Sample records for karkirurgisk assisterede operationer

  1. Operationalizing strategic marketing.

    PubMed

    Chambers, S B

    1989-05-01

    The strategic marketing process, like any administrative practice, is far simpler to conceptualize than operationalize within an organization. It is for this reason that this chapter focused on providing practical techniques and strategies for implementing the strategic marketing process. First and foremost, the marketing effort needs to be marketed to the various publics of the organization. This chapter advocated the need to organize the marketing analysis into organizational, competitive, and market phases, and it provided examples of possible designs of the phases. The importance and techniques for exhausting secondary data sources and conducting efficient primary data collection methods were explained and illustrated. Strategies for determining marketing opportunities and threats, as well as segmenting markets, were detailed. The chapter provided techniques for developing marketing strategies, including considering the five patterns of coverage available; determining competitor's position and the marketing mix; examining the stage of the product life cycle; and employing a consumer decision model. The importance of developing explicit objectives, goals, and detailed action plans was emphasized. Finally, helpful hints for operationalizing the communication variable and evaluating marketing programs were provided.

  2. Operationalizing Coalitions of the Future

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2002-04-01

    Form 298 (Rev. 8-98) Prescribed by ANSI Std Z39-18 TABLE OF CONTENTS COALITIONS, ALLIANCES, AND FRIENDS: WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN ? ...................... 5...operationalizing of the military aspect of a coalition strategy. COALITIONS, ALLIANCES, AND FRIENDS: WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN ? How nations garner international

  3. Operationalizing the Concept of Value--An Action Research-Based Model

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Naslund, Dag; Olsson, Annika; Karlsson, Sture

    2006-01-01

    Purpose: While the importance of measuring customer satisfaction levels is well established, less research exists on how organizations operationalize such knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to describe an action research (AR) case study resulting in a workshop model to operationalize the concept of value. The model facilitates organizational…

  4. Infantilism: Theoretical Construct and Operationalization

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sabelnikova, Y. V.; Khmeleva, N. L.

    2018-01-01

    The aim of this article is to define and operationalize the construct of infantilism. The methods of theoretical research involve analysis and synthesis. Age and content criteria are analyzed for childhood and adulthood. Infantile traits in an adult are described. Results: The characteristics of adult infantilism in the modern world are defined,…

  5. Development of operationalized intravenous to oral antibiotic switch criteria.

    PubMed

    Akhloufi, H; Hulscher, M; Melles, D C; Prins, J M; van der Sijs, H; Verbon, A

    2017-02-01

    Despite huge overlap in suggested criteria for a safe intravenous (iv)-to-oral antibiotic switch, there is considerable variation in their operationalization. The objective of this study was to develop a set of measurable conditions that should be met in adult hospitalized patients for a safe iv-to-oral switch. A RAND-modified Delphi procedure was performed to develop a set of operationalized iv-to-oral switch criteria. Switch criteria and their accompanying suggested measurable conditions were extracted from the literature and appraised by a multidisciplinary expert panel during two questionnaire rounds with a face-to-face meeting between these two rounds. In a final step, the experts could approve the set of developed operationalized switch criteria. Seven switch criteria and 41 accompanying measurable conditions extracted from the literature were appraised. Sixteen measurable conditions that operationalize six switch criteria were selected: (i) stable systolic blood pressure; and the absence of (ii) fever, (iii) temperature <36°C, (iv) malabsorption syndrome, (v) short bowel syndrome, (vi) severe gastroparesis, (vii) ileus, (viii) continuous nasogastric suction, (ix) vomiting, (x) (severe) sepsis, (xi) fasciitis necroticans, (xii) CNS infection, (xiii) Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia, and (xiv) endovascular infection. In addition, (xv) the patient should be cooperative and (xvi) adequate antimicrobial concentration should be achievable at the site of infection by oral administration. These operationalized criteria can be used in daily clinical practice. Future use of these criteria in audits and as rules in clinical decision support systems will facilitate the performance and evaluation of iv-oral switch programmes. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  6. Conceptual Strategies for Operationalizing Multicultural Curricula.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Belay, Getinet

    1992-01-01

    Discusses the trends in multiculturalism research, the importance of cultural diversity in the curriculum, and strategies for operationalizing a multicultural curriculum in library and information science education. Topics addressed include pedagogical methodology, leaning style, and course and program design. (97 references) (EA)

  7. Mental pain: a multidimensional operationalization and definition.

    PubMed

    Orbach, Israel; Mikulincer, Mario; Sirota, Pinhas; Gilboa-Schechtman, Eva

    2003-01-01

    An operationalization of mental pain is presented in three studies. The first study describes the operationalization of mental pain and the factor structure of the items produced by a content analysis of self-reports yielding a scale with nine factors: the experience of irreversibility, loss of control, narcissistic wounds, emotional flooding, freezing, estrangement, confusion, social distancing, and emptiness. Study 2 tested the relationship between mental pain and depression and anxiety in a normal population. Study 3 focused on the relationship between mental pain and coping. Mental pain is conceptualized as a perception of negative changes in the self and its functions that are accompanied by negative feelings. It is suggested that it can be meaningfully applied to the study of different mental states, life conditions, and transitions in life.

  8. Cyber as a Team Sport: Operationalizing a Whole-Of-Government Approach to Cyberspace Operations

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2011-06-07

    July 2010-7 June 2011 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE • -~ ·- ~ I 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER CYBER AS A "TEAM SPORT ": OPERATIONALIZING A WHOLE-OF-GOVERNMENT APPROACH...JOINT FORCES STAFF COLLEGE JOINT ADVANCED WARFIGHTING SCHOOL CYBER AS A “TEAM SPORT ”: OPERATIONALIZING A WHOLE-OF- GOVERNMENT APPROACH...TO CYBERSPACE OPERATIONS by Elizabeth A. Myers Department of Defense CYBER AS A "TEAM SPORT ": OPERATIONALIZING A WHOLE-OF· GOVERNMENT

  9. Some historical and conceptual relations among logical positivism, operationism, and behaviorism

    PubMed Central

    Moore, Jay

    1985-01-01

    Historical and conceptual relations among logical positivism, conventional operationism, and behaviorism are examined from the standpoint of Skinner's radical behaviorism. Although logical positivism and conventional operationism sought the formulation and application of an epistemology based strictly upon physicalistic principles and experiential verification, the application of that epistemology in psychology has resulted in the perpetuation, rather than the resolution, of a number of mentalistic, if not outright dualistic, problems. PMID:22478620

  10. Some historical and conceptual relations among logical positivism, operationism, and behaviorism.

    PubMed

    Moore, J

    1985-01-01

    Historical and conceptual relations among logical positivism, conventional operationism, and behaviorism are examined from the standpoint of Skinner's radical behaviorism. Although logical positivism and conventional operationism sought the formulation and application of an epistemology based strictly upon physicalistic principles and experiential verification, the application of that epistemology in psychology has resulted in the perpetuation, rather than the resolution, of a number of mentalistic, if not outright dualistic, problems.

  11. Operationalizing the Joint Information Environment: Achieving Information Dominance with the Undersea Constellation

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-11-01

    Approved for public release. OPERATIONALIZING THE JOINT INFORMATION ENVIRONMENT: ACHIEVING INFORMATION DOMINANCE WITH THE UNDERSEA CONSTELLATION* Captain...SUBTITLE Operationalizing the Joint Information Environment: Achieving Information Dominance with the Undersea Constellation (U) 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER...predict what is over the horizon, faster than the adversary. As noted in the U.S. Navy’s Vision for Information Dominance , “The Navy will create a

  12. Operationalizing Multilingualism: Language Learning Motivation in Turkey

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Thompson, Amy S.; Erdil-Moody, Zeynep

    2016-01-01

    This study is an examination of language learning motivation and multilingual status in the Turkish English as a foreign language (EFL) context. Using Dörnyei's L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS) framework, specifically the ideal and ought-to L2 selves, this study examines the relationship between motivation and two operationalizations of…

  13. Operationalizing workplace accommodations for individuals with disabilities: A scoping review.

    PubMed

    Sundar, Vidya

    2017-01-01

    The provision of workplace accommodations is a proven strategy in supporting individuals with disabilities at work. Accommodations include a wide range of supports and strategies that are not very well defined beyond the Americans with Disabilities Act in the United States. Understanding the landscape of accommodations is important to measure the impact of programs that support employment of individuals with disabilities. To conduct a scoping review and thematic analysis of research literature to identify how workplace accommodations are operationalized and to identify knowledge gaps in its conceptualization. Keywords searches were conducted in seven electronic databases. Title, abstract, and full text screening was conducted followed by a thematic analysis of the content to identify how workplace accommodations are operationalized. Overall, 47 studies were selected for review. 433 different types of accommodations were identified, of which assistive technology and specialized equipment represented the most frequently reported type of accommodation (40%). A very small percentage of studies included policy changes (9%) and human assistance (5%) as an accommodation strategy. This scoping review aims to clarify how accommodations are operationalized in the research literature. Key knowledge gaps identified include the systematic exclusion of certain types of supports or disability types.

  14. Operationalization of diagnostic criteria of DSM-5 somatic symptom disorders.

    PubMed

    Xiong, Nana; Zhang, Yaoyin; Wei, Jing; Leonhart, Rainer; Fritzsche, Kurt; Mewes, Ricarda; Hong, Xia; Cao, Jinya; Li, Tao; Jiang, Jing; Zhao, Xudong; Zhang, Lan; Schaefert, Rainer

    2017-11-07

    The aim of this study was to test the operationalization of DSM-5 somatic symptom disorder (SSD) psychological criteria among Chinese general hospital outpatients. This multicenter, cross-sectional study enrolled 491 patients from 10 general hospital outpatient departments. The structured clinical "interview about cognitive, affective, and behavioral features associated with somatic complaints" was used to operationalize the SSD criteria B. For comparison, DSM-IV somatoform disorders were assessed with the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview plus. Cohen's к scores were given to illustrate the agreement of the diagnoses. A three-structure model of the interview, within which items were classified as respectively assessing the cognitive (B1), affective (B2), and behavioral (B3) features, was examined. According to percentages of screening-positive persons and the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analysis, a cut-off point of 2 was recommended for each subscale of the interview. With the operationalization, the frequency of DSM-5 SSD was estimated as 36.5% in our sample, and that of DSM-IV somatoform disorders was 8.2%. The agreement between them was small (Cohen's к = 0.152). Comparisons of sociodemographic features of SSD patients with different severity levels (mild, moderate, severe) showed that mild SSD patients were better-off in terms of financial and employment status, and that the severity subtypes were congruent with the level of depression, anxiety, quality of life impairment, and the frequency of doctor visits. The operationalization of the diagnosis and severity specifications of SSD was valid, but the diagnostic agreement between DSM-5 SSD and DSM-IV somatoform disorders was small. The interpretation the SSD criteria should be made cautiously, so that the diagnosis would not became over-inclusive.

  15. Operationalizing the Learning Health Care System in an Integrated Delivery System

    PubMed Central

    Psek, Wayne A.; Stametz, Rebecca A.; Bailey-Davis, Lisa D.; Davis, Daniel; Darer, Jonathan; Faucett, William A.; Henninger, Debra L.; Sellers, Dorothy C.; Gerrity, Gloria

    2015-01-01

    Introduction: The Learning Health Care System (LHCS) model seeks to utilize sophisticated technologies and competencies to integrate clinical operations, research and patient participation in order to continuously generate knowledge, improve care, and deliver value. Transitioning from concept to practical application of an LHCS presents many challenges but can yield opportunities for continuous improvement. There is limited literature and practical experience available in operationalizing the LHCS in the context of an integrated health system. At Geisinger Health System (GHS) a multi-stakeholder group is undertaking to enhance organizational learning and develop a plan for operationalizing the LHCS system-wide. We present a framework for operationalizing continuous learning across an integrated delivery system and lessons learned through the ongoing planning process. Framework: The framework focuses attention on nine key LHCS operational components: Data and Analytics; People and Partnerships; Patient and Family Engagement; Ethics and Oversight; Evaluation and Methodology; Funding; Organization; Prioritization; and Deliverables. Definitions, key elements and examples for each are presented. The framework is purposefully broad for application across different organizational contexts. Conclusion: A realistic assessment of the culture, resources and capabilities of the organization related to learning is critical to defining the scope of operationalization. Engaging patients in clinical care and discovery, including quality improvement and comparative effectiveness research, requires a defensible ethical framework that undergirds a system of strong but flexible oversight. Leadership support is imperative for advancement of the LHCS model. Findings from our ongoing work within the proposed framework may inform other organizations considering a transition to an LHCS. PMID:25992388

  16. Operationalizing Air-Sea Battle in the Pacific

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2015-02-01

    Joumall 25 \\/ FEATURE Ballard, Harysch, Cole, & Hall Operationalizing Ait’-Sea Battle in the Pacific tribes and nomadic marauders such as the...communications in general, the former focuses on the digital data links between different platforms. The original CSBA operational con- cept touches on this...very capable fourth-generation fighters; and it has fielded layers of upgraded and double- digit surface-to-air missile systems and antiaircraft

  17. Operationalizing Ecosystem Services Indicators for Policy and Decision-Making

    EPA Science Inventory

    The ecosystem services concept has gained popularity as a means of linking ecosystem goods and services to human well-being. Despite its popularity as a concept, there is much progress needed in operationalizing ecosystem services indicators before they are useful for policy and...

  18. Participation of adults with visual and severe or profound intellectual disabilities: Definition and operationalization.

    PubMed

    Hanzen, Gineke; van Nispen, Ruth M A; van der Putten, Annette A J; Waninge, Aly

    2017-02-01

    The available opinions regarding participation do not appear to be applicable to adults with visual and severe or profound intellectual disabilities (VSPID). Because a clear definition and operationalization are lacking, it is difficult for support professionals to give meaning to participation for adults with VSPID. The purpose of the present study was to develop a definition and operationalization of the concept of participation of adults with VSPID. Parents or family members, professionals, and experts participated in an online concept mapping procedure. This procedure includes generating statements, clustering them, and rating their importance. The data were analyzed quantitatively using multidimensional scaling and qualitatively with triangulation. A total of 53 participants generated 319 statements of which 125 were clustered and rated. The final cluster map of the statements contained seven clusters: (1) Experience and discover; (2) Inclusion; (3) Involvement; (4) Leisure and recreation; (5) Communication and being understood; (6) Social relations; and (7) Self-management and autonomy. The average importance rating of the statements varied from 6.49 to 8.95. A definition of participation of this population was developed which included these seven clusters. The combination of the developed definition, the clusters, and the statements in these clusters, derived from the perceptions of parents or family members, professionals, and experts, can be employed to operationalize the construct of participation of adults with VSPID. This operationalization supports professionals in their ability to give meaning to participation in these adults. Future research will focus on using the operationalization as a checklist of participation for adults with VSPID. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Consciousness operationalized, a debate realigned.

    PubMed

    Carruthers, Peter; Veillet, Bénédicte

    2017-10-01

    This paper revisits the debate about cognitive phenomenology. It elaborates, defends, and improves on our earlier proposal for resolving that debate, according to which the test for irreducible phenomenology is the presence of explanatory gaps. After showing how proposals like ours have been misunderstood or misused by others, we deploy our operationalization to argue that the correct way to align the debate over cognitive phenomenology is not between sensory and (alleged) cognitive phenomenology, but rather between non-conceptual and (alleged) conceptual or propositional phenomenology. In doing so we defend three varieties of non-sensory (amodal) 1 non-conceptual phenomenology: valence, a sense of approximate number, and a sense of elapsed time. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. The Operationalization of the Needs-Press Model: A Critique.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    May, Carolyn S.

    The needs-press model, as operationalized by the Stern Activities Index (AI) and the Organizational Climate Index (OCI), was examined for its usefulness in evaluating and measuring organizational climate in a school setting. According to the model, needs represents personality and press represents the environment. This research was designed to…

  1. ewrapper: Operationalizing engagement strategies in mHealth.

    PubMed

    Wagner, Blake; Liu, Elaine; Shaw, Steven D; Iakovlev, Gleb; Zhou, Linlu; Harrington, Christina; Abowd, Gregory; Yoon, Carolyn; Kumar, Santosh; Murphy, Susan; Spring, Bonnie; Nahum-Shani, Inbal

    2017-09-01

    The advancement of digital technologies particularly in the domain of mobile health (mHealth) holds great promise in the promotion of health behavior. However, keeping users engaged remains a central challenge. This paper proposes a novel approach to address this issue by supplementing existing and future mHealth applications with an engagement wrapper - a collection of engagement strategies integrated into a single, coherent model. The engagement wrapper is operationalized within the format of an ambient display on the lock screen of mobile devices.

  2. Operationalizing a Research Sensor: MODIS to VIIRS

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Grant, K. D.; Miller, S. W.; Puschell, J.

    2012-12-01

    Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). VIIRS combines the demonstrated high value spectral coverage and radiometric accuracy of MODIS with the legacy spectral bands and radiometric accuracy of the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and the high spatial resolution (0.75 km) of the Operational Linescan System (OLS). Except for MODIS bands designed for deriving vertical temperature and humidity structure in the atmosphere, VIIRS uses identical or very similar bands from MODIS that have the most interest and usefulness to operational customers in NOAA, the USAF and the USN. The development of VIIRS and JPSS reaps the benefit of investments in MODIS and the NASA EOS and the early development of operational algorithms by NOAA and DoD using MODIS data. This presentation will cover the different aspects of transitioning a research system into an operational system. These aspects include: (1) sensor (hardware & software) operationalization, (2) system performance operational factors, (3) science changes to algorithms reflecting the operational performance factors, and (4) the operationalization and incorporation of the science into a fully 24 x 7 production system, tasked with meeting stringent operational needs. Benefits of early operationalization are discussed along with suggested areas for improvement in this process that could benefit future work such as operationalizing Earth Science Decadal Survey missions.

  3. Ethnicity and mental health: conceptualization, definition and operationalization of ethnicity from a Canadian context.

    PubMed

    Clarke, D E; Colantonio, A; Rhodes, A E; Escobar, M

    2008-01-01

    The current study provides a critical review of Canadian studies on ethnicity and mental health with respect to the definition, conceptualization and operationalization of ethnicity. It provides a discussion on the methodological issues related to these factors and their implications to guide future research and enable comparability of results across studies. Sociological Abstracts, PsycINFO, MEDLINE and CINAHL were used to identify relevant Canadian articles published between January 1980 and December 2004. The review highlights a number of key issues for future researchers to consider such as the need for: 1) clear rationales as to why ethnicity is important to their outcome of interest; 2) clarity on the definition of ethnicity, which affects its conceptualization and operationalization; 3) a theoretically driven conceptualization of ethnicity, which should be related to the research question of interest; and 4) clear rationales for the decisions made regarding the data source used, the operationalization of ethnicity, and the ethnic categories included in their studies.

  4. ewrapper: Operationalizing engagement strategies in mHealth

    PubMed Central

    Wagner, Blake; Liu, Elaine; Shaw, Steven D.; Iakovlev, Gleb; Zhou, Linlu; Harrington, Christina; Abowd, Gregory; Yoon, Carolyn; Kumar, Santosh; Murphy, Susan; Spring, Bonnie; Nahum-Shani, Inbal

    2018-01-01

    The advancement of digital technologies particularly in the domain of mobile health (mHealth) holds great promise in the promotion of health behavior. However, keeping users engaged remains a central challenge. This paper proposes a novel approach to address this issue by supplementing existing and future mHealth applications with an engagement wrapper - a collection of engagement strategies integrated into a single, coherent model. The engagement wrapper is operationalized within the format of an ambient display on the lock screen of mobile devices. PMID:29362728

  5. Collaborations Resulting in New Leadership Model Operationalization with Disadvantaged Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nikodym, Jacqueline Z.; Tejeda, Armando R.; Moffett, David W.

    2015-01-01

    A new leadership model is needed in all organizations. In response, The Affect-Centered Transformational Leadership Model came about. The new model resulted from a doctoral student's participation in a leadership course, and continued dialogue with its professor. Ultimately, the new model reached the stage of needing to be operationalized. A…

  6. Time, Lives, and Videotape: Operationalizing Discovery in Scenes of Literacy Sponsorship

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Halbritter, Bump; Lindquist, Julie

    2012-01-01

    We present an approach to operationalizing discovery in literacy research by describing a diagnostic, abductive methodology. This methodology treats products of videotaped interviews and participant-authored footage as narrative data produced in scenes of literacy sponsorship. In describing the operations of our diagnostic approach, we foreground…

  7. Operationalizing Place: Discovering, Reasoning about, and Exploring Place Knowledge from Descriptions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Adams, Benjamin Thomas

    2012-01-01

    Places and place types, such as "small town", play a fundamental role in how people organize knowledge about the world. Although places are commonly referenced in human communication, often they are not canonically defined and many of the properties people associate with them have proved difficult to operationalize. In information…

  8. Culture and Psychiatric Evaluation: Operationalizing Cultural Formulation for DSM-5

    PubMed Central

    Lewis-Fernández, Roberto; Aggarwal, Neil Krishan; Bäärnhielm, Sofie; Rohlof, Hans; Kirmayer, Laurence J.; Weiss, Mitchell G.; Jadhav, Sushrut; Hinton, Ladson; Alarcón, Renato D.; Bhugra, Dinesh; Groen, Simon; van Dijk, Rob; Qureshi, Adil; Collazos, Francisco; Rousseau, Cécile; Caballero, Luis; Ramos, Mar; Lu, Francis

    2015-01-01

    The Outline for Cultural Formulation (OCF) introduced with DSM-IV provided a framework for clinicians to organize cultural information relevant to diagnostic assessment and treatment planning. However, use of the OCF has been inconsistent, raising questions about the need for guidance on implementation, training, and application in diverse settings. To address this need, DSM-5 introduced a cultural formulation interview (CFI) that operationalizes the process of data collection for the OCF. The CFI includes patient and informant versions and 12 supplementary modules addressing specific domains of the OCF. This article summarizes the literature reviews and analyses of experience with the OCF conducted by the DSM-5 Cross-Cultural Issues Subgroup (DCCIS) that informed the development of the CFI. We review the history and contents of the DSM-IV OCF, its use in training programs, and previous attempts to render it operational through questionnaires, protocols, and semi-structured interview formats. Results of research based on the OCF are discussed. For each domain of the OCF, we summarize findings from the DCCIS that led to content revision and operationalization in the CFI. The conclusion discusses training and implementation issues essential to service delivery. PMID:24865197

  9. Operationalization Of The Professional Risks Assessment Activity

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ivascu, Victoria Larisa; Cirjaliu, Bianca; Draghici, Anca

    2015-07-01

    Professional risks assessment approach (integration of analysis and evaluation processes) is linked with the general concerns of nowadays companies for their employees' health and safety assurances, in the context of organizations sustainable development. The paper presents an approach for the operationalization of the professional risk assessment activity in companies through the implementation and use of the OnRisk platform (this have been tested in some industrial companies). The short presentation of the relevant technical reports and statistics on OSH management at the European Union level underlines the need for the development of a professional risks assessment. Finally, there have been described the designed and developed OnRisk platform as a web platform together with some case studies that have validate the created tool.

  10. Nursing intellectual capital theory: operationalization and empirical validation of concepts.

    PubMed

    Covell, Christine L; Sidani, Souraya

    2013-08-01

    To present the operationalization of concepts in the nursing intellectual capital theory and the results of a methodological study aimed at empirically validating the concepts. The nursing intellectual capital theory proposes that the stocks of nursing knowledge in an organization are embedded in two concepts, nursing human capital and nursing structural capital. The theory also proposes that two concepts in the work environment, nurse staffing and employer support for nursing continuing professional development, influence nursing human capital. A cross-sectional design. A systematic three-step process was used to operationalize the concepts of the theory. In 2008, data were collected for 147 inpatient units from administrative departments and unit managers in 6 Canadian hospitals. Exploratory factor analyses were conducted to determine if the indicator variables accurately reflect their respective concepts. The proposed indicator variables collectively measured the nurse staffing concept. Three indicators were retained to construct nursing human capital: clinical expertise and experience concept. The nursing structural capital and employer support for nursing continuing professional development concepts were not validated empirically. The nurse staffing and the nursing human capital: clinical expertise and experience concepts will be brought forward for further model testing. Refinement for some of the indicator variables of the concepts is indicated. Additional research is required with different sources of data to confirm the findings. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  11. Operationalizing Network Theory for Ecosystem Service Assessments.

    PubMed

    Dee, Laura E; Allesina, Stefano; Bonn, Aletta; Eklöf, Anna; Gaines, Steven D; Hines, Jes; Jacob, Ute; McDonald-Madden, Eve; Possingham, Hugh; Schröter, Matthias; Thompson, Ross M

    2017-02-01

    Managing ecosystems to provide ecosystem services in the face of global change is a pressing challenge for policy and science. Predicting how alternative management actions and changing future conditions will alter services is complicated by interactions among components in ecological and socioeconomic systems. Failure to understand those interactions can lead to detrimental outcomes from management decisions. Network theory that integrates ecological and socioeconomic systems may provide a path to meeting this challenge. While network theory offers promising approaches to examine ecosystem services, few studies have identified how to operationalize networks for managing and assessing diverse ecosystem services. We propose a framework for how to use networks to assess how drivers and management actions will directly and indirectly alter ecosystem services. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Operationalizing Social Work Science through Research-Practice Partnerships: Lessons from Implementation Science

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Palinkas, Lawrence A.; He, Amy S.; Choy-Brown, Mimi; Hertel, Amy Locklear

    2017-01-01

    Recent efforts to identify and promote a distinct science for the discipline of social work have led to an ongoing debate regarding the nature and function of such a science. Central to this debate is a lack of consensus as to how to operationalize a social work science. Drawing from the field of implementation science and its application in…

  13. Social health and dementia: a European consensus on the operationalization of the concept and directions for research and practice.

    PubMed

    Dröes, R M; Chattat, R; Diaz, A; Gove, D; Graff, M; Murphy, K; Verbeek, H; Vernooij-Dassen, M; Clare, L; Johannessen, A; Roes, M; Verhey, F; Charras, K

    2017-01-01

    Because the pattern of illnesses changes in an aging population and many people manage to live well with chronic diseases, a group of health care professionals recently proposed reformulating the static WHO definition of health towards a dynamic one based on the ability to physically, mentally and socially adapt and self-manage. This paper is the result of a collaborative action of the INTERDEM Social Health Taskforce to operationalize this new health concept for people with dementia, more specifically the social domain, and to formulate directions for research and practice to promote social health in dementia. Based on the expertise of the Social Health Taskforce members (N = 54) three groups were formed that worked on operationalizing the three social health dimensions described by Huber et al.: (1) capacity to fulfil potential and obligations; (2) ability to manage life with some degree of independence; (3) participation in social activities. For each dimension also influencing factors, effective interventions and knowledge gaps were inventoried. After a consensus meeting, the operationalizations of the dimensions were reviewed by the European Working Group of People with Dementia (EWGPWD). The social health dimensions could be well operationalized for people with dementia and are assessed as very relevant according to the Social Health Taskforce and EWGPWD. Personal (e.g. sense of coherence, competencies), disease-related (e.g. severity of cognitive impairments, comorbidity), social (support from network, stigma) and environmental factors (e.g. enabling design, accessibility) that can influence the person with dementia's social health and many interventions promoting social health were identified. A consensus-based operationalization of social health in dementia is proposed, and factors that can influence, and interventions that improve, social health in dementia identified. Recommendations are made for research and practice.

  14. Core Intervention Components: Identifying and Operationalizing What Makes Programs Work. ASPE Research Brief

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Blase, Karen; Fixsen, Dean

    2013-01-01

    This brief is part of a series that explores key implementation considerations. It focuses on the importance of identifying, operationalizing, and implementing the "core components" of evidence-based and evidence-informed interventions that likely are critical to producing positive outcomes. The brief offers a definition of "core components",…

  15. 'Are we there yet?' - operationalizing the concept of Integrated Public Health Policies.

    PubMed

    Hendriks, Anna-Marie; Habraken, Jolanda; Jansen, Maria W J; Gubbels, Jessica S; De Vries, Nanne K; van Oers, Hans; Michie, Susan; Atkins, L; Kremers, Stef P J

    2014-02-01

    Although 'integrated' public health policies are assumed to be the ideal way to optimize public health, it remains hard to determine how far removed we are from this ideal, since clear operational criteria and defining characteristics are lacking. A literature review identified gaps in previous operationalizations of integrated public health policies. We searched for an approach that could fill these gaps. We propose the following defining characteristics of an integrated policy: (1) the combination of policies includes an appropriate mix of interventions that optimizes the functioning of the behavioral system, thus ensuring that motivation, capability and opportunity interact in such a way that they promote the preferred (health-promoting) behavior of the target population, and (2) the policies are implemented by the relevant policy sectors from different policy domains. Our criteria should offer added value since they describe pathways in the process towards formulating integrated policy. The aim of introducing our operationalization is to assist policy makers and researchers in identifying truly integrated cases. The Behavior Change Wheel proved to be a useful framework to develop operational criteria to assess the current state of integrated public health policies in practice. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. How Should "Unresponsiveness" to Secondary Intervention Be Operationalized? It Is All about the Nudge

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Compton, Donald L.

    2006-01-01

    In the fourth session of the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities Responsiveness-to-Intervention Symposium in 2003, Good, Vellutino, and Torgesen presented papers that addressed the question, "How should unresponsiveness to secondary intervention be operationalized in an RTI approach to LD identification?" In this commentary, I…

  17. Operationalizing Levels of Academic Mastery Based on Vygotsky's Theory: The Study of Mathematical Knowledge

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nezhnov, Peter; Kardanova, Elena; Vasilyeva, Marina; Ludlow, Larry

    2015-01-01

    The present study tested the possibility of operationalizing levels of knowledge acquisition based on Vygotsky's theory of cognitive growth. An assessment tool (SAM-Math) was developed to capture a hypothesized hierarchical structure of mathematical knowledge consisting of procedural, conceptual, and functional levels. In Study 1, SAM-Math was…

  18. Defining the Undefinable: Operationalization of Methods to Identify Specific Learning Disabilities among Practicing School Psychologists

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cottrell, Joseph M.; Barrett, Courtenay A.

    2016-01-01

    Accurate and consistent identification of students with specific learning disabilities (SLDs) is crucial; however, state and district guidelines regarding identification methods lack operationalization and are inconsistent throughout the United States. In the current study, the authors surveyed 471 school psychologists about "school" SLD…

  19. [Chronic pain disorder with somatic and psychological factors (F45.41) : Validation criteria on operationalization of the ICD-10-GM diagnosis].

    PubMed

    Arnold, B; Lutz, J; Nilges, P; Pfingsten, M; Rief, Winfried; Böger, A; Brinkschmidt, T; Casser, H-R; Irnich, D; Kaiser, U; Klimczyk, K; Sabatowski, R; Schiltenwolf, M; Söllner, W

    2017-12-01

    In 2009 the diagnosis chronic pain disorder with somatic and psychological factors (F45.41) was integrated into the German version of the International Classification of Diseases, version 10 (ICD-10-GM). In 2010 Paul Nilges and Winfried Rief published operationalization criteria for this diagnosis. In the present publication the ad hoc commission on multimodal interdisciplinary pain therapy of the German Pain Society now presents a formula for a clear validation of these operationalization criteria of the ICD code F45.41.

  20. Operationalization of Sign Language Phonological Similarity and its Effects on Lexical Access.

    PubMed

    Williams, Joshua T; Stone, Adam; Newman, Sharlene D

    2017-07-01

    Cognitive mechanisms for sign language lexical access are fairly unknown. This study investigated whether phonological similarity facilitates lexical retrieval in sign languages using measures from a new lexical database for American Sign Language. Additionally, it aimed to determine which similarity metric best fits the present data in order to inform theories of how phonological similarity is constructed within the lexicon and to aid in the operationalization of phonological similarity in sign language. Sign repetition latencies and accuracy were obtained when native signers were asked to reproduce a sign displayed on a computer screen. Results indicated that, as predicted, phonological similarity facilitated repetition latencies and accuracy as long as there were no strict constraints on the type of sublexical features that overlapped. The data converged to suggest that one similarity measure, MaxD, defined as the overlap of any 4 sublexical features, likely best represents mechanisms of phonological similarity in the mental lexicon. Together, these data suggest that lexical access in sign language is facilitated by phonologically similar lexical representations in memory and the optimal operationalization is defined as liberal constraints on overlap of 4 out of 5 sublexical features-similar to the majority of extant definitions in the literature. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  1. Ways to Write a Milestone: Approaches to Operationalizing the Development of Competence in Graduate Medical Education.

    PubMed

    Leep Hunderfund, Andrea N; Reed, Darcy A; Starr, Stephanie R; Havyer, Rachel D; Lang, Tara R; Norby, Suzanne M

    2017-09-01

    To identify approaches to operationalizing the development of competence in Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) milestones. The authors reviewed all 25 "Milestone Project" documents available on the ACGME Web site on September 11, 2013, using an iterative process to identify approaches to operationalizing the development of competence in the milestones associated with each of 601 subcompetencies. Fifteen approaches were identified. Ten focused on attributes and activities of the learner, such as their ability to perform different, increasingly difficult tasks (304/601; 51%), perform a task better and faster (171/601; 45%), or perform a task more consistently (123/601; 20%). Two approaches focused on context, inferring competence from performing a task in increasingly difficult situations (236/601; 29%) or an expanding scope of engagement (169/601; 28%). Two used socially defined indicators of competence such as progression from "learning" to "teaching," "leading," or "role modeling" (271/601; 45%). One approach focused on the supervisor's role, inferring competence from a decreasing need for supervision or assistance (151/601; 25%). Multiple approaches were often combined within a single set of milestones (mean 3.9, SD 1.6). Initial ACGME milestones operationalize the development of competence in many ways. These findings offer insights into how physicians understand and assess the developmental progression of competence and an opportunity to consider how different approaches may affect the validity of milestone-based assessments. The results of this analysis can inform the work of educators developing or revising milestones, interpreting milestone data, or creating assessment tools to inform milestone-based performance measures.

  2. Operationalizing the Diagnostic Criteria for Mild Cognitive Impairment: The Salience of Objective Measures in Predicting Incident Dementia.

    PubMed

    Brodaty, Henry; Aerts, Liesbeth; Crawford, John D; Heffernan, Megan; Kochan, Nicole A; Reppermund, Simone; Kang, Kristan; Maston, Kate; Draper, Brian; Trollor, Julian N; Sachdev, Perminder S

    2017-05-01

    Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is considered an intermediate stage between normal aging and dementia. It is diagnosed in the presence of subjective cognitive decline and objective cognitive impairment without significant functional impairment, although there are no standard operationalizations for each of these criteria. The objective of this study is to determine which operationalization of the MCI criteria is most accurate at predicting dementia. Six-year longitudinal study, part of the Sydney Memory and Ageing Study. Community-based. 873 community-dwelling dementia-free adults between 70 and 90 years of age. Persons from a non-English speaking background were excluded. Seven different operationalizations for subjective cognitive decline and eight measures of objective cognitive impairment (resulting in 56 different MCI operational algorithms) were applied. The accuracy of each algorithm to predict progression to dementia over 6 years was examined for 618 individuals. Baseline MCI prevalence varied between 0.4% and 30.2% and dementia conversion between 15.9% and 61.9% across different algorithms. The predictive accuracy for progression to dementia was poor. The highest accuracy was achieved based on objective cognitive impairment alone. Inclusion of subjective cognitive decline or mild functional impairment did not improve dementia prediction accuracy. Not MCI, but objective cognitive impairment alone, is the best predictor for progression to dementia in a community sample. Nevertheless, clinical assessment procedures need to be refined to improve the identification of pre-dementia individuals. Copyright © 2016 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Operationalizing the social-ecological systems framework to assess sustainability.

    PubMed

    Leslie, Heather M; Basurto, Xavier; Nenadovic, Mateja; Sievanen, Leila; Cavanaugh, Kyle C; Cota-Nieto, Juan José; Erisman, Brad E; Finkbeiner, Elena; Hinojosa-Arango, Gustavo; Moreno-Báez, Marcia; Nagavarapu, Sriniketh; Reddy, Sheila M W; Sánchez-Rodríguez, Alexandra; Siegel, Katherine; Ulibarria-Valenzuela, José Juan; Weaver, Amy Hudson; Aburto-Oropeza, Octavio

    2015-05-12

    Environmental governance is more effective when the scales of ecological processes are well matched with the human institutions charged with managing human-environment interactions. The social-ecological systems (SESs) framework provides guidance on how to assess the social and ecological dimensions that contribute to sustainable resource use and management, but rarely if ever has been operationalized for multiple localities in a spatially explicit, quantitative manner. Here, we use the case of small-scale fisheries in Baja California Sur, Mexico, to identify distinct SES regions and test key aspects of coupled SESs theory. Regions that exhibit greater potential for social-ecological sustainability in one dimension do not necessarily exhibit it in others, highlighting the importance of integrative, coupled system analyses when implementing spatial planning and other ecosystem-based strategies.

  4. A Proposed Methodology for the Conceptualization, Operationalization, and Empirical Validation of the Concept of Information Need

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Afzal, Waseem

    2017-01-01

    Introduction: The purpose of this paper is to propose a methodology to conceptualize, operationalize, and empirically validate the concept of information need. Method: The proposed methodology makes use of both qualitative and quantitative perspectives, and includes a broad array of approaches such as literature reviews, expert opinions, focus…

  5. Mixed-method research protocol: defining and operationalizing patient-related complexity of nursing care in acute care hospitals.

    PubMed

    Huber, Evelyn; Kleinknecht-Dolf, Michael; Müller, Marianne; Kugler, Christiane; Spirig, Rebecca

    2017-06-01

    To define the concept of patient-related complexity of nursing care in acute care hospitals and to operationalize it in a questionnaire. The concept of patient-related complexity of nursing care in acute care hospitals has not been conclusively defined in the literature. The operationalization in a corresponding questionnaire is necessary, given the increased significance of the topic, due to shortened lengths of stay and increased patient morbidity. Hybrid model of concept development and embedded mixed-methods design. The theoretical phase of the hybrid model involved a literature review and the development of a working definition. In the fieldwork phase of 2015 and 2016, an embedded mixed-methods design was applied with complexity assessments of all patients at five Swiss hospitals using our newly operationalized questionnaire 'Complexity of Nursing Care' over 1 month. These data will be analysed with structural equation modelling. Twelve qualitative case studies will be embedded. They will be analysed using a structured process of constructing case studies and content analysis. In the final analytic phase, the quantitative and qualitative data will be merged and added to the results of the theoretical phase for a common interpretation. Cantonal Ethics Committee Zurich judged the research programme as unproblematic in December 2014 and May 2015. Following the phases of the hybrid model and using an embedded mixed-methods design can reach an in-depth understanding of patient-related complexity of nursing care in acute care hospitals, a final version of the questionnaire and an acknowledged definition of the concept. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  6. Addressing Three Common Issues in Research on Youth Activities: An Integrative Approach for Operationalizing and Analyzing Involvement

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Busseri, Michael A.; Rose-Krasnor, Linda

    2010-01-01

    Youth activity involvement has been operationalized and analyzed using a wide range of approaches. Researchers face the challenges of distinguishing between the effects of involvement versus noninvolvement and intensity of involvement in a particular activity, accounting simultaneously for cumulative effects of involvement, and addressing multiple…

  7. Operationalizing an "Information Ecosystem" to support information management work of the Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) network

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    As data collection ramps up across the LTAR Network, the “information ecosystem” (Kaplan et al. 2016 and Nardi and O’Day, 1999) must support three domains of sustainable agriculture, and data flow needs to be operationalized. Approaches to prioritizing, designing, and developing shared cyberinfrastr...

  8. Identity and Philanthropy: Designing a Survey Instrument to Operationalize Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Alumni Giving

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Garvey, Jason C.

    2013-01-01

    This study investigated philanthropic giving to higher education among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) alumni. The primary purpose was to create a multi-institutional survey instrument that operationalizes philanthropic involvement and motivation among LGBTQ alumni. Additional objectives included creating factors and items…

  9. Operationalizing Space Weather Products - Process and Issues

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Scro, K. D.; Quigley, S.

    2006-12-01

    Developing and transitioning operational products for any customer base is a complicated process. This is the case for operational space weather products and services for the USAF. This presentation will provide information on the current state of affairs regarding the process required to take an idea from the research field to the real-time application of 24-hour space weather operations support. General principles and specific issues are discussed and will include: customer requirements, organizations in-play, funding, product types, acquisition of engineering and validation data, security classification, version control, and various important changes that occur during the process. The author's viewpoint is as an individual developing space environmental system-impact products for the US Air Force: 1) as a member of its primary research organization (Air Force Research Laboratory), 2) working with its primary space environment technology transition organization (Technology Application Division of the Space and Missile Systems Center, SMC/WXT), and 3) delivering to the primary sponsor/customer of such system-impact products (Air Force Space Command). The experience and focus is obviously on specific military operationalization process and issues, but most of the paradigm may apply to other (commercial) enterprises as well.

  10. Structural Vulnerability: Operationalizing the Concept to Address Health Disparities in Clinical Care.

    PubMed

    Bourgois, Philippe; Holmes, Seth M; Sue, Kim; Quesada, James

    2017-03-01

    The authors propose reinvigorating and extending the traditional social history beyond its narrow range of risk behaviors to enable clinicians to address negative health outcomes imposed by social determinants of health. In this Perspective, they outline a novel, practical medical vulnerability assessment questionnaire that operationalizes for clinical practice the social science concept of "structural vulnerability." A structural vulnerability assessment tool designed to highlight the pathways through which specific local hierarchies and broader sets of power relationships exacerbate individual patients' health problems is presented to help clinicians identify patients likely to benefit from additional multidisciplinary health and social services. To illustrate how the tool could be implemented in time- and resource-limited settings (e.g., emergency department), the authors contrast two cases of structurally vulnerable patients with differing outcomes. Operationalizing structural vulnerability in clinical practice and introducing it in medical education can help health care practitioners think more clearly, critically, and practically about the ways social structures make people sick. Use of the assessment tool could promote "structural competency," a potential new medical education priority, to improve understanding of how social conditions and practical logistics undermine the capacities of patients to access health care, adhere to treatment, and modify lifestyles successfully. Adoption of a structural vulnerability framework in health care could also justify the mobilization of resources inside and outside clinical settings to improve a patient's immediate access to care and long-term health outcomes. Ultimately, the concept may orient health care providers toward policy leadership to reduce health disparities and foster health equity.

  11. Structural Vulnerability: Operationalizing the Concept to Address Health Disparities in Clinical Care

    PubMed Central

    Bourgois, Philippe; Holmes, Seth M.; Sue, Kim; Quesada, James

    2016-01-01

    The authors propose reinvigorating and extending the traditional social history beyond its narrow range of risk behaviors to enable clinicians to address negative health outcomes imposed by social determinants of health. In this Perspective, they outline a novel, practical medical vulnerability assessment questionnaire that operationalizes for clinical practice the social science concept of “structural vulnerability.” A Structural Vulnerability Assessment Tool designed to highlight the pathways through which specific local hierarchies and broader sets of power relationships exacerbate individual patients’ health problems is presented to help clinicians identify patients likely to benefit from additional multi-disciplinary health and social services. To illustrate how the tool could be implemented in time- and resource-limited settings (e.g., emergency department), the authors contrast two cases of structurally vulnerable patients with differing outcomes. Operationalizing structural vulnerability in clinical practice and introducing it in medical education can help health care practitioners think more clearly, critically, and practically about the ways social structures make people sick. Use of the assessment tool could promote “structural competency,” a potential new medical education priority, to improve understanding of how social conditions and practical logistics undermine the capacities of patients to access health care, adhere to treatment, and modify lifestyles successfully. Adoption of a structural vulnerability framework in health care could also justify the mobilization of resources inside and outside clinical settings to improve a patient's immediate access to care and long-term health outcomes. Ultimately, the concept may orient health care providers toward policy leadership to reduce health disparities and foster health equity. PMID:27415443

  12. Operationalization of the Ghanaian Patients’ Charter in a Peri-urban Public Hospital: Voices of Healthcare Workers and Patients

    PubMed Central

    Yarney, Lily; Buabeng, Thomas; Baidoo, Diana; Bawole, Justice Nyigmah

    2016-01-01

    Background: Health is a basic human right necessary for the exercise of other human rights. Every human being is, therefore, entitled to the highest possible standard of health necessary to living a life of dignity. Establishment of patients’ Charter is a step towards protecting the rights and responsibilities of patients, but violation of patients’ rights is common in healthcare institutions, especially in the developing world. This study which was conducted between May 2013 and May 2014, assessed the operationalization of Ghana’s Patients Charter in a peri-urban public hospital. Methods: Qualitative data collection methods were used to collect data from 25 healthcare workers and patients who were purposively selected. The interview data were analyzed manually, using the principles of systematic text condensation. Results: The findings indicate that the healthcare staff of the Polyclinic are aware of the existence of the patients’ Charter and also know some of its contents. Patients have no knowledge of the existence or the contents of the Charter. Availability of the Charter, community sensitization, monitoring and orientation of staff are factors that promote the operationalization of the Charter, while institutional implementation procedures such as lack of complaint procedures and low knowledge among patients militate against operationalization of the Charter. Conclusion: Public health facilities should ensure that their patients are well-informed about their rights and responsibilities to facilitate effective implementation of the Charter. Also, patients’ rights and responsibilities can be dramatized and broadcasted on television and radio in major Ghanaian languages to enhance awareness of Ghanaians on the Charter. PMID:27694679

  13. Operationalization of the Ghanaian Patients' Charter in a Peri-urban Public Hospital: Voices of Healthcare Workers and Patients.

    PubMed

    Yarney, Lily; Buabeng, Thomas; Baidoo, Diana; Bawole, Justice Nyigmah

    2016-04-23

    Health is a basic human right necessary for the exercise of other human rights. Every human being is, therefore, entitled to the highest possible standard of health necessary to living a life of dignity. Establishment of patients' Charter is a step towards protecting the rights and responsibilities of patients, but violation of patients' rights is common in healthcare institutions, especially in the developing world. This study which was conducted between May 2013 and May 2014, assessed the operationalization of Ghana's Patients Charter in a peri-urban public hospital. Qualitative data collection methods were used to collect data from 25 healthcare workers and patients who were purposively selected. The interview data were analyzed manually, using the principles of systematic text condensation. The findings indicate that the healthcare staff of the Polyclinic are aware of the existence of the patients' Charter and also know some of its contents. Patients have no knowledge of the existence or the contents of the Charter. Availability of the Charter, community sensitization, monitoring and orientation of staff are factors that promote the operationalization of the Charter, while institutional implementation procedures such as lack of complaint procedures and low knowledge among patients militate against operationalization of the Charter. Public health facilities should ensure that their patients are well-informed about their rights and responsibilities to facilitate effective implementation of the Charter. Also, patients' rights and responsibilities can be dramatized and broadcasted on television and radio in major Ghanaian languages to enhance awareness of Ghanaians on the Charter. © 2016 by Kerman University of Medical Sciences

  14. Efficiency measurement and the operationalization of hospital production.

    PubMed

    Magnussen, J

    1996-04-01

    To discuss the usefulness of efficiency measures as instruments of monitoring and resource allocation by analyzing their invariance to changes in the operationalization of hospital production. Norwegian hospitals over the three-year period 1989-1991. Efficiency is measured using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The distribution of efficiency and the ranking of hospitals is compared across models using various distribution-free tests. Input and output data are collected by the Norwegian Central Bureau of Statistics. The distribution of efficiency is found to be unaffected by changes in the specification of hospital output. Both the ranking of hospitals and the scale properties of the technology, however, are found to depend on the choice of output specification. Extreme care should be taken before resource allocation is based on DEA-type efficiency measures alone. Both the identification of efficient and inefficient hospitals and the cardinal measure of inefficiency will depend on the specification of output. Since the scale properties of the technology also vary with the specification of output, the search for an optimal hospital size may be futile.

  15. Operationalizing Proneness to Externalizing Psychopathology as a Multivariate Psychophysiological Phenotype

    PubMed Central

    Nelson, Lindsay D.; Patrick, Christopher J.; Bernat, Edward M.

    2010-01-01

    The externalizing dimension is viewed as a broad dispositional factor underlying risk for numerous disinhibitory disorders. Prior work has documented deficits in event-related brain potential (ERP) responses in individuals prone to externalizing problems. Here, we constructed a direct physiological index of externalizing vulnerability from three ERP indicators and evaluated its validity in relation to criterion measures in two distinct domains: psychometric and physiological. The index was derived from three ERP measures that covaried in their relations with externalizing proneness the error-related negativity and two variants of the P3. Scores on this ERP composite predicted psychometric criterion variables and accounted for externalizing-related variance in P3 response from a separate task. These findings illustrate how a diagnostic construct can be operationalized as a composite (multivariate) psychophysiological variable (phenotype). PMID:20573054

  16. Content Integrity, Conflict of Interest, and Commercial Support: Defining and Operationalizing the Terms.

    PubMed

    Dickerson, Pam; Chappell, Kathy

    2015-01-01

    One of the hallmarks of quality continuing education developed using accreditation criteria is content integrity. Components of content integrity include identifying, resolving, and disclosing conflict of interest; ensuring content is based on the best available evidence; managing commercial support (if applicable); and presenting the educational activity free of promotion or bias. This article explores content integrity, conflict of interest, and commercial support. Understanding and being able to operationalize these concepts will enable providers to offer high-quality educational activities that promote the professional development of nurses and/or improve the quality of patient care.

  17. Efficiency measurement and the operationalization of hospital production.

    PubMed Central

    Magnussen, J

    1996-01-01

    OBJECTIVE. To discuss the usefulness of efficiency measures as instruments of monitoring and resource allocation by analyzing their invariance to changes in the operationalization of hospital production. STUDY SETTING. Norwegian hospitals over the three-year period 1989-1991. STUDY DESIGN. Efficiency is measured using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The distribution of efficiency and the ranking of hospitals is compared across models using various distribution-free tests. DATA COLLECTION. Input and output data are collected by the Norwegian Central Bureau of Statistics. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS. The distribution of efficiency is found to be unaffected by changes in the specification of hospital output. Both the ranking of hospitals and the scale properties of the technology, however, are found to depend on the choice of output specification. CONCLUSION. Extreme care should be taken before resource allocation is based on DEA-type efficiency measures alone. Both the identification of efficient and inefficient hospitals and the cardinal measure of inefficiency will depend on the specification of output. Since the scale properties of the technology also vary with the specification of output, the search for an optimal hospital size may be futile. PMID:8617607

  18. Operationalizing Semantic Medline for meeting the information needs at point of care.

    PubMed

    Rastegar-Mojarad, Majid; Li, Dingcheng; Liu, Hongfang

    2015-01-01

    Scientific literature is one of the popular resources for providing decision support at point of care. It is highly desirable to bring the most relevant literature to support the evidence-based clinical decision making process. Motivated by the recent advance in semantically enhanced information retrieval, we have developed a system, which aims to bring semantically enriched literature, Semantic Medline, to meet the information needs at point of care. This study reports our work towards operationalizing the system for real time use. We demonstrate that the migration of a relational database implementation to a NoSQL (Not only SQL) implementation significantly improves the performance and makes the use of Semantic Medline at point of care decision support possible.

  19. Operationalizing Semantic Medline for meeting the information needs at point of care

    PubMed Central

    Rastegar-Mojarad, Majid; Li, Dingcheng; Liu, Hongfang

    2015-01-01

    Scientific literature is one of the popular resources for providing decision support at point of care. It is highly desirable to bring the most relevant literature to support the evidence-based clinical decision making process. Motivated by the recent advance in semantically enhanced information retrieval, we have developed a system, which aims to bring semantically enriched literature, Semantic Medline, to meet the information needs at point of care. This study reports our work towards operationalizing the system for real time use. We demonstrate that the migration of a relational database implementation to a NoSQL (Not only SQL) implementation significantly improves the performance and makes the use of Semantic Medline at point of care decision support possible. PMID:26306259

  20. The VCU Pressure Ulcer Summit: Collaboration to Operationalize Hospital-Acquired Pressure Ulcer Prevention Best Practice Recommendations.

    PubMed

    Brindle, C Tod; Creehan, Sue; Black, Joyce; Zimmermann, Deb

    2015-01-01

    This executive summary reports outcomes of an interprofessional collaboration between experts in pressure ulcer prevention, bedside clinicians, regulatory agencies, quality improvement, informatics experts, and professional nursing organizations. The goal of the collaboration was to develop a framework to assist facilities to operationalize best practice recommendations to sustain organizational culture change in hospital-acquired pressure ulcer prevention, to develop a hospital-acquired pressure ulcer severity score, and to address topics related to the unavoidable pressure ulcer.

  1. Operationalizing a Nursing Innovation Center Within a Health Care System.

    PubMed

    Albert, Nancy M

    In nursing, the terms "innovation" and "innovative" are used freely, especially when individuals or groups either develop something new or improve upon current practice. Innovation is often considered adjunct work, not part of foundational work that aims to meet the vision, mission, and values of the organization. Nurse leaders must include innovation as an important theme of this foundational work. Innovation must become a core expectation of all nurses and nursing team members. Team members can provide ideas that lead to innovations. They can also carry out roles that enhance or cultivate ideas, promote prototyping, ensure innovative ideas are efficacious and effective, and facilitate dissemination and diffusion into practice. To ensure that innovation is incorporated as part of nursing practice and then sustained over time, horizontal (elemental) and vertical (global) infrastructure and processes are needed. In this article, operationalization of a Nursing Innovation Center is described and rationale for specific horizontal and vertical services and features is discussed.

  2. Leadership Perspectives on Operationalizing the Learning Health Care System in an Integrated Delivery System

    PubMed Central

    Psek, Wayne; Davis, F. Daniel; Gerrity, Gloria; Stametz, Rebecca; Bailey-Davis, Lisa; Henninger, Debra; Sellers, Dorothy; Darer, Jonathan

    2016-01-01

    Introduction: Healthcare leaders need operational strategies that support organizational learning for continued improvement and value generation. The learning health system (LHS) model may provide leaders with such strategies; however, little is known about leaders’ perspectives on the value and application of system-wide operationalization of the LHS model. The objective of this project was to solicit and analyze senior health system leaders’ perspectives on the LHS and learning activities in an integrated delivery system. Methods: A series of interviews were conducted with 41 system leaders from a broad range of clinical and administrative areas across an integrated delivery system. Leaders’ responses were categorized into themes. Findings: Ten major themes emerged from our conversations with leaders. While leaders generally expressed support for the concept of the LHS and enhanced system-wide learning, their concerns and suggestions for operationalization where strongly aligned with their functional area and strategic goals. Discussion: Our findings suggests that leaders tend to adopt a very pragmatic approach to learning. Leaders expressed a dichotomy between the operational imperative to execute operational objectives efficiently and the need for rigorous evaluation. Alignment of learning activities with system-wide strategic and operational priorities is important to gain leadership support and resources. Practical approaches to addressing opportunities and challenges identified in the themes are discussed. Conclusion: Continuous learning is an ongoing, multi-disciplinary function of a health care delivery system. Findings from this and other research may be used to inform and prioritize system-wide learning objectives and strategies which support reliable, high value care delivery. PMID:27683668

  3. Leadership Perspectives on Operationalizing the Learning Health Care System in an Integrated Delivery System.

    PubMed

    Psek, Wayne; Davis, F Daniel; Gerrity, Gloria; Stametz, Rebecca; Bailey-Davis, Lisa; Henninger, Debra; Sellers, Dorothy; Darer, Jonathan

    2016-01-01

    Healthcare leaders need operational strategies that support organizational learning for continued improvement and value generation. The learning health system (LHS) model may provide leaders with such strategies; however, little is known about leaders' perspectives on the value and application of system-wide operationalization of the LHS model. The objective of this project was to solicit and analyze senior health system leaders' perspectives on the LHS and learning activities in an integrated delivery system. A series of interviews were conducted with 41 system leaders from a broad range of clinical and administrative areas across an integrated delivery system. Leaders' responses were categorized into themes. Ten major themes emerged from our conversations with leaders. While leaders generally expressed support for the concept of the LHS and enhanced system-wide learning, their concerns and suggestions for operationalization where strongly aligned with their functional area and strategic goals. Our findings suggests that leaders tend to adopt a very pragmatic approach to learning. Leaders expressed a dichotomy between the operational imperative to execute operational objectives efficiently and the need for rigorous evaluation. Alignment of learning activities with system-wide strategic and operational priorities is important to gain leadership support and resources. Practical approaches to addressing opportunities and challenges identified in the themes are discussed. Continuous learning is an ongoing, multi-disciplinary function of a health care delivery system. Findings from this and other research may be used to inform and prioritize system-wide learning objectives and strategies which support reliable, high value care delivery.

  4. Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration in the National Airspace System (NAS) Project - Systems Integration and Operationalization (SIO) Demonstration

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Swieringa, Kurt

    2018-01-01

    The UAS-NAS Project hosted a Systems Integration Operationalization (SIO) Industry Day for the SIO Request for Information (RFI) on November 30, 2017 in San Diego, California. This presentation is being presented to the same group as a follow up regarding the progress that the UAS-NAS project has made on the SIO RFI. The presentation will be virtual with a teleconference

  5. Operationalizing Levels of Academic Mastery Based on Vygotsky’s Theory

    PubMed Central

    Nezhnov, Peter; Kardanova, Elena; Ludlow, Larry

    2014-01-01

    The present study tested the possibility of operationalizing levels of knowledge acquisition based on Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive growth. An assessment tool (SAM-Math) was developed to capture a hypothesized hierarchical structure of mathematical knowledge consisting of procedural, conceptual, and functional levels. In Study 1, SAM-Math was administered to 4th-grade students (N = 2,216). The results of Rasch analysis indicated that the test provided an operational definition for the construct of mathematical competence that included the three levels of mastery corresponding to the theoretically based hierarchy of knowledge. In Study 2, SAM-Math was administered to students in 4th, 6th, 8th, and 10th grades (N = 396) to examine developmental changes in the levels of mathematics knowledge. The results showed that the mastery of mathematical concepts presented in elementary school continued to deepen beyond elementary school, as evidenced by a significant growth in conceptual and functional levels of knowledge. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for psychological theory, test design, and educational practice. PMID:29795820

  6. Operationalizing Surveillance of Chronic Disease Self-Management and Self-Management Support

    PubMed Central

    Sacks, Jeffrey J.; Terrillion, Albert J.; Colligan, Erin M.

    2018-01-01

    Sixty percent of US adults have at least one chronic condition, and more than 40% have multiple conditions. Self-management (SM) by the individual, along with self-management support (SMS) by others, are nonpharmacological interventions with few side effects that are critical to optimal chronic disease control. Ruiz and colleagues laid the conceptual groundwork for surveillance of SM/SMS at 5 socio-ecological levels (individual, health system, community, policy, and media). We extend that work by proposing operationalized indicators at each socio-ecologic level and suggest that the indicators be embedded in existing surveillance systems at national, state, and local levels. Without a robust measurement system at the population level, we will not know how far we have to go or how far we have come in making SM and SMS a reality. The data can also be used to facilitate planning and service delivery strategies, monitor temporal changes, and stimulate SM/SMS–related research. PMID:29625631

  7. Reconceptualizing and operationalizing context in survey research on intimate partner violence.

    PubMed

    Lindhorst, Taryn; Tajima, Emiko

    2008-03-01

    Survey research in the field of intimate partner violence is notably lacking in its attention to contextual factors. Early measures of intimate partner violence focused on simple counts of behaviors, yet attention to broader contextual factors remains limited. Contextual factors not only shape what behaviors are defined as intimate partner violence but also influence the ways women respond to victimization, the resources available to them, and the environments in which they cope with abuse. This article advances methods for reconceptualizing and operationalizing contextual factors salient to the measurement of intimate partner violence. The analytic focus of the discussion is on five dimensions of the social context: the situational context, the social construction of meaning by the survivor, cultural and historical contexts, and the context of systemic oppression. The authors consider how each dimension matters in the measurement of intimate partner violence and offer recommendations for systematically assessing these contextual factors in future research.

  8. Operationalizing value-based pricing of medicines : a taxonomy of approaches.

    PubMed

    Sussex, Jon; Towse, Adrian; Devlin, Nancy

    2013-01-01

    The UK Government is proposing a novel form of price regulation for branded medicines, which it has dubbed 'value-based pricing' (VBP). The specifics of how VBP will work are unclear. We provide an account of the possible means by which VBP of medicines might be operationalized, and a taxonomy to describe and categorize the various approaches. We begin with a brief discussion of the UK Government's proposal for VBP and proceed to define a taxonomy of approaches to VBP. The taxonomy has five main dimensions: (1) what is identified as being of value, (2) how each element is measured, (3) how it is valued, (4) how the different elements of value are aggregated, and (5) how the result is then used to determine the price of a medicine. We take as our starting point that VBP will include a measure of health gain and that, as proposed by the UK Government, this will be built on the QALY. Our principal interest is in the way criteria other than QALYs are taken into account, including severity of illness, the extent of unmet need, and wider societal considerations such as impacts on carers. We set out to: (1) identify and describe the full range of alternative means by which 'value' might be measured and valued, (2) identify and describe the options available for aggregating the different components of value to establish a maximum price, and (3) note the challenges and relative advantages associated with these approaches. We review the means by which aspects of VBP are currently operationalized in a selection of countries and place these, and proposals for the UK, in the context of our taxonomy. Finally, we give an initial assessment of the challenges, pros and cons of each approach. We conclude that identifying where VBP should lie on each of the five dimensions entails value judgements: there are no simple 'right or wrong' solutions. If a wider definition of value than incremental QALYs gained is adopted, as is desirable, then a pragmatic way to aggregate the different

  9. A Tale of Two Community Networks Program Centers: Operationalizing and Assessing CBPR Principles and Evaluating Partnership Outcomes.

    PubMed

    Arroyo-Johnson, Cassandra; Allen, Michele L; Colditz, Graham A; Hurtado, G Ali; Davey, Cynthia S; Sanders Thompson, Vetta L; Drake, Bettina F; Svetaz, Maria Veronica; Rosas-Lee, Maira; Goodman, Melody S

    2015-01-01

    Community Networks Program (CNP) centers are required to use a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach within their specific priority communities. Not all communities are the same and unique contextual factors and collaborators' priorities shape each CBPR partnership. There are also established CBPR and community engagement (CE) principles shown to lead to quality CBPR in any community. However, operationalizing and assessing CBPR principles and partnership outcomes to understand the conditions and processes in CBPR that lead to achieving program and project level goals is relatively new in the science of CBPR. We sought to describe the development of surveys on adherence to and implementation of CBPR/CE principles at two CNP centers and examine commonalities and differences in program-versus project-level CBPR evaluation. A case study about the development and application of CBPR/CE principles for the Missouri CNP, Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities, and Minnesota CNP, Padres Informados/Jovenes Preparados, surveys was conducted to compare project versus program operationalization of principles. Survey participant demographics were provided by CNP. Specific domains found in CBPR/CE principles were identified and organized under an existing framework to establish a common ground. Operational definitions and the number of survey items were provided for each domain by CNP. There are distinct differences in operational definitions of CBPR/CE principles at the program and project levels of evaluation. However, commonalities support further research to develop standards for CBPR evaluation across partnerships and at the program and project levels.

  10. A Tale of Two Community Networks Program Centers: Operationalizing and Assessing CBPR Principles and Evaluating Partnership Outcomes

    PubMed Central

    Arroyo-Johnson, Cassandra; Allen, Michele L.; Colditz, Graham A.; Hurtado, G. Ali; Davey, Cynthia S.; Sanders Thompson, Vetta L.; Drake, Bettina F.; Svetaz, Maria Veronica; Rosas-Lee, Maira; Goodman, Melody S.

    2016-01-01

    Background Community Networks Program (CNP) centers are required to use a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach within their specific priority communities. Not all communities are the same and unique contextual factors and collaborators’ priorities shape each CBPR partnership. There are also established CBPR and community engagement (CE) principles shown to lead to quality CBPR in any community. However, operationalizing and assessing CBPR principles and partnership outcomes to understand the conditions and processes in CBPR that lead to achieving program and project level goals is relatively new in the science of CBPR. Objectives We sought to describe the development of surveys on adherence to and implementation of CBPR/CE principles at two CNP centers and examine commonalities and differences in program- versus project-level CBPR evaluation. Methods A case study about the development and application of CBPR/CE principles for the Missouri CNP, Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities, and Minnesota CNP, Padres Informados/Jovenes Preparados, surveys was conducted to compare project versus program operationalization of principles. Survey participant demographics were provided by CNP. Specific domains found in CBPR/CE principles were identified and organized under an existing framework to establish a common ground. Operational definitions and the number of survey items were provided for each domain by CNP. Conclusion There are distinct differences in operational definitions of CBPR/CE principles at the program and project levels of evaluation. However, commonalities support further research to develop standards for CBPR evaluation across partnerships and at the program and project levels. PMID:26213405

  11. Are Fearless Dominance Traits Superfluous in Operationalizing Psychopathy? Incremental Validity and Sex Differences

    PubMed Central

    Murphy, Brett; Lilienfeld, Scott; Skeem, Jennifer; Edens, John

    2016-01-01

    Researchers are vigorously debating whether psychopathic personality includes seemingly adaptive traits, especially social and physical boldness. In a large sample (N=1565) of adult offenders, we examined the incremental validity of two operationalizations of boldness (Fearless Dominance traits in the Psychopathy Personality Inventory, Lilienfeld & Andrews, 1996; Boldness traits in the Triarchic Model of Psychopathy, Patrick et al, 2009), above and beyond other characteristics of psychopathy, in statistically predicting scores on four psychopathy-related measures, including the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). The incremental validity added by boldness traits in predicting the PCL-R’s representation of psychopathy was especially pronounced for interpersonal traits (e.g., superficial charm, deceitfulness). Our analyses, however, revealed unexpected sex differences in the relevance of these traits to psychopathy, with boldness traits exhibiting reduced importance for psychopathy in women. We discuss the implications of these findings for measurement models of psychopathy. PMID:26866795

  12. Operationalizing safe operating space for regional social-ecological systems.

    PubMed

    Hossain, Md Sarwar; Dearing, John A; Eigenbrod, Felix; Johnson, Fiifi Amoako

    2017-04-15

    This study makes a first attempt to operationalize the safe operating space concept at a regional scale by considering the complex dynamics (e.g. non-linearity, feedbacks, and interactions) within a systems dynamic model (SD). We employ the model to explore eight 'what if' scenarios based on well-known challenges (e.g. climate change) and current policy debates (e.g. subsidy withdrawal). The findings show that the social-ecological system in the Bangladesh delta may move beyond a safe operating space when a withdrawal of a 50% subsidy for agriculture is combined with the effects of a 2°C temperature increase and sea level rise. Further reductions in upstream river discharge in the Ganges would push the system towards a dangerous zone once a 3.5°C temperature increase was reached. The social-ecological system in Bangladesh delta may be operated within a safe space by: 1) managing feedback (e.g. by reducing production costs) and the slow biophysical variables (e.g. temperature, rainfall) to increase the long-term resilience, 2) negotiating for transboundary water resources, and 3) revising global policies (e.g. withdrawal of subsidy) that negatively impact at regional scales. This study demonstrates how the concepts of tipping points, limits to adaptations, and boundaries for sustainable development may be defined in real world social-ecological systems. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  13. Critical look at physics identity: An operationalized framework for examining race and physics identity

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hyater-Adams, Simone; Fracchiolla, Claudia; Finkelstein, Noah; Hinko, Kathleen

    2018-06-01

    Studies on physics identity are appearing more frequently and often responding to increased awareness of the underrepresentation of students of color in physics. In our broader research, we focus our efforts on understanding how racial identity and physics identity are negotiated throughout the experiences of Black physicists. In this paper, we present a Critical Physics Identity framework that can be used to examine racialized physics identity and demonstrate the utility of this framework by analyzing interviews with four physicists. Our framework draws from prior constructs of physics identity and racialized identity and provides operational definitions of six interacting dimensions. In this paper, we present the operationalized constructs, demonstrate how we use these constructs to code narrative data, as well as outline three methods of analysis that may be applied to study systems and structures and their influences on the experiences of Black students.

  14. Assessment of personality functioning: validity of the operationalized psychodynamic diagnosis axis IV (structure).

    PubMed

    Doering, Stephan; Burgmer, Markus; Heuft, Gereon; Menke, Dina; Bäumer, Brigitta; Lübking, Margit; Feldmann, Marcus; Schneider, Gudrun

    2014-01-01

    The assessment of personality functioning has recently become a focus of psychiatric diagnostics. The interview-based Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnosis (OPD-2) provides a 'structure axis' for the assessment of personality functioning. One hundred twenty-four psychiatric patients were diagnosed by means of the Structured Clinical Interviews for DSM-IV (SCID-I and SCID-II), underwent OPD-2 interviews, and completed 9 questionnaires. The OPD-2 structure axis shows good interrater reliability (intraclass correlation = 0.793). Correlations between the OPD-2 structure axis domains and a priori selected questionnaire scales were of medium size and significant. Patients with a personality disorder (PD) showed significantly worse personality functioning than those without. In cluster B PD, personality functioning was more severely impaired than in cluster C PD. The OPD-2 structure axis shows good reliability as well as concurrent and discriminant validity and can be recommended for clinical use and research purposes. © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  15. Operationalizing System Importance Measures for Assessing System of System Resilience

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chandrahasa, Rakshit

    In recent times, there has been a shift in focus from component level to system level analysis and an increasing effort to understand and design resilience into the system. Several efforts have been carried out in creating metrics to analyse resilience. Understanding and implementing system resilience in complex System of Systems will help us in building safer and resilient systems. System Importance Measures (SIMs) was formulated to analyse System of System resilience and help in designing a resilient SoS. Here, we operationalize these System Importance Measures for designing a resilient SoS. We first look at the existing methodology to improve the visual representation of system resilience and its usability. We demonstrate this using our first case study with a Naval warfare SoS. We incorporate probability into the SIM formulation. We expand the existing SIMs to quantify the effects of disruptions and mitigation likelihoods. We built a second case study based on Air transportation networks and demonstrated our expanded metrics in both the case studies. SIM based analysis of SoS resilience provides us with two different analysis of resilience, with and without probability. Having an outlook on how the resilience changes with a probability of disruptions can aid the designer making informed choices on design changes and help in creating a resilient SoS.

  16. Evaluating and operationalizing an environmental auditing program: a pilot study.

    PubMed

    Gordon, Laura; Bruce, Natalie; Suh, Kathryn N; Roth, Virginia

    2014-07-01

    Environmental auditing is an important tool to ensure consistent and effective cleaning. Our pilot study compared an alcohol-based fluorescent marking product and an adenosine-5'-triphosphate bioluminescence product for use in an environmental auditing program to determine which product was more practical and acceptable to users. Both products were tested on 15 preselected high touch objects in randomly selected patient rooms, following regular daily cleaning. A room was considered a "pass" if ≥80% of surfaces were adequately cleaned as defined by manufacturers' guidelines. A qualitative survey assessed user preference and operational considerations. Using fluorescent marking, 9 of 37 patient rooms evaluated (24%) were considered a "pass" after daily cleaning. Using adenosine-5'-triphosphate bioluminescence, 21 of 37 patient rooms passed (57%). There was great variability in results between different high touch objects. Eighty percent of users preferred the alcohol-based fluorescent marking product because it provided an effective visual aid to coach staff on proper cleaning techniques and allowed simple and consistent application. Environmental auditing using translucent, alcohol-based fluorescent marking best met the requirements of our organization. Our results reinforce the importance of involving a multidisciplinary team in evaluating and operationalizing an environmental auditing program. Copyright © 2014 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. Examining the DSM-5 alternative model of personality disorders operationalization of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder in a mental health sample.

    PubMed

    Liggett, Jacqueline; Sellbom, Martin

    2018-06-21

    The current study evaluated the continuity between the diagnostic operationalizations of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, both as traditionally operationalized and from the perspective of the alternative model of personality disorders. Using both self-report and informant measures, the study had the following four aims: (a) to examine the extent to which self-report and informant data correspond, (b) to investigate whether both self-report and informant measures of the alternative model of OCPD can predict traditional OCPD, (c) to determine if any traits additional to those proposed in the alternative model of OCPD can predict traditional OCPD, and (d) to investigate whether a measure of OCPD-specific impairment is better at predicting traditional OCPD than are measures of general impairment in personality functioning. A mental health sample of 214 participants was recruited and administered measures of both the traditional and alternative models of OCPD. Self-report data moderately corresponded with informant data, which is consistent with the literature. Results further confirmed rigid perfectionism as the core trait of OCPD. Perseveration and workaholism were also associated with OCPD. Hostility was identified as a trait deserving further research. A measure of OCPD-specific impairment demonstrated its ability to incrementally predict OCPD over general measures of impairment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  18. Psychobiological operationalization of RDoC constructs: Methodological and conceptual opportunities and challenges.

    PubMed

    MacNamara, Annmarie; Phan, K Luan

    2016-03-01

    NIMH's Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project seeks to advance the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders by promoting psychobiological research on dimensional constructs that might cut across traditional diagnostic boundaries (Kozak & Cuthbert, ). At the core of this approach is the notion that these dimensional constructs can be assessed across different units of analysis (e.g., genes, physiology, behavior), enriching the constructs and providing more complete explanations of clinical problems. While the conceptual aspects of RDoC have been discussed in several prior papers, its methodological aspects have received comparatively less attention. For example, how to integrate data from different units of analysis has been relatively unclear. Here, we discuss one means of psychobiologically operationalizing RDoC constructs across different units of analysis (the psychoneurometric approach; Yancey et al., ), highlighting ways in which this approach might be refined in future iterations. We conclude that there is much to be learned from this technique; however, greater attention to scale-development methods and to psychometrics will likely benefit this and other methodological approaches to combining measurements across multiple units of analysis. © 2016 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

  19. Prospective association of the SHARE-operationalized frailty phenotype with adverse health outcomes: evidence from 60+ community-dwelling Europeans living in 11 countries

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Background Among the many definitions of frailty, the frailty phenotype defined by Fried et al. is one of few constructs that has been repeatedly validated: first in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) and subsequently in other large cohorts in the North America. In Europe, the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) is a gold mine of individual, economic and health information that can provide insight into better understanding of frailty across diverse population settings. A recent adaptation of the original five CHS-frailty criteria was proposed to make use of SHARE data and measure frailty in the European population. To test the validity of the SHARE operationalized frailty phenotype, this study aims to evaluate its prospective association with adverse health outcomes. Methods Data are from 11,015 community-dwelling men and women aged 60+ participating in wave 1 and 2 of the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe, a population-based survey. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to assess the 2-year follow up effect of SHARE-operationalized frailty phenotype on the incidence of disability (disability-free at baseline) and on worsening disability and morbidity, adjusting for age, sex, income and baseline morbidity and disability. Results At 2-year follow up, frail individuals were at increased risk for: developing mobility (OR 3.07, 95% CI, 1.02-9.36), IADL (OR 5.52, 95% CI, 3.76-8.10) and BADL (OR 5.13, 95% CI, 3.53-7.44) disability; worsening mobility (OR 2.94, 95% CI, 2.19- 3.93) IADL (OR 4.43, 95% CI, 3.19-6.15) and BADL disability (OR 4.53, 95% CI, 3.14-6.54); and worsening morbidity (OR 1.77, 95% CI, 1.35-2.32). These associations were significant even among the prefrail, but with a lower magnitude of effect. Conclusions The SHARE-operationalized frailty phenotype is significantly associated with all tested health outcomes independent of baseline morbidity and disability in community-dwelling men and women aged 60

  20. Prospective association of the SHARE-operationalized frailty phenotype with adverse health outcomes: evidence from 60+ community-dwelling Europeans living in 11 countries.

    PubMed

    Macklai, Nejma S; Spagnoli, Jacques; Junod, Julien; Santos-Eggimann, Brigitte

    2013-01-03

    Among the many definitions of frailty, the frailty phenotype defined by Fried et al. is one of few constructs that has been repeatedly validated: first in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) and subsequently in other large cohorts in the North America. In Europe, the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) is a gold mine of individual, economic and health information that can provide insight into better understanding of frailty across diverse population settings. A recent adaptation of the original five CHS-frailty criteria was proposed to make use of SHARE data and measure frailty in the European population. To test the validity of the SHARE operationalized frailty phenotype, this study aims to evaluate its prospective association with adverse health outcomes. Data are from 11,015 community-dwelling men and women aged 60+ participating in wave 1 and 2 of the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe, a population-based survey. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to assess the 2-year follow up effect of SHARE-operationalized frailty phenotype on the incidence of disability (disability-free at baseline) and on worsening disability and morbidity, adjusting for age, sex, income and baseline morbidity and disability. At 2-year follow up, frail individuals were at increased risk for: developing mobility (OR 3.07, 95% CI, 1.02-9.36), IADL (OR 5.52, 95% CI, 3.76-8.10) and BADL (OR 5.13, 95% CI, 3.53-7.44) disability; worsening mobility (OR 2.94, 95% CI, 2.19- 3.93) IADL (OR 4.43, 95% CI, 3.19-6.15) and BADL disability (OR 4.53, 95% CI, 3.14-6.54); and worsening morbidity (OR 1.77, 95% CI, 1.35-2.32). These associations were significant even among the prefrail, but with a lower magnitude of effect. The SHARE-operationalized frailty phenotype is significantly associated with all tested health outcomes independent of baseline morbidity and disability in community-dwelling men and women aged 60 and older living in Europe. The

  1. Operationalizing diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer’s disease and other age-related cognitive impairment—Part 1*

    PubMed Central

    Mayeux, Richard; Reitz, Christiane; Brickman, Adam M.; Haan, Mary N.; Manly, Jennifer J.; Glymour, M. Maria; Weiss, Christopher C.; Yaffe, Kristine; Middleton, Laura; Hendrie, Hugh C.; Warren, Lauren H.; Hayden, Kathleen M.; Welsh-Bohmer, Kathleen A.; Breitner, John C. S.; Morris, John C.

    2011-01-01

    Population studies strive to determine the prevalence of Alzheimer dementia but prevalence estimates vary widely. The challenges faced by several noted population studies for Alzheimer dementia in operationalizing current clinical diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are reviewed. Differences in case ascertainment, methodological biases, cultural and educational influences on test performance, inclusion of special populations such as underrepresented minorities and the oldest old, and detection of the earliest symptomatic stages of underlying AD are considered. Classification of Alzheimer dementia may be improved by the incorporation of biomarkers for AD if the sensitivity, specificity, and predictive value of the biomarkers are established and if they are appropriate for epidemiological studies as may occur should a plasma biomarker be developed. Biomarkers for AD also could facilitate studies of the interactions of various forms of neurodegenerative disorders with cerebrovascular disease, resulting in “mixed dementia”. PMID:21255741

  2. Ex Vivo Lung Perfusion: Establishment and Operationalization in Iran.

    PubMed

    Shafaghi, Shadi; Abbasi Dezfuli, Azizollah; Ansari Aval, Zahra; Sheikhy, Kambiz; Farzanegan, Behrooz; Mortaz, Esmaeil; Emami, Habib; Aigner, Clemens; Hosseini-Baharanchi, Fatemeh Sadat; Najafizadeh, Katayoun

    2017-02-01

    Although the number of lung transplants is limited because of general shortage of organ donors, ex vivo lung perfusion is a novel method with 2 main benefits, including better evaluation of lung potential and recovery of injured lungs. The main aim of this study was to establish and operationalize ex vivo lung perfusion as the first experience in Iran. This was a prospective operational research study on 5 cases, including 1 pig from Vienna Medical University and 4 patients from Masih Daneshvari Hospital. All organ donations from brain dead donors were evaluated according to lung transplant or ex vivo lung perfusion criteria from May 2013 to July 2015 in Tehran, Iran. If a donor did not have any sign of severe chest trauma or pneumonia but had poor oxygenation due to possible atelectasis or neurogenic pulmonary edema, their lungs were included for ex vivo lung perfusion. A successful trend in the difference between the pulmonary arterial Po2 and the left atrial Po2 was observed, as well as an increasing pattern in other functional parameters, including dynamic lung compliance and a decreasing trend in pulmonary vascular resistance. These initial trials indicate that ex vivo lung perfusion can lead to remarkable progress in lung transplant in Iran. They also provide several important pieces of guidance for successful ex vivo lung perfusion, including the necessity of following standard lung retrieval procedures and monitoring temperature and pressure precisely. The development of novel methods can provide opportunities for further research studies on lungs of deceased donors and lead to undiscovered findings. By keeping this science up to date in Iran and developing such new and creative methods, we can reveal effective strategies to promote the quality of donor lungs to support patients on transplant wait lists.

  3. Operationalizing the assessment and management of violence risk in the short-term.

    PubMed

    Doyle, Michael; Logan, Caroline

    2012-01-01

    Assessing risk of violence in the short term is crucial for managing and preventing violence, especially in institutions such as psychiatric units and prisons. Despite a lack of consensus on the definition of "short term", a number of recent tools and guidelines have been developed to aid short-term clinical decision-making. Whereas the supporting evidence for the new tools is impressive, limitations remain in terms of the focus on prediction, limited consideration of strengths, and poor integration with formulation and risk management. The Short-Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability (START) is a brief clinical guide for the dynamic assessment of risks, strengths and treatability. It focuses on short-term risks and the characteristics of the individual that, if changed, might lead to an increase or decrease in risk. The START has the potential to operationalize the structured professional judgment (SPJ) approach in order to inform the evaluation of multiple risk domains relevant to everyday psychiatric clinical practice. However, explicit guidance on integrating risk assessment, formulation and management is limited in the START and this paper describes the SPJ approach, reviews recent developments in approaches to risk, and considers how the START can be used to inform SPJ approaches and link risk assessment, formulation, and management. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  4. Use of measurement theory for operationalization and quantification of psychological constructs in systems dynamics modelling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fitkov-Norris, Elena; Yeghiazarian, Ara

    2016-11-01

    The analytical tools available to social scientists have traditionally been adapted from tools originally designed for analysis of natural science phenomena. This article discusses the applicability of systems dynamics - a qualitative based modelling approach, as a possible analysis and simulation tool that bridges the gap between social and natural sciences. After a brief overview of the systems dynamics modelling methodology, the advantages as well as limiting factors of systems dynamics to the potential applications in the field of social sciences and human interactions are discussed. The issues arise with regards to operationalization and quantification of latent constructs at the simulation building stage of the systems dynamics methodology and measurement theory is proposed as a ready and waiting solution to the problem of dynamic model calibration, with a view of improving simulation model reliability and validity and encouraging the development of standardised, modular system dynamics models that can be used in social science research.

  5. The message development tool: a case for effective operationalization of messaging in social marketing practice.

    PubMed

    Mattson, Marifran; Basu, Ambar

    2010-07-01

    That messages are essential, if not the most critical component of any communicative process, seems like an obvious claim. More so when the communication is about health--one of the most vital and elemental of human experiences (Babrow & Mattson, 2003). Any communication campaign that aims to change a target audience's health behaviors needs to centralize messages. Even though messaging strategies are an essential component of social marketing and are a widely used campaign model, health campaigns based on this framework have not always been able to effectively operationalize this key component, leading to cases where initiating and sustaining prescribed health behavior has been difficult (MacStravic, 2000). Based on an examination of the VERB campaign and an Australian breastfeeding promotion campaign, we propose a message development tool within the ambit of the social marketing framework that aims to extend the framework and ensure that the messaging component of the model is contextualized at the core of planning, implementation, and evaluation efforts.

  6. Limits of operationalization: a critique of Spitzer and Endicott's (1978) proposed operational criteria for mental disorder.

    PubMed

    Wakefield, J C

    1993-02-01

    Spitzer and Endicott (1978) proposed an operational definition of mental disorder that is a more rigorous version of the brief definitions that appeared in the 3rd and revised 3rd editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The heart of their proposal is a translation of the concept of dysfunction into operational terms. I argue that their definition fails to capture the concept of dysfunction and is subject to many counterexamples. I use my harmful dysfunction account of disorder (Wakefield, 1992a, 1992b), which interprets dysfunction in evolutionary terms, to explain both the appeal and the problems of Spitzer and Endicott's definition and to provide support for the harmful dysfunction view. I conclude that the failure of Spitzer and Endicott's sophisticated attempt at operationalization indicates that nonoperational definitions that use functional concepts must play a role in formulating valid diagnostic criteria.

  7. Center for Disease Control's Diethylstilbestrol Update: a case for effective operationalization of messaging in social marketing practice.

    PubMed

    Mattson, Marifran; Basu, Ambar

    2010-07-01

    The Center for Disease Control's (CDC) Diethylstilbestrol (DES) Update, a campaign to educate people who may have been exposed to the drug DES, is framed on the premises of the social marketing model, namely formative research, audience segmentation, product, price, placement, promotion, and campaign evaluation. More than that, the campaign takes a critical step in extending the social marketing paradigm by highlighting the need to situate the messaging process at the heart of any health communication campaign. This article uses CDC's DES Update as a case study to illustrate an application of a message development tool within social marketing. This tool promotes the operationalization of messaging within health campaigns. Ultimately, the goal of this project is to extend the social marketing model and provide useful theoretical guidance to health campaign practitioners on how to accomplish stellar communication within a social marketing campaign.

  8. Comparing Obesity-Related Health Disparities among Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders, Asians, and Whites in California: Reinforcing the Need for Data Disaggregation and Operationalization.

    PubMed

    Bacong, Adrian Matias; Holub, Christina; Porotesano, Liki

    2016-11-01

    Since the 2000 Census, Asians and Pacific Islanders have been categorized as separate races. Government initiatives have called for greater study of Asian, Native Hawaiian, and other Pacific Islander (NHPI) health outcomes. NHPI often have worse health outcomes than Asians and Whites. Despite this, the lack of operationalization of racial definitions may affect the magnitude of health disparities. This analysis examined how utilizing different sociological race definitions could influence NHPI health outcomes when compared to Asians and Whites. Utilizing data from the 2009 California Health Interview Survey, NHPI had significantly higher age adjusted obesity prevalence than Whites under the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR) (OR = 1.72, P = .03) and Self-Report (OR = 1.57, P = .01) definitions, but not the Census definition (OR = 1.42, P = .11). NHPI had significantly higher age adjusted obesity prevalence than Asians under all definitions (Census OR = 4.05, P < .01; CHPR OR = 4.81, P < .01; Self-Report OR = 4.46, P < .01). NHPI had significantly higher age adjusted diabetes/pre-diabetes prevalence than Whites across all definitions (Census OR = 3.27, P < .01, CHPR OR = 3.03, P < .01, Self-Report OR = 1.99, P = .01) but only the Census (OR = 2.12, P = .01) and CHPR (OR = 1.86, P = .04) when NHPI were compared to Asians. Overall, race definition changed the identification of health disparities. Future studies should operationalize racial definitions, as health disparities are masked post-hoc when utilizing different race definitions.

  9. Conducting quality of life research in people with coronary artery disease in non-English-speaking countries: conceptual and operationalization issues.

    PubMed

    Saengsiri, Aem-orn; Hacker, Eileen Danaher

    2015-01-01

    Health-related quality of life is an important clinical outcome to measure in patients with cardiovascular disease. International nurse researchers with limited English skills and novice cardiovascular nurse researchers face numerous challenges when conducting quality of life research because of the conceptual ambiguity of the construct and subsequent operationalization issues as well as difficulty identifying conceptual models to guide their quality of life research. The overall purpose of this article was to provide guidance to cardiovascular nurse researchers (using Thailand as an example) who are interested in examining quality of life in their native country but lack access to quality of life conceptual models and instruments because of language barriers. This article will examine definitions of health-related quality of life, selection of a conceptual model to guide quality of life research, use of the conceptual model to guide selection and measurement of variables, and translation of instruments when reliable and valid instruments are not available in the native language. Ferrans' definition of quality of life and the Wilson and Cleary Revised Model of Patient Outcomes were selected to guide the research. Selection of variables/instruments flowed directly from the conceptualization of constructs identified in this model. Our study, "Examining HRQOL in Thai People With Coronary Artery Disease Following Percutaneous Coronary Intervention," serves as an exemplar to illustrate the conceptual and operational challenges associated with conducting quality of life research in Thailand. The ultimate goal of cardiovascular nursing is to help patients achieve their optimal quality of life. Thai clinicians implementing quality of life assessment in clinical practice face similar conceptual and operationalization issues, especially when using instruments that are not well established or easily interpreted. Although quality of life assessment in clinical practice

  10. Operationalizing the telecoupling framework for migratory species using the spatial subsidies approach to examine ecosystem services provided by Mexican free-tailed bats

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Lopez Hoffman, Laura; Diffendorfer, James E.; Widerholt, Ruscena; Thogmartin, Wayne E.; McCraken, Gary; Medellin, Rodrigo; Bagstad, Kenneth J.; Russell, Amy; Semmens, Darius J.

    2017-01-01

    Drivers of environmental change in one location can have profound effects on ecosystem services and human well-being in distant locations, often across international borders. The telecoupling provides a conceptual framework for describing these interactions—for example, locations can be defined as sending areas (sources of flows of ecosystem services, energy, or information) or receiving areas (recipients of flows). However, the ability to quantify feedbacks between ecosystem change in one area and societal benefits in other areas requires analytical approaches. We use spatial subsidies—an approach developed to measure the degree to which a migratory species’ ability to provide services in one location depends on habitat in another location—as an example of how telecoupling can be operationalized. Using the cotton pest control and ecotourism services of Mexican free-tailed bats as an example, we determined that of the 16 states in the United States and Mexico where the species resides, three states (Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado) are receiving areas, while the rest of the states are sending areas. In addition, the magnitude of spatial subsidy can be used as an indicator of the degree to which different locations are telecoupled to other locations. In this example, the Mexican free-tailed bat ecosystem services to cotton production and ecotourism in Texas and New Mexico are heavily dependent on winter habitat in four states in central and southern Mexico. In sum, spatial subsidies can be used to operationalize the telecoupling conceptual framework by identifying sending and receiving areas, and by indicating the degree to which locations are telecoupled to other locations.

  11. Free Will and Neuroscience: From Explaining Freedom Away to New Ways of Operationalizing and Measuring It.

    PubMed

    Lavazza, Andrea

    2016-01-01

    abilities, needed for one to have capacity, might be firstly operationalized as a set of neuropsychological tests, which can be used to operationalize and measure specific executive functions, as they are strongly linked to the concept of control. Subsequently, a free will index would allow for the search of the underlying neural correlates of the capacity exhibited by people and the limits in capacity exhibited by each individual.

  12. Psychoneurometric Operationalization of Threat Sensitivity: Relations with Clinical Symptom and Physiological Response Criteria

    PubMed Central

    Yancey, James R.; Venables, Noah C.; Patrick, Christopher J.

    2015-01-01

    The NIMH RDoC initiative calls for the incorporation of neurobiological approaches and findings into conceptions of mental health problems through a focus on biobehavioral constructs investigated across multiple domains of measurement (units of analysis). Though the constructs in the RDoC system are characterized in ‘process terms’ (i.e., as functional concepts with brain and behavioral referents), these constructs can also be framed as dispositions (i.e., as dimensions of variation in biobehavioral functioning across individuals). Focusing on one key RDoC construct, acute threat or ‘fear’, the current paper illustrates a construct-oriented psychoneurometric strategy to operationalizing this construct in individual-difference terms—as threat sensitivity (THT+). Utilizing data from 454 adult participants, we demonstrate empirically that: 1) a scale measure of THT+ design to tap general fear/fearlessness predicts effectively to relevant clinical problems (i.e., fear disorder symptoms), 2) this scale measure shows reliable associations with physiological indices of acute reactivity to aversive visual stimuli, and 3) a cross-domain factor reflecting the intersection of scale and physiological indicators of THT+ predicts effectively to both clinical and neurophysiological criterion measures. Results illustrate how the psychoneurometric approach can be used to create a dimensional index of a biobehavioral trait construct, in this case THT+, which can serve as a bridge between phenomena in domains of psychopathology and neurobiology. Implications and future directions are discussed with reference to the RDoC initiative and existing report-based conceptions of psycholological traits. PMID:26877132

  13. Tools and approaches to operationalize the commitment to equity, gender and human rights: towards leaving no one behind in the Sustainable Development Goals.

    PubMed

    Zamora, Gerardo; Koller, Theadora Swift; Thomas, Rebekah; Manandhar, Mary; Lustigova, Eva; Diop, Adama; Magar, Veronica

    2018-01-01

    The objective of this article is to present specific resources developed by the World Health Organization on equity, gender and human rights in order to support Member States in operationalizing their commitment to leave no one behind in the health Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and other health-related goals and targets. The resources cover: (i) health inequality monitoring; (ii) barrier analysis using mixed methods; (iii) human rights monitoring; (iv) leaving no one behind in national and subnational health sector planning; and (v) equity, gender and human rights in national health programme reviews. Examples of the application of the tools in a range of country contexts are provided for each resource.

  14. The Use of Ecological Indicators as a Basis for Operationalizing a PES Scheme on Forest Conservation in Northern Argentina

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gobbi, José; Deguillon, Marie

    2017-04-01

    Payments for ecosystem services (PES) aim to improve the supply of ecosystem services (ES) by making payments to service providers, which are conditional on the provision of those services. Payments cannot be conditional unless the service can be effectively monitored. Direct monitoring of ES to assess conditionality could be methodologically complex and operatively expensive. To overcome such constraints, the pilot "GEF-PES Project" of Northern Argentina has developed a set of five indicators on forest conservation status (CS) as a basis for estimating the amount of ES provided -considering a positive correlation between the CS of a forest and its level of provision of ecosystem services -and for operationalizing the PES. Field data indicate that selected indicators: (i) exhibit strong correlation with the amount of carbon and biodiversity provided by forests according to their CS, ii) are cost-effective to monitor ES conditionality and (iii) allow easy application of payment levels.

  15. Operationalization of Prediction, Hindcast, and Evaluation Systems using the Freie Univ Evaluation System Framework (Freva) incl. a Showcase in Decadal Climate Prediction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kadow, Christopher; Illing, Sebastian; Schartner, Thomas; Ulbrich, Uwe; Cubasch, Ulrich

    2017-04-01

    Operationalization processes are important for Weather and Climate Services. Complex data and work flows need to be combined fast to fulfill the needs of service centers. Standards in data and software formats help in automatic solutions. In this study we show a software solution in between hindcasts, forecasts, and validation to be operationalized. Freva (see below) structures data and evaluation procedures and can easily be monitored. Especially in the development process of operationalized services, Freva supports scientists and project partners. The showcase of the decadal climate prediction project MiKlip (fona-miklip.de) shows such a complex development process. Different predictions, scientists input, tasks, and time evolving adjustments need to be combined to host precise climate informations in a web environment without losing track of its evolution. The Freie Univ Evaluation System Framework (Freva - freva.met.fu-berlin.de) is a software infrastructure for standardized data and tool solutions in Earth system science. Freva runs on high performance computers to handle customizable evaluation systems of research projects, institutes or universities. It combines different software technologies into one common hybrid infrastructure, including all features present in the shell and web environment. The database interface satisfies the international standards provided by the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF). Freva indexes different data projects into one common search environment by storing the meta data information of the self-describing model, reanalysis and observational data sets in a database. This implemented meta data system with its advanced but easy-to-handle search tool supports users, developers and their plugins to retrieve the required information. A generic application programming interface (API) allows scientific developers to connect their analysis tools with the evaluation system independently of the programming language used. Users of the

  16. Psychoneurometric operationalization of threat sensitivity: Relations with clinical symptom and physiological response criteria.

    PubMed

    Yancey, James R; Venables, Noah C; Patrick, Christopher J

    2016-03-01

    The National Institute of Mental Health's Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative calls for the incorporation of neurobiological approaches and findings into conceptions of mental health problems through a focus on biobehavioral constructs investigated across multiple domains of measurement (units of analysis). Although the constructs in the RDoC system are characterized in "process terms" (i.e., as functional concepts with brain and behavioral referents), these constructs can also be framed as dispositions (i.e., as dimensions of variation in biobehavioral functioning across individuals). Focusing on one key RDoC construct, acute threat or "fear," the current article illustrates a construct-oriented psychoneurometric strategy for operationalizing this construct in individual difference terms-as threat sensitivity (THT+). Utilizing data from 454 adult participants, we demonstrate empirically that (a) a scale measure of THT+ designed to tap general fear/fearlessness predicts effectively to relevant clinical problems (i.e., fear disorder symptoms), (b) this scale measure shows reliable associations with physiological indices of acute reactivity to aversive visual stimuli, and (c) a cross-domain factor reflecting the intersection of scale and physiological indicators of THT+ predicts effectively to both clinical and neurophysiological criterion measures. Results illustrate how the psychoneurometric approach can be used to create a dimensional index of a biobehavioral trait construct, in this case THT+, which can serve as a bridge between phenomena in domains of psychopathology and neurobiology. Implications and future directions are discussed with reference to the RDoC initiative and existing report-based conceptions of psychological traits. © 2016 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

  17. Operationalizing Heedful Interrelating: How Attending, Responding, and Feeling Comprise Coordinating and Predict Performance in Self-Managing Teams.

    PubMed

    Stephens, John Paul; Lyddy, Christopher J

    2016-01-01

    Team coordination implies a system of individual behavioral contributions occurring within a network of interpersonal relationships to achieve a collective goal. Current research on coordination has emphasized its relational aspects, but has not adequately accounted for how team members also simultaneously manage individual behavioral contributions and represent the whole system of the team's work. In the current study, we develop theory and test how individuals manage all three aspects of coordinating through the three facets described in the theory of heedful interrelating. We operationalize the facet of contributing as distributing attention between self and others, subordinating as responsively communicating, and representing as feeling the system of the team's work as a cohesive whole. We then test the relationships among these facets and their influence on team performance in an experiment with 50 ad hoc triads of undergraduate student self-managing teams tasked with collectively composing a song in the lab. In analyzing thin-slices of video data of these teams' coordination, we found that teams with members displaying greater dispersion of attentional distribution and more responsive communicating experienced a stronger feeling of the team as a whole. Responsive communication also predicted team performance. Accounting for how the three aspects of coordinating are managed by individual team members provides a more critical understanding of heedful interrelating, and insight into emergent coordination processes.

  18. Operationalizing Heedful Interrelating: How Attending, Responding, and Feeling Comprise Coordinating and Predict Performance in Self-Managing Teams

    PubMed Central

    Stephens, John Paul; Lyddy, Christopher J.

    2016-01-01

    Team coordination implies a system of individual behavioral contributions occurring within a network of interpersonal relationships to achieve a collective goal. Current research on coordination has emphasized its relational aspects, but has not adequately accounted for how team members also simultaneously manage individual behavioral contributions and represent the whole system of the team's work. In the current study, we develop theory and test how individuals manage all three aspects of coordinating through the three facets described in the theory of heedful interrelating. We operationalize the facet of contributing as distributing attention between self and others, subordinating as responsively communicating, and representing as feeling the system of the team's work as a cohesive whole. We then test the relationships among these facets and their influence on team performance in an experiment with 50 ad hoc triads of undergraduate student self-managing teams tasked with collectively composing a song in the lab. In analyzing thin-slices of video data of these teams' coordination, we found that teams with members displaying greater dispersion of attentional distribution and more responsive communicating experienced a stronger feeling of the team as a whole. Responsive communication also predicted team performance. Accounting for how the three aspects of coordinating are managed by individual team members provides a more critical understanding of heedful interrelating, and insight into emergent coordination processes. PMID:27047407

  19. A framework for operationalization of strategic plans and metrics for corporate performance measurement in transportation asset management

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mteri, Hassan H.

    literature, assumptions and characteristics that make the Balanced Scorecards and strategy maps work effectively in the private sector were identified. Gaps in implementation of strategic plans and the use of Balanced Scorecard in the public sector were derived. Although Balanced Scorecards have previously been used to a limited extent in transportation agencies, the use of combined Balanced Scorecards and strategy maps with a much broader utility of translating strategic plans into tactical and operational activities for Transportation Asset Management is yet to be established. The thesis presents a framework to operationalize strategic plans through the combined application of Balanced Scorecards and strategy maps. The proposed framework aligns overarching objectives in all organizational levels: corporate, tactical, and operation, in which detail information is delegated from top level to lower levels. Furthermore, the thesis presents a proposed framework for developing and using effective corporate performance measures. The framework for performance measures provides a key tool for tracking progress and ensuring overall operationalization of strategic plans in transportation agencies. The thesis presents a methodology to assess existing performance measures so that agencies can reduce the number of measures, to be more effective and manageable. It was found that among other good characteristics, corporate performance measures must be tied to agency's goals and objectives and must be sensitive or responsive to program delivery activities and to the impacts of decisions about resource allocation.

  20. Operationalizing multimorbidity and autonomy for health services research in aging populations - the OMAHA study

    PubMed Central

    2011-01-01

    Background As part of a Berlin-based research consortium on health in old age, the OMAHA (Operationalizing Multimorbidity and Autonomy for Health Services Research in Aging Populations) study aims to develop a conceptual framework and a set of standardized instruments and indicators for continuous monitoring of multimorbidity and associated health care needs in the population 65 years and older. Methods/Design OMAHA is a longitudinal epidemiological study including a comprehensive assessment at baseline and at 12-month follow-up as well as brief intermediate telephone interviews at 6 and 18 months. In order to evaluate different sampling procedures and modes of data collection, the study is conducted in two different population-based samples of men and women aged 65 years and older. A geographically defined sample was recruited from an age and sex stratified random sample from the register of residents in Berlin-Mitte (Berlin OMAHA study cohort, n = 299) for assessment by face-to-face interview and examination. A larger nationwide sample (German OMAHA study cohort, n = 730) was recruited for assessment by telephone interview among participants in previous German Telephone Health Surveys. In both cohorts, we successfully applied a multi-dimensional set of instruments to assess multimorbidity, functional disability in daily life, autonomy, quality of life (QoL), health care services utilization, personal and social resources as well as socio-demographic and biographical context variables. Response rates considerably varied between the Berlin and German OMAHA study cohorts (22.8% vs. 59.7%), whereas completeness of follow-up at month 12 was comparably high in both cohorts (82.9% vs. 81.2%). Discussion The OMAHA study offers a wide spectrum of data concerning health, functioning, social involvement, psychological well-being, and cognitive capacity in community-dwelling older people in Germany. Results from the study will add to methodological and content

  1. Stakeholders' Perspectives on Stakeholder-engaged Research (SER): Strategies to Operationalize Patient-centered Outcomes Research Principles for SER.

    PubMed

    Mackie, Thomas I; Sheldrick, Radley C; de Ferranti, Sarah D; Saunders, Tully; Rojas, Erick G; Leslie, Laurel K

    2017-01-01

    US federal funding agencies increasingly incentivize stakeholder-engaged research which represents a paradigm shift toward incorporating a range of stakeholders in research design, conduct, and dissemination. We use qualitative methods to capture experience-based recommendations on how to operationalize 4 Patient-Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR) principles in stakeholder-engaged research, specifically: (1) reciprocal relationships; (2) colearning; (3) partnership; and (4) trust, transparency, and honesty. We conducted semistructured interviews with members of a stakeholder panel who participated in a 2-year comparative effectiveness study of cholesterol screening and treatment among young adults. Participants included 8 young adults and parent panelists and 11 professional panelists (clinicians, researchers, policy developers, and disseminators). The interview guide included questions about the 4 PCOR principles and queried preferred strategies to attain them. Interview transcripts were analyzed using an a priori and emergent coding structure. Participants provided strategies to promote the 4 PCOR principles. Although some stakeholder-identified strategies were complementary, others conflicted due to (1) competing ideologies identified among the principles, and (2) distinct stakeholder preferences. Illustrative of competing ideologies, participants simultaneously preferred receiving relevant articles before calls (to facilitate colearning) but also minimal outside reading (to achieve partnership). Illustrative of distinct stakeholder preferences, young adult and parent panelists generally preferred calls to occur on weekends/evenings, whereas professional panelists preferred mid-week work hours. Our exploratory study provides stakeholder-identified strategies to achieve the 4 PCOR principles, and demonstrates the need to identify, acknowledge, and address potentially conflicting strategies due to the potential for competing ideologies or variation in stakeholder

  2. Examining the DSM-5 alternative personality disorder model operationalization of antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy in a male correctional sample.

    PubMed

    Wygant, Dustin B; Sellbom, Martin; Sleep, Chelsea E; Wall, Tina D; Applegate, Kathryn C; Krueger, Robert F; Patrick, Christopher J

    2016-07-01

    For decades, it has been known that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) diagnosis of Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) is a nonadequate operationalization of psychopathy (Crego & Widiger, 2015). The DSM-5 alternative model of personality disorders provides an opportunity to rectify some of these long held concerns. The current study compared the Section III alternative model's trait-based conception of ASPD with the categorical model from the main diagnostic codes section of DSM-5 in terms of associations with differing models of psychopathy. We also evaluated the validity of the trait-based conception more broadly in relation to measures of antisocial tendencies as well as psychopathy. Participants were 200 male inmates who were administered a battery of self-report and interview-based researcher rating measures of relevant constructs. Analyses showed that Section III ASPD outperformed Section II ASPD in predicting scores on Hare's (2003) Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; r = .88 vs. .59). Additionally, aggregate scores for Section III ASPD performed well in capturing variance in differing ASPD and psychopathy measures. Finally, we found that the Section III ASPD impairment criteria added incrementally to the Section III ASPD traits in predicting PCL-R psychopathy and SCID-II ASPD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  3. Operationalizing Dissuasion

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2006-06-01

    agents or proxies—including the bombing of a west Berlin disco in 1986 that killed two U.S. servicemen and wounded 229 others. In 1986, Presidential...weapons materials, and coercive strikes—ultimately only proved successful when additional positive incentives were offered. Granted, the virtual ...is the insistence on regime change in the latter two cases. When Undersecretary John Bolton lumped Libya in with the “Axis of Evil” it virtually

  4. A proposed framework to operationalize ESS for the mitigation of soil threats

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schwilch, Gudrun; Bernet, Lea; Fleskens, Luuk; Mills, Jane; Stolte, Jannes; van Delden, Hedwig; Verzandvoort, Simone

    2015-04-01

    soil threats and natural capital. In order to improve ESS with Sustainable Land Management (SLM) - i.e. measures aimed to prevent or remediate soil threats, the services identified in the framework need to be "manageable" (modifiable) for the stakeholders. To this end, effects of soil threats and prevention / remediation measures are captured by key soil properties as well as through bio-physical (e.g. reduced soil loss), socio-economic (e.g. reduced workload) and socio-cultural (e.g. aesthetics) impact indicators. In order to use such indicators in RECARE, it should be possible to associate the changes in soil processes to impacts of prevention / remediation measures (SLM). This requires the indicators to be sensitive enough to small changes, but still sufficiently robust to provide evidence of the change and attribute it to SLM. The RECARE ESS framework will be presented and discussed in order to further develop its operationalization. Inputs from the conference participants are highly welcome.

  5. An operationalized post-normal science framework for assisting in the development of complex science policy solutions: the case of nanotechnology governance

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bernstein, Michael J.; Foley, Rider W.; Bennett, Ira

    2014-07-01

    Scientists, engineers, and policy analysts commonly suggest governance regimes for technology to maximize societal benefits and minimize negative societal and environmental impacts of innovation processes. Yet innovation is a complex socio-technical process that does not respond predictably to modification. Our human propensity to exclude complexity when attempting to manage systems often results in insufficient, one-dimensional solutions. The tendency to exclude complexity (1) reinforces itself by diminishing experience and capacity in the design of simple solutions to complex problems, and (2) leads to solutions that do not address the identified problem. To address the question of how to avoid a complexity- exclusion trap, this article operationalizes a post-normal science framework to assist in the enhancement or design of science policy proposals. A literature review of technological fixes, policy panaceas, and knowledge-to-action gaps is conducted to survey examples of post-normal science frameworks. Next, an operational framework is used to assess the case of a proposed international nanotechnology advisory board. The framework reveals that the board addresses a slice of the broader, more complex problem of nanotechnology governance. We argue that while the formation of an international advisory board is not problematic in-and-of-itself, it is symptomatic of and plays into a complexity- exclusion trap. We offer researchers, policy analysts, and decision-makers three recommendations that incorporate a more appropriate level of complexity into governance proposals.

  6. Operationalizing the Measurement of Seroadaptive Behaviors: A Comparison of Reported Sexual Behaviors and Purposely-Adopted Behaviors Among Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) in Seattle.

    PubMed

    Khosropour, Christine M; Dombrowski, Julia C; Hughes, James P; Manhart, Lisa E; Simoni, Jane M; Golden, Matthew R

    2017-10-01

    Seroadaptive behaviors are traditionally defined by self-reported sexual behavior history, regardless of whether they reflect purposely-adopted risk-mitigation strategies. Among MSM attending an STD clinic in Seattle, Washington 2013-2015 (N = 3751 visits), we used two seroadaptive behavior measures: (1) sexual behavior history reported via clinical computer-assisted self-interview (CASI) (behavioral definition); (2) purposely-adopted risk-reduction behaviors reported via research CASI (purposely-adopted definition). Pure serosorting (i.e. only HIV-concordant partners) was the most common behavior, reported (behavioral and purposely-adopted definition) by HIV-negative respondents at 43% and 60% of visits, respectively (kappa = 0.24; fair agreement) and by HIV-positive MSM at 30 and 34% (kappa = 0.25; fair agreement). Agreement of the two definitions was highest for consistent condom use [HIV-negative men (kappa = 0.72), HIV-positive men (kappa = 0.57)]. Overall HIV test positivity was 1.4 but 0.9% for pure serosorters. The two methods of operationalizing behaviors result in different estimates, thus the choice of which to employ should depend on the motivation for ascertaining behavioral information.

  7. Operationalizing the Reciprocal Engagement Model of Genetic Counseling Practice: a Framework for the Scalable Delivery of Genomic Counseling and Testing.

    PubMed

    Schmidlen, Tara; Sturm, Amy C; Hovick, Shelly; Scheinfeldt, Laura; Scott Roberts, J; Morr, Lindsey; McElroy, Joseph; Toland, Amanda E; Christman, Michael; O'Daniel, Julianne M; Gordon, Erynn S; Bernhardt, Barbara A; Ormond, Kelly E; Sweet, Kevin

    2018-02-19

    With the advent of widespread genomic testing for diagnostic indications and disease risk assessment, there is increased need to optimize genetic counseling services to support the scalable delivery of precision medicine. Here, we describe how we operationalized the reciprocal engagement model of genetic counseling practice to develop a framework of counseling components and strategies for the delivery of genomic results. This framework was constructed based upon qualitative research with patients receiving genomic counseling following online receipt of potentially actionable complex disease and pharmacogenomics reports. Consultation with a transdisciplinary group of investigators, including practicing genetic counselors, was sought to ensure broad scope and applicability of these strategies for use with any large-scale genomic testing effort. We preserve the provision of pre-test education and informed consent as established in Mendelian/single-gene disease genetic counseling practice. Following receipt of genomic results, patients are afforded the opportunity to tailor the counseling agenda by selecting the specific test results they wish to discuss, specifying questions for discussion, and indicating their preference for counseling modality. The genetic counselor uses these patient preferences to set the genomic counseling session and to personalize result communication and risk reduction recommendations. Tailored visual aids and result summary reports divide areas of risk (genetic variant, family history, lifestyle) for each disease to facilitate discussion of multiple disease risks. Post-counseling, session summary reports are actively routed to both the patient and their physician team to encourage review and follow-up. Given the breadth of genomic information potentially resulting from genomic testing, this framework is put forth as a starting point to meet the need for scalable genetic counseling services in the delivery of precision medicine.

  8. Operationalization of Burnout.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Matthews, Doris B.

    This study was designed to develop instruments to measure employee burnout. The Matthews Burnout Scale for Employees is a 50-item self-report measure. The Matthews Burnout Scale for Supervisors is a 50-item scale for use in evaluating employee burnout. Content-based items were tested for construct validity with a group of employees, and their…

  9. Operationalizing Army Cyber

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2013-03-01

    killed just under 3,000 people and cost the U.S. economy somewhere between three and five trillion dollars. The Japanese attacked with a state... economy , and military readiness. The challenge is to design an Army Cyber force that can support the United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) national...still keeps the intelligence and signal functions separate in most units today from battalion to echelon above Corps ( EAC ). There are many past reasons

  10. Operationalizing Anticipatory Governance

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2011-09-01

    ward to known events. They provide a means to test in the mind, or in a virtual setting, what we might otherwise have to try in reality . Other...process that can be used to correct our strategic myopia and secure America’s global place in the 21st century. Acceleration and Complexity Our era is...process that can be used to correct our strategic myopia and secure America’s global place in the 21st century. Acceleration and Complexity Our era

  11. Evaluation and operationalization of a novel forest detrainment modeling approach for computational snow avalanche simulation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Teich, M.; Feistl, T.; Fischer, J.; Bartelt, P.; Bebi, P.; Christen, M.; Grêt-Regamey, A.

    2013-12-01

    Two-dimensional avalanche simulation software operating in three-dimensional terrain are widely used for hazard zoning and engineering to predict runout distances and impact pressures of snow avalanche events. Mountain forests are an effective biological protection measure; however, the protective capacity of forests to decelerate or even to stop avalanches that start within forested areas or directly above the treeline is seldom considered in this context. In particular, runout distances of small- to medium-scale avalanches are strongly influenced by the structural conditions of forests in the avalanche path. This varying decelerating effect has rarely been addressed or implemented in avalanche simulation. We present an evaluation and operationalization of a novel forest detrainment modeling approach implemented in the avalanche simulation software RAMMS. The new approach accounts for the effect of forests in the avalanche path by detraining mass, which leads to a deceleration and runout shortening of avalanches. The extracted avalanche mass caught behind trees stops immediately and, therefore, is instantly subtracted from the flow and the momentum of the stopped mass is removed from the total momentum of the avalanche flow. This relationship is parameterized by the empirical detrainment coefficient K [Pa] which accounts for the braking power of different forest types per unit area. To define K dependent on specific forest characteristics, we simulated 40 well-documented small- to medium-scale avalanches which released in and ran through forests with varying K-values. Comparing two-dimensional simulation results with one-dimensional field observations for a high number of avalanche events and simulations manually is however time consuming and rather subjective. In order to process simulation results in a comprehensive and standardized way, we used a recently developed automatic evaluation and comparison method defining runout distances based on a pressure

  12. Operationalizing the Measuring What Matters Spirituality Quality Metric in a Population of Hospitalized, Critically Ill Patients and Their Family Members.

    PubMed

    Aslakson, Rebecca A; Kweku, Josephine; Kinnison, Malonnie; Singh, Sarabdeep; Crowe, Thomas Y

    2017-03-01

    Measuring What Matters (MWM) quality indicators support measurement of the percentage of patients who have spiritual discussions, if desired. The objective of this study was to 1) determine the ease of, and barriers to, prospectively collecting MWM spirituality quality measure data and 2) further explore the importance of spirituality in a seriously ill, hospitalized population of critically ill patients and their family members. Electronic medical record (EMR) review and cross-sectional survey of intensive care unit (ICU) patients and their family members from October to December 2015. Participants were in four adult ICUs totaling 68 beds at a single academic, urban, tertiary care center which has ICU-assigned chaplains and an in-house, 24-hour, on-call chaplain. All patients had a "Spiritual Risk Screen" which included two questions identifying patient religion and whether a chaplain visit was desired. Approximately 2/3 of ICU patients were eligible, and there were 144 respondents (50% female; 57% patient and 43% family member), with the majority being Caucasian or African American (68% and 21%, respectively). Common religious identifications were Christian or no faith tradition (76% and 11%, respectively). Approximately half of patients had an EMR chaplain note although it did not document presence of a "spiritual discussion." No study patients received palliative care consultation. A majority (85%) noted that spirituality was "important to them" and that prevalence remained high across respondent age, race, faith tradition, or admitting ICU. Operationalizing the MWM spirituality quality indicator was challenging as elements of a "spiritual screening" or documentation of a "spiritual discussion" were not clearly documented in the EMR. The high prevalence of spirituality among respondents validates the importance of spirituality as a potential quality metric. Copyright © 2016 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All

  13. Establishing the Canadian HIV Women's Sexual and Reproductive Health Cohort Study (CHIWOS): Operationalizing Community-based Research in a Large National Quantitative Study.

    PubMed

    Loutfy, Mona; Greene, Saara; Kennedy, V Logan; Lewis, Johanna; Thomas-Pavanel, Jamie; Conway, Tracey; de Pokomandy, Alexandra; O'Brien, Nadia; Carter, Allison; Tharao, Wangari; Nicholson, Valerie; Beaver, Kerrigan; Dubuc, Danièle; Gahagan, Jacqueline; Proulx-Boucher, Karène; Hogg, Robert S; Kaida, Angela

    2016-08-19

    Community-based research has gained increasing recognition in health research over the last two decades. Such participatory research approaches are lauded for their ability to anchor research in lived experiences, ensuring cultural appropriateness, accessing local knowledge, reaching marginalized communities, building capacity, and facilitating research-to-action. While having these positive attributes, the community-based health research literature is predominantly composed of small projects, using qualitative methods, and set within geographically limited communities. Its use in larger health studies, including clinical trials and cohorts, is limited. We present the Canadian HIV Women's Sexual and Reproductive Health Cohort Study (CHIWOS), a large-scale, multi-site, national, longitudinal quantitative study that has operationalized community-based research in all steps of the research process. Successes, challenges and further considerations are offered. Through the integration of community-based research principles, we have been successful in: facilitating a two-year long formative phase for this study; developing a novel survey instrument with national involvement; training 39 Peer Research Associates (PRAs); offering ongoing comprehensive support to PRAs; and engaging in an ongoing iterative community-based research process. Our community-based research approach within CHIWOS demanded that we be cognizant of challenges managing a large national team, inherent power imbalances and challenges with communication, compensation and volunteering considerations, and extensive delays in institutional processes. It is important to consider the iterative nature of community-based research and to work through tensions that emerge given the diverse perspectives of numerous team members. Community-based research, as an approach to large-scale quantitative health research projects, is an increasingly viable methodological option. Community-based research has several

  14. Cumulative abuse: do things add up? An evaluation of the conceptualization, operationalization, and methodological approaches in the study of the phenomenon of cumulative abuse.

    PubMed

    Scott-Storey, Kelly

    2011-07-01

    For women, any one type of abuse rarely occurs in isolation of other types, and a single abusive experience is often the exception rather than the norm. The importance of this concept of the cumulative nature of abuse and its negative impact on health has been well recognized within the empirical literature, however there has been little consensus on what to call this phenomenon or how to study it. For the most part researchers have operated on the premise that it is the sheer number of different types of cumulating abuse experiences that is primarily responsible for worse health outcomes among women. And although this simplistic 'more is worse' approach to conceptualizing and operationalizing cumulative abuse has proven to be a powerful predictor of poorer health, it contradicts growing empirical evidence that suggests not all victimizations are created equal and that some victimizations may have a more deleterious effect on health than others. Embedded in abuse histories are individual and abuse characteristics as well as other life adversities that need to be considered in order to fully understand the spectrum and magnitude of cumulative abuse and its impact on women's health. Furthermore, given the long-term and persistent effects of abuse on health it becomes imperative to not only evaluate recent abusive experiences, but rather all abuse experiences occurring across the lifespan. This review highlights and evaluates the conceptual, operational, and methodological challenges posed by our current methods of studying and understanding the phenomenon of cumulative abuse and suggests that this phenomenon and its relationship to health is much more complex than research is currently portraying. This paper calls for the urgent need for interdisciplinary collaboration in order to more effectively and innovatively study the phenomenon of cumulative abuse.

  15. Operationalizing Counter Threat Finance Strategies

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-12-01

    paying with cash, check, or credit cards, a consumer can use a mobile phone to pay for a wide range of services, as well as for digital or hard...archive/publications-archive/tackling-wicked- problems, accessed on March 3, 2014. 3. Huns were a nomadic horse people migrating from Cen- tral Asia

  16. Operationalizing Lawfare: Opportunity and Risk

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2017-05-25

    will involve decision dilemmas that affect not only the military but American society and policy. 15. SUBJECT TERMS Lawfare; Information...involve decision dilemmas that affect not only the military but American society and policy...competing interests at play in the situation. News reports describe how, “under American law, the US Defense Department has legal powers to exercise

  17. Operationalizing Counter/Anti-Corruption Study

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-02-28

    fmUh < Mih •’$’d·•’"’~ "" ~wn. ht-tp• liN’ td&:d ewfl’ fmll ""ctJ,,, li:. t,tpC:rJUOftlll \\be llhJ IIU~ .. llll lllJW coun~J11lQn c:fl’olfl,\\ ~ tn

  18. Operationalizing biodiversity for conservation planning.

    PubMed

    Sarkar, Sahotra; Margules, Chris

    2002-07-01

    Biodiversity has acquired such a general meaning that people now find it difficult to pin down a precise sense for planning and policy-making aimed at biodiversity conservation. Because biodiversity is rooted in place, the task of conserving biodiversity should target places for conservation action; and because all places contain biodiversity, but not all places can be targeted for action, places have to be prioritized. What is needed for this is a measure of the extent to which biodiversity varies from place to place. We do not need a precise measure of biodiversity to prioritize places. Relative estimates of similarity or difference can be derived using partial measures, or what have come to be called biodiversity surrogates. Biodiversity surrogates are supposed to stand in for general biodiversity in planning applications. We distinguish between true surrogates, those that might truly stand in for general biodiversity, and estimator surrogates, which have true surrogates as their target variable. For example, species richness has traditionally been the estimator surrogate for the true surrogate, species diversity. But species richness does not capture the differences in composition between places; the essence of biodiversity. Another measure, called complementarity, explicitly captures the differences between places as we iterate the process of place prioritization, starting with an initial place. The relative concept of biodiversity built into the definition of complementarity has the level of precision needed to undertake conservation planning.

  19. Health Capability: Conceptualization and Operationalization

    PubMed Central

    2010-01-01

    Current theoretical approaches to bioethics and public health ethics propose varied justifications as the basis for health care and public health, yet none captures a fundamental reality: people seek good health and the ability to pursue it. Existing models do not effectively address these twin goals. The approach I espouse captures both of these orientations through a concept here called health capability. Conceptually, health capability illuminates the conditions that affect health and one's ability to make health choices. By respecting the health consequences individuals face and their health agency, health capability offers promise for finding a balance between paternalism and autonomy. I offer a conceptual model of health capability and present a health capability profile to identify and address health capability gaps. PMID:19965570

  20. A Deeper Look at the “Neural Correlate of Consciousness”

    PubMed Central

    Fink, Sascha Benjamin

    2016-01-01

    A main goal of the neuroscience of consciousness is: find the neural correlate to conscious experiences (NCC). When have we achieved this goal? The answer depends on our operationalization of “NCC.” Chalmers (2000) shaped the widely accepted operationalization according to which an NCC is a neural system with a state which is minimally sufficient (but not necessary) for an experience. A deeper look at this operationalization reveals why it might be unsatisfactory: (i) it is not an operationalization of a correlate for occurring experiences, but of the capacity to experience; (ii) it is unhelpful for certain cases which are used to motivate a search for neural correlates of consciousness; (iii) it does not mirror the usage of “NCC” by scientists who seek for unique correlates; (iv) it hardly allows for a form of comparative testing of hypotheses, namely experimenta crucis. Because of these problems (i–iv), we ought to amend or improve on Chalmers's operationalization. Here, I present an alternative which avoids these problems. This “NCC2.0” also retains some benefits of Chalmers's operationalization, namely being compatible with contributions from extended, embedded, enacted, or embodied accounts (4E-accounts) and allowing for the possibility of non-biological or artificial experiencers. PMID:27507950

  1. A Deeper Look at the "Neural Correlate of Consciousness".

    PubMed

    Fink, Sascha Benjamin

    2016-01-01

    A main goal of the neuroscience of consciousness is: find the neural correlate to conscious experiences (NCC). When have we achieved this goal? The answer depends on our operationalization of "NCC." Chalmers (2000) shaped the widely accepted operationalization according to which an NCC is a neural system with a state which is minimally sufficient (but not necessary) for an experience. A deeper look at this operationalization reveals why it might be unsatisfactory: (i) it is not an operationalization of a correlate for occurring experiences, but of the capacity to experience; (ii) it is unhelpful for certain cases which are used to motivate a search for neural correlates of consciousness; (iii) it does not mirror the usage of "NCC" by scientists who seek for unique correlates; (iv) it hardly allows for a form of comparative testing of hypotheses, namely experimenta crucis. Because of these problems (i-iv), we ought to amend or improve on Chalmers's operationalization. Here, I present an alternative which avoids these problems. This "NCC2.0" also retains some benefits of Chalmers's operationalization, namely being compatible with contributions from extended, embedded, enacted, or embodied accounts (4E-accounts) and allowing for the possibility of non-biological or artificial experiencers.

  2. Conceptualization and Operationalization of Executive Function

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Baggetta, Peter; Alexander, Patricia A.

    2016-01-01

    Executive function is comprised of different behavioral and cognitive elements and is considered to play a significant role in learning and academic achievement. Educational researchers frequently study the construct. However, because of its complexity functionally, the research on executive function can at times be both confusing and…

  3. Operationalizing Special Operations Aviation in Indonesia

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2006-12-15

    special operations forces Builder: Lockheed Power Plant: Four Allison T56 -A-15 turboprop engines Thrust: 4,910 shaft horsepower each engine...Builder: Lockheed Power Plant: Four Allison T56 -A-15 turboprop engines Thrust: 4,910 shaft horsepower each engine Length: 98 feet, 9 inches (30.09

  4. International Behavior Analysis: The Operationalization Task

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1976-02-15

    IJiC. L This report eoBStlttttoa tha first technical report of year t^.-o of the Intcrr.ational Behavior Analysis (IM) Project, vhich is designed ...builders continued to generate "grond designs ," but none of them attempted to specify variable areas in a comprehensive fashion. Ac a result, specific...1970; Meckstroth, 1975). The distinction between "most similar systems" and "most different systems" designs presents the fundamental choice that a

  5. Environmental attitude-behavior correspondence between different types of forest recreationists

    Treesearch

    Brijesh Thapa; Alan R. Graefe

    2001-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the association of participation in outdoor recreation activities and the environmental attitude-behavior correspondence among forest recreationists. Environmental attitudes were operationalized with the revised New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale, and behaviors were operationalized using a series of proenvironmental behaviors...

  6. The Adverse Drug Reactions from Patient Reports in Social Media Project: Five Major Challenges to Overcome to Operationalize Analysis and Efficiently Support Pharmacovigilance Process

    PubMed Central

    Dahamna, Badisse; Guillemin-Lanne, Sylvie; Darmoni, Stefan J; Faviez, Carole; Huot, Charles; Katsahian, Sandrine; Leroux, Vincent; Pereira, Suzanne; Richard, Christophe; Schück, Stéphane; Souvignet, Julien; Lillo-Le Louët, Agnès; Texier, Nathalie

    2017-01-01

    Background Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Classical Pharmacovigilance process is limited by underreporting which justifies the current interest in new knowledge sources such as social media. The Adverse Drug Reactions from Patient Reports in Social Media (ADR-PRISM) project aims to extract ADRs reported by patients in these media. We identified 5 major challenges to overcome to operationalize the analysis of patient posts: (1) variable quality of information on social media, (2) guarantee of data privacy, (3) response to pharmacovigilance expert expectations, (4) identification of relevant information within Web pages, and (5) robust and evolutive architecture. Objective This article aims to describe the current state of advancement of the ADR-PRISM project by focusing on the solutions we have chosen to address these 5 major challenges. Methods In this article, we propose methods and describe the advancement of this project on several aspects: (1) a quality driven approach for selecting relevant social media for the extraction of knowledge on potential ADRs, (2) an assessment of ethical issues and French regulation for the analysis of data on social media, (3) an analysis of pharmacovigilance expert requirements when reviewing patient posts on the Internet, (4) an extraction method based on natural language processing, pattern based matching, and selection of relevant medical concepts in reference terminologies, and (5) specifications of a component-based architecture for the monitoring system. Results Considering the 5 major challenges, we (1) selected a set of 21 validated criteria for selecting social media to support the extraction of potential ADRs, (2) proposed solutions to guarantee data privacy of patients posting on Internet, (3) took into account pharmacovigilance expert requirements with use case diagrams and scenarios, (4) built domain-specific knowledge resources embeding a lexicon, morphological rules

  7. An Analysis of Social Justice Research in School Psychology

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Graybill, Emily; Baker, Courtney N.; Cloth, Allison H.; Fisher, Sycarah; Nastasi, Bonnie K.

    2018-01-01

    The purpose of the current content analysis was to build upon previous empirical research both within school psychology and in other subdisciplines of psychology to refine the operationalized definition of social justice within school psychology research. Operationalizing the definition and substantiating it within the empirical literature is a…

  8. Continuity between DSM-5 Section II and Section III personality traits for obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.

    PubMed

    Liggett, Jacqueline; Sellbom, Martin; Bach, Bo

    2018-01-01

    Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) is formally operationalized in Section II of the DSM-5 by a heterogeneous collection of 8 categorical criteria. Section III contains an alternative model operationalizing personality disorders via dimensional personality traits and associated impairment. The extent to which the personality traits used to define OCPD in Section III correspond with the Section II operationalization of the disorder is contested. The current study aims to contribute to the evidence base necessary to solidify the optimal trait profile for this disorder via a more fine-tuned examination of OCPD. The research questions were examined using a clinical sample of 142 Danish adults who completed the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Disorders and the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 to index both the Sections II and III (personality traits) operationalizations of OCPD, respectively. Bivariate correlations supported Rigid Perfectionism and Perseveration as traits relevant to OCPD; however, hierarchical regression analyses indicated that of the 4 traits used in the Section III operationalization of OCPD, only Rigid Perfectionism uniquely predicted OCPD (p < .05). In addition to Rigid Perfectionism, the conceptually relevant traits of Submissiveness, Suspiciousness, and (low) Impulsivity were also found to uniquely predict OCPD and its specific symptoms in a regression model. These findings indicate that the traits proposed in Section III are only partially aligned with the traditional, Section II conceptualization of OCPD, and may be augmented by incorporating Submissiveness, Suspiciousness, and (low) Impulsivity. In light of the current findings and existing literature, a modified constellation of traits to operationalize OCPD is likely justified. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  9. The Effect of Writing Task and Task Conditions on Colombian EFL Learners' Language Use

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McDonough, Kim; Fuentes, César García

    2015-01-01

    This classroom study examines whether English L2 writers' language use differs depending on the writing task (operationalized as paragraph type), and task conditions (operationalized as individual or collaborative writing). The texts written by English L2 university students in Colombia (N = 26) in response to problem/solution and cause/effect…

  10. Operationalization of Strategic Change in Continuing Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wong, Evia O. W.

    2005-01-01

    Purpose: Hong Kong continuing education has encountered vigorous change in recent years. It is not limited to the mode of teaching and learning. Changing government policies, fund cutting to the higher education system and the entry of overseas university degrees increase the intensity of competition in the environment to an extraordinary extent.…

  11. Operationalizing Economics for Counterinsurgency and Stability Operations

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-05-01

    as freedom, described by Amartya Sen provides an improved foundation for military operations and a more complete campaign framework. Within these...peacekeeping.7 Development described by Amartya Sen is based on a concept that promotes freedom, a cornerstone of democracy and U.S. national policy. The...poverty and disease promote state failure.19 The writings of Jeffery Sachs, Thomas Sowell, Paul Collier, Amartya Sen , the World Bank, and many others

  12. Operationalizing Social Justice in Social Studies Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Misco, Thomas; Shiveley, James

    2016-01-01

    Although social justice is an overarching goal of most every department of teacher education, college of education, and US College or University, it is rarely an identified goal for K-12 schools. We contend that the field of social studies education also substantively focuses on social justice, and as such, this article clarifies the ways in which…

  13. Operationalizing resilience using state and transition models

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    In management, restoration, and policy contexts, the notion of resilience can be confusing. Systematic development of conceptual models of ecological state change (state transition models; STMs) can help overcome semantic confusion and promote a mechanistic understanding of resilience. Drawing on ex...

  14. Defining and Operationalizing Appropriation for Science Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Levrini, Olivia; Fantini, Paola; Tasquier, Giulia; Pecori, Barbara; Levin, Mariana

    2015-01-01

    The goal of this article is to contribute to understanding the interplay between students' disciplinary engagement and their identity construction. The term appropriation, borrowed from scholars in linguistics and education, was chosen to capture this broader sense of productive learning that sits at the nexus of disciplinary engagement and…

  15. When Does Premature Treatment Termination Occur? Examining Session-by-Session Dropout Among Clients with Gambling Disorder.

    PubMed

    Pfund, Rory A; Peter, Samuel C; Whelan, James P; Meyers, Andrew W

    2018-06-01

    Premature termination challenges the successful outcomes of psychological treatments for gambling disorder. To date, research has primarily identified clients who are at particular risk for dropping out of treatment. A smaller but growing body of literature has investigated when dropout occurs. Typically, those studies have not considered improvement in psychological distress within their operationalizations of dropout and therefore may have misrepresented when dropout occurs. The current study examined when dropout occurs using an operationalization based on the criteria of attaining reliable change in a naturalistic sample of clients with gambling disorder, and the classification rates yielded from that operationalization were compared to the rates from a more common operationalization. Participants (n = 334) were clients meeting diagnostic criteria for gambling disorder at an outpatient private practice who completed a measure of psychological distress at baseline and prior to each subsequent treatment session. A survival analysis was conducted to determine temporal patterns of treatment dropout (i.e., clients who discontinued treatment before realizing reliable changes in psychological distress) and completion (i.e., clients who discontinued treatment after realizing reliable changes in distress) at each treatment session. Forty-nine percent of clients were classified as dropouts, and the majority of those clients did so in the first few sessions. The more common operationalization of dropout classified clients as dropouts when they had improved in their distress and clients as completers when they had not improved in their distress. Discussion centers on the implications of dropout occurring at various stages of treatment and future directions.

  16. The Adverse Drug Reactions from Patient Reports in Social Media Project: Five Major Challenges to Overcome to Operationalize Analysis and Efficiently Support Pharmacovigilance Process.

    PubMed

    Bousquet, Cedric; Dahamna, Badisse; Guillemin-Lanne, Sylvie; Darmoni, Stefan J; Faviez, Carole; Huot, Charles; Katsahian, Sandrine; Leroux, Vincent; Pereira, Suzanne; Richard, Christophe; Schück, Stéphane; Souvignet, Julien; Lillo-Le Louët, Agnès; Texier, Nathalie

    2017-09-21

    Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Classical Pharmacovigilance process is limited by underreporting which justifies the current interest in new knowledge sources such as social media. The Adverse Drug Reactions from Patient Reports in Social Media (ADR-PRISM) project aims to extract ADRs reported by patients in these media. We identified 5 major challenges to overcome to operationalize the analysis of patient posts: (1) variable quality of information on social media, (2) guarantee of data privacy, (3) response to pharmacovigilance expert expectations, (4) identification of relevant information within Web pages, and (5) robust and evolutive architecture. This article aims to describe the current state of advancement of the ADR-PRISM project by focusing on the solutions we have chosen to address these 5 major challenges. In this article, we propose methods and describe the advancement of this project on several aspects: (1) a quality driven approach for selecting relevant social media for the extraction of knowledge on potential ADRs, (2) an assessment of ethical issues and French regulation for the analysis of data on social media, (3) an analysis of pharmacovigilance expert requirements when reviewing patient posts on the Internet, (4) an extraction method based on natural language processing, pattern based matching, and selection of relevant medical concepts in reference terminologies, and (5) specifications of a component-based architecture for the monitoring system. Considering the 5 major challenges, we (1) selected a set of 21 validated criteria for selecting social media to support the extraction of potential ADRs, (2) proposed solutions to guarantee data privacy of patients posting on Internet, (3) took into account pharmacovigilance expert requirements with use case diagrams and scenarios, (4) built domain-specific knowledge resources embeding a lexicon, morphological rules, context rules, semantic rules

  17. The Ottawa Citizen Engagement and Action Model (OCEAM): A Citizen engagement Strategy Operationalized Through The Participatory Research in Ottawa, Management and Point-of-care of Tobacco (PROMPT) Study: A Community Based Participatory Action Research Project in Inner City Ottawa.

    PubMed

    Pakhale, Smita; Kaur, Tina; Florence, Kelly; Rose, Tiffany; Boyd, Robert; Haddad, Joanne; Pettey, Donna; Muckle, Wendy; Tyndall, Mark

    2016-01-01

    of Canada. However, the PROUD Study (Participatory Research in Ottawa: Understanding Drugs) demonstrated that 96 % of the inner city population, of Ottawa currently smoke tobacco. This distinct inequity in tobacco use translates into inequitable distribution of health outcomes, such morbidity and mortality in this population. Consequently, a community-based participatory, peer-led research project was conducted in the inner city population of Ottawa. Methods We recruited and trained four community research peers who were representative of the study target population. We conceived, designed and operationalized the ten-step Ottawa Citizen Engagement and Action Model (OCEAM) for the PROMPT study. The peers have co-led all aspects of the project from conceptualizing the study question to participating in knowledge translation. Each step of the project had defined objectives and outcome measures. Discussion The involvement of peers in recruitment ensured representation of tobacco and drug users-individuals truly representative of the intended target population. Peer, participant engagement and trust was established from the conception of the project. For historical and self-evident reasons, trust and engagement is rarely found in this population. Peers successfully participated in all ten steps of the Citizen Engagement and Action model. The PROMPT study utilized the CBPR (Community Based Participatory research) approach to encourage engagement and build trust in a difficult to reach and hard to treat, inner city population. The ten-step OCEAM model was conceived, designed and operationalized and the PROMPT study will continue to follow the eighty PROMPT participants for six months to understand the optimal ways to manage, reduce, and quit smoking within an inner city population.

  18. Operationalizing and Detecting Disengagement within Online Science Microworlds

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gobert, Janice D.; Baker, Ryan S.; Wixon, Michael B.

    2015-01-01

    In recent years, there has been increased interest in engagement during learning. This is of particular interest in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics domains, in which many students struggle and where the United States needs skilled workers. This article lays out some issues important for framing research on this topic and…

  19. Operationalizing Offensive Social Engineering for the Air Force

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-03-01

    some concerns 2 of their members. The information was posted to a social networking site billing itself as military only but with no military ties. In...70 viii List of Figures Figure Page 1.1. Member Profile on a Social Networking Website [26] . . . . . . 3...Profile on a Social Networking Website [26] 1.3 Purpose Recognizing the advantages of social engineering and its current lack of incor- poration in the

  20. Operationalizing and Validating Disciplinary Literacy in Secondary Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Spires, Hiller A.; Kerkhoff, Shea N.; Graham, Abbey C. K.; Thompson, Isaac; Lee, John K.

    2018-01-01

    The goal of this study was to define the construct and establish the validity of disciplinary literacy, which has recently gained attention from the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers in Common Core State Standards for English…

  1. Skill Flexibility among Schoolteachers: Operationalization and Organizational Implications.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rosenblatt, Zehava; Inbal, Batia

    1999-01-01

    Investigates effects of skill flexibility on Israeli secondary teachers' work attitudes and job performance. Both role and functional flexibility were associated with improved teachers' work performance; role flexibility is linked to high organizational commitment and low powerlessness. Principals appreciate skill flexibility, but organizational…

  2. Education and Earnings: Empirical Findings from Alternative Operationalizations.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kominski, Robert

    Data from the third-wave interview of the 1984 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) are used to assess the empirical impact of a SIPP item concerning educational attainment on the regression of earnings on educational attainment. The SIPP is a longitudinal survey conducted by the United States Census Bureau to measure…

  3. Operationalizing quality improvement in a pediatric surgical practice.

    PubMed

    Arca, Marjorie J; Enters, Jessica; Christensen, Melissa; Jeziorczak, Paul; Sato, Thomas T; Thielke, Robert; Oldham, Keith T

    2014-01-01

    Quality improvement (QI) is critical to enhancing patient care. It is necessary to prioritize which QI initiatives are relevant to one's institution and practice, as implementation is resource-intensive. We have developed and implemented a streamlined process to identify QI opportunities in our practice. We designed a web-based Pediatric and Infant Case Log and Outcomes (PICaLO) instrument using Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap™) to record all surgical procedures for our practice. At the time of operation, a surgeon completes a case report form. An administrative assistant enters the data in PICaLO within 5-7days. Outcomes such as complications, deaths, and "occurrences" (readmissions, reoperations, transfers to ICU, ER visit, additional clinic visits) are recorded at the time of encounter, during M & M Conferences, and during follow-up clinic visits. Variables were chosen and defined based on national standards from the American College of Surgeons (ACS) National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP), and Patient Based Learning Log. Occurrences are queried for potential QI initiatives. In 2012, 3597 patients were entered, totaling 5177 procedures. There were 220 complications, 278 occurrences, and 16 deaths. Specific QI opportunities were identified and put into place. Data on procedures and outcomes can be collected effectively in a pediatric surgery practice to delineate pertinent QI initiatives. PICaLO is recognized by the American Board of Surgery as a mechanism to meet Maintenance of Certification 4 criteria. © 2014.

  4. Operationalizing the Impossible: The Responsibility to Protect Movement

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2015-05-23

    colonies. However one question remained; what acts constitute the authority to wage a just punitive war? According to Grotius, natural law dually...of this formerly communist nation immediately resulted in the creation of the nations of Slovenia and Croatia who

  5. Evaluating Musical Dis/abilities: Operationalizing the Capability Approach

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Watts, Michael; Ridley, Barbara

    2007-01-01

    We use this paper to suggest the use of Sen's capability approach in interpreting disability. The substantive focus is our evaluation of the Drake Music Project, which uses electronic and computer technologies to enable severely disabled people to explore, compose and perform music. We consider how the process of making music enables the musicians…

  6. Development of a foundation for a case definition of post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome.

    PubMed

    Aucott, John N; Crowder, Lauren A; Kortte, Kathleen B

    2013-06-01

    The study objective is to demonstrate the clinical and research utility of an operationalized definition of post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS), as proposed by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Seventy-four patients with confirmed erythema migrans and 14 controls were enrolled. Patient-reported symptoms and health function (SF-36) were collected pre-treatment and at follow-up visits over 6 months post-treatment. Eight (11%) patients met our operationalized definition of PTLDS, which included self-reported symptoms of fatigue, widespread musculoskeletal pain or cognitive complaints, and functional impact as measured by a T score of <45 on the composite SF-36. No controls met the functional impact criteria. Forty-three (60% patients returned to their previous health status when measured at 6 months post-treatment. Twenty (28%) patients had either residual symptoms or functional impact, but not both, and did not meet criteria for PTLDS. This operationalized definition of PTLDS allows for identification of those patients who are treated for early Lyme disease and have significant post-treatment illness, as they have both residual symptoms and impact on daily life functioning. With further refinement and improvement of this operationalized definition, the true incidence of PTLDS can be determined and future studies can be designed to examine its pathophysiology and treatment. Copyright © 2013 International Society for Infectious Diseases. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Exploring the attributes of critical thinking: a conceptual basis.

    PubMed

    Forneris, Susan G

    2004-01-01

    Many teaching methods used in nursing education to enhance critical thinking focus on teaching students how to directly apply knowledge; a technically rational approach. While seemingly effective at enhancing students' critical thinking abilities in structured learning situations, these methods don't prepare students to operationalize critical thinking to manage the complexities that actually exist in practice. The work of contemporary educational theorists Paulo Freire, Donald Schon, Chris Argyris, Jack Mezirow, Stephen Brookfield, and Robert Tennyson all share similar perspectives on thinking in practice and the use of reflection to achieve a coherence of understanding. Their perspectives provide insight on how educators can shift from a means-end approach to operationalizing thinking in practice. The author identifies four attributes of critical thinking in practice evidenced in these views, followed by a discussion of specific educational strategies that reflect these attributes, and operationalize a critical thinking process in nursing practice to achieve a coherence of understanding.

  8. Clarifying the Concept of Adherence to eHealth Technology: Systematic Review on When Usage Becomes Adherence

    PubMed Central

    Kelders, Saskia M; van Gemert-Pijnen, Julia EWC

    2017-01-01

    Background In electronic health (eHealth) evaluations, there is increasing attention for studying the actual usage of a technology in relation to the outcomes found, often by studying the adherence to the technology. On the basis of the definition of adherence, we suggest that the following three elements are necessary to determine adherence to eHealth technology: (1) the ability to measure the usage behavior of individuals; (2) an operationalization of intended use; and (3) an empirical, theoretical, or rational justification of the intended use. However, to date, little is known on how to operationalize the intended usage of and the adherence to different types of eHealth technology. Objective The study aimed to improve eHealth evaluations by gaining insight into when, how, and by whom the concept of adherence has been used in previous eHealth evaluations and finding a concise way to operationalize adherence to and intended use of different eHealth technologies. Methods A systematic review of eHealth evaluations was conducted to gain insight into how the use of the technology was measured, how adherence to different types of technologies was operationalized, and if and how the intended use of the technology was justified. Differences in variables between the use of the technology and the operationalization of adherence were calculated using a chi-square test of independence. Results In total, 62 studies were included in this review. In 34 studies, adherence was operationalized as “the more use, the better,” whereas 28 studies described a threshold for intended use of the technology as well. Out of these 28, only 6 reported a justification for the intended use. The proportion of evaluations of mental health technologies reporting a justified operationalization of intended use is lagging behind compared with evaluations of lifestyle and chronic care technologies. The results indicated that a justification of intended use does not require extra measurements to

  9. The More, the Better? Curvilinear Effects of Job Autonomy on Well-Being From Vitamin Model and PE-Fit Theory Perspectives.

    PubMed

    Stiglbauer, Barbara; Kovacs, Carrie

    2017-12-28

    In organizational psychology research, autonomy is generally seen as a job resource with a monotone positive relationship with desired occupational outcomes such as well-being. However, both Warr's vitamin model and person-environment (PE) fit theory suggest that negative outcomes may result from excesses of some job resources, including autonomy. Thus, the current studies used survey methodology to explore cross-sectional relationships between environmental autonomy, person-environment autonomy (mis)fit, and well-being. We found that autonomy and autonomy (mis)fit explained between 6% and 22% of variance in well-being, depending on type of autonomy (scheduling, method, or decision-making) and type of (mis)fit operationalization (atomistic operationalization through the separate assessment of actual and ideal autonomy levels vs. molecular operationalization through the direct assessment of perceived autonomy (mis)fit). Autonomy (mis)fit (PE-fit perspective) explained more unique variance in well-being than environmental autonomy itself (vitamin model perspective). Detrimental effects of autonomy excess on well-being were most evident for method autonomy and least consistent for decision-making autonomy. We argue that too-much-of-a-good-thing effects of job autonomy on well-being exist, but suggest that these may be dependent upon sample characteristics (range of autonomy levels), type of operationalization (molecular vs. atomistic fit), autonomy facet (method, scheduling, or decision-making), as well as individual and organizational moderators. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

  10. Specifying and Pilot Testing Quality Measures for the American Society of Addiction Medicine's Standards of Care.

    PubMed

    Harris, Alex H S; Weisner, Constance M; Chalk, Mady; Capoccia, Victor; Chen, Cheng; Thomas, Cindy Parks

    2016-01-01

    In 2013, the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) approved its Standards of Care for the Addiction Specialist Physician. Subsequently, an ASAM Performance Measures Panel identified and prioritized the standards to be operationalized into performance measures. The goal of this study is to describe the process of operationalizing 3 of these standards into quality measures, and to present the initial measure specifications and results of pilot testing these measures in a large health care system. By presenting the process rather than just the end results, we hope to shed light on the measure development process to educate, and also to stimulate debate about the decisions that were made. Each measure was decomposed into major concepts. Then each concept was operationalized using commonly available administrative data sources. Alternative specifications examined and sensitivity analyses were conducted to inform decisions that balanced accuracy, clinical nuance, and simplicity. Using data from the US Veterans Health Administration (VHA), overall performance and variation in performance across 119 VHA facilities were calculated. Three measures were operationalized and pilot tested: pharmacotherapy for alcohol use disorder, pharmacotherapy for opioid use disorder, and timely follow-up after medically managed withdrawal (aka detoxification). Each measure was calculable with available data, and showed ample room for improvement (no ceiling effects) and wide facility-level variability. Next steps include conducting feasibility and pilot testing in other health care systems and other contexts such as standalone addiction treatment programs, and also to study the specification and predictive validity of these measures.

  11. [Health promotion. Instrument development for the application of the theory of planned behavior].

    PubMed

    Lee, Y O

    1993-01-01

    The purpose of this article is to describe operationalization of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). The quest to understand determinants of health behaviors has intensified as evidence accumulates concerning the impact of personal behavior on health. The majority of theory-based research has used the Health Belief Model(HBM). The HBM components have had limited success in explaining health-related behaviors. There are several advantages of the TPB over the HBM. TPB is an expansion of the Theory of Reasoned Action(TRA) with the addition of the construct, perceived behavioral control. The revised model has been shown to yield greater explanatory power than the original TRA for goal-directed behaviors. The process of TPB instrument development was described, using example form the study of smoking cessation behavior in military smokers. It was followed by a discussion of reliability and validity issues in operationalizing the TPB. The TPB is a useful model for understanding and predicting health-related behaviors when carefully operationalized. The model holds promise in the development of prescriptive nursing approaches.

  12. Meet meat: An explorative study on meat and cultured meat as seen by Chinese, Ethiopians and Dutch.

    PubMed

    Bekker, Gerben A; Tobi, Hilde; Fischer, Arnout R H

    2017-07-01

    In this cross-cultural study we investigated how study participants from China, Ethiopia and the Netherlands operationalize the concept of meat and to what extent cultured meat fits or does not fit into this operationalization. We argue that combining the conceptual approaches symbolic boundaries and theory of social practices helps to better understand the possibly culturally dependent operationalization of the concept meat. Ten visiting graduate students from China, 10 from Ethiopia and 10 native Dutch graduate students completed freelist tasks, a pile sort task, interview and essay task, during a single session. We found that butchered animals are at the center of the concept of meat, although depending on culture not all animals are a source of meat. Symbolic boundaries were restricted or stretched depending on social practices within countries. Ethiopian participants applied strictly defined symbolic boundaries, where Chinese and Dutch participants used more broadly defined symbolic boundaries. Cultured meat was seen as a technology for the future and was positioned across the symbolic boundaries of meat. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Clarifying the Concept of Adherence to eHealth Technology: Systematic Review on When Usage Becomes Adherence.

    PubMed

    Sieverink, Floor; Kelders, Saskia M; van Gemert-Pijnen, Julia Ewc

    2017-12-06

    In electronic health (eHealth) evaluations, there is increasing attention for studying the actual usage of a technology in relation to the outcomes found, often by studying the adherence to the technology. On the basis of the definition of adherence, we suggest that the following three elements are necessary to determine adherence to eHealth technology: (1) the ability to measure the usage behavior of individuals; (2) an operationalization of intended use; and (3) an empirical, theoretical, or rational justification of the intended use. However, to date, little is known on how to operationalize the intended usage of and the adherence to different types of eHealth technology. The study aimed to improve eHealth evaluations by gaining insight into when, how, and by whom the concept of adherence has been used in previous eHealth evaluations and finding a concise way to operationalize adherence to and intended use of different eHealth technologies. A systematic review of eHealth evaluations was conducted to gain insight into how the use of the technology was measured, how adherence to different types of technologies was operationalized, and if and how the intended use of the technology was justified. Differences in variables between the use of the technology and the operationalization of adherence were calculated using a chi-square test of independence. In total, 62 studies were included in this review. In 34 studies, adherence was operationalized as "the more use, the better," whereas 28 studies described a threshold for intended use of the technology as well. Out of these 28, only 6 reported a justification for the intended use. The proportion of evaluations of mental health technologies reporting a justified operationalization of intended use is lagging behind compared with evaluations of lifestyle and chronic care technologies. The results indicated that a justification of intended use does not require extra measurements to determine adherence to the technology. The

  14. Salience of the Nuclear Threat: Operationalization through Spontaneous Concern.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mayton, Daniel M., II

    An indirect/nonreactive technique of assessing spontaneous concern should be used to examine the salience of the threat of nuclear war. Direct/reactive techniques may produce inconsistent results and inadvertently enhance a false consensus. The procedures for the administration, scoring, and interpretation of a spontaneous concern measure along…

  15. Designs for Operationalizing Collaborative Problem Solving for Automated Assessment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Scoular, Claire; Care, Esther; Hesse, Friedrich W.

    2017-01-01

    Collaborative problem solving is a complex skill set that draws on social and cognitive factors. The construct remains in its infancy due to lack of empirical evidence that can be drawn upon for validation. The differences and similarities between two large-scale initiatives that reflect this state of the art, in terms of underlying assumptions…

  16. Resonance Ops: How Developing Social Movements Can Operationalize Ideologies

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-12-01

    NUMBERS 6. AUTHOR(S) Gabriel R. Bowns 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) Naval Postgraduate School Monterey, CA 93943-5000 8...PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER 9. SPONSORING /MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) N/A 10. SPONSORING / MONITORING AGENCY REPORT NUMBER...international phenomena, my recommendation is an initial attempt to modify Special Operations organization and expectations and to improve their effectiveness

  17. Evaluating and operationalizing unmanned aircraft for wildland fire use

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Watts, A.

    2015-12-01

    Many potential uses of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) related to wildland fire research and operations have been demonstrated, but the vast majority of these have been proof-of-concept or one-time flights. Scientists, practitioners, and firefighting agencies look forward to the widespread adoption of this powerful technology and its regular use. Similarly, the UAS industry awaits opportunities for commercialization. Our collaboration brings together UAS industry, research and management agencies, and universities in the USA and Canada to investigate the perceived effectiveness of UAS for wildland fire use, and the factors affecting their commercial-scale employment. Our current and future activities include market research, training and technology transfer, and deployment of UAS over fires to promote development of sensors as well as their safe integration into fire operations. We will present initial results, and as a part of our presentation we also invite participation of the AGU community for planned future project phases. We anticipate that the outcomes of our work will be useful to potential users who are unfamiliar with UAS, and to researchers and practitioners with experience or an interest in their use in fire and related natural-resource disciplines.

  18. Operationalizing the Army National Guard: A Return to Tradition

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-05-22

    Maho 97 Brayton , 141. 98 Taylor , 5. 99 Ibid. 31 called 12,234 Guardsmen to active duty, only 2,729 actually served in Vietnam.100 Johnson wished... Taylor , and John M. Taylor , Dictionary of Military Terms: A Guide to the Language of Warfare and Military Institutions, (New York: The H.W. Wilson...James E. Taylor New Millennium Doubler, 188. 22 federal service by dissolving its units and drafting members as individuals.”66 Under these legal

  19. Operationalizing the One Health approach: the global governance challenges.

    PubMed

    Lee, Kelley; Brumme, Zabrina L

    2013-10-01

    While there has been wide-ranging commitment to the One Health approach, its operationalisation has so far proven challenging. One Health calls upon the human, animal and environmental health sectors to cross professional, disciplinary and institutional boundaries, and to work in a more integrated fashion. At the global level, this paper argues that this vision is hindered by dysfunctions characterising current forms of global health governance (GHG), namely institutional proliferation, fragmentation, competition for scarce resources, lack of an overarching authority, and donor-driven vertical programmes. This has contributed, in part, to shortcomings in how One Health has been articulated to date. An agreed operational definition of One Health among key global institutions, efforts to build One Health institutions from the ground up, comparative case studies of what works or does not work institutionally, and high-level global support for research, training and career opportunities would all help to enable One Health to help remedy, and not be subsumed by, existing dysfunctions in GHG.

  20. Operationalizing the Implicit Curriculum in MSW Distance Education Programs

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Quinn, Andrew; Barth, Anna M.

    2014-01-01

    Sixteen MSW distance programs provided insight into how the implicit curriculum currently exists within their programs. Overall, distance programs carried out the activities necessary for student development; the student population made for a more diverse learning community; and faculty were receiving training. There was still a heavy reliance on…

  1. Cultural Values Predicting Acculturation Orientations: Operationalizing a Quantitative Measure

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ehala, Martin

    2012-01-01

    This article proposes that acculturation orientations are related to two sets of cultural values: utilitarianism (Ut) and traditionalism (Tr). While utilitarian values enhance assimilation, traditional values support language and identity maintenance. It is proposed that the propensity to either end of this value opposition can be measured by an…

  2. Operationalizing Sustainable Development Suncor Energy Inc: A critical case

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fergus, Andrew

    The concept of Sustainable Development is often understood as a framework within which organizations are able to move forward in a successful and beneficial manner. However, it is also seen as an ambiguous notion with little substance beyond a hopeful dialogue. If we are to base organizational action upon the concepts of Sustainable Development, it is vital that we comprehend the implications of how the concept is understood at a behavioral level. Industry leaders, competitors, shareholders, and stakeholders recognize Suncor Energy Inc as a leading organization within the Oil and Gas energy field. In particular it has a reputation for proactive thinking and action within the areas of environmental and social responsibility. Through attempting to integrate the ideas of Sustainable Development at a foundational level into the strategic plan, the management of Suncor Energy Inc has committed the organization to be a sustainable energy company. To achieve this vision the organization faces the challenge of converting strategic goals into operational behaviors, a process critical for a successful future. This research focuses on understanding the issues found with this conversion process. Through exploring a critical case, this research illuminates the reality of a best-case scenario. The findings thus have implications for both Suncor Energy Inc and more importantly all other organizations attempting to move in a Sustainable Development direction.

  3. Operationalizing Mobile Applications for Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief Missions

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-03-01

    FLAK, equipped with BGAN, WiMAX and meshed Wi-Fi gear. The group also brought power solutions such as solar cells, fuel cells, and wind turbines as...Open data kit sensors : Mobile data collection with wired and wireless sensors . Seattle, WA: Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Retrieved...activities taking place in the society. Over the years, communication has been modified from basic landlines to wireless schemes prevalent today, and

  4. Variable Perceptions of Decision: An Operationalization of Four Models.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Benjamin, Beverly P.; Kerchner, Charles T.

    Decision-making and the models of decision-making that people carry in their minds were assessed. Participants in a public policy decision involving early childhood education were mapped onto four frequently used models of decision making: the rational, the bureaucratic, organizational process (Allison, 1971) and the garbage can or organized…

  5. Operationalization of the wilderness targets of the German NSBD

    Treesearch

    Albert Reif

    2015-01-01

    The German government's National Strategy on Biological Diversity (NSBD) aims at protecting its biodiversity in a broad sense. The NSBD calls for 5% of Germany's forest land area to be permanently set aside for natural forest protection, i.e., natural processes taking place, and as a second target, for 2% of Germany's land area to become "wilderness...

  6. Operationalizing Culturally Responsive Instruction: Preliminary Findings of CRIOP Research

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Powell, Rebecca; Cantrell, Susan Chambers; Malo-Juvera, Victor; Correll, Pamela

    2016-01-01

    Background: Many scholars have espoused the use of culturally responsive instruction (CRI) for closing achievement gaps, yet there is a paucity of research supporting its effectiveness. In this article, we share results of a mixed methods study that examined the use of the Culturally Responsive Instruction Observation Protocol (CRIOP) as a…

  7. Operationalizing the Space Weather Modeling Framework: Challenges and Resolutions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Welling, D. T.; Gombosi, T. I.; Toth, G.; Singer, H. J.; Millward, G. H.; Balch, C. C.; Cash, M. D.

    2016-12-01

    Predicting ground-based magnetic perturbations is a critical step towards specifying and predicting geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) in high voltage transmission lines. Currently, the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF), a flexible modeling framework for simulating the multi-scale space environment, is being transitioned from research to operational use (R2O) by NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center. Upon completion of this transition, the SWMF will provide localized time-varying magnetic field (dB/dt) predictions using real-time solar wind observations from L1 and the F10.7 proxy for EUV as model input. This presentation chronicles the challenges encountered during the R2O transition of the SWMF. Because operations relies on frequent calculations of global surface dB/dt, new optimizations were required to keep the model running faster than real time. Additionally, several singular situations arose during the 30-day robustness test that required immediate attention. Solutions and strategies for overcoming these issues will be presented. This includes new failsafe options for code execution, new physics and coupling parameters, and the development of an automated validation suite that allows us to monitor performance with code evolution. Finally, the operations-to-research (O2R) impact on SWMF-related research is presented. The lessons learned from this work are valuable and instructive for the space weather community as further R2O progress is made.

  8. Operationalizing Cyberspace for Today’s Combat Air Force

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2010-04-01

    rootkit techniques to run inside common Windows services (sometimes bundled with fake antivirus software ) or in Windows safe mode, and it can hide...has shifted to downloading other malware, with its main focus on fake alerts and rogue antivirus software . 5. TR/Dldr.Agent.JKH - Compromised U.S...patch, software update, or security breech away from failure. In short, what works AU/ACSC/SIMMONS/AY10 5 today, may not work tomorrow; this fact

  9. Operationalizing the Student Electronic Portfolio for Doctoral Nursing Education.

    PubMed

    Willmarth-Stec, Melissa; Beery, Teresa

    2015-01-01

    There is an increasing trend toward use of the electronic portfolio (e-portfolio) in Doctor of Nursing Practice programs. E-portfolios can provide documentation of competencies and achievement of program outcomes while showcasing a holistic view of the student achievement. Implementation of the e-portfolio requires careful decision making concerning software selection, set-up, portfolio components, and evaluation. The purpose of this article is to describe the implementation of an e-portfolio in a Doctor of Nursing Practice program and provide lessons learned during the implementation stage.

  10. What Do We Mean by Physician Wellness? A Systematic Review of Its Definition and Measurement.

    PubMed

    Brady, Keri J S; Trockel, Mickey T; Khan, Christina T; Raj, Kristin S; Murphy, Mary Lou; Bohman, Bryan; Frank, Erica; Louie, Alan K; Roberts, Laura Weiss

    2018-02-01

    Physician wellness (well-being) is recognized for its intrinsic importance and impact on patient care, but it is a construct that lacks conceptual clarity. The authors conducted a systematic review to characterize the conceptualization of physician wellness in the literature by synthesizing definitions and measures used to operationalize the construct. A total of 3057 references identified from PubMed, Web of Science, and a manual reference check were reviewed for studies that quantitatively assessed the "wellness" or "well-being" of physicians. Definitions of physician wellness were thematically synthesized. Measures of physician wellness were classified based on their dimensional, contextual, and valence attributes, and changes in the operationalization of physician wellness were assessed over time (1989-2015). Only 14% of included papers (11/78) explicitly defined physician wellness. At least one measure of mental, social, physical, and integrated well-being was present in 89, 50, 49, and 37% of papers, respectively. The number of papers operationalizing physician wellness using integrated, general-life well-being measures (e.g., meaning in life) increased [X 2  = 5.08, p = 0.02] over time. Changes in measurement across mental, physical, and social domains remained stable over time. Conceptualizations of physician wellness varied widely, with greatest emphasis on negative moods/emotions (e.g., burnout). Clarity and consensus regarding the conceptual definition of physician wellness is needed to advance the development of valid and reliable physician wellness measures, improve the consistency by which the construct is operationalized, and increase comparability of findings across studies. To guide future physician wellness assessments and interventions, the authors propose a holistic definition.

  11. Levels of Emotional Awareness: a model for conceptualizing and measuring emotion-centered structural change.

    PubMed

    Subic-Wrana, Claudia; Beutel, Manfred E; Garfield, David A S; Lane, Richard D

    2011-04-01

    The need to establish the efficacy of psychoanalytic long-term treatments has promoted efforts to operationalize psychic structure and structural change as key elements of psychoanalytic treatments and their outcomes. Current, promising measures of structural change, however, require extensive interviews and rater training. The purpose of this paper is to present the theory and measurement of Levels of Emotional Awareness (LEA) and to illustrate its use based on clinical case vignettes. The LEA model lays out a developmental trajectory of affective processing, akin to Piaget's theory of sensory-cognitive development, from implicit to explicit processing. Unlike other current assessments of psychic structure (Scales of Psychological Capacities, Reflective Functioning, Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnostics) requiring intensive rater and interviewer training, it is easily assessed based on a self-report performance test. The LEA model conceptualizes a basic psychological capacity, affect processing. As we will illustrate using two case vignettes, by operationalizing implicit and explicit modes of affect processing, it provides a clinical measure of emotional awareness that is highly pertinent to the ongoing psychoanalytic debate on the nature and mechanisms of structural change. Copyright © 2011 Institute of Psychoanalysis.

  12. Organizational Strategies to Implement Hospital Pressure Ulcer Prevention Programs: Findings from a National Survey

    PubMed Central

    SOBAN, LYNN M.; KIM, LINDA; YUAN, ANITA H.; MILTNER, REBECCA S.

    2017-01-01

    Aim To describe the presence and operationalization of organizational strategies to support implementation of pressure ulcer prevention programs across acute care hospitals in a large, integrated healthcare system. Background Comprehensive pressure ulcer programs include nursing interventions such as use of a risk assessment tool and organizational strategies such as policies and performance monitoring to embed these interventions into routine care. The current literature provides little detail about strategies used to implement pressure ulcer prevention programs. Methods Data were collected by an email survey to all Chief Nursing Officers in Veterans Health Administration acute care hospitals. Descriptive and bivariate statistics were used to summarize survey responses and evaluate relationships between some variables. Results Organizational strategies that support pressure ulcer prevention program implementation (policy, committee, staff education, wound care specialists, and use of performance data) were reported at high levels. Considerable variations were noted in how these strategies were operationalized within individual hospitals. Conclusion Organizational strategies to support implementation of pressure ulcer preventive programs are often not optimally operationalized to achieve consistent, sustainable performance. Implications for Nursing Management The results of this study highlight the role and influence of nurse leaders on pressure ulcer prevention program implementation. PMID:27487972

  13. Intimate terrorism and situational couple violence in general surveys: ex-spouses required.

    PubMed

    Johnson, Michael P; Leone, Janel M; Xu, Yili

    2014-02-01

    In this article, we argue that past efforts to distinguish among types of intimate partner violence in general survey data have committed a critical error--using data on current spouses to develop operationalizations of intimate terrorism and situational couple violence. We use ex-spouse data from the National Violence Against Women Survey (NVAWS) to develop new operationalizations. We then demonstrate that NVAWS current spouse data contain little intimate terrorism; we argue that this is likely to be the case for all general surveys. In addition, the ex-spouse data confirm past findings regarding a variety of differences between intimate terrorism and situational couple violence, including those predicted by feminist theories.

  14. Interpersonal Conflict and Cooperation in Psychopaths

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Widom, Cathy Spatz

    1976-01-01

    Interpersonal behavior in psychopaths was explored using the Prisoner's Dilemma game. Various personality characteristics frequently cited as distinguishing psychopaths from others were operationalized and studied. (Editor)

  15. Environmental Quality and Issues of Adoption Research

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pampel, Fred, Jr.; van Es, J. C.

    1977-01-01

    Data gathered through telephone interviews with Illinois farmers are used to study the adoption of soil conservation practices (operationalization of environmental innovation) and commercial practices. (NQ)

  16. When is selective self-presentation effective? An investigation of the moderation effects of "self-esteem" and "social trust".

    PubMed

    Kim, Yoonkyung; Baek, Young Min

    2014-11-01

    This study investigates the relationship between selective self-presentation and online life satisfaction, and how this relationship is influenced by respondents' perceptions of "self" (operationalized by "self-esteem") and "others" (operationalized by "social trust"). Relying on survey data from 712 Korean online users, two important findings were detected in our study. First, the positive relationship between selective self-presentation and online life satisfaction becomes more prominent among people with low self-esteem compared to those with high self-esteem, and second, this positive relationship is enhanced among people with high levels of social trust compared to those with low trust levels. Theoretical and practical implications of our findings as well as potential limitations are discussed.

  17. Health plan approach to operationalizing a specialty drug management program.

    PubMed

    Tegenu, Mesfin

    2008-05-01

    Expenditures related to specialty drugs consume a significant percentage of available health care resources. Explain the process of transitioning the management of specialty drugs from medical services to pharmacy services in 2 managed care plans and provide insight into the issues encountered and solutions implemented based on 6 years of experience using traditional and innovative pharmacy utilization management tools to insure appropriate specialty drug use and reimbursement. The level of involvement in a specialty management program varies from managing only products dispensed by the retail, mail, and specialty pharmacy vendor to encompassing a broad list of specialty drugs distributed through a variety of channels. Efficient administrative, operational, and clinical processes are critical to the success of the program. Additionally, an accurate and timely claims processing procedure is also essential for success as is the ability to mine data and effectively report on the use of specialty products. A clinically sound, cost-effective, and patient-friendly program requires input from health plan members, pharmacy service leaders, and physician providers, and must overcome challenges associated with disrupting current relationships and removing competing incentives. A well-constructed and properly funded specialty drug management program results in clinical and financial benefits for the plan.

  18. Son of SPECOPS: Rethinking the Nature and Operationalization of Cyberspace

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2012-04-27

    argument, it is fair to assert that the initial placement of USCYBERCOM under USSTRATCOM made sense, prima facie , and allowed it to stand up and reach... guidelines can be disastrous. Such was the case in August 2007, when a B-52 accidentally transported six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles from Minot Air...and memory in computing technology, as captured by Moore’s Law, constitute the guideline for development in the computing and

  19. Operationalizing sustainability in urban coastal systems: a system dynamics analysis.

    PubMed

    Mavrommati, Georgia; Bithas, Kostas; Panayiotidis, Panayiotis

    2013-12-15

    We propose a system dynamics approach for Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) in urban coastal systems. A systematic analysis based on theoretical considerations, policy analysis and experts' knowledge is followed in order to define the concept of ESD. The principles underlying ESD feed the development of a System Dynamics Model (SDM) that connects the pollutant loads produced by urban systems' socioeconomic activities with the ecological condition of the coastal ecosystem that it is delineated in operational terms through key biological elements defined by the EU Water Framework Directive. The receiving waters of the Athens Metropolitan area, which bears the elements of typical high population density Mediterranean coastal city but which currently has also new dynamics induced by the ongoing financial crisis, are used as an experimental system for testing a system dynamics approach to apply the concept of ESD. Systems' thinking is employed to represent the complex relationships among the components of the system. Interconnections and dependencies that determine the potentials for achieving ESD are revealed. The proposed system dynamics analysis can facilitate decision makers to define paths of development that comply with the principles of ESD. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Checklist to operationalize measurement characteristics of patient-reported outcome measures.

    PubMed

    Francis, David O; McPheeters, Melissa L; Noud, Meaghan; Penson, David F; Feurer, Irene D

    2016-08-02

    The purpose of this study was to advance a checklist of evaluative criteria designed to assess patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures' developmental measurement properties and applicability, which can be used by systematic reviewers, researchers, and clinicians with a varied range of expertise in psychometric measure development methodology. A directed literature search was performed to identify original studies, textbooks, consensus guidelines, and published reports that propose criteria for assessing the quality of PRO measures. Recommendations from these sources were iteratively distilled into a checklist of key attributes. Preliminary items underwent evaluation through 24 cognitive interviews with clinicians and quantitative researchers. Six measurement theory methodological novices independently applied the final checklist to assess six PRO measures encompassing a variety of methods, applications, and clinical constructs. Agreement between novice and expert scores was assessed. The distillation process yielded an 18-item checklist with six domains: (1) conceptual model, (2) content validity, (3) reliability, (4) construct validity, (5) scoring and interpretation, and (6) respondent burden and presentation. With minimal instruction, good agreement in checklist item ratings was achieved between quantitative researchers with expertise in measurement theory and less experienced clinicians (mean kappa 0.70; range 0.66-0.87). We present a simplified checklist that can help guide systematic reviewers, researchers, and clinicians with varied measurement theory expertise to evaluate the strengths and weakness of candidate PRO measures' developmental properties and the appropriateness for specific applications.

  1. Conceptualizing and operationalizing human wellbeing for ecosystem assessment and management

    Treesearch

    Sara Jo Breslow; Brit Sojka; Raz Barnea; Xavier Basurto; Courtney Carothers; Susan Charnley; Sarah Coulthard; Nives Dolšak; Jamie Donatuto; Carlos García-Quijano; Christina C. Hicks; Arielle Levine; Michael B. Mascia; Karma Norman; Melissa Poe; Terre Satterfield; Kevin St. Martin; Phillip S. Levin

    2016-01-01

    There is growing interest in assessing the effects of changing environmental conditions and management actions on humanwellbeing. Achallenge is totranslate social science expertise regarding theserelationships into terms usable by environmental scientists, policymakers, and managers. Here, we present a comprehensive, structured, and transparent conceptual framework of...

  2. Operationalizing universal health coverage in Nigeria through social health insurance

    PubMed Central

    Okpani, Arnold Ikedichi; Abimbola, Seye

    2015-01-01

    Nigeria faces challenges that delay progress toward the attainment of the national government's declared goal of universal health coverage (UHC). One such challenge is system-wide inequities resulting from lack of financial protection for the health care needs of the vast majority of Nigerians. Only a small proportion of Nigerians have prepaid health care. In this paper, we draw on existing evidence to suggest steps toward reforming health care financing in Nigeria to achieve UHC through social health insurance. This article sets out to demonstrate that a viable path to UHC through expanding social health insurance exists in Nigeria. We argue that encouraging the states which are semi-autonomous federating units to setup and manage their own insurance schemes presents a unique opportunity for rapidly scaling up prepaid coverage for Nigerians. We show that Nigeria's federal structure which prescribes a sharing of responsibilities for health care among the three tiers of government presents serious challenges for significantly extending social insurance to uncovered groups. We recommend that rather than allowing this governance structure to impair progress toward UHC, it should be leveraged to accelerate the process by supporting the states to establish and manage their own insurance funds while encouraging integration with the National Health Insurance Scheme. PMID:26778879

  3. Digital Competence Assessment: A Proposal for Operationalizing the Critical Dimension

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cortoni, Ida; LoPresti, Veronica; Cervelli, Pierluigi

    2015-01-01

    The European Commission considers the development of digital competences a strategic action to spread and to develop a more active digital participation of citizens. The objective is to increase the level of digital competence in the European citizens up to 2015 and to reduce the number of those who don't use new technologies and don't surf the…

  4. [Inter-rater reliability and validity of the OPD-CA axes structure and conflict].

    PubMed

    Benecke, Cord; Bock, Astrid; Wieser, Elke; Tschiesner, Reinhard; Lochmann, Martha; Küspert, Felicia; Schorn, Robert; Viertler, Bernhard; Steinmayr-Gensluckner, Maria

    2011-01-01

    The manual of the Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnostics in childhood and adolescence (OPD-CA) is an instrument meanwhile widespread in the clinical practice to assess psychodynamic dimensions. Publications of inter-rater agreement and validity are still outstanding. This study assessed the interrater-reliability and validity for the axis structure and the axis conflict. 60 adolescents between 14 and 17 years, with and without psychic disorders, were diagnosed with the Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnostics in childhood and adolescence (Arbeitskreis OPD-KJ, 2007) and SCID-II-interviews and questionnaires. A partial sample of 36 OPD-CA-interviews was the data basis for the assessment of inter-rater agreement. Calculations of validity for axis structure and axis conflict were made with the whole sample. Inter-rater agreement for the axis structure and the axis conflict showed good to very good weighted Kappa coefficients among the trained raters. Validity of the axis structure showed good results. The Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnostics in childhood and adolescence (OPD-CA) allows a reliable diagnostic of axis structure and axis conflict, if the ratings are done on the basis of semistructured videotaped interviews by trained raters. The axis structure shows validity, while the results concerning the validity of the axis conflict remain unclear.

  5. INSTITUTIONAL STAKEHOLDER PERCEPTIONS OF BARRIERS TO ADDICTION TREATMENT UNDER MEXICO’S DRUG POLICY REFORM

    PubMed Central

    Werb, Dan; Strathdee, Steffanie A.; Meza, Emilo; Gomez, Maria Gudelia Rangel; Palinkas, Lawrence; Medina-Mora, Maria Elena; Beletsky, Leo

    2017-01-01

    Background Mexico has experienced disproportionate drug-related harms given its role as a production and transit zone for illegal drugs destined primarily for the United States. In response, in 2009, the Mexican federal government passed legislation mandating pre-arrest diversion of drug-dependent individuals towards addiction treatment. However, this federal law was not specific about how the scale-up of the addiction treatment sector was to be operationalized. We therefore conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with key ‘interactors’ in fields affected by the federal legislation, including participants from the law enforcement, public health, addiction treatment, and governmental administration sectors. Among 19 participants from the municipal, state, and federal level, multiple barriers to policy reform were identified. First, there is a lack of institutional expertise to implement the reform. Second, the operationalization of the reform was not accompanied by a coordinated action plan. Third, the law is an unfunded mandate. Institutional barriers are likely hampering the implementation of Mexico’s policy reform. Addressing the concerns expressed by interactors through the scale up of services, the provision of increased training and education programs for stakeholders, and a coordinated action plan to operationalize the policy reform, are likely needed to improve the policy reform process. PMID:28278755

  6. Behaviour change counselling--how do I know if I am doing it well? The development of the Behaviour Change Counselling Scale (BCCS).

    PubMed

    Vallis, Michael

    2013-02-01

    The purpose of this article is to operationalize behaviour change counselling skills (motivation enhancement, behaviour modification, emotion management) that facilitate self-management support activities and evaluate the psychometric properties of an expert rater scale, the Behaviour Change Counselling Scale (BCCS). Twenty-one healthcare providers with varying levels of behaviour change counselling training interviewed a simulated patient. Videotapes were independently rated by 3 experts on 2 occasions over 6 months. Data on item/subscale characteristics, interrater and test-retest reliability, preliminary data on construct reliability, were reported. All items of the BCCS performed well with the exception of 3 that were dropped due to infrequent endorsement. Most subscales showed strong psychometric properties. Interrater and test-retest reliability coefficients were uniformly high. Competency scores improved significantly from pre- to posttraining. Behaviour change counselling skills to guide lifestyle interventions can be operationalized and assessed in a reliable and valid manner. The BCCS can be used to guide clinical training in lifestyle counselling by operationalizing the component skills and providing feedback on skill achieved. Further research is needed to establish cut scores for competency and scale construct and criterion validity. Copyright © 2013 Canadian Diabetes Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. The representation of patient experience and satisfaction in physician rating sites. A criteria-based analysis of English- and German-language sites

    PubMed Central

    2010-01-01

    Background Information on patient experience and satisfaction with individual physicians could play an important role for performance measures, improved health care and health literacy. Physician rating sites (PRSs) bear the potential to be a widely available source for this kind of information. However, patient experience and satisfaction are complex constructs operationalized by multiple dimensions. The way in which PRSs allow users to express and rate patient experience and satisfaction could likely influence the image of doctors in society and the self-understanding of both doctors and patients. This study examines the extent to which PRSs currently represent the constructs of patient experience and satisfaction. Methods First, a systematic review of research instruments for measuring patient experience and satisfaction was conducted. The content of these instruments was analyzed qualitatively to create a comprehensive set of dimensions for patient experience and patient satisfaction. Second, PRSs were searched for systematically in English-language and German-language search engines of Google and Yahoo. Finally, we classified every structured question asked by the different PRS using the set of dimensions of patient experience and satisfaction. Results The qualitative content analysis of the measurement instruments produced 13 dimensions of patient experience and satisfaction. We identified a total of 21 PRSs. No PRSs represented all 13 dimensions of patient satisfaction and experience with its structured questions. The 3 most trafficked English-language PRS represent between 5 and 6 dimensions and the 3 most trafficked German language PRSs between 8 and 11 dimensions The dimensions for patient experience and satisfaction most frequently represented in PRSs included diversely operationalized ones such as professional competence and doctor-patient relationship/support. However, other less complex but nevertheless important dimensions such as communication

  8. The predictive utility of hypnotizability: the change in suggestibility produced by hypnosis.

    PubMed

    Milling, Leonard S; Coursen, Elizabeth L; Shores, Jessica S; Waszkiewicz, Jolanta A

    2010-02-01

    The predictive utility of hypnotizability, conceptualized as the change in suggestibility produced by a hypnotic induction, was investigated in the suggested reduction of experimental pain. One hundred and seventy-three participants were assessed for nonhypnotic imaginative suggestibility. Thereafter, participants experienced hypnotic and nonhypnotic imaginative analgesia suggestions, counterbalanced for order. Hypnotic suggestibility was then assessed. Hypnotizability, operationalized as hypnotic suggestibility with imaginative suggestibility statistically controlled (Braffman & Kirsch, 1999), predicted intraindividual differences in responding to the hypnotic and imaginative analgesia suggestions. Higher hypnotizability was associated with relatively greater response to the hypnotic analgesia suggestion than to the imaginative analgesia suggestion. Operationalized in this way, hypnotizability may be a useful predictor of the effect of adding a hypnotic induction to a specific imaginative suggestion.

  9. Toward a Conceptual Knowledge Management Framework in Health

    PubMed Central

    Lau, Francis

    2004-01-01

    This paper describes a conceptual organizing scheme for managing knowledge within the health setting. First, a brief review of the notions of knowledge and knowledge management is provided. This is followed by a detailed depiction of our proposed knowledge management framework, which focuses on the concepts of production, use, and refinement of three specific knowledge sources-policy, evidence, and experience. These concepts are operationalized through a set of knowledge management methods and tools tailored for the health setting. We include two case studies around knowledge translation on parent-child relations and virtual networks in community health research to illustrate how this knowledge management framework can be operationalized within specific contexts and the issues involved. We conclude with the lessons learned and implications. PMID:18066388

  10. From themes to hypotheses: following up with quantitative methods.

    PubMed

    Morgan, David L

    2015-06-01

    One important category of mixed-methods research designs consists of quantitative studies that follow up on qualitative research. In this case, the themes that serve as the results from the qualitative methods generate hypotheses for testing through the quantitative methods. That process requires operationalization to translate the concepts from the qualitative themes into quantitative variables. This article illustrates these procedures with examples that range from simple operationalization to the evaluation of complex models. It concludes with an argument for not only following up qualitative work with quantitative studies but also the reverse, and doing so by going beyond integrating methods within single projects to include broader mutual attention from qualitative and quantitative researchers who work in the same field. © The Author(s) 2015.

  11. Measuring the Value Added of Management: A Knowledge Value Added Approach

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2006-12-31

    Dark Matter ” ................................................................3 Difficult-to-track Dark Matter Outputs .................................................5 Computing Metaphor..........................................................................6 Dark Matter Correlates with Market Performance ..............................8 Outputs of Dark Matter .......................................................................9 Operationalizing: The Measurement of Dark

  12. The next step in health behavior research: the need for ecological moderation analyses - an application to diet and physical activity at childcare.

    PubMed

    Gubbels, Jessica S; Van Kann, Dave Hh; de Vries, Nanne K; Thijs, Carel; Kremers, Stef Pj

    2014-04-17

    The ecological perspective holds that human behavior depends on the interaction of different environmental factors and personal characteristics, but it lacks validation and operationalization. In the current paper, an ecological view was adopted to examine the interactive impact of several ecological systems on children's dietary intake and physical activity at childcare or similar facilities. The ecological view was operationalized into three types of interaction: 1) interaction between types of childcare environment (physical, social, political, economic); 2) interaction between micro-systems (the childcare and home environment) in meso-systems; and 3) interaction between childcare environment and child characteristics. The predictive value of each of these interactions was tested based on a systematic review of the literature. Several studies support the hypothesis that the influence of the childcare environment on children's physical activity and diet is moderated by child characteristics (age, gender), but interaction between environmental types as well as between micro-systems is hardly examined in the field of behavioral nutrition and physical activity. Qualitative studies and general child development research provide some valuable insights, but we advocate quantitative research adopting an ecological perspective on environmental influences. Empirical studies operationalizing a true ecological view on diet and physical activity are scarce. Theorizing and assessment of interaction is advocated to become common practice rather than an exception in behavioral nutrition and physical activity research, in order to move the field forward.

  13. Who's Qualified? Seeing Race in Color-Blind Times: Lessons from Fisher v. University of Texas

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Donnor, Jamel K.

    2015-01-01

    Using Howard Winant's racial dualism theory, this chapter explains how race was discursively operationalized in the recent U.S. Supreme Court higher education antiracial diversity case Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin.

  14. Effects of training school type and examiner type on general aviation flight safety.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2012-03-01

    This study addresses the question Do training school type and certifying examiner type affect a general aviation (GA) pilots subsequent aviation safety record? Education was operationalized as private pilot instruction in either a Part...

  15. Implicit spiritual assessment: an alternative approach for assessing client spirituality.

    PubMed

    Hodge, David R

    2013-07-01

    To provide optimal services, a spiritual assessment is often administered to understand the intersection between clients' spirituality and service provision. Traditional assessment approaches, however, may be ineffective with clients who are uncomfortable with spiritual language or who are otherwise hesitant to discuss spirituality overtly. This article orients readers to an implicit spiritual assessment, an alternative approach that may be more valid with such clients. The process of administering an implicit assessment is discussed, sample questions are provided to help operationalize this approach, and suggestions are offered to integrate an implicit assessment with more traditional assessment approaches. By using terminology that is implicitly spiritual in nature, an implicit assessment enables practitioners to identify and operationalize dimensions of clients' experience that may be critical to effective service provision but would otherwise be overlooked.

  16. Low trait self-control predicts self-handicapping.

    PubMed

    Uysal, Ahmet; Knee, C Raymond

    2012-02-01

    Past research has shown that self-handicapping stems from uncertainty about one's ability and self-presentational concerns. The present studies suggest that low dispositional self-control is also associated with self-handicapping. In 3 studies (N = 289), the association between self-control and self-handicapping was tested. Self-control was operationalized as trait self-control, whereas self-handicapping was operationalized as trait self-handicapping in Study 1 (N = 160), self-reported self-handicapping in Study 2 (N = 74), and behavioral self-handicapping in Study 3 (N = 55). In all 3 studies, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that low self-control predicts self-handicapping, independent of self-esteem, self-doubt, social desirability, and gender. © 2012 The Authors. Journal of Personality © 2012, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  17. The Conscience as a Regulatory Function: Empathy, Shame, Pride, Guilt, and Moral Orientation in Delinquent Adolescents.

    PubMed

    Schalkwijk, Frans; Stams, Geert Jan; Stegge, Hedy; Dekker, Jack; Peen, Jaap

    2016-05-01

    This study examines an emotion-based theory of the conscience, which provides forensic practitioners tools for assessing the state of the conscience. It is operationalized as an emotion-regulating function, making use of empathy, self-conscious emotions, such as shame, pride or guilt, and moral judgment. This was put to test in a questionnaire survey with 59 delinquent and 275 non-delinquent juveniles. As was hypothesized, the functioning of the conscience of these groups differed, with offenders having lower levels of some aspects of empathic capacity, being less prone to experiencing shame and guilt, being more prone to experiencing pride, and being more punishment oriented than victim oriented. The research confirmed that operationalization of the conscience in terms of empathy, self-conscious emotions, and moral orientation is feasible. © The Author(s) 2014.

  18. How Universal Is the Relationship Between Remotely Sensed Vegetation Indices (VI) and Crop Leaf Area Index (LAI)?

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kang, Yanghui; Ozdogan, Mutlu; Zipper, Samuel C.; Roman, Miguel

    2016-01-01

    Global LAI-VI relationships are statistically significant, crop-specific, and mostly non-linear. This research enables the operationalization of large-area crop modeling and, by extension, has relevance to both fundamental and applied agroecosystem research.

  19. Liberal Arts: Leadership Education in the 21st Century

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Guthrie, Kathy L.; Callahan, Kathleen

    2016-01-01

    This chapter focuses on strategies and processes that integrate leadership learning across institutions. It discusses how leadership education fits a liberal education in various institutional types and operationalizes leadership and liberal arts curricula with five competencies.

  20. A Delphi Study to Operationalize Evidence-Based Predictors in Secondary Transition

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rowe, Dawn A.; Alverson, Charlotte Y.; Unruh, Deanne K.; Fowler, Catherine H.; Kellems, Ryan; Test, David W.

    2015-01-01

    Although there are many activities (e.g., transition services), derived from correlational research, that occur while students are in school that increase the likelihood of positive post-school outcomes, many teachers continue to provide services shown to have little to no effect on outcomes of students with disabilities. The purpose of this study…

  1. Operationalizing Healthcare Simulation Psychological Safety: A Descriptive Analysis of an Intervention.

    PubMed

    Henricksen, Jared W; Altenburg, Catherine; Reeder, Ron W

    2017-10-01

    Despite efforts to prepare a psychologically safe environment, simulation participants are occasionally psychologically distressed. Instructing simulation educators about participant psychological risks and having a participant psychological distress action plan available to simulation educators may assist them as they seek to keep all participants psychologically safe. A Simulation Participant Psychological Safety Algorithm was designed to aid simulation educators as they debrief simulation participants perceived to have psychological distress and categorize these events as mild (level 1), moderate (level 2), or severe (level 3). A prebrief dedicated to creating a psychologically safe learning environment was held constant. The algorithm was used for 18 months in an active pediatric simulation program. Data collected included level of participant psychological distress as perceived and categorized by the simulation team using the algorithm, type of simulation that participants went through, who debriefed, and timing of when psychological distress was perceived to occur during the simulation session. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to evaluate the relationship between events and simulation type, events and simulation educator team who debriefed, and timing of event during the simulation session. A total of 3900 participants went through 399 simulation sessions between August 1, 2014, and January 26, 2016. Thirty-four (<1%) simulation participants from 27 sessions (7%) were perceived to have an event. One participant was perceived to have a severe (level 3) psychological distress event. Events occurred more commonly in high-intensity simulations, with novice learners and with specific educator teams. Simulation type and simulation educator team were associated with occurrence of events (P < 0.001). There was no association between event timing and event level. Severe psychological distress as categorized by simulation personnel using the Simulation Participant Psychological Safety Algorithm is rare, with mild and moderate events being more common. The algorithm was used to teach simulation educators how to assist a participant who may be psychologically distressed and document perceived event severity.

  2. The Hybrid Mindset and Operationalizing Innovation: Toward a Theory of Hybrid

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-05-22

    relatively large-scale military clashes between Israel and Hezbollah, Operations Accountability (25-31 July 1993) and Grapes of Wrath (11-27 April 1996... Grapes of Wrath (11-27 April 1996) provided Nasrallah and Hezbollah with intelligence on how IDF would attack into southern Lebanon. In addition

  3. Challenges and complications in neighborhood mapping: from neighborhood concept to operationalization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Deng, Yongxin

    2016-07-01

    This paper examines complications in neighborhood mapping and corresponding challenges for the GIS community, taking both a conceptual and a methodological perspective. It focuses on the social and spatial dimensions of the neighborhood concept and highlights their relationship in neighborhood mapping. Following a brief summary of neighborhood definitions, five interwoven factors are identified to be origins of neighborhood mapping difficulties: conceptual vagueness, uncertainty of various sources, GIS representation, scale, and neighborhood homogeneity or continuity. Existing neighborhood mapping methods are grouped into six categories to be assessed: perception based, physically based, inference based, preexisting, aggregated, and automated. Mapping practices in various neighborhood-related disciplines and applications are cited as examples to demonstrate how the methods work, as well as how they should be evaluated. A few mapping strategies for the improvement of neighborhood mapping are prescribed from a GIS perspective: documenting simplifications employed in the mapping procedure, addressing uncertainty sources, developing new data solutions, and integrating complementary mapping methods. Incorporation of high-resolution data and introduction of more GIS ideas and methods (such as fuzzy logic) are identified to be future opportunities.

  4. Beyond Joint: Operationalizing Inter-Agency Coordination to Achieve Unity of Action

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-04-01

    was palatable .2 Lest the reader be concerned that I will advocate that small wars are the future pattern of warfare that the United States will...conducting conflict. While the sources of future conflict are unchanged from those observed throughout history of energy security, access to food and...11e3-b182- 1b3bb2eb474c_story.html (last accessed 30 Mar 14). Wass de Czege, BG Huba. “Operational Art: Continually Making Two Kinds of Choices In

  5. Infant mortality surveillance in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil: operationalization, strengths and limitations.

    PubMed

    Oliveira, Conceição Maria de; Bonfim, Cristine Vieira do; Guimarães, Maria José Bezerra; Frias, Paulo Germano; Antonino, Verônica Cristina Sposito; Medeiros, Zulma Maria

    2017-01-01

    to report the experience on infant mortality surveillance (IMS) in the municipality of Recife-PE, Brazil. a documentary research and a query with key-informants who participated in the implementation and consolidation of the IMS were conducted; data of the Mortality Information System (SIM) and of the surveillance worksheets were used to measure the coverage of the investigated deaths. the implementation of the IMS has occurred gradually since 2003; the strategy is composed by (i) identification of deaths, (ii) investigation, (iii) discussion, (iv) recommendations and correction of vital statistics; upon completion of implementation (2006), 98.5% (256) of the deaths had been investigated and discussed, with the participation of those involved in the cases; in 2015, this coverage corresponded to 97.7%. the main recommendations consisted of expanding the access, coverage and improvement of primary, secondary and tertiary care quality; IMS is able to support changes in health care practices, as well as planning and organization of maternal and child care.

  6. Strategic Corporal, 2025: Operationalizing Small-Unit Leaders for Theater-Level Operations

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-01-01

    Guardia Nacional be assisted to assume responsibility for maintaining law and order. Major Robert L. Denig, USMC, was commissioned as a Colonel in the...composed of native Haitians yet organized and officered by American Marines.39 In 1915, Major Smedley D. Butler, USMC, was commissioned a Major...Thad W. Allen. A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower. Washington D.C.: GPO, 2007. Denig, Robert L. Diary of a Guardia Officer

  7. Operationalizing resilience for adaptive coral reef management under global environmental change.

    PubMed

    Anthony, Kenneth R N; Marshall, Paul A; Abdulla, Ameer; Beeden, Roger; Bergh, Chris; Black, Ryan; Eakin, C Mark; Game, Edward T; Gooch, Margaret; Graham, Nicholas A J; Green, Alison; Heron, Scott F; van Hooidonk, Ruben; Knowland, Cheryl; Mangubhai, Sangeeta; Marshall, Nadine; Maynard, Jeffrey A; McGinnity, Peter; McLeod, Elizabeth; Mumby, Peter J; Nyström, Magnus; Obura, David; Oliver, Jamie; Possingham, Hugh P; Pressey, Robert L; Rowlands, Gwilym P; Tamelander, Jerker; Wachenfeld, David; Wear, Stephanie

    2015-01-01

    Cumulative pressures from global climate and ocean change combined with multiple regional and local-scale stressors pose fundamental challenges to coral reef managers worldwide. Understanding how cumulative stressors affect coral reef vulnerability is critical for successful reef conservation now and in the future. In this review, we present the case that strategically managing for increased ecological resilience (capacity for stress resistance and recovery) can reduce coral reef vulnerability (risk of net decline) up to a point. Specifically, we propose an operational framework for identifying effective management levers to enhance resilience and support management decisions that reduce reef vulnerability. Building on a system understanding of biological and ecological processes that drive resilience of coral reefs in different environmental and socio-economic settings, we present an Adaptive Resilience-Based management (ARBM) framework and suggest a set of guidelines for how and where resilience can be enhanced via management interventions. We argue that press-type stressors (pollution, sedimentation, overfishing, ocean warming and acidification) are key threats to coral reef resilience by affecting processes underpinning resistance and recovery, while pulse-type (acute) stressors (e.g. storms, bleaching events, crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks) increase the demand for resilience. We apply the framework to a set of example problems for Caribbean and Indo-Pacific reefs. A combined strategy of active risk reduction and resilience support is needed, informed by key management objectives, knowledge of reef ecosystem processes and consideration of environmental and social drivers. As climate change and ocean acidification erode the resilience and increase the vulnerability of coral reefs globally, successful adaptive management of coral reefs will become increasingly difficult. Given limited resources, on-the-ground solutions are likely to focus increasingly on actions that support resilience at finer spatial scales, and that are tightly linked to ecosystem goods and services. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  8. Operationalizing resilience for adaptive coral reef management under global environmental change

    PubMed Central

    Anthony, Kenneth RN; Marshall, Paul A; Abdulla, Ameer; Beeden, Roger; Bergh, Chris; Black, Ryan; Eakin, C Mark; Game, Edward T; Gooch, Margaret; Graham, Nicholas AJ; Green, Alison; Heron, Scott F; van Hooidonk, Ruben; Knowland, Cheryl; Mangubhai, Sangeeta; Marshall, Nadine; Maynard, Jeffrey A; McGinnity, Peter; McLeod, Elizabeth; Mumby, Peter J; Nyström, Magnus; Obura, David; Oliver, Jamie; Possingham, Hugh P; Pressey, Robert L; Rowlands, Gwilym P; Tamelander, Jerker; Wachenfeld, David; Wear, Stephanie

    2015-01-01

    Cumulative pressures from global climate and ocean change combined with multiple regional and local-scale stressors pose fundamental challenges to coral reef managers worldwide. Understanding how cumulative stressors affect coral reef vulnerability is critical for successful reef conservation now and in the future. In this review, we present the case that strategically managing for increased ecological resilience (capacity for stress resistance and recovery) can reduce coral reef vulnerability (risk of net decline) up to a point. Specifically, we propose an operational framework for identifying effective management levers to enhance resilience and support management decisions that reduce reef vulnerability. Building on a system understanding of biological and ecological processes that drive resilience of coral reefs in different environmental and socio-economic settings, we present an Adaptive Resilience-Based management (ARBM) framework and suggest a set of guidelines for how and where resilience can be enhanced via management interventions. We argue that press-type stressors (pollution, sedimentation, overfishing, ocean warming and acidification) are key threats to coral reef resilience by affecting processes underpinning resistance and recovery, while pulse-type (acute) stressors (e.g. storms, bleaching events, crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks) increase the demand for resilience. We apply the framework to a set of example problems for Caribbean and Indo-Pacific reefs. A combined strategy of active risk reduction and resilience support is needed, informed by key management objectives, knowledge of reef ecosystem processes and consideration of environmental and social drivers. As climate change and ocean acidification erode the resilience and increase the vulnerability of coral reefs globally, successful adaptive management of coral reefs will become increasingly difficult. Given limited resources, on-the-ground solutions are likely to focus increasingly on actions that support resilience at finer spatial scales, and that are tightly linked to ecosystem goods and services. PMID:25196132

  9. Re-Operationalizing Established Groups in Brainstorming: Validating Osborn's Claims

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Levine, Kenneth J.; Heuett, Kyle B.; Reno, Katie M.

    2017-01-01

    Since the introduction of brainstorming as an idea-generation technique to address organizational problems, researchers have struggled to replicate some of the claims around the technique. One major concern has been the differences in the number of ideas generated between established groups as found in industry versus the non-established groups…

  10. [Validity of the axis "conflicts" of the Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnostics (OPD)].

    PubMed

    Pieh, Christoph; Frisch, Martin; Meyer, Nicole; Loew, Thomas; Lahmann, Claas

    2009-01-01

    This clinical trial is concerned with controlling the validity of unconscious conflicts within the OPD by verifying the hypotheses by means of psychometric analysis. Unconscious conflicts were determined by use of the OPD as well as by psychometric tests (GT, IIP, RQ-2) for patients in treatment in a psychosomatic hospital; they were divided into an explorative (n=1377) and a confirmative (n=1380) sample. Using the Mann-Whitney U-test, we investigated the connection between the main conflicts according to OPD-1 and the psychometric findings. For seven of most frequently chosen conflict types, a great coherence was found. For the others the results were inconsistent. Concerning the seven most frequently chosen conflict types, the OPD is a valid diagnose tool. As to the other conflicts, this study cannot clear up open questions concerning validity.

  11. FORUM: Affective Learning. Reconsidering the Conceptualization and Operationalization of Affective Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Myers, Scott A.; Goodboy, Alan K.

    2015-01-01

    The mission of "Communication Education" is to publish the best research on communication and learning. Researchers study the communication-learning interface in many ways, but a common approach is to explore how instructor and student communication can lead to better learning outcomes. Although scholars have long classified learning…

  12. Veterans Health Care: Improvements Needed in Operationalizing Strategic Goals and Objectives

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-10-01

    Congressional Requesters October 2016 GAO-17-50 United States Government Accountability Office United States Government Accountability Office...Abbreviations Choice Act Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 FY fiscal year GPRA...health care, among other things, Congress enacted and the President signed into law the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014

  13. The food-energy-water nexus and urban complexity

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Romero-Lankao, Patricia; McPhearson, Timon; Davidson, Debra J.

    2017-04-01

    While tackling interdependencies among food, energy, and water security is promising, three fundamental challenges to effective operationalization need addressing: the feasibility of science-policy integration, cross-scale inequalities, and path-dependencies in infrastructure and socio-institutional practices.

  14. Organizational goal congruence and job attitudes revisited.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    1992-02-01

    Vancouver and Schmitt (1991) operationalized person-organization fit in terms of goal congruence and reported that goal congruence scores were positively related to favorable job attitudes. The purpose of the present study was to replicate and extend...

  15. Culture Matters in Successful Curriculum Change: An International Study of the Influence of National and Organizational Culture Tested With Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling.

    PubMed

    Jippes, Mariëlle; Driessen, Erik W; Broers, Nick J; Majoor, Gerard D; Gijselaers, Wim H; van der Vleuten, Cees P M

    2015-07-01

    National culture has been shown to play a role in curriculum change in medical schools, and business literature has described a similar influence of organizational culture on change processes in organizations. This study investigated the impact of both national and organizational culture on successful curriculum change in medical schools internationally. The authors tested a literature-based conceptual model using multilevel structural equation modeling. For the operationalization of national and organizational culture, the authors used Hofstede's dimensions of culture and Quinn and Spreitzer's competing values framework, respectively. To operationalize successful curriculum change, the authors used two derivates: medical schools' organizational readiness for curriculum change developed by Jippes and colleagues, and change-related behavior developed by Herscovitch and Meyer. The authors administered a questionnaire in 2012 measuring the described operationalizations to medical schools in the process of changing their curriculum. Nine hundred ninety-one of 1,073 invited staff members from 131 of 345 medical schools in 56 of 80 countries completed the questionnaire. An initial poor fit of the model improved to a reasonable fit by two suggested modifications which seemed theoretically plausible. In sum, characteristics of national culture and organizational culture, such as a certain level of risk taking, flexible policies and procedures, and strong leadership, affected successful curriculum change. National and organizational culture influence readiness for change in medical schools. Therefore, medical schools considering curriculum reform should anticipate the potential impact of national and organizational culture.

  16. The next step in health behavior research: the need for ecological moderation analyses - an application to diet and physical activity at childcare

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    Background The ecological perspective holds that human behavior depends on the interaction of different environmental factors and personal characteristics, but it lacks validation and operationalization. In the current paper, an ecological view was adopted to examine the interactive impact of several ecological systems on children’s dietary intake and physical activity at childcare or similar facilities. The ecological view was operationalized into three types of interaction: 1) interaction between types of childcare environment (physical, social, political, economic); 2) interaction between micro-systems (the childcare and home environment) in meso-systems; and 3) interaction between childcare environment and child characteristics. The predictive value of each of these interactions was tested based on a systematic review of the literature. Discussion Several studies support the hypothesis that the influence of the childcare environment on children’s physical activity and diet is moderated by child characteristics (age, gender), but interaction between environmental types as well as between micro-systems is hardly examined in the field of behavioral nutrition and physical activity. Qualitative studies and general child development research provide some valuable insights, but we advocate quantitative research adopting an ecological perspective on environmental influences. Summary Empirical studies operationalizing a true ecological view on diet and physical activity are scarce. Theorizing and assessment of interaction is advocated to become common practice rather than an exception in behavioral nutrition and physical activity research, in order to move the field forward. PMID:24742167

  17. Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia: Treatment Response and Resistance in Psychosis (TRRIP) Working Group Consensus Guidelines on Diagnosis and Terminology.

    PubMed

    Howes, Oliver D; McCutcheon, Rob; Agid, Ofer; de Bartolomeis, Andrea; van Beveren, Nico J M; Birnbaum, Michael L; Bloomfield, Michael A P; Bressan, Rodrigo A; Buchanan, Robert W; Carpenter, William T; Castle, David J; Citrome, Leslie; Daskalakis, Zafiris J; Davidson, Michael; Drake, Richard J; Dursun, Serdar; Ebdrup, Bjørn H; Elkis, Helio; Falkai, Peter; Fleischacker, W Wolfgang; Gadelha, Ary; Gaughran, Fiona; Glenthøj, Birte Y; Graff-Guerrero, Ariel; Hallak, Jaime E C; Honer, William G; Kennedy, James; Kinon, Bruce J; Lawrie, Stephen M; Lee, Jimmy; Leweke, F Markus; MacCabe, James H; McNabb, Carolyn B; Meltzer, Herbert; Möller, Hans-Jürgen; Nakajima, Shinchiro; Pantelis, Christos; Reis Marques, Tiago; Remington, Gary; Rossell, Susan L; Russell, Bruce R; Siu, Cynthia O; Suzuki, Takefumi; Sommer, Iris E; Taylor, David; Thomas, Neil; Üçok, Alp; Umbricht, Daniel; Walters, James T R; Kane, John; Correll, Christoph U

    2017-03-01

    Research and clinical translation in schizophrenia is limited by inconsistent definitions of treatment resistance and response. To address this issue, the authors evaluated current approaches and then developed consensus criteria and guidelines. A systematic review of randomized antipsychotic clinical trials in treatment-resistant schizophrenia was performed, and definitions of treatment resistance were extracted. Subsequently, consensus operationalized criteria were developed through 1) a multiphase, mixed methods approach, 2) identification of key criteria via an online survey, and 3) meetings to achieve consensus. Of 2,808 studies identified, 42 met inclusion criteria. Of these, 21 studies (50%) did not provide operationalized criteria. In the remaining studies, criteria varied considerably, particularly regarding symptom severity, prior treatment duration, and antipsychotic dosage thresholds; only two studies (5%) utilized the same criteria. The consensus group identified minimum and optimal criteria, employing the following principles: 1) current symptoms of a minimum duration and severity determined by a standardized rating scale; 2) moderate or worse functional impairment; 3) prior treatment consisting of at least two different antipsychotic trials, each for a minimum duration and dosage; 4) systematic monitoring of adherence and meeting of minimum adherence criteria; 5) ideally at least one prospective treatment trial; and 6) criteria that clearly separate responsive from treatment-resistant patients. There is considerable variation in current approaches to defining treatment resistance in schizophrenia. The authors present consensus guidelines that operationalize criteria for determining and reporting treatment resistance, adequate treatment, and treatment response, providing a benchmark for research and clinical translation.

  18. Measurement of a model of implementation for health care: toward a testable theory

    PubMed Central

    2012-01-01

    Background Greenhalgh et al. used a considerable evidence-base to develop a comprehensive model of implementation of innovations in healthcare organizations [1]. However, these authors did not fully operationalize their model, making it difficult to test formally. The present paper represents a first step in operationalizing Greenhalgh et al.’s model by providing background, rationale, working definitions, and measurement of key constructs. Methods A systematic review of the literature was conducted for key words representing 53 separate sub-constructs from six of the model’s broad constructs. Using an iterative process, we reviewed existing measures and utilized or adapted items. Where no one measure was deemed appropriate, we developed other items to measure the constructs through consensus. Results The review and iterative process of team consensus identified three types of data that can been used to operationalize the constructs in the model: survey items, interview questions, and administrative data. Specific examples of each of these are reported. Conclusion Despite limitations, the mixed-methods approach to measurement using the survey, interview measure, and administrative data can facilitate research on implementation by providing investigators with a measurement tool that captures most of the constructs identified by the Greenhalgh model. These measures are currently being used to collect data concerning the implementation of two evidence-based psychotherapies disseminated nationally within Department of Veterans Affairs. Testing of psychometric properties and subsequent refinement should enhance the utility of the measures. PMID:22759451

  19. Affect dysregulation, psychoform dissociation, and adult relational fears mediate the relationship between childhood trauma and complex posttraumatic stress disorder independent of the symptoms of borderline personality disorder.

    PubMed

    van Dijke, Annemiek; Hopman, Juliette A B; Ford, Julian D

    2018-01-01

    Objective : Complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) as defined by the Disorders of Extreme Stress Not Otherwise Specified (DESNOS) formulation is associated with childhood relational trauma and involves relational impairment, affect dysregulation, and identity alterations. However, the distinct contributions of relational impairment (operationalized in the form fears of closeness or abandonment), affect dysregulation (operationalized in the form of overregulation and under-regulation of affect), and identity alterations (operationalized in the form of positive or negative psychoform or somatoform dissociation) to the relationship between childhood trauma and CPTSD/DESNOS have not been systematically tested. Method and Results : In a clinical sample of adults diagnosed with severe and chronic psychiatric and personality disorders ( n  = 472; M  = 34.7 years, SD  = 10.1), structural equation modelling with bootstrap 95% confidence intervals demonstrated that the association between childhood trauma and CPTSD/DESNOS symptoms in adulthood was partially mediated by under-regulation of affect, negative psychoform dissociation, and adult relational fears of closeness and of abandonment. These results also were independent of the effects of borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptoms. Conclusions : Some, but not all, hypothesized components of the DESNOS formulation of CPTSD statistically mediate the relationship between childhood trauma and adult CPTSD/DESNOS. These relationships appear specific to CPTSD/DESNOS and not to the effects of another potential sequelae of childhood trauma BPD. Replication with prospective longitudinal studies is needed.

  20. Implementation of a weather responsive traffic estimation and prediction system (TrEPS) for signal timing at Utah DOT.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2014-07-01

    The overall goal of this project is to integrate and operationalize weather-sensitive TrEPS models calibrated for the Salt Lake City region to support weather-responsive traffic signal timing implementation and evaluation in the Riverdale corridor in...

  1. Gender Ideologies in Europe: A Multidimensional Framework.

    PubMed

    Grunow, Daniela; Begall, Katia; Buchler, Sandra

    2018-02-01

    The authors argue, in line with recent research, that operationalizing gender ideology as a unidimensional construct ranging from traditional to egalitarian is problematic and propose an alternative framework that takes the multidimensionality of gender ideologies into account. Using latent class analysis, they operationalize their gender ideology framework based on data from the 2008 European Values Study, of which eight European countries reflecting the spectrum of current work-family policies were selected. The authors examine the form in which gender ideologies cluster in the various countries. Five ideology profiles were identified: egalitarian, egalitarian essentialism, intensive parenting, moderate traditional, and traditional. The five ideology profiles were found in all countries, but with pronounced variation in size. Ideologies mixing gender essentialist and egalitarian views appear to have replaced traditional ideologies, even in countries offering some institutional support for gendered separate spheres.

  2. Gender Ideologies in Europe: A Multidimensional Framework

    PubMed Central

    Begall, Katia; Buchler, Sandra

    2018-01-01

    The authors argue, in line with recent research, that operationalizing gender ideology as a unidimensional construct ranging from traditional to egalitarian is problematic and propose an alternative framework that takes the multidimensionality of gender ideologies into account. Using latent class analysis, they operationalize their gender ideology framework based on data from the 2008 European Values Study, of which eight European countries reflecting the spectrum of current work–family policies were selected. The authors examine the form in which gender ideologies cluster in the various countries. Five ideology profiles were identified: egalitarian, egalitarian essentialism, intensive parenting, moderate traditional, and traditional. The five ideology profiles were found in all countries, but with pronounced variation in size. Ideologies mixing gender essentialist and egalitarian views appear to have replaced traditional ideologies, even in countries offering some institutional support for gendered separate spheres. PMID:29491532

  3. The influence of habitus in the relationship between cultural capital and academic achievement.

    PubMed

    Gaddis, S Michael

    2013-01-01

    Scholars routinely use cultural capital theory in an effort to explain class differences in academic success but often overlook the key concept of habitus. Rich, longstanding debates within the literature suggest the need for a closer examination of the individual effects of cultural capital and habitus. Drawing upon the writings of Pierre Bourdieu, I use a longitudinal dataset to examine the effects of multiple operationalizations of cultural capital on academic achievement and the mediating effects of habitus. Using first difference models to control for time-invariant unobserved characteristics, I find that typical operationalizations of cultural capital (i.e. high-arts participation and reading habits) have positive effects on GPA that are completely mediated through habitus. These results stress the importance of habitus in the relationship between cultural capital and academic achievement for disadvantaged youth. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. Preference effects on friendship choice: Evidence from an online field experiment.

    PubMed

    Yu, Siyu; Xie, Yu

    2017-08-01

    Observed friendship choices are constrained by social structures and thus problematic indicators for underlying personal preferences. In this paper, we report on a study demonstrating the causal effects of preference in friendship choice based on an online field experiment. Specifically, we tested two important forces that govern friendship choices: preference for shared group identity (operationalized as the desire to befriend others sharing the same place-of-origin identity) and preference for high status (operationalized as the desire to befriend others from high-status institutions). Using an online field experiment in one of the largest social network service websites in China, we investigated the causal preference effects of these two forces free from structural constraints. The results of our study confirm the preference effects on friendship choice in both of the two dimensions we tested. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  5. Message Variability and Heterogeneity: A Core Challenge for Communication Research

    PubMed Central

    Slater, Michael D.; Peter, Jochen; Valkenberg, Patti

    2015-01-01

    Messages are central to human social experience, and pose key conceptual and methodological challenges in the study of communication. In response to these challenges, we outline a systematic approach to conceptualizing, operationalizing, and analyzing messages. At the conceptual level, we distinguish between two core aspects of messages: message variability (the defined and operationalized features of messages) and message heterogeneity (the undefined and unmeasured features of messages), and suggest preferred approaches to defining message variables. At the operational level, we identify message sampling, selection, and research design strategies responsive to issues of message variability and heterogeneity in experimental and survey research. At the analytical level, we highlight effective techniques to deal with message variability and heterogeneity. We conclude with seven recommendations to increase rigor in the study of communication through appropriately addressing the challenges presented by messages. PMID:26681816

  6. Procedures for Developing Evidence-Informed Performance Checklists for Improving Early Childhood Intervention Practices

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dunst, Carl J.

    2017-01-01

    A conceptualization-operationalization-measurement framework is described for developing evidence-informed early childhood intervention performance checklists. Performance checklists include lists of practice indicators where the indicators, taken together, operationally define particular types of intervention practices that, when used as…

  7. SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL RESILIENCE AND ADAPTATION ON THE EASTERN SHORE OF THE CHESAPEAKE BAY

    EPA Science Inventory

    It is expected that this research will yield methods for operationalizing and assessing the presence of factors of resilience in social-ecological systems, as well as further understanding on the relationship between vulnerability, adaptation and resilience. In addition, it...

  8. Switching on and Switching off in Mathematics: An Ecological Study of Future Intent and Disengagement among Middle School Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Martin, Andrew J.; Anderson, Judy; Bobis, Janette; Way, Jennifer; Vellar, Rosemary

    2012-01-01

    Prompted by international concerns about school and postschool participation in mathematics, the authors of the present study sought to investigate factors predicting "switching on" and "switching off" in mathematics, operationalized through measures of future intent and disengagement, respectively. They drew from…

  9. Quantitative approaches for assessing ecological and community resilience

    EPA Science Inventory

    Scholars from many different intellectual disciplines have attempted to measure, estimate, or quantify resilience. However, there is growing concern that lack of clarity on the operationalization of the concept will limit its application. In this paper, we discuss the theory, res...

  10. Antecedents and Consequences of Toxic Leadership in the U. S. Army: A Two Year Review and Recommended Solutions

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2011-06-30

    2004; Kile , 1990; Lipman-Blumen, 2005; Lombardo & McCall, 1984; Tepper, 2000). 3 Army War College students operationalized toxic leaders as...Anderson, C. (2003). Power, approach, and inhibition. Psychological Review, 110, 265–284. Kile , S. M. (1990). Helsefarleg leierskap (Health

  11. Hypnosis and Encounter Group Volunteers: A Validation Study of the Sensation-Seeking Scale

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stanton, H. E.

    1976-01-01

    Individual differences in optimal level of stimulation as operationalized by the Sensation Seeking Scale significantly differentiated volunteers for hypnosis and encounter groups from non-volunteers. This confirmed predictions and extended the findings of previous work regarding encounter group volunteers. (NG)

  12. Enhancing quantitative approaches for assessing community resilience

    EPA Science Inventory

    Scholars from many different intellectual disciplines have attempted to measure, estimate, or quantify resilience. However, there is growing concern that lack of clarity on the operationalization of the concept will limit its application. In this paper, we discuss the theory, res...

  13. Do Processing Patterns of Strengths and Weaknesses Predict Differential Treatment Response?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Miciak, Jeremy; Williams, Jacob L.; Taylor, W. Pat; Cirino, Paul T.; Fletcher, Jack M.; Vaughn, Sharon

    2016-01-01

    No previous empirical study has investigated whether the learning disabilities (LD) identification decisions of proposed methods to operationalize processing strengths and weaknesses approaches for LD identification are associated with differential treatment response. We investigated whether the identification decisions of the…

  14. Physical Activity Motivation in Late Adolescence: Refinement of a Recent Multidimensional Model

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Martin, Andrew J.

    2010-01-01

    Recent research (Martin et al., 2006) presented a new, multidimensional approach to physical activity motivation (using the Physical Activity Motivation Scale [PAMS]) operationalized through four factors: adaptive cognition, adaptive behavior, impeding/maladaptive cognition, and maladaptive behavior. The present study extends this early research…

  15. School Principals' Decision-Making Behaviour in the Management of Innovation.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McGeown, Vincent

    1979-01-01

    A rating scale operationalized a model for the adoption and implementation of educational innovation. Phases were designated: creating a climate for change; analyzing antecedent conditions; generating alternatives; initiating change adoption; implementing change; and evaluating change outcomes. Principals' decision-making behavior was the best…

  16. The Cyber Domain: A Leviathan or Giant waiting to be Slain with the Stone of Doctrine

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-05-22

    about operationalizing this domain. But the other domains are natural, created by God , and this one is the creation of man. Man can actually change...electromagnetic radiation, charged particles , and electric and magnetic fields are the dominant physical influences, and that encompasses the

  17. Feminist Social Justice Orientation: An Indicator of Optimal Functioning?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Moradi, Bonnie

    2012-01-01

    This article underscores several themes evident in Yoder, Snell, and Tobias's research; these include the conceptualization of feminism and social justice as inextricably linked, the conceptualization and operationalization of optimal functioning at intrapersonal, interpersonal, and collective levels, and potential connections and disconnections…

  18. Sex Differences in Locus of Control, Helplessness, Hopelessness, and Depression.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kolotkin, Richard A.; And Others

    This experiment investigated: (1) relationships among locus of control, attributional style, and depression; (2) if a depressogenic attributional style could be empirically isolated; and (3) if reliable relationships existed between attribution and depression when depression was operationalized using different instruments. Subjects completed the…

  19. The Social Maladjustment Exclusion: Issues of Definition and Assessment.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Skiba, Russell; Grizzle, Ken

    1991-01-01

    Review seeks to clarify issues of definition and assessment for school psychologists facing task of operationalizing and measuring social maladjustment exclusion in federal definition of serious emotional disturbance. For school psychologists in states with exclusion for social maladjustment, proactive recommendations are offered, emphasizing…

  20. Progress toward School Finance Equity Goals in Indiana, Iowa, and Illinois.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hickrod, G. Alan; And Others

    1980-01-01

    Concludes that a state may make very uneven progress toward some general equity goal if that equity goal is operationalized in different ways. A preference for tax disparity, expenditure disparity reduction, or wealth neutrality gains may have to be expressed. (Author/IRT)

  1. 78 FR 53731 - North Pacific Fishery Management Council; Notice of Public Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-08-30

    ... meetings. SUMMARY: The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) Ecosystem Committee will meet in... agenda will be as follows: Development of Ecosystem-based management (EMB) vision statement; Operationalizing EBM in Council projects, including the Aleutian Islands Fishery Ecosystem Plan, the Arctic Fishery...

  2. Public Opinion as Collective Coorientation.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tipton, Leonard; And Others

    To conceptualize public opinion as something other than "mere aggregation" of individual opinions requires systemic models that identify component parts of public opinion and their structural/functional relationships. Operationalization requires asking respondents not only their individual opinion, but also their perception of public…

  3. The Increasing Prevalence of Complicated Mourning: The Onslaught Is Just Beginning.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rando, Therese A.

    1993-01-01

    Operationalizes complicated mourning in relation to six "R" processes of mourning (recognize, react, recollect, relinquish, readjust, reinvest) and identifies seven high-risk factors. Asserts that prevalence of complicated mourning is increasing today because of contemporary sociocultural and technological trends. Notes that new…

  4. The Model-Building Process in Introductory College Geography: An Illustrative Example

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cadwallader, Martin

    1978-01-01

    Illustrates the five elements of conceptual models by developing a model of consumer behavior in choosing among alternative supermarkets. The elements are: identifying the problem, constructing a conceptual model, translating it into a symbolic model, operationalizing the model, and testing. (Author/AV)

  5. Using Large Data Sets to Study College Education Trajectories

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Oseguera, Leticia; Hwang, Jihee

    2014-01-01

    This chapter presents various considerations researchers undertook to conduct a quantitative study on low-income students using a national data set. Specifically, it describes how a critical quantitative scholar approaches guiding frameworks, variable operationalization, analytic techniques, and result interpretation. Results inform how…

  6. Reexamining the Correlates of Adolescent Violent Victimization: The Importance of Exposure, Guardianship, and Target Characteristics

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tillyer, Marie Skubak; Tillyer, Rob; Miller, Holly Ventura; Pangrac, Rebekah

    2011-01-01

    The present study examines the relative contributions of various theoretical constructs to violent victimization by operationalizing multiple measures of exposure to motivated offenders, guardianship, and target characteristics. Using a nationally representative sample of American adolescents, we conducted principal components factor analysis and…

  7. Parental Behaviors during Family Interactions Predict Changes in Depression and Anxiety Symptoms during Adolescence

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schwartz, Orli S.; Dudgeon, Paul; Sheeber, Lisa B.; Yap, Marie B. H.; Simmons, Julian G.; Allen, Nicholas B.

    2012-01-01

    This study investigated the prospective, longitudinal relations between parental behaviors observed during parent-adolescent interactions, and the development of depression and anxiety symptoms in a community-based sample of 194 adolescents. Positive and negative parental behaviors were examined, with negative behaviors operationalized to…

  8. An Argument for Formative Assessment with Science Learning Progressions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Alonzo, Alicia C.

    2018-01-01

    Learning progressions--particularly as defined and operationalized in science education--have significant potential to inform teachers' formative assessment practices. In this overview article, I lay out an argument for this potential, starting from definitions for "formative assessment practices" and "learning progressions"…

  9. Handbook for Improving Superintendent Performance Evaluation.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Candoli, Carl; And Others

    This handbook for superintendent performance evaluation contains information for boards of education as they institute or improve their evaluation system. The handbook answers questions involved in operationalizing, implementing, and evaluating a superintendent-evaluation system. The information was developed from research on superintendent…

  10. Collaborative Help in Chronic Disease Management: Supporting Individualized Problems

    PubMed Central

    Huh, Jina; Ackerman, Mark S.

    2013-01-01

    Coping with chronic illness disease is a long and lonely journey, because the burden of managing the illness on a daily basis is placed upon the patients themselves. In this paper, we present our findings for how diabetes patient support groups help one another find individualized strategies for managing diabetes. Through field observations of face-to-face diabetes support groups, content analysis of an online diabetes community, and interviews, we found several help interactions that are critical in helping patients in finding individualized solutions. Those are: (1) patients operationalize their experiences to easily contextualize and share executable strategies; (2) operationalization has to be done within the larger context of sharing illness trajectories; and (3) the support groups develop common understanding towards diabetes management. We further discuss how our findings translate into design implications for supporting chronic illness patients in online community settings. PMID:25360442

  11. The effects of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition cognitive abilities on math achievement.

    PubMed

    Parkin, Jason R; Beaujean, A Alexander

    2012-02-01

    This study used structural equation modeling to examine the effect of Stratum III (i.e., general intelligence) and Stratum II (i.e., Comprehension-Knowledge, Fluid Reasoning, Short-Term Memory, Processing Speed, and Visual Processing) factors of the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) cognitive abilities, as operationalized by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fourth Edition (WISC-IV; Wechsler, 2003a) subtests, on Quantitative Knowledge, as operationalized by the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test, Second Edition (WIAT-II; Wechsler, 2002) subtests. Participants came from the WISC-IV/WIAT-II linking sample (n=550). We compared models that predicted Quantitative Knowledge using only Stratum III factors, only Stratum II factors, and both Stratum III and Stratum II factors. Results indicated that the model with only the Stratum III factor predicting Quantitative Knowledge best fit the data. Copyright © 2011 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Expanding the Taxonomy of the Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (DC/TMD)

    PubMed Central

    Peck, Christopher C.; Goulet, Jean-Paul; Lobbezoo, Frank; Schiffman, Eric L.; Alstergren, Per; Anderson, Gary C.; de Leeuw, Reny; Jensen, Rigmor; Michelotti, Ambra; Ohrbach, Richard; Petersson, Arne; List, Thomas

    2014-01-01

    Background There is a need to expand the current temporomandibular disorder (TMD) classification to include less common, but clinically important disorders. The immediate aim was to develop a consensus-based classification system and associated diagnostic criteria that have clinical and research utility for less common TMDs. The long-term aim was to establish a foundation, vis-à-vis this classification system, that will stimulate data collection, validity testing, and further criteria refinement. Methods A working group [members of the International RDC/TMD Consortium Network of the International Association for Dental Research (IADR), members of the Orofacial Pain Special Interest Group (SIG) of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), and members from other professional societies] reviewed disorders for inclusion based on clinical significance, the availability of plausible diagnostic criteria, and the ability to operationalize and study the criteria. The disorders were derived from the literature when possible and based on expert opinion as necessary. The expanded TMD taxonomy was presented for feedback at international meetings. Results Of 56 disorders considered, 37 were included in the expanded taxonomy and were placed into the following four categories: temporomandibular joint disorders, masticatory muscle disorders, headache disorders, and disorders affecting associated structures. Those excluded were extremely uncommon, lacking operationalized diagnostic criteria, not clearly related to TMDs, or not sufficiently distinct from disorders already included within the taxonomy. Conclusions The expanded TMD taxonomy offers an integrated approach to clinical diagnosis and provides a framework for further research to operationalize and test the proposed taxonomy and diagnostic criteria. PMID:24443898

  13. The Complex Nature of Parental Substance Use: Examining Past Year and Prior Use Behaviors as Correlates of Child Maltreatment Frequency.

    PubMed

    Kepple, Nancy Jo

    2017-05-12

    Child maltreatment studies predominantly have operationalized parental substance use as dichotomous variables for any use, any harmful/risky use, or any substance use disorder (SUD). This limits our understanding about how a range of use behaviors may contribute to child maltreatment. Build upon prior studies by incorporating a multi-faceted approach to operationalizing parental substance use. Cross-sectional, secondary data analyses were conducted using the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being (NSCAW I). The study used weighted negative binomial regression to examine relationships between annual child maltreatment frequency and different ways of operationalizing substance use among 2,100 parents. Several, inter-related behaviors (i.e., heavy drinking, illicit drug use, polysubstance use, SUD, and prior SUD < 4 years) appeared to be relevant for understanding differences in child maltreatment frequencies. A gradient effect was detected across five substance use behavior patterns: (1) lowest estimated counts were observed for nonusers, light-to-moderate drinkers, and parents with a prior (but not past year) SUD (ӯ < 7.0), (2) slightly higher estimated count was observed for heavy drinkers and/or illicit drug users (ӯ = 9.3), and (3) highest estimated count was observed for parents with past year SUD (ӯ = 17.6). Conclusions/Importance: SUD is a critical screening criteria for potential child harm. Parents reporting risky substance use behaviors may benefit from prevention or brief intervention services related to both their substance use and parenting behaviors. Administrative systems also could benefit from detailed tracking of substance use behaviors for future program evaluation and development.

  14. The human right to water: the importance of domestic and productive water rights.

    PubMed

    Hall, Ralph P; Van Koppen, Barbara; Van Houweling, Emily

    2014-12-01

    The United Nations (UN) Universal Declaration of Human Rights engenders important state commitments to respect, fulfill, and protect a broad range of socio-economic rights. In 2010, a milestone was reached when the UN General Assembly recognized the human right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation. However, water plays an important role in realizing other human rights such as the right to food and livelihoods, and in realizing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. These broader water-related rights have been recognized but have not yet been operationalized. This paper unravels these broader water-related rights in a more holistic interpretation of existing international human rights law. By focusing on an emerging approach to water services provision--known as 'domestic-plus' services--the paper argues how this approach operationalizes a comprehensive range of socio-economic rights in rural and peri-urban areas. Domestic-plus services provide water for domestic and productive uses around homesteads, which challenges the widespread practice in the public sector of planning and designing water infrastructure for a single-use. Evidence is presented to show that people in rural communities are already using their water supplies planned for domestic uses to support a wide range of productive activities. Domestic-plus services recognize and plan for these multiple-uses, while respecting the priority for clean and safe drinking water. The paper concludes that domestic-plus services operationalize the obligation to progressively fulfill a comprehensive range of indivisible socio-economic rights in rural and peri-urban areas.

  15. Promoting Task-Based Pragmatics Instruction in EFL Classroom Contexts: The Role of Task Complexity

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kim, Youjin; Taguchi, Naoko

    2015-01-01

    Robinson's (2001) Cognition Hypothesis claims that more complex tasks promote interaction and language development. This study examined the effect of task complexity in the learning of request-making expressions. Task complexity was operationalized as [+/- reasoning] following Robinson's framework. The study employed a pretest-posttest research…

  16. Breaking Barriers to Bike Share: Insights on Equity from a Survey of Bike Share System Owners and Operators

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2017-05-01

    The number of public bike share systems has been increasing rapidly across the United States over the past five to 10 years. To date, most academic research around bike share in the U.S. has focused on the logistics of planning and operationalizing s...

  17. Rethinking the Role of "Culture" in Educational Equity: From Cultural Competence to Equity Literacy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gorski, Paul

    2016-01-01

    "Culture" has tended to play a central role in the nomenclature and operationalization of popular frameworks for attending to matters of diversity in education. These frameworks include multicultural education, culturally responsive pedagogy, culturally relevant teaching, cultural proficiency, and cultural competence. In this article, I…

  18. Evaluation Procedures for Training Psychotherapists in Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT).

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chevron, Eve S.; And Others

    The training of psychotherapists has been an ongoing process in psychiatry and clinical psychology. Recently, however, a growing demand to operationalize competence criteria to enable independent evaluation of therapists' skills in specifically defined psychotherapies has occurred. To examine this phenomenon, evaluation procedures were developed…

  19. Powerful Learning Environments: The Critical Link between School and Classroom Cultures.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Finnan, Christine; Schnepel, Katherine C.; Anderson, Lorin W.

    2003-01-01

    Evaluated classrooms within four Accelerated Schools Project (ASP) schools, operationalizing the ASP principles, values, and concepts of a "powerful learning environment" (PLE), examining how similarly PLE was implemented in different classrooms and schools, and analyzing the relation between degree of implementation and differences in…

  20. "We Serve You, Right?" A Case Study Adapting Coorientation to Customer Service Research

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Williamson, JoAnna

    2010-01-01

    An abundance of academic research has focused on identifying, explicating, operationalizing, and analyzing variables used to understand the dynamics of customer service. Despite this scholarly attention, applied researchers and the popular press have long reported consumers' dissatisfaction with the service received during their customer…

  1. Do Parents Think It Takes a Village? Parents' Attitudes towards Nonparental Adults' Involvement in the Upbringing and Nurture of Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kesselring, Marije; de Winter, Micha; Horjus, Bob; van de Schoot, Rens; van Yperen, Tom

    2012-01-01

    The current study explored parents' attitudes towards nonparental adults' involvement in childrearing practices. Parents' attitudes were operationalized in their willingness to share parenting responsibility and interest to participate in parenting activities. Data were collected through a quantitative survey with 1,090 parents from 17 Dutch…

  2. Integrating Writing Skills and Ethics Training in Business Communication Pedagogy: A Resume Case Study Exemplar

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Conn, Cynthia E.

    2008-01-01

    An integrated approach to teaching resume construction in the business communication classroom focuses on simultaneously (a) emphasizing writing-related proficiencies and (b) encouraging ethical and moral orientations to this task. This article provides a resume construction exemplar that operationalizes these two pedagogical goals. The techniques…

  3. Analysis of Affective Instability in Ecological Momentary Assessment: Indices Using Successive Difference and Group Comparison via Multilevel Modeling

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jahng, Seungmin; Wood, Phillip K.; Trull, Timothy J.

    2008-01-01

    Temporal instability of affect is a defining characteristic of psychological disorders such as borderline personality disorder (BPD) and mood cycling disorders. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) enables researchers to directly assess such frequent and extreme fluctuations over time. The authors examined 4 operationalizations of such temporal…

  4. Multicultural Counseling Competencies, 2003: Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Roysircar, Gargi; Arredondo, Patricia; Fuertes, Jairo N.; Ponterotto, Joseph G.; Toporek, Rebecca L.

    This book updates earlier Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD) multicultural counseling competencies (MCC). Each chapter author particularizes definitions and/or conceptualizations of multicultural competencies to the topic of his or her chapter. The present document operationalizes the MCC into practice examples,…

  5. Exploring the Relationships between Trait Emotional Intelligence and Objective Socio-Emotional Outcomes in Childhood

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mavroveli, Stella; Petrides, K. V.; Sangareau, Yolanda; Furnham, Adrian

    2009-01-01

    Background: Trait emotional intelligence ("trait EI" or "trait emotional self-efficacy") is a constellation of emotion-related self-perceptions and dispositions located at the lower levels of personality hierarchies. This paper examines the validity of this construct, as operationalized by the Trait Emotional Intelligence…

  6. Definitions Matter: Investigating and Comparing Different Operalionalizations of Academic Undermatching

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gansemer-Topf, Ann M.; Downey, Jillian; Genschel, Ulrike

    2017-01-01

    Effective assessment practice requires clearly defining and operationalizing terminology. We illustrate the importance of this practice by focusing on academic "undermatching"--when students enroll in colleges that are less academically selective than those for which they are academically prepared. Undermatching has been viewed as a…

  7. Measuring an Individual's Investment in the Future: Symbolic Immortality, Sensation Seeking, and Psychic Numbness.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mathews, Robert C.; Mister, Rena D.

    1988-01-01

    Operationalized Lifton's constructs of symbolic immortality and developed instrument to measure individual's needs for symbolic immortality in Lifton's five modes (biological, religious, nature, creative, experiential) in study which also examined age effects on needs for symbolic immortality and relation between sensation seeking and symbolic…

  8. Work-Family Climate, Organizational Commitment, and Turnover: Multilevel Contagion Effects of Leaders

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    O'Neill, John W.; Harrison, Michelle M.; Cleveland, Jeannette; Almeida, David; Stawski, Robert; Crouter, Anne C.

    2009-01-01

    This paper presents empirical research analyzing the relationship between work-family climate (operationalized in terms of three work-family climate sub-scales), organizational leadership (i.e., senior manager) characteristics, organizational commitment and turnover intent among 526 employees from 37 different hotels across the US. Using…

  9. Synthesizing the Evidence on Classroom Goal Structures in Middle and Secondary Schools: A Meta-Analysis and Narrative Review

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Givens Rolland, Rebecca

    2012-01-01

    This meta-analysis and narrative review synthesizes the literature on classroom goal structures and their relationships with student outcomes, focusing additionally on the ways in which these constructs are operationalized across research studies. Specifically, this study evaluates the relationships between students' perceptions of mastery and…

  10. The Academic Ethic and College Grades: Does Hard Work Help Students To "Make the Grade"?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rau, William; Durand, Ann

    2000-01-01

    Demonstrates how "academic ethic" (a student world view that emphasizes diligent, daily, and sober study) can be operationalized and measured. Provides evidence for its existence among students at Illinois State University. Finds a relationship between methodical, disciplined study and academic performance. (Contains references.) (CMK)

  11. The Development and Validation of an Inventory of Effective School Function.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Carter, Jacquelyn; Michael, William B.

    1995-01-01

    The Effective School Function Inventory was constructed to operationalize the major constructs of efficient school operation. An analysis with 124 teachers identified 4 meaningful factors: (1) supportive collegial interaction; (2) cooperative facilitation of goal attainment in learning/sharing; (3) morally oriented leadership; and (4)…

  12. Capability Deprivation and Income Poverty in the United States, 1994 and 2004: Measurement Outcomes and Demographic Profiles

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wagle, Udaya R.

    2009-01-01

    Shifting focus from income to capability signifies an important milestone toward accurately measuring poverty and deprivation. This paper operationalizes capability deprivation in the United States and compares measurement outcomes among various capability approaches and between capability and income spaces. Of the three capability approaches…

  13. The Moderating Effects of Internet Parenting Styles on the Relationship between Internet Parenting Behavior, Internet Expectancy, and Internet Addiction Tendency

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chou, Chien; Lee, Yuan-Hsuan

    2017-01-01

    This study investigated the moderating effect of children's perceived Internet parenting styles (IPS) on the relationship among their perceived Internet parenting behaviors (operationalized as warmth and control on Internet use from their parents), Internet expectancy (IE), and Internet addiction tendency (IAT). Participants were 3169 Taiwanese…

  14. Values and Social Justice in Counseling

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Crethar, Hugh C.; Winterowd, Carrie L.

    2012-01-01

    The construct of social justice in counseling is defined and operationalized in this article. This is followed by a discussion about the intersection between social justice in counseling and philosophy, ethics, and spirituality. A call to action for counseling professionals is offered. (Contains 1 figure.)

  15. Support Systems for Treatment Integrity

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Goense, Pauline Brigitta; Boendermaker, Leonieke; van Yperen, Tom

    2016-01-01

    Objective: This systematic review evaluates the content of effective support provided to practitioners of evidence-based interventions in order to establish and maintain treatment integrity. Method: Four articles covering six outcome studies are included in this review, these studies (1) adequately operationalized treatment integrity procedures…

  16. Teachers' Perceptions of Effective Teaching: A Comparative Study of Elementary School Teachers from China and the USA

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Meng, Lingqi; Muñoz, Marco

    2016-01-01

    This international study investigated Chinese and American elementary school teachers' perceptions of effective teaching. The sample comprised Chinese (n = 108) and US (n = 110) participating teachers. The Effective Teaching Quality Survey (ETQS) was adopted for this comparative education research, an instrument that operationalized Stronge's…

  17. Computer-Adaptive Testing: Implications for Students' Achievement, Motivation, Engagement, and Subjective Test Experience

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Martin, Andrew J.; Lazendic, Goran

    2018-01-01

    The present study investigated the implications of computer-adaptive testing (operationalized by way of multistage adaptive testing; MAT) and "conventional" fixed order computer testing for various test-relevant outcomes in numeracy, including achievement, test-relevant motivation and engagement, and subjective test experience. It did so…

  18. Unifying Experiences: Learner and Instructor Approaches and Reactions to ePortfolio Usage in Higher Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Scholz, Kyle; Tse, Crystal; Lithgow, Katherine

    2017-01-01

    This paper explores the alignment of student and instructor experiences when employing ePortfolio activities in a Canadian higher education context. Successful ePortfolio activities are operationalized as exhibiting alignment of expectations between students and instructors, whereas misalignment of expectations is characteristic of a poorer…

  19. The National Higher Education and Workforce Initiative: Strategy in Action: Building the Cybersecurity Workforce in Maryland

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Business-Higher Education Forum, 2014

    2014-01-01

    The Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) has achieved particular success in operationalizing the National Higher Education and Workforce Initiative (HEWI) in Maryland around cybersecurity. Leveraging its membership of corporate CEOs, university presidents, and government agency leaders, BHEF partnered with the University System of Maryland to…

  20. A Risky Boundary: Unwanted Sexual Behaviour among Youth

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    de Bruijn, Paula; Burrie, Ingrid; van Wel, Frits

    2006-01-01

    The aim of this research was to explore unwanted sexual behaviour amongst young people. Sexual aggression was operationalized at three levels: "verbal", "non-verbal/intimidating" and "physically violent". A total of 1,700 Dutch adolescents completed a questionnaire that included six clusters of possible determinants…

  1. Chemistry Professors' Descriptions of the Impact of Research Engagement on Teaching

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hua, Olivia; Shore, Bruce M.

    2014-01-01

    Professors endorse a symbiotic relationship between research and teaching, but empirical evidence supporting this relationship is inconsistent. Many studies operationalized research and teaching too narrowly to detect the believed relationship. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 27 chemistry professors from a large…

  2. Adult Attachment Style, Hardiness, and Mood

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-04-01

    Maddi, S. R. (2004). Hardiness: An operationalization of existential cour- age. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 44, 279–298. doi: 10.1177...hardiness is based heavily on existential the- ory (Bartone, Barry, & Armstrong, 2009). Existentialists hold to the belief that humans search for meaning

  3. Measuring Organizational Slack: A Note on the Convergence and Divergence of Alternative Operational Definitions.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Marino, Kenneth E.; Lange, David R.

    1983-01-01

    Measures for operationalizing organizational slack were organized into two types of operations: relative and absolute. Each was applied to a common group of firms. Relative measures agreed significantly on the classification of firms into high and low slack groups. Absolute measures did not converge. (WAS)

  4. Theory and Research: The Nexus of Clinical Inference

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Claeys, Joseph

    2013-01-01

    The practice of individual assessment has been moving toward the empirically derived Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory of intellectual ability, which offers a hierarchical taxonomy of cognitive abilities. Current assessment tools provide varying adherence to operationalizing CHC theory, making clinical inference difficult. Expert consensus…

  5. Comparing Teacher and Administrator Perspectives on Multiple Dimensions of Teacher Professionalism

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tichenor, Mercedes; Tichenor, John

    2009-01-01

    In this paper, we compare teacher and administrator perspectives on multiple dimensions of teacher professionalism. An instrument with a total of 51 professional behaviors and characteristics that operationalize the multiple dimensions of professionalism was developed. Survey participants, including 216 teachers and 89 administrators, were asked…

  6. Operationalizing clean development mechanism baselines: A case study of China's electrical sector

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Steenhof, Paul A.

    The global carbon market is rapidly developing as the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol draws closer and Parties to the Protocol with greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets seek alternative ways to reduce their emissions. The Protocol includes the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a tool that encourages project-based investments to be made in developing nations that will lead to an additional reduction in emissions. Due to China's economic size and rate of growth, technological characteristics, and its reliance on coal, it contains a large proportion of the global CDM potential. As China's economy modernizes, more technologies and processes are requiring electricity and demand for this energy source is accelerating rapidly. Relatively inefficient technology to generate electricity in China thereby results in the electrical sector having substantial GHG emission reduction opportunities as related to the CDM. In order to ensure the credibility of the CDM in leading to a reduction in GHG emissions, it is important that the baseline method used in the CDM approval process is scientifically sound and accessible for both others to use and for evaluation purposes. Three different methods for assessing CDM baselines and environmental additionality are investigated in the context of China's electrical sector: a method based on a historical perspective of the electrical sector (factor decomposition), a method structured upon a current perspective (operating and build margins), and a simulation of the future (dispatch analysis). Assessing future emission levels for China's electrical sector is a very challenging task given the complexity of the system, its dynamics, and that it is heavily influenced by internal and external forces, but of the different baseline methods investigated, dispatch modelling is best suited for the Chinese context as it is able to consider the important regional and temporal dimensions of its economy and its future development. For China, the most promising options for promoting sustainable development, one of the goals of the Kyoto Protocol, appear to be tied to increasing electrical end-use and generation efficiency, particularly clean coal technology for electricity generation since coal will likely continue to be a dominant primary fuel.

  7. Operationalization of Sign Language Phonological Similarity and Its Effects on Lexical Access

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Williams, Joshua T.; Stone, Adam; Newman, Sharlene D.

    2017-01-01

    Cognitive mechanisms for sign language lexical access are fairly unknown. This study investigated whether phonological similarity facilitates lexical retrieval in sign languages using measures from a new lexical database for American Sign Language. Additionally, it aimed to determine which similarity metric best fits the present data in order to…

  8. Operationalization of the Religious Support Team Concept Utilizing a Collaborative Leadership Model

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2013-02-14

    19 APPENDIX D50 CHAPLAIN 2005 2012 +/- % ENLISTED 2005 2012 +/- % DENOMINATION DENOMINATION Agnostic Agnostic 1 2 +100 Buddhism ... Buddhism 2 1 -50 Christian 593 465 -21.5 Christian 278 221 -20.5 Christian No Pref 94 106 +12.7 Hindu Hindu 1 0 Jewish 11 7 -36.3 Jewish 3

  9. An Initial Attempt at Operationalizing and Testing the Community Coalition Action Theory

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kegler, Michelle C.; Swan, Deanne W.

    2011-01-01

    The Community Coalition Action Theory (CCAT) blends practice wisdom with empirical data to explain how community coalitions achieve community change and community capacity outcomes. The current study uses data from an evaluation of 20 "California Healthy Cities" and "Communities" coalitions to test relationships between…

  10. Testing the Difference between School Level and Academic Mindset in the Classroom: Implications for Developing Student Psycho-Social Skills in Secondary School Classrooms

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hanson, Janet

    2017-01-01

    This study explored the relationship between school level and the psychosocial construct of an academic mindset operationalized on the Likert-style Project for "Educational Research That Scales" (PERTS) instrument; widely used in testing academic mindset interventions at the classroom level. Analyses were conducted using existing school…

  11. Feedback Specificity, Information Processing, and Transfer of Training

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Goodman, Jodi S.; Wood, Robert E.; Chen, Zheng

    2011-01-01

    This study examines the effects of feedback specificity on transfer of training and the mechanisms through which feedback can enhance or inhibit transfer. We used concurrent verbal protocol methodology to elicit and operationalize the explicit information processing activities used by 48 trainees performing the Furniture Factory computer…

  12. Revealing "The Space Between": Creating an Observation Scale to Understand Infant Mental Health Reflective Supervision

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Watson, Christopher L.; Harrison, Mary E.; Hennes, Jill E.; Harris, Maren M.

    2016-01-01

    The Reflective Interaction Observation Scale (RIOS) describes and operationalizes the nature of the interactions between a supervisor and supervisee(s) during reflective supervision. Developed in collaboration among researchers and clinicians from the University of Minnesota, the Minnesota Association for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health,…

  13. Compromise, Well-Being, and Action Behaviors in Young Adults in Career Transition

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Creed, Peter A.; Blume, Kellie

    2013-01-01

    The authors surveyed 186 first-year university students and assessed their level of career compromise associated with making the transition to university. Compromise was operationalized as the discrepancy between the job characteristics of ideal and expected occupations. The authors also assessed career well-being (satisfaction, distress), action…

  14. The Vulnerability Framework Integrates Various Models of Generating Surplus Revenue

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Maniaci, Vincent

    2004-01-01

    Budgets operationalize the strategic planning process, and institutions must have surplus revenue to be able to cope with future operations. There are three approaches to generate surplus revenue: increased revenue, decreased cost, and reallocation of resources. Extending their earlier work, where they established strategic benchmarks for annual…

  15. Measuring Emergent Organizational Properties: A Structural Equation Modeling Test of Self- versus Group-Referent Perceptions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Goddard, Roger D.; LoGerfo, Laura F.

    2007-01-01

    This article presents a theoretical rationale and empirical evidence regarding the validity of scores obtained from two competing approaches to operationalizing scale items to measure emergent organizational properties. The authors consider whether items in scales intended to measure organizational properties should prompt survey takers to provide…

  16. Identifying Dispositions That Matter: Reaching for Consensus Using a Delphi Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bair, Mary Antony

    2017-01-01

    This article describes how one institution used the Delphi technique to identify and operationalize key professional dispositions to be addressed in its teacher education program. Participants included teacher educators, methods course instructors, and school administrators. Data collection occurred in three phases, with the results of each phase…

  17. Adolescents in Residential and Inpatient Treatment: A Review of the Outcome Literature

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bettmann, Joanna E.; Jasperson, Rachael A.

    2009-01-01

    Operationalizing treatment efficacy has become essential in the field of psychotherapy. Managed health care now requires psychotherapy to produce measurable outcomes and define success concretely. This requirement has resulted in research attempting to identify empirically supported and evidence-based treatments. This article presents a review of…

  18. Reaching Potentials: Transforming Early Childhood Curriculum and Assessment. Volume 2.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bredekamp, Sue, Ed.; Rosegrant, Teresa, Ed.

    This book builds on Volume 1 of "Reaching Potentials," which attempted to operationalize the "Guidelines for Appropriate Curriculum Content and Assessment" set by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education…

  19. Identifying Best Practice in a Shifting Landscape: Making Sense of RTI in the Context of SLD Identification

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lindstrom, Jennifer H.; Sayeski, Kristin

    2013-01-01

    The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004) has had substantial influence on special education in general and the field of learning disabilities in particular. Since its reauthorization in 2004, ongoing regulatory efforts have been underway to determine its operationalization and implementation. Of particular concern to those involved…

  20. Collaborative Attention Work on Gender Agreement in Italian as a Foreign Language

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kunitz, Silvia

    2018-01-01

    In cognitivist Second Language Acquisition (SLA), attention and noticing are described as psycholinguistic processes that (may) have a role in language learning. The operationalization of such constructs, however, poses methodological challenges, since neither online nor off-line measures are coextensive with these cognitive processes that occur…

  1. Interpersonal Characteristics of Male Criminal Offenders: Personality, Psychopathological, and Behavioral Correlates

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Edens, John F.

    2009-01-01

    Interest in conceptualizing the interpersonal style of individuals who engage in serious antisocial behavior has increased in recent years. This study examines the personality, psychopathological, and behavioral correlates of interpersonal dominance and warmth, as operationalized via scales of the Personality Assessment Inventory (L. Morey, 2007),…

  2. Extension: The Backbone Organization in Statewide Population Health Management

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Parisi, Michelle A.; Northcutt, Julie K.; McKendry, Jean E.; Sherrill, Windsor Westbrook; Dye, Cheryl J.; Snow, Jennifer Z.

    2018-01-01

    Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service has developed and is implementing a statewide population health management model aimed at leveraging key partnerships in South Carolina. The model delineates roles of key partners needed to operationalize statewide initiatives and drive the delivery of health extension in the state. Clemson…

  3. The BHEF National Higher Education and Workforce Initiative: A Model for Pathways to Baccalaureate Attainment and High-Skill Careers in Emerging Fields, Part 3

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fitzgerald, Brian K.; Barkanic, Steve; Cárdenas-Navia, Isabel; Chen, Janet; Elzey, Karen; Hughes, Debbie; Troyan, Danielle

    2016-01-01

    BHEF has achieved particular success in operationalizing its National Higher Education and Workforce Initiative (HEWI) through regional initiatives in data science and analytics (DSA). Leveraging its membership of corporate CEOs, university presidents and government agency leaders, BHEF seeded new undergraduate pathways in DSA at Case Western…

  4. A Comparison of the Effects of Non-Normal Distributions on Tests of Equivalence

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ellington, Linda F.

    2011-01-01

    Statistical theory and its application provide the foundation to modern systematic inquiry in the behavioral, physical and social sciences disciplines (Fisher, 1958; Wilcox, 1996). It provides the tools for scholars and researchers to operationalize constructs, describe populations, and measure and interpret the relations between populations and…

  5. Sensual Surfaces and Stylistic Excess: The Pleasure and Politics of "Miami Vice."

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schwichtenberg, Cathy

    Using Jean Baudrillard's postmodernist theories, this paper analyzes how the television program, "Miami Vice," operationalizes his theory through its attention to surfaces and style. The paper notes that Baudrillard proposes life as a surface comprised of animated models indistinguishable from the reality these models represent and…

  6. A Psychometric Framework for the Evaluation of Instructional Sensitivity

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Naumann, Alexander; Hochweber, Jan; Klieme, Eckhard

    2016-01-01

    Although there is a common understanding of instructional sensitivity, it lacks a common operationalization. Various approaches have been proposed, some focusing on item responses, others on test scores. As approaches often do not produce consistent results, previous research has created the impression that approaches to instructional sensitivity…

  7. Social Networks and Career Advancement of People with Disabilities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kulkarni, Mukta

    2012-01-01

    Although organizational social networks are known to influence career mobility, the specific direction of this influence is different for diverse employee groups. Diversity in organizational network research has been operationalized on various dimensions such as race and ethnicity, age, religion, education, occupation, and gender. Missing in this…

  8. Brief Christian and Non-Christian Rational-Emotive Therapy with Depressed Christian Clients: An Exploratory Study.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Johnson, W. Brad; Ridley, Charles R.

    1992-01-01

    Operationalized brief "Christian" form of rational-emotive therapy (CRET) and compared therapeutic efficacy of CRET with standard version of brief rational-emotive therapy (RET). Findings from depressed Christian clients (n=10) indicated that both treatments were effective in reducing depression and automatic negative thoughts whereas only CRET…

  9. Building a Foundation for Knowledge Management Research: Developing, Validating, and Applying the Knowledge Internalization Construct

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wipawayangkool, Kamphol

    2011-01-01

    The notion of knowledge internalization (KI), albeit a critical link in Nonaka's (1994) organizational knowledge creation theory, has not been rigorously conceptualized and defined, let alone operationalized. To strengthen the foundation for knowledge management (KM) research, we attempt to fulfill the following research objectives in the three…

  10. Effects of Computer-Based Early-Reading Academic Learning Time on Early-Reading Achievement: A Dose-Response Approach

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Heuston, Edward Benjamin Hull

    2010-01-01

    Academic learning time (ALT) has long had the theoretical underpinnings sufficient to claim a causal relationship with academic achievement, but to this point empirical evidence has been lacking. This dearth of evidence has existed primarily due to difficulties associated with operationalizing ALT in traditional educational settings. Recent…

  11. Learning Styles in Secondary Schools: A Review of Instruments and Implications for Their Use.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Curry, Lynn

    Practitioner use of learning style theory and measures can have an impact on curriculum design, instruction and assessment methods, and student guidance in the secondary school. Concern about the "operationalization" of learning style continues due to confusion concerning definitions, weakness in reliability and validity of measurements, and…

  12. Global Citizens Are Made, Not Born: Multiclass Role-Playing Simulation of Global Decision Making

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Levintova, Ekaterina; Johnson, Terri; Scheberle, Denise; Vonck, Kevin

    2011-01-01

    Globalization, global citizenship, and political engagement have become such buzzwords and cliches that we often lose the sense of their meaning. Global citizenship in particular is an elusive concept to operationalize. This article proposes to look at three dimensions of global citizenship: legal (rights and obligations), psychological…

  13. Performance-Approach Goal Effects Depend on How They Are Defined: Meta-Analytic Evidence from Multiple Educational Outcomes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Senko, Corwin; Dawson, Blair

    2017-01-01

    Achievement goal theory originally defined performance-approach goals as striving to demonstrate competence to outsiders by outperforming peers. The research, however, has operationalized the goals inconsistently, emphasizing the competence demonstration element in some cases and the peer comparison element in others. A meta-analysis by Hulleman…

  14. Observing Animal Behavior at the Zoo: A Learning Laboratory

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hull, Debra B.

    2003-01-01

    Undergraduate students in a learning laboratory course initially chose a species to study; researched that species' physical and behavioral characteristics; then learned skills necessary to select, operationalize, observe, and record animal behavior accurately. After their classroom preparation, students went to a local zoo to observe the behavior…

  15. Structural Location and Reputed Influence in State Reading Policy Issue Networks

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Young, Tamara V.; Lewis, Wayne D.; Sanders, Marla S.

    2010-01-01

    Using data about collaborative relationships among 109 reading policy actors from four states, this study investigated the extent to which social capital, operationalized as spanning structural holes, predicted a policy actor's reputed influence. Regression analysis showed that after controlling for state, centrality, and government entity, having…

  16. Conceptualizing physical activity parenting practices using expert informed concept mapping analysis

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Parents are widely recognized as playing a central role in the development of child behaviors such as physical activity. As there is little agreement as to the dimensions of physical activity-related parenting practices that should be measured or how they should be operationalized, this study engage...

  17. Learner Autonomy in a Task-Based 3D World and Production

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Collentine, Karina

    2011-01-01

    This study contributes to the research on learner autonomy by examining the relationship between Little's (1991) notions of "independent action" and "decision-making", input, and L2 production in computer-assisted language learning (CALL). Operationalizing "independent action" and "decision-making" with Dam's (1995) definition that focuses on…

  18. Why Do Bystanders of Bullying Help or Not? A Multidimensional Model

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pozzoli, Tiziana; Gini, Gianluca

    2013-01-01

    The authors employed Latane and Darley's model about bystanders' behavior to explain children's active defending and passive bystanding behavior in school bullying. The three central steps of the model were operationalized by measuring provictim attitudes, personal responsibility for intervention, and coping strategies. Moreover, the role of…

  19. Generational Changes in Racial Inequality in Occupational Attainment, 1950-2010: A Synthetic Cohort Analysis. IRP Discussion Paper. No. 1431-16

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wilson, Franklin D.

    2016-01-01

    This paper analyzes age and cohort changes in the occupational attainment of Blacks and Whites born in successive decades from 1910 to 1979. Occupational attainment is operationalized as "occupational returns to education" and "earnings returns to occupation." The primary objective is to determine whether the relative…

  20. Development and Validation of the Organizational Dissent Scale.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kassing, Jeffrey W.

    1998-01-01

    Develops a measure for operationalizing how employees verbally express their contradictory opinions and disagreements about organizational phenomena. Tests the Organizational Dissent Scale (ODS) in a series of studies designed to generate evidence of validity/reliability for the measure. Indicates that the scale measures how employees express…

  1. The Complexities of Adolescent Dating and Sexual Relationships: Fluidity, Meaning(s), and Implications for Young Adults' Well-Being

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Manning, Wendy D.; Longmore, Monica A.; Copp, Jennifer; Giordano, Peggy C.

    2014-01-01

    The complexity of adolescents' dating and sexual lives is not easily operationalized with simple indicators of dating or sexual activity. While building on prior work that emphasizes the "risky" nature of adolescents' intimate relationships, we assess whether a variety of indicators reflecting the complexity of…

  2. Capability and Health Functioning in Ethiopian Households

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mabsout, Ramzi

    2011-01-01

    From a recent Ethiopian representative household survey this paper empirically operationalizes concepts from the capability approach to shed light on the relationship between conversion factors, capability inputs and health functionings. The subjects of the study are women in partnership. The results suggest their health functionings are…

  3. Conceptualizing Public Attitudes toward the Welfare State: A Comment on Hasenfeld and Rafferty.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Emerson, Michael O.; Van Buren, Mark E.

    1992-01-01

    Using structural equation technique to replicate results of Hasenfeld and Rafferty's causal model predicting public attitudes toward welfare state programs with the social ideologies of work ethic and social rights. By incorporating estimates of measurement error, results failed to support the authors' original conclusions. Operationalizing key…

  4. Exploring Patient Activation in the Clinic: Measurement from Three Perspectives

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ledford, Christy J. W.; Ledford, Christopher C.; Childress, Marc A.

    2013-01-01

    Objective. To further conceptualize and operationalize patient activation (PA), using measures from patient, physician, and researcher perspectives. Data Source/Study Setting. Multimethod observation in 2010 within a family medicine clinic. Study Design. Part of an intervention with 130 patients with type 2 diabetes, this observational study…

  5. Bullying: Are Researchers and Children/Youth Talking about the Same Thing?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Vaillancourt, Tracy; McDougall, Patricia; Hymel, Shelley; Krygsman, Amanda; Miller, Jessie; Stiver, Kelley; Davis, Clinton

    2008-01-01

    Given the rapid increase in studies of bullying and peer harassment among youth, it becomes important to understand just what is being researched. This study explored whether the themes that emerged from "children's" definitions of bullying were consistent with theoretical and methodological operationalizations within the research…

  6. Validation of a Communication Process Measure for Coding Control in Counseling.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Heatherington, Laurie

    The increasingly popular view of the counseling process from an interactional perspective necessitates the development of new measurement instruments which are suitable to the study of the reciprocal interaction between people. The validity of the Relational Communication Coding System, an instrument which operationalizes the constructs of…

  7. Defining and Assessing Chinese Syntactic Complexity via TC-Units

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yu, Qiaona

    2016-01-01

    The triad dimensions of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) has been widely used for assessing second language performance and development. Unlike accuracy and fluency, the construct of Chinese syntactic complexity has not been comprehensibly conceptualized or operationalized. Moreover, not tailored to the typological differences such as the…

  8. Does the Eye of the Beholder Construct Beauty? Contributions of Self-Efficacy Factors to Divergent Thinking Traits

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kharkhurin, Anatoliy V.

    2017-01-01

    The study initiated a project exploring a contribution of creative perception to creative behavior. This study investigated the factors in creative self-perception contributing to creative potential. Creative potential was operationalized as divergent thinking and measured by the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults. Creative self-perception was…

  9. Perceptions of Life Changes: An Alternate Measure of Aging through Time.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Suggs, Patricia K.; Kivett, Vira R.

    Retrospective strategies measuring perceived life changes over time can further the advancement of life span developmental research. Researchers have neglected the individual's perception of his/her life changes over time. This study attempts to determine discriminators of change over time as operationalized by perceptions of change. Subjects…

  10. Collaboration in Action: Measuring and Improving Contracting Performance in the University of California Contracting Network

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tran, Tam; Bowman-Carpio, LeeAnna; Buscher, Nate; Davidson, Pamela; Ford, Jennifer J.; Jenkins, Erick; Kalay, Hillary Noll; Nakazono, Terry; Orescan, Helene; Sak, Rachael; Shin, Irene

    2017-01-01

    In 2013, the University of California, Biomedical Research, Acceleration, Integration, and Development (UC BRAID) convened a regional network of contracting directors from the five University of California (UC) health campuses to: (i) increase collaboration, (ii) operationalize and measure common metrics as a basis for performance improvement…

  11. The Evolution of the MasAgro Hubs: Responsiveness and Serendipity as Drivers of Agricultural Innovation in a Dynamic and Heterogeneous Context

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Camacho-Villa, Tania Carolina; Almekinders, Conny; Hellin, Jon; Martinez-Cruz, Tania Eulalia; Rendon-Medel, Roberto; Guevara-Hernández, Francisco; Beuchelt, Tina D.; Govaerts, Bram

    2016-01-01

    Purpose: Little is known about effective ways to operationalize agricultural innovation processes. We use the MasAgro program in Mexico (which aims to increase maize and wheat productivity, profitability and sustainability), and the experiences of middle level "hub managers", to understand how innovation processes occur in heterogeneous…

  12. Person-Organization (Culture) Fit and Employee Commitment under Conditions of Organizational Change: A Longitudinal Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Meyer, John P.; Hecht, Tracy D.; Gill, Harjinder; Toplonytsky, Laryssa

    2010-01-01

    This longitudinal study examines how person-organization fit, operationalized as congruence between perceived and preferred organizational culture, relates to employees' affective commitment and intention to stay with an organization during the early stages of a strategic organizational change. Employees in a large energy company completed surveys…

  13. Women of Color Chief Diversity Officers: Their Positionality and Agency in Higher Education Institutions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nixon, Monica L.

    2013-01-01

    Colleges and universities are seen as sites for harnessing for the common good the challenges and opportunities associated with diversity. Research supports the link of diversity experiences with a range of individual, institutional, and societal benefits. Contemporary models of operationalizing diversity on college campuses focus on the…

  14. Comparing Three Patterns of Strengths and Weaknesses Models for the Identification of Specific Learning Disabilities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Miller, Daniel C.; Maricle, Denise E.; Jones, Alicia M.

    2016-01-01

    Processing Strengths and Weaknesses (PSW) models have been proposed as a method for identifying specific learning disabilities. Three PSW models were examined for their ability to predict expert identified specific learning disabilities cases. The Dual Discrepancy/Consistency Model (DD/C; Flanagan, Ortiz, & Alfonso, 2013) as operationalized by…

  15. Testing the Generalizability of a Career Commitment Measure and Its Impact on Employee Turnover.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Blau, Gary

    1989-01-01

    Tested generalizability of career commitment measure and its impact on employee turnover using longitudinally tracked sample of bank tellers (N=133). Found career commitment could be reliably operationalized and was distinct from job involvement and organizational commitment. Discusses findings in terms of identifying threshold level for…

  16. Internalized Heterosexism: Measurement, Psychosocial Correlates, and Research Directions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Szymanski, Dawn M.; Kashubeck-West, Susan; Meyer, Jill

    2008-01-01

    This article provides an integrated critical review of the literature on internalized heterosexism/internalized homophobia (IH), its measurement, and its psychosocial correlates. It describes the psychometric properties of six published measures used to operationalize the construct of IH. It also critically reviews empirical studies on correlates…

  17. The Role of Persistence at Preschool Age in Academic Skills at Kindergarten

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mokrova, Irina L.; O'Brien, Marion; Calkins, Susan D.; Leerkes, Esther M.; Marcovitch, Stuart

    2013-01-01

    The current study examined the role of preschoolers' motivation, operationalized as persistence, in the formation of language and math skills at kindergarten. The participants were 263 children from diverse ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. Demographic information, child persistence, and early cognitive-linguistic skills were assessed at…

  18. Linguistic Attention Control: Attention Shifting Governed by Grammaticized Elements of Language

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Taube-Schiff, Marlene; Segalowitz, Norman

    2005-01-01

    In 2 experiments, the authors investigated attention control for tasks involving the processing of grammaticized linguistic stimuli (function words) contextualized in sentence fragments. Attention control was operationalized as shift costs obtained with adult speakers of English in an alternating-runs experimental design (R. D. Rogers & S.…

  19. Defining and Developing Curricula in the Context of Cooperative Extension

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Smith, Martin H.; Worker, Steven M.; Meehan, Cheryl L.; Schmitt-McQuitty, Lynn; Ambrose, Andrea; Brian, Kelley; Schoenfelder, Emily

    2017-01-01

    Effective curricula are considered to be the cornerstone of successful programming in Extension. However, there is no universal operationalized definition of the term "curriculum" as it applies to Extension. Additionally, the development of curricula requires a systematic process that takes into account numerous factors. We provide an…

  20. Investigating Hypervigilance for Social Threat of Lonely Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Qualter, Pamela; Rotenberg, Ken; Barrett, Louise; Henzi, Peter; Barlow, Alexandra; Stylianou, Maria; Harris, Rebecca A.

    2013-01-01

    The hypothesis that lonely children show hypervigilance for social threat was examined in a series of three studies that employed different methods including advanced eye-tracking technology. Hypervigilance for social threat was operationalized as hostility to ambiguously motivated social exclusion in a variation of the hostile attribution…

  1. The Use of Summarization Tasks: Some Lexical and Conceptual Analyses

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yu, Guoxing

    2013-01-01

    This article reports the lexical diversity of summaries written by experts and test takers in an empirical study and then interrogates the (in)congruity between the conceptualisations of "summary" and "summarize" in the literature of educational research and the operationalization of summarization tasks in three international…

  2. The Effect of Individual Motivation and Cognitive Ability on Student Performance Outcomes in a Distance Education Environment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Logan, James W.; Lundberg, Olof H.; Roth, Lawrence; Walsh, Kenneth R.

    2017-01-01

    The authors explored the effects of general mental ability and motivation (operationalized as conscientiousness) on performance in an online distance education course. The results supported the hypotheses that both higher levels of motivation and higher general mental ability are positively associated with academic performance in a distance…

  3. Getting to Outcomes: An Evaluation Capacity Building Example of Rationale, Science, and Practice

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wandersman, Abraham

    2014-01-01

    The Labin et al. logic model describes the why, how, what, and potential outcomes of evaluation capacity building (ECB). Getting To Outcomes offers a frame and empirical results for operationalizing the ECB logic model of Labin et al. and for deepening the science and practice of ECB.

  4. Rationale for a preliminary operational definition of physical frailty and sarcopenia in the SPRINTT trial.

    PubMed

    Cesari, Matteo; Landi, Francesco; Calvani, Riccardo; Cherubini, Antonio; Di Bari, Mauro; Kortebein, Patrick; Del Signore, Susanna; Le Lain, Regis; Vellas, Bruno; Pahor, Marco; Roubenoff, Ronenn; Bernabei, Roberto; Marzetti, Emanuele

    2017-02-01

    In the present article, the rationale that guided the operationalization of the theoretical concept of physical frailty and sarcopenia (PF&S), the condition of interest for the "Sarcopenia and Physical Frailty in Older People: Multicomponent Treatment Strategies" (SPRINTT) trial, is presented. In particular, the decisions lead to the choice of the adopted instruments, and the reasons for setting the relevant thresholds are explained. In SPRINTT, the concept of physical frailty is translated with a Short Physical Performance Battery score of ≥3 and ≤9. Concurrently, sarcopenia is defined according to the recent definitions of low muscle mass proposed by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health-Sarcopenia Project. Given the preventive purpose of SPRINTT, older persons with mobility disability (operationalized as incapacity to complete a 400-m walk test within 15 min; primary outcome of the trial) at the baseline are not included within the diagnostic spectrum of PF&S.

  5. Childhood Adversities and Adult Cardiometabolic Health: Does the Quantity, Timing, and Type of Adversity Matter?

    PubMed Central

    Friedman, Esther M.; Montez, Jennifer Karas; Sheehan, Connor McDevitt; Guenewald, Tara L.; Seeman, Teresa E.

    2015-01-01

    Objective Adverse events in childhood can indelibly influence adult health. While evidence for this association has mounted, a fundamental set of questions about how to operationalize adverse events has been understudied. Method We used data from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States to examine how quantity, timing, and types of adverse events in childhood are associated with adult cardiometabolic health. Results The best-fitting specification of quantity of events was a linear measure reflecting a dose–response relationship. Timing of event mattered less than repeated exposure to events. Regarding the type of event, academic interruptions and sexual/physical abuse were most important. Adverse childhood events elevated the risk of diabetes and obesity similarly for men and women but had a greater impact on women’s risk of heart disease. Discussion Findings demonstrate the insights that can be gleaned about the early-life origins of adult health by examining operationalization of childhood exposures. PMID:25903978

  6. Participation and environmental aspects in education and the ICF and the ICF-CY: findings from a systematic literature review.

    PubMed

    Maxwell, Gregor; Alves, Ines; Granlund, Mats

    2012-01-01

    This paper presents findings from a systematic review of the literature related to participation and the ICF/ICF-CY in educational research. To analyse how and investigate the application of participation in educational research. Specifically, how participation is related to the environmental dimensions availability, accessibility, affordability, accommodability and acceptability. A systematic literature review using database keyword searches and refinement protocols using inclusion and exclusion criteria at abstract, full-text and extraction. Four hundred and twenty-one initial works were found. Twenty-three met the inclusion criteria. Availability and accommodations are the most investigated dimensions. Operationalization of participation is not always consistent with definitions used. Research is developing a holistic approach to investigating participation as, although all papers reference at least one environmental dimension, only four of the 11 empirical works reviewed present a fully balanced approach when theorizing and operationalizing participation; hopefully this balanced approach will continue and influence educational policy and school practice.

  7. Towards the quantitative evaluation of visual attention models.

    PubMed

    Bylinskii, Z; DeGennaro, E M; Rajalingham, R; Ruda, H; Zhang, J; Tsotsos, J K

    2015-11-01

    Scores of visual attention models have been developed over the past several decades of research. Differences in implementation, assumptions, and evaluations have made comparison of these models very difficult. Taxonomies have been constructed in an attempt at the organization and classification of models, but are not sufficient at quantifying which classes of models are most capable of explaining available data. At the same time, a multitude of physiological and behavioral findings have been published, measuring various aspects of human and non-human primate visual attention. All of these elements highlight the need to integrate the computational models with the data by (1) operationalizing the definitions of visual attention tasks and (2) designing benchmark datasets to measure success on specific tasks, under these definitions. In this paper, we provide some examples of operationalizing and benchmarking different visual attention tasks, along with the relevant design considerations. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Collecting and validating experiential expertise is doable but poses methodological challenges.

    PubMed

    Burda, Marika H F; van den Akker, Marjan; van der Horst, Frans; Lemmens, Paul; Knottnerus, J André

    2016-04-01

    To give an overview of important methodological challenges in collecting, validating, and further processing experiential expertise and how to address these challenges. Based on our own experiences in studying the concept, operationalization, and contents of experiential expertise, we have formulated methodological issues regarding the inventory and application of experiential expertise. The methodological challenges can be categorized in six developmental research stages, comprising the conceptualization of experiential expertise, methods to harvest experiential expertise, the validation of experiential expertise, evaluation of the effectiveness, how to translate experiential expertise into acceptable guidelines, and how to implement these. The description of methodological challenges and ways to handle those are illustrated using diabetes mellitus as an example. Experiential expertise can be defined and operationalized in terms of successful illness-related behaviors and translated into recommendations regarding life domains. Pathways have been identified to bridge the gaps between the world of patients' daily lives and the medical world. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Intersections of Critical Systems Thinking and Community Based Participatory Research: A Learning Organization Example with the Autistic Community

    PubMed Central

    Raymaker, Dora M

    2016-01-01

    Critical systems thinking (CST) and community based participatory research (CBPR) are distinct approaches to inquiry which share a primary commitment to holism and human emancipation, as well as common grounding in critical theory and emancipatory and pragmatic philosophy. This paper explores their intersections and complements on a historical, philosophical, and theoretical level, and then proposes a hybrid approach achieved by applying CBPR's principles and considerations for operationalizing emancipatory practice to traditional systems thinking frameworks and practices. This hybrid approach is illustrated in practice with examples drawn from of the implementation of the learning organization model in an action research setting with the Autistic community. Our experience of being able to actively attend to, and continuously equalize, power relations within an organizational framework that otherwise has great potential for reinforcing power inequity suggests CBPR's principles and considerations for operationalizing emancipatory practice could be useful in CST settings, and CST's vocabulary, methods, and clarity around systems thinking concepts could be valuable to CBPR practioners. PMID:27833398

  10. [Differences and similarities between the competencies of a nursing supervisor and an advanced clinical nurse specialist].

    PubMed

    del Barrio-Linares, M; Pumar-Méndez, M J

    2015-01-01

    With the aim of contributing to the development of a more specific professional regulation, the present study was to identify differences and similarities between the competencies of the nursing supervisor and clinical nurse specialist in an intensive care unit. A critical analysis of the literature published between 2003 and 2013 was conducted, identified through systematic searches in electronic databases, health management and practitioner journals and reference lists of the 17 items included. «Management and administration» and «direct clinical practice» were identified as specific competencies of nursing supervisor and clinical nurse specialist respectively. «Collaboration», «leadership» and «research» emerged as competencies shared by both profiles, but with different a operationalization way of conducting it. These findings imply that regulation, education and implementation of these profiles must address their specific skills as the distinctive approach taken in operationalizing shared. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier España, S.L.U. y SEEIUC. All rights reserved.

  11. Implementation of Subjective Cognitive Decline criteria in research studies

    PubMed Central

    Molinuevo, José L; Rabin, Laura A.; Amariglio, Rebecca; Buckley, Rachel; Dubois, Bruno; Ellis, Kathryn A.; Ewers, Michael; Hampel, Harald; Klöppel, Stefan; Rami, Lorena; Reisberg, Barry; Saykin, Andrew J.; Sikkes, Sietske; Smart, Colette M.; Snitz, Beth E.; Sperling, Reisa; van der Flier, Wiesje M.; Wagner, Michael; Jessen, Frank

    2017-01-01

    INTRODUCTION Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD) manifesting prior to clinical impairment could serve as a target population for early intervention trials in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). A working group, the Subjective Cognitive Decline Initiative (SCD-I), published SCD research criteria in the context of preclinical AD. To successfully apply them, a number of issues regarding assessment and implementation of SCD needed to be addressed. METHODS Members of the SCD-I met to identify and agree upon topics relevant to SCD criteria operationalization in research settings. Initial ideas and recommendations were discussed with other SCD-I working group members and modified accordingly. RESULTS Topics included SCD inclusion and exclusion criteria, together with the informant’s role in defining SCD presence and the impact of demographic factors. DISCUSSION Recommendations for the operationalization of SCD in differing research settings, with the aim of harmonization of SCD measurement across studies are proposed, to enhance comparability and generalizability across studies. PMID:27825022

  12. Measuring Five Dimensions of Religiosity across Adolescence

    PubMed Central

    Pearce, Lisa D.; Hayward, George M.; Pearlman, Jessica A.

    2017-01-01

    This paper theorizes and tests a latent variable model of adolescent religiosity in which five dimensions of religiosity are interrelated: religious beliefs, religious exclusivity, external religiosity, private practice, and religious salience. Research often theorizes overlapping and independent influences of single items or dimensions of religiosity on outcomes such as adolescent sexual behavior, but rarely operationalizes the dimensions in a measurement model accounting for their associations with each other and across time. We use longitudinal structural equation modeling (SEM) with latent variables to analyze data from two waves of the National Study of Youth and Religion. We test our hypothesized measurement model as compared to four alternate measurement models and find that our proposed model maintains superior fit. We then discuss the associations between the five dimensions of religiosity we measure and how these change over time. Our findings suggest how future research might better operationalize multiple dimensions of religiosity in studies of the influence of religion in adolescence. PMID:28931956

  13. Identifying and Evaluating the Therapeutic Strategies Used During a Manualized Self- Advocacy Intervention for Transition-Age Youth.

    PubMed

    Kramer, Jessica M

    2015-01-01

    Prior to undertaking randomized control trials, pilot research should ensure that an intervention's active ingredients are operationalized in manuals or protocols. This study identified the strategies facilitators reported to use during the implementation of a problem-solving self-advocacy intervention, Project "Teens making Environment and Activity Modifications" (TEAM), with transition-age youth with developmental disabilities, and evaluated the alignment of strategies with the intervention's hypothesized mechanisms of change. An iterative process was used to conduct a content analysis of 106 field notes completed by six facilitators. Facilitators used 19 strategies. Findings suggest that facilitators used strategies simultaneously to ensure universal design for learning, maximize relevance for individual trainees, and maintain a safe and encouraging environment. Facilitators can individualize Project TEAM in a way that operationalizes the mechanisms of change underlying Project TEAM. The quality of the intervention may improve by explicitly incorporating these strategies into the intervention protocol. The strategies may also be applicable to therapists implementing interventions informed, by similar theoretical propositions.

  14. The Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) Model: An Overview and Operational Definition.

    PubMed

    Reiter, Jeffrey T; Dobmeyer, Anne C; Hunter, Christopher L

    2018-06-01

    The Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) model is a prominent approach to the integration of behavioral health services into primary care settings. Implementation of the PCBH model has grown over the past two decades, yet research and training efforts have been slowed by inconsistent terminology and lack of a concise, operationalized definition of the model and its key components. This article provides the first concise operationalized definition of the PCBH model, developed from examination of multiple published resources and consultation with nationally recognized PCBH model experts. The definition frames the model as a team-based approach to managing biopsychosocial issues that present in primary care, with the over-arching goal of improving primary care in general. The article provides a description of the key components and strategies used in the model, the rationale for those strategies, a brief comparison of this model to other integration approaches, a focused summary of PCBH model outcomes, and an overview of common challenges to implementing the model.

  15. Intersections of Critical Systems Thinking and Community Based Participatory Research: A Learning Organization Example with the Autistic Community.

    PubMed

    Raymaker, Dora M

    2016-10-01

    Critical systems thinking (CST) and community based participatory research (CBPR) are distinct approaches to inquiry which share a primary commitment to holism and human emancipation, as well as common grounding in critical theory and emancipatory and pragmatic philosophy. This paper explores their intersections and complements on a historical, philosophical, and theoretical level, and then proposes a hybrid approach achieved by applying CBPR's principles and considerations for operationalizing emancipatory practice to traditional systems thinking frameworks and practices. This hybrid approach is illustrated in practice with examples drawn from of the implementation of the learning organization model in an action research setting with the Autistic community. Our experience of being able to actively attend to, and continuously equalize, power relations within an organizational framework that otherwise has great potential for reinforcing power inequity suggests CBPR's principles and considerations for operationalizing emancipatory practice could be useful in CST settings, and CST's vocabulary, methods, and clarity around systems thinking concepts could be valuable to CBPR practioners.

  16. Moving toward Self-Authorship: Investigating Outcomes of Learning Partnerships

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pizzolato, Jane Elizabeth; Ozaki, C. Casey

    2007-01-01

    This qualitative study investigates how the Learning Partnerships Model (LPM; Baxter Magolda, 2001, 2004a) could be operationalized in the context of an academic advising retention program. The findings focus on what epistemological outcomes emerge for students who entered the program as formula followers. Findings suggest that although students…

  17. AN EXPLORATORY ANALYSIS OF THE ROLES AND ROLE CONFLICTS OF VOCATIONAL TEACHERS IN OKLAHOMA. FINAL REPORT.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    SUTKER, SOLOMON; AND OTHERS

    THE OBJECTIVES OF THIS STUDY WERE TO (1) DEPICT THE ROLE OF VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURE, TRADE AND INDUSTRIAL, DISTRIBUTIVE EDUCATION, AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION TEACHERS IN OKLAHOMA, (2) ASSESS THE POTENTIAL FOR ROLE CONFLICT ASSOCIATED WITH THEIR ACTIVITIES, AND (3) OPERATIONALIZE ROLE THEORY AS AN APPROACH FOR INVESTIGATING EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS.…

  18. The Role of (Un)awareness in SLA

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Leow, Ronald P.; Donatelli, Lucia

    2017-01-01

    The construct "awareness" is undoubtedly one of the more difficult constructs to operationalize and measure in both second language acquisition (SLA) and non-SLA fields of research. Indeed, the multifaceted nature of awareness is clearly exemplified in concepts that include perception, detection, and noticing, and also in type of…

  19. A Comparison of Online and Classroom-Based Developmental Math Courses

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Eggert, Jeanette Gibeson

    2009-01-01

    Effectiveness was operationalized as a combination of successful developmental course completion, high student satisfaction at the end of the course, and high academic achievement in a subsequent college-level math course. Instructional methodologies were similar to the extent that the instructional delivery systems allowed. With a sample size of…

  20. Defining and Describing Rural: Implications for Rural Special Education Research and Policy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hawley, Leslie R.; Koziol, Natalie A.; Bovaird, James A.; McCormick, Carina M.; Welch, Greg W.; Arthur, Ann M.; Bash, Kirstie

    2016-01-01

    A critical aspect of rural research is carefully defining and describing the rural context. This is particularly important in rural special education research because different definitions of rural may influence resource allocation, grant funding eligibility, and/or research findings. In order to highlight the importance of operationalizing rural,…

  1. Domains of Quality of Life of People with Profound Multiple Disabilities: The Perspective of Parents and Direct Support Staff

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Petry, Katja; Maes, Bea; Vlaskamp, Carla

    2005-01-01

    Background: This study considered the general validity of the basic domains of quality of life that appear in theoretical models, in relation to people with profound multiple disabilities. The authors examined how parents and direct support staff operationalized these basic domains for people with profound multiple disabilities. They investigated…

  2. An Evaluation of Three Approximate Item Response Theory Models for Equating Test Scores.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Marco, Gary L.; And Others

    Three item response models were evaluated for estimating item parameters and equating test scores. The models, which approximated the traditional three-parameter model, included: (1) the Rasch one-parameter model, operationalized in the BICAL computer program; (2) an approximate three-parameter logistic model based on coarse group data divided…

  3. Sex Bias in Research Design.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Grady, Kathleen E.

    1981-01-01

    Presents feminist criticisms of selected aspects of research methods in psychology. Reviews data relevant to sex bias in topic selection, subject selection and single-sex designs, operationalization of variables, testing for sex differences, and interpretation of results. Suggestions for achieving more "sex fair" research methods are discussed.…

  4. Process Use as a Usefulism

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Patton, Michael Quinn

    2007-01-01

    Process use refers to changes in attitude, thinking, and behavior that result from participating in an evaluation. Process use includes individual learnings from evaluation involvement as well as effects on program functioning and organizational culture. The "Encyclopedia of Social Science Research Methods," in an entry on operationalization,…

  5. Numerical visitor capacity: a guide to its use in wilderness

    Treesearch

    David Cole; Thomas Carlson

    2010-01-01

    Despite decades of academic work and practical management applications, the concept of visitor capacity remains controversial and inconsistently operationalized. Nevertheless, there are situations where development of a numerical estimate of capacity is important and where not doing so has resulted in land management agencies being successfully litigated. This report...

  6. Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies: Guidelines for the Counseling Profession

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ratts, Manivong J.; Singh, Anneliese A.; Nassar-McMillan, Sylvia; Butler, S. Kent; McCullough, Julian Rafferty

    2016-01-01

    In 2014, the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD) appointed a committee to revise the Multicultural Counseling Competencies developed by Sue, Arredondo, and McDavis in 1992 and operationalized by Arredondo et al. in 1996. This article reflects the updated competencies, titled the Multicultural and Social Justice…

  7. Error Variability and the Differentiation between Apraxia of Speech and Aphasia with Phonemic Paraphasia

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Haley, Katarina L.; Jacks, Adam; Cunningham, Kevin T.

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: This study was conducted to evaluate the clinical utility of error variability for differentiating between apraxia of speech (AOS) and aphasia with phonemic paraphasia. Method: Participants were 32 individuals with aphasia after left cerebral injury. Diagnostic groups were formed on the basis of operationalized measures of recognized…

  8. How Cognitive Style and Problem Complexity Affect Preservice Agricultural Education Teachers' Abilities to Solve Problems in Agricultural Mechanics

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Blackburn, J. Joey; Robinson, J. Shane; Lamm, Alexa J.

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of this experimental study was to determine the effects of cognitive style and problem complexity on Oklahoma State University preservice agriculture teachers' (N = 56) ability to solve problems in small gasoline engines. Time to solution was operationalized as problem solving ability. Kirton's Adaption-Innovation Inventory was…

  9. Maternal and Paternal Similarities and Differences in Parenting: An Examination of Mexican-American Parents of Young Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gamble, Wendy C.; Ramakumar, Sri; Diaz, Abel

    2007-01-01

    The present study evaluated the degree of parental similarity-dissimilarity across parenting dimensions operationalized in terms of: (1) one's own and one's partner's style; (2) meta-emotion belief structures; (3) behavioral strategies in reaction to children's emotions; as well as (4) parental support and responsiveness. The first four dimensions…

  10. The Relationship between Perceptions of Premenstrual Syndrome and Degree Performance

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Earl-Novell, Sarah L.; Jessop, Donna C.

    2005-01-01

    This paper explores whether female undergraduates self-reported experiences of pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS) were associated with degree performance, operationalized as degree class outcome, in a sample of 'high achieving' students (N = 55). Students reported that PMS was disruptive to academic work (comprising lectures, seminars, writing essays,…

  11. The Relationship between Ethical Sensitivity, High Ability and Gender in Higher Education Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schutte, Ingrid; Wolfensberger, Marca; Tirri, Kirsi

    2014-01-01

    This study examined the ethical sensitivity of high-ability undergraduate students (n=731) in the Netherlands who completed the 28-item Ethical Sensitivity Scale Questionnaire (ESSQ) developed by Tirri & Nokelainen (2007; 2011). The ESSQ is based on Narvaez' (2001) operationalization of ethical sensitivity in seven dimensions. The following…

  12. Rating Slam Dunks to Visualize the Mean, Median, Mode, Range, and Standard Deviation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Robinson, Nick W.; Castle Bell, Gina

    2014-01-01

    Among the many difficulties beleaguering the communication research methods instructor is the problem of contextualizing abstract ideas. Comprehension of variable operationalization, the utility of the measures of central tendency, measures of dispersion, and the visual distribution of data sets are difficult, since students have not handled data.…

  13. Heavy-Metal Humpty Dumpty: Dissonant Masculinities within the Context of the Nursery

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Warin, Jo

    2006-01-01

    To operationalize a feminist poststructuralist approach necessitates research of a close-up nature in order to track shifting subject positions through a range of social contexts and to explore the interpersonal and intrapersonal power relations that operate within them. Adopting this theoretical perspective, together with Connell's concept of…

  14. Creating Communities of Engaged Learners: An Analysis of a First-Year Inquiry Seminar

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stebleton, Michael J.; Jehangir, Rashne

    2016-01-01

    This "Practices from the Field" article describes the rationale and operationalization of an interdisciplinary team-taught first-year inquiry seminar and learning community program at a large predominantly White research institution. The authors both serve as faculty members in the College of Education and Human Development and teach in…

  15. Customized Assessment Group Initiative: A Complementary Approach to Students' Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Akindayomi, Akinloye

    2015-01-01

    This study, conducted in a US setting, examines the importance of group dynamics that emphasize cooperative team building through the proposed grouping strategy called Customized Assessment Group Initiative (CAGI). CAGI is a student grouping strategy designed to operationalize the mutual accountability concept central to the definition of teams by…

  16. The Effects of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition Cognitive Abilities on Math Achievement

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Parkin, Jason R.; Beaujean, A. Alexander

    2012-01-01

    This study used structural equation modeling to examine the effect of Stratum III (i.e., general intelligence) and Stratum II (i.e., Comprehension-Knowledge, Fluid Reasoning, Short-Term Memory, Processing Speed, and Visual Processing) factors of the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) cognitive abilities, as operationalized by the Wechsler Intelligence…

  17. Perspective-Taking, Position Power, and Third Party Intervention Style: A Classroom Application.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schneider, David E.

    In order to understand how power affects other relationships, to offer an exploratory methodology for operationalizing an intervention typology, and to eventually develop a theoretical model that predicts affective influence on third party intervention modes in given conflict situations, a pilot study hypothesized that the frequency of preferred…

  18. A Review and Analysis of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) for Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorders Using a Paradigm of Communication Competence

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ostryn, Cheryl; Wolfe, Pamela S.; Rusch, Frank R.

    2008-01-01

    Research related to the use of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) with individuals having autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) was examined using a communication competence paradigm detailed by J. C. Light (1988, 1989, 2003). Communication components were operationalized based on skills identified in ASD research. A review was conducted…

  19. CAF: Defining, Refining and Differentiating Constructs

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pallotti, Gabriele

    2009-01-01

    This article critically scrutinizes a number of issues involved in the definition and operationalization of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) constructs. It argues for maintaining clearer distinctions between CAF, on the one hand, and notions such as linguistic development and communicative adequacy, on the other. Adequacy, in particular,…

  20. Distractions in the School Science Laboratory

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hamza, Karim M.

    2013-01-01

    In this article, I make a case for the potential educative worth of distractions for learning science in the school laboratory. Distractions are operationalized as experiences lying outside the main purpose of the laboratory activity, thereby diverting students' attention from that purpose. Through a practical epistemology analysis, I…

  1. Improving Communicative Competence: Validation of a Social Skills Training Workshop.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dawson, Pamela J.; Spitzberg, Brian H.

    The effectiveness of a social skills training workshop was assessed by comparing the rated competence of participants in an Interpersonal Skills Training Program to the rated competence of nonparticipants. Subjects' self-ratings were included. This comparison was operationalized through a pretest-posttest design with 12 experimental and 22 control…

  2. Analyzing the Relationship between Four Teacher Competence Areas and Commitment to Teaching

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McKim, Aaron J.; Sorensen, Tyson J.; Velez, Jonathan J.; Henderson, Thomas M.

    2017-01-01

    The success of education depends on highly competent teachers committed to stay in the teaching profession. In agricultural education, the need for teachers committed to teaching agriculture is heightened by the identified shortage of teachers. Previous research has linked teacher competence, most commonly operationalized as self-efficacy, and…

  3. Educational Investment, Family Context, and Children's Math and Reading Growth from Kindergarten through the Third Grade

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cheadle, Jacob E.

    2008-01-01

    Drawing on longitudinal data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999, this study used IRT modeling to operationalize a measure of parental educational investments based on Lareau's notion of concerted cultivation. It used multilevel piece-wise growth models regressing children's math and reading achievement…

  4. A Research Synthesis of the Literature on Multimedia Anchored Instruction in Preservice Teacher Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Thomas, Cathy Newman; Rieth, Herbert J.

    2011-01-01

    More than 20 years have passed since the Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt University first conceptualized and began to explore how to effectively operationalize cognitive learning theory in applied instructional settings, innovatively infusing their model with emerging technologies. Yet, to date a comprehensive review of findings on…

  5. Understanding Business Analytics Success and Impact: A Qualitative Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Parks, Rachida F.; Thambusamy, Ravi

    2017-01-01

    Business analytics is believed to be a huge boon for organizations since it helps offer timely insights over the competition, helps optimize business processes, and helps generate growth and innovation opportunities. As organizations embark on their business analytics initiatives, many strategic questions, such as how to operationalize business…

  6. The Role of Personality in Relationship Closeness, Developer Assistance, and Career Success

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wu, Pei-Chuan; Foo, Maw-Der; Turban, Daniel B.

    2008-01-01

    We investigate the role of relationship closeness, which is adapted from social network theory, in developmental relationships using a sample of 278 full-time working individuals. We theorize that personality, operationalized with the Five Factor Model, is associated with relationship closeness which is positively related to developer assistance…

  7. Interparent Childrearing Disagreement, but Not Dissimilarity, Predicts Child Problems after Controlling for Parenting Effectiveness

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chen, Mandy; Johnston, Charlotte

    2012-01-01

    Parental differences regarding childrearing may be operationalized as actual dissimilarity in the parenting actions or goals of the parents, or as perceived conflict or disagreement related to these dissimilarities. This study tested whether these two types of parental differences are each associated with child problems, independent of the…

  8. Chinese College Students' Perceptions of Excellent Teachers across Three Disciplines: Psychology, Chemical Engineering, and Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Liu, Shujie; Keeley, Jared; Buskist, William

    2016-01-01

    Researchers have found that students from different academic disciplines tend to value different qualities in their teachers, and cultural differences play a role in which qualities students appreciate in their professors. The present/current study employed the Teacher Behavior Checklist as an operationalization of teaching qualities in a…

  9. Dimentions of Counselee Responses over Several Therapy Sessions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zimmer, Jules M.; And Others

    1972-01-01

    The results of the current study, as well as the Zimmer and Cowles (1972) study using quite different procedures, involved a comparison of client-centered, gestalt, and rational therapies and do not support the conclusion that therapeutic relationships tend to be characteristically the same. Theoretical orientation as operationalized by…

  10. Fathers' and Mothers' Language Acculturation and Parenting Practices: Links to Mexican American Children's Academic Readiness

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Baker, Claire E.

    2018-01-01

    This study used a family-centered ecological lens to examine predictive relations among fathers' and mothers' language acculturation, parenting practices, and academic readiness in a large sample of Mexican American children in preschool (N = 880). In line with prior early childhood research, parent language acculturation was operationalized as…

  11. Confirmatory Factor Analyses Comparing Parental Involvement Frameworks with Secondary Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Duppong Hurley, Kristin; Lambert, Matthew C.; January, Stacy-Ann A.; Huscroft D'Angelo, Jacqueline

    2017-01-01

    Given the lack of research on measurement models used to operationalize parental involvement with secondary students, the goal of this research is to examine the measurement properties of the three-domain conceptualization of parental involvement including school-based involvement, home-based involvement, and academic socialization, compared to a…

  12. Developing Management Student Cultural Fluency for the Real World: A Situated Cultural Learning Approach

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zhu, Yunxia; Okimoto, Tyler G.; Roan, Amanda; Xu, Henry

    2017-01-01

    Purpose: To connect students with the real world of management practice, the purpose of this paper is to extend and operationalize the situated cultural learning approach (SiCuLA) through five learning processes occurring within communities of practice. These include integration of cultural contexts, authentic activities, reflections,…

  13. Culturally Responsive Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. WCER Working Paper No. 2015-9

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bal, Aydin

    2015-01-01

    This report presents the underlying theory and methodology of the first framework to operationalize culture and culturally responsiveness in the context of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. Created following a systematic review of literature, this framework was created as a cultural artifact to expand the conceptualization of the…

  14. A Different Kind of Kid, a Different Kind of Teacher Education: Middle Grades Teachers Reflect on Their Preparation to Teach Young Adolescents

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ochanji, Moses K.; Chen, Rong-Ji; Daniels, Erika; Deringer, Marlene L.; McDaniel, Janet; Stowell, Laurie; Cambra-Adamson, Christina

    2016-01-01

    Good teaching at the middle grades comes out of a deep understanding of the unique cognitive, physical, social, emotional, and moral needs of young adolescents. Specialized preparation therefore is necessary to help teacher candidates understand how to operationalize the intersection of young adolescent development and the effective pedagogy that…

  15. Strategic Flexibility in Computational Estimation for Chinese- and Canadian-Educated Adults

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Xu, Chang; Wells, Emma; LeFevre, Jo-Anne; Imbo, Ineke

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of the present study was to examine factors that influence strategic flexibility in computational estimation for Chinese- and Canadian-educated adults. Strategic flexibility was operationalized as the percentage of trials on which participants chose the problem-based procedure that best balanced proximity to the correct answer with…

  16. Alternative Conceptions of Wisdom: An Onion-Peeling Exercise.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Blanchard-Fields, Fredda; And Others

    1987-01-01

    Discusses contextualistic and integrative approaches to the concept of wisdom, and the evolution of the concept from an independent construct of intelligence to a component of intelligence, i.e., practical intelligence. Suggests operationalization of wisdom as the ability to integrate cognition and affect. Illustrates the integrative approach with…

  17. Equality of Opportunities, Divergent Conceptualisations and Their Implications for Early Childhood Care and Education Policies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Morabito, Christian; Vandenbroeck, Michel

    2015-01-01

    This article aims to explore the relations between equality of opportunity and early childhood. By referring to the work of contemporary philosophers, i.e. Rawls, Sen, Dworkin, Cohen and Roemer, we argue for different possible interpretations, based on political discussions, concerning how to operationalize equality of opportunities. We represent…

  18. Outcome Expectations: Looking to the Past and Potential Future

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fouad, Nadya A.; Guillen, Amy

    2006-01-01

    This article focuses on the construct of outcome expectations. It is argued that the construct has received relatively little attention in the vocational literature. The authors define outcome expectations, trace the precursors to the construct, provide a critique of the operationalization of the construct, and propose recommendations for future…

  19. Business and Technology Educators: Practices for Inclusion

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Donne, Vicki; Hansen, Mary A.

    2013-01-01

    Business educators face the challenge of operationalizing the global converging initiatives of technology integration and inclusion of students with a disability in K-12 education. A survey of business educators was conducted to ascertain how they were implementing these initiatives in the United States. Results indicated that business educators…

  20. From Print to Digital Platforms: A PBL Framework for Fostering Multimedia Competencies and Consciousness in Traditional Journalism Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Goh, Debbie; Kale, Ugur

    2015-01-01

    The project-based learning (PBL) approach closely reflects the tenets of journalism and provides a potential pedagogical guide for transforming traditional journalism education. This study operationalizes and applies a PBL framework in digitizing a print journalism course. The findings illustrate how the presence of seven key elements of PBL…

  1. Dysfunctional Workers, Functional Texts: The Transformation of Work in Institutional Procedure Manuals.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sullivan, Francis J.

    1997-01-01

    Examines how conflicts between management and workers over division of labor are enacted in two manuals--the official manual operationalizing Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations and a "translation" of the official manual--governing tax examiners' work in an IRS Service Center. Finds that systemic differences between the manuals…

  2. Assessing the Relationship of Working Memory to L2 Reading: Does the Nature of Comprehension Process and Reading Span Task Make a Difference?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Alptekin, Cem; Ercetin, Gulcan

    2009-01-01

    Although an important role has been ascribed to working-memory capacity in reading comprehension, little consensus exists on its conceptualization, operationalization, and measurement except for its recognition as a limited-capacity processing and storage system. One specific problem in the measurement of working memory comes from researchers' use…

  3. Shared Academic Values: Testing a Model of the Association between Hong Kong Parents' and Adolescents' Perception of the General Value of Science and Scientific Literacy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Acosta, Sandra; Hsu, Hsien-Yuan

    2014-01-01

    This study investigated parent general value of science operationalized in the 2006 questionnaire of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), as a determinant of adolescents' scientific literacy performance. The transmission of academic values literature is small. To the best of our knowledge, no previous studies to date have…

  4. Understanding Transactional Distance in Web-Based Learning Environments: An Empirical Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Huang, Xiaoxia; Chandra, Aruna; DePaolo, Concetta A.; Simmons, Lakisha L.

    2016-01-01

    Transactional distance is an important pedagogical theory in distance education that calls for more empirical support. The purpose of this study was to verify the theory by operationalizing and examining the relationship of (1) dialogue, structure and learner autonomy to transactional distance, and (2) environmental factors and learner demographic…

  5. The BHEF National Higher Education and Workforce Initiative: A Model for Pathways to Baccalaureate Attainment and High-Skill Careers in Emerging Fields, Part 2. BHEF Case Study Series

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fitzgerald, Brian K.; Barkanic, Steve; Cardenas-Navia, Isabel; Elzey, Karen; Hughes, Debbie; Troyan, Danielle

    2015-01-01

    BHEF has achieved particular success in operationalizing its National Higher Education and Workforce Initiative (HEWI) in Maryland focusing on cybersecurity. Leveraging its membership of corporate CEOs, university presidents and government agency leaders, BHEF partnered with the University System of Maryland to build a system-wide response to the…

  6. Experiences of Women of Color University Chief Diversity Officers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nixon, Monica L.

    2017-01-01

    Contemporary models of operationalizing diversity on college campuses focus on the integration of diversity goals with the overall educational mission in ways that maximize the benefits of diversity for all. A growing number of institutions have created chief diversity officer (CDO) positions to procedurally and symbolically centralize diversity…

  7. Concurrent Validity of the Test of Silent Word Reading Fluency

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bell, Sherry Mee; McCallum, R. Steve; Burton, Bobbie; Gray, Rebecca; Windingstad, Sunny; Moore, Jessica

    2006-01-01

    Relationships between the Test of Silent Word Reading Fluency (TOSWRF; Mather, Hammill, Allen, & Roberts, 2004), a recently developed measure of fluency, and other operationalizations of reading, including subtests from the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS; 1996), and the Woodcock-Johnson-III Tests of Achievement, (WJ-III; Woodcock,…

  8. Academic Self-Efficacy in Study-Related Skills and Behaviours: Relations with Learning-related Emotions and Academic Success

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Putwain, Dave; Sander, Paul; Larkin, Derek

    2013-01-01

    Background: Academic self-efficacy, when operationalized as mastery over domain-specific knowledge, has been found to be a predictor of academic achievement and emotions. Although academic emotions are also a predictor of academic achievement, there is limited evidence for reciprocal relations with academic achievement. Aims: To examine whether…

  9. Collective Action Competence: An Asset to Campus Sustainability

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Clark, Charlotte R.

    2016-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to operationalize theories of social learning and collective action for campus sustainability practitioners at higher education institutions (IHEs) to enhance their work, and to introduce the concept of collective action competence as a practical tool. Design/methodology/approach: This paper presents a…

  10. Thinking Like a Psychologist Introductory Psychology Writing Assignments: Encouraging Critical Thinking and Resisting Plagiarism

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wentworth, Diane Keyser; Whitmarsh, Lona

    2017-01-01

    Teaching the general psychology course provides instructors with the opportunity to invite students to explore the dynamics of behavior and mental processes through the lens of theory and research. Three innovative writing assignments were developed to teach students to think like a psychologist, operationalized as enhancing critical thinking,…

  11. Diagnostic Validity of Wechsler Substest Scatter

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Watkins, Marley W.

    2005-01-01

    Cognitive subtest scatter has often been considered to be diagnostically significant. The current study tested the diagnostic validity of four separate operationalizations of WISC-III subtest scatter: (a) range of verbal, performance, and full-scale subtests; (b) variance of verbal, performance, and full-scale subtests; (c) number of subtests…

  12. RAF and Protection Warfighting Function

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2015-02-01

    countries and challenges (including both the Asian Pacific and the Middle East).10 To execute this strategy in an increasingly complex world, the...of the Force (GEF) to prepare and review theatre campaign plans (TCP).27 The TCP is the CCDR’s vehicle for operationalizing the theater strategy. The

  13. Threshold Concepts in Business School Curriculum--A Pedagogy for Public Trust

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bajada, Christopher; Jarvis, Walter; Trayler, Rowan; Bui, Anh Tuan

    2016-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore some of the implications for curriculum design by operationalizing threshold concepts and capabilities (TCC) in subject delivery. The motivation for undertaking this exploration is directly related to addressing public concerns for the business school curriculum. Design/Methodology/Approach: A…

  14. Inside the Black Box: Examining Mediators and Moderators of a Middle School Science Intervention

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Desimone, Laura M.; Hill, Kirsten Lee

    2017-01-01

    We use data from a randomized controlled trial of a middle school science intervention to explore the causal mechanisms by which the intervention produced previously documented gains in student achievement. Our study finds that implementation fidelity, operationalized as a measure of the frequency of implementation of the cognitive science…

  15. The development of a conceptually based nursing curriculum: an international experiment.

    PubMed

    Meleis, A I

    1979-11-01

    Nursing programmes in the United States of America are based on a conceptual framework. Not only do faculty and students ascribe to the necessity of such programmes but the national accreditation agency also provides its accreditation approval for the institution only after all criteria are met, including the requirement of a well-defined, operationalized and implemented framework. Can a nursing programme be developed in other nations utilizing the esoteric, American-based idea of the necessity for a conceptually based curriculum? The author answers this question. The manuscript presents both the process utilized in selecting a conceptual framwork for a new junior college programme in Kuwait and discusses the selected framework. The idea of a conceptual framework to guide the curriculum was as foreign in Kuwait as it was to nursing curricula in the United States 15 years ago. Though initially rejected by the faculty in Kuwait, the idea of a conceptual framework was reintroduced after much faculty discussion and questions related to nursing knowledge vis-a-vis medical knowledge, and what should be included in and excluded from the programme. By the end of the second year, a definite framework had been operationalized into courses and content. The selection of the framework evolved from faculty participation in the operationalization of the framework. This point is quite significant particularly in an international assignment, as it is the faculty who are left with the monumental task of supporting and continuing the work which has been done. Strategies used to develop and implement a conceptual framework included confrontation of faculty of the existing situation, lectures, seminars, workshops, and the identification of a critical review board.

  16. Continuity between DSM-5 Categorical Criteria and Traits Criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder.

    PubMed

    Bach, Bo; Sellbom, Martin

    2016-08-01

    Borderline personality disorder (BPD) includes a heterogeneous constellation of symptoms operationalized with 9 categorical criteria. As the field of personality disorder (PD) research moves to emphasize dimensional traits in its operationalization, it is important to delineate continuity between the 9 DSM-IV/Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) categorical criteria for BPD and the trait dimensions in DSM-5 Section III. To date, no study has attempted such validation. We examined the associations between the 9 categorical DSM-IV/DSM-5 criteria for BPD and the trait dimensions of the alternative DSM-5 model for PDs in consecutively recruited psychiatric outpatients (N = 142; 68% female; age: mean 29.02, SD 8.38). This was investigated by means of bivariate correlations, followed by multiple logistic regression analysis. The categorical BPD criteria were associated with conceptually related DSM-5 Section III traits (P > 0.001), except for the criterion of chronic feelings of emptiness. Consistent with the proposed traits criteria for BPD in DSM-5 Section III, we found Emotional lability, Anxiousness, Separation insecurity, Depressivity, Impulsivity, Risk taking, and Hostility to capture conceptually coherent BPD categorical criteria, while Suspiciousness was also strongly associated with BPD criteria. At the domain level, this applied to Negative affectivity, Disinhibition, and Psychoticism. Notably, Emotional lability, Impulsivity, and Suspiciousness emerged as unique predictors of BPD (P > 0.05). In addition to the proposed BPD traits criteria, Suspiciousness and features of Psychoticism also augment BPD features. Provided that these findings are replicated in forthcoming research, a modified traits operationalization of BPD is warranted. © The Author(s) 2016.

  17. Systematic Review of Methods in Low-Consensus Fields: Supporting Commensuration through `Construct-Centered Methods Aggregation' in the Case of Climate Change Vulnerability Research.

    PubMed

    Delaney, Aogán; Tamás, Peter A; Crane, Todd A; Chesterman, Sabrina

    2016-01-01

    There is increasing interest in using systematic review to synthesize evidence on the social and environmental effects of and adaptations to climate change. Use of systematic review for evidence in this field is complicated by the heterogeneity of methods used and by uneven reporting. In order to facilitate synthesis of results and design of subsequent research a method, construct-centered methods aggregation, was designed to 1) provide a transparent, valid and reliable description of research methods, 2) support comparability of primary studies and 3) contribute to a shared empirical basis for improving research practice. Rather than taking research reports at face value, research designs are reviewed through inductive analysis. This involves bottom-up identification of constructs, definitions and operationalizations; assessment of concepts' commensurability through comparison of definitions; identification of theoretical frameworks through patterns of construct use; and integration of transparently reported and valid operationalizations into ideal-type research frameworks. Through the integration of reliable bottom-up inductive coding from operationalizations and top-down coding driven from stated theory with expert interpretation, construct-centered methods aggregation enabled both resolution of heterogeneity within identically named constructs and merging of differently labeled but identical constructs. These two processes allowed transparent, rigorous and contextually sensitive synthesis of the research presented in an uneven set of reports undertaken in a heterogenous field. If adopted more broadly, construct-centered methods aggregation may contribute to the emergence of a valid, empirically-grounded description of methods used in primary research. These descriptions may function as a set of expectations that improves the transparency of reporting and as an evolving comprehensive framework that supports both interpretation of existing and design of future

  18. Systematic Review of Methods in Low-Consensus Fields: Supporting Commensuration through `Construct-Centered Methods Aggregation’ in the Case of Climate Change Vulnerability Research

    PubMed Central

    Crane, Todd A.; Chesterman, Sabrina

    2016-01-01

    There is increasing interest in using systematic review to synthesize evidence on the social and environmental effects of and adaptations to climate change. Use of systematic review for evidence in this field is complicated by the heterogeneity of methods used and by uneven reporting. In order to facilitate synthesis of results and design of subsequent research a method, construct-centered methods aggregation, was designed to 1) provide a transparent, valid and reliable description of research methods, 2) support comparability of primary studies and 3) contribute to a shared empirical basis for improving research practice. Rather than taking research reports at face value, research designs are reviewed through inductive analysis. This involves bottom-up identification of constructs, definitions and operationalizations; assessment of concepts’ commensurability through comparison of definitions; identification of theoretical frameworks through patterns of construct use; and integration of transparently reported and valid operationalizations into ideal-type research frameworks. Through the integration of reliable bottom-up inductive coding from operationalizations and top-down coding driven from stated theory with expert interpretation, construct-centered methods aggregation enabled both resolution of heterogeneity within identically named constructs and merging of differently labeled but identical constructs. These two processes allowed transparent, rigorous and contextually sensitive synthesis of the research presented in an uneven set of reports undertaken in a heterogenous field. If adopted more broadly, construct-centered methods aggregation may contribute to the emergence of a valid, empirically-grounded description of methods used in primary research. These descriptions may function as a set of expectations that improves the transparency of reporting and as an evolving comprehensive framework that supports both interpretation of existing and design of future

  19. Learning (Not) to Talk about Race: Investigating What Doctoral Students Learn about Race Variables and Statistical Modeling

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Armijo, Michael; Lundy-Wagner, Valerie; Merrill, Elizabeth

    2012-01-01

    This paper asks how doctoral students understand the use of race variables in statistical modeling. More specifically, it examines how doctoral students at two universities are trained to define, operationalize, and analyze race variables. The authors interviewed students and instructors in addition to conducting a document analysis of their texts…

  20. The Effects of Peer-Like and Expert-Like Pedagogical Agents on Learners' Agent Perceptions, Task-Related Attitudes, and Learning Achievement

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Liew, Tze Wei; Tan, Su-Mae; Jayothisa, Chandrika

    2013-01-01

    The present study examined the impact of peer-like and expert-like agent stereotypes, as operationalized by agent's image and voice, on learners' agent perceptions, task-related attitudes, and learning achievement. 56 university freshmen (23 males and 33 females) interacted with either the peer-like agent (female college student) or the…

  1. Comparing Self-Rated Health, Satisfaction and Quality of Life Scores between Diabetics and Others Living in the Bella Coola Valley

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Grigg, Angela; Thommasen, Harvey V.; Tildesley, Hugh; Michalos, Alex C.

    2006-01-01

    Objective: To investigate the relative effect that diabetes has on self-rated health, satisfaction with various specific domains of life, and satisfaction with quality of life operationalized as happiness, satisfaction with life as a whole, and satisfaction with overall quality of life. Design: Mixed methods--mailed survey and chart review. Study…

  2. Optimal Foraging Theory and the Racecar Driver: The Impact of Student-Centered Learning on Anthropological Pedagogy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mazur-Stommen, Susan

    2006-01-01

    This article contributes to the field of anthropological pedagogy, adding to recent articles regarding needed change in anthropology teaching methods. All have in common the practice of anthropology in the classroom. The author used the theory of optimal foraging to encourage students to operationalize human behavior. The economic benefit that…

  3. A Question of Agency: Applying Sen's Theory of Human Capability to the Concept of Secondary School Student Career "Choice"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Galliott, Natal'ya; Graham, Linda J.

    2014-01-01

    In this paper, we seek to operationalize Amartya Sen's concept of human capability to guide a scholarly investigation of student career choice capability. We begin by outlining factors affecting youth labour markets in Australia; a prosperous country that is affected by a "two-speed" national economy. We then examine recent government…

  4. Critical Reflective Work Behaviour: A Survey Research.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    van Woerkom, Marianne; Nijhof, Wim J.; Nieuwenhuis, Loek F. M.

    After a review of the literature, critical reflective work behavior (CRWB) was defined as: a set of connected, individual activities aimed at analyzing, optimizing, or innovating work practices on the individual, team, or organizational level. The combination of literature review and analysis of case studies led to the operationalization of CRWB…

  5. The Effectiveness of Extensive versus Intensive Recasts for Learning L2 Grammar

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nassaji, Hossein

    2017-01-01

    This study investigated the effects of extensive versus intensive recasts. The focus was on the effect of feedback on learning English articles, which, as nonsalient target structures, have been shown to be difficult for many second language learners. Intensive recasts were operationalized as recasts provided on article errors only, while…

  6. Institutional Collaborations in Ireland: Leveraging an Increased International Presence

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Eddy, Pamela L.

    2010-01-01

    This chapter highlights how shifts in policy within Ireland toward increased global rankings and quality of educational programs and a heightened interest in research have been operationalized on the ground. The Higher Education Authority initiated a Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions (PRTLI) to provide seed money for research…

  7. The Development of a Comprehensive First-Year Experience Program for the University of Southern California: Using an Innovation Gap Analysis Model

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Studdert, Thomas Patrick

    2013-01-01

    Using an innovation adaptation of the gap analysis approach of Richard Clark and Fred Estes, the collegiate First-Year Experience (FYE) consisting of comprehensive and intentional curricular and co-curricular initiatives was examined. Conceptualization and operationalization of the goal for a FYE program was based on 3 student development theories…

  8. An Exploratory Study of Universal Design for Teaching Chemistry to Students with and without Disabilities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    King-Sears, Margaret E.; Johnson, Todd M.; Berkeley, Sheri; Weiss, Margaret P.; Peters-Burton, Erin E.; Evmenova, Anya S.; Menditto, Anna; Hursh, Jennifer C.

    2015-01-01

    In this exploratory study, students in four co-taught high school chemistry classes were randomly assigned to a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) treatment or a comparison condition. Each co-teaching team taught one comparison and treatment class. UDL principles were operationalized for treatment: (a) a self-management strategy (using a…

  9. Defining Equivalence in Medical Education Evaluation and Research: Does a Distribution-Based Approach Work?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rusticus, Shayna A.; Eva, Kevin W.

    2016-01-01

    Educators often seek to demonstrate the equivalence of groups, such as whether or not students achieve comparable success regardless of the site at which they trained. A methodological consideration that is often underappreciated is how to operationalize equivalence. This study examined whether a distribution-based approach, based on effect size,…

  10. Mentoring 101: Advancing African-American Women Faculty and Doctoral Student Success in Predominantly White Institutions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Grant, Cosette M.; Ghee, Sarah

    2015-01-01

    This article is purposed with operationalizing the concept of mentoring as a nuanced approach and attempt to thwart the upward trajectories of African-American women in predominantly White institutions (PWIs). We struggled as African-American women to balance and decipher the various facets inherent in our respective roles--professor and doctoral…

  11. Bridging the Educational Research-Teaching Practice Gap: Curriculum Development, Part 1--Components of the Curriculum and Influences on the Process of Curriculum Design

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Anderson, Trevor R.; Rogan, John M.

    2011-01-01

    This article summarizes the major components of curriculum design: vision, operationalization of the vision, design, and evaluation. It stresses that the relationship between these components is dynamic, and that the process of curriculum design does not proceed via a linear application of these components. The article then summarizes some of the…

  12. "We Speak English in Here and English Only!": Teacher and ELL Youth Perspectives on Restrictive Language Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fredricks, Daisy E.; Warriner, Doris S.

    2016-01-01

    This study operationalizes Ruiz's language orientations framework (1984) and builds on his later work (e.g., 1997, 2008) by examining the ways in which local language policies influence the learning experiences of 12 multilingual youth and the teaching experiences of four of their classroom teachers. Using ethnographic and qualitative research…

  13. Assessment of Work Climates: The Appropriateness of Classical-Management Theory and Human-Relations Theory under Various Contingencies. Final Report.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Langdale, John A.

    The construct of "organizational climate" was explicated and various ways of operationalizing it were reviewed. A survey was made of the literature pertinent to the classical-human relations dimension of environmental quality. As a result, it was hypothesized that the appropriateness of the classical and human-relations master plans is moderated…

  14. Languaging in Cyberspace: A Case Study of the Effects of Peer-Peer Collaborative Dialogue on the Acquisition of English Idioms in Task-Based Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Teng, Xuan

    2015-01-01

    Despite the growing interest in examining the link between peer-peer collaborative dialogue and second language (L2) development in recent years (Swain, Brooks, & Tocalli-Beller, 2002), much of the empirical work in this regard focused on face-to-face communication, leaving the operationalization of collaborative dialogue in text-based…

  15. Giftedness and Subjective Well-Being: A Study with Adults

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wirthwein, Linda; Rost, Detlef H.

    2011-01-01

    Studies on the well-being of gifted adults are rare, and the available studies are often limited by methodological shortcomings. In a longitudinal project 101 intellectually gifted adults (mean IQ = 136) were compared to 91 adults of average intelligence (mean IQ = 103). Subjective well-being was operationalized by positive and negative…

  16. An Examination of US First-Year Teachers' Risk for Occupational Stress: Associations with Professional Preparation and Occupational Health

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fitchett, Paul G.; McCarthy, Christopher J.; Lambert, Richard G.; Boyle, Lauren

    2018-01-01

    Previous research has demonstrated associations between teacher stress and occupational burnout, but few studies have attempted to operationalize a central tenet of most stress theories, namely that teachers' appraisals of their classroom demands vis-à-vis their classroom resources is a central driver of vulnerability to stress. The research is…

  17. Differentiation and Academic Control over Policy in Central and Eastern Europe: The Case of Romania

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Proteasa, Viorel; Andrescu, Liviu; Curaj Adrian

    2017-01-01

    This article adds a political perspective to the phenomenon of higher education de-differentiation, by building on Gary Rhoades' neo-institutionalist account. Diversity is operationalized on a hallmark dimension for Central and Eastern Europe: the public-private divide. Higher education is conceived of as a structured organizational field and its…

  18. The Diagnosis of LD in English Learners: Is It Nondiscriminatory?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Figueroa, Richard A.; Newsome, Patricia

    2006-01-01

    This study examined the operationalization of one of the key reforms initiated by the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (U.S. Congress, 1975) and continued through the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (U.S. Congress, 2004)--namely, nondiscriminatory assessment. The original and current…

  19. A Case Study Understanding Employability through the Lens of Human Resource Executives

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stokes, Carmeda L.

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to examine HR executives' perspectives on employability enhancement for employees and how it is operationalized in their workplace. The exploratory questions that guided the study were, What are the perspectives of HR executives regarding employability enhancement for employees, and In what…

  20. Tense and Aspect in Word Problems about Motion: Diagram, Gesture, and the Felt Experience of Time

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    de Freitas, Elizabeth; Zolkower, Betina

    2015-01-01

    Word problems about motion contain various conjugated verb forms. As students and teachers grapple with such word problems, they jointly operationalize diagrams, gestures, and language. Drawing on findings from a 3-year research project examining the social semiotics of classroom interaction, we show how teachers and students use gesture and…

  1. Calculus Instructors' Responses to Prior Knowledge Errors

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Talley, Jana Renee

    2009-01-01

    This study investigates the responses to prior knowledge errors that Calculus I instructors make when assessing students. Prior knowledge is operationalized as any skill or understanding that a student needs to successfully navigate through a Calculus I course. A two part qualitative study consisting of student exams and instructor interviews was…

  2. An Empirical Investigation of a Theoretically Based Measure of Perceived Wellness

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Harari, Marc J.; Waehler, Charles A.; Rogers, James R.

    2005-01-01

    The Perceived Wellness Survey (PWS; T. Adams, 1995; T. Adams, J. Bezner, & M. Steinhardt, 1997) is a recently developed instrument intended to operationalize the comprehensive Perceived Wellness Model (T. Adams, J. Bezner, & M. Steinhardt, 1997), an innovative model that attempts to include the balance of multiple life activities in its evaluation…

  3. Promoting Positive Parenting Practices through Parenting Education. Building State Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Series, Number 13

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zepeda, Marlene; Varela, Frances; Morales, Alex

    2004-01-01

    In 2003, the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) released a "Strategic Plan for Early Childhood Health." In recognition of the critical role states play in the development of early childhood initiatives and of the unique contributions that state Title V programs can make to these initiatives, the Bureau operationalized their…

  4. Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games and Interaction: A Measurable Model of Interaction for Online Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Anderson, Bodi

    2014-01-01

    This current study examines the need for operational definitions of the concept of interaction in distance education studies. It is proposed that a discourse analysis of linguistic features conversation noted as being representative of interaction can be used to operationalize interaction in synchronous CMC. This study goes on compare two…

  5. Assessment of Cognitive Processing in Persons with FASD: A Promising Alternative to Traditional IQ Measures

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Odishaw, Janine; Snart, Fern

    2005-01-01

    Previous challenges to the usefulness of traditional IQ measures in capturing the full range and magnitude of cognitive abilities have particular relevance for the assessment of persons with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). How the construct of intelligence is operationalized can be critical for these persons since IQ scores typically…

  6. An Exploratory Study of the Comprehension, Retention and Action of the Denton County Older Population in Regards to Disaster Preparedness Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Knight, Rebekah P.

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this exploratory study was to operationalize the responses from a sample of the community dwelling older population from Denton County, Texas on disaster preparedness education given by Denton County Health Department (DCHD) personnel. The goals and objectives were drawn from the Texas Public Health and Medical Emergency Management…

  7. Progress in Organization Development Research.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Roberts, Nancy C.; Porras, Jerry I.

    1982-01-01

    Describes major areas of progress in organization development (OD): progress in operationalizing the concept of change; progress in improving measurement; and progress in designing statistical procedures used to analyze OD intervention data. Suggests recent research developments point to a more solid base on which to build OD practice and theory.…

  8. Stigma Sentiments and Self-Meanings: Exploring the Modified Labeling Theory of Mental Illness

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kroska, Amy; Harkness, Sarah K.

    2006-01-01

    We introduce "stigma sentiments" as a way to operationalize the cultural conceptions of the mentally ill. Stigma sentiments are the evaluation, potency, and activity (EPA) associated with the cultural category "a mentally ill person." We find consistent support for the validity of the evaluation and potency components as measures of these…

  9. Teachers' Perceptions of Administrative Support and Antecedents of Turnover

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Russell, Elizabeth Morgan; Williams, Sue W.; Gleason-Gomez, Cheryl

    2010-01-01

    The purpose of this pilot study was to determine the degree to which teachers' age, perceptions of fair pay, receipt of employer-sponsored health insurance, and administrative support, as operationalized by the Competing Values Framework, predicted antecedents of turnover. Teachers' thoughts of leaving their current job and commitment to a center…

  10. LDC and MDC Theory of Action and the Landscape of Implementation. Brief One

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Duffy, Mark; Park, Elizabeth

    2012-01-01

    To support the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation invested in the development and dissemination of two tools aimed at operationalizing classroom instruction based on the standards: (1) the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC)'s Framework; and (2) the Math Design Collaborative (MDC)'s…

  11. Learning and Caring in the Age of the Five Outcomes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Adams, Paul

    2007-01-01

    At its heart "Every Child Matters: change for children" endeavours to engender an ethic of "care for" the client group. However, although its raison d'etre might well espouse such orientations, it has a certain level of internal ambiguity which if not considered might lead education to position subsequent operationalization in…

  12. Children's Subjective Identification with Social Groups: A Self-Stereotyping Approach

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bennett, Mark; Sani, Fabio

    2008-01-01

    We contend that previous work on children's identification with social groups has looked at the mere categorization of the self in group terms and not subjective identification properly conceived. Drawing upon self-categorization theory, the present research operationalizes identification as self-stereotyping (i.e. the ability to conceive of the…

  13. Reflecting Socio-Scientific Issues for Science Education Coming from the Case of Curriculum Development on Doping in Chemistry Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stolz, Miriam; Witteck, Torsten; Marks, Ralf; Eilks, Ingo

    2013-01-01

    Socio-scientific issue-based science education has been suggested for promoting general educational skills development in science classes. However, there is a lack of operationalized criteria, which can be used to reflect upon societal issues to whether turning them into issues for science classroom instruction. This paper describes a case study…

  14. The Influence of Specific Physical Health Conditions on Retirement Decisions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shultz, Kenneth S.; Wang, Mo

    2007-01-01

    Physical health has consistently been shown to strongly influence the retirement decision-making process. Unfortunately, "physical health" is typically operationalized in global terms. As a result, we know little about the specific aspects of physical health that influence the decision to retire. Therefore, in the present study, data from three…

  15. Improving the Validity of Quantitative Measures in Applied Linguistics Research

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Purpura, James E.; Brown, James Dean; Schoonen, Rob

    2015-01-01

    In empirical applied linguistics research it is essential that the key variables are operationalized in a valid and reliable way, and that the scores are treated appropriately, allowing for a proper testing of the hypotheses under investigation. The current article addresses several theoretical and practical issues regarding the use of measurement…

  16. Agreement among Response to Intervention Criteria for Identifying Responder Status

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Barth, Amy E.; Stuebing, Karla K.; Anthony, Jason L.; Denton, Carolyn A.; Mathes, Patricia G.; Fletcher, Jack M.; Francis, David J.

    2008-01-01

    In order to better understand the extent to which operationalizations of response to intervention (RTI) overlap and agree in identifying adequate and inadequate responders, an existing database of 399 first grade students was evaluated in relation to cut-points, measures, and methods frequently cited for the identification of inadequate responders…

  17. A Theory-Driven Model of Community College Student Engagement

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schuetz, Pam

    2008-01-01

    This mixed-methods study develops, operationalizes, and tests a new conceptual model of community college student engagement. Themes emerging from participant observations and semistructured interviews with 30 adult students enrolled at a Large Best Practices Community College (LBPCC) over the 2005-2006 academic year are used to guide selection of…

  18. "You Are as You Read": Do Students' Reading Interests Contribute to Their Individuality?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dollinger, Stephen J.

    2016-01-01

    On empirical and theoretical grounds, it is proposed that the enjoyment of reading, and particular reading interests, relate to people's individuality. This research used photo essays about the self as the method for operationalizing individuality--that is, self-construals that are unlike others (i.e. are uniquely self-reflective,…

  19. The Puerto Rican Community and Natural Support Systems: Implications for the Education of Children.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Delgado, Melvin

    This report explores how service providers and educators can better understand, support, and work with Puerto Rican natural support systems through a variety of collaborative strategies. A first section presents a definition of Puerto Rican natural support systems and a discussion of how they are operationalized, and describes the following four…

  20. Pursuing the Elusive Construct of Distributed Leadership: Is the Search Over?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hairon, Salleh; Goh, Jonathan W. P.

    2015-01-01

    Distributed leadership is one of the most prominent contemporary leadership theories in education. Its attraction in education is perhaps due to its potential to bring about school improvement. A review of the literature, however, reveals broadness in the way the construct is being conceptualized and operationalized; thus making it elusive. The…

  1. Georg Rasch and Benjamin Wright's Struggle with the Unidimensional Polytomous Model with Sufficient Statistics

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Andrich, David

    2016-01-01

    This article reproduces correspondence between Georg Rasch of The University of Copenhagen and Benjamin Wright of The University of Chicago in the period from January 1966 to July 1967. This correspondence reveals their struggle to operationalize a unidimensional measurement model with sufficient statistics for responses in a set of ordered…

  2. Results from a First-Year Evaluation of Academic Impacts of an After-School Program for At-Risk Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jenner, Eric; Jenner, Lynne W.

    2007-01-01

    This article presents the research findings of an evaluation of the academic impacts of 21st Century Learning Centers (CCLC) in Louisiana. Using quasi-experimental design, the article operationalizes academic achievement as core and subject test performance on nationally standardized pre- and posttests (Iowa Test of Basic Skills; ITBS). Based on…

  3. Not All Wizards Are from Oz: Iterative Design of Intelligent Learning Environments by Communication Capacity Tapering

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mavrikis, Manolis; Gutierrez-Santos, Sergio

    2010-01-01

    This paper presents a methodology for the design of intelligent learning environments. We recognise that in the educational technology field, theory development and system-design should be integrated and rely on an iterative process that addresses: (a) the difficulty to elicit precise, concise, and operationalized knowledge from "experts" and (b)…

  4. A Theory of Planned Behavior Research Model for Predicting the Sleep Intentions and Behaviors of Undergraduate College Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Knowlden, Adam P.; Sharma, Manoj; Bernard, Amy L.

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to operationalize the constructs of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to predict the sleep intentions and behaviors of undergraduate college students attending a Midwestern University. Data collection spanned three phases. The first phase included a semi-structured qualitative interview (n = 11), readability by…

  5. A Taxonomy of Technical Assistance Skills.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ogden, Evelyn; Musumeci, Marilyn

    To operationalize the Technical Assistance Brokerage System, the first major task called for the development of a taxonomy of training and technical assistance services specifying requisite skills and skill clusters by the dimensions of client type, stages of dissemination, and levels of experience. From a literature search approximately 400…

  6. Divisions of Domestic Work: Revising and Expanding the Theoretical Explanations

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kroska, Amy

    2004-01-01

    Using a sample of 101 heterosexual, co-residential couples, the author evaluates four housework theories: gender ideology, relative resources, time availability, and doing gender. Unlike some tests of these theories, the author operationalizes gender ideology as an identity, and the author tests the models on the traditionally feminine chores as…

  7. Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Abnormalities in Brain Structure in Children with Severe Mood Dysregulation or Bipolar Disorder

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Adleman, Nancy E.; Fromm, Stephen J.; Razdan, Varun; Kayser, Reilly; Dickstein, Daniel P.; Brotman, Melissa A.; Pine, Daniel S.; Leibenluft, Ellen

    2012-01-01

    Background: There is debate as to whether chronic irritability (operationalized as severe mood dysregulation, SMD) is a developmental form of bipolar disorder (BD). Although structural brain abnormalities in BD have been demonstrated, no study compares neuroanatomy among SMD, BD, and healthy volunteers (HV) either cross-sectionally or over time.…

  8. Modeling Academic Achievement by Self-Reported versus Traced Goal Orientation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zhou, Mingming; Winne, Philip H.

    2012-01-01

    We examined achievement goals measured by self-reports and by traces (behavioral indicators) gathered as undergraduates used software tools to study a multimedia-formatted article. Traces were operationalized by tags participants applied to selections of text and hyperlinks they clicked in the article. Tags and hyperlinks were titled to represent…

  9. Comparison of Academically Average and Gifted Students' Self-Rated Ethical Sensitivity

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tirri, Kirsi; Nokelainen, Petri

    2007-01-01

    This study examined the ethical sensitivity of 2 Finnish urban schools' 7th- to 9th-grade students (N = 249) with the Ethical Sensitivity Scale Questionnaire (ESSQ), based on Narvaez' (2001) operationalization of ethical sensitivity. Three research questions were formulated: (1) Are the psychometric properties of ESSQ scientifically valid? Are…

  10. An Analysis of Hope as a Psychological Strength

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Valle, Michael F.; Huebner, E. Scott; Suldo, Shannon M.

    2006-01-01

    Psychologists have placed an increased emphasis on identifying psychological strengths that foster healthy development. Hope, as operationalized in Snyder's hope theory [Snyder, C. R., Hoza, B., Pelham, W. E., Rapoff, M., Ware, L., & Danovsky, M., et al. (1997). The development and validation of the children's hope scale. "Journal of Pediatric…

  11. National Context, Family Satisfaction, and Fairness in the Division of Household Labor

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Greenstein, Theodore N.

    2009-01-01

    This study uses data from married women in 30 nations to examine justice processes involving perceptions of fairness of the division of household labor and satisfaction with family life. Relative deprivation theory suggests that national context--operationalized here as nation-level gender equity--might serve as a comparative referent used by…

  12. Comparing Apples and Oranges: Fifteen Years of Definitions of Giftedness in Research

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Carman, Carol A.

    2013-01-01

    The lack of a unified definition of giftedness leads researchers to use very different operationalizations when selecting a sample of gifted individuals for use in research. We found 104 empirical articles from 38 journals that differentiated between gifted and nongifted students which were analyzed to determine the most common methods of…

  13. The Discursive Management of Emotionality in the L2 Research Interview

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Prior, Matthew T.

    2011-01-01

    This study investigates the ways in which emotions and emotionality are managed as topics and resources in second language (L2) research interviews. A continued challenge for researchers is how to define and operationalize emotions and other putative psychological phenomena. One popular research methodology that treats emotions as the object and…

  14. Interventions to Combat the Many Facets of Absenteeism: Action Research

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cole, Jill Friedman

    2011-01-01

    This paper operationalizes the definition of action research (AR) and the importance of conducting such studies to improve the lives of students and professionals. This paper provides an overview of literature regarding variables related to truancy and absenteeism. The paper discusses the importance of students being present and engaged, negative…

  15. The Integration of Psycholinguistic and Discourse Processing Theories of Reading Comprehension.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Beebe, Mona J.

    To assess the compatibility of miscue analysis and recall analysis as independent elements in a theory of reading comprehension, a study was performed that operationalized each theory and separated its components into measurable units to allow empirical testing. A cueing strategy model was estimated, but the discourse processing model was broken…

  16. Tapping soil survey information for rapid assessment of sagebrush ecosystem resilience and resistance

    Treesearch

    Jeremy D. Maestas; Steven B. Campbell; Jeanne C. Chambers; Mike Pellant; Richard F. Miller

    2016-01-01

    A new ecologically-based approach to risk abatement has emerged that can aid land managers in grappling with escalating impacts of large-scale wildfire and invasive annual grasses in sagebrush ecosystems, particularly in the Great Basin. Specifically, ecosystem resilience and resistance (R&R) concepts have been more fully operationalized from regional...

  17. In-Service Education Mediated through Curriculum Development: An Issues-Based Study of Language Learning and Teaching

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Erben, Tony

    2006-01-01

    This article outlines the results of an issues-based study conducted over a 12-month period that investigated how the systematic inclusion of teachers within the design, operationalization and implementation of an online curriculum development project in Florida led simultaneously to teachers' own professionalizing in areas of education they were…

  18. Nurse Preparation and Organizational Support for Supervision of Unlicensed Assistive Personnel in Nursing Homes: A Qualitative Exploration

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Siegel, Elena O.; Young, Heather M.; Mitchell, Pamela H.; Shannon, Sarah E.

    2008-01-01

    Purpose: Nursing supervision of the routine daily care (e.g., grooming, feeding, and toileting) that is delegated to unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP) is critical to nursing home service delivery. The conditions under which the supervisory role is organized and operationalized at the work-unit level, taking into account workloads, registered…

  19. Sources of Social Support among International College Students in the United States

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bhochhibhoya, Amir; Dong, Yue; Branscum, Paul

    2017-01-01

    International students are challenged due to the abrupt change in social support. The purpose of this study was to operationalize different sources of social support and evaluate determinants of mental health among international students (n = 328). An instrument was developed to measure four distinct sources of social support. Repeated measures…

  20. Admission to Law School: New Measures

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shultz, Marjorie M.; Zedeck, Sheldon

    2012-01-01

    Standardized tests have been increasingly controversial over recent years in high-stakes admission decisions. Their role in operationalizing definitions of merit and qualification is especially contested, but in law schools this challenge has become particularly intense. Law schools have relied on the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) and an INDEX…

  1. Predicting Success in an Online Course Using Expectancies, Values, and Typical Mode of Instruction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zimmerman, Whitney Alicia

    2017-01-01

    Expectancies of success and values were used to predict success in an online undergraduate-level introductory statistics course. Students who identified as primarily face-to-face learners were compared to students who identified as primarily online learners. Expectancy value theory served as a model. Expectancies of success were operationalized as…

  2. Understanding the Relationship of Multicultural Case Conceptualization, Multicultural Counseling Self-Efficacy and Ethnocultural Empathy in Psychology Trainees

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Singh, Sharon

    2010-01-01

    The multicultural competency instruments have been criticized for their ability to accurately assess this construct. Specifically, the lack of adherence to an operationalized definition is at the heart of the problem. In order to improve the theoretical foundation of multicultural competency, this study extended previous research by Ladany and his…

  3. Relating Training to Job Satisfaction: A Survey of Online Faculty Members

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hoekstra, Brian

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine whether training affected the job satisfaction reported by online faculty members. A convenience sample of 492 Iowa Community College Online Consortium (ICCOC) faculty members were invited to participate in a quantitative survey, and 148 responded. Overall Job Satisfaction was operationalized through the…

  4. Factor Structure of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking Verbal Form B in a Spanish-Speaking Population

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Krumm, Gabriela; Aranguren, María; Arán Filippetti, Vanessa; Lemos, Viviana

    2016-01-01

    The objective of this study was to compare, through a Confirmatory Factor Analysis, two different theoretical models that explain the operationalized creativity construct with the Verbal Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), Form B. Model 1 is represented by six factors which correspond to each activity and its respective indicators while…

  5. The Holistic Medicine Wheel: An Indigenous Model of Teaching and Learning.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pewewardy, Cornel

    1999-01-01

    Based on the Medicine Wheel, a culturally relevant model for holistic teaching and curriculum development in indigenous education is centered on the self, then expands to four domains (mental, spiritual, physical, emotional) operationalized via eight multiple intelligences. Outer circles portray societal values and a global view of the world. A…

  6. Positive Psychology: Considerations and Implications for Counseling Psychology

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mollen, Debra; Ethington, Lanaya L.; Ridley, Charles R.

    2006-01-01

    Why has the specialty of counseling psychology been overlooked in the larger conversation about positive psychology? Is it reasonable that counseling psychology claims positive psychology as its own? What are some of the problems in defining "positive psychology," and how does the lack of consensus around operationalization thwart discourse on…

  7. Pierce County Indian Education Program, Educational Service District #121, Tacoma, Washington. 1976-77 Final Evaluation Report.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nelson, Steve; Clark, Robey

    Comparing program objectives with program outcomes, 4 program components targeted at 1,100 American Indian students in 9 school districts in Pierce County, Washington were evaluated. Program objectives operationalized by an 11-member staff including 9 specialists and 1 coordinator were to develop: (1) basic skills via tutoring services for…

  8. Development of the PRO-SDLS: A Measure of Self-Direction in Learning Based on the Personal Responsibility Orientation Model

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stockdale, Susan L.; Brockett, Ralph G.

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to develop a reliable and valid instrument to measure self-directedness in learning among college students based on an operationalization of the personal responsibility orientation (PRO) model of self-direction in learning. The resultant 25-item Personal Responsibility Orientation to Self-Direction in Learning Scale…

  9. Pre-Service Teachers Designing and Constructing "Good Digital Games"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Artym, Corbett; Carbonaro, Mike; Boechler, Patricia

    2016-01-01

    There is a growing interest in the application of digital games to enhance learning across many educational levels. This paper investigates pre-service teachers' ability to operationalize the learning principles that are considered part of a good digital game (Gee, 2007) by designing digital games in Scratch. Forty pre-service teachers, enrolled…

  10. Levels of Mental Health Continuum and Personality Traits

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Joshanloo, Mohsen; Nosratabadi, Masoud

    2009-01-01

    Empirically, mental health and mental illness are not opposite ends of a single measurement continuum. In view of this fact, Keyes ("J Health Soc Behav," 43:207-202, 2002) operationalizes mental health as a syndrome of symptoms of both positive feelings (emotional well-being) and positive functioning (psychological and social well-being)…

  11. Assessing Adolescents' Positive Psychological Functioning at School: Development and Validation of the Student Subjective Wellbeing Questionnaire

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Renshaw, Tyler L.; Long, Anna C. J.; Cook, Clayton R.

    2015-01-01

    This study reports on the initial development and validation of the Student Subjective Wellbeing Questionnaire (SSWQ) with a sample of 1,002 students in Grades 6-8. The SSWQ is a 16-item self-report instrument for assessing youths' subjective wellbeing at school, which is operationalized via 4 subscales measuring school connectedness, academic…

  12. Using the Graded Response Model to Control Spurious Interactions in Moderated Multiple Regression

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Morse, Brendan J.; Johanson, George A.; Griffeth, Rodger W.

    2012-01-01

    Recent simulation research has demonstrated that using simple raw score to operationalize a latent construct can result in inflated Type I error rates for the interaction term of a moderated statistical model when the interaction (or lack thereof) is proposed at the latent variable level. Rescaling the scores using an appropriate item response…

  13. Meaningful Commitment: Finding Meaning in Volunteer Work

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schnell, Tatjana; Hoof, Matthias

    2012-01-01

    This study tests the hypothesis that volunteer work is associated with various aspects of meaning making by employing a multi-dimensional model of meaning operationalized by the "Sources of Meaning and Meaning in Life Questionnaire" ("SoMe"). An empirical study comparing 168 volunteers with a representative sample of the general population (N =…

  14. Training for New Trends in Clubs and Centers for Older Persons.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    New York State Education Dept., Albany. Bureau of Special Continuing Education.

    The proceedings of an inservice leadership training seminar for enriching the education-recreation programs for the elderly in New York State are presented. The following speeches were given: (1) "The Anatomy of Leadership" by Alan F. Klein; (2) "Leadership for What?" by Marvin S. Schreiber; (3) "Operationalizing Your Leadership With Groups" by…

  15. Developmental Investigation of the Domain-Specific Nature of the Life Satisfaction Construct across the Post-School Transition

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chen, Xidan; Morin, Alexandre J. S.; Parker, Philip D.; Marsh, Herbert W.

    2015-01-01

    This study evaluated the nature of the life satisfaction construct with an emphasis on the comparison between a global or domain-specific operationalization during the transition from adolescence to adulthood. A combination of person-centered and variable-centered methods were used to analyze 7 waves of data covering the postschool transition from…

  16. Toward a Critical Hermeneutical Approach of Human Rights Education: Universal Ideals, Contextual Realities and Teachers' Difficulties

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zembylas, Michalinos; Charalambous, Panayiota; Charalambous, Constadina; Lesta, Stalo

    2017-01-01

    The present paper takes the approach of critical hermeneutics in human rights education (HRE) that has been developed theoretically and tries to operationalize it in pedagogical practice. In particular, a group of Greek-Cypriot teachers were trained in a series of workshops on how critical hermeneutical approach (CHA) could be taught in the…

  17. Development of the Ghent Multidimensional Somatic Complaints Scale

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Beirens, Koen; Fontaine, Johnny R. J.

    2010-01-01

    The present study aimed at developing a new scale that operationalizes a hierarchical model of somatic complaints. First, 63 items representing a wide range of symptoms and sensations were compiled from somatic complaints scales and emotion literature. These complaints were rated by Belgian students (n = 307) and Belgian adults (n = 603).…

  18. Investigating the Interactions among Genre, Task Complexity, and Proficiency in L2 Writing: A Comprehensive Text Analysis and Study of Learner Perceptions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yoon, Hyung-Jo

    2017-01-01

    In this study, I explored the interactions among genre, task complexity, and L2 proficiency in learners' writing task performance. Specifically, after identifying the lack of valid operationalizations of genre and task dimensions in L2 writing research, I examined how genre functions as a task complexity variable, and how learners' perceptions and…

  19. Commentary on "Idiographic Filters for Psychological Constructs"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Molenaar, Peter C. M.

    2009-01-01

    Definitions of measurement equivalence in terms of invariance can be specified at a very general formal level. Presently, however, only the operationalization of measurement equivalence in terms of factor models is at stake. In this article, the author discusses the proposed alternative definition in terms of idiographic filters in the context of…

  20. Comparing Social Behaviour across Culture and Nations: The "What" and "Why" Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Akande, Adebowale

    2009-01-01

    How is the cultural construct of individualism-collectivism related to self-esteem? This is a complex and challenging proposition. Self-esteem (i.e., a person's global, evaluative view of his/her self), has resisted unequivocal definition or clear operationalization. There is a substantial literature on self-esteem hypothesis which may be stated…