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.     

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.     

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.     

Perplexing or distressing episodes in supervision: How they can help in the teaching and learning of psychotherapy

Difficult times in the supervision of psychotherapists are shown to have the potential for making positive contributions to the teaching/learning process. The concept of parallel process is central to this paper, along with emphasis on the supervisor's self-awareness and use of her inner experience, positive and negative countertransference, and Kohut's concept of the selfobject transferences. A number of case examples illustrate these ideas.An earlier version of this paper, entitled Parallel Processes and the Impact of Supervision on Treatment, was delivered at the Psychotherapy Institute Symposium in Berkeley, California, on November 4, 1984.     

The Effect of Education on Ideological Consistency

Using data from the 1964, 1968, and 1972 American national electionstudies, this report raises serious questions about the validityof the "salience-of-politics" hypothesis that has been invokedto account for the dramatic growth of mass ideological consistencysince the late 1950s. A reconceptualization of the consistencyconstruct along liberal-conservative lines and a more refinedanalysis of the effect of education suggests that the risinglevel of educational attainment in the mass public may be themajor factor explaining long-term trends in the structure ofAmerican political ideology.     

Engagement with Non‐State Service Providers in Fragile States: Reconciling State‐Building and Service Delivery

The OECD questions whether non‐state services in fragile states may delegitimise the state in the eyes of citizens, arguing that ‘state‐building’ depends on governments’ engagement in service management. This article reviews the available evidence to identify what types of engagement are feasible and most likely to contribute to service delivery, or not to damage it. It considers the capacity requirements and the risks associated with state intervention through policy formulation, regulation, contracting and mutual agreements, and concludes by identifying ways of incrementally involving the state, beginning with activities that are least likely to do harm to non‐state provision.     

Mother–Adolescent Conflict: Stability,Change, and Relations with Externalizing and Internalizing Behavior Problems

Stability and change in mother–adolescent conflict reactions (CRs) and the prediction of CRs from adolescents' earlier behavior problems (and vice versa) were examined with 131 mothers and their adolescents (63 boys). Dyads engaged in a 6‐min conflict discussion twice, 2 years apart [M age was 13 at Time 1 (T1)]. Non‐verbal expressive and verbal CRs during the conflict discussion were coded. Mothers, fathers, and teachers reported on adolescents' problem behaviors. There was inter‐individual (rank‐order) stability for adolescents' CRs whereas mothers' reactions were less stable. Mean levels of mothers' negativity, anger, and positive reactions and adolescents' negativity declined with time. Mothers’ CRs, more often than adolescents’ CRs, predicted and were predicted by adolescents’ problem behaviors in zero‐order correlations. In structural equation models with the stability of the constructs accounted for, adolescents' externalizing problems at T1 predicted higher maternal anger at Time 2 (T2). Mothers' anger and positive CRs at T1 predicted fewer T2 adolescents' internalizing problems. Stability and change in CRs are discussed.