Personal digital libraries: Keeping track of academic reading material

This paper discusses optionsfor tracking academic reading material and introduces a personal digital library solution. We combined and extended the open source projects Zotero and Greenstone such that material can be easily downloaded and ingested into the combined system. Our prototype system has been explored in a small user study

Utilizing Satellite Based Observations and Physical Hydrological Modeling for Freshwater Ecosystem Health in the Lower Mekong River Basin

Freshwater availability is necessary to promote economic growth through agriculture, fisheries, transport, environmental health, and social equity.The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Conservation International (CI) are partnering to use remote sensing Earth observations to improve regional efforts that assess natural resources for conservation and sustainable management. (Vollmer et al.,2018) have presented the social-ecological framework named the Freshwater Health Index (FHI), which takes account of the interplay between governance, stakeholders, freshwater ecosystems and the ecosystem services they provide.In this work, we develop decision support and making tools for natural resources conservation in the Lower Mekong by leveraging the FHI framework, multiple data products, and hydrological modeling capabilities (Mohammed et al., 2018). Modeling capabilities enable the integration of satellite-based daily gridded precipitation, air temperature, digital elevation model, soil characteristics, and land cover and land use information to simulate water flux framework

Improvement of the service life of sustainable self-compacting concrete SCC by integrating high dosage of cement replacement

Based on simple diffusion theory and a timedependent factor (α) for the chloride diffusion coefficient, chloride penetration through concrete was numerically modelled and the service life was predicted. This was done for two reference mixes (normal vibrated concrete, NVC and selfcompacting concrete, SCC) and three other types of sustainable SCC incorporating high levels of cement replacement. All the mixes have a design compressive strength of 50-60 MPa at 28 days with different types of binders. In this study, the non-steady state chloride diffusion coefficients (Dnss) and the surface chloride concentrations (CS), which are mainly used for the numerical modelling of the chloride penetration phenomena, were calculated according to the recommendations of Nordtest methods NT BUILD 443 with the aid of using a developed excel solver tool. The numerical results indicated that the NVC at the same design strength level of the reference SCC showed lower service life and higher depth of cover design. For the sustainable SCC, the results showed that the incorporation of relatively high partial replacement of fly ash (FA) Class F and the combined high partial replacement of FA with the silica fume (SF) has little effect on the penetration parameter (Kcr) relative to that of reference-SCC. However, the incorporating of limestone powder (LP) at the same cement replacement ratio as other admixtures increased the Kcr, reduced the service life and increased the depth of cover design even when compared to the NVC at the same strength level

Macro/micro-pore structure characteristics and the chloride penetration of self-compacting concrete incorporating different types of filler and mineral admixture

The relationship between the internal pore structure features at different scales and the local micro-characteristics of the interfacial transition zone (ITZ) to the non-steady state chloride migration coefficient (Dnssm) is investigated for one normal and three types of sustainable high performance self-compacting concrete mixes. The pore structure classification at different scales and the percolation degrees of the ITZ’s pores were determined using both vacuum-saturated and Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry (MIP) techniques. Further, the local micro-permeation features of the ITZ, such as thickness, porosity and the chemistry of its hydration products is examined using the SEM coupled with the EDX analysis on polished, carbon-coated, flat specimens. Chloride movement was achieved using a modified rapid migration test. It was deduced that the degree of percolation of the pores of the ITZ had a significant role in controlling the chloride penetration process. Further, it is proposed that the ITZ thickness might be, primarily, responsible in determining the chloride ions’ migration velocity especially when coarse and unreactive filler are used. At nano scale, it is also suggested that the critical pore diameter in the cement matrix is more significant than is the average pore diameter in controlling the chloride resistance in SCC

Effect of Facilities Management Service Quality on User Satisfaction and Institutional Image

The rapid change in all sectors of human endeavour disrupts the way businesses, organisations and institutions conduct their activities. In the service industry, provision of high quality service becomes the trending issue as service users increasingly becomes sophisticated. Studies have shown that provision of high quality service improves institutional image and influences level of users’ satisfaction. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of facilities management services quality on users’ satisfaction and institutional image in Gombe State University (GSU) with a view to providing evidence-based information for managerial decision. Using survey strategy, 666 questionnaires were administered, of which 458 were retrieved and used for analysis. The result show that FM service quality has statistically significant effect on institutional image (β = 0.979; t = 473.10; p < 0.05) and user satisfaction (β = 0.990; t = 1483.32; p < 0.05). The overall model performance indicated that FM service quality explained about 96% and 98% variation in institutional image and users’ satisfaction respectively. It is recommended that decision makers in higher education institutions (HEIs) should pay more attention to the management and upgrading of both core learning facilities and other support services to ensure sustained user satisfaction and institutional image

Effect of Facilities Management Service Quality on User Satisfaction and Institutional Image

The rapid change in all sectors of human endeavour disrupts the way businesses, organisations and institutions conduct their activities. In the service industry, provision of high quality service becomes the trending issue as service users increasingly becomes sophisticated. Studies have shown that provision of high quality service improves institutional image and influences level of users’ satisfaction. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of facilities management services quality on users’ satisfaction and institutional image in Gombe State University (GSU) with a view to providing evidence-based information for managerial decision. Using survey strategy, 666 questionnaires were administered, of which 458 were retrieved and used for analysis. The result show that FM service quality has statistically significant effect on institutional image (β = 0.979; t = 473.10; p < 0.05) and user satisfaction (β = 0.990; t = 1483.32; p < 0.05). The overall model performance indicated that FM service quality explained about 96% and 98% variation in institutional image and users’ satisfaction respectively. It is recommended that decision makers in higher education institutions (HEIs) should pay more attention to the management and upgrading of both core learning facilities and other support services to ensure sustained user satisfaction and institutional image

Hypoxic conditions promote a proliferative, poorly differentiated phenotype in COPD lung tissue progenitor cells in vitro

Acknowledgements The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the UHNM theatre staff, Dr. Sana Iftikhar and Dr. Daniel Gey van Pittius for their assistance in acquiring participant lung tissue. Funding Information: This work was supported by funding from the North Staffordshire Medical Institute 50th Anniversary Award and The Royal Society-Newton Mobility Grant. The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the UHNM theatre staff, Dr. Sana Iftikhar and Dr. Daniel Gey van Pittius for their assistance in acquiring participant lung tissue.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Structure of the crust and upper mantle beneath Bass Strait, southeast Australia, from teleseismic body wave tomography

Acknowledgments We thank many land owners and field team members from mainland Australia and Tasmania. Particular thanks to Armando Arcidiaco and Qi Li from ANU for assistance with the collection and archiving of the data used in this study. ARC grants DP120103673, LE120100061, LP110100256 and DP0986750 were instrumental in supporting the WOMBAT and BASS deployments.Peer reviewedPostprin

Online media scans: Applying systematic review techniques to assess statewide human papillomavirus vaccination activities

Background. Although the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has been approved for use in adolescents in the US for over a decade, vaccination uptake remains low. Of concern, HPV vaccine coverage is below the national average in Minnesota, USA. To understand the reach of current HPV programming and research, we use an online media scan; this method may be applied to other jurisdictions to gain insight about various public health issues.Design and Methods. This online media scan describes the nature and scope of ongoing activities to increase HPV vaccination in Minnesota. The media scan included: a) structured internet searches of HPV vaccine health education/promotion activities ongoing in Minnesota since 2013, and b) searches in research databases of the published literature on HPV vaccination in Minnesota from 2013 to 2018. Results. Searches resulted in 880 online and 142 research article matches, with 40 and 36 meeting selection criteria. Results were categorized by activities focusing on race/ethnicity, sex, health providers, parents, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) populations, geographic location, catchup vaccination, and insurance status. Most activities were statewide (52% health education/promotion and 35% research), followed by activities located in entirely urban areas (15% health education/promotion and 41% research) with only 6% of health education/promotion activities and 2% of research activities carried out in entirely rural areas.Conclusions. A range of local and statewide HPV vaccine health education/promotion and research activities were identified in Minnesota. Several efforts partnered with American Indian and Somali/Somali-American communities, but fewer activities focused on HPV vaccination among LGBTQ youth and HPV vaccination in rural areas