bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Digital quantitative analysis of mast cell infiltration in interstitial cystitis
Authors: Akiyama Yoshiyuki , Maeda Daichi , Morikawa Teppei , Niimi Aya , Nomiya Akira , Yamada Yukio , Igawa Yasuhiko , Goto Akiteru , Fukayama Masashi , Homma Yukio
Published: October 2017

Aims

To evaluate the significance of mast cell infiltration in interstitial cystitis (IC) by comparison with equally inflamed controls using a digital quantification technique.

Methods

Bladder biopsy specimens from 31 patients with Hunner type IC and 38 patients with non‐Hunner type IC were analyzed. Bladder biopsy specimens from 37 patients without IC, including 19 non‐specific chronic cystitis (“non‐IC cystitis”) specimens and 18 non‐inflamed bladder (“normal bladder”) specimens, were used as controls. Mast cell tryptase‐, CD3‐, CD20‐, and CD138‐immunoreactive cells were quantified using digital image analysis software to evaluate both mast cell and lymphoplasmacytic cell densities. Mast cell and lymphoplasmacytic cell densities were counted independently in the entire lamina propria and detrusor areas and compared among the four groups.

Results

In the lamina propria, there were no significant differences in mast cell and lymphoplasmacytic cell densities between Hunner type IC and non‐IC cystitis or between non‐Hunner type IC and normal bladder specimens. In the detrusor, the mast cell densities were not significantly different among the four groups. Mast cell density was correlated with lymphoplasmacytic cell density, but not with clinical parameters.

Conclusions

Mast cell density is not significantly different between IC specimens and non‐IC control specimens with a similar degree of background inflammation. The intensity of mast cell infiltration generally correlated with that of lymphoplasmacytic cells. We conclude that mast cell count is of no value in the differential diagnosis between IC and other etiologies.
The method of mixed volume element‐characteristic mixed volume element and its numerical analysis for three‐dimensional slightly compressible two‐phase displacement
Authors: Yuan Yirang , Sun Tongjun , Li Changfeng , Yang Qing
Published: October 2017

Numerical simulation of oil‐water two‐phase displacement is a fundamental problem in energy mathematics. The mathematical model for the compressible case is defined by a nonlinear system of two partial differential equations: (1) a parabolic equation for pressure and (2) a convection‐diffusion equation for saturation. The pressure appears within the saturation equation, and the Darcy velocity controls the saturation. The flow equation is solved by the conservative mixed volume element method. The order of the accuracy is improved by the Darcy velocity. The conservative mixed volume element with characteristics is applied to compute the saturation, that is, the diffusion is discretized by the mixed volume element and convection is computed by the method of characteristics. The method of characteristics has strong computational stability at sharp fronts and avoids numerical dispersion and nonphysical oscillation. Small time truncation error and accuracy are obtained through this method. The mixed volume element simulates diffusion, saturation, and the adjoint vector function simultaneously. By using the theory and technique of a priori estimates of differential equations, convergence of the optimal second order in norm is obtained. Numerical examples are provided to show the effectiveness and viability of this method. This method provides a powerful tool for solving challenging benchmark problems.
Critical moments in participatory design: Engaging NASA astrobiology researchers via scientometric visualizations
Authors: Gazan Rich
Published: October 2017

NASA astrobiology researchers from diverse fields often have little sense of how their work relates to one another. Using document analysis and participatory design methods, this paper reports on a scientometric analysis project to distill essential elements of astrobiology documents to identify them across diverse domains. Twelve NASA astrobiology researchers and administrators were presented with scientometric visualizations in a live setting and (i) demonstrated engagement by actively proposing alternative terms they felt best represented their team's research, (ii) confirmed that the effects of 2007‐2008 cuts in research funding had been accurately reflected in the document corpus and (iii) identified persistent differential impacts on research output across astrobiology's diverse constituent disciplines. The results suggest that this participatory design method provided a critical boundary space where conversations between diverse researchers took place that would have been unlikely to occur otherwise and illustrates the kind of unique contribution information science researchers and professionals can make to interdisciplinary scientific collaborations.
Do games make a difference in the crowdsourcing of mobile content?
Authors: Goh Dion Hoe‐Lian , Pe‐Than Ei Pa Pa , Lee Chei Sian , Chua Alton Y.K.
Published: October 2017

The layering of games over crowdsourcing tasks has increasingly become a viable approach to motivate participation in crowdsourcing projects. A crowdsourcing game utilizes entertainment to generate useful outputs as byproducts of gameplay. Since crowdsourcing relies on individuals' participation, understanding actual contribution patterns is an important area of research. However, this phenomenon has yet to be adequately investigated. In this paper, we build on our prior research to attempt to answer the question of whether a non‐game‐based mobile app for the crowdsourcing of location‐based content would yield different types of contributions when compared against a game‐based app. Our content analysis of 2,386 contributions in both apps reveals nine categories, divided into (1) those that provide information for navigational purposes or for others to learn about a specific place and (2) those that were meant for personal expressions related to the content creator or those around him/her with the location as a backdrop. The distribution of categories varied between the apps, indicating that the features afforded by the game shaped behavior differently from the non‐game‐based approach to crowdsourcing. Analysis of the contributions also suggests that the game‐based app produced much higher informational content than the non‐game‐based one.
De‐constructing the co‐construction: Researcher stance, the nature of data and community building in an online participatory platform to create a knowledge repository
Authors: Kaplan Samantha J. , Chen Annie T. , Carriere Rachel M.
Published: October 2017

In this article, we provide a reflexive account of the design of the Body Listening Project, a participatory platform in which participants were invited to engage collectively in the building of a public repository. The Body Listening Project was an online collaborative space, with a designated “ThinkSpace,” for participants and moderators to share their experiences of “body listening” and more broadly, self‐management of health. The participatory platform on which the study took place was an active, evolving environment that was shaped by participants of many different backgrounds. In particular, we elaborate upon three critical aspects of our research design: researcher stance, the nature of data, and online community development. It is our hope that explicating the design decisions that were made in this study can stimulate researchers' consideration of these issues in their own projects, as well as inform the design of future research involving collaborative and participatory frameworks.
Identifying structural genre conventions across academic web documents for information use
Authors: Ma Cui–Chang , Cao Shu–Jin
Published: October 2017

The organization and presentation of academic documents on the web are mostly on the documental level. However, what the researchers need is always the particular information pieces of documents rather than the whole. Genre provides us with an expected form and content from both authors and readers; therefore, functional analysis of genre might be employed to decompose web documents into information units for information use. In this vein, this study aims to build the taxonomy of information units within academic web documents for information use based on structural genre theory. The genres chosen include abstract from online bibliography, research article from open access journal, entry of online encyclopedia and academic weblog post. Two sequential studies are conducted. In the first study, the taxonomy with the hierarchy of genre – component – functional unit is firstly built by identification of information units within academic web document genres, and then is validated and refined through corpus in the domain of citation analysis in Chinese. In the second study, user survey is conducted to validate the information units in the taxonomy. The results suggest that the knowledge of social convention of academic web genres in the taxonomy in domain of citation analysis in Chinese is well identified, which can inform the design of search engine to support effective and efficient web information use for academic purposes.
Search successes and failures in query segments and search tasks: A field study
Authors: Wang Yiwei , Liu Jiqun , Mandal Soumik , Shah Chirag
Published: October 2017

Searching for information could be difficult or problematic in situations where searchers possess inadequate knowledge and/or vague information needs, often leading to unsuccessful outcomes. Existing studies on search outcomes (successes and failures) have lacked a detailed analysis at query (expression of information need) level from a searcher's perspective and the connection between queries and their corresponding search tasks. In the work reported here, we adopt a mixed‐method approach to both explore how and why searchers succeeded or failed to fulfill their information need with each query and to link these query level outcomes to searchers' overall task goal realization. Twenty‐six participants finished two search tasks in three days in naturalistic settings and reported their experiences in online diaries. The log data containing their actions in nearly 200 query segments, their diary responses and post‐task semi‐structured interviews inspire both in‐depth discussion on search experiences and interesting comparison between successful and unsuccessful searchers. While quantitative analysis depicts the overall relationships between behavioral variables and search outcomes at both query and task levels, qualitative analysis reveals why those relationships took place. In general, searchers who viewed more pages and spent more time in each query segment were more likely to succeed. We also report reasons behind these phenomena.
Electronic commerce and consumption: Semiotic scenario and information architecture in online stores
Authors: Moura Maria Aparecida , Gomes Cássia Adriana
Published: October 2017

This work discusses changes in consumption patterns with the spread of electronic commerce, which started to demand new informational competences in commercial relations. We highlight the concepts of semiotic scenario and information architecture, analyzing the implications of such concepts in the structure of websites dedicated to electronic commerce. In addition, we describe a system for informational organization of the Brazilian e‐stores, analyzing the interactions between the e‐customer with the website's information architecture, along with the subjacent semiotic scenario to the business model.
Navigating the next step: An interactive panel for doctoral students
Authors: Hartnett Liz , Singh Rajesh , Zamir Hassan
Published: October 2017

The proposed session builds on the successes of interactive doctoral student panels sponsored by SIG/ED at earlier ASIS&T Annual Meetings. This year's panel features faculty in various stages of their academic careers. The panelists are prepared to address audience questions on topics of concern to doctoral students, such as the traditional academic job market, alternative career paths including post‐doctoral opportunities, the development of personal research agendas and the challenges of online instruction.

The panel discussion will focus on the academic job market and how applicants can present themselves in the best light depending upon the type of position sought. By interacting with the panelists, doctoral students will gain valuable insights on finishing their dissertations, weighing postdoctoral opportunities and preparing for their first academic positions. This session will also provide an anonymous mechanism for doctoral students and new faculty to ask questions without feeling inhibited or intimidated. The panel may be of greatest benefit to those doctoral students nearing the end of their doctoral programs, but will also be useful to new doctoral students and new assistant professors.
Engaging at the margins: Theoretical and philosophical approaches to social justice
Authors: Kitzie Vanessa L. , Radford Marie L. , Radford Gary P. , Budd John M.
Published: October 2017

This interactive panel demonstrates how critical, interdisciplinary theoretical and philosophical approaches outside the field of library and information science (LIS) can foster new ways of thinking about the concept of social justice. The panel consists of four researchers whose scholarship connects to these approaches. The following areas will be discussed: extending the philosophy of justice‐as‐fairness using the work of Amartya Sen, employing Umberto Eco's theoretical approach of semiotics to critique contemporary LIS practices and ideologies and adopting an information practices approach to highlight the importance of sociocultural context, embodiment and unsanctioned resources among those with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) identities.

The panel will consist of a brief introduction followed by panelist presentations and time for questions and answers from the audience. To build on the potential implications for research and practice, panelists will engage the audience in a paired activity to discuss a set of relevant questions. This activity informs a full audience discussion that concludes the panel. Attendees will leave the panel with an understanding of the current issues related to applying social justice‐centric approaches within LIS that can be implemented into future research and practice.
Standards and best practices related to the publication, exchange and usage of open data
Authors: Zeng Marcia Lei , Hlava Marjorie , Greenberg Jane , Needleman Mark
Published: October 2017

The panel aims to update ASIS&T members and information professionals about important standards, specifications and best practice guidelines that have been developed or initiated by the international standards institutions and communities in dealing with open data. The openness and flexibility of the web have created both new opportunities and new challenges for data publishers and data consumers, such as how to represent, describe and make data available (by publishers) in a way that it will be easily found, understood, used and re‐used (by consumers). The panelists will introduce related standards, bring insight to the adoption and implementation of new standards, comment on success and progress in the realm of certain areas such as research data, data on the web (in terms of publishing, annotation and use), metadata in for special domains (such as electronic health records, space debris and genealogical archives) and look at the raising questions and issues. Using the chart from the 2017‐01 W3C recommendations, Data on the Web Best Practices, as context for the panel's presentations, the benchmarks to be used by the panel include the comprehension, processability, discoverability, reuse possibility and effectiveness, trust, linkability, accessibility and interoperability.
EINFOSE project: Stimulating diversity of students and teachers' engagement in the european higher education area
Authors: Bosancic Boris , Badurina Boris , Tanackovic Sanjica Faletar , Mandl Thomas
Published: October 2017

The poster aims to present the findings of the study related to the EU research project EINFOSE – European Information Science Education: Encouraging Mobility and Learning Outcomes Harmonization. The project's main goal is to investigate how to remove barriers to students' enrolment in LIS/IS graduate programs across Europe and at the same time introduce diverse social, cultural and technological experience. The first phase of the longitudinal study conducted in June 2017 explored the motivation and expectations of students enrolling in the EINFOSE European Summer School in Information Sciences (ESSIS). In the final report, the results will attempt to align the expectations of students from different areas with the ESSIS program and thus contribute to the main EINFOSE project goal.
How do medical researchers use open health data? A case study on data reuse behavior of using NHIRD in Taiwan
Authors: Cheng Wei‐Chung , Chiu Ming‐Hsin Phoebe
Published: October 2017

Data reuse is an emerging academic practice in information sciences studies, and there are diverse studies focusing on this topic. The concept of open health data is becoming a main stream in government administration, academic fields and business/industry. In this study, we analyzed 36 medical journal articles that used data from National Health Insurance Research Database through qualitative method to illustrate open health data reuse behavior in the medical field. The results indicated five stages of data reuse procedure: data re‐appropriating, data recreating, data re‐segmenting, data reconstructing and data revalidating. This paper demonstrates not only medical researchers' data reuse behavior with a practical perspective, but also how they transform quantitative data to valuable clinical discoveries. Moreover, the implications suggest different functionalities for an ideal open health data platform to support researchers' data reuse behavior in each research stage.
Stress, adaptation, growth: International students' approaches to scholarly research and academic integrity
Authors: Click Amanda B.
Published: October 2017

International students often face unique challenges in adapting to higher education in the United States, and may benefit from specialized academic support. This paper and the accompanying poster outline the findings of a qualitative study exploring international graduate students' adaptation processes as evidenced by their information seeking and use activities. The study was informed by Kim's cross‐cultural adaptation theory. Semi‐structured interviews developed using critical incident technique were conducted with 30 international graduate students enrolled at three North Carolina universities. Participants described a variety of difficulties related to information seeking including finding and understanding resources, and explained how they addressed these challenges. They generally recognized the significance of American academic integrity standards, acknowledging the importance of proper citation and understanding faculty expectations. This paper explores the study findings through the lens of Kim's stress‐adaptation‐growth dynamic. Findings have practical implications for librarians, and other faculty and staff who provide support and training to international students in the United States.
The value of user feedback: Parent's comments to online health and well‐being information providers
Authors: Sherif Reem El , Roy Pascale , Tang David Li , Doray Geneviève , Dubois Marilyne , Bush Paula , Lagarde François , Pluye Pierre
Published: October 2017

Health informatics research usually deals with quantitative feedback from information users. Little is known about how information users' qualitative feedback can be used by information providers. The Naître et grandir website (N&G) provides parents with health and well‐being information during pregnancy and until their children are eight years old. In this study, researchers worked with N&G information providers to implement the Information Assessment Method (IAM) for assessing and improving parenting information. Feedback comments were collected from participants who visited the N&G website during the study period and who completed an IAM questionnaire. A coding manual for the analysis of participants' comments was created and developed by the researchers in partnership with information providers. This coding manual was used to create an online knowledge management system to facilitate all future coding of comments. This system allows website editors to receive feedback from their readers daily, allowing them to act on it more rapidly and, therefore, shortening the feedback to action time. This online system can be adapted by other websites' editors to collect information users' comments and improve their online resources.
A knowledge lens for innovation: Seeing the ambiguity, conversations and barriers in social systems
Authors: Freeburg Darin
Published: October 2017

This poster introduces the knowledge lens, a way of seeing more clearly the opportunities for knowledge creation within social systems. It includes three groupings and six elements. The groupings bring into focus the complexity of organizational life, the power of conversation in knowledge creation and barriers to the integration of information and the application of knowledge. The poster outlines the foci of the knowledge lens, along with several new insights gained by viewing social systems through this lens. It suggests that information professionals are best equipped to use the lens, articulating a new place for information professionals within organizations and other social systems.
“Not what I thought!” information seeking behaviors of international students during the application for graduate study in the USA
Authors: Huang Li‐Min , Bilal Dania
Published: October 2017

A recent study revealed that international students' reading comprehension scores on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) equates to 12th‐grade reading comprehension level (Taylor, ). In evaluating the admission materials at selected flagship universities in the United States, Taylor (2017) found that the reading comprehension level ranges from 15th‐grade to 19th‐grade level. The readability of these materials can be challenging to international graduate students. Though a large body of literature exists about international graduate students in the United States, scant work has explored international doctoral students' information seeking behaviors and experiences while applying for doctoral study. We report the results of a study that explored the behaviors and experiences of 14 international doctoral students studying at a flagship university in the United States. Using in‐depth interviews, we found that the students used two types of resources, experiential (EXR) and authorized (AUR), and began looking for information by exploring the former. We identified three common themes of their information seeking behaviors and problems they experienced in using official websites. The findings have implications for improving the design of websites to support international students' information seeking and needs.
Explicating the trends of information literacy studies in the higher education context: A pilot study
Authors: Kim Sung Un , Lee Yong Gu
Published: October 2017

This study aims to explicate the trends of information literacy studies in the higher education context. As a pilot study of a larger study, 1,711 articles published from January 1988 to May 2017 were selected and analyzed in terms of publication year, themes, published journals and authorship. Analysis of publications by year demonstrates four distinct periods of information literacy research with different publication patterns: development period (1988–2001), 1st proliferation period (2002–2008), maintenance (or stand‐still) period (2009–2012) and 2nd proliferation period (2013–2017). Results on themes, published journals and authorship of the sample articles show not only the general patterns but also their possible association with the four periods of information literacy research. This study contributes to providing a holistic picture of information literacy research particularly in higher education.
Mobile device use to access information on well‐being
Authors: Kumah Cynthia , Beheshti Jamshid , Bartlett Joan C.
Published: October 2017

The focus of this study is to identify and describe the use of mobile devices for supporting and maintaining well‐being among millennials. Data collection involved semi‐structured interviews of 18 undergraduate students (aged 18–24). They primarily defined their personal well‐being in terms of physical health, mental health and spirituality. They used their mobile devices extensively in support of well‐being, including searching for information (both text and multi‐media), establishing and maintaining social connections, tracking routines (e.g., nutrition, sleep) and setting and pursuing fitness goals. Our initial findings demonstrate how mobile devices are used in support of an everyday life task such as maintaining personal well‐being.
Unintended and shadow practices of decision support system dashboards in higher education institutions
Authors: McCoy Chase , Rosenbaum Howard
Published: October 2017

Decision support system data dashboards (DSS‐DD) are starting to be developed for higher education decision‐making. However, there is little research concerning their impact and use. To understand the decision‐making practices of DSS‐DD users, this poster presents preliminary findings of a study of these systems in a large U.S. Midwestern higher education institution. We draw on the socio‐technical interaction network analytic strategy and sociomateriality to examine expected and actual user decision‐making practices when using these dashboards. We find that while there are expected practices, users engage in unintended and shadow socio‐technical decision‐making practices.
Integrating user feedback with open data quality models
Authors: Weber Nicholas , Yan An
Published: October 2017

User feedback is critical to improving the quality of open data. However, most open data publishers gather only anecdotal evidence about user experiences. This unstructured and informal commentary is, consequently, difficult to translate into actionable steps towards improving data quality. Drawing on user comments collected from Data.Gov ‐ an open data portal providing access to thousands of datasets published by city, state, and federal government agencies in the USA – we inductively develop a classification of reported data quality issues. This poster presents preliminary findings from applying this coding scheme to all issues that users filed on Data.gov in 2015 and 2016. We suggest that our classification scheme can help open data publishers collect structured, actionable information to improve data quality.
Quality assurance and evaluation of change for patent metadata
Authors: Zavalina Oksana L. , Phillips Mark , Tarver Hannah
Published: October 2017

The quality of metadata greatly impacts access to information resources, affecting both precision and recall of the search results. Metadata quality assurance is especially important for unique materials that are not widely available outside of the specialized digital repositories that provide access to them. One example of such unique and valuable materials is digitized historical patents. This paper describes a case study of the metadata management for a digital collection of U.S. patents issued in the 19th‐early 20th centuries, discusses the results of the evaluation of metadata change intended to support the metadata quality assurance for this collection and presents plans for further research. We expect the study to make a contribution to understanding of metadata management and metadata quality assurance and the role of metadata change in these processes.
Who bridged the “Valley of Death” between basic research and clinical research? In the case of immune‐checkpoints CTLA‐4 and PD‐1 based on inter‐citation network
Authors: Zhou Qiuju , Meng Guilin , Ding Ying
Published: October 2017

We explored who wrote the milestone articles in the innovation processes of immune‐checkpoints CTLA‐4 and PD‐1. In order to map the processes, a literature inter‐citation network analysis was made through HistCite and Pajek. We found knowledge flow through citations between topics (clusters), transverse knowledge diffusion between topics at the same basic research level and knowledge translation from basic research to clinical research. Betweenness Centrality showed a good performance in selecting key nodes of knowledge flow.
Systematic investigation of sex disparity in multidisciplinary institutions – a case study of U.S. iSchools
Authors: Zuo Zhiya , Zhao Kang
Published: October 2017

In this poster, we present a systematic investigation of sex disparity in 27 information schools located in the United States. Combining hand‐curated complete faculty data and automatically collected publication profiles, we portrait the landscape of sex disparity in three dimensions: (i) rank; (ii) educational backgrounds; (iii) research topics. We found that 63% of the tenured faculty members are male, although there is slightly more female (54%) among junior faculty. Across nine disciplinary categories of PhD programs, male was primarily trained in computing, while female was more evenly distributed across computing, information and library sciences. Further, male and female have significant differences in research topics extracted from their publication profiles. It is, however, worth noting that distribution of research topics becomes more homogeneous among junior faculty members. Overall, all the evidence implies a significant sex disparity in information schools and calls for immediate attention on related policies for mitigation.
Visual‐inertial curve simultaneous localization and mapping: Creating a sparse structured world without feature points
Authors: Meier Kevin , Chung Soon‐Jo , Hutchinson Seth
Published: October 2017

We present a simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithm that uses Bézier curves as static landmark primitives rather than feature points. Our approach allows us to estimate the full six degrees of freedom pose of a robot while providing a structured map that can be used to assist a robot in motion planning and control. We demonstrate how to reconstruct the three‐dimensional (3D) location of curve landmarks from a stereo pair and how to compare the 3D shape of curve landmarks between chronologically sequential stereo frames to solve the data association problem. We also present a method to combine curve landmarks for mapping purposes, resulting in a map with a continuous set of curves that contain fewer landmark states than conventional point‐based SLAM algorithms. We demonstrate our algorithm's effectiveness with numerous experiments, including comparisons to existing state‐of‐the‐art SLAM algorithms.
Boost completion rates via effective guided pathways program
Authors: Hope Joan
Published: October 2017

Guided pathways have led to increased completion numbers for community colleges that have implemented them. The pathways provide students with a clear map to completion. But just providing a list of courses for students to take isn't enough.
Manage challenges of working with housing management companies
Authors: McCarthy Claudine
Published: October 2017

When your residence halls begin bursting at the seams and your budget has little to no wiggle room, a third‐party housing management company might be the solution. It can provide your institution with on‐campus or near‐campus housing without accruing debt. But, you can expect third‐party housing arrangements, also known as public‐private partnerships or private‐private partnerships (each known as PPPs), to present plenty of challenges.
Discover how a student affairs professional became a college president
Authors: McCarthy Claudine
Published: October 2017

Nancy P. Crimmin, Ed.D., never intentionally set out to become a college president. But looking back over her more‐than 30‐year career in student affairs, her path to the presidency can be traced back to particular points along her journey.
The Causes, Effects, and Disease Burden Attributable to Water Quality and Sanitation Conditions in the Kassena Nankana Municipality, Ghana
Authors: Issahaku A. , Ampadu B. , Braimah M. M.
Published: October 2017

The goal of this study was to assess water‐ and sanitation‐related diseases in the Kassena Nankana municipality using surveys and laboratory analyses. A total of 152 heads of households were contacted for both quantitative and qualitative research analysis. The study showed that the causes of water and sanitation diseases in the municipality were open defecation, 78 (51%); indiscriminate solid waste disposal, 31 (20%); closeness of households to refuse dumps (within 50 meters [m]), 89 (59%), and lack of access to pipe‐borne water, 93 (61%). Further analysis of water samples from pipes, boreholes, and wells revealed that out of the 20 samples, 15 (75%) tested positive for both total and fecal coliforms with values between1 and 6 colony‐forming units (CFU) per 100 milliliter (mL) sample. There is also increasing evidence that malaria contributes the greatest disease burden in the municipality, being responsible for around 23.1% of all disability adjusted life years (DALYs) between 2009 and 2013. Diarrhea and typhoid have the second and third highest disease burden rates and were responsible for approximately 19.5% and 1.2% of all DALYs between 2009 and 2013, respectively. A major recommendation of this study is that education on good sanitation be intensified, as 75 (49%) of the respondents did not attend child care programs where education on how to maintain good sanitation is given.
The environmental life cycle assessment of agricultural sector in Thailand: EIO‐LCA approach
Authors: Mangmeechai Aweewan
Published: October 2017

Agriculture is one of the major sectors in Thailand, with more than half of the population employed in agriculture‐related occupations. This study evaluated energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the Thai agricultural sector by applying the economic input–output life cycle assessment (EIO‐LCA) approach. The model evaluates the entire agricultural sector supply chain. Based on one million Thai baht (approximately $27,800 U.S. dollars) final demand of the rice paddy sector, the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the electricity sector are responsible for 27% (1,246 kilograms [kg] CO2) of the total CO2 emissions, whereas the emissions from paddy activities associated with the fertilizers and pesticides sector account for 16% (760 kg CO2) and 11% (513 kg CO2), respectively. The top three largest GHG emissions from the total agricultural sector supply chain are associated with the oil palm, the coffee and tea, and the fruit sectors. The government should promote and encourage sustainable agriculture by reducing the use of fertilizers and pesticides and by utilizing energy‐saving technologies.
The changing water cycle: the need for an integrated assessment of the resilience to changes in water supply in High‐Mountain Asia
Authors: Quincey Duncan , Klaar Megan , Haines Daniel , Lovett Jon , Pariyar Bishnu , Gurung Gehendra , Brown Lee , Watson Cameron , England Matthew , Evans Barbara
Published: October 2017

Water sourced from Asian mountains is vital to the survival of an estimated 1.4 billion people, but current and anticipated changes in snow, ice cover, and precipitation patterns may threaten these supplies and, in turn, the food security of tens of millions of people. Despite the severity of this developing environmental hazard, the relative importance of each component of the water cycle still needs more detailed study so that those communities who will experience the greatest extremes in supply can be identified. Specifically, data showing how the contribution of meltwater varies with increasing distance downstream are lacking for many mountain catchments, although the use of stable isotope tracers provides some hope in this regard. Imprinted on regional‐scale hydroclimatological controls of water availability are local‐scale cultural beliefs and practices that have evolved over centuries, which determine who is able to access water supplies, for how long, and for what purpose. Building the resilience of human populations and the environment to future changes in water supply therefore depends on effective interdisciplinary team working to develop an understanding of the complex interactions between physical, socioeconomic, cultural, and historical factors, and that can only be properly realized if local communities are considered as an integral part of the research team. Developing simple and practical methods for water management, storage, and societal adaptation that are appropriate to the socioeconomic and political conditions of mountain‐dwelling communities will only be sustainable if they are built on this integrated knowledge base. WIREs Water 2018, 5:e1258. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1258

This article is categorized under:

Engineering Water > Planning Water

Human Water > Water Governance

Science of Water > Water and Environmental Change
“The Longest Way Round Is The Shortest Way Home”: An Overhaul of Surgical Ward Rounds
Authors: Shetty Kunal , Poo Stephanie Xiu Wern , Sriskandarajah Kumuthan , Sideris Michail , Malietzis George , Darzi Ara , Athanasiou Thanos
Published: October 2017

Background

Ward rounds, a keystone of hospital surgical practice, have recently been under the spotlight. Poor‐quality ward rounds can lead to a greater number of adverse events, thereby cascading to an increased financial strain on our already burdened healthcare systems. Faced with mounting pressures from both outside and inside health organizations, concerted efforts are required to restore it back into prominence where it can no longer take a backseat to the other duties of a surgeon.

Methods

The nucleus of this narrative review is derived from an extensive literature search on surgical ward rounds.

Results

In this review, we focus on the need for reforms, current characteristics of surgical ward rounds, obstacles encountered by competing interests and proposed solutions in delivery of effective ward rounds that can meet with newly laid guidelines.

Conclusion

Ward rounds should be standardized and prioritized to improve patient care.
Discontinuous financing based on market values and the value of tax shields
Authors: Arnold Sven , Lahmann Alexander , Schwetzler Bernhard
Published: October 2017

The tax shield as present value of debt-related tax savings plays an important role in firm valuation. Driving the risk of future debt levels, the firm’s strategy to adjust the absolute debt level to future changes of the firm value, labeled as (re-) financing policy, affects the value of tax shields. Standard discounted cash flow (DCF) models offer two simplified (re-) financing policies originally introduced by Modigliani and Miller (MM) as well as Miles and Ezzell (ME). In this paper, we introduce a discontinuous financing policy that refers to the refinancing intervals, i.e., the maturity structure of the firm’s debt. By deriving APV valuation and beta unlevering equations that allow for this discontinuous financing policy, we show the MM and ME policies to be special cases of the proposed extension. While we document the effect of discontinuous refinancing to be economically significant when leverage is high and refinancing periods are extremely long, our results suggest that for low-levered firms with short refinancing periods, the traditional continuous refinancing-based models (like the Miles/Ezzell model) produce relatively robust value estimates. Combining capital structure and maturity structure choices, our model extends the set of feasible financing policies in DCF valuation models.
Evolve Therapeutic Services: Outcomes for Children and Young People in Out-of-Home Care with Complex Behavioural and Mental Health Problems
Authors: Eadie Kathryn
Published: October 2017

This study evaluated Evolve Therapeutic Services, an innovative Queensland, Australian programme employing a trauma-informed collaborative wrap-round model of care in combination with a flexible intervention approach that is individually tailored to children and young people in out-of-home care who present with complex and extreme behavioural and mental health problems. The sample consisted of 768 children and young people. Three measures, the Children's Global Assessment Scale, Health of the Nation Outcome Scales for Children and Adolescents and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire were used to assess functioning via a pre-post treatment design. Outcomes were assessed by comparing pre and post-treatment mean scores using repeated-measurest-tests. For estimates of differences in the proportion of children and young people in the clinical range between pre and post-treatment the McNemar test was used. In addition, surveys were completed by carers and stakeholders. Results provided a demographic profile, clinical profile and pre and post-treatment comparisons. Results revealed significant improvements across a range of problem areas: general functioning and adjustment; antisocial behaviour; overactivity and poor attention; non-accidental self-injury; problems with scholastic and language skills; emotional symptoms; peer and family relationships; self-care and independence; and school attendance. Survey data supported the outcomes from the stakeholder-rated and carer-rated measures. Findings provide ongoing evidence for the effectiveness of the therapeutic intervention programme.
A comprehensive analysis of the factor structure of the Beck Depression Inventory-II in a sample of outpatients with adjustment disorder and depressive episode
Authors: McElroy E. , Casey P. , Adamson G. , Filippopoulos P. , Shevlin M.
Published: October 2017

Objectives

Despite being commonly used in research and clinical practice, the evidence regarding the factor structure of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) remains equivocal and this has implications on how the scale scores should be aggregated. Researchers continue to debate whether the BDI-II is best viewed as a unidimensional scale, or whether specific subscales have utility. The present study sought to test a comprehensive range of competing factor analytic models of the BDI-II, including traditional non-hierarchical multidimensional models and confirmatory bifactor models.

Method

Participants (n=370) were clinical outpatients diagnosed with either depressive episode or adjustment disorder. Confirmatory factor analysis and confirmatory bifactor modelling were used to test 15 competing models. The unidimensionality of the best fitting model was assessed using three strength indices (explained common variance, percentage of uncontaminated correlations and ω hierarchical).

Results

Overall, bifactor solutions provided superior fit than both unidimensional and non-hierarchical multidimensional models. The best fitting model consisted of a general depression factor and three specific factors: cognitive, somatic and affective. High factor loadings and strength indices for the general depression factor supported the view that the BDI-II measures a single latent construct.

Conclusions

The BDI-II should primarily be viewed as a unidimensional scale, and should be scored as such. Although it is not recommended that scores on individual subscales are used in isolation, they may prove useful in clinical assessment and/or treatment planning if used in conjunction with total scores.
Hong Kong's Eurasian “Web” Viewed through the Lens of Inter-Asian Studies: Comments on Engseng Ho's “Inter-Asian Concepts for Mobile Societies”
Authors: Teng Emma
Published: October 2017

Engseng Ho proposes that “the study of Asia, thought of as an Inter-Asian space, and smaller than the whole globe, can provide tractable concepts for a new round of research to shed light on the social shapes of societies that are mobile, spatially expansive, and interactive with one other.” Moving us away from more static models of China studies, Japan studies, etc., the concept of “inter-Asian”—where I take the “inter” to stand for inter-national, inter-regional, inter-faith, inter-racial, and inter-ethnic—offers a productive framework for examining histories that have been previously marginalized in dominant historical narratives: for example, the history of colonial Hong Kong's Eurasian community. In such a case, where the scope of inquiry is neither fully global in scale nor strictly local, the inter-Asian framework provides a middle ground and intermediate scale that brings this history into focus.
Retrospective, epidemiological cluster analysis of the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) epidemic using open source data
Authors: DARLING N. D. , POSS D. E. , SCHOELEN M. P. , METCALF-KELLY M. , HILL S. E. , HARRIS S.
Published: October 2017

The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is caused by a novel coronavirus discovered in 2012. Since then, 1806 cases, including 564 deaths, have been reported by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and affected countries as of 1 June 2016. Previous literature attributed increases in MERS-CoV transmission to camel breeding season as camels are likely the reservoir for the virus. However, this literature review and subsequent analysis indicate a lack of seasonality. A retrospective, epidemiological cluster analysis was conducted to investigate increases in MERS-CoV transmission and reports of household and nosocomial clusters. Cases were verified and associations between cases were substantiated through an extensive literature review and the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch's Tiered Source Classification System. A total of 51 clusters were identified, primarily nosocomial (80·4%) and most occurred in KSA (45·1%). Clusters corresponded temporally with the majority of periods of greatest incidence, suggesting a strong correlation between nosocomial transmission and notable increases in cases.
Sales of healthy snacks and beverages following the implementation of healthy vending standards in City of Philadelphia vending machines
Authors: Pharis Meagan L , Colby Lisa , Wagner Amanda , Mallya Giridhar
Published: October 2017

Objective

We examined outcomes following the implementation of employer-wide vending standards, designed to increase healthy snack and beverage options, on the proportion of healthy v. less healthy sales, sales volume and revenue for snack and beverage vending machines.

Design

A single-arm evaluation of a policy utilizing monthly sales volume and revenue data provided by the contracted vendor during baseline, machine conversion and post-conversion time periods. Study time periods are full calendar years unless otherwise noted.

Setting

Property owned or leased by the City of Philadelphia, USA.

Subjects

Approximately 250 vending machines over a 4-year period (2010–2013).

Results

At post-conversion, the proportion of sales attributable to healthy items was 40 % for snacks and 46 % for beverages. Healthy snack sales were 323 % higher (38·4 to 162·5 items sold per machine per month) and total snack sales were 17 % lower (486·8 to 402·1 items sold per machine per month). Healthy beverage sales were 33 % higher (68·2 to 90·6 items sold per machine per month) and there was no significant change in total beverage sales (213·2 to 209·6 items sold per machine per month). Revenue was 11 % lower for snacks ($US 468·30 to $US 415·70 per machine per month) and 21 % lower for beverages ($US 344·00 to $US 270·70 per machine per month).

Conclusions

Sales of healthy vending items were significantly higher following the implementation of employer-wide vending standards for snack and beverage vending machines. Entities receiving revenue-based commission payments from vending machines should employ strategies to minimize potential revenue losses.
Microfossils Illuminate Ancient Ocean Currents
Authors: Thompson Elizabeth
Published: October 2017

Researchers use dissolved silicon concentrations to map out how currents may have changed millennia ago in the Pacific.