Brief Focused Inquiry (BFI): Conceptualizing a Strategy for Small-Scale Research Studies

2016 ◽  
pp. 87-96
Keyword(s):  
Small Scale ◽  
Research Studies

User-centered design principles in the development of clinical research tools

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 703-711
Author(s):  
Anita Walden ◽  
Lynsi Garvin ◽  
Michelle Smerek ◽  
Constance Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Research ◽  
Design Principles ◽  
Acceptance Testing ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
User Centered Design ◽  
Evaluation Phase ◽  
Patient Reported ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
User Centered ◽  
Research Studies

Background: Increasing and sustaining the engagement of participants in clinical research studies is a goal for clinical investigators, especially for studies that require long-term or frequent involvement of participants. Technology can be used to reduce barriers to participation by providing multiple options for clinical data entry and form submission. However, electronic systems used in clinical research studies should be user-friendly while also ensuring data quality. Directly involving study participants in evaluating the effectiveness and usability of electronic tools may promote wider adoption, maintain involvement, and increase user satisfaction of the technology. While developers of healthcare applications have incorporated user-centered designs, these methods remain uncommon in the design of clinical study tools such as patient-reported outcome surveys or electronic data capture digital health tools. Methods: Our study evaluated whether the clinical research setting may benefit from implementing user-centered design principles. Study participants were recruited to test the web-based form for the Measurement to Understand the Reclassification of Disease of Cabarrus/Kannapolis (MURDOCK) Study Community Translational Population Health Registry and Biorepository that would enable them to complete their study forms electronically. The study enrollment form collects disease history, conditions, smoking status, medications, and other information. The system was initially evaluated by the data management team through traditional user-acceptance testing methods. During the tool evaluation phase, a decision was made to incorporate a small-scale usability study to directly test the system. Results: Results showed that a majority of participants found the system easy to use. Of the eight required tasks, 75% were completed successfully. Of the 72 heuristics violated, language was the most frequent violation. Conclusion: Our study showed that user-centered usability methods can identify important issues and capture information that can enhance the participant’s experience and may improve the quality of study tools.

scholarly journals Scaling for Economists: Lessons from the Non-Adherence Problem in the Medical Literature

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 125-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omar Al-Ubaydli ◽  
John A. List ◽  
Danielle LoRe ◽  
Dana Suskind
Keyword(s):  
Production Process ◽  
Energy Saving ◽  
Medical Literature ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Common Occurrence ◽  
New Production ◽  
General Success ◽  
Research Studies

Economists often conduct experiments that demonstrate the benefits to individuals of modifying their behavior, such as using a new production process at work or investing in energy saving technologies. A common occurrence is for the success of the intervention in these small-scale studies to diminish substantially when applied at a larger scale, severely undermining the optimism advertised in the original research studies. One key contributor to the lack of general success is that the change that has been demonstrated to be beneficial is not adopted to the extent that would be optimal. This problem is isomorphic to the problem of patient non-adherence to medications that are known to be effective. The large medical literature on countermeasures furnishes economists with potential remedies to this manifestation of the scaling problem.

REVIEW OF RADON AND THORON RESEARCH IN KENYA: 1997–2017

2019 ◽  
Vol 184 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 479-481
Author(s):  
M Chege ◽  
C Nyambura
Keyword(s):  
Rift Valley ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Indoor Environments ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Online Journal ◽  
Raising Awareness ◽  
Radon Isotopes ◽  
Research Studies

Abstract Six research studies involving radon and thoron in Kenya were carried out between 1997 and 2007. The studies were mainly small scale and involved a few areas scattered across Nairobi, Rift Valley, Coast and Western regions. The results were captured in seven online journal articles. This paper relooks at the journal articles with the view of underscoring the high radon and thoron areas in Kenya, raising awareness on the sources and risks of radon isotopes in indoor environments and highlighting the need for more research on the isotopes in the country.

Reasons to strike first

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Buckner ◽  
Luke Glowacki
Keyword(s):  
Intergroup Conflict ◽  
Small Scale

Abstract De Dreu and Gross predict that attackers will have more difficulty winning conflicts than defenders. As their analysis is presumed to capture the dynamics of decentralized conflict, we consider how their framework compares with ethnographic evidence from small-scale societies, as well as chimpanzee patterns of intergroup conflict. In these contexts, attackers have significantly more success in conflict than predicted by De Dreu and Gross's model. We discuss the possible reasons for this disparity.

Exploring Coronal Structures with SOHO

2000 ◽  
Vol 179 ◽  
pp. 403-406
Author(s):  
M. Karovska ◽  
B. Wood ◽  
J. Chen ◽  
J. Cook ◽  
R. Howard
Keyword(s):  
Solar Corona ◽  
Image Enhancement ◽  
Coronal Mass Ejections ◽  
Dynamical Evolution ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Low Contrast ◽  
Contrast Structures ◽  
Scale Structures ◽  
Small Scale Structures ◽  
Coronal Structures

AbstractWe applied advanced image enhancement techniques to explore in detail the characteristics of the small-scale structures and/or the low contrast structures in several Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) observed by SOHO. We highlight here the results from our studies of the morphology and dynamical evolution of CME structures in the solar corona using two instruments on board SOHO: LASCO and EIT.

Scanning tunneling microscopy and atomic force microscopy: New tools for biology

1989 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 778-779
Author(s):  
CE Bracker ◽  
P. K. Hansma
Keyword(s):  
Physical Property ◽  
Scanning Probe ◽  
Scanning Tunneling ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Tunneling Microscopy ◽  
Force Microscopy ◽  
New Family ◽  
Small Probe ◽  
Atomic Force ◽  
Transmission Electron

A new family of scanning probe microscopes has emerged that is opening new horizons for investigating the fine structure of matter. The earliest and best known of these instruments is the scanning tunneling microscope (STM). First published in 1982, the STM earned the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics for two of its inventors, G. Binnig and H. Rohrer. They shared the prize with E. Ruska for his work that had led to the development of the transmission electron microscope half a century earlier. It seems appropriate that the award embodied this particular blend of the old and the new because it demonstrated to the world a long overdue respect for the enormous contributions electron microscopy has made to the understanding of matter, and at the same time it signalled the dawn of a new age in microscopy. What we are seeing is a revolution in microscopy and a redefinition of the concept of a microscope.Several kinds of scanning probe microscopes now exist, and the number is increasing. What they share in common is a small probe that is scanned over the surface of a specimen and measures a physical property on a very small scale, at or near the surface. Scanning probes can measure temperature, magnetic fields, tunneling currents, voltage, force, and ion currents, among others.

Superstructures and ordering phenomena in ceramic superconductors

1996 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 710-711
Author(s):  
R. Gronsky
Keyword(s):  
Domain Growth ◽  
Small Displacement ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Ceramic Superconductors ◽  
Oxygen Sublattices ◽  
Tweed Contrast ◽  
Diffraction Patterns ◽  
Representative Image ◽  
Static Lattice ◽  
Modulation Wavelength

It is now well established that the phase transformation behavior of YBa2Cu3O6+δ is significantly influenced by matrix strain effects, as evidenced by the formation of accommodation twins, the occurrence of diffuse scattering in diffraction patterns, the appearance of tweed contrast in electron micrographs, and the generation of displacive modulation superstructures, all of which have been successfully modeled via simple Monte Carlo simulations. The model is based upon a static lattice formulation with two types of excitations, one of which is a change in oxygen occupancy, and the other a small displacement of both the copper and oxygen sublattices. Results of these simulations show that a displacive superstructure forms very rapidly in a morphology of finely textured domains, followed by domain growth and a more sharply defined modulation wavelength, ultimately evolving into a strong <110> tweed with 5 nm to 7 nm period. What is new about these findings is the revelation that both the small-scale deformation superstructures and coarser tweed morphologies can result from displacive modulations in ordered YBa2Cu3O6+δ and need not be restricted to domain coarsening of the disordered phase. Figures 1 and 2 show a representative image and diffraction pattern for fully-ordered (δ = 1) YBa2Cu3O6+δ associated with a long-period <110> modulation.

Conducting Dysphagia Research in the Field Through Partnerships With Clinicians

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 36-41
Author(s):  
Catriona M. Steele
Keyword(s):  
Dysphagia Research ◽  
Research Studies

Research studies that involve collaborations between scientists and frontline clinicians provide rich opportunities for advancing knowledge in the field of dysphagia. However, various challenges exist in bridging research goals and clinical priorities. In this article, we explore the perspectives of those who have participated in previous collaborations to gain insights regarding the challenges, surprises, and benefits of such collaboration.

Mother-to-child transmission of HIV: developing integration of healthcare programmes with clinical, social and basic research studies

2003 ◽  
Vol 92 (11) ◽  
pp. 1343-1348
Author(s):  
Menu E ◽  
Scarlatti G ◽  
Barr&#x000E9;-Sinoussi F ◽  
Gray G ◽  
Bollinger B ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Basic Research ◽  
Mother To Child Transmission ◽  
Child Transmission ◽  
Mother To Child ◽  
Research Studies

Indirect Assessment of Attitudes with Response-Time-Based Measures

2006 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 131-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliane Degner ◽  
Dirk Wentura ◽  
Klaus Rothermund
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Incremental Validity ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Implicit Measures ◽  
Scale Theory ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
Predicting Behavior ◽  
Social Cognitive Theories

Abstract: We review research on response-latency based (“implicit”) measures of attitudes by examining what hopes and intentions researchers have associated with their usage. We identified the hopes of (1) gaining better measures of interindividual differences in attitudes as compared to self-report measures (quality hope); (2) better predicting behavior, or predicting other behaviors, as compared to self-reports (incremental validity hope); (3) linking social-cognitive theories more adequately to empirical research (theory-link hope). We argue that the third hope should be the starting point for using these measures. Any attempt to improve these measures should include the search for a small-scale theory that adequately explains the basic effects found with such a measure. To date, small-scale theories for different measures are not equally well developed.

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