Access and Preservation in Archival Mass Digitization Projects

[Excerpt] In 2014, the Dalhousie University Archives began its first archival mass digitization project with the Elisabeth Mann Borgese fonds. The successful completion of this project required the project team to address both broad and specific technical and intellectual challenges, from rights management in an online access environment to the durability of the equipment used. To best understand the challenges faced, there will first be a brief introduction to the fonds and project goals of balancing preservation and access before moving on to a discussion of these challenges in further detail, and finally, concluding with a discussion of some considerations, best practices, and lessons learned from this project

Genome size variation in deep-sea amphipods

Funding: This work was supported by the HADEEP projects, funded by the Nippon Foundation, Japan (2009765188); the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), UK (NE/E007171/1); Total Foundation, France; National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), New Zealand (CO1_0906); Schmidt Ocean Institute, USA (FK141109) (A.J.J. and S.B.P); Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland (MASTS) (HR09011 and DSSG15) (H.R., A.J.J., S.B.P); and the Leverhulme Trust (S.B.P.). Acknowledgements: We thank the chief scientists, crew and company of the New Zealand RV Kaharoa (KAH1301 and KAH1310) and the United States RV Falkor (Cruise FK141109). From NIWA, we thank Malcolm Clark, Ashley Rowden, Kareen Schnabel, and Sadie Mills for logistical support at the NIWA Invertebrate Collection. We thank NOAA Marine National Monuments, Richard Hall and Eric Breuer for their support and collaboration. We also thank Attila Bebes and the Iain Fraser Cytometry Centre (IFCC) for technical assistance. Electronic supplementary material is available online at https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3868216.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

English in the 2010s – Getting up Close and Personal

The following is a personal enquiry into how our view of the world may be affected in some very specific ways by the language we speak, and more particularly the way we write, with specific reference to consensus and norms. These musings have arisen over many years of working as a translator, and are based on my interactions as an English speaker with texts in many European, and to a lesser extent, Polynesian languages. The English I speak of here is mainly my English, perhaps my idiolect as a 58-year-old New Zealander. Some of the preferences I mention may be less applicable in British English, for example, but every native speaker's idiolect reflects something of the language as a whole, and I hope my readers will identify linguistically with some of what I am saying. I hope I may be forgiven for writing rather colloquially and in the first person. This choice is entirely consistent with my subject-matter, however, as will become evident

Delayed chloroform poisoning

The study and investigation of the conditions enumerated above has led to a better understanding of the subject, but still there remains a great deal to be done. The mechanism by which these exaggerations of protein metabolism are carried out in the various conditions requires further exploration.In discussing the subject of delayed chloroform poisoning, no paper would be complete which did not deal with its historical aspect.I will deal first of all with this aspect of the subject, from the year 1850, when Caspar reported the first fatal case of delayed chloroform poisoning, up to the present time. The different papers and cases will be mentioned in chronological order, as nearly as possible, with the dates of each. It will help us greatly in the better understanding of the subject, if the action of chloroform upon the various tissues and organs of the body is included in this sketch.I will next deal in detail with practically all the reported cases of delayed chloroform poisoning. I will give an exhaustive analysis of the symptomatology of the condition, and describe the symptoms in two cases which occurred in patients under my care and which have so far not been published. I will follow this up by a minute description of the findings in the urine of patients suffering from delayed chloroform poisoning, and give the results of my examination of thirty urines after chloroform anaesthesia, both by qualitative and quantitative estimation.I will deal next with the pathology of the condition; both the naked eye appearances and microscopic changes will be described in detail. Many causes, other than the toxic after effects of the chloroform, have been ascribed as producing the characteristic symptoms of delayed chloroform poisoning. I will criticise each cause separately, and show that chloroform anaesthesia of itself is responsible for many of the disastrous results, preceded by a characteristic set of symptoms, which may follow even the simplest operation.I will next go carefully into the chemistry of the acetone bodies.The following chapter will be taken up with a consideration of other conditions in which acetonuria occurs. I will here refer to other general anaesthetics, and show that these also may be followed by toxic after effects, and even death.The treatment of delayed chloroform poisoning will next be dealt with in detail, along with a suggestion of my own.Finally, a summary of the whole subject, embodying all the important points of the thesis, will be followed by the bibliography

Studies on the Thermal Degradation of Several Polymer-Additive and Copolymer Systems

Transition metal chelates of acetylacetone generally decompose in the first instance by a ligand scission mechanism with the release of acac' radicals. The ligand scission can be promoted by complexation with electron-donating species, and as described in Chapter 1 , this has led to an interest in the use of the chelates as polymerisation initiators Additional interest in the chelates comes from their use in modifying the degradation behaviour of polymers. The ability of the transition metal acetylacetonate chelates to interact with electron-donating sites within the polymers renders them particularly worthy of investigation. Chapter 2 presents an introduction to the thermal analysis techniques employed in this research, with emphasis on the comparative merits of each system. The preparation of the chelates is described in Chapter 3 and the nature of their interaction with electron-donating compounds considered on the basis of spectroscopic evidence. The thermal decomposition of the chelates is also discussed and a mechanism is proposed for the fragmentation of the chelates at high temperature. The thermal degradation of polymers (particularly those employed in this research) is the subject of Chapter 4. In Chapters 5, 6 and 7, the thermal degradation of blends of Co3+ , Co2+ and Mn3+ chelates with poly(methyl methacrylate) and a methyl methacrylate-methacrylic acid copolymer is described. Both polymers contain electron-donating structures (ester and acid side groups, unsaturated linkages) and these are found to promote the chelate ligand scission reaction in the manner of the low molecular analogues discussed in Chapters 1 and 3. The acac radicals produced in the initial decomposition attack the polymer backbone and initiate depolymerisation, whilst small radicals produced in the advanced stages of chelate decomposition attack the substituent groups, inducing the formation of cyclic anhydride structures. The interaction of the chelates with the polymer side groups can promote scission of these groups from the polymer chain with the associated formation of unsaturated sites on the polymer backbone. Such modifications of the polymer block the usual depolymerisation reaction and leads to chain fragmentation. The influence of Cu(acac)2 on the degradation behaviour of poly(methyl methacrylate) and the copolymer is discussed in Chapter 8. Although the Cu(acac)2-PMMA blend behaves similarly to the blends of PMMA with the chelates considered earlier, the Cu(acac)2 copolymer blend behaves in a markedly different fashion, with two new major unzipping processes and little fragmentation. Evidence is provided in this chapter which indicates that the different behaviour stems from a copper catalysed decarboxylation process In Chapter 9, the influence of the chelates on the thermal degradation of poly(vinyl acetate) is investigated. Interactions with the ester substituents are observed, similar to the case of the poly(methyl methacrylate) blends. Attack of acac' radicals on the poly(vinyl acetate) will not initiate depolymerisation as the polymer does not degrade by this mechanism but instead causes structural changes along the backbone. Structural changes are also expected to occur when acac' radicals attack polystyrene and poly(vinyl chloride) in the blends of these polymers with the chelates. The TVA behaviour of these blends is described in Chapter 10. In the final chapter, Chapter 11, the thermal degradation of a series of styrene-methacrylic acid copolymers is described. It is found that anhydride ring structures, which block the unzipping of the styrene sequences, form between neighbouring methacrylic acid units. A slight overall stabilisation of the copolymer relative to polystyrene results

Positive allosteric modulators of the a-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptor

L-glutamate is the major excitatory neurotransmitter in the mammalian central nervous system (CNS) and plays a fundamental role in the control of motor function, cognition and mood. The physiological effects of glutamate are mediated through two functionally distinct receptor families. While activation of metabotropic (G-protein coupled) glutamate receptors results in modulation of neuronal excitability and transmission, the ionotropic glutamate receptors (ligand-gated ion channels) are responsible for mediating the fast synaptic response to extracellular glutamate

Industrial Relations as News

During 1976 a study of the treatment of industrial relations by tour New Zealand metropolitan newspapers was carried out at Massey University. In 1977 a larger study dealing with the treatment of industrial relations by television, radio and eight major newspapers was carried out at Canterbury University. In this article the authors examine the news coverage of industrial relations by the mass media taking account not only of the New Zealand but also of the American and British research findings

Which drugs should post-MI patients routinely receive?

patients should be placed on the following medications: antiplatelet agents (strength of recommendation [SOR]: A, meta-analysis for aspirin; A, multiple randomized controlled trials [RCTs] for aspirin plus clopidogrel) a statin; atorvastatin has the best evidence (SOR: B, a single RCT) a beta-blocker (SOR: A, meta-analysis) renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system blockers, whether or not the ejection fraction is diminished after myocardial infarction (MI) (SOR: A, meta-analysis for angiotensin-converting enzyme [ACE] inhibitor; B, single RCT for ACE inhibitor plus aldosterone blocker)