IASSIST Quarterly

This paper explores the issues and challenges that we have faced as Canadian academic business librarians when working with business data. As this is an exploratory study, we hope only to start a discussion among data librarians about some key challenges facing the academic community related to supporting the teaching and research use of business data. Our paper begins with a brief discussion of general data trends, followed by a detailed exploration of business data trends and trends in Canadian business education. We discuss challenges and issues related to working with business data from both the collections and reference service perspectives, including the pros and cons of providing business data services and support within the library environment. We conclude by suggesting some measures that both academic business librarians and data librarians can take to address some of these challenges

Characterization of a Partial cDNA for Lysyl Hydroxylase from Human Skin Fibroblasts; Lysyl Hydroxylase mRNAs Are Regulated Differently by Minoxidil Derivatives and Hydralazine

Lysyl hydroxylase (LH) is an essential enzyme in collagen biosynthesis that catalyzes the formation of hydroxylysine required for intermolecular crosslinking of collagen. We have isolated a partial (2.2-kb) cDNA for LH from human skin fibroblasts using PCR. DNA sequencing revealed 72% homology of the human coding sequence with the chick LH sequence at the nucleotide level and 76% homology predicted at the amino acid level. The LH cDNA hybridized strongly with two mRNA species of 2.4 and 3.4kb on Northern blots of normal fibroblast RNA. Administration of minoxidil decreased both mRNA species without affecting levels of the mRNAs for the β subunit of prolyl 4-hydroxylase (PH) or α1(I) collagen. Two derivatives of minoxidil (3' hydroxyminoxidil and 4' hydroxyminoxidil) produced similar decreases in LH mRNAs. In contrast hydralazine increased the mRNAs for LH in parallel with its previously reported effect on the mRNA for the β subunit of PH. This effect is accompanied by virtual elimination of the α1(I) collagen mRNAs. These results on the action of minoxidil and hydralazine at the pretranslational level correlate well with their previously reported effect on enzyme activity and collagen biosynthesis and indicate that changes in steady-state mRNA levels can account directly for changes at the protein level. Moreover, the unique action of minoxidil in specifically decreasing LH mRNAs contrasts with the less specific stimulatory effects of hydralazine and suggests that these pharmaceuticals arc regulating expression of LH at a pretranslational level by different mechanisms

Exploring OER strategies to enable the recasting of the core graduate library management course

At a recent administrative library council meeting of an urban university, a representative from that system's graduate program in library and information science indicated that the library management course could be refreshed. They asked how the campus library leaders could assist in updating that curriculum. Inspired by the vibrant activity of the Open Educational Recourses (OER) maelstrom across that university, it was suggested that the ailing management course could be updated with refreshed, current management concerns and delivered in an up-to-date and flexible OER package. The panel consisting of LIS educators and practitioners will discuss how this could be accomplished

Age-related changes in afferent pathways and urothelial function in the male mouse bladder

Key points •The prevalence of bladder conditions such as overactive bladder syndrome and urinary incontinence significantly increases with age, but how bladder function is altered by ageing is unclear. •Sensory nerves together with the epithelial lining of the bladder known as the urothelium play a key role in mediating bladder function. •In aged male mice we find a significant increase in natural bladder voiding, augmented afferent nerve firing during bladder filling and a significant increase in urothelial responses to purinergic receptor stimulation. •This suggests that with ageing there is increased purinergic transmission in the mouse bladder which may lead to increased sensation and result in bladder hypersensitivity. •These findings help us better understand how the function of the bladder may be affected by advancing age. Abstract The prevalence of lower urinary tract storage disorders such as overactive bladder syndrome and urinary incontinence significantly increase with age. Previous studies have demonstrated age-related changes in detrusor function and urothelial transmitter release but few studies have investigated how the urothelium and sensory pathways are affected. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of ageing on urothelial-afferent signalling in the mouse bladder. Three-month-old control and 24-month-old aged male mice were used. In vivo natural voiding behaviour, sensory nerve activity, urothelial cell function, muscle contractility, transmitter release and gene and protein expression were measured to identify how all three components of the bladder (neural, contractile and urothelial) are affected by ageing. In aged mice, increased voiding frequency and enhanced low threshold afferent nerve activity was observed, suggesting that ageing induces overactivity and hypersensitivity of the bladder. These changes were concurrent with altered ATP and acetylcholine bioavailability, measured as transmitter overflow into the lumen, increased purinergic receptor sensitivity and raised P2X3 receptor expression in the urothelium. Taken together, these data suggest that ageing results in aberrant urothelial function, increased afferent mechanosensitivity, increased smooth muscle contractility, and changes in gene and protein expression (including of P2X3). These data are consistent with the hypothesis that ageing evokes changes in purinergic signalling from the bladder, and further studies are now required to fully validate this idea

Learning and Adapting Agile Locomotion Skills by Transferring Experience

Legged robots have enormous potential in their range of capabilities, from navigating unstructured terrains to high-speed running. However, designing robust controllers for highly agile dynamic motions remains a substantial challenge for roboticists. Reinforcement learning (RL) offers a promising data-driven approach for automatically training such controllers. However, exploration in these high-dimensional, underactuated systems remains a significant hurdle for enabling legged robots to learn performant, naturalistic, and versatile agility skills. We propose a framework for training complex robotic skills by transferring experience from existing controllers to jumpstart learning new tasks. To leverage controllers we can acquire in practice, we design this framework to be flexible in terms of their source -- that is, the controllers may have been optimized for a different objective under different dynamics, or may require different knowledge of the surroundings -- and thus may be highly suboptimal for the target task. We show that our method enables learning complex agile jumping behaviors, navigating to goal locations while walking on hind legs, and adapting to new environments. We also demonstrate that the agile behaviors learned in this way are graceful and safe enough to deploy in the real world.Comment: Project website: https://sites.google.com/berkeley.edu/twir

Salivary Acinar Cells from Aquaporin 5-deficient Mice Have Decreased Membrane Water Permeability and Altered Cell Volume Regulation

Aquaporins (AQPs) are channel proteins that regulate the movement of water through the plasma membrane of secretory and absorptive cells in response to osmotic gradients. In the salivary gland, AQP5 is the major aquaporin expressed on the apical membrane of acinar cells. Previous studies have shown that the volume of saliva secreted by AQP5-deficient mice is decreased, indicating a role for AQP5 in saliva secretion; however, the mechanism by which AQP5 regulates water transport in salivary acinar cells remains to be determined. Here we show that the decreased salivary flow rate and increased tonicity of the saliva secreted byAqp5 − /− mice in response to pilocarpine stimulation are not caused by changes in whole body fluid homeostasis, indicated by similar blood gas and electrolyte concentrations in urine and blood in wild-type and AQP5-deficient mice. In contrast, the water permeability in parotid and sublingual acinar cells isolated from Aqp5 − /− mice is decreased significantly. Water permeability decreased by 65% in parotid and 77% in sublingual acinar cells fromAqp5 − /−mice in response to hypertonicity-induced cell shrinkage and hypotonicity-induced cell swelling. These data show that AQP5 is the major pathway for regulating the water permeability in acinar cells, a critical property of the plasma membrane which determines the flow rate and ionic composition of secreted saliva

Characterisation of Bombyx mori odorant-binding proteins reveals that a general odorant-binding protein discriminates between sex pheromone components

In many insect species, odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) are thought to be responsible for the transport of pheromones and other semiochemicals across the sensillum lymph to the olfactory receptors (ORs) within the antennal sensilla. In the silkworm Bombyx mori, the OBPs are subdivided into three main subfamilies; pheromone-binding proteins (PBPs), general odorant-binding proteins (GOBPs) and antennal-binding proteins (ABPs). We used the MotifSearch algorithm to search for genes encoding putative OBPs in B. mori and found 13, many fewer than are found in the genomes of fruit flies and mosquitoes. The 13 genes include seven new ABP-like OBPs as well as the previously identified PBPs (three), GOBPs (two) and ABPx. Quantitative examination of transcript levels showed that BmorPBP1, BmorGOBP1, BmorGOBP2 and BmorABPx are expressed at very high levels in the antennae and so could be involved in olfaction. A new two-phase binding assay, along with other established assays, showed that BmorPBP1, BmorPBP2, BmorGOBP2 and BmorABPx all bind to the B. mori sex pheromone component (10E,12Z)-hexadecadien-1-ol (bombykol). BmorPBP1, BmorPBP2 and BmorABPx also bind the pheromone component (10E,12Z)-hexadecadienal (bombykal) equally well, whereas BmorGOBP2 can discriminate between bombykol and bombykal. X-ray structures show that when bombykol is bound to BmorGOBP2 it adopts a different conformation from that found when it binds to BmorPBP1. Binding to BmorGOBP2 involves hydrogen bonding to Arg110 rather than to Ser56 as found for BmorPBP1

Clinical Outcome of Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Detected Additional Lesions in Breast Cancer Patients

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical outcome of additional breast lesions identified with breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in breast cancer patients. Methods: A total of 153 patients who underwent breast MRI between July 2006 and March 2008 were retrospectively reviewed. Thirty-three patients (21.6%) were recommended for second-look ultrasound (US) for further characterization of additional lesions detected on breast MRI and these patients constituted our study population. Results: Assessment for lesions detected on breast MRI consisted of the following: 25 benign lesions (73.5%), two indeterminate (5.9%), and seven malignant (20.6%) in 33 patients. Second-look US identified 12 additional lesions in 34 lesions (35.3%) and these lesions were confirmed by histological examination. Of the 12 lesions found in the 11 patients, six (50.0%) including one contralateral breast cancer were malignant. The surgical plan was altered in 18.2 % (six of 33) of the patients. The use of breast MRI justified a change in treatment for four patients (66.7%) and caused two patients (33.3%) to undergo unwarranted additional surgical procedures. Conclusion: Breast MRI identified additional multifocal or contralateral cancer which was not detected initially on conventional imaging in breast cancer patients. Breast MRI has become an indispensable modality in conjunction with conventional modalities for preoperative evaluation of patients with operable breast cancer

A Pooled Analysis of Infections, Malignancy, and Mortality in Infliximab- and Immunomodulator-Treated Adult Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease

The objective of this study was to analyze the safety of long-term infliximab treatment, with/without concomitant immunomodulators, across Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) clinical trials.status: publishe

The association between low level exposures to ambient air pollution and term low birth weight: a retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Studies in areas with relatively high levels of air pollution have found some positive associations between exposures to ambient levels of air pollution and several birth outcomes including low birth weight (LBW). The purpose of this study was to examine the association between LBW among term infants and ambient air pollution, by trimester of exposure, in a region of lower level exposures. METHODS: The relationship between LBW and ambient levels of particulate matter up to 10 um in diameter (PM(10)), sulfur dioxide (SO(2)) and ground-level ozone (O(3)) was evaluated using the Nova Scotia Atlee Perinatal Database and ambient air monitoring data from the Environment Canada National Air Pollution Surveillance Network and the Nova Scotia Department of Environment. The cohort consisted of live singleton births (≥37 weeks of gestation) between January1,1988 and December31,2000. Maternal exposures to air pollution were assigned to women living within 25 km of a monitoring station at the time of birth. Air pollution was evaluated as a continuous and categorical variable (using quartile exposures) for each trimester and relative risks were estimated from logistic regression, adjusted for confounding variables. RESULTS: There were 74,284 women with a term, singleton birth during the study period and with exposure data. In the analyses unadjusted for year of birth, first trimester exposures in the highest quartile for SO(2 )and PM(10)suggested an increased risk of delivering a LBW infant (relative risk = 1.36, 95% confidence interval = 1.04 to 1.78 for SO(2 )exposure and relative risk = 1.33, 95% confidence interval = 1.02 to 1.74 for PM(10)). After adjustment for birth year, the relative risks were attenuated somewhat and not statistically significant. A dose-response relationship for SO(2 )was noted with increasing levels of exposure. No statistically significant effects were noted for ozone. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that exposure during the first trimester to relatively low levels of some air pollutants may be associated with a reduction in birth weight in term-born infants. These findings have implications for the development of effective risk management strategies to minimize the public health impacts for pregnant women