Research Support (research + support)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Developing a Performance Measurement System for University Central Administrative Services

HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY, Issue 3 2009
Marika Arena
Central administrative services have recently received increasing attention from practitioners and academics due to the challenging need to both manage scarce resources and provide high-quality services. In this context, performance measurement systems (PMSs) may assume a central role, although an unresolved debate remains on the claimed benefits of accountability and the difficulties that have emerged in defining and managing proper measures. This paper contributes to this debate by presenting the results of a study in which a PMS for central administrative services has been developed and tested through an action research approach drawing on actor network theory. The experiment was carried out in 15 Italian universities and five areas of services were dealt with: student support, research support, accounting, human resources, and logistics and procurement. The highly participative method resulted in a comparable system with a complete set of cost and quality indicators across the participating universities. These data proved to be useful at managerial and policy level, providing insights on the presence of scale effects and on the relative importance of quality dimensions for users of services. Participating in the project encouraged the university staff to use indicators in decision making. [source]


Change processes for attractive work in small manufacturing companies

HUMAN FACTORS AND ERGONOMICS IN MANUFACTURING & SERVICE INDUSTRIES, Issue 1 2009
Mattias Åteg
The article originates from research in interaction between researchers and companies in a network, which has led to an increasing awareness among managers on issues such as reasons behind difficulties in attracting competent labor. Particularly, attention has been directed toward the importance of work environment improvements that increase the attractivity of industrial work. To deal with such challenges, for more than 5 years a number of small engineering companies, with research support, have been engaged in change processes based on the concept of attractive work. The purpose of the article is to develop knowledge and understanding for how small engineering companies can create more attractive work. One goal is to make it possible to draw conclusions about the employees' experiences of changes in the attractivity of industrial work. Efforts in this direction have been conducted through work environment assessments (before and after the changes) and through administration of a questionnaire. The results show that it is possible to analyze how employees experience changes in the attractivity of work. This is most interesting from the perspective that the results can be used for assisting further improvements. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]


The ABC of New Zealand's Ten Year Vision for Pharmacists: awareness, barriers and consultation

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHARMACY PRACTICE, Issue 3 2009
Shane Scahill
Abstract Objectives This study aimed to determine New Zealand pharmacists' awareness of, recall of consultation about, and potential barriers to the implementation of the Focus on the Future: Ten Year Vision for Pharmacists in New Zealand: 2004,2014 document. Method A national postal survey was carried out in New Zealand of practising pharmacists registered with the Pharmacy Council of New Zealand (n = 1892). The survey was conducted between September and December 2006. Key findings The response rate was 51.8% (n = 980 usable surveys). Approximately three-quarters (73.4%) reported being aware of the 10-year vision document and 40.9% recall being consulted. Fewer than one-third (29.8%) had read the document prior to completing the survey. Thirty-two variables describing potential barriers to implementing the 10-year vision were reduced, through factor analysis, to seven factors with significant eigenvalues (>1.0). The factors describe the underlying themes of barriers identified in the survey, including pharmacist humanistic, integrated systems of care and teamwork, funder stakeholder relationships and remuneration, lack of appreciation of knowledge and skills, lack of research support, current expertise and continuing professional development, and lack of voice. The majority of barrier variables within the seven factors were rated as extremely or quite important. Conclusions There was a high level of awareness and moderate level of recall of consultation on the document among respondents. Although 40% recall being consulted on the document, fewer than one-third reported having read the document prior to completing our survey. Pharmacists highlighted a significant number of potential barriers to the implementation of the 10-year vision. If the pharmacy profession in New Zealand is to move forward towards the state described in the 10-year vision document then these potential barriers need to be better understood and addressed. [source]


Environmental stresses mediate endophyte,grass interactions in a boreal archipelago

JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, Issue 2 2010
Nora M. Saona
Summary 1.,Both evolutionary theory and empirical evidence from agricultural research support the view that asexual, vertically transmitted fungal endophytes are typically plant mutualists that develop high infection frequencies within host grass populations. In contrast, endophyte,grass interactions in natural ecosystems are more variable, spanning the range from mutualism to antagonism and comparatively little is known about their range of response to environmental stress. 2.,We examined patterns in endophyte prevalence and endophyte,grass interactions across nutrient and grazing (from Greylag and Canada geese) gradients in 15 sites with different soil moisture levels in 13 island populations of the widespread grass Festuca rubra in a boreal archipelago in Sweden. 3.,In the field, endophyte prevalence levels were generally low (range = 10,53%) compared with those reported from agricultural systems. Under mesic-moist conditions endophyte prevalence was constantly low (mean prevalence = 15%) and was not affected by grazing pressure or nutrient availability. In contrast, under conditions of drought, endophyte prevalence increased from 10% to 53% with increasing nutrient availability and increasing grazing pressure. 4.,In the field, we measured the production of flowering culms, as a proxy for host fitness, to determine how endophyte-infected plants differed from uninfected plants. At dry sites, endophyte infection did not affect flowering culm production. In contrast, at mesic-moist sites production of flowering culms in endophyte-infected plants increased with the covarying effects of increasing nutrient availability and grazing pressure, indicating that the interaction switched from antagonistic to mutualistic. 5.,A concurrent glasshouse experiment showed that in most situations, the host appears to incur some costs for harbouring endophytes. Uninfected grasses generally outperformed infected grasses (antagonistic interaction), while infected grasses outperformed uninfected grasses (mutualistic interaction) only in dry, nutrient-rich conditions. Nutrient and water addition affected tiller production, leaf number and leaf length differently, suggesting that tillers responded with different strategies. This emphasizes that several response variables are needed to evaluate the interaction. 6.,Synthesis. This study found complex patterns in endophyte prevalence that were not always correlated with culm production. These contrasting patterns suggest that the direction and strength of selection on infected plants is highly variable and depends upon a suite of interacting environmental variables that may fluctuate in the intensity of their impact, during the course of the host life cycle. [source]


The association between mutations in the lysosomal protein glucocerebrosidase and parkinsonism,

MOVEMENT DISORDERS, Issue 11 2009
John DePaolo BA
Abstract A body of work has emerged over the past decade demonstrating a relationship between mutations in glucocerebrosidase gene (GBA), the gene implicated in Gaucher disease (GD), and the development of parkinsonism. Several different lines of research support this relationship. First, patients with GD who are homozygous for mutations in GBA have a higher than expected propensity to develop Parkinson's disease (PD). Furthermore, carriers of GBA mutations, particularly family members of patients with GD, have displayed an increased rate of parkinsonism. Subsequently, investigators from centers around the world screened cohorts of patients with parkinsonism for GBA mutations and found that overall, subjects with PD, as well as other Lewy body disorders, have at least a fivefold increase in the number of carriers of GBA mutations as compared to age-matched controls. In addition, neuropathologic studies of subjects with parkinsonism carrying GBA mutations demonstrate Lewy bodies, depletion of neurons of the substantia nigra, and involvement of hippocampal layers CA2,4. Although the basis for this association has yet to be elucidated, evidence continues to support the role of GBA as a PD risk factor across different centers, synucleinopathies, and ethnicities. Further studies of the association between GD and parkinsonism will stimulate new insights into the pathophysiology of the two disorders and will prove crucial for both genetic counseling of patients and family members and the design of relevant therapeutic strategies for specific patients with parkinsonism. © 2009 Movement Disorder Society [source]


Preface: phys. stat. sol. (c) 1/S2

PHYSICA STATUS SOLIDI (C) - CURRENT TOPICS IN SOLID STATE PHYSICS, Issue S2 2004
E. F. da Silva Jr.
The papers in this special issue of physica status solidi (c) are selected manuscripts including diverse research lines presently in development in the ambit of the NanoSemiMat network in Brazil. The 3rd Workshop on Semiconductor Nanodevices and Nanostructured Materials (NanoSemiMat-3) took place in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, at the Catussaba Resort Hotel, during the period of 24,27 March 2004. The NanoSemiMat network is part of the Brazilian Initiative on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (N&N), with strategic cooperative research support in this area. The initiative started in 2001, through the formation of four research networks nationwide in different scientific fields associated to NanoScience and Nanotechnology (N&N). The 3rd Workshop on Nanodevices and Nanostructured Materials (NanoSemiMat-3) is an evolution of the two previous meetings which were held in Recife, PE, Brazil and Natal, RN, Brazil in 2002 and 2003, respectively. The meeting comprised 16 invited plenary talks, each 30 minutes long, given by eminent researchers from Brazil, Canada, France, Germany and the United States of America. These invited talks extend through different topics of N&N associated to Nanodevices and Nanostructured Materials: Photodetectors, Lasers and LEDs, Porous Materials, New Materials, and New Technologies, among others. There were short talks presented by representatives of the other N&N networks in Brazil dealing with Molecular Technology and Interfaces, Nanostructured Materials and Nanobiotechnology. Also a poster session, with about 60 presentations, highlighted the main research activities presently being developed by the network members at the different sites which constitute the NanoSemiMat network. The presentations reflected theoretical and experimental research lines which lead to the development of basic and applied research in nanostructured semiconductor materials such as III,V and II,VI, Si and SiC based nanodevices, wide gap materials, ceramics, polymers, porous materials, optical and transport properties of low dimensional structures, magnetic nanostructures and structures under the influence of high fields, spintronics and sensor applications. The participants of the workshop came from 20 research institutions within Brazil and from 7 research laboratories and universities in Europe and North America. In total about 120 researchers, members of the network, invited researchers, representatives of supporting and funding agencies in Brazil, undergraduate and graduate students, technical staff and supporting personal as well as researchers from complementary fields were present. The realization of the NanoSemiMat-3 was possible due to the financial support of the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT) and the Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq) and the logistic support of Federal University of Bahia. All activities during the NanoSemiMat-3 were open to the general public with interest in nanoscience and nanotechnology. In this third workshop of the series, we highlight the expansion of its format, with plenary and invited talks, poster sessions, as well as the presence of seven invited speakers from abroad. We expect that the continuation of the NanoSemiMat series will be a forum for discussions of state-of-the-art research developed in Brazil on N&N and the multidisciplinary field of semiconductor nanodevices and nanostructured materials as well as its superposition to other branches of science. (© 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source]


Changes in biological anthropology: Results of the 1998 American Association of Physical Anthropology Membership Survey

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 2 2002
Trudy R. Turner
Abstract In response to the results of the 1996 survey of the membership of the American Association of Physical Anthropology (AAPA), the Executive Committee of the Association sponsored a follow-up survey designed to assess gender and specialty differences in training, employment, academic status, mentoring, and research support. A total of 993 questionnaires was analyzed, representing approximately 62% of the 1998 membership of the Association. There has been a marked shift in the number of males and females in the discipline from the 1960s to the 1990s. While 51.2% of all respondents are female and 48.8% are male, 70% of the students are female. Chi-square tests indicate significant differences between males and females by highest degree, age, status, obtaining a tenure-track position, receiving tenure, and taking nontenure-track employment before receiving a tenure-track position. In recent years, there has been an increasing number of females in the ranks of assistant and associate professors; however, this is not true for the rank of professor. There are also significant differences between males and females by specialty within the discipline: researchers in primatology, human biological variation, skeletal biology, and paleopathology are primarily female, while researchers in human and primate evolution are increasingly female. Am J Phys Anthropol 118:111,116, 2002. © 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]