2,024 research outputs found
Making sense: talking data management with researchers
Incremental is one of eight projects in the JISC Managing Research Data programme funded to identify institutional requirements for digital research data management and pilot relevant infrastructure. Our findings concur with those of other Managing Research Data projects, as well as with several previous studies. We found that many researchers: (i) organise their data in an ad hoc fashion, posing difficulties with retrieval and re-use; (ii) store their data on all kinds of media without always considering security and back-up; (iii) are positive about data sharing in principle though reluctant in practice; (iv) believe back-up is equivalent to preservation.
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The key difference between our approach and that of other Managing Research Data projects is the type of infrastructure we are piloting. While the majority of these projects focus on developing technical solutions, we are focusing on the need for ‘soft’ infrastructure, such as one-to-one tailored support, training, and easy-to-find, concise guidance that breaks down some of the barriers information professionals have unintentionally built with their use of specialist terminology.
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We are employing a bottom-up approach as we feel that to support the step-by-step development of sound research data management practices, you must first understand researchers’ needs and perspectives. Over the life of the project, Incremental staff will act as mediators, assisting researchers and local support staff to understand the data management requirements within which they are expect to work, and will determine how these can be addressed within research workflows and the existing technical infrastructure.
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Our primary goal is to build data management capacity within the Universities of Cambridge and Glasgow by raising awareness of basic principles so everyone can manage their data to a certain extent. We will ensure our lessons can be picked up and used by other institutions. Our affiliation with the Digital Curation Centre and Digital Preservation Coalition will assist in this and all outputs will be released under a Creative Commons licence.
The key difference between our approach and that of other MRD projects is the type of ‘infrastructure’ we are piloting. While the majority of these projects focus on developing technical solutions, we are focusing on the need for ‘soft’ infrastructure, such as one-to-one tailored support, training, and easy-to-find, concise guidance that breaks down some of the barriers information professionals have unintentionally built with their use of specialist terminology.
We are employing a bottom-up approach as we feel that to support the step-by-step development of sound research data management practices, you must first understand researchers’ needs and perspectives. Over the life of the project, Incremental staff will act as mediators, assisting researchers and local support staff to understand the data management requirements within which they are expect to work, and will determine how these can be addressed within research workflows and the existing technical infrastructure.
Our primary goal is to build data management capacity within the Universities of Cambridge and Glasgow by raising awareness of basic principles so everyone can manage their data to a certain extent. We’re achieving this by:
- re-positioning existing guidance so researchers can locate the advice they need;
- connecting researchers with one-to-one advice, support and partnering;
- offering practical training and a seminar series to address key data management topics.
We will ensure our lessons can be picked up and used by other institutions. Our affiliation with the Digital Curation Centre and Digital Preservation Coalition will assist in this and all outputs will be released under a Creative Commons licence
Incremental scoping study and implementation plan
This report is one of the first deliverables from the Incremental project, which seeks to investigate
and improve the research data management infrastructure at the universities of Glasgow and
Cambridge and to learn lessons and develop resources of value to other institutions. Coming at the
end of the project’s scoping study, this report identifies the key themes and issues that emerged
and proposes a set of activities to address those needs.
As its name suggests, Incremental deliberately adopts a stepped, pragmatic approach to supporting
research data management. It recognises that solutions will vary across different departmental and
institutional contexts; and that top-down, policy-driven or centralised solutions are unlikely to prove
as effective as practical support delivered in a clear and timely manner where the benefits can be
clearly understood and will justify any effort or resources required. The findings of the scoping
study have confirmed the value of this approach and the main recommendations of this report are
concerned with the development and delivery of suitable resources.
Although some differences were observed between disciplines, these seemed to be as much a
feature of different organisational cultures as the nature of the research being undertaken. Our
study found that there were many common issues across the groups and that the responses to
these issues need not be highly technical or expensive to implement. What is required is that these
resources employ jargon-free language and use examples of relevance to researchers and that
they can be accessed easily at the point of need. There are resources already available
(institutionally and externally) that can address researchers’ data management needs but these are
not being fully exploited. So in many cases Incremental will be enabling efficient and contextualised
access, or tailoring resources to specific environments, rather than developing resources from
scratch.
While Incremental will concentrate on developing, repurposing and leveraging practical resources to
support researchers in their management of data, it recognises that this will be best achieved within
a supportive institutional context (both in terms of policy and provision). The need for institutional
support is especially evident when long-term preservation and data sharing are considered – these
activities are clearly more effective and sustainable if addressed at more aggregated levels (e.g.
repositories) rather than left to individual researchers or groups. So in addition to its work in
developing resources, the Incremental project will seek to inform the development of a more
comprehensive data management infrastructure at each institution. In Cambridge, this will be
connected with the library’s CUPID project (Cambridge University Preservation Development) and
at Glasgow in conjunction with the Digital Preservation Advisory Board
Characteristics of reaction-diffusion on scale-free networks
We examine some characteristic properties of reaction-diffusion processes of
the A+A->0 type on scale-free networks. Due to the inhomogeneity of the
structure of the substrate, as compared to usual lattices, we focus on the
characteristics of the nodes where the annihilations occur. We show that at
early times the majority of these events take place on low-connectivity nodes,
while as time advances the process moves towards the high-connectivity nodes,
the so-called hubs. This pattern remarkably accelerates the annihilation of the
particles, and it is in agreement with earlier predictions that the rates of
reaction-diffusion processes on scale-free networks are much faster than the
equivalent ones on lattice systems
Oocyte cryopreservation as an adjunct to the assisted reproductive technologies
The document attached has been archived with permission from the editor of the Medical Journal of Australia. An external link to the publisher’s copy is included. See page 2 of PDF for this item.Keith L Harrison, Michelle T Lane, Jeremy C Osborn, Christine A Kirby, Regan Jeffrey, John H Esler and David Mollo
Bis(trimethylammonium) tetrachloridodiphenylstannate(IV)
The title compound, [(CH3)3NH]2[Sn(C6H5)2Cl4], consists of [(CH3)3NH]+ cations and [SnPh2Cl4]2− anions in which the Sn atom, located on a centre of inversion, is bonded to four Cl atoms and two phenyl rings, giving an octahedral geometry with the phenyl rings in trans positions. In the crystal, the cations and the anions are connected by N—H⋯Cl hydrogen bonds and C—H⋯Cl interactions
Spinal disease in myeloma: cohort analysis at a specialist spinal surgery centre indicates benefit of early surgical augmentation or bracing
BACKGROUND: Multiple myeloma osteolytic disease affecting the spine results in vertebral compression fractures. These are painful, result in kyphosis, and impact respiratory function and quality of life. We explore the impact of time to presentation on the efficacy of spinal treatment modalities. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 183 patients with spinal myeloma presenting to our service over a 2 year period. RESULTS: Median time from multiple myeloma diagnosis to presentation at our centre was 195 days. Eighty-four patients (45.9 %) were treated with balloon kyphoplasty and the remainder with a thoracolumbar-sacral orthosis as per our published protocol. Patients presenting earlier than 195 days from diagnosis had significant improvements in patient reported outcome measures: EuroQol 5-Dimensions (p < 0.001), Oswestry Disability Index (p < 0.001), and Visual Analogue Pain Score (p < 0.001) at follow-up, regardless of treatment. Patients presenting after 195 days, however, only experienced benefit following balloon kyphoplasty, with no significant benefit from non-operative management. CONCLUSION: Vertebral augmentation and thoracolumbar bracing improve patient reported outcome scores in patients with spinal myeloma. However, delay in treatment negatively impacts clinical outcome, particularly if managed non-operatively. It is important to screen and treat patients with MM and back pain early to prevent deformity and improve quality of life
Randomised controlled trial of ranitidine versus omeprazole in combination with antibiotics for eradication of Helicobacter pylori.
This study compared high dose ranitidine versus low dose omeprazole with antibiotics for the eradication of H pylori. 80 patients (mean age 48 years, range 18-75) who had H pylori infection were randomised in an investigator-blind manner to either a two-week regime of omeprazole 20 mg daily, amoxycillin 500 mg tid and metronidazole 400 mg tid (OAM), or ranitidine 600 mg bd, amoxycillin 500 mg tid and metronidazole 400 mg tid (RAM), or omeprazole 20 mg daily and clarithromycin 500 mg tid (OC), or omeprazole 20 mg daily and placebo (OP). H pylori was eradicated in 6 of 19 patients in the OAM group (32%); 8 of 18 in the RAM group (44%), 4 of 15 in the OC group (27%); none of 18 in the OP group (0%). [< P0.005 for OAM, RAM, OC vs OP; P = N.S. between OAM, RAM, OC]. Overall metronidazole resistance was unexpectedly high at 58%. Eradication rates in metronidazole sensitive patients were 71% (5/7) and 100% (3/3) for OAM and RAM respectively. In conclusion, H pylori eradication rates using high dose ranitidine plus amoxycillin and metronidazole may be similar to that of low dose omeprazole in combination with the same antibiotics for omeprazole with clarithromycin. Overall eradication rates were low due to a high incidence of metronidazole resistance but were higher in metronidazole-sensitive patients. Even high dose ranitidine with two antibiotics achieves a relatively low eradication rate. These metronidazole-based regimens cannot be recommended in areas with a high incidence of metronidazole resistance
Partitioning and modularity of graphs with arbitrary degree distribution
We solve the graph bi-partitioning problem in dense graphs with arbitrary
degree distribution using the replica method. We find the cut-size to scale
universally with . In contrast, earlier results studying the problem in
graphs with a Poissonian degree distribution had found a scaling with ^1/2
[Fu and Anderson, J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 19, 1986]. The new results also
generalize to the problem of q-partitioning. They can be used to find the
expected modularity Q [Newman and Grivan, Phys. Rev. E, 69, 2004] of random
graphs and allow for the assessment of statistical significance of the output
of community detection algorithms.Comment: Revised version including new plots and improved discussion of some
mathematical detail
Dicyclohexylammonium trimethylbis(hydrogen phenylphosphonato)stannate(IV)
In the title compound, (C12H24N)[Sn(CH3)3(C6H6O3P)2], the SnMe3 residues are axially coordinated by two monodentate [PhPO3H]− anions, leading to a trigonal–bipyramidal geometry for the SnIV atom. The two [SnMe3(PhPO3H)2]− anions in the unit cell are associated into infinite chains along the a axis by O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds involving the hydroxy group of the hydrogen phenylphosphonate ion. The chains interact with one another via O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds along the c axis. These networks of anions assemble with the dicyclohexylammonium ion through N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming a three-dimensional network
Irreversible Opinion Spreading on Scale-Free Networks
We study the dynamical and critical behavior of a model for irreversible
opinion spreading on Barab\'asi-Albert (BA) scale-free networks by performing
extensive Monte Carlo simulations. The opinion spreading within an
inhomogeneous society is investigated by means of the magnetic Eden model, a
nonequilibrium kinetic model for the growth of binary mixtures in contact with
a thermal bath. The deposition dynamics, which is studied as a function of the
degree of the occupied sites, shows evidence for the leading role played by
hubs in the growth process. Systems of finite size grow either ordered or
disordered, depending on the temperature. By means of standard finite-size
scaling procedures, the effective order-disorder phase transitions are found to
persist in the thermodynamic limit. This critical behavior, however, is absent
in related equilibrium spin systems such as the Ising model on BA scale-free
networks, which in the thermodynamic limit only displays a ferromagnetic phase.
The dependence of these results on the degree exponent is also discussed for
the case of uncorrelated scale-free networks.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures; added results and discussion on uncorrelated
scale-free networks; added references. To appear in PR
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