Crafting Freshman Engagement: A Study of Library Orientations in the Fledgling First Year Experience Program at UC San Diego

This paper is a preprint

Creating an Engaging Library Orientation: First Year Experience Courses at University of California, San Diego

This article focuses on the development of an engaging library orientation module for UC San Diego First Year Experience (FYE) courses. The library module included a brief in-class presentation about research concepts and library services, an online interactive library scavenger hunt given as an in-class activity, and a homework assignment where students created public service announcements highlighting their favorite library space or resource. Over 400 FYE students completed the library module, and many indicated a marked increase in comfort using the library by the end of the module. Recommended practices are included for those wishing to create a similar module

Library Community Collective: Advocating for Social Justice through Community Conversations

In the wake of the racial violence occurring in the United States in 2020, the UC San Diego (UCSD) Library created a collaborative, non-hierarchical, employee-led group that allowed for a new way of sharing and listening across the organization. The Library Community Collective (LCC) is a collaboration between the Library Community Building Committee and the Library Diversity and Inclusion Committee and has provided an ongoing platform for challenging discourse on topics such as white supremacy, allyship, anti-asian violence, fat phobia and microaggressions. In hopes of providing a model and inspiration for other libraries to pursue similar initiatives, the authors will provide background on the LCC and its creation, methods, outcomes and challenges

The antiparallel loops in gal DNA

Interactions between proteins bound to distant sites along a DNA molecule require bending and twisting deformations in the intervening DNA. In certain systems, the sterically allowed protein–DNA and protein–protein interactions are hypothesized to produce loops with distinct geometries that may also be thermodynamically and biologically distinct. For example, theoretical models of Gal repressor/HU-mediated DNA-looping suggest that the antiparallel DNA loops, A1 and A2, are thermodynamically quite different. They are also biologically different, since in experiments using DNA molecules engineered to form only one of the two loops, the A2 loop failed to repress in vitro transcription. Surprisingly, single molecule measurements show that both loop trajectories form and that they appear to be quite similar energetically and kinetically

Her2 assessment using quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction reliably identifies Her2 overexpression without amplification in breast cancer cases

Background: Immunohistochemistry (IHC) and fluorescent-in situ hybridization (FISH) are standard methods to assess human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) status in breast cancer (BC) patients. Real-time quantitative polymerase-chain-reaction (qRT-PCR) is able to detect HER2 overexpression. Here we compared FISH, IHC, quantitative PCR (qPCR), and qRT-PCR to determine the concordance rates and evaluate their relative roles in HER2 determination. Patients and methods: We determined HER2 status in 153 BC patients, using IHC, FISH, Q-PCR and qRT-PCR. In discordant cases, we directly measured HER2 protein levels using Western blotting. Results: The overall agreement (OA) between FISH and Q-PCR was 94.1, with a k value of 0.87. Assuming FISH as the standard reference, Q-PCR showed an 86.1% sensitivity and a 99.0% specificity with a global accuracy of 91.6%. OA between FISH and qRT-PCR was 90.8% with a k value of 0.81. Of interest, the disagreement between FISH and qRT-PCR was mostly restricted to equivocal cases. HER2 protein analysis suggested that qRT-PCR correlates better than FISH with HER2 protein levels, particularly where FISH fails to provide conclusive results. Significance: qRT-PCR may outperform FISH in identifying patients overexpressing HER2 protein. Q-PCR cannot be used for HER2 status assessment, due to its suboptimal level of agreement with FISH. Both FISH and Q-PCR may be less accurate than qRT-PCR as surrogates of HER2 protein determination

Why are we not flooded by involuntary thoughts about the past and future? Testing the cognitive inhibition dependency hypothesis

© The Author(s) 2018In everyday life, involuntary thoughts about future plans and events occur as often as involuntary thoughts about the past. However, compared to involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs), such episodic involuntary future thoughts (IFTs) have become a focus of study only recently. The aim of the present investigation was to examine why we are not constantly flooded by IFTs and IAMs given that they are often triggered by incidental cues while performing undemanding activities. One possibility is that activated thoughts are suppressed by the inhibitory control mechanism, and therefore depleting inhibitory control should enhance the frequency of both IFTs and IAMs. We report an experiment with a between-subjects design, in which participants in the depleted inhibition condition performed a 60-min high-conflict Stroop task before completing a laboratory vigilance task measuring the frequency of IFTs and IAMs. Participants in the intact inhibition condition performed a version of the Stroop task that did not deplete inhibitory control. To control for physical and mental fatigue resulting from performing the 60-min Stroop tasks in experimental conditions, participants in the control condition completed only the vigilance task. Contrary to predictions, the number of IFTs and IAMs reported during the vigilance task, using the probe-caught method, did not differ across conditions. However, manipulation checks showed that participants’ inhibitory resources were reduced in the depleted inhibition condition, and participants were more tired in the experimental than in the control conditions. These initial findings suggest that neither inhibitory control nor physical and mental fatigue affect the frequency of IFTs and IAMs.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Radical Reference: Socially Responsible Librarianship Collaborating With Community

To date, the written record of socially responsible librarianship chiefly concerns outreach to previously-disregarded constituencies and the relationship between library collections and the alternative press. Although librarians and activists have long shared a history, descriptions of their collaborations are scarce, and there is little to no documentation of the provision of reference and information literacy services in the context of socially responsible library work. In this article, we discuss the history of Radical Reference (RR), a collective of progressive library workers and students. We consider RR’s evolution from a “street” and online reference collective to one that provides a variety of socially conscious information services. We also explore examples of RR members' forming extra-institutional bonds with activists and independent journalists