Their efforts are highly valued in return.

You mean you had to GO to the library to do research?

Understanding Research Types:
Basic: Seeks to create new knowledge and is not directly related to technical or practical problems. Example: analyze the types of information systems used by people with disabilities.

Applied: Seeks to solve problems. Example: A study conducted on how information systems can be used to improve communication with people with disabilities.

Research Terminology:
There are many types of research and each type of research can utilize different methods for collecting information. This glossary can be utilized to clarify the research terms you may come across during your search. In addition, this glossary is a good resource for refining questions you may have of your professor regarding the assignment.

Case Studies: Examines in-depth the practices or trends of a single or limited number of groups. According to the Second Edition of the Dictionary of Sociology edited by Gordon Marshal, case studies include "descriptive reports on typical, illustrative, or deviant examples; descriptions of good practices in policy research; evaluations of policies after implementation in an organization; studies that focus on extreme or strategic cases; the rigorous test of a well-defined hypothesis through the carefully selected contrasting cases; and studies of natural experiments."

Empirical Studies: Research based on critical evaluation through observation or experimentation.

Experimental Research: Examines the relationship between two variables. This type of research conducts experiments on test and control groups to test a hypothesis about the relationship between two variables.

Historical or Interpretive Research Studies: By examining past events and procedures, this type of study attempts to predict future events or make suggestions for future actions. Types of historical or interpretive research studies include: biographical; histories of institutions and organizations; investigation of sources and influences; editing and translating historical documents; studying the history of ideas; or compiling bibliographies.

Qualitative Research: Observes the experiences of a particular group and attempts to understand the actions and reactions of the group. Field studies and ethnographic techniques are examples of this type of research.

Survey Research Studies: Examines small groups of the population in order to learn about the larger population. Observation of the smaller group produces data about the larger population. This data is used to predict future actions or results.

User Studies: Research that evaluates the way in which systems or institutions are utilized and how the needs of users can be addressed.

Identifying Research Articles:
Listed below are some clues to help identify research articles. However, it should be noted that numerous exceptions occur for all of the points listed below. Therefore, the following information should be used as a guideline when looking for research articles

Topic: Research articles tend to be highly specific in nature, relate to a particular field, or specialty within a field, and are written by authors who have done research in the field.

Audience: The target audience is other researchers, colleagues, students and specialists in the same field. Research articles are written for the scholarly community, rather than a general audience.

Language: The language of research articles is formal, generally does not use the first person, and includes jargon used in the field. Research articles are written to contribute to the knowledge base of the discipline.

Length: research articles can vary in length, but are typically five to fifty pages long.

Authors: Research articles may have numerous authors. The organization, institute or professional society the authors belong to will be listed.

Content: Generally the article is written at a sophisticated enough level that the reader will need to read the article more than once in order to understand and evaluate the article.

Identifying Refereed Journals:
Listed below are some clues to help identify refereed journals. However, it should be noted that numerous exceptions occur for any and all of the points listed below. Therefore, the following information should be used as a guideline when looking for refereed journals

Issue identification: Each issue has a publishing date, volume number and issue number. Generally a volume number is consistent throughout the calendar year, with each issue assigned a corresponding number e.g. vol. 55, issue 4.

Length: A refereed journal may have one to fifty articles, with most having eight to eighteen.

Advertising and graphics: Very little, if any, advertising is included in refereed journals. Any advertising that is included will directly relate to the field. Generally journals of this nature do not have photographs and use black print on white paper. The size of the journal may vary in size from a small paperback size to a large magazine format.

Table of contents: In addition to research articles, refereed journals may contain book reviews, literature reviews, and essays. Therefore, just because an article is published in a refereed journal, it does not necessarily mean that it is a research article!

Publishing: Refereed journals are usually published regularly - once a week, once a month, every quarter, or annually. The majority of journals are published four to six times per year and are often published by a professional society, organization or research institution.

Editorial board: Refereed journals have a peer review process. The editorial board is listed (generally at the beginning of the journal) along with the organizations they are affiliated with. Information about what types of papers are chosen for publication, the selection process, the length of papers accepted, and how to submit a paper is also provided.

Indexing: A listing of where the refereed journal is indexed is often provided.

Title: The title of a refereed journal usually has an "academic" sounding name.

Availability: The location, call number, and availability of the journal can be determined by using the online catalog.

Refereed Materials:
Refereed materials are publications reviewed by "expert readers" or referees prior to the publication of the material. After reading and evaluating the material, the referee informs the publisher if the document should be published or if any changes should be made prior to publication. Refereed materials are also referred to as Peer Reviewed. Refereed materials are significant to the research and the literature of library and information science because they assure readers that the information conveyed is reliable and timely.

Non-Refereed Materials:
Non-refereed materials such as Trade Journals or Magazines use less rigorous standards of screening prior to publication. In some publications, each article may be only screened by the publication's editor. While knowledgeable, no editor can be an authority on all the subject matter printed in a journal. Other non-refereed materials accept almost anything submitted in order to have something to print. The term "scholarly materials" is often used to describe refereed materials, but this term is not exclusive to refereed material. Non-refereed materials may not by scrutinized as intensely as refereed materials, but they can still be considered scholarly.

Locating Materials:
Databases are repositories of article information from journals, magazines, conferences, and sometimes books and newspapers. Databases cover a wide range of topics. Some databases offer a full text feature that links you directly to an article, so you can download and print it directly off the Internet. Explore databases that you use regularly to determine if they have this feature (usually denoted by an "FT" next to the article citation).

Evaluating On-line sources:
Online sources can be a valuable tool if you know how to accurately assess the value and validity of the online information source. In trying to determine the validity of a webpage, it is useful to see what type of organization publishes the page. Sites ending in .edu or .gov are generally more accurate and trustworthy than most, since they emanate from academic and governmental organizations. It is important to verify that you are not looking at a student page located on an academic server, which may or may not be as trustworthy as a page produced by the school. Another element to be cautious of when evaluating your potential source is bias. For example, if you are looking at a commercial site, are they accurately portraying information, or bending the truth to fit their needs? The next criterion to evaluate is accuracy. Begin by looking for spelling mistakes, poor grammar, and typos. Next, look at the sources quoted within the page. Are they well-known, trusted sources and people with expertise in the field at hand? If the page is valid, accurate, and published by a trusted source, then it is generally considered acceptable for research purposes.

Search Strategies:
Your search strategy will vary depending upon which database you are using. Research articles' abstracts & include terms that most non-research articles' abstracts do not. Some examples of these terms are methodology, hypothesis, research, experiment, etc. You can search the field "Words Anywhere" for these terms while simultaneously searching for the keywords of your topic. If you retrieve too many or too few hits, narrow or expand your search by adding or dropping search terms.




Reference research: finance research and health research and travel research and my social page




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Patricia L. Sullivan, an assistant professor at the University of Georgia's School of Public and International Affairs recently completed a study advancing a new model which predicts a nation's probability of accomplishing military objectives. Sullivan's research, reported in the June issue of the Journal of Conflict Resolution and by the UGA Office of Public Affairs News Service, found that since WWII major countries, including the United States, the Soviet Union, Russia, China, Britain or France, have failed in 39% of 122 military objectives against smaller, weaker nations.

Under a grant funded by the National Science Foundation and institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation Sullivan conducted research to explain the "circumstances under which more powerful nations are likely to fail and creates a model that allows policymakers to calculate the probability of success in current and future conflicts, "according to the UGA News Service.

Factors which Sullivan found important are the objective, the nature of the target, whether or not the target cooperates with the objective, whether the target or country initiating the action has allies, whether allies will intervene on either side, and the military strength or weakness of allies.

The factor most easily defined is the objective. The objective is the reason for military intervention. Objective, in Sullivan's model, is based on a continuum from "brute force" to "coercion." According to UGA News Service, the nature of the target is defined by the type of group which composes the target: guerilla, formal nation states, or terrorists. Examining these factors allows you to draw some conclusions about the odds of winning a military conflict.

Of the factors Sullivan identified the most important as whether the objective can be reached by military strength alone, or if target cooperation is essential in the military objective.

Sullivan explains that in the 1991 Gulf War Kuwait was a cooperative target. The citizens and government of Kuwait wanted the assistance of the United States. Driving out Hussein's forces was accomplished quickly and efficiently with the compliance of the nation of Kuwait.

Iraq has proven to be a different war story. Iraq did not invite the United States to enter their country. Although the United States entered on the stated premise of humanitarianism and a quest to end Hussein's reign of terror, that doesn't mean the U.S. was invited, and it doesn't mean the target is cooperative. The United States' objective to free the people of Iraq from the iron rule of Saddam Hussein and his Republican Guard was based on the plausible assumption that no human being wants to live in a state of suffering, euthanasia, and general brutality from a dictator. The United States government presumed the people of Iraq preferred freedom and democracy to the dictatorial, totalitarian government under which they lived. However, as a nation, Iraq has not proven cooperative to that objective.

Sectarian violence has kept the United States from meeting their military objective. Rather than welcoming international assistance in building a free nation, divided allegiances in the country have prolonged the military action. Many Muslim extremists view the United States as the face of the enemy, literally and spiritually. They continue to fight hard against governmental and social changes.

The lack of cooperation in Iraq is a huge indicator, according to Sullivan's model of the future of the war. It illuminates the need for target cooperation in military objectives. It does not, however, satisfy the question as to whether the probability of victory affirms or denies the call for military force to implement changes in the interest of humanitarianism.

Military force and humanitarianism, philosophically, should be mutually exclusive terms. However, often, in the face of brutality and oppression force is necessary to break the bonds of oppression. This creates a paradox which the United States government and citizens continue to grapple. It is, however, the same paradox that prompted the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolutionary War.

Sullivan reported to the UGA news service, "We can try to use brute force to kill insurgents and terrorists, but what we really need is for the population to be supportive of the government and to stop supporting the insurgents. Otherwise, every time we kill an insurgent or a terrorist, they're going to be replaced by others."

Once Sullivan developed her model, she tested it and found that her paradigm was accurate in 80% of the conflicts she examined, according to the UGA news service. Her model was used to examine the current war between the U.S. and its allies, and Iraq. Extrapolating an end to the war in Iraq based on Sullivan's model, theUGA news service estimates that there is a 26% chance of victory, in a war that could endure approximately ten years. Sullivan points out that factions, insurgents, and covert allies, such as Iran and Syria, seriously undermine the U.S. objective in Iraq.

Sullivan's conclusions regarding the war with Iraq were reported by the UGA news service as follows:

"No one could have predicted exactly what would happen after we overthrew the regime of Saddam Hussein," Sullivan said. "But what my model could say was that if the population was not supportive of whatever new regime we put in power and the American strategic objective shifted from regime removal to maintaining the authority of a new government, the likelihood of a successful outcome would drop from almost 70 percent to just under 26 percent."

Sullivan's research and reporting prove timely as the fierce debate over whether to pull our troops out of Iraq rages in the United States. According to Sullivan, the chances for the successful establishment of a new government in a free and independent Iraq are slim, without the cooperation of the Iraqis and surrounding nations. The research, however, does nothing to discourage those who believe in the fight in the name of higher moral law and justice.

Sullivan's paradigm is helpful, but must be weighed against the one's acceptance of age old adage, "It's not whether you win or lose, but how (or why) you play the game." One factor that Sullivan's research did not address includes an equation which may never be quantified: How much is one life worth in the pursuit of freedom and justice for all?

Sources:

Fahmy, Sam. "UGA study finds that weaker nations prevail in 39 percent of military conflicts, UGA Office of Public Affairs News Service, June 11, 2007.

http://www.uga.edu/news/artman/publish/070611_Sullivan.shtml

http://www.uga.edu/intl/sullivan.htm

http://jcr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/51/3/496





Reference research: finance research and computer research and general research and recent update




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research paper topics

Stem cell research continues to be controversial topic among all aspects of the population. From scientists to politicians, the debate rages on with full force. For many, there is an obvious understanding of the long term biomedical benefits to stem cell research but at issue is the ethical debate.

Since much of middle America does not fully understand the issues at debate involving stem cell research, it is important, especially with the up and coming elections, to become familiar with the issue of concern. Adult stem cells are the cells that may provide the ability for those with disease or injury to repair or regenerate damage tissue through use of healthy tissue.

At issue is the origin of stem cells, while cells can be obtained from adult healthy tissue and umbilical cord tissue, the issue of debate involves the use of embryos as a method by which to obtain stem cells. While we use the term "adult" to describe stem cells, these cell samples can be obtained from placenta, umbilical cord and even aborted or still born fetuses.

The issue of concern involves the ethical use of pregnancy tissue, fetal tissue and embryo tissue to create stem cells for use in curing disease. Going one step further, there is added concern over the success of stem cells, in curing disease, unless taken from specific areas of the body. For example, in most research it has been found that stem cells most effective in biomedical research would come from the epidermal layer of skin, the germ cells, the gastrointestinal tract and the blood cells.

Biomedical research, however, desires approval for government funding into the continued research of stem cell use in other human tissue samples. The concern, from a political and ethical standpoint, is the tendency to use human lives as studies for which the life may be affected, even resulting in death, or using humans to acquire tissue samples that, ultimately, prove ineffective in stem cell research and disease resolution.

There are many dynamics and facets to the stem cell research debate. This is only a brief synopsis of the political, biomedical and ethical issues of concern. When considering your personal view on stem cell research, it may be prudent to vote for political candidates who carry your same opinion with regard to government funding into stem cell research. While many countries are moving forward with stem cell research, it will be the American voter who may determine the direction of stem cell research in the United States.




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Wordpress is a powerful, free blogging platform. It comes in two flavors: hosted on Wordpress.Com or on your own server (which can, for development purposes, be run on your own computer using a web server such as XAMPP). While the hosted version of Wordpress does offer a small number of free themes which can be used to change a blog's appearance, this article focuses on the full version of Wordpress (version 2.8.3).

Questions answered in this article will be the following:

• What is a Wordpress theme?
• Which sites offer free, high-quality Wordpress themes?
• How to download and install Wordpress themes
• What kind of themes are best-suited to which kinds of websites?
• How to customize ready-made Wordpress themes
• When to spend money on premium or original Wordpress themes

So, what is a Wordpress theme?

Themes determine the appearance of a Wordpress blog. This includes the blog's layout, menus, logos, and color schemes, among other things. Because Wordpress uses PHP (a server-side programming language, meaning that it runs on the server where the blog resides) in conjunction with XHTML (the most standards-compliant version of HTML, the mark-up language used to create web pages) and CSS (cascading style sheets, which set rules for how the web page will be "styled"), most of what makes up a Wordpress theme is the CSS style sheet, followed by graphics used in the web design and a few template files containing the XHTML and PHP code. This can be scary to a person with little or no experience in coding for the web, but fear not... hundreds, if not thousands, of ready-made themes are available online for use with Wordpress, and many of these were created with user customization in mind.

Where can I find free themes?

There are plenty of websites that offer Wordpress theme downloads. To start with, try searching the themes directory on Wordpress.Org. New themes are uploaded every day, and they can be searched by keywords or viewed by popularity, newest submissions, or most recently updated. Clicking on a theme's thumbnail will bring up a quick info page about that theme, including a star rating given by users. From this page, the theme can be previewed full-size and downloaded.

A quick Google search may also bring up many websites where Wordpress themes not submitted to the official website may be downloaded free. Lots of them are blogs dedicated to reviewing or listing top Wordpress themes, including graphic design ezines. Smashing Magazine, for example, has a few popular blog postings (100 Excelent Free WordPress Themes, 83 Beautiful Wordpress Themes You (Probably) Haven't Seen, 21 Fresh, Usable and Elegant Wordpress Themes, 30 Free High Quality Wordpress Themes) listing some of the best, premium-quality free themes on the 'net, although some have unfortunately become outdated as the artists took them down.

I suggest finding a number of themes that have the right look for your blog and installing them. This is because some themes might be broken or will not work well with your particular blog's contents and needs. Getting a few themes allows you to experiment a bit to get just the right one.

Download & Install Themes

There are two methods of downloading and installing Wordpress themes. The more traditional way, which will work with themes from all over the Internet, is to download the .zip package for the website. From there, unzip on your computer, then upload to your web server. Each theme goes under its own folder, located in the wp-content/themes folder for your blog. Once the files are there, log-in to the dashboard (admin area) and look on the left-hand toolbar. Click on "Appearance," which brings up the "themes" page. You should find your new theme there. Clicking "activate" will make that the theme for your blog. Other themes will remain in your theme gallery for later use.

Another method of putting up a new theme is to download and install it directly from the dashboard. This is a new feature of Wordpress 2.8. All themes available on Wordpress.Org are searchable and previewable from your dashboard, with some extra search features, and you can click to have them install instantly to your blog. With this, there is no longer any need to use FTP when installing new themes, so long as Wordpress's official website has them.

Choosing the Best Theme

• For personal blogs, any theme will do, and many themes have content-specific designs for all interests, whether it's music, video games, cooking, etc.
• Wordpress blogs make great virtual writers' desks. Try using a clean, simple theme with one side-bar. Be sure that the colors and fonts for that theme will not burn your eyes after hours of reading!
• Magazine-style blogs are great for creating ezines. These can look like online newspapers or edgy design or music mags.
• Themes are also available for those looking to make some money. These themes may advertise themselves as "Adsense ready" or "SEO ready."
• Need a theme that's easy to tweek and customize? Try looking for "simple" or "sandbox" themes.

Customizing Themes

Found a theme that looks great, but the colors are not quite right? Log into your dashboard, go to "Appearance," and then click on "editor." Click on "style.css" and look for the style rules that set up colors. This may take some searching, but the names of elements and rules are in plain English, luckily. Colors will be set in hexadecimal code, which looks like a pound sign followed by a combination of six letters and numbers. Copy and past these into a graphics program's color selector to see what color the code is for, then change the color to what you would like. Copy and paste the hexadecimal color code back into the style sheet. Save and check the results on your blog. It may take a few tries, but once used to the process, changing colors is not too difficult, even with little programming experience.

To replace images, such as a logo, look for that image in the code of any of the template (that is, .php) files (other than function.php, which is not a template) and replace it with the URL for your new image. Be sure to also change things like "width" and "height" to the new graphic's dimensions. For logos, the best bet is to look in the "header.php" file, which is where all of the theme's top-of-page stuff goes.

Determining what goes in the side bar(s) is easier. The "widgets" menu under "Appearance" determines which widgets will be used where, if at all. Standard widgets that come with Wordpress include archive menus, search forms, etc. These are the typical items that are shown in the sidebars of most blogs. Want more things in your sidebar, like pictures, advertisements, or Twitter feeds? Go to "Plugins" and click on "add new" to search for and install new widgets directly from your dashboard. You should find all you need there.

About Premium Wordpress Themes

When running a professional website for a business that will not necessarily be in blog form, you may consider purchasing a Wordpress theme. The benefit of premium themes is that they often come with their own customization panel under "Appearance" that show when the theme is active, plus the creator will tend to offer assistance in setting up and using the theme. It is advisable to first exhaust the free options before considering a premium Wordpress theme, unless the project has a big budget, in which case, get a web designer to do some original work. Premium themes are not unique, just nicer and more feature-rich. Premium themes run from about $30 to $100 on average and can be purchased from such sites as StudioPress or Press75, for example.



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