Scalable Shared Scripting for Spatial Structure of Regionalized Ratings

Incisive inquiry involving indicators of ecological and environmental integrity entails exploration of spatial structure at selected scales from landscape level to regional regimes. Conventional colorization of digital displays provides perspective but is largely lacking for localization, elaboration, and explication. An overall objective for recent research is explicit extraction of spatial structure as hyper-hills and proximal propensity. Shared scripting as a computational configuration affords analytical advantage, adaptability and availability. Conservation context captures challenges of changing conditions for complex components at several spatial scales. Hyper-hill hypotheses, relativized ratings, and post patterned nucleated networks supporting secondary scaling scenarios are current contributions. Computational concerns in indicant informatics are also addressed. Retrospective results are cogent comparators for change. Shared scripting couples R software with Python as R||Python (R in parallel with Python), which is supplemented by strategic sequencing of compilation capabilities in general GIS (geographic information systems). The specific research question(s) is/are what is the particular pattern of placement and propagation in intensification of an indicant of biodiversity (avian species richness), and how does this relate to some other co-located indicants of environmental effects. This is addressed in a legacy dataset for Pennsylvania, USA. Emergent emphasis is on truncated trees of topology and impaneled indicators. Shareable software has HIDN (hexagonal indicant dual networking) as an aggregate acronym with duly drawn disclaimers.

When research is me-search: How researchers’ motivation to pursue a topic affects laypeople’s trust in science

Research is often fueled by researchers’ scientific, but also their personal interests: Sometimes, researchers decide to pursue a specific research question because the answer to that question is idiosyncratically relevant for themselves: Such “me-search” may not only affect the quality of research, but also how it is perceived by the general public. In two studies (N = 621), we investigate the circumstances under which learning about a researcher’s “me-search” increases or decreases laypeople’s ascriptions of trustworthiness and credibility to the respective researcher. Results suggest that participants’ own preexisting attitudes towards the research topic moderate the effects of “me-search” substantially: When participants hold favorable attitudes towards the research topic (i.e., LGBTQ or veganism), “me-searchers” were perceived as more trustworthy and their research was perceived as more credible. This pattern was reversed when participants held unfavorable attitudes towards the research topic. Study 2 furthermore shows that trustworthiness and credibility perceptions generalize to evaluations of the entire field of research. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

MetaMutationalSigs: Comparison of mutational signature refitting results made easy

The analysis of mutational signatures is becoming increasingly common in cancer genetics, with emerging implications in cancer evolution, classification, treatment decision and prognosis. Recently, several packages have been developed for mutational signature analysis, with each using different methodology and yielding significantly different results. Because of the nontrivial differences in tools' refitting results, researchers may desire to survey and compare the available tools, in order to objectively evaluate the results for their specific research question, such as which mutational signatures are prevalent in different cancer types. There is a need for a software that can aggregate results from different refitting packages and present them in a user-friendly way to facilitate effective comparison of mutational signatures.

Survey research in tourism: a perspective paper

Purpose This paper aims to discuss issues relating to survey research in tourism. Design/methodology/approach This brief perspective paper discusses the routine approach of survey research that has developed over many years (as tourism researchers adopted the most promising approaches to survey research fields), discusses the dangers associated with following this (or any) routine approach, and offers a small set of questions for researchers to consider before embarking on their next survey study. Findings A default approach to survey research has developed. It can undermine the validity of conclusions. The key to high-quality survey research is to thoughtfully design the survey study considering the specific research question at hand, and to carefully pre-test the questionnaire. Originality/value This is a perspective paper offering a brief overview of the topic of survey research in tourism.

Pelaksanaan Kepemimpinan Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu Politik (STISIPOL) Imam Bonjol Padang

On the basis of preliminery field observatioan, the researcher noticed that the head of STISIPOL Imam Bonjol Padang was neither administrativel not academically capable to manage the institution. This condition may not continue should the STISIPOLwant to change institution to a better and modern academic human resource. The researce put its focus on how the head of STISIPOL behaved in the process of decision - making, one of the key aspect of management. The specific research question read follow, a). how the head of STISIPOL Imam Bonjol Padang behavedin decision making, b). what types of reactions of response were given by the academic and administrative staff toward leadership behaviour, c). what problems or handicaps were faced by the head of STISIPOL. This research was conducted by applying qualitative approach. In conclusion the research dare to say that it will be very hard to for STISIPOL Imam Bonjol Padang to change and improve unless the inner structure of personnel is revitalized including the change in the policy of academic staff recruitment.

Firearm assault injuries by residence and injury occurrence location

Research on spatial injury patterns is limited by a lack of precise injury occurrence location data. Using linked hospital and death records, we examined residence and injury locations for firearm assaults and homicides in or among residents of King County, Washington, USA from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2014. In total, 670 injuries were identified, 586 with geocoded residence and injury locations. Three-quarters of injuries occurred outside the census tract where the victim resided. Median distance between locations was 3.9 miles, with victims 18–34 having the greatest distances between residence and injury location. 40 of 398 tracts had a ratio of injury incidents to injured residents of >1. Routine collection of injury location data and homelessness status could decrease misclassification and bias. Researchers should consider whether residential address is an appropriate proxy for injury location, based on data quality and their specific research question.

Active learning across disciplines: opportunities to develop employability skills and leadership potential in undergraduate students. A student and staff perspective.

Working effectively within multidisciplinary teams is an important employability skill common in postgraduate working life, but opportunities to develop this are limited in many undergraduate taught programmes. The projects reported here offered twelve level 5 undergraduate students from a range of science disciplines the opportunity to work with each other and staff on a specific research question. This paper explores the experience of cross-disciplinary research from both the student and staff research partners’ perspectives. In particular the employability skills gained from such partnership working, the potential for developing and demonstrating leadership skills, and the benefits and disadvantages are discussed.

Selection of the Research Question

Selecting a research question is the first step of any research project. This chapter discusses how to formulate a specific research question from a variety of scientific interests. The reader will learn that a good research question needs to consider several aspects, such as feasibility, innovation, and significance, and that merging all these aspects into one research question may be challenging. This chapter reviews the importance of generating a strong research question using the PICOT format: population (P), intervention (I), control (C), outcomes (O), and time (T). This chapter also discusses the selection of appropriate outcome variables—surrogates or clinical endpoints, based on the types of questions or study phase. The final goal of this chapter is to refine the researcher’s general idea into the process of shaping a strong research question that will be feasible, important, ethical, and answerable.

Replication and Repetition in Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses in Medicine

This chapter discusses systematic reviews (SRs) and meta-analysis (MA). SRs are reviews of the “best available,” reliable studies focused on a specific research question. Most often, the studies included in SRs are randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that have repeated the same treatments in (usually) different situations. MA is a statistical method applied to the results gleaned from an SR that yields a single measure of the expected outcomes of repeated trials, along with an assertion of the confidence we have in that measure. This chapter argues that RCTs are never similar enough to be considered identical replicates, but they are repeated studies, usually on different populations. Comparable RCTs examine one or similar outcomes (based on a hypothesized cause-and-effect relationship), which is why comparable RCTs can be included in SRs and MAs. If SRs and MAs show convincing results, further repeated RCTs would be avoided, thus saving valuable resources. However, evidence to date suggests that this rarely occurs.

Sociotonetics using connected speech

This is the first variationist sociotonetic study to use free-speech data for exploring tone. Due to the challenges of analyzing tone in free-speech data, prior work on sociotonetics has been limited to relatively formal speech styles: word lists, sentence frames, and phrase lists. But connected speech styles, including free speech and reading passages, are important for segmental sociophonetics and most other linguistic variables. Will free-speech data always be out of reach for sociotonetics? Can tone variation in connected speech data be normalized and meaningfully analyzed for sociolinguistic research questions? Using field data from the Sui language of China, this paper develops a practical approach for analyzing tone variation in connected speech data, and then applies it to a specific research question about dialect contact in exogamous Sui villages. Results show that some types of intra- and inter-speaker tone variation in connected speech can be effectively analyzed, although other types of tone variables are neutralized in this speech style.