Measuring scientific contributions with modified fractional counting

We develop and propose a new counting method at the aggregate level for contributions to scientific publications called modified fractional counting (MFC). We show that, compared to traditional complete-normalized fractional counting, it eliminates the extreme differences in contributions over time that otherwise occur between scientists that mainly publish alone or in small groups and those that publish with large groups of co-authors. As an extra benefit we find that scientists in different areas of research turn out to have comparable average contributions to scientific articles. We test the method on scientists at Norway’s largest universities and find that, at an aggregate level, it indeed supports comparability across different co-authorship practices as well as between areas of research. MFC is thereby useful whenever the research output from institutions with different research profiles are compared, as e.g., in the Leiden Ranking. Finally, as MFC is actually a family of indicators, depending on a sensitivity parameter, it can be adapted to the circumstances.     

What About the Hyperlocals?

Using a survey of a sample of hyperlocal actors in Sweden (N?=?178), this article examines preconditions, motivations and sustainability for hyperlocal media operations, outside the traditional media chains, in order to provide a picture of their function in the current media landscape, and to further build on the understanding of the hyperlocal business model. This study extends the hyperlocal definition by including media platforms other than websites. The results show that the operations indeed aim to support and foster citizenship, strengthen democracy and mirror the local community. At the same time, as shown by other studies, the fact that they are not large-scale, highly profitable operations may challenge their sustainability. Nonetheless, most of them claim to be profitable, largely because of the print platform, and have a positive outlook on the future. Revenues from advertising and readership are currently less substantial for Web-based operations, which reinforces the need to broaden the definition of hyperlocal publishing platforms when talking about financial sustainability. Currently, hyperlocal media in Sweden, with small resources and a lower publishing frequency, cannot be viewed as a replacement of established media, but play important roles as complementary alternative voices and contribute to media plurality in the local community.     

China's recruitment of African university students: policy efficacy and unintended outcomes

This article explores how Sino-African relations are affected by the growing number of Africans who pursue higher education in China. China actively recruits African university students in order to increase soft power and generate income from the export of education services. Semi-structured interviews with African university students suggest that China fails to reach these policy objectives because the students are disappointed with the quality of the education they receive. However, the students engage in trade and contribute to the fast-growing export of Chinese products to African markets, thereby reinforcing the ties between China and Africa in unintended ways.     

Psychobiological studies of stress and coping: an introduction

Developmental psychobiology is the study of how the interplay between behavioral and physiological processes supports and directs development. This symposium section is devoted to work in this interdisciplinary domain focused on examining stress and how young organisms cope with and are affected by stressful experiences. In this introduction to the symposium section, the problems of interpreting and integrating information on stress reactivity derived from a combination of behavioral and physiological measures are discussed.     

Metricon 2.0关注安全度量

2007年IEEE在波士顿召开了Metricon2.0工作会议,同时进行的还有第十六届Usenix安全研讨会.与会人员被问到的首要问题是:"度量事关重大吗?"你可以想象,与会者对这一问题的直觉问答会是"yes",但是经过会议当天的一番激辩,支持这一回答的人数在数量上只是稍占上风.     

Students as Journeymen between Cultures of Higher Education and Work: A Comparative European Project on the Transition from Higher Education to Working Life1

This paper addresses the feasibility of higher education in relation to the demands of work life. The research is a comparative study involving four European countries: Sweden, Norway, Poland, and Germany. The research focuses on the view of freshmen, senior students and later graduates in Psychology and Political Science. Data were obtained by semi‐structured interviews, which were subjected to qualitative analyses. The results indicate that higher education, with some exceptions, seems to produce a discipline‐based identity among the students. These findings may be indicative of the value for employability of classical academic generic skills.     

Infant Proneness-to-Distress Temperament, Maternal Personality, and Mother-Infant Attachment: Associations and Goodness of Fit

66 mother-infant pairs were examined when the infants were 9 and 13 months. The purpose of this report was to examine relations between infant proneness-to-distress temperament, maternal personality characteristics, and mother-infant attachment. There were no main-effect relations between infant proneness-to-distress temperament as assessed at 9 months and infant attachment classification at 13 months. This was true whether security of attachment (A and C vs. B) or proposed temperament (A1-B2 vs. B3-C2) groupings of attachment classifications were examined. Infant proneness-to-distress temperament, however, was associated with maternal behavior and personality. Furthermore, security of attachment could be predicted by an interaction between maternal personality and infant proneness-to-distress. The importance of considering goodness-of-fit relations in predicting attachment security is discussed.     

The client company marginally utilises the knowledge of highly skilled temporary staff

This study is based on the presumption that there is often an underuse of temporary staff in client companies (CC) with highly skilled professionals. The study combines theories of the flexible organisation and a sociocultural perspective on learning within the framework of an inter-organisational context. The data are based partly on 17 transcribed, semi-structured interviews with individuals in various types of health care and social services. The data are also based on two semi-structured focus group interviews with managers responsible for hiring social workers, nurses and doctors in two different temporary work agencies (TWA) as well as semi-structured focus group interviews with eight managers from a large health care organisation. The results show that CCs only use a limited amount of the highly skilled personnel’s capacity and exclude preconditions for taking over and absorbing knowledge from temporary workers. This contradicts the idea that staffing allows temps to increase their skills and enhance their employability. In addition, both TWA and the CC pronounce an interest in and readiness for deepening the business relationships between them, but they claim the other is responsible for initiation. The results reflect information not only about temporary workers with higher education but also the new business relationship between TWA and CC in the form of combined skills and workplace validation.     

An ‘appropriate’ test taker: the everyday classroom during the national testing period in school year three in Sweden

This article draws on data from a bigger project where we explore what is taking place in the daily life of classrooms during the national testing period in mathematics for 9–10-year-old children in Sweden. Data were produced by observations, video-recordings and interviews with children. The article shows on a micro level how assessment trends, on a macro level, affect children. It further focuses how children through different repertoires of time position themselves as ‘appropriate’ test takers.