Guiding Design: Exposing Librarian and Student Mental Models of Research Guides

This article details an open card sort study administered to undergraduate students, graduate students, and librarians at the University of Colorado at Boulder in order to reveal perceptions of library research guides. The study identifies user group preferences for organization and content of research guides, as well as themes emerging from the collected study data that contrast librarian and user mental models. Interested librarians will gain insights into student perceptions and use of research guides in academic libraries today as well as recommendations for guide design.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/89875/1/12.1.sinkinson.pd

PRIMUS: The relationship between Star formation and AGN accretion

We study the evidence for a connection between active galactic nuclei (AGN) fueling and star formation by investigating the relationship between the X-ray luminosities of AGN and the star formation rates (SFRs) of their host galaxies. We identify a sample of 309 AGN with $10^{41}<L_\mathrm{X}<10^{44}$ erg s$^{-1}$ at $0.2 < z < 1.2$ in the PRIMUS redshift survey. We find AGN in galaxies with a wide range of SFR at a given $L_X$. We do not find a significant correlation between SFR and the observed instantaneous $L_X$ for star forming AGN host galaxies. However, there is a weak but significant correlation between the mean $L_\mathrm{X}$ and SFR of detected AGN in star forming galaxies, which likely reflects that $L_\mathrm{X}$ varies on shorter timescales than SFR. We find no correlation between stellar mass and $L_\mathrm{X}$ within the AGN population. Within both populations of star forming and quiescent galaxies, we find a similar power-law distribution in the probability of hosting an AGN as a function of specific accretion rate. Furthermore, at a given stellar mass, we find a star forming galaxy $\sim2-3$ more likely than a quiescent galaxy to host an AGN of a given specific accretion rate. The probability of a galaxy hosting an AGN is constant across the main sequence of star formation. These results indicate that there is an underlying connection between star formation and the presence of AGN, but AGN are often hosted by quiescent galaxies

Galaxies Probing Galaxies at High Resolution: Co-Rotating Gas Associated with a Milky Way Analog at z=0.4

We present results on gas flows in the halo of a Milky Way-like galaxy at z=0.413 based on high-resolution spectroscopy of a background galaxy. This is the first study of circumgalactic gas at high spectral resolution towards an extended background source (i.e., a galaxy rather than a quasar). Using longslit spectroscopy of the foreground galaxy, we observe spatially extended H alpha emission with circular rotation velocity v=270 km/s. Using echelle spectroscopy of the background galaxy, we detect Mg II and Fe II absorption lines at impact parameter rho=27 kpc that are blueshifted from systemic in the sense of the foreground galaxy's rotation. The strongest absorber EW(2796) = 0.90 A has an estimated column density (N_H>10^19 cm-2) and line-of-sight velocity dispersion (sigma=17 km/s) that are consistent with the observed properties of extended H I disks in the local universe. Our analysis of the rotation curve also suggests that this r=30 kpc gaseous disk is warped with respect to the stellar disk. In addition, we detect two weak Mg II absorbers in the halo with small velocity dispersions (sigma<10 km/s). While the exact geometry is unclear, one component is consistent with an extraplanar gas cloud near the disk-halo interface that is co-rotating with the disk, and the other is consistent with a tidal feature similar to the Magellanic Stream. We can place lower limits on the cloud sizes (l>0.4 kpc) for these absorbers given the extended nature of the background source. We discuss the implications of these results for models of the geometry and kinematics of gas in the circumgalactic medium.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, submitted to ApJ, comments welcom

Effects of Topically Applied Vitamin D during Corneal Wound Healing

Vitamin D is an important regulator of immune function and largely acts to dampen chronic inflammatory events in a variety of tissues. There is also accumulating evidence that vitamin D acts to enhance initial inflammation, beneficial during both infection and wound healing, and then promotes resolution and prevention of chronic, damaging inflammation. The current study examines the effect of topical vitamin D in a mouse of model of corneal epithelial wound healing, where acute inflammation is necessary for efficient wound closure. At 12 and 18 hours post-wounding, vitamin D treatment significantly delayed wound closure by ~17% and increased infiltration of neutrophils into the central cornea. Basal epithelial cell division, corneal nerve density, and levels of VEGF, TGFβ, IL-1β, and TNFα were unchanged. However, vitamin D increased the production of the anti-microbial peptide CRAMP 12 hours after wounding. These data suggest a possible role for vitamin D in modulating corneal wound healing and have important implications for therapeutic use of vitamin D at the ocular surface

The biogeographic origin of a radiation of trees in Madagascar: implications for the assembly of a tropical forest biome

Abstract Background Madagascar’s rain forests are characterized by extreme and uneven patterns of species richness and endemicity, the biogeographic and evolutionary origins of which are poorly understood. Methods Here we use a time-calibrated phylogeny of a dominant group of trees in Madagascar’s eastern rain forests, Canarium, and related Burseraceae (Canarieae), to test biogeographic hypotheses regarding the origin and radiation of the flora of this unique biome. Results Our findings strongly support the monophyly of Malagasy Canarium, suggesting that this clade represents a previously undocumented in situ radiation. Contrary to expectations of dispersal from Africa during the Oligocene, concurrent with the formation of Madagascar’s rain forest biome, our analyses support a late Miocene origin for Malagasy Canarium, probably by long distance dispersal from Southeast Asia. Discussion Our study illustrates the importance of considering long distance dispersal as a viable explanation for clades with pantropical distributions diversifying subsequent to the Oligocene, and it highlights the formation of the Indo-Australian Archipelago and associated fast-moving equatorial surface currents, suggesting an under-appreciated evolutionary link among tropical centers of endemism. Conclusions We postulate that the relatively recent establishment and radiation of Canarium in Madagascar may have been facilitated by the highly stochastic climates associated with these forest ecosystems. </jats:sec