Piloting a Community of Student Data Consultants that Supports and Enhances Research Data Services

Research ecosystems within university environments are continuously evolving and requiring more resources and domain specialists to assist with the data lifecycle. Typically, academic researchers and professionals are overcommitted, making it challenging to be up-to-date on recent developments in best practices of data management, curation, transformation, analysis, and visualization. Recently, research groups, university core centers, and Libraries are revitalizing these services to fill in the gaps to aid researchers in finding new tools and approaches to make their work more impactful, sustainable, and replicable. In this paper, we report on a student consultation program built within the University Libraries, that takes an innovative, student-centered approach to meeting the research data needs in a university environment while also providing students with experiential learning opportunities. This student program, DataBridge, trains students to work in multi-disciplinary teams and as student consultants to assist faculty, staff, and students with their real-world, data-intensive research challenges. Centering DataBridge in the Libraries allows students the unique opportunity to work across all disciplines, on problems and in domains that some students may not interact with during their college careers. To encourage students from multiple disciplines to participate, we developed a scaffolded curriculum that allows students from any discipline and skill level to quickly develop the essential data science skill sets and begin contributing their own unique perspectives and specializations to the research consultations. These students, mentored by Informatics faculty in the Libraries, provide research support that can ultimately impact the entire research process. Through our pilot phase, we have found that DataBridge enhances the utilization and openness of data created through research, extends the reach and impact of the work beyond the researcher’s specialized community, and creates a network of student “data champions” across the University who see the value in working with the Library. Here, we describe the evolution of the DataBridge program and outline its unique role in both training the data stewards of the future with regard to FAIR data practices, and in contributing significant value to research projects at Virginia Tech. Ultimately, this work highlights the need for innovative, strategic programs that encourage and enable real-world experience of data curation, data analysis, and data publication for current researchers, all while training the next generation of researchers in these best practices. [This paper is a conference pre-print presented at IDCC 2020 after lightweight peer review.

Cuantificación del carbono almacenado en el suelo bajo una plantación de amarillo (Terminalia amazonia), en la finca madera fina Futuro Forestal, S.A., Las Lajas, distrito de San Félix, provincia de Chiriquí.

El presente documento representa el esfuerzo de investigación realizado conjuntamente por la Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias y la empresa Futuro Forestal, S.A., dirigida a las alternativas de conocimiento respecto al cambio climático. A través del almacenamiento de carbono en el suelo, como un producto de la conservación del uso de la tierra que son utilizados como pastizales y para que se conviertan en sistemas sostenibles de producción forestal. Esta investigación se realizó en la Finca denominada Madera Fina. Está ubicada en Las Lajas, Distrito de San Félix, Provincia de Chiriquí. Tiene una superficie de 23.50 Has, las cuales 5.50 Ha pertenecen a la especie estudiada. Esta finca se encuentra plantada con Teca y especies nativas de la cuales se hace referencia en este proyecto a él Amarillo (Terminalia amazonia). La misma es manejada por la empresa Futuro Forestal, S.A. Se calculó el carbono almacenado (tC/ha) en el suelo (a partir de la materia orgánica) bajo la plantación de Terminalia amazonia a la edad de 14 años bajo una aleatorización simple. Se evaluaron dos profundidades: (0-10) cm y (10-30) cm las cuales se dividieron el doce muestras de cada profundidad, por lo que da 24 muestras en total con ambas profundidades. El estado de la Finca Madera Fina antes de establecerse la plantación era la un área de pastizal sobre utilizado. Por lo tanto, para conocer la dinámica del carbono almacenado en la plantación de Amarillo, previo a su establecimiento y a los 14 años de edad, fue necesario evaluar los resultados obtenidos en un previo estudio de carbono en otra finca (Pampanillo) de la misma empresa, los cuales solo se tomara en cuenta el análisis del carbono almacenado en la plantación de Teca. El suelo bajo la plantación de Amarillo (Terminalia amazonia) presentó 15.02 tC/Ha lo que representa al año 1.07 tCha-1 , lo que indica que esta planta aporta carbono al suelo pero no tan significativamente como el Teca

Petrographic characterization of sedimentary organic matter: study of current wetland deposits (Marais Vernier, Normandy, France) and application to Holocene fluvio-palustrine deposits (Seine Valley).

International audienceSeveral approaches based on isotopic and/or molecular markers applied to determine organic matter (OM) sources. Although such chemical methods are quite successful, there are limitations

Concept lattices : a tool for primitives selection ?

In this paper, we present the problem of noisy images recognition and in particular the stage of primitives selection in a classification process. This selection stage appears after segmentation and statistical describers extraction on documentary images are realized. We describe precisely the use of decision tree in order to harmonize and compare it with another less studied method based on a concept lattice.Dans ce papier, nous présentons la problématique de la reconnaissance d'images détériorées et plus particulièrement l'étape de sélection de primitives au sein d'un traitement de classification supervisée. Cette étape de sélection a lieu après que la segmentation et l'extraction des descripteurs statistiques sur des images documentaires aient été réalisées. Nous exposons en détail l'utilisation d'un arbre de décision, afin de l'harmoniser puis la comparer avec une approche moins étudiée utilisant un treillis de Galois

Developing a Plan for a More Diverse, Inclusive, and Equitable Library at a Research 1 Land-Grant University

Using the Virginia Tech strategic plan as a guide, a team of its University Libraries faculty and staff designed a strategic planning approach for the library that directly engaged with University goals and explored two areas: 1) contributing to the equity-, diversity-, and inclusion-related (EDI) goals laid out in the University strategic plan, and 2) expanding upon efforts to broaden diversity and representation in the library. The team identified four major themes: accessibility, climate, employment and professional development, outreach, and advocacy, and used these themes to develop specific recommendations. The process served to shine the light on these topics within the library, allowing for reflection and self-understanding, crucial components to change and grow with more attention to inclusion and diversity. Recognizing a need for change, it is hoped the report leads to better advocacy and ally-ship and brings issues to light for other libraries engaging in similar processes

Fertilizer Statistics for Texas, 1926-1938.

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Commercial Fertilizers in 1944-45.

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Commercial Fertilizers in 1943-44.

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