Selector as Entrepreneur (Panel presentation for New Selectors and Selecting in New Subjects: Meeting the Challenges)

Collection building in the digital age aims to create a collection of freely accessible, integrated, and comprehensive record of serious scholarship and knowledge. Library collections are broadly defined as all the resources libraries make available to users—items purchased, locally created or reformatted digital materials, subject guides, social networking tools, and content freely accessible in digital collections around the world. New selectors must master several enduring skills related to collection policy, management of print and digital resources, budget management, and liaison with clientele. An entrepreneurial approach to collection building and liaison requires an understanding of the digital library context and diverse scholarly cultures. Entreneurial selectors who know details about the disciplines they serve, such as who is publishing and where, research topics, location of data sets, applications of research, and student involvement will be prepared to offer clientele information about gaining maximum visibility for their scholarly work

Walking the Walk: A Path to Support Open Access Publishing [Poster]

Scholarly communication is the lifeblood of universities. Threats to the free flow of research and ideas continue to jeopardize the entire academy; however administrators, scholars, and librarians are now pursuing options to reclaim research produced in the academy\u27s domain. One way to do this is with Open Access. Open Access has been a topic of interest and intense depabe for academic librarians. Ways to create awareness about and encourage publication in Open Access journals have been discussed at library conferences for the better part of the decade. But what is the next step? What happens when the library\u27s promotion pays off and teaching faculty seek support for their open access endeavors? This poster describes the steps taken to create a pilot program for an open access support fund at a Research I university. The program is one way to walk the walk of open access promotion by offering to subsidize costs associated with some open access publications. The poster includes practical information and tips such as: steps that can be taken to create a similar program; library and academic positions which may be involved; and opportunities and barriers that exist. Program documents, statistics and general impressions are provided

Story and Illustration Reconstituted: Children's Literature in Canadian Reading Programs

This study addresses the differences between literature in children's trade books and the literature in commercial elementary language arts reading programs used in Canada. Although the nature of the literature included in language arts programs has received considerable scrutiny in the United States, there is no parallel body of research in the Canadian context. Using a textual content analysis, all the literature selections contained in the three most extensively used reading programs in Canada were where possible compared with the corresponding trade books. Numerous differences between trade book literature and the corresponding selections in the reading programs suggest that the two are not equivalent in the reading experiences they provide for children. The changes included alterations to format such as omissions, additions, substitutions, and reordering of text and illustrations. Many of the original selections reconstituted in the reading programs were impoverished by the changes. Further research is needed on how these changes alter children's reading experiences.Cette élude se penche sur les différences entre la littérature pour enfants dans les publications commerciales et celle que l'on retrouve dans les cours de langues et littérature pour les élèves de l'élémentaire au Canada. Alors qu'aux États-Unis, la nature de la littérature étudiée dans les cours de langue et littérature a fait l'objet d'examens détaillés, au Canada, aucune recherche comparable n'a été entreprise. En s'appuyant sur une analyse de contenu approfondie, nous avons, dans la mesure du possible, comparé toute la littérature étudiée au sein des trois programmes de lecture les plus populaires au Canada, aux textes correspondants dans les publications commerciales. Les nombreuses différences repérées entre les publications commerciales et les sélections correspondantes employées dans les programmes de lecture permettent de conclure que les deux ne fournissent pas élèves des expériences de lecture équivalentes. Parmi les écarts notons des changements de format tels des omissions, des ajouts, des substitutions et une réorganisation du texte et illustrations. Plusieurs des sélections originales qui avaient été reconstituées dans les programmes de lecture avaient été appauvries par les changements. Davantage d'études devraient porter sur la façon dont ces changements modifient l'expérience de lecture des enfants

Assessment Techniques Corresponding to Scientific Texts in Commercial Reading Programs: Do They Promote Scientific Literacy?

This research is part of a larger study of commercial reading programs used in Canada in grades 1-6. The specific purposes of the results reported here were to identify and quantify the assessment techniques suggested for the selections that contain scientific content, to show how the assessments differ by grade, to evaluate the nature and quality of the assessments, and to examine the extent to which the assessments help foster scientific literacy. It was found that the assessments occurred in six major forms and employed about a dozen assessment tools that engage students in nearly 20 tasks. Such variety is endorsed in both literacy and science education position statements. The assessments showed some weak trends by grade, but primarily left the purpose of the assessments to teachers’ judgment. The consequence is that teachers probably will choose the assessments for formative rather than summative evaluation, an approach also endorsed by literacy and science education policy statements. Hardly any of the assessments focused on the specificities of learning to read texts that are scientific such as interpreting descriptions of methods and research findings and thus had limited use in promoting this particular aspect of scientific literacy

Spectroscopy of Globular Clusters in M81

We present moderate-resolution spectroscopy of globular clusters (GCs) around the Sa/Sb spiral galaxy M81 (NGC 3031). Sixteen candidate clusters were observed with the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrograph on the Keck I telescope. All are confirmed as bona fide GCs, although one of the clusters appears to have been undergoing a transient event during our observations. In general, the M81 globular cluster system (GCS) is found to be very similar to the Milky Way (MW) and M31 systems, both chemically and kinematically. A kinematic analysis of the velocities of 44 M81 GCS, (the 16 presented here and 28 from previous work) strongly suggests that the red, metal-rich clusters are rotating in the same sense as the gas in the disk of M81. The blue, metal-poor clusters have halo-like kinematics, showing no evidence for rotation. The kinematics of clusters whose projected galactocentric radii lie between 4 and 8 kpc suggest that they are rotating much more than those which lie outside these bounds. We suggest that these rotating, intermediate-distance clusters are analogous to the kinematic sub-population in the metal-rich, disk GCs observed in the MW and we present evidence for the existence of a similar sub-population in the metal-rich clusters of M31. With one exception, all of the M81 clusters in our sample have ages that are consistent with MW and M31 GCs. One cluster may be as young as a few Gyrs. The correlations between absorption-line indices established for MW and M31 GCs also hold in the M81 cluster system, at least at the upper end of the metallicity distribution (which our sample probes). On the whole, the mean metallicity of the M81 GCS is similar to the metallicity of the MW and M31 GCSs. The projected mass of M81 is similar to the masses of the MW and M31. Its mass profile indicates the presence of a dark matter halo.Comment: 35 pages, including 11 figures and 9 tables. Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

Sex Differences in Synaptic Plasticity: Hormones and Beyond

Notable sex-differences exist between neural structures that regulate sexually dimorphic behaviors such as reproduction and parenting. While anatomical differences have been well-characterized, advancements in neuroimaging and pharmacology techniques have allowed researchers to identify differences between males and females down to the level of the synapse. Disparate mechanisms at the synaptic level contribute to sex-specific neuroplasticity that is reflected in sex-dependent behaviors. Many of these synaptic differences are driven by the endocrine system and its impact on molecular signaling and physiology. While sex-dependent modifications exist at baseline, further differences emerge in response to stimuli such as stressors. While some of these mechanisms are unifying between sexes, they often have directly opposing consequences in males and females. This variability is tied to gonadal steroids and their interactions with intra- and extra-cellular signaling mechanisms. This review article focuses on the various mechanisms by which sex can alter synaptic plasticity, both directly and indirectly, through steroid hormones such as estrogen and testosterone. That sex can drive neuroplasticity throughout the brain, highlights the importance of understanding sex-dependent neural mechanisms of the changing brain to enhance interpretation of results regarding males and females. As mood and stress responsivity are characterized by significant sex-differences, understanding the molecular mechanisms that may be altering structure and function can improve our understanding of these behavioral and mental characteristics

Organophosphate Pesticide Exposure and Neurobehavioral Performance in Agricultural and Nonagricultural Hispanic Workers

Our understanding of the health risks of farmworkers exposed to pesticides in their work and home environments is rapidly increasing, although studies designed to examine the possible neurobehavioral effects of low-level chronic pesticide exposure are limited. We measured dialkyl phosphate urinary metabolite levels, collected environmental dust samples from a subset of homes, obtained information on work practices, and conducted neurobehavioral tests on a sample of farmworkers in Oregon. Significant correlations between urinary methyl metabolite levels and total methyl organophosphate (azinphos-methyl, phosmet, malathion) house dust levels were observed. We found the neurobehavioral performance of Hispanic immigrant farmworkers to be lower than that observed in a nonagricultural Hispanic immigrant population, and within the sample of agricultural workers there was a positive correlation between urinary organophosphate metabolite levels and poorer performance on some neurobehavioral tests. These findings add to an increasing body of evidence of the association between low levels of pesticide exposure and deficits in neurobehavioral performance

Keck Spectroscopy of Candidate Proto-globular Clusters in NGC 1275

Keck spectroscopy of 5 proto-globular cluster candidates in NGC 1275 has been combined with HST WFPC2 photometry to explore the nature and origin of these objects and discriminate between merger and cooling flow scenarios for globular cluster formation. The objects we have studied are not HII regions, but rather star clusters, yet their integrated spectral properties do not resemble young or intermediate age Magellanic Cloud clusters or Milky Way open clusters. The clusters' Balmer absorption appears to be too strong to be consistent with any of the standard Bruzual & Charlot evolutionary models at any metallicity. If these models are adopted, an IMF which is skewed to high masses provides a better fit to the data. A truncated IMF with a mass range of 2-3 Mo reproduces the observed Balmer equivalent widths and colors at about 450 Myr. Formation in a continuous cooling flow appears to be ruled out since the age of the clusters is much larger than the cooling time, the spatial scale of the clusters is much smaller than the cooling flow radius, and the deduced star formation rate in the cooling flow favors a steep rather than a flat IMF. A merger would have to produce clusters only in the central few kpc, presumably from gas in the merging galaxies which was channeled rapidly to the center. Widespread shocks in merging galaxies cannot have produced these clusters. If these objects are confirmed to have a relatively flat, or truncated, IMF it is unclear whether or not they will evolve into objects we would regard as bona fide globular clusters.Comment: 30 pages (AAS two column style, including 9 tables and 7 figures) to appear in the AJ (August issue), also available at http://www.ucolick.org/~mkissler/Sages/sages.html (with a full resolution Fig.1) Revised Version: previous posted version was an uncorrect ealier iteration, parts of the text, tables and figures changed. The overall conclusions remain unchange

Clinicians\u27 delirium treatment practice, practice change, and influences: A national online survey

Background: Recent studies cast doubt on the net effect of antipsychotics for delirium. Aim: To investigate the influence of these studies and other factors on clinicians’ delirium treatment practice and practice change in palliative care and other specialties using the Theoretical Domains Framework. Design: Australia-wide online survey of relevant clinicians. Setting/participants: Registered nurses (72%), doctors (16%), nurse practitioners (6%) and pharmacists (5%) who cared for patients with delirium in diverse settings, recruited through health professionals’ organisations. Results: Most of the sample (n=475): worked in geriatrics/aged (31%) or palliative care (30%); in hospitals (64%); and saw a new patient with delirium at least weekly (61%). More (59%) reported delirium practice change since 2016, mostly by increased non-pharmacological interventions (53%). Fifty-five percent reported current antipsychotic use for delirium, primarily for patient distress (79%) and unsafe behaviour (67%). Common Theoretical Domains Framework categories of influences on respondents’ delirium practice were: emotion (54%); knowledge (53%) and physical (43%) and social (21%) opportunities. Palliative care respondents more often reported: awareness of any named key study of antipsychotics for delirium (73% vs 39%, p\u3c0.001); decreased pharmacological interventions (60% vs 15%, p\u3c0.001); off-label medication use (86% vs 51%, p\u3c0.001); antipsychotics 79% vs 44%, p\u3c0.001); benzodiazepines 61% vs 26%, p\u3c0.001); and emotion as an influence (82% vs 39%, p\u3c0.001). Conclusion: Clinicians’ use of antipsychotic during delirium remains common and is primarily motivated by distress and safety concerns for the patient and others nearby. Supporting clinicians to achieve evidence-based delirium practice requires further work