The Sustainability, Preservation and Accessibility of Internal and External Communities by Universities

4th International Conference on Open RepositoriesThis presentation was part of the session : DSpace User Group PresentationsDate: 2009-05-20 03:30 PM – 05:00 PMThis paper will provide three different cases or examples of how a mid-size University is able to implement DSpace across diverse groups of users. Additionally, one of the cases will show how the DSpace software has been 'repurposed' to serve as the university library's Electronic Reserve and how it has been linked the library's ILS. The paper will show how the university has obtained a consistent level of sustainability, preservation and accessibility to using DSpace with limited resources

The column density towards LMC X-1

We measure the neutral absorption towards the black hole X-ray binary system LMC X-1 from six archival soft X-ray spectra obtained with the gratings and/or CCD detectors on Chandra, XMM-Newton, and Swift. Four spectral models for the soft continuum have been investigated. While the powerlaw model may overestimate NH considerably, the others give consistent results. Taking the lower metalicity of the Large Magellanic Cloud into account, we find equivalent hydrogen column densities of N_H = (1.0-1.3)*10^22 cm^-2, with a systematic dependence on the orbital phase. This variation of the neutral absorption can nearly explain the orbital modulation of the soft X-ray flux recently detected with the All Sky Monitor (ASM) on the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE).Comment: 4 pages, accepted for publication as a Letter in Astronomy and Astrophysic

The cost and benefit of quorum sensing-controlled bacteriocin production in Lactobacillus plantarum

This study was funded by the Andalucía Talent Hub Program launched by the Andalusian Knowledge Agency and co-funded by the European Union's Seventh Framework Program, Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (COFUND—grant agreement no. 291780) and the Ministry of Economy, Innovation, Science and Employment of the Junta de Andalucía.Bacteria eliminate competitors via 'chemical warfare' with bacteriocins. Some species appear to adjust bacteriocin production conditionally in response to the social environment. We tested whether variation in the cost and benefit of producing bacteriocins could explain such conditional behaviour, in the bacteria Lactobacillus plantarum. We found that: (a) bacterial bacteriocin production could be upregulated by either the addition of a synthetic autoinducer peptide (PLNC8IF; signalling molecule), or by a plasmid which constitutively encodes for the production of this peptide; (b) bacteriocin production is costly, leading to reduced growth when grown in poor and, to a lesser extent, in rich media; (c) bacteriocin production provides a fitness advantage, when grown in competition with sensitive strains; and (d) the fitness benefits provided by bacteriocin production are greater at higher cell densities. These results show how the costs and benefits of upregulating bacteriocin production can depend upon abiotic and biotic conditions.PostprintPeer reviewe

Detecting outliers in multivariate volatility models: a wavelet procedure

It is well known that outliers can affect both the estimation of parameters and volatilities when fitting a univariate GARCH-type model. Similar biases and impacts are expected to be found on correlation dynamics in the context of multivariate time series. We study the impact of outliers on the estimation of correlations when fitting multivariate GARCH models and propose a general detection algorithm based on wavelets, that can be applied to a large class of multivariate volatility models. Its effectiveness is evaluated through a Monte Carlo study before it is applied to real data. The method is both effective and reliable, since it detects very few false outliers.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Palatini approach to bouncing cosmologies and DSR-like effects

It is shown that a quadratic gravitational Lagrangian in the Palatini formulation is able to capture different aspects of quantum gravity phenomenology in a single framework. In particular, in this theory field excitations propagating with different energy-densities perceive different background metrics, a fundamental characteristic of the DSR and Rainbow Gravity approaches. This theory, however, avoids the so-called soccer ball problem. Also, the resulting isotropic and anisotropic cosmologies are free from the big bang singularity. This singularity avoidance occurs non-perturbatively and shares some similitudes with the effective dynamics of loop quantum cosmology.Comment: 4 pages. Proceedings of Loops'11, Madrid. To appear in Journal of Physics: Conference Series (JPCS

Missing: Where Are the Migrants in Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Plans?

Influenza pandemics are perennial global health security threats, with novel and seasonal influenza affecting a large proportion of the world’s population, causing enormous economic and social destruction. Novel viruses such as influenza A(H7N9) continue to emerge, posing zoonotic and potential pandemic threats. Many countries have developed pandemic influenza preparedness plans (PIPPs) aimed at guiding actions and investments to respond to such outbreak events. Migrant and mobile population groups—such as migrant workers, cross-border frontier workers, refugees, asylum seekers, and other non-citizen categories residing within national boundaries—may be disproportionately affected in the event of health emergencies, with irregular/undocumented migrants experiencing even greater vulnerabilities. Because of a combination of political, sociocultural, economic, and legal barriers, many migrants have limited access to and awareness of health and welfare services, as well as their legal rights. The conditions in which migrants travel, live, and work often carry exceptional risks to their physical and mental well-being. Even if certain migrant groups have access to health services, they tend to avoid them due to fear of deportation, xenophobic and discriminatory attitudes within society, and other linguistic, cultural, and economic barriers. Evidence indicates that social stigmatization and anxieties generated by restrictive immigration policies hinder undocumented immigrants’ access to health rights and minimizes immigrants’ sense of entitlement to such rights

Habitability: CAMELOT 4

During 1988 to 1989 the NASA/USRA Advanced Design Program sponsored research and design efforts aimed at developing habitability criteria and at defining a habitability concept as a useful tool in understanding and evaluating dwellings for prolonged stays in extraterrestrial space. The Circulating Auto sufficient Mars-Earth Luxurious Orbital Transport (CAMELOT) was studied as a case in which the students would try to enhance the quality of life of the inhabitants by applying architectural design methodology. The study proposed 14 habitability criteria considered necessary to fulfill the defined habitability concept, which is that state of equilibrium that results from the interaction between components of the Individual Architecture Mission Complex, which allows a person to sustain physiological homeostatis, adequate performance, and acceptable social relationships. Architecture, design development, refinements and revisions to improve the quality of life, new insights on artificial gravity, form and constitution problems, and the final design concept are covered