Using a prompt sheet to improve the reference interview in a health telephone helpline service

Price, T., Urquhart, C. & Cooper, J. (2007). Using a prompt sheet to improve the reference interview in a health telephone helpline service. Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 2(3), 43-58 Open access journal

Referencia nacional de tejeduría capítulo caña flecha, resguardo Zenú San Andrés de Sotavento = National reference weaving chapter weaving in caña flecha resguardo Zenú San Andrés de Sotovento.

12 hojas.

Papers presented at conference on the situation in China : under the auspices of the Committee of Reference and Counsel, representing the Foreign Missions Conference of North America : February 29, 1912, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City.

http://www.archive.org/details/paperspresenteda00foreuoft

The island empire of the East : being a short history of Japan and missionary work therein with special reference to the mission of the M.S.C.C. / by Rev. J. Cooper Robinson ; with an introduction by the lord bishop of Algoma.

http://www.archive.org/details/theislandempire00robiuoft

Characterizing Reference Locality in the WWW

As the World Wide Web (Web) is increasingly adopted as the infrastructure for large-scale distributed information systems, issues of performance modeling become ever more critical. In particular, locality of reference is an important property in the performance modeling of distributed information systems. In the case of the Web, understanding the nature of reference locality will help improve the design of middleware, such as caching, prefetching, and document dissemination systems. For example, good measurements of reference locality would allow us to generate synthetic reference streams with accurate performance characteristics, would allow us to compare empirically measured streams to explain differences, and would allow us to predict expected performance for system design and capacity planning. In this paper we propose models for both temporal and spatial locality of reference in streams of requests arriving at Web servers. We show that simple models based only on document popularity (likelihood of reference) are insufficient for capturing either temporal or spatial locality. Instead, we rely on an equivalent, but numerical, representation of a reference stream: a stack distance trace. We show that temporal locality can be characterized by the marginal distribution of the stack distance trace, and we propose models for typical distributions and compare their cache performance to our traces. We also show that spatial locality in a reference stream can be characterized using the notion of self-similarity. Self-similarity describes long-range correlations in the dataset, which is a property that previous researchers have found hard to incorporate into synthetic reference strings. We show that stack distance strings appear to be strongly self-similar, and we provide measurements of the degree of self-similarity in our traces. Finally, we discuss methods for generating synthetic Web traces that exhibit the properties of temporal and spatial locality that we measured in our data.

On the Intrinsic Locality Properties of Web Reference Streams

There has been considerable work done in the study of Web reference streams: sequences of requests for Web objects. In particular, many studies have looked at the locality properties of such streams, because of the impact of locality on the design and performance of caching and prefetching systems. However, a general framework for understanding why reference streams exhibit given locality properties has not yet emerged. In this work we take a first step in this direction, based on viewing the Web as a set of reference streams that are transformed by Web components (clients, servers, and intermediaries). We propose a graph-based framework for describing this collection of streams and components. We identify three basic stream transformations that occur at nodes of the graph: aggregation, disaggregation and filtering, and we show how these transformations can be used to abstract the effects of different Web components on their associated reference streams. This view allows a structured approach to the analysis of why reference streams show given properties at different points in the Web. Applying this approach to the study of locality requires good metrics for locality. These metrics must meet three criteria: 1) they must accurately capture temporal locality; 2) they must be independent of trace artifacts such as trace length; and 3) they must not involve manual procedures or model-based assumptions. We describe two metrics meeting these criteria that each capture a different kind of temporal locality in reference streams. The popularity component of temporal locality is captured by entropy, while the correlation component is captured by interreference coefficient of variation. We argue that these metrics are more natural and more useful than previously proposed metrics for temporal locality. We use this framework to analyze a diverse set of Web reference traces. We find that this framework can shed light on how and why locality properties vary across different locations in the Web topology. For example, we find that filtering and aggregation have opposing effects on the popularity component of the temporal locality, which helps to explain why multilevel caching can be effective in the Web. Furthermore, we find that all transformations tend to diminish the correlation component of temporal locality, which has implications for the utility of different cache replacement policies at different points in the Web.

Legislative policy, law and competitiveness: a mysterious and difficult relationship in the EU

The Lisbon Agenda places Europe in a uniquely difficult position globally, most particularly as an example of a social and regulatory experiment which many consider to be doomed to failure. The drive towards economic competitiveness has led to a focus on regulation and its effect on entrepreneurship, productivity and business growth but assessing this relationship is complex for a number of reasons. First, not all regulatory effects can be predicted precisely in relation to behavioural outcomes. Path-dependency scholars have also demonstrated that the regulation will have varying effects depending on context. Second, theoretically it is clear that many non-regulatory factors may contribute to economic and competitive success. Third, there is evidence of internal conflict within the Commission as to the relative importance of the Lisbon goals. Finally, the experience of distinct Member States presents challenges both for assessment and prescriptive remedies. The Commission has estimated that the cost of regulatory compliance obligations on businesses in the EU is between 4% and 6% of gross domestic product and that 15% of this figure is avoidable 'red tape' (the term used specifically to signify unnecessary compliance burdens). This article proposes to assess the likely outcomes of de-regulation as we rapidly approach 2010, the year for attainment of the Lisbon goals.

The analytical approach of the European Court of Human Rights in surveillance cases—the implications, justifications, and future of the Court’s reasoning, with a focus on the legislative impact in Ireland

A notable feature of the surveillance case law of the European Court of Human Rights has been the tendency of the Court to focus on the “in accordance with the law” aspect of the Article 8 ECHR inquiry. This focus has been the subject of some criticism, but the impact of this approach on the manner in which domestic surveillance legislation has been formulated in the Party States has received little scholarly attention. This thesis addresses that gap in the literature through its consideration of the Interception of Postal Packets and Telecommunications Messages (Regulation) Act, 1993 and the Criminal Justice (Surveillance) Act, 2009. While both Acts provide several of the safeguards endorsed by the European Court of Human Rights, this thesis finds that they suffer from a number of crucial weaknesses that undermine the protection of privacy. This thesis demonstrates how the focus of the European Court of Human Rights on the “in accordance with the law” test has resulted in some positive legislative change. Notwithstanding this fact, it is maintained that the legality approach has gained prominence at the expense of a full consideration of the “necessary in a democratic society” inquiry. This has resulted in superficial legislative responses at the domestic level, including from the Irish government. Notably, through the examination of a number of more recent cases, this project discerns a significant alteration in the interpretive approach adopted by the European Court of Human Rights regarding the application of the necessity test. The implications of this development are considered and the outlook for Irish surveillance legislation is assessed.

A cultural study on communication and technology with specific reference to media in China

This dissertation examines the role of communications technology in social change. It examines secondary data on contemporary China arguing that many interpretations of events in China are unsuitable at best and at worst conceptually damages our understanding of social change in China. This is especially the case in media studies under the ‘democratic framework’. It proposes that there is an alternative framework in studying the media and social change. This alternative conceptual framework is termed a zone of interpretative development offering a means by which to discuss events that take place in a mediated environment. Taking a theoretical foundation using the philosophy of Mikhail Bakhtin this dissertation develops a platform with which to understand communication technology from an anthropological perspective. Three media events from contemporary China are examined. The first examines the Democracy Wall event and the implications of using a public sphere framework. The second case examines the phenomenon of the Grass Mud Horse, a symbol that has gained popular purchase as a humorous expression of political dissatisfaction and develops the problems seen in the first case but with some solutions. Using a modification of Lev Vygotskiĭ’s zone of proximal development this symbol is understood as an expression of the collective recognition of a shared experience. In the second example from the popular TV talent show contests in China further expressions of collective experience are introduced. With the evidence from these media events in contemporary China this dissertation proposes that we can understand certain modes of communication as occurring in a zone of interpretative development. This proposed anthropological feature of social change via communication and technology can fruitfully describe meaning-formation in society via the expression and recognition of shared experiences.

Reference groups and product line decisions: An experimental investigation of limited editions and product proliferation

Some luxury goods manufacturers offer limited editions of their products, whereas some others market multiple product lines. Researchers have found that reference groups shape consumer evaluations of these product categories. Yet little empirical research has examined how reference groups affect the product line decisions of firms. Indeed, in a field setting it is quite a challenge to isolate reference group effects from contextual effects and correlated effects. In this paper, we propose a parsimonious model that allows us to study how reference groups influence firm behavior and that lends itself to experimental analysis. With the aid of the model we investigate the behavior of consumers in a laboratory setting where we can focus on the reference group effects after controlling for the contextual and correlated effects. The experimental results show that in the presence of strong reference group effects, limited editions and multiple products can help improve firms' profits. Furthermore, the trends in the purchase decisions of our participants point to the possibility that they are capable of introspecting close to two steps of thinking at the outset of the game and then learning through reinforcement mechanisms. © 2010 INFORMS.

Are the reference values of B cell subpopulations used in adults for classification of common variable immunodeficiencies appropriate for children?

Detailed phenotypic characterization of B cell subpopulations is of utmost importance for the diagnosis and management of humoral immunodeficiencies, as they are used for classification of common variable immunodeficiencies. Since age-specific reference values remain scarce in the literature, we analysed by flow cytometry the proportions and absolute values of total, memory, switched memory and CD21(-/low) B cells in blood samples from 168 healthy children (1 day to 18 years) with special attention to the different subpopulations of CD21(low) B cells. The percentages of total memory B cells and their subsets significantly increased up to 5-10 years. In contrast, the percentages of immature CD21(-) B cells and of immature transitional CD21(low)CD38(hi) B cells decreased progressively with age, whereas the percentage of CD21(low) CD38(low) B cells remained stable during childhood. Our data stress the importance of age-specific reference values for the correct interpretation of B cell subsets in children as a diagnostic tool in immunodeficiencies.

Hermeneutics, accreting receptions, hypermedia: A tool for reference versus a tool for instruction

We provide a select overview of tools supporting traditional Jewish learning. Then we go on to discuss our own HyperJoseph/HyperIsaac project in instructional hypermedia. Its application is to teaching, teacher training, and self-instruction in given Bible passages. The treatment of two narratives has been developed thus far. The tool enables an analysis of the text in several respects: linguistic, narratological, etc. Moreover, the Scriptures' focality throughout the cultural history makes this domain of application particularly challenging, in that there is a requirement for the tool to encompass the accretion of receptions in the cultural repertoire, i.e., several layers of textual traditions—either hermeneutic (i.e., interpretive), or appropriations—related to the given core passage, thus including "secondary" texts (i.e., such that are responding or derivative) from as disparate realms as Roman-age and later homiletics, Medieval and later commentaries or supercommentaries, literary appropriations, references to the arts and modern scholarship, etc. in particular, the Midrash (homiletic expansions) is adept at narrative gap filling, so the narratives mushroom at the interstices where the primary text is silent. The genealogy of the project is rooted in Weiss' index of novelist Agnon's writings, which was eventually upgraded into a hypertextual tool, including Agnon's full-text and ancillary materials. Those early tools being intended primarily for reference and research-support in literary studies, the Agnon hypertext system was initially emulated in the conception of HyperJoseph, which is applied to the Joseph story from Genesis. Then, the transition from a tool for reference to an instructional tool required a thorough reconception in an educational perspective, which led to HyperIsaac, on the sacrifice of Isaac, and to a redesign and upgrade of HyperJoseph as patterned after HyperIsaac.

Options to renew leases: time for legislative relief?

Argues that England should follow the example of Australia and New Zealand and give the courts statutory power to grant a tenant relief against forfeiture of the right to exercise an option to renew a lease by reason of the tenant being in breach of covenant. Suggests the legislative provision introducing this power should adopt wording mirroring that in the Law of Property Act 1925 s.146(2).