,input,output,ground_truth,bilabel_output,bilabel_ground_truth,full_response,formatting
0,"Grant Abstract:
  
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project will investigate the feasibility of conducting ethnographic research on HIV risk among drug-using Black men who have sex with men and women but do not identify as gay or homosexual and do not disclose their same-sex activity to their female partners. Because these men do not identify as gay or homosexual, there is concern that they are not being reached by programs aimed at gay-identified communities. The specific aims are: 1) To locate and recruit for interviewing drug-using Black men who have sex with men and women (MSM/W) but do not disclose their same-sex activity to their female partners. 2) To gain a preliminary understanding of how Black MSM/W decide whether and what to disclose about their HIV risk behaviors including drug use and high risk sexual practices. Because male-to-male sexual contact is the most commonly reported HIV/AIDS transmission category among men, there is a growing body of research on MSM, including Black MSM/W. However, there appear to be no systematic investigations of patterns of drug use among Black MSM/W or on the issue of disclosing same-sex activity to female partners. There is speculation that Black MSM/W constitute a ""bridge"" population facilitating HIV infection among Black women but there is insufficient empirical evidence to substantiate the claim. The broad goal of this project is to foster further research on the relationship between drug use and HIV risk among Black adults, in order to develop a better understanding of the severe racial disparities in HIV/AIDS infection. Black men are six times more likely than White men to be infected, and Black women are 19 times as likely as White women to be infected. This project will employ two ethnographers to recruit men through four sources: 1) existing social networks established in our previous research in low-income, high-HIV neighborhoods; 2) known MSM venues such as clubs, bars, parks and street locations; 3) Internet sites and 4) groups and organizations serving drug users and ex-offenders. Five small focus groups at two points in the study will help to enhance our recruitment strategy and shape lines of inquiry regarding decisions to conceal or disclose behavior. Ethnographers will also cultivate relationships with and conduct individual interviews with 30 men to obtain preliminary insights into drug use and MSM activity, knowledge and management of HIV risk and factors influencing disclosure decisions. If the proposed feasibility study yields a successful strategy for recruiting and interviewing Black MSM/W, it can be incorporated into a subsequent larger effort (an R01) designed to collect more extensive data that can inform appropriate risk-reduction interventions. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This feasibility study is designed to improve research on HIV risk and protective factors among drug-involved men who have sex with men and women. The study is focused on Black men who do not identify as gay or homosexual and do not disclose their same-sex activity to their female partners. Because these men do not identify as gay or homosexual, they may not be reached by prevention programs aimed at gay-identified communities. This study will identify successful strategies for recruiting and interviewing these men, with the longer-term goals of generating knowledge that can contribute to more effective interventions that may ultimately reduce racial disparities in HIV/AIDS.  
    



Qualitative Keywords:
focus groups; ethnographic",MIXED,QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,"MIXED 

This grant will use",RESOLVABLE
1,"Grant Abstract:
Because chemistry explores phenomena that can be observed with the senses, but are explained based on the molecular-level behavior of invisible molecules, atoms, and ions, effective use of visual representations of molecular-level phenomena is essential for communicating about chemistry. Research also shows that there is a positive relationship between the ability to see chemical concepts among different representations and successful chemistry problem solving. Chemistry instructors may sometimes assume that, as their instruction addresses conceptual understanding, students' visualization skills will naturally develop. Consequently, instructors may not explicitly teach visualization skills and processes in their courses. This Improving Undergraduate STEM Education project will develop and test a set of ten modules to explicitly teach visualization skills and the use of visual representations to students in college chemistry courses. The modules will support students in understanding progressively more complex content and visual representations across the chemistry curriculum.

Each of the ten modules will be developed, pilot tested, revised, and ultimately implemented in an upper-division chemistry course. In developing the modules, three main mechanisms will be employed to support students development of visualization skills: drawing attention to prominent features and patterns to reduce attention to extraneous information and cognitive load, decomposing a complex problem into more manageable parts, and problematizing to encourage students to make their ideas and thinking processes explicit. During the pilot-testing phase, the main data sources will include the copies of students' work on the activities and recorded sessions from focus groups. Analyses of these data will employ a drawing to learn framework to assess visualization objectives and an argumentation framework to assess problematization. In addition, the selection of representations included in the module activities will be evaluated for areas of visual attention using eye-tracking methodologies in conjunction with a retrospective think-aloud method. Once the modules have been pilot tested and revised, they will be implemented as a set during a one-semester intervention, scaffolding both chemistry content and visual complexity in representations. A rubric will be developed to track students' progress in the use of deconstruction as a problem solving strategy and sophistication in verbalization of visual mental constructs. Quantitative data from pre- and post-test scores on two standardized visualization tools will complement documentation of visualization gains, and the impact of the intervention on student achievement will be determined. Ultimately, the project will provide faculty with robust instructional materials that they can use in their classrooms to promote visualization and effective problem solving in chemistry.

Qualitative Keywords:
focus groups",QUANTITATIVE,MIXED,NON_QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,"QUANTITATIVE 

This",RESOLVABLE
2,"Grant Abstract:
Computer Science (31) 

This collaborative project from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Southern Polytechnic State University, and Tuskegee University develops a sequence of two cryptography courses. The first course adopts intensive labs and focuses on understanding the properties and vulnerabilities of various cryptography techniques. The second course challenges students with real-world cases in emerging areas in a collaborative environment. The project develops five teaching modules based on labs and case studies and conducts a detailed assessment of the proposed hands-on learning materials, case studies, and modules. The PIs organize three summer mini-workshops to train faculty members from the three campuses and other universities nationwide on how to use the new courses.

The project proposes novel pedagogies for undergraduate Cryptography and the hands-on exercises tied with cryptography topics teach students cryptographic algorithms and their vulnerabilities. The designed case studies bridge the gap between cryptographic theory and real-world cryptographic applications in emerging areas. The modules can be used in several courses such as network security or security management.

The project facilitates faculty collaboration and development at three institutions in three states Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. It broadens participations of minority students in Information Assurance due to the leadership of Tuskegee University, an experienced institution in minority education. Dissemination of the generated teaching materials is supported by summer mini-workshops, a dedicated website developed and maintained by the PIs, conference presentations, and journal publications.

Qualitative Keywords:
case studies",QUANTITATIVE,QUANTITATIVE,NON_QUALITATIVE,NON_QUALITATIVE,"QUANTITATIVE 

This",RESOLVABLE
3,"Grant Abstract:
  


DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The prevalence of obesity, a major chronic health problem that is an independent risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD), continues to increase at an alarming rate. Although weight control research has significantly improved short-term treatment success, long-term weight loss maintenance has lagged behind. Research has demonstrated a consistent relationship between self-monitoring eating and physical activity habits and success in  


weight loss as well as in maintenance of weight loss. However, the methods primarily used for self-monitoring continue to be the paper diary (PD), which is time consuming and burdensome. Moreover, PDs do not permit immediate external feedback to support and motivate the individual. Emerging technologies could improve self monitoring and weight loss treatment. However, the use of these technological advances, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), has not been studied in weight loss treatment. The primary aim of this behavioral weight loss treatment study is to determine if self-monitoring of daily eating and physical activity habits using a PDA, with or without a tailored feedback intervention, is superior to using a PD in terms of promoting and maintaining short and long-term weight loss. Secondary aims include comparing the effect of treatment group assignment on adherence to self-monitoring and on risk factors for CHD (lipids, glucose, insulin, C-reactive protein). We propose  


to enroll 198 subjects and randomize them to one of three treatment groups that will use different methods to self monitor eating and physical activity habits: (1) use of the traditional PD with delayed written feedback, (2) use of a PDA with limited feedback on daily targets, or (3) use of a PDA with limited feedback on daily targets plus receive daily, subject-tailored feedback messages via the PDA. The proposed study includes prolonged (24 months) supervision of self-management with three important components: self-monitoring, feedback, and ongoing contact. Subjects will complete assessments at baseline, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months. This innovative study will provide information on the efficacy of combining technological advances with proven behavioral strategies.  


      







Qualitative Keywords:
diary",QUANTITATIVE,QUANTITATIVE,NON_QUALITATIVE,NON_QUALITATIVE,"QUANTITATIVE 

This",RESOLVABLE
4,"Grant Abstract:
  


DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): One of the projected health dividends of the Human Genome Project is the use of personalized multi-gene testing to identify individual susceptibilities, so that individuals can undertake preventive courses of action. Among other things, for this to be successful medical personnel must be able to convey this information without creating fatalism and in ways that are comprehensible and believable to lay people. To facilitate such health messages, this project will describe lay understandings of the interactions of genes with non- genetic factors (commonly referred to as ""environmental"" factors) in relationship to common complex diseases (adult onset diabetes, ""heart"" disease, depression, and lung cancer). It will compare these to the models employed in medical research and outreach, identifying areas of consonance and dissonance. It will then initiate studies to explore the effectiveness of use of particular models within health messages. Qualitative methods will be used to generate grounded, rich analyses of the models, and quantitative methods will be used to assess the frequency of distribution of various models. Medical research and clinical models will be assessed by examining published scientific journals and web-based clinical representations. Lay understandings will be assessed in a two stage process. In-depth, in-person interviews with lay people will be conducted. Then, these transcripts will be used to develop a closed question survey to be administered to a national random population sample to ascertain frequency and distributions of various models. After analysis of areas of commonalities in lay and expert models, preliminary ""best message strategies"" will be tested to assess 1) whether interactive models produce lower fatalism than non-interactive models, 2) whether use of consonant models increases belief, identity consonance, perceived efficacy, and intention to adhere to prescriptions and 3) whether some models are more effective than others at enhancing belief, identity consonance, perceived efficacy, and intention to adhere to prescriptions. This project will identify how lay people think about the role of genes in common diseases. It will develop ways of telling people the results of personalized genetic testing without increasing their fatalism. This will help recipients to adopt behaviors that will better stave off the risks identified by the tests.   


    







Qualitative Keywords:
qualitative methods",QUANTITATIVE,MIXED,NON_QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,"QUANTITATIVE 

This",RESOLVABLE
5,"Grant Abstract:
A research team consisting of Dr. Peter Cole, Dr. Gabriella Hermon, 
and Dr. Uri Tadmor, assisted by Ms. Yanti Jotika, a graduate student 
in linguistics, will conduct linguistic fieldwork on Traditional 
Jambi Malay, an endangered Malay variety spoken in Jambi Province in 
southeast Sumatra, Indonesia. Malay-Indonesian is a major world language, perhaps the fourth most widely spoken language in the world. Yet there are almost no thorough scientific descriptions of vernacular Malayic languages 
and Malay-Indonesian dialects. Grammars of Malay-Indonesian as well 
as most theoretical works on the language are almost entirely based 
on the quasi-artificial standard language. Most native speakers of Malay live in Sumatra, many more than in Malaysia, yet there is not even one thorough grammatical description of a Sumatran Malay dialect. Traditional Jambi Malay is an ideal choice because Jambi is widely considered to be original locus of Melayu (the Malay-Indonesian term for 'Malay'), and is thus the key to understanding the complex diasystem of hundreds of Malay dialects. The linguistic field work will be carried out in two villages, Mudung Laut and Tanjung Raden, where 
Traditional Jambi Malay still exhibits many features lost in the 
koineized urban variety spoken in Jambi City. The results of the project will include a general description of the language, documentation of the language in the form of a computerized database of texts linked to digital recordings in a variety of genres, and theoretically oriented studies based on the data. An automatically generated Jambi Malay-English-Indonesian glossary will also be produced, which will serve as the basis for a Jambi Malay dictionary in the second stage of the project. Finally, the investigators will prepare two locally published volumes, one of folk stories and the other autobiographical sketches.

Broader impacts of the project include first and foremost the 
documentation and description of an endangered language (an important 
priority for linguistics around the world), as well as the training 
of a speaker of that language as a field linguist. The project will 
also create cultural materials for use by the speakers of the 
language. The project involves cooperation between U.S. scientists 
and scientific institutions abroad: The director of the Jakarta 
Field Station of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary 
Anthropology is a co-PI on the project. The project also plays a 
role in the training of American graduate students with regard to the 
importance of work on endangered languages and contributing to the 
preservation of the linguistic and cultural heritage of a 
marginalized community. Equally important is the role of the project 
in training international graduate students.

Qualitative Keywords:
fieldwork",QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,"QUALITATIVE 

This",RESOLVABLE
6,"Grant Abstract:
Project Abstract
SES Proposal 0135333
""Dreamers with Shovels:"" Science and Technology in the New Deal Political Imagination Jessica Wang, University of California, Los Angeles


The project investigates, through a series of biographically-based historical case studies,
the role of science and technology in political thought and action during the New Deal period in
the United States. Within science and technology studies, many observers of technocratic
political thought have emphasized its hegemonic, instrumentalist, and undemocratic character.
In recent years, however, scholars have recognized that while this approach has contributed much
toward understanding the nature of technological society, it needs to be revised and augmented.
A study of the New Deal provides an important opportunity to reconsider prevailing assumptions
and scrutinize the complex nature of technocratic politics as a set of beliefs and practices.

The study centers on three main subjects -- planning, electrification, and state-building -- and
discusses how science and technology affected policymaking in each of these areas during the
New Deal years. The section on planning illuminates how Rexford Guy Tugwell, Frederic A.
Delano, Wesley C. Mitchell, and Charles E. Merriam sought to translate technocratic ideology
into action. With electrification, the study turns to technology itself and investigates the conflicts
within the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Rural Electrification Administration over the
proper relationship between technology and human values, and the appropriate political
structures for technological development. The discussion of state-building examines how Jerome
N. Frank and William M. Leiserson used ideas about science to legitimize the New Deal state
and justify its expansion of state power via the new administrative agencies of the 1930s. The
final part of the project probes the postwar experiences of Henry A. Wallace and David E.
Lilienthal, examines the transformation of technocratic politics wrought by the cold war, and
explores how cold war instrumentalism replaced the technocratic liberalism of the New Deal.

By examining how the New Dealers understood science and technology as a resource for
politics, the project contributes to a renewed debate within STS over the nature of technocratic
ideology and its political ramifications. The New Deal reveals the full complexity behind
technocratic politics. Some of the New Dealers adopted subjectivist beliefs about the nature of
knowledge, some brought a nostalgic, agrarian dimension to their version of technological
progress, and most took seriously the problematic relationship between experts and democratic
society and struggled over the question of whether technocratic politics could be made consistent
with democratic values. The diverse range of thought and experience among the New Dealers
suggests that an image of technocratic politics as naively positivist, dedicated to an unwavering
faith in technological progress, and overly willing to subordinate democratic values to a cult of
expertise requires refinement and reevaluation. The project will reinforce STS's current efforts
to readdress the relationship between expertise and democracy and explore the full meaning of
science and technology as forms of political thought and practice.

Qualitative Keywords:
case studies",QUANTITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,NON_QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,"QUANTITATIVE 

This",RESOLVABLE
7,"Grant Abstract:
Using ethnographic and archival methods, this study will develop a comparative case analysis of two successful long-term cyberinfrastructures that have been supporting scientific research for nearly thirty years, in ecology and medical science: the Long-term Ecological Research Network (LTER) and the Multi-Center AIDS Cohort Study (MACS). Archival research will provide a backdrop to current events that will be investigated ethnographically.  The project addresses a significant gap in comparative studies of infrastructure, refocusing attention on the implications of the always-changing technologies, sociotechnical-organization, and institutional environments that make up contemporary research infrastructures.  The central research questions is: How are ""old organizations"" renewing themselves to sustain value for ""new science""? By investigating the past and present of cyberinfrastructures that have weathered many transformations, this research seeks to inform future cyberinfrastructure development efforts.  The findings will identify successful ""strategies of the long-term"" -- organizational forms and methods of design with a track-record of facilitating responsiveness to change.  These insights will be a contribution to the fields of Science and Technology Studies (STS), science policy, organization science, and the sociotechnical design of research infrastructure.

The purpose of this research is to understand the challenges that long-term scientific organizations face over time, and the strategies they employ to manage these challenges. The development of scientific research infrastructure is central to the NSF?s vision of science; however there has as yet been little or sporadic empirical attention to the dynamics of flexible long-term infrastructure in the face of changing social organization, information technology (IT) and scientific interests. This research will fill that gap, contributing to new, practical, and boundary-spanning knowledge about the characteristics of infrastructure in the making and over the long-term.  This project will inform efforts to build more open, effective, and sustainable cyberinfrastructure in the sciences, leading to smarter and more sustainable investment and design choices on the part of cyberinfrastructure project leaders, participants, tool builders, and funders.  This research will also inform science policy and regulatory environments, to help foster a sustainable and productive research infrastructure across multiple fields of inquiry.

Qualitative Keywords:
archival research; ethnographic",QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,"QUALITATIVE 

This",RESOLVABLE
8,"Grant Abstract:
  
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Tooth decay in 2 to 11 year olds is increasing nationally especially among poor and minority populations, and it is unlikely that Healthy People 2020 goals will be met. Dental screening of children in public elementary schools has been mandated in 12 states and endorsed by U.S. and international organizations. Nevertheless, in spite of enthusiasm for the concept, screening and referral has been ineffective as a tool to get parents and caregivers to take children to the dentist. This application is to support planning of a Phase II randomized clinical trial to assess the effectiveness of a referral approach to increase dental attendance (for receipt of care) among inner-city urban elementary school children with urgent/restorative needs. The intervention to be tested relies on two theoretical frameworks -Common Sense Model of Self-Regulation (CSM), and the theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) that could be used in conjunction with child-level interventions in a school-based program. The objectives of the R34 study will occur in two phases: (1) pilot phase to validate the modified illness perception questionnaire -Revised (IPQ-RD) for dental caries, acceptability and delivery of the intervention, mediators and moderators for accessing care; focus groups of community organizations and providers to identify enabling resources to be included in the experimental intervention; and testing the experimental intervention regarding appropriateness/accuracy of educational materials; (2) planning phase primarily devoted to the major planning activities required for a U01 submission including development of the study protocol, manual of operations, and Institutional Review Board application and its associated materials. The sample size for the R34 includes 120 caregivers of KG, first, and second grade school children recruited from among 5 elementary schools in an urban inner-city school district in Cleveland, OH, and 10 to 20 key informants from several community agencies or providers. Data collection involves semi-structured one-to-one interviews and questionnaire responses for caregivers and focus groups for community/provider informants. Data analysis will utilize a mixed method design (grounded theory and theory driven) for qualitative data, and descriptive/analytical statistics for quantitative data. This behavioral approach has the potential to change the public health standard of practice for screening programs by utilizing a cost-effective, easily transportable, and sustainable referral approach. The transdiscipilinary research team includes faculty from Department of Community Dentistry at Case Western Reserve and the Northwest Center to Reduce Oral Health Disparities at the University of Washington.  
  


Qualitative Keywords:
focus groups",QUANTITATIVE,MIXED,NON_QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,"QUANTITATIVE 

This",RESOLVABLE
9,"Grant Abstract:
Northern wild rice (manoomin) grows in the lakes and rivers of the North American Great Lakes region and is a culturally important food for indigenous and non-native people, while also serving as an indicator of ecosystem health. A decline in ecosystem health has been observed across the region, a result of a mix of environmental stressors, cultural values, public policies, and human practices. This project seeks to understand the social and environmental causes of manoomin decline using an interdisciplinary approach and by co-producing knowledge. The investigators plan to use an integration of science and indigenous knowledge to overcome obstacles to understanding the complex interactions. The study will specifically target the influence of interactions among the environment and diverse cultural values, policies, and practices. The project is a partnership between tribes and university scientists and includes an indigenous worldview in social ecosystems by incorporating indigenous knowledge in the research. Ultimately this project will produce scientific understanding needed to restore these culturally and economically important ecosystems while incorporating native voices in ecosystem management. Understanding manoomin as a social-environmental system will generate broader impacts that include restoration of this important resource in the Great Lakes region and a framework for collaborative research and management applicable to Indigenous resource issues globally. 

This interdisciplinary collaborative research project has three interdependent components: environmental, social, and integrative. The goal of the social component is to understand the influences of human values, policies, and practices on manoomin ecosystems through surveys, in-depth interviews, oral histories, and focus groups with tribal and non-tribal harvesters, natural resource managers, and manoomin processors in the region. The goal of the environmental component is to develop integrative ecosystem models using a synthesis of regional data and new data collected through fieldwork at four study sites spanning from impaired to productive manoomin waters. These ecosystem models will show how feedback among water levels, nutrients, sediments, and vegetation influence manoomin growth. The goal of the integrative component is to establish theories and methods for integrating indigenous knowledge and science into natural resource management. The project team will work iteratively with tribal community members to co-develop social-ecological models that examine the influence of land-use, water, and vegetation management practices on manoomin health. They will also conduct interviews and focus groups within their own research partnership, comprising tribal and non-tribal researchers and natural resource managers. This will provide insight to other researchers and tribal communities seeking to develop their own collaborative research partnerships. It will further generate insights into whole-ecosystem function and multi-jurisdictional/cultural interactions that will advance knowledge across disciplines.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Qualitative Keywords:
in-depth interviews; focus groups; fieldwork",QUALITATIVE,MIXED,QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,"QUALITATIVE 

This",RESOLVABLE
10,"Grant Abstract:
This is a collaborative proposal among the University of Illinois at Chicago, Michigan State University, and SRI International to develop, test, and analyze sets of technology-supported diagnostic classroom assessments for middle school (grades 6-8) physical science. Assessments are aligned with the performance assessment and evidence-centered design methodologies suggested in the Framework for K-12 Science Education (NRC, 2012). The study focuses on the development of new measures of learning that take into account the interdependence of science content and practice. Two disciplinary core ideas--Matter and its Interactions, and Energy--and two scientific and engineering practices--Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions, and Developing and Using Models--are used for this purpose. 

The research questions are: (1) What are the characteristic features of science assessments based upon systematic application of the Evidence-Centered Design (ECD) assessment process?; (2) To what extent can assessment designs incorporate critical core idea, crosscutting concept and science/engineering practice dimensions in ways that both separate and integrate these dimensions as part of the design architecture?; (3) What is the evidence that the multiple dimensions of science learning (e.g., content, practices and crosscutting concepts) are separable and recoverable in the performance of students who respond to these assessments?; (4) How instructionally sensitive are these assessments? (i.e., Do they show differential and appropriate sensitivity to students' opportunity to learn science in ways consistent with the vision contained in the NRC Framework?); (5) What forms of evidence can be provided for the validity of these assessments using a multifaceted validity framework that takes into account both the interpretive and evidentiary components of a validity argument for these new assessments?; (6) What are the characteristics of assessments that best serve the needs of classroom teachers relative to a formative assessment process and in what ways do such assessments and scoring processes need to be designed to support effective teacher implementation?; and (7) What are the unique affordances and opportunities provided by technology in designing and implementing assessments focused on merging content & practices performance expectations? 

Assessments are iteratively designed and administered in three school districts and a laboratory school in Florida and one school district in Wisconsin using the ""Investigating and Questioning our World through Science and Technology"" curriculum. The three school districts in Florida have classrooms that are using typical curriculum. The assessments will also be administered and tested with students in these classrooms. To address the research questions, the project conducts five major tasks: (1) development of assessment items using the ECD process to document and guide coherence of items; (2) an alignment study to review design patterns and task templates; (3) a cognitive analysis study to empirically investigate the extent to which the items elicit the intended guidelines; (4) three empirical studies, including (a) an early-stage testing with teachers (n=6) and students (n=180) in Year 1, (b) a pilot testing in Year 2 with teachers (n=12) and students (n=360), and (c) a main study in Year 3 with teachers (n=30) and students (n=900); and (5) a study to investigate the formative use of the assessment items using teacher focus groups' feedback and analysis of student performance data from previous studies.  

Project outcomes are: (a) research-informed and field-tested assessment prototypes that measure students' thinking around the two physical science core ideas and the two scientific and engineering practices; (b) relevant data and procedures used in the studies; and (c) a framework for the formative use of the assessments, including guidelines, scoring rubrics, and criteria for assessment design decisions.

Qualitative Keywords:
focus groups",QUANTITATIVE,MIXED,NON_QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,"QUANTITATIVE 

Gr",RESOLVABLE
11,"Grant Abstract:
Today, most scientific research is done by scientists working together in teams, and many current social problems are so complicated that they require large, interdisciplinary teams of scientists. But, it is not always obvious who the best scientists are to include in a team and whether teams with certain types of scientists have different behaviors or practices than teams with other types of scientists. This project is studying whether teams with different team composition have different behaviors and practices. Some research shows that team composition (such as the gender, ethnicity, or discipline of the team members; also called team diversity) influences science outcomes such as effectiveness and productivity. But, there is little research that examines how team diversity affects scientists' ethical behavior, which is the focus of this study. The ethical behavior of scientists matters because it can determine the quality of the science that gets done, and it can influence the trust that society places in scientists.  To answer this question, the awardee will measure team diversity and determine how it affects ethical behaviors related to materials sharing, authorship, and mentoring. It is expected that scientists who work in more diverse teams (e.g., those that include women, members of racial or ethnic minority groups, or individuals from different disciplinary backgrounds) may promote team cultures that include social sensitivity and ideals of community welfare. Therefore, higher team diversity may advance science's effectiveness by promoting more ethical standards and practices.  

This project will conduct both qualitative and quantitative surveys of individuals who are part of teams in three NSF programs that fund highly collaborative research: Dimensions of Biodiversity, Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems, and Macrosystems Biology. The project will first perform qualitative interviews on a subset of individuals working in teams funded by these three NSF programs to develop more precise hypotheses about the relationships between team diversity and ethical behaviors.  Then, those hypotheses will be tested using a quantitative survey administered to the remainder of the funded teams. The quantitative survey responses will be analyzed using multilevel mediation modeling that accounts for the nested nature of the data (i.e., individuals nested within teams) and that can determine relationships between team diversity and ethical behaviors as well as the factors mediating those relationships. In addition to sharing study results, the project team will develop and facilitate workshops to help interdisciplinary environmental scientists recognize the effects of diversity on ethical standards and practices and facilitate increased diversity within teams.

Qualitative Keywords:
qualitative interviews",QUANTITATIVE,MIXED,NON_QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,"QUANTITATIVE 

This",RESOLVABLE
12,"Grant Abstract:
This Exploration and Design project in the Engaged Student Learning track in the Improving Undergraduate Science Education program seeks to address the intractable concept of transfer of learning to new settings. A central assumption in most systems of education is that students will be able to apply knowledge and skills beyond the context in which they are originally learned and hence transfer their learning. Existing research studies indicate, however, that successful transfer is exceedingly rare. In this project, transfer will be examined within an existing series of undergraduate science courses intended to promote coherent understanding of energy in physics, chemistry, Earth science, and biology. Energy, a unifying concept important in most science disciplines, is central to scientific literacy and is an idea students should be able to apply to a variety of situations. The integrated curriculum presents energy coherently across disciplines, was designed on the basis of cognitive research, and has been extensively classroom tested at multiple institutions. The course sequence thus serves as a natural laboratory to investigate how much transfer is possible under highly favorable, yet still realizable, conditions. Unifying Science for Students will measure and describe transfer, as well as document the specific components of instruction that promote transfer. Special attention will be paid to understanding how to support transfer among students from traditionally underrepresented groups. Findings will contribute to the knowledge base of what works in supporting application of energy concepts across contexts, for all students.  This project may also help to establish the integrated course sequence as a national model for coherent, cross-disciplinary undergraduate science education. 

The integrated curriculum spans four courses: The Flow of Matter and Energy in Physical Systems, Earth Systems, Life Systems, and Chemical Systems. Unifying Science for Students will bring together expertise in physics, chemistry, biology, geology, and cognitive science at two institutions to add to the research base on transfer, using this course series. It will do so by: (1) evaluating the extent to which students successfully transfer understanding of energy in a coherent, constructivist-based sequence of science courses; (2) documenting the productive and problematic reasoning approaches that arise when students transfer ideas about energy to new contexts; (3) identifying instructional cues that facilitate transfer; and (4) investigating the impact of explicit instruction in metacognition on the understanding, retention, and transfer of energy concepts across disciplines.  Quantitative and qualitative methods will be employed to address these goals. A longitudinal study will generate quantitative measures of the transfer of energy concepts from the original learning context, physics, to a target domain, chemistry. Interviews, classroom observations, and analysis of written work will be used to describe what transfer ""looks like"" by developing a taxonomy of discipline-specific transfer attempts. Finally, a quasi-experimental study will investigate the impact of metacognitive writing assignments on transfer. The general and discipline-specific knowledge generated through this project will be situated to inform curriculum design so that transfer can become a more realizable goal in higher education. The Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program is providing co-funding for this project in recognition of its alignment with the broader teacher preparation goals of the Noyce effort.

Qualitative Keywords:
qualitative methods",MIXED,MIXED,QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,"MIXED 

This grant will use",RESOLVABLE
13,"Grant Abstract:
Southern Polytechnic State University (SPSU), and Tennessee State University (TSU) are jointly developing a new information assurance and security (IAS) teaching methodology. Curricular materials based on a portable lab are being developed and integrated into Computer Science (CS) and Information Technology (IT) courses.  This work is renovating the content of the IAS curriculum by emphasizing mobile security through hands-on experience using a portable Lab. The result is a full set of materials covering the core knowledge area on IAS, and a portable lab that can be used in online courses on IAS, providing hands-on experience with real-world situations.  This work is having a significant impact on the national IAS workforce and is targeting students from underrepresented groups.

The labware is designed according to the IAS curriculum recommendations in the IEEE/ACM Computer Science Curricula 2013, and based on the PIs? teaching and research experience in information security. The labware consists of 5 self-contained learning modules.  Learning modules may be tailored to accommodate an instructor's need based on content and time of a course.  The labware covers fundamental concepts in security and important mobile threats/attacks along with countermeasures. Each module includes pre-lab activities (concept introduction and lab preparation), hands-on lab activities (pairs of hands-on labs on domain concepts and security issues in each subject), and post-lab activities (review questions, assignments, and case study).

The project is being evaluated to determine the impact of the learning modules on student learning outcomes and teaching effectiveness. Both internal (self) and external evaluations are being used.  Internal evaluations are conducted by each of the PIs for the project and external evaluations are conducted by individuals from academia and industry.  Evaluation data is assessed by a team of external evaluators consisting of an evaluator from academia and an evaluator from industry.

Qualitative Keywords:
case study",QUANTITATIVE,QUANTITATIVE,NON_QUALITATIVE,NON_QUALITATIVE,"QUANTITATIVE 

This",RESOLVABLE
14,"Grant Abstract:
This dissertation research investigates the interrelationships among tourists, tour guides, and the historical sites in Jerusalem.  The principal focus is on the role of tour guides who mediate the tourist experience for a variety of groups who come to the site with different expectations.  The guides also have to manage the logistic difficulties in a city with repeated conflict.  In-depth interviews and participant observation are used to build a description of how the tour guides manage the often competing relationships with the government, the citizens, and the tourist groups.  The results are expected to modify conventional views of tourism that tourists simply consume the products offered by the tourist sites; rather the tourist experience is a product of complex mediation by tour guides and their social relations with several different actors.

Qualitative Keywords:
in-depth interviews; participant observation",QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,"QUALITATIVE 

This",RESOLVABLE
15,"Grant Abstract:
Epilepsy is the most frequent neurological disorder in children in developing countries. Research in Kilifi district, one of the poorest areas in Kenya, has revealed some of the highest prevalence rates in Kenya and on the African continent.  Biomedical anti-epilepsy drugs are effective at controlling seizures. However, fewer than 5% of children with active epilepsy in Kilifi District access and adhere to these medications. This context presents several theoretical questions including: why do so few families access bio-medical treatment? and, how do epilepsy and treatment choice affect the lives and well-being of the families of these children? Thomas Weisner and Nathaniel Kendall-Taylor's research project examines how cultural and material factors influence the way families seek treatment for pediatric epilepsy, and how these factors and their treatment choices affect the concept of family well-being. Their primary objectives are to: 1) improve the theoretical understanding of how epilepsy, and chronic pediatric disabilities more generally affect the well-being of a family, 2) examine the cultural, social, and material factors that shape how these families seek treatment, and 3) explore how different treatment decisions influence family dynamics and functioning. Their research applies a mixed methods approach including surveys, person-centered interviews, participant observation and structured monitoring.  Their project contributes to the literature on the effects of family factors on the management of childhood disability, and adds to the recently developed anthropological literature on ""well-being"".  Additionally their project will provide training in ethnographic methods for Nathaniel, a PhD student, and will develop his regional specialization in Coastal East Africa.

Qualitative Keywords:
participant observation; ethnographic",QUALITATIVE,MIXED,QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,"QUALITATIVE 

This",RESOLVABLE
16,"Grant Abstract:
Urban infrastructure refers to engineered systems that provide water, energy, transport, sanitation and information services to more than half of the world's population living in cities today. With rapidly increasing human populations, projected resource scarcities and vulnerability to natural and man-made disasters, cities require new, high-performing, cost-effective, and environment-friendly infrastructures for future urban sustainability. The over-arching question addressed in this Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) project is:  What are the inter-connections between infrastructure engineering, urban planning, public policy, health and human behavior that must be explored today to design effective and sustainable urban infrastructure systems of the future?  This question will be answered through a unique, multi-disciplinary graduate curriculum on sustainable urban infrastructure linking engineering, architecture and planning, public affairs, and health and behavioral sciences.  IGERT research will integrate emerging technologies, urban development patterns, economic instruments, policy strategies, and human behavioral factors for design of future urban water supply, energy supply, transportation, waste management and public health infrastructures.  Active fieldwork will occur in collaboration with the City of Denver, Colorado and Chennai, India.  The project has the potential to directly impact more than 200 graduate students at UCDHSC, the 580,000 residents of Denver and the 4 million people of Chennai. The dissemination potential is high for cities world-wide, where about 3 billion people currently live. IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries.

Qualitative Keywords:
fieldwork",QUANTITATIVE,MIXED,NON_QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,"QUANTITATIVE 

This",RESOLVABLE
17,"Grant Abstract:
General Summary

Many women in post-conflict areas play a transformative role in formal and informal security, but they also must navigate the politics of UN Security Council resolutions regarding women's participation in post-conflict peacebuilding, national policies addressing women's security, and the politics and financial pressures of transnational NGOs. While there has been much interest in women's victimization and peacebuilding efforts, little attention has been directed to understanding how women holistically manage and advocate for their security in their communities. This project explores how individual and organizational narratives form a part of or potentially subvert dominant international discourses on women's roles and experiences in conflict as well as the relationship between women and peace. By prioritizing women's knowledge of their own security needs, this study contributes to efforts to improve U.S. foreign policy goals of women ""as equal partners in preventing conflict and building peace."" Ultimately, this study advances an understanding of how and to what extent international gender norms affect national policies and local implementation strategies, as well as how international policy-making in gender mainstreaming is fundamentally different from other types of security policy efforts. 


Technical Summary

Specifically, this project addresses how local and national women's organizations in post-conflict areas of West Africa work to advocate for women's security. To do so, this study uses participant observation and interviews in Guinea and Mali (building on prior research in Cote d'Ivoire) to reveal how international resolutions impact local actions and also whether and how local women's priorities can shape international policies. Analyzing policies on women's security and the discourses that sustain them through macro-, meso-, and micro-level lenses will reveal how local and regional women's community organizations define their security goals and priorities, translate and localize the international agendas of the UN Security Council and transnational NGOs as well as the national agendas of governments, and work with local women to achieve peace and security. By examining the conflicts in Guinea and Mali, this project will develop a framework of how to understand women's needs in their communities and in national peacebuilding and reconstruction projects, underscoring that historical, political, and cultural contexts are important in developing successful, appropriate security policies.

Qualitative Keywords:
",MIXED,QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,"MIXED 

This grant will use",RESOLVABLE
18,"Grant Abstract:
The late Paleozoic Ice Age is the longest-lived glacial interval of the past half billion years, sharing many parallels with the current icehouse in which humans evolved and live. During the Paleozoic icehouse (340 to 290 million years ago) atmospheric oxygen and carbon levels were anomalous, life moved onto land, the first wooded forests expanded across the Earth, and large-scale wildfires emerged.  Thus, it is important that we develop a more complete understanding of the late Paleozoic Earth and its dynamic glaciation history. The glacial-marine Parana Basin, Brazil provides an ideal opportunity for this work and the project will include training for U.S. and Brazilian students through seminars, field and lab work, and exchange visits.

This research will address three research objectives. First, an exportable, accurate and high-precision chronostratigraphic framework will be built by defining U-Pb zircon ages of unprecedented precision and accuracy for this region. This will permit testing of existing hypotheses of Gondwanan glaciation and will place constraints on the degree of synchronicity of the glaciations and establish the timing of terminal deglaciation in west-central Gondwana. Second, refined depositional and glaciation models will be developed through sedimentologic and detrital zircon provenance studies, integrated into the high-precision chronostratigraphic framework. This will place quantitative constraints on the timing, source, and geographic extent of glaciers feeding into the Parana Basin and permit reconstruction of changes in their glacial mass balance through time. Third, this research will develop U-Pb age-calibrated geochemical proxy records of continental climate variability that will test the hypothesis that major shifts in regional climate occurred in-step with periods of glacier advance/retreat and terminal deglaciation. This project will lead to a more complete understanding of icehouse to greenhouse transitions of the past.

Qualitative Keywords:
case study; case study",QUANTITATIVE,QUANTITATIVE,NON_QUALITATIVE,NON_QUALITATIVE,"QUANTITATIVE 

This",RESOLVABLE
19,"Grant Abstract:
This research will develop a foundational tool for understanding how civic technologies are used and how information inequalities manifest in a city.  User data from new civic technologies that reveal inequalities in the information environments of citizens has only recently become available. Since a large portion of data is demographically or geospatially biased due to varying human-data relationships, computational social scientists have used data modeling and algorithmic techniques to adjust the data and remove biases during data-processing. However, this approach limits our understanding of how and why biased information is created, and our ability to address urban information inequalities and biased data-creation. Consequently, as cities transition to e-government enabled by information and communication technology, they may project the inequities of the past into the smart cities of the future, so a fresh approach is needed. This innovative research analyzes and visualizes data from Boston's 311 system for reporting non-emergency issues to the city government, using computational and qualitative approaches to identify, categorize, and understand the kinds of information disparities that are becoming institutionalized by crowdsourced municipal systems, inhibiting smart city transitions, and perpetuating information deserts. For Boston and its citizens, this research could improve both the function and the equity of the city's 311 system. The resulting insights and tools could also inform other cities' implementation of smart city technologies, identify potential distortions in existing urban datasets, and surface potential corrections that could improve decision making and equitable delivery of services for all residents. 

The research will be performed in three phases. First, six years of civic, census, and geospatial data will be combined with interviews with users, then analyzed to discover the socio-technical dimensions of ""information deserts,"" which are conceptual and physical spaces where local information is poorly embedded in diverse infrastructures and/or less available than in other areas of a city. This research will develop a conceptual model to determine where and how information deserts are located, identify a typology of information deserts based on related community features; and, assess relationships between information deserts and major demographic and geospatial features of data biases. Second, the research team will perform semi-structured interviews with civic stakeholders to gather user requirements for a visual analytics tool as well as to validate the ground truths for the initial models. Based on this, a visual analytics tool will be created to show different types of information deserts, their causes, and anticipated results. Third, through an iterative process the research team will conduct participatory modeling activities with municipality officials and relevant stakeholders to refine the computational models with local contextual information. Also, the usability of the visual analytics tool will be improved with additional user studies. The resulting conceptual and computational models of information deserts will support a refined visual analytics tool that displays information deserts and their characteristics.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Qualitative Keywords:
semi-structured interviews",MIXED,MIXED,QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,"MIXED 

This grant will use",RESOLVABLE
20,"Grant Abstract:
The research product will provide guidance to researchers by describing the ethical foundations of research practices and some of the personal and professional issues that researchers encounter in their work. Besides the key concepts provided in the earlier editions of the guide, the third edition of On Being a Scientist: Responsible Conduct in Research would address key issues that have emerged since the last edition in 1995. These include financial conflicts of interest, Internet and electronic publications, intellectual property, interdisciplinary research and publication, commercial influences on research agendas, management of human resources, and homeland security. 

The committee that will conduct this study will include academic and nonacademic experts in life and physical sciences, social sciences, health sciences, engineering, environmental sciences and engineering, statistics, as well as science and technology policy life and physical sciences, engineering. 

The National Academies entity overseeing this committee is the Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy (COSEPUP). COSEPUP has a long history of seminal work in the areas of science and technology policy, research conduct, and the education and training of scientists and engineers including past studies entitled Responsible Conduct in Research: Ensuring the Integrity of the Research Process, On Being a Scientist: Responsible Conduct in Research-1 st and 2 nd Edition, Reshaping the Graduate Education of Scientists and Engineers, Enhancing the Postdoctoral Experience of Scientists and Engineers: A Guide for Postdoctoral Scholars, Advisors, Institutions, Funding Organization, and Disciplinary Societies, and Science and Security in an Age of Terrorism. 

This project will incorporate National Academies Science and Technology Policy interns, who are graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in science and engineering, as part of education and training activities related to this study. The volume will provide guidance to all research disciplines on how to conduct responsible research, and how to respond to concerns regarding the activities of other researchers. The study committee will include representatives from underrepresented groups and a diverse array of academic institutions in its focus groups and workshops.

Qualitative Keywords:
focus groups",MIXED,QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,"MIXED 

This grant will use",RESOLVABLE
21,"Grant Abstract:
In addition to being taught that engineering practice requires assuming liability for the direct performance of one's designs; students must also be trained to consider the ethical dimensions of their indirect obligations and liabilities. The indirect effects of a product, project, or policy can be characterized and quantified using life cycle assessment (LCA), which is a formal modeling method that utilizes a comprehensive ""cradle-to-grave"" approach to evaluate environmental and social impacts.  LCA is in wide use by designers, scientists and engineers, and businesses, primarily for use in product design and management, and is also employed in policy spheres to quantify the systemic impacts of large-scale engineering and technology decisions. While the use of LCA is widespread, the modeling structure and the interpretation of results involve ethical and value judgments that must be navigated carefully both by the analyst and by the receiver of the results.  This EESE project centers on the integration of ethical training into life cycle courses and the development of life cycle-based educational materials for general ethics training in engineering and science. Hypothetical and real-world cases are being developed that address a range of life cycle-oriented ethical challenges, with relevance for multiple disciplines. Instructional materials and video footage presenting each case, as well as shorter versions for younger audiences, are also being created and hosted at the Northeastern Ethics Institute as an additional teaching resource. Case studies are being submitted to ethics, engineering, science, policy, and business case study clearinghouses as well as additional dissemination through structured tutorials at national and international conferences.  One of these case studies is being converted into a three-hour workshop format at the University of Notre Dame and offered subsequently at one of its HBCU partner institutions.

This project aims to achieve broad impacts inside and outside of the classroom. Most importantly, this project directly affects the professional development of students who will carry the insights, perspectives, and behaviors instilled by this ethics training into the workforce, to the ultimate benefit of society. The cases developed address fundamental ethical principles and macroethical issues; they will therefore be of value for ethics education in the engineering classroom even at universities without existing courses in LCA or science policy, including those who have adopted a workshop approach to graduate-level ethics education. Under-represented groups are being included both as participants on the project team and in several case-based ethics workshops. While the full cases are being designed for university students, shorter versions for secondary school students raise awareness of life cycle issues and environmental ethics early in formal STEM education.  Ultimately, this project advances ethics education for a diverse range of students in a way that reflects 21st century progress toward sustainable engineering and technology.

Qualitative Keywords:
case study; case studies",QUANTITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,NON_QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,"QUANTITATIVE 

This",RESOLVABLE
22,"Grant Abstract:
This grant is for travel support for six or more researchers from the U.S. to participate in the 12th International Conference on Light and Color in Nature in Granada, Spain.  For 38 years, researchers from around the world have been gathering at approximately three-year intervals to share the latest results of their investigations into optical phenomena observed in nature. These meetings have done much for enhancing science and education in atmospheric optics and related fields by being the foremost (and virtually only) forum for reporting advances in atmospheric and environmental optics.  This meeting has been particularly successful at motivating archival research papers and popular articles, films, and books on the subject of optics in nature. Each meeting is followed by a Light and Color in the Open Air feature issue of the Journal of the Optical Society of America or Applied Optics. In 2001, the Optical Society of America published a CD collection of the papers from the first 25 years of these conferences. Each conference includes a public session for K-12 students and teachers, typically attracting 200-300 outside attendees. Significantly motivated by the opportunities and interactions provided by these meetings, numerous participants have published books reaching out to people from scientists to the general public.

The topics addressed at the meeting include, but are not entirely limited to, the following:  rainbows, ice crystal halos, glories, coronas, iridescence, sky color, atmospheric visibility, refraction effects, contrast phenomena, noctilucent clouds, optics of lightning, auroras, colors created by absorption and scattering in water and air, color and light in water and on water surfaces, iridescence and colors in biology and geology. Examples of recent publications from these meetings include the first documented photographs of the 3rd- and 4th-order rainbows, an explanation of new halo formations, measurement of coronas in ice clouds, a general theory for ice-crystal halo formation, model and experimental verification of halo polarization through ice birefringence, new computer models for quantitative studies of color variation with cloud optical depth and particle sizes, and the use of glitter patterns to study ocean-wave slope statistics.

Qualitative Keywords:
archival research",MIXED,QUANTITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,NON_QUALITATIVE,"MIXED 

This grant will use",RESOLVABLE
23,"Grant Abstract:
Nontechnical Description of Significance and Importance

Local governments face complex crosscutting policy issues that transcend traditional administrative silos organized around function. When a single issue or objective crosses multiple independent units, collective action and coordination problems can arise from fragmented authority. Local sustainability is a broad and complex issue and provides an ideal lens through which to study these organizational challenges. Despite the widespread adoption of sustainability goals by local governments, an administrative apparatus to coordinate their implementation is lacking or inconsistent in many communities. This research examines the impact that different administrative arrangements have on policy efforts and outcomes and assesses the institutional structures necessary to facilitate the success of local sustainability efforts. Functional coordination and collective action problems within a single government are similar to institutional collective action problems that arise from fragmented governmental authority within metropolitan areas. In both cases, the connectedness of services, objectives, and resource systems produces positive and negative externalities. Resolution of these dilemmas requires additional resources and expertise, as well as the development of administrative structures to integrate decision-making. This work intends to initiate a general theory of institutional collective action that encompasses administrative dilemmas within as well as between organizations. It proceeds in two stages: First, it will collect quantitative data on administrative institutions via surveys administered to local government officials. Second, eight cities will be selected for in-depth analysis based on characterizations developed from their survey responses. An analytic narratives approach and social network analysis will be applied to explore the mechanisms available for overcoming functional collective action dilemmas in local sustainability. 

Technical Description

Although functional coordination has long been a concern within public administration, these issues are not emphasized in contemporary policy theories. Little is known about how the design of administrative mechanisms influences organizational ability to integrate decisions and resolve functional collective action problems. Even less is known about how administrative mechanisms affect policy outputs and outcomes at the organizational level. Through an exploration of city sustainability policy, this research will initiate a theory of functional collective action that extends institutional collective action research beyond its current focus on horizontal and vertical fragmentation among independent governments. Findings will provide insight to address the common problem of ""fuzzy boundaries,"" whereby the lack of clear lines of responsibility for tackling complex policy issues necessitates more coordinated efforts. This research will systemically identify the strengths and weaknesses associated with different mechanisms for overcoming functional collective action and enable municipalities to make more informed choices and minimize administrative dilemmas within as well as between organizations. The results of this analysis are expected to be of applied value to local government practitioners. Additionally, the empirical survey data collected from this research will contribute to the broader study of urban governance and policy in the US and enable researchers to better examine sustainability and local government administration questions.

Qualitative Keywords:
qualitative analysis; case study; case studies",QUANTITATIVE,MIXED,NON_QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,"QUANTITATIVE 

This",RESOLVABLE
24,"Grant Abstract:
This Doctoral Dissertation Research Support investigation examines how increased party competition --- specifically the emergence of federal-state divided government --- has transformed the Mexican Federal System during the nineties. Riker (1964) suggests that one of the conditions that helps to maintain the federal bargain is if one national party controls the federal executive and shares with other parties control over the state executives, or, what might be called federal-state divided government. The rationale behind this proposition being that the constant possibility for the relevant parties to become the next federal or state leaders actually prevents them from invading each other's areas of responsibility.

The hypothesis, however, presents a problem for testing because, in democratic federal systems, federal-state divided government is a common occurrence --- or at least, a very tangible threat. For this reason, the Mexican case offers a unique opportunity for testing because it is only recently that the party system has become truly competitive.

The dissertation consists of two main parts. The first part deals with the transformation of the Mexican federal system. Using qualitative and quantitative analysis, the project explores whether the increasing presence of non-PRI governors transforms the operation of the federal system (legislative activity, Supreme Court decisions, and activities of federal and state ministries). With econometric models, and qualitative analysis, the second part investigates if federal-state divided government has affected the selection, design and implementation of policies (specifically, allocation of fiscal resources, public health, public education, and management of natural resources). The second part of the project relies heavily on field research (archive work and interviews) in the Mexican states of Baja California Norte, Chihuahua and Sonora. 

Upon completion, the project will shed light on the operation of federal arrangements with an authoritarian history that have undergone a democratization process recently (e.g. Argentina, Brazil, Russia). We should also gain a deeper understanding of the relationships between democratization, increased party competition, and the federal system. The project will examine a critical but overlooked consequence of democratization processes: changes in the relationships among the center and the regions, and the consequences of these changes for policy. The data and information collected will be provided to the scholarly community at large.

Qualitative Keywords:
qualitative analysis",QUANTITATIVE,MIXED,NON_QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,"QUANTITATIVE 

This",RESOLVABLE
25,"Grant Abstract:
PROJECT SUMMARY
In the US, Black women living with HIV/AIDS (WLHA) are less likely to be engaged in care, adherent to
antiretroviral therapy (ART), and virally suppressed compared to White WLHA. Concurrently, Black women are
also disproportionately affected by interpersonal violence – physical, sexual, and/or psychological abuse by a
current or former intimate partner or non-intimate partner – which may co-occur with poor mental health and/or
substance use disorders, further contributing to ART non-adherence, lower CD4 counts, and reduced viral
suppression. Peer Navigation, while highlighted as a successful model of care in improving HIV care
outcomes, requires resources that HIV service agencies often lack. A scalable and sustainable solution is the
use of mobile health (mHealth) smartphone applications (“apps”). Although there has been an increase in
mHealth interventions developed for HIV prevention and care among at-risk and HIV-positive MSM and youth,
we are unaware of any to improve retention in care, ART adherence, and viral suppression among Black
WLHA, nor any mHealth interventions that are responsive to Black women’s experiences with interpersonal
violence. To address this gap, we will develop and pilot test a culturally tailored, trauma-informed smartphone
app, called LinkPositively, for Black WLHA affected by interpersonal violence. Core components of
LinkPositively include: a) Virtual Peer Navigation that includes phone and text check-ins and 4 weekly one-on-
one video sessions to build skills to cope with barriers and navigate care; b) Social Networking platform to
receive peer support; c) Educational and Self-care database with healthy living and self-care tips; d) GPS-
enabled Resource Locator for HIV care and ancillary support service agencies; and e) ART self-monitoring and
reminder system. Guided by the Theory of Triadic Influences and Syndemic Theory, the study will be
conducted in 2 phases with corresponding aims. In Aim 1, 4 focus groups with Black WLHA with experiences
of interpersonal violence, one focus group with peer navigators, and 4-6 key informant interviews with
providers will be conducted to determine which app features, content, and functions are most likely to support
downloading, initiating use, and sustaining engagement over time. Aim 1 will culminate in usability testing by
Black WLHA affected by interpersonal violence (n=5), to finalize intervention components and procedures. In
Aim 2, we will pilot test LinkPositively to assess feasibility and acceptability and determine preliminary effects
of the intervention on HIV care outcomes (i.e., retention in care, ART adherence, viral suppression) and
mechanism of change variables (i.e., social support, self-efficacy). Participants will be randomly assigned to
either the intervention (n=40) or control (Ryan White standard of care, n=40) arm, with follow-up at 3- and 6-
months. This study will benefit the advancement of HIV prevention science by harnessing technology to
promote engagement in HIV care, while improving social support through peers and social networking – all
under the auspices of being trauma-informed for Black WLHA with experiences of interpersonal violence.

Qualitative Keywords:
focus groups",QUANTITATIVE,MIXED,NON_QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,"QUANTITATIVE 

This",RESOLVABLE
26,"Grant Abstract:
Dr. Tobias Hecht will undertake the first, exploratory stage of an ethnographic study of the lifeworlds of infants, comparing those born to middle-class families, on the one hand, with those born into poverty, on the other. Ultimately, the project aims to examine how social and economic inequality is initially manifest and experienced: how, in other words, people first come to lead unequal lives. The fieldwork will be carried out in Florianópolis, Brazil, a city where many enjoy a first-world standard of living but where others endure extreme poverty. 

Despite the existence of a vast literature on inequality, including inequality in Brazil, that body of writings almost wholly ignores the lives of infants. Most data on inequality still derive from income surveys that do not assess how income is used and distributed within the household, much less how it affects babies. Infants are surely the most underrepresented segment in society and the least studied human subjects outside of the field of developmental psychology. Though prescriptive writings on caring for babies abound, remarkably little is known about their everyday lives. This project concerns not what should be done with infants nor specifically how they develop but rather how infants are from birth enmeshed in the larger social and economic problems of inequality. 

One of the goals of the project is to develop new research methods for the fledgling field of infant-centered ethnographic research.  The researcher will focus on the children's everyday lives -- where they sleep, what they do when awake, what they are fed, how they are dressed, spoken to and played with, the social and material culture that surrounds them, how their medical needs are attended to.

This research is important because it has the potential to transform social scientific understanding of what inequality means and how it is experienced in everyday lives from their very beginning. Economists measure inequality above all in terms of household income. Sociologists have studied inequality in its class, racial and sexual dimensions. Here the objective is to suggest a new way of understanding inequality, one that takes into account the least studied group, the ones that cannot possibly be held accountable for their social and economic condition.

Qualitative Keywords:
fieldwork; ethnographic",QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,"QUALITATIVE 

This",RESOLVABLE
27,"Grant Abstract:
ABSTRACT
Alzheimer's Disease and its Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) are brain diseases whose immense human and
societal costs and burdens represent an increasingly urgent public health need; moreover, over 90% of
patients with AD/ADRD exhibit neuropsychiatric symptoms (e.g., depressive symptoms, psychosis, agitation)
for which there are currently no approved therapies—pointing to the importance of research on the
neuropsychiatric correlates and sequelae of AD/ADRD. This administrative supplement request is premised on
the fact that the rationale for and unmet needs targeted in the scope and aims of the parent grant can be even
more effectively met (i.e. not changed but enriched) by adding AD/ADRD to the other two broad categories of
disorders in the parent grant (mental illness and addictions). By extending the broad disease categories and
voices from the affected stakeholder groups in Aims 1 and 2 to include cutting-edge AD/ADRD research (e.g.,
research involving novel drugs, devices, or mechanisms to examine the underlying neurobiology, disease
progression, and therapeutic avenues in AD/ADRD) and stakeholders in AD/ADRD research, the Aims and
Scope of the parent grant remain unchanged, while the real-world application and impact of the products from
the parent grant are substantially enhanced. Current and future BRAIN Initiative studies will yield novel tools,
methods, technologies, and treatments that will undoubtedly be used in AD/ADRD research. Therefore, it is
crucial to examine the ethical dimensions not only of mental illness and addiction related innovative
neuroscience, but also of AD/ADRD research that involves innovative, BRAIN Initiative-driven or -inspired
science. Our two Supplemental Aims incorporate AD/ADRD into the first two Specific Aims of the parent R01.
In Supplemental Aim 1, we will use semi-structured interviews and qualitative methods to articulate ethical
issues in highly innovative neuroscience research related to AD/ADRD by interviewing professional and lay
stakeholders. In Supplemental Aim 2, survey items and vignettes, informed by Supplemental Aim 1 data, will
be used to examine factors influencing research decision making by people with AD/ADRD and/or their family
members/caregivers in the context of innovative neuroscience research. These Supplemental Aims will readily
fold into the timeline of our existing parent project (see Project Timeline), as we have developed efficient and
effective recruitment strategies for Aims 1 and 2 of the parent R01. This Supplement efficiently leverages our
existing R01 to facilitate additional ethical inquiry focused on AD/ADRD research. The conceptual model we
are examining in our existing R01 (i.e., the Roberts Ethical Valence model) provides a novel basis for ethics
inquiry in the domain of AD/ADRD research. By layering AD/ADRD research ethics questions onto our existing
R01 approach, we will be able to achieve richer and more robust comparisons across types of disorders (i.e.,
mental illnesses such as depression and schizophrenia; addiction; AD/ADRD; physical illness; healthy
comparison subjects), as well as across professional and lay stakeholder groups.

Qualitative Keywords:
qualitative methods",MIXED,QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,"MIXED 

This grant will use",RESOLVABLE
28,"Grant Abstract:
The goal of this U.S.-Romanian research project between Rodney M. Feldman and Carrie E. Schweitzer of Kent State University and Iuliana Lazar of the University of Bucharest is to expand our knowledge of the diversity of fossil decapods during Jurassic and Cretaceous time intervals when stem groups of the order experienced major diversification events that set the stage for the appearance, then expansion, of modern decapod fauna, such as crabs, lobsters and shrimp.  The team of U.S. and Romanian experts and students will jointly examine the sedimentological history and paleontology of four sites in the southern Carpathian Mountains, a region that has not been well studied due to previously limited access.  Stable isotope analyses and new data derived from the fieldwork will be combined to describe the taphonomic and paleoecological history of the assemblages.  Because these mountains lie at a crossroads between northern and western Europe, known to contain rich decapod faunas in the Jurassic and the Tethyan seaway to the south, the researchers hope to determine where the two major diversification events were centered.  Results are expected to enrich our understanding of the taxonomy, biostratigraphy, biogeography and evolution of decapods, a globally important group of organisms. 

This project in paleontology fulfills the program objective of advancing scientific knowledge by enabling experts in the United States and Central Europe to combine complementary talents and share research resources in areas of strong mutual interest and competence.  Broader impacts include the introduction of U.S. students to the benefits of international collaboration through fieldwork at Carpathian sites and direct involvement in the project's analysis of ancient sediments and fossil decapod radiation.

Qualitative Keywords:
fieldwork",QUANTITATIVE,QUANTITATIVE,NON_QUALITATIVE,NON_QUALITATIVE,"QUANTITATIVE 

This",RESOLVABLE
29,"Grant Abstract:
University of Florida graduate student, Stacey A. Giroux, under the direction of Dr. H. Russell Bernard, will undertake sociocultural research on how  changes in national dietary cultures are understood and acted upon at the level of the individual and household. There is abundant evidence that eating practices are changing worldwide, converging toward similar diets that are high in fat and sugar and low in fiber. Many nations also have escalating rates of overweight and obesity. This project will investigate the social and cultural foundations of this global phenomenon.

The research will be carried out in Loire region of France, a place with strong cultural traditions in food. The researcher will collect data on how dietary changes are articulated and experienced by the French, and how the shifts in food practices and food cultures have affected their health. She will employ a mixture of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, including participant observation of her informants as they shop and prepare meals, along with unstructured and semi-structured interviewing. She will use cognitive anthropological data elicitation tasks to model cultural food themes,  she will then evaluate for saliency and individual correspondence through cultural consensus and consonance analysis. Body Mass Index information and social network data will be collected, as well, to test potential relationships among personal network features and cultural models about healthy diets and the actual onset of obesity.

The research is signficant in the contribution it will make to the scientific understanding of the sociocultural pathways of changing world diets and their effects of health. The research also will contribute to the education of a graduate student.

Qualitative Keywords:
participant observation",QUALITATIVE,MIXED,QUALITATIVE,QUALITATIVE,"QUALITATIVE 

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