Anxiety in childhood: parental expectations, differential parenting and siblings

The portfolio has three parts: Part one is a systematic literature review, in which the empirical evidence for the association between parental expectations of their child‟s anxious cognitions and child anxiety was reviewed. Part two is an empirical paper, which explores anxiety in siblings, perceived differential parenting, fairness of parenting and self-esteem. Part three comprises the appendices, which provide further information regarding the systematic literature review and the empirical paper

A Conversation on the Semantic Web and Legal Information

A Pre-Conference Workshop delivered Saturday, May 24th, 2014 from 8:30am -12:00pm at the Canadian Association of Law Libraries annual meeting in Winnipeg, Manitoba.Have you been wondering "What's next" with technology; or perhaps what APIs, open government data, linked data or the semantic web will ever mean for law libraries? This workshop will give participants an overview of the emerging linked data and semantic web in the context of legal information aimed at an audience with little pre-existing understanding of the subject. We will start with a high level discussion of the theory behind data creation and manipulation, with demonstrations of public and closed sources for data such as APIs and open government datasets, linked data particularly, and the semantic web generally – what it is, how it has developed so far, examples of related legal projects, and some ideas about its implications for legal resources. This will be followed by a facilitated discussion of the anticipated impacts for legal research, publication, software development, and the practice of law. These emerging developments are important because they have the potential to create both opportunities and disruption in many areas of interest to CALL/ACBD members, including public service roles and those in related data fields like cataloguing and legal database development.Access Services and Resource Sharing Special Interest Group, Canadian Association of Law Librarie

The KF Modified Linked Data Project

Libraries have a lot of legacy data to bring to the linked data table. As the potential of the semantic web grows, it’s clear that controlled methods of organization will be critical for its success. This panel discusses two projects to take existing library cataloging and metadata standards and transform them for use as and within Linked Open Data platforms. Tim and Sarah have set out to explore if library classification standards can facilitate and improve semantic navigation as an online controlled vocabulary. They are using a specialized legal classification scheme known as KF Modified. The project has two phases: converting the current print based format, maintained in a legacy word processing platform, to XML and then mapping the results to SKOS and creating a dynamic data standard that can be published as linked data

Going Global: GIS Day(s) 2020

GIS Day, a traditional drop-in and interactive event to promote and celebrate geospatial technology, is recognized by most if not all OCUL institutions. This year, the event went digital, thanks to Western University Library and several OCUL institututions, organizations, and over 30 volunteers, and 47 presenters.  This article summarizes the planning, delivery and execution of this event.  &nbsp

Neural signatures of cognitive flexibility and reward sensitivity following nicotinic receptor stimulation in dependent smokers : a randomized trial

IMPORTANCE Withdrawal from nicotine is an important contributor to smoking relapse. Understanding how reward-based decision making is affected by abstinence and by pharmacotherapies such as nicotine replacement therapy and varenicline tartrate may aid cessation treatment. OBJECTIVE To independently assess the effects of nicotine dependence and stimulation of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor on the ability to interpret valence information (reward sensitivity) and subsequently alter behavior as reward contingencies change (cognitive flexibility) in a probabilistic reversal learning task. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Nicotine-dependent smokers and nonsmokers completed a probabilistic reversal learning task during acquisition of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a 2-drug, double-blind placebo-controlled crossover design conducted from January 21, 2009, to September 29, 2011. Smokers were abstinent from cigarette smoking for 12 hours for all sessions. In a fully Latin square fashion, participants in both groups underwent MRI twice while receiving varenicline and twice while receiving a placebo pill, wearing either a nicotine or a placebo patch. Imaging analysis was performed from June 15, 2015, to August 10, 2016. MAIN OUTCOME AND MEASURES A well-established computational model captured effects of smoking status and administration of nicotine and varenicline on probabilistic reversal learning choice behavior. Neural effects of smoking status, nicotine, and varenicline were tested for on MRI contrasts that captured reward sensitivity and cognitive flexibility. RESULTS The study included 24 nicotine-dependent smokers (12 women and 12 men; mean [SD] age, 35.8 [9.9] years) and 20 nonsmokers (10 women and 10 men; mean [SD] age, 30.4 [7.2] years). Computational modeling indicated that abstinent smokers were biased toward response shifting and that their decisions were less sensitive to the available evidence, suggesting increased impulsivity during withdrawal. These behavioral impairments were mitigated with nicotine and varenicline. Similarly, decreased mesocorticolimbic activity associated with cognitive flexibility in abstinent smokers was restored to the level of nonsmokers following stimulation of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (familywise error-corrected P<.05). Conversely, neural signatures of decreased reward sensitivity in smokers (vs nonsmokers; familywise error-corrected P<.05) in the dorsal striatum and anterior cingulate cortex were not mitigated by nicotine or varenicline. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE There was a double dissociation between the effects of chronic nicotine dependence on neural representations of reward sensitivity and acute effects of stimulation of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors on behavioral and neural signatures of cognitive flexibility in smokers. These chronic and acute pharmacologic effects were observed in overlapping mesocorticolimbic regions, suggesting that available pharmacotherapies may alleviate deficits in the same circuitry for certain mental computations but not for others

Black Lives Still Matter for LIS: An Introduction to the Special Issue

This introduction highlights the articles in the special issue Library and Information Studies and the Mattering of Black Lives

Improved synchronous production of Plasmodium falciparum gametocytes in vitro.

The sexual stages of the Plasmodium falciparum life cycle are attractive targets for vaccines and transmission blocking drugs. Difficulties in culturing and obtaining large amounts of sexual stage P. falciparum parasites, particularly early stages, have often limited research progress in this area. We present a new protocol which simplifies the process of stimulating gametocytogenesis leading to improved synchronous gametocyte production. This new method can be adapted to enrich for early stage gametocytes (I and II) with a higher degree of purity than has previously been achieved, using MACS magnetic affinity columns. The protocol described lends itself to large scale culturing and harvesting of synchronous parasites suitable for biochemical assays, northern blots, flow cytometry, microarrays and proteomic analysis