The Global Registries Initiative: Progress Report and Software Demonstration

4th International Conference on Open RepositoriesThis presentation was part of the session : Conference PresentationsDate: 2009-06-04 08:30 AM – 10:00 AMOver the last two years, key stakeholders in the U.S., UK, and Australia have held a series of meetings to address the need for a global network of digital library collection and service registries (http://globalregistries.org/meetings.html). These meetings brought together different communities to explore what steps would need to be taken to link registry and repository technologies and implementations together in an interoperable fashion. The architecture and standards used for the global network of registries have yet to be finalized, but there is growing awareness of the potential of such a service and there are software systems available that demonstrate its benefits. The speakers will showcase and discuss two such software systems: (1) A combined collections and services registry run by the Australian National Data Service that aggregates metadata records from Australia, UK, and USA (https://devel.apsr.edu.au/cosi/orca/search.php) using the OAI Protocol for Metadata Harvesting; and (2) The LibraryFind Global Pilot, a discovery service that queries registries distributed over three continents. LibraryFind supports distributed search (or meta-search) protocols such as z39.50, SRU/SRW, and Open Search, as well as OAI-PMH aggregation (http://apollo.library.oregonstate.edu:3001/record/search) The presentation will be of particular interest to repository developers and managers who are interested in providing access to scholarly collections as part of broad disciplinary or institutional 'federations'. It will also provide an overview of registry technolgies and standards and how these relate to repository development in the context of an emerging global cyberinfrastructure. More information about the Global Registries Initiative can be found at the web site (http://www.globalregistries.org)

Digital Repositories and the Australian Higher Education Sector: Where to Next?

In 2001 the Australian Government announced a raft of digital initiatives as part of ‘Backing Australia’s Ability – An Innovation Action Plan for the Future’. These were funded under the Systemic Infrastructure Initiative (SII) and have contributed significantly to building the capacity of information infrastructure in the Australian higher education sector. Coinciding with the SII, and specifically encouraged by programs funded by it, has been the arrival of digital (or institutional) repositories as key components of the higher education information landscape. Funding for the SII ends in December 2007, however, and no clear strategy has been proposed by the Government to build on its many achievements. Nevertheless, in December 2006, the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council, Data for Science Working Group released a Report that strongly recommended that a “sustainable publicly funded national network of federated digital repositories” should be established for the purpose of managing and preserving research data. In this paper I argue why implementing the recommendations of the Data for Science Working Group provides the right strategy for moving forwards, and how refunding the SII program beyond 2007 will make it succeed

Learning skills in journalistic skepticism while recognising whistleblowers

This paper explains a didactic program of blending provocative teaching method with experiential learning - at third year of the Bachelor of Journalism and Bachelor of Communication and Media Studies - University of Wollongong, Australia. There are pedagogical imperatives today for developing the professional ‘self’ in respect to citizenship, journalistic values and practice. The challenge is to acknowledge ethics and principles of human rights, while simultaneously embracing the transforming online, open-source Internet technologies. This can be achieved through a learning combination that exposes students to ‘provocative’ counter news, often whistleblower generated, while setting experiential learning assignments to engage volunteer journalism sites and their aligned aspirational values. The approach first acknowledges Chomsky’s propaganda model of news then it presents participants with a judicious and provocative news-flow with verifiable, current and yet alternative stories - otherwise misrepresented or omitted in mainstream news. Participants are then asked to write and publish news of their own, through the Wikimedia Foundation project, Wikinews. In association with regular ‘editor’ volunteers, Wikinews develops news-writing, increases appreciation of editorial processes and encourages respect for accuracy and due-diligence. Exposure to ‘provocative news-flow’ alerts participants to propaganda and assists in identifying actionable news stories. In combination, these processes connect the emerging journalist to a sense of belonging to a professional ‘newsroom’. A network of volunteer practitioners, including their student colleagues and their tutor as ‘chief of staff’, may also develop a sustainable pool of future Wikinews contributors and accredited editors

Vaccines against infectious coryza

The paper reviews the literature on vaccines against infectious coryza of chickens. Our knowledge of natural immunity, antigens involved in protection and the degree of cross-serovar protection provided by vaccines is summarized. The effect of variables such as antigen dose, inactivating agent and adjuvant type on vaccine efficacy is reviewed. The protective ability of a new generation infectious coryza vaccine based on a live attenuated strain of Haemophilus paragallinarum is discusse

Comparison of isolation methods of Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae from arthritic pig joints

A practical routine isolation technique is established for Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae from arthritic pig joints. A direct culture is made onto selective erysipelothrix agar and non-selective blood agar plates. The joint fluid and synovial membrane is stored in an enrichment broth at 4°C for 4 weeks and then cultured onto erysipelothrix agar and blood agar plates

The re-use of water in agricultural settings

Agriculture offers considerable opportunities for the safe and sustainable re-use of water, be that water sourced from humans or animals. A key point is understanding the differences in pathogen profiles between wastewater from humans as compared with that derived from animals. Agricultural re-use also offers the opportunity to appropriately match the treatment level of the used water with the planned end-use. There is no doubt that the reuse of water in agriculture will be an increasing focus as Australian agriculture adapts to the challenges of food security in a changing world

Design and Conclusions of the Baffin Island Oil Spill Project

The Baffin Island Oil Spill (BIOS) Project sponsored multidisciplinary field studies between May 1980 and August 1983 in Canada's eastern Arctic at Cape Hatt, on the northern end of Baffin Island. Forty-five cubic metres (45,000 l) of a sweet medium gravity crude oil were released in a typical coastal arctic environment for purposes of scientific investigation. The experimental spills were monitored to quantitatively assess and compare the short- and long-term fate and effects of chemically dispersed oil and a beached oil slick, as well as the effectiveness of shoreline cleanup techniques. Hydrocarbon analyses were carried out on water samples, intertidal sediments, subtidal sediments and macrofaunal tissue. Biological measurements were made on populations of macrophytic algae, benthic infauna and epifauna and microorganisms. Oceanographic, geomorphologic and meteorologic support studies were also performed. The main conclusions of the BIOS Project relate to oil spill countermeasures for arctic nearshore and shoreline areas typified by the experimental site. First, the results offer no compelling ecological reasons to prohibit the use of chemical dispersants on oil slicks in such nearshore areas. Second, the results provide no strong ecological reasons for the cleanup of oil stranded on such shorelines. Thus consideration would be given to the use of chemical dispersants in the nearshore where prevention of shoreline contamination is warranted to protect wildlife or their critical habitat or traditional human land-use sites.Key words: Arctic, marine, oil pollution, oil spill countermeasures, chemically dispersed oilMots clés: Arctique, milieu marin, pollution par le pétrole, mesures d’intervention contre les déversements de pétrole , pétrole dispersé chimiquemen