Contributions to the Scholarly Record: Conferences & Symposia in the Repository

Many academic libraries have found opportunities to showcase unique content through conference-hosting services, such as website-hosting and conference proceeding publishing. This poster describes two libraries’ successful efforts to archive conference materials from an undergraduate research conference and a professional conference for scholars. Through the lens of these two case studies, the repository coordinators will discuss engaging with presenters on topics of author rights, ethical use of others’ work in their presentations, creating a sustainable infrastructure for continued growth of the conference, and collaborating with faculty

Building open lab hardware to tackle antimicrobial resistance

Microbiological imaging can be lengthy and labour-intensive without expensive lab-automation. Using Open Source hardware and software, Dr Al Edwards’ Biomedical Technology Lab designed a robot to take high-resolution images of experiments capturing changes in colour and fluorescence due to bacterial growth. This affordable solution has increased the Lab’s capability to image and screen samples with higher throughput, accuracy, and more kinetic data. The system is fully customisable to suit any imaging experiment and costs only £600 to build from Open Source resources

A Positive Library Experience for International Students? Results from a Business Librarians Association survey

The theme of the annual Business Librarians Association BLA) three-day conference held at Stirling Management Centre during summer 2012 was ‘Going global? Challenges of internationalisation’. Business schools in the UK attract large numbers of international students,2 and the conference aimed to explore how business librarians can help provide a positive experience for international students. To support this theme, three business librarians, Stephen Bull from University of Birmingham,Stephanie Allen from University of Worcester and Alison Lahlafi from Sheffield Hallam University, collaborated on a survey of BLA members services to international students

An investigation of the influence of age and saliva flow on the oral retention of whey protein and its potential effect on the perception and acceptance of whey protein beverages

Protein fortified products are regularly recommended to older adults to improve nutritional status and limit sarcopenia. However protein fortification can elicit negative sensory attributes such as mouthdrying. Sensitivity to mouthdrying can increase with age, yet the influence of saliva flow and mucoadhesion remain uncertain. Here two studies tested different whey protein beverages (WPB); 22 healthy younger volunteers completed a pilot and 84 healthy volunteers from two age groups (18–30; 65+) completed the main study. In both studies salivary flow rates (mL/min) were measured and saliva samples were collected at time intervals post beverage consumption to measure mucoadhesion to the oral cavity, where protein concentration was analysed by Bradford Assay. Volunteers rated perception and acceptability of WPBs in the main study. WPB consumption resulted in significantly increased protein concentration (p < 0.0001) in saliva samples compared with a control whey permeate beverage. Older adults had significantly lower unstimulated saliva flow (p = 0.003) and significantly increased protein concentration (p = 0.02) in saliva samples, compared with younger adults. Heating of WPB significantly (p < 0.05) increased mouthdrying and thickness perception and reduced sweetness compared with unheated WPB. Mucoadhesion is concluded to be a true phenomenon in WPBs and increases with age

Interactions between pygmy bluetongue lizards and co-existing species

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA on 14 June 2015, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/03721426.2015.1051644. This author version will be under embargo for a period of 12 months from the date of publicationThis paper describes observations of interactions between endangered pygmy bluetongue lizards (Tiliqua adelaidensis) and other species that co-occur in their native grassland habitat in the mid-north region of South Australia. The lizard lives in spider burrows, and rarely moves away from the burrow entrance. We viewed over 16,000 h of video recording of occupied pygmy bluetongue lizard burrows, taken over five 10 day periods throughout one complete lizard activity season, and documented all cases in which these endangered lizards interacted with co-existing species. We found that these interactions were infrequent. We observed potential competition over burrow resources with lycosid spiders (Lycosa spp), centipedes, and a house mouse, and potential competition over invertebrate prey with a predatory wasp. We also observed unsuccessful predation attempts on lizards in burrows by ravens and brown snakes. We suggest that conservation management might have proceeded effectively without this information, but that it provides useful background information for informed decision making

‘You certainly don’t get promoted for just teaching’:experiences of education-focused academics in research-intensive universities

Changes in drivers of academic roles within higher education institutions globally have resulted in increased proportions of academics in education focused (EF) posts. International and UK research suggests that EF academics can experience dissatisfaction with career progression and the perceived value of their work, including those in research-intensive universities. Previous UK research was conducted prior to the introduction of the TEF which has altered the landscape. Therefore, it was timely to examine the current experience of EF academics in research-intensive universities through a theoretical lens to understand barriers and facilitators to career progression. This interview-based study used two theoretical frameworks, Feldman and Ng’s Framework for Career Mobility, Embeddedness, and Success and Kanter’s theory of Power within organisations to explore the experiences of 43 EF academics across 12 research-intensive UK universities. Four contract types were identified, some of which allowed promotion. Three broad themes were derived from the data, including (1) Lack of agreement on the definition of education-focused academic roles, (2) Level of value and appreciation of educational expertise and the impact on education-focused academics, (3) Career development opportunities for education-focused academics. Recommendations to further enhance the experience and career progression for EF academics in research-intensive universities further include; ensuring transparency in recruitment into EF posts as to whether career development is possible within that post, the need to continue the sector-wide discussion on the definition of EF roles that recognises the complexity and diversity of activity and continued work to value and recognise appropriately educational expertise.</p

Effectiveness of Peer-led Eating Disorders Prevention: A Replication Trial

The aim of this study was to replicate and extend results of a previous trial that investigated the effectiveness of two peer-led eating disorders prevention interventions on reducing eating disorder risk factors in undergraduate women (Becker, Smith & Ciao, 2006). In order to extend findings from the previous study by allowing for investigation of differential response, we randomly assigned a larger sample of both higher- and lower-risk sorority members (N = 188; age M = 18.64, range = 18-21; 20% minority) to either a cognitive dissonance (CD) or a media advocacy (MA) intervention under naturalistic conditions. Interventions were delivered by trained sorority peer-leaders and consisted of two 2-hour group sessions. Participants completed questionnaires assessing eating disorder risk factors at pre-treatment, post-treatment, 7-week follow-up, and 8-month follow-up. Results indicate that both interventions reduced thin-ideal internalization, body dissatisfaction, dietary restraint, and bulimic pathology at 8-months, although higher- and lower-risk participants responded somewhat differently. Both CD and MA generally appeared effective for higher-risk participants; only CD, however, appeared to benefit lower-risk participants. Results further support the viability of using peer-leaders in dissonance-based prevention

Testing the robustness of transmission network models to predict ectoparasite loads. One lizard, two ticks and four years

Open access under CC BY-NC-SA licenseAbstract We investigated transmission pathways for two tick species, Bothriocroton hydrosauri and Amblyomma limbatum, among their sleepy lizard (Tiliqua rugosa) hosts in a natural population in South Australia. Our aim was to determine whether a transmission network model continued to predict parasite load patterns effectively under varying ecological conditions. Using GPS loggers we identified the refuge sites used by each lizard on each day. We estimated infectious time windows for ticks that detached from a lizard in a refuge. Time windows were from the time when a detached tick molted and become infective, until the time it died from desiccation while waiting for a new host. Previous research has shown that A. limbatum molts earlier and survives longer than B. hydrosauri. We developed two transmission network models based on these differences in infective time windows for the two tick species. Directed edges were generated in the network if one lizard used a refuge that had previously been used by another lizard within the infectious time window. We used those models to generate values of network node in-strength for each lizard, a measure of how strongly connected an individual is to other lizards in the transmission network, and a prediction of infection risk for each host. The consistent correlations over time between B. hydrosauri infection intensity and network derived infection risk suggest that network models can be robust to environmental variation among years. However, the contrasting lack of consistent correlation in A. limbatum suggests that the utility of the same network models may depend on the specific biology of a parasite species

Consistent effects of whey protein fortification on consumer perception and liking of solid food matrices (cakes and biscuits) regardless of age and saliva flow

Although there are numerous high protein products on the market, they are typically not designed with, or for, older consumers. This is surprising considering that dietary guidelines recognise the need for higher protein intake in later life. Protein fortified products are, however, associated with negative sensory attributes and poor consumer acceptance. This paper investigates the extent of mouthdrying sensations within a high protein solid food matrix, along with the effect of age and saliva flow. Solid models using cakes and biscuits, with or without protein fortification, were investigated. The sensory profile and physical properties were analysed and two volunteer studies (n = 84; n = 70) were carried out using two age groups (18–30; 65+). Volunteers rated individual perception and liking of products, and salivary flow rates (mL/min) were measured. Unstimulated salivary flow rates were significantly lower (p < 0.05) in older adults, although this was not found to influence product perception. Protein fortification of cakes and biscuits significantly increased (p < 0.05) perceived mouthdrying, hardness and “off” flavours, and significantly reduced (p < 0.05) melting rate, moistness and liking compared with the control versions. There is a clear need to address negative sensory attributes associated with protein fortification of cakes and biscuits to ensure product suitability for older adults

Challenges in microfluidic and point-of-care phenotypic antimicrobial resistance tests

To combat the threat to public health of antimicrobial resistance, there is a need for faster, more portable diagnostic tools to aid in antibiotic selection. Current methods for determining antimicrobial resistance of pathogens in clinical samples take days to result and require high levels of user input. Microfluidics offers many potential benefits, reducing time to result, user input, and allowing point of care testing. This review focuses on the challenges of developing functional or phenotypic microfluidic antimicrobial susceptibility tests; such methods complement other vital tools such as nucleic acid detection. Some of the most important challenges identified here are not unique to microfluidics but apply to most antimicrobial susceptibility testing innovations and relate to the nature of the sample being tested. For many high priority samples, mixtures of bacteria, highly variable target cell density, and the sample matrix can all affect measurements, and miniaturization can create sensitivity problems if target bacteria are dilute. Recent advances including smartphone capability, new sensors, microscopy, and a resurgence in paper microfluidics offer important opportunities for microfluidic engineering to simplify functional and phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility testing. But the complexity of most clinical samples remains one of the biggest barriers to rapid uptake of microfluidics for antimicrobial resistance testing