Factors influencing the publication of health research

Objectives: Assess the degree to which research project findings were published and explore factors that influenced publication. Methods: Questionnaire to project leaders. Classification of publications and findings. Chi-squared; univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses. Results: Forty percent of projects published in peer-reviewed journal; highly statistically significant relationships between publication in peer-reviewed journals and (1) projects in Responsive/Fellowships streams (p = .045); and (2) projects awarded >pound22,713 (p = .02); influence of study findings not statistically significant. Conclusions: Funders should consider the significant number of studies that did not result in publication and the higher rate of publication in peer-reviewed journals from some programs

Technology-Enhanced Peer Review: Benefits and Implications of Providing Multiple Reviews

ABSTRACT This study analyses the impact of self and peer feedback in technology-enhanced peer review settings. The impact of receiving peer comments (“receiver” perspective) is compared to that of reaching own insights by reviewing others’ work (“giver” perspective). In this study, 38 sophomore students were randomly assigned in two conditions and engaged in peer review activity facilitated by a web-based learning environment asking them to provide multiple reviews. In the Peer Reviewed (PR) condition students both reviewed peer work and received peer comments for their own work. By contrast, in the Self Reviewed (SR) condition students provided peer reviews, but did not receive any. Instead, they were asked to perform self reviewing, before proceeding to any revisions of their work. Result showed that the two groups were comparable in all aspects, suggesting that the lack of getting peer reviews can be efficiently alleviated by other type of scaffolds such as a scripted self review process. Overall, the study provides evidence that the review “giver” perspective (as opposed to the typical “receiver” perspective) is a vital option and has noteworthy implications for the design of technological systems that aim to flexibly support more efficient peer review schemes

Tangent measures of typical measures

We prove that for a typical Radon measure mu in R^d, every non-zero Radon measure is a tangent measure of mu at mu almost every point. This was already shown by T. O'Neil in his PhD thesis from 1994, but we provide a different self-contained proof for this fact. Moreover, we show that this result is sharp: for any non-zero measure we construct a point in its support where the set of tangent measures does not contain all non-zero measures. We also study a concept similar to tangent measures on trees, micromeasures, and show an analogous typical property for them.Comment: v3: 20 pages, 4 figures, the main result was already proved by T. O'Neil in his PhD thesis with a different proof, added a reference to it. Peer-reviewed versio

Increasing appropriate social communication and pragmatic language skills in young adults with autism spectrum disorders

This report seeks to explore intervention methodologies that can be adapted for use with young transitional adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) to increase appropriate social communication. No interventions have been developed explicitly for use in speech-language therapy with young adults with ASD. As a result, existing interventions have to be adapted to use with this population. The interventions that were adapted were Behavioral Interventions, Developmental Social Pragmatic Interventions, and Enhanced Milieu Teaching. The adaptations of the reviewed interventions were illustrated by creating an instructional video to highlight how to use the interventions and their adaptations with an adult with ASD. The author and participant consider the video development and final product to be a success; however, until peer-reviewed efficacy studies that explore the effects of these intervention adaptations with young-adults with ASD are conducted, the author cannot assert that the intervention adaptations discussed will be effective therapy strategies for young adults with ASD.Communication Sciences and Disorder

Understanding Super-Earths with MINERVA-Australis at USQ's Mount Kent Observatory

Super Earths, planets between 5-10 Earth masses, are the most common type of exoplanet known, yet are completely absent from our Solar system. As a result, their detailed properties, compositions, and formation mechanisms are poorly understood. NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will identify hundreds of Super-Earths orbiting bright stars, for the first time allowing in-depth characterisation of these planets. At the University of Southern Queensland, we are host to the MINERVA-Australis project, dedicated wholly to the follow-up characterisation and mass measurement of TESS planets. We give an update on the status of MINERVA-Australis and our expected performance.Comment: Accepted to appear in the peer-reviewed proceedings of the 17th Australian Space Research Conference, held at the University of Sydney, 13th-15th November, 201

Star cluster dynamics

Dynamical evolution plays a key role in shaping the current properties of star clusters and star cluster systems. A detailed understanding of the effects of evolutionary processes is essential to be able to disentangle the properties which result from dynamical evolution from those imprinted at the time of cluster formation. In this review, we focus our attention on globular clusters and review the main physical ingredients driving their early and long-term evolution, describe the possible evolutionary routes and show how cluster structure and stellar content are affected by dynamical evolution.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figures. To appear as invited review article in a special issue of the Phil. Trans. Royal Soc. A: Ch. 7 "Star clusters as tracers of galactic star-formation histories" (ed. R. de Grijs). Fully peer reviewed. LaTeX, requires rspublic.cls style fil