Evolving academic library specialties

The purpose of this review is to examine the shaping of librarianship in the academic context through the literature of career specialties, with Abbott's (1988) system of professions providing an analytic framework. The specialties investigated are systems librarian, electronic resource librarian, digital librarian, institutional repository manager, clinical librarian and informationist, digital curator/research data manager, teaching librarian/information literacy educator, and information and knowledge manager. Piecemeal literature based on job advertisements, surveys, and individual case studies is consolidated to offer a novel perspective on the evolution of the profession. The resilience of the profession's core jurisdiction is apparent despite pressures to erode it. Forays into teaching, and more recently into open access and data management, can be understood as responses to such pressure. The attractions but also the risks of embedded roles and overextended claims become apparent when comparing past and prospective specialties. © 2013 ASIS&T

Evaluation of Phenolic Compounds and Pigments Content in Yellow Bell Pepper Wastes

This research was supported by the Aula de Empresa "Vellsam-UGR para la Innovacion en Nutricion y Salud". Vito Verardo thanks the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) for "Ramon y Cajal" contract (RYC-2015-18795).Bell peppers are one of the most important species consumed and cultivated in Spain. Peppers are a source of carotenoids and phenolic compounds widely associated with biological activities such as antimicrobial, antiseptic, anticancer, counterirritant, cardioprotective, appetite stimulator, antioxidant, and immunomodulator. However, undersized and damaged fruits are usually wasted. Thus, in order to evaluate the phenolic content, a Box–Behnken design has been carried out to optimize the extraction from Capsicum annuum yellow pepper by ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE). The independent factors were time (min), ethanol/water (% v/v) and solvent/sample ratio (v/w). The model was validated by ANOVA and confirmed. Furthermore, the whole pepper and the pepper without peduncles and seeds were extracted using optimal conditions and characterized by HPLC-ESI-TOF-MS. Moreover, their antioxidant activities, measured by three different methods (DPPH, ABTS, and FRAP), carotenoid composition, assessed by HPLC-MS, and chlorophyll content, assessed by a spectrophotometric method, were compared. A total of 38 polar compounds were found of which seven have been identified in pepper fruit extracts for the first time. According to the results, whole pepper (WP) samples presented higher content in phenolic acids; meanwhile, the edible portion (EP) was higher in flavonoids. No differences were found in the antioxidant activity except for the FRAP assay where the WP sample showed higher radical scavenging activity. EP samples showed the highest content of carotenoids and WP ones in chlorophylls.Aula de Empresa "Vellsam-UGR para la Innovacion en Nutricion y Salud"Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) for "Ramon y Cajal" RYC-2015-1879

Identification of tissue-specific, abiotic stress-responsive gene expression patterns in wine grape (Vitis vinifera L.) based on curation and mining of large-scale EST data sets

Background: Abiotic stresses, such as water deficit and soil salinity, result in changes in physiology, nutrient use, and vegetative growth in vines, and ultimately, yield and flavor in berries of wine grape, Vitis vinifera L. Large-scale expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were generated, curated, and analyzed to identify major genetic determinants responsible for stressadaptive responses. Although roots serve as the first site of perception and/or injury for many types of abiotic stress, EST sequencing in root tissues of wine grape exposed to abiotic stresses has been extremely limited to date. To overcome this limitation, large-scale EST sequencing was conducted from root tissues exposed to multiple abiotic stresses. Results: A total of 62,236 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were generated from leaf, berry, and root tissues from vines subjected to abiotic stresses and compared with 32,286 ESTs sequenced from 20 public cDNA libraries. Curation to correct annotation errors, clustering and assembly of the berry and leaf ESTs with currently available V. vinifera full-length transcripts and ESTs yielded a total of 13,278 unique sequences, with 2302 singletons and 10,976 mapped to V. vinifera gene models. Of these, 739 transcripts were found to have significant differential expression in stressed leaves and berries including 250 genes not described previously as being abiotic stress responsive. In a second analysis of 16,452 ESTs from a normalized root cDNA library derived from roots exposed to multiple, shortterm, abiotic stresses, 135 genes with root-enriched expression patterns were identified on the basis of their relative EST abundance in roots relative to other tissues. Conclusions: The large-scale analysis of relative EST frequency counts among a diverse collection of 23 different cDNA libraries from leaf, berry, and root tissues of wine grape exposed to a variety of abiotic stress conditions revealed distinct, tissue-specific expression patterns, previously unrecognized stress-induced genes, and many novel genes with root-enriched mRNA expression for improving our understanding of root biology and manipulation of rootstock traits in wine grape. mRNA abundance estimates based on EST library-enriched expression patterns showed only modest correlations between microarray and quantitative, real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) methods highlighting the need for deep-sequencing expression profiling methods

Detection of Parthenium Weed (Parthenium hysterophorus L.) and Its Growth Stages Using Artificial Intelligence

Parthenium weed (Parthenium hysterophorus L. (Asteraceae)), native to the Americas, is in the top 100 most invasive plant species in the world. In Australia, it is an annual weed (herb/shrub) of national significance, especially in the state of Queensland where it has infested both agricultural and conservation lands, including riparian corridors. Effective control strategies for this weed (pasture management, biological control, and herbicide usage) require populations to be detected and mapped. However, the mapping is made difficult due to varying nature of the infested landscapes (e.g., uneven terrain). This paper proposes a novel method to detect and map parthenium populations in simulated pastoral environments using Red-Green-Blue (RGB) and/or hyperspectral imagery aided by artificial intelligence. Two datasets were collected in a control environment using a series of parthenium and naturally co-occurring, non-parthenium (monocot) plants. RGB images were processed with a YOLOv4 Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) implementation, achieving an overall accuracy of 95% for detection, and 86% for classification of flowering and non-flowering stages of the weed. An XGBoost classifier was used for the pixel classification of the hyperspectral dataset—achieving a classification accuracy of 99% for each parthenium weed growth stage class; all materials received a discernible colour mask. When parthenium and non-parthenium plants were artificially combined in various permutations, the pixel classification accuracy was 99% for each parthenium and non-parthenium class, again with all materials receiving an accurate and discernible colour mask. Performance metrics indicate that our proposed processing pipeline can be used in the preliminary design of parthenium weed detection strategies, and can be extended for automated processing of collected RGB and hyperspectral airborne unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) data. The findings also demonstrate the potential for images collected in a controlled, glasshouse environment to be used in the preliminary design of invasive weed detection strategies in the field

Skeletal Age Changes in \u3cem\u3eSaguinus fuscicollis\u3c/em\u3e and \u3cem\u3eSaguinus oedipus\u3c/em\u3e

The South American tamarin, genus Saguinus is used extensively as a model for interpreting human disease. Recently, techniques for estimating the age from skeletons of wild-caught tamarins have been requested by biomedical researchers. These skeletal aging techniques are subsequently used as an aid in documenting the timing of disease onset and latency periods. Skeletal age changes are examined in 157 Saguinus fusaicollis and 59 Saguinus oedipus specimens of known age. The entire approximate 15 year life span of these animals is represented within the sample. The species are treated independently for all analyses. Documentation of the ontogenetic skeletal changes in immature specimens is made for the sequences and timing of dental eruption and epiphyseal union and for the chronology of long bone growth. For adult specimens, the age-related patterns associated with intracortical bone remodeling and mid-diaphyseal cortex size and shape are documented. Results of this research indicate that the greatest accuracy for estimating age in these species is obtained within the developmental growth stage, from birth to maturity. During this stage, accurate age assignment can be made to within approximately three months. For aging adult specimens, the trends of intracortical bone remodeling and mid-diaphyseal cortex size and shape exhibit extensive intraspecies variation and thus are applicable with limited accuracy

Metabolomics Data Processing and Data Analysis—Current Best Practices

Metabolomics data analysis strategies are central to transforming raw metabolomics data files into meaningful biochemical interpretations that answer biological questions or generate novel hypotheses. This book contains a variety of papers from a Special Issue around the theme “Best Practices in Metabolomics Data Analysis”. Reviews and strategies for the whole metabolomics pipeline are included, whereas key areas such as metabolite annotation and identification, compound and spectral databases and repositories, and statistical analysis are highlighted in various papers. Altogether, this book contains valuable information for researchers just starting in their metabolomics career as well as those that are more experienced and look for additional knowledge and best practice to complement key parts of their metabolomics workflows

Site-based data curation: bridging data collection protocols and curatorial processes at scientifically significant sites

Research conducted at scientifically significant sites produces an abundance of important and highly valuable data. Yet, though sites are logical points for coordinating the curation of these data, their unique needs have been under supported. Previous studies have shown that two principal stakeholder groups – scientific researchers and local resource managers – both need information that is most effectively collected and curated early in research workflows. However, well-designed site-based data curation interventions are necessary to accomplish this. Additionally, further research is needed to understand and align the data curation needs of researchers and resource managers, and to guide coordination of the data collection protocols used by researchers in the field and the data curation processes applied later by resource managers. This dissertation develops two case studies of research and curation at scientifically significant sites: geobiology at Yellowstone National Park and paleontology at the La Brea Tar Pits. The case studies investigate: What information do different stakeholders value about the natural sites at which they work? How do these values manifest in data collection protocols, curatorial processes, and infrastructures? And how are sometimes conflicting stakeholder priorities mediated through the use and development of shared information infrastructures? The case studies are developed through interviews with researchers and resource managers, as well as participatory methods to collaboratively develop “minimum information frameworks” – high level models of the information needed by all stakeholders. Approaches from systems analysis are adapted to model data collection and curation workflows, identifying points of curatorial intervention early in the processes of generating and working with data. Additionally, a general information model for site-based data collections is proposed with three classes of information documenting key aspects of the research project, a site’s structure, and individual specimens and measurements. This research contributes to our understanding of how data from scientifically significant sites can be aggregated, integrated and reused over the long term, and how both researcher and resource manager needs can be reflected and supported during information modeling, workflow documentation and the development of data infrastructure policy. It contributes prototypes of minimal information frameworks for both sites, as well as a general model that can serve as the basis for later site-based standards and infrastructure development