Holly A. Taylor - US grants

Abstract

IIS-9817484
Crane, Gregory
Tufts University
$374,316 - 12 mos. (Jointly funded with SBE/S&T Studies of the amount of $200,000 which totals the award to $574,316)

DLI Phase 2: A Digital Library for the Humanities

This is the first year funding of a five year continuing award. This project is focussing on developing the foundations of a scalable, broad-based, interdisciplinary digital library for the humanities. The principal investigators for this project include not only humanists but also specialists in computer-human interface design and in cognitive science. The goals are to both to improve the ways that humanists can perform their intellectual work and to design materials that are more accessible to the vastly expanded audience already reached by the World Wide Web. Digital libraries allow us to improve traditional teaching and learning; they also challenge us to redefine the relationship between the humanities and society as a whole. To achieve the goals, new document models must be developed to serve a more complex audience and which are designed to interact at various levels in diverse human and electronic contexts; that is, as part of a scalable, integrated digital library that can be maintained over time. Building on twelve years of development with the Greco-Roman world, the project team will create a digital library that includes a wide range of materials, ranging from ancient Egypt through nineteenth century London.

health science research analysis /evaluation

health care policy; attitude; health science research analysis /evaluation; ethics; clinical trials; clinical research; human subject;

This collaborative research project focuses on issues related to wayfinding, and is at the interface of geographic information science and human cognition. The research addresses the questions of the relationship between verbal and pictorial representations of geographic information, and how both representation modes can be successfully integrated in systems relating geographic information to users. To address this question, a theory of content and level of geographic detail is constructed that is independent of specific mode. The research is founded upon computational and cognitive theories of geographic information. The main idea is that theories of information granularity can be imposed on a 'canonical model' of dual mode information, enabling inter-modal comparisons and transformations to be made between levels of detail and information content. The level of detail that should be presented in each of the verbal and pictorial modes, and relationships between levels of detail in each mode, are important areas of investigation. The theory of information granularity should accord with human cognition, and a major part of the work will be the testing of the theory by a graded set of experiments with human subjects. The research will be evaluated through the construction of a demonstrator mobile 'wayfinding assistant' that will operate using both verbal and pictorial modes.
This project is motivated by the task of wayfinding in an unknown city, using a portable, mobile, digital wayfinding assistant, with two interaction modes, verbal and pictorial, and some locational and directional capabilities. With increasing use of multimedia, this research will help to formulate guidelines for effective presentation of pictoral and verbal spatial information. The research addresses fundamental questions such as: What should be the balance between modes of information supplied to the user? Should the information to be represented in each mode be complementary or supplementary? If it is necessary to 'switch off' a mode, how can this be done seamlessly, with the same level of detail presented? The ability to change flexibly between modalities may be especially appropriate for individuals with sensory impairments, as well as those whose tasks require both modes operating simultaneously, or those who need to switch seamlessly between modes (e.g. a driver of a vehicle who must switch from a visual display to audio cues because of the need to concentrate full visual attention on a traffic situation).

PROJECT ABSTRACT

This work examines the impact of a fully developed interactive computer-based role-playing laboratory on decision making based on scientific data. Our previous studies showed the "proof of concept" of Eruption, a role-playing simulation of a volcanic hazard, and its impact on decision making using an innovative evaluation strategy that incorporates cognitive science methodologies. This work also allowed us to identify specific design principles that impact higher-order thinking and increase the effectiveness of CAI laboratories. Incorporation of these principles into the fully implemented Eruption will increase its impact on higher-order cognitive skills such as decision making, problem solving, and critical analysis.
The completed implementation and coincident assessment will further inform the relationship between educational exercises and higher-order critical thinking skills. This work will also allow further refinement of our cognitive science based assessment methodology. By creating an objective measure of educational impact, we can identify specific design principles that increase the potential for reaching student populations with weaker math and science backgrounds and/or those traditionally under-represented in the sciences

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Ancillary Care in Community-Based Research: Deciding What to Do The goal of the proposed 4-year interdisciplinary multi-method project is to establish an empirically informed normative account of researchers'obligations to provide ancillary care in community- based research in low-resource settings. Ancillary care (AC) is defined as health care needed by research subjects, but not necessary for safety or scientific validity. In community-based research, by contrast with facility-based research conducted in a clinic or hospital setting, semi-skilled local study workers often carry out research activities in people's homes and other functional living spaces. Host communities in low-resource settings may lack adequate nutrition, clean water, sanitation, and basic preventive and therapeutic health services. Our preliminary study indicates that researchers often encounter serious and sometimes desperate unmet health needs in their interactions with subjects. Such situations present a perplexing ethical challenge as researchers must decide what to do. To what extent do researchers have an ethical obligation to provide AC? The NIH identifies AC as an important issue in international research ethics, and calls for research to assess how stakeholders respond to requirements or requests to provide it (PA-07-277).There is a lack of empirical data on the extent to which researchers actually provide AC, and how they decide whether to do so. The existing normative model of AC fails to consider community-based research, as it assumes that research occurs in clinical facilities. In this project, a social scientist, a moral philosopher, and a public health scientist active in global health research will integrate empirical data collection with philosophical analysis to accomplish three specific aims: (1) describe the AC decision-making experience of researchers who conduct both community- based and facility-based health research in low and high functioning health systems in low-resource settings;(2) identify the relationships between and associations among factors that predict provision of AC in low-resource settings, determine if and how these differ between community-based and facility- based research and between low and high functioning health system settings, and refine a descriptive conceptual model based on preliminary findings;and (3) develop and refine a normative model of researchers'AC obligations focused specifically on community-based research in low-resource settings. Aims 1 and 2 will be accomplished by conducting a quantitative survey. Aim 3 will be accomplished by using standard philosophical methods to develop and systematically test candidate normative models. The broad, long-term objective of the proposed project is to help researchers make socially responsible decisions when faced with AC needs in community-based research. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Project Narrative International research intended to promote the health of the poor often brings researchers into contact with research subjects who need health care. When research subjects cannot get the care they need from local providers, are researchers ethically required to provide care if they can? The goals of this project are: to find out how researchers actually decide what to do about such needs and to understand what kind of response is ethically required.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The local health department workforce sits at the hub of the public health emergency preparedness system. A growing body of research has recently identified troubling attitudinal gaps among this workforce regarding willingness to respond to infectious disease threats, ranging from naturally-occurring pandemics to bioterrorism events. Research conducted by members of our study team has determined that public health workers are more likely to respond to infectious disease events if they perceive their response as mandatory rather than voluntary, and if they believe their agency is taking extra measures to protect them and their families. These findings emphasize the need for a greater understanding among local health department leadership and line staff of the ethical and intersecting legal dimensions of infectious disease response in advance of an outbreak. Guidance is needed to help local health departments address the ethical tensions that arise when balancing the rights of individuals (i.e., their employees) and the public good. The goal of the proposed project is to develop an ethically sound guidance document for local health departments to use in planning for and executing their responses to infectious disease outbreaks. Our aims are to: 1) Describe and characterize perceptions of legal and ethical obligations relevant to willingness to fulfill professional roles during infectious disease outbreaks (manmade or natural) among local health department workers (employers/administrators; employees) and barriers to optimum policy creation, implementation, and enforcement using (a) focus groups with members of the local health department workforce, (b) key informant interviews with local health department administrators and front line staff, and (c) a national survey of the local health department workforce; 2) Develop a guidance document for local health department employers/administrators by (a) Applying appropriate ethical norms and legal considerations to our descriptive findings to identify tensions between ethical obligations and intersecting legal standards and self-reported willingness to respond, including identifying detailed examples of particular concerns; (b) Solicit directed feedback from relevant stakeholders. This project will benefit from the on-going input of an expert Advisory Committee and has the support of the National Association of County and City Health Officials. In this time of fiscal austerity and significant workforce cutbacks in public health agencies, innovative measures are necessary to ensure effective responses to infectious disease outbreaks. Therefore, the need for ethically informed guidance that balances the rights of members of the public health workforce with the public good is especially acute.