scholarly journals Enhancing the research and publication efforts of health sciences librarians via an academic writing retreat

2017 ◽  
Vol 105 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Bullion ◽  
Stewart M. Brower
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Protected Time ◽  
Writing Group ◽  
South Central ◽  
Medical Library

Background: This case study describes the South Central Chapter of the Medical Library Association (SCC/MLA) initiative to develop an academic writing retreat for members who sought the necessary time and support to advance their research projects toward publication.Case Presentation: SCC/MLA staged a dedicated writing retreat to coincide with the organization’s 2012, 2013, and 2014 annual meetings. Each cohort met over two days to write and to workshop their peers’ manuscripts. Organizers distributed an online survey one month after each retreat to evaluate attendees’ perceptions.Conclusions: Three years’ worth of writing retreats yielded fourteen peer-reviewed articles and one book chapter. Participants indicated that the retreat helped them meet or exceed their writing goals by offering protected time and a setting conducive to productivity. The format of the retreat is cost effective and easily adaptable for fellow professionals who wish to organize a formal event as a conference offering or simply support a writing group at their home institutions. In SCC/MLA, the retreat revitalized interest in writing and demystified the scholarly publication process.

Writing Groups in the Digital Age

2017 ◽  
pp. 249-269
Author(s):  
Siobhan T. O'Dwyer ◽  
Sharon L. McDonough ◽  
Rebecca Jefferson ◽  
Jennifer Ann Goff ◽  
Michelle Redman-MacLaren
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Digital Age ◽  
Scholarly Activity ◽  
Writing Groups ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Writing Group ◽  
Writing Practice

Social media writing groups are an emerging phenomenon in the academic world. Combining the discipline, mentorship, and peer support of face-to-face writing groups, with the convenience, global reach, and interdisciplinary networks of social media, they offer a way for scholars to apply new digital technologies to the old problem of developing, maintaining, and protecting an academic writing practice. Despite their growing popularity, however, there has been little critical or empirical analysis of these groups. Using Shut Up & Write Tuesdays (SUWT) as a case study, this chapter examines the purpose, use, outcomes, and challenges of a social media writing group for academics. Usage data from the three SUWT Twitter accounts, a survey of SUWT participants, and the narrative reflections of the SUWT hosts, are drawn together to highlight the value, strengths, and limitations of social media writing groups as a scholarly activity in the digital age.

scholarly journals Using Conjoint Analyses to Improve Cable Yarder Design Characteristics: An Austrian Yarder Case Study to Advance Cost-Effective Extraction

Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Kühmaier ◽  
Hunter Harrill ◽  
Mohammad Ghaffariyan ◽  
Manfred Hofer ◽  
Karl Stampfer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Timber Harvesting ◽  
User Preferences ◽  
Design Characteristics ◽  
Steep Terrain ◽  
Integrate Design

Steep country harvesting has been identified as the main bottleneck to achieving greater profitability in the forestry sector of New Zealand and Australia. An improvement of efficiency, work safety and environmental sustainability should be realized by developing an advanced steep terrain timber harvesting system based on innovative Austrian technology. To identify the best suitable configuration of a cable yarder for steep terrain harvesting, user preferences based on an online survey (conjoint analysis) have been evaluated to answer the following questions: (1) What attributes of a new yarder design are most important to consumers? (2) Which criteria do stakeholders consider when selecting a cable yarder? (3) What are the weights representing the relative importance of criteria? Using eight specific design scenarios a fourth question, being which cable yarder concept is the best, was also answered. This case study shows that conjoint analyses is an effective tool to assess, rate and subsequently integrate design characteristics. Based on the results of the analysis, a cable yarder prototype will be manufactured in Austria and transferred to New Zealand for testing and demonstration.

scholarly journals Examining Success and Sustainability of Academic Writing: A Case Study of Two Writing-Group Models

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 132-145
Author(s):  
Kinga Olszewska ◽  
Jennifer Lock
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Publication Output ◽  
Writing Groups ◽  
Reflective Journals ◽  
Writing Group ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Writing Culture ◽  
Faculty Of Education

In contemporary higher education there is a growing demand for academics to increase their publication output. This requirement raises the question of how institutions can best support a sustainable academic writing culture, which is needed to challenge the assumption that all academics know how to write for publication. This case study examines two models used in a Faculty of Education to support writing groups for academic staff. From the analysis of reflective journals, interviews, and field notes, we identified four factors that influence the success of writing groups, as well as six conditions that support the development of sustainable academic writing. We have learned from the study that the success of a writing group is predicated on a collaborative practice that blends relational, communal, and institutional forms of sustainability in a purposeful, engaged, and reflexive way.  

The socio-spatial politics of royalties and their distribution: A case study of the Surat Basin, Queensland

2021 ◽  
pp. 0308518X2110266
Author(s):  
Neil Argent ◽  
Sean Markey ◽  
Greg Halseth ◽  
Laura Ryser ◽  
Fiona Haslam-McKenzie
Keyword(s):  
Cost Effective ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Energy Extraction ◽  
Grant Application ◽  
Coal Seam Gas ◽  
Spatial Politics ◽  
Developmental Needs ◽  
Development Fund ◽  
Effective Use

This paper is concerned with the socio-spatial and ethical politics of redistribution, specifically the allocation of natural resources rents from political and economic cores to the economic and geographical peripheries whence the resource originated. Based on a case study of the coal seam gas sector in Queensland's Surat Basin, this paper focuses on the operation of the Queensland State Government's regional development fund for mining and energy extraction-affected regions. Employing an environmental justice framework, we critically explore the operation of these funds in ostensibly helping constituent communities in becoming resilient to the worst effects of the ‘staples trap’. Drawing on secondary demographic and housing data for the region, as well as primary information collected from key respondents from mid-2018 to early 2019, we show that funds were distributed across all of the local government areas, and allocated to projects and places primarily on a perceived economic needs basis. However, concerns were raised with the probity of the funds’ administration. In terms of recognition justice, the participation of smaller and more remote towns and local Indigenous communities was hampered by their structural marginalisation. Procedurally, the funds were criticised for the lack of local consultation taken in the development and approval of projects. While spatially concentrated expenditure may be the most cost-effective use of public monies, we argue that grant application processes should be open, transparent and inclusive, and the outcomes cognisant of the developmental needs of smaller communities, together with the need to foster regional solidarity and coherence.

Comparing respondents who passed versus failed an Instructional Manipulation Check: A case study about support for climate change policies

2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 408-415
Author(s):  
Maria Rubio Juan ◽  
Melanie Revilla
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
External Validity ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Manipulation Check ◽  
Climate Change Policies ◽  
Instructional Manipulation ◽  
Using Data

The presence of satisficers among survey respondents threatens survey data quality. To identify such respondents, Oppenheimer et al. developed the Instructional Manipulation Check (IMC), which has been used as a tool to exclude observations from the analyses. However, this practice has raised concerns regarding its effects on the external validity and the substantive conclusions of studies excluding respondents who fail an IMC. Thus, more research on the differences between respondents who pass versus fail an IMC regarding sociodemographic and attitudinal variables is needed. This study compares respondents who passed versus failed an IMC both for descriptive and causal analyses based on structural equation modeling (SEM) using data from an online survey implemented in Spain in 2019. These data were analyzed by Rubio Juan and Revilla without taking into account the results of the IMC. We find that those who passed the IMC do differ significantly from those who failed for two sociodemographic and five attitudinal variables, out of 18 variables compared. Moreover, in terms of substantive conclusions, differences between those who passed and failed the IMC vary depending on the specific variables under study.

scholarly journals Toward Decentralised Sanitary Sewage Collection Systems: A Multiobjective Approach for Cost-Effective and Resilient Designs

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 1886
Author(s):  
Arezoo Zahediasl ◽  
Amin E. Bakhshipour ◽  
Ulrich Dittmer ◽  
Ali Haghighi
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Drainage System ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Optimization Approach ◽  
Hydraulic Design ◽  
Multiobjective Approach ◽  
Layout Generation ◽  
Plant Allocation ◽  
Problem Solving Process

In recent years, the concept of a centralized drainage system that connect an entire city to one single treatment plant is increasingly being questioned in terms of the costs, reliability, and environmental impacts. This study introduces an optimization approach based on decentralization in order to develop a cost-effective and sustainable sewage collection system. For this purpose, a new algorithm based on the growing spanning tree algorithm is developed for decentralized layout generation and treatment plant allocation. The trade-off between construction and operation costs, resilience, and the degree of centralization is a multiobjective problem that consists of two subproblems: the layout of the networks and the hydraulic design. The innovative characteristics of the proposed framework are that layout and hydraulic designs are solved simultaneously, three objectives are optimized together, and the entire problem solving process is self-adaptive. The model is then applied to a real case study. The results show that finding an optimum degree of centralization could reduce not only the network’s costs by 17.3%, but could also increase its structural resilience significantly compared to fully centralized networks.

An application of Austrian legal requirements for CSO emissions

2011 ◽  
Vol 64 (5) ◽  
pp. 1081-1088 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manfred Kleidorfer ◽  
Wolfgang Rauch
Keyword(s):  
Model Calibration ◽  
Model Building ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Combined Sewer Overflows ◽  
Sewer System ◽  
Legal Requirements ◽  
Innovative Methods ◽  
Combined Sewer

The Austrian standard for designing combined sewer overflow (CSO) detention basins introduces the efficiency of the combined sewer overflows as an indicator for CSO pollution. Additionally criteria for the ambient water quality are defined, which comprehend six kinds of impacts. In this paper, the Austrian legal requirements are described and discussed by means of hydrological modelling. This is exemplified with the case study Innsbruck (Austria) including a description for model building and model calibration. Furthermore an example is shown in order to demonstrate how – in this case – the overall system performance could be improved by implementing a cost-effective rearrangement of the storage tanks already available at the inflow of the wastewater treatment plant. However, this guideline also allows more innovative methods for reducing CSO emissions as measures for better usage of storage volume or de-centralised treatment of stormwater runoff because it is based on a sewer system simulation.

scholarly journals A field survey–based method to characterise landslide development: a case study at the high bluff of the Danube, south-central Hungary

Landslides ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. 1567-1581 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. P. Kovács ◽  
Sz. Czigány ◽  
B. Dobre ◽  
Sz. Á. Fábián ◽  
M. Sobucki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Field Survey ◽  
South Central ◽  
Landslide Development

scholarly journals GPU-Enabled Serverless Workflows for Efficient Multimedia Processing

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1438
Author(s):  
Sebastián Risco ◽  
Germán Moltó
Keyword(s):  
Video Processing ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Multimedia Processing ◽  
Computing Services ◽  
Video Frames ◽  
Open Source Framework ◽  
Cloud Infrastructures ◽  
Aws Lambda ◽  
Runtime Environments

Serverless computing has introduced scalable event-driven processing in Cloud infrastructures. However, it is not trivial for multimedia processing to benefit from the elastic capabilities featured by serverless applications. To this aim, this paper introduces the evolution of a framework to support the execution of customized runtime environments in AWS Lambda in order to accommodate workloads that do not satisfy its strict computational requirements: increased execution times and the ability to use GPU-based resources. This has been achieved through the integration of AWS Batch, a managed service to deploy virtual elastic clusters for the execution of containerized jobs. In addition, a Functions Definition Language (FDL) is introduced for the description of data-driven workflows of functions. These workflows can simultaneously leverage both AWS Lambda for the highly-scalable execution of short jobs and AWS Batch, for the execution of compute-intensive jobs that can profit from GPU-based computing. To assess the developed open-source framework, we executed a case study for efficient serverless video processing. The workflow automatically generates subtitles based on the audio and applies GPU-based object recognition to the video frames, thus simultaneously harnessing different computing services. This allows for the creation of cost-effective highly-parallel scale-to-zero serverless workflows in AWS.

Do different types of organizational trust matter to employees’ commitment? A case study from Oman

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Moaz Gharib ◽  
Kamaal Allil ◽  
Omar Durrah ◽  
Mohammed Alsatouf
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
Employee Commitment ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Food Sector ◽  
Final Sample ◽  
Organisational Trust ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Practical Implications

PURPOSE: Trust is vital to all positive relationships. This empirical study explores the effect of three facets of organisational trust (trust in supervisors, in co-workers and in the organisation) on employee commitment in Salalah Mills Co. in the food industry in the Sultanate of Oman. METHODOLOGY: Data were collected via an online survey sent to all employees working in Salalah Mills Co., Oman. The final sample consisting of 102 responses with a response rate of 54 percent were analysed using multiple regression analysis. RESULTS: The findings revealed that two facets of organisational trust (trust in co-workers and trust in supervisors) were found to have a significant positive effect on employee commitment, while trust in the organisation was found to have no significant effect. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Trust in supervisors and trust in co-workers directly affect employee commitment. Therefore, managers should consider promoting both of these forms of trust to enhance employee commitment. VALUE: Although previous studies have examined the link between organisational trust and employee commitment, a focus on Oman and the food sector has been particularly rare, so this study offers new insights. The findings will help decision-makers on design strategies and policies to improve employee commitment through trust.

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