An institutional analysis of an e-government system for anti-corruption: The case of OPEN

E-government is increasingly being used to improve transparency in the government sector and to combat corruption. Using institutional theory as an analytical perspective, this study documents and evaluates the development of an anti-corruption system called OPEN (Online Procedures ENhancement for civil application) in the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Incorporating three distinctive (yet interrelated) dimensions of institutionalization (regulatory/coercive, cognitive/mimetic, and normative), and four anti-corruption strategies embedded in the system, this study investigates how an e-government system for anti-corruption in a local government has evolved and become a prototype of a national system to be used for the same purpose. The findings show that in implementing OPEN, a system for anti-corruption, the regulatory dimension was most effective, and (as in many IS implementations) strong leadership was crucial to its success.     

Who goes to a library for cancer information in the e-health era? A secondary data analysis of the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS)

This study identifies characteristics of Americans who chose the library as their primary cancer information source over the Internet by examining demographic characteristics, online use experience, concerns of information quality, and perceptions of cancer information seeking. A secondary data analysis is conducted using the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Findings reveal that people who are more likely to choose the library are, compared to their Internet counterparts, people who lack online experience, are distrustful of online cancer information, and are more aware of cancer sources. However, they are not necessarily more adept cancer information seekers and do not have a greater expectation of getting quality information from the library. These findings suggest how the library plays its role as an information source for cancer information consumers in the e-health environment. Implications of the findings are discussed in a way that libraries could invest their efforts to reduce the digital health divide and to advance consumer health information literacy.     

Evaluation of query expansion using MeSH in PubMed

This paper investigates the effectiveness of using MeSH^® in PubMed through its automatic query expansion process: Automatic Term Mapping (ATM). We run Boolean searches based on a collection of 55 topics and about 160,000 MEDLINE^® citations used in the 2006 and 2007 TREC Genomics Tracks. For each topic, we first automatically construct a query by selecting keywords from the question. Next, each query is expanded by ATM, which assigns different search tags to terms in the query. Three search tags: [MeSH Terms], [Text Words], and [All Fields] are chosen to be studied after expansion because they all make use of the MeSH field of indexed MEDLINE citations. Furthermore, we characterize the two different mechanisms by which the MeSH field is used. Retrieval results using MeSH after expansion are compared to those solely based on the words in MEDLINE title and abstracts. The aggregate retrieval performance is assessed using both F-measure and mean rank precision. Experimental results suggest that query expansion using MeSH in PubMed can generally improve retrieval performance, but the improvement may not affect end PubMed users in realistic situations.     

A Study of Rubisco through Western Blotting and Tissue Printing Techniques

We describe a laboratory exercise developed for a cell biology course for second-year undergraduate biology majors. It was designed to introduce undergraduates to the basic molecular biology techniques of Western blotting and immunodetection coupled with the technique of tissue printing in detecting the presence, relative abundance, and distribution of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase in various plant materials. Pre- and postlab surveys indicated significant postlab gains in student understanding of all three lab techniques and relevant lecture topics. Additional postlab survey questions on student perception of the lab modules suggested that the laboratory exercises successfully met a series of pedagogical goals set by the instructors. The combination of these techniques provided a basis for quantitative and qualitative (visual) analysis of a biologically important enzyme and can be applied or modified readily to study other proteins and biological molecules in lab exercises for an introductory cell biology course or molecular biology course.     

The structural relationships of social support, mother’s psychological status, and maternal sensitivity to attachment security in children with disabilities

The purpose of this study was to explore how social support, mother’s psychological status, and maternal sensitivity affected attachment security in children with disabilities by using the structural equation model (SEM). Subjects were 141 pairs of children with disabilities and theirs mothers. Empirical data was obtained through a series of questionnaires such as marital satisfaction, support from people around, maternal depression, and parenting stress. In addition, maternal sensitivity and attachment security were obtained through a Maternal Behavior Q-set and an Attachment Behavior Q-set. The results were as follows: first, mother’s psychological status was fully mediated by social support and maternal sensitivity. Secondly, mother’s psychological status had a negative effect on maternal sensitivity, while her maternal sensitivity, in turn, had a positive effect on the child’s attachment security. However, maternal sensitivity did not fully mediate between a mother’s psychological status and the child’s attachment security. These structural relationships were not different between children with pervasive developmental disorders and mental retardation. There were also no significant differences in the structural paths according to children’s developmental age.     

Acceptance of Disability and Hwa-Byung among Korean Mothers of Children with Developmental Disabilities

This study examined how child problem behaviour could be related to maternal Hwa-Byung (HB; Korean culture syndrome, meaning ‘anger illness’) among Korean mothers of children with developmental disabilities. Acceptance of disabilities and parenting stress were tested as mediators for the relationship between child problem behaviour and maternal HB. The results indicated that child problem behaviour alone (e.g. self-injurious and aggressive behaviours, yelling/screaming, and crying) were not related to maternal HB. Instead, child problem behaviour was not directly associated with maternal HB, but indirectly related to maternal HB through decreased acceptance of disability and increased parenting stress. The findings of the study support the importance of Acceptance and Commitment therapy and parenting stress intervention to prevent and treat HB among Korean mothers of children with developmental disabilities.     

Massification of higher education and youth transition: skills mismatch,informal sector jobs and implications for China

This study adopts a nationwide survey data set between 2005 and 2013 (Chinese General Social Survey) to explore the influence of the massification of higher education on the transition of Chinese youth into the labour market. Data analysis reveals two major findings. First, the economic returns to college education of recent cohorts of university graduates (those who have graduated from universities not more than 3 years ago) are lower than the cohorts who graduated in 2005 and 2006. Second, recent cohorts of college graduates are likely to work in the urban informal sector, unlike their senior counterparts. These findings could partially be explained by skills mismatch in the labour market but a comprehensive understanding of graduate unemployment in China could be obtained by bringing the broader political economy perspective into the analysis.     

Korean Science and Engineering Students’ Perceptions of English-Medium Instruction and Korean-Medium Instruction

The purpose of this study was to examine how Korean science and engineering students view English-medium instruction (EMI) and Korean-medium instruction (KMI). The participants were 174 undergraduate students enrolled in EMI and KMI classes offered by the same instructor at a Korean science and engineering school. Interviews and questionnaire surveys were conducted, and students’ course evaluations, English scores and course grades were compared. The results of a campus-wide undergraduate student survey on EMI were also analyzed. The findings of the study show that the KMI-class students demonstrated higher levels of satisfaction and better performance in their classes than the EMI-class students did. Only 22% of the students in both classes found EMI classes helpful for improving their English ability. Nevertheless, the majority of the students supported the school’s maintenance of an EMI policy. In the conclusion, the paradoxical attitude of the students and the implications of the study are discussed.     

Investigating the impacts of targeted professional development around models and modeling on teachers' instructional practice and student learning

Developing understanding of models and proficiency with modeling practice is challenging for both teachers and students. This 2‐year study first investigated existing instructional strategies employed by teachers while teaching Earth and Space Science with dynamic physical models. Summer professional development introduced a conceptual framework, based on analogical reasoning, to help students strengthen and deepen the connections they make between a model and its real‐world referent. The framework draws explicit attention to correspondences and non‐correspondences between model and referent, an often overlooked component of modeling practice which underpins the ability to evaluate and thus improve a model. Teachers were guided to reflect on their own instructional use of models and to plan for integrating specific instructional strategies around models into their Year 2 practice. Classroom observation data reveal that from Years 1 to 2, teachers shifted from a more didactic approach in which they used physical models primarily as tools for demonstration toward more student engagement with models as problem‐solving tools. On an assessment measuring their students' ability to reason with and about models, pre‐post learning gains were higher in Year 2 than Year 1 across students at all ability levels. Together, these findings present evidence that teachers can learn to guide their students toward using physical models in ways that approximate key aspects of how scientists use runnable models, as envisioned by the Developing and Using Models practice of the Next Generation Science Standards.