Live Virtual Reference and the Database Dilemma

Live virtual reference programs in the university setting have blossomed in recent years as librarians have aspired to become as “virtual” as the resources they offer. While some libraries have chosen to limit their service to affiliated members, many have preferred to open their programs to the wider community. The motivation to do so is perhaps particularly strong among public university librarians, who often feel a dual responsibility to their own affiliates and to the citizens of their state. However, the decision to offer a chat reference service to the public raises a number of legal, ethical, and practical questions concerning the use of subscription databases. Although some librarians place non-affiliated chat patrons in the same category as walk-in patrons, to whom database access is generally allowed, most consider the use of subscription databases with non-affiliated patrons to be a clear violation of licensing agreements – and herein lies the dilemma. Do these access restrictions place an unreasonable burden on the chat librarian, who must determine the patron’s affiliation and adjust the level of service to match the patron’s status? Is a two-tiered service, in which some patrons receive more in-depth answers than others, ethically acceptable? Can libraries devise strategies to minimize these apparent discrepancies in service? Discussion of these questions has been largely speculative and has provided few useful conclusions or guidelines for the practicing virtual librarian. This study attempts to examine the issue through the prism of real questions in a functioning, live virtual reference program: the QuestionPoint chat service at the University of Alabama. The goal of the study is three-fold: 1) to define the issues in the context of current discussion in the field; 2) to assess the nature of the problem as evidenced by transcripts of actual live virtual reference exchanges; and 3) to evaluate the options available to librarians who must find alternative sources when database use is not permitted

To Donate or Not to Donate Your Organs: Texas Can Decide For You When You Cannot Decide For Yourself

Part I of this comment illustrates the historical background of the organ shortage. Part II discusses the response of the federal government, other states, and other countries to the organ shortage. Part III discusses Texas\u27s response to the organ shortage and Texas\u27s version of the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act. It also discusses why Texas should repeal section 521.405 of the Texas Transportation Code and provides alternative methods of procuring organs for transplantation other than the aforementioned statute. This comment is not meant to sway anyone from organ donationquite the contrary. The purpose of this note is to illustrate the importance of having a choice about what we want to happen to our bodies after we die. Nothing is quite so personal to us as our body, for it is the vessel that carries our soul. For that very reason, it should be usnot the state-that determines its destiny

Accountancy Master\u27s Graduates Receive Prestigious CPA Exam Award

Ole Miss ranks No. 1 in the SEC, tied for No. 4 nationally for Sells Awards from 2020 to \u272

Prevalence of BoHV-1 seropositive and BVD virus positive bulls on Irish dairy farms and associations between bull purchase and herd status

peer-reviewedBackground BVD and IBR are contagious viral diseases highly prevalent in Irish cattle. Despite their significant reproductive and economic impact very little is known about the BVD and IBR status of stock bulls (a bull used for breeding purposes). There are still a high proportion of dairy farms in Ireland that rely on the use of a bull for breeding cattle and ensuring the fertility of the bulls is of paramount importance for the efficiency of the farms. The prevalence of BoHV-1 and BVD in stock bulls in Irish dairy herds has never been investigated. The objectives of this study therefore were: (i) to provide descriptive, observational data on the use of stock bulls on Irish dairy farms; (ii) to investigate the BVD and BoHV1 status of a sub-set of stock bulls; (iii) to investigate factors associated with BVD and BoHV1 status of stock bulls and (iv) to investigate factors associated with dairy herd status for BVD and BoHV1, including any associations with the use of stock bull. A total of 529 blood samples from bulls involved in the dairy breeding process were analysed for BVD virus using RT-PCR, and BoHV-1 antibodies by ELISA test. A total of 305 different dairy herds took part in the study and the overall BVD and BoHV-1 herd status was determined by ELISA using four bulk tank milk samples over the 2009 lactation. Logistic regression was used to investigate the associations between the stock bulls and BVD and BoHV-1 herd and individual status. Results Of the 305 total participating farms, 235 farms (77 %) had at least one bull and 167 farms had purchased bulls. Two bulls (0.4 %) out of 529 tested were found positive for BVD virus and 87 (16.7 %) tested seropositive for BoHV-1. Some significant associations were identified between the purchase of bulls and both viral diseases. Purchased bulls were three times more likely to be seropositive for BoHV-1 than homebred bulls. In the same way, herds with purchased bulls were three times more likely to be classified as seropositive for BVD and four times more likely to have evidence of recent BoHV-1 circulation than farms where all the bulls were homebred. Conclusions The prevalence of BoHV-1 and BVD in stock bulls in Irish dairy herds has never been investigated. This study highlights the widespread use of stock bulls in Irish dairy herds, as well as the high rate of exchange of bulls between farms. Significant associations were found between the origin of the bull and their serological BoHV-1 status. In keeping with these results, bulls with higher number movements between farms were more likely to be seropositive for BoHV-1

Translating the Libraries: A Multilingual Information Page for International Students

University libraries have long recognized the special needs of international students on campus, but have struggled to find the best ways to bridge the cultural and linguistic barriers and thereby demystify the library experience. The University of Alabama’s online Information Page for International Students (http://www.lib.ua.edu/international/), which was first mounted on the Libraries’ website in 2004, was an attempt to meet this need; however, only when the page was translated into Spanish and Chinese, two of the campus’s most prominent languages, did the advantages of library information in students’ native languages become fully apparent

Humanitarian innovation: The next step for greater impact

Since 2010, the aid sector has invested significant funds in innovation practice, implementing pilots and other practices borrowed from Silicon Valley. While this has supported some impact, the aid sector has now hit a plateau with innovation, struggling to scale what works, frustrated by ‘digital litter’ (unsustainable technology projects), trying to overcome the small innovation trap, and ‘pilotitis’ (fatigue from implementing small-scale projects that never scale up). Many innovation leaders in the social and development sectors are realising that the ‘lean’ innovation approaches commonly used do not work well for the complex challenges in their sector. To create the change and impact that our work demands, organisations must be able to work with real and messy challenges, and create large-scale innovative solutions. The sector is beginning to use system innovation to move past simplifying challenges in lean experiments and hackathons. This paper discusses how system innovation can support humanitarians to take the next step to innovation effectiveness, to create real impact in communities

Millennial Retail Employees Experiences and Perceptions of Leaders with Body Image Modifications

Millennials in retail account for a large portion of the U.S. workforce and have the highest number of body image modifications from tattoos, piercings, and/or gauges. Following Moustakas concept of perception, the purpose of this transcendental phenomenology study was to explore how Millennial-aged retail employees describe and experience leaders with body image modifications from tattoos, piercings, and/or gauges. Participants were sought from various retail locations and were required to be born between 1981 and 1996. Data were collected through interviews with 6 participants and the data were analyzed using Moustakas modification of the Van Kamm Method. The results showed that employees typically felt good about their experiences with their leaders, yet varied on how effective and personable their leaders were; however, employees did not ascribe any impact on leadership effectiveness to the body image modifications of their leaders. Implications of this result extends to an increased openness towards traits that make others different, theoretical changes that note visual cues are important for ideal leader categorization, and increased understanding of follower views in relation to leader-follower relationship development

Manipulating starch digestibility by influencing molecular and microscale starch structure in 3rd generation extruded snack foods

Pulses are high in several nutritional properties. Prior to consumption, pulses must undergo time consuming pulse preparation methods. These are necessary to minimise anti-nutritional factors intrinsic in legumes and improve functionality. In comparison to cereal and tuber starches, most pulse starches have greater thermal stability and can withstand more mechanical shear. This results in increased resistance to digestion. This study explores the effects of extrusion processing and formulation moisture on the starch digestibility and structure of chickpea and red lentil flours. It is hypothesised that extrusion of pulses will result in increased starch digestibility. Red lentil and chickpea flour were extruded (80°C; 30 rpm) at 10%, 40% and 80% potato starch substitution using 25% and 35% formulation moisture. The degree of starch gelatinisation was quantified using DSC (Differential Scanning Calorimetry) and XRD (X-ray Diffraction). Starch digestibility of raw flours, extrudates and expanded final products was quantified using static in vitro digestion methods using PAHBAH (4-hydroxybenzoic acid hydrazide) assay as an endpoint to obtain starch digestibility kinetics. A complex non-linear relationship was observed between formulation moisture content and pulse incorporation. Increasing pulse content resulted in decreased starch gelatinisation (4.2 J/g in 80% chickpea flour incorporated vs 1.4 J/g in 10% chickpea flour incorporated extrudates) during extrusion, conversely increasing starch crystallinity (22.9% starch crystallinity in 80% chickpea flour incorporated, vs 20.0% starch crystallinity in 10% chickpea flour incorporated extrudates). Formulation moisture did not significantly affect gelatinisation, but high formulation moisture was found to increase retrogradation 0.4 J/g in 10% chickpea flour incorporated extrudates with low moisture formulation vs 2.4 J/g in 10% chickpea flour incorporated extrudates with high moisture formulation. The degree of gelatinisation correlated strongly with the extent of starch digestibility in expanded snacks (P-value (Pearson correlation) < 0.00001), but not with overall crystallinity (P-value (Pearson correlation) = 0.51, indicating that the presence of ungelatinised starch was the main factor limiting starch digestion in these systems. These insights provide knowledge on the design of nutritious third generation snacks with the aim of lowering starch digestibility

Medical Compliance in HIV-infected Patients: An Analysis of Outpatient Clinic Attendance.

Currently there is no cure for HIV/AIDS. The only way to deter progression of this disease is through regular prophylactic and curative treatment regimens. Thus, it is critical that patients are compliant with their outpatient medical appointments. Despite this, high rates of noncompliance have been reported among patients with HIV/AIDS. In addition, little attention has been directed toward establishing causal factors of this noncompliance. The present study represents one of the first efforts to elucidate psychosocial, illness, and demographic factors associated with compliance with outpatient, HIV-specific treatments. The results of this study indicate noncompliance with medical appointments is a significant problem. One in five patients dropped out of the clinic before completing their intake assessment and 35% of scheduled medical appointments were not attended. Patients with lower levels of social support and males were more likely to drop out of the clinic system before seeing a physician. Additionally, CD\sb4 counts at clinic intake, heterosexual orientation, African-American race, and female gender were significantly associated with non-attendance of scheduled appointments during the year following patients\u27 clinic intake, with CD\sb4 counts and heterosexual orientation accounting for the greatest amount of variance in patients\u27 nonattendance. Although emotional distress was not associated with clinic attendance, significantly elevated levels of anxiety and depression were found. Practical implications of these findings are discussed

Clearance of endosymbionts in the tick vector Rhipicephalus sanguineus

Abstract only availableVector-borne diseases reduce livestock production in areas whose human populations are starving, such as the Tsetse belt in Africa. In the United States, people are infected every year with Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and Human Monocytic Ehrlichiosis. A method of controlling vectors, such as ticks, would have many uses. Previous studies have indicated that all ticks of the species Amblyomma americanum are infected with a Coxiella sp. bacterial symbiont. After treatment with the antibiotics rifampin and tetracycline, nymphs and adults were shown to have lower numbers of this symbiont and treatment of engorged adult females was shown to result in decreased fecundity (Zhong et al. 2007). It was speculated that this Coxiella symbiont plays a vital role in tick fitness and female fecundity. The goals of the current experiment are to: demonstrate the presence of the same or similar symbiont in Rhipicephalus sanguineus adults and larvae, demonstrate clearance of the symbiont in larvae after treatment with antibiotics, observe any negative effects on the fecundity of the treated females, and test the acquisition rate of larvae that feed on a carrier of Ehrlichia canis, a pathogen of which ticks are a vector. A Coxiella sp. symbiont was shown in adult and larvae R. sanguineus using PCR. Adult females were then fed with males on dogs to repletion, with several groups receiving different treatments of antibiotics prior to mating. Three of the treatment groups suffered significantly lower fecundity than the control. DNA from the resulting larvae was PCR assayed for symbionts, and the Coxiella symbiont has been found in lower numbers in the larvae of these treated groups. The next phase of the experiment is to feed symbiont cleared or reduced larvae on an E. canis carrier and compare their rate of acquisition to untreated larvae.Dr. Roger W. Stich, Veterinary Pathobiolog