Introducing ICT in schools in England : rationale and consequences

This paper provides a critical perspective on the attempts to promote the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in teaching and learning in England. It describes the rationale given for the introduction of ICT in terms of its potential to impact on educational standards to contribute to developing a curriculum which has more vocational/social significance and, more generally, to provide a catalyst for curriculum reform. The introduction of ICT is underpinned by the argument that schools should show a higher degree of correspondence with a wider world where the use of technology is pervasive. However, the claims made for ICT display excessive optimism and a sense of “inevitability.” ICT has had only a modest impact on schools, though impact has to be considered in the context of what can realistically be expected: the contribution of ICT has not been negligible. Future development in the use of ICT should be more measured and adaptive, taking account of the multidimensional nature of technology

ReferenceUSA Business Historical Data Files

Historic company records. Created annually from Infogroup’s U.S. Business Database; a snapshot of the data is saved each December. Contains company name, mailing address, SIC and NAICS codes, employee size, sales volume, latitude/longitude, and many more variables about each company

Infogroup US Historical Business Data

InfoGroup’s Historical Business Backfile consists of geo-coded records of millions of US businesses and other organizations that contain basic information on each entity, such as: contact information, industry description, annual revenues, number of employees, year established, and other data. Each annual file consists of a “snapshot” of InfoGroup’s data as of the last day of each year, creating a time series of data 1997-2019. Access is restricted to current Harvard University community members. Use of Infogroup US Historical Business Data is subject to the terms and conditions of a license agreement (effective March 16, 2016) between Harvard and Infogroup Inc. and subject to applicable laws. Most data files are available in either .csv or .sas format. All data files are compressed into an archive in .gz, or GZIP, format. Extraction software such as 7-Zip is required to unzip these archives

Infogroup US Historical Business Data

InfoGroup’s Historical Business Backfile consists of geo-coded records of millions of US businesses and other organizations that contain basic information on each entity, such as: contact information, industry description, annual revenues, number of employees, year established, and other data. Each annual file consists of a “snapshot” of InfoGroup’s data as of the last day of each year, creating a time series of data 1997-2018. Access is restricted to current Harvard University community members. Use of Infogroup US Historical Business Data is subject to the terms and conditions of a license agreement (effective March 16, 2016) between Harvard and Infogroup Inc. and subject to applicable laws. Most data files are available in either .csv or .sas format. All data files are compressed into an archive in .gz, or GZIP, format. Extraction software such as 7-Zip is required to unzip these archives

Assessing the validity of a self-administered food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) in the adult population of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

Background: The Food- Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) is a dietary assessment tool frequently used in large-scale nutritional epidemiology studies. The goal of the present study is to validate a self-administered version of the Hawaii FFQ modified for use in the general adult population of Newfoundland and Labrador (NL). Methods: Over a one year period, 195 randomly selected adults completed four 24-hour dietary recalls (24-HDRs) by telephone and one subsequent self-administered FFQ. Estimates of energy and nutrients derived from the 24-HDRs and FFQs were compared (protein, carbohydrate, fibre, fat, vitamin A, carotene, vitamin D, and calcium). Data were analyzed using the Pearson’s correlation coefficients, cross-classification method, and Bland–Altman plots. Results: The mean nutrient intake values of the 24-HDRs were lower than those of the FFQs, except for protein in men. Sex and energy-adjusted de-attenuated Pearson correlation coefficients for each nutrient varied from 0.13 to 0.61. Except for protein in men, all correlations were statistically significant with p < 0.05. Cross-classification analysis revealed that on average, 74% women and 78% men were classified in the same or adjacent quartile of nutrient intake when comparing data from the FFQ and 24-HDRs. Bland–Altman plots showed no serious systematic bias between the administration of the two instruments over the range of mean intakes. Conclusion: This 169-item FFQ developed specifically for the adult NL population had moderate relative validity and therefore can be used in studies to assess food consumption in the general adult population of NL. This tool can be used to classify individual energy and nutrient intakes into quartiles, which is useful in examining relationships between diet and chronic disease

Proposing new measures of employment deconcentration and spatial dispersion across metropolitan areas in the US

A well-known challenge is measuring employment concentration across metropolitan areas and analysing the evolving spatial structure. We introduce a new approach that avoids identifying “job centres” and conceptualizes the distribution of employment based on two dimensions: (1) employment deconcentration; and (2) spatial dispersion of high employment locations. We apply this framework to study 329 US metropolitan regions based on 1 sq km. grid cells. We find diverse trajectories of metropolitan restructuring between 2000 and 2010, and substantial variation across regions in employment concentration. The new framework enables researchers to compare metropolitan regions to gain insights into the dynamic nature of metropolitan spatial structure

Evaluation of emerging technologies for traffic crash reporting.

"February 1998."Performed by InfoGroup Inc. for the Federal Highway Administration, Office of Safety and Traffic Operations Research and Development.Authors: A. Scott McKnight, Clarence W. Mosher, David J. Bozak.Cover title.Final report.Mode of access: Internet