4,138 research outputs found
A bibliometric analysis of childhood immunization research productivity in Africa since the onset of the Expanded Program on Immunization in 1974
Background:
The implementation of strategic immunization plans whose development is informed by available locally-relevant research evidence should improve immunization coverage and prevent disease, disability and death in Africa. In general, health research helps to answer questions, generate the evidence required to guide policy and identify new tools. However, factors that influence the publication of immunization research in Africa are not known. We, therefore, undertook this study to fill this research gap by providing insights into factors associated with childhood immunization research productivity on the continent. We postulated that research productivity influences immunization coverage.
Methods:
We conducted a bibliometric analysis of childhood immunization research output from Africa, using research articles indexed in PubMed as a surrogate for total research productivity. We used zero-truncated negative binomial regression models to explore the factors associated with research productivity.
Results:
We identified 1,641 articles on childhood immunization indexed in PubMed between 1974 and 2010 with authors from Africa, which represent only 8.9% of the global output. Five countries (South Africa, Nigeria, The Gambia, Egypt and Kenya) contributed 48% of the articles. After controlling for population and gross domestic product, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Sao Tome and Principe were the most productive countries. In univariable analyses, the country's gross domestic product, total health expenditure, private health expenditure, and research and development expenditure had a significant positive association with increased research productivity. Immunization coverage, adult literacy rate, human development index and physician density had no significant association. In the multivarable model, only private health expenditure maintained significant statistical association with the number of immunization articles.
Conclusions:
Immunization research productivity in Africa is highly skewed, with private health expenditure having a significant positive association. However, the current contribution of authors from Africa to global childhood immunization research output is minimal. The lack of association between research productivity and immunization coverage may be an indication of lack of interactive communication between health decision-makers, program managers and researchers; to ensure that immunization policies and plans are always informed by the best available evidence
"Communicate to vaccinate" : the development of a taxonomy of communication interventions to improve routine childhood vaccination
Vaccination is a cost-effective public health measure and is central to the Millennium Development Goal of reducing child mortality. However, childhood vaccination coverage remains sub-optimal in many settings. While communication is a key feature of vaccination programmes, we are not aware of any comprehensive approach to organising the broad range of communication interventions that can be delivered to parents and communities to improve vaccination coverage. Developing a classification system (taxonomy) organised into conceptually similar categories will aid in: understanding the relationships between different types of communication interventions; facilitating conceptual mapping of these interventions; clarifying the key purposes and features of interventions to aid implementation and evaluation; and identifying areas where evidence is strong and where there are gaps. This paper reports on the development of the 'Communicate to vaccinate' taxonomy.; The taxonomy was developed in two stages. Stage 1 included: 1) forming an advisory group; 2) searching for descriptions of interventions in trials (CENTRAL database) and general health literature (Medline); 3) developing a sampling strategy; 4) screening the search results; 5) developing a data extraction form; and 6) extracting intervention data. Stage 2 included: 1) grouping the interventions according to purpose; 2) holding deliberative forums in English and French with key vaccination stakeholders to gather feedback; 3) conducting a targeted search of grey literature to supplement the taxonomy; 4) finalising the taxonomy based on the input provided.; The taxonomy includes seven main categories of communication interventions: inform or educate, remind or recall, teach skills, provide support, facilitate decision making, enable communication and enhance community ownership. These categories are broken down into 43 intervention types across three target groups: parents or soon-to-be-parents; communities, community members or volunteers; and health care providers.; Our taxonomy illuminates and organises this field and identifies the range of available communication interventions to increase routine childhood vaccination uptake. We have utilised a variety of data sources, capturing information from rigorous evaluations such as randomised trials as well as experiences and knowledge of practitioners and vaccination stakeholders. The taxonomy reflects current public health practice and can guide the future development of vaccination programmes
PiLa-CS Professional Learning Community - Workshop 2 Resources
During the Summer of 2021 and 2022, the Participating in Literacies and Computer Science (PiLa-CS) Research Practice Partnership convened and supported a community of practice to learn more about how to enable better CS teaching for emergent bilinguals. These are materials from Workshop 2 of the PLC.Sponsored by the National Science Foundation under NSF grant CNS-1738645 and DRL-1837446. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation
Translanguaging Pedagogy in CS Ed
Episode 3: Translanguaging pedagogy in CS Education
This video looks at how multilingual students already use translanguaging in their computer science classes and discusses how CS educators can further support them with translanguaging pedagogy, a framework that prompts teachers to consider their stance, design, and shifts.
Featuring team members from Participating in Literacies and Computer Science (PiLa-CS), https://www.pila-cs.orgEpisode 3: Translanguaging pedagogy in CS Education
This video looks at how multilingual students already use translanguaging in their computer science classes and discusses how CS educators can further support them with translanguaging pedagogy, a framework that prompts teachers to consider their stance, design, and shifts.
Featuring team members from Participating in Literacies and Computer Science (PiLa-CS), https://www.pila-cs.orgSponsored by the National Science Foundation under NSF grant CNS-1738645 and DRL-1837446. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation
PiLa-CS Professional Learning Community - Design Journal Template
During the Summer of 2021 and 2022, the Participating in Literacies and Computer Science (PiLa-CS) Research Practice Partnership convened and supported a community of practice to learn more about how to enable better CS teaching for emergent bilinguals. These are materials from from the PLC for a Design Journal to act as a planing template for teachers.Sponsored by the National Science Foundation under NSF grant CNS-1738645 and DRL-1837446. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation
Arizona Then and Now: Exploring Arizona's Five Cs Through Photography
abstract: Arizona Then and Now: Exploring Arizona's Five Cs Through Photography is a photographic exploration of the evolution of Arizona's five Cs: cotton, copper, citrus, cattle, and climate. This project first looks to the past to see how these five elements shaped the state of Arizona. Photographs were taken across the valley of these elements, or lack thereof, discovering what Arizona has transformed into in the process. Each chapter of the book begins with a brief history of the element focused on in that chapter, followed by an analytical thought about the photographs taken and how the element has evolved. Each chapter shows two historical photographs followed by a series of photographs taken during the project that the author thought depicted what is seen today. The book ends on a final positive note about how the five Cs are not dead, but soon could be completely taken over. This project was a way for a non-art major to explore the state that she grew up while also challenging herself by more than just taking pictures. The photographs displayed in the book depict a sampling of what the author saw that is left of the five Cs
IR-improved DGLAP-CS QCD parton showers in Pythia8
AbstractWe introduce the recently developed IR-improved DGLAP-CS theory into the showers in Pythia8, as this Monte Carlo event generator is in wide use at LHC. We show that, just as it was true in the IR-improved shower Monte Carlo Herwiri, which realizes the IR-improved DGLAP-CS theory in the Herwig6.5 environment, the soft limit in processes such as single heavy gauge boson production is now more physical in the IR-improved DGLAP-CS theory version of Pythia8. This opens the way to one’s getting a comparison between the actual detector simulations for some of the LHC experiments between IR-improved and unimproved showers as Pythia8 is used in detector simulations at LHC whereas Herwig6.5, the environment of the only other IR-improved DGLAP-CS QCD MC in the literature, Herwiri1.031, is not any longer so used. Our achieving the availability of the IR-improved DGLAP-CS Pythia8 then is an important step in the further development of the LHC precision theory program under development by the author and his collaborators
What CS Ed Can Offer Bi/Multilinguals
Episode 4: What can CS offer multilingual learners?
This video discusses how computer science education can benefit multilingual learners. You will meet a middle school ENL (English as a New Language) teacher who successfully incorporated both translanguaging pedagogy and CS education into her classroom, leading to a memorable experience for one of her students.
Featuring team members from Participating in Literacies and Computer Science (PiLa-CS), https://www.pila-cs.orgEpisode 4: What can CS offer multilingual learners?
This video discusses how computer science education can benefit multilingual learners. You will meet a middle school ENL (English as a New Language) teacher who successfully incorporated both translanguaging pedagogy and CS education into her classroom, leading to a memorable experience for one of her students.
Featuring team members from Participating in Literacies and Computer Science (PiLa-CS), https://www.pila-cs.orgSponsored by the National Science Foundation under NSF grant CNS-1738645 and DRL-1837446. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation
Microporous cesium salts of tetravalent Keggin-type polyoxotungstates Cs-4[SiW12O40], Cs-4[PW11O39(Sn-n-C4H9)], and Cs-4[PW11O39(Sn-OH)] and their adsorption properties
Microporous cesium salts of modified and unmodified tetravalent Keggin-type polyoxometalates, including Cs-4[SiW12O40], Cs-4[PW11O39(Sn-n-C4H9)], and Cs-4[PW11O39(Sn-OH)], were synthesized. The crystalline structures, which had body-centered cubic (bcc) arrangements, the lattice constants, and the pore-size distributions of the three Cs salts were similar, regardless of the presence or absence and types of functional groups introduced. The Cs salts had only micropores and no mesopores. The micropore size distributions were determined from adsorption isotherms of Ar, which showed a sharp peak at 0.59 nm and a shoulder at 0.62 nm. The fractions of the external surface areas to the total surface areas of the Cs salts were less than 6%. It is plausible that the micropores originate from the heteropoly anion defects in the crystallite, which form to avoid mismatches in the Cs+/(heteropoly anion) ratio required for charge balance (=4) and for a bcc structure (=3). The surface of the Cs salt introduced with n-butyl groups was hydrophobic, although the surface density of the n-butyl groups was low. On the other hand, the hydroxyl groups present on the surface of Cs-4[PW11O39(Sn-OH)] had little effect on the adsorption of water, methanol, ethanol, and hexane but a great impact on that for benzene due to the interactions between the -OH groups and the aromatic rings (-OH center dot center dot center dot pi). (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
Also By The Same Author: AKTiveAuthor, a Citation Graph Approach to Name Disambiguation
The desire for definitive data and the semantic web drive for inference over heterogeneous data sources requires co-reference resolution to be performed on those data. In particular, name disambiguation is required to allow accurate publication lists, citation counts and impact measures to be determined. This paper describes a graph-based approach to author disambiguation on large-scale citation networks. Using self-citation, co-authorship and document source analyses, AKTiveAuthor clusters papers, achieving precision of 0.997 and recall of 0.818 over a test group of eight surname clusters
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