Towards a Critical Turn in Library UX

In the past decade, cataloguing and classification and information literacy have experienced a critical turn, acknowledging the political, economic, and social forces that shape complex information environments. Library user experience (UX) has yet to undergo such a transformation, however; instead, it continues to be seen as a toolkit of value-neutral approaches for evaluating and improving library services and spaces to enhance user satisfaction and engagement. Library UX draws upon ethnography but is also informed by the principles and values of usability and design. Little attention has been paid to the origins or epistemological underpinnings of UX as a construct, the ways these inform UX practice, and ultimately, how they impact what academic libraries are and what they do, however. With the exception of a 2016 article by Lanclos and Asher, the relationship between corporatism, UX, and the mission and values of academic libraries has yet to be acknowledged or examined. This paper seeks to address this gap. While a handful of library UX practitioners have started to promote a more thoughtful study of individuals\u27 activities and needs, in the main, library UX remains a theoretically weak practice, one that sets out to solve complex problems with practical “solutions.” The failure to interrogate UX as a construct and a practice necessarily forecloses the user-centered problems we address, the tools and strategies we use, and the solutions we propose. We contend that UX would benefit from a deeper engagement with user-centered theories emerging from Library and Information Science (LIS) and critical and feminist perspectives on practice, embodiment, and power or risk perpetuating oppressive, hegemonic ideas about the academic library as a white space and its users as able-bodied

Water relations, survival and growth of Douglas-fir seedlings at a pinegrass dominated site in the interior Douglas-fir zone of south-central British Columbia

A field study was conducted to determine the impact of microclimate and vegetation on survival and growth of planted Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) at a pinegrass (Calamagrostis rubescens Bucki.) dominated clearcut in the Interior Douglas-fir Zone of south-central British Columbia. The study focussed on (1) the water balance of the site, (2) the response of Douglas-fir and pinegrass to moisture deficits, and (3) the influence of environmental factors and the pinegrass-dominated vegetation on Douglas-fir survival and growth. Survival and growth, physiological and microclimate measurements were made within the framework of a replacement series and neighbourhood experiment. Evapotranspiration and surface resistance were calculated based on data including air temperature, solar radiation, rainfall and soil water content measures using gravimetric sampling and the neutron moderation method. After three growing seasons, survival of the Douglas-fir in the absence of pinegrass was 43%. Mortality resulted from a variety of factors including drought, frost, and rodent damage. Poor seedling quality at the time of planting was also suspected to have contributed to mortality. In the presence of the native vegetation Douglas-fir seedling growth was reduced and risk of death increased. Results suggested that: (i) reducing the leaf area index around the seedlings to below 0.5 effectively improved seedling performance and (ii) removing all vegetation immediately adjacent to a seedling was preferable to partial removal. A comparison of the relative growth rates of the Douglas-fir and pinegrass indicated that rapid growth of pinegrass early in the growing season when moisture is least limiting gave it a competitive advantage. Soil temperatures beneath pinegrass dominated vegetation were cooler and warmed more slowly in the spring than beneath bare soil suggesting that native vegetation may cause restricted root growth of Douglas-fir by influencing soil temperature. Longterm climate records showed that amount and distribution of precipitation near the study site varies greatly from year-to-year. Unfavourable early spring growing conditions may be expected 80% of the time. Furthermore, soil water content profiles suggested water deficits develop rapidly at the beginning of the growing season. Predawn twig xylem water potentials suggested that, even in the absence of pinegrass, Douglas-fir were moderately stressed by mid-June in all three growing seasons. At this time, the roots of the Douglas-fir remained in the top 15 cm of soil where moisture deficits were the greatest. In contrast, predawn leaf xylem water potentials of the pine9rass were found to be more responsive to varying weather conditions because pinegrass' roots extend throughout the soil profile. Although the pattern and timing of soil moisture depletion differed in each of the three growing seasons, measurements of total growing season evapotranspiration were similar. Because minor precipitation evnts resulted in substantially elevated soil evaporation at times, it was difficult to separate surface evaporation from transpiration using a technique which treated the entire soil profile as one layer. Regardless, it appears that pinegrass transpiration is responsible for removing most of the water from below 10cm. Pinegrass in fact played a major role in the water balance of the site. Several implications of study results to silvicultural practices are discussed. These include: (i) the importance of considering longterm climatic data when formulating rehabilitation/regeneration strategies; (ii) the increased importance of planting stock handling on harsh sites; (iii) the appropriate selection of species and stocktype; (iv) planting strategies; and (v) site treatment to reduce competition and ameliorate environmental restraints. Finally, the author discusses the limitations of the study and devotes a chapter to suggestions for studying vegetation competition with respect to reforestation problems

Maternal Nicotine Exposure Leads to Impaired Disulfide Bond Formation and Augmented Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress in the Rat Placenta

Maternal nicotine exposure has been associated with many adverse fetal and placental outcomes. Although underlying mechanisms remain elusive, recent studies have identified that augmented endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is linked to placental insufficiency. Moreover, ER function depends on proper disulfide bond formation-a partially oxygen-dependent process mediated by protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) and ER oxidoreductases. Given that nicotine compromised placental development in the rat, and placental insufficiency has been associated with poor disulfide bond formation and ER stress, we hypothesized that maternal nicotine exposure leads to both placental ER stress and impaired disulfide bond formation. To test this hypothesis, female Wistar rats received daily subcutaneous injections of either saline (vehicle) or nicotine bitartrate (1 mg/kg) for 14 days prior to mating and during pregnancy. Placentas were harvested on embryonic day 15 for analysis. Protein and mRNA expression of markers involved in ER stress (e.g., phosphorylated eIF2α, Grp78, Atf4, and CHOP), disulfide bond formation (e.g., PDI, QSOX1, VKORC1), hypoxia (Hif1α), and amino acid deprivation (GCN2) were quantified via Western blot and/or Real-time PCR. Maternal nicotine exposure led to increased expression of Grp78, phosphorylated eIF2α, Atf4, and CHOP (

Recent advances in the vibrational spectroscopic diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide accounting for 1.69 million deaths in 2015. Studies have indicated a 5 year survival rate of 8%–15% in western countries, although a survival rate as low as 1% has been demonstrated for late stage diagnosis. With the advent of targeted therapies, it is imperative to accurately differentiate non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) subtypes in order to ensure efficacy of treatment for patients. Immunohistochemistry and molecular techniques for the diagnosis of NSCLC are increasingly part of the diagnostic algorithm and clinical work-up of lung cancer patients, however due to the limitation of small sample size, overlapping morphological features and molecular characterisation, differential diagnosis of NSCLC still proves challenging. Vibrational spectroscopy has shown promising results for the detection of a variety of cancers and a limited number of studies have focused on lung cancer. Yet to date there has been no published evaluation of vibrational spectroscopy on cytology bronchoscopy samples which may eliminate the necessity for an invasive biopsy procedure. Following an introduction to the epidemiology and etiological factors associated with NSCLC, currently used diagnostic methods and their limitations are presented. A thorough review of Raman and FTIR spectroscopic methods in lung cancer diagnosis is then presented. On review of the literature, vibrational spectroscopy offers an alternative or adjunct diagnostic method to be applied in bronchoscopy cytology samples

Understanding the behavior of Prometheus and Pandora

We revisit the dynamics of Prometheus and Pandora, two small moons flanking Saturn's F ring. Departures of their orbits from freely precessing ellipses result from mutual interactions via their 121:118 mean motion resonance. Motions are chaotic because the resonance is split into four overlapping components. Orbital longitudes were observed to drift away from Voyager predictions, and a sudden jump in mean motions took place close to the time at which the orbits' apses were antialigned in 2000. Numerical integrations reproduce both the longitude drifts and the jumps. The latter have been attributed to the greater strength of interactions near apse antialignment (every 6.2 years), and it has been assumed that this drift-jump behavior will continue indefinitely. We re-examine the dynamics by analogy with that of a nearly adiabatic, parametric pendulum. In terms of this analogy, the current value of the action of the satellite system is close to its maximum in the chaotic zone. Consequently, at present, the two separatrix crossings per precessional cycle occur close to apse antialignment. In this state libration only occurs when the potential's amplitude is nearly maximal, and the 'jumps' in mean motion arise during the short intervals of libration that separate long stretches of circulation. Because chaotic systems explore the entire region of phase space available to them, we expect that at other times the system would be found in states of medium or low action. In a low action state it would spend most of the time in libration, and separatrix crossings would occur near apse alignment. We predict that transitions between these different states can happen in as little as a decade. Therefore, it is incorrect to assume that sudden changes in the orbits only happen near apse antialignment.Comment: 22 pages, 13 figs, Icarus accepte

How Women Living With HIV React and Respond to Learning About Canadian Law That Criminalises HIV Non-disclosure: ‘How Do You Prove That You Told?’

The Women, ART and the Criminalization of HIV Study is a qualitative, arts-based research study focusing on the impact of the HIV non-disclosure law on women living with HIV in Canada. The federal law requires people living with HIV to disclose their HIV-positive status to sexual partners before engaging in sexual activities that pose what the Supreme Court of Canada called a ‘realistic possibility of transmission’. Drawing on findings from seven education and discussion sessions with 48 women living with HIV regarding HIV non-disclosure laws in Canada, this paper highlights the ways in which women living with HIV respond to learning about the criminalisation of HIV non-disclosure. The most common emergent themes included: the way the law reproduces social and legal injustices; gendered experiences of intimate injustice; and the relationship between disclosure and violence against women living with HIV. These discussions illuminate the troubling consequences inherent in a law that is antithetical to the science of HIV transmission risk, and that fails to acknowledge the multiple barriers to HIV disclosure that women living with HIV experience. Women’s experiences also highlight the various ways the law contributes to their experiences of sexism, racism and other forms of marginalisation in society

Microevolution during the emergence of a monophasic Salmonella Typhimurium epidemic in the United Kingdom

Microevolutionary events associated with the emergence and clonal expansion of new 27 epidemic clones of bacterial pathogens hold the key to understanding the drivers of 28 epidemiological success. We describe a comparative whole genome sequence and 29 phylogenomic analysis of monophasic Salmonella Typhimurium isolates from the UK 30 and Italy from 2005-2012. Monophasic isolates from this time formed a single clade 31 distinct from recent monophasic epidemic clones described previously from North 32 America and Spain. The current UK monophasic epidemic clones encode a novel 33 genomic island encoding resistance to heavy metals (SGI-3), and composite transposon 34 encoding antibiotic resistance genes not present in other Typhimurium isolates, that 35 may have contributed to the epidemiological success. We also report a remarkable 36 degree of genotypic variation that accumulated during clonal expansion of a UK 37 epidemic including multiple independent acquisitions of a novel prophage carrying the 38 sopE gene and multiple deletion events affecting the phase II flagellin locus

Highly Conserved Homotrimer Cavity Formed by the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Glycoprotein: A Novel Binding Site

An important stage in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) life cycle is the binding of the spike (S) protein to the angiotensin converting enzyme-2 (ACE2) host cell receptor. Therefore, to explore conserved features in spike protein dynamics and to identify potentially novel regions for drugging, we measured spike protein variability derived from 791 viral genomes and studied its properties by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The findings indicated that S2 subunit (heptad-repeat 1 (HR1), central helix (CH), and connector domain (CD) domains) showed low variability, low fluctuations in MD, and displayed a trimer cavity. By contrast, the receptor binding domain (RBD) domain, which is typically targeted in drug discovery programs, exhibits more sequence variability and flexibility. Interpretations from MD simulations suggest that the monomer form of spike protein is in constant motion showing transitions between an “up” and “down” state. In addition, the trimer cavity may function as a “bouncing spring” that may facilitate the homotrimer spike protein interactions with the ACE2 receptor. The feasibility of the trimer cavity as a potential drug target was examined by structure based virtual screening. Several hits were identified that have already been validated or suggested to inhibit the SARS-CoV-2 virus in published cell models. In particular, the data suggest an action mechanism for molecules including Chitosan and macrolides such as the mTOR (mammalian target of Rapamycin) pathway inhibitor Rapamycin. These findings identify a novel small molecule binding-site formed by the spike protein oligomer, that might assist in future drug discovery programs aimed at targeting the coronavirus (CoV) family of viruses