Expectation Management: Breaking Ground for a New E-Learning Librarian Position

If your organization has batted around the idea of hiring an e-learning librarian, two sets of issues may come into play, as framed in questions below. First Set: Who does an e-learning librarian report to? How does their role differ from other instructional designers on campus? Do they work at the reference desk? 9-5? How much do they contribute to projects in other library departments? Is an MLS important? As we know, the environment for electronic-based learning changes rapidly. This makes creating a position for an e-learning librarian difficult, given that the job requirements and projects can morph from year to year. Defining the core duties of a position can be tricky. Second set: What expectations does your staff have regarding the opportunities that come with a new e-learning librarian position? How wildly might these expectations differ? What role will each person play? Does each person understand their role and are they committed to it? How will a team make the most of these opportunities and can they identify and remove barriers to progress? Expectations held by staff for an e-learning librarian position can run the gamut in terms projects, control, boundaries, and their own level of involvement. An organization can benefit from exploring conflicting expectations and creating a common understanding surrounding these issues. Factors such as change-readiness, self-confidence, power, and influence will also be discussed. Constructivist-based activities will inform participant views and provide a basis for further discussion and the reconstitution of activities back home. Interactive Sessio

Iberian multinationals driving the crisis recovery

The 10th IIBC has been hosted by the Facultad de Economía y Empresa from the Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain, in September of 2014. The main theme has been “IBERIAN MULTINATIONALS DRIVING THE CRISIS RECOVERY”. We really believe that the Iberian firms and specifically those that have internationalized have played (and continue to play) an important role in the recovery process of the Portuguese and Spanish economies. The current news about these economies is positive; however we still need to work on it. This conference has provided a privileged forum to discuss this situation along with the recent work on such an important subject; but also, it has allowed us to share our research about other topics related to Foreign Direct Investment and Exporting with regard to both large firms and SMEs, cultural aspects or new ventures among others. In particular, this book includes 17 papers grouped under 6 parts of general topics: • Macroeconomic, Financial and Political Aspects of FDI • International Management and Cultural Topics • Determinants of Export Performance • International Networking • SMEs and Exporting • New Ventures and Entrepreneurship These current topics are analyzed from different perspectives such as finance, marketing, economy or management; and also from different research streams or theories and different contexts or countries (authors come from Universities from Portugal -8-, Spain -8-, United Kingdom -1- and Hungary -1-). All of that leads to enrich the debate and contribute to improve our international knowledge. On behalf of the Editors team, I would like to express our gratitude to the authors for sharing with all of us their research; and to the Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain) and the DGA-FSE (COMPETE Research Group, S125) for the financial support, since without their help, this book would have not been possible. Finally, we hope that you find this book interesting and a source of inspiration to new studies that help to improve our internationalization knowledge

Conformational Studies of Gram-Negative Bacterial Quorum Sensing 3-oxo N-acyl Homoserine Lactone Molecules

In their 1H NMR spectra in CDCl3 3-oxo-N-acyl homoserine lactones (OHLs) show significant downfield chemical shifts of the amide N-H proton when compared to the parent N-acyl homoserine lactones (AHLs). NMR spectroscopic and DFT calculation studies have shown that this is most likely due to the presence of a stabilising intramolecular H-bond from the N-H to the 3-oxo group. The 1H NMR spectra also show evidence for the enol tautomers and that the amount of enol present for a range of OHLs is 4.1-4.5% in CDCl3 and 6.5-7.2% in CD3CN. In contrast, DFT calculations show that the lowest energy enol tautomer and the keto tautomer are of equal energy in the gas phase, but that the keto tautomer is more stable in chloroform, acetonitrile and water solution. The calculations also show that there is no evidence for any n→p* or C5 H-bonding interactions being present in either the lowest energy keto or enol tautomer of the OHLs in solution or the gas phase, which is in contrast to the reported solid-state structure

Monte Carlo investigations of phase transitions: status and perspectives

Using the concept of finite-size scaling, Monte Carlo calculations of various models have become a very useful tool for the study of critical phenomena, with the system linear dimension as a variable. As an example, several recent studies of Ising models are discussed, as well as the extension to models of polymer mixtures and solutions. It is shown that using appropriate cluster algorithms, even the scaling functions describing the crossover from the Ising universality class to the mean-field behavior with increasing interaction range can be described. Additionally, the issue of finite-size scaling in Ising models above the marginal dimension (d*=4) is discussed.Comment: 23 pages, including 14 PostScript figures. Presented at StatPhys-Taiwan, August 9-16, 1999. Also available as PDF file at http://www.cond-mat.physik.uni-mainz.de/~luijten/erikpubs.htm

Chelyabinsk meteorite explains unusual spectral properties of Baptistina Asteroid Family

We investigated the spectral and compositional properties of Chelyabinsk meteorite to identify its possible parent body in the main asteroid belt. Our analysis shows that the meteorite contains two spectrally distinct but compositionally indistinguishable components of LL5 chondrite and shock blackened/impact melt material. Our X-ray diffraction analysis confirms that the two lithologies of the Chelyabinsk meteorite are extremely similar in modal mineralogy. The meteorite is compositionally similar to LL chondrite and its most probable parent asteroid in the main belt is a member of the Flora family. Intimate mixture of LL5 chondrite and shock blackened/impact melt material from Chelyabinsk provides a spectral match with (8) Flora, the largest asteroid in the Flora family. The Baptistina family and Flora family overlap each other in dynamical space. Mineralogical analysis of (298) Baptistina and 9 small family members shows that their surface compositions are similar to LL chondrites, although their absorption bands are subdued and albedos lower when compared to typical S-type asteroids. A range of intimate mixtures of LL5 chondrite and shock blackened/impact melt material from Chelyabinsk provides spectral matches for all these BAF members. We suggest that the presence of a significant shock/impact melt component in the surface regolith of BAF members could be the cause of lower albedo and subdued absorption bands. The parent asteroid of BAF was either a member of the Flora family or had the same basic composition as the Floras (LL Chondrite). The shock pressures produced during the impact event generated enough impact melt or shock blackening to alter the spectral properties of BAF, but keep the BAF composition largely unchanged.Comment: 48 pages, 11 figures, 7 table

Activation of Ventral Tegmental Area 5-HT2C Receptors Reduces Incentive Motivation

FUNDING AND DISCLOSURE The research was funded by Wellcome Trust (WT098012) to LKH; and National Institute of Health (DK056731) and the Marilyn H. Vincent Foundation to MGM. The University of Michigan Transgenic Core facility is partially supported by the NIH-funded University of Michigan Center for Gastrointestinal Research (DK034933). The remaining authors declare no conflict of interest. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank Dr Celine Cansell, Ms Raffaella Chianese and the staff of the Medical Research Facility for technical assistance. We thank Dr Vladimir Orduña for the scientific advice and technical assistance.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Nanoinformatics: developing new computing applications for nanomedicine

Nanoinformatics has recently emerged to address the need of computing applications at the nano level. In this regard, the authors have participated in various initiatives to identify its concepts, foundations and challenges. While nanomaterials open up the possibility for developing new devices in many industrial and scientific areas, they also offer breakthrough perspectives for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. In this paper, we analyze the different aspects of nanoinformatics and suggest five research topics to help catalyze new research and development in the area, particularly focused on nanomedicine. We also encompass the use of informatics to further the biological and clinical applications of basic research in nanoscience and nanotechnology, and the related concept of an extended ?nanotype? to coalesce information related to nanoparticles. We suggest how nanoinformatics could accelerate developments in nanomedicine, similarly to what happened with the Human Genome and other -omics projects, on issues like exchanging modeling and simulation methods and tools, linking toxicity information to clinical and personal databases or developing new approaches for scientific ontologies, among many others

Apparent Correction to the Speed of Light in a Gravitational Potential

The effects of physical interactions are usually incorporated into the quantum theory by including the corresponding terms in the Hamiltonian. Here we consider the effects of including the gravitational potential energy of massive particles in the Hamiltonian of quantum electrodynamics. This results in a predicted correction to the speed of light that is proportional to the fine structure constant. The correction to the speed of light obtained in this way depends on the gravitational potential and not the gravitational field, which is not gauge invariant and presumably nonphysical. Nevertheless, the predicted results are in reasonable agreement with experimental observations from Supernova 1987a.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figure