Clearinghouse For Data Research Articles

Sports Injury Epidemiology: Foundation of Evidence of, by, and for Athletic Trainers.

Sports Injury Epidemiology: Foundation of Evidence of, by, and for Athletic Trainers.

Linking greenhouse gas emissions to greenhouse gas reduction policies at the local government level in Florida

Greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories have emerged in the last decade as a key policy and management tool for local governments to address global warming. Yet, it is evident that there are many different methodologies available to local government staff involved with developing a measure of emissions for their communities. A review of methodologies utilized by state and local governments in Florida indicates that there are highly variable approaches used to calculate inventories from different emission categories. In addition, the procedures that are used may not be appropriate for the scale of a local jurisdiction due to problems associated with generalizing or averaging emissions data. It is suggested that a more standardized approach be developed and that a clearinghouse for GHG data be established. Such an effort would help to develop clear methodologies for assessing and measuring GHG emissions at different levels of government with the goal of tracking the effectiveness of specific GHG policies. This art...

A uniform fish consumption advisory protocol for the Ohio River

ORSANCO and the six Ohio River main stem states have been working to align states' fish consumption advisories (FCAs) to enhance the value of advice issued to the public. To achieve this goal, ORSANCO worked closely with a panel consisting of state and USEPA representatives. The result of this effort is the Ohio River Fish Consumption Advisory Protocol (ORFCAP). The ORFCAP represents a single set of variables agreed upon by the panel that allows for a standardized protocol to create advisory thresholds to which states can defer to issue consumption advice for the Ohio River. The ORFCAP identifies ORSANCO as a clearinghouse for data which will be distributed to the panel for decision making. Other components include identifying primary contaminants of concern (PCBs and mercury) and dividing the river into four reporting units. The protocol was developed to issue FCAs for the protection of sensitive populations using five advisory groupings for PCBs and four for mercury. Specific variables used in the calculation of advisory thresholds such as health protection values, cooking reductions, average meal sizes, etc., were selected by the panel. Lastly, the protocol calls for FCA decisions to be based on analysis of the most recent 10years of data for each species in each reporting unit to determine size class needs and advisory groupings. Upon pending implementation of the protocol by the main stem states, these decisions will be made annually through a series of discussions involving ORSANCO, the panel, and other appropriate state personnel.

Briefly

Medpedia: Four of the world's most prestigious medical schools have banded together to help establish the most comprehensive online encyclopedia of medicine. To be called Medpedia and made freely available to all, the initiative proposes to be a medical clearinghouse for data about health, medicine

Collaboration using OSSmole

This paper introduces a collaborative project OSSmole which collects, shares, and stores comparable data and analyses of free, libre and open source software (FLOSS) development for research purposes. The project is a clearinghouse for data from the ongoing collection and analysis efforts of many disparate research groups. A collaborative data repository reduces duplication and promote compatibility both across sources of FLOSS data and across research groups and analyses. The primary objective of OSSmole is to mine FLOSS source code repositories and provide the resulting data and summary analyses as open source products. However, the OSSmole data model additionally supports donated raw and summary data from a variety of open source researchers and other software repositories. The paper first outlines current difficulties with the typical quantitative FLOSS research process and uses these to develop requirements for such a collaborative data repository. Finally, the design of the OSSmole system is presented, as well as examples of current research and analyses using OSSmole.

Marine Genomics: A clearing-house for genomic and transcriptomic data of marine organisms

BackgroundThe Marine Genomics project is a functional genomics initiative developed to provide a pipeline for the curation of Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) and gene expression microarray data for marine organisms. It provides a unique clearing-house for marine specific EST and microarray data and is currently available at .DescriptionThe Marine Genomics pipeline automates the processing, maintenance, storage and analysis of EST and microarray data for an increasing number of marine species. It currently contains 19 species databases (over 46,000 EST sequences) that are maintained by registered users from local and remote locations in Europe and South America in addition to the USA. A collection of analysis tools are implemented. These include a pipeline upload tool for EST FASTA file, sequence trace file and microarray data, an annotative text search, automated sequence trimming, sequence quality control (QA/QC) editing, sequence BLAST capabilities and a tool for interactive submission to GenBank. Another feature of this resource is the integration with a scientific computing analysis environment implemented by MATLAB.ConclusionThe conglomeration of multiple marine organisms with integrated analysis tools enables users to focus on the comprehensive descriptions of transcriptomic responses to typical marine stresses. This cross species data comparison and integration enables users to contain their research within a marine-oriented data management and analysis environment.

Lessons Learned: Geographic Information Systems and Farmworkers in the Lake States

Agencies serving the estimated 42,000 to 137,000 migrant and seasonal farmworkers in the Lake States (Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota) face distinct challenges, including inadequate access to farmworker data to address their needs. This project developed and evaluated a geographical information system (GIS) database for compiling and displaying existing farmworker data in the Lake States. A three-step study was conducted in the Lake States: (1) a preliminary resource and needs assessment was conducted among agencies serving farmworkers, (2) a GIS product was created using data available from state agencies, and (3) the GIS product was evaluated by an advisory board of qualified occupational health and safety representatives for appropriateness, applications, and ease of use. Agencies participated by sharing their available farmworker data. The GIS product consisted of a CD-ROM with data displayed in a graphic format and downloadable spreadsheet files consolidated by county demographic, crop, housing, and migrant health clinic information. Evaluators of the GIS product found it to be an accessible, unique clearinghouse for farmworker-related data. The GIS product can become a valuable tool for agencies serving farmworkers and those researching farmworker-related issues. Agencies and health professionals require useful and comprehensive databases to track and serve farmworkers, and a multi-agency partnership using GIS technology could provide this capability. Further research is required with improved definitions and resources to apply the GIS product.