Freeing Knowledge: Approaches to Foster Collaboration Between Academic Libraries and the Wikipedia Community

Wikipedia has become a ubiquitous source for information, as well as a global community of people dedicated to the free exchange of knowledge. While its convenience may seem at first glance to be a threat to the traditional role of libraries, an overlap of purpose fosters unique opportunities for working together to advance free access to high-quality information and empower learning. This article will address these opportunities by providing specific examples of ways in which libraries can collaborate with Wikipedia to achieve the common goal of making information more accessible, while increasing their utility beyond their local community. An overview of resources to facilitate this endeavor will be provided, along with example projects aimed at exposing library content, teaching information literacy skills, and engaging communities

Potential Benefits of Physical Therapy for Individuals with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. ALS is associated with progressive motor deficits and paralysis of the muscles that control limb movement, swallowing, and breathing. As ALS progresses, the muscles responsible for fine and gross motor functions are affected and motor skills decline. Typical life expectancy of people with ALS is 2-5 years after symptom onset. The most common cause of death for individuals with ALS is respiratory failure. There is no current curative treatment for ALS but symptoms can be managed through multidisciplinary care. The primary goal of all healthcare professionals involved with treating patients with ALS is to improve quality of life. A physical therapist (PT) is a healthcare professional who is trained to evaluate and treat problems related to movement and function. Physical therapy has many potential benefits for individuals with ALS. Addressing problematic symptoms through physical therapy intervention can minimize the effects that these symptoms have on an individual’s quality of life. The goal of this research project is to explore the potential benefits that physical therapy may have for individuals with ALS, and to determine whether physical therapy should be included in the overall care of all individuals with ALS. Information from several studies has been synthesized and compiled into a comprehensive meta-analysis to explain these potential benefits. Determining the potential benefits that physical therapy may have for individuals with ALS may assist healthcare professionals in delaying disease progression and prolonging lifespan for individuals with ALS in the future

Motley Crew: Collaboration across an Academic Library to Revive an Orphaned Collection

It can be difficult to find time and motivation to effectively address collection management for materials in specialized areas that fall outside the primary scope of one’s usual responsibilities. The pressure of crowded shelves in the authors’ largest library and the associated difficulties of helping users locate materials led a team of faculty librarians and staff to evaluate and consolidate an “orphaned collection” of books in health and medicine call numbers. The authors describe how a project team established a data-informed evaluation and weeding process that minimized affective decision-making and considered the nuances of collection management between disciplines

Citations for Software: Providing Identification, Access and Recognition for Research Software

Software plays a significant role in modern academic research, yet lacks a similarly significant presence in the scholarly record. With increasing interest in promoting reproducible research, curating software as a scholarly resource not only promotes access to these tools, but also provides recognition for the intellectual efforts that go into their development. This work reviews existing standards for identifying, promoting discovery of, and providing credit for software development work. In addition, it shows how these guidelines have been integrated into existing tools and community cultures, and provides recommendations for future software curation efforts.

Fraude nas demonstrações financeiras: um estudo de caso múltiplo aplicado ao setor bancário português

Fraud in financial statements has proved to be a highly relevant topic for different actors in society, due to its impact on the lives and activities of stakeholders. The FD presented in a true and appropriate way, are seen today as a traffic light for the journey of large investments, so when they stop working, victims of the toxic influence of fraud, they tend to direct stakeholders to unexpected destinations. The most publicized financial scandals, which took place in the United States of America, in the first decade of the year 2000, demonstrated the harmful effects of this great scourge on the continuity of organizations, among other economic, financial and social factors reflected at an international level. In this dissertation, we consider making an empirical study on three cases that occurred in banks operating in the Portuguese market, namely, the case of BES, BANIF and BPN. For this purpose, an analysis model of a qualitative nature was defined, which consists of a case study methodology. The results of our study allowed us to verify that in addition to the need to design a good and effective internal control system (ICS), instituting the audit and risk management function, the behavior factor of the different actors must also be considered, giving greater focus to managers, auditors and supervisory bodies in the banking sector. Managers, by derogating from controls, motivated by the privileges obtained to the detriment of the position they occupy, the auditors and supervisors, adopting a nonintrusive look, translated into low levels of supervision and ligh supersion, combined with an action absent from punishments and by their leading to impunity for fraudsters, they determined the proportion of fraud occurrence and consequent impact on the continuity of institutions. In this context, the Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) law led us to the conclusion that, by raising the levels of accountability of these actors, the probability of fraud in the FD will be mitigated.A fraude nas demonstrações financeiras tem-se revelado um tema de elevada relevância para os distintos atores da sociedade, devido ao seu impacto na vida e na atividade dos stakeholders. As DF apresentadas de forma verdadeira e apropriada, são encaradas hoje como um semáforo para a viagem dos grandes investimentos, pelo que, quando estas deixam de funcionar, vítimas da influência tóxica da fraude, tendem a direcionar os stakeholders para os destinos não esperados. Os mais mediáticos escândalos financeiros, ocorridos nos Estados Unidos de América, na primeira década do ano 2000, demonstraram os efeitos nocivos deste grande flagelo na continuidade das organizações, entre outros fatores económicos, financeiros e sociais refletidos a nível internacional. Na presente dissertação, consideramos fazer um estudo empírico sobre três casos ocorridos nos bancos que operam no mercado português, nomeadamente, o caso BES, BANIF e BPN. Para o efeito, foi definido um modelo de análise de natureza qualitativa, que consiste numa metodologia de estudos de caso. Os resultados do nosso estudo permitiram aferir que para além da necessidade de se conceber um bom e eficaz sistema de controlo interno (SCI), instituir a função de auditoria e gestão de riscos, deve ser considerado, adicionalmente, o fator comportamento dos destintos atores, dando maior enfoque para os gestores, auditores e órgãos de supervisão no setor bancário. Os gestores, mediante derrogação dos controlos, motivados pelos privilégios obtidos em detrimento da posição de ocupam, os auditores e supervisores, adotando um olhar pouco intrusivo, traduzido em baixos níveis de fiscalização e ligh supersion, conjugado com uma atuação ausente de punições e por sua vez conducentes a impunidade dos defraudadores, determinaram a proporção de ocorrência de fraude e consequente impacto na continuidade das instituições. Neste contexto, a lei Sarbanes Oxley (SOX), levou-nos a conclusão de que, elevando os níveis de responsabilização destes atores, mitigar-se-á a probabilidade de ocorrência de fraude nas DF

China’s rising hydropower demand challenges water sector

Demand for hydropower is increasing, yet the water footprints (WFs) of reservoirs and hydropower, and their contributions to water scarcity, are poorly understood. Here, we calculate reservoir WFs (freshwater that evaporates from reservoirs) and hydropower WFs (the WF of hydroelectricity) in China based on data from 875 representative reservoirs (209 with power plants). In 2010, the reservoir WF totaled 27.9 × 109 m3 (Gm3), or 22% of China’s total water consumption. Ignoring the reservoir WF seriously underestimates human water appropriation. The reservoir WF associated with industrial, domestic and agricultural WFs caused water scarcity in 6 of the 10 major Chinese river basins from 2 to 12 months annually. The hydropower WF was 6.6 Gm3 yr−1 or 3.6 m3 of water to produce a GJ (109 J) of electricity. Hydropower is a water intensive energy carrier. As a response to global climate change, the Chinese government has promoted a further increase in hydropower energy by 70% by 2020 compared to 2012. This energy policy imposes pressure on available freshwater resources and increases water scarcity. The water-energy nexus requires strategic and coordinated implementations of hydropower development among geographical regions, as well as trade-off analysis between rising energy demand and water use sustainability

PREX: PeroxiRedoxin classification indEX, a database of subfamily assignments across the diverse peroxiredoxin family

PREX (http://www.csb.wfu.edu/prex/) is a database of currently 3516 peroxiredoxin (Prx or PRDX) protein sequences unambiguously classified into one of six distinct subfamilies. Peroxiredoxins are a diverse and ubiquitous family of highly expressed, cysteine-dependent peroxidases that are important for antioxidant defense and for the regulation of cell signaling pathways in eukaryotes. Subfamily members were identified using the Deacon Active Site Profiler (DASP) bioinformatics tool to focus in on functionally relevant sequence fragments surrounding key residues required for protein activity. Searches of this database can be conducted by protein annotation, accession number, PDB ID, organism name or protein sequence. Output includes the subfamily to which each classified Prx belongs, accession and GI numbers, genus and species and the functional site signature used for classification. The query sequence is also presented aligned with a select group of Prxs for manual evaluation and interpretation by the user. A synopsis of the characteristics of members of each subfamily is also provided along with pertinent references

A New Family of Membrane Electron Transporters and Its Substrates, Including a New Cell Envelope Peroxiredoxin, Reveal a Broadened Reductive Capacity of the Oxidative Bacterial Cell Envelope

The Escherichia coli membrane protein DsbD functions as an electron hub that dispatches electrons received from the cytoplasmic thioredoxin system to periplasmic oxidoreductases involved in protein disulfide isomerization, cytochrome c biogenesis, and sulfenic acid reduction. Here, we describe a new class of DsbD proteins, named ScsB, whose members are found in proteobacteria and Chlamydia. ScsB has a domain organization similar to that of DsbD, but its amino-terminal domain differs significantly. In DsbD, this domain directly interacts with substrates to reduce them, which suggests that ScsB acts on a different array of substrates. Using Caulobacter crescentus as a model organism, we searched for the substrates of ScsB. We discovered that ScsB provides electrons to the first peroxide reduction pathway identified in the bacterial cell envelope. The reduction pathway comprises a thioredoxin-like protein, TlpA, and a peroxiredoxin, PprX. We show that PprX is a thiol-dependent peroxidase that efficiently reduces both hydrogen peroxide and organic peroxides. Moreover, we identified two additional proteins that depend on ScsB for reduction, a peroxiredoxin-like protein, PrxL, and a novel protein disulfide isomerase, ScsC. Altogether, our results reveal that the array of proteins involved in reductive pathways in the oxidative cell envelope is significantly broader than was previously thought. Moreover, the identification of a new periplasmic peroxiredoxin indicates that in some bacteria, it is important to directly scavenge peroxides in the cell envelope even before they reach the cytoplasm

ASSESSMENT OF OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE TO CHEMICALS

Relatório de Estágio do Mestrado em Saúde Ocupacional apresentado à Faculdade de MedicinaO presente relatório descreve um estágio curricular realizado no âmbito do Mestrado em Saúde Ocupacional, com foco na Avaliação da Exposição Ocupacional a Agentes Químicos, realizado numa empresa de reparação de equipamentos médicos. O objetivo principal do estágio foi aplicar o conhecimento teórico adquirido no primeiro ano do Mestrado.O relatório contém uma breve contextualização sobre a instituição de acolhimento e os objetivos específicos do estágio. Em seguida, foram detalhadas as atividades realizadas no departamento de SST.Para a avaliação dos riscos químicos, foi adotado o método COSHH (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations) Essentials, uma metodologia desenvolvida no Reino Unido, para auxiliar as empresas a cumprir as regulamentações de controle de substâncias perigosas.A metodologia COSHH consiste numa avaliação qualitativa de riscos químicos. O ponto de partida desse método foi a análise das informações contidas nas fichas de dados de segurança (FDS). A aplicação desse método permitiu obter fichas de orientação de controlo que estabelecem medidas genéricas.A utilização dessa ferramenta permitiu obter conclusões sobre as medidas a serem adotadas, mantidas ou modificadas em relação aos riscos apresentados pelos produtos utilizados pelos trabalhadores. Além disso, o estágio proporcionou uma compreensão aprofundada da aplicação desse método na análise de riscos químicos e na prevenção de doenças profissionais causadas por produtos químicos.Em suma, o estágio curricular contribuiu para o desenvolvimento de competências profissionais e pessoais, bem como para a aquisição de conhecimentos e experiências significativas no campo da saúde ocupacional.The present report describes a curricular internship carried out within the scope of the master’s in occupational health, focusing on the Assessment of Occupational Exposure to Chemical Agents, in a medical equipment repair Company. The main objective of the internship was to apply the theoretical knowledge acquired in the first year of the master's.The report contains a brief contextualization of the host institution and the specific objectives of the internship. Then, the activities carried out in the HSE department were detailed.For the chemical risk assessment, the COSHH (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations) Essentials method was adopted, a methodology developed in the UK to help companies comply with the Control of Hazardous Substances Regulations.The COSHH methodology consists of a qualitative assessment of chemical risks. The starting point for this method was an analysis of the information contained in safety data sheets (SDS). The application of this method led to control guidance sheets, which set out generic measures.The use of this tool allowed conclusions to be drawn on the measures to be adopted, maintained, or modified in relation to the risks presented by the products used by workers. In addition, the internship provided an in-depth understanding of the application of this method in the analysis of chemical risks and the prevention of occupational diseases caused by chemicals.To summarise, the internship contributed to the development of professional and personal skills as well as the acquisition of significant knowledge and experience in the field of occupational health