Lowering the Barriers to Capturing Questionnaire Metadata Throughout the Data Lifecycle

Sufficient metadata facilitates the discovery, use, and interpretation of survey research data and is necessary to maximize the value of collected data. Usually this information is appended to survey datasets or summarized in a codebook toward the end of the research data lifecycle, immediately prior to analysis, preservation, and/or storage. Yet this same metadata has often been captured, administered, or managed by different stakeholders numerous times at different points along the data lifecycle. Capturing research metadata earlier in the data lifecycle—from conceptualization and instrument development onwards—not only provides richer and more accurate information, but it also introduces efficiencies to workflows by reducing redundancies and lowering costs. The Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) metadata standard can organize the means by which this metadata is tracked and managed at each stage of a survey’s lifecycle. DDI has a comprehensive and richly structured XML schema that can pose challenges for clients, researchers, and project managers who aren’t fluent in metadata standards or software. There may also be cultural and technical hurdles for these stakeholders to overcome when describing questions and assessments in the manner that DDI does. The core of the problem is how to achieve DDI buy-­in early in the process so that metadata follows the data at every stage of its existence. This presentation proposes a means by which a simple Word template may serve as a bridge from conceptualization to instrument development to fielding. By providing a familiar interface that many survey clientele already use to develop questionnaires, this template could substantially lower the entry barriers to using DDI in survey research. The presentation will propose a mapping of the template fields to DDI schema elements and will elucidate how DDI can provide information on versioning, harmonization, and provenance in a standardized and machine-­actionable manner

The constant reality beyond exception and rule in Dietrich Bonhoeffer's theology

Due to the many warnings at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic of an increased transfer of power to governments and the subsequent impending demise of democracy, this article presents a theological response to a persistent theory of autocratic power. Employing, but reinterpreting the semantics of the concepts of the jurist and theorist of state Carl Schmitt, the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer redirects the former’s rhetoric regarding history, rule, nothingness, creation ex nihilo and miracle. As a result, Bonhoeffer responds to a secular method with faith in Christ’s cross and provides for a reality that can serve as a constant grounding for a new life carried by ultimate hope

Quiescent X-ray emission from an evolved brown dwarf ?

I report on the X-ray detection of Gl569Bab. During a 25ksec Chandra observation the binary brown dwarf is for the first time spatially separated in X-rays from the flare star primary Gl569A. Companionship to Gl569A constrains the age of the brown dwarf pair to ~300-800 Myr. The observation presented here is only the second X-ray detection of an evolved brown dwarf. About half of the observing time is dominated by a large flare on Gl569Bab, the remainder is characterized by weak and non-variable emission just above the detection limit. This emission -- if not related to the afterglow of the flare -- represents the first detection of a quiescent corona on a brown dwarf, representing an important piece in the puzzle of dynamos in the sub-stellar regime.Comment: to appear in ApJ

Investigation of the bactericidal effect of Nisin on lactic acid bacteria of wine

Untersuchung der bakteriziden Wirkung von Nisin auf Milchsäurebakterien des WeinesGeringe Konzentrationen des Polypeptids Nisin genügen, um das Wachstum der für Wein wichtigen Milchsäurebakterien zu hemmen. Die Hemmkonzentrationen sind sehr verschieden: Leuconostoc oenos, Pediococcus damnosus und Lactobacillus brevis werden bei 4, 8 und 100 IU Nisin/ml gehemmt. Unterhalb der Hemmkonzentration wird der Carboxylsäurestoffwechsel nicht beeinflußt. Nisin ist für nicht wachsende Milchsäurebakterien bakterizid, aber erst bei wesentlich höheren als den wachstumshemmenden Konzentrationen. Lactobacillus casei erwies sich als extrem resistent und wurde erst bei Konzentrationen von > 2000 IU Nisin/ml abgetötet

Applying DDI to a Longitudinal Study of Aging

Presentation at the North American Data Documentation Conference (NADDI) 2013Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) is a large, multi-disciplinary longitudinal study of aging conducted by the University of Wisconsin. MIDUS researchers want to provide a comprehensive, canonical source of documentation for the research project. To accomplish this, the team took the diverse set of sources that previously documented the MIDUS study and created a standardized, DDI 3-based set of documentation that better enables researchers to discover and use the MIDUS data. This talk will outline the process used to create the DDI 3 documentation, and will demonstrate the resulting documentation and dissemination tools provided by Colectica. The project is a joint effort between MIDUS and Colectica.Institute for Policy & Social Research, University of Kansas; University of Kansas Libraries; Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; Data Documentation Initiative Allianc