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Autoantibody assays are reported in a variety of formats. Results only slightly above established cut-offs provide lower likelihood ratios; therefore, their clinical significance may be more uncertain, which is not readily communicated with dichotomous qualitative reporting. Line immunoassays (LIA) are a common method for detecting antibodies to extractable nuclear antigens (ENA) and myositis-associated antibodies. However, recommended positive cut-offs are contentious. We distributed a survey via e-mail to participants in the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia Quality Assurance Program (RCPAQAP) Immunology modules and to a dedicated immunology mailing list in Australasia. Questions explored general viewpoints surrounding autoantibody reporting, as well as current laboratory practices, with particular focus on interpretation and reporting of the most commonly used ENA LIA manufactured by Euroimmun. There were 31 responders, representative of at least 17 unique laboratories across Australia (8 public, 5 private) and New Zealand (4 laboratories). Responses suggest that autoantibody reporting is not standardised; there was variation in general viewpoints and reporting practices, particularly regarding the interpretation of and positive cut-offs used for the Euroimmun ENA LIA, which were contrary to the manufacturer's guidelines in a majority of the responses. Interpretative qualitative reporting based on results from other investigations and the clinical history was a common theme. There is large variation in the reporting of autoantibody assays within Australasia, especially by LIA. A majority of respondents report the most commonly used ENA LIA contrary to manufacturer's guidelines; alternative positive cut-offs are commonly utilised. LIA reports should indicate the level of positivity to enhance their relevance in the clinical decision-making process.

Background Airway stenting (AS) is performed for the treatment of benign or malignant central airway stenosis. In France, more than 30 centers practice AS. The aim of this survey was to evaluate the current practice around airway stenting among French bronchoscopy practitioners. Method We performed an online survey sent to the GELF group (Groupe d’Endoscopie de Langue Francaise) mailing list. The first part comprised 10 questions about the different attitudes before AS and the second part included 10 questions about the management after AS. Results Thirty-six participants answered to the first part of the questionnaire and thirty-three to the second. There were some similarities, for example the absence of prophylactic antibiotic treatment before procedure (86%), use of saline nebulization, and removing or replacing the airway stent in case of persistent chest congestion or infection (73%). We also noted an important heterogeneity of the practices with several differences concerning systematic endoscopic control, bacteriological sampling before procedure (44%) and systematically AS replacement. Conclusion This survey shows that AS management in France varies between practitioners. Respondents agreed on a few points, but disagreed on several important aspects of the management. These results emphasize the need of expert recommendations to improve AS management.

Objectives This study aims to explore the incidence of moral distress experienced by UK community pharmacists through the deployment of a previously developed and validated survey instrument to a national sample. Methods An e-mail inviting pharmacists to complete an on-line questionnaire developed to measure moral distress was successfully delivered via the mailing list of a nationwide support organisation for the pharmacy profession. Completed questionnaires were subjected to statistical analysis to determine to what extent common practice scenarios generated moral distress in community pharmacists. Key findings Time constraints represent the greatest source of moral distress for United Kingdom (UK) community pharmacists, scoring highest for both frequency and intensity of distress. The supply of emergency hormonal contraception (EHC) in opposition to religious beliefs scored lowest. Possible underlying causes of moral distress are discussed in the light of our results, and potential mechanisms for reducing the incidence of moral distress for this professional group are considered. The reduction in the frequency and occurrence of moral distress is best achieved by the creation of morally habitable workplaces, where possible triggers can be identified and avoided. Structured undergraduate ethics education and accessible postgraduate training and resources could provide a meaningful opportunity to support pharmacists in exercising their moral competency or moral agency. Conclusions Moral distress provides a reliable indicator of constraints in the form of policies, legislation and regulations, and the structural and relational aspects of the working environment in which pharmacists practise. This provides invaluable information in the search for strategies to reduce the recurrence of this phenomenon.

Describing the attributes and characteristics has an important place in the ethnographic study of information infrastructure. Yet, decentralised information infrastructure does not have a clearly defined “ethnography”, by which to describe its unique attributes. This piece draws on historical research on the ‘cypherpunk mailing list’ archives to form a descriptive basis of the unique attributes of decentralised information infrastructure for ethnographic studies. The unique characteristics of decentralised information infrastructure outlined are: decentralised, autonomous, participatory, permissionless, ad hoc, encrypted, full-stack, modular, migratable, scalable, requires a community, trust gradient, and evolutionary. These characteristics form a basis for further ethnographic enquiry into the opportunities and limitations of decentralised information infrastructure in society.

Background Many open source and industrial projects involve several developers spread around the world and working in different timezones. Such developers usually communicate through mailing lists, issue tracking systems or chats. Lack of adequate communication can create misunderstanding and could possibly cause the introduction of bugs. Aim This paper aims at investigating the relation between the bug inducing and fixing phenomenon and the lack of written communication between committers in open source projects. Method We performed an empirical study that involved four open source projects, namely Apache httpd, GNU GCC, Mozilla Firefox, and Xorg Xserver. For each project change history data, issue tracker comments, mailing list messages, and chat logs were analyzed in order to answer four research questions about the relation between the social importance and communication level of committers and their proneness to induce bug fixes. Results and implications Results indicate that the majority of bugs are fixed by committers who did not induce them, a smaller but substantial percentage of bugs is fixed by committers that induced them, and very few bugs are fixed by committers that were not directly involved in previous changes on the same files of the fix. More importantly, committers inducing fixes tend to have a lower level of communication between each other than that of other committers. This last finding suggests that increasing the level of communication between fix-inducing committers could reduce the number of fixes induced in a software project.

Child Advocacy Centers (CAC) emphasize developing effective cross-agency collaborations between workers involved in serious abuse investigations to foster improvements in agency outcomes, and to minimize distress, confusion and uncertainty for children and families. This study examined the characteristics of CACs, whether models in practice match the predominant model presented in the research literature. Directors of CACs in the United States that were members of the National Children’s Alliance (NCA) mailing list (n = 361) completed an online survey in 2016. While some core characteristics were ubiquitous across CACs, the data suggests that different types of CACs exist defined by characteristics that are not prescribed under NCA principles, but which are arguably relevant to the quality of the response. From the results of a cluster analysis, the researchers propose a typology of CACs that reflects the development and integration of centers: (a) core CAC services (i.e. interviewing & cross-agency case review); (b) an aggregator of external services, and (c) a more centralized full-service CAC. Further research is needed to understand how these variations may impact practice and outcomes; this is particularly important considering many CACs do not match the full-service models most commonly examined in the research literature, which limits the degree to which these findings apply to CACs generally. This article proposes further research framed by the need to better understand how different parts of the response impact on outcomes for children and families affected by abuse. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

We document the hidden costs of one of the most policy-relevant nudges, reminders. Sending reminders, while proven effective in facilitating behavior change, may come at a cost for both senders and receivers. Using a large scale field experiment with a charity, we find that reminders increase donations, but they also substantially increase unsubscriptions from the mailing list. To understand this novel finding, we develop a dynamic model of donation and unsubscription behavior with limited attention which is tested in reduced-form using a second field experiment. We also estimate our model structurally to perform a welfare analysis, showing that reminders are welfare diminishing for the potential donors as non-givers incur a welfare loss of $2.35 for every reminder. The net benefit of every reminder to the charity is $0.18. Our evaluation shows the need to evaluate nudges on their intended as well as unintended consequences.

Purpose There are few data available on the experience of minority surgeons in the field of oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to 1) explore factors that contribute to African Americans choosing OMS as a career, 2) examine satisfaction among minority oral and maxillofacial surgeons with the residency application and training process, 3) report on practice patterns among minority oral and maxillofacial surgeons, and 4) identify perceived bias for or against minority oral and maxillofacial surgeons in an attempt to aid the efforts of OMS residency organizations to foster diversity. Materials and Methods A 19-item survey was sent to 80 OMS practitioners by use of information from the mailing list of the National Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, an American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons–affiliated organization. All surveys were sent by mail and were followed by a reminder mailing after 8 weeks. Responses returned within 16 weeks were accepted for analysis. Results Of the 80 mailed surveys, 41 were returned within the 16-week parameter, representing a return rate of 51%. Most of the minority surgeon respondents were married men with a mean age of 60 years who worked as private practitioners. Most respondents practiced on the eastern and western coasts of the United States. Exposure in dental school was the most important factor in selecting OMS as a specialty. Location and prestige were the most important factors in selecting a residency program. Most respondents reported that race did not affect the success of their application to a residency program and did not currently affect the success of their practice. However, 25 to 46% of participants experienced race-related harassment, and 48 to 55% of participants believed there was a bias against African Americans in OMS. Conclusions Our data suggest that a substantial number of minority oral and maxillofacial surgeons subjectively perceive race-based bias in their career, although it does not appear to affect professional success.

Background In recent years, the problem of infectious diseases has become global. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the competencies among four career stages which were novice, competent, proficient, and expert between the United States (US) and Japan for the future international collaborations and improvement of quality of the Japanese infection preventionists (IPs). Methods We developed a self-administrated questionnaire of IP competencies comprised six competency areas and 138 behavioral characteristics. A Web survey was conducted on the Japanese IPs listed from the Japanese Nurses Association's website and the US IPs through the mailing list of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. The survey was conducted with an approval from the Research Ethics Committee to which the researcher belongs. Results The data of 587 Japanese IPs and 157 US IPs were analyzed. The medians (IQR) of percentage of overall competency scores were 71.2 (15.8) % for the Japanese, 71.2 (22.1) % for the US IPs (p =.414). The mean scores of each competency area increased statistically significantly as the career stage increased (US p Conclusions In our knowledge, this was the first study to compare the IPs competency between the US and Japan. There were no differences in overall competencies between the US and Japan, but differences were identified at each career stage. Especially, in Education and Research area, it is necessary to develop educational programs for competencies of the Japanese IPs in the future.

Objectives To understand the current attitudes and practice patterns of prenatal and intrapartum care providers regarding Trial of Labour After Cesarean Section (TOLAC) and to assess misconceptions regarding eligibility and risks of TOLAC. Methods A survey was developed based on published TOLAC literature, validated by a statistician, and piloted amongst university-affiliated faculty. French and English versions were distributed via the SOGC mailing list. Practicing obstetrical care providers with an office antenatal practice were eligible to participate. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlational and multiple regression analysis. Results The response rate was 33.7% (381/1130 eligible participants) with representation from every Canadian province and territory. Obstetricians/Gynecologists (239, 63%), Family Physicians (100, 26%) and Midwives (42, 11%) responded. Most participants (277, 78%) thought that TOLAC should be actively encouraged. Only 141 (40%) used a decision aid when counselling patients, although the majority of respondents (250, 71%) thought it would be useful. Providers were less comfortable offering oxytocin compared with cervical foley or amniotomy for induction and offering TOLAC to patients with an unknown uterine scar. Providers in Alberta and Saskatchewan reported more comfort offering TOLAC to patients with more than one previous cesarean section compared to other provinces. Two hundred and nine participants (62%) reported that they had at least one patient with a uterine rupture, with the minority (13, 6%) resulting in litigation. Conclusions This study offers new information on current national practice patterns and provider attitudes regarding TOLAC. These results can be used to guide future educational initiatives to increase TOLAC rates.

The structure of the website of the Technical Committee 9.4 on Control Education of IFAC has been updated in last months in order to arrange its content and make it more functional. In addition to the basic sections presenting the scope of committee, its members, news, and the related activities, an electronic bulletin and a repository of bookmarks have also been included. The main purpose of this repository is to be a valuable service for sharing and finding resources for teaching Automatic Control and other related subjects. In addition, the repository is very easy to use and manage. Since the content management system used by the IFAC’s website does not directly support the two new characteristics, it has been necessary to resort to other applications in order to implement them. These applications are a free mailing list service, and an open source server for Social Bookmarking. The content of these applications has been integrated in the main website by using not only simple links, but also RSS.

Objectives Despite the recent rising costs of once affordable dermatologic prescription medications, a survey measuring dermatologists’ attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge of the cost of drugs they commonly prescribe has not been conducted. Awareness of drug costs is hindered by a lack of access to data about the prices of medicines. No surveys of physicians have addressed this issue by proposing new information system technologies that augment prescription medication price transparency and measuring how receptive physicians are to using these novel solutions in their daily clinical practice. Our research aims to investigate these topics with a survey of physicians in dermatology. Methods Members of the North Carolina Dermatology Association were contacted through their electronic mailing list and asked to take an online survey. The survey asked several questions about dermatologists’ attitudes and beliefs about drug costs. To measure their knowledge of prescription medications, the National Average Drug Acquisition Cost was used as an authoritative price that was compared to the survey takers’ price estimates of drugs commonly used in dermatology. Physicians’ willingness to use four distinct information system technologies that increase drug price transparency was also assessed. Results Dermatologists believe drug costs are an important factor in patient care and believe access to price information would allow them to provide a higher quality of care. Dermatologists’ knowledge of the costs of medicines they commonly prescribe is poor, but they want to utilize information system technologies that increase access to drug pricing information. Conclusions There is an unmet demand for information system technologies which increase price transparency of medications in dermatology. Physicians and IT professionals have the opportunity to create novel information systems that can be utilized to help guide cost conscious clinical decision making.

Background Recently, we performed a survey study of 599 prior participants of an operating room management analytics course. Creation of the mailing list for the survey revealed that many of the non-physician prior participants were no longer working in jobs related to the course content. In the current study, we searched public LinkedIn profiles to estimate the relative risk for physicians versus non-physicians to potentially be using the course content in current jobs. Methods Course registrations were used to search for LinkedIn profiles. Searches were performed by two authors and repeated on a single date to achieve a cross-sectional analysis. A dictionary of any word or part of a word related to surgical services was created inductively from the text of the course participants’ LinkedIn “experiences.” Results Physicians who completed the course in operating room analytics had substantially more LinkedIn present experience(s) that overlapped with the course material than did other participants (P Conclusions After taking a course in operating room analytics, proportionately more non-physicians change jobs to positions that have no overlap with material related to surgical services. These results indicate importance of physicians learning and applying operating room management science for sustained use of the material in their hospitals.

Objective Assess demographic differences for a food website between online newsletter subscribers and general organic website visitors. “Organic” traffic arrives at a website through search engines vs. referring channels. Use of Theory or Research In-person programing is limited and the Internet has become a significant source for disseminating information, making it important to evaluate potential differences in users. Ninety-eight percent of ages 18-65+ use the Internet (Pew Research Center, 2018). Target Audience Adult food newsletter subscribers and organic website visitors interested in consumer food-related issues. Program Description The University's food website connects all Extension food-related areas on one “umbrella” website. Email newsletters are one part of the website. Evaluation Methods To assess online newsletter subscribers, a survey was distributed during 2018. Survey completion incentive was entry into a random gift card drawing. Google Analytics was used to assess 2018 organic website traffic. Results The website had more than 1.6 million users. Google Analytics showed over 80% of visitors found the website through an organic search. The newsletter subscribers survey (21% return rate; n = 992) indicated only 20% of respondents found the website through an organic search; other methods included electronic mailing list announcement (14%), professional conferences (13%), forward from email (13%), other (13%), and co-worker (11%). Though both data sets showed a website visitor age span of 18-65+ years, the highest percent of organic visitors was 25-34-years-old (30%) while 70% of newsletter subscribers fell into the 40-69-year-old range. Most subscribers (94%) were female compared to 65% of general visitors. Similar topics of interest for both groups were: food safety, storage, and cooking. Conclusions Data highlighted how using additional venues to promote website materials, such as newsletters, should be used beyond only placing content online. Newsletters may appeal to a more specific age and gender than organic search traffic. Though general topic interest may be similar, newsletter surveys helped tease out more specific interests. Funding None.

Context Several authors have proposed information seeking as an appropriate perspective for studying software evolution. Empirical evidence in this area suggests that substantial time delays can accrue, due to the unavailability of required information, particularly when this information must travel across geographically distributed sites. Objective As a first step in addressing the time delays that can occur in information seeking for distributed Open Source (OS) programmers during software evolution, this research characterizes the information seeking of OS developers through their mailing lists. Method A longitudinal study that analyses 17 years of developer mailing list activity in total, over 6 different OS projects is performed, identifying the prevalent information types sought by developers, from a qualitative, grounded analysis of this data. Quantitative analysis of the number-of-responses and response time-lag is also performed. Results The analysis shows that Open Source developers are particularly implementation centric and team focused in their use of mailing lists, mirroring similar findings that have been reported in the literature. However novel findings include the suggestion that OS developers often require support regarding the technology they use during development, that they refer to documentation fairly frequently and that they seek implementation-oriented specifics based on system design principles that they anticipate in advance. In addition, response analysis suggests a large variability in the response rates for different types of questions, and particularly that participants have difficulty ascertaining information on other developer’s activities. Conclusion The findings provide insights for those interested in supporting the information needs of OS developer communities: They suggest that the tools and techniques developed in support of co-located developers should be largely mirrored for these communities: that they should be implementation centric, and directed at illustrating “how” the system achieves its functional goals and states. Likewise they should be directed at determining the reason for system bugs: a type of question frequently posed by OS developers but less frequently responded to.

The authors, as members of IT for Change, an NGO working in the area of digital technologies and social change, participated in the ‘Subject Teacher Forum program (STF), an in-service Teacher Professional Development (TPD) program for government high school teachers across Karnataka, between 2011 and 2016. The primary purpose of the Subject Teacher Forum was to demonstrate a technology mediated model of continuing teacher professional development, introducing teachers to different digital tools for creating resources and and for connecting with one another through a state-wide mailing list based Professional Learning Community (PLC). As a part of the Subject Teacher Forum program, the DSERT began a related initiative called the ‘Karnataka Open Educational Resources’ (KOER) to publish the resources shared in the state-wide mailing lists. A core group of mathematics, science and social science teachers, members of the state-wide PLC, were selected to lead this development of Open Educational Resources (OER). This core group learnt to access, create, revise, remix and publish OER on the KOER repository. The aim of the paper is to understand how an OER creation process embedded within a PLC can support the adoption of OER in a government school system as well as provide a method of TPD.

The majority of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) developers are mobile and often use different identities in the projects or communities they participate in. These characteristics pose challenges for researchers studying the presence and contributions of developers across multiple repositories. In this paper, we present a methodology, employ various statistical measures, and leverage Bayesian networks to study the patterns of contribution of 502 developers in both Version Control System (VCS) and mailing list repositories in 20 GNOME projects. Our findings shows that only a small percentage of developers are contributing to both repositories and this cohort is making more commits than they are posting messages to mailing lists. The implications of these findings for understanding the patterns of contribution in FOSS projects and on the quality of the final product are discussed.

Damage assessment (DA) is an important part of the disaster recovery process, as it helps organizations like the American Red Cross provide assistance and relief to those most affected. Through it, homes are characterized by the damage they have received using five classes ranging from “Unaffected” to “Destroyed”. Rapid acquisition of damage assessment data may be achieved through crowdsourcing platforms where volunteers review images of affected structures. Further, these images can be geographically enriched through Spatial Video technology, whereby a car with a GPS-enabled camera captures a video recording of homes as workers on the ground drive through neighborhoods affected by the disaster. This technology has several key benefits over field surveys, including reduced cost, the creation of a digital record, and the ability to process the images quickly through crowdsourcing. However, the quality of such user-generated content must be examined to determine its usefulness. An online survey was conducted using imagery from a Spatial Video data collection to determine the potential of using these technologies as a crowdsourcing platform. The survey was distributed to DA experts at the American Red Cross spread across the U.S. as well as individuals connected with CrisisMappers, a mailing list for people interested in the intersection between crises and geospatial technology. Groups of inexperienced and experienced users produced statistically similar results, demonstrating that such content can be trusted and useful for damage assessment. Recommendations are made for the implementation of future systems, the adoption of related methodologies, and considerations for using the resulting data.

The objective of this study was to analyse the mailing list RADIOLOGIA during its first 5 years of operation (from 1998 to 2003). A survey questionnaire was sent to evaluate the characteristics of subscribers and to score (from 0 to 9) the functionality, usefulness and quality of the mailing list. All messages sent to the list during the evaluated period were classified and quantified. A social network analysis was performed from all messages replied to during 2001 and 2002 with the option “reply to” included in the subject. One hundred and forty (36.8%) responses were collected from 380 subscribers, mainly radiologists (90.0%). 80% of responders were located in Spain, 16% in Latin America, and 4% in other places. The obtained scores (mean ± standard deviation) were: functionality 7.4 ± 1.3; usefulness 7.0 ± 1.4; and quality of e-mail contents 6.0 ± 1.4. During the evaluated period 2700 e-mail messages were sent to the list, with a monthly distribution of 44.3 ± 26.0. The list functioning has been based on an active minority of subscribers that provided information and responses to the rest of the subscribers, a ring of active members that participated in discussions, and about 50% of passive members.

Open data advocates and initiatives often focus on the “release”, “publication”, “disclosure” and “opening up” of pre-existing public sector datasets, and the character of this release – for example, through the use of open data licenses or legal waivers, and publication in machine readable formats.In this paper we seek to highlight and explore other forms of intervention into the information infrastructures that underpin the production of public information, beyond the disclosure of datasets. We explore these issues with reference to a case study on recent advocacy around information about the ownership of companies in the UK, drawing on a mixture of primary data from interviews with practitioners, and secondary data from the literature, mailing list archives, policy and advocacy briefings, consultation responses, press releases, media articles, video recordings, parliamentary transcripts and official announcements.We will conclude with a discussion of how open data advocates and initiatives might learn from this example, including thoughts on broadening the politics of public information from a focus on the disclosure of datasets to democratic interventions to reshape information infrastructures as socio-technical systems.

Joking seems to be an inescapable part of the culture of email and mailing lists, and yet few have described the rhetorical functions of humor in these text-based forms of computer-mediated communication (CMC). In this article, we argue that humor serves a critical ethos function in online communities created by mailing lists. By connecting what humor theorists already recognize as a social dimension in joking to the contemporary interpretation of ethos as a constitutive force, we find that humor constitutes a virtual group ethos. Our model of ethos-building humor emphasizes its computer mediation, drawing close attention to what we identify as threads of constitutive laughter that form in mailing list discourse. We apply the model to the rhetoric of a university writing center mailing list.

The recent diffusion of web technologies in medical environments is deeply changing the work of radiologists and surgeons, allowing them to store and retrieve patient information, images but also reports and elaborated data. Among elaborated data, 3D reconstructions are becoming more popular because they allow, for example, a precise evaluation of the geometry of organs thus making the measurements necessary for surgical planning easier and more accurate. In this paper, we describe the architecture of a service for 3D model quantitative evaluation, specialized to the analysis of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms. It is based on a centralized server that stores model images and measurement information and exchanges data with clients using web standards like XML, DICOM3 and VRML97. This allows the secure exchange of heterogeneous data (images, 3D models and reports) that is necessary for complex applications. Furthermore, this arrangement ensures that each step of the complex medical and IT-related procedure is performed by the most trained and expert personnel available, even if he/she is not at the end user location. Easy 3D model measurement and analysis is ensured by using VRML97 and External Authoring Interface [EAI Working Group, “Web site and mailing list” http://www.vrml.org/WorkingGroups/vrml-eai ]; standardization in patient data and report management is ensured using DICOM3 and XML.

Objective To assess the perceived effectiveness of child and adolescent psychiatry residency training in preparing recent graduates for practice in diverse work settings. Method Analysis of survey data of 392/797 (49.2%) of all U.S. child and adolescent psychiatrists graduating from training in 1996–1998 and on the mailing list of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Results Overall, respondents reported high-quality training. They felt least prepared by training for their present practice in the areas of administration and leadership skills, medical economics and business skills, complex psychopharmacology, treatment of children with complicated developmental disabilities, and cognitive-behavioral therapy. They felt overtrained in consultation-liaison to pediatrics and inpatient work. Clinical experiences, supervisors/mentors and a well-rounded program were cited as most crucial to training. Suggestions for improvement included more “real-world” administration and leadership exposure, enhanced supervision, and improved didactics. Most felt training prepared them for their specialty board examinations. Conclusions Recruitment and training of highly skilled child and adolescent psychiatrists is a national priority. The present database assessment of efficacy in preparing graduates for diverse career practices may inform training programs and policy. An enhanced training curriculum in leadership and administrative skills and medical economics is recommended.

Objective To assess the career paths and work perceptions of early-career child and adolescent psychiatrists in the United States. Method Analysis of survey data of 392/797 (49.2%) of all U.S. child and adolescent psychiatrists graduating from training in 1996–1998 and on the mailing list of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Results Slightly more than half of those surveyed were women, and most were in their late thirties, white, married, and living in the geographic area in which they trained, with a median income for full-time workers between $121,000 and $150,000. Those with educational debt owed an average of $69,741. The sample was generally very satisfied with their work. They identified clinical work, variety, autonomy, and making a difference as the best aspects, and managed care, paperwork, and overwork as the least desirable aspects. The bulk of hours worked were in solo private practice, public sector, and group practice, with children and adolescents making up 73% of patients treated. The most common treatment modality was medication management. Conclusions The present study uses a database approach to defining current practice and workforce issues among early-career child and adolescent psychiatrists. These data may facilitate objective discussion about public policies concerning workforce priorities, barriers, and facilitators to recruitment in this understaffed field.

The nonprofit international Mutant Mouse Behaviour network "MMB" was founded within the framework of the conference "Behavioural Phenotyping of Mouse Mutants", February 2000, held in Cologne, Germany. It intends to be a forum for presenting and discussing all topics dealing with the behavioural phenotyping of mice. The major aim of the MMB is to support the interdisciplinary finding of a consensus on the methods and techniques used for behavioural phenotyping of mouse mutants. That means that scientist involved in the development of mouse models have to consent to the fact that a consideration of all the parameters that might affect the behaviour is necessary. Finding and establishing a consensus is a fluent process based on a continuous exchange of information. The network will provide a standardised database that includes detailed descriptions of test methods and of the relevant background parameters that might influence the behaviour of mice. Information will range from detailed descriptions of test methods, specifications of the equipment used, housing conditions, and specifications of the animals used according to the international nomenclature. The detailed descriptions will help in making behavioural tests and their results comprehensible and reproducible. A mailing list has been established to provide a platform for the continuous exchange of information between the network members. It will be a forum for discussing all topics related to behavioural phenotyping (see above). Scientists from all research areas involved are free to provide detailed information about their experimental work, and will, in return, get a quick response to their questions. Furthermore, the mailing list will be a useful medium to determine which information should be incorporated.

Article-at-a-Glance Background Lay health care consumers’ emergence as active participants in online health care networks is a powerful new technological pattern that promises to take the American health care system through all stages of cultural adaptation—substitution, innovation, and transformation. Soon everyone will recognize the fundamental changes online health has produced in the way we think and act about health care. A new academic subspecialty A new subspecialty— consumer health informatics (CHI)—is covering two domains: (1) community CHI resources—the online networks, forums, databases, and World Wide Web sites that anyone with a home computer can access, and (2) clinical CHI resources—programs or systems developed by clinicians, system developers, or health maintenance organizations and provided to selected membership groups or patients. Exhibits Sample communications among online self-helpers within their chat groups, e-mail exchanges, bulletin boards, and USENET newsgroups for chosen health topics show what is on their mind, how they get information, how they use it, and how they correct it. Sometimes, clinicians have observed, lay care offers higher quality than professional care. Lay self-helpers, such as the originator of the Brain Tumor Mailing List, have observed several potential benefits in linking online self-helpers and providers and at a very modest cost. Future directions In a coming six-level system of information-age health care, patient-consumers may seek what they need in the following order: individual self-care, family and friends, informal self-help networks, the professional as coach, the professional as partner, and the professional as authority.

This article describes the laboratory information management system (LIMS) Mailing List, the topics which are acceptable for discussion on the list, how users can subscribe to the list and interact with the software that manages list traffic.

The Computational Chemistry Electronic Mailing List is an electronic-mail-based discussion forum for issues related to computational chemistry and similar topics. The impact on the way its readers work in chemical research and teaching and how Internet is changing academic and professional practice is described.

An online discussion group, TA-TALK, supplements weekly staff meetings for 50 graduate students who teach introductory composition and literature classes at the University of California at Irvine. Various dynamics of this electronic exchange are analyzed: The advantages of a listserv over a distributed mailing list or bulletin board system (BBS); benefits of a local listserv over a national listserv in terms of community building, learning sites, and town meetings; the political stance of a list owner; resistance to a listserv; and various nuts and bolts of setting up a listserv.

List segmentation refers to the set of techniques employed by direct mail marketers to attempt to predict those specific individuals who are more likely than others on a list to respond to a specific direct mail solicitation. Regression analysis is a commonly used list segmentation technique which yields managerially useful results. However, the commonly accepted criteria for evaluating the “goodness” of regression equations (such as adjusted or unadjusted R2) are inappropriate in the list segmentation context. The authors describe a superior evaluation criterion—the Pareto Prediction Criterion—and report on a study in which full forced entry regression is compared to stepwise techniques with varying criteria for entry and removal of a variable. It is shown that the stepwise technique with a very strict criterion for entry of a variable far outperforms the full forced entry technique.

An important aspect of consumer behaviour in today’s electronic environments is the search habits consumers adopt when gathering information before making a purchase decision. The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of how consumers search for product information online. More specifically, this study further tries to explore the factors that influence consumers in their product search activities online, as well as the preferred search tools and search habits utilized. In addition, the problems associated with product information search online, and the potential shortcuts employed by most customers, were points of focus. The empirical data was gathered through a group of consumers on the mailing list of the researcher, having being on the Internet for sometime as an online marketer, the researcher has currently got his own websites (www.geemarketing.com) selling various items online. The list therefore included his exiting customers, potential customers and other online marketers. These mailing lists are people from different parts of the world, however, majority of the respondents were from Europe and United States of America. The findings and conclusions of this study indicated that there are several factors that influence consumers search activities online. In addition, a few different search tools used for product information search online were detected, as well as, a few different problems associated with searching on the Internet. Finally, it was found that information seekers utilize mental shortcuts in order to reduce the amount of information searched online.

The European Molecular Biology network (EMBnet) seeks to provide a communicationsinfrastructure, access to research data and support for biocomputing research. Furthermore, new topics in this area are to be stimulated by providing a communication and education forum. The network currently consists of 17 nodes. The implementation uses mainly protocols of the IP family. International services consists of a daily database update and a mailing list which has been operated for several years to synchronize the organization. Services covering both national and international needs are the operation of ARCHIE, WAIS, FTP and GOPHER WWW servers. National services typically include access to major sequence databases and analysis software on the national networks (TCP/IP, DECNet, X.25 or direct dial). Current EMBnet projects cover the improvement of data exchange and services.

Federal non-depository publications disseminated by the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) increased slightly in number in 1992 as compared to 1991. This continues the trend for slight increases each year rather than the decreases of the years previous to 1991. NTIS continues to receive and disseminate federally funded research and development reports, which are abstracted in Government Reports Announcements and Index and related abstract journals. Many of the publications described in this column came directly from the authoring agency, however. These were sent either via an agency mailing list or through library solicitation. Last year, government information specialists believed the GPO Wide Information Network Data Online Act of 1991 (WINDO) would be a positive move toward establishing a single point of public access to federal electronic databases. This bill died in committee with the close of the 102nd Congress. A more limited bill was introduced in the 103rd Congress and passed as the Government Printing Office Electronic Information Access Enhancement Act of 1992 (Public Law 103–140, 107 Stat. 112). This law establishes GPO as a gateway and provider of electronic information, but limits its authority to acquire and disseminate that information as compared to the WINDO bill. The law requires GPO to create and maintain a directory of federal publications in electronic format and to provide online computer access to this directory and to other documents, for which GPO can charge reasonable fees. The law permits GPO to provide access to this online system to depository libraries without charge. However, no additional appropriations were authorized for GPO to implement the provisions of the Act. Meanwhile, federal agencies continue to utilize electronic formats to disseminate information at an increasing rate. A number of non-depository CD-ROM databases are included in this review. In many cases, the data on these CD-ROMs have not been previously available. All except one of the publications reviewed below were published in 1992. Short quotations, which are not referenced in the reviews, were taken from the preface or introduction of the document. I wish to express my appreciation to Fred C. Schmidt (FCS), Head, Documents Department, Colorado State University Libraries, for the reviews he contributed and for his help and support in the production of this column.

The AIS/ISWorld Mailing List is the premier global communication tool for academics in the information systems area. This paper employs content analysis of archival data to report on an exploratory study of the usage of ISWorld over a four-year period between 2002 and 2006. We develop a coding scheme based on two theoretically distinct levels of communication and examine how ISWorld community members use the mailing list for the purposes of information dissemination, knowledge exchange, and knowledge creation. Our analysis yields important insights regarding the evolution of the ISWorld Mailing List, user characteristics and communication patterns, as well as the alignment between the community’s stated organizational goals and the design of the communication tool. Our findings show that the ISWorld Mailing List offers a highly efficient communication tool for knowledge dissemination to the IS community but also that its usage has been shifting more strongly towards information broadcasting and away from interactive knowledge exchange and creation. The paper concludes with some design and governance related recommendations for making ISWorld a more effective communication tool for the IS community.

In this paper we analyzed an online community based on a mailing list that was created as an internal marketing tool for launching a new network service. We focused on the change in communication over time among dispersed Sales representatives and the employees in a centralized Service Department. We conducted a genre analysis based on content (what), purpose (why), timing (when), form (how) and participants (who communicates to whom) (Yates and Orlikowski, 2002). Analyzing the participants in a genre and how those participants changed over time highlighted a shift from centralized to dispersed, peer-to-peer communication in this community. We highlight implications both for genre analysis and for organizational practice.

All you need to explore cyberspace is a computer, a modem, a phone line, and a local "on-ramp" to the infohighway. A litserv is an interactive mailing list that distributes information to a large number of people at the same time. Once you subscribe, you receive copies of all messages sent into listserv and have the opportunity to post questions and comments for other subscribers. Dietetics Online: A Network of Dietetic/Nutrition Professionals offers a range of cutting-edge services. Online marketing can reach a potentially larger audience for a fraction of the cost of traditional means and expand your business geographically. J Am Diet Assoc. 1997;97(suppl 2):S142–S144.

There may be help at hand for those of us living in the far North who are exposed to poor light conditions for much of the winter. In a pilot scheme, the Met Office are to e-mail or text patients suffering from seasonal affective disorder (SAD) when prolonged gloomy conditions are forecast. They will be prompted to use bright light therapy (BLT) to counteract the effects and boost mood and confidence. Given the current gloomy conditions in the financial markets perhaps a certain Mr G Brown and Mr B Obama should be added to the mailing list. The Times Online, January 27, 2009

Objective To determine if the opinion of obstetrics and gynaecology postgraduate trainees differs from practising gynaecologists with respect to the expected endoscopic surgical skill set of a general gynaecologist upon graduation from residency Methods An electronic survey was designed, validated, and pretested. It was sent to 775 Canadian obstetrics and gynaecology residents, fellows, and practising physicians through the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada's electronic mailing list. Survey respondents were asked their opinion on the level of training (no extra post-residency training vs. fellowship) required to perform various endoscopic procedures. Results We received 301 responses (39% response rate). Obstetrics and gynaecology trainees and practising physicians agreed on the training and skill level necessary to perform many endoscopic procedures. However, there were significant differences of opinion among trainees and practising physicians regarding advanced endoscopic procedures such as laparoscopic hysterectomy, cystotomy and enterotomy repair, and appendectomy. More trainees felt that a general gynaecologist without additional post-residency surgical training should be competent to perform such procedures, while practising physicians felt fellowship training was necessary Conclusion Our survey highlights the different expectations of learners versus those in practice with regard to skills required to perform certain endoscopic procedures, particularly laparoscopic hysterectomy Trainees who responded believed that after graduation from residency any obstetrician-gynaecologist should be able to perform more advanced endoscopic procedures, but practising physicians did not agree This discordance between learners and practising colleagues highlights an important educational challenge in obstetrics and gynaecology surgical training. Greater clarification of what is expected of our training programs would be beneficial for both residents and training programs

The creation of an official ESPEN journal was one of the functions which those who established the Society recognised as of prime importance from the beginning, and consequently this was written into the Constitution. Although clearly recognised as a vital means of communication between members, it would also support the other important functions of the Society, most particularly providing the forum for presenting scientific work of high standard related to the developing investigative field of the metabolic consequence of acute trauma and disease and its management. It could also be foreseen as having a significant role in developing the future educational role which ESPEN would acquire with time. During the year 1980 a group [Ron Clark (Sheffield), Rob Wesdorp (Maastricht) and Ad Grunert (Ulm)], was asked to look at the feasibility of publishing a journal on behalf of the Society. Although most countries in Europe had one or more major journals devoted to nutrition, none covered the subjects on which ESPEN was based, so that a good case could be made for another journal, on this occasion with a European base. The decision was quickly reached that the Society’s journal should be published in English, the official language of the Society, that in the early stages the Editor should be based in the UK, and that the publisher need not necessarily be from the UK, but of course it would make for easy communication if both the Editor’s and publishers’ offices were based in the UK. Discussions with publishers were hampered by the fact that ESPEN had only just been established and was therefore relatively unknown, had a small membership list and was devoted to a subject which had yet to achieve full recognition as being worthy of study in its own right. We had plenty of enthusiasm but were light on things such as a substantial mailing list backed by solid subscriptions on which to formulate plans of a commercial nature with publishers who had experienced this type of behaviour from others in the past. In fact, we eventually had to admit that we were trying to learn to walk and to run at the same time. A number of publishers were approached in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, a process which took some time, so other different options had to be considered, amongst which was the possibility of publishing jointly with a kindred Society who already had an established publication. The logistic advantages to ESPEN were obvious but there were equally obvious legal and financial hazards. Informal approaches were made to the secretariat of the American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, but ASPEN had recently gone through a substantial restructuring and had also just changed the editor of their journal, JPEN, consequently any other major change was unlikely. The independent European option, therefore, seemed the most feasible and a number of publishing houses were approached. Eventually, Churchill Livingstone was chosen as publisher and Clinical Nutrition selected as the title for the journal. Selecting an Editor presented much the same degree of difficulty as choosing a publisher, and eventually Ron Clark agreed to take on the role of editor for 1 year in the first instance, in an effort to get the project off the ground. Financial security remained the principal concern for both ESPEN and the publisher during the initial stages. To keep costs to a minimum, it was agreed to produce the journal using a camera-ready printing technique which meant that every page incorporating text and illustration had to be complete before leaving the editor’s office. Four issues were produced in the first year and continuity of publication assured. The editorship changed hands at the end of the first year when additional commitments elsewhere compelled Ron Clark to relinquish the post and Frank Woods became his successor. The fact that sufficient work was being submitted for publication to ensure continued publication induced Churchill Livingstone to agree the adoption of conventional printing methods for all future issues of Clinical Nutrition. In 1988 Simon Allison was appointed editor-in-chief, a task which he continued for 6 years. During his editorship the circulation grew gradually, as did the number of papers submitted, although frustratingly he was not successful in getting the journal into Index Medicus. This handicapped the journal in terms of its circulation and the number and quality of the papers submitted. Dr Marinos Elia took over as editor in 1994, and his distinction in the field contributed to a growing quality in the journal. ARTICLE IN PRESS

Sexual health counselling is one of the themes of the action plan for the promotion of sexual and reproductive health 2007-2011 in Finland. The action plan, published by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, states that sexual health counselling should be integrated into basic services, preventive work and medical treatment. Counselling services should take into account equality between women and men as well as the specific needs of minorities and special groups. Each health centre should have an employee that has completed training in sexual counselling. The hospital districts should have employees who have completed special training. The public health care should take advantage of available private services and third sector services. Sexual counsellors are often the only sexual health professionals in their work places. The need for information, support and supervision is obvious. New technologies provide instruments for networks and support. In a meeting of sexual health counsellors in hospitals a new network was begun. The first step was an electronic mailing list. There are plans to write a job description as well as planning for further training. The National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES), is a neutral organiser supporting the network.

It is difficult to believe that 2 years have gone by, and we are in the process once again of revising the accreditation standards. The Commission on Accreditation for Medical Transport Systems’ (CAMTS) Standards Committee had a very wellattended meeting during the October 2005 AMTC. The comments and suggestions to the Standards Committee have been incorporated into the first draft of revisions. This draft was posted on the CAMTS website (with a process to comment) and sent to board members, who distributed it to their representative member organizations. We also distributed a newsletter to more than 500 professionals on our mailing list with an article about the proposed revisions. The process to revise and publish new standards is as follows: Comments from the medical transport community regarding the first draft of revisions will be discussed at the April 1, 2006 board of directors meeting in Las Vegas. From that discussion, a second draft will be posted and additional comments will be accepted until we send final suggestions to the Standards Committee in June. The committee will forward a final draft to the board of directors for approval in July 2006. The 7th edition Accreditation Standards will be published by September 2006. The practice of revising standards every 2 years is almost not quick enough to stay current with the evolving practice of medical transport, especially air medical transport. The board has recognized that our accreditation process may require a site visit every 3 years, but expectations that accredited services are responsible for meeting new standards is a challenge for CAMTS and the accredited services. In the past, we have allowed services to submit a program information form (PIF) addressing the previous edition of standards up to 6 months after new standards are published. Because of the extensive time commitment required to complete a PIF, the board will continue to allow this leeway for programs submitting a PIF between September 2006 and April 2007. However, the services planning to submit during that time frame will be provided with a supplement that will inquire about compliance with any new standards. It is not the board’s intention to judge compliance with new standards in a capricious manner, but rather to assist medical transport services in their plans to meet compliance with the new standards. The following general concepts are addressed in the first draft of revisions for the 2007 Accreditation Standards: 01.10.01 The Business Code of Ethics will be expanded to include acceptable practice with regard to brokering, subcontracting, outsourcing, and referring requests for transport. 01.14.00 A new section on compliance issues regarding how services deal with: 1. HIPAA 2. Federal Civil Statutes (False Claim Act) 3. Balanced Budget Act of 1997 4. OIG compliance program guidance 5. OIG annual work plans (hospital affiliated) 6. Anti-kickback and Stark Laws 7. EMTALA 07.01.08 More emphasis on utilization review, requiring tracking and trending and evidence of feedback to the requesting agents.

The web site, Professional Resources in Nutrition Sciences (PRINS), was developed in the fall of 1998 to provide access to Internet/World Wide Web resources useful to dietetic and nutrition professionals and students. PRINS is a professional rather than consumer-oriented resource, with nearly 2,000 links to information pertaining to the profession. The nutrition-related web sites include: national and state credentialing agencies; job web sites and search engines; mailing list and bulletin board services; nutrition-related organizations on a global scale; professional associations; and professional preparation programs. Other resources include online publications, instructional materials, and software. Key features of PRINS will be showcased, with instructions on how to use the web site effectively for research, networking, career development, and job searching. Also, instructions on how to use PRINS in professional preparation programs to introduce students to the nutrition profession and upon graduation find dietetic internships and jobs. (http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/hns/prins)

The Internet and World Wide Web have created enormous opportunities for nutrition professionals to develop resources useful to professionals and students. The Web Site Development Model (WSDM) was used to develop Professional Resources in Nutrition Sciences (PRINS), a web-based resource. PRINS provides online access to resources such as job web sites and search engines, nutrition related organizations; professional associations; professional preparation programs; mailing list and bulletin board services; credentialing agencies; and other resources such as online publications and the latest news of interest to nutrition professionals and students. PRINS is global in nature and not limited to USA resources. The WSDM, a process model characterizing how web sites are developed, was used to guide PRINS development stages of: Assessment, Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation. During the Assessment Stage a needs assessment was conducted to establish a need for the PRINS web site. The goals, objectives, and target populations were also defined. The Planning Stage involved extensive web searching for resources and web site structuring and design. Implementation and evaluation plans were also completed during this stage. During the Implementation Stage, PRINS was placed online, and a promotion plan was initiated. The Evaluation Stage is ongoing and is currently under review.

The microbial-genomes mailing list is a forum for the discussion of microbial genomes (bacterial, archaeal and small eukaryotic genomes), including announcements on the progress of genome sequencing projects and technical details of sequencing and sequence analysis. The list has recently moved home: message archives and details of how to subscribe can now be found on http://www.medmicro.mds.qmw.ac.uk/microbial-genomes/.

LEARNING OUTCOME: Describe the role of internet mailing lists in facilitating information exchange between health care professionals. Rapid changes in the health care environment dictate that the dietetic professional continue to strive to practice in the most cost beneficial and time-effective manner. Budgeting of financial resources and time require that dietitians utilize efficient techniques to seek information as well as network with other dietetic practitioners. Recent advances in electronic and computer technology have facilitated an expansion of the largest computer network known as the Internet. The Internet is an extensive network of computers providing various tools and resources to world wide users for information retrieval. These tools include the World Wide Web, bulletin board systems, news groups. File Transfer Protocol (FTP) sites, Gopher sites as well as electronic mail or E-mail. A mailing list, one of the oldest and most popular resources the Internet has to offer, is a means of distributing information via E-Mail. These lists allow a mechanism for groups of people with similar interests to establish and maintain contact, as well as share information. The Pedi-RD and NS-Net mailing lists were established with the objective to facilitate the dissemination of information and networking of dietitians and other health care professionals involved in adult and pediatric nutrition. Topics of discussion on the mailing lists include, but are not limited to 1) General concerns in pediatric and adult nutrition 2) Dilemmas in nutritional assessment, management, and ethics 3) Enteral and parenteral nutrition support 4) Discussion of current nutrition research/publications, and 5) Informal surveys of nutrition practice. The computer mailing list allows messages to be sent by E-Mail to all subscribers of the list. Members can then respond either personally to the author of the message or to the nutrition networks. Recently conducted surveys have identified participants from the continental United States as well as numerous international locations. Current membership continues to grow and includes dietitians, pharmacists, nurses and physicians.

LEARNING OUTCOME: To describe menu modifications and additional food assistance provided nationally to senior dining site participants. After pilot testing the instrument with a state group of Senior Nutrition Program Directors, a questionnaire was mailed, in December, 1995, to the 750 names on the mailing list for the National Association of Nutrition and Aging Services Programs (NANASP). One reminder notice was sent after the original mailing. Responses were received from 340 program directors. Data were summarized by frequency and percent. Almost 60% of the respondents served less than 1000 meals per day, but another 28% served 1001-2000 meals, and the reminder served more than 2000. Participants profiles varied from predominantly homebound (13.6% with more than 60% homebound) to very few homebound (16.9% with fewer than 30% homebound). Meals were served 5 days/week by 58% of respondents, but 36% served meals fewer than five days/week, including 11% who served meals only two days each week. Approximately 44% of directors reported average participant contributions to be less than $1.00. Another 37.7% reported average contributions of $1.01-$1.50. These contributions were far below the actual costs of the meals. The most common dietary modifications provided were salt/sodium restricted (25.2% of programs), no concentrated sweets (22.2%), and fat/cholesterol restricted (15.7%). Calorie restricted, pureed, renal, vegetarian and other modifications were also mentioned by several directors. However more than 75% of clients were reported by most respondents to eat regular (not modified) meals. In addition to regular noontime meals, emergency meals were provided by almost 37% of directors. Twenty to twenty five percent also provided takeout meals for week-ends and/or holidays. Often additional food assistance (such as commodity food distribution) was provided through dining sites. Ninety five percent of respondents expressed a need for additional assistance beyond noon meals for their clients. Many directors were obviously already working in innovative ways to meet these needs, but it is evident that more remains to be done in expanding services to meet the needs of elderly meal participants.

Applications of integrated database/spreadsheet systems in agricultural engineering research activities are discussed and presented. Applications include as examples: bibliography, laboratory data analysis, budget and mailing list databases integrated with a spreadsheet and a wordprocessor for analysis and output. The applications demonstrate the capability to reduce time, labor and data storage space, with the added flexibility to tailor the database system to different applications. Additional insight into the concept of an integrated database/spreadsheet system is presented.