The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State

This is the comprehensively revised second edition of a volume that was welcomed at its first appearance as ‘the most authoritative survey and critique of the welfare state yet published’. Of its fifty-one chapters, some chapters are brand new; all have been systematically revised, and they are all right up to date. The first seven sections of the book cover the themes of ethics, history, approaches, inputs and actors, policies, policy outcomes, and worlds of welfare. A final chapter is devoted to the future of welfare and well-being under the imperatives of climate change. Every chapter is written in a way that is both comprehensive and succinct, introducing the novice reader to the essentials of what is going on, while providing new insights for the more experienced researcher. Wherever appropriate, the handbook brings the very latest empirical evidence to bear. It is a book that is thoroughly comparative in every way.

A Practical 10-Step Guide to Conducting Digital Survey Research (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Background: The use of digital surveys for research in clinical settings is increasing, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic when much data collection planned to be done in-person is now occurring digitally. Successfully preparing and conducting a digital survey can be challenging for even the most experienced researcher, given the number of platforms available to choose from, intricacies of designing an effective and user-friendly tool, and factors affecting participant response rates. OBJECTIVE Objective: In this article, we present a practical, step-by-step guide to conduct digital survey research. METHODS Methods: Over time, our clinician-led research team has developed a standard process and tools for conducting digital survey research, which we have synthesized into a single resource accessible to all team members. Specific considerations and recommendations unique to digital surveys are included. RESULTS Results: The step-by-step guide has been used successfully by our team to design and carry out high-quality survey research. It can guide the novice or experienced researcher from protocol development through to data collection and knowledge dissemination. CONCLUSIONS Conclusion: We present a practical guide for digital survey research, based on the experience of a clinician-led research team. Researchers, trainees, students, and others conducting health research may find our process and resources helpful to inform their work. Communication templates and tools are provided (see Appendices).

A fully automated deep learning pipeline for high-throughput colony segmentation and classification

ABSTRACTAdenine auxotrophy is a commonly used non-selective genetic marker in yeast research. It allows investigators to easily visualize and quantify various genetic and epigenetic events by simply reading out colony color. However, manual counting of large numbers of colonies is extremely time-consuming, difficult to reproduce and possibly inaccurate. Using cutting-edge neural networks, we have developed a fully automated pipeline for colony segmentation and classification, which speeds up white/red colony quantification 100-fold over manual counting by an experienced researcher. Our approach uses readily available training data and can be smoothly integrated into existing protocols, vastly speeding up screening assays and increasing the statistical power of experiments that employ adenine auxotrophy.

In Memory of Marina Blagojević Hughson (February 5, 1958 – June 6, 2020)

“You wanted to interview yourself. Why?There are many reasons. First of all, I am an experienced researcher and I understand well the power of the one who shapes questions and gives an implicit interpretative framework. Second, the envisaged scope for my life story is simply not sufficient, and my life cannot be easily formatted using general questions. I want to tell my life story when, how, and how much I want and how much I believe it to be good and necessary. My life has had a matrix too complex to be reduced or placed into a simple and trivial, most often chronological, course of events. Instead of having someone who does not know me ask me questions that are some kind of general points, I want to talk about myself primarily in order to convey a message. So, this is not about a simple process of reconstructing events and facts, but about my intention to say what I believe to be important and what makes up just one of many “red threads” in my life. The risk of inadequate questions is very big and I keep reassuring myself of this time and again.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods in Education

99 entries The Oxford Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods in Education has brought together scholars from across the globe who use qualitative methods in their research to address the history, current uses, adaptations for specific knowledge domains and situations, and problematics that drive the methodology. This is the most comprehensive resource available on qualitative methods in education. For novice researchers, the Encyclopedia enables a broad view of the methods and how to enact them in the studies that early-career researchers may wish to conduct. For the experienced researcher, the range of approaches and adaptations covered enables the development of sophisticated methodological designs. For those who are qualitative research methodologists, this book reveals where the methodology has come from and where it is going. Methodologists can use these volumes to discern where new ideas and practices are needed, and provide the bases for new methodological works. For those who teach these methods, the Encyclopedia is an invaluable compendium that can be tapped for inclusion in courses and to enable the instructor to be able to quickly respond to specific student needs with high-quality methodological resources.

A fully automated deep learning pipeline for high-throughput colony segmentation and classification

BackgroundAdenine auxotrophy is a commonly used non-selective genetic marker in yeast research. It allows investigators to easily visualize and quantify various genetic and epigenetic events by simply reading out colony color. However, manual counting of large numbers of colonies is extremely time-consuming, difficult to reproduce and possibly inaccurate.ResultsUsing cutting-edge neural networks, we have developed a fully automated pipeline for colony segmentation and classification, which speeds up white/red colony quantification 100-fold over manual counting by an experienced researcher.ConclusionsOur approach uses readily available training data and can be smoothly integrated into existing protocols, vastly speeding up screening assays and increasing the statistical power of experiments that employ adenine auxotrophy.

The Light and Dark Sides of Virtual Screening: What Is There to Know?

Virtual screening consists of using computational tools to predict potentially bioactive compounds from files containing large libraries of small molecules. Virtual screening is becoming increasingly popular in the field of drug discovery as in silico techniques are continuously being developed, improved, and made available. As most of these techniques are easy to use, both private and public organizations apply virtual screening methodologies to save resources in the laboratory. However, it is often the case that the techniques implemented in virtual screening workflows are restricted to those that the research team knows. Moreover, although the software is often easy to use, each methodology has a series of drawbacks that should be avoided so that false results or artifacts are not produced. Here, we review the most common methodologies used in virtual screening workflows in order to both introduce the inexperienced researcher to new methodologies and advise the experienced researcher on how to prevent common mistakes and the improper usage of virtual screening methodologies.

"Secondary Sources: Top Ten," LEGAL INFORMATION ALERT 24(3): 1,4-6 (March 2005)

Secondary sources are a legal researcher's best friend. They are a great place to begin researching a new topic as they provide a framework for understanding the subject. Not only will a good secondary source provide researchers with a way of approaching the topic, but it will also introduce beginning researchers to the language of the subject. Secondary sources also contain expert analysis, references to primary law such as cases, statutes, and regulations, and will also include such other resources as governmental reports, statistics, and other secondary sources. While secondary sources are an incredibly valuable research tool, they can offer such a wide array of options that researchers become overwhelmed with the sheer number of choices. This can strike anyone, even a fairly experienced researcher. Librarians, too, can become overwhelmed, especially when faced with teaching law students about the value of secondary sources and how to harness their power.

The Challenges of Identifying and Classifying Child Sexual Abuse Material

The aim of the present study was to (a) assess the reliability with which indecent images of children (IIOC) are classified as being of an indecent versus nonindecent nature, and (b) examine in detail the decision-making process engaged in by law enforcement personnel who undertake the difficult task of identifying and classifying IIOC as per the current legislative offense categories. One experienced researcher and four employees from a police force in the United Kingdom coded an extensive amount of IIOC ( n = 1,212-2,233) to determine if they (a) were deemed to be of an indecent nature, and (b) depicted a child. Interrater reliability analyses revealed both considerable agreement and disagreement across coders, which were followed up with two focus groups involving the four employees. The first entailed a general discussion of the aspects that made such material more or less difficult to identify; the second focused around images where there had been either agreement ( n = 20) or disagreement ( n = 36) across coders that the images were of an indecent nature. Using thematic analysis, a number of factors apparent within IIOC were revealed to make the determination of youthfulness and indecency significantly more challenging for coders, with most relating to the developmental stage of the victim and the ambiguity of the context of an image. Findings are discussed in light of their implications for the identification of victims of ongoing sexual exploitation/abuse, the assessment and treatment of individuals in possession of IIOC, as well as the practice of policing and sentencing this type of offending behavior.

Book Review: Resisting the Holocaust: Upstanders, Partisans, and Survivors

It is common for researchers of the Holocaust and Holocaust resisters to encounter initial roadblocks when embarking on this journey. Being able to offer scholars, especially those looking to establish a foundation of knowledge on these topics, a reference source that is both approachable for the less experienced researcher, while at the same time provides detailed information and a launch pad to delve deeper into these topics, is an enticing proposition. Resisting the Holocaust: Upstanders, Partisans, and Survivors looks to provide such versatility and value to academic reference collections.