The Plant Information Center Database Interface

The Plant Information Center (PIC) database contains images of plant specimens and corresponding metadata and was designed to facilitate plant identification. While operational since Fall 2000, there has been little research on the overall design and the effectiveness of the interface. This investigation was an exploratory study that evaluated user perceptions of the PIC database with an emphasis on the interface. A test instrument containing questions and tasks was administered to sixteen undergraduate botany students from the University of North Carolina during the Spring 2001 semester. Responses to the questions were mainly positive. Eighty percent (80%) of the participants knew they were searching a database and ten of fifteen participants (66.6%) viewed the database in a positive manner. Although responses to the questions were supportive of the database, user comments suggest that improvements could be implemented to make the database, particularly the interface, more user friendly

Rethinking Our Mobility: Supporting Our Patrons Where They Live

In anticipation of the release of a mobile VPN to access the George Washington University wireless network, the Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library began developing materials and services to provide support to patrons. This poster is an outline of the mobile services that were implemented to reach patrons where they live

Strengthening Our Collaborations: Building an Electronic Health Record Educational Module

Spurred by the growing adoption of electronic health records, librarians developed an online educational module for second year medical students which was integrated into existing curriculum. This poster presentation is a summary of the project, which required collaboration with staff from the faculty practice group\u27s IT division, the library\u27s web services division, and members of the reference department

Connecting to our Community: Extending Librarians\u27 Roles through Collaboration

Reaching out to various groups of their patron base, the librarians of Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library developed new initiatives to expand their roles and responsibilities. The new outreach initiatives included a film series, an instructional technology series, an art exhibit, and a medical education project. This poster presentation summarizes each initiative and the resulting impact in the user community

Discovering Library Resources using WebFeat Express: Selection, Implementation, and Lessons Learned

In 2006, Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library developed a task force to seek out a federated searching system. This poster presentation summarizes the process of selection and implementation of the chosen federated searching system, WebFeat Express

Himmelfarb Web 2.0 Tools and Other Technologies: Connecting with Patrons

Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library adopted many Web 2.0 tools to accommodate the growing expectations of dynamic web and mobile services in academic libraries. This poster presentation highlights the features and tools in each Web 2.0 service. These library services include blogs, really simple syndication (RSS feeds), Camtasia tutorials, LibGuides, a multi-database search tool, and Facebook

Going Mobile: Launching a Mobile Website and Other Mobile Resources

In spring 2010, the staff of Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library met to discuss ideas for a mobile web page and review ways to reach out to users in the mobile environment. By fall 2010, the library launched a mobile website and LibGuide, including drop-in help sessions provided for students. This poster presentation is an overview of the mobile support that the library currently provides to users

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Reaching High and Far to Improve the Value of the Library\u27s Website

To improve the library\u27s website, Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library set out to accomplish a complete website re-design. This poster presentation displays the process, challenges, and the final outcome of the new library website

Connecting to our community: Extending librarian\u27s roles through collaboration

In order to reach out to diverse segments of the George Washington University Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library\u27s patron base, librarians developed new initiatives and roles to expand their scope of responsibilities. New outreach initiatives included a film series with panel discussions, an instructional technology series by faculty for faculty, two exhibits, an annual art show, and a faculty authors reception. Each initiative broadened the skills of the participating librarians, extended the presence of the library into the community, and brought individuals from different corners of the institution together at the various events