Database Usage Research Articles

STINGRAY: system for integrated genomic resources and analysis

BackgroundThe STINGRAY system has been conceived to ease the tasks of integrating, analyzing, annotating and presenting genomic and expression data from Sanger and Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) platforms.FindingsSTINGRAY includes: (a) a complete and integrated workflow (more than 20 bioinformatics tools) ranging from functional annotation to phylogeny; (b) a MySQL database schema, suitable for data integration and user access control; and (c) a user-friendly graphical web-based interface that makes the system intuitive, facilitating the tasks of data analysis and annotation.ConclusionSTINGRAY showed to be an easy to use and complete system for analyzing sequencing data. While both Sanger and NGS platforms are supported, the system could be faster using Sanger data, since the large NGS datasets could potentially slow down the MySQL database usage. STINGRAY is available at http://stingray.biowebdb.org and the open source code at http://sourceforge.net/projects/stingray-biowebdb/.

Awareness , Accessibility and Use of Electronic Databases among Academic Staff of Babcock University Business School

Previous researches on the availability and utilization of Internet Resources for teaching and research by Academic Staff of Babcock University (BU) have found out that there was low pattern of usage of library electronic databases. This paper investigates the further factors of the awareness, accessibility and use of electronic resources among academic Staff of Babcock University Business School. This study was carried out among one hundred and eighteen academic staff in the Babcock Business School (BBS). The BBS happens to be BU largest single school among a total of ten. They are also naturally the largest users of electronic resources. Questionnaire was the method used for data collection among academic staff while data was analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). One of the findings of the study was that information awareness on electronic resources among lecturers in BBS was inadequate and this affects the accessibility and use of electronic resources. This paper discusses the need to increase awareness on electronic resources subscribed to by Babcock University Library. There is need to increase the internet facilities on campus in other to facilitate the accessibility of electronic resources to lecturers and the entire library users. It is believed that awareness; accessibility will increase the use of electronic resources subscribed to by the library. The paper recommends regular training of academic staff on updating their knowledge of the many sources, and access to electronic resources from the University library. The University also needs to improve on the provision of internet facilities on campus.

Use and Perceptions of Online Academic Databases among Croatian University Teachers and Researchers

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to establish the extent to which Croatian university teachers and researchers use online academic databases in their work. In addition, the research looks into the ways they perceive certain aspects of database usage. The study focused on one university, but it is believed that the results could be replicated state-wide since the Croatian academic community is small and faces similar problems. The survey was conducted by means of a questionnaire. A total of 102 questionnaires were fully completed and used in the study. Apart from the descriptive statistics, inferential statistical methods were applied in order to analyze the differences between particular categories of users. The results show that 73.5% of respondents use online academic databases. These resources are more frequently used by university teachers holding a PhD, who are full, associate or assistant professors. It was also established that users assess online databases as an important source of information which reduces the time of research, but they also encounter certain difficulties in exploiting them. These refer primarily to the limited number of available commercial databases and the fact that full texts are often not accessible. The analysis of group differences revealed that with respect to gender, level of education and academic title, users had relatively uniform perceptions regarding online databases. The findings of this study contribute to a better understanding of online database users’ perceptions and needs. The results may also be useful in planning, designing and implementing training programs.

CINAHL Plus with Full-Text Database Utilisation by Nursing Professionals: A Study at KMC Health Sciences Library, Manipal

Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) Plus with full-text database of EBSCO provides indexing for >4600 journals from the fields of nursing and allied health. KMC Health Science Library, Manipal, is subscribing to many databases, which include CINAHL Plus with full text. All the online resources subscribed by the library are made available to the users through intranet and remote access facility. Major findings of this study include the level of awareness on using various online resources, frequency of usage of different databases, purpose for using, reasons for choice of CINAHL plus with full text, nursing professionals’ satisfaction of different features, barriers in accessing the database end effectiveness of information literacy programs on accessing CINAHL plus with full-text database. The result of the survey showed the usefulness of the database in accessing the literature related to nursing and allied science and nursing professionals’ need for training program in accessing the database.

Analysis of databases appropriation in the academic staffs of Iranian Universities of Medical Sciences according to the social appropriation approach.

Background:Numerous researches conducted on about the quality of perception of media messages shows that the people are not passive receivers but they have the ability of understanding, interpreting and accepting or rejecting messages. In order to make clear the relationship of information and communication technologies with social changes and to gain a broader vision from this scope, sociological theories about information and communication technologies’ usage, especially appropriation approach can be very useful. So, keeping in mind the important role of Databases in the qualitative expansion of education, research, diagnosis, remedy and medical services presentation, this research was carried out with the aim of status determination of databases appropriation in the academic staffs of Iranian Universities of Medical Sciences according to the social appropriation approach in 2012.Materials and Methods:This is an applicative research of an analytical-descriptive type, which was carried out by measurement approach. The statistical society of this research was composed of the academic staffs of the Iranian Universities of Medical Sciences in 2012 and finally 390 academic staffs were selected according to the Cochran's formula were selected. The research tool are searcher's made questionnaire, which was composed of nine separate parts. Its validity was accepted by the specialists and its reliability was calculated and found to be 0.961 by Cronbakh's alpha.Results:Database appropriation score in the academic staffs of Iranian Universities of Medical Sciences with 65.020% was in a good status and data bases dis appropriation score with 71.484 was in a high status.Conclusion:According to the findings of this research, Librarians and politicians in this scope-with determination of the academic staff's positive and negative points in usage and appropriation would be capable of accurately diagnozing and analyzing the chances and challenges of the academic staffs members in using databases and would also be capable of achieving solutions and appropriate catalyzers of prolific usage and appropriation of databases.

Utilization of Databases in State Agricultural Universities of Jammu and Kashmir (India)

The aim of this paper is to examine the impact and use of e-databases in State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) of Jammu & Kashmir because a huge amount is invested for the subscription, growth, and management of e-databases. The main purpose is to determine the objective of use of e-databases; and to find out their level of application, level of satisfaction, problems, and guidance/instructions in accessing of e- databases. To collect research data, questionnaire was administered randomly among 150 faculty members/scientists/Subject Matter Specialists (SMSs) available in two state agricultural universities i.e SKUAST of Jammu, SKUAST of Kashmir and 103 filled in questionnaires were returned. Finally, the researcher selected 100 useable questionnaires for the analysis using statistical technique to derive the result. The study reveals that e-databases such as CABI, AGRIS, AGRICOLA and Vet -CDs were highly used among the faculty members. Most of the agricultural scientists from Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and veterinarians from Faculty of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry were satisfied with the available databases at their respective University. The study identifies the importance of e-databases and the role of user initiation program or information literacy awareness to enhance the usage of databases at two agricultural universities each of one is located in two divisions of the state of Jammu & Kashmir i.e Jammu division & Kashmir division. Keywords: Agricultural Scientists, Veterinarians, e-databases, SKUAST, SAUs, Animal Husbandry.

Dental and medical practitioners’ awareness and attitude toward evidence based practice in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A comparative study

ObjectiveTo determine and compare different levels of awareness and attitude toward Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) among dental and medical practitioners in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. MethodologyA cross-sectional study using a self-administered questionnaire was completed by 300 practitioners (150 dentists and 150 medical practitioners) working at different academic, governmental, and private sectors in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire assessed practitioner’s attitude toward EBP in terms of application and usage; awareness and usage of bibliographic database; history of training in EBP; perception of their understanding of technical terms used in scientific research and opinion with respect to barriers for the use of EBP and Evidence-Based Dentistry in Saudi Arabia. ResultsOf those who were invited to participate, 76.7% returned fully completed questionnaires. Physicians and dentists had an overall favorable attitude toward EBP, with 85% showing interest in the current promotion for this process and 97% agreeing that it improves patients’ care. However, 55% believe that it poses extra demands on already overloaded clinicians. No significant differences were found between dentists and physicians with respect to all attitude items. Significantly fewer dentists indicated understanding the terms: number needed to treat (P=0.001), odds ratio (P=0.007), meta-analysis (P=0.02) and confidence intervals (P=0.04). Less than half of dentists and physicians received formal training in search strategies (43.8%), critical appraisal (34.4%) and other EBP skills (40.6%), while only 38.8% (significantly lower among dentists; P=0.009) reported using Evidence-Based Practice guidelines. Significantly more physicians reported having accessibility to Medline through their office computer (P=0.003). ConclusionEBP has not been used to its maximum, despite excellent attitude toward its usage among both physicians and dentists. More efforts should be put into strengthening the skills and use of EBP among all medical practitioners, particularly among dentists, working in Saudi Arabia.

What is bioinformatics made from? A survey of database and software usage through full-text mining

What is bioinformatics made from? A survey of database and software usage through full-text mining

Evaluation of Cadmould Software to Simulate the Filling Phase of a Natural Rubber Compound in Injection Moulding Process<sup></sup>

The possibility of using Cadmould software to simulate the filling behaviour of a natural rubber compound during an injection moulding process was investigated. For the simulation process, the determination of required material input data involving the rheological and cure kinetics data of the designed rubber compound were conducted. It was discovered that the acquired data were able to function as reliable material input data as they were comparable with related data available in the Cadmould software materials database. Verification of the simulated filling profiles by experimental short shots specimens showed that the Cadmould Rubber Package was able to predict the realistic filling behaviour of the formulated natural rubber compound inside the mould cavity when the measured material data were utilized. Whereas, the usage of available material database from the software failed to model the mould filling progression of the intended natural rubber compound.

Evidence-based practice in radiology: Knowledge, attitude and perceived barriers to practice among residents in radiology

AimWe examinted the attitude, knowledge and perceived barriers to evidence-based practice of radiology (EBPR) among residents in radiology. Study design and settingWe used the McColl questionnaire (1) and the BARRIERS scale (2) to assess the issues among radiology trainees attending an annual refresher course. Ninety six residents from 32 medical colleges from Southern India attended the course. ResultsEighty (83.3%) residents, 55 male and 25 female of age range 24–34 years, consented and returned the questionnaire. The majority of the participants had a positive attitude towards EBPR. However, 45% were unaware of sources for evidence based literature although many had access to Medline (45%) and the internet (80%). The majority (70%) were aware of the common technical terms (e.g. odds ratio, absolute and relative risk) but other complex details (e.g. meta-analysis, clinical effectiveness, confidence interval, publication bias and number needed to treat) were poorly understood. Though majority of residents (59%) were currently following guidelines and protocols laid by colleagues within their departments, 70% of residents were interested in learning the skills of EBPR and were willing to appraise primary literature or systematic reviews by themselves. Insufficient time on the job to implement new ideas (70.1%); relevant literature is not being complied in one place (68.9%); not being able to understand statistical methods (68.5%) were considered to be the major barriers to EBPR. Training in critical appraisal significantly influence usage of bibliographic databases (p<0.0001).Attitude of collegues (p=0.006) influenced attitude of the trainees towards EBPR. Those with higher knowledge scores (p=0.02) and a greater awareness of sources for seeking evidence based literature (p=0.05) held stronger beliefs that EBPR significantly improved patient care. ConclusionsThe large knowledge gap related to EBPR suggests the need to incorporate structured training into the core-curriculum of training programmes in radiology.

Hedge Fund Database 'Deconstruction': Are Hedge Fund Databases Half Full or Half Empty?

While the impact of backfill bias, survivor bias other database construction issues (e.g., onshore versus offshore) on hedge fund performance have received considerable research attention, the impact on hedge fund performance of differences in the underlying quality or number of reporting managers in various hedge fund databases has often been under reported. Most major hedge fund databases are based on ‘manager’ based reporting. As a result database quality is dependent on managers updating requested data. In addition, hedge fund databases were created and grew at different times. Thus large differences in the number of managers reporting as well as differences in other fund platform characteristics may exist between various databases. If these databases contained enough manager breadth and depth, results at the portfolio level could be similar across various databases, however, differences may still exist at the average manager level especially for small subsets of analysis (e.g., strategy, fee level, etc.). In this analysis we compare performance characteristics of two major databases often used in hedge fund analysis (CSFB/Tremont and CISDM). More specifically, we compare performance results at the strategy level for 1) all reporting funds, 2) funds denominated only in U.S. dollars and 3) a cleaned set of funds with duplicates removed (e.g. multiple share classes or currencies). Results show some return and risk differences between the two databases at the portfolio and average manager level. These differences, however, are often relatively small. In the end, the impact of database usage and the necessity to ‘deconstruct’ one’s database depends, in part, on whether one views the glass as half full or half empty.

PROSPERO at one year: an evaluation of its utility

BackgroundPROSPERO, an international prospective register of systematic review protocols in health and social care, was launched in February 2011. After one year of operation we describe access and use, explore user experience and identify areas for future improvement.MethodsWe collated administrative data and web statistics and conducted an online survey of users’ experiences.ResultsOn 21 February 2012, there were 1,076 registered users and 359 registration records published on PROSPERO. The database usage statistics demonstrate the international interest in PROSPERO with high access around the clock and around the world. Based on 232 responses from PROSPERO users (response rate 22%), almost all respondents found joining and navigation was easy or very easy (99%); turn round time was good or excellent (96%); and supporting materials provided were helpful or very helpful (80%). The registration fields were found by 80% to be relevant to their review; 99% rated their overall experience of registering with PROSPERO as good or excellent. Most respondents (81%) had a written protocol before completing the registration form and 19% did not. The majority, 136 (79%), indicated they completed the registration form in 60 minutes or less. Of those who expressed an opinion, 167 (87%) considered the time taken to be about right.ConclusionsThe first year of PROSPERO has shown that registration of systematic review protocols is feasible and not overly burdensome for those registering their reviews. The evaluation has demonstrated that, on the whole, survey respondents are satisfied and the system allows registration of protocol details in a straightforward and acceptable way. The findings have prompted some changes to improve user experience and identified some issues for future consideration.

Online databases as research support and the role of librarians in their promotion: The case of Croatia

The main aim of this study was to determine the extent to which Croatian university teachers use online databases as a research support tool, and what role librarians have in their promotion. Although the results show that within Croatian higher education online databases are widely acknowledged as important, they are used less frequently than in many other countries, especially more developed ones. The differences in online database perception between certain user groups were also tested. The study has revealed the problems in database usage and indicated the ways in which librarians can respond to users' needs more efficiently and effectively.

Ethical principles and practice guidelines concerning the usage of public database for medical researches

This study was supported by National Academy of Medicine of Korea and conducted by The Korean Society for Medical Ethics.

Measuring the value of library content collections

AbstractThis research uses the methodology of web analytics to examine the usage of subscription databases at a major academic library. Our research goal is the development of key performance indicators from which academic libraries can evaluate the business value of their content collections. There are 1,447 databases to which this academic library provides access, and these databases received nearly 2.5 million customer visits in 2012 via the library's meta‐search application, which is used for searching these databases. As such, these visits represent a substantial subset of the total traffic to the university's academic databases. The first level analysis shows that the top 20 most used databases represent over half the traffic to these academic databases. The second level analysis compared these heavily used databases (20) categorizing them by provider, and quantifying them with the remaining databases (428) from these providers. These results show the inequality of traffic generated by the top databases relative to the remaining databases from these providers in the context of search. The implications of this inequality illustrate the extreme usefulness of select databases and the possibility of the dispensability of less popular databases. The third level of analysis is a temporal evaluation of demand of databases over the course of two semesters (spring and fall 2012). This evaluation displayed the lack of increased demand throughout a semester beyond the top 300 databases. We used this analysis as the beginnings of the formulation of a set of web analytic metrics tailored for academic libraries.

Architecture, Design, Development, and Usage of ODBDetective 1.0

“ODBDetective is an Oracle database (Oracle) metadata mining tool for detecting violations of some crucial database (db) design, implementation, usage, and optimization best practice rules (bpr). This paper presents the set of bprs that is considered by the first full version (1.0) of ODBDetective, the db axioms from which they are derived, the corresponding tool’s facilities, and the essentials of its actual architecture, design, development, and usage, including the results of a case study on an Oracle production db. Moreover, even this first ODBDetective version also allows for storing semantic decision data on desired db scheme improvements, which will prove very useful to automatic improvement code generation in subsequent versions of this tool.”

Patterns of Undergraduates' Use of Scholarly Databases in a Large Research University

Authentication data was utilized to explore undergraduate usage of subscription electronic databases. These usage patterns were linked to the information literacy curriculum of the library. The data showed that out of the 26,208 enrolled undergraduate students, 42% of them accessed a scholarly database at least once in the course of the entire semester. Despite their higher levels of learning and expected sophistication in information seeking skills, juniors and seniors used databases proportionately less than freshmen and sophomores. The University Library conducts a variety of introductory seminars that introduce freshmen to databases in the Fall semester. There was no evidence that this momentum is sustained in the subsequent years when higher-level more sophisticated skills are needed.

Grading of Parameters for Urban Tree Inventories by City Officials, Arborists, and Academics Using the Delphi Method

Tree inventories are expensive to conduct and update, so every inventory carried out must be maximized. However, increasing the number of constituent parameters increases the cost of performing and updating the inventory, illustrating the need for careful parameter selection. This article reports the results of a systematic expert rating of tree inventories aiming to quantify the relative importance of each parameter. Using the Delphi method, panels comprising city officials, arborists, and academics rated a total of 148 parameters. The total mean score, the top ranking parameters, which can serve as a guide for decision-making at practical level and for standardization of tree inventories, were: Scientific name of the tree species and genera, Vitality, Coordinates, Hazard class, and Identification number. The study also examined whether the different responsibilities and usage of urban tree databases among organizations and people engaged in urban tree inventories affected their prioritization. The results revealed noticeable dissimilarities in the ranking of parameters between the panels, underlining the need for collaboration between the research community and those commissioning, administrating, and conducting inventories. Only by applying such a transdisciplinary approach to parameter selection can urban tree inventories be strengthened and made more relevant.

Correctness proof for database reconstruction algorithm

The increasing usage of databases in storing critical and sensitive information in various organizations has led to an increase in the rate at which databases are exploited in computer crimes. Unfortunately, despite that various digital forensics investigations involving databases have been explored in theory and in practice, database forensics has received little or research attention and there is still no defined underlying model for any aspect of database forensics. This paper describes our earlier algorithm for reconstructing the information in a database for forensics purposes and presents the proof of correctness of the algorithm. The database reconstruction algorithm determines the data in a relation on the database at some earlier time of interest using the current instance of the database and the log of modifying queries that have been performed on it from the time of interest to the present time. The paper describes inverse functions for the operators of the relational algebra and discusses the notion of relational algebra log and value blocks of a relation which are used in the algorithm. A major part of the paper presents the proof of correctness of the database reconstruction algorithm described.

Putting the Library at Students’ Fingertips

The absence of a well-defined space for library resources within course-management systems has been well documented in library literature. Academic libraries have sought to remedy this deficiency in numerous ways. This article describes how a “library nugget,” or module, was added to the Buffalo State College course-management system, ANGEL. The nugget features direct access to the library catalog and several popular databases from within ANGEL. Links to library guides and research services are also provided. The nugget was a collaboration between reference librarians and the campus ANGEL administrator, who is the college's former systems librarian. User feedback has been extremely positive and campus database usage has soared.