Extending Greenstone for Institutional Repositories

We examine the problem of designing a generalized system for building institutional repositories. Widely used schemes such as DSpace are tailored to a particular set of requirements: fixed metadata set; standard view when searching and browsing; pre-determined sequence for depositing items; built-in workflow for vetting new items. In contrast, Fedora builds in flexibility: institutional repositories are just one possible instantiation—however generality incurs a high overhead and uptake has been sluggish. This paper shows how existing components of the Greenstone software can be repurposed to provide a generalized institutional repository that falls between these extremes

Version 4 of the CRU TS monthly high-resolution gridded multivariate climate dataset

CRU TS (Climatic Research Unit gridded Time Series) is a widely used climate dataset on a 0.5 degrees latitude by 0.5 degrees longitude grid over all land domains of the world except Antarctica. It is derived by the interpolation of monthly climate anomalies from extensive networks of weather station observations. Here we describe the construction of a major new version, CRU TS v4. It is updated to span 1901-2018 by the inclusion of additional station observations, and it will be updated annually. The interpolation process has been changed to use angular-distance weighting (ADW), and the production of secondary variables has been revised to better suit this approach. This implementation of ADW provides improved traceability between each gridded value and the input observations, and allows more informative diagnostics that dataset users can utilise to assess how dataset quality might vary geographically

Quantification of NOx reduction via nitrate accumulation on a TiO2 photocatalytic concrete pavement

Field trials of photocatalytic pavements were recently initiated and are presently being considered by many states (e.g., Virginia, Texas, New York, and Missouri). Results from this study originate from the country’s first air-purifying asphalt and concrete photocatalytic pavements, constructed on Dec. 20, 2010. The test area is a pavement site located on the LSU campus. The objective of the study is to validate field photocatalytic degradation of NOx in a field environment by measuring the day to day accumulation of the oxidized byproduct; nitrate salts. The mass of nitrates, produced by the real life photocatalytic pavement, were measured. The measurement was then correlated to the same mass of nitrates as recovered from laboratory samples with recorded NOx reductions in accordance to the Japanese Industrial Standards. This paper presents a nitrate sampling procedure, to be administered in the field, without the need for core sampling. Based on the results of the experimental program, the proposed method, quantify photocatalytic efficiency through nitrate measurements, was successful. There is evidence that photocatalytic degradation of nitrogen oxide was occurring in the treated section when compared to the control. The photocatalytic process was highly active during the first four days, followed by a decrease in the degradation rate of NOx. The decreased degradation activity might be caused by a continuous decrease in ambient NOx levels that occurred during the collection. Full regeneration of photocatalytic activity occurs in the field through a self-cleaning process during a rain event. Six months of traffic and in-service operating conditions proved to have negligible effects on the durability of the photocatalytic coating, when comparing the mass of nitrates recovered to just after installation. In addition, there was a good agreement between NO removal efficiency measured in the field after one day of nitrate accumulation with the laboratory experiment at the same level of relative humidity

Completing the Circle around Rabaul: The Seizure of the Admiralties, February to May 1944.

This study examines the operational history of the First Cavalry Divisions conquest of the Admiralty Islands during World War Two as the final phase of Operation Cartwheel. Cartwheel called a two pronged attack; one prong in New Guinea, by-passing large Japanese garrisons and the other in the northern Solomon Islands with the goal the isolation of the strong point at Rabaul. The material is drawn primarily from U.S. Army records held by the National Archives at College Park, Maryland, records from the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama and other reports. The study concludes that the conquest of the Admiralty Islands allowed the by-pass of Rabaul and Wewak, New Guinea. The Admiralty Islands served as a base for future operations carried out against the Japanese

Mental health-related conversations on social media and crisis episodes: a time-series regression analysis

We aimed to investigate whether daily fluctuations in mental health-relevant Twitter posts are associated with daily fluctuations in mental health crisis episodes. We conducted a primary and replicated time-series analysis of retrospectively collected data from Twitter and two London mental healthcare providers. Daily numbers of ‘crisis episodes’ were defined as incident inpatient, home treatment team and crisis house referrals between 2010 and 2014. Higher volumes of depression and schizophrenia tweets were associated with higher numbers of same-day crisis episodes for both sites. After adjusting for temporal trends, seven-day lagged analyses showed significant positive associations on day 1, changing to negative associations by day 4 and reverting to positive associations by day 7. There was a 15% increase in crisis episodes on days with above-median schizophrenia-related Twitter posts. A temporal association was thus found between Twitter-wide mental health-related social media content and crisis episodes in mental healthcare replicated across two services. Seven-day associations are consistent with both precipitating and longer-term risk associations. Sizes of effects were large enough to have potential local and national relevance and further research is needed to evaluate how services might better anticipate times of higher risk and identify the most vulnerable groups

Investigating the association between characteristics of local crisis care systems and service use in an English national survey

Supplementary material is available online at https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2023.595This paper presents independent research commissioned and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Policy Research Programme, conducted by the NIHR Policy Research Unit (PRU) in Mental Health. Research by N.S. is supported by the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) South London at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. N.S. is a member of King’s Improvement Science, which offers co-funding to the NIHR ARC South London and is funded by King’s Health Partners (Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College London and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust), and the Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation. Research by A.R.-G. is also supported by the Spanish Ministry of Universities and the Next Generation European Union funds. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR, the Department of Health and Social Care or its arm’s-length bodies, or other government departments.Background In England, a range of mental health crisis care models and approaches to organising crisis care systems have been implemented, but characteristics associated with their effectiveness are poorly understood. Aims To (a) develop a typology of catchment area mental health crisis care systems and (b) investigate how crisis care service models and system characteristics relate to psychiatric hospital admissions and detentions. Method Crisis systems data were obtained from a 2019 English national survey. Latent class analyses were conducted to identify discernible typologies, and mixed-effects negative binomial regression models were fitted to explore associations between crisis care models and admissions and detention rates, obtained from nationally reported data. Results No clear typology of catchment area crisis care systems emerged. Regression models suggested that provision of a crisis telephone service within the local crisis system was associated with a 11.6% lower admissions rate and 15.3% lower detention rate. Provision of a crisis cafe was associated with a 7.8% lower admission rates. The provision of a crisis assessment team separate from the crisis resolution and home treatment service was associated with a 12.8% higher admission rate. Conclusions The configuration of crisis care systems varies considerably in England, but we could not derive a typology that convincingly categorised crisis care systems. Our results suggest that a crisis phone line and a crisis cafe may be associated with lower admission rates. However, our findings suggest crisis assessment teams, separate from home treatment teams, may not be associated with reductions in admission and detentions.National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Policy Research ProgrammeNIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) South London at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation TrustKing’s Health Partners (Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College London and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust)Spanish Ministry of Universities and the Next Generation European Union fund

Beyond the University: An Initiative for Continuing Engagement among Alumni

In an effort to leverage students’ positive community engagement experiences as they transition to and become alumni, Portland State University (PSU) embarked on a pilot “Continuing Engagement Program.” This article provides a rationale for this effort, an overview of the programmatic elements, lessons learned, and future engagement strategies. The authors situate the Community Engagement Program (CEP) in the current alumni engagement literature, share findings from the PSU program, and hope to inspire additional creative thinking and action to support alumni and other community members’ persistent engagement for positive community change

Nebulised surfactant in preterm infants with or at risk of respiratory distress syndrome

Nebulised surfactant has the potential to deliver surfactant to the infant lung with the goal of avoiding endotracheal intubation and ventilation, ventilator-induced lung injury and bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). To determine the effect of nebulised surfactant administration either as prophylaxis or treatment compared to placebo, no treatment or intratracheal surfactant administration on morbidity and mortality in preterm infants with, or at risk of, respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). Searches were performed of CENTRAL (The Cochrane Library, January 2012), MEDLINE and PREMEDLINE (1950 to January 2012), EMBASE (1980 to January 2012) and CINAHL (1982 to January 2012), as well as proceedings of scientific meetings, clinical trial registries, Google Scholar and reference lists of identified studies. Expert informants and surfactant manufacturers were contacted. Randomised, cluster-randomised or quasi-randomised controlled trials of nebulised surfactant administration compared to placebo, no treatment, or other routes of administration (laryngeal, pharyngeal instillation of surfactant before the first breath, thin endotracheal catheter surfactant administration or intratracheal surfactant instillation) on morbidity and mortality in preterm infants at risk of RDS. We considered published, unpublished and ongoing trials. Two review authors independently assessed studies for eligibility and quality, and extracted data. No studies of prophylactic or early nebulised surfactant administration were found. A single small study of late rescue nebulised surfactant was included. The study is of moderate risk of bias. The study enrolled 32 preterm infants born < 36 weeks' gestation with RDS on nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP). The study reported no significant difference between nebulised surfactant administration compared to no treatment groups in chronic lung disease (risk ratio (RR) 5.00; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.26 to 96.59) or other outcomes (oxygenation 1 to 12 hours after randomisation, need for mechanical ventilation, days of mechanical ventilation or continuous positive airways pressure (CPAP) or days of supplemental oxygen). No side effects of the nebulised surfactant therapy or aerosol inhalation were reported. There are insufficient data to support or refute the use of nebulised surfactant in clinical practice. Adequately powered trials are required to determine the effect of nebulised surfactant administration for prevention or early treatment of RDS in preterm infants. Nebulised surfactant administration should be limited to clinical trials