The Research Funding Service: a model for expanded library services

Traditionally, libraries have provided a modest amount of information about grants and funding opportunities to researchers in need of research funding. Ten years ago, the University of Washington (UW) Health Sciences Libraries and Information Center joined in a cooperative effort with the School of Medicine to develop a complete, library-based grant and funding service for health sciences researchers called the Research Funding Service. The library provided space, access to the library collection, equipment, and electronic resources, and the School of Medicine funded staff and operations. The range of services now includes individual consultation appointments, an extensive Web site, classes on funding database searching and writing grant applications, a discussion series that frequently hosts guest speakers, a monthly newsletter with funding opportunities of interest to the six health sciences schools, extensive files on funding sources, and referral services.

Data normalization and integration in robotic systems using web services technologies

The robotics is one of the most active areas. We also need to join a large number of disciplines to create robots. With these premises, one problem is the management of information from multiple heterogeneous sources. Each component, hardware or software, produces data with different nature: temporal frequencies, processing needs, size, type, etc. Nowadays, technologies and software engineering paradigms such as service-oriented architectures are applied to solve this problem in other areas. This paper proposes the use of these technologies to implement a robotic control system based on services. This type of system will allow integration and collaborative work of different elements that make up a robotic system.

A public-professional web-bridge for vaccines and vaccination: User concerns about vaccine safety

Vacunas.org (http://www.vacunas.org), a website founded by the Spanish Association of Vaccinology offers a personalized service called Ask the Expert, which answers any questions posed by the public or health professionals about vaccines and vaccination. The aim of this study was to analyze the factors associated with questions on vaccination safety and determine the characteristics of questioners and the type of question asked during the period 2008–2010. A total of 1341 questions were finally included in the analysis. Of those, 30% were related to vaccine safety. Questions about pregnant women had 5.01 higher odds of asking about safety (95% CI 2.82–8.93) than people not belonging to any risk group. Older questioners (>50 years) were less likely to ask about vaccine safety compared to younger questioners (OR: 0.44, 95% CI 0.25–0.76). Questions made after vaccination or related to influenza (including H1N1) or travel vaccines were also associated with a higher likelihood of asking about vaccine safety. These results identify risk groups (pregnant women), population groups (older people) and some vaccines (travel and influenza vaccines, including H1N1) where greater efforts to provide improved, more-tailored vaccine information in general and on the Internet are required.

Redes sociales científicas. La Web social al servicio de la investigación

Las redes sociales pueden considerarse como comunidades científicas que utilizan tecnologías participativas y comunicativas para el intercambio de información. Internet es el medio que, en esta ocasión, potencia las relaciones entre especialistas con la finalidad de desarrollar sus actividades de investigación. A lo largo de esta investigación se realiza una conceptualización de las redes sociales científicas. Se profundiza en las ventajas e inconvenientes que presentan y cuáles son sus ámbitos de aplicación. Finalmente se consigue obtener cuáles han sido las redes sociales más importantes dentro del ámbito educativo y las grandes ventajas que podrían proporcionar.

National Park Service concessions management : hearings before the Subcommittee on National Parks, Historic Preservation, and Recreation of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, United States Senate, One Hundred Seventh Congress, first session to review the National Park Service implementation of management policies and procedures to comply with the provisions of Titles I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, and VIII of the National Parks Omnibus Management Act of 1998, March 22, 2001, March 29, 2001.

Shipping list no.: 2001-0261-P.

The issuance of semipostal stamps by the U.S. Postal Service : hearing before the International Security, Proliferation, and Federal Services Subcommittee of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, United States Senate, One Hundred Sixth Congress, second session, May 25, 2000.

Shipping list no.: 2001-0052-P.

Essential air service : changes in subsidy levels, air carrier costs, and passenger traffic : report to the Chairman, Subcommittee on Aviation, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, House of Representatives /

"B-284056"--P. 3.

Experimental investigation of the effects of aromatic hydrocarbons on a sediment food web /

"July 1994."

Endangered species : Fish and Wildlife Service generally focuses recovery funding on high priority species, but needs to periodically assess its funding decisions : report to the Chairman, Committee on Resources, House of Representatives /

"GAO-05-211."

1992 census of service industries.

"SC92-N-1."

1992 census of service industries.

"SC92-A-1."

Nebraska water service extension : report (to accompany S. 891).

"October 27, 2005."

Meeting the Housing and Service Needs of Seniors Act of 2005 : report (to accompany S. 705) (including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office).

"November 15, 2005."

Web-based screening and brief intervention for hazardous drinking: a double-blind randomized controlled trial

Background Strong evidence exists for the efficacy of screening and brief intervention for reducing hazardous drinking. However, problems have been highlighted with respect to its implementation in health-care systems, not least of which is a reluctance of some doctors to discuss alcohol proactively with their patients. Aims To determine the efficacy of a novel web-based screening and brief intervention (e-SBI) to reduce hazardous drinking. Design A double-blind randomized controlled trial. Setting A university student health service. Participants A total of 16 7 students (17-26 years) were recruited in the reception area and completed a 3-minute web-based screen including the Alcohol Use Disorder Identifiation Test (AUDIT) questionnaire. Of these, 112 tested positive, and 104 (52 females) who consented to follow-up were included in the trial. Measurements Drinking frequency, typical occasion quantity, total volume, heavy episode frequency (females > 80 g ethanol, males > 120 g ethanol), number of personal problems, an academic problems score. Intervention Participants were randomized to 10-15 minutes of web-based assessment and personalized feedback on their drinking (intervention, n = 5 1) or to a leaflet-only control group (n = 5 3). Findings Mean baseline AUDIT scores for control and intervention groups were 16.6 (SD = 6.0) and 16.6 (SD = 5.7). At 6 weeks, participants receiving e-SBI reported significantly lower total consumption (geometric mean ratio = 0.74; 9 5 % confidence interval: 0.56-0.96), lower heavy episode frequency (0.63; 0.42-0.92) and fewer personal problems (0.70; 0.54-0.91). At 6 months personal problems remained lower (0.76; 0.60-0.97), although consumption did not differ significantly. At 6 months, academic problems were lower in the intervention group relative to controls (0.72; 0.51-1.02). Conclusions e-SBI reduced hazardous drinking among university students, to an extent similar to that found for practitioner-delivered brief interventions in the general population. e-SBI offers promise as a strategy to reduce alcohol-related harm in a way that is non-intrusive, appealing to the target group, and capable of being incorporated into primary care. Research is required to replicate the findings, to determine the duration of intervention effects, and to investigate the mechanisms by which the intervention operates.