Librarians as Information Trainers: Using Training Techniques to Improve Information Literacy Instruction

Just as a trainer addresses the continuing education needs of employees in the workplace, librarians teach research skills needed to improve academic performance. Like trainers, librarians are frequently asked to meet specific learning objectives within the span of a single session, and they must navigate the challenge of meeting and motivating a new group of participants each time. There is a wealth of information available on designing and delivering training, yet a review of the library literature shows little evidence of direct adoption of these techniques for library instruction. This presentation will outline best practices in training design, delivery, and assessment, such as creating learning objectives, including alternatives to lecture, and evaluating results. These methods will be compared to existing library instruction techniques, with a focus on increasing student learning. The presenter will also share initial results of her application of methods from a train the trainers course in her own library instruction sessions

Design of an anti-inflammatory coating for invasive medical devices

The prevention of material-mediated innate immune responses, which may lead to severe side effects, is an unsolved issue in invasive medicine. Neutrophil granulocytes are activated upon contact of blood with artificial material surfaces in medical devices. This unappreciated non-specific immune response provides a challenge for invasive medicine, since it may cause systemic inflammatory reactions and severe sequelae such as organ failure or even death. This thesis investigates the design an anti-inflammatory surface coating, which avoids or reduces material-mediated innate immune responses on the example of the material polymethylpentene (PMP). PMP is a polymer, which is used as hollow fibers in medical devices like oxygenators enabling the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood. Therefore, a biofunctional anti-inflammatory coating has been developed to avoid material-mediated neutrophil activation during respiratory support. The biofunctional anti-inflammatory coating is based on the covalent coupling of the agonistic FasL-molecule APO010, the covalent coupling of albumin (Recombumin® alpha) to passivate the coating and an amino acid-based stabilizing formulation to enable stability and functionality of the coating even after ethylenoxid (EtO)-sterilization and subsequent storage of the device. To investigate the stability and functionality of the coating, different methods were established: an ELISA to investigate the stable coupling of the biofunctional coating, a sandwich ELISA to detect detached APO010 and a chemotaxis assay to investigate the reduction of neutrophil activity after incubation with the coating. The novel coating has been upscaled from laboratory scale (bench setting) to a serial production scale, whereby the methods from this work were able to show a rapid reduction of neutrophil activation by approx. 10 % after contacting the surface in the second serial production run and the stability of the surface coating even after accelerated aging for up to 82 days at 55 °C in the third serial production run. Three upscaling steps were performed to generate homogeneous distribution of the coating on the PMP matrix. The biofunctional anti-inflammatory coating is a new technology to reduce unappreciated material-induced immunogenic responses. In principle, it should be possible to transfer this technology to other surfaces. This could allow for expansion of the positive effects to other medical devices in direct blood contact and can possibly show the way for new biofunctional coatings in the medical device sector

Diabetes mellitus: The long way of standardization of HbA1c to the level of highest metrological order

Glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) measurements are used in clinical studies and for the management of diabetic patients. Various efforts were made to standardize the HbA1c measurements with consensus standards and standards based on a reference measurement procedure with external calibration. According to ISO 17511 a standard should meet highest accuracy possible, have a defined uncertainty of measurement and the calibration should be traceable to SI units. For HbA1c this has been realized using a LC-ID-MS procedure based on the existing reference measurement procedure

Connecting with AIM: The Search for a Virtual Reference Niche

Launching virtual chat reference at the University of Richmond Libraries has been an interesting, multi-year challenge filled with trial and error. After trying several different software programs and staffing options, librarians have finally selected AOL\u27s Instant Messenger service. Learning about the world of virtual reference has truly been a moving target experience for them as software, professional philosophies, and user preferences have changed rapidly in recent years. This presentation will describe the development of virtual reference and experimentation with different instant messaging software at the University of Richmond Libraries. A brief history that includes early collaborations with the computing services help desk, a variety staffing patterns, technical and financial challenges, and marketing the service to students will be shared. The significant success of the service in the last year will be documented with statistics. Presenters will discuss other pertinent issues, including training, guidelines, advertising, and staffing. This data will touch on a number of themes and learning outcomes, including the value of experimenting with a variety of chat reference software programs, the need for library staff to stay current with new technologies, and a focus on integrating library services into user technologies. Finally, the presenters will provide concrete examples of the usefulness of archived IM questions for data collection, through which librarians can discover common point-of-need queries, and can take action to respond to those needs

Connecting with AIM: The Search for a Virtual Reference Niche

Launching virtual chat reference services at Boatwright Library at the University of Richmond has been an interesting challenge of “trial and error” over the years. After trying several different software programs and staffing options, librarians have finally found a niche with AOL’s Instant Messenger service. The first section of the article describes a path of experimentation, including early collaborations with the computing services help desk, staffing patterns within the library, technical and financial challenges with virtual reference software, and attempts to get students to use reference chat services. The second half of the case study will describe the great success with AIM service in the last year, providing statistical information as well as coverage of training and guidelines, advertising, and staffing. This article will touch on a number of themes, including the value of experimenting with a variety of chat reference software programs, and the need for library staff to stay current with new technologies

External quality assessment of tumour marker analysis: state of the art and consequences for estimating diagnostic sensitivity and specificity

This review shows the current analytical quality for the following analytes used as tumour markers in the external quality assessment (EQA)-programmes of Instand e.V., a national EQA-organiser in Germany: Corticotropin (ACTH), growth hormone (GH, hGH), prolactin (PRL), chorionic gonadotropin (CG, hCG), calcitonin (CT, hCT), thyroglobulin (Tg), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), CA-Antigens 125, 72-4, 15-3 and 19-9, alpha foetoprotein (AFP) and prostate-specific antigen (PSA)

Identification of three high molecular mass cysteine proteinases from rat skeletal muscle

AbstractThree cysteine proteinases were isolated from the post-myofibrillar fraction of rat skeletal muscle. Proteinase I preferentially hydrolyzes Z-Phe—Arg-NMec with pH optimum at 8–9. The enzyme activity is stabilized by ATP against thermal inactivation. Proteinase II and III were not resolved by anion-exchange chromatography, by affinity chromatography on Arginine—Sepharose or by gel filtration. Proteinase II, splitting Bz-ValGlyArg-NMec optimally at pH 10–10.5, is inactivated by ATP, whereas Proteinase III, hydrolyzing Suc-AlaAlaPhe-NMec at pH 7–7.5 is not affected by the nucleotide. The molecular mass of proteinase I is about 750 000 and that of proteinase II and III is about 650 000, as determined by gel filtration