The role of the information specialist in the systematic review process: a health information case study

There is an increasing body of literature on the information specialist's role in supporting evidence-based health care. In particular, the information component in systematic reviews has received considerable attention in recent years. Information professionals have evolved from simply acting as 'evidence locators' and 'resource providers' to being quality literature filterers, critical appraisers, educators, disseminators, and even change managers. This paper describes ten possible roles for information professionals in the systematic review process, using a case study of a review of the health information needs of visually impaired people carried out by the Centre for Health Information Management Research (CHIMR) at the University of Sheffield. This health information review was undertaken entirely by a team of information professionals. The ten roles identified are: project leader, project manager, literature searcher, reference manager, document supplier, critical appraiser, data extractor, data synthesiser, report writer and disseminator. This review has also identified an eleventh possible role for information professionals; that of primary researcher. Finally, the implications for evidence-based health care and evidence-based health informatics are discussed.     

Sitting in Silence: Managing Aural Body Rhetoric in Public Restrooms

Proposing an enhancement to the concepts of verbal and corporeal rhetorics, this article offers the concept of aural body rhetoric, arguing that nonvocal sounds produced by the body can also provide rhetorical messages, create rhetorical challenges and prompt the conscious management of bodily sounds, particularly in panopticonic spaces (panauricons) in which the body is hidden from view. Using the urinary sounds made by transsexual men in public restrooms as an example, this article examines this space as a panauricon that creates a rhetorical challenge for these men and has prompted the dissemination of various rhetorical strategies within the community of transmen in the United States.     

On Phenomenography,Learning and Teaching

Phenomenographic research has tackled questions concerning the variation in ways in which people experience the phenomena they meet in the world around them. The empirical work directly addressing educational issues has to a large extent focused on describing qualitatively different ways in which particular sorts of students understand a phenomenon, or experience some aspect of the world, which is central to their education, and setting the results into the educational context of interest. Learning is viewed as being a change in the ways in which one is capable of experiencing some aspect of the world and other research has been linked to attempts to bring about such changes by utilising certain approaches to teaching. This article will outline principles for teaching based, on the one hand, on the body of empirical phenomenographic research and, on the other hand, on an emerging picture of the nature of human awareness. The principles will first be drawn, explicated with the help of a number of empirical studies in the phenomenographic tradition, and then the whole will be illustrated through an example of a study of learning and teaching programming at university.     

"Birds of a Feather…": Behavioral Concordances and Preferential Personal Attraction in Children

The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which preferential personal attraction was associated with behavioral similarity among newly acquinted children. Participants included 69 focal children, selected from a sample of 236 7-year-old children who met, for the first time, in same-sex quartets ( n = 59) for a free-play session. Within each of these quartets, a "discriminating child" was identified; this child expressed a clear preference for one of his or her playmates over one other of her or his quartet playmates. Preference was determined sociometrically after the children became acquainted during free play. The results indicated that "discriminating" children were more behaviorally similar to preferred playmates than to nonpreferred playmates both in terms of cognitive play style and social participation. Implications of the findings are discussed in terms of the relation to the acquaintanceship process.     

The illusory dichotomy of plagiarism

Plagiarism has been characterised as a ‘major problem’ for universities. While tensions between students and universities are inevitable, the problem with the existing system of plagiarism management and prevention is that it operates to problematise the relationship between the university and the student, rather than address the core academic issues. As a result, a dichotomy is created where the student interest is constructed as adverse to that of the institution. This article argues that de-dichotomisation of the current polarity of plagiarism will open space for alternative thoughtful considerations in dealing with plagiarism positively in an institutional context.     

Numerical magnitude representations influence arithmetic learning

This study examined whether the quality of first graders' (mean age = 7.2 years) numerical magnitude representations is correlated with, predictive of, and causally related to their arithmetic learning. The children's pretest numerical magnitude representations were found to be correlated with their pretest arithmetic knowledge and to be predictive of their learning of answers to unfamiliar arithmetic problems. The relation to learning of unfamiliar problems remained after controlling for prior arithmetic knowledge, short-term memory for numbers, and math achievement test scores. Moreover, presenting randomly chosen children with accurate visual representations of the magnitudes of addends and sums improved their learning of the answers to the problems. Thus, representations of numerical magnitude are both correlationally and causally related to arithmetic learning.     

The challenge of changing drug and sex risk behaviors of runaway and homeless adolescents

OBJECTIVE: To assess HIV-related drug and sex risk behaviors and evaluate factors associated with change in risk behaviors among runaway and homeless adolescents, 244 street youth were recruited from a community drop-in center serving high-risk youth. METHOD: Using a cross-sectional design, approximately half of study participants received training in a peer-based intervention that included principles derived from the health belief model, while the remaining subjects received no intervention. Subjects were interviewed at baseline, immediately following the intervention (for those receiving the training) and 3 months later. Logistic regression and analysis of covariance were used to analyze intervention effects. RESULTS: Compared to youth in the control condition, runaways receiving the intervention significantly increased their knowledge about HIV. Contrary to the health belief model, in multivariate analyses knowledge and greater perceived chance for HIV were associated with high risk behavior. On the other hand, lower concern about HIV infection was also associated with high risk behavior, supporting the health belief model. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the intervention's success in increasing knowledge of HIV and AIDS, the association between knowledge, perceived likelihood of infection and high risk behaviors suggest that, without other alternatives, runaways will maintain their risks. The association noted between lower concern and high risk behaviors underscores the challenge faced in developing effective interventions with this population.     

Development of numerical estimation in young children

Two experiments examined kindergartners', first graders', and second graders' numerical estimation, the internal representations that gave rise to the estimates, and the general hypothesis that developmental sequences within a domain tend to repeat themselves in new contexts. Development of estimation in this age range on 0-to-100 number lines followed the pattern observed previously with older children on 0-to-1,000 lines. Between kindergarten and second grade (6 and 8 years), patterns of estimates progressed from consistently logarithmic to a mixture of logarithmic and linear to a primarily linear pattern. Individual differences in number-line estimation correlated strongly with math achievement test scores, improved estimation accuracy proved attributable to increased linearity of estimates, and exposure to relevant experience tended to improve estimation accuracy.     

他的神秘方法

1我感到情绪很低落。那是我被安排做胆囊外科手术的前一个星期,我无法摆脱焦虑、沮丧的念头。那个外科医生虽然受到普遍的赞扬,可是对我而言却是重新开始——并且他不具备最佳的对待病人的态度。我的姐姐,一个经验丰富的手术室主任,最近调走了,她通常使我能轻松地对待医疗保健。这将是我首次在她正好不在我身边时面对手术。