engineering and science, and job searching. These e-communities were perceived to be safe places, embraced a diversity of opinions and experiences, and sanctioned personal and meaningful postings on the part of the participants. The e-communities maintained three to four simultaneous threaded discussions and were sustained by professionals who served as facilitators by seeding the e-lists with discussion topics. The e-lists were sponsored to provide women students participating in MentorNet with access to groups of technical and scientific professionals. In addition to providing benefits to the students, the e-lists also provided the professionals with opportunities to engage in peer mentoring with other, mostly female, technical and scientific professionals. We discuss the implications of our findings for developing e-communities and for serving the needs of women in technical and scientific fields.

Toward a Model of Social Influence that Explains Minority Student Integration into the Scientific Community

Science.gov (United States)

Estrada, Mica; Woodcock, Anna; Hernandez, Paul R.; Schultz, P. Wesley

2010-01-01

Students from several ethnic minority groups are underrepresented in the sciences, such that minority students more frequently drop out of the scientific career path than non-minority students. Viewed from a perspective of social influence, this pattern suggests that minority students do not integrate into the scientific community at the same rate as non-minority students. Kelman (1958, 2006) describes a tripartite integration model of social influence (TIMSI) by which a person orients to a social system. To test if this model predicts integration into the scientific community, we conducted analyses of data from a national panel of minority science students. A structural equation model framework showed that self-efficacy (operationalized consistent with Kelman’s ‘rule-orientation’) predicted student intentions to pursue a scientific career. However, when identification as a scientist and internalization of values are added to the model, self-efficacy becomes a poorer predictor of intention. Additional mediation analyses support the conclusion that while having scientific self-efficacy is important, identifying with and endorsing the values of the social system reflect a deeper integration and more durable motivation to persist as a scientist. PMID:21552374

Beyond traditional scientific training: The importance of community and empowerment for women in ecology and evolutionary biology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Claire Horner-Devine

2016-10-01

Full Text Available While the biological sciences have achieved gender parity in the undergraduate and graduate career stages, this is not the case at the faculty level. The WEBS (Women Evolving the Biological Sciences symposia go beyond traditional scientific training and professional development to address factors critical to women’s persistence in faculty careers: community and empowerment. Through a series of panel discussions, personal reflections and skills workshops, WEBS creates a community-based professional development experience and a space for participants to grapple with central issues affecting their scientific careers. Longitudinal qualitative survey data suggest that WEBS bolsters the participants’ confidence and empowerment, in addition to providing concrete skills for addressing a range of issues necessary to navigating scientific careers, leading to increased career satisfaction and career self-efficacy (i.e., the belief in one’s capacity to pursue their chosen career. These results highlight the importance and need for programs and opportunities for women in STEM that go beyond training in scientific skills and traditional professional development to include those that create a sense of community and empowerment.

Re-embedding scientific development in the realities of local communities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mortensen, Jonas Egmose; Eames, Malcolm; Nielsen, Kurt Aagaard

As the effects of climate change is becoming increasingly visible scientific and technological development is often seen as a key component in political action towards future sustainability. Historically, however, it is not evident that science and technology per se lead to sustainable solutions....... To address this aspect of the challenge of sustainable development, this paper examines whether new approaches to upstream engagement in science and technology can further knowledge channels between academia and local communities, which can inspire more contextualised modes of knowledge production. Building...... on the insights from critical theory; newer conceptualisations of knowledge production; and the experiences from the Citizen Science for Sustainability action research programme, a number of principles towards more reflexive forms of community based public engagement in science and technology are proposed....

ResearchGate is no longer reliable: leniency towards ghost journals may decrease its impact on the scientific community.

Science.gov (United States)

Memon, Aamir Raoof

2016-12-01

ResearchGate has been regarded as one of the most attractive academic social networking site for scientific community. It has been trying to improve user-centered interfaces to gain more attractiveness to scientists around the world. Display of journal related scietometric measures (such as impact factor, 5-year impact, cited half-life, eigenfactor) is an important feature in ResearchGate. Open access publishing has added more to increased visibility of research work and easy access to information related to research. Moreover, scientific community has been much interested in promoting their work and exhibiting its impact to others through reliable scientometric measures. However, with the growing market of publications and improvements in the field of research, this community has been victimized by the cybercrime in the form of ghost journals, fake publishers and magical impact measures. Particularly, ResearchGate more recently, has been lenient in its policies against this dark side of academic writing. Therefore, this communication aims to discuss concerns associated with leniency in ResearchGate policies and its impact of scientific community.

Scientific literacy and academic identity: Creating a community of practice

Science.gov (United States)

Reveles, John Michael

2005-07-01

This one-year ethnographic study of a third grade classroom examined the construction of elementary school science. The research focused on the co-development of scientific literacy and academic identity. Unlike much research in science education that views literacy as merely supportive of science; this dissertation research considers how students learned both disciplinary knowledge in science as well as about themselves as learners through language use. The study documented and analyzed how students came to engage with scientific knowledge and the impact this engagement had upon their academic identities over time. Ethnographic and discourse analytic methods were employed to investigate three research questions: (a) How were the students in a third grade classroom afforded opportunities to acquire scientific literate practices through the spoken/written discourse and science activities? (b) In what ways did students develop and maintain academic identities taken-up over time as they discursively appropriated scientific literate practices via classroom discourse? and (c) How did students collectively and individually inscribe their academic identities and scientific knowledge into classroom artifacts across the school year? Through multiple forms of analyses, I identified how students' communication and participation in science investigations provided opportunities for them to learn specific scientific literate practices. The findings of this empirical research indicate that students' communication and participation in science influenced the ways they perceived themselves as active participants within the classroom community. More specifically, students were observed to appropriate particular discourse practices introduced by the teacher to frame scientific disciplinary knowledge and investigations. Thus, emerging academic identities and developing literate practices were documented via analysis of discursive (spoken, written, and enacted) classroom interactions. A

"You can't be cold and scientific": community views on ethical issues in intellectual disability research.

Science.gov (United States)

McDonald, Katherine E; Schwartz, Nicole M; Gibbons, Colleen M; Olick, Robert S

2015-04-01

Perceptions, attitudes, and ethical concerns related to conducting research with adults with intellectual disability hinder scientific innovation to promote health. Yet we lack an understanding of community views on effective research policy and practice. To address this knowledge void, we qualitatively studied the views of adults with intellectual disability and those who provide them support regarding research participation of adults with intellectual disability. We found substantial support for their inclusion, particularly given the possibility of benefits to adults with intellectual disability, researchers, and society. We also found concerns for potential harm and differing ideas on how to promote safety. Our findings emphasize the importance of their inclusion in research, and the need for policies and practices that promote respect and safety. © The Author(s) 2015.

Preparing Scientists to be Community Partners

Science.gov (United States)

Pandya, R. E.

2012-12-01

Many students, especially students from historically under-represented communities, leave science majors or avoid choosing them because scientific careers do not offer enough opportunity to contribute to their communities. Citizen science, or public participation in scientific research, may address these challenges. At its most collaborative, it means inviting communities to partner in every step of the scientific process from defining the research question to applying the results to community priorities. In addition to attracting and retaining students, this level of community engagement will help diversify science, ensure the use and usability of our science, help buttress public support of science, and encourage the application of scientific results to policy. It also offers opportunities to tackle scientific questions that can't be accomplished in other way and it is demonstrably effective at helping people learn scientific concepts and methods. In order to learn how to prepare scientists for this kind of intensive community collaboration, we examined several case studies, including a project on disease and public health in Africa and the professionally evaluated experience of two summer interns in Southern Louisiana. In these and other cases, we learned that scientific expertise in a discipline has to be accompanied by a reservoir of humility and respect for other ways of knowing, the ability to work collaboratively with a broad range of disciplines and people, patience and enough career stability to allow that patience, and a willingness to adapt research to a broader set of scientific and non-scientific priorities. To help students achieve this, we found that direct instruction in participatory methods, mentoring by community members and scientists with participatory experience, in-depth training on scientific ethics and communication, explicit articulation of the goal of working with communities, and ample opportunity for personal reflection were essential

Uses of the Drupal CMS Collaborative Framework in the Woods Hole Scientific Community (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Maffei, A. R.; Chandler, C. L.; Work, T. T.; Shorthouse, D.; Furfey, J.; Miller, H.

2010-12-01

Organizations that comprise the Woods Hole scientific community (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Marine Biological Laboratory, USGS Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, Woods Hole Research Center, NOAA NMFS Northeast Fisheries Science Center, SEA Education Association) have a long history of collaborative activity regarding computing, computer network and information technologies that support common, inter-disciplinary science needs. Over the past several years there has been growing interest in the use of the Drupal Content Management System (CMS) playing a variety of roles in support of research projects resident at several of these organizations. Many of these projects are part of science programs that are national and international in scope. Here we survey the current uses of Drupal within the Woods Hole scientific community and examine reasons it has been adopted. The promise of emerging semantic features in the Drupal framework is examined and projections of how pre-existing Drupal-based websites might benefit are made. Closer examination of Drupal software design exposes it as more than simply a content management system. The flexibility of its architecture; the power of its taxonomy module; the care taken in nurturing the open-source developer community that surrounds it (including organized and often well-attended code sprints); the ability to bind emerging software technologies as Drupal modules; the careful selection process used in adopting core functionality; multi-site hosting and cross-site deployment of updates and a recent trend towards development of use-case inspired Drupal distributions casts Drupal as a general-purpose application deployment framework. Recent work in the semantic arena casts Drupal as an emerging RDF framework as well. Examples of roles played by Drupal-based websites within the Woods Hole scientific community that will be discussed include: science data metadata database, organization main website, biological

ISSUES IN ACHIEVING TARGETED FUNDING FOR LEADING SCIENTISTS AND SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITIES USING INDEXES OF PUBLICATION ACTIVITY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. G. Kurakova

2015-01-01

Full Text Available In order to increase the competitiveness of the Russian scientific-technological complex in the global environment, it is planned to increase competition through State funding, spent on research and development. This will allow the focus of investment resources on the most perspective ideas and projects of the most efficient scientists, communities and organisations. The article suggests that we will witness the widening of competitive forms of funding against the simultaneous and gradual cuts in the share of financing through State contracts.One of the key criteria for evaluating the competency of team leaders and research applicants for State funding are measuring those who have «achieved high scientific results in concrete field of science», as a scientometric indicator, characterising their publication activity and citation rating.The article provides evidence showing that evaluation of individual scientists and whole scientific communities based on their publication activity indicators and impact is limited and challenges the ability for targeted funding and transparency in the selection process for executive projects.

Differences in cancer mortality rates in Ohio communities with respect to uraniferous geology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dzik, A.J.

1989-01-01

Populations in areas of uraniferous geology may be at risk from radon emissions. Twenty-eight municipalities were examined as to their location with respect to uraniferous geology. Communities with possible radon risk had higher rates for all cancers and cancer of the respiratory system, but differences were not statistically significant. Some possible reasons for the results are discussed

AmeriFlux and EuroFlux: History of a Strong Collaboration that Provided Unique Resources to the Scientific Community

Science.gov (United States)

Papale, D.; Agarwal, D.; Biraud, S.; Canfora, E.; Pastorello, G.; Torn, M. S.; Trotta, C.

2017-12-01

In 1995 scientific communities in Europe and North America using the eddy covariance technique to measure carbon, water, and energy exchanges between the terrestrial biosphere and the atmosphere started to organize their respective regional networks. Although there was a general interest and agreement to collaborate and exchange information and data between the two communities, these mainly occurred at the single site or individual levels through direct communications rather than systematically across networks. Between 2000 and 2008 common strategies to facilitate data sharing, promote data use across the two networks, and outreach to the scientific community, started to be more deeply discussed. Early on, harmonization across networks was deemed necessary to the success of both networks. This actually required major effort including lengthy discussions, compromises, and interactions between the networks for concrete implementation of common platforms and tools. Topics such as measurement units, variable definitions and labeling, data processing methods, data sharing policy, data distribution systems and formats, were key elements that had to be addressed and agreed upon carefully to build integrated and inter-operable research infrastructures (RIs). Today, AmeriFlux and EuroFlux are the basis, not only of the continental research infrastructures (ICOS in Europe), but they are also the driving force behind FLUXNET, where other regional networks are joining this coalition and contributing to the definition of a common system to make complex measurements accessible and comparable across continents. The latest dataset produced from this collaboration includes data contributed by over 200 sites around the world, with records spanning over two decades of data, and has been downloaded by over 900 users in the first 1.5 years of its publication. The core strategy of this collaboration, critical aspects and implemented solutions, as well as the current state of this effort

Journal hijacking: A new challenge for medical scientific community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jafar Kolahi

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Researchers and scientific communities have encountered a horrible event named journal hijacking. In this paper, we present the unethical and criminal practices of journal hijacking. A hijacked journal is a legitimate scientific journal that offers print-only version, for which a bogus website has been created by a malicious third party fake publisher for the purpose of fraudulently offering research scientists the chance to rapidly publish their paper online with publication fee. Journal hijackers are dominant in analyzing the behaviors of researchers and journalism worldwide. They find the email addresses of authors from the websites of commercial and non-peer-reviewed journals. During last few years, more than one hundred of hijacked journals have been observed unbelievably. Whoever they are, it is apparent that they have the knowledge required to design a website, manage an open access e-journal, and they are skilled to hide their characteristics on the World Wide Web. They are aware that many of authors are in urgent need to publish their work in well-known prestigious journals. The goal of an anti-journal hijacking strategy should be to disseminate knowledge about such scams and to train authors so they will have the basic skills required to avoid fake publishers and hijacked journals.

An Open-Source Sandbox for Increasing the Accessibility of Functional Programming to the Bioinformatics and Scientific Communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Fenwick, Matthew; Sesanker, Colbert; Schiller, Martin R; Ellis, Heidi Jc; Hinman, M Lee; Vyas, Jay; Gryk, Michael R

2012-01-01

Scientists are continually faced with the need to express complex mathematical notions in code. The renaissance of functional languages such as LISP and Haskell is often credited to their ability to implement complex data operations and mathematical constructs in an expressive and natural idiom. The slow adoption of functional computing in the scientific community does not, however, reflect the congeniality of these fields. Unfortunately, the learning curve for adoption of functional programming techniques is steeper than that for more traditional languages in the scientific community, such as Python and Java, and this is partially due to the relative sparseness of available learning resources. To fill this gap, we demonstrate and provide applied, scientifically substantial examples of functional programming, We present a multi-language source-code repository for software integration and algorithm development, which generally focuses on the fields of machine learning, data processing, bioinformatics. We encourage scientists who are interested in learning the basics of functional programming to adopt, reuse, and learn from these examples. The source code is available at: https://github.com/CONNJUR/CONNJUR-Sandbox (see also http://www.connjur.org).

Method-centered digital communities on protocols.io for fast-paced scientific innovation [version 2; referees: 2 approved

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lori Kindler

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The Internet has enabled online social interaction for scientists beyond physical meetings and conferences. Yet despite these innovations in communication, dissemination of methods is often relegated to just academic publishing. Further, these methods remain static, with subsequent advances published elsewhere and unlinked. For communities undergoing fast-paced innovation, researchers need new capabilities to share, obtain feedback, and publish methods at the forefront of scientific development. For example, a renaissance in virology is now underway given the new metagenomic methods to sequence viral DNA directly from an environment. Metagenomics makes it possible to "see" natural viral communities that could not be previously studied through culturing methods. Yet, the knowledge of specialized techniques for the production and analysis of viral metagenomes remains in a subset of labs.  This problem is common to any community using and developing emerging technologies and techniques. We developed new capabilities to create virtual communities in protocols.io, an open access platform, for disseminating protocols and knowledge at the forefront of scientific development. To demonstrate these capabilities, we present a virology community forum called VERVENet. These new features allow virology researchers to share protocols and their annotations and optimizations, connect with the broader virtual community to share knowledge, job postings, conference announcements through a common online forum, and discover the current literature through personalized recommendations to promote discussion of cutting edge research. Virtual communities in protocols.io enhance a researcher's ability to: discuss and share protocols, connect with fellow community members, and learn about new and innovative research in the field.  The web-based software for developing virtual communities is free to use on protocols.io. Data are available through public APIs at protocols.io.

Bridging the Scientific and Indigenous Communities to Study Sea Ice Change in Arctic Alaska

Science.gov (United States)

Mahoney, A. R.; Zappa, C. J.; Betcher, S. R.; Hauser, D.; Whiting, A.; Goodwin, J.; Harris, C.; Schaefer, B.; Schaefer, R.

2017-12-01

Ikaavik Sikukuun (Ice Bridges) is a newly-launched research partnership in Kotzebue, Alaska, that adopts an end-to-end community-based approach to study fundamental processes underlying the mechanisms and impacts of the changing sea ice in coastal Alaska. Under guidance from a local advisory council, we will use state-of-the-art observing techniques including long-range unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to study under-observed sea ice regions during critical periods of marine mammal migration, molting and reproduction. Here, we describe what, to the best of our knowledge, is a precedent-setting approach to co-creating research questions and hypotheses that integrate indigenous knowledge (IK) and interdisciplinary scientific methods. A key element of this approach is that we established an advisory committee of local IK holders before defining specific research questions. This has enabled us to iteratively develop hypotheses that incorporate IK and respond to the research needs of the local community while also addressing key geophysical and ecological questions related to changes in the seasonal ice zone. The advisory committee will be key participants in the project team, ensuring that IK is incorporated into the design of the observing plan and the synthesis and dissemination of findings. In addition to building bridges between the scientific community and indigenous residents of Kotzebue, the legacy of our project will include a video documentary that will allow us to share the story of this partnership and our findings with a broad audience.

Publishing scientific papers based on Master's and Ph.D. theses from a small scientific community: case study of Croatian medical schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Frković, Vedran; Skender, Tomislav; Dojćinović, Bojan; Bilić-Zulle, Lidija

2003-02-01

To evaluate publishing activity of medical doctors after they have obtained Master's or Ph.D. degree at the Rijeka and Zagreb University Schools of Medicine in Croatia, and establish the number of journal articles based on these theses. Data on Master's and Ph.D. theses defended at the Rijeka and Zagreb University Schools of Medicine in the 1990-1999 period were collected by hand-search of the archive. MEDLINE and Current Contents databases were searched for journal articles resulting from the theses. During the 10-year period, 1,535 Master's and 634 Ph.D. theses were defended at the Rijeka and Zagreb University Schools of Medicine (253 Master's and 138 Ph.D. theses from Rijeka and 1,282 Master's and 496 Ph.D. theses from Zagreb). There were 201 (14%) Master's and 218 (34%) Ph.D. theses that resulted in articles published in journals indexed in MEDLINE (13% of Master's and 11% of Ph.D. theses from Rijeka, and 14% of Master's and 41% of Ph.D. theses from Zagreb). Also, 97 (6%) Master's and 129 (20%) Ph.D. theses that resulted in articles published in Current Contents journals (8% of Master's and 6% of Ph.D. theses from Rijeka, and 6% of Master's and 24% of Ph.D. theses from Zagreb). There was no significant difference between the two Universities with respect to published articles based on Master's theses, but there were significantly more articles from Ph.D. theses in Zagreb (ptheses resulted in a single publication (95%), 19 (5%) in 2, and 2 in 3 publications. Out of all 453 journal articles, 31% were published in Croatian and 69% in international journals. Most Croatian Master's and Ph.D. theses are not made available to the scientific community. There should be more institutional effort directed at the stimulation of postgraduate students to publish their scientific work.

Mapping the evolution of scientific ideas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Roberts, David [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Herrera, Mark [UNIV OF MARYLAND; Gulbahce, Natali [UNIV OF BOSTON

2009-01-01

Despite the apparent conceptual boundaries of scientific fields, a formal description for their evolution is lacking. Here we describe a novel approach to study the dynamics and evolution of scientific fields using a network-based analysis. We build an idea network consisting of American Physical Society PACS numbers as nodes representing scientific concepts. Two PACS numbers are linked if there exist publications that reference them simultaneously. We locate scientific fields using Cfinder, an overlapping community finding algorithm, and describe the time evolution of these fields using a community evolution method over the course of 1985-2006. The communities we identify map to known scientific fields, and their age strongly depends on t.heir size, impact and activity. Our analysis further suggests that communities that redefine themselves by merging and creating new groups of ideas tend to have more fitness as measured by the impact per paper, and hence communities with a higher fitness tend to be short-lived. The described approach to quantify the evolution of ideas may be relevant in making predictions about the future of science and how to guide its development.

Bringing ecology blogging into the scientific fold: measuring reach and impact of science community blogs.

Science.gov (United States)

Saunders, Manu E; Duffy, Meghan A; Heard, Stephen B; Kosmala, Margaret; Leather, Simon R; McGlynn, Terrence P; Ollerton, Jeff; Parachnowitsch, Amy L

2017-10-01

The popularity of science blogging has increased in recent years, but the number of academic scientists who maintain regular blogs is limited. The role and impact of science communication blogs aimed at general audiences is often discussed, but the value of science community blogs aimed at the academic community has largely been overlooked. Here, we focus on our own experiences as bloggers to argue that science community blogs are valuable to the academic community. We use data from our own blogs ( n  = 7) to illustrate some of the factors influencing reach and impact of science community blogs. We then discuss the value of blogs as a standalone medium, where rapid communication of scholarly ideas, opinions and short observational notes can enhance scientific discourse, and discussion of personal experiences can provide indirect mentorship for junior researchers and scientists from underrepresented groups. Finally, we argue that science community blogs can be treated as a primary source and provide some key points to consider when citing blogs in peer-reviewed literature.

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

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Davud Kuhi

2015-11-01

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

Radio Research in Spain - Characteristics, Perceptions and Impressions from the Scientific Community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Teresa Piñeiro Otero

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Research in communication has recently gained relevance, leading to the development of a significant and specialised corpus of studies. Along these lines, this work focuses on radio studies from the perspective of the scientific community – an innovative approach in the framework of communication meta-research. Starting with the outcomes of an initial survey, an in-depth study was then conducted to focus on the importance, themes and quality of radio research. We looked into the 31 most important authors of contributions published in scientific journals (1980-2013 to understand their perceptions and impressions about Spanish research. This study helped confirm that radio research is still a minority and individual endeavour. The respondents explained that this is due to limited support from research and academic institutions. In any case, radio researchers find the object of their study to be relevant, influential and well rooted, even if the topics and approaches are permeable to the context where the studies take place.

An Open-Source Sandbox for Increasing the Accessibility of Functional Programming to the Bioinformatics and Scientific Communities

Science.gov (United States)

Fenwick, Matthew; Sesanker, Colbert; Schiller, Martin R.; Ellis, Heidi JC; Hinman, M. Lee; Vyas, Jay; Gryk, Michael R.

2012-01-01

Scientists are continually faced with the need to express complex mathematical notions in code. The renaissance of functional languages such as LISP and Haskell is often credited to their ability to implement complex data operations and mathematical constructs in an expressive and natural idiom. The slow adoption of functional computing in the scientific community does not, however, reflect the congeniality of these fields. Unfortunately, the learning curve for adoption of functional programming techniques is steeper than that for more traditional languages in the scientific community, such as Python and Java, and this is partially due to the relative sparseness of available learning resources. To fill this gap, we demonstrate and provide applied, scientifically substantial examples of functional programming, We present a multi-language source-code repository for software integration and algorithm development, which generally focuses on the fields of machine learning, data processing, bioinformatics. We encourage scientists who are interested in learning the basics of functional programming to adopt, reuse, and learn from these examples. The source code is available at: https://github.com/CONNJUR/CONNJUR-Sandbox (see also http://www.connjur.org). PMID:25328913

Mapping the evolution of scientific ideas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Roberts, David C [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Herrera, Mark [UNIV OF MARYLAND; Gulbahce, Natali [NORTHEASTERN UNIV

2008-01-01

The importance of interdisciplinary research is ever increasing as challenging world problems require expertise across diverse fields. Despite the apparent conceptual boundaries of scientific fields, a formal description for their evolution is lacking. Here we describe a novel approach to study the dynamics and evolution of scientific ideas and fields using a network-based analysis. We build a idea network consisting of American Physical Society Pacs numbers as nodes representing scientific concepts. Two Pacs numbers are linked in the network if there exist publications that reference them simultaneously. We locate scientific fields using an overlapping community finding algorithm and describe the time evolution of these fields using a community evolution method over the course of 1985-2006. We find that the communities we find map to scientific fields, the lifetime of these fields strongly depends on their size, impact and activity, and longest living communities are least volatile. The described approach to quantify the evolution of ideas is expected to be relevant in making predictions about the future of science and how to guide its development.

Weighted Evolving Networks with Self-organized Communities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xie Zhou; Wang Xiaofan; Li Xiang

2008-01-01

In order to describe the self-organization of communities in the evolution of weighted networks, we propose a new evolving model for weighted community-structured networks with the preferential mechanisms functioned in different levels according to community sizes and node strengths, respectively. Theoretical analyses and numerical simulations show that our model captures power-law distributions of community sizes, node strengths, and link weights, with tunable exponents of ν ≥ 1, γ > 2, and α > 2, respectively, sharing large clustering coefficients and scaling clustering spectra, and covering the range from disassortative networks to assortative networks. Finally, we apply our new model to the scientific co-authorship networks with both their weighted and unweighted datasets to verify its effectiveness

Social Network and Content Analysis of the North American Carbon Program as a Scientific Community of Practice

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Molly E.; Ihli, Monica; Hendrick, Oscar; Delgado-Arias, Sabrina; Escobar, Vanessa M.; Griffith, Peter

2015-01-01

The North American Carbon Program (NACP) was formed to further the scientific understanding of sources, sinks, and stocks of carbon in Earth's environment. Carbon cycle science integrates multidisciplinary research, providing decision-support information for managing climate and carbon-related change across multiple sectors of society. This investigation uses the conceptual framework of com-munities of practice (CoP) to explore the role that the NACP has played in connecting researchers into a carbon cycle knowledge network, and in enabling them to conduct physical science that includes ideas from social science. A CoP describes the communities formed when people consistently engage in shared communication and activities toward a common passion or learning goal. We apply the CoP model by using keyword analysis of abstracts from scientific publications to analyze the research outputs of the NACP in terms of its knowledge domain. We also construct a co-authorship network from the publications of core NACP members, describe the structure and social pathways within the community. Results of the content analysis indicate that the NACP community of practice has substantially expanded its research on human and social impacts on the carbon cycle, contributing to a better understanding of how human and physical processes interact with one another. Results of the co-authorship social network analysis demonstrate that the NACP has formed a tightly connected community with many social pathways through which knowledge may flow, and that it has also expanded its network of institutions involved in carbon cycle research over the past seven years.

Recruitment Campaigns as a Tool for Social and Cultural Reproduction of Scientific Communities: A case study on how scientists invite young people to science

Science.gov (United States)

Andrée, Maria; Hansson, Lena

2014-08-01

Young people's interest in pursuing science and science-intense educations has been expressed as a concern in relation to societal, economic and democratic development by various stakeholders (governments, industry and university). From the perspective of the scientific communities, the issues at stake do not necessarily correspond to the overall societal aims. Rather, initiatives to recruit young people to science are also ways for the scientific community to engage in the social and cultural reproduction of itself. For a community to survive and produce a future, it needs to secure regeneration of itself in succeeding generations. The aim of this study is to, from a perspective of social and cultural production/reproduction, shed light on an initiative from the scientific community to recruit young people to science education. This is a case study of one recruitment campaign called the Chemistry Advent calendar. The calendar consists of 25 webcasted films, produced and published by the science/technology faculty at a university. The analysed data consist of the films and additional published material relating to the campaign such as working reports and articles published about the campaign. The analysis focussed on what messages are communicated to potential newcomers. The messages were categorised by means of a framework of subjective values. The results are discussed both from a perspective of how the messages mirror traditions and habits of the scientific community, and in relation to research on students' educational choices.

"There Is No Black or White": Scientific Community Views on Ethics in Intellectual and Developmental Disability Research

Science.gov (United States)

McDonald, Katherine; Patka, Mazna

2012-01-01

From an ethical standpoint, there are questions about the best ways to include adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in research. Scholarship reflects divergent responses to these enduring questions and values that can be at odds with one another. To deepen our understanding of beliefs in the scientific community about how to…

The configuration of the Brazilian scientific field.

Science.gov (United States)

Barata, Rita B; Aragão, Erika; de Sousa, Luis E P Fernandes; Santana, Taris M; Barreto, Mauricio L

2014-03-01

This article describes the configuration of the scientific field in Brazil, characterizing the scientific communities in every major area of knowledge in terms of installed capacity, ability to train new researchers, and capacity for academic production. Empirical data from several sources of information are used to characterize the different communities. Articulating the theoretical contributions of Pierre Bourdieu, Ludwik Fleck, and Thomas Kuhn, the following types of capital are analyzed for each community: social capital (scientific prestige), symbolic capital (dominant paradigm), political capital (leadership in S & T policy), and economic capital (resources). Scientific prestige is analyzed by taking into account the volume of production, activity index, citations, and other indicators. To characterize symbolic capital, the dominant paradigms that distinguish the natural sciences, the humanities, applied sciences, and technology development are analyzed theoretically. Political capital is measured by presidency in one of the main agencies in the S & T national system, and research resources and fellowships define the economic capital. The article discusses the composition of these different types of capital and their correspondence to structural capacities in various communities with the aim of describing the configuration of the Brazilian scientific field.

The responsibility of the scientific community in matters of national security

Science.gov (United States)

Rosen, Louis

1989-05-01

Scientists must provide more and better leadership in the debate over how to avoid catastrophe, whether it be through war, or starvation, or plague, or environmental degradation. Scientists should be vigilant about challenging false perceptions and defending the truth. They should alert our citizenry to major dangers—such as those brought about by weapons of great destructive potential—whether they be nuclear, biological, chemical, or even psychological. The scientific community needs to provide accurate and understandable analyses of these issues. It is their duty to develop and disseminate factual information by engaging in research, teaching, public outreach, and even lobbying. The scientific community has an obligation to identify and challenge muddled thinking. It is absolutely essential that the quality of public debate be raised well above where it now resides, in this election year. Some years ago, the American Physical Society created a Panel on Public Affairs. It has sponsored in-depth studies on critical national concerns such as energy and the environment. In this connection, I quote from a letter to the membership from Sid Drell, when he was President of the American Physical Society: As a result of the great impact of technology on our conditions of life and especially the threat of nuclear holocaust, there has never been a greater need for scientists, and physicists in particular, to be involved with public policy. The Society can and should play a constructive and instructive role in informing its members and in supporting and presenting appropriate studies to members of government and to the public. The council and officers of the Society have an important trust in protecting a high standard for such studies. The APS directedenergy weapons study stands out as the most pressing item on the society's agenda this year. I hope that by this coming summer the council will be able to release a report which will contribute significantly to the national

Science gateways for distributed computing infrastructures development framework and exploitation by scientific user communities

CERN Document Server

Kacsuk, Péter

2014-01-01

The book describes the science gateway building technology developed in the SCI-BUS European project and its adoption and customization method, by which user communities, such as biologists, chemists, and astrophysicists, can build customized, domain-specific science gateways. Many aspects of the core technology are explained in detail, including its workflow capability, job submission mechanism to various grids and clouds, and its data transfer mechanisms among several distributed infrastructures. The book will be useful for scientific researchers and IT professionals engaged in the develop

Embedding Scientific Integrity and Ethics into the Scientific Process and Research Data Lifecycle

Science.gov (United States)

Gundersen, L. C.

2016-12-01

Predicting climate change, developing resources sustainably, and mitigating natural hazard risk are complex interdisciplinary challenges in the geosciences that require the integration of data and knowledge from disparate disciplines and scales. This kind of interdisciplinary science can only thrive if scientific communities work together and adhere to common standards of scientific integrity, ethics, data management, curation, and sharing. Science and data without integrity and ethics can erode the very fabric of the scientific enterprise and potentially harm society and the planet. Inaccurate risk analyses of natural hazards can lead to poor choices in construction, insurance, and emergency response. Incorrect assessment of mineral resources can bankrupt a company, destroy a local economy, and contaminate an ecosystem. This paper presents key ethics and integrity questions paired with the major components of the research data life cycle. The questions can be used by the researcher during the scientific process to help ensure the integrity and ethics of their research and adherence to sound data management practice. Questions include considerations for open, collaborative science, which is fundamentally changing the responsibility of scientists regarding data sharing and reproducibility. The publication of primary data, methods, models, software, and workflows must become a norm of science. There are also questions that prompt the scientist to think about the benefit of their work to society; ensuring equity, respect, and fairness in working with others; and always striving for honesty, excellence, and transparency.

The Circulation of Scientific Articles in the Sphere of Web-Based Media: Citation Practices, Communities of Interests and Local Ties.

Science.gov (United States)

Lefebvre, Muriel; Renard, Julie

2016-01-01

On 5th December 2012, a scientific article reviewing a change in the feeding behaviour of the European catfish, one of the largest freshwater fish, was published in the American scientific journal, PLOS ONE, an open access journal, which also allows the mass publication of pictures and videos. Within a few days following the publication of this article, it was relayed by numerous web sites and generated a media craze. In this paper, we analyse the circulation of this scientific information in the sphere of Web-based media during the two months following its publication, by revealing the citation mechanisms of the original article and the logic of the Internet users participating in its diffusion. In addition, since the circulation of its informational content travelled beyond linguistic and geographical boundaries, we chose to compare the citation modalities and intertextual relationships of documents in the three countries where the article spread the most widely, namely: France, the United States and Great Britain. Even though our study shows that the media circulation of scientific papers operates in a traditional way, the intertextual analysis underlines the grand variety of participants (such as journalists, non-scientists, fishermen, technology enthusiasts and Internet users) involved in the diffusion of this information, each of them mobilizing different intertextual strategies, according to their various targets. They all transformed, reformulated and appropriated the scientific information according to their own, unique interests. This study also emphasizes the importance of journalistic websites as opinion relays. They were the first diffusers involved in spreading the information but this role was rarely acknowledged by the Internet users - through citations, for example. In contrast, we observed that amateurs' communities (communities of practices and communities of interest of fishermen or of buzz fans), which only became involved in a second temporal

Mapping the evolution of scientific fields.

Science.gov (United States)

Herrera, Mark; Roberts, David C; Gulbahce, Natali

2010-05-04

Despite the apparent cross-disciplinary interactions among scientific fields, a formal description of their evolution is lacking. Here we describe a novel approach to study the dynamics and evolution of scientific fields using a network-based analysis. We build an idea network consisting of American Physical Society Physics and Astronomy Classification Scheme (PACS) numbers as nodes representing scientific concepts. Two PACS numbers are linked if there exist publications that reference them simultaneously. We locate scientific fields using a community finding algorithm, and describe the time evolution of these fields over the course of 1985-2006. The communities we identify map to known scientific fields, and their age depends on their size and activity. We expect our approach to quantifying the evolution of ideas to be relevant for making predictions about the future of science and thus help to guide its development.

COMESEP: bridging the gap between the SEP, CME, and terrestrial effects scientific communities

Science.gov (United States)

Crosby, Norma; Veronig, Astrid; Rodriguez, Luciano; Vrsnak, Bojan; Vennerstrøm, Susanne; Malandraki, Olga; Dalla, Silvia; Srivastava, Nandita

2016-04-01

In the past there has been a tendency for the geomagnetic storm and solar energetic particle (SEP) communities to work in parallel rather than to apply a cross-disciplinary work approach specifically in regard to space weather forecasting. To provide more awareness on the existing links between these communities, as well as further bridge this gap, the three-year EU FP7 COMESEP (COronal Mass Ejections and Solar Energetic Particles: forecasting the space weather impact) project emphasized cross-collaboration between the SEP, coronal mass ejection, and terrestrial effects scientific communities. COMESEP went from basic solar-terrestrial physics research to space weather operations by developing, validating and implementing multi-purpose tools into an operational 24/7 alert service. Launched in November 2013, the COMESEP alert system provides space weather stakeholders geomagnetic storm alerts ("Event based" and "Next 24 hours") and SEP (proton) storm alerts (E > 10 MeV and E > 60 MeV) without human intervention based on the COMESEP definition of risk. COMESEP alerts and forecasts are freely available on the COMESEP alert website (http://www.comesep.eu/alert), as well as disseminated by e-mail to registered users. Acknowledgement: This work has received funding from the European Commission FP7 Project COMESEP (263252).

Scientific Coverage in Community-Based Tourism: Sustainable Tourism and Strategy for Social Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José Álvarez-García

2018-04-01

Full Text Available In the last decades in developing countries, the tourism sector has been immersed in an intense process of strengthening the participation of local communities through the so-called community tourism initiatives, whose main objective is to improve the quality of life of the inhabitants of host communities, ensuring the subsistence of traditional culture. Its growing momentum as a means for sustainable tourism and a strategy for social development has generated a large amount of academic literature, and it is necessary to analyze its presence in the main multidisciplinary databases. Thus, the main purpose of our article is to show the current state of scientific production on community tourism through a bibliometric comparative study of the documents indexed in the WoS and Scopus databases, dealing with aspects such as their coverage, correlation between both bases, overlapping of documents and journals, growth, dispersion or concentration of articles, among others. For this purpose, and by means of an advanced search by terms, a representative set of 115 articles in WoS and 185 in Scopus were selected, with the time limit set in 2017. These form the ad-hoc basis of the analysis. In view of the results, it is concluded that, although WoS and Scopus databases differ in terms of scope, volume of data, and coverage policies, both information systems are complementary but not exclusive. Although the documents and the results of their analysis are in many aspects similar, Scopus has a better coverage in the specific area of community tourism due to collecting a greater number of articles, journals and signatures, and its articles receiving a greater number of citations.

Open archives, the expectations of the scientific communities

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2007-01-01

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

The ESA Scientific Exploitation of Operational Missions element, first results

Science.gov (United States)

Desnos, Yves-Louis; Regner, Peter; Delwart, Steven; Benveniste, Jerome; Engdahl, Marcus; Mathieu, Pierre-Philippe; Gascon, Ferran; Donlon, Craig; Davidson, Malcolm; Pinnock, Simon; Foumelis, Michael; Ramoino, Fabrizio

2016-04-01

SEOM is a program element within the fourth period (2013-2017) of ESA's Earth Observation Envelope Programme (http://seom.esa.int/). The prime objective is to federate, support and expand the international research community that the ERS, ENVISAT and the Envelope programmes have built up over the last 25 years. It aims to further strengthen the leadership of the European Earth Observation research community by enabling them to extensively exploit future European operational EO missions. SEOM will enable the science community to address new scientific research that are opened by free and open access to data from operational EO missions. Based on community-wide recommendations for actions on key research issues, gathered through a series of international thematic workshops and scientific user consultation meetings, a work plan is established and is approved every year by ESA Members States. During 2015 SEOM, Science users consultation workshops have been organized for Sentinel1/3/5P ( Fringe, S3 Symposium and Atmospheric science respectively) , new R&D studies for scientific exploitation of the Sentinels have been launched ( S3 for Science SAR Altimetry and Ocean Color , S2 for Science,) , open-source multi-mission scientific toolboxes have been launched (in particular the SNAP/S1-2-3 Toolbox). In addition two advanced international training courses have been organized in Europe to exploit the new S1-A and S2-A data for Land and Ocean remote sensing (over 120 participants from 25 countries) as well as activities for promoting the first scientific results ( e.g. Chili Earthquake) . In addition the First EO Open Science 2.0 was organised at ESA in October 2015 with 225 participants from 31 countries bringing together young EO scientists and data scientists. During the conference precursor activities in EO Open Science and Innovation were presented, while developing a Roadmap preparing for future ESA scientific exploitation activities. Within the conference, the first

Scientific Information Service at CERN

CERN Document Server

Pereira, Margarida

2016-01-01

Dissemination of information is an essential part of CERN's mission. It brings people together from all around the world and trains the scientists of tomorrow. CERN scientific output is documented and made available for the scientific community and the general public through the CERN Document Server, INSPIRE-HEP and Wikipedia. This report presents the work done in the Scientific Information Service during the summer student program.

Community R and D programme on radioactive waste management and storage (Shared Cost Action). List of scientific reports

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hebel, W.; Falke, W.

1984-11-01

The scientific reports listed herein have been brought out in the scope of the Research and Development programme sponsored by the Commission of the European Communities in the field of Radioactive Waste Management and Storage. The list systematically contains the references of all final R and D reports and equivalent scientific publications drawn up since 1975 on the various contractual research works sponsored by the Commission in its programme on shared cost terms (Shared Cost Action). It states the autor of the work, the title, the EUR report number (where applicable), the way of publication and the contractor's reference (CEC contract number). The content headings are: conditioning of fuel cladding and dissolution residues, immobilization and storage of gaseous waste, treatment of Low and Medium Level waste, processing of alpha contaminated waste, characterization of conditioned Low and Medium Level waste forms, testing of solidified High Level waste forms, shallow land burial of solid Low Level waste, waste disposal in geological formations, safety of radioactive waste disposal, and annual progress reports of the Community programme

Dementia RED (Respect Empathy Dignity): Collaborating to build dementia supportive communities in North Wales--reporting on a pilot project (innovative practice).

Science.gov (United States)

Chalk, Annabel; Page, Sean

2016-03-01

There is increasing interest in developing dementia supportive communities world wide. Dementia RED (Respect Empathy Dignity) is a unique example from North Wales which is based on the twin concepts of people living with dementia as citizens in their community and developing 'bottom up' rather than 'top down' approaches to dementia supportive communities. Most people with dementia prefer to live at home thus making community connectivity key to maintaining healthy relationships and wellbeing. For those living with dementia, the community plays a pivotal role in providing value, meaning, purpose and acceptance. Building dementia supportive communities helps to raise awareness about dementia in the community through engagement and from identifying champions in the locality to voice issues. Dementia RED is an initiative and service which helps to develop such a philosophy in creating a dementia supportive community. © The Author(s) 2014.

Building Bridges through Scientific Conferences

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zierath, Juleen R

2016-01-01

Getting together to exchange ideas, forge collaborations, and disseminate knowledge is a long-standing tradition of scientific communities. How conferences are serving the community, what their current challenges are, and what is in store for the future of conferences are the topics covered...

Interaction of Academic Community of Siberian Physicists with Authorities in the First Post-war Decade (Tomsk Scientific and Educational Park Case Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexander N. Sorokin

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Author analyzes the main stages of the generation and development of the scientific community of physicists in Siberia at the end of XIX – the mid XX centuries. Particular attention is given to the relationship physicists Tomsk’s universities and research institutes with authority. Identified and analyzed the causes, course and results of the ideological and scientific campaigns had affected Tomsk physicists. Author consider the socio-political situation in the Tomsk scientific-educational complex, defined the role of party organizations of universities, research institutes, the city and region in the research and teaching activities of physicists

Open Science: Open source licenses in scientific research

OpenAIRE

Guadamuz, Andres

2006-01-01

The article examines the validity of OSS (open source software) licenses for scientific, as opposed to creative works. It draws on examples of OSS licenses to consider their suitability for the scientific community and scientific research.

European Community initiatives and experience in scientific and technical information

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Steven, G.

1990-05-01

Scientific and technical information (STI) is an increasingly important resource for R and D and industrial development. The rapid development of the market for electronic information and the increasing potential offered through new information technologies require new approaches for the collection and dissemination of STI. Activities of the Commission of the European Communities (CEC) in this area are reviewed. More recent CEC initiatives in the areas of biotechnology information and factual materials data banks have proved the need for international collaboration and for the implementation of infrastructural measures as a basis for such collaboration. The implementation of the EC Demonstrator Programme on materials property data systems has evaluated the potential of eleven European materials data banks against the market requirements and has helped to launch wide international collaboration. The concluding European workshop on materials data systems has developed a set of recommendations for future initiatives. These are shortly reviewed together with initial findings of a study aimed at developing a business plan for the establishment of a biotechnology information infrastructure for the bio-industries and research base in Europe. (author). 3 refs

European Community initiatives and experience in scientific and technical information

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Steven, G [Commission of the European Communities, Luxembourg (Luxembourg)

1990-05-01

Scientific and technical information (STI) is an increasingly important resource for R and D and industrial development. The rapid development of the market for electronic information and the increasing potential offered through new information technologies require new approaches for the collection and dissemination of STI. Activities of the Commission of the European Communities (CEC) in this area are reviewed. More recent CEC initiatives in the areas of biotechnology information and factual materials data banks have proved the need for international collaboration and for the implementation of infrastructural measures as a basis for such collaboration. The implementation of the EC Demonstrator Programme on materials property data systems has evaluated the potential of eleven European materials data banks against the market requirements and has helped to launch wide international collaboration. The concluding European workshop on materials data systems has developed a set of recommendations for future initiatives. These are shortly reviewed together with initial findings of a study aimed at developing a business plan for the establishment of a biotechnology information infrastructure for the bio-industries and research base in Europe. (author). 3 refs.

High Performance Data Distribution for Scientific Community

Science.gov (United States)

Tirado, Juan M.; Higuero, Daniel; Carretero, Jesus

2010-05-01

Institutions such as NASA, ESA or JAXA find solutions to distribute data from their missions to the scientific community, and their long term archives. This is a complex problem, as it includes a vast amount of data, several geographically distributed archives, heterogeneous architectures with heterogeneous networks, and users spread around the world. We propose a novel architecture (HIDDRA) that solves this problem aiming to reduce user intervention in data acquisition and processing. HIDDRA is a modular system that provides a highly efficient parallel multiprotocol download engine, using a publish/subscribe policy which helps the final user to obtain data of interest transparently. Our system can deal simultaneously with multiple protocols (HTTP,HTTPS, FTP, GridFTP among others) to obtain the maximum bandwidth, reducing the workload in data server and increasing flexibility. It can also provide high reliability and fault tolerance, as several sources of data can be used to perform one file download. HIDDRA architecture can be arranged into a data distribution network deployed on several sites that can cooperate to provide former features. HIDDRA has been addressed by the 2009 e-IRG Report on Data Management as a promising initiative for data interoperability. Our first prototype has been evaluated in collaboration with the ESAC centre in Villafranca del Castillo (Spain) that shows a high scalability and performance, opening a wide spectrum of opportunities. Some preliminary results have been published in the Journal of Astrophysics and Space Science [1]. [1] D. Higuero, J.M. Tirado, J. Carretero, F. Félix, and A. de La Fuente. HIDDRA: a highly independent data distribution and retrieval architecture for space observation missions. Astrophysics and Space Science, 321(3):169-175, 2009

Ethical challenges in FASD prevention: Scientific uncertainty, stigma, and respect for women's autonomy.

Science.gov (United States)

Zizzo, Natalie; Racine, Eric

2017-11-09

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is a leading form of neurodevelopmental delay in Canada, affecting an estimated 3000 babies per year. FASD involves a range of disabilities that entail significant costs to affected individuals, families, and society. Exposure to alcohol in utero is a necessary factor for FASD development, and this has led to FASD being described as "completely preventable". However, there are significant ethical challenges associated with FASD prevention. These challenges revolve around 1) what should be communicated about the risks of alcohol consumption during pregnancy, given some ongoing scientific uncertainty about the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure, and 2) how to communicate these risks, given the potential for stigma against women who give birth to children with FASD as well as against children and adults with FASD. In this paper, we share initial thoughts on how primary care physicians can tackle this complex challenge. First, we recommend honest disclosure of scientific evidence to women and the tailoring of information offered to pregnant women. Second, we propose a contextualized, patient-centred, compassionate approach to ensure that appropriate advice is given to patients in a supportive, non-stigmatizing way.

Scientific Community of Valentin N. Samoilov

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rabounski D.

2010-10-01

Full Text Available In this letter we celebrate the 65th birthday anniversary of Prof. Valentin N. Samoilov, a man of the Soviet scientific ancestry in the nuclear and space research, who is a pupil and follower of the famous Soviet engineer Sergey P. Korolev and the prominent Soviet nuclear physicist Michael G. Mescheryakov.

Evaluating Scientific Work by Means of Diffusion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dan Ophir

2013-10-01

Full Text Available There are two approaches for evaluating scientific papers. The classic way is to choose well established representatives of the specific scientific community and have them evaluate their colleague's work. The other method of evaluation, the so called peer-evaluation method, is where peers (famous or otherwise of the author evaluate the paper. Peer-evaluation resembles the diffusion process in which a new substance spreads out to the whole solution. Similarly the new author and article are diffused among the scientific community, smoothing the level for accepting scientific papers. Using the classic-evaluation system of accepting new papers, the average starting scientists writes their first number of articles as collaborators with a renowned scientist, thus gradually building up their image. Only afterwards do these authors dare to independently publish. What are the pros and cons of both these types of scientific article evaluations?

Motivating Scientific Research and Development: | Ononogbu | Bio ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Scientific research is an important aspect of the function of a university lecturer. It is how he/she carries out this function that determines his/her relevance in the university system and indeed in the scientific community as a whole. Scientific research or investigation may be divided into four sections: mental exercise, ...

Addressing big data challenges for scientific data infrastructure

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Demchenko, Y.; Zhao, Z.; Grosso, P.; Wibisono, A.; de Laat, C.

2012-01-01

This paper discusses the challenges that are imposed by Big Data Science on the modern and future Scientific Data Infrastructure (SDI). The paper refers to different scientific communities to define requirements on data management, access control and security. The paper introduces the Scientific

Antibody Scientific Committee | Office of Cancer Clinical Proteomics Research

Science.gov (United States)

The Antibody Scientific Committee provides scientific insight and guidance to the NCI's Antibody Characterization Program. Specifically, the members of this committee evaluate request from the external scientific community for development and characterization of antibodies by the program. The members of the Antibody Scientific Committee include:

Formative research on the primo vascular system and acceptance by the korean scientific community: the gap between creative basic science and practical convergence technology.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Hoon Gi

2013-12-01

The purpose of this study was to trace the formative process of primo vascular system (PVS) research over the past decade and to describe the characteristics of the Korean scientific community. By publishing approximately 30 papers in journals ranking in the Science Citation Index (Expanded), the PVS research team actively convinced domestic and international scientists of the anatomical existence of the PVS and its possible application to Korean and Western medicine. In addition, by sharing the PVS observation technique, the team promoted the dissemination and further pursuit of the research. In 2012, however, PVS researchers performed smaller scale research without advancing to a higher level as compared to the early days. The main reasons were found to be the Korean Research and Development policy of supporting creative, small-scale basic research and applied research of Western scientific fields that promised potentially greater success on an extensive scale; the indifference concerning, and the disbelief in, the existence of a new circulatory system were shown by the Western medical community. In addition, the Oriental medical community was apathetic about working with the PVS team. Professors Kwang-Sup Soh and Byung-Cheon Lee were the prime movers of PVS research under difficult conditions. Spurred by their belief in the existence and significance of the PVS, they continued with their research despite insufficient experimental data. The Korean scientific community is not ready to promote the Korea-oriented creative field of the PVS team. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier B.V.

The scientific framing of forestry decentralization in Nepal

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rutt, Rebecca Leigh; Chhetri, Bir Bahadur Khanal; Pokharel, Ridish

2015-01-01

these functions, the plans must be informed by accurate information about the forest and be actively used by local communities. Based on studies in Nepal, this paper seeks to further our understanding of the role of so-called scientific planning in community-level management through time series analyses of remote......, community-level managers appear well-informed about forest condition and their practices contribute to sustainable forest development. We suggest the need to further scrutinize the regime of scientific management planning as its practical relevance appears questionable....... sensing images, detailed forest inventories and interviews with community forest managers and public forest authorities. Results indicate that technical forest management plans have been elaborated haphazardly and that local communities base their management on other sources of knowledge. Further...

Respect changes your life!

CERN Document Server

Alizée Dauvergne

2010-01-01

CERN has recently joined the Geneva-based association "Le respect, ça change la vie" (Respect can change our lives). As its name suggests, the association promotes respect, in all its forms. This decision will enable CERN to share some of its values, those it has in common with the association, with the community at large.   The new bilingual logo of the "Le respect ça change la vie" association. "CERN has been a member of the Geneva-based association "Le respect, ça change la vie" since March," says Friedemann Eder, Head of the Relations with the Host States Service. Mutual respect, respecting the differences and the work of others, respect on the road, in the family, at school, etc. The association, which was founded in 2003 and now has a large number of members, promotes this universal value and encourages discussion on it. "CERN's history shows the importance and success o...

Transformed Science: Overcoming Barriers of Inequality and Mistrust to Pursue the Agenda of Underrepresented Communities

Science.gov (United States)

Lyons, Renee

Educational programs created to provide opportunities for all, in reality often reflect social inequalities. Such is the case for Public Participation in Scientific Research (PPSR) Projects. PPSR projects have been proposed as an effective way to engage more diverse audiences in science, yet the demographics of PPSR participants do not correspond with the demographic makeup of the United States. The field of PPSR as a whole has struggled to recruit low SES and underrepresented populations to participate in project research efforts. This research study explores factors, which may be affecting an underrepresented community's willingness to engage in scientific research and provides advice from PPSR project leaders in the field, who have been able to engage underrepresented communities in scientific research, on how to overcome these barriers. Finally the study investigates the theoretical construct of a Third Space within a PPSR project. The research-based recommendations for PPSR projects desiring to initiate and sustain research partnerships with underrepresented communities well align with the theoretical construct of a Third Space. This study examines a specific scientific research partnership between an underrepresented community and scientific researchers to examine if and to what extent a Third Space was created. Using qualitative methods to understand interactions and processes involved in initiating and sustaining a scientific research partnership, this study provides advice on how PPSR research partnerships can engage underrepresented communities in scientific research. Study results show inequality and mistrust of powerful institutions stood as participation barriers for underrepresented community members. Despite these barriers PPSR project leaders recommend barriers can be confronted by open dialogue with communities about the abuse and alienation they have faced, by signaling respect for the community, and by entering the community through someone the

Scientific challenges in thermosphere-ionosphere forecasting – conclusions from the October 2014 NASA JPL community workshop

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mannucci Anthony J.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Interest in forecasting space weather in the thermosphere and ionosphere (T-I led to a community workshop held at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in October, 2014. The workshop focus was “Scientific Challenges in Thermosphere-Ionosphere Forecasting” to emphasize that forecasting presumes a sufficiently advanced state of scientific knowledge, yet one that is still evolving. The purpose of the workshop, and this topical issue that arose from the workshop, was to discuss research frontiers that will lead to improved space weather forecasts. Three areas are discussed in some detail in this paper: (1 the role of lower atmosphere forcing in the response of the T-I to geomagnetic disturbances; (2 the significant deposition of energy at polar latitudes during geomagnetic disturbances; and (3 recent developments in understanding the propagation of coronal mass ejections through the heliosphere and prospects for forecasting the north-south component of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF using observations at the Lagrangian L5 point. We describe other research presented at the workshop that appears in the topical issue. The possibility of establishing a “positive feedback loop” where improved scientific knowledge leads to improved forecasts is described (Siscoe 2006, Space Weather, 4, S01003; Mannucci 2012, Space Weather, 10, S07003.

Gaining trust from the scientific climate change community and increasing the visibility of their data

Science.gov (United States)

Pfeil, B.; Diepenbroek, M.

2017-12-01

Climate science has a major impact not just within the field, but also has immediate significant societal and economic implications. Scientists are well aware that their research results may be discussed by policy-makers and the media, sometimes with hostile intent from climate science deniers. Sustainable and scrutinized data management is the backbone for future scientific research and vital to maintain the integrity and reputation of the climate science community. In 2009 a lack of openness regarding data acquisition data treatment was one of the main factors in Climategate that severely damaged the community's image - and efficient data sharing and management can prevent this in the future. Data repositories can only operate effectively if they have the trust of their users: this includes both the data providers and data users. Both groups have to be assured that data treatment and quality control follows internationally agreed SOPs (standard operating procedures), is transparent, documented and traceable. Users want easy access to data and have to be assured that data is citable, allows reproducibility and can be used with confidence, which requires that both the data and accompanying metadata are of the highest possible quality. Building up trust from both communities takes time and requires collaboration, getting feedback from the community and addressing their needs. This presentation will show the basic needs and challenges for data repositories, and will illustrate how the marine carbon climate change community has successfully addressed these through the SOCAT (Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas) project. The project actively involves both data providers and users throughout the design and implementation of their infrastructures. Scientists are directly involved in quality control of the data and metadata, increasing trust in the data and encouraging international collaboration, which in turn increases the visibility of both the community and its data.

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

Science.gov (United States)

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

2009-01-01

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

Innovating a constructivist learning model to instill cultural diversity respect into youths in a Thai tourism community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paranee Srisawad

2016-05-01

The results of the study revealed that, prior to their participation in the study, the youths had low level of cultural diversity respect. In nine months of their learning action, the youths cultivated their respect to the level that they pre-determined. From their learning action, a constructivist learning model was innovated. In the L-CULTURA or the Learn-to-Cultivate Cultures Model, the youths engaged in nine spiraling steps of taking up challenges, checking stocks, planning self-study, searching for new information, sorting the information, conveying the information, getting feedbacks, reflecting on learning experience and creating habits. Community experts and the researchers played roles in scaffolding their learning process as motivators, stimulators, challengers, advisors, resource persons and facilitators.

Lemont B. Kier: a bibliometric exploration of his scientific production and its use.

Science.gov (United States)

Restrepo, Guillermo; Llanos, Eugenio J; Silva, Adriana E

2013-12-01

We thought an appropriate way to celebrate the seminal contribution of Kier is to explore his influence on science, looking for the impact of his research through the citation of his scientific production. From a bibliometric approach the impact of Kier's work is addressed as an individual within a community. Reviewing data from his curriculum vitae, as well as from the ISI Web of Knowledge (ISI), his role within the scientific community is established and the way his scientific results circulate is studied. His curriculum vitae is explored emphasising the approaches he used in his research activities and the social ties with other actors of the community. The circulation of Kier's publications in the ISI is studied as a means for spreading and installing his discourse within the community. The citation patterns found not only show the usage of Kier's scientific results, but also open the possibility to identify some characteristics of this discursive community, such as a common vocabulary and common research goals. The results show an interdisciplinary research work that consolidates a scientific community on the topic of drug discovery.

Kaleidoscope: Scientific Quality Committee - final report

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dirckinck-Holmfeld, Lone; Laurillard, Diana

To shape a body of reference at a scientific level for the European TEL research communities. To make recommendations (i) to support a policy for the enhancement of research in Europe in this field, (ii) to survey the development of the field, and (iii) to build scientific collaboration on top of...

Scientific report 1996-1997

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1998-01-01

A general introduction gives a summary of the present scientific program of the SPEC and presents some of the recent highlights, the organization, the recent evolution and the relationship of the laboratory with the CEA and the scientific community. Most of the information on the organization is gathered at the end of the report in a section called 'Facts and Figures'. The central part consists in 20 chapters which can be divided in 4 subsets corresponding to the contributions of the four laboratories of the SPEC. In front of each of these subsets, an inset gives a summary of the respective contributions. The distribution is as follows: Chapter 1 - 4: Soft matter, interfaces and turbulence. Chapter 5 - 11: Solid state and novel materials. Chapter 12 - 16 : Quantum condensed matter. Chapter 17 - 20: Condensed matter theory. The headings of each chapter list the physicists, technicians, PhD students as well as the visitors and main collaborators which have taken part in the corresponding activities. In most cases, graduate students were involved in some of the work during their training period. Their names can be found in the section Facts and Figures (subsection Teaching and Training). The Index lists all the contributors and gives the page numbers at which their names appear. (authors)

Ports Primer: 8.1 Using Scientific Data and Research

Science.gov (United States)

Communities can demonstrate environmental concerns by providing scientific evidence of environmental impact. Communities may be able to access existing local data and conduct their own analyses or communities may turn to existing studies.

Ombud's Corner: Respect @ CERN

CERN Multimedia

Sudeshna Datta-Cockerill

2014-01-01

Since 2010 CERN has been a member of the Geneva-based association "Le respect, ça change la vie". Four years later and in conjunction with CERN’s celebration of its 60 years of ‘science for peace’, it is time to launch a new respectful workplace awareness campaign under the auspices of the Ombud.   Mutual respect is a basic pillar of peace. At CERN, we pride ourselves on our history, which started when a handful of Europe’s visionary scientists saw the opportunity that an international laboratory for fundamental research would present in bringing nations together. That idea has worked very well and, today, our success can be measured not only in terms of unprecedented scientific achievements but also in terms of training and education, and exemplary collaboration across borders, cultures and an extensive range of differences. In order for history to continue along these positive lines, and coming back to the awareness campai...

Asthma in the community: Designing instruction to help students explore scientific dilemmas that impact their lives

Science.gov (United States)

Tate, Erika Dawn

School science instruction that connects to students' diverse home, cultural, or linguistic experiences can encourage lifelong participation in the scientific dilemmas that impact students' lives. This dissertation seeks effective ways to support high school students as they learn complex science topics and use their knowledge to transform their personal and community environments. Applying the knowledge integration perspective, I collaborated with education, science, and community partners to design a technology enhanced science module, Improving Your Community's Asthma Problem. This exemplar community science curriculum afforded students the opportunity to (a) investigate a local community health issue, (b) interact with relevant evidence related to physiology, clinical management, and environmental risks, and (c) construct an integrated understanding of the asthma problem in their community. To identify effective instructional scaffolds that engage students in the knowledge integration process and prepare them to participate in community science, I conducted 2 years of research that included 5 schools, 10 teachers, and over 500 students. This dissertation reports on four studies that analyzed student responses on pre-, post-, and embedded assessments. Researching across four design stages, the iterative design study investigated how to best embed the visualizations of the physiological processes breathing, asthma attack, and the allergic immune response in an inquiry activity and informed evidence-based revisions to the module. The evaluation study investigated the impact of this revised Asthma module across multiple classrooms and differences in students' prior knowledge. Combining evidence of student learning from the iterative and evaluation studies with classroom observations and teacher interviews, the longitudinal study explored the impact of teacher practices on student learning in years 1 and 2. In the final chapter, I studied how the Asthma module and

It's Not Given Us to Foretell How Our Words Will Echo through the Ages: The Reception of Novel Ideas by Scientific Community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Valentin Bazhanov

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The paper reveals some mostly unnoticed and unexpected trends in reception of novel ideas in science. The author formulates certain principles of the reception of these ideas by scientific communities and justifies them by examples from modern mathematics and non-classical logic.

Test Driven Development of Scientific Models

Science.gov (United States)

Clune, Thomas L.

2012-01-01

Test-Driven Development (TDD) is a software development process that promises many advantages for developer productivity and has become widely accepted among professional software engineers. As the name suggests, TDD practitioners alternate between writing short automated tests and producing code that passes those tests. Although this overly simplified description will undoubtedly sound prohibitively burdensome to many uninitiated developers, the advent of powerful unit-testing frameworks greatly reduces the effort required to produce and routinely execute suites of tests. By testimony, many developers find TDD to be addicting after only a few days of exposure, and find it unthinkable to return to previous practices. Of course, scientific/technical software differs from other software categories in a number of important respects, but I nonetheless believe that TDD is quite applicable to the development of such software and has the potential to significantly improve programmer productivity and code quality within the scientific community. After a detailed introduction to TDD, I will present the experience within the Software Systems Support Office (SSSO) in applying the technique to various scientific applications. This discussion will emphasize the various direct and indirect benefits as well as some of the difficulties and limitations of the methodology. I will conclude with a brief description of pFUnit, a unit testing framework I co-developed to support test-driven development of parallel Fortran applications.

The Sea Ice for Walrus Outlook: A collaboration between scientific and Indigenous communities to support safety and food security in a changing Arctic

Science.gov (United States)

Sheffield Guy, L.; Wiggins, H. V.; Schreck, M. B.; Metcalf, V. K.

2017-12-01

The Sea Ice for Walrus Outlook (SIWO) provides Alaskan Native subsistence walrus hunters and Bering Strait coastal communities with weekly reports on spring sea ice and weather conditions to promote hunter safety, food security, and preservation of cultural heritage. These reports integrate scientific and Indigenous knowledge into a co-produced tool that is used by both local and scientific communities. SIWO is a team effort led by the Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. (ARCUS, with funding from NSF Arctic Sciences Section), with the Eskimo Walrus Commission, National Weather Service - Alaska Sea Ice Program, University of Alaska Fairbanks - International Arctic Research Center, and local observers. For each weekly outlook, the National Weather Service provides location-specific weather and sea ice forecasts and regional satellite imagery. Local observations of sea ice, weather, and hunting conditions are provided by observers from five Alaskan communities in the Bering Strait region: Wales, Shishmaref, Nome, Gambell, and Savoonga. These observations typically include a written description of conditions accompanied by photographs of sea ice or subsistence activities. Outlooks are easily accessible and provide a platform for sharing of knowledge among hunters in neighboring communities. The opportunity to contribute is open, and Indigenous language and terms are encouraged. These observations from local hunters and community members also provide a valuable tool for validation of weather forecasts, satellite products, and other information for scientists. This presentation will discuss the process, products, and mutually beneficial outcomes of the Sea Ice for Walrus Outlook.

A comunidade científica, o Estado e as universidades, no atual estágio de desenvolvimento científico tecnológico Scientific community, State and universities in the current stage of scientific technological development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michelangelo Giotto Santoro Trigueiro

2001-12-01

Full Text Available O trabalho discute a relação entre a comunidade científica, o Estado e a universidade no contexto atual do desenvolvimento científico-tecnológico. Enfatiza a dimensão política das transformações recentes, sobretudo no tocante aos sistemas decisórios, contrapondo momento mais verticalizado com cenário mais democratizado, e as conseqüências das transformações políticas contemporâneas, na sociedade brasileira. Procura analisar as mútuas correlações entre o Estado, as universidades e as comunidades científicas, a partir do entendimento da especificidade de cada um destes atores na condução do desenvolvimento científico-tecnológico nacional. A esse respeito, é analisado todo um conjunto de ações que se coadunam com o novo modo de produção do conhecimento, buscando destacar a natureza controversa e polêmica da inserção do Estado e o caráter conservador da comunidade científica, bem como a resistência da universidade na proposição de novas linhas de atuação no enfrentamento dos desafios trazidos pela ciência e tecnologias contemporâneas.This article discusses the relationship between scientific community, the State and university in the current circumstances of scientific-technological development. It stresses the political dimension of recent changes, specially regarding decision systems, comparing a more vertical moment and a more democratic scenario and the consequences of contemporary political changes in Brazilian society. It examines mutual relations between the State, universities and the scientific community, based on the understanding of each of those actors' specificities in advancing national scientific-technological development. A whole set of actions is examined in accordance with knowledge's new mode of production in order to highlight the controversial nature of the State and the conservative character of the scientific community as well as the resistance of the university in proposing new lines

Implementation of Scientific Community Laboratories and Their Effect on Student Conceptual Learning, Attitudes, and Understanding of Uncertainty

Science.gov (United States)

Lark, Adam

Scientific Community Laboratories, developed by The University of Maryland, have shown initial promise as laboratories meant to emulate the practice of doing physics. These laboratories have been re-created by incorporating their design elements with the University of Toledo course structure and resources. The laboratories have been titled the Scientific Learning Community (SLC) Laboratories. A comparative study between these SLC laboratories and the University of Toledo physics department's traditional laboratories was executed during the fall 2012 semester on first semester calculus-based physics students. Three tests were executed as pre-test and post-tests to capture the change in students' concept knowledge, attitudes, and understanding of uncertainty. The Force Concept Inventory (FCI) was used to evaluate students' conceptual changes through the semester and average normalized gains were compared between both traditional and SLC laboratories. The Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics (E-CLASS) was conducted to elucidate students' change in attitudes through the course of each laboratory. Finally, interviews regarding data analysis and uncertainty were transcribed and coded to track changes in the way students understand uncertainty and data analysis in experimental physics after their participation in both laboratory type. Students in the SLC laboratories showed a notable an increase conceptual knowledge and attitudes when compared to traditional laboratories. SLC students' understanding of uncertainty showed most improvement, diverging completely from students in the traditional laboratories, who declined throughout the semester.

How researchers perceive research misconduct in biomedicine and how they would prevent it: A qualitative study in a small scientific community.

Science.gov (United States)

Buljan, Ivan; Barać, Lana; Marušić, Ana

2018-01-01

The aim of our study has been to use a qualitative approach to explore the potential motivations and drivers for unethical behaviors in biomedicine and determine the role of institutions regarding those issues in a small scientific community setting. Three focus groups were held---two with doctoral students and one with active senior researchers. Purposive sampling was used to reach participants at different stages of their scientific careers. Participants in all three focus groups were asked the same questions regarding the characteristics and behaviors of ethical/unethical scientists, ethical climate, role, and responsibility of institutions; they were also asked to suggest ways to improve research integrity. The data analysis included coding of the transcripts, categorization of the initial codes, and identification of themes and patterns. Three main topics were derived from the focus groups discussions. The first included different forms of unethical behaviors including increasing research "waste," non-publication of negative results, authorship manipulation, data manipulation, and repression of collaborators. The second addressed the factors influencing unethical behavior, both external and internal, to the researchers. Two different definitions of ethics in science emerged; one from the categorical perspective and the other from the dimensional perspective. The third topic involved possible routes for improvement, one from within the institution through the research integrity education, research integrity bodies, and quality control, and the other from outside the institution through external supervision of institutions. Based on the results of our study, research misconduct in a small scientific community is perceived to be the consequence of the interaction of several social and psychological factors, both general and specific, for small research communities. Possible improvements should be systematic, aiming both for improvements in work environment and

Promoting access to and use of seismic data in a large scientific community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michel Eric

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The growing amount of seismic data available from space missions (SOHO, CoRoT, Kepler, SDO,… but also from ground-based facilities (GONG, BiSON, ground-based large programmes…, stellar modelling and numerical simulations, creates new scientific perspectives such as characterizing stellar populations in our Galaxy or planetary systems by providing model-independent global properties of stars such as mass, radius, and surface gravity within several percent accuracy, as well as constraints on the age. These applications address a broad scientific community beyond the solar and stellar one and require combining indices elaborated with data from different databases (e.g. seismic archives and ground-based spectroscopic surveys. It is thus a basic requirement to develop a simple and effcient access to these various data resources and dedicated tools. In the framework of the European project SpaceInn (FP7, several data sources have been developed or upgraded. The Seismic Plus Portal has been developed, where synthetic descriptions of the most relevant existing data sources can be found, as well as tools allowing to localize existing data for given objects or period and helping the data query. This project has been developed within the Virtual Observatory (VO framework. In this paper, we give a review of the various facilities and tools developed within this programme. The SpaceInn project (Exploitation of Space Data for Innovative Helio- and Asteroseismology has been initiated by the European Helio- and Asteroseismology Network (HELAS.

Metadata in Scientific Dialects

Science.gov (United States)

Habermann, T.

2011-12-01

Discussions of standards in the scientific community have been compared to religious wars for many years. The only things scientists agree on in these battles are either "standards are not useful" or "everyone can benefit from using my standard". Instead of achieving the goal of facilitating interoperable communities, in many cases the standards have served to build yet another barrier between communities. Some important progress towards diminishing these obstacles has been made in the data layer with the merger of the NetCDF and HDF scientific data formats. The universal adoption of XML as the standard for representing metadata and the recent adoption of ISO metadata standards by many groups around the world suggests that similar convergence is underway in the metadata layer. At the same time, scientists and tools will likely need support for native tongues for some time. I will describe an approach that combines re-usable metadata "components" and restful web services that provide those components in many dialects. This approach uses advanced XML concepts of referencing and linking to construct complete records that include reusable components and builds on the ISO Standards as the "unabridged dictionary" that encompasses the content of many other dialects.

Brazilian law for scientific use of animals.

Science.gov (United States)

Marques, Ruy Garcia; Morales, Marcelo Marcos; Petroianu, Andy

2009-01-01

The Brazilian scientific community claimed for a definitive systematization and for comprehensive and realistic national rules, to provide guidance and regulation, instead of sanctions, so that the question of scientific research involving animals could be better contemplated. This is beginning to occur now with Law no. 11.794, sanctioned by the President of the Republic on November 8, 2008. To describe the evolution of Brazilian regimentation for scientific use of animals and to analyze Law no. 11.794. The legislation about the use of animals in teaching and in scientific research in Brazil and in Rio de Janeiro State was identified and discussed. Until now, there was no updated general and systematizing rule regarding animal vivisection and experimentation for didactic or scientific purposes. The only specific law dates back to 1979 and was not regimented. More recent laws equated the practice of scientific experiments to acts of abuse and mistreatment of animals, when alternative technology was available. Municipal laws that restricted the scientific practice of vivisection and experimentation with animals were created in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Florianopolis. With the claim and collaboration of the scientific community, the sanction of Law no. 11.794 regarding the scientific use of animals represented an invaluable advance in spite of the presence of some points that eventually may require another type of treatment. The new Law states that it will be regimented within 180 (one-hundred-and-eighty) days, when some of these points could be better elucidated.

Transforming Data: An Ethnography of Scientific Data from the Brazilian Amazon

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Walford, Antonia Caitlin

This thesis is an ethnography of scientific data produced by a Brazil-led scientific project in the Brazilian Amazon. It describes how the researchers and technicians make data about the Amazon forest, and how this data in turn generates different scientific communities, scientific subjectivities...

Accelerating the scientific exploration process with scientific workflows

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Altintas, Ilkay; Barney, Oscar; Cheng, Zhengang; Critchlow, Terence; Ludaescher, Bertram; Parker, Steve; Shoshani, Arie; Vouk, Mladen

2006-01-01

of long running tasks, and support for fault-tolerance and recovery from failures. We present an overview of common scientific workflow requirements and their associated features which are lacking in current state-of-the-art workflow management systems. We then illustrate features of the Kepler workflow system, both from a user's and a 'workflow engineer's' point-of-view. In particular, we highlight the use of some of the current features of Kepler in several scientific applications, as well as upcoming extensions and improvements that are geared specifically for SciDAC user communities

Computational Simulations and the Scientific Method

Science.gov (United States)

Kleb, Bil; Wood, Bill

2005-01-01

As scientific simulation software becomes more complicated, the scientific-software implementor's need for component tests from new model developers becomes more crucial. The community's ability to follow the basic premise of the Scientific Method requires independently repeatable experiments, and model innovators are in the best position to create these test fixtures. Scientific software developers also need to quickly judge the value of the new model, i.e., its cost-to-benefit ratio in terms of gains provided by the new model and implementation risks such as cost, time, and quality. This paper asks two questions. The first is whether other scientific software developers would find published component tests useful, and the second is whether model innovators think publishing test fixtures is a feasible approach.

EDP Sciences and A&A: partnering to providing services to support the scientific community

Science.gov (United States)

Henri, Agnes

2015-08-01

Scholarly publishing is no longer about simply producing and packaging articles and sending out to subscribers. To be successful, as well as being global and digital, Publishers and their journals need to be fully engaged with their stakeholders (authors, readers, funders, libraries etc), and constantly developing new products and services to support their needs in the ever-changing environment that we work in.Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A) is a high quality, major international Journal that belongs to the astronomical communities of a consortium of European and South American countries supported by ESO who sponsor the journal. EDP Sciences is a non-profit publisher belonging to several learned societies and is appointed by ESO to publish the journal.Over the last decade, as well as publishing the results of worldwide astronomical and astrophysical research, A&A and EDP Sciences have worked in partnership to develop a wide range of services for the authors and readers of A&A:- A specialist language editing service: to provide a clear and excellent level of English ensuring full understanding of the high-quality science.- A flexible and progressive Open Access Policy including Gold and Green options and strong links with arXiv.- Enriched articles: authors are able to enhance their articles using a wide range of rich media such as 3D models, videos and animations.Multiple publishing formats: allowing readers to browse articles on multiple devices including eReaders and Kindles.- “Scientific Writing for Young Astronomers”: In 2008 EDP Sciences and A&A set up the Scientific Writing for Young Astronomers (SWYA) School with the objective to teach early PhD Students how write correct and efficient scientific papers for different mediums (journals, proceedings, thesis manuscripts, etc.).

Mobilizing the Global Scientific Enterprise to Foster Cooperation with the Middle East

Science.gov (United States)

Turekian, Vaughan

2007-03-01

International science cooperation - e.g. science for diplomacy - has long been an important tool in the US foreign policy approach. Cold War science exchanges and development of institutions such as IIASA in Vienna, Austria played a critical role in increasing contacts and building trust between the adversaries. American - Chinese science exchanges starting in the 1970's laid the groundwork for increased interactions between the two countries. While such a deep history of exchange with the Muslim world U.S. policy, scientific diplomacy should now be a central point of any broader diplomatic engagement with these countries. Although perceptions of the U.S. are at historical lows throughout the region, recent polling continues to show that U.S. science and scientists remain highly respected. In part as a response to this unpopularity of the U.S. throughout the broader Middle East, President Bush appointed Karen Hughes, one of his most trusted advisers, to serve as the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy - a position that is charges with improving the U.S. image abroad. This presentation will demonstrate that Under Secretary Hughes has valuable resources within the scientific community that are willing, able and proactively engaging with the Muslim world. The paper will highlight some of the key areas of cooperation, and highlight areas and programs that AAAS is using to further engage elements of the Muslim scientific community.

Scientific Research & Subsistence: Protocols to Ensure Co-Existence

Science.gov (United States)

Nachman, C.; Holman, A.; DeMaster, D.

2017-12-01

Commercial, industrial, and research interests in the Arctic are expanding rapidly. Potentials are numerous and exciting, giving rise to the need for guidelines to ensure interactions among waterway users do not conflict. Of particular concern is the potential for adverse impacts to U.S. Arctic coastal communities that rely on living marine resources for nutritional and cultural health, through subsistence hunts from small craft, ice edges, and shore. Recent events raised concerns over research surveys potentially interfering with subsistence hunts in the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas. Incidents led to calls by Native Alaskan communities to restrict science activities with a mixed response from the scientific community (i.e., some sympathetic, some defensive). With a common goal of wanting to mitigate this potential interaction, Federal agencies made a commitment in the National Strategy for the Arctic Region to coordinate and consult with Alaska Natives and also to pursue responsible Arctic stewardship, with understanding through scientific research and traditional knowledge. The effort to create a "Standard of Care" for research surveys incorporates years of experience by subsistence hunters working to mitigate impacts of other anthropogenic activities in the region, as well as best practices by many in the research community. The protocols are designed to ensure potential conflicts between the scientific research community and subsistence hunters are avoided and to encourage mutual assistance and collaboration between researchers and hunters. The guidelines focus on enhancing communication between researchers and subsistence hunters before, during, and after research occurs. The best management practices outlined in the Standard of Care assist those overseeing and funding scientific research in making decisions about how best to accomplish the goals of the research while ensuring protection of the Alaska subsistence lifestyle. These protocols could also be

Expectations for a scientific collaboratory

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sonnenwald, Diane H.

2003-01-01

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

Collaborative Learning in the Scientific Community of Practice

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jesionkowska, J.

2016-01-01

Full text: The paper describes research done in the scope of doctoral project. The aim of the study is to discover how to improve the process of collaborative learning in the community of scientists by the development of a community of practice. A mixed methods approach was used combining data from content analysis, interviews and questionnaires. Results show that such community helps to build relationships and network with others, it motivates to share work-related knowledge, represents an area of common interest for organization, but also that it is mainly driven by the willingness of members and is lacking instruments to share ideas. (author

The ESA Scientific Exploitation of Operational Missions element

Science.gov (United States)

Desnos, Yves-Louis; Regner, Peter; Delwart, Steven; Benveniste, Jerome; Engdahl, Marcus; Zehner, Claus; Mathieu, Pierre-Philippe; Bojkov, Bojan; Gascon, Ferran; Donlon, Craig; Davidson, Malcolm; Goryl, Philippe; Pinnock, Simon

2015-04-01

SEOM is a program element within the fourth period (2013-2017) of ESA's Earth Observation Envelope Programme (http://seom.esa.int/). The prime objective is to federate, support and expand the international research community that the ERS,ENVISAT and the Envelope programmes have built up over the last 25 years. It aims to further strengthen the leadership of the European Earth Observation research community by enabling them to extensively exploit future European operational EO missions. SEOM will enable the science community to address new scientific research that are opened by free and open access to data from operational EO missions. Based on community-wide recommendations for actions on key research issues, gathered through a series of international thematic workshops and scientific user consultation meetings, a work plan has been established and is approved every year by ESA Members States. The 2015 SEOM work plan is covering the organisation of three Science users consultation workshops for Sentinel1/3/5P , the launch of new R&D studies for scientific exploitation of the Sentinels, the development of open-source multi-mission scientific toolboxes, the organisation of advanced international training courses, summer schools and educational materials, as well as activities for promoting the scientific use of EO data. The first SEOM projects have been tendered since 2013 including the development of Sentinel toolboxes, advanced INSAR algorithms for Sentinel-1 TOPS data exploitation, Improved Atmospheric Spectroscopic data-base (IAS), as well as grouped studies for Sentinel-1, -2, and -3 land and ocean applications and studies for exploiting the synergy between the Sentinels. The status and first results from these SEOM projects will be presented and an outlook for upcoming SEOM studies will be given.

Recent Developments in the Scientific Study of UFO's

Science.gov (United States)

Salisbury, Frank B.

1975-01-01

Reviews the interest of the last few years, both inside and outside the scientific community, in unidentified flying objects (UFO), placing special emphasis on the extraterrestrial intelligence hypothesis. Cites numerous examples of UFO sightings and urges that the investigation of UFO's proceed in a scientific manner, despite skeptical public…

Scientific Digital Libraries, Interoperability, and Ontologies

Science.gov (United States)

Hughes, J. Steven; Crichton, Daniel J.; Mattmann, Chris A.

2009-01-01

Scientific digital libraries serve complex and evolving research communities. Justifications for the development of scientific digital libraries include the desire to preserve science data and the promises of information interconnectedness, correlative science, and system interoperability. Shared ontologies are fundamental to fulfilling these promises. We present a tool framework, some informal principles, and several case studies where shared ontologies are used to guide the implementation of scientific digital libraries. The tool framework, based on an ontology modeling tool, was configured to develop, manage, and keep shared ontologies relevant within changing domains and to promote the interoperability, interconnectedness, and correlation desired by scientists.

The committee of scientific expertise coordination

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2003-01-01

Placed under the MIES control, the Committee of scientific expertise coordination defines the needs, the contain and the planing of expertises realized in function of Climate national and international decisions and negotiations calendars. The Committee verifies the different expertises and offers the administrations, scientific tools and techniques useful for the negotiations. It can also define long-dated research needs which require the scientific community mobilization. This paper provides some document of the Committee: objectives, operating and priorities of the Committee, scenarios ''Factor 4'' and ''crack technology'', perceptions and practices, developing countries (China, India...), Euromed. (A.L.B.)

[G. Baglivi and scientific European community between rationalism and enlightenment].

Science.gov (United States)

Toscano, A

2000-01-01

The Baglivi Correspondence, kept in the Waller Collection at the University Library of Uppsala, has been published in Italy for the first time in 1999. This Correspondence kept in Sweden provides new information about the scientific Italian culture between the second half of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth. Moreover, it provides important knowledge on the diffusion the Baglivi's work in the scientific European context at that time.

A warning to the Brazilian Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology community about the importance of scientific and clinical activities in primary progressive aphasia.

Science.gov (United States)

Beber, Bárbara Costa; Brandão, Lenisa; Chaves, Márcia Lorena Fagundes

2015-01-01

This article aims to warn the Brazilian Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology scientific community about the importance and necessity of scientific and clinical activities regarding Primary Progressive Aphasia. This warning is based on a systematic literature review of the scientific production on Primary Progressive Aphasia, from which nine Brazilian articles were selected. It was observed that there is an obvious lack of studies on the subject, as all the retrieved articles were published in medical journals and much of it consisted of small samples; only two articles described the effectiveness of speech-language therapy in patients with Primary Progressive Aphasia. A perspective for the future in the area and characteristics of Speech-Language Therapy for Primary Progressive Aphasia are discussed. As a conclusion, it is evident the need for greater action by Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology on Primary Progressive Aphasia.

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

Science.gov (United States)

Koeneman, Marcel; Goedhart, Martin; Ossevoort, Miriam

2013-01-01

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

Plagiarism in scientific publishing.

Science.gov (United States)

Masic, Izet

2012-12-01

Scientific publishing is the ultimate product of scientist work. Number of publications and their quoting are measures of scientist success while unpublished researches are invisible to the scientific community, and as such nonexistent. Researchers in their work rely on their predecessors, while the extent of use of one scientist work, as a source for the work of other authors is the verification of its contributions to the growth of human knowledge. If the author has published an article in a scientific journal it cannot publish the article in any other journal h with a few minor adjustments or without quoting parts of the first article, which are used in another article. Copyright infringement occurs when the author of a new article with or without the mentioning the author used substantial portions of previously published articles, including tables and figures. Scientific institutions and universities should,in accordance with the principles of Good Scientific Practice (GSP) and Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) have a center for monitoring,security, promotion and development of quality research. Establish rules and compliance to rules of good scientific practice are the obligations of each research institutions,universities and every individual-researchers,regardless of which area of science is investigated. In this way, internal quality control ensures that a research institution such as a university, assume responsibility for creating an environment that promotes standards of excellence, intellectual honesty and legality. Although the truth should be the aim of scientific research, it is not guiding fact for all scientists. The best way to reach the truth in its study and to avoid the methodological and ethical mistakes is to consistently apply scientific methods and ethical standards in research. Although variously defined plagiarism is basically intended to deceive the reader's own scientific contribution. There is no general regulation of control of

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

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francisco López Cantos

2015-03-01

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

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

Science.gov (United States)

Danka, Elizabeth S.; Malpede, Brian M.

2015-01-01

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

Authorship for scientific papers: the new challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Garcia, Carla Costa; Martrucelli, Cristina Ribeiro Nabuco; Rossilho, Marilisa de Melo Freire; Denardin, Odilon Victor Porto

2010-01-01

The dissemination of the practice of collaborative authorship (coauthorship) in Brazil and in the international scientific community has been accompanied by an increasing occurrence of frauds, manipulations and other deviations in the assignment of responsibility for a scientific paper. This article discusses the criteria for authorship attribution, the reasons for the growing indices of coauthorship and the challenges to determine authorship in electronic journals. Through literature review and case study (bibliographic search in scientific database), it shows ways to avoid that "misbehaviors" related to the authorship attribution affect the credibility of science.

76 FR 59706 - Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Healthy Communities Study: How Communities Shape Children's...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-09-27

... published in scientific journals and will be used for the development of future research initiatives... Request; Healthy Communities Study: How Communities Shape Children's Health (HCS) SUMMARY: Under the... control number. Proposed Collection: Title: Healthy Communities Study: How Communities Shape Children's...

76 FR 35452 - Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Healthy Communities Study: How Communities Shape Children's...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-06-17

... scientific journals and will be used for the development of future research initiatives targeting childhood... Request; Healthy Communities Study: How Communities Shape Children's Health (HCS) SUMMARY: In compliance... Collection: Title: Healthy Communities Study: How Communities Shape Children's Health (HCS). Type of...

International science conference RESpect report

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Radim Rybár

2010-07-01

Full Text Available Report is dedicated to aspects of conceiving the number of scientific magazine Acta Montanistica Slovaca, which purpose wasto publish specific key reports from the sixth year of international science conference RESpect 2011. The main aspect in the decisionprocess was to cover the conference agenda, complexity of the global problematic understanding, the subject of examination actualityand the results achievement level. The choice at the same time points on the technological, evaluative, environmental, economicaland application aspects of the RES usage, with accent on the Middle Europe region conditions.

Violent video games and the Supreme Court: lessons for the scientific community in the wake of Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association.

Science.gov (United States)

Ferguson, Christopher J

2013-01-01

In June 2011 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that video games enjoy full free speech protections and that the regulation of violent game sales to minors is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court also referred to psychological research on violent video games as "unpersuasive" and noted that such research contains many methodological flaws. Recent reviews in many scholarly journals have come to similar conclusions, although much debate continues. Given past statements by the American Psychological Association linking video game and media violence with aggression, the Supreme Court ruling, particularly its critique of the science, is likely to be shocking and disappointing to some psychologists. One possible outcome is that the psychological community may increase the conclusiveness of their statements linking violent games to harm as a form of defensive reaction. However, in this article the author argues that the psychological community would be better served by reflecting on this research and considering whether the scientific process failed by permitting and even encouraging statements about video game violence that exceeded the data or ignored conflicting data. Although it is likely that debates on this issue will continue, a move toward caution and conservatism as well as increased dialogue between scholars on opposing sides of this debate will be necessary to restore scientific credibility. The current article reviews the involvement of the psychological science community in the Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association case and suggests that it might learn from some of the errors in this case for the future. (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Ethical Justification of Moral Norms in Scientific Research: Scientists' External Responsibilities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mehmet AKÖZER

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Scientists' moral responsibilities have become a focus for the scientific community over the postwar decades. International and regional networks of leading academic bodies have responded to a widely perceived increase in scientific fraud and the ensued loss of public trust in science during the 1980s, and initiated a discussion with a view to codifying good practice in research. While scientists' “external” responsibilities towards society and the humankind have been variously addressed, codes drafted since then mainly dwell on problems of misconduct concerning scientists' “internal” responsibilities towards science and to the scientific community. They also reflect an ethical pluralism, which declines justifying moral standards in research with reference to universal ethical principles. However, the need for such justification has been first recognized decades ago, during the Doctor's Trial in Nuremberg, where the shortcomings of the established ethos of science and the inadequacy of the Hippocratic ethics in safeguarding human rights in research had become flagrant, with the resultant Nuremberg Code of 1947 introducing a human rights perspective into Hippocratic ethics. This paper argues for the necessity of an integral ethical justification of scientists' both external and inner responsibilities, as put down or assumed by internationally acclaimed codes of conduct. Such necessity is validated by the evidence that a historical current to monopolize ethical thinking in the name of science and nullify philosophical ethics lies at the root of an anti–morality that relativized human worth and virtually legitimized human rights violations in scientific practice. Kantian ethics based on humans' absolute inner worth, and Popperian epistemology rooted in respect for truth and for humans as rational beings, pledge an ethical justification of moral norms in science so as to reinforce the latter against intrusions of anti–morality. The paper

The Crop Journal: A new scientific journal for the global crop science community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jianmin Wan

2013-10-01

articles on developments in both techniques and discovery in related fields. This first issue of The Crop Journal gives an idea of how the editors intend to contribute their efforts to increase knowledge and the means to obtain “good crops”. The editorial panel, selected worldwide, brings an impressive range and depth of expertise to the journal, and each member has agreed to become actively involved in guiding its development and ensuring its interaction with the wider community of crop scientists. Through the journal, we would like to support the rapidly developing scientific field, and make results accessible to all interested people. It is the wish of the Editors that the new journal will be read by agricultural scientists all over the world. Research workers can be assured that their contributions will receive prompt and careful attention and will be considered in order of receipt. It is with great pleasure that we publish the first issue of The Crop Journal. Since the success of the new journal depends entirely on the support of the crop science community it will serve, we therefore invite you to join us in making The Crop Journal an objective, advanced, open and successful journal. We look forward to receiving your reactions and advices, together with your support for the journal. May The Crop Journal find conditions favorable to its growth!

Language from police body camera footage shows racial disparities in officer respect.

Science.gov (United States)

Voigt, Rob; Camp, Nicholas P; Prabhakaran, Vinodkumar; Hamilton, William L; Hetey, Rebecca C; Griffiths, Camilla M; Jurgens, David; Jurafsky, Dan; Eberhardt, Jennifer L

2017-06-20

Using footage from body-worn cameras, we analyze the respectfulness of police officer language toward white and black community members during routine traffic stops. We develop computational linguistic methods that extract levels of respect automatically from transcripts, informed by a thin-slicing study of participant ratings of officer utterances. We find that officers speak with consistently less respect toward black versus white community members, even after controlling for the race of the officer, the severity of the infraction, the location of the stop, and the outcome of the stop. Such disparities in common, everyday interactions between police and the communities they serve have important implications for procedural justice and the building of police-community trust.

Scientific Services on the Cloud

Science.gov (United States)

Chapman, David; Joshi, Karuna P.; Yesha, Yelena; Halem, Milt; Yesha, Yaacov; Nguyen, Phuong

Scientific Computing was one of the first every applications for parallel and distributed computation. To this date, scientific applications remain some of the most compute intensive, and have inspired creation of petaflop compute infrastructure such as the Oak Ridge Jaguar and Los Alamos RoadRunner. Large dedicated hardware infrastructure has become both a blessing and a curse to the scientific community. Scientists are interested in cloud computing for much the same reason as businesses and other professionals. The hardware is provided, maintained, and administrated by a third party. Software abstraction and virtualization provide reliability, and fault tolerance. Graduated fees allow for multi-scale prototyping and execution. Cloud computing resources are only a few clicks away, and by far the easiest high performance distributed platform to gain access to. There may still be dedicated infrastructure for ultra-scale science, but the cloud can easily play a major part of the scientific computing initiative.

CERN’s model for international scientific collaboration to be discussed at UNOG

CERN Multimedia

Antonella Del Rosso

2015-01-01

On 2 November, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the United Nations, CERN and UNOG will co-host a one-day symposium, with the support of Switzerland and France. The event will bring together policy-makers, scientists and members of civil society to debate how to construct synergies across communities as a means to drive global objectives. CERN people are invited to the Palais des Nations to take part.   CERN's seat at the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York. How does CERN work? How are goals achieved in such a complex environment where diverse communities work together in the interests of science? CERN’s model for international scientific collaboration is being looked at with growing interest by an increasingly large community of experts in various fields. Scientific advances and accomplishments are testament to the effectiveness of the model and prove that ambitious scientific programmes can be carried out only by communities c...

Evidence based policy making in the European Union. The role of the scientific community

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Majcen, Spela [Euro-Mediterranean Univ. (EMUNI), Portoroz (Slovenia)

2017-03-15

In the times when the acquis of the European Union (EU) has developed so far as to reach a high level of technical complexity, in particular in certain policy fields such as environmental legislation, it is important to look at what kind of information and data policy decisions are based on. This position paper looks at the extent to which evidence-based decision-making process is being considered in the EU institutions when it comes to adopting legislation in the field of environment at the EU level. The paper calls for closer collaboration between scientists and decision-makers in view of ensuring that correct data is understood and taken into consideration when drafting, amending, negotiating and adopting new legal texts at all levels of the EU decision-making process. It concludes that better awareness of the need for such collaboration among the decision-makers as well as the scientific community would benefit the process and quality of the final outcomes (legislation).

Evidence based policy making in the European Union: the role of the scientific community.

Science.gov (United States)

Majcen, Špela

2017-03-01

In the times when the acquis of the European Union (EU) has developed so far as to reach a high level of technical complexity, in particular in certain policy fields such as environmental legislation, it is important to look at what kind of information and data policy decisions are based on. This position paper looks at the extent to which evidence-based decision-making process is being considered in the EU institutions when it comes to adopting legislation in the field of environment at the EU level. The paper calls for closer collaboration between scientists and decision-makers in view of ensuring that correct data is understood and taken into consideration when drafting, amending, negotiating and adopting new legal texts at all levels of the EU decision-making process. It concludes that better awareness of the need for such collaboration among the decision-makers as well as the scientific community would benefit the process and quality of the final outcomes (legislation).

Evidence based policy making in the European Union. The role of the scientific community

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Majcen, Spela

2017-01-01

In the times when the acquis of the European Union (EU) has developed so far as to reach a high level of technical complexity, in particular in certain policy fields such as environmental legislation, it is important to look at what kind of information and data policy decisions are based on. This position paper looks at the extent to which evidence-based decision-making process is being considered in the EU institutions when it comes to adopting legislation in the field of environment at the EU level. The paper calls for closer collaboration between scientists and decision-makers in view of ensuring that correct data is understood and taken into consideration when drafting, amending, negotiating and adopting new legal texts at all levels of the EU decision-making process. It concludes that better awareness of the need for such collaboration among the decision-makers as well as the scientific community would benefit the process and quality of the final outcomes (legislation).

[Financing of the scientific publication and protection of the scientific knowledge].

Science.gov (United States)

Oliveira Filho, Renato Santos de; Hochman, Bernardo; Nahas, Fabio Xerfan; Ferreira, Lydia Masako

2005-01-01

The main purpose of a study is its publication on a scientific journal. Research financing agencies are important institutions so that studies can be developed and published. The most important research financing agencies that are discussed in this article are: "Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior" (CAPES), "Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico" (CNPq) and "Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo" (FAPESP). CAPES' activities can be grouped in four different strategy lines: a) it evaluates the stricto sensu, at the post-graduation level; b) it provides access and development of scientific research; c) it provides investment on the development of high qualified human resources in Brazil and abroad, and d) it promotes international scientific cooperation. Although CAPES does not support directly scientific publications, almost all actions of this agency contribute to the development of scientific research and publication. CNPq has two main purposes: financing researches and development of human resources. It provides the researchers with financial aid to scientific publication. The grants for editing were specifically created for supporting the national scientific and technical publications edited by Brazilians institutions or societies. CNPq can also support Congresses, Symposiums and similar short-term courses. The Plataforma Lattes is also a branch of CNPq on which the Curriculum Lattes is available. This site has the curriculum vitae of the scientific community and is of great value for researchers. FAPESP also finances journal publications, articles and books that bring up original results of studies made by researchers from the state of São Paulo. It finances, partially, the travel expenses of innovative papers authors in meetings within the country or abroad. Brazilian authors are increasing the number of international publications. Universities, research institutes, financing agencies and

XML Based Scientific Data Management Facility

Science.gov (United States)

Mehrotra, P.; Zubair, M.; Bushnell, Dennis M. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

The World Wide Web consortium has developed an Extensible Markup Language (XML) to support the building of better information management infrastructures. The scientific computing community realizing the benefits of XML has designed markup languages for scientific data. In this paper, we propose a XML based scientific data management ,facility, XDMF. The project is motivated by the fact that even though a lot of scientific data is being generated, it is not being shared because of lack of standards and infrastructure support for discovering and transforming the data. The proposed data management facility can be used to discover the scientific data itself, the transformation functions, and also for applying the required transformations. We have built a prototype system of the proposed data management facility that can work on different platforms. We have implemented the system using Java, and Apache XSLT engine Xalan. To support remote data and transformation functions, we had to extend the XSLT specification and the Xalan package.

PLAGIARISM IN SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHING

Science.gov (United States)

Masic, Izet

2012-01-01

Scientific publishing is the ultimate product of scientist work. Number of publications and their quoting are measures of scientist success while unpublished researches are invisible to the scientific community, and as such nonexistent. Researchers in their work rely on their predecessors, while the extent of use of one scientist work, as a source for the work of other authors is the verification of its contributions to the growth of human knowledge. If the author has published an article in a scientific journal it cannot publish the article in any other journal h with a few minor adjustments or without quoting parts of the first article, which are used in another article. Copyright infringement occurs when the author of a new article with or without the mentioning the author used substantial portions of previously published articles, including tables and figures. Scientific institutions and universities should,in accordance with the principles of Good Scientific Practice (GSP) and Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) have a center for monitoring,security, promotion and development of quality research. Establish rules and compliance to rules of good scientific practice are the obligations of each research institutions,universities and every individual-researchers,regardless of which area of science is investigated. In this way, internal quality control ensures that a research institution such as a university, assume responsibility for creating an environment that promotes standards of excellence, intellectual honesty and legality. Although the truth should be the aim of scientific research, it is not guiding fact for all scientists. The best way to reach the truth in its study and to avoid the methodological and ethical mistakes is to consistently apply scientific methods and ethical standards in research. Although variously defined plagiarism is basically intended to deceive the reader’s own scientific contribution. There is no general regulation of control of

Scientific communication

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aleksander Kobylarek

2017-09-01

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

Social Influences on Paranormal Belief: Popular versus Scientific Support

Science.gov (United States)

Ridolfo, Heather; Baxter, Amy; Lucas, Jeffrey W.

2010-01-01

Paranormal claims enjoy relatively widespread popular support despite by definition being rejected by the scientific community. We propose that belief in paranormal claims is influenced by how popular those claims are as well as by dominant scientific views on the claims. We additionally propose that individuals will be most likely to be…

GENERAL MECHANISMS OF CITATION SYSTEM OF SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Віктор Дмитрович ГОГУНСЬКИЙ

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Transformation competitive environment of higher education in the creation of effective mechanisms of management research encourages research teams and individual researchers to analyze their activity Publication search methods for improvement of citations of scientific publications. The paper analyzed the life cycle of scientific publications and show that the way to promote scientific articles in the world community inherent properties of Markov processes. Application of Markov chains allows top ground the need for active participation of the authors in the distribution of its publications in different scientometric databases, repositories of scientific and social networks. Markov model to describe decomposition of scientists made certain discrete states and proposed a schematic diagram of transitions between them. The model's 5A fully reflect the properties of the system. Communication influences the probability of changing system states with consistent movement along the trajectory from a lack of information about the publication to familiarize with it because of the positive attitude to state its citation. This is a must as well as a negative attitude to the publications. Proved that improve performance citation of scientific publications in the case of using Google Scholar, ORCID, Mendeley, Academia, ResearchGate, and others. The active participation of authors in their publications available in these systems leads to an increase in the proportion of articles that are available to colleagues in the global scientific community that is becoming one of the factors of increase in citations.

Social behavioural epistemology and the scientific community

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

MILIND WATVE

2017-07-20

Jul 20, 2017 ... Keywords. epistemology; paradigm shift; peer review bias; evolutionary psychology. Introduction ... process and the other is the community's reactions to a published finding that ..... abandoned the hypothesis and stopped all actions founded ... before a person becomes consciously aware of the urge to act.

Analyzing Data Citations to Assess the Scientific and Societal Value of Scientific Data

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, R. S.; Downs, R. R.

2012-12-01

Stakeholders in the creation, distribution, support, funding, and use of scientific data can benefit by understanding the value that the data have for society and science. For decades, the scientific community has been using citations of articles in the published scientific literature as one of the primary measures used for evaluating the performance of scientists, departments, institutions, and scientific disciplines. Similarly, citations in the published literature of scientific data may be useful for measuring and assessing the value of the scientific data and the performance of the individuals, projects, programs, and organizations that have contributed to the data and their use. The results of citation analysis and other assessments of the value of data also can contribute to planning for future data collection, development, distribution, and preservation efforts. The planned release of new data citation indexes and the more widespread adoption of unique data identifiers and automated attribution mechanisms have the potential to improve significantly the capabilities for analyzing citations of scientific data. In addition, rapid developments in the systems and capabilities for disseminating data, along with education and workforce development on the importance of data attribution and on techniques for data citation, can improve practices for citing scientific data. Such practices need to lead not only to better aggregate statistics about data citation, but also to improved characterization and understanding of the impact of data use in terms of the benefits for science and society. Analyses of citations in the scientific literature were conducted for data that were distributed by an interdisciplinary scientific data center during a five-year period (1997 - 2011), to identify the scientific fields represented by the journals and books in which the data were cited. Secondary citation analysis also was conducted for a sample of scientific publications that used

Field Science--the Nature and Utility of Scientific Fields.

Science.gov (United States)

Casadevall, Arturo; Fang, Ferric C

2015-09-08

Fields are the fundamental sociological units of science. Despite their importance, relatively little has been written about their emergence, composition, structure, and function in the scientific enterprise. This essay considers the nature of fields and their important role in maintaining information and providing normative standards for scientific work. We suggest that fields arise naturally as a consequence of increasing information and scientific specialization. New fields tend to emerge as research communities grow, which may reflect biologically determined optima for the size of human groups. The benefits of fields include the organization of scientists with similar interests into communities that collectively define the next important problems to pursue. In the discipline of microbiology, fields are often organized on the basis of phylogenetic differences between microorganisms being studied. Although fields are essential to the proper functioning of science, their emergence can restrict access by outsiders and sustain dogmas that hinder progress. We suggest mechanisms to improve the functioning of scientific fields and to promote interdisciplinary interaction between fields. Copyright © 2015 Casadevall and Fang.

Reducing eutrophication increases spatial extent of communities supporting commercial fisheries

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bauer, Barbara; Meier, H.E. Markus; Casini, Michele

2018-01-01

distribution of functional groups within a marine ecosystem, which depends on their respective tolerances to abiotic factors, trophic interactions, and fishing. We simulate the future long-term spatial developments of the community composition and their potential implications for fisheries under three...... from climate research, physical oceanography, biogeochemistry, biogeography, and trophic ecology with economical information provides a strong foundation to produce scientific knowledge that can support a multisectoral management of ecosystems....

National Nanotechnology Laboratory (LNNano) open facilities for scientific community: new methods for polymeric materials characterization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Silva, Cristiane A.; Santos, Ramon H.Z. dos; Bernardes, Juliana S.; Gouveia, Rubia F.

2015-01-01

National Nanotechnology Laboratory (LNNano) at the National Center for Energy and Materials (CNPEM) presents open facilities for scientific public in some areas. In this work will be discussed the facilities for mainly the polymeric community, as well as new methods for the characterization. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) surfaces were characterized by X-ray microtomography and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results obtained by microtomography have shown that these surfaces present different contrasts when compared with the bulk. These differences are correlated with the formation of an oxidized layer at the polymer surface, which consequently have a greater X-ray attenuation. This hypothesis is confirmed by XPS, which shows LDPE surface layers are richer in carbonyl, carboxyl and vinyl groups than the bulk. This work presents that microtomography can be used as a new method for detection and characterization of polymer surface oxidation. (author)

Re-orienting discussions of scientific explanation: A functional perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Woody, Andrea I

2015-08-01

Philosophy of science offers a rich lineage of analysis concerning the nature of scientific explanation, but the vast majority of this work, aiming to provide an analysis of the relation that binds a given explanans to its corresponding explanandum, presumes the proper analytic focus rests at the level of individual explanations. There are, however, other questions we could ask about explanation in science, such as: What role(s) does explanatory practice play in science? Shifting focus away from explanations, as achievements, toward explaining, as a coordinated activity of communities, the functional perspective aims to reveal how the practice of explanatory discourse functions within scientific communities given their more comprehensive aims and practices. In this paper, I outline the functional perspective, argue that taking the functional perspective can reveal important methodological roles for explanation in science, and consequently, that beginning here provides resources for developing more adequate responses to traditional concerns. In particular, through an examination of the ideal gas law, I emphasize the normative status of explanations within scientific communities and discuss how such status underwrites a compelling rationale for explanatory power as a theoretical virtue. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cooperation Agreement between the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and The Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development concerning Scientific and Technical Co-operation in High Energy Physics

CERN Document Server

2016-01-01

Cooperation Agreement between the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and The Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development concerning Scientific and Technical Co-operation in High Energy Physics

XVIS: Visualization for the Extreme-Scale Scientific-Computation Ecosystem Final Scientific/Technical Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Geveci, Berk [Kitware, Inc., Clifton Park, NY (United States); Maynard, Robert [Kitware, Inc., Clifton Park, NY (United States)

2017-10-27

The XVis project brings together the key elements of research to enable scientific discovery at extreme scale. Scientific computing will no longer be purely about how fast computations can be performed. Energy constraints, processor changes, and I/O limitations necessitate significant changes in both the software applications used in scientific computation and the ways in which scientists use them. Components for modeling, simulation, analysis, and visualization must work together in a computational ecosystem, rather than working independently as they have in the past. The XVis project brought together collaborators from predominant DOE projects for visualization on accelerators and combining their respective features into a new visualization toolkit called VTK-m.

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

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Koeneman, Marcel; Goedhart, Martin; Ossevoort, Miriam

2013-01-01

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

'Drinking with respect': Drinking constructions of men who live in a Cape Winelands farm community in South Africa.

Science.gov (United States)

Lesch, Elmien; Casper, Rozanne

2017-03-01

This article aims to provide a community-specific understanding of a subgroup of South African men who exhibit particularly high rates of hazardous alcohol consumption. Adopting a social constructionist framework, we interviewed 13 Cape Winelands men who lived on farms to explore their drinking constructions. We present three themes that shed light on problematic drinking in this group: (1) the notion of weekend binge-drinking as 'respectable' drinking, (2) drinking as shared activity that fulfils various psycho-social needs and (3) a sense of powerlessness to affect their own or their children's alcohol consumption. These findings are viewed against a specific socio-historical backdrop.

When we decided to create the Revista Scientific

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oscar Antonio Martínez Molina

2017-08-01

Full Text Available When we proposed to create the Revista Scientific, we had many doubts about what would be the treatment to be followed for the development of it? On the one hand, we needed to create a common basis for their more ethical and moral aspects so that the authors always applied the same criteria. This is not only to achieve an editorial unit, but to establish guidelines to follow throughout the publication, so as to facilitate the reading and understanding of the contents from the respect to the information, to the sources, but on all to the readers. The rules created are, therefore, the guidelines to be followed by the authors that appear in our publication, which must take into account these basic rules. Another point to be addressed was the selection of a disciplinary and multidisciplinary team at the international level that is in charge of the valuation of scientific productions, high invoice equipment of different Universities and Organizations recognized worldwide. On the basis of the above considerations, the question arises of deciding, what can or should be, and what can not or should not be counted, but rather how to explain and explain information in the most ethically correct way from the deontological perspective of the writer. It should be noted that Scientific tries to serve as a complement and informative tool for both teachers and the general public. We aim to disseminate scientific and technological knowledge, through the original results, the product of scientific research, which represent a contribution to the development of science and technology. It includes works, products of scientific research and theoretical reflections that, due to their relevance, merit publication, and in this way contribute to the visibility of intellectual production in the areas of education and social sciences. Scientific Magazine is aimed at the academic audience in its different levels (Initial, Basic, University as well as the scientific community

The dCache scientific storage cloud

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2014-01-01

For over a decade, the dCache team has provided software for handling big data for a diverse community of scientists. The team has also amassed a wealth of operational experience from using this software in production. With this experience, the team have refined dCache with the goal of providing a "scientific cloud": a storage solution that satisfies all requirements of a user community by exposing different facets of dCache with which users interact. Recent development, as part of this "scientific cloud" vision, has introduced a new facet: a sync-and-share service, often referred to as "dropbox-like storage". This work has been strongly focused on local requirements, but will be made available in future releases of dCache allowing others to adopt dCache solutions. In this presentation we will outline the current status of the work: both the successes and limitations, and the direction and time-scale of future work.

Advocating for responsible oil and natural gas extraction policies; FracTracker as a mechanism for overcoming the barriers to scientific advocacy for academics and communities

Science.gov (United States)

Ferrar, K. J.; Malone, S.; Kelso, M.; Lenker, B.

2013-12-01

The inability to translate data to scientific information that can readily be incorporated by citizens into the public arena is an obstacle for science-based advocacy. This issue is particularly poignant for shale oil and natural gas development via hydraulic fracturing, as the issue has become highly politicized. Barriers to engaging in policy debate are different but highly related for community members and scientists. For citizens and interest groups, barriers including accessibility, public awareness and data presentation limit the motivation for community involvement in political interactions. To overcome such barriers, social researchers call for public engagement to move upstream and many call for a broad engagement of scientists in science-based advocacy. Furthermore surveys have shown that citizens, interest groups, and decision-makers share a broad desire for scientists to engage in environmental policy development. Regardless, scientists face a number of perceived barriers, with academics expressing the most resistance to overcoming the tension created by adherence to the scientific method and the need to engage with the broader society, described by Schneider (1990) as the 'double ethical bind'. For the scientific community the appeal of public dissemination of information beyond the scope of academic journals is limited for a number of reasons. Barriers include preservation of credibility, peer attitudes, training, and career trajectory. The result is a lack of translated information available to the public. This systematic analysis of the FracTracker platform provides an evaluation of where the features of the public engagement, GIS platform has been successful at overcoming these barriers to public dissemination, where the platform needs further development or is ill-suited to address these issues, and the development of FracTracker as an outlet for scientific researchers to engage with citizens. The analysis will also provide insight into what

Scientific planning for the VLT and VLTI

Science.gov (United States)

Leibundgut, B.; Berger, J.-P.

2016-07-01

An observatory system like the VLT/I requires careful scientific planning for operations and future instruments. Currently the ESO optical/near-infrared facilities include four 8m telescopes, four (movable) 1.8m telescopes used exclusively for interferometry, two 4m telescopes and two survey telescopes. This system offers a large range of scientific capabilities and setting the corresponding priorities depends good community interactions. Coordinating the existing and planned instrumentation is an important aspect for strong scientific return. The current scientific priorities for the VLT and VLTI are pushing for the development of the highest angular resolution imaging and astrometry, integral field spectroscopy and multi-object spectroscopy. The ESO 4m telescopes on La Silla will be dedicated to time domain spectroscopy and exo-planet searches with highly specialized instruments. The next decade will also see a significant rise in the scientific importance of massive ground and space-based surveys. We discuss how future developments in astronomical research could shape the VLT/I evolution.

Predicting future discoveries from current scientific literature.

Science.gov (United States)

Petrič, Ingrid; Cestnik, Bojan

2014-01-01

Knowledge discovery in biomedicine is a time-consuming process starting from the basic research, through preclinical testing, towards possible clinical applications. Crossing of conceptual boundaries is often needed for groundbreaking biomedical research that generates highly inventive discoveries. We demonstrate the ability of a creative literature mining method to advance valuable new discoveries based on rare ideas from existing literature. When emerging ideas from scientific literature are put together as fragments of knowledge in a systematic way, they may lead to original, sometimes surprising, research findings. If enough scientific evidence is already published for the association of such findings, they can be considered as scientific hypotheses. In this chapter, we describe a method for the computer-aided generation of such hypotheses based on the existing scientific literature. Our literature-based discovery of NF-kappaB with its possible connections to autism was recently approved by scientific community, which confirms the ability of our literature mining methodology to accelerate future discoveries based on rare ideas from existing literature.

Athena Community Office

Science.gov (United States)

Martínez-Núnez, S.; Barcons, X.; Barret, D.; Bozzo, E.; Carrera, F. J.; Ceballos, M. T.; Gómez, S.; Monterde, M. P.; Rau, A.

2017-03-01

The Athena Community Office (ACO) has been established by ESA's Athena Science Study Team (ASST) in order to obtain support in performing its tasks assigned by ESA, and most specially in the ASST role as "focal point for the interests of the broad scientific community". The ACO is led by the Instituto de Física de Cantabria (CSIC-UC), and its activities are funded by CSIC and UC. Further ACO contributors are the University of Geneva, MPE and IRAP. In this poster, we present ACO to the Spanish Astronomical Community, informing about its main responsibilities, which are: assist the ASST in organising and collecting support from the Athena Working Groups and Topical Panels; organise and maintain the documentation generated by the Athena Working Groups and Topical Panels; manage the Working Group and Topical Panel membership lists; assist the ASST in promoting Athena science capabilities in the research world, through conferences and workshops; keep a record of all papers and presentations related to Athena; support the production of ASST documents; produce and distribute regularly an Athena Newsletter, informing the community about all mission and science developments; create and maintain the Athena Community web portal; maintain an active communication activity; promote, organise and support Athena science-related public outreach, in coordination with ESA and other agencies involved when appropriate; and, design, produce materials and provide pointers to available materials produced by other parties. In summary, ACO is meant to become a focal point to facilitate the scientific exchange between the Athena activities and the scientific community at large, and to disseminate the Athena science objectives to the general public.

NSF Antarctic and Arctic Data Consortium; Scientific Research Support & Data Services for the Polar Community

Science.gov (United States)

Morin, P. J.; Pundsack, J. W.; Carbotte, S. M.; Tweedie, C. E.; Grunow, A.; Lazzara, M. A.; Carpenter, P.; Sjunneskog, C. M.; Yarmey, L.; Bauer, R.; Adrian, B. M.; Pettit, J.

2014-12-01

The U.S. National Science Foundation Antarctic & Arctic Data Consortium (a2dc) is a collaboration of research centers and support organizations that provide polar scientists with data and tools to complete their research objectives. From searching historical weather observations to submitting geologic samples, polar researchers utilize the a2dc to search andcontribute to the wealth of polar scientific and geospatial data.The goals of the Antarctic & Arctic Data Consortium are to increase visibility in the research community of the services provided by resource and support facilities. Closer integration of individual facilities into a "one stop shop" will make it easier for researchers to take advantage of services and products provided by consortium members. The a2dc provides a common web portal where investigators can go to access data and samples needed to build research projects, develop student projects, or to do virtual field reconnaissance without having to utilize expensive logistics to go into the field.Participation by the international community is crucial for the success of a2dc. There are 48 nations that are signatories of the Antarctic Treaty, and 8 sovereign nations in the Arctic. Many of these organizations have unique capabilities and data that would benefit US ­funded polar science and vice versa.We'll present an overview of the Antarctic & Arctic Data Consortium, current participating organizations, challenges & opportunities, and plans to better coordinate data through a geospatial strategy and infrastructure.

Center for Technology for Advanced Scientific Component Software (TASCS)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

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

2009-03-30

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

Pre-Service Elementary Teachers' Scientific Literacy and Self-Efficacy in Teaching Science

Science.gov (United States)

Al Sultan, Adam; Henson, Harvey, Jr.; Fadde, Peter J.

2018-01-01

Many educators and educational institutions worldwide have agreed that the main goal of science education is to produce a scientifically literate community. Science teachers are key to the achievement of scientific literacy at all levels of education because of the essential role they play in preparing scientifically literate individuals. Studies…

Scientific Research Competencies of Prospective Teachers and their Attitu des toward Scientific Research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hasan Hüseyin Şahan

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Present study has been constructed to determine scientific research competencies of prospective teachers and identify the extent of effect of prospective teachers’ attitudes toward scientific research and scientific research methods course on their research skills and attitudes towards research. This study has two dimensions: it is a descriptive study by virtue of identifying prospective teachers’ research skills and attitudes toward research, also an experimental study by virtue of determining the effect of scientificresearch methods course on prospective teachers’ skills and their attitudes toward research. In order to obtain the data related to identified sub-problems “Scale for Identifying Scientific Research Competencies” and “Scale for Identifying the Attitude toward Research” have been utilized. Data collection tools were applied to 445 prospective teachers. It has thus been concluded in this study that scientific research methods course had no significant effect in gaining scientific research competencies to prospective teachers and that this effect demonstrated no differentiation with respect to departments. On the other hand it has been explored that scientific research methods course had a negative effect onthe attitudes of prospective teachers toward research and that there was a differentiation to the disadvantage of prospective teachers studying at Primary Education Mathematics Teaching Department.

Linking Hydro-Meteorological Hazards, Climate and Food Security: an Initiative of International Scientific Community

Science.gov (United States)

Ismail-Zadeh, A.; Beer, T.

2013-05-01

Humans face climatic and hydro-meteorological hazards on different scales in time and space. In particular natural hazards can have disastrous impact in the short term (flood) and in the long term (drought) as they affect human life and health as well as impacting dramatically on the sustainable development of society. They represent a pending danger for vulnerable lifelines, infrastructure and the agricultural systems that depend on the water supply, reservoirs, pipelines, and power plants. Developed countries are affected, but the impact is disproportionate within the developing world. Extreme natural events such as extreme floods or prolonged drought can change the life and economic development of developing nations and stifle their development for decades. The beginning of the XX1st century has been marked by a significant number of natural disasters, such as floods, severe storms, wildfires, hurricanes, and tsunamis. Extreme natural events cause devastation resulting in loss of human life, large environmental damage, and partial or total loss of infrastructure that, in the longer time, will affect the potential for agricultural recovery. Recent catastrophic events of the early 21st century (e.g. floods in Pakistan and Thailand, the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami) remind us once again that there is a strong coupling between complex solid Earth, oceanic, and atmospheric processes and that even developed countries such as Japan are subject to agricultural declines as a result of disastrous hydro-meteorological events. Scientific community recognizes that communication between the groups of experts of various international organizations dealing with natural hazards and their activity in disaster risk reduction and food security needs to be strengthened. Several international scientific unions and intergovernmental institutions set up a consortium of experts to promote studies of weather, climate and their interaction with agriculture, food and their socio

Computer network access to scientific information systems for minority universities

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, Valerie L.; Wakim, Nagi T.

1993-08-01

The evolution of computer networking technology has lead to the establishment of a massive networking infrastructure which interconnects various types of computing resources at many government, academic, and corporate institutions. A large segment of this infrastructure has been developed to facilitate information exchange and resource sharing within the scientific community. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) supports both the development and the application of computer networks which provide its community with access to many valuable multi-disciplinary scientific information systems and on-line databases. Recognizing the need to extend the benefits of this advanced networking technology to the under-represented community, the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) in the Space Data and Computing Division at the Goddard Space Flight Center has developed the Minority University-Space Interdisciplinary Network (MU-SPIN) Program: a major networking and education initiative for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Minority Universities (MUs). In this paper, we will briefly explain the various components of the MU-SPIN Program while highlighting how, by providing access to scientific information systems and on-line data, it promotes a higher level of collaboration among faculty and students and NASA scientists.

Advancing the Science of Community-Level Interventions

Science.gov (United States)

Beehler, Sarah; Deutsch, Charles; Green, Lawrence W.; Hawe, Penelope; McLeroy, Kenneth; Miller, Robin Lin; Rapkin, Bruce D.; Schensul, Jean J.; Schulz, Amy J.; Trimble, Joseph E.

2011-01-01

Community interventions are complex social processes that need to move beyond single interventions and outcomes at individual levels of short-term change. A scientific paradigm is emerging that supports collaborative, multilevel, culturally situated community interventions aimed at creating sustainable community-level impact. This paradigm is rooted in a deep history of ecological and collaborative thinking across public health, psychology, anthropology, and other fields of social science. The new paradigm makes a number of primary assertions that affect conceptualization of health issues, intervention design, and intervention evaluation. To elaborate the paradigm and advance the science of community intervention, we offer suggestions for promoting a scientific agenda, developing collaborations among professionals and communities, and examining the culture of science. PMID:21680923

International scientific consensus on medical plantar pressure measurement devices: technical requirements and performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Claudia Giacomozzi

2012-01-01

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Since 2006, the Italian National Institute of Health (ISS has been conducting independent scientific activities to standardize the technical assessment of plantar pressure measurement devices (PMDs. MATERIAL AND METHODS: On the basis of the ISS results, in 2010 the Pedobarographic Group of the International Foot and Ankle Biomechanics community (i-FAB-PG promoted a consensus activity about the main technical requirements for the appropriate use of PMDs. The activity relied on a moodlebased on-line forum, documents exchange, discussions, reviews, meetings and a final survey. RESULTS: The participation of clinical and technical researchers, users, and manufacturers, contributed to the delivery of the hereby reported recommendations which specifically regard Medical PMDs in the form of platforms. CONCLUSIONS: The i-FAB-PG community reached overall agreement on the recommendations, with a few minor objections which are reported and commented in the document. RELEVANCE: The present document, the highest result achievable within a small scientific community, will hopefully represent the starting point of the wider process of establishing official international guidelines or standards, within scientific communities and standardization organizations.

Bayesian community detection

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mørup, Morten; Schmidt, Mikkel N

2012-01-01

Many networks of scientific interest naturally decompose into clusters or communities with comparatively fewer external than internal links; however, current Bayesian models of network communities do not exert this intuitive notion of communities. We formulate a nonparametric Bayesian model...... for community detection consistent with an intuitive definition of communities and present a Markov chain Monte Carlo procedure for inferring the community structure. A Matlab toolbox with the proposed inference procedure is available for download. On synthetic and real networks, our model detects communities...... consistent with ground truth, and on real networks, it outperforms existing approaches in predicting missing links. This suggests that community structure is an important structural property of networks that should be explicitly modeled....

The United States of America and scientific research.

Science.gov (United States)

Hather, Gregory J; Haynes, Winston; Higdon, Roger; Kolker, Natali; Stewart, Elizabeth A; Arzberger, Peter; Chain, Patrick; Field, Dawn; Franza, B Robert; Lin, Biaoyang; Meyer, Folker; Ozdemir, Vural; Smith, Charles V; van Belle, Gerald; Wooley, John; Kolker, Eugene

2010-08-16

To gauge the current commitment to scientific research in the United States of America (US), we compared federal research funding (FRF) with the US gross domestic product (GDP) and industry research spending during the past six decades. In order to address the recent globalization of scientific research, we also focused on four key indicators of research activities: research and development (R&D) funding, total science and engineering doctoral degrees, patents, and scientific publications. We compared these indicators across three major population and economic regions: the US, the European Union (EU) and the People's Republic of China (China) over the past decade. We discovered a number of interesting trends with direct relevance for science policy. The level of US FRF has varied between 0.2% and 0.6% of the GDP during the last six decades. Since the 1960s, the US FRF contribution has fallen from twice that of industrial research funding to roughly equal. Also, in the last two decades, the portion of the US government R&D spending devoted to research has increased. Although well below the US and the EU in overall funding, the current growth rate for R&D funding in China greatly exceeds that of both. Finally, the EU currently produces more science and engineering doctoral graduates and scientific publications than the US in absolute terms, but not per capita. This study's aim is to facilitate a serious discussion of key questions by the research community and federal policy makers. In particular, our results raise two questions with respect to: a) the increasing globalization of science: "What role is the US playing now, and what role will it play in the future of international science?"; and b) the ability to produce beneficial innovations for society: "How will the US continue to foster its strengths?"

The United States of America and scientific research.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gregory J Hather

2010-08-01

Full Text Available To gauge the current commitment to scientific research in the United States of America (US, we compared federal research funding (FRF with the US gross domestic product (GDP and industry research spending during the past six decades. In order to address the recent globalization of scientific research, we also focused on four key indicators of research activities: research and development (R&D funding, total science and engineering doctoral degrees, patents, and scientific publications. We compared these indicators across three major population and economic regions: the US, the European Union (EU and the People's Republic of China (China over the past decade. We discovered a number of interesting trends with direct relevance for science policy. The level of US FRF has varied between 0.2% and 0.6% of the GDP during the last six decades. Since the 1960s, the US FRF contribution has fallen from twice that of industrial research funding to roughly equal. Also, in the last two decades, the portion of the US government R&D spending devoted to research has increased. Although well below the US and the EU in overall funding, the current growth rate for R&D funding in China greatly exceeds that of both. Finally, the EU currently produces more science and engineering doctoral graduates and scientific publications than the US in absolute terms, but not per capita. This study's aim is to facilitate a serious discussion of key questions by the research community and federal policy makers. In particular, our results raise two questions with respect to: a the increasing globalization of science: "What role is the US playing now, and what role will it play in the future of international science?"; and b the ability to produce beneficial innovations for society: "How will the US continue to foster its strengths?"

Like on Different Planets? Lebanese Social Scientists in Their Scientific Communities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jonathan Kriener

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Social sciences and humanities at Arab universities are often described as suffering from a lack of academic freedom. However, institutional autonomy and the individual academic’s opportunities and constraints seem to differ considerably among Arab institutions and individuals conducting social sciences and humanities under different configurations of local, regional and international influences from the state, the market and the civil society. One problem evident from existing research literature about Arab social sciences is the comparably weak networking capacity of its academic publishing and library systems. It suggests over-dependence upon international systems, a lack of direct communication amongst local and regional scientific communities, and intellectual bigotry. This article sheds light on the question how Arab institutions and individuals cope with this particular trait of their academic system. It focuses on correlations between institutional and individual autonomy as measured by the modes of decision making and funding, and between an institution’s autonomy and its interconnectedness as measured by its library services and by references in the dissertations of its faculty. Data stem from interviews with faculty, surveys among students, and visits to libraries of two different universities in Lebanon, which are analyzed in comparison. Moreover, several networking initiatives are characterized by which social scientists in the region tackle this problem. With private initiative, they seem to recover regional coherence based on Arab language and experience and international quality standards to an extent that governmental and inter-governmental institutions never remotely succeeded to establish by ways of their cultural policies.

Widening the adoption of workflows to include human and human-machine scientific processes

Science.gov (United States)

Salayandia, L.; Pinheiro da Silva, P.; Gates, A. Q.

2010-12-01

Scientific workflows capture knowledge in the form of technical recipes to access and manipulate data that help scientists manage and reuse established expertise to conduct their work. Libraries of scientific workflows are being created in particular fields, e.g., Bioinformatics, where combined with cyber-infrastructure environments that provide on-demand access to data and tools, result in powerful workbenches for scientists of those communities. The focus in these particular fields, however, has been more on automating rather than documenting scientific processes. As a result, technical barriers have impeded a wider adoption of scientific workflows by scientific communities that do not rely as heavily on cyber-infrastructure and computing environments. Semantic Abstract Workflows (SAWs) are introduced to widen the applicability of workflows as a tool to document scientific recipes or processes. SAWs intend to capture a scientists’ perspective about the process of how she or he would collect, filter, curate, and manipulate data to create the artifacts that are relevant to her/his work. In contrast, scientific workflows describe the process from the point of view of how technical methods and tools are used to conduct the work. By focusing on a higher level of abstraction that is closer to a scientist’s understanding, SAWs effectively capture the controlled vocabularies that reflect a particular scientific community, as well as the types of datasets and methods used in a particular domain. From there on, SAWs provide the flexibility to adapt to different environments to carry out the recipes or processes. These environments range from manual fieldwork to highly technical cyber-infrastructure environments, i.e., such as those already supported by scientific workflows. Two cases, one from Environmental Science and another from Geophysics, are presented as illustrative examples.

Break with tradition: donating cadavers for scientific purposes and reducing the use of sentient beings.

Science.gov (United States)

Ciliberti, Rosagemma; Martini, Mariano; Bonsignore, Alessandro; Penco, Susanna

2016-01-01

In recent years, the development of research and the increased awareness of our moral duties beyond the human species have pushed the scientific community to revise widely-accepted ontological reductionist views that regard non-human animals as mere things. The new horizons offered by the development of advanced research methods therefore require an on-going commitment to new perspectives able to find the right balance between the need for scientific knowledge on one hand and the respect for animal life on the other. This is in line with increasing attention to animal welfare and expansion of the "3Rs model": replacement, reduction, refinement.With the view of promoting the adoption of alternative methods, human body donation for research can contribute not only to the acquisition of important information for human health and for doctors' training, but also can reduce significantly the number of animals sacrificed.By investigating the scientific and ethical reasons that may encourage cadaver donation, the authors aim to promote the adoption of the practice in Italy following other European experiences.

A Quick Guide for Building a Successful Bioinformatics Community

Science.gov (United States)

Budd, Aidan; Corpas, Manuel; Brazas, Michelle D.; Fuller, Jonathan C.; Goecks, Jeremy; Mulder, Nicola J.; Michaut, Magali; Ouellette, B. F. Francis; Pawlik, Aleksandra; Blomberg, Niklas

2015-01-01

“Scientific community” refers to a group of people collaborating together on scientific-research-related activities who also share common goals, interests, and values. Such communities play a key role in many bioinformatics activities. Communities may be linked to a specific location or institute, or involve people working at many different institutions and locations. Education and training is typically an important component of these communities, providing a valuable context in which to develop skills and expertise, while also strengthening links and relationships within the community. Scientific communities facilitate: (i) the exchange and development of ideas and expertise; (ii) career development; (iii) coordinated funding activities; (iv) interactions and engagement with professionals from other fields; and (v) other activities beneficial to individual participants, communities, and the scientific field as a whole. It is thus beneficial at many different levels to understand the general features of successful, high-impact bioinformatics communities; how individual participants can contribute to the success of these communities; and the role of education and training within these communities. We present here a quick guide to building and maintaining a successful, high-impact bioinformatics community, along with an overview of the general benefits of participating in such communities. This article grew out of contributions made by organizers, presenters, panelists, and other participants of the ISMB/ECCB 2013 workshop “The ‘How To Guide’ for Establishing a Successful Bioinformatics Network” at the 21st Annual International Conference on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) and the 12th European Conference on Computational Biology (ECCB). PMID:25654371

Scientific Ethics: A New Approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Menapace, Marcello

2018-06-04

Science is an activity of the human intellect and as such has ethical implications that should be reviewed and taken into account. Although science and ethics have conventionally been considered different, it is herewith proposed that they are essentially similar. The proposal set henceforth is to create a new ethics rooted in science: scientific ethics. Science has firm axiological foundations and searches for truth (as a value, axiology) and knowledge (epistemology). Hence, science cannot be value neutral. Looking at standard scientific principles, it is possible to construct a scientific ethic (that is, an ethical framework based on scientific methods and rules), which can be applied to all sciences. These intellectual standards include the search for truth (honesty and its derivatives), human dignity (and by reflection the dignity of all animals) and respect for life. Through these it is thence achievable to draft a foundation of a ethics based purely on science and applicable beyond the confines of science. A few applications of these will be presented. Scientific ethics can have vast applications in other fields even in non scientific ones.

Young women's scientific identity formation in an urban context

Science.gov (United States)

Brickhouse, Nancy W.; Potter, Jennifer T.

2001-10-01

In this article we examine the scientific identity formation of two young women of color who attend an urban vocational high school. One young woman lives in an urban setting, while the other lives in a suburban setting. We describe how these young women's identities influence and respond to experiences in school science. In particular, we describe how the experience of marginalization can make membership in a school science community impossible or undesirable. We also describe the advantages that accrue to students who fit well with the ideal identities of an urban school. Finally, we describe some of the difficulties students face who aspire to scientific or technological competence yet do not desire to take on aspects of the identities associated with membership in school science communities.

MS PHD'S Professional Development Program: A Scientific Renaissance in Cyberspace

Science.gov (United States)

Powell, J. M.; Williamson, V. A.; Griess, C. A.; Pyrtle, A. J.

2004-12-01

This study is a component of a four-year investigation of MS PHD'S Professional Development Program's virtual community through the lenses of underrepresented minority students in Earth system science and engineering fields. In this presentation, the development, assessment and projected utilization of the ongoing study will be discussed. The overall goal of this study is to examine the effectiveness of virtual team building methods and understand how the development of a communal cyberinfrastructure acts as an integral part of the emergence of a Scientific Renaissance. The exemplar, Minorities Striving and Pursuing Higher Degrees of Success in Earth System Science (MS PHD'S), provides professional development experiences to facilitate the advancement of students of color achieving outstanding Earth system careers. Undergraduate and graduate students are supported through access to scientific conferences, mentorship and virtual community building. Framed by critical theory, this ethnographic exploration uses a mixed methods research design to record, observe, and analyze both the processes and products of the website, listserv and synchronous web-based dialogue. First, key findings of the formative evaluation and annual reports of the successfully implemented 2003 MS PHD'S Pilot Project are presented. These findings inform future evaluations of the use of technological resources and illustrate how this public space provides peer support and enriched research opportunities. Quantitative methods such as statistical analysis, academic and professional tracking and evaluative tools for scientific content and competency are complimented by qualitative methods that include observations, heuristic case studies and focus group interviews. The findings of this ongoing investigation will provide insight on how national organizations, higher education practitioners, community-based support systems and underrepresented minorities in the sciences promote diversity by developing

Scientific literacy and the social constructivist perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antić Slobodanka

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The term scientific literacy is already common in our educational rhetoric. Although the term is widely used, there are no papers that analyse the definition of the term and the rangeitencompasses in Serbia. If scientific literacy is a necessary outcome of education, this analysis is an important base for designing the teaching/learning process which is intended to develop such an outcome. Therefore, this paper provides an analysis of the concept of scientific literacy (SL, the different viewpoints on SL and the nature of the concept. Furthermore, five key lines as courses of action in the teaching/learning process, necessary for the development of these competencies, are defined: appreciation ofstudents' previous knowledge, encouragement of students' basic functional literacy and reading comprehension skills, the development of students' understanding of the socio-cultural perspective on the origin and use of scientific knowledge and technological products, and practicing of scientific research, either through school science or science applied in the context of cooperation between school and the local community, i.e. in the socio-cultural background where students live.

The scientific correspondence of Arcangelo Scacchi

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rossella De Ceglie

2009-06-01

Full Text Available

The scientist Arcangelo Scacchi (1810-1893, is today rarely mentioned in histories of Italian science in the

nineteenth century. Even a brief consideration of his career, however, reveals that his work was of great importance to the scientific community of his age. For more than fifty years he was Professor of Mineralogy at the University of Naples and Curator of the Royal Mineralogical Museum, which under his guidance enjoyed a period of unprecedented success. The as yet unpublished Scacchi papers shed interesting light on the world of this Italian naturalist. His correspondence reveals much about Scacchi’s role in the scientific community both in Italy and abroad, and illustrate the extent to which he was involved in contemporary debates and research in the fields of geology, mineralogy, volcanology and crystallography.

Assessment of the quality of a journal: Scientific approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saurabh R Shrivastava

2015-01-01

Full Text Available From a researcher′s perspective, the primary target is to publish their research work so that the scientific community can acknowledge their contribution. However, to accomplish their target they should have an access to indices which can guide them about the quality of a journal. Different scientifically proven indicators have been employed by various journals to assess the quality of a journal. To conclude, in order to ascertain the quality of the journal it is better to employ a combination of different scientific indices instead of over-reliance on a solitary index to avoid limitations of individual indices.

The quality of information in electronic scientific publications on the Internet: challenges and proposals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcelo SABBATINI

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The present work analises the main questions and hurdles involved in the adoption of a electronic scientific publication system, those related to the scientific community practices and rules of conduct. We emphasize the quality certification through peer review, interity and legitimiy maintenance and privacity preservation in the digital environment. Furthermore, we analise the academic community own perception of electronic journals available in Internet and its impacts in tenure and prommotion processes.

The Munsell Color System: a scientific compromise from the world of art.

Science.gov (United States)

Cochrane, Sally

2014-09-01

Color systems make accurate color specification and matching possible in science, art, and industry by defining a coordinate system for all possible color perceptions. The Munsell Color System, developed by the artist Albert Henry Munsell in the early twentieth century, has influenced color science to this day. I trace the development of the Munsell Color System from its origins in the art world to its acceptance in the scientific community. Munsell's system was the first to accurately and quantitatively describe the psychological experience of color. By considering the problems that color posed for Munsell's art community and examining his diaries and published material, I conclude that Munsell arrived at his results by remaining agnostic as to the scientific definition of color, while retaining faith that color perceptions could be objectively quantified. I argue that Munsell was able to interest the scientific community in his work because color had become a controversial topic between physicists and psychologists. Parts of Munsell's system appealed to each field, making it a workable compromise. For contrast, I suggest that three contemporary scientists with whom Munsell had contact--Wilhelm Ostwald, Ogden Rood, and Edward Titchener--did not reach the same conclusions in their color systems because they started from scientific assumptions about the nature of color.

[Vaccines: building on scientific excellence and dispelling false myths].

Science.gov (United States)

Signorelli, Carlo

2015-01-01

The EU and Italian institutions have recently reiterated their commitment to harmonize and implement vaccination policies as a fundamental strategy for public health. Nonetheless, vaccines are losing public confidence. False myths related to vaccine adverse reactions and commercial interests, combined with the recent judgements of the Court and the "Fluad® episode", are fuelling vaccine hesitancy. In such a context, a lively debate is ongoing in Italian scientific community. Aim of this contribution is to recall the available solid scientific evidence demonstrating that vaccines are among the most effective prevention tools ever invented and recall the economic data that support the cost-effectiveness of the immunisation. As every other medicine, vaccines are registered after large and solid clinical trials have been conducted. Immunization schedules are proposed by experts in the field of clinical medicine, epidemiology and public health on the basis of the available scientific evidence, and then implemented by policy makers also taking into consideration resources allocation and financial sustainability. The false myth that vaccines are offered because of economic interests is to be dispelled;moreover, researchers, policy makers, scientific societies and the healthcare community at large should renew commitment to invest in health education and communication on vaccines, always disclosing potential conflicts of interests.

The NASA Ames Research Center Institutional Scientific Collection: History, Best Practices and Scientific Opportunities

Science.gov (United States)

Rask, Jon C.; Chakravarty, Kaushik; French, Alison; Choi, Sungshin; Stewart, Helen

2017-01-01

The NASA Ames Life Sciences Institutional Scientific Collection (ISC), which is composed of the Ames Life Sciences Data Archive (ALSDA) and the Biospecimen Storage Facility (BSF), is managed by the Space Biosciences Division and has been operational since 1993. The ALSDA is responsible for archiving information and animal biospecimens collected from life science spaceflight experiments and matching ground control experiments. Both fixed and frozen spaceflight and ground tissues are stored in the BSF within the ISC. The ALSDA also manages a Biospecimen Sharing Program, performs curation and long-term storage operations, and makes biospecimens available to the scientific community for research purposes via the Life Science Data Archive public website (https:lsda.jsc.nasa.gov). As part of our best practices, a viability testing plan has been developed for the ISC, which will assess the quality of archived samples. We expect that results from the viability testing will catalyze sample use, enable broader science community interest, and improve operational efficiency of the ISC. The current viability test plan focuses on generating disposition recommendations and is based on using ribonucleic acid (RNA) integrity number (RIN) scores as a criteria for measurement of biospecimen viablity for downstream functional analysis. The plan includes (1) sorting and identification of candidate samples, (2) conducting a statiscally-based power analysis to generate representaive cohorts from the population of stored biospecimens, (3) completion of RIN analysis on select samples, and (4) development of disposition recommendations based on the RIN scores. Results of this work will also support NASA open science initiatives and guides development of the NASA Scientific Collections Directive (a policy on best practices for curation of biological collections). Our RIN-based methodology for characterizing the quality of tissues stored in the ISC since the 1980s also creates unique

Dealing with scientific integrity issues: the Spanish experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Puigdomènech, Pere

2014-02-01

Integrity has been an important matter of concern for the scientific community as it affects the basis of its activities. Most countries having a significant scientific activity have dealt with this problem by different means, including drafting specific legal or soft law regulations and the appointment of stable or ad hoc committees that take care of these questions. This has also been the case in Spain. After the period of transition between dictatorship to a democratic regime, and, particularly, after the entrance in the European Union, scientific activity has increased in the country. As it could be expected, problems of misconduct have appeared and different institutions have been dealing with these matters. One of the best examples is that of Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), the largest institution devoted to scientific research belonging to the Spanish Government. The experience of the CSIC’s Ethics Committee in dealing with conflicts related to scientific practices is discussed here.

Information dynamics algorithm for detecting communities in networks

Science.gov (United States)

Massaro, Emanuele; Bagnoli, Franco; Guazzini, Andrea; Lió, Pietro

2012-11-01

The problem of community detection is relevant in many scientific disciplines, from social science to statistical physics. Given the impact of community detection in many areas, such as psychology and social sciences, we have addressed the issue of modifying existing well performing algorithms by incorporating elements of the domain application fields, i.e. domain-inspired. We have focused on a psychology and social network-inspired approach which may be useful for further strengthening the link between social network studies and mathematics of community detection. Here we introduce a community-detection algorithm derived from the van Dongen's Markov Cluster algorithm (MCL) method [4] by considering networks' nodes as agents capable to take decisions. In this framework we have introduced a memory factor to mimic a typical human behavior such as the oblivion effect. The method is based on information diffusion and it includes a non-linear processing phase. We test our method on two classical community benchmark and on computer generated networks with known community structure. Our approach has three important features: the capacity of detecting overlapping communities, the capability of identifying communities from an individual point of view and the fine tuning the community detectability with respect to prior knowledge of the data. Finally we discuss how to use a Shannon entropy measure for parameter estimation in complex networks.

The race prussienne controversy: scientific internationalism and the nation.

Science.gov (United States)

Manias, Chris

2009-12-01

This essay examines a dispute between the French and German anthropological communities in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War. While the debate ostensibly revolved around the ethnological classification of the Prussian population presented in Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages's La race prussienne, this overlays much deeper points of contention, presenting a case study of how commitments to nationalism and internationalism in late nineteenth-century science were not mutually exclusive but could operate in a highly synergistic manner, even during periods of intense international crisis. In the controversy, a group of scholars attempted to reconcile national rivalries with a commitment to scientific universalism and define how anthropological ideas of race and progress related to political developments. The French and German communities retained similar views that anthropology was an international science and that politically defined nationality was separate from scientifically discerned race. Yet they nevertheless regarded their work as strongly affected by processes of national consolidation and employed the language of scientific universalism to accuse their rivals of misusing science for political purposes.

Scientific Objectives for UV/Visible Astrophysics Investigations: A Summary of Responses by the Community (2012)

Science.gov (United States)

Scowen, Paul; Perez, Mario R.; Neff, Susan G.; Benford, Dominic J.

2012-01-01

Following several recommendations presented by the Astrophysics Decadal Survey 2010 centered around the need to define "a future ultraviolet-optical space capability," on 2012 May 25, NASA issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking persuasive ultraviolet (UV) and visible wavelength astrophysics science investigations. The goal was to develop a cohesive and compelling set of science objectives that motivate and support the development of the next generation of ultraviolet/visible space astrophysics missions. Responses were due on 10 August 2012 when 34 submissions were received addressing a number of potential science drivers. A UV/visible Mission RFI Workshop was held on 2012 September 20 where each of these submissions was summarized and discussed in the context of each other. We present a scientific analysis of these submissions and presentations and the pursuant measurement capability needs, which could influence ultraviolet/visible technology development plans for the rest of this decade. We also describe the process and requirements leading to the inception of this community RFI, subsequent workshop and the expected evolution of these ideas and concepts for the remainder of this decade.

Scientific Objectives for UV-Visible Astrophysics Investigations: A Summary of Responses by the Community (2012)

Science.gov (United States)

Scowen, Paul A.; Perez, Mario R.; Neff, Susan G.; Benford, Dominic J.

2014-01-01

Following several recommendations presented by the Astrophysics Decadal Survey 2010 centered around the need to define "a future ultraviolet-optical space capability," on 2012 May 25, NASA issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking persuasive ultraviolet (UV) and visible wavelength astrophysics science investigations. The goal was to develop a cohesive and compelling set of science objectives that motivate and support the development of the next generation of ultraviolet/visible space astrophysics missions. Responses were due on 10 August 2012 when 34 submissions were received addressing a number of potential science drivers. A UV/visible Mission RFI Workshop was held on 2012 September 20 where each of these submissions was summarized and discussed in the context of each other. We present a scientific analysis of these submissions and presentations and the pursuant measurement capability needs, which could influence ultraviolet/visible technology development plans for the rest of this decade. We also describe the process and requirements leading to the inception of this community RFI, subsequent workshop and the expected evolution of these ideas and concepts for the remainder of this decade.

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

Science.gov (United States)

Heidmann, Ilona; Milde, Jutta

2014-05-01

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

Jupiter Quest: A Path to Scientific Discovery.

Science.gov (United States)

Bollman, Kelly A.; Rodgers, Mark H.; Mauller, Robert L.

2001-01-01

To experience the world of professional science, students must have access to the scientific community and be allowed to become real scientists. A partnership involving the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Lewis Center for Educational Research has produced Jupiter Quest, an engaging curriculum…

Promoting Science Learning and Scientific Identification through Contemporary Scientific Investigations

Science.gov (United States)

Van Horne, Katie

This dissertation investigates the implementation issues and the educational opportunities associated with "taking the practice turn" in science education. This pedagogical shift focuses instructional experiences on engaging students in the epistemic practices of science both to learn the core ideas of the disciplines, as well as to gain an understanding of and personal connection to the scientific enterprise. In Chapter 2, I examine the teacher-researcher co-design collaboration that supported the classroom implementation of a year-long, project-based biology curriculum that was under development. This study explores the dilemmas that arose when teachers implemented a new intervention and how the dilemmas arose and were managed throughout the collaboration of researchers and teachers and between the teachers. In the design-based research of Chapter 3, I demonstrate how students' engagement in epistemic practices in contemporary science investigations supported their conceptual development about genetics. The analysis shows how this involved a complex interaction between the scientific, school and community practices in students' lives and how through varied participation in the practices students come to write about and recognize how contemporary investigations can give them leverage for science-based action outside of the school setting. Finally, Chapter 4 explores the characteristics of learning environments for supporting the development of scientific practice-linked identities. Specific features of the learning environment---access to the intellectual work of the domain, authentic roles and accountability, space to make meaningful contributions in relation to personal interests, and practice-linked identity resources that arose from interactions in the learning setting---supported learners in stabilizing practice-linked science identities through their engagement in contemporary scientific practices. This set of studies shows that providing students with the

Shared Knowledge and Mutual Respect: Enhancing Culturally Competent Practice through Collaboration with Families and Communities

Science.gov (United States)

Verdon, Sarah; Wong, Sandie; McLeod, Sharynne

2016-01-01

Collaboration with families and communities has been identified as one of six overarching principles to speech and language therapists' (SLTs') engagement in culturally competent practice (Verdon et al., 2015a). The aim of this study was to describe SLTs' collaboration with families and communities when engaging in practice to support the speech,…

Scientific report 1996-1997; Rapport d`activite 1996-1997

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1998-12-31

A general introduction gives a summary of the present scientific program of the SPEC and presents some of the recent highlights, the organization, the recent evolution and the relationship of the laboratory with the CEA and the scientific community. Most of the information on the organization is gathered at the end of the report in a section called `Facts and Figures`. The central part consists in 20 chapters which can be divided in 4 subsets corresponding to the contributions of the four laboratories of the SPEC. In front of each of these subsets, an inset gives a summary of the respective contributions. The distribution is as follows: Chapter 1 - 4: Soft matter, interfaces and turbulence. Chapter 5 - 11: Solid state and novel materials. Chapter 12 - 16 : Quantum condensed matter. Chapter 17 - 20: Condensed matter theory. The headings of each chapter list the physicists, technicians, PhD students as well as the visitors and main collaborators which have taken part in the corresponding activities. In most cases, graduate students were involved in some of the work during their training period. Their names can be found in the section Facts and Figures (subsection Teaching and Training). The Index lists all the contributors and gives the page numbers at which their names appear. (authors)

Scientific report 1996-1997; Rapport d`activite 1996-1997

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1999-12-31

A general introduction gives a summary of the present scientific program of the SPEC and presents some of the recent highlights, the organization, the recent evolution and the relationship of the laboratory with the CEA and the scientific community. Most of the information on the organization is gathered at the end of the report in a section called `Facts and Figures`. The central part consists in 20 chapters which can be divided in 4 subsets corresponding to the contributions of the four laboratories of the SPEC. In front of each of these subsets, an inset gives a summary of the respective contributions. The distribution is as follows: Chapter 1 - 4: Soft matter, interfaces and turbulence. Chapter 5 - 11: Solid state and novel materials. Chapter 12 - 16 : Quantum condensed matter. Chapter 17 - 20: Condensed matter theory. The headings of each chapter list the physicists, technicians, PhD students as well as the visitors and main collaborators which have taken part in the corresponding activities. In most cases, graduate students were involved in some of the work during their training period. Their names can be found in the section Facts and Figures (subsection Teaching and Training). The Index lists all the contributors and gives the page numbers at which their names appear. (authors)

Perspective: Innocence and due diligence: managing unfounded allegations of scientific misconduct.

Science.gov (United States)

Goldenring, James R

2010-03-01

While the incidence of fraud in science is well documented, issues related to the establishment of innocence in cases of fallacious allegations remain unaddressed. In this article, the author uses his own experience to examine issues that arise when investigators are falsely accused of scientific fraud. Investigators must understand the processes in place to protect themselves against false accusations. The present system takes a position of guilty until proven innocent, a concept that is antithetical to American principles of jurisprudence. Yet this stance is acceptable as a requirement for membership in the scientific community, more reflective of the rules within a guild organization. The necessity for proof of innocence by members of the scientific community carries obligations that transcend normal legal assumptions. Scientists must safeguard their reputations by organizing and maintaining all original image files and data relevant to publications and grant proposals. Investigators must be able to provide clear documentation rapidly whenever concerns are raised during the review process. Moreover, peer-reviewed journals must be diligent not only in the identification of fraud but also in providing rapid due process for adjudication of allegations. The success of the scientific guild rules of conduct lies in the practice of due diligence by both scientists and journal editors in questions of scientific misconduct.

Supporting Scientific Research with the Energy Sciences Network

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva; Monga, Inder

2016-01-01

The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is a high-performance, unclassified national network built to support scientific research. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science (SC) and managed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, ESnet provides services to more than 40 DOE research sites, including the entire National Laboratory system, its supercomputing facilities, and its major scientific instruments. ESnet also connects to 140 research and commercial networks, permitting DOE-funded scientists to productively collaborate with partners around the world. ESnet Division Director (Interim) Inder Monga and ESnet Networking Engineer David Mitchell will present current ESnet projects and research activities which help support the HEP community. ESnet  helps support the CERN community by providing 100Gbps trans-Atlantic network transport for the LHCONE and LHCOPN services. ESnet is also actively engaged in researching connectivity to cloud computing resources for HEP workflows a...

Developing Accessible Cyberinfrastructure-Enabled Knowledge Communities in the National Disability Community: Theory, Practice, and Policy

Science.gov (United States)

Myhill, William N.; Cogburn, Derrick L.; Samant, Deepti

2008-01-01

Since publication of the Atkins Commission report 2003, the national scientific community has placed significant emphasis on developing cyberinfrastructure-enabled knowledge communities, which are designed to facilitate enhanced efficiency and collaboration in geographically distributed networks of researchers. This article suggests that the new…

High Arctic Coasts At Risk - The Impact of Coastal Hazards on Scientific and Community Infrastructure in Svalbard

Science.gov (United States)

Strzelecki, M. C.; Pawlowski, L.; Jaskolski, M.; Lim, M.; Zagorski, P.; Long, A. J.; Jensen, M.

2015-12-01

The rapid climate warming being observed in the Svalbard is leading to an increase in human activities in the coastal zone, leading to an increased need for coastal hazard assessment. Present-day Svalbard coastal landscapes are modified by increased degradation of permafrost accelerated sediment supply from deglaciated catchments, and prolonged periods of open-water conditions and wave activity. Since the second half of 20thcentury there is also an observed increase in the number and intensity of storms entering the Arctic particularly in summer months when coastlines are free of protective ice cover. Despite the potential significance of these coastal hazards on the security of scientific (research bases and devices) and community (ports, airports, roads, buildings) infrastructure on Svalbard, relatively little is known on the present-day rate of Svalbard coastal zone changes and how they might impact the nearshore infrastructure in the future. Here we report the results of a project that focused on rates of coastal zone changes in Svalbard and examined the impact of extreme coastal processes on scientific and community infrastructure. The project applied combination of remote sensing and field-based mapping techniques to characterise coastal changes observed in the surroundings of main research stations in Svalbard in Hornsund (PPS), Petuniabukta (AMUPS) and Bellsund (Calypsobyen) as well as a major towns: Longyearbyen, Piramiden, Barentsburg and Svea. Our results document dramatic changes of Svalbard coastal zone under intervals characterised by a warming climate, retreating local ice masses, a shortened winter sea-ice season and melting permafrost. The study confirmed the growing importance of extreme processes in shaping coasts of Svalbard and the impact of these changes on human infrastructure. Our study proposes a risk assessment for a development and protection of infrastructure along the coasts of Svalbard under scenarios of climate change, sea level rise

NOAA's Scientific Data Stewardship Program

Science.gov (United States)

Bates, J. J.

2004-12-01

The NOAA mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment and conserve and manage coastal and marine resources to meet the Nation's economic, social and environmental needs. NOAA has responsibility for long-term archiving of the United States environmental data and has recently integrated several data management functions into a concept called Scientific Data Stewardship. Scientific Data Stewardship a new paradigm in data management consisting of an integrated suite of functions to preserve and exploit the full scientific value of NOAA's, and the world's, environmental data These functions include careful monitoring of observing system performance for long-term applications, the generation of authoritative long-term climate records from multiple observing platforms, and the proper archival of and timely access to data and metadata. NOAA has developed a conceptual framework to implement the functions of scientific data stewardship. This framework has five objectives: 1) develop real-time monitoring of all satellite observing systems for climate applications, 2) process large volumes of satellite data extending up to decades in length to account for systematic errors and to eliminate artifacts in the raw data (referred to as fundamental climate data records, FCDRs), 3) generate retrieved geophysical parameters from the FCDRs (referred to as thematic climate data records TCDRs) including combining observations from all sources, 4) conduct monitoring and research by analyzing data sets to uncover climate trends and to provide evaluation and feedback for steps 2) and 3), and 5) provide archives of metadata, FCDRs, and TCDRs, and facilitate distribution of these data to the user community. The term `climate data record' and related terms, such as climate data set, have been used for some time, but the climate community has yet to settle on a concensus definition. A recent United States National Academy of Sciences report recommends using the

Testing Scientific Software: A Systematic Literature Review

Science.gov (United States)

Kanewala, Upulee; Bieman, James M.

2014-01-01

Context Scientific software plays an important role in critical decision making, for example making weather predictions based on climate models, and computation of evidence for research publications. Recently, scientists have had to retract publications due to errors caused by software faults. Systematic testing can identify such faults in code. Objective This study aims to identify specific challenges, proposed solutions, and unsolved problems faced when testing scientific software. Method We conducted a systematic literature survey to identify and analyze relevant literature. We identified 62 studies that provided relevant information about testing scientific software. Results We found that challenges faced when testing scientific software fall into two main categories: (1) testing challenges that occur due to characteristics of scientific software such as oracle problems and (2) testing challenges that occur due to cultural differences between scientists and the software engineering community such as viewing the code and the model that it implements as inseparable entities. In addition, we identified methods to potentially overcome these challenges and their limitations. Finally we describe unsolved challenges and how software engineering researchers and practitioners can help to overcome them. Conclusions Scientific software presents special challenges for testing. Specifically, cultural differences between scientist developers and software engineers, along with the characteristics of the scientific software make testing more difficult. Existing techniques such as code clone detection can help to improve the testing process. Software engineers should consider special challenges posed by scientific software such as oracle problems when developing testing techniques. PMID:25125798

Testing Scientific Software: A Systematic Literature Review.

Science.gov (United States)

Kanewala, Upulee; Bieman, James M

2014-10-01

Scientific software plays an important role in critical decision making, for example making weather predictions based on climate models, and computation of evidence for research publications. Recently, scientists have had to retract publications due to errors caused by software faults. Systematic testing can identify such faults in code. This study aims to identify specific challenges, proposed solutions, and unsolved problems faced when testing scientific software. We conducted a systematic literature survey to identify and analyze relevant literature. We identified 62 studies that provided relevant information about testing scientific software. We found that challenges faced when testing scientific software fall into two main categories: (1) testing challenges that occur due to characteristics of scientific software such as oracle problems and (2) testing challenges that occur due to cultural differences between scientists and the software engineering community such as viewing the code and the model that it implements as inseparable entities. In addition, we identified methods to potentially overcome these challenges and their limitations. Finally we describe unsolved challenges and how software engineering researchers and practitioners can help to overcome them. Scientific software presents special challenges for testing. Specifically, cultural differences between scientist developers and software engineers, along with the characteristics of the scientific software make testing more difficult. Existing techniques such as code clone detection can help to improve the testing process. Software engineers should consider special challenges posed by scientific software such as oracle problems when developing testing techniques.

A Computing Environment to Support Repeatable Scientific Big Data Experimentation of World-Wide Scientific Literature

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schlicher, Bob G [ORNL; Kulesz, James J [ORNL; Abercrombie, Robert K [ORNL; Kruse, Kara L [ORNL

2015-01-01

A principal tenant of the scientific method is that experiments must be repeatable and relies on ceteris paribus (i.e., all other things being equal). As a scientific community, involved in data sciences, we must investigate ways to establish an environment where experiments can be repeated. We can no longer allude to where the data comes from, we must add rigor to the data collection and management process from which our analysis is conducted. This paper describes a computing environment to support repeatable scientific big data experimentation of world-wide scientific literature, and recommends a system that is housed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in order to provide value to investigators from government agencies, academic institutions, and industry entities. The described computing environment also adheres to the recently instituted digital data management plan mandated by multiple US government agencies, which involves all stages of the digital data life cycle including capture, analysis, sharing, and preservation. It particularly focuses on the sharing and preservation of digital research data. The details of this computing environment are explained within the context of cloud services by the three layer classification of Software as a Service , Platform as a Service , and Infrastructure as a Service .

RESPECTING THE CONFIDENTIALITY AND ANONYMITY IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN SOCIOLOGY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria OPREA

2018-06-01

Full Text Available Ethics, a philosophical discipline, formulates a set of principles that must be followed, in respect of good and truth, fundamental values of humanity. The world of scientific research, of all kinds, also obeys moral imperatives and principles and is called upon to answer to society not only in relation to the discoveries themselves but, above all, in relation to the possible destructive effects on man or his life environment. The researcher in the sphere of social sciences is more involved in the act of responsibility, the more the topic subject of the study is the individual, the social group, the social environment. He must rigorously follow the principles and requirements of fair, honest, objective studies that do not harm the dignity of the human being. In line with the ethical rigors of scientific research, the article aims to highlight some aspects of respecting the principle of confidentiality and anonymity in qualitative research in the field of sociology, with reference to the study of vulnerable groups in Arad County.

Young Women's Scientific Identity Formation in an Urban Context.

Science.gov (United States)

Brickhouse, Nancy W.; Potter, Jennifer T.

2001-01-01

Examines the scientific identity formation of two young women of color who attended an urban vocational high school. Describes how the experience of marginalization can make membership in a science school community impossible or undesirable. (Author/MM)

Sustaining Open Source Communities through Hackathons - An Example from the ASPECT Community

Science.gov (United States)

Heister, T.; Hwang, L.; Bangerth, W.; Kellogg, L. H.

2016-12-01

The ecosystem surrounding a successful scientific open source software package combines both social and technical aspects. Much thought has been given to the technology side of writing sustainable software for large infrastructure projects and software libraries, but less about building the human capacity to perpetuate scientific software used in computational modeling. One effective format for building capacity is regular multi-day hackathons. Scientific hackathons bring together a group of science domain users and scientific software contributors to make progress on a specific software package. Innovation comes through the chance to work with established and new collaborations. Especially in the domain sciences with small communities, hackathons give geographically distributed scientists an opportunity to connect face-to-face. They foster lively discussions amongst scientists with different expertise, promote new collaborations, and increase transparency in both the technical and scientific aspects of code development. ASPECT is an open source, parallel, extensible finite element code to simulate thermal convection, that began development in 2011 under the Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics. ASPECT hackathons for the past 3 years have grown the number of authors to >50, training new code maintainers in the process. Hackathons begin with leaders establishing project-specific conventions for development, demonstrating the workflow for code contributions, and reviewing relevant technical skills. Each hackathon expands the developer community. Over 20 scientists add >6,000 lines of code during the >1 week event. Participants grow comfortable contributing to the repository and over half continue to contribute afterwards. A high return rate of participants ensures continuity and stability of the group as well as mentoring for novice members. We hope to build other software communities on this model, but anticipate each to bring their own unique challenges.

Values and the Scientific Culture of Behavior Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Ruiz, Maria R; Roche, Bryan

2007-01-01

As scientists and practitioners, behavior analysts must make frequent decisions that affect many lives. Scientific principles have been our guide as we work to promote effective action across a broad spectrum of cultural practices. Yet scientific principles alone may not be sufficient to guide our decision making in cases with potentially conflicting outcomes. In such cases, values function as guides to work through ethical conflicts. We will examine two ethical systems, radical behaviorism and functional contextualism, from which to consider the role of values in behavior analysis, and discuss potential concerns. Finally, we propose philosophical pragmatism, focusing on John Dewey's notions of community and dialogue, as a tradition that can help behavior analysts to integrate talk about values and scientific practices in ethical decision making. PMID:22478484

Communication of geo-scientific safety arguments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

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

2007-01-01

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

Unlocking Miami’s suburban gated communities: a semiotic and iconographic approach

OpenAIRE

Pufe, Franziska

2011-01-01

Since the end of the 1990s, gated residential neighbourhoods have moved into the focus of an interdisciplinary scientific community. Asking why they have loomed in the last two decades, the majority of publications find the answer in an increased fear of crime, a widened socio-economic polarisation and a wish to privatise public goods. Arguing from a constructivist and critical point of view, chiefly with respect to the ideas of the new cultural geography, I assert in the context of Miami tha...

Scientific Software - the role of best practices and recommendations

Science.gov (United States)

Fritzsch, Bernadette; Bernstein, Erik; Castell, Wolfgang zu; Diesmann, Markus; Haas, Holger; Hammitzsch, Martin; Konrad, Uwe; Lähnemann, David; McHardy, Alice; Pampel, Heinz; Scheliga, Kaja; Schreiber, Andreas; Steglich, Dirk

2017-04-01

In Geosciences - like in most other communities - scientific work strongly depends on software. For big data analysis, existing (closed or open source) program packages are often mixed with newly developed codes. Different versions of software components and varying configurations can influence the result of data analysis. This often makes reproducibility of results and reuse of codes very difficult. Policies for publication and documentation of used and newly developed software, along with best practices, can help tackle this problem. Within the Helmholtz Association a Task Group "Access to and Re-use of scientific software" was implemented by the Open Science Working Group in 2016. The aim of the Task Group is to foster the discussion about scientific software in the Open Science context and to formulate recommendations for the production and publication of scientific software, ensuring open access to it. As a first step, a workshop gathered interested scientists from institutions across Germany. The workshop brought together various existing initiatives from different scientific communities to analyse current problems, share established best practices and come up with possible solutions. The subjects in the working groups covered a broad range of themes, including technical infrastructures, standards and quality assurance, citation of software and reproducibility. Initial recommendations are presented and discussed in the talk. They are the foundation for further discussions in the Helmholtz Association and the Priority Initiative "Digital Information" of the Alliance of Science Organisations in Germany. The talk aims to inform about the activities and to link with other initiatives on the national or international level.

ft 3 2 2014-the post-modern scientific thoughts of thomas kuhn and

African Journals Online (AJOL)

JONATHAN

science and the scientific community “is taken to be in possession of something, the scientific method, which generates a logic ..... competing theories”(52) which, for him, materialist dialectical method is not capable of doing. He, therefore, holds ..... religions, myths and cultural values. That superior ideology is science. (160).

Is biotechnology a victim of anti-science bias in scientific journals?

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Henry I; Morandini, Piero; Ammann, Klaus

2008-03-01

Primarily outside the scientific community, misapprehensions and misinformation about recombinant DNA-modified (also known as 'genetically modified', or 'GM') plants have generated significant 'pseudo-controversy' over their safety that has resulted in unscientific and excessive regulation (with attendant inflated development costs) and disappointing progress. But pseudo-controversy and sensational claims have originated within the scientific community as well, and even scholarly journals' treatment of the subject has been at times unscientific, one-sided and irresponsible. These shortcomings have helped to perpetuate 'The Big Lie' - that recombinant DNA technology applied to agriculture and food production is unproven, unsafe, untested, unregulated and unwanted. Those misconceptions, in turn, have given rise to unwarranted opposition and tortuous, distorted public policy.

Valuing Our Communities: Ethical Considerations for Economic Evaluation of Community-Based Prevention.

Science.gov (United States)

Crowley, Max; Jones, Damon

2017-12-01

Restricted public budgets and increasing efforts to link the impact of community interventions to public savings have increased the use of economic evaluation. While this type of evaluation can be important for program planning, it also raises important ethical issues about how we value the time of local stakeholders who support community interventions. In particular, researchers navigate issues of scientific accuracy, institutional inequality, and research utility in their pursuit of even basic cost estimates. We provide an example of how we confronted these issues when estimating the costs of a large-scale community-based intervention. Principles for valuing community members' time and conducting economic evaluations of community programs are discussed. © Society for Community Research and Action 2017.

Recent Developments in Scientific Research Ballooning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jones, W. Vernon

2007-01-01

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Balloon Program is committed to meeting the need for extended duration scientific investigations by providing advanced balloon vehicles and support systems. A sea change in ballooning capability occurred with the inauguration of 8 - 20 day flights around Antarctica in the early 1990's. The attainment of 28-31 day flights and a record-breaking 42-day flight in, respectively, two and three circumnavigations of the continent has greatly increased the expectations of the scientific users. A new super-pressure balloon is currently under development for future flights of 60-100 days at any latitude, which would bring another sea change in scientific research ballooning

Scientific Data Management Center for Enabling Technologies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vouk, Mladen A.

2013-01-15

Managing scientific data has been identified by the scientific community as one of the most important emerging needs because of the sheer volume and increasing complexity of data being collected. Effectively generating, managing, and analyzing this information requires a comprehensive, end-to-end approach to data management that encompasses all of the stages from the initial data acquisition to the final analysis of the data. Fortunately, the data management problems encountered by most scientific domains are common enough to be addressed through shared technology solutions. Based on community input, we have identified three significant requirements. First, more efficient access to storage systems is needed. In particular, parallel file system and I/O system improvements are needed to write and read large volumes of data without slowing a simulation, analysis, or visualization engine. These processes are complicated by the fact that scientific data are structured differently for specific application domains, and are stored in specialized file formats. Second, scientists require technologies to facilitate better understanding of their data, in particular the ability to effectively perform complex data analysis and searches over extremely large data sets. Specialized feature discovery and statistical analysis techniques are needed before the data can be understood or visualized. Furthermore, interactive analysis requires techniques for efficiently selecting subsets of the data. Finally, generating the data, collecting and storing the results, keeping track of data provenance, data post-processing, and analysis of results is a tedious, fragmented process. Tools for automation of this process in a robust, tractable, and recoverable fashion are required to enhance scientific exploration. The SDM center was established under the SciDAC program to address these issues. The SciDAC-1 Scientific Data Management (SDM) Center succeeded in bringing an initial set of advanced

Introduction: Diverse Perspectives on Community

Science.gov (United States)

Jakes J. Pamela; Dorothy Anderson

2000-01-01

A glance through the table of contents of any social science journal illustrates that social science disciplines define community quite differently. For example, geographers emphasize spatial aspects, economists emphasize work and markets, and sociologists emphasize social interactions and networks in their definitions of communities. As a scientific concept,...

Inroduction: diverse perspectives on community

Science.gov (United States)

Pamela J. Jakes; Dorothy Anderson

2000-01-01

A glance through the table of contents of any social science journal illustrates that social science disciplines define community quite differently. For example, geographers emphasize spatial aspects, economists emphasize work and markets, and sociologists emphasize social interactions and networks in their definitions of communities. As a scientific concept,...

Toward fostering the scientific and technological literacy establishment of the 'Central Scientific and Technological Museum-Institute' and nuclear development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Murata, Takashi

1999-01-01

The public in general does not necessarily have enough knowledge for the reasonable decision making in the application of scientific and technological development even in the ear of the Information Society. However strongly the necessity of the consensus in the scientific policy like nuclear R and D is required, it is impossible to attain the goal, unless the scientific literacy of the general public is. In order to improve it the role of the scientific museum as a social educational facility is very important. In this respect, there still remains vast room to improve in the Japanese museum system and its activities. The concept of the 'Central Scientific and Technological Museum-Institute', which also operates very small-sized reactor for the educational use, is developed in this paper. (author)

Scientific Habits of Mind in Virtual Worlds

Science.gov (United States)

Steinkuehler, Constance; Duncan, Sean

2008-12-01

In today's increasingly "flat" world of globalization (Friedman 2005), the need for a scientifically literate citizenry has grown more urgent. Yet, by some measures, we have done a poor job at fostering scientific habits of mind in schools. Recent research on informal games-based learning indicates that such technologies and the communities they evoke may be one viable alternative—not as a substitute for teachers and classrooms, but as an alternative to textbooks and science labs. This paper presents empirical evidence about the potential of games for fostering scientific habits of mind. In particular, we examine the scientific habits of mind and dispositions that characterize online discussion forums of the massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft. Eighty-six percent of the forum discussions were posts engaged in "social knowledge construction" rather than social banter. Over half of the posts evidenced systems based reasoning, one in ten evidenced model-based reasoning, and 65% displayed an evaluative epistemology in which knowledge is treated as an open-ended process of evaluation and argument.

Optimizing Resources for Trustworthiness and Scientific Impact of Domain Repositories

Science.gov (United States)

Lehnert, K.

2017-12-01

Domain repositories, i.e. data archives tied to specific scientific communities, are widely recognized and trusted by their user communities for ensuring a high level of data quality, enhancing data value, access, and reuse through a unique combination of disciplinary and digital curation expertise. Their data services are guided by the practices and values of the specific community they serve and designed to support the advancement of their science. Domain repositories need to meet user expectations for scientific utility in order to be successful, but they also need to fulfill the requirements for trustworthy repository services to be acknowledged by scientists, funders, and publishers as a reliable facility that curates and preserves data following international standards. Domain repositories therefore need to carefully plan and balance investments to optimize the scientific impact of their data services and user satisfaction on the one hand, while maintaining a reliable and robust operation of the repository infrastructure on the other hand. Staying abreast of evolving repository standards to certify as a trustworthy repository and conducting a regular self-assessment and certification alone requires resources that compete with the demands for improving data holdings or usability of systems. The Interdisciplinary Earth Data Alliance (IEDA), a data facility funded by the US National Science Foundation, operates repositories for geochemical, marine Geoscience, and Antarctic research data, while also maintaining data products (global syntheses) and data visualization and analysis tools that are of high value for the science community and have demonstrated considerable scientific impact. Balancing the investments in the growth and utility of the syntheses with resources required for certifcation of IEDA's repository services has been challenging, and a major self-assessment effort has been difficult to accommodate. IEDA is exploring a partnership model to share

The Federal University of Minas Gerais into context of open access to scientific information: identification of their information systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ráisa Mendes Fernandes de Souza

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The obstacles faced by the scientific community in the dissemination and access to their own productions, contextualized in need of open access to scientific information, boosted the creation of Institutional Repositories. These are technologies adopted by educational institutions and research that aim to manage and provide scientific production site. Objective: to characterize Federal University of Minas Gerais’ information systems, analyzing the perception of the actors responsible for their existence / maintenance within the context of open access to scientific information. Methodology: This is a descriptive and qualitative research, which is engaged in the information systems developed within the university to support the teaching, research and extension, which contain the records of productions or productions, scientific or not, the local academic community. Results: we found some awareness of the actors interviewed in relation to the existence of other systems, although such awareness is not ideal. Generally, UFMG has Managers and depositors competent enough to manage a repository greater, as is the case of an RI. Conclusion: It is necessary an information policy that is born of consolidated scientific sectors hierarchically superior and inferior sectors to be transferred to, well, be possible to articulate the entire university community in support of a common cause. The study emphasizes the community of UFMG and optimization of open access to publications of the University as the scope for possible future studies.

Respecting and protecting our relationships: a community research HIV prevention program for teen fathers and mothers.

Science.gov (United States)

Lesser, Janna; Verdugo, Robert L; Koniak-Griffin, Deborah; Tello, Jerry; Kappos, Barbara; Cumberland, William G

2005-08-01

This article describes a two-phase community and academic collaboration funded by the California Collaborative Research Initiative to develop and test the feasibility of an innovative HIV prevention program relevant to the needs of the population of inner-city Latino teen parenting couples and realistic for implementation in community settings. The article describes (a) the identification of special issues that needed to be addressed before formation of a productive academic-community-based organization research partnership, including integrating a dominant theoretical model used in health education with principles of practice derived from clinical experience; (b) the first phase of the project that helped to inform the development of the HIV prevention program for couples; (c) examples from the intervention pilot study (Phase 2) that illustrate both the intervention strategies and the young participants' responses to the curriculum; and (d) the feasibility of program implementation and evaluation in a community setting.

Community-Based Disaster Management: A Lesson Learned From Community Emergency Response Management in Banyumas, Indonesia

Science.gov (United States)

Pratama, A. Y.; Sariffuddin, S.

2018-02-01

This article aimed to review community-based disaster management in terms of its independent coordination and disaster management. Community resilience was tested during disaster emergency. While panic, the community is required to be viable and able to evacuate, manage logistic, collect data on damage and the victim, and coordinate with outsiders independently. The community in Gununglurah Village, Banyumas Regency which was hit by a landslide in 2015 provides a lesson learned about community based disaster management. This research used qualitative descriptive methodology with in-depth interview with 23 informants from the community, donor institution, village officers, and government officers. Through traditional and informal methods, the community implemented disaster management that was categorized into 3 mechanisms that were social, functional, and sequential mechanism. These mechanisms controlled different portion in which social mechanism holds the most important role in disaster management, then functional mechanism and sequential mechanism. Various community activities in the village equipped the community with organizational experience to manage logistic, human resource and other coordination. In 2007, in fact, there was vulnerability risk assessment done by the local government, which recommended efforts to be done by the community to reduce the disaster risk, yet it was not implemented. It was interesting to note that in spite of the independent disaster management there was a scientific assessment neglected. Based on this research, a new discussion on how to synchronize the endogenous knowledge with scientific modern knowledge was opened.

Evaluating Community-Based Participatory Research to Improve Community-Partnered Science and Community Health

Science.gov (United States)

Hicks, Sarah; Duran, Bonnie; Wallerstein, Nina; Avila, Magdalena; Belone, Lorenda; Lucero, Julie; Magarati, Maya; Mainer, Elana; Martin, Diane; Muhammad, Michael; Oetzel, John; Pearson, Cynthia; Sahota, Puneet; Simonds, Vanessa; Sussman, Andrew; Tafoya, Greg; Hat, Emily White

2013-01-01

Background Since 2007, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) Policy Research Center (PRC) has partnered with the Universities of New Mexico and Washington to study the science of community-based participatory research (CBPR). Our goal is to identify facilitators and barriers to effective community–academic partnerships in American Indian and other communities, which face health disparities. Objectives We have described herein the scientific design of our National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study (2009–2013) and lessons learned by having a strong community partner leading the research efforts. Methods The research team is implementing a mixed-methods study involving a survey of principal investigators (PIs) and partners across the nation and in-depth case studies of CBPR projects. Results We present preliminary findings on methods and measures for community-engaged research and eight lessons learned thus far regarding partnership evaluation, advisory councils, historical trust, research capacity development of community partner, advocacy, honoring each other, messaging, and funding. Conclusions Study methodologies and lessons learned can help community–academic research partnerships translate research in communities. PMID:22982842

2004 Annual Scientific Conference. Program and Abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barborica, Andrei; Bulinski, Mircea; Stefan, Sabina

2005-01-01

As consequence of a long experience in educational as well as research field the Physics Department of the Bucharest University is offering high-standard undergraduate and graduate programs of higher education in physical sciences. The long-term strategy adopted by the faculty was focused on developing scientific research in modern topics of theoretical, experimental and applied physics as well as in inter-disciplinary fields as biophysics, medical physics, physics and protection of environment, physics-computer science. Following this strategy the Faculty of Physics has diversified the research activity, developing new research laboratories and encouraging the academic community to approach modern and competitive research projects. Every year the Physics Department of the University of Bucharest organizes the 'Annual Scientific Conference' to present the most interesting scientific results, obtained within the department. This 2004 scientific session is opened also to the interested physics researchers from other institutes and universities in the country. This scientific event represents a recognition and a continuation of the prestigious tradition of physics research performed within University. The scientific research in the Physics Department is performed in groups and research centers, the terminal year undergraduate students and graduate students being involved in a high extent in the research works. There are 5 research centers with the status of Center of excellence in research. The long-term strategy adopted by the faculty was focused on developing the scientific research in modern topics of theoretical, experimental and applied physics, as well as in inter-disciplinary fields as biophysics, medical physics, physics and protection of the environment, physics - computer science. Following this strategy, the Faculty of Physics has diversified the research activity, developing new research laboratories and encouraging the academic community to perform modern

2003 Annual Scientific Conference. Program and Abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barborica, Andrei; Bulinski, Mircea

2003-01-01

As consequence of a long experience in educational as well as research field the Physics Department of the Bucharest University is offering high-standard undergraduate and graduate programs of higher education in physical sciences. The long-term strategy adopted by the faculty was focused on developing scientific research in modern topics of theoretical, experimental and applied physics as well as in inter-disciplinary fields as biophysics, medical physics, physics and protection of environment, physics-computer science. Following this strategy the Faculty of Physics has diversified the research activity, developing new research laboratories and encouraging the academic community to approach modern and competitive research projects. Every year the Physics Department of the University of Bucharest organizes the 'Annual Scientific Conference' to present the most interesting scientific results, obtained within the department. This scientific session is opened also to the interested physics researchers from other institutes and universities in the country. This scientific event represents a recognition and a continuation of the prestigious tradition of physics research performed within University. The scientific research in the Physics Department is performed in groups and research centers, the terminal year undergraduate students and graduate students being involved in a high extent in the research works. There are 5 research centers with the status of Center of excellence in research. The long-term strategy adopted by the faculty was focused on developing the scientific research in modern topics of theoretical, experimental and applied physics, as well as in inter-disciplinary fields as biophysics, medical physics, physics and protection of the environment, physics - computer science. Following this strategy, the Faculty of Physics has diversified the research activity, developing new research laboratories and encouraging the academic community to perform modern and

2002 Annual Scientific Conference. Program and Abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barborica, Andrei; Bulinski, Mircea; Dinca, Mihai P.

2002-01-01

As consequence of a long experience in educational as well as research field the Physics Department of the Bucharest University is offering high-standard undergraduate and graduate programs of higher education in physical sciences. The long-term strategy adopted by the faculty was focused on developing scientific research in modern topics of theoretical, experimental and applied physics as well as in inter-disciplinary fields as biophysics, medical physics, physics and protection of environment, physics-computer science. Following this strategy the Faculty of Physics has diversified the research activity, developing new research laboratories and encouraging the academic community to approach modern and competitive research projects. Every year the Physics Department of the University of Bucharest organizes the 'Annual Scientific Conference' to present the most interesting scientific results, obtained within the department. This scientific session is opened also to the interested physics researchers from other institutes and universities in the country. This scientific event represents a recognition and a continuation of the prestigious tradition of physics research performed within University. The scientific research in the Physics Department is performed in groups and research centers, the terminal year undergraduate students and graduate students being involved in a high extent in the research works. There are 5 research centers with the status of Center of excellence in research. The long-term strategy adopted by the faculty was focused on developing the scientific research in modern topics of theoretical, experimental and applied physics, as well as in inter-disciplinary fields as biophysics, medical physics, physics and protection of the environment, physics - computer science. Following this strategy, the Faculty of Physics has diversified the research activity, developing new research laboratories and encouraging the academic community to perform modern and

Role of Scientific Societies in International Collaboration

Science.gov (United States)

Fucugauchi, J. U.

2007-12-01

Geophysical research increasingly requires global multidisciplinary approaches. Understanding how deeply interrelated are Earth components and processes, population growth, increased needs of mineral and energy resources, global impact of human activities, and view of our planet as an interconnected system emphasizes the need of international cooperation. International research collaboration has an immense potential and is needed for further development of Earth science research and education. The Union Session is planned to provide a forum for analysis and discussion of the status of research and education of geosciences in developing countries, international collaboration programs and new initiatives for promoting and strengthening scientific cooperation. A theme of particular relevance in the analyses and discussions is the role of scientific societies in international collaboration. Societies organize meetings, publish journals and books and promote cooperation through academic exchange activities. They may further assist communities in developing countries in providing and facilitating access to scientific literature, attendance to international meetings, short and long-term stays and student and young researcher mobility. What else can be done? This is a complex subject and scientific societies may not be seen independently from the many factors involved in research and education. Developing countries present additional challenges resulting from limited economic resources and social and political problems, while urgently requiring improved educational and research programs. Needed are in-depth analyses of infrastructure and human resources, and identification of major problems and needs. What are the major limitations and needs in research and postgraduate education in developing countries? What and how should international collaboration do? What are the roles of individuals, academic institutions, funding agencies, scientific societies? Here we attempt to

A Fresh Look at Spanish Scientific Publishing in the Framework of International Standards

Science.gov (United States)

Kindelan, Paz

2009-01-01

Research has become a key element in the knowledge-based society with its role of producing and disseminating results. In this context, scientific publishing becomes the means by which research activity and knowledge production are circulated to the scientific community and society at large. However, there are factors influencing the system of…

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

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

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

2015-01-25

A resounding success of the Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) program is that high-performance computational science is now universally recognized as a critical aspect of scientific discovery [71], complementing both theoretical and experimental research. As scientific communities prepare to exploit unprecedented computing capabilities of emerging leadership-class machines for multi-model simulations at the extreme scale [72], it is more important than ever to address the technical and social challenges of geographically distributed teams that combine expertise in domain science, applied mathematics, and computer science to build robust and flexible codes that can incorporate changes over time. The Center for Technology for Advanced Scientific Component Software (TASCS)1 tackles these these issues by exploiting component-based software development to facilitate collaborative high-performance scientific computing.

Water use data to enhance scientific and policy insight

Science.gov (United States)

Konar, M.

2017-12-01

We live in an era of big data. However, water use data remains sparse. There is an urgent need to enhance both the quality and resolution of water data. Metered water use information - as opposed to estimated water use, typically based on climate - would enhance the quality of existing water databases. Metered water use data would enable the research community to evaluate the "who, where, and when" of water use. Importantly, this information would enable the scientific community to better understand decision making related to water use (i.e. the "why"), providing the insight necessary to guide policies that promote water conservation. Metered water use data is needed at a sufficient resolution (i.e. spatial, temporal, and water user) to fully resolve how water is used throughout the economy and society. Improving the quality and resolution of water use data will enable scientific understanding that can inform policy.

Using Bibliographic Knowledge for Ranking in Scientific Publication Databases

CERN Document Server

Vesely, Martin; Le Meur, Jean-Yves

2008-01-01

Document ranking for scientific publications involves a variety of specialized resources (e.g. author or citation indexes) that are usually difficult to use within standard general purpose search engines that usually operate on large-scale heterogeneous document collections for which the required specialized resources are not always available for all the documents present in the collections. Integrating such resources into specialized information retrieval engines is therefore important to cope with community-specific user expectations that strongly influence the perception of relevance within the considered community. In this perspective, this paper extends the notion of ranking with various methods exploiting different types of bibliographic knowledge that represent a crucial resource for measuring the relevance of scientific publications. In our work, we experimentally evaluated the adequacy of two such ranking methods (one based on freshness, i.e. the publication date, and the other on a novel index, the ...

Status of the recommendations on the African cyberinfrastructure expressed by the scientific community written in 2007

Science.gov (United States)

Petitdidier, M.

2009-04-01

In today's Information Age, an effective cyber-infrastructure and Internet access underpins development and human welfare by strengthening education and training, expanding science, technology and innovation capability, opening up collaboration opportunities with the rest of the world, and generating the knowledge base for decision-making. Poor Internet connectivity prevents many countries in Africa, especially Sub-Saharan ones, from taking advantage of these opportunities. There are many initiatives from local, governmental, African, European and international organisations to promote, survey and fund networking. The eGY (electronic Geophysical Year) and Sharing Knowledge Foundation initiatives are based on African scientific communities, and are complementary of other initiatives. Their bottom-up role is twofold: firstly to motivate and support the scientists in each country (1) to ask their government or organisations for a better Internet for research and for education and (2) to organize themselves to welcome new technologies, secondly to promote a better cyber-infrastructure for their universities towards international organisations. In 2007 during the IHY workshop that gathered African scientists from 20 countries eGY provided the results of the questionnaire sent to all the participants to describe the status of internet in the Universities and Research institutes. Then recommendations were written. In 2007 Sharing the knowledge foundation organized a meeting devoted to internet and Grids in Africa. The participants, scientists, industrialists and members of NGO originating from 14 countries wrote also recommendations. In 2009 the presentation in this session of R.L.A Cottrell and U. Kalim will provide an overview of the evolution of the networking. In parallel to the improvement of internet the development of scientific collaboration among African countries and with Europe by using ICT was considered as an essential point. This presentation will be focused

Defending the scientific integrity of conservation-policy processes.

Science.gov (United States)

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

2017-10-01

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

The Data Issue: Opportunities and Challenges for Scientific Publishers

Science.gov (United States)

Murphy, F.; Irving, D. H.

2011-12-01

Using the recent report for the 'Opportunities in Data Exchange' Project produced by - and for - researchers, libraries/data centres and publishers (and which is based on a broad range of studies, questionnaires and evidence) we have defined current practices and expectations, and the gaps and dilemmas involved in producing data and datasets, and then analysed their relationship to formal publications. As a result, we identified potential opportunities to evolve scientific insights to be more useful and re-useful: with consequent implications for custodianship and long-term data management. We also defined a number of key incentives and barriers towards achieving these objectives. As a case study, the earth and environmental sciences have come under particularly close scrutiny with respect to data-ownership and -sharing arrangements, sometimes with damaging results to the discipline's reputation. These issues, along with considerable technological challenges, have to be handled effectively in order to best support all the users along the data chain. To that end, we show that key stakeholders - among them scientific publishers - need to have a clear idea of how to progress data-intensive derived information, which we demonstrate is often not the case. Towards bridging this knowledge gap, we have compiled a roadmap of next steps and key issues to be acknowledged and addressed by the scientific publishing community. These include: engaging directly with researchers, policy-makers, funding bodies and direct competitors to build innovative partnerships and enhance impact; providing technological and training investment and developing alongside the emerging discipline of 'data scientist': the 'data publisher'. This individual/company will need to combine a close understanding of researchers' priorities, together with market, legal and technical opportunities and restrictions.

[Variations on the "scientific culture" in four Brazilian authors].

Science.gov (United States)

Fonseca, Marina Assis; Oliveira, Bernardo Jefferson de

2015-01-01

The concept of "scientific culture" varies historically, and the examination of its continuities and transformations can help us understand the relationship between the scientific community and society. The views on the role of science in society go far beyond the advancement of a particular form of knowledge and its possible or promising fruit. They involve values, postures and practices to be disseminated and reveal expectations of social and cultural advancement. This article discusses four expressive visions of different moments in Brazilian history. The formulations of four influential authors in scientific and educational policies of the country at different times are presented and analyzed: Miguel Ozorio de Almeida, Anísio Teixeira, Maurício Rocha e Silva and Carlos Vogt.

Reconciling societal and scientific definitions for the monsoon

Science.gov (United States)

Reeve, Mathew; Stephenson, David

2014-05-01

Science defines the monsoon in numerous ways. We can apply these definitions to forecast data, reanalysis data, observations, GCMs and more. In a basic research setting, we hope that this work will advance science and our understanding of the monsoon system. In an applied research setting, we often hope that this work will benefit a specific stakeholder or community. We may want to inform a stakeholder when the monsoon starts, now and in the future. However, what happens if the stakeholders cannot relate to the information because their perceptions do not align with the monsoon definition we use in our analysis? We can resolve this either by teaching the stakeholders or learning from them about how they define the monsoon and when they perceive it to begin. In this work we reconcile different scientific monsoon definitions with the perceptions of agricultural communities in Bangladesh. We have developed a statistical technique that rates different scientific definitions against the people's perceptions of when the monsoon starts and ends. We construct a probability mass function (pmf) around each of the respondent's answers in a questionnaire survey. We can use this pmf to analyze the time series of monsoon onsets and withdrawals from the different scientific definitions. We can thereby quantitatively judge which definition may be most appropriate for a specific applied research setting.

Raising students’ awareness with respect to choice of literature

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bagger, Bettan; Taylor Kelly, Hélène; Hørdam, Britta

is a pedagogical tool which raises students’ awareness with respect to the necessity of employing scientific and researched based material. The tool is not only used in the theoretical setting but also in clinical practice. Students and clinical advisors evaluate the relevance of the pedagogical tool via...... questionnaires. The data will be analyzed and form the basis for further innovative teaching developments promoting the theory-clinical connection in the learning environment. Keywords: literature, education, pedagogical tool, theory-practice connection....

Sustaining Scientist-Community Partnerships that are Just, Equitable, and Trustworthy

Science.gov (United States)

Sheats, N.

2016-12-01

Communities of color, indigenous people, and low income communities throughout the United States are on the front lines of environmental and health impacts from polluting sources, and yet don't fully benefit from public policies that are intended to reduce or prevent those impacts. Many of the challenges faced by environmental justice communities can and should be addressed, in part, through science-based public policies. Community-relevant scientific information and equal access to this information is needed to protect people from public health and environmental hazards. Too often, however, the scientific community has failed to work collaboratively with environmental justice communities. This session will explore the challenges and opportunities faced by environmental justice advocates and scientists in working with one another. This talk will share findings from a recently-held forum, specifically discussing a formal set of principles and best practices for community-scientist partnerships to guide future collaborations between scientists and communities. When community members and scientists collaborate, they bring together unique strengths and types of knowledge that can help address our most pressing challenges, inform decision making, and develop solutions that benefit all people. The speaker will address institutional and historic barriers that hinder such collaboration, potential pitfalls to avoid, and share how institutional systems of scientific research can incorporate equity analyses into their work to ensure solutions that are truly effective.

Values, standpoints, and scientific/intellectual movements.

Science.gov (United States)

Rolin, Kristina

2016-04-01

Feminist standpoint empiricism contributes to the criticism of the value-free ideal by offering a unique analysis of how non-epistemic values can play not only a legitimate but also an epistemically productive role in science. While the inductive risk argument focuses on the role of non-epistemic values in the acceptance of hypotheses, standpoint empiricism focuses on the role of non-epistemic values in the production of evidence. And while many other analyses of values in science focus on the role of non-epistemic values either in an individual scientist's decision making or in the distribution of research efforts in scientific communities, standpoint empiricism focuses on the role of non-epistemic values in the building of scientific/intellectual movements. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Community-Supported Data Repositories in Paleobiology: A 'Middle Tail' Between the Geoscientific and Informatics Communities

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, J. W.; Ashworth, A. C.; Betancourt, J. L.; Bills, B.; Blois, J.; Booth, R.; Buckland, P.; Charles, D.; Curry, B. B.; Goring, S. J.; Davis, E.; Grimm, E. C.; Graham, R. W.; Smith, A. J.

2015-12-01

Community-supported data repositories (CSDRs) in paleoecology and paleoclimatology have a decades-long tradition and serve multiple critical scientific needs. CSDRs facilitate synthetic large-scale scientific research by providing open-access and curated data that employ community-supported metadata and data standards. CSDRs serve as a 'middle tail' or boundary organization between information scientists and the long-tail community of individual geoscientists collecting and analyzing paleoecological data. Over the past decades, a distributed network of CSDRs has emerged, each serving a particular suite of data and research communities, e.g. Neotoma Paleoecology Database, Paleobiology Database, International Tree Ring Database, NOAA NCEI for Paleoclimatology, Morphobank, iDigPaleo, and Integrated Earth Data Alliance. Recently, these groups have organized into a common Paleobiology Data Consortium dedicated to improving interoperability and sharing best practices and protocols. The Neotoma Paleoecology Database offers one example of an active and growing CSDR, designed to facilitate research into ecological and evolutionary dynamics during recent past global change. Neotoma combines a centralized database structure with distributed scientific governance via multiple virtual constituent data working groups. The Neotoma data model is flexible and can accommodate a variety of paleoecological proxies from many depositional contests. Data input into Neotoma is done by trained Data Stewards, drawn from their communities. Neotoma data can be searched, viewed, and returned to users through multiple interfaces, including the interactive Neotoma Explorer map interface, REST-ful Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), the neotoma R package, and the Tilia stratigraphic software. Neotoma is governed by geoscientists and provides community engagement through training workshops for data contributors, stewards, and users. Neotoma is engaged in the Paleobiological Data Consortium

Scientific Culture Measures: Challenges and New Perspectives

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lopez Cerezo, J.L.; Muñoz van den Eynde, A

2016-07-01

Since mid-twentieth century, efforts to promote scientific and technological development and engage the public in R&D process are increasing. Among those efforts, since the 1970s first in United States and then in United Kingdom and Europe, governments have funded surveys aimed at understanding the public attitudes toward science, scientists, and science policy. The Science and Engineering Indicators series of the National Science Foundation, or the European Community through its Special Eurobarometer on Europeans, science and technology, have shaped the research, measures and indicators of public understanding of science surveys. Examples are, at international level, surveys like Scientific Culture in IberoAmerican Countries (2009, FECYT-OEI-RICYT), or the International Study on Scientific Culture (2012, BBVA Foundation); and at national level, surveys like Social Perception of Science and Technology (2002-2014) series, or the recent Perception, Interest, Knowledge, and Actions (PIKA) Survey (2014), both funded by Spanish Government through its Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT). (Author)

The Centre of High-Performance Scientific Computing, Geoverbund, ABC/J - Geosciences enabled by HPSC

Science.gov (United States)

Kollet, Stefan; Görgen, Klaus; Vereecken, Harry; Gasper, Fabian; Hendricks-Franssen, Harrie-Jan; Keune, Jessica; Kulkarni, Ketan; Kurtz, Wolfgang; Sharples, Wendy; Shrestha, Prabhakar; Simmer, Clemens; Sulis, Mauro; Vanderborght, Jan

2016-04-01

The Centre of High-Performance Scientific Computing (HPSC TerrSys) was founded 2011 to establish a centre of competence in high-performance scientific computing in terrestrial systems and the geosciences enabling fundamental and applied geoscientific research in the Geoverbund ABC/J (geoscientfic research alliance of the Universities of Aachen, Cologne, Bonn and the Research Centre Jülich, Germany). The specific goals of HPSC TerrSys are to achieve relevance at the national and international level in (i) the development and application of HPSC technologies in the geoscientific community; (ii) student education; (iii) HPSC services and support also to the wider geoscientific community; and in (iv) the industry and public sectors via e.g., useful applications and data products. A key feature of HPSC TerrSys is the Simulation Laboratory Terrestrial Systems, which is located at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC) and provides extensive capabilities with respect to porting, profiling, tuning and performance monitoring of geoscientific software in JSC's supercomputing environment. We will present a summary of success stories of HPSC applications including integrated terrestrial model development, parallel profiling and its application from watersheds to the continent; massively parallel data assimilation using physics-based models and ensemble methods; quasi-operational terrestrial water and energy monitoring; and convection permitting climate simulations over Europe. The success stories stress the need for a formalized education of students in the application of HPSC technologies in future.

How to write and publish a scientific paper

CERN Document Server

Day, Robert A

2011-01-01

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

Antibiotic resistance in primary care in Austria - a systematic review of scientific and grey literature

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-01

Background Antibiotic resistance is an increasing challenge for health care services worldwide. While up to 90% of antibiotics are being prescribed in the outpatient sector recommendations for the treatment of community-acquired infections are usually based on resistance findings from hospitalized patients. In context of the EU-project called "APRES - the appropriateness of prescribing antibiotic in primary health care in Europe with respect to antibiotic resistance" it was our aim to gain detailed information about the resistance data from Austria in both the scientific and the grey literature. Methods A systematic review was performed including scientific and grey literature published between 2000 and 2010. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were defined and the review process followed published recommendations. Results Seventeen scientific articles and 23 grey literature documents could be found. In contrast to the grey literature, the scientific publications describe only a small part of the resistance situation in the primary health care sector in Austria. Merely half of these publications contain data from the ambulatory sector exclusively but these data are older than ten years, are very heterogeneous concerning the observed time period, the number and origin of the isolates and the kind of bacteria analysed. The grey literature yields more comprehensive and up-to-date information of the content of interest. These sources are available in German only and are not easily accessible. The resistance situation described in the grey literature can be summarized as rather stable over the last two years. For Escherichia coli e.g. the highest antibiotic resistance rates can be seen with fluorochiniolones (19%) and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (27%). Conclusion Comprehensive and up-to-date antibiotic resistance data of different pathogens isolated from the community level in Austria are presented. They could be found mainly in the grey literature, only few are

Antibiotic resistance in primary care in Austria - a systematic review of scientific and grey literature.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoffmann, Kathryn; Wagner, Gernot; Apfalter, Petra; Maier, Manfred

2011-11-28

Antibiotic resistance is an increasing challenge for health care services worldwide. While up to 90% of antibiotics are being prescribed in the outpatient sector recommendations for the treatment of community-acquired infections are usually based on resistance findings from hospitalized patients. In context of the EU-project called "APRES - the appropriateness of prescribing antibiotic in primary health care in Europe with respect to antibiotic resistance" it was our aim to gain detailed information about the resistance data from Austria in both the scientific and the grey literature. A systematic review was performed including scientific and grey literature published between 2000 and 2010. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were defined and the review process followed published recommendations. Seventeen scientific articles and 23 grey literature documents could be found. In contrast to the grey literature, the scientific publications describe only a small part of the resistance situation in the primary health care sector in Austria. Merely half of these publications contain data from the ambulatory sector exclusively but these data are older than ten years, are very heterogeneous concerning the observed time period, the number and origin of the isolates and the kind of bacteria analysed. The grey literature yields more comprehensive and up-to-date information of the content of interest. These sources are available in German only and are not easily accessible. The resistance situation described in the grey literature can be summarized as rather stable over the last two years. For Escherichia coli e.g. the highest antibiotic resistance rates can be seen with fluorochiniolones (19%) and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (27%). Comprehensive and up-to-date antibiotic resistance data of different pathogens isolated from the community level in Austria are presented. They could be found mainly in the grey literature, only few are published in peer-reviewed journals. The grey

Data Democracy and Decision Making: Enhancing the Use and Value of Geospatial Data and Scientific Information

Science.gov (United States)

Shapiro, C. D.

2014-12-01

Data democracy is a concept that has great relevance to the use and value of geospatial data and scientific information. Data democracy describes a world in which data and information are widely and broadly accessible, understandable, and useable. The concept operationalizes the public good nature of scientific information and provides a framework for increasing benefits from its use. Data democracy encompasses efforts to increase accessibility to geospatial data and to expand participation in its collection, analysis, and application. These two pillars are analogous to demand and supply relationships. Improved accessibility, or demand, includes increased knowledge about geospatial data and low barriers to retrieval and use. Expanded participation, or supply, encompasses a broader community involved in developing geospatial data and scientific information. This pillar of data democracy is characterized by methods such as citizen science or crowd sourcing.A framework is developed for advancing the use of data democracy. This includes efforts to assess the societal benefits (economic and social) of scientific information. This knowledge is critical to continued monitoring of the effectiveness of data democracy implementation and of potential impact on the use and value of scientific information. The framework also includes an assessment of opportunities for advancing data democracy both on the supply and demand sides. These opportunities include relatively inexpensive efforts to reduce barriers to use as well as the identification of situations in which participation can be expanded in scientific efforts to enhance the breadth of involvement as well as expanding participation to non-traditional communities. This framework provides an initial perspective on ways to expand the "scientific community" of data users and providers. It also describes a way forward for enhancing the societal benefits from geospatial data and scientific information. As a result, data

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

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Svetlana M. Medvedeva

2014-01-01

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

[Recent population policy measures in Belgium, especially with respect to fertility].

Science.gov (United States)

Bosman, E

1985-01-01

Policy measures affecting fertility, recently adopted in Belgium, are reviewed. The author notes that although responsibility for population matters has been delegated to the respective language groups, the responsibility for family law, divorce, abortion, social security, taxation, and labor policy remains a national responsibility. There are currently no measures in these areas adopted primarily for demographic reasons. Differences between the approaches taken by the French- and Dutch-speaking communities are noted. The author suggests that the French-speaking community has focused on problems relating to contraception and abortion, and the Dutch-speaking community has emphasized social welfare and family policy

Toward fostering the scientific and technological literacy establishment of the 'Central Scientific and Technological Museum-Institute' and nuclear development

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Murata, Takashi [Graduate School of Energy Sci., Kyoto Univ., Kyoto (Japan)

1999-12-01

The public in general does not necessarily have enough knowledge for the reasonable decision making in the application of scientific and technological development even in the ear of the Information Society. However strongly the necessity of the consensus in the scientific policy like nuclear R and D is required, it is impossible to attain the goal, unless the scientific literacy of the general public is. In order to improve it the role of the scientific museum as a social educational facility is very important. In this respect, there still remains vast room to improve in the Japanese museum system and its activities. The concept of the 'Central Scientific and Technological Museum-Institute', which also operates very small-sized reactor for the educational use, is developed in this paper. (author)

National labs working with local communities

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cavallo, J.D. [Argonne National Lab., IL (United States). Existing Buildings Efficiency Research Program

1996-10-01

In mid September Argonne National Laboratory celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with an open house in which more than 20,000 people toured the site and viewed some 100 demonstrations, exhibits and presentations of the scientific and engineering programs currently being pursued at Argonne. During the course of the open house it became obvious that to even long time residents of the Chicago area the activities of ANL were unknown or unclear. Part of this lack of knowledge about the scientific and engineering research occurring at DOE national laboratories is the remoteness of most research programs from the everyday lives of citizens. It is both the discussions that are remote as well as a remoteness of impacts on ordinary lives that often leads people to miss the exciting research activity occurring nearby. However, at least one research program at Argonne is structured to be purposefully different. The Existing Buildings Efficiency Research (EBER) program pursues its scientific work in concert with architects, engineers, and community developers as they attempt to provide high quality energy efficient, high performance buildings at reasonable cost. Instead of conducting experiments inside the barbed wire fences of secure facilities, technical assistance for the inclusion of DOE tools, techniques, and technologies is offered at the construction site within the community and research results are drawn back as projects are monitored for the performance of the energy conservation measures. In this report several projects at ANL are briefly discussed to give a sense of the possibilities for the laboratory and broader scientific community to work one-on-one with community-based organizations and the agencies that directly serve the needs of low-income neighborhoods.

Peer Review in Scientific Publications: Benefits, Critiques, & A Survival Guide

Science.gov (United States)

Kelly, Jacalyn; Sadeghieh, Tara

2014-01-01

Peer review has been defined as a process of subjecting an author’s scholarly work, research or ideas to the scrutiny of others who are experts in the same field. It functions to encourage authors to meet the accepted high standards of their discipline and to control the dissemination of research data to ensure that unwarranted claims, unacceptable interpretations or personal views are not published without prior expert review. Despite its wide-spread use by most journals, the peer review process has also been widely criticised due to the slowness of the process to publish new findings and due to perceived bias by the editors and/or reviewers. Within the scientific community, peer review has become an essential component of the academic writing process. It helps ensure that papers published in scientific journals answer meaningful research questions and draw accurate conclusions based on professionally executed experimentation. Submission of low quality manuscripts has become increasingly prevalent, and peer review acts as a filter to prevent this work from reaching the scientific community. The major advantage of a peer review process is that peer-reviewed articles provide a trusted form of scientific communication. Since scientific knowledge is cumulative and builds on itself, this trust is particularly important. Despite the positive impacts of peer review, critics argue that the peer review process stifles innovation in experimentation, and acts as a poor screen against plagiarism. Despite its downfalls, there has not yet been a foolproof system developed to take the place of peer review, however, researchers have been looking into electronic means of improving the peer review process. Unfortunately, the recent explosion in online only/electronic journals has led to mass publication of a large number of scientific articles with little or no peer review. This poses significant risk to advances in scientific knowledge and its future potential. The current

INSPIRE: A new scientific information system for HEP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ivanov, R; Raae, L

2010-01-01

The status of high-energy physics (HEP) information systems has been jointly analyzed by the libraries of CERN, DESY, Fermilab and SLAC. As a result, the four laboratories have started the INSPIRE project - a new platform built by moving the successful SPIRES features and content, curated at DESY, Fermilab and SLAC, into the open-source CDS Invenio digital library software that was developed at CERN. INSPIRE will integrate current acquisition workflows and databases to host the entire body of the HEP literature (about one million records), aiming to become the reference HEP scientific information platform worldwide. It will provide users with fast access to full text journal articles and preprints, but also material such as conference slides and multimedia. INSPIRE will empower scientists with new tools to discover and access the results most relevant to their research, enable novel text- and data-mining applications, and deploy new metrics to assess the impact of articles and authors. In addition, it will introduce the 'Web 2.0' paradigm of user-enriched content in the domain of sciences, with community-based approaches to scientific publishing. INSPIRE represents a natural evolution of scholarly communication built on successful community-based information systems, and it provides a vision for information management in other fields of science. Inspired by the needs of HEP, we hope that the INSPIRE project will be inspiring for other communities.

Ten questions you should consider before submitting an article to a scientific journal.

Science.gov (United States)

Falcó-Pegueroles, A; Rodríguez-Martín, D

Investigating involves not only knowing the research methods and designs; it involves knowing the strategies for disseminating and publishing the results in scientific journals. An investigation is considered complete when it is published and is disclosed to the scientific community. The publication of a manuscript is not simple, since it involves examination by a rigorous editorial process evaluator to ensure the scientific quality of the proposal. The objective of this article is to communicate to potential authors the main errors or deficiencies that typically and routinely explain the decision by the referees of scientific journals not to accept a scientific article. Based on the experience of the authors as referees of national and international journals in the field of nursing and health sciences, we have identified a total of 10 types or groups, which cover formulation errors, inconsistencies between different parts of the text, lack of structuring, imprecise language, information gaps, and the detection of relevant inaccuracies. The identification and analysis of these issues enables their prevention, and is of great use to future researchers in the dissemination of the results of their work to the scientific community. In short, the best publishing strategy is one that ensures the scientific quality of the work and spares no effort in avoiding the errors or deficiencies that referees routinely detect in the articles they evaluate. Copyright © 2017 Sociedad Española de Enfermería Intensiva y Unidades Coronarias (SEEIUC). Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Communities needs, values, and representations of the world: lessons learned from Greenland's and Senegal's ARTisticc's study sites.

Science.gov (United States)

Baztan, J.; Vanderlinden, J. P.; Cordier, M.; Da Cunha, C.; Gaye, N.; Huctin, J. M.; Kane, A.; Quensiere, J.; Remvikos, Y.; Seck, A.

2016-12-01

The cultural dimensions of climate change impacts and adaptation have been increasingly examined in recent years through various disciplinary lenses, exposing a clear need for mainstream natural sciences to address the question of how to incorporate the values of communities facing global changes into their work. With this in mind, the work presented here addresses three main questions: (i) Do community members consider available scientific data and findings credible? Answering this question provides insight into whether available scientific knowledge expresses causal links that are mobilized by affected communities. (ii) Do community members consider available scientific data and findings salient? Answering this question provides insight into whether available scientific knowledge focuses on phenomena that those in affected communities think should receive attention. (iii) Do community members consider available scientific data and findings legitimate? Answering this question provides insight into whether available scientific knowledge expresses what is good, tolerable, and/or acceptable for affected communities. These three questions delve into the ways in which adaptation requires affected individuals and communities to adopt attitudes by integrating/woven from potentially conflicting evidence, relevance, and/or normative claims. These questions also shed light on the links between mainstream sciences and studied affected communities. The research presented here focuses on 2 communities: (i) Uummannaq, an island of 12km2 in a fjord, located along the middle of Greenland's west coast and (ii) Joal-Fadiouth & M'bour area in the wester African's coast, few Km south of Dakar, Senegal. This communication shares the results from field work experiences from ARTiticc's interdisciplinary approach to identifying the needs, values, and representations of the world of the communities, and how to fit these elements into mainstream sciences in order to bridge gaps between

Designing a Secure Storage Repository for Sharing Scientific Datasets using Public Clouds

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kumbhare, Alok [Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Simmhan, Yogesth [Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Prasanna, Viktor [Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)

2011-11-14

As Cloud platforms gain increasing traction among scientific and business communities for outsourcing storage, computing and content delivery, there is also growing concern about the associated loss of control over private data hosted in the Cloud. In this paper, we present an architecture for a secure data repository service designed on top of a public Cloud infrastructure to support multi-disciplinary scientific communities dealing with personal and human subject data, motivated by the smart power grid domain. Our repository model allows users to securely store and share their data in the Cloud without revealing the plain text to unauthorized users, the Cloud storage provider or the repository itself. The system masks file names, user permissions and access patterns while providing auditing capabilities with provable data updates.

Scientific papers: A new paradigm

Science.gov (United States)

Reid, George C.

The problem of how to organize and write a scientific paper is a very basic one for most of us. A scientific paper is, after all, the only tangible product of a research scientist and, like all products, will be a failure if not marketed properly to reach its potential buyers. I think that a lack of attention to this “marketing and sales” aspect of research is a serious fault in our community, by which I mean those of us who publish in AGU journals.The potential audience for a scientific paper can be divided roughly into three distinct categories. The first group is usually rather small in number, consisting of fellow scientists working in a very closely related field, and to whom the details of the work are of major importance. The second group is also fellow scientists, but their interest is less sharply focused, and they are concerned with the broad outlines of the work and essential results. The third group is the sponsors and the people who actually pay for the work, whose interest in the details is minimal and they, sadly enough, are often concerned only with the fact that a paper has been published rather than its content.

The ESA Scientific Exploitation of Operational Missions element

Science.gov (United States)

Desnos, Yves-Louis; Regner, Peter; Zehner, Claus; Engdahl, Marcus; Benveniste, Jerome; Delwart, Steven; Gascon, Ferran; Mathieu, Pierre-Philippe; Bojkov, Bojan; Koetz, Benjamin; Arino, Olivier; Donlon, Craig; Davidson, Malcolm; Goryl, Philippe; Foumelis, Michael

2014-05-01

The objectives of the ESA Scientific Exploitation of Operational Missions (SEOM) programme element are • to federate, support and expand the research community • to strengthen the leadership of European EO research community • to enable the science community to address new scientific research As a preparation for the SEOM element a series of international science users consultation has been organized by ESA in 2012 and 2013 In particular the ESA Living Planet Symposium was successfully organized in Edinburgh September 2013 and involving 1700 participants from 60 countries. The science users recommendations have been gathered and form the basis for the 2014 SEOM work plan approved by ESA member states. The SEOM element is organized along the following action lines: 1. Developing open-source, multi-mission, scientific toolboxes : the new toolboxes for Sentinel 1/2/3 and 5P will be introduced 2. Research and development studies: the first SEOM studies are being launched such as the INSARAP studies for Sentinel 1 interferometry in orbit demonstration , the IAS study to generate an improved spectroscopic database of the trace gas species CH4, H2O, and CO in the 2.3 μm region and SO2 in the UV region for Sentinel 5 P. In addition larger Sentinels for science call will be tendered in 2014 covering grouped studies for Sentinel 1 Land , Sentinel 1 Ocean , Sentinel 2 Land, Sentinel 3 SAR Altimetry ,Sentinel 3 Ocean color, Sentinel 3 Land and Sentinels Synergy . 3. Science users consultation : the Sentinel 2 for Science workshop is planned from 20 to 22 may 2014 at ESRIN to prepare for scientific exploitation of the Sentinel-2 mission (http://seom.esa.int/S2forScience2014 ) . In addition the FRINGE workshop focusing on scientific explotation of Sentinel1 using SAR interferometry is planned to be held at ESA ESRIN in Q2 2015 4. Training the next generation of European EO scientists on the scientific exploitation of Sentinels data: the Advanced Training course Land

Scientific Workflow Management in Proteomics

Science.gov (United States)

de Bruin, Jeroen S.; Deelder, André M.; Palmblad, Magnus

2012-01-01

Data processing in proteomics can be a challenging endeavor, requiring extensive knowledge of many different software packages, all with different algorithms, data format requirements, and user interfaces. In this article we describe the integration of a number of existing programs and tools in Taverna Workbench, a scientific workflow manager currently being developed in the bioinformatics community. We demonstrate how a workflow manager provides a single, visually clear and intuitive interface to complex data analysis tasks in proteomics, from raw mass spectrometry data to protein identifications and beyond. PMID:22411703

Scientific Production on Open Access: A Worldwide Bibliometric Analysis in the Academic and Scientific Context

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sandra Miguel

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This research aims to diachronically analyze the worldwide scientific production on open access, in the academic and scientific context, in order to contribute to knowledge and visualization of its main actors. As a method, bibliographical, descriptive and analytical research was used, with the contribution of bibliometric studies, especially the production indicators, scientific collaboration and indicators of thematic co-occurrence. The Scopus database was used as a source to retrieve the articles on the subject, with a resulting corpus of 1179 articles. Using Bibexcel software, frequency tables were constructed for the variables, and Pajek software was used to visualize the collaboration network and VoSViewer for the construction of the keywords’ network. As for the results, the most productive researchers come from countries such as the United States, Canada, France and Spain. Journals with higher impact in the academic community have disseminated the new constructed knowledge. A collaborative network with a few subnets where co-authors are from different countries has been observed. As conclusions, this study allows identifying the themes of debates that mark the development of open access at the international level, and it is possible to state that open access is one of the new emerging and frontier fields of library and information science.

Working with and promoting early career scientists within a larger community

Science.gov (United States)

Pratt, K.

2017-12-01

For many scientific communities, engaging early career researchers is critical for success. These young scientists (graduate students, postdocs, and newly appointed professors) are actively forming collaborations and instigating new research programs. They also stand to benefit hugely from being part of a scientific community, gaining access to career development activities, becoming part of strong collaborator networks, and achieving recognition in their field of study — all of which will help their professional development. There are many ways community leaders can work proactively to support and engage early career scientists, and it it is often a community manager's job to work with leadership to implement such activities. In this presentation, I will outline ways of engaging early career scientists at events and tailored workshops, of promoting development of their leadership skills, and of creating opportunities for recognizing early career scientists within larger scientific communities. In this talk, I will draw from my experience working with the Deep Carbon Observatory Early Career Scientist Network, supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Promoting Culturally Respectful Cancer Education Through Digital Storytelling.

Science.gov (United States)

Cueva, Melany; Kuhnley, Regina; Lanier, Anne; Dignan, Mark; Revels, Laura; Schoenberg, Nancy E; Cueva, Katie

Cancer is the leading cause of mortality among Alaska Native people. Over half of Alaska Native people live in rural communities where specially trained community members called Community Health Aides/Practitioners (CHA/Ps) provide health care. In response to CHA/Ps' expressed desire to learn more about cancer, four 5-day cancer education and digital storytelling courses were provided in 2014. Throughout each course, participants explored cancer information, reflected on their personal experiences, and envisioned how they might apply their knowledge within their communities. Each course participant also created a personal and authentic digital story, a methodology increasingly embraced by Indigenous communities as a way to combine storytelling traditions with modern technology to promote both individual and community health. Opportunities to learn of CHA/Ps' experiences with cancer and digital storytelling included a 3-page end-of-course written evaluation, a weekly story-showing log kept for 4 weeks post-course, a group teleconference held 1-2 weeks post-course, and a survey administered 6 months post-course. Participants described digital storytelling as a culturally respectful way to support cancer awareness and education. Participants described the process of creating digital stories as supporting knowledge acquisition, encouraging personal reflection, and sparking a desire to engage in cancer risk reduction activities for themselves and with their families and patients. As a result of creating a personalized digital story, CHA/Ps reported feeling differently about cancer, noting an increase in cancer knowledge and comfort to talk about cancer with clients and family. Indigenous digital stories have potential for broad use as a culturally appropriate health messaging tool.

SCIFIO: an extensible framework to support scientific image formats.

Science.gov (United States)

Hiner, Mark C; Rueden, Curtis T; Eliceiri, Kevin W

2016-12-07

No gold standard exists in the world of scientific image acquisition; a proliferation of instruments each with its own proprietary data format has made out-of-the-box sharing of that data nearly impossible. In the field of light microscopy, the Bio-Formats library was designed to translate such proprietary data formats to a common, open-source schema, enabling sharing and reproduction of scientific results. While Bio-Formats has proved successful for microscopy images, the greater scientific community was lacking a domain-independent framework for format translation. SCIFIO (SCientific Image Format Input and Output) is presented as a freely available, open-source library unifying the mechanisms of reading and writing image data. The core of SCIFIO is its modular definition of formats, the design of which clearly outlines the components of image I/O to encourage extensibility, facilitated by the dynamic discovery of the SciJava plugin framework. SCIFIO is structured to support coexistence of multiple domain-specific open exchange formats, such as Bio-Formats' OME-TIFF, within a unified environment. SCIFIO is a freely available software library developed to standardize the process of reading and writing scientific image formats.

EUDAT and EPOS moving towards the efficient management of scientific data sets

Science.gov (United States)

Fiameni, Giuseppe; Bailo, Daniele; Cacciari, Claudio

2016-04-01

This abstract presents the collaboration between the European Collaborative Data Infrastructure (EUDAT) and the pan-European infrastructure for solid Earth science (EPOS) which draws on the management of scientific data sets through a reciprocal support agreement. EUDAT is a Consortium of European Data Centers and Scientific Communities whose focus is the development and realisation of the Collaborative Data Infrastructure (CDI), a common model for managing data spanning all European research data centres and data repositories and providing an interoperable layer of common data services. The EUDAT Service Suite is a set of a) implementations of the CDI model and b) standards, developed and offered by members of the EUDAT Consortium. These EUDAT Services include a baseline of CDI-compliant interface and API services - a "CDI Gateway" - plus a number of web-based GUIs and command-line client tools. On the other hand,the EPOS initiative aims at creating a pan-European infrastructure for the solid Earth science to support a safe and sustainable society. In accordance with this scientific vision, the mission of EPOS is to integrate the diverse and advanced European Research Infrastructures for solid Earth Science relying on new e-science opportunities to monitor and unravel the dynamic and complex Earth System. EPOS will enable innovative multidisciplinary research for a better understanding of the Earth's physical and chemical processes that control earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, ground instability and tsunami as well as the processes driving tectonics and Earth's surface dynamics. Through the integration of data, models and facilities EPOS will allow the Earth Science community to make a step change in developing new concepts and tools for key answers to scientific and socio-economic questions concerning geo-hazards and geo-resources as well as Earth sciences applications to the environment and to human welfare. To achieve this integration challenge and the

Thales: His contribution to scientific knowledge | Asukwo | Sophia ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This of course is the foundation of modern science (Shand, 2 – 4). So, as philosophy is not a community affair but a thought of a single individual, Thales emerged as the first to systematize his speculation in a scientific manner about the primary stuff of the universe and on other issues. That is why this paper is to presents to ...

Role of editors and journals in detecting and preventing scientific misconduct: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Science.gov (United States)

Marusic, Ana; Katavic, Vedran; Marusic, Matko

2007-09-01

Scientific journals have a central place in protecting research integrity because published articles are the most visible documentation of research. We used SWOT analysis to audit (S)trengths and (W)eaknesses as internal and (O)pportunities and (T)hreats as external factors affecting journals' responsibility in addressing research integrity issues. Strengths include editorial independence, authority and expertise, power to formulate editorial policies, and responsibility for the integrity of published records. Weaknesses stem from having no mandate for legal action, reluctance to get involved, and lack of training. Opportunities for editors are new technologies for detecting misconduct, policies by editorial organization or national institutions, and greater transparency of published research. Editors face threats from the lack of legal regulation and culture of research integrity in academic communities, lack of support from stakeholders in scientific publishing, and different pressures. Journal editors cannot be the policing force of the scientific community but they should actively ensure the integrity of the scientific record.

Challenges of linking scientific knowledge to river basin management policy: AquaTerra as a case study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Slob, A.F.L.; Rijnveld, M.; Chapman, A.S.; Strosser, P.

2007-01-01

The EU Project AquaTerra generates knowledge about the river-soil-sediment-groundwater system and delivers scientific information of value for river basin management. In this article, the use and ignorance of scientific knowledge in decision making is explored by a theoretical review. We elaborate on the 'two-communities theory', which explains the problems of the policy-science interface by relating and comparing the different cultures, contexts, and languages of researchers and policy makers. Within AquaTerra, the EUPOL subproject examines the policy-science interface with the aim of achieving a good connection between the scientific output of the project and EU policies. We have found two major barriers, namely language and resources, as well as two types of relevant relationships: those between different research communities and those between researchers and policy makers. - Using scientific output in River Basin Management requires researchers and policy makers to acknowledge the multiple rationalities and different viewpoints that are brought in by the variety of stakeholders involved

Inuit and Scientific Perspectives on the Relationship Between Sea Ice and Climate Change. The Ideal Complement?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Laidler, G.J. [Department of Geography, University of Toronto at Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Road North, Mississauga, Ontario, L5L 1C6 (Canada)

2006-10-15

Sea ice is influential in regulating energy exchanges between the ocean and the atmosphere, and has figured prominently in scientific studies of climate change and climate feedbacks. However, sea ice is also a vital component of everyday life in Inuit communities of the circumpolar Arctic. Therefore, it is important to understand the links between the potential impacts of climate change on Arctic sea ice extent, distribution, and thickness as well as the related consequences for northern coastal populations. This paper explores the relationship between sea ice and climate change from both scientific and Inuit perspectives. Based on an overview of diverse literature the experiences, methods, and goals which differentiate local and scientific sea ice knowledge are examined. These efforts are considered essential background upon which to develop more accurate assessments of community vulnerability to climate, and resulting sea ice, change. Inuit and scientific perspectives may indeed be the ideal complement when investigating the links between sea ice and climate change, but effective and appropriate conceptual bridges need to be built between the two types of expertise. The complementary nature of these knowledge systems may only be realized, in a practical sense, if significant effort is expended to: (1) understand sea ice from both Inuit and scientific perspectives, along with their underlying differences; (2) investigate common interests or concerns; (3) establish meaningful and reciprocal research partnerships with Inuit communities; (4) engage in, and improve, collaborative research methods; and, (5) maintain ongoing dialogue.

FY 1997 Scientific and Technical Reports, Articles, Papers, and Presentations

Science.gov (United States)

Waits, J. E. Turner (Compiler)

1998-01-01

This document presents formal NASA technical reports, papers published in technical journals, and presentations by MSFC personnel in FY97. The information in this report may be of value to the scientific and engineering community in determining what information has been published and what is available.

Scientific and technological assistance and the challenge of the 80's

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Moravcsik, M J

1981-02-01

The US proposal for an Institute for Scientific and Technological Cooperation (ISTC) to aid developing countries could coordinate with new Third World development trends, which reflect attitudinal changes. This reassessment on the part of developing countries recognizes the relationship of appropriate scientific and technological infrastructures to long-term benefits and the need to promote indigenous leadership and personal development in order to rise above the status of welfare. This new approach will reduce political controversy, be less expensive, rely more on human than material resources, and emphasize the small scale. ISTC can integrate its actions with these trends by thinking in terms of building a broad infrastructure, avoiding country-specific projects, and operating directly through the scientific community. (DCK)

Documenting Instructional Practices in a Literacy-infused Arts Program: Respecting Pedagogues from the Community

Science.gov (United States)

Brooks, Wanda; Smith, Michael W.

2013-01-01

This study examines the instructional practices around literacy that characterized the work of a community based arts program designed for urban adolescents. Two primary sources of data were collected: field notes on approximately 35 hours of instruction spread across seven months and interviews with the program's staff and students. Four…

Strategies for application of scientific findings in prevention.

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, S H

1995-07-01

Dental research in the last 50 years has accomplished numerous significant advances in preventive dentistry, particularly in the area of research in fluorides, periodontal diseases, restorative dentistry, and dental materials, as well as craniofacial development and molecular biology. The transfer of scientific knowledge to clinical practitioners requires additional effort. It is the responsibility of the scientific communities to transfer the fruits of their findings to society through publications, conferences, media, and the press. Specific programs that the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) has developed to transmit science to the profession and the public have included science transfer seminars, the Visiting Lecture Program, and hands-on workshops. The IADR Strategic Plan also has a major outreach goal. In addition, the Federation Dentaire Internationale (FDI) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have initiated plans to celebrate World Health Day and the Year of Oral Health in 1994. These are important strategies for the application of scientific findings in prevention.

Scientific explanations in Greek upper secondary physics textbooks

Science.gov (United States)

Velentzas, Athanasios; Halkia, Krystallia

2018-01-01

In this study, an analysis of the structure of scientific explanations included in physics textbooks of upper secondary schools in Greece was completed. In scientific explanations for specific phenomena found in the sample textbooks, the explanandum is a logical consequence of the explanans, which in all cases include at least one scientific law (and/or principle, model or rule) previously presented, as well as statements concerning a specific case or specific conditions. The same structure is also followed in most of the cases in which the textbook authors explain regularities (i.e. laws, rules) as consequences of one or more general law or principle of physics. Finally, a number of the physics laws and principles presented in textbooks are not deduced as consequences from other, more general laws, but they are formulated axiomatically or inductively derived and the authors argue for their validity. Since, as it was found, the scientific explanations presented in the textbooks used in the study have similar structures to the explanations in internationally known textbooks, the findings of the present work may be of interest not only to science educators in Greece, but also to the community of science educators in other countries.

Community relations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

O'Neil, C.

1997-01-01

The interaction of the oil and gas companies with the Northern communities regarding drilling activities was an important aspect of oil and gas operations conducted in the Beaufort Sea. During the 1960s the industry and aboriginal people basically ignored each other. Later, the industry put more emphasis on community consultation until finally two-way communication was established. Respect for the land and the environment were very important to aboriginal people who depended on the land and its resources for their traditional way of life. Community relations policies by the various companies involved in the area, and the impact they have had on their respective communities were recounted. Not all efforts were successful, however, the companies and the communities learned from their experiences, and by the time operations ceased, the communities seemed to be more appreciative of the ways they were being treated by the oil companies. 22 figs

Geosciences Acting Out: Using Theatre to Understand Citizen Values and Concerns with Respect to Marcellus Gas Development

Science.gov (United States)

Orland, B.; Doan, W. J.; Russell, S. B.; Belser, A.

2014-12-01

Marcellus shale gas is being developed with unprecedented speed. The highly capitalized energy industry has influenced major changes in the regulatory framework at federal and state levels and entered into mineral lease agreements 100-fold bigger that previously seen in Northern Pennsylvania. At the same time, the technical and scientific issues at play from geology and hydrology through ecology and sociology effectively block local citizens from fully understanding and participating in decision-making about their own futures. The Marcellus Community-Based Performance Program engages adult residents, landowners, and local decision makers in knowledge-generating performances made collectively with those most impacted by shale gas development. Unlike traditional proscenium stage theatre, community-based performance is a collaborative means for exploring a collectively significant issue or circumstance. The choice to use a community-based theatre method, which engages the spectators in the performance itself as a way of making meaning, was based on the following goals to achieve good debate; to engage community participants in discussion through the exchange of ideas, argument and counter-argument, in an effort to further the education of all; to facilitate the perspectives of citizens in communities where different responses to the risk issues exist because of local economies and legacies with resource extraction. The plays and performances, developed around the broad theme of Living with Risk and Uncertainty, use existing research, reports, newspaper articles, and interviews to present the range of perceptions, facts, and issues surrounding the environmental risks associated with natural gas drilling and focused on developing scientific understanding. Performances have been assessed by seeking direct feedback from participants through pre-performance surveys, post-performance dialogues (talk-backs), and exit interviews. Participants have reported the highest levels

Enhancements to VTK enabling Scientific Visualization in Immersive Environments

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

O' Leary, Patrick; Jhaveri, Sankhesh; Chaudhary, Aashish; Sherman, William; Martin, Ken; Lonie, David; Whiting, Eric; Money, James

2017-04-01

Modern scientific, engineering and medical computational sim- ulations, as well as experimental and observational data sens- ing/measuring devices, produce enormous amounts of data. While statistical analysis provides insight into this data, scientific vi- sualization is tactically important for scientific discovery, prod- uct design and data analysis. These benefits are impeded, how- ever, when scientific visualization algorithms are implemented from scratch—a time-consuming and redundant process in im- mersive application development. This process can greatly ben- efit from leveraging the state-of-the-art open-source Visualization Toolkit (VTK) and its community. Over the past two (almost three) decades, integrating VTK with a virtual reality (VR) environment has only been attempted to varying degrees of success. In this pa- per, we demonstrate two new approaches to simplify this amalga- mation of an immersive interface with visualization rendering from VTK. In addition, we cover several enhancements to VTK that pro- vide near real-time updates and efficient interaction. Finally, we demonstrate the combination of VTK with both Vrui and OpenVR immersive environments in example applications.

Scientific Misconduct and the Myth of Self-Correction in Science

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Postmes, Tom; Spears, Russell; Stroebe, Wolfgang

2012-01-01

The recent Stapel fraud case came as a shattering blow to the scientific community of psychologists and damaged both their image in the media and their collective self-esteem. The field responded with suggestions of how fraud could be prevented. However, the Stapel fraud is only one among many

Scientific Misconduct and the Myth of Self-Correction in Science

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Postmes, Tom; Spears, Russell; Stroebe, Wolfgang

The recent Stapel fraud case came as a shattering blow to the scientific community of psychologists and damaged both their image in the media and their collective self-esteem. The field responded with suggestions of how fraud could be prevented. However, the Stapel fraud is only one among many

Scientific data interpolation with low dimensional manifold model

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Wei; Wang, Bao; Barnard, Richard; Hauck, Cory D.; Jenko, Frank; Osher, Stanley

2018-01-01

We propose to apply a low dimensional manifold model to scientific data interpolation from regular and irregular samplings with a significant amount of missing information. The low dimensionality of the patch manifold for general scientific data sets has been used as a regularizer in a variational formulation. The problem is solved via alternating minimization with respect to the manifold and the data set, and the Laplace-Beltrami operator in the Euler-Lagrange equation is discretized using the weighted graph Laplacian. Various scientific data sets from different fields of study are used to illustrate the performance of the proposed algorithm on data compression and interpolation from both regular and irregular samplings.

Scientific data interpolation with low dimensional manifold model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhu, Wei; Wang, Bao; Barnard, Richard C.; Hauck, Cory D.

2017-01-01

Here, we propose to apply a low dimensional manifold model to scientific data interpolation from regular and irregular samplings with a significant amount of missing information. The low dimensionality of the patch manifold for general scientific data sets has been used as a regularizer in a variational formulation. The problem is solved via alternating minimization with respect to the manifold and the data set, and the Laplace–Beltrami operator in the Euler–Lagrange equation is discretized using the weighted graph Laplacian. Various scientific data sets from different fields of study are used to illustrate the performance of the proposed algorithm on data compression and interpolation from both regular and irregular samplings.

Earth Science Informatics Community Requirements for Improving Sustainable Science Software Practices: User Perspectives and Implications for Organizational Action

Science.gov (United States)

Downs, R. R.; Lenhardt, W. C.; Robinson, E.

2014-12-01

Science software is integral to the scientific process and must be developed and managed in a sustainable manner to ensure future access to scientific data and related resources. Organizations that are part of the scientific enterprise, as well as members of the scientific community who work within these entities, can contribute to the sustainability of science software and to practices that improve scientific community capabilities for science software sustainability. As science becomes increasingly digital and therefore, dependent on software, improving community practices for sustainable science software will contribute to the sustainability of science. Members of the Earth science informatics community, including scientific data producers and distributers, end-user scientists, system and application developers, and data center managers, use science software regularly and face the challenges and the opportunities that science software presents for the sustainability of science. To gain insight on practices needed for the sustainability of science software from the science software experiences of the Earth science informatics community, an interdisciplinary group of 300 community members were asked to engage in simultaneous roundtable discussions and report on their answers to questions about the requirements for improving scientific software sustainability. This paper will present an analysis of the issues reported and the conclusions offered by the participants. These results provide perspectives for science software sustainability practices and have implications for actions that organizations and their leadership can initiate to improve the sustainability of science software.

2005 Annual Scientific Conference. Program and Abstracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barborica, Andrei; Bulinski, Mircea; Stefan, Sabina

2005-01-01

Every year the Physics Department of the University of Bucharest organizes the 'Annual Scientific Conference' to present the most interesting scientific results, obtained within the department. This scientific session is opened also to the interested physics researchers from other institutes and universities in the country. This scientific event represents a recognition and a continuation of the prestigious tradition of physics research performed within University. The scientific research in the Physics Department is performed in groups and research centers, the terminal year undergraduate students and graduate students being involved in a high extent in the research works. There are 5 research centers with the status of Center of excellence in research. The long-term strategy adopted by the faculty was focused on developing the scientific research in modern topics of theoretical, experimental and applied physics, as well as in inter-disciplinary fields as biophysics, medical physics, physics and protection of the environment, physics - computer science. Following this strategy, the Faculty of Physics has diversified the research activity, developing new research laboratories and encouraging the academic community to perform modern and competitive research projects. The Faculty of Physics is a partner in many common research programs with prestigious foreign universities and institutes. The 2005 session covered the following 8 topics: 1. Atmosphere and Earth Science; Environment Protection (21 papers); 2. Atomic and Molecular Physics; Astrophysics (12 papers); 3. Electricity and Biophysics (19 papers); 4. Nuclear and Elementary Particles Physics (17 papers); 5. Optics, Spectroscopy, Plasma and Lasers (19 papers); 6. Polymer Physics (10 papers); 7. Solid State Physics and Materials Science (10 papers); 8. Theoretical Physics and Applied Mathematics Seminar (12 papers)

The committee of scientific expertise coordination; Le comite de coordination d'expertise scientifique

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2003-07-01

Placed under the MIES control, the Committee of scientific expertise coordination defines the needs, the contain and the planing of expertises realized in function of Climate national and international decisions and negotiations calendars. The Committee verifies the different expertises and offers the administrations, scientific tools and techniques useful for the negotiations. It can also define long-dated research needs which require the scientific community mobilization. This paper provides some document of the Committee: objectives, operating and priorities of the Committee, scenarios ''Factor 4'' and ''crack technology'', perceptions and practices, developing countries (China, India...), Euromed. (A.L.B.)

Study of Scientific Problem-Solving Abilities Based on Scientific Knowledge about Atmosphere and Weather for Seventh Grade Students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Phoorin Thaengnoi

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The purposes of this research were: 1 to develop scientific problem-solving abilities test based on scientific knowledge about atmosphere and weather for seventh grade students and 2 to study the scientific problem-solving abilities of seventh grade students. The samples used in this study were 47 students who were studying in seventh grade in academic year 2015 of a school in Chai Nat province, Thailand. Purposive sampling was applied for identifying the samples. The research instrument of this study was the scientific problem-solving abilities test developed by the researcher. The research data was analyzed by comparing students’ scores with the criteria and considering students’ answers in each element of scientific problem-solving abilities. The results of the study were as follows: The scientific problem-solving abilities test composed of 2 parts. The first part was multiple-choice questions which was composed of 4 situations, a total of 20 questions. The Index of Item Objective Congruence of this part was varied in the range between 0.67 – 1.00. The difficulty and the discrimination level were in the range between 0.33 – 0.63 and 0.27 – 0.67, respectively. The reliability levels of this part was equal to 0.81. The second part of the test was subjective questions which composed of 2 situations, a total of 10 questions. The Index of Item Objective Congruence of this part was varied in the range between 0.67 – 1.00. The reliability level of this part was equal to 0.83. Besides, all questions in the test were covered all elements of scientific problem-solving abilities ; 1 identifying the problem 2 making the hypothesis 3 collecting data and knowledge to solve the problem 4 identifying problem-solving method and 5 predicting the characteristics of the results. The problem-solving abilities of the students revealed that 40.43% of students (n=19 were in a moderate level and 59.57% of students (n=28 were in a low level with the

Guidelines to Avoid Biocontamination of Antarctic Subglacial Aquatic Environments: Forward Contamination Concerns, Environmental Management and Scientific Stewardship of Icy analogue environments

Science.gov (United States)

Race, M. S.; Hobbie, J.; et al.

2007-12-01

For more than a decade, scientists and space mission planners have recognized the importance of collaborative information exchange with the Antarctic research community to address their many shared exploration challenges, from drilling methods, remote sample collection, and data interpretation, to concerns about cross contamination that could adversely impact both the environment and interpretation of scientific data. Another shared concern exists in the regulatory realm; both the Antarctic and outer space environments are subject to separate international treaties that impose regulatory controls and oversight with serious implications for exploration planning. In recent years, both communities have faced the need to adjust their regulatory controls in light of fast-paced advances in scientific understanding of extreme environments, particularly related to potential microbial life. Both communities have sought and received advice from the National Research Council (NRC) through studies that suggested ways to update their respective oversight and regulatory systems while allowing for continued scientific exploration. A recently completed NRC study "Exploration of Antarctic Subglacial Aquatic Environments: Environmental and Scientific Stewardship" provided a suite of recommendations to address1) 'cleanliness' levels necessary for equipment and devices used in exploration of subglacial aquatic environments, as well as 2) the scientific basis for contamination standards, and 3) the steps for defining an overall exploration strategy conducive to sound environmental management and scientific stewardship. This talk will present the findings of the recent multinational NRC study, which is likely to translate into useful information for analogue studies that proceed to test techniques and capabilities for exploring an Europan ocean, other icy celestial locations, and related science targets on Earth. As the science and exploration of subglacial environments grows beyond its

Novel Scientific Visualization Interfaces for Interactive Information Visualization and Sharing

Science.gov (United States)

Demir, I.; Krajewski, W. F.

2012-12-01

As geoscientists are confronted with increasingly massive datasets from environmental observations to simulations, one of the biggest challenges is having the right tools to gain scientific insight from the data and communicate the understanding to stakeholders. Recent developments in web technologies make it easy to manage, visualize and share large data sets with general public. Novel visualization techniques and dynamic user interfaces allow users to interact with data, and modify the parameters to create custom views of the data to gain insight from simulations and environmental observations. This requires developing new data models and intelligent knowledge discovery techniques to explore and extract information from complex computational simulations or large data repositories. Scientific visualization will be an increasingly important component to build comprehensive environmental information platforms. This presentation provides an overview of the trends and challenges in the field of scientific visualization, and demonstrates information visualization and communication tools in the Iowa Flood Information System (IFIS), developed within the light of these challenges. The IFIS is a web-based platform developed by the Iowa Flood Center (IFC) to provide access to and visualization of flood inundation maps, real-time flood conditions, flood forecasts both short-term and seasonal, and other flood-related data for communities in Iowa. The key element of the system's architecture is the notion of community. Locations of the communities, those near streams and rivers, define basin boundaries. The IFIS provides community-centric watershed and river characteristics, weather (rainfall) conditions, and streamflow data and visualization tools. Interactive interfaces allow access to inundation maps for different stage and return period values, and flooding scenarios with contributions from multiple rivers. Real-time and historical data of water levels, gauge heights, and

Golden rice: scientific, regulatory and public information processes of a genetically modified organism.

Science.gov (United States)

Moghissi, A Alan; Pei, Shiqian; Liu, Yinzuo

2016-01-01

Historically, agricultural development evolved in three phases. During the first phase the plants were selected on the basis of the availability of a plant with desirable properties at a specific location. The second phase provided the agricultural community with crossbreeding plants to achieve improvement in agricultural production. The evolution of biological knowledge has provided the ability to genetically engineer (GE) crops, one of the key processes within genetically modified organisms (GMO). This article uses golden rice, a species of transgenic Asian rice which contains a precursor of vitamin A in the edible part of the plant as an example of GE/GMO emphasizing Chinese experience in agricultural evolution. It includes a brief review of agricultural evolution to be followed by a description of golden rice development. Golden rice was created as a humanitarian project and has received positive comments by the scientific community and negative voices from certain environmental groups. In this article, we use the Best Available Science (BAS) Concept and Metrics for Evaluation of Scientific Claims (MESC) derived from it to evaluate claims and counter claims on scientific aspects of golden rice. This article concludes that opposition to golden rice is based on belief rather than any of its scientifically derived nutritional, safety or environmental properties.

President's message: We must remain committed to scientific integrity

Science.gov (United States)

McPhaden, Michael

2012-02-01

During the third week of February our global community of Earth and space scientists witnessed the shocking fall from grace of an accomplished AGU member who betrayed the principles of scientific integrity. In doing so he compromised AGU's credibility as a scientific society, weakened the public's trust in scientists, and produced fresh fuel for the unproductive and seemingly endless ideological firestorm surrounding the reality of the Earth's changing climate. Peter Gleick resigned as chair of AGU's Task Force on Scientific Ethics on 16 February, prior to admitting in a blog post that he obtained documents from the Heartland Institute under false pretenses. His transgression cannot be condoned, regardless of his motives. It is a tragedy that requires us to stop and reflect on what we value as scientists and how we want to be perceived by the public. Here are a few things that come immediately to mind:

An Analysis of the Supports and Constraints for Scientific Discussion in High School Project-Based Science

Science.gov (United States)

Alozie, Nonye M.; Moje, Elizabeth Birr; Krajcik, Joseph S.

2010-01-01

One goal of project-based science is to promote the development of scientific discourse communities in classrooms. Holding rich high school scientific discussions is challenging, especially when the demands of content and norms of high school science pose challenges to their enactment. There is little research on how high school teachers enact…

Translating Scientific Conclusions about Risk for Public Audiences

Science.gov (United States)

Bowman, T. E.

2009-12-01

Climate change has been aptly described as a problem of risk management, yet the scientific community has not been successful in helping the public engage in risk management effectively. Behavioral science studies demonstrate that, while the public generally accepts the reality of anthropogenic climate change today, the immanence of impacts and scale of risk and opportunities for effective mitigation are poorly understood. Helping the public overcome these misperceptions and engage in decision-making about climate risks is, perhaps, the climate communication community’s most urgent priority. Scientific writing and graphic conventions are poorly suited for communicating with non-scientists. Using examples from the IPCC 4th Assessment, this session will demonstrate how specific conventions in science writing and graph making have obscured critical information about climate risks. The session will further demonstrate how reformatting the graphical information can create an exceptionally clear picture of where humanity stands and the implications of various emissions pathways for the future. Attendees will appreciate how presentations of science results can be tailored to answer the public’s questions more effectively by highlighting useful information in accurate, yet accessible ways. Decision-makers and the public urgently need information about climate impact risks and the consequences of various emissions pathways. Yet written and graphic descriptions from the IPCC and other assessment agencies burden non-scientists with multiple temperature baselines (e.g., pre-Industrial, mid-20th century, late 20th century, today), two confusingly similar measures for the key human contribution to atmospheric composition (CO2 and CO2-eq), and multiple ways of describing probability and certainty. The public is further confounded by inconsistent graphic conventions in scientific figures, including inconsistent color-coding, labeling, axis orientation, and treatment of

Building Scientific Data's list of recommended data repositories

Science.gov (United States)

Hufton, A. L.; Khodiyar, V.; Hrynaszkiewicz, I.

2016-12-01

When Scientific Data launched in 2014 we provided our authors with a list of recommended data repositories to help them identify data hosting options that were likely to meet the journal's requirements. This list has grown in size and scope, and is now a central resource for authors across the Nature-titled journals. It has also been used in the development of data deposition policies and recommended repository lists across Springer Nature and at other publishers. Each new addition to the list is assessed according to a series of criteria that emphasize the stability of the resource, its commitment to principles of open science and its implementation of relevant community standards and reporting guidelines. A preference is expressed for repositories that issue digital object identifiers (DOIs) through the DataCite system and that share data under the Creative Commons CC0 waiver. Scientific Data currently lists fourteen repositories that focus on specific areas within the Earth and environmental sciences, as well as the broad scope repositories, Dryad and figshare. Readers can browse and filter datasets published at the journal by the host repository using ISA-explorer, a demo tool built by the ISA-tools team at Oxford University1. We believe that well-maintained lists like this one help publishers build a network of trust with community data repositories and provide an important complement to more comprehensive data repository indices and more formal certification efforts. In parallel, Scientific Data has also improved its policies to better support submissions from authors using institutional and project-specific repositories, without requiring each to apply for listing individually. Online resources Journal homepage: http://www.nature.com/scientificdata Data repository criteria: http://www.nature.com/sdata/policies/data-policies#repo-criteria Recommended data repositories: http://www.nature.com/sdata/policies/repositories Archived copies of the list: https

Community Economics

OpenAIRE

武藤, 宣道; Nobumichi, MUTOH

2000-01-01

This paper examines the new field of community economics with respect to Japan. A number of studies in community economics have already been produced in OECD countries including the United States. Although these are of great interest, each country has its own historical, socioeconomic context and must therefore develop its own approach to community economics. Community-oriented economics is neither macro-nor micro-economics in the standard economics textbook sense. Most community economics st...

Scientific instruments, scientific progress and the cyclotron

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baird, David; Faust, Thomas

1990-01-01

Philosophers speak of science in terms of theory and experiment, yet when they speak of the progress of scientific knowledge they speak in terms of theory alone. In this article it is claimed that scientific knowledge consists of, among other things, scientific instruments and instrumental techniques and not simply of some kind of justified beliefs. It is argued that one aspect of scientific progress can be characterized relatively straightforwardly - the accumulation of new scientific instruments. The development of the cyclotron is taken to illustrate this point. Eight different activities which promoted the successful completion of the cyclotron are recognised. The importance is in the machine rather than the experiments which could be run on it and the focus is on how the cyclotron came into being, not how it was subsequently used. The completed instrument is seen as a useful unit of scientific progress in its own right. (UK)

Report for the Office of Scientific and Technical Information: Population Modeling of the Emergence and Development of Scientific Fields

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bettencourt, L. M. A. (LANL); Castillo-Chavez, C. (Arizona State University); Kaiser, D. (MIT); Wojick, D. E. (IIA)

2006-10-04

The accelerated development of digital libraries and archives, in tandem with efficient search engines and the computational ability to retrieve and parse massive amounts of information, are making it possible to quantify the time evolution of scientific literatures. These data are but one piece of the tangible recorded evidence of the processes whereby scientists create and exchange information in their journeys towards the generation of knowledge. As such, these tools provide a proxy with which to study our ability to innovate. Innovation has often been linked with prosperity and growth and, consequently, trying to understand what drives scientific innovation is of extreme interest. Identifying sets of population characteristics, factors, and mechanisms that enable scientific communities to remain at the cutting edge, accelerate their growth, or increase their ability to re-organize around new themes or research topics is therefore of special significance. Yet generating a quantitative understanding of the factors that make scientific fields arise and/or become more or less productive is still in its infancy. This is precisely the type of knowledge most needed for promoting and sustaining innovation. Ideally, the efficient and strategic allocation of resources on the part of funding agencies and corporations would be driven primarily by knowledge of this type. Early steps have been taken toward such a quantitative understanding of scientific innovation. Some have focused on characterizing the broad properties of relevant time series, such as numbers of publications and authors in a given field. Others have focused on the structure and evolution of networks of coauthorship and citation. Together these types of studies provide much needed statistical analyses of the structure and evolution of scientific communities. Despite these efforts, however, crucial elements of prediction have remained elusive. Building on many of these earlier insights, we provide here a

Linking Climate Change Science and Adaptation Policy at the Community Scale through Anticipatory Governance: A Review of Concepts with Application to Arizona Communities (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

White, D. D.; Quay, R.; Ferguson, D. B.; Buizer, J. L.; Guido, Z.; Chhetri, N.

2013-12-01

Scientific consensus and certainty varies regarding the link between climate change, specific natural hazards and extreme events, and local and regional impacts. Despite these uncertainties, it is necessary to apply the best available scientific knowledge to anticipate a range of possible futures, develop mitigation and adaptation strategies, and monitor changes to build resilience. While there is widespread recognition of the need to improve the linkages between climate science information and public policy for adaptation at the community scale, there are significant challenges to this goal. Many community outreach and engagement efforts, for instance, operate using a one-size-fits-all approach. Recent research has shown this to be problematic for local governments. Public policy occurs in a cycle that includes problem understanding, planning and policy approval, and implementation, with ongoing policy refinement through multiple such cycles. One promising approach to incorporating scientific knowledge with uncertainty into public policy is an anticipatory governance approach. Anticipatory governance employs a continual cycle of anticipation (understanding), planning, monitoring, and adaptation (policy choice and implementation). The types of information needed in each of these phases will be different given the nature of each activity and the unique needs of each community. It is highly unlikely that all local governments will be in the same phase of climate adaptation with the same unique needs at the same time and thus a uniform approach to providing scientific information will only be effective for a discrete group of communities at any given point in time. A key concept for the effective integration of scientific information into public discourse is that such information must be salient, credible, and legitimate. Assuming a scientific institution has established credibility with engaged communities, maximizing the effectiveness of climate science requires

Analysis of psychosocial factors influencing the distribution and projection of Spanish scientific activity: report of the initial qualitative study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

GESCIT (Grup d'Estudis Socials de la Ciència i la Tecnologia

2007-11-01

Full Text Available In this first phase of a longer study, we identify a number of psycho-social factors which are affecting science in Spain: attitudes, stereotypes, prejudices, values, beliefs, and attribution processes. We also examine how these factors might help or hinder Spanish science's greater impact in the international scientific community. This study falls within the framework of the Social Psychology of Science, the main principle of which is to explain scientific work by appeal to psycho-social variables and processes. We use qualitative methods to analyse a wide sample of material gleaned from the Spanish scientific community, and report on those elements that construct and perpetuate the perceptions, images and representations of current Spanish science research.

A social work study on the impact of different factors on respect to women

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hajar Jannesari

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Quality of life plays an important role on people's life style and there are many studies to determine important factors influencing it. In this paper, we study the effect of different factors influencing respect for women including upbringing children, strengthening families, participation and community involvement, women's talent political participation increase, women's confidence in accepting responsibility and consent of the docility of marriage. The proposed study of this paper selects a sample from all female students who are enrolled in educational studies in Shiraz university, Iran and using Pearson correlation test, we measure the relationship between seven mentioned items with respect for women. The results indicate that except one case, participation and community involvement, all other factors significantly increase respect for women.DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2012.10.031Keywords: Quality of life, Women's confidence, Respect for women, Women's talent, Political participation

FY 1991 scientific and technical reports, articles, papers, and presentations

Science.gov (United States)

Turner, Joyce E. (Compiler)

1991-01-01

Formal NASA technical reports, papers published in technical journals, and presentations by MSFC personnel in FY 1991 are presented. Papers of MSFC contractors are also included. The information in this report may be of value to the scientific and engineering community in determining what information has been published and what is available.

Ranking Institutional Settings Based on Publications in Community Psychology Journals

Science.gov (United States)

Jason, Leonard A.; Pokorny, Steven B.; Patka, Mazna; Adams, Monica; Morello, Taylor

2007-01-01

Two primary outlets for community psychology research, the "American Journal of Community Psychology" and the "Journal of Community Psychology", were assessed to rank institutions based on publication frequency and scientific influence of publications over a 32-year period. Three specific periods were assessed (1973-1983, 1984-1994, 1995-2004).…

Successful Community-Based Conservation: The Story of Millbank and Pterourus (Papilio) homerus.

Science.gov (United States)

Garraway, Eric; Parnell, John; Lewis, Delano S

2017-07-14

The literature on community-based environmental management is very extensive and the discussion of the pros and cons is continuing. Presented here is an example of a successful interaction between university-based entomologists and a local rural community, detailing the change in the attitude of the town of Millbank, Jamaica, from a Giant Swallowtail Butterfly collecting site to a model for community protection of a species and its environment. A review of some of the research work on community-based conservation efforts is included. These linkages take a considerable time to establish and the efforts spent by scientific personnel, governmental representatives and eco-tourists are itemized to emphasize how specific conservation activities have inspired confidence in the local community, thus engendering trust and mutual respect between the two groups. Reviews of the developed legislative support from both international and state entities also must be in place, and these are included in chronological detail as much as possible. Finally, a review of the long-term funding of educational and other local programs providing a level of stability to the conservation effort, until the local community can take over the protection of the species and/or habitat, is provided. Of utmost importance is a comprehensive educational campaign to not only sensitize the community, but the larger society, so that there can be buy-in from all stakeholders.

Verified scientific findings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bullinger, M.G.

1982-01-01

In this essay, the author attempts to enlighten the reader as to the meaning of the term ''verified scientific findings'' in section 13, sub-section 1, sentence 2 of the new Chemicals Control Law. The examples given here are the generally accepted regulations in regards to technology (that is sections 7a and 18b of the WHG (law on water economy), section 3, sub-section 1 of the machine- and engine protection laws) and to the status of technology (section 3, sub-section 6 of the BImSchG (Fed. law on prevention of air-borne pollution)), and to the status of science (section 5, sub-section 2 of the AMG (drug legislation). The ''status of science and technology'' as defined in sections 4 ff of the Atomic Energy Law (AtomG) and in sections 3, 4, 12, 2) of the First Radiation Protection Ordinance (1.StrlSch. VO), is also being discussed. The author defines the in his opinion ''dynamic term'' as the generally recognized result of scientific research, and the respective possibilities of practical utilization of technology. (orig.) [de

2006 XSD Scientific Software Workshop report.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Evans, K., Jr.; De Carlo, F.; Jemian, P.; Lang, J.; Lienert, U.; Maclean, J.; Newville, M.; Tieman, B.; Toby, B.; van Veenendaal, B.; Univ. of Chicago

2006-01-22

In May of 2006, a committee was formed to assess the fundamental needs and opportunities in scientific software for x-ray data reduction, analysis, modeling, and simulation. This committee held a series of discussions throughout the summer, conducted a poll of the members of the x-ray community, and held a workshop. This report details the findings and recommendations of the committee. Each experiment performed at the APS requires three crucial ingredients: the powerful x-ray source, an optimized instrument to perform measurements, and computer software to acquire, visualize, and analyze the experimental observations. While the APS has invested significant resources in the accelerator, investment in other areas such as scientific software for data analysis and visualization has lagged behind. This has led to the adoption of a wide variety of software with variable levels of usability. In order to maximize the scientific output of the APS, it is essential to support the broad development of real-time analysis and data visualization software. As scientists attack problems of increasing sophistication and deal with larger and more complex data sets, software is playing an ever more important role. Furthermore, our need for excellent and flexible scientific software can only be expected to increase, as the upgrade of the APS facility and the implementation of advanced detectors create a host of new measurement capabilities. New software analysis tools must be developed to take full advantage of these capabilities. It is critical that the APS take the lead in software development and the implementation of theory to software to ensure the continued success of this facility. The topics described in this report are relevant to the APS today and critical for the APS upgrade plan. Implementing these recommendations will have a positive impact on the scientific productivity of the APS today and will be even more critical in the future.

Environmental risk, precaution, and scientific rationality in the context of WTO/NAFTA trade rules.

Science.gov (United States)

Crawford-Brown, Douglas; Pauwelyn, Joost; Smith, Kelly

2004-04-01

This article considers the role of scientific rationality in understanding statements of risk produced by a scientific community. An argument is advanced that, while scientific rationality does impose constraints on valid scientific justifications for restrictions on products and practices, it also provides flexibility in the judgments needed to both develop and apply characterizations of risk. The implications of this flexibility for the understanding of risk estimates in WTO and NAFTA deliberations are explored, with the goal of finding an intermediate ground between the view that science unambiguously justifies or rejects a policy, and the view that science is yet another cultural tool that can be manipulated in support of any decision. The result is a proposal for a dialogical view of scientific rationality in which risk estimates are depicted as confidence distributions that follow from a structured dialogue of scientific panels focused on judgments of evidence, evidential reasoning, and epistemic analysis.

Funding food science and nutrition research: financial conflicts and scientific integrity.

Science.gov (United States)

Rowe, Sylvia; Alexander, Nick; Clydesdale, Fergus; Applebaum, Rhona; Atkinson, Stephanie; Black, Richard; Dwyer, Johanna; Hentges, Eric; Higley, Nancy; Lefevre, Michael; Lupton, Joanne; Miller, Sanford; Tancredi, Doris; Weaver, Connie; Woteki, Catherine; Wedral, Elaine

2009-05-01

There has been significant public debate about the susceptibility of research to biases of various kinds. The dialogue has extended to the peer-reviewed literature, scientific conferences, the mass media, government advisory bodies, and beyond. While biases can come from myriad sources, the overwhelming focus of the discussion, to date, has been on industry-funded science. Given the critical role that industry has played and will continue to play in the research process, the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) North America Working Group on Guiding Principles has, in this paper, set out proposed conflict-of-interest guidelines, regarding industry funding, for protecting the integrity and credibility of the scientific record, particularly with respect to health, nutrition, and food-safety science. Eight principles are enumerated, specifying ground rules for industry-sponsored research. The paper, which issues a challenge to the broader scientific community to address all bias issues, is only a first step; the document is intended to be dynamic, prompting ongoing discussion and refinement. The Guiding Principles are as follows. In the conduct of public/private research relationships, all relevant parties shall: 1) conduct or sponsor research that is factual, transparent, and designed objectively; according to accepted principles of scientific inquiry, the research design will generate an appropriately phrased hypothesis and the research will answer the appropriate questions, rather than favor a particular outcome; 2) require control of both study design and research itself to remain with scientific investigators; 3) not offer or accept remuneration geared to the outcome of a research project; 4) prior to the commencement of studies, ensure that there is a written agreement that the investigative team has the freedom and obligation to attempt to publish the findings within some specified time-frame; 5) require, in publications and conference presentations

Funding food science and nutrition research: financial conflicts and scientific integrity.

Science.gov (United States)

Rowe, Sylvia; Alexander, Nick; Clydesdale, Fergus M; Applebaum, Rhona S; Atkinson, Stephanie; Black, Richard M; Dwyer, Johanna T; Hentges, Eric; Higley, Nancy A; Lefevre, Michael; Lupton, Joanne R; Miller, Sanford A; Tancredi, Doris L; Weaver, Connie M; Woteki, Catherine E; Wedral, Elaine

2009-05-01

There has been significant public debate about the susceptibility of research to biases of various kinds. The dialogue has extended to the peer-reviewed literature, scientific conferences, the mass media, government advisory bodies, and beyond. Whereas biases can come from myriad sources, the overwhelming focus of the discussion to date has been on industry-funded science. Given the critical role that industry has played and will continue to play in the research process, the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) North America Working Group on Guiding Principles has, in this article, proposed conflict-of-interest guidelines regarding industry funding to protect the integrity and credibility of the scientific record, particularly with respect to health, nutrition, and food-safety science. Eight principles are enumerated, which specify the ground rules for industry-sponsored research. This article, which issues a challenge to the broader scientific community to address all bias issues, is only a first step; the document is intended to be dynamic, prompting ongoing discussion and refinement. In the conduct of public/private research relationships, all relevant parties shall 1) conduct or sponsor research that is factual, transparent, and designed objectively, and, according to accepted principles of scientific inquiry, the research design will generate an appropriately phrased hypothesis and the research will answer the appropriate questions, rather than favor a particular outcome; 2) require control of both study design and research itself to remain with scientific investigators; 3) not offer or accept remuneration geared to the outcome of a research project; 4) ensure, before the commencement of studies, that there is a written agreement that the investigative team has the freedom and obligation to attempt to publish the findings within some specified time frame; 5) require, in publications and conference presentations, full signed disclosure of all financial

RESPECT

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Teyeb, Oumer; Boussif, Malek; Sørensen, Troels Bundgaard

2005-01-01

the performance from an end-2-end (E2E), user-perceived Quality Of Service (QoS) point of view. In this paper, the design and implementation of RESPECT, an easily configurable network emulator is described. RESPECT was originally geared towards Universal Mobile Communications System (UMTS) networks, but thanks...... to its modular and scalable design, it is being extended for generic heterogeneous networks. Using RESPECT, QoS studies can be carried out to study the behavior of different services in different network conditions, identify generalized service dependent performance metrics for already existing services...

This presentation will discuss how PLOS ONE collaborates with many different scientific communities to help create, share, and preserve the scholarly works produced by their researchers with emphasis on current common difficulties faced by communities, practical solutions, and a broader view of the importance of open data and reproducibility.

Science.gov (United States)

Kroffe, K.

2017-12-01

The mission of the Public Library of Science is to accelerate progress in science and medicine by leading a transformation in research communication. Researchers' ability to share their work without restriction is essential, but critical to sharing is open data, transparency in peer review, and an open approach to science assessment. In this session, we will discuss how PLOS ONE collaborates with many different scientific communities to help create, share, and preserve the scholarly works produced by their researchers with emphasis on current common difficulties faced by communities, practical solutions, and a broader view of the importance of open data and reproducibility.

Scholarly literature and the press: scientific impact and social perception of physics computing

CERN Document Server

Pia, Maria Grazia; Bell, Zane W; Dressendorfer, Paul V

2014-01-01

The broad coverage of the search for the Higgs boson in the mainstream media is a relative novelty for high energy physics (HEP) research, whose achievements have traditionally been limited to scholarly literature. This paper illustrates the results of a scientometric analysis of HEP computing in scientific literature, institutional media and the press, and a comparative overview of similar metrics concerning representative particle physics measurements. The picture emerging from these scientometric data documents the scientific impact and social perception of HEP computing. The results of this analysis suggest that improved communication of the scientific and social role of HEP computing would be beneficial to the high energy physics community.

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

Science.gov (United States)

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

2015-12-01

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

The importance of scientific papers publication: An approach to Animal Science Area

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bruno do Amaral Crispim

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The scientific production, among the various university activities, deserve outstanding importance because it is through them that the knowledge produced in the university is diffused and democratized to the community/society. Thus, information and/or alternatives for many problems solution are raised, discussed and put into practice within the university that are to be used as future basis for the integrated and sustainable development of a community or region. Scientific writing is also the mirror of teacher and student performance in the inseparable activities of teaching, research and extension, translating the institutional force of own production. Increasingly, academic institutions understand the importance of their scientific production. And to the same disclosure is necessary to practice the scientific writing, which enables academic growth, professional development and growing within a institution. The activities in research fulfill the basic function of the University, such as knowledge generating institution, to meet the everyday demands of the society. According to the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC in 2013, Brazil is responsible for 2,7% of world scientific output, but still occupies the 58th place among the most innovative countries in the world. Demonstrating that we must strive so we can achieve the best places in the world rankings for the production of knowledge and Science The scientific production in the field of Animal Science is of great importance for improvement in logistics, efficiency and quality of local animal production. Based on this, research related to the area provide meaningful informations to management and production, genetic characterization of native and exotic breeds, thereby contributing significantly to increase production efficiency to farmers. Therefore, scientific production within the academic environment is essential and the existence of efficient dissemination teams so that

Accelerating scientific discovery : 2007 annual report.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Beckman, P.; Dave, P.; Drugan, C.

2008-11-14

As a gateway for scientific discovery, the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) works hand in hand with the world's best computational scientists to advance research in a diverse span of scientific domains, ranging from chemistry, applied mathematics, and materials science to engineering physics and life sciences. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science, researchers are using the IBM Blue Gene/L supercomputer at the ALCF to study and explore key scientific problems that underlie important challenges facing our society. For instance, a research team at the University of California-San Diego/ SDSC is studying the molecular basis of Parkinson's disease. The researchers plan to use the knowledge they gain to discover new drugs to treat the disease and to identify risk factors for other diseases that are equally prevalent. Likewise, scientists from Pratt & Whitney are using the Blue Gene to understand the complex processes within aircraft engines. Expanding our understanding of jet engine combustors is the secret to improved fuel efficiency and reduced emissions. Lessons learned from the scientific simulations of jet engine combustors have already led Pratt & Whitney to newer designs with unprecedented reductions in emissions, noise, and cost of ownership. ALCF staff members provide in-depth expertise and assistance to those using the Blue Gene/L and optimizing user applications. Both the Catalyst and Applications Performance Engineering and Data Analytics (APEDA) teams support the users projects. In addition to working with scientists running experiments on the Blue Gene/L, we have become a nexus for the broader global community. In partnership with the Mathematics and Computer Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory, we have created an environment where the world's most challenging computational science problems can be addressed. Our expertise in high-end scientific computing enables us to provide

FY 2002 Scientific and Technical Reports, Articles, Papers, and Presentations

Science.gov (United States)

Fowler, B. A. (Compiler)

2003-01-01

This Technical Memorandum (TM) presents formal NASA technical reports, papers published in technical journals, and presentations by MSFC personnel in FY 2002. It also includes papers of MSFC contractors. The information in this TM may be of value to the scientific and engineering community in determining what information has been published and what is available.

Scientific entrepreneurship in the materials and life science industries.

Science.gov (United States)

Dinglasan, Jose Amado; Anderson, Darren J; Thomas, Keith

2011-01-01

Scientists constantly generate great ideas in the laboratory and, as most of us were meant to believe, we should publish or perish. After all, what use is a great scientific idea if it is not shared with the rest of the scientific community? What some scientists forget is that a good idea can be worth something - sometimes it can be worth a lot (of money)! What do you do if you believe that your idea has some commercial potential? How do you turn this idea into a business? This chapter gives the aspiring scientific entrepreneur some (hopefully) valuable advice on topics like choosing the right people for your management team, determining inventorship of the technology and ownership shares in the new company, protecting your intellectual property, and others; finally, it describes some of the various pitfalls you may encounter when commercializing an early stage technology and instructions on how to avoid them.

The iSchool Community

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bogers, Toine; Greifeneder, Elke

2016-01-01

the reviewer pool more representative of the iSchool community as a whole by including more women and more researchers from Asian institutions. Other recommendations are to improve the continuity of the reviewer pool and to provide clearer instructions to reviewers to ensure that written reviews explicitly...... cover all the aspects represented by the review scores. The results of our study provide the iSchool community with a descriptive analysis of its community and a better understanding of its review process.......A fair review process is essential to the success of any scientific conference. In this paper we present an analysis of the reviewing process of the 2014-2015 iConferences as well as a demographic analysis of the iConference community as a whole. The results show a clear need for making...

Ties between Center and Periphery in the Scientific World-System: Accumulation of Rewards, Dominance and Self-Reliance in the Center

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas Schott

2015-08-01

Full Text Available This study accounts for the organization of scientific research in networks of socio-intellectual tices that bind scientists into a community cultivating the scientific tradition. During the twentieth century the scientific community has become incrcasingly global both in the sense that its membership has spread world-widely and in the sense that its long-distance ties have intensified. The globalization of the community and its ties has been promoted by widely institutionalized arrangements, especially through the world's adoption of and belief in several scientific tenets: the universal validity of scientific knowledge, the ownership principle that knowledge should be the common property of humankind, and the political principle of granting autonomy to scientists for forming ties. The community and its network of ties form a hierarchy with centers attracting ties from peripheries. During the twentieth century the main center has shifted from Western Europe to North America while Eastern Europe has become less central, East Asia has become a bit central, and other regions have remained peripheral. A center attracts students from around the world for education, attracts scientists for conferences and visits, attracts deference from scientists throughout the world, exerts pervasive influence, is widely emulated, and is a desired source of recognition . In the global networks of ties, specifically of deference, influence, emulation and desire for recognition, there is an accumulation in the center of ties, both from within the center as an enhanced self-reliance and from the periphery as an enhanced centrality, exceeding the research performance at the center.

Scientific Skills and Processes in Curriculum Resources

Science.gov (United States)

Kremer, Joe

2017-11-01

Increasingly, the science education community has recognized the need for curriculum resources that support student development of authentic scientific practices, rather than focusing exclusively on content knowledge. This paper proposes a tool for teachers and researchers to assess the degree to which certain curriculum resources and lessons achieve this goal. After describing a method for reflecting on and categorizing curriculum resources, I apply the method to highlight differences across three teaching methods: Modeling Instruction, Physics Union Mathematics, and a traditional, lecture-based approach.

SALTON SEA SCIENTIFIC DRILLING PROJECT: SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM.

Science.gov (United States)

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

1986-01-01

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

Joseph Henry's Conception of Scientific Knowledge

Science.gov (United States)

Theerman, Paul

1997-04-01

Joseph Henry, America's premier physicist and physics teacher in the mid-nineteenth century, had decided views of scientific knowledge. These were expressed in two ways. First of all, scientific knowledge led to moral betterment. Thus the study of science was a morally good thing. This was not only because it led to the contemplation of God's creation, which was a standard reason justifying the study of science dating from the Scientific Revolution and even earlier. More importantly, the study of science itself was a moral discipline, imparting to scientists the habits and virtues of truthfulness, respect for others, care and diligence, and the discernment of meaningful patterns from experience. The moral ideals of science were expressed most strongly in Henry's upholding the international "Republic of Science"; conversely, cheapening science was a sign of moral failure. Second, for Henry and his generation, science provided a path to sure truth, separate from falsehood of both the politics and the quackery that characterized mid-century public life. Henry promoted this in his championing of the Smithsonian Institution a scientific establishment, against the ideas of others who wanted to make it a literary establishment or a training school for teachers. For Henry, the Smithsonian's scientific reputation would be established by relying on careful peer review in its publications, and supporting established scientists to write authoritative popular works. The purpose of both these activities was to raise the profile of science in the United States and further establish science and the scientific method as a guide to public life.

[Scientific reductionism and social control of mind. Part II].

Science.gov (United States)

Viniegra Velázquez, Leonardo

In the second part of this essay, the progressive subordination of scientific endeavor and knowledge of business and profit is pointed out. For instance, the way facts are prioritized over concepts and ideas in scientific knowledge can translate into technological innovation, central to enterprise competitiveness and key to social mechanisms of control (military, cybernetic, ideological). Overcoming the scientific reductionism approach indicates recognizing the need to define progress in another way, one that infuses scientific knowledge with real liberating and inquisitive power. Power is essential in the search for a more collaborative, inclusive and pluralistic society where respect for human dignity and care for the ecosystem that we live in are prioritized. Copyright © 2014 Hospital Infantil de México Federico Gómez. Publicado por Masson Doyma México S.A. All rights reserved.

Building a local community of practice in scientific programming for Life Scientists

OpenAIRE

Stevens, Sarah; Kuzak, Mateusz; Martinez, Carlos; Moser, Aurelia; Bleeker, Petra; Galland, Marc

2018-01-01

For most experimental biologists, handling the avalanche of data generated is similar to self-learn how to drive. Although that might be doable, it is preferable and safer to learn good practices. One way to achieve this is to build local communities of practice by bringing together scientists that perform code-intensive research to spread know-how and good practices. Here, we indicate important challenges and issues that stand in the way of establishing these local communities of practice. F...

Profile and scientific production of Brazilian National Council of Technological and Scientific Development researchers in Pediatrics.

Science.gov (United States)

Oliveira, Maria Christina L; Martelli, Daniella Reis B; Pinheiro, Sergio Veloso; Miranda, Debora Marques; Quirino, Isabel Gomes; Leite, Barbara Gusmão L; Colosimo, Enrico Antonio; e Silva, Ana Cristina S; Martelli-Júnior, Hercílio; Oliveira, Eduardo Araujo

2013-09-01

To evaluate the profile and the scientific production of researchers in Pediatrics with scholarship from the National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development. The Lattes curricula of 34 researchers in Pediatrics with active scholarships, from 2006 to 2008 were included in the analysis. The variables of interest were: gender, affiliation, time since PHD, tutoring of undergraduate students, mentorship of masters and doctors, scientific production and the papers' impact. In a total of 411 researchers in Medicine, 34 (8%) belonged to Pediatrics. Males (77%) and scholars in the category 2 of productivity (62%) prevailed. Three states of Brazil were responsible for approximately 90% of the researchers: São Paulo (53%), Minas Gerais (21%), and Rio Grande do Sul (15%). During their academic career, the Pediatrics researchers have published 3,122 articles with a median of 89 articles per researcher (interquartile range - IQ=51-119). Of the total, 40 and 59% articles were indexed in the Web of Science and Scopus databases, respectively. The Pediatrics researchers have published papers in 599 journals with a median impact factor of 2.35 (IQ=1.37-3.73) for the 323 indexed journals. The Pediatrics researchers have a relevant scientific output from the quantity point of the view, but there is a need to improve quality.

Soccer science and the Bayes community: exploring the cognitive implications of modern scientific communication.

Science.gov (United States)

Shrager, Jeff; Billman, Dorrit; Convertino, Gregorio; Massar, J P; Pirolli, Peter

2010-01-01

Science is a form of distributed analysis involving both individual work that produces new knowledge and collaborative work to exchange information with the larger community. There are many particular ways in which individual and community can interact in science, and it is difficult to assess how efficient these are, and what the best way might be to support them. This paper reports on a series of experiments in this area and a prototype implementation using a research platform called CACHE. CACHE both supports experimentation with different structures of interaction between individual and community cognition and serves as a prototype for computational support for those structures. We particularly focus on CACHE-BC, the Bayes community version of CACHE, within which the community can break up analytical tasks into "mind-sized" units and use provenance tracking to keep track of the relationship between these units. Copyright © 2009 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

FY 2005 Scientific and Technical Reports, Articles, Papers, and Presentations

Science.gov (United States)

Narmore, K. A. (Compiler)

2007-01-01

This Technical Memorandum (TM) presents formal NASA technical reports, papers published in technical journals, and presentations by Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) personnel in FY 2005. It also includes papers of MSFC contractors. The information in this TM may be of value to the scientific and engineering community in determining what information has been published and what is available.

FY 1994 scientific and technical reports, articles, papers, and presentations

Science.gov (United States)

Turner, Joyce E. (Compiler)

1994-01-01

This document presents formal NASA technical reports, papers published in technical journals, and presentations by Marshall Space Flight Center personnel in FY94. It also includes papers of MSFC contractors and author indexes. The information in this report may be of value to the scientific and engineering community in determining what information has been published and what is available.

Respectful Modeling: Addressing Uncertainty in Dynamic System Models for Molecular Biology.

Science.gov (United States)

Tsigkinopoulou, Areti; Baker, Syed Murtuza; Breitling, Rainer

2017-06-01

Although there is still some skepticism in the biological community regarding the value and significance of quantitative computational modeling, important steps are continually being taken to enhance its accessibility and predictive power. We view these developments as essential components of an emerging 'respectful modeling' framework which has two key aims: (i) respecting the models themselves and facilitating the reproduction and update of modeling results by other scientists, and (ii) respecting the predictions of the models and rigorously quantifying the confidence associated with the modeling results. This respectful attitude will guide the design of higher-quality models and facilitate the use of models in modern applications such as engineering and manipulating microbial metabolism by synthetic biology. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

Science.gov (United States)

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

2014-10-01

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

Fusion Energy: Contextual Analysis of the Information Panels Developed by the Scientific Community versus Citizen Discourse

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ferri Anglada, S.; Cornejo Alvarez, J. M.

2014-01-01

The report presents an exploratory study on the impact of scientific dissemination, particularly a comparative analysis of two discourses on fusion energy as an alternative energy future. The report introduces a comparative analysis of the institutional discourse, as portrayed by the scientific jargon used in a European travelling exhibition on nuclear fusion Fusion Expo, and the social discourse, as illustrated by a citizen deliberation on this very same exhibition. Through textual analysis, the scientific discourse as deployed in the informative panels at the Fusion Expo is compared with the citizen discourse as developed in the discussions within the citizen groups. The ConText software was applied for such analysis. The purpose is to analyze how visitors assimilate, capture and understand highly technical information. Results suggest that, in despite of convergence points, the two discourses present certain differences, showing diverse levels of communication. The scientific discourse shows a great profusion of formalisms and technicalities of scientific jargon. The citizen discourse shows abundance of words associated with daily life and the more practical aspects (economy, efficiency), concerning institutional and evaluative references. In sum, the study shows that although there are a few common communicative spaces, there are still very few turning points. These data indicate that although exhibitions can be a good tool to disseminate advances in fusion energy in informal learning contexts, public feedback is a powerful tool for improving the quality of social dialogue. (Author)

Scientists in the making: An ethnographic investigation of scientific processes as literate practice in an elementary classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Crawford, Teresa Jo

This study explored the issue of literacy in science by examining how the social and academic literate practices in an elementary classroom formed the basis for learning across the curriculum, with a specific focus on the disciplinary field of science. Through the study of classroom interaction, issues related to student knowledge and ability were addressed as they pertain to scientific literacy in the context of science education reform. The theoretical framework guiding this study was drawn from sociocultural studies of scientific communities and interactional ethnography in education. To investigate the literate practices of science in a school setting, data were collected over a two-year period with the same teacher in her third grade and then her fourth/fifth grade classroom. Data were collected through participant observation in the form of fieldnotes, video data, interviews, and various artifacts (e.g., writings, drawings, teaching protocols). Using ethnographic and sociolinguistic methods of analysis this work examined classroom members' discursive practices to illustrate the role that discourse plays in creating opportunities for engagement in, and access to, scientific knowledge. These analyses revealed that the discursive actions and practices among members of this classroom shaped a particular type of learning environment that was process-oriented and inquiry based. It was shown that this learning environment afforded opportunities for students to engage in the processes of science outside the official, planned curriculum, often leading to whole class scientific investigations and discussions. Additionally, within this classroom community students were able to draw on multiple discourses to display their knowledge of scientific concepts and practices. Overall, this study found that the literate practices of this classroom community, as they were socially constructed among members, contributed to opportunities for students to practice science and

Life on thin ice: Insights from Uummannaq, Greenland for connecting climate science with Arctic communities

Science.gov (United States)

Baztan, Juan; Cordier, Mateo; Huctin, Jean-Michel; Zhu, Zhiwei; Vanderlinden, Jean-Paul

2017-09-01

What are the links between mainstream climate science and local community knowledge? This study takes the example of Greenland, considered one of the regions most impacted by climate change, and Inuit people, characterized as being highly adaptive to environmental change, to explore this question. The study is based on 10 years of anthropological participatory research in Uummannaq, Northwest Greenland, along with two fieldwork periods in October 2014 and April 2015, and a quantitative bibliometric analysis of the international literature on sea ice - a central subject of concern identified by Uummannaq community members during the fieldwork periods. Community members' perceptions of currently available scientific climate knowledge were also collected during the fieldwork. This was done to determine if community members consider available scientific knowledge salient and if it covers issues they consider relevant. The bibliometric analysis of the sea ice literature provided additional insight into the degree to which scientific knowledge about climate change provides information relevant for the community. Our results contribute to the ongoing debate on the missing connections between community worldviews, cultural values, livelihood needs, interests and climate science. Our results show that more scientific research efforts should consider local-level needs in order to produce local-scale knowledge that is more salient, credible and legitimate for communities experiencing climate change. In Uummannaq, as in many Inuit communities with similar conditions, more research should be done on sea ice thickness in winter and in areas through which local populations travel. This paper supports the growing evidence that whenever possible, climate change research should focus on environmental features that matter to communities, at temporal and spatial scales relevant to them, in order to foster community adaptations to change. We recommend such research be connected to and

Budapest scientific a guidebook

CERN Document Server

Hargittai, István

2015-01-01

This guidebook introduces the reader—the scientific tourist and others—to the visible memorabilia of science and scientists in Budapest—statues, busts, plaques, buildings, and other artefacts. According to the Hungarian–American Nobel laureate Albert Szent-Györgyi, this metropolis at the crossroads of Europe has a special atmosphere of respect for science. It has been the venue of numerous scientific achievements and the cradle, literally, of many individuals who in Hungary, and even more beyond its borders became world-renowned contributors to science and culture. Six of the eight chapters of the book cover the Hungarian Nobel laureates, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the university, the medical school, agricultural sciences, and technology and engineering. One chapter is about selected gimnáziums from which seven Nobel laureates (Szent-Györgyi, de Hevesy, Wigner, Gabor, Harsanyi, Olah, and Kertész) and the five “Martians of Science” (von Kármán, Szilard, Wigner, von Neumann, and Teller...

75 FR 19408 - Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-14

[email protected]csr.nih.gov . Name of Committee: Healthcare Delivery and Methodologies, Community-Level Health...-1503, [email protected]csr.nih.gov . Name of Committee: Center for Scientific Review Special Emphasis..., Bethesda, MD 20892, 301-435- 2406, [email protected]csr.nih.gov . Name of Committee: Oncology 2--Translational...

Using the Scientific Method to Motivate Biology Students to Study Precalculus

Science.gov (United States)

Fulton, James P.; Sabatino, Linda

2008-01-01

During the last two years we have developed a precalculus course customized around biology by using the scientific method as a framework to engage and motivate biology students. Historically, the precalculus and calculus courses required for the Suffolk County Community College biology curriculum were designed using examples from the physical…

Scientific Grand Challenges: Forefront Questions in Nuclear Science and the Role of High Performance Computing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khaleel, Mohammad A.

2009-01-01

This report is an account of the deliberations and conclusions of the workshop on 'Forefront Questions in Nuclear Science and the Role of High Performance Computing' held January 26-28, 2009, co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Physics (ONP) and the DOE Office of Advanced Scientific Computing (ASCR). Representatives from the national and international nuclear physics communities, as well as from the high performance computing community, participated. The purpose of this workshop was to (1) identify forefront scientific challenges in nuclear physics and then determine which-if any-of these could be aided by high performance computing at the extreme scale; (2) establish how and why new high performance computing capabilities could address issues at the frontiers of nuclear science; (3) provide nuclear physicists the opportunity to influence the development of high performance computing; and (4) provide the nuclear physics community with plans for development of future high performance computing capability by DOE ASCR.

Scientific Grand Challenges: Forefront Questions in Nuclear Science and the Role of High Performance Computing

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Khaleel, Mohammad A.

2009-10-01

This report is an account of the deliberations and conclusions of the workshop on "Forefront Questions in Nuclear Science and the Role of High Performance Computing" held January 26-28, 2009, co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Physics (ONP) and the DOE Office of Advanced Scientific Computing (ASCR). Representatives from the national and international nuclear physics communities, as well as from the high performance computing community, participated. The purpose of this workshop was to 1) identify forefront scientific challenges in nuclear physics and then determine which-if any-of these could be aided by high performance computing at the extreme scale; 2) establish how and why new high performance computing capabilities could address issues at the frontiers of nuclear science; 3) provide nuclear physicists the opportunity to influence the development of high performance computing; and 4) provide the nuclear physics community with plans for development of future high performance computing capability by DOE ASCR.

EFSA Scientific Committee; Scientific Opinion on Risk Assessment Terminology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hald, Tine

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

ESA's Planetary Science Archive: Preserve and present reliable scientific data sets

Science.gov (United States)

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

2018-01-01

The European Space Agency (ESA) Planetary Science Archive (PSA) is undergoing a significant refactoring of all its components to improve the services provided to the scientific community and the public. The PSA supports ESA's missions exploring the Solar System by archiving scientific peer-reviewed observations as well as engineering data sets. This includes the Giotto, SMART-1, Huygens, Venus Express, Mars Express, Rosetta, Exomars 2016, Exomars RSP, BepiColombo, and JUICE missions. The PSA is offering a newly designed graphical user interface which is simultaneously meant to maximize the interaction with scientific observations and also minimise the efforts needed to download these scientific observations. The PSA still offers the same services as before (i.e., FTP, documentation, helpdesk, etc.). In addition, it will support the two formats of the Planetary Data System (i.e., PDS3 and PDS4), as well as providing new ways for searching the data products with specific metadata and geometrical parameters. As well as enhanced services, the PSA will also provide new services to improve the visualisation of data products and scientific content (e.g., spectra, etc.). Together with improved access to the spacecraft engineering data sets, the PSA will provide easier access to scientific data products that will help to maximize the science return of ESA's space missions.

77 FR 71426 - Proposed Collection; Comment Request: Healthy Communities Study: How Communities Shape Children's...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-11-30

... may influence the future development and funding of policies and programs to reduce childhood obesity. Furthermore, HCS results will be published in scientific journals and will be used for the development of..., and physical activity in children; and (2) identify the community, family, and child factors that...

Legal and scientific scrutiny of forensic 'sciences' and 'experts'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Metz, H.O.E.

2002-01-01

Full text: Traditional areas of forensic science, such as, handwriting and fingerprint examinations and the newer sciences such as molecular biology are increasingly being scrutinized and challenged by the legal and scientific communities. These older forensic disciplines are targets for critics and skeptics as they are not founded on the traditional sciences but have rather an empirical basis and are supported by what may be considered quasi-validated data. This paper discusses in broad terms the basis of these legal and scientific attitudes and the various solutions to overcoming these negative perceptions. Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976; German physicist) 'An Expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes that can be made in his subject and who manages to avoid them'. (author)

EarthCube - Earth System Bridge: Spanning Scientific Communities with Interoperable Modeling Frameworks

Science.gov (United States)

Peckham, S. D.; DeLuca, C.; Gochis, D. J.; Arrigo, J.; Kelbert, A.; Choi, E.; Dunlap, R.

2014-12-01

In order to better understand and predict environmental hazards of weather/climate, ecology and deep earth processes, geoscientists develop and use physics-based computational models. These models are used widely both in academic and federal communities. Because of the large effort required to develop and test models, there is widespread interest in component-based modeling, which promotes model reuse and simplified coupling to tackle problems that often cross discipline boundaries. In component-based modeling, the goal is to make relatively small changes to models that make it easy to reuse them as "plug-and-play" components. Sophisticated modeling frameworks exist to rapidly couple these components to create new composite models. They allow component models to exchange variables while accommodating different programming languages, computational grids, time-stepping schemes, variable names and units. Modeling frameworks have arisen in many modeling communities. CSDMS (Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System) serves the academic earth surface process dynamics community, while ESMF (Earth System Modeling Framework) serves many federal Earth system modeling projects. Others exist in both the academic and federal domains and each satisfies design criteria that are determined by the community they serve. While they may use different interface standards or semantic mediation strategies, they share fundamental similarities. The purpose of the Earth System Bridge project is to develop mechanisms for interoperability between modeling frameworks, such as the ability to share a model or service component. This project has three main goals: (1) Develop a Framework Description Language (ES-FDL) that allows modeling frameworks to be described in a standard way so that their differences and similarities can be assessed. (2) Demonstrate that if a model is augmented with a framework-agnostic Basic Model Interface (BMI), then simple, universal adapters can go from BMI to a

Ontological Order in Scientific Explanation | Park | Philosophical ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

A conceptually sound explanation, I claim, respects the ontological order between properties. A dependent property is to be explained in terms of its underlying property, not the other way around. The applicability of this point goes well beyond the realm of the debate between scientific realists and antirealists.

Writing, Editing and Publishing an Article in a Scientific Journal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Man Bahadur Khattri

2010-02-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this article is to discuss some important aspects involved while writing an article to publish in a scientific journal. This is a review article. I argue that writing an article is technical as well as creative art of an author which facilitates acceptance of article for publication in a scientific journal. Academicians are obliged to conduct research and publish articles to demonstrate their job efficiency. To publish an article in a scientific journal is the first necessary condition to meet standard norms i.e. journal's guideline for authors and the next is to follow the editing processes of the journal. Writing an article for printed version is becoming an old fashion. Therefore, authors need to learn how to submit a scholarly written article online and follow review processes. Writing and publishing of a scientific article is not only important for individuals and specific scientific community, it is also important to the wider society which helps to enhance stock of knowledge, and sharing and learning culture. Key words: Online publication; author aid; open access; copy editing; peer review DOI: 10.3126/dsaj.v3i0.2787 Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology Vol.3 2009 185-196

Science in the community: An ethnographic account of social material transformation

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Stuart Henry

This dissertation is about the learning and use of science at the level of local community. It is an ethnographic account, and its theoretical approach draws on actor-network theory as well as neo-Marxist practice theory and the related notion of situated cognition. This theoretical basis supports a work that focuses on the many heterogeneous transformations that materials and people undergo as science is used to help bring about social and political change in a quasi-rural community. The activities that science becomes involved in, and the hybrid formations as it encounters local issues are stressed. Learning and knowing as outcomes of community action are theorized. The dissertation links four major themes throughout its narrative: scientific literacy, representations, relationships and participatory democracy. These four themes are not treated in isolation. Different facets of their relation to each other are stressed in different chapters, each of which analyze different particular case studies. This dissertation argues for the conception of a local scientific praxis, one that is markedly different than the usual notion of science, yet is necessary for the uptake of scientific information into a community.

Center for Technology for Advanced Scientific Component Software (TASCS) Consolidated Progress Report July 2006 - March 2009

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bernholdt, D E; McInnes, L C; Govindaraju, M; Bramley, R; Epperly, T; Kohl, J A; Nieplocha, J; Armstrong, R; Shasharina, S; Sussman, A L; Sottile, M; Damevski, K

2009-04-14

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

Choosing ESRO's first scientific satellites

Science.gov (United States)

Russo, Arturo

1992-11-01

The choice of the scientific payloads of the European Space Research Organization's (ESRO's) first generation of satellites is analyzed. Concentration is on those aspects of the decision process that involved more directly the scientific community and that emerged as major issues in the discussion of the Launching Program Advisory Committee (LPAC). The main theme was the growing competition between the various fields of space science within the progressive retrenching of the Organization's financial resources available for the satellite program. A general overview of the status of the program by the end of 1966 is presented. The choice of the first small satellites' payloads (ESRO 1 and 2, and HEOS-A) and the difficult definition of the TD satellite program are discussed. This part covers a time span going from early 1963 to the spring of 1966. In the second part, the narrative starts from the spring of 1967, when the decision to recommend a second HEOS-type satellite was taken, and then analyzes the complex situation determined by the crisis of the TD program in 1968, and the debates which eventually led to the abandonment of TD-2 and the start of the far less ambitious ESRO 5 project.

Educational and Scientific Applications of Climate Model Diagnostic Analyzer

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, S.; Pan, L.; Zhai, C.; Tang, B.; Kubar, T. L.; Zhang, J.; Bao, Q.

2016-12-01

Climate Model Diagnostic Analyzer (CMDA) is a web-based information system designed for the climate modeling and model analysis community to analyze climate data from models and observations. CMDA provides tools to diagnostically analyze climate data for model validation and improvement, and to systematically manage analysis provenance for sharing results with other investigators. CMDA utilizes cloud computing resources, multi-threading computing, machine-learning algorithms, web service technologies, and provenance-supporting technologies to address technical challenges that the Earth science modeling and model analysis community faces in evaluating and diagnosing climate models. As CMDA infrastructure and technology have matured, we have developed the educational and scientific applications of CMDA. Educationally, CMDA supported the summer school of the JPL Center for Climate Sciences for three years since 2014. In the summer school, the students work on group research projects where CMDA provide datasets and analysis tools. Each student is assigned to a virtual machine with CMDA installed in Amazon Web Services. A provenance management system for CMDA is developed to keep track of students' usages of CMDA, and to recommend datasets and analysis tools for their research topic. The provenance system also allows students to revisit their analysis results and share them with their group. Scientifically, we have developed several science use cases of CMDA covering various topics, datasets, and analysis types. Each use case developed is described and listed in terms of a scientific goal, datasets used, the analysis tools used, scientific results discovered from the use case, an analysis result such as output plots and data files, and a link to the exact analysis service call with all the input arguments filled. For example, one science use case is the evaluation of NCAR CAM5 model with MODIS total cloud fraction. The analysis service used is Difference Plot Service of

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

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Pryce R.; Russ, Rosemary S.

2015-01-01

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

Promoting Scientific Thinking and Conceptual Change about Alternative Explanations of Climate Change and Other Controversial Socio-scientific Topics

Science.gov (United States)

Lombardi, D.; Sinatra, G. M.

2013-12-01

Critical evaluation and plausibility reappraisal of scientific explanations have been underemphasized in many science classrooms (NRC, 2012). Deep science learning demands that students increase their ability to critically evaluate the quality of scientific knowledge, weigh alternative explanations, and explicitly reappraise their plausibility judgments. Therefore, this lack of instruction about critical evaluation and plausibility reappraisal has, in part, contributed to diminished understanding about complex and controversial topics, such as global climate change. The Model-Evidence Link (MEL) diagram (originally developed by researchers at Rutgers University under an NSF-supported project; Chinn & Buckland, 2012) is an instructional scaffold that promotes students to critically evaluate alternative explanations. We recently developed a climate change MEL and found that the students who used the MEL experienced a significant shift in their plausibility judgments toward the scientifically accepted model of human-induced climate change. Using the MEL for instruction also resulted in conceptual change about the causes of global warming that reflected greater understanding of fundamental scientific principles. Furthermore, students sustained this conceptual change six months after MEL instruction (Lombardi, Sinatra, & Nussbaum, 2013). This presentation will discuss recent educational research that supports use of the MEL to promote critical evaluation, plausibility reappraisal, and conceptual change, and also, how the MEL may be particularly effective for learning about global climate change and other socio-scientific topics. Such instruction to develop these fundamental thinking skills (e.g., critical evaluation and plausibility reappraisal) is demanded by both the Next Generation Science Standards (Achieve, 2013) and the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics (CCSS Initiative-ELA, 2010; CCSS Initiative-Math, 2010), as well as a

Research Experiences in Community College Science Programs

Science.gov (United States)

Beauregard, A.

2011-12-01

The benefits of student access to scientific research opportunities and the use of data in curriculum and student inquiry-driven approaches to teaching as effective tools in science instruction are compelling (i.e., Ledley, et al., 2008; Gawel & Greengrove, 2005; Macdonald, et al., 2005; Harnik & Ross. 2003). Unfortunately, these experiences are traditionally limited at community colleges due to heavy faculty teaching loads, a focus on teaching over research, and scarce departmental funds. Without such hands-on learning activities, instructors may find it difficult to stimulate excitement about science in their students, who are typically non-major and nontraditional. I present two different approaches for effectively incorporating research into the community college setting that each rely on partnerships with other institutions. The first of these is a more traditional approach for providing research experiences to undergraduate students, though such experiences are limited at community colleges, and involves student interns working on a research project under the supervision of a faculty member. Specifically, students participate in a water quality assessment study of two local bayous. Students work on different aspects of the project, including water sample collection, bio-assay incubation experiments, water quality sample analysis, and collection and identification of phytoplankton. Over the past four years, nine community college students, as well as two undergraduate students and four graduate students from the local four-year university have participated in this research project. Aligning student and faculty research provides community college students with the unique opportunity to participate in the process of active science and contribute to "real" scientific research. Because students are working in a local watershed, these field experiences provide a valuable "place-based" educational opportunity. The second approach links cutting-edge oceanographic

Provocative questions in cancer epidemiology in a time of scientific innovation and budgetary constraints.

Science.gov (United States)

Lam, Tram Kim; Schully, Sheri D; Rogers, Scott D; Benkeser, Rachel; Reid, Britt; Khoury, Muin J

2013-04-01

In a time of scientific and technological developments and budgetary constraints, the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Provocative Questions Project offers a novel funding mechanism for cancer epidemiologists. We reviewed the purposes underlying the Provocative Questions Project, present information on the contributions of epidemiologic research to the current Provocative Questions portfolio, and outline opportunities that the cancer epidemiology community might capitalize on to advance a research agenda that spans a translational continuum from scientific discoveries to population health impact.

The committee of scientific expertise coordination; Le comite de coordination d'expertise scientifique

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2003-07-01

Placed under the MIES control, the Committee of scientific expertise coordination defines the needs, the contain and the planing of expertises realized in function of Climate national and international decisions and negotiations calendars. The Committee verifies the different expertises and offers the administrations, scientific tools and techniques useful for the negotiations. It can also define long-dated research needs which require the scientific community mobilization. This paper provides some document of the Committee: objectives, operating and priorities of the Committee, scenarios ''Factor 4'' and ''crack technology'', perceptions and practices, developing countries (China, India...), Euromed. (A.L.B.)

Integrating scientific knowledge into large-scale restoration programs: the CALFED Bay-Delta Program experience

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, K.A.; Short, A.

2009-01-01

Integrating science into resource management activities is a goal of the CALFED Bay-Delta Program, a multi-agency effort to address water supply reliability, ecological condition, drinking water quality, and levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta of northern California. Under CALFED, many different strategies were used to integrate science, including interaction between the research and management communities, public dialogues about scientific work, and peer review. This paper explores ways science was (and was not) integrated into CALFED's management actions and decision systems through three narratives describing different patterns of scientific integration and application in CALFED. Though a collaborative process and certain organizational conditions may be necessary for developing new understandings of the system of interest, we find that those factors are not sufficient for translating that knowledge into management actions and decision systems. We suggest that the application of knowledge may be facilitated or hindered by (1) differences in the objectives, approaches, and cultures of scientists operating in the research community and those operating in the management community and (2) other factors external to the collaborative process and organization.

[On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Croatian scientific society for the history of health culture].

Science.gov (United States)

Škrobonja, Ante; Salopek, Igor

2017-12-01

A group of intellectuals, predominantly lecturers from the Faculty of Medicine, founded in Rijeka on May 29, 1966 the branch of the Yugoslav Scientific Society for the History of Health Culture, which after the independence of Croatia in 1991 continues its work under the name Croatian Scientific Society for the History of Health Culture. Over the past 50 years, within activities of the Society more than 250 professional and scientific conferences have been held in Rijeka and other Croatian cities. In addition, a dozen of professional-scientific trips to neighbouring countries were organized. From the original activities are highlighted the science conventions with international participation "Rijeka and Its Citizens in Medical History", where, since 2001, have been regularly presented free topics from other regions. Another important activity is the international journal "AMHA - Acta medico-historica Adriatica", which has been published since 2003 with two issues per year. Today, this is an established journal present on Medline - PubMed Service, andindexed in several respectable international databases, which guarantees quality and enables access to the world's research community. In 2005, the accompanying "AMHA Library" was launched - a series of monographs devoted to the most important medical historians, scientific conferences dedicated to individual medical laureates, and similar subjects. Ten years ago, the Society's work has been refined by the activities of a group of medical students who, under the motto "In honour of Asclepius and Orpheus", strive to affirm the links between medicine and art. Of the many performances the most significant is the traditional humanitarian concert, attended by students from all faculties of medicine from Croatia and Ljubljana.

Scientific and Technical Reports, Articles, Papers, and Presentations

Science.gov (United States)

Waits, J. E. Turner (Compiler)

2001-01-01

This document presents formal NASA technical reports, papers published in technical journals, and presentations by MSFC personnel in FY 2000. It also includes papers of MSFC contractors. After being announced in STAR, all the NASA series reports may be obtained from the National Technical Information Service, 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, VA 22161. The information in this report may be of value to the scientific and engineering community in determining what information has been published and what is available.

Scientific Wealth of Mongolia on a Global Scale

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bazar tser en Boldgiv

2004-06-01

Full Text Available This article attempts to objectively evaluate the scientific wealth of Mongolia as a nation, by analyzing journal publications by Mongolian scientists recorded in the ISI database. Publications by Mongolian authors for the period of 1979-2002 were included for analyses. Although the total number of publications has increased for the given period, there was no significant increase in the relative citation impact or RCI. Changes of publication quality as measured by RCI showed dif ferent trends for various scientific fields. Publications in clinical medicine and biology show most positive trend, whereas publications in mathematics and physics declined in quality. All the fields are well below the world’ s total publication quality for a comparable period. Additionally , percentage of papers by Mongolian senior authors has declined (though the trend is not significant. This is a rather disturbing trend given the fact that the number of researchers with a doctor ’s degree in the country has greatly increased during the same period of time. Quality of publications by Mongolian first authors and only Mongolian authors were significantly lower than collaborative ones. As far as we are aware, this is the first evaluation of scientific wealth of Mongolia as a whole and it is hoped that it would be helpful to policy-making and scientific communities in prioritizing and determining the direction of support and finance.

Financial interest and its disclosure in scientific publications.

Science.gov (United States)

Krimsky, S; Rothenberg, L S

1998-07-15

Journal policies and requirements of funding agencies on financial disclosure of authors and grant applicants have divided editors and scientists who disagree on whether such policies can improve the integrity of science or manage conflicts of interest. Those opposed to such disclosure policies argue that financial interest is one of many interests held by scientists, is the least scientifically dangerous, and should not be singled out. Those who favor open reporting of financial interests argue that full disclosure removes the suspicion that something of relevance to objectivity is being hidden and allows readers to form their own opinions on whether a conflict of interest exists and what relevance that has to the study. The authors believe that the scientific community and the public will be best served by open publication of financial disclosures for readers and reviewers to evaluate.

Scientific assessments: Matching the process to the problem

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robert J. Scholes

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Background: The science–policy interface process – known as a ‘scientific assessment’ – has risen to prominence in the past few decades. Complex assessments are appropriate for issues which are both technically complicated, multifaceted and of high societal interest. There is increasing interest from the research community that studies biological invasions to undertake such an assessment. Objectives: Providing the relevant background and context, the article describes key principles and steps for designing, planning, resourcing and executing such a process, as well as providing evidence of high-impact assessments enhancing scientific careers. Method: Experience from international and national assessments, most recently the South African scientific assessment for the Shale Gas Development in the Central Karoo, was used to develop this guiding generic template for practitioners. Analyses of researcher publication performances were undertaken to determine the benefit of being involved in assessments. Results: The key success factors for assessments mostly relate to adherence to ‘process’ and ‘governance’ aspects, for which scientists are sometimes ill-equipped. As regards publication outputs, authors involved in assessment processes demonstrated higher H-indices than their environmental scientist peers. We have suggested causal explanations for this. Conclusion: Effectively designed and managed assessments provide the platform for the ‘co-production of knowledge’ – an iterative and collaborative process involving scientists, stakeholders and policymakers. This increases scientific impact in the society–policy domain. While scientists seem concerned that effort directed towards assessments comes at the detriment of scientific credibility and productivity, we have presented data that suggest the opposite.

Knowing and avoiding plagiarism during scientific writing.

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, P Mohan; Priya, N Swapna; Musalaiah, Svvs; Nagasree, M

2014-09-01

Plagiarism has become more common in both dental and medical communities. Most of the writers do not know that plagiarism is a serious problem. Plagiarism can range from simple dishonesty (minor copy paste/any discrepancy) to a more serious problem (major discrepancy/duplication of manuscript) when the authors do cut-copy-paste from the original source without giving adequate credit to the main source. When we search databases like PubMed/MedLine there is a lot of information regarding plagiarism. However, it is still a current topic of interest to all the researchers to know how to avoid plagiarism. It's time to every young researcher to know ethical guidelines while writing any scientific publications. By using one's own ideas, we can write the paper completely without looking at the original source. Specific words from the source can be added by using quotations and citing them which can help in not only supporting your work and amplifying ideas but also avoids plagiarism. It is compulsory to all the authors, reviewers and editors of all the scientific journals to know about the plagiarism and how to avoid it by following ethical guidelines and use of plagiarism detection software while scientific writing.

Knowing and Avoiding Plagiarism During Scientific Writing

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, P Mohan; Priya, N Swapna; Musalaiah, SVVS; Nagasree, M

2014-01-01

Plagiarism has become more common in both dental and medical communities. Most of the writers do not know that plagiarism is a serious problem. Plagiarism can range from simple dishonesty (minor copy paste/any discrepancy) to a more serious problem (major discrepancy/duplication of manuscript) when the authors do cut-copy-paste from the original source without giving adequate credit to the main source. When we search databases like PubMed/MedLine there is a lot of information regarding plagiarism. However, it is still a current topic of interest to all the researchers to know how to avoid plagiarism. It's time to every young researcher to know ethical guidelines while writing any scientific publications. By using one's own ideas, we can write the paper completely without looking at the original source. Specific words from the source can be added by using quotations and citing them which can help in not only supporting your work and amplifying ideas but also avoids plagiarism. It is compulsory to all the authors, reviewers and editors of all the scientific journals to know about the plagiarism and how to avoid it by following ethical guidelines and use of plagiarism detection software while scientific writing. PMID:25364588

The Effectiveness of Scientific Inquiry With/Without Integration of Scientific Reasoning

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Chun-Ting; She, Hsiao-Ching

2015-01-01

This study examines the difference in effectiveness between two scientific inquiry programs-one with an emphasis on scientific reasoning and one without a scientific reasoning component-on students' scientific concepts, scientific concept-dependent reasoning, and scientific inquiry. A mixed-method approach was used in which 115 grade 5…

Scientific Opportunity: the Tevatron and the LHC

CERN Multimedia

2010-01-01

The press makes much of the competition between CERN’s LHC and Fermilab’s Tevatron in the search for the Higgs boson. This competitive aspect is real, and probably adds spice to the scientific exploration, but for us such reporting often feels like spilling the entire pepper shaker over a fine meal. The media’s emphasis on competition obscures the more important substance of our long-standing collaboration in scientific discovery.   Our laboratories and our communities have worked together for decades. Europeans have contributed greatly to the Tevatron’s many successes, including the discovery of the top quark, the discovery of fast oscillations in the decay of strange B mesons and the many searches for new phenomena. Americans have contributed to many programs at CERN, notably the extraordinary precision measurements of LEP, and more recently construction of the LHC accelerator and detectors. Fermilab scientists played a vital role throughout 2009 in...

Scientific data analysis on data-parallel platforms.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ulmer, Craig D.; Bayer, Gregory W.; Choe, Yung Ryn; Roe, Diana C.

2010-09-01

As scientific computing users migrate to petaflop platforms that promise to generate multi-terabyte datasets, there is a growing need in the community to be able to embed sophisticated analysis algorithms in the computing platforms' storage systems. Data Warehouse Appliances (DWAs) are attractive for this work, due to their ability to store and process massive datasets efficiently. While DWAs have been utilized effectively in data-mining and informatics applications, they remain largely unproven in scientific workloads. In this paper we present our experiences in adapting two mesh analysis algorithms to function on five different DWA architectures: two Netezza database appliances, an XtremeData dbX database, a LexisNexis DAS, and multiple Hadoop MapReduce clusters. The main contribution of this work is insight into the differences between these DWAs from a user's perspective. In addition, we present performance measurements for ten DWA systems to help understand the impact of different architectural trade-offs in these systems.

Scientific Process Flowchart Assessment (SPFA): A Method for Evaluating Changes in Understanding and Visualization of the Scientific Process in a Multidisciplinary Student Population.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Kristy J; Rigakos, Bessie

The scientific process is nonlinear, unpredictable, and ongoing. Assessing the nature of science is difficult with methods that rely on Likert-scale or multiple-choice questions. This study evaluated conceptions about the scientific process using student-created visual representations that we term "flowcharts." The methodology, Scientific Process Flowchart Assessment (SPFA), consisted of a prompt and rubric that was designed to assess students' understanding of the scientific process. Forty flowcharts representing a multidisciplinary group without intervention and 26 flowcharts representing pre- and postinstruction were evaluated over five dimensions: connections, experimental design, reasons for doing science, nature of science, and interconnectivity. Pre to post flowcharts showed a statistically significant improvement in the number of items and ratings for the dimensions. Comparison of the terms used and connections between terms on student flowcharts revealed an enhanced and more nuanced understanding of the scientific process, especially in the areas of application to society and communication within the scientific community. We propose that SPFA can be used in a variety of circumstances, including in the determination of what curricula or interventions would be useful in a course or program, in the assessment of curriculum, or in the evaluation of students performing research projects. © 2016 K. J. Wilson and B. Rigakos. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2016 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). 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).

Profile and scientific production of Brazilian National Council of Technological and Scientific Development researchers in Pediatrics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Christina L. Oliveira

2013-09-01

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the profile and the scientific production of researchers in Pediatrics with scholarship from the National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development. METHODS: The Lattes curricula of 34 researchers in Pediatrics with active scholarships, from 2006 to 2008 were included in the analysis. The variables of interest were: gender, affiliation, time since PHD, tutoring of undergraduate students, mentorship of masters and doctors, scientific production and the papers' impact. RESULTS: In a total of 411 researchers in Medicine, 34 (8% belonged to Pediatrics. Males (77% and scholars in the category 2 of productivity (62% prevailed. Three states of Brazil were responsible for approximately 90% of the researchers: São Paulo (53%, Minas Gerais (21%, and Rio Grande do Sul (15%. During their academic career, the Pediatrics researchers have published 3,122 articles with a median of 89 articles per researcher (interquartile range - IQ=51-119. Of the total, 40 and 59% articles were indexed in the Web of Science and Scopus databases, respectively. The Pediatrics researchers have published papers in 599 journals with a median impact factor of 2.35 (IQ=1.37-3.73 for the 323 indexed journals. CONCLUSIONS: The Pediatrics researchers have a relevant scientific output from the quantity point of the view, but there is a need to improve quality.

Historical and social contexts for scientific writing and use of passive voice: Toward an undergraduate science literacy course

Science.gov (United States)

Ding, Dan Xiong

The passive voice is a major stylistic feature of modern scientific discourse, but such a feature did not dominate scientific writing until the 1890s. It has its roots in the philosophical thoughts of experimental science of Francis Bacon and his followers such as Thomas Sprat and John Locke. In the early seventeenth century. Bacon called for a new science that emphasized collective knowledge of nature. Such a science was a cooperative and public enterprise in which scientists should work as a group to advance knowledge of nature. When science was moving gradually toward a public enterprise from the early seventeenth century, the passive voice gradually replaced the active voice in science writing as a dominant stylistic feature. The passive voice in scientific writing is thus historically and socially conditioned. Scientists take advantage of the linguistic functions of the passive voice to serve their rhetorical and pragmatic purposes such as presenting experiments as they are for others to reproduce and verify the results. It embodies two major conventions of scientific communities: (1) science is a public enterprise and (2) it is also a cooperative venture. Other conventions are related to these two: the collective authority of an scientific community is above the personal authority of any one individual scientist; science is not an infallible force, so any research result needs to be verified by a scientific community before it becomes knowledge; scientists use passive voice to approach their writing to make it appear as if it were objective; and science is a human profession. Therefore, we need to teach science students to use the passive voice, and more importantly, why and when to use it. We should emphasize writing practice to have students' see that they use passives rhetorically to present experimental processes, materials and methods.

Contrasting Scientific Knowledge with Knowledge from the Lifeworld: The Dialogic Inclusion Contract

Science.gov (United States)

Padros, Maria; Garcia, Rocio; de Mello, Roseli; Molina, Silvia

2011-01-01

The Dialogic Inclusion Contract (DIC) consists in an agreement between the scientific community and social agents to define successful actions aimed at overcoming social exclusion in highly underprivileged areas. Taking the case of a Spanish neighborhood that is generating important transformations, this article explores the process of defining…

Engineering Values Into Genetic Engineering: A Proposed Analytic Framework for Scientific Social Responsibility.

Science.gov (United States)

Sankar, Pamela L; Cho, Mildred K

2015-01-01

Recent experiments have been used to "edit" genomes of various plant, animal and other species, including humans, with unprecedented precision. Furthermore, editing the Cas9 endonuclease gene with a gene encoding the desired guide RNA into an organism, adjacent to an altered gene, could create a "gene drive" that could spread a trait through an entire population of organisms. These experiments represent advances along a spectrum of technological abilities that genetic engineers have been working on since the advent of recombinant DNA techniques. The scientific and bioethics communities have built substantial literatures about the ethical and policy implications of genetic engineering, especially in the age of bioterrorism. However, recent CRISPr/Cas experiments have triggered a rehashing of previous policy discussions, suggesting that the scientific community requires guidance on how to think about social responsibility. We propose a framework to enable analysis of social responsibility, using two examples of genetic engineering experiments.

A framework for integration of scientific applications into the OpenTopography workflow

Science.gov (United States)

Nandigam, V.; Crosby, C.; Baru, C.

2012-12-01

The NSF-funded OpenTopography facility provides online access to Earth science-oriented high-resolution LIDAR topography data, online processing tools, and derivative products. The underlying cyberinfrastructure employs a multi-tier service oriented architecture that is comprised of an infrastructure tier, a processing services tier, and an application tier. The infrastructure tier consists of storage, compute resources as well as supporting databases. The services tier consists of the set of processing routines each deployed as a Web service. The applications tier provides client interfaces to the system. (e.g. Portal). We propose a "pluggable" infrastructure design that will allow new scientific algorithms and processing routines developed and maintained by the community to be integrated into the OpenTopography system so that the wider earth science community can benefit from its availability. All core components in OpenTopography are available as Web services using a customized open-source Opal toolkit. The Opal toolkit provides mechanisms to manage and track job submissions, with the help of a back-end database. It allows monitoring of job and system status by providing charting tools. All core components in OpenTopography have been developed, maintained and wrapped as Web services using Opal by OpenTopography developers. However, as the scientific community develops new processing and analysis approaches this integration approach is not scalable efficiently. Most of the new scientific applications will have their own active development teams performing regular updates, maintenance and other improvements. It would be optimal to have the application co-located where its developers can continue to actively work on it while still making it accessible within the OpenTopography workflow for processing capabilities. We will utilize a software framework for remote integration of these scientific applications into the OpenTopography system. This will be accomplished by

An International Coastline Collaboratory to Broaden Scientific Impacts of a Subduction Zone Observatory

Science.gov (United States)

Bodin, P.

2015-12-01

A global Subduction Zone Observatory (SZO) presents an exciting opportunity to broaden involvement in scientific research and to ensure multidisciplinary impact. Most subduction zones feature dynamic interactions of the seafloor, the coastline, and the onshore environments also being perturbed by global climate change. Tectonic deformation, physical environment changes (temperature and chemistry), and resulting ecological shifts (intertidal population redistribution, etc.) are all basic observables for important scientific investigation. Yet even simple baseline studies like repeated transects of intertidal biological communities are rare. A coordinated program of such studies would document the local variability across time and spatial scales, permit comparisons with other subducting coastlines, and extend the reach and importance of other SZO studies. One goal is to document the patterns, and separate the component causes of, coastal uplift and subsidence and ecological response to a subduction zone earthquake using a database of pre-event biological and surveying observations. Observations would be directed by local scientists using students and trained volunteers as observers, under the auspices of local educational entities and using standardized sampling and reporting methods. The observations would be added to the global, Internet-accessible, database for use by the entire scientific community. Data acquisition and analysis supports the educational missions of local schools and universities, forming the basis for educational programs. All local programs would be coordinated by an international panel convened by the SZO. The facility would include a web-hosted lecture series and an annual web conference to aid organization and collaboration. Small grants could support more needy areas. This SZO collaboratory advances not only scientific literacy, but also multinational collaboration and scholarship, and (most importantly) produces important scientific results.

[Community Nutrition].

Science.gov (United States)

Aranceta, Javier

2004-06-01

In the last 20 years, Public Health Nutrition focused mainly on the qualitative aspects which may influence the onset of chronic diseases, quality of life, physical and mental performance and life expectancy. This applied knowledge organised as part of preventive and health promotion programs led to the development of Community Nutrition. The aim of Community Nutrition actions is to adequate lifestyles related to food consumption patterns in order to improve the quality of life and contribute to health promotion of the population in the community where programs and services are delivered. Key functions to develop in a Community Nutrition Unit consist in the identification and assessment of nutrition problems in the community as well as the design, implementation and evaluation of intervention programs by means of appropriate strategies. These should aim at different populations groups and settings, such as work places, schools, high risk groups or the general public. Nowadays, Community Nutrition work efforts should focus on three main aspects: nutrition education in schools and in the community; food safety and food security and the development and reinforcement of food preparation skills across all age groups. Social catering services, either in schools, the work place or at the community level, need to ensure adequate nutritional supply, provide foods contributing to healthy eating practices as well as to enhance culinary traditions and social learning. Food safety and food security have become a top priority in Public Health. The concepts referes to the availability of food safe and adequate as well as in sufficient amount in order to satisfy nutrition requirements of all individuals in the community. Social changes along new scientific developments will introduce new demands in Community Nutrition work and individual dietary counselling will become a key strategy. In order to face new challenges, community nutrition pactitioners require a high quality

A Component Based Approach to Scientific Workflow Management

CERN Document Server

Le Goff, Jean-Marie; Baker, Nigel; Brooks, Peter; McClatchey, Richard

2001-01-01

CRISTAL is a distributed scientific workflow system used in the manufacturing and production phases of HEP experiment construction at CERN. The CRISTAL project has studied the use of a description driven approach, using meta- modelling techniques, to manage the evolving needs of a large physics community. Interest from such diverse communities as bio-informatics and manufacturing has motivated the CRISTAL team to re-engineer the system to customize functionality according to end user requirements but maximize software reuse in the process. The next generation CRISTAL vision is to build a generic component architecture from which a complete software product line can be generated according to the particular needs of the target enterprise. This paper discusses the issues of adopting a component product line based approach and our experiences of software reuse.

A component based approach to scientific workflow management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baker, N.; Brooks, P.; McClatchey, R.; Kovacs, Z.; LeGoff, J.-M.

2001-01-01

CRISTAL is a distributed scientific workflow system used in the manufacturing and production phases of HEP experiment construction at CERN. The CRISTAL project has studied the use of a description driven approach, using meta-modelling techniques, to manage the evolving needs of a large physics community. Interest from such diverse communities as bio-informatics and manufacturing has motivated the CRISTAL team to re-engineer the system to customize functionality according to end user requirements but maximize software reuse in the process. The next generation CRISTAL vision is to build a generic component architecture from which a complete software product line can be generated according to the particular needs of the target enterprise. This paper discusses the issues of adopting a component product line based approach and our experiences of software reuse

Socio-epistemic analysis of scientific knowledge production in little science research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alberto Pepe

2008-12-01

Full Text Available The processes that drive knowledge production and dissemination in scientific environments are embedded within the social, technical, cultural and epistemic practices of the constituent research communities. This article presents a methodology to unpack specific social and epistemic dimensions of scientific knowledge production using, as a case study,  the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS, a National Science Foundation “little science” research center involved in theoretical and applied work in the field of wireless communication and sensor networks. By analysis of its scholarly record, I construct a social network of coauthorship, linking individuals that have coauthored scholarly artifacts (journal articles and conference papers, and an epistemic network of topic co-occurrence, linking concepts and knowledge constructs in the same scholarly artifacts. This article reports on ongoing work directed at the study of the emergence and evolution of these networks of scientific interaction. I present some preliminary results and introduce a socio-epistemic method for an historical analysis of network co-evolution. I outline a research design to support further investigations of knowledge production in scientific circles.

Community Digital Library Requirements for the Southern California Earthquake Center Community Modeling Environment (SCEC/CME)

Science.gov (United States)

Moore, R.; Faerman, M.; Minster, J.; Day, S. M.; Ely, G.

2003-12-01

A community digital library provides support for ingestion, organization, description, preservation, and access of digital entities. The technologies that traditionally provide these capabilities are digital libraries (ingestion, organization, description), persistent archives (preservation) and data grids (access). We present a design for the SCEC community digital library that incorporates aspects of all three systems. Multiple groups have created integrated environments that sustain large-scale scientific data collections. By examining these projects, the following stages of implementation can be identified: \\begin{itemize} Definition of semantic terms to associate with relevant information. This includes definition of uniform content descriptors to describe physical quantities relevant to the scientific discipline, and creation of concept spaces to define how the uniform content descriptors are logically related. Organization of digital entities into logical collections that make it simple to browse and manage related material. Definition of services that are used to access and manipulate material in the collection. Creation of a preservation environment for the long-term management of the collection. Each community is faced with heterogeneity that is introduced when data is distributed across multiple sites, or when multiple sets of collection semantics are used, and or when multiple scientific sub-disciplines are federated. We will present the relevant standards that simplify the implementation of the SCEC community library, the resource requirements for different types of data sets that drive the implementation, and the digital library processes that the SCEC community library will support. The SCEC community library can be viewed as the set of processing steps that are required to build the appropriate SCEC reference data sets (SCEC approved encoding format, SCEC approved descriptive metadata, SCEC approved collection organization, and SCEC managed storage

Defining New Roles for Scientific Professional Organizations in Society?

Science.gov (United States)

Robock, A.; Byrne, J.

2007-12-01

The obfuscation of authentic science information in North America has reached epidemic proportions. The global warming debate is a classic example - there are a virtual unanimity and overwhelming evidence from scientific community that the Earth is warming rapidly and humans are an important cause, but there is confusion in the media and the public, partly as a result of disinformation campaigns by greenhouse gas polluters. Should the role of scientists in informing the public change in response to this? What should be the role of scientific societies, such as the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Society, or the American Association for the Advancement of Science? Should we continue doing what we are doing, or be more proactive in using new technology to educate the public on important scientific issues? Should we devote resources to television advertisements? Should we support ads in the print media? This talk will discuss the pros and cons of individual and group actions in making the case in public for science, and suggest some new directions.

Unveiling scientific communities about sustainability and innovation. A bibliometric journey around sustainable terms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Franceschini, Simone; Faria, Lourenco; Jurowetzki, Roman

2016-01-01

innovation), and they concluded that such terms are mostly interchangeable. These findings surprise in light of the different positions shown in the innovation for sustainability debate. Our bibliometric analysis tracks meanings and communities associated with these four terms and indicates some overlaps......, especially between eco-innovation and environmental innovation. However, we found relevant differences of meanings and communities that reflect the different positions in the innovation for sustainability debate....

Being scientifical: Popularity, purpose and promotion of amateur research and investigation groups in the U.S

Science.gov (United States)

Hill, Sharon A.

21st century television and the Internet are awash in content regarding amateur paranormal investigators and research groups. These groups proliferated after reality investigation programs appeared on television. Exactly how many groups are active in the U.S. at any time is not known. The Internet provides an ideal means for people with niche interests to find each other and organize activities. This study collected information from 1000 websites of amateur research and investigation groups (ARIGs) to determine their location, area of inquiry, methodology and, particularly, to determine if they state that they use science as part of their mission, methods or goals. 57.3% of the ARIGs examined specifically noted or suggested use of science as part of the groups' approach to investigation and research. Even when not explicit, ARIGs often used science-like language, symbols and methods to describe their groups' views or activities. Yet, non-scientific and subjective methods were described as employed in conjunction with objective methods. Furthermore, what were considered scientific processes by ARIGs did not match with established methods and the ethos of the scientific research community or scientific processes of investigation. ARIGs failed to display fundamental understanding regarding objectivity, methodological naturalism, peer review, critical thought and theoretical plausibility. The processes of science appear to be mimicked to present a serious and credible reputation to the non-scientific public. These processes are also actively promoted in the media and directly to the local public as "scientific". These results highlight the gap between the scientific community and the lay public regarding the understanding of what it means to do science and what criteria are necessary to establish reliable knowledge about the world.

Enhancing Scientific Foundations to Ensure Reproducibility: A New Paradigm.

Science.gov (United States)

Hsieh, Terry; Vaickus, Max H; Remick, Daniel G

2018-01-01

Progress in science is dependent on a strong foundation of reliable results. The publish or perish paradigm in research, coupled with an increase in retracted articles from the peer-reviewed literature, is beginning to erode the trust of both the scientific community and the public. The NIH is combating errors by requiring investigators to follow new guidelines addressing scientific premise, experimental design, biological variables, and authentication of reagents. Herein, we discuss how implementation of NIH guidelines will help investigators proactively address pitfalls of experimental design and methods. Careful consideration of the variables contributing to reproducibility helps ensure robust results. The NIH, investigators, and journals must collaborate to ensure that quality science is funded, explored, and published. Copyright © 2018 American Society for Investigative Pathology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Symbiotic Relationship between Scientific Workflow and Provenance (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Stephan, E.

2010-12-01

The purpose of this presentation is to describe the symbiotic nature of scientific workflows and provenance. We will also discuss the current trends and real world challenges facing these two distinct research areas. Although motivated differently, the needs of the international science communities are the glue that binds this relationship together. Understanding and articulating the science drivers to these communities is paramount as these technologies evolve and mature. Originally conceived for managing business processes, workflows are now becoming invaluable assets in both computational and experimental sciences. These reconfigurable, automated systems provide essential technology to perform complex analyses by coupling together geographically distributed disparate data sources and applications. As a result, workflows are capable of higher throughput in a shorter amount of time than performing the steps manually. Today many different workflow products exist; these could include Kepler and Taverna or similar products like MeDICI, developed at PNNL, that are standardized on the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL). Provenance, originating from the French term Provenir “to come from”, is used to describe the curation process of artwork as art is passed from owner to owner. The concept of provenance was adopted by digital libraries as a means to track the lineage of documents while standards such as the DublinCore began to emerge. In recent years the systems science community has increasingly expressed the need to expand the concept of provenance to formally articulate the history of scientific data. Communities such as the International Provenance and Annotation Workshop (IPAW) have formalized a provenance data model. The Open Provenance Model, and the W3C is hosting a provenance incubator group featuring the Proof Markup Language. Although both workflows and provenance have risen from different communities and operate independently, their mutual

Analysis of phytoplankton distribution and community structure in the German Bight with respect to the different size classes

Science.gov (United States)

Wollschläger, Jochen; Wiltshire, Karen Helen; Petersen, Wilhelm; Metfies, Katja

2015-05-01

Investigation of phytoplankton biodiversity, ecology, and biogeography is crucial for understanding marine ecosystems. Research is often carried out on the basis of microscopic observations, but due to the limitations of this approach regarding detection and identification of picophytoplankton (0.2-2 μm) and nanophytoplankton (2-20 μm), these investigations are mainly focused on the microphytoplankton (20-200 μm). In the last decades, various methods based on optical and molecular biological approaches have evolved which enable a more rapid and convenient analysis of phytoplankton samples and a more detailed assessment of small phytoplankton. In this study, a selection of these methods (in situ fluorescence, flow cytometry, genetic fingerprinting, and DNA microarray) was placed in complement to light microscopy and HPLC-based pigment analysis to investigate both biomass distribution and community structure of phytoplankton. As far as possible, the size classes were analyzed separately. Investigations were carried out on six cruises in the German Bight in 2010 and 2011 to analyze both spatial and seasonal variability. Microphytoplankton was identified as the major contributor to biomass in all seasons, followed by the nanophytoplankton. Generally, biomass distribution was patchy, but the overall contribution of small phytoplankton was higher in offshore areas and also in areas exhibiting higher turbidity. Regarding temporal development of the community, differences between the small phytoplankton community and the microphytoplankton were found. The latter exhibited a seasonal pattern regarding number of taxa present, alpha- and beta-diversity, and community structure, while for the nano- and especially the picophytoplankton, a general shift in the community between both years was observable without seasonality. Although the reason for this shift remains unclear, the results imply a different response of large and small phytoplankton to environmental influences.

Scholarly literature and the press: scientific impact and social perception of physics computing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pia, M G; Basaglia, T; Bell, Z W; Dressendorfer, P V

2014-01-01

The broad coverage of the search for the Higgs boson in the mainstream media is a relative novelty for high energy physics (HEP) research, whose achievements have traditionally been limited to scholarly literature. This paper illustrates the results of a scientometric analysis of HEP computing in scientific literature, institutional media and the press, and a comparative overview of similar metrics concerning representative particle physics measurements. The picture emerging from these scientometric data documents the relationship between the scientific impact and the social perception of HEP physics research versus that of HEP computing. The results of this analysis suggest that improved communication of the scientific and social role of HEP computing via press releases from the major HEP laboratories would be beneficial to the high energy physics community.

Scientific publications about DNA structure-function and PCR technique in Costa Rica: a historic view (1953-2003).

Science.gov (United States)

Albertazzi, Federico J

2004-09-01

The spreading of knowledge depends on the access to the information and its immediate use. Models are useful to explain specific phenomena. The scientific community accepts some models in Biology after a period of time, once it has evidence to support it. The model of the structure and function of the DNA proposed by Watson & Crick (1953) was not the exception, since a few years later the DNA model was finally accepted. In Costa Rica, DNA function was first mentioned in 1970, in the magazine Biologia Tropical (Tropical Biology Magazine), more than 15 years after its first publication in a scientific journal. An opposite situation occurs with technical innovations. If the efficiency of a new scientific technique is proved in a compelling way, then the acceptance by the community comes swiftly. This was the case of the polymerase chain reaction, or PCR. The first PCR machine in Costa Rica arrived in 1991, only three years after its publication.

Did "The Beaver" Question My Authority? Helping Children Learn about Respect

Science.gov (United States)

Meidl, Christopher; Meidl, Tynisha

2009-01-01

In trying to make sense of how to navigate the duality of approaches to how children learn respect toward others--the "takes a village" community-oriented approach (that includes teachers) or the "I know my child best/go it alone" family autonomy approach--teachers need to understand that families are trying to navigate "parenting" their children…

Learning as change: Responding to socio-scientific issues through informal education

Science.gov (United States)

Allen, Lauren Brooks

Informal learning is an important venue for educating the general public about complex socio-scientific issues: intersections of scientific understanding and society. My dissertation is a multi-tiered analysis of how informal education, and particularly informal educators, can leverage learning to respond to one particular socio-scientific issue: climate change. Life-long, life-wide, and life-deep learning not only about the science of climate change, but how communities and society as a whole can respond to it in ways that are commensurate with its scale are necessary. In my three-article dissertation, I investigated the changes in practice and learning that informal educators from a natural history museum underwent in the process of implementing a new type of field trip about climate change. This study focused on inquiry-based learning principles taken on by the museum educators, albeit in different ways: learner autonomy, conversation, and deep investigation. My second article, a short literature review, makes the argument that climate change education must have goals beyond simply increasing learners' knowledge of climate science, and proposes three research-based principles for such learning: participation, relevance, and interconnectedness. These principles are argued to promote learning to respond to climate change as well as increased collective efficacy, necessary for responding. Finally, my third article is an in-depth examination of a heterogeneous network of informal educators and environmental professionals who worked together to design and implement a city-wide platform for informal climate change learning. By conceptualizing climate change learning at the level of the learning ecology, educators and learners are able to see how it can be responded to at the community level, and understand how climate change is interconnected with other scientific, natural, and social systems. I briefly discuss a different socio-scientific issue to which these

FY 1990 scientific and technical reports, articles, papers, and presentations

Science.gov (United States)

Turner, Joyce E. (Compiler)

1990-01-01

Formal NASA technical reports, papers published in technical journals, and presentations by MSFC personnel in FY 90 are presented. Also included are papers of MSFC contractors. After being announced in STAR, all of the NASA series reports may be obtained from NTIS. The information may be of value to the scientific and engineering community in determining what information has been published and what is available.

The inventory of the Portuguese geological heritage: a good example of scientific cooperation between universities

Science.gov (United States)

Pereira, P.; Brilha, J.; Pereira, D.

2012-04-01

Initiatives of identification, protection, and valuation of the Portuguese abiotic natural heritage have been carried out mainly by the scientific community, and particularly by the academic community. The official institutions responsible for nature conservation have focused their policies primarily on biodiversity issues and the relevance of geoconservation in the Portuguese geological survey was always minor, compared with homologous institutions from countries like Spain, for example. In this context, the academic community has led geoconservation research and activities in Portugal, especially since the late 1990s, following the development of this theme in the European continent. The first systematic inventory of the Portuguese geological heritage is a clear example of the academic collaboration that characterizes the geoconservation in Portugal. Three hundred and twenty six geosites with international or national relevance have been inventoried under the scope of the scientific research project "Identification, characterisation and conservation of geological heritage: a geoconservation strategy for Portugal", financed by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology between 2007 and 2010 (PTDC/CTE-GEX/64966/2006). The inventory (one of the project's outputs) was coordinated by the University of Minho team with the participation of the universities of Algarve, Aveiro, Azores, Coimbra, Évora, Lisboa, Madeira, Nova de Lisboa, Porto, and Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro. The inventory procedures were based on the ProGEO methodology, i.e., definition of geological frameworks followed by the identification of representative geosites with national and international relevance for each framework. The geosites were selected exclusively based on their scientific value and support twenty-seven frameworks. For each geological framework a leading geoscientist from a university was responsible for the scientific characterization of the framework, to invite

[Ethical conflicts in the authorship of scientific papers].

Science.gov (United States)

von Oetinger, Astrid; Sadarangani, Kabir P; Salas, Sofía P

2016-11-01

The frequency of conflicts about authorship of publications has increased along with the increase in the number of people involved in scientific work. Some of the factors that strongly influence the generation of conflicts and malpractices in authorship definition of scientific publications are the pressure of academia, economic incentives from the pharmaceutical industry in the field of biomedicine and authors’ wishes and expectations of recognition, among other factors. The article analyzes this problem, increasingly common in the field of medicine and related areas. Special attention is devoted to the prevailing laws in our country and international guidelines related to intellectual property and authorship of scientific publications, respectively. However, the ethical commitment, intellectual honesty and truthfulness of each of the authors about what is reported seems to be the decisive factor for the solution to these authorship conflicts.

Climate Feedback: Bringing the Scientific Community to Provide Direct Feedback on the Credibility of Climate Media Coverage

Science.gov (United States)

Vincent, E. M.; Matlock, T.; Westerling, A. L.

2015-12-01

While most scientists recognize climate change as a major societal and environmental issue, social and political will to tackle the problem is still lacking. One of the biggest obstacles is inaccurate reporting or even outright misinformation in climate change coverage that result in the confusion of the general public on the issue.In today's era of instant access to information, what we read online usually falls outside our field of expertise and it is a real challenge to evaluate what is credible. The emerging technology of web annotation could be a game changer as it allows knowledgeable individuals to attach notes to any piece of text of a webpage and to share them with readers who will be able to see the annotations in-context -like comments on a pdf.Here we present the Climate Feedback initiative that is bringing together a community of climate scientists who collectively evaluate the scientific accuracy of influential climate change media coverage. Scientists annotate articles sentence by sentence and assess whether they are consistent with scientific knowledge allowing readers to see where and why the coverage is -or is not- based on science. Scientists also summarize the essence of their critical commentary in the form of a simple article-level overall credibility rating that quickly informs readers about the credibility of the entire piece.Web-annotation allows readers to 'hear' directly from the experts and to sense the consensus in a personal way as one can literaly see how many scientists agree with a given statement. It also allows a broad population of scientists to interact with the media, notably early career scientists.In this talk, we will present results on the impacts annotations have on readers -regarding their evaluation of the trustworthiness of the information they read- and on journalists -regarding their reception of scientists comments.Several dozen scientists have contributed to this effort to date and the system offers potential to

Cloud Bursting with GlideinWMS: Means to satisfy ever increasing computing needs for Scientific Workflows

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mhashilkar, Parag; Tiradani, Anthony; Holzman, Burt; Larson, Krista; Sfiligoi, Igor; Rynge, Mats

2014-01-01

Scientific communities have been in the forefront of adopting new technologies and methodologies in the computing. Scientific computing has influenced how science is done today, achieving breakthroughs that were impossible to achieve several decades ago. For the past decade several such communities in the Open Science Grid (OSG) and the European Grid Infrastructure (EGI) have been using GlideinWMS to run complex application workflows to effectively share computational resources over the grid. GlideinWMS is a pilot-based workload management system (WMS) that creates on demand, a dynamically sized overlay HTCondor batch system on grid resources. At present, the computational resources shared over the grid are just adequate to sustain the computing needs. We envision that the complexity of the science driven by 'Big Data' will further push the need for computational resources. To fulfill their increasing demands and/or to run specialized workflows, some of the big communities like CMS are investigating the use of cloud computing as Infrastructure-As-A-Service (IAAS) with GlideinWMS as a potential alternative to fill the void. Similarly, communities with no previous access to computing resources can use GlideinWMS to setup up a batch system on the cloud infrastructure. To enable this, the architecture of GlideinWMS has been extended to enable support for interfacing GlideinWMS with different Scientific and commercial cloud providers like HLT, FutureGrid, FermiCloud and Amazon EC2. In this paper, we describe a solution for cloud bursting with GlideinWMS. The paper describes the approach, architectural changes and lessons learned while enabling support for cloud infrastructures in GlideinWMS.

Shaping scientific attitude of biology education students through research-based teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Firdaus, Darmadi

2017-08-01

Scientific attitude is need of today's society for peaceful and meaningful living of every person in a multicultural world. A case study was conducted at the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, University of Riau, Pekanbaru in order to describe the scientific attitude that shaped by research-based teaching (RBT). Eighteen students of English for Biology bilingual program were selected from 88 regular students as a subject of the study. RBT designed consists of 9 steps: 1) field observations, 2) developing research proposals, 3) research proposal seminar, 4) field data collecting, 5) data analyzing & ilustrating, 6) writing research papers, 7) preparing power point slides, 8) creating a scientific poster, 9) seminar & poster session. Data were collected by using check list observation instuments during 14 weeks (course sessions), then analyzed by using descriptive-quantitative method. The results showed that RBT were able to shape critical-mindedness, suspended judgement, respect for evidence, honesty, objectivity, and questioning attitude as well as tolerance of uncertainty. These attitudes which shaped were varies according to every steps of learning activities. It's seems that the preparation of scientific posters and research seminar quite good in shaping the critical-mindedness, suspended judgment, respect for evidence, honesty, objectivity, and questioning attitude, as well as tolerance of uncertainty. In conclusion, the application of research-based teaching through the English for Biology courses could shape the students scientific attitudes. However, the consistency of the appearance of a scientific attitude in every stage of Biology-based RBT learning process need more intensive and critical assessment.

Technologies for Large Data Management in Scientific Computing

CERN Document Server

Pace, A

2014-01-01

In recent years, intense usage of computing has been the main strategy of investigations in several scientific research projects. The progress in computing technology has opened unprecedented opportunities for systematic collection of experimental data and the associated analysis that were considered impossible only few years ago. This paper focusses on the strategies in use: it reviews the various components that are necessary for an effective solution that ensures the storage, the long term preservation, and the worldwide distribution of large quantities of data that are necessary in a large scientific research project. The paper also mentions several examples of data management solutions used in High Energy Physics for the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments in Geneva, Switzerland which generate more than 30,000 terabytes of data every year that need to be preserved, analyzed, and made available to a community of several tenth of thousands scientists worldwide.

Pre-Service Elementary Teachers’ Scientific Literacy and Self-Efficacy in Teaching Science

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adam Al Sultan

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Many educators and educational institutions worldwide have agreed that the main goal of science education is to produce a scientifically literate community. Science teachers are key to the achievement of scientific literacy at all levels of education because of the essential role they play in preparing scientifically literate individuals. Studies show that pre-service elementary teachers need to build more confidence in teaching science and scientific literacy during their teacher education programs in order for them to successfully teach science knowledge to their students. Therefore, the purpose of this study is threefold. First, pre-service elementary teachers' scientific literacy levels were examined. Second, pre-service teachers' self-efficacy beliefs were measured by distinguishing between their personal and subject-specific self-efficacy beliefs. Third, the extent to which pre-service elementary teachers' scientific literacy levels and self-efficacy levels are related was investigated. Participants were 49 pre-service elementary teachers registered in two science methods courses (introductory and advanced at a mid-sized university in the United States. Quantitative data were collected using the Test of Basic Scientific Literacy, the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument-Preservice, and Beliefs about Teaching. Results showed that participants had a satisfactory level of scientific literacy. However, pre-service teachers had borderline scores on the Nature of Science scale. Regarding self-efficacy, findings showed that both groups had the highest self-efficacy in teaching biology and the lowest in teaching physics. Participants in the advanced science methods course exhibited a moderate preexisting positive relationship between scientific literacy and subject-specific self-efficacy in teaching science.

The arctic water resource vulnerability index: An integrated assessment tool for community resilience and vulnerability with respect to freshwater

Science.gov (United States)

Alessa, L.; Kliskey, A.; Lammers, R.; Arp, C.; White, D.; Hinzman, L.; Busey, R.

2008-01-01

People in the Arctic face uncertainty in their daily lives as they contend with environmental changes at a range of scales from local to global. Freshwater is a critical resource to people, and although water resource indicators have been developed that operate from regional to global scales and for midlatitude to equatorial environments, no appropriate index exists for assessing the vulnerability of Arctic communities to changing water resources at the local scale. The Arctic Water Resource Vulnerability Index (AWRVI) is proposed as a tool that Arctic communities can use to assess their relative vulnerability-resilience to changes in their water resources from a variety of biophysical and socioeconomic processes. The AWRVI is based on a social-ecological systems perspective that includes physical and social indicators of change and is demonstrated in three case study communities/watersheds in Alaska. These results highlight the value of communities engaging in the process of using the AWRVI and the diagnostic capability of examining the suite of constituent physical and social scores rather than the total AWRVI score alone. ?? 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

Leveraging Big Data for Exploring Occupational Diseases-Related Interest at the Level of Scientific Community, Media Coverage and Novel Data Streams: The Example of Silicosis as a Pilot Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Bragazzi, Nicola Luigi; Dini, Guglielmo; Toletone, Alessandra; Brigo, Francesco; Durando, Paolo

2016-01-01

Silicosis is an untreatable but preventable occupational disease, caused by exposure to silica. It can progressively evolve to lung impairment, respiratory failure and death, even after exposure has ceased. However, little is known about occupational diseases-related interest at the level of scientific community, media coverage and web behavior. This article aims at filling in this gap of knowledge, taking the silicosis as a case study. We investigated silicosis-related web-activities using Google Trends (GT) for capturing the Internet behavior worldwide in the years 2004-2015. GT-generated data were, then, compared with the silicosis-related scientific production (i.e., PubMed and Google Scholar), the media coverage (i.e., Google news), the Wikipedia traffic (i.e, Wikitrends) and the usage of new media (i.e., YouTube and Twitter). A peak in silicosis-related web searches was noticed in 2010-2011: interestingly, both scientific articles production and media coverage markedly increased after these years in a statistically significant way. The public interest and the level of the public engagement were witnessed by an increase in likes, comments, hashtags, and re-tweets. However, it was found that only a small fraction of the posted/uploaded material contained accurate scientific information. GT could be useful to assess the reaction of the public and the level of public engagement both to novel risk-factors associated to occupational diseases, and possibly related changes in disease natural history, and to the effectiveness of preventive workplace practices and legislative measures adopted to improve occupational health. Further, occupational clinicians should become aware of the topics most frequently searched by patients and proactively address these concerns during the medical examination. Institutional bodies and organisms should be more present and active in digital tools and media to disseminate and communicate scientifically accurate information. This

Maintaining respect and fairness in the usage of stored shared specimens.

Science.gov (United States)

Mduluza, Takafira; Midzi, Nicholas; Duruza, Donold; Ndebele, Paul

2013-01-01

Every year, research specimens are shipped from one institution to another as well as across national boundaries. A significant proportion of specimens move from poor to rich countries. Concerns are always raised on the future usage of the stored specimens shipped to research institutions from developing countries. Creating awareness of the processes is required in all sectors involved in biomedical research. To maintain fairness and respect in sharing biomedical specimens and research products requires safeguarding by Ethics Review Committees in both provider and recipient institutions. Training in basic ethical principles in research is required to all sectors involved in biomedical research so as to level up the research playing field. By agreeing to provide specimens, individuals and communities from whom samples are collected would have placed their trust and all ensuing up-keep of the specimens to the researchers. In most collaborative set-up, laid down material transfer agreements are negotiated and signed before the shipment of specimens. Researchers, research ethics committees (RECs) and institutions in the countries of origin are supposed to serve as overseers of the specimens. There is need to advocate for honesty in sample handling and sharing, and also need to oversee any written commitments by researchers, RECs and institutions at source as well as in recipient institution. Commitments from source RECs and Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) and in the receiving institution on overseeing the future usage of stored specimens are required; including the ultimate confirmation abiding by the agreement. Training in ethical issues pertaining to sample handling and biomedical research in general is essential at all levels of academic pursuit. While sharing of biological specimens and research data demands honesty and oversight by ethical regulatory agents from both institutions in developing country and recipient institutions in developed countries. Archiving

Extensional scientific realism vs. intensional scientific realism.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Seungbae

2016-10-01

Extensional scientific realism is the view that each believable scientific theory is supported by the unique first-order evidence for it and that if we want to believe that it is true, we should rely on its unique first-order evidence. In contrast, intensional scientific realism is the view that all believable scientific theories have a common feature and that we should rely on it to determine whether a theory is believable or not. Fitzpatrick argues that extensional realism is immune, while intensional realism is not, to the pessimistic induction. I reply that if extensional realism overcomes the pessimistic induction at all, that is because it implicitly relies on the theoretical resource of intensional realism. I also argue that extensional realism, by nature, cannot embed a criterion for distinguishing between believable and unbelievable theories. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

FY 1995 Scientific and Technical Reports, Articles, Papers, and Presentations, Volume 1

Science.gov (United States)

Turner, Joyce E. (Compiler)

1995-01-01

This document presents formal NASA technical reports, papers published in technical journals, and presentations by MSFC personnel in FY95. It also includes papers of MSFC contractors. The information in this report may be of value to the scientific and engineering community in determining what information has been published and what is available.

Scientific literacy and public education about high-level radioactive waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meyers, F.D.

1991-01-01

The citizens of the United States, and the author would tend to believe of other countries, must be sufficiently science literate to make intelligent, rational decisions regarding energy and mineral resource development policy; the social, economic and environmental impact of the policy; and, the treatment of waste products from these developments. The schools, higher education and community must, through a collaborative effort, establish programs for scientific literacy. This would include developing extensive in-service programs and the development of curriculum and materials to foster state-of-the-art centers for science, math and technology. To make a difference, to achieve scientific literacy, to assist citizens in making difficult, but extremely important, decisions about energy and nuclear waste will take determination, resources, leadership and time

The Place of Community in Social Work Practice Research: Conceptual and Methodological Developments

Science.gov (United States)

Coulton, Claudia

2005-01-01

Community is widely acknowledged as a fundamental aspect of social work practice, and this formulation distinguishes social work from other professions. Because of this long-standing tradition, social work needs to make a greater investment in producing scientific knowledge to enable community change and to incorporate community context into…

Beware of Geeks Bearing Gifts - Are we Meeting the Requirements of our User Communities?

Science.gov (United States)

Klump, J.

2007-12-01

The 20th century brought about an "information revolution" that has forever altered the way we work, communicate, and live. The way science has been conducted for the past 200 years has been challenged by new media of communication and for the dissemination of data. We now have the tools at hand, commonly called cyberinfrastructure, that enable new forms of global collaboration. But are we fully realising the potential of cyberinfrastructure? Has it become an integral part of our scientific culture? Tools developed in Earth and Space Science Informatics projects suffer the same effects like informatics developments in other fields. Many of the projects fail to meet user requirements, and they do so for a number of reasons. Besides a certain reluctance on the side of scientists to adopt new tools for conducting their research, many cyberinfrastructure projects suffer from "marketing myopia" (Levitt, 1960) in the way they try to "sell" their applications. According to Levitt, the difference between selling and marketing is that the former fulfils the needs of the seller and the latter the needs of the buyer. Cyberinfrastructure projects must stop trying to sell their achievements to the scientific community, and instead market them by considering the scientists" needs right at the beginning of their endeavours. Admittedly, the requirements of scientific user communities are "moving targets", because scientific workflows are often subject to ad-hoc changes, depending on the outcome of the preceding step. Another important risk factor, faced by many cyberinfrastructure projects, is that the designated user community is not aware of the availability of this new resource. This is where training and outreach are essential, especially to draw in early adopters of new technology and multipliers among researchers. Only cyberinfrastructure tools that truly serve their designated user community will eventually become part of the scientific infrastructure. This presentation

Supporting the scientific lifecycle through cloud services

Science.gov (United States)

Gensch, S.; Klump, J. F.; Bertelmann, R.; Braune, C.

2014-12-01

Cloud computing has made resources and applications available for numerous use cases ranging from business processes in the private sector to scientific applications. Developers have created tools for data management, collaborative writing, social networking, data access and visualization, project management and many more; either for free or as paid premium services with additional or extended features. Scientists have begun to incorporate tools that fit their needs into their daily work. To satisfy specialized needs, some cloud applications specifically address the needs of scientists for sharing research data, literature search, laboratory documentation, or data visualization. Cloud services may vary in extent, user coverage, and inter-service integration and are also at risk of being abandonend or changed by the service providers making changes to their business model, or leaving the field entirely.Within the project Academic Enterprise Cloud we examine cloud based services that support the research lifecycle, using feature models to describe key properties in the areas of infrastructure and service provision, compliance to legal regulations, and data curation. Emphasis is put on the term Enterprise as to establish an academic cloud service provider infrastructure that satisfies demands of the research community through continious provision across the whole cloud stack. This could enable the research community to be independent from service providers regarding changes to terms of service and ensuring full control of its extent and usage. This shift towards a self-empowered scientific cloud provider infrastructure and its community raises implications about feasability of provision and overall costs. Legal aspects and licensing issues have to be considered, when moving data into cloud services, especially when personal data is involved.Educating researchers about cloud based tools is important to help in the transition towards effective and safe use. Scientists

Lysimeter Research Group - A scientific community network for lysimeter research

Science.gov (United States)

Cepuder, Peter; Nolz, Reinhard; Bohner, Andreas; Baumgarten, Andreas; Klammler, Gernot; Murer, Erwin; Wimmer, Bernhard

2014-05-01

A lysimeter is a vessel that isolates a volume of soil between ground surface and a certain depth, and includes a sampling device for percolating water at its bottom. Lysimeters are traditionally used to study water and solute transport in the soil. Equipped with a weighing system, soil water sensors and temperature sensors, lysimeters are valuable instruments to investigate hydrological processes in the system soil-plant-atmosphere, especially fluxes across its boundary layers, e.g. infiltration, evapotranspiration and deep drainage. Modern lysimeter facilities measure water balance components with high precision and high temporal resolution. Hence, lysimeters are used in various research disciplines - such as hydrology, hydrogeology, soil science, agriculture, forestry, and climate change studies - to investigate hydrological, chemical and biological processes in the soil. The Lysimeter Research Group (LRG) was established in 1992 as a registered nonprofit association with free membership (ZVR number: 806128239, Austria). It is organized as an executive board with an international scientific steering committee. In the beginning the LRG focused mainly on nitrate contamination in Austria and its neighboring countries. Today the main intention of the LRG is to advance interdisciplinary exchange of information between researchers and users working in the field of lysimetry on an international level. The LRG also aims for the dissemination of scientific knowledge to the public and the support of decision makers. Main activities are the organization of a lysimeter conference every two years in Raumberg-Gumpenstein (Styria, Austria), the organization of excursions to lysimeter stations and related research sites around Europe, and the maintenance of a website (www.lysimeter.at). The website contains useful information about numerous European lysimeter stations regarding their infrastructure, instrumentation and operation, as well as related links and references which

Supporting National User Communities at NERSC and NCAR

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Killeen, Timothy L.; Simon, Horst D.

2006-05-16

The National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center(NERSC) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) are twocomputing centers that have traditionally supported large national usercommunities. Both centers have developed responsive approaches to supportthese user communities and their changing needs, providing end-to-endcomputing solutions. In this report we provide a short overview of thestrategies used at our centers in supporting our scientific users, withan emphasis on some examples of effective programs and futureneeds.

Towards a community effort to identify ethical principles for research in hydrology

Science.gov (United States)

Montanari, Alberto

2010-05-01

The hydrological community in Europe is growing rapidly in both size and, more importantly, scientific relevance and integrity. The Hydrological Sciences (HS) Division of EGU actively is promoting the above development by identifying research targets, stimulating the involvement of young scientists and managing a scientific open access journal based on a public peer review process. The management of the Division itself and the organisation of the General Assembly are carried out transparently, with the aim to seek an improved involvement of top and young scientists, with a bottom up approach. I believe the HS community is animated by a strong enthusiasm which, however, is not adequately supported by economical funding. In my opinion this is a major problem which HS should consider and discuss. The relevance of the societal and environmental problems dealt with by hydrologists, in a professional way and with exceptional scientific skills, is without doubt and therefore the limited amount of funding is not justified in practice. In my opinion, in order to refine the structure of the HS community, and promote its visibility, we should formally identify HS ethical principles for research in environmental science. The principles should highlight the role of hydrology as well as the ethical and scientific solidity of the HS community. Establishing ethical principles is even more important in view of the transparent approach HS is adopting for reviewing and publishing contributions and in view of the increasing need to transparently prove how public funding for research is administered. Establishing ethical principles for hydrology is not a trivial task. Hydrology is characterised by a relevant uncertainty in data, models and parameters. Hydrology is also relying on a large variety of approaches, ranging from statistical to physically based. The purpose of this poster is to present a collection of ethical principles for scientific research presented by the literature and

EFFECT SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY TEACHING MODELS AND SCIENTIFIC ATTITUDE TO PHYSICS STUDENT OUTCOMES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dian Clara Natalia Sihotang

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The objectives of this study were to determine whether: (1 the student’s achievement taught by using Scientific Inquiry Teaching Models is better than that of taught by using Direct Instruction; (2 the student’s achievement who have a high scientific attitude is better than student who have low scientific attitude; and (3 there is interaction between Scientific Inquiry Teaching Models and scientific attitude for the student’s achievement. The results of research are: (1 the student’s achievement given learning through Scientific Inquiry Teaching Models better than Direct Instruction; (2 the student’s achievement who have a high scientific attitude better than student who have low scientific attitude; and (3 there was interaction between Scientific Inquiry Teaching Models and scientific attitude for student’s achievement which this models is better to apply for student who have a high scientific attitude.

Wikimedia as a platform for scientific information

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2012-01-01

During this presentation the topics that will touched upon include various ways in which wikis are being used in scientific research and publishing, currently, as well as some that are more speculative. Many of the examples are drawn from the biological sciences, and the talk is intended to stimulate debate as to how the physics community - and CERN in particular - can enhance its interaction with the Wikimedia community, or via Wikimedia with the public at large. For instance: PLOS Computational Biology Topic Pages Wodak SJ, Mietchen D, Collings AM, Russell RB, Bourne PE (2012) "Topic Pages: PLoS Computational Biology Meets Wikipedia". PLoS Comput Biol 8(3): e1002446 Open Access Media Importer A proposed Wiki Journal, a peer-review journal to encourage academics to contribute Wikipedia articles Encyclopedia of Original Research and JATS-to-MediaWiki The Gene Wiki Wikigenes Wikis in Scholarly Publishing The Journal of the Future His talk is being draft...

New linked data on research investments: scientific workforce, productivity, and public value.

Science.gov (United States)

Lane, Julia; Owen-Smith, Jason; Rosen, Rebecca; Weinberg, Bruce

2015-11-01

Longitudinal micro-data derived from transaction level information about wage and vendor payments made by federal grants on multiple U.S. campuses are being developed in a partnership involving researchers, university administrators, representatives of federal agencies, and others. This paper describes the UMETRICS data initiative that has been implemented under the auspices of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation. The resulting data set reflects an emerging conceptual framework for analyzing the process, products, and impact of research. It grows from and engages the work of a diverse and vibrant community. This paper situates the UMETRICS effort in the context of research evaluation and ongoing data infrastructure efforts in order to highlight its novel and valuable features. Refocusing data construction in this field around individuals, networks, and teams offers dramatic possibilities for data linkage, the evaluation of research investments, and the development of rigorous conceptual and empirical models. Two preliminary analyses of the scientific workforce and network approaches to characterizing scientific teams ground a discussion of future directions and a call for increased community engagement.

'Bio-corrosion 2012' - From advanced techniques towards scientific perspectives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Feron, Damien; Neumann, Eberhard

2014-01-01

The annual European corrosion congress EUROCORR 2012, September 9 to 13, 2012 in Istanbul (Turkey) had organized a larger session on 'microbial corrosion', with the aim at bringing the more technical aspects and the results of the various groups in the BIOCOR network, to the attention of the larger scientific community. The three days of the session had been co-organized by Turid Liegen, head of the Working Party of the European Federation of Corrosion on microbial corrosion (EFC WP 10) and Regine Basseguy, leader of the European program BIOCOR ITN; the session included 27 oral presentations and 10 posters. The session on industrial and technical approaches of bio-corrosion phenomena demonstrated impressively the results on improved scientific analysis, more detailed mechanisms as well as future perspectives. The great resonance of the session led the organizers to the idea of gathering the main contributions in a special issue of a multidisciplinary bioelectrochemical journal. Alain Bergel, Associate Editor of the interdisciplinary journal Bioelectrochemistry, proposed to document in this journal, the results and discussions on 'Technical Biocorrosion' thereby providing a document for strengthening the scientific basis of this economically so important field. The ambitious aim of this special issue includes drawing the attention of 'traditional biological electrochemistry' to the scientific and technical aspects of bio-corrosion in general. (authors)

Trusted Sources: The Role Scientific Societies Can Play in Improving Public Opinions on Climate Change

Science.gov (United States)

McEntee, C.; Cairns, A.; Buhrman, J.

2012-12-01

Public acceptance of the scientific consensus regarding climate change has eroded and misinformation designed to confuse the public is rapidly proliferating. Those issues, combined with an increase of politically motivated attacks on climate scientists and their research, have led to a place where ideology can trump scientific consensus as the foundation for developing policy solutions. The scientific community has been, thus far, unprepared to respond effectively to these developments. However, as a scientific society whose members engage in climate science research, and one whose organizational mission and vision are centered on the concepts of science for the benefit of humanity and ensuring a sustainable future, the American Geophysical Union can, and should, play an important role in reversing this trend. To that end, in 2011, AGU convened a Leadership Summit on Climate Science Communication, in which presidents, executive directors, and senior public policy staff from 17 scientific organizations engaged with experts in the social sciences regarding effective communication of climate science and with practitioners from agriculture, energy, and the military. The discussions focused on three key issues: the environment of climate science communication; public understanding of climate change; and the perspectives of consumers of climate science-based information who work with specific audiences. Participants diagnosed previous challenges and failings, enumerated the key constituencies that need to be effectively engaged, and identified the critical role played by cultural cognition—the influence of group values, particularly around equality and authority, individualism, and community; and the perceptions of risk. Since that meeting, AGU has consistently worked to identify and explore ways that it, and its members, and improve the effectiveness of their communication with the public about climate change. This presentation will focus on the insights AGU has

Latest Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) services and innovative tools supporting the space weather research and operational communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Mendoza, A. M. M.; Rastaetter, L.; Kuznetsova, M. M.; Mays, M. L.; Chulaki, A.; Shim, J. S.; MacNeice, P. J.; Taktakishvili, A.; Collado-Vega, Y. M.; Weigand, C.; Zheng, Y.; Mullinix, R.; Patel, K.; Pembroke, A. D.; Pulkkinen, A. A.; Boblitt, J. M.; Bakshi, S. S.; Tsui, T.

2017-12-01

The Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC), with the fundamental goal of aiding the transition of modern space science models into space weather forecasting while supporting space science research, has been serving as an integral hub for over 15 years, providing invaluable resources to both space weather scientific and operational communities. CCMC has developed and provided innovative web-based point of access tools varying from: Runs-On-Request System - providing unprecedented global access to the largest collection of state-of-the-art solar and space physics models, Integrated Space Weather Analysis (iSWA) - a powerful dissemination system for space weather information, Advanced Online Visualization and Analysis tools for more accurate interpretation of model results, Standard Data formats for Simulation Data downloads, and Mobile apps to view space weather data anywhere to the scientific community. In addition to supporting research and performing model evaluations, CCMC also supports space science education by hosting summer students through local universities. In this poster, we will showcase CCMC's latest innovative tools and services, and CCMC's tools that revolutionized the way we do research and improve our operational space weather capabilities. CCMC's free tools and resources are all publicly available online (http://ccmc.gsfc.nasa.gov).

SPHEREx: Science Opportunities for the Astronomical Community

Science.gov (United States)

Cooray, Asantha; SPHEREx Science Team

2018-01-01

SPHEREx, a mission in NASA's Medium Explorer (MIDEX) program that was selected for Phase A study in August 2017, will perform an all-sky near-infrared spectral survey between 0.75 - 5.0 microns. The survey will reach 18.3 AB mag (5 sigma) in R=41 filters, with R=135 coverage between 4.2 - 5.0 microns. The key science topics of the SPHEREx team are: (a) primordial non-Gaussianity through 3-dimensional galaxy clustering; (b) extragalactic background light fluctuations; and (c) ices and biogenic molecules in the interstellar medium and towards protoplanetary environments.The large legacy dataset of SPHEREx will enable a large number of scientific studies and find interesting targets for follow-up observations with Hubble, JWST, ALMA, among other facilities. The SPHEREx catalog will include 1.4 billion galaxies, with redshifts secured for more than 10 and 120 million with fractional accuracies in error/(1+z) better than 0.3% and 3%, respectively. The spectral coverage and resolution provided by SPHEREx are adequate to determine redshifts for most WISE-detected sources with an accuracy better than 3%. The catalog will contain close to 1.5 million quasars including 300 bright QSOs at z > 7 during the epoch of reionization, based on observational extrapolations. The catalog will be adequate to obtain redshifts for all 25,000 galaxy clusters expected to be detected in X-rays with e-Rosita. SPHEREx produces all-sky maps of the Galactic emission lines, including hydrocarbon emission around 3 microns.In this poster, we will show example science studies the broader astronomical community will be able to lead using the SPHEREx database. We will also outline existing plans within the SPHEREx team to develop software tools to enable easy access to the data and to conduct catalog searches, and ways in which the community can provide input to the SPHEREx Science Team on scientific studies and data/software requirements for those studies. The team is eager to develop best software

The EGS Data Collaboration Platform: Enabling Scientific Discovery

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Weers, Jonathan D [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Johnston, Henry [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Huggins, Jay V [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2018-02-14

Collaboration in the digital age has been stifled in recent years. Reasonable responses to legitimate security concerns have created a virtual landscape of silos and fortified castles incapable of sharing information efficiently. This trend is unfortunately opposed to the geothermal scientific community's migration toward larger, more collaborative projects. To facilitate efficient sharing of information between team members from multiple national labs, universities, and private organizations, the 'EGS Collab' team has developed a universally accessible, secure data collaboration platform and has fully integrated it with the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Geothermal Data Repository (GDR) and the National Geothermal Data System (NGDS). This paper will explore some of the challenges of collaboration in the modern digital age, highlight strategies for active data management, and discuss the integration of the EGS Collab data management platform with the GDR to enable scientific discovery through the timely dissemination of information.

Motives for metaphor in scientific and technical communication

CERN Document Server

Giles, Timothy D

2017-01-01

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

Scientific support of nuclear energy in Bulgaria

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stamenov, Y.; Ilieva, K.; Ruskov, T.

2002-01-01

Taking into consideration the scientific and technical potential of the Institute and actual for this country problems, yet 3-4 years ago the priority tasks with application character were clearly defined: Safety of nuclear energy; The problems of radioactive waste; Ecology: control and monitoring of environment; Information maintenance. Specialists of the INRNE have been studying various problems and tasks intended to the scientific support of nuclear energy, which are of crucial national significance with respect to ensuring a high level of safety, an optimization of processes and effectiveness of operation of the Kozloduy NPP. These are programmes, accomplished in narrow collaboration with domestic, foreign and International institutions. In this relation, the more substantial examples of programmes and tasks, carried out by the INRNE are pointed out

A web community to foster science in developing countries: www.ictp.it

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Canessa, E [Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste (Italy); Fonda, E; Zennaro, M; Sreenivasan, K R [Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste (Italy)

2005-01-01

The experiences with the new ICTP website, aiming to satisfy the needs of a modem and appealing image as well as provide tailored on-line information and services to its scientists (in-house and around the world), are discussed as a case-study of an emerging web-based international community. This approach, which to our knowledge has not been similarly employed by the scientific community in the past, keeps in mind the special audience and the uniqueness of the ICTP scientific structure and organization. The present approach is a decentralized architecture that offers space and freedom for creativity specific to various scientific programs, while managing a minimal amount of common structure. The new website was developed using open source technologies and web standards certified by W3C. (author)

Humility and respect: core values in medical education.

Science.gov (United States)

Gruppen, Larry D

2014-01-01

Many of the values and behaviours described in the original Hippocratic Oath are relevant to medical education. In particular, the values of intellectual humility and respect for one's colleagues are essential in all scientific disciplines. There are three contexts within medical education from which to consider humility and respect: uncertainty; theory, and colleagues. As medical education grows in scope and participation, we will be required to acknowledge that we 'know not' with increasing frequency. The uncertainty of what we do and do not know is compounded by uncertainty about whether ignorance is individual or corporate. As difficult as it is to admit that we 'know not', it is dangerous NOT to recognise the limits of our knowledge and experience. Theories are critical tools in understanding complex phenomena. They identify constructs and relationships that are important and those that are irrelevant. We tend to forget that theories are models or simplified representations of reality and not in themselves 'truths'. Viewing problems from other theoretical perspectives can widen our horizons by allowing us to identify possibly important concepts and relationships that we have not considered. Colleagues are invaluable for helping us respond to our 'knowing not' and for providing alternative perspectives when our theories lead us astray. However, colleagues come in many guises and include close colleagues, as well as those in distant fields. As obviously desirable as humility and respect seem to be, there are conflicts that prevent us from being humble and respectful. Such conflicts include other salient professional values, such as critical scepticism, competition and confidence. Adoption of the values of humility and respect in medical education can be fostered through intentional behaviours, both as individuals and as a discipline. We can deliberately seek to broaden our horizons to promote intellectual humility. We can foster collaboration among colleagues

Global artificial photosynthesis project: a scientific and legal introduction.

Science.gov (United States)

Faunce, Thomas

2011-12-01

With the global human population set to exceed 10 billion by 2050, its collective energy consumption to rise from 400 to over 500 EJ/yr and with the natural environment under increasing pressure from these sources as well as from anthropogenic climate change, political solutions such as the creation of an efficient carbon price and trading scheme may arrive too late. In this context, the scientific community is exploring technological remedies. Central to these options is artificial photosynthesis--the creation, particularly through nanotechnology, of devices capable to doing what plants have done for millions of years - transforming sunlight, water and carbon dioxide into food and fuel. This article argues that a Global Artificial Photosynthesis (GAP) project can raise the public profile and encourage the pace, complexity and funding of scientific collaborations in artificial photosynthesis research. The legal structure of a GAP project will be critical to prevent issues such as state sovereignty over energy and food resources and corporate intellectual monopoly privileges unduly inhibiting the important contribution of artificial photosynthesis to global public health and environmental sustainability. The article presents an introduction to the scientific and legal concepts behind a GAP project.

The Potential of the Cell Processor for Scientific Computing

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Williams, Samuel; Shalf, John; Oliker, Leonid; Husbands, Parry; Kamil, Shoaib; Yelick, Katherine

2005-10-14

The slowing pace of commodity microprocessor performance improvements combined with ever-increasing chip power demands has become of utmost concern to computational scientists. As a result, the high performance computing community is examining alternative architectures that address the limitations of modern cache-based designs. In this work, we examine the potential of the using the forth coming STI Cell processor as a building block for future high-end computing systems. Our work contains several novel contributions. We are the first to present quantitative Cell performance data on scientific kernels and show direct comparisons against leading superscalar (AMD Opteron), VLIW (IntelItanium2), and vector (Cray X1) architectures. Since neither Cell hardware nor cycle-accurate simulators are currently publicly available, we develop both analytical models and simulators to predict kernel performance. Our work also explores the complexity of mapping several important scientific algorithms onto the Cells unique architecture. Additionally, we propose modest microarchitectural modifications that could significantly increase the efficiency of double-precision calculations. Overall results demonstrate the tremendous potential of the Cell architecture for scientific computations in terms of both raw performance and power efficiency.

Scientific Popularization in Brazil and in Russia: An Essay to a Comparative Analysis of Discourses

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sheila Vieira de Camargo Grillo

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The objective of this article is to conduct a comparative analysis of scientific popularization in Brazil and in Russia. The theoretical and methodological basis of this comparison was provided by combining Bakhtin's theory and comparative discourse analysis, present in the works of the Cediscor researchers. Based on it, we constructed a corpus of utterances of the Brazilian and Russian editions of the Scientific American magazine. As a result, we were able to observe, on the one hand, significant similarities in the genres "article" and "report of scientific popularization" in both ethno-linguistic communities, and, on the other hand, differences regarding their relation with reported speech and the use of verbal tenses and moods.

Virtual Communities of Collaborative Learning for Higher Education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gilda E. Sotomayor

2014-11-01

Full Text Available This article aims to outline and project three new learning scenarios for Higher Education that, after the emergence of ICT and communication through the Network-lnternet, have come under the generic name of virtual communities. To that end, we start from a previous conceptual analysis on collaborative learning, cooperative learning and related concepts taking place in these communities and serving as a basis for sorting them into three types in particular: communities of educational work of professional practice and scientific knowledge. Virtual communities where the activities undertaken and skills acquired are set as important parts of our personal learning development, wich are necessary to build the Knowledge Society.

Scientific Knowledge, Popularisation, and the Use of Metaphors: Modern Genetics in Popular Science Magazines

Science.gov (United States)

Pramling, Niklas; Saljo, Roger

2007-01-01

The article reports an empirical study of how authors in popular science magazines attempt to render scientific knowledge intelligible to wide audiences. In bridging the two domains of "popular" and "scientific" knowledge, respectively, metaphor becomes central. We ask the empirical question of what metaphors are used when communicating about…

The Relationship between Social Movements, ICT and Social Change According to the Scientific Community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Belén Casas

2017-11-01

Full Text Available The rapid spread of the information and communication technologies (ICTs has changed the way social movements use Public Communication and will do so again in the future. This paper provides an analysis of the academic literature related to the influence of the ICT transformations on social movements and its consequences for social consent. The study is based on one of the dimensions of the R&D: “Social Production of Communication and Social Reproduction in the Globalization Era”. This is done through a content analysis of the representations offered by scientific institutions that mediate the social reproduction of meaning. Within the theoretical framework of the Social Production of Communication, the implemented analysis includes a corpus of 180 future scenarios from scientific and technical literature in this field. The findings suggest that the ICTs promote agreement between various social groups, but this might simultaneously trigger conflicts with other institutions or governments.

Rape in Armed Conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo: A Systematic Review of the Scientific Literature.

Science.gov (United States)

Kabengele Mpinga, Emmanuel; Koya, Mapendo; Hasselgard-Rowe, Jennifer; Jeannot, Emilien; Rehani, Sylvie B; Chastonay, Philippe

2017-12-01

We conducted a systematic review of the scientific literature between 1996 and 2013 on rape in war-ridden Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in order to better understand the interest of the scientific community in describing the magnitude and characteristics of the problem. The literature search was conducted in French and English using several databases (Pubmed, PsycInfo, Sapphire, BDSP, Embase, Rero, and Web of Science) with the key words "rape and DRC" combined with several Medical Subject Headings concepts. Our systematic review yielded 2,087 references, among which only 27 are original studies, that is 20 are based on population surveys and the remaining 7 are original data based on case studies and reviews. Ten studies provided prevalence rates of rape victims, 18 provided specific information on the profile of the victims, 10 reported that most of the perpetrators of rape were military personnel, 14 referred to the negligence of the government in protecting victims, and 10 reported a lack of competent health-care facilities. The awareness of rape in conflict-ridden DRC is still limited as reported in the scientific literature: Published scientific papers are scarce. Yet more research would probably help mobilize local authorities and the international community against this basic human rights violation.

Strengthening the scientific basis of radiological protection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lazo, Edward

2016-01-01

The overarching objective of the radiological protection system is to contribute to an appropriate level of protection against the harmful effects of radiation exposure, without unjustifiably limiting the desired results from the human activity causing exposure. Such a balance is achieved by understanding as best as possible the scientific characteristics of radiation exposure and the related health effects, and by taking this knowledge into consideration when judging which protection decisions will ensure the best balance between social and economic aspects and risks. In general, the existing radiological protection system, on which national regulations are built in virtually every country in the world, works well and does not underestimate protection needs for either individuals or exposed populations as a whole. The latest International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) recommendations, which define this protection system, were formed after a long and open dialogue with the public, where expert views were actively collected and discussed at national, regional and international levels. Although the radiological protection system is very effective, and there is no current need for a prompt revision, it is important nonetheless to keep a watchful eye on the latest scientific results, and to work to ensure that the entire radiological protection community is kept up to date on evolving and emerging scientific issues. In this way, potential or actual scientific changes can be appropriately identified and in turn can stimulate reflection on changes that might be needed in the protection system, in policy, in regulation and in practice. Such reflection should benefit from the input of other scientific disciplines and interested stakeholders. To contribute to this process, the NEA Committee on Radiological Protection and Public Health (CRPPH) has periodically reviewed and released reports on the state of the art in radiological protection science (see NEA

Exploration of Korean Students' Scientific Imagination Using the Scientific Imagination Inventory

Science.gov (United States)

Mun, Jiyeong; Mun, Kongju; Kim, Sung-Won

2015-01-01

This article reports on the study of the components of scientific imagination and describes the scales used to measure scientific imagination in Korean elementary and secondary students. In this study, we developed an inventory, which we call the Scientific Imagination Inventory (SII), in order to examine aspects of scientific imagination. We…

Theoretical framework of community education improvement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zaúl Brizuela Castillo

2015-05-01

Full Text Available The paper explains the connection between the approach selected for the analysis and development of community education and the contradictions manifested in its theoretical and practical comprehension. As a result, a comprehensive model for community education, describing the theoretical and methodological framework to improve community education, is devised. This framework is based on a conscious organizing of educative influences applied to the regular task of the community under the coordinate action of social institutions and organization that promote the transformational action of the neighborhood assuming a protagonist role in the improvement of the quality of live and morals related to the socialism updating process. The comprehensive model was proved experimentally at District 59 of San Miguel town; the transformation of the community was scientifically registered together with the information gather by means of observation and interviewing. The findings proved the pertinence and feasibility of the proposed model.

Lab Coats or Trench Coats? Detective Sleuthing as an Alternative to Scientifically Based Research in Indigenous Educational Communities

Science.gov (United States)

Kaomea, Julie

2013-01-01

Amidst late 19th-century efforts to emphasize modern medicine's transition to a more scientific approach, physicians seeking to represent themselves as scientists began wearing white laboratory coats. Today educational researchers are likewise urged to don metaphorical white coats as scientifically based research is held up as the cure-all for our…

Science and Technology Output Indicators in the Islamic Republic of Iran: A Case Study on the Relevance between Patents and Scientific Products of Iranian Inventors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohamad Alaee Arani

2012-10-01

Full Text Available The output of scientific products represents the efforts of scientific and industrial communities. The study on this output shows scientific attitudes and approaches of a community towards world of science. Quantitative studies can give a representation of the size and extent of the scientific efforts of researchers in special occasions, or a particular society. Patents are one of these important outputs. In this study, the names of Iranian inventors were extracted by carrying a combined search and the analysis of patent data available through Europe Patent Office (EPO, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO, Japan Patent Office (JPO, and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO databases. Inventors amount of scientific products were also evaluated by using citation indexes in Thompson Reuters (formerly ISI Web of Science. Content analysis research method was adopted. Results of this study reported no significant correlation was found between scientific output and patent application. Findings also indicated a 6.5 percent contribution of patent researcher in comparison with non-patent researchers of Iranian indexed articles by Web of Science.

Scientific guidelines for preservation of samples collected from Mars

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gooding, J.L.

1990-04-01

The maximum scientific value of Martian geologic and atmospheric samples is retained when the samples are preserved in the conditions that applied prior to their collection. Any sample degradation equates to loss of information. Based on detailed review of pertinent scientific literature, and advice from experts in planetary sample analysis, number values are recommended for key parameters in the environmental control of collected samples with respect to material contamination, temperature, head-space gas pressure, ionizing radiation, magnetic fields, and acceleration/shock. Parametric values recommended for the most sensitive geologic samples should also be adequate to preserve any biogenic compounds or exobiological relics

SCWEB, Scientific Workstation Evaluation Benchmark

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Raffenetti, R C [Computing Services-Support Services Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, Illinois 60439 (United States)

1988-06-16

1 - Description of program or function: The SCWEB (Scientific Workstation Evaluation Benchmark) software includes 16 programs which are executed in a well-defined scenario to measure the following performance capabilities of a scientific workstation: implementation of FORTRAN77, processor speed, memory management, disk I/O, monitor (or display) output, scheduling of processing (multiprocessing), and scheduling of print tasks (spooling). 2 - Method of solution: The benchmark programs are: DK1, DK2, and DK3, which do Fourier series fitting based on spline techniques; JC1, which checks the FORTRAN function routines which produce numerical results; JD1 and JD2, which solve dense systems of linear equations in double- and single-precision, respectively; JD3 and JD4, which perform matrix multiplication in single- and double-precision, respectively; RB1, RB2, and RB3, which perform substantial amounts of I/O processing on files other than the input and output files; RR1, which does intense single-precision floating-point multiplication in a tight loop, RR2, which initializes a 512x512 integer matrix in a manner which skips around in the address space rather than initializing each consecutive memory cell in turn; RR3, which writes alternating text buffers to the output file; RR4, which evaluates the timer routines and demonstrates that they conform to the specification; and RR5, which determines whether the workstation is capable of executing a 4-megabyte program

Shared scientific thinking in everyday parent-child activity

Science.gov (United States)

Crowley, Kevin; Callanan, Maureen A.; Jipson, Jennifer L.; Galco, Jodi; Topping, Karen; Shrager, Jeff

2001-11-01

Current accounts of the development of scientific reasoning focus on individual children's ability to coordinate the collection and evaluation of evidence with the creation of theories to explain the evidence. This observational study of parent-child interactions in a children's museum demonstrated that parents shape and support children's scientific thinking in everyday, nonobligatory activity. When children engaged an exhibit with parents, their exploration of evidence was observed to be longer, broader, and more focused on relevant comparisons than children who engaged the exhibit without their parents. Parents were observed to talk to children about how to select and encode appropriate evidence and how to make direct comparisons between the most informative kinds of evidence. Parents also sometimes assumed the role of explainer by casting children's experience in causal terms, connecting the experience to prior knowledge, or introducing abstract principles. We discuss these findings with respect to two dimensions of children's scientific thinking: developments in evidence collection and developments in theory construction.

Optimizing Communications Between Arctic Residents and IPY Scientific Researchers

Science.gov (United States)

Stapleton, M.; Carpenter, L.

2007-12-01

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

Mapping the dengue scientific landscape worldwide: a bibliometric and network analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Mota, Fabio Batista; Fonseca, Bruna de Paula Fonseca E; Galina, Andréia Cristina; Silva, Roseli Monteiro da

2017-05-01

Despite the current global trend of reduction in the morbidity and mortality of neglected diseases, dengue's incidence has increased and occurrence areas have expanded. Dengue also persists as a scientific and technological challenge since there is no effective treatment, vaccine, vector control or public health intervention. Combining bibliometrics and social network analysis methods can support the mapping of dengue research and development (R&D) activities worldwide. The aim of this paper is to map the scientific scenario related to dengue research worldwide. We use scientific publication data from Web of Science Core Collection - articles indexed in Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED) - and combine bibliometrics and social network analysis techniques to identify the most relevant journals, scientific references, research areas, countries and research organisations in the dengue scientific landscape. Our results show a significant increase of dengue publications over time; tropical medicine and virology as the most frequent research areas and biochemistry and molecular biology as the most central area in the network; USA and Brazil as the most productive countries; and Mahidol University and Fundação Oswaldo Cruz as the main research organisations and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention as the most central organisation in the collaboration network. Our findings can be used to strengthen a global knowledge platform guiding policy, planning and funding decisions as well as to providing directions to researchers and institutions. So that, by offering to the scientific community, policy makers and public health practitioners a mapping of the dengue scientific landscape, this paper has aimed to contribute to upcoming debates, decision-making and planning on dengue R&D and public health strategies worldwide.

Scientific literacy of adult participants in an online citizen science project

Science.gov (United States)

Price, Charles Aaron

Citizen Science projects offer opportunities for non-scientists to take part in scientific research. Scientific results from these projects have been well documented. However, there is limited research about how these projects affect their volunteer participants. In this study, I investigate how participation in an online, collaborative astronomical citizen science project can be associated with the scientific literacy of its participants. Scientific literacy is measured through three elements: attitude towards science, belief in the nature of science and competencies associated with learning science. The first two elements are measured through a pre-test given to 1,385 participants when they join the project and a post-test given six months later to 125 participants. Attitude towards science was measured using nine Likert-items custom designed for this project and beliefs in the nature of science were measured using a modified version of the Nature of Science Knowledge scale. Responses were analyzed using the Rasch Rating Scale Model. Competencies are measured through analysis of discourse occurring in online asynchronous discussion forums using the Community of Inquiry framework, which describes three types of presence in the online forums: cognitive, social and teaching. Results show that overall attitudes did not change, p = .225. However, there was significant change towards attitudes about science in the news (positive) and scientific self efficacy (negative), p impact on some aspects of scientific literacy. Using the Rasch Model allowed us to uncover effects that may have otherwise been hidden. Future projects may want to include social interactivity between participants and also make participants specifically aware of how they are contributing to the entire scientific process.

PROMISE: A preliminary study of a scientific information system for MIPAS satellite experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kapetanios, E.

1993-08-01

A scientific information system for MIPAS satellite experiment will be presented according to its main hardware and software configuration. It will be considered as a MIPAS data processing and archiving node of the ground segment of the planned satellite mission for the remote sensing of atmospheric parameters, as well as an information system supporting the researchers in their scientific environment. In this preliminary study, the methodology of a more detailed system design has also been specified. The system consists of two logical components, an operational database for the generation, storage and management of vast amounts of MIPAS data received from the satellite, and the research and development database, which must be interfaced to the operational one, providing a more abstract and user-friendly interface for the scientific community enabling experimentation and the extraction of the information needed. (orig.) [de

On the role of scientists and scientific organizations: A question of leadership

Science.gov (United States)

Lynch, B. J.; Driver, S.

2010-12-01

The National Research Council (NRC) series of reports on climate change, published in May, 2010, represent the scientific establishment's response in the wake of Copenhagen. The popular sentiment among students, the environmental movement and the concerned public includes, understandably, a fair amount of confusion and a great deal of disillusionment and disappointment -- not just at the national and international political bodies and individual political leaders -- but with the ambivalence of the scientists and scientific organizations to waging a real fight for substantial and effective change. If the scientific community and the environmental movement learns anything from Copenhagen it is that the existing powers-that-be are incapable of even putting forward, let alone implementing, a sound and rational response to the climate change and environmental crisis. The prevalent (and all too passive) attitude is that the role of scientists and scientific organizations is merely to supply the policy makers, corporations, and governmental entities with the facts, the objective conditions, our best scientific understanding possible, and that's it. The scientific community must reject this attitude and this approach. Leaving the social, political and economic responses, regulation, and implementation in the hands of the politicians -- whom we are advising -- means we accomplish nothing and are accepting the patently false conclusion "there is nothing realistic that can be done". As is true for all political questions, the national and international response to climate change is a question of power and the relative balance of forces between people, governments, and corporations with competing and often directly counter-posed interests. The role scientists and scientific organizations must play is to weigh in on the side of the vast majority of the world's population, side with the countries and peoples of the developing world who are suffering and will continue to suffer

Sustainable and Healthy Communities 2015 Research Accomplishments (Annual Report)

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Program scientists—together with input from their partners from EPA program and regional offices, state environmental management agencies, community decision-makers, and the scientific community—are embracing a truly cross-disciplinary research portfolio.

The globalization of health research: harnessing the scientific diaspora.

Science.gov (United States)

Anand, Nalini P; Hofman, Karen J; Glass, Roger I

2009-04-01

The scientific diaspora is a unique resource for U.S. universities. By drawing on the expertise, experience, and catalytic potential of diaspora scientists, universities can capitalize more fully on their diverse intellectual resources to make lasting contributions to global health. This article examines the unique contributions of the diaspora in international research collaborations, advantages of harnessing the diaspora and benefits to U.S. universities of fostering these collaborations, challenges faced by scientists who want to work with their home countries, examples of scientists engaging with their home countries, and specific strategies U.S. universities and donors can implement to catalyze these collaborations. The contributions of the diaspora to the United States are immense: International students enrolled in academic year 2007-2008 contributed an estimated $15 billion to the U.S. economy. As scientific research becomes increasingly global, the percentage of scientific publications with authors from foreign countries has grown from 8% in 1988 to 20% in 2005. Diaspora scientists can help build trusting relationships with scientists abroad, and international collaborations may improve the health of underserved populations at home. Although opportunities for diaspora networks are increasing, most home countries often lack enabling policies, infrastructure, and resources to effectively utilize their diaspora communities abroad. This article examines how some governments have successfully mobilized their scientific diaspora to become increasingly engaged in their national research agendas. Recommendations include specific strategies, including those that encourage U.S. universities to promote mini-sabbaticals and provide seed funding and flexible time frames.

International Scientific Data, Standards, and Digital Libraries: An NSF NSDL (U.S. and CODATA Workshop

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura M Bartolo

2006-11-01

Full Text Available There is little debate that recent advances in information technology (IT are revolutionizing the practice of science and expanding its impact on global society. It is still debatable whether the transformation can take full advantage of these advances without open, international standards, embraced by the scientific community. Accompanying the increases in computing power and bandwidth, considerable discussion has surfaced about the availability and exchange of scientific data. Common themes in the dialogue underscore the need for new visions of data organization, storage, and dissemination (Nature Editorial, 2005.

Student Scientific Research within Communities-of-Practice

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Genet, Russell; Armstrong, James; Blanko, Philip; Boyce, Grady Boyce, Pat; Brewer, Mark; Buchheim, Robert; Calanog, Jae; Castaneda, Diana; Chamberlin, Rebecca; Clark, R. Kent; Collins, Dwight; Conti, Dennis Cormier, Sebastien; Fitzgerald, Michael; Estrada, Chris; Estrada, Reed; Freed, Rachel Gomez, Edward; Hardersen, Paul; Harshaw, Richard; Johnson, Jolyon Kafka, Stella; Kenney, John; Mohanan, Kakkala; Ridgely, John; Rowe, David Silliman, Mark; Stojimirovic, Irena; Tock, Kalee; Walker, Douglas; Wallen, Vera

2017-06-01

Social learning theory suggests that students who wish to become scientists will benefit by being active researchers early in their educational careers. As coauthors of published research, they identify themselves as scientists. This provides them with the inspiration, motivation, and staying power that many will need to complete the long educational process. This hypothesis was put to the test over the past decade by a one-semester astronomy research seminar where teams of students managed their own research. Well over a hundred published papers coauthored by high school and undergraduate students at a handful of schools substantiated this hypothesis. However, one could argue that this was a special case. Astronomy, after all, is supported by a large professional-amateur community-of-practice. Furthermore, the specific area of research-double star astrometry-was chosen because the observations could be quickly made, the data reduction and analysis was straight forward, and publication of the research was welcomed by the Journal of Double Star Observations. A recently initiated seminar development and expansion program-supported in part by the National Science Foundation-is testing a more general hypothesis that: (1) the seminar can be successfully adopted by many other schools; (2) research within astronomy can be extended from double star astrometry to time series photometry of variable stars, exoplanet transits, and asteroids; and (3) the seminar model can be extended to a science beyond astronomy: environmental science-specifically atmospheric science. If the more general hypothesis is also supported, seminars that similarly feature published high school and undergraduate student team research could have the potential to significantly improve science education by increasing the percentage of students who complete the education required to become professional scientists.

An investigation of the practice of scientific inquiry in secondary science and agriculture courses

Science.gov (United States)

Grady, Julie R.

The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to investigate the practice of scientific inquiry in two secondary biology classes and one agriculture class from different schools in different communities. The focus was on teachers' interests and intentions for the students' participation in inquiry, the voices contributing to the inquiry, and students' opportunities to confront their conceptions of the nature of science (NOS). The Partnership for Research and Education in Plants (PREP) served as the context by providing students with opportunities to design and conduct original experiments to help elucidate the function(s) of a disabled gene in Arabidopsis thaliana . Transcripts of teacher and student semi-structured interviews, field notes of classroom observations and classroom conversations, and documents (e.g., student work, teacher handouts, school websites, PREP materials) were analyzed for evidence of the practice of scientific inquiry. Teachers were interested in implementing inquiry because of potential student learning about scientific research and because PREP supports course content and is connected to a larger scientific project outside of the school. Teachers' intentions regarding the implementation of inquiry reflected the complexity of their courses and the students' previous experiences. All inquiries were student-directed. The biology students' participation more closely mirrored the practice of scientists, while the agriculture students were more involved with the procedural display of scientific inquiry. All experiences could have been enhanced from additional knowledge-centered activities regarding scientific reasoning. No activities brought explicit attention to NOS. Biology activities tended to implicitly support NOS while the agriculture class activities tended to implicitly contradict NOS. Scientists' interactions contributed to implied support of the NOS. There were missed opportunities for explicit attention to NOS in all classes

Effects of Scaffolds and Scientific Reasoning Ability on Web-Based Scientific Inquiry

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Hui-Ling; Weng, Hsiao-Lan; She, Hsiao-Ching

2016-01-01

This study examined how background knowledge, scientific reasoning ability, and various scaffolding forms influenced students' science knowledge and scientific inquiry achievements. The students participated in an online scientific inquiry program involving such activities as generating scientific questions and drawing evidence-based conclusions,…

Leveraging Big Data for Exploring Occupational Diseases-Related Interest at the Level of Scientific Community, Media Coverage and Novel Data Streams: The Example of Silicosis as a Pilot Study

Science.gov (United States)

Bragazzi, Nicola Luigi; Toletone, Alessandra; Brigo, Francesco; Durando, Paolo

2016-01-01

Objective Silicosis is an untreatable but preventable occupational disease, caused by exposure to silica. It can progressively evolve to lung impairment, respiratory failure and death, even after exposure has ceased. However, little is known about occupational diseases-related interest at the level of scientific community, media coverage and web behavior. This article aims at filling in this gap of knowledge, taking the silicosis as a case study. Methods We investigated silicosis-related web-activities using Google Trends (GT) for capturing the Internet behavior worldwide in the years 2004–2015. GT-generated data were, then, compared with the silicosis-related scientific production (i.e., PubMed and Google Scholar), the media coverage (i.e., Google news), the Wikipedia traffic (i.e, Wikitrends) and the usage of new media (i.e., YouTube and Twitter). Results A peak in silicosis-related web searches was noticed in 2010–2011: interestingly, both scientific articles production and media coverage markedly increased after these years in a statistically significant way. The public interest and the level of the public engagement were witnessed by an increase in likes, comments, hashtags, and re-tweets. However, it was found that only a small fraction of the posted/uploaded material contained accurate scientific information. Conclusions GT could be useful to assess the reaction of the public and the level of public engagement both to novel risk-factors associated to occupational diseases, and possibly related changes in disease natural history, and to the effectiveness of preventive workplace practices and legislative measures adopted to improve occupational health. Further, occupational clinicians should become aware of the topics most frequently searched by patients and proactively address these concerns during the medical examination. Institutional bodies and organisms should be more present and active in digital tools and media to disseminate and communicate

Engaging Karen refugee students in science learning through a cross-cultural learning community

Science.gov (United States)

Harper, Susan G.

2017-02-01

This research explored how Karen (first-generation refugees from Burma) elementary students engaged with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) practice of constructing scientific explanations based on evidence within the context of a cross-cultural learning community. In this action research, the researcher and a Karen parent served as co-teachers for fourth- and fifth-grade Karen and non-Karen students in a science and culture after-school programme in a public elementary school in the rural southeastern United States. Photovoice provided a critical platform for students to create their own cultural discourses for the learning community. The theoretical framework of critical pedagogy of place provided a way for the learning community to decolonise and re-inhabit the learning spaces with knowledge they co-constructed. Narrative analysis of video transcripts of the after-school programme, ethnographic interviews, and focus group discussions from Photovoice revealed a pattern of emerging agency by Karen students in the scientific practice of constructing scientific explanations based on evidence and in Karen language lessons. This evidence suggests that science learning embedded within a cross-cultural learning community can empower refugee students to construct their own hybrid cultural knowledge and leverage that knowledge to engage in a meaningful way with the epistemology of science.

Federal Community of Practice for Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science

Science.gov (United States)

The community of practice includes agencies from across the federal government who convene to discuss ideas, activities, barriers, and ethics related to citizen science and crowdsourcing including scientific research, data management, and open innovation.

Focus Group in Community Mental Health Research: Need for Adaption.

Science.gov (United States)

Zupančič, Vesna; Pahor, Majda; Kogovšek, Tina

2018-04-27

The article presents an analysis of the use of focus groups in researching community mental health users, starting with the reasons for using them, their implementation in mental health service users' research, and the adaptations of focus group use when researching the experiences of users. Based on personal research experience and a review of scientific publications in the Google Scholar, Web of Science, ProQuest, EBSCOhost, and Scopus databases, 20 articles published between 2010 and 2016 were selected for targeted content analysis. A checklist for reporting on the use of focus groups with community mental health service users, aiming to improve the comparability, verifiability and validity was developed. Adaptations of the implementation of focus groups in relation to participants' characteristics were suggested. Focus groups are not only useful as a scientific research technique, but also for ensuring service users' participation in decision-making in community mental health and evaluating the quality of the mental health system and services .

Must Invisible Colleges Be Invisible? An Approach to Examining Large Communities of Network Users.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruth, Stephen R.; Gouet, Raul

1993-01-01

Discussion of characteristics of users of computer-mediated communication systems and scientific networks focuses on a study of the scientific community in Chile. Topics addressed include users and nonusers; productivity; educational level; academic specialty; age; gender; international connectivity; public policy issues; and future research…

FY 1998 Scientific and Technical Reports, Articles, Papers, and Presentations

Science.gov (United States)

Waits, J. E. Turner (Compiler)

1999-01-01

This document presents formal NASA technical reports, papers published in technical journals, and presentations by MSFC (Marshall Space Flight Center) personnel in FY98. It also includes papers of MSFC contractors. After being announced in STAR, all of the NASA series reports may be obtained from the National Technical Information Service. The information in this report may be of value to the scientific and engineering community in determining what information has been published and what is available.

FY 1999 Scientific and Technical Reports, Articles, Papers, and Presentations

Science.gov (United States)

Waits, J.oyce E.Turner

2000-01-01

This document presents formal NASA technical reports, papers published in technical journals, and presentations by MSFC personnel in FY99. It also includes papers of MSFC contractors. All of the NASA series reports may be obtained from the NASA Center for AeroSpace Information (CASI), 7121 Standard Drive, Hanover, MD 21076-1320 The information in this report may be of value to the scientific and engineering community in determining what information has been published and what is available.

Innovating Chinese Herbal Medicine: From Traditional Health Practice to Scientific Drug Discovery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shuo Gu

2017-06-01

Full Text Available As one of the major contemporary alternative medicines, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM continues its influence in Chinese communities and has begun to attract the academic attention in the world of western medicine. This paper aims to examine Chinese herbal medicine (CHM, the essential branch of TCM, from both narrative and scientific perspectives. CHM is a traditional health practice originated from Chinese philosophy and religion, holding the belief of holism and balance in the body. With the development of orthodox medicine and science during the last centuries, CHM also seized the opportunity to change from traditional health practice to scientific drug discovery illustrated in the famous story of the herb-derived drug artemisinin. However, hindered by its culture and founding principles, CHM faces the questions of the research paradigm posed by the convention of science. To address these questions, we discussed two essential questions concerning the relationship of CHM and science, and then upheld the paradigm of methodological reductionism in scientific research. Finally, the contemporary narrative of CHM in the 21st century was discussed in the hope to preserve this medical tradition in tandem with scientific research.