Enhancing Access to Contextual Information on Individuals, Families, and Corporate Bodies for Archival Collections

We will address the ongoing challenge of transforming description of and improving access to primary humanities resources via advanced technologies. The project will test the feasibility of using existing archival descriptions in new ways, in order to enhance access and understanding of cultural resources in archives, libraries, and museums. We will derive Encoded Archival Context-Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families (EAC-CPF) records from existing archival findings aids from the Library of Congress (LoC) and three consortia, and name authority files from the LoC and the Getty Vocabulary Program. We will produce open-source software used in the derivation and creation of the EAC-CPF records and a prototype access system demonstrating their value to the archival community and the use of primary humanities resources. The Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, Univ. of Virginia, will partner with the California Digital Library and the School of Information, UC Berkeley

Herramientas tecnológicas relacionadas con el dominio de la enseñanza virtual. docentes udelistas, Extensión Chiriquí

Esta investigación que lleva por título: Herramientas tecnológicas relacionadas con el dominio de la enseñanza virtual en docentes udelistas, extensión Chiriquí, tiene como objetivo general comprobar qué relación existe entre las herramientas tecnológicas y el dominio de la enseñanza virtual en los docentes udelistas extensión Chiriquí; como objetivos específicos: Identificar qué tipo de herramientas tecnológicas utilizan y dominan los docentes de la UDELAS extensión Chiriquí al impartir sus clases y determinar cuáles son los requerimientos tecnológicos que necesitan los docentes de la UDELAS extensión Chiriquí al impartir sus clases bajo la modalidad virtual. La metodología utilizada tiene un diseño cuantitativo no experimental transversal, descriptivo correlacional y explicativo. La muestra que se tomó fue aleatoria simple con 52 docentes a quienes se le aplicó un instrumento cuestionario de encuesta para la recolección de datos. Los resultados obtenidos comprobaron que existe un disminuido dominio de las competencias de herramientas tecnológicas bajo enseñanza de la modalidad virtual de acuerdo con la edad y la cátedra que imparten, por parte de los docentes de UDELAS, Chiriquí

A novel method using nuclear magnetic resonance for plasma protein binding assessment in drug discovery programs.

A new methodology based on Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) was developed to determine plasma protein binding (PPB) of drug candidates in drug discovery programs. A strong correlation was found between the attenuation of NMR signals of diverse drugs in the presence of different plasma concentrations and their fraction bound (f b ) reported in the literature. Based on these results, a protocol for a rapid calculation of f b of small molecules was established. The advantage of using plasma instead of purified recombinant proteins and the possibility of pool analysis to increase throughput were also evaluated. This novel methodology proved to be very versatile, cost-effective, fast and suitable for automation. As a plus, it contemporarily provides a quality check and solubility of the compound

Density and Dichotomous Family History Measures of Alcohol Use Disorder as Predictors of Behavioral and Neural Phenotypes: A Comparative Study Across Gender and Race/Ethnicity

Background: Family history (FH) is an important risk factor for the development of alcohol use disorder (AUD). A variety of dichotomous and density measures of FH have been used to predict alcohol outcomes; yet, a systematic comparison of these FH measures is lacking. We compared 4 density and 4 commonly used dichotomous FH measures and examined variations by gender and race/ethnicity in their associations with age of onset of regular drinking, parietal P3 amplitude to visual target, and likelihood of developing AUD. Methods: Data from the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA) were utilized to compute the density and dichotomous measures. Only subjects and their family members with DSM-5 AUD diagnostic information obtained through direct interviews using the Semi-Structured Assessment for the Genetics of Alcoholism (SSAGA) were included in the study. Area under receiver operating characteristic curves were used to compare the diagnostic accuracy of FH measures at classifying DSM-5 AUD diagnosis. Logistic and linear regression models were used to examine associations of FH measures with alcohol outcomes. Results: Density measures had greater diagnostic accuracy at classifying AUD diagnosis, whereas dichotomous measures presented diagnostic accuracy closer to random chance. Both dichotomous and density measures were significantly associated with likelihood of AUD, early onset of regular drinking, and low parietal P3 amplitude, but density measures presented consistently more robust associations. Further, variations in these associations were observed such that among males (vs. females) and Whites (vs. Blacks), associations of alcohol outcomes with density (vs. dichotomous) measures were greater in magnitude. Conclusions: Density (vs. dichotomous) measures seem to present more robust associations with alcohol outcomes. However, associations of dichotomous and density FH measures with different alcohol outcomes (behavioral vs. neural) varied across gender and race/ethnicity. These findings have great applicability for alcohol research examining FH of AUD

Creator Description - Encoded Archival Context [English version presented at the International Conference] = Descrizione del soggetto produttore - Contesto archivistico codificato [Versione italiana presentata alla Conferenza internazionale]

Encoded Archival Context (EAC) is an ongoing initiative within the international archival community to design and implement a prototype standard based on Extensible Markup Language (XML) for encoding descriptions of record creators. The primary developers of this prototype standard are members of the international archival community. The description of individuals, families, and organizations that create records is an essential component of the preservation of the documentary evidence of human activity. Description of creators is also essential in bibliographic systems, and in museum documentation, and thus EAC may be of interest to other cultural heritage communities as well

Building a National Archival Authorities Infrastructure: SNAC and NAAC

Two related projects are laying the groundwork for establishing a National Archival Authorities Cooperative (NAAC). The first project is Social Networks and Archival Context (SNAC). In the first phase of SNAC, the project focused on extracting and assembling authority descriptions from 30,500 finding aids and augmenting the derived authority records with additional data from library and museum authority records. The archival authority descriptions resulting from the processing have been used to develop a prototype historical research and access system. In the second phase, the number of finding aids will be increased to 150,000, and will be augmented by one to two million MARC collection-level archival descriptions contributed by OCLC WorldCat. In addition, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Smithsonian Institution, British Library (BL), Archives nationales (France), and Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) will contribute over 375,000 original archival authority records in a variety of formats. These archival authority records will be augmented with additional data from library and museum authority records: 16 million Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) records; and 120,000 Union List of Artist Names (ULAN) records. Altogether, thirteen consortia and over thirty-five leading research repositories in the U.S., U.K., and France are contributing source data, either finding aids or archival authority records. The second project is Building a National Archival Authorities Infrastructure. This project is funded by a 2011 grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services. This project involves two interrelated activities. Administered by Katherine Wisser at Simmons College, the first activity is offering twenty competitively awarded scholarships for each of seven regional Society of American Archivists workshops on Encoded Archival Context-Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families (EAC-CPF), with a total of 140 scholarships to be awarded. EAC-CPF is a new archival standard for authority description, and is the underlying standard used in the SNAC project. The second activity will be the development of a blueprint for establishing a sustainable National Archival Authorities Cooperative, initially based on the SNAC project results. The blueprint will be developed during three meetings to be hosted by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The first meeting will be held in Washington, D.C. on May 21 and 22, and will begin the process of exploration the business, governance, and technological requirements for the proposed cooperative. Following the May meeting, three small teams led by John Unsworth (business), Adrian Turner (governance), and Terrence Catapano (technological) will begin the development of the blueprint. Together, the two activities will begin the process of building a national archival authorities infrastructure in the U.S

EAD and EAC-CPF

The speaker will discuss the past, present, and future of major archival standards, focusing on EAD (Encoded Archival Description) and EAC-CPF (Encoded Archival Context - corporate bodies, persons, and families). EAD focuses on the description of archival resources, while EAC-CPF provides a formal method for recording the description of record creators. The presentation will focus in particular on the design of "post- finding aid" archival description systems, describing both the environment within which archival description is created and maintained and the possible published forms of the description that can be searched, rendered, and enhanced by users. Daniel Pitti is the Associate Director of the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (http://www.iath.virginia.edu/) at the University of Virginia

Encoded Archival Description: An Introduction and Overview

Encoded Archival Description (EAD) is an emerging standard used internationally in an increasing number of archives and manuscripts libraries to encode data describing corporate records and personal papers. The individual descriptions are variously called finding aids, guides, handlists, or catalogues. While archival description shares many objectives with bibliographic description, it differs from it in several essential ways. From its inception, EAD was based on Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), and, with the release of EAD version 1.0 in 1998, it is also compliant with EXtensible Markup Language (XML). EAD was and continues to be developed by the archival community. While development was initiated in the United States, international interest and contribution are increasing. EAD is currently administered and maintained jointly by the Society of American Archivists and the United States Library of Congress. Developers are currently exploring ways to internationalize the administration and maintenance of EAD to reflect and represent the expanding base of users. ESARBICA Journal Vol.20 2001: 71-8

Creators of Culture: Encoded Archival Context

Encoded Archival Context (EAC) is an ongoing initiative within the international archival community to design and implement a prototype standard based on Extensible Markup Language (XML) for encoding descriptions of record creators. The primary audience for this prototype standard is the international archival community. The description of the individuals, families, and organizations who create records is an essential component of long-term preservation of and access to the documentary evidence of human activity. Identifying record creating entities, recording the names or designations used by and for them, describing their essential functions, activities, and characteristics, and the dates when and places in which they were active or over which they had some responsibility is an essential component of the curating of archival records. Creator description facilitates both access to and interpretation and understanding of records. EAC is thus intended to be both a means and an end. Description of creators is also essential in the description of bibliographic, museum, and other information, and thus EAC may be of interest to these other communities as well. As the custodians of the records upon which biographies and organization histories are based, archivists are well-placed to develop a standard that will assist in the fulfillment of their professional responsibilities, and at the same time lay the foundation for building international biographical and organization history reference resources.Hosted by the Scholarly Text and Imaging Service (SETIS), the University of Sydney Library, and the Research Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (RIHSS), the University of Sydney