Improving OpenURL Menus: User Testing of Revisions to SFX® Menus

Abstract

Twenty-one volunteers tested the usability of revisions to the Texas A&M University Libraries' SFX® OpenURL link resolver menus, including the addition of Ex Libris' new bXâ?¢ recommendation service and a plug-in which pulls additional information about the journal into the menu. The volunteers also evaluated the quality and desirability of the bX recommendations and discussed their preferences for help options and full-text format. Results of the usability testing are reported along with the resultant menu changes. This study will be of interest to librarians implementing or redesigning OpenURL menus as well as those interested in the user experience.     

Adjusting overall survival for treatment switches: commonly used methods and practical application

In parallel group trials, long‐term efficacy endpoints may be affected if some patients switch or cross over to the alternative treatment arm prior to the event. In oncology trials, switch to the experimental treatment can occur in the control arm following disease progression and potentially impact overall survival. It may be a clinically relevant question to estimate the efficacy that would have been observed if no patients had switched, for example, to estimate ‘real‐life’ clinical effectiveness for a health technology assessment. Several commonly used statistical methods are available that try to adjust time‐to‐event data to account for treatment switching, ranging from naive exclusion and censoring approaches to more complex inverse probability of censoring weighting and rank‐preserving structural failure time models. These are described, along with their key assumptions, strengths, and limitations. Best practice guidance is provided for both trial design and analysis when switching is anticipated. Available statistical software is summarized, and examples are provided of the application of these methods in health technology assessments of oncology trials. Key considerations include having a clearly articulated rationale and research question and a well‐designed trial with sufficient good quality data collection to enable robust statistical analysis. No analysis method is universally suitable in all situations, and each makes strong untestable assumptions. There is a need for further research into new or improved techniques. This information should aid statisticians and their colleagues to improve the design and analysis of clinical trials where treatment switch is anticipated. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Safety First: A Model of Care for Working Systemically With High Risk Young People and Their Families in an Acute CAMHS Service

The following article outlines the Safety First Model for working with high‐risk young people in crisis. This hierarchical model prioritises emotional and physical safety by using multi‐systemic and family‐based interventions. A typical case example is used to illustrate the model and the structures and strategies employed at each level. The intervention model empowers families, facilitates their connections with other providers, and minimises the need for hospital admissions. The model also promotes collaborative and systemic practice in a child and adolescent mental health service.     

Moving barriers: Promoting learning for diversity in initial teacher education

This study considers the effectiveness of initial teacher education in one university college in Northern Ireland in preparing students for teaching in an increasingly diverse society and promoting a culture of tolerance. A cohort of 168 students in their final year were surveyed and this was followed by three focus group interviews. The findings showed that the student population came from a largely similar sociocultural background, with little prior experience of diverse contexts. Although students viewed the accommodation of diversity as an important issue for teachers, a limited number felt comfortable with and prepared for dealing with diversity in the classroom. The paper proposes that alternative strategies need to be employed to ensure the more effective preparation of beginning teachers.     

Training Marriage and Family Counselors in an Industrial Setting*

The paper focuses on the interface between family life and the world of work with special reference to the field of marriage and family counseling. The empirical and theoretical rationale for incorporating marriage and family counseling services in an industrial setting are presented along with estimates of industry-wide receptivity. The final section of the paper describes a specific plan of action being implemented at Purdue University and explores some of the basic issues associated with the training program, the clientele to be served, and the delivery system to be employed within an industrial setting.     

POSITIONAL POWER, CLASS, AND INDIVIDUAL EARNINGS INEQUALITY: Advancing New Structuralist Explanations

This article seeks to advance "new structuralist" theory by considering the effects of positional power and class on individual earnings. We contend that positional power, that is the power wielded by workers employed in industries in an interdependent economy, confers upon workers the potential to disrupt system-wide production and creates leverage to demand higher earnings from employers. We demonstrate that positional power, in particular the per worker volume of goods and services received from other industries (or upstream production), increases workers' earnings net of sociodemographic variables and other plausible structural sources of earnings determination. We suggest that the threat of disrupting upstream production holds greater earnings potential than disrupting downstream production because of the profit realization problems associated with the former. We also show that the positive effects of positional power are not evenly distributed across the class structure, but rather are concentrated among non-owning classes who display a social control function in the labor process. We discuss the implications of our research for future new structuralist research.     

Young people and the division of labour in farming families

The family farm has been identified as the main unit of agricultural production in Britain and it has been widely studied as an economic unit in agricultural research. However, it is also a social unit: one with a division of labour based upon gender and generation. Here we will consider a relatively unexplored area of agricultural production: the contribution of children to the family farm, based upon a quantitative survey of young people in a rural area and detailed qualitative interviews. The approach is to look at the farm family in terms of a ‘household work strategy’ although in the paper we argue that this should take into account the importance of moral obligation and patriarchal ideology. The importance of gender and generation are explored as intersecting factors in the division of labour.     

The conduct of program evaluation reviews in the general accounting office

Professional behavior during the General Accounting Office's (GAO's) present era of oversight can best be understood by reviewing the audit types that populate village life in the GAO and the repertoire the office uses in conducting program evaluation audits. Four types of auditors are present, each of which has a role to play in the audit repertoire. This repertoire focuses on finding faults in government programs in order to catch or sustain congressional interest in GAO's work. The “audit trail” of each report may last up to 3 years and involves considerable organizational strife and conflict with outside groups. To sustain themselves through this arduous auditing process, auditors have developed a creed through which they conceptualize themselves as an elite with a mission to insure good government.