The purpose of this study was to determine if a composite Research Activity Index (RAI) score could be developed for each major research university in the United States. Such an index if more valid and reliable than existing univariate rankings, would be a valuable instrument for the objective measurement and dissemination of research activity information. Composite RAI scores were developed for each major research university included in this study. The primary data sources were the National Science Foundation's University Science Statistics and the Association of Research Library's ARL index. Eleven variables were used to develop the RAI. They were average percentage change in research and development expenditures over four years; total research and development expenditures; total capital expenditures for scientific and engineering facilities and research equipment for research, development, and instruction; full-time scientists and engineer employed; part-time scientists and engineers employed; full-time graduate science students enrolled; part-time graduate science students enrolled; postdoctoral personnel; other non-faculty doctoral research staff/students; Phd's awarded per year; and the Association of Research Library's annual index. Principal component analysis was used to produce the RAI scores. The RAI was validated by examination for systematic bias, by analysis of each variable's contribution to the outcome, by comparison to the traditional research and development expenditures ranking, and by having the statistical methods reviewed by a noted statistician. Reliability was established by reviewing the stability of the data bases and variable's definitions over time, by reviewing their stability in previous studies, and by determining that like universities produced like RAI scores. This study demonstrates that an objective composite RAI can be developed from existing data and that the index is more valid and reliable than current, unitary research measures. The RAI has the potential for assisting national policy analyses and university management, strategic planning, and evaluation. The RAI allows for historical, longitudinal, and trend analysis; comparative analysis on a national, regional, state, or university basis; and the potential setting of objective, future research goals with subsequent evaluations based upon actual performance of RAI scores.

There is a high rate of HIV/AIDS in the country and getting an estimate of the underlying contributing factors will help in creating interventions that will contribute towards reducing the high HIV rate. This study aimed to compare three methods the Unmatched Count Technique, Face to Face Interview and Self Report Questionnaire to explore which one yields higher rates of disclosure to questions about sensitive behavior. It aimed to get an estimate of people that engage in unprotected sex as well as those that have concurrent sexual partners amongst students. This study used a quantitative experimental survey design to compare the three methods. The study used convenience sampling and the questionnaires were randomised using the random number generator. A total of 283 questionnaires were analyzed. The study found mixed results. The Unmatched Count Technique did not produce higher base rates than the Self Report Questionnaire and Face to Face Interview on all the sensitive questions as there were instances in which more respondents in the SRQ and FTFI endorsed the sensitive statement than in the UCT. The UCT produced negative numbers and it yielded lower levels of disclosure than the SRQ and FTFI on some of the sensitive statements. The SRQ was expected to elicit higher base rate estimates than the FTFI but instead the study found that the SRQ only elicited higher reporting for one sensitive statement out of five. No statistically significant results were obtained for differences in disclosure levels of unprotected sex and multiple concurrent partners between the UCT, SRQ and FTFI on most of the questions. Accurate reporting of sexual behaviour is crucial especially in contexts where the major route of HIV transmission is through sexual intercourse. It is crucial in the creation of interventions that will respond directly to the problem. With the study having produced mixed results further research needs to be conducted in this area. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2014.

Thesis (Naval Engineer and M.S.)--Massachusette Institute of Technology, 2004. / Available from National Technical Information Service, Springfield, Va., 2004. Includes bibliographical references (p. 92). Also available online.

published_or_final_version / Community Medicine / Master / Master of Public Health

Firstly, this research aimed to understand what behaviours are considered sensitive or private by university students (N=306) in respect of disclosure in the research context. A total of 71 items were extracted by factor analysis: 20 sensitive items, 26 related non-sensitive items and 25 non-related non-sensitive items. Differences in sensitivity were noted for gender and race, reported below. Furthermore, a three-phase exploration of data collection methods was used in determining which self-report method is most valid and reliable when researching sensitive topics. A quantitative experiment compared the effectiveness of the Unmatched Count Technique (Type I), Self-Report Questionnaires and Audio Computer-Assisted Self-Interviews, in terms of their ability to elicit honest answers when dealing with the sensitive topics (N=410). This section of the study used pairwise tests of proportions by Winks statistical software. The sensitive topics under investigation in this study are condom use,HIV/AIDS as well as relationships such as transactional and multiple and concurrent partners.The results of this study, reported below, indicate pairwise significant differences between the SRQ, ACASI and UCT Type I. Additionally, the Unmatched Count Technique (Type I), Self-Report Questionnaires and Audio Computer-Assisted Self-Interviews were compared in terms of Socially Desirable Responding scores as well as experience of participation. No statistically significant differences were obtained for overall scores across data collection methods for SDR and experience of participation. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

M.B.A. / This study was conducted to investigate the strategy for sustainability of the Minerals Processing and Technology Research Group (MPTRG) of the University of Johannesburg. The background of the study established that a new institution, University of Johannesburg (UJ), was formed mainly from the merger of the previous Technikon Witwatersrand (TWR) and the Randse Afrikanse Universiteit (RAU). These two institutions had different vocations: career oriented and academic directed respectively. The merger has created a new institution with new needs, a new environment and new challenges. For a research group, each as the MPTRG, which existed in one of the merging institutions before the merger, to survive and to be sustainable, relevant strategies have to be designed and correctly implemented. The aim of the study was to develop a strategy for MPTRG's sustainability in terms of assisting the faculty of engineering and the built environment of the UJ to achieve its strategic objectives of higher levels of postgraduate students, community, industry and government service quality and productivity in research. The literature review investigated the research activities at university with focus on their sustainability, quality of services rendered (i.e. students trained, research projects conducted , reports drafted, stakeholders' satisfactions deriving from the above etc...) and the number and quality of research output generated. Particular emphasis was placed on the impact of people management in the quality of university research. This was with the assumption that the technology requirement was fulfilled. A mainly qualitative research design was used as the primary methodology in this study and a deductive approach was adopted. As a result, Ulrich's (1997) conceptual model depicting the role of human capacity in assisting the organization to achieve its strategic objectives was used to formulate the study's theoretical propositions. The findings from the literature review revealed that the role of the MPTRG as a strategic partner, is central to the achievement of higher levels of postgraduate students service, research training quality and research productivity. It is therefore recommended that the MPTRG must fully align with the corporate strategy of the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment. The following sequential steps must be undertaken: The MPTRG manager, together with his team, should conduct an organizational diagnosis of the group's organizational architecture, which specifies systems that constitute the Faculty. These include the organization's shared mindset and culture, research staff competency levels, systems and standard for progressive assessment and evaluation of postgraduate students performance, assessment of the standards to use to benchmark progressive and final group research output etc... A formal integrated strategy including human capital, technology, relations (i.e. local and international collaborations with industry, as well as other institutions) must be developed which shall provide alternative and or supplementary actions and practices for each of the factors that were identified in the organizational diagnosis. The qualitative and quantitative findings lead to conclude that the MPTRG is currently active in mainly administrative tasks including hiring postgraduate students, arranging their registration, securing scholarships, drafting reports and applications, following up on order to procurement etc... In order to enable the MPTRG to assist the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment to achieve its strategic objectives, the MPTRG must engage itself with direct research oriented tasks, writing more publications, engaging with community outreach projects, engaging with professional body activities etc.... It is therefore recommended that the MPTRG must shift its focus away from administration in order to create scope and capacity to perform activities over and above administrative and transactional tasks. Complementary strategic research staff be recruited, appropriate research equipment be procured, number of postgraduate students be increased, number of postdoctoral fellows be increased, visiting scientists be attracted, collaborative projects with industry be expanded etc... This would require a high level of assistance from support and service departments (postgraduate student registration, research office, administration, finances, procurement, transport, secretary, etc...).

As one of the most recommended strategies in decision making of contemporary medicine, evidence-based medicine (EBM) is attracting more and more attention. For EBM, the scientific evidences are obtained mainly from the randomized controlled trials (RCTs), systematic review and meta-analysis. In particular, meta-analysis can help researchers statistically combine several independent studies for a same clinical problem. In meta-analysis, Cohen's d and Hedges' g are among the most commonly used effect size measurements for continuous data. To compute these mean difference criteria, the sample mean and standard deviation are two conventional statistics reported in the literature. However, some other clinical studies may instead report the median, minimum and maximum values, and/or sample quartiles. Such a situation requires researchers to estimate the sample mean and standard deviation from these reported summary statistics. We note, however, that most existing estimators in the literature have some serious limitations. For this, we propose to improve the existing methods and extend them to three frequently encountered scenarios. In this thesis, we developed the optimal sample mean estimators, the normality test statistics and the updated Cohen's d mean difference criterion for three commonly encountered scenarios in meta-analysis. In Chapter 1, we gave a brief introduction on evidence-based medicine, meta-analysis and the summary data. In Chapter 2, we introduced our optimal estimators of the sample mean under the three scenarios, respectively. In Chapter 3, we proposed several methods for testing the normality of the underlying data. And in Chapter 4, we proposed to improve the famous Cohen's d and its relevant parameters. To assess the practical performance of our newly proposed methods, we also chose a few real data at the end of each chapter as illustrating examples. Numerical results of those studies indicated that our proposed methods have satisfactory performance both in theory and in practice. Following our new methodology, we also recommended an improved procedure for medical researchers to conduct meta-analysis. For illustration, we chose a meta-analysis in Chapter 5 on the effect of phytosterols to plasma CRP level (Rocha et al., 2016) to compare the results obtained from our recommended procedure and from the original methods. The results showed that our recommended procedure may lead to distinctly different results for a same clinical problem. To conclude the thesis, we expect that our newly proposed methods can be regarded as "rules of thumb" and will soon be widely applied in meta-analysis and evidence-based medicine.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Finely-tuned solvent mixtures are used by art conservators for the difficult task of safely and selectively removing yellowed varnish, disfiguring grime, and discolored overpaint from the surface of oil paintings. This process is often referred to as “picture cleaning” and depends on the different solubilities of the obfuscating surface materials and the underlying paint medium. However, differential evaporation rates for the solvents used in these carefully formulated cleaning mixtures can change the potency of the mixture over time, which could potentially lead to solutions having solubility characteristics that are ineffective at cleaning, or worse yet, are deleterious to artists’ oil paints. Azeotropic blends of solvents have been proposed as an alternative for maintaining consistent solvent composition throughout the evaporation process while benefiting from their high vapor pressure relative to the pure solvents. Azeotropes are specific combinations of two or more solvents at a precise concentration that behave as a single solvent, maintaining a constant composition in both the liquid and vapor phases. The use of purportedly azeotropic solvent blends has appeared in the art conservation literature for the cleaning of historic objects and paintings. However, these solvent mixtures are taken from tables of azeotropic compositions given at their boiling point. We have studied one of these solutions, a 19:81 vol% mixture of isopropanol and n-hexane. For the first time, the actual evaporation behavior of this purported azeotropic mixture was followed in detail at room temperature conditions. Through the use of rudimentary vapor pressure measurements, gravimetric analysis, as well as sophisticated compositional determinations of both the liquid phase and headspace of evaporating mixtures by gas chromatography, this particular cleaning solution has been shown to be zeotropic (i.e. NOT an azeotrope) under the conditions typical of conservation studios. The true room temperature azeotropic composition was found instead to contain half as much isopropanol at 9.5 vol%. Art conservators should therefore be dubious of purportedly azeotropic mixtures reported at boiling points well above room temperature. Individual azeotropic cleaning blends are best determined chemically prior to their use in art restoration. Furthermore, the introduction of a model paint film to the evaporating room temperature azeotrope was shown to further confound its behavior, calling into question whether solvent systems can be configured to evaporate with constant composition from the surface of an artwork.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Gender differences in the basal function of autonomic cardiovascular control are well documented. Consistent baroreflex (BRx) studies suggest that women have higher tonic parasympathetic cardiac activation compared to men. Later in life and concomitant with menopause, a significant reduction in the capacity of the BRx in females increases their risk to develop hypertension, even exceeding that of age-matched males. Loss of sex hormones is but one factor. In female rats, we previously identified a distinct myelinated baroreceptor (BR) neuronal phenotype termed Ah-type, which exhibits functional dynamics and ionic currents that are a mix of those observed in barosensory afferents functionally identified as myelinated A-type or unmyelinated C-type. Interestingly, Ah-type afferents constitute nearly 50% of the total population of myelinated aortic BR in female but less than 2% in male rat. We hypothesized that an afferent basis for sexual dimorphism in BRx function exists. Specifically, we investigated the potential functional impact Ah-type afferents have upon the aortic BRx and what changes, if any, loss of sex hormones through ovariectomy brings upon such functions. We assessed electrophysiological and reflexogenic differences associated with the left aortic depressor nerve (ADN) from adult male, female, and ovariectomized female (OVX) Sprague-Dawley rats. Our results revealed sexually dimorphic conduction velocity (CV) profiles. A distinct, slower myelinated fiber volley was apparent in compound action potential (CAP) recordings from female aortic BR fibers, with an amplitude and CV not observed in males. Subsequent BRx studies demonstrated that females exhibited significantly greater BRx responses compared to males at myelinated-specific intensities. Ovariectomy induced an increased overall temporal dispersion in the CAP of OVX females that may have contributed to their attenuated BRx responses. Interestingly, the most significant changes in depressor dynamics occurred at electrical thresholds and frequencies most closely aligned with Ah-type BR fibers. Collectively, we provide evidence that, in females, two anatomically distinct myelinated afferent pathways contribute to the integrated BRx function, whereas in males only one exists. These functional differences may partly account for the enhanced control of blood pressure in females. Furthermore, Ah-type afferents may provide a neuromodulatory pathway uniquely associated with the hormonal regulation of BRx function.