Is information-seeking behaviour of doctoral students changing?: a review of the literature (2010 – 2015)

The advent of the Internet and networked communications in the last 15 years has arguably considerably changed the information behaviours of doctoral students, including the discovery process. Information seeking includes initiating a search, constructing search strategies, locating and evaluating the identified sources. Current research on information-seeking behaviours is focusing on understanding how the Internet, social media and other technological and communication-based changes, including mobile technologies, have changed the way students seek information in order to understand the information behaviours of the students of tomorrow. This paper offers a review of the literature on information-seeking behaviours, with a particular focus on recent years (2010-15). It aims to determine whether notable changes in the information-seeking behaviour of doctoral students have emerged in recent years. The study shows that the information-seeking behaviours of doctoral students follow a steady trend, with some subtle changes, particularly in the (patchy) use of social media and networking sites. There appears to be more similarities than differences across disciplines in the information-seeking behaviours of doctoral students. Considerations to their information literacy skills are given to understand better the role supervisors and library staff can play to support the doctoral students population in the early stages of the research process

Imaging dose from cone beam computed tomography in radiation therapy

AbstractImaging dose in radiation therapy has traditionally been ignored due to its low magnitude and frequency in comparison to therapeutic dose used to treat patients. The advent of modern, volumetric, imaging modalities, often as an integral part of linear accelerators, has facilitated the implementation of image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT), which is often accomplished by daily imaging of patients. Daily imaging results in additional dose delivered to patient that warrants new attention be given to imaging dose. This review summarizes the imaging dose delivered to patients as the result of cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) imaging performed in radiation therapy using current methods and equipment. This review also summarizes methods to calculate the imaging dose, including the use of Monte Carlo (MC) and treatment planning systems (TPS). Peripheral dose from CBCT imaging, dose reduction methods, the use of effective dose in describing imaging dose, and the measurement of CT dose index (CTDI) in CBCT systems are also reviewed

Improving perceptions of value to teaching and research staff: the next challenge for academic libraries

This article investigates the value, and perceptions of value, of academic libraries to teaching and research staff by examining working relationships between libraries and academic departments in universities. Eight case studies were undertaken in the US, the UK and Scandinavia. Primary findings were analysed and triangulated with a series of short surveys to ascertain whether they resonated with other librarians’ experiences. The article offers examples of good practice in the area of partnership building for academic libraries to improve their value to, or perceptions of value by, teaching and research staff, as well as raise their profile and better market their services to this category of users. Those examples may be of interest to fellow library practitioners and researchers interested in exploring further library-faculty interaction and collaboration

ATLAAS: an automatic decision tree-based learning algorithm for advanced image segmentation in positron emission tomography

Accurate and reliable tumour delineation on positron emission tomography (PET) is crucial for radiotherapy treatment planning. PET automatic segmentation (PET-AS) eliminates intra- and interobserver variability, but there is currently no consensus on the optimal method to use, as different algorithms appear to perform better for different types of tumours. This work aimed to develop a predictive segmentation model, trained to automatically select and apply the best PET-AS method, according to the tumour characteristics. ATLAAS, the automatic decision tree-based learning algorithm for advanced segmentation is based on supervised machine learning using decision trees. The model includes nine PET-AS methods and was trained on a 100 PET scans with known true contour. A decision tree was built for each PET-AS algorithm to predict its accuracy, quantified using the Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), according to the tumour volume, tumour peak to background SUV ratio and a regional texture metric. The performance of ATLAAS was evaluated for 85 PET scans obtained from fillable and printed subresolution sandwich phantoms. ATLAAS showed excellent accuracy across a wide range of phantom data and predicted the best or near-best segmentation algorithm in 93% of cases. ATLAAS outperformed all single PET-AS methods on fillable phantom data with a DSC of 0.881, while the DSC for H&N phantom data was 0.819. DSCs higher than 0.650 were achieved in all cases. ATLAAS is an advanced automatic image segmentation algorithm based on decision tree predictive modelling, which can be trained on images with known true contour, to predict the best PET-AS method when the true contour is unknown. ATLAAS provides robust and accurate image segmentation with potential applications to radiation oncology

Filtering wireless (Wi-Fi) internet access in public places

This paper discusses selected results from the AHRC-funded ‘Managing Access to the Internet in Public Librarie s' (MAIPLE) project and explores Wi-Fi Internet access in UK public libraries. It investigates how this compares to commercial provision of public Wi-Fi. It discusses security issues, filtering of Wi-Fi access and acceptable use policies. A mixed methods approach was used involving a review of the literature, a questionnaire survey of UK public library authorities and five case studies of selected authorities. A majority of UK public library authorities offer Wi-Fi access to the public at one or more of their libraries and they generally have an authentication system in place for their users. The majority of survey respondents that provide Wi-Fi use filtering software. There are similarities and differences in the ways that public libraries and commercial outlets provide and manage access to their wireless networks. Differences mainly relate to security and privacy: these differences reflect to an extent the underlying purposes of providing public Wi-Fi access as well as legal obligations. In some ways, public library Wi-Fi access is better managed than commercially provided public services. Evidence from the case studies suggests reluctant acceptance of filtering on the part of public library authorities, based on a perceived need to balance providing access to information with providing a safe and trusted public space for all

The impact of Resource Discovery Services (RDS) on usage of electronic content in UK academic libraries: selected results from a UKSG-funded project

Resource Discovery Services (RDS), also called Web-scale Discovery Services, have attracted considerable attention in recent years. This article aims to provide an environmental scan of the adoption of RDS in UK higher education libraries and provide an analysis of RDS resource usage data to gauge whether RDS have an impact on the overall usage of e-journals and e-books. Findings show that there appears to be a positive impact in most cases, although the extent of this impact varies across libraries and publishers. There is undeniably a degree of complexity in the usage analysis owing to the multi-dimensional nature of the environment

EP-1711: Effect of Noise Floor Suppression on Diffusion Kurtosis for Prostate Brachytherapy

WOS: 000467786304224

Impact of 18F-Choline PET scan acquisition time on delineation of GTV in prostate cancer [Poster Abstract]

Background: Dose painting radiotherapy requires accurate outlining of primary tumour volumes in the prostate. T2-Weighted (T2W) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is the best imaging method for defining the gross tumour volume (GTV). Choline positron emission tomography (PET) is currently a controversial tracer. The image acquisition differs significantly in published studies. Many used early static imaging. One study found that 18F-choline PET/CT with late image acquisition has superior accuracy to T2W MR and functional MR alone1. We investigate whether increasing 18F-Choline PET scan acquisition time from 60 (PET-60) to 90 (PET-90) minutes improves GTV TVD. Methods. Analysis was performed on 9 18F-Choline PET scans. Patients were injected with 370MBq of activity. Three clinicians (C1, C2 and C3) independently and without reference to each other contoured GTVs on each of the T2W-MRI, PET-60 and PET-90 scans at differing times. Scans were registered by a clinician using rigid co-registration. The treating clinicians MRI contour was used as a reference contour. The resulting PET and MRI GTVs were transferred to the PET-60 and PET-90 scans after image registration. The Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC), Specificity (Sp) and Sensitivity (S) were calculated from contour mask voxel analysis. Results. Table 1 shows the mean and range DSC, S and Sp scores on MRI, PET-60 and PET-90 for C1, C2 and C3 in comparison to the treating clinicians contour on MRI (C1). A 2 sampled T-test (P < 0.01) showed, no significant difference in the Sp, S and DSC between GTVs on PET-60 and PET-90 scans. Further to this, as shown in Figure 1, variability in GTV delineation is significant between observers in a singular case as well as across imaging modalities. Conclusion. Compared to MRI delineated GTVs, 18F-Choline PET GTVs are significantly different. This study found however that increasing the PET scan acquisition time from 60 to 90 minutes did not improve the performance of GTV TVD in comparison to MRI delineated GTV

Open access megajournals: The publisher perspective (Part 1: Motivations)

This paper is the first of two Learned Publishing articles in which we report the results of a series of interviews with senior publishers and editors exploring open access megajournals (OAMJs). Megajournals (of which PLoS One is the best known example) represent a relatively new approach to scholarly communication and can be characterized as large, broad-scope, open access journals that take an innovative approach to peer review, basing acceptance decisions solely on the technical or scientific soundness of the article. This model is often said to support the broader goals of the open science movement. Based on in-depth interviews with 31 publishers and editors representing 16 different organizations (10 of which publish a megajournal), this paper reports how the term ‘megajournal’ is understood and publishers’ rationale and motivations for launching (or not launching) an OAMJ. We find that while there is general agreement on the common characteristics of megajournals, there is not yet a consensus on their relative importance. We also find seven motivating factors that were said to drive the launch of an OAMJ and link each of these factors to potential societal and business benefits. These results suggest that the often polarized debate surrounding OAMJs is a consequence of the extent to which observers perceive publishers to be motivated by these societal or business benefits

Open-access mega-journals

Purpose: Open-access mega-journals (OAMJs) represent an increasingly important part of the scholarly communication landscape. OAMJs, such as PLOS ONE, are large scale, broad scope journals that operate an open access business model (normally based on article-processing charges), and which employ a novel form of peer review, focusing on scientific ‘soundness’ and eschewing judgment of novelty or importance. This paper examines the discourses relating to OAMJs, and their place within scholarly publishing, and considers attitudes towards mega-journals within the academic community. Design/methodology/approach: This paper presents a review of the literature of OAMJs structured around four defining characteristics: scale, disciplinary scope, peer review policy and economic model. The existing scholarly literature was augmented by searches of more informal outputs, such as blogs and email discussion lists, to capture the debate in its entirety. Findings: While the academic literature relating specifically to OAMJs is relatively sparse, discussion in other fora is detailed and animated, with debates ranging from the sustainability and ethics of the mega-journal model, to the impact of soundness-only peer review on article quality and discoverability, and the potential for OAMJs to represent a paradigm-shifting development in scholarly publishing. Originality/value: This article represents the first comprehensive review of the mega-journal phenomenon, drawing not only on the published academic literature, but also grey, professional and informal sources. The paper advances a number of ways in which the role of OAMJs in the scholarly communication environment can be conceptualised