Computer-based library or computer-based learning?

Traditionally, libraries have played the role of repository of published information resources and, more recently, gateway to online subscription databases. The library online catalog and digital library interface serve an intermediary function to help users locate information resources available through the library. With competition from Web search engines and Web portals of various kinds available for free, the library has to step up to play a more active role as guide and coach to help users make use of information resources for learning or to accomplish particular tasks. It is no longer sufficient for computer-based library systems to provide just search and access functions. They must provide the functionality and environment to support learning and become computer-based learning systems. This paper examines the kind of learning support that can be incorporated in library online catalogs and digital libraries, including 1) enhanced support for information browsing and synthesis through linking by shared meta-data, references and concepts; 2) visualization of related information; 3) adoption of Library 2.0 and social technologies; 4) adoption of Library 3.0 technologies including intelligent processing and text mining

A Storm in a "T" Cup

We revisit the process of transversification and agglomeration of particle momenta that are often performed in analyses at hadron colliders, and show that many of the existing mass-measurement variables proposed for hadron colliders are far more closely related to each other than is widely appreciated, and indeed can all be viewed as a common mass bound specialized for a variety of purposes.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, presented by K.C. Kong at the 19th Particles and Nuclei International Conference, PANIC 2011, MIT, Cambridge, MA (July 24-29, 2011

Incretin-based therapies: new treatments for type 2 diabetes in the new millennium

The advent of ‘incretin-based therapies’ – GLP-1 agonists and dipeptidyl-peptidase-4 inhibitors – which result in improvements in glycemic control comparable to those with existing oral hypoglycemic agents, and potentially improve cardiovascular and pancreatic β-cell function, represents a major therapeutic advance in the management of type 2 diabetes. Gastrointestinal adverse effects occur commonly with GLP-1 agonists, and rarely with DPP-4 inhibitors, but are dose-dependent and usually transient. The low risk of hypoglycemia, and beneficial or neutral effects on body weight, render GLP-1 agonists and DPP-4 inhibitors suitable alternatives to insulin secretagogues and insulin in overweight and elderly patients. Incretin-based therapies also improve quality of life in patients with type 2 diabetes, and may be cost-effective in the long term

Literature review writing: a study of information selection from cited papers / Kokil Jaidka, Christopher Khoo and Jin-Cheon Na

This paper reports the results of a small study of how researchers select and edit research information from cited papers to include in a literature review. This is part of a bigger content analysis and linguistic analysis of literature reviews. This study aims to answer the following questions: where do authors select information from the cited papers (e.g., Abstract, Introduction, Conclusion section, etc.)? What types of information do they select (e.g., research objectives, results, etc.), and How do they transform that information (e.g., paraphrasing, cut-pasting, etc.)? In order to answer these questions, we analyzed the literature review section of 20 articles from the Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 2001-2008, to answer these questions. Referencing sentences were mapped to source papers to determine their origin. Other features of the source information were also annotated, such as the type of information selected and the types of editing changes made to it before including into the literature review. Preliminary results indicate that authors prefer to select information from the Abstract, Introduction and Conclusion sections of the cited papers. This information is transformed through cut-paste, paraphrase or higher-level semantic transformations to describe the research objective, methodology and results of the referenced study. The choices made in selecting and transforming the source information appeared to be related to the two styles of literature review finally constructed – integrative and descriptive literature reviews. Keywords: Literature reviews; Multi-document summarization; Information science; Information extraction; Information selection

Prevalence and awareness of lower urinary tract symptoms among males in the Outpatient Clinics of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre.

This study aims to determine the prevalence of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and level of awareness among male outpatients in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC). A questionnaire consisting of demographic data, questions related to knowledge, attitude and practice on BPH and the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) was used for this study. Uroflowmetry and bladder scan were used to evaluate the function of the urinary tract and severity of BPH. Urine dipstick was done for glycosuria, proteinuria and haematuria. A total of 220 respondents were surveyed. The prevalence of moderately and severely symptomatic LUTS was 42.7%. The most commonly reported LUTS were nocturia (78.2%), frequency (58.2%) and incomplete emptying (44.6%). The prevalence of glycosuria, proteinuria and haematuria were 23.6%, 11.4% and 1.8% respectively. There was a significant association between increasing age with the severity of LUTS (p=0.005). Out of 102 respondents with voided urine volume greater than 150 mL, there was a significant decrease in maximum (Qmax) (p=0.039) and average (Qave) urine flow rates with every 10 years increase of age (p=0.001). The majority of respondents (59.5%) have heard of BPH before. Over 78.2% of the respondents would seek medical attention if they have LUTS with 15.9% saying they would seek traditional treatment. In conclusion, the prevalence of LUTS was high and the level of awareness was satisfactory

PREPARING LIS PROFESSIONALS FOR GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE PROCESS OUTSOURCING

Introduction. Globalization due to the growth of the Internet and global communication infrastructure has made it possible for many services to be provided from remote locations, independent of the location of service providers. A large number of organizations have started outsourcing high-end knowledge-intensive services to external agencies and professionals, in a practice called knowledge process outsourcing (KPO). There is a shortage of talent able to provide the breadth of KPO services, particularly professionals trained to find and process information efficiently. This paper explores the issues and challenges involved for LIS professionals to break into the KPO market, and the strategies that LIS associations and LIS schools can take to facilitate this. Method. Two faculty members of an I-school, a special librarian at a private business school and a knowledge management specialist at a law firm in Singapore collaborated to deliberate on the extent and potential of the KPO market, the kind of services and skills that will be in demand for KPO, and the issues and barriers to address. Conclusion. LIS professionals are expected to do well in KPO in areas involving searching for information, packaging information, combining information from multiple sources, carrying out data collection and analysis, preparing research reports, providing information-related services, carrying out information and knowledge audits, constructing taxonomies and metadata, designing digital libraries and institutional repositories, and providing training. Challenges expected to be faced include mindset of librarians, personal work issues, and librarian's lack of certain soft skills, domain/industry knowledge, experience of the corporate environment, and an understanding of ethical and information security issues. A collaborative effort between LIS schools across the region, LIS associations and industry partners seems to be a good strategy to address the issues and realize the potential of KPO

Submission to the Toronto Police Services Board’s Use of New Artificial Intelligence Technologies Policy- LEAF and the Citizen Lab

We write as a group of experts in the legal regulation of artificial intelligence (AI), technology-facilitated violence, equality, and the use of AI systems by law enforcement in Canada. We have experience working within academia and legal practice, and are affiliated with LEAF and the Citizen Lab who support this letter.We reviewed the Toronto Police Services Board Use of New Artificial Intelligence Technologies Policy and provide comments and recommendations focused on the following key observations:1. Police use of AI technologies must not be seen as inevitable2. A commitment to protecting equality and human rights must be integrated more thoroughly throughout the TPSB policy and its AI analysis procedures3. Inequality is embedded in AI as a system in ways that cannot be mitigated through a policy only dealing with use4. Having more accurate AI systems does not mitigate inequality5. The TPS must not engage in unnecessary or disproportionate mass collection and analysis of data6. TPSB’s AI policy should provide concrete guidance on the proactive identification and classification of risk7. TPSB’s AI policy must ensure expertise in independent vetting, risk analysis, and human rights impact analysis8. The TPSB should be aware of assessment challenges that can arise when an AI system is developed by a private enterprise9. The TPSB must apply the draft policy to all existing AI technologies that are used by, or presently accessible to, the Toronto Police ServiceIn light of these key observations, we have made 33 specific recommendations for amendments to the draft policy

Preliminary evaluation of CETP inhibition from selected Garcinia species

Two types of Garcinia species which are Garcinia parvifolia and Garcinia atroviridis Griff ex T. Anders were selected and being labelled as UNMC 45L, UNMC 78T and UNMC 78T based on the folklore medicine „myths? that claiming Garcinia species has the ability to be anti-cholesterol. All of these three plant parts were evaluated for therapeutic potential as CETP inhibitors by using CETP Inhibitor drug screening kit. Extraction of crude material from plants was performed via gradient maceration in hexane, ethyl acetate and ethanol. All of the extracts show significant inhibition towards CETP activity. Ethanol extracts of UNMC 45L shows greatest inhibition as the IC50 is 15.43 ± 0.4212 mg/ml followed by Hexane extract and Ethyl Acetate extracts of UNMC 78L which are 28.70 ± 1.320 mg/ml and 28.49 ± 1.126 mg/ml respectively. However, all of the extracts of UNMC 78T shows lowest inhibition towards CETP activity and it is assumed that more bioactive compound could be present in the leaves compare to twigs. The positive findings from this study suggest that Garcinia species was effective natural inhibitors towards CET

Ontology Learning for Medical Digital Libraries

Abstract. Ontologies play an important role in the Semantic Web as well as in digital library and knowledge portal applications. This project seeks to develop an automatic method to enrich existing ontologies, especially in the identifica-tion of semantic relations between concepts in the ontology. The initial study investigates an approach of identifying pairs of related concepts in a medical domain using association rule induction and inferring the type of semantic rela-tion using the UMLS (Unified Medical Language System) semantic net. This is evaluated by comparing the result with manually assigned semantic relations based on an analysis of medical abstracts containing each pair of concepts. Our initial finding shows that the automatic process is promising, achieving a 68% coverage compared to manually tagging. However, natural language processing of medical abstracts is likely to improve the identification of semantic relations.