DataForge: A DDI-Enabled Toolkit for Researchers and Data Managers

Presentation at the North American Data Documentation Conference (NADDI) 2013Statistical data exist in many different shapes and forms such as proprietary software files (SAS, Stata, SPSS), ASCII text (fixed, CSV, delimited), databases (Microsoft, Oracle, MySql), or spreadsheets (Excel). Such wide variety of formats present producers, archivists, analysts, and other users with significant challenges in terms of data usability, preservation, or dissemination. These files also commonly contain essential information, like the data dictionary, that can be extracted and leveraged for documentation purposes, task automation, or further processing. Metadata Technology will be launching mid-2013 a new software utility suite, "DataForge", for facilitating reading/writing data across packages, producing various flavors of DDI metadata, and performing other useful operations around statistical datasets, to support data management, dissemination, or analysis activities. DataForge will initially be made available as desktop based products under both freeware and commercial licenses, with web based version to follow later on. IASSIST 2013 will mark the initial launch of the product. This presentation will provide an overview of DataForge capabilities and describe how to get access to the software.Institute for Policy & Social Research, University of Kansas; University of Kansas Libraries; Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; Data Documentation Initiative Allianc

Dataset Builder Tool: Canadian Research Data Centre Network (CRDCN)

In 2013, the Statistics Canada’s Research Data Centre (RDC) Metadata Project ended producing a suite of DDI tools, including an open source repurposing tool for researchers called the dataset builder. The tool’s purpose is to create a “repurposing project” for researchers described in XML that sequences various operations. The idea of repurposing is to reshape the master data into a new dataset to be used for the purpose of a research project. The tool comes with several functionalities including a built-in catalog of StatCan DDI coded surveys, a search function, a variable basket supporting variable-level sub-setting, and the ability to generate statistical scripts (SPSS, SAS, STATA) to transform the source data from the master dataset into the research dataset, as well as the creation of a sub-sample codebook and searching across multiple data sets.. This presentation will demonstrate the dataset builder’s functionalities and benefits, and discuss future uses and integration of the tool within the RDC environment

1954 Turf Conference

Attendance (I - XV) Grass Leaves at Work - S.N. Postlethwait (5) Seed Supply and Prices - Gager T. Vaughn (8) Hocus-Pocus in Grass Breeding - Glen W. Burton (11) Techniques and Turf Quality - Fred V. Grau Case Histories of Turf Improvement Programs - O.J. Noer (20) Fertilizer Facts and Fancies - A.J. Ohlrogge (38) Crabgrass Control in Turf - Ralph E. Engel (43) Athletic Field Reseeding - Fred V. Grau (44) Vegetative Grass Potential - W.H. Daniel (48) Who Plays Golf Today? - Herb Graffis (50) Poa Annua & Arsenic Toxicity - W.H. Daniel (53) Replanting Golf Greens - (58) Planting Stolons on Large Areas - A. Linkogel (59) Management, Weather & Disease - Ralph Engel (62) Practical Microscopic Disease Observations - Robert Williams (64

Client and therapist views of contextual factors related to termination from psychotherapy: A comparison between unilateral and mutual terminators

Contextual variables potentially influencing premature termination were examined. Clients (n = 83) and therapists (n = 35) provided parallel data on early working alliance, psychotherapy termination decision (unilateral vs. mutual), clients’ reasons for termination, and barriers to treatment participation. When clients unilaterally ended therapy, therapists were only partially aware of either the extent of clients’ perceived improvements or their dissatisfaction. When termination was mutually determined, there were no differences between client and therapist ratings of termination reasons. Although working alliance and barriers to treatment participation were rated as lower in the context of unilateral termination by clients and therapists, all clients rated the early alliance and barriers to treatment more highly than did therapists. Results have implications for understanding premature termination and suggest future research examining the utility of therapist feedback regarding contextual variables in terms of retaining clients in therapy

Religious Identity, Religious Attendance, and Parental Control

Using a national sample of adolescents aged 10–18 years and their parents (N = 5,117), this article examines whether parental religious identity and religious participation are associated with the ways in which parents control their children. We hypothesize that both religious orthodoxy and weekly religious attendance are related to heightened levels of three elements of parental control: monitoring activities, normative regulations, and network closure. Results indicate that an orthodox religious identity for Catholic and Protestant parents and higher levels of religious attendance for parents as a whole are associated with increases in monitoring activities and normative regulations of American adolescents

Collaborative research between clinicians and researchers: a multiple case study of implementation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Bottom-up, clinician-conceived and directed clinical intervention research, coupled with collaboration from researcher experts, is conceptually endorsed by the participatory research movement. This report presents the findings of an evaluation of a program in the Veterans Health Administration meant to encourage clinician-driven research by providing resources believed to be critical. The evaluation focused on the extent to which funded projects: maintained integrity to their original proposals; were methodologically rigorous; were characterized by collaboration between partners; and resulted in sustained clinical impact.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Researchers used quantitative (survey and archival) and qualitative (focus group) data to evaluate the implementation, evaluation, and sustainability of four clinical demonstration projects at four sites. Fourteen research center mentors and seventeen clinician researchers evaluated the level of collaboration using a six-dimensional model of participatory research.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Results yielded mixed findings. Qualitative and quantitative data suggested that although the process was collaborative, clinicians' prior research experience was critical to the quality of the projects. Several challenges were common across sites, including subject recruitment, administrative support and logistics, and subsequent dissemination. Only one intervention achieved lasting clinical effect beyond the active project period. Qualitative analyses identified barriers and facilitators and suggested areas to improve sustainability.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Evaluation results suggest that this participatory research venture was successful in achieving clinician-directed collaboration, but did not produce sustainable interventions due to such implementation problems as lack of resources and administrative support.</p

Co-resident Parents and Young People Aged 15–34: Who Does What Housework?

Young adults are now more likely to co-reside with their parents than previous generations, but domestic work patterns among this family type are largely unexplored. This study addresses this issue using Australian Bureau of Statistics Time Use Surveys (1992, 1997, 2006) and Poisson–Gamma regression analyses. It examines patterns in and correlates of domestic labor in two-generation households in which young people aged 15–34 co-reside with their parents (n = 1,946 households comprised of 2,806 young people and 5,129 parents). It differentiates between routine indoor tasks (cooking, cleaning, laundry), non-routine tasks (outdoor work, household management and maintenance, car care) and grocery shopping. Predictors of more time in some domestic activities by young people include being in neither employment nor education/training (NEET), being older, having a single parent and being in a non-English speaking household (young women). Young people being NEET, or female, are associated with less cooking time for mothers, but in the main when young people do perform domestic activities, they do not relieve their parents of those same activities, suggesting more time is spent by the household in total

Coquillettidia (Culicidae, Diptera) mosquitoes are natural vectors of avian malaria in Africa

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The mosquito vectors of <it>Plasmodium </it>spp. have largely been overlooked in studies of ecology and evolution of avian malaria and other vertebrates in wildlife.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p><it>Plasmodium </it>DNA from wild-caught <it>Coquillettidia </it>spp. collected from lowland forests in Cameroon was isolated and sequenced using nested PCR. Female <it>Coquillettidia aurites </it>were also dissected and salivary glands were isolated and microscopically examined for the presence of sporozoites.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In total, 33% (85/256) of mosquito pools tested positive for avian <it>Plasmodium </it>spp., harbouring at least eight distinct parasite lineages. Sporozoites of <it>Plasmodium </it>spp. were recorded in salivary glands of <it>C. aurites </it>supporting the PCR data that the parasites complete development in these mosquitoes. Results suggest <it>C. aurites</it>, <it>Coquillettidia pseudoconopas </it>and <it>Coquillettidia metallica </it>as new and important vectors of avian malaria in Africa. All parasite lineages recovered clustered with parasites formerly identified from several bird species and suggest the vectors capability of infecting birds from different families.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Identifying the major vectors of avian <it>Plasmodium </it>spp. will assist in understanding the epizootiology of avian malaria, including differences in this disease distribution between pristine and disturbed landscapes.</p