883 research outputs found

    Fair Use Challenges in Academic and Research Libraries

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    Summarizes findings from a survey of librarians on the application of fair use in copyright practice to fulfill libraries' missions of teaching and learning support, scholarship support preservation, exhibition, and public outreach

    Next-Generation Media: The Global Shift

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    For over a decade the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program has convened its CEO-level Forum on Communications and Society (FOCAS) to address specific issues relating to the impact of communications media on societal institutions and values. These small, invitation-only roundtables have addressed educational, democratic, and international issues with the aim of making recommendations to policy-makers, businesses and other institutions to improve our society through policies and actions in the information and communications sectors.In the summer of 2006 the forum took a different turn. It is clear there is a revolution affecting every media business, every consumer or user of media, and every institution affected by media. In a word, everyone. FOCAS sought to define the paradigm changes underway in the media, and to identify some of the significant repercussions of those changes on society."Next Generation Media" was a three-day meeting among leaders from new media (e.g., Google, craigslist, and Second Life) and mainstream media (e.g., The New York Times and Time), from business, government, academia and the non-profit sector, all seeking a broad picture of where the digital revolution is taking us.This report of the meeting, concisely and deftly written by Richard Adler, a longtime consultant in the field, weaves insights and anecdotes from the roundtable into a coherent document supplemented with his own research and data to form an accessible, coherent treatment of this very topical subject.The specific goals of the 2006 forum were to examine the profound changes ahead for the media industries, advertisers, consumers and users in the new attention economy; to understand how the development and delivery of content are creating new business models for commercial and non-commercial media; and to assess the impact of these developments on global relations, citizenship and leadership.The report thus examines the growth of the Internet and its effect on a rapidly changing topic: the impact of new media on politics, business, society, culture, and governments the world over. The report also sheds light on how traditional media will need to adapt to face the competition of the next generation media.Beginning, as the Forum did, with data from Jeff Cole's Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California, Adler documents the increasing popularity of the Internet for information, entertainment and communication. Users are increasingly generating and contributing content to the web and connecting to social networks. They are posting comments, uploading pictures, sharing videos, blogging and vlogging, chatting through instant messages or voice over Internet (VoIP), or emailing friends, business colleagues, neighbors and even strangers. As Cole observes, "Traditional media informed people but didn't empower them." New media do.The report describes three of the Internet's most successful ventures -- Wikipedia, Second Life, and craigslist. Wikipedia is a prime example of how an Internet platform allows its users to generate content and consume it. As a result of "wiki" software technology anyone can contribute or edit existing information free of cost. Second Life, a virtual world, sells virtual real estate where subscribers, in avatar form, can conduct conversations, go to lectures, even create a business. Craigslist, a predominantly free online classified site with listings in every major city in the United States, has become so popular that it is posing a significant threat to newspapers as it competes with their classified ad revenues.As a result of these and other new media phenomena, not the least being Google and Yahoo, print publications are wrestling with new business models that could entail fundamentally restructuring the way they operate. For instance, reporters are now expected to report a story on multiple media platforms and discuss them online with readers. Newspaper publisher Gannett is exploring the incorporation of usergenerated news or "citizen-journalism" into its news pages.In an era of abundant choices marketers have an even greater challenge to figure out how best to appeal to consumers. The report explores how marketers, e.g., of Hollywood movies or pomegranate juice, are moving from traditional or mainstream media to viral and other marketing techniques.For much of the world, the mobile phone rather than the computer is the most important communications device. Users depend on their phones to send and receive messages, pictures, and download information rather than just talk. In developing countries mobile phones are having an exceptional impact, penetrating regions which are not being serviced by land lines. Thus we are seeing new uses daily for this increased connectivity, from reporting election results in emerging democracies to opposing authoritarian governments in order to bring about new democracies.Meanwhile, the report discusses the need for the United States to develop a new form of public diplomacy rather than the traditional top-down approach to communicating to foreign citizens. This topic has been a recurring theme at FOCAS conferences the past few years, this year calling for more citizen diplomacy -- that is, more person-toperson contact across borders through uses of the new media. Indeed, Peter Hirshberg suggested that American leaders should listen more to the outside world to effectively manage what he called "Brand America."Finally, after acknowledging the detrimental effects that new technologies can bring about, the report discusses what role those technologies could play in expanding freedom and opportunity for the next generation. As a conclusion, FOCAS co-chair Marc Nathanson proposed adding a ninth goal to the United Nations Millennium Goals, namely, "to provide access to appropriate new technologies.

    The Social Transformation of Self-Injury

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    This research offers a description and analysis of the relatively hidden practice of self-injury: cutting, burning, branding, and bone breaking. Drawing on over 150 in-depth interviews and tens of thousands of website postings, e-mail communications, and Internet groups, we challenge the psycho-medical depiction of this phenomenon and discuss ways that the contemporary sociological practice of self-injury has evolved to challenge images of the population, etiology, practice, and social meanings associated with this behavior. We conclude by suggesting that self-injury, for some, is in the process of undergoing a moral passage from the realm of medicalized to voluntarily chosen deviant behavior in which participants’ actions may be understood with a greater understanding of the sociological factors that contribute to the prevalence of these actions

    Self-Injury and the Internet

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    Previous models of therapeutic treatment for self-injury have been focused on individualistic psycho-medical approaches that isolate and stigmatize people who cut, burn, and otherwise self-harm. The rise of cyber communities of self-injury, beginning in the early 2000s but evolving dramatically over the first decade of the twenty-first century, has offered a diversity of groups that individuals can join, cycling through different ones as their movement through their career of self-injury evolves. These groups offer a significantly different set of norms and values relating to self-injury, engaging in some combination of defining it, normalizing it, supporting it, and offering a range of techniques for combatting it. In this article we discuss the various ways different people participate in these cyber communities, their relationships between the cyber and face-to-face worlds, and the effects of the Internet on self-injury. We conclude by discussing the instrumental and expressive effects of cyber self-injury support groups, and the way these groups function to normalize the behavior and foster its moral passage.Les prĂ©cĂ©dents modĂšles de traitement thĂ©rapeutique des pratiques d’automutilation Ă©taient basĂ©s sur des approches psycho-mĂ©dicales individualistes, qui tendaient Ă  isoler et Ă  stigmatiser les personnes pratiquant diverses blessures auto-infligĂ©es comme les coupures ou les brĂ»lures. DĂšs le dĂ©but des annĂ©es 2000, l’apparition de communautĂ©s en ligne consacrĂ©es Ă  cette pratique, qui se dĂ©veloppent de façon spectaculaire au cours de la premiĂšre dĂ©cennie du XXIe siĂšcle, prĂ©sente aux individus une diversitĂ© de groupes qu’ils peuvent rejoindre et dans lesquels ils peuvent Ă©voluer au cours de leurs carriĂšres d’automutilation. Ces groupes proposent Ă  leurs membres un ensemble de normes et de valeurs alternatives concernant l'automutilation, ce qui leur permet de dĂ©finir et de « normaliser » leur pratique, d’obtenir du soutien, ou encore d’avoir accĂšs Ă  une gamme de techniques pour lutter contre elle. Dans cet article, nous examinons les diffĂ©rentes maniĂšres dont les personnes participent Ă  ces communautĂ©s en ligne, les rapports entre mondes en ligne et face-Ă -face, et les effets que produit Internet sur ​​l'automutilation. Nous concluons par une discussion sur les effets instrumentaux et expressifs des groupes de soutien Ă  destination des personnes qui s’automutilent et la façon dont ces groupes contribuent Ă  « normaliser » ce comportement et Ă  favoriser un moral passage au sens de Gusfield

    An Entomopathogenic Nematode by Any Other Name

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    Among the diversity of insect-parasitic nematodes, entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) are distinct, cooperating with insect-pathogenic bacteria to kill insect hosts. EPNs have adapted specific mechanisms to associate with and transmit bacteria to insect hosts. New discoveries have expanded this guild of nematodes and refine our understanding of the nature and evolution of insect–nematode associations. Here, we clarify the meaning of “entomopathogenic” in nematology and argue that EPNs must rapidly kill their hosts with the aid of bacterial partners and must pass on the associated bacteria to future generations

    Detection of terminal complement components in experimental immune glomerular injury

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    Detection of terminal complement components in experimental immune glomerular injury. Complement mediates glomerulonephritis by inflammatory cell-dependent and non-inflammatory cell-independent effects on glomerular permeability. The latter may involve terminal components of the complement system. We examined several models of immunologic renal injury in the rat by immunofluorescence (IF) for terminal complement components C5, C6, C7, and C8 in glomeruli using antisera to human C5-8, which cross-react with the analogous rat complement components. Rats with the heterologous and autologous phases of passive Heymann nephritis (PHN) had proteinuria and 1 to 2+ capillary wall deposits of heterologous or rat IgG, rat C3, and C5-8. Complement depletion with cobra venom factor (CVF) significantly decreased proteinuria in both models and prevented deposition of all complement components. Rats with active Heymann nephritis had similar deposits of rat IgG and C5-8. Rats with anti-GBM nephritis and aminonucleoside nephrosis had severe proteinuria which was not affected by CVF treatment and deposits of C5-8 were absent. The presence of terminal complement components in immune deposits in experimental glomerular disease correlates with a functional role for complement in mediating glomerular injury. These data support the hypothesis that the terminal complement pathway may be a major mediator of some types of immune glomerular injury.DĂ©tection des constituants terminaux du complĂ©ment au cours de lĂ©sions immunes glomĂ©rulaires expĂ©rimentales. Le complĂ©ment est le mĂ©diateur d'une glomĂ©rulonĂ©phrite par des effets inflammatoires cellule-dĂ©pendants, et non inflammatoires cellule-indĂ©pendants sur la permĂ©abilitĂ© glomĂ©rulaire. Ces derniers pourraient mettre en jeu les constituants terminaux du systĂšme complĂ©mentaire. Nous avons examinĂ© plusieurs modĂšles de lĂ©sions rĂ©nales immunologiques chez le rat par la immunofluorescence (IF) en ce qui concerne les constituants complĂ©mentaires terminaux C5, C6, C7, et C8 dans les glomĂ©rules en utilisant des antisĂ©rums contre C5-8 humain qui croisent avec les constituants complĂ©mentaires analogues du rat. Des rats dans les phases hĂ©tĂ©rologue et autologue d'une nĂ©phrite passive de Heymann (PHN) avaient une prolĂ©inurie et des dĂ©pĂŽts sur les parois capillaires 1 Ă  2 + d'IgG hĂ©tĂ©rologue ou de rat, de C3 et de C5-8 de rat. Une dĂ©plĂ©tion complĂ©mentaire avec du facteur de venin de cobra (CVF) a diminuĂ© significativement la protĂ©inurie dans les deux modĂšles et a prĂ©venu le dĂ©pĂŽt de tous les constituants complĂ©mentaires. Des rats atteints d'une nephrite active de Heymann avaient des dĂ©pĂŽts identiques d'IgG et de C5-8 de rat. Des rats atteints de nĂ©phrite anti-GBM et de nĂ©phrose aux aminoglucosides avaient une protĂ©inurie sĂ©vĂšre non affectĂ©e par le traitement au CVF et les dĂ©pĂŽts de C5-8 Ă©taient absents. La prĂ©sence des constituants terminaux de complĂ©ment dans les dĂ©pĂŽts immuns lors des glomĂ©rulopathies expĂ©rimentales est corrĂ©lĂ©e avec un rĂŽle fonctionnel du complĂ©ment dans la mĂ©diation des lĂ©sions glomĂ©rulaires. Ces donnĂ©es sont en faveur de l'hypothĂšse que la voie terminale du complĂ©ment peut ĂȘtre un mĂ©diateur majeur de certains types de lĂ©sions glomĂ©rulaires immunes

    Relative mobility of radioactive trace elements across the sediment-water interface in the MERL model ecosystems of Narragansett Bay

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    The mobilities of radioactive trace elements across the water sediment boundary of a coastal marine ecosystem were investigated. The studies carried out included chemical speciation experiments ofthe solution and solid phases, as well as verification experiments in controlled model ecosystems ( MERL tanks). The latter included backdiffusion experiments under oxic and anoxic conditions and experiments with artificially increased sediment resuspension rates. These studies have produced seven general conclusions: (1) The backdiffusion of Cs, Mn, Co, and Zn radiotracers across the sediment-water interface into oxic waters and of Mn and Co radiotracers into anoxic waters was predicted from laboratory experiments. (2) The removal from the water and the partial immobilization in the sediments of Cs, Zn and Cd tracers, during anoxic conditions, agreed with results from selective leaching experiments of surface sediments with dithionite-citrate solution, a mildly reducing agent which can reprecipitate liberated metals as sulfides. While most nuclides were leached by this solution to the same extent as by hydroxylamine, another reducing agent, Zn, Cd and Cs tracers were not, possibly due to the formation of sulfidic and other phases by the former solution. (3) Radioisotopes of particle-reactive elements (Sn, Fe, Hg and Cr) were shown by sequential extraction and ultrafiltration experiments to be involved in the dynamic cycle of colloid formation and aggregation in the water column and sediments. (4) In order to extend the information on nuclide behavior gained from the radiotracer methodology to stable trace elements, (which are often introduced into coastal water in ionic form) stable metals were added to one tank. Radiotracer behavior in the water column (removal rates and extent of uptake by suspended particles) was quite similar to that of their stable metal counterparts at ambient concentrations (Mn, Cr, Fe, Cd and Zn), added simultaneously to one tank, and to the metal behavior in other tanks operating under similar conditions. (5) The experiments with increased resuspension rates without concomitant increased bioturbation rates had, as expected, only small effects on removal rates of the radiotracers. (6) Sediment profiles of the tracers revealed both seasonal and element-specific differences in mobility near the sediment interface. Tracer profiles allowed the calculation of bioturbation (tracer microspheres) and pore water diffusion (22Na) rates, as well as an investigation of the spacial and temporal dynamics of trace element cycling near the sediment-water interface. (7) Se and Cr nuclides which were added in different oxidation states to different tanks, showed that the higher oxidation state forms (Se-VI, Cr-VI) are removed more slowly from the water column than the lower oxidation state forms (Se-IV, Cr-III). Furthermore, speciation experiments have shown that the increase in the colloidal fraction of Se may be used to calculate the characteristic times of Se-reduction to elemental or organically-bound forms

    Intrathecal Urokinase as a treatment for intraventricular hemorrhage in the preterm infant

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    Despite improvements in the care of preterm infants, intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) and posthemorrhagic hydrocephalus (PHH) continue to be frequent occurrences in this patient population. Shunt procedures in these children are frequently complicated by obstruction and/or infection. As the hydrocephalus is usually caused by an obliterative arachnoiditis due to contact of the blood with the basilar meninges, it was postulated that infusion of urokinase into the ventricles of infants who have sustained an IVH would clear the blood, mitigate the arachnoiditis, and prevent the progression of PHH. Accordingly, 18 preterm infants who had sustained IVH and subsequently developed PHH were treated with intraventricular urokinase instilled via a surgically implanted subcutaneous reservoir. There were no complications associated with the urokinase. Infants were divided into two dosage groups: low dose (110,000–140,000 IU total) and high dose (280,000 IU total). One infant in the low-dose group died at 1 month of life of respiratory complications. In the low-dose group, 3 of 8 (37%) infants required shunt placement; in the high-dose group, all 9 required shunt placement. For the total group, the shunt rate was 71 %. This compares to a historical control group shunt rate of 92%. While the difference between the treatment group as a whole and control group approaches, but does not reach, statistical significance (p = 0.068), there was a significant reduction in the shunt rate when the low-dose group was considered separately (p \u3c 0.002). For those infants that required shunt placement, there were fewer shunt revisions performed in the treatment group than in the control group during the first 24 months following shunt placement: 0.67 versus 1.5 shunt revisions/shunted child. Initial experience with intraventricular urokinase following IVH and PHH in preterm infants suggests a beneficial effect in reducing the shunt revision rate in both high- and low-dose groups. Reduction in shunt placement rate is seen only in the low-dose group

    ρ(770)0\rho(770)^0, K∗(892)0^*(892)^0 and f0(980)_{0}(980) Production in Au-Au and pp Collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200 GeV

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    Preliminary results on ρ(770)0→π+π−\rho(770)^0 \to \pi^{+}\pi^{-}, K∗(892)0→π^{*}(892)^{0} \to \piK and f0(980)→π+π−f_{0}(980) \to \pi^{+}\pi^{-} production using the mixed-event technique are presented. The measurements are performed at mid-rapidity by the STAR detector in sNN\sqrt{s_{NN}}= 200 GeV Au-Au and pp interactions at RHIC. The results are compared to different measurements at various energies.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures. Talk presented at Quark Matter 2002, Nantes, France, July 18-24, 2002. To appear in the proceedings (Nucl. Phys. A
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