Providing Enhanced Access for the Oregon State University College Catalogs : A Case Study

The academic catalog is a vital record for colleges and universities. Until the late 1980s, Oregon State University catalogs were published, distributed and archived solely in print format. With the advent of web and digital technologies, the Oregon State University Registrar’s Office also began placing an electronic version of the most recent catalogs online, while the Oregon State University Libraries provided access to earlier versions of the catalog through a subscription to College Source®, an online vendor for academic catalogs. In 2006, the Registrar’s Office was looking for a home for its archive of digital files, while the escalating cost of serials forced Oregon State University Libraries to cut its subscription to College Source®. The two units collaborated to preserve and provide electronic access to the entire run (1866 to present) of Oregon State University academic catalogs in ScholarsArchive, the Libraries’ institutional repository. This article details this collaboration as well as the procedures and workflows for depositing digitized as well as born-digital files into ScholarsArchive (https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/jspui/) We compare the number of patron requests pre- and post- catalog placement in ScholarsArchive and describe how this project led to the OSU Registrar’s Office placing additional university documents into ScholarsArchive

Observation on some of the environmental parameters and feed quality of selected golda (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) farms in Bangladesh

A study was conducted to ascertain the existing farm water, effluent and feed quality of selected giant freshwater prawn farms from major prawn farming areas (Bagerhat Sadar, Noakhali Sadar and Mymensingh) of Bangladesh during July to November 2005. Water quality parameters such as the mean values of dissolved oxygen, alkalinity, nitrite-nitrogen, phosphate-phosphorus and ammoniacal nitrogen did not show any significantly differences among the farming areas. Whereas significant differences (p < 0.05) were observed in the mean values of temperature, secchi disc visibility, pH and chlorophyll a. However, all the water quality parameters in the farming areas were within the suitable range for prawn culture. There was no significant variation in nutrients concentration of discharged effluent among the prawn farming areas. All of the nutrients measured in effluent water were within the acceptable range and did not seem to pose a direct threat to the recipient environment. The analysed crude protein contents of commercial CP, Quality and Saudi-Bangla prawn feeds were 31.84%, 27.21% and 28.97%, respectively, whereas all analysed farm made feeds were less than 25%. The other nutrients of prawn feeds varied largely with the source of feeds and ingredients used to prepare feed. The annual yield of prawn varied from 320.4 to 512.6 kg/ha (mean 412.3 kg/ha) depending on the management system

Incorporating changes in albedo in estimating the climate mitigation benefits of land use change projects

International audienceSome climate scientists are questioning whether the practice of converting of non-forest lands to forest land (afforestation or reforestation) is an effective climate change mitigation option. The discussion focuses particularly on areas where the new forest is primarily coniferous and there is significant amount of snow since the increased climate forcing due to the change in albedo may counteract the decreased climate forcing due to carbon dioxide removal. In this paper, we develop a stand-based model that combines changes in surface albedo, solar radiation, latitude, cloud cover and carbon sequestration. As well, we develop a procedure to convert carbon stock changes to equivalent climatic forcing or climatic forcing to equivalent carbon stock changes. Using the model, we investigate the sensitivity of combined affects of changes in surface albedo and carbon stock changes to model parameters. The model is sensitive to amount of cloud, atmospheric absorption, timing of canopy closure, carbon sequestration rate among other factors. The sensitivity of the model is investigated at one Canadian site, and then the model is tested at numerous sites across Canada. In general, we find that the change in albedo reduces the carbon sequestration benefits by approximately 30% over 100 years, but this is not drastic enough to suggest that one should not use afforestation or reforestation as a climate change mitigation option. This occurs because the forests grow in places where there is significant amount of cloud in winter. As well, variations in sequestration rate seem to be counterbalanced by the amount and timing of canopy closure. We close by speculating that the effects of albedo may also be significant in locations at lower latitudes, where there are less clouds, and where there are extended dry seasons. These conditions make grasses light coloured and when irrigated crops, dark forests or other vegetation such as biofuels replace the grasses, the change in carbon stocks may not compensate for the darkening of the surface

Polymeric Nanoparticles for the Delivery of miRNA to Treat Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

RNA interference (RNAi) based therapeutics are considered an endogenous mechanism for modulating gene expression. In addition, microRNAs (miRNAs) may be tractable targets for the treatment of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). In this study miR146a was adsorbed onto poly (glycerol adipate-co-ω-pentadecalactone), PGA-co-PDL, nanoparticles (NPs) to reduce target gene IRAK1 expression. NPs were prepared using an oil-in-water single emulsion solvent evaporation method incorporating cationic lipid dioleoyltrimethylammoniumpropane (DOTAP). This resulted in NPs of 244.80±4.40 nm at 15 % DOTAP concentration, zeta potential (ZP) of +14.8±0.26 mV and miR-146a (40 µg/ml) maximum adsorption onto 15 % DOTAP NPs was 36.25±0.35 µg per 10 mg NP following 24 h incubation. Using the MTT assay, it was observed that over 75 % at 0.312 mg/ml of A549 cells remained viable after 18 h exposure to cationic NPs at a concentration of 1.25 mg/ml. Furthermore, the in vitro release profile of miR-146a from loaded NPs showed a continuous release up to 77 % after 24 h. Internalization of miR-146a loaded cationic NPs was observed in A549 cell lines using fluorescence and confocal microscopy. The miR146a delivered as miR-146a-NPs had a dose dependent effect of highest NPs concentrations 0.321 and 0.625 mg/ml and reduced target gene IRAK1 expression to 40 %. In addition, IL-8 promoter reporter output (GFP) was dampened by miR-146a-NPs. In conclusion, miR-146a was successfully adsorbed onto PGA-co-PDL-DOTAP NPs and the miR-146a retained biological activity. Therefore, these results demonstrate the potential of PGA-co-PDL NPs as a delivery system for miR-146a to treat COPD

Increased Cytomegalovirus Secretion and Risks of Infant Infection by Breastfeeding Duration From Maternal Human Immunodeficiency Virus Positive Compared to Negative Mothers in Sub-Saharan Africa.

BACKGROUND: Breastfeeding imparts beneficial immune protection and nutrition to infants for healthy growth, but it is also a route for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection. In previous studies, we showed that HCMV adversely affects infant development in Africa, particularly with maternal HIV exposure. In this study, we analyzed infants risks for acquisition of HCMV infection from breastfeeding and compared HIV-positive and HIV-negative mothers. METHODS: Two cohorts were studied in Zambia. (1) Two hundred sixty-one HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected mothers were compared for HCMV deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) loads and genotypes (glycoprotein gO) in milk from birth to 4 months postpartum. (2) Maternally HIV-exposed and HIV-unexposed infants were compared for HCMV infection risk factors. The second cohort of 460 infants, from a trial of micronutrient-fortified complementary-food to breastfeeding, were studied between 6 and 18 months of age. Human cytomegalovirus seroprevalence was assayed, and logistic regression was used to calculate risk factors for HCMV infection, including maternal HIV exposure and breastfeeding duration. RESULTS: Human cytomegalovirus was detected in breast milk from 3 days to 4 months postpartum, with significantly raised levels in HIV-positive women and independent of genotype. In infants, HCMV antibody seroprevalence was 83% by 18 months age. Longer breastfeeding duration increased infection risk in maternally HIV-unexposed (odds ratio [OR] = 2.69 for 18 months vs 6 months vs never; 95% CI, 3.71-111.70; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Prolonged breastfeeding, which is common in Africa, increased risk of HCMV infection in infants. Both HIV-positive and HIV-negative women had extended milk HCMV secretion. Women who were HIV-positive secreted higher HCMV levels, and for longer duration, with their children at increased infection risk. Human cytomegalovirus control is required to maintain health benefits of breastfeeding

Long term mortality and disability in Cryptococcal Meningitis: a systematic literature review.

Cryptococcal meningitis (CM) is the primary cause of meningitis in HIV-infected adults and an emerging disease in HIV-seronegative individuals. No literature review has studied the long-term outcome of CM. We performed a systematic review on the long-term (≥3 months) impact of CM (C. neoformans and C. gattii) on mortality and disability in HIV-infected and non-HIV-infected adults. Though the quality of current evidence is limited, the long-term impact of CM on survival and disability appears to be high. One-year mortality ranged from 13% in an Australian non-HIV C.gattii infected cohort to 78% in a Malawian HIV-infected cohort treated with fluconazole monotherapy. One-year impairment proportions among survivors ranged from 19% in an Australian C.gattii cohort to more than 70% in a Taiwanese non-HIV and HIV-infected cohorts. Ongoing early therapeutic interventions, early detection of impairments and access to rehabilitation services may significantly improve patients' survival and quality of life

Cholinesterase Inhibition in Vitro by Extracts of Potato

While attempting to assay cholinesterase inhibitory organic phosphorus insecticide residues in various plant tissues, it became apparent that the potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) presented a unique problem. It was observed that aqueous extracts of potato tubers or foliage, which had not been treated with insecticide, still gave a positive test by the method employed. Hence, a more thorough study of the nature of the interference was made

An exploratory study of a NoSQL database for a clinical data repository

The need to implement a distributed Clinical Data Repository (CDR) at a healthcare facility, rose in large part due to the high volume of data and the discrepancy of their sources. Over the years, Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) began to present difficulties in responding to the needs of various organizations when it comes to manipulating a large amount of data and to its scalability. Therefore, it was necessary to explore other techniques to choose the appropriate technology to build the CDR. In this way, NoSQL emerged as a new type of database that is quite useful to work with multiple and different types of data. In addition, NoSQL introduces a number of user-friendly features such as a distributed, scalable, elastic and also fault tolerant system. In this way, Oracle NoSQL Database was the NoSQL solution chosen to develop this case study, using the key-value storage. This article was motivated to propose a CDR architecture based on Oracle NoSQL Database functionalities. A one-single node database was deployed for better comprehension, in order to enhance their features for future implementation.The work has been supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope UID/CEC/00319/2019 and DSAIPA/DS/0084/2018