Role In Research Projects Research Articles

BioPipeline Creator—a user-friendly Java-based GUI for managing and customizing biological data pipelines

Bioinformatics tools are essential for performing analyses in the omics sciences. Given the numerous experimental opportunities arising from advances in the field of omics and easier access to high-throughput sequencing platforms, these tools play a fundamental role in research projects. Despite the considerable progress made possible by the development of bioinformatics tools, some tools are tailored to specific analytical goals, leading to challenges for non-bioinformaticians who need to integrate the results of these specific tools into a customized pipeline. To solve this problem, we have developed the BioPipeline Creator, a user-friendly Java-based GUI that allows different software tools to be integrated into the repertoire while ensuring easy user interaction via an accessible graphical interface. Consisting of client and server software components, BioPipeline Creator provides an intuitive graphical interface that simplifies the use of various bioinformatics tools for users without advanced computer skills. It can run on less sophisticated devices or workstations, allowing users to keep their operating system without having to switch to another compatible system. The server is responsible for the processing tasks and can perform the analysis in the user's local or remote network structure. Compatible with the most important operating systems, available at https://github.com/allanverasce/bpc.git.

Biobanks: Archives or Resources? Their Secondary Use for Forensic Purposes—A Systematic Review

Since the biobanks’ inception in 1980, millions of human biological samples have been stored worldwide for medical research or treatment purposes. Today the secondary use of biobanks plays an increasingly important role in research projects because it allows large-scale research starting from professional collections of biospecimens and related clinical data. It would be limiting, in the “-omics” era, to not consider the enormous potential value to law enforcement of these biospecimens, where the availability of high-performance techniques makes it possible to obtain a large amount of data, even within a single session. Therefore, the quality of the sample, in addition to the associated clinical information, becomes of crucial importance to derive scientifically valid information, including for forensic research purposes. Proposing the introduction of the concept of “solidarity”, traditionally applied only to medical and research biobanks, led to public commitment to forensic medicine. Granting the forensic researcher this possibility certainly raises some questions regarding regulatory and ethical aspects of consent, privacy, confidentiality, transparency, and participant/donor trust. Since the debate has not stopped since the origin of biobanks, this review aims to explore the state of the art relating to the use of human biological material in medical biobanks for biomedical and forensic research.

The loneliness of the long-distance ethnobotanist: a constructive critique of methods used in an ethnoveterinary study in Mongolia

BackgroundFieldwork plays an important role in research projects across a variety of fields, especially in the multidisciplinary setting of natural and social science research. As is the nature of fieldwork, things do not always work out as planned, and yet this is not often written about. In response to the need for honest and transparent accounts of fieldwork, the purpose of this article is to review the methods used during fieldwork for the first author’s dissertation research on ethnoveterinary knowledge.MethodsTo critically review and reflect on the fieldwork methods used for an ethnoveterinary study in Mongolia, we compare the theory underpinning each method with the practical reality of implementing the method in the field. From this comparison, we draw out and discuss a number of key themes.ResultsEighteen methods and approaches used for the research project are reviewed and compared. From this, we distil and further discuss the following five overarching themes: reflections on specific data collection methods (free listing, semi-structured interviews with interpreters, voucher specimen collection); assumptions around involving local people; power dynamics; gender relations; and researcher well-being.ConclusionBy juxtaposing the theory and practical reality of the methods used, we highlight many potential fieldwork challenges and, within this context, offer general pointers, especially for novice female researchers doing fieldwork in foreign countries. A critical review of this type, where the experience and use of various methods, techniques, and approaches are openly shared and evaluated, is a contribution to selecting, adapting, and fine-tuning the methods best suited to a particular research context.

Dialoguing with the silent researcher: Rethinking the role of the transcriptionist in qualitative research

Even though transcription is a mainstay of qualitative research, transcription itself is rarely present in discussions of data collection or analysis. A meager body of literature exists that considers transcription as theory, but such literature tends to focus on the transcriptionist’s choices. We have few empirical studies on transcription and the role of the transcriptionist. Drawing on frameworks of literacy as a sociocultural process and post-structural feminism, we investigate two cases that demonstrate how the transcriptionist can assume a generative role in research projects. Our data reveal how the transcriptionist shared interpretations, helped make methodological decisions, and was a reader who knew the full body of data. We argue for a reframing of our collective understanding of the transcriptionist and consider the benefits of, limitations to, and ethical issues in involving transcriptionists explicitly as co-researchers.

Evaluating the Network: A Workflow for Tracking Twitter Interactions Using Social Networking Analysis

Networking plays an important role in research projects to build a community and audience around a research area. Using social media is popular in project communication as it provides the ability to engage with a group of followers daily. Such online networking tools provide the advantage of providing near-realtime data, which can be used to evaluate communication and networking success. This does, however, present a problem of what data can be collected in a reasonable timeframe to usefully feed back into the project’s strategies. This paper presents the evaluation approach the Research on Open Educational Resources for Development in the Global South (ROER4D) project has applied to understanding the project’s reach and engagement on the social networking site Twitter. This evaluation considered: 1) To what extent has ROER4D built a network of OER scholars? and 2) Which of ROER4D’s actions have been most effective at growing the network? Using a Utilization Focused Evaluation framework, this evaluation established a workflow through which the project’s Twitter network growth and snapshots of key online interactions could be tracked over time. Systematic measuring systems were set up to collect, select and analyse the most useful data to inform the project from three sources: Twitter analytics, Twitter Archiving Google Spreadsheet, and NodeXL. The social networking analysis shows the extent to which the project is building a network of scholars and what may have contributed to this growth. The feasibility of this networking evaluation approach for use by other projects, especially in the Global South, as well as the considerations when analysing Twitter data and metrics from accounts that would generally appeal to, in this case, the open education and OER communities, are highlighted.

Putting patients first: the need for evidence-based and patient-centered standards of care in rheumatoid arthritis

All over the world, musculoskeletal diseases have major individual, societal and economic implications [1]. Musculoskeletal diseases require the attention of several medical disciplines such as rheumatology and rehabilitation, including both physicians and nonphysician health professionals. However, it is not only these ‘specialists’, but also the patients themselves play an important role in musculoskeletal care. Apart from shared goal setting, for example, when a new medication is prescribed, patients need to be actively involved in rehabilitation care: a considerable number of interventions such as appropriate pain management, activity pacing, enhancing physical activity, maintaining a range of activities, performing activities in a joint protective way, using assistive devices, and so fourth, will not be successful if they are not administered in a patient-centered and patient actively involving way. Furthermore, there is initial qualitative evidence that people who are more actively involved in decisions about their musculo skeletal disease may have a better health outcome [2]. Involvement of patients is thus a crucial issue in rheumatology and rehabilitation. Patients should not only participate in their own care, but can – if interested – take on different roles in research projects. Patients can contribute essential parts in qualitative research in that they report about their experiences in daily life (and thus allow researchers, specialists and experts to share their views), but can also take on even more ‘equal’ expert roles such as being a ‘patient research partner’ in the advisory boards of all kinds of research projects or become scientific authors themselves [3]. Qualitative action research claims that the active involvement of all stakeholders in a certain research project is essential [4]. However, this is still rather uncommon in many countries such as Austria. Austria

The role of classroom research projects in the preparation of science teachers

Research undertaken by educational researchers based in universities has not had the desired impact on the practices of classroom science teachers. Yet Goodlad (1990) has argued that if teaching is to be recognised as a profession there is a great need for the marrying of the knowledge of the practitioner with that of the researcher. Student teachers might learn to respect the potential for such a union by undertaking minor classroom research projects during their teacher preparation programs. This paper discusses the role of research projects in pre-service teacher preparation with reference to an inquiry conducted with teacher education students.