3,897 research outputs found
Locating librarianship's identity in its historical roots of professional philosophies: towards a radical new identity for librarians of today (and tomorrow)
‘Librarian identity’ is a contested arena, seemingly caught up in a values-war between traditional principles of ‘citizenship’ and late 20th century’s shift to a democracy of consumerists. New professionals may be wary of associating with established systems of their own professional hierarchies when professional associations may be perceived as not having paid enough attention to how this shift in values has been effected, yet this is the key question to address: how has this shift towards ‘information management/consumption’; the library member now as ‘customer’; and new models of library provision by private or social enterprises, impacted on the profession’s identity as a whole? What does it means to call yourself a Librarian in the 21st century? This paper will trace the roots of the philosophy of Librarianship, in its changing shapes, to establish how professional identities are formed, ranging from Edwards and Dewey’s originating ‘librarian’ as book keeper/cataloguer or library ‘economiser’; through to Otlet and Shera’s ‘Documentationalist’; Ranganathan’s librarian ‘helper’; and present day incarnations such as Lankes’ librarian as ‘community knowledge creation facilitator’. Incorporating historical analysis of the roots of librarianship’s philosophies, this paper develops a thesis relating to how modern day librarian professionals, practicing in non-traditional areas and ways, may be helpful in suggesting a route out of the LIS echo-chamber of identity crisis, alongside the evidence of librarianship’s historical trail. It is proposed that by investigating librarianship’s underlying philosophies, and by listening to those who may not necessarily have traditional library qualifications or work in traditional settings, but who work as members of the profession in information and info-literacy skills, a way to forging a new identity can be observed. Examples of member/non-member outreach and activities are provided to illustrate how this new identity can be shaped to rise, phoenix-like, in a radical new, engaging, and engaged form
Female economic dependence and the morality of promiscuity
This article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. Copyright @ The Author(s) 2014.In environments in which female economic dependence on a male mate is higher, male parental investment is more essential. In such environments, therefore, both sexes should value paternity certainty more and thus object more to promiscuity (because promiscuity undermines paternity certainty). We tested this theory of anti-promiscuity morality in two studies (N = 656 and N = 4,626) using U.S. samples. In both, we examined whether opposition to promiscuity was higher among people who perceived greater female economic dependence in their social network. In Study 2, we also tested whether economic indicators of female economic dependence (e.g., female income, welfare availability) predicted anti-promiscuity morality at the state level. Results from both studies supported the proposed theory. At the individual level, perceived female economic dependence explained significant variance in anti-promiscuity morality, even after controlling for variance explained by age, sex, religiosity, political conservatism, and the anti-promiscuity views of geographical neighbors. At the state level, median female income was strongly negatively related to anti-promiscuity morality and this relationship was fully mediated by perceived female economic dependence. These results were consistent with the view that anti-promiscuity beliefs may function to promote paternity certainty in circumstances where male parental investment is particularly important
A filament of dark matter between two clusters of galaxies
It is a firm prediction of the concordance Cold Dark Matter (CDM)
cosmological model that galaxy clusters live at the intersection of large-scale
structure filaments. The thread-like structure of this "cosmic web" has been
traced by galaxy redshift surveys for decades. More recently the Warm-Hot
Intergalactic Medium (WHIM) residing in low redshift filaments has been
observed in emission and absorption. However, a reliable direct detection of
the underlying Dark Matter skeleton, which should contain more than half of all
matter, remained elusive, as earlier candidates for such detections were either
falsified or suffered from low signal-to-noise ratios and unphysical
misalignements of dark and luminous matter. Here we report the detection of a
dark matter filament connecting the two main components of the Abell 222/223
supercluster system from its weak gravitational lensing signal, both in a
non-parametric mass reconstruction and in parametric model fits. This filament
is coincident with an overdensity of galaxies and diffuse, soft X-ray emission
and contributes mass comparable to that of an additional galaxy cluster to the
total mass of the supercluster. Combined with X-ray observations, we place an
upper limit of 0.09 on the hot gas fraction, the mass of X-ray emitting gas
divided by the total mass, in the filament.Comment: Nature, in pres
Will all scientists working on snails and the diseases they transmit please stand up?
Copyright © 2012 Adema et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.No abstract available
Information transmission in oscillatory neural activity
Periodic neural activity not locked to the stimulus or to motor responses is
usually ignored. Here, we present new tools for modeling and quantifying the
information transmission based on periodic neural activity that occurs with
quasi-random phase relative to the stimulus. We propose a model to reproduce
characteristic features of oscillatory spike trains, such as histograms of
inter-spike intervals and phase locking of spikes to an oscillatory influence.
The proposed model is based on an inhomogeneous Gamma process governed by a
density function that is a product of the usual stimulus-dependent rate and a
quasi-periodic function. Further, we present an analysis method generalizing
the direct method (Rieke et al, 1999; Brenner et al, 2000) to assess the
information content in such data. We demonstrate these tools on recordings from
relay cells in the lateral geniculate nucleus of the cat.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, to appear in Biological Cybernetic
Introducing the National Library for Health Skin Conditions Specialist Library
BACKGROUND: This paper introduces the new National Library for Health Skin Conditions Specialist Library . DESCRIPTION: The aims, scope and audience of the new NLH Skin Conditions Specialist Library, and the composition and functions of its core Project Team, Editorial Team and Stakeholders Group are described. The Library's collection building strategy, resource and information types, editorial policies, quality checklist, taxonomy for content indexing, organisation and navigation, and user interface are all presented in detail. The paper also explores the expected impact and utility of the new Library, as well as some possible future directions for further development. CONCLUSION: The Skin Conditions Specialist Library is not just another new Web site that dermatologists might want to add to their Internet favourites then forget about it. It is intended to be a practical, "one-stop shop" dermatology information service for everyday practical use, offering high quality, up-to-date resources, and adopting robust evidence-based and knowledge management approaches
Female social and sexual interest across the menstrual cycle: the roles of pain, sleep and hormones
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although research suggests that socio-sexual behavior changes in conjunction with the menstrual cycle, several potential factors are rarely taken into consideration. We investigated the role of changing hormone concentrations on self-reported physical discomfort, sleep, exercise and socio-sexual interest in young, healthy women.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Salivary hormones (dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate-DHEAS, progesterone, cortisol, testosterone, estradiol and estriol) and socio-sexual variables were measured in 20 women taking oral contraceptives (OC group) and 20 not using OCs (control group). Outcome measures were adapted from questionnaires of menstrual cycle-related symptoms, physical activity, and interpersonal relations. Testing occurred during menstruation (T1), mid-cycle (T2), and during the luteal phase (T3). Changes in behavior were assessed across time points and between groups. Additionally, correlations between hormones and socio-behavioral characteristics were determined.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Physical discomfort and sleep disturbances peaked at T1 for both groups. Exercise levels and overall socio-sexual interest did not change across the menstrual cycle for both groups combined. However, slight mid-cycle increases in general and physical attraction were noted among the control group, whereas the OC group experienced significantly greater socio-sexual interest across all phases compared to the control group. Associations with hormones differed by group and cycle phase. The estrogens were correlated with socio-sexual and physical variables at T1 and T3 in the control group; whereas progesterone, cortisol, and DHEAS were more closely associated with these variables in the OC group across test times. The direction of influence further varies by behavior, group, and time point. Among naturally cycling women, higher concentrations of estradiol and estriol are associated with lower attraction scores at T1 but higher scores at T3. Among OC users, DHEAS and progesterone exhibit opposing relationships with attraction scores at T1 and invert at T3.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Data from this study show no change across the cycle in socio-sexual interest among healthy, reproductive age women but higher social and physical attraction among OC users. Furthermore, a broader range of hormones may be associated with attraction than previously thought. Such relationships differ by use of oral contraceptives, and may either reflect endogenous hormone modulation by OCs and/or self-selection of sexually active women to practice contraceptive techniques.</p
Dalitz Plot Analysis of Ds to K+K-pi+
We perform a Dalitz plot analysis of the decay Ds to K+K-pi+ with the CLEO-c
data set of 586/pb of e+e- collisions accumulated at sqrt(s) = 4.17 GeV. This
corresponds to about 0.57 million D_s+D_s(*)- pairs from which we select 14400
candidates with a background of roughly 15%. In contrast to previous
measurements we find good agreement with our data only by including an
additional f_0(1370)pi+ contribution. We measure the magnitude, phase, and fit
fraction of K*(892) K+, phi(1020)pi+, K0*(1430)K+, f_0(980)pi+, f_0(1710)pi+,
and f_0(1370)pi+ contributions and limit the possible contributions of other KK
and Kpi resonances that could appear in this decay.Comment: 21 Pages,available through http://www.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLNS/,
submitted to PR
Search for D0 to p e- and D0 to pbar e+
Using data recorded by CLEO-c detector at CESR, we search for simultaneous
baryon and lepton number violating decays of the D^0 meson, specifically, D^0
--> p-bar e^+, D^0-bar --> p-bar e^+, D^0 --> p e^- and D^0-bar --> p e^-. We
set the following branching fraction upper limits: D^0 --> p-bar e^+ (D^0-bar
--> p-bar e^+) p e^- (D^0-bar --> p e^-) < 1.2 *
10^{-5}, both at 90% confidence level.Comment: 10 pages, available through http://www.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLNS/,
submitted to PRD. Comments: changed abstract, added reference for section 1,
vertical axis in Fig.5 changed (starts from 1.5 rather than 2.0), fixed typo
Charmonium decays to gamma pi0, gamma eta, and gamma eta'
Using data acquired with the CLEO-c detector at the CESR e+e- collider, we
measure branching fractions for J/psi, psi(2S), and psi(3770) decays to gamma
pi0, gamma eta, and gamma eta'. Defining R_n = B[ psi(nS)-->gamma eta ]/B[
psi(nS)-->gamma eta' ], we obtain R_1 = (21.1 +- 0.9)% and, unexpectedly, an
order of magnitude smaller limit, R_2 < 1.8% at 90% C.L. We also use
J/psi-->gamma eta' events to determine branching fractions of improved
precision for the five most copious eta' decay modes.Comment: 14 pages, available through http://www.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLNS/,
published in Physical Review
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