Librarians On Call: an instant messaging enquiry service for Open University distance learners

From March 4 – May 31 2002, The Open University Library piloted a new, instant messaging enquiry service for use by its distance learners, called Librarians On Call. The service enabled OU distance learners to remain online using electronic library resources, whilst also obtaining instant help from a librarian, without the need to disconnect from the internet to use the telephone. Student reaction to the service was overwhelmingly positive, and as a result the Open University has decided to continue the Librarians On Call service. Exit surveys conducted with students indicated students preferred the Librarians On Call service to both email and the telephone, and that they found the service both beneficial and easy to use. The article details the results of the pilot, and also discusses some of the practical issues encountered whilst setting up the service, such as software selection and staffing

After the panic: an investigation of the relationship between the reporting and remembering of child related crime

This thesis considers why some crimes persist beyond the moment of newsworthiness and how they are able to transcend this period of intense reporting to become a feature of popular memory. The central argument is that the popular memory of a crime is built up over time through a synthesis of public discourses, which are predominantly developed in news reporting, people s everyday experience and the normative social frameworks of everyday life. A temporally sensitive analysis of two case studies, the murder of James Bulger and the murder of Sarah Payne, tests this hypothesis by exploring the connections and disconnections between the ongoing reporting of these crimes and the remembering of them. The study finds that the personal past and public discourse intertwine in remembered accounts of these crimes and considers that this is evidence of the ways audiences utilise crime news as an imaginative resource for understanding crime and criminality more broadly. It can thus be said that audiences use the news to frame, but not define their understandings of the world around us

Visual literacy, student employability and the role of librarians

In the UK we live in a society that tacitly equates information with the written word. Clues to the precedence accorded to text-based data over visual information surround us. The most recent Higher Education Academy Employability paper (HEA, 2007) makes no mention of the need for visual literacy skills. By neglecting visual literacy, we run the risk of sending our students into the job market, and into society, ill equipped to consciously decode the images streaming towards them, and conversely, unable to create and encode visual data, whether it be for business graphs or to commission a website etc. Since 2004, the library at the University of Northampton has run a successful undergraduate Information Management module, which is available to all first years and has an annual cohort of around 80 students. In 2007, a strand dedicated to visual literacy was developed by the University’s arts library team and added to the module programme. From the favourable student response, the content awakened something within the students, and proved stimulating and timely. We now have a growing research interest in understanding the role librarians have to play in developing and delivering visual literacy programmes and the impact of visual literacy on student employability. The “Learning Dialogues” conference will enable us to share our research project whilst it is in progress in particular: the methods we are employing to understand the need for visual literacy to enhance employability (dialogue with students), how we are bench marking other UK institutions (through visiting these institutions) and comparing our role with that of information professionals in the USA and Australia (through interactive dialogue). Rees, C., Forbes P., and B. Kubler (2007) Student Employability Profiles: A Guide for Higher Education Practitioners [online]. York: Higher Education Academy. Available from http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/ourwork/tla/employability_enterprise/student_employability_profiles_apr07.pdf [Accessed on 26, November 2009

Reading the rangeland: a guide to the arid shrublands of Western Australia

Managing the rangelands is complex. Soils and vegetation can vary considerably over short distances in distinct or subtle ways. Separating climatic from management influences on the condition of the land has always been difficult. Whether we live on a sheep station, in a country town, in an Aboriginal community, a mining camp, or even if we only visit the Australian outback, it is vital that we understand and appreciate the unique character and management requirements of the rangelands. Learning to ‘read the rangeland’ has been a slow process, involving the knowledge and skills of pastoralists, Aboriginal people and scientists. This book, \u27Reading the rangeland\u27, has been prepared by an experienced team involving technical experts in rangeland management and publication. It was also ‘road tested’ by a diverse group of leading pastoralists and others with love for and interest in the country

The Iconography of the library

The University of Northampton and De Montfort University are working together to analyse the use of social learning spaces within a Higher Education setting using qualitative and quantitative research methods. The group is intending to reproduce earlier work that mapped the university campuses to provide a comparative understanding of where students work and then interview students in situ to gather a rationale for their choice of space. These findings will then be developed to understand how narratives of learning spaces are constructed, the concept of identity in the selection of space and the notion of spaces such as the library holding an iconic status within centres of learnin

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression in people with dementia: A qualitative study on participant, carer and facilitator experiences

Background: Depression in dementia is common and associated with negative health outcomes. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is a recommended treatment of choice for recurrent depression, but its use for depression in dementia is yet to be assessed. / Objective: This study aimed to investigate the experiences of people with depression and dementia who participated in the mindfulness-based cognitive therapy intervention and those of their carers and facilitators. / Methods: This qualitative study was nested within a randomised controlled feasibility study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 people (eight people with dementia and depression, six carers and four course facilitators). Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. / Findings: Several beneficial effects of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy were described. These were a sense of shared suffering among the group, greater present moment focus and awareness, various positive emotional changes, including greater self-compassion, and benefits for carers, such as the reduction of anxiety. Specific aspects of the programme were identified as particularly useful, including facilitator characteristics and certain mindfulness practices. Carer involvement, cognitive difficulties and barriers to home practice influenced engagement with the course. Facilitators described adaptations made to mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and suggested additional modifications for future groups. / Conclusion: Results of this process evaluation suggest that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is a potentially useful intervention for people with depression in dementia, but that further adaptation of the intervention is required to make the programme suitable for this clinical population

“Wax On, Wax Off”: In Vivo Imaging of Plant Physiology and Disease with Fourier Transform Infrared Reflectance Microspectroscopy

Analysis of the epicuticular wax layer on the surface of plant leaves can provide a unique window into plant physiology and responses to environmental stimuli. Well-established analytical methodologies can quantify epicuticular wax composition, yet few methods are capable of imaging wax distribution in situ or in vivo. Here, the first report of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) reflectance spectroscopic imaging as a non-destructive, in situ, method to investigate variation in epicuticular wax distribution at 25 µm spatial resolution is presented. The authors demonstrate in vivo imaging of alterations in epicuticular waxes during leaf development and in situ imaging during plant disease or exposure to environmental stressors. It is envisaged that this new analytical capability will enable in vivo studies of plants to provide insights into how the physiology of plants and crops respond to environmental stresses such as disease, soil contamination, drought, soil acidity, and climate change

Loss of GPR75 protects against non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and body fat accumulation

Open Access via the Elsevier Agreement L.K.H. designed the experiments with input from F.M., G.S.H.Y., and J.J.R.; F.M. and J.I. created the CRISPR-Cas9-deleted Gpr75 mouse line with input from A.M.; A.L.-P., C.M., B.Y.H.L., G.K.C.D., N.S., P.B.M.d.M., R.C., K.K., E.J.G., J.R.B.P., F.G., J.R.S., and J.J.R. performed experiments and/or data analysis; D.T. provided reagents and intellectual contributions; and L.K.H. and A.L.-P. wrote the manuscript with input from all other authors.Peer reviewe

Mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells are activated in the gastrointestinal tissue of patients with combination ipilimumab and nivolumab therapy-related colitis in a pathology distinct from ulcerative colitis

The aim of this study was to investigate the pathogenesis of combination ipilimumab and nivolumab-associated colitis (IN-COL) by measuring gut-derived and peripheral blood mononuclear cell (GMNC; PBMC) profiles. We studied GMNC and PBMC from patients with IN-COL, IN-treated with no adverse-events (IN-NAE), ulcerative colitis (UC) and healthy volunteers using flow cytometry. In the gastrointestinal-derived cells we found high levels of activated CD8+ T cells and mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells in IN-COL, changes that were not evident in IN-NAE or UC. UC, but not IN-C, was associated with a high proportion of regulatory T cells (Treg). We sought to determine if local tissue responses could be measured in peripheral blood. Peripherally, checkpoint inhibition instigated a rise in activated memory CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, regardless of colitis. Low circulating MAIT cells at baseline was associated with IN-COL patients compared with IN-NAE in one of two cohorts. UC, but not INCOL, was associated with high levels of circulating plasmablasts. In summary, the alterations in T cell subsets measured in IN-COL-affected tissue, characterized by high levels of activated CD8+ T cells and MAIT cells and a low proportion of Treg, reflected a pathology distinct from UC. These tissue changes differed from the periphery, where T cell activation was a widespread on-treatment effect, and circulating MAIT cell count was low but not reliably predictive of colitis