Authoritative Source Of Information Research Articles

Understanding Flu Vaccination Acceptance Among U.S. Adults: The Health Belief Model and Media Sources

Based on previous studies about the Health Belief Model (HBM) and the reinforcing relationship between media selectivity or preference and individual’s behavior, this study used a national representative adult sample to assess flu vaccination as the result of an appraisal of relevant health beliefs, trust towards the authoritative entities (e.g. CDC & FDA) and vaccine-related media information, in addition to one’s existing behavior pattern. Results showed that not-vaccinated individuals differ significantly in their vaccine-related health believes and the trust towards the authoritative information sources. This group acquired less recommendation from health care providers and more negative sentiments about flu vaccine overall. After controlling for the existing behavior, media selectivity and perceived vaccine benefit are predicting individual’s vaccination hesitancy and intention in the coming flu season.

How introductory macroeconomics should be taught after the global financial crisis: data from Greek university students

The aim of this paper is to review a range of suggestions made in the literature to improve economics pedagogy following the recent global financial crisis. In addition, we scrutinise responses to a survey of macroeconomics students from the University of Macedonia to determine issues in teaching economics and what the responses imply about how pedagogy may be improved. Both the literature and the survey analysis suggest the importance of teaching economics more relevant and responsive to real-world economic phenomena. However, different ways of accomplishing this objective are suggested by the two sources. The analysis of the Greek student survey also suggests the importance of addressing the issue of non-authoritative versus authoritative sources of information.

Лондонський журнал «The Ukrainian Review» як промоутер у західному світі ідеї української державності

Стаття написана на основі опрацьованих автором бібліотечних та архівних колекцій у Лондоні під час наукового стажування у Великій Британії. Цінність її полягає в тому, що це перше спеціальне дослідження історії англомовного часопису українців, що виходив у Лондоні в другій половині ХХ ст. упродовж майже 40 років і призначався для іноземного читача.Виділяються три головні причини заснування українцями такого журналу в Лондоні: поламати стереотип сприйняття світом Східної Європи крізь призму Російської імперії, актуалізувати нерозв’язане після поразки Української революції 1917–1921 років українське питання, розширити з числа іноземних політиків і парламентарів коло нових симпатиків відродження України як самостійної держави.Йдеться про засновників видання — Союз Українців у Великій Британії, Лігу Визволення України в Канаді й Організацію Оборони Чотирьох Свобід України в США.З’ясовані дві категорії читачів, на які був спрямований новий журнал. Перша: англомовні чужинці з числа політиків, парламентарів, журналістів. Друга: молоді українці, які виросли на еміграції і не володіли українською мовою.Головним у редакційній політиці журналу проголошувалося: бути авторитетним джерелом відомостей про становище українців під окупацією Росії, роз’яснення іноземцям окремішності історії українців та їх державницьких домагань, знайомство з культурою, літературою та традиціями українців.В аналізі тиражної політики журналу звернена увага, що упродовж 38 років існування максимальний наклад становив 1500 примірників, мінімальний — 950. Половина з такої кількості складали передплатники, інша половина розповсюджувалася безкоштовно. Журнал поширювався, згідно зі складеним адресарем, до бібліотек, наукових інституцій, редакцій газет, політичних партій, університетів, коледжів та шкіл, а також окремим політикам, ученим, журналістам, парламентарям у більшість країн Західної Європи, Америки та Азії. В аналізі фінансових засад наголошується, що збитки від видання журналу покривалися винятково на пожертви українців.

Patients' Health Information Practices and Perceptions of Provider Knowledge in the Case of the Newly Discovered Alpha-gal Food Allergy.

Background:Alpha-gal food allergy is a life-threatening, newly discovered condition with limited presence in authoritative information sources. Sufferers seeking diagnosis are likely to encounter clinicians unfamiliar with the condition.Objective:To understand information practices of individuals diagnosed with alpha-gal allergy, how they obtained diagnosis, and their perceptions of health-care providers’ awareness of the condition.Methods:Semistructured interviews with open- and closed-ended questions were completed with a chronological systematic sample of 28 adults (11% of alpha-gal clinic patients at the time) diagnosed with alpha-gal allergy and treated at University of North Carolina Allergy and Immunology Clinic.Results:The majority of patients determined they had alpha-gal allergy through nontraditional health information channels. Three-quarters of patients rated their primary care provider as having little to no knowledge. In 25 specialists’ encounters, 23 were rated as having little to no knowledge.Conclusion:With new conditions, information is often available through informal networks before appearing in the vetted medical literature. In this study, social connections were the primary pathway to successful diagnosis. Health practitioners need to develop mechanisms to understand that process.

The cognitive authority of user-generated health information in an online forum for girls and young women

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the role of one particular online discussion forum as a potentially authoritative health information source for its users. The concept of cognitive authority is used as a starting point for understanding information evaluation in this context. The focus is placed on the types of information users seek for from this forum, the ways they assess the credibility of information obtained, and their views on the impact of this information.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical data were collected with a questionnaire survey from the users of a Finnish online forum for girls and young women (n=290). The data were analyzed qualitatively with content analytic techniques and quantitatively by using descriptive analysis.FindingsThe forum was found to offer girls and young women the possibility to receive health information from peers. It was viewed as an appropriate source for experiential rather than factual health information and used to find information on sexuality, bodily functions and diets, for example. Author-related cues, argumentation and tone, veracity and verification were recognized as means to evaluate information credibility. Credibility evaluation was found to be linked with conceptions of the forum and the type of information sought. A share of the respondents recognized the information obtained to have influence on their thinking or behavior.Originality/valueBased on the findings, it can be argued that the members of the online forum – individually or collectively – can act as cognitive authorities for other users. The findings cannot be generalized beyond this online forum, to Finnish girls or young women, or even the users of the online forum. However, they provide insights into the ways young people evaluate user-generated information in a particular online setting and domain of knowledge and as such contribute to research on cognitive authority, credibility evaluation and information literacy.

An “EPIIC” Vision to Evolve Project Integration, Innovation, and Collaboration with Broad Impact for How NASA Executes Complex Projects

Evolving Project Integration, Innovation, and Collaboration (EPIIC) is a vision defined to transform the way projects manage information to support real-time decisions, capture best practices and lessons learned, perform assessments, and manage risk across a portfolio of projects. The foundational project management needs for data and information will be revolutionized through innovations on how we manage and access that data, implement configuration control, and certify compliance. The embedded intelligence of new interactive data interfaces integrate technical and programmatic data such that near real time analytics can be accomplished to more efficiently and accurately complete systems engineering and project management tasks. The system-wide data analytics that are integrated into customized data interfaces allows the growing team of engineers and managers required to develop and implement major NASA missions the ability to access authoritative source(s) of system information while greatly reducing the labor required to complete system assessments. This would allow, for example, much of what is accomplished in a scheduled design review to take place as needed, between any team members, at any time. An intelligent data interface that rigorously integrates systems engineering and project management information in near real time can provide substantially greater insight for systems engineers, project managers, and the large diverse teams required to complete a complex project. System engineers, programmatic personnel (those who focus on cost, schedule, and risk), the technical engineering disciplines, and project management can realize immediate benefit from the shared vision described herein. Implementation of the vision also enables significant improvements in the performance of the engineered system being developed.

What are we DOIng about the Missing Links? Connecting Taxonomic Names to the Linked Network of Scholarly Research

The classification of living things depends upon the literature. Access to this literature is essential to taxonomic research and to our understanding of biodiversity. There have been tremendous efforts to digitise the world’s biodiversity literature; the Biodiveristy Heritage Library (BHL) alone has uploaded over 54 million pages, all of which is freely accessible online. Our scientific literature is far more accessible than it has ever been, but that does not mean it is easily discoverable. Much of the taxonomic literature online remains outside the linked network of scholarly research. But that is rapidly changing. Taxonomic aggregators are an invaluable source of authoritative information on species names and their hierarchical classification. It is critical that this information includes citations for taxonomic descriptions, that these citations link to the published literature online and that (wherever possible) the citations include DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers). The DOI is an essential part of a publication’s bibliographic metadata and should be included (as a live link) in any reference to that content. However, the definitive (DOI’d) versions of recent publications are frequently behind paywalls. And, while much of the historic literature available online is open access, commercial publishers are uploading out-of-copyright publications onto their own websites, assigning DOIs to “their” definitive versions (the versions that must be cited in other publications, as per DOI requirements) and then locking the defintiive versions behind paywalls. This is perfectly within their rights. DOIs may be assigned to legacy publications retrospectively, providing that: a) the party assigning them owns the rights for the content, or has permission from the rights holder to assign a DOI, and b) the publication does not already have a DOI. If there are no rights attached to a piece of content, anyone can assign a DOI to it. This means that citation traffic from the bibliographies of current publications is increasingly directed towards commercial publishers’ websites, rather than towards open access versions, such as those freely available on the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL). However, taxonomic aggregators are not bound by the same obligations as publishers and may therefore choose to link to any online version of a publication (although the DOI should still be included in the citation). Many taxonomic aggregators link to the literature available on BHL. The taxonomic name profiles in EOL (Encyclopedia of Life), GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility) and ALA (Atlas of Living Australia) each contain a BHL bibliography: a list of links to the pages in BHL that contain an identified mention of that taxon name. However, the lists of returned results can be long, and they may or may not include the citations for accepted names, synonyms and taxon concepts. Some biodiversity aggregators feature these key citations on the names pages (or tabs) of taxon profiles. However, where these do exist, they are usually plain text rather than links. BHL is now registering DOIs for the content it hosts and is creating landing pages for articles, containing the full bibliographic metadata, including (where applicable) the DOI. Articles are now discoverable by article title, keywords within titles (scientific names, locations, traits, etc.), author names and DOIs, and can be easily linked to (via their landing pages) by other parties. This paper will examine the issues, benefits and complexities associated with linking to definitive versions, the difference between easy and open access, the ethics of putting out-of-copyright content behind paywalls, and the future of creating order amongst the massively expanding resource of literature online.

Fact Checking in Community Forums

Community Question Answering (cQA) forums are very popular nowadays, as they represent effective means for communities around particular topics to share information. Unfortunately, this information is not always factual. Thus, here we explore a new dimension in the context of cQA, which has been ignored so far: checking the veracity of answers to particular questions in cQA forums. As this is a new problem, we create a specialized dataset for it. We further propose a novel multi-faceted model, which captures information from the answer content (what is said and how), from the author profile (who says it), from the rest of the community forum (where it is said), and from external authoritative sources of information (external support). Evaluation results show a MAP value of 86.54, which is 21 points absolute above the baseline.

Where does customer value come from? An assessment of the global bicycle manufacturers industry’s product attribute, technical capability, and brands

Customer value is an important deciding factor in the consumer’s purchase process and may be affected by firms’ explicit or implicit factors. This study explores whether customer values in the bicycle industry benefit from technical capability, product attributes, or brands. To overcome the lack of authoritative information sources in the bicycle manufacturers industry, secondary data were collected from a variety of sources, including a patent database, magazines, manufacturers’ websites and catalogues, product information, and users’ reviews. We then used principle component analysis to find the three most important factors. Multiple regression analysis was applied to evaluate if these factors influence customer value. The results show no significant relationship between technical capability and customer value. Previous studies showed that innovation and development capability, product features, and brands could benefit customer value. However, technical capability as an internal firm capability focused on research and development and may be hard for customers to recognise. Customers tend to select products with external clues, such as product attributes and brands, meaning that bicycle manufacturers should align their research and development strategy and marketing strategy to bring technical developments closer to the market to create value.

The concept of the russian-ukrainian academic dictionary by A. Krymskyy and S. Yefremov

Background. In the period from 1920 to 1933, the political situation was very prosperous for the Ukrainian language and lexicography development in particular. The need for new dictionaries was very large because of formation of the one variant of the Ukrainian literary language, formation of the orthography, appearance of many new words. From 1920 to 1933, about 180 dictionaries were published; however, they have been researched only partially. Therefore, there is a need to study the concepts of dictionaries of the above-mentioned period, especially the concept of the Russian-Ukrainian academic dictionary by A. Krymskkyy and S. Yefremov as the first academic dictionary of the Ukrainian language.Purpose. Our goal here is to describe and analyze the concept of the Russian-Ukrainian academic dictionary by A. Krymskkyy and S. Yefremov.Methods. In our study, we mainly use a descriptive method.Results. Results of our study suggest that the Russian-Ukrainian academic dictionary by A. Krymskkyy and S. Yefremov is the dictionary of a mixed type. Being a translation dictionary, it also holds the features of explanatory, synonymic, and phraseological dictionaries. Publication of such a dictionary was determined by the large quantity of the material and the need to create a large dictionary, which could be an authoritative source of information for many users. Thereby, the Russian-Ukrainian academic dictionary by A. Krymskkyy and S. Yefremov was aimed to realize norms of the new orthography of the Ukraininan language, make stylistic differentiation of the words, as well as give explanations and idioms.Discussion. Qualities of different types of dictionaries developed in Russian-Ukrainian academic dictionary unequally because the concept of the dictionary has changed after the beginning of the work. Its volumes were edited by many different editors, and the chief editor had no opportunity to verify all the text before the publishing. Subsequent researches of the concept of the Russian-Ukrainian academic dictionary will allow to determine the influence this dictionary has had on the forthcoming translation, explanatory, synonymic, and phraseological dictionaries, and the way this dictionary was used while working on the forthcoming dictionaries.

The mental health community: An underserved and undertreated population: Students call for increased efforts to reduce mental health stigma

The mental health community: An underserved and undertreated population: Students call for increased efforts to reduce mental health stigma

Where's the beef? Searching for evidence, real or perceived, in bestselling business books

Scholars in fields as diverse as management, medicine, and education advocate for the use of evidence-based practice, the “conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of the best available evidence in making decisions” (Rousseau & Gunia, 2016: 669). Yet, even as scholars publish more than a million papers annually, studies suggest that less than 18% are easily accessible to the public (Laasko & Bjork, 2012) and fewer than half receive a single citation (Jasco, 2009). For business disciplines, however, purported best practices are often prescribed via popular literature, including over 17 million books sold in the “business/economics” genre each year (Milliot, 2016). In this study, the top five best-selling business books from 2014 were analyzed by hand to identify and organize more than 1,000 nuanced claims made by the books’ authors. These books were found to differ considerably in the degree to which claims made were accompanied by evidence, real or perceived, as well as in the total number and frequency of claims. However, analysis of ratings and reviews for these books revealed that readers overwhelmingly presumed that all five were authoritative sources of information and not just ‘good reads’. Implications for the diffusion of evidence-based business practice are discussed.

USPTO Patent Prosecution and Examiner Performance Appraisal

Patent examination is a complex and information-intensive process. For researchers and policy analysts studying this process, it is important to have a basic understanding of how patents typically proceed through examination and how the behaviour and incentives facing examiners might influence (or be influenced by) this process. This document provides a simplified overview of the patent examination process and the Performance and Appraisal Plan (PAP) for patent examiners. As the title indicates, this is a primer that provides a researcher-friendly introduction. Additional references are provided throughout the document to direct readers to more authoritative and detailed sources of information on each of the topics covered.

An enhanced appreciation of cultural competency: Applying knowledge at home and abroad

An enhanced appreciation of cultural competency: Applying knowledge at home and abroad

Estimating the Value of California Wine Grapes

AbstractThe California Grape Crush Report (Crush Report) is an authoritative source of information on production and returns per ton by variety of wine grapes that includes summaries of quantities produced and estimates of the average prices and value of wine grapes crushed in California. The data provided in the Crush Report are used to calculate the total value of wine grape production as reported in the annual Agricultural Statistics reports published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and in major industry publications. We use the differences among crush districts in the shares of production crushed to growers’ accounts to show that the current mechanism of calculating average statewide returns per ton understates the true total value of the crush by 14 to 20 percent. We show that a more accurate estimate of the total value and average price can be obtained if the prices of the wine grapes that are sold are used to infer the prices of wine grapes that are not sold before computing the weighted averages. (JEL Classifications: Q20, Q11, Q13, Q19)

Exploring Physicians' Perspectives on Nutrition Education Delivery to the Mother‐Infant Dyad

Maternal and infant nutrition education interventions have focused on education targeted to either the nutrition of the mother or the feeding of the infant, and not the dyad. Thus far, there has been limited success in obtaining sustained healthy eating or feeding behaviors. During the first year postpartum, mothers do not focus on their own health‐related needs, yet the mother and infant's health is closely intertwined, especially for breastfeeding mothers. Nutrition education focused on the mother‐infant dyad may be more effective than working with moms separate from their infant. Studies that attempt to modify healthy behaviors for both the mother and infant are few but show promise. Mothers with infants, however, are difficult to reach and retain over the longer term with educational programs. Mothers report a large number of infant and/or family care responsibilities and limited time and resources for these responsibilities. One approach is to provide nutrition education to the dyad through postpartum visits combined with well‐child visits, the latter of which occur seven or more times during the first year and are well attended compared to other preventive care. Physicians are identified as an authoritative source of health information for new mothers, however, their information is reported as being difficult to implement. The purpose of this study is to explore family medicine physicians' (FMP) perspectives on delivering nutrition education to the mother‐infant dyad. FMPs were chosen because they could provide important insight; they may have both the mother and the infant as patients and they are more familiar with the medical care workflow in their clinics. In‐depth interviews were conducted with 17 FMPs in Wisconsin. The interview guide was semi‐structured and utilized probing techniques. Content analysis guided coding, comparison of FMPs' experiences and ideas, and identification of emergent themes. The following major themes were identified: (1) desire for better nutrition education delivered within a clinic setting; (2) a co‐facilitated group‐care model as an ideal method of delivering nutrition education; however, (3) issues exist with a group‐care model related to logistics and reimbursement, as well as patient participation. Overall, the results indicate that a group‐approach to nutrition education delivery for the mother‐infant dyad is a preferred model by this group of FMPs with beliefs of effectiveness and efficiency. However, common challenges associated with group care must be addressed if this type of program were to be instituted and sustained in health care settings.Support or Funding InformationWisconsin Alumni Research Foundation

Online information search behaviour of physicians.

Although doctors increasingly engage in online information seeking to complement their medical practice, little is known regarding what online information sources are used and how effective they are. Grounded on self-determination and needs theory, this study posits that doctors tend to use online information sources to fulfil their information requirements in three pre-defined areas: patient care, knowledge development and research activities. Fulfilling these information needs is argued to improve doctors' perceived medical practice competence. Performing PLS-SEM analysis on primary survey data from 303 medical doctors practicing in four major Greek hospitals, a conceptual model is empirically tested. Using authoritative online information sources was found to fulfil all types of information needs. Contrarily, using non-authoritative information sources had no significant effect. Satisfying information requirements relating to patient care and research activities enhanced doctors' perceptions about their medical practice competence. In contrast, meeting knowledge development information needs had the opposite result. Consistent with past studies, outcomes indicate that doctors tend to use non-authoritative online information sources; yet their use was found to have no significant value in fulfilling their information requirements. Authoritative online information sources are found to improve perceived medical practice competence by satisfying doctors' diverse information requirements.

About the Cover

About the Cover David L. Howell Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 284] The bananas and seahorses that adorn the cover are two of the dozens of colorful illustrations in Chūzan bussankō 中山物産考 (ca. 1769), a description of the geography, flora, and fauna of the Ryukyu Kingdom (modern Okinawa) in the Harvard-Yenching Library’s rare book collection. The author, Tamura Ransui 田村藍水 (1718–1776), was an Edo-born doctor and naturalist who rose to prominence as a key figure in the Tokugawa shogunate’s successful effort to produce ginseng domestically from seeds smuggled from Korea. He wrote extensively on ginseng and other plants with economic value, such as sweet potatoes and cotton. Zhao Xuemin 趙學敏, the subject of He Bian’s article in this issue, knew and wrote about many of the plants and animals featured in Chūzan bussankō. There is no reason to believe he was familiar with the work. Rather, both he and Ransui were participants in a lively transnational, even global, discourse on natural history that attracted scholars and policymakers interested in materia medica and other useful products. In his account of Ryukyu, Ransui drew heavily on Zhongshan chuan xin lu 中山傳信錄 (1721), a survey of Ryukyuan geography and institutions by Xu Baoguang 徐葆光 (1671–1723), a Qing official who had traveled to Ryukyu in 1719. Xu’s book was widely read as an authoritative source of information on Ryukyu. A kanbun 漢文 edition printed in Kyoto circulated among Japanese scholars, and a partial translation into French by the Jesuit Antoine Gaubil informed European readers about the kingdom.1 Much of the text of Chūzan bussankō, including the descriptions of bananas and seahorses, is lifted straight from Xu Baoguang’s work, but the illustrations are all Ransui’s additions. In addition, he composed his own text to accompany [End Page 285] images of plants and animals that Xu had overlooked. HJAS thanks the Harvard-Yenching Library for its kind permission to reproduce the images. [End Page 286] DLH Details: Tamura Ransui, Chūzan bussankō, 3 vols. (kan) [ca. 1769], vol. 2 (seq. 29, seq. 44 ); MS no. TJ 3468/6441, Rare Book Collection, Harvard-Yenching Library, Harvard University, Cambridge MA, http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:32692219. Photo: Imaging Department © President and Fellows of Harvard College. Footnotes 1. Jo Hokō (Xu Baoguang), Chūzan denshinroku (Zhongshan chuanxin lu), punctuated by Hattori Somon 服部蘇門, 6 kan 卷 (Kyoto: Ran’en, n.d.); Antoine Gaubil, “Mémoire sur les isles que les Chinois appellent isles de Lieou-Kieou” (1758), in Lettres édifiantes et curieuses, écrites des missions étrangeres: Mémoires de la Chine, &c., vol. 23 (Paris: J. G. Merigot, 1781), pp. 182–245. Copyright © 2017 Harvard-Yenching Institute

The Effect of Background Music in Shark Documentaries on Viewers' Perceptions of Sharks.

Despite the ongoing need for shark conservation and management, prevailing negative sentiments marginalize these animals and legitimize permissive exploitation. These negative attitudes arise from an instinctive, yet exaggerated fear, which is validated and reinforced by disproportionate and sensationalistic news coverage of shark ‘attacks’ and by highlighting shark-on-human violence in popular movies and documentaries. In this study, we investigate another subtler, yet powerful factor that contributes to this fear: the ominous background music that often accompanies shark footage in documentaries. Using three experiments, we show that participants rated sharks more negatively and less positively after viewing a 60-second video clip of swimming sharks set to ominous background music, compared to participants who watched the same video clip set to uplifting background music, or silence. This finding was not an artifact of soundtrack alone because attitudes toward sharks did not differ among participants assigned to audio-only control treatments. This is the first study to demonstrate empirically that the connotative attributes of background music accompanying shark footage affect viewers’ attitudes toward sharks. Given that nature documentaries are often regarded as objective and authoritative sources of information, it is critical that documentary filmmakers and viewers are aware of how the soundtrack can affect the interpretation of the educational content.

Performance-based budgeting for continuing and lifelong education services: the Thai higher education perspective

ABSTRACTThis study presents analyses of panel data from 2007 to 2011 from various authoritative sources of information on public universities in Thailand. The focus is on factors that influence the budgetary decision-making process in providing educational services to the general public under a recently implemented performance-based budgeting system. Results from fixed effect regression models show that student headcount, political influence and economic conditions are not statistically significant variables in the decision-making process, which establish budgetary expenditures for educational services. These findings seem to contradict those in existing literature that have relied on analyses of data from surveys, interviews and questionnaires. This study contributes to the literature by providing quantitative data analysis and providing accurate information that could assist university administrators in preparing their universities’ budgets.