Open Access Policy: Numbers, Analysis, Effectiveness

The PASTEUR4OA project analyses what makes an Open Access (OA) policy effective. The total number of institutional or funder OA policies worldwide is now 663 (March 2015), over half of them mandatory. ROARMAP, the policy registry, has been rebuilt to record more policy detail and provide more extensive search functionality. Deposit rates were measured for articles in institutions' repositories and compared to the total number of WoS-indexed articles published from those institutions. Average deposit rate was over four times as high for institutions with a mandatory policy. Six positive correlations were found between deposit rates and (1) Must-Deposit; (2) Cannot-Waive-Deposit; (3) Deposit-Linked-to-Research-Evaluation; (4) Cannot-Waive-Rights-Retention; (5) Must-Make-Deposit-OA (after allowable embargo) and (6) Can-Waive-OA. For deposit latency, there is a positive correlation between earlier deposit and (7) Must-Deposit-Immediately as well as with (4) Cannot-Waive-Rights-Retention and with mandate age. There are not yet enough OA policies to test whether still further policy conditions would contribute to mandate effectiveness but the present findings already suggest that it would be useful for current and future OA policies to adopt the seven positive conditions so as to accelerate and maximise the growth of OA.Comment: 49 pages, 21 figures, 15 tables. Pasteur4OA Work Package 3 report: Open Access policies 201

Possibilities and limitations of orthodontic treatment with clear aligners

Dissertação para obtenção do grau de Mestre no Instituto Universitário Egas MonizNowadays, the demand for aesthetic treatments is increasing, more people are looking for alternatives to fixed orthodontic appliances, such as clear aligners. Over the last decade, clear aligners have evolved and gained immense popularity. The objective of this literature review was to critically appraise the efficiency and effectiveness of clear aligner therapy by analysing the possibilities and limitations, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of clear aligners in comparison with fixed appliance therapy. The research question of the study “ what can we do and cannot do with clear aligners? ” was elaborated according to the PICO method: Population: patients in need for orthodontic treatment, Intervention: orthodontic treatment with clear aligners, Comparison: conventional orthodontic treatment with fixed appliances, Outcome: effectiveness of treatment. The search for the articles answering the question was performed using the relevant related evidence based published literature in English, Portuguese and French languages between year 2000 to 2022 using the following search engines: PubMed, Google Scholar, Cochrane, and relevant books on the subject. The analysis of the studied literature showed that clear aligners could be a suitable aesthetic and comfortable solution for the correction of mild to moderate malocclusions. However, studies of high quality level are still required to draw firm conclusions about the efficienty and effectiveness of treatments performed with clear aligners.Actualmente, a procura de tratamentos estéticos está a aumentar, mais pessoas procuram alternativas aos aparelhos ortodônticos fixos, tais como os alinhadores invisíveis. Ao longo da última década, os alinhadores invisíveis evoluíram e ganharam imensa popularidade. O objetivo desta revisão de literatura foi avaliar criticamente a eficiência e eficácia da terapia com alinhadores invisíveis, analisando as possibilidades e limitações, bem como as vantagens e desvantagens dos alinhadores invisíveis em comparação com a terapia com aparelhos fixos. A questão de investigação do estudo "o que podemos e não podemos fazer com alinhadores invisíveis?" foi elaborada de acordo com o método PICO: População: pacientes com necessidade de tratamento ortodôntico, Intervenção: tratamento ortodôntico com alinhadores invisíveis, Comparação: tratamento ortodôntico convencional com aparelhos fixos, Resultado: eficácia do tratamento. A pesquisa dos artigos foi realizada utilizando a literatura publicada em inglês, português e francês, entre 2000 e 2022, utilizando os seguintes motores de busca: PubMed, Google Scholar, Cochrane, e livros relevantes. A análise da literatura estudada mostrou que os alinhadores invisíveis podem ser uma solução estética e confortável adequada para a correção de maloclusões leves a moderadas. No entanto, estudos de alto nível de qualidade ainda são necessários para tirar conclusões firmes sobre a eficiência e eficácia dos tratamentos realizados com alinhadores invisíveis.De nos jours, la demande de traitements esthétiques est en augmentation. De plus en plus de personnes recherchent des alternatives aux appareils orthodontiques fixes, comme les aligneurs transparents. Au cours de la dernière décennie, les aligneurs transparents ont évolué et gagné une immense popularité. L'objectif de cette revue de la littérature était d'évaluer de manière critique l'efficience et l'efficacité du traitement par aligneurs transparents en analysant les possibilités et les limites, ainsi que les avantages et les inconvénients des aligneurs transparentspar rapport au traitement par appareils fixes. La question de recherche de l'étude " Que peut-on faire et ne pas faire avec les aligneurs transparents? " a été élaborée selon la méthode PICO ; Population: patients ayant besoin d'un traitement orthodontique, Intervention: traitement orthodontique avec aligneurs transparents, Comparaison: traitement orthodontique conventionnel avec appareils fixes, Résultat: efficacité du traitement. La recherche d'articles répondant à la question a été effectuée en utilisant la littérature publiée en anglais, portugais et français entre 2000 et 2022, en utilisant les moteurs de recherche suivants : PubMed, Google Scholar, Cochrane, et des livres pertinents sur le sujet. L'analyse de la littérature étudiée a montré que les aligneurs transparents pourraient être une solution esthétique et confortable pour la correction des malocclusions légères à modérées. Cependant, des études de haute qualité sont encore nécessaires pour tirer des conclusions solides sur l'efficacité des traitements réalisés avec les aligneurs transparents

Employee Perceptions of Loyalty as a Factor of Performance. Grounded Theory Approach

The relationship between employee loyalty and organizational performance has long been recognized but not included in performance appraisal models. This study identifies the perspectives of Master of Business Administration (MBA) candidates at a small private university in the eastern U.S. Fifteen interviews were conducted after distributing flyers among MBA classes and interested students volunteered to participate. The study was qualitative, based on personal interviews, to explore how loyalty is perceived in relation to performance. The theoretical framework used was Hogan\u27s (1983) socioanalytic theory to explain differences in people\u27s performance at work. Through use of a grounded theory approach, employees\u27 perceptions on loyalty as a component of employee performance evaluation inducted to a theoretical model. This research shows, for the first time, loyalty as an expectation of performance from the perspective of individuals preparing to be future managers. The model explains the interrelationship between the suggested dimensions inducted from participants\u27 perceptions for the purpose to assess both company and employee loyalty. The theoretical model demonstrates that a balance is needed to build a loyalty base between the company and employee loyalty that will lead to better performance. Specifically, respondents identified components of loyalty in the dimensions of integrity, flexibility, transparency support, dedication, conscientiousness, accountability, and advocacy. The model supports intuitive recognition that management behavior that creates employee loyalty also improves employee performance. The theoretical model can be used by researchers and human resource professionals to shape their quantitative research and organizational policies

Green and Gold Open Access Percentages and Growth, by Discipline

Most refereed journal articles today are published in subscription journals, accessible only to subscribing institutions, hence losing considerable research impact. Making articles freely accessible online ("Open Access," OA) maximizes their impact. Articles can be made OA in two ways: by self-archiving them on the web ("Green OA") or by publishing them in OA journals ("Gold OA"). We compared the percent and growth rate of Green and Gold OA for 14 disciplines in two random samples of 1300 articles per discipline out of the 12,500 journals indexed by Thomson-Reuters-ISI using a robot that trawled the web for OA full-texts. We sampled in 2009 and 2011 for publication year ranges 1998-2006 and 2005-2010, respectively. Green OA (21.4%) exceeds Gold OA (2.4%) in proportion and growth rate in all but the biomedical disciplines, probably because it can be provided for all journals articles and does not require paying extra Gold OA publication fees. The spontaneous overall OA growth rate is still very slow (about 1% per year). If institutions make Green OA self-archiving mandatory, however, it triples percent Green OA as well as accelerating its growth rate

Evaluation of an in silico predicted specific and immunogenic antigen from the OmcB protein for the serodiagnosis of Chlamydia trachomatis infections

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The OmcB protein is one of the most immunogenic proteins in <it>C. trachomatis </it>and <it>C. pneumoniae </it>infections. This protein is highly conserved leading to serum cross reactivity between the various chlamydial species. Since previous studies based on recombinant proteins failed to identify a species specific immune response against the OmcB protein, this study evaluated an <it>in silico </it>predicted specific and immunogenic antigen from the OmcB protein for the serodiagnosis of <it>C. trachomatis </it>infections.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using the ClustalW and Antigenic programs, we have selected two predicted specific and immunogenic regions in the OmcB protein: the N-terminal (Nt) region containing three epitopes and the C-terminal (Ct) region containing two epitopes with high scores. These regions were cloned into the PinPoint Xa-1 and pGEX-6P-1 expression vectors, incorporating a biotin purification tag and a glutathione-S-transferase tag, respectively. These regions were then expressed in <it>E. coli</it>. Only the pGEX-6P-1 has been found suitable for serological studies as its tag showed less cross reactivity with human sera and was retained for the evaluation of the selected antigens. Only the Ct region of the protein has been found to be well expressed in <it>E. coli </it>and was evaluated for its ability to be recognized by human sera. 384 sera were tested for the presence of IgG antibodies to <it>C. trachomatis </it>by our in house microimmunofluorescence (MIF) and the developed ELISA test. Using the MIF as the reference method, the developed OmcB Ct ELISA has a high specificity (94.3%) but a low sensitivity (23.9). Our results indicate that the use of the sequence alignment tool might be useful for identifying specific regions in an immunodominant antigen. However, the two epitopes, located in the selected Ct region, of the 24 predicted in the full length OmcB protein account for approximately 25% of the serological response detected by MIF, which limits the use of the developed ELISA test when screening <it>C. trachomatis </it>infections.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The developed ELISA test might be used as a confirmatory test to assess the specificity of serological results found by MIF.</p

Estimating Open Access Mandate Effectiveness: The MELIBEA Score

MELIBEA is a Spanish database that uses a composite formula with eight weighted conditions to estimate the effectiveness of Open Access mandates (registered in ROARMAP). We analyzed 68 mandated institutions for publication years 2011-2013 to determine how well the MELIBEA score and its individual conditions predict what percentage of published articles indexed by Web of Knowledge is deposited in each institution's OA repository, and when. We found a small but significant positive correlation (0.18) between MELIBEA score and deposit percentage. We also found that for three of the eight MELIBEA conditions (deposit timing, internal use, and opt-outs), one value of each was strongly associated with deposit percentage or deposit latency (immediate deposit required, deposit required for performance evaluation, unconditional opt-out allowed for the OA requirement but no opt-out for deposit requirement). When we updated the initial values and weights of the MELIBEA formula for mandate effectiveness to reflect the empirical association we had found, the score's predictive power doubled (.36). There are not yet enough OA mandates to test further mandate conditions that might contribute to mandate effectiveness, but these findings already suggest that it would be useful for future mandates to adopt these three conditions so as to maximize their effectiveness, and thereby the growth of OA.Comment: 27 pages, 13 figures, 3 tables, 40 references, 7761 word

Testing the Finch Hypothesis on Green OA Mandate Ineffectiveness

We have now tested the Finch Committee's Hypothesis that Green Open Access Mandates are ineffective in generating deposits in institutional repositories. With data from ROARMAP on institutional Green OA mandates and data from ROAR on institutional repositories, we show that deposit number and rate is significantly correlated with mandate strength (classified as 1-12): The stronger the mandate, the more the deposits. The strongest mandates generate deposit rates of 70%+ within 2 years of adoption, compared to the un-mandated deposit rate of 20%. The effect is already detectable at the national level, where the UK, which has the largest proportion of Green OA mandates, has a national OA rate of 35%, compared to the global baseline of 25%. The conclusion is that, contrary to the Finch Hypothesis, Green Open Access Mandates do have a major effect, and the stronger the mandate, the stronger the effect (the Liege ID/OA mandate, linked to research performance evaluation, being the strongest mandate model). RCUK (as well as all universities, research institutions and research funders worldwide) would be well advised to adopt the strongest Green OA mandates and to integrate institutional and funder mandates.Comment: 6 pages, 1 table, 4 figure