Behind the scenes of the digital museum of information retrieval research

As more and more of the world becomes digital, and documents become easily available over the Internet, we are suddenly able to access all kinds of information. The downside of this however is that information that is not digital becomes less accessed, and is liable to be lost to us and to future generations. Whereas there are many scanning projects underway, such as Google books and the Open Library Alliance, these projects are not going to know about, much less find, the specialized scientific literature within various fields. This short paper describes the beginnings of a project to digitize some of the older literature in the information retrieval field. The paper finishes with some thoughts for future work on making more of our IR literature available for searching

TB165: Chemical and Physical Properties of the Danforth, Elliotsville, Peacham, and Penquis Soil Map Units

The soils reported in this bulletin have developed in several different parent materials. The Danforth soil has developed from very deep, well drained, loose, high coarse fragment till derived from slate and fine-grained metasandstone. The Elliottsville soils have developed in moderately deep, well drained till derived from slates, metasandstones, phyllite and schists. The Penquis soils developed in moderately deep, well drained till of similar lithology as Elliottsville, but with a higher component of weathered and crushable rock fragments throughout the soil profile. Peacham soils are developed in very deep, very poorly drained, dense till derived from phyllite, schist, and granite.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_techbulletin/1041/thumbnail.jp

High performance cryogen-free microkelvin platform

Improved accessibility to the microkelvin temperature regime is important for future research in quantum materials; for quantum information science; and for applications of quantum sensors. Here we report the design and performance of a microkelvin platform based on a nuclear demagnetization stage, engineered and well optimized for operation on a standard cryogen-free dilution refrigerator. PrNi5 is used as the dominant refrigerant. The platform provides a large area for mounting experiments in an ultralow temperature, low electromagnetic noise environment. The performance is characterized using current sensing noise thermometry. Temperatures as low as 395 $\mu$K have been reached, and a protocol has been established in which it is possible to operate experiments below 1 mK for 95% of the time, providing an efficient cryogen-free microkelvin environment for a wide range of science applicationsComment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Intake of own Mother's milk during the first days of life is associated with decreased morbidity and mortality in very low birth weight infants during the first 60 days of life

Background: The incidence of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) and possibly also of sepsis is lower in preterm infants fed their own mother's milk (hereafter 'mother's milk') compared with formula-fed infants. It is unclear whether this is caused by the protective properties of breast milk or by the absence of cow's milk. Especially in early life, mother's milk is often unavailable to preterm infants, while minimal enteral nutrition is initiated immediately. Objectives: To determine whether there is an association between intake of mother's milk during the first days of life and the combined outcome of sepsis, NEC and death over a prolonged period. Methods: Retrospective study in infants with a birth weight 50% of the total intake was mother's milk (HR = 0.37, 95% CI 0.22, 0.65). Conclusion: The type of enteral nutrition during the first 10 days of life is associated with the risk of NEC, sepsis and/or death during the first 60 days of life. Copyrigh

Human Milk Banking-Facts and Issues to Resolve

The number of human milk banks is increasing worldwide. Although the beneficial effects of feeding premature infants with their mother’s milk are well documented, less is known about the effects of feeding these infants with pasteurized donor milk. We propose a randomized trial comparing the effects of a 100% human milk-based diet (human milk supplemented with a human milk-derived fortifier) and a diet (partially) based on bovine milk. In theory, human milk has a beneficial effect on various aspects of human physiology, most of which become apparent after infancy. We therefore propose an extensive follow-up program that takes this aspect into consideration. Other issues concerning the practice of human milk banks need to be addressed as well as optimization of the feeding strategies for preterm infants

Cooling low-dimensional electron systems into the microkelvin regime.

Two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) with high mobility, engineered in semiconductor heterostructures host a variety of ordered phases arising from strong correlations, which emerge at sufficiently low temperatures. The 2DEG can be further controlled by surface gates to create quasi-one dimensional systems, with potential spintronic applications. Here we address the long-standing challenge of cooling such electrons to below 1 mK, potentially important for identification of topological phases and spin correlated states. The 2DEG device was immersed in liquid 3He, cooled by the nuclear adiabatic demagnetization of copper. The temperature of the 2D electrons was inferred from the electronic noise in a gold wire, connected to the 2DEG by a metallic ohmic contact. With effective screening and filtering, we demonstrate a temperature of 0.9 ± 0.1 mK, with scope for significant further improvement. This platform is a key technological step, paving the way to observing new quantum phenomena, and developing new generations of nanoelectronic devices exploiting correlated electron states

The behavioral consequence of phenylketonuria in mice depends on the genetic background

To unravel the role of gene mutations in the healthy and the diseased state, countless studies have tried to link genotype with phenotype. However, over the years, it became clear that the strain of mice can influence these results. Nevertheless, identical gene mutations in different strains are often still considered equals. An example of this, is the research done in phenylketonuria (PKU), an inheritable metabolic disorder. In this field, a PKU mouse model (either on a BTBR or C57Bl/6 background) is often used to examine underlying mechanisms of the disease and/or new treatment strategies. Both strains have a point mutation in the gene coding for the enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase which causes toxic concentrations of the amino acid phenylalanine in blood and brain, as found in PKU patients. Although the mutation is identical and therefore assumed to equally affect physiology and behavior in both strains, no studies directly compared the two genetic backgrounds to test this assumption. Therefore, this study compared the BTBR and C57Bl/6 wild-type and PKU mice on PKU-relevant amino acid- and neurotransmitter levels and at a behavioral level. The behavioral paradigms were selected from previous literature on the PKU mouse model and address four domains, namely 1) activity levels, 2) motor performance, 3) anxiety and/or depression-like behavior, and 4) learning and memory. The results of this study showed comparable biochemical changes in phenylalanine and neurotransmitter concentrations. In contrast, clear differences in behavioral outcome between the strains in all four above-mentioned domains were found, most notably in the learning and memory domain. The outcome in this domain seem to be primarily due to factors inherent to the genetic background of the mouse and much less by differences in PKU-specific biochemical parameters in blood and brain. The difference in behavioral outcome between PKU of both strains emphasizes that the consequence of the PAH mutation is influenced by other factors than Phe levels alone. Therefore, future research should consider these differences when choosing one of the genetic strains to investigate the pathophysiological mechanism underlying PKU-related behavior, especially when combined with new treatment strategies