iSchools, legitimacy, and the contribution of archival studies to the iSchool movement

To what degree are iSchools fitting and gaining acceptance into their larger university environments? Their legitimacy rests upon the degree of acceptance within academia. Over time, isomorphic pressures such as coercion and normativity will lead iSchools to more resemble similar units on campus. The iSchools face many challenges, in part to a relative immaturity of research conducted in the field including pretensions of scientific status and a loss of identity through an overly interdisciplinary program of research. The quest for legitimacy will depend on the ability of iSchool participants to articulate what is unique about their field. The subfield of archival studies is examined in light of the possibility of serving, in part, as a body of research originating within iSchools. The area of archival studies is commended for its development of sui generis conceptual apparatus, a commitment to the full cultural record, expanding notions of use, and its own contributions to interdisciplinarity

Public Knowledge, Private Ignorance, and an Analytic of Knowledge Organization

Patrick Wilson’s writings have proven to be the foundation for much of our thinking about the organization of documents and their subtle connection to power structures that govern their construction and use. His examinations of public versus private knowledge, for example, expand how we understand individual and social epistemology within the field. In his writings, however, Wilson speaks as an idealist, generally glossing over the problem of how technologies mediate and impact the relationship between people, on the one hand, and the circulation and constitution of knowledge, on the other. He did not analyze how knowledge organization structures (KO) could be effective for some people or some forms of knowledge, and ineffective for others, nor did he analyze similarly the constitutive components of KO as they relate to the differential effects on the use of knowledge. We posit that pluralistic modes of understanding KO are a fruitful way forward for the discipline. This paper conceptualizes how we can build on Wilson’s critical conversations about epistemology in the domain of KO from three specific angles: KO as pluralized space, a political economy of KO, and KO and political pragmatics

Intergenerational Socialization: Assessing Mindfulness, Anxiety and Depression While Painting With Water Colors

The overall intent of this mixed methods study was to assess intergenerational socialization while measuring elders\u27 health and well-being in association with depression, anxiety and mindfulness assessments while painting with watercolors. Undergraduate- researchers interviewed elders, administered quantitative assessments before and after painting together with watercolors. The qualitative results showed health and well-being through a primary theme of resilience and underlying themes of acceptance combined with secondary themes of family and friends, parenting (children), personal accomplishments, hobbies and home. Elders’ results showed positive changes in depression, anxiety and mindfulness, and undergraduate researchers were somewhat in awe of the richness of elders’ responses relating to resilience and acceptance

Tire-wear-particle leachate toxicity to Americamysis bahia: analysis of sublethal and molecular effects

Tire-wear particles (TWPs) are considered among the largest contributors of microplastics to the environment. They are subject to break-down due to environmental weathering, which allows for potentially toxic chemicals to be released from and sorbed onto the particles. In this study, leachate generated from “weathered” and “un-weathered” TWPs were used for sublethal toxicity tests with Americamysis bahia. Organisms were exposed for 2, 4, and 6 days and the effects endpoints included changes in respiration rate and molecular responses (i.e., changes in the abundance of transcripts after 4 days of exposure). A threshold for stimulated respiration rate was detected for weathered leachate on day 2 only between 0.133 and 0.67 g/L TWP leachate. For the un-weathered leachate, the threshold was on days 4 and 6 and was between 0.54 and 1.08 g/L TWP leachate. There were dysregulated contig sequences, in all tested concentrations for weathered (0.67, 1.34, and 2.68 g/L) and un-weathered (0.27, 0.54, and 1.08 g/L) TWP leachates; the contigs had sequences orthologous to specific gene descriptions in arthropods and were considered significantly dysregulated at an FDR ≤ 0.05 and |log2FC| ≥ 1. There were 80 dysregulated contigs across all tested weathered leachate concentrations and 139 dysregulated contigs across all tested un-weathered concentrations. Upregulated contigs at 2.68 g/L for weathered and 1.08 g/L for un-weathered leachates showed enrichment compared to the de novo reference transcriptome; this coincided with a significant respiration stimulation observed at 1.08 g/L in the un-weathered leachate. There were five enriched pathways in the weathered group and 10 enriched pathways in the un-weathered group; serine hydrolase, serine-type peptidase, and peptidase activity were enriched in both groups. Many contig sequences mapped to gene descriptions that regulated physical body structure, inflammatory response, and mediated protein-protein interactions, signifying that TWP leachate exposure disrupts many internal molecular processes in A. bahia

A Novel Synthetic Yeast for Enzymatic Biodigester Pretreatment

Lignin, a complex organic polymer, is a major roadblock to the efficiency of biofuel conversion as it both physically blocks carbohydrate substrates and poisons biomass degrading enzymes, even if broken down to monomer units. A pretreatment process is often applied to separate the lignin from biomass prior to biofuel conversion. However, contemporary methods of pretreatment require large amounts of energy, which may be economically uncompelling or unfeasible. Taking inspiration from several genes that have been isolated from termites and fungi which translate to enzymes that degrade lignin, we want to establish a novel “enzymatic pretreatment” system where microbes secrete these enzymes to degrade lignocellulosic biomass. We incorporated the following genes into yeast vectors: laccase, lignin peroxidase, and alpha-keto-reductase from Reticulitermes flavipes; versatile peroxidase from Colletotrichum fioriniae PJ7; manganese peroxide from Heterobasidion irregulare TC 32-1; and tyrosinase from Agaricus bisporus. These vectors code for fusion proteins with yeast secretion tags at the end of each enzyme gene, fluorescent protein tags at the beginning, as well as standardized restriction sites for synthetic biology manipulation. Furthermore, we designed an additional vector to contain our genetically modified yeast using an oxygen-repressed killswitch. We expect that transformants with our construct will be able to secrete said enzymes and contribute to lignin degradation if added to a biomass slurry. Future studies may focus on constructing a prototype bioreactor system and optimizing which combination of enzymes lead to the most efficient biofuel production

Use Scenarios in the Development of the Alexandria Digital Earth Prototype (ADEPT)

A user-centered, iterative design philosophy requires a common language between users, designers and builders to translate user needs into buildable specifications. This paper details the rationale, evolution and implementation of use scenarios —structured narrative descriptions of envisioned system use—in the development of the Alexandria Digital Earth Prototype. This paper discusses the strengths of the scenario approach, obstacles to their use, and lessons learned in the overall development process

Solvent-free anhydrous Li+, Na+ and K+ salts of [B(3,5-(CF3)2C6H3)4]-, [BArF4]-. Improved synthesis and solid-state structures

A modified, convenient, preparation of solvent-free, anhydrous, Li+, Na+ and K+ salts of the ubiquitous [BArF4]- anion is reported, that involves a simple additional recrystallisation step. Anhydrous Na[BArF4], K[BArF4], and [Li(H2O)][BArF4], were characterised by single-crystal X-ray diffraction