Ageism in Academic Librarianship

Background Nearly one out of every ten librarians is under the age of thirty. The average age of a graduate student in library and information science is 30-35 years old. Between 2010-2020, 45% of librarians will reach the retirement age of 65 years old. The relative age of the profession will continue to decrease as retirements increase. Statistically, the population of young librarians is a growing minority. Young, new librarians face age discrimination, including disrespectful treatment in the workplace and unrealistic expectations of performance. Ageism in academic libraries results in job dissatisfaction and loss of retention for these new librarians. A “revolving-door trend” of new librarians is particularly troubling in light of concerted recruitment and retention efforts. The following explores library literature on ageism and presents anecdotal evidence related to age discrimination in academic librarianship

MySpace and Facebook: Reaching Our Students With Their Technology of Choice

How college students use the incredibly popular Myspace and Facebook directly relates to two conference themes: Keeping up with Change and Working with New Technologies and Environments. Myspace and Facebook are fairly new web portals and services that have been embraced by Millennials and Generation Y. How can libraries and librarians utilize these technologies? This talk will begin with a brief introduction to features of these technologies, such as easy creation of personalized web sites, photo sharing, messaging capabilities, search functions, and most importantly, customizable campus-specific links. Differences and similarities among these technologies will be discussed as a way of understanding the reasons for the technology\u27s rapid and wide adoption. Data on the usage and application amongst college students on campus at California State University at San Marcos, as well as high school and college students nationwide, will be provided. Particular focus will be on the many ways these technologies can be used to supplement an information literacy program, to facilitate outreach to a variety of campus populations, and to assess information literacy instruction. Librarians familiar with these technologies will find that they can be a powerful, effective way of reaching students at their point of need while minimizing barriers for students getting research assistance and access to library resources. Learning outcomes for this presentation will include: basic knowledge of the features of Myspace and Facebook, understanding of how college students use these technologies and ideas for practical integration into information literacy curriculum and outreach settings

American Family Cohort, a data resource description

This manuscript is a research resource description and presents a large and novel Electronic Health Records (EHR) data resource, American Family Cohort (AFC). The AFC data is derived from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) certified American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) PRIME registry. The PRIME registry is the largest national Qualified Clinical Data Registry (QCDR) for Primary Care. The data is converted to a popular common data model, the Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) Common Data Model (CDM). The resource presents approximately 90 million encounters for 7.5 million patients. All 100% of the patients present age, gender, and address information, and 73% report race. Nealy 93% of patients have lab data in LOINC, 86% have medication data in RxNorm, 93% have diagnosis in SNOWMED and ICD, 81% have procedures in HCPCS or CPT, and 61% have insurance information. The richness, breadth, and diversity of this research accessible and research ready data is expected to accelerate observational studies in many diverse areas. We expect this resource to facilitate research in many years to come

Influence of the ratio of planktonic to benthic diatoms on lacustrine organic matter δ13C from Erlongwan maar lake, northeast China

Carbon isotope ratio (δ13Corg) values of organic matter in lake sediments are commonly used to reconstruct environmental change, but the factors which influence change are varied and complex. Here we report δ13C values for sediments from Erlongwan maar lake in northeast China. In this record, changes in δ13C cannot be explained by simple changes in aquatic productivity. Instead, values were likely influenced by differences in the ratio between planktonic and benthic algae, as indicated by the remains of diatoms. This is because the variation of δ13Corg in algae from different habitats is controlled by the thickness of the diffusive boundary layer, which is dependent on the turbulence of the water. Compared with benthic algae, which grow in relatively still water, pelagic algae are exposed to greater water movement. This is known to dramatically reduce the thickness of the boundary layer and was found to cause even more severe δ13C depletion. In Erlongwan maar lake, low values were linked to the dominance of planktonic diatoms during the period commonly known as the Medieval Warm Period. Values gradually increased with the onset of the Little Ice Age, which we interpret as being driven by an increase in the proportion of benthic taxa, due to effect of the colder climate. The increase in planktonic diatoms at the end of the Little Ice Age, linked to higher temperature and a reduction in ice cover, resulted in a further decline in δ13Corg

Nasopharyngeal Microbiota Profiles in Rural Venezuelan Children Are Associated With Respiratory and Gastrointestinal Infections

BACKGROUND: Recent research suggests that the microbiota affects susceptibility to both respiratory tract infections (RTIs) and gastrointestinal infections (GIIs). In order to optimize global treatment options, it is important to characterize microbiota profiles across different niches and geographic/socioeconomic areas where RTI and GII prevalences are high. METHODS: We performed 16S sequencing of nasopharyngeal swabs from 209 Venezuelan Amerindian children aged 6 weeks-59 months who were participating in a 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) study. Using random forest models, differential abundance testing, and regression analysis, we determined whether specific bacteria were associated with RTIs or GIIs and variation in PCV13 response. RESULTS: Microbiota compositions differed between children with or without RTIs (P = .018) or GIIs (P = .001). Several species were associated with the absence of infections. Some of these health-associated bacteria are also observed in developed regions, such as Corynebacterium (log2(fold change [FC]) = 3.30 for RTIs and log2(FC) = 1.71 for GIIs), while others are not commonly observed in developed regions, such as Acinetobacter (log2(FC) = 2.82 and log2(FC) = 5.06, respectively). Klebsiella spp. presence was associated with both RTIs (log2(FC) = 5.48) and GIIs (log2(FC) = 7.20). CONCLUSIONS: The nasopharyngeal microbiota of rural Venezuelan children included several bacteria that thrive in tropical humid climates. Interestingly, nasopharyngeal microbiota composition not only differed in children with an RTI but also in those with a GII, which suggests a reciprocal interplay between the 2 environments. Knowledge of region-specific microbiota patterns enables tailoring of preventive and therapeutic approaches

Evaluating predictive pharmacogenetic signatures of adverse events in colorectal cancer patients treated with fluoropyrimidines

The potential clinical utility of genetic markers associated with response to fluoropyrimidine treatment in colorectal cancer patients remains controversial despite extensive study. Our aim was to test the clinical validity of both novel and previously identified markers of adverse events in a broad clinical setting. We have conducted an observational pharmacogenetic study of early adverse events in a cohort study of 254 colorectal cancer patients treated with 5-fluorouracil or capecitabine. Sixteen variants of nine key folate (pharmacodynamic) and drug metabolising (pharmacokinetic) enzymes have been analysed as individual markers and/or signatures of markers. We found a significant association between TYMP S471L (rs11479) and early dose modifications and/or severe adverse events (adjusted OR = 2.02 [1.03; 4.00], p = 0.042, adjusted OR = 2.70 [1.23; 5.92], p = 0.01 respectively). There was also a significant association between these phenotypes and a signature of DPYD mutations (Adjusted OR = 3.96 [1.17; 13.33], p = 0.03, adjusted OR = 6.76 [1.99; 22.96], p = 0.002 respectively). We did not identify any significant associations between the individual candidate pharmacodynamic markers and toxicity. If a predictive test for early adverse events analysed the TYMP and DPYD variants as a signature, the sensitivity would be 45.5 %, with a positive predictive value of just 33.9 % and thus poor clinical validity. Most studies to date have been under-powered to consider multiple pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic variants simultaneously but this and similar individualised data sets could be pooled in meta-analyses to resolve uncertainties about the potential clinical utility of these markers

Cancer-Secreted miR-105 Destroys Vascular Endothelial Barriers to Promote Metastasis

SummaryCancer-secreted microRNAs (miRNAs) are emerging mediators of cancer-host crosstalk. Here we show that miR-105, which is characteristically expressed and secreted by metastatic breast cancer cells, is a potent regulator of migration through targeting the tight junction protein ZO-1. In endothelial monolayers, exosome-mediated transfer of cancer-secreted miR-105 efficiently destroys tight junctions and the integrity of these natural barriers against metastasis. Overexpression of miR-105 in nonmetastatic cancer cells induces metastasis and vascular permeability in distant organs, whereas inhibition of miR-105 in highly metastatic tumors alleviates these effects. miR-105 can be detected in the circulation at the premetastatic stage, and its levels in the blood and tumor are associated with ZO-1 expression and metastatic progression in early-stage breast cancer