Automating Research Data Management Using Machine-Actionable Data Management Plans

Many research funders mandate researchers to create and maintain data management plans (DMPs) for research projects that describe how research data is managed to ensure its reusability. A DMP, being a static textual document, is difficult to act upon and can quickly become obsolete and impractical to maintain. A new generation of machine-actionable DMPs (maDMPs) was therefore proposed by the Research Data Alliance to enable automated integration of information and updates. maDMPs open up a variety of use cases enabling interoperability of research systems and automation of data management tasks. In this article, we describe a system for machine-actionable data management planning in an institutional context. We identify common use cases within research that can be automated to benefit from machine-actionability of DMPs. We propose a reference architecture of an maDMP support system that can be embedded into an institutional research data management infrastructure. The system semi-automates creation and maintenance of DMPs, and thus eases the burden for the stakeholders responsible for various DMP elements. We evaluate the proposed system in a case study conducted at the largest technical university in Austria and quantify to what extent the DMP templates provided by the European Commission and a national funding body can be pre-filled. The proof-of-concept implementation shows that maDMP workflows can be semi-automated, thus workload on involved parties can be reduced and quality of information increased. The results are especially relevant to decision makers and infrastructure operators who want to design information systems in a systematic way that can utilize the full potential of maDMPs.

ROL DEL PERSONAL DE ENFERMERIA EN LOS TRATAMIENTOS DE REPRODUCCIÓN ASISTIDA HUMANA

Existen una gran cantidad de parejas infértiles que se someten actualmente a algún tratamiento de reproducción asistida de baja complejidad (Inseminación Artificial), o de alta complejidad (Fecundación In Vitro, Inyección Intracitoplasmática de espermatozoides (ICSI en sus siglas en inglés) y para la realización de los mismo se necesita de una correcta coordinación entre todo el personal médico, de laboratorio y de enfermería, donde este último, en sus distintos roles, será el encargado de la preparación de la paciente para que esta pueda afrontar en las mejores condiciones posibles el tratamiento, lo que a su vez facilitará un mejor entendimiento y cumplimiento de las indicaciones, una menor tasa de abandono de tratamiento y mejores resultados en la consecución de un embarazo. El objetivo principal es dar a conocer los roles que cumple actualmente el personal de enfermería como son el asistencial tanto en el consultorio como en el quirófano, brindar apoyo emocional y educativo a las pacientes y participar en proyectos de investigación institucionales. Palabras clave: enfermería, cuidados de enfermería, infertilidad, inseminación, fertilización in vitro. ABSTRACT There are a large number of infertile couples currently undergoing assisted reproduction treatment of low complexity (Artificial Insemination), or high complexity (In Vitro Fertilization, Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI)) and for the realization of the same requires proper coordination between all medical personnel, The latter, in their different roles, will be in charge of preparing the patient so that she can face the treatment in the best possible conditions, which in turn will facilitate a better understanding and compliance with the indications, a lower rate of abandonment of treatment and better results in achieving a pregnancy. The main objective is to raise awareness of the roles currently performed by the nursing staff, such as assistance both in the office and in the operating room, to provide emotional and educational support to patients and to participate in institutional research projects. Keywords: nursing, nursing care, infertility, insemination, in vitro fertilization

Survey Analysis of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) Laboratory towards Featured Research Laboratory

The EOR Research Laboratory is a laboratory that was independently pioneered by the Department of Petroleum Engineering UPN "Veteran" Yogyakarta. The EOR Research Laboratory needs to be improved especially for the existing spatial layout to support the ongoing and future research. This Institutional Research will cover the planning process of spatial layout design, spatial layout realization, internal and external EOR Research Laboratory socialization, and at the end of the study, effective and efficient governance will be applied to adapt to the current pandemic conditions. The method used in this research is quantitative in the form of socialization, questionnaires, and survey analysis to find out how EOR Laboratory is well known among students. This research is expected to be able to introduce the EOR Research Laboratory in a wider range and carrying out sustainable research in the future so that it will support the planning of the laboratory to be the Leading EOR Research Laboratory at the Department of Petroleum Engineering, UPN "Veteran" Yogyakarta.

Getting a Grip on Research Data Management

In March 2021 the Tri-Agency released its Research Data Management Policy, including its three pillar requirements. This article reviews some key points from the Alliance RDM (Portage Network) workshop "Putting the Tri-Agency Policy into Practice: Workshopping Your Institutional Research Data Management Strategy."

Barriers to institutionalization of an IFRS-based model: perceptions of Portuguese auditors

Purpose In 2010, Portugal’s newly implemented Accounting Standardization System (SNC - Sistema de Normalização Contabilística) aligned Portuguese accounting standards for unlisted companies with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of the local context and the role of auditors in the institutionalization of this IFRS-based model in Portugal. Design/methodology/approach Drawing from an institutional theory framework, the authors interviewed 16 Portuguese auditors in 2017 (seven years after formal implementation of the SNC) to determine their perceptions on whether barriers to the IFRS-based model persisted. Findings The authors reveal that the code-law institutional logic embedded in the Portuguese context is hindering full institutionalization of the new accounting model. Some persisting barriers to implementation reflected a decoupling between formal requirements and actual practices. Despite these barriers, there has been an encouraging institutionalization of SNC. The authors reveal a high level of commitment of auditors. They draw attention to the engagement of auditors in the institutional work that is intended to assist in SNC implementation, and their role as promoters of a power-knowledge discourse in propagating IFRS institutional logics at the national level, namely, through the justification and rationalization of the reported institutional contradictions. Practical implications The highlighting the authors provide of problems related to accounting change should assist international regulators, the Portuguese standard-setter and professional accounting associations to devise appropriate strategies to promote IFRS-based accounting systems implementation. Originality/value The authors contribute to the skimpy literature on micro institutional analysis and encourage further exploration of the dynamics between the micro and macro levels of analysis in institutional research.

Prospectively-validated deep learning model for segmenting swallowing and chewing structures in CT

ObjectiveDelineating swallowing and chewing structures aids in radiotherapy (RT) treatment planning to limit dysphagia, trismus, and speech dysfunction. We aim to develop an accurate and efficient method to automate this process.ApproachCT scans of 242 head and neck (H&N) cancer patients acquired from 2004-2009 at our institution were used to develop auto-segmentation models for the masseters, medial pterygoids, larynx, and pharyngeal constrictor muscle using DeepLabV3+. A cascaded architecture was used, wherein models were trained sequentially to spatially constrain each structure group based on prior segmentations. Additionally, an ensemble of models, combining contextual information from axial, coronal, and sagittal views was used to improve segmentation accuracy. Prospective evaluation was conducted by measuring the amount of manual editing required in 91 H&N CT scans acquired February-May 2021.Main resultsMedians and inter-quartile ranges of Dice Similarity Coefficients (DSC) computed on the retrospective testing set (N=24) were 0.87 (0.85-0.89) for the masseters, 0.80 (0.79- 0.81) for the medial pterygoids, 0.81 (0.79-0.84) for the larynx, and 0.69 (0.67-0.71) for the constrictor. Auto-segmentations, when compared to inter-observer variability in 10 randomly selected scans, showed better agreement (DSC) with each observer as compared to inter-observer DSC. Prospective analysis showed most manual modifications needed for clinical use were minor, suggesting auto-contouring could increase clinical efficiency. Trained segmentation models are available for research use upon request via https://github.com/cerr/CERR/wiki/Auto-Segmentation-models.SignificanceWe developed deep learning-based auto-segmentation models for swallowing and chewing structures in CT and demonstrated its potential for use in treatment planning to limit complications post-RT. To the best of our knowledge, this is the only prospectively-validated deep learning-based model for segmenting chewing and swallowing structures in CT. Additionally, the segmentation models have been made open-source to facilitate reproducibility and multi-institutional research.

Biobanking and risk assessment: a comprehensive typology of risks for an adaptive risk governance

Biobanks act as the custodians for the access to and responsible use of human biological samples and related data that have been generously donated by individuals to serve the public interest and scientific advances in the health research realm. Risk assessment has become a daily practice for biobanks and has been discussed from different perspectives. This paper aims to provide a literature review on risk assessment in order to put together a comprehensive typology of diverse risks biobanks could potentially face. Methodologically set as a typology, the conceptual approach used in this paper is based on the interdisciplinary analysis of scientific literature, the relevant ethical and legal instruments and practices in biobanking to identify how risks are assessed, considered and mitigated. Through an interdisciplinary mapping exercise, we have produced a typology of potential risks in biobanking, taking into consideration the perspectives of different stakeholders, such as institutional actors and publics, including participants and representative organizations. With this approach, we have identified the following risk types: economic, infrastructural, institutional, research community risks and participant’s risks. The paper concludes by highlighting the necessity of an adaptive risk governance as an integral part of good governance in biobanking. In this regard, it contributes to sustainability in biobanking by assisting in the design of relevant risk management practices, where they are not already in place or require an update. The typology is intended to be useful from the early stages of establishing such a complex and multileveled biomedical infrastructure as well as to provide a catalogue of risks for improving the risk management practices already in place.

Emotional Responses Toward a New Research Policy Among Academics in a Chinese University

Teacher emotion has received prominent attention in the field of education as they are closely related to teacher identity and teachers’ well-being. While many previous studies have taken teachers’ emotions in teaching as their research focuses, this study investigated university English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher-researchers’ emotions and emotion regulation strategies in research in the context of a new research policy. One-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven EFL teacher-researchers at a Chinese university which implemented China’s new research policy of breaking the “five-only,” supplemented by the analysis of narrative frames and the institutional research documents. The data revealed that university EFL teacher-researchers experienced wide-ranging and diverse emotions at the micro-level, meso-level, and macro-level of research, with different attitudes toward the new research policy. They also employed multiple strategies of antecedent-focused and response-focused approaches to regulate emotions in research. This study helps unpack the complexity of emotions experienced by university teachers in research, and also calls for the attention of stakeholders to pay to the emotions and well-being of university EFL teachers.