Small But Mighty: Letters-to-the-Editor Published on the Zika Virus, 1952 - 2018

Objective: To conduct a bibliometric analysis of Letters-to-the-Editor published on the Zika Virus between 1952 and 2018. Methods: A PubMed search was conducted on the terms (Zika OR ZIKV). Results were limited to Publication Date = 1952-2018, and Publication Type = Letter. Results were exported to EndNote, and the full-text (PDF) of each Letter was examined. Non-Letters, duplicates, irrelevant results, and incorrectly indexed items were excluded. Letters discovered serendipitously were added. The total number of Letters published and their date distribution was determined. The Letters were categorized as Reader Response, Author Reply, Observation, Case Report, or Research. Additional parameters included the number of authors, number of references, use of graphics, and funding. Results: Between 1952 and 2018, 499 Letters-to-the-Editor about the Zika Virus were published, with the majority being published in 2016 or later. These were categorized as 29.9% Reader Responses, 11.2% Author Replies, 22.4% Observations, 14.0% Case Reports, and 22.4% Research. The Letters were written by 1-35 authors, and included 0-63 references. Over 38% of Letters contained graphics, and 15% reported funding support. An interesting anomaly were the 104 letters authored or co-authored by one particular individual, which constituted 20.8% of the total. Conclusion: Contrary to conventional wisdom, this study has shown that Letters-to-the-Editor are often much more than simply reader responses to a published article, and may serve as a source of clinical or research information. However, this study also demonstrates that the characteristics of this publication type may make it susceptible to various anomalies

Poster: Aligning Library Instruction with the Needs of Basic Science Graduate Students

Donna and Fran\u27s poster discusses the need to replace the library\u27s current model of library instruction with one better suited to the needs of basic science graduate students. The poster outlines the methodology, the results, and the conclusions that came from this push to redesign

Reviews of Science for Science Librarians: The Challenge of the Zika Virus: An Emerging Arbovirus Disease

First identified in Uganda in 1947, the Zika virus simmered quietly for sixty years, occasionally causing a mild dengue-like illness across parts of central Africa and equatorial Asia. However, since 2007, three large outbreaks have occurred: first in Micronesia, then in French Polynesia in 2013-2014, and as an epidemic involving Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America in 2015-2016. This paper reviews the virology of the Zika virus, its modes of transmission, symptoms of Zika Virus Disease, the association of Zika infections with microcephaly and Guillain-Barre Syndrome, prevention of Zika infections, and ongoing efforts to develop a vaccine

Bibliometric Analysis of Scholarly Publications on the Zika Virus, 1952-2016

The 2015-2016 epidemic in the Americas caused by the Zika Virus (ZIKV) triggered a dramatic increase in the number of scholarly publications on this topic. In an effort to understand and characterize this body of literature, a bibliometric study was conducted on all articles found in PubMed that were published on the Zika virus between 1952 and 2016. Study parameters included publication date, source journal, subject and category of source journal, and country of first author. The data was frequency-ranked, enabling identification of the most highly productive journal titles, subject areas, and countries. The study concluded with a comparison between the number of opinion pieces versus research articles published on ZIKV and five other emerging infectious diseases. Results of the study will be of interest to students, researchers, and librarians & information science professionals, and will serve as a baseline for subsequent analyses

Mapping the Literature of Radiation Therapy

Objective: This study characterizes the literature of the radiation therapy profession, identifies the journals most frequently cited by authors writing in this discipline, and determines the level of coverage of these journals by major bibliographic indexes. Method: Cited references from three discipline-specific source journals were analyzed according to the Mapping the Literature of Allied Health Project Protocol of the Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section of the Medical Library Association. Bradford’s Law of Scattering was applied to all journal references to identify the most frequently cited journal titles. Results: Journal references constituted 77.8% of the total, with books, government documents, Internet sites, and miscellaneous sources making up the remainder. Although a total of 908 journal titles were cited overall, approximately one-third of the journal citations came from just 11 journals. MEDLINE and Scopus provided the most comprehensive indexing of the journal titles in Zones 1 and 2. The source journals were indexed only by CINAHL and Scopus. Conclusion: The knowledgebase of radiation therapy draws heavily from the fields of oncology, radiology, medical physics, and nursing. Discipline-specific publications are not currently well covered by major indexing services, and those wishing to conduct comprehensive literature searches should search multiple resources

Aligning Library Instruction With the Needs of Basic Sciences Graduate Students: a Case Study

Question: How can an existing library instruction program be reconfigured to reach basic sciences graduate students and other patrons missed by curriculum-based instruction? Setting: The setting is an academic health sciences library that serves both the university and its affiliated teaching hospital. Methods: The existing program was redesigned to incorporate a series of seven workshops that encompassed the range of information literacy skills that graduate students in the basic sciences need. In developing the new model, the teaching librarians made changes in pedagogy, technology, marketing, and assessment strategies. Results: Total attendance at the sessions increased substantially in the first 2 years of the new model, increasing from an average of 20 per semester to an average of 124. Survey results provided insight about what patrons wanted to learn and how best to teach it. Conclusion: Modifying the program\u27s content and structure resulted in a program that appealed to the target audience

Estimating percentages of fusarium-damaged kernels in hard wheat by near-infrared hyperspectral imaging

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is among the most common fungal diseases affecting wheat, resulting in decreased yield, low-density kernels, and production of the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol, a compound toxic to humans and livestock. Human visual analysis of representative wheat samples has been the traditional method for FHB assessment in both official inspection and plant breeding operations. While not requiring specialized equipment, visual analysis is dependent on a trained and consistent workforce, such that in the absence of these aspects, biases may arise among inspectors and evaluation dates. This research was intended to avoid such pitfalls by using longer wavelength radiation than the visible using hyperspectral imaging (HSI) on individual kernels. Linear discriminant analysis models to differentiate between sound and scab-damaged kernels were developed based on mean of reflectance values of the interior pixels of each kernel at four wavelengths (1100, 1197, 1308, and 1394 nm). Other input variables were examined, including kernel morphological properties and histogram features from the pixel responses of selected wavelengths of each kernel. The results indicate the strong potential of HSI in estimating fusarium damage. However, improvement in aligning this procedure to visual analysis is hampered by the inherent level of subjectivity in visual analysis

Isobutyl acetate: electronic state spectroscopy by high-resolution vacuum ultraviolet photoabsorption, He(I) photoelectron spectroscopy and ab initio calculations

The high-resolution vacuum ultraviolet photoabsorption spectrum of isobutyl acetate, C6H12O2, is presented here and was measured over the energy range 4.3–10.8 eV (290–115 nm). Valence and Rydberg transitions with their associated vibronic series have been observed in the photoabsorption spectrum and are assigned in accordance with new ab initio calculations of the vertical excitation energies and oscillator strengths. The measured photoabsorption cross sections have been used to calculate the photolysis lifetime of this ester in the Earth’s upper atmosphere (20–50 km). Calculations have also been carried out to determine the ionization energies and fine structure of the lowest ionic state of isobutyl acetate and are compared with a photoelectron spectrum (from 9.5 to 16.7 eV), recorded for the first time. Vibrational structure is observed in the first photoelectron band of this molecule

Near infrared hyperspectral imaging of blends of conventional and waxy hard wheats

Recent development of hard winter waxy (amylose-free) wheat adapted to the North American climate has prompted the quest to find a rapid method that will determine mixture levels of conventional wheat in lots of identity preserved waxy wheat. Previous work documented the use of conventional near infrared (NIR) reflectance spectroscopy to determine the mixture level of conventional wheat in waxy wheat, with an examined range, through binary sample mixture preparation, of 0–100% (weight conventional / weight total). The current study examines the ability of NIR hyperspectral imaging of intact kernels to determine mixture levels. Twenty-nine mixtures (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, …, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100%) were formed from known genotypes of waxy and conventional wheat. Two-class partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLSDA) and statistical pattern recognition classifier models were developed for identifying each kernel in the images as conventional or waxy. Along with these approaches, conventional PLS1 regression modelling was performed on means of kernel spectra within each mixture test sample. Results indicated close agreement between all three approaches, with standard errors of prediction for the better preprocess transformations (PLSDA models) or better classifiers (pattern recognition models) of approximately 9 percentage units. Although such error rates were slightly greater than ones previously published using non-imaging NIR analysis of bulk whole kernel wheat and wheat meal, the HSI technique offers an advantage of its potential use in sorting operations