Open Access to Research: A Guide to Policies and Resources for SIUE Faculty

Presentation by Steven Pryor, Director of Digital Initiatives and Technologies, Library & Information Services (LIS). This workshop will explore SIUE SPARK, the university\u27s open access institutional repository. Studies show significant advantages for authors who make open access versions of their work available; we will discuss how SIUE faculty can easily comply with the SIUE Open Access policy as well as reap the benefits of open access by posting their work in SPARK. SIUE SPARK (Scholarly Publications and Repository of Knowledge) is a service of Library and Information Services, fulfilling and expanding the library\u27s traditional role in collecting and preserving the scholarly record and providing open access to SIUE\u27s scholarly and creative output. SPARK is SIUE\u27s Institutional Repository, designed to bring together all of a University\u27s research and creative output under one umbrella, with an aim to preserve and provide global access to that content

Implementing a 3D Printing Service in an Academic Library

Makerspaces and related concepts and technologies are currently the subject of much discussion in the library community, particularly among public libraries. One prominent technology often featured in makerspaces is three-dimensional (3D) printing. In this article the author describes a 3D printing service launched at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Lovejoy Library; the justification for providing the service in an academic library, equipment selection, procedures and workflow, and evaluation of the success of the service to date

3D Printing: A New Dimension in Service

Libraries provide resources for not only for consuming information, but also generating new information and research. In addition to books and academic journals, we traditionally provide creation tools such as computers, (2D) printers, and copy machines. Sometimes, the product of one’s research may be a physical artifact such as a sculpture, a prototype device, or a biological model. The recent decrease in the cost of 3D printing technology makes it possible for libraries to begin providing this service as well, giving all students the opportunity to familiarize themselves with a burgeoning trend in nearly every field of study and professional work

Alternate routes to the cell surface underpin insulin-regulated membrane trafficking of GLUT4

Insulin-stimulated delivery of glucose transporters (GLUT4) from specialized intracellular GLUT4 storage vesicles (GSVs) to the surface of fat and muscle cells is central to whole-body glucose. This translocation and subsequent internalization of GLUT4 back into intracellular stores transits numerous small membrane-bound compartments (internal GLUT4-containing vesicles; IGVs) including GSVs, but the function of these different compartments is not clear. Cellugyrin and sortilin define distinct populations of IGV; sortilin-positive IGVs represent GSVs, but the function of cellugyrin-containing IGVs is unknown. Here we demonstrate a role for cellugyrin in intracellular sequestration of GLUT4 in HeLa cells and have used a proximity ligation assay to follow changes in pairwise associations between cellugyrin, sortilin, GLUT4 and membrane trafficking machinery following insulin-stimulation of 3T3-L1 adipoctyes. Our data suggest that insulin stimulates traffic from cellugyrin- to sortilin- membranes, and that cellugyrin-IGVs provide an insulin-sensitive reservoir to replenish GSVs following insulin-stimulated exocytosis of GLUT4. Furthermore, our data support the existence of a pathway from cellugyrin-membranes to the surface of 3T3-L1 adipocytes that bypasses GSVs under basal conditions, and that insulin diverts traffic away from this into GSVs

Extreme Trees

The desire for instant landscaping effect in China’s high volume residential development sector has recently generated an extreme form of arboricultural practice. Very mature trees (trunk diameter up to 3000mm, dbh) are being extracted from areas of natural vegetation, and having most of their root systems and all of their canopy removed to allow them to be transported to commercial tree nurseries, where they are brought back to life and sold on. Four commercial nurseries near Guangzhou specializing in this form of extreme transplantation, and three landscaping sites that had used trees from the nurseries, were visited to make detailed observations and to conduct interviews with the operators and site managers to understand the specific operations and techniques employed in handling the trees, and the values associated with this practice. Current scientific literature on the responses of mature trees to transplanting and physical damage gives us some insight into the arboricultural condition of these trees and how they might be able to survive such treatment, and allows us to speculate on how their condition might develop afterwards. This ‘extreme transplantation’ is contrary to all established arboricultural science and practice guidelines for transplanting mature trees. The apparent commodification of our green heritage seemingly contradicts the principles of environmental preservation and stewardship that underpin the landscape profession

Aerial Roots of Ficus microcarpa

This article reports on a study to investigate the nature of aerial roots in Chinese banyan trees, Ficus microcarpa L.f. and the common belief that their presence and growth is associated with wet atmospheric conditions. First, the form and distribution of free-hanging aerial roots on eight selected Ficus microcarpa trees growing in a public space in Hong Kong, were mapped on their form and distribution. Secondly the extension of selected sample aerial roots from each tree were measured over twelve months against prevailing atmospheric humidity. Lastly, section samples of aerial roots of different ages were taken, and the anatomical structure was observed and compared with that of terrestrial water-absorbing roots to assess the mechanism by which they might take up water. The distribution and growth of aerial roots was observed to be highly variable, but there was a clear link between growth and high levels of atmospheric humidity. The anatomical structure of the aerial roots suggests that while aerial roots could absorb water under certain conditions, their growth was generated from water drawn from terrestrial roots via trunk and branches, and that the association with humid conditions was most likely to be due to the greater availability of ground water in such conditions