Semantic MARC, MARC21 and the Semantic Web

The MARC standard for exchanging bibliographic data has been in use for several decades and is used by major libraries worldwide. This paper discusses the possibilities of representing the most prevalent form of MARC, MARC21, as RDF for the Semantic Web, and aims to understand the tradeoffs, if any, resulting from transforming the data. Critically our approach goes beyond a simple transliteration of the MARC21 record syntax to develop rich semantic descriptions of the varied things which may be described using bibliographic records. We present an algorithmic approach for consistently generating URIs from textual data, discuss the algorithmic matching of author names and suggest how RDF generated from MARC records may be linked to other data sources on the Web

On-Site Bioremediation: A Solution To Treatment Of Greywater

Treating wastewater on site via bioremediation and mechanical methods can save energy by reducing the stress on a large central water treatment facility to process greywater. Development of such systems will depend on characterization of this wastewater in order to properly design the system and test its performance. The purpose of this research was to develop and test a greywater system to be used for cleaning greywater from a hair salon. The system that was tested uses bioremediation, the process of using organisms to consume and break down pollutants. The experimental apparatus is a constructed greywater system using readily available parts. It is unique in that it is exclusively gravity fed with exception of the sump pump to provide the initial input. It is a three-trough system that flows from a top-center trough, then down to two adjacent troughs via aeration siphons. The study included two phases, a short-term study consisting of four variations, and a 16-day “batch” study. These four variations included (1) a baseline assessment, (2) no plants with only a biofilter, (3) no biofilter with plants only, and (4) a complete system incorporating both plants and biofilter

Nursing in a Time and Place of Peril: Five North Carolina Nurses

Nurses are all around us. They attend our births and deaths, administer healing treatments when we are ill and help us promote well-being through public health and mental health programs. Almost every family can identify a nurse or two on its family tree. Nurses are members of and care for members of every racial, religious and cultural group. For over a century, nurses have worked in rural and urban areas, provided care in chrome trimmed surgical suites and tumble down cabins and have navigated legal, political and economic currents to improve the health of the public while continuously upgrading the profession. While much nursing history has been chronicled by scholars, the record of North Carolina military nurses is virtually unknown. Illuminating the stories of a select group of nurses who have cared for soldiers from the Civil War through the current war on terror can offer insights and increase understanding of development of professional nursing and the evolving role of women in our society. Historical inquiry involves studying primary and secondary sources to increase our understanding of the past. Evidenced based source material may include written documents, oral histories, artifacts, photographs and new media such as websites and even “tweets”. Nurse historians use all of these forms of evidence to discover and analyze our collective professional heritage. Historical findings may be disseminated through oral, written, audio-visual and electronic means. The best method to report historical findings depends on the subject of inquiry. Prosopography, frequently referred to as collective biography, is a useful historical tool to chronicle a group of individuals with shared characteristics and/or experiences. While biographies and case studies focus on the uniqueness of a single person, prosopography allows the researcher to analyze the changing roles and status of a cluster of individuals. Using a prosopographic approach, this article analyzes the progress of professional nursing through the contributions of five North Carolina military nurses over the course of one hundred and fifty years

Charlotte Rhone: Nurse, Welfare Worker, and Entrepreneur

Charlotte Rhone, a pioneering African American nurse born in Craven County, North Carolina, at the end of the post–Civil War Reconstruction era, grew up in a society shaped by the harshly discriminatory Jim Crow laws enacted in her home state and in others across the American South. Her choices in education and employment were severely limited because of these racist policies, but Rhone's tenacity, flexibility, and intelligence overcame many obstacles that oppressed poverty-stricken African American women in turn-of-the-century rural North Carolina. She went on to use her education and skills for the good of her community well into the 1950s

With Or Without Your Blessing: Elizabeth Grimball and the Struggle of a Southern Teacher

Driven by financial difficulties within the households of southern families during the Civil War, women entered the workforce on an economic basis, which unintentionally instigated a social transformation of traditional gender roles. For example, John and Meta Grimball’s eldest daughter Elizabeth entered into the public sphere as a teacher due to the family’s economic and personal losses. By doing so she defied her parents’ wishes, and independently took control of her financial wellbeing. She became an independent thinker who no longer needed the financial stability of her father. Elizabeth Grimball is an example of a shift toward young American women taking an independent stand in professions made possible by the Civil War. Instead of conceding to follow the strict moral code of a “Southern Belle,” Elizabeth forged her own path. Her courage to enter a male dominated workforce is commendable, and her struggle resonates with today’s society

From National Negro Health Week to National Public Health Week

National Negro Health Week is a program that targeted the African-American population,and this precursor of National Public Health Week left a legacy of health awareness in the US. Theactive political participation of local and national National Negro Health Week groups led to pavedstreets, safer foods and drugs, clean water and more training and employment of African-Americanhealth workers

“The Animal, Whatever It Was”: Dogs, Multi-Species Subjectivity, And The Signifier Guide In Go Down, Moses, And The Call Of The Wild

Whom or what do we write about when we write about dogs? This thesis attempts to answer this question in part by analyzing the ways in which dogs have been reductively represented in literature, particularly in wilderness narratives that tend to mistake nature and culture as separate spaces. The two narratives I focus on to demonstrate this argument are William Faulkner’s Go Down, Moses (1942), and Jack London’s The Call of the Wild (1903). I begin with establishing the opposite poles that various texts seem to gravitate toward when portraying animals. On one end, we often read texts that sentimentalize, mythologize, or anthropomorphize animals. On the opposite end, texts err on the side of stressing scientific observation to the point that the human is detached from nonhuman animals. Faulkner’s text seems to emulate the former and London’s the latter. In both cases, the narratives deny the subjectivity of animals and their lived experience

Food for thought: An investigation of Food and Drug Administration reporting practices

Criminologists and criminal justice researchers have neglected the behavior of regulatory agencies. Furthering the goal of focusing on the behavior of regulatory agencies, this article analyzes the reporting practices of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on its activities as found in two publications produced by that agency: FDA Enforcement Report, its official data report, and FDA Consumer, a public information magazine. Results suggest that the FDA uses these mediums to construct different images of its activities. The authors examine reasons why the FDA engages in image management and the differences across different FDA publications. The authors also introduce the idea of public health justice to identify the social control concerns of agencies ostensibly charged with protecting the public’s health

The Colombianization of Mexico? The Evolving Mexican Drug War

Poorly understood situations give rise to poorly planned policies that are unlikely to achieve their objectives. Since Mexico differs from Colombia, a “Colombian” solution is unlikely to work. This paper seeks to correct this misunderstanding by identifying significant dissimilarities between Colombia and Mexico. The goal is to accentuate the differences between the two countries that refute the “Colombianization” hypothesis. The paper concludes with an assessment of policies that have been pursued in Colombia and suggested for Mexico; the prognosis for the future is not good

Authorizing Gender and Development: "Third World Women," Native Informants, and Speaking Nearby

Postmodern and postcolonial feminist theories applied to development have opposed universalizing and essentializing notions of a homogeneous “third world woman” posited as in need of saving by first world experts. Deconstructing development requires a recognition of diverse experiences, which suggests the need to listen to the previously “silenced voices” of third world women. My paper will consider whether this can be done without relying on an equally problematic demand for authenticity from “native informants,” and explores the implications of such an analysis for a postcolonial feminist approach to (post)developmen