The Pivot: Phase 2 of 2CUL Technical Services Integration

The Columbia and Cornell University Libraries’ partnership (2CUL) is now in its fifth year. Its composite acronym (2CUL), which condenses a doubling of the two participating libraries’ initial letters, summarizes both vision and mission: a broad integration of library activities in a number of areas – including collection development, acquisitions and cataloging, e-resources and digital management, and digital preservation, and reciprocal onsite use of collections. A key component of the partnership is 2CUL Technical Services Integration (TSI), an initiative funded by a generous three-year grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to plan for the merger of technical services operations. The authors reported on the first phase of this project last year in this forum (Kate Harcourt and Jim LeBlanc, “Planning from the Middle Out: Phase 1 of 2CUL Technical Services Integration,” Collaborative Librarianship 6:1 (2014)). In this paper, they draw on the existing literature on collaboration, both within libraries and beyond, to report and reflect on the second phase of the TSI project and, in particular, the decision to reconceive TSI as an evolving set of mutually beneficial initiatives rather than a more comprehensive administrative integration of technical services operations. The period covered in this article is December 2013-December 2014

The 2CUL Technical Services Strategic Alliance

The Columbia and Cornell University Libraries’ partnership (2CUL) is now in its sixth year. Its composite acronym (2CUL), which condenses a doubling of the two participating libraries’ initial letters, summarizes its vision: a broad integration of library activities in many areas—including collection development, acquisitions and cataloging, e-resources and digital management, digital preservation, and reciprocal offsite use of collections. A key component in the partnership was the 2CUL Technical Services Integration, an initiative funded by a generous three-year grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which ended on December 31, 2015. In this paper, the third in a series, the authors report on the final year of this grant-funded project and reflect on the results of the two institutions’ attempt to achieve deep, operational integration within technical services. In presenting an honest appraisal of the project’s challenges and vicissitudes, the authors hope that their experiences and insights will help other libraries plan their own collaborative ventures

The Pivot: Phase 2 of 2CUL Technical Services Integration

The Columbia and Cornell University Libraries’ partnership (2CUL) is now in its fifth year. Its composite acronym (2CUL), which condenses a doubling of the two participating libraries’ initial letters, summarizes both vision and mission: a broad integration of library activities in a number of areas – including collection development, acquisitions and cataloging, e-resources and digital management, and digital preservation, and reciprocal onsite use of collections. A key component of the partnership is 2CUL Technical Services Integration (TSI), an initiative funded by a generous three-year grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to plan for the merger of technical services operations. The authors reported on the first phase of this project last year in this forum (Kate Harcourt and Jim LeBlanc, “Planning from the Middle Out: Phase 1 of 2CUL Technical Services Integration,” Collaborative Librarianship 6:1 (2014)). In this paper, they draw on the existing literature on collaboration, both within libraries and beyond, to report and reflect on the second phase of the TSI project and, in particular, the decision to reconceive TSI as an evolving set of mutually beneficial initiatives rather than a more comprehensive administrative integration of technical services operations. The period covered in this article is December 2013-December 2014

Planning from the Middle Out: Phase 1 of 2CUL Technical Services Integration

The Columbia and Cornell University Libraries’ partnership is now in its fourth year. Its composite acronym (2CUL), which condenses a doubling of the two participating libraries’ initial letters, in itself reflects the very nature of the collaboration’s strategic purpose: a broad integration of library activities in a number of areas– including collection development, acquisitions and cataloging, e-resources and digital management, and digital reservation. In what is perhaps their boldest, most ambitious 2CUL initiative to date, the two libraries have begun planning for and have taken the first steps towards an integration of their substantial technical services operations. In this paper, the authors outline the goals of 2CUL Technical Services Integration (TSI), report on the first phase of the work, reflect on what they have learned so far in planning for this operational union, and look forward to the next steps of the project in which the two institutions will initiate incrementally the functional integration of the two divisions. The period covered in Phase 1 of TSI is September 2012 - December 2013. Keywords: 2CUL; Technical Services; Integrated Technical Services; Columbia University; Cornell Universit

Prevalence and types of rectal douches used for anal intercourse: results from an international survey.

BackgroundRectal products used with anal intercourse (AI) may facilitate transmission of STIs/HIV. However, there is limited data on rectal douching behavior in populations practicing AI. We examined the content, types of products, rectal douching practices and risk behaviors among those reporting AI.MethodsFrom August 2011 to May 2012, 1,725 women and men reporting receptive AI in the past 3 months completed an internet-based survey on rectal douching practices. The survey was available in English, French, German, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Thai and included questions on sexual behaviors associated with AI including rectal douching. Differences by rectal douching practices were evaluated using chi-square methods and associations between reported douching practices and other factors including age and reported STI history were evaluated using logistic regression analysis.ResultsRespondents represented 112 countries, were mostly male (88%), and from North America (55%) or Europe (22%). Among the 1,339 respondents (66%) who reported rectal douching, most (83%) reported always/almost always douching before receptive AI. The majority of rectal douchers reported using non-commercial/homemade products (93%), with water being the most commonly used product (82%). Commercial products were used by 31%, with the most common product being saline-based (56%). Rectal douching varied by demographic and risk behaviors. The prevalence of rectal douching was higher among men (70% vs. 32%; p-value < .01), those reporting substance-use with sex (74% vs. 46%; p-value < .01), and those reporting an STI in the past year (69% vs. 57% p-value < .01) or ever testing HIV-positive (72% vs. 53%; p-value < .01). In multivariable analysis, adjusting for age, gender, region, condom and lubricant use, substance use, and HIV-status, douchers had a 74% increased odds of reporting STI in the past year as compared to non-douchers [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 1.74; 95% CI 1.01-3.00].ConclusionGiven that rectal douching before receptive AI is common and because rectal douching was associated with other sexual risk behaviors the contribution of this practice to the transmission and acquisition of STIs including HIV may be important

Task Force on the StaffWeb: Final Report

On 30 March 1999, a StaffWeb Committee was created to make recommendations about the future development, content, and maintenance of the StaffWeb. This is a final report

Mars’ plasma system. Scientific potential of coordinated multipoint missions: “The next generation”

The objective of this White Paper, submitted to ESA’s Voyage 2050 call, is to get a more holistic knowledge of the dynamics of the Martian plasma system, from its surface up to the undisturbed solar wind outside of the induced magnetosphere. This can only be achieved with coordinated multi-point observations with high temporal resolution as they have the scientific potential to track the whole dynamics of the system (from small to large scales), and they constitute the next generation of the exploration of Mars analogous to what happened at Earth a few decades ago. This White Paper discusses the key science questions that are still open at Mars and how they could be addressed with coordinated multipoint missions. The main science questions are: (i) How does solar wind driving impact the dynamics of the magnetosphere and ionosphere? (ii) What is the structure and nature of the tail of Mars’ magnetosphere at all scales? (iii) How does the lower atmosphere couple to the upper atmosphere? (iv) Why should we have a permanent in-situ Space Weather monitor at Mars? Each science question is devoted to a specific plasma region, and includes several specific scientific objectives to study in the coming decades. In addition, two mission concepts are also proposed based on coordinated multi-point science from a constellation of orbiting and ground-based platforms, which focus on understanding and solving the current science gaps

Search for strong gravity in multijet final states produced in pp collisions at √s=13 TeV using the ATLAS detector at the LHC

A search is conducted for new physics in multijet final states using 3.6 inverse femtobarns of data from proton-proton collisions at √s = 13TeV taken at the CERN Large Hadron Collider with the ATLAS detector. Events are selected containing at least three jets with scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT) greater than 1TeV. No excess is seen at large HT and limits are presented on new physics: models which produce final states containing at least three jets and having cross sections larger than 1.6 fb with HT > 5.8 TeV are excluded. Limits are also given in terms of new physics models of strong gravity that hypothesize additional space-time dimensions

The performance of the jet trigger for the ATLAS detector during 2011 data taking

The performance of the jet trigger for the ATLAS detector at the LHC during the 2011 data taking period is described. During 2011 the LHC provided proton–proton collisions with a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and heavy ion collisions with a 2.76 TeV per nucleon–nucleon collision energy. The ATLAS trigger is a three level system designed to reduce the rate of events from the 40 MHz nominal maximum bunch crossing rate to the approximate 400 Hz which can be written to offline storage. The ATLAS jet trigger is the primary means for the online selection of events containing jets. Events are accepted by the trigger if they contain one or more jets above some transverse energy threshold. During 2011 data taking the jet trigger was fully efficient for jets with transverse energy above 25 GeV for triggers seeded randomly at Level 1. For triggers which require a jet to be identified at each of the three trigger levels, full efficiency is reached for offline jets with transverse energy above 60 GeV. Jets reconstructed in the final trigger level and corresponding to offline jets with transverse energy greater than 60 GeV, are reconstructed with a resolution in transverse energy with respect to offline jets, of better than 4 % in the central region and better than 2.5 % in the forward direction

Correlated long-range mixed-harmonic fluctuations measured in pp, p+Pb and low-multiplicity Pb+Pb collisions with the ATLAS detector

For abstract see published article