Health Sciences Librarians’ Perceptions of Interprofessional Education & Collaboration

Objective: Librarians have a unique perspective on the value of working with other health professions. We sought to learn more about health sciences librarians' experiences with interprofessional activities and to assess their perceptions of interprofessional education (IPE) using a standard measure, the Interprofessional Education Perception Scale (IEPS). Methods: We used a cross-sectional survey design to assess librarians’ perceptions toward IPE, and to gather information on librarian participation in interprofessional activities. The survey consisted of a demographics section; the IEPS, an instrument developed to assess perceived attitudes about interdisciplinary collaboration for one’s own profession; and questions about the librarian’s prior and current experiences with IPE. It was sent via email lists to the MLA Interprofessional Education Special Interest Group (IPE-SIG), and the Research Section (RS), as a comparison group. After overlap between groups was addressed, mean IEPS scores between populations were compared to explore differences in attitudes and perceptions. Other variables of interest included years of experience as a librarian, previous career as a health professional, and experience teaching or supporting interprofessional education. We also compared librarians’ IEPS scores with those of health professional students published previously. Results: Librarians’ scores on the IEPS indicated highly positive perceptions towards IPE. There were no statistically significant differences between the IPE-SIG and RS groups (p=0.59), years of experience as a librarian (p=0.82), previous career as a health professional (p=0.91), or experience supporting IPE (p=0.16). Librarians’ mean IEPS score (262.9) was slightly less than the mean score of all health profession students (265.9) from a prior study by Hawk, but this difference was not statistically significant (p=0.43). Themes identified from two open-ended questions included librarian involvement in teaching and facilitating required learning activities for health professions students, committee involvement, and non-curricular activities such as Grand Rounds and book clubs. Five respondents addressed impact of their activities. Less frequent themes included perceiving respect for librarians as part of IPE, feeling undervalued, and desiring more involvement. Conclusion: This study provides the first data for the IEPS with health sciences librarians. The health sciences librarians who participated in this research report highly positive attitudes towards IPE, in line with the majority of other health professionals studied previously. Years of experience, previous health professional careers, and experience supporting IPE as a librarian had little bearing on the responses to the survey. This suggests that health sciences librarians have positive attitudes towards IPE, regardless of whether they directly support IPE programs

The population prevalence of problem gambling: methodological influences, standardized rates, jurisdictional differences, and worldwide trends

Report prepared for the Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre and the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.The primary purpose of the present research was to standardize problem gambling prevalence rates so as to facilitate comparisons between jurisdictions as well as within the same jurisdiction over time. The first step in this process was the identification and collection of all published and unpublished studies that involve a jurisdiction-wide adult prevalence survey of problem gambling. A total of 202 studies were conducted between 1975 and 2012. All pertinent information was extracted from each of these 202 studies and is reported in Appendices A, B, C, and D. These Appendices represent the most complete collection of problem gambling prevalence studies to date and will serve as a database for future researchers. In addition, the demographic, characterological, environmental, and gambling format correlates of problem gambling in these 202 studies are summarized and reported in Appendices E, F, G, and H. The second step in this process was the examination of the impact of methodological differences on obtained problem gambling prevalence rates. The main methodological elements influencing obtained problem gambling prevalence are: a) which assessment instrument is used; b) the time frame used to assess the presence of problem gambling (i.e., past year, lifetime); c) how the survey is described to prospective participants; d) how the survey is administered (i.e., face-to-face, telephone, self-administered); and e) the threshold criterion that determines when problem gambling questions are asked. The methodological approach (within each of these elements) that produced the most valid prevalence rate was identified, as well as weighting factors that could be applied to obtain rates that would have been obtained using the more valid approach. The third part of this report presents the results of applying these weighting factors to create standardized past year problem gambling prevalence rates for all studies.N

The Earth Microbiome Project: Meeting report of the "1 EMP meeting on sample selection and acquisition" at Argonne National Laboratory October 6 2010.

This report details the outcome the first meeting of the Earth Microbiome Project to discuss sample selection and acquisition. The meeting, held at the Argonne National Laboratory on Wednesday October 6(th) 2010, focused on discussion of how to prioritize environmental samples for sequencing and metagenomic analysis as part of the global effort of the EMP to systematically determine the functional and phylogenetic diversity of microbial communities across the world

Why do semi-analytic models predict higher scatter in the stellar mass-halo mass relation than cosmological hydrodynamic simulations?

Semi-analytic models (SAMs) systematically predict higher stellar-mass scatter at a given halo mass than hydrodynamical simulations and most empirical models. Our goal is to investigate the physical origin of this scatter by exploring modifications to the physics in the SAM Dark Sage. We design two black hole formation models that approximate results from the IllustrisTNG 300-1 hydrodynamical simulation. In the first model, we assign a fixed black hole mass of $10^{6}\, \mathrm{M}_{\odot}$ to every halo that reaches $10^{10.5}\, \mathrm{M}_{\odot}$. In the second model, we disregard any black hole growth as implemented in the standard Dark Sage model. Instead, we force all black hole masses to follow the median black hole mass-halo mass relation in IllustrisTNG 300-1 with a fixed scatter. We find that each model on its own does not significantly reduce the scatter in stellar mass. To do this, we replace the native Dark Sage AGN feedback model with a simple model where we turn off cooling for galaxies with black hole masses above $10^{8}\, \mathrm{M}_{\odot}$. With this additional modification, the SMBH seeding and fixed conditional distribution models find a significant reduction in the scatter in stellar mass at halo masses between $10^{11-14}\, \mathrm{M}_{\odot}$. These results suggest that AGN feedback in SAMs acts in a qualitatively different way than feedback implemented in cosmological simulations. Either or both may require substantial modification to match the empirically inferred scatter in the Stellar Mass Halo Mass Relation (SMHMR).Comment: 21 pages, 16 figure

Teaching for implementation: A framework for building implementation research and practice capacity within the translational science workforce

Implementation science offers a compelling value proposition to translational science. As such, many translational science stakeholders are seeking to recruit, teach, and train an implementation science workforce. The type of workforce that will make implementation happen consists of both implementation researchers and practitioners, yet little guidance exists on how to train such a workforce. We-members of the Advancing Dissemination and Implementation Sciences in CTSAs Working Group-present the Teaching For Implementation Framework to address this gap. We describe the differences between implementation researchers and practitioners and demonstrate what and how to teach them individually and in co-learning opportunities. We briefly comment on educational infrastructures and resources that will be helpful in furthering this type of approach

The definition, dimensionalization, and assessment of gambling participation

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Bermuda 2.0: Reflections from Santa Cruz

In February 1996, the genome community met in Bermuda to formulate principles for circulating genomic data. Although it is now 20 years since the Bermuda Principles were formulated, they continue to play a central role in shaping genomic and data-sharing practices. However, since 1996, “openness” has become an increasingly complex issue. This commentary seeks to articulate three core challenges data-sharing faces today

The HIPASS Catalogue - II. Completeness, Reliability, and Parameter Accuracy

The HI Parkes All Sky Survey (HIPASS) is a blind extragalactic HI 21-cm emission line survey covering the whole southern sky from declination -90 to +25. The HIPASS catalogue (HICAT), containing 4315 HI-selected galaxies from the region south of declination +2, is presented in Meyer et al. (2004a, Paper I). This paper describes in detail the completeness and reliability of HICAT, which are calculated from the recovery rate of synthetic sources and follow-up observations, respectively. HICAT is found to be 99 per cent complete at a peak flux of 84 mJy and an integrated flux of 9.4 Jy km/s. The overall reliability is 95 per cent, but rises to 99 per cent for sources with peak fluxes >58 mJy or integrated flux > 8.2 Jy km/s. Expressions are derived for the uncertainties on the most important HICAT parameters: peak flux, integrated flux, velocity width, and recessional velocity. The errors on HICAT parameters are dominated by the noise in the HIPASS data, rather than by the parametrization procedure.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 12 pages, 11 figures. Paper with higher resolution figures can be downloaded from http://hipass.aus-vo.or

Exploring interprofessional collaboration and attitudes of health sciences librarians

Objective: This study assessed health sciences librarians’ attitudes toward interprofessional collaboration using the Interdisciplinary Education Perception Scale (IEPS) and gathered information on their involvement with interprofessional activities. Methods: The authors sent a survey to librarians in the Medical Library Association’s (MLA’s) Interprofessional Education Special Interest Group and Research Section consisting of the IEPS and questions about their prior and current experiences with interprofessional practice and education (IPE). We compared mean IEPS scores between each MLA group and several other demographic factors to assess differences in attitudes. We also compared librarians’ IEPS scores with those of previously published health professional students’ IEPS scores and thematically analyzed two open-ended questions. Results: Health sciences librarians’ scores on the IEPS indicated positive attitudes toward IPE. There were no statistically significant differences between any group. Health sciences librarians’ mean IEPS score was similar to the mean score of health professions students from a prior study. The most commonly reported interprofessional activity was teaching or facilitating learning activities for health professions students; fewer served on committees or engaged in non-curricular activities such as grand rounds and book clubs. Conclusion: Health sciences librarians in this study reported positive attitudes toward IPE, in line with the majority of other previously studied health professionals. Years of experience, previous health professional careers, and experience supporting IPE as a librarian had little bearing on the responses to the survey. This suggests that health sciences librarians have positive attitudes toward IPE, regardless of whether they directly support IPE programs or participate in interprofessional activities