Using technology to create partnerships among school libraries and public libraries

The purpose of this study was to show the benefits of collaboration between school libraries and public libraries with a focus upon how technology was a catalyst in creating those partnerships. Through case study methodology, two elementary schools which are recipients of a wide area network though the public library were examined. The development of the network, the public library\u27s role, and the school staff\u27s perceptions of the service which provides Internet and database access were examined. Advantages such as positive outreach from the public library to an underserved public and provision of otherwise cost-prohibitive databases and electronic reference sources to the schools were included in the major findings of the study

Photoelastic force measurements in granular materials

Photoelastic techniques are used to make both qualitative and quantitative measurements of the forces within idealized granular materials. The method is based on placing a birefringent granular material between a pair of polarizing filters, so that each region of the material rotates the polarization of light according to the amount of local of stress. In this review paper, we summarize past work using the technique, describe the optics underlying the technique, and illustrate how it can be used to quantitatively determine the vector contact forces between particles in a 2D granular system. We provide a description of software resources available to perform this task, as well as key techniques and resources for building an experimental apparatus

Aberrant crossed corticospinal facilitation in muscles distant from a spinal cord injury.

Crossed facilitatory interactions in the corticospinal pathway are impaired in humans with chronic incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI). The extent to which crossed facilitation is affected in muscles above and below the injury remains unknown. To address this question we tested 51 patients with neurological injuries between C2-T12 and 17 age-matched healthy controls. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation we elicited motor evoked potentials (MEPs) in the resting first dorsal interosseous, biceps brachii, and tibialis anterior muscles when the contralateral side remained at rest or performed 70% of maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) into index finger abduction, elbow flexion, and ankle dorsiflexion, respectively. By testing MEPs in muscles with motoneurons located at different spinal cord segments we were able to relate the neurological level of injury to be above, at, or below the location of the motoneurons of the muscle tested. We demonstrate that in patients the size of MEPs was increased to a similar extent as in controls in muscles above the injury during 70% of MVC compared to rest. MEPs remained unchanged in muscles at and within 5 segments below the injury during 70% of MVC compared to rest. However, in muscles beyond 5 segments below the injury the size of MEPs increased similar to controls and was aberrantly high, 2-fold above controls, in muscles distant (>15 segments) from the injury. These aberrantly large MEPs were accompanied by larger F-wave amplitudes compared to controls. Thus, our findings support the view that corticospinal degeneration does not spread rostral to the lesion, and highlights the potential of caudal regions distant from an injury to facilitate residual corticospinal output after SCI

Data from: Influence of drift and admixture on population structure of American black bears (Ursus americanus) in the Central Interior Highlands, U.S.A. 50 years after translocation

Bottlenecks, founder events, and genetic drift often result in decreased genetic diversity and increased population differentiation. These events may follow abundance declines due to natural or anthropogenic perturbations, where translocations may be an effective conservation strategy to increase population size. American black bears (Ursus americanus) were nearly extirpated from the Central Interior Highlands, USA by 1920. In an effort to restore bears, 254 individuals were translocated from Minnesota, USA and Manitoba, Canada, into the Ouachita and Ozark Mountains from 1958 to 1968. Using 15 microsatellites and mitochondrial haplotypes, we observed contemporary genetic diversity and differentiation between the source and supplemented populations. We inferred four genetic clusters: Source, Ouachitas, Ozarks, and a cluster in Missouri where no individuals were translocated. Coalescent models using approximate Bayesian computation identified an admixture model as having the highest posterior probability (0.942) over models where the translocation was unsuccessful or acted as a founder event. Nuclear genetic diversity was highest in the source (A = 9.11) and significantly lower in the translocated populations (A = 7.07 - 7.34; P = 0.004). The Missouri cluster had the lowest genetic diversity (A = 5.48) and served as a natural experiment showing the utility of translocations to increase genetic diversity following demographic bottlenecks. Differentiation was greater between the two admixed populations than between the source, suggesting that genetic drift acted strongly over the eight generations since the translocation. The Ouachitas and Missouri were previously hypothesized to be remnant lineages. We observed a pre-translocation remnant signature in Missouri but not in the Ouachitas

Uncommon Threads

Catalog for the exhibition Uncommon Threads held at the Seton Hall University Walsh Gallery, November 2 - December 11, 2009. Curated by Jeanne Brasile and Howard Hurst. Includes an essay by Jeanne Brasile and Howard Hurst. Includes color illustrations

Puckett et al- Microsatellite Data

Data for 15 ursid microsatellites in 3-digit Genepop format. Sample names identify where samples were collected; however, MZ refers to MO-Oz group in text of manuscript

Puckett et al- DIYABC models

Three models for the three-population scenarios tested using DIYABC. Priors for parameters are given in Table S2 of the manuscript