A Comparative Study of Teacher Prepared and Commercially Purchased Transparencies in Industrial Arts Education

Most graphic arts laboratories in Industrial Arts Teacher Education Programs are equipped with darkroom, process camera and offset printing equipment. The utilization of this equipment for the production of overhead transparencies could update instructional materials for industrial arts courses. Several processes for producing overhead transparencies were investigated by means of a documentary study of educational and industrial literature. The information gathered was then studied and experimentation was conducted to determine the feasibility of producing single color and multicolor transparencies in the graphic arts laboratory of the Industrial Arts Department. The results of this study provided the following: 1. Technical information necessary for producing overhead transparencies. 2. A cost comparison between teacher prepared and commercially purchased overhead transparencies. It was determined that teacher prepared transparencies are of high quality and are less expensive than commercially purchased transparencies. In conclusions, the production of overhead transparencies in Industrial Arts Teacher Education Programs could enhance course content by giving instructors more flexibility in the selection of visual materials

How to Achieve Public Participation in Nuclear Waste Decisions: Public Relations or Transparent Adversary Science

[Excerpt] Commercial nuclear reactors in the United States have been producing electricity and highly radioactive wastes for more than forty years. Originally, reluctant utilities built reactors at the urging of Congress, acting in accordance with the Atomic Energy Act. The Act called for promotion of nuclear technology and also provided a shield of secrecy allowing for extensive power to classify information. Wiretapping and other surveillance techniques were allowable if nuclear secrets or interference with nuclear programs were involved. During this time the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) provided films and comic books, and gave speeches in a public relations campaign designed to convince the public, both in the U.S. and abroad, that the same technology that created the atomic bomb could be used to vastly improve the quality of life. Throughout the period of hard sell and promotion of nuclear power, the issue of waste management and disposal was either ignored or assurances were given that there was no problem. Since the 1950s, science, business and government have claimed that solutions are available and that nuclear waste disposal is a political problem, not a technical challenge

Exploring Supply Chains from a Technical Debt Perspective

Software development has evolved from software development organizations building custom solutions for every need and creating a backlog of applications needed by users to specialized organizations producing components that are supplied to other software development organizations to speed the development of their software products. Our objective is to illustrate how a manager might use supply chain information to evaluate software being considered for inclusion in a product. We investigated the Eclipse platform code to illustrate analysis methods that produce information of use to decision makers. The technical debt of the software pieces was measured using the Technical Debt plug-in to SONAR as one input into the evaluation of supply chain quality. The dependency graphs of uses relationships among files were analyzed using graph metrics such as betweenness centrality. There was a statistically significant moderate correlation between the technical debt for a file and the betweenness centrality for that file. This relationship is used as the basis for a heuristic approach to forming advice to a development manager regarding which assets to acquire

MDQC: a new quality assessment method for microarrays based on quality control reports

Motivation: The process of producing microarray data involves multiple steps, some of which may suffer from technical problems and seriously damage the quality of the data. Thus, it is essential to identify those arrays with low quality. This article addresses two questions: (1) how to assess the quality of a microarray dataset using the measures provided in quality control (QC) reports; (2) how to identify possible sources of the quality problems. Results: We propose a novel multivariate approach to evaluate the quality of an array that examines the ‘Mahalanobis distance' of its quality attributes from those of other arrays. Thus, we call it Mahalanobis Distance Quality Control (MDQC) and examine different approaches of this method. MDQC flags problematic arrays based on the idea of outlier detection, i.e. it flags those arrays whose quality attributes jointly depart from those of the bulk of the data. Using two case studies, we show that a multivariate analysis gives substantially richer information than analyzing each parameter of the QC report in isolation. Moreover, once the QC report is produced, our quality assessment method is computationally inexpensive and the results can be easily visualized and interpreted. Finally, we show that computing these distances on subsets of the quality measures in the report may increase the method's ability to detect unusual arrays and helps to identify possible reasons of the quality problems. Availability: The library to implement MDQC will soon be available from Bioconductor Contact: [email protected] Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics onlin

The state of data quality arts in (technical) service reporting

Service Level Management (SLM) in IT Service Management (ITSM) contains Technical Service Reports (TSRs) to report Service Quality (SQ) based on the Service Level Agreement (SLA). However, producing TSRs for a large enterprise has Data Quality (DQ) challenges. The source of technical metrics in TSRs comes from large, unverified and non-normalized system-generated events and logs in a large enterprise environment. Moreover, configuration items and service information meta-data that are essential for producing these SLM reports are facing DQ problems. These challenges lead to low reports' Data Quality (DQ) that destroy customer's trust and management visibility, which leads to financial penalties and SQ issues. In order to improve the TSRs' DQ and consequently improving the SQ and reducing the risks of financial penalties, researchers need to know the limitations and definitions of DQ for TSRs, and this is not feasible, except for having a comprehensive overview of DQ dimensions and its processes. This paper provides a statement on the situation of the DQ in existing literature by having eyes on technical service reporting issues

Best practice in undertaking and reporting health technology assessments : Working Group 4 report

[Executive Summary] The aim of Working Group 4 has been to develop and disseminate best practice in undertaking and reporting assessments, and to identify needs for methodologic development. Health technology assessment (HTA) is a multidisciplinary activity that systematically examines the technical performance, safety, clinical efficacy, and effectiveness, cost, costeffectiveness, organizational implications, social consequences, legal, and ethical considerations of the application of a health technology (18). HTA activity has been continuously increasing over the last few years. Numerous HTA agencies and other institutions (termed in this report “HTA doers”) across Europe are producing an important and growing amount of HTA information. The objectives of HTA vary considerably between HTA agencies and other actors, from a strictly political decision making–oriented approach regarding advice on market licensure, coverage in benefits catalogue, or investment planning to information directed to providers or to the public. Although there seems to be broad agreement on the general elements that belong to the HTA process, and although HTA doers in Europe use similar principles (41), this is often difficult to see because of differences in language and terminology. In addition, the reporting of the findings from the assessments differs considerably. This reduces comparability and makes it difficult for those undertaking HTA assessments to integrate previous findings from other HTA doers in a subsequent evaluation of the same technology. Transparent and clear reporting is an important step toward disseminating the findings of a HTA; thus, standards that ensure high quality reporting may contribute to a wider dissemination of results. The EUR-ASSESS methodologic subgroup already proposed a framework for conducting and reporting HTA (18), which served as the basis for the current working group. New developments in the last 5 years necessitate revisiting that framework and providing a solid structure for future updates. Giving due attention to these methodologic developments, this report describes the current “best practice” in both undertaking and reporting HTA and identifies the needs for methodologic development. It concludes with specific recommendations and tools for implementing them, e.g., by providing the structure for English-language scientific summary reports and a checklist to assess the methodologic and reporting quality of HTA reports

The issue of competence in transforming the Norwegian welfare sector: some implications for future e-government initiatives

In this paper we argue that e-government initiatives need to take the competence involved in producing high-quality services for citizens into account. We draw on insights from a Pilot project in a Norwegian municipal aiming at radically re-structuring the Norwegian welfare sector and show how the competence to provide high-quality services rely on the collective achievement of individuals’ knowing-in-practice when dealing with particular cases and situations. Furthermore, we show how competence in terms of ‘processes of knowing’ is intrinsically related to organization structure and existing information systems (IS). Transforming the Norwegian Welfare Sector then, involves transforming a socio-technical network of heterogeneous elements, where existing processes of knowing plays an important role. Based on this, we then discuss some implications for implementing e-government in local municipals, and in particular e-government initiatives that aim at introducing all-embracing integrated IT-solutions across organizational and geographical borders. The paper concludes by sketching some implications for future research on e-government

Organic fruit production: Review of current practice and knowledge (OF0150)

This is the final report of Defra project OF0150 REASONS FOR STUDY AND KEY OBJECTIVES. There is a strong demand for organic fruit in the UK but the majority of this is met by imports. The main constraint on home production is a shortage of growers with sufficient acreage to supply wholesalers and supermarkets. The Organic Fruit Focus Group identified lack of technical information and research as a major barrier to growers considering conversion. The main aim of the present study was to gather technical information on organic growing techniques from growers, advisors and researchers from both the UK and abroad. Research priorities were also identified. Crops reviewed were apples, pears, strawberries, currants, gooseberries and raspberries. MAIN FINDINGS. • Research review. The most information was found on organic apple and strawberry production. Much of it was obtained by contacting researchers and advisors and is unrefereed literature e.g. conference proceedings, annual reports, advisory booklets and press articles. Relevant research from conventional systems was also reviewed. • Advisory literature from abroad. The most useful literature was from FiBL in Switzerland, LBI in the Netherlands and The Danish Agricultural Advisory Centre. • Research and development programmes abroad are producing relevant information of immediate use to UK growers. • Drafts of two booklets have been written during the review by combining several sources of information, i.e. 'Organic apples - pest and disease management' and 'Organic strawberry production - a growers guide' (see appendix 2 & 3) • Apples and pears. Technical problems are numerous but organic apple production can be profitable mainly because there is a market for organic class II fruit. However the conversion period is a major financial and technical barrier. Research priorities were identified, these included a) variety trials, b) scab control, c) studies on weed control/water/nutrients e.g. management of the orchard alleyways and the tree strip to encourage beneficial insects, manipulate nutrient supply and provide orchard access d) pest control e.g. optimising the use of floral strips to prevent pest epidemics and specific control methods for numerous major pests. • Strawberries. These are considered easier to grow. Suitable systems for weed control have been developed. The main problems and research priorities are a) Botrytis, b) powdery mildew, c) soil borne diseases (Verticillium and Phytophthora), d) encouraging beneficials for pest control e) optimising nutrient supply. • Raspberries, blackcurrants and gooseberries. Few growers with reasonable acreage were identified making it difficult to draw comprehensive conclusions. However, weed control is a major problem. Research priorities include management of the crop pathways and optimising the use of mulches. An important pest is raspberry beetle. Various other pests could become a problem if acreage is increased. TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER. Four possible avenues of dissemination were identified. • Collaboration with FiBL in Switzerland to produce adapted translations of grower booklets • Production of booklets through the Soil Association's Technical Guides for Organic Food Production • More immediate dissemination of 'less glossy' leaflets through the Organic Fruit Focus Group • Seminar/workshop/farm walk collaborative events between HDRA, Soil Association, Elm Farm Research Centre, Organic Fruit Focus Group and East Malling Research Association. Two events are already planned. ISSUES RELATED TO POLICY, ORGANIC STANDARDS AND PESTICIDE REGISTRATION a)The three year conversion period, in both top fruit and cane and bush fruit, is a major financial barrier. b) The unpredictable nature of fruit production may mean that financial support after conversion could be required to increase grower confidence. c) Diversification of business enterprise for top fruit could be encouraged. d) Long term and achievable standards of fruit quality should be agreed between supermarkets and growers. e) Products which could be important for organic fruit production were identified for consideration by PSD and/or UKROFS. f) Strategies for the propagation of organic plants for all fruit crops need to be developed; this could be done within a European context for some crops where there are no licensed propagators in the UK. g) Some tentative evidence suggests that the measures used to encourage beneficial fauna for pest control in organic orchards and the absence of soil sterilants in organic soft fruit production are resulting in species diversification; this needs to be explored further

Knowledge Discovery in Biological Databases for Revealing Candidate Genes Linked to Complex Phenotypes

Genetics and “omics” studies designed to uncover genotype to phenotype relationships often identify large numbers of potential candidate genes, among which the causal genes are hidden. Scientists generally lack the time and technical expertise to review all relevant information available from the literature, from key model species and from a potentially wide range of related biological databases in a variety of data formats with variable quality and coverage. Computational tools are needed for the integration and evaluation of heterogeneous information in order to prioritise candidate genes and components of interaction networks that, if perturbed through potential interventions, have a positive impact on the biological outcome in the whole organism without producing negative side effects. Here we review several bioinformatics tools and databases that play an important role in biological knowledge discovery and candidate gene prioritization. We conclude with several key challenges that need to be addressed in order to facilitate biological knowledge discovery in the future.&nbsp