Pepperdine University Libraries Sustainable Preservation Environment Project

The Pepperdine University Libraries requests a planning grant of $32,735 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to fund an investigation into innovative and sustainable methods of preserving our humanities holdings in Payson Library???s Special Collections. Funding for this proposal would support the hiring of nationally recognized consultants to advise on three specific aspects of rare material preservation and display, including: 1) Temperature and humidity; 2) Lighting and energy usage; and 3) Sustainable architectural design. The goal of the project is to develop an integrated sustainability plan achieved through an interdisciplinary team-based planning process that can serve as a model for other libraries. Support from the Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections program will help us explore best practices for advanced sustainable energy use

Optimisation Of Policies For Transport Integration In Metropolitan Areas: Report on Work Package 20.

The task of work package 20 was to inventory all transport policy measures in use, used or tested but rejected or planned in the nine test cities Edinburgh, Merseyside, Vienna, Eisenstadt, Helsinki, Turin, Salerno, Oslo and Tromso. The inventory was done in two phases. In the first phase a three-part questionnaire was sent out to all test cities. Form 1 is a summary form for all the measures reported by the city. Form 2 is a form for detailed description of a measure or a combination of measures. Form 3 is a form for a more detailed description of the city, its demographics and transport system for to better understand the measures. The forms were accompanied by instructions for filling and a list of possible transport policy measures. The questionnaires are in appendix 1A. The measures reported by all the cities were then summarised under common categories. In the first project meeting the measures that are possible to model in all test cities were collaboratively chosen for still more detailed consideration. In this phase a second questionnaire was sent out for more detailed description of the extent and costs of the measures chosen. The means for representing these measures in the specific model was also obtained. The questionnaires of the second round are in appendix 1B

Safe and Sound Drive: Design of Interactive Sounds Supporting Energy Efficient Behaviour

The Safe and Sound Drive project concerns the design of an audio-only serious game for cars that will help drivers to increase eco-driving skills and encourage safe and environmentally friendly approaches to driving. The design process has been influenced by industrial design methodology and user-centred agile methods. Game engine technology and audio middleware were used for rapid prototyping. Sounds were made interactive by actively controlling them based on driving behaviour, and were designed to help and encourage a stable and suitable speed. User feedback was collected at an early stage through contextual enquiry sessions during real driving. Later, the system was showcased at two science festivals, where over 400 attendees test drove a game simulator. The agile design process provided continuous feedback to the project team, and guided the design of a version of the game that was evaluated in a simulator experiment. The results from the user studies suggest that opinions about beeps and audio signals vary among subjects whereas music and podcast based contents were generally better received. Alteration of media content by actively adjusting spectral balance or music mix formed working mechanisms for providing cues easily understood by participants. However, only minor effects on energy efficient behaviour were seen, suggesting that visual information dominated the determination of the participants’ behaviour in the experiment

Channeling Janus: Past, Present, and Future in the RBMS Membership Survey

In 2015, the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) surveyed its membership for the first time in 18 years.1 At roughly the span of a generation, 18 years is a long time in the rapidly changing world of libraries. Consider, for example, that in 1997 J.K. Rowling had just released the first Harry Potter novel, Google was a year away from being founded, and fewer than half of the respondents to the first RBMS Membership Survey had access to e-mail and the Internet at home. New landscapes call for new data, and the 2015 RBMS Membership Survey answers that call. Its findings contribute to our understanding of the past, present, and future of special collections professionals

Nietzsche's Nose

Perhaps the most central feature in Nietzsche’s philosophy is his effort to formulate a philosophy that would constitute a ”yes” to life. According to Nietzsche, this task presupposes a revaluation of all values. This is because philosophy from Socrates onwards is in his view a denial of life and Christianity, the other pillar of Western thought, is an even more insidious ”no” to life. I think that Nietzsche’s project of revaluating all values is a failure. The central ideas that guide his criticism do not constitute any revaluation of Western, moral values. In the present paper my aim is to show in what sense the central elements in Nietzsche’s thought are firmly anchored in those very values that he took himself to have undermined. However, Nietzsche’s critique of our ”highest” values does reveal some deeply troubling features of these values. This becomes visible in Nietzsche’s struggle with his relationship to other human beings, more particularly with ”love for one’s neighbour”. His difficulties with love – and in question is not the Christian idea of love – produces an ethics of ”decency” that despite its unusually high pitch is still easily recognisable as a typical ethics of respect of a basically Kantian cut. Thus, I will also discuss Kant’s difficulties with love. The high pitch in Nietzsche’s thought is internally connected to the fact that Nietzsche makes explicit some moral ideas that form the repressed core of Western ethics but which are normally (no quotation marks needed) considered too embarrassing and too revealing to be touched upon. One could say that the repression that comes out in Nietzsche’s text drags so to speak with it issues that connect to ”shame” in a way that transcends the normal, social tolerance for shame. Thus, Nietzsche unwittingly reveals the fundamental shame-character of not only his own moral responses, but also of Western ethics in general. Nietzsche’s ethics is, then, not a revaluation but a revelation of Western values or, as I think: of value based ethics in general

Phylogeography, population structure, abundance and habitat use of bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, on the west coast of Ireland

Understanding the abundance, ranging patterns and the degree of isolation of populations are key concepts towards successful conservation measures. For my PhD thesis I applied a multi-disciplinary approach that encompassed genetic, mark-recapture and acoustic analyses to identify fine-scale population structure, residency, ranging patterns, habitat use and abundance of bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, in Irish waters. Whole mitochondrial genome sequencing together with the latest phylogeographic tools revealed the complex evolutionary and demographic history of bottlenose dolphins in the wider North-east Atlantic highlighting the influence of past climate change following the end of the last glaciation on the current population structure. By analyzing photo-identification and genetic data together, I provided the first evidence for the near complete social isolation of two adjacent coastal populations, likely driven by a combination of socioecological factors. For the first time, the ongoing genetic dispersal between the populations was quantified, and it was established that the populations are effectively genetically isolated and should be managed separately. A precise abundance estimate of 189 (CV = 0.11), derived for one of the coastal populations using a new robust Bayesian modelling framework, together with results from passive acoustic monitoring on site occupancy, can be used to guide monitoring designs in Ireland and possibly elsewhere. The effect of varying levels of sampling effort on the minimum detectable decrease in population size were also examined, and it was found that in order to detect an overall decline of 25% in abundance (guideline in the EU’s Habitats Directive), the coefficient of variation (CV) around the estimate would have to be as low as 0.08 for a six-year reporting period. This would be difficult, if not impossible, to achieve for such a mobile population. An alternative strategy, where the 25% decline could be detected, would be to sample the abundance every two years

Queen Isabella and the Spanish Inquisition: 1478-1505

Queen Isabella (1451-1505) daughter of King John II of Castile and Queen Isabella of Portugal has been accredited for some of the most famous accomplishments of medieval Spain. Through her succession to the Castilian throne in 1479 Isabella created a secular government, which enabled her to restore the monarch\u27s power and wealth, and gave her a wide reaching authority over her kingdom. The Queen, being a pious Catholic, reestablished Catholicism as the official religion of Castile and brought forward a tribunal to help her reinforce her desires for sincere Christian piousness and to bring retribution to those who were heretical and insincere in their new conversions to the Catholic faith. This Spanish tribunal was established in 1478, blessed by Pope Sixtus IV, and would eventually become infamously known as the Black Legend or the Spanish Inquisition. Through the disguise of a religious tribunal the Queen\u27s Inquisition performed a duel purpose; acting as a secret police with long reaching tentacles that created as much fear and terror to the kingdom as its tribunal Auto de Fe\u27s. The social-religious context of Castilian life changed drastically underneath Isabella\u27s Inquisition, whose direct influence caused the Jewish population to faltered and be ultimately expelled in 1492. Queen Isabella\u27s ambitions, both secular and religious, brought the abrupt ending of seven hundred years of religious blending known as the Convivencia throughout her kingdom and created a large newly converted Catholic community named the Conversos that would ultimately challenge the old Christian communities and the Spanish Inquisition for the next three centuries to maintain their rightful place in Castilian society

Everything You Need to Know about Grants: Beginning, Middle and End

“Everything You Need to Know about Grants: Beginning, Middle and End” was a 90-minute session presented at the Society of California Archivists Annual General Meeting in Berkeley, CA, on April 13, 2013. As a part of the archival community, many of us know that grants are an excellent way to reduce backlogs or accomplish projects we don\u27t have the resources to tackle. However, what many of us may not know is how much work goes into successfully implementing and completing a grant. The purpose of this session was to assemble a group of individuals who have been involved in various aspects of the grant application and implementation process to share their expertise with the archival community. The session utilized a question and answer format with a moderator asking pre-arranged questions. This article provides excerpts from the panelists’ responses

Balloon angioplasty of native coarctation: clinical outcomes and predictors of success

AbstractOBJECTIVESWe sought to investigate the clinical impact of balloon angioplasty for native coarctation of the aorta (CoA) and determine predictors of outcome.BACKGROUNDBalloon dilation of native CoA remains controversial and more information on its long-term impact is required.METHODSHemodynamic, angiographic and follow-up data on 69 children who underwent balloon angioplasty of native CoA between 1988 and 1996 were reviewed. Stretch, recoil and gain of CoA circumference and area were calculated and related to outcomes.RESULTSInitial systolic gradients (mean ± SD, 31 ± 12 mm Hg) fell by −74 ± 27% (p < 0.001), with an increase in mean CoA diameters of 128 ± 128% in the left anterior oblique and 124 ± 87% in the lateral views (p < 0.001). Two deaths occurred, one at the time of the procedure and one 23 months later, both as a result of an associated cardiomyopathy. Seven patients had residual gradients of >20 mm Hg. One patient developed an aneurysm, stable in follow-up, and four patients had mild dilation at the site of the angioplasty. Freedom from reintervention was 90% at one year and 87% at five years with follow-up ranging to 8.5 years. Factors significantly associated with decreased time to reintervention included: a higher gradient before dilation, a smaller percentage change in gradient after dilation, a small transverse arch and a greater stretch and gain, but not recoil.CONCLUSIONBalloon dilation is a safe and efficient treatment of native CoA in children. Greater stretch and gain are factors significantly associated with reintervention, possibly related to altered elastic properties and vessel scarring