What Does it Take to Make Discovery a Success?: A Survey of Discovery Tool Adoption, Instruction, and Evaluation Among Academic Libraries

Discovery tools have been widely adopted by academic libraries, yet little information exists that connects common practices regarding discovery tool implementation, maintenance, assessment, and staffing with conventions for research and instruction. The authors surveyed heads of reference and instruction departments in research and land-grant university libraries. The survey results revealed common practices with discovery tools among academic libraries. This study also draws connections between operational, instructional, and assessment practices and perceptions that participants have of the success of their discovery tool. Participants who indicated successful implementation of their discovery tool hailed from institutions that made significant commitments to the operations, maintenance, and acceptance of their discovery tool. Participants who indicated an unsuccessful implementation, or who were unsure about the success of their implementation, did not make lasting commitments to the technical maintenance, operations, and acceptance of their discovery tool

Biofilm formation is a risk factor for mortality in patients with Candida albicans bloodstream infection-Scotland, 2012-2013

Acknowledgements This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust Strategic Award for Medical Mycology and Fungal Immunology 097377/Z/11/Z. Data collection was supported by a grant from Pfizer. G. Ramage was also supported by a research fellowship grant from Gilead Sciences. We are grateful to microbiology colleagues throughout Scotland for submitting isolates.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Mobility at the neighbourhood scale: interim report

In this interim report, we present and discuss the initial findings of a review of literature and policy and a set of expert interviews with older and disabled people and those working with them or on their behalf. We begin by exploring the challenges these groups face and the ways in which they relate to transport and mobility. We discuss Active Neighbourhoods, 15/20-minute neighbourhoods, and Streets for All. These are concepts that seek to aid the development of more inclusive and active communities and that provide a starting point for our investigation. After a brief explanation of our methodology, we turn to our findings, taking in turn sociable spaces, accessible neighbourhoods, and collaborative processes. We conclude with some recommendations and thoughts about the further stages of this research

Combined analysis of the salivary microbiome and host defence peptides predicts dental disease

Understanding the triad of host response, microbiome and disease status is potentially informative for disease prediction, prevention, early intervention and treatment. Using longitudinal assessment of saliva and disease status, we demonstrated that partial least squares modelling of microbial, immunological and clinical measures, grouped children according to future dental disease status. Saliva was collected and dental health assessed in 33 children aged 4 years, and again 1-year later. The composition of the salivary microbiome was assessed and host defence peptides in saliva were quantified. Principal component analysis of the salivary microbiome indicated that children clustered by age and not disease status. Similarly, changes in salivary host defence peptides occurred with age and not in response to, or preceding dental caries. Partial least squares modelling of microbial, immunological and clinical baseline measures clustered children according to future dental disease status. These data demonstrate that isolated evaluation of the salivary microbiome or host response failed to predict dental disease. In contrast, combined assessment of both host response together with the microbiome revealed clusters of health and disease. This type of approach is potentially relevant to myriad diseases that are modified by host–microbiome interactions

Mainstreaming urban agriculture : opportunities and barriers to upscaling city farming

Urban Agriculture (UA), i.e., the production of crops or rearing of livestock in cities, is growing in popularity. Upscaled UA is increasingly gaining support from policy makers, funders, local authorities and other key actors across the globe. Radical forms of the concept, in the form of edible rooftops, urban farms and high-tech growing projects, are becoming more commonplace in our cityscapes; enabling production on a level not witnessed previously. With the mainstreaming of large-scale UA comes the potential to further the social, environmental and economic value of the practice, through job creation, biodiversity enhancement, the creation of short food supply chains and other benefits. Yet, despite this growth, there are barriers to upscaling city farming. Evidence suggests that a core issue surrounds urban soil contamination and hesitation with regards to crops in the city. This paper uses a qualitative approach to explore the UK’s largest urban farm and a spectrum of other UA sites to illustrate such barriers. We reveal how public hesitation, financial barriers and soil quality prevent development. We reflect on the breadth of the issue and call for a more pragmatic approach to these barriers. In doing so, we propose a path forward for enabling UA at scale

Switched On : a qualitative review of energy advice for young people

The Switched On project involved the delivery of freeenergy advice to young people aged 16–25 in theform of workshops, one-to-one individualised advicesessions and advice via text messaging. Young adultsare a demographic group recognised to be at risk of fuelpoverty, and evaluations such as this review are key inensuring that future energy advice provisions maximisetheir potential positive impact in addressing this issue.This report was produced by the Sustainable Housing andUrban Studies Unit (SHUSU), a research team based atthe University of Salford, in order to evaluate the deliveryof the project