scholarly journals Are Biological Science Knowledge, Interests, and Science Identity Framed by Religious and Political Perspectives in the United States?

2018 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 584-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph C. Jochman ◽  
Alexis Swendener ◽  
Julia McQuillan ◽  
Luke Novack
2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (04) ◽  
pp. A03
Author(s):  
Meaghan McKasy ◽  
Michael Cacciatore ◽  
Leona Yi-Fan Su ◽  
Sara K. Yeo ◽  
Liane Oneill

Inequalities in scientific knowledge are the subject of increasing attention, so how factual science knowledge is measured, and any inconsistencies in said measurement, is extremely relevant to the field of science communication. Different operationalizations of factual science knowledge are used interchangeably in research, potentially resulting in artificially comparable knowledge levels among respondents. Here, we present data from an experiment embedded in an online survey conducted in the United States (N = 1,530) that examined the distribution of factual science knowledge responses on a 3- vs. 5-point response scale. Though the scale did not impact a summative knowledge index, significant differences emerged when knowledge items were analyzed individually or grouped based on whether the correct response was “true” or “false.” Our findings emphasize the necessity for communicators to consider the goals of knowledge assessment when making operationalization decisions.


Uncertainty ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 46-59
Author(s):  
Kostas Kampourakis ◽  
Kevin McCain

Scientists are experts in their respective domains because they have the knowledge, credentials, experience, and affirmation of their peers. They are, therefore, the experts when it comes to scientific matters. But individual scientists cannot know everything. Consequently, what matters is not the views of individual scientists but the collective and consensus view of the scientific community. However, the public is divided on the issue of whether to trust science and scientists. Polls in the United States show that scientists are relatively highly respected compared to other professionals, but, at the same time, about half of the people only have some trust in scientists. Worse than that, political orientation rather than science knowledge seems to have a major impact on attitudes toward science. Finally, even though there is a consensus view among scientists on topics like climate change, the public perception is that scientists are divided on such issues.


Author(s):  
Scott Arbet ◽  
Jimmy Parle ◽  
Janet Lathrop

Physician assistants (PAs) have provided cost effective, high quality care in the United States for more than 40 years. There is a growing international interest in utilizing PAs for a variety of pressing health care needs. This pilot study compared the performance of PA students trained in the United States to those trained in the United Kingdom on a core biomedical science knowledge examination using multiple choice questions developed by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA). The study found that despite differing educational models and health systems, the students performed similarly. While rigorous statistical analyses were not possible given the small sample sizes, the study provides a promising indication that there is an international common core of biomedical science knowledge. Repeated studies and the expansion of the pilot to other countries will provide more generalizability and statistical support to establish whether there is an assessable, global core of PA biomedical science knowledge that could become one component of locally determined national standards for PAs.


Author(s):  
A. Hakam ◽  
J.T. Gau ◽  
M.L. Grove ◽  
B.A. Evans ◽  
M. Shuman ◽  
...  

Prostate adenocarcinoma is the most common malignant tumor of men in the United States and is the third leading cause of death in men. Despite attempts at early detection, there will be 244,000 new cases and 44,000 deaths from the disease in the United States in 1995. Therapeutic progress against this disease is hindered by an incomplete understanding of prostate epithelial cell biology, the availability of human tissues for in vitro experimentation, slow dissemination of information between prostate cancer research teams and the increasing pressure to “ stretch” research dollars at the same time staff reductions are occurring.To meet these challenges, we have used the correlative microscopy (CM) and client/server (C/S) computing to increase productivity while decreasing costs. Critical elements of our program are as follows:1) Establishing the Western Pennsylvania Genitourinary (GU) Tissue Bank which includes >100 prostates from patients with prostate adenocarcinoma as well as >20 normal prostates from transplant organ donors.


Author(s):  
Vinod K. Berry ◽  
Xiao Zhang

In recent years it became apparent that we needed to improve productivity and efficiency in the Microscopy Laboratories in GE Plastics. It was realized that digital image acquisition, archiving, processing, analysis, and transmission over a network would be the best way to achieve this goal. Also, the capabilities of quantitative image analysis, image transmission etc. available with this approach would help us to increase our efficiency. Although the advantages of digital image acquisition, processing, archiving, etc. have been described and are being practiced in many SEM, laboratories, they have not been generally applied in microscopy laboratories (TEM, Optical, SEM and others) and impact on increased productivity has not been yet exploited as well.In order to attain our objective we have acquired a SEMICAPS imaging workstation for each of the GE Plastic sites in the United States. We have integrated the workstation with the microscopes and their peripherals as shown in Figure 1.


2001 ◽  
Vol 15 (01) ◽  
pp. 53-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Rehfeld

Every ten years, the United States “constructs” itself politically. On a decennial basis, U.S. Congressional districts are quite literally drawn, physically constructing political representation in the House of Representatives on the basis of where one lives. Why does the United States do it this way? What justifies domicile as the sole criteria of constituency construction? These are the questions raised in this article. Contrary to many contemporary understandings of representation at the founding, I argue that there were no principled reasons for using domicile as the method of organizing for political representation. Even in 1787, the Congressional district was expected to be far too large to map onto existing communities of interest. Instead, territory should be understood as forming a habit of mind for the founders, even while it was necessary to achieve other democratic aims of representative government.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document