Mixed Data and Classification of Transit Stops

An analysis of the characteristics and behavior of individual bus stops can reveal clusters of similar stops, which can be of use in making routing and scheduling decisions, as well as determining what facilities to provide at each stop. This paper provides an exploratory analysis, including several possible clustering results, of a dataset provided by the Regional Transit Service of Rochester, NY. The dataset describes ridership on public buses, recording the time, location, and number of entering and exiting passengers each time a bus stops. A description of the overall behavior of bus ridership is followed by a stop-level analysis. We compare multiple measures of stop similarity, based on location, route information, and ridership volume over time

The Use of Video Modeling to Teach Requesting for Conversational Repair in Vocational Situations

Video modeling has been found to be effective in teaching various skills to individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities. Despite this evidence, there is very little evidence to support using video modeling to teach specific soft skills in the workplace, such as requesting for conversational repair. This study evaluated the effects of video modeling on requests for conversational repair within vocational situations using a multiple probe research design. Due to unforeseen circumstances as a result of COVID-19, the study had to be concluded before all participants could receive intervention. However, an effect between video modeling and requests for conversational repair was demonstrated for the first participant. This effect shows promising results for the potential of video modeling interventions in teaching softs skills related to the work place

Investigation of variation between risk attitude and investment biases

There is a palpable link between financial investment decision making and investors’ behaviour. Research into investors’ behaviour may prove useful in increasing our understanding of the extremely complex financial marketplace. In many cases, investors are unaware of their predisposition for error. And more often, an irrational investor is a dissatisfied investor, because biases usually undermine financial goals. By adopting an experimental approach, the researchers try to correlate established investor biases with the psychographic profiles of investors, to see whether specific risk personality profiles correlate with susceptibility to four biases: herding, endowment, loss aversion and framing. Many studies have focused on exploring the demographics of investment behavioural flaws, but very little attention has been paid to the risk attitude of investors and their actual investment behaviour. The findings of this study bridge two aspects of literature, being attitude to financial risk and behavioural investment biases

First Steps Toward Change in Teacher Preparation for Elementary Science

Unless introductory undergraduate science classes for prospective elementary teachers actively incorporate the philosophy of inquiry-based learning called for in K-l2 science education refom little will change in elementary science education. Thus, at James Madison University, we have developed a new integrated science core curriculum called Understanding our World [1]. This course sequence was not only designed to fulfill general education science requirements. but also to focus on content areas our students will need to know as teachers. The objectives of these courses are based on the National Science Education Standards and Virginia’s Science Standards of Learning, including earth and space science, chemistry, physics, life sciences, and environmental science [2,3]. As an integrated package, this course sequence addresses basic science content, calculation skills, the philosophy and history of science, the process of how science is done, the role of science in society, and applications of computers and technology in science. Keeping in mind that students tend to teach in the same way they were taught, Understanding our World core classes embrace the concepts associated with reform in elementary math and science

Setting priorities to inform assessment of care homes’ readiness to participate in healthcare innovation: a systematic mapping review and consensus process

© 2020 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedOrganisational context is known to impact on the successful implementation of healthcare initiatives in care homes. We undertook a systematic mapping review to examine whether researchers have considered organisational context when planning, conducting, and reporting the implementation of healthcare innovations in care homes. Review data were mapped against the Alberta Context Tool, which was designed to assess organizational context in care homes. The review included 56 papers. No studies involved a systematic assessment of organisational context prior to implementation, but many provided post hoc explanations of how organisational context affected the success or otherwise of the innovation. Factors identified to explain a lack of success included poor senior staff engagement, non-alignment with care home culture, limited staff capacity to engage, and low levels of participation from health professionals such as general practitioners (GPs). Thirty-five stakeholders participated in workshops to discuss findings and develop questions for assessing care home readiness to participate in innovations. Ten questions were developed to initiate conversations between innovators and care home staff to support research and implementation. This framework can help researchers initiate discussions about health-related innovation. This will begin to address the gap between implementation theory and practice.Peer reviewe

Measuring patient-centered care for specific populations: A necessity for improvement

The measurement of patient-centered care (PCC) is a fundamental component of assessing and improving health care quality. There are a variety of PCC measures available which have been tailored to different health care conditions and settings. These distinct measures are valuable given the diversity of health conditions and contexts encountered in the health care system. However, the type of patient has received significantly less attention when measuring PCC despite the multitude of unique patient populations that exist. Specific patient populations raise several core challenges for PCC measurement to which researchers and practitioners need to attend: identifying what principles to measure, who is the most appropriate assessor, and how best to measure PCC. Examples of specific patient populations include geriatric patients, refugees, migrants and dyadic patients. Dyadic patients, such as the mother-infant dyad, are two individual, independent, yet inextricably linked patients who require simultaneous care. In this commentary, we use the mother-infant dyad as one example of a specific population to illustrate the challenges and argument for why additional specific patient populations warrant dedicated measures of PCC. Experience Framework This article is associated with the Policy & Measurement lens of The Beryl Institute Experience Framework. (http://bit.ly/ExperienceFramework) Access other PXJ articles related to this lens. Access other resources related to this lens