Information Literacy and Mathematics Education Students: A Case Study in Library Instruction

Prior to 2016 library instruction for mathematics courses was nonexistent at Shippensburg University. The hiring of the STEM librarian in August 2016 led to an initiative to engage the mathematics faculty and students in using resources and services offered by the Ezra Lehman Memorial Library. This outreach resulted in two sessions of the Fundamentals of Mathematics course coming into the library for instruction in the fall semester. These first sessions found that detailed instruction in how to search and identify articles related to key concepts from the desired journal type was particularly useful to the students; however, these sessions also demonstrated a greater need for citation-focused instruction. Adapting the instruction session spring 2017 to include a more in-depth discussion about the necessity of citations showed a greater understanding of the concept by students in the course. Ultimately, this successful instruction improved the course instructor’s perception of the student work and led to the scheduling of future library instruction sessions by other members of the mathematics department

Locomotor loading mechanics in the hindlimbs of tegu lizards (Tupinambis merinae): comparitive and evolutionary implications

Skeletal elements are usually able to withstand several times their usual load before they yield, and this ratio is known as the bone\u27s safety factor. Limited studies on amphibians and non-avian reptiles have shown that they have much higher limb bone safety factors than birds and mammals. It has been hypothesized that this difference is related to the difference in posture between upright birds and mammals and sprawling ectotherms; however, limb bone loading data from a wider range of sprawling species are needed in order to determine whether the higher safety factors seen in amphibians and non-avian reptiles are ancestral or derived conditions. Tegus (family Teiidae) are an ideal lineage with which to expand sampling of limb bone loading mechanics for sprawling taxa, particularly for lizards, because they are from a different clade than previously sampled iguanas and exhibit different foraging and locomotor habits (actively foraging carnivore versus burst-activity herbivore). We evaluated the mechanics of locomotor loading for the femur of the Argentine black and white tegu (Tupinambus merianae) using three-dimensional measurements of the ground reaction force and hindlimb kinematics, in vivo bone strains and femoral mechanical properties. Peak bending stresses experienced by the femur were low (tensile: 10.4±1.1 MPa; compressive: –17.4±0.9 MPa) and comparable to those in other reptiles, with moderate shear stresses and strains also present. Analyses of peak femoral stresses and strains led to estimated safety factor ranges of 8.8–18.6 in bending and 7.8–17.5 in torsion, both substantially higher than typical for birds and mammals but similar to other sprawling tetrapods. These results broaden the range of reptilian and amphibian taxa in which high femoral safety factors have been evaluated and further indicate a trend for the independent evolution of lower limb bone safety factors in endothermic taxa

Wasted Words?: Current Trends in Collection Development Policies

The transition to electronic resources and the changing role of the collection development librarian are having a tremendous impact on the manner by which libraries select and acquire new materials. The goal of this research project was to further elucidate the current trends of collection development policies in members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) as well as gauge current use and future efficacy. The survey was designed and sent to librarians responsible for collection development at university-affiliated ARL libraries in order to obtain a current picture of academic collection development policies, and how they are changing due to the abundance of electronic resources and new methods of data-driven acquisitions. The goals of the survey are to Measure the continued use of CD policies as major collection-building tools; Assess the frequency of updates to collection development policies; Determine the availability of collection development policies; Measure and compare the amount of time available to librarians to review and select new materials; Determine if print materials are being reviewed in new and innovative ways or if they receive the same assessment as electronically formatted materials; Measure the employment of data or patron-driven acquisition methods. The findings will require additional assessment, but the data does seem to indicate a time of change in the way academic libraries complete and assess their primary collection development activities. This survey was created, at least in part, with the hope of setting a starting point for continued evaluation and longitudinal measurement. If our survey participants are as actively helpful in future years, these dreams of cyclical assessment may well come to fruition

Agricultural data management and sharing: Best practices and case study

Agricultural data are crucial to many aspects of production, commerce, and research involved in feeding the global community. However, in most agricultural research disciplines standard best practices for data management and publication do not exist. Here we propose a set of best practices in the areas of peer review, minimal dataset development, data repositories, citizen science initiatives, and support for best data management. We illustrate some of these best practices with a case study in dairy agroecosystems research. While many common, and increasingly disparate data management and publication practices are entrenched in agricultural disciplines, opportunities are readily available for promoting and adopting best practices that better enable and enhance data-intensive agricultural research and production

GA4GH: International policies and standards for data sharing across genomic research and healthcare.

The Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) aims to accelerate biomedical advances by enabling the responsible sharing of clinical and genomic data through both harmonized data aggregation and federated approaches. The decreasing cost of genomic sequencing (along with other genome-wide molecular assays) and increasing evidence of its clinical utility will soon drive the generation of sequence data from tens of millions of humans, with increasing levels of diversity. In this perspective, we present the GA4GH strategies for addressing the major challenges of this data revolution. We describe the GA4GH organization, which is fueled by the development efforts of eight Work Streams and informed by the needs of 24 Driver Projects and other key stakeholders. We present the GA4GH suite of secure, interoperable technical standards and policy frameworks and review the current status of standards, their relevance to key domains of research and clinical care, and future plans of GA4GH. Broad international participation in building, adopting, and deploying GA4GH standards and frameworks will catalyze an unprecedented effort in data sharing that will be critical to advancing genomic medicine and ensuring that all populations can access its benefits

Loading mechanics of the femur in tiger salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum) during terrestrial locomotion

Salamanders are often used as representatives of the basal tetrapod body plan in functional studies, but little is known about the loads experienced by their limb bones during locomotion. Although salamanders’ slow walking speeds might lead to low locomotor forces and limb bone stresses similar to those of non-avian reptiles, their highly sprawled posture combined with relatively small limb bones could produce elevated limb bone stresses closer to those of avian and mammalian species. This study evaluates the loads on the femur of the tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum) during terrestrial locomotion using three- dimensional measurements of the ground reaction force (GRF) and hindlimb kinematics, as well as anatomical measurements of the femur and hindlimb muscles. At peak stress (29.8±2.0% stance), the net GRF magnitude averaged 0.42body weights and was directed nearly vertically for the middle 20–40% of the contact interval, essentially perpendicular to the femur. Although torsional shear stresses were significant (4.1±0.3MPa), bending stresses experienced by the femur were low compared with other vertebrate lineages (tensile: 14.9±0.8MPa; compressive: –18.9±1.0MPa), and mechanical property tests indicated yield strengths that were fairly standard for tetrapods (157.1±3.7MPa). Femoral bending safety factors (10.5) were considerably higher than values typical for birds and mammals, and closer to the elevated values calculated for reptilian species. These results suggest that high limb bone safety factors may have an ancient evolutionary history, though the underlying cause of high safety factors (e.g. low limb bone loads, high bone strength or a combination of the two) may vary among lineages

Wasted Words? Current Trends in Collection Development Policies/Guidelines

Are collection development policies viable today? In order to answer that question, librarians at the University of South Florida, Tampa Library sent out a survey to all academic ARL Libraries to obtain a holistic picture of academic collection development policies, how they are changing due to the abundance of electronic resources and new methods of data-driven acquisition. The transition to electronic resources and the changing role of the collection development librarian are having a tremendous impact on the manner by which libraries select and acquire new materials. The goal of this research project further elucidates the current trends of collection development policies in academic libraries as well as gauge current use and efficacy. The survey and the analysis of the results will be revealed.In contrast, the Ottenheimer Library at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock is rewriting, revising, and expanding its collection development policy. One impetus to begin the revision emerged from recommendations made by a team of library staff who conducted the Association for Research Library’s (ARL) Collection Analysis Project (CAP) from 2009 to 2011. The Library is still in the initial stages of the revision project and is committed to completing it. This presentation will outline the reasons for the commitment and the benefits anticipated or already realized by participating in this process