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The article focuses on the role of librarians in United States as information professionals to ensure the understanding of the value of employing a fact-based criterion for evaluating resources. Topics include disregard for facts in news and by political leaders in the U.S. , the use of information literacy in providing us with diverse perspective to work within academic communities, and the combination of information literacy and archiving.

It has become common practice in many laboratories in Europe to introduce the criterion 'moribund' to reduce the suffering in fish acute lethality tests. Fish with severe sublethal symptoms might be declared moribund and are removed from the test as soon as this occurs (premature discontinuation of experiment). Moribund fish affect main study outcomes as the median lethal concentration (LC50) derived on fish declared as moribund may be lower than the conventional LC50. This was evaluated by a retrospective analysis of 328 fish acute toxicity tests of an industry laboratory based on five different definitions of moribund, and of 111 tests from 10 other laboratories from Europe and the United States. Using the criterion of moribund 10 to 23% of the fish were being declared as moribund in 49 to 79% of the studies. In 36 to 52% of the studies, the LC50moribund was lower than the conventional LC50 depending on the definitions of moribund. An inclusion of the moribund criterion in an updated Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development guideline for the acute fish toxicity test would reduce the period of suffering by up to 92 h, lowering the value of the main toxicity endpoint by a factor of approximately 2, and maximal by a factor of approximately 16. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 2012; 31: 1107-1112. © 2012 SETAC [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Akaka bill proposes to federally recognize a Hawaiian governing entity similar to those of federally recognized Indian tribes. As the Akaka bill will institutionalize a political difference between Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians, who is Hawaiian is a timely, and controversial, issue. Also controversial is whether Congress possesses the authority to federally recognize a Hawaiian governing entity. This article addresses three questions that probe the heart of the controversy surrounding the Akaka bill: who is Hawaiian, what begets federal recognition, and how much blood matters. After analyzing relevant Indian jurisprudence, this article demonstrates that political history, not indegeneity, begets federal recognition. As such, it is the political-historical, not racial, definition of Hawaiian that is legally significant to the Akaka bill. Since, however, the Akaka bill utilizes an ethnic Hawaiian blood eligibility criterion, another important question — and one Justice Breyer raised in Rice v. Cayetano — is how much blood is necessary to distinguish ideological self-identification from legitimate racial identity. To the extent racial preferences may coexist with the equal protection components of the Constitution, this article contends that a preponderance of preferred blood is the logical quantum, but a fifty percent requirement is the most practicable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study defines and compares three broad theories that seek to explain bureaucratic preferences. I first argue that each of these explanations is complex -- that no single measurable attribute encapsulates the entire theory. Second, I argue that these explanations are non-nested -- that al least one attribute representing a given theory cannot be expressed as resulting from attributes that representing one of the other theories. Based on the theory of comparisons of non-nested models, I assess these three competing explanations with the Likelihood Dominance Criterion, an approach for assessing the total explanatory power of a given theory relative to that offered by other theories. The comparisons take place in the context of the bureaucratic implementation of policies governing the remediation of hazardous waste at the state level in the United States. The comparisons show that bureaucratic preferences are best explained by the organizational capacity and constraints explanation rather than more proximate political and task environment theories. In total, the agency's rules, capacity, and characteristics form a better total explanation of the observed variance in bureaucratic preferences than either proximate state politics or the agency's task environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the publication criteria for promotion in graduate departments in the United States. Promotion in rank is important to all faculty. It carries many rewards, including symbolic rewards such as recognition, and other more tangible rewards such as salary increases, priorities for office space, and increased influence in the affairs of the department and university. Hence, the criteria used in promoting faculty are of specific interest to all sociologists, and of general interest to all academics. Of the 56 departments in the lowest productivity category, 16 reported specific quantitative criteria for one or both ranks. Perhaps they are more likely to have stated criteria because they are in the throes or developing their faculty, and therefore are more concerned about the need for them to be productive. Perhaps clearly recognizable quality is so rare that, for practical purposes, distinction must be drawn on a quantitative basis. Reported expectations often were ranges, but many comments were even less precise.

The article discusses the study which evaluates the mail-order ratings in relation of the combat performance of officers in West Point measures in Korea. The study used Officer Efficiency Report scores as the criterion to validate West Point measures' cadet performance against on-the-job success of the graduates of the U.S. Military Army. The study identified 347 West Point graduates of the 1944 through 1950 classes who have served in army units committed to combat. Results show that the criterion ratings were concerned with possible bias in the ratings and reliability of single ratings and rating scores.

The article offers information related to the normative data information exchange and validity information exchange in the U.S. The article explores several job descriptions of personnel in the information exchange including personnel specialist, medical laboratory specialist, and x-ray specialist. It discusses several analysis, computations of product-mean correlation coefficients, and criterion of the normative data information exchange and validity information exchange. The article also presents related terms on the subject including pattern analysis, automotive information, and radio information.

The article presents a study which examines the validity of rational ratings on employees' experience and training in the workplace in the U.S. The study involved 1329 Civil Service incumbents in 16 jobs and assessment of immediate supervisors to demonstrate the correlations between the criterion of job performance and experience ratings. Results show that rating system of employees has no significant relationship or association between job experiences and success in 13 trades of the federal service.

The article focuses on the criterion by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) on the required broader impacts of scientific researches and proposals to the society. NSF director Arden Bement in Arlington, Virginia says that the criterion was designed to make sure that the researches have connections with the society. However, the definition by the NSF of broader impacts is broad and vague in which the proposal guide includes appropriate involvement of students in the research, shared research infrastructure, and establishment of industrial and governmental collaborations. Meanwhile, the criterion makes scientists to think more on the connection of their work to the society. Moreover, the confusion of scientists on the criterion shows the issues on the relation of science and society.

The article presents a study which compares estimates on the validity of scores based on a forced-choice scoring methods. The study gathers data to 132 entering flight students designed to identify potential voluntary withdrawals from the U.S. Naval Air Training Program. Results show that all scores are found to be related from their operational dependence, and relation between flight failure-completion criterion and scores are uniformly low. The study adds that flight failure criterion was only included to provide effectively in two criterion groups.