If health care systems are not delivering the desired results, those systems must be changed in some way. Innovative thinking is sometimes needed to generate ideas for improvement. Many persons erroneously believe that innovative thinking is a special gift or that it requires an air of lightheartedness that seems inappropriate in a health care setting. Current research in the cognitive sciences...

This paper presents some results of an ongoing research project on the interactions between Wikipedia and academia. The first part of the project analyses the perception and practices of academic faculty about Wikipedia. It also includes a study on 52 teaching experiences at universities around the world where lecturers have used Wikipedia for designing assignments involving students to edit th...

M any academic scientists reject the very idea of networking for a variety of reasons. Many feel that acquiring and using professional contacts is more appropriate for those in industry or business, but not in academia. Tenured faculty may feel that they have already achieved the peak of their career and no longer need to put forth the effort to get to know new people. Younger scientists may sh...

An important problem exists in the interpretation of modern medical research data: Biological understanding and previous research play little formal role in the interpretation of quantitative results. This phenomenon is manifest in the discussion sections of research articles and ultimately can affect the reliability of conclusions. The standard statistical approach has created this situation b...

Plagiarism sometimes creates legal and ethical problems for students and faculty. It can have serious consequences. Fortunately, there are ways to stop plagiarism. There are many tools available to detect plagiarism, e.g. using software for detecting submitted articles. Also, there are many ways to punish a plagiarist, e.g. banning plagiarists from submitting future articles for publication. In...

In October 2003, I started a secondment from the London School of Economics (LSE), where I hold the Richard Titmuss Chair of Social Policy, to No 10 Downing Street, where I worked as a senior policy adviser to the Prime Minister, Tony Blair. I began working initially on a specific project: developing policies on extending user choice in public services, with particular reference to health care ...

As do many industries, colleges and universities encounter thorny problems in dealing with hazardous wastes. Industry and academia alike are saddled with the rising cost of waste management and face perpetual liability for costs of waste cleanup. Unlike many industries, however, colleges and universities generate small amounts of waste, most, but by no means all of which is generated in laborat...

Introduction This paper addresses the complexity of industry-academia research partnerships which include students in tripartite management research activities. The context for the paper is “Education about and for sustainability in Australian Business Schools”, a project undertaken by several Australian universities in collaboration with the Australian Research Institute in Education for Susta...

Particles with nanometer dimensions (nanoparticles) are all around us. The finest particles of sand are blown by the wind over thousands of kilometers. The finest particles of soils are either eroded by the wind in extremely dry conditions or by water under wet conditions and deposited hundreds of kilometers or more from the origin. The air contains nanoparticles of carbon, ice, and oxides and ...