Digital Humanities Data Curation

Digital Humanities Data Curation (DHDC) will engage scholars in sustained collaboration around issues of data curation in order to educate scholars on best practices and technologies for data curation and their relationship to scholarly methods. The Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) at the University of Maryland will lead a collaboration partnering the Women Writers Project (WWP) at Brown University, and the Center for Informatics Research in Science and Scholarship (CIRSS) at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS), at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign that will foster innovation in digital humanities research by integrating recent advances in the research and practice of data curation to address the specific needs of humanities researchers. DHDC will serve as an opportunity for participants to receive guidance in understanding the role of data curation in enriching humanities research projects

Efecto de los niveles de humedad y tasas de fósforo sobre la absorción de fósforo y el crecimiento del maíz

The effect of soil moisture level and phosphorus fertilization on corn (Zea mays L.) growth and P uptake was evaluated in a pot experiment under greenhouse conditions. Two soils, Lewisburg silt loam (fine, mixed, mesit, Typic Hapludalf) and Nipe clay (clayey, oxidic, isohyperthermic, Anionic Acrudox) were included in the study. The three moisture levels were M2 = field capacity, M2 = fluctuation between field capacity and 50% available water, and M3 = fluctuation between field capacity and permanent wilting point. The phosphorus treatments were P1 = 0 kg P/ha, P2=112 kg P/ha and P3 = 224 kg P/ha. Fresh and dry matter yield of corn plants grown on Lewisburg soil increased significantly with phosphorus fertilization. The field capacity treatment (M1) significantly outyielded the other two moisture treatments when 11 2 kg P/ha was applied. At 224 kg P/ha there was no significant difference in yield between M1 and M2 treatments, but both these treatments significantly outyielded the M3 treatment. Corn plants grown on Nipe soil did not respond to phosphorus or moisture treatments. Phosphorus applications to Lewisburg soil significantly increased phosphorus uptake by corn plants. Phosphorus uptake was 3.89, 21.60 and 42.73 mg/pot for 0, 112 and 224 kg P treatments, respectively. An increase in moisture stress decreased P uptake with M1, M2 and M3 yielding 27.88, 22.91 and 17.42 mg P/pot, respectively. Corn plants grown on Nipe soil showed a slight increase in P uptake with the application of 224 kg P/ha. but this increase was not significantly different from that of the other two P treatments. Nor did moisture stress affect P uptake. The lack of response of corn plants to P fertilization and moisture level of Nipe soil can be attributed to a high P fixing capacity of the soil.Se evaluó el efecto del contenido de humedad del suelo y aplicaciones de fósforo en el crecimiento del maíz (Zea mays L.) y la absorción de P en un experimento de tiestos bajo condiciones de invernadero. Los suelos incluidos en el estudio fueron Lewisburg (arenáceo, mixto, mésico, Typic Hapludalf) y Nipe (arcilloso, oxídico, isohipertérmico, Anionic Acrudox). Los niveles de humedad evaluados fueron M5 = capacidad de campo, M2 = fluctuación entre la capacidad de campo y 50% agua disponible y M3 = fluctuación entre la capacidad de campo y el punto de marchitez. Los niveles de fósforo fueron: P1 = 0 kg. P/ha., P2 = 112 kg. P/ha. y P3 = 224 kg. P/ha. Las aplicaciones de P aumentaron significativamente los pesos fresco y seco de las plantas de maíz sembradas en el suelo Lewisburg. El tratamiento de capacidad de campo (M1) superó significativamente o los tratamientos M2 y M3 en pesos fresco y seco cuando se aplicó 112 kg. de P/ha. al suelo Lewisburg. Al aumentar la aplicación de P a 224 kg. de P/ha. no se observó diferencia significativa entre M1 y M2, pero ambos tratamientos de humedad fueron significativamente superiores al M3 . Las plantas de maíz sembradas en el suelo Nipe no mostraron respuesta significativa a los tratamientos de P o humedad del suelo. Las aplicaciones de fósforo de 0, 112 y 224 kg./ha, al suelo Lewisburg resultaron en una absorción de P de 3.89, 21.60 y 42.73 mg./tiesto, respectivamente. La disminución en el contenido de agua disponible en el suelo redujo la absorción de P.  La absorción de P correspondiente a los tratamientos M1, M2 y M3 fue 27.88, 22.91 y 17.42 mg./tiesto, respectivamente. El maíz en el suelo Nipe aumentó la absorción de P de 0.82 a 1.24 mg./tiesto al aumentar la aplicación de 112 a 224 kg. P/ha. Sin embargo, la diferencia en absorción no fue estadísticamente significativa. Tampoco se observó ningún efecto de los tratamientos de humedad en la absorción de P en este suelo. La poca fertilidad del suelo Nipe, así como una alta capacidad para adsorber P pueden haber contribuido a la ausencia de una respuesta significativa a los tratamientos evaluados

The Significance of the Frontier in Digital Scholarship

Keynote speaker presentation for the 2013 Digital Frontiers Annual Conference. In this presentation, the author discusses the frontier as a process and an opportunity in digital scholarship

Distributed Metadata Correction and Annotation

The Distributed Metadata Correction and Annotation project, led by the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH), proposed to develop a set of services and interfaces that would allow scholarly research teams to pull metadata records from the HathiTrust APIs, correct and annotate these records using standardized vocabularies, gather corrections and annotations from other application instances, and export them in formats suitable for publication as linked data. MITH also proposed to produce a demonstration of an index service that would allow research groups to register their data publications in order to make them available to other groups through a discovery interface. This report was submitted to the Workset Creation for Scholarly Analysis: Prototyping Project, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Grant Reference No. 21300666Ope

Texts and Documents: New Challenges for TEI Interchange and Lessons from the Shelley-Godwin Archive

The introduction in 2011 of additional “document-focused” (as opposed to “text-focused”) elements represents a significant additional commitment to modeling two distinct ontologies for textual data within the standard governed by the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) Guidelines. A brief review of projects using the new elements suggests that scholars generally treat the “document-focused” and “text-focused” models as distinct and even severable—the tools of separate interpretive communities within literary studies. This paper will describe challenges encountered by members of the development and editorial teams of the Shelley-Godwin Archive (S-GA) in attempting to produce TEI-encoded data (as well as an accompanying reading environment) that supports both document-focused and text-focused approaches through automated conversion. Based on the experience of the S-GA teams, the increase in expressiveness achieved through the addition of document-focused elements to the TEI standard also raises the stakes for “interchange” between and among data modeled according to these parallel approaches

Foundations of Data Curation: The Pedagogy and Practice of "Purposeful Work" with Research Data

Increased interest in large-scale, publicly accessible data collections has made data curation critical to the management, preservation, and improvement of research data in the social and natural sciences, as well as the humanities. This paper explicates an approach to data curation education that integrates traditional notions of curation with principles and expertise from library, archival, and computer science. We begin by tracing the emergence of data curation as both a concept and a field of practice related to, but distinct from, both digital curation and data stewardship. This historical account, while far from definitive, considers perspectives from both the sciences and the humanities. Alongside traditional LIS and archival science practices, unique aspects of curation have informed our concept of “purposeful work” with data and, in turn, our pedagogical approach to data curation for the sciences and the humanities.Ope

A preliminary evaluation of a single session behavioural activation intervention to improve well-being and prevent depression in carers

Background: Major depressive disorder is predicted to be the lead cause of disease burden by 2030. Despite evidence suggesting that major depressive disorder can be prevented, little attention has been paid to developing interventions for this purpose. As research suggests that high levels of subjective well-being may protect against depression, an intervention that can enhance and maintain subjective well-being may assist in preventing major depressive disorder. Behavioural activation (BA) is a promising intervention that has been observed to both effectively treat depression and also enhance subjective well-being, even in a single session. Method: A randomised control design was used to investigate the efficacy of a single session of BA to boost well-being and reduce distress in a community sample of carers (N = 13), who may be at increased risk of major depressive disorder. Outcome measures assessed symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress, and well-being and the lifestyle factors of perceived environmental reward and the extent to which individuals lived in accordance with their personal values. Results: Generalised linear mixed modelling revealed significant group × time interactions for stress scores and valued living, indicating a treatment effect on these outcomes. Conclusions: Findings provide preliminary support for the effectiveness of a single session BA intervention to improve outcomes of carers

Diversity of mosquitoes and the aquatic insects associated with their oviposition sites along the Pacific coast of Mexico

Background: The abundance, richness and diversity of mosquitoes and aquatic insects associated with their oviposition sites were surveyed along eight states of the Pacific coast of Mexico. Diversity was estimated using the Shannon index (H’), similarity measures and cluster analysis. Methods: Oviposition sites were sampled during 2–3 months per year, over a three year period. Field collected larvae and pupae were reared and identified to species following adult emergence. Aquatic insects present at oviposition sites were also collected, counted and identified to species or genus. Results: In total, 15 genera and 74 species of mosquitoes were identified: Anopheles pseudopunctipennis, An. albimanus and Aedes aegypti were the most abundant and widely-distributed species, representing 47% of total mosquito individuals sampled. New species records for certain states are reported. Anopheline diversity was lowest in Sinaloa state (H’ = 0.54) and highest in Chiapas (H’ = 1.61) and Michoacán (H’ = 1.56), whereas culicid diversity was lowest in Michoacán (H’ = 1.93), Colima (H’ = 1.95), Sinaloa (H’ = 1.99) and Jalisco (H’ = 2.01) and highest in Chiapas (H’ = 2.66). In total, 10 orders, 57 families, 166 genera and 247 species of aquatic insects were identified in samples. Aquatic insect diversity was highest in Chiapas, Oaxaca and Michoacán (H’ = 3.60-3.75). Mosquito larval/pupal abundance was not correlated with that of predatory Coleoptera and Hemiptera. Conclusion: This represents the first update on the diversity and geographic distribution of the mosquitoes and aquatic insects of Mexico in over five decades. This information has been cataloged in Mexico’s National Biodiversity Information System (SNIB-CONABIO) for public inspection