The principles of tomorrow's university

In the 21st Century, research is increasingly data- and computation-driven. Researchers, funders, and the larger community today emphasize the traits of openness and reproducibility. In March 2017, 13 mostly early-career research leaders who are building their careers around these traits came together with ten university leaders (presidents, vice presidents, and vice provosts), representatives from four funding agencies, and eleven organizers and other stakeholders in an NIH- and NSF-funded one-day, invitation-only workshop titled "Imagining Tomorrow's University." Workshop attendees were charged with launching a new dialog around open research – the current status, opportunities for advancement, and challenges that limit sharing. The workshop examined how the internet-enabled research world has changed, and how universities need to change to adapt commensurately, aiming to understand how universities can and should make themselves competitive and attract the best students, staff, and faculty in this new world. During the workshop, the participants re-imagined scholarship, education, and institutions for an open, networked era, to uncover new opportunities for universities to create value and serve society. They expressed the results of these deliberations as a set of 22 principles of tomorrow's university across six areas: credit and attribution, communities, outreach and engagement, education, preservation and reproducibility, and technologies. Activities that follow on from workshop results take one of three forms. First, since the workshop, a number of workshop authors have further developed and published their white papers to make their reflections and recommendations more concrete. These authors are also conducting efforts to implement these ideas, and to make changes in the university system. Second, we plan to organise a follow-up workshop that focuses on how these principles could be implemented. Third, we believe that the outcomes of this workshop support and are connected with recent theoretical work on the position and future of open knowledge institutions

Differentiation-associated alteration in human monocyte-macrophage accessory cell function.

Abstract Human monocyte (Mo) to macrophage (Mx) differentiation is associated with marked and well studied changes in morphology, biochemical parameters, and effector cell function. Nevertheless, the comparative accessory cell (AC) function of blood Mo and differentiated Mx has not been carefully studied. We, therefore, examined the kinetics and mechanisms of change in AC function during in vitro Mo to Mx differentiation. The system utilized has two distinctive features: blood Mo and resultant cultured Mx represent a cohort of cells derived from the bone marrow within a 12-hr period. Moreover, the in vitro derived Mx utilized herein have been characterized extensively and are functionally and biochemically similar to pulmonary macrophages (PMx). In the experiments reported, AC functions of blood Mo, Mx derived from Mo after 1 to 6 days of culture, and PMx was compared. AC were cultured with nylon wool column-purified autologous T cells and were stimulated with concanavalin A (Con A) or streptokinase-streptodornase (SKSD). Blood T cell proliferation to Con A or SKSD was inhibited greater than 90% by the removal of Mo and was reconstituted by 20% Mo. Mx derived from Mo by culture for 1 to 3 days exhibited the same (or better) AC function as Mo when T cells were stimulated with either SKSD or Con A. In marked contrast, Mx derived from 6-day cultures exhibited less than or equal to 15% of Mo (i.e., control) capacity to support T cell proliferative response to SKSD. Six-day Mx support T cell proliferation to Con A was somewhat variable. Similar to 6-day cultured Mx, PMx failed to function as AC. The mechanism of loss of AC function was examined: a) cultured Mx maintained Ia antigen positivity for greater than 8 days; b) mixing experiments with Mo + 6-day cultured Mx or Mo + PMx demonstrated no T cell suppression; c) the normal capacity of most 6-day cultured Mx to support Con A but not SKSD induced T cell proliferation, apparently ruled out the loss of the ability to deliver a nonspecific "second signal" as the involved mechanism; d) inhibition of Mo to Mx differentiation by dexamethasone preserved AC activity. Thus, human culture-derived Mx and PMx exhibit deficit AC function through loss of an undefined mechanism. However, loss of AC antigen processing or presentation may occur.</jats:p

Building Geoscience Semantic Web Applications Using Established Ontologies

The EarthCollab project is using the VIVO Semantic Web software suite to support the discovery of information, data, and potential collaborators within the geodesy and polar science communities. This paper discusses the ontology selection, consolidation, and reuse efforts of EarthCollab. EarthCollab’s ontology design approach heavily emphasizes ontology reuse, bringing together existing ontologies to support diverse use cases related to the discovery of geoscience information and resources. We developed a small local ontology to tie these existing ontologies together and to build appropriate geoscience-relevant connections. Five key ontology decision drivers are presented to outline EarthCollab’s ontology design process and decision points: use cases, existing systems and metadata, semantic application dependencies, external ontology characteristics, and community recommendations for good ontological modeling practices

EOL Arctic Data Connects

Poster for VIVO16 conference on the NCAR/EOL Arctic Data Connects VIVO instance highlighting NSF/NPRB Bering Sea Project datasets

Preparedness for research data sharing: a study of university researchers in three European countries

Many government and funding bodies around the world have been advocating open access to research data, arguing that such open access can bring a significant degree of economic and social benefit. However, the question remains, do researchers themselves want to share their research data, and even if they do how far they are prepared to make this happen? In this paper we report on an international survey involving university researchers in three countries, viz. UK, France and Turkey. We found that researchers have a number of concerns for data sharing, and in general there is a lack of understanding of the requirements for making data publicly available and accessible. We note that significant training and advocacy will be required to make the vision of data sharing a realit