Adapting Research Guides and Library Instruction to Provide Educational Support for Distance and In-person Learners

Advancements in technology have impacted how people gather and obtain new information. This phe-nomenon is especially apparent among younger generations where there has been an increase in the number of students who are visual learners. To continue to best serve these students, librarians need to begin to adapt library instructional material, such as research guides, to also present information using visual multimedia resources. While adapting research guides to increasingly visual learners, the oppor-tunity exists to ensure that research guides follow a user-centered design. In the process of updating these guides, librarians can also provide some assistance with web accessibility by meeting several crite-ria from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1. This article highlights criteria from the Perceiva-ble, Understandability, and Operable sections that can be met by non-web designers. The foundation of this process is the development of a content strategy that guides the planning and adapting of research guides. This article presents some of the best practices that can be used to guide librarians as they proac-tively adapt their research guides to current learners learning styles, while still meeting web accessibility expectations

An Application of the Interactionist Perspective to the Study of Suicide Attempters

At the Houston, Texas meeting of the American Association of Suicidology in April, 1973, a Houston criminologist threw out a challenge to the sociologists present. Since sociologists seem to be studying suicide as a form of deviance and studying deviance from the interactionist perspective, why, he asked, aren\u27t sociologists studying suicide from the interactionist perspective? No-one present answered his question, and the challenge seemedto be ignored. In the months following the meeting this challenge became more and more intriguing. Therefore, I have chosen this opportunity to study suicide from the interactionist perspective

Annual Survey of Virginia Law: Health Law

During the past year, the Commonwealth of Virginia has experienced numerous developments in health law on all three major legal fronts-legislative, judicial, and administrative law. These developments have covered a range of health law topics, including everything from revisions to the public certificate of need process for health care facilities and the regulation of body-piercing of minors on the legislative front, to key decisions regarding the scope of the Virginia Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Act and the Health Care Decisions Act on the judicial front, to action on the regulatory front regarding independent external appeals ofhealth plan denials and hospice care under the Medicaid program. This article offers a summary of some of the most significant developments in health law in each of these three legal arenas during the past year

Proliferative Tumor Doubling Times of Prostatic Carcinoma

Prostate cancer (PCa) has a variable biology ranging from latent cancer to extremely aggressive tumors. Proliferative activities of cancers may indicate their biological potential. A flow cytometric assay to calculate maximum proliferative doubling times (Tmax) of PCa in radical prostatectomy specimens after preoperative in vivo bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) infusion is presented. Only 4/17 specimens had tumors large enough for flow cytometric analysis. The Tmax of tumors was similar and ranged from 0.6 to 3.6 months. Tumors had calculated doubling times 2- to 25-fold faster than their matched normal tissue. Variations in labeling index and Tmax were observed within a tumor as well as between different Gleason grades. The observed PSA doubling times (PSA-DT) ranged from 18.4 to 32.0 months, considerably slower than the corresponding Tmax of tumors involved. While lack of data for apoptotic rates is a limitation, apparent biological differences between latent versus aggressive PCa may be attributable to variations in apoptotic rates of these tumors rather than their cell proliferative rates

Bacillus anthracis in China and its relationship to worldwide lineages

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The global pattern of distribution of 1033 <it>B. anthracis </it>isolates has previously been defined by a set of 12 conserved canonical single nucleotide polymorphisms (canSNP). These studies reinforced the presence of three major lineages and 12 sub-lineages and sub-groups of this anthrax-causing pathogen. Isolates that form the A lineage (unlike the B and C lineages) have become widely dispersed throughout the world and form the basis for the geographical disposition of "modern" anthrax. An archival collection of 191 different <it>B. anthracis </it>isolates from China provides a glimpse into the possible role of Chinese trade and commerce in the spread of certain sub-lineages of this pathogen. Canonical single nucleotide polymorphism (canSNP) and multiple locus VNTR analysis (MLVA) typing has been used to examine this archival collection of isolates.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The canSNP study indicates that there are 5 different sub-lineages/sub-groups in China out of 12 previously described world-wide canSNP genotypes. Three of these canSNP genotypes were only found in the western-most province of China, Xinjiang. These genotypes were A.Br.008/009, a sub-group that is spread across most of Europe and Asia; A.Br.Aust 94, a sub-lineage that is present in Europe and India, and A.Br.Vollum, a lineage that is also present in Europe. The remaining two canSNP genotypes are spread across the whole of China and belong to sub-group A.Br.001/002 and the A.Br.Ames sub-lineage, two closely related genotypes. MLVA typing adds resolution to the isolates in each canSNP genotype and diversity indices for the A.Br.008/009 and A.Br.001/002 sub-groups suggest that these represent older and established clades in China.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p><it>B. anthracis </it>isolates were recovered from three canSNP sub-groups (A.Br.008/009, A.Br.Aust94, and A.Br.Vollum) in the western most portion of the large Chinese province of Xinjiang. The city of Kashi in this province appears to have served as a crossroads for not only trade but the movement of diseases such as anthrax along the ancient "silk road". Phylogenetic inference also suggests that the A.Br.Ames sub-lineage, first identified in the original Ames strain isolated from Jim Hogg County, TX, is descended from the A.Br.001/002 sub-group that has a major presence in most of China. These results suggest a genetic discontinuity between the younger Ames sub-lineage in Texas and the large Western North American sub-lineage spread across central Canada and the Dakotas.</p

An integrated approach to pathogen transmission via environmental reservoirs

To mitigate the effects of zoonotic diseases on human and animal populations, it is critical to understand what factors alter transmission dynamics. Here we assess the risk of exposure to lethal concentrations of the anthrax bacterium, Bacillus anthracis, for grazing animals in a natural system over time through different transmission mechanisms. We follow pathogen concentrations at anthrax carcass sites and waterholes for five years and estimate infection risk as a function of grass, soil or water intake, age of carcass sites, and the exposure required for a lethal infection. Grazing, not drinking, seems the dominant transmission route, and transmission is more probable from grazing at carcass sites 1–2 years of age. Unlike most studies of virulent pathogens that are conducted under controlled conditions for extrapolation to real situations, we evaluate exposure risk under field conditions to estimate the probability of a lethal dose, showing that not all reservoirs with detectable pathogens are significant transmission pathways

Anthrax: Evolutionary approaches for genetic-based investigative tools

A TaqMan-minor groove binding assay designed around a nonsense mutation in the plcR gene was used to genotype Bacillus anthracis, B. cereus, and B. thuringiensis isolates. The assay differentiated B. anthracis from these genetic near-neighbors and determined that the nonsense mutation is ubiquitous across 89 globally and genetically diverse B. anthracis strains

Global Genetic Population Structure of Bacillus anthracis

Anthrax, caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, is a disease of historical and current importance that is found throughout the world. The basis of its historical transmission is anecdotal and its true global population structure has remained largely cryptic. Seven diverse B. anthracis strains were whole-genome sequenced to identify rare single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), followed by phylogenetic reconstruction of these characters onto an evolutionary model. This analysis identified SNPs that define the major clonal lineages within the species. These SNPs, in concert with 15 variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) markers, were used to subtype a collection of 1,033 B. anthracis isolates from 42 countries to create an extensive genotype data set. These analyses subdivided the isolates into three previously recognized major lineages (A, B, and C), with further subdivision into 12 clonal sub-lineages or sub-groups and, finally, 221 unique MLVA15 genotypes. This rare genomic variation was used to document the evolutionary progression of B. anthracis and to establish global patterns of diversity. Isolates in the A lineage are widely dispersed globally, whereas the B and C lineages occur on more restricted spatial scales. Molecular clock models based upon genome-wide synonymous substitutions indicate there was a massive radiation of the A lineage that occurred in the mid-Holocene (3,064–6,127 ybp). On more recent temporal scales, the global population structure of B. anthracis reflects colonial-era importation of specific genotypes from the Old World into the New World, as well as the repeated industrial importation of diverse genotypes into developed countries via spore-contaminated animal products. These findings indicate humans have played an important role in the evolution of anthrax by increasing the proliferation and dispersal of this now global disease. Finally, the value of global genotypic analysis for investigating bioterrorist-mediated outbreaks of anthrax is demonstrated

Historical Distribution and Molecular Diversity of Bacillus anthracis, Kazakhstan

This study provides useful baseline data for guiding future disease control programs